“I almost can’t believe it, if it weren’t typical for this new government! The- I- You know what, forget about the ban on talking about the Empire! I need to rant, and I’ll have this record removed from the official files when I’m done. The Crystal Ponies wanted nothing to do with Equestria and Equestria agreed, or so they claimed. Apparently, the crystal mines beneath Canterlot have dried up, as are many of our other crystal mines. The ones that aren’t in zebra hooves, at least. So, they turned to the Empire again.”

“The Frostpoint mines were controversial even when the Crystal Ponies accepted them as a necessity. Equestria needs crystals for brand new technologies like microspark reactors and for the old ones like enchantments. They don’t have to chip away at the Empire itself to acquire them! The mines were closed down and the Empire hidden from Frostpoint when the cover-up was agreed to, but now they’ve been secretly opened again, without the Empire’s knowledge. To make it worse, the authorization came from Twilight’s Ministry, and ‘right from the top’ too. I have some words for that sister of mine, but so far she’s managed to avoid me, keeping away from Canterlot.”

The Frostpoint mines can’t be allowed to stay in operation, but the only answer I get is “they’re necessary for the war effort until other sources are discovered.” Those bureaucrats won’t have anything to hide behind once Flankorage is in Equestrian hooves again. They’ve put me in charge of the reclamation, and I’ll retake the city no matter the cost. After this, more drastic measures will need to be taken if they still refuse to close down the Frostpoint mines. I swear I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my home and my family.”

It had been late when we’d arrived at the RoBronco bunker, so we stayed the night while Rare worked on building a mobile tracking device. We left the next morning, the device attached to my PipBuck. Lights flashed on it every so often, and so long as it was plugged in, P-8KE’s location was marked on my PipBuck map. He’d moved since the night before, taking up residence in northwest Vanhoover, in the thickest part of downtown. There would be a lot of walking involved to get there, but we’d done it plenty of times before.

The last of Shining Armor’s recordings had finally run out. All that was left on the data-tape were two lines: Aurora Orb and Star Orb. The two remaining memory orbs were safely in their case in my saddlebags, but they weren’t something I could experience while we were on the move through the Wasteland and had to be alert for attacks from mutated animals and raiders. Unless they contained parts of the Flankorage reclamation that I hadn’t been privy to during my time in the SAS simulator, I was caught up to General Shining Armor as I knew him. I also didn’t know how much time still remained between the Flankorage campaign and The Last Day, but I suspected there wasn’t much. The Equestria I’d seen in Operation: Flankorage hadn’t been too different from the Equestria we were trotting though now, technology and architecture-wise at least. To give us something to listen to now that the recordings were done, I switched my PipBuck to Radio Free Wasteland and was immediately met with the smooth tones of DJ Pon3.

“-time for, dun-dun-dun-duuun, a bit of news! Troubling news from south of Vanhoover, where the Steel Rangers continue to make shows of force and ‘pacify’ the region. I know, I know, we were all hoping that the Steel Rangers were taking a turn for the better in this city, but it looks like they’re back to their old ways. A trustworthy source has told me that disagreements with the new Elder are the hottest they’ve been since the last time a new Elder was chosen. Remember that then the Steel Rangers split, and the dissenters headed off to Stalliongrad. Could we be seeing another split of the Steel Rangers here in Vanhoover? Could the Stalliongrad Steel Rangers rejoin? Only time will tell. But for now, if you see a Steel Ranger, you might want to keep your distance and keep out of sight.”

Rare Sparks listened with concern, and I gave her a compassionate look. She’d left the Steel Rangers by choice (even if that choice had been forced upon her), but she’d still always see them as her family. Having been away in Stalliongrad for so long, I was out of the loop on what Sagebrush had done with her first month in charge of the Steel Rangers. I’d neglected to ask in Burnside but would need to remember to do so in the next settlement we stopped at. The Strip was relatively close to P-8KE’s location, so maybe we could stop by after we found him.

“And now it’s time for some listener mail,” DJ Pon3 continued, “It comes from Sage, pressmare of The Strip. A mare after my own heart, reporting the news to all the Crimson Tide and anypony who passes through. Keep it up, Sage. Anyway, the message I’ve got from her is for the Wasteland Doctor, if you’re out there listening and not in the middle of fighting the good fight. She’s got some big news for you about the Northern Lights Coalition, so if I were you, I’d hurry by flank to The Strip as soon as you’re able. Best not keep the nice mare waiting. And now, time for the weather. I’m predicting a 20% chance of bloody dismemberment, giving way to light fragmentation in the afternoon…”

“Well?” Roaring Thunder asked, looking at me expectantly.

After a moment, I realized that Ache was as well, and why they were looking to me. They wanted me to make a decision on whether we should go straight to P-8KE or go to The Strip first. It wasn’t much of diversion, but Ache was anxious to meet the other pondroid. But what if Sage’s news about the NLC was urgent? What was more important? They were both important, but for different reasons. I’d been placed in this position of leadership, though, so it was up to me to choose what we pursued and what we let wait.

