Fallout Equestria: Influx

Chapter 11: Back on Track

By the morning after we boarded the train we had passed the mountains separating the Marejave from mainland Equestria, and we fell under the oppressive cloud cover that blankets the rest of the Equestrian Wasteland. Everything was rather dull in the cabin as I was jolted awake when the train ran over a rough section of track. I groaned as I groggily pushed myself up into a sitting position and blinked my tired eyes. It took a minute for my tired mind to remember where I was and why the room felt like it was rocking from side to side. I smiled to myself when I remembered that we were on the train heading back to Manehattan, but then frowned when I realised that the gentle rocking motion of the train wouldn’t lull me back to sleep since I was now wide awake. With a sigh, I leaned back in my seat and eeped when I felt the gentle touch of another pony against me.

Xian lay beside me, curled up into a ball and her head was gently rested against my flank like it was a pillow. I smiled and gently stroked her messy mane with my forehoof while she slept soundly. There was then another rough clickity clack as the train ran other another rough section, which drew a snort from Fruity on the opposite bench. He was lying flat on his back with his hat over his face and muzzle. A wing drooped over the edge of the seat while he snored.

With nothing to do while my friend and young charge slept, I looked around the cabin for something to entertain myself with. My eyes fell upon my left wing. The primary feathers were slightly dishevelled and out of place from how I’d laid on it. I groaned with annoyance as I extended my wing and moved it forward so I could better reach it and gently began to run my lips and tongue across each feather, gently tugging them to ensure they were still good and pulling them back into place. Just as I managed to put half of my feathers back in place, a couple of them tickled my nose. I pulled my head back and wiggled my nose as I felt the sensation that I was about to sneeze, but thankfully after holding my breath for a few seconds it passed. I was about to resume my work before my brain finally woke up and caught up with what I was doing when I put a feather back in my mouth. It was then that I realised that I was doing, I was preening myself. Upon that realisation, I let out a quiet scream.

“I didn’t do it!” Fruity shrieked as he bolted up off his bench at my scream and fell onto the floor with a thud. Once his brain caught up with him he sat up, hoof rubbing his forehead and scowled at me. “Aww c’mon Crystal, I was in the middle of a lovely dream just then…” Anything else he was going to say died on his tongue as he stared at me, he eyes widening as he took in my horrified expression. “Hey, are you ok?”

I looked up at him, tears brimming in my eyes as I held out my half preened wing. “I was preening myself,” I choked out.

He blinked and wore a confused expression. “Um, did you accidentally pull out a good feather or something?” He asked with a shrug.

“Fruity!” I shrieked. “I was never taught how to preen and I found myself doing it like it was second nature,” I practically screamed at him.

“Shh, Xian is still sleeping,” He warned before raising his eyebrow at me. He stared at me with his raised eyebrow for a moment before his eyes widened as if in realisation. “The mental conditioning,” He breathed out quietly.

“What?”

“Back in the Upgrade Station, there was a section during the upgrade that said “Mental Conditioning” after the physical changes had been made. I guess it was the things you needed for a pegasus lifestyle. Flight knowledge, flight experience, probably even wing maintenance,” He theorised.

“I, I suppose you could be right but…I don’t like that it felt so natural for me to do. This was my first time doing it but the way I just went at it, it was like I’ve done it my whole life,” I whimpered, tears trickling down my cheeks now. “I hate this, I hate how I suddenly feel so different and yet not so different all at the same time. I know I’m not a pegasus, I know I’m not a zebra but I feel like I am…” Anything else I was about to vent ended in a choked out sob, and Fruity was quick to join me on our bench and embraced me with his forelegs, holding me tight.

“Shhh, it’ll be ok, I promise, I’ll help you through it. I swear it!” He promised as he held me firmly in his hooves. I broke down then. I buried my head in his shoulder and began to weep openly. “That’s it, let it all out,” He said soothingly.

I must have cried for a good hour, I think. Either way, I cried myself dry and felt extremely drained again, despite my primary power reading being above seventy percent. He let me go and I laid back down with a sigh.

“Hey, want owt from the dinning car or something?” He asked as he slid off the bench and stood up.

“Some water would be nice, thank you.”

“Alright, I’ll be back in a few,” He said and gently nuzzled my forehead before he left the cabin. I closed my eyes and let the gentle rocking of the train lull me back to sleep.

I can’t have been asleep for that long. I woke up probably only ten or so minutes later with Fruity shutting our cabin door.

“Eek!” Xian squealed as she was woken up by the door clicking shut. She sat up and looked around with terrified eyes, but when she saw who she was with she relaxed and slumped back down with a sigh. Poor dear, she was pretty scared of being in an unfamiliar environment. I could relate to her really, considering I only woke up into this world a few weeks ago and not where I remember falling asleep.

The most surprising thing of all however was how she took to the news about what I am. I told her my story and she didn’t seem scared of me like I expected her to, or think I was lying, making it all up. She did say it was surprising and a little intimidating, but because I didn’t act like the few robots she’s ever seen and that I act more like the ponies do, she felt I’m more pony than robot. That actually made me smile, to think this young filly that seemed to be scared of everything else outside of what she was familiar with was ok with me being a robot of sorts. Also I think being a zebra helped. Another thing maybe is that it also came down to first impressions, she got to know me as Crystal Éclair the Pegasus Zebra, got to see my personality, what I liked from the things I had in my house and saw my good side when I helped her instead of being aware of the machine inside first. Whatever the reason, I hope she remains feeling comfortable around me, I’d hate to drive her away because of this and I pray she never gets to see what’s under my skin and especially the SDP.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” Fruity asked the both of us.

“No, it’s ok but I think you closed the door a little too hard for Xian,” I said, sitting up with a yawn.

“Sorry kidder,”

The filly’s response was to scoot close to me, as if trying to hide behind me. How cute.

Fruity gave a half smile at that before he stood on his hind legs and used his mouth to tug down his Q-Modulator by its strap from the overhead compartment above the bench he has been using.

“What are you doing with that?” I asked as he slung the weapon.

“On the way back with your water,” Which I then noticed there was a bottle of water with two glasses sitting on a worn wooden tray on the table between the benches. He must have put it down right after closing the door and while I was waking up. “I bumped into Marshall Slate and was curious if the guards on this train had a way to maintain their weapons,”

I nodded as I followed along and used my nano-fibre tail to pour water into the two glasses.

“He told me the Third Class Brake Car at the rear of the train was converted into a barracks of sorts for the train guard and has facilities for weapon and armour maintenance. I explained to him after he told me that, that my plasma rifle has been acting up lately and asked if I could have permission to use the workbench there to fix it and he agreed, so that’s what I’m doing now,” He explained.

“Oh, well I hope you get to the bottom of why your rifle kept going wrong,” I said as I gently gave Xian her glass.

He nodded as he opened the door. “I don’t know how long I’ll be so I’ll see you whenever I get this piece of shit fixed,”

“Fruity!” I hissed. “Mind your language; we have a young filly here,”

He laughed. “C’mon hon, she doesn’t understand a word I say,” He said before he left.

