Fallout Equestria: Influx

by Lex the Pikachu

Chapter 18: No Choice

Author's Note:

Well, it's been a long time coming but Chapter 18 has finally been released.

I do apologise for the delay. From illness killing my motivation to the release of Far Cry 5 it was hard to find motivation to write.

I hope you enjoy the latest chapter. Thank you.

Fallout Equestria: Influx

Chapter 18: No Choice

Fruity and I stepped back into Dr Pear’s lab shortly after Umagon had returned. I felt uneasy about leaving Xian alone while she slept for the first time since we took her in, but we were in a peaceful community, so I could at least trust them not to disturb her or enter our room unannounced. However, no matter how much I tried to reason leaving her alone while she was asleep in her bed, I couldn’t shake the pit of worry in my stomach.

“Thank you both for coming back so soon,” Dr Pear greeted with a small smile. “I know you wanted to get some rest, but this is rather important.”

“Yeah, what’s this about?” I asked, a little grumpily.

“First, let me ask you a simple question,” She began. “What do you intend to do, now that you know the truth behind your mechanical origins?”

I opened my mouth to respond but stopped and closed it. I was not expecting that question at all and it caught me off guard.

“And that is important because?” Fruity queried.

“Because your future could be painful,” The doctor replied flatly.

“I, um… honestly, I want to get as far away from here as possible. Away from all this shit. I got a daughter to think about now and I want her to grow up in as peaceful a place as possible,” I finally answered with conviction.

She just shook her head with a frown.

“What?” Fruity asked with annoyance as he flared his wings.

“You will never have a peaceful life, not while HE is alive and is able to send machine after machine after you. He knows you are alive, he wants you so he can finish what he started, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants,” Dr Pear said, her voice dripping with venom for the Colonel. “If you want to go gallivanting all over the wasteland, looking for a place to settle down, you’ll be spending the rest of your life looking over your shoulder for when the next robot will turn up to try and take a pop at you. Also remember that he has over nine hundred still in his vault.”

I blinked and felt a little intimidated by her response. There was such resentment in her voice. It also hurt that even now I couldn’t just leave with Fruity, Xian, and Nexus to begin a new life. We’d end up spending it living in constant fear and suspicion of those around us.

Fruity sighed. “Then what do you suggest we do then?”

“Simple. You destroy the Production Facility and everything in it.” Dr Pear spoke like it was the most obvious thing.

“You fucking what?” He gasped in surprise from the absurdity of her suggestion.

“Obviously you can’t attack the facility as you are. Your current weapons are not very effective against the machines, but I do know where you can find one that will be very effective indeed,” She said as she approached her terminal.

“I’m sorry but you gotta be absolutely of your nut to think we’ll willingly go to the Facility now that we know it’s full of robots that’ll likely kill us!” I said in outrage.

“Yeah, I’m with her on this. Sod that! Fuck going to a death trap with nearly a thousand robots. You can fuck that right off.” Fruity agreed.

“Even if we’d have to spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulder as you said, it’s better than walking into certain death.”

“You must understand, he will stop at nothing to…” Dr Pear tried to reason before I cut her off.

“I don’t care! We are not going to throw ourselves to the timberwolves like this for you, or for anypony. We are done here. First thing in the morning we are going to get as far away from here as possible!” I declared with a stomp of my hoof. I must have bypassed the strength regulator because I left a spiderweb of cracks on the tile floor where my hoof hit.

“Too right. Bollocks to all this crap,” Fruity agreed as we both turned and left the lab, making our way back towards our room.

“Who does she think she is, asking us to go to the Production Facility and destroy it? It’s like Princess Luna going up to Lord Tirek and saying, ‘Here I am, take my magic’,” I grumbled in a hideous impression of Princess Luna’s voice.

“Yeah, that is kinda messed up,” Fruity nodded along.

After a short walk back to our lodge room we came to the door. I raised my hoof to open it, but then stopped as something didn’t feel right. I could feel a cold draft blowing out from under it.

“Do you feel that?” I asked with rising concern.

“Yeah,” Fruity nodded, his wings flared.

The nervousness in my stomach increased to the point it felt like a lead weight was in my belly. I quickly grabbed the door knob and threw the door open, almost ripping it off its hinges at the same time. The room was quiet save for the sound of the howling wind from outside and the flapping of curtains. My attention was immediately drawn to the bed where I had left Xian. It was vacant. I flared my wings and immediately shot to the open window, bowling over Fruity as I shot passed him, and stuck my head out into the cold night air. I could barely see anything through the thick snowfall, but as I looked around I couldn’t see any signs that anypony had been here apart from a large indentation in the snow below the windowsill outside.

“XIAN!” I screamed in anguish as the realisation that my daughter was now missing hit home.

