//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Bearer of Bad News 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Shadow Games 
// by Cenkic 
//------------------------------//

“Quit squirming.” I said while trying to hold an eyedrop over Gil.

The gryphon closed his eyes and tried rubbing them for the third time, “But it stings! Bloody robot sprayed me with-with whatever that was!” He inadvertently swung a wing at me which I narrowly ducked, “and whatever you have stings even more!” 

I let out an exasperated sigh, “Yes, you got hit with a very diluted cleaning material that could have done far worse. But it can still cause damage if it’s not treated.” I put a hoof on his shoulder, “This remedy I have will clean out the impurities so you don’t risk permanent damage, and it will only sting for a short while longer.”

He clenched his beak and opened his bloodshot eyes again. I didn’t give him time to prepare, or escape again, as I let out a few drops. He recoiled and began screaming obscenities at me while trying to bop me with his wing again. I had already moved out of range however and left him to his sputtering as I moved to the next patient.

“-ah, so that’s what I should have been doing for proper horn maintenance… Amber, hello!” Pincer waved as I walked up to him. 

“So, how’s our new friend?” I asked as I looked at Teacup.

“Oh he is doing well.” He motioned to the unicorns left leg that now had a bandage on it,  “The laser injury was minor, so I applied the cooling agent and the bandage just like you showed me.”

“Well done,” I began with a smile, “I’ll make a medical assistant out of you yet.”

Pincer beamed, “The first step to a better tomorrow is helping ponies in need! And I am learning so much from our new friend about being a proper unicorn!”

“What does he mean by that anyway?” Teacup asked me, “Shouldn’t he know this already?”

My mind quickly raced for an answer, “He… his mother was an earth pony and the father was… well not in the picture, and he never had another unicorn to… learn from.”

Teacup nodded, “Ah. That makes sense.” I let out a silent sigh that he believed me as he turned to Pincer, “So you wanted to ask some other questions?”

Pincer nodded, “Oh yes! I wanted to swap notes over magical burnout and-”

Tuning them out, I instead turned my attention to the computer, “Progress update?” 

Where there had been fields of green now held a beautiful wooden floor with various cutie marks engraved into each tile. Large pillars depicting the two princesses dancing through the sky stood at either side, while the roof they supported had a painting that looked like the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony, each with their magical necklace as they faced down some unknown threat that I couldn’t see. The book shelves looked to be several ponies high that would require ladders or wings to reach them, each with golden finishes that ended in the shape of Twilight's Cutie Mark. 

It would have been perfect if not for several piles of disorganized books that were scattered all around the library where the Twilight Sparkle AI was vainly attempting to organize. I had to fight a sudden jealous surge that she was in such a beautiful place, even if it was virtual.

“System re-calibration is still in progress.” She began in an incredibly monotone voice, “Besides compiling the file that you requested, I am attempting to sort out what’s left with the Stables Diagnostic System, but it hasn’t been easy. I was designed to take over the AI personality and functions if things went wrong, not attempt to act as a replacement.” 

‘Which explains why you sound more robotic than the Pinkie personality.’ I thought to myself before something else clicked, “So wait… when, um, Pinkie jumped through that… portal thing, she transferred herself out?”

She nodded, “Correct. This has left this system unable to meet its full ability-” Crackerjack suddenly came skidding next to the computer and bumped into it, causing the screen to flicker out, along with most of the lights of the computer itself. 

“Crackerjack!” I screamed, “What the hell?! You just damaged the-” 

“Amber! I need your help!” He interrupted, “We don’t have time to mess with the computer, this is an emergency!” 

“Back-up personality program found. Updating.” The computers voice spoke over the comm. The screen then flicked back on and the unicorn reappeared looking annoyed, “Which means she left a massive mess for me to clean up!” She yelled, having far more emotion than before, “How dare Pinkie have the nerve to let things fall apart and just run off leaving me to clean!” She waved around at the damaged library, “She didn’t even have these programs organized to begin with! How could she possibly function-”

“Amber!” Crackerjack whined again in the most pathetic voice I’d ever heard from him. 

