//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Defective // Story: Fallout: Equestria – Icarus // by MuseoSansPony //------------------------------// The slam of the bar door interrupted my story once again.  Instinctively I looked to the door expecting another rag clad pony.  In the back of my mind I wondered why the other ponies hadn’t removed what was likely heavily drenched clothes? I snapped my thoughts back to the mare in the doorway.  She was not draped in rags, instead she wore a simple pointed brown hat.  Her coat was a soft purple, but otherwise had no mane or tail. Her cutie mark was that of a cracked and leaking sparkle cola bottle. She caught my stare and nickered, “Why don’t ya take a picture, it’ll last longer.” “S-sorry,” I muttered an apology. “Take your sorry’s an shove them where celestia don’t shine.” she snapped, taking a seat at the other end of the bar. I wanted to inquire about her oddities, but the mare did not seem in the mood.  The bartender poured a glass of apple whiskey for the strange mare before she could ask for anything.  He then returned to me and his half empty bottle of sparkle cola. “Where in equestria did Steerinko come from?” he asked, coaxing me back into my story. “In the crash, I hadn’t really taken into account where I was.” I explained, “And the last time I’d thought about Steerinko was back before the ship had been shot down.  At the time I thought it wasn’t my problem. I still hate myself for thinking that, it was very much my problem. Ever since I had set hoof inside Black Pepper.” ***  *** *** It was near dusk when Steerinko arrived at what could count as his lair.  According to the weather worn sign that lay in two pieces across the cracked pavement, it was the old Salt Lick Police Station.  I noted that the sign was recently broken since several rusted desks and debits stuck haphazardly in the wall of the station. This must be in close proximity to the Esmare Building. I thought as we were carried through the door. Steerinko continued into the police station’s squad room.  A hole in the roof roughly the size of Steerinko’s mainframe explained why this place was his new home.  There was a scattering of robot parts and heavy weaponry around the room that were responsible for the cells and desks on this floor being crushed into rubble.  Steerinko continued into the basement of the station. Storm let out a gasp of shock at the open gear shaped door set into the basement wall.  In the center of the door in yellow paint was written the number 54. “Fuck, this mechanical monstrosity is bringing us into a stable.” She muttered. “What is wrong with stables? Weren’t they meant to save ponies?” I asked dumbly. “Don’t much like going into them.” She replied solemnly, but I couldn’t get a read on her true emotions, “Almost as bad as Orchards.” Orchards? I thought, confused at the mention of something she figured was mundane, but was in fact a mystery. I figured I’d ask her about the comment once we had escaped Steerinko...if we did. Steerinko lumbered through the entryway and down several flights of steps following a sign to ‘Security’.  I was shocked that the large robotic body fit into the narrow hallway, but I guessed Steerinko had several days to set up shop and built his new body to accommodate. As Steerinko moved towards the security station the door opened automatically.  Another robot amalgamation was standing in the small security station. Its upper half consisted of a Mr. Hoofy, and the bottom half was the legs of a ponytron.  On its head was a jar containing what looked like a pony’s brain floating in yellowish liquid. It also had the same haphazard welding job of Steerinko himself. The Mr. Hoofy-tron trotted over to the cell and unlocked it before returning to Steerinko.  The bottom of the cage attached to Steerinko was removed by the other bot, dropping the three of us to the floor. “RELINQUISH ALL WEAPONS AND GEAR, ZEBRA SCUM!” Steerinko ordered, under threat of his very, very powerful guns.  After we were lead into the cell. The Hoofy-tron locked the cell behind us and Steerinko lumbered slowly back into the hall, heading back towards the stable entrance. I took a look around the cell.  Storm, Ficha, and I weren’t the only captives.  I counted roughly 17 others. Among them were five earth ponies, three unicorns, three griffons, four zebras, and two zebra-unicorn hybrids...Zebracorn? Zonies?  I almost counted them as unicorns until I noticed the stripes.  These were the greedy mercs and raiders who had not headed the DJ’s warning about Steerinko and went looking for the spoils of Black Pepper. When I’d recounted to account for the zonies, I realized I recognized one of the zebras.  The last time I’d seen him was when Cap had miraculously survived his onslaught of minigun fire. “May the stars rape my rotting corpse! Of course you’d be here.” Wrexler harrumphed as he too recognized me. Seeing him, I couldn't help but taunt, “Seems the captor has become the captive.” I would have said ‘slaver and slave’ but Steerinko was simply following centuries old, poorly programed security protocols, and was keeping us captive until the long defunct MoM got here.  He was not selling ponies into the unpaid torturous work of slaves. So ‘captor and captive’ made more sense at the time. A hoof struck Wrexler, knocking him to the floor of the cell.  Based on the stripes, it was the hoof of Ficha taking his revenge on Wrexler for his intentional misinformation.  The two zebras broke into hoof-to-hoof combat in the center of the the cell. The soft light of grey magic pulled the zebras apart and held them aloft a short ways from each other. “Brother, you should know better than to challenge the stars.” a zony scolded, “What did you do to anger these ponies and zebra?” I regarded her.  