“How could this happen? Who would just take her and from outside to boot?” Fruity asked with an angry and confused scowl.

“Somepony with magic… Dr Pear… She knows something,” I growled as my sorrow turned to anger I then got up from the window and turned around. With a burst of speed from my wings, I shot out the door, down the hall, and burst through the Dr’s Lab door in a teal and orange blur.

“Ahh!” Umagon squealed in fright and whirled around to face me as I broke down the door.

“Crystal, what is the meaning of this?” Dr Pear asked in confusion.

“MY DAUGHTER IS MISSING!” I yelled in anger. “DID YOU KNOW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?!” I demanded as I advanced on her.

The robotic mare let out a defeated sigh as she looked up at Umagon. “So it’s true then? It was here?”

“It was here… WHAT WAS HERE?” I almost screamed. Fruity flew in through the broken door and enveloped me in a comforting embrace.

“Shh, calm down Crystal. You need to calm down,” He said soothingly.

Dr Pear sighed regrettably. “Before you arrived I had been tracking the whereabouts of Unit-3. When you entered the Marejave on the train it was waiting for you at the station, but when I contacted you to get you to come here, it began to make its way west.”

“You mean it was following us here?” Fruity asked.

“Yes, but I had long since taught the alicorns here what the Mana-Core’s energy signature that a Mark 2 uses felt like, since I am one myself, so they would have been able to sense it if one of Ironside’s machines ever came for here me. Therefore, I believed they would have been able to sense Unit-3 as it followed you up the mountain,” Dr Pear looked down and sighed. “Umagon had just informed me that a unicorn called Pixie Lulamoon had been let into the Sanctuary and same unicorn teleported away with something wrapped up in bedsheets.”

“If you taught the alicorns to sense for Mana-Cores, how the fuck did Unit-3 slip passed your sentries?” I demanded with an angry stomp of my hoof, cracking the tile floor again.

“I believe Unit-3 had been upgraded to a Unicorn model from what I’ve been told. This would give the machine access to unicorn magic so that it could use spells and give said spells an extra boost by using its own Mana-Core energy, as it is condensed magical energy.” Dr Pear sighed with a shake of her head. “I don’t know for sure how this machine evaded detection. The only thing I can theorise is that is was able to supress its Mana-Core signature.” She stopped, her eyes widening as she just realised something. “Of course. That is exactly what it did.”

“What do you mean?” Fruity asked.

“I mean, Mr Fruity, that it is very easy for the machine to have supressed its Mana-Core signature because the energy output is far larger than necessary for the machine in question. I know I don’t need to run my core at one hundred percent, so I’ve reduced its output to twenty percent. A Mark 2 can operate without doing anything too strenuous for its systems on five percent. So I believe it reduced its output to the bare minimum it could operate before it got here and played the part of the pony it was impersonating. When it came to scanning it for the energy signature, the unicorn magic it possessed masked the reduced Mana-Core, making the sentries at the gate believe Unit-3 was a normal unicorn,” Dr Pear explained quickly.

“So where is my daughter now, now that it teleported away with her?” I demanded.

“Hmmm. That was a strong teleportation, likely fuelled by its Mana-Core for very long distance,” Dr Pear sighed sadly. “I believe she is at the Production Facility right now.”

I immediately turned around and began to make my way for the door before Fruity bit my tail and stopped me.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Dr Pear asked.

“To save my daughter,” I answered as I tugged on my tail free.

“That is exactly what he wants. He is using her as bait to lure YOU to him,” She said with a raised voice.

“What a tosser,” Fruity grumbled.

“Why do you think I escaped him all those years ago? I knew he would try to use my daughter against me to get what he wanted, now he’s doing the exact same thing I knew he would do with you,” She growled.

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing!” I yelled.

“I know, but you can’t just charge head long in there because you will be giving him exactly what he wants, and you both will die for it.”

“What do you propose we do?” Fruity asked.

“Like I said earlier, you need to be prepared and I know of a weapon that will give you the edge you need.”

“Alright, and where is this weapon?” Fruity queried.

“In the forward cargo hold of the wreck of RMS Luna, or what is now known as Rust-Bucket City.”

“There is not a fucking hell’s chance I’m going all the way to the coast to get a special gun when my daughter is in danger,” I growled angrily.

“You won’t have to. Two green alicorns working together can use their magic to create a teleportation tunnel, or what we’ve dubbed a Phase Gate, which will let you jump instantaneously from here to there and back again. Also, to save you time,” She opened a drawer with her magic and pulled out a green keycard with the M.o.A insignia on it, along with a laminated card that had a numerical code printed on it. “These are the security cards for the weapon case in the ship’s hold.”

“So basically, we can be there and back in moments?” Fruity asked.

“Basically.”