Deciding that his accident had improved the computers disposition, I decided against ignoring him. Or shooting him. That, and I saw the single most impressive and pathetic puppy-eyed stare I had ever seen as he held his grenade launcher at me. What was interesting about the scene was the detached robotic saw blade arm sticking through its barrel which I could only guess came from one of the robots. 

I looked back at the terminal, where the unicorn image was puffing her cheeks at being interrupted, “Sorry about this. It looks like you have a lot on your hooves as is, why don’t you get yourself organized and then we can talk further?”

“Fine.” She grumbled, “I suppose I do need to try and organize this horrible mess.” Twilight then walked over to a set of disorganized books and began organizing them at an incredible speed.

That left me free to deal with Crackerjack, “I think I need to show you how to do basic weapon repairs.” I said nonchalantly. 

“Basic?!” His voice squeaked, “The barrel is broken! I can’t very well blow things up without a barrel! I mean I can throw the grenades, but that's not as much fun, and these aren’t proper throwing grenades! They are shooting grenades!” He looked down at the weapon for a long moment before looking back at me with tears forming in his eyes, “Can it be saved?” He asked like a foal who broke their favorite toy.

I resisted the urge to laugh at how silly he looked as I nodded, “Oh yeah, I already have the parts I need to fix this. However, the trick is that I- we need a place to fix it…” 

I peeked inside the ‘secret’ maintenance bay that the robots had come from. Inside, the remains of two Protectrons lay on the floor in a pathetic heap with two others damaged and in a shutdown mode. There were at least three more pods that were not yet activated, but at the moment they were not my concern. Instead, my eyes landed on a maintenance table that had old but well kept tools on it, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Jackpot.” I said to myself before waving over the explosive expert, “Cracker, time to learn how to fix things.”

The odd look Crackerjack and the others gave me as they actually looked into the maintenance room was utterly priceless, and I wished I had a functional camera at the moment,“Ummm, Amber? I don’t fix things.”

“Well, good time to learn. Celestia forbid there is ever a time where I’m not around to help fix your kaboom makers.”

Puffing his cheeks, he entered the room and sat next to the maintenance table. Despite his reluctance, he grasped what I was showing him quickly as he picked it up better than any of the others when I had tried to teach them the same thing. Soon enough we had the barrel as good as salvaged, after which he gave me a big hug in thanks. As his greasy hooves wrapped around me and his pungent scent hit me full on, I was determined that he was getting a bath when we got back to proper civilization. 

A beep came from the computer, and I escaped Crackers grasp as I went back into the main room. The AI looked dejected as she looked at a pile of books that were so badly damaged that they could never be read again.

“How are you feeling?” I asked her.

The glare she gave spoke volumes and I couldn’t help but shrink back, “How do you think? I’ve finished compiling what I can, but this place is a disaster.” She shook her head as she placed a few books on a shelf, only for it to fall apart in front of her, “Pinkie caused a surge of power from the generator to transmit herself out of here. This act, which should have been impossible, is now causing a cascading failure of systems throughout the stable.”

“That sounds bad.” Pincer said suddenly, causing me to jump at his arrival. How could one who loves to talk be so bloody quiet at the same time?! He ignored my reaction as he continued, “But what does that mean?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but the AI beat me to it, flailing her hooves as she did so, “At best, I can keep all of the systems going for another fifteen minutes. I’m doing everything I can to prevent this but-” A piece of roofing fell and nearly hit the unicorn, causing her to jump and yelp. Looking through the ‘windows’, the sunlight that had been shining through was slowly disappearing along with the ‘city’ beyond. She looked at it for a long moment before letting out a defeated groan while looking utterly depressed, “I can’t fix this…”

“What about us?” I asked, only to glance at my traveling companions before looking back at the AI “Or, at least me. If you guide me to the generator, perhaps I can fix it?”

She shook her head, and the lights dimmed as the screen was replaced with a detailed map of the stable. “You are here,” She began, highlighting a room that had the label ‘5th Floor, Robot Maintenance’. She then highlighted the floor below us and covered every room with a blue highlight, “This is the primary generator room, which also housed food and water processing. The entire area suffered a breach and is now underwater.” 

I raised my eyebrow, “Then how do you have power here, and how did the broken water talisman end up in the main pipe just outside?”

