Chapter Thirty-One: Dangerous Research
“Chief Researcher’s Log, Entry Three Thousand One Hundred Thirty-Four. Date: Twelfth of Dusk, Thirteen-Fifty-Eight. I knew that calling for open submissions in such a great pool of knowledge was bound to yield some results. Crescent Glow’s suggestion that we create a strain of plant-life that can grow on a pony’s coat is the most promising. The biggest issue we’re facing is the large population of oxygen-consuming ponies outmatching the oxygen-producing plant life. With nowhere else to plant our vegetation, we must use the ponies themselves as planters, each of them carrying around the assurer of their continued existence. It will require adjustment to the Stable jumpsuits, of course, but they were abhorrent to begin with. Depending on how successful a product we can make, this new plan should stave off the Stable’s suffocation between twelve and thirty years. How glad I am to have been chosen for this Stable, where we’re free to run these experiments without Ministry interference. Violet Bloom, signing off.”
Timbervale looked just as I remembered it. On the night I’d fled the town, there had been raiders at the gates demanding I be turned over to them. The ponies of Timbervale had assured me that they would be fine, and that Lord Lamplight would work things out, but I’d had my doubts. The settlement was so secluded that news never reached places like Burnside, and I’d always wondered if it had been wiped out by the raiders. Now I saw that that wasn’t the case, and I suspected why. Timbervale, I now knew, was part of the Northern Lights Coalition, and the raiders who’d demanded my release were likely also members of the NLC. Things I’d encountered so soon after leaving Stable 85 and not understood at the time were now becoming much clearer as the pieces came together.
As we neared the town gate, I noticed that some of the piled-up auto-carriages forming the corridor to the town had been moved and there were now wires running to buildings outside of the walls. They were expanding, just as Peaches had suggested they would, and I didn’t know how I felt about that. They obviously felt safe and secure enough to build outside their walls, which meant the local raiders were well-behaved enough to stay away when told to, but how long could that last? Also, the raiders were no doubt raiding other settlements and attacking other ponies. Unless a settlement joined the NLC, they’d likewise be subjected to such attacks, and even then, were they really safe? From what I’d seen, raiders were not generally sensible individuals, and if the Northern Lights Coalition grew so large that they had nowhere to raid, would they really be content with no twisted entertainment to occupy themselves?
“Well, there’s a face I never thought I’d see again,” Shady, the same guard who’d greeted me and showed me around the last time I’d been here, commented as we approached, “Still wearing that doctor’s coat, I see. What was your name again? Doc, was it?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” I confirmed, a little surprised that she hadn’t recognized me as the Wasteland Doctor.
Although, maybe the ponies of Timbervale didn’t listen to Radio Free Wasteland. Maybe NLC settlements didn’t, which was probably good for me if true, because then they wouldn’t know I was the one who’d been going around wiping out NLC raiders and slavers. Looking at the tower in the center of town with its antennae and dishes, I wondered if music was ever broadcast through the announcing system, and I got the bizarre image of Lord Lamplight or Mr. Bucke DJing. To convince raiders, slavers, and townsponies alike to join the Northern Lights Coalition, this Lord Lamplight, whoever he was, had to have some charm, though I doubted it compared to DJ Pon3.
“I’m surprised to see you with a Steel Ranger, after all the trouble they caused you,” Shady said, eyeing Rare suspiciously, “Sorry, but even if you’ve made up, she’s not allowed in the town. All Steel Rangers are barred from entering Timbervale.”
“It’s okay, I’m used to it,” Rare said when I began to object, “I’m not a Steel Ranger any longer, though. I’ve resigned to travel with Doc.”
“Well, that should be okay, then,” Shady said, “Come in, come in, I’m sure Peaches will want to hear you’re alive.”
Shady led us into Timbervale, as nonchalantly as before. I observed the town again through fresh eyes, knowing that everything here was thanks to the Northern Lights Coalition, the same organization that was kitting out raiders with heavy weapons. The tower in the center of town, which had seemed so stunning before, now seemed ominous, as I’d seen identical towers in far less savory places. Through it, Lord Lamplight was able to speak to the ponies of Timbervale, and also observe their every move through the cameras around the town. Just what was he planning?
