Fallout Equestria: Influx

by Lex the Pikachu

Chapter 17: The Answers We Seek

Fallout Equestria: Influx

Chapter 17: The Answers We Seek.

The monitor displayed a recording of the late Princess Celestia, goddess of the sun, as she attended the Summer Sun Celebration during a year when the war against the zebras either wasn’t raging or was in its infancy. Everything in the recording seemed so calm and peaceful. She walked down the red carpet with a serene smile on her alabaster muzzle, and gave respectful nods to important ponies she locked eyes with. Her smile brightened especially when she noticed six particular mares near the dias, and then walked by them as she approached said dias. Once on the dias, the large white alicorn met up with her smaller dark blue sister, Princess Luna, goddess of the Moon and Guardian of the Night, and gave her a loving embrace before she turned to face the crowd.

The princess began a speech telling the assembled crowd, as well as camera ponies that were broadcasting the Summer Sun Celebration across Equestria, how proud she was of each and everypony. She would list off what she was proud of and why. This speech went on for a good few minutes before it became a little personal as she then addressed the Elements of Harmony and her sister, and again listed why she was proud of them, only with a little bit more depth this time. Once the speeches were over and Princess Luna nudged the moon all the way below the horizon, Princess Celestia then rose up high into the air before striking a dramatic pose with her horn ablaze in golden solar magic, before the sun rose up from the far horizon to bring forward the day.

The recording stopped when it reached its end, and a metallic hoof reached up onto the console and tapped a key on the keyboard. The screen flashed black for a moment before a new image appeared, this one showing a recording of a news reel. The headline read, “Return to Solo Rulership! Princess Celestia Abdicates the Crown!”. The same metallic hoof pressed another key to start the recording, but an error message flashed across the screen. “Error! Audio Corrupted!”. However, it didn’t matter that there was no sound. What was happening in the recording was enough to explain what was going on. Princess Celestia stood before Princess Luna, and removed Luna’s smaller obsidian crown before she then removed her larger golden crown, and then placed it on her sister’s head, her mouth moved to indicate that she was reciting something. Once she was finished, she bowed low to the now sole Princess of Equestria. Luna, however, looked shocked at the outcome before the video suddenly cut off.

“Incoming Transmission!” Alerted the male electronic voice of Unit-1000’s notification system.

Unit-1000 stood up and stepped away from the data terminal it was reviewing before it accessed its comm link with Colonel Ironside.

“Yes, Colonel Sir,” The machine addressed.

“I-01 and I-02 IS have entered the Marejave area, but recent scans from the facility have detected that their power signatures are off to the west of the rail line,” Ironside said over the link. “They are not following the predicted path. I need you to confirm in case the facility equipment is not working correctly, and if so, I will then need you to redirect Unit-3 as necessary.”

“Affirmative,” Unit-1000 said as it turned to leave the room it was in.

“Also, what are you doing in the old living quarters?” Colonel Ironside asked in confusion.

“I was just reviewing a data terminal sir,” The alicorn robot replied simply.

“I did not detect a terminal data access on the network or on that floor,” Ironside said with suspicion in his voice.

Unit-1000 heard the suspicion and realised it needed to say something to appease its master before he lost trust in the machine. He already had lost his vessel, and Units 1 and 2 had also failed him after getting so close. It was then that it remembered the events that led to where Ironside was currently: trapped in the computer system and locked out of most of the facility’s other functions. So, it decided to use that to its advantage.

“It would seem this terminal has been disconnected from the network, sir,” The robot replied. “After a quick examination it would appear its network cables have been cut.”

“Blasted, traitorous wench,” Ironside cursed. “Alright, get a move on.”

“Yes sir,” The machine said, grateful he bought its lie since it had pulled the plug itself because it didn’t want Ironside to know it was learning about the pony it was designed to replace.

Unit-1000 made its way up through the main floor via the Mark 2 Vault, then to the facility’s sealed entrance. It lowered its head to the console beside the door, and extended a data cable from the back of its head and connected it to the console. The machine accessed the external camera system and checked the area outside the door to be sure it was clear. Once satisfied, the machine disconnected from the console and exited the facility. Then, it walked just far enough so that its skeletal head could see over the hill on either side of the recess that led to the door.

“Performing scan,” Unit-1000 said over its link to Ironside. The gem on the tip of its antenna-like horn glowed for a moment before it faded. “Confirmed. I-01 and Unit-1002 have deviated from the predicted path. According to recorded scan data, it would seem they deviated shortly after entering the Marejave and began to move in a north-westerly direction. Current scans indicate they are currently at the MASA HQ.”

“This is most curious. Everything previously had pointed on I-01 being led to us. What changed?” Ironside said to himself while still on the link.

“I will contact Unit-3 and give it new orders,” Unit-1000 said as it turned around and began for the facility. It paused for a moment when it noticed a bunch of blackened skeletons clustered around the door. There were about five skeletons, two normal-sized adult skeletons and three smaller ones that varied in size. There were also two makeshift signs lying in the dirt beside the skeletons. One read “Help Us” and the other one read “We are dying out here”. Unit-1000 understood that this was a scene of a family, likely from when the bombs fell, desperately trying to get inside the facility and being denied salvation. The machine coldly walked on by the bodies, not sparing them a second glance as it re-entered the facility. Once inside and the door was resealed, the machine once again entered its network. It still detected the unresponsive Unit-2 before it reached out and connected with Unit-3.

“Oh, um, Unit-1000 ma’am, um, what do I owe the pleasure,” Pixie Lulamoon answered when she felt the connection in her electronic brain.

“There has been a change of plans, Unit-3. I-01 is now moving northwest. You are to head west on an intercept course. Capture of this unit is still of the upmost importance,” Unit-1000 explained to its disguised infiltrator.

“Um, y-yes ma’am. I’ll head out now,” She replied before the connection was terminated by Unit-1000.

XXXXX

It took us all night and day after we jumped from the train to find some place in this desert wasteland for shelter. Imagine our surprise as we crested a hill after crossing an old dual carriageway, and found ourselves in front of the old MASA HQ building again. It was a stroke of luck to have stumbled back upon the place, and a blessing since it had started to get dark and we were all tired (well, most of us) after an all-night journey.

“The Marejave Astronomical Space Agency HQ. It’s been a while,” Fruity commented as we approached the main doors.

“Sure has,” I replied with a feeling of nostalgia as the memories of our first time here surfaced.

“Where are all the robots?” Fruity asked as he looked around.

“Perhaps somepony destroyed them all. We have been gone a while,” I answered as I pushed open a door and held it open for everypony to walk in.

“Yeah, destroyed…” Fruity mumbled as I caught him staring at Nexus with suspicion.

Once everypony was inside, I quickly checked outside to make sure nopony was around. Then, I closed the door and barred it by grabbing a metal pipe that lay discarded on the floor, and jammed it between the door handles.

“This place seems a little barer than I remember,” Fruity said to himself as he looked around the large lobby.

He was right. Despite the mess on the floor, a lot of the metal scrap was gone. The broken terminals, at least half of the model rocket in the centre of the lobby, and most importantly, the four bodies we saw laying before the blue security door were all gone. All that was left of those bodies was a bloodstain from where they lay.

“Who would take dead bodies?” I gasped while I gently put Xian down on the floor.

“Some smegging sick tossers, that’s who,” Fruity replied with a shake of his head.

“Or Ghouls,” Nexus added.

We did a quick circuit of the lobby to be sure there were no robots hiding away like last time. Thankfully, the hidden doors were still open and empty, which meant the sentries must have been destroyed as well. The security gate that closed behind us when we entered the museum last time was still in the same position as last time too, all bent and pulled up in the corner.

“Do you remember doing that?” I asked Nexus, hoping that perhaps there was still some of his older memories intact.

The skeletal robot inside the scorched combat armour stared at the bent gate for a moment, before he shook his head and let out an electronic noise that I believed to be a sigh. “No. I couldn’t find anything in my memory to identify that with.”

“If we can, we’ll try to get your memory back,” I offered with a sad smile as I gently put my hoof on his armoured shoulder.

“Thank you, Crystal. That means a lot considering what I tried to do to you in the past,” Nexus said gratefully.

I just smiled warmly while I rubbed his shoulder reassuringly.

As the evening rolled around, Fruity and Nexus ventured back into the museum portion of the ground floor. If I remembered rightly, there was a gift shop in the first room on the left. We didn’t get a chance to check it out because we got attacked by a sentry drone almost immediately after we entered the museum.

While they were away, I set up camp inside the large lobby. I was able to find some cardboard boxes stacked up inside the mare’s bathroom in the top right of the lobby, which I broke down and flattened to use as makeshift beds. It was primitive, but we had to make do with what was available to us. There was plenty of scrap pieces of wood lying around, which I used to make a small fire that I setup between the cardboard mats. I think a sentry may have barrelled its way through here at one stage, because the corners of the concrete base of the rocket model were all broken and crumbled up, giving me plenty of pieces to build a circle around the small fire. To get the fire started, I took one of my shotgun shells and broke it open, pouring the gunpowder out and onto the pieces of wood to act as an accelerant, before I picked up two rough pieces of metal and clanged them together hard and fast to create a spark. I had to repeat the process a couple of times until I produced a large enough spark to ignite the wood.

I found it disturbing to a degree that I knew how to do all this because I certainly never went camping as a foal, and definitely never had survival training while I was growing up. Just how much does my electronic brain have stored that it just injects into my brain without me knowing?

I was brought out of my musing by the sound of small, excited hoof clopping. When I looked over to the cardboard mat that I setup closet to me, I saw Xian sat on her haunches with a happy smile while she clopped her hooves as she watched the flames of the new campfire dance. I quickly forgot about the foreboding feeling that had begun to settle and smiled as I watched the filly. She had watched me work since Fruity and Nexus left for the gift shop. It made me feel good to see her smile and look so excited at the end result.

“Ignis, ita satis,” The small filly said softly in zebrican.

I smiled. “I know, darling,” I moved over to her mat and sat down behind her, then draped a foreleg around her and gently hugged her to my barrel. “It may be pretty to look at, but it can be dangerous, so don’t get too close or touch it, ok sweetie,” I told her gently and finished with a nuzzle to the top of her head.

The young zebra filly let out a soft coo at the nuzzle and returned the nuzzle with her own to the underside of my chin. “Ego scio mumia,” It was a good thing I had some sort of zebra translator built into my system when she spoke in zebrican. I smiled warmly and felt happy as the filly continued to call me her mother. At least I knew what I can focus on when I complete my quest now.

About half an hour after I finished setting up the camp, Fruity and Nexus returned.

“Welcome back. Did you find anything good?” I asked while I still gently held Xian, who happily laid against my barrel.

“It was a load of smeg. Just a load useless junk and pretty much nothing worth taking that won’t weigh us down,” Fruity sighed as he sat down on the mat beside us.

“Sir is correct. After taking an inventory of what was in the gift shop, it was more beneficial if we just ignored it,” Nexus said while he stood off to the side of the camp. He looked pretty creepy with how his red eyes glowed brightly in the low light.

“Well, we did find this in the lost and found,” Fruity said as he reached into his duster pocket and pulled out a plushie of an orange earth pony with a blonde mane and tail. He smiled as he gave it to Xian. “Here you go, kiddo,” Xian gave a happy squeal at being given a new toy by Fruity, and hugged the plushie, which was about a quarter of her size to her chest. Fruity then turned to Nexus with a frown. “Ok, bird-tray head. Enough of the Sir and Mister bollocks.”

