//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Back to Square One 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Influx 
// by Lex the Pikachu 
//------------------------------//

Fallout Equestria: Influx

Chapter 8: Back to Square One


A flurry of questions exploded through my mind at the appearance of this Desert Ranger that stood before us as we stepped out of Stable 16, but two questions came to the forefront of my mind. “How does he know what I am?” And “How did he know to find us here?”

The Ranger looked similar to the ones we’d met already, but his overcoat looked a little more beat up and his armour looked more heavy duty. If I were to guess, I would say this was a higher ranking ranger than the ones we’d met already and seen more action than them as well. Not to mention that fifty calibre anti-machine rifle he was packing in a military-grade battlesaddle on his side wasn’t enough of a giveaway that he was tough.

“Who are you bright eyes?” Fruity asked as he stared at the glowing red lenses of the helmeted stallion.

“My name is…” He paused unexpectedly and tilted his head slightly as if to think before he finished his reply. “…Nexus.”

Fruity extended a wing to hide his face as he turned to me and whispered. “That’s a bold face lie if I ever heard one.”

“I agree, why would he stop and think of his own name?” 

“Exactly!”

We turned back to the Ranger from our little private discussion to see him fixing his gaze solely on me. 

I had a bad feeling about this. “What do you want with me?” I finally asked the dreaded question.

“You are to accompany me back to the Marejave Production Facility; my orders are to return you to the facility intact.”

This could actually be my chance to get some answers. “What am I to do when we get there?”

“You are to be dismantled for analysis,” He answered in a rather deadpan matter, like what he just said didn’t sound like. “I’m taking you to a place where you’re going to die.”

“You’re going to kill her?” Fruity shouted angrily, shrugging his wings so his Q-Modulator swung off his back and down to his side.

“It is necessary for the Mark 2 line,” Nexus replied dismissively.

“There is not a cat in hell’s chance I’m going to let you drag me off to be killed,” I roared with anger as I plucked Lucky 13 from its holster. 

Nexus just began to walk towards me despite both of us having our weapons drawn. It was like he didn’t care or even feel threatened by our guns. “Stay back,” I ordered, which sounded like a loud mumble over the mouthgrip in my mouth but he kept coming. I pulled the trigger and fired a single .357 magnum round. There was a resounding dong as the bullet collided with the dome top segment of the helmet and harmlessly bounced off. With that, I emptied the rest of the cylinder, but each bullet just bounced off his helmet, leaving nothing but a small ding or scrape. The most damage I actually did was crack a lens. 

“Hey asswipe, up here,” Fruity taunted. Nexus looked up at the purple pegasus now hovering with his plasma rifle aimed at him.

“This does not concern you, pegasus,” Nexus said before turning back to me.

“It does when you’re threatening my friend!”

I used that momentary distraction to rear up onto my forehooves and thrust my hind hooves into his armoured head as hard as I could. There was an almighty metallic clang as my hooves collided and I yelped in pain and surprise at the solid impact. It felt like I just applebucked a solid wall, but my efforts were rewarded with the sound of a heavy thud from something falling over along with a hollow metal clanging as I suspected that I kicked his helmet off. 

“Hah, nice one,” Fruity laughed as he landed beside me as I picked myself back up.

“Ow, that armour must be some seriously heavy duty stuff cause that hurt my hooves,” I groaned as I turned around to face the downed stallion. 

The ranger didn’t stay down for long because as soon as I turned to face him he quickly rolled back over to his hooves and he pushed himself back up and faced us like nothing happened. However, this left us gawking in bewilderment with no small amount of fear.

“H-he’s one of y-you,” Fruity jittered out while taking a step back as the revealed skeletal machine fixed us with its gaze. Its deep set glowing red eyes focusing on me again inside those skull like eye sockets. Above the left eye where the eyebrow would be, like me, its number was etched into the metal plating. “I-02 IS”.

“Correction, I am a Mark 2, not a Mark 1,” The machine corrected.

“I don’t give a shit what you are, you’re still not taking me to die,” I hissed. “How did you even find me here?”

“I followed your energy signature,” It replied simply.

“My energy signature?” I asked tilting my head.

“Yes, your power cells give off a power signature that I was able to track; they lead me to you,” He answered. Was I so easy to track that if ponies just tune their scanners to whatever frequency picks up my energy signatures, they could find me? This could be a big problem for me.

“Crystal, this Micro Mana Cell is starting to burn a hole in my pocket,” Fruity whispered as the machine began to approach us again.

“Argh, how are we supposed to seal the Stable with this thing in our way?” I asked quietly as we began to circle around. It wasn’t until we circled around enough until we had I-02 IS between us and the open stable door that an idea came to mind. “Fruity, we gotta lure that thing into the stable and close the door and trap it inside before those cells blow,”

“Good idea,” Fruity said as he took to the air and aimed his rifle while I continued to circle around.

“Come and get me you walking toaster,” I taunted.

I-02 IS lunged forward, a little faster than I anticipated and forced me to jump to the side to avoid the armoured machine. Its red gaze was still fixed on me as it began to throw punches with his forehooves. Thankfully, my threat warning flashed just as each strike was about to come, allowing me to duck and weave to avoid the crushing blows. I assumed they would hurt a lot as he’d likely have the same mechanical strength boost that I did but that also meant I couldn’t let him get a hit on Fruity as he’d probably kill him with a single blow.

“Duck!” Fruity shouted. I quickly jumped back and got low as my pegasus friend fired two balls of burning plasma at the machine. The robot continued to keep its gaze on me; it seemed oblivious to the incoming plasma. However, as the incoming balls of heat energy neared, the machine weaved to the side to avoid the first ball and weaved back almost fluidly to avoid the second. It was almost as if it sensed the incoming attacks, like it had a threat warning like me.

“Shit…” Fruity sighed as he missed. He flew closer as he aimed his weapon to reduce the range, but as he got closer, I noticed the machine’s black tail snake into the air. My vision flashed and a reticule appeared with an identification marker highlighting the rising tail as “Nano-fibre”. A nano-fibre tail like mine, wait, oh no!

“Fruity, look out!” I cried in alarm but it was too late. The end of the nano-fibre tail wrapped around one of Fruity’s hind legs and once it had him, it violently pulled him down to the ground with a thud before lifting him back into the air, swinging him around before slamming him back into the cavern floor. Fruity let out a cry of pain as his back impacted the hard ground. For once, the machine turned its gaze off me as he looked to the helpless pegasus as he picked him back up off the floor and then swung him back down into the ground with a crunch, which was followed by another pained cry.

“Let him go!” I screamed as I charged forward and twisted around on my forehooves, striking out with my hind hooves in an applebuck to his face. This time, it didn’t hurt as much and I didn’t fall flat on my face as I expected the weight behind what I was hitting. 

“Thank you,” Fruity painfully breathed as he fluttered over to the stable’s outside door control after the machine let him go after my strike. I however paid the price of taking my eyes off my target as when I turned back to the robot, he smashed me in the side of the head with a forehoof. I felt my jaw unhinge for a moment before it clicked back into place as I staggered back.

That hurt, unbelievably so. As much as I hate what I’ve become, being part machine, I couldn’t help but be grateful right now about the durability as that hit alone would have turned a jaw bone into powder. My threat warning flashed and I quickly jumped back to avoid another hook to the jaw. However, the machine was now on the offensive, it closed the gap and I had to dance around his hoof swipes to avoid getting hit. Thankfully, my threat warning was alerting me quickly enough but he was getting so close. 

I looked back to see if I had manoeuvred myself to the open stable door while avoiding the machine’s blows. I let out an internal sigh of relief at seeing the huge open hole in the concrete wall; I was where I needed to be but just as I turned to face I-02 IS again I felt a solid impact to the side of my head. The hoof punch rattled my brain, my audio receptors even rang like my old organic ears used to do, and my vision swam as I fell to the floor with a pained groan.

“This is your purpose. Why do you resist?” The machine asked as it stood before me, its mouth moving up and down as it talked but its voice unnervingly coming out sounding perfectly normal like a living pony’s. The combination of robotic skeletal head and normal like voice was very creepy and off putting.

“What sort of a purpose is that?” Fruity barked.

“That is the purpose of obsolete units, to be broken down and recycled for the newer models,” I-02 IS replied.

