> War Never Changes: Ghosts of the Past
>  by jarmari
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: The Wedding/The Return
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(I'M BACK! WOO! *Fires the party cannons!* Alright, so normally I wouldn't post something right into the story, but I need to address something here before the story starts. I have never been really comfortable writing sexual scenes, I'm happy to hint and tease and what have you, and there still won't be any explicit sex scenes in the story. HOWEVER Spoilers****** Ruby has some serious sexual issues in her past (go read Alamut's Fallen Star)Spoilers******* so this story is going to contain some much more sexualized content than my stories in the past have, still only on par with the tamer, maybe mid level, sexual stuff in Fo:E and PH, but I still feel a need to just give everyone a heads up about it. ALSO, this story is being told Tarantino style, so it bounces between Cane first arriving back in Equestria (one year ago) and the events that take place in that time, and the present, which is his wedding and the events that go on from there (I hope that makes sense :D) if it doesn't make sense, just read this chapter and it should hopefully make sense.)

Fallout Equestria: War Never Changes: Ghosts of the Past

"Mares and Gentle-colts, we are gathered here today in the warmth of Celestia's sunlight..." The priest began, of course we didn't have sunlight, we had a solar lamp on the roof that shone down on the front of the room. I stole a subtle glance to my side, smiling at the sight of the mare beside me. Dear sweet Ruby, wearing a wedding dress that had been Crackshot's 200 years ago, modified to accommodate her rather substantial foal carrying belly, she was 11 months and 12 days pregnant and about ready to burst. She smiled softly and I knew she could see me looking at her. It was amazing to think how far we'd come so far this last year...seems like it was just this morning that I came back from the American Wasteland with Lily and Venture...I chanced a glance in the other direction, seeing Brutus, Xem and Venture standing to the side, dressed in tuxedos, Venture looking totally comfortable and relaxed in it, Brutus looking like he was going to crawl out of his skin, and Xem managing a totally neutral look, while still somehow managing to come off somewhat uncomfortable..

~~~~~~~~~~~~
11 months, 16 days ago:
I cried out in agony as I was ripped from the final memory orb of Ruby's time in the Enclave, I grabbed the bucket with my magic and threw up violently, retching and coughing, the acid from my stomach burned my throat and I just wanted to die, the very real pain my body found itself enduring, mixed with the remembered pain in Ruby's body made me hate myself all over. I felt like I just wanted to curl up into a ball and never move again. Sadness, pain, misery, every negative emotion vied for control of my mind and they were at a stalemate. I was sore in places that didn't even exist on a male body.

"Daddy!" CB yelled, rushing to my side, grabbing the bucket in her magic.

"CB no!" Brutus tried to call her off but she was already beside me. I wrapped my forelegs around her and hugged her tightly, bawling on her shoulder. I know what you're thinking, and yes, she was terrified and confused.

"Daddy...what's wrong? What happened? Why are you so sick?" She hugged me back, taking on that far more grown up than she needed to be tone.

Lily sat on the floor beside Brutus but when I grabbed onto CB she got up and ran to the couch quickly.

“Come on now, let the filly go...” She said softly, wedging her horn between my leg and CB's neck and prying me off from her. She slid into CB's spot and I gripped her just as tightly as I had the other. 

She pushed me back on the couch and got up beside me, holding me close. She wrapped the two of us in a green field of energy and immediately I felt this great rush of energy. Warmth and love and happiness cascaded through me and I immediately started to feel better.

“What are you doing?” I asked softly, looking up at her, my eyes bloodshot and wet with tears.

“What, you think we only steal love and happiness to feed off of?” She smirked, hugging me closer. “How do you think a Changeling foal feeds before they know how to use the magic?”

“Oh I guess that makes sense.” I nodded, sitting up slowly, feeling the sadness and pain washing away. I sat quietly for a moment then looked at her. “D...Does that mean I'm nursing on you?” I asked softly. She just blushed softly and didn't respond, which made Brutus laugh. The kids seemed lost to the statement, which was for the best.

“What the hay is going on?!” CB demanded finally, tired of her questions being ignored.

"Sorry Cane, I was trying to keep everypony out but you know her and her little colt friend."

"HE'S NOT MY COLT FRIEND!" CB yelled, blushing furiously.

"I'M NOT HER COLT FRIEND!" Xem echoed almost simultaneously, and blushing just as badly.

"But you're a colt...?" Brutus asked and Xem nodded slowly," and you two are friends?" Again he nodded, "well that makes you her..."

"C...Colt friend..." Xem admitted in defeat, shaking his head.

I floated a bottle of water out of my pack and washed my mouth out. I hadn't been that violently ill since the raider incident back at the grocery store...that was forever ago now.

"So how are you doing?" Brutus asked, sitting on the floor in front of the couch as I relaxed finally. I looked over and realized Ruby was gone from the bed.

"I'll be fine..." I said, "but the things I saw...felt...had to do..." I shuddered and retched again but kept it all down.

"What are they?" CB asked, poking the memory orbs with a hoof, too afraid to touch them with her magic, lest she set it off by accident, and after seeing what it did to me it's no surprise she was hesitant.

"Memories, terrible memories, memories that nopony should ever have."

"Who's memories are they?"

"Mine." Venture said quickly, coming into the room. He gave me a knowing look and smiled softly. "You got a chunk on your cheek."

"Uncle Venture? Why do they have your memories?" CB asked.

"Really? I'm out for 12 hours and you've already got her calling you Uncle Venture?"

"Her idea, not mine." He said and she nodded happily to me. "I expected her to hate me." He admitted, sitting down between
Brutus and CB. Brutus didn't look too thrilled but CB leaned against him happily.

"I already told you, you aren't the pony that tried to hurt us." She said.

"But I..."

"No buts!" She snapped, smacking his side. "The pony that tried to hurt us was a two hundred year old robo-meanie. You are clearly not a robot of any kind, mean or otherwise, and if I understand correctly you are only 7 years old." She said. "Which means I'm older than you, and you should always listen to your elders."

"CB..." I started but she glared at me.

"AND YOU..." She said firmly, "you are only like, a week old, you're just a new born foal, you don't get to say nothing about nothing, you just sit there and nurse like a good little foal.” She said, smirking.

“Yes ma'am.” I said simply, putting my head back down as a wave of nausea swept over me, just because I was feeling good again didn't mean my body appreciated what it had experienced in the orbs.

“Look, why don't you two go find something constructive to do?” Brutus said to the kids. “Let Cane recover a while longer before you bother him more alright?”

“I think that's a good idea.” Xem said before CB could argue.

“Yeah yeah...” She said, coming over and hugging me. “Don't worry Daddy, you'll get better.”

“I know I will squirt.” I said, returning the hug. She moved back, looking at me again for a moment before moving to follow Xem out of the room, closing the door behind them.

“She's quite the spitfire.” Venture said once the door was closed.

“You're telling me.” I smirked. “You haven't even seen her go into Overdrive.”

“Oh yeah...I remember Xekron telling me about that...she mopped the floor with him.”

“It was an amazing spectacle.” I nodded.

“Alright, we need to talk seriously.” Brutus said, looking at the rest of us.

“I have to talk to Ruby, I know.” I said.

“No...I mean about...Him...” He said, pointing at Venture.

“I understand if you still want to incarcerate or even execute me.” Venture said seriously. “I did terrible things in the name of my own greed and I will expect no quarter simply because I say I have changed.”

“Brutus,” I started to say, but the orange unicorn waved me off.

“I will give you exactly one chance,” he said, “not for your own sake, not even because you are Cane's brother and he desperately wants you back, I'm going to do this because CB is so adamant about you. She is stubborn as a mule and I'm not going to pull the trigger unless I can present to her your wrong doing, but don't for a moment think that means you can fuck around in ways she doesn't see and I'll let it slide. I'll deal with her wrath, in time she'll forgive me.”

“O...Of course, I understand completely.” Venture nodded. “I'll do everything I can to earn your trust.”

“You can start by unlocking the computer archives,” he said, “you can show us how to unlock all the ultra secure rooms, and you can give us access to your private offices.”

“Absolutely. I'll take you and whomever else you wish right now and do that,” Venture replied, “are you going to come little brother?” He asked, looking over at us on the couch.

“I can't even give you crap for that anymore, you are the older brother.” I sighed, but I shook my head and snuggled back against Lily. “I'm good here for the time being. I need to check up on Ruby in a bit.”

“Don't go getting fresh with my mare.” Brutus said seriously.

“You're gay, and Lily doesn't technically have a gender, shouldn't you say 'don't get fresh with my buck'?” I asked him, smirking a little.

“Yeah, who are you to assign gender labels?” Lily asked, taking on an offended tone. “Ass butt.” She added, looking away indignantly.

“Wow, you really put your hoof in your mouth there.” Venture said, patting Brutus's back. Brutus glared at him and growled softly. “Alright...sorry, just trying to lighten the mood. Come on, lets get those offices unlocked.” Venture started for the door. Brutus glared at us but followed him out of the room.

“Wow, that's impressive.” I said, looking over at Lily. “I can FEEL your teasing humor through this energy field.

“Oh yeah, we're connected on a completely emotional level, full spectrum, not just love.” She said. The field fluctuated ever so slightly and I felt a wave of different emotions, first love, then happiness, then sadness and depression, then anger and bitterness, jealousy and lust, even an almost hysterical giddiness and what could only be described as bottom of the pit suicidal misery. “Not all of them are pleasant of course.” She added, returning quickly to the love and happiness.

“So can't we use your powers to make Ruby feel better?”

Lily shook her head sadly. “Ruby's problems aren't just mental. You are scarred in your mind from the things you saw in those orbs, believe me when I saw them I was the same way...”

“So you're the other one Brutus said saw them?” I interrupted.

“Yes.” She nodded. “Ruby's problems are physical, she has real scars, real emotional issues that result in physical reactions, from shaking to dry mouth to throwing up...her fears are a lot worse than we realized, because as far as we can tell she's been using Med-X for almost a year.”

“What? A YEAR? How could I have not noticed?” I said, groaning and shaking my head, trying to reflect on all our time together, literally hundreds of nights spent in each others company, and dozens upon dozens of nights that we made love, not once did I ever notice anything really wrong with her.

“I...I need to see her.” I said, getting up off the couch, shaking off the last of my misery and nausea.

“Alright, Mom took her to another room when everypony and their dog kept coming to 'check up' on you.”

“Lead the way.” I smiled, bowing to Lily.

“You are too kind sir.” She chuckled, getting up and walking out of the room.

She kept me wrapped tightly in the field of happiness until we reached the room. Lily knocked softly on the door. “Come in.” Ruby croaked softly.

“D...Do you want me to come in with you?” Lily asked.

“No, I need to do this on my own.” I said, opening the door slowly.

Ruby lay sprawled out on the bed, a pillow over her face even though the room was dark.

I walked over to the bed and sat on the side of it.

“Hi Ruby...” I said softly, putting a hoof on her foreleg.

“NO!” She yelled from under the pillow, pulling away from me quickly. “YOU AREN'T REAL! GO AWAY!”

The light clicked on, I looked back at the door and saw Lily standing there quietly, she gestured towards the bed with a wave of her head and I nodded, reaching out again slowly. “Ruby please...”

“NO!” She yanked away from me, rolling right out of the bed, she landed hard on the ground, but before I had a chance to help her I realized she had rolled intentionally, coming up with a revolver and firing before I had a chance to even react.

Amazingly though Lily did react, racing the distance in a single leap, putting herself between us, the bullet digging into her shoulder as she crashed down against the headboard. “Fuck...”

“LILY!” Ruby cried, the revolver clattering to the ground, “why did you...”

“BECAUSE THAT'S CANE!” Lily roared angrily.

“No! Sugar's dead, he died when you guys went through the portal.” Ruby said sadly.

“Well as you can see, I'm back from the other dimension, so doesn't it stand to reason that Cane is back too?”

“I buried him!” She snapped. “Out in the graveyard with all the other heroes!”

“Ruby I...” I started to say, coming up behind her.

“NO! YOU DON'T GET TO SPEAK HALLUCINATION!”

“RUBY!” I spun her in place and hugged her fiercely. She tensed and tried to pull away, but I wrapped her close to me and held her in place. 

Slowly she returned the hug, but pulled her head back, blinking heavily. “S-Sugar?” She asked softly, tears already starting to fall from her eyes. I just nodded slowly and she broke down completely, pressing her face into my chest and just bawling. I held her close, pressing my head to the side of hers, my own tears falling to her shoulder as I lost my restraint as well.

“Yeah...don't mind me...” Lily grunted, pushing herself off the bed slowly. “I'll find someone to remove the bullet.” She said, starting slowly for the door, closing it behind her. 

“Cane...But how? I saw you...in that pit...it was so horrible...” She said, looking up at me slowly, trying, and failing, to stop the tears from continuing to fall.

“It's a long story, I'll explain later.” I said, nuzzling her happily, trying to keep myself from continuing to cry, and failing just as badly.

“Oh...I tried to shoot you!” She gasped, pulling back from me. “I SHOT LILY!” She turned but Lily was long gone.

“I'm sure she'll be fine. The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well has been through worse.”

She sank back into my hug and was quiet for a long time, finally she asked, “that was you last night wasn't it?”

“Yeah.”

“I broke a whiskey bottle on Firebird's armour and cut your neck didn't I?”

I tilted my head and showed her the scar on my neck from where the glass had cut in.

“And you know about my...problem?”

“You mean the Med-X?” I asked and she just nodded meekly. “I do, and I expect you to explain yourself about that, not just to me but to Brutus too. I have never seen him look so disappointed in my life.”

“I will...I owe you a lot of explanations and I'll give them all to you...” She said, “just...let me have this moment a little longer.” She pressed more firmly to my chest and we fell into silence again. “I missed your heartbeat.”

“Wow...That's really sappy.” I smirked, stroking her mane. “What happened to the pony that made fun of me for having a computer that talked like my old mare friend?”

“She became your NEW mare friend and realized maybe it wasn't so sappy.”

“Fair enough.” I nodded.

“I missed your horn.” She said, kissing it gently as she pulled out of my grasp finally. “It's so cute and it compliments your face nicely.”

“And you weren't looking forward to teaching me to live without magic?”

“That too,” she nodded, managing a smile, “so...I have some things to show you, things you won't like to see, but I think you need to see them.”

“Your time in the Enclave?” I asked.

“Y...Yeah, how did you know?”

“Brutus showed me already.” I admitted. “I was really upset with you after everything that happened last night and I forced Brutus to show me.”

“You didn't FORCE him to do anything,” she said flatly, “he's been telling me you need to see them since we first got together...”

“Don't blame him...” I started but she cut me off.

“...Oh Sugar...You endured all those orbs...” She said, stepping back from me slowly, as the realization seemed to suddenly set in.

I nodded.

“There are six of them...”

I nodded again.

“Even after the first one you went into the next, and then the next...”

I just kind of half smiled. “I stopped to throw up a couple times...”

She threw her forelegs around me and hugged me tightly again. “I love you...”

“I love you too.”

“I'm gonna kill Brutus...”

“I think that's fair.”

As if on cue there was a knock at the door and Brutus stuck his head in slowly.

“Speak of the devil...” Ruby said, “what do you want?”

“I wanted to make sure everything was okay. Lily had a bullet in her shoulder and said you put it there.”

“Oh, right, sorry...” Ruby blushed. “She's okay?”

“Yeah she popped a healing potion and the bullet came out, but I wanted to make sure you two were okay.”

“We're fine.”

“No, we're not fine,” Ruby said, “you showed him my memories.”

“You're damned right I did.” Brutus replied. “You were drunk, you were stoned on Med-X and you were so sure that the buck you love was a hallucination that you tried to kill him, and when he finally got you under control you wept like a scared foal and tried to have sex with him, what do you think was going through his mind?”

“It wasn't your place to show him!”

“Yes it was! He was scared for you! Scared OF you! He didn't know what to do, he was mad, he was scared, he was confused, all I could do was string him along!? That's not how I roll. You don't leave family out to dry and I wasn't going to have him sitting all night wondering what HE had done to you to make you this way when all the answers he needed were right there waiting.”

“Why would he think he had anything to do with it?!”

“HOW WOULD HE KNOW SOMETHING ELSE CAUSED YOUR TERROR?! HE'S THE FIRST BUCK YOU'VE HAD SEX WITH FOR TEN YEARS!”

“HE COULD ASK!”

I was glad to see Ruby get her fire back, but it worried me to see them fighting so intensely over me, I was too afraid, however, to get involved.

“YOU WERE PASSED OUT DRUNK IN BED! HE DID ASK! HE ASKED ME! AND I FUCKING SHOWED HIM!”

“YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD HIM TO WAIT!”

“NO! HE WAITED A YEAR AND YOU BARELY EVEN MENTIONED IT!”

“I'D HAVE TOLD HIM IN TIME!”

“YOU WEREN'T EVER GOING TO TELL HIM!”

“HOW DO YOU TELL THE BUCK YOU LOVE THAT EVERY SECOND SPENT WITH HIM YOU ARE TERRIFIED OF HIM?!” She choked out the last words and fell into pained sobs, this seemed to even shut Brutus up, all the rage in his face draining away in a second as it dawned on him.

“R...Ruby...you're scared of me?” I asked softly. She just sniffled and nodded.

“H-How c-c-could I n-not be?” She blubbered. “Y-You saw the o-orbs...”

“But, all that time we spent together...All the flirting, all the innuendo...”

“It's how I cope in day to day interactions with bucks. When our relationship got more serious I didn't know what to do.” She explained, forcing back the tears, getting her voice under control. “I loved you and I didn't want to disappoint you.”

“You could never disappoint me by being honest about something like that.”

She ignored me and continued on. “So I did what I had to do to make sure I could be there for you...physically I mean...I wanted to love you the way you loved me but the thought of being with a buck again scared me to my core...so I found a way to numb the fear and quite my anxiety.”

“Med-X...” Brutus said softly, “you started taking Med-X a year ago?”

“Only when Sugar and I were going to be intimate. It was either that or getting black out drunk...” Which had happened a few times. “When he died...I didn't know what to do. I wanted the pain to go away, the sadness and the heart break. Booze wasn't enough so I started to burn through the supply of Med-X I had stashed away for those nights of love making.”

“Why didn't you tell us?”

“That I was using drugs? Yeah I'm sure that would have gone well...” She said softly, unable to really muster up the sarcasm she'd intended.

“Ruby, we love you.” I said, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “I could never be mad at you for this, and I'm sure Brutus couldn't either...”

“The hell I couldn't.” Brutus said. “I was there for you when you got back from the Enclave, helped you in every way I could to get over the ordeal you went through in the Enclave, endured it myself to remove your memories, I helped you when you got hooked on drugs the first time, helped you beat Med-X, Hydra, Mintals, EVERYTHING, and now, things get a little tough again and you go right back to it...I couldn't be more ashamed of you if I tried.” He said sadly.

“But Brutus...” Ruby started, but he waved her off.

“No...just no...” He said, turning and leaving the room, closing the door a little too firmly behind him.

Ruby reached out towards the door, but slumped back in defeat. “He's right...I don't deserve his forgiveness...or yours Sugar...I'm sorry.” She turned to me and pressed back into my grip, crying again on my shoulder. 

“I...well I still forgive you...I'm sure in time Brutus will too. He still loves you, he just needs a chance to sort himself out.” I said, stroking her mane gently.

She just sniffled and nodded, pressing close to me. “I'm glad you're okay.”

“Me too.”

“W-Will you help me?”

“With what?”

“M-Making sure I-I st-stay off th-the drugs?”

“Absolutely. I'll reprogram a Sprite bot to follow you around at all times if I have to.”

“And...can you...” She trailed off.

“Can I what?” I asked, lifting her head up to look at me.

“Can you...help me...get over my f-fear of...bucks..?”

“Of course I can.” I smiled, hugging her again. “You're doing pretty well so far.”

“I meant...physically...intimately...”

“OH. Of course I'll help you with that.” I chuckled. “Oh no, my fiancee wants to have sex with me, whatever shall I do?” I teased.

“Shut it you. I haven't had proper sex in a long time so you can expect the whole experience to be awkward and slow and probably not all that enjoyable.”

“Oh, so it'll be like my first time all over again...” I smirked.

She laughed softly, resting her head on my chest again. “What am I gonna do about Brutus?”

“Just give him some space for now, let him cool off, we'll work it out in time I'm sure. You have your whole family here, everyone will help you.”

“Yeah...and worse comes to worse I can get CB to harass him until he agrees to talk to me again.

“See? It's all in the planning.”

There was a knock at the door and I was about to respond, but wasn't sure Ruby would want more visitors.

She looked at me for a moment then shrugged. “Come in.” She called finally.

The door opened and Sky Wagon and Bottle Cap came in. “Hey you two, we heard the good news and wanted to come see how things were going, glad to see you're alive and well Cane.”

“Me too.” Ruby nodded, nuzzling into my shoulder.

“Well listen, we're heading back to town with the last medical convoy.”

“Oh yeah, how's the town doing?”

“We saved all the children, liberated 300 ponies from the Pyro army, we've had convoys heading to town to reunite families and taking the injured former soldiers to the hospital to get checked out.”

“Oh that's great. The Storms? Are they all okay?”

“Yeah, they left this morning back to town to get the kids checked out at the hospital.”

“Oh good.”

“Oh!” Wagon grinned. “We wanted to invite you to our wedding!”

“You two are getting married?!” Ruby giggled. “That's wonderful.”

“I  know right?!” Wagon giggled madly.

“Can we not play it up like all that?”

“What? I'm a girl, I can be excited that I'm getting married! OH, speaking of excited...” She dug into her pack and came up with a black box. “Here, this is for you. To replace the one you gave up.”

“What?” Ruby asked, taking the box from her. “Oh!” She giggled. “Thank you so much sweetie, I never really thought I'd get this back.”

“Well it's a new one.” Cap said. “We really put yours through the wringer so we bought you a new one.”

“Wait what? What is it?” I asked curiously.

“You didn't even tell him?”

“Well no, I gave it away so it didn't matter. He doesn't need to worry about it.”

“No no, tell me!”

“Nah, it's fine, don't worry about it.”

“Aww, what's in the box?!”

“Oh for...It's a vibrator!” Cap said finally.

“What?!” I looked between the mares.

“Yeah, it was a gift from Lily, seems it's her standard go to awkward wedding gift.”

“And she gave you one too?” I asked Ruby, who nodded sheepishly.

“But I gave it to the girls remember? I had you...I didn't need some toy.”

“Whoa, did his head just inflate?” Sky asked, giggling softly.

“Nope.” Cap said, rolling her eyes.

“You are such a spoil sport!” Sky groaned.

“Sue me.”

“You need to unwind!” Sky said happily, clapping her hooves. “I have just the thing.”

“Don't you dare.” Cap said angrily as Sky dug through her saddlebags again. She came up with another box, the white one Ruby had given them.

“Look out Cap, here comes the penis monster!” Sky laughed, pulling the toy out. It was a perfect mold of a stallion, bigger than I could ever hope to be without surgery, it also had a bite grip at the bottom, clearly meant to be used by another.

“SKY DON'T! DON'T!” The unicorn yelped, pulled back as the giggling pegasus gave chase with the sex toy, which flopped side to side in her mouth. “NO! STOP!” She cried, running into the hallway, her fiancee in hot pursuit.

“Dafuq was that?” Ruby asked, staring in amazement at the now open door, Cap's cries for Sky to stop echoing back to them.

“I have no idea...especially since Bottle Cap should have been able to just throw up a shield to keep the pegasus out...” 

“Well yeah, but that would have spoiled the fun.”

Xem appeared in the door way, looking back down the hall. “Did...Did I just see two mares running down the hall? And one of em had a great big dildo in her mouth?”

“Uhh, yes...” I laughed.

“Right, just making sure.” He said, looking back at his, his face clearly showing his mirth and confusion.

“Yeah mares are weird.”

“You're telling me.” Ruby said. “Don't worry kiddo, we're not all that weird.”

“Good...I don't know what I'd do if CB came after me like that...”

“Uhh, with a dildo?”

“Or whatever...”

“OR...Whatever...” I laughed, putting emphasis on the 'or.' “Aren't you a little young to know what a dildo is?”

“I'm 15, I grew up in the Wasteland...” He laughed. “I didn't always live in a cave with my grandfather. One of my friends when I was younger was a prostitute...” He shrugged. “She was amazing, the nicest Changeling I'd ever met. She taught me to be safe when it came to matters of sex.”

“You're yanking my horn.”

“I'm yanking your horn.” Xem smirked.

“You jerk!” Ruby sighed, “you really had me believing you! I would have asked Lily if she knew any Changeling prostitutes! I'd have looked so dumb.”

“Sorry,” he chuckled, “I'll try to keep my BS to a minimum.”

“Now why don't you get lost so my mare and I can talk?” I asked.

“Yes sir, sorry to have interrupted.” He saluted and grinned at us one last time before heading into the hall and closing the door.

“Wait...why does he know about dildos?”

“Awe sweetie...” I cooed, hugging her. “You're so cute and naive. He's a teenage boy, he's probably had access to porn his whole life, and he'll definitely have taken an interest in it in the last few years, all boys do, he's probably got porno mags stashed all over.”

“Do you?” She asked, looking at me curiously.

“Nope.”

“Are you lying?”

“Nope.”

“I don't believe you.”

“It's true...all my porn is digital.” I grinned. “Tucked away on hard drives with encryption, just like the ones we took from Ven, but without the world altering info on them.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, days and days worth of videos and thousands of pictures, covering every weird perverse fetish you could imagine.”

“Dude, gross...” She made a face, then looked at the coy smirk on my face. “You're pulling my wing aren't you?”

“I might be...”

“You are!” She groaned. “You jerk!” She punched me in the foreleg. “What is up with everyone teasing me.”

“Trying to make you feel better?”

“Well...I guess that much is true.” She sighed, resting her head against my chest. “I'm gonna scour your hard drives for porn.”

“What part of ENCRYPTION didn't you catch?”

“I'll ask Brutus and Venture for help.”

“They won't help, it'd be a violation of the Bro Code.”

“The what?”

“Oops...sorry...first rule of the Bro Code is that you don't talk about the Bro Code.”

“You're an ass.”

“Only 15% on my father's side.”

“I love you...” She smiled

“I know.”

“So what now?”

“Well...I have a few ideas for addressing some of your issues.”

“Like?”

I reached out and plucked the box from beside her with my magic. I opened it and floated the toy out of the box, smirking a little, this one was clearly modeled on the same design as the other but it had a small control panel on the base that made it vibrate or spin slowly, or both.

“And what do you expect to do with that?” She asked, looking at me sternly.

“Well you're already comfortable using this?” I asked simply.

“Yes.” She said, nodding slowly, “your point?”

“Well maybe we acclimatize you slowly.” I replied, moving to the bed and patting the spot beside me, the toy still in my magical grip. I also reached out and locked the door. “You can start with it...work your way up to being comfortable enough to let me take over control of it for you...then get to the point where I can substitute for it.”

“You're expecting a lot aren't you? How do you know I'm just going to jump on this idea?”

“Heh, jump on it...”

“Shut up.”

“Like I said, we go at your pace, no one else's.”

“Alright...” She took the toy from my grip and tossed it to the floor. “For now I'm not doing it.” She nuzzled against me and sighed. “I just...lets work on me just being comfortable around you.”

“Fair enough.”

“I love you...”

“I love you too...”

///////////

Now:

“...In the warmth of Celestia's sunlight to join in the bonds of marriage, Sugar Cane and Ruby Star. The step which you are about to take is the most important into which two ponies can come. It is a union of two ponies founded upon mutual respect and affection. Your lives will change, your responsibilities will increase, but your joy will be multiplied if you are sincere and earnest with your pledge to one another,” he paused to breath, “Sugar Cane, will you have this mare to be your wedded wife, to love her, comfort her, honour and keep her, and forsaking all others, keep you only unto her, for so long as you both shall live?”

“I do.”

“Ruby Star, will you have this stallion to be your wedded husband, to love him, comfort him, honour and keep him, and forsaking all others, keep you only unto him, so long as you both shall live?”

“I do.”

“The bride and groom have written their own vows and will read them now.”

I took a deep breath and turned to look into Ruby's eyes, smiling softly, “I want to be your friend, For ever and ever without break or decay, when the hills are all flat, and the rivers are all dry, when it lightens and thunders in winter, when it rains and snows in summer, when Heaven and Earth mingle, even then, never will I part from you.”

Ruby was fighting back tears and CB, standing to the side with Lily and Firebird and Crackshot, all serving as bridesmaids, gagged a little.

Ruby took a moment to compose herself before speaking, though her voice was still strained with emotion. “Fair is the white star of twilight, and the sky...sky...” She trailed off, her eyes going wide, looking at me in terror.

“What's wrong?” I asked softly.

“M...My water just broke.”


Footnote: 50% to next level


> Chapter 2: Candy/Family Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2:

“Are you sure?” I asked, more panicked now than I had been my whole time in the wasteland.

“Of course I'm sure!” She snapped. “Wedding can wait!”

Lily moved into action right away. “Alright alright, everypony clear the way!” She announced, pushing me and Ruby towards the back of the room and out, leaving a large group of very confused and worried ponies.

“Alright, just breath, everything will be alright.” I found myself saying to Ruby, who was already doing a very good job of breathing. It was a good thing we were based out of a hospital, because we had attracted a lot of doctors and medics who were more than happy to give us medical services in exchange for protection in the hospital.

“I know how to breath!” Ruby snapped, glaring at me and crying out in pain. “I'll fucking kill you Cane!” Oh God, she's not using my first name, that can't be good...

“Hey, hey, let us take over from here.” A voice called from behind us. Ruby's doctor, Doctor Pepper, ran up behind us, still dressed for the wedding, we probably should have thought to bring him along in the first place. Nurse Ratchet ran up with him, his date to our wedding.

“Oh thank Celestia,” Ruby groaned, “no offense Sugar but you panic too easily.”

They took Ruby from me and guided her away quickly with Lily trailing behind them.

“Dude what are you doing?” Brutus asked, running up to me with the rest of the group.

“Where's Ruby?” CB asked.

“Hospital wing...” I said dumbly, pointing towards the hall they had gone down.

“So WHY are you here?” Brutus demanded, hurrying off down the hall.

“Come on Daddy!” CB said, pulling me along with her magic until I snapped out of it and rushed along with my friends.

We ran into the waiting area, Lily was standing just outside the doors to the delivery area. “Uhh, they've asked that we wait here.” She said, blocking us from going in further.

“What?! Why?!” I asked, worried now that something was wrong.

“That's why.” Lily said. “Cane you freak the fuck out way too hard way too fast, just relax...”

“Yeah but...”

“No buts!” Crackshot cut me off. “Go sit! Everything will be fine. I've seen my family through dozens of births, hell I performed some of the deliveries, and I haven't had a single one go wrong. This is, medically, the best The Collective has ever been equipped in it's history. You don't have any reason to worry, she's in good hooves.”

Crackshot shoved me towards a row of chairs, plopping down beside me, CB on the other side, shedding her uncomfortable wedding dress before sitting down and cuddling against my side. “Don't worry daddy, we'll all wait here with you. I'm excited to finally have a sister, I was always sad that I didn't have one.”

“Well you just remember what we talked about.”

“I know, I know.” She smiled.

//////////
11 months, 11 days ago

“But Sugar...I'm not sure about this...”

“Well you're the one that wanted to do this.”

“I know, but I forgot how weird it was.”

“I'm not sure if I should be offended.”

“We'll call it a compliment...Can't we start with something smaller?”

“It's not like we have access to a whole variety of them.”

“But it's just so big.”

“THAT I'll take as a compliment.”

“Shut it you.”

“Look, all you have to do is reach out and take it.”

“Easy for you to say, I bet you do this all the time.”

“Not as often as you might think.”

“After you and Rosa got together?”

“Well we worked in the same place and we both worked long hours so it didn't happen often.”

“I'm still not sure about this.”

“You'll be fine. Just take it slow and I'm sure you'll find you enjoy it soon enough.”

“That's just a big boost to your ego.”

“Quit making excuses and do it.”

“You still say that like it's the easiest thing in the world.”

“Do you want me to start without you and you can just join in when you're ready?”

“N...no...”

“Well we can sit here all night if we need to, it's not like we have anything else to do right now.”

“Yeah but...”

“Eventually someone will come looking for us. Brutus would probably find it really awkward to walk in on this.”

“Why? He's done this before.”

“But it's us, just sitting here looking dumb.”

“Who're you calling dumb bub?”

“You're stalling again, it's not that hard.”

“Says you!”

“Well if you wanted it softer you should have told me before we started.”

“You're a jerk.”

“WOULD YOU TWO JUST EAT YOUR DAMNED FETTUCINI?!” CB snapped around a mouthful of pasta.

“But it has bacon in it!” Ruby whined.

“IT IS THE FOOD OF THE GODS! And Daddy spent two hours cooking it! No one cooks anymore! This is awesome!”

“You two are so mean!” She groaned, leaning in and slowly, delicately biting some of the noodles and sucking them into her mouth. She chewed them slowly, still hesitant, but I could see in her eyes she was enjoying it and soon enough she was speeding up to a proper eating speed.

“See? It's good.” CB nodded happily. It was just the three of us having dinner together in one of the family quarters of the base, a real family meal for the first time ever, it was awesome.

“I still can't believe we get to eat this.” Ruby said, starting to eat more happily, despite her complaints of the bacon being too crispy and that there was just too much food in the bowl for her to eat, and truth be told I had probably made way more than I needed to.

This amazing meal had been an unexpected surprise. After unlocking the data archives and decrypting the servers, Venture had unlocked a basement section that I hadn't been aware existed. Inside were dozens of massive walk in freezers, each filled with floor to ceiling stockpiles of food. Crate after crate of pasta and sauces, bails of hay, frozen fruit and vegetable juices, as well as a five silos worth of frozen grains, and a whole living database of seed specimens, able to be planted and grown again if Equestria were ever restored. All told he had enough food stored away to feed probably a thousand ponies for 6 months.

The Collective had leaped at the chance to have this massive storehouse of food at their disposal, they were planning on using it to become a trading hub if they could manage, and Venture had happily given it to them, in exchange for admission to The Collective, which they had happily agreed to, stating that his time imprisoned in the American Wasteland had been time served though there was a serious probation imposed on him all the same, but he said he'd do anything he could to redeem himself, so they were giving him the chance.

Now they were organizing to set up the hospital as a hub for the Collective and move the main base of operations to the facility since the whole town was already partially fortified and they found themselves with a lot of extra ponies who had been displaced from their homes with nowhere else to go.

Word had come from the North that there had been some massive battle against against the Enclave and they had actually been forced back, but something had happened to their big wasteland hero in the process, I had tried contacting Homage but it seemed DJ Pon3 had someone filling in for him for a while.

“Alright fine...I guess it's good.” Ruby nodded, finishing her food.

“You're darn right it is.” CB said, sitting back and burping contently.

“You're both welcome.” I grinned. “I missed cooking real food. There's only so many ways you can do up that preserved crap before it all just tastes like mud.”

“So what are we going to do now?” CB asked excitedly, getting up from the table and floating all the dishes up into the air and carrying them into the small kitchen.

“What do you two wanna do?” I asked.

“We could watch a movie?” Ruby suggested, “since that was such a big hit last time.”

“I have full access to Venture's computers now too so we have everything here that I have back at my lab.”

“Oh yeah! Lets watch more movies!” CB cheered.

“Any requests?”

“I want explosions!” CB called, the sound of the sink coming on as she started to wash the dishes. “Huge, massive, mind blowing explosions!”

“So a Micheal Hay movie.” I laughed.

“Who?”

“He was a director, he made movies, with massive huge amazing explosions, and giant robots that turned into vehicles and fought each other.”

“WHAT?! WHY THE BUCK AM I ONLY LEARNING OF THIS NOW?! PUT EM ON PUT EM ON PUT EM ON!” CB cried.

I laughed and moved to the computer, digging through the files and pulling up the movies. I put it up on the large computer monitor I had swiped from the storage area, since I didn't have the massive multi-screen monitor that I used at the hospital.

Ruby moved to sit on the couch I had set up. I sat down beside her and smiled. “So? Feeling comfortable with me this close?” I asked, kissing her gently.

“Yeah I think I'm okay with it...after last night I think I'll be okay with you for the long haul.”

“So you were intentionally repeating the argument we had in bed last night?” I smirked.

“Well there's a difference between a bowl of pasta and your penis, but the two conversations certainly were shockingly parallel,” she chuckled, “but both situations ended up with me enjoying myself a lot more than I expected.”

“I told you acclimatizing you first would help.”

“You just wanted to work me over with a sex toy.” She said, speaking quieter when the sink in the kitchen turned off.

“Well duh,” I nodded, “I'm a guy, that's like the second best thing I could do with you...the first best being the thing we did AFTER...”

“Hush.” She said, blushing deeply. It was funny, I had seen her chagrined and embarrassed before, but now I could actually visibly see her blushing despite the colour of her coat. I leaned in to kiss her again, only to find myself being shoved away.

“Lets start this up!” CB cheered, pushing her way between me and Ruby and cuddling up between the two of us.

“Yes ma'am.” I smirked, starting the film, then dimming the lights in the room.

“What's this movie called?” Ruby asked.

“Transmogrifiers.”

“Wow, that's a mouthful.”

“You get used to it.”

“If you say so.”

The movie started and I happily settled in for a nice quiet night with my girls.

//////////////

Now:

“Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.”I muttered, pacing the waiting room anxiously. It was the middle of the night now, CB and Xem were asleep on one of the couches along the back of the wall, my friends were all sitting around quietly, reading or talking to each other, Brutus was actually getting some work done with a couple soldiers that had showed up.

“You're gonna wear a hole in the carpet.” Venture said, looking up from the tablet in his magical grasp.

“Bite me, you made me miss the birth of my first child so just shut your muzzle.” I snapped.

“Dude, harsh,” Lily said sternly, “it's fine to be worried, but don't turn into a jerk.”

“No it's okay, he's right.” Venture replied before I could apologize. “I did do that to him, he's right to be annoyed.”

“Okay, you're not allowed to start beating yourself up about that stuff again either.” Lily said. “It's been a year, I think you've more than redeemed yourself.”

“I don't think I'll ever redeem myself.” He sighed.

“I...I need to get some air.” I said, heading towards a balcony and walking out into the cold night air, leaving Venture and Lily to argue about his penance.

“Having a baby eh?” A voice asked, making me jump. A unicorn mare walked out from the shadows where the chairs lined the walls. She was a lighter shade of blue than I was and had a mane that was almost the exact same shade, but she had a white mark on her head that came down from her horn and ran down part of her mane like highlights. “They're all kinds of stress aren't they, and not even born yet.” I realized she spoke with a Trottingham accent.

“Uhh yeah, my first, seems I don't cope well with the stress,” I said, “I thought maybe some fresh air would help, I didn't realize anyone else was out here.”

“Oh it's alright, I wasn't going to stay long. I have a thief to find.”

“A thief? Are you a solider?”

“Oh no no, nothing like that. You can call me TT.” She said, smiling and looking out at the wasteland beyond the hospital, the faint glow from the lights of Manetown a short distance away. The cutie mark on her flank was a black circle with what looked like four arrows pointing at each other in the middle to form a cross. “The thief I'm looking for is mine.”

“Your what?”

“My thief.”

“Oh of course, that makes perfect sense now.” I paused as I thought it through. “You're looking to find someone who stole you...were you a slave?” I asked as it dawned on me.

“Hmm...I don't know about slave, I was certainly a willing participant most of the time.”

“W...Well I have lots of friends here in The Collective that might be able to help you track this former owner down.” I offered. Clearly this mare wasn't all there and I was worried about what harm she might do to herself or others if she was burying most of the crazy.

“Oh no thank you.” She said, looking over at me and grinning. “I was here to meet with Mare-Do-Well.” She said, pointing to Firebird in the waiting area, who was currently asleep with a book beside her.

“Wait you know who she is?” I asked.

“I know many things Doctor Cane.” She said simply. “Like I know you're going to be needed momentarily.”

Before I could speak again the ER doors opened and the nurse came out. “Doctor Cane?” She called, looking around the room.

“How did you...” I turned back but the mare was gone from the balcony.  I didn't have time to search, I hurried back inside.

“Somepony would like to see you.” The nurse said when I slid to a stop in front of her.

She took me back into the hall and into a room a few doors down.

Ruby lay on the bed, looking haggard and beyond exhausted, a little pink blanket wrapped in her forelegs and she was nuzzling it happily.

“Hey you...” She said quietly when she saw me. “Come here...”

I walked over slowly and she held the blanketed bundle carefully out to me. Inside was the most beautiful little olive green unicorn filly, cooing curiously at me.

“Hey there Candy...” I said softly, leaning down and cuddling her lovingly, kissing her little face gently. “She's so beautiful.” I looked up at Ruby, leaning in and kissing her next.

“I know right?” Ruby chuckled. “Is there anything I can't do well?”

“You can't cook to save your life.”

“Is now really the time for sarcastic wit?”

“Meh.” I shrugged and snuggled the baby again, getting a curious look from the baby again.

“G...Guys?” CB called softly from the door. She was keeping her distance but looked very hopeful. No one else was with her.

“Come see your sister.” Ruby said and CB trotted happily into the room.

I stepped aside and let CB hop up on the chair beside the bed. “Hi Candy.” She giggled, looking down at the baby. “We're going to have so much fun together, and you'll make an awesome scapegoat when I break stuff.”

“Oh good, I'm glad you have long term plans for her CB.” Ruby said, rolling her eyes a little.

“Hey, a girls gotta have all the bases covered.” She shrugged.

Candy got a very concerned look on her face for a moment. “What's wrong with her?” CB asked, but was answered a moment later when the baby sneezed right in her face.

Ruby and I burst out laughing as CB cried out in horror and fell back, but the combination of confusion  at the sneeze and the laughter made Candy start to cry.

“Aww no baby girl don't cry.” Ruby cooed, hugging the baby close and rocking her gently in her forelegs, humming softly.

“Come on CB, lets go back to the waiting room and let some of the others come back and see the baby okay?” I asked.

“Yeah okay.” She nodded, heading back out of the room. Candy had already started to settle down again.

“Do you want me to stay in here with you?” I asked but Ruby shook her head.

“I can manage just fine thanks,” She said, grinning softly, “Send in Brutus and Crackshot?” She asked.

“You got it.” I said, starting out of the room.

“Sugar...I love you.”

“I love you too Ruby.”

Footnote: Level up

New companion added: Candy Cane (Unicorn filly)

Companion Perk added: Sweet as Candy: While traveling with Candy you are 25% more likely to engage in random friendly encounters, I mean who doesn't want to see a baby? However you suffer from a -2 to Endurance and -1 to Stamina, and your sex life? Forget about it.


> Chapter 3: Restless Wandering/Uplink
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3:

Now

“Sleep now little filly, put your cares away, laughy with a happy face, tomorrows another day...” I sang softly to Candy. We were walking the hallways of the medical wing, it was 6am, Ruby had passed out from exhaustion about two hours earlier, CB was asleep in the chair beside Ruby's bed, everyone had come and seen the baby and been so happy and excited, but eventually they had turned in for the night and now I found myself alone with my new daughter...who wouldn't stop crying!

“Wah! Wah! Wah!” Her tiny and yet so powerful voice echoed through the halls, absolutely miserable with life and I had no idea what was wrong. She wasn't hungry, she didn't need to be changed, she was warm in her blanket and I was holding her against me with my magic so she could feel my warmth and heartbeat, just like the nurses had said, and even the nurses had tried and failed to find a problem, she was just cranky it seemed, so since no one else was around to be annoyed by her voice I carried her through the hospital trying to calm her.

Finally we wandered downstairs and outside, after grabbing my bag from the room and leaving Ruby a note. There was a cool breeze, but it was quiet, amazingly quiet, no explosions or gunfire off in the distance or anything, just the sound of a very upset baby.

“Uh-oh, sounds like somepony doesn't like the big scary world.” A voice said, making me jump, and Ebony and Ivory leap from my pack. The blue mare from earlier wandered up, another pony behind her, a brown Earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark.

“Oh, TT right?” She nodded, “yeah, this is Candy, she's not even 6 hours old and already she's miserable...” I sighed.

“Awe it's not as bad as all that.” The brown stallion said, he spoke with a similar accent to TT, coming over slowly. Candy stopped crying, looking at him curiously. “No, I promise you, I know it's cold out and you miss the free food, but you'll be alright.”

“What's he doing?” I asked TT.

“Oh, I speak baby.” The buck replied.

“Uhh...right...”

Candy cooed happily at him and he laughed. “That's not nice, this is your dad, he loves you and he's going to protect you. What? Oh, well I guess. She doesn't like the name Candy. Says it's too sweet.”

“Does she now?”

“Yes, prefers Lelandra.”

“Well the two of us can talk about it when she's older. For now I'm gonna stick with Candy.”

“Your loss. Sorry Lelandra,” he shrugged, “now you behave for your Mum and Dad alright? I don't want to find you causing all kinds of havoc down the road.”

Candy made some whining noises at him but he just smiled. “Good girl.”

“Come on Doctor, we should go.” TT said. “Places to meet, people to see.”

“You're absolutely right.” He said. She started off away from the hospital and he moved to follow, but paused a moment, “here, a birthday present.” He dug into his bag and pulled out a small plush robot doll and tucked it into the blanket beside her.

Candy kind of rolled her eyes a little trying to see the new thing beside her.

“Uhh, thanks?” I said, looking up from her, but the two of them were already moving away from the hospital and into the early morning sunlight.

I wasn't really sure what had just happened, but Candy had stopped crying and seemed back to her quiet content self. I went back inside and returned to the hospital room.

