Fallout Equestria: A Robot’s Lament

Chapter 7: Discoveries

“A Darker Future….UNDERGROUND!”.

Right from the start, things didn’t go as I’d expected.

When I unlocked the cage, I expected the ponies inside to start thanking us for freeing them. Maybe they would be scared of us; I know I would if a killer robot was walking towards me. But what I didn’t expect was for them to bolt the moment I unlocked the door.

I barely had time to get a sound in before the ponies sped past me and out the shack door. One pony at the end stopped outside the cell, turned to me and said a quiet “thank you” before following the others.

That left me in a large shack with a half-cybernetic stallion and a dead corpse. And that was not a sentence I thought I would ever think about in my life.

I was also slightly upset; I had wanted to help those ponies. After all, being imprisoned must have been hard for them. And after what I’d been through, I wanted to help them get back on their hooves. But it seemed they didn’t want it, or didn’t trust us enough to give us a chance.

So with no more prisoners or slavers, that once again left me and Cyborg on our own. Only this time, we were covered in blood and in the middle of a slaver base of operation. If that wasn’t the perfect example of “bad place to be”, I didn’t know what was.

“Well they seemed alright,” said Cyborg. “At least alright enough to head straight out of here with no supplies”.

“I think they were just scared,” I replied. “But can you really blame them?”

“No, I can’t. But once again I’m forced to ask: what are we going to do now?”

That was simple; we continue on with our journey. Buck Crossing was still a few days away, and we needed to get there as soon as possible. The more time we wasted, the more likely the chance Hatchet would complete his mission and leave.

“Head back to the house; try and find any supplies you can. I’ll stay here and see if there’s anything useful”.

“If you say so,” said Cyborg before heading out the door.

Now it was just the two of us….me and the dead Boss. I trotted over to his body and sat down next to it. Blood still pooled around me, but I didn’t care. It wasn’t anything compared to what I was feeling.

“Fine, I’ll leave”.

That’s all he had promised; that he would leave. He didn’t promise that he would turn good and not harm anypony else. He didn’t say he wasn’t going to go get more of his goons to come and kills us. He didn’t say he wouldn’t try and seek revenge.

For a pony like him, that one promise wasn’t good enough. His crimes made him a pony that didn’t deserve to be alive. That’s why I had to kill him….that HAD to be why I killed him.

“I’m not a killing machine,” I said quietly. “I’m not like those synths”.

I killed him because he was dangerous, not because I wanted to wipe all of them out. If that was true, I would have killed Amber too. But I didn’t, so I had to be better….right?

“Right,” I said to myself.

I could have stayed there for a while, thinking about what I did. But we had things to do, and I still needed to find some useful items.

Right away I cast my gaze to the empty 10mm pistol that sat against the wall. I knew I needed a new gun, and there were plenty in the house I could choose from.

But my thoughts went to the gun that was in the pocket of the corpse in front of me. A gun that this pony fancied….but why thought?

Curiosity taking over, I encased the stallion’s jacket with my magic and began to work it off him. It wasn’t easy, but soon I had a nice black jacket clutched in my hooves. As soon as I did, a notice flashed across my screen.

It read SLAVER COMBAT JACKET ACQUIRED. It then told me it’s defense strength and how much it was worth. I had no idea how that Pip-Buck chip could tell all of this, but I knew at this point it was no use thinking about it.

I placed the jacket on top of the corpse and patted it until I felt the lump I was looking for. I reached into the jacket with magic and pulled out the pistol that had once been pushed against me and Cyborg’s heads.

From what I knew about firearms from Master Smithson, it was a 9mm pistol. But what I hadn’t noticed when the stallion had been using it was how it looked. It had a silver shine to it, and the entire body of the pistol was engraved with ivy and floral details. The grip was made of some kind of granite material...and it had an image on it.

The image showed Celestia, with her eyes closed and wings outstretched as the run rose up behind her.

Once again, a noticed flashed across my screen. It read CELESTIA’S THUNDER ACQUIRED.

“Celestia’s Thunder,” I said as I looked over the gun.

From what I could see, it was definitely a gun made for unicorns. The mouth grip that came standard for most guns was nowhere to be seen. It seemed like this was made to be controlled by magic, which I guessed is the reason that stallion had it.

I mean, who wouldn’t want a gun that not everyone could use. It probably meant less ponies that could use it against him.
To see what else made this gun special, I pulled up the inventory program that came with my Pip-Buck chip. The only two items in it were the battle coat and Celestia’s Thunder. Under the image of the gun sat all the characteristics and stats about it.

From what I could read, it was powerful. A high damage level combined with an uncanny resistance to direct hits from most other bullets. There was also a lightning bolt icon located under the damage level. I had no idea what that meant, but I had a feeling I would find out eventually.

I took the gun holster from the dead stallion, strapped it to my leg, and slid Celtasia’s Thunder inside. I threw the battle coat over my back and began to search for anything else that could be useful for the journey ahead.

Most of the things around the shack were junk, but I was able to find a few healing potions and a syringe of med-x. It wasn’t something I could use, but Cyborg still had organic parts. Hopefully he could make use of them….but of course I wish that wouldn’t be the case.

Once I’d looked through the entire shack, I gathered what I collected and headed back inside the house. Cyborg was in the first room, using his magic to move all the dead bodies into a corner. The blood had started to dry, but thankfully I couldn’t smell the irony smell that came from it.

Once the last bodie was cleared away, Cyborg collected the four guns that were left over. As he did that, I turned my attention to Hope.

Her body was still how it was when I left: lifeless and stiff. Her eyes were half open, letting me see into the ever-expanding darkness that….no, no I wasn’t going to go through that again!

I trotted over to the body and slowly pulled the eyelids down, helping to make her look like she was sleeping. It still left a dead….robot….in the middle of the room. So I turned the couch back over and levitated Hope onto it. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do for now.

Cyborg trotted over to me. “I saw her when I walked in. But I, uh, didn’t want to do anything until you got here. I figured she was the pony you were locked up with”.

I noticed how confused he sounded when he said “pony”. But I was glad he said it anyway.

“Yeah,” I replied. “She was….and the one who helped me escape”.

Cyborg nodded, but kept his eyes on Hope. “Well she has my respect for that. Even the ponies that ran off are subconsciously thanking her; whether they know it or not”.

If that was true, then I was happy. If Hope would get remembered for saving ponies, then that would mean she didn’t die in vain.

“So, what’s the plan,” asked. “Are we still heading out for Buck Crossing?”

“That’s right,” I replied as I turned away from Hope. “We need to get there as soon as possible, so I suggest we get what we need and leave”.

Cyborg shook his head. “I wouldn’t recommend it; the sun’s going to set soon. I think it’s best if we stay here for the night and head out in the morning”.

That was just what I wanted to hear; that we’d have to waste more time. I was sure we could make it a few miles and camp outside. Why we had to stay here was beyond me.

But Cyborg had lived outside a lot longer than I had. If he said it was best to wait till morning, there was probably a good reason for it.

But if we really were going to stay here, I wanted to make sure something was all clear before letting my guard down.

Levitating Celestia’s Thunder out of the holster, I turned and walked towards the door to the basement. I had to make sure Amber was still locked up; having her on the loose was the last thing I wanted.

As I got closer to the door, I noticed that it was already halfway open. I wasn’t sure how far I’d opened it when me and Amber broke out, but I decided to keep my guard up for the time being.

Heading down the stairway, I scanned the room as soon as it came into view. But what I found filled me with worry: the cage was empty. The door was wide open and a half-crushed shock collar sat near it.

“Shit,” I said under my breath before running back upstairs. As I emerged into the room, Cyborg turned towards me. He looked about as worried as I was. “Amber’s gone!”

“Who?”

Of course; he wasn’t in the basement when we locked her up. Why did I expect him to know what I was talking about.

“Amber, one of the slavers. Me and Hope locked her in the basement, but the cage is empty. She must have got out when we were in the shed!”