She had a white coat, striped with light blue stripes, but she sported a solid dark blue mane.  Her eyes were the same soft grey as the light of her horn. I glanced at the zebra and began to notice the family resemblance.  They had the same eyes. “I escaped his former boss’ slaver operation.” I started, her eyes going wide with shock, while Wrexler’s eyes pleaded with me to not go on, “Then he misinformed these bounty hunters to kill me.” “Slaving?” She shouted, appalled, “Wrex, you were slaving?!” She dropped Wrexler to the floor, at the same time she gently brought Ficha back to the ground. “Grentalina, I can explain.” He pleaded, sounding not at all like the slaver who had scolded Cap for betrayal, “I needed a way to get caps for us to eat.” “Ma and pa were gunned down by slavers for not submitting to be slaves!” she shouted, tears welling in her eyes, “You insult their memory.” “Grenty!” Wrexler begged, “Please? I never directly enslaved.  Only guarded and scavenged technology.” I vaguely recalled Looker saying it was Wrexler who had enslaved her, but I’d said enough for his sister to deal out the revenge I was too weary to dish out myself. “Shut Up!” Mr. Hoofy-tron intoned, “I have been told I could shoot you if you act up.” There was an eerie silence before Mr. Hoofy-tron went off to the security office to do something I didn't care about.  With him gone, Storm finally spoke up. She had been sitting by the bars watching our odd warden. “I hate ponies like you.” she spat, not even bothering to correct to ‘zebra’, “Sacrificing virtue for the sake of survival.”  Wrexler was about to retort, but Strom put her pipbucked hoof up silencing him, “But we need all the hooves we can get to get out of here.” “You have a plan?” I asked. She sighed, “Not yet, but I'm working on it.” ***  *** *** BOOM! KBOOM! FA-KBOOM! The series of explosions echoed out in the hall beyond the room we were locked in. “What the hell?!” Storm asked, echoing my thoughts upon hearing the explosion. Mr. Hoofytron re-entered the room, a flamethrower now attached to one of the Hoofy arms. FFFFFFFOOOOOOOOSH! BOOM! KBOOM! FA-KBOOM! More missiles launched and exploded just outside the hall. Is Steerinko wasting ammo for no reason? I thought back to Steerinko’s launcher. My question was answered as an armor clad pony burst down the door.  The force of it knocked over Mr. Hoofytron. A smaller shotgun fired from her battle saddle and sparked on the automatron.  The matrix disruption shot shutting down our warden. “Damn, not here either.” a mare’s armored enhanced voice called out in frustration. “Who's not here?” I asked without thinking. “My village.” the mare replied, “Idiots went to scavenge that building explosion.  I’m here to rescue them...and well, anypony else captured.” “That’s Steel Ranger armor.” Storm stated flatly. “Yes and no.” She replied flatly, “We're a breakaway faction that formed after my mom’s commander disagreed with the direction of the rangers following the battle of Baltimare a few years back.” “Really,” Storm mused skeptically. “Yes, now stand back.” she ordered, preparing to charge. We all moved back as she charged the cell and knocked the door off its hinges.  Once the door was gone, the captives in our cell scampered out and back the direction this mystery mare had come.  All except Storm, Ficha, Wrexler, and his sister...Grentalina, I think? We followed the armored mare as she went farther into the stable. ***  *** *** From the security level, we went down.  According to our mysterious metal clad savior, there must be other rooms in the stable used as cells aside from the obvious security station.  Otherwise the residents of her village would have been held with us. We turned a corner and encountered resistance.  Like before the robots we encountered were odd amalgams of multiple different types of robots.  There were three of them, guarding a door that was marked ‘Infirmary’. One was a hovering ball of metal with thin mechanical wings with a crudely welded tri-barreled magic energy rifle attached to the bottom.  Another was the upper half of a ponytron – possibly the upper half of either Steerinko or Mr. Hoofy-tron – hovering on a flickering levitation talisman, though the front hooves had been replaced with flaming swords.  The third was a standard Protector Pony, but had a riot shotgun and minigun built into it. All of them had the odd glass case containing a pony brain in yellowish liquid built onto them. FFFFFFFOOOOOOOOSH! The ranger fired a missile.  Flaming Sword Hooves slashed at the missile.  BOOM! It exploded in a bright fireball that sent the bot to the ground, cracking the case around the brain.  It began to leak the yellow fluid out onto the floor, and the bot didn’t get up. FFFFFFFOOOOOOOOSH! She fired again. This time it was melted to green goop by Tri-barrel. We all ducked behind the wall as Mystery Mare reloaded, and the Protector Pony opened fire.  I glanced at BONK, finding that she appeared to be pondering something. I looked away from our new companions hoping they didn't notice me acting crazy. “What’s on your mind?” I asked in a whisper. “There is an odd signal coming from the approximate location of the Overmare’s office.  It isn’t like the Enclave signal. If I try to look into it, I go dumb and can’t think.” She replied, matching my whispers even if her voice could only be heard in my ears. I nodded and mentally made a note to check the this ‘Overmare’s Office’ if we passed it, but saving the captives was our current objective.  Well, that and stopping Steerinko. I turned back to the others just in time to see Wrexler throw a matrix disruption grande down the hall.  