“Hi Daddy...” CB said tiredly, waking when we came back into the room.

“Hey sweetie, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up.”

“It's okay. Candy finally stopped crying?”

“Yeah she's fine now I think.”

“Good, she's too noisy.”

“That's how babies work.” I flopped on the couch on the wall opposite Ruby's bed and cuddled Candy happily. “Until they can talk how else are they going to tell you something is wrong?”

“I guess.”

Candy finally drifted off to sleep so I floated her up and into the simple plastic bassinet that sat beside Ruby's bed and happily fell asleep myself.

/////////////

11 Months ago:

“I'm going to go to my lab and start setting up for the link to the facility.” I said to my friends as we got  off the sky wagon. “You gonna come help?” I asked, looking at Venture.

“Oh, yeah, of course.” He smiled, nodding to me. Brutus rolled his eyes and headed off with Crackshot and CB.

“He really doesn't like me.” Venture sighed.

“He doesn't like a lot of folks.” Ruby said, coming out of the cockpit and leaning against me, sighing heavily.

“You okay babe?”

“I feel kind of nauseated...” She said. She groaned and started breathing heavily out of her mouth.

“Ruby?” I reached out to touch her cheek but she yanked away from me, running over to a trash bin and throwing up hard.

“RUBY!” I ran to her side and used my magic to pull her mane back

“Ugh...” She groaned, spitting the remnants out of her mouth. “Sorry...musta been something I had at...” She trailed off and threw up again.

“Maybe you should go see a doctor...I heard a few are setting up shop here for the long haul. This might become a full fledged hospital again so we have lots of ponies at our disposal.”

“No no, I'm sure it'll pass...” She said, sitting slowly and just breathing deeply. I pulled a bottle of water out of my pack and held it out to her. She washed her mouth out and smiled weakly. “Thanks Sugar.”

“No problem.” I smiled, tossing the now empty bottle into the garbage. I pulled the bag out of the bin and tied it shut, then, as I had done in the past, pulled Ivory out and shot the bag, which burst with red energy and turned to ash. “Mint?” I asked, pulling one of the small wrapped candies from my pack.

“Yes.”She nodded, popping it in her mouth happily.

“You guys okay?” A tech asked, coming over to see what all the commotion was.

“Oh yeah, we're fine.” Venture said. “She's just got morning sickness.”

“Come again for big fudge?” Ruby asked flatly, glaring at him.

“Sick out of the blue, didn't eat anything really bad today to warrant getting sick, got over it in moments...I'd say it's morning sickness, I saw a lot of mares going through it over the decades, and at the beginning I even cared about it because I was still flesh and blood and not totally bat shit insane.”

The tech looked at him as though he wasn't sure if he was serious.

“We'll be fine Tack.” Ruby said, smiling at him. I could tell it was forced, but she didn't waiver.

“Alright...” He said slowly, nodding and backing away, still watching Venture for a moment before finally turning and starting off again.

“You should probably go see a doctor.” I said to her again.

“Yeah...I guess.” She nodded, sighing deeply. “You two go do your work, I'll go find out about seeing a doctor.” She leaned in and kissed my horn. “I swear if you knocked me up on our FIRST try I'm gonna be pissed.”

“Technically it's our SECOND try...remember the night before we went to battle?”

“Doesn't count and you know it.” She sighed.

“I suppose...I think it still kinda counts though.” I said.

“Well we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.”

“And besides, do you think I wanted to hit a home run on my first time at bat?” I asked. “I was hoping to take a few swings, maybe take a base or two before I got benched for the whole season.”

“That analogy doesn't really follow.”

“I think Sugar is saying that he wants to try to take four balls.” Venture offered, smirking.

“Sugar? Is that what you mean? DO you want to try taking four balls?” She asked, putting on an excellent concerned face, putting all the polite and well meaning tones she could into her voice. “S...Should I get Brutus? I bet Lily would be happy to change into a buck for you too...” She offered, smiling warmly.

Finally Venture cracked up and Ruby followed suit, the two of them falling back, howling with laughter.

“Yeah, you two are hilarious.” I rolled my eyes, putting on a good indignant face and started out of the area.

//////////

The door to my lab opened and Venture came in, looking around the room slowly. “Nice set up.” He said, looking at the rows of computers.

“It's all scavenged from our other facilities.”

“I can see that.” He nodded. “So where are we at with the link?”

“I finished installing the wireless transmitter and receiver and I've tied it into the M.A.S. Network. So DJ Pon3 and his assistant will have access to it too, I assume you don't mind that?”

“Nope, not at all. I'm an open book from now on,” Venture said, coming and sitting down beside me, “this still feels weird you know...back in a flesh and blood body, feeling emotions besides rage and anger, guilt, good grief the guilt...”

“You've been in a pony body for almost eight years, I'd think you'd be used to it by now.”

“Weren't really many chances to stretch my legs or put myself through my paces when I was locked up. No magic for almost as long too...I'll probably have to go back to magic kindergarten to relearn it all.” He laughed.

“I don't know that they have specific kindergarten for it anymore. CB's class is a mix of all the pony races, and I heard that they might have a gryphon in the class starting in a week or two, if his dad signs on to join The Collective's medical department.” I said, turning back to the computer slowly when it chirped at me to let me know the new hardware was online.

“So what can I do to help?”

“You can either write the wireless transmission protocols or you can write the interface software.”

“I'll do the interface,” he nodded, “race you?” He asked knowingly.

I couldn't hide my smirk. “Oh you know it.” I nodded. Damn, I had missed this...

“Standard wager?”

“You don't have any money, how are you going to buy me dinner?”

“The Collective was nice enough to advance me my first pay. I also keep a decent stack of caps in the safe in my office just in case.”

“Well aren't you just the luckiest pony on the planet. Fine, you can use that bank.” I said, pointing to a computer set up along the right wall.

“Sounds good to me.” He moved to the computers and started booting them up.

I started up my computers and cued up a play list of classic rock.

“On your mark?”

“Get set...”

“GO!” We both shouted and started typing away in a flurry on the computers as the music kicked in, filling the lab. I had really REALLY missed this.

//////////

“What the hay are you guys doing?!” I heard CB shout over the music.

“PAUSE!” I yelled, the music stopped, plunging the lab into almost shocking silence. Venture and I stopped typing at the exact same time and I turned to look at the filly. “We're writing the computer programs we need to make the link to Venture's computers work.”

“And you feel it's necessary to go deaf blasting music while you do it?” She asked, looking very irritated.

“Sorry mother,” I said, smiling a little, “it's just how we work.”

“Well work quieter.” She said seriously. “I had to stand right beside you before you even heard me.”

“I said I'm sorry, what else can I say?”

“Nothing, just work QUIETER,” She said.

“Thank you sweetie.” I heard another voice say and I realized Ruby was standing in the door of the lab.

“No problem Ruby.” She smiled at the mare and started for the door again. “QUIETER.” She said to me again before heading back out of the room.

“You two really know how to have fun.” Ruby smirked, coming over and leaning against me, looking at the code half scrawled on the screen, and the notepad I had beside me covered in half pieces of code.

“So...what did the doctor say?” I asked her, trying to steer away from explaining what I was writing in any kind of detail.

She just smiled happily.

“Really?” I asked, my eyes lighting up with excitement. She just nodded and laughed softly.

“Oh Ruby that's wonderful!” I grinned, scooping her up in a big hug and kissing her happily. “We have to tell everyone! Lily's going to be SO excited.”

“I know, I've heard CB talk about how she wished she had a sibling, I'm sure she'll be so happy.” She agreed, moving back to stand beside me again. “Lets go tell them.”

I started to get up from my desk, then looked over at Venture. “You mind suspending the contest till tomorrow?”

“Do you mind if I do one last thing?” He asked. “Just want to finish this last line of code?”

“Yeah go for it.” I said.

He typed out a few more symbols and then hit both keys at once. “DONE!” He cackled.

“What?!” I watched in amazement as his code started to compile. “You bastard! I can't believe you were almost done.”

“Well we still have to see if the code will function.” He shrugged.

“Wow, and humble too.” I laughed.

“So does that mean we can go?” Ruby asked.

“For now yeah. My code is far from done I need another day or two to finish.”

“Perfect lets go.” She said, heading for the door.

I followed her out into the hall, turning to lock the lab when I noticed Venture was still sitting at the desk, watching his code compiling. “You coming?” I asked him.

“Oh, well, it's a family thing, I didn't want to intrude...”

“Dude seriously? You are LITERALLY my only direct family, even CB is so far removed from my gene pool she barely counts.”

“Yeah but...”

“No buts, come on mister, “Ruby ordered, “CB would be upset with us if you were left out.”

“Alright...” He said, getting off the stool and turning off the monitor before following us out of the lab. I closed and locked the door and we started off to tell everyone the good news.

//////////

Now:

“Daddy...Daddy wake up!” The soft voice cut through my dreams and I opened my eyes to find Candy dangling above me, giggling happily, wrapped in CB's yellow magic. “Daddy! Daddy! My diaper is poopy!” CB said in the little voice. Ruby was laying in the bed watching us with a grin.

“Gross...so it is my little pony...” I sighed, taking the baby from CB. “Come on sweetie...” I sat up and carried her over to the bed. If I had to do it Ruby at least had to bear witness.

“Aww, my big strong stallion, changing his first poopy diaper.” Ruby cooed.

“First nothing. I've changed dirty diapers before. Used to baby sit for my neighbors from time to time.” I said, my horn lighting up again as diapers, wipes and powder flew through the air towards me. It was a blur I'm sure as I puffed out some of the powder in a big cloud before setting to work changing Candy. I was quick, but I was careful. I had read over and over about how to change a baby's diaper but I had never done it before, so this was all just a very careful bluff. It only took about a minute and she was clean and ready to go again, the dirty diaper tossed into the waste bin by the door.

“You did a damned fine job.” Ruby nodded. “'Cept you put the diaper on backwards Mister Expert.” She laughed, grabbing Candy up in her hooves and flipping the diaper around. “Some of us have ACTUALLY changed a baby before.”

“Can confirm,” CB nodded, “was said baby.”

“Fine, you caught me, I still think I did a good job.”

“You certainly did babe.” Ruby nodded, leaning in and kissing my horn. “Give Daddy a kiss.” She said, holding Candy out to me. The baby looked at me curiously for a moment, then stuck the tip of my horn in her mouth and started sucking at it.

“Good try.” I laughed, pulling back slowly. Ruby pulled Candy back in and pulled her blanket up, tucking the baby away from sight so she could feed her.

“Uhh, I'm gonna go meet up with Xem for breakfast.” CB said.

“Alright, but you better get your butt to school. If I find out you two cut class to 'explore' again I'm gonna be angry.” I said seriously.

“Yeah of course, it was just the one time.” CB nodded, turning and running out of the room before I could say anything more, already a bright red.

“They're young and in love, it's hard not to want to be close.”

“Yeah well they're too young to be that close. I don't care if they are soul mates.”

“You're telling me you never snuck around with a mare?”

“Uhh hello? Have you even MET me? I was a geek, I have had THREE girlfriends in my life. One when I was about 10, then Rosa, who I should remind you, made the first move, and you, who kind of fell into my lap because we got drugged and I got molested.”

“Are you saying we'd never have gotten together if that hadn't happened?” Ruby asked, giving me big sad eyes, but I was too clever for that.

“Uhh, yes, yes I am,” I nodded, sitting down beside the bed in the chair and shrugging idly.

“Yeah you're probably right.” She sighed, her guilt attempt foiled. “Oh well, we are together and look what we have to show for it.” She lifted Candy back up and held her close, patting her back until the baby burped quietly.

“Yeah, it's something else isn't it?” I asked, nuzzling the back of Candy's neck gently.

“SO...what are we gonna do about the wedding?”

“Reschedule?” I offered. “I mean aside from some food that everyone ate anyway we didn't really lose out on anything, and besides, now Candy can be there too.”

“True, true.” She nodded, laying back and holding Candy up over her head. “What do you think my little olive filly? You wanna be at the wedding?” She cooed. Candy giggled happily and squirmed around. “That's what I thought.” She brought the baby down again and held her close, sighing happily.

There was a knock on the door and I looked over to see Hail Storm standing in the doorway. “Hey you two. I heard the good news when we got in earlier this morning, I thought I'd come visit.”

“Of course,” Ruby grinned, sitting up again properly, “this is Candy.” She said, holding the baby up carefully.

“Aww she's very cute.” Hail smiled, coming over to stand beside the bed, a box on her back. “I told you that you'd have your own some time.” She said to me. “I brought you this too.” She said, setting the box down. Inside was her baby carrier. “The twins have long since grown out of it and I was mostly just holding onto it for sentimental value, but you can't carry something like this around forever when you are a traveling merchant so I'm glad to be able to give it to somepony else that'll make good use of it.”

“And I'm happy to have it,” Ruby said, “I don't know that we're going to be traveling a whole lot, but I feel better having an armoured baby carrier than a normal one.”

“Yeah, well Bullet and I have been talking about maybe settling down in Maneville...maybe open a store or something. I guess he's been talking to a lot of ponies there and it seems the weapons market there never really recovered after the Pyro attack on the town. We have really made a name for ourselves so setting up a store might be a good thing.”

“Well if you decide to go forward with it I'd be happy to set you guys up with a computerized inventory system, and alarms and such. Anything computer based.”

“Oh thanks, I'll tell Bullet,” She nodded, “well I'll leave you two to bask in your baby.” She smiled.

“Thanks Hail. We'll talk later.” I said and she started off. “So what do we do now?”

“We could go for breakfast. I'm ready to get out of here.”

“Already?”

“Yeah already. I was good to leave last night but they insisted I stay to make sure I was 100%, but they discharged me earlier while you were still sleeping.”

“Alright, breakfast it is.” I nodded, helping her out of the bed. We packed up a few things, double checked with the doctors and then we were on our way.

Footnote: 25% to level up
> Chapter 4: Breakfast/Lunch
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4:

Now:

“Hey all.” Ruby said to the group as we entered the cafeteria section that had been well outfitted and cleaned up to again start serving it's purpose.

“Baby baby baby baby!” Lily giggled, scooping Candy from the bundle that held her under Ruby's neck and holding her in her magic. “Hello my little pony, how are you?” She singsonged at the foal, nuzzling her happily. Candy giggled and batted curiously at Lily's insectoid skin. “I am so happy to have you around, you have no idea.” She kissed her tiny horn and sat down again, putting the baby on the table in front of her and laughing and playing with her excitedly.

“Should we be worried about that?” I asked, looking at Ruby curiously.

“Nah, I'm sure she'll be fine. Lily, don't drop my baby or anything.”

“What? No! That's what my magic is for.” Lily said, floating Candy into the air and spinning her around slowly, much to the foal's delight.

“Alright...just be careful.” Ruby said seriously, turning and heading over to get food.

“Well aren't you a fierce guardian?” I grinned at Ruby.

“Damned straight I am,” she nodded, “I don't want nothing happening to my baby.”

“Fair enough. We have to keep her around for a least a few weeks before we let her go wandering off on her own.”

“Totally, and six months minimum before we take her on a mission.”

“But we'll have to train her to use a gun in the weeks before that.”

“Yeah, and she can just stay home alone until then,” Ruby broke into a laugh and kissed me, “I love your sense of humour.”

“I love my sense of humour too.” I laughed.

“I bet you do I bet you do.” She turned and used a pair of tongs to put hay on her plate, along with a stack of pancakes, she hadn't taken to meat the way CB, Brutus and I had so she skipped over it even while I put pancakes and bacon on my plate. She poured syrup on the food on her plate and headed back to the table, sitting down beside Lily and digging into her food, letting her cousin keep playing with Candy for the time being.

I sat across from them and ate quietly while I watched them play. Candy was so happy now, whatever had happened the night before with that Doctor guy had really brightened her up, maybe he really could speak baby...nah.

“So, what are you two going to do about the wedding?” Crackshot asked, looking up from the supply reports she had sitting beside her barely touched breakfast.

“We'll reschedule,” Ruby said, “it's not like we NEED an official ceremony or anything, so we can just wait.”

“I think you two have waited long enough.” Crackshot sighed. “How many times can you put it off? We'll get it rescheduled for as soon as possible.”

“Are you kidding? You barely have time for yourself as it is you putrid meat balloon.” Lily said, still giggling and playing with Candy. “You don't have time to take on someone ELSE'S responsibilities. You should be focusing on getting YOUR responsibilities cut down, there are lots of others around here who can help you with your tasks.”

“I've been doing this for 200 years, I've mastered the fine art of balancing work and personal commitments.”

“Just saying.” Lily said. “I don't know why you let the council rope you back into active work.”

“Because we're upscaling the operations to the point we might actually break into two or even three divisions and they need all the help they can get making everything work on such a large scale without fracturing the organization.”

“Morning all.” Venture said, coming up to the table, “how's my sweet little niece?” He asked, nuzzling Candy's cheek. She giggled and actually nuzzled him back.

“She learns fast.”

“She's my daughter, I'd be surprised if she wasn't coding computers before she could write.”

“Yeah, but she's also Ruby's daughter, so she might not learn anything more complicated than basic level magic until she's a teenager.” Brutus said.

“Oh god, I hadn't thought of that...” I said, putting on a horrified face.

“Shut up!” Ruby pouted.

“Don't worry sweetie, I'm sure she'll take after Cane.” Lily said, grinning at her cousin.

“You are fast tracking your way to losing baby privileges.” Ruby said to the Changeling.

“What?! NO!” Lily leapt back from the table, holding Candy close, glaring at Ruby, “she's MINE!”

“Oh okay.” Ruby said simply, pulling the pack full of baby supplies and tossing them to Lily's feet. “She can't switch to formula for at least a few weeks so I hope you can start lactating pretty quickly cuz she can't subsist on just love.”

“What?! EW!” She whined, holding the baby back out and letting me scoop her into my forelegs with a laugh. “Seriously, when I have a kid they're gonna feed on my love until they're old enough to feed themselves and that's it.” She said, sticking her tongue out.

“How do you intend to have children when your mate is into bucks?”

“Uhh...”

“Oh when the time comes I'm sure I'll be able to soldier through a few goes at mare parts.” Brutus said without looking up from his breakfast, getting amazed looks from everyone and making me burst out laughing.

“What's funny about that?” Brutus asked, looking at me seriously.

“Are you kidding? What ISN'T funny about that?” I put on a disgusted face. “W...Why does it look like that? Ugh, it's so...moist...Lil I don't know if I can do this...please can't we just go back to penis kissing?” I whimpered.

Lily was on the floor laughing by the time I got to the end.

“Ew ew ew ew ew is it supposed to clench up like this?” I continued, whining loudly, making Lily howl with laughter. “Aww Lil come on, it smells funny, don't make me lick it!”

Brutus just sat and ate quietly, paying no mind to our teasing. “You can make fun all you want, when the time comes we'll have a child and there'll be no making fun of me then.”

Lily sat up and looked at him quietly. “So are you saying you want to have a child with me?” She asked seriously.

“I don't see why not.” He said, smiling at her softly.

“I don't see why not...” I repeated slowly, “That has to be the most romantic statement I've ever heard, what do you think Candy?” I looked at the foal against my chest and she just gurgled happily. “Well, she's in.”

“I'm glad I have your support little one.” Brutus smirked.


/////////


11 Months Ago:

Everyone sat at a big table in the cafeteria, chowing down on various meals, breakfast food, dinner food, everything in between...Venture's food supply had lead to a lot of ponies trying all the different kinds of food they had never had before.

Xem and CB were powering through a box of Sugar Pinkie Crisp cereal together, a bottle of Brahmin milk between them. Brutus was eating what looked like spinach salad, complete with carrots and broccoli, but it had to have been made with frozen veggies and I couldn't imagine it was THAT good, but he was enjoying it. Lily and Firebird were eating a pizza, I recognized it as a brand of frozen pizza that I had probably eaten a thousand times while working late at the office. Crackshot though, was just eating the same thing she always ate, hay and sauce.

“And I'm telling you that it all tastes the same to me because I don't have proper taste buds anymore, so it doesn't matter what I eat.” She was saying as we walked up.

“Yeah but this is food you ate before the war, don't you miss it?”

“Honey most of that is crap that I wouldn't have eaten before the war, and since I don't have to eat it now I'm not gonna. It'd be a waste for ME to eat it and not enjoy it when others will enjoy it.”

“You really wouldn't have eaten this back in the day? Brothers Cane what about you?”

“We definitely ate it more than we should have.” Venture replied, “When I started stockpiling I had to pick things that could withstand the test of time, so it was still a lot of prepackaged foods, frozen fruits and veggies, we didn't eat meat back then so saving things like bacon or steak didn't even factor into it. I used cryo tech to store massive hay bails but hay seemed to endure quite well so I didn't worry about it. Oats and beans and barley, oh, and sunflower and sesame seeds, all froze and kept very well. Wheat and cocoa pods and things like that didn't take kindly to the freezing process so I only have seed stores for regrowing them once the land can be farmed again.”

“So you're saying most of it is junk food?”

“Most of it is junk food.” He nodded.

Brutus made a noise and I glared at him but he was just focused on his salad. I sat down beside him and Ruby sat between Lily and Xem.

More and more groups filed into the cafeteria and soon the whole place was a mass of chatter and noise, almost impossible to hear each other easily.

I finally worked up the courage to look at Brutus and ask, “I know you have every reason to hate him, but why are you so angry towards Venture? I mean everypony else is at least giving him the benefit of the doubt...”

“It's nothing, don't worry about it.”

“Brutus I have to worry about it, you're my best friend, he's my brother, I want you two to at least be cordial...”

“I said don't worry about it.” He replied angrily.

“Brutus come on dude, talk to me, I want to help if I can, I want things to work well...”

Have you ever been at a really loud party. I mean a good loud party, where the music is playing too loud, and everybody is talking too loudly, and in order to be heard even by the person standing right next to you, you've got to be screaming at the top of you lungs. But every now and then at a party, it seems as though everyone shuts up at the same time...and only your voice...can be heard?

“HE'S A FUCKING HOMOPHOBE!”

Dead silence, through the whole cafeteria, all eyes on our table, and all eyes at our table on Brutus.

“W...What?” Venture stammered, knowing exactly what we were talking about.

“You know what!” Brutus snapped, shoving away from the table and standing up, he'd already made a scene so he was going to see it through. “You used those horrific mind controlling masks to keep your minions in check! But not all of them, oh no, not all of them.” He yanked a control mask from his bag, obviously he'd been carrying around for a while...possibly waiting for this confrontation...

“What does this say?” He demanded, holding the mask out to Ruby.

She looked at him seriously for a moment. “You know what it says...”

“Just say it.”

“Male, attracted to males, rage, lust, impure.” She said softly.

“Now?” The mask flashed as he rewrote the glyphs, changing them to similar to what it had shown when Cap held it.

“Female, attracted to female, impure, depression, suicide.”

“IMPURE, SUICIDE!” Brutus roared, throwing the mask at Venture, “you only wanted ponies that would breed in your little cult so you made it so that ponies like me would just off ourselves instead or go insane!”

“B-Brutus...” Ruby started but he cut her off, “NO! YOU DON'T NEED TO JUMP TO HIS DEFENCE! HE CAN FIGHT HIS OWN FIGHTS!”

“Bru...” I got cut off too with a glare that could wilt flowers.

Crackshot looked beyond shocked at the outburst but also was looking to Venture for answers.

“Brutus...” Of all the voices in the silence of the cafeteria Xem's wasn't one I had expected to hear.

“You two get to school, you don't need to be a part of this.” Brutus said firmly to the children.

“No Brutus please listen.” Xem said, standing up.

“BUTT OUT XEM!” Brutus finally snapped at the buck, “THIS DOESN'T CONCERN YOU, NOW GET!”

“NO! BRUTE FORCE YOU SHUT YOUR TRAP AND LISTEN!” Xem roared back at the unicorn, shocking him into silence.

Xem composed himself and looked at everyone. “Venture had the masks made, this is true. But he doesn't deserve all of this rage from you.” He was seething with anger and was doing his best not to yell, but he was slipping to rhyme and we knew it had to be bad...

“He paid for the masks, asked for control, but his part in creation was only a supervisory roll. My grandfather and I made each and every mask, they weren't even tough, it was a simple task. I made masks, my grandfather the glyphs, Venture cannot be blamed for this. He asked only that we make him something magically strong, the list of requirements weren't that long. Zebra magic is old and set in it's ways, no matter what the use someone always pays. Homosexuality was a blight to my race, not to honour our creator with children was considered a slap in her face. When the glyphs were first made, so many eons past, there were certain tenants, meant always to last. No gay bucks would withstand their might and filly foolers soon vanished from sight. Don't be angry with Venture he didn't ask for this, if you must, then be angry with me, for the role I served in this.”

“This can't rhyme with this...it's the same word.” CB said softly.

“I know, rhyming is hard and I'm out of practice.” He said, sitting down again slowly.

Brutus just stood silently, taking in what had been said, clearly humiliated about the whole situation.

“I'm sorry Brutus, if you had just asked...” Venture said finally, breaking the silence.

“If you bothered to ask anyone who was in the know about it.” Ruby said, her face neutral but clearly angry with him for causing such a huge scene.

Brutus slunk back to his seat and sat down, muttering apologies and starting to just focus intently on his salad.

“So...Ruby...you said you had something tell us?” Firebird asked once the rest of the cafeteria had settled back into a more normal routine.

“Uhh yeah, it can wait for now. We've already drawn enough attention to ourselves this morning.”

“Alright.” She nodded, starting in on another piece of pizza.

A guard came into the cafeteria and came over to our table. “Excuse me. The council has asked me to bring you new orders.” He said, setting down a folder on the table.

“What's up?” Ruby asked.

“A doctor has requested an escort back to his home town. It seems there has been some kind of viral outbreak of Cutie Pox and he needs to go back and help.”

“VIRAL Cutie Pox? It's viral now?” I asked.

“Not that I've ever heard of.” Crackshot shrugged, the others agreed.

“Yes, yes of course we'll go. Tell him to give us an hour and a half to prep and he can meet us at the dock out back, berth eight.”

“Perfect.” The guard nodded and started out of the room again.

“Alright, well lets finish and get going.”

“Uhh, is it safe?” CB asked quietly. “I mean I've heard what Cutie Pox can do to a pony, it sounds terrible.”

“You're immune if you already have your Cutie Mark.” Firebird said.

“Or if your species doesn't get a Cutie Mark.” Lily added, seeing that Xem still looked kind of nervous.

“Alright, well lets finish and get a move on.” I said, scarfing down my food so I'd be ready to go as soon as possible.

We ate in silence for the rest of the meal and then headed out to get ready.

“Well I guess I'll wait here.” Venture said, walking through the hall with Ruby and me.

“Yeah that's fine. The code to the lab is Mom's birthday, you can finish writing my code for me.”

“That sounds reasonable, at least we know it'll be done professionally and quickly.”

“Yeah yeah, just don't do anything to screw around, there is plenty of non computerized surveillance in this place keeping an eye on you.”

“I've noticed.” He smirked, gesturing with his head towards a guard who was casually walking along about half a hall behind us, slowing when we slowed, turning when we turned.

“He actually drew a gun in the cafeteria earlier when Brutus started screaming at me.”

“I'm sorry about that by the way.” Ruby said. “I'm so embarrassed that he carried on like that without even checking with anyone to know if he was right to be mad.”

“Don't worry about it, I deserve all that and more.” He shrugged.

“Well we'll see you when we get back.” I said, when we reached our quarters.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding his head, “just make sure you bring me something nice. I'll also upload any information in my computers about Cutie Pox to that console in your sky wagon so you can get to work on the way out there.”

“Thanks, and I'll try to bring you something you'll like but no promises.” I replied, heading into the room. He continued on down the hallway and Ruby and I stood, waiting until the guard passed.

“You got a boring job my friend.” Ruby said to him. He just rolled his eyes and continued on down the hall, vanishing around the same corner as Venture had a few seconds earlier.

Footnote: 50% to next level.
> Chapter 5: Punishment/Cutie Pox
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 5:

Now

“So Sugar,” Ruby started as I got into bed beside her that night, “I was thinking, I'd like to take Candy out to show my parents.”

“To the graveyard at the old base?” I asked, looking over at her curiously.

“Yeah. I mean I know it's silly...”

“Not at all, not at all.” I said, shaking my head quickly, “if I knew where my parents were buried I'd want to take her out there too.” I looked over at the foal sleeping in the crib beside the bed, smiling a little.

“Doesn't Venture know?”

“Nah,” I sighed, laying back slowly, “he was already kind of power mad and when my father accused him of driving me off he cut himself off from them completely. He didn't even take them with him when he locked down the facilities against the fallout of the apocalypse.”

“Oh wow...”

“Yeah, just one of the hundreds of things he's wracked with guilt over now.”

“What about their old home?”

“An irradiated crater a quarter mile wide.”

“Damn.”

“Don't worry about it. We'll go see your parents, you can show them their grand daughter and I'm sure they'll be happy for it.”

“Thanks Sugar.” She sighed, snuggling against me happily as I switched off the lights.

“I still don't like CB taking up residence so far away.” I said in the darkness.

“Oh come on Sugar you had your own room at her age.”

“Yeah, in my parents home, I didn't have my own apartment, we have a secondary suite she could be living in.”

“She's almost 15 I don't think she wants to be with her 'daddy' all the time.”

“Yeah well I don't like the things she can get up to with so little supervision.”

“You gotta stop worrying about that too, she's got an implant just like every other mare that wants one.”

“That doesn't make my feelings on the subject any better.”

“You don't know that they're getting up to inappropriate things when they're alone.”

“They're teenagers, they're always up to, or planning on, inappropriate things, also, I caught them earlier trying to swipe the blanket from your stuff.”

“They what?” She asked flatly.

“Yeah, I took it and put it in a safe in my lab, told the computer if anyone came into the lab that wasn't you or me to send a signal to my pipbuck to alert me and bring up the camera feed on the screen so I could see.”

“Mm, that's my clever unicorn.” She sighed, kissing my horn, how she found it so easily in the dark I have no idea, and then snuggled back up to me.

//////////

My pipbuck started buzzing in the night and I groaned a little before I remembered WHY it was buzzing.

I pulled up the video feed to find CB and Xem quietly closing the door behind them as they snuck into my lab.

I got out of bed quietly so as not to disturb Ruby.

“Your sister is a very naughty girl isn't she?” I asked Candy when I saw her watching me in the dark, the light of my pipbuck reflecting in her big eyes. She was sucking on a hoof and watching me walk around the room. “You wanna come help me bust em?”

Her response was to coo happily and I took that as a yes, scooping her up I started for the door. “Ruby...Candy and I are going to go catch some naughty children.”

“M'kay...have fun, be careful with my baby.” She muttered, rolling over to fill up more of the bed space.

“YOUR baby...” I replied simply, rolling my eyes and heading out of the room.

We walked down the halls quickly, I kept Candy cradled close until we reached the more open hallways and I could float her around playfully without having to worry about bumping into things.

“And where are you two going so late at night?”

“Ahh my dearest Crackshot, WE are going to bust somepony naughty.” I said, looking over at the ghoul and grinning. “Care to tag along?”

“What's the deal?”

“Xem and CB have been...getting physical,” I said, “while I understand that that is a thing that happens to everypony eventually, I'm actually going to catch them in the act of breaking into my lab stealing from me.”

“They're stealing from you?” She asked as we rounded the last corner before the lab.

“Yeah, I caught em trying to swipe the zebra wedding blanket from Ruby's things so I put it in the safe in my lab, you'll never guess what they're doing right now.” I said, holding out a hoof so she could see the video feed.

“What punks,” she sighed, shaking her head, “so what're you going to do?”

“Well that's where Candy comes into play,” I said, holding my little foal close again, “see, she's having trouble sleeping, so I'm going to take her into the lab to listen to some music in the hopes that she'll fall asleep.”

“So you're going to make a show of coming in through the only entrance...”

“And then crash on the couch by the door with baby in hoof, and just stretch out.”

“Which will leave them...trapped in some small uncomfortable hiding place in the hopes you'll leave and they can sneak out again.”

“Which I won't,” I smirked, stopping in front of the door, “I'm used to messed up sleep cycles, I can go no problem, care to join us for a drink? Maybe a movie?”

“Yeah I could go for a nightcap.” The ghoul nodded.

I pressed the release on the door and music chimed through the lab and quietly at the door itself. Sure the harmonic locks were more for show than anything, but I liked them.

“Switch on the sky and the stars glow for you, go see the world cuz it's all so brand new. Don't close your eyes cuz your futures ready to shine. It's just a matter of time, before we learn how to fly. Welcome to the rhythm of the night, there's something in the air you can't deny...” I sang back, intentionally singing a few extra lines.

“What song is that?” Crackshot asked as the door hissed open.

“When Can I See You Again.” I replied, walking into the, now strangely deserted, lab. “By Owl City. It's the theme song to a movie.”

“Oh? Care to show an old mare a good time? Maybe a movie or two?” She asked.

“I dunno. Candy is only a day old, I've heard TV rots your brain.”

“Speaking as someone who's brain is mostly rot, I think it's the radiation that does it.”

“True enough.” I smirked.

Crackshot flopped back into the recliner that sat opposite the couch. “Lemme see the baby while you find us something good to watch.” She said.

“Just don't drop her. Ruby's surprisingly protective.” I looked at the baby and kissed her gently, “you be good for...what's she going to call you?”

“Yeah, having kids does that.” Crackshot said, trying not to laugh. I floated Candy over to her and she took the foal in her legs, the baby fascinated by the strange skin texture and how it moved when she squirmed, very different from living tissue, of course she didn't know that, I'm adding it for clarification, “uhh, I dunno, most kids just call me Crackshot unless they're my descendants...”

“Yeah but Candy is family, just calling you by your name seems...wrong.” I shrugged.

“Mrs. Shot?” She suggested, then burst out laughing. “She can call me Grandmare if she wants. She can call me zombie pony, doesn't really matter to me.”

“I like Grandmare,” I said, cycling through the films, “since she doesn't exactly have any of those herself, and speaking of which, Ruby wants to fly out to the old base so she can introduce her parents to Candy.”

“I think that's a great idea,” she said, nodding, “I think it'll mean a lot to Ruby even if it doesn't mean anything to Candy.”

“So you don't think Brutus will have any issues with it?”

“Not a chance, and if he did he'd find himself on the wrong end of my bad temper. I think it's very sweet.”

“Good because we were going to take her either way.”

“Good boy, don't take crap from a blow hard like him.” She chuckled, poking Candy's nose with her hoof, making the baby go cross-eyed.

“Damned straight.”

“So show me this movie, what's it about?”

“Video games?” I laughed.

“Really?” She rolled her eyes

“Yeah, but it's not like a documentary or anything, it's about characters IN video games, and how they have lives after the arcade closes, it's a family movie, so it's all silly and happy.”

“Yeah I can get behind that.” She nodded, sitting back, pushing out the foot rest and resuming playing with Candy while I started the movie.

We stayed there the rest of the night, watched a few movies, some TV, listened to music and just talked. Candy fell asleep part way through the first movie and just slept against Crackshot the whole time not making a peep, all the while I could see the two green indicators stuck in a cupboard to my right, I'm sure very uncomfortably.

Finally just after 8AM I wandered over and slid open the cupboard. “Well good morning my little ones.” I smirked at the two grumpy looking teens, crossing my forelegs so they could see the monitor on my PipBuck.

“You're an ass.” CB grumbled, pulling herself out of the cupboard. Xem had managed to wedge himself into the corner well and looked like he'd actually managed to sleep in there, but he was just as happy to get out.

“Only 25% on my father's side.” I replied.

“Oh, were you two in there this whole time?” Crackshot asked, faking a good shocked look.

“You know we were.” Xem groaned, cracking his back loudly.

“Well that sucks, because it's time for school.” I said, pointing to the clock on the wall.

“Don't you worry Cane, I'll see em to school.” Crackshot said.

I took Candy from her and the baby yawned, looking up at me tiredly for a minute, then her stomach gurgled, loud enough for all of us to hear and her face quickly bunched up and she started to cry.

“Oh no no, come on my little pony, don't cry,” I said, hugging her close, “we're gonna go see mommy right now and she'll feed you.” I started for the door and opened it, heading into the hallway.

“Alright you two, march.” Crackshot said, following us out and waiting for the two to follow. They headed towards the main area and I closed the lab door and hurried back my quarters, trying to quiet the upset infant.

I opened the door to find Ruby already up and looking like she was getting ready to come looking for us.

“Oh thank Celestia, where have you two been?” She asked, taking Candy from me and laying down on the bed, cuddling her close and letting her start feeding.

“We went to catch Xem and CB in the process of stealing the blanket.”

“That was at 2am.”

“We ran into Crackshot on the way and she thought it would be a good lesson to leave the kids stuck in the cupboard they hid in all night, so we hung out in my lab and watched movies and TV.”

“Well alright, as long as you have a good reason.” She sighed, stroking Candy's mane and just watching her eat quietly.

“Wow you're really mellow.” I said, yawning and crawling onto the bed, laying down.

“Yeah, I'm kind of excited to go see my parents and it's put me in a good mood.”

“So when do you want to go?”

“I'm good to go whenever.” She said, lifting Candy up and burping her gently before laying the foal down on the bed between us and nuzzling her tummy happily.

“Well do you want to go this afternoon? Or tomorrow morning? How long do you want to spend with them? Not that I'm asking you to limit yourself, I'm just curious for logistics sake.”

“I think just an hour or two will be fine. I always get bummed out when I spend too long there.” She sighed.

Candy hiccoughed and a small green magic bubble popped from her horn at the same time.

“Aww her first spell!” I grinned, kissing her horn, “soon you'll be walking on the ceiling and unlocking things to escape your crib and suddenly you'll be my responsibility because mommy won't be able to do anything to stop you. You're gonna be my little wrecking ball.”

“Well she's got a big sister who's pretty good at magic too so I'm sure she can rescue me if I need.”

“Assuming her sister isn't too tired from spending all night wedged in a closet.” I said, yawning again.

“Well look, hows about you get some sleep?” Ruby asked, getting up and pulling on her, non-armoured, baby carrier, and putting Candy into it. “I'm going to go meet Brutus for breakfast and I'll fill him in on what I want to do. I know he won't say no.”

I yawned again and crawled up properly onto the bed.

“Sounds like a plan.” I said, snuggling into the pillows, “mmm, smells like mare.” I said, wrapping my hooves around the pillow Ruby normally slept on and held it close to my face.

“Dude...You're weird.”

“You girls have fun.” I said, watching them leave. “DON'T HURT MY BABY!” I called after them as an afterthought.

I locked the door, turned off the light and promptly passed out, more exhausted than I had realized from my all night movie marathon.

//////////

11 months ago:

We gathered in the hanger bay soon after breakfast. An emerald green buck with a blue mane was loading boxes into the sky wagon with the help of a purple unicorn mare.

“Oh hello.” Ruby said as we came up to them. “Sorry we didn't expect you to be here yet.”

“That's okay, I have been kind of in a panic since I got word this morning so I'm just really desperate to get out there.”

“Of course. Sugar, help the nice ponies with their supplies.” Ruby said, starting into the wagon and beginning the power up sequence.

“Sir, yes Sir.” I said, saluting sarcastically, though I did grab two boxes and put them into the ship.

“You're Doctor Sugar Cane?” He asked. “What kind of doctor are you?”

“Uhh, not a medical one sadly.” I replied sheepishly. “I have a degree in nanotechnology.” I said, simplifying the long title.

“Oh, that's too bad. I was hoping to have another MD along for the ride.”

“Sorry, if you have a sick computer I'm all over it, but ponies are beyond me.”

“That's alright,” he shrugged, “I'm Ghost Pepper by the way.” He added, hauling the last box into the ship. “This is Bolt Ratchet, my assistant and nurse.”

“Nice to meet you Doctor Pepper, Nurse Ratchet” I said, looking up when I heard the chatter of the rest of the team arriving.

“Glad you could join us AFTER the loading prep is done.” I said to them.

“Hey, not my fault, thing one and thing two insisted on getting some books on magical ailments, just in case.” Brutus said, pointing to Xem and CB.

“What? We want to know what we're getting into!” CB said indignantly.

“Just get on board so we can go...”I said, shaking my head.

“Be safe...” Ratchet said, hugging Pepper and kissing him gently.

“I always am. Keep things in check while I'm away.”

“Yes doctor.” She smirked, heading back inside.

“She's not coming with us?”

“No unfortunately not. I already have a few patients here that need tending to, as well as some attempts to grow plants hydroponically to get medicine we can't synthesize anymore and they need to be watched even more closely than the patients.” He said, getting into the wagon and sitting down on a bench.

Xem and CB sat on one of the front benches, CB was resting against Xem and they were both reading through a book that she was holding in her magic in front of them.

Lily hurried up onto the ship. “Sorry I'm late, I was checking in with Mom one last time before we headed out. She's gonna stay here with Crackshot to try and help her with the administrative work.”

“Didn't you two used to run a general goods store?” Brutus asked, smirking a little.

“Closed for inventory.” She said, shrugging and returning his smirk.

“Everypony ready?” Ruby called from the cockpit.

“Hey!” Was Lily's reply amidst a chorus of “Yes.”

“Sorry, is everypony and one overly sensitive Changeling ready to go?”

“Yes.” Lily replied, moving to the cockpit and getting into the co-pilot harness, strapping herself in.

I rolled my eyes a little and looked over at the doctor, “my brother loaded this computer with all the information he had on Cutie Pox in the database. I don't know if there's anything helpful in there but you're welcome to it.”

“Thanks.” He said simply, sitting down in front of the turret and plugging away at the information, comparing it to the books he'd brought, muttering to himself and marking off information in the books and doodling notes in the margins.

///////

We set down on the edge of town with a number of other sky wagons and started to prep to head out.

“Uhh, Lilith?” Pepper asked, looking at the Changeling.

“Yes?”

“You might want to turn into a pony for this trip. The folks here suffered terribly from Changeling bandits a few years ago and they harbor a pretty mean grudge towards all Changelings...”

“Oh. Maybe I'll just stay with the wagon...” She said hesitantly, “I have some paper work to finish anyway,”

“Your loss.” Ruby said, moving out of the cockpit and heading for the door, following Brutus, Xem and CB out of the ship.

“If you change your mind just pony up and head out.” I offered, smiling softly and heading out with Pepper.

A lilac unicorn ran between the others in front of us, tears running down her face and hugging Pepper tightly.

“Oh Ghost I'm so glad you came, I don't know what we're going to do. Nopony knows what to do. We're freaking out.”

“It's okay Belle. Just relax. I'm sure we'll figure this out...”

“But they won't stop.” Another pony said, “they've been doing anything and everything imaginable.”

Gunfire started in the distance and one of the group groaned. “Someone got a markspony cutie mark again.”

We hurried along with the adults into the town square. There were a dozen children, some very young, juggling, singing, building a house, one had disassembled part of a vending machine with his hooves while he was holding a gun in his magic and shooting the juggling balls out of the air, another jumping back and fourth like a ninja and catching them and throwing them at rows of cans along a fence.

It was like a demented circus.

“It's like a demented circus.” Ruby said softly, coming up beside me.

“Wow...I've never been so appreciative for my Cutie Mark.” CB said softly.

“I'm glad there's no such thing as Glyph Pox.” Xem added.

“So, where do we get started?” Brutus asked, looking over at Doctor Pepper.

Footnote: Level up

New Perk Added: Egg Head Level 1: Your knowledge of pop culture and pointless trivia facts is rivaled only by your combined practical and theoretical knowledge of computers. In combat this will allow you to sometimes stun your opponent with temporary confusion when you charge them from behind a rock while shouting “SPOOOOON!!!” This perk also allows for certain geeky dialogue options.
> Chapter 6: Graveside/Investigation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6:

Now:

It was just after 4 when we headed out to the Sky Wagon. Ruby, Brutus, Crackshot, Candy and I were going to fly out to the old base. Brutus and Crackshot were going to poke around in the ruins and see if there was anything anyone might have missed but that was mostly just for something to do while Ruby, Candy and I went up to the graveyard. 

Lily was staying behind at the base to make sure that there was someone to keep an eye on Xem and CB to ensure they didn't get up to anything while we were away. Also Firebird had decided that with all the increased traffic the hospital had been seeing with the uptake in both medical staff and ponies looking for medical help, she was moving the Phoenix store out to the hospital, or rather she was setting up a second location, since nopony else had much besides traders that came through. Sky Wagon and Bottle Cap were going to take over day to day operations of the store in Maneville while Lily and Firebird moved out to the hospital with us so that Mare-Do-Well could keep closer tabs on things. Firebird had also stepped up her roll as MDW again since Lily had really integrated herself into our team, though the way we kept getting drawn into conflicts around the Wasteland she was doing just as well as Lily the Changeling as she had been as Mare-do-well.

We settled into the wagon and flew off into the sky. “Wow...” Brutus said a few minutes into the flight, “this is just like old times eh? Just the four of us going out in the wagon to do a little scavenging.”

As if offended by the statement Candy whined loudly and burped, another green bubble forming and popping, the remnants of the spell trickling down onto her like green snow, fading as it impacted her body.

“Well alright, not really like old times,” Brutus laughed, “we do have other company along.”

“Also, if it were really like old times I wouldn't be here,” I added, “you guys were a team of three for YEARS before I came along and screwed it all up.”

“Ya screwed something alright!” Ruby and Crackshot said together, making Crackshot Brutus and me burst out laughing and earning an offended whine from Ruby.

“Oh come on, I haven't made a joke like that in almost a year.” Crackshot said, “I'm just trying to stick with the whole 'just like old times' bit. Remember, flying home that first day with Cane? Making jokes just like that, and he was the one to get all flustered.”

“That was back before I knew her and was trying to defend her honour against her mean spirited friends.”

“Then you got drunk and hooked up.”