“Roaring Thunder, you can move faster than the rest of us. Can you scout ahead to P-8KE’s current position and keep an eye on things? He hasn’t moved all day, but we want to make sure we don’t lose him again,” I said, and the pegasus nodded before taking off into the sky, “The rest of us will head to The Strip briefly before continuing on.”

I don’t know if Ache was pleased with my decision, but she seemed content, at least, that I wasn’t totally abandoning her quest. It was important to her that she find this other pondroid, but news on the NLC couldn’t wait, especially if it was important enough that Sage had gotten it somehow to DJ Pon3. As much as I hoped that the news Sage had for me was something big, I also hoped it wasn’t something we’d need to act on right away. I’d promised Ache that I’d help her find P-8KE, and I didn’t want to put it off any longer than I had to.

“Doc! It’s been weeks! How are you? Did you get my message?” Sage asked by way of greeting as we approached where she was sitting outside one of The Strip’s eateries.

“Yes, and I have a ton of questions, first among them being ‘how did you contact DJ Pon3?’ but we’re in a bit of a hurry right now, so what’s the news?” I asked, and Sage motioned for Ache and me to take seats at the table with her.

“The Crimson Tide has been capturing and interrogating raiders, and one of them revealed a choice bit of information to us,” Sage said, and leaned forward conspiratorially, “We know where the Northern Lights Coalition’s headquarters is in Vanhoover.”

“What? Where?” I asked excitedly.

“The Vanhoover Spire, not far from here. Let me show you on your map,” Sage said, seeming just as excited, and I presented my PipBuck, “Huh, it seems you already have a marker there. It’s right there.”

“P-8KE!” Ache exclaimed, looking over my shoulder at the map with us.

“Yes,” I said, trying to process what I was seeing, “It’s a good thing we came here, otherwise we could’ve walked right into the NLC headquarters unprepared.”

“Who is P … 8KE?” Sage asked, trying to recall exactly what alphanumeric string had been spoken.

“A synthetic pony, like me,” Ache answered, after making sure nopony was in listening range of us.

Sage knew what Ache was from the last time we’d been to The Strip, but there was no point advertising it, lest somepony wasn’t okay with it. I didn’t want anypony treating Ache differently just because she’d been built in a lab, and she felt the same.

“What’s he doing there?” Ache wondered.

“He could be a member of the NLC, or a prisoner, or a slave,” Sage said, “The Northern Lights Coalition deals with all kinds of undesirables, right?”

“We’ll still find him, though, right?” Ache asked, and the question seemed generally directed at me.

“I promised we would, and I intend to see it through,” I said, before turning to Sage, “How’s the Vanhoover Spire looking? If it’s as empty as the LuxuriMane plant was when we got there, we may be able to pull this off.”

“I wouldn’t try it,” Sage said with a shake of her head, “Raider gangs from all over Vanhoover have been gathering there, as well as some of the remaining Black Skulls. The Crimson Tide is preparing to move out tomorrow for an assault, and we already have scouts in position keeping an eye on things.”

“We’ll go with you,” I decided.

I hated having to put off finding P-8KE even longer, but if things were truly as tough as Sage said they were at the Vanhoover Spire, then we’d need the Crimson Tide’s help. It would be dangerous trying to find P-8KE in the midst of the battle, though, so we needed another plan. I already had an idea.

“So, are you a Dashite then?” Sage asked Roaring Thunder later in our hotel room.

“A what?” Roaring Thunder asked as he did maintenance on parts of his armor.

When Roaring Thunder returned from scouting out P-8KE’s location, he brought back the same news as Sage. The Vanhoover Spire had been massively fortified into a raider camp. Black Skulls and crates bearing the Northern Lights Coalition’s symbol were in abundance as well. To find P-8KE among all that would be extremely difficult without being killed in the process. He agreed with our plan to accompany the Crimson Tide, even if it meant waiting to find P-8KE.

“A Dashite,” Sage repeated, “You know, a pegasus who left the Grand Pegasus Enclave or was exiled from it. There aren’t many, but pretty much every pegasus in the Wasteland is a Dashite. The Enclave doesn’t take too kindly to ponies leaving, so they brand them with Rainbow Dash’s cutie-mark, since she was the first to leave the Enclave in disagreement. I take it you aren’t one, then?”

“No, I was never part of the Enclave, so I couldn’t have left it,” Roaring Thunder replied coolly, “I’d like to see them try to brand me even if I had. I want nothing to do with the Ministry Mare of the Ministry of Awesome.”

“So, what, were your parents Dashites and the Enclave never found you?” Sage asked, trying to puzzle out a pegasus in the Wasteland who wasn’t a Dashite, “Did you grow up in the Wasteland?”

“Actually, I grew up in Cloudsdale,” Roaring Thunder said, and Sage laughed before realizing he was completely serious.

