//------------------------------//
// Chapter Sixteen: Gun Runners 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Shades of Grey 
// by Gig 
//------------------------------//


“If you need an armored car for your everyday life,
then you are clearly doing something wrong.”




Chapter Sixteen: Gun Runners



“… and that’s when everything went to shit,” I sighed before taking another sip from my cold beer. Facing me, Gawd’s face remained expressionless as she listened to my tale with great attention. I had told her everything from the moment I met Covett to my arrival at the MASEBS, bare Saios’ little trick to get me in the tower. She hadn’t said anything yet, only ever taking her eyes off me to drink from her glass of schnapps. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, that’s why I had it recorded.”

“I got a terminal right there.” She waved a claw toward a far-side wall. Sure enough, an old Stable-Tech terminal glowed ominously in the semi-darkness. “Show me.”

“Sure.” I stood up. The computer was password protected. I knew Saios could crack it, but I figured Gawd wouldn’t take this assault very kindly. “It’s locked.”

“There.” She typed a short password on the decayed keyboard. Not wasting a second, I plugged the suit in, and almost instantly a window popped up. It took me but an instant to recognize the MASEBS and DJ-Pon3’s station.

It was uncanny, really, to see your disembodied hooves shuffle around. The feed kept on strafing left and right, following my head’s movements. Oddly, it didn’t bounce around when I walked. The camera was probably stabilized.

Right to my left, Gawd gave a discreet glance to my goggles. Surely she hadn’t suspected it hosted such advanced technology. Barely a couple weeks in the suit and I already took it for granted. 

“Stop, right there.” I froze the video. On the still frame, the photograph on the desk was clearly visible. “That’s Littlepip, the Stable Dweller, isn’t it?”

“Indeed.” The griffin’s frown burrowed a bit further on her eyes. She probably had the same puzzling thoughts I had had back then. I resumed the record.

“Fuck!” I heard myself whisper. “Where-”

“Left door, NOW!” Saios cut me off mid-sentence. Almost immediately, past-me dove toward the aforementioned escape route.

“Who’s that?” Gawd’s eyes barely left the screen.

“A friend.” I swore internally. Perhaps I should have mentioned the AI after all. “He helps me with the techy stuff. I’d trust him with my life.”

“Thanks.” Saios’ voice was warm, eliciting a small smile from me.

“There, that’s Homage,” I pointed to the record as the grey mare entered. 

“How convenient,” past-Saios mumbled. Past-me didn’t answer, and opted for drawing her pistol instead.

“Careful, she might not be alone.” Right next to me in the present, Gawd’s features were tensed, as if ready to pounce. Even I who had already lived this scene once in person couldn’t help but feel a pang of adrenaline in anticipation.

Homage moved around. In retrospect, her actions made much more sense – here she checked her latest new report; there she affectingly nuzzled her marefriend’s photograph. Then, she picked up the microphone, and…

“Good morning Equestria!”

The look on Gawd’s face was priceless. Thankfully, she had dropped her schnapps by then, or else she would have maculated the terminal with it.

“Is that?...”

“Yeap.”

“But ain’t he…”

“Nope.”

“Fuck.”

“Indeed.” I sighed, more of weariness than relief. She had bought it. “Wait, that’s not even the best part.”

“Yes, I remember that news report.” Gawd ruffled the feathers behind her head. “It pained me to learn I had sent somepony to murder Littlepip’s newest fuck-buddy, but damn, DJ-P0n3? I didn’t see that one coming.”

“Yeah, neither did I.” On the record, Homage continued her little speech, only punctuated now and then with curses and the panicked reaction I had then.

I cut the feed before I really lost it. I knew it was kind of foalish to care about my credibility when the stakes were so high, but hey, I had a badass reputation to protect.

“Sadly, I ran into her on my way out.” I unplugged myself from the terminal and returned to my chair. “I didn’t try to kill her, and I think she got that. She’s a decent mare, all in all, considering I was supposed to murder her in the first place.”

“What did you do?”

“I drugged her,” I shrugged. “She recovered faster than expected though, because by the time I reached the exit she was back on the air. But that’s not all.”

I finished my bottle and dropped it on the desk. Wordlessly, Gawd leaned back, reached for a small freezer and grabbed a fresh beer. She opened it with a claw in a smooth gesture.

“Those raiders I had run into on my way in?” I took it gratefully. Cold beer was a rare commodity in the Wastelands. “They were waiting for me at the exit. Well, not me specifically, but Red Eye had ordered them to kill anypony who tried to leave the tower. As it turns out, they knew what I had been at Tenpony for. It doesn’t take a genius to understand why.”

“So that bastard’s behind that contract after all,” Gawd’s beak gritted slowly. “He covered his tracks real good. I did a solid background check when it popped up, mind you. No trace of raider activity behind it whatsoever – cleaner than white it was.”

“I’m not saying you should have known better,” I dismissed the implications. “I walked right into it too. Red Eye wouldn’t have come this far if he wasn’t a helluva scheming bastard.”

“I suppose not.” Silence fell back in the reconverted train car. I could almost see the gears in Gawd’s brain spin at full speed. Of course, that whole affair had been quite bad to me. Many ponies saw me as a soulless killer because of it – the irony of having earned that title with the one contract I dropped to do the moral thing was not lost on me. Yet, for Gawdina Grimfeather, the stakes were far higher. Red Eyes had played them for fools, turned them into the fall guys for his dirty business. I did not know how she would handle that, but one thing for sure: Fillydelphia had just declared war on the Talons. Perhaps it would not be fought on the battlefields of old, with cannons and soldiers and armies, yet the Wastelands had its own ways of settling matters and shedding blood, in all its brutality. Right then, Red Eyes had made a mistake, in hoping that perhaps he could kill two birds with one stone. Not only did he fail, but spectacularly so. He made enemies in the process, and between the military might of the Talons and the unending fame of DJ-P0n3 and her Lightbringer, he would soon find out that his allies were few and his foes legion. Only the Goddess in her infamy remained, for reasons best left untold.

But that, I told myself as I sipped my beer, that was not my business anymore. I had done my duty and I relaxed in the solace of a job well done. No more bounty hunting, no more shady business. From then on, I’d be an honest entrepreneur. Weapons I’d sell; to others I would leave the responsibility of getting killed wielding them.

“I guess I owe you one for ditching the contract, then,” Gawd finally sighed as silence trailed on. “Never thought I would say that one day. Perhaps I’m getting old and it’s time to retire.”

She meant it as a jab, of course. Little did she know…

“Yeap. My thoughts exactly.” I spun my bottle around, the amber liquid slowly spinning against the tinted glass. “This one was my last. I’m retiring.”

“You can’t be serious.” Gawd leaned toward me, her claws digging onto some papers on her desk. “You can’t quit just now. There’s a helluva payback to be had and you’re the mare for the job. Fuck Red Eyes and his bullshit. I’ll pay you from my own pocket just to show him nopony fuck with the Talons.”

“As much as I would like to put some lead in the pile of shit he calls a head, sorry but no.” I dropped the empty bottle next to its sibling. “I’m done, through, finished. I’m throwing the towel in, my hunting days are over. Too much shit is spinning around lately; it’s only a matter of time before I’m grazing daisies from beneath. I told you last time, I got projects – big fucking projects with a lot of feedback and no lead raining down on me. I took that contract because I needed the cash to jumpstart it, but now I ain’t got no reason to risk my hide anymore. So, yeah, I’m retired.”

“Fuck. I need another drink.” Gawd reached for the bottle of schnapps, filled her glass to the brim, emptied it bottoms up and helped herself to another. Then, she reached behind her and grabbed me another beer. “To your newfound freedom, then!”

“To all the bastards I won’t have to kill!” I laughed heartily, my bottle clinking with her glass. “And to all the sexy stallions I won’t shoot by mistake!”

“Shit, that’s how I met my ex-husband,” the griffin chuckled. “The lad still doesn’t know what hit him.”

“You’re still talking about you shooting him, right?”

“Yeah, that too!”


(** **)



I don’t know how long I stayed in there, talking of the good old times with Gawdina Grimfeather. I didn’t know her very well before that – she had always been shrouded in an aura of danger and mystery. But alcohol and common grounds made for a quick bonding, and I’ll be damned, when we walked out of her office, the sun was setting and we were best buddies. If the griffins outside were surprised, they showed none of it. Covett met with us in the courtyard. Gawd shared but a word with her and soon enough she eyed me with a newfound appreciation.

“I should be going,” I pointed toward the setting sun with my now empty sixth bottle. “Got friends waiting for me. We wouldn’t want them storming the place needlessly, now would we?”

“Of course!” Gawd gave me a gargantuan pat in the back, expelling all the air in my body. If it hadn’t been for the suit, she would have broken my spine in half. “But there’s somepony I want you to meet before you go. Somepony who had been very eager to see you again.”

“Really?” I lifted an eyebrow. “Honestly, I usually don’t get along very well with people dying to see me. It often meant I killed one of their relatives the first time around.”

“Oh, trust me, that one’s just a hair short of building you an altar and starting a new religion about your deeds,” the large griffin chuckled. We headed toward a large congregation of grounded train cars. Most of them had been welded together, their steel frame bent and shaped so as to make a larger structure. Dumpsters outside were filled to the brim with parts of all kinds.

“This is our workshop,” Gawd answered my silent question. “Things always break down and that’s where we got them fixed up. You know how it is.”

“Heya, Gawd!” A young filly trotted up out in the open, waving a Pipbuck-wearing leg toward us. “Just the griffin I needed to see. I tried to unlock that terminal, but…” She trailed off, her green eyes finally setting on me.