“What, and spoil the good working relationship we have?” Nexus shot back.

I giggled when Fruity groaned as he knew Nexus wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. I turned to Fruity with a questioning look. “What’s with this new word you are using?” I asked.

“What word, smeg?” He asked to which I nodded. “What, you don’t want me swearing around the kid so I gotta make a compromise.”

I smiled happily at that and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Once we had all eaten, minus Nexus, we all settled down on our own mats ready to sleep. Nexus remained standing, but his eyes dimmed to the point of nearly turning off to show he was in standby mode, which basically meant he was asleep but could awaken at any moment. Xian, however, slept snuggled up against my barrel while she clutched her plushie. I smiled softly as I draped a wing over the small filly to keep her warm. Fruity had rolled onto his side, facing me, but he wasn’t asleep yet. He smiled at me softly as he watched me tend to Xian.

“I think you’ve been the best thing to happen to that filly in a long time,” He said quietly with a yawn at the end.

“I don’t know about that, but I do hope I’ve made a difference in her life,” I replied.

“If it wasn’t for you, she would likely be dead by now,” He said sombrely.

I shivered at Fruity’s last statement as memories of Bonbon Springs resurfaced. I had to admit that with how riled up the ponies in that camp were, if they had found her before we did, they would have probably killed her in anger.

I opened my mouth to say something, when suddenly, there was a loud pop followed by a sizzling sound from upstairs and a thud.

“The hell was that?” Fruity asked in alarm as he rolled over and was on his hooves in seconds.

“Alert. Large magic output detected,” Nexus mechanically said as he woke up.

“That doesn’t sound good,” I said as I stood up and protectively over Xian.

Suddenly, there was a bright blue flash of light, followed by the same loud pop and sizzle from upstairs in the lobby near our camp. The flash was so bright it blinded us, even my synthetic vision was hampered by the glare. When the light faded and we could see again, we all turned to the source and I stared in awe at a tall blue alicorn in a stetson hat, and what looked like a modified mercenary outfit. The clothes consisted of black pants, and a black vest over a red undershirt. I couldn’t see a weapon, but that long horn felt like it was more of a weapon than any gun could be.

“Oh fuck, an alicorn! Crystal get back!” Fruity quickly threw his battlesaddle on and jumped in front of me and primed his weapons to fire.

The alicorn’s eyes widened in shock at the hostility towards her by the purple pegasus and the weapons aimed at her. She quickly sat down on her haunches and waved her forelegs to show she was not aggressive.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, I’m not here to hurt you! I’m here to help on behalf of your creator!” She squeaked.

“Wait what?!” Fruity said in surprise before his multiplas weapon discharged since he was in the process of firing. “Ah shit,” He cursed when the three small plasma bolts shot towards the panicking alicorn.

“Eek!” She cried out in alarm and closed her eyes tightly. Her long, spiralled horn glowed a bright blue and a bubble formed around her. Xian and I watched in fascination as the bubble encapsulated the alicorn. Its surface looked to ripple like water, and when the three bolts of plasma collided with it, the points of impacts dented and formed circular cracks as if the shield was made of glass despite the watery look to it. Despite the cracks, the shield didn’t budge or shift, which made me think that the cracks were simply just a visual effect.

“NO!” The alicorn cried out and her glowing horn flashed with more power. The shield’s surface took on a rainbow-coloured aura, and the three plasma bolts glowed brighter as if they were being empowered. We were all confused by the change, but with a flash from the shield and a flash from my threat warning in the corner of my vision, I quickly scooped up Xian and jumped to the side. When the shield flashed, the three plasma bolts shot back towards us at high speed and with greater power than the weapon that fired them produced. One bolt hit the floor just an inch from my bed, one shot up and hit the ceiling, and the last one hit the blue security door but with the added power so that it burned right through the door and left a small hole in it.

“What in the bloody hell was that?” Fruity demanded as he fluttered back down to the floor after having took to the air to evade the deflected plasma bolts.

The alicorn opened her eyes and winced when she saw the smoking holes in the floor, ceiling and door. “I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to use my deflector shield.”

“Hang on, wait a minute. Just what the smeg is going on here?” Fruity asked in confusion.

“What’s the matter, Fruity?” I asked while I sat with Xian hugged to my chest in my forelegs.

“Have I not told you about these alicorns?” Fruity asked to which I shook my head. I did find it odd that a pony of the race that was once of the Princesses just appeared out of nowhere. “Ok well. These alicorns are not legit alicorns. They were created through some mad magic science bollocks. They seem to be controlled by a hivemind of sorts and one in charge calls itself the Goddess. Normally these alicorns don’t talk like that. They don’t talk much but when they do, they usually talk like they are all superior and snobby. The colours of the alicorns also determine what their abilities are since blue alicorns are known for invisibility. How the hell does this one know how to do a green alicorn’s ability, let alone a reflective one and a purple one’s teleport ability?”

We all looked to the clothed alicorn that gulped with some nervousness with all our eyes on her. Her wide yellow, slit-pupiled eyes looked to each of us as she realised we wanted an explanation.

“I will be happy to explain everything to you while we journey to the Sanctuary,” She answered. “Like I told you, I’m here to help.”

“Help? How can we trust one of the Goddess’s minions?” Fruity demanded. “Somepony who would rather kill us, or if we were a good spell casting unicorn, foalnap us at some point?”

The alicorn visibly cringed at his harsh words.

“Ok, I understand how it would be difficult for you to trust me since my kind in the mainland is nothing but pawns for that pompous, arrogant blowhard of a dominant consciousness, but we had no choice since she controlled our minds and bodies,” she grumbled. It was clear she didn’t like what this Goddess did with alicorns in the mainland. “You can trust me and all of the other alicorns that reside here in the Marejave. Me and them are free of the Goddess’s control. Though I will admit some of them may have some mental issues they are still trying to work out as a result of being free of her.”

The mare then took a breath to calm herself down and gave a calming smile.

“My name is Dusty Star. I’ve lived here in the Marejave for at least twenty years now. I, like all the other alicorns, was sent here to investigate the west, but shortly after entering the region, I lost my connection with the Goddess. We don’t know how or what disrupts the connection, but the Doctor theorises that there might be a potent element in the mountain range that surrounds the western region of Equestria.”

“Dusty Star?” Nexus said, testing the name as he stepped closer, out of the shadow as he approached. “How did you come up with such an… unusual name?”

“Oh, well I had two names, because when I was freed, I was one of the few alicorns to have found that I had another’s mind within my head as well. It soon became like a second personality to me. We could talk to each other at certain times and I discovered this other personality was called “Dusty Trail” and he had been a Caravan Guard before the Goddess had him taken. As for me, I don’t know why she took me. My name was Star Watch and I was simply an astronomer in an area of Equestria where an SPP Tower had been destroyed and left a small patch of clear sky.

The doctor found us one day, arguing like a pair of fillies because we both wanted to control our body at the exact same time. She seemed to understand our problem and offered us help. We didn’t have anything better to do or anywhere to go, so we followed her to Mount Coltston and to the Sanctuary where she devoted a lot of her time in helping us and my kind. Over time, she managed to get us to mentally see each other as if we were looking into a mirror and told us, if we were to live peacefully, we had to imagine the mirror’s surface as water and step into it. We both understood that meant merging our two minds into one to create an entirely new personality. We voiced out disagreement at first because we knew we’d forget everything that ever happened to us, but she promised to tell us everything afterwards. After a little debate with each other, we ultimately decided to go through with it. We did forget everything, and before we could hurt ourselves in our confused state, the doctor stepped forward with a recording that told us what we did. So, to honour my previous personalities I decided to combine the names I once had.”

“That’s so sweet,” I said with a smile. “This doctor seems like a really nice pony. I would love to meet them.”

“That is why I’m here. At first light tomorrow, I’ll help guide you back to Sanctuary.”

“Why not later tonight after we’ve had time to rest?” I asked as I relaxed on my mat with Xian.

“Believe me, there are worst things that patrol the desert at night than the wildlife and would kill us all as soon as they see us,” She told us with a shudder.

XXXXX

Unit-1000 raised its head as an internal alert notified it of a change from one of the facility’s sensory systems. The tall skeletal robot turned from the data terminal it was viewing, left the living quarters, and entered an elevator that quickly ascended to the first sub level. This floor contained the control room as well as the access door to the Mark 2 Vault. The machine ducked under the low door frame as it entered the control room of the facility.

“Colonel, the sensory system has detected an anomaly,” The machine said while its flowing holographic mane phased through the console.

“I am aware, Unit-1000,” Colonel Ironside said flatly as his wireframe face appeared on the large monitor screen on the central computer. “What I don’t understand is where this large magical energy signature came from.”

Unit-1000 was silent for a moment while it reviewed the data it had on the sudden appearance of this new energy signature.

“After reviewing my data, I conclude the large energy signature belongs to a powerful magic user,” The machine told its commander.

“Explain!”

“There were two very large energy spikes. The first was when this new signature first appeared. The second was seconds after the first. I conclude the sudden appearance of this energy is from a magic user that had used a Teleportation Spell to get into the facility with them.”

“I see. This may complicate matters further if this new appearance ends up helping them,” He grumbled. “Go to the Vault and put Unit-4’s pod on standby so it’ll be ready if needed, and direct Unit-3 as applicable to the current mission parameters.”

“Yes sir. Right away sir,” The machine said as it turned around to carry out its orders.

“My prediction as permutated. It has fallen upon a path unforeseen by the unexpected change in I-01’s direction,” Ironside muttered to himself.

XXXXX

Early the next morning, we all left the MASA HQ after a quick breakfast with some food we pilfered from the train’s dining car, and a light crystal for myself to top up my power cell. The weather in the Marejave had changed over night from the clear calm to overcast and dull, but also humid, like it could rain at any moment. I had a quick look at my PipBuck which still kept track of the calendar, minus the year for some reason, and found that we were in the month of November, the start of Equestria’s Winter period. This was the desert’s prime season for rainy weather as it was usually dry for the remainder of the year. Sure, there were weather pegasi back then, but they were limited and situated to the towns and cities, not the whole region.

The clothed alicorn waited until we were all outside before she turned and addressed us.

“We will head northwest until we reach the ruins of west Las Pegasus. There we’ll follow the main roads north out of the ruins before taking the dual carriage way again northwest. This will lead us to the mountain road that will then take us all the way to the Sanctuary. If we move at a decent pace and don’t get slowed down too much, we should be able to make it to the mountain road by sundown,” She explained. There was then a gust of wind that blew the alicorn’s long mane done up into a ponytail around and into her face.

Seeing the mare having to claw at her face with a hoof to free herself of her hair sent Xian into a giggle fit.

“Donec capilli eius nimis,” The young filly giggled.

“Yeah, it is a little,” I agreed with a chuckle.

“What did she say?” Fruity asked with a lost look on his face.

“Oh, just that Dusty’s hair is a little long that’s all.”

“I should see my stylist about this,” She blushed in embarrassment. “Anyway, are we ready?”

“Why can’t you just teleport us?” Fruity asked. “Won’t that be quicker?”

“One: getting here last night nearly drained me from teleporting such a long distance. Two: teleporting more than one is difficult and more power consuming; and three: I can’t do that, plus I wouldn’t want to risk hurting any of you if the spell backfired,” The alicorn explained with a serious look.

“Ok, I guess we can understand that,” I said with a nod. “Well, I suppose we’ll be as ready as we’ll ever be.”