The fields and reservoir were just as I’d remembered them, healthy and pure. What was it Peaches had said again? Lord Lamplight’s wizards had purified the fields? I wondered if they’d used the same spell used to construct the megaspell now bouncing around in my saddlebags. In his recordings, Mr. Bucke had said that the NLC had plenty of water talismans, enough that the one from Crate City was unneeded, and I spied Timbervale’s hanging from the water pipe over the reservoir, a simple amulet that wasn’t likely to give us any clues about the organization we were hunting, though it was a reminder of it.
As we trotted down the main street, I became more and more aware of the cameras watching us and could almost swear I saw one swivel as we passed. It might be best to keep our time in Timbervale short, in case the ponies of the NLC were watching us and called either for the town militia or the nearby raider gangs to take us out. Of course, there was no guarantee that we wouldn’t have to flee even if an order wasn’t given. The ponies of Timbervale seemed to adore Lord Lamplight, and they might not take too kindly to us trying to dismantle his organization.
I hadn’t been to Timbervale’s town hall the last time I’d stayed here, and Shady led us into the abandoned shops from which the town was governed. Rare Sparks, unfortunately, had to stay outside here. It wasn’t because of any rules, but because the shops’ doors hadn’t been built to accommodate a pony in Steel Ranger armor, and she wouldn’t be able to enter without breaking the doorframe.
“Hey, Peaches, come see who’s back!” Shady called, and the burly town leader emerged from a back room.
“So, you survived after all,” the stallion said by way of greeting, “We feared the worst when you disappeared and never returned, but it looks like you’ve finally found your way back to Timbervale, even if you took your sweet time doing so.”
“I feared the worst about Timbervale, too, and didn’t want to bring you any more trouble. I was sure the raiders were going to attack you,” I said, trying to steer the conversation in the direction I wanted, without much success.
“As you can see, we are quite all right,” Peaches replied, not mentioning Lord Lamplight as I’d expected, “So, do you think you’ll stay a little longer this time?”
“I’m afraid not. We came to ask you some questions about the Northern Lights Coalition,” I said, abandoning all pretext.
“I see,” Peaches said in a tone that suggested he’d avoided mentioning Lord Lamplight on purpose, “Shady, would you return to your post? I’d like to speak to these ponies alone.”
He knew! Shady seemed blissfully unaware as she left the shop with an invitation to sit down and have a meal with her later, but Peaches’s friendly exterior was beginning to fade. Somehow, Peaches had found out about our actions against the NLC, probably through communication with Lord Lamplight, but hadn’t told the rest of the town. Without a word, he led us back into the room he’d emerged from and sat down behind an old desk.
“I know why you’ve come and what you want to know, but I cannot tell you,” Peaches said sternly, a challenging look in his eyes, “I do not consider you an enemy of Timbervale, but you have put yourself at odds with the Northern Lights Coalition by killing Lord Lamplight’s followers. I won’t help you kill more, and I urge you to stop before you make a true enemy of the NLC.”
“They’ve made themselves an enemy of civilized ponies everywhere,” I said, “Because of the NLC, raiders are more of a danger than ever before, the Republic of Rose was wiped out, and Crate City nearly met the same fate. I know you’re grateful to Lord Lamplight for saving your town, but if he isn’t stopped, then raiders will overrun the rest of Vanhoover and eliminate the surviving settlements.”
“You don’t understand,” Peaches said with a shake of his head, “Lord Lamplight is trying to save the Wasteland, to bring order to northern Equestria. You think that settlements alone can accomplish this? Even a town as well-provided for and well-equipped as Timbervale could never hope to survive when raiders exist around us. Trying to eliminate the raiders is pointless, but integrating them into the new order removes the threat they pose. Gangs that once tried to kill us now trade with us, and some of their members have moved into the town. This is the future that Lord Lamplight envisions.”