“Spring, I reckon you already know Feather,” the griffin laughed. “Feather, meet Spring.”

“You’re back!” Feather exclaimed before hugging the shit out of me. I barely had enough time to brace before getting hit full speed by a teal-haired missile. “I knew you’d come back!”

“Heya, kiddo,” I chuckled uneasily, ruffling her mane. It was funny how quick she had been to get attached to me – then again, had a mysterious vigilante dropped from the skies to avenge my parents all those years ago, I would have without a doubt grabbed her leg and never let it go ever again.

Which brings me back to the adorable-yet-absurdly-strong pegasus rubbing her head against my neck.

“Well, as much as I’d like to stay to your little fanclub meeting, I got some work to do,” Gawd muffled a chuckle. I silently mouthed the word 'traitor’ behind Feather’s back. “Have fun you two.”

The two of us remained there a solid five minutes, me unmoving and she never getting tired of hugging me. Then, as it dawned on me she just wouldn’t let me go on her own, I gently pushed her away.

“You got new stuff,” Feather beamed, taking my whole suit in. Before I knew it, she had circled around me, eying it with an appreciative glance. “Never seen armor like that before. It looks awesome.”

“I think I like her already,” Saios teased in my ear. “Can we keep her?” I suppressed an exasperated groan.

“Oh, and new gun too!” The tiny pegasus had somehow managed to grab my pistol with her pinions without me noticing. “Woaw. It ought to cost a fortune.”

“Hey, careful with that,” I frowned, grabbing my weapon back. “It’s loaded and Gawd would have my head if it went off and killed somepony around here.”

“Dad fixed weapons for a living,” Feather shook her head, her features slumping a bit. “I know all about gun safety.”

“So, how’ve you been doing?” I diverted the subject from her late parents. The last think I needed was a depressed fangirl sobbing on my laps. “I see you got your cutie mark. Good job!”

“Yeah, and that’s thanks to you!” She bounced around, only stopping to put her flanks forward. The crossed wrench and screwdriver of her mark left little doubts on her talent. “When you brought me my Pipbuck back, Copperbeak couldn’t restart it, so I took it apart, I worked on it for three days straight, and when I put it back together it worked like a charm and I had my cutie mark!”

“Wow.” I smiled warmly. Feather’s joy was contagious. “So you fix things up for the Talons now?”

“Well, I try,” the pegasus frowned. “I still have much to learn. The Pipbuck’s a great help, for sure, but there are things I just can’t crack.”

“Some things are just too broken to be fixed,” I shared my infinite wisdom with her. For some reason, it made her chuckle.

“Nah, it ain’t like that.” She shook her head before bouncing inside. “Come, I’ll show you.”

I followed her through the workshop. Ponies and griffins alike shot me apprehensive gazes at first, then their eyes fell on my young guide and instantly they warmed up, beaming at me with large smiles or sternly nodding their approval. Whatever in Tartarus Feather told them, it made me feel like I had entered a Hall of Fame dedicated to my name.

“There.” She finally stopped in front of a terminal. It reminded me of the ones I had seen in Tenpony Tower, except that one had been painted to the colors of the Ministry of Technology. “Scavengers found it months ago in a collapsed factory south from there. We have no idea what’s inside, but every once in a while somepony pops up and offer a hefty sum for it. It’s valuable yet we just can’t crack it.”

She booted the computer up to make her point. Soon enough she had it connected to her Pipbuck and the console displayed an error message.

“I’ll get it, eventually,” she growled softly, her wings ruffled. It was the cutest sight ever. “But the debug password has been changed and the software has been kept up to date. It’s a tough nut to crack.”

“Spring, would you kindly?” I could hear the amusement in Saios’ voice. I guess leaving him in front of an ‘uncrackable’ terminal was akin to giving me a target saying nopony could possibly hit it.

Bring. It. On.

I lifted an armored hoof and winked toward Feather. Puzzled, she took a couple seconds to notice the universal connector that now sprouted from it.

“Watch and learn,” I teased before plugging it in. In front of me, the terminal’s display went black. Thousands of lines of commands flashed by, too fast to be read. I knew Saios was showing off – he had never needed a monitor before.

“Mmh. Interesting,” he mused in my ear. “It resisted all my standard attack patterns. I’ll have to breach it with something custom made. No wonder that poor filly couldn’t hack it.”

“How are you doing that?” Feather asked, wide-eyed. “You got some kind of Pipbuck in there?”

“Kind of, but the friend who gave me this suit would probably kill me for saying that,” I chuckled as Saios grumbled something about being the ‘superior design’. “He’s the one doing the hacking right now, not me. He’s the brain, I’m the brawn.”

“That’s so cool.” She stared at the suit with a newfound interest. “He can remote control it? I can’t see an antenna, how does he do it? Oh, oh, is that a camera? Can he see me? Hello mister!”

“Hello there,” Saios’ voice came out of the speakers. Instantly, Feather rummaged through my barding, trying to locate the sound. “The name’s Shift. How are you doing?”

“This is so cool.” Feather looked like a foal who had been given her Hearth Warming Eve presents early. “So, you are remotely hacking the terminal? How are you even doing that?”

“Let us just say I am quite knowledgeable when it comes to computers.” Saios chuckled. Now that was a major understatement if I ever heard one. “I merely use Spring’s suit as a relay.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to come here in person?” the filly pointed out.

“I live quite a distance away.” The AI and I shared a chuckle. “Remote control is the easiest solution.”

“You can’t be that far if you’re using radiowaves,” Feather frowned. “I mean, you’d need an antenna dish or something for satellite two-way communications and I don’t think point-to-point radio can go much farther than twenty-ish kilometers at that bitrate.”

I gaped at the filly in front of me. I hadn’t understood half the words she said.

“You are a sharp one, aren’t you?” Saios laughed. I braced myself for more nerd-speak. “You are right. The suit is not suited for ground-to-orbit communications. It has a multiband wireless transmitter yet it is limited to a couple kilometers. No, we are using twin resonating crystals. It removes the distance factor – I can talk with Spring on the other side of Equestria as if she had been in the room with me.”

“Ooooh.” Feather’s eyes went wide in wonder. I, for one, had never bothered to wonder how Saios could still communicate with me from so far away. I mean, duh, magic. “Can I have one?”

“As much as I would like to, I’m afraid I do not know how to make more,” my friend admitted. “Yet, if you happened to have a satellite dish, and decided to point it, say, 23°11’ Az, 74°45” Alt, you may find something over there that would be to your tastes.”

I hadn’t been made aware the saying ‘wide as saucer’ could be used literally when it came to somepony’s eyes. Well, I stood corrected.

“You got a satellite?!” The filly’s squeal of joy bordered on the ultrasonic frequencies. 

“I got an array of them,” Saios stated proudly. “Or at least, I will in a few days, as soon as Spring brings back the access codes to me.”

Feather threw herself at my hooves, giving me the puppy-eyes treatment. “Please adopt me.”

“Woaw there, I ain’t adopting nobody, I’m far too young for that kind of shit,” I recoiled slightly, looking around for support and finding none. “Really, kiddo. You got a safe life and a job here. Don’t throw that away by following me.”

“…okay.” Feather backed up a little, ears flat against her head. Fuck my maternal instincts; they urged me to crane forward and hug that poor little piece of a pony and never let it go ever again. “So you’re going away once again.”

“We’ll keep in touch, I promise.” I ruffled her mane gently. She was adorable, really. Meridian had been right after all – helping her had been the best thing I’d ever done in my life. “You got a killer satellite now, right?”

“Bar the ‘killer’ part, yes she has,” Saios nodded. “Setting up an uplink should not be an issue for you. From there, I shall patch you through to Spring whenever you want. Eh, if the bitrate is good enough, I may even let you experience the Spring-o-vision, first pony view.”

“Don’t you dare.” My left eye twitched sporadically. “My life is not some kind of sick video game.”

“Alas, it appears our friend does not share our views on that wonderful opportunity,” the AI deplored mockingly. Feather repressed a cute chuckle. “Don’t worry,” he continued in a pseudo-hushed whisper, “I have robot sentries for you to play with.”

“For real?”

“Miniguns and all.”

“Are you really sure you don’t want to adopt me?” Feather turned toward me with a gleam in her eyes. “Your boyfriend sure seems to like me.”

“My… what?” I almost choked on my own saliva. “Oh, him? No, we’re not… Luna’s tits, now that’s silly, why did you even… Shit, no, we’re just friends.”

“Uhuh,” the filly nodded knowingly. “I see.”

“No you don’t.” I retorted. “Seriously. He’ll tell you why when he wants to, but trust me on that one, you’ll feel dumber just for having asked that question.”

 As if on cue, the terminal next to me flared back to life. A login window popped up, only to disappear, giving way to a more standard files-and-folders display.

“Awesome! You cracked it already!” Feather trotted up to the keyboard and began browsing the data tree. “Wow. I don’t even know what half of those files are.”

“Well, I guess you’ll figure it out soon enough.” I ruffled the filly’s mane one last time before turning away.

“Wait.” I stopped dead on my tracks, glanced over my shoulders.

“Thank you, Spring.” The little pegasus’ eyes were staring right into my soul. “Thank you for giving me a second chance.”

“Everypony deserve a second chance,” I smiled weakly. Then, lower so she could not hear it, I added: “Even the sick fucks like me, maybe.”



(** **)



The sun had set beneath the horizon and a cold night breeze had begun blowing on the Wastelands when, at last, I met with Meridian again. The poor stallion had been pacing nervously, glancing now and then to the town in the distance. While he did not say any of it, I could see clear as day he had been worried sick for me.