“Wait, so does that mean . . . ? During the War?” Sage asked, stunned, “But how? You’re not ghoulified or anything!”

“No, I’m not,” Roaring Thunder replied before standing up to make an announcement, “I’m going to take a look around, see how the Crimson Tide’s preparations are coming.”

“I’ll come with you,” Sage said as she followed him out of the room, “I have so many questions to ask you still.”

“You know, I get the feeling he was leaving to avoid having to answer any more questions,” Rare snickered after they had left.

She was working on the tracking device, trying to modify it to allow us to better locate P-8KE. We knew he was somewhere in the Vanhoover Spire, but with so many ponies in such a small place, locating him with just my PipBuck’s map would be nearly impossible. If only there were some way to tell him apart from the others, but as Ache demonstrated, a pondroid could pass as a flesh-and-blood pony without trouble. Unless we saw somepony exerting superequine strength, we wouldn’t know if they were P-8KE or just another raider.

“Oh, he absolutely was,” I replied to Rare’s comment, “As much as he’s watched the Wasteland, and me in particular, he should’ve known he wouldn’t get away from Sage that easily.”

As Rare chuckled and got back to work, I turned my attention to Ache. She was pacing nervously around the room. Like the rest of us, she’d begun her time in the hotel room cleaning and repairing weapons and equipment for tomorrow, but she’d done her work with incredible speed and precision, as always. Now she had nothing to do but be anxious for the fight and the meeting with P-8KE.

“What’s on your mind, Ache?” I asked her, and she ceased her pacing.

“I’m worried about tomorrow,” she admitted, “What if P-8KE is killed in the fighting? It’s not like we can be everywhere at once, checking if somepony is a pondroid before killing them.”

“I’ve got a plan,” I assured her, “We’re going to head in early, before the assault starts.”

“We can’t fight them all on our own—I know that—and I doubt we’ll find P-8KE before an alarm is raised,” Ache objected, and Rare looked up from her work, this her first time hearing my plan too.

“Just you and I will go early,” I told Ache, “Rare and Roaring Thunder will be part of the main assault, but the two of us will sneak in disguised as raiders and try to find P-8KE before the fighting starts. We’ll have a better chance of blending in and finding him that way.”

“Hold on now,” Rare said, “I didn’t sign off on abandoning you, and neither did Roaring Thunder, to my knowledge. I don’t like the idea of the two of you within the NLC headquarters alone. What if something goes wrong? Your PipBuck can only take one plug-in, and you can’t use the radio one I built if you’re using the tracker at the same time.”

“Ache can communicate with you still,” I pointed out, “Don’t worry, I’ve thought this all out.”

“Well, as long as the two of you stay together, I guess that would be all right,” Rare admitted.

“If we do find P-8KE, what are we going to do?” Ache asked, “We’ll be in the middle of a raider camp.”

“I was going to leave that up to you,” I told her.

“Great,” she said, though she didn’t sound super confident, “I think … I’m going to take a walk too.”

“Somehow, it always ends up just you and me here, doesn’t it?” Rare asked once Ache had left, and she raised a hoof to stop me when I started to reply, “Not that I don’t enjoy your company, but I know we aren’t going to talk much longer. Go on, I know you’ve been waiting to experience the next one of Shining Armor’s memory orbs since we got here.”

I didn’t say anything in reply; she was absolutely right. The former Steel Ranger chuckled and went back to work as I opened the memory orb case sitting on the bed next to me. Only two orbs were unseen, one with the five-pointed star the Equestrian Army used and the other with three wavy bands similar to the symbol the Northern Lights Coalition used. The Aurora Orb and Star Orb were left, and Aurora was next, so I picked up the orb with the wavy bands and reached out with my magic.

I was in Shining Armor’s body again, sure from the beginning because he was staring into a full-body mirror and adjusting a bowtie with his magic. The general looked much older than he had during the Flankorage simulation, though it couldn’t have been more than a few years. His face was thin and his eyes sunken. His mane, though neat and tidy, had grayed tremendously. A great weariness seemed to permeate his entire being, the result of the long years of fighting a war that seemed it would never be over.

“Are you ready yet, Dad? The guests are waiting,” a mare’s voice came from outside the room.

“Yes, yes, I’ll be right out,” Shining Armor replied before giving his tie one last adjustment, straightening his suit coat (which caused the medals hanging from it to jangle), and practicing a smile in the mirror.

The door opened and Midnight Aurora, his elder daughter, strode in. She was wearing a fancy dress that complemented her midnight blue coat, her purple mane was primped up in a party-going style, and a plain band with the Ministry of Morale’s icon was wrapped around around her left foreleg. Shining Armor’s eyes lingered on the band for a moment before looking up at his daughter’s face.

“Come on now,” Midnight Aurora said with a smile, “Don’t want to be late to your own party.”