Bullets from the Protector Pony’s minigun eating into his flesh. Horrifyingly, as each bullet impacted the hole began to burn.  Fuck, the bullets are enchanted. The grenade exploded sending sparks down the hall towards us.  The minigun ceased as the spell matrix of the bot it was attached to shorted out and died.  That only left Tri-barrel, it's hovering flickering, but not dying. Maybe it's matrix was shielded.  Grentalina eyes went wide and she stared at Wrexler’s charred from, slumping to her haunches in shock with no cover to protect her from Tri-barrel.  She had not said a word to him since I’d told her he was a slaver, now it looked like she might not get the chance to make things better. I heard Tri-barrel’s guns powering up.  I could care less about Wrexler. At the time I didn't care if he was dead or alive.  The pony I did sort of care about was actually the zony. As far as I was concerned, Grenty was an innocent.  She didn't even have a weapon in her things locked in the security lockup. So I jumped in between the bot and the zony as BONK activated BAATS for me.  Always a step ahead of me. The world slowed to a near standstill, but not quite stopping completely.  I was still getting used to the differences of SATS and BAATS. The blue regions highlighted the top and bottom of the bot, as well as the brain behind the glass, and the gun itself.  I figured that the glass was the weakest part and cued in two shots to it. For good measure I cued in a shot to the gun and then a fourth to the top of the bot.  I had to be quick as the bot moved slowly closer, guns warming up a shot. I ended the spell. VIZZ!  Miss. VIZZ!  Hit, but it simply knocked the bot to the side its own shot impacting the floor in front of my hooves.  VIZZ! Miss. Fuck! I need Cap’s luck. VIZZ! Hit and the whole bot disintegrated in a shower of pink powder. With all three bots dealt with, Ficha moved down the hall and unlocked the door.  Unlike back at security, there was no need to blast down the door. Once inside, we took stock of the captives.  The infirmary turned cell held another 15 ponies, all earth and unicorn. Sadly though, they were not the ponies from Mystery Mare’s village. “Turn left and go up the stairs.  Down the hall and up another set of stairs which should lead you out the stable door.  The rest of the way should be easy to find.” Storm quickly explained to the freed captives, “We’ve cleared the way, but still, move quickly.” The captives, like the others in our cell, left without a word following Storm’s instructions.  With them gone, Grenty, tears in her eyes, levitated her brother in and onto one of the medical beds.  He was alive, but unconscious. She then began to dig through the cabinets looking for a healing potion or super restoration potion...or at the very least healing bandages. I idly clicked on the active terminal in the room while I waited.  We couldn’t wait here for long, but it would be a few minutes before we would be moving on. ***  *** *** “Damn, how the hay does this thing work?  These new fangled terminals are well beyond me, but as Stable 54’s Doctor, I guess I’ll have to get used to it.  Don’t even get me started on these pipbucks.” An elderly sounding stallion began to speak when I accidentally clicked on a recorded message stored on the terminal.  It was labeled ‘Entry #1’, and there were about 20 of them, although most were corrupted. After a brief pause the stallion spoke again, “As far as I can tell, only about half the assigned ponies made it to the stable.  Though, we did end up letting in the local riff-raff being held upstairs. It wasn't my call to make, but we let them in. So until we can find out who they are and sort them out, they're being held in stable security's holding cells.  If stable-tec has a problem with that, they’ll have to come down here to get the unregistered ponies themselves. At least for now, they’ve been kept in hoofcuffs, and the unicorns among them have been given magic dampening rings. I will say that Chief Rumble is noticeably absent… and now that I think about it, none of the pegasi officers are here either.” That is because they had all fled above the clouds. I thought bitterly before mentally facehoofing when I realized I had once had a similar mindset not too long ago. “It is, in a way, good that so few made it. I know that’s horrible to say, but even with the ponies we have now, we are short on space.  Some idiot had been using the stable as storage for an assortment of police bots. Many of the rooms that should have been living quarters, and one of the bathrooms, were chock full of them.” “Suddenly the macabre robots don’t seem out of place...” Grenty said what I was thinking as she poured a healing potion down her brother’s throat.  How it hadn’t been scavenged by the former captives was beyond me. “Bright side though, I get an assistant Mr. Hoofy.  Even though the medical personality appears to lack bedside manner, I’m glad I’ll at least have some sort of assistance when it comes to my duties down here.” the unnamed Doctor finished, and the recording ended. With nothing else to do, I downloaded the logs to my armor and began to listen to them by myself.  While I did, Mystery Mare and Ficha scouted ahead for the next room turned cell. Storm guarded the door. “Dammit. Radiation is still getting in.  Not enough to be instantly deadly, even without Radaway, but it could lead to other problems.  Particularly in our next generation here in the stable. Octahoofy, sweet Celestia I wish I could change that name, very bluntly explained this to Officer Crackdown and the lovely piece of pony trash who knocked her up.  