“Nu-uh!” Ruby said defiantly, “we were drunk and Cane got molested and we just THOUGHT we hooked up. We didn't actually do it for almost a week after that.”

“Oh well that's so much better. At least she waited a week before she spread her legs for the strange buck from the past that is carrying who knows what kind of diseases?” 

“Hey! Don't talk about me like that in front of my daughter.”

Brutus lifted Candy from my arms and floated her along in front of him. “Candy?” He asked, looking at her seriously. “Your mommy is kind of a tramp...I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but she likes the bucks, and if Lily is to be believed, the mares, for a week or so while she was visiting them in Maneville.”

Candy's only response was a simple “Aaaahh!” Barked sharply in Brutus's face, making him wince a little.

“Thank you baby girl.” Ruby said. Candy grinned and stuck her hoof in her mouth, sucking on it happily.

“Wait wait, you hooked up with a mare? Why didn't I know about that? That's awesome!” I said with, only a little, mock excitement.

“I did not! Lily just misunderstood what she saw.”

“They were kissing,” Brutus said, “flank to mouth.”

“Waaaa!? You won't let me go flank to mouth!”

“You can't go flank to mouth!” Ruby said angrily.

“Yes you can!”

“You're gay! It's different!”

“I wanna try going flank to mouth!”

“You NEVER go flank to mouth.”

“You just have to make sure you wash thoroughly and it's fine.”

“Gross! You never, never, NEVER go flank to mouth!”

“GUYS! GUYS!” Crackshot said loudly, flailing her legs, silencing the argument. “Come on, seriously, grow up.” She sighed, sitting back against the wall. We sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes before she spoke up again, “when it's with somepony you love and really trust...sometimes it's okay to go flank to mouth.”

Cue the next hour of the flight, arguing and debating the Pros and Cons of...well...Flank to Mouth...we resolved that Crackshot was right, and sometimes it was okay...because I know you're all curious.


//////////

We set down on the landing area outside the base, same as we did the last time we'd come here.


“We should have brought CB,” I said softly, looking at EB's grave sitting alone along the cliff face. The wind picked up around us and I knew that it would rain soon. “We should move her,” I said after a few minutes of silence. 

“Move her?” Brutus asked, I knew he was remembering what her body looked like two years ago. Bloated and covered in ash. I nodded at him. 

“Her body should be mostly broken down,” I said, and then paused. They knew her better then I did, and I didn't mean to sound insensitive. I glanced at the group again before carefully proceeding. “T-the smell shouldn't be terrible, she wasn't buried that deeply... I just think we should put her with the rest of her family.” I explained. Brutus nodded back at me.

“I always meant to come back and move 'er. I just, I guess I didn't think we would do it now,” he told me. Crackshot looked at Ruby and Candy. The foal was cuddled close against her neck, her hoof stuffed into her mouth, drool trickling down her face around the hoof. I was distracted for a moment by just how happy Candy looked there. 

“We'll get a cargo crate from the ship,” Ruby said, tilting her head to the side. “You boys can grab some shovels and start digging.” So we did. Brutus and I pulled the grave stone from the ground, and took it back to the ship. Then we got the shovels, and started in on the spot we had left her. I had been right, even with the low temperatures and the rain, her body was mostly gone. There was no smell anymore. Her bones were there with her skin clinging to the empty vessel that once held my adopted daughter's mother. Rain started to fall as we dug, making the whole thing messier than it needed to be. But, as we uncovered her, the water helped wash the bones and flesh clean.

Brutus had to pull away, had to stop digging with me. He moved to the other side of the cargo container that Ruby and Crackshot had brought over. He moved close to Ruby, I could see that he was looking down at Candy. He was grabbing onto the new life in the world, and hiding from the lost lives that would never come back. I felt myself want to do the same. 

I stared down at her and my stomach twisted. Of all the things that survived, her cutie mark was still clear on her side. Her coat faded grey with ash and dirt, most of her mane missing, with only strips of light green hair clinging to her skin. They were three soft white pages with an explosion of light from behind them. I barely remembered the mark on her side, but now I don't think I would ever forget it. My stomach turned again, as I found myself picturing other marks in it's place. Ruby's or CB's. It was sickeningly easy to put them in her place.

I felt a wave of panic pulse through me as I let my imagination run away from me. I pulled my eyes away from her body, away from the leather that coated her bones. Brutus had opened the cart behind me, and I used my magic to float her bones inside and then seal it off. “CB will be glad, I think,” Ruby said to me. I smiled weakly, and nodded. We all relaxed once it was sealed and ready to move. I gave the open and empty grave one last look, before moving over to Ruby and quietly asking to take Candy from her.
//////////

“Hey Mom...Dad...” Ruby said softly as we came up to the two graves half an hour later, EB now tucked away in her new home. “I...I know I haven't been by in a while, it's not so easy anymore now that I don't live close by.” She sat down and I sat beside her, holding Candy in my lap.

“I have someone I want you guys to meet.” She said, taking Candy from me, “this is Candy Cane, your grand daughter. I know you're not going to be happy about this, but Sugar and I aren't married yet, we're going to get married, we really are, but this little one kind of interrupted our last attempt, what with being born and all...” I sat back and just let her chat away about whatever she wanted. It was nice to see her brighten up so much again. She told them about the wedding and about Candy's birth, she told them about the Cutie Pox outbreak we'd dealt with almost a year ago now and all the amazing things that had happened when we went through it.

After about 30 minutes so her chatting away at the stones Candy started squirming and whining, “I'm sorry, I'm sure you're bored aren't you my little pony?” Ruby asked, nuzzling Candy gently, getting rewarded with a happy squeak and reciprocated nuzzle. She passed the baby back over to me and I lifted her up with my magic, dancing her around my head slowly, making her squee with delight as I did. “Why don't you two head back to the sky wagon?” Ruby suggested, “I'll be along in a bit, maybe Brutus and Crackshot need help.”

“Oh yeah, cuz I want to take my newborn foal into the burnt out wreckage of a building. That sounds safe.”

“You know what I meant Ass-Butt.” Ruby said with mild annoyance.

“Yeah I knew, chose to ignore it and take a different route with it.”

“I'll be along in a bit.” She replied, smiling again before turning back to the graves, “oh guys! I have to tell you about the slaver thing a few months ago. You won't believe what happened!”

I wandered off back towards the base, leaving Ruby to chat away with her parents, I really wasn't in a rush relive the events of 'The Slaver Incident', so I headed off with baby in tow, spinning her through the air around my head, talking to her and making faces every time she floated in front of my face, much to her delight.

We reached the sky wagon a few minutes later. Crackshot and Brutus were stretched out on the ramp leading into the wagon, just talking and watching the rolling cloud wall above us.

“Glad to see you two working so hard.” I said flatly, coming up to them and towering over them.

“Come on dude, you know there's nothing left in this base.” Brutus said, taking Candy from me and laying her down on the ramp between them. 

She squawked happily and looked up at me curiously. “AHH!” She cheered, waving her hooves up at me. Brutus and Crackshot looked over at her and laughed a little.

I grinned and shook my head. “Well I guess if you think it's fine.”

She looked at me curiously and gave me another “Ahh!” She looked really focused for a minute and a green bubble floated out of her horn, actually fully forming and drifting up past us. I turned my head to watch it drift into the sky.

“The fuck are those?!” Brutus yelped, shooting to his hooves as we all noticed the massive ships coming out of the sky.

“RAPTORS!” Crackshot yelled, pulling her rifle and firing on the ships, but they weren't interested in us it seemed, they flew past us, soaring up past the graveyard, stopping above it.

“Oh shit! RUBY!” I turned to rush towards the cemetery as I saw the ships disgorge a number of armoured pegasi.

“Cane no!” Crackshot yelled. Brutus grabbed me in his magic and held me back.

“LEMME GO! I NEED TO HELP HER!”

“CANE STOP!” The pegasi had started to open fire on us, making Candy start wailing in terror, and Brutus had to really yell to be heard over the blasts of laser energy exploding around us and against the sky wagon.

“GET OFF ME BRUTUS! I CAN'T LEAVE HER! YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO HER!” I turned back towards the graveyard and thrashed against his restraint, powering up my own magic to try and break free. I was in a blind panic as my magic coursed through me, it felt similar to to zebra talisman, though nowhere near as strong or focused. I had always heard that under times of great stress ponies were capable of miraculous feats of magical and physical strength and now I could feel Brutus's field weakening as I poured my own magic against it.

“CANE! CANE STOP IT NOW! WE CAN'T HELP HER!”

“HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?! WE HAVE TO HELP HER! YOU DON'T WANT TO HELP, YOU STAY HERE AND PROTECT CANDY!” I screamed, blind with rage.

I felt his magic field shatter but just as I started to rush forward I felt a sharp pain along the back of my skull and everything went black.

//////////

11 months ago:

“Go to the town hall.” Pepper said, pointing to the stone building sitting a few hundred meters away, “talk to ponies, get whatever information you can. Cutie Pox don't just HAPPEN in one child, let alone spread like a disease. I need to know if anypony has been acting weird or if any of the kids have been maybe spending a lot of time reading magic books that are above their skill set, this is magic, but it's like it's been corrupted by something, making is spread instead of just infecting child.”

“You got it boss.” Brutus said, nodding to him. We left Pepper to his work and headed off to the town hall, speaking to the adults first and the older kids after, including one girl who had only gotten her cutie mark a few HOURS before the outbreak started. We asked if anypony had been acting suspicious, if any of the children had been getting really impatient about their cutie marks, if any books on magic in town contained anything about cutie pox, the whole bit.

“The only magic books we have are beginner and intermediate stuff, we don't really have an extensive library.”

“None of the children were really impatient about getting their cutie marks. They were talking about forming a Cutie Mark Club or some such thing to look at getting their cutie marks by trying their hooves at every job they could think of.

“Well, none of the children from town have been acting weird, but a pair of ponies arrived in town just before the problems started, a unicorn filly and an Earth buck probably a few years older than you. We haven't really seen anything of them since things started to get weird, I thought maybe they'd left town.”

“Do you know where we might find them?”

“They were staying at the Inn last I saw them.”

“Where's that?”

“Far side of town, in the old, intact, military tower.” 

“That thing over there?”

“Yeah, there's something like two dozen rooms, originally it was like, 4 or 5 big storage rooms, they sectioned it off and made hotel rooms, but if you want a history lesson, ask the ghoul on the roof.”

“There's a ghoul on the roof?”

“Yeah, he watches over the whole town from that Anti-Air turret up there, been here since the war.”

“We should probably talk to him too.”

I met up with Brutus after an hour. “So what did you come up with?”

“I heard about two ponies staying at the inn, one of em is apparently a filly with no Cutie Mark, but showing no symptoms either, what about you?”

“Seems there is a ghoul guard who works at the top of the guard tower, watching out for threats to the town.”

“Well we should talk to him too.”

“We'll start with the ponies and talk to the ghoul after?”

“Sure.”

We returned to the group and reported our findings.

“Ooh, another sentient ghoul? I'm coming with you.” Crackshot said, moving to join us, “I just don't get to talk to many these days.”

“Fair enough.”

We headed off to the 10 story tower, it was one of the tallest structures I had seen in the wasteland that wasn't a basically blasted pile of rubble.

The mare at the front desk pointed us to a room on the fifth floor and we headed up.

Reaching the door Brutus knocked firmly.

“Uhh, h-hello?” A slightly high pitched male voice answered through the door.

“Hi,” Brutus responded slowly, “my name is Brute Force, I'm here with some medical staff, investigating the Cutie Pox outbreak. We were hoping to ask you a few questions?”

There was some shuffling and muttering and finally the door opened. A beige Earth pony stood in the doorway. He had a messy brown mane and small glasses that didn't seem like they would be much good helping him read unless he went cross-eyed. He wore a simple utility barding with a number of pens in the top pocket. “Please come in.” He said, stepping aside and allowing us to enter. He had a scroll Cutie Mark, I recognized ancient Equestrian symbols written on it.

“So as I said. I'm Brute Force, this is Doctor Sugarcane and Crackshot.” Brutus said, gesturing to us in turn.

“Ike.” He said, nodding his head.

“And the pony in the bathroom?” I asked, tapping beside with my pipbuck leg.

“Oh, oh of course.” Ike said, looking clearly disappointed, “come on out my dear.”

A young red unicorn filly came out of the bathroom, looking at us cautiously, walking over to stand with Ike, an odd looking stuffed animal in tow.

“What's your name?” I asked, crouching down to look more directly at her.

“I...I'm Marcy...” She said softly, shying away from me and moving to stand more behind Ike.

“Please, we don't want any trouble.” Ike said, putting a hoof out to keep me from walking around him to get closer to the girl, not that I had planned on it.

“We're not looking for trouble.” Crackshot said, “we're just studying this outbreak and we were wondering why little Marcy hasn't caught the Pox like everypony else.”

“We just thought it was because we weren't from around here. Maybe it's in the drinking water or something.”

“Cutie Pox doesn't spread that way.” Brutus replied seriously, “it's a magic curse, if it affects all the other ponies it should affect her.”

Ike sighed and stepped back a bit more. “You're not from around here?”

“No we come from The Collective out west.”

“Those Pyro monsters?!” He asked, suddenly panicked.

“Nononononononono.” I said quickly, waving my forelegs quickly, “we actually defeated the Pyro Collective.”

“Yeah, we didn't like them using our name in such a bad way.” Crackshot said.

Ike looked from us, to Marcy, and back again. “A-Alright, go ahead and show them Marcy...” He said softly.

The unicorn stepped forward and closed her eyes. With a small flash of emerald energy her horn vanished and was replaced with two wings.

“You're a Changeling...” I said softly, not wanting to panic anyone that might be snooping. With the paranoia running through this town it was possible.

She just nodded and turned back into a unicorn.

“Oh thank Celestia, we were worried you were hexing the town or something.” Brutus said, shaking his head, “I didn't want to have to come up here and bust heads. I have a friend who I'm sure would love to meet you.”

“Look why don't you guys hang out here for the time being?” I said, “Crackshot and I will go up to the roof and meet with this ghoul guard, see if he knows anything about what's going on, and we'll head back to the sky wagon a little later when the town isn't quite so hustle and bustle and we can attract less attention?”

“Good idea.” Ike said, nodding happily, “we've traveled a long time and I just want to keep Marcy safe.”

“Shall we, my dear?” I asked, smiling at Crackshot and bowing my head to her.

“What a gentlebuck, and they said chivalry is dead.” She smirked, heading into the hallway with me, closing the door behind us.

We headed up to the roof slowly, talking about Cutie Pox. “I don't know of any documented cases since before the war.” Crackshot said.

“Yeah, I remember hearing rumors that Apple Bloom got them when she was younger.”

“She was...?” Crackshot asked, obviously trying to remember but failing.

“She was one of the founders of Stable-Tec. She was Applejack's sister.”

“Oh right right, the filly with the hair...” She said vaguely.

“Yeah...the filly with the hair...” I chuckled.

“She was friends with the singer right? Sweetie Belle?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, trying not to laugh as she struggled to remember the details. I had met with Apple Bloom once when our companies worked on a joint project, back when they had given us the pip-bucks in fact, so it was much more reasonable that I would remember her.

We came out onto the roof. The massive Anti-Air turret sat, humming quietly, a few feet away. It had been modified heavily around the base, I could see a bunch of added support pillars and ball bearing tracks, it looked like he had been modified to point straight, possibly even down towards the ground, making it a much more lethal defense.

A ghoul sat quietly at the controls, flipping through a magazine. “Jes' leave it over there...” He said gruffly without looking up, pointing to a table. He had a faint accent but it seemed to have mostly been lost to time.

“Oh, uhh, actually, we were hoping to talk to you,” I started, “my name is Sugar Cane, this is Crackshot,” he put down the magazine and looked at me, then at her. He had the remains of a grey coat clinging to his emaciated form and his skin was stretched too tightly, and in a few places split, along his skull, his eyes were still almost perfectly untouched, a deep chocolate brown, the normal looking eyes almost made him look more haunting than if he'd had ruined eyes like a lot of the ghouls I'd seen. He had greenish musculature sticking out of his forelegs. His back legs had something of the same, but I was amazed to see they looked like they were fused with the padding of the seat he was in. I had heard of some strange pink cloud toxin that had affected Canterlot but I had never seen a ghoul affected by it, let alone this far from the old capitol. “We're here investigating the Cutie Pox outbreak,” I continued, “we were just hoping to ask you a few questions?”

He didn't answer me though, he was looking right past me at Crackshot. I turned my head and looked at Crackshot curiously. She had stopped short a few feet behind me and was just looking at him quietly. I realized she had tears running down her cheeks. “C...Crackshot? You okay?” I asked.

“S-Snipe?” Crackshot asked softly, stepping closer to the ghoul.

“Hey Lassie...” He grinned sheepishly, his accent deepening. Suddenly his voice clicked and I'm sure the shock on my face was pretty apparent, but neither of them were looking at me.

She sobbed loudly and threw herself at him, hugging him tightly and kissing him fiercely. “Oh my dear sweet buck...” She managed, hugging him tighter. He returned the hug and I could see tears rolling down his cheeks too. They just hugged and kissed each other silently for a long time until I cleared my throat loudly.

Crackshot finally stepped back and smiled stupidly, wiping the tears from her face. “I thought you were dead, I didn't know where you'd been deployed and I could never find you...”

“Eye thought ye were dead too...” He replied. “Eye heard the house was flattened and there were no survivors for miles...”

“Harp and Floss made it into the shelter in the back yard,” she said, pausing to clear her throat so she didn't sound quite so strained, “since it was built for five ponies they were more than comfortable in it. I got pinned under part of the house, when I woke up I was a ghoul. I lay under the wreckage of the house for almost 10 years before they emerged and freed me, just enough room for me to keep watch over the entrance of the shelter with my rifle.”

“They made it too?” He asked, smiling happily now.

“Yeah, we lived in the shelter until their child was grown. I went out, found an old abandoned pegasus airbase, we cleared it out and set up shop, I lived there for 175 years, started a trade collective, stood guard over our family line, worked hard every day...” She chuckled.

“So we still have descendants alive today?”

“Yeah we do,” she nodded, “our great grandson is downstairs right now.”

“Oh that's wonderful.” He sighed, wiping at tears again, his accent fading again as he relaxed, “that makes me, so, so happy to know.”

“What about you?” I asked finally.

“Oh, well I came here as part of a defense squad. Zebras had been sighted in the areas near here and we were worried, so we set up shop here to keep an eye on things. We built three anti-air turrets to shoot down any missiles that might come ow'er way,” he rotated the gun, turning us towards the inner part of the city, gesturing to two other towers that were across the city in opposite directions from us, the three towers formed a triangle around the city, one was heavily disassembled, the other looked like an explosion had blown it apart. 

“Zebras were here though, hiding, waiting, using the town as a staging ground. They hexed ow'er turrets,” he gestured towards the back of his chair. On the back were Zebra glyphs, actually etched right into the metal of the turret, and from the screw holes it looked like they had originally been covered up with another metal plate.

“The three of us who happened to be on turret duty that day never even saw it coming. We reported for duty, sat down in the chairs, and when the sun rose there was this horrible unbearable pain, shot through my flank and I sank into the chair, like it had some how softened temporarily. It was the worst physical pain I have ever felt in my life. One of the other gunners tried to pull himself out of his chair, he thrashed more and more violently until he hurt himself, worse still was that the whole world chose that day to fall apart, bombs rained from the skies, missiles ripped cities apart, so when he lost it we were all too busy to do anything to help him, not that I could have anyway, but he just sat there and slowly bled to death.”

“Of course I panicked too, but my training kicked in and I managed to control m'self eventually...” He gestured to his torn skin and exposed muscles, “these being the result of my panicked struggles against the glyph magic even as the radiation of the falling bombs mutated me inta this, we managed to protect the town long enough for em to evacuate. For a hundred years it was just me and Cross Hair on the other turret, we talked on the radio, kept each other company, the gun turrets all came with something to pass the hours between breaks, drills, and the random test firing...” He flipped a switch and the screen in front of him changed from a screen saver to the sky above. He pressed another button and missiles started to fly across the screen. He pulled on the controls but the gun itself didn't move, though the monitor image did and he started firing on the missiles. It was a training simulation, one he was obviously VERY good at by now. He switched it off and turned back to us.

“We also kept books for when the simulations got boring, which was quickly, and all the time.” He added, flipping open the container he had originally pointed to when he thought we were dropping something off. Inside were a pile of old magazines and few novels, all well worn with age now. “We kept each other going for a long time, but in the end...Hair lost his mind, went feral...I had to listen for a year as he howled and smashed at his prison, at least I was able to turn off the radio...one day he just managed to smash the right part of his turret and boom.” He gestured to the blown apart tower without looking out at it again.

“When the town was resettled they stripped the pieces from the one gun and we spent two years converting this turret into one that can rotate on a much larger axis, up, down, 360 degree rotation cycle, I protect the city in exchange for food, new books, and company.” 

“Well, we have a zebra in our group,” Crackshot said, “I'll get him, he can look at the glyph magic and see if there's anything we can do to get you out of the chair.”

“Crackshot, don't worry...” He started, but she was already through the door heading back downstairs, “that girl is something else.”

“Yeah I've noticed.”

“I've missed her for 200 years, now I don't even know what to do with m'self now that I have her back.”

“Take things slowly would probably be best. Don't wanna tax anything or push yourself too hard too fast.”

“True enough lad. Name's Sniper Joe by the way, So you said you wanted to talk about the Cutie Pox outbreak?”

“Nice to make your acquaintance Snipe.” I nodded, shaking his hoof, “and yes, we're escorting a doctor from the Collective and he's asked us to speak to everypony about it to see if we can find the cause.”

“Well I haven't seen much in town, but have a look at this.” He reached out and hit a switch and all the lights in the turret went off, only the glow of the lights below illuminating the area around us now. He shifted the turret towards a cliff a mile or so from town and gestured towards it. “Can you see the light?”

I looked intently and realized I could see the flickering of light among the trees, it was really faint, but high up as we were it was still quite visible.

“I've seen that light for a few hours every night since the day before the Cutie Pox started showing up. I never saw it before, in all the years I've sat here, nopony has ever camped out in that forest, it was always lousy with ghouls and monsters of all kinds, even the villagers still stay away from it. They have the patrols of the guards cross along that point so that it's covered more frequently and heavily, and I always linger longer on the forest, hence the reason I noticed it.”

“Well that sounds exciting.” I sighed, rubbing my face with a hoof.

“We haven't had any monster attacks in weeks from the forest, barely even any sounds at night. Who knows what might have happened.”

“Well I guess, but even still...Nah, we have to check it out, it's for the children.”

“There's a good lad.” He laughed, patting my back.

Crackshot and Xem came out onto the rooftop, Ruby too since she had made a point of studying the Zebra glyphs.

After a few introductions I grabbed Ruby. “We should actually leave them to work.” I said to her softly,  “Snipe said there's been a fire burning in the forest every night since just before the Cutie Pox outbreak started...I think we should go check it out and see if there's anything out there.”

“Yeah alright, we'll take Brutus and CB?”

“Sounds like a good idea, we don't want to get caught short hooved.”

“Shall we?” She asked, wrapping a wing around my back and cuddling close.

“Lets shall.” I nodded, heading back downstairs to get Brutus.


Footnote: 20% to next level

Temporal interference detected, Pipbuck data matrix offline.
> Chapter 7: Days of Future Past Part I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Days of Future Past

???:

I woke to find myself surrounded by darkness, nothing but darkness in all directions. “Hello?” I called, looking around quickly. I tried to lit my horn, and though I could feel the magic coming out of me I still didn't see anything. I reached up and touched my eyes, making sure they were open, and they were, I reached up and felt my horn, I could feel the magic field around my horn too, but still nothing, I couldn't even see my hoof in front of my face.

After a few panicked moments I heard a strange noise, making me jump in surprise and look around for the source.

EERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHh

A bright light started flashing behind me. I turned around quickly and found myself face to face with TT, her horn glowing white.

“Hello again Doctor Cane.” She said, smiling happily.

“T T! Where are we? What's going on? I need to get back and help Ruby! She's been taken by the Enclave.”

“I know Doctor Cane. Don't worry, for the moment she's safe.”

“That's an exaggeration if ever I heard one.”

“I promise, they aren't going to hurt her for the moment, they need her, and they aren't going to do anything just yet to compromise her.”

“You don't know what they did to her before!”

“I am well aware of her treatment at the hooves of Scourge Cloud and his minions.

“Then you know how important it is that I save her!”

“I do, and I'm sure you will.”

“Oh god...this is all my fault...” I groaned, slouching to the ground.

“You can't blame yourself for this Doctor Cane.”

“Maybe if I had stayed with her we could have gotten away.”

“They were waiting with two dozen soldiers to seize her, you would have only ended up captured as well or dead.”

“But...but...fuck...this never would have happened if I had been more careful!”

“You can't blame yourself!” She said again more firmly.

“The hell I can't! If I had argued against coming out here this wouldn't have happened!”

“You could hardly deny Ruby her desire to visit her parents with your newborn foal.”

“What about Brutus and Crackshot and Candy?!” I realized, jumping to my hooves again.

“The Enclave was after Ruby Star, not the rest of your team.”

“Maybe if we hadn't had Candy...” I said softly, starting to spiral backwards through events that would have prevented this.

“You both wanted to have a child, you had no reason not to pursue that desire.”

“Maybe...Maybe I shouldn't have come to the Wasteland at all...” I sighed as my mind backtracked all the way to the point I first woke up in the cryo pod.

“Come now Doctor Cane, you didn't exactly have control over that, and think of your impact on the Wasteland. You stopped the Pyro army, saved your brother...”

“VENTURE!” I yelled as I managed to shift the blame to before I got frozen, “if I had just seen the signs, I could have stopped him! I would never have been frozen in the first place, never have met Ruby, we wouldn't have had Candy, we wouldn't have been at the graveyard and she would never have been taken by the Enclave.”

“Doctor Cane!” TT snapped, slapping me with a hoof, “you need to calm down, you're getting hysterical.”

“I...I'm sorry.” I stammered, shocked that she would hit me, and only just now realizing how strange this whole situation was.

“You really think you not being brought into the Wasteland would have been better for everypony?” She asked angrily.

“Yes! Ruby is going to suffer terribly for it! If I had stopped Venture back then, all those ponies he hurt,  the homes his army destroyed, they'd all have been fine. For the love of Luna, Explosive Blast would still be alive for CB!”

“Fine! You think you'd be so much better off?! Prove it!” Her horn started to glow brighter and brighter as she yelled angrily at me, until it was blinding again. Again I heard that strange noise...

EERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHh

The light faded slowly into darkness again, this time though my eyes snapped open to sunlight, and birds singing...I looked out the window from my bed and could see the park across the street, children playing on the swings and going down the slides.

I shot up in the bed, looking around slowly. It was my bedroom, the long room with the television mounted to the wall on the far side, the dresser under it holding a computer that was wired up to the monitor for watching movies or working later than I should have. The left wall had another dresser, the top two thirds of it painted red, the rest painted green, it was kind of ugly, but it had been a gift from a little filly to...

“Oh you're already awake.” Rosa said, coming into the room from the bathroom that was opposite her dresser. She was still wet from the shower and came over to the bed, rubbing her wet face against me, “how am I supposed to wake you up with my wet self if you're already up?” She asked, kissing me and moving to get dressed.

“You can always rub your wet self against my face and I'll be up.” I said, almost without even thinking.  It was an inside joke, one that I wasn't sure if she really loved, or thought I loved and so always did.

When we'd first started hanging out, before we'd gone out, just work friends more than anything, I had fallen asleep at my desk, as I had hundreds of times in the past, but this time she came to check on me before she went home, and having just gotten out of the shower in the locker rooms she had come up to me and rubbed her wet face all over me to wake me up.

“Oh good, you're awake,” she'd said when I woke up at her rubbing, “I always wondered if rubbing my wet self on a buck would make em get up.”

“You can always rub your wet self against my face and I'll be up.” I had replied, half asleep. She had laughed for almost five minutes...and I was humiliated.

“Big day today.” She said, pulling a set of utility barding from her dresser and starting to pull it on, working her wings through it carefully.

“Yeah, I had trouble sleeping.” I said, laying back slowly, “I was up all night trying to put the finishing touches on the presentation for Ms. Fluttershy.”

“Yeah I know, I woke up at 3Am, 4:30 and 5:15 to find you still plugging away on your computer.” She said, gesturing to the wireless keyboard that sat on my bedside table, my pipbuck beside it.

I remembered this, I remembered all this, this was the day that I had been frozen...the meeting with Fluttershy, then I'd have lunch with Rosa, meet with some of the R&D guys in the afternoon to apprise them of any requests the Ministry of Peace might have felt were needed to the cryo program...But how was this possible? I could see so much so clearly outside, things I didn't remember, it was too detailed for a memory orb...what had TT done to me?

“So, come on, up and at'em.” She said, slapping my side playfully, “unless you think we should just go in late?” She asked, coming closer and kissing me teasingly.

I barely registered the kiss and she looked at me seriously, “Cane? Are you okay?”

“Uhh, yeah I'm fine, just preoccupied.” I shrugged, pushing myself out of bed slowly. I looked down at my matted coat and remembered what we had been doing the night before, Rosa's attempt to get me to stop working for the night, and she had succeeded...for a few hours.

“I'll go make breakfast.” She said, kissing my cheek and heading out of the room, closing the door again behind her.

“What...the...fuck...” I said as the door clicked, finally snapping out of it.

~You think you're so smart, you fix it!~ I heard TT's voice echo around the room.

Not sure what else to do with myself I got up and showered before dressing quickly and heading downstairs. I grabbed my pipbuck and put it back on, watching the data feeds come up as the HUD activated. I looked down at the display and was amazed to see it was my pipbuck. Now I don't mean just that it was MINE, I mean of course it was, Rosa had one but she mostly left it at the office. This one was my normal pipbuck...you know what, let me explain...

My inventory screen showed Ebony and Ivory, not equipped of course because they were at the office on my wall, more decorative than anything at this point in my life, but it listed my armoured barding, my healing potions, Rose's Thorn, all of them were listed as simply not equipped, and more amazingly, everything was still listed in Caps, though it seemed to be struggling to resolve that, the pricing glitching between Caps and Bits, I was amazed to see that stuff was a lot cheaper in Caps, made sense I guess. I walked downstairs, flicking through the screens to see my turret automation code, the decryption protocols for Venture's archives, schematics for weapons from Rosa's computer that had initial save dates of a week from now...it was surreal.

“Bout time.” Rosa said, sitting two plates of toast and bowls of oatmeal on the table. She put some brown sugar on mine before sitting down. She knew me so well. It made my heart ache, she was so happy and ignorant about what was to come.

“Hey Sugar?” She started, looking at me hesitantly.

“Yeah?” I asked, pouring us some orange juice and sitting down across from her.

“Uhh, maybe it can wait.”

I realized she probably wanted to tell me about the baby right now, but she was holding back for whatever reason.

“No no, what is it?” I asked curiously, smiling warmly. I vaguely remembered that last time I had let it go, figuring she'd tell me when the time was right, this time I was going to try pushing the issue a bit and see if the outcome changed.

“You have enough on your plate already today, it's nothing bad, it can wait until tonight.”

“Rosa, come on, nothing in my life is more important than you.”

“Well this might be...” She said softly, “I...I'm pregnant...” She grinned.

“You're what?!” I asked, jumping out of the chair, managing to put on a pretty convincing surprised if I do say so myself, “that's awesome!” I moved around the table and kissed her passionately, hugging her tight. “How long?”

“About three weeks.” She said, smiling happily and nuzzling my cheek.

“We have to get to work and tell everypony!” I said, bouncing back excitedly. It was weird, I knew how all this was supposed to play out but I was so excited still, like it was all new and unknown for me.

“Yeah yeah, just relax bub, finish your breakfast and we'll go.” She said, resuming eating.

We ate breakfast, probably faster than normal, and soon enough we were out the door, walking up the street towards the facility two blocks up.

As we walked I was happy to just be nuzzled up beside her, but something occurred to me...If this really was the past, I could fix things...I could stop Venture here and now...I could have my life back...Did I want my life back?

I reflected on the events of my life in the Wasteland, weighing the pros and cons. If I stopped Venture now, he'd never raise up his pyro army and kill so many ponies and destroy so many lives and homes, I'd never get to see Ruby or CB or any of my friends again, more importantly, I'd never know Candy...not that Candy at least...Rosa had a foal inside her that I knew would be a girl, I'd still have my baby Candy...but it was so different, none of it was easy...I had been happy in the Wasteland, beautiful fiancee, sharp as a tack adopted daughter, relative comfort, a new born foal that I loved with all my heart...But that was me being greedy...If things went back to the way they were I was allowing so much suffering. Rosa would suffer for losing me, then CB would lose her mother, Ruby would get taken by the Enclave again, to say nothing of the aforementioned countless ponies killed or abducted by the pyros.

“YO! Equestria to Cane!” Rosa shouted in my ear, snapping me back to reality. We were standing in front of the entrance to the office and a guard was looking at me expectantly. “Oh, sorry.” I pulled out my ID card and he scanned it, then shot me with a blast of magic energy from his horn, a spell designed to disrupt the magics of a Changeling. Satisfied that I was who I claimed to be he hit a button and the door opened for us.

“I know you're nervous about this meeting, but you were totally gone.” Rosa laughed.

“Oh I wasn't thinking about the meeting.” I said seriously.

“Well excited about the whole day.” She nodded.

“Wow, look who managed to show up on time.” Venture said, coming into the lobby, Fluttershy and two M.o.P. Scientists with her.

“Of course, it's a big day. Rosa and I are gonna have a baby.” I said, grinning stupidly at the group.

“Oh, how wonderful...” Fluttershy said softly, “congratulations.” She had something of a pained look in her eyes and I wondered briefly if she regretted never having the time for children herself.

“That's great!” Venture said, hugging Rosa and punching my arm, “and I thought she was just making it up when she said she let you sleep with her.” He said softly to me, smirking as he moved back, “you'll have to tell me everything later. For now, we have a presentation for the Minister.”

“Of course of course.” I nodded. For the time being I had to just run the day as it had been, or as close as possible, until I could get what I needed, “you're going up to the west conference room?”

“Yeah W308.” He said.

“Alright, I'll be along in just a few minutes, I just need to get my notes and everything off my computer and I'll be right there.”

“Oh of course,” Fluttershy said, “take your time, I'm sorry we arrived so early.”

“Not at all Ms. Fluttershy,” I replied, making her blush a little, “I'll be along quick as I can.” I said. They started towards the elevators and Rosa and I headed back the way they had originally come from. We made our way to the second floor and we stopped to say goodbye.

“Good luck today. Just relax and be your usual brainy self and I'm sure it'll be fine.” Rosa said, kissing me gently.

“I know, thanks for that.” I replied, “Uhh Rosa?” I asked as she turned to leave.

“Yeah?” She looked back at me curiously.

“Have a good day.” I said, wussing out of telling her what I planned on doing.

“You too.” She grinned, heading down to her office. 

I walked up to my office door and pressed my hoof to the panel. “When I find myself in times of trouble, Princess Luna comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” I sang to the door and it opened for me.”

“Greetings Doctor Cane,” the computer said, “it has been 16 hours since your last sign off and 5 hours since your last system access, you have a meeting with the Ministry of Peace at 10...”

“They're already here.” I cut it off.

“Rescheduling.” It replied, “you are late for your meeting with the Ministry of Peace.”

“Thanks.” I rolled my eyes, “I need you to link to my Pipbuck, download the file 'Ven-Enc-One.DEF' and use it to access Venture's private servers. Pull everything from those servers that has to do with multidimensional theory, Mega Spells, genetic encryption, and anything to do with me that you don't already have in my public files.”

“Processing...”

“Also, the two assistants that came with Ms. Fluttershy, who are they?”

“Morning Star, a pegasus research assistant, has served as Ministry Mare Fluttershy's attache between the Ministry of Peace and Stable-Tec until recently when she was reassigned as Fluttershy's personal assistant.”

“And the other?”

“Name in register, Mint Berry, is unassociated with any known Ministry of Peace employee, unicorn or otherwise.”

“Is she just new?”

“Cross referencing Cutie Mark.” 

I finished downloading my presentation and watched the computer scan through a database of Cutie Marks at an amazing speed. The middle monitor showed the mare's flank, her cutie mark was a balloon with a rose wrapped around the string.

“Potential match found. Partial Cutie Mark referenced in a number of news paper stories involving dissenters and Zebra sympathizers going missing, also 'unofficially' listed on a number of Ministry of Morale Black Ops reports, which of course we do not have, likely conclusion is that she is a Ministry of Morale plant.”

“Maybe Pinkie Pie is just putting her best pony on watching one of her best friends.”

“A distinct possibility.” 

“Have you finished combing Venture's database?”

“Affirmative.”

“Copy the information onto the portable hard drive in slot B.” I said, moving towards the door.

“Copy complete.”

I grabbed the hard drive and shoved it in one of my pockets, heading off to the meeting.

//////////

The next few hours went just as they had the first time I'd lived this day. We talked about the cryo pods, went over the one working demo unit, the one I would end up frozen in, and how if the tests in the next week went well we'd be ready to mass produce hundreds of them within a month and have the first shipments ready a month after that.

It was coming up on noon by the time the meeting finished. Fluttershy couldn't say enough good things. She was so happy to finally have full cryogenic suspension technology so close to use.

“If you'll excuse me,” Venture said as the presentation finished, “I have to meet with the tech firm who's going to be building the pods for us and let them know about the specifics you've requested.”

“Yes, by all means,” Fluttershy nodded, packing up her paperwork and tucking it in a saddlebag.

“See you at one for lunch?” He asked me, “I want to know all about this baby thing.” He grinned.

“Yeah of course.” I replied and he headed out of the room, “Shall I escort you ladies back to your Sky Wagon?” I asked, looking back at the three of them.

“Oh, we actually walked here from the hotel.” Fluttershy said, “we're going to meet Twilight Sparkle for lunch to review the rest of your Cryo Pod data so that she can submit the requests to get you the freezing talismans you need to move forward.”

“Oh alright, well I'll walk you to the lobby.” I said, holding the door open for them and starting out of the room.

We rode down to the lobby and up to the front doors and out to the street outside the building.

“It was nice seeing you again Sugar Cane.” Fluttershy said, smiling happily at me.

“You too ma'am.” I nodded, making her blush again.

She started off down the street with the other two.

“Oh one moment Ms. Berry?” I asked. The unicorn looked back at me and walked back over to me, leaving the other two a dozen or so feet away.

“Yes?”

“I don't expect you to acknowledge who you truly are, or what pink Earth pony you may or may not work for, but, and I don't do this easily, this data needs to be seen by the proper authorities.” I said softly, slipping the hard drive from my pocket and holding it out to her. “My brother is a traitor to Equestria, and I can't stand idly by while he plans this.”

“What are you talking about?” She asked, taking the hard drive, but I could see the cold steel in her eyes, she was already planning her next moves with it.

“Just review the data and you'll see.”

“Come on Minty, we're gonna be late.” Morning Star called back to us.

“Right, sorry, coming.” She said, turning and starting off back to the other two and heading down the street with them.

I headed back into the building, but as I passed through the door there was a flash of light and I found myself standing, not in the lobby of the office, but some large circular room. A set of stairs in front of me went up to a column that ran through the centre of the room, top to bottom. It had a whole mess of controls wrapped around it and the very middle was a column of light.

“But Doctor...”

“Don't BUT me, Missy! You had no right to just take him and dump him back in the past like that. You know how important he is to the restoration of the Wasteland!”

“But he—”

“I said no BUTS!

“Actually, Doctor, you said—”  

“Nooo! He has a life! A family! A child! Not to mention his grandchildren and their children!” I walked up the steps slowly and saw TT and Doctor... dammit I forgot to get his name... TT and The Doctor, seemingly arguing about me.

“Concussive Blast is too important to the restoration of the Wasteland to not have him in her life! Don’t you understand what you have done?”

“I know, he was just...”

“Just nothing.” The Doctor cut her off, “you were being incredibly childish and you know it!”

“Uhh excuse me.” I said finally.

“OH, Doctor Cane.” The stallion said, coming over to me and patting my shoulder. “So sorry about the trouble you ran into. My companion here got a little carried away with her privileges and let her bad attitude get to her. She should never have dumped you back into the past like that.”

“Wait...what? That really was the past?”

“Yes yes, but not to worry! I'll have you home lickity split and you can go rescue your fiancee.”

“What was all that?”

“Nothing dear buck! Nothing you need concern yourself with anyway. Just enjoy that you got to spend one last day with Rosalea, take it as the gift it is and move on.”

“But...”

“Ahh ahh, don't worry! We'll just nip you back to Ruby and Candy and you'll be in time for tea.” He moved around the panel, hitting a bunch of switches and levers and soon that strange sound filled the area again.

EERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHh

The column started to shift up and down, light pulsing through it, I realized TT's horn was flashing in time to the pulses of light. A few moments later the light faded and he nodded to himself, throwing a few switches and things went quiet again.

“Alright, off we go!” he said, starting for the doors, “I'll apologize to your friends for taking you away and then I'll be on my way again.” He walked out and stopped and I ran into his backside.

“Why'd you stop?” I asked, but looking out past him I realized the problem. We were looking at the hospital lobby, but it was dark, and a mess. Rubbish and discarded clipboards and coffee cups littered the foyer.

“Where is everypony?” The Doctor asked, walking out into the empty lobby and looking around curiously. “TT?” He called back into the strange control room.

“Sensors indicate only a number of Radroaches on the lower floors. There is also a non-feral ghoul scavenger team on floor six. Indicators for Concussive Blast, Ruby Star and Brute Force are all 20 miles West.”

“20 miles...they're at the old base?” I asked.

“Well you were attacked by the Enclave, perhaps your forces rallied there to push them back.” The Doctor said, getting back onto the ship, pulling me along and closing the door behind us.

“But that doesn't explain why the hospital is abandoned again.”

“Perhaps not again...” He replied, moving back to the console. He threw a bunch of seemingly random switches again.

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> Chapter 8: Days of Future Past Part II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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After another moment of pulsing light the room fell silent again and The Doctor opened the door. “Ahh, that's better...I think.” He walked out and moved aside to allow me to follow. The base...what the hell...The base was in full swing...Ponies bustling about with crates or paperwork or pushing pallet jacks, some just looking like they were heading home. There was no sign of burn marks on the walls, the place looked new in fact.

“Wait, this can't be right...” The Doctor said, looking around again. At the end of the hall CB came around the corner, a book floating in front of her, Twilight's Arcane Assistant Spells Volume II, it was the second of the books she had written about all the spells she'd used in her studies in Ponyville.

“CB! What is going on around here?” I asked when she got close.

“Huh?” She stopped and looked up at me curiously.

“The base looks brand new, when did this...how could this have happened?”

“I...I dunno?” She shrugged, “it's always been like this, you want a history lesson talk to somepony who gives a fuck.”

“Hey, don't take that tone with me young filly.” I said angrily.

“Excuse me?” I jumped when I heard the voice behind me, the angry, unexpected voice.

“E...Explosive Blast?” I stammered, watching the mare walk around and stand beside her daughter.

“Yes, and who the fuck do you think you are to talk to my daughter like that?” She asked, putting herself between me and CB.

“I...I...Doctor what the fuck?” I asked, looking at the brown stallion.

“I'm not entirely sure...” He said, looking around the halls, clearly just as concerned about this turn of events as I was.

“Who are you two? What are you doing in the personal living area?” EB demanded. “This is off limits to anypony that doesn't live on the base.”

“Right, sorry, bit of a hiccup.” The Doctor said, “All apologies, we'll go right away.”

“See that you do.” EB said, pushing CB back down the hall the way she had originally come. “I'll be sending security this way.” They walked off quickly, the two talking quietly to each other.

“We really must go, this, this is all wrong.”

“You're telling me.” I sighed, rubbing my forehead.

He pushed me backwards and I looked up, realizing for the first time that we had come out of what appeared to be an old phone box. It was blue and shaped like a barn, but the door opened when we came back up to it and I could see the massive control room inside.

“What is this thing?” I asked, moving inside, looking around again, amazed by the sight now.

“I am not a thing!” TT yelled indignantly from the center console.

“Excuse me?”

“Ahh yes, long story...” The Doctor said, closing the door and pushing me along up the stairs. “You see...This is my space ship.” He grinned.

“Your what?”

“I know, you don't believe me, and that's fair! Truth be told it's actually more of a time machine and less of a spaceship. She doesn't like it out in space, you know.”

“Well it's cold,” TT said sharply. 

“Oh well that's so much more believable...” I mumbled.

“What's so hard to believe about it Cane? You've used time travel. You used it when you came home from the American Wasteland.”

“How do you know about that?”

“Books.” He answered with a smirk.

“What?”

“History book my good buck,” he said and laughed, “this is only one more phase of Equestrian history, the world will recover and historians will keep the most detailed books about this period of time to ensure it never happens again.”

“So what makes me so special? Do I save the Wasteland or prevent some huge catastrophe?”

“What? Oh! No! No.” He said. “You're not really a big player in the history of the Wasteland, just like any other stallion really.”

“You do have the good fortune of meeting us!” TT said, beaming. 

“Ah yes! Right, right. You do get to meet us, which if I so say so myself, is definitely a bonus... Your major contribution is raising Concussive Blast!”

“CB? What part does she play?”

“She has an amazing future ahead of her. She's going to grow up to be the new Element of Magic, you know! Her, along with five others, are going to bring the Wasteland back from the brink and restore Equestria to something of it's former glory. You have a bit of a flair for writing later in life, not exactly moving, groundbreaking works, but they are a pretty good series of accounts of life in the Wasteland. Now you do tend to ramble a little, and the middle gets a bit messy. I'm sure you had your reasons for that, but what do I know. I haven't been there yet, have I? My goodness you ask a lot of questions for someone who is screwed up in time!” he rambled. I stared at him, slack jawed. “Anyway,” he continued, his voice perking up again. “Concussive Blast is really your big success, without you I don't think she'd ever work herself up to the point that she unlocked her potential as one of the saviours of the Wasteland.”