We fell in step behind the alicorn as we began to transverse the desert on our way towards the mountain. The desert in this area was more gravelly ground with some sand and brown, patchy dead grass which tickled and scratched our skin. Fruity hovered in the air while Nexus and I walked behind Dusty, and Xian sat comfortably on my back.

“I see something up ahead,” Fruity called down to us after a few minutes of traveling and he beat his wings to climb a little higher. “It’s big. Looks like some kind of wreckage.”

“Ah, that would be the downed airship that crashed sometime after the bombs fell,” Dusty Star said in reply to Fruity’s observation.

“An airship?” I asked.

The alicorn nodded as we began to climb a hill. “Yes, when the world went to sh-” She stopped herself from swearing in front of Xian. “Excuse me, to hell, ponies and other beings fled their homes in an attempt to flee the coming fallout.” Once we reached the top of the hill, we could see the ruins of Las Pegasus with the pristine core surrounded by its junk wall, but what caught all our attention was the large wood and black metal airship, laying on its side in a deep trench it had gouged into the ground from its crash. The ship was one of the advanced zeppelins that had a metal encased balloon, and rocket booster engines for propulsion. The black metal, although rusty was not familiar, was rather dark even for Luna-associated military vehicles; and the strange two light blue zig-zag, one being reversed, insignia was unrecognizable either.

“What is this? I’ve never seen anything like this?” I asked as we began to walk down the hill towards the wreckage. “I know we made a lot of airships during the war, but nothing like this.”

“Yeah. Even when the Enclave began building airships of their own, they never looked anything like this,” Fruity added.

“I don’t know the full details, but the Doctor told me the ship belonged to somepony called the, um, err, what was it, um, the Storm… King. I think… yeah, the Storm King,” Dusty said while scrunching up her regal face as she tried to remember what she had been told. Seeing such an expression on an alicorn looked a little comical, but I kept my face straight as I didn’t want to be rude. “According to the Doctor, he had been a known threat to Equestria before Equestria’s technological boom.”

“What is one of his ships doing in Equestria if he wasn’t such a threat anymore?” I asked.

“I don’t know, though a theory suggests he might have planned a surprise attack on Equestria while it was busy fighting the Zebras. Considering where this ship is, I would guess he picked the wrong time to try, and his forces might have got caught up in the crossfire of the Megaspell/Balefire bomb bombardment that destroyed the world,” She said as we began to pass the large, groaning wreck.

“Hey. There could be some good loot inside then,” Fruity called down to us as he landed on the hull by an open boarding hatch.

“If we want to make good progress, we need all the time we have in the day,” Dusty Star urged.

“Oh come on. Five minutes won’t hurt us,” He said before he dove inside.

“Mister Fruity, time is of the essence. The longer we dawdle, the sooner Ironside may find us,” Nexus called up to him.

Suddenly, Fruity zoomed out of the hatch with a panicked look on his face. “Ok, you’re right, lets go, like, RIGHT NOW!” He urged as he came down and began to push against my rump.

“Um Fruity. What did you do?” I asked with a hint of fear.

“Nothing. I just realised he was right, now come on, let’s go,” He urged.

“Fruity!”

“I’m detecting a surge in energy from inside the ship,” Nexus pointed out.

“What did you do?” I asked again with urgency.

Fruity gulped but still pushed against me. “Ok, um, I may have triggered a trap and, um, well its ammunition stores are about to blow,” He explained in a panic.

Mine and Dusty’s eyes widened in shock, and we all quickly began to run for the ruins. We crossed a road after we ran a good distance from the ship, and found a large warehouse building to which we all took cover behind its tall brick wall. Just as soon as we dove behind the wall, there was a tremendous explosion from back in the desert as the ship exploded. The ground rumbled as a shockwave passed through it. We ducked down low when a piece of the ship’s hull smashed into the wall and took a chunk out of it, before it crashed into the ground behind us. When the debris rain settled, we all let out a collective sigh of relief and stepped back out from behind the wall. As we looked to where the ship was, we found nothing but a black mushroom cloud rising into the darkening sky.

“Next time Fruity, do as you’re bloody well told, please,” I sighed.

“Heh, yes ma’am.”

“We should definitely move now. That explosion will have alerted anything close by,” Dusty warned.

“Oh Celestia, yea, let’s go,” I agreed. “I don’t want to be anywhere near here if this attracted anymore of those robots.”

“You do not need to worry about that, Crystal. I will be able to alert you since I can detect power signatures,” Nexus explained, which put my fears to rest. “We Infiltrators carry a distinct signature. It was how I was able to track you after all.”

I twisted my neck around, so I could look back at Xian who tightly held my neck and shivered in fright from the sudden danger. “Hey, are you alright?” I asked softly.

The young filly nodded with a nervous gulp. “Y-yes mummy,” She squeaked.

“Don’t worry, it’s alright,” I reassured her as I gave her a motherly nuzzle to the cheek.

“I must warn you, the West Pegasus Ruins are home to foul Raiders and is in much worse shape than Hayside and the ruins on the east side of the city,” Dusty said.

I nodded and used my nano-fibre tail to draw out Lucky 13. Fruity primed his battlesaddle and Nexus unsheathed his Riot Shotgun. Armed and ready, we pushed on into the ruins.

XXXXX

The west ruins were indeed a lot worse off than on the east side of the city. I came to the conclusion that the condition was a result of this side of the city being the industrial and business districts. Back before the bombs fell, this area of the city saw a lot of traffic, be it train, cart, or heavy goods vehicle; and the buildings themselves had to endure the stresses of all the industrial works that went on in and around them.

The main roads we followed were strewn with rubble, far more rubble and debris than back in Hayside. It was so bad that the pavements were almost completely hidden under the destruction. The roads also showed great deals of damage with craters, holes, and large cracks that littered every several feet of its surface.

Our first indication that we were about to enter Raider territory was when we began to see the mutilated bodies hung up on meat hooks and chains from the streetlamps. Classic Raider decoration. I had to tell Xian to look away because I didn’t want her to get anymore traumatized by such horrendous and horrific sights such as those.

Soon, we came to two large wooden walls that spanned the width of the street and overlapped each other, but with a gap in between where they overlapped so we could pass through. Horrifyingly, the faces of the wooden walls also had disembowelled and headless corpses nailed to them.

“For fuck sake, these raiders are more deranged than the ones we’ve ran into back in Manehattan,” Fruity remarked in disgust.

I had to agree, but I couldn’t verbally reply since the stench of death and rot, and the sight had me retching.

“Yes, the Raider band that operates in this district is a little unhinged. Having access to a large supply of chems and frequently using them has made them more psychotic than the average Raider gang. Being so drugged up can also sometimes make them difficult to kill since the chems can make them ignore pain or boost their abilities for a period of time. It is why these Raiders are often referred to as the ‘Junkies’”. Dusty explained loud enough for us to hear as she slowly inched her way through the gap and looked into the street beyond. “Coast is clear, but stay on your guard.”

“If there is one, there is a bunch of those smeg pots,” Fruity sighed.

“You got that right,” Dusty agreed.

I raised my wings to hide Xian from view, as well as to protect her.

We hastily crossed an intersection and began to walk along a rubble-strewn road that went alongside a large Coltvega factory. The brick wall on the street side was largely intact, but the huge glass windows were all broken and put-through, leaving giant gaping holes in the side of the building. As we walked, we noticed that the brick wall had been plastered with lots of posters. Many of the posters were illegible by now, but the ones that we could still make out in various stages of deterioration, were all propaganda posters to rally ponies against the zebra threat. However, there were two posters that were not propaganda. One of them was a recruitment poster with a picture of Princess Luna asking ponies to join the Luna Guard, and the other was a promotional poster for the Summer Sun Celebration with a picture of Princess Celestia on it, with a happy smile and her radiant sun at the top. She certainly didn’t look that happy a few years after the war begun. The most interesting thing about these two posters was that they had been vandalised by somepony at some point. In dark purple paint, the words, “Open up your eyes” was written on the Celestia poster; and in hot pink paint, the words, “And behold the fading light” was written on the Luna poster.

“And behold the fading light?” I repeated in confusion as I didn’t understand the meaning of the graffiti on the posters.

“I believe these posters were referencing how Equestria was losing hope the longer the war raged on,” Dusty Star said after a quick glance at the posters.

“Movement up ahead. Six targets,” Nexus said as he crouched to make himself a small target and harder to see among the rubble on the floor.

“Crap,” Fruity exclaimed. “Quickly, before they see us,” He said and ushered us back and around the corner of the Coltvega factory wall.

Nexus made an electronic sound that I think was meant to simulate a sigh. “If only I still had my Pipe Sniper Rifle.”

“Did it break?” I asked when we got into cover to which he nodded. “What do we do now?” I added.

“We could take them on,” Fruity suggested.

“Yes, we could,” Dusty agreed but then sighed. “However, that would be a bad idea.”

“Why?”

“Well, Crystal’s right eye still hasn’t regenerated yet.” She looked at me with a quizzical look, as if wondering why my eye was still exposed. I was still wondering that myself. “The glow from the robotic eye, as well as the Mark 2’s there, would alert them. We also cannot afford to waste any time fighting them. We really need to get to the mountain road before the sun goes down.” She stressed the last part.

I looked around and noticed we were at the intersection. East would take us deeper into the ruins, while going West would take us across a bridge that crossed a dual-carriageway to more industrial complexes. Going west would be a bad idea as well, I thought, since it would put us in the open for a good distance due to us being on top of a bridge with no cover.

“We got two options. We either fight the raiders or we take the road to the right and find a way around,” I suggested.

Fruity and Dusty nodded in agreement.

“If we find a path to the junk wall, it should be relatively safe since the security inside the city has snipers to keep the filth away. We can follow the wall until we are out of raider territory. It may add a little time to our tight schedule, but once we get out of the ruins we can run to make up the time,” Dusty said before she edged her head out from behind our cover to see where the raiders were. “Alright. They have their backs to us. If you move quickly and one at a time to reduce sound, you should make it undetected. I will stay here to observe them, but once you are all safe on the opposite side, I will teleport over to you.”

We all got ourselves ready, and when she gave us the signal to move, Fruity used his wings to propel himself across the road and to the other side of the intersection quickly. I told Xian to hold on tight as I did the exact same thing a few moments after. Nexus joined us shortly after, and we signalled to Dusty that we had all made it. She looked back up the street to be sure the Raiders were not looking her way, before she charged her horn and in a flash of blue light, disappeared. With a crackle and a pop, she reappeared beside us in another blue flash.

“Bloody hell,” Fruity yelped as her sudden reappearance startled him.

“Sorry, but we must hurry,” She said as she began to lead us again down the road towards the New Pegasus junk wall.

XXXXX

We must have walked for about an hour, navigating the ruins and blocked streets until we found our way to the junk wall. When we left the ruins and entered the cleared area around the wall, we soon noticed a glint of light that came from above it. When I looked up, my synthetic vision was able to see through the glare of the reflection of sunlight, and I saw a Desert Ranger in full armour lay on a roof in a makeshift sniper’s nest, with a large scoped rifle aimed in our direction. Thankfully, he didn’t shoot. I supposed he could tell we were not raiders, we certainly didn’t look like any. I was, however, was surprised that he didn’t shoot at Dusty.

