//------------------------------// // 27 - Glow // Story: Fallout Equestria: Operation Star Drop // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Speed and I lay huddled together at the foot of the cave in, waiting for Vinyl to return with word of an exit. I’d tried to convince her that Speed would be alright on her own and we could both look for the sake of safety, but she’d refused, and not for a reason I’d thought of. “You’re a big dense block of metal, crystal, and polymers. If Speed hunkers down behind you you’ll absorb most of the rads flooding up the tunnel. Around the entrance here, you could buy her another four, maybe five hours.” That was a pretty hard reason to argue with, so here I was. Crouched down to be a mobile lead wall while my marefriend risked life and limb in a horribly irradiated hellhole. The radiation might have been no real threat to Vinyl, but what about the things which had been in here before? There would almost certainly be ghouls in a place this irradiated. To say nothing of pre-war defense systems, robots, turrets, old floors made from rotting materials, ceilings ready to cave in… And of course, whatever made all of that radiation to begin with. I understood the way the Gardens of Equestria worked. They’d emitted a big energy pulse which emanated from the Gardens megaspell and washed over the land. It made sense that big dense objects had blocked the Garden’s effects after a certain distance from their epicenter. The inverse square law is pretty much the king of energy transmission. Big, dense, heavy structures block all kinds of radiation. Thermal, luminal, arcane, atomic. It doesn’t matter. If you want to stop radiation of any kind, you get a big honking slab of mass and put it between you and the radiation. The dragon’s hoard worth of radiation inside this mountain couldn’t have been left around from the day balefire rained down from the sky. A balefire bomb would have had to detonate inside the mountain in order to make that happen, and if it had there wouldn’t be a mountain anymore! Stables were built beneath big granite slabs like this mountain for the express reason of keeping balefire out. Vinyl had just trotted into a huge pool of radiation which shouldn’t be here. That was bad enough. Even worse, there were almost certainly feral ghouls in there. If the radiation was enough to make a pipbuck start to click on the outermost edge of this cave system, inside it had to be steel liquefying intense, at least, in the immediate vicinity of the radiation’s central point. That would draw ferals in like moths to the biggest flame. Or worse, there could be hundreds of tons of radioactive materials just laying around everywhere in the caves… “Hey, so, according to my pipbuck she’s been gone for six hours,” Speed said out of the blue. Had she been gone that long already? Yes, I believe she had… Seemed about right for scouting a whole cave system. She should be back soon, really. Or was it a cave? I nodded and sighed. “Yeah… But it’s a huge mountain, and the longer I sit here the more pony-made this cave seems. Wait, are you worried about your exposure time?” Speed shook her head paused, then nodded. “Yes and no. I should have over a day if we’re just sitting here. I’m mostly worried about how long Vinyl’s been gone.” “Could just be a lot to explore,” I said with a nervous laugh. “For all we know there could be a stable deep in there and she’s trying to find a way through…” Or having horrible flashbacks… Buck, we should probably go look for her. “Yeah, but…” Speed sighed and bit her lip. “I’d like some sound. I know you’re worried and don’t want to talk much, but… Uh…” She trailed off for a moment and coughed into her hoof. “S— so you know how lots of foals are scared of the dark?” I nodded. “Yes… I might have a flashlight?” I said as I started to move to open my saddlebags. “I’m not scared of the dark, I’m scared of the quiet,” Speed admitted with a shy little squeak. “It’s… It’s unnaturally quiet in here.” “Oh. Um, I guess I can talk,” I said with a sympathetic frown. Speed shook he rhead. “No. No it’s okay. I just wanted to know if I could turn on my radio.” I blinked and tilted my head. “You… You think you’ll get a signal under all this rock?” Speed shrugged. “Maybe? Pipbuck’s transceivers are pretty good.” “Sure, give it a shot,” I said as I turned to look up the tunnel for any sign of Vinyl’s return. Speed shifted slightly, breaking the tunnel’s silence with the sound of fur and flesh scraping on stone. There was a click, and then the radio came to life, filling the tunnel with the dulcet tones of DJ Pon3. “— normally, yours truly would be able to tell you the cold hard facts of anything under Pip’s watchful eye. Sorry to say, that’s not the way it is today.” “Okay, this is creepier than Miss Pie’s claiming to know things she couldn’t possibly know and turning out to be completely right,” Imaginary Dad said to me with a verbal shiver. “How the buck do you just keep hearing news every time you turn on any radio ever?” Well, news is always being made, right? Makes sense there’s a lot of it to tune into. “Pinto Creek was covered by the SPP network once,” DJ continued. “Then I had to introduce the Enclave to a self destructing star blaster. Long time viewers will be well aware that we depended on a small outpost of Applejack’s Rangers to get news from that particular region. Fortunately, when their radio frequency went dark a few other Rangers decided to look into it. “Unfortunately, all we know is what I just told you. The town’s gone. There were three survivors, I haven't been told who they were, but they claim to have been rescued by, and I quote, a “friendly tank-pony”. To be fair to them, given how much artillery fire they made it through, I’m going to chalk that up on them having the mother of all concussions. “If anypony out there knows anything about what happened, please drop by and let us know. If the Herd’s spokesmare is right and some of our troopers did that… Well, I’d rather we stick to border skirmishes and if we really did vaporize a whole town, I wouldn’t blame them for escalating to full blown war.” I flinched at the thought of a second war breaking out, then it hit me. The Enclave were fighting to take Lith right now. They’d wanted to stop me from delivering my radios so the Heartland’s nations wouldn’t help us. Now they were set to help us. That’s why Gale and Loom had been ordered to level this village. To start a war. To ensure the Heartlands would be too distracted to help us. I had to let her know! I reached into my saddlebag and dug out my own radio. I set it up in seconds and clicked it on. “Homage, this is Gears, come in, over?” Only static replied. Homage continued Speaking as DJ Pon3 via Speed’s radio. “This brings us to our second piece of news. Seems a few ponies thought the prison at Arbu would be fun to break into last night. You heard me right folks, a break in. Who breaks into a prison? Beats the hay out of everypony investigating the crime… but we do know what they were after. “Our surprisingly stealthy burglars slipped into the prison compound just after moonrise, and took a page from Pip’s book by taking a whole mess of stealth bucks with them. Fortunately for us, one of these masters of clandestine activities left spent stealth bucks all over the place. Unfortunately, that doesn’t do much more than tell us that whoever broke in, they had a lot of tech available and felt it was a fair trade for their target, one Colonel Windsheer.” I paused for a moment. I knew that name, didn’t I? Yes! I did. That was the Enclave’s Chief Communications Officer who decided to help Pip out during the final battle… and also one of Calamity's brothers, right? Yes, he was. I guess that help wasn’t enough to avoid a prison sentence… Maybe whoever broke him out felt fourteen years was enough for someone who had seen the light in the end? “Now your guess is as good as mine as to why someone would break an Enclave officer out of prison now of all times,” DJ Pon3 continued. “Personally, I always felt like Windsheer’s sentence was just a little bit harsh, but remember folks, he was still one of the ponies in charge of the Enclave. A last minute change of heart doesn't undo his participation in Operation Cauterize.” I pressed down on my radio’s transmit button again. “Homage, come in this is Gears. I was at Pinto Creek, over!” I parked my ears and listened closely to Speed’ radio, hoping to hear my own message go through… but it didn’t. My transmitter must not have been able to punch through the mountain, unlike