“I’m not a machine,” I said with a groan as my senses returned to normal and I pulled myself back up to my hooves.

“Why delude yourself?” He asked as his AM rifle aimed down to my forelegs. “Did you malfunction to believe you are alive?”

“She is alive you moron!” Fruity shouted. I felt a brief wave of happiness at Fruity’s words as he defended my claim of being alive.

“The only way I’ll ever go with you is if you drag my broken body back with you,” I growled.

“So be it,” The machine said in a tone that sounded disappointed. The AM rifle on his battlesaddle aimed at my right foreleg but didn’t fire. The machine worked his jaw as if to bite something, but as nothing was happening, it stopped and froze for a moment, staring into space as if suddenly realising something. It turned its head to look at the broken helmet laying on the floor several feet away.

“Hah, he can’t use his AM rifle, his helmet contained the firing mechanism,” Fruity laughed before groaning with pain and holding his ribs.

I smirked at the machine. “Well then, come and get me.”

The machine let out what sounded like a frustrated growl and lunged for me again. I waited until the last possible moment and jumped. We had only one shot at this so I hoped this would work. I jumped up and over the machine, kicking him in the back of the head as he sailed under me and landed on my forehooves. With my hindquarters still in the air, I tucked my hind legs in tight and thrust out with all my strength for another applebuck. My hooves connected with his rear again. I looked over my shoulder to watch as he stumbled from the combination of being kicked in the back of the head and my applebuck. 

“Fruity NOW!” I cried.

Fruity nodded and pulled the lever for the door control. I hoped the machine would fall through the threshold before the steel door would roll into place. We watched with baited breath as the machine stumbled towards the threshold as the warning sirens blared. 

“Oh no,” I cried as the machine fell over onto its side and crashed into the steel threshold rim. I felt defeated as we missed our chance to trap the machine because the two MMCs would explode before we could even try again but I doubt the machine would give us that chance even if we tried. 

The huge steel door rolled into position for the locking arm to push it back into the steel rim and I then noticed that the robot’s AM rifle was laying inside the groove for one of steel door’s tapered cog teeth. I felt a little bit of hope build in my heart and prayed to the goddesses for a miracle. With an ear bleeding screech the locking arm shoved the huge steel door into place and to our ultimate joy and relief the tapered cog tooth ran over the rifle barrel, squashing it flat and trapping it and keeping the robot wedged between the floor and the door.

“Yes, may have not been inside the stable but we still trapped your ass,” Fruity cheered as he joined me.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

Suddenly there was a dull thud from behind the door along with a muffled bang. The first MMC must have detonated, we didn’t have much time.

“We gotta go, like now,” I urged.

“Eeyup,” Fruity agreed.

I-02 IS began to struggle. Being trapped on his side, it was awkward from him to get his hooves under him, but he was certainly trying to push himself up or away from the door. Each attempt put strain on his battlesaddle, but the military grade straps that were being used were holding steady. He’d tear his armour apart before he’d get out of that saddle.

Fruity reached into his duster pocket with a wing and pulled out the fractured and now glowing MMC. 

“Ow, ow, ow, hot, hot, hot,” He whined, juggling the cell between his wings above his back. He grabbed the cell with a forehoof, composing himself despite the heat the cell was giving off and looked down at the struggling machine. “Here, have a blast,” He said with a straight face and just dropped the cell by the machine’s back. 

Fruity nodded to me and we turned tail and began to run away from the struggling robot. I swear this cave seemed longer on the way out than it did on the way in. Just as we rounded a corner and came to the glowing pile of goo that had once been a gecko, a tremendous explosion rocked the cave. A strong shockwave ran through the cavern and nearly threw Fruity off his hooves. I breathed a sigh of relief now that Stable 16 was sealed for good and we likely destroyed that robot in the process. We couldn’t bask in our victory for long as the shockwave triggered stalactites to fall. We ran as fast as we could for the open gate but just as we were about to break out into the open night air a stalactite or a large rock shattered against my back. I screamed in agony and fell out the door and down the slight slope before coming to a stop in the open night air, panting heavily from our run to safety.

“We, *pant* did it,” Fruity gasped.

“Ow, yes, we did,” I sighed, lying upside down in the night air.

XXXXX

By the time we made it back to my old home in Chadderton outside of Hayside, it was the middle of the night and the moon was high in the sky, casting down its bright white illuminating light onto the old residential district. During our trip back from the stable, my magic overloaded eye and ear had reactivated, restoring my hearing and sight back to one hundred percent and I gave Fruity another healing potion to help him with the damage he'd taken from the battering he took from that machine's nano-fibre tail.

"Ugh, I just want to get bladdered," Fruity sighed as we entered my old house.

"I don't normally like to drink with the intention to get drunk but after today's events, I'd agree with you there," I added as I shut the front door and followed my friend into the kitchen while also being careful to avoid the hole I made when I fell through from upstairs.

Fruity had the fridge open and had his muzzle buried into the lower compartment when I entered the kitchen after him. "Where are they, I know I saw some in here yesterday," He muttered. "Ah ha, there you are!" He exclaimed before he pulled his head back and he had a six pack of lager in his muzzle, he then set them down by my forehooves. "Hmm take them into the living room please, there are like two more in the bottom drawer here, I'll get these," He said as he dove back in.

"Ok," I agreed and turned back to the hall and used my tail to pick up the lukewarm pack of beers and walked down the hall and into the living room before setting the beers on the coffee table. I lay myself down on one of the two ruined sofas, which groaned under my extreme weight but thankfully held, and waited for Fruity to join me. I didn't have to wait long as he practically ran into the room, a pack of beers held by his muzzle, and one balanced on a wing, causing him to cringe in pain. He quickly dropped the pack held by his maw next to the one I brought in. 

"Ow, ow, ow, my wing," He whimpered before flicking the cans onto the table.

"You need to look after your wings Fruity, they've been through a lot recently," I chided with a sigh.

"I know, I know," Fruity groaned as he flopped down onto the other sofa.

"Ugh, what a day," I sighed and reached out with a hoof and grasped one of the five hundred millilitre cans in the six pack and tugged it out of the plastic holder. Fruity also plucked one of his own out and used a wing with a practiced ease to pop the cap. Despite the beer being lukewarm from being sat in a fridge that hadn't worked for nearly two centuries and the cans being in there for Celestia only knows how long since before the war ended, it still let out a burst of vapour as the lager was surprisingly not flat. I suppose the beer didn't go flat with the can being an airtight container and was sheltered enough to not corrode to cause any leakage.

"Awesome," Fruity said as he brought the open can to his lips and took a large swig. "Hmm, Coltsberg, best beer ever,"

If I were to be honest, I didn't like to drink for one reason really. I didn't like lager. It’s bitter and leaves a nasty after taste in my mouth. However, considering the things we've been through in Stable 16 and the things we'd seen, I was willing to put up with the horrid taste and tacky feeling it'll give me in my mouth to hopefully get drunk to the point I might forget the things I'd seen.

"So," Fruity began, finishing his first can rather quickly if I might add. "What the hell was that thing?" He asked as he plucked a second can.

"I honestly don't know," I replied as I popped the cap on my first can and took a swing, cringing at the horrible bitter taste on my tongue.

"It said it was a Mark 2, but..." He paused to take a swig. "...A Mark 2 of what?"

"That's a good question and it's something I'm trying to find out. I-02 IS is a Mark 2 of whatever the hell I am,"

"Hang on a sec," Fruity said with wide eyes while taking another big swig. "He came for you right?" I simply nodded as the machine did address me by my machine name only. "Do you think that thing has been looking for you since the bombs fell?"

That was actually a good and disturbing question. Could that thing have been looking for me since the bombs fell? I don't know. Hmm, when I think about it, two hundred years would be plenty of time for the robot to search likely places for me and I wasn't exactly hidden in Manehattan General. In fact, I would have been in plain sight since I was in a public stasis ward. I-02 IS had stated he followed my energy signature to Stable 16 so if he had been searching for me since then he would have easily have found me in stasis. No, its search for me was recent...

My eyes bulged out as memories of our escape of the MASA HQ flashed to the forefront of my mind along with the memory of arriving in the ruins of New Pegasus when I had the feeling of being watched from back at the MASA. 

"He was there..." I breathed out in shock.

"Come again?" Fruity asked after finishing his second can and opening his third.