Cyborg’s worry didn’t leave his face. “The door was open when I came around the front. Did you close it before you came to the shed?”

I nodded. “I didn’t want something walking in while I was helping you”.

“Then she fled,” said Cyborg, turning to the open door. “Probably down the 34; a pony like her wouldn’t try for Trotsville”.

This wasn’t good; not good at all. We had a deranged slaver pony on the loose. She could be going to get more of her friends right now, ready to tear us apart.

“We have to leave,” I said with a notch of sternness. “If she comes back with more slavers, we’re dead”.

“I don’t think that’s the case”. Cyborg walked up and looked me in the eye. “Slavers don’t conglomerate near each other; they spread around. This is probably the only slaver base for miles. By the time she finds another one and heads back here, we’ll be heading towards Buck Crossing”.

I raised an eyebrow. “How can you be so sure?”

Cyborg was silent for a moment, keeping his gaze down towards the floor. “When you’ve been chased by everything from synths to slavers, you learn a little about them”.

He looked up and gave me a “I don’t want to talk about this anymore” look. I guess it did it’s job, because I simply nodded and said nothing more on the subject. Instead, I shifted our focus to our current situation.

“So we stay here for the night, then head to Buck Crossing,” I recapped. “We’re going to need our strength to get there fast enough. You should go ahead and sleep. I’ll keep watch and search for supplies”.

“Are you sure; I don’t feel that tired yet. I can stay awake for a while and let you power down. That’ll give your systems a chance to have a break”.

It was only after he explained his reasoning that I remembered I still had a hole in my back leg. It had seemed like a hindrance when I first got it, but my system must have adapted to walking with a stiff leg.

Leaving it untouched would only make it worsen over time, and that was something I couldn’t let happen. “I guess I should get my leg fixed before I take watch….so, what happened to my bags?”

My saddle-bags had been filled with spare parts and other scraps to help repair myself. Unfortunately my bags had been taken when the slavers got us, and I hadn’t seen it since.

Cyborg gave me a frown, sighing sadly. “They took whatever was useful and threw the rest in a ditch on the way here. I saw them do it, but couldn’t stop them”.

I blinked in surprise. “What? How am I supposed to repair myself when I don’t have any parts to work with?”

I could tell from the face he was making that Cyborg had a solution. But at the same time, I could also tell he didn’t want to mention it. After a few seconds, he gave in and turned his head back to me.

“If you want spare parts, there’s plenty on the couch behind you”.

“Wait, was he talking about who I thought he was talking about,” I thought. Turning around, I only saw the body of Hope lying on the couch.

“I know she helped you, but now she has a chance to help you again. I can use her parts to repair you,” explained Cyborg. “What do you say?”

It just felt wrong; cannibalizing one machine to fix another. Ponies had done it before the war, and were probably still doing it now. But none of those machines had had a mind, and saved ponies from becoming slaves.

It was like….no….it was defiling a body.

But at the same time, I knew I had to get to Buck Crossing as fast as I could. Failing to repair my leg would only slow us down, even if walking with it was normal by now.

“Okay….but just the parts you need. Nothing more,” I said with some strain.

“Take a seat on the couch,” said Cyborg. “Have the leg facing outward”.

Even with a body occupying it, I was able to sit at the far end of the couch. Cyborg went up to Hope’s body, igniting his horn at the same time. He slowly used magic to cut a section of fake skin away, revealing the leg mechanics underneath.

I looked away as he took out the parts he need before turning to my leg. Silence passed as metal rods and lengths of wire floated in and out of the “wound”. Cyborg took the busted parts and placed them near where the other supplies were kept. Maybe he was hoping to put them to use later?

After a while, Cyborg attached the last wire and stepped away. “There, that should do it. Try walking around and see how it feels”.

I moved off the couch and tried raising the damaged leg up. To my delight it moved flawlessly, and the few walks I did around the room only confirmed this. In fact it was feeling more mobile than before it was shot.

“Wow, even better than new,” I noted as I stopped near the grinning stallion. “Whatever parts you took, they really did the trick”.

“Thats TSIM for you; only using the best when building pony-like robots”.

Well even if they were making me better, I still had to remind myself that the parts came from another pony. I tried to tell myself that now a part of her was with me, but it still felt wrong in some way.

Once I finished testing my leg, Cyborg and I continued searching for supplies. We found an assortment of guns, ammo crates, and two Ministry of Peace medical kits. The guns were pretty banged up, but I assured Cyborg that I could make at least one or two good guns from the lot.

After a while we took the supplies we found back to the main room and laid them between us. The guns consisted of two shot guns, six 10mm Pistols, and one 9mm pistol. Cyborg had also looted some leather pads from the slavers I’d blown up, taking the best pieces for himself and leaving the rest behind. He’d also found two small jars full of caps, which he decided to let me hold onto.

“This should be more than enough to get us to Buck Crossing,” said Cyborg. He pointed at the guns and said, “Can you really do something for those?”

“One of my masters had been the head of a weapons distributor before the war. He programed me to know about guns….mostly so I could be ready to use one if someone broke into the house”.

Cyborg shrugged. “Well in the long run, I’d say it was a good idea. Knowledge on guns is important in the wasteland”.

Yeah, that was because everything out here tries to kill you! Robots, mutated creatures, slavers, and who knows what else?

“Why don’t you go ahead and get some rest,” I said as I sat down in front of the guns. “I’ll see what I can do here and keep watch”.

“If you say so,” said Cyborg. He trotted over to a small mattress we’d moved from the rooms above. He laid down, closed his eyes, and was soon snoozing soundly.

I went to work on the guns, pulling them apart and checking to see which parts were useable and which weren’t. Soon, it was just me working on the guns.

In a way, it was almost peaceful.

As the night turned into morning, I found myself once again sitting down and reading. After finding another mattress upstairs, I set it next to Cyborg’s and began digging into another book.

It did feel slightly strange to read a book about life that had died out nearly 200 years ago. After everything that I’d seen, a story about a mare and the love of her life was now looking like fantasy. And the story about a robot in a post-nuclear world with radioactive creatures and evil organizations was now the reality.

But a good book was a good book, and I wasn’t going to let the real world ruin it. If I did, it would just give the wasteland another edge over me. And personally, I think it had enough already.

I was indulging in one of Flurry’s many long-winded speeches about love when Cyborg started to stir. I marked my place and waited until he’d fully opened his eyes and rose from the mattress.

“Morning,” he said with a yawn.

“Good morning to you too,” I replied. “Get enough sleep?”

“I hope so”. Cyborg walked over to the pile of supplies and grabbed a pack of Sugarcube Corner Mini Muffins. “So when should we head out?”

I rose from the mattress and trotted over to the supply pile. “Maybe twenty minutes,” I said as I began filling our saddle-bags with the supplies.

“Works for me,” said Cyborg through a mouthful of muffins. “The faster we get out of this place, the better”.

He was right; getting as far away from this place as possible was top priority. If Amber was planning on gathering more slavers, it was important to leave before they arrived. And the more time we spent out in the wasteland, the more time Hatchet had to leave Buck Crossing.

I finished packed up the supplies; dividing the load into two saddlebags for me and Cyborg. After that, we did one last scan of the room before heading out the door and down the 34 once again.

The next hour passed by rather quickly.

After leaving the slaver’s den, I set the map to Buck Crossing once again. It was still about a two day walk before we got there, but we had plenty of supplies.

We also had enough protection in case we got jumped like last time. Cyborg was now wearing a few leather pads, while I wore the Battle Coat I’d scavenged from the dead slaver boss. If the stats on it were true, it would help protect me from another servo-disabling bullet.

After setting the map, I also tuned into Ponytunes Radio. Soon the sweet tunes of Sweetie Belle were pouring out into the dead wasteland.

“....LET THE RAINBOW REMIND YOU, THAT TOGETHER WE WILL ALWAYS SHINE!....”

“And that was Sweetie Belle, performing one of her last recorded songs: Let the Rainbow Remind You. And if I’m going to be honest listeners, it’s one of my personal favorites.”