I sighed after he left. It still didn’t make it right, and it was kinda like talking behind somepony’s back. Shaking my head slightly to shake those thoughts, I turned to Xian who was holding her glass in her fore hooves and taking gentle sips. The way she would sip just a tiny amount of the water told me how she must have rationed herself at times when water was low for her. I couldn’t imagine how bad it must have been trying to survive alone out there and being just a kid too.

“Hey, Fruity won’t be back for a while and it won’t do us any good being stuck in this cabin the entire trip. Would you like to walk with me?” I asked with a gentle smile and a soft hoof stroke through her mane.

“Won’t the other ponies hate us?” She whimpered.

I gave her a confident smile. “No, this isn’t Bonbon Spings nor Hayside, on this train hate towards anypony isn’t tolerated and the Marshall of the train is a good pony, and besides…” I then gave her a serious expression. “…I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise,”

Xian seemed to relax a bit as she gave a weak smile. “Ok, if I’m with you I’ll be ok,”

With a groan of relief from the bench as it didn’t have to hold my weight anymore, I stood up and stretched out my wings. It felt good to stand up again after being laid or sat down for so long. I also made sure that Lucky 13 was in its holster, can’t be too careful after all. Xian held out her half empty glass and I gently took it with my teeth and set it down on the table before walking over to the cabin door to which Xian joined me at after jumping down from the bench.

“Are you ready?” I asked while looking down at the young filly that now stood close to my forelegs.

The black striped filly gave a nervous nod. I smiled softly and reached down with my wing to gently reassure her and nudged open the door to the corridor. We turned right and started to head towards the front of the train, passing several over cabin doors before reaching the open gangway passage into the next car. It was a wonder I wasn’t tripping over Xian with how close she was sticking to me and walking between my fore and hind legs on one side.

I could hear conversations from multiple ponies as we passed through the gangway door into the next car which was one of the standard passenger cars, which meant there were no private cabins. It was simply benches with tables in between and it was fairly populated. However, as soon as we entered the train car, the mixed conversations died, it went deadly silent. I felt Xian hug close to my forelegs when everything went quiet. I held my breath as I looked out across the car. Several rough looking ponies were in here, each giving me a distasteful eye but none making a move but eventually, one by one they all turned back to their conversations despite them being a little hushed.

“I’m scared,” Xian whimpered as we began to slowly walk down the centre of the car.

“Don’t worry; you’re safe with me,”

About half way through the car I began to get that feeling of being watched again. I stopped and looked around, slowly scanning the train car for anything odd, even my reticule appeared, locking onto the heads of each pony as I looked at them but none of them seemed to be looking my way or Xian’s. There were two ponies sat at the rear of the car from where we came in, those two mercenaries covered from head to hoof in military gear. I couldn’t see their faces or eyes but they weren’t looking directly at me, but I got a bad feeling when I looked at them. Shaking my head to rid myself of the bad feeling I urged Xian to keep walking so we could pass on into the next car.

“Are you sure we’ll be ok, everypony was looking at us?” Xian whimpered.

“Shh, it’ll be ok, this is a whole new world for you, just give it time, oof,” I replied but then grunted as I walked into somepony while having my attention on Xian.

“Eep!” The filly squeaked when I came to a sudden stop and whoever I walked into fell onto their rump.

“Ow, you feel like you are built like this train,” A quiet female but familiar voice said with a groan.

I blinked and looked down to the mare I had put on her ass. “Tulip?” I asked.

“Huh, do I… wait… Crystal?” The small mare went wide eyed as she took in my features. “Um wow, err, you have changed since the last time I saw you,”

“Um, it’s… complicated,” I said while giving my wings a nervous flap. “I’m also not comfortable talking about what happened, a lot happened in the Marejave,” I sighed as I folded my wings.

I was grateful for the distraction of Xian making a nervous squeak which gained our attention.

“Oh, you have a kid too?” Tulip asked with a soft smile directed to Xian.

“Oh, no, she’s an orphan that I rescued,” I replied as I gently stroked her back with a forehoof.

“Oh the poor dear,” Tulip said with sympathy and attempted to approach, but Xian hid behind my forelegs. “Is she ok?”

“Yeah, she’ll be ok, she’s just a little nervous right now after all things considered,” I replied. “How is your daughter?”

Tulip smiled “Oh she’s doing wonderfully, thanks to you. Again I can’t thank you enough for saving her life,”

I gave a warm smile to the small mare. “Don’t mention it; I’m happy she’s doing ok,”

Tulip smiled but then cringed and crossed her hind legs. “Ohhh, I’m sorry, I really need to go, ugh I hate that the toilets are at the ends of these carriages,” She whined.

“Oh, I’m sorry, hehe, don’t let us keep you,” I said with a bashful blush as I stepped back to let the mare get passed so she could get to the toilet door that was just next to us.

“Thank you and maybe we’ll see you later, ohhh, bye,” She whined before rushing into the toilet.

“Wh-who was she?” Xian asked after Tulip disappeared.

“Hmm?” I asked as I looked down to the filly and met her wide green eyes. “Oh, she’s the mother of a filly I rescued from a fire,”

“Wow really?” She chirped with amazement.

I gigged and nodded as I gentled nudged her so we could continue onward.

After our meeting with Tulip the walk through the train became rather bland, especially after leaving that open passenger car because the feeling of being watched never came back until we had to pass through it again on the way back. While we walked, or rather I walked and Xian rode on my back, we passed through the Dining Car, a car that could be consider a bar and several more passenger cars until we were stopped by a pair of guards that stood at the entrance to a closed gangway door. Apparently, access to the forward brake car and baggage car were off limits to passengers, mainly because the brake car was the private quarters for the train drivers and fireponies.

XXXXX

Within the Baggage Car, a charred armoured pony like being lay in the shadows of a stack of crates out of sight of any of the guards or crew that would walk through the car. Sensing an approaching energy signature he lifted his head, his glowing red eyes casting an eerie red glow on the wall, crates and other baggage nearby.

“I-01?” He asked himself as he leaned out from behind a stack of crates to eye the gangway door.

After a little while, the energy signature began to move away. “Sent away by the guards?” He asked himself as he settled back down. “I can also sense Unit 1 and Unit 2 deeper in the train; hmm this has gotten more complicated,”

He continued to lay in his hiding spot, brooding over what he could possibly do while having to stay hidden since he didn’t have a helmet to hide his head and rummaging through the baggage would alert ponies to his presence, let alone the other two Mark 2 units. Movement in the car that wasn’t caused by the gentle rocking of the train pulled him from his thoughts as he narrowed his eyes and peered into the gloom of the dark baggage car. Eventually, a young colt no older than eight or nine stepped out and into the light of a window which surprised the machine.

“Dumb guards, couldn’t catch a Bloatsprite,” He chuckled to himself as he began to look around. “This will be a perfect place to play Hide-n-Seek in,”

“Hide-n-Seek?” The machine asked himself before the kid looked right at him, drawn to the red glow of his eyes.

“Whoa, didn’t know somepony was transporting robots, so cool!” He almost squealed and began to approach the partially hidden robot.