“Really? One of the Elements of Harmony? I mean she's good with magic but I can't imagine she's THAT good... No offense to her.”

“She is the most magically talented pony since Twilight Sparkle, I'll have you know! But the problem is that she has something of a darkness in her. It's something she is very good at hiding, at keeping under control. You love her, you protect her, when Explosive Blast died you were her port in the storm. You helped her, got her through it, did everything you could to help her back on the straight and narrow. Nopony else could do that...”

“I have rerun the time line changes.” TT said, walking around then console.

“Is it bad?”

“Explosive Blast gets killed in a slaver attack about eight months from now. Concussive Blast doesn't handle it well. First she takes up drinking...”

“We got her off that the first time she tried it, I can't imagine Crackshot, Ruby or Brutus putting up with that...”

“Ruby and Brute Force are captured by the slavers, they are never heard from again. Crackshot soldiers on for a few months, becoming a strict disciplinarian, which probably just aggravated the situation, but with the loss of her grandson and friends she slips and goes feral, forcing Concussive Blast to kill her in self defence...Oh...Oh my.”

“What? What 'Oh My'?” I demanded.

The center console kicked to life.

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“TT, where are we going?” The Doctor asked.

“About 12 years from now...” She said, horn glowing in time to the console.

“I gotta know...she's connected to this ship right?”

“Well yeah...She's the Ponsonification of the TARDIS...”

“Oh of course.”

“Exactly.” He nodded, heading back up the stairs. “WHY are we going 12 years in the future?”

The light went out and with a soft 'thunk' we fell silent again.

She moved down to the doors and threw them open, moving outside.

The Doctor and I followed, both of us stopping as we emerged into the sunshine.

“Is...Is this Equestria?” I asked, looking around in amazement. We were in a field, lush green grass grew all around, beautiful full trees spotting the landscape, flowers grew all over the place, it was beautiful. The sky was a bright blue and the sun shone down on us, not a cloud to be seen. “This is amazing...what happened?”

“The Gardens of Equestria.” The Doctor said, smiling and holding his face up to the sun, “a megaspell created by Twilight Sparkle in case the apocalypse happened, and powered by the Elements of Harmony themselves. Seven years ago, Concussive Blast, along with your friend Homage, her friends Calamity and Velvet Remedy, my dear sweet Derpy and...ahh what was the last ones name? It always escapes me...Anyway, they all met in the cave of Spike the Dragon, I believe you've met him as well?”

“What? A dragon? No...”

“Oh, no no, of course...You'd know him as Watcher right now.”

“Watcher...” I had to think for a minute, “the voice on the sprite bots?”

“Exactly,” he nodded, “Spike the Dragon. He, the new Element Bearers and two dozen other ponies all gathered and watched as the cloud barrier was permanently dispelled, the grass regrew, trees sprouted, animals seemed to spring back from nowhere, birds, bunnies, snakes, turtles, fish, all these normal creatures...Taint and radiation all but vanished, the truly monstrous things in the wasteland seemed to fade away soon after...Things like bandits and slavers were still a problem, but even many of them dispersed over time.”

“So this is going to happen in just a few years?”

“Amazing isn't it? You'll live to see the rebirth of Equestria, the rise of new governments, your grandchildren will be born into a world where they don't live in fear for their lives every day, you'll get to retire, write some books...”

“How many books?”

“Ahh ahh, spoilers.” He said.

“Really? You tell me my whole future but you won't tell me how many books I write?”

“Where's the fun in life with NO mystery?”

“HALT!” A voice bellowed behind us, making the three of us jump.

Three ponies in power armour had come up behind us, they had battle saddles outfitted with very nasty looking weapons. Probably plasma weapons judging by the green glow

“What are you doing in the royal memorial garden?” The lead one demanded, battle saddle starting to whine as it powered up. He looked at us with what looked to be shock, but it faded and his face hardened.

“Oh terribly sorry.” The Doctor said quickly, “we just got a little turned around, we'll be going.”

“You're not going anywhere.” He snapped, firing a shot into the side of the TARDIS. TT whimpered softly but stood firm with us, “you're coming with us to the castle.”

“You just told us we're not going anywhere, how can we go to the castle and go nowhere?” I asked flippantly.

“Shut up smart ass.” The front guard growled, “I have no problem turning you into a pile of goo.”

“Wait, the castle?” The Doctor asked.

“Yes, we'll see how the Queen feels about you trespassing in her private garden.”

“Queen...There aren't any monarchies left...Democracies, Socialist Republics, even a few countries run by councils of elders, but no monarchies.” The Doctor started a ramble as we were pushed on towards a hill behind the TARDIS. He fell into line with us but he walked backwards, facing the guards, “is this a Changeling hive? I'm pretty sure even they move on to a more open structure after Equestria was restored.”

“Shut up and keep moving.” The guard said, shoving him on.

“Oh come now, surely you can at least tell me a little of what's what.”

“Uhh Doctor...look...” I said as we came up the hill. We were looking down into a valley. It was beautiful, more flowing grass, farmland off on the far side of the area, stretching up over the opposite hillside and vanishing. A whole city sat just a short distance from us, a palace sitting in the middle, reaching up to the sky, a very familiar castle.

“Is that Canterlot?” I asked.

“Of course it's New Canterlot.” The guard snapped, shoving me now, sending me tumbling end over end down the hill.

I might have rolled right to the edge of the city but I bounced off a magic barrier and came to a stop.

The rest of the group came down behind me, it's not like I could run, the barrier prevented me from going into the city and if I tried to run around I was wide open to the humming plasma casters pointed at me. The guards pulled out amulets from under their armour, the barrier rippling as they got close and they pushed us on into town.

We were marched through town slowly, paraded in front of ponies like children caught shoplifting, made to take a walk of shame. Ponies came from homes, from shops, stopped in their travel to stare as the group of prisoners were marched towards the palace. As we passed our dozenth group of gawkers I realized something...

“There's no unicorns.” The Doctor said, looking around quietly. Okay, so maybe I didn't notice it...

I glanced at the ponies and realized he was right. Earth ponies, pegasi, young and old, but not a unicorn in sight. I looked at our guards, two Earth ponies and a pegasus.

“Where are all the unicorns?” TT asked the guard closest to her.

“What are you talking about? Have you been living in a vault?” The guard laughed, pushing his mane back to reveal the ground down stump of a horn, a zebra glyph carved into the otherwise smooth bone.

“It prevents growth?” The Doctor asked, looking at the glyph curiously.

“Yeah it prevents growth.” The guard said, pushing his hair back into place and shoving us on.

We reached the palace a few minutes later. It was just as huge and regal as I remembered. I had only been to Canterlot Castle a mouthful of times in my life, mostly for the Grand Galloping Gala, which took place in only one section of the castle, or for meetings with this or that department head or ministry liaison.

Guards lined the main hall leading up to the massive red doors outside the throne room. We entered as the doors swung open to allow us in. The room was big, and majestic. It was beautifully, ornately decorated. A set of grandiose stairs raised up the back third of the room. A black carpet ran up the middle of the room, up the stairs and coming to a stop in front of the big throne.

Sitting on the throne was one of the most terrifying sights I had ever seen. An alicorn sat on the throne, glaring at us silently. She had a dark green coat and a majestic sweeping ethereal golden mane, shimmering in the light of the sun that shone through a window set into the roof.

[img][url=http://th00.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2013/246/6/6/comm__nightmare_form_by_pridark-d6kx9x6.jpg][/img]

She was clad in golden armour, a helmet on her head, her long green horn sticking through it. Each hoof was capped with a golden boot. She wore what appeared to be a gold plated 10mm pistol in a leather holster that rested against her side, the dark tanned pouch bearing a distinct mark of two playing cards and I realized, with only a bit of nausea, that it was the cutie mark of some poor pony that had been skinned to make her that holster. A golden shotgun rested in a similar holster on her back, but because of the angle I couldn't see the cutie mark on it, even a gold pipbuck adorned her right foreleg. Each piece of armour was also adorned with what appeared to be a cutie mark...The body armour had a speaker on it, right where a cutie mark would normally sit, the helmet seemed to have bubbles running along it, up the centre. The boots each had what looked like a bird, but they were very small. I couldn't make out the symbols on the Pipbuck or guns. If not for the fact that she looked like Nightmare Moon and that I was sure I was about to die, I might have cracked a joke about how gaudy she looked. I mean, she was covered almost horn to tail in gold stuff, it was almost tacky.

I realized a moment later that sitting along the wall behind the throne were at least half a dozen zebra bucks, all chained to each other, in shackles. They were all thin and miserable looking.

“My Queen, we found these trespassers in the Memorial Garden.” The lead guard said, bowing to her, “and as you can see, these two still bear horns.”

“So they do.” The Queen said quietly, studying us, “who are you? What were you doing in my private gardens?”

“Uhh, forgive us Your Majesty,” The Doctor said, bowing to her quickly, “we simply became lost attempting to travel home. We are from very far away. We are not looking to cause any trouble. We simply wish to get home again, we swear to stay out of your kingdom.”

She laughed darkly, her voice echoing around the sweeping chamber. Many of the guards laughed too. “Where do you hope to go then? My kingdom is Equestria, and all things beyond. This planet is my kingdom, I own and rule everything. From the Sea Pony cities at the bottom of the ocean, to the former prison of Princess Luna up on the moon. Nothing is outside of my control. Now I'll ask again. Who. Are. You?”

“Uhh, well I'm The Doctor. This is Sugar Cane, and the lovely mare on the end is TT.”

“Why do you two still have horns? Everypony knows that horns are allowed only to royalty.”

“We were in a Stable.” The Doctor replied.

“A Stable?!” She laughed, “I had all the Stables opened and shut down years ago.”

“Well you obviously missed one.” He shrugged.

“I did no such thing.”

“Don't you dare contradict the Queen.” One of the guards said, kicking The Doctor in the side, knocking him to the ground.

“Take them to the dungeons. We will remove their horns and see if the farmers couldn't make use of a few new slaves.”

“Yes Queen Blast.” The lead guard said, bowing again, the others doing the same before turning to move us out of the room.

“Wait, you're CB?!” I demanded. A collective gasp seemed to go through the room and everything got very quiet.

“How dare you speak so casually to the Queen!” The guard roared, rearing up and punching me across the muzzle, sending me tumbling back into the guard behind me who caught me before shoving me back up with another kick.

“Take them away!” Queen Blast snapped, turning back to her throne.

“Wait! Stop!” I cried as the guards forced us on towards the doors. “CB please! I'm a friend!”

“The Queen has no friends!” She replied without looking back at us.

“Your favourite colour is beige! You never tell anypony because you think they'll make fun of you, instead you tell them your favourite colour is yellow!”

This made her turn around and look at us again.

“You had a plushie puppy named Hambo you kept under your pillow until you were 13, when it was lost in a fire.” Now she looked almost terrified.

“You lost your mother in a slaver raid on your home and you were raised by a ghoul until...”

“ENOUGH!” She roared, putting on a very good approximation of the royal Canterlot voice. “Bring them to my chambers! I will deal with them myself.” She turned and started out of the room stepping past the Zebra slaves and vanishing through a doorway.

The guards turned and took us up the stairs, past the slaves and through the door. Beyond was a huge hallway. CB stood just a few feet away, waiting for us, her face again totally unreadable. “Leave us.”

“But ma'am...” One of the guards started, but magic arched out of CB's horn and the guard howled in pain as it struck him. He dropped to the floor and thrashed about, screaming for mercy, slowly being choked off as he started to cough up blood.

The guards watched in horror but said nothing as he squirmed and struggled. “Stop! Stop!” I yelled at her, even trying to put a magic bubble around him, but she shattered it without even breaking her focus. “Dammit Concussive Blast stop it now!” I screamed at her but she just glared silently, twisting her head gently to the side, the guard's head spun like a top, cracking loudly as his spine was shattered along his neck and he finally fell silent.

“Try to interfere with me again and you'll suffer the same.” She said, turning and walking down the hallway, “now come. Guards, clean that mess up.”

The Doctor looked sadly at the fallen guard but moved to follow the Alicorn.

We walked through a door at the end of the hallway and came into what had to be her study. The walls were lined with books and a big desk sat in the middle, as well as a pair of couches in the corner.

“Welcome back my sweet.” A soft voice said, “your tasks for the day are already complete?”

I turned and saw a zebra coming in from a side room. He was better fed than the zebras in the main hall, he wore no chains or any signs of enslavement. Seeing the odd spiral glyph on his flank I had to do a double take.

“I'm not finished quite yet Xemnas.” CB said, nuzzling the zebra when he got close. She looked content with him. Once a soul mate always a soul mate I suppose.

“I thought you had no friends.” The Doctor said simply.

“We are mates, not friends.” Xem replied, “I will serve her loyally until our time together ends.”

“Because you're immortal.” I said, looking at CB.

“Well aren't you a clever buck.” She replied. She walked out of the room for only a moment, returning without all the armour or weapons. Her cutie mark was still a grenade with rainbow waves, I wondered idly how she had gotten it in this time line.

“How did you know about Hambo?” She asked, lifting the stuffed animal up in her magic. Of course she still had him here, CB lost him in the pyro attack. I hadn't even known about Hambo at the time. I'd learned about him later when she'd talked about him in her sleep.

“I...Well...” I looked at the Doctor and he shrugged.

“Damned if you do, damned if you don't.” He said.

“You won't believe me.” I said, sitting down and taking a moment to collect my thoughts, “in another time, another place, I'm your father.”

This made her burst out laughing, “my father died when I was just a foal, you aren't even old enough to be my father.”

“That's not what I meant.” I sighed, shaking my head, “I was frozen in cryogenic suspension for 200 years. I worked and lived through most of the Equestrian war. When I woke up I met Brute Force and Ruby Star and Crackshot. They took me in, helped me, protected me, taught me, even loved me...My first full day in the Collective I met a young unicorn filly with a taste for bacon and a cocky attitude the likes I had never seen in children from my time, at least none that weren't being chased by soldiers or guards...”

TT and the Doctor sat down on either side of me, Xem sat as well. CB though still stood, towering over all of us.

“I was accepted into the group, spent months working on their computer systems, decrypting my own hard drives because the encryption codes had been lost to time. A few months in we met the Pyro army. A group of Xenophobic monsters who cut a swath through the Wasteland, killing anypony that didn't agree with their way of life, kidnapping and brainwashing children and adults into being their soldiers. They destroyed the base, killed and kidnapped dozens of ponies. They really wanted you because of your magical prowess. Your mother died protecting you from them. After you lost her I stepped up to care for you. Helped you grieve, recover, become stronger...You went some very dark places after your mom died, and I was there to help you every step of the way...You lost Hambo in that attack. One night, after we'd moved into a new base of operations I asked you what your favourite colour was because we were taking over a small wing and we were going to paint all our rooms. It took me an hour to get an answer out of you. You said yellow, but I didn't believe you. I teased you because it was so plain a colour, and when you finally told me? We painted it beige, and you loved it.”

“If my mother died in this Pyro attack where you are from, how do you know what happened to my mother here?” She asked, clearly still not believing us.

“We can study divergences in the time line.” TT said.

“Oh really, and just how do you do that?” She asked, looking at the mare.

“With this!” She yelled. There was a loud smash behind us and the TARDIS flew through the huge doorway CB had come through earlier, trailing glass from the window it had gone through. The TARDIS crashed into CB's side and threw her across the room. It stopped dead in front of us and the door flew open.

“EVERYPONY IN!” TT yelled, jumping into the ship. The Doctor and I quickly followed and the doors slammed shut as the ship whizzed off again.

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! I THOUGHT WE WERE GETTING THROUGH TO HER!” I cried.

“Hardly! She was getting ready to kill us.” TT replied.

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> Chapter 9: Days of Future Past Part III
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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“We're safe and away in the time stream, she can't get us any more.”

“Take us to the firing of the Gardens of Equestria.” The Doctor said, moving around the panel and flipping switches.

“Why then?” I asked, walking up behind him.

“Didn't you see?”

“See what?”

“Her armour, her weapons, her helmet, her pipbuck...they were all the Elements of Harmony. She had all of them.”

“Really?”

“Yes, the Elements turn into Pipbucks for this generation of bearers, but something obviously happened after the spell was triggered. There's no way Spike would have allowed her access to the Elements otherwise.”

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The ship grew silent again and we moved down to the door. “We should stay close to the ship this time, just in case.”

He opened the door and we stepped outside into a massive cave. We were against one of the far walls. The room was huge, I could see the big purple and green dragon standing with a group of three or so dozen ponies. He looked really happy, talking quietly with some of them while he typed away on a computer. I realized it was a Crusader computer, sitting at the base of a natural shaft through the mountain, sunlight shone down on it, dozens of wires spidering out of the main console to six pedestals, the Elements of Harmony sitting on them. I saw CB standing with another group of ponies close to Spike. She looked nervous and shy compared to the others, who all seemed really excited. The rest of the ponies stood back from the group. I could see Xem in the group, just sitting quietly, watching, not talking to anyone around him. I recognized Homage in the group with CB, as well as a brownish red pegasus, standing with a dark grey unicorn, a wing wrapped around her back and the two of them were cuddled close. There was also a pegasus ghoul who was all smiles and seemed to communicate by writing on a chalk board, I realized it was Ditzy Doo. There was another in the group but he/she was on the far side of the group and I couldn't get a good view. There were two huge monitors on the walls, on one side I was amazed to see Princess Celestia, all the more so when I saw the little stream of data on the bottom of the screen that showed it was a live stream, the one opposite her showed a young looking light grey unicorn.

“Princess Celestia is alive?” I asked, looking at the Doctor.

“Kind of...not in so many words...but yes in a way.”

“Alright, is everypony ready?” The dragon boomed. There was a collective cheer and he threw a switch. The mountain rumbled deeply and the ceiling split open, slowly folding back into an even bigger platform. We were above the cloud barrier, miles in every direction was thick cloud cover.

“Bearers, take your places.” The dragon said. Each of the ponies moved to a pedestal, CB standing by the only one that wasn't a necklace.

The Elements started to glow and floated into the air. The computer started to hum loudly and the floor glowed brightly as the megaspell came to life. It shot to the edges of the platform as the Elements circled their new owners, filling each of them with magical energy. The Elements pressed to the front of their new owners and light shot out of all of them, a column of energy that seemed to race into the atmosphere, then it exploded outward, spreading around the planet like a shield. As it flowed outward I saw the cloud cover being driven back. Portions of the clouds seemed to remain, as though they were the clouds that should always have been...maybe they were inhabited clouds? We looked down off the edge of the mountain as the wave of energy spread further and further outward. Grass could be seen filling the dark wet fields of mud. Trees exploded to life seemingly from nothing, bright colourful flowers bloomed, even old buildings seemed to be over run by nature in seconds. 

After a few moments of watching in amazement everypony started cheering and hugging.

CB turned towards the group and Xem ran up and hugged her happily, looking at the new golden pipbuck that sat on her foreleg. Something green seemed to appear out of nowhere in the air above them, it looked like it was about the size of a small wagon and for a moment I panicked, but CB's shield wrapped around the two of them.

“Oh my...” Was all the Doctor managed to get out before a flash of green filled the area, Balefire swept through the area, turning the crowd to ash in an instant, almost nopony even noticed it happened so fast. The fire shot back and burst harmlessly against some kind of shield that wrapped around the TARDIS, leaving us unharmed.

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!”

“A balefire bomb...Maybe just an Egg...The explosion wasn't that big, but the device was bigger than I'd have thought for an Egg.” The Doctor said.

“Where did it come from?”

“I believe Concussive Blast teleported it from elsewhere...” TT replied.

The dust started to settle quickly as wind swept through the now silent area, blowing the mess away, the ash that had only moments ago been dozens of ponies carried away on the breeze, spreading out across the newly restored land below.

Worst was the dragon. He had been strong enough to, at least somewhat, endure the blast. He lay on his side, wheezing for breath, his body scorched and bleeding terribly.

CB walked through the fading ash, still wrapped in her magic, picking up the only thing still in tact in the area, five other golden pipbucks.

“W-Why?” The Dragon wheezed, coughing up blood.

“Just because the Wasteland has been restored doesn't mean it's better.” She said coldly. The quiet that had fallen on the area allowed us to hear even her soft voice.

“We'd...have fixed it...in time...”

“I don't have time to wait for committees and councils to argue and debate what should be done. I'm making the unilateral decision to run Equestria from here on out.” She picked up the last of the pipbucks and stuck it in her saddlebag.

“But...But...”

“Sorry Spikey-Wikey, but your time is done, and your precious Princess Celestia is next.” She said, wrapping his head in her magic and with a hard twist a sickening snap sounded and the dragon's head twisted around backwards, a last wheeze escaping his great lungs before he grew still.

I was beyond horrified, how could my dear CB be capable of such cruelty?

She walked back over to Xem and without another word the two of them vanished in a flash of magic.

“Why?” I asked simply, looking back at the Doctor.

“Because you weren't here...Something you did in the past prevented your arrival here, so you were never around to take in CB, to raise her and train her and protect her.”

“So I'm the only thing that keeps CB from becoming a Sociopath?”

“A psychopath actually...” The Doctor corrected, “but yes, you are a major influence on her.”

“But she still has the potential for this in her.”

“We all have the potential for psychosis, the point is that in this reality, without you, she starts to suffer seriously after losing almost everypony in her life. When Crackshot went feral and CB had to kill her she suffered a psychotic break and became the monster we met earlier and the one we just saw slaughter 40 ponies and a dragon without even breaking a sweat. With you in her life those circumstances never arose, so she went on as a normal filly.” TT replied.

“What did you do in the past?” The Doctor asked, guiding me back into the ship.

“Uhh...I used my decryption access to get into Venture's private servers and downloaded incriminating evidence and turned it over to a Ministry of Morale agent. He probably got arrested and none of the other events took place.”

“Well then...” The Doctor sighed, “I...I can't tell you what to do here Sugar Cane. TT took away my ability to tell you what to do when she dumped you in the past without asking me first. So this is what I can do, I will put you back to that morning again. You go about your day as you see fit. Turn Venture in and live your life with Rosalea, or go on with things the way you did before and go back to your new family in the Wasteland.”

“Couldn't I do something more meaningful with this time? I mean I'm meeting with Fluttershy. She could warn her friends what's to come and try to avert the apocalypse.”

“I'm sorry Cane, but some events are fixed points in time. The apocalypse will always come. Same day,  same time. CB's birth is another, as are the births of all the next generation of element bearers.”

“So no matter what I do CB will still be born? And to the same parents?”

“Correct, events will always lead to Explosive Blast meeting Nox and the two of them falling in love and having CB.” TT said.

“CB's father's name was Nox?”

“Short for Nitrous Oxide. He was a dentist.”

“Oh, not as bad as I thought.” I smirked, “You can't tell me too much about the future, but can you tell me something about the past?”

“What's that?”

“Did Venture really get together with Rosa after I disappeared?”

“Why didn't you ask him?”

“I was afraid of the the answer. Now that I'm going to change the past...I'll never be able to ask.”

He sighed softly and nodded. “They did. They married around your daughter's second birthday.”

“Well...guess it won't matter any more after this. I'm going to put her in the lottery and make sure she's safely away from him.”

“Well look, I'll send you back to that morning, you...you just make your decision alright?”

I didn't have a chance to respond, TT's horn started glowing again and with the increasingly familiar
EERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHh the ship faded from view and I fell into darkness again.

My eyes fluttered open. I was laying in bed, looking out the window again at the park full of children and the hustle and bustle of the city.

I pushed myself out of the bed and moved to the bathroom door, pushing it open and getting into the shower with Rosa, who I'm sure was only a minute or two from being done.

“Well good morning.” She said, kissing me and making room for me, “I'm amazed you were able to wake up so easily considering how late you were working last night.” She smirked.

I chuckled softly and washed myself slowly. “Among other things?” I asked pushing my coat around with a ball of magic energy to undo the matting from the night before.

“Among other things.” She nodded, mounting me from behind and wrapping her forelegs around my neck, “does this feel weird, for me to be in this position?” She asked, bumping herself against my backside like she was thrusting.

“I dunno...maybe we go buy you a strap on and we can try for a more realistic feel?” I laughed, twisting my head and kissing her again.

“Cane...I have something I want to tell you.”

“You already bought a strap on and you're just waiting for the right moment to strike my butt?”

“Like you wouldn't believe.” She said, rolling her eyes and snuggling into my wet mane.

“Then what?”

“Well...maybe it can wait until tonight, you have a lot on your plate as it is today, it's nothing bad, but you don't need to overburden your mind, it already gets distracted too easily.”

“If you insist...I suppose I can wait until tonight for you to tell me you're pregnant...”

“WHAT!? How did you know?!” She asked, hopping off my back and looking at me in annoyance.

“Are you kidding? You've been glowing for the last week at least. You had a doctor's appointment on Friday, a follow up yesterday and you hadn't told me you were worried about being sick or complained about how annoying the physicals were, so I made an educated guess.”

“Congratulations Sherclop, you spoiled my fun.” She sighed, looking about as disappointed as she could muster.

“Well I tell you what, I'll let you tell everypony at the office.” I offered, grinning at her.

“I dunno...You were really the only person I was excited to tell...I know how big a thing it is for you to have a family.”

“I know. Don't worry, I'm so very very excited, don't think for a second I'm not.” I said, turning off the shower and grabbing a towel, drying off and moving to get dressed.

She did the same and we both walked downstairs together and made breakfast together. I was still struggling to decide what to do about Venture...About my life...

We walked to the office in a content silence, Rosa snuggled up to my side again.

“YO! Equestria to Cane!” Rosa yelled at me again, snapping my train of thought.

“Oh right, sorry...” I pulled the ID badge and went through the process again before going inside.

“Hey! Look who made it on time.” I said to Venture before he had a chance to speak up, “good morning ladies.” I said, bowing my head to the three mares walking with him, “Ms. Fluttershy, beautiful as ever.” I said, taking her foreleg and kissing her hoof, getting a reaction somewhere between mind numbing terror and flattered. “Morning Star.” I did the same to Fluttershy's assistant. Morning STAR...I wonder if she was Ruby's great grandmother...”Mint Berry.” I repeated the gesture on the Morale agent, she responding the least to the flattery.

“What's gotten into you?” Venture asked, laughing softly.

“Oh it's not what's gotten into me...It's what's gotten into somepony else.” I grinned.

“I'm pregnant.” Rosa said, smiling proudly, but shaking her head at my goofiness.

“Oh how wonderful.” Fluttershy said, actually stepping forward and hugging Rosa happily.

“Congrats little brother, I guess Rosa wasn't lying when she said she let you sleep with her.”

“What can I say?” I asked, shrugging. “I've always wanted a family, and now that I have one, I don't think Armageddon itself could take me away.”

“Well we're going to go up to the conference room.”

“W308?”

“Good guess.”

“It seemed the best pick.”

“We'll see you in a few minutes then?”

“Yeah I just need to go copy my presentation and I'll meet you there.”

“Alright, shall we?” Venture asked, escorting the three mares to the elevators again.

“What's gotten into you?” Rosa asked, looking at me in amazement as we walked through the lab and upstairs.

“I'm just really excited.”

“You kissed their hooves.”

“REALLY excited.”

She walked down the hall with me this time instead of going the other way to her labs.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, I'm just excited you're excited.” She smiled, “you're like a foal with a new toy.”

“I'm gonna have a new toy!” I grinned, “baby is best toy. It's like a pet that learns and adapts and can use magic.”

“Unless it's a pegasus or an Earth pony.”

“Nah! She's gonna be a lilac unicorn.”

“Well you're sure of yourself.”

“I try.” I laughed, leaning in and kissing her passionately. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Why don't you go get to work and I'll talk to you later?”

“Yes sir.” She smirked, saluting me with her wing and walking off towards her office.

I pressed a hoof to the door release. “Comb your mane with paintin' powder, you act proud and I'll act prouder, you sing loud and I'll sing louder, tonight we're settin' the woods on fire.” I sang to the lock. Since I had taken longer to get here it had cycled past the one I had used the first time.

“Greetings Doctor Cane,” the computer chirped happily, just as it had last time, “it has been 16 hours since your last sign off and 5 hours since your last system access, you have a meeting with the Ministry of Peace at 10AM.”

“Thank you ROSA.” I said, walking over to my desk and sitting down. “I have some work for you alright?”

“Of course sir.”

“Rosalea and I are having a baby.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you. First, I need you to copy the cryo pod presentation onto my pipbuck so I can go to my meeting.”

“Processing.”

“Second, contact the Floral Crown on High Street. I want a bouquet of flowers sent to Rosa every week until my personal accounts run out of money or they go out of business, and  I want them to be different bouquets every time, with a card saying how much I love her.”

“Order placed.”

“Third, I want you to contact Equestria Trust on Fifth Ave. I want them to set up a savings account for my daughter so she'll have money for school when she grows up.”

“With you and Rosalea as joint signers?”

“Yes.”

“The forms will arrive on Monday.”

“Finally, I want you to put Rosalea into the Stable lottery.” I added, almost as an after thought. “Make sure she gets picked for one of the 'control' Stable. I read those reports that were swiped from Stable-tec  and I don't want her in some Stable where they conduct horrible experiments on the occupants.” If CB was always going to be born no matter what then at least I could try to move Rosa out of Venture's grasp.

In the end it wasn't much of a choice. I could either stay here, have Venture arrested, live an uncertain life going forward with Rosa and leave the future Equestria in the hooves of Queen Blast, or allow myself to be frozen, go forward in time, and all the ponies suffer from the Pyro army, but at least we stop them...it all boiled down to the lesser of two evils. A few years of suffering with the Pyro's vs an unknown, possibly eternal, amount of time with the tyrant CB in charge. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

“Put my parents and Rosa's in the lottery too. I want all of them together in the same Stable.”

I walked over to the computer and sat down, pulling up a recording program. “Dad, I'm sorry things worked out this way. I can't tell you where I've gone. I'm working for one of the Ministry Mares on a top secret mission, above and beyond the clearance of anypony but the Mares and the Princesses. I'm sorry I vanished without a word, I wasn't allowed to say anything about it. You're in the military, you know how things like this work. Attached with this message is access badges for a Stable. I want you to take Mom and Rosa and get to the Stable. Don't worry about me, don't worry about Venture, the three of you just need to get to safety. No matter how Rosa fights or argues the point, don't let her stop you from getting her to safety.” I saved the message and attached it to send to him if/when the Stable approval went through.

I pulled up another message. “Rosa...I'm so sorry. I know you're probably angry and confused and upset about everything. I want you to know. I'm safe, I'm working on something I wasn't allowed to tell anypony about. Even Venture doesn't know. We're working on something that might just save us all, but  I can't be hidden away in a Stable for it to work, but with the baby coming we can't just think of ourselves anymore. Please don't be mad at my father either, he's just doing what's best for you. Rosa I love you, and I love our baby, and...”I had to stop and compose myself, I could start to feel sadness clawing at my throat and I didn't want it to come through in the message. “and if you never see me again...Know that I'll never stop loving you and that I did what I did for the good of Equestria.” I attached it to the same data packet that would go to my father with a note that it was for her.

I couldn't bring myself to record anything long for my mother, another apology filled message with promises that what I was doing was for the good of the world then put it in with the rest of the data.

“Is the presentation ready to go?” 

“Yes sir.”

“Perfect.” 

I took the drive and set off to my meeting.

///////////

“So did she look like she was going to faint?” Rosa's voice came from behind me. I looked up from the master Cryo Pod console and smiled at her.

“I think she's so excited I'm amazed she didn't faint right there in the board room.” The meeting had finished later this time through because I had taken longer to arrive, so we had ended up causing Fluttershy to miss her lunch with Twilight Sparkle, though that was only partially our fault, Twilight had been called away about 10 minutes into what would have been their lunch, so Venture and I had ended up having lunch with the three mares instead and by the time we got back Rosa had gone into the labs to work on some new prototypes and was sealed away for the rest of the day. I knew what was coming up now.

“How long are you gonna be?” She asked, looking at the panels curiously and at the tablet that sat by my hooves with all my data tables on it.

“Another half hour or so. I set an alarm on my Pipbuck so I don't end up working all night.” I said, holding up my foreleg.

“Good boy.” She grinned, kissing me happily, “I was thinking we might go see your parents, tell em the good news?”

“I think that would be fun.” I nodded, “Dad is supposed to head to the military base on the outskirts of town soon. He's trying to reenlist again.”

“Of course he is.” She sighed. “Yeah, we'll go, it'll be exciting to see their faces when we tell them.”

“Why don't you head home and get cleaned up?” I asked, poking at some machine grease that was streaked along her coat.

“I can just shower upstairs.” She shrugged, “I gotta wait for you anyway.”

“I guess.” I nodded, “of course you could always wait for me and we could shower together.” I smirked.

“Oh, you think you're gonna get some in the shower?”

“Well it doesn't have to be the shower. We could slip into the test pod. It's all nice and padded.”

“I saw Eagle Eye in the security office earlier, he's on the overnight shift.” Rosa said, looking pensive. “I've heard he likes to watch.”

“I've heard that too.”

She laughed and kissed my horn. “Finish your work, you're taking too long. I'll go shower.”

“Alright, I'll see you in a bit.” I said, watching her walk off. “Rosa...” I called before she could leave the room.

“Yeah?”

“You know I love you right?” I asked.

“Of course I know.” She smiled, tilting her head curiously. “Is something wrong?”

“No, just since learning about the baby I've been reflecting on the future and I guess I've been thinking about my mortality...knowing a time will come when we say good bye forever...” I blinked back tears and sighed softly.

“Cane...sweetie, we're a long way from saying good bye.” She said, coming back and hugging me tightly. “This war will end, we'll work things out and life will go on.”

“I know, I'm sorry, you know how my mind works.”

“Yeah.”

She hugged me again and moved back to the door. “Good bye is a long way off.” She said, holding the door as she moved into the hallway beyond. “I'll see you later Sugar Cane.” The door closed behind her.

“Good bye Rosalea.” I said softly as the door clicked.

I just sat quietly for a while, mentally tracing Rosa's walk through the building, knowing the work I was doing now was pointless.

Finally the quiet hum of the machines was interrupted by a massive blast outside, green and orange light filling all the windows as an explosive blast followed a split second later. Sirens started to go off all over the city. “Zebras are bombing the city!” The automated system roared as the building started to lock down automatically. 

I sat for a few more moments before standing up and quickly tossing Ebony and Ivory, who until now had sat tucked under the command console, into a drawer in the cryo pod, closing it quickly.

I turned to head out, coming face to face with Venture as he came in through one of the side entrances. “Sugar! What are you doing? We gotta get out of here.”

“Yeah yeah.” I said, shaking my head in disgust and walking past him. “Venture...”

“What?”

“I'm going to stop you.”

“Stop me? Sugar, I've only just begun.” A sharp pain shot through my neck and I felt a cold rush of liquid flowing into me, the world spinning and everything went black.
> Chapter 10: Painful Awakening/Changelings and Forests
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 10:
Now:

I woke with a throbbing headache and the worst stiff neck I'd ever had. I realized I was lying on a grimy mattress, my Pip-buck light was on, though it sat on the bed beside me, and a quick look around the room told me I was in the old medical bay in the ruined base, Ebony and Ivory sitting on the bedside table, weak light shone through a window beside me.

“AHH!” A happy voice barked from the end of the bed. I looked and saw Candy sitting in a small cargo crate, the insides lined with blankets and pillows. She looked at me curiously and closed her eyes, leaning her head in and shaking it back and forth slowly, then opened them and squawked at me again.

I rolled over slowly and sat up, reaching back and feeling the massive lump on the back of my skull, a bandage wrapped around my head over and over, even looping around my horn a few times, I must have looked like I was wearing a turban, this was clearly Brutus's medical knowledge at work. I leaned in close and Candy grinned a big happy smile and leaned in again, closing her eyes and nuzzling me happily, then opened her eyes and laughed.

“You're a fast learner.” I said, lifting her up in my magic and holding her in the air above me as I lay back. She giggled and squirmed happily in the air. “You're also a very happy baby, which I am very grateful for.” I leaned in and nuzzled her again. Despite the anger I felt towards Brutus and Crackshot, knowing they were the cause of my injuries, and that they had stopped me from trying to save Ruby, laying here, holding Candy I just couldn't be too upset. She was so happy for the both of us and it was infectious.

I lowered her into my forelegs and sat up, cuddling her close. She gave me a big happy smile and waved her hoof at me before shifting and snuggling up to my chest, cooing to herself.



The door opened quietly a few minutes later and I pulled Candy down onto the bed, making her laugh as she slid down beside me, now behind my back as I put myself between her and the door, Ebony and Ivory taking her spot in my magic above me.

“Whoa whoa, it's just us.” Brutus said quickly. I sighed and put the guns back down on the side table as he and Crackshot came into the room.

“How're you feeling Sugarcube?” Crackshot asked, coming over to the bedside.

“Feeling annoyed that somepony clocked me in the back of the skull before I could save Ruby.”

“You couldn't save her.” Brutus said bluntly.

“You didn't even try.” I replied bitterly.

“Hey hey, he's right.” Crackshot said quickly, “they swarmed that graveyard in seconds, they were WAITING for us.”

“Maybe I could have repelled them with my magic.”

“There were too many of them and you know it.”

“You don't know that for sure.”

“I know what I know, and I know that if we hadn't stopped you they'd have TWO prisoners right now.” Brutus said, “and I love Ruby, but you are far too valuable an asset to fall into Enclave hooves.”

“Yeah but...”

“No 'buts' young buck.” Crackshot said, shaking her head, “if they'd gotten you too they would have tortured you, maybe even killed you, if they found out what you were capable of, no computer in the Wasteland would be safe. They'd get access to everything.”

I sighed deeply, knowing they were right. I looked at the foal snuggled up beside me, happily sucking on her hoof again. They might have gotten Candy too, that was something I couldn't let happen, I had to keep her safe...

“Alright, so what's the plan?”

“Well the Enclave left. They grabbed up Ruby and took off like a bat outta hell.”

“Really? They were specifically after her?” I asked, all the more worried now.

“From the look of it yeah.”

“Shit shit shit...Do you think it's that same Pegasus she escaped from?”

“Scourge Cloud right?” Brutus asked and I nodded, “It might be...He didn't strike me as the type to let something like an escaped prisoner just go uncorrected.”

“Why did he take so long to come for her though?”

“She's always pretty well defended. When the base was in operation she was never more than a yell away from help and the guards have a standing order that any Enclave ships show up it's 'shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more and then when everybody's dead try to ask a question or two'.” 

“But we lost the base, never really came back...So who knows how long they've been waiting to snatch her up.”

“We have to do something, they might kill her!” I said, sitting up again.

“We will do something. We went and radioed for help. Lily will be here as fast as her wings can carry her, we'll go back to the hospital, we'll rally the troops and we'll march into the sky if we have to.”

“You hear that Candy?” I asked the baby, looking back at her, “Aunt Lily is gonna come get us and we'll go home where it's nice and safe.”

Candy just grinned around her hoof, drool running down onto her back leg.

“Aww I'm an Aunt now am I?” Lily asked, making all of us jump again and weapons fly back up into the air. She stood in the doorway, dressed in her Mare-Do-Well armour.

“Wow you guys are high strung.”

“We were attacked by almost three dozen Enclave Power Armoured soldiers, see how calm you are after something like that.”

“Yeah I know, come on, lets go, I wanna get home.” She said, “Venture is already working on seeing what he can do about finding out where the Raptors went. He's trying to use the M.A.S. Network to trace it's path.”

“Alright, sounds good.” I said, picking Candy up. She whined and squirmed in my grip, “What's wrong babe?” I asked, looking at her curiously. She whined at me again squirming side to side, giving me a dirty look.

I set her down on the bed and she shifted around slowly, orienting her legs under herself and pushing up, walking around slowly in a circle, grinning happily at me.

“Aww baby girl that's great.” I said, watching her trot around slowly only to catch on a pillow and face plant into the padded square. 

“Well...it's a good start.” Crackshot said, chuckling to herself.

“Come on sweetie, we you can walk around all you want when we get back to the hospital.” I said, scooping her up again. She wasn't pleased about it, but for the moment my mind was made up and I ignored her whimpering and squirming against my magic.

I turned to leave, my hoof connected with something solid under the edge of the bed. It clattered loudly and rolled forward, coming out at the base of the bed, bouncing off Crackshot's leg and stopping.

“It's a memory orb.” She said, picking it up and looking at it curiously. It was covered in ash and had a crack in it, but it still glowed brightly.

“It must be the one Rosa left for me, I don't see my name etched on it.” I said, looking it over slowly.

“Well you can check later.” She said, tucking it in her saddlebag, “lets hit it.”

“Ladies first.” I replied, bowing my head to her. She snorted and walked out of the room with Lily, then Brutus, and I brought up the rear.

We moved through the burned out base slowly just in case, but there was no sign of any Enclave soldiers. All the same we hurried to the ship once we got outside and took off fast as we could, staying low to the ground for the first little while before popping into the air and continuing on.

//////////

11 Months Ago:

Ruby and I walked down the stairs of the hotel, heading for the entrance.

“Is everything alright?” Ike asked, coming out of his room when he saw us walk past, “that ghoul seemed in quite the state.”

“Oh yes, everything is fine, just an unexpected family reunion.” Ruby said.

“Oh, well as long as it's nothing more to worry about.”

“Not at all.”

“Umm, excuse me?” Marcy asked, sticking her head out from beside Ike, “you said you had a friend you wanted me to meet..?”

“Oh yes, I wanted you to meet my friend Lilith.” I nodded, “why don't you two come with us and you can meet her?”

“I...I don't know,” Ike said, clearly hesitant to leave the safety of the room.

“Awe come on Ike, we've been cooped up in here for days!” Marcy whined.

“Well...I guess...as long as we aren't too long.”

“No longer than you want.” Ruby said, nodding to him.

We set off out of the hotel with our new friends and headed back towards the sky wagon, giving the 'circus' a wide berth and avoiding all the adults we could. We reached the ship quickly and headed in.

“Hey Lily.” I called up to the cockpit as Ruby closed the door behind us. “I have someone you should meet. Don't worry about getting dressed up.” I said, sticking my head through the door and looking at her, sitting in one of the crash seats, flipping lazily through a magazine.

She got up and walked out into the seating area. Marcy's eyes lit up when she saw her. “Are you a Changeling?” She asked, but without waiting for an answer she flashed and changed into her own normal form.

Surprisingly she didn't look the same as Lily. I hadn't seen many Changelings but she looked very different from Lily. She had long slender legs with holes in them, and four wings instead of two. Her body was narrower and longer than Lily's. Her horn was also jagged, coming forward out of her head as though it was meant to curve, but it pulled back the other way sharply and stuck up like the end of a bolt of lightening.

Most surprising though was Lily's small shriek of terror and the door to the cockpit slamming shut.

“What the hell?” Ruby asked nopony in particular, looking at the door.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Of course not sweetie...” Ruby said without looking over at her. “Lily! What the hell?” She asked, banging on the cockpit door when it proved to be locked on her attempt to open it.

“Nope nope nope nope nope!” Was Lily's only reply from within.

“Lily you let me in this instant!”

“Go away! Nobody here but us chickens.”

“Dammit...Cane, would you kindly..?” Ruby asked, looking over at me. I nodded and pressed my horn to the lock. It clicked and shifted and opened after a moment of coaxing. CB had taught me some of her lock picking skills, but mostly I had just gotten so familiar with the ship from working on it that there were hardly any parts of it I hadn't at least partially disassembled.

“Excuse us one moment.” Ruby said, pushing me into the cockpit and closing the door again.

“Lily! What. The. Fuck?” Ruby asked, looking at the Changeling in the corner of the cockpit, who was cowering a little and looked terrified.

“Ruby...Don't you see?”

“See what?”

“She's a Queen...” Lily said quietly.

“She's a Queen Changeling?” I asked, I vaguely recalled a Queen crashing Princess Cadence's wedding but I couldn't remember the details.

“Yes...She might try to take me back to her hive. I don't want to deal with that shit.”

“Back to her hive? Lil, she's like, nine years old. She doesn't have a Hive. She travels with the Earth Pony out there.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, she's an orphaned Changeling, meeting another Changeling for what might be the first time in years, and you're freaking the fuck out? Think about how you felt at that age.”

“Alright alright, don't bust my horn over it.” She sighed, getting up and shaking herself out. I opened the cockpit door and walked back out. “Sorry about that.”

Lily walked out after me, Ruby coming last to make sure her cousin didn't wuss out.

“Uhh, hi,” Lily stammered, looking at the young Changeling cautiously, “I'm Lilith.”

“Hello Lilith,” The girl grinned, “I'm Mar...” She was cut off by a loud banging on the ship hatch. With a flash of green energy she turned back into a red filly. Lily quickly did something similar, turning into Firebird.

I opened the hatch and sighed deeply when I saw it was just CB, Xem and Brutus. “You remember I gave you ACCESS codes right?” I asked.

“Yeah, but with Lily in here we figured advance warning to change was a good idea instead of just opening the hatch.” Xem said, looking at the group in the ship.

“So we have a mission?” Brutus asked curiously.

“Ahh yes. Uhh, Ike, Marcy, I guess you two can go back to your hotel...we're going out to the forest to investigate a lead.”

“We are?!” CB cried, “but it's terrifying out there! Can't it wait till morning?”

“We're trying to track a fire.” Ruby explained.

“Yeah, that's a little outside of our ability set.” Ike said, looking at the red filly, “come my dear, we'll go back and have some dinner.”

“Alright, it was nice to meet you Lilith.” She said to the other Changeling.

“You too Marcy.” Lily nodded.

The two headed out of the sky wagon, heading back the way we'd come to bypass the Cutie Pox infected children.

“So what's the plan?” Brutus asked, sitting down on one of the benches.