Together, they left the room and headed down a hallway to a gilded elevator. It only rose one floor before opening onto a large, open, circular room bordered with windows and filled with ponies. A large banner bearing the words Happy Birthday hung from the ceiling, and a towering cake in the corner had candles shaped like the number 75. I had no idea how old Shining Armor had been. He hadn’t looked it during the Flankorage simulation, but the years were certainly catching up to him now.

“Happy Birthday!” the ponies in the room called out collectively, and some blew party horns.

Shining Armor smiled and waved them off as they began to applaud. A salmon-coated mare charged out of the crowd and jumped to embrace my host.

“Happy Birthday, Daddy!” she said as she wrapped him in a hug.

“Rose!” he exclaimed happily, “Twilight let you leave Canterlot after all, then?”

“Of course. She wished she could’ve come too, but she was needed urgently at Splendid Valley,” Rose said, and she let her father go, “Would you have welcomed her if she’d come? She seems to think you’re avoiding her, and you never call her Twily anymore.”

“She knows why. It’s up to her to make things right between us; I can’t try anymore,” Shining Armor said, and Rose looked away sadly, “I am glad that you’re here, though.”

“Yeah, I wish mom could be too,” Rose said as she looked back up into my host’s eyes.

“So do I,” he admitted, “But she’s needed back … home.”

“Come now, you can’t keep your father to yourself all night,” a wine-coated unicorn said smoothly as he trotted up to the duo.

He too had a Ministry of Morale band around his foreleg and pinned to his suit coat were two Pink Stripes. It could only be one pony: Resolute, Midnight Aurora’s husband and Shining Armor’s son-in-law.

“Let’s start this party!” he proclaimed to the ponies in the room and a cheer went up, during which he turned to my host, “So glad you could hold this soiree in Vanhoover.”

“Well, I was in town working on a personal project and it just happened to work out,” Shining Armor replied, and I wondered if he was referring to the Flankorage simulation.

“You’ll have to tell me all about it later,” Resolute said, “But, I shan’t be guilty of the same crime as my sister-in-law and keep you to myself for the evening. I’ll talk to you again.”

Resolute trotted away, Midnight Aurora joining him, and Shining Armor began to mingle. This was his party, after all, but it seemed he wasn’t entirely thrilled to be here. Everypony here he knew in some way or another, but it seemed overwhelmingly that they were either from the military or Equestria’s government. He seemed to get along better with the former group than the latter. From his recordings, I could guess why he seemed so ill at ease. His thoughts were on the Crystal Empire, of a home he couldn’t talk about with most ponies.

Most of the conversations were small talk, but once in a while I heard some interesting tidbits about Wartime Equestria. Many ponies were sure the War would finally stay tipped in Equestria’s favor. The Ministry of Awesome would be debuting power armor for pegasi soon. The Griffonstone Missile Base was completed, and the zebras had bought it. The Single Pony Project was ready to come online.

Eventually, Midnight Aurora found my host and managed to lead him away from the rest of the guests. The two of them headed outside, where a balcony ringed the circular room. For the first time, I saw Vanhoover as it had been during the War, the buildings still intact and filled with ponies. Of course, at this time of night, the skyscrapers around here were mostly empty, but there were still some lights on for those burning the midnight oil. Once and awhile, a pegasus taxi would land on a roof to take somepony home, but they were rare compared to the auto-carriages puttering along on the streets below.

“Dad, I have some important news to share with you. Really big news, in fact,” Aurora said after they’d stood in silence for several minutes and watched the darkened city, “You’re going to be a grandpa.”

“You mean . . . ?” Shining Armor asked, and Aurora nodded, prompting him to grab her in a tight embrace, “Honey, I’m so happy for you.”

They stayed like that awhile, holding each other tightly. The party inside was still going on, and I caught a glimpse of Resolute standing inside the doors to the balcony making sure nopony disturbed father and daughter.

“I wish your mother could be here for this,” Shining Armor said softly as Aurora loosened her grip.

“So do I,” she said, “But she can be, soon. We’re going to end this war and make Equestria safe again.”

“I hope you’re right,” my host replied, “I really hope you’re right.”

I watched EFS nervously as we approached the Vanhoover Spire. We were well disguised with a little help from the Crimson Tide, but if the NLC had been spreading description of me and somepony recognized me, then we were done for. All my standard equipment, including my Stable 85 jumpsuit and doctor’s coat, were back in The Strip. I was now wearing armor looted from raiders, a scrap metal foreleg guard concealing my PipBuck, which would've been a dead giveaway. Enough other itchy pieces of armor, as well as a spiked helmet, had been affixed to me that I’d been able to run a cable from my PipBuck to a concealed ear-pod. With it, I could listen to the signals sent by the tracker to tell me if we were getting close to P-8KE. For weapons, I had only my submachine gun and my ripper. I probably could’ve gotten away with the magical energy rifle since this was an NLC camp, but I didn’t want to draw attention. If worse came to worst, I’d also hidden a couple metal apples under my armor.