Homage’s. Where’s a several dozen ton radio-transmitter tower when you needed one? In about a million pieces atop a mass grave that used to be a town. That’s where. DJ Pon3 continued with the news broadcast, either not hearing me, or ignoring me to finish the news. “If you fancy yourself the bounty hunting type, General Blitz has put a bounty of thirty thousand bits on Windsheer’s safe return, and six thousand on his return as a pile of meat. If you don’t mind splitting that payday, and are not too far from Junction Town, I’m pretty sure that Calamity would appreciate a helping hoof or two in his own search. And now, some music.” The news broadcast clicked over to a simple violin playing a solo, something patriotic or whatever. In the desperate hope that Homage had simply been ignoring me to finish the news I held down the broadcast button one more time. “Homage, this is Gears, come in, over!” Seconds ticked by. Nothing… I sighed, packed up my radio, and cuddled up next to Speed as music filled the irradiated cave. ☢★★◯★★☢ A few dozen songs passed Speed and I by. Each minute that ticked past made me more and more worried. Vinyl should have been back by now. She could have fallen into a chasm, been ripped apart by ferals hungry enough to chow down on a fellow ghoul which wasn’t a part of their pack, or been killed by any one of a dozen different mundane events likely to happen in an old cave. I clenched my teeth and stood up. “I can’t take it anymore. We need to find her.” Speed used her wing to turn off her radio. “I agree. I don’t want to lay here and die.” I nodded and looked down the cave’s tunnel into the unknown. I swore I could see a pale green light a ways down the tunnel… Maybe a lantern? “Let’s go. Keep an ear on your Pipbuck. If it gets too bad, I want you to tell me and leave,” I asked as I started to trot down the tunnel. “You know that strong enough radiation can affect robots too, right?” Speed said with a worried flick of her wings. “I’m aware of the effects of radiation on thaumaturgic and electronic components,” I said with a nod. “I’ll be fine.” Speed shook her head and raised an eyebrow at me. “Um, no? You’re more sensitive to it then I’ll be after a certain level. You should also leave if it starts to tick real fast.” “I’m powered by radiation. I have shielding. Most robots don’t,” I said as soothingly as I could. “Sure, your core is shielded,” Speed said slowly, her voice trembling with worry. “But, that’s so you don’t bake yourself. You should still be vulnerable to—” “I have external shielding too,” I reminded. “That way if my core’s case cracks, I don’t kill everything around me with magic-cancer. Unless I do something stupid like walk directly into a thaumic reactor, I’ll be okay.” “Oh yeah… Heh,” speed snickered. “Sorry, I forgot.” Our hooves clicked and echoed as we walked deeper and deeper into the gloom. I was tempted to ask Speed to turn on her Pipbuck light, as Wander had before venturing into the cave’s depths. Then again, a light would attract anything alive down here, my own eyes didn’t need ambient light to see, and Speed could navigate by sound. That said, I couldn’t see color when using my dark vision, and the mono-chrome gray my eyes rendered everything in at the moment was more than a little distressing. Everything, that is, aside from the pale green light at the end of the tunnel. I was convinced it was a light next to a door. Time, damp, and the ever shifting earth had worn the walls in this mountain smooth and round, but you could still tell they had once been perfectly arched and carved out of the mountain by tools, not water and time. There had to be a door. This had to be the entrance to a Stable. That simple fact made the fur on the back of my neck stand up. It was almost worse than the ever-more-urgent clicking coming from Speed’s pipbuck. What the heck was so radioactive?! Speed suddenly stopped walking. I stopped as well, immediately training Feature on the tunnel ahead. “What is it?” I asked quietly. “There’s a pony four hundred meters ahead and closing” Speed whispered. “They’ll have heard you speak…” I nodded and sighed. “Well, we’re packing more firepower than most ponies. If it’s not Vinyl, they’ll regret it if they try anything.” Speed nodded slowly. “Yeah, about that… Maybe don't use your grenade launcher in here. Stick to the lightning gun.” “You know it’s called a LAER,” I reminded as I continued to stare down the tunnel, wondering why I couldn’t see the pony’s silhouette in the green light… Green light which wasn’t so pale any more. “Yes, but they don’t,” Speed pointed out oddly loudly. “It’s a rare weapon. But whoever that is should be aware that if you fail to fry them with a lightning bolt, I am starving and have a chainsaw!” Poor Speed… It must suck to have to eat several times a day. I readied my LAER and aimed it head of us. I couldn't see the target yet, but the moment I did I was going to lock on to center mass and— A mare’s voice drifted down the tunnel, her song distorted by a dozen echoes which transformed her voice is to something motherly, excited, and menacing. “Octavia solves her problems by calling up her mom. Lyra solves her problems with sweets and alcohol. Bonnie solves her problems with a doctor and the law… But Speed's got her own way, and it's better than them all, 'cause Speed solves her problems with a chainsaw! Speed solves her problems with a chainsaw! Speed solves her problems with a chainsaw! And she never has the same problem twice!” Well that wasn’t completely, bucking, horrifying! I turned back to give Speed a look, hoping to silently tell her she should put several hundred bullets into the approaching demon-pony. Speed twitched her ears and frowned steeply, straining to hear the approaching mare. Good, she was trying to lock on target. “Wait a minute…” Speed mumbled quietly. I turned back towards the singing mare, and squeaked in terror. The green light was pony shaped, and it was moving! SWEET BUCKING CELESTIA’S WATER COOLING PUMP, RADIATION GHOSTS! “Shoot!” I hissed. If anypony could just bullet a ghost to redeath it would surely be the mare who chainsawed through a shotgun barrel! “Wait!” Speed insisted, her frown shifting from worried to confused. The radiation-ghost-mare continued to sing while bouncy-walking towards us. “Whether it's a bill or a cheque arriving late, rancid marble cheese or a steak that's second rate, awful TV programs or a broken Luna plate, or her fiancé who dumped her because she's gaining weight, Speed solves her problems with a chainsaw! Speed solves her problems with a chainsaw! Speed solves her problems with a chainsaw! And she never has the same problem twice.” I braced myself, got ready to fill the ghost full of lightning in the hopes that electricity could hurt a ghost… and took a step back in shock. That wasn’t a ghost. That was a ghoul. A glowing ghoul. Like what had happened to Ditzy when she’d dug through the rubble of Maripony to find Pip after Pip had balefired the old laboratory. More importantly, it was a specific ghoul. My ghoul. Vinyl. She was glowing so brightly her jumpsuit couldn’t contain the light, having made her clothing seem invisible until she got within fifty meters of us. “V— Vi?” I stammered. “And she goes!” Vinyl shot over to Speed with the energy of a 5 year old, and a huge stupid grin, finishing her impromptu song while miming flailing a chainsaw and immitating engine noises then stating, “Problem solved!” “Uh…” Speed and I said together. “Are you okay, hon?” I asked with a frown. Vinyl turned to me and nodded several times. “YES! Everything is food in there! I feel like I just ate like twenty bowls of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, except my stomach didn’t literally morph into an angry punch-my-insides monster!” she said in the most rapid-fire voice I had ever heard her use. Vinyl spun around to look at Speed then pointed back towards the cave din section of the tunnel. “You should go that way! There is like ALL of the radiation in there. Like, ever. It was awesome!” Vinyl’s grin faltered for a moment, then she gently pushed Speed towards the cave-in down the tunnel. “No, but seriously you’ll die within seconds in there. At least, right now, there’s a way through but Gears will have to do a thing!” Speed took a few steps back, her muzzle twisting in a sharp grimace. “Yeah, and I should also stay away from you! Or did you forget that ghouls are rad-sponges?” Vinyl paused, looked down at herself and blinked. “Wait, you can see that too? I thought I was just really high.” I raised an eyebrow, silently