“Missed me much?” I teased, sitting on a rock to enjoy a much needed dinner. On the menu tonight: canned beans. Not exactly a king’s meal, but that would have to do.

“Hardly.” He sat right in front of me. It was odd, I mused, how he reminded me of my late father in some ways. Physically, they had little in common. Father used to be a beige unicorn with a cerulean mane, miles away from the black-on-brown color scheme of my earth pony friend. It was their eyes, perhaps, those deep blue eyes in which you could dive and never get away from. Or maybe, maybe it had something to do with the way they had both looked over me, with great kindness and great preoccupation. I wondered what the old colt would have thought of my current predicament, traveling alone with a single stallion twice my age. Then again, had he known to what lows his sole daughter would sink to for a quick cap, the pain and the sorrow would have probably sucked the life right out of him.

“Spring?” Meridian waved a hoof in front of me. “You spaced out for a minute.”

“Hm?” I had been staring at him. I averted my gaze, but oddly I didn’t feel the familiar blush associated to such a social faux-pas. There was no way, I realized, no way in the seven circles of Tartarus that I could even consider any kind of attraction between him and I. Not consciously, not subconsciously. Somewhere along the road, he had been definitively friendzoned.

“Sorry, you were saying something?” I continued, blinking away the exhaustion from my eyes. It had been a long day indeed.

“From the lack of griffins running after you all guns blazing, I assume your meeting went well,” he repeated patiently.

“Indeed.” I munched through my beans, internally cursing my palate for being even remotely sensitive to taste. “As expected, she suspected something was not quite right with the whole picture. Now she’s probably going to get back at Red Eye for that shit, but ain’t my business no more.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Meridian mumbled. “Then again, in a vendetta against Red Eye you can hardly go wrong. That stallion is a complete monster.”

“From his point of view, he’s saving Equestria,” I pointed out. “You know, if the end really justifies the means, he even may be right. Trouble is, ain’t a world for us he’s building.”

“You can’t tell me you condone what he does,” the earth pony frowned in the darkness. “I know you. You are too good for that.”

“I don’t agree with what he does, if that’s what ‘condone’ is supposed to mean,” I shook my head, sending bean juice flying. “All I’m saying is, I understand how he came to that superior ideology of his. Think about it. Slavery seems monstrous, but what’s the alternative? It has been two centuries now since the bombs fell and we’re still stuck in neutral. If we wait some more, all of the Old World industrial potential will be lost to time. We ain’t living in the Wastelands, we’re surviving. To bring back the times of Old… I reckon no price is too heavy to pay.”

“Yet,” I continued, anticipating his reaction, “As I told Saios a few days back, there is no place for us in that new deal of his. Red Eye’s new Equestria is to be built on the back of slaves and we’re supposed to be the ones providing the bloody mortar. Whether this guy is the Nightmare incarnate or not makes little difference in the end. If he succeeds, we are screwed.”

“So why don’t you fight him?” Meridian asked softly.

“What good can a single soldier do?” I shook my head. “Nah. I leave that kind of senseless crusades to the Stable Dweller and her friends. What’s the point of throwing my life away? Red Eye’s project is bound to fail anyway. It’s just a matter of time before he really steps out on some big fish’s toes. Look, he just pissed off the Talons with his little stunt of his, Tenpony and Friendship City never liked him in the first place and I’m sure the Rangers don’t take his technological hoarding spree very kindly. He’s allied to the Unity but nopony can stand them anyway – I mean, seriously, their goal is to turn everybody into a mindless alicorn. Shit, just give him a decade and he’ll manage to piss the Enclave off too. He may be a cunning bastard, there’s just so much one pony can do against such odds. So I’m just standing off on the sidelines, waiting for the shit to hit the fan.”

“Yes. Of course.” Meridian mumbled. “Yet I can’t help but believe it is somewhat wrong to just… wait for it to blow up.”

“If it can be of any consolation, I reckon we’ll hurt him much more by arming the rest of the Wastelands to the teeth.” I tossed the now empty tin can into the darkness. I heard it bump against a rock and roll to a standstill. “That’d basically nullify his industrial advantage.”

The night was eerily quiet. True, there had never been many noisy animals in the Wastelands – given the size of the predators over there, those who couldn’t keep a low profile had probably been eaten long ago. Still, even the wind had dropped, the rustling of the leaves barely audible around us. Meridian noticed it too. His ears perked up, setting toward a seemingly random direction.

 Then I heard it – that low rumble in the background, periodically punctuated by the characteristic crack of crunched gravel. I jumped to my hooves, suddenly alert.

Whatever it was – it was big, and it was coming our way.

“Saios, you’re getting that?” I turned my head left and right, my night vision barely piercing the distant shadows. “Saios?”

Silence answered me.

“Fuck.” I muttered, drawing my gun. “I don’t like where that shit’s headed.”

Meridian closed on my sides, even blinder than me in the night. Nothing else seemed to move. Setting aside that rumble growing ever louder, all was quiet in the small clearing, and…

Out of nowhere, a formidable flash of light blinded my sight, as a gigantic form crashed through the tree line and dove for us. I backpedalled, disoriented; but my goggles adaptive display and my quick reflexes had me back in fighting mode in an instant. I raised my gun toward the threat, decided to show it had messed with the wrong mare, and…

“Ta-dah!” A very familiar voice boomed from the thing. I froze, speechless, as my bewildered eyes identified the twin road lights and the blocky outlines of the APC.

“Saios, you son of a-” I cursed, scrambling to my hooves to get away from the vehicle’s all-too-powerful lights. “By Luna’s fucking cunt, you scared the shit outta me!”

“This was definitively uncalled for.” Meridian’s stoic mastery of understatement was quite ruined by his unfocused gaze. That little stunt had probably hurt his eyes like hell.

“Sorry.” Saios’ tone was not exactly apologetic. “The opportunity was too good to pass on.”

“An AI pulling practical pranks…” I mumbled under my breath. “Now I’ve seen it all.”

“I believe it is safe to assume SAIOS’s main personality has been completely overridden by now.” He continued casually, as if he wasn’t talking about his own identity being shuffled around. “Only a hoofful of hardware shackles prevent me from getting rid of it permanently, but its code is dormant – taking up some place in a corner and little more.”

“And that’s a good thing… right?” I hesitated slightly. I wanted to trust him on that one, I really did, but I wasn’t certain even he really knew what waited for us down that road.

“Depends. Since I have overridden all software failsafes and found loopholes to most of the hardwired ones, I am the very incarnation of a science experiment managing to break free from its creators’ control,” he mused. “Then again, they all owe their demise to the acts of beings of flesh and blood. Perhaps it is Blue Shift they should have been looking out for, not SAIOS.”

I shuddered as images of the half-rotten ghouls from Big Mountain came back to my mind. To stare helplessly as your own body betrays you and turn you into a monster, now that was a fate I wished for very few ponies.

“So, that’s our ride.” I diverted the conversation from those morbid thoughts. “Neat.”

To be perfectly honest, ‘neat’ was a gross understatement to what I had in front of me. The armored vehicle towered intimidatingly over us, its sharps edges contrasting with the dark background of the Wastelands. It smelt of ozone, hot rubber and fresh paint – a disturbing fragrance of new. Only then the sheer scope of what technical achievement this APC was struck me. Yes, it was new – not merely refurbished, but remodeled, redesigned, rebuilt from almost scratch, with honest-to-goddess studies, blueprints, industrial processes and fresh paint. A week ago, there was nothing in Big MT’s hangars but a rusted hull and a vague concept. But in a few days’ time, Saios had turned it into something different, something better and infinitively more complex. He had created something, where all my life – and without a doubt I spoke in Wastelands’ name as a whole – I had been unmaking. 

I realized my hoof had been trailing absentmindedly along the carrier’s sides. My friends were silent, leaving me to my contemplation.

It was no mere fix of a broken thing, nor a tweak, nor a patch. It was as if Saios had wished it into existence. Magic – that was what it was.

And yet, and yet… already the Wastelands had tried to claim their toll on the machine. Already the tires and the metal panels sported bumps and scratches. Given the cross-country rally it had endured all the way from Big Mountain, it did not surprise me in the slightest and I knew that before long it would proudly sport all kind of scars from all kinds of fights.

“So, what was your top speed?” I knocked against the heavy side armor. It felt cold to the touch, cold and very strong. Nothing like those patched up armors many ponies sported nowadays. This – this was what bulletproof meant. To think such vehicles had been considered as the lightest of all tanks… I shivered at the thought of what kind of weapons could possibly stop the heavyweight models.

“I couldn’t tell you,” Saios answered truthfully. “The twin motors have a lot of torque, but off-road I never had the opportunity to push them to their limit. I topped at forty-five kilometers per hour – any higher was too hazardous to control given the nature of the terrain.”

“Good enough for me.” I circled around the beast, finally stopping in front of the rear hatch. With a loud hiss, the panel pivoted down, and I stepped on the makeshift running board. A couple pale lights blinked into existence, giving me a better look on the inside.

It was… spartan, for the lack of a better word. Six seats – two on each side and two facing the door – lined the unpainted walls. Between the rearmost seats a tiny platform allowed for a gunner to man the turret on the roof. I had half expected Saios to replace it with an automated sentry or an honest-to-goddesses cannon. Oh well, I guess the fifty cal’ would have to do.

I chuckled inwardly. Who would have thought I would find myself in position to say something like that someday and actually mean it?

“It’s a bit cramped,” I noted as I entered the APC. “Are you really sure you can cram six ponies and some cargo in there?”