“Now onto the news. And it looks like we have a major news story to talk about today folks. But be prepared: this isn’t going to be a happy one. If you live far to the south of Baltimare, or are in deep with the Trader community, you may know of a settlement called Trotsville”.

When they said Trotsville, both me and Cyborg stopped in our tracks.

“And if you do, I ask that you pause for a moment in memory of all those that recently lost their lives. You see Trotsville was the most recent host of a Synth attack, which left ⅔ of the town dead. The reports are sketchy, and there aren’t that many comments from anypony left alive. However, I can report that the Synth attack was apparently to track down somepony who, and I quote, ‘Had TSIM Technology’.”

I took a glance at Cyborg, who wasn’t looking that well. His face was neutral, but I could tell that he was feeling pain underneath.

“And when the pony in question walked into the firefight, he apparently brought with him ANOTHER robot pony. The metal stallion in question was said to have talked with the synths before they were all zapped into unconsciousness by a Pulse Grenade.”

At the mention of the grenade, Cyborg rubbed his metal legs. I had a feeling he was still feeling the effects of having only parts of his body shut down. My entire body had gone offline, which actually wasn’t as bad: at least I wasn’t conscious the whole time.

“Now before you all start thinking the other robot was just a synth being clever, my informants tell me otherwise. It turns out this pony saved the techno-theif from a few other Synths earlier that day. And when they arrived in town, they tried to take out the synths attacking the citizens. Now I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty heroic to me”.

“Unfortunately, we have no reports of the robot’s name as of yet, so I’ve taken it upon myself to give him one. And that name is….The Butler. Now before you ask why, let me explain my reasoning. This robot is apparently a pre-war robo-butler, so the new name fits rather well if you ask me.”

WHAT?! This mare could basically find out my life story, but couldn’t get my name! Instead she goes and decides to call me “The Butler”! This was crazy!

“So Butler, if you happen to be listening right now, I have something to tell you. Thank You, from all of us at Ponytunes Radio. You may not have actually saved the town, but you at least tried. And out here in the wasteland, that’s the best you can ask for from most ponies”.

“Well ponies, it looks like my time is up. But fear not, we have some more tunes coming at you. And I’ll be right here, waiting for the time when we can chat again. Until next time, this is The Whisperer, and you’re listening to Ponytunes Radio! The best radio in the Wasteland….no matter what that no-good DJPon3 says about us.”

Soon the mare’s voice was replaced by calming music, but it did nothing to calm my mind. This “whisperer” had just made me out to look like some kind of hero, even after I’d failed to save the town from the synths. All I did was distract them while somepony else threw the grenade. If anything, I was just a tool to the real hero of the fight.

Still, I felt some hope with the knowledge that the town’s fate was now widely known. Now traders and real heroes would head there to help the town rebuild. It would take a lot of time and effort, but at least they had a chance to get things back to the way they were.

When I explained this to Cyborg, nodded slightly. “Perhaps,” he said looking forward. “But now there are others out there who know of a settlement that is crippled, and they’ll be eager to jump on them when they’re down”.

I hadn’t thought about that; a crippled town would be a target for slavers and other groups. Hopefully they would get a little back before that happened.

Wanting to change the subject, I thought back to what Whisperer had said at the end of her broadcast. “Hey Cyborg,” I asked, “who’s DJPon3? I know of a pony before the war that had that name, but I doubt they can be the same”.

“Huh,” said Cyborg, “I thought you would have heard of DJPon3 by now”. He paused, “Despite what Whisperer says, Ponytunes Radio isn’t the biggest station in the wasteland. That honor goes to Wasteland Radio”.

“A fitting name,” I said to myself.

“It’s run out of Tenpony Tower in Manehattan, and Broadcast all over Equestria. DJPon3 is the name given to whoever runs the station, something passed down from one host to another”.

All over Equestria? Did that mean I could pick it up? I shifted through the radio frequencies until I found one labeled Wasteland Radio. I tuned out Ponytunes and activated Wasteland Radio. Instantly the songs of Pony Marcus were replaced by the saviory voice of Sweetie Belle’s Johnny Guitar.

“So what’s the difference between Wasteland and Ponytunes,” I asked.

But before Cyborg could respond, the music ended.

“HHHHEEEELLLLOOOO WASTELAND!”

“Yes, it is I, DJPon3, here to give you some riveting news stories and just a little bit of humor. Because let’s face it; we all need a laugh once in awhile”.

“So what’s in the news today? Well we have increased raider activity over near Ponyville, which isn’t anything to be surprised about. We also have word that Red Eye’s forces have moved on some of the smaller settlements near Fillydelphia, so If you live anywhere close to there, I suggest you pack up and get the hell out”.

“And that’s all the news I have for you today. But don’t worry, there will be plenty more when we come back. Until then, this is DJPon3; bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts”.

The stallion cut out and was replaced by music, but I switched the station back to Ponytunes. Just because DJPon3 was new to me, it didn’t mean I wanted to explore his station more.

“Well, he definitely doesn’t put as much time in his broadcasts as Whisperer,” I commented.

Cyborg shrugged. “Well unlike Whisperer, DJPon3 reports news from all over the Wasteland. He likes to keep his reports short so he can talk about more than just one story”.

Maybe that was true, but I’d prefer news updates that were long and more informative over ones that were short and to the point.

I kept thinking about this until something caught my attention. A notice flashed across my screen that read “Distress Signal Found”.

Instantly, my thoughts went back to the first distress signal I’d found on my way to Trotsville. That one had led me to Caliber and his group. If I had taken time away from my journey to help them, maybe I could do it again.

“Hold up,” Cyborg stopped and looked at me. “I’ve picked up a distress signal”.

I switched the station over to the signal and listened carefully.

“To anypony along the 34, assistance is required. I'm trapped inside a Stable, and any tries to make it to the exit are impossible. If there is anyone out there who can help, please come to the following coordinates. We’re running out of time and won’t last much longer!”

The message began to repeat itself, so I turned the radio off. Cyborg looked at me; his eye(s) filled with an intense inner struggle. He was torn, just like me.

“Well,” he said, “what should we do?”

I was silent for a moment, thinking over what we could do. The coordinates appeared on my screen, and the map showed me the Stable was only a short distance away. But if we had to help, we’d more than likely have to use our guns. We didn’t have a large supply of ammo, and I had a feeling we’d be needing it in the future.

But once again, I thought back to Caliber and his group. I had helped them, even when I was focused on making it to Trotsville. If I had stopped my journey and helped them, I had to do the same for these ponies.

“We can’t just ignore this,” I said sternly. “That pony needs help, and who else out here is going to if we don’t?”

Cyborg nodded. “You’re right. So where is this Stable?”

I took the lead and headed towards the spot shown on my map. Cyborg followed close behind me.

***

After a few minutes of walking, we found a side street that broke off from the 34. Unlike the highway, this road wasn’t empty. Broken carts filled with metal crates filled the right side, leaving the left side open. Pony skeletons were strapped into the harnesses of the last few carts, while the ones at the front were empty.

The road ended at a small security booth, behind which was a large parking lot. The lot itself was filled with large metal crates and earth moving equipment, as well as many more pony skeletons. Some were still dressed in their midday clothes, while others had been charred so badly the white bones had turned black.

Cyborg and I slowly made our way across the lot, trying not to disturb the remains of long dead ponies. From what I knew about Stables, we would most likely find the entrance in the large cave that sat on the other end of the lot. A rusted iron gate sat before it, now having lost its structural integrity.

I levitated Celestia’s Thunder out of it’s holster, then looked back at Cyborg. “Keep your eyes open. Something could easily be waiting for us inside”.

Cyborg nodded and unholstered his own gun. The two of us walked through the rusted gateway and into the dim cave. Thankfully the glow of our magic provided us with some light. The pathway wasn’t that narrow, but not wide enough for more than two ponies to walk side by side.