The noonday sun was now baring down on us through the clouds, and the day’s temperature had quickly risen. Fruity was back to complaining about the unbearable heat and fanned himself with his wings in an attempt to keep cool. Since I grew up here, hot weather like this was nothing I couldn’t handle. The sky itself was still cloudy, but it seemed to have gotten darker, which told us it could rain at any moment.

We had no choice but to enter the ruins again after following the wall for a while, because if we continued to follow the wall we would soon end up going too far off course. While we picked our way through the ruins, we stumbled upon a huge gathering of Raiders. We immediately hid ourselves as we observed the Raiders gathered around a makeshift stage, which to my surprise and horror had gallows on it.

A Raider that was dressed in some seriously creepy metal armour with a metal faceplate that covered the top half of her face, including her eyes, addressed the crowd.

“We may steal, rape, murder, and pillage the wasteland. We may be seen as psychopaths and insane by the common pony, but we have some morals of our own. We are not true monsters. Except, there have been a couple of ponies that have felt that they could do the same to their own comrades. We do not tolerate treason or any traitorous acts in this gang,” The supposed leader of the group yelled to the crowd. “So, to entertain you all today, we have a double execution of the two traitors who thought they could rape and kill their partners!”

The Raider crowd erupted in angry, displeased shouts, calling for blood and vengeance for their comrades. We didn’t have to wait long before a mare that was wearing just a harness was dragged up onto the stage by two burly Raider stallions.

“You have been nicknamed the Black Widow because before you were caught, any of the stallions you bedded died from poison. I am very disappointed in you. You had the makings to be a fine Elite,” The leader said before she nodded to the two stallions. They seized her legs, one getting her left legs while the other got her right. The leader held up a rock to the crowd for them to see it before she then placed it on the floor stage. The stallions then began to move the struggling raider mare. They turned her over, so that she was on her back and down on the rock, poking her in the back and against her spine. Then, another stallion laid a large iron sheet on top of the mare which freed the two stallions, so that they could grab a series of heavy metal weights. The stallions dropped each weight onto the iron sheet one by one, the mare screaming in agony with each one as the added weight forced the rock deeper into her back. Finally, with one last heavy iron weight dropped onto the iron plate, there was a resounding crack as the rock punched through the mare’s spine and killed her under the weight.

“Oh, sweet Celestia,” I breathed in horror and felt queasy from the torturous execution.

The crowd cheered and screamed for more. I couldn’t believe they were this vile. The two stallions left and returned not long after with another stallion, stripped of any clothing and looking like he had a fight with a walrus and lost. He had bruises, cuts, and lumps all over his body. The stallions pushed him up onto the stage where the leader addressed him. “You are no better than she was. What is worse is that you would also defile the corpse,” She growled. “For you, your death will be a special kind of agony,” She declared, and with a nod, the two stallions hauled him to the gallows. One put the noose around his neck, and the other hauled him up into the air. The stallion gasped and kicked his legs in the air before he was suddenly dropped. I heard him coughing and sputtering. I could see he was trying to scream out but after having his windpipe crushed like that, he was left speechless. He lay on the floor, unable to move after nearly being choked to death as one of the stallions used a knife to stab into his belly and cut it open while he was still alive.

“Oh, by the goddesses, what the hell,” Fruity exclaimed in disgust at what was going on.

The stallion cut the Raider captive’s belly open enough for him to pull out his intestines, again while he was still alive. I raised my wings to keep Xian from seeing this horrible display of a slow and painful execution. I could hear the Raider captive’s weak and broken cries of pain after being choked. To make matters even worse, one of the stallions came back with a large axe with a curved blade.

“Oh no, come on. He’s had enough as it is, let him die already,” Fruity quietly said.

I didn’t want to watch what I knew was about to come, but with one eye still exposed I couldn’t simply close them. Before I could decide on what to do, a weak cry of agony reached my ears. I found myself staring at the stage where the executioners had used the axe to hack off one of the Raider captive’s forelegs. I cried out in horror when they repeated this process for his other limbs until they then took his head. The leading mare smiled in delight as she grabbed his head by the mane and then dipped it into a barrel of boiling pitch, before showing it to the cheering crowd.

“Just what the fuck did I just watch?” I shrieked in outrage.

“I believe it was an ancient execution method called, “Hung, drawn, and quartered,”” Dusty grimaced.

“What and the what now?” Fruity asked, also in shock to what we just witnessed.

“It is an ancient execution method that was outlawed a couple of centuries after the fall of Princess Luna because of its brutality, often used on ponies that worshipped the night princess. Back then, the Sun Goddess didn’t have such a good grip on the nation due to its fracturing after the fall of the Night Princess, and for a while the Solar Guard tried and executed Princess Luna worshippers as traitors to the crown by making them out to be Nightmare Moon sympathisers. It wasn’t until the Sun Goddess managed to fully get control of the nation that she was able to put a stop to it and outlaw that awful method,” Dusty Star explained with a grim expression on her face.

“And I thought living in the wasteland was dark,” Fruity commented dryly.

“Oh yes, back then it was a very dark time. There was a reason they were called the ‘Dark Ages’” Dusty agreed.

The very idea you could be put to death for believing in one of the princesses, despite the fact one of them fell to darkness, and land yourself in a situation that could mean your death made me cringe.

“We should move. We have stood here long enough, and these Raiders will soon spread out soon,” The alicorn warned.

I nodded, and crouch-walked to minimise my chance of being seen. I practically crawled across the cracked road until I successfully got behind the wall of an intact building. Everypony else in my party followed suit until we were all safely hidden.

Dusty looked out from our cover to survey the area and sighed with relief. “Cost is clear, and I see a way we can get through several blocks worth of territory without being seen,” She said as she gestured to a large brick building that was largely intact across the street. “That is, of course, there are no Raiders inside.”

Across the street was a distribution centre for Adagio Records. A big smile spread across my muzzle as I recognised the building from a school trip I attended back when I was a filly. I even got to meet the legendary rock-star Adagio Dazzle herself. That was a good memory. It made me happy to see her music business had managed to keep going even throughout the war. I hoped she and her sisters made it to a good Stable.

The distribution centre had a two-story office building at the front of the complex with a large “Adagio Records” billboard on top that, to my joy, was largely intact. Behind the office block was a larger rectangular building, which was the warehouse for the records and holotapes, as well as the sound and music equipment. The floor size of the warehouse was about as large as the average hoofball pitch, so around hundred metres.

Another check to make sure the coast was clear, and we quickly made our way to the glass double doors that made up the front entrance and pushed them open. We entered a large reception and waiting room area. There was a curved wooden counter that faced the entrance, along with several stylish couches in the waiting area. Nothing that remained in here looked cheap and it had aged well. Everything had the expected thick layer of dust and grime for two hundred years of no maintenance. However, the material everything was made from seemed to have held up well. At the back of the lobby, there was a set of stairs to the offices above, and another set of double doors to the right of the stairs. If we didn’t have a schedule to keep, we might have opted to check out the offices for anything worth salvaging, but instead, we pushed on through the doors. They opened into a short corridor that would take us to the warehouse, but once we opened the doors, we became cautious. The metal security doors, the type you tend to need a key card for, was already open. One of the double doors was still in place, but the other looked to have been forced open as it was bent and buckled with signs of being hit hard with a blunt heavy object repeatedly.

“Be on your guard,” Dusty Star warned as her long, spiralled horn began to glow dimly.

We nodded, and one by one, we carefully made our way into the warehouse. It was indeed a large building. Wide, tall, and long with a few rows of racking and shelving for all the stored music equipment and records. This also, unfortunately, made for a perfect ambush area for Raiders. They could easily have the high ground and jump us from anywhere.

Suddenly, there was a cry of alarm from Fruity before a loud smack reverberated throughout the warehouse. We whirled around to find him standing next to a desk with a toy monkey now headless.

“Fruity, are you trying to get us caught?” I seethed.

“It was one of those Celestia damned monkeys. It was gonna clap its symbols, I swear,” He said in a panic.

“It would be wise to dispose of any of them as soon as you can. Raiders do sometimes make them into triggers for some of their traps,” Dusty agreed as she began to lead us down an aisle that was full of vinyl records and holotapes. Thankfully, this aisle wasn’t as tall as the other aisles, and would at least give us some warning in case there were some Raiders in the racking.

As we slowly and quietly made our way down the aisle, we heard a metal door at other end of the warehouse bang open and crash against the wall. I cringed at the sudden noise but continued walking. While we made our way through the aisle, we looked around. Some of the taller racking had collapsed over time, and the shelving planks inside the sections of racking formed ramps. We could see several areas where Raiders could have got the high ground on us, but there was nopony here. With nothing to worry about so far inside, I took the opportunity to loot a holotape album. I never got to enjoy the Dazzlings latest album.

We soon made it to the open back door, again buckled and bashed open, and slowly made our way outside into the almost black cloud sky afternoon.

“It’s gonna rain any second. I can feel it,” Fruity sighed.

“Ma’ams, sir. Raiders,” Nexus alerted when we were all outside and in the loading bay for the wagons or trucks.

“Oh fuck me, an Alicorn. Crackers, get the Boss,” One of the Raiders, standing on the top of some scaffolding, yelled before he pulled out a pipe gun.

Dusty’s horn glowed very brightly before she threw her head up and released a beam of blue magic into the air. When the beam reached about a hundred feet in the air, it cascaded down all around us in a dome of energy. We watched as the Raider that had been told to get their boss run, and the magical energy wall came down in front of him. He didn’t slow down or stop and ran face first into the energy, and bounced off it like it was a solid wall.

“Ugh, I just cast a force field. I don’t know how much longer, uh, I can keep this up for, uhhh, my green sisters can do shields better than me,” She groaned.

I quickly picked the now scared filly off my back, and hid her behind a post box so she’d be safe and out of the way. I then pulled out Lucky 13 and joined my friends as we prepared to engage the trapped Raiders.

The Raider that shouted to get help jumped down from the scaffolding, and was soon joined by three more Raiders, including the one that ran into the magic shield.

“Well fellas, we got ourselves some fresh meat, and once we cut the horn off that alicorn bitch, she’ll make a good fuck toy,” A big burly stallion raider grunted. He wore some makeshift armour that formed a mesh cage around his neck and head.

“Don’t you dare come near my horn with your filthy hooves, you lowlife scumbags,” Dusty threatened.

“You idiot, two of them are robots,” A mare in a dark overcoat with some metal pieces added to it. She had a similar face plate to the mare from the execution we saw earlier, and she climbed up onto a broken-down truck cab.

“Aww, I was looking forward to some fresh pussy,” He grumbled.

“When this is over, you can fuck the zebra filly all you want,” The mare sighed with a shake of her head.

“Oh boy!” He cheered excitedly.

I gasped in outrage that he would want to defile and violate my innocent adoptive daughter, as well as the mare’s casual offering of my daughter like it wasn’t even a bad thing to do.

“You so much as come anywhere near my daughter,” I growled threateningly. “I swear to Celestia I will crush every single bone in your body and make you beg for death.”

“Damn Crystal,” Fruity said in slight surprise, but it quickly faded when he primed his battlesaddle. “You fellas just pissed off the wrong mare.”

“Kill them all!” Came a shout from one of the Raiders, followed by two other Raiders as they charged at us with melee weapons drawn. One of them held a broken Zebra Legionnaire Sword in his mouth, while the other held half a pool cue as a blunt weapon. I quickly pulled up Lucky 13 and aimed for one of the Raiders as they charged, but the faceplated mare fired a pipegun and its .38 calibre round tore through my tail fibres, causing a lot of pain for me, and I dropped Lucky 13 as a reaction.

