//------------------------------//
// Two for the sky. 
// Story: Foggy Overcast 
// by Cake Sparkle 
//------------------------------//

Cake was happily trotting down the stairs, heading down to the level just below where Yellow and Tide would be clearing. Her hooves hit the water with a cold splash as it continued to rise slowly. It was freezing, but she pressed on. The lights at this level were flickering, and Cake was a bit worried of electrocution, but the thought of freezing to death sounded worse in her mind. She kept moving, sloshing and powering through the icy cold water when she heard a voice call out to her. 
“Saddles, Saddles, is that you?” Cake walked over to the door where the sounds were coming from and pushed it open, inside on a desk was a buffalo female, shivering and covered in burns. “Tried… Tried to get it out. I didn't get very far.” She whimpered, facing away from the door. 

“Saddles is probably dead, along with the other members of your scouting party. It's been a long time, Strongheart. Never thought you would have left Appaloosa.” Cake said as she climbed onto a nearby desk opposite of the buffalo and shook the cold water off her tail. 

“No- no we… You killed them?” Strongheart said weakly as she raised her head to face the unicorn. “You… I know you. You’re the butcher. Red Wagon warned us about you.” 

“Oh, I guess the last time we talked my mane wasn't exactly 3 different colors of clown puke. Don't recognize an old friend? It’s me, Cake.” Cake gave her a sarcastic smile. “Butcher… butcher… sounds better when the changelings said it in their snake tongue.” 

“Cake? You’re the monster? Why have you done this, this is not the little unicorn I knew. I see Celestia got her claws deep into you.” Strongheart grimaced, taking in some deep breaths as she put her hoof over the burn marks on her chest. 

“So, you came here to get our tech for your southern commune. I take it you killed Red Wagon. I know, we ponies were never very kind to you. Rockefeller had already put you in reservations before I arrived and took command of the southern states. There were bigger fires to put out, quite literally.” Cake debated on casting a healing spell for old times sake, but then she remembered how much of a pain it was going to be to go back into the icy water. 

“I take it all my squad is dead, then you don't have plans to spare me.” Strongheart rolled over onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. 

“Yes, so let's not play any games. I only have a few quick questions then I will make it quick. I’ll see that this place isn't your tomb, and I'll send you back home. With whatever is left of your little scouting party.” Cake’s fake smile turned to a dead pan as she fetched her spear tip from her saddle bags.  

“Fuck you, butcher!” Strongheart gritted, not even giving Cake the courtesy of looking her in the eyes. 

“So, games… Well, here is the game I could play. I could heal you up, make you stable, and then twist your legs out of their sockets. Drag you out of here and put you in a shallow grave outside. Alive of course, so you can be buried in the snow. When you fucking tech thieves sabotaged this place, you woke everyone up. And like the good little martyrs you are, you didn't have the foresight to see why that might be a bad idea. Now the windigos have returned, I don't know if you saw the snow on your way in but it's probably a solid 5 inches and counting by now and it's not going to stop until we are all dead.” Cake levitated the spear tip over to Strongheart's wounds on her legs, poking them with the tip. 

“Was flooded when we got here! Tried to fix it…” The buffalo gritted her teeth at the pain. “It’s not the windigos… Your weather machine is broken.” 

“Broken? Well… that's good and bad.” Cake withdrew the spear tip. “How did you get here before us?” 

“You slept nights, we didn't. Hoped leaving that earth pony with the unicorns would slow you down, if you were even still alive.” Strongheart relaxed, seemingly accepting her fate.

“How did you get those burns?” Cake asked. The wounds did not match a particular pattern like she had been set on fire, or had been hit by a blast of heat. 

“I… the crystal… I…” Strongheart clutched her chest, took one last gasp, and died. 

“Little Strongheart. Guess the universe still loves its irony.” Cake shook her head and put the spear tip back into her bags. 

“Cake, Cake are you down there!” Yellow Diamond shouted out. 

Cake sighed, and slowly lowered herself back into the ice bath. “Yeah, I'm on my way, stay where you are!” 

Cake made her way around the spiral hallway and back up the stairs. Her legs felt a bit numb and she was no doubt shivering with her legs stiff as steel as she made her way back up to Tide Turner and Yellow Diamond. 

“Strongheart’s, well, the leader of the buffalo is dead. her heart gave out and she was covered in burns. Something about a crystal, the weather machine is malfunctioning, but she said she tried to fix it. What's the status of the pumps?” 

“The news isn't good. The reactor on the bottom level has suffered a critical failure due to one of the-” Yellow stopped, her ears perked up and so did Cake’s, then finally Tide’s “Those are pony hoof steps. Did you invite some company commander?” Yellow asked, raising an annoyed smile at Cake. “No pony likes hypocrites.” 