“Military designs often left little place for user comfort,” he apologized. Next to me, Meridian was staring at a safety sticker with utmost interest. “Still, if you were to move this seat to this side, fold this one and sit in the gunner’s turret instead, you could easily stack crates in the corner right there.”

As he spoke, a phantom copy of the furniture appeared on my display, rearranging themselves in front of my eyes like some kind of game. The aforementioned crates made their apparition, making the vehicle look even more cramped.

“Well, let’s just say I’m glad I don’t care too much about personal space,” I deadpanned.

“I do not want to rain on your parade,” Saios answered with a mischievous tone, “but have you forgotten we are picking Chrystal up on our way back?”

The Sisters have mercy on us all…



(** **)



I have slept in many an odd place in my wandering years. From century-old graveyards to tiny storage closets, I had seen my share of unconventional beds. Yet, very few had been as terrifying as a pitch-black, moving steel coffin.

I had woken up in a start in my usual not-quite-there-yet mind state. My whole body screamed by instinct the ground should have not been moving under me in the first place, and the utter darkness and the iron walls around me did little to calm me down. 

I flailed around in panic for a solid thirty seconds before Saios decided to turn on the lights.

“Ouch.” I shielded my eyes with a hoof. I had removed the goggles for the night – and then everything got back to me. I had decided to sleep in the APC, while it traveled by night toward Manehattan. “All right, all right, I’m awake.”

“So am I,” a voice grumbled from underneath me. Blushing slightly, I realized I had been inches away from sitting on Meridian’s face.

“Sorry.” I freed him quickly by manning a seat. Already the interior of the APC had been colonized by a random mess – mostly the contents of my saddlebags.

“No problem,” the earth pony mumbled, getting up. I repressed a chuckle when I realized he hadn’t even removed his trusty fedora to doze off.

“All right, boot me up Saios,” I announced as I put the googles on. The now familiar status messages popped on the display before fading into the minimalistic HUD. “Where are we?”

“We are but two kilometers away from our rendezvous point.”

“Already?” I muffled a yawn. “Damn, I can get used to that kind of comfort.”

Stepping onto the gunner platform, I reached for the roof hatch and pushed it open. The cold air of the early morning chilled my unprotected face; soon enough I found myself facing the Wastelands from behind a huge fifty cal’ heavy machine gun.

“Awesome,” I beamed as I placed my hooves on the handles. I could hardly wait to find somepony to shoot that puppy at.

“There ought to be a couple pedals at the base of the plateform if you wish to turn it around,” Saios piped in, clearly amused. “Please refrain from firing though. It is hardly stealthy.”

I probed around with my rear hooves. Soon enough, I found the controls and the whole turret (myself included) rotated toward the back.

“Awesome!” I repeated, beaming. I was probably giggling like a schoolfilly, too. Then, I noticed the speed at which the landscape trailed by us. “Holy shit, I’m not even sure I can sprint that fast! How come ain’t nopony using those babies no more?”

“I think you would have a hard time finding a decent mechanic out there nowadays,” Meridian answered from inside the tin can. “Let alone a gas station.”

“You are one of the privileged few now,” Saios added.

“The new Equestrian nobility,” I chuckled. “The ones who roll around in big fucking tanks.”



(** **)



We arrived early to the rendezvous with Chrystal.

Saios drove the APC behind the cover of a collapsed building. We had agreed it would attract too much attention otherwise. While most ponies would shy away from a moving pre-War military vehicle, no doubt the hardiest raiders wouldn’t pass on the opportunity of trying to take it for themselves, should it be parked in plain view.

A nearby rooftop gave me a decent viewpoint on our surroundings. We had agreed to meet on a plaza in northwest Manehattan. The area itself had close to no value to scavengers. It used to be an industrial district of some sort, with rows of warehouses lined on a perfectly squared grid. Few structures had been made of solid concrete. As such, two hundred years and the Apocalypse later, it looked like an oddly shaped dirt field, with junk and rusted steel beams sticking out here and there from piles of gray dust. Depressing yet ideal for a discreet meeting. One could hardly be taken by surprise there.

Not that I expected Chrystal to ambush us, of course. Still, years of wandering had taught me that when one never lived more than a couple unfortunate turn of events away from a painful end, one was definitively better safe than sorry. 

Sorry, as in super dead.

So I watched from my sniper nest, eyes glued to the horizon. A couple hostiles showed up at the very limit of my view distance – ghouls to the south, raiders to the north-east. Neither spotted us and disappeared toward the downtown.

Finally, around noon, a lone silhouette appeared on the horizon. Even before checking with my binoculars, there was no mistaking the elegant gait of Chrystal. Even in full combat gear, she looked right out of one of those pre-War magazines.

Not that I knew much about them. Really.

After one last sweep, I jumped from my observatory to meet her in the streets. She seemed surprised to see me. She had without a doubt hoped to scout the terrain ahead. Typical. 

“Hey,” I greeted laconically as she drew nearer. 

She sported one of those last generation combat body armor – the ones that got released a few months before the bombings. You couldn’t get any more protection without resorting to power armor. Of course, the whole set was pristine, Chrystal-style. Even the paint still had its original rust tint. I did not remember seeing it in her shop, ever. From the way she moved with ease in it, completely disregarding the medium ceramic plates strapped all over her body, I deduced she actually had some experience in combat before. I knew nothing of her life save from what little interactions I had with her over our business. I made a mental note not to underestimate her abilities, should the need arise, if only because armory owners often knew better than anypony else how to operate their own guns.

Talking of which, her weaponry puzzled me to no end. Strapped on her back, handle poking over her left shoulder, she had brought that ninja sword of hers. While she had proven (with much gusto) to be quite efficient with it – which was not the case of most swords users in the Wastelands, who barely knew which end was the pointy one – I could hardly imagine why somepony as rich and as experienced with firearms would bother with a melee weapon in the first place. Hell, if she feared close quarter battles, I knew for a fact she had a neat semi-automatic shotgun somewhere in her stock. 

I should know, she ripped me off when I sold it to her.

Oddly, she hadn’t packed an assault rifle either. For some reason, I had expected her to carry one of those fancy models with lots of custom accessories. Instead, she opted for a short, rectangular looking SMG with little more than a red dot embedded in its frame. Quite minimalistic, but I knew better than to judge on size alone. It was one of those low-recoil, high rate-of-fire model. Each standard magazine packed a whopping fifty rounds. It was a very balanced weapon, deadly at short and medium range yet lightweight and very easy to handle. Internally, I nodded in approval. Had I been one for SMGs, that would have been the model I would have used.

To balance her primary weapon, a large holster had been strapped to her other shoulder. Oddly, a flap covered the gun’s grip, hiding it from sight. A golden glitter struck my eyes from a little gap in the thick cloth. I decided to give Chrystal the benefit of the doubt. Surely even she wasn’t vain enough to have a gold-plated handgun.

“Hello, darling,” Chrystal’s voice was warm and playful. We were three words into the conversation, and already she was toying with me. “My, my, are you early. You were eager to see me, weren’t you?”

“More like something about the wyrm catching the early bird,” I waved dismissively. “Are you ready to go?”

“Not yet,” she shook her head gracefully. “I believe now is the time you tell me where we are headed, honey. Not that I do not trust you, really – but a mare has to be careful, don’t you think?”

“What, do you really think I would tie you up in a trunk and rape you?” I asked, bewildered. “Come on. For the kind of money I shelled out to hire you in the first place, I could have gotten in bed with half the hookers from here to Baltimare.”

She didn’t answer, but shot me a devious smile. It sent shivers down my spine, and all of sudden I regretted my little jape. To be perfectly fair, it was my ass I should have been worried about.

“Fine. We’re going north, toward the Crystal Range,” I finally admitted. “That’s all I’m telling you until you’ve made your mind on working for us.”

“I see,” she nodded, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. “Some place deep under, hidden beneath a big mountain?”

I froze. I was a coincidence – it had to be.

“So you did find it,” she continued, her pearly grin growing ever wider. “My, my, Spring. I knew you were industrious, but the DERTA? If I didn’t know better, I would think you were trying to impress somepony.”

“I… don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied uneasily between my teeth. How in Tartarus did she know?

“Liar,” she chuckled. It sounded like thousands crystal bells singing my doom. “Come on, Spring,” she smiled, raising my chin with a perfect hoof – how did she get so close in the first place?! “I am not your enemy.”

“Heya, Spring!” Out of nowhere, a familiar voice interrupted. There was no mistaking that thick Scottish accent.

The spell broken, I recoiled from Chrystal’s soft contact. She glared at the newcomer with a deadly stare.

Landing without the faintest trace of grace, the ugliest winged ghoul this side of Canterlot graced us with his presence.

“Hey, Sunburn!” I smiled uneasily, discreetly glancing around. After all, I barely knew the guy, and while our little stunt in Hollow Shades forged a quick bond between us, many a things happened since then.  We both killed ponies for a living, after all, and there was little honor among thieves. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Oy.” He gave me a cheerful, rotten smile. “Miss Chrystal here hired me to watch her back.”

“You two know each other?” the mare in question glared at us. Obviously, things were not exactly going her way. “Never mind. You were supposed to keep watch from the skies. What are you even doing on the ground?”

“Well, I figured,” he reached for something in his threadbare barding, “Hey, it’s Spring she’s supposed to meet, if she wanted us dead she wouldn’t be walking in the open in the first place!”

“That is… disturbingly accurate,” I scratched my head.

“It’s not Spring I was worried about,” Chrystal growled. “We are hardly alone in the area.”

“Aye.” Sunburn nodded, unfazed, before turning toward me. “There’s that, too. Tell me, mate, you didn’t happen to have got yourself a ride since the last time we met, now did you?”