wondering why Vinyl would think that. She saw my gesture and offered me an understanding smile. “Uh, well, let me put it this way… I’ve spent the last fourteen years living on one meal a week and suddenly I’ve gotten to eat so much past my fill that I am literally glowing! High’s probably the wrong word? I feel good. Healthy. It’s nice!” I frowned and tilted my head. “Wait, a single bottle of Aqua Cura a week is—” “A starvation diet,” Vinyl commented before pointing down the tunnel. “Okay! So, I did a little exploring in there, and there’s a way out, but we need to clear a path for Speed!” Vinyl spun to look at Speed. “Who should be getting as far from here as possible! I mean it’s not like, that big. I don’t think. But there is so much radiation in there that the dust in the air is all glowy and bright-bucking-white and some hallways look like it snowed in them.” Speed nodded once and rapidly began to trot backwards towards the cave-in. I didn’t even have a chance to speak before Vinyl turned back to me. To be honest I was enjoying her hyper-active state. “Okay!” she said with a huge grin. “Soooo, There are two things. First, there’s a door in there I couldn’t open and it’s marked R&D, so we’re gonna open it. Second—” I held up a hoof to stop her. “Vi, hold on! What even is whatever you were exploring? You didn’t tell us!” Vinyl blinked then facehooved. “Ack! Sorry. I feel like I’m on cocaine but without all the aggression.” I raised an eyebrow and pursed my lips. “How do you know what—” “Pre-war nightclub owner. Duh,” Vinyl said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Okay, so, there are two things in here! We’re at a back entrance. There’s a staircase. Down is some kind of toxic waste storage facility. It’s all contaminated. We’re not going back down there because I felt like I was getting ill. Upstairs is a Stable-like hardened bunker that apparently belonged to the MoA. I think it was one of their operations bases. It’s probably been empty for hundreds of years. Too much dust, everypony’s body up there is just bones.” I nodded slowly. “Okay… Do you know why it’s so radioactive?” “Yep!” Vinyl nodded several times. “They had a huge motherbucking reactor and it melted down but gud!” I winced. “Oh… Uh… So there’s just all kinds of fuel scattered around everywhere in there…” Vinyl nodded several times and bounced from hoof to hoof. “Mhm! And the reactor says “experimental” on the side, which is why I think we should open the R&D room up. It’s the only closed door in there which isn’t melted shut. IF they were experimenting with a power generation method like that, they have to have some hazmat suits somewhere in there and none of the skellies had one so I want to see if we can’t find one for Speed, so she can not-die.” “That’s a good plan,” I said with a little smile. “Sooo, what do I need to do and why can’t you do it?” “I need you to get into the reactor’s -control room and tell the computer that it’s not melting down. That will seal the doors that opened up automatically for evacuation. Then I’ll be able to turn on the air-circulation and that should suck all the rad-dust into the vents, which will make things safer for Speed even if we can find her a suit. I mean they don’t block all the radiation. Just a lot of it.” Overall, a strong plan. I nodded in agreement. “Okay. Let’s go.” Vinyl spun on her hooves and sprinted off into the distance like a giant glow-in-the-dark action figure. I couldn’t help but wonder if some of her angst was due to being hungry all of the time… ☢★★◯★★☢ Just as Vinyl had said, there was a staircase. What she hadn’t said was the staircase was the mother of all staircases. We went up a good thirty flights before arriving at a large steel door. Pneumatically operated. Half a mare thick. Hermetically sealed. A very serious door. With a very serious sign. Kingdom of Equestria Ministry of Awesome Extra-Territorial Operations Headquarters II TOP SECRET CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR ENTRY OS-SAP III CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR ENTRY Trespassers will be executed by site security without trial. Vigilo Confido I read over the sign several times then eeped as Vinyl just trotted right inside. “Uh, so there isn’t like an army of pop-up turrets in there, right?” She laughed. “Relax! I took care of everything like that going in. That’s why it took forever. I had to sew-up my jumpsuit.” I nodded timidly and trotted through the door. I could easily tell the whole facility was extremely radioactive. Primarily because my eyes started to flicker and dim while filling with little flashes of white light. Like someone was throwing the tiniest bits of confetti and glitter right into my eyes… As Vinyl led me down the dust and grime covered corridors, I could tell why she said the place was “Stable-like”. The floor was a thin rotting mat of rubber covering rusty galvanized steel panels (a terrifying fact, since this level of radiation should have sterilized everything to such a degree as to prevent rot), the walls were made entirely from that special kind of hardened concrete seen only in old military bases and Stables, and the ceiling above us was little more than uncovered air ducts and support brackets for supporting pipes. Just as horrifying as the rotting rubber was the mold. Mold was everywhere. Dark blotches in each nook and cranny of the wall, running along pipes, into air ducts, and down the hairline cracks in the concrete. Sometimes the glowing dust particles in the air would drift close to the mold… and dim. Sometimes they would vanish entirely. Radiation eating mold. Great… Like Vinyl had said, every single door was open, aside from one or two we passed which appeared to have been welded shut. It felt creepy to me that every open door was marked with a sign next to it. You had things like Lab-13, Situation Room, Barracks, Backup Generator 8, Satellite Uplink 6, Infirmary… “Hey, um, Vi? Was there aӱඔ ᇢnti-rad in the infirmary?” I asked curiously. “Yep. But it’s radioactive. It did its job and soaked all the rads out of the thing it was in contact with… the air. Via the oxygen-permeable plastic bag it was in,” she grumbled. “Seriously, why wasn’t it stored in glass?” I sighed. “I don’t know? Availability?” “I guess,” Vinyl commented with a shrug, then paused. “Wait, did your voice crack?” “I don’t think so?” I said with a frown. Vinyl shrugged then shivered. “Sorry. Guess I’m just kinda losing it a little. Starting to feel like I’m on ecstasy, you know?” I shook my head. “No, I don’t sorry,” I said before returning to my thoughts. This place was locked down tight back in the day. I could see a pop-up turret’s mangled form sticking out of the ceiling every few meters. Vinyl had fought through this place pretty hard over the last few hours. Before the war, there would have had soldiers on guard here too. That’s why they felt safe in labeling doors to places like the “Advanced Warfare Center”, “Guerrilla Tactics Classroom”, “Advanced Power Armor Development”, and even a thing called “Shadow Warfare”. And yet, in spite of all that, ᄅen ❂hኾt hit the fan, they welded some doors shut. Doors which went unlabeled. I paused for a moment by one of these rare unlabeled doors and studied the frame. The door itself seemed noticaly more robust than what the wall thickness of the open doors could support. That was interesting, but more ၶ⎀ter₺sݧטng was how there wasn’t any holes in the wall where screws or bolts could have once held a door sign in place. Nor even any marks where tape had been removed and peeled up some of the aged, cracking paint. These doors had never been labeled. I didn’t want to know why. I decided then and there I wasn’t about to open them. I turned and resumed walking ᗕoнn thᾄ decaᖹing corridጙr. “Gears… are you okay?” Imaginary dad asked out of nowhere as I stepped over some poor pony’s bones. Fine dad. Wh♭ do ỽ∗u ask? “Be careful… I think you're at the edge of your safe-limit for radiation.” I frowned to myself. If Imaginary ܛad ႄas saying that, there must be something I was picking up on subconsciously which indicated som⒲thing was žr⊅ng. But what? I cleared my throat to try and keep more alert and bumped into Vinyl’s plot barrel first. I’d been so lost in thought I hadn’t noticed that my bright-green-glowing marefriend had stopped moving. Suppressing a shiver at ᴥow Ꮘ⍻ spit᳖ ᾱf thᦽ fact she was glowing, the mold was drinking in the energy she emitted, which managed to keep the corridor too dark for my color vision to work, well… I was starting to wish I’d just stayed with Speed. This