“And how does giving raiders advanced weapons accomplish such a future?” I asked.
“For the plan to work, all parties must be in agreement. The raiders would never agree without some incentive, and Lord Lamplight has provided it,” Peaches replied, “Does it allow them to more easily harm others? Yes, but they are not permitted to attack anypony in the Northern Lights Coalition, and as the coalition grows, they will soon be attacking only those who have refused to embrace the peaceful vision Lord Lamplight has for the Wasteland, even if they may be settlements.”
I couldn’t believe that Peaches, who’d seemed so kind even in the short time I’d spoken to him, was justifying raider attacks on settlements. Was he really so naïve to think that raiders would follow the rules when there were no more non-NLC settlements to attack? Timbervale, and every settlement that had joined the NLC, had only a false sense of security. Why couldn’t he see that?
“Where is the NLC’s headquarters?” I asked, seeing there was no way to convince him and hoping I could at least intimidate him into giving up information on a place that he’d assume we had no chance of taking out.
“It’s a secret not known even to me. Of course, I know where the regional headquarters in Vanhoover is, but I won’t tell you,” Peaches said as he steepled his hooves and leaned on the desk, “So, what will you do now? Will you kill everypony in Timbervale, leaving only me alive and extract your information, as you’ve done before?”
“Those were raiders,” I defended myself, taken aback by his suggestion that I’d do the same to a town as I’d done to raider dens.
“Those were ponies, and followers of Lord Lamplight,” Peaches said calmly, “You may have seen them as degenerates not worthy of life, but they were ponies just like you and me. They had a chance, like the raiders in this region taken under Lord Lamplight’s wing, to become better, but you eliminated that chance. You stand in the way of the future, the way of progress, the way of peace and order for Equestria.”
“I’m not the villain here,” I protested.
“Are you so sure?” Peaches asked.
It disturbed me that there was any doubt in my mind at all. Lord Lamplight’s plan couldn’t possibly work, of that I was convinced even after hearing more details from Peaches. If it could, though, then I had been fighting against the good of the Wasteland, I had been killing potentially good ponies.
No, I had decided soon after leaving Stable 85 that killing raiders was the right thing to do, and if that wasn’t true, then the blood on my hooves would be too great to handle. Just because they had the possibility to become better ponies didn’t mean that they weren’t evil. Every pony had the possibility to be good or evil, and I could just as easily justify killing off townsponies who’d done no wrong with that logic just because there was the possibility they could do something wrong in the future. Despite Lord Lamplight’s (supposedly) lofty goals, reality painted a different picture. All I had to do was remember the Republic of Rose to know what the NLC really was.
“Come on, Ache,” I said as I rose to leave, “We’ll find answers somewhere else.”
***
“Chief Researcher’s Log, Entry Twenty Thousand Six Hundred Forty-One. Date: Twenty-First of Dawn, Fourteen-oh-Two ACL. Chief Researcher Parsnip Rose speaking. The threat of suffocation, as always, continues to loom over us. By the latest calculation, we have only sixteen months left to live if nothing changes. There are too many ponies in this Stable, but the Overmare refuses to let the population drop so that the oxygen balance has time to restore itself. She fears that allowing the population to drop below four thousand will result in all our deaths, a non-unfair assumption given the strictness of her orders from Stable-Tec and the lack of a failsafe to prevent our suffocation. Our parents praised Stable-Tec for freeing them from ‘regulations,’ but they were blind to the company’s uncaring side. It seems clear now that we were never meant to survive this experiment, but we’ll prove them wrong. Despite all our parents’ exuberance over freedom from regulations they considered restrictive, they still placed their own unfair regulations in place, shackling us and keeping us from fulfilling our full potential. The time has come to sweep those away as well, for isn’t survival more important than some misplaced sense of decency? This lab has long researched on eking out more and more oxygen and food production while completely ignoring the problems of oxygen and food consumption, since production requires changing plants and consumption requires changing ponies. We already have the plants growing on us; it’s time to integrate them into our very bodies, to let them change us. We’ll survive and go beyond ordinary ponies. We will be much more. Of course, some of the older generation is likely to object that this is unnatural or wrong, but who are they to say? Sometimes sacrifices are required to make a better tomorrow. Parsnip Rose, signing off.”