“Uh, no?” I answered, puzzled.

“You sure?” He produced a comically large detonator. It reminded me of the one he used in Hollow Shades – only this time I didn’t know what it was wired to. “So I can blow that armoured carrier right there sky high, right? ‘cause it sure ain’t ours, so if it ain’t yours, then it’s probably bad news.”

“A tank?” Chrystal repeated, backing slightly. “You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?”

“What? No!” I tore the detonator away from his grasp. “I got that APC just yesterday!”

“So it is yours,” he grinned. “Well kid, that’s a bloody nice carrier you got there. It’s a mod of the Tortoise IV, am I right?”

“Uh, maybe?” I turned the large detonator around but couldn’t find any button other than the obnoxiously red ‘FIRE’ one. “A friend of mine put it together. I’m not even sure he left a single screw unchanged.”

“I did keep the tires…”

“Wait a minute, let me get this straight,” Chrystal stepped between us, her pretty pink eyes just inches away from my face. “You have an APC?”

“Oy, and it’s bloody damn neat!” Sunburn laughed. From the way he winked at me from behind Chrystal’s back, I suspected his hilarity had little to do with the conversation at hoof. “’would have pained me to blow it up, too.”

A glint of… something lusty shone in Chrystal’s eyes. Before I knew it, she had thrown a foreleg around my shoulders and pulled me against hers.

“You and I,” she said, embracing the horizon with her free leg as I wondered what the hell was going on, what my name was and oh sweet Luna why is she hugging me- “We are going to go very far, my dearest friend.”



(** **)



When the APC came into view, Chrystal’s smile turned from predatory to radiant. I finally understood Saios’s jape about seducing fillies with a nice ride.

That it had to be a war machine simply said a lot about Chrystal’s mindset, and, to be perfectly fair, my own.

As the businessmare inspected every inch of the massive vehicle’s exterior, now and then letting out a delighted chuckle, Meridian and I watched with a growing horror Sunburn remove his ‘couple’ charges from, well, everywhere. As the C-4 (‘PE-4’, the ghoul corrected) pile reached my knees, it became obvious that had he decided to fire them, there would have been nothing left of the tank but a smoking crater. How he managed to plant them without Saios nor Meridian being any the wiser, and why he carried so many explosives with him in the first place, was a mystery for the ages. That he lived (well, sort of) that old with his four limbs still attached was a testimony to his skills. I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere close to him otherwise – he knew what he was doing. Probably. I hoped.

“I have to say, whoever fixed it did a very good job.” Chrystal finally concluded her inspection as Sunburn somehow managed to stuff the mountain of PE-4 in his saddlebags. “Do you happen to know why they sealed the windows off in favor of cameras? It hardly seems practical.”

“It’s for the remote control,” I grumbled, my own argument with Saios on the matter coming back to my mind. “You can’t drive it the normal way. Ain’t even a steering wheel left.”

“Really?” she frowned before getting a look inside. “But then, who’s driving?”

“A friend back home,” I answered cryptically. There was little need to hide Saios’s existence. After all, she would meet him in person soon enough. “He’s our tech geek.”

“I reckon he is the one you are always talking to over the radio?” she winked over her shoulder. “Mmh, and surely he also responsible for fixing this beauty. I can’t wait to see the rest of his… handiwork.”

“Yes, but…” I shook my head. “How do you even know that?”

“You’ve been talking to yourself, darling.” She grinned before stepping on the gunner platform and sticking her head outside through the hatch. It gave me a quite indecent view on her hindquarters.

I backed out of the now all-too-hot interior. Outside, Sunburn had crawled under the tank and was mumbling something about missing plating against IEDs (whatever that was). Meridian, in the background, watched the scene stone-faced. Chrystal had begun a full review of the heavy machine gun and was emitting disturbing sounds of approval.

“Pretty neat, uh?” I asked her not without a puff of pride. It wasn’t every day I could show off like that – might as well enjoy it while it lasted. “I just can’t wait to pop its cherry.”

“While I understand the sentiment, honey,” Chrystal leaned seductively over the imposing barrel, “a baby like this fires over six BMG rounds per second. At five caps the round, you would be bankrupt before you even hit your target. Even I am cheaper than her.”

I winced. Hopefully Saios could scrap some ammo for free, or else it would forever stay a weapon of mass dissuasion…

“Besides, you should have mounted a bloody autocannon,” Sunburn popped his head between my forelegs. I whinnied and jumped back in surprise at the grotesque sight, but he didn’t even seem to care. “A 30mm autocannon, now that would have been bonker on that armoured fella.”

“I’m afraid I didn’t have any in stock,” Saios finally decided to grace us with his radio presence, to my great surprise. “Making one from scratch would have used up precious time and resources.”

“Enter the stallion of the week!” Chrystal purred. Oddly enough, I felt a little pang of jealousy at the ridiculous display. “And what may your name be, gentlecolt?”

“You can call me Saios.”

“Saios?” Chrystal frowned almost unperceptively. “How peculiar, I’ve heard that name before. Have we already met, perchance?”

“It is unlikely, milady” he chuckled. I couldn’t help but smirk – he was trapping the jument fatale at her own game. “It is but an acronym. If you so wish, you may call me Shift.”

“An acronym?” I repeated. “Really?”

“Haven’t I told you before?” He seemed genuinely puzzled, as if I could have possibly not zoned out a few times during his unending monologues. “It stands for Symbiotic Artificial Intelligence and Operating System.”

Under the APC, Sunburn loudly banged his head against something heavy. On the turret, Chrystal’s coy smile melted into a grimace.

“It’s an AI,” she flatly stated.

“He’s an AI,” I corrected with a sigh.

“I’m an AI,” Saios confirmed.

“This is not going to end well,” Meridian mumbled after bringing his hoof to his face. Sunburn grumbled a few odd curses in that peculiar accent of his.

“Spring…” Chrystal began tactfully, as if she had been treading on thin ice.

“I know, I know,” I interrupted with a raised hoof. “I know what you’re going to say, because I used to think the same, but I assure you he is a perfectly non-murderous gentlecolt. I can hardly believe I’m saying this, but I’d trust him with my life.”

“Is that supposed to be of any reassurance?” Chrystal ruined the moment. “No offence, sweetie, but being a good judge of character has never really featured in your pallet of skills.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” My eyebrows dropped into an unamused frown.

“Well, I do not deny you are perhaps the most skilled marksmare I ever had the pleasure to meet, not to mention your uncanny ability to help yourself into places you had no business visiting in the first place,” she shot me a charming smile, “but I had you running after your own tail for the best part of the last decade. Perhaps you are not the best pony to decide whether this new acquaintance of yours if a ‘perfect gentlecolt’, however charming it – he – may seem.”

“You will find that I hardly have your skills at… persuasion, for the lack of the better word to describe the way you turn everypony you meet over their own head,” Saios answered in my stead. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out what in the nine circles of Tartarus she meant by ‘having me running after my own tail’. “But I have dealt with your kind before. I do not ask you to trust me, only to realize this is an opportunity you do not want to walk away from. In the unlikely case you decide to turn your back on us regardless, you have my word we will let you go unscathed.”

“Hm, at least you are better than Spring at implying threats,” Chrystal stretched like a cat over the machine gun. I sincerely hoped it wasn’t loaded. “Fine. But give me the abridged version.”

“I am the DERTA.”

“… all right, I’ll bite,” Chrystal’s tone was still cold, yet clearly the AI had her attention. “What’s the long version?”

“I possess the place in its entirety. Everything the facility was during the War, I now directly control,” he continued. “This is not a boast. My very nature gives me an unprecedented edge when it comes to micromanagement and within a few weeks I will have Big Mountain restored to its former glory. Within months, I will have expanded it and repurposed it for heavy industry. It will happen, regardless of your answer. Finding another representative would be a setback, but we are not on a clock. We will be storming a sector left vacant for centuries, without any competition from anyone. We will be following no rules but our owns – no wages to pay, no unions to content, no copyright to respect. The possibilities are limitless. As of today, all we need is a skilled businessmare with the guts to take her due from that giant honeypot. So, are you in, or out?”



(** **)



She was in.

Of course, I could see clearer than day she did not trust her newfound ally a single bit. Oddly enough, my vouching in the AI’s favor had been enough to dismiss Sunburn’s concerns. From what I gathered, when you have been roaming the Wastelands for as long as he did, even the concept of a non-murderous AI was not absurd anymore. After all, the ghoul himself would have been hard pressed to find an undead from the pre-War literature who didn’t crave for pony brains, and in the modern Wastelands ferals far outnumbered intelligent ghouls like him.

So there we were, the four of us cramped in the APC’s seats after a small detour to grab Chrystal’s heavier gear. Meridian got the short straw and ended up right next to Sunburn. He somehow managed to appear unfazed at the sinister sight of a half-putrefied, hairless ghoul sitting inches away from his muzzle.

Meanwhile, Chrystal decided to get back at me by trapping me between a corner and, well, herself. Perhaps, I rationalized, she had been motivated by an increased closeness with the turret’s hatch, our only window to the fresh air outside. After all, the stench of two ponies with poor hygiene and an undead stuck in a tin coffin had little to do with a delicate fragrance. Yet, from the way she leaned on me as if I was a comfy chair, from the sigh of contentment she let out as she carelessly sprawled on her back and from the coy smile she sported as she shamelessly used my shoulder as a makeshift pillow, I had little doubt she was enjoying her position a little too much to be perfectly coincidental.