place was bad enough to make Glowing Ones out of ghouls who just hung out in it for a while... “SṺ͇͌͌̚rry,” I apologized with a sheepish blush. “It’s okay,” Vinyl giggled. “I love what my brain’s doing with your voice right now. It’s great! Too bad I can’t bottle these rads. Or replicate those squeaks. I’d love to remix them some time.” She turned and pointed to a big heavy looking lead sheet somepony had nailed to the wall to cover up a doorway. “So, that old lead-lined tarp is covering the door to the reactor room,” Vinyl announce unnecessarily. “On the far side of the room from us is the reactor control room. I tried to fiddle with the terminal in there, but it needs a technician's hoof. Fair warning, there is molten… something all over that room. It’s hot, it’s definitely radioactive, so, don’t step in it.” I nodded and took a deep nervous breath. Come to tḺiগk of it, I’d just told Speed a while a go I’d be okay unless I walked into a reactor… Ah, Irony. “Well, somepony has to do the thing, right?” I asked. Vinyl nodded. “Yeah… Are you afraid?” “A little,” I admitted with a sheepish blush. VInyl turned and gave me her best hug. “It’s okay Gears, I’ll be right behind you.” I nodded, trotted aᄉross t΄e hall and moved the tarp ass— LIGHT! Bڙinding ligh᧔! Sweeᅁ CeƛeḺtia w⇍y?ཱ HOڙھ?! WHAT?! “Aaaaaagh!” I shrieked stumbling back from the colorless blaze of pain. Vinyl yelped and grabbed hold of me. “What happened?!” “Light… ᎕Ô ༢uুh li᠑htᵢ” I moaned, holding my head with my hooves. Vinyl’s lips pulled into a sharp frown. “Oh, shit… Your voice warbles aren’t in my head are they?” “What warbles?” I asked as I did my best to Ⴤᶜৗke my head ␇leaϏ and stand up. “Okay, so, the rads are bad enough to buck you up,” Vinyl mused to herself. “W— We could try finding a hazmat suit first.” “If they are that bad, a few millimeters of lead-line cloth won’t help me,” I pointed out, ears drooping in distress as I finally realized why I was feeling a bit funny. We had to clear a path for Speed. If it could mess me up, she’d have dropped dead by now. I could take a little radiation damage for her. Vinyl nodded once, an equally distressed from on her lips. “Speed would just keel over in there… And I can’t make the computer seal the doors.” “Yeah, I have to do it,” I agreed as I took a deep breath. Now that I was aware ᲄᐱ the ᷄ȁgῖr, I had an option. “GIve me a minute. I can make my shielding work better,” I said as I reached for my magic. Vinyl blinked. “You can just… do that? What can’t a machine spirit do?” I extended my mind outwards, pulling what little spiritual power I had stored up into the outer layers of my chassis. My fur began to glow a pale yellow as my magic repelled the radiation. I could feel it quickly being sapped away from me, probably by the mold. This wouldn’t last forever. “We manipulate and augment machines. No more, no less,” I answered as I pulled the lead-lined tarp aside once more. The blinding light hit me again, this time it was less intense… but not by much. I could barely see the room in front of me as I carefully stepped out onto a very rickety feeling catwalk. Each hoofstep made the catwalk sway and creak under my weight. I could see vague outlines. Blurred patches, and slightly dimmer patches. Proper vision was a total no gଐ-g—g—̡ —go. Oh buck… I was getting major interference. I had to move. Also… It would help to know how to better shield myself. I moved along the catwalk, searching with my hooves for a ladder. Jasmine? Are you there? I asked whileᢕusଙჯng some mᤱgic towards the back of my mind. We’re Ⴝrying to ዳake ᛮ safe routॱ around ঝhis meୡted down reactఫr fෆr Speed. I have no idea. Jasmine asked tentatively. I blinked slightly as my hooves fin৻lly fῨundȐ what felt like an open hatch and a ladder leading down. It is? Oh. Well… Vinyl can’t do the tech thing. So I have to. Can you h᱔lp me shield myself better? Jasmine said as I started to climb down the ladder to the reactor floor. I felt Jasmine pus◎ at our shared mind. I♀ felt a little oͬd to fᚃel someone else think for me, but I followed the suggestions and tweaked my, no, our magic. “Are you okay?” Vinyl called from somewhere above me in the blinding white light. “No!” I yelled back. “But I’m opeᚋ⇛tional.” “From the ladder, turn around, and move to the far side of the room… Uh,the reactor is in the way!” Vinyl called. “Do you need me to go down and show you? You seem like you’re blind.” I looked around, doing my best to understand where I was in the whiteness. I was standiߊg ⊱ short ≩istanੰe from a big toroidal shaped reactor. No, a HUGE reactor! This had to be what powered the entire base! Massive cables snaked their way through the floor, into the steel frame of the thing I was standing on... The thing I was standing on… Ѫhፀt ໹as ፼ standṣⒾg on? Wait. If that was the reactor, and those were the primary power conduits which would need to be converted to... Oh sweet Celestia I was standing on THE MOTHER OF ALL FULLEST BRIDGE RECTIFIERS! Eep! “I am pretty much blind, yes… Also I’m standing on a terrifyingly big bridge rectifier and I don’t want to get shocked by several billion amps in the event a capacitor in here is still charged,” I admitted. “I have almost no depth perception. My eyes can’t handle these rads.” “Buck… Coming down!” I waited for a few moments. A few hor⍬ible mo٦ents. I could feel bits and pieces of my magic being pulled in a hundred different directions. It slid like oil, flowing from metaphysical wounds into the brightest splotches I could see laying on the flat-white-plane which֕ քssuཹed waౌ ൝ᦨ¬ f⍯oorᤧ. Then, a hoof on my shoulder. “I’m here, hon,” Vinyl said quietly. “This way… I’m sorry, I didn’t think it would be a problem for you.” “It’s okay,” I said quietly as she lead me across the floor. “I can be fixed later. It’s not a big deal if I get a little damage here and there.” I mean, it would probably take months to get fixed, and I’d have to go back home for it, but… Still. I was much less indispensable than Speed. Vinyl led the way across the floor, though, perhaps minefield would be more accurate. Every few steps she stopped me, telling me to move this way or that to avoid something on the floor. II ἥoҀld ౰eel ⛩ horriblỂ, crushing, pulling, ripping, heat in the middle of the room. It grew hotter and hotter with every step. A terrified little voice in the back of my mind whispered to me, begging me to turn around, to not walk into the deepest pit৽ at the ᑃoഠtom of Tartarus. I’m scared too, Jasmine… But We’ll make it. Something’s wrong? Noo̧o! ὸeaણly? I rolled my useless eyes at that and kept trotting along after Vinyl, following her nudges and verbal guidance. “Okay, here’s the door,” Vinyl said, gently moving me forwards with a few nudges. This place was less bright. I could see things in at least enough detail to understand I was in a room and not an infinite plane of white. I could also make out some consoles along one wall, some filing cabinets, and— “Huh?! Why is that monitor in perfect focus?” I asked aloud the very moment I saw the simple green glowing screen just sitting in the white-void. Vinyl frowned. “Wait, so like, what are you seeing now? Just the screen hanging in the air?” I nodded. “Yeah, everything else i— i— i— is just glowing white, brighter white if it’s fuel pud— d— d— dles.” Vinyl hissed audibly. “Yeah, okay… I shouldn’t have brought you here. I should have asked how to do it!” “I— I— I— It’s ᢥiše. I’ll d— d— d— do it,” I promised. Jasmine asked with a worried mental shiver. Yes, why? That— That can’t be good. I stepped towards the screen, r— r— r— ready ޏo do whᶘtever ᙕᥢeded to be done. I felt around beneath the screen until I found the keyboard, then turned my attention to the screen itself. A term-link ᔴeᜅsage ch⌘ܪn was being displayed. I felt compelled to read it. It might tell me something about whatever was sapping my energy in here. A— a— a— after all, it might not be a good idea to turn on the air circulation like Vinyl wanted t— t— t— tݠo... ☢★★◯★★☢ October 28th, 2077 - 1532 To: CSM Scroll From: LTG Creek Due to our inability to contact Miss Dash I am declaring a full state of Emergency. All personnel are to immediately retrofit this base for National Emergency Operations. We may be the only faction of the government left in operation. There will be some civilians out there who survived the bombardment. As far as I am concerned, we need to rescue as many of them as possible and provide safe housing. Not only for our sake, not only for theirs, but for the sake of Equestria’s future. As a part of the retrofits, I hereby order all experiments