“What are you doing in here?” Nexus asked the kid before he could approach him fully.

The young colt froze with wide eyes. “You can talk?”

“You shouldn’t be in here, you should go back,” He said, stepping forward, revealing his skeletal head and charred combat armour.

“Wow, you look awesome!” The kid squealed in excitement at seeing such an unusual machine.

Nexus tilted his head in confusion, he half expected the kid to be frightened of his skeletal face, not be wowed by it. He didn’t know what to do as he looked down at the kid.

“What sort of robot are you, do you have an owner?” The young colt asked quickly, approaching him with curiosity in his eyes.

“I am a Mark 2 Infiltrator, I… believe I have been disowned,” He replied. “So I guess I am my own owner,”

“Oh wow awesome, a free robot, that’s so cool, um, do you have a name?”

“I… call myself… Nexus,”

“Wow,” He beamed. “I’m Spark Plug,”

“Are you not afraid of me?”

“Should I be, I mean you haven’t tried to hurt me, you haven’t threatened me and you are so freaking awesome and cool, so much better than those walking trashcans called Ponytrons,”

Nexus sat down, not sure what to do from here. So he began to talk with the young colt. Learning that he lived with his mother and two brothers and had an affinity for all things mechanical, especially robotics which explained why he found him so amazing. Eventually, the kid even convinced Nexus to play Hide-n-Seek, first explaining how to play and then the young colt teaching him how the game played and worked. Both were able to find each other very easily. Nexus’s synthetic eyes allowed him to see better in the dark and the young colt could see him from the red glow of his eyes despite how well he hid himself.

It wasn’t until a couple of hours later when the colt realised how long he had been there with the machine and had to leave to prevent his mother from coming to find him.

“Thank you for spending time with me and playing with me, I had fun Nexus,” The colt smiled as he made his way towards the gangway door.

“Glad you had a good time, Spark Plug,” Nexus replied as he watched the young colt lift up a panel in the wall beside the gangway door and slipped out. “Heh, sneaky colt,” It wasn’t until he left that the machine registered a feeling that he realised was loneliness. Making a friend out of the colt had made him feel something good and he wished to feel it again.

XXXXX

During the walk back through the train I kept my wings folded so I wasn’t hiding Xian with them and for a while she was laid down trying to be as small as possible so ponies wouldn’t notice her. For a time, it was me that got their attention for the most part and most ponies didn’t seem to notice the zebra filly on my back and as most tended to mind their own business Xian became braver and eventually sat up. By the time we were heading back to our cabin, she was sat up and actively looking around with curious eyes, finally starting to take in the wonders this train had for a youngster like her.

By the time we made it back to our cabin, it was around lunchtime and a grumble from my back told me somepony was hungry. I was about to suggest we head back to the dining car, but we had just passed it but then I remembered we still had some apples that we picked from Stable 16’s orchard.

“How about a nice juicy apple?” I asked as I crouched down so she could get off my back and onto a bench.

“Are they nice?”

“Well, I would say they are, Apples were some of the best food products of pre-war society,” I said with a nostalgic smile as I stood on my hind legs to retrieve my medical box from the overhead.

Once the box was down and set on the table, I popped open the lid and fished out two shiny red apples. Sadly that was all the apples I had in my box. I think Fruity still had a couple floating about somewhere in his magic duster pockets. A good thing about having wings, you could use them as feather dusters. I lifted an apple with a hoof and gently used a wing to give it a feather wipe since it been inside my medical box along with all my other junk before I gave it to the young filly. She held the large red fruit in her forehooves sceptically, eying the unfamiliar fruit with an adorable scrunched up muzzle.

I giggled. I’ve seen this before in little ponies, she wouldn’t eat it until I show her it’s safe. I plopped down, a little too carelessly because the bench gave an almighty protest to my weight but thankfully held, and with an embarrassed blush, took my apple and took a bite out of the fruit. Thankfully, the time it had been in my box hadn’t be long enough to make it go off as it was still crisp and juicy and not to mention delicious. I hummed with delight at the taste and fought hard to keep my self-control. Hey, I hadn’t eaten anything this good since I woke up. Seeing that I was enjoying my apple, Xian took a very small tentative bite out of hers and she froze with eyes the size of saucers and then it happened, she tore through the apple like a filly possessed until nothing but the core was left. I giggled as I partially expected that and it was hilarious and adorable at the same time. With a face soiled with bits of apple, juice and skin, Xian reclined on her bench and sighed happily with her meal.

“You must have been hungry,” I giggled as I finished my apple, core and all. I didn’t even realise I’d eaten my core until I noticed Xian’s lying on the table.

The filly gave a sheepish smile and a blush. “It was really tasty,”

I giggled softly while I discarded her core into a waste bin near the door and then sat back down on the bench next to her. “Hmm, ok so since we have time to kill while we wait for Fruity to come back, how would you like to learn Equestrian?” I asked.

Her ears perked up as she looked up at me. “Equestrian, do I really need to learn it?”

“Well, you don’t have to, but it would certainly be very beneficial to you, plus it’ll be easier on us if we all were able to speak the same language amongst each other,” I explained honestly.

“O-ok,”

“Don’t worry sweetie, you’ll be glad to have this language,” I said softly while giving her mane a reassuring stroke.

She gave a weak smile while I began to look for something to write with and on. A quick look around the cabin resulted in no recreational supplies at all like a pen or paper leaving me with nothing to start teaching the young filly. However, I did know where I could acquire a notepad and a pen. I just hoped they’d be generous enough to give me some spare ones.

“Since I can’t find anything to write on and with, I’m just going to take a quick trot to the Dining Car, will you be ok on your own for a minute or two? I promise I won’t be long.”

The young filly gave a nod and lay down on the bench, getting herself comfortable.

“I won’t be long, don’t open the door to anyone unless it’s Fruity ok, I’ll be right back,” I said and left the cabin.

The trip to the Dining Car was pretty much uneventful and despite a couple of the waiters being a little sceptical, probably because I’m a zebra, a waitress gave me a spare notepad and pen. After giving my thanks I began my return trip. I had to pass through a couple of passenger cars to get back to our cabin and the car connecting to the Dining Car was another corridor car and the two mercenaries from earlier were stood talking to each other halfway down the corridor, effectively blocking my path. I could feel my apprehension again as I approached them.

“Hey Razzle, check it out, a Stripe with wings,” One of the completely covered black tailed mercs said in a sort of mocking tone.

The merc referred to as Razzle turned his or her head to look in my direction. My feeling of unease escalated tenfold, something about these two was setting me on edge but I couldn’t understand why.

“You must be really brave or very stupid wandering around unsupervised, there are plenty of unsavoury characters that would like nothing more than to take advantage of a zebra such as yourself,” Razzle said in a clear feminine voice that held a level of power behind her tone, which told me she was the one in charge.

“Heh, yeah, ponies like us…” The other pony’s words were suddenly cut off as Razzle spun around and gave him a swift hard smack to the face.

“Do I have to cable tie your mouth shut you stupid mule?” She hissed threateningly.