“Well thanks to Snipe we know the general area of where the fire is,” Ruby began, pulling her battle saddle from it's resting place on the wall and starting to pull it on, “we figured we could break into three groups of two and sweep the area.”

“And why can't this wait until morning?” CB asked.

“We can't waste any time. Think about how those children out there are suffering.” Lily said before I could speak up. “They can't control themselves, they can't eat, can't sleep, can't do anything but practice their talents until they die of exhaustion.”

“Well when you put it that way...” She sighed, nodding.

“Alright, so Me and Lily, You and Ruby and CB and Xem?” Brutus asked me.

“Exactly.” I nodded, “and I'm trusting you two to be brave and do this.” I added, looking at the children.

“Of course.” Xem replied.

“Well, lets head out then.” Lily said, heading for the exit of the ship.

"What happened with Crackshot and Snipe?" I asked.

"For the moment there's nothing I can do to help." Xem said, "I need to go back to the base and look at some old texts of my grandfathers. I don't know all Zebra glyphs. Sniper Joe said he was fine to just wait until we're done with the Cutie Pox problem. He said he's been sitting in that chair for 200 years, a few more days won't make a difference."

We made our way outside and walked through the city to the forest, then traveled through the trees together until we reached a point where we couldn't see the town but we could see the AA tower and then split up.

//////////

We spent the next few hours searching the forest.

Ruby and I walked through the trees quietly, listening for any sound, or any light or garbage or anything that might point us towards our goal.

“I'm starting to get ready to give up on this...” I sighed, “maybe we should head back.”

“Shh...Do you hear that?” Ruby asked. I fell silent and listened. I could hear soft chattering noises.

“What is that?” I asked, barely above a whisper.

“I dunno...it's coming from over there...”

We moved through the trees slowly and came to a small clearing. There was an extinguished fire pit, still smouldering, and a small tent sitting tucked between two bushes, camouflaged really well from view, except that my E.F.S. showed a small cluster of green indicators and I picked the tent out of the darkness.

“Uhh hello?” I called softly, keeping Ebony and Ivory tucked away but at the ready.

The tent opened slowly and a small creature emerged. It was only about 12 inches tall, covered in dark grey fur, and clumsily trying to hold a pistol in it's small hands.

“Hey hey, no need for weapons, we're friends.” Ruby said. “We're just out here looking for a friend we lost. We're not going to hurt you, really.” She put her hooves up and shifted up on her hind legs, unbuckling her battle saddle and letting it slide off onto the ground behind her.

“A-Alright...just...stay put...” He said, shaking from head to toe but keeping the gun on us still.

A half a dozen more of the creatures emerged from the tent, all looked exhausted and terrified.

“What are you?” Ruby asked.

“We're...B-Bushwoolies.” A small red one replied, stepping forward slowly.

“Bushwoolies? I thought you guys went extent centuries ago...” Ruby said, looking at them in amazement.

“N-No, we're just good at hiding...” The red one said.

“Well why don't you come back to the hospital with us? It's way safer than out here in the woods of the Wasteland.”

“Uhh, excuse us a sec...” They all turned and piled into the small tent again and Ruby giggled softly.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“They need our help, we can't just leave them out here. They may be the last of a previously thought dead species, we can't just leave them out here. They're terrified.”

“They have a gun.”

“You have a gun, you have two guns, that shoot lasers. I have guns,” she pointed to her battle saddle, “everyone in the wasteland hands guns, I don't know if you realize that.”

“We don't know if we can trust them. You remember the part where Snipe said that the strange monsters in the forest have seemed to vanish? What if this is all some kind of set up?”

“Uhh, excuse me?” The little red one had emerged from the tent again, though the grey one was still looking out of the tent with his gun drawn, “we would very much like to come with you. We're very tired of hiding all the time, but need your help first.”

“With what?” I asked flatly, still untrusting of the creatures.

“We were captured by an evil unicorn who forced us to do her bidding and kept us as slaves, she made us wear collars that would explode if we left the cave. We managed to find a way to break them and escape, but we had to leave our littlest brother behind.”

“You found a way to break out of them?”

“We smashed them with rocks.” He admitted.

“EXPLODING collars? You smashed with rocks?”

“You've never been a slave. Those collars are worse than death.” Ruby said softly.

“The little one was too weak to smash free...he ran and hid and we set out to try and find someone to help us. Please ponies, please help us!”

“Cane, they are desperate, they need our help.”

I sighed deeply but nodded, she was right, I couldn't abandon them just because they were weird.

I fired a ball of light into the air, lighting up our location with the flare, calling the others to our location.

“We're going to have our friends come meet us, then we'll go help you alright?” Ruby asked. “If this unicorn is as mean as you say then we're going to need lots of help.”

“Alright,” the red one said before the grey one could speak up.

So we sat and waited for our friends to arrive.

Footnote: Level up

New Perk Added: Familial Pride: You feel a strong swelling of emotion and love whenever traveling with a family member. You gain +1 strength and +2 Damage Threshold. You gain an additional +5 to Damage Threshold and receive a temporary stun immunity when taking damage in place of your family member.
> Chapter 11:  Ransom/Infiltration
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Special thanks to Alamut for helping me write the transmission scene)

Now:

We flew back to the base without incident or any sign of the Enclave ships. We landed on the field outside the hospital and my friends headed inside. I put Candy down on the floor and she quickly got up on her hooves and started forward slowly under her own power.

“There's a good girl, you can do it.” I said, walking around her slowly and backing down the ramp. She hesitated at the top of the ramp, looking at me for a moment then back at the ground, clearly confused by the sudden change in angle, but she still put one hoof in front of the other and tried to make her way down the ramp. I wrapped my magic around her midsection so that if she slipped I'd catch her. She made it about a quarter of the way down before she stumbled and fell. I lifted her up and she looked defeated. “Don't worry sweetie, you have years to learn this stuff.” I said, kissing her cheek and carrying her inside.

“What took you so long?” CB asked as we entered the hospital, “I was getting worried you got lost.”

“Worried I got lost?” I chuckled, “not at all, just working on something.” I set Candy down and she wandered slowly towards CB.

“Oh she figured out walking!” CB giggled, leaning down and kissing the top of her sister's head. Candy looked up at her and nuzzled her happily. She wandered slowly between CB's legs, lost her balance and bit down on CB's tail to try and keep from falling. “OW! DAMMIT CANDY!” She cried, grabbing the foal in her magic and lifting her up, freeing her tail in the process. Candy just giggled and clapped her hooves.

“I have to go talk to Venture and see what he's come up with,” I said, “can you take care of Candy while we work?”

“Yeah, no problem.” CB nodded, looking at the foal intently, “long as you don't bite me again...” She said seriously before putting her back on the floor.

“Thanks CB.” I said, kissing her horn gently.

“Don't you need to get your head looked at?”

“Nah, I'm sure there's a minimum of drain bamage.” I shrugged, grinning at her. She rolled her eyes and turned to Candy, who had started off down the hallway on her own.

“Wait for me.” She said, following Candy slowly down the hall. “I'll see you later dad.” She called back to me as I started down the other hall. I felt a small twinge of sadness, she'd already grown out of calling me Daddy...not that that was a bad thing, she was a teenager, it was embarrassing for her I'm sure. Soon enough Candy would be able to talk and she'd call me Daddy for years before she grew out of it.

“So how's things looking?” I asked when I came into the lab. Venture sat in front of the mass of computer monitors, four of them showing one big map of the Wasteland, the others flowing data.

“It's not looking great...Those Raptors that grabbed Ruby shot through the cloud barrier and were GONE.” He sighed, looking at me. “What happened to your head?”

“Nothing I haven't dealt with before.” I said, walking over and looking at the data.

“I traced their movements up into the sky, but lost them. A friend of yours named Homage said she had seen the same but also lost them at the same point when they moved past the tower network.”

“Dammit!” I slammed a hoof on the desk. “We need to do more.”

“I'm doing everything I can. Worse comes to worse we'll go in guns blazing.”

“I don't like the sound of that...” Brutus said from the doorway.

“It's not looking good.” I sighed, rubbing my face and trying to calm down, my imagination presenting me with all kinds of worst case scenarios and thoroughly avoiding any best case ones.

“So what are we going to do?”

I sighed again, hating myself for my answer. “There's nothing we can do...At least not at the moment...”

Venture got up out of the chair. “I'm going to get something to eat. You want anything?”

“I think I'm good for the time being.” I said, flopping back in the chair. “You might as well crash out for now too, it's getting late.”

“I'll sleep for a little bit, but I'm coming back in an hour or two.”

“Sure, thanks.” I nodded and he headed out.

“I know there isn't much I can do, your computer systems are so far outside my skill set I feel like a moron just being in this room, but I'll hang out if you don't mind.”

“Well you're good with computers I don't know why in two years you haven't asked me to teach you anything.”

“Kind of intimidated by your skills.” He shrugged.

“Well that's an admirable admission, come here and I'll teach you a few things specific to my systems. You can use em to impress some buck down the road.”

“You do know that when you mate with a Changeling like I have with Lily, it's basically the same as getting married right?”

“I did not realize that no.” I said seriously. “Well I'm happy for you then.”

“Well knowing is half the battle.”

“The other half is violence.”

“Sadly.” He nodded, walking over and standing beside me while I explained how to get root access to computers and bypass encrypted log ins for whenever he wanted to hack a system. Not MINE of course, but the usual computers found in the Wasteland.

We spent the next few hours going over a number of different security overrides and bypass abilities, he picked it up very well. CB showed up after the first hour, a sleeping Candy in tow in a small crib. She put the sleeping foal down beside my desk so I could keep an eye on her so CB could go to bed as she had school in the morning.

"Uhh Cane? This says somepony is trying to open a comm channel." Brutus said, gesturing to one of the monitors running along the wall beside him. I slid over to the screen and looked at it curiously, it was being routed through almost a dozen locations...I put a tracer to work on it and moved back to the computer and accepted the connection request.

"Doctor Sugar Cane I presume?" The cobalt blue Pegasus that appeared on the screen chuckled to himself seeing as my eyes went wide. I could also see Brutus tensing up. "Yes, the Blitzwing knows of your existence Doctor. The work of you and your brother for the MOP and MAS during the war are true marvels that I've always admired. But where are my manners, let me introduce myself. I'm Colonel..."

"Scourge Cloud." My words cut him off. I recognized him the moment I saw his face on the screen. It was him. He was there. In those orbs. In Ruby's memories. He seemed older but his pupil-less, golden eyes were unmistakable. I could see that, for a split second, his face went blank, expressionless as his gaze. But then he smiled at me neither jovially, nor sheepishly and I felt the anger start to truly boil inside of me.

"My good Doctor your knowledge is truly astonishing! I would have never..."

"Shut the fuck up you sick asshole." I said coldly at the screen. "If you dare to do anything to my fiancee I'll fucking end you! I might be an Earthbound pony by birth but I am more than capable of making my way through the clouds to put a bullet in your skull." I could feel my rage building and I struggled to keep it in check. " I will rip your wings off and break every bone in your body for the things you've done to her!" I wasn't thinking straight. How could I after the things I'd seen in those orbs?! "I'll crush you! I'll... I'll..."

"Have you finished Doctor?" The calmness of his voice had cut me off. He was looking at me with slight amusement. "I understand that you had to get that out of your system and hope that it helped to clear your mind. Nevertheless I would like to keep this talk civil and professional." 

"You got a screwed up view of professionalism." Brutus retorted, coming up beside me. I moved the tracer program onto the bank of monitors mounted on the wall above the one we spoke on so I could watch it without looking away from the monitor. "What do you want you limp winged piece of shit?" Brutus asked. I could almost feel the rage emanating from his body. "Come to beg for mercy? Surrender yourself maybe?" I could feel his body shaking with the rage he some how managed to contain. 

"As much I cherish every opportunity of widening my vocabulary, I certainly can't say that I'm interested in muck-dweller linguistics at this moment Mister Brute Force." The blue buck answered in a reprimanding voice while looking at him with disdain clearly written over his face. "Seeing the alternative, after all these years, I can finally understand Miss Star's interest in ancient languages." He smirked while turning his attention towards me. "Or should I say Mrs. Cane?"

"What...do...you...want?" I asked slowly through gritted teeth, struggling not to lose it on him again, I needed to keep him on long enough to trace him. "If you want to keep this professional and Civil you'll refrain from hurling insults Colonel, unless you were just expecting civility from us, but not the other way around?" I knew I wouldn't get a rise out of him but the insult still felt good and I could see Brutus smirk out of the corner of my eye. 

The pegasus laughed out loud at my comment. This wasn't the reaction I expected...

His laughter calmed down to a silent chuckle."Turning my own words against me Doctor?" He shook his head and then clasped his hooves together. "Wonderful! Finally someone with humour and wits." The pegasus sighed and made a painful expression. "You simply wouldn't believe how foreseeable the surface dwellers are with their invectives, threats, boasts and..." He stopped abruptly, cocking his head while eyeing me and Brutus. " On the other hoof maybe you would but I think that I'm deviating from the initial topic."

"I should say so." I said, sitting back in the chair and trying to put on my best unimpressed face.

"You've obviously contacted me for a reason, you went through my private M.A.S. network connection to get right to me and bypass the rest of The Collective being in the know about this conversation."

Unfortunately the noise of Scourge's laugh had disturbed the sleeping foal in the rocker beside the desk and she started to cry. I closed my eyes and sighed deeply, not because I had to tend to Candy, but because she wasn't a secret anymore.

"Excuse me..." I said as politely as I could manage and rolled the chair over to her. "Shh, shh, it's okay Candy, Daddy's here..." I cooed lifting her into my hooves and holding her close, keeping the blanket bundled tightly around her and rocking her gently.

She calmed down quickly enough but when I tried to put her back down she started crying again, so I brought her back to my chest and, with no other options, I rolled back to the desk, the happily cooing infant cuddled in my forelegs. "Sorry about that, please continue." I tried to play it off as best I could.

As I feared Scourge Cloud directed his attention towards Candy. For a while he was looking at her silently, his face the same mask as in some of Ruby's memories. I would've said he was doing it absentmindedly as the lack of pupils made it impossible to read him, effectively hiding his thoughts. I was afraid of those thoughts.

"Candy Cane." He said as if savouring it and then smiled at me. "There will certainly come a time when she starts hating the sound of the name, inventing monikers that better fit her personality. It will be as well adorable as irritating." Scourge Cloud clapped his hooves together and leaned back in his chair. "Considering all the firewalls, accessing that little private network of yours was quite interesting. I won't even bother addressing the problem, that you will clearly understand, of sending the signal through half the continent in a vain attempt to make it impossible for you to track it down." My eyes went wide as he looked towards something on his right. How did he know... "In the ten remaining minutes, before I have to shut down the connection, I would like to address a certain matter. Before that I'll have to ask you a question Doctor Cane: would you like to bring your daughter up as an half orphan?"

I tightened my hold on Candy and she almost seemed to give me a dirty look but she didn't start to cry again. "What do you mean?" Though with my imagination I could already think of dozens of horrifying scenarios, each and every one of them involving him having Ruby, which was something I knew couldn't happen to her, her mind might well snap if it were to happen. I slid closer to the computer, using my back legs to type on a keyboard I kept on the floor for when I was trying to trace wiring or otherwise working under the desk and wanted to be able to change songs or skip around in movies without having to haul myself back up to the desk, reallocating system and server resources from all over the base to speed up the tracing program, as well as to activate a few backdoor protocols built into the systems that Scourge still seemed fool enough to use to contact me. Code was flying across the bank of monitors as I tried to force my way into Scourge's systems to break the routing signal completely. 

Scourge Cloud shrugged. "What do I mean Doctor Cane? I meant to probe the level of attachment you feel for your spouse. History and society teaches us that it is one thing to get a mare pregnant and another one to genuinely feel something for her." He smiled and leaned towards the monitor reenacting my own movement. "Doctor Cane we're both intelligent enough to know that the simple fact of your mare being in my hoofs makes you gullible and vulnerable at the same.”

The pegasus extended one of his wings and I could hear tipping sounds coming from his right. Suddenly a timer appeared in the screen's left upper corner, showing the now rapidly decreasing amount of time. Scourge Cloud gave me a sad smile. "It pains me to see that you intend to end this conversation prematurely Doctor so I'll have to be quick: tell me the locations of doctor Dawn and Nova Star." 

"Oh fuck no, you're not coming into my house and trying to out computer me." I said. "Brutus, baby." I held Candy out and he took her quickly. My horn lit up and every computer in the room came to life, wrapped in the glow of my magic, the timer he had brought up started to scramble and glitch. "These are my computers, my babies, they bend to my will, you don't use a computer to best me, you use a gun, you use force, you don't use technology." The location of their base downloaded into my systems and started pulling data from their hard drives, it also unlocked the security cells and reprogrammed the targeting parameters of the automated sentries using my data from the sky wagon. "You'll never get Ruby's parents. They are safe from you. And unless you want the turrets to cut your men to ribbons you'll sit patiently until Ruby walks out of there and radio's me she's safe."

Scourge Cloud was looking at me with a blank expression on his face. He turned his head to the right and tried to tap something on the keyboard that I was unable to see. "You've jammed everything..." He said silently to himself. 

"Yeah I have. You could cut the hardline at this point and the automation protocols I've left in your computers will take over my work." I could see the reflection of my face in the monitor, my eyes blazing with blue magic, the look scared me a little.

The door of the lab opened and I saw Venture walk up beside me. "Cane what are you..."

"Re-appropriation of our systems." I cut him off. "You can run that half of the computers if you want to help."

"Who's he?"

"He has Ruby. He's the worst monster in the Wasteland." Brutus said. Candy was held against his neck with his magic and he was rocking her gently while she poked at his mane idly though she was watching me intently, her eyes wide with wonder at the sight.

"Not for long." I said, looking back to Scourge. "Now, do we have a deal or do I bring my brother in on it and you can see just how much control we have over your base? Because I swear as good as I am alone, together we're unstoppable."

The cobalt blue pegasus nodded towards Venture. "Good day Doctor Cane, it seems our Intel on you was wrong as it described you as a think tank of sorts." Venture gave me a What the fuck is going on? look, while pointing his hoof towards the monitor. I gestured him to be silent as it wasn't something that I wanted to discuss right now. My attention was directed towards Scourge Cloud. I had the bastard where I wanted, he and his men were at my mercy and I couldn't really say that it would be mercy they would get...

"Marvelous Doctor Cane!" The jolly voice of the winged buck pulled me back to reality and I eyed him, irritated. "You've disabled every security protocol and our system is fully under your control, truly impressive. You have my respect." He nodded and leaned back in his chair with a relaxed expression on his muzzle. "Your talents would be very useful but I doubt that you would seek employment by the Blitzwing Doctor Cane. How about you Doctor Cane?" He gave Venture a jovial smile. I had enough of his shit!

Venture looked at him in confusion for a moment but his eyes lit up with yellow magical power and he took control of half the computers in the room, bathing everything in green light. "I'm good thanks, I think I've done enough damage to the wasteland." 

Scourge Cloud shrugged in an almost theatrical matter, smiling apologetically. "I'll have to refuse Doctor Cane. Please shoot me I'm curious how it will work out." He leaned back in his chair and cocking his head with curiosity written all over his face. 

"Fine." I sent the command and there was a CLICK, but nothing happened. I sent the command again and again. "The fuck?" I growled, seeing data roll across the screen that showed the turret fired, but clearly not.

"Cane wait." Venture said. He gestured to the monitors above me and I looked up at them. Ven brought up a list of coding, virtual network coding, none of it was real, everything I had control of was just software in Scourge Cloud's computer, none of it actually ran anything. 

"Fuck you Ass hat... you think you're pretty clever don't you?" I growled, looking back at him as I started to overload the computer system that was running the virtual programs and after a moment of whining from the machine I saw flames burst to life beside Scourge Cloud. “I still have your location, you can't mask that from me!"

The pegasus waved nonchalantly with his right wing but the wind gust he produced was strong enough to extinguish the flames. He sighed and shook his head. “Doctor Cane I’m surprised that you thought the Enclave would be using the same protocols and software from two hundred years ago. Furthermore I’m even more disappointed that you believe my location will be of any use for you.“ He smiled as if challenging me to prove him wrong.

"Cane might be a little out of touch with technology but I've certainly kept up." Venture said. "Cane, the Aegis array is online you know."

I looked at him in amazement. "You're kidding."

"Nope, with all the chaos surrounding the first salvos of balefire we managed to launch the rocket and no one gave a shit. How do you think I kept such easy tabs on you for so long? Look." The monitor bank switched to a display of the whole planet as the satellite system came online, Venture accessing it through my systems.

"Well fuck me." I laughed. "And it works?"

"It's already doing it!" Venture smirked. "Hey asshole, Scourge thing, you got a window you can see out of in that little hovel you're hiding in? If not, pop your head outside and take a look in the sky." When Scourge Cloud would do this, he'd discover dozens of green lasers shining down through the cloud cover, cutting a hole through the clouds in fact, the beams surrounded Scourge's base like a cage and stretched up into the sky and well beyond.

Scourge Cloud sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I feared that it would be this, but sadly none of my superiors accepts simple logic." He shook his head and then looked at me with his emotionless eyes. "Nevertheless Doctor, it appears that we're in a problematic situation. You must understand that there a certain data files sought out by the Raven-claw Enclave that used to be in the possession of doctor Nova Star and her husband. I hoped that their daughter's ordeal from ten years ago would have lured them out for the simple act of revenge but that obviously didn't work. Miss Star on the other hoof doesn't know anything about them, or at least so she said in our latest chit-chat." He cocked his head while my heart skipped a beat at the sheer thought of another interrogation by him. "I can assure you that she was very cooperative and that no drastic measures were needed to acquire her answers. So I'll ask you Doctor: does the anagram PCDM mean anything to you?"

"You want the Cloud Disperser? Shit of course you do." I sighed. "It doesn't exist. I have been through every computer, hard drive and data storage device the Collective has. There are TWO mentions of it in the minutes of some old council meetings where Ruby's dad tried to advocate for funding to allow their research to go on, in both he got shot down. Physical records and anything else the Collective might still have had would have been lost in the Pyro collective attack on our original base last year." I was terrified for Ruby and I felt that at this point honesty was the best policy 

Scourge Cloud's eyes perked up. "Oh so the name does ring a bell? Allow me the curiosity but did Miss Star tell you about it?" He put up his hoof before I could even answer his question. "No. That wouldn't fit her personality... Memory orbs!" He clapped his hooves together as the idea struck him. "She had her memories recorded but why? Oh... " His eyes widened up in realization. "She wanted to forget them, didn't she? Auto destructive tendencies, suicidal thoughts?" I noticed the rage in Brutus's eyes and saw that he was all tensed up. "But something clearly didn't work as she recognized me on the spot..." He turned his eyes on my orange friend. "... didn't it Mister Brute Force?"

"What of it? I was a teenager trying to learn complicated magic. I did what I could to help ease my friend's pain, it took her from unable to get out of bed in the morning to being able to start getting on with her life. You raped and tortured her mercilessly, and YOU did rape and torture her, your lack of intervention in those events makes you just as guilty. She came home broken and dying inside, and we had to tell her her parents had died while she was gone. I spent weeks guarding her from killing herself because of you, I heard every sorted detail of her suffering, and I had to live them myself as I extracted the memories and I will never be able to forget the pain and the suffering. I would tell you I'm going to kill you myself and enjoy every last second of watching the life get squeezed from your diseased yellow eyes, but I'm not going to deprive Ruby of the pleasure of doing it herself." 

"It's your right, although I don't pay that much attention to such petty concepts like revenge or justice." Scourge shrugged it off with his wings and turned his eyes back on me. "But excuse me Doctor I'm digressing once again, let's get back to business." He gave me a charming smile, that made me want to puke. "I've read every single file about Doctor Nova Star and he, when compared to his wife, certainly wasn't an idealist. He knew about the worth of this data and he surely guarded it well." The cobalt blue bastard leaned towards the monitor and I already knew what was coming. "I believe you being capable enough of find the information on the PCDM Doctor. I'll contact you in exactly twenty four hours. Happy hunting Doctor Sugar Cane!"

The pegasus extended one of his wings towards the camera and ended the connection before I could even react.

“NO! FUCK!” I screamed, my magic power erupting in a massive blast of energy, destroying the bank of monitors on the wall, Brutus threw up a shield over all of us but even still the outburst and explosion had Candy screaming in terror.

“Dammit dammit dammit...” I ignored the dirty looks I got from the other two bucks and took Candy from Brutus. “I'm sorry sweetie.” I said, hugging her tightly and nuzzling her face. “I didn't mean to get upset, I'm sorry I scared you so badly.” I cooed. She calmed down again after a few moments but the other two were still mad.

“You exploded the monitors.” Ven said bluntly.

“You almost got us all a round trip to the doctors with severe cuts from exploded monitors.” Brutus added in the same unimpressed tone of voice.

“I know, I'm sorry...” I sighed, hugging Candy and ignoring them for another moment.

“Seriously though...an orbiting super laser?” Brutus asked, “that's a bit much even for you two.”

“It's not really a super laser.” Venture admitted, “it's a spy satellite, plain and simple. The lasers are for show. Meant to intimidate a target. They can pierce the clouds but they can't DO anything. We bluffed and Scourge Cloud didn't take the bait.”

“Alright, because I was going to say, there's a point you kind of reach an insane level of crazy and you two were diving head first over that point.”

“Yeah just for show.” I nodded.

“So...Cloud Disperser?” Venture asked.

“It's a device Ruby's parents designed, it was supposed to force the cloud cover apart to allow the surface to get sunlight and allow us to start growing crops again.”

“That's amazing, what happened?”

“Somepony in the Enclave used it to level a farming village or something up there and killed hundreds of ponies. They framed Ruby's parents and they fled before they could be branded and cast out. They were still Dashites, just no Dashite marks.” Brutus explained. “Firebird came with them.”

“That sucks.”

“They never told Ruby about it, I think they were ashamed...but because she didn't know she ran back to the Enclave to try and beg her parents be let back in. She was tortured and raped to try and break her and tell them about a device she didn't know existed...It wasn't pretty...”

“So...You said you had some records of it?”

“Nothing substantial.” I sighed, shaking my head, “Old records, a few old council meeting minute breakdowns...”

“Well it's a start?” Venture suggested.

“What about your databases? Didn't you say you were logged into our systems all the time?” Brutus asked.

“Well yeah, but if the information wasn't stored in a computer it doesn't do much good.”

“Well...lets start with that.” I said, pulling up the information I had on Ruby's parents, “Venture, you go through anything and everything you can on the Stars...I'm going to search Ruby's things and see if there's anything I can find...”

“Right.” He nodded, sitting down again and starting to pull monitors from other computers to replace the massive display I had destroyed. 

“I don't know that I'll be much help with either of you...” Brutus said.

“Come help me. You're probably the only other pony besides me that Ruby won't mind going through all her personal stuff.” I said, putting Candy down. She perked up at being able to walk under her own power again and I followed her out of the room slowly, putting up magic barriers to keep her from falling down or wandering into oncoming hooves, and directing her down the right halls back to our room.

//////////

11 months ago:

“Bushwoolies?” Brutus asked, looking at the small furry creatures.

“They're freaking adorable!” CB cheered, giggling like an idiot at the sight of them.

“Exactly!” Ruby nodded happily.

“Uhh...T-Thank you ponies...” The red one said, looking bashful, which just made the girls giggle all the harder.

“They need our help.” I said seriously to Brutus.

“I've never seen anything like them, how do we know we can trust them?”

“They're scared and alone and hiding in a forest where almost any creature here could eat them without hesitation.” Ruby replied.

“So they SAY, what if they turn into monsters and eat US?”

“Brutus, Bushwoolies are known to have been happy little creatures who loved nothing more than working and making others happy. There are no records of them being angry or hurtful.”

“The Wasteland makes monsters of us all.” Xem said.

“Look, we're helping them and that's that.” Ruby replied, glaring at them, daring them to argue the point with her any more.

“Fine...” Brutus sighed, looking at the grey Bushwoolie, his gun thankfully finally on the ground beside where he sat. “Can you show us the way to this cave you escaped from?”

“Yes of course Pony.” He nodded. “You help us save him and we will be forever in your debt.”

“What about the Cutie Pox?” Xem asked.

“Cutie Pox?!” A blue Bushwoolie jumped up. “Little ponies sick with cutie pox! Is Karina's fault!”

“Who?”

“The witch who imprisoned us.”

“She is causing the Cutie Pox?”

“Yes! She wants the town empty! No more ponies means she can live in town, harvest killing joke and other poisons from forest for her vile potions.”

“Then we really have to stop her!” CB said.

“Alright, show us the way little guys.” Ruby said to them. The grey one got up, grabbed his gun carefully and started through the trees, away from their camp, the rest of the Bushwoolies walking along beside or just behind him, making them seem to walk in an almost arrow shape.

We came to the cliff face a few hundred yards in and they moved towards a boulder, all of them struggling to push it aside.

“Here, let me...” CB offered, grabbing it in her magic and lifting it out of the way. 

“Thank you little pony.” Grey said, nodding to her and starting down into a hole that the boulder hid.

CB and Xem followed them right down, I managed to get through after, Lily transformed into a smaller version of herself and hoped right down. Brutus was too big even without his armour, and Ruby managed but had to take her battle saddle off first, sliding it down to me and putting it back on when she got down.

“I'll just keep watch then shall I?” Brutus sighed.

“Don't worry dude, we'll be back soon as we can. We might need somepony to run back to town and alert them if there's a serious problem.”

We moved through the cave slowly, keeping only the barest glow on our horns to light the way. The Bushwoolies seemed able to see perfectly in the dimness of the cave.

“It's just up here...” Grey whispered, gesturing to a gap in the rocks where dim light of it's own was coming up.

We put out our lights and moved closer to the gap.

“Please mistress...I'm so tired...” We heard a quiet voice panting from somewhere nearby.

“SHUT UP! You should have thought of that when you and your friends were running away!” We saw a mean looking unicorn mare with a really long chocolate brown mane and chestnut coat. She looked more like a regular horse than a pony, if not for the horn I'd have been hesitant to say she was a pony.

“But I haven't slept in days!” In the back of the room was a small green Bush Willie, wearing gloves and some kind of uncomfortable looking rubber shirt, sitting beside a massive pile of blue plants, panting and wheezing, a thick steel collar around it's neck.

“AND YOU WON'T SLEEP AGAIN UNTIL ALL THE KILLING JOKE IS HARVESTED! I need it to keep making the poison mist potion.”

“B-But Mistress...Those poor ponies!”

“Poor nothing! They shouldn't have snubbed my offer to buy their homes!”

“Why didn't you just accept their offer to live with them in peace?”

“Shut up! Shut up before I shut you up permanently!”

“What are you going to do? Kill me? Then you can do all the work yourself? HA!”

“He seems really cynical for one so young...” Ruby muttered

“What? Young? No no, he's the eldest of our group.”

“But you said he was the littlest...” CB replied

“Yes, he is the smallest in the group because with age we get smaller.”

“Oh...well that makes sense I guess...” I shrugged.

“So what's the plan?”

“I'm open to suggestions,” I said, “Brutus usually does the planning.”

“I say we just attack her. She's just one unicorn against all of us.”

“Oh no no no.” Grey said, shaking his head quickly. “She is strong, her magic is SO strong.”

"I don't know, my magic is fairly formidable.” CB said, cracking her neck and smirking.

“No no little pony, you don't want to face off against her if she has had some of her potions, she is so very powerful...”

“Then what do we do?” Xem asked, turning back to look through the hole in the wall.

Sadly the decision was made for us as there was a loud CRACK and the floor fell out from under us, sending the whole group tumbling down into the chamber below, any chance at a sneak attack totally blown...

Footnote: 50% to next level
> Chapter 12: PCDM/Unexpected allies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now:

Brutus and I spent the next two hours digging through boxes and crates that Ruby had stuck in the closet when we finally got settled in the hospital. Candy sat in her crib watching us work, sucking idly on her hoof.

“Most of this stuff is kind of worthless...” Brutus said, pulling old drawings, crafts from school, diaries, and the like.

“Yeah, I'm kinda coming up bare too.” I sighed, looking over the various pieces of memorabilia that filled the boxes.

“Hey wait...look at this...” Brutus said, floating a small crate onto the bed. Inside sat a weird metal box about the size of a computer, but with a small satellite dish on the top. It had a computer display on it and all kinds of controls. A star burst marked one side, lime green with a darker green diamond in the middle. On the other side was a sun that had come up over most of a horizon. “These are Ruby's parent's Cutie Marks...Dawn Star,” he pointed to the rising sun, “and Nova Star.” He pointed to the green star burst.

“I just don't understand you guys some times.” I said to Brutus, “when did family naming conventions become so tight?”

“You're whole lineage has the name Cane...” He rolled his eyes. “Right CANDY?” He asked the baby, getting a giggle when she recognized her name.

“My family was very military until my brother and I were born, having a uniform naming system meant when you enlisted your C.O. knew exactly who you were related to without having to ask. It was a military convention, not a standard practice.”

“Well times change. Star, Blast, Storm, it's just the way things end up.” He shrugged. “It's not like my name is Brute Force Shot.” He said, pulling some journals and envelopes from the box.

“True enough.”

“And Firebird is just Firebird, not Firebird Star.”

“I know...”

“And there's Sky Wagon and Bottle Cap.”

“I get it.”

“I know, I'm just rubbing it in as firmly as possible.”

He smirked and pulled open an envelope that had Ruby's name on it. It had been torn open long ago and tucked shut again.

He read over the paper for a moment, his eyes going wide. “Cane...Listen to this...”

He sat down on the bed and started to read the letter.

“My dearest Ruby:

I hadn't planned on this conversation taking place in a one sided method like this, but there are things you need to know and I don't see us getting out of this situation alive. I pray to Celestia I'm wrong and I can just throw this away and come home to you and sit you down and talk face to face.

I know your mother and I have never talked about it despite your burning curiosity, but I'm going to tell you just why we ended up banished from the Enclave.

Long before you were born I worked at a hospital, tending injuries, caring for the sick, making sure everypony was comfortable. One day there was a huge emergency while I was on call. An explosion at an Enclave R&D facility across town had injured dozens of ponies and they were being rushed to us for aid. Most had minor bruises and cuts, some had somewhat more serious injuries. 

The worst was the young mare that had caused the explosion in the first place. She'd been caught in the blast and thrown partially through a wall. She had dozens of broken bones, both her wings were broken, and she was in a coma when they brought her in. Her Enclave superiors insisted she be given top priority because she was their most valuable asset, so I was assigned to care for her and her only, but then you know this story don't you? We fell in love and got married a few years later. I can't afford to waste time on irrelevant details.

Your mother worked for the Enclave, but was deeply devoted to the reunification movement. She, more than any pony I knew, wanted us to open the skies again and help heal the world below, but her superiors didn't much care for it so she wasn't as vocal or open about it as others, like your Aunt Firebird say. She had a good job, she was working within the Enclave in the hopes of changing minds that way. Working her way through connections in the hopes of getting to ponies who could make a difference on a massive scale, instead of the protests or rallies that just seemed to more and more often get shut down or raided, but I think over time she influenced more ponies than any of those rallies could have anyway. We started to hear rumours of ponies upset with her for convincing some very powerful ponies to seriously think about reunification, and here's where the weird metal box in front of you comes in...The journals contain a lot of technical details, a lot of explanations, information that a smarter pony than me would need to go through. 

Hopefully the collective scientists will be able to make something of it all if we don't make it back, but I wanted you to know the simple explanation...It's the first step to restoring the Wasteland. Dawn calls it the 'Portable Cloud Dispersal Machine.' It can clear the sky Ruby! Not permanently, but so long as it has power and is running it can open a hole in the sky a mile wide. It will allow towns on the surface to get sunshine, maybe even grow crops and start to fix the environment.

The Enclave wanted it for themselves obviously. Somepony 'borrowed' the PCDM from Dawn's lab and 'tested' it on a small village that had been vocally demanding access to the surface in order to collect new types of grains and plant samples in the hopes of mixing up their crops. The whole village was destroyed in the the blink of an eye, in the early morning. Homes torn apart, whole families plunged to the surface below, their lives snuffed out in an instant.

I had done some work for one of the elite military divisions and still had friends within it's ranks. I got a message from them one day that ponies were moving against us. We were to be brought in and questioned on charges of sedition and conspiracy against the Enclave, not to mention multiple counts of murder. Myself, Dawn and your Aunt Firebird all fled to the surface, just hours before they were to kick down our doors. We don't know what came of it, but we left in a hurry. We came down here, using an old map we knew there was an abandoned Pegasus Airfield down here. We arrived and found The Collective operating here. Crackshot, as the head of the council, offered us sanctuary within their ranks, she asked no questions about our pasts and welcomed out talents into their organization.

I'm sorry I'm rambling again. Ruby, you need to protect the PCDM with your life. If the day comes that the Enclave comes looking for it they CAN NOT get it. It has the potential to destabilize the Enclave, and if it falls into the hooves of somepony able to hide their actions it could set off a whole new war between the Enclave at the surface, and the surface would likely not stand a chance.

Last and most importantly...The Blitzwing...They are monsters, the worst of the worst, destroy the PCDM and all the journals if they show up. Don' let them get even one word on them. Their leader Scourge Cloud is the devil incarnate, if he got the PCDM he is smart enough to not only start the war, he's smart enough to topple or overthrow the Enclave at the same time.

I'm so sorry I'm not going to be there myself to tell you this, I hope this makes it back to you Ruby.

Remember your mother and I love you and always will. Don't let Brute Force tease you, and don't go falling head over heels for some buck with more looks than brai...And it just stops there.” Brutus finished, looking up at me and sighing deeply.

“So this...Is the PCDM?” I asked, looking at the weird device.

“I guess so.” He nodded.

“It hardly seems like the kind of device that could break through the clouds.”

“We've seen weirder things than that.”

“True enough.”

“Can it be connected to your computers to be studied?”

“Yeah that shouldn't be a problem...” I said, nodding slowly, looking over the connection ports on the back of the device. They were older kind of obscure pegasus connectors, but lucky for me I had long since swiped large numbers of cables from the old Pyro base, so I had at least two of everything, and upwards of dozens of the more commonly used cords and cables.

“What are we going to do about Scourge Cloud?”

“I...I don't know.” I sighed, taking up the whole box of stuff and starting out of the room again, Brutus taking Candy from her crib before following me into the hall.

////////////

11 Months ago:

“Well well, what have we here?” The chestnut unicorn laughed, standing over our tangled group, still laying in heap on the ground. “You've returned my other Bushwoolies!” She laughed.

“We haven't done shit.” CB said, pushing herself up slowly, moving forward to put herself between us and the other pony while the rest of us struggled to sort ourselves out from the debris and each other. “We're here for the little green guy.” She pointed a hoof at the Bushwoolie across the room, who was clearly still in shock at the sight of our arrival. “You're going to either surrender him to us, along with your supply of killing joke and the poison you're using to infect the village, or we're taking them by force.” She ordered.

“Oh am I?” Karina cackled. “You're a very bold filly aren't you?” She fired a blast of magic out of her horn and knocked CB across the room, sending her crashing into the wall on the opposite side of the green Bushwoolie.

“Hey!” Lily snapped, transforming into a panther and leaping at Karina, swiping massive paws at the unicorn, knocking her to the side. 

“That's enough!” Karina bellowed, a wave of energy pushing everypony back. The Bushwoolies pulled themselves into a group against the wall, shaking in terror.

“I'm not done with you.” CB yelled, righting herself. Ruby and I kept back, moving slowly towards the still captive Bushwoolie as CB launched herself at the unicorn, Lily transforming back into herself and rushing her from the other side, both with horns blazing.

“You think I'm scared of a little filly and a Changeling?” She laughed, flashing away, causing the two to collide with each other right where the unicorn had been moments earlier.

She reappeared at the front of the cavern, blocking the only entrance, cackling as Lily and CB righted themselves.

“Aren't you so clever?” CB snapped. “You think you're the only one who knows how to teleport?” Her horn flashed but she stayed in place, as did Lily.

“If you're going to bluff at least do it with something reasonable.” Karina laughed.

“Oh I didn't bluff...” CB flashed and reappeared in front of the Bushwoolies. “I just didn't teleport myself...” Her horn went out and the large bundle of killing joke that had been suspended above the evil unicorn head fell on her, burying her.

I moved quickly now, seeing a chance to make our move. I grabbed the slave collar with my magic, wrapping it tightly and yanking it apart, the collar exploding in my magic field.

“I think that's the best idea.” Lily said, grabbing some of the Bushwoolies in her magic and vanishing in a green flash as an angry groan came from the pile of plants.

“Agreed.” CB said, grabbing Xem and the rest of the Bushwoolies and vanishing.

“And away we go.” I said, grinning at Ruby as we, along with the green Bushwoolie vanished from the cave, reappearing outside where Brutus was, everyone else there too. The green Bushwoolie ran over to his friends and they all cheered and talked excitedly.

“That was so awesome...”

“...CB you're a bad ass...”

“...what took you guys so long to come get me...”

“...Did you guys see that? She was all 'you suck at bluffing.' So I'm like 'who said bluff?' BAM! Killing joke on on her head!”

Our celebration however was cut short as the ground shook. “What the hell is that?!” Brutus cried, pointing to what looked like some kind of sickly green brown smoke billowing out from the hole into the cave we had gone in, not to mention pretty much every single crack and break in the rock face.

The smoke came together quickly, pooling first into a massive cloud, then stretching out into a very pony like shape, and finally solidifying into Karina...only not just Karina...a massive Alicorn Karina, towering as tall as the trees, her voice booming as her laugh echoed across the whole area. “Behold what my beautiful Killing Joke has done for me! It has made me a god!”

A spotlight from the town snapped on and twisted towards her. I could only assume it was Sniper Joe bringing his gun online and turning towards the terrifying voice.

“We gotta go.” I said quickly.

“No shit Sherclop.” CB replied, her eyes lighting up with magic power and our whole group vanished, reappearing in town.

“What's happening?!” Doctor Pepper demanded when we appeared in the town square, the children still helplessly performing their forced talents.

“That thing is what's causing the Cutie Pox.” Brutus said, pointing to Karina as she marched through the forest towards us.

“What can we do?”

“I don't even know where to begin...”

“I think I do...” The voice surprised me. I turned and saw Ike standing behind us, Marcy at his side, still in her Unicorn form.

“What? What can you do?” Doctor Pepper asked.

“I can stop her.”

“No offense dude, but what can an Earth pony do against an Alicorn giant?”

“Sometimes it's not about what race you are, but about what you can do with your talents.”

“You're an archeologist.” Ruby said.

“Yeah, and sometimes archeologists find amazing things hidden away in ruins.”

“Ike please don't.” Marcy cried, grabbing his foreleg.

“I'm sorry sweetie but sometimes you can't put yourself first. I need to keep you safe, and I need to keep all these other ponies safe.”

“But what if I lose you forever this time?”

“I swear I'll be back my little pony. I love you, I'll always keep you safe.” He knelt down and hugged her tightly, both of them with tears running down their cheeks.

Their goodbye was cut short as Karina reached the AA gun's range, which immediately opened fire on her. She howled in pain and hurled a massive ball of magic at the tower. It was the size of a small house. CB's eyes lit up again and an equally massive barrier appeared around the tower, causing the magic ball to explode harmlessly. “Little help?” She asked, looking back at me and Lily.

“Yes ma'am, of course ma'am.” Lily nodded, her green blending with CB's yellow, then my blue doing the same, making the barrier a bright jade green.

Ike took off towards the trees, digging into his saddlebag, coming up with what looked like a golden circlet.

“Oh sweet Celestia...” Ruby said, her voice sounding more horrified than anything.

“What?” I asked her, watching the Earth pony run on without hesitation.

“He has the Snow Tzar’s crown.”

“The what?”

“It's an ancient pony relic. It is said to be imbued with the power of some ancient king...”

He stopped short as the trees came crashing down. He started humming some song to himself as he lifted the crown to his head and put it on.

“What is this? An ant?!” Karina laughed as she looked down at Ike.

He started to laugh too, a loud, high pitched laugh that cut through the noise of the AA gun, which stopped firing after a moment, Karina now too close to town to risk firing.

Ike was shaking with energy as he laughed. His beige coat seemed to turn white before it changed to an icy blue. His laughter rose in intensity, reaching an almost hysterical level. His mane changed from brown to pure white. He sprouted a massive white beard and mustache and shot into the air with amazing agility, his beard flapping like wings. He drove his forelegs into her muzzle and she actually reeled with the impact.

“What is this?!” She roared again, this time in shock instead of contempt.

“You're a horrible monster! You go away! This is my ice kingdom, these are my penguins! You go bug somepony else!” Ike snapped, icy blue magic firing from his forelegs, and forming into ice along her flank.

She cried out and thrashed, shattering the ice and firing a magic blast at him, catching him square in the...well everything, the blast was bigger than he was.

We had stopped shielding the AA tower when Karina had turned her attention to Ike so CB tried to catch him with her magic but he was flying downward so hard that he shattered her magical net and crashed to the ground only a few meters in front of us.

“NO! IKE!” Marcy screamed, rushing forward quickly, sliding to a stop beside him. “Ike get back up!” She demanded, shaking him.

“I'm sorry Gunter...I don't think I'll make it past this one.” Ike groaned, laying back.

“Who's Gunter?” CB asked softly.

“Not now.” Xem replied.

Karina laughed again, her voice booming off the cliffs and buildings. “That's right you idiot! You took on the wrong goddess! Now I'm going to kill you and all your little friends!”

“NO! You stay away!” Marcy yelled at her, tears in her eyes as she stumbled away to put herself between Ike and Karina.

“Marcy no!” Ruby called, running after her, but her horn lit up and Ruby was pushed backwards on her haunches, coming to a stop beside me again.

“Oh? What do you hope to do little filly? Your super powered friend could do nothing to stop me! What could a widdle baby unicorn Jezebel hope to do?” She asked, singsonging the last part at her.