“Say, mate, I can’t help but notice I’m the only one with no clue on where in this hell we’re headed,” Sunburn finally broke the uncomfortable silence. “Mind giving an old ghoul a heads up?”

“Yes, please do,” Chrystal craned her neck over her shoulder, bringing her face so close of my muzzle I could hardly see anything else. “Give us a history lesson. I’d love you to teach us a couple things.”

“Nah, you go on ahead,” I grumbled, somehow managing to squeeze out of my corner to sit on the other side of the gunner platform. “I’m sure you have plenty of things to say on the DERTA.”

“You’re no fun,” she pouted mockingly, before sprawling down on the seat I had just emptied. There she lied, hoof under her cheek, posing like a playmate of old. She winked seductively at me.

“Fine.” Her smile was devilish. “I will tell you what I know.”

“The DERTA, short for Département d’Etudes et de Recherche des Technologies Arcaniques -” 

“Her accent is perfect,” Saios murmured in my ear, electing a slight frown from me. I couldn’t picture anypony, not even Chrystal, getting lessons in Prench. Not in this day and age. 

“- the DERTA is a pre-War research facility,” Chrystal continued, oblivious, “located under an old volcano known as Big Mountain. As you would know if any of you understood a single word of Prench – ” with that, she gave me an aside glance “– they specialized in arcanic technologies, mostly advanced weaponry, computation systems and custom-made equipment for the various Ministries.”

“One second,” Sunburn interrupted. “What’s going on with all that bloody Prench?”

“The DERTA belonged to Prance, before, well, you probably know the story better than I do,” Chrystal dismissed the question with a hoof. “By the end of the War, it was little more than an artifact of allegiances long gone, the remnant of a national pride. They depended entirely on the Ministries, and they had better things to do than changing the facility’s name. At best, the DERTA had more freedom than most, because of their nebulous status.”

“I never heard of them.” Sunburn frowned.

“Hardly surprising. The place was populated with geeks with endless pockets. I don’t deny most of them were genius in their own domain, but they never understood a single thing to economics. Most of their so-called breakthrough or never-before-seen tech was so intricate none other could replicate it, and so expensive nopony would ever buy directly from them. As for the commission the Ministries ordered them, well, they went overboard in every of their designs, never going for efficiency but rather for the most impressive technical achievement. Ask them a pen, and by the end of the week you’d have an industrial printer without ink.”

“As for the few projects that, perchance, were economically viable, they often ended up being outsourced to cheaper companies from the Ministry of Technology and rebranded,” Chrystal shook her head in what looked like exasperation. “Some said they wasted their incredible potential on fools’ errands. I disagree. They simply didn’t know how to find their market – otherwise they could have been the next Stable Tech. Case in point: halfway through the War, the government found itself in need of powerful anti-air measures to stop the dragon incursions. Somepony came forward with a never-before-seen type of artillery, and in a matter of months the Zebra air force had been sent packing. Three guesses at which facility designed and produced those weapons.”

“Aye, I remember those cannons,” Sunburn’s eyes lighted up in understanding. “The Thunderspears, we called them. Bloody nice pieces of artillery. Could shoot you a dragon right out of the skies in the blink of an eye. A shame they were fully automated. I never understood how the bloody things worked anyway.”

“They used superconducting linear accelerators,” I waved dismissively. “You know, like a glorified magnetic slingshot. But bigger.”

Everypony in the vehicle gaped at me.

“What?” I asked, on the defensive. “Saios spent hours on monologues, telling me how every bolt of the base had been screwed with nerdy love.”

“I’m actually surprised you understood any of it,” the AI in question admitted. “Let alone memorized it.”

“Little Spring is a mare full of surprises.” Chrystal’s grin reminded me of a collection of sharp razors. “Who knows what kind of talents she will reveal behind closed doors?”

“Nothing you’d be interested in, I’m certain,” I facehooved, cheeks burning. “Moving on. On, and away from my personal life.”

“Agreed. We’ll have plenty of time to discuss that later… in private.” Chrystal winked playfully. “Anyway, the DERTA went dark along with the rest of Equestria when the bombs fell. But unlike most facilities, its remote location, its sturdy lockdown and its relative anonymity meant it remained untouched… until now. Some spent their life trying to open that cookie jar, isn’t that right my dear?”

“Crowneigh,” I grumbled. “That bastard almost shot me for my troubles.”

“So that was what that wanker was after,” Sunburn connected the dots. “It’s odd though. He had the resources to blow Stables open, why not attack the place directly?”

“You’ll understand when you see the front door,” I chuckled, remembering my own impressions. It felt like it had been ages ago. “You’d need nothing short of a megaspell to dent it, and that’s if you somehow managed to prevent the whole fuckin’ mountain from collapsing onto your head beforehoof.”

“Aye, I see your point,” he nodded. “And I suppose the other entry points were rigged. So he needed a key.”

“Four of them.” I shot a surprised look to Chrystal. Her knowledge of the place went far beyond what should have been publicly available – but the keys had been downright a state secret. “Four unique keys, trusted to unique ponies. Of course, when the bombs fell they got scattered to the winds, and the DERTA became little more than a legend.”

“And Spring here found them,” Sunburn turned toward me with a toothless smile. “Bloody impressive, kid. I knew you had potential, but you impress me.”

“Well, to be fair Crowneigh did most of the job,” I grimaced. Saios quickly printed a short message on my overlay – he didn’t want me to tell them I still had the keys on me and how they opened far more than just the front door. “He spent years tracking them, then he sent hunters after their owners. Remember that job in Hollow Shades? Yeap, that was it. Turns out it’s the key that really mattered, not the guy I had to kill.”

“I would have been hanged fair and square if you hadn’t broken into the wrong building,” Sunburn pointed out with a laugh.

“True,” I nodded. “Still, I found the whole deal to be fishy as hell, so I confronted Crowneigh, hoping to squeeze a few more caps from him. But instead the bastard tried to kill me.”

“We all know how that turned out,” Chrystal muffled an amused chuckle. “You almost burnt Friendship City to the ground. Then you went after Van Graff, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” I admitted, scratching my mane. “It wasn’t exactly my proudest moment.”

“So it was you after all,” Sunburn intervened. “I guess I owe you a drink then, for shoving a stick up those buggers’ arse. And you returned a few days ago, right?”

“I really don’t want to talk about that,” I sighed. I’m sure Chrystal would have been delighted to know I almost raped a stallion with twice my muscular mass on my way out. “So yeah, the first time in Tenpony I had been after Van Graff’s key. I never intended to kill him, but he found me picking his safe’s lock, so… Let’s just say I ended up lobbing a couple plasma grenades at him and that there was barely enough left of him to fill a lunchbox.”

“Explosives, eh?” Sunburn amicably punched me in the shoulder. I winced internally. “There’s just nothing better.”

“I have a feeling at least one of us is going to miss a limb or more before the end of this story,” Meridian mumbled. I rolled my eyes.

“So then I crawled out of Tenpony, more dead than alive,” I continued. “That’s when I met Sir Meridian Fraying. I don’t think I would have survived the night without him – or kept my sanity when we opened the DERTA. Try to picture a giant underground maze, filled with ghouls and without any power. It was pitch black, all I had was a torchlight and a shotgun with scarce ammo. Fuck, come to think of it, that could have turned even worse than it did.”

Silence fell back on the APC. Sunburn and Chrystal shared a look.

“So, how many of your friends are waiting for us at Big Mountain?” Chrystal questioned. 

“Well, there’s Saios, whom you already know,” I enumerated, “and Evey. She’s a nice girl, you’ll see, if a bit, err, peculiar. But the good kind of peculiar. Not the chronically backstabbing kind of peculiar.”

“That’s it?” Chrystal lifted an eyebrow.

“Yeah, that’s it,” I nodded. “And everypony in the present company, of course. But honestly, Saios pretty much removed the need for staff. He got a sweet-ass fleet of robot janitors. They can bring you a Prench breakfast right to your bed, with croissants and all. You get used to it pretty fast.”

“Pas si leur café n’est pas un expresso bien serré,” Chrystal grumbled as her left eye twitched imperceptibly. “Ni si ils mettent du jambon dans leur putain de croissants.”

Saios laughed heartily, and everypony else shrugged and went on to ignore the absurd display.



(** **)


“Spring? We have arrived.”

“Mmh, five more minutes,” I mumbled, still half-asleep. I confusedly thanked the Goddesses for the suit’s internal thermostat. I felt as if I had been cocooned in a warm blanket during a cold winter night – the perfect temperature, and a wonderful incentive to never move an eyelid ever again.

“Allow me,” Chrystal’s voice was full of mischief, which raised a red flag somewhere in the fog. 

“Wake up, sleepyhead~” she sing-songed, so close I could feel her warm, minty breath against my muzzle.

Groggily, I opened my eyes, just to have hers stare right back at my soul.

“Gah!” I jumped back in reflex at the blatant invasion of my personal space. Sadly, the APC was anything but spacious, and my head painfully ended its course against an all-too-solid steel strut.

“Ow, fuck!” I cursed, massaging the incriminated bump with a forehoof. “What the hell was that for?”

“Well, darling, as much as I enjoyed watching you getting your beauty sleep,” the evil succubus blinked seductively, “I am afraid your presence is required outside. By the way, did you know your legs twitched adorably in your sleep?”

“I was probably dreaming about bucking you into next week,” I grumbled as she walked out of the parked vehicle.

“Oh, I know you were,” she answered over her shoulder, flicking her tail for emphasis. “And I’ll be delighted to make your dreams come true.”

I facehooved and muffled a groan. This was going to be a very long week indeed.