“Ow, sorry sis,”

“Um, c-can I get by?” I squeaked.

“Sure, I need to re-educate my brother on when not to speak his mind,” She said as she moved aside enough to let me squeeze passed.

I gave my thanks and quickly squeezed passed, but as I passed them and headed for the gangway door, that sense of being watched came back. I shuddered and quickened my pace and left the car. I didn’t slow down as I went through the other cars and back to our cabin. I couldn’t be happier to back inside our cabin; as soon as I shut the door I slumped to the floor and let out a breath to calm my nerves.

Xian was worried that something was wrong when I came back but I was able to assure her it was nothing. After getting comfortable again on the bench I used the notepad and pen to begin writing out the Equestrian alphabet, one letter per page and tearing it out and then putting it on the table as well as numbers zero to nine. Once I had enough of the letters and numbers I explained to the filly that everything in front of her was the Equestrian alphabet and numbers and that I’d start by teaching her them.

After a few tries I was able to concentrate myself so that I wasn’t automatically slipping into translation mode when looking at Xian. It was bugging me how I was just doing that. I sure hope Paradigm Cybernetics has a manual or something. It was around mid-afternoon when Fruity returned while I was in the middle of teaching Xain. She was learning really quickly on forming how to say the letters. I suppose being exposed to Equestrian speakers for the better part of three years had unintentionally helped her.

“I’m sure that’s not what playing cards are supposed to look like,” Fruity said as he rolled a completely unrecognisable weapon off his back after he closed the door behind him. His weapon even appeared as an “Error, cannot identify!” in my vision.

I smiled and got up from our bench and gave him a hug, unintentionally also wrapping my wings around him too. Jeez these things are huge, they practically drowned him. Fruity returned the hug and then pecked me on the cheek.

“Missed you too,” He said with a soft smile.

I blushed lightly as I folded my wings. “So, err, did you fix your rifle?”

He nodded and then gestured to the new weapon on the opposite bench. I blinked; the weapon on the bench didn’t look like the Q-Modulator apart from the fact it shared the same brownish colour.

“Wait, that’s the Q-Modulator?” I asked in surprised.

“I know, isn’t it just the dog’s bollocks?” He beamed with pride.

Good thing I’ve heard that expression meaning something good before, otherwise it would have confused the heck out of me. I nodded in agreement as I inspected the heavily modified plasma rifle. The weapon’s central chassis, handle grip and ammo cradle looked unchanged, but the rest of the weapon had been modified heavily. The old standard long barrel had been replaced with a three copper pronged barrel that had several cables connecting to each prong. The stock was fuller, longer, and sleeker, like it was designed to absorb recoil and sitting in the middle but on the top of the chassis was a dot reflex sight.

“What have you done to it?” I gaped.

“Well, at first I wasn’t sure what else I could do for this thing after giving it a general once over. I was still getting charging problems even after I did some proper maintenance. Thankfully, a pegasus mare that turned out to be a guard here helped me out,” I felt my hairs on the back of my neck bristle at the mention of another mare helping him. “Apparently, her mother was a dashite too and an ex-Enclave soldier and had taught her a great deal on energy weapons and she was able to tell me that the Q-Modulator’s capacitor was faulty.” Fruity sat on his haunches as he pulled the weapon off the bench and held it in his hooves and showed it off while he talked. “I suppose two hundred years of doing nothing and then being forced into action was too much for the old thing and so with her help we upgraded it to what she called an Overcharged Capacitor, it drastically increases its energy output as well as enables more shots per Mana Cell. However with the increased power, the old standard barrel became obsolete and would break down if I didn’t at least upgrade it. Considering the large amount of ammo I have for this puppy she suggested an Automatic Barrel, it reduces the damage per shot by two thirds but I’d be firing multiple plasma bolts in rapid succession which would make this a deadly weapon to have and to counter the recoil from the automatic fire the original stock was replaced with a Markspony Stock to make aiming and firing the weapon more comfortable. The last thing she suggested and helped me make for this was the reflex sight, at least now I’ll be able to use this weapon more effectively thanks to her,”

I nodded, but inside I was fuming. Another mare had spent time with Fruity, being close to him, talking to him and doing something with him… Wait, oh my gosh I think I’m jealous of somepony I don’t even know.

“Hey, you ok?” He asked as he laid the weapon back on the bench and gently put his forehoof on my shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m ok, nothing to worry about,” I smiled and gave him a nuzzle on the cheek.

“Ok, so, what’s going on?” He asked.

“Oh, just began to teach Xian the Equestrian language,” I replied.

For the rest of the afternoon and the evening we spent the time helping the filly with learning the Equestrian alphabet. By the time we ate dinner and the sun had gone down she had a fair grasp on the letters and numbers. It filled me pride to see how far she came in just a short time.

I put the pieces of paper into the notepad and left it on the table as we finished the lesson for the day. Xian had already passed out on the plush seat cushion of the bench, sleeping soundly. She looked so peaceful, so innocent. I smiled warmly as I gently laid a wing over her as she slept and reclined to get comfortable myself to get ready to sleep.

“Crystal, are you still sure it’s a good idea to bring her with us?” Fruity asked as he watched me drape my wing over the filly.

“Of course. Sure, it’s not going to be like where she has been for the last few years but she won’t be alone, fighting to survive for herself every day and night. She’ll have us to look out for her and to protect her,” I said seriously.

“It’s just that, mainland Equestria is much more dangerous than the western region we have been in. There are more monsters, robots, and ponies that will like to fuck or kill you every chance they get and a filly like her will also be highly desired by slavers,” He reasoned.

I nodded with understanding but…“I promised her I won’t leave her alone, I’m not going to abandon her, and I’ll defend her from anyone who tries to hurt her,”

Fruity smiled. “Since when did you get all maternal?”

“I don’t know, but she deserves our protection and guidance,”

He nodded, “Well, I think we better get some shut eye, not much else we can do unless you want to try and get bladdered?”

“Sleep sounds good,” I agreed.

Physically, I didn’t feel tired mainly because of what I am, but mentally I was exhausted. I don’t think we’ve had a proper night’s sleep since before Stable 16. That was an experience I really want to forget. Repositioning myself so I could lay on my barrel and rest my head on my forelegs, I kept one of my wings draped over Xian and closed my eyes.

“Good night Fruity, see you tomorrow,” I yawned.

“Good night,” Fruity replied as he flopped onto his bench.

I lay there listening to the gentle breathing of the young filly and feeling the gentle rocking of the train before allowing it to lull me to sleep.

XXXXX

As awareness slowly began to return to me after Celestia knew how long, I opened my eyes to find myself in a brightly lit, clean sterile room filled with an assortment of advanced looking equipment. I didn’t know where I was or who I was. My head was swimming, was I in a hospital?

I tried to look around but found that I couldn’t feel my legs or even my body for that matter. Panic began to set in as I tried desperately to move something, anything but I couldn’t feel nothing. After what felt like hours of trying to move something I finally shifted my gaze and what I saw confused me. I expected to see my body, despite not being able to remember how I looked, but instead of fur I saw gleaming metal. From what I could see, my chest and limbs were made of metal but it looked like something was missing from the chest piece as there was a deep circular hole in the middle of the breast plate.