“Ah-ah-ow!” I cried in pain as I flicked my tail.

“Smeg, Crystal!” Fruity exclaimed before he fired at the Raider that had shot my tail. The Raider jumped down from the truck-cab and took cover as the plasma bolts streamed towards her.

“Ma’am, watch out!” Nexus warned as the sword-armed Raider charged for Dusty.

“Uh, I can’t move while I’m generating this shield,” She grumbled.

“Die, you mutant reject!” Yelled the Raider as he swung his head around to stab Dusty with the broken and jagged edge of the sword. However, instead of hearing a cry of pain, we instead heard a metallic clang and a grunt. When I looked over, I saw Nexus had rushed over and put himself between Dusty and the Raider as he attacked, and his sword bounced off his titanium alloy head.

“Th-thank you,” Dusty panted. Sweat beaded on her forehead as the aura around her horn began to waver.

“My pleasure,” Nexus said before he faced the Raider. He quickly kicked the sword away and then gave the Raider a back-hoof smack to the head. I heard the crunch of the jaw bone as it broke from where I stood, as the hit connected with his jaw and sent him flying head over hooves and onto his back.

“Fuck! Use the Party Popper!” The faceplated mare yelled.

“Party Popper incoming!” Another yelled, and from the corner of a building nearby, a small cylindrical object was thrown towards us.

My threat warning immediately flashed red after the announcement of the Party Popper, but I didn’t know what that was or where to look to anticipate the attack. My attention was focused on the pool cue wielding Raider that had attempted to flank us.

“Oh, fuck no!” Fruity exclaimed in alarm. He spread his wings and quickly shot up into the air and intercepted the thrown object. He caught it with his wing, and with a powerful flap, he flung it straight up into the air. I looked up shortly after I tackled the pool cue Raider into a metal dumpster, which knocked him out with the force of the tackle, just in time to see the object Fruity deflected explode into a ball of electricity.

“What in the…” I froze when I felt the familiar buzz in the back of my head from an influx of new knowledge as it was forced into my brain by my electronic one. The data I had been supplied with revealed to me that the cylindrical object was a Disruption Grenade, and that it would have been extremely damaging to me or possibly fatal depending on how much charge was in it or my proximity to it.

I felt the pressure wave from the grenade wash over me when I turned to face the couple of remaining Raiders. I took a step before I stopped and groaned. My vision began to swim and filled with a thin haze of static, and my limbs felt heavy and unresponsive.

“Warning! System error!” Flashed across my vision in block red letters.

“Nexus, are-are you alright?” I faintly heard Dusty gasp in worry over the static in my ears.

“Hmmmm, no. Disruption Grenade may have been out of lethal effective range but…” I looked over in time to see the armoured robot almost topple over. He was moving like he was drunk. “It still had an effective weaker radius. I’m sorry, but I need to perform a system restart to be effective again,” He said as he lay down and began his reboot process.

There was a scream which got cut short. I struggled to turn my head, but when I looked in the direction of the interrupted scream, I saw a puddle of green goo start to drip down the side of the building, and Fruity swoop down to land beside me.

“Shit, are you ok?” He asked in worry.

“Been affected by that grenade,” I moaned.

“Damn it, I’m sorry,” He apologised.

“It’s ok. You couldn’t have known,” I assured him before I heard a dark chuckle from the truck.

We turned to face the last Raider and she had managed to pull out a missile launcher from somewhere. My guess would be that she had one stored away where we couldn’t see it, and just popped it out while we were busy. I grunted while I waited for my body to sort itself out. Fruity moved and stood in front of me, to protect and shield me. It made my heart soar for him and ache at the same time. It made me feel happy and loved by him that he was willing to put his life on the line, but it also hurt and pained me because I could lose him from this.

As we stared at the Raider, I noticed the shield began to collapse around us. “I have had enough,” Dusty growled angrily. Her horn flashed, and a magic bullet was fired from her horn. The shot was so fast the Raider didn’t have time to react at all, and the small, bright blue pulse of magic collided with her metal faceplate around the left eye area. The force of the impact pierced right through it, and tore out at least half of her head. The Raider’s body flopped off the truck cab with the missile launcher, and hit the cracked tarmac with a wet thud.

“Raiders, wasteland rubbish. We must go before any more show up,” She warned just as Nexus woke up again without any problems caused by the Disruption Grenade.

I sluggishly picked up Lucky 13 and holstered it before I turned to Dusty. “Ugh, which way?” I groaned.

“This way,” The alicorn said as she led us into an alley between two half-destroyed buildings. I put all my will power into getting my legs to move quicker as I tried to take my steps as quickly as my hampered body would allow.

“C’mon girl, mush,” Fruity grunted as he pushed at my rear, which made me blush when I felt his shoulder press into my rump.

“Don’t worry about Xian, Ma’am and Mr Fruity. She is safe with me,” The newly rebooted Nexus said. Xian tentatively hugged his neck as she whimpered.

As we moved, the static in my eyes and ears began to fade, and my limbs became gradually more responsive as the effects of the Disruption Grenade began to wear off. Thankfully, we managed to get through the alley and out into the other street before the Raiders came to investigate the commotion we caused.

It took a good five more minutes after the fight before I was back to one hundred percent functionality. Well, as good as I was before the fight started anyway. I didn’t like having to refer to myself as a machine because when I talked about myself returning to full functionality, it made me feel like an object. But it was my robotic body that was keeping me alive. I sighed as we walked the streets towards the outskirts in the northwest of the ruins. I hoped this pony that knows what I am can answer the questions I have.

XXXXX

“WARNING! DISRUPTION ENERGY DETECTED!”

“Eep!” Pixie jumped when her automated warning system alerted her to the use of an anti-mechanoid weapon. “What-what was th-oh right, it was just my internal warning system. I… um… I forgot about that,” The disguised robot sighed and shook her head as she ran at a brisk pace. She had to move quickly if she was to intercept I-01 and I-02 IS. As she weaved through the ruins of Northern Las Pegasus, she caught sight of the bright lights of the core of New Pegasus as they began to illuminate the area around the ruins. She blinked in wonder and slowed to a trot as she became lost in thought.

“Wait, don’t I have a magic show in the Canterlot Royal Hotel this weekend?” She asked herself in confusion while she ground to a halt.

“Well little lady, what brings you to our rough neighbourhood?” A gruff voice asked before a unicorn stallion in a beat-up denim jacket, and armed with an aluminium hoofball bat with two circular saw blades attached to it, stepped out from behind a wall.

“Eek!” She squeaked in surprise and shrunk in on herself as she felt nervous and afraid.

“Ohh, don’t be afraid little lady,” He began with a sinister grin. “I won’t hurt you… much.”

“No please,” She begged as she backed away slowly.

He just grinned all the more as he used his magic to raise the modified metal bat, and then swung it.

“No!” She cried in fright and threw up a foreleg to shield her face from the strike.

“Self Defence Protocol initiated,” Pixie said before her eyes became lifeless and her irises took on a crimson glow. Then, she lowered her foreleg and stared at her attacker.

The stallion stopped his attack mid-swing when he noticed the red eyes. “What the fuck?!”

“Target identified. Exterminating,” The machine said in a monotone voice as her horn glowed with magic.

“Wait, what?”

However, before the stallion could react, a powerful beam of pure concentrated magic was released from Unit-3’s horn. The stallion’s eyes widened in dread and he tried to avoid the beam, but he had stood still being stunned too long and the powerful beam of energy consumed half his face, neck, and barrel. The intensity of the beam burned away his flesh and bone, and left him with a huge gaping hole in the side of his body as he fell over dead while smoking from the power of the magical attack.

“Threat neutralised. Re-establishing control.” Once that was said, her eyes flashed from crimson back to blue, and then widened alarm.

“WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?” She screamed as she regained her senses and saw the smoking dead body of the thug.

“I triggered your SDP because for some reason, you were going to allow that pony to attack you and possibly discover you when he hit you. That was something I could not allow if you let him escape,” Unit-1000’s voice said to her over her communication link.

“O-oh. S-sorry ma’am,” She said sadly.

“Next time Unit-3, defend yourself. Do not make me regret sending you out there,” Unit-1000 said before she left the communication link.

Her ears wilted as she hung her head like a scolded filly, and began to trudge onwards towards the west. “Y-yes, my princess,” She said quietly to herself.

XXXXX

“We need to pick up the pace,” Dusty urged as we finally made it to the dual carriage way that would take us north out of the city and towards the mountain road, which would lead us to the Alicorn Sanctuary.

“Celestia almighty, why is it so bloody important we get to this mountain road as soon as possible?” Fruity asked in annoyance at the umpteenth time of being reminded that we needed to hurry.

The blue alicorn looked up and actually looked a little worried as she examined the sky. The sun, despite the heavy cloud cover, was on its downward ark and headed for the distant mountains, which meant the area would be bathed in shadow soon. Not only that, but we also only had a few more hours of daylight left.

“Ok, the reason I’m so intent on us making it at least to the mountain road at the base of MT Coltston as quickly as possible is because the Steel Rangers are known to patrol this area of the Marejave in large groups at night. They have been seen in groups of five to eight, and all of them have been seen to be armed with at least one heavy weapon,” She explained. “We need to avoid them at all cost, because they will kill me on sight and you as well Mr Fruity, but would likely attempt to capture Crystal and Nexus because they would see them as technology that worth taking back. They would also likely kill the little filly too because she is a zebra.”

“Steel Rangers? Out here in the middle of the ass end of nowhere?” Fruity asked in surprised as he hovered above us.

“Yes, they are all in a bit of a steer because of a discover that was unearthed back in Manehattan,” She said while she gave me a knowing look.

I blinked as I didn’t know what she meant.

“Maybe you noticed the increased activity of the Rangers when you visited Pondale?” She continued.

“Wait,” I gasped when I remembered how the Rangers talked to us when they caught us. They seemed to know what I was, and they were kinda jumpy about it. “Are you saying they know about me?”

“Not you per say, but they know there are skeletal robots out there that can imitate ponies, and that has them all riled up and suspicious of each other and anything in full armour,” She explained.

“How do you even know this dribble?” Fruity asked.

“The Dr has access to a radio tower and she has been able to tune into Steel Ranger broadcasts. We have been able to monitor transmissions, so that we can help any ponies or alicorns to avoid and direct as needed. It is how we learned how they found out about what transpired at Paradigm Cybernetics.”

“Well cock,” Fruity sighed. “Alright then, we better hurry this shindig along then before they crash the party.”

I grumbled to myself in annoyance as we followed the road out of the city and into the desert, making our way toward the mountain. It was our fault we attracted the attention of the Steel Rangers, and now we had another faction to worry about. From what I’ve learned, the Steel Rangers of today, of the post war era, were not the soldiers of Equestria that fought for peace and freedom, but instead were violent techno-hoarders that scoured the land for pre-war tech, and ruthlessly took it from ponies if they believed it was something that should belong to them. They also didn’t care who they killed, be it innocent ponies, raiders, or any of the wasteland monsters. If they were between them and the piece of tech they were after, then they were just an obstacle to be removed to them.

The roads stretching out into the desert wasteland were littered with the wrecks of carts, wagons, and vehicles abandoned long ago. The road that would have traffic going out of the city was very full, almost gridlocked compared to the side going to the city. I could only imagine the chaos and fear of the evacuation for those ponies trying to escape the city before or as the bombs began to fall across Equestria. The sight was made worse by the dark shadow of the clouds above us. Thick, rolling black clouds filled the sky now, and the setting sun struggled to pierce the thick canopy.