on our reactor to be suspended indefinitely. The reactor is to be brought to peak operational performance, then I want a full test of the back-up power system to be performed. We need to know it’s still working after the shake-up we went through on Tuesday. I think the best way to test the backup power system will be to simulate a reactor failure. I would like you to bypass the emergency safety and then switch off the power regulation systems as soon as the reactor is no longer operating in experimental mode. ——— October 28th, 2077 - 1536 To: LTG Creek From: CSM Scroll Sir, I agree that we need to test the reactor and backup systems, but with all due respect the test you requested would shut off the reactor’s primary cooling loop. Best case scenario, there’s enough residual heat in the secondary cooling loop to keep the reactor stable until we can perform an emergency shutdown. A shutdown I do not know if we will be able to reverse given the damage the reactor room took in the bombardment. The worst case scenario is there isn’t enough heat to keep the reactor stable, and we have a full meltdown. We don't have enough technicians to perform a full test of the backup power system while also monitoring the reactor, sir. I would recommend we bring the reactor to a low power state then simply use the breaker to disconnect it from the grid while keeping it running. This would allow us to test the backup generators without risking the safety of the entire base. ——— October 28th, 2077 - 1541 To: CSM Scroll From: LTG Creek We don’t have the luxury of waiting until a disaster happens to see if the reactor will meltdown, son. We won't be getting spare parts. If your team can’t fix the problems we have now with what we have, we’re all dead anyways. What are you holding onto hope for? Do you think if we just hold out for a few more days Rainbow Dash will beam us all to Star Drop Base and we’ll live out our days in comfort and luxury? Either that reactor is intact enough to support this base for decades to come, or we’re just one earthquake away from getting to rejoin our loved ones. If the latter is the case, I’d like to see my wife again sooner rather than later, Sergeant. Perform the test. That’s an order. ——— October 28th, 2077 - 1544 To: LTG Creek From: CSM Scroll Test scheduled for 1645. I recommend all Black Site rooms be sealed just in case. Faust have mercy. ☢★★◯★★☢ Looks like the s— s— s— secondary loop loop loop loop loop loop didn’t have enough he⇋t to keep tᐦᇛ reactor s—s—stable. I tapped at the keys to make sure the keyboard was standard. I still couldn’t see it, just the screen. The terminal closed the email and opened the main menu. I scrolled through the options for a moment, getting use-d t-o c-ontrolling i-t b-lind. Jasmien mumbled in the back of my mind before yelping in terror. It’s what? I asked as the fur on the back of my neck stood up. There are very few things which can lend a mare’s hooves more speed than her imminent demise. I checked through each and every option on the terminal, searching for any sort of control options. “Vi! Where is it?! Jasmine tʛiԩk’s we’re d— d— dying!” “What? Who?” Vinyl asked with a frown. “T-t-the m-are w-hose f-lesh I-’m w-earing. S-he’s i-n h-ere t-oo, ᵙ-eূem℣er?!” I snapped, the anger mostly coming from terror at the fact that my vision was starting to decay into a black tunnel. “Yeah! Sorry- just… Uh, It’s under protocols,” Vinyl remarked, pointing to the screen for me. “Thanks,” I said as I scrolled to the option and opened the submenu. There was a lot under that option… System monitors, databases of old information on the reactor’s operations, experiment logs, blueprints… Bluep— p— p— prints? I have time to dowḈlṬad those. “Vinyl. J-ack y-our P-ipbuck i-nto t-his t-erminal,” I ordered. Really not much time for politeness… So tired. Wait… tired? Was this what tired felt like? No… No this is w—w—w—w—worse. “On it,” Vinyl said. A moment later I heard a click. “Done. Need me to run some code or—” “No. I’m giving you ᥗhe rনactor blueprᄓ፪ts so we can give them to mom later. Never pass up a p—p—p—p—p—p—power source,” I said as I hit the download button. “You’re what?” Vinyl asked with a terrified quaver in her voice. “G— Gears I think you should leave!” Apparently my voice was still ha-ving p-roblems… i-t w-as h-ard t-o t-ell w-hen my thoughts were havinǃ proỳlems. “The blueprints,” I said firmly. Fortunately, the file transfer didn’t lock up the terminal, allowing me to keep using it while it transferred the file. Ah, m— m— m— military technolog— g— gy. I lo⎪⃈ you! Okay. Control systems. Yes. Security? Yes .It— t— t— t w-ill b-e i-n t-here. Where is it? Coἳe on… I searched through submenᴰ after suୋmenu, searching f໖r any kind of door control. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be one one one one one one. It had to be an automated system reacting to the reactor’s internal sensors. Well, buck. Jasmine asked with a terrified squeak. I won’t make iᒚ ັac઼ to th— h— he ladder. Let alone the d— d— door. No… Wait… What if I— I turned my attention to my new task. Jasmine was right. I could feel myself fading fast. Too fast. I wasn’t going to ma-ke i-t o-ut o-f t-his r-o-om e-ven i-f I l-eft r-ight n-ow. B-but I could make sure Speed got out of h⎓re alϱ┭e. Jasmine? Can you b— b— buy me a few more seconds? I asked hopefully. What we want doesn't matter. Our friend is tr— r— r— rapped. We h࿺ve to sᇂve her. A sudden surge of power hit my s— s— s— systems. A part of me felt like if I wasn't so drained it would have felt amazing and wonderful. As it was… It felt like I had been made slightly less sick. Vinyl grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back hard. “Gears! Seriously, just leave, we’ll find another way!” She begged. “We won’t. You spent hours l—l—l—l—ooking. I have a path of at—at—at—at—attack,” I replied. I turned my attention back to the terminal. All I had to do was to trick the system into reading one of the data-logs instead of the actual sensors. I could do that. Reboot terminal. Enter m—m—m—m—maintenance mode. Open the command line inter— inter— interf᧔ce f᧔ce f᧔ce f᧔ce f᧔ce f᧔ce… Okay. I can d—d—d—do thi—thi—thi—this. Just got to make a few lines of code here. Re—Re—Re—Reeeeeee—Redirect the sensor feed to a different hash. I started to type, doing my best to L੮ᓌ△m ᥴ{ഈ⏕ᣛ Ꮪކlప➯ siⓕ ֠ᾳ↛t, ៿õsecte᥵uൺ aệi፰ỽᅝcᤚ◙g eޙiᅮ౹ ℹẟᤶ ીo eiuॐᚠℊ✱ tem౑or ›฽cᏸ␲iᶏ╾ng Ѯt ➷abᵂre Юಖ d༜Ȣ᧛೵ᛞ maὣn಍ ភli෣ˍa. Ut eୖi⃱ aᒨ ⎀iõẐธ veniÀm, ዱuiኋ nాst╼ᾧڠ exer૳itatiႋn ᔋញlamco ⚀aboਟis ↾अ᠘i u˃ ឧᵬஅॵuპp ex ea ͞ᝑឝm─do ᥬ✙nsequᵙt. DuÅs aute వrure doᡫor in ⇫epr᝗᝜ender༎ཊ ᾽᤟ volupta⁝⏍ ᤵeli௪ ᆱ╆se c֟llum 'olⓊre ᢨឱ fⅹgiat nul૽ᖽ ℭariaturំ ExᏡ࿆p⚙euℕ sint ߝccaἰcat cupiᔌatỏt n▀ᅡ prᎍᵇ₾en࿼ᷘ sunt iᢉ culిᏭ q❳⚴ o⏉fԽῚia deߎe T moႃl௣Წ ani ሢ iᒒ e⇼t ✭╡ Boru፰ Boru፰ Boru፰ Boru፰ Boru፰ Boru፰ Boru፰ Boru፰ Boru፰ Boru፰ Boris? █████ ████████ ███ █████████████ ☢★★◯★★☢ Physical sensations. Touch. Sound. Sight. Non-memory based input. Oh, Faust no! NONONONONONO! Not okay! At least I have control. If she hadn’t been feeding me power to give me a conscious mind when she... I refuse to be in the driver’s seat forever! She’s got to be still in here somewhere, all the hardware’s still running. That means she’s here, right? Or she’s dead and the machine is just running by itself like it’s meant to... I focused the misaligned power running through our body. The aura around us sharpened, concentrated, turning opaque as I brought it into proper alignment and solidified our metaphysical defences against the spirit-draining-goo. I turned to Vinyl and pointed at her. “Throw me up to the catwalk! NOW!” Her eyes widened, clearly not what she’d been expecting. “What?” “Gears is down, maybe dead, you’re talking to the other half of this Gestalt. Throw me up there NOW! I can’t tell if she’s still here in an ocean of spirit-eating-goo!” To Vinyl’s credit, she threw us well. I hit the concrete wall plot first hard enough to crack the armor Gears found for us. It felt so weird to feel pain in the lower half of my body… Buck, it felt weird to have a body. I never wanted this. I always knew that I would wind up in command of myself if Gears was ever metaphysically injured or destroyed… but I never wanted this. It was nice to just sort of be. To provide my silly (and literal) soulmate with the ability to be more than what she was. Buck, she did the same for me too. It was nice to be able to walk, and talk. I was born without vocal chords. I had no idea how to speak at all. Without her— I facehooved, stood up, and rand down the catwalk to the door. I spoke to Vinyl. Gears was still alive, just unconscious. Or very horribly mangled by that goo. I ducked through the lead-lined tarp and out into the hallway. The slow-oily pull on my soul vanished the moment the tarp fell into place to cover the doorway. I shivered and looked back on the portal to hell. I wasn’t about to try and revive Gears in a place full of something like that… But the minute we got outside I’d have to wake her up. I hated this. Admittedly, the robotic body was nice. A major upgrade from the crippled shell I had before. I especially liked the “not in constant pain” part. That was motherbucking phenominally awesome! I just… I just preferred being a part of someone else. A sudden sound of steel grating on steel echoed through the entire base. I felt the fur on the back of my neck jump upright, and I nearly fired our grenade launcher as I jumped in fright. I looked around in a panic, wondering what pre-war horror had been unleashed. Or if my evil uncle had managed to find a way inside… Faust he seemed eager to kill me again. Was it that much of a blow to his pride that his older brother married a zebra mare he met overseas? No… No it wasn’t him. It was just a whole building’s worth of blast doors closing after two hundred years of rust build up. I closed my eyes and shivered. Worst. Sound. Ever! Aside from the Dr. Wires’ UFO in Megamane games. Guh! On the upside, whatever Gears had been coding worked. Please, please, please don’t have let that be some kind of heroic last act! I need you… Vinyl needs you too. She’s our marefriend. I stood still for a few moments, knowing Vinyl would be coming through the door any minute now with a whole pack of questions. Fortunately, I could guess what most of them would be. Sure enough, a few seconds later the door hidden by the tarp slid open and Vinyl pushed through the safety curtain. I felt the oil-slick grab hold of my soul again as it moved aside, then let go as it fell back in place and Vinyl hit the manual door release, dropping it back in place. “Okay,” Vinyl said with a deep breath. “So. What the buck is—” I cleared my throat to interrupt her, and launched into my prepared spiel. “Gears didn’t notice the reactor fuel was soaking in spiritual energy like a sponge, and I didn’t figure it out ‘til it was too late. She’s hopefully just unconscious until I can feed her a bit with some rituals I know of. I’m Jasmine, I make up the personality elements and subconscious of the Gestalt mind you’re dating. With Gears out of commission, I’m in the driver's seat ‘til she’s… okay. Our interests are pretty much the same. Buck, I even loved working for the postal service as part of my disability program. The only real difference for you is I have no idea how to shoot like she does, nor do I have any of her technical knowledge. So you’re down a socially oblivious engineer but up a shaman who gets your pre-war jokes and was yelling at Gears the entire time you two were in the shower together that you wanted to screw and she was being too dense to work that out.” Vinyl blinked in that cute little information overload expression of hers which made me want to smack Gears until she hugged Vinyl every time she did it. “Wait… Uh…” Vi stammered. “So, I’ve seen a lot of sci-fi. Gestalt mind means a lot of different things. What do you mean by it?” I paused for a moment to think of the best way I could explain to her what I meant. She’d mentioned loving Galaxy Quest. If she didn’t get that reference, she was a liar. Nopony who watched the show would forget those lovable dorks. Or the consequences of bucking up a Digital Conveyance of two people at once. “We’re like Ensign Brandybuck.” I said with a shrug. Vinyl blinked once again. “Wait— Are you telling me, that you two work as a mostly seamless blend?” “Yep!” I said with a smile and nod. “Not right now… 99.999% of the time we do… She just has more uh, command priority. Which I’m completely fine with.” It wasn’t her fault our pseudo-mom hadn’t melded us correctly. It’s not like she had ever made a warlock before. Or was, well, sane. “Okay, so… Since Gears loved me, you do too?” Vinyl asked heastently. I coughed as my tail flagged slightly. “Uhhh… Reverse that. She loves you because I did first. Like, um… Since I bought your pin-up calendar waaaay back when.” Vinyl snickered and flicked her tail back and forth. “Wait, really? The zebra mare who got nabbed for Gears’ creation was a fanfilly of mine? What are the odds?” “Pretty good?” I pointed out. “You had a fanbase of tens of millions.” “Um… Fair point,” Vinyl said quietly before she looked up at me suspiciously. “Okay, so, how come Gears doesn't seem to know any of that?” I groaned and rested my face against my left hoof. “Because… she’s just so thick! She’s Miss Thickity-thick-thick from Thick Town, Thickcania. And so’s her dad!” “Hey! Leave me out of this,” Mister Lift insisted. “I’ve tried that… They fry after a few minutes and I’m back here. I’m not an idiot.” “Well, I mean, what else is there for two disembodied consciousnesses to do but argue over the term-link?” Vinyl shifted from hoof to hoof, awkwardly holding onto a question before asking. “So… Where do we stand?” I rolled my eyes. “Literally the only difference right now is our team is down a gunner and up a shamen… Gears could be both if we could meld more seamlessly.” Vinyl shook her head almost violently, making her glowing mane trail. “Nooo… I mean, you and I. As uh… you know… mates.” I blinked and tilted my head to one side. “What? Because you’re irradiated? Honestly all I wondered is if the illumination would help Gears find your clit.” Vinyl sputtered and hid her mouth behind her hoof for a moment. “Okay! That answers that… Soooo, do you think Gears will wake up soon?” I shrugged. “I can't answer that. I’m not about to try any Shamanism involving her anywhere near that mess,” I said jerking a hoof towards the reactor room. “I’ll find out first thing once we get out of here. I do not like being in the driver’s seat.” Vinyl nodded slowly. “Okay… Any idea?” “Well, I can talk. I never learned how. No vocal chords. So unless this chassis hardware is letting me speak, that’s Gears at work,” I explained as clearly as I could manage. Vinyl hummed and looked me in the eyes. “You’re holding something back. What is it?” I sighed and hung my head. “It’s possible she’d been reduced too far in power to be sapient anymore, and is simply maintaining this body because that’s what machine spirits do and I’ll not be able to revive her… At least not for several centuries… Which will doom me to having to be the active one.” Vinyl winced, then raised an eyebrow. “You don’t like being in control?” I shook my head. “No. I really don’t… It would be hard to explain to someone who hasn’t gotten to be a… component.” I looked down the corridor for a moment. “Can we continue the mission? I can’t hack a door open or tinker with it ‘til it opens up, but I’m pretty sure I can blast through it with Feature here.” Or maybe magic it open. Assuming the room wasn’t too close to the hell-reactor down there… Vinyl nodded. “Okay…” she paused for a moment then leaned in and kissed me. “It’s nice to get to talk to you. I have seen your soul, you know. It’s also nice to know you’re more involved with me than I thought.” She shivered before turning down the hall to walk back the way we came. “I mean, seriously. How bucked up would this ménage à trois be if one of us didn’t consent?” I paused for a moment to process that of all things having been her apparent problem with me being in charge of our body right now. I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that… Happy, I think. ☢★★◯★★☢ Two floors, one pop-up turret Vinyl missed, and three long corridors later, we reached the R&D room. I’d expected it to be the same as every other door we’d passed on the way here. A big rectangular slab of steel, pneumatically opened by sliding upwards so you were pretty much bucked if you wanted to force your way in and didn’t have high explosives. Nope. What we had here was a big arched double door made from some, weird, silvery-blue metal. Like titanium, but more so… And also, just, off somehow. It felt strange. Something about the metaphysics. I was pretty sure that an Earth Pony would agree with me. Their bond to nature wasn’t quite as strong as ours. Their magic had to split between seeing beyond the physical world and boosting their physical abilities past what they would be able to do with flesh alone. Magic doesn't really like working with polar opposite concepts like that… But even so, I was pretty sure that they would understand something was wrong with this door too. “Are you okay?” Vinyl asked curiously. I nodded. “Yeah… It’s just… something’s off about that door. Not the shape or anything, just, it feels like it doesn't belong here.” Vinyl lit her horn. “You think it’s an illusion? I can try a dispel.” I shook my head. “No. No… It’s not enchanted. It’s not occupied by a spirit either, it’s just… Odd. Out of place. A less educated zebra might call it cursed, or evil. But there’s nothing wrong with it that I can see.” Vinyl snickered. “Less educated? Want to sound more snobbish?” Oh boy… Now I have to talk about my life. Yay… “I was a mute cripple, Vi,” I said with a grumble and tail flick. “All I did for decades was read and experiment. No friends. Only worked two days a week. Plenty of scholarships, thanks to being handycapped. I have a doctorate in alchemy specializing in metamaterial creation.” I’m a scientist, AND a shamen. Doubly trained. Literally twice the education of the typical Imperial Zebra… Bostfull to say? Yes. Accurate? Also yes. “Oh,” Vinyl said with a surprised flick of her tail. “Sorry for assuming.” “It’s okay,” I said as I squinted at the door. “Something tells me we can’t blast through this.” “I think we should try anyways,” Vinyl prompted. “Yeah. I don’t have any evidence we can’t. It’s just a gut feeling… Let’s back down the hallway a good ways, okay?” Vinyl nodded and turned to jog down the hall. I joined her. Once we were as far down the hall as we could be, I turned around, checked Feature’s ammunition, switched the cryo-rounds for high explosive (only fumbling the belt three times), and put six rounds into the door. Trotting back up to it, I could tell we didn’t even put a scratch on it. “Who the hell made this door? Starswirl?!” Vinyl growled under her breath. I shook my head. “Nah, he wasn’t into materials magic. This bullshit is of the Mage Meadowbrook variety… Only, it’s a mundane door… What the bucking shit-balls is this piss-coffee, Faust?!” I growled very much over my breath. Vinyl blinked twice then snickered. “Sooo, you don’t have control over Gear’s swearing, do you?” I shook my head. “No, she’s terrible at swearing…” I looked over the door for any sign of, well, anything. Nothing. Not a scratch. Not a dent. Not even a scorch mark. In fact, all the char and carbon form the grenades' fireballs was piled up at the base of the door, as if it had just slid right off. Okay, so that wasn’t going to work. Wait a minute… I turned to look at Vinyl. “Hey, so, what did you try to open this door before?” “Pulled, pushed, booped the button a few times, looked for a keycard, everything but destructive entry,” Vinyl replied casually. I nodded to myself then paused. “Wait, keycard?” I looked over at the door’s access panel. “Yeah, it’s got a numeric keypad and a card reader,” Vinyl said as I noticed both features. “So, I have a dumb idea,” I said as I stepped over to the card reader and thunked my left temple against it. “Oh yeah!” Vinyl said eagerly. “Your mom’s keycard might—” The MoA pin on my collar chirped twice, then squeaked out a burst of static which I was pretty sure was a bunch of binary, like what an old term-link modem used to access a phone line. The door chirped once. “Welcome back, Ministry Mare.” A horribly digitized but impressivly booming voice said through a dying speaker. “— Or the communicator pin Rainbow gave you, that works too.” Vinyl finished with a solemn nod. “I hope she dosn’t need to access any of her old stuff…” I muttered to myself. The door hissed once, then hummed as it slid open. I stepped back, not wanting to get shot by a dozen different turrets which just had to be lurking inside the doorway. “Uh, Jasmine?” Vinyl said quietly. “Get down! Turrets!” I hissed quietly. “You opened the door with a key. We’re fine,” Vinyl said while holding back a giggle. I groaned and stood up, my cheeks burning. THIS is why I hated being in the driver’s seat. It didn’t matter how much I learned. I was still an idiot… I turned to look through the doorway, double checking that it was safe. It was. The room on the other side was truly massive. I’d expected a hallway leading to an entire wing of the base with room after room. But no. There was just one huge gym-like bay lined with lockers and filled with all kinds of stations with another set of doors on the far side. I stepped inside, followed closely by Vinyl. The instant I set hoof inside the overhead lights clicked on. One by one, in a chain form the front doors to the back, they buzzed to life. A series of speakers hissed and clicked, playing an oddly familiar, upbeat, powerful, and just… good militaristic melody played on deep thrumming strings with some brass accompaniment. “I swear I’ve heard this before,” Vinyl said as she listened to the classical music. I nodded slowly and began to look around. This didn’t look like a R&D room. This was more… Well, an equipment room. Half of the machines occupying the central floor were automated armor equipping stations. Several suits of power armor hung on racks against the walls near lockers. Weapon walls occupied the spaces between locker banks. The center of the room, where in a school’s gym the center court would display the school’s logo, instead displayed the Ministry of Awesome’s emblem as if in an attempt to be as amazingly overly patriotic as possible. Especially since the music was so darn catchy even when playing on dying speakers. I trotted over to a locker bank to see what was inside. If it was full of science tools and a lab coat, then this must be where my Uncle’s armor had been built. If not… Then somepony decided to throw off spies by calling the Ready Room the R&D lab. I couldn’t help but adlib along with the music as I trotted over. “Dun dun. Dun-dun-dun. Dun dun. Dun-dun-dun. Dun dun. Dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun-dun-duhduhduhduhduhdudun. Dododododo!” I heard a facehoof from behind me. “Oh, my, Celestia!” Vinyl groaned. I blushed like mad at the sound of her groan. “Sorry! I— I’m just having fun getting to make sounds.” I’d have to find some alone time to try out screaming. That seemed fun! “No! Not you,” Vinyl laughed. “Rainbow, you dork! This is an orchestral version of the Squad Loadout music from Enemy Above 2. A friend of mine loved that game!” Oh. My. Gosh. It was! Yesssss! I giggled to myself and turned back to the locker. A small part of me hoped it would be full of Arch-Alicorn Power Armor so I could gear up and kick some alien plot! I reached the locker, grabbed the handle and used my super robot strength to just rip the lock out of the door frame. The locker was occupied by a set of green and tan fatigues, a tan set of body armor, and an assault rifle. Maaabey it was a security guard’s locker? After all, if this wasn’t an R&D lab, then Speed was probably going to be down a suit. I took a step to the left and ripped open the next locker. Another soldier's kit. This one with a few 40mm grenades and a nice little bloop-gun to shoot them with. I took them so Gears would have something to cuddle when she woke up, then walked to the next bank and ripped it open. Another soldier's kit. This one with a full set of carapace armor and some rather nasty looking deployable wing-blades mounted to the legs of the armor. Not sure what fighting style used something like that, but it seemed a bit terrifying. Okay. This was a ready room. Which mean we wouldn’t be finding a hazmat suit for Speed in here. At least, probably not. I turned around to meet up with Vinyl who was looking curiously at a large locked metal box laying atop a workbench near the door. “What’s in the box?” I asked curiously. “Something awesome, probably,” Vinyl said as she floated a piece of faded nearly crumbling paper over for me to see. “This was laying on top of it.” I squinted at the paper, struggling to read the faded ink. Tin Sentry, This is the first prototype suit for Star Drop’s pony based security forces. Apparently while fully operational, it’s not going to be crewed until Princess Luna gives it the hoofs up. The suit just arrived from Ex-Ops One. Blue Fast herself wants us to confirm their lab results. Ballistics, MEW, arcane, chemical, environmental, the works. I know you’re busy with the Iron Sentinels project, but these might need to be mass produced in just three days, so, you know, drop everything and get to it. That’s Alpha Priority, in case you didn’t get my drift. — Cap Pin I sighed in relief. “Oh thank goodness. We found a hazmat suit.” “Looks like it,” Vinyl said as she slipped a set of locksmiths’ tools from under her cloak and began to