"That machine, he's been tracking us since we arrived in the Marejave,"

"And what gives you that idea?"

"The busted front doors and pushed up security shutters at the MASA HQ," I replied with my eyes still wide.

Fruity opened his mouth but then closed it as he thought for a moment but soon his eyes widened. "Holy Faust, you might be right! I mean a frenzied Sentry Drone wouldn't have been able to damage the shutters like that and the dead bolted front doors were broken inwards not outwards." 

I nodded. "And I told you I had a feeling we were being watched when we got to the ruins didn't I?" I asked, my drinking pegasus friend nodded. "And my feeling of being watched came from the MASA HQ,"

"So what does this mean?"

"Somepony is out to get me, that's what I'm able to deduce from our meeting with I-02 IS. It did say it was ordered to 'retrieve' me. So, it was ordered, but by who, and why, what could I, a Mark 1 according to the robot, possibly have that the Mark 2s need?" I asked. 

"How the fuck should I know?"

"Neither do I." I groaned and took a big gulp of my lager, ignoring the horrible taste. "I have a suspicion it has something to do with how I ended up like this and if it is, my life is going to get a whole lot more complicated,"

"WELCOME TO THE WASTELAND!" Fruity cheered in a deadpan manner and finished his third can.

Yeah, welcome to the wasteland indeed.

XXXXX

*Snore, snort, snore*

I shook my head and looked down at the pile of empty cans next to the couch my friend was passed out on. He had drunk fifteen and a half cans before he dozed off. I suppose the day's events were more tiring than I had thought and the alcohol helped to knock him out. I wish it had the same effect on me though. I had six cans myself and considering I've never had enough lager to get drunk before, I'd assume six cans of five hundred millilitres would have enough alcoholic units to at least make me a bit tipsy. But I felt as sharp and as clear headed as I did since we got home.

I sighed as I looked down at the empty can of Coltsberg in my hoof, wondering why I still felt sober while my friend went through the phases of drunkenness before passing out. I suppose him passing out when he did was a blessing as his infamous sex beast side didn't surface. But, why am I am still sober, surely after six cans I should at least feel something? Well, my power readout in my HUD had gone up by two percent but that's beside the point.

"Is it something to do with my physiology, being part machine and having a..." My thought process was halted as the last word of my mental question struck a chord in my brain. I looked down at my stomach, exposed as I had hung my duster over the back of the couch along with my undershirt earlier that evening. I gently rubbed my belly where my stomach should be. "My stomach isn't organic like my heart and lungs, its synthetic and what I've been drinking has been magically processed by it. I wouldn't put it past whoever made me to have made it so that anything harmful in what I eat and drink is filtered out." I reasoned. If that were the case, why did I suffer the effects of the psychoactive drug in Stable 16's air? Perhaps that fell down to biology, since my heart and lungs were organic and there were no mechanics there to filter things. This was just something else to add to the questions that were mounting up regarding my new mechanical anatomy. Just what could my mechanical body do?

I gently rolled off the couch and as quietly as I could trotted to the hall and then, as quietly and gingerly, began to climb the stairs, being very careful where I stepped to keep the squeaky boards to a minimum as not to wake up the sleeping pegasus. As I reached the top of the stairs, I stopped and stared at the now gaping hole in the floor, subconsciously reaching up to rub at the left side of my face as a flash back of me getting my face torn off when I fell through flashed into my head. I had to shake my head before getting lost in horrible and painful memories and to regain my focus. I carefully stepped to the left from the hole and entered my bedroom, making my way to the Stable-Tec computer sitting on my desk.

"Might as well put my mind at ease," I sighed, worried at what I might find. "It's not like I'm going to sleep tonight with this on my mind."

Since leaving Stable 16, the idea that I had sold ponies positions to that stable had been playing on my mind and now that I wouldn't be getting to sleep tonight I needed to put my fears to rest. I hoped to Celestia I didn't, because if I did, I would be responsible for their deaths, which would make me feel like a murderer because I essentially condemned them to go insane and die in that stable of horrors. I checked the terminal and surprisingly it was still receiving power from the mains. Gulping with anticipation, I pressed the power button and with a soft whirr the machine began its boot up process. A part of me was hoping the old computer wouldn't work, but I knew the hope was for naught as with a beep the screen flashed to my desktop, revealing everything the way I left it. Stable-Tec technology, built to last.

I pressed a couple of keys that I programmed into my computer to instantly bring up certain folders as I would often get called by Stable-Tec for sales figures, confirmations, and other such sales information so I made a shortcut to my sales record folder by holding Ctrl and pressing S at the same time. 

The folder opened up onto the screen to reveal spreadsheet documents and word documents detailing my sale records, customer information and other documentation. I found my Stable Place Sales Sheet and opened it and stared, wide eyed. The document held the names and stable locations of over two thousand ponies that I would have to look through. This was going to be a long night.

XXXXX

I groaned and sat back from the computer a few hours later and rubbed my at eyes, feeling a little eye strain from staring at the screen for so long. Not a single pony I sold a place to went to Stable 16, as a matter of fact I didn't see a single Stable 16 anywhere. I had sold positions to Stables 19, 21, 26, 29 and 34 but not 16 and it clearly is or was an operational Stable before the bombs fell, so why...?

"What are you doing?" Fruity asked from beside me, startling me as I didn't even hear him enter.

"Gah, son of a bitch, don't do that!" I screamed after jumping nearly clear across the room from having the daylights scared out of me.

"I did call you twice from the door," He groaned while rubbing at his temple with a hoof. "You were in your own little world staring at that screen,"

After I calmed down I sighed and sat back down by the computer. "I'm sorry; I was just trying to be sure I didn't sell any ponies a place in that hellhole we just sealed up,"

"And did you?" He asked as he sat down still with a hoof to his head.

"Thankfully, no," I said as I pressed a button to back out of the sales record sheet and back to my desktop. I pressed my arrow keys to highlight my Stable-Tec Network icon. I knew I'd likely not get a connection to any Stable-Tec servers but I wasn’t trying to get a connection. What I was trying to do now was to see if there were any e-mails or notifications they sent me after I was hospitalised when my organic body's illnesses became life threatening. 

Immediately, when I selected it, a warning window popped up saying that connection to Stable-Tec Network was offline but that was to be expected so I clicked it off and it opened the window to the network window in offline mode. Thankfully in offline mode, if I had any messages I received they would still be in my inbox and I'd be able to view them. I just wouldn’t be able to reply to them.

I opened my inbox folder and found four unread messages. The first one was a notice to say that my contract with Stable-Tec had been terminated as a result of my illness, the second was a get well soon e-mail from Applebloom, one of the three founders of Stable-Tec, the third one was dated just a week after my hospitalisation and its subject was "New Stables and Product Listing" and the last one was just my month quota notice. The e-mail titled "New Stables and Product Listing": it had to be with the mention of new Stables. I opened the e-mail and after a brief introduction, the e-mail explained that two stables were to be constructed within the next couple of years, back then anyway. It said that Super Stable 24 (don't know what the "Super" part was supposed to mean) would be built under Las Pegasus itself and Stable 16, originally slated for Applewood was relocated to the hills outside of Las Pegasus. 

I sighed with relief and sat back. Stable 16 didn't exist when I was alive. So thankfully I didn't sell anypony a place to that hell stable, but I felt for the poor pony that did. 

"Stable-Tec hadn't built the stable by the time I was selling places to others," I told Fruity as I turned away from the computer. I looked at him in concern as he held his head. "Are you ok?"

"Hangover headache, nothing serious," He groaned.      

"My mum suffered from bad headaches a lot, maybe the meds she was prescribed may help, although I don't know if they'll be any good now," I suggested.

"I'd try anything right now, Celestia's mercy I hate headaches," He groaned. "Where can I find them?" He asked.

"Mum kept them in her nightstand in her room," I answered as turned my terminal off.

"Err, you sure it's ok for me to go in there?"

"I don't think my mum's body is in there, I mean I haven't got that hint of rotten flesh from her room when I walked past it," I replied. 

"Alright," The purple pegasus turned and left my room to go search for my mum's old headache pills.