Who am I?
Where is my body?
What is this?
Where am I?
What am I doing here?

Were all questions running through my increasingly panicked and confused mind until there was a dull thud from the end of the room. A door swung open and a beige coloured unicorn with a purple mane done up in a short pony tail and dressed in a M.o.A white lab coat trotted up to the table I happened to be laying on while levitating some sort of device. The mare sat down by the table and set the device down beside my metal leg. From what I could see the device was cylindrical and had a blue ring with copper coils around it at several intervals but in the centre was an indentation meant for something.

“That lying…” The mare grumbled to herself, trailing off as she turned her head to levitate some tools from across the room that were out of my eyesight since I couldn’t turn my head.

She turned back around with a bunch of tools I couldn’t remember the names too. Why can’t I remember anything? The mare looked hurt, upset, like she had just found something out that had shattered something she once thought was good in her life.

“I know you were no volunteer now, that asshole came clean about his project,” She hissed as she brought her tools to the device and began to tweak bits and bobs. “But I can’t back out of this now either, I’m too far into it for myself to not see it through,” She added as she moved the tools to the centre. “At least I can use this lie of a project to do something good. I’ve never done a full body reconstruction before and with this I can help ponies who’ve suffered paralyse from the neck or so down if you’re a success,”

I didn’t know what she was talking about, it was complete gibberish to me, ugh, I couldn’t seem to shift the cobwebs in my head.

“You can’t just barge on through here without an appointment!” Another, much older mare’s voice shouted from somewhere.

Another door off to the left opened and a well-built green earth pony stallion with a short buzz cut black mane walked in. He was quickly followed by a middle aged earth pony mare, whose coat was tan in colour and had a silvery white mane from age.

The older mare panted. “I, I’m sorry Dr Pear, he just wouldn’t take no for an answer,”

The mare who I assumed was Dr Pear fixed the green stallion with a death glare. “It’s ok Miss Scroll, my employer can walk in when he wants it seems… besides, I need to talk to him anyway,”

“Um, ok Doctor, is there anything I can do?”

“Since Colonel Ironside has just shown up, I’m afraid I’m to cancel my three o’clock and my five o’clock appointments for this afternoon, but please be sure to give the families my apologies and that we’ll fit them as soon as possible free of charge,”

The older mare nodded and left, once the door closed the dark green stallion snorted.

“Why do you even have that old nag working here?”

“Ivory Scroll was highly recommended for her administration skills and since I appointed her, we’ve had a twenty five percent increase in efficiency thanks to her organisation and administration skills. You do know she was mayor of a town called Ponyville until she lost her last election, she ran that town longer than any mayor previously,” Dr Pear inform him pointedly.

“I didn’t come here for a lecture,” He groaned. “I came to give you this. It arrived this morning from one of my special sources,” He slipped a forehoof into his Ministry of Awesome jacket pocket and pulled out a diamond shaped gem and hoofed it over to Dr Pear. “This is the regeneration talisman for the Regeneration Regulator,”

“Ok, great…” Dr Pear said with little to no emotion as she took the gem in her magic and began to force the glowing pink stone into the cradle in the middle of the device she had been working on.

“Still sore about the truth?”

She growled. “Of course I am, you killed an innocent mare, and not only that, made me believe we were working on a totally legitimate project that had Princess Luna’s seal of approval. BUT NO, WE FUCKING DON’T. I COULD BE IMPRISONED IF THEY EVER FIND OUT!” She screamed with rage.

She levitated the regulator and pushed it into the hole in the metal breast plate.

“It was the only way we could have gotten this done,” Colonel Ironside said calmly.

“BULL FUCKING SHIT!” The mare screamed as she twisted the device where it then clicked into place, the blue metal ring started to glow slightly and the gem glowed brighter.

“Those eyes are glowing again,”

My panic doubled, what could I do, he noticed me, are they going to kill me, what’s going to happen? I began to panic but found still nothing would respond to me.

“What, again?!” The mare sighed. “I don’t understand why she keeps waking up,” I heard before she disappeared out of sight before there was a spark…

XXXXX

I awoke with a start, bolting up with a strangled gasp from the bizarre dream. I looked around fearfully but as the features of the cabin, my coltfriend and Xian came into focus, I let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, it was just a dream,” I sighed and slumped back down. “Just a horrible, disturbing dream,”

Looking up from the bench I could see outside the window. The sky was cloudy, I guess we’re under that permanent cloud cover generated by those weather manipulating towers Fruity had told me about during our trip to the New Pegasus. It looked rather dull and bleak out there and since the clouds were a dull grey, it suggested it was early morning. A quick glance at my Pipbuck confirmed my suspicion as the clock on the small foreleg mounted device said it had just gone five in the morning.

It was still early so I tried to sleep for another couple of hours, but the dream was still fresh in my head and I couldn’t shake the horrible feeling it left. So I lay there watching either Fruity or Xian sleeping peacefully while listening to the clickity clack of the train wheels on the track.

Everypony and zebra woke up a couple of hours later and Fruity was quick to notice I was feeling down from my dream. Not wanting to hide it or lie to him, I told him I had a bad dream which it was. He nodded in understanding and told me that the wasteland had its way giving you nightmares. Considering Stable 16, I wouldn’t say he’s wrong since that place was certainly nightmare fuel.

We settled into a routine on the train for the next couple of days of having breakfast, teaching and going over the Equestrian alphabet with Xian, having lunch, then helping her begin forming her words before dinner to which we then relaxed for the rest of the night. We decided to do all this mostly in our cabin as not to upset some of the passengers, also I wanted to avoid those mercenaries as well as that feeling of being watched which seemed to happen every time those mercs were in the same car as me.

I was filling with pride for Xian as after the third afternoon, she had a full grasp on the alphabet and was well on her well to forming words as she was getting used to what sound certain letters made when put together. We had been teaching her things like what double E sounds like or what sound “tion” makes or when some lets are used together like “ea”, or how letters can change the sound of the letter that starts the word like, “See” since the double E gives the S the sound of the letter C. Again, I believe her three years or so exposure to Equestrian speaking ponies has helped her as she was quick to learn some words, words she would have likely heard from Bonbon Springs.

The peaceful journey was interrupted late on the third night when a siren sounded briefly and then Marshal Slate’s voice came through the train’s PA system.

“We are initiating Dark Running; all passengers must remain in their cabins for their own safety until further notice. All guards to combat stations immediately!”

Thankfully, Xian was fast asleep when this happened, I didn’t want her to get scared over this, and she looked so peaceful curled up into a ball while she slept.

“What’s Dark Running?” Fruity asked as the light crystal in our table lamp dimmed until it went out and the electric light in the ceiling went out too. “The hell?” He said looking up when the light went out.

I slipped off the bench gently as to not disturb Xian and approached the window and looked out into the dark clouded night. “Dark Running was a tactic used on trains to camouflage them from aerial attacks at night. The trains would run with no lights on at all, they even had a canvass to put over the gap between the cab and tender to hide the glow from the firebox,” I explain as I squinted to try and pick out details in the fast moving dark scenery.

