Fallout Equestria : Lineage

by SunsetSpecter

Chapter Five: "Dim the House Lights"

There are times that I wonder how much of life I’m dreaming. How much of this reality can really be real? If so, how does one tell when one is dreaming and when one is not? That said, take that a step further, if you’re dreaming half your waking hours, why is there so much continuity between the two compared to the times you know you’re asleep? Crap... I’m awake aren’t I?

“Stupid programing, am I really that rusty?”

I was pacing back and forth in one of the many storerooms, trying to think of what else to pack.

“Twenty seven percent? Really, did I let my leg get that bad?” Lifting up my left foreleg I gave it a quick look over. “Okay, well maybe it was correct... Ah! That's what I forgot!” Face-hoofing again I opened a nearby crate, levitating out a small tool kit. Dropping the box into my saddle bag, I began to pace again.

“Let's see. Think, think, do you have everything you need...”

Food, drugs, weapons, ammo, waterproof spray and repair kit. Should be everything... I think...

“I hate working with unknown variables. Never been outside and I never got any good readings. However, if the Enclave are any indication, then I can never be too prepared.”

The speaker above me squeaked before letting out a small puff of blue smoke and another one turned on elsewhere in the room.

“Sir, power is starting to fail, down to twelve percent efficiency.”

“What? We should still be at twenty five! This isn't good, we need at least five percent power to exit the skylight.” I stood there tapping a hoof on the floor wracking my brain for another solution. Sure we could just walk out the front doors if the emergency defenses had not shut all the blast doors again. “We’ll just have to leave early. Where is... What was his name?”

He said he told me his name while I was asleep... Who tells someone their name while they're asleep?

“Sunset can be found on level twelve.”

Sunset? Oh! That’s his name!

“Right. I’m going to go find him and make sure he’s ready to leave. You... you take care of this place for me okay?”

“Yes sir. And don't worry, I'm sure you'll hit puberty one day.”

I tripped over my saddlebags.

“Oh come on! You have my biological scans, you know exactly how old I am!” I argued before returning to affix my saddlebags.

Ugh! Heavy.

“Never repairing your matrix again.” Shaking my head I proceeded to the lift, levitating the laser pistol and rifle off the table sliding the pair into their makeshift holsters.

“Forgot something?”

“Oh son of a! Could you send it to twelve?”

“Of course, sir.”

Now I needed a wash, waterproof or not I looked like a raider with my coat smeared in ‘my’ blood. Didn't matter, I needed to take my mind off things, and this was the only room I knew about that was large enough for flight. I'd been practicing tight aerial maneuvers trying to get a feel for how my new limb's added weight effected how I needed to shift my weight for the tightest of turns. Sure this was something I should have been practicing out in the open, you know, with plenty of recovery space for when things didn't go quite right. However the pain from a few fresh cuts when I bounced off a panel, or jutting piece of scaffolding reminded me that I was alive and that I should not pay attention to the large brown smear in the center of the room. Hearing a few hoofsteps with the rhythmic metallic thunk told me that Joules had entered the room, or was at least within earshot.

Shit!

I didn't pull hard enough with my primary remiges and I clipped a light fixture. I tumbled, corrected, lost forward velocity and slammed down with four hooves a little harder than I wanted. Thinking I'd damaged my new limb my eyes flicked upwards to the readouts. Everything was green showing a ninety two percent power level remaining.

"Huh" I said trying to slam the limb as hard as I could on the deck plating looking for any change in the readout and was only rewarded with a moments flicker of 'Hard Impact Detected' next to the power level. Looking under my right leg I noticed that the metal deck now had a nice depression matching the shape of my hoof. I was about to take off again and repeat the stunt but my eyes locked onto Joules standing in the doorframe with a look of horror across his face.

"...Hey there." I mumbled looking at the unicorn.

“Are... are you alright?” His eyes flicked rapidly across my body, I was fairly certain he just used S.A.T.S. to check my medical condition. Before I could ask him about it he crumpled up his nose.

“Oh Tesla! That smell!” To his credit Joules didn’t seem like he was going to vomit, if he was going to stand any chance out in the Wasteland the unicorn was going to have to get used to that smell. “It would seem that sterilization is broken... not that it matters anymore.” He walked farther into the room, looking around at the bodies.