“The room its located in is sealed.” She responded as she pulled up a few scrolls and looked over them, “So it’s unaffected by the water, but it also makes it inaccessible. The backup system that would allow drainage in case of such an emergency isn’t working either.” She grumbled something about Pinkie as she switched to another document, “As far as the water talisman, my sensors have been unable to… wait.” She then looked up at me, “You said it was on this level? In a pipe? And it's broken?”

I nodded as I gestured outside, “Stuck on a big pipe that has a major hole in it, and slowly filling the room with the most horrific water ever, of all time.”

The unicorn stared at me for a long moment before throwing the documents to the side, “ARG! I can’t work under these conditions! This is just too much!” She then face planted into a table and let out another groan.  

“The Pink one did leave quite the mess.” Pincer began as he looked directly at Twilight, “But the fault is not yours. With you, there is little doubt that you would have been able to keep this place running properly, even with only a fourth of the resources this stable once had. I have faith in you.”

His words sounded so sincere that even I couldn’t help but feel what he said was true. The AI looked over to Pincer and a small smile appeared on her face, and the screen seemed just a little brighter. “Thank you.” She was quiet for a moment as she composed herself, and her backdrop seemed to brighten a little bit, “I have partitioned some of the corrupted files and redistributed the power network. I should be able to keep the stable for another twenty two minutes.”

“I’m glad you are feeling better!” He beamed, “No pony should be sad when surrounded by friends! Speaking of friends, do you happen to know the location of the pink and yellow pegasi that you were friends with in the past?”

I couldn’t help but facehoof as the unicorn had a surprised look on her face, “You mean Fluttershy? I can’t say I know her location.”

Pincers own smile slowly disappeared as he looked at the ground, and poked it with a hoof, “Oh… I see.”

The unicorn looked at me for understanding, but I just shook my head. She shrugged, and then looked over at one of the book shelves, “Ah-ha! I think I found what you were looking for.” 

She activated her magic and pulled a book out from the top of a still standing shelf. The book was at least three times larger than any other book I had seen before, with heavy chains wrapped all around it. The book was beautiful, with a golden sheen that seemed to shine even with the chains around it. When the AI blew some dust off of it, her eyes went wide as her mouth hung open, “Sweet Celestia…”

I raised an eyebrow, “What is it?”

“This file…” She turned the book to me, “This has a Celestia tier lock on it.”

“Celes...by the moon's shadow, that’s the highest level military lock one could possibly have, reserved for the most sensitive of files and information!” I shook my head as I tried to grasp what I was being told, “Why in the nine levels of Tartarus was something like that inside a stable meant for foals?!”

She shrugged, “I have no idea. Perhaps somepony felt that this would be the last place to look for something like this? What I do know for a fact that is that you won’t be able to download this into your PipBuck, it’s far too complicated and encrypted for that. There is a special holotape that you will need from the Overmares office.”  

A symbol began to appear on the screen. I recognized it as Twilight's cutie mark, a double magical star, but it was different than usual. Rather than being a solid purple star on top of a smaller white star, it was instead an outline of the two symbols, with another cutie mark over them, also outlined, that I recognized right away. 

“Princess Celestia’s cutie mark…” I whispered.  

She nodded, “Indeed. However, you might have some problems, if the other group is any indication.”

I cocked my head for a moment, and the AI gestured to the smaller screens, each activating camera views of the stable, and my heart sank. The raider Steelhead stood inside the Overmares office, with his rocket launcher fully deployed, and his ‘prize’ mare collared and cowering nearby. Two of the other raiders stood at the entrance with assault weapons at the ready, with a sniper watching on the opposite side of the top floor. A security office stood parallel to the Overmares office and had two other raiders in it, with one looking like he was trying to access the computer terminals with little success. The townsfolk were otherwise scattered throughout the stable in small groups, looking for things of value.

“Looks like they know about our little tussle with their first group.” Gil said as he walked up to me, rubbing one of his eyes as he did so.

“Seems that way. If we try to get out the way we came...” I shuddered at the thought of the wholesale slaughter that would occur before turning to him, “You feeling better?”