Sometimes sacrifices are required to make a better tomorrow. We’d seen how well that had worked out for the ponies of Stable 65. Peaches and the ponies of Timbervale evidently thought the same way. It was shocking to hear that they didn’t care if innocent ponies were attacked by raiders so long as they could say Lord Lamplight’s plan was behind it. The ends justified the means, and while the ends, I had to admit, were something to try for, the means were too terrible to justify. It irked me that he’d compared me to a raider, essentially. The only difference was that their killing tore apart the little civilization there was in the Wasteland and mine was supposed to be tearing apart one that didn’t even exist yet.
After leaving Timbervale, we’d headed back south, across the Manticore’s Gateway into downtown Vanhoover. By the time we reached the Strip, the cloud cover was darkening, but there was still enough time in the day to sit outside a restaurant and eat food that had been packaged back during the War. We’d purchased passes for Ache and Rare to cross the Manticore’s Gateway and enter the Strip when we were headed north, so we had no difficulty entering the settlement. I was surprised by how easily it had been to get Rare a pass (even if she was charged a higher rate than usual) since the Crimson Tide despised the Steel Rangers. Without their logos on her armor, though, she was just another pony to them, albeit one they eyed with suspicion.
“Well, if it isn’t the Wasteland Doctor and his stalwart companions,” a familiar voice said as the mare it belonged to trotted up to our table, “Well, Doc, I see you’ve given up on your vow not to let anypony else accompany you.”
“If you remember, Sage, you’re the one who forced me to break that vow,” I said as I turned to greet the pressmare.
“Guilty as charged,” she said as she pulled a chair up and sat with us, “You know, I can only garner so much information from Radio Free Wasteland, so what have you been up to since we parted?”
Nearly two months had passed since we’d gone our separate ways after Stable 50, so I only touched on the most important events. As we got nearer to the present, Rare and Ache cut in from time to time to add things as well. Though I felt I could trust Sage, I didn’t tell her everything, like the fact that Ache was a pondroid, which seemed prudent. I wouldn’t want that knowledge spreading around, especially now that the Vanhoover Steel Rangers were no longer as friendly toward Wastelanders.
“Wow, that’s quite a tale,” Sage commented as we concluded, “I’d love to be able to do an interview with you for the Strip’s newspaper and fill in the gaps from DJ Pon3’s announcements. Your story also answers a lot of questions that have been floating around, like why the Black Skulls are at the borders of our territory.”
“The Crimson Tide wouldn’t happen to know anything about where the NLC’s Vanhoover headquarters is, would they?” Ache asked hopefully.
“I’m afraid not,” Sage said with a shake of her head, causing her curly bronze mane to bounce around, “Until I heard your account, I had no idea a Northern Lights Coalition even existed, and I bet most ponies in Vanhoover who aren’t part of it have never heard of it either. It explains why the raiders we’ve been facing have been getting better equipped and, once again, what the Black Skulls are up to.”
“What are they up to?” Rare asked, having received no answers on the subject from the Steel Rangers, who were just as in the dark as us.
“For now, they’re just setting up bases, clearing out Wasteland creatures, stuff like that, though they’re scouting closer to Crimson Tide territory all the time and we’re keeping an eye on them,” Sage said, “There is one place they’ve been seen that makes me especially uneasy. Do you know where Sorceress Plaza is?”
“I’m familiar with it,” I said, remembering how I’d fled from the Steel Rangers there, “That’s where the Vanhoover Ministry of Magic Hub is located.”
“Exactly,” Sage said, “If the Black Skulls manage to break in there, who knows what kind of advanced experimental tech they might find and turn against us.”