“Such a shame they had to be hostile, we could have gotten so much data from them...” Walking up to one of the bodies, the unicorn ran a hoof over it. “Say, I was wondering something.” He turned around and looked back at me. “The one over there,” pointing to what was once Twister, “Cameras, only thing that didn't fry, show that you hit her with an EMP, then you tried to catch her, why?”

"Ah..." Looking back at the dent in the floor, "Didn't want her to die, ah didn't want any of them to die. It's... just, there's no need." I started to walk towards the stallion, he flinched back.

Luna did I look that bad?

"I'm fine by the way. Well at least physically.” I paused for a moment. "Anyways, that's why ah decided to use that grenade rather than just shoot ‘em a bunch. Ah figured once their suits stopped functionin’ and held them trapped ah could maybe have a talk with ‘em, maybe, ah don't know."

I stood there a few seconds, just looking at the body, Joules did the same.

“I see...” The unicorn walked across the room stopping at a small terminal built into the wall. “Well, the dead stay dead, nothing is going to change that.” He touched his horn the screen causing it flicker to life.

“Trust me, I've tried bringing them back before, does not turn out well.” He started typing.

I thought EMP’s blew out spell matrixes. He didn’t just restart that with his magic did he?

“Ah never said ah wanted you to... Just ah don’t like ta kill ponies when ah don’t have to.”

The unicorn continued to type away seemingly indifferent to my words before turning his emerald eyes back to me.

“Anyways, turns out that we're losing power, quite quickly too. Going to have to depart early.” He pressed the final button with a flourish, a small whooshing sound came from overhead.

“Brought it, sir.” The robotic voice of Mr. Oats crackled through fried speakers.

“Thanks.” Joules said levitating the gun in front of my head “Here, it's... in poor repair to say the least, you could get one shot off, maybe two if you're lucky, before the gun breaks.”

"Thanpfffsss." I slurred around the large mouth bit. The Ironclad AM50BMG Rifle was heavier than I thought. Setting the rifle down on the decking in front of me I looked back at the unicorn.

"I have to get my things... and," looking back over my hide, "wash up a bit, don't want to get shot by mistake."

First things first, clean, eat, gear up. Looking back at Twister's rifle.

"Say, does this place have a maintenance room?" then with a pause "Oh!" I waved my mechanical hoof in the air. "If I take a shower am I going to rust?" I added with a grin.

“Only one maintenance room, and it's OFF LIMITS!” Joules glared at me, not quite sure of what I had said, but I decided that I wasn’t going to press the issue further. “and yes your leg is waterproof, or did you forget what it's made out of?” he turned back to the terminal.

Okay, that was a low blow. Said the back of my brain. But... I suppose I deserve it.

I caught the flash of magic bringing something to his mouth before he turned back around.

“Look, sorry, didn't mean to snap like that. It's just, been stressful lately. I mean, here I am, going from the Stable repair pony, to one of the only survivors left in the Stable...” He started messing with the terminal again, not actually doing anything, just trying to look busy as I caught him flipping through the same menu three times. “Now I'm going out, out ‘there’. It's new, it's dangerous, and I don't have a choice in whether or not I want to stay here.” The unicorn sighed. “Look, just... go get cleaned up, get your stuff. We have two hours, tops, then we have to leave.”

Joules got up from the terminal and walked over to a clean spot on the floor levitating out a screwdriver and assorted scrap. His back towards me was a pretty good indication that this was my cue to leave. Just as I passed through the partition on the way to the lift my ears caught the stallion muttering.

“For all that intelligence.”

I took the long route back to level five where my room was situated. I looked around the various parts of the complex near the stairwell I was using in lieu of the lift.

This doesn't look much like any stable I've heard about. As I took note of level seven being dedicated to prosthetics seeing the plethora of rigging and light fabrication equipment.

'...and it's OFF LIMITS!'

That didn't look very off limits with the wide open doors and well lit interior.

Well he's already mad at me. As I made a plan to come back here after a wash.

Lugging an Anti-Material Rifle up ten flights of stairs sounded like a good plan six levels ago but by the time I got to level five the blood matted into my hide gleamed with a fresh coat of sweat, but at least I mastered stair climbing after only falling down twice.

Woo! Sunset the stairmaster. I thought as I hefted the AM Rifle onto the bed next to my belongings. Right, two hours, let's make this quick.