“I'm not a baby! And my name's not Jezebel!” She yelled back, her horn burning with energy. Ike groaned softly and started to right himself, still clearly dazed, but watching the filly intently.

“Of course you aren't,” Karina laughed, “you're a big girl I'm sure.” She leaned down and glared at the red filly. “You're a pathetic waste of space little baby Jezebel. Now move before you get hurt.” She snorted, magic blasting out of her nose at Marcy, but she stood her ground, her own magic cutting through the magical wind.

“My. Name. Isn't. JEZEBEL!” She yelled. “AND I'M NOT A BABY!” She flashed bright green, transforming into her normal form, only stretching and becoming just as big as Karina. “MY NAME IS MARCELINE AND I'M THE CHANGELING QUEEN!” She turned and bucked the shocked unicorn, sending her falling backwards into the trees.

Ike shot into the air, coming to a stop beside the now massive Marcy.

“Come on Ike.” She grinned at the little blue pony. “You know what time it is.” She stalked through the trees as Karina struggled to get back on her feet. 

“Not so fast bitch.” Marcy snapped, kicking her legs out from under her again. “Who do you think you are? Hurting all these fillies and colts?! You made them suffer just so you could have a town all to yourself! How greedy are you?” She kicked Karina across the muzzled this time as Ike circled the unicorn, blasting her legs with ice, pinning her to the ground.

“Please! Please stop! I'm sorry!” Karina cried.

“It's too late for sorry.” Marcy pushed up onto her back hooves. She held out one foreleg and started spinning it slowly in a circle. “Do you know what this is?”

“Please...Mercy.” Karina squeaked, terrified by the creature above her.

"Say it again?"

"Mercy!"

"One more time?"

"MERCY!"

“WRONG!” Marcy yelled, making a loud buzzing noise and smashing her foreleg into Karina's frozen back leg, shattering the ice covered limb.

She howled in pain. “STOP! PLEASE! DON'T!”

“Stop?! You want me to stop? After all the things you did without mercy you just hope to get it from me? How dare you!” She smashed down on the other back leg, shattering it too.

“Please don't kill me...” Karina whispered, barely able to speak, but her voice still carried thanks to her size.

“Kill you? I wouldn't waste my time.” Marcy said.

“Aww come on! Killing can be fun!” Ike cackled.

“No, she hasn't wronged us.” Marcy shook her head. “We've done enough damage.”

She dropped back onto all fours. “But I think you've done more than your fair share. We're going to leave you to the townsfolk to decide your ultimate fate.” She pulled up Karina's head with one hoof and actually slid the unicorn's horn through a hole in her leg. “And I don't think you'll be needing this anymore.” She twisted hard and Karina howled in pain one last time as the horn broke clean off in Marcy's leg, the brown mare passing out from the pain.

The de-horned unicorn started to shrink back to regular size, whatever magic that might have helped her now lost. With her defeat the killing joke probably didn't find it funny anymore.

Marcy picked up up her body and started back to the town's edge. She put Karina down and closed her eyes. A pulse of magical energy shot out of her in every direction.

The children that had been afflicted by the Cutie Pox all collapsed, weapons, balls, loop-de-hoops, everything, falling to the ground with them. They all lay on the ground, panting in exhaustion, the Cutie Marks vanishing from their bodies.

Ponies started to rush to their children to get them away from the now stilled chaos of the town square.

“I feel funny...” Marcy said, staggering a little and starting to shrink back to her normal size.

“Marceline!” Ike dove out of the sky, catching her as she returned to normal size. “You did such a good job, I'm so proud of you.”

She smirked a little, reaching up and knocking the crown from his head before passing out in his hooves.

He groaned and slowly changed back into his normal Earth pony form. “Oh Marcy...I'm so sorry...I don't want to turn you into a monster...” He said, hugging her close.

Ruby came over to him, putting the crown on the ground beside him. “I assume you want to keep that?”

“Sadly yes.” He nodded. “I can't trust anypony else with it.”

“I can understand that. But remember, she needs the real you, not the weird...Ice...King...you turn into. He'll take her down some dark paths if you're not careful.”

“I know...I try to only use it in the direst of circumstances.”

“Well if you can help it, don't ever use it again.”

“If I can help it.” He nodded, hugging Marcy close again, muttering apologies.

“Well at least this solves the cutie pox problem...” Doctor Pepper sighed, a young buck asleep on his back.

“Yeah, not exactly what we expected when we set off this morning eh?” I laughed.

“Certainly not.” He nodded. “I need to get my son home to sleep off his exhaustion.”

“Yeah of course. We're not going anywhere until morning.” Ruby said, rejoining our group.

“Good thanks...” He walked off towards the edge of the square, the pony who had met us at the sky wagon waiting for him, looking terrified but relieved.

“How come you didn't turn into a huge monster and help?” Brutus asked Lily.

“Do you know how much energy it takes to turn into something that big?” Lily asked. “I'd need to drain you dry of love to pull off what she did.”

“I guess it really shows how much Ike cares about her.” Ruby smiled, watching him lift Marcy onto his back and start back to the hotel.

“Well it helps that she's a Queen...four times the power, a tenth of the cost.”

“Does it really work like that?”

“Nah, but it sounds cool.”

“So...what now?” I asked, looking at the ponies all around us, helping children, cleaning up discarded objects that had been used to show off talents. Four guards were carrying Karina off towards the town hall.

“Now? We go to bed.” CB yawned, snuggling up to Xem. “I'm exhausted.”

“Me too.” Ruby nodded, yawning as well.

“Think the inn has enough room for us?”

“Well Crackshot is probably still up on the roof with Snipe.” Brutus said. “So I'm sure the Inn has three free beds.”

“Only three?” Lily asked.

“You and me, Ruby and Cane, CB and Xem.”

“Whoa whoa, who said anything about sharing a bed?” CB asked, jumping back from the zebra and blushing.

“Oh come on, grow up.” Brutus said, rolling his eyes. 

“Maybe I should sleep with Ruby and Daddy and Xem can share a bed.” She suggested as we started walking towards the hotel.

“Maybe you should just pony up and sleep with your coltfriend.” Brutus said. “there's nothing weird about sleeping in the same bed, as long as it's only sleeping nopony cares.”

“Uhh excuse me? Concerned parent here.” I said.

“You're telling me you never had sleepovers when you were young?”

“Not when I was a teenager, and not with my marefriend.”

“Well whatever, do what you want to do.” Brutus said, going into the Inn, Lily behind him, a coy smirk on her face.

I stopped short of the door and looked at them seriously. “CB...what do you want to do?” I asked her.

“I want to sleep with Ruby.” She said without hesitation.

“Fine, Xem you're stuck with me.”

“I'm still not sure why we can't have separate beds.” He sighed.

“Because it's a waste of space?” Ruby shrugged.

“Let's just get some sleep.” I sighed, heading into the Inn.

Footnote: 75% to next level.
> Chapter 13: Tests/Worries
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 13: 

Now:

“This is the Cloud Disperser?” Venture asked, looking at the machine curiously.

“Seems so.”

“How does it work?”

“No clue.” I put the device down on the island in the middle of the lab, pulling journals and papers from the box as well. “These will teach us what to do I hope.” I said, shoving the bound books over to him. “You get started on these, I'm going to hook it up to my computers and see what I can get out of it that way.”

“Awe why do I have to do the paper work?” He groaned, shuffling the books around in annoyance.

“Because I had to scavenge through boxes of junk to find it while you sat here and browsed old archives of LOLbirds.”

“What? I did not!” 

I pointed at the huge bank of monitors he had been rebuilding when we left, a picture of a flamingo eating shrimp on it with some inane caption on it.

“Oh right...damned dual displays...” He sighed. “I was running a search algorithm to go through all the data.”

“I'm sure you were. Now get to the books.”

“Damn.” He set to work on them while I dug through the drawers of cables I had, looking for the right cables to hook the PCDM to the computer.

“Uhh guys, I think it's time I actually tap out.” Brutus said from the couch, stifling a yawn. He was stretched out with Candy in his forelegs, now asleep, an empty baby bottle on the side table. It was coming up on 4AM and he looked exhausted, and rightly so.

“Yeah of course.” I said, floating Candy up and putting her down in the crib beside the desk again.

“Alright guys, g'night.” Brutus said, heading out of the lab, closing the door behind him.

Venture yawned too, pulling two Sparkle-Colas from the mini fridge under the island he sat at and setting one down beside me, before turning back to his work.

“Who the hell thought carrot was the best flavour for a soda?” I asked, taking a long swig from the bottle.

“I know right? What is wrong with avocado, or kumquat?” 

“Seemingly everything.” I laughed.

“Dude, real talk?” He turned and looked at me.

“Yeah?” I asked, looking back at him.

“Can you believe this is our lives?”

“Living in a wasteland, under the aegis of a trade collective, trying to figure out how to make some kind of pegasus device work in order to free my fiancee from the clutches of some crazy pegasus military commander?”

“Well I was thinking the fact that you have a kid and you're actually doing a really good job of it, but yours is fairly accurate too I suppose.”

“What? I would have been a father either way.”

“Yeah I know. I just always pictured you as being kind of a bumbling father like in a Sitcom.” 

“Not sure if insulted or proud...”

“Well I mean I see what you did with CB and how awesome you are with Candy. Despite everything that's happened you're still putting her first and making sure she gets as much attention as she needs.”

“You're not doing much to make this sound like compliments instead of insults.”

“I'm sorry, I'm not great at expressing things sometimes.”

“You? Unable to express yourself? You, who talked Princess Luna into giving over millions of bits in funding, got access to tomes so forbidden you had to be an alicorn just to go into the room that contained them? You're unable to express yourself?” I teased.

“Well...You know what I mean.”

“I'm not sure I do.”

“You're family, it's different, it's awkward, we're more candid with each other.”

“Is this supposed to be some kind of heart to heart?”

“I...I don't know what it is.”

“Well you've put your hoof in your mouth with more ease than Candy.” I said, gesturing to the sleeping foal, her hoof again firmly in her mouth as she slept.

“I...well...I just...” He stammered.

“Dude, come on, I'm just busting your balls, relax I know what you meant. Don't be so uptight.” I laughed. I disconnected one of the computers from the network and connected the PCDM to it instead.

“Yeah, yeah I'm sorry.”

“You gotta stop being sorry too.” I said, looking back at him again for a moment. “Right now, you have  little left to be sorry for, at least between you and me.”

He just smiled and nodded a little, turning back to the journals and getting quiet while he sorted through the entries.

I plugged the PCDM into the outlet and hit the power button. It whined to life, data flying across the monitor, technical data, weather information, everything.

“Wow, so it's CPU is a quartz crystal matrix.”

“Really? It uses Zebra tech?” I asked, looking at the little box. “Makes sense I guess, how else could you fit such complex abilities into such a small device.”

“It also has a Quantum Gemerald focusing core.”

“Well it needs to pierce the cloud barrier so it stands to reason they'd use a strong magical device for it.”

“We can't give this over to the Enclave.”

“Hadn't planned on it.”

“They could tweak this thing a little too easily I think. Turn it into a weapon.”

“They already did remember? Destroyed a village with it?”

“Yeah but I mean against the surface, recalibrate the Gemerald's magical abilities and it could split the ground instead of the sky, it would cause massive sinkholes, devastating earthquakes, if it were used by the ocean it could cause tidal waves the size of buildings.”

“Well all the more we can't let them have it, but we can't let them keep Ruby either.”

“I know. I've been thinking about that. What if we gave them a fake one?”

“Uhh, I think it's super villain 101 that you check to make sure something like this works before you fork over the hostage.”

“We'll use the real one for a demonstration and then switch em out.”

“And how will we do that?”

“Magic?” He grinned. “It's not a perfect plan, but it's all I got right now.”

“Well it's more than I have I suppose.”

“Well we have ponies like Crackshot and Brutus to workout the logistics. I AM the think tank after all.” He grinned.

“You're something.” I shrugged, turning back to the computer and studying the data. “This thing is awesome...We should test it.”

“Won't that alert them to the fact we have it?”

“They gave us 24 hours, it's not going to jeopardize anything that's not already in jeopardy. Scourge Cloud isn't the type to give us leeway. If anything, this will show we have it and they'll know we have it and won't hurt Ruby.”

“I guess...But these notes...they're terrifying. I mean they could destroy the wasteland with this thing.”

“There's a letter in there to Ruby from her father, it says she should die rather than let the Enclave get their hooves on it. It even mentions Scourge Cloud by name in it.”

“Shit...” He sighed, looking at the machine beside me and shaking his head.

“Think we should go test it?”

“I think we shouldn't make that decision for everypony here.”

“We should talk to Crackshot and the council and see what they think?”

“Yeah probably best.”

“Well lets go meet with the council then.”

///////////

10 months ago:

I know you were probably hoping for an interesting resolution to the Cutie Pox thing, but once Karina was put down the kids got better we packed up and went home. When we left the next day Ike and Marcy were gone from town, checked out in the night and vanished.

We packed up the ship, took the Bushwoolies with us and we were off back to the base.

When we got back everypony was amazed by the Bushwoolies, they were hard working, they were small and adorable, the girls couldn't get enough of how cute they were...The council gave them jobs as the cleaning crew for the hospital, which the Bushwoolies were all to happy to accept. Safety, security, a home where they weren't abused, they were thrilled, so there's just nothing to tell.

“So you're thinking...” Venture trailed off his sentence as I walked into the lab. Brutus turned and looked at me too as Venture quickly turned off the monitor he was sitting in front of.

“Sorry, am I interrupting something?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Venture said, shaking his head, “we were...reconciling our differences after the whole cafeteria fiasco.”

“That was a month ago.”

“Well I was really embarrassed.” Brutus shrugged.

“Riiight.” I nodded, looking from one to the other, “It's not my birthday for another two months so I'd be shocked if you were planning anything this far in advance...My bachelor party perhaps?” I smirked.

Brutus just kind of gave me a confused look and Venture gave me that same neutral face he used so well in business meetings. Poker face of epic proportions really...I could almost feel the tension in the room and it was really off putting. I was starting to worry a little.

“Alright alright, I won't press.” I said, turning for the door. “You two have fun reconciling.”

I left them and walked out into the hall again, pausing to watch three Bushwoolies mopping the corridor, one pushing the bucket of water, then another with the third on his shoulders, moving along the hall as the one on top moved the mop around and dunked it in the bucket.

Ruby and CB came around the corner a short distance from them, giggling to each other, stopping short when they saw me.

“Oh, hi Daddy.” CB smiled, blushing a little.

“You two watching our new friends work?” I asked

“Kinda?”

“Why don't you just leave em to do their jobs?”

“They're so cute, pushing around the bucket and mopping up, it's adorable.”

“How about you two join me for lunch instead of harassing our new cleaning staff?”

“Uhh, we were actually going to go into town in an hour. We were just waiting for Lily to finish meeting with a caravan that was coming through here before it headed on to town. She wanted to make a deal or something.” CB said.

“Why don't you go get Brutus and Venture? They've been in your office for like two hours, I'm surprised they haven't come to blows.”

“They're 'reconciling' or something.” I said, shaking my head. “I think they're planning something for me by the way the conversation derailed when I walked in.”

“Really? But your birthday isn't for months.” Ruby said curiously.

“Well you can probably ask em and find out.”

“Probably.” She nodded, looking at the lab door quietly.

“Hey, there you two are. Ready to head into town?” Lily called to them as she came around the corner they had originally come from.

“Oh yeah, lets go.” CB said excitedly.

“So why are you two going into town?”

“No reason.” Ruby shrugged. “Doubling as an escort for the caravan, chance to see Firebird, stuff like that.”

“Oh please, we're going to look at wedding dresses.” CB said, rolling her eyes.

“Hey! Come on, don't spoil the surprises.” Ruby whined.

“I prefer the honesty, I'd be worried something weird was going on if everypony was being so secretive.”

“I guess.” She sighed.

“Guys, we gotta go.” Lily said, gesturing towards the elevators.

I rode down to the lobby with them, figuring I could go looking for Crackshot, breaking off from the group as they headed outside and I went towards the main area off the cafeteria. She had just gotten back from visiting with Sniper Joe. It seemed that the runes that fused him to the chair weren't the sort of thing that could be easily undone. Xem was still trying to find a way to get him out of the chair, but so far all attempts had failed, so for the time being Crackshot just spent a day or two a week out there with him since she could do paperwork there just as easily as she could here.

“Oh excuse me.” A young orange Earth pony mare walked into me as I entered the main area. I had been lost in thought and she looked to be terribly lost.

“Sorry, my bad.” I said, blushing a little. She was a very good looking pony. She had a pair of fully loaded saddlebags on her back and her cutie mark was...Nun-chucks? Shackles? Crossed against a pole to form an X. I figured maybe she was a weapon specialist or something.

“That's okay, it was just as much my fault, I'm afraid I'm a little lost.” She admitted.

“Well is there anything I can help you with?”

“Uhh, I'm looking for a technician named Star Venture?”

“Oh, yeah I can take you to him.” I said, nodding and smiling, “Star Venture is my brother.”

“Ahh, nice to meet you Mr. Venture.” She said, looking relieved.

“Sugar Cane actually.” I corrected. “Venture changed his name to annoy our parents...long story, anyway, I'm Sugar Cane. You can call me Cane.”

“Crystalline.” She said, shaking my hoof.

“Come on, I'll take you to him, he's in my lab.”

“So what do you do?” She asked as we walked towards the elevators.

“I'm the head of Information Technology and all around computer guy for the Collective.”

“Ahh, so you run all the computers and things?”

“That I do.”

“You know your Cutie Mark reminds me of one I've seen on computers elsewhere in the Wasteland.”

“Yeah I've heard that before.” I nodded, not really wanting to launch into a whole explanation.

“You must be really good with computers.”

“So I've been told.” I replied, getting onto the elevator. We headed back up to the fourth floor and off to  my lab.

“If you don't mind my asking, what are you meeting with my brother for?” I asked.

“Ahh, well it's a private thing.”

“Fair enough.” I said, stopping in front of my lab door. I pressed a hoof to the lock, but it just buzzed and turned red.

“The buck...” I pressed it again, nothing. I could see Venture and Brutus still inside, their backs to the door, so I pressed my horn to the lock, my magic flowing through the system, the lock buzzed a few more times before finally turning green and opening the door for me.

“Wow, only 45 seconds, that's almost a record.” Venture smirked at me as I walked in.

“Why are you two locking me out of my own lab?”

“Privacy.”

“You want privacy meet somewhere else.”

“What can we do for you Cane?”

“This is Crystalline...” I started but Venture jumped to his hooves.

“Of course, we've been waiting for you, come in come in.” He said, pulling her along into the office.

“Uhh, guys seriously...”

“Seriously what?” Venture asked, looking at me flatly. 

“I...I...” I stammered, put off by the tension in the room.

“Thanks Cane, we'll talk to you later.” Brutus said, pushing me out the door and closing it behind me.

Now I wasn't concerned about what they might be doing...I was terrified.

Footnote: 90% to next level

(So you guys have been quiet lately :P At the risk of sounding whiny I hope you guys let me know what you think of the story so far. I draw a lot of inspiration getting feedback from people so lemme know what you think :D )
> Chapter 14: The Plan/Distractions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now:

“I understand where you are coming from with your request but it seems as though this would jeopardize the safety of the Collective.” One of the council members said after hearing our request to test fire the PCDM.

“At this point our safety is already compromised.” Venture said, walking along in front of the group. I sat back with Crackshot and let him do his thing. He was a pro at public speaking and talking ponies into things. He was a nerd just like me, rather bury himself in computer work than go out and talk to others, but he had no problem doing it, he was an 'extroverted introvert' our mother used to say. “The Enclave knows where we are, what we're doing, our power structure...They have Ruby Star, if pressed she would likely tell them everything she can. She has endured terrible hardship at the hooves of the Enclave and she would do anything she could to mitigate the possibility of enduring that again. Test firing the Cloud Disperser would show them we have it, definitively, and they would hopefully then be open to negotiation and releasing Ruby back to us.”

“But from what you've said, this could be turned into a weapon that could destroy the Wasteland.”

“There are still Balefire bombs around the Wasteland, but yes, the Cloud Disperser could be recalibrated to punch holes in the ground instead of in the clouds.”

“How does that work?”

“We're still not totally sure. Dawn Star was an amazing engineer, the PCDM is a masterful hybridization of Pony and Zebra technology. It uses a Zebra focusing gemerald with an air elemental alignment, which causes it to only have an effect on things like clouds, if the gem were replaced with an Earth aligned gemerald they could tear open the ground with it. Imagine an earthquake generator essentially.”

“So we're still waiting for a proper reason to green light your request, because giving up a doomsday device hardly sounds inconsequential.”

“We're going to work out the specifics of how to deal with the Enclave with more militarily qualified ponies than us.”

“I already have Brute Force and Lilith consulting with some of the security experts and engineers to see what we can do about that.” Crackshot said.

“So you see, by the time we have to go and meet with the Enclave for the trade we'll have a plan in place to deal with it and hopefully get Ruby back at the same time.”

The council looked back and forth at each other, talking quietly for a few minutes before turning back to us. “Very well, you may test fire the Cloud Disperser, but only after the weapon techs have presented  us a solution for keeping it from the Enclave.”

“We'll do the best we can.” Venture said, nodding to them as they got up. “Thank you.”

//////////

“What do you mean that's the best you can come up with?” I groaned, looking at the group of ponies in the armoury.

“Well these are weird circumstances, this is a strange machine that we're not totally sure how to use...” Tack said, looking up from the PCDM and the open journals sitting on the desk. “So the best we can say is that we can try faking it.”

“Which is what I said.” Venture nodded.

“But what if they want to see it work up close? Then we're fucked.”

“Can't we rig up one that'd only work once?” CB asked.

“Hey yeah, that's a good idea...” Tack nodded, looking at the journals. “Most of the stuff that goes into the machine are parts we either have in storage from the Pyro base or they're in other machines we can just slag and harvest from. The really sensitive parts of the machine are the crystals, and we'd just use those as the catalyst for overload...” He paused, looking up and grinning wickedly, “We could make it a fucking bomb.”

“What do you mean?”

“The way the PCDM works is that it shunts the energy through the crystals, and it focuses out of the top of the machine through the dish and it projects the cone of energy that pushes back the clouds, boom clear skies. All we would need to do would be to make one with a cable that would only work once...”

“Use tin wire instead of copper.” One of the other engineers said.

“Yeah...” Tack started scribbling on a blank sheet of paper. “It would overheat, melt, poof, no more connection, the gemerald would overheat and explode.”

“I believe I may have something else that could help.” Another pony said, Quartermaster, the head of the armoury and weapons department. He dug into a drawer and pulled out a pair of slave collars. He pulled one open and yanked out a long white gem with blue swirls in it, then the other and removed the other.

“Here.” He set them down. “These are air aligned gemerald shards. Slave collars have them to push back toxic air to allow the slaves to work without respirators or in deep mines or what have you, doesn't keep all the poisons back but it does the job. They're unstable because they're fractured....”

“So it would help ensure the fake disperser goes boom when the time comes.” Tack nodded.

“Not only are the wires fried there's now a current running between two unstable gems.” Venture said to himself.

“I think it's our best bet...” Tack said, looking up at me again.

“Well...We take it to the council and see what they say I guess.” I shrugged. “I mean unless anypony else has any suggestions?”

I was met with shrugs and head shakes.

I looked over at CB after a moment, sitting beside Venture and rocking a sleeping Candy. “Why're you in on this meeting?” The other ponies started to break up, heading out of the room or over to the back room to start work on building the fake PCDM

“They asked for the weapons experts.” She said, gesturing to her flank with her head. “I don't know if you realize this, but I'm kind of the foremost expert on explosives nowadays.” She smirked.

“Well...I know you were learning...foremost expert I'm not so sure of. I think Lily would argue it pretty strongly in fact.”

“Well I don't just study history in school all day. I do have classes with security guards and I have spent a lot of time talking with Bullet Storm and his caravan guards. Not to mention all the knowledge Quartermaster is imparting.”

“You're making me sound like I'm a negligent parent.” I sighed, “not knowing enough about you.”

“Nah it's fine,” she laughed, “you're worried about Ruby, that's understandable, if I need you I know you'll be there in a heartbeat.”

“Exactly.”

“Well we need to go talk to the council and see if they'll green light our test now.” Venture said, standing up.

“Here's hoping.”

“Also, once all this is done, I expect you to spend some time with Candy, cuz this last 16 odd hours have been surprisingly trying.” She said, looking at the sleeping infant.

“That's children for you.”

“Well I think this is a good sign that I'm not ready for kids yet.” She smirked.

“Oh my glob, your children will be adorable.” Lily giggled, coming up behind CB. “Little Zony babies, they'll be so cute, and they'll have little stripes!” She squeed and danced in place.

“Who said anything about Zony babies?” CB asked, blushing brightly.

“Oh come on.” Lily rolled her eyes, “you're not gonna meet somepony else and be all 'OMC, he so the hotness! I want to has his babehs! Bai Xemnas!'” She had started off with a silly ditzy voice but broke down into a fit of laughter, trailing off towards the end.

CB blushed all the worse, muttering to herself.

“And how do you know we might not adopt?” Xem asked.

“Seriously? Where did you come from? Why is everypony here? Was this not a professional meeting?” I asked, looking at the group.

“I'm just here for the free food.” Crackshot smirked.

“I gotta go.” I sighed, starting for the door. “Come on Ven, we got a meeting.”

“Yes sir.” He nodded, falling into step with me as we headed outside.

///////////

“Alright is everypony ready?” Venture asked, sitting the PCDM on the hill a short way from the hospital. Once we presented our plan to the council, and with some excellent smooth talk from Venture, they had agreed to let us proceed with our plan, and after Lily had transformed into a small bug and reconned above the clouds to make sure there was nothing in the way we were ready to go. We now sat outside behind the hospital, almost four dozen ponies sitting in a big group in the hopes of seeing the sky, lots of others watching out the windows. We had picked the perfect time for it. The sun would be visible through the hole we made without being directly overhead and blinding everypony.

The two of us had set it up on a table with a computer to run it and watch what it did as it ran. CB, Xem, Brutus, Crackshot, Lily and Candy all sat just behind us with the Council, everyone else down by the hospital still, nodding excitedly.

“Then here. We. Go.” Venture said, firing up the machine. The PCDM whined to life and data started copying over into the computer. The dish on top shifted and oriented around slowly, finally locking and whining to life. A beam of blue energy fired out of the dish and up into the sky. After a moment the machine chirped and the beam broke apart into ten separate beams that slid to the edges of the dish, then it repeated the process, a single beam in the middle that broke apart and slid to the side. It did this three times until there was a solid beam of energy coming from the edges of the dish. Finally the dish started to spin, or at least the lights in it did. Slowly the sky above us started to shift and swirl, the clouds flowing into each other and slowly forming into a spinning ring of cloud.

“It's not going to pull down a tornado is it?” Crackshot asked.

“No clue.” Venture said without looking away from the sky.

Finally the clouds started to thin and push back, creating a gap we could see blue sky through. The PCDM whined loudly and a blue beam shot out of the middle. The ring of light twisted and bent backwards, forcing the gap wide open, creating a massive hole in the sky that stretched for at least two miles in every direction from the middle, the sun coming into view, the light filling the whole area, making everything look brighter, and somehow less miserable.

The group down below broke into massive cheers and yelling, ponies running out into the sunshine, laughing and celebrating.

“This is amazing...” One of the council members said, looking up at the sky.

“You're telling me.” Crackshot agreed, “sweet Celestia I missed sunshine.” She sighed.

“Now what?” CB asked without looking away from the blue sky.

“Now...we don't know.” I sighed. “We wait for Scourge Cloud to call us and see what he says, for the time being the PCDM is stable so we can leave it running to let everypony here enjoy the sunshine for now. We'll shut it down at sunset and bring it back inside.”

“We'll put extra guards on it.”

“I'll guard it!” Lily, CB and Brutus all said quickly, clearly wanting to stay in the sunshine.

“There you go, extra guards.” Crackshot laughed.

“We'll get a few more than that, but it's a good start.”

“Should we move it to the roof of the hospital?”

“It's probably not a bad idea.” Venture said. “More easily defensible from there.”

So after some brief discussion we moved it up to the roof, using our magic and three pegasus guards we moved it without needing to shut it down. We unhooked the computer from the PCDM and took it inside to study the data and wait for Scourge Cloud to call.

///////////

10 months ago:

“So now all three of them are in my lab, conspiring and doing Celestia knows what!” I finished, having just ranted all my paranoid worry about what the others were doing in my lab at Crackshot.

“Well don't you have security or cameras or something in there?”

“Yeah, but Venture disabled all of it this morning when he and Brutus first got there.” I sighed, dropping into the seat across from her at the table.

“Did you try just ASKING them?”

“Yeah they gave me a look like a Brahmin in headlights and ushered me out of the office.”

“Well...shit, I don't know what to tell you. Venture I can't really speak for, but Brutus can carry a secret to his grave if he puts his mind to it.”

“We worked for the government, we kept lots of secrets from lots of ponies for long periods of time.”

“Yeah I suppose so.”

“What do you think I should do?”

“If they're not going to tell you? Not much you can do. Just relax and hope for the best.”

“Yeah RELAX...that's something I do so well...They're in my lab! I can't even get any work done...they also have all my video games in there...”

“Poor thing.” She chuckled.

“Excuse me Doctor Cane?” A technician walked up to the table, a clipboard under his foreleg.

“Yes...Tack right?”

“Yes sir.” He nodded, “we're having some technical issues with our computers in the repair bay. The server keeps disconnecting and booting everypony out of their workstations, we were hoping you might be able to take a look at it.”

“Sure. I need something to distract me for a while anyway.” I said, standing up slowly. “I'll talk to you later Crackshot.”

“Yeah of course.” She nodded. “I'm going to go file away some paper work I did on my trip.” She said, heading out into the hall with us.

“So, I heard Ruby is going to have a baby?” Tack asked while we walked through the hospital towards the old ambulance/supply delivery area that had been converted into a wagon repair bay.

“Yeah, she's around five weeks right now.”

“That's great, she always seemed so excited to play with foals, I bet she'll be a great mother.”

“I hope so because I'm not sure how I'll do as a father.” I sighed, shaking my head. “I have a bad tendency to get lost in my work so I'm worried about my children falling by the wayside.”

“Nah, I'm sure you'll do fine. CB has done really well since her mother died. You've obviously done well in that regard.”

“Yeah...yeah I guess that's true.”

“That and a baby's cry commands attention, you'd have to be deaf to be able to work through it.”

“You have kids?”

“A son and a daughter.” He nodded, “both grown now.”

“Really? You don't seem much older than I am.”

“I'm coming up on a half century actually.”

“Really? You don't show it that's for sure.”

“Yeah I've always been told I looked young, it's always worked well for me.” We walked into the repair bay and he took me back into the offices. The computers all sat with the monitors off and some very annoyed ponies sat around a table going through paperwork with pens, giving me dirty looks, like it was somehow my fault the system had crapped out.

“Alright, well I guess I'll leave you to it.” Tack said. 

“Yeah, thanks...” I nodded, looking at the first computer and booting it up.

The next five hours I spent going through the computers one at a time. It seemed a nasty looking computer virus had wormed it's way into the system, which only made me worry worse because we were on a closed network. Only my lab was connected to the M.A.S. Network, everything else was just an intranet collection for accessing data and storing work to get at from different terminals. The only external connections it had were with computers in Maneville where some of the Collective workers lived now, and with the computer network at Venture's old base. Venture and I had experimented with Computer viruses of course, but we'd never be stupid enough to store them on a computer with network access...it would risk letting them loose and damaging things badly.

But...where had the virus come from? It wasn't complex enough to do serious harm to the systems, but it was a pain in the flank to fix. It was coming up on 9PM by the time I got the computers all cleaned off and an anti-virus routine in place to hunt it down should it show up again, and hopefully track the origin point. Everypony else had long since left for the night.

“How much longer are you going to be?” Ruby's voice seemed to whisper right into my mind. I jumped and she fell back laughing. She had been floating in the air, silently sneaking up behind me.

“Come on! That's still not funny!”

“Of course it is.” She said, imitating my startled jump and cackling loudly. “You're a spaz!”

“I'll show you a spaz.” I replied stupidly, then stuck my tongue out at her.

Quick as a wink she shot forward and bit down on my tongue, pulling it into my mouth and kissing me deeply, coiling her tongue around mine and pressing me back against the chair I sat in.

She finally broke the kiss and exhaled softly. “I've been waiting almost three years for you to stick your tongue out like that so I could do that to you.” She laughed.

“You...wha...buh?” My brain had shorted out and I just looked at her vacantly.

“I used to just bite Brutus's tongue when he did that to me. I had hoped he'd be around when I did it to you, but I couldn't pass up on the opportunity right there. Come on, you can buy me dinner and I'll tell you about my dress shopping exploits.” She smirked, moving towards the door out to the bay.

“Uh-huh...” I nodded dumbly, moving after her.

“Oh come on, it wasn't that shocking was it?”

“It was weird.”

“Are you calling me weird?”

“Yes, yes I am.”

“Well at least you got a kiss out of it, Brutus just got his tongue bitten.” She laughed.

“You're a strange mare.”

“Well what does that say about you?”

“I'm a guy and I'm helpless to your feminine wiles.”

“Pft, feminine nothing.” She said as we made our way out of the repair bay.

“You just got back from wedding dress shopping. That sounds feminine to me.”

“Well okay, maybe just a little.” She nodded. She stopped for a moment and sighed softly, rubbing her stomach with her hoof.

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing...just a little...ugh...upset stomach-y...”

“Do you want to just go back to our quarters instead?”

“Y-Yeah, probably best.” She said, moving to walk with me again, “stupid foal, depriving me of my dinner.”

“I'm sure she's very sorry.”

“Or he...”

“It'll be a she.” I said, nodding my head quickly, “just you wait and see.”

We got back to our quarters and Ruby flopped on the couch, groaning again and rubbing her stomach with her forelegs.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked, locking the door and sitting down on the floor in front of her.

“No...Ack...” She groaned and I heard her stomach groan loudly in kind.

“R-Ruby...” I started but she put a hoof up to silence me. After a tense moment she put the hoof to her mouth and I grabbed a vase filled with plastic flowers from it's spot on the table, pulling the flowers out so she could throw up, but instead she opened her mouth and belched, and I mean BELCHED, it lasted a solid 40 seconds at least, almost loud enough to echo off the walls.

I watched her in shock as she finally exhaled and sat panting softly for a moment. “Wow...Sweet Celestia that's much better.” She said finally, sitting up properly.

“Are you kidding me right now? All that upset stomach and can't eat and all you had was a massive gas bubble?”

“Sorry.” She shrugged, smiling sheepishly.

“I think we have just entered the Sexless part of our relationship and we aren't even married yet...”

“Oh, so I can get drunk and throw up on you, or start abusing drugs and try to kill you, but a big, and very impressive, burp is too much for you?”

“What can I say? I'm kinda picky about that sort of thing.” I said.

“Mmph...” She said simply, looking at me quietly while she fished a box of mints from her pack and chewed one up.

“What?”

“I want you.”

“You have me.” I replied, looking at her curiously.

“No no, I want you, physically, right now.”

“Well that escalated quickly.”

“I'm pregnant, my hormones are in mad flux, and right now they want mad fucks.”

“Yeah but...”

“No 'buts' get up here and kiss me.” She ordered.

“So really no qualms about physical intimacy anymore...”

“Here's what's going to happen...” She slid off the couch and sat in front of me, “you're going to get on the couch, I'm going to show you a few tricks with my tongue that'll make that kiss look like a punch in the mouth by comparison. Then we're going to go over to the bed and you're going to rut me so hard that we tear at least one bed sheet in the process. Is that understood?”

“Uhh, y-yes Ma'am...” I nodded, blushing darkly.

“Good boy, now up you get.” She said, pushing me towards the couch with a wing.

///////////

Footnote: Level up
> Chapter 15: Negotiations/ Kidnapping
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 15:

Now:

Venture and I spent the next few hours going over the data in the computer. While I understood the basics of how the machine did what it did the math that went into it was so far beyond me that it boggled my mind.

Tack and two other engineers were studying the data from the test firing, learning how to replicate it, correlating data to information in the journals, talking to themselves in terms I couldn't hope to understand.

“Well this is different isn't it?” Venture asked, sitting down in the chair beside mine.

“What's different?”

“We're sitting here waiting for ponies smarter than us to explain the situation and where we go from here. Normally it's the other way around.”

“I don't know if you realize this, but I HAVE lived with you most of my life. Most days are like this for me.” I smirked.

“Oh come on, I'm not that bad.”

“Well you WERE that bad, you've gotten much better. You've also come to realize that I'm smarter than you.”

“Smart AS.” He corrected.

“I took you down didn't I?”

“Touche.”

The panel in front of me lit up, informing me of an incoming encrypted signal.

“Shit this is it.” I said, jumping up and moving the camera down so the caller would only be able to see me and Venture and the little bit of space directly behind us, cutting out the peripheral and the ponies working on the side. “Everypony quiet.”

The room got quiet and after a moment I accepted the communication request, the familiar and blood boiling face of Scourge Cloud appearing.

“Hello again Doctors Cane.” He said, looking between the two of us.

“Colonel.” Venture said simply, nodding his head.

“I take it from the massive hole in the sky above your hospital that you have successfully located the PCDM?”

“You are correct.”

“Excellent, then we need only to arrange a time for exchange.”

“I want to talk to Ruby,” I demanded, “I want to know she's okay!”

“Ahh, well unfortunately she is not being kept at the same site as I am transmitting from, so that will not be possible.”

“You bastard.”

“Come now Doctor Cane, where is that courtesy we had established?”

“Eat me.”

Venture shoved me to the side. “Where do you want to meet?”

“Three days, noon, at the location you so elegantly pulled from my computers earlier, I would so hate for that information to go to waste.”

“Three days?!” I cried but Venture shoved me to the back of the room with his magic.

“Fine, three days.”

“Since I know it would be pointless to tell you to come alone, I will say, if you show up with an army I won't show up at all.”

“We'll keep the party small.” Venture said, nodding, “but know that if anything happens to Ruby you will not be pleased with the outcome of the transaction.”

“Ahh, see now that is a much nicer threat. Still a threat, but at least it's not simply one of bodily harm and murder.”

“I can offer those if you want.” Venture said, smirking a little.

The cobalt blue pegasus chuckled and slightly shook his head. “I appreciate the effort Doctor Cane but I'll respectfully decline.” 

“Pity.”

“Three days, at the coordinates, noon, no more than one sky wagon, Ms. Star will not be harmed as long as I get the Cloud Disperser.”

“Deal.” The screen blinked out.

“WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” I screamed at Venture as the data popped back up on the screen.

“Dude! Calm your teats!” Venture snapped, “we have no bargaining chips! What are we going to do besides antagonize him and jeopardize Ruby? I did what I had to do, and we'll see it through.”

“Yeah, yeah I know.” I sighed, slumping in the chair.

“Guys...” Tack said, looking at us, “I don't know that we'll have this thing operational in three days.”

“WHAT?” I cried again. “Are you kidding?”

“No, this machine is complex as fuck, we have to rig it to work once, and then to explode without giving away the fact that it'll explode.”

“Cane, chill, seriously.” Venture said, putting a hoof to my shoulder.

“I know, I know.” I sighed, shaking my head, “I'm just...I'm freaking out, you know...”

“Yeah I know.”

“Uhh, listen, we can go.” Tack said, getting up from the station he'd been working at. “We have everything we need to start building the replica and we really need to get to it too.” The other engineer that had been working with him just got up and nodded in agreement.

“Yeah good idea.” Venture said. “Cane, why don't you stay here and relax for a few minutes? Compose yourself and we'll figure out where to go from here?”

“Yeah okay.” I nodded.

“Come on, I'll walk you guys back to the engineering bay.” Venture said and the three of them left me alone.

I sat quietly for a few moments, then looked up at the computer screens. I pulled up the Geo-location data and overlaid it onto a map of the Wasteland. The coordinates we had were for a large area of nothingness Northeast of Manehatten.

The screen dinged, putting place markers on the map. A few hours south and a little further east of the location was the Fillydelphia Crater, which is where Red Eye's slavers had been operating until the failed Enclave attack a year ago had done massive damage to them. I had heard tell that they were still running, but as a shadow of what they used to be. Another was the Red Racer facilities, the Pony of Friendship by the ocean, which I was amazed was still intact enough to count as a location, but who knows what kind of shape it might be in? A number of other facilities came up on the map as it downloaded data from my Pipbuck's backups, as well as pulling data from the Pyro archives and The Collective's database. Most importantly though, was the indicator that appeared in the Manehatten area.

“Tenpony Tower...” I looked at the marker and grinned. At least I had somepony out there, who could hopefully help me.

//////////

“So there you have it.” I said, having just finished catching Homage up on everything that had happened.

“So you want to run this operation out of Tenpony Tower? I don't exactly have that kind of clout.”

“No no no, I just want to be able to start out from somewhere closer than the base and be able to return to somewhere closer than the base. We can fly out to you guys the night before, stay the night and then go out and meet with Scourge Cloud and be able to come back with Ruby afterwards so that she can get any needed medical attention right away. I have money and technical expertise I'm more than willing to use to pay for services rendered as well as equipment and such we could probably trade.”

“Well ever since the Enclave attacks we've been hurting for some things. Food stocks are shaky...”

“I have food. When we took out the Pyro army we seized massive stores of frozen food, not just that preserved crap, things like frozen pizza, stacks of hay bales, bags and bags of frozen veggies and fruit.”

“How much can we buy?” She asked, going wide eyed.

“That's not a call for me to make. I'll go to the council and ask, but I doubt it would be a ton if we're just exchanging it for Tenpony Tower's help and basic use of their services.”

“Oh no no, we have money, we'll pay for supplies and then you can just use the money to pay for whatever you need while you're here.”

“Should we tentatively say 500 pounds of various foods as a starting point? Then maybe we can set up a permanent exchange program between us and Tenpony.”

“Yeah, I think that would be more than enough to get us through these lean months.”

“Well then I guess I'll talk to the council and I'll call you back.”

“I'll do the same. Talk to you soon Cane.” Homage turned off the connection as she turned back to her turn tables, the current song coming to an end.

//////////

10 months ago:

I woke some time the next morning to Ruby kissing my cheek. “You're the best Sugar.”

“Shut up baby I know it.” I smirked without opening my eyes.

“Well aren't we Mr. Ego.” She laughed, pushing herself out of bed slowly. “Well listen, I'm going to go have a shower then I have to go meet with Tack about upgrading the armour on the Sky Wagons. Seems we secured some Diamondium plating and he's looking at which wagons need the most work.”

“Mmhm, have fun.” I nodded, rolling over to take up residence in the middle of the bed and snuggling my face down between two pillows.

“Hey, come on now, don't leave me to shower alone.” She said, tugging on my tail. “I always love your big strong legs cuddling me in the nice hot water.”

“MY big strong what now?” I asked, looking at her tiredly.

“Well...Your legs such as they are.” She shrugged, stretching out and laying on my back, “come on sweetie, I want company.” She whined, hugging me tightly.

“Yeah, yeah, I suppose.” I sighed, pushing up and sliding backwards out of the bed.

“Thanks.” She grinned, kissing my cutie mark and heading towards the bathroom.

I was so tired, yawned a good two or three times before I even reached the bathroom door.

“Come on, you stink like sex and I don't want anypony thinking anything inappropriate goes on behind closed doors.” She said from the shower.

“You're kidding right?” I asked, coming over and sliding happily under the water, letting it wake me up.

“Why would I be kidding?” She looked at me seriously.

“You think anyone here doesn't know what we do behind closed doors?”

“Well I don't want to advertise...” I cut her off by reaching out and putting a hoof on her slowly growing belly.

“I hate to tell you this, but it's a little late for that, I can't think of a more obvious give away than a baby.”

“Well better a baby than sex stink.” She said, sticking her tongue out at me and crossing her hooves across her chest. So taking a page from her book I shot forward and grabbed her tongue with my teeth and pressed against her and kissed her, pulling her tongue into my mouth as I did and holding the kiss for a good long moment before breaking it again.

“You bastard...” She grumbled, panting softly, looking a little flush.

“I'm sorry, hormones still out of whack? If you want to skip your meeting I'm sure I can help balance them out again.” I offered, pressing against her flank and smirking.

“No I'll be fine thanks.” She said, moving back and getting out of the shower. “I think I'll be good from here. You just finish getting cleaned up.”

“Why do I need to worry about getting cleaned up? I'm not doing anything the rest of the day.”

“Just do as I say.” She said, grabbing a towel and tossing it over her back.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the shower, just sitting and enjoying the hot water for a few more minutes before turning it off and getting out, grabbing a towel with my magic and dropping it on my head, towelling off my mane and face first.

“GET HIM!” I heard someone yell and before I could react I was tackled backwards into the shower stall, strong legs wrapping around me before I could react and then a ZAP as I was teleported away.

As soon as we reappeared, somewhere REALLY cold compared to the nice warm shower, I lashed out, bucking wildly to throw off whomever was on my back, hearing them impact against a nearby wall, and turning and firing a magical shot from my horn, the towel shooting off my head and actually striking a second target I hadn't even been aware of.

I whipped around in confusion, finding myself standing towards the front of a sky wagon that was already in flight. Seeing a pony pushing up from the ground, the towel on them now, I leapt and tackled  him before he could recover himself, kicking him in the chest and yanking the towel hard from either side against his face so he couldn't remove it to attack me easily.

At the same time I grabbed a storage chest that was strapped to the wall and hurled it at the first pony I had kicked, who still lay on the floor out of my sight between a bench and the wall he'd hit, but as the chest flew across the ship a voice cried out “STOP!” And the chest halted in mid air, wrapped in a green magic field.