It also wasn’t that long either. After a few seconds, we found what we were looking for. Directly in front of us was a concrete wall with a large cog-shaped door. The number 50 was painted in the center with bright yellow paint, with a few patches of rust dotted here and there.

“Stable 50,” I said to myself.

I stopped in front of the door and observed my surroundings. A small control panel sat to my left; meaning I’d probably have to hack into it to get the door open.

But what also caught my eye was a small cart next to it. It was all metal, and was filled with an assortment of items. These ranged from record players to rusted metal cans.

“Think it belongs to the pony who sent the signal,” asked Cyborg.

“Probably,” I said as I headed for the panel. “Let’s just hope the ponies inside haven’t killed him yet”.

“....uh, you think there’s ponies living in there?”

I looked back at Cyborg, who was giving me a look of confusion that I matched. “Well yes,” I replied, “it’s a Stable. You know what they were built for right?”

“I do,” said Cyborg. “But how many Stables have you been too?”

“Just one,” I replied. “The one that my Masters were sealed in”.

Cyborg looked like he was about to say something, paused, then shook his head. “Just wait and see”.

I had no idea what he was talking about, so I decided to ignore it. Instead I unhook my connection cable and inserted it into the panel. Once again I began sifting through the codes in the system before finding the right one.

I unhooked myself and slid the panel switch down. An alarm rang out as the stable door slide out of it’s hole and rolled away. I held my hooves up to my face, expecting a blinding flood of light from the inside.

However, there was no light.

I lowered my hoof and moved closer to the opening, poking my head around the side. To my surprise, I found the stable entrance deserted; not one single sign of life. I thought for sure that as soon as the door was open, ponies would flock to the entrance to see what was going on.

But my E.F.S. wasn’t picking up any life signs. I looked back at Cyborg, who only gave a small shrug. He clearly knew something was up, but was deciding not to tell me. So, I’d just have to figure it out of my own.

Moving through the opening, I looked around the deserted entrance area. The whole place was covered in dust and grime, with patches of rust forming on the opening mechanism. Walking up the stairs, I found a deactivated terminal on a small desk. But besides that, there wasn’t much here.

“It’s seems a little empty,” I commented as Cyborg followed behind me. “Did the ponies here leave already”?

“I hope so,” said Cyborg quietly.

The way he said that just helped me confirm that he knew something. But I didn’t have time to think much about it before something unexpected happened.

“WELCOME TO STABLE 50: YOUR NEW HOME UNDERGROUND!”

Cyborg and I jumped in surprise as the voice echoed throughout the room. It sounded like a mare, but had the authoritative voice of a stallion. I also noticed four speakers dotted around the room, which explained where it was coming from.

“BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOU NEW LIFE UNDERGROUND, WE NEED YOU TO KNOW A FEW RULES”.

The voice stopped, and the door in front of us opened. What sat on the other side was a large, rusted robot. It had traction wheels, a large cylindrical body, and a glass top with a brain in it.

I had seen these before the war; they were called Robo-Brains. They used real brains as their central processor, and were proven to be quiet useful in many different situations.

The Robo-Brain rolled into the room, it’s arms carrying two circular devices. They looked like collars, but were foam padded and had three small lights on the front.

“In order to proceed into the Stable, we need you to put on these stylish collars. The purpose of them will be revealed in time, but they are required for entrance”.

Cyborg moved forward. “And what if we don’t wear them?”

I didn’t expect the voice to reply, but I found myself corrected.

“All those that don’t wish to wear the collars may exit the Stable and return to the outside. No one may enter without wearing a collar”.

So if we wanted to help the pony who sent the signal, we’d have to wear the collars. But why; what were they for? And why were they so important that we couldn’t enter the Stable without them?

Cyborg walked up to me and leaned his head close to mine. “I don’t like this Garcon. I think we should leave; this has the word ‘bad’ written all over it”.

“And leave that pony to die,” I whispered back. “If we don’t help him, we’ll have that guilt for the rest of our lives”.

Cyborg was silent for a moment, then whispered, “If that means we don’t die, I think I’ll get over it”.

That was it, I wasn’t going to discuss this any further.

I walked up to the Robo-Brain, took the collar from it’s arm, and latched it around my neck. The padding on the inside kept the metal from scraping my ‘skin’, and a slight hum rang through the device once it was latched on.

“I’m going to save that pony,” I said sternly. “If you don’t want to help, stay by the door. I’ll be out as fast as I can”.

I narrowed my eyes, “but if you actually want to help, take a collar and follow me”.

The next few seconds were filled with tense silence. Cyborg and me shot looks so sharp they could cut a brick in half. But eventually, Cyborg sighed and took the collar from the Robo-Brain.

“If we die because of this, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said as he slid his collar on. It too vibrated when it was attached, and the lights on the front blinked.

“THANK YOU FOR ACCEPTING THE CONDITIONS FOR STABLE ENTRANCE. YOU NOW HAVE FREE ACCESS TO ALL CIVILIAN SECTIONS OF THE STABLE. PLEASE NOTE THAT AREAS RESERVED FOR SENIOR MEMBERS OF STABLE STAFF ARE OFF LIMITS TO CIVILIANS. FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE RULES WILL RESULT IN SEVERE PUNISHMENT. HAVE A GREAT DAY, AND ENJOY YOUR NEW LIFE UNDERGROUND!”

The voice cut out and the Robo-Brain rolled back through the doorway. I moved forward and stepped through the doorway after it.

On the other side was a large hallway, at the end of which were two different paths to take. Inbetween the hallways were two signs; one pointing left and the other pointing right. The one pointing to the left read MEDICAL WING. The one pointing to the right read LIVING QUARTERS.

The robo-brain had slid itself into an indent in the wall, and looked to be in some kind of rest mode. Cyborg and I walked past it and stopped at the end of the hallway.

“So,” said Cyborg, “where do you want to start looking?”

“Well, there are two paths to take,” I noted. “Maybe we should split up to cover more ground. I’ll look around the living quarters, you see if they’re in the medical wing”.

Cyborg looked uneased. “I’m not sure Garcon. In a place like this, it might be safer to stay together”.

I raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

Cyborg looked like he was going to explain, but instead he shook his head. “Nothing. Let’s just split up and try to find this pony. I don’t want to stay here longer than I have to”.

Cyborg turned on his hooves and headed down the left hallway. Praying to Celestia that he would be alright, I turned and walked down the right hallway.

As I proceeded down the path, I took a chance to observe the Stable. The walls and floor all had a thick coat of dust and grime on them, indicating that they hadn’t been cleaned in some time.

“Guess the ponies must have left this Stable a long time ago”.

The end of the hall was an L corner that lead down another hallway. A doorway was a short pace from there, with a sign above it that read LIVING QUARTERS. I headed for the door; hoping the pony would be located there. If he was, then it wouldn’t be that much of a challenge to get him out of the Stable.

Reaching the door, I opened it and stepped into the room beyond.

From what I could tell, this was a gather place. Couches sat along the walls, and tables filled with old books were scattered around the room. One of the hanging lights had snapped off and fallen to the floor, covering the area with broken glass. The other light flickered, giving the room a rather spooky feeling to it.

At the other end of the room were two doorways, in between which was a still functioning terminal. Each had an illuminated sign above them. One of them read FAMILIES while the other read SINGLES. From them I guessed that families lived in one section of the Stable, while those that didn’t have a family lived in the other.

“Still, I should look in both,” I said as I crossed the room.

Turning to the family section, I pressed the button to open the door. But all that resulted from that was a section of quick beeps. I tried again, but the same thing occurred.

“Okay, this is strange”. The door didn’t seem broken, so there had to be another reason it wasn’t opening. I glanced over at the terminal, and decided to give it a look over.

However, I found the terminal locked. But if I could unlock two stable doors, I doubt there was any lock I couldn’t crack. So I plugged myself in and sorted through the data. Once the terminal was unlocked, I found three different programs on it.

One was labeled FAMILY QUARTERS UNLOCK. The second was labeled SINGLE QUARTERS UNLOCK. But the final one was labeled DATA LOG.