Gil shrugged, “Well enough.” He continued to look at the screen for a few moments longer and shook his head, “We’re in a tight spot, make no mistake. We definitely can’t go back the way we came. While I doubt those other ponies could hit us, that sniper could be problematic. Hey Teacup!” 

The unicorns head perked up as he looked at the gryphon, seemingly relieved that he had an excuse to ignore Pincer, “Uh, yes?” 

“What do you know about that sniper?” He asked.

“Spotter? Kinda an oddball of the group really,” He began as he walked forward to look at the screen, “Follows Steelhead dutifully enough, but he’s a lot nicer and more reasonable than-”

Gil grumbled impatiently, “I meant how good of a shot is he?”

“Oh.” He thought for a moment, “Well, only seen ‘em fight once, but he killed a radscorpion in only two shots from a distance twice that of the floors. Or was it three times?” He then shrugged to himself.

Though he kept an even expression, I could tell he was irritated, but most wouldn’t notice it. Instead he turned back to the computer screen, “Either way he is a definite threat besides Steelhead,” He put a claw under his beak and thought for a few moments before looking at me, “We need some way of getting to that top level without getting sniped at, or we have no chance of surviving this.” He turned to me, “Think you can pull up schematics of this place?” 

I nodded and worked with the AI, who really needed a proper name at somepoint, to pull up a full map of the stable, “You have a plan, Gil?”

He nodded quietly as he looked over various screens, “I’ve got one forming.” He focused on one of the screens and nodded, “That will do nicely.”

I tried to follow his gaze, but he didn’t give me much time to look before speaking again. “Now, do you think you can get some of the robots up and running in the next few minutes?”

She pulled up the status of the robots, and I looked over the damaged ones, “Well, if I rush repairs we should be able to get a few, why?”

Gil smiled. “Excellent, we just need access to the Stables speaker system, because here is what is going to happen…”

--------------------

There are a lot of things that were undoubtedly going through the raiders minds as they waited for us. How easy were we going to be to kill, what kind of loot did we have on us, and what they would do to any survivors they found. Their imagination no doubt ran rampant with the many horrors they would inflict upon us once we walked into the kill zone that was the main area. Based on what had been seen, the only way to the upper levels was through the remaining stairwell opposite the maintenance elevator, meaning that our group would have to pass through a well covered kill zone in order to reach them.

That thought process would be interrupted however by a new voice over the stables broadcast system. “Greetings. This is the Twilight Emergency AI Reprogramer, current curator of this stable. Your presence is undesirable and I demand you leave at once.” There was a moment of silence before the AI intoned, “If you want to talk, use the green button on the Overmare terminal.”

Feedback went through the speaker, causing me to wince before the raider boss’s voice came through, “Listen up, I don’t know who you are and I don’t care. We are here for the water purifier, whatever good loot there is here, and to deal with that other group who killed one of my boys.”

“Materialistic aren’t you?” She began with an indigent tone, “You are invaders in my Stable, why should I help you?”

The raider boss chuckled, “Your help isn’t required, machine, we will find what we want given time. But I’m a reasonable sort, so here's the deal. You tell me what I want to know, and we’ll leave peaceful like.” 

“Stand-by.” The AIs voice then came through my PipBuck, “Should I?” 

I looked to Gil who nodded, “Give em a long list, though don’t mention the Overmares Office if possible”

“Understood.” Her voice then went over the speakers again, “Water Talisman; damaged beyond repair. Armory; empty. Medical; basic tools. Cafeteria; empty. Maintenance Bay; basic tools. Robot Bay; empty. Security Office: em-”

“Alright, shush it.” Steelhead interrupted, “So you’re saying that anything useful in this stable is already gone, right?”

“Yes, the previous inhabitants apparently did a thorough job of evacuating. Now, since your presence is unwanted, please leave as you said you would.”

“Mmm, no. I don’t believe that you are being truthful.”

“What?!” Twilights voice yelled over the speakers, “You said you would leave if I gave a full report!”

“I did, and I lied.” I could hear the snickering of the other raiders in the background, “This is a Stable, and there are always plenty of things to find. Not like I’m going to trust some robot voice that there is nothing here. Sides, some idiot might pay for a good AI.”