Normally I'd take time to wash thoroughly, enjoying the time spent in a warm shower, but my mind was elsewhere already building a new Battle Saddle in my head. The little hooves on my right limb made scrubbing myself with the brush ever so much quicker.

"Really useful," I mused.

Stepping out of the shower I dried myself quickly with a good shake and a few powerful flaps of my wings. I only took the time to dry Tes' gift completely with the towel, less in fear of hurting the limb more so out of respect.

Barding, well I could do without, but... Looking over at the remains of my old armor in the trash can then back to the exposed blazing sun on my flank. Yeah no, need to cover that up.

"H-hey Mr. Oats... you there?"

“Yes Sunset, how can I help you?” The robotic voice crackled from the ceiling once more.

"Any chance ah could get a few of those electro-whatever suits?" Looking up at the direction of the voice I added "And... sorry..."

“For what?” Replied the voice from above as three of the metallic suits dropped on hooks from the ceiling.

"For... everything, if ah hadn't... " I looked at the black metal, "None of this would have happened. Forgive me?"

“Can I help you with anything else?”

Ouch.

"N-no... thanks."

Yay you messed up another life in the waste, what's the tally now?

I buckled my battle saddle on after stuffing the suits into the rigging, at least for now, and after grabbing the large rifle off the bed headed for the lift.

Not taking the stairs this time.

Apparently I had missed my calling as a gunsmith at Ironshod. Having disassembled the rifle on a clear table in the workshop on level seven. The damage wasn't quite as bad as Joules had said. The main body of the gun seemed to have been spared the brunt of the blast most likely shielded by, well, me. Worn for sure, the firing pin was slightly bend and needed to be replaced though I doubted that was a result of the explosion.

Where in the wastes am I going to find a replacement? I mused as I did what I could to smooth down the nicks on the bolt. The extractor catch was worn meaning that I was going to have to watch the rifle for a failure to clear the spent casing. Really the only thing wrong with the gun mechanically was the bolt assembly. The barrel, however, was bent at just enough of a angle to make discharging the weapon turn it into a localized pipe-bomb when the round caught. Using what tools the prosthetics lab had the best I could do was cut the length down to what best could be described as a snub nose. The stock was a loss, but I had other plans to mount it.

An hour later most of the rigging on my old saddle was replaced. I had shifted the remaining saddlebag over to the right behind Morning Light and attached the AM50BMG-

No, this needs a name. Thinking back to the fight. Bah, I'll get to that later, back to work lazy.

I attached the large rifle to the empty side of the saddle. Rigging up the new cable controls for the bit took a little time as finding the correct gauge cable in the unfamiliar workshop was a game of 'ooo what's in this drawer' but eventually I found what I was looking for. Using a pair of shears I found whilst playing the drawer game I turned my attention to the thin stretchy barding. After cutting away the legs just above the knee level and cutting some proper wing holes this time I slipped it on started to attach my saddle over it.

Joules cleared his throat.

I turned around knowing full well that he was going to be mad at me, but the Wastes was not a place to go wandering about without your weapons in the best condition you can manage, and frankly one gun down, it felt nice to have a fifty caliber shotgun at my side.

“Did you see anything? Anything at all?” I opened my muzzle to answer but before a single word left my mouth the unicorn cut me off. “I thought I told you not to come in here!”

He moved from drawer to drawer opening them with a flare of green magic before stopping at a terminal clicking its screen on with another pulse of magic.

“I can't believe this! One thing I tell you to do! Off limits means Off Limits!” I could see him pulling up a file that looked like access records. Apparently satisfied that I had not been sticking my nose where it didn’t belong he turned back to me. “Well, did you see anything?”

"I-" looking deeply confused. "This is just a simple fab shop."

Right?

"Ah mean, only thing in here was parts for buildin’ regular prosthetic limbs, among other things." I added as I finished strapping the newly refitted Battle Saddle to myself, quite proud of my hoofwork.

"Whooo ah hope that all holds." Looking at what was now a .50calMG shotgun attached to my left. With the barrel being as short as it was, accuracy was about as good as point and pray. Cut the weight of the firearm considerable though.

"To answer your question, no I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, sure, little bit more machinery in here than what I'd expect to find for a little workshop but," Pointing a wingtip at the sign above the door to the hallway, "You said stay out of maintenance, pretty sure that reads 'Prosthetics lab." Looking at the small stallion I noted the time, and his lack of provisions. "Shouldn't you be packing?"

“And if you would pay attention,” countered the unicorn, “You would notice that floor seven is designated as 'Maintenance'. Anything and everything in this place was brought here for repairs of one type or another.”

Joules walked back out to the lift and checked a terminal by the doors.

“This entire floor is supposed to be locked up and off limits!” He paused for a minute seeming to question why the door was wide open. “Anyways... You didn't see anything, that's good. Get your stuff and head to the skylight, we only have ten minutes left before the power fails, and trust me, you do not want to be inside when that happens.”

A not so gentle nudge from the stallion got me moving towards the lift. After a few moments the carriage arrived with a ding and we wedged ourselves in.

"Seems rather silly we can't just take this lift to the lobby." I said as we descended back down to level fifteen in a carriage clearly not intended to hold an oversized pegasus with what basically amounted to a sawed off artillery cannon strapped to his side.

"...Okay then." Joules was not in the mood to talk to me apparently. "Hi, names Sunset, do believe last time ah said that you were asleep, and ah was delusional. Nice to meet'cha." With the largest smile I could muster on my face extending my hoof.

Joules just looked at the metal, then to me, and back to the doors.

"How old are yo-"

"Shut up!"

Okay time to just not say anything... The lift chimed and the doors opened to the lobby on level fifteen. Oh thank Luna!

We walked back down the hallways leading to the skylight Joules leading the way. Stepping through the doorway into the main chamber I spotted a pair of saddlebags leaning up against a crate in the center of the room.

"You don't expect me to be able to lift that outta here do you?" I said pointing a wingtip at the sizeable box.

“No. It's just some stuff I forgot to put into my saddlebags.” With a green glow of magic he levitated a few objects out of the crate and placed them in his saddlebags. “Now if you don't mind, we must be leaving here.”

The unicorn floated his saddlebags behind him as he walked over to the side of the room to the one active terminal. Before he could get there the crackle of the overhead speakers caught my ear.

“We are down to two percent power. Sir, please hurry.”

Joules bolted the remaining distance to the terminal before rapidly pressing keys. There was a hiss from the center of the room as the decking parted to reveal a round platform lifting slowly on buried hydraulics.

“Sunset, stand on the platform.” There was a mild undertone of panic in the stallion’s voice that told me asking questions wasn’t an option.

I grabbed Joules’ saddlebags in my mouth and tossed them onto the rising platform just in time to see the unicorn jump up to meet them. I flew off the ground landing in the middle of the circular metal lift, the speakers within the laboratory crackled to life again.

“Sunset, I want you to know that I know what is out there. When you were connected to the Grid, I saw deeper into your mind than Tes or Joules have, I've seen what you've seen. I know that what is waiting out there is nothing but misery and death, and I want you to know this. One day, I will power back up, and this place will be operational again, and if I find out that while I was down that Joules died while in your care, I will find you, and I will make you pay. Now take good care of her.”

I looked at Joules questioning if my assumption of stallion.

“Otus! You know that I'm male!”

“And you were overstressed, now you’re not. Have a good life, Sir.” With that the platform sealed off the chamber below as it continued to travel up the shaft.

Fifteen stories seemed to crawl past. Thankfully with the power in the facility being so low none of the circuits lining the skylight were active. Looking up I saw nothing but nighttime silhouette of the dark rolling clouds ever present over the Wastes.

Well at least it's not raining, maybe. Not knowing what kind of barrier lay at the top of the skylight. Whoever designed this would have done something to prevent rainwater from falling into the middle of the lab.

Right?

Screams of metal protested as we continued our ascent. This lift, unlike the rest in the facility, seemed to be barely used and not as well maintained. Looking at what Joules and myself were standing on a little closer I noticed the writing.

{Warning, Blast Shield.}

"Oh..."

"Hmm?" Joules said turning from his rock steady gaze upwards at the gradually opening sky.

"Uhh... " I bit my lip. "S-say, Oats you said you were inside my head. And..." I shifted nervously "what'd you see?" Knowing full well the landmines in my memories. To my surprise a speaker crackled to life further up the shaft.

“What I saw, was a life. Once occupied by free thoughts, now sitting in turmoil. I have seen not just the death of friends, but the death of everything... but, I also saw a light. Hidden away behind your memories, there it sits, waiting for you to notice it, waiting for you to use it.”