“No, I didn't invite them. But it wasn't like we were playing smart and making sure we were not leaving a trail behind us in the snow, Yellow.” Cake rolled her eyes.

Cake watched as the trio ahead of her came to a stop. Twinkle, Tool Belt, and Minty stared at them. Waiting for somepony to say something first. 

“Hey Twilight.” Yellow said, waving to the lavender unicorn. 

Twilight nodded awkwardly to her as her companions looked at her with a bit of confusion and betrayal. “Cake, please… This needs to end.” Twilight gave her a pleading look as she took a few hoof steps closer to her. 

“Twilight, I have been waiting A very long time for each of you to say that. But do you really mean it? This isn't the first time you’ve told me.” Cake asked, rubbing her mane. She still held out hope that her old friend would crack through her shell, but she knew that not every pony could be as strong and jaded as she was. 

“I- I don't know. I know that this isn't who- I am.” Twinkle was stumbling over her words, almost mumbling them out. “ I. I do not feel happy. I feel like I have done something horrible. Why did I choose this?” 

Minty raised a hoof like a filly in class. “W- wait, I don't understand. Are all three of you Santa?” 

Yellow put her hoof over her face and Tide stood there awkwardly. His eyes moved from Cake to Twilight, not seeming to pay Minty any attention. “Yes, all three of us are Santa, Minty. All three of you asked us to clear your memories so you could build new lives because we are all war criminals in some way or form and you all, yes, every one of you except the foals, have done something at some point in time you wanted to forget.” Cake explained casually as she rolled her eyes with a wave of her hoof. Tool Belt eyes diverted to the glass window where the six ponies were standing beside. He slowly moved over and began to stare out at the water in a trance. 

“What? What do you mean war criminals… what happened?” Minty asked with a frown and look of deep remorse washing over her face. 

Cake groaned. “Fine, I made you all a promise… Minty, you were a conscript in the great war. it - it was a war against some very, very bad creatures. They had plans to enslave us and… do very terrible things to us ponies. You were on look out one night, instead of looking out for patrols, you got drunk. You could have easily awoken your sleeping squad mates and hid but you were too drunk to. I don't know how you even remember it, since you were so blacked out they took you as a prisoner without so much as putting a scratch on you, but you did. Your squad was taken to a labor camp. Only you survived.”
Cake looked through her saddle bags and pulled out a photo. “Tool Belt, would you like to… remember?” Cake asked, not even looking at Minty. The little earth pony’s eyes dilated for a moment, and she stopped breathing, then after a long pause she took a deep breath and broke down into tears, falling over and laying on the ground sobbing. 

Tool Belt blinked as he turned his attention away from the water and too Minty. “I have too. I have to know what I did.” 

“Tool Belt. not your real name, Atom Smasher, although I think Tool Belt fits you better now and before. When Celestia decided to stop being a sane princess and set everypony who didn't agree with her, or, had wronged her in some way or form, on fire.” Cake took out the crown of Celestia as she talked, waving it around like a trinket. 

“You were tasked with building a bomb that could show the world a glimpse of the power of the sun. And you did, almost. When I took Canterlot you were far too valuable to kill, in your own words. And you were absolutely fucking right. And that's where your side of the story comes in Twilight. You see, Twilight here was a grand inquisitor for the Empress. Burning alive thestrals, and whatnot. The two of you were once some of my greatest enemies but we shared a bond in hate. The bomb wasn't quite ready yet, I held off the Changelings and lost all but one of my fucking friends while you two sat in bunkers just like this making it. We deployed the first one via suitcase in Vesapolis, the Changeling capitol. We fried millions of them at the press of a button.” Cake sighed and looked at the ceiling and down at the floor. “It was supposed to be me who was to deliver it, but Daffodilly insisted she could. I know she wanted revenge. I thought I was giving it to her, a way for her to give back to the changelings the only bit of family they had taken from her when we fried their queen into a fucking shadow on her desk…” 

Yellow put a hoof over Cake’s shoulder. “We would have all taken that bomb, Daffodilly knew what she had signed up for.” 

Cake nodded and paused for a moment before continuing. “We had crippled them, humiliated them, but by then they already had Canterlot. They wanted to keep fighting for their beloved queen, and what little bit of ‘honor’ those shape shifters had left. So, we… you two, got creative. Dirty bombs, nerve gas, bioweapons. We would terror bomb schools and level cities. We had no morals left in us; labor camps were becoming extermination camps… by the time the last of the changelings finally surrendered it was too late. Winter had begun, there wasn't any love for them to take from us anymore, and no food for us to eat besides… them.” Cake laughed; it was a fine irony that she took pride in. Twilight looked at her in disgust, Minty vomited. Tool Belt shook his head. 

“I- you know that is rather enlightening. I didn't forget because I felt guilty! I did it so no pony could get those old blueprints, in case the griffins came.” Atom shook his head. “This whole time, our biggest threat was those cows laying in their own blood.” 

Twilight shook her head; she was contorting her face. “I wanted something… from this. I wanted to go back, back to what? What was I before… before Daybreaker? I know that wasn't me. I know this isn't me…” 

“You were destined for good at one point. Something changed in you when Daybreaker… appeared? Manifested? You and I were practically nemeses, I would try to kill you, you would set little traps for me… then one day Daybreaker noticed one of your friends, um… yellow... Pink hair… Fluttershy! She noticed that she was going behind enemy lines into Nightmare Moon's half of Equestria and patching up enemy combatants, then suddenly you decided to be Twilight again. Um, what was that name you were going by?” 

“Sunrise.” Twilight took in a deep breath and then began to shed small tears. “She made me call myself that.”

“Well, you insisted before we began all of this… two years ago that I hold onto this for you. I meant to give it to Yellow Diamond once we checked on Unicornia to hang onto, but it was always yours.” Cake handed her the photograph. It was of a group of six mares, all standing proudly next to one another, each one a different shade of pastel with Twilight in the center with a large smile on her face. 

“My friends… they- they can't all be gone.” Twilight whimpered as she sat down onto the concrete, narrowly avoiding Mintys vomit. She ran her hoof over the old, faded photograph before hugging it as she closed her eyes and cried. 

“I’ll spare you the details, but the only one I can't say for certain is… the white one. I saw Applejack die in front of me, we were cousins.” Cake rubbed her mane awkwardly.

“If that's all, we gotta get back onto the matter at hoof here Cake.” Yellow whispered. 

“Just a moment, Yellow.” Cake brushed her off. “If any of you do want to remember, and we could really use your help in making sure we don't all freeze to death, please raise your hoof.” 

Atom raised his with a frown as he took off his hat and tossed it onto the ground. levitating out the plastic card and stuffing it into his jacket. “Don't really want to have to clean grease out of my coat again, Yellow.” Atom Hissed. Yellow stuck her tongue out at him tauntingly. 

Twilight weakly raised her head to look at Cake, she took one more look at the photo and then shook her head. Minty was still on the ground, crying and dry heaving. “Well then! Tell me the terrible news about this crystal situation, Yellow!” Cake exclaimed, turning her body to face the pegasus and trying to focus her disappointment onto something else other than Twilight’s response. 

Yellow did the same and took a deep breath. “The reactor at the bottom of the silo has suffered some kind of failure, the backup crystals are still functional, but the one it's trying to draw power from is… exploded and rewarped. Basically, imagine a melted battery that's spewing out acid, sort of.” She waved the bad explanation away with her hoof. “Look, the reactor is pulling energy from it, but not enough, and it's spewing out raw magic. Once it's… fixed, we can turn the pumps back on and have the weather machine working in less than thirty minutes, if tool belt can remember how everything works.” 

“I’m not all there, Miss Diamond, but I'm sure I can fix some pegasus machinery.” Atom scoffed. 

“And… as for the bad news, somepony has to go down there into the water and get the crystal, or whatever shards are left in the chamber, out. And going off the readings in admin, they probably won't be coming back up. The water is boiling. It's a mystery it isn't a sauna down here.” 

Cake sighed. “The water… The water was cold as ice when I was in it. The vapor must be going out through the vents while ice is being melted and poured in. That's why the water levels aren't rising at an extreme rate. Strongheart said she was trying to fix things; she was covered in burns…” 

Yellow sighed, and then shook her head. “What are your orders, commander?” 

Cake put a hoof on her shoulder. “Congratulations Yellow, I am promoting you to Commander of Octo Squad, by the powers invested in me by my former commander, Shining Armor. But before I do, I have one final set of orders for you. Take everypony and put them together under one site, you can use Unicornia, Ponyville, whatever. Just bring them all close.” 

Yellow put her hoof up to Cakes lips. “Now is for the very, very bad news. The back up crystals do not have enough power to keep the device working, even with the elements of harmony it would still take a lot of energy to keep the suppression field on. It would just be…” Yellow signaled to the three ponies on the other side of the hallway vaguely. “...that, every week. In short, we are very likely fucked. Sorry, but it looks like none of you are forgetting.” Yellow said, shrugging at Twilight who was looking back at her and like she had just been shot. “But… when the windigo’s were here, it was much, much colder. By all accounts this winter isn't actually made by them, it's the malfunctioning weather machine. We may not need them to forget!” 

Cake looked back over at Twilight who was now staring back at the photo again. Her face was contorting between the five stages of grief, as she began to shake. The longer she looked at them the worse she got. “I guess that's… something. My order still stands Yellow. You are in charge now, I need to go down there and get that crystal out, get ready to move those 3 back to town, come back here and clean up. And… I’m sorry for the grenade thing. I intended to clean that up myself.” 

“F- first time I've ever been unhappy about a promotion…” Yellow looked away, trying to repress any emotions she had about it. Tide put his hoof down in front of Cake and stopped her as the mare was turning to walk away from them.

“Commander… let me do this. Let me do something good and honest. They’re going to need you a hell of a lot more than they’re going to need a washed-up smuggler.” Tide pleaded. 

“Tide, I am insulted that you would dare try to steal my glory, my one chance to let me finally end this nightmare that I have been living in for the last decade of my life. If you so much as try to stop me from taking this opportunity to maybe not burn for eternity in hell, I will dislocate all four of your knees.” Cake pushed his hoof away with her magic. And trotted a few meters down the hallway then stopped. “Oh, um, not everypony gets to have a final peace or.. Leave some words behind.” She took off her saddle bags and turned around, tossing them onto the floor in front of Yellow Diamond. “I think you all already know that everything I did was for you. I did it for Equestria. Admittedly, I knew that the Equestria we were promised we would one day retire and go home to was a load of horse shit before they sent me on my first black op... But I don't believe it's a fable when I see all of you, what I've seen us accomplish. We fought and many of us lost friends fighting for that dream. A dream where maybe we can live in harmony. So… live on, for you. Not for them, not for me, but for you. You deserve to be happy, all of you do. Let go of the past and build the future you fought for.” Cake turned and trotted down into the hall. She could hear them murmuring, and mostly Minty sobbing along with... Yellow as well. She had to keep going. She pressed onwards back down into the ice-cold water, focusing on the thought of where she was going. It was going to be hot, very hot. Hell or the sands of Appleoosa, either or. That was fine with her, as long as it wasn't cold she could accept it. The next and final flight of stairs was completely flooded. She used her magic to give herself an air bubble around her head, but she was always a weak swimmer. The lights on this floor were completely out, she used her horn to light the way. Only halfway through and she could feel the water getting warmer, thankfully, as she took her extra breath and dropped the air bubble.  Little objects left behind floated around in the water. canned goods, office chairs, and coffee mugs. Coffee, she was excited to try that again, hopefully. She didn't like it very much when it was around, maybe she didn't appreciate all those little things properly. She made a mental note to revisit things she didn't like as she kept doggy paddling through the water. Finally, she had made it just as she felt herself going lightheaded. The reactor room was huge, there were three cores aligned on the walls, she didn't know which one was the main one so she decided to go to the one that would be boiling her skin off the most, she swam off to it and began to squirm under the heat, she wanted to yelp but thought opening her mouth would be a terrible idea with how hot the water was, it it wasn't for her magic making a pair of force field goggles she probably have had her eyes burning out of her skull by now. Slowly she opened the door on the far left with her magic, hardly able to focus. The crystal inside was fine, of course... It would be the one on the far right. Cake achingly swam over to the other side of the room; she would have to get in closer now to focus through the pain of her coat being melted onto her flesh. Again, a perfectly fine crystal. ‘It's always the last one you check’ she thought to herself as her magic began to sputter, her magic failed just for a moment as the burning hot water scalded her eyes, she couldn't hold back now, she screamed out in pain, silently into the water and she tried to cover her eyes with her hooves. She knew it was pointless, but still tried one last effort to finish what she had come to do, paddling over to the last core she hadn't checked. She pawed around feeling for. Finally, her hoof hit the handle of the door and she reactively pulled away, using her last bit of magic to open it. she wanted to scream again but she had no air left in her lungs, instead she decided to just accept it. She came down here to die, to sacrifice herself like so many before her. Still, she had a small glimmer of pride left that she would just use her magic to remove the crystal, not taking into account her own terrible luck. With one final act of strength, she reached out and grabbed the crystal and pulled it from its slot. It had been done. she … had peace now. Not really, she was writhing at this point, squirming and trying to scream as she felt her hooves beginning to turn into goop from the brief exposure. Then, she felt nothing at all. The white unicorn, what was left of her, slowly floated down onto the floor and the last thing she heard was the pumps kicking to life.