I looked up and saw Lily standing in the cockpit door. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” She yelled at me, using her magic and yanking me off the pony I had pinned, revealing a stunned and terrified Venture, at the same time she stepped over and lifted Brutus from the floor, sitting him on the bench and looking at a nasty cut he had on his forehead just below his horn.

“What...what the FUCK is going on?!” I demanded, backing away from all of them into the opposite corner.

“Ugh...Happy bachelor party?” Venture groaned, flopping back on the ground.

“A-Are you kidding me right now?!”

“Well we thought it would be funny to whisk you away without your knowledge...” Brutus said softly, waving off Lily and digging a small vile of healing healing potion out of a first aid kit, tossing it to Venture before grabbing another for himself. They were about 1/10th of a healing potion, but perfect for scrapes and cuts and other such non emergency injuries.

“You. Thought. It. Would. Be. Funny...” I said slowly, emphasizing each word as if it were it's own statement. “In a world full of slavers and murderous Alicorns and bandits and Celestia only knows what else you thought it would be a goodideatosnatchmeupandwhiskmeaway?!” I screamed, getting louder and louder, talking faster and faster until all the words were running together.

“Well we...” Venture started.

“WELL NOTHING! I HAVE SPENT THE LAST 26 HOURS TERRIFIED THAT YOU HAD DONE SOMETHING TO BRUTUS AND WERE PLANNING ON BETRAYING US!”

“What why?”

“You were in the lab! Being all secretive, not telling me what was going on! Changing the door locks, meeting with strange ponies with weird torture cutie marks.”

“It's a pole.”

I looked up and saw Crystalline sitting in the cockpit entrance where Lily had originally been before she'd moved to help Brutus. “And shackles.”

“She's the...Entertainment.” Brutus said, drinking the healing potion and pouring the last few drops right onto the wound.

“Stripper, dominatrix, hoof to hoof weapons specialist, I speak three languages and I'm a hell of an accountant.” She smirked, “girl's gotta have options in a world like this.”

“She came in with a caravan yesterday and wanted to meet with us so we could vet her and make sure she was aware of everything we wanted done.”

“Sorry Cane, we didn't realize you were so worried. Even Ruby thought it would be funny...”

“We all thought it would be funny.” Lily said.

“Yeah well think next time before you do something like that. You're lucky I didn't have my guns.”

“Why do you think Ruby lured you to the shower?”

“Of course.” I shook my head and smirked. “So I just get to be without my armour, guns or pipbuck for the duration of this?” I asked, looking between the group.

“They're in the crate.” Brutus said, pointing to the case Lily had caught before.

“Ahh, thanks...” I said, blushing brightly and feeling like an idiot.

“Yeah, didn't really think this through obviously.” Venture pushed himself up onto a bench.

I dug into the crate and pulled on my barding, tucked my guns away and then sat down and screwed the pipbuck back into place, watching the HUD boot up into my vision, it was weird, I almost missed having the extra information displayed in my vision, like I wasn't seeing things properly, then watched the non essential information fade out, leaving me with the compass and the small health indicator in the corner. 

I realized after a moment I didn't remember taking my Pipbuck off the night before but it wouldn't have been the first time Ruby had fished the tools out of my pack and removed it herself because it was digging into her uncomfortably, I just usually woke up when she did it.

I looked up at Brutus, then Lily, and back. “Who brings their marefriend to a bachelor party?”

“I'm not along for the party, I'm just flying back to town moron.” Lily rolled her eyes and punched my shoulder. “I do have a job and a life outside of you ponies and Brutus' big strong forelegs.”

He smiled but rolled his eyes at the comment. “Thanks sweetie.”

“You ponies are just a means to an end for me. A free and quick trip home.” She said.

“Aww that's too bad, I was hoping you were sticking around. Changelings are SO much fun to play with.” Crystalline said, pouting a little.

“Oh don't worry my dear, I might not be into simple strippers, but I'm sure Brutus and I could make use of some of your OTHER services.” Lily winked, actually brushing against the Earth pony as she walked into the cockpit again, as though she were cuddling against her without actually breaking stride.

I looked at Brutus and he looked a mix of ashamed and embarrassed. “She's kidding.” He said when he saw the look on my face.

“Hey Crystal, can you come finish showing me the rest of these gags you have in your pack?” Lily called.

“Oh, of course, you have to see these dental gags I have, force the mouth open, you can put all kinds of things into the wearers mouth and they can't stop you.” She said, walking back into the cockpit, the door sliding shut behind her.

“She's kidding! She's kidding!” Brutus cried as Venture and I both cracked up.

“I'm sure she is buddy.” I sighed, sitting back against the wall.

'This'll be a great night I just know it.' I remember thinking. 'One of the most memorable of my life.'

And boy was I ever right...

Footnote: 20% to next level
> Chapter 16: Balls
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 16:

Now:

The prospect of opening trade with the rich occupants of Tenpony Tower was a great draw for the council and after a few more hurried discussions between themselves and then a few transmissions to some of the higher ups at Tenpony Tower we were on our way. We now found ourselves escorting an armoured cargo wagon through the sky, which was transporting a ton of food and supplies, that's not an exaggeration either, that is actually the weight of the stuff they were hauling. They had decided to send on more food as well as some building supplies and medicines. We were escorting the ship with another armed sky wagon, our team in our ship, minus Crackshot but plus Candy, another team on the other wagon, they'd fly back with the transport wagon once the food was off loaded while we continued on with our work. Tenpony had offered us free use of the hotel so long as we didn't make a mess or cause them any undo problems with the Enclave.

We arrived and the crew started unloading the massive crates of food and supplies quickly while a guard met us and escorted us into the tower. "I'm going to have to ask you to surrender any bullets, energy cell clips and explosives." He said, stopping at a guard station. "Of course." Brutus said. We pulled out our weapons, sliding out the ammo clips, snapping bullets from chambers and pulling grenades from packs.

"You'll get it all back when you leave." He said, putting it all in a box and locking it up. "We can offer you rubber bullets for protection if you need." Odd that no one remembered to mention that my guns were also energy weapons and ammo clips or not they were deadly.

"We're four unicorns, a changeling and a zebra, I think we can fend for ourselves."

"Don't forget Candy." Lily smirked.

"Oh you're right, she better take a couple clips." Brutus nodded, laughing to himself.

"You're hilarious."  The guard rolled his eyes.

"Can you point us to Homage?" I asked.

"Yo." The grey unicorn walked up to us before the guard could answer.

"Yo? Aren't you just too cool." Lily laughed.

"What can I say? Too cool for school."

"It's nice to finally meet you face to face Homage." I said.

"And you Doctor Cane, and this little sweetie must be Candy?" She asked, looking at the foal asleep in the sling under my neck.

"That she is." I nodded.

"Well why don't you come this way and we'll get you settled in some nice quarters while the higher ups do all their meetings and working out details?"

"Sounds like a plan."

/////////////

She lead us to the 'hotel' which was really just one of the floors of the tower, re-purposed and re-sectioned into more hotel appropriate design. A bellhop met us at the desk and took us back. "This will be your room Doctor Sugarcane." He said, stopping in front of one of the doors and handing me a key for the door. "This one is yours Mister Brute Force." He gestured to the other one across from it. "Yours is this way Ms. Lilith." He started up the hall again.

"Oh no, I can just share a room with Brutus." She said, laughing softly.

"Oh, of course, as you wish." He nodded. "We allocated rooms for each of you, except the foal of course..." This made Brutus smirk, "but if you're all going to share that is fine as well, I'm sure the manager will be glad know you'll only be needing two rooms."

"Four still." I said, gesturing to CB and Xem.

"Well, we can just share too." CB said, pausing and blushing, her mouth going faster than her brain could regulate.

"Fine, three rooms." I corrected, getting looks from the whole group.

"Of course." He nodded, giving the key to CB and starting back to the foyer.

"Cane, you feeling okay?" Brutus asked.

"What? They're grown ups, I trust them to act in a grown up fashion, even without adult supervision." I replied, getting sheepish smiles from both children, "it also helps that I'm three steps away from the room..." I closed my eyes and flashed down the hallway with my magic, "and that I've really mastered the teleportation spell."

"So we meet back here in an hour once we're settled and go from there?" I asked.

"I'll come back and take you up to the radio tower to meet with DJ Pon3." Homage smirked, waving and heading off down the hall, "and bring Candy, I never get to play with babies anymore, there's so few of em nowadays in the tower."

"Alright, meet back in an hour." Brutus nodded, heading into his room with Lily, CB and Xem moving down the hall to their room.

"Uhh, what about me?" Venture asked dumbly.

"What? You can't share a room with me anymore?" I asked, opening the hotel room door. "Like the hundreds of business trips we took?"

"Yeah, but your fiancee wasn't coming back with us."

"What about Las Pegasus?"

"Totally different, she surprised us, neither of us knew she was coming."

"Fair point, we can get you a room when the need arises okay?" I asked and he just nodded.

So with that we retired to our rooms for the time being, unpacking and unwinding, getting cleaned up and ready for the planning meeting that night.

10 months ago:

I think the point of a bachelor party is to celebrate your last night being single. The last time you have to chase tail, and do stupid, stupid shit. I didn't have any plans to chase tail or anything like that, this was more about making some good fucking memories for once in my life. 

If I remember right—which is to say, I might not—I think the night started somewhere around a club that was too busy already, but Crystalline licked her lips and batted her eyelashes and we were inside. The music was too loud, and I wasn't sure it really seemed like a good idea. Too many unknowns, I figured, but after a few bottles of Dead Buck Ale I was forgetting myself. We were out of the club so fast, I wasn't even sure what was going on. Next stop was some old bar, with old stallions milling around and giving us dirty looks. 

Venture lined up a few more bottles of something, that had a picture of a dog on the front. I squinted at it in the dim light, but then on the count of three downed the bottle with Venture and Brutus. Crystalline was still close by, but she was drinking water. “Mighty unprofessional for a the hired help to get drunk,” she said with a grin. Then we were moving again, bar hopping I realized, we were bar hopping. I remember laughing more then I should have, and wondered if I should be loosing my senses so quickly. 

We stumbled into a casino next, dropping more then we should have, Crystalline kept bring over drinks. Winking at each of us in turn, bumping her rump against whoever was closest. Venture was a few beers a head of me, five or six, I think. He was laughing and smiling, and I remember thinking that this was perfect. We were in the casino for hours, I was sure that days had passed, but we just kept drinking and playing. The whole thing ended when Venture stumbled and slammed into the side of a heavily armed earth pony, who was missing an ear, and still had blood in his mane. The stallion didn't appreciate having his drink spilled, and Venture was just smart enough to be an idiot about the whole thing. 

“You're gonna buy me another drink,” the stallion said. 

“You're—hic—gonna kiss my ass!” Venture answered. Brutus was the one who grabbed Venture and dragged the group of us out of the casino, giving the buck a stack of chips worth at least a few drinks. Another bar came next, then a different club with equally as loud music. Then we were outside, and stumbling. I was pleasantly buzzed at this point, but Venture was leaning against Crystalline like he didn't know how to walk anymore. Crystalline stopped next to a split in the road and whispered something into Venture's ear. He perked up and was off down another path. We followed him through the maze of the town until we weren't there anymore.

“Venture! What is going on?” I called, from a few steps behind him. 

“No, no! This will be amazing,” Venture shouted, as he rushed us all up this hill just outside of town. The area was nice enough, still within the guarded perimeter of the town, but not something I thought of when bachelor party came up. When Venture stopped, there were old houses around us, long worn away by time and war. The walls still stood on some, there were plants growing through others, and trees littered over the area. Brutus and Venture were grinning at me like maniacs. I took a step away from them, and fixed them with my best, “what the actual fuck is going on?” look. At least I was armed. 

The next thing I knew Crystalline was next to me, a large strange looking gun being offered to me. I used my magic to take it, holding it in front of me, and looking it over. “Venture...” I said slowly. The gun was topped with a large plastic container that was filled with small red pellets of paint. “How the hell?” 

“A gift from a ghoul named Crackshot? She said you'd appreciate the work of a weapon specialist,” Crystalline said, grinning at me. She had her own gun too, filled with the same small pellets, but her's were blue. “Now you better get that ass of yours running honey, because I'm giving you until five before I start shooting at it,” she said, cocking the paint ball gun. I laughed, and I listened. Brutus and Venture had already disappeared behind different structures. 

“Whoever gets hit the least wins!” Brutus yelled. His voice was quiet, far away from me. 	

“No cheating this time Sugar!” Venture shouted from a hiding place. 

“One time and you never let it go!” I shouted back. I ducked behind a crumbling wall, and I saw the first two pellets of paint explode on the side of it. Green paint, I wondered for a minute had that colour, and decided it was Venture. My heart pounded in my chest, as the adrenaline mixed with the buzz, and pleasant memories of a long gone life. We had played a few times when we were young, I had washed some of the paint off because the bastard always won. I heard Brutus shout out as he was hit, followed by Crystalline shouting in victory.

I hadn't thought of play fighting in a long time, running through the trees and houses, and just making it a game. I spent most of the game chasing Venture, and he did the same. It wasn't until a purple pellet exploded on my side, that I even remembered there were other players. “Shit,” I snapped, dropping low to the ground. Brutus let out a whooping noise from just behind me. I popped up from my hiding place, and fired three shots blindly. Each one coming into contact with some part of him. 

I dropped down again, and scanned for Venture. I had hit him twice already, but he had me three times. There was a swell of blue paint on his side, from where Crystalline had stuck him a few times. I tried to count the marks in my head, but found that with all the running and alcohol, I was having trouble focusing. I shook my head and set out to look for someone else. I dropped down low to the ground and started to crawl. I remember the feeling of a paint pellet exploding on my side, I remember turning to see who had hit me, then it was kind of blurry, I remember a burst of something cold and wet against my side, and then I was blinking my eyes open in my lab, sprawled out on the couch...my head pounding like I had been smashed into a wall. 

Everything was sore, most of the night before was a blur, though it was slowly coming back to me, and my body ached from tail to horn. Yeah, it was a great night.

Footnote: 50% to next level

Perk added: Wild and Crazy memories: A night of binge drinking the finest Wasteland swill, and surviving! Has resulted in you developing some pretty heavy booze tolerance. It's now twice as hard to get drunk to the point of being inhibited, and the effects last half as long.
> Chapter 17: New Friends/Consequences
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 17

Now:

“Who's a good girl? Yes you're a good girl.” I cooed at Candy as I changed her diaper, tossing the used disposable diaper down a garbage chute. Disposable diapers, one of the things that Venture had had the shocking foresight to stash away in his base all those decades ago, and I for one was grateful.

The olive foal giggled and batted her hooves at me, her horn flashing and she vanished from the bed, appearing in the air above my back....for the dozenth time...I caught her in my magic as she laughed and I set her back down, finishing the diaper. “You gotta stop that kid, you're gonna get hurt.” I laughed, leaning in and nuzzling her, making her squeal with delight.

“I gotta admit bro, you make a good dad,” Venture said, watching me scoop up Candy and flop on the bed with her, spinning her around in the air above my head and making faces at her, “and though it doesn't mean much I guess I owe Dad a hundred caps.”

“You bet Dad I wouldn't make a good father?” I asked, putting on a hurt face.

“I've never been so happy to be proven wrong?” He asked, laughing sheepishly.

“More importantly I can't believe Dad bet ON me.” I smirked.

“Well there were only two sides to the bet and I'd already made my choice.”

“Thanks.” I said flatly, pushing up off the bed. “You ready to go to dinner baby girl?” I asked, putting on the sweet voice again and heading into the hall.

“Aww Sugar come on, don't be that way!”

//////////

“I'm sorry DJ Pon3 couldn't join us for dinner.” Homage said, putting out some trays of the usual Wasteland foods. Everyone was sitting around a conference table, Candy sat beside me in an open crate lined with blankets, not a whole lot in terms of cribs I guess, but she didn't care, she had a bottle in her mouth, all four hooves working together to prop it up so she could drink from it fully. She had tried holding it with her magic and for a moment had had something of a grasp on it, but she lost it and just went with what she knew worked.

“That's fine, he's busy, we understand.” I said, though others at the table seemed somewhat disappointed to not be meeting the DJ. “How is the computer equipment working for you?” I asked, moving the topic on before anyone could express their disappointment.

“Oh they're still in perfect working order. Those M.A.S. systems were built to last I'll give em that.”

“Thank you.” Venture grinned.

“We didn't build the M.A.S. system.” I said.

“What? Are you sure? A computer that lasted 200 years and the apocalypse? That sounds like something we'd build.” 

“It's literally got Ministry of Arcane Science right in the title.”

“Yeah, I guess with all the work they did something was bound to eventually be good quality.”

“Says the pony who had to steal the plans for a Crusader Computer.” CB replied, getting quite a few surprised looks from around the table.

“What? Are we not joking about that yet? I'm the one that almost died in it.”

“You wouldn't have died, you would have been fine for the rest of time.” Venture said, shrugging a little.

“Anyway...” I said, looking up at Homage. “How does the supply trade thing look?”

“I think it's looking pretty good. There were council members practically salivating at the sight of all the different kinds of foods they were display...Hey!” Homage leaned back and her horn lit up. There was a giggled shriek and she pulled a laughing olive foal from under the table. “Where do you think you're going young lady?” She asked, spinning Candy around and setting her down on the table.

“I...what?” I looked down at the empty crate, half drunk bottle abandoned. “She must have phased through the crate...Geeze, her magic is really starting to pick up.”

Homage laughed and made faces and noises at Candy and made the foal laugh happily, reaching up and  grabbing her face, leaning in and nuzzling her, then grinning.

“AHH! That's adorable!” Homage looked like she might crack from the cute, and hugged Candy tight. “You make me wanna rethink some of my life choices little one.” She sighed, looking down at the baby.

“Well I'm gonna just throw this question out then instead of beating around the bush,” I said, sitting up straighter, “Homage would you mind watching Candy when we go out to do the exchange?”

“Oh? Yeah of course I can. A hostage exchange is no place for a baby.” She said, floating Candy over to me and putting her back down into the crate again.

//////////

10 Months Ago:

The comforting hum of electronics buzzed around me and I sighed a little. My back was aching but my coat was clean. I wondered how long I had been home, and what could have happened to knock me out. I shook my head, not the best idea, considering the hangover I was rocking, and then headed out of the lab, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Brutus and Venture were laid up, being forced to suffer through their hang overs. I made my way to Ruby and she smiled at me. “How was the party?” she asked. 

“Secret, sorry,” I answered, and she huffed out a laugh at me. 

“Well, have any fun with the stripper?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows at me. 

“If by paintball, then yes. Lots of strange crazy fun,” I told her, snuggling up to her and pressing my face into her mane, trying to shut out the light.

"Oh you're just a bunch of big babies." Lily said, stroking Brutus's back. He was snuggled up against her much like I was with Ruby.

"But my brain is borked," he whined, "I can feel the light from the bulbs. Just snuggle me and love me and make me better Lil."

"There's my big strong bruiser of a buck." She laughed, rolling her eyes.

Venture was slumped back in a chair with an ice pack over his eyes and a thick blanket covering the rest of him. "It was worth it."

"How'd we get back?"

"I waited up at the store." Lily replied. "Crystalline showed up with you three in tow, all of you dripping with paint and you three barely coherent. I sprayed you all down with a hose while she showered upstairs then we bundled you into the wagon and flew back. Cane you have to fix the auto turret too, you threw up in it while trying to call Homage."

"Aww shit...I didn't get through to her did I?"

"No, but you spent a good twenty minutes explaining how you wanted to tell her how awesome it was that she was a lesbian and that you totally respected it, but if she would let you watch just once it would be the best thing ever." Ruby said, looking less than impressed.

"I'm a lecherous drunk, what can I say?" I asked, giving her a cocky grin then cuddling back into her side.

"Don't give me that look."

"Well don't you three look like death warmed over?" CB asked, coming into the room with Xem.

I went with my first instinct, I stuck my tongue out at her, but because my face was still buried in Ruby's mane...

"Did you just lick my neck?" She asked, looking back at me.

"Nope, I stuck my tongue out at CB and your neck got in the way."

"Well, it's been fun my little ponies." Crystalline said, coming into the small room from one of the side halls, "but I must away, I have more meetings to attend to out in the great Wasteland."

"Crystalline?" Xem asked, looking at the Earth pony curiously.

"Uhh, yeah?" She replied, looking back at him with a similar expression.

"It's me...Xemnas."

She looked at him for a moment before her eyes widened in recognition. "Xem? Oh my gosh, you're all grown up!" She said, hugging him tightly, making him blush.

"Ahem!" CB said loudly, glaring at the two of them.

"Oh sorry." She said, stepping back from the zebra. "So this is your marefriend?" She asked, looking at CB.

"Uhh, yeah." He said, smiling sheepishly.

"Really?!" I asked, pulling away from Ruby and looking at them in amazement. "We spent all this time trying to get you two to admit that and then you just blurt it out to some random pony you happen to know?"

"Hey, Crystalline isn't just some pony I happen to know," he started, blushing again, "she's the Changeling I told you about remember?" He asked, looking at Ruby and me. "When you first came back from your trip?" He asked me.

"You're a Changeling?" Venture asked, pulling the ice pack from his face and looking at her. "How could you not mention that? We coulda had SO much more fun."

"Well, most ponies don't really take too kindly to Changelings, by the time I saw Lily I figured it was too far along to just casually bring up the fact that I had lied to you about myself."

"Fair enough." Venture sighed.

"So where's your grandfather?" Crystalline asked, turning back to Xem, "I haven't seen him in so long, I couldn't find him when I went back to town last, it's like the whole place has changed ownership."

"Oh, he's gone on to the Everafter." Xem said softly, looking down at the floor and sighing a little. "It was a year ago tomorrow."

I was simultaneously impressed that Xem had managed to keep track of the date, a lot of things like that weren't really big focal points any more, I couldn't remember the last time I had seen a calender that wasn't on a computer, and also saddened that I had never thought to keep track of that myself. So many ponies had died, I never took the time to mourn them properly anymore.

“Oh sweetie, I'm sorry to hear that. He was a great buck. I owe him a lot.”

“Yeah, me too.” Xem sighed, looking up at her again and smiling a little, though his eyes were still clearly sad, “but it's okay, I have a new family.” He said, hugging CB under his foreleg and holding her close.

“Damned straight.” Brutus said, trying to put on a strong voice, though he didn't get far with it.

“Oh really?” She looked around at the group, smiling, though her eyes were troubled, and as she looked at all of us her smile faltered. “You guys really are his family?” She asked, sitting down slowly, looking utterly crushed all of the sudden.

“Uhh, yeah, he means the world to us.” CB said.

“He might mean more to some of us than others.” Brutus said, chuckling a little.

“I...I can't...No I can't...” Crystalline muttered.

“What's wrong?” Ruby stepped away from me and put a hoof on her shoulder.

The Changeling broke down and started outright crying. “I can't...I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...” She grabbed her saddlebags and hugged them to herself.

“Sweetie what's wrong?” Ruby asked, sitting down in front of her, but the Changeling was lost in tears now, confusing everyone in the room, even more so the few ponies that passed through the area.

It was a very confusing few minutes while Crystalline cried and we tried to work out what was happening, but she finally got herself under control. She set the saddlebags down and flipped one open, fishing out a stack of computer hard drives.

“What are these for?” I asked, looking at them curiously.

“They're copies of all your directory files and encrypted data.” She admitted quietly. “I stole them over the last day.”

“What?!” Venture asked, sitting up in the chair and glaring at her.

“I'm sorry.” She sniffled. “T-The Enclave...They paid me a FORTUNE for this information...Enough that I'd have been able to retire.” She said, pulling out a few more hard drives from her other pack and setting them down. “But I can't do something that would jeopardize Xem and his family.”

“Do you know WHY they wanted you to steal this information?” Venture asked hopefully.

“Not a clue. They just said any files pertaining to the weather, strange weaponry and everything from the R&D areas for the last 25 years, not that there was a whole lot there.”

“You put the virus in the computer!” I said, suddenly realizing it.

“Yeah, it was to keep you distracted while I did my work in their systems. Kept everything offline and isolated, and you were dealing with a virus and looking for an external weakness, not an internal drive copy.”

“But...What?” My head hurt too much to process this information easily.

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I have to go.” She yelled, yanking away from Ruby.

“Crystalline wait!” Ruby demanded but the Changeling vanished in a flash of green magic and she was gone.

“Dammit!” Ruby stomped on the ground.

“What do we do now?” Brutus asked.

“We go through the data she took and try to figure out what the Enclave could have possibly wanted with data that old. Almost everything she wanted predates my system.” I said, looking at the stack of drives, my headache taking a back seat to my curiosity. “I just wish she hadn't run off...We could have helped her. Faked the data or something.”

“You just can't reason with some ponies.” Lily said.

“I guess...but even still.” I sighed, resting my head against Ruby again and looking at the hard drives quietly.
> Chapter 18: Departure/A friend in need
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 18:

“Now she's not usually fussy but if she does act up she really loves magic bubbles...”

“Cane...”

“And there's lots of diapers and food...”

“Cane.”

“And you can...”

“CANE!”

“WHAT?!” I looked up at the grey unicorn in annoyance.

“You're gonna be gone for TWO HOURS.” Homage said, rocking Candy side to side in her magic. “I can deal with a baby for two hours. Go save Ruby for bucks sake.”

“Yeah, yeah I know. I'm sorry, I've just...I've never left her alone with somepony else when I wasn't only a few rooms away.”

“I promise, she's in good hooves here. Doctors downstairs that can be up here in moments if the need arises, safe and secure in the tower, nothing will happen, now GO.”

“Alright, alright I'm going.”

I leaned in and kissed Candy's horn. “You be a good girl for Homage.” I said, nuzzling her gently before heading out into the hall. I headed towards the landing pad that our ship sat at while Homage headed back upstairs to the broadcast tower.

“She'll be fine.” Brutus said, seeing the look on my face when I emerged from the hall.

“I know, I just...I worry...” I shrugged, looking back down the hallway.

“And rightly so, but for now, we need to worry about Ruby and the trade and you can't be mopey about your foal.”

“Yeah,” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “you're right. Lets do this.” I got onto the wagon, taking ammo clips from Lily and loading them into Ebony and Ivory and sat down, breathing deeply to get my racing heart under control.

“Dude if you throw up I'm gonna be pissed.” Venture said, sitting across from me.

“I'll be fine.”

“Here, proper armoured barding just in case there's unexpected close range combat.” Brutus said, giving each of us black body armour and taking a third for himself. “Courtesy of the Tenpony Defence Force.”

“Nice of them.”

“Well I rented them.” Brutus said, starting to pull his armour on. I got up and started to do the same, as did Venture.

CB and Xem showed up as we finished redressing. They were both wearing armour much like ours and Xem had a Zebra hunting rifle on his back.

“Wow, how did you score that?” Brutus asked, looking at the black and white stripped gun on his back.

“Traded quite a few things for it.” He said. “Lotta caps, weapons, some gems I had tucked away...It just feels right to have a gun like this you know?”

“What's it shoot?”

“Electricity infused .51 mm.” He said, tossing Brutus a clip. “It was modified from a sniper rifle into something more variable range friendly.”

“Impressive.” Brutus gave him back the clip and he pocketed it again as CB closed the wagon door.

“Hopefully we won't need it on this run.”

“Hopefully.” I nodded.

CB walked over and sat beside me, leaning against me. “Don't worry Dad, it'll be fine, we'll get Ruby back, we'll give them the PCDM and hopefully blow up a shit ton of them in the process.”

“Hopefully.” I nodded, wrapping a leg around her back and hugging her close as the wagon took off into the sky.

“Hey Cane!” Lily called from the cockpit.

“Yeah?”

The radio in the cabin came to life, a song was just ending and then DJ Pon3's voice came on.

“Welcome back my little ponies.” She said. “I know this might sound strange, but I have a co-DJ helping me out for the next few hours. Say hello DJ Candy.”

There was a moment of silence and then Candy made a happy giggling noise in the mic then babbled a bit, following by the DJ chuckling.

“That's right friends, DJ Pon3 somehow got saddled with foal sitting duty, so my friend Candy here is going to hang out for a while, maybe we'll get her insight on the socioeconomic status of the Wasteland? Perhaps some thoughts on Wasteland agricultural techniques. Or maybe I'll make faces at her and she'll giggle. Make sure to stay tuned to find out.” As she finished speaking another song started up.

“See? She's in great hooves, and you'll be able to keep track of her all the way.”

“Yeah, I guess it's not so bad, knowing that I'll still be able to hear her while we're travelling.”

“So get your mind in the game and be ready.”

“I'm about as ready as I can hope to be pulling off a con like this.”

Venture sat down beside me, pulling out a set of instructions from his pack and starting to go over them. They were specific instructions for exactly how to power up and demonstrate the fake PCDM without it exploding in our faces. He had gone over it a hundred times but continued to fret over it constantly to make sure he was totally sure of what he was doing.

//////////

9 months 1 week ago:

In a pleasant turn of events...Nothing was happening...We weren't fighting with anyone, we weren't rushing off to deal with some crisis...We hadn't had down time like this in ages. Venture and I had spent ages pouring over the data Crystalline had meant to steal, but couldn't find anything concrete to really identify WHY they wanted all these seemingly pointless files.

So now we all sat together on a hill a short distance away from the hospital, still within the boundaries of the guard patrol, having a picnic of all things. It was a nice quiet peaceful day, not raining, no gun fire in the distance that we could hear. Brutus lay stretched out, his head propped against Lily's side, sleeping quietly while she read a book, CB and Xem were studying the cloud patterns, pointing out clouds that looked like things, though to me it always looked like a solid mass of impenetrable grey misery, but ponies had been seeing shapes in clouds going back probably to the beginning of time, so I could hardly fault them. 

I had a book of my own levitated in my magic while Ruby was playing Sugar Crush on my Pipbuck, my foreleg stretched out and held in her hooves. She had discovered that my and Venture's pipbucks supported custom applications beyond simply the radio and coding programs and she had fallen madly in love with Sugar Crush. I had originally just taken off my pipbuck but she kept getting carried away and she'd knock it and it would roll away and she'd freak out that she was going to lose the level, so I ended up keeping it on to keep it level.

“No no no...Celestia dammit!” Ruby growled, smacking the screen.

“You know I could reprogram it with the special items.” I offered.

“No that's cheating!”

“You could go back to playing Disgruntled Avians.”

“No that games stupid.”

“You've had Cane's hoof in a death grip for almost an hour.”

“Meh, it's fine, it went numb after the first 15 minutes.” I said, flipping the page of my book, trying to stay as nonchalant as possible.

“See? It's fine.” Ruby said, going back to the game. I was very grateful that she ran out of lives frequently and had to wait for them to recharge, otherwise I'd probably end up with a dislocated hoof.

“You're gonna get fat.” Lily giggled, sticking her tongue out at her cousin.

“I'm pregnant; that's happening either way.” She said without looking away from the game.

“You know you two are very calm about the whole thing. Most ponies are fretting about cribs and reorganizing their living space and what have you.” Xem said, looking over at us.

“Yeah, well I've already worked with quite a few babies and have a lot of it planned out in my head.” Ruby replied.

“And I am notorious for stalling until the last minute and then throwing it all together haphazardly, succeeding in the end but by the time it does we've spent way more resources and time on it than should have been required.”

“OH, well as long as you have a plan.” CB laughed.

“I always have some form of plan.”

“But do you really think you'll be ready to have a baby of your own to take care of and raise?”

“I'm about as ready as I can hope to be...”

“INCOMING!” One of the guards yelled from above, cutting me off.

We all turned towards the area the guards were rushing to. A black mark was soaring across the clouds, coming down towards the hospital way too quickly.

“What is it?”

“It looks like a pegasus?”

“No no, it's a batpony?”

“I think it's...”

“It's a Changeling!”

“Prepare to fire.”

“No don't!” I yelled, looking at the incoming target. “It's not showing as hostile in my HUD.”

The guards hesitated then threw a magic shield up, another a magic net, catching the target as it passed the barrier of the hospital walls.

They brought it down and set it on the ground. The Changeling looked like it had been beaten severely, cut, bleeding, one of it's wings all but shredded, some kind of thick metal collar around it's neck, whatever had happened to it, it was terrible.

“Crystalline?” Xem gasped, running over to the net.

“You can recognize her?”

“Of course I can!” He fell to the ground beside her. “Crystalline, Crystalline, speak to me! What happened?” He asked.

She groaned and just barely managed to open a swollen eye. “X-Xemnas?” She groaned. “The Enclave...” She gasped, coughing up blood. One of the guards had summoned medics and they were rushing out towards us quickly.

“What did they do to you?”

“C-Caught up with m-me, trying to sneak into town.” She wheezed, moaning in pain as the medics started to load her onto the stretcher they had brought. “Sold me into slavery.”

“This has to wait.” The medic said, starting back towards the hospital. “You shush and save your energy.” He ordered her as they headed inside. Xem stayed with them the whole way.

//////////

I walked down the hall, heading towards the medical wing. It was getting towards midnight and most everypony else had gone to bed already but the doctors had said Crystalline had stabilized and wanted to talk, so Brutus had gone down with Lily to talk to the other Changeling.

“How's she doing?” I asked Lily, seeing her sitting outside the med bay doors.

“She'll recover, but she's in bad shape. She says she was sold to slavers. She was one of dozens, maybe hundreds of ponies all being held there. We're not sure how she escaped yet, she fell asleep again.”

“So...”

“We're probably going to end up intervening...if Crystalline makes a formal request, the council won't say no. Slavers are pretty much top of the list on the things The Collective doesn't stand for after all.”

“True enough. Well I guess keep us posted?” I asked, turning to leave.

“We have a briefing scheduled for 0900 tomorrow so we'll fill you in then.”

“Alright, sounds good.”

“Have a good night.”

“You too.” I headed back towards my quarters, eager to crawl into bed and sleep for a while, though I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of what might be to come, and if I had known then what I know now, I might not have gone through with it at all...


Footnote: 50% to next level
> Chapter 19: The Slaver Incident Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

9 Months Ago

“Alright boss, what's on the schedule today?” Ruby asked when we entered the briefing room. Brutus stood at the front, looking way more serious than I'd have expected. Crackshot, Lily and two others I didn't know sat around a table. “Oh, sorry, are we late?' Ruby asked, looking embarrassed now.

“No, we're just starting,” Lily said before Brutus could say otherwise, “now sit down, this is apparently important.”

We sat quickly and Brutus cleared his throat. “Alright, so we have gotten a request for aid from a group of slaves,” he started, “it seems there is an old mansion about two hours flight north by northwest of here that is a brutal training facility. This request is coming from the Changeling Chrystaline. It seems that after she refused the Enclave they sold her into slavery. She escaped and came to us to beg our help saving the others in the facility, some of them still very young.”

“So what's the plan?” Crackshot asked.

“We're going to pose as a slaves being brought in by a slaver, looking to have them trained properly,” he sighed softly, looking away from Lily, who had the strangest look of glee on her face, “they are sex slave trainers.”

Ruby gasped softly and shook her head. “Nope, nope nope nope nope!” She said, wheeling back from her seat, almost falling to the floor before she remembered her wings and caught herself. “I refuse. I cannot pose as a slave, let alone a sex slave.” She sounded terrified, and justifiably so.

“Ruby, calm down.” Brutus said, coming over and putting his forelegs on her shoulders, sitting her back in her chair. “You don't have to be a slave. Cane and I are going to be the slaves.”

“WHAT?!” Ruby, Crackshot and I all exclaimed, and Lily cracked up.

“They train males to serve female owners.” Brutus said, standing back in front of the group. “Lily is going to pose as our owner. Cane you're going to be a preexisting slave, I'm going to pose as a new acquisition that Lily is mad isn't into mares.” Lily was still laughing. “LIL!” Brutus snapped and she straightened up. “Sorry hon...it's just...BAHAHAHA!” She fell out of her chair laughing again and Brutus rolled his eyes, throwing a magic bubble over her, muting her laughter.

“We're going to be outfitted with customized slave collars that we can use as weapons, we're going to get in and we're going to start a hell of a fireworks show and we're going to break as many slaves out as we can.”

“And we're going to get away how?” I asked, not impressed that this was all planned with no consultation from me before the decisions were made.

“These two.” Brutus said, gesturing to the two bucks that had said nothing this whole time. “This is Dead Shot,” he pointed to the first, a unicorn with a scar over his left cheek and some kind of red glowing cybernetic replacement in place of his eye, “and Bulls Eye,” he was also a unicorn, but his horn was gone, shaved down to nothing more than a simple raised bump on his forehead, a targeting sight carved into the flattened surface of his horn. “They're two of the best snipers in the wasteland. They were...conscripted...by The Pyros back in the day, and we're calling in their debt to us from saving them. They're going to cover our escape route from the roof of the sky wagon. Ruby I'd like you to pilot but you don't have to have any part in this if you don't want to.”

“No no...I can fly, just so long as I'm not being asked to participate in the plan itself I'm fine.”

“Okay good. So you and Lily will pilot our arrival and our escape. We're going to use one of the larger transports that we acquired from the Pyros. We can carry 40 ponies comfortably, and almost triple that uncomfortably if they don't mind standing and sharing.”

“Do we have the resources to take on that many new bodies?” Crackshot asked.

“We're hoping to have them under our care for no more than a day or two. Ever since Red Eye and his organization was destroyed by the Stable Dweller a few months ago the slavery game has been in chaos, and there have been massive strides made in the reunification of slaves with their families and friends. Ditzy Doo has been travelling the wasteland doing shipping runs and selling her Wasteland Survival Guide, and she has started carrying an ever growing database of ponies, both those looking for former slaves and those who are former slaves. Names, Cutie Marks, where they can be found, whole thing. Cane acquired a copy of the list for The Collective archives so hopefully we'll be able to use it to reunite a lot of ponies.”

Crackshot nodded, happy with that answer.

“Alright any questions?” Brutus asked. I could think of a number of half questions, but nothing solid.

“Alright perfect, Lily, Ruby, you two go with Dead Shot and Bulls Eye so they can prep the top of the sky wagon to be their sniper perch, and you can prep the sky wagon at the same time. Cane you come with me and Crackshot and we're going to get ready.

The group split up and headed out of the room.

“You don't think it might have been a good idea to at least consult me on this plan before implementing it?” I asked Brutus as we walked down the hallway.

“Told ya he'd be mad.” Crackshot smirked.

“Look Cane I'm in charge of this team and I don't wanna pull rank...” He started but I cut him off.

“You CAN'T pull rank, I'm not only the same RANK as you, I'm the head of the tech department for the whole organization and despite Venture's abilities with the systems they are still my custom built works and he can run into problems he can't fix without me.”

“I'm aware of that but there was no time to bring everypony in on the planning, we had to act quickly...”

“And what about CB?” I continued, “what if I die on this mission? She'll never forgive you if you got me killed and I had no chance to talk to her. She's on that class trip right now, they're going to the store we raided to see how the storage conversion is going and learn about how markets are set up, it's not like I can just go pull her out and say goodbye, if you'd talked me ahead of time or consulted me I could have talked to her up front too, and that's to say nothing of the foal growing in your best friend's stomach who might never know it's father, or it's uncle if we really fuck up and you get killed too.”

“Yeah but...”

“No buts, I understand the gravity of the situation and I'm going to go along with this because it's the right thing to do, but you better think before you commit me to something this risky next time.”

He didn't say anything more as we walked down the hall and into the armoury.

“Ahh, about time.” An older pony stood up from a desk off to the side of the room. Dozens of weapons lined the walls in locked cases, along with some strange looking things laid out on tables. I recognized some of it as disassembled weapons and components.

“Sorry sir.” Brutus said, standing at attention at the desk.

“Oh relax Brute Force,” The buck laughed, “I'm here to serve you, not the other way around.”

He got up and walked around us slowly. “Alright perfect, I can work with this. Lose the armour and the saddlebags, and you,” he pointed at me, “lose the pipbuck. Slaves don't get pipbucks where you're going.”

We stepped back and pulled off our armour, setting it down. Crackshot rounded it up for us and put it in a  locker.

“Now a little make up.” He pushed us on to a small shower area that looked like it had been swiped from a decontamination room. We both stood in the tiled alcove and water started to pour down for just a moment before stopping again. “Alright and part two, hold your breath.”

“Wha..?” I was cut off as a massive cloud of dust shot up at us from the floor and down from the ceiling at the same time. “ACK!” I got a mouthful of dust, coughing and spitting.

“Good job dumb ass.” Brutus laughed, shaking off the excess dust as hard as he could, leaving him looking like he was caked with grime and grossness. I did the same and was surprised to have achieved a similar effect.

We stepped out of the stall and Crackshot and the other pony started hitting us with towels, knocking off the extra excess dust and making it look less faked.

“Again, not what I was expecting...” I sighed, looking at my nice blue coat, all dull and dusty and gross.

“Oh quit your belly aching melon head.” Crackshot said, flapping the towel in my face. “You can have a nice long shower with your loving marefriend as soon as you get back.”

“Now here is the part that you really need to pay attention to.” The buck said, moving to a table covered with random electronic parts. He pulled three slave collars from the mess and moved to a clear table.

“These are Amazonian slave collars. They were a slaver group about 10 years ago; before they were absorbed by Red Eye. Most of the ponies you're likely to encounter out there are going to be former members of that group. They might actually be reforming the group now that Red Eye's organization has dissolved. They specialized in male training much like this group claims to so it's a good bet.”

The collars were heavy duty metal with three indicator lights, one green, one blue, one red. on the side and a locking clasp at the back with a padlock on it. No pony could ever hope to pick a lock like that if they were wearing the collar, the design made it impossible to get a clear view of it.

“So normally the collar would be locked into place on the neck,” he flipped one open and showed us how the hinge in the front swung open, dozens of wires and gems were visible inside the collar. “This one is unmodified. It's controlled remotely or by pressing on one of the lights, which double as buttons.  The collar also has magic suppression built into it so a unicorn can't escape.  Now you're going to want to make sure you remember this next part. We've modified your collars, obviously, we've removed the magic suppression and we've dialled back the punishment system.” He paused when the door opened and we looked up to see Ruby and Lily coming into the room.

“Oh would you look at our handsome bucks.” Lily giggled, coming over and looking us over. “You do good work Quartermaster.” She grinned at the older buck, and I realized I hadn't heard his name until now.

“Thank you Lilith,” he nodded, “now as I was saying, we have dialled back the punishment system in the collars.” He continued from where he'd left off. “Put these on.” He held out two collars and Brutus and I each took one and put it on. It felt somewhat constrictive but it wasn't overly uncomfortable or anything. Of course if it had to be worn forever it was probably in the designers best interest to at least make it somewhat comfortable. “So, under normal circumstances the collar has a wide range of pain settings.” 

He held up a remote and pressed a button on it. I saw the first light on Brutus's collar turn from green to yellow and I could see on his face that he saw the same, then another press turned it red, and another purple, then back to green.

“Green is a mild full body pain, we made it little more than a tickle.” He pushed the button and I felt the strangest rush of energy, but nothing unpleasant. “So fake some agonized groaning if you feel that.”

He changed it to yellow and pressed the button again, this time I felt the same sensation, stronger and kind of uncomfortable this time. “Actual pain, I'd suggest crying out.”

He switched it to red and I felt a real ache run through me, as though all my muscles were cramping at once. “You should collapse from that one, lie there panting and groaning.”

Finally it turned purple and he hit it and I felt real pain shoot through me, actually making me gasp loudly. “If you feel that, scream and play dead.” Quartermaster said bluntly. “It's the kill setting.”

“You got it boss.” I nodded, shifting uncomfortably, “what do the other lights mean?”

“The blue light is a reward system,” he explained, “since it's not painful we just left it as is.”

“How does it work?” Brutus asked.

“Lilith, come here.” Quartermaster said, she walked over slowly and he held the controller out to her, “point the controller at Brute Force and press that button.” He said with just the slightest of sly smiles.

Lily looked at the controller and grinned wickedly.

“What? What is it?” Brutus asked, looking concerned. 

“Ruby come here...you gotta see this too.”

Ruby wandered over and looked at the controller and giggled softly. “Do it.” She nodded.

“Wait, what does it, AHHHH!” Brutus cried out and fell to his knees, whinnying softly, panting hard.

“Brutus?” I stepped towards him but Ruby turned the controller in Lily's grip to face me and she hit the button.

I...can't really describe it...imagine the purest bliss you've ever felt, total contentment, happiness and peace with the world, nothing to worry about, a total euphoria that could never be disrupted...mixed with the most mind numbing orgasm you've ever had...

I must have blanked out because I found myself in a heap against Brutus, panting just as hard as him, coming down from a blissful high the likes of which I had never known, both Lily and Ruby in a heap on the floor, laughing hysterically.

“You're...gonna pay...for that...” Brutus grumbled, pushing himself up slowly. I stayed where I was for a moment longer before I pushed myself to my hooves again, trying to bring my breathing down to a proper level again.

“Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way,” Quartermaster continued, pretending as though none of it had happened, “we have to discuss the last little feature of your new fashion accessories.” He reached up and pulled my collar off, not by the locked spot at the back, but by tugging on the sides, pulling it apart on the left and right instead of front and back. The collar came away in two pieces, all the interconnecting parts visible, but no wires or crystals like the real collar.

He spun one around and hit some small part inside the collar and a ruby bolt of laser energy fired out, scorching the wall. 

“Holy shit.” Lily gasped, looking at it in amazement.

“They break apart into two laser pistols, equal in strength to the basic laser pistols you can find all over the wasteland. More than enough to hold your own in a fire fight, and borrowing some ideas from Doctor Cane's modified pistols we've incorporated Arcano-Kinetic rechargers so you can spin them to keep the clips charged instead of having to worry about reloading or running out of ammo while behind enemy lines.”

“Perfect.” Brutus nodded, snapping his own collar off the same way and studying it curiously, nodding to himself as he got a feel for the small holdout blasters.