Curiosity overtook me and I selected the data log option. There was only one log on it, and it only had one sentence.

It read: THE LIGHTS….THE LIGHTS ARE THE REASON!

I had no idea what that meant, or why it was written on here. So I decided to ignore it and instead selected the program to unlock the family quarters.

Once I’d stepped away from the terminal and opened the door, I found myself in another hallway. Three doors were stationed along each wall, each leading to one of the quarters. At the end of the hall sat a stairwell, which likely went down to more rooms.

I made my way down the hall, checking each room. They consisted of a small living room, and at least two bedrooms. However, almost all of them showed no signs of anypony living in them recently. The beds were all made, everything wasn’t too dusty, and all the decorations were perfectly aligned.

“This place almost looks new,” I commented as I made my way to the final room. “But it’s almost 200 years old. How can that be?”

I opened the door and walked into the final room, which looked the same as the others. However, this one had a terminal sitting on a nearby table. It looked intact, so I headed over to check it out.

Fortunately, it wasn’t locked. So I was able to start it up and observe the entries listed. There were five in total, so I clicked on the first one and started reading.

ENTRY 1:

What a day; the world ends and we’re locked down here to start a new life. Never knew the apocalypse would find me in a place like this; safe and protected from the shit outside. Thankfully Cherry Pie and Knuckles were allowed in too. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost my family.

Still, this place is giving me an odd feeling. Mainly because we’re forced to wear these stupid collars. They won’t even tell us what they’re for; just that they are essential for entrance. I don’t know if other stables are like this, but it’s going to be killer on my neck after a while.

ENTRY 2:

Been a few weeks now, and everypony seems to have settled into the place. Knuckles is enjoying school and playing with the other foals, and Cherry has been assigned to the Cafeteria. Thankfully it’s a short walk from our room; she always hated the long trek to her other one.

As for me, I’ve been assigned to security. I wasn’t sure about it at first; my track record with guns isn’t the most….clean. But they said I was good enough, so that’s my job now. Mostly I’m just patrolling the stable, making sure no one’s breaking curfew or getting into fights. Not the most exciting job, but it’s not the hardest one either.

But after being here a few weeks, I’ve noticed something about these collars. The three lights on me and my family’s are all out, but I’ve seen a few ponies that have one of the lights on. Not only that, but someone on security said his light up after he bypassed the password on a security terminal.

I’ve got a strange feeling there’s something wrong with these collars. I’ll just have to wait and see if more lights start to appear.

ENTRY 3:

I knew it, I knew these collars had a purpose. More importantly, I think I know what makes the lights turn on.

Yesterday I caught some stallion stealing food from the cafeteria. But I saw him a few minutes before then, and he only had one light on his collar. But after he took the food, he had two lights.

And then I remembered how one of the security ponies had gotten a light after bypassing a terminal password. Well get this; both of those are against the stable rules. We got a small booklet filled with all the rules we can’t break, and those were two of them.

That must mean the lights turn on after we break the rules. That would explain why me and my family's collars haven’t light up; we try and follow the rules. But that also means I can tell how many times ponies have done this, and most of the ponies in the stable already have one light.

But that just makes me wonder: what happens when you get to three?

ENTRY 4:

Shit just went down today, in more ways than one. We’ve only been down here for six months, and already somepony got to three lights. It was Puncture; one of the ponies working in Maintenance. I didn’t know him well, but I knew he wasn’t a pony to mess with.

Anyway, he got his third light after picking a fight with another stallion in the atrium. I was on my patrol at the time and ran over to break up the fight. The other stallion got a few bruises and a black eye, but wasn’t that hurt. But just as I was about to lecture the two, something strange happened.

Two of the robo-brains that help those in maintenance came into the atrium and said Puncture had to come with them. Didn’t even give him a moment to respond before they grabbed him. He was kicking and screaming as they dragged him out of the atrium, but of course nopony tried to stop them.

Later, I heard from one of the mares in security that two more ponies had gotten to three lights. And just like Puncture, the robo-brains had come and taken them away. Nopony had seen or heard from them since.

I didn’t like the way this sounded, so I decided to go talk with the Overmare. I asked her what had happened to the three, but she just told me it wasn’t any of my business. Said I should keep out of things that don’t concern me.

Let’s just say she was glad I promised to follow the rules, otherwise she may have ended up in the Clinic.

ENTRY 5:

It’s….It’s been awhile since I’ve written one of these. Things in the Stable are going downhill fast. More and More ponies have been getting to three lights, and more and more are being taken away.

I wanted to find out where they were going, so I tried following them when they were dragging Click away. They took him to a room in the lower levels, and the door closed before I could get a look inside. I waited for them to leave, but they didn’t come out. And since the door was terminal locked, I couldn’t get inside.

I don’t know what they’re doing in there, but I do know that the ponies that go in don’t come back. The stable population has dropped to just over 600, meaning we’ve lost 40% of the Stable’s population in over one year.

I’ve talked it over with the ponies in security, and we’ve decided that we need to leave. Even if the world outside is certain death, it’s better than waiting for the robots to come and pick us off one by one.

Tonight, we’re going to storm the Overmare’s office and taking control of this Stable. We’ll make it outside or die trying.

***

I sat in the empty living room for a while, simply reading the last entry over and over again. It wasn’t because I was curious or confused, but because I simply couldn’t believe it.

These ponies had been through hell, and this stable was the one place they could escape from the war. Then they get down here, and there’s a whole new danger waiting for them.

Did Stable-Tec know this would happen? If the Stables were meant to save ponies, then what had gone wrong?

I took a few minutes to compose myself before turning back to the terminal. There wasn’t any more log entries, so I had no idea if the ponies got out. But I didn’t see any skeletons, so maybe they did.

In any case, I still had a pony to save.

Leaving the room and moving out to the hallway, I made my way down to the second floor. All the rooms here were empty, and it was the same for the other two floors as well. The Single rooms didn’t have anything either, so I guessed the pony must be in another part of the Stable.

I left the Living Quarters and made my way down the hallway. The next T intersection gave me the option of going to the Atrium, or down some stairs to the lower floor. I decided to head to the atrium, since I wanted to explore this level completely.

I continued down the hallway until I turned a corner and found the door to the atrium. It was already open, though I could hear grinding coming from above it.

“Jammed open,” I said as I walked into the atrium.

As soon as I did, I ogled at it’s size. It was about half was big as the cryo-room in Stable 32, but maybe a little taller. I was standing on a walkway that ran along the sides, with two ladders leading to the floor below. A few of the lights were out, but the ones that remained gave me enough to see.

I made my way down the stairway and onto the floor below. There were two doors on either side, each leading to a different hallway. I was thinking of which way I should go, when all of a sudden….

“HEY, YOU DOWN THERE!”

I jumped in fright as the voice blasted around the atrium. It sounded like a stallion; with a southern accent and deep voice. I looked around the atrium, but there was no sight of another pony.

“UP HERE!”

I looked up at the wall in front of me. It was there that I noticed a large circular window halfway up. A dark outline of a pony could be seen on the other side, but the window was too dirty to get a clear view.

“What are you doing here? Don’ ya know places like these ain’t safe?”

I had no idea where this pony could hear me or not. Hopefully the window wasn’t sound proof.

“I picked up your distress call,” I yelled as loud as my speakers could go. “I’m here to help you!”

“Really,” they said with surprise in their voice. “I didn’t think anypony would get that message. But hey, I ain’t going to complain about somepony willing to help”.

Well, now that I knew this pony was safe, it was time to get him out of here. But first, I had to find somepony else. “I came here with another pony,” I called, “I’ll find him, then come and get you”.

I paused a moment. “Where are you anyway?”

“The Overmare’s office,” he called back. “But don’t worry about that now, or even finding your friend. You need to turn the collar program off; we’re all in danger as long as it’s active”.

I looked down at the collar around my neck, remembering what the terminal entries had told me. I had one light already, and I couldn’t let it get to three. Hopefully Cyborg didn’t have any lights yet.