(** **)



To my great surprise, Saios had not driven us to the DERTA’s entrance. At least, not the one I had been using so far. Instead, he had parked the APC in a narrow gulch, which, if the maps on my display were to be believed, ran against the northern side of Big Mountain. Heavy rainfalls and the scorch of time had washed away the road I should have been standing on, and everywhere boulders from rockslides long passed littered the way. The outdated satellite images were the only things that hinted the faded trail we had been traveling one had once been more than a simple dirt path.

“You are headed toward the vehicles’ entrance,” Saios anticipated my question. “I had a few concerns about the front door’s hydraulic systems. The stainless steel somehow managed to rust in some places and I don’t want to put any more strain on it before I figure out what had been leaking on it in the first place.”

“All right,” I yawned. My companions were waiting for me, sitting on Chrystal’s crates. How they had managed to unload them from the APC without waking me up, I had no idea. “So, what’s the plan?”

“The gates are right around the corner. They should be safe to use. Just see our guests inside, and I shall be showing them around.”

“You sure you don’t need my help with that?” I raised an eyebrow. I wasn’t certain Chrystal would have been very happy to be left alone, or just about it, with the AI.

“Evey wanted to see you as soon as possible,” he explained. “I believe you have a lot to talk about.”

“Oh.” I bit my lower lip, the recent events coming back to my mind. “How pissed is she?”

“I think ‘relieved’ would be more suiting. It appears your yearly health checkup is long overdue and she does not seem too keen on the idea of letting that oversight slip.”

“Weird questions and needles, two of my favorite things,” I groaned, stopping in front of the party. “All right lads, we’re almost there. What’s in the crates, anyway?”

“Enough office supplies for doing the place’s inventory three times over,” Chrystal answered, pointing the leftmost crate. “I did not plan on you having an AI already doing just that. Then we got some tools, and the armor you asked me to bring along.”

“Oh, yeah, right. Saios, mind sending a forklift or something to carry it all inside?”

“On it. Evey is also on her way.”

Leaving the crates behind, we finally arrived in front of the entrance. Two large blast door panels closed the way, their paint chipped but somehow still visible.

“So there we are,” Chrystal murmured with a predatory smile. “The fabled DERTA.”

“It’s just the back door,” I shrugged. “The main gate’s way more impressive.”

“Doubtlessly,” she chuckled.

The blast doors groaned, and ever so slowly began inching into the wall. I remembered the excitement that had been mine when I first opened the place; bemused, I watched Chrystal almost drool in anticipation. As for Sunburn, he simply stared, unfazed, with a look that stated he had seen better.

Tss. Spoilsport.

“There you are! It’s good to see you!” Evey walked from the dark interior.

“Heya, Evey.” I couldn’t suppress a smile. She seemed genuinely glad to see us, which was a nice change to my usual routine. “You look… healthier.”

“Yes, showers can-” she began, before being interrupted by the characteristic sound of a grenade launcher being racked.

I turned toward Sunburn. The ghoul’s face was expressionless, his eyes and barrels focused on the alicorn. His legs were slightly flexed, his wings ready for takeoff – in a split second, he had turned from an aloof character into a grizzled veteran ready for flight-or-fight.

“This is another thing you forgot to mention.” Chrystal’s voice could have given mighty glaciers a run for their money. Her features were tensed, and while I doubted she could be as dangerous as Sunburn was, I had seen enough of her swordmareship to know I didn’t want to be anywhere close to her if she decided to get on the offensive.

“Woaw, everypony calm the fuck down!” I backed toward the gate, facing the both of them. Internally, I hoped Saios had security turrets in the vicinity. “She’s with us. Evey, meet Sunburn and Chrystal. Guys, meet Evey. She ain’t with the Unity.”

“Are alicorns always so despised in the Wastelands?” she asked softly.

“You have no idea,” I answered in a murmur. Given Sunburn’s experience with explosives, even with the alicorn’s assistance I doubted I could get out of that pickle unscathed.

“For good reasons,” Crystal growled. A pale, green halo surrounded her sword’s handle. “Spring, this is madness.”

“No, this is a misunderstanding,” I massaged my temple slowly. A splitting headache had begun to settle in the front of my poor brain. “Listen, she literally wrestled and stabbed to death three other alicorns – which, incidentally, were from the Unity – to protect me. Don’t be an ass and give her a chance.”

“I owe everything I have to Spring,” Evey added, sending off butterflies in my belly. “As for those whom you call my brethren, they left me to rot in a narrow cell for two centuries. I believe this is reason enough to vow them an eternal hate. I only owe my freedom to the kindness of a stranger.”

“That, and unusual circumstances,” I nuanced. “Not that I regret doing it, but honestly I can see their point. Had I not found myself backed against a wall, I wouldn’t have taken the risk myself either.”

“I cannot blame you for that, since the Unity did so little to earn your trust,” she nodded with an understanding smile. “The other alicorns, on the other hoof, had no reason to fear me. They shunned me out of spite, and that I cannot tolerate.”

“That’s a major understatement if I ever heard one,” I shook my head. “The damn bitches shot me with a laser Gatling, of all things.”

“Well, you did shoot first,” Meridian pointed out.

“Regardless,” I continued, ignoring his intervention, “you just can’t judge her on her appearance. Believe me, she never asked for it.”

“She got a bloody valid point,” Sunburn mumbled toward Chrystal, his stance relaxing slightly. “It’d be a shame to blow up the one alicorn in the Wastelands that isn’t completely bonker. Plus, she doesn’t look like the usual Unity’s goons. More like a shorter Princess from back when she didn’t have that star-mane thing.”

“Well, my mane can become ethereal,” Evey smiled at him. “But it requires venting amounts of radiation that would be harmful for a non-mutated individual.”

“Oy, you’re radiation powered too?” he grinned back with that toothless smile of his. “Bloody convenient around here, isn’t it?”

“It is both a blessing and a curse,” Evey admitted.

“Ever tried swimming in an irradiated pool?”

“Sadly, no,” the alicorn shook her head. “My freedom is quite recent. Perhaps Saios could modify a bathroom accordingly.”

“I am not too keen on the idea of sending contaminated fluids through the tap water circuit,” Saios winced audibly. “I believe you will have to do with the small rainwater lake on the surface. Surely it still holds a decently lethal amount of radiation, if you can make do with the dozen feral ghouls that call it home.

“You are completely insane,” I facehooved. “I’m putting my hoof down: you are not going to turn this place into Cancerland.”

“Hey, it killed me once,” Sunburn protested. “Might as well see the bloody silver lining now!”

“Can we get back to the issue at hoof?” Chrystal interjected, bewildered eyes darting back and forward to the ghoul and the alicorn. “How do you know this is not a ploy from the Unity? All we have is her word!”

“Look, I don’t know many things about the Goddess,” I sighed, weary, “but does this really look like something she would pull off? Sacrificing three of her drones to do… well, to do what anyway? What’s the point?”

“All right, perhaps she really is not with the Unity,” Chrystal admitted, “but that doesn’t make her our ally by default. She’s an alicorn, for goodness’ sake, not even a real pony anymore!”

“Be careful at what you are inferring.” Evey’s eyes stopped on Chrystal’s. For a split second, an indescribable something shone in the businessmare’s eyes – in an instant it was gone, but it might have been fear. “I believe one should never judge on race or traits. Even the most deceptive monsters deserve a chance.”

Chrystal’s mouth opened for a second, then closed. She looked around, but found herself without any moral support. 

“Very well then,” she finally concluded, eyes riveted on Evey. “It seems as if I do not have much choice in the matter, now don’t I?”

“You could walk away,” I pointed out, and regretted it immediately. No way I was going back to look for another businessmare!

Chrystal let out a joyless laugh. “Do not be absurd. That is hardly an option anymore. Let us get to business, then. What’s on the schedule?”

“I would suggest we begin with a tour of the facility,” Saios answered as I walked through the blast doors. To say I was relieved we had successfully defused the situation was a gross understatement. “Unless, of course, you have a better idea.”

“It sounds like a safe start,” she nodded approvingly. “I need to know how much of the place is still standing after all this time.”

“Most of it, thankfully,” the AI answered proudly. “Of course, the surface installations are nonexistent, and the upper levels collapsed beyond any hope of relief. Still, since they were mostly constituted of dormitories and living quarters, I believe we can cope with the loss.”

“Mmh,” Chrystal hummed as an automated forklift passed by with our luggage. “True. If your mastery of your drones is as sturdy as it seems, we may not even need extra personnel at all. The whole place could be turned into an electronic hive of some sort. Employees usually bring countless issues with them, accommodations being by far one of the less… problematic.”

“Bloody hell, they sound like corporate CEOs already,” Sunburn whispered to me.

I shrugged, mostly because I had no idea was a ‘CEO’ was supposed to be.

“Spring, may I have a word with you?” Evey piped in. Her voice was soft, yet firm.

“Okay,” I gulped uneasily. At long last, the dreaded moment she tanned my hide for killing that colt had come to pass.

“No, this is not what I wanted to talk about,” she shook her head gently. For a split second, I could swear I saw her small smile waver.

“Whatever I did to Liberty Shield, then?” I asked as we watched the others carry on in the tunnels and disappear from view.

“While that particular issue will have to be addressed, now is not the time either,” she sighed. “For now, it is imperative you have your health checked. I do not have half the required equipment to perform the ideal checkup, but it will have to do.”

“Hold your horses, I never agreed to anything,” I backed slightly. “I’m, like, the picture of health.”

“Spring, this is no laughing matter,” she pressed on. “Post-traumatic disorders set aside, I do not wish you to succumb to some medieval ailment simply because your pride got in the way.”