I stood up from my desk and looked out the window, the sun was rising high into the sky now. It must be around ten or eleven in the morning, at least. I haven't done an all nighter since I was a teenager. Heh, memories. Turning from the window I felt an uncomfortable tightness around my right hind leg. I groaned and gently rubbed at my sock covered leg with a forehoof and was met with a smooth feeling underneath, not bumpy or disfigured like it was earlier. I quickly shoved the tip of my tail under the fabric and stretched the fabric a bit more so I could see the flesh and to my relief my leg had regenerated completely. Well, minus the fur. Oh Faust on a bike, the itchiness of the fur growing back would drive me insane. 

"CRYSTAL, YOU BETTER COME LOOK AT THIS!" Fruity shouted from down the hall.

Fearing I was wrong and my mother's body was in her room, I galloped out of my room, jumped over the hole by the stairs and skidded through the door and to a stop inside my mother's room. I looked around frantically for a skeleton, but my mother's room looked as clean as a two hundred year old room could be after two centuries of deterioration. I found Fruity sat on the still made bed with the top drawer of the nightstand open, a small medical box in his lap but in his hooves he was holding a laminated card.

"What, what is?" I croaked from the near panic attack I had from his shout.

He turned the card around and showed it me.

The laminated card was an identification card for the Ministry of Awesome and it belonged to my mother and not only that but the card also had an administrator security clearance which I think was a highish clearance. But this didn't make any sense.

"You never told me your mother worked for the M.O.A," Fruity said, almost accusingly.

"That's because she was a baker," I shot back defensively.

"Are you sure?" He asked. 

"Yea, she was always a baker," I answered in defence of my mother, the pony I loved the most in my life. 

"Then what's this?"

"I don't know, I'm as confused as you are about this,"

"What if your mother being a baker was just a front for what she really was? I mean, the M.O.A specialised in espionage." He reasoned. I opened my mouth to rebuke his claim but his argument held water. I worked from home and couldn't really leave the house and to support me and herself, mother had to work long hours. I never questioned it until now so, maybe he's right, and maybe my mum was an agent for the M.O.A, not a spy but somepony working for them at least. I think I was going to dread going down this path to finding out the truth about me, just what would I uncover about my own family that not even I knew about?

XXXXX   

"How are you feeling now?" I asked Fruity as we walked up Broadwalk Avenue in Hayside. It had been an hour since we left the house after our morning surprise. I decided to keep a hold of my mother's M.O.A ID card as it may prove useful to us, considering my endoskeleton was built by the M.O.A and all that.

"Much better now thanks, those pills worked a treat," He sighed happily now that his head wasn't pounding.

"That's good, um, do you remember where Motor Runner said we could find him?" I asked while looking around at the boarded up and mostly run down buildings lining the wide street as we walked up the road towards the Strip's gate.

"He said we could find him at the Golden Oak's Hotel," Fruity said and pointed off to the left. "Ah, there it is," 

I smiled; at least we weren't going to be wandering for hours trying to find this place. The building from the outside looked like a normal hotel like building with multiple windows on its face, most of which were cracked or had several panes broken. The building was also three stories tall and had an old neon sign bolted to the outside wall displaying the name of the building and hanging below the neon was a makeshift sign with painted on letters that read. "Bar and Casino Inside." We walked up to the door and with a nod from Fruity, I pushed open the door and stepped in. 

The Golden Oak's Hotel looked like a rustic old Braytish pub that had parts of its interior converted for other means. To the left there was a stage set up for performers to put on shows for the patrons, to the right a dark wooden bar stood with stools lining the edge and the back wall had an opening to another room that lead into the back of the building. From the door, it looked like the backroom was used for gambling as I could see a blackjack table in there. There were a fair number of ponies sitting in chairs or on the stools by the bar, talking, drinking and going about their own business. It almost felt like I had gone back in time to a pre-war pub as the atmosphere in here just didn't feel as desperate or as lonely as outside.

"Who let a fucking Stripe in here?" Came a raspy voice from the wall next to the door.

I sighed at the use of the racial term fired my way and turned to chastise the pony but froze upon seeing who and what said it. The pony in question wore black leather armour and leaned against the wall in a bored fashion, but what caught my attention the most and what made my blood run cold with fear was that the pony's body, that was exposed that is, looked deteriorated and rotten in places, just like a ghoul.

"G-ghoul," I cried and jumped back, crashing into the wall beside the bar.

"What, never met a ghoul before?" The zombie like pony rasped in annoyance, the tone slightly higher in pitch, giving it a feminine tone to my ears.

"I'm sorry, my friend here is new to the wasteland, she's never met a sapient ghoul before, since we've met, we've only ran into ferals," Fruity explained while bowing his head in apology.

"Ugh, whatever," The ghoul sighed and returned to standing by the wall. "You better keep that Stripe under control, flyboy,"

"Don't worry Crystal, she's good, there are ghouls that are just like you and me. They just have the disadvantage of looking like a walking corpse," Fruity explained.

"I heard that," The female ghoul shouted in annoyance.

"Heh, sorry,"

I nodded my understanding and we trotted over to the bar and sat on a stool each, mine giving a loud echoing creak.

"Good afternoon, what can I get'cha?" A slightly rotund mare asked wearing an apron that looked like it could use a wash. 

"Do you want a beer?" I asked Fruity.

"Oh goddesses no, my head can't take anymore alcohol," Fruity groaned.

"Um, two Sparkle-Colas please, err, if you have any that is,"

She nodded. "Coming right up,"

The round mare nodded and disappeared behind the bar for a moment before she popped back up with a bottle of the orange coloured liquid in her maw. She gently placed the bottle on the bar in front of me before repeating the process with the second. 

"That's fifty caps please," She said while holding her hoof out. I nodded and paid the mare. "You two new in town? I don't recall ever seeing ya around before." She asked as she sat down.

"Yeah, we arrived a couple days ago," Fruity said while popping the cap off his cola and quickly shoving said cap into his pocket.

"It's always nice to meet new customers," The mare smiled. "It's rare we see a zebra in Hayside, glad to see you're not one of those Illustrious Moon lunatics,"

I nodded softly. "Um, do you know where we can find a pony called Motor Runner?" I asked the bartender.

The mare nodded. "That hunk is upstairs in his room but he should be coming down any time now. Why, do you have business with him?"

Fruity nodded to her question. "We do, we have a bounty to collect,"

"Are you two bounty hunters?" She asked conversationally. 

"No, not really, but we needed the caps,"

"I see, so how did it go?"

"Ugh, it was terrible, we chased that asshole across a valley and into a stable in the hills," Fruity groaned.

The large main room seemed to go deadly silent all of a sudden. 

"A stable, it wasn't Stable 16 was it?" She asked sounding scared.

"Um, yes," I answered slowly.

"How did you get out of there?" She asked in surprise, like our escape was impossible or something.

"We left after we dealt with our bounty, why?" Fruity asked a little uneasy.

"Countless prospectors have been to that stable over the years and hardly any ever returned, those that did, well..." She trailed off and pointed to a corner booth. We followed her pointing hoof and saw a young mare in her twenties with a middle aged stallion, she was holding his hoof and trying to get him to stop fidgeting so she could get him to drink something. The shaking stallion was also making odd gurgling cries or shouts every so often to which when he did a particular loud one the young mare would apologise.

"What happened to him?" I found myself unable to stop myself from asking.

"That stallion there is that mare's father and well, he went to loot Stable 16, like everypony else who hears about an untouched stable he goes in thinking he could make it big with the things he could salvage. He went in alone but came back to town after half the day had gone. He said the place was full of nothing but horrors and that the ponies inside were insane but..." She trailed off again looking grim as she told her tail. "The stallion suffered from nightmares since he escaped. His daughter said that his nightmares were so bad that he would stay up and do anything to keep himself awake and not only that, she said that he would act oddly at times, screaming and shouting at things that weren't even there, like he was hallucinating or something. Sadly all this took its toll on the stallion and he snapped, that quivering wreck is the result," She finished sadly. "How did you two get out of there ok?"

"I think we weren't in there long enough," I suggested. Since we left the stable I hadn't had another hallucination and despite us spending half a day in there, we were only exposed to the drug for a couple of hours since for most of our time in there, I was unconsciously above the danger zone. "Did you sleep ok?" I asked turning to Fruity.

"Like a foal on cloud nine," Fruity replied before taking a swig of his cola.

"You two were lucky, I hope the next pony to brave that place is just as lucky," The mare sighed.

"There won't be a next time," Fruity said, getting the mare's attention.

"He's right; we made sure no pony would ever be able to get in there again,"

"Yeah, we sealed the stable up tight, destroyed both its control panels with the door closed so nopony can access that death-trap."

"Really?" 

"After the things we've seen in there, we couldn't let anypony else suffer the things we did, and seeing that poor stallion there with how it affected him and his family, I think we made the right choice in sealing it," I said.

"You have no idea the good you've done for us, no, the whole of the Marejave," She praised.

"The whole of the Marejave, really?" Fruity asked.

"Yea, stables are a prime prospecting spot for prospectors and salvagers, I can't imagine how many ponies that stable claimed over the years. What you two have done will save many lives in the future."

I smiled, feeling a warm fuzziness swell in my chest at the praise of doing something that could have helped save ponies of this community and possibly the entire Marejave. It felt good to hear that.

"Hmm yes, a commendable feat indeed," Motor Runner said from behind us. 

"Gah, will ponies stop sneaking up on me please," I whined as I jumped forward from the unexpected voice that came from behind me, making me nearly knock over my bottle of cola in the process.

Fruity snickered before bursting into laughter. "Twice in one day, haha, ohh, how many more times are you going to jump at something coming up behind ya?" Fruity asked through a fit of giggles.

I glared at my laughing friend and flicked my tail to the side and whipped him in the ribs gently, which made him yelp in surprise.

"Alright, alright, sorry," He moaned as he rubbed at his stinging ribs.

"Are you two done?" Motor Runner asked softly.

"I'm sorry yes," I said before composing myself and turned to face the Princess Celestia sized stallion. "We took care of your... err, loose end," I said while feeling just a tad intimidated as he looked down on us and I used my tail to pull the pendant out from my duster pocket and held it up to him. The huge stallion leant down and scrutinized the pendant for a long minute before standing back up straight.

"Excellent work Miss Éclair and Mr Fruity, with that stallion out of the way, foals can sleep well at night," He said with a smile. "And now I don't have to worry about him revealing Project-K to anypony," He murmured to himself quietly but my sensitive audio receptors picked it up. I was going to ask what Project-K was but decided against it; it was none of my business after all. The large stallion then reached around and pulled a pair of saddlebags off his back and placed them down on the bar before us. "The caps as promised, and as a bonus you can keep the pendant, I'm sure it could be worth a few caps as well,"

The door to the hotel opened and a young pegasus stallion in a stripped down version of the Enclave power armour stepped in and looked around before his gaze fell upon the large stallion. I saw Fruity tense up at the sight of the power armoured pegasus.

"Motor Runner sir, I brought your carriage as requested," The pegasus said, addressing the large stallion as his superior.

The large stallion sighed. "Wirbelwind, how many times do I have to tell you, you don't have to call me sir." 

"Every time sir," 

Motor Runner sighed. "One of these days, you'll know the difference between friend and commanding officer," He then turned to us. "Thank you for taking care of my problem but I am needed back home, I hope you have a pleasant journey," And with that he followed his pegasus companion out the hotel.

"He's kidding right, pleasant journey?" Fruity gave a mirthless laugh. "No such thing."

"The train wasn't so bad," I absentmindedly said while taking out small pouches of caps from the saddlebags Motor Runner put on the bar top. I found that one bag had two pouches of a thousand caps each in, and the other had three, giving us the five thousand as he said he would. I smiled and pocketed three of the pouches while also giving Fruity the other two. 

"The train blew up..." Fruity reminded me.

"Oh, yeah..."

Fruity put his caps into his magic duster pockets and then held the black fabric saddlebags up. "Hmm, I could use these," He said to himself before putting the saddlebags onto his back behind his wings.

We stayed at the bar for a few more minutes while we had our colas and then headed back out into Hayside. The sun shone down on us from up high, and after leaving the cool interior of the hotel, we were assaulted by its tremendous Marejave heat. Thankfully I was used to the heat, but poor Fruity wasn't. 

"Bloody Nora, I feel like a cooked chicken," He moaned as we began up the road towards the gate.

"A bit of sun is good for you," I smiled.

Fruity extended a wing and began to fan himself. "But this much sun feels like I'm being roasted,"

I giggled softly; it would probably take him a few months to properly adjust to this climate after living in the cold wet conditions of the east for so long.

As the gate came into view, we found a small group of stallions lingering on the road. Each one looked like an average Haysider, but the drawn melee weapons ranging from knifes to pool cues gave us a bad impression. I began to grow a little uneasy seeing the threatening looking group up ahead; I really didn't like the look of them.

"Maybe we should take a side road and go around," I suggested.

Fruity nodded his agreement and we, as casually as possible as to not attract attention, took the nearest left and began to walk down an unoccupied road. Unfortunately, the path we took added to my unease as the street we travelled down looked more beat up and was filled with more rubble along either side against the buildings than most of what we've currently seen in Hayside. It was almost like no pony had even been down this street in years. We followed the road around until it began to lead us back towards the main road, but stopped as soon as we turned the corner that would put us on the road back to the main street. The group of five ponies had moved into the street and all five of them were facing us, like they were waiting for us. Slowly, we backed up and turned around but froze again as behind us was another group of three that had quietly crept up on us, trapping us in this out of the way street. I got the feeling this was intentional.

"Shit," Fruity sighed. "Looks like we're going to have to fight our way out,"

Sadly I nodded in agreement since both ways out of the secluded street were blocked. 

"Looks like you wandered into the wrong street lady," One of the stallions jeered at me.

"Shame we have to hurt that pretty face of yours," Another added.

Fruity flapped his wings and took to the air and took hold of his Q-Modulator in his hooves and turned to aim at the three ponies behind us. "I got the rear," He said while charging up the plasma weapon.

"Get'em," Shouted one of the stallions and all eight Haysider thugs began to charge at us with their melee weapons out at the ready.

I acted quickly. I bent down and grabbed my black and gold gilded revolver before slipping into SATS. Under the effects of the Pipbuck’s targeting spell, time slowed down to a crawl. This allowed me to carefully pick my shots, but I had to act quickly since they were still moving towards me. I toggled a headshot on the first thug then moved to the next one and toggled another head shot and did the same on a third but I couldn't go any further as I didn't have enough action points left in the spell to get a forth shot lined up with Lucky 13. With my three shots selected, I disengaged the spell and time resumed back to normal pace and under the influence of the targeting spell, I automatically aimed at my first targeted attacker and fired, changed trajectory to aim at the second and fired again then changed trajectory again and fired on the third in the space of a few seconds. I was briefly surprised for a moment when three of the five thugs dropped to the floor, felled by the powerful .357 magnum rounds from Lucky 13. 

"Oh shit,"

"The boss never said she was good with a gun," I heard one of the stallions cry out. Did I hear right? These ponies were sent to kill me. Were they connected with that robot from earlier?

"Quick, she's distracted," 

Shit!

A thug with a switchblade came at me followed by another with a pool cue. My threat detector lit up like a hearth's warming tree as both ponies attempted to hit me simultaneously. Jabbing and slashing with the blade and long swings with the pool cue. Thankfully I was able to react to my threat warning fast enough to dodge the incoming attacks. 

"Having fun?" Fruity asked as he fired his rifle.

"A blast," I dead panned, feeling annoyed to high heaven with these thugs.

Fruity gave another mirthless laugh as he flew back over to his group of attackers. I dodged back from a jab from the switchblade pony and gave myself some breathing room. The pony with the blade looked like he was getting really pissed off at my constant dodging.

"Why can't we hit this bitch?" He growled around the hilt of his blade. In a fit of rage he charged at me. I rolled my eyes because the charge was just so simple and easy to avoid, it was pathetic that he would even attempt it. I simply stepped to the side as he thrust his neck out to stab at me while during his charge, so as I dodged he fell to the floor as I wasn't there for him to crash into with his blade. As the stallion landed on his chest he let out a slightly pained cry and dropped his switchblade.

"Why are you even attacking me?" I asked him as I turned my attention to the stallion on the floor. Unfortunately, that was a mistake, as with my attention now off the other thug, I had left myself open to attack and I didn't react to my threat warning in time. A sharp pain erupted from the back of my head making me cry out, more in surprise than actual pain, which was followed by the sound of splintering wood. I felt my stetson get knocked off my head as a result of the impact while I also dropped my revolver. I hissed with the pain as I looked up at the stallion now holding and staring at what remained of his pool cue. Rubbing the back of my head with a forehoof I growled in annoyance. "That hurt,"

"What the fuck?!" The pool cue pony shrieked.