“They’d have to be pretty dedicated to get past the entryway,” Rare Sparks pointed out, “The Steel Rangers have never been able to get in, but we’ve also never really applied ourselves since we had other priorities in Vanhoover to look into.”
“If they packed up everything and deserted their territory south of the city on the NLC’s orders, then they’re probably dedicated enough to find a way,” I said, “Well, if they haven’t, then I have a pass to get in. I think we should find out what they’re up to and whether they have any information on the NLC.”
“I hope you won’t mind me tagging along,” Sage said, “This is important for the Crimson Tide as well as the Wasteland.”
“I don’t mind at all,” I replied, “If we’re going up against the Black Skulls, possibly with advanced experimental weapons, then the more ponies the better.”
***
Me recent experiences were beginning to feel a little strange to me. Over the past few days, I’d been retracing the path I’d taken weeks ago after leaving Stable 85. First Timbervale, then the Strip, and now the Vanhoover MAS Hub. I was revisiting places I’d left long ago, though this tim,e things were different. This time I wasn’t alone, and I had a mission other than the vague goal of reaching Burnside.
Sorceress Plaza was likewise different. It was no longer an empty square surrounded by shops, but a bustling hub of Black Skull activity. Crates of supplies, only some of them with the NLC logo, were piled up around the place. Military tents not unlike the ones I’d seen in the Flankorage simulation had been erected; apparently, the Black Skulls intended to stay awhile. My EFS was completely worthless, so crowded with hostile marks, and I soon stopped paying attention to it.
“This seems even beyond us,” Rare commented, her voice distorted through her helmet, as she observed several Black Skulls patrolling in power armor.
“You know, I think you might be right about that,” I said as I set my binoculars down.
When Sage had told us that the Black Skulls had set up camp here, I’d expected something more akin to camp outside of the Vanhoover Botanical Gardens, not this. Their numbers were comparable to the Bloodlarks I’d foolishly tried to take on myself. I’d never have survived that had it not been for the intervention of a whole squad of Steel Rangers, and those had just been raiders, not hardened mercenaries. It looked like we might have to turn back without accomplishing our mission and get help from more Crimson Tide mercenaries before returning.
“Hold on now, let’s not be too hasty,” Sage said, looking through her own set of binoculars, “Look what’s going on down there.”
Curious, I took another peek. Some of the Black Skulls were forming groups at the north, south, and west sides of the plaza. Once the platoons had assembled, they set out into the ruins of Vanhoover to scout or do some other mission. The Goddesses were surely looking down on us today! The Black Skull numbers were significantly depleted now, with only a small crew left behind at the camp, and most of them concentrated in the MAS Hub.
It was almost too good to be true, so we waited until the Black Skulls who’d left were well and truly gone before descending from our vantage point in a nearby skyscraper and approaching the plaza. The camp may as well have been deserted, as quiet as it was now, and Rare’s steps on the plaza’s tiles sounded jarringly loud. We encountered no Black Skulls until we neared the skyscraper on the eastern edge of the plaza, and the stunned mercenaries were quickly taken out by Ache’s hooves, my magical energy rifle, and Sage’s shotgun.
In case anypony in the MAS Hub had heard the scuffle out in the camp, we galloped to the building. Several Black Skulls were standing around the reception desk, and they jumped in surprise as they spotted four ponies approaching them, one in Steel Ranger armor. The room was filled with gunfire, both magical and mundane, as we traded shots with the mercenaries. Rare’s minigun did the most damage, chewing through those who didn’t find cover.
The reception desk turned out to be reinforced, and our bullets didn’t pierce it. I made my way around to one side while Sage took the other and was fired upon by a mare with a magical energy rifle, her shots barely missing me. I fired my own magical energy rifle back at her, and mine fortunately did not miss. She fell with a hole burned through her, but there were plenty more Black Skulls behind her. Rare’s grenades forced some of them out, and they were dropped by Ache’s and my SMGs. Sage ran through the rest, firing her shotgun at them repeatedly, finding where their armor didn’t protect them and taking advantage of it. As she was grappling with one to keep him from shooting her with his own shotgun, I came up behind and finished the raider off with a shot from my magical energy rifle to the back of his neck, turning him to ash.