My wings twitched. “The air feels funny,” I said as we walked on the desert sand to avoid the clogged-up motorway.

Fruity looked up and frowned. “There’s a storm coming. I give it a couple of hours before it unleashes its full force on the Marejave.”

“So that’s why my wings feel all tingly?” I asked.

He nodded before he looked over to Nexus who was carrying a sleeping Xian. “Hey, Half-eaten lollipop head. I hope you don’t rust cause this storm is gonna piss it down.”

The machine didn’t respond to the jab while he continued to carry Xian. I just sighed and shook my head. When would he give Nexus a break?

Several hours passed as we followed the road while the light of the day faded to almost complete darkness. The sun had set enough that the northern mountains blocked its light, and with the storm almost on top of us, the darkness would get worse. On a positive note, we were just a couple of miles from the mountain road now.

We unfortunately couldn’t cut across the desert to reach the mountain road sooner because straying from the road far enough would have been dangerous. The areas close to the mountain’s base and what used to be farmland was now inhabited by Paradores and Raiders or worse. We didn’t have the time to waste on fighting the bugs or more Raiders, and we didn’t want to attract any more unwanted attention, so it was best we stuck with the road.

The wind had begun to pick up as we neared the mountain road, which was a clear sign to the inevitable arrival of the coming storm. Unfortunately, just when the turn off for the mountain road came into view, bright spotlights also appeared up head.

“Ah shit. Steel Rangers,” Fruity groaned as he pointed toward the beams of light.

“I count six in total, and like Dusty said, they are all armed with one heavy weapon each, four of which have anti-infantry weaponry,” Nexus clarified.

“Damnit to Sombra, I knew this would happen,” Dusty grumbled in annoyance. “Quickly everypony, over here and huddle close, and do not move or make a sound,” She ordered as she walked away from the road and about twenty feet into the dessert. We quickly gathered around the alicorn, and once we were all around her, she lit her horn and it flashed brightly. “There, I just cast a cloaking spell around us. Nexus, you should power down to standby mode just in case they have energy scanners. You are ok, Crystal, since your secondary power cell only activates when you fly,” She explained. We all tensed when the beams of helmet lights began to wash over us as the Steel Ranger patrol began to walk past us down the road toward the city. “Do not move and do not speak. This stealth field operates in the same principal to a Stealth Buck, it will keep us unseen but not unheard,” She whispered loud enough for just us to hear while we watched the Rangers.

A Ranger stopped and looked in our direction, his light aimed right as us. It lit up the ground as he looked in our direction. I bit my lip in nervousness when another Ranger, one that wore a shiner and more decorative Paladins armour, approached him. I slowly edged towards the now on-standby Nexus to be close to Xian. I made sure to keep my movements slow and steady, so I wouldn’t disturb the spell.

“There is nothing here, Knight Sterling. Are you sure that scanner of yours didn’t have a technical hiccup?” The Paladin asked as he drew the Knight’s attention.

“I swear I detected a strong magical pulse from over here,” The Knight lifted his foreleg and checked a foreleg-mounted computer, similar to a PipBuck but not, and tapped at the screen with his hoof before he frowned. “I guess it was nothing. It isn’t detecting anything at all right now,” He sighed. “Sorry sir.”

“C’mon, we best head back to the bunker. Heavens knows we need to give the Elder some good news soon. We are all getting a bit too jumpy,” The Paladin said as he guided the Knight along and away.

“Yea, that spy robot thing has really got to him,” Sterling agreed as he turned and began to follow with the rest of the Rangers.

“MOVEMENT!” A Ranger yelled from down the road that made the two that were near us stop.

“What is it?” The Paladin demanded.

“Multiple small contacts,” Another yelled before there were a couple of barks, and two coyotes ran in terror through the power armoured ponies, turning off the road and into the desert toward us. They then split apart and ran in two different directions as if they were being chased by something, but thankfully before they ran into the cloaking field.

“Coyotes.” The Paladin sighed. “Nothing to worry about.”

Suddenly, a group of five more came charging through the Rangers. These were different. They had the body of a coyote, but had the heads and tails of snakes, rattle snakes to be specific. What sort of monstrosities are these?

One of the Rangers began to rev up his minigun as the mutant creatures ran by them, but he was quickly stopped by the Paladin. “Shit, Nightstalkers. Whoa, easy there. They are not interested in us and heavy weapon usage in such close proximity to each other would be a very bad idea Knight, so hold your fire.”

“Yes sir,” The Ranger said as he stopped his weapon and continued on down the road once the mutants had passed them.

“Fruity, what are those?” I whispered as the mutant creatures charged passed us as they pursued the coyotes. They hissed in a snake-like fashion, grunted in a weird almost canine way, and made a distinct rattle as they ran by us.

“You’re asking me? I’m not from around here,” Fruity retorted with surprise as he watched them run into the darkness.

“Ugh, they are Nightstalkers, uhhh, a mutant species that began to appear in the Marejave at at least hundred and fifty years ago,” Dusty grunted. “The Doctor theories they are actually the result of genetic tampering because of the hybrid combination of coyote and snake.”

We waited for a good five, almost ten minutes to be sure the Rangers had moved a good distance away before Dusty dropped the cloaking spell. She panted with exhaustion and her face glistened with sweat from the effort of keeping the spell going. Nexus woke up again as he came out of standby shortly after the spell ended. Once we were all ready, we turned for the mountain road. We only took two steps before there was an almighty loud boom in the sky, and then the entire area was illuminated by a flash of light. The boom of thunder made Xian scream in terror, to which she dove off Nexus’s back and in between my legs as she trembled. To our chagrin, the thunder was followed by a heavy torrent of rain that came down in sheets.

“Just like being back in Manehattan,” Fruity joked.

“This is nothing like the Manehattan storms,” I grumbled while I used my wings like an umbrella. “Ugh, this is a wild storm, not controlled by magic, only by the laws of nature. Similar to the Everfree but a little different because of the desert environment,” I explained just as the wind picked up more.

“C’mon now, everypony. We best hurry before the storm gets any worse,” Dusty urged.

We nodded, and once Xian was safely on my back again, we quickly began to gallop for the mountain road.

XXXXX

“Arrived at Intercept Point. Target absent. Scanning!” Pixie said to herself, her eyes still half-lidded and glowing crimson. “I-01’s Power signature detected.” The disguised machine turned north but stopped when it saw Steel Rangers off in the distance.

“ALERT!” The machine quickly hid behind a collapsed building’s intact corner wall. She crouched low and poked her head out from her cover just enough that she could see the Rangers with one eye. “Heavily armoured and well-armed targets. Ill-prepared to engage. Best course of action… avoid.”

While Pixie watched as the heavens exploded with lightning and thunder before a torrential downpour began to soak the land. Normally the programming of the machine would not react to the rain, but something else did.

“Ugh, this will make a mess of my mane,” Pixie groaned, her eyes flashing back to blue as she used her magic to create a magic dome above her to protect her from the rain. Once that was done, her eyes flashed back to red and she fell back into her zombie-like state.

After she waited several minutes for the Rangers to move a good distance away, she left her cover and began to walk up the road in pursuit of her target.

XXXXX

The journey up the mountain road wasn’t that bad, and it didn’t take more than a couple of hours more. Once we were in the safety of the valley, with nothing but the slopes of the mountain and the road ahead and behind us, Dusty cast a shield spell to protect us from the storm and to repel the wild life of the mountain. As we made our way up, we found groups of large woolly-looking things that looked a lot like mutated sheep, which Dusty called Big Horners, and the only hostiles we encountered that the shield protected us from were Giant Mantises.

The road we followed was a little tricky to transverse at times with how some areas were covered in piles of dirt and rocks from land/rockslides. The road was also winding, it took us back and forth around tight bends as it worked its way up the valley, but it eventually straightened out into a long stretch. As we got higher and higher, the temperature dropped, and we also found ourselves walking past tall and healthy pine trees. I assumed that mountain acted as a shield and protected the trees from the effects of the bombs. We also found ourselves walking through snow, and the storm turned into a snow storm as we neared the summit. This change of environment didn’t sit well with Fruity.

“We are almost there,” Dusty announced.

“This is smegging freezing. Ugh, what is all this white stuff?” He asked as he shook his hooves to shake the built-up snow off his hooves.

I could see a wall made of tree trunks up ahead through the haze of the heavy snow. “You don’t know what snow is?” I asked in surprise.

“Snow?” He replied with a tilt of his head. I suppose that answered that.

“It’s frozen water. I’m surprised you don’t know about snow, considering you were born in the clouds.”

“Forgive me but this snow wasn’t something we needed, nor do we control the weather much anymore since the SPP does most of that for us these days,” He explained.

“I guess I can understand that,” I said with a nod as we began to pass through the gate between the tree trunk wall.

“Welcome back sister,” A green alicorn said that stood guard by the gate.

“Thank you, Nova,” Dusty said with a smile.

“Is she the one? The one she’s been waiting for?” A purple alicorn asked that also stood by the wall as a sentry. Dusty nodded in return. “She will be very happy to finally meet her. Welcome to the Alicorn Sanctuary.”

“Um, t-thank you,” I said with a hint of nervousness.

The old ski lodge quickly came into view once we were past the gate, and it was very well lit up with the lights on the outside and lights from the windows. The place looked very well intact, almost like it had been restored, even the tall radio mast looked in remarkably good condition. Dusty led us up the steps to the front door and opened the door for us to get us out of the storm.

“Oh sweet, sweet warmth,” Fruity sighed in relief once we were all inside and the door had closed behind us.

“Ah, finally. Welcome to the Alicorn Sanctuary, Crystal. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” A beige unicorn with a purple mane tied up into a bun said with a smile. The unicorn didn’t look any older than me, and she wore an old and worn lab coat with a faded MoA logo on the breast pocket. “Dusty, if you please,” She said with a sudden serious look on her face.

“Of course, Doctor,” The alicorn said, and before we knew what was going on, she zapped Nexus with a bolt of magic that made him enter an emergency shutdown state.

“WHAT THE BLOODY HELL!?” Fruity yelled in shock. Even I recoiled in surprise, but I was so taken off guard by it I was silent.

“I do apologise, but this is a necessary precaution,” The mare said as she approached our downed friend. Fruity tensed at this as she brushed our machine companion’s forehead with her hoof. “Good, his forehead port is intact.” She then reached up to her horn and grasped it with her fetlock, and to our horror, twisted it and pulled her horn off her forehead.

“What the f…” Fruity and I both began to yell, but also stopped at the same time too when we saw the huge metal pins that were on the underside of the horn. We were shocked into silence as she then plugged her horn into Nexus’s forehead and twisted into place.

“Run backdoor surveillance sweep,” She said to Nexus.

“Accessing all subroutines and processes… accessing restricted subroutines and processes…” Nexus said in a monotone voice, as if he was just the machine without his personality. “Scan complete. No outbound signal detected from any subroutine or process. No connection to Production Facility detected.”

The mare sighed deeply in relief as she retrieved her horn and allowed Nexus to wake back up. He was understandably not happy about the sudden forced shutdown.

“Please don’t do that again,” He asked almost fearfully.