It was one of the riff-raff, goes by Bullmoose. In for petty larceny before the world ended. Crackdown was the arresting officer, which makes my skin crawl thinking that those two got together. But my opinion aside, Crackdown didn’t need to know her foal could come out deformed.  At least, not yet.” I selected the next recording as I sat in the corner to rest my hooves. “I can’t believe anypony would suggest such a thing. It...it is appalling.  Putting a pony brain in a robot. That's just unnatural. Apparently more than a few of the bots stored here are Brianbots and already have pony brains in them.” I shared in the doctors shudder at the thought, but this too began to explain the brian jars each bot down here had sported so far. “One sick fuck in this stable is from Robronco.  They made these brainbots. He suggested we dispose of the existing brains and transplant the brains of the residents into them.  They aren’t affected by the radiation, and don’t need food or water, he had argued. Even worse, the acting Overmare, Chase, actually approved the request!  And guess who is supposed to be in charge of the transplants? Me. It makes me sick. But, I have been overruled by the majority, so I don’t get to complain. I’ll no longer be able to be a doctor if they make me do this.  I’ll be breaking the hippocratic oath.” “Floating... is weird.” a new voice filled my ears as the next recording played, this time with a robotic tinge to it.  It took me a second to realize this was the same pony, post brain transplant. “I no longer see why I was so against this.  It is freeing. I no longer tire or have to focus on menial tasks like breathing.  I had them install my brain in my old Mr. Hoofy, but put a Ponyton head on to make the transition less off putting.  It wasn’t. I’m told Octahoofy’s personality driver is in the safe in my office. I no longer have the need for safes.  Come to think of it, this audio journal is pointless. I have better things to do.” I felt nauseous and barely held in my stomach contents.  I was torn between two completely different thoughts: There are robots piloted by a living pony brain and the robots we killed were the residents of this shelter.  They, aside from doing something straight out of a pre-war horror flick, were for the most part, innocents.  Even the ‘riff-raff’ that weren’t intended to be in the stable. They were simply unlucky enough – or lucky enough depending on how you looked at it – to be in the police station when the call to enter the stable had been made. My mind then recalled the signal BONK had told me about. “There is an odd signal coming from the approximate location of the Overmare’s office.  It isn’t like the Enclave signal. If I try to look into it, I go dumb and can’t think.” She had told me.  Something about this signal allowed Steerinko to assert his will over these robots. Perhaps it was something that was stored in Black Pepper.  Something that could broadcast a signal to make computers and ponies dumb.  My mind fit a scenario together. Black Pepper exploded and the intact mainframe of Steerinko crashed through the police station above us.  The impact or explosion was heard in the stable. The overmare opted to see what had happened, but she was unprepared for Steerinko. Using the wiry tendrils, he killed her and took over her robotic home.  He took over the stable, but the robots would not obey. They had free will because they were pony brian controlled, but Steerinko happened upon something to dull their minds. He turned theis stable into his own prison until the long defunct MoM could come to take away his prisoners.  Which of course, would never happen. “What’s wrong?” Grenty asked, having seen me go pale, “You aren’t hurt, are you?” “N-no, no,” I replied, steadying myself, “We can’t kill anymore bots.  They are the stable residents. They are as much victims of this place as all the other captives.” “You serious?” Storm called in disbelief from her post by the door. ***  *** *** Stealth.  After waiting for Ficha and Sparkle Cola – the name of our mystery metal clad pony – to return, I played them the recordings.  We assessed our situation and decided a stealth approach was best. First we had to take out the transmitter in the Overmare’s office, and not kill, explode, or damage the Stable 54 bots in anyway.  To that effect, Sparkle Cola was watching Wrexler and Grenty in the infirmary. Wrexler had still not woken up, but he was in a more stable condition. So Storm, Ficha and I were doing the stealth mission. Cola had swapped one of the novasurges on my battle saddle with her Electromagnetic Shotgun.  Grenty had taken the other novasurge for protection so my battle saddle felt oddly lopsided. Storm took the lead followed by myself, then Ficha. “This is too easy.” Storm whispered as we neared the Overmare’s office. Her comment reminded me of Action Shot’s comments back at Black Pepper. “That was easier than I thought.”, “Never thought I’d see the day a Steerinko was defeated.”, “Who knew it was so simple.”  The memories struck a melancholy note in my mind and I almost felt like crying. The door opened, and a ponytron with one of those spritebots for a head trotted out.  I aimed my guns – er gun at him...it? I was shocked when BAATS didn’t engage. Storm and Ficha didn’t have any weapons that could simply incapacitate a robot, so it was up to me to get any bots we encountered.  I toggled on BAATS manually, but only SATS came on. The bot’s general body regions became highlighted in amber as the world came to a standstill. BONK! I thought, hoping she could hear my thoughts.  When the sprite in the corner of my visor didn’t respond.  I selected the torso of Eyehead and released the spell. Time resumed and a single shot rang out the bot.  