“Wait, aerial?” Fruity jittered with a nervous edge and crawled across his bench to lay on his stomach next to me so he could peer out of the window as well. His gaze was fixed onto the clouds above us.

“What do you think it is?” I asked.

Fruity didn’t reply, instead I could feel the bench beside me begin to shudder. When I looked over to him, his gaze was fixed to a certain point on the horizon while he shook with his face showing wide eyed terror. I followed his gaze and after a moment something came into focus sitting just below the clouds and it was huge, seemed to have thunder clouds attached to it, and had a veritable swarm surrounding it and going down to the ground to what looked like an old steel mill.

“F-Fruity, what, what is that?” I gulped in shock at the impossible flying contraption.

“An Enclave Raptor,” He replied, gulping with fear. “But, I’ve never seen them bring one below the clouds before,”

“And that swarm, are they Enclave soldiers?”

“Yeah, a Raptor can carry a good couple of hundred power-armoured pegasi at a time,” Fruity whimpered.

“Why would they need so many down here?” I asked.

“I dunno, the Enclave had never shown any interest in helping or even bothering to reclaim the surface…” He then wore a look of deep thought. “Maybe, it’s a long shot, but maybe the rumours about the Enclave being low on resources are true…”

“Low on resources?”

“For two hundred years the Grand Pegasus Enclave has relied on the resources it had stockpiled since the war as well as mining the mountain tops that poked above the clouds. We’ve even butchered a Stable that was meant for us Pegasi that was built into a mountain summit,” He leaned close to the window, watching the swarm of pegasi flitting around the large hovering aircraft. “They always said stocks were good despite the cuts that were being made; I guess if they are coming down for resource gathering the Enclave isn’t as strong as we all thought,”

I opened my mouth to say something but a shift in the train stopped me. “Do you feel that?” I asked in concern.

“We’re speeding up,” He confirmed as he nodded. “Running in the dark won’t help us, they’d see us if they were interested,”

I gulped. “Well let’s hope this old train still has the speed it was known for,”

I don’t think either of us got any sleep that night. We were both glued to the window watching the Enclave until the train had moved far enough away that it became impossible to see them and once we couldn’t see them we finally relaxed. However, our night had gone as the sky was lightening from the approaching dawn.

“Thank you for co-operation, the danger has passed and you all may now walk freely around the train once more, sorry for any inconvenience and we hope you have a wonderful start to your day,” Slate’s voice came through the PA again, letting us know it was safe.

“Well,” Fruity sighed with relief now that the Enclave danger had passed. “No rest for the wicked,”

I sat on my haunches and reached up with my forelegs and pulled him into a hug. He looked surprised at first from the sudden hug, but he smiled as he wrapped his forelegs around me and rested his head on my shoulder.

“Thank you,” He cooed.

I pulled back so I could look at him directly and smiled. “You were brave during the night,” I praised and leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips.

“I had you with me,” He replied as he lovingly rubbed his nose against mine.

I blushed heavily as I returned the gestured before we fell into another passionate kiss. We would have probably moved to tongue wrestling if it wasn’t for a yawn which signalled Xian had woken up. We broke our kiss and fought to rid ourselves of our blushes, me more than him since his purple coat hit his well and greeted the young filly to resume the routine.

XXXXX

The disguised robots, Units 1 and 2 stood together in the Bar Car in a corner quietly conversing with each other and generally making the other ponies in the car trying to have a good and relaxing time nervous. Occasionally, one of them would look up as if checking something before turning back to their peer and continued their conversation.

“It’s been nearly a week; do you think HQ is getting worried?”

“Buckshot, put whatever sorry excuse you have left for a brain back into your head and think for a moment would you,” Corporal Razzle sighed. “We are outside of the facility’s transmission range, they would have tracked us until we fell off the radar and we did report that we had located the Mark 1 and that it was about to board this train. The Colonel and Mistress are fully awa…. Did I just call Unit 1000, Mistress?” She trailed off midsentence.

Buckshot nodded.

“Damn this mare’s memories of a stronger female lover…” She growled before immediately fixing her gaze on her brother. “And you shut your mouth, I don’t want to hear single snarky word,” She threatened.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Buckshot said with obvious sarcasm.

“Right…” Razzle shook her head to get herself back on track. “Ahem, they know where we are and where we are going and since we are on a train surrounded by pedestrians, we would make a scene and be too much at risk of being discovered. We have to operate quietly, hang back and observe until we can acquire the hybrid unit until we can capture it safely, understand?”

Buckshot nodded before turning his gaze off to the front of the train to where the locomotive was steaming away. “And what about the stowaway?”

“Unit 1002 hasn’t moved from its position since it came aboard, it’s surprising,”

“Unit 1002?”

Unit 1, aka Corporal Razzle, stared at her brother. “You know as much as I do on our race of machines, how do you not remember that?” She asked, shocked at his lack of memory.

“Oh I remember, just can’t be assed pulling up the file,” He replied with a shrug.

“Ugh, I’m paired with a moron,”

“Yeah I love you too sis,”

“Whatever. Unit 1002 is the unit number of the Mark 2 that was mean for the Colonel, its why he calls it I-02 IS, the IS stands for Ironside,”

“Absolutely correct,” Unit 2, aka Buckshot, replied. If he had lips he’d be grinning like an idiot.

“You actually knew didn’t you, you just said that to make me explain it didn’t you?”

“Eeyup,” Buckshot said smugly which made his sister groan.

“So help me I’ll be down one brother if you keep that up,”

“Heh, good luck, there are nine hundred ninety seven more I can inhabit and annoy you all over again,” He gloated.

Everyone in the train car cringed at the loud groan that came from Razzle following that comment.

XXXXX

The journey had been long and kinda boring apart from our Equestrian lessons with Xian. However, we did get some excitement from the Raptor sighting and when we had to pass through the same Raider town like last time which lead to the previous locomotive developing its fault and again we sped up but the Marshal reassured us that they didn’t push the locomotive’s safety limits. Xian was very frightened when we were passing through the town, there was an awful lot of gunfire going off and the sounds of metal impacting metal as bullets struck the shell plating of the train cars was quite unsettling.

Xian could now speak a few words of Equestrian, even a short sentence if given enough time. I was very proud of her for making such fast progress and as a bonus she could understand spoken Equestrian ok if we didn’t speak too fast. She would learn as we go from here.

Sleeping hadn’t been that great since my dream. I’d been scared of going to sleep in case I had that disturbing dream or nightmare again but thankfully the times I have slept, despite only sleeping a few hours at a time, my dreams were peaceful or none existent. Despite the dream happening several days ago now, it was still clear in my head, not like a normal dream. Normally, you tend to forget a dream’s details fairly quickly, but this one, it was stuck and I couldn’t shake it. Especially the fact that I dreamt that that Ironside pony was in it and that I even had a clear idea of his appearance.