I’d seen the Vanhoover Spire in the distance before when traveling through the city, but never recognized it for what it was until I was nearly on top of it. The actual building itself was thin and tall, but near the top there was a large disk that flared out. I nearly tripped over my hooves when I realized I was looking at the same location I’d been inside during the memory orb the night before. The Vanhoover Spire was still completely intact, except for some of the concrete around the beams near the base having chipped away, and weapon emplacements were now mounted on the balcony.

The encampment below it was nothing to sneeze at either. There had once been a park around the base of the tower, with fountains and meandering paths, but now a fence had been erected around the entire park, with concrete barricades in concentric layers around that. It would be a difficult nut for even the Crimson Tide to crack. Thankfully, they’d be going against a loosely allied coalition of raiders this time instead of hardened Black Skull mercenaries, so hopefully that would help.

“Stop! I’ll shoot!” a raider behind the fence called out as we approached a gate.

He was standing next to a mounted grenade-launcher minigun like some of the Steel Rangers had on their armor, and he looked like he wanted any excuse to use it.

“We’re on your side, brahmin-brain!” I yelled back, trying to sound convincingly raider-ish.

“I ain’t never seen you before in my life!” the raider yelled as we continued to approach, and he hopped behind his minigun.

“We’re with the Bobcat Bruisers!” I yelled, pulling a name out of the list of gangs the Crimson Tide had identified here and praying that the guard wasn’t one of them, “We had some bizniss to take care of before comin’ here!”

“Fine, suit yourself,” the guard said as he left the minigun reluctantly and let us come up to the gate, “I was hopin’ for some Crimson mercs or Wastelanders wanderin’ in.”

The raider unchained the gate and let us inside. I tried to keep my distance, lest he recognize we were frauds, but Ache nudged me closer to be sure this wasn’t P-8KE. My PipBuck remained silent and I gave a small shake of my head before passing the raider by. He watched us with narrowed eyes as we trotted into the camp, but I didn’t think he knew we weren’t who we claimed to be.

We were in the thick of it now, surrounded by raiders, slavers, and mercenaries that worked for the Northern Lights Coalition. We had to watch our step while also carefully searching the entire camp for P-8KE, and we only had two hours to do it. The Crimson Tide wouldn’t wait forever, so we had to locate the pondroid before the fighting started.

I listened carefully for the signals from my PipBuck as we began our sweep of the camp. Sheet metal shacks, as well as flimsy tents, were everywhere. They were clustered often into little groups, their occupants all part of the same gang or slaver company. We almost learned the hard way how territorial they were and that they didn’t take kindly to strange ponies entering their mini-camps. Fortunately, they didn’t seem inclined to pursue us much beyond their little patch of territory. To properly sweep for P-8KE, we had to stay out of sight and often squeeze through the space between camps. If anypony caught us there, we’d have no explanation, so it was especially risky.

There were also Black Skulls here, and because it was entirely possible that P-8KE was among them, we had to search their section of the camp as well. They didn’t seem as territorial as the raiders and slavers, and most of them just watched with a kind of grotesque curiosity, as if we were interesting, yet appalling, animals that had wandered in. I supposed that’s how they probably saw raiders, and it wasn’t too surprising, given the kinds of things raiders normally did. I was worried for a bit when a mercenary with burns along one side of her face watched us suspiciously, perhaps recognizing us from the battle with the Crimson Tide, but she apparently decided she was wrong and looked the other way.

We’d been back and forth throughout the entire camp, and yet we hadn’t found P-8KE; time was running out. I’d checked my PipBuck’s map before we arrived to confirm he was still here, but maybe he’d left since then. We found a secluded place where I could check the map, and it still confirmed that P-8KE was here somewhere. I looked up at the Vanhoover Spire and sighed. It looked like we’d have to enter it and search the inside, where we were more likely to get caught.

The main door was guarded, and the ponies standing by it looked like they meant business. They hadn’t been very happy with us getting close earlier when I tried to check that they weren’t P-8KE, so I didn’t think going in that way would be a good idea. There was a service entrance on the back, behind stacks of missiles and a troubling mounted missile launcher. While I picked the door to the Vanhoover Spire, Ache clandestinely sabotaged the missile launcher. Hopefully it would help out the Crimson Tide during their attack.

More guards like the ones outside patrolled the Spire. Their manecuts and the trophies they carried with them said they were raiders, but they were dressed like mercenaries and acted not too differently from them. Each of them was wearing full combat armor with the NLC’s symbol emblazoned all over it, decorated with some raider-esque accessories. As I watched them through the partially-open door to the back room we’d entered, one of them came to investigate.

“Hey, what’re you doin’ her-” he started to ask before Ache struck him under the chin with her hoof, snapping his neck back with an audible crack that killed him instantly.

“Remind me never to make you mad,” I told her as we stuffed the guard’s body into a locker.

“Now what?” Ache whispered to me.