poke and prod at the black box’s lock. “It will take me a minute to get this open. Why don’t you see if any of that power armor is working? Speed mentioned she did the training in her Dream Pod.” “Yeah, but,” I nodded towards one of the empty suits. “Wings.” “Huh?” Vinyl asked as she poked away at the locked box. “She’s a batpony. The only power armor Speed would fit in is an Air Scorpion,” I prompted. Vinyl gave me a blank look. “I know what you’re talking about now, but I have never heard that name in my life.” “Oh, that’s what the Enclave used. PA-02 Air Scorpions,” I replied with a shrug. “How didn’t you know that?” “Probably because everyone ever just calls it Enclave Armor,” Vinyl remarked as the box’s lock clicked open. Vinyl smiled and lifted the box’s lid with her magic. “Well, that was easier than I thought it would be. Must just be a standard transport box painted black.” “Must be,” I said with a disappointed flick of my tail. I’d been half hoping that picking an MoA box would cause it to transform into a equinoid robot to kick your plot. Vinyl looked into the box. Her eyes widened in what I assumed was shock. It was a bit hard to tell with her glowing… Then her jaw dropped and that clenched it. “What?” I asked rearing up so I could peak into the box and— A sleek helmet with a crystal clear wrap-around visor, giving the pony their full range of vision. Where the pony’s vision couldn't reach, orange plating, sleek, stylish, with a distinct technological look. The helmet’s lines were broken only by a small blister on each side which housed a sensor package on the left side, and a flashlight on the right, and of course, a horn-sheath made of a material translucent to thaumaturgic frequencies. I knew that helmet well. Almost as well as I knew the breastplate, boots, and jumpsuit it rested on. The helmet’s creamy-orange color extended to the teched out breastplate and boots, leaving the jumpsuit to be charcoal black with a wide silver stripe down each leg and along the sides. When you looked at a cosplay outfit, you could tell it was just for show. There were always little flares and embellishments no real engineer would leave in a functional piece. Even my un-tech-trained eyes could tell the difference there. It was much harder to tell the difference between a movie costume and the real thing, but you could still do that. There was no mistaking certain little things there either. Like the fact that the box included a big stack of papers detailing tests the suit had undergone, including the “Vacuum pressure test”. This was a functional piece. An actual, real, ligit, functional rendition of a Royal Ministry of Space Exploration Extravehicular suit! “Eeeeee!” Vinyl and I squeed together. Vinyl practically ripped the suit out of the box to look at it in its full glory. It had the little oxygen recycling tanks on the back of the cuirasse, and a MoA emblem in place of the RMSE emblem it would have had on the show, and the nameplate was blank, but there, and there was even a holster for a Phased Mana Blaster and a Thaumaturgic scanner on the belt and— And it was orange! That was a captain’s suit. And it had a hornshieth! And looked to be Vinyl’s size! YESSSSSS! I spun to face her and danced from hoof to hoof. “Put-it-on!” Vinyl blinke then shook her head. “N— No. I can’t. Speed needs the environment suit. Not me.” I got right up in her face and pressed my nose against hers. “It’s for a unicorn. Her wings wont fit in it. It’s also too big for her. What’s more, she’s in more danger from you once we’re out of here than anything else because it took Ditzy pulling off a Sonic Rad Boom to stop glowing. You could be a health hazard to her for months or even the rest of her life. We have no idea. Also, and this is the most important, I need to see my mare in an RMSE Captain’s uniform!” Vinyl’s muzzle parted in a slow dorky smile. The best kind of smile. “Point very much taken! How about you turn around for best effect?” I nodded and turned around immediately. “Okay,” Vinyl said eagerly. “Let me just burn my name into the nameplate… There we go. Now, currase open, unzip. Woah! It’s just like the show. Double zipper lock with a velcro seal between them. Cool! Now I'll open it up and—” I turned around as Vinyl stopped talking, worried there might have been some kind of boobytrap. Instead, I saw she was staring inside the suit in shock. “What?” I asked worriedly. “There's not a dead foal stuffed in there or something horrible, is there?” Vinyl sputtered and looked at me in horror. “No! What put that idea in your head?” I shrugged. “Used to seeing horrible things in these kinds of places.” Vinyl turned the suit around. “This. The inside of the breastplate. Environmental regulation charm. Repair Talisman. Pipbuck integration systems. More importantly… Right here, this little bit that says wall-walking-charm fuse. Wall walking. Like what you would want if you needed to walk without gravity. This isn’t an environmental suit… This is an actual space suit!” My eyes widened yet again. I had a lot of questions, but now was not the time for questions. “Put-it-on!-Put-it-on!-Put-it-on!-Put-it-on!-Put-it-on!-Put-it-on!-Put-it-on!-Put-it-on!” Vinyl bit her lip. “It’s a working RMSE suit! If I put this on, I may never take it off.” “Does that count the helmet?” I asked quickly. Vinyl shook her head. “Of course not.” “Does the plot end unzip?” I asked with a hopeful blush. She nodded. “Yeah. No waste-collection system, but—” “Then we’re good,” I said firmly. Vinyl tilted her head, then snickered. “Point taken. You like the show way more than me.” She stepped into the jumpsuit, zipped it up with her magic, fastened the hard parts of the suit, then slipped on the helmet. I heard a slight hiss as she locked it in place. A hiss followed by a genuinely aroused moan which shockingly wasn’t from me. “It has air conditioning, doesn't it?” I asked Vinyl with loving jealous. “Yeeeesssssss!” she moaned in ecstasy. “I forgot how hot it is everywhere these days… And it’s basically a toaster oven in this stupid mountain!” “I want one,” I muttered, pawing at the floor with a hoof. “You have actual coolant for blood,” Vinyl countered. “You don’t need an air conditioner. You are an air conditioner.” “True… I mostly mean I need one for fanfilly reasons,” I said with a grin. “Oh,” Vinyl laughed. “Hey, how’s the helmet vox distorting my voice?” “Not at all, actually. Just like the show,” I commented. “Sweet! Remind me to hug Rainbow when we see her next. She gets major kudos for letting a Space Cadet get to make these the actual space suits we’d have really used!” I nodded, and one of those questions came back to me. “Makes me wonder just how appropriate the name “Star Drop” is,” I remarked. Vinyl paused for a moment to look at me thoughtfully, her green glowing fur made the crystal of her helmet light up in the coolest way. It was like I was dating a mare made of pure energy or something. Who was also an RMSE Captain. So hot! “Neeeeerrrrd!” Mister Lift yelled teasingly. “Oh come on, it’s friendly teasing! Also, you are allowed to cosplay as anypony you want.” “I’m not judging I’m teasing.” Vinyl bundled up her jumpsuit and cloak, stuffed them into her new suit’s integrated saddlebags, holstered Bad Trip in the utility belt (it fit suspiciously well in the holster), then turned around. “Come on, let’s get the air circulating and then get Speed out of here. Before uh… Before there’s a, you know… close encounter.” I giggled. “The suit is a turn on for you too, isn’t it?” “It’s a real RMSE space suit! How could it not be?!” Vinyl demanded incredulously. “Fair enough,” I said, grinning as I trotted after her. Hopefully Speed wouldn’t be mad that Vinyl got the suit instead of her. I mean, it would prevent Speed form just slowly cooking thanks to our now amazingly radioactive teammate. Speaking of Vinyl’s new glowyness, hopefully it never wears off. It’s awesome! That said, thank goodness Gears and I are radiation shielded. Slowly dying would make cuddles awkward. Hopefully Gears would appreciate it as much as I did when she woke back up. Also I just realized the music was looping. While that definitely had to be cool for the ponies who walked in, geared up, and left in the old days, it must have driven the poor lab techs who worked here insane. Almost as insane as I was going to be if I couldn’t get Gears back in our driver’s seat. No! Think positive. Come up with some kind of silver lining so you can stay focused. Um… I’d get a turn delivering the mail for a change if she wouldn’t wake up. Oh, buck they hay yes!