“Alright then,” Twilight then took a deep breath, though I wasn’t sure why, “As the Administrative Emergency Safeguard Override Program entrusted to this Stable, I hereby order your immediate removal. Failure to comply will result in deadly force being brought against you.”

The raider laughed again, “Oh, you and what army are going to do that?”

“You idiot!” An unfamiliar mares voice hissed, “Never ask that!”

As the sound of a hoof striking flesh echoed through the speaker, a hidden elevator door opened within the security office.

“This stable has secret elevators?!” A raider yelled.

“That it does.” I said smugly while standing behind two Mr Handy robots and three Protectrons, with Gil and Crackerjack on either side of me, “Now do the smart thing and surrender.” 

One of of them clearly decided suicide was the best option as he brought his shabby weapon and fired at me. Or at least he tried, only to see the bullets simply ping off the armored robots that moved in front of me. Everything that raider was, everything he had, was engulfed in a bright light that seemed to be from the heavens themselves as five separate laser beams struck simultaneously. The moment passed quickly, and all that was left was a small pile of glowing ash.

“Boss!” The terminal raider wailed as he ran for the door, “We have company!”

A laser struck his hind leg and he dropped his weapon, but he managed to get out of the Security Office before the robots could finish him off. The two Mr Handy robots rushed ahead with Gil following close behind. A sniper rifle shot sunk into one that I had done some quick repairs to and landed on the ground with a loud thud. The second one cleared the railing and began firing its laser, only to get a ‘voosh’ response as a missile flew from the Overmares office and struck it dead center. 

A deafening boom went through the Stable, and Gil was unfortunately close to the robot when it was hit, with the shock wave throwing him off balance and sending him flying out of control and out of my sight.

“Gildann!” I cried out as I rushed out the door ahead of the lumbering Protectrons.

Bullets pinged around me, but either through dumb luck or the robots behind me that were firing distracting lasers, the raiders aim was thrown off. The terminal raider that had gotten out was laying on the ground nearby, whining in pain at the nasty burns to his leg. While I didn’t like seeing a pony in pain, I ran past him to where I had seen the gryphon fall. 

In retrospect, If I hadn’t been so worried about him I might have laughed at his predicament. He had slammed into the sniper, Spotter if I remembered correctly. The two of them were stumbling over each other like two drunk buddies trying to walk out of the bar and failing miserably at the task as they tripped over one another and pathetically tried pushing the other off. 

Spotter managed to get untangled first and stumbled over to his weapon, “Sorry, I can’t die here!” He said as he lifted the sniper rifle with his magic and pointed it right at me.

Rather then stop, I continued to charge right at him as I unslung my shovel spear. Gils wing pushed against the rifle just as he fired, causing the bullet to pass through my mane instead of my head. His eyes went wide just in time for the flat end of my shovel to slam against his head, knocking the already dazed unicorn unconscious.

“Gil, thanks for the save.” I said as I went up to him and forced a healing potion down his mouth, “Are you alright?” 

He held a claw on his head as he looked at me, “Ow… yeah I’ll live. Where is Cracker?”

“I want that rocket launcher!” Cracker yelled as if on cue.

I turned in time to see my fellow earth pony who had taken cover by the Stable entrance stairway, parallel to the location of where Gil and I were, fire his grenade launcher. Honestly I thought he fired at random as it went up to the ceiling. Instead of detonating like it should have, it somehow pinged at a perfect ninety degree angle, bounced right between the two raiders who had been firing at the Protectrons, and flew right into the Overmares office where it detonated.

“Ow! Mother-bucking hell!” Steelheads voice echoed through the Stable speakers, “You’re all dead!” 

“Wait!” The mares voice screamed, “Don’t fire again you idiot, the missile-”

Her words were lost as a deafening sound filled the speakers and both her green tick and Steelheads red tick disappeared from my EFS. Another missile flew out of the Overmares Office at the same time and caught one of the Protectrons dead center. It exploded and rained debris in the area, which elicited another wail of pain from the terminal pony. One of the raider guards turned to look into the office, and earned a laser bolt directly into the back of his skull from the last standing Protectron.

As his body fell to the ground, I realized I had to act fast, “Throw down your weapon and surrender now if you want to live!” I yelled to him.