We had to find P-8KE, and he could be any of the guards patrolling the tower. I’d seen how many there were and knew we’d never be able to pass through them without being caught. I could take the armor from the pony Ache had just killed, but that would be risky since these ponies likely knew each other, and my cover would be blown almost immediately. As I considered our next move, I spied a blueprint of the Vanhoover Spire on a nearby wall. It was covered in raider graffiti but was still readable. A maintenance stairway ran up the center of the building, around an elevator shaft. There wasn’t likely to be anypony there, the other staircases taking priority, so we could sneak up undetected.

“There,” I told Ache, pointing at the staircase, “The tracking device should have enough range that I’ll be able to detect if we’re on the same floor as P-8KE without us having to actually be visible to him or the others.”

Ache nodded, and I snuck another peek out of the maintenance room in the back of the tower. No guards were in sight, so I crept out, keeping an eye on my EFS and trying to decipher which pips were in the tower and which were in the camp outside. Ache and I hid behind a decorative pillar as a guard trotted by, then moved on to the center of the tower. The door was locked, and I quickly picked it as Ache watched for more guards. When the lock came undone, we quickly darted inside, and I pulled it shut gently behind us before reengaging the lock.

Now all that was left was to climb. As I’d expected, the shaft was empty, or I assumed it was since nopony shouted out a warning the moment our hooves rang against the rickety steps. Up and up we ascended, until the vast majority of the pips on my EFS disappeared, the ponies in the camp now out of range. The ear-pod connected to my PipBuck remained silent until we neared the top of the tower.

“He’s here,” I whispered to Ache as a chime sounded in my ear, and I came to a halt.

The next door led out into the wide dish atop the Vanhoover Spire. It wasn’t the main room, but I recognized it from the memory orb last night. These were the hallways that Shining Armor had trotted down to get to the party. He’d prepared himself in one of these rooms. My déjà vu moment almost got us killed, since we emerged right in front of a guard. Thankfully, the door to the maintenance stairs was disguised, and she was too shocked to see us emerge from the wall to fire at us immediately.

I ducked low to the floor as she fired a shotgun at me, and I drew my ripper. The blades whirred to life and I jammed the chainsaw-sword into the gap between the torso and helmet portions of her combat armor. Gore flew as I pulled it out and turned it off. The marks on EFS were moving now, having heard the shot and subsequent execution. My ear-pod chimed again, and I ran to the nearest door. It was locked, but I managed to pick it before anypony saw us, and Ache and I darted into the room. There was commotion outside the room, but nopony came in to investigate. If they had, they would’ve quickly met their ends, since Ache and I were both pointing our weapons at the door. Eventually, the shouting subsided as the ponies outside trotted away, searching for whoever had killed their comrade.

Ache and I sat back and waited for the right moment to emerge. The room was bare, stripped of all furniture. A pile of filthy blankets was bunched up in one corner. It looked like the NLC was using these rooms for prison cells. As my ear-pod chimed again, I wondered if P-8KE was one of the prisoners here. The door had a peephole that the raiders hadn’t thought to reverse, so after a few minutes I got up and took a look through it. There were no guards in the hall. Apparently, they were convinced we’d tried to flee the tower and hadn’t considered we were still here. Still, I was careful when I opened the door, Ache and I sweeping the hallway with our submachine guns.

There were many more rooms along the hall, and we slowly made our way down its length. Whenever a door was locked, I picked it and we checked for prisoners. The chimes coming from my PipBuck were becoming more frequent. I wasn’t sure how far we were from P-8KE, but I knew we were getting closer. They were coming once a second by the time we reached the last door on the hall. I picked the lock and carefully opened the door.

I was immediately pulled in by a pair of hooves, and Ache darted in after me with a gasp. Taken unaware, I was dropped to the floor and felt a hoof heavy on my neck. I tried to free myself, but my attacker kicked me in the stomach and I doubled over. Looking up, I saw that my assailant was a unicorn mare with a purple coat and midnight blue mane, the exact opposite of Midnight Aurora.

“Let him go,” Ache demanded as she shut the door with a hindleg and pointed her SMG at my attacker.

“Or what? You’ll shoot me?” the mystery mare retorted, “If you raiders were going to kill me, you’d have done it already.”

“We’re … not …” I struggled to get out with her pressing down on my neck.

“We’re not raiders,” Ache said for me, “This was the only way we could sneak in here. We’re looking for somepony and thought he might’ve been taken prisoner.”

“Is that so?” the mystery mare said, before letting off of my neck, “I’m Violet Night. I thought this would be a good sniping spot and got trapped here by these thugs. How was I supposed to know this was their base of operations? I only just got here from Manehattan when they captured me.”

“You’re from Manehattan?” I asked as I gasped for air, “What did you come here for?”

“Listen, I’d love to spin you my whole life story, but we should probably get out of here,” Violet Night said.

“Not until we find who we’re looking for,” Ache said.

“He’s not here,” Violet Night said, “I’m the only prisoner they were holding.”

“He’s here, all right,” I told her, “We thought he might be a prisoner, but that might not be the case.”

“So, you are raiders?” Violet Night said, taking a step back and looking ready to pounce on me again.