“My foal has been foalnapped! I can’t just go gallivanting off on a fucking scavengers hunt!” I growled.

“Whoa, easy there Crystal. Calm it down a notch,” Fruity said soothingly while he rested his wing on my back.

“Yes, please try to remain calm. Your eyes just flashed orange. Extreme emotions are not a strong suit for Infiltrators like yourself,” Dr Pear added.

“O-orange?” I stuttered, surprised to hear my eyes had just flashed between colours.

At that moment Nexus entered the room, his body and armour having remnants of snow stuck in places.

“Where in the name of buggery have you been?” Fruity exclaimed in frustration for our formerly absent machine companion.

“Outside, sir. I had detected a familiar, albeit weak, energy signature and began tracking it,” He replied before he hung his head. “I’ve heard from other alicorns what has happened, and the energy I was tracking stopped at where that unicorn teleported out from.”

Dr Pear turned to her other creation. “Can you confirm that what you tracked was Unit-3?”

“Affirmative. Distinct energy pattern was weak, but present. Signature was identical to Units 1 and 2.”

“Then it is as I feared. Your foal is now likely in the hooves of Colonel Ironside, who will likely use her as bait for you.”

I began to breathe very heavily as a whirlwind of emotions battled for control inside my head. Fear, anger, anguish, panic; they all wanted to jump to the top. Fruity held me tightly, gently rocking me side to side while whispering sweet nothings in an attempt to keep me calm.

“Give me a few minutes while I find Tratos and her sister, then we can go into detail on what you need to do once at the ship.”

Fruity looked up at the robotic doctor. “Is it absolutely necessary that we get this gun?”

“Yes, because if you don’t, your chances of making out of the Production Facility alive will be zero,” She stated coldly, leaving no room for argument. She then left the room in search for the alicorns she mentioned.

“I can’t believe we can’t just go save her,” I whimpered.

“I know, I know. I want to go save her too but we gotta listen to her. She knows what we are to expect when we go there,” Fruity reasoned.

“She must be so scared,” I sobbed.

“I know but imagine how scared and heartbroken she would be if we went to save her, only to get captured or worse because we didn’t have the weapon we needed to defend ourselves,” Fruity said.

I looked up with tears in my eyes. I didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. Dr Pear was right. It pained me to agree that we needed to go and get this weapon, but if I got captured or worse, then little Xian was as good as dead. I didn’t want to leave her in the clutches of my enemy any longer than I had to, but at that moment I had no choice.

XXXXX

With a crack and a bright blue flash, Unit-3 disguised as Pixie Lulamoon materialised in the centre of the control room of the Production Facility, carrying a bundle wrapped up in a bed sheet in one foreleg. Once the mare regained her senses, she staggered and almost toppled over, as if she was exhausted. The illusion that covered her robotic body flickered periodically, and her posture mirrored her state as she slumped and her rear legs practically gave out on her.

“Warning, Secondary Powercell: Depleted!”
“Warning, Primary Powercell: Critical!”
“Warning, Magic Reserves: Critical!”

Pixie whimpered tiredly as she fought to remain standing with so little energy left in her system. She also let out a sigh of relief when the presence in the back of her consciousness left, giving her back full control of herself.

“Welcome back Unit-3. What do you have to report?” A deep voice asked from in front of her.

The mare eeped and almost collapsed from the fright, but righted herself when she remembered where she was and who addressed her. She gulped down her nervousness and presented the whimpering bundle once she pulled the sheets away enough to reveal a face. The face revealed was of a young filly zebra that the wireframe pony had become aware of traveling with I-01.

“I, um, present to you, um… b-bait for…Cry-err, I-01 s-sir,” She said lamely.

A sadistic grin grew on the wireframe pony’s face which made both the filly and Pixie shiver in discomfort.

“Excellent. Take her down to the living quarters and watch her Unit-3,” He ordered before his eyes shifted to something out of Pixie’s line of sight. “Unit-1000, time to prepare.”

The much larger machine stomped forward, its heavy metal hooves causing loud metallic clangs as they hit the concrete floor. Pixie, despite her low-powered state, jumped back in fright as she wasn’t aware of just how close the giant robot was to her. Unit-1000 stopped in its advance to the main console and turned its neck so it could look down upon the smaller machine as it shivered in its presence.

“You have been given an order Unit-03. Carry it out," Unit-1000 demanded before it resumed its walk to the console.

“Y-yes ma’am, r-right away,” Pixie stuttered as she slowly stumbled out of the control room and into a side door. From there, she made way to an elevator that would go down to the living quarters. Once Pixie arrived she quickly made her way to Dr Pear’s old quarters, as it was better suited for holding an organic specimen, and placed the bundle on the old bed.

“Warning, warning, Primary Powercell: Power Level at 3%!”