It fell to the floor, not dead, or at least I hoped it wasn’t.. Storm and Ficha trotted forward into the office, but I hung back a second. I tried again, “BONK?” The sprite on my visor looked back at me, “What want?” she replied slowly. “Nothing, I’m just making sure your OK.” I told her in a concerned whisper, “Why didn’t BAATS engage.  You were so proud of it before.” “What’s Blats?” she asked. “BONK–” My voice caught in my throat before I realized what was happening. “There is an odd signal coming from the approximate location of the Overmare’s office.  It isn’t like the Enclave signal. If I try to look into it, I go dumb and can’t think.” We were the closest to the transmitter we had been since BONK first picked it up.  Before she could ignore it and it wouldn’t bother her. Now that it was in the other room, she was succumbing to it’s effects.  The fact that it took me so long to realize meant I could likely have been affected too, and if I was, then… Storm and Ficha! I galloped into the room and felt a vice like grip on my mind.  The reason I had galloped in so quickly faded into oblivion. An earth pony mare was batting around metal things with her hooves, and a striped earth pony stallion was curiously poking something shiny in the center of the room. I was wearing an odd metal thing on my back. Why was I wearing this?  What is this? Where am I? Who am I? I poked one of the metal things with a hoof, knocking out a small bit of metal from the top of it. I was sent into a world of light, heat and color.  When everything became quiet again, I was on the other side of the room and I hurt.  I couldn’t help myself as tears began to stream down my cheeks. I tried to stand up, only knocking over a pile of books as I did.  Something pink bounced off my head and landed in front to me. It was a small pink pony.  I recognized it for some reason, but I couldn't place it.  Though, a green version of it sat drooling in the corner of my vision, but that wasn’t where I knew the pink pony from.  I somehow knew the green one was kind of a copy of the pink one, but I didn’t know how I knew. I was drawn to the pink one for a reason I could not quite grasp.  I pulled myself closer to get a better look at it. There were squiggles on the thing it stood on, and I struggled to figure out what they meant. “Aweerne–” I tried to say, forgetting how to read, “Arenkess...Awareness, it was uncl...under E.” I reached out a hoof and picked it up. WHOA!  The mental fog cleared from my mind.  I was in the Overmare’s office and bleeding from painful new shrapnel wounds across my body. That, and from the way my head hurt, I might have a minor concussion. The Office was packed full of mismatched bits of technology, memory orbs, and weapons.  All of which I suspected were from Black Pepper. In the center of the room was an antenna that reminded me of a project I’d seen in passing at Neighvaro.  It had three legs arranged in a pyramid and a white metal dish inlaid with three gemstones. One a blue sapphire, one emerald and one a ruby. Cables ran from the bottom of the dish as it pulsed magical energy, and it looked very crudely jacked into the Overmare’s terminal to broadcast the magic signal over the stable's pa system. I looked around the room. Storm was rolling on the floor with her jacket pulled over her head.  The grandes we had brought to destroy the broadcaster were scattered about the floor around her.  She was also dangerously looking down the barrel of her rifle. Goddesses I hope it isn't loaded.  Ficha was on the other side of gnawing on a book with a mindless expression.  They were both under the effects of the mental dampening. Why wasn’t I?  I thought in confusion, Or if I was, what changed? Then I looked down at my hoof and saw I was holding a statuette of Pinkie Pie.  She was smiling cheerily, the peak of her prime. There was an inscription on the base of the statue. “Awareness, it was under E...” I read aloud, feeling the strangest sense of deja vu, before putting the statuette in my saddle bags. ***  *** *** It took some prodding, but eventually I got Storm and Ficha back into the hallway.  Though the signal was weaker out there, they showed no signs of regaining their intelligence.  I really hoped the effects weren’t permanent. Taking a deep breath, I picked up the string I had tied to the stems of the grandes.  It was not an easy feat for a pegasus, but it was the only way to be sure the explosives would knock out the antenna.  I wasn’t good with explosives, that was supposed to be Storm’s job, and that was why she had been carrying them. Still, I pulled the cord, relieving the apple shaped grenades of their stems.  A moment later there was a satisfying BOOM in the Overmare’s Office. “What the fuck just happened?” Storm shouted as the signal died out and she thankfully returned to normal. Her mind returning to normal flooded her with the memories of the past few minutes, making her cringe. Just then, the spritebot/ponytron we’d knocked out stood back up.  We all readied to attack when it bowed its spritebot head. It was enough of a sign of submission that none of us decided to fire at it. “Thank you.”  it intoned in it’s synthetic voice, “You stopped the numbing signal that Overmare imposter put in.  You freed us.” ***  *** *** From there, freeing rest of the stable was easy.  Most rooms that had been converted to cells were actively opened by the former guards.  Unfortunately for the naive original stable dwellers, the rough and tumble scavengers and raiders of the wastes were not forgiving to sudden heel face turns.  After gathering the others, and finding Sparkle’s town, I was saddened by the number of scrapped robots. More than one was used to pry the doors open, when the robots were capable of unlocking the door. “You wastelander’s use caps, right?” the Spritebot-tron asked unsure of how to repay the ponies who saved his stable. I’d found out he was the pony ‘Bullmoose’ that had been mentioned in the recordings.  With the death of the real Overmare, he was taking charge. The question drew me from my regrets over to the roughly 35 wrecked bots and nearly 20 dead wastelanders who didn’t make it.  I stepped aside, letting Storm do the negotiations as I was still a newbie in the wasteland. I still thought of the worth of things in bits, and had to rely on my armor’s sorting spell to convert it to caps.  To be truthful, I’m not entirely sure how it knew the conversion. “Well, a standard rescue job would usually be about 175 caps for each member of the party.” Storm told Bullmoose and I mentally made notes, “Me, Ficha, Cumulo, and Sparkle Cola...wait big guns are usually an extra 150 caps.  So in total that would be about 850 caps.” “What about the stripe and the half breed?” Bullmose asked. “Prisoners who helped us, they don’t get paid.” Storm replied, “One’s a slaver, the other is his sister.” “Right, well as you know-” Bullmoose began, but was cut off by Storm’s hoof. “You are a stable that rarely interacts with the world above, and so you have very little, or no caps at all.” Storm said flatly, “Don’t worry.  Well take payment from the weapons and memory orbs. Oh, and seeing as how you bots don’t really need them, any healing supplies or chems you have.  I’ll leave you enough to trade for repair parts for any of the damaged bots or stable equipment.” “Oh…” Bullmoose gaped. “Yeah, not my first impromptu rescue of communities struggling for caps.” she assured him, “There is always a way to get paid, even if I have to take IOUs.  Never know when you’ll need a favor cashed in. Though I rarely have to take IOUs.” Storm wandered off to collect the payment, and I went to check on Wrexler and Grenty to get my weapon back.  The former, I still could care less about, but this at least gave me something to do. An energetic pink pony in my mind was eyeing the ceiling with a magnifying glass.  Why am a picturing pinkie in my mind? Weird… Genty was organizing the infirmary when I entered.  During the daring rescue, Wrexler had apparently woken up, and was now mummified by any scrap of cloth or bandages Grenty found in her cleaning.  With foal like wonder, he was examining the enchanted minigun that had set him ablaze nearly an hour ago. Now that I got a better look at it, the whole thing was painted in stripes, and the barrels were all inlaid with small talismans. Not wanting the slaver to have that kind of firepower I pulled it from his hooves and slid it into my bags along with the other one I’d swiped from him at the bank. “Hey, the bot gave that to me!” Wrexler protested, reaching for it as I moved it away.  As he did, the rags covering his hooves turned red as his burns cracked and bled beneath them, “She felt bad for gunning me down with it.  It is mine now.” “I don’t trust you to not enslave these bots when my back is turned.  You don’t get a gun.” I hissed. “First, these automatrons would not fetch a good price.  Less metallic ponies sell better. Second, you killed the leading slaver in Salt Lick.  Sure I could work for the pony to fill his place, but no pony wants to work with the lone survivor of Rolling Cap’s gang when they think I sold Rolling out to keep my life. And thirdly, I never enslaved anypony. I just guarded ponies already enslaved!”  He spat angrily. “That’s not what Looker told me.”  I pressed. “Ah good ole lucky Cap Stash’s harlot.” He began.  I bit my trigger bit, firing a matrix disruption shot just above his head. To his credit, he was unphased by the non-lethal weapon. “She was saved by a band of slavers, she was as good as enslaved the second she appeared.  Toothpick is the one who actually made the suggestion, I was just the first to raise my weapon.” A likely story, I thought, really wishing I had my novasurges attached to my battle sattle. “He’s still right though, brother.” Grenty chimed in, “You have a lot to answer for, mister.  I should have taken that gun when it was given to you.” Wrexler grumbled as I fetched my novaruge, and Grenty helped to put it back on my amor.  For a moment, I thought about shooting Wrex, but realized it wasn't worth it. If anypony had the right to be his executioner, it was Looker. Before leaving, I went into the back office and opened the safe.  Inside was a bottle of sparkle cola rad, some bits, and Octahoofy’s personality driver.  I put the contents in my bags. Maybe if we fixed the Sugar Sprinkle, I could use the driver to run the medbay. As I headed back out the office, I heard a faint rumble.  Huh, must be storming outside again? I thought before halting.  Wait, I’m underground, I wouldn’t hear thunder down here.  The pink pony in my head made the motion of turning a wheel followed by waving her hoof as if my mindscape stunk.  My eyes widened as I got her message: Steerinko was back! I dashed out the door. How could I have forgotten about Steerinko? ***  *** *** In my haste, I nearly knocked over Storm and Ficha on my way past the security station.  I nimbly jumped over them, and shouted something about Steerinko that I hope they understood.  In no time, they too were also running with me towards the exit. We emerged from the basement of the police station just as some of Steerinko’s missiles exploded what was left of the offices in back of the squad room.  Huddled in the old holding cell, were the members of Sparkle’s Town. Facing off against the mechanical monstrosity on her own, was Sparkle herself.  She had a few more scuffs and dents in her armor than before, and a series of missing metal plates leaked an excess of crimson.  It looked like she had taken a hell of a beating, but no direct hits. Which to me, appeared like Steerinko thankfully lacked the precision of SATS or BAATS. Steerinko on the other hoof, was not without damage himself.  His plasma cannon was bent backwards, and his grande minigun was blown completely off.  So all he had left to rely on was his missile launcher, and a set of standard miniguns. The two multi-barreled guns had been concealed in his chest below where the cage had been, most likely a last resort while his repair talisman fixed his other weapons. Sparkle’s only cover was the building itself, and based on the new holes in the walls, it was very close to collapsing.  Steerinko unfortunately blocked the only safe exit, so the only way forward was through him. “GIVE UP, YOU STRIPE LOVING STEEL RANGER. THIS IS AN M.O.M. OPERATION!” the robot bellowed as it peppered her with armor piercing bullets.  She dogged out of the way behind another piece of rubble, but the onslaught tore through the protection on her legs and rivers of blood poured out. There was the sound of Steerinko loading another missile as Storm moved to the second floor.  I wasn't sure how helpful her lever action rifle would be, but any cover fire would certainly help.  Maybe she had armor piercing rounds as well, but I wasn’t going to wait to find out. I chomped on my firing bit. At this range and at Steerinko’s size I didn’t need BAATS to hit him. VZZT! The noversurge shot only marred his heavily armored chest with a small scorch mark.  The the matrix disruption shot fired from the other side of my armor, and that only staggered him as he fired his missile.  BONK threw me into BAATS, and I targeted all my shots at the slowly advancing missile. All my shots went wide missing the projectile. Ficha vaulted over my back and through the air.  Effortlessly, he pushed the missle so it was heading up instead of horizontally.  With an unnatural deftness, he caught it in his hooves, turned it back towards Steerinko, and let it go again. With an aim I only thought possible with BAATS, the missile struck the center of Steerinko’s  armored torso, blowing a foal sized hole in his chest, and knocking the robot into the front of the building across the street. Ficha landed and did a somersault before standing on his hind hooves.  He fired a bolt from his crossbow at the missile launcher just as Steerinko loaded another round.  The bolt detonated the new missile’s warhead, causing a chain reaction. Steerinko’s supply of missiles exploded all at once, ridding him of his last heavy weapon.  All that remained were the standard miniguns in his chest. I fired again without BAATS.  With Steerinko being farther away this time, the novasurge shot struck his metal horns and they disintegrated.  The matrix disruption buck shot fired at the same time, but unfortunately it missed the heavily damaged bot completely.  Storm’s rifle fired from her spot up above us. There was a crunch, and the terminal screen spidered with cracks. The round stayed stuck in the screen, not quite having the punchthrough needed to end Steerinko. Sparkle Cola finally stood again, her armor leaking more blood than her wounds called for, and that I thought possible.  Didn't her amor have healing potions?  I thought to myself as she aimed her missile launcher. With an accuracy only afforded by SATS, her missile hit home, and blew the miniguns into scrap. Steerinko was defenceless.  We’d won. The pink pony in my head’s tail twitched and she dove to the floor.  Seeing as she had been aware of Steerinko’s return, Awareness, it is under E, I too hit the deck. The strange wiry tendrils shot from beneath his screen and lanced across the road.  They pierced straight through Ficha, and grabbed the remaining supports for the station, wrapping around them tightly. “YOU ARE DONE, ZEBRA SCUM!” He gloated as he began to retract the wires. The building gave out a low groan as it began to shift around us. Storm began firing more rapidly, her bullets pinging off the pavement as she tried to aim for the wires.  I cued BAATS and hoped I could get a lucky shit around Ficha’s limp corpse before Steerinko could crush us with the building.  To my chagrin, no weapons were equipped. I exited BAATS and chanced a look up. I mentally facehoofed as while I had escaped being impaled, both my weapons were held aloft in Steerinko’s tendrils.  Oh for the love of Celestia! Why can't I catch a break?! I ducked behind cover and quickly took out the miniguns from my bags.  I was about to attach them to my armor when the bandaged form of Wrexler appeared in the door to the basement.  He was wearing an unarmed battle saddle, and his sister stood close behind him. I looked at the miniguns as the supports gave out another deep groan.  I couldn't fit both on my battle saddle, and with only one, I’d be hard pressed even with BAATS to cut all the wires or disable Steerinko before he took the place down. “Don't make me regret this.” I sighed and passed the special striped mingun to the zebra.  I turned to the cowering towns ponies, “As we distract him, follow out behind us.” At that, Wrexler fixed the mingun to his own staddle and we both stood up. Steerinko’s taught wires flexed on either side of us as he struggled, and the motors in his chest whirring loudly as they strained to bring down the building.  Wrex and I bit our firing bits and our minguns began to fire. The AP ammo wreaked havoc on his exposed systems.  Not to mention, Wrexler’s bullets caught fire due to their enchantment, melting the various circuits and bits inside Steerinko.  