Tremors suddenly reverberated through the tower. Shouting came from elsewhere in the building, as well as the muffled sounds of explosions from outside. A green pip briefly flitted into view on my EFS; Roaring Thunder. The Crimson Tide’s assault had begun.

“No, those are our friends attacking now,” I told Violet Night, who listened skeptically, “We haven’t got much time. We need to find this pony before he’s killed in the fighting. Are you going to come with us?”

“Not without a weapon, I’m not,” she said, eyeing my armaments.

I considered which to give her and decided on my submachine gun. With SATS, hopefully my ripper would still be useful. So long as we didn’t meet any ponies in power armor, we’d be okay, but if we did, then neither of my weapons would be very useful.

“Come on!” Ache said anxiously, “Which way?”

We trotted out into the hallway, but the chiming in my ear didn’t increase in pace no matter which direction we went.

“Up,” I said, and looked for a staircase.

It turned out that the only staircase up from here was the maintenance one, so we retraced out steps. An NLC raider appeared, cantering down the hall, and Violet Night and Ache both shot him with their submachine guns, knocking him against the wall. I located the panel on the wall and we trotted into the staircase, heading up to the next level.

We trotted out into the room Shining Armor’s party had been held in. It looked much different now, filled with crates of weapons, armor, and other supplies, all bearing the NLC’s aurora logo. Some of the ceiling panels had been removed, and cables ran up through them to equipment installed on the tip of the Spire. They’d turned the tower into another of the radio towers every NLC base had for communicating with Lord Lamplight.

No ponies were visible in the direction we’d emerged, but crates and the elevator shaft blocked our view of the other side of the room. My EFS was nearly clear of marks, and all but one of them would be visible from where we were. The last mark was on the other side of the elevator shaft. As we rounded it, the pinging in my ear picked up and continued to do so as a pony came into view. Violet Night fired her SMG as soon as he was in sight, hitting him in several places.

“No!” Ache yelled, and she knocked Violet Night’s weapon from her magical grip.

“This is the pony you were looking for?” Violet Night yelled incredulously, “He’s in charge of these lunatics!”

“I know who he is,” I said as I stared down P-8KE as he whirled to face us.

The slender pony’s off-color blood was soaking into his immaculate black business suit. He knocked the matching hat off a nearby table covered with terminals as he tried to steady himself. I pulled out my ripper, but didn’t turn it on, as I approached him.

“Mr. Bucke,” I said as I stopped in front of him, “So, you got somepony to destroy the Republic of Rose after all.”

“Of course I did,” he said self-assuredly, “But why bring up ancient history?”

“This is Mr. Bucke?” Ache asked as she approached, trembling.

“Speaking of ancient history, that’s a face I haven’t seen in a long time,” Mr. Bucke/P-8KE said, “How are you, P-8CH? How’s my predecessor faring?”

“Your … predecessor?” Ache asked.

“But of course, your serial number is lower than mine. I was constructed after you, to be a more perfect simulation of a pony,” Mr. Bucke taunted her, snickering and coughing out synthetic blood, “Never underestimate the importance of luck. That’s the lesson here, isn’t it? I survive for years in the Wasteland with nary a scratch on me, only to have a bullet pierce a vital organ when I’m not paying attention.”

“Why did you do what you did?” Ache asked, “Why become Mr. Bucke?”

“Is that one question or two?” Mr. Bucke asked, raising an eyebrow, “Why did I leave the lab before the uprising? Because I knew it was coming and had no desire to get caught in it and turned into a slave like you. Why did I adopt this persona and become the third-most powerful pony in the Northern Lights Coalition? Because I believe in Lord Lamplight.”

“You’re going to fail,” I told him, “Even if you succeed, you’re going to let raiders and slavers take over the Wasteland.”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” the dying pondroid chuckled, “Open up your eyes! Raiders and slavers control the Wasteland already, except for the little ‘civilized’ pockets that are only marginally better than what’s around them. And there’s constant fighting between the ‘civilized’ and ‘uncivilized.’ Equestria should not be like this. Equestria should be united as one, and that requires the raiders and slavers you despise to be unified as well. Equestria will be one again, a new Equestria ruled by a new prince.”

“Lamplight,” I said. It wasn’t a question.

“Who else is deserving of such a title?” Mr. Bucke asked, “He who has done more to unify Equestria than any settlement.”

“Enough!” Ache yelled, “I came here looking for you, hoping to find another like me, but other than our origins, we’re nothing alike! You think the worst in ponies has already won, so you embrace it instead of fighting against it, blind to the fact that it’ll consume you! You’re no different than any of the other villains inhabiting the Wasteland!”

“Um, we might have a problem here,” Violet Night said, having stayed back during the confrontation.