“Ohh, I… I need to rest,” Pixie moaned before she partially collapsed against the bed.

The sheets moved and the young filly popped her head up out of the sheets. She looked around fearfully with tears in her eyes that threatened to spill at any moment. The poor filly clearly showed signs of fear as she looked around frantically, trying to back pedal away when she saw the one that foalnapped her.

“It’s ok. I won’t hurt you,” Pixie said softly, despite her voice now becoming more like an electronic processed female voice as her power dropped too low. “I… I’m so sorry. I-I didn’t want to do this. I really didn’t, I, um, didn’t have a choice,” She croaked out as her illusion also began to form tears to mirror her own mood. “Please forgive me.”

XXXXX

“We shouldn’t be waiting around here sitting on our rumps and doing fuck all!” The voice in my head grumbled.

“I know, I want to just fly out there, break down their door, and get her back,” I replied mentally while we waited for Dr Pear to return with the alicorns that could help us.

“Then let’s go! Celestia only knows what he could be doing to your kid.”

“Trust me, I can’t stop envisioning the torture he’d be putting her through, but Fruity and Dr Pear are right,” I replied and sighed deeply. “I can’t help her if I’m dead.”

“You are a cyberpony. You got freaky super strength and not to mention my awesome flying skills and speed,” The voice argued back, sounding a little smug at the end regarding my new pegasus traits.

“Just who are you anyway?” I asked, now that the voice had identified itself to be part of my pegasus side.

The voice chose this moment to stop talking to me, however, because the door to the lab opened and Dr Pear walked in, soon followed by two green alicorns that looked almost identical to each other.

“So sorry for the wait,” Dr Pear began as she gestured to the two alicorns. “This is Tratos and her twin sister Oxanna. They will create the Phase Gate to Rust-Bucket City for you.”

The two alicorns gave a small nod to each of us before the taller of the two stepped forward.

“My name is Tratos. My sister will teleport to a dune a few hundred feet away from the city and then we’ll create the bridge,” She informed us.

“Why not teleport directly to the ship?” Fruity enquired.

“It will cause a panic. We lost an alicorn the last time one of them did that,” Dr Pear explained with a sorrowful look on her face.

“Ah, sorry,” The pegasus meekly apologised.

“If you are ready we shall begin,” Tratos said as she gave her sister a nod, who then disappeared in a bright flash.

“Now what happens?” Fruity asked as we waited.

“A trait that all green alicorns seem to share with their twin is that they possess a sort of telepathy with each other,” Dr Pear explained. “So when Oxanna is ready, she will let her sister know via this link they share so they can begin the spell.”

We nodded in understanding while I anxiously shuffled my hooves, eager to get a move on because I didn’t want to waste any more time.

The green alicorn gave a nod and then turned to a section of the wall that was largely. She lowered her long horn to point at the wall before it began to glow in a bright purple light. I could feel the energy the alicorn exerted and it seemed to affect the air pressure in the room with its power. As the glow from her horn brightened, a circle of energy appeared in the centre of the wall and began to expand. It grew and grew until the top and bottom of the circle almost touched the floor and ceiling. The swirling vortex of energy then flashed, and like a clearing sky, the magic cleared from the centre all the way to the edge to leave a donut of swirling magical energy. What was left behind was what looked like a window, and through this window we could see Tratos’s sister as she raised her head now that the spell had been completed. All around her was nothing but sand, and she was being illuminated by the early morning sun.

“Wow,” Fruity breathed out in amazement.

“Yeah, now can we hurry this along,” I grumbled impatiently.

“The gateway is open and stable. You may go through,” Tratos confirmed.

“Great,” I said and began for the portal.

“Crystal,” Dr Pear called out as she stopped me.

“Ugh, what?”

“Her eyes again,” I heard Fruity mumble to himself worriedly.

“I know that getting Xian back is your top priority right now, and that you want to do it as soon as possible, but please, calm down. Extreme emotions and their effects on cybernetics in the Mark 1 Unit are something I never got to research or fully develop while building you as you were the first, so I do not know what will happen if your emotions reach a certain level. If the emotion rule still applies to the magic you received from after your upgrade, then it might cause some unexpected results,” Dr Pear warned me.

“I don’t care. My daughter is in danger and I need to save her no matter the cost,” I growled. “What would you do if you were me?”

She closed her mouth and looked down. “Be careful is all I ask,” She sighed quietly, and with that I turned back to the portal.

“C’mon Fruity, Nexus. Let’s get this over with,” I grumbled as I began for the magic window.

“Oh right. Ask for Captain Avery, tell her I sent you. It should help get you to the weapon much smoother,” Dr Pear called to us as we began to enter the portal.

I gave the doctor, my creator, a wing flap of acknowledgement as I stepped into the reflective surface of the magic portