//------------------------------// // The Island of Dr. Skinsaw! Vol.1 // Story: Fallout Equestria: Dark Shores // by SwimmingEagle //------------------------------// The waves splashing against the docks were a welcome sound. It had been three whole days since I had been in the water. Normally I’d be doing a movie marathon to get to this stage of dryness. Amphibious I may be, but being out of the water for extended periods of time is at the very least unsettling to my kind. There hasn’t been a single reported case of dehydration among my kind, and I think we like to keep it that way. That said, I couldn’t just throw my cloak off and dive off the pier. We still had to load all our things back onto the Poseidon. Although somepony, who shall remain nameless, had much more to load because she has a warped sense of packing light. “You do not need a cooler!” “I have strict nutritional requirements that require refrigeration.” Sugar Rush stated flatly. Sorbet took a peek inside and immediately scowled. “Ice cream, Seriously? Of all the things you could bring, you’re bringing ice cream.” “Why are you making such a big fuss outta this?” “Because, Missy, we are going onto a boat, made out of palm trees and surf boards. We can’t fit half a machine shop and your bloody ice box on it!” Sorbet said, jabbing her hoof into Sugar Rush’s chest. My eyes scanned the other five boxes Sugar Rush decided to bring with her. Each one was filled to the brim with tools, scrap metal, and I think a few spare limbs. They were certainly heavy enough. I lifted a crate of supplies from the pier onto the Poseidon, and I tucked the box under our brand new ‘cabin’. Our old ‘living quarters’ consisted of a glorified pavilion tent. Now, we had a roof that ran the length of the length of the ship, a trio of masts for our sails, and a proper rudder made of wood and not stuffed Radshark fins. All of this was courtesy of the local shipwrights of the harbor. How Sorbet managed to convince them to give us a new customer discount, I’ll never know. The arguing was giving me a headache, so I did what any good Samaritan would do. Remove the subject of the argument. “Ice cream doesn’t weigh anything when it’s gone. If Sugar shares it with us it’ll be gone in no time, then we can stick other perishables in there. It’s an investment, not an indulgence.” I reasoned to the mares. Sorbet looked up, silently mulling over my logic. Sugar Rush however looked like I just crushed her feelings. “B-but that’s supposed to last me a whole week! I’ll die without it!” Sugar Rush looked like she was about to cry right then and there. I would have fallen for it, if Éclair didn’t pull that trick all the time. She was far more adept at it than this full grown mare. “We’ll be back in three days. You can stock back up then. You’ve also got a box of snack cakes on board to tide you over if we’re late.” I responded. A quivering whimper squeaked from Sugar Rush. Her bottom lip flexed into the biggest frown her face could hold. I rolled my eyes and uttered the finisher. “Éclair would probably love you forever if you let her have some of it,” I said, smiling. I took a glance at Éclair, who was flipping through a comic book that I doubt we ever got her. Sugar Rush, meanwhile, was puffing her cheeks with her hooves crossed. She shot me a glare that evoked the image of a filly pouting that her parents wouldn’t let her ride the Ferris wheel. I looked back at Sorbet. She rolled her eyes and exhaled sharply. She grabbed one end of the cooler and motioned Sugar Rush to assist her. The cybermare obliged, hoisting up her end of the cooler. The two mares hauled the icebox onto the Poseidon. I pulled out a few silver coins and held them up. “One shilling, in the sun we trust” was embossed on the side with the image of a diamond on the side. I smiled and levitated to a mustachioed dock hand. He returned my smile and collected the coins. “Pleasure doing business with ye. Come back soon,” he said, shaking my hoof. He then got into the pilot’s seat of Sugar Rush’s Jack Rabbit. Sugar Rush herself walked up next to me. “Keep him out of the rain! He’s liable to rust,” she called out to the dock hand. He nodded and kicked the half-track motorcycle on. He drove it towards the end of the dock with a dull roar all the way. “Right, that’s everything. Let’s embark, shall we?” I said to her. She smirked and boarded The Poseidon. I untied the rope mooring us to the dock and boarded myself. “Full sail!” I called out. Our three sails opened up in their entirety. I quickly took the wheel when the wind shoved us forward with a jolt. The Poseidon cut the waves in half as we, in no time flat, were away from the dock and on the open sea. “Sorbet, what’s our heading?” I asked her. She was tracing her hoof over the map while looking at a compass. “North-West-West!” she responded, pointing to our starboard bow. I turned the wheel to the right, and The Poseidon made a half circle turn in response. The sails began to droop slightly, as less wind was going directly into the sail. “First mate Éclair! Take the wheel if you please,” I called out to her. She scampered up to me, carrying a stool on her back. She slid the stool up to the wheel and climbed up on top of it. “Steady as she goes until I say otherwise,” I ordered her. She smiled and took hold of the wheel. “Aye Cap’n!” She saluted me in an adorably over the top fashion. I walked over to the starboard side, grabbed a ball of knotted twine with a wooden stick tied to one end, and tossed the wood stick overboard and counted to thirty. I grabbed the unraveling twine and pulled the wood stick back onto the boat, counting the knots as I did so. “We’re sailing at a speed of six knots,” I said aloud as soon as I was done. “How long until we get there?” Sorbet looked back at the map, and then rolled her eyes to the top of her head. She started mouthing words while drawing in the air with her hoof. “Well, if we keep this speed we should get there in six hours,” she answered. “Plenty of time to go over the game plan.” “Sounds good.” I walked over to where the two mares were sitting. Sorbet rolled out a paper which had a blown up version of Target Island drawn in colored pencil. It had a grid overlaid on it representing longitude and latitude in blue, and a red dot in the center of the island. “Okay, let’s make sure everypony is on the same page. Sugar Rush, I already told you we were doing a salvage mission on Target Island but it’s a little bit more complicated than that.” “I figured as much, you don’t offer forty percent and first pick of the loot for a scav job. Even if the job is in a deathtrap.” Sugar Rush leaned her head on her cyberarm. “We have reason to believe that a laboratory similar to the one in the bank is here.” Sorbet pointed her hoof at the red dot on the map. “What do you think is there?” “A prototype regarding research of great interest to me and the ponies I represent. Real ground breaking stuff, even if the specifics are vague.” Sorbet answered. Sugar Rush raised an eyebrow. “What if this turns out to be a wild goose chase?” she asked. “Then our secondary objective becomes our primary objective. Take everything of value that we can fit on the boat.” Sorbet smirked. Sugar Rush blinked a couple times, and then made the mother of all mischievous grins. “Bitchin!” She was nodding in increasing agreement. “Now remember, if we do find something pertaining to the research, you’re under a non-disclosure contract,” Sorbet reminded her. “Yeah, yeah, mum’s the word.” “Right, we’ll park off the coast to assess the island from a distance,” Sorbet said, drawing a circle on the map with her hoof. “Maybe we can avoid any unexploded ordnance altogether.” “We should also do an equipment check,” Sugar Rush said. “I saw the Haz suits in the back there and if one of those is for me, then it’ll need to be modified for these.” She began wiggling her cyberarms like noodles. Sorbet nodded. “Yeah, good idea.” “Well if you gals are going to be doing that, I’m going for a swim.” I chimed in. Sugar Rush suddenly looked concerned. “But we’re going almost full burn in a boat, you’ll fall behi-” She stopped abruptly as I slapped my tail on the table. “Oh, right.” “I’ll be back soon,” I said, undoing my cloak and armor. With a running start, I leapt over the starboard side and straight into the drink. I blew all the air out of my lungs and inhaled as much water as I could fit in there. It felt invigorating. Then again, it always feels good to breathe water after not doing so for a while. I let my fins stretch out like nature intended. I spun around, did a flip, and a barrel roll. Now that was out of the way, it was high time to get to the real reason I jumped in the ocean. It was time I met some of my kin. I took a deep breath, and sang out at the top of my lungs. I waited for a moment. Then, to my right, I heard a tenor voice sing back. I swam towards the sound full tilt. Interesting little science fact for you, sound travels really well in water. It travels about four times faster and farther than it does in air. Combine this little tidbit with vocal pipes designed for water and you’ve got long distance shouting. Though we usually just sing notes to each other. That way, above the water, it just sounds like we’re whales or dolphins. Thankfully, it didn’t take long to reach my duet partner. Or rather partners, in this case. The pair of seaponies didn’t look like any tribe I recognized. They were two stallions, one light red, the other one a muddy yellow. The yellow one had a large cylinder strapped to his back, and the red one had a triple barreled harpoon gun hooked up to what looked like a homemade battle saddle. They both swam nearby and waved a hoof. “Hello, brothers, what brings you in these waters?” I asked the pair. The red one gave me an appraising glance then nodded. “As a matter of fact, you’re the reason we’re out here, Riptide of the Reef,” he replied smirking. His voice was very high for a pony of his size. “Really now?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “I am Oyster, and this is Dagger Fish of the Ghost Waves. We’re couriers. Your surface friend named Thespian contacted us with the ritual you provided him,” The yellow one explained. “Oh good, he did it right. I take it you're heading to the Reef then. Since you're already heading there, would mind delivering this for me?” I pulled out a letter sealed in a plastic bag. “Who is to receive this?” “Hollow Bones, my mentor and the tribe’s shaman.” “Very well, I’ll deliver it as soon as I get there,” Oyster replied, snatching the floating letter. “It must be nice, having surface trade. The most we get are shipwrecks. While they’re more common where we live, they aren’t the most reliable of sources.” “You could talk to Hollow Bones, and see if they can set your tribe up with a trade route,” I suggested to them. Dagger Fish rubbed his chin, and then looked at his companion. Oyster shrugged in response to him. “I think we might just do that. But, we’d need to speak to our chief first. Don’t want to screw over the whole tribe just because we peons think it’s a good idea.” “Fair enough. I have to leave now. My companions are probably starting to worry about me. I hope your travels fare well.” “Same to you, brother.” Oyster smiled as they began swimming off. “Try not to get too popular!” I snorted as soon as they were a fair bit away. Great, now that my folks are prospering, everypony wants in on the deal. I swam away towards Target Island. The Poseidon would be on the way. I saw the multicolored surf board bottom of The Poseidon fairly quickly. I did my best impression of a dolphin as I drew near to it. I burst from the water the water, gaging the angle of the jump I needed. I leapt up out of the water and landed on the forward deck. Sorbet was nearby, cleaning her rifle out with an old toothbrush and some oil. “Oh you’re baaaaaa…” Her mouth slowly gaped as she began staring at me. “What?” I was genuinely puzzled at her expression. Sugar Rush and Éclair walked up next to hear similarly wide eyed. “I thought it would be like that, but I did not expect this!” Sugar Rush exclaimed in either shock or amazement. “It’s so big!” Éclair said bluntly. “What the hell are you all talking about?” I asked. Sorbet shook her head and spoke up. “Your… mane is huge!” she blurted out. I looked up and saw the problem. My braids had come undone. My mane was now a very long wet mess that extended well past my tail. “Son of a… This will take forever to fix!” ---- ---- ---- ---- It took a painstaking two hours to re-braid and compress every strand of my mane back into its required style. I did trim it a little bit, just a few inches. The shaman’s braids are supposed to help instill a sense of patience and meticulousness. Personally, I think it’s just annoying. It looks awesome when it’s done though. “There she is! Land ho!” Sugar Rush pointed off our starboard bow. I walked up next to her, squinting in that general direction. The portion of the horizon she was pointing at was obscured by a thick mist. I could faintly see the outline. It looked like a hill with jagged outcroppings. Sorbet pulled out a rifle scope and peered through it. “Yeah that’s it. Éclair, change our course. Head north,” Sorbet called. “Yes, mum!” The little filly turned the wheel to the right. The light turn in gravity almost made the stool she was standing on slide out from under her. “Riptide, do you think you can swim ahead and find us a good place to park?” Sorbet asked me. “You got it, boss! Be back in a-” I was halfway over the bow when I saw three dead fish floating past. Sorbet trotted up next to me. “What’s up?” I pulled out my spear and skewered one of the dead fish. I pulled the fish close and gave it an appraising lick. I instantly balked at the high iron taste. “I think we’ll have to just sail up to it.” I shoved the fish back into the water. “That thing died of blood poisoning. Of the radioactive kind.” “The water is radioactive then? Should we be suiting up?” Sorbet asked. Sugar Rush walked up to us. “Nah, if it was radioactive enough to affect us here in the boat, we would all be hearing tick tick tickty right about now,” Sugar Rush explained. “I figure it’s just heavy water.” “Meaning?” Sorbet asked, gesturing for her to continue. “Meaning, unless you start drinking it, you’ll be fine,” I continued for her. “Or in my case, breathe it.” Sorbet rubbed her chin with her hoof. As she was mulling over the new information our destination grew closer. The Island itself and what was on it were now visible to the unassisted eye. Target Island was surrounded by ship wreckage. Whether they were mock targets for the navy or unlucky salvagers was anypony’s guess. The island was also covered in wreckage and rubble. Mock-ups of tanks, trench fortifications, and other targets worthy of bombardment were all in varying degrees of blown up. Suddenly a sharp hissing noise broke the silence. I looked towards the source to find a rubber boat slowly inflating. Sorbet was steadily unfolding it as it filled up. “We have a life raft?” “Apparently not having a life raft is against regulations in Diamond Harbor. So they gave us one during the refit,” Sorbet said while lowering the raft into the water. “Éclair, fold up the sails. We’re going in. “Should we also anchor?” I asked Sorbet. The kid was rolling up all three sails. That would make us go to almost a complete stop. “No, we’re going to use the raft to pull us to the island. Then we anchor. The wind is against us and you can’t get out and push.” Sorbet looped a rope through my harness to drag the ship, and tied that rope to the raft. Sugar Rush was looking very worriedly at the raft. “Is it a bad time to mention I can’t swim?” Sugar Rush said sheepishly. “It’s okay! Mum and I can’t swim either!” Éclair answered from atop the forward mast. “Yeah, but I sink like a rock. I weigh about two and a half ponies. I dunno if that raft can hold me,” Sugar Rush continued. “It’s rated for eight adults. Éclair is about a half, and then there is myself and Riptide. Counting you, that makes five of us. Quit your belly aching,” Sorbet said flatly and shoved Sugar Rush onto the raft. It wobbled in the water for a couple moments, but failed to sink like Sugar Rush had feared. She still glared fiercely at Sorbet. “Right, Éclair I need you to stay on the wheel. In case we need to steer,” Sorbet said to her daughter as she stepped onto the raft. Éclair did a mock salute and trotted back up to the wheel. I joined the mares in the raft. Sorbet passed out paddles to everypony. We started rowing. Slowly, we came up to a pair of ships that ran ashore, locked in place by decades of tide. They were ironclad sailing ships. More accurately, rust clad sailing ships. The positioning of these two ships made them an adequate dock for the Poseidon. One by one, we clambered back onto the Poseidon, pulling the raft with us. We made a lasso with the rope we tied the raft up with and used it to latch us onto our impromptu dock. Sorbet tossed a few pasty white lumps of clothing in front of everypony. “Suit up, everypony! I don’t want to take any chances with this island,” she ordered while slipping into her own hazard suit. I pulled out my purple vial of Rad-blocker and uncorked the stopper. I closed my eyes and downed the whole thing. It was minty in flavor but it bubbled and burned all the way down. My eyes started to water. After a few less than comfortable second, the sensation passed. “Six hours, starting…. now!” I managed to croak out. “Let’s try to find the for certain rad free spots if we’re going to stay for an extended period. This little brew is only going to last 6 hours.” I wiped the tears from my eyes and shook my head. Sorbet nodded and fiddled around with her PipBuck. Sugar Rush snapped in place her clear glass helmet with her cyberarms. Éclair was bouncing up and down in her own little suit, which was covered in pink butterflies. The three ladies strapped saddle bags over their suits. “Right, I’ll take point. If anything looks like it could explode, point it out,” Sorbet said while strapping a large pole-like contraption to her saddle. It had a round black ceramic disk at the end. She boarded the marooned ship. The rest of the girls soon followed. I removed my cloak and stuffed it in a box. No real need to take it with me. Especially since it would have just gotten caught on a mortar and killed us all. Sorbet walked ahead of us, slowly waving the black disk in a wide arc as we moved forward. A dull high pitch could be heard as she went over a chunk of metal. We would see divots and craters in the ground as we walked. No doubt the result of naval ordnance pounding into the ground. One of the craters stood out to me as we passed it. It looked like somepony had pressed a huge crude glass bowl into the ground. Éclair was looking at it too with a tilted head. “What did that?” Éclair pointed at the glass crater. I saw Sugar Rush look over to it as well. “Plasma Charge. The explosion superheated the sand and turned it into glass,” she explained. “So that’s how you make glass? Heating it up?” Éclair continued. Sugar Rush shrugged with her cyberarm. “Essentially, yeah.” I looked ahead to Sorbet who was just a few feet ahead of the rest of us. We were walking near what looked like a prefabricated bunker. There was a gigantic hole torn through the side of it. I leaned towards it. A giant cylinder was embedded in the floor of the bunker. A puddle of brown liquid pooled around the shell. I backed away from it swiftly. “Yeah, that might just explode.” I pointed towards the inside of the bunker. Sorbet pointed at it with her PipBuck. “That’s definitely a bomb with a big boom. It’s not radioactive, at least. Let’s keep moving. I don’t want to be within its blast radius.” Sorbet moved back to the head of the group. I trotted up to her. “How much farther?” I asked her. She stole a quick glance at her Pipbuck. “Not much farther,” Sorbet replied. “I’d start looking for something that could be an entrance.” “Easier said than done.” Sugar Rush pointed ahead. Veritable piles of bombed up vehicles and structures were ahead of us. We approached the cluster of wreckage slowly, halting abruptly every time Sorbet’s metal detector gave off a screech. The ordnance targets were filled with life size dummies painted to look like zebras. We froze at the persistent screech of the detector. Sorbet’s eyes furrowed as she followed the signal up and down. Sorbet pointed at the ground. “Sugar, I need you to dig whatever this is up.” “Are you nuts!? I’m not digging up any bomb!” “I’m fairly certain its not a bomb. It’s too long and too thin to be one. It’s most likely a cord or something.” “Ever hear of a little thing called Det-cord? That’s an explosive long thin thing!” “And Det-cord doesn’t have metal in it. Please? You don’t even have to pull it out.” Sorbet nudged Sugar Rush’s rump. “… okay, but if my arms blow up, you’re paying for replacements.” Sugar rush shuffled to the area Sorbet pointed at and gingerly scraped away the dirt with her cyberarms’ claws. However, when her arms had barely dug into the ground, a clink resounded in the air. “The hell?” She leaned in closer, her cyberarm drawing back what she had unearthed. “It’s a chain.” She pulled the chain higher so that the rest of the group could see. “Who the hell buries a chain?” Sorbet scratched her chin with a hoof. I leaned in to get a closer look as well. The chain looked to be leading closer to the mass of wrecked vehicles ahead of us, while also leading back where we came. “It might be a path marker. Bury a chain so that you can find your way past the explosives but not let anypony else figure out.” I offered to Sorbet. She tried to put her hoof to her chin, but all she got was hazmat helmet. She shrugged. “Worth a shot.” She began pulling up the chain. The thin earth parted as the length of the chain extended inland. Our pace quickened. We followed the chain onward for at least half an hour. We came upon a collection of vehicles. Tanks, Auto-wagons, wagons, and even a train engine were strewn about. Most of them were half buried in the ground. The others were shot to pieces. Suddenly, Sorbet stopped. She let the chain drop to the ground, and swept the metal detector in front of the chain’s path. She wrapped the loose chain around her hooves and yanked on it. The chain rattled violently as Sorbet put more of her weight on the chain. I clenched everything I could on reflex. Suddenly, Sorbet flew past my face. No loud bang. No searing heat. No shrapnel. Just a middle aged mare cartwheeling backwards onto her ass because she pulled something out of the ground. It was really hard not to laugh. So I did the exact opposite and busted a gut. After shooting me a glare that could melt through metal, Sorbet looked at the chain and the small divot in the ground. “End of the road,” she said while getting her hooves back under her. “If this is a path marker, like you said, our entrance should be near.” I looked around. We were surrounded by old tanks and long canvas-covered trucks minus the canvas. I puzzled my puzzler. If I were a mad scientist working on top secret experimental technology, where would I hide my lab? “Well,” I said, “the best place to look would be in, on, or under these wrecks.” “One step ahead of you,” Éclair called out from the tip of a tank barrel twenty yards away. She was balancing on it by her tippy hooves. I could feel something boil up. It was angry, with a pervasive theme of worry creeping up the back of my neck. “Eclairetta Rosewood! You get down from there this instant!” Sorbet shouted. Ah, yes. Maternal instinct… “Mom, I think I see where it is!” “Get down or I’ll-… You do? Point it out!” Sorbet responded. Éclair dutifully pointed behind the tank’s chassis. We jogged over to the ruined tank. Éclair slid down the barrel of the tank like it was a staircase railing. We rounded the edge of the tank to find… ... a Bushwhacker camper trailer. It seemed perfectly ordinary. In fact, it was almost immaculate, save the wheels being on blocks and a few centuries of rain and wind damage. Not a single bullet hole to be seen. I walked to the door and knocked on it. “You expecting somepony to be home?” Sugar Rush said. “You never know,” I replied calmly. I then just as calmly kicked in the door. The door flew off the hinges and lodged itself into the other side of the camper. Aside from the remnants of centuries old upholstery, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. This is, of course, if you ignored the obvious trap door in the middle of the floor. Sugar Rush stepped forward, flexing her cyberarms. “Right, let’s pop the cork.” She dug her tri-pointed claws into the seam of the trapdoor. With a metallic screech, the door lifted free. The hole belched out cold air and dust. The cloud remained in the air for a few moments before dissipating. I smirked. “Well that was dramat-AAACHOOO!” I sneezed. “Bless you,” Éclair chirped through her mask. Sorbet stuck her hoof into the darkness. Her PipBuck’s light did little to push back the black. It did reveal a pulley and a chain descending into the darkness. I wrapped the pulley in my magic and began turning it. The chain rattled and clanked as it tugged upon something heavy. I felt a twinge of pain in the back of my neck. Whatever it was wasn’t meant to be moved manually. Finally, the light revealed what I was pulling. It was a wide platform with a lever next to the chain. Up and down arrows were painted in both directions the lever could go. After a minute of pulling, the platform docked with the entrance of the trap door. Sugar Rush warily stepped onto the lift first. She shifted her weight around the whole platform. “Seems sturdy. Let’s take her down.” She beckoned the rest of us on with a cyberarm. After we all got on, she pulled the lever to the down position. With a jolt, we shot down into the darkness. Wind rushed past us as we fell. With a clang, we jolted again. We did not stop, but we slowed down considerably. I ran my hooves over myself. After I was satisfied that my heart was still in my chest and not on the roof of my mouth like I feared, I sighed in relief. A clunk resounded in the empty chamber as we stopped moving. The platform had reached the floor. “Well, that was fun,” Sugar Rush said in between gasps for air. Sorbet could only glare at her. Éclair, however, was her usual bouncy self. “Let’s do that again!” she cheered. Sorbet shook herself before stepping off. “Not now, sweetie.” Midnight blue light emanated from my horn, painting the chamber in a cool light. Sugar Rush was looking upwards. I followed her gaze. A small speck of light was above us, no bigger than a playing card. “How far down are we?” I asked to no one in particular. “My guess is at least four stories. Don’t really have a ruler on me though,” she said, scanning the shaft we had descended. “These walls are probably lined with lead.” “You have X-Ray vision!” Éclair exclaimed. Sugar Rush chuckled. “No, X-ray cameras in my eyes would probably give me cancer. But I do have heat vision!” Sugar rush said polishing the metal on her left foreleg. I saw Éclair’s eyes go wide enough to be in danger of falling out of their sockets. Sorbet looked at her daughter with a smile. “I think she means she has thermographic cameras in her eyes,” Sorbet said, “So she can see heat signatures. Not shoot heat out of her eyes like your comics.” “Only slightly less cool!” Éclair responded. I smiled, then took a closer look at our surroundings. The bottom of the shaft we were in was only slightly larger than the platform lift we took down. The walls were made of a black dull metal. Directly in front of us was a sizeable metal door. They seemed to be very thick and heavy. A dusty keypad was attached to the wall next to it. “Sugar, do you think you can get this open?” I gestured to the door. She trotted over to the door. She stood there, unblinking, for a half a minute. I saw her eyes darting left, right, up, down, and sideways. Her mouth formed words but she said nothing. Finally she blinked and looked back to me. “This is usually when I bust out The Excavator. Buuut, seeing as you put a dagger through the focus matrix…” she started before shaking her head. “Anyways, the keypad is cold. Even low voltage wiring has some heat running through it. So there’s no power. All that said, however, the door looks hydraulic. Meaning there should be a manual bypass.” She walked closer to the keypad. Her claws dug into the sides of it. With a grunt, she yanked the keypad out of the wall. Small fragments of metal fell to the ground like dust. Wires and small hoses stuck out of the newly formed hole. Sugar Rush snaked her cyberarm into the hole and placed her ear against the wall. “Let’s see… Here we go!” She shifted her weight downward. A heavy metal clang resounded through the shaft. The door split open at the seam. Sugar continued shifting her weight in different directions, tugging about behind the wall. Slowly but surely, the door opened wide. I shined my light forward. For a split second I thought I was in an airport scene from a B action flick. Several paths marked by rope barriers were laid out before us. There were several waystations in this