The thug on the floor began to pick himself back up but I quickly put a forehoof down onto his back. "I don't think so," I growled before turning my gaze back to the still stunned stallion with the stump of a pool cue. "Have your friend back," I said before gripping the stallion's jacket and used my mechanical strength and hauled him off the floor and flung him at his companion. The stallion yipped in surprise before two pairs of voices cried out in pain as two stallions collided with each other and went tumbling backwards in a tangle of limbs.

"What the fuck is she?" One of the two moaned out in a daze.

"No zebra should be that strong," The other added as they tried to recover.

While the two stallions tried to free themselves from each other I picked up my hat and put it back on as well as my revolver and holstered it. I needed answers and I had an idea as to how to intimidate them into telling me. I used my tail to scoop up the dropped switchblade as I advanced on the two ponies.

"Who sent you and did he send a robot after me earlier?" I demanded.

"Like we'd tell you,"

"We don't know shit about a robot,"

I brought the switch blade to my face just as Fruity landed on his hind legs beside me. "I've dealt with the three tossers behind us, they're all pools of green gravy now," I nodded in acknowledgement while keeping my gaze on the two ponies before us. Fruity raised the Q-Modulator while gently pumping his wings to keep himself balanced. The two thugs had their eyes focused on the blade, probably expecting me to try using it to torture the information out of them but I had a different idea in mind. I opened my maw and to all three ponies’ surprise, stuck the blade up to the hilt into my mouth and promptly bit down on the blade. The magic in my mouth acted quickly and with a soft snap the blade broke free from the rest of the switchblade which made the two thugs gasp. I felt the blade soften and turn into a chewy substance in my mouth with a spearmint aftertaste as I swallowed it.

"Now, who sent you?" I demanded.

"He'd kill us if we told you," The pony that had the pool cue whimpered.

"Bollocks, we'll kill you for attacking us,"

"No, we won't, killing them like this won't solve anything," I sighed and gave the half eaten switchblade back to its owner. "Go back to your employer and tell him, if he wants me dead, he better come do it himself," With that the two stallions quickly untangled themselves and galloped off as fast as they could go.

"I'm not paid enough for this shit," I heard one of them yell as he ran.

"Yea, the job description didn't say shit about freaky strong zebras that can eat metal," The other replied sounding disturbed.

"Was that necessary?" Fruity asked as I licked my lips.

"It worked to scare them didn't it?"

Fruity shrugged as he slung his rifle and returned to all fours. "Let's get to the gate before anymore assholes decide they want to fuck about with us,"

"I am so not in the mood for anymore more assholes," I agreed and we resumed our walk to the gate to New Pegasus. "If they weren't with the pony that sent that robot then why were they out to kill us, what have we done to piss somepony off enough to want us dead?" I asked, unable to fathom any possible reason for a pony to want to kill us since we had only just arrived two days ago.

"This is the wasteland Crystal, these days ponies will likely just shoot at you if you so much as look at them funny," He sighed. "Hell, I've had countless ponies want to kill me over the years and some of the dumbest reasons I've ever heard include, because I'm purple and because I'm a pegasus,"

"That's pathetic,"

"I know, but that's what it's like these days if you meet the wrong type of pony or owt like that,"

I sighed and shook my head. We continued on in relative silence as we recovered from our encounter and didn't have anything better to talk about in that moment. It took us about five minutes from then to reach the gate guarded by sentry drones and like the first time, one of them rolled in front of us to block our path.

"Halt, submit to a credit check or present your passport before proceeding to the gate," It repeated like before. "Trespassers will be shot,"

I stepped up to the hulking robot. "I submit to a credit check," I announced with a hint of nervousness in my voice as being this close to the large robot was very intimidating.

The large robot's head gazed at me for a while before it beeped. "Thank you madam, you may proceed,"

"I'm with her," Fruity said but the machines didn't seem to react, even as he stepped up beside me they just ignored him.

Cautiously, we proceeded towards the gate, but thankfully, the robot guards didn't react to Fruity being with me as he hadn't been subjected to a credit check. I supposed since he was my companion and that it was me that was checked he was allowed in with me. 

We found a small door in the huge gate to walk through so we didn't have to pull the huge ass gate open and pushed it open and stepped through. Again it felt like I went back in time as the scene on the other side of the gate didn't match up with what Hayside was like. Everything looked near to pristine and clean.

"WOW!" Fruity chirped as we stepped into New Pegasus proper. 

"It's still a beautiful city even after two hundred years," I smiled while looking over the mostly intact buildings and how clean they all looked. New Pegasus was the complete opposite of Manehattan which was run down and nearly dead. New Pegaus was nearly as bright and lively as it was back before the bomb.

From the gate we could see that Broadwalk Avenue made up the Strip continued onward and curled to the right up ahead. The Strip is where the main casinos and hotels stood in Las Pegasus and once brought in a great deal of tourists and revenue. I was glad to see that some of the old iconic hotels and casinos still stood as from the gate I could still see the "Planet Applewood Hotel & Casino" because I could still see the old Prench Tower standing tall. At the start of the bend in the road I could see a miniature but badly damaged towards the top replica of a selection of Manehattan buildings and standing out in front of it all was a smaller replica of the Statue of Friendship, this was the "Manehattan Experience Hotel & Casino". There were a bunch of other hotels and casinos that I recognised and felt grateful that they had survived, despite the upper floors looking worse for wear with some having gaping holes in them but close to the gate there was a hotel and casino that I don't remember being on the Strip before I died. On the left side of the road behind a beautiful marble archway stood a replica of the main building of Canterlot Castle and it looked newer than the other buildings here on the Strip. While looking over the beautiful white spires I soon found its neon sign on the archway and the building is known as the "Canterlot Royal Hotel & Casino". 

"Oh!" I said suddenly as it finally clicked in my brain.

"What?" Fruity asked in surprise, my little sudden chirp caught him off guard as his wings had flared out.

I pointed to the castle like hotel. "I just remembered why that place looks newer than the rest; they began building it shortly after I was admitted to hospital,"

"Oh, err, cool,"

"Wow, there are far more ponies here than in Hayside," I commented as I noticed the large number of ponies walking the Strip and popping in and out of the hotels while going about their lives.

"Yeah, I've never seen a ground city so populated before, it’s kinda scary to be honest," Fruity said as we began to walk up the road. "So, where too?"

"Well, we'll need to take our first available right, the hospital is somewhere down that way," I said while pointing to our right to indicate the direction we would need to go. 

"Whoa, an alicorn," Fruity suddenly gasped. I had learned about alicorns from Fruity on the way here to the Marejave on the train so I knew that an alicorn wasn't one of our goddesses and were simply the result of an experiment gone wrong and were usually deadly. However the purple alicorn we could see standing in the doorway of the Canterlot Royal Hotel didn't give us the impression of a deadly super powered mutant but more of a high class mare. The alicorn was dressed in a lovely white formal dress that a long skirt to completely cover her flanks and long slender hind legs. She was also smiling which was something Fruity said they didn't do, unless it was a sinister grin for when they had you, but the smile she was giving was a soft friendly smile and it was being directed to a cream coloured unicorn mare with a purple mane done up into a short ponytail before her that was dressed in a worn lab coat.

"That unicorn looks vaguely familiar," I muttered to myself. I honestly couldn't say I recognised her but something about the mare was making me feel weird, like I should know her. I shook my head to clear it of the weird feeling as we approached an intersection next to a hotel that had been renamed from "Lunar Paradise Hotel & Casino" to simply, "Sinful Moon". The dancing mares in skimpy clothing along with the name Sinful gave me an impression of what the place had been repurposed to and it made me blush.

"C'mon Fruity," I said hurriedly as I wrapped my tail around his foreleg and began to drag him along behind me as like any stallion he stopped to have a good gander at the dancing mares.

XXXXX

"Ah, it's wonderful to see you this lovely afternoon Dr Pear," The large purple alicorn smiled down at the unicorn at the door to her hotel.

"Likewise Duchess, I'm here for monthly check up," Dr Pear said with a friendly smile.