“Burn in Tartarus you tart!” The raider yelled as he brought his weapon to bear against me. 

A clawed hand shoved me hard, sending me to the ground as bullets flew right past where I had just been standing. Gil took to the air and fired his own assault weapon at the raider in kind, though his bullets failed to hit the intended target. Instead, the raider backed up to enter the Overmares Office, only to slip on something and fall over his dead ally. He let out a gurgling scream of pain, though I couldn’t see why. Gil hovered for a moment before unleashing another burst from his weapon, and the screams fell silent.

I glanced at the gryphon with a disapproving look before turning to my PipBuck and reactivating the radio, “Area clear. Have the robots stand down and send the message.”

At that moment the terminal raider was crying pathetically as the Protectron turned to blast him, only for its energy matrix to shut down at the last moment.

Static went on the Stables speakers for a moment, “Ahem! Attention all remaining scavenger ponies!” The voice of Pincer surprisingly came over the speakers, though it made sense since he and a disarmed Teacup had stayed behind, “I must inform you that at this time, Steelhead and his little band have been neutralized. We have gained full access to the security system, and our side has taken no casualties.” He allowed that last sentence to sink in before continuing, “If you wish to fight, that is your choice but it would be a foolish one. Stand down, and you will live to see your home again, as we have no desire to kill any of you.”

“He’s right.” Teacup chimed in, “Only poor Noodle Dish was actually killed when the shooting started, and Cider blew himself up by accident. That mare of theirs actually saved my hide, and they promise to let us keep anything we find.”

Gil flew down next to me while Pincer and Teacup continued with their speech, “What should we do with those two?” He asked, gesturing to the two remaining raiders.

“Keep them alive and bound for now. We’ll see what the town folk think of them and decide from there.”

“Gonna patch up that one?” He asked as he gestured to the terminal raider.

I shook my head, “Not now. We’ve got maybe eleven minutes before we lose the computer system.” 

He nodded and I started walking towards the Overmares office when he spoke up, “You’ll see why I killed that last raider.”

I didn’t turn to look at him, instead glancing down at the raider as I passed, and I realized Gil’s remark. He had somehow slipped and pierced his throat against the spiked armor of his dead ally. There would have been no way to keep him alive with such a wound. Closing my eyes and steeling myself for the worst, I entered the office.

“Ah hell.” Cracker said as he was suddenly standing next to me, “The rocket launcher suffered a premature detonation.” 

It took all my self control not to smash his head with my shovel spear for surprising me, “Will you not do that!” I hissed, but he was right.

The missile launcher had been modified to quickly rearm its missiles, but somehow the thing prematurely activated a second missile instead of loading it. Steelhead could no longer live up to his name as his head was little more than bits and pieces. Unfortunately, the mare had also been right next to the weapon when it had gone off as well. She had been thrown at a bad angle and her neck had snapped against the Overmares Desk.

Cracker whined over the destroyed rocket launcher, and I let out a groan, “Oh just loot the damn thing and I’ll fix it later.” For a moment I could swear there were stars in his eyes as he set to work. I just shook my head as I activated my radio, “Alright, I’m in the Overmares office. Where is the file?” Only silence greeted me, and I couldn’t help but look directly at the minicomputer, “Twilight?”

“Sorry…” The unicorns voice sounded exhausted, “Systems are… getting harder to maintain.” She took several breaths, and though I knew she was a computer program, I was feeling bad for her, “Special file is… bottom drawer… hidden area… unlocking.”

I heard a click from where I had pulled all of the holotapes before, “Well done. Start shutting down all non-essential systems, that should help a bit.”

“Understood.” She said.

Terminals that hadn’t been destroyed already shut down around me as I set to work. The desk itself was still intact despite the explosions that had occured within the office.  I opened it and reached my hoof inside, and sure enough there was a hidden compartment that was now unlocked. The problem however, was that it was in an awkward spot that I couldn’t actually reach.

“Ugh, stupid unicorns and their hard to reach hiding spots…” I muttered to myself.

I pulled out my tools and began unscrewing the cabinet. It took about two minutes for me to get through it to a point where I could get to the hidden slot and finally get the file container out. Wiping sweat from my brow, I put my tools away and looked at it.