“I do apologise for my actions I-02… No, Nexus,” She then turned to regard us all. “But please understand. This is a safe place for alicorns and if he knew I was still alive and here, he wouldn’t waste a minute in sending everything he could spare in trying to get to me.”

“What?” I asked in confusion.

She smiled and turned towards a hallway to the right of the main door. “Please, follow me to my lab and I’ll explain everything, and I can finally give you all the answers you need about your current condition, Crystal.”

I nodded as I began to follow the mare, eager to know why this was done to me. Dusty bid us farewell as we followed the Doctor through a couple of hallways until she opened the door to a lodge hotel room that had been made into a lab of sorts. There were terminals, chemistry sets, recording devices, shelves with chemicals, and other science gear on it; and in the middle of the room was a large bed with an overhead light.

“Now, allow me to introduce myself,” The mare began with a smile once we were all inside and sat on our rumps. “My name is Dr Pear. I am the one that built you, Crystal.”

“Whoa, hold up. What kind of bullshit is that? That’s impossible!” Fruity accused.

“Fruity!” I hissed, a little annoyed at his rudeness and profanity in front of Xian again.

“I’m sorry about my coltfriend, but I must agree with him there. There is no way you could be the pony that made me,” I said while I looked the mare over. I tilted my head while I stared. Something about her did seem vaguely familiar for some reason.

“I assure you, I am,” She said. “I suppose I should start with that.” She then looked at Nexus. “To put it simply, I made myself into one of him,” She said while she pointed a hoof at Nexus. “A Mark 2.”

Our eyes widened in disbelief at what we just heard, and Fruity asked the question that immediately came to mind.

“Why the bloody hell would you do that to yourself?”

At that moment, a little unicorn filly burst into the room and excitedly bounced over to Dr Pear. “Is she here Grandma, is she here?” She squealed.

The Doctor smiled lovingly as she patted the filly on the head. “She is Peach Bottom.” She smiled as she directed the filly to look towards us. I smiled nervously as the filly beamed. I felt Xian shift to hide between my forelegs and shook with nervous fear.

“Shh, nolite ergo solliciti esse, et non nocuerunt tibi mel,” I whispered to Xian. Thankfully, she calmed down but didn’t leave the safety of my forelegs.

“I see the translation program is working fine,” Dr Pear said absentmindedly.

“Celestia give me strength, there you are madam,” Another unicorn mare said as she entered the lab. “I swear, I turn my back for one moment and you disappear. That’s it young lady, you are grounded for a week.” The young unicorn filly let out a whine and hung her head.

The mare looked to Dr Pear, who looked a little younger than the unicorn mare. “I’m so sorry Grandmother. I hope she didn’t disturb you again.”

“Grandmother!?” Fruity and I blurted out.

“Huh? Oh, I do apologise, you have guests. I better get nosey to bed. Again, I’m sorry,” The mare apologised as she picked up the filly in her magic. The young filly harrumphed and folded her forelegs in annoyance.

“Don’t worry about it Chestnut, she is welcome to stay,” Dr Pear said softly, but Chestnut shook her head.

“I’m sorry, but this little one needs to learn to keep her nose out of other ponies’ business.” She began to leave the room while levitating her daughter. “Sorry for the disruption,” She said to us before she left.

Dr Pear shook her head softly. “To answer your question Mr Fruity,” Dr Pear began with a pained sigh. “I turned myself into a robot because it was the only option I had left in order to protect and save my family. It was also the only way I could trap him and escape the facility, and give me the ability to protect my foal.” Her eyes glistened with tears as memories of a horrible time played through her mind. She then fixed Fruity with a serious look. “So, let me ask you a serious question, Mr Fruity. What would you be willing to sacrifice for your family if it meant they could survive?”

“I…” Fruity stopped and blinked before he looked to me and Xian, who nervously peeked out from behind my forelegs. He sat down beside me and wrapped a wing around me, holding me close to him. “I would be willing to sacrifice anything for them,” He said with conviction. I felt my heart melt at those words, to know how much he cared about me, about us, that much. I smiled as I leaned up and kissed his cheek, which caused his wings to poof erect on his back.

Dr Pear held a fore hoof to her lips to stifle a giggle for a moment, before she coughed and became serious again.

“Now then, Crystal. I would believe you would like to know what became of you?” She asked.

I nodded. “Yes. Why was this done to me? Why was my life stolen? Why wasn’t I allowed to die?”

She nodded as she sat down. “I was just a young cybernetic surgeon back then, but Starlight Glimmer with her Magi-Tech company, Starlight Industries, funding Paradigm Cybernetics was helping improve and advance my company quickly. We were working hard to help ponies who suffered horrible crippling injuries, but the war helped secure our place in the industry.

I was approached by Colonel Ironside six years before the bombs fell. He was also the head of the Ministry of Awesome’s Espionage Department. He had a proposal for me, and that was to create the ultimate spy. With my work in cybernetics, which also included neural synthetic linking, he said I was perfect for the job. He described the spy to be a robot with a brain and coated in skin. When I thought about it back then, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity and learning experience, so I accepted.

He told me his project, Project Infiltrator, was approved by Princess Luna. All projects like this had to be approved by the Princess before they could get the go-ahead. The order was for five Infiltrators, all of them were to have brains, hearts, and flesh. However, we were gonna need to make sure the first would work since such a thing had never been done before, but Ironside told me he had a volunteer already lined up.”

I gasped when the story got to me.

“Yes, that so-called volunteer was you. I was with him when he visited the hospital where you were being treated in Las Pegasus. He told me you had signed the contract willingly. But, I know better now.

It didn’t take long for your body to arrive at Paradigm Cybernetics. Please understand, I was under the impression this was all legal and you had volunteered for it. I extracted your brain with the utmost care and transplanted it into the skull of the endoskeleton you now inhabit. I used all my skills as a cybernetic surgeon to re-establish neural links and synthetically sync them with the electronic brain and optical sensors your brain is tied directly into now.

I decided that the Infiltrators would need lungs, so they could better blend in with their target groups. Thankfully, Ironside gave me access to some other secretive project’s data called Project Chimera, where I could grow cloned organs or body parts from a sample of DNA. We were able to grow you a healthy heart and lungs. But, it was shortly after securing and sealing your chest, so your organs would be protected, that I got an unannounced visit from Colonel Ironside.

He wasn’t happy. He wanted to know what was taking me so long to finish you. I didn’t understand why he was so impatient. I was sure he understood building something so complex, and not to mention advanced, would take time and I told him as much, and that’s when he told me. He told me the project was off the radar, that it wasn’t approved by the Princess. He had lied to me, made me work on it while he made me think everything was legal and good. I threatened to go to the authorities after that, but he had something on me too. I could have been done for murder since I had extracted your brain and had your original organic body incinerated. Even though you are alive cybernetically, I technically killed you as far as the authorities would have been concerned back then.

I decided then and there I would do everything in my power to make you as much of a living being as possible, despite how much of you would be mechanical. I had to do many neural recalibrations, gave you a synthetic stomach with a magical enchantment that would break down anything you ate into energy, gave you a functional uterus, removed the lateral control rods to free up abdominal space, but reinforced your spine with smaller control rods so you could still bend and move your spine.

I spent five years fine tuning you. I delayed building the others since I knew it was illegal then, and made excuses for why you were taking so long. But, things began to get weird after the fourth year. Ironside stopped demanding for your completion, instead beginning to ask about my Flesh Binding spell. This spell is why our endoskeletons have a flesh cover on it that hasn’t come off. The spell makes the flesh stick to the endoskeleton like it would as if it was a normal skeleton. Ironside would call or visit me, asking and demanding to know the spell formula. I found it odd that he would want to know the spell since he was an Earth Pony, but the spell was my own creation and I didn’t want to give it up, and it was also the only thing I had left that would stop him from tossing me aside and having me arrested for illegal activity. Being in espionage meant he could easily pin everything on me.

You were pretty much complete, minus a few implants, when I was told we needed to evacuate the facility. As the war dragged on, the Ministry Mare Pinkie Pie got a little unstable and began to raid places she thought were suspect. Ironside told me because of Paradigm Cybernetics affiliation with Starlight Industries, it was one of those suspected places. He told me he had a whole new dedicated facility built in secret in the Marejave desert, and I quickly had you prepped and ready for transport in a Stasis Pod. As not to raise too much suspicion, you were placed in Manehattan General until it was time to have you moved. However, you know what happened next.”

I nodded as I shivered as the horrible memories of waking up in that destroyed hospital with nopony around, and then finding all the death and destruction when I walked out of the front door. “Yeah, the wasteland.”.

Dr Pair sighed and looked to the southeast, even though her gaze was centred on a wall. It was like she was looking right through the wall and in the direction of something she knew well.

“The call went out for everypony to evacuate before you could be transported to the facility. That was actually a good thing, because it would have given him exactly what he wanted. Unfortunately, when we were to head to our assigned Stables, he knocked me out with chloroform. When I came to, I found myself inside the Marejave Production Facility under Meadowlark Hill. By then, the bombs had already fallen and filled the air with lethal fallout, and the facility’s entrance was sealed for safety reasons. He explained that we were going to live our lives in there until we died, and I was to give him my Flesh Binding spell one way or another.”

Dr Pear shuddered upon the recollection being in the facility.

“He revealed to me what he had been up to. What he wanted my spell for, and what the true purpose of Project Infiltrator was. He led me through a large red blast door into what he called the Mark 2 Vault, and inside was a literal army of Infiltrators. There were one thousand Mark 2 units inside that vault, all waiting to be given a flesh coating.”

“ONE THOUSAND!” Fruity shrieked in alarm. I was a second away from screaming that myself. A thousand! We were lucky we only had three of them chase us. If he sent them all after us, we’d be helpless and pretty much anything that got in their way wouldn’t have stood a chance.

“Yes. For the purpose of Project Infiltrator wasn’t to infiltrator just the enemy, but to infiltrate our own country. These machines were to assume the likeness of ponies in the government, in positions of power, influence, powerful companies, anything that would impact the way Equestria was run. He would have used his machines to control the very way Equestria was governed from the shadows. The worst part came when he showed me his ultimate creation with the Mark 2 line. Unit-1000. He told me that that one was to replace Princess Celestia herself and retake her position on the throne. It would also act as a relay for Colonel Ironside to be able to keep in touch with all the other Mark 2 units spread across Equestria, as well as him being able to send Unit-1000 commands to which it could then transmit to the corresponding Mark 2s. If things went the way he wanted, he could have effectively controlled Equestria, and from what he told me, he intended to lead Equestria away from war. If you would believe that.”

“That’s some supervillain-level shit right there,” Fruity commented before Dr Pear continued with her story.

“Since we didn’t have you Crystal, I was the only source for the spell. After he told me the purpose of Project Infiltrator, I was more than determined not to give it to him. He was more relaxed this time around since were locked inside the facility together. I suppose he guessed that only time would weaken my resolve. He was wrong, however. I managed to stay quiet for thirty long years, and in that time, I noticed how he got more and more desperate as we aged. Well, despite my age of sixty-three, I still entered an oestrus cycle. I was usually careful and locked myself in my room to be away from him, but this time around he managed to trap me before I could. I had no intention or desire to want to mate with him. I fought the need to breed with everything I had but…” She stopped as she bit her lip. She also began to take simulated deep breaths as if to try and calm herself down, despite not needing air as a Mark 2 herself. After a minute of regaining her nerve, she continued. “He…he…he forced himself on me… He raped me.” She sighed and shook her head. “Even after a hundred and fifty years, it still never gets any easier to talk about that part.”