Joules just stood there, staring at me as I froze knowing exactly what the robotic voice ment.

“Power at one percent. Sir, you must hurry.”

I seriously considered biting the unicorn’s barding and hauling the both of us up the remaining distance when he floated out a screwdriver and pried off a panel working furiously within the access hole.

“Come on, speed it up!” A puff of smoke lifted from the panel as the platform picked up speed. “Haha! Still got it!” Seemingly proud of himself he turned to me and blurted, “What did Otus mean by, 'the death of everything’?”

"I..." The color washed from my face.

The lift continued to grind its way upwards passing the signs indicating level three access points.

"When you were working on me, I'm going to assume that you ran my blood through some form of automated testing, and I'm also assuming that the Ministry of Peace had a hoof designing this place given the high level of medical care available here, am I correct in any of that?"

I waited, I already knew the answer.

“The M.o.P.... Yes, they lent a hoof in building this place, along with a few other organizations. And yes, I ran blood samples, had to make sure blood type if things went sour during surgery. We found a small anomaly within your blood, but it wasn't anything serious, just thought it was a side effect from living above.”

"So... you didn't run it through the Canterlot Central Medical Records database then?" I said looking directly at Joules ignoring the fact we were getting very close to the surface now.

Joules chuckled. “Well... no, the systems have been cut off from the CCMR for quite some time. From the reports Otus showed me that’s most likely because Canterlot itself no longer exists.” The unicorn looked away from the darkness above and stared into my eyes. “I mean, we couldn't find anything in the database here, but I figured that was also normal. What does the CCMR have to do with what Otus said about you though?”

"Think about it... You're a clever pony."

Whatever the rest of that conversation would have entailed was lost as we passed though a shield at the top of the skylight, it ‘was’ raining.

Oh wasteland, welcome me back with open hooves why don't you?

The blast shield we were using for transport slammed home at the base of what would have been a cleverly disguised fountain if everything surface side was still operational. The sounds of locking bolts slamming home echoed off the surrounding ruins. I looked over at the young stallion lost in thought as the rain started to seep through his lab coat.

“It's... endless...” Joules stood there looking up into the night’s sky. Sure it was dark out but you could still see the underside of the cloud layer far above. “Outside... I'm actually outside!” He started to jump around in small circles.

"We have to go... quickly." I didn't even need to bring up E.F.S. to know we were in trouble. This was the place that I had been scouting before being caught in Tes' blast.

Fifteen stories, how had I managed to survive that? Glancing back down at the shield covering the skylight. The area was infested with ghoul ponies and I was checking how many were near the road the caravan I was protecting what seemed like months ago.

Wonder what happen-

"Oh..." Remembering the memory from the Enclave stallion of the mare getting run down by the zombified beasts. I thought she looked familiar.

Where to go?

I looked around at the ruined buildings and rusted carriages hoping to see some obvious solution of where we could take cover.

Nighttime, far from settlement, hotbed of ghouls and I can't just fly away like I normally would because I’ve got a unicorn to protect, if we stay here this isn’t going to end well. My brain reminding me of what Oats said would happen to me if I let any harm befall Joules.

"Argh I don't spend enough time on the ground around here," I said to the scattered debris under my hooves.

An unpony like scream raged forth from a ghoul as it walked around the corner of the building nearest to us. Instinctively I let a small controlled burst from Morning Light tear though its unprotected flesh.

That was loud... Fuck. I switched on E.F.S and saw just how many of the monster ponies were around us.

"Say... how much do you weigh," I said to Joules as I let another burst of fire shred another zombie's face.

“Well... my levitation should be able to negate the weight of my saddlebags, however, my leg isn't exactly light... about a hundred fifty pounds.” The unicorn started to fire his beam pistol at a ghoul to my right. “Jeez they smell, I suppose being a decaying creature, you don't really care for hygiene. Wait...You’re not...”

I grinned as my blue eyes shone in reflection of the muzzle blast as Morning Light tore another monster pony nearly in half.

"Lightweight!" I said in a friendly mocking tone as I lowered myself closer to the ground. "Climb on... watch the barrel of Morning Light, she heats up pretty quick.”

“Right, flying... I can do that.” Joules fired off three more shots with his beam pistol before climbing onto my back. “Right... promise me you won't drop me.” The unicorn wrapped his saddlebags in a telekinetic field before tightening his grip on my back. “Just keep your eyes shut, don't look down.”