“Thanks, I-look out!” Sage said and pulled me to the ground.
A missile streaked overhead and struck the wall, sending bits of fake wood raining down on us. A Black Skull in power armor had appeared in the doorway to the stairs I’d fled up the last time I’d been here, the door completely removed, cut out of the wall. Rare turned to fire on a foe for which she was matched when a grenade threw her off her hooves. The door to the left of the reception desk had also been cut off, and a Black Skull with a grenade launcher was standing in the doorway.
Ache fired a burst from her submachine gun at the pony with the grenade launcher, forcing him back through the doorway for protection. As she reached the door and the mercenary reappeared, she threw her weapon at his face, disorienting him and allowing her to get close enough to attack with her hooves. He never stood a chance, and his neck snapped as his head struck the doorframe.
Sage and I scrambled to get out from behind the reception desk as the power-armored Black Skull fired another missile our way. She then turned her attention on Rare, who was still getting up off the floor. I pulled the stem from a metal apple and threw it at our foe. The explosive knocked her off her hooves and her missile went wide, striking the wall instead of the former Steel Ranger. It gave Rare enough time to get up and fire her minigun at the Black Skull’s helmet until it was shattered, and the mercenary’s head was practically liquified.
“Go, I’ll hold off anypony who tries to come from above,” Rare said as gunfire came from elsewhere on the first floor, where Ache was.
Sage and I rushed through to assist the pondroid. A large open area with couches and benches bordered by doors leading to conference rooms greeted us. In the center of the room was a fountain with three alicorns in the center, standing on their hindlegs back-to-back, a water talisman hanging from one of their horns. Several Black Skull had taken up positions behind the fountain and were firing at us. Sage drew her scoped magical energy pistol and lined up a shot on one, neatly burning a hole through his head. I fried another with my magical energy rifle, and Ache’s SMG fire caught the last under her chin.
According to EFS, there were no more hostiles around, but in a skyscraper that only meant there were none on the nearby floors. We’d have to venture upstairs to be sure. We returned to Rare and together the four of us headed up the stairs. On the way up, a Black Skull tried to ambush us, but I’d spotted his appearance on my EFS and was ready. With SATS, I easily took him out using my rifle before he was able to get off a single shot.
Several doors had been cut off, but they weren’t worth looking into until we were sure we’d found the remaining Black Skulls. They were holed up on a floor whose doorway was still glowing dully from being cut, the tool used to do it sitting nearby. Using SATS, I snuck a peek inside, and was glad I’d used the time alteration spell. The Black Skulls had formed a barricade out of desks and lab counters within the room and fired as soon as they saw my head. It would've been difficult to dislodge them if we hadn’t had Rare with us. The rest of us stood back as the former Steel Ranger filled the room with grenades, and one by one the Black Skull marks winked out on my EFS.
Confident that we weren’t in any immediate danger, we entered the room. This floor had been a research lab once, but it had been vacated before the megaspells had fallen. Furniture and testing rooms remained, but there was nothing in them. A quick search revealed that all the floors that the Black Skulls had cut into were the same, empty of anything useful. I found a terminal that hadn’t been smashed in anger and hacked into it, finding only a single file accessible.
Reminder: All lab equipment is to be packed up and all research data transferred to tape by 10.16. After this date, the relocation will commence, and anything not prepared for transport will be transferred to the Canterlot MAS Hub for archiving.
Addendum: As you should be aware, this relocation applies only to Labs 1-6, 8-22. Stop calling the front desk complaining that you got no relocation notice if you are from Lab 7, especially when Dr. Primsrose’s prototype is on duty.