Fruity and I gasped, horrified and disgusted to know such a thing had been done to her.

“He thankfully let me go once the deed was done, and I hastily got away and locked myself in my room. I stayed in there for months, only going out to get food before going back to hide from him. However, as the weeks and months passed, I began to notice the bodily changes, and that was when I realised I was pregnant. The dirty son of a bitch had planned for it. Being in the facility with not much do gave you a lot of time to think, and when I found out I was pregnant, one of the first things I did was think of why this happened now after so many years. It was because he planned it, because he wanted to use my foal as leverage to get what he desired most.”

It was now that realisation dawned on us to why she turned herself into a machine.

“Yes. You can see it now, can’t you?” She asked before she continued. “I knew I couldn’t let my foal be used as some form of bargaining chip, so I plotted my escape. I went through many ideas, all of them stupid and would have led to my death. But there was only one option and it came with a chance to also seal him away in the computer if it worked. There was plenty of spare pieces left from the automated production lines that built the Mark 2’s, so I had two more built: Unit-1001 and Unit-1002. I am Unit-1001, and Nexus is Unit-1002. I went first with the mind transfer to prove to him it was safe and would work. This was of course after I had had my foal. When it came time for him, as soon as the process was started, and he was on his way through the system, I flicked a switch and it changed the directory to where he was gonna go. Instead of going into Nexus’s head, he instead went into an empty partition in the main computer’s hard drive. I had a few minutes then to gather a few things and my daughter, and escape the facility before he began to assume control of the facility. I escaped the facility while also damaging certain cables along the way, so he wouldn’t be able to control all the facility, as he would have wanted now that he was in the system. I also made sure to cut his connection to the Mark 2 Vault, so he wouldn’t be able to remotely activate any of his machines.”

She looked over to Nexus and sighed.

“But I suppose I should have expected his vessel to respond to his commands when he detected the presence of you, Crystal, in the Marejave. Thus, he realised he still had a chance at getting what he wanted.”

I gasped in shock at the realisation that it was because of me that this whole ‘robot hunting me down’ business was because of me. Just from setting hoof in the Marejave.

“So, this brings us to where we are now. He is down two machines, and one is not responding to his or Unit-1000’s commands. There is another out in the Marejave: Unit-3. It was waiting for you at the train station. It has likely been sent to look for you now as Ironside has surely noticed you have left the train before it arrived.”

I gently hugged Xian to my barrel as I felt devastated to know that my life was robbed from me, just to be reborn as this artificial being, and to know I didn’t matter to the one who first wanted me created.

“Do I really mean so little? Just something to be cast aside and forgotten once he gets the spell?” I asked on the verge of tears.

“Oh goodness, no,” Dr Pear said softly as she lifted my chin with a hoof and stared into my eyes, organic and robotic. “You were just a means to an end to that bastard, but to me, you were a life I could save. I knew about all your health issues because I made it my business to know about the mare I had ripped the brain out of. I wanted to help you by making sure that when the war was over, you could return to a life that was free of all your health-related problems. I put everything I had into making sure everything worked correctly. But it would seem something isn’t working. Your eye should have regenerated by now,” She said as she gently held my face with her hooves and leaned in close to examine my wound.

“Thank you. I’m happy to know I meant something to somepony. Um, did my mother know about this?” I asked while she eyed my still-exposed robotic eye.

“Funny you should ask that. Apparently, your mother is how Ironside got you as his volunteer,” She said as she sat back and rubbed her hoof to her chin while she stared at my chest.

“WHAT!?” I shrieked.

“Ow my ear,” Fruity whined as my high pitched shriek was pretty much down his ear.

“I found a surveillance holotape while rummaging around in the Production Facility one day, and when I played it I saw Ironside with a light pink crystal pony with a light-yellow mane and tail. She wore a MoA jacket with an admin’s badge, so she worked at the offices that Ironside frequented. She knew of the project and knew we needed volunteers.” I couldn’t believe it. My own mother offered me up to be used in some unethical project that has turned me into a robot. Dr Pear seemed to have guessed what I was thinking from the way I deflated in front of her. “Hey, I know how that sounded but believe me, she wanted to save you. You were her daughter, after all. She understood the Infiltrator would use your brain and she asked that we do it to save you. Sadly, I was not made aware of this meeting or request from your mother. All Ironside ever told me was that he had a volunteer.” She sighed. Dr Pear placed her hoof on my chest and pressed hard. “No wonder you eye hasn’t regenerated. I don’t feel any power coming from your regeneration talisman and it feels out of place. Have you dislocated it at some point?”

Tears were beading in the corner of my intact eye. My mum wanted to save me. She must have been so desperate to save my life that she would turn to such extreme methods. Oh, how I wished I could see her again. I shook my head to get my thoughts back on track and looked back to Dr Pear.

“Um, yeah. A little while ago I got stabbed in the chest, and I felt the blade dislodge the talisman, but I pushed it back in,” I answered.

“Hmm. You may not have successfully secured it so it has over time fully come out of its cradle. I’m afraid I’m going to need to cut open your chest, so I can examine your regen system,” She said softly.

“Um, ok, err, Fruity? Would you please take Xian someplace she can get some sleep please? I don’t want her to be around when I’m getting cut open,” I asked him.

“Sure,” He said with a smile as he gently coaxed the filly out from between my legs. “Uh, you wouldn’t happen to have a spare room, would you?” He asked Dr Pair.

She smiled warmly and nodded. “Umagon, would you please show our guests to a free room please?” She called.

A tall green alicorn walked into the room and bowed her head. “Of course, Doctor,” She said with a warm smile and turned to Fruity, who now had Xian curled up on his back. “Please, follow me.” She then turned around and began to walk out of the room.

“I’ll join you once I’ve been fixed,” I said and kissed him on the cheek.

He returned the kiss before he turned and followed the alicorn.

XXXXX

I pushed open the door of our guest room and smiled at the sight of Xian sound asleep in one of the beds. Fruity was sitting in a chair next to the window as he looked out into the snow storm. He looked up as he noticed me.

“How’d it go?” He asked as he got up and approached me.

“It stung, but she reset the talisman properly and it is doing its job again,” I replied with a sigh.

“Are you ok?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know how to feel about this. My mum offered me to him in the hopes it’ll save my life. He wanted me for his little project, but in the end, I ended up being nothing to him; but Dr Pear, she actually wanted to help me. She wanted to do what my mother had hoped would happen, but had been kept in the dark the whole time. I don’t know how to feel. I’m so conflicted,” I grumbled.

Fruity hugged me tightly, one of his hooves gently stroked my mane. “As bad as it may seem, your life has been saved in some shape or form and you are alive. I’m glad because I got to meet you when I did, and I can be with you now.”

“Oh Fruity,” I kissed him as my heart swelled for the caring stallion.

“Oh, sorry to interrupt, but Dr Pear would like to see you two,” The green alicorn, Umagon, said as she appeared in the doorway to our guest room.

“Isn’t it a bit late?” Fruity complained.

“She said it is very important,” Umagon reasoned.

“Alright, we’ll be there,” I told her.

Fruity sighed and yawned, but he threw his wing over my back and we began to follow the alicorn, before I stopped and looked back to Xian.

“What about Xian?”

“Let her sleep. She’s had a long day,” Fruity said softly.

I nodded as we left the room, but I made sure to close and lock the door before we continued to follow Umagon.

XXXXX

As the door to the lodge hotel room closed, there was a flash of lightning through the window, and the head of a pony with glowing red eyes was there, peering through the window at the sleeping form of the zebra filly.

Author's Note:

Well, this has been a long time coming hasn't it folks. I started this at the end of October but finally I got it finished with the help of my editor for a Christmas release. Merry Christmas everypony and I hope you enjoy the latest addition to the story.

This chapter features a couple of Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun references and the execution scene was heavily inspired by the BBC drama that aired in November called "Gunpowder".

As a bonus I also have a couple of pics to share too.

Dusty Star by RainbowSurvivor

Movie Style, Crystal Eclair (Chapter 1-2 Appearance) by Suramii

Comments

[iraneth0]

called “Dusty Trail” and he had been a Caravan Guard before the Goddess had him taken. As for me, I don’t know why she took me. My name was Star Watch and I was simply an astronomer in an area of Equestria where an SPP Tower had been destroyed and left a small patch of clear sky.
is that a reference to FOE: the Chrysalis

[Lex the Pikachu]

Um no, i've not read that story so i don't know any of the characters or locations.

[Double R Forrest]

8623243
I've read that story, and that wouldn't work, because that tower explosion would've happened around the time of the original. This story takes place 20 years before the original fic's time (and Dusty's creation would have happened even more long ago), and therefore would not correlate with the events of The Chrysalis.

[Lex the Pikachu]

8625549
Influx is 10 years before the events of the original FoE

[iraneth0]

does not mean it can't be a reference. both are named dusty trails, both are in leis pagasis. both have a SPP tower exploding in the past.

[Lex the Pikachu]

8625921
True, but it is purely coincidental. I have never read that fic and i only said the tower was destroyed, never specified how. Destroyed doesn't mean blown up.

[Goggles5150]

Awesome chapter!!!!!

[Alicon Glactistar]

8684648 I forgot the story name and wanted to read it.

[Alicon Glactistar]

8693134 Can I hope for U-1000 to leave Ironside down the road?
Also U-1000's gas mane thingy gave away who it was intended to replace.

[Lex the Pikachu]

8694394
Unit-1000's mane and tail is a hologram

[Alicon Glactistar]

8694530 I had just found that out next chapter.

[Alicon Glactistar]

So the common fault of the prototype processors was gaining a personality.
And I just read all available chapters..... damn it.

U-1000 leads the robo friendship express? *Hopeful look*

[Lex the Pikachu]

8694890
the flaw wasn't that they gained a personality, it was that if the Mark 2s copied a mind for infiltration, over time the boundaries between the mind and the machine would deteriorate to the point they would not be able to tell if they were the machine or the actual pony. You would have seen this with Units 1 and 2 (Corporal Razzle and Private Buckshot)

[Alicon Glactistar]

8695272 I would point out U-1000 did not truthfully inform Ironside of what it was doing when it was watching vids of Celestia. And Nexus had a mana overload that appears to have caused an anomaly which resulted in his personality.

Also I'm really loving this story so far.

Other thoughts: I can't figure out Ironside's choices, especially with his dead wife and foal who he left never to return.

[Lex the Pikachu]

8697078
Ironside was one of those guys obsessed with what he was doing, neglecting those around them.

The mana-overload Nexus experienced caused a change with this Neural Processor which allowed for free thinking and freed him from his programming to serve him.

As for Unit-1000, she is learning, evolving, but is 100% under his control. She may not decide to tell him everything but if he gave her an order, she would follow it.

[jen_lee_hattie]

Nice work I hope to see more.

[Alicon Glactistar]

8697291 Just remembered that Crystal didn't awknowledge the fact Dr. Pear told her that she is able to have kids. Also that she and Fruity already fucked.

[Lex the Pikachu]

8700820
After being told something like she had would you think still being able to have kids would have crossed her mind?

[Alicon Glactistar]

8701407 Well, she's in for a surprise to say the least.

[Alicon Glactistar]

8701407 I kept forgetting to comment every time I remembered that Lightning Dust is the voice in her head.

[Lex the Pikachu]

8831746
Glad i was able to interest you again in FoE with my Story. I hope the rest of my story keeps you interested.