"It's been ten years since I had any lapse but it's always good to see you my friend,"

Dr Pear giggled softly. "Even so, I would still like to perform the check to be sure; I'd hate to lose a good friend like..." The cream unicorn stopped and wore a puzzled expression for a moment before she turned her head slowly to the side so she could see behind herself. "It can't be," She mentally said to herself as she noticed a grey striped zebra mare wearing a duster and a black stetson walking up the road with a purple pegasus stallion close behind. An odd sense of familiarity seemed to emanate from the zebra mare.  

"Dr Pear, are you alright?" Duchess asked with worry.

The unicorn quickly snapped out of her thoughts and returned her attention to her alicorn friend. "Yes, sorry, thought I recognised somepony for a moment there, ahem, shall we?" She smiled.

"Of course, right this way," The alicorn beckoned with a welcoming smile.

XXXXX

“Thank you, I thought I’d be there all day,” Fruity said thankfully after I let go of his foreleg from my tail’s grip. 

I giggled. “Stallions,” I smiled as we turned onto a street that would take us towards the hospital. As we walked a growing sense of itchiness was beginning to crawl up my right hind leg. That could mean only one thing; the fur was starting to grow back in. I hope to the goddesses the itchiness wasn’t as strong as what was on my cheek.

The buildings grew less flashing and extravagant as we moved away from the strip, the hotels mixing with flashy and expensive restaurants until finally giving way to low budget hotels and restaurants that looked more like normal buildings with just a sign. However, as we came to the end of the hotels and restaurants, we found a chain link fence with a gate cutting across the road and standing beside the gate was a stallion wearing a pre-war police uniform complete with hat and police baton. 

“Only residents are allowed beyond this point,” The police pony said as we approached the gate.

“Aww what,” Fruity whined.

“I’m sorry, there have been too many complaints regarding visitors harassing the locals, so visitors to New Pegasus are not allowed into the residential district here,”

I stepped forward. “Please sir, my friend and I won’t be any trouble; we didn’t come to New Pegasus to go to the casinos or the hotels, our destination lies beyond this gate,” 

The police pony tilted his head with a raised eyebrow. “And where would that be?”

“The Fluttershy Hospital sir,” I turned to look at Fruity and quietly asked “Shall I give him the truth?”

“No, he doesn’t need to know, tell him what you told me at first,” He replied just as quietly. 

I subtly nodded. “I’m trying to track down my ancestors and my last lead directed me to the Fluttershy Hospital here in New Pegasus.”

“Hmm,” The stallion looked up at the afternoon sun. “My shift is nearly over, I’ll tell you what, when the next shift arrives I’ll escort you two to the hospital and only if you’ll allow me to confiscate your weapons while we are in the residential district,”

“That sounds reasonable,” I agreed.

“Sure,”

“Ok then,” The police pony said. “What are your names and welcome to New Pegasus,”

“My name is Crystal Éclair,” The police stallion raised an eyebrow at my name. “I know, odd name for a zebra, my parents were weird,” 

The stallion chuckled lightly. “It’s not the worst I’ve heard,”

“I’m Tooty Fruity,” Fruity announced as he unslung his rifle and placed it on the ground. “Don’t you dare scratch this thing, it was a ballache putting it back together again after yesterday,”

“And please take care of this, it was gifted to me,” I said as I pulled out Lucky 13 and hoofed it over.

“Wow that’s nice,” He commented as he took my revolver and put it on his belt and then slung Fruity’s Q-Modulator over his neck. We had to wait for about fifteen minutes before the next shift arrived and once he did, the police stallion opened the gate and beckoned us to follow closely and not to wander off, or else we’d get arrested. 

The residential district mostly consisted of converted office buildings that had been repurposed for living in. There wasn’t anywhere near the number of ponies in the streets as on the strip but that was to be expected as this was a private area of the city for the residents. I felt a little nervous as we followed the police pony. A lot of the ponies that were out were staring at me. I suppose they are either untrusting of a zebra or just not used to seeing one but either way it was unsettling to have so many pairs of eyes on me.

“STOP RIGHT THERE!” Came a shout from down an alleyway. All three of us turned to the source of the shout and suddenly a unicorn mare dressed in rags and looked filthy burst out of the alley with a small sack in her mouth that jingled as she ran. She immediately swerved to avoid us and lit up her horn. A ponyhole cover in the middle of the street up ahead lifted into the air and the mare dived down the hole before the ponyhole cover dropped back down with a clang. 

“What just happened?” Fruity asked surprised.

Suddenly an out of breath police mare stumbled out of the alley the rag wearing mare came out of, huffing and panting like she had run a marathon. “Ugh, did you see that street rat come by here?” She panted.

“You missed her PC Reading, she dived into the sewers,” The police stallion leading us told the police mare.

“Again, how the fuck do these low lives keep finding a way in here? They’re just as tenacious as radroaches.” She grumbled. “I’m gonna have to tell Sergeant Bullhorn we have another ponyhole to seal up,” PC Reading then turned the opposite way and began to walk off while grumbling about the escaped pony.

“What was that all about?” I asked as we resumed our trek to the hospital.

“For the last few years we’ve had ponies sneaking into the New Pegasus, it didn’t matter which area, but they always snuck in and stole caps and food from ponies and their homes or businesses and before we could catch them they would disappear. The times we came close is when we saw them dive into the sewers,”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just seal all the ponyholes?” Fruity asked.

“The sewer system here is still functional so we need to keep some access so we can maintain it so we cann’t seal them all, but if we can find the ones they are using that aren’t essential to keeping to the operation of the sewers, we can seal those ones like the one Reading will soon have sealed,”

“Sounds like a pain in the ass,” I commented.

“You have no idea,” The police stallion sighed.

Soon, our trek through the residential sector brought us to our destination. Finally, I was now only moments away from some answers. My heart began to thump in my chest with the anticipation of what I might find out. The building itself looked almost like how I remembered it, yellow with pink highlights with a massive pink cross that had Fluttershy’s cutie mark on top of it above the door. 

“I’ll wait outside for you; please don’t take too long,” 

I nodded and Fruity and I entered the old hospital. The lobby was pretty clean and well maintained. The walls were white with little grime and decorated with faded pictures of the once timid ministry mare Fluttershy in situations of helping ponies or even animals in need. At the back of the lobby was a large mahogany desk with several ponies sat behind it as the hospitals receptionists. 

“Well, here goes,” I said softly and approached the desk.

One of the receptionists looked up and balked for a moment upon seeing me. “Oh um, good afternoon, err, welcome to the New Pegasus Fluttershy Hosptial, how may I help you?” She asked with wide eyes as she stared at me, most likely never having seen a zebra like me before.

“Good afternoon, I’m trying to find out about my ancestors and the last thing I found about them was that they had been treated here before the bombs fell so I was wondering if I could see the pre-war patient records,” I said with a soft smile while fighting to keep my face straight as the itchy sensation burning in my leg was growing stronger.

“Err, can we even give civilians access to pre-war records?” The receptionist asked one of her colleagues.

“I don’t know, I think you’ll have to ask Dr Flask,”

The receptionist sighed and looked back to me. “I’m sorry ma’am; can you give me a moment while I find out?”

I nodded softly.

“Thank you,” She said with a smile as she picked up a broadcaster with her hoof. “Dr Flask?” There was a buzz and a male voice drifted up from the broadcaster. 

“Yes?” The voice asked.

“It’s Lucy from reception; we have a zebra mare here wanting to see pre-war patient records, are we allowed to give her access?”

“Hang on, I’ll be right there, I’m just around the corner,” And with that the broadcaster went silent and shortly afterwards a stallion dressed in a lab coat with the Ministry of Peace insignia on the sleeve walked through a door to our right. “I was on my way back to me office when you called, hmm, are you the zebra mare wanting to see patient records?” He asked while looking at me.

“No she just left,” Fruity said sarcastically.

“Funny, ok, why do you want to see the patient records?” He demanded.

“You see sir, I’m trying to find out about my ancestors and here is where they were last, their records could help me find out more about my family,” I explained while trying to sound as sincere as possible. “It’s very important to me,”

“Hmm, very well, please follow me to my office,” He said and turned around and began to walk. We followed close and he led us down a couple of corridors until we came to a small office which looked similar to the sort of room a general practice doctor would check a patient in. Dr Flask sat behind his desk and his terminal.