The train hit a long bend and the dark monoliths of the destroyed city of Manehattan came into view in the distance on the far horizon. From this far out I got to see just how big the city truly was, it was almost twice as big as Las Pegasus was before the war ravaged it. In the gloom of the ever present cloud cover I could see the green balefire glow from the missile impact. So much of the city was nothing but ruin, collapsed and deteriorating shells of buildings while the streets were filled with the remains of carriages, carts, buses and rubble from the event that brought about the end. Remembering my first day in the city, I was reminded of how bad this city was compared to my home, not to mention I had a building nearly drop on me.

I shifted my gaze down to my lap where Xian was peacefully sleeping, making little squeaks as she snored quietly. I frowned as Fruity’s words replayed in my mind about bringing her along. Manehattan’s environment will scare her beyond anything she was used to back in the Marejave around Bonbon Springs, hell not even I know what lurks in that city now. This place was going to be as alien to me as it will be to her and we have to search the city for a specific building. But she had no better place to be than with somepony who’ll look out for her and care for her. After everything we’ve done on this train, teaching her Equestrian and bonding with her so she can trust us, trust me. I hope I can be there for her when she needs me. The fact she hadn’t rejected me after I revealed myself to her must have meant something for us.

There was a sudden and violent shudder from the train as it ran over a set of points and Xian lifted her head tiredly. She snuggled against me for a moment before rubbing her eyes with his small forehooves and letting out an adorable little yawn. I smiled softly as I gently stroked her mane.

“Are you ready to start a whole new adventure?” I asked in Equestrian.

“I am… ready,” She said slowly, making sure she pronounced her words correctly.

“You’ll be speaking like the rest of us in no time squirt,” Fruity said with a smile as he sat up and stretched out his wings and back after waking up himself.

She smiled softly at his words and looked at him gratefully.

“We’ll be in the city in the next couple of hours, so, what’s the plan Crystal?” Fruity asked with a yawn.

I opened my mouth to answer when the train shuddered violently again. This was more violent than before and a quick glance out the window told me why as we were passing over a section of track where many lanes crossed and intertwined. I had to grip my seat to stay on the bench but Fruity wasn’t as lucky as he was shaken off his seat and fell on the floor, landing square on his rump.

“Faust tonight!” Fruity groaned as he sat on the floor rubbing at his sore rump with a forehoof.

“Are you ok?”

Fruity nodded as he climbed back up onto his seat and sat down and gestured for me to continue.

“Well, the plan as of yet is to go to Tenpony Tower first, somepony there ought to know where Paradigm Cybernetics is. Once we know where it is we can better plan on how to get there in the shelter and safety of the tower,”

Fruity nodded. “Sounds good enough, hmm, the best pony to ask to find a place like that in that city would be the assistant to famous DJ-PON3, he kinda knows everything.”

“Good idea, I just hope those ponies won’t be as stuck up as they were last time,” I sighed, remembering the bad way they had looked at and treated me. Well, most of them.

“The fact you’ve spontaneously grown a pair of wings will make them even more unbearable, ugh, just letting them have digs at you for being a hybrid will be better than if they find out what you really are,” Fruity cringed. “I dread to think of what they might do if they find out you’re a robot in zebra skin, they are paranoid enough as it is,”

Wow yeah, a robot that can be hidden in pony flesh. If ponies knew that it would make them super paranoid and incredibly suspicious of new ponies. The doctor that helped me on my first day as a Wastelander was right; it would be in my best interest not to tell anypony. I suppose I could only tell those I knew I can truly trust which as of now is only Fruity and little Xian here. This may be a fun experience to have… totally not sarcasm… Ok it was sarcasm.

There was a flash of light followed by a loud booming grumbling before the window started to get pelted by fat drops of water. We turned our attention to the window to see that the sky had darkened considerably and was now raining quite heavily. While we stared out the window, we witnessed another flash of light, seeing a flash of lightning ark down from the clouds and strike the top of Knight Tower, the iconic tower with the horse head roof, on one of it ears. I was surprised the tower was still standing and that the lightning rods were still working.

Xian whimpered and held onto me with each rumble of thunder and flash of lightning, clearly scared by the new type of weather. It took me a minute to reassure her that it was ok and that it wasn’t going to harm her, if anything she would get a little wet because of the rain. The poor filly would get used to the weather eventually; I just hope I’m not overwhelming her with everything she was going to be experiencing once we leave the train.

“Mares and Gentlecolts, we will be arriving in Manehattan in the next hour, please gather your things and prepare for arrival,” Marshal Slate’s voice said over the PA System.

“Well, time to get ready,” I said as I stood up from my bench and reached under the seat to retrieve my armour pieces and began to slip them on while Fruity got dressed in his duster. Xian crawled into a corner on the far side of the bench near me and just watched us while we got ready. Getting my medical box to sit between my wings on my back was a little struggle, but with Fruity’s help we got it on and my griffon shotgun strapped down on top of it. Fruity made sure his modified Q-Modulator was charged before he slung it over onto his back and to complete both our outfits we dawned our stetsons, my black one looking a little beat up and worse for wear while Fruity’s looked ok, just a little dirty.

“Alright, shall we go to the bar for one last drink before we leave?” Fruity asked.

“Sure, at least we might avoid the large crowd when the train pulls into the station,” I nodded.

The trip to the bar car was a little hectic as several of the passengers seemed to have the same kind of idea as us since several groups were making their way through the other cars to the ones with the most open spaces such as the Dining Car and the Bar. Getting through the corridor cars became a little tricky when there were ponies wanting to go the other way too, so it became a tight squeeze and a little awkward.

Once we got into the Bar train car, we found a seat close to side door before ordering a round of drinks. Fruity and I had a simple beer while I ordered a Sparkle Cola Cherry for Xian. After forking over nearly fifty caps, we took our drinks back to the table we claimed.

“I didn’t think this train was so popular,” Fruity commented as we observed the many ponies milling about in an assortment of outfits.

“You should have seen it back in pre-war times, sometimes trains like this were jam packed,”

“No wonder the Equestrian Railway teamed up with the Braytish engineers and bought some of their engines,”

I nodded as I took a swig of my drink.

We sat and drank our drinks for at least half an hour before the two Gunner mercenaries entered the car and made their way into the back corner. One of them, the one with the lighter coloured armour pieces was stood in such a way that she could see the whole train car from the where she stood and I swear I could feel her gaze on me.

I leaned over to Fruity just as he finished his drink. “I think we should move to the front of the train,” I whispered.

He licked his lips. “Why?”

“Those mercenaries over there, I feel uncomfortable every time they are around, I think it’s them that give me that being watched feeling,” I whispered a little more harshly. Xian sat looking confused while holding her glass bottle in her forehooves while I conversed with Fruity quietly.

Fruity discreetly flicked his eyes in their direction without turning his head and then narrowed his eyes. “Alright, we better move casually until we are out the door and out of sight before we try to move any faster,” He whispered back.

I nodded and got up from my seat like nothing was wrong and gently picked up Xian and put her onto my back. The sudden motion of being picked up made her squeak, but she settled onto my shoulders and hugged my neck as we began to walk to the far gangway door that’ll lead to rest of the train going towards the engine.