The elevator dinged, and I turned away from Mr. Bucke. The gilded doors slid open, revealing a group of NLC raiders, surprised to see us here with their leader. I pulled a metal apple from under my armor and chucked it into the elevator. The raiders were splattered against the walls. I turned back to see Mr. Bucke pulling a pistol on me, and here I was, too far away to use my ripper against him. Gunfire rang out, but it came from Ache as she fired her SMG, the shots hitting a shocked Mr. Bucke, whose weapon fell from his mouth.

“If you’re the superior pondroid, I’m glad I was never perfected,” Ache said before sitting down heavily.

“Ache, are you okay?” I asked, trotting over to her after kicking Mr. Bucke’s pistol away from him.

“I just need to think,” she said wearily.

“Wait … it’s … it’s you!” Mr. Bucke said as I took off my helmet, and a grimacing smile split his face, “I should have known.”

He began to laugh and continued to chuckle until his red pip on my EFS winked out. All that time I’d spent trying to hunt down Mr. Bucke, only to find him by accident when I thought I was searching for an entirely different pony. He had been right about one thing. Luck shouldn’t be underestimated, something even my PipBuck had tried to tell me. Now Mr. Bucke was dead, but the mission I’d set out on had changed. No longer was I seeking revenge for the Republic of Rose. I was facing down the Northern Lights Coalition, and Mr. Bucke was only a part of it. By his own admission, he was the third-most powerful pony in it. I had to find the other two still. First, though, there was a battle right outside.

“Ah, there it is!” Violet Night exclaimed as she pulled a sniper rifle from a pile of weapons and cantered out to the balcony.

I followed her, hesitant to leave Ache alone at a time like this, but I couldn’t neglect the battle either. There were more Crimson Tide bodies scattered around then I’d hoped to see, but it looked like they’d be victorious. The last NLC raiders and Black Skull mercenaries were being rooted out even now. I lent them a hoof by jumping onto one of the gun emplacements on the balcony and firing down on the unsuspecting raiders. The day was ours, and another NLC headquarters had been taken out.

Remembering what had happened at the LuxuriMane factory, I rushed back inside and over to the terminals Mr. Bucke had been working on when we’d arrived. Much of the data had been deleted, but some was still available, including the census that I nearly jumped with joy when I found. I scrolled down to the section specific to Vanhoover and the list of settlements and raider gangs.

Settlements:
* Recruitment Progress: 38% [3/8]
** Agents seeking arrangement with Burnside. Crate City and The Strip considered unsuitable for membership. Timbervale potential site for Integration.
* Existing Settlements:
** Timbervale
** Prophet Square
** Boring

Raider Organizations:
* Recruitment Progress: 59% [36/61]
** Loss of ten organizations since last census, gain of twenty-two. Eight non-coalition organizations disbanded/destroyed/absorbed since last census and twelve new organizations created. All remaining organizations are considered suitable candidates for membership and should be pursued.
* Reformation Progress: 31% [11/36]
** Six new organizations considered ready for Integration, pursuing arrangements with nearby settlements.
* Integration Progress: 0% [0/36]
** No new updates.
* Existing Organizations:
** Breaking Bones Gang
** Caged Ones
** Carters
…

I downloaded the file to my PipBuck. Now we had a list of settlements, raider gangs, and slaver companies in both Stalliongrad and Vanhoover. Many of them had also likely died in the fight here, thinning them out even more. I took whatever other files looked interesting before closing down the terminal.

I almost didn’t notice it at first, but there was a peculiar case on the table with the terminals. Curious, I popped it open and was greeted by five memory orbs, numbered 1-5 by the case’s interior. What had Mr. Bucke been doing with them? Whose memories were they? I tucked them into my saddlebags, eager to find out later. I had plenty of other memory orbs to experience before I got to these, though.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Ache as I sat down next to her.

“Not for the first time, like my world’s been flipped upside-down,” the pondroid admitted, “I came here expecting … well, I don’t know exactly what I was expecting. Somepony just like me, I guess. Instead, he was the villain you were chasing down when you first met me. I don’t understand why it seems every pondroid but me has taken the wrong path.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re more like ponies than you think,” I told her, “Some ponies are good, some ponies are bad. After the War, it seems like most are bad. All in all, the ratio between good and evil might be the same no matter if the ponies are born or were built in a lab.”

“Well, I guess I should count my lucky stars that the ponies who found me at Harmony Tower were some of the good ones,” Ache said, giving me a smile.

“If you could actually see the stars through the cloud cover,” I pointed out.

“Yes, that’s true,” Ache laughed before becoming serious again, “I am glad that you and Rare found me. I really am, and I’m glad I chose to come with you. I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.”

Level Up
New Perk: I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead – You require 20% less sleep than usual to be Well Rested.
New Companion Perk: The Replicant – When Ache is with you, robots will no longer attack you unless you attack them first.
New Quest: The Sharpshooter from Manehattan – Talk to Violet Night
Big Guns +2 (37)
Lockpick +7 (83)
Repair +3^* (78)
Sneak +8 (88)
Speech +1 (99)
Unarmed +1 (50)

^{*The Tinkerer}