“Please, sit and who is it that you wish to know about?” He asked.

“Crystal Éclair,” I answered. It sounded weird to ask to check for me own name.

“Hmm, Crystal, Crystal, Crystal, ah, here we go, Crystal Éclair, born January eighth, ten oh five AN (08/01/1005 After Nightmare) in the Crystal Empire. She was a Crystal Pony that moved to Las Pegasus at age five with her family but sadly she died in this hospital due to her lifelong illnesses on October twenty third ten LR (23/10/0010 Luna Reign)”

I sighed with a frown. It sounded bad to know that I had been officially declared dead when I wasn’t but...  I turned to Fruity. 

“I’m going to tell him the truth Fruity; I need to know the truth,”

“Ok Crys,”

“The truth, what are you talking about?” The doctor asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Doctor, my name is Crystal Éclair; I woke up from stasis sleep over a week ago in Manehattan like this. I’m trying to understand what happened to me and the last thing I remember before I woke up there is being in this hospital on my deathbed,”

“Usually, I would call you nuts and have you thrown out… But you just said Manehattan and stasis together in the same sentence, which gives me reason to actually believe you,” Dr Flask said with an astonished voice.

“Wow, really?” Fruity and I both asked in unison and surprise, I was expecting this to be a difficult conversation of trying to convince him.

“It says here that Crystal signed a concession form granting the Ministry of Awesome possession of her body. She died hours after signing the form and the M.O.A gave instructions in the contract for the body to be placed in stasis. The following morning it says the M.O.A arrived to take the body to Manehattan,”

“I didn’t sign a concession form from the M.O.A they nev...” I stopped mid sentence as the memory of the odd Ministry of Peace scientist popped into my head. “Did a Ministry of Peace scientist visit me at all, like ever?”

Dr Flask leaned close to his terminal as he scrutinized his data before pulling back and shaking his head. “I’m afraid not, the only visitors you had beside the M.O.A were family,”

“Then who was my last visitor?” I shrieked with anger.

“Colonel Ironside of the M.O.A was your last visitor; he was the pony that also submitted the concession form to the hospital staff back then,”

I can’t believe this, I was lied to. I was tricked into signing my body over to the M.O.A and for what, to be turned into this bio-mechanical monstrosity? I let out a scream of frustration. “Those bastards, they took my body to make me into this, and for what?” I roared. 

“I’m sorry, there is no mention as to what your body was used for,”

“Of course there isn’t, this is the M.O.A, the shadiest fuckers around,” Fruity sighed.

“Where was my body taken again?” I demanded with an angry growl.

“Paradigm Cybernetics in Manehattan to be specific,” Dr Flask answered.

“You gotta be shitting me,” Fruity whined.

“Is there a problem?”

“We are back to square one, we came from Manehattan to get here, only to find out we have to go all the way fucking back?” I cried out in annoyance.

“I’m sorry,” Dr Flask said softly before pulling out a carton of lollipops. “Lollipop?”

I sighed with annoyance while taking a lollipop with my tail and used a forehoof to scratch at my now itchy hind leg.

XXXXX

The previous evening outside of Stable 16.

I-02 IS found himself trapped against the cold steel of the large steel door of Stable 16. He had missed his target and fallen into their trap, although he fell over before the door so he didn’t go through the it like they had intended him to do but with how he had fallen over, his AM Rifle had wound up in one of the grooves for the stable door’s cog teeth. 

The purple pegasus stepped up behind him as he struggled to pull himself free, but the military grade straps on his battlesaddle held tight and he couldn’t run the risk of tearing his armour apart to get free as he would be exposed completely. Suddenly, an energy warning flashed into his HUD and he turned his head to look at the pegasus as he held a glowing object. The machine’s optical units were able to see through the glare of the glow and could see a damaged Micro Mana Cell, which due to the damage had been rendered unstable and was ready to blow.

“Here, have a blast,” The pegasus stallion said as he dropped the cell at I-02 IS’s back and quickly fled with his target.

The energy spiked as the cell hit the floor and the machine redoubled his efforts to try and pull free of the stable door but the squashed AM Rifle’s reinforced barrel wasn’t going to break anytime soon and neither were the straps of his battlesaddle. His only option was to destroy his riot armour using his mechanical strength to get free, but the spiking energy told him he didn’t have the time to escape the blast. A sense of self-preservation kicked in and he began to strain against his straps, however it was too late. There was an ear splitting explosion of magical energy as the MMC finally detonated. The nearby control panel, overloaded with energy from the blast exploded in a shower of sparks, forever sealing the stable. I-02 IS was shoved against the stable door as wave upon wave of magical energy coursed through his mechanical body. The waves of energy set the straps and his trench coat aflame while they continued to pass through his body and into his internal components. I-02 IS’s neural processor wasn’t spared from the onslaught of magic, and the sensitive unit was quickly being overwhelmed with energy.

“WARNING! WARNING! MAGIC OVERLOAD! EMERGY SHUTDOWN INITIATED!”

The light faded in his eyes and he slumped to the floor as the blast of magic faded. I-02 IS lay in charred riot armour as the trench coat had burned off and the straps holding the AM rifle to the battlesaddle had snapped from being burned, freeing him but now he lay deactive on the floor.

The following morning over at the Marejave Production Facility.

The computer grumbled in annoyance, despite the cave proving to disrupt his connection with I-02 IS, he however had witnessed his downfall as well as knowing that the machine had shut itself down. But that had been many hours ago.

“I knew sending a blank unit was a bad idea, but considering the circumstances I didn’t have much choice,” He mumbled to him as he materialised his wireframe face on the main screen and looked up to a window in the top right that was displaying the video feed from an internal security camera. The camera was looking into the vast cavernous Mark 2 Vault.

“Damn you Dr Pear, you traitorous wench,” He growled with unbridled anger for the pony that had betrayed him over a hundred and fifty years ago. 

*Beep*

“Unit 1002 connection re-established,” An automated response sounded off.

“About bloody time,” The computer pony sighed as he reached out to the connection with his supposed vessel. “I-02 IS report,” He demanded impatiently.

He waited for a few seconds and after no response he tried again but again silence followed. Growling with annoyance yelled out. “Unit 1002 report damn it,”

“Unit 1002 active,” The machine responded but the voice sounded unsure.

The wireframe stallion blinked hearing the uncertainty in the machine’s voice. Something wasn’t right with the machine. He brought up a remote diagnostic so he could scan the machine through the remote access link but was puzzled when the checks were coming back positive. That changed however when the diagnostic scanned I-02 IS’s neural processor. What had once been a linear thought pattern for a machine was now erratic and spontaneous like that of an organic brain. The energy surge that had overloaded the machine had an unexpected effect, an effect that was yet to cause an actual effect on the operation of the machine but with the way the thought patterns were now moving it indicated that the machine may now be capable of free thinking. Further observation was needed to determine if that was true or not but the computer decided he may need to come up with a backup plan in case the change was not to his liking.

“Unit 1002, memory status,” He ordered.

“Memory purged due to overload,”

“That explains the no response its name that I gave it,” He sighed. “Stand by for data transfer,”

The computer had made copies of I-02 IS’s memory just in case there was a situation that resulted in the machine being destroyed and for any valuable data it had learned that could be then passed onto a replacement Infiltrator if he could ever regain access to the Vault. It was a simple process of sending a backed up copy back over to I-02 IS and the machine was back to its previous state before the MMC detonation despite the unusual neural activity in its processor.

“I like the name Nexus,” It suddenly said moments after the transfer, which took the computer by surprise.

“You do, do you?” He asked, not sure what to make of that.

“With permission sir, may I go by that name?” He asked, showing desire. 

The computer contemplated his machine’s request for a moment but decided to let him have his chosen name and ordered him to resume his mission. He needed time to think on what this could mean with the change to Nexus’s neural processor and he felt now more than ever he needed to find a way to regain his connectivity to the Mark 2 Vault. There are nine hundred and ninety nine standard mark two units in there that are fully programmed and capable just waiting to be activated, even his masterpiece was in there but he needed to regain control. The change to I-02 IS was an indicator that it was now or never for his Mark 2s.





Some image goodies for you.


The Reveal by Vector-Brony


Rifle Maintenance by Slouping


Paradigm Cybernetics by Slouping