“Alright I think that's everything.” Quartermaster nodded, sliding my collar back around my neck and into place. I took a moment to familiarize myself with unlocking it and bringing it to bear.

“Wait just one more thing.” Brutus said. He turned to me and let out a breath slowly.

“What are you...OW! YOU BASTARD!” I had been about to ask him what he was doing when he hauled off and clocked me in the face.

“Brutus what the hell?!” Lily snapped, throwing up a barrier between us.

“A little battle scarring.” He explained, “gotta have him looking well worn.”

“AGAIN WARN ME!” I bellowed, storming off away from him and starting for the door. “Thank you for the help Quartermaster. I'll try to return the collar intact.”

“Thank you,” he replied, “oh, and you can just call me Q.”

I nodded and stormed off out of the room.
> Chapter 20: The Slaver Incident Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I walked into the huge sky wagon we were taking. It was designed to carry a whole platoon, so there were lots of benches inside it, laid out to optimize the amount of seating capacity.

Dead Shot was securing an Anti-Material Rifle into a slot on the inside wall for the trip. He looked up as I entered the wagon and just nodded to me. I returned the gesture and walked into the cockpit, closing the door to just be alone with myself for a few minutes.

Sadly I would get only three minutes to myself before the door opened and Ruby stuck her head in. “Hey babe, whatcha doin'?” She asked, coming in, closing the door behind her, and sitting down beside me.

“Just mentally preparing myself for this. I'm not happy that Brutus seems to be trying to make this go as poorly as possible for me. He really dropped the ball on this mission.”

“I know,” she said simply, “I'm not going to try to make excuses for him or tell you that you shouldn't be so uppity about it. He left us out of the loop and he keeps making these rash jumps to decisions without consulting anypony else. Throwing this mission together, calling in our markers with Dead Shot and Bulls-Eye, cold cocking you in the face...I'm just not sure what's up with him lately, but every time I ask him he says it's nothing. Even Lily doesn't know, or at least if she does know she's not telling.”

“Well I suppose it can wait until we get back.” I said finally, shaking my head and standing back up. “Are we ready to head out?”

“Almost.” She nodded, “uhh, there's just one thing Sugar...another piece to your costume...” She blushed a little as she dug into her pack and came up with a cylindrical metal mesh cage with a small padlock on the base, much like the one on the collars.

“And just what are you planning on doing with THAT?” I asked flatly. I knew exactly what it was and I wasn't impressed with the implication.

“Come on Sugar, you're supposed to be a slave, you need to look the part.”

“I'm a well trained and loyal slave, why would I need something like that anymore?”

“You probably wouldn't, but if you're going to be in the care of strangers that your mistress doesn't intend to share you with, then this is just as much to keep them off.”

“I really don't want to do this.” I sighed, shaking my head, but after a moment I sat down again, leaning back against the wall. “Just put it down and I'll get it done.” I said.

“What, and deprive myself of the joy of strapping you into one? Hell no.” She laughed, moving towards me slowly.

The metal was cold and uncomfortable and the lock pinched at my skin painfully until I could squirm it free with a quick jerk to the side.

“See that wasn't so bad.”

“My stallion-hood is locked in a metal cage like a pet phoenix, I'm leaping for joy.” I rolled my eyes and sat down again.

“Well Brutus has one he has to wear too.” She offered.

“I suppose that's something at least.”

“Well listen, once you get home, I'll get it off of you and make it all worth your while.” She said in a sultry tone, kissing me passionately, which just made the chastity device ache all the more.

“I hate you...”

“Love you too...” She smirked, getting into the pilots harness. I sat kind of awkwardly against the wall, trying to keep the metal cage invisible with my hind legs.

The cockpit door opened again and Lily came in, opened her mouth to speak and then burst out laughing.

“What?” Ruby asked, looking back at her curiously.

“Brutus is sitting on a bench back there JUST like that!” She said, pointing at me. “All hunched up and embarrassed trying to cover it up. You two are just so cute.” She got into the co-pilot harness and strapped in. “Alright, lets hit it.”

I just grumbled quietly and looked off out the window, not saying anything.

The flight was relatively fast, too fast really considering how little I wanted to do this...

We set down in the forest on the edge of the city, seemed that's always where we ended up, on the edge of town.

“Come on my darling little slave,” Lily said, unhooking from her harness. She flashed with green energy and changed into a unicorn with a mean looking scar across her muzzle. Her eyes glowed dark for a moment, before setting on a dark purple, with blue sparking through the colour. She twisted a little as her skin changed from it's normal colour, to a dark blue that had spots fading to grey and white. The area around her eyes and lips pulled thin with fake age, and wrinkles. 

A cutie mark appeared on her side, a single rope looped over itself like a noose twisting along her side. Next she formed pieces of armour, starting with black leather boots that climbed up to her chest. Next a chest piece shifted into existence, it looked old and tanned. Thick leather that was pulled together with unnaturally white thread. Each patch had something on it, I squinted a little to try and make out the fading marks. It dawned on me, and I gasped without thinking. Cuties marks, her armour was stitched together cutie marks. I could see some that I recognized, some of ponies we had met before. 

“Are you kidding me?” I asked, looking at the armour.

“What? Not enough?” she asked, “it's still just my skin.”

“But it's horrifying! Even for the wasteland!” I said. 

“I've seen worse,” Lily answered with a shrug, “being Mare-Do-Well takes you to some of the darkest corners of the wasteland, this slavery thing is barely anything.” She shook her head, her new long black mane was twisted in a braid, with silver chains mixed into the hair. I realized then, that there was a series of metal rings through her horn. It would have been painful, if it had been real. I thought about the feeling of having something drilled repeatedly through my horn and shuddered. Lily trotted around the room, shaking out her new body, and examining her work. Her hind legs were covered in thick armour, all with cutie marks strung together.

Her tail was chopped close to her body, with leather strips woven into the little hair that was there, hanging down the rest of the way that would have been filled by her tail. She snapped her tail from side to side, cracking it like a whip through the air. “Well, I think this will do,” she said swinging her tail back and forth.

“Sure...Lets just get going...” I said, unable to keep myself from being terrified at the sight before me. I moved to the door and opened it, walking out with her.

Brutus stood up slowly, looking at Lily and gasping in surprise. “Lil...is that you?”

“Damned straight it is bitch.” She cackled, turning and whipping his flank with her tail, making him yelp softly in surprise and pain, “and that's MISTRESS from here on out, got it?”

“Yes Ma'am.” He saluted, smirking a little, “I expect to have some alone time with this unicorn down the road.”

“I'm sure something can be arranged.”

“Guys, how about you plan your weird fetish dates later?” I asked, moving to the door and opening it. Dead Shot and Bulls Eye were already taking their guns off the rack and moving to the roof to cover us.

We stepped out onto the road, it stretched all the way through town, a big gated mansion at the far end, guards walking along in front of it, walking the perimeter, a couple keeping an eye on us, since we hadn't exactly been subtle in our arrival.

We walked quietly in front of Lily, using ourselves as a shield, as a good slave would do I suppose, and stayed between her and the guards when we approached the front of the building.

“What do you want?” One of them asked, stepping from a small guard house when we were close enough. He was an earth pony with a mean looking battle saddle equipped with Gatling lasers and rusty metal spikes, I guessed for close up combat.

“I'm here to have some work done.” Lily said, her voice harsh but still feminine. 

“Oh are you? What makes you think we'd be interested in doing any WORK for you?”

“A nice big pile of caps.” She said, floating it out of her bag for a moment. “Not to mention the significant number of gems that my associates back at the sky wagon are keeping watch on until I return.”

“And if you don't return?”

Her horn lit up for a moment and a ball of magical energy shot into the sky, bursting like a flare. For a moment there was nothing, then the sound of splintering wood, then silence.

“That.” Lily said, pointing to the small guard house. A perfect picture of a dagger had been shot into the panelling of the building. “Except in all of you.”

The guard chuckled for a moment then laughed out right. “Alright fine. What 'work' are you looking to have done?”

“I caught this worthless piece of trash scavenging on my land,” she said, gesturing to Brutus, “I decided to spare him because he seems fit to serve me in the bedroom, sadly he shoes his hooves back to front.”

“He's gay?” The guard smirked. “Oh yeah, we can beat the gay outta him, no problem.”

“Ahh ahh, I want to preserve his good looks. He's no good to me if I don't find him stimulating to look at.”

“Fine, easily done. What about the other one?”

“Oh him? He's already well broken in,” She smirked, stroking my muzzle gently, “he's been my pet for many years now. Bought him fully trained. If you could just stick him in a holding cell while you get to work on the other one here that would be great.”

“Sure, come sit down with the boss and work out a deal. We'll take these two and make sure they're nice and comfy.”

“Not too comfy I hope.” She replied, “a stone slab is more than enough for them to sleep on I'm sure.”

“Easy enough.” He nodded, opening the gate and escorting us inside. We walked inside the house and I had to keep from throwing up. Dozens of slaves either were cleaning or being pulled along by slavers. The slaves out numbered the slavers in the area of at least two dozen to one, but the collars ensured their submission to their masters.

“You!” The buck escorting us snapped, pointing to a young mare. “Take these two down to the holding cells.”

“Yes sir, of course sir, right away sir.” She said quickly, moving to comply.

“Alright, you two behave while I'm gone.” Lily said to us, turning and looking seriously between the two of us. “Don't make me upset that I brought you on this trip.” She added, kissing my horn.

“N...No Ma'am, of course not.” I stammered, totally thrown by the gesture.

Brutus looked mildly offended and when she turned to him the look got him a hoof to the cheek. “What're you glowering at bitch?” She snapped, “he's earned his place as my pet, you're a worthless pile of taint.”

“Sorry Ma'am.” He muttered, getting hit again on the other side of his face.

“Speak up!” She demanded.

“SORRY MA'AM!” He said loudly, looking humiliated.

“That's better. Now behave while I'm gone.” She said, kissing his horn finally and starting off with the original guard while the other slave walked us downstairs. The whole basement had been torn down to the studs and cells installed. A lot of them sat empty, but there were some that had tired looking, or even completely passed out ponies in them, all looking similar to us, except they were actually suffering.

You could tell those born into slavery versus those that had been taken captive later in life. Slaves born into it, or at least brought into it from a very young age, had cuties marks like shackles or chains binding a heart, some had gags or whips, the one escorting us had what had to be some variation of the toy Ruby had back home, and from the awkward chastity harness she wore and the way she squirmed when she walked it was probably in place inside her.

Those that had been taken later in life had normal cutie marks, or at least normal for the wasteland, guns, explosions, lock picks, a pegasus with a sky wagon, an earth pony with a battle saddle, even a unicorn with what looked like a magical star burst.

“What are your cutie marks?” The mare asked softly as we came up to a pair of empty cells. “What do they mean?”

“Uhh, I'm really good with computers.” I replied.

“How good?”

I didn't want to get into too much analysis that might compromise our mission.

“I can hack pretty much any computer I've ever come across,” instead of 'I built every computer you've ever seen', “and I can write computer code to make computers do what I want, even if they weren't originally designed for it.” Basically accurate.

“I like to get up close and personal in my fights,” Brutus replied, “rather punch somepony in the mouth than shoot them from a distance.

“Well if you're here long enough they love to pit slaves against each other in the arena out back so I'm sure you'll get a chance to show off.”

“I hope not.” He said simply.

“Alright, in you go.” She said, opening two cages. Brutus and I looked at each other for a moment and sighed, stepping into them. There was nothing inside except a pile of filthy rags for bedding, and a hole  in the corner, the smell coming from it telling exactly what it was for, the sound of running water could be heard below and I risked a glance to see that it seemed to lead down into a sewer that ran under the house.

She closed the doors behind us. “Just stay quiet and keep your head down until your mistress can come get you and you'll be out of here soon enough.” She said to me.

“Well well, new trainees!” A voice boomed behind her, making her jump, turning in mid-air and coming down to face the new comer. “Oh we are going to have so much fun together.”

I recognized the voice and looked at the Pegasus that had come into the room. I felt my heart sink and my blood boil. It was Windbreaker...one of the bucks that had raped Ruby on her first night in the Enclave...the one that had almost broken her jaw.

“Uhh, yes sir...just this one...” The mare stammered, gesturing to Brutus, “he's here for training t...to appreciate mares properly. This one is already trained.” She pointed to me now.

“Why don't you get lost little filly?” He snapped at her.

“Yes sir, of course sir.” She said, bowing and running from the room as fast as she could.

I could see Brutus struggling not to tear his collar off and shoot out the bucks eyes right then and there, and I was feeling the same.

“So you don't appreciate mares?” He asked, looking at Brutus quietly, “What's the matter? You a faggot?”

“Actually yes.” Brutus said flatly.

“Oh, not surprised somehow,” he turned to me. “and you?”

“L-Loyal to my Mistress.” I said, stammering slightly, more out of rage than anything else.

“Damned straight you are,” He turned to Brutus again, “you see him? He's a proper buck. You'll learn to be one too.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Bru...” I hissed, upset that he might blow our cover too soon.

“Yeah Bru, listen to your friend.” Windbreaker laughed, “we wouldn't want to have to punish you TOO severely, we want to get you back to your owner in good condition,” he stepped over to my cell, “lemme see your collar.”

I stepped forward slowly and he looked at it. “Wow, this thing is old isn't it?” He asked.

“I...don't know sir.”

“It's old.” He said, pressing the blue button. Bliss and pleasure rushed through me and I blanked out for a moment, moaning in delight.

Sadly as the bliss faded I felt the sharp stab of a needle in my neck. “What the fuck!?” I yelped, trying to pull away, but I found my legs were numb and my mind was going foggy.

Windbreaker spat a syringe out of his mouth, expertly arching it through my cell bars and into the waste hole in the corner. “Don't worry, just a little obedience reinforcement for your mistress. She'll appreciate it.”

“I...buh...” The world was spinning and I could swear I saw pink mist filling my vision as I slumped against the bars, unable to pull my head out from between them, worse still I could feel a painful pressure in the chastity cage as I started to get aroused, whatever was in the drugs was a hell of a mixture.

“Go get one of the fillies from the waiting room. This buck is well equipped for breaking a few in.” Windbreaker ordered someone I couldn't see.

“Hey!” I could hear Brutus's voice, but I couldn't see that far anymore, the pink mist was filling everything up.

“No...I don't...” I felt the metal come away from my stallion-hood but I was spiraling into pink oblivion, I thought I heard crying but I was too far gone. Last I remembered the pink got dark suddenly and there was some kind of shaking and then nothing...

////////////
> Chapter 21: The Slaver Incident Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mares and Gentlecolts, name's Brute Force, best damned unicorn in the whole Collective, and most handsome to boot.

I'm going to tell the next part of this story, because, obviously, Cane was in no shape to recall the events, so better that I just write them and let him edit it rather than recounting the whole ordeal to him over and over while he writes it out himself.

Windbreaker had a needle tucked in his wing when he ordered Cane closer and triggered the reward on his collar, then as soon as Cane staggered from it he injected him. The liquid inside was an almost neon pink. I didn't even notice until he'd already injected Cane with it. I'm sorry to say I was blinded by rage from seeing the pegasus from Ruby's memories right there in front of me.

“Go get one of the fillies from the waiting room. This buck is well equipped for breaking a few in.” 

“Hey! What are you doing!?” I demanded, forgetting my cover as I saw Cane stagger and his eyes glaze over, taking on a pink tinge themselves.

“Shut your muzzle faggot or I'll shut it for you.” Windbreaker snapped.

A terrified earth pony filly came into the room, shaking from head to hoof, she looked no older than CB, but she had no cutie mark. She was chocolate brown with a straw yellow mane and a slave collar around her neck, a LOT fancier looking than the ones we had.

“You are in luck child, today you become a mare. Maybe you'll even get your cutie mark.” Windbreaker said to her, smiling evilly.

“W-W-What d-do I h-have t-t-t-to do?” She stammered, trying not to cry.

“Open the cell door little filly.” He gestured to the cell that held Cane.

She moved towards it slowly and pulled the door open.

“Now go in.” Windbreaker said softly, still treating it like it was nothing.

She walked in slowly.

“Step behind him and lift his tail. He has a metal thing on his penis. Remove it.”

“Stop it!” I demanded, struggling not to blow our cover, and at the same time not wanting the filly to be hurt.

“I said SHUT IT!” Windbreaker roared, driving a hoof into my muzzle and knocking me backwards across my cell. My fault for getting too close to the bars. Unfortunately it knocked me for a loop for a minute when my skull collided with the hard stone along the back of the cell.

“I-It's locked...” The filly whimpered.

“So pick the lock,” He said, pulling a bobby pin from his mane and throwing it into the cell, “You didn't have any problem picking the lock when it was on your cell.”

Cane was shifting a little but he was totally out of it, head slouched, even drooling slightly.

She shifted around behind him for a moment before I heard a click and saw the metal contraption fall away from his body.

“Now, get under him and put his penis inside of you.” Windbreaker ordered, clearly revelling in watching the sick act take place. My head was still reeling and I was trying to gather myself because at this point I was ready to strike.

“P-Please Sir...Please no...” She begged, “he...he's so big...Can't I just wear one of the training harnesses?” 

“You listen here FILLY, if you come out of that cell still a virgin, then I will be the one to take your virginity, and it's going to be long and painful if I do it. If you do it in there then at least you can go at your own pace of comfort.” He said, stepping aside to allow the filly the option to exit the cell, as if that was an option.

Cane groaned and muttered something incoherent, slumping down more.

“Time's up filly. Make your choice.”

I had reached my breaking point, if I didn't act this wasn't going to end well for the filly, and even less so for Cane, because I knew he'd never forgive himself.

I grabbed my collar with my magic and pulled it apart to fire. Luckily the sign I had been hoping for finally came. A massive explosion shook the whole place, dust falling from the ceiling and then the lights snapped off, plunging the whole area into darkness. There were screams and gunshots above as all hell broke loose.

“RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! RUN TO FREEDOM!” I heard Lily roaring, she must have transformed into something huge for her voice to boom like that.

“What the fuck...” Windbreaker started, but I had opened my cell door and I bucked him hard into the wall.

“Run little filly.” I said to the terrified girl in the cell, still cowering under Cane, who seemed to have totally lost consciousness. My horn grew brighter and brighter, filling the area with orange light, the girl scampering up the stairs and out of my sight, dozens of other ponies following her as the cells filling the basement sprang open as the power failed.

“What do you think...Ack.” Windbreaker started to say, but a hoof to the groin silenced him as I came to tower over him.

“You...it had to be you. I'm going to enjoy killing you like you wouldn't believe.”

“What? You're upset that I was going to use your friend to fuck some fillies? Grow up faggot, that's how the wasteland works.” He laughed bitterly, spitting at me. I ignored the spit.

“It's not how the wasteland SHOULD work. This hellhole we've cultivated disgusts me, and it's only the hope that I can make a better world for my family and my friends and my children that keeps me from putting a shotgun to my head and ending it all.”

“Well faggots like you don't tend towards children.” He sneered, “so you might as well just off yourself now.”

“You'd be amazed what you can do when your lover is a Changeling.” I countered, enjoying the look of surprise on his face, “however, this isn't about that. This is personal.”

“Personal? How can it be personal? I've only been down here a year. I never met you before.”

“Never met me maybe, but you know a good friend of mine.”

“Look I have trained a lot of slaves, it's just busin...” I cut him off with a blow to the jaw.

“You sicken me.” I raised the laser pistols and fired into his right foreleg, severing it clean off his body, causing him to howl in pain.

“PLEASE! I DON'T KNOW YOU!” He begged as I adjusted the pistols down and let loose simultaneous blasts into his wings, over and over until they were burnt, shrivelled and useless, totally irreparable. I stomped my hooves down over and over into them until the bones shattered and broke from his body.

By this time he was just a weeping ball of pain. “You want to know why it's personal?” I asked, looking at the cell door by where Cane still sat. Grasping the door in my magic I shot at a part of the flatter outer edge of the door, heating it with the lasers until I could tear a jagged shaft of it from the door. “You ruined my best friend's life. You tortured her, you raped her, you laughed in her face as you made her suffer.” 

I brought the jagged piece of metal over, spinning it rapidly to cool it off after the laser blasts, didn't want anything going too smoothly for him.

“Your friend? How should I remember...” I cut him off again, pressing the tip of the torn metal against the slit of his penis.

“Her name is Ruby Star,” I could see in his eyes, thinking it over before it finally clicked.

“The red filly...The one the Colonel wanted...She's still ali...”

“And kicking. This is from her, straight to you.” I drove the metal down, tearing through his stallion-hood with the rusty metal, from tip to balls, practically tearing it clean in two, leaving a bloody mess between his legs. He howled in pain, but the explosions and battle raging overhead drowned him out. I threw the metal to the ground and moved to help Cane.

“Come on buddy, lets get you the fuck outta here.” I lifted him up onto my back and held him with my magic, ignoring the all too erect penis that pressed against my flank, and moving out of the cell.

I started for the stairs, but stopped short. On a whim, and inspired all too morbidly by Lily's armour, I took up the jagged metal and roughly cut the cutie mark from Windbreaker's flank. “A memento, for Ruby. Maybe we'll start a collection if we find more of you fucking around on the surface world.”

He just whimpered and said nothing more. I took the pack he had brought down with him, seeing that there were more needles of the weird pink stuff, we'd want to have it analyzed just in case. So I stuck his Cutie Mark into the pack and headed out. I also, just because I'm a jerk like that, pulled a healing potion out of the pack and threw it at him with my magic as hard as I could. It shattered on his chest and the healing liquids seeped out, starting to fix up the wounds they came into contact with, helping ensure that any extreme damage he'd suffered wouldn't easily be fixed, since the potions couldn't heal his severed leg, or his destroyed wings...or any other parts of him I'd wrecked, but they'd do things like stop bleeding and healing over stumps, preventing reattachment.

I rushed upstairs. The top floor of the mansion was on fire! Seriously what did I miss? I hurried outside.

“COME ON BITCHES! STAND AND FACE ME!” Lily bellowed, swooping down and attacking fleeing slavers. She had transformed into a terrifying dragon, breathing jets of emerald flame down on them. There were some slaves here and there fighting with their former wranglers, but most, it seemed, had fled in terror as soon as the power had gone out. I saw dozens of slavers with a single bullet in their skulls, or necks, or nethers...Dead Shot and Bulls-eye certainly lived up to their reputations.

“LIL! WE GOTTA GO!” I roared up at her, using my magic to amplify my voice, “CANE IS IN A BAD WAY!”

Lily pulled up from another fire run and swooped towards us.

“What happened?!” She asked, landing hard in front of us, kicking up a huge cloud of dust as she did, and transformed back into her usual self.

“Long story. Can't you just fly us out as a dragon?”

“Are you kidding? Do you know how much EFFORT a dragon form takes? Not to mention focusing my magic into actual fire.”

“Alright alright, lets go.” I said, rushing out the front gates, a couple slaves just a few dozen feet ahead of us. 

“Come on come on come on!” I hollered at them, rushing past them through the town.

“LOOK OUT!” Lily squealed, pointing at the roof of a building. A slaver was perched above us, a pair of missile launchers in a battle saddle, and two missiles racing towards us already.

“I got it!” The stallion running beside us declared, catching the missiles in his magic and flinging them back at the roof, blowing the top off the building and causing it to start crumbling in on itself. “HOT DAMN! SWEET CELESTIA DID I MISS MY POWERS!” He cheered, throwing up a magic wall to keep the crumbling building from coming down on us as we rushed passed.

“I take it we have you to thank for that?” The earth pony mare running with him asked.

“Don't worry about it,” I grinned, “a friend asked us to act, so we did.”

“You're the friends Chrystaline talked about aren't you?”

“Yeah we are.” Lily said, pulling a carbine from her pack and firing at a couple slavers that came around the corner ahead of us.

“Well shit, I guess I owe her dinner.” The mare laughed.

“Well I can show you how to find her once we're safe.” I offered, shifting Cane on my back. He was freaking heavy and being a total dead weight didn't help.

“Why don't you ditch the stiff?” The mare asked, “he's slowing you down.”

“He's my best friend, and part of the reason you're not still in a cage back there waiting for another round of 'rape the mare' so you best just clam up about it.” I snapped.

“S...Sorry.” She stammered, going quiet and just running on.

We reached the sky wagon a few minutes later, about three dozen stallions, mares and children had made their way on board. Ruby was helping ponies get situated in the small area and was watching constantly for other arrivals, and to make sure no slavers snuck up on them.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SUGAR?!” She cried when she saw us coming up with him.

“Long story!” Lily said, since she didn't know either, “there was nopony else behind us, lets go lets go lets go.” She pushed Ruby towards the cockpit as fast as she could, hitting the button by the door to seal it again. The two that had been with us took seats with the others that had found their way to the ship and we moved into the cockpit, closing the door for the time being. 

I set Cane down gently in one of the crash seats and strapped him in. Ruby and Lily were already in their harnesses, powering up the ship.

“We're in!” I heard Dead Shot call through the door.

“Punch it.” Lily said and Ruby nodded, the wagon rushing forward and shooting into the sky.

After a few moments of silence Ruby finally spoke up, “so, care to tell me what happened to Sugar back there? He seems rather worse for wear.”

I launched into a long and detailed explanation of the events that took place in the holding cells, though I omitted the fact that he was one of Ruby's attackers for the time being, didn't want her freaking out or anything.

“So wait, he DIDN'T penetrate her right?” Ruby asked firmly.

“I don't think so no, but like I said, the lights went out, and I'm sure she stopped short.”

“Well...” She hesitated, “c-check and see if his penis is wet...”

“What?” I asked flatly.

“If she was worried she would have gotten herself aroused first to try and make it easier...”

“Ruby...let me stop you right there, I just ran, for almost two miles, with Cane's penis rubbing against my flank, it has to be the first, and probably only time, in my life that I have been weirded out by a penis that close to my ass, but I can promise you that if there had been any moisture on him I'd have felt it when we were running.”

“Alright...” She sighed, “I just hate to think of that poor filly...I hope she got away.”

“I'm sure she's fine.” Lily said, trying to be comforting.

“I know...and we can't save them all,” she said, getting quiet for a while.

About an hour into the flight, Cane started to groan and squirm, a pained look on his face.

“What's wrong with him?” Ruby asked, glancing back at him, looking more concerned than I'd seen in a long time.

“I don't know...I've never seen anything like the drugs they injected him with.”

“We need to get him home as fast as we can so the doctors can check him out.”

He whimpered and moaned louder, rubbing his forelegs against his stomach, clearly in pain.

“He's gonna hurl,” Lily said, looking at me seriously, “he's gonna...” 

Cane wretched and threw up, thick pink foam falling to the floor, fizzing and popping, distilling down into a simple puddle, the second wave soaked down his chest because of the way his head shifted as it came up. I got a bucket before more could come out and caught the rest. I could see pink tears forming on the sides of his closed eyes and then vanishing as they soaked into the fur under his eyes.

“Is he okay?!” Ruby asked frantically once he had finished.

“Yeah...yeah I think he'll be fine...” I said slowly, watching him to make sure he didn't have any more in him.

“Faster...We gotta go faster.” Ruby said, trying to force more out of the ship.

“Here let me...” Lily's horn lit up and a massive magic green shape appeared in front of us, shifting and turning into a giant wedge.

“What the hell will that do?” I asked, looking out the window.

“It'll cut our wind resistance.” Ruby said, gesturing to a readout that displayed just that and I could see it did drop significantly, while at the same time the speedometer was rising, not a whole lot, but every second could make a huge difference.

“Collective tower, this is Sky Shot Alpha, we're coming in hard, medical emergency, have staff on standby.” Lily called into an intercom when we were close enough.

“Roger that, land on outer field, medics and assistance personnel on standby to receive our guests.”

We came down quickly, sliding to a stop, probably faster than we should have, but Ruby had us down in record time and we could hear the freed ponies being shuffled out of the ship. I opened the cockpit door and grabbed a medic. “Hey, Cane's in a bad way, I don't know about these other ponies but he needs to get medical attention like, now...he's been injected with some unknown concoction of drugs and it's messed him up bad.”

“Alright Brutus, just relax. We'll help him same as the others.” The medic said, grabbing a stretcher and loading Cane onto it, taking the pack with the drugs in it at the same time. He was taken out past the healthy ponies still waiting to disembark and despite both Ruby's and my desire to stay with Cane we sat in the cockpit with Lily while the rest of the ponies in the back were unloaded and taken for processing. Finally once the wagon was clear and some techs stepped in to clean it up and put it away we headed out.

We immediately went to the medical wing to wait, sitting outside in the waiting area until we were given the go ahead to see him, which wasn't for hours.

“Word of warning before you see him, he's awake...but he's really messed up still.”

“Well, what about the drugs?” I asked.

“They're a horrifying concoction of things.” The doctor said, flipping a page on the clipboard he had and looking at it for a moment. “It's a mixture of Neurociline, which is an old neural control suppressor that was used to try and induce mind control, the Ministry of Morale used it before the invention of the memory orb, mixed with phuqital, which is a neural dis-associative, causes you to just stop giving a shit about anything, at least three different fairly common muscle relaxants and boner meds and an old Trottingham medicine called Ret-Con 5 that causes short term memory loss, the whole thing was fused with the contents of a healing potion since they're so good at spreading through a body quickly and effectively. The system also detected enchantments of some kind that prolong the effects of the drugs.”

“That's terrible.” Ruby said, looking beyond shocked by the explanation. “I have to go see him...”

“Of course, but like I said, he's going to be really out of it.”

“Yeah that's fine.” She said, hurrying off through the doors, into the area beyond.

“It's amazing how much you can tell about those drugs.” I said, looking at the list the doctor held.

“Well we're very lucky. As great as Doctor Cane was for upgrading out equipment, his brother has gone so far above and beyond to help us. He got us access to prewar data archives, thousands of hours of research, data on drugs, on diseases, methods for synthesizing drugs we haven't had for 200 years, it's like he was Luna sent to push our medical abilities forward.”

“Yeah, he's great,” I nodded, tired of hearing ponies sing his praises, “is he here?”

“Yes of course, he ran the tests on the drugs while we worked on Doctor Cane.”

“Is he coming to see his brother?”

“He said he'd be down as soon as he's finished with the report on the drugs. He's looking for ways to counteract the rest of the effects.”

“The rest?”

“Well we were able to counter the phuqital with some simple meds that counteract the effects, though it leaves him in a kind of drunk like stupor, and the effects of the muscle relaxants are fading on their own, seems they're the shortest lasting of the drugs.”

“Alright thanks.” I said, starting into the medical area.

“No, no Sugar, sweetie, you have to stay lying down.” I heard Ruby saying up ahead. I came up to the door and saw her trying to get Cane to lie down in the bed, he was partially pushed up, but slumped to the side. They had put grey rubber pants on his backside for some reason and he was trying desperately to push them off, but his legs wouldn't cooperate and he was helpless to do anything about it and he didn't seem to remember he had magic to try.

“Ruby please help,” he whined, looking at her desperately, “it hurts so bad...”

“It's for your own good.” She said, pushing him back down again. “Now STOP!” She added firmly.

“O-Okay...” He said, trailing off and shifting back on the bed, “I'm sorry ma'am.” He added, looking at her abashedly. 

“Don't be sorry, just lie down and get better.” She looked up at me and sighed, managing a weak smile, “Look Sugar, Brutus is here to see you.”

“Brutus! Buddy!” He threw himself into a sitting position again, but couldn't hold it and slumped to the side.

“Dammit Sugar!” Ruby growled.

“Here, I got him.” I offered, grabbing Cane in my magic and laying him out properly again.

“Brutus...Brutus...dude...I gotta tell you...I love you bud...” He laughed, grinning at me, “we were in those cages and I dunno what happened, but you...YOU got us out.”

“He's already talked about you twice.” Ruby said.

“No Ruby, seriously, Brutus is awesome. He saved my life, MY LIFE!” He bellowed that last part.

“Cane, inside voice.”

“What? Oh, sorry, sorry...” A nurse stuck her head in and looked at us curiously, “I'm sorry Ms. Nurse...I was talking too loud.” Cane said, nodding his head quickly, “I'll be quiet now, I'm sorry, I'm very sorry.”

“Cane, focus.”

“Oh yeah, so we're in the cages right? This big ass pegasus comes down the stairs, looks ready to start some shit...”

“Cane, why don't you tell this story later?” I asked, trying to shut him up.

“Nu-uh, I gotta tell the story. Uhh, right pegasus...Windbreaker! You remember Windbreaker right Ruby?” He asked, resting against Ruby's side, “he...he put his penis in yo bum...” Cane snorted and laughed, “I know you didn't want him to, and it was REALLY painful, cuz I saw your memories and I felt what you felt, but you have such a cute little bum...”

I flinched and looked at the ground, blushing deeply because I knew Ruby was glaring at me.

“Then what happened?” Ruby asked, trying to move Cane off the subject of her butt.

“I dunno,” Cane shrugged, “everything goes pink...I thought everything was supposed to go black...but it's all pink...is that weird?”

“No, it's from the drugs.” Ruby said, stroking his mane gently.

I could see her shaking and she was trying to console herself against Cane, and though he was just a dead weight in her hooves she still took great comfort in it.

“So what happened then Brutus?” Ruby asked, looking up at me, “you got away...did you kill him?”

I sighed deeply and shook my head. “I did worse, far worse.”

“Hold on sweetie.” Ruby said, sliding off the bed and laying Cane down again before walking over and looking at me intently. “What. Did. You. DO?” She asked, calm as anything, but with a barely concealed rage I knew could explode on me at any moment.

“I punished him for hurting you.”

“Not a good enough answer.”

I blushed again, “I cut off his leg, I scorched the wings from his body and smashed the bones that held them. I gelded him with a jagged piece of steel and I cauterized the wounds so they couldn't be easily healed with magic,” I paused a moment and sighed deeply, “and I cut the cutie mark from his flank and took it as a trophy.”

“So you tortured and maimed him?” She asked flatly.

“Y-Yeah...it was a heat of the moment thing, I was so blinded with rage from everything that was happening, recognizing him from your memories, remembering all the horrible things he did to you, all the horrible things he was doing to the slaves in that place, the children especially, and I just went off, I wanted to make him suffer, I didn't want to put him out of our misery, I wanted him to have to wallow in his.”

She sighed deeply and after a moment hugged me tightly. “Thank you Brutus...Does that make me a bad pony? That I'm glad you hurt him and left him to hurt?”

“No, it makes you normal. He got everything he deserved in that basement.”

“I love you Brute Force.”

“I love you too Ruby Star.”

“Guys!” Cane whined, taking us out of the nice moment we were having, “doesn't anyone love me?!” He whimpered.

“Not really no.” I said, grabbing him in my magic and lying him back again.

“That's not nice...I love you guys.”

“I love you Sugar.” Ruby said, going back over to the bed and kissing his horn again. “You're a good buck.”

“And you're having my baby so you're stuck with me.” He laughed.

“Well, I don't mind being stuck with you.”

“Good...” He hugged her tightly. “Hey Ruby? Remember before we went to confront Venture, and you came to me and said you wanted to have a baby?” He asked, getting quiet and seeming to focus intently on each word as he spoke.

“Yeah?”

“You remember we talked about how, if I died, at least you'd have a baby?”

“Yeah...”

Cane just smiled and sighed deeply, sitting back again and growing still.

“What? Cane...CANE!” Ruby cried, shaking him. After a moment an alarm went off as his vitals flat lined.

“NO! NO, LUNA DAMMIT CANE! COME ON!” Ruby screamed, shaking him harder.

“Move move move move!” A nurse yelled, rushing into the room with two doctors.

Ruby wouldn't move so I grabbed her in my magic and yanked her back, up and away from the bed, putting her down beside me, staying back as another nurse ran in with a cart in tow.

“Charge up the defibrillator.” The doctor said, grabbing a needle and driving it into Cane's chest.

Ruby sobbed loudly and I had to keep her forcibly held back so she didn't get in the way.

The doctor grabbed the paddles and pressed them to Cane's chest. “Clear!” The nurse moved back and the doctor discharged the paddles into Cane.

Cane screamed and shot up in the bed before falling back, panting hard. “The fuck was that?” He asked, but his eyes rolled back and he passed out.

Ruby started crying against me, in relief now at least.

The doctors worked for a few more minutes just to make sure he was okay, but his vitals stabilized and he relaxed so they cleared out and just the nurse stuck around for a bit.

“Jerk...” Ruby sighed, hugging him fiercely, “don't scare me like that. I can't take losing you again.”

He didn't answer this time, he was unconscious and we didn't know how long it would be for.

“Hey...” I heard Lily call from the hall. I turned towards her and she gestured her head, moving away from the door.

I followed out into the hall. “What's up?”

My question was answered with a slap across the face. “You fucking asshole!” She snapped, “I told you! I fucking told you that you were being too rash, and look what happened! Cane almost died.” She said angrily, stomping over to a chair and sitting down.

“I...I'm sorry.” I stammered.

“Sorry isn't good enough. I realize that you've been having trouble lately, but this self destructive bullshit isn't helpful. I'm talking to Ruby about it once Cane is better and we're going to deal with it.”

“No...No it's okay.” I said, sitting down  in front of her, “I hate to admit it, but I got the violence out.”

“What do you mean you got the violence out?”

“The buck that drugged Cane, he was one of the pegasi that raped Ruby back in the Enclave...”

She covered her mouth. “What did you do?”

“I...I gave him what he deserved.” I replied, “I beat him, I maimed him, I tore his penis in two with jagged metal and I broke a healing potion on him so that he'd survive his injuries but be unable to recover from them.”

“Shit Brutus...that's dark.”

“I was low...I haven't been that low in a long time.” I admitted, “in fact the last time I was that low I got my nickname after killing those Zebras.” I looked down at the ground, ashamed of my actions.

Lily's legs wrapped around me after a moment and hugged me tightly. “Alright, I'll forgive you for now, but if you start acting out again I'm gonna kick your ass and then we're going to have a serious talk with Ruby and Crackshot.”

“Yes ma'am.” I sighed, feeling a little relieved. 

> Chapter 22: The Slaver Incident: Part 4 (Finale)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright, I might as well take over again since Brutus's story gets boring from here...


The world crashed back down around me...HARD. My whole body ached, something was covering my backside, and I had the most uncomfortable erection...whatever I was wearing was pinning it to my stomach and it had been doing so long enough that I was aching from it. Before I could open my eyes to get my bearings I felt a small shift beside me, under my head. I opened my eyes slowly, I was in a bed, in a private medical room, back at the hospital...it was dark out. I looked down and saw the thing I felt was Ruby. She was lying on top of the blankets on the bed beside me, cuddling up between my forelegs, pressed up as much as she could, as close as she could, her muzzle buried in my neck.

I smiled softly and just held her closer, I had vague memories of...something...happening, I hated not remembering things..We went to the slavers...they put us in cages...A pink mist filled my mind and I couldn't remember any more.

I adjusted a little in the bed and met resistance against my back that I hadn't noticed before. I turned my head and saw CB snuggled up to my back, asleep as well. “Good grief, how big is this bed?” I muttered to myself.

“Is'a Gryphon sized bed...” Ruby muttered without really waking up. “CB swiped it from another room when we decided you looked like you needed someone to cuddle with while you slept.”

“Oh...well isn't that considerate.”

“Mmhm...now shush...you don't wanna bug Sugar, he's still sleeping...”

“Right, sorry.” I chuckled, snuggling closer to her, and despite the massive discomfort I felt I still managed to drift off to sleep again.

I woke again to the feeling of someone kissing my horn, I didn't know how long had passed but I felt the kiss then, “bye daddy, I'll be back after school.”

“Bye CB, I love you...” I replied quietly, opening my eyes slowly.

“RUBY! RUBY HE'S AWAKE!” CB squealed, running to the door of the room.

Ruby, Brutus and Lily ran into the room.

“Sugar! Oh my sweet baby!” Ruby cried, hugging me fiercely. I could feel tears falling to my neck.

“Yeah, yeah I'm good...” I laughed, hugging her in return.

“We were worried dude.” Brutus said, smiling a little.

“Nah, I'm fine. Don't even worry about it.” 

CB leapt up onto the bed and hugged me from the other side. “Seriously you two, I'll be okay...” I said, trying to squirm free of their massive embrace.

They finally pulled away from me and I sat up slowly. “CB, school, now...” I said, pointing to the door, Xem sitting in the doorway, watching patiently. 

“But...but...”

“But nothing young filly, he'll still be here when we get back.” Lily said, picking CB up in her magic and carrying her to the hallway.

“Aww come on!” CB whined, but she didn't break free of Lily's magic, so I knew she had resigned herself to her fate.

“I promise, I'm not going anywhere CB, I'll see you later.”

“You better be!” She said from the hallway, “I'll be so mad if you're gone again!” She was moving further and further down the hall with the Zebra and Changeling pushing her on.

“So...how bad was it?” I asked, looking at my friends.

“It wasn't good.” Ruby said, sitting next to me on the bed and wrapping a wing around me.

“You wanna come sit on the other side?” I offered Brutus, smirking a little.

“Dude...Gay...” He laughed, sitting on the end of the bed instead.

“Your loss.” Ruby sighed, resting her head against my neck.

“I'll live.”

“So what happened?” I asked again.

“They hauled us into the cells.” Brutus began, “Windbreaker hid a needle in his wing and injected you when he hit the collar. It shut you right down, you just slowly swayed and passed out and I was forced to carry your ass out.”

“What did he inject me with?”

“The doctor said it's some kind of mixture of a powerful hypnotic, a sexual stimulant, muscle relaxants and something to wipe your short term memory, all bound in a potion infused with some kind of magic to prolong the effects.”

“You're kidding...” I said, looking at Ruby in amazement. 

She slid a hoof down my front, along my still erect penis. “What do you think?” She asked. “I could tell you to do just about anything and you'd do it,” she laughed, “you're just lucky I'm not that kind of mare.”

“I'm not so sure...” I sighed, resting my head against her. She was happily cuddled up to me, but she was really tense, “are you okay?” I asked her, adjusting to look over at her, “is the baby bothering you?”

“No I'm fine.” She said, but I knew her too well now for her evasions to go unnoticed.

“Ruby...tell me the truth...”

“It's nothing really...”

“Dammit Ruby you're not going to start this again!” Brutus said firmly, “there was a point in the hours after we got you home...you kinda died...”

“What?!” I sat up again and looked between them, not sure they were serious, but Ruby was blinking back tears and there was no sign of amusement in Brutus's face.

“Your h-heart s-s-stopped.” Ruby sobbed, snuggling me tightly, “all the drugs, all the magic, they just made your heart seize up...Sweet Celestia I thought I'd lost you again...”

“Really? Seriously?! How many times can I die?” I asked, hugging her fiercely.

“We're not telling CB.” Brutus said and I nodded, “and it was only for about 40 seconds.”

“I'm sorry I scared you Ruby...” I said, kissing her lovingly.

“Yeah yeah, you just have to say that so I won't be mad at you.” She sniffled, giving me a coy look.

“You're right, I'm not sorry.”

“Jerk...if you weren't recovering I'd punch you.”

“You can punch me later...Wait, was that the night I woke up and you and CB were sleeping with me?”

“You really did wake up?” Ruby asked, “I thought I remembered talking to you, but you slept for two more days so I thought I imagined it.”

“No I woke up and you two were so wrapped around me I couldn't move to save my life.”

“Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep you trapped like that.”

“S'okay, I can forgive you this time.” I smirked, “just remember, next time you two wanna squish me like that a little advance notice would be nice.”

“Promise.” She nodded.

“So...who washed the grime off me? You let a nurse give me a bath?”

“Yeah,” she laughed, “I'm not putting in the time and effort to wash you when there are professionals to do it instead.”

“Fair enough. How'd we do with the mission?”

“We brought home about 40 ponies, hundreds more fled. Some pegasi scouts re-conned the mansion and it looks like the place was basically abandoned, they said there were some armoured ponies exploring the building but they didn't look like slavers, said the armour was too nice to be bandits. Maybe Mercs or Steel Rangers. I heard tell that Mare-do-well was going to do a sweep of the place later.”

“Oh, good of her.” I nodded, laying back in the bed.

“Or him.” Lily said, coming into the room. “I heard he/she just left an hour or so ago.” She said softly. “You doing better now egghead?” She asked me.

“I'll be fine soon as I'm out of here and back in my own space.” I shrugged.

“Well rest and get better and you'll be out all the sooner.” She nodded. “Brutus why don't we leave them for now? We can go have that meeting you were talking about before.” She said, heading out the door.

“Meeting?” I asked and he shrugged. “I think she just wants to get me to leave, but I'd have just gone either way.” He said, following her out of the room.

“She's right though. You need to rest and get better.” Ruby said, moving away from the bed. “And try not to think about the massive throbbing erection you've had for almost a week now. Or my hot, cute, tight bod as I leave you alone.” She said in the most sultry tone I'd ever heard from her. “Cane...don't even think about trying to pleasure yourself while you're alone. You can't do it, you're not allowed.” She said, winking before closing the door behind her. I could hear her giggling in the hall as I let out a soft wheeze. Whatever the drugs were they forced me to do exactly that. I lay there, every inch of me burning to get some carnal pleasure out of myself but Ruby's words rattled around in my mind and kept my limbs frozen, unable to act on their desires. The doctors would later explain that the hypnotic chemicals lingered for a long time in the body and because Ruby is my lover, the links the drugs formed in my brain made her my mistress too, loyal and obedient I would ever be to her. At least until the drugs wore off. Even though my mind didn't out right say it Ruby was now my everything. I'd do anything for her, even beyond what I would have done for her before. There was literally nothing I could deny her, and a large part of my brain had no problem with that. Even now, years on as I write this some part of me still feels that. I've done things for her that I'd have done for nopony else if my life depended on it. I love her fiercely and I always will but she really reveled in getting me to do things for a while and after a point I had no problem going along with it even after the drugs had worn off, and she knew it.

I love her forever, she's my Ruby and she's the best thing in my life, I can't think of a better way to describe her.

((Ruby note: He's a good bitch))