The Black Skulls had, apparently, not thought to break into the terminals for information, or they hadn’t the skill to do it. Instead, they’d cut through doors at random trying to find a floor with an active lab. With twenty-two labs and all but one abandoned, no wonder they hadn’t had any success. It was fortunate for us that the MAS had decided to relocate the majority of their Vanhoover staff a mere week before the megaspells had fallen and hadn’t moved new researchers in yet.
We found Lab 7 easily, and the door unsealed as I swiped Primrose’s ID card. As the messages on the terminal had promised, this floor had not been abandoned, and was quite full of research equipment. Given what I’d seen in Primrose’s apartment at Bunker Hill and what had greeted me in the lobby the first time I’d visited this place, it wasn’t surprising that the lab’s focus was robotics. Pieces of the automatons were scattered across the lab tables and diagrams were hastily scribbled on chalkboards around the room. A few completed robots like the one I’d met at the reception desk stood in a row against one wall, their heads open and brainless. I trotted over to a research terminal and hacked in, looking for information on the lab. To my disappointment, time had corrupted almost everything recorded here, apart from one note.
09.06.1503
Dr. Primrose, Lab 7 Chief Researcher
Always we are called to outdo the zebras with our robotics, or at least to catch them, but that is a fool’s errand if we remain bound by their rules. The zebras will always be ahead of us in this field if we continue to insist on copying their work, to focus on circuitry and algorithms when they’ve mastered them far more thoroughly than us. We cannot play catch-up forever, so we must change the game to get ahead. Despite the controversy surrounding Dr. Haddock’s work, his “robo-brains” are a step in the inevitable direction we must take to surpass the zebras. A pony’s brain is a marvelous thing, and coupled with a metallic shell, it can provide us with the greatest robotics have to offer. Dr. Haddock’s work was rudimentary, too constrained. Using a brain for decision-making—which it can do far faster than a conventional set of circuitry—is inspired, but it isn’t far enough. The brain is amazing in its ability to reason and learn, and we ought to leverage that. Of course, we are hampered by the lack of a true mind-electronic intersection, but I grow nearer every day. Experiment 60163 is my greatest work yet, and the beginning of a new line of ponitrons that can think, reason, and grow. It isn’t a complete success, so I’ll set about the task of building receptionist for the time being as a test. I will need to get more brains for testing and improving. Fortunately, the Sawthorn Correctional Institute has plenty of inmates on death row who I’m sure will be willing to “donate” their brains for a chance at immortality. It won’t be hard at all to acquire more testing material.
“Anything interesting?” Sage asked, peering over my shoulder at the terminal screen.
“More Wartime ponies doing dangerous and unsavory research,” I replied.
It seemed that Dr. Primrose’s creation hadn’t served her as well as she’d hoped. It had probably thought she was stealing state secrets or something and gunned her down in the lobby. So much for robots with pony brains being superior. Or, maybe it was because the robot had remembered who it was and what had happened to it. I had a hard time believing that the brains she’d obtained from prisoners had been acquired legally or that the process had been painless. Sawthorn Correctional Facility rang a bell, and I knew it had to be only former prison I knew of in Vanhoover: Burnside. Maybe the prisoners deserved to be locked up there for real crimes, or maybe they had just been imprisoned on orders of the MoM, but they didn’t deserve a fate like this. At least Dr. Primrose had only managed to make one of these before the megaspells fell. I doubted she’d had the time to make any more, given the date on the note.
“It doesn’t look like there’s anything here that the Black Skulls could make use of,” Rare commented as she trotted in from elsewhere in the lab.
“I agree,” I said, “But, just to make things difficult for them, we should lock the lab back up before we go, which we had probably better do soon, before they come back.”
Level Up
New Perk: Energizer – All magical energy weapons ignore 3 Magic Resistance of enemy armor. Does not count against creatures’ armored hides.
New Quest: Renew the Trail – Look for more information on the Northern Lights Coalition.
Barter +1 (40)
Energy Weapons +7 (100) [Max Level Reached]
Explosives +1 (68)
Medicine +1 (61)
Repair +3* (39)
Sneak +1 (75)
Speech +8 (70)
*The Tinkerer