“Okay,” I called back, “but where do I do that?”

“From what I gathered, there’s a special terminal down in the maintenance wing that controls all the collars. It’s behind a locked door on the right side of the reactor room. Get down there and shut down the programing, then it’ll be safe enough for me to come out”.

A terminal? Now we were speaking my language. I just hoped that I could get there in time before something bad happened.

“Right,” I yelled, “I’ll head down there now. Just hold tight; I’ll be back as soon as I can!”

With that, I turned to the door on my right and exited the Atrium.

Once I exited the atrium, I began looking around for a floor plan. It would be the fastest way of locating the reactor room, and give me a sense of the stable’s size.

Unfortunately, there were no floor plans in sight. I checked all around the second floor (which mainly held the cafeteria and exercise room) but found nothing. I was thinking I’d have to look over every floor of this stable, which would just waste time.

As I walked out of the exercise room, I heard the sound of something approaching. I ducked back inside and peeked my head around the corner, waiting for the source of the noise. After a few seconds, I saw a robo-brain appear from around a corner and head down the hallway. I sighed (in a way) in relief and stepped into the hallway.

“Greetings citizen, I hope you are enjoying your new home. Is there anything you need or wish to know?”

So these robo-brains weren’t just there to distribute the collars and take ponies away, they were basically servants. A stir of emotion moved inside of me, making me think back to when I was in a similar job.

“Actually there is,” I replied. “Can you tell me where the reactor room is?”

The robot hummed for a moment before responding. “Certainly. The reactor is located on the fourth floor. Take this hallway all the way down, and there should be a stairway. Take it to the fourth floor, and the reactor will be the second door on your left”.

Finally I was getting somewhere; I just hoped Cyborg hadn’t gotten into trouble. Actually, I was getting a little worried. I hadn’t seen or heard from him in a while. And after learning about what these collars did, I wanted to make sure he was alright.

“Excuse me,” I said to the robo-brain, “have you seen a red unicorn stallion with robotic legs walking around?” When the robot didn’t respond, I tried another phrase. “Can you tell me where the other ponies in this stable are?”

The robot hummed again. “Current lifesigns in the stable: 2. One is currently in the Overmare’s office. The other is being escorted to the lower levels”.

WHAT!

“Why is that other pony being escorted to the lower levels?”

“The Stable Resident in question had committed three crimes in the stable, and is therefore being escorted to the lower levels. If you have any concerns about them, please direct your complaints to the Overmare during normal work hours”.

My processors instantly flashed back to the terminal entries I’d read earlier. They said that the ponies who were taken away were never seen again. And if that programing was still in effect, then I could only imagine what would happen to Cyborg.

I turned on my hooves and bolted for the stairway as fast as I could.

***

After making to the third floor, my E.F.S. kicked in as I started looking for Cyborg. I just hoped that something hadn’t already happened to him. I couldn’t bare to have that on my mind, especially since I’m the one that wanted to come here.

The third floor seemed to consist of mostly classrooms and a few common areas. All of them were empty, and my E.F.S. wasn’t picking up on anything yet. I was beginning to think I’d have to try another floor….until something met my ears.

As I was running towards a T intersection, I heard the sound of treads rolling on the metal floor. Not only that, but I could hear a slight grunting noise coming from the same direction. That direction being the left side of the T-intersection. Hoping for the best, I ran around the corner and looked down the hallway beyond.

My cameras found themselves looking at two Robo-Brains making their way towards the other end of the hall. In Between them was Cyborg; struggling to get his hooves out of the Robo-Brain’s grip.

“Cyborg,” I called.

The stallion stopped struggling and looked back towards me. His face clearly showed how relieved he was to see me. But with him no longer struggling, I noticed why he was moving around so much in the first place.

Sitting at the base of his horn was a small metal ring with different engravings around it. I knew that it was a restrictor ring; just like the one the Synths had put on him back in Trotsville.

That’s why he hadn’t used his magic to escape; he couldn’t as long as they ring was on his horn.

Cyborg looked at the two robots, then back to me. “Do something,” he said in a slight whisper.

Nodding, I ran down the hallway until I was right behind one of the two Robo-Brains. They hadn’t paid me or Cyborg any attention during our conversation; meaning they must have been on an automated programming. So I hoped they wouldn’t pay us any attention while I tried to free Cyborg.

I scanned the back of the robot, hopping to find a panel that would allow me access to the inside. But my luck didn’t seem to be working, because there was no panel in sight. And if there wasn’t a panel, there wasn’t anything I could plug into to shut it down.

“There’s no access point,” I said quietly. “I can’t shut them down”.

“Then shoot them,” said Cyborg. “Aim for the tanks that hold the brain”.

I wasn’t sure if that was such a good idea. If it didn’t work, the robots could see me as hostile and start shooting at me. Or given the nature of this stable, something even worse!

But I didn’t know if the robots were close to the “secret room” or not. So if I wanted to get Cyborg free, I’d have to act now. So I levitated Celestia’s Thunder out of it’s holster and slipped into S.A.T.S.

The body of the right robo-brain shone green, but I shifted my focus to the brain tank. Selecting the section twice, I slipped out of S.A.T.S. and watch as Celestia’s Thunder fired two shots at the robot.

But my surprise came when the first bullet impacted the glass. It ripped into the tank and simultaneously caused a small explosion, flinging glass in all directions. The second bullet impacted the brain itself, digging itself inside before exploding and sending bits of brain all over the walls, ceiling, and floors. The robo-brain jolted to a stop and it’s arm went limp, releasing Cyborg.

With his hoof free, Cyborg slid the ring off his horn and grabbed the one 10mm pistol I’d managed to salvage from the slaver base. He took aim at the other robo-brain and unleased five shots directly at the tank. The first two hit the base, while shots three and four destroyed the tank, leaving shot five to splatter the brain.

The second arm went slack, and Cyborg was finally able to free himself. He backed away from the destroyed robots, taking deep breaths as he did.

“That was too close,” I said as I looked over the robots.

“You’re telling me,” said Cyborg. “How’d you know they’d gotten me?”

“One of the robo-brains upstairs told me you were being escorted to the lower levels,” I replied, taking a glance at his collar. As expected, all three lights were on. “What did you do to get three lights so quickly?”

Cyborg rubbed the back of his head. “Uh, let’s see. I unlocked two terminals in the medical bay so I could get to all the sections. And then I grabbed a few medical kits. After that these two robo-brains came in, grabbed me, and took me down here”.

He turned and gave me a puzzled look. “Where were you when all of this was happening?”

I sighed. “Finding out what happened in this stable”.

I told Cyborg everything I’d read about in the terminal, and his face only grew more puzzled the more I talked. When I finished, his face was a mixture of anger and sadness.

“I told you,” he said silently. “I told you we shouldn’t have come here. Stables aren’t a place you want to be in the Wasteland. They’re not sanctuaries anymore; they’re TOMBS!”

“Calm down Cyborg,” I said with a voice of worry. “So maybe one stable didn’t go as they’d planned. It doesn’t mean you can paint all of them in a negative light”.

Cyborg shook his head slowly. “You just don’t get it Garcon. But you will soon”.

Okay, now he was doing the ‘I know something but I’m not going to tell it’ thing. Well if that’s how he wanted to play it, fine. I wasn’t going to try and dig it out of him; I’d figure it out myself.

Unfortunately, my thoughts were interrupted by a very familiar sound.

An alarm began to ring, echoing around the empty stable. Cyborg and I looked around, hoping to see what had happened. But as Cyborg looked back towards me, his eyes widened slightly.

“Uh, Garcon,” he said, “look at your collar”.

I looked down at my collar and saw that all three of the lights were now on. But just a few minutes ago I’d had one; did destroying that robo-brain really get me two more?

“You don’t think this has something to do with the alarm do you,” I asked nervously.

“I’m not sure,” replied Cyborg, “but I don’t want to be here to find out”.

I didn’t want to either, but I had a feeling we didn’t have much of a choice. My E.F.S. had already activated, and I could see a red dot moving towards us from up ahead.