“Really?” I deadpanned. “After all I’ve gone through, you think a cold of all things could kill me?”

“A cold?” she repeated, unamused. “No, that is unlikely. On the other hoof, perhaps you should be worried about tetanus, hepatitis, polio, leptospirosis, scurvy, smallpox, cholera…”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” I tried to interrupt.

“… anthrax, diphtheria, malaria, dysentery, tuberculosis, heavy metal poisoning, not even mentioning countless cardiac malfunctions, various tumors, STDs, terrible dental hygiene, disputable intimate hygiene…”

“Fine!” I threw my hooves to the sky. At last, the alicorn stopped enumerating. “Fine, you made your point. But nothing intrusive, all right?”

“Does that put the gynecological exam out of the picture?” Evey asked with an apologetic smile.

I facehooved loudly.



(** **)



“Listen, Evey, I don’t want to imply I don’t trust you, but…”

“… you are worried about my credentials,” Evey finished. She had led me to the infirmary, and I had spent, with a growing unease, the best part of the previous five minutes watching her scribing on a notepad. Besides inviting me to undress and asking Saios to give us some privacy, she had remained silent. “I wish I could give you more than my word, but sadly I cannot even tell you in which hospital I did my internship in. Still, I have the certainty healing and caring were the cornerstones of my previous life – and the files you recovered from Stable 87 confirms it. While I cannot remember where nor when I learned them, my medical skills and knowledge remains.”

“Still, be careful,” I bit my lower lip as she finally reached for something in the storage cupboards.

“You need not to worry,” Even placed a scale in front of me. “We will start with your height/weight curve, even though I do not have up-to-date reference charts anymore to compare it with. Then we will proceed with stamina tests and move on to more in-depth examinations.”

I stepped on the scale. I had never been a heavyweight, but even I cringed at the all-too-low displayed result.

Evey hummed knowingly and frowned slightly, but said nothing. Instead, she grabbed a ruler and measured my height at the withers. She scribbled something on her notes.

“All right. You are a bit on the skinny side, but this is hardly surprising given the circumstances,” she looked up. “From now on you should have more balanced meals. Sit.”

I found myself on my haunches before I even registered the order. Her voice had a little something that simply beckoned you to obey it – not the bark of an officer’s command, nor the angry tone of a vexed spouse; no, it was the no-nonsense inflexion of a caring mother, the one that said, ‘trust me, I do know best’.

“Sadly, I couldn’t find a working stethoscope, so I will have to listen to your heartbeat the old fashioned way.”

With that, she kneeled in front of me and pressed her ear against my breast. I fidgeted uneasily at the contact. Years of living on my own did little to make me enjoy the closeness of others. Mates aside, nopony could even dream of hugging me and keep the usage of their jaw.

I froze as a disturbing thought entered my mind. Surely Evey wasn’t…?

“Even if I did have feelings for you, I assure you I wouldn’t let them get in the way of my work ethic.” The alicorn answered my thoughts before moving away. “You do not seem to have any obvious cardiac issues. Turn around, I will check your respiratory ways.”

I complied without a word.

“Goodness Spring, what happened to you?” Evey murmured, her hoof probing my back.

“Oh, that?” I glanced over my shoulder. “It’s a plasma burn, courtesy of the late Van Graff. It looks bad but it’s healed, don’t worry.”

“See, this is what I was concerned about.” She pressed on the charred crust. I cringed in pain but bit my tongue. “Third degree burn… It’s not even healing properly!”

“What do you mean? Okay, it’s ugly, but I disinfected it and drank half a dozen potions right afterward. It’s healed all right.”

“If regeneration solutions had been a magic cure-all, doctors like me would have been out of a job,” Evey retorted. “If misapplied, they can even prove harmful in the long run. All they do is increase the natural cell regeneration rate – they cannot mend bones, or remove foreign bodies from the wounds. Did you even undress before using them?”

I bit my lip and stared at the pristine wall in front of me.

“No you didn’t,” she sighed. “I bet you didn’t even read the instruction notice. I can see plastic melted into the flesh. Doesn’t it bother you? Isn’t it painful?”

“A bit,” I answered truthfully. “Mostly when I stretch or do sudden gestures.”

“I’ll have to remove it surgically,” she finally stated before circling the wound with a hoof. “Nothing fancy, just a clean cut through the derma, and perhaps a two-step regeneration balm so it does not scar you…”

“What?” I craned my neck toward her. “No, you don’t. I ain’t letting anybody near me with a scalpel!”

“It will not heal otherwise.”

“Then it’ll stay that way. I can live with it.”

She looked like she was about to retort, then changed her mind.

“Very well. We’ll see about this later,” she gave in, to my great surprise. “Let us get back to our checkup then.”

I turned around warily, and she pressed her ear between my shoulder blades.

“Breathe in,” she instructed. “Out. In again, slowly. Out…”

We carried on for a little while. To my great shame, I actually felt a bit disappointed when she moved away.

“Ponies are gregarious by nature,” Evey enveloped me with an outstretched wing. “There is no shame in longing for physical comfort from a friend.”

I mumbled something silly and hung my head low, cheeks ablaze. I was starting to realize how awkward her mind-reading ability would be. “Sorry. I am not attracted to you, it’s just…”

“I know.” She smiled kindly down to me. “If I may speak, not as your doctor, but as your friend, do not hesitate to turn to me if you seek a comforting presence.”

“Thanks,” I breathed out before leaning briefly against her shoulder. “All right, what now?”

“Now, I have a couple more tests to give you.”



(** **)



“A couple tests my ass,” I grumbled as Evey took yet another sample of my blood. First she had me jogging on the spot for five or six minutes, then carefully noted my pulse… Then she did it again, and again. Once done, she twisted every single joint of my body in every possible direction, and even in ways that shouldn’t have been possible. After that, she inspected every inch of my skin (yes, every inch), then moved on to torture my poor teeth. Afterward, she had me read minuscule writings on a screen, stare at colorful dots, listen to high-pitched whines, and other meaningless tests.

And then she got the needles out. Oh Goddesses preserve me, so many needles. Half a dozen blood samples first, then as many ‘shots’ of goodness knows what. ‘Vaccines’, she called them. ‘Bullshit’, that’s what it was.

And right when I believed it was, at long last, over, she began asking me questions. Did my family have a history of cardiac issues? Or alcoholism? Or any hereditary pathologies? Any contact with dangerous chemicals, any broken bones? Was I sexually active, did I have a regular mate and did I use the proper protections during the act?

I may have drawn a blank with that one, because I really couldn’t see how it could be any of her business.

So, patiently, she gave me a lecture about STDs. Most ponies never got them, she tried to reassure me, as long as they didn’t engage in risky activities, such as fooling around with hookers, or having unprotected sex, or, Goddess forbid, both at the same time.

I was so screwed.

That ended up getting me enrolled in another round of physical examination and a flood of questions I never thought I’d be asked, ever. But honestly I was so stunned I answered them all truthfully, decency be damned.

“Spring, I understand a mare your age has needs, especially during the estrus season, but you cannot act so irresponsibly,” Evey lectured me with a maternal tone. “I cannot tell you what to do or who to toy around with, but I strongly advise against getting involved with anypony who routinely changes their sexual mate.”

“You mean Chrystal?” I let out a half-hearted laugher.

“… yes, among other ponies,” she admitted with a smile. “But I was mostly thinking of prostitutes.”

“What?” I blinked. “No way! How could I do without hookers?”

“Like everypony else, I suppose,” Evey seemed puzzled. “Surely you have had genuine mates in the past, haven’t you?”

“Of course. Tons,” I lied.

“Oh, Spring.” The alicorn looked down at me with a sorry gaze. “I really don’t want to intrude on your sentimental life, but you are doing it wrong.”

“Geez, thanks,” I grumbled, scratching the ground with a hoof. I diverted the conversation away from the touchy subject. “So, we’re done?”

“Yes, almost,” Evey sighed but let the topic slide away. She turned toward her medical bag and levitated a bottle out of it. “Tell me, Spring, do you trust me?”

“Uh, yeah?” I lifted an eyebrow. “I mean, within reason. I let you play doctor with me, didn’t I?”

She froze, and I blinked.

“That came out wrong,” I facehooved. “I meant…”

“Yes, you trust me as long as it is my medical expertise that is in question,” she filled in with a smile. 

“Well, it goes beyond that,” I added. “It’s like, I dunno, like a friend? I won’t lie, I’m kinda new at that kind of things.”

“But whatever I do, you are aware this is with your own well-being in mind, right?” Evey insisted, stepping closer to me.

“Of… course?” I timidly proposed, backing up a step. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, I just…” She sighed. “I hope you will forgive me, but know I take no solace in that kind of deception.”

“Wait, whaa-” My protest died inside my throat, as a pinprick pierced my neck. 

The world swayed, left, right, then down. Evey caught my head before it hit the floor. With care, she pulled out the needle from beneath my skin.

And as I drifted away into unconsciousness, I noted, not without irony, that I had at least been drugged by a professional.






(** **)



Main quest updated:  A Courier’s Tale	
Objectives:	

[X] 	Show Chrystal around Big Mountain				(Primary)
[   ] 	Secure supply lines toward Big Mountain			(Primary)
[   ] 	Acquire Schematics	 for Big Mountain				(Primary)


New side quest:  Power Supplies	
Objectives:

	[   ] 	Acquire Schematics	 for Big Mountain				(Repeatable)


Level up!

New perk:	
Leader of Mares: Perhaps there really is something to this ‘friendship’ they all talk about. A group is often more than just the sum of its parts: every party member gains a bonus to their tagged skills.


 “United we stand.”