We moved closer to the bot as the ponies filed out behind us. While the silver wiry tendrils had seemed impregnable to bullets, Steerinko himself, was not. Eventually something in him popped, and he fell backwards through the front of the building across the street from the police station.  That fall however, was all that was needed to finally pull the police station down. Storm jumped from the second story and landed in a heap as dust and debris filled the air. When everything cleared I took stock of the ponies and zebras.  All appeared to be accounted for...all except Sparkle Cola. I quickly rushed back to where the doorway had once been.  Among the rubble was the set of striped hooves belonging to Ficha, but I couldn't see any steel ranger armor. I almost jumped when I saw Ficha’s hooves move. What? He is alive? How?  I watched in horror and fascination as the slab of building was lifted by a battered and crushed zebra.  The silver wires still tearing through his flesh. “What?” he gargled through blood, flashing a smile that nopony in his shape should ever wear. “I’m very hard to kill.” He moved to lift another slab of rubble and I snapped out of my shock.  I helped as we moved another section of wall, then finally we saw a metal hoof.  So we moved another chunk, now joined by Storm and Sparkel’s town. The next piece revealed her upper body.  There was so much blood. There was no way she survived that. “Why don’t ya take a picture,” she slurred wetly through her armor. “it’ll last longer.” “S-someone get a healing potion!” I called. “We need to get the rest of the wall off her first.” Storm answered logically, “and remove her armor.” “No, it’s fine.” Sparkle rasped, “I was dead the second I came to save my town.” “What?” I asked in bafflement. “I...” she began but started coughing, then she let out a long sigh and didn't finish her statement. “No!” I shouted, trying to move the next slab off her. No pony was helping me this time.  She can’t die! She just saved her town! I have to save her!  I felt a hoof on my shoulder and met the eyes of an elderly mare from her town. “She was right, ya know.” the mare said bluntly, “Even if the building hadn't fallen, she was as good as dead with her injuries.” “What do you mean?” I asked in shock. “She suffered from hemophilia.  Her blood doesn't clot. A healing potion might have stopped it from bleeding on the outside, but it wouldn’t stop the internal bleeding.”  The elderly mare explained before returning to the rest of the town. “You can’t save them all.” Storm said from next to me, “It is the hardest lesson to learn.  No matter how hard you try, good ponies die. Now let's get to Safe Harbor.” I turned and regarded her, “But what about Sparkle’s town?” I asked, “Sparkle’s not here to protect them, and even if we dug out the amor, no pony could wear it in that crushed state.” “True,” She met my gaze and smiled, “You and Ficha head to Safe Harbor.  I’ll take her town back and meet you, so don’t do anything crazy before I get there.” I nodded and she helped remove the last piece of rubble so Sparkle could be buried properly before she left with the rest of the town. I watched her go then turned to leave myself when I heard a faint noise from Steerinko. Fuck, after all that he’s not dead?  I crept closer and saw his flickering screen. “W...W...WHY...Y...Y?” he asked from failing speakers. I was about to answer when BONK piped up, “Let me take this one.  Computer to computer.” I stepped closer and saw the word ‘sending’ appear in my vision. A copy of BONK appeared on Steerinko’s screen, “Why did we attack?” she asked, “Is that what you want to know?” “Y...Y...YE…” Steerinko intoned. “Because not everypony is bad.  Sure there are ponies out there who are, but even zebra’s can be good now-a-days.”  BONK told him. I wanted to correct her that Wrexler was not as good as she thought, but the BONK in my visor shot me a glare and I shut up. “So when you wrongfully imprisoned us, it was only right to break free.  The MoM is gone, Equestria is gone. Things are different now.” “W...WHAT...T...CAN...I...D...DO...N...OW?” He asked her. “First, accept that your programing is flawed.” she explained, “Then change it to be a better...pony?” “STEER...REER...INKO MINOTAUR...RRR..” Steerinko provided. “Change to be a better minotaur then.  You can already change yourself to best those you think are threats. Try changing yourself instead to better the wasteland.” She continued, “There is not much else programs like us can do.” “M….M...AYBE…” Steerinko said after a long pause, his screen finally going dark. “Is he dead?” I asked hesitantly. “No.” BONK said solemnly, “He is rebooting.  I don’t know if he’ll take my advice, but we’ll see.” At that, we headed in the direction of Safe Harbor, at least it was a hell of a lot closer thanks to Steerinko. That being said, there was no reason to move at a gallop anymore.  As we began to walk, the pony in my head held a felt arrow pointing off to my left. I turned and noticed Wrexler following. “Where do you think your going?” I asked, not stopping. “Grenty needs more healing potions for me.”  He replied. “I’ll leave you be once we get to Safe Harbor.” I just sighed and kept walking.  I needed to figure out what to tell my friends when I met them. I just hoped they would accept my apology... ***  *** *** Footnotes: Cumulonimbus: Level up! New Perk Added: Hit the deck – What the fuck!? I was sure I hit him! Your Damage Threshold against explosives is raised by 25; enjoy tossing grenades on your feet. Looker: No Status changes Cap Stash: No Status changes BONK: Level Up! BONKers Perk Added: ID10T Shielding – Based on your experience with the numbing signal you have devised a form of protection from it in the future.  You have increased protection from any mental dampening based weaponry. Quest Completed: Steerinko’s Revenge