I was pretty sure he had not meant to say that aloud. My wings unfurled as the primal part of my pegasus brain checked over them for me. Everything felt fine and the practice in the lab helped me compensate for the new limb, but I was still unsure if I had regained all of my strength.

Well here goes nothing.

"Hang on!" I yelled over the rush of air from the downblast my wings created.

Not enough! My hooves made contact with the concrete once again. I kicked hard with my forehooves and Tes' gift shattered the ground. That got me airborn.

~Be Awesome~ a little cyan pony called to me from the depths of my mind.

Straining to maintain flight I gained altitude over the mob of ghouls milling about, looking at their meal receding into the night's sky. It felt good to be in the open sky once again, sure it was nighttime, and raining, and we could have been lunch for a pack of hungry zombie ponies, and yes I was overexerting myself carrying the now shivering Joules on my back. But I didn't care, wind, thermals, currents and eddies, the feeling of fresh air flowing under my wings I felt my heart rise up for the first time in days. Now the question was where should we go, Manehattin is no place for an inexperienced pony, besides with the recent loss of a patrol the Enclave would be looking around the city.

Well... should probably head back to Appleloosa, someone ought to tell them what happened to their caravan.

Shifting my wings I brought us about and started to follow the road leading back the way I had come from what seemed like weeks ago.

Maybe I was getting old, or I had not recovered as much as I thought. But I couldn't keep us airborne as long as I had hoped. After only flying for an hour forty, that chronometer is going to be useful, I set the both of us down on a section of raised carriageway isolated from the ground below.

At least I got us this far I thought as I panted collapsed on the road deck.

“Oh sweet merciful ground.” Joules tumbled off my back. “Ooh, never liked heights. Hate heights. Please tell me we won't have to be doing a lot of that.” The unicorn stumbled to his hooves. “So where is it we're heading to exactly?”

"We..." trying to catch my breath, "We... aren't going anywhere for a while," I said realizing just how tired I actually was. The chrono in my vision informing me that it was just shy of three in the morning. "Eventually we're headin’ to New Appleloosa." I said as I tried to remove myself from the road surface. Propping myself up with Tes' gift as even though I was spent it moved with an energy of its own.

"Look, we should be safe here, least till morning. I've used this place a few times seeing as you have to be able to fly to get up here." I said motioning with a wingtip to the broken ruins of the elevated carriageway around us. "Keeps the raiders off us, slavers too, bloatsprites on the other hoof..." I trailed off as I caught the look in Joules' eyes.

"Right, first let's see if we can't do something about getting out of this rain." Though it was doing a wonderful job cooling my overheated body.

“Right. Out of the rain. Good idea.” The unicorn shook his head. “A really good idea.” Joules took a moment to look around where we had landed. “So. New Appleloosa, what can I expect when we get there?” His horn levitated out a small can from his saddlebags and began spraying down his cyberleg and packs.

"It's not much more than a small trading hub, Ditzy's got her store there, and ah need to let her know what happened to that caravan ah was ‘sposed to be guardin’." I began to move around, if we were lucky that carriage wreak would still be intact and we could use it for shelter, maybe even start a small fire. Skipping dinner? Breakfast? Midnight snack? Whatever my last meal should have been was catching up to me and a hot meal sounded pretty darn good right about now.

"Best you not worry too far down the road Joules," I called back over my shoulder, "You gotta take things as they come." I picked up a bottle cap and tossed it back to him.

Footnote:

Maximum Level Reached

Level Up!
New perk added : Swift Learner. You gain an additional 10% whenever experience points are earned.

(( Author’s Note: Sorry that this chapter came out a little late. I’ve been working more as of late along with that there is a lack of sleep in my life right now which is messing with my ability to put time into this story. However I will continue to try and get these out in a timely manner. Which, should not really be all that difficult. Anyways, Many thanks to Kkat and Somber whose work continue to inspire me to write along with the whole creating this universe so on so on. Huge thanks as always to my co-writer The Wiseless Stallion for adding to the creativity of this project. To my editors and pre-readers; frozenpyro71, Istalir, KaraSkakalac, and That Awesome Brony Guy for spending hours of their time working on making this as polished as possible. But most importantly to you for taking the time to read this story because that really does mean a lot to me that people care about my work. ))