“Get ready, something’s coming,” I said as I reloaded Celestia’s Thunder.

Cyborg barely had enough time to raise his gun when the new enemy emerged from around the corner.

For a second, I thought it was a pony. It had four legs and a neck leading up to a head, but after a second I saw what it really was. I’d seen them before; at least once before the war. And from what I knew, they were deadly.

“Assultron,” I said under my breath.

The assultron had the generic look of a pony, but none of the real detail. You could see where all the joints attached, and it had a short Magical Energy Rifle attached to its right side. The head was small, but did have two large objects that looked like lenses on it. I just hoped they were for looking and not shooting.

“Engaging Hostiles!”

The assultron’s words brought me out of my moment of observation. It took a stance before letting loose a barrage of shots at us from it’s laser rifle. I just barely moved out of the way as the shots sped down the hallway, singeing the wall at the other end.

Cyborg ran into a nearby room, leaning around to corner to try and hit the assultron. But most of the bullets seemed to either fly past it or reflect off the metal plating.

The assultron stopped firing, but I could hear the action of it reloading the gun. So I ran across the hallway and dove into the room with Cyborg. The laser blasts started again, but stopped a moment later.

The red dot on my E.F.S. moved fast and soon the assultron was right in front of us. I only had a moment to react before I saw the two lenses on it’s head begin to glow.

“MOVE,” I screamed. Using my magic I turned a table on it’s side and dove for cover. Cyborg did the same as the assultron let loose a glaring red beam from it’s face. It hit Cyborg’s table, punching a hole right through it.

“AUGH!”

Cyborg’s scream rippled through the room, as did the sound of ash falling to the ground. I took a look around the table, praying to Celestia that Cyborg wasn’t hurt. But I couldn’t get a good view from behind the table, and the assultron was now looking at me.

“Okay, action time,” I thought as I slipped into S.A.T.S. Choosing two shots to the face and one to the back leg, I watched as Celestia’s Thunder flung the bullets at the robot.

The first two bullets impacted the face, causing two small explosions. The third ripped into the back leg, and the explosion send bits and pieces of it flying over the room. The assultron sagged as the stub back leg brought it down.

But it was only after the smoke cleared that I got a clear look at the face. The two explosions had only caused a few burn marks; the actual metal hadn’t been damaged. And the assultron didn’t even seem to notice it. Instead it activated its beam rifle and started shooting at me again.

I dove back behind the table, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t last for much longer. These things weren’t exactly made for combat situations.

“Okay, let’s think about this,” I thought as the assultron reloaded it’s rifle. “Celestia’s thunder managed to blast the back leg apart, but did nothing to the head. Does that mean the head it made from a thicker material, or did they just miss their mark?”

Before I could come to a conclusion, I heard the sound of another gun going off. Looking around the table, I saw Cyborg leaning out from the other one; his 10mm pistol pointed at the assultron.

But the bullet didn’t do anything except turn the assultron’s attention from me to him. The beam rifle stopped firing, and instead the assultron ran between the two tables and took aim at Cyborg.

Wrong move on it’s part.

Now that it was focused on Cyborg, it left it’s back completely exposed to me….and not in the way you think. I slipped into S.A.T.S. again and targeted the assultron’s remaining back leg.

Celestia’s Thunder sent a bullet clean through the metal, and the explosion completely separated it from the main body. The assultron’s rear fell to the ground, causing it to stop firing. Cyborg took the chance and ran around it to me.

“Surprised that stopped it,” I said as I began lowering Celestia’s Thunder.

But Cyborg put his hoof out to stop me. “It didn’t,” he said with a serious face. “You’ve just made it more desperate”.

I failed to see how a robot could get desperate; unlike me, most weren’t built with personalities. They were guided by programing, and calculated logic. What could is possible do now; it didn’t have the knowledge.

“Combat procedures compromised. Last Measure programing initiated. Beginning self-destruct”.

….Oh shit.

“RUN!”

Cyborg and Me bolted for the door, doing our best not to trip over any robot parts. We ran through the opening before Cyborg shut it. Not a second later, the floor and walls shook as the assultron self-destructed. A window a few feet away cracked, but nothing seemed to be very damaged.

“That was too close,” noted Cyborg. “Next time, try and focus on blowing it’s head off. At least then it won’t be able to access it’s programing”.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said sarcastically. “Are you okay though? I thought you’d been turned to ash from the sound I heard”.

Cyborg shook his head. “I wasn’t, but one of my bags was”.

I looked at his side, and saw the tattered remains of one of his two saddle-bags.

“Let’s hope this pony we’re saving is willing to share any food he has”.

I made a mental note to check out the cafeteria later. But his comment on the pony upstairs did remind me of why we were downstairs.

“Speaking of which,” I replied. “I found the pony; he’s in the Overmare’s office above the atrium”.

“Good,” said Cyborg. “Let’s go get him and get out of here”.

I held a hoof up, “hold on, we need to take care of something first”.

“What?”

“There’s a terminal down in the reactor room that can shut down the collars. Once they’re down, it’ll be easier to get him out of the stable”.

Cyborg nodded. “Alright then, let’s go”.

Nodding in return, I headed down the hallway towards the stairway at the end.

After reaching the fourth level, I headed for the second door to the left. Unlike most of the doors in the stable, this one was more like a pressure sealed one. I encased the wheel in magic and turned until the door slid open.

Cyborg and Me walked through and found ourselves on a gantry way overlooking the room. Three generators took up the center space, each arching with streams of pure magic and electricity. Though the one on the end occasionally sent sharp cracks of power out the top.

I scanned the walls of the room until I spotted another doorway to the right. A terminal sat on the wall next to it. I gave Cyborg a nodd to follow as I took a nearby staircase down to the lower floor.

Once we reached the terminal, I plugged myself in and began hacking into the software. Only this time, the coding was much more complex than the ones I’d faced before. In fact it took me almost ten minutes and a multitude of unplugging and replugging before I was able to get past the firewall.

Once I was through, I found a single command in the options menu: unlock door. I selected it and heard the sound of gears and metal moving near the door.

“It’s open,” I said as I unplugged myself from the terminal.

“Okay then,” said Cyborg. He moved ahead, encasing the latch with his magic and pushing the door open. “Let’s shut these things down before….”

His sentence was interrupted by the blast of a gun going off. Cyborg jolted, screaming in pain before falling to the floor. Cursing, I ran over to him and turned him onto his back.

“Shit,” he said through gritted teeth. “What the fuck happened?”

I looked down at Cyborg, and saw what had happened. Blood was oozing from a bullet wound on his right shoulder. I didn’t see any exit wound, so the bullet must have still been inside of him.

“You were shot,” I said matter-of-factly.

“No shit Sherlock!”

Remembering that he must be in a lot of pain, I chose to ignore that comment. Instead I turned to one of my saddle-bags and pulled out one of our medical kits.

“Before I can treat this, that bullet needs to come out”.

Cyborg paused for a moment, then took a deep breath. “Alright, do it”.

I nodded, then did my best to use my magic to retrieve the bullet. After a few seconds, I caught hold of it and began to pull. Cyborg’s face scrunched in pain, and his breathing became more rapid. But I couldn’t slow down; that would only prolong the pain.

A few seconds later, the bullet passed through the wound and fell to the ground. I levitated a syringe of Med-x and a healing potion from the case. Cyborg took the healing potion and quickly downed the whole bottle.

I injected the Med-x below the wound and began wrapping it in the magical bandages. Hopefully they’d work fast enough for Cyborg to be up and moving in a few minutes. Until then, he’d just have to power through it.

“Take it easy,” I said as I tied the bandages so they wouldn’t come loose. “You should be up and about soon”.

“I hope so,” said Cyborg. “But tell me, what was it that shot me?”

I placed the medical kit in my bags before looking into the room. It was about the size of a walk-in closet, and only dimly light. The wall on the other end was taken up by a large data-storage device, which had a terminal attached to it.