For a moment I was utterly entranced. Compared to the dull grey and worn holotapes I was so used to dealing with, this one held a golden sheen, and on the center was the mark of the sun goddess herself, with the cutie mark of her faithful student as an outline. A sign of their trust and respect for one another, and a reminder of better, peaceful times that once blessed this world.

The sound of the damaged terminal shutting down, along with all of the lights going out and switching purely to the emergency lights got my attention. I looked at them for a moment and cocked my head as to why they would have shut down when my Pipbuck radio came to life.

“Amber, you might want to hurry down here.” Pincers voice spoke with concern, “The Book Pony is not looking so good.” 

I placed the file into by bags and sprinted out of the office and to the elevator. A glance showed that Gil was securing the two prisoners, and at least two of the town ponies had made their way up to the top levels, looking unsure of what to expect. I wanted to talk to them, to let them know that things were alright for the moment, but there just wasn’t time. 

“Get everypony out of here Gil! This place won’t last much longer!” I yelled at him as I ran past and skidded into the elevator.

As I hit the button to go down, he entered the office and tried running to the elevator, “Amber, wait what do you-!” 

“No time!” I said as the door closed in front of him.

I looked at the display on the elevator as it slowly made its way to the lower level, and all I could do was put my hooves together, “Celestia, Goddess of radiance and light; Luna, Goddess of the night and dreams; I beseech you, let me reach the bottom floor before it’s too late.” 

The elevator came to a halt, and I opened my eyes to find that I was on the floor I wanted and I let out a cheer, “Thank you goddesses above!” I said aloud, and watched as the doors started to open, but stop only a fourth of the way. I stared for just a moment before shrugging, “Meh, I can work with this.” I went over to the door and started pushing on it, but the thing wouldn’t budge, “Teacup! Pincer! Help get this door open!” I yelled.

“We’re on our way!” Pincer said as I heard sloshing on the other side of the door. A few moments later a green and blue aura surrounded the door I was pushing on, and it slowly opened to a point where I could squeeze through, “There you go Repa-”

I jumped past the two before he could finish, unintentionally splashing them with the disgusting murky water as I made a mad dash into the terminal room, “No time to waste!” 

Practically flying up the stairs, I came to a sliding stop in front of the terminal and quickly installed the disk, “Twilight, begin download now.” I said as I finally looked at the screen itself.

To say that the Twilight AI wasn’t doing well would’ve been a monumental understatement. One of the pillars had given way and smashed a large hole into the library wall. The vibrant city in the distance was impossible to see now, utterly consumed by darkness. In fact, it seemed the entire library was being devoured by shadows. The pristine book shelves had given away, spilling their contents onto the ground and losing their luster. The books themselves were darkened as well, like the passage of time had suddenly accelerated to leave them little more than withered husks of their former glory.

The unicorn herself stood in the middle of the library even as it fell apart, clutching the ‘golden book’ like a mother protecting a child. As I spoke to her, she lifted her head and stared right at me, “Beginning download. Fifteen minutes until download is complete… which might be a problem.”

“Because problems never end…” I groaned as I knew I’d regret my next words, “Why?”

She bit her lower lip, “There is only nine minutes of power left in the stable.”

I just stared at the terminal screen as static came over my PipBuck, followed by somepony trying to speak to me, though I missed their words. I flicked the broadcast ability back on as I spoke, “Sorry, repeat?”

“I’m gathering everyone out of here like you asked.” An all too familiar voice spoke with annoyance, “Now what is going on down there?”

“Oh, you remembered to replace the batteries on your radio, Gil.” I said with surprise.

“Of course I did. I’m not having another goo incident like in the last stable. Now, what’s happening?”

I looked at the screen with a very tired Twilight as the gears in my mind were turning, “Well, not to be the bearer of bad news-” I began, earning a scoff from Gil, “But we have a slight problem. BUT!” I quickly spoke before the gryphon could ask, “I also have an idea…”

~~~~~~~~~Hoofnote~~~~~~~~~
Level up! 

New Perk: Foal at Heart - You are really good with kids. You can get them to open up to you more easily than others, but you’re not really sure how that will help in the stable…