labyrinth of lines. I saw a portable shower at one, and a walk through metal detector at another. A conveyor belt ran into a passage to the right. There were three doors. One next to the one we entered from, one across the room and another to our left. “We had something like this back home,” Sorbet said after observing the room. “Just after you got past the Stable door, you had a decontamination station and a security check point. This looks about the same, if a bit less streamlined.” She lifted her PipBuck up to her face and fiddled around with some of the dials. “If this place is built like a Stable, then some things should be set up similarly,” she continued. “There is probably a power station and a security room nearby.” A rush of air along with a harsh screeching came from behind me. I whipped around to see Sugar Rush prying open the door next to the entrance. She peered inside. “Security room,” she said flatly. “Auxiliary power room!” I heard Éclair’s voice from across the room. I looked over to see Éclair waving her glowing PipBuck-laden arm. “Sorbet, put a bell around the kid’s neck! We’re gonna end up losing track of her,” I said to Sorbet. “Two for two, by the way. Nice call.” You’d have to be looking closely to see it, but she was definitely smirking behind that glass helmet. “Right, let’s check out that power station. Maybe we can get some bloody lights up and running,” Sorbet said as she trotted over to her daughter. Sugar Rush and I followed suit. With another loud screech, we pried the door open. We shined our collective lights into the power room. It would be more apt to say it was a power hall. The area we just opened was a long chamber, half filled with what looked like a jet engine fused to the ground. Sugar Rush trotted ahead of us. Her head was locked in position, staring directly at the engine-like device along the hall. She stopped about a third of the way to the end of the power hall. “Hydroelectric generator. Probably only used once or twice. Parts are still in decent condition. Just needs a little charge to kick it back into gear. Which…” She reached into her saddle bag and pulled out something that looked like a step bike pump, “…I can do.” She pulled a pair of wires from the pump thing and strung them along a thing that looked like a long light bulb. She then started pumping the bike pump. Due to the dark, I could see miniscule sparks coming from the pump. I could hear something tiny spinning with each pump. “Should be good aaaaaaand…” She disconnected the wires and pulled a lever. A winding roar resounded in the hall. The room grew brighter and brighter as the lights in the ceiling remembered their purpose. I began to feel a slight breeze come from the vents. “Celestia raises the sun!” Sugar Rush said triumphantly, cyberarms raised. With a small hiss, a door opened behind Sugar Rush. She looked behind her and her ears perked up. “Oh, cool!” she rushed into the door. I jogged up to the door to see what the fuss was about. She was in a hallway with a long glass window. Peering into the window, I saw the other end of the conveyor belt from earlier. Several robotic arms were suspended from the ceiling. At the end of the conveyor belt was a glass chamber with smaller robot arms. Sugar Rush turned her head towards me, beaming widely. “It’s a salvage station! They’d bring any goodies from the surface down here. And if they were explosive they’d disarm them in that glass chamber.” She started prancing down the hallway looking at the machinery like she was in a toy store. The hallway wrapped around the chamber before hitting another door. The door did not slide open automatically like the previous one. Sugar Rush pressed a button next to the door. The door barely made any noise at all when it slid open. The room ahead was very dimly lit, just enough that you could see your own hoof in front of your face. It was noticeably colder in this room and the air smelled stale. Sorbet and Éclair walked in before me. Their PipBuck lights made it slightly easier to see. I shined my own light into the room. The room was full of pillars covered in shelves that rose to just above eye level. The pillars were laden with the most random of things. Lockets, bent bits, old toys, and other such nick-knacks made up the majority of them. There wasn’t any real order or pattern to the arrangement of junk. I made it to the wall of the room. Then everything made sense. The entire wall was covered in photos. At least one pony was in each one. Each photo had a name and two dates separated by a dash. “It’s a memorial.” I heard Sorbet say off in the distance. I looked over to where I heard her voice. As soon as I did, I got a cold feeling in my gut. Something caught my eye next to one of the pillars. I walked closer. “No,” I said, staring at the corpse on the ground. Its dead eyes stared right back at me. “This is a tomb.”