But as I eyed the terminal, I saw something sitting below it. Igniting my horn to give me more light, I looked closer at the object….and almost reared back in surprise.

Sitting below the terminal was a skeleton. From the horn on it’s head, I could tell it was a unicorn. It wore a ragged stable jumpsuit, and was moved into a sitting position. Tucked between its front hooves was a 10mm pistol, which still had a bit of smoke rising from it.

This whole scene was both surprising and confusing, and maybe something in between. I had not seen any other skeletons in this stable, so what was this one doing here. Moreover, how could a long-dead pony fire off a gun?

These were all questions I knew would never be answered.

So instead, I walked forward until I was right in front of the skeleton. With the utmost care, I encased it with my magic and moved it aside. The gun slipped from it’s hooves as I placed it next to the storage-device.

Taking the cord from my back, I plugged into the terminal and began working through the firewall. Thankfully, this one wasn’t as secure as the one outside. Maybe they didn’t think anypony would make it through the outside one.

Once I was through the firewall, I found myself in the main-menu section. There were two programs I could chose: one that said COLLAR DEACTIVATION, or one that read MY LAST STAND.

I didn’t know that the other one meant, but I’d find out in a minute. Instead I selected the first option. As soon as I did, I heard a ‘click’ sound, and my collar fell off, banging on the floor below. I heard Cyborg’s do the same, which I hoped meant the other ponies had come off as well.

“Finally,” said Cyborg. “That thing was starting to chafe”.

One of the many reasons I enjoyed being a robot; no nerve sensors.

And with that now out of the way, I went and selected the second program available. When I did, the screen went blank and a voice spoke out from the speakers.

“....This is it….I’m (cough) not going to make it….”

“I thought I could do it; thought I could deactivate the collars. Give everypony a better fighting chance. (Cough, Cough) Clink’s leading the ponies upstairs….I can hear the gunfire from here”.

“This….this was a stupid mistake. I (cough) I wanted to see if I could stop all this without fighting. But the moment I broke into the reactor, I sealed my fate”.

The voice paused for a few seconds, mainly because of his coughing and gagging.

“Dam assultron came out of nowhere; got five lucky shots at me before I had a chance to fire back. (Cough) I just barely managed to get inside here….before the door locked itself again”.

“But now I can’t even get through the firewall on this terminal. It….it’s just allowing me to record this message. Fat lot of good that’s going to do for the others”.

“Hopefully (cough) Cherry Pie and Knuckles are safe. I told them to stay in the room until this was over. Maybe….maybe Clank will succeed, and they’ll be able to leave this hellhole for good”.

“Still, even if they do win, the Overmare will probably send someone to come and find me. Well, if they do, I’ve got a surprise for them. I’m casting a spell on my gun; now it’ll be pointing at the door until it opens. And when it does, the asshole who comes through will get what’s coming to him”.

“It’s my last stand….my last stand against the Overmare, her goons, and the assholes that built this place.”

“I’m Clip, and this is my final message”.

I don’t know how long I sat there, looking back and forth between the terminal and Clip’s skeleton.

This was the pony whose entries I’d read about in the living quarters. The pony that had figured out how the collars worked, and the one who decided to do something about it.

I almost didn’t want to believe it, but the evidence kept telling me it was. He’d mentioned Cherry Pie and Knuckles, and how he’d wanted to do something about what was going on. And now he sat here, a lifeless skeleton in the depths of an empty stable.

My thoughts were only interrupted when Cyborg cleared his throat to get my attention. I turned back to look at him, and was slightly surprised to see him standing up. His bandages were getting slightly redder, but he didn’t seem to notice it.

“Look, I know you’re probably not comfortable with….all this,” he said, moving his hand to emphasise what was around us. “But remember, we came here to rescue a pony. One that is still alive”.

He looked over at Clip’s skeleton. “There’s nothing we can do for him, so why not focus our attention on the one that we can help?”

I was silent for a moment, then let out a sigh (in a way). “You’re right Cyborg. I shouldn’t be concerned about things I can’t fix”.

Picking myself up off the floor, I turned around to face him. “So, can you walk fine or do you need help?”

Cyborg moved his leg around slightly. “I think I’m okay for now. But I might have to take it easy on the stairs”.

I nodded. “Okay then, let’s go meet our mysterious new friend”.

The two of us made our way back to the top floor, through it was slow going. Cyborg was right when he said it would be harder for him on the stairs. In fact it took between three and four minutes to climb each set of stairs.

By the time we reached the top level, Cyborg was breathing hard. I wanted to give him some more Med-x, but instead he just found a water fountain and splashed some water on his wound.

“I just need the burning to go down a little,” he said as he splashed more water on it.

I shook my head slowly. “Just let me give you some more Med-x. It’ll help you while the hole’s healing”.

“No,” insisted Cyborg. “Save it for later; I can work with this for now”.

I wanted to change his mind, but I didn’t want this to turn into a heated argument. So instead I let him do it his way.

Once he was go enough to move again, we headed for the door to the Overmare’s office. It was located in the same hallway Cyborg had gone down when we first arrived. The door was closed, so I didn’t think the pony had left yet.

When we reached the door, I gave his three hard knocks and waited for a reply. After a few seconds, the door opened; revealing the stallion I’d seen earlier.

He was a white earth pony stallion with a light grey mane. His attire consisted of a large brown trench coat, a brown tie with a floral spiral on it, and a loaded gun holster wrapped around his middle. The trench coat covered his cutie-mark.

“Well I’ll be, you two actually did it,” he said with a smile. His accent told me he was southern; maybe from around the Applelosa area. “Thought for sure the stable would chew you up and spit ya out”.

“Oh it definitely chewed us,” said Cyborg, adjusting his bad shoulder.

The pony seemed to notice this, and moved away from the opening.

“Why don’t ya come inside; there’s a couch in the corner you can rest on”.

The two of us walked into the room, and I took the time to look around it. The size was about the same as the Overstallion’s office in Stable 32. In fact the two rooms looked almost completely identical. The only difference was the large circular window that covered the wall across from the doorway.

Cyborg moved over to the couch, taking time to find a comfortable position to lay down. The stallion walked behind the Overmare’s desk, taking a seat on the chair behind it.

“So what happened to him,” he asked, “I didn’t think the robo-brains were equipped with weapons”.

“They weren’t,” I said, taking a seat in front of desk. “There was a trap rigged up in the room with the terminal. He accidentally tripped it when I unlocked the door”.

The stallion nodded. “Sorry to hear that. Does he need any medical supplies?”

“I gave him some Med-x and a healing potion, but I don’t think it was enough. And he won’t let me use any more; he wants to save it for later”.

“It’s the right idea,” said Cyborg.

“Even so, you probably won’t heal well unless you get another healing potion,” noted the stallion. He moved from behind the desk and over to the door. “Tell you what; since you two came and rescued me, I’ll head to the medical bay and get some more supplies”.

“Oh you don’t have to,” I moved towards the door, “I can go and get them”.

The stallion held up a hoof and shook his head. “Nonsense, you two already did so much for me. I can at least start to return the favor by doing this. It’s just down the hall, I won’t be long”.

I thought it over; this stallion had probably gone through enough already. But then again, leaving a pony I just met to look after Cyborg didn’t seem like the best idea. And he was right, the medical bay was just down the hall.

“Okay then,” I said with a slight smile. “We’ll wait here”.

Now it was the stallion’s turn to smile. “Great. Make yourself comfortable; I’ll be back in a flash….uh….sorry, I forgot to ask what you’re names are”.

He was right, and we still didn’t know what his name was either.

“My name’s Garcon, and that’s Cyborg,” I said, pointing at the two of us for clarity.

The stallion grinned. “And my names Peddler, Prodigious Peddler”.

Footnote: LEVEL UP

New Program: Traitor - When attacking an enemy that’s in the same family as you, your damage output doubles.

Quest Perk: Skin of Steel- You now gain +3 damage resistance to all magical beam weapons when attacking robots or synths. No change to none-robot combatants.