I could still feel the gaze of somepony on me as we passed through the door, but as soon as we turned the corner to head up the corridor passenger car we bolted, running as fast as we could while squeezing passed anypony that go in our way.

“Those guys seem to always appear when we were out of our cabin, I’m sure it is them that are watching us,” I accused as we pushed passed a group of passengers waiting at a side door.

“Mercenaries are a pain to deal with in the wastes,” Fruity sighed.

“If they are after us, why?”

“Who knows, maybe somepony doesn’t like pegasi, maybe somepony doesn’t like zebras, hell, ponies contract mercs for stupid reasons sometimes,” Fruity groaned as we entered the last passenger car before the baggage car.

“I guess we’re as far as we can get, that’s the door to the baggage car and the guards are still there,” I sighed and stood next to the door that would lead out of the train when it stopped.

As we waited, we expected the two mercs to make their way into the car at any time, but thankfully they didn’t but our attention was soon grabbed by the passing scenery. The train had entered the city limits as we were speeding over a bridge into the city. We were all glued to the window as the rusted pillars of the steel bridge gave way to crumbling monoliths of concrete, glass and steel as the train thundered across the overhead railway.

“Incredible,” I breathed. I also didn’t mean it in a good way, everything was destroyed and decaying.

I suddenly felt my stomach drop as the train began a quick descent down to ground level. Even with a synthetic stomach, a sudden drop while moving unexpectedly made me feel sick still.

“We are approaching Mane Street, Grand Central Station, thank you all for traveling with Trans Equestrian Railway,” Marshal Slate’s voice pinged from the PA as the locomotive began to slow the train down.

The next couple of minutes we had to wait for the train to slow down as it entered the station and then stop felt agonizingly slow. We wanted to get off as soon as possible to get away from the mercenaries. As soon as we heard the door lock release, we threw the door open and practically ran out onto the rubble strewn station platform and into the pouring.

“We need to get out of here fast.” I said before a veritable sea of ponies began to spill out of the train coupled with the small mass of ponies waiting to board. This large number of ponies meant we couldn’t run.

“The skylight,” Fruity said pointing up to the glassless cover that used to contain large glass sheets that covered the platforms which was now letting the rain pour down upon us unhindered. The steel frames were now mostly empty giving plenty of space for a pegasus to fly up and through. I nodded in silent agreement.

“Xian honey, we are gonna go flying now so hold onto me tightly ok,” I said softly. The little filly let out a nervous whimper as she tightly gripped my throat.

“We’re gonna have to fly low and fast, just follow my lead and you should be fine ok,” Fruity said in a very serious tone.

We spread our wings ready to fly when I felt the feeling of eyes on the back of my head again. Fruity kicked off the ground and shot up into the air and with a powerful flap of my wings and a kick off with my hind legs I too shot up after him, aiming for one of the large empty window frames in the skylight.

XXXXX

Units 1 and 2 pushed their way out of the train just in time to see their target take off and fly up into the air and out of the train station’s skylight.

“Damn it, the hybrid escaped, fucking ponies slowed us down,” Unit 2 complained.

“Indeed, more ponies on that train than anticipated. Made getting closer to the Mark 1 impossible when trying to squeeze through those narrow corridor cars,” Unit 1 agreed.

“Where are they going now?”

Unit 1 raised her head to follow them but then stopped. She stayed that way for a good minute before looking back down at her brother. “I don’t know… this city is full of mana-cores, it’s difficult to pinpoint which one is the Mark 1,”

“Great, well, looks like we’ll have to do it the old fashioned way,” He groaned before a quick moving dark shape from the front of the train caught his attention. “The rogue unit has just left the train and has slipped out into the city, should we pursue?”

“Negative, our priority is the Mark 1, let the wasteland have him,”

XXXXX

“We’re gonna head straight to Tenpony Tower, I hope Slick missed me,” Fruity laughed as he arched over the stone building of the station to fly low in the street, low enough that he was under the streetlamps and mere inches from the wrecks of carts and what not littering the floor.

“Why are we flying so dangerously low?” I screamed over the sound of the wind blowing past my ears.

“To avoid being seen by any unsavoury characters or owt like that, flying high in a city like this is like going skeet shooting,”

I guess I couldn’t argue with that, there are plenty of places somepony could shoot at use from if we got high enough. I breathed hard, feeling the rush of adrenaline, oddly enough or it could be simulated, as I pumped my wings to keep up with Fruity as he flew so tightly through the street. My gaze narrowed as the street and everything around me seemed to disappear and all I could see was Fruity, the pony ahead of me. I began to feel like I wanted to race him, wanted to beat him to Tenpony. I bit my lower lip the more I focused on him, wanted to outdo him with my superior flying skills. Wait… this isn’t me, I’m not that competitive and I certainly don’t want to prove I’m the better flyer. What’s gotten into me? Ohhh I sure hope Paradigm Cybernetics has some answers for me. I could really do with something to ease my mind and to tell me just what the hay is going on.

“Alright, time to climb high and fast,” Fruity said and we began a steep incline as we came up to Tenpony Tower, the only building that seemed to still have working lights. Fruity cleared the surrounding buildings and flew up higher so he could arch over the high rise that connected to the tower. The station for that high rise was our landing zone. Just as I cleared the buildings and was about to clear the level of the high rise a resounding bang echoed through the city which was then followed by an explosion of pain in my side. I didn’t even have time to react to my threat warning that flashed as soon as the sound echoed before I was hit. My left wing immediately seized up as whatever hit me had hit me right on the shoulder joint and I began to tumble down.

“CRYSTAL!” Fruity screamed.

Thinking quickly I grabbed Xian with my nano-fibre tail and launched her as hard as I could into the air.

“Catch her!” I screamed up to him. Fruity had dove back over the edge of the high rise after me but after seeing my fling the poor screaming in fear filly up to him he caught the now squealing and crying filly as I fell. Oh hell…

The ground was rapidly closing in on me and I couldn’t move my left wing at all.

“Pff, I could pull myself out this dive in my sleep,” I heard echo in my head. Oh great, now I’m hearing voices, yea, I’m going crazy. “Stop helplessly flapping like an idiot and open your right wing to pull yourself out of the dive,” The voice said.

I fearfully glanced at my left wing, it was stuck open and with me pumping my right wing in a panic I wasn’t getting any lift at all. The voice was right, to stop free falling I would need to open my right wing to stop the fall and pull myself into a glide.

I opened my right wing and caught the air, my fall slowed and I began to move forward again now that I wasn’t in an uncontrolled descent. I screamed as I was heading right for the tower’s wall and in a panic put myself into a hard bank left, turning myself a hundred and eighty degrees but unfortunately I also put myself back into a slight dive. Picking up speed I banked again to avoid another building but now I was so low I was in the street. My eyes widened when I saw a lamp post in my way, panicking, I banked to avoid it but being this low the banking sent my straight down. I threw up my forehooves over my face and braced myself before I kissed the concrete in a heavy crash.

Influx Crew by Vector Brony