//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Rest and Recollection // Story: Borderlands 2 DLC: Vault of the Consular // by NightStream //------------------------------// By the time that they had made it back to Ponyville, Gaige had woken up from being knocked out cold and was caught up to speed by Axton and the others about everything from the key piece to the GOD-liath and even Brick wanting to do the same thing that Lilith did with her, despite her best intentions of telling him that it was a really bad idea. Yet, it wasn’t until only a few moments after they had just got back home that another headache happened to start. Which, of course, was telling Princess Celestia and everypony else everything that happened. And as she stood next to Twilight, both princesses stared at them with shocked expressions. Most specifically at Brick and Axton. “Let me see if I can get this straight,” The diarch of the sun responded. “You went to Manehattan to find a piece of the key for this vault you’re looking for…” “Yes…” Axton then replied. “Encountered a group of armed ‘midgets’ that were shooting and attacking unarmed civilians…” Twilight then added on. Which was followed up by a one word response from Brick. “Dead.” “And you had to kill a… big-” “Big hulking GOD-liath. Yes! Like we didn’t just get through explaining this to you already!” The irritated commando retorted back at Celestia as both princesses looked back at each other. Shortly before the princess of friendship looked at Axton and blunty told him what some would refer to as a ‘suggestion’, but came off more like an order. “You need to stop going on walks.” “Yeah, knowing him, that’s not going to happen,” Maya then spoke up, getting up from leaning off of a crystalline pillar as she looked back at the princesses. “Telling Brick and Axton not to do something reckless is like trying to tell you to not read books. They’re still going to do it anyway no matter what you do.” Twilight just stared blankly at that, not even knowing how to exactly respond before just shaking her head out of bewilderment. That was until Gaige herself then spoke up, “Yeah, it’s not like that’s the strangest job we’ve done. Heck, one time we had Krieg jump into lava because Handsome Jack actually wanted to pay us if we killed ourselves. Thank god for New-U stations.” Now everypony just stared at Gaige, including Lilith and the others as they tried to make sense at what she said. Which lead to Mordecai asking a question. “I’m sorry, did I hear that right? Handsome Jack… paid you… to have one of you jump into lava? How much?” “Twelve Eridium.” “Damn, seriously?!” Mordecai asked, almost sounding rather surprised by that statement. “I feel like I’ve been missing out on some of the things you guys have been doing since you killed Jack. Well, that and the whole thing with the Son of Crawmerax.” “Should ah… even want to know what kind of ‘jobs’ ya do back where yer from?” Applejack now asked, sitting in her chair at the Cutie Map with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. “Cause ah think a few of us were lead ta believe that ya just looked for these Vaults. Ya know, since yer called ‘Vault Hunters’.” “That’s not all we do, amiga.” Salvador now chimed in. “We help out anyone on Pandora who needs it. Sometimes though, what that person wants can get rather weird. Trust me,” Gaige insisted as she looked back at the other ponies on this one. “Oh really?” The voice of Rainbow Dash could be heard as she was idly flying by where Rarity, Starlight and Spike were. They were at the Cutie map as well, but not seated at the table and had themselves faced towards the vault hunters. “How about you name one that comes to your head and we’ll be the judge of that.” “Well-” “FACE MCSHOOTY!!” The outburst from Krieg shook the room, before he decided to slam his buzzaxe into an apple that rolled towards his feet. “Ah beg your pardon?” Applejack now asked. “Oh right,” The mechromancer now remembered, before pulling out her ECHO device. “Back in Thousand Cuts, just before we met Brick and became part of the Slabs, Krieg and I met a psycho named Face McShooty. Unlike every other psycho that we met up to this point, who wanted to kill us, this guy… wanted for us to shoot him in the face. I think I still have the audio transcript from it if you don’t believe me.” “Um, that’s not really necessary-” Of course, Twilight’s reply was on deaf ears as Gaige began to play the audio from her ECHO device. It boomed all around the room as the whole group began to listen. “SHOOT ME IN THE FACE! IN THE FAAAAAAAACE! DO IT! SHOOT ME IN THE FACE! FACE FACE FACE FACE FACE! NOW! BULLETS IN THE FACE! WANT EM! NEED EM! GIMME GIMME GIMME! AT THE SOUND OF THE BELL IT WILL BE FACESHOOTING O'CLOCK! BONGGGGG!” “That… doesn’t sound too bad-” Rainbow then tried to make a comment. But like with Twilight, it fell on deaf ears as the rant of Face McShooty continued. “KNOCK KNOCK WHO'S THERE SHOOT ME IN THE FACE! END OF JOKE! I'M GONNA SING A SONG! SHOOT ME AT THE END OF IT! DA DA DA DA DA DA DA! BONG!! … I NOTICE YOU HAVEN'T SHOT ME IN THE FACE YET! CURIOUS AS TO WHY! Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE!! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?!” That clip was followed by the sound of a Jakobs revolver being fired as the final words echoed through the ECHO. “THANK YOU!!” By the time that was over, everypony in the room, including Roland, Mordecai and Lilith were caught off guard. Brick though, just seemed unphased. “Well, at least he got what he wanted… right?” Rainbow said, trying to sound positive despite the mood of everything going on in the room. “Yeah, I guess,” Gaige shrugged, before turning to the other vault hunters nearby. “So, out of curiosity, out of all the things that we had done over the last few months, what did you guys like the most?” “Hmm,” Maya thought to herself, scratching her chin. “I think I liked it when we dealt with that cult that Lilith accidentally started.” Now that got Roland’s attention as he looked towards the other siren in the room. “I’m sorry, what?” “Oh right… well, while I was waging a one-woman-war against the bloodshots so you could focus on taking down Jack, some of the other inhabitants in Frostburn Canyon started a cult. And no, not the ‘ask-you-for-autographs’ kind,” Lilith began to explain, scratching the back of her head. “We were trying to see if they were doing anything shady and at first, we thought they were just lighting themselves and their fellow murderers on fire for kicks. Though, when we realized that they were kidnapping civilians from Sanctuary and were planning to use them as human sacrifices, that’s when we had to shut the whole thing down.” “Wow… and just when I thought Scootaloo wanting to do a fanclub on me was one thing.” Rainbow blinked, trying really hard in order to get the image of ‘human sacrifices’ out of her head to no avail. “Anything else?” Now though, that was when a new voice spoke up. Appearing from under the shadow of an overhang in the castle as Zer0 took his turn to speak. “Washburn Refinery/C3n50r807 assignments/Obtained Pimpernel.” “Um… what?” Applejack asked. “Does anypony know what he’s talking about?” “He means a loader bot that we met in the Washburne Refinery while we were looking for the Lost Treasure of the Sands. It was once used as a eridium refinery by Hyperion before it was overrun by Sand Pirates,” Maya explained. “As for Censorbot, he was… an odd one.” “How odd are we talking about here? Because many things that happen in Equestria could count as that.” At the moment that Rarity mentioned that, Pinkie Pie just simply shook her head as confetti and wrapped up peppermint candies began to drop out of her mane. “Oh, that’s where I put those! Silly Pinkie!!” “Well… let me put it to you this way,” Maya let out a sigh. “Censorbot was a hyperion loader bot who was obsessed with the concept of censorship. He wanted our help for stopping disgusting and illegal activities like pornography distribution, software piracy and inappropriate language. However, his choice to resolve such actions was primarily through murdering the individuals responsible for it, which can also be seen as an illegal activity that’s against the law in some parts of the galaxy.” “And just when I thought Hunter Hellquist was bad.” Mordecai grumbled. “Trust us, it was weird just even going through it. But there was a mission I decided to do while I was out in the Eridium Blight. I met up with a loader out there, however like Censorbot he wasn’t hostile towards me. When I went up to it I found out he calls himself Mal and wanted to become… Human.” Axton just sighed as he remembered what he had to do for the particular mission he was recalling. “Doesn’t sound so-” “He asked me to go around killing Bandits and taking their body parts and clothing so he could a become human. After I did all that, while listening to him talking… god it was almost as bad as Claptrap, he decided the next best thing to do was attack me. Some minutes went by and after dealing a fair bit of damage to him he realised that by feeling pain he is human. What I got out of it though was a decent weapon, but going through it was something I thought was just not right.” “Especially when he said things like ‘I can’t wait to get a mortgage!’ and crap like that.” Gaige added on, before looking back at Axton. “What? I heard it over my ECHO when I was trying to check in on you.” “Then you know why I never want to meet him again.” “In any case,” Spike took a moment to interject in the conversation. “We’ve heard about some of the ‘odd jobs’ that most of you have done, but we haven’t heard from Sal… Sal… Salamander?” “Salvador.” The gunzerker corrected him. “Right,” The dragon acknowledged him, before asking his question now. “What kind of jobs did you like back where you’re from?” The gunzerker took a moment to scratch his chin, thinking to himself of what could be the best possible answer for that question. Then, after a moment, it came to him! “Ah yes, la fiesta de cine a Opportunity!” For a moment, it looked like some of the ponies in the room didn’t understand what he was talking about. Not to mention that one pony in particular thought of it as something different. “No silly, a party is an opportunity! Not at Opportunity!!” Pinkie Pie chuckled. “Actually… It was at a place called Opportunity, because I know what he’s talking about,” Maya replied back, before looking to Lilith. “Remember when we borrowed Moxxi’s camera?” The firehawk looked back, smiling in response to Maya’s question. “Most definitely… Good times.” “Can somepony please provide some context as to what you mean? I’m getting kind of lost here.” Starlight now decided to speak up, the expression on her face being one that accurately represented her confusion. “Opportunity was a city that Hyperion was constructing and planning to be their ‘utopia’ if their plans for taking over Pandora had succeeded,” The siren named Maya now explained in response to the unicorn’s question. “At the time that Salvador and I were there, we learned that Hyperion was putting up propaganda videos in order to try to get people to come visit and stay there. So, what we did was that we borrowed a spare camera from Moxxi and recorded some more honest footage of what happened if you were to stay. Engineers getting killed, moonshots crashing into cardboard cutouts of Handsome Jack and also caused a construction crane to come tumbling down. Once we did that, we altered the footage of the propaganda videos and replaced with our own.” “And with that, no one will be going there anytime soon, amiga.” Salvador chuckled. That just had Starlight and a few other ponies in the room stare blankly at both Salvador and Maya. Roland didn’t look that much surprised, Lilith seemed to enjoy recalling the memories while Mordecai and Brick looked like they had missed out on something that could’ve been rather fun. Though, it was about that time that one of the other vault hunters actually asked a new question now. “So, how about instead of reflecting back on the past, we try to figure out what to do next?” Gaige replied back. “I mean, we already have two out of the six pieces that we need for this key and with the fact that midgets just happened to show up in Manehattan, that’s got me thinking about something else.” “And that is?” Twilight asked. “The very likely possibility that the very things that tried to kill us before on Pandora are somehow showing up here too,” The mechromancer told them, counting off the “I mean, think of it… we had the midgets in Manehattan, Maya said that she and Krieg encountered a huge Varkid in the north that they had to kill, we had the eridian guardians that crashed the gala where we found Roland and there was the loaders-” “THAT WAS ACCIDENTAL!! AND IT’S THE ONLY REASON WHY I DO NOT TRUST ECHO.NET DIRECTIONS ANYMORE!!!” They heard Mr. Torgue shout out loud from Gaige’s ECHO device. “OH SH*T! I JUST GOT BACK FROM A VISIT TO MY GRANDMOTHERS AND I HEARD ABOUT THE LOADERS. SORRY FOR INTERRUPTING!!!” Gaige just rolled her eyes at that, but then continued to speak. “My point remains. Even if you don’t count the loaders, you can’t just ignore the other three. There’s something else going on here. And whatever it is, we should be careful.” “I think that’s a given with what have dealt with.” Axton spoke up. “I mean we at least have two of the key pieces, so what do you say we take a look at the map and hope we get something telling us where the next piece could be or call up Tannis to see what she says.” “As long as no one else is with Tannis if we call her, I don’t see a problem with it.” Roland said. “I think the latter would be the most optimal solution,” Twilight now spoke up. “Even though its a map of Equestria, the Cutie Map tells us where we need to go if there’s a friendship problem. Not if there’s something we’re looking for, before turning to Celestia “Oh and fair warning, the woman they’re referring to… she’s… well.” “Complex?” Celestia then asked. “More like insane and insanely smart all in one package,” Maya told her. “She monologues to herself, thinks in scientific proportions and made Twilight lose her taste buds when it comes to bacon.” “She also see’s companionship in a ceiling chair that she met at a bar fight.” Gaige added. “Even has a name for it.” “That… doesn’t sound too bad compared to the kinds of ponies I have to handle in day court.” The princess added on. “Do not be so sure/Words alone don’t compare to actions/She’s much more complex.” Zer0 now spoke, not missing a beat with his traditional haiku narrative. “Let me just say that she knows what shes talking about and will also insult you all at the same time. I mean, if you give her enough time and just some random scrap lying around, she could probably build a shield around this whole place.” Axton spoke up as well. All the diarch of the sun did was just nod her head in response, yet some would notice the pupils of her eyes slowly shrinking once she began to realize the kind of person that they were describing. “Noted.” With that though, Gaige began to look back towards her ECHO and proceed to call Tannis. Yet, as she put it on speaker and the call began to connect, the scientist was not the one who picked up on the other end. Instead, it was someone rather different. “Hey sugar~. You left a little toy of yours buzzing back at my place. Would you care to come get it back~?” “Oh no…” Maya groaned, facepalming herself. “Why now of all times?” “Is this… Tannis?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow in response to the siren’s dismay. “No no, that’s the exact opposite of Tannis,” Gaige replied. “That’s Moxxi. Otherwise known as Mad Moxxi. The kind of person that answer the question ‘what if sexual innuendos were a living person’?” “She is known to make things, well to put it lightly, uncomfortable. She is a good person, but you would have to deal with her personality as well.” Axton somewhat hesitantly put in. “Oh do I hear the military man speaking on the other end now~? Don’t you know that three’s a crowd, dear Axy~?” Moxxi then said in a seductive manner. “Oh what in the-!? Give me back my ECHO, Moxxi! I appreciate you returning it, but I’m in the middle of some important business and I can’t have myself be distracted by hearing you say that you came up with a new ‘piledriver’ kind of innuendo every two minutes!!” They now heard the sound of Tannis on the other end of the line. “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Tannis.” Gaige spoke once more. “Tannis, do you have any new leads on the key pieces.” Axton said, wanting to move along the reason they called her. “Do I want to ask why Tannis left her ECHO at Moxxi’s?” Roland whispered to Brick, to which Brick just shrugged. “Oh good, I was waiting for you to reach me. I needed to clear my head after all the insane reading I’ve been doing with all the books I finished. Especially with some that contain the most ludicrous of claims. Do you know that these Equines actually believe that a princess raises the sun and another raises the moon? Does planetary orbit mean anything over there?!” Gaige just stared wide eyed at that, shortly before looking at Celestia. Something told her that the diarch of the sun was not too happy to hear something like that. Especially from someone that was trying to help them. Which, did not go so well as Celestia now chimed in too. “And what part of my duty to you is ludicrous?” “Oh great. And just when I thought Tina was the tip of the iceberg in the category of insulting princesses.” Maya grumbled. “And que the popcorn, this may take a while.” Axton sighed. “It's the match of the century: Science vs Magical BS, taking bets now.” “Well, everything. But considering that I’ve already had seen way too much of this magical BS that Axton calls happen before my eyes, I think it would be safer to give you my three hundred page thesis on the matter,” Tannis said as they all heard a loud ‘THUD!’ echo in the background as if a stack of papers landed on a table. “Besides, I would think that you had called me for a much more important reason than childish squabbling for a commando’s entertainment.” “Ha! She got you there, amigo!” Salvador laughed. Axton just shot his arms in air while shouting incoherently. Roland however decided to speak up then. “So as Axton previously said, what do you got Tannis?” “Well, from what I am seeing, I am getting a few faint hints, but nothing really consistent to pinpoint accurately,” Tannis explained. “The only logical conclusion I can make though is that they are all outside the current landmass that you are on now and across the ocean. I still need to make a few calculations to be sure, but that is all that I have because much of my time has been put into the final conclusion of the thesis that I met earlier. That and somehow, the slot machines in Moxxi’s tavern now reek of the product of incest that is bacon.” Now Celestia’s eyes widened and her pupils shrank in response to that. The same way that Twilight reacted the same way she first heard that response from the scientist. “Tannis, that last bit was unnecessary to this conversation but thank you for your input… I guess.” Roland sighed. “But which ping is the closest to our current location?” “Well, if I am reading the map of this correctly, which I’m sure that I am,” The scientist retorted. “The closest ping seems to be in a settlement that’s off to the north. Followed by two weaker pings to the east and southeast and one that’s faintly to the west.” “The north?” Rarity now asked, scratching her hoof with a chin. “That can’t be just a coincidence now.” “Is that where I think it is?” Maya now asked. “Yeah, it’s the exact same place where I found both you and Krieg when you first came here,” The element of generosity responded. “The Crystal Empire.” “Alright, but what exactly is the Crystal Empire?” Roland asked as he raised an eyebrow. “It’s my niece’s kingdom to the north,” The diarch of the sun now answered, while using her magic to bring up a holographic projection of the empire itself. “As with its appearance, many of the inhabitants in the Crystal Empire are Crystal Ponies. Aside from Princess Cadence, her husband Shining Armor and their newborn, Flurry Heart. For parts of the year though, it’s known to be vastly covered in snow from time to time given how close it is to the Crystal Mountains.” “Hunh… and just when I thought that the Crystal Empire was just a fancy name.” Gaige looked at the projection with a rather surprised look on her face. “Hmm, so its a snow covered region and there is a city there, correct?” Roland asked wanting to confirm something. “Why doesn’t that sound familiar?” Mordecai then grumbled. “Unless there is more to this place than what I’m seeing here, I don’t see how this can be an empire. But something just doesn’t sit right with me about this place.” Roland said. “Well why not go and see for yourself then, go out and see the sites and all that.” Brick commented. “Maybe you might find more than just a key piece, maybe even a place for you and-” “I’m going to stop you right there.” Roland sighed and shook his head. “Plus, you, Axton and Gaige have already had your fun considering what we heard in Manehatten.” Maya commented. “Perhaps it would be best for you to take a break. Besides, you did jump out of a building after all.” That had Celestia, a few other ponies, and surprisingly Tannis, say the exact same thing at the same time “YOU DID WHAT!?!” “What, the midget broke the window first I just followed after it. I mean Axton jumped out the same window.” “Yeah, but at least I didn’t body check the ground when I landed.” Axton spoke up finally. “I think they mean why did you do something stupid.” Roland commented, to which Brick just shrugged and smiled at that. “Hmm… before we head off anywhere though, I think there’s something we should use to help us out since we are encountering inhabitants and creatures from Pandora,” Maya said, recalling the varkid that she and Krieg encountered upon arriving. “Hey Tannis, have you heard about whether or not Hammerlock finished his almanac?” “Aside from the fact that he was trying to come up with a better name for the word Bullymongs and his publishers repeatedly getting on his case for suggesting the word ‘bonerfart’ as a replacement, I believe it's mostly done. It even includes pictures for those who can’t seem to understand advanced grammar. Something of which I did consider to add in my thesis, but my ECHO printer ran out of toner earlier this week.” “If you can, try to send us an early copy when Discord returns all of the books in Twilight’s research section. It might be helpful for our newfound friends here to know what exactly we deal with on a daily basis by letting them read about it instead of learning by staring death in the face.” “BUT THAT WAY IS THE MOST FUN, PRETTY LADY!!!” Krieg protested. “Well, we at least know where it is we need to go to. I guess I should get out then, also we should figure out where the other places are while we are heading to the empire then.” Roland spoke up. “Let’s have the same setup as we did in Manehattan then,” Twilight now spoke up. “Two of the original vault hunters and two of the new ones.” “Dibs.” Maya immediately called out. “Well, I guess it’s going to be then… according to Brick.” Roland said while also giving Brick a flat look. Of course, the next one to speak was actually that of Zer0, who was seen honing the edge of his blade before putting it away. “I will come as well/The people would be scared of/Krieg after last time.” That had Lilith raise an eyebrow in response. “Last time?” “He called Rarity ‘Butt Stallion’ before going on a bloody rampage against a group of Varkids where we landed.” Maya added, before looking to the psycho for a quick moment. “Plus the last thing I thing we need to do right now is scare anypony-” “WHERE IS MY SHINY MEAT BICYCLE!?!” “Yeah… I see your point. So then, Mordecai, wanna come with?” Roland asked the hunter. “Sure, I guess. Though, I’m not sure if it would be a good idea to have Talon flying around a city of crystal. Reflections can easily distract him.” “Then is it possible to leave him here with one of the others if you don’t want him wandering around aimlessly?” “Maybe… though, the last time I left him with someone, he was going as far as to bite Lilith.” “Which, by the way, I’m still not a fan of,” The other siren grumbled. “Then maybe one of the ponies?” He hesitantly asked, worried it might end up being worse. It remained silent for a few moments… all before they heard a small whisper like voice speak up. “U-um… i-if it’s o-okay with you, I-i can look after him, M-mister Mordecai…” Fluttershy said, and just from the look alone, Gaige was beginning to remember that this was the same look that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had when Mr. Torgue called them an ‘Explosion of adorableness’. “Oh? You think you can look after Talon?” He asked, getting down on his knees and looking closer at the pegasus. “What experience do you have with animals.” “I-i have a rabbit named Angel, a bear named Harry, a hummingbird named Hummingway, an oriole named Constance, a p-pair of otters, a chicken named E-elizabeak, Mr. Mousey, the spider f-fuzzy legs, and the fruit bat I-i have named T-toby?” She replied nervously. Which caught all the vault hunters attention rather quickly. “I-is that good?” “Holy-” Maya said, before shaking her head. “H-how do you even have that many animals?” “It’s her talent,” Her friend, Rainbow Dash soon spoke up while pointing at her cutie mark with an outstretched wing. “Fluttershy can be able to talk to animals and get along with them rather well. It’s the reason why her cottage is along the edge of the forest nearby.” “Y-yeah… Though, some of the other critters have been there recently after hearing loud explosions that destroyed some of their homes a couple days ago…” The pegasus said. Which immediately had Gaige look towards Axton as her eyes narrowed. “And you said your walk was for the wildlife…” “Hey, I ONLY killed Manticores and those wooden wolves.” Axton said as he grumbled out his answer. “Collateral damage” He then mumbled to himself. Which just had Lilith facepalm herself as she let out a sigh. “In any case, I think Talon can be in good hooves if Fluttershy looks after him,” Lilith replied back. “In the meantime, some of us need to rest while a few others should get ready for the trip up to the north.” “In all honesty, some down time sounds real good right now. Dealing with GOD-liath took a lot out of me mentally.” Axton shuddered as he remembered that moment. “NEVER do I want to repeat that.” “Right, so rest up while you can and we can see about getting the next piece and maybe have some warmer clothing just in case.” Roland commented. “Alright. Guess I’ll just crash here then.” Gaige grumbled, shortly before dragging herself up to the room that Twilight let her borrow and plopping face first onto the bed. When the mechromancer began to wake up again… she felt hazy. Her vision was blurred, but she felt as if something seemed… off. Gaige did not find herself in the same dreamy forest that she was in before. In fact, she did not know where she entirely was to be completely honest. Everything around her felt foreign and cold, like she was stuck in Three Horns again. But there was no snow at her feet, no sound of bullymongs in the distance or anything that would immediately make her think that she was in Three Horns. There wasn’t even any form of lights at all. Just endless shadows all around her. That was… until she saw something out of the ordinary. In the distance in front of her, a pale looking filly just sat with its back facing her. But when Gaige tried to get closer, she could hear what sounded like a voice echo in her head. “Helplessness… that is the feeling that I hate the most… yet, it feels that it was once all that I was. Free will was something I never had… all because of how I was born.” When hearing that, Gaige stopped. The words sent a chill down her spine as she tried to slowly approach the pony in front of her. And the more that she got closer, the more that she continued to hear the voice. “Those who were close to me only used me for their own ambitions. They say it was to ‘ensure my future’, but how can you have a future when you are trapped inside a castle of glass that you can never leave? When you are told what to say, how to act and what to do… where they say that they love you while they feed you the poison that makes you fade away? And when I was free… it was only momentary. Before fate took its turn.” When Gaige approached the pony, she began to notice something. The pale filly had a gray mane and tail, alongside the faded outline of what looked like a pair of wings. But it was as she attempted to reach out that the filly turned around and a white claw grabbed hold of the mechromancer and squeezer to her. Yet, despite the hostile action, the filly’s face looked sad. “W-what are you-?” The mechromancer croaked, struggling to break out, even though she was not getting anywhere. “Do not trust those you have lost before. Their actions aren’t of their own will.” And immediately, the filly began to brightly glow as everything around her went to white. Almost instantly, Gaige woke up with a sudden gasp. She could feel sweat rolling down her back as she tried to catch her breath after everything that she had witnessed. Even though it was just a dream, part of her felt that was too real to be seen as ‘just a dream’. And the filly… something made her think that she had seen her before. Which only left one question in the Mechromancer’s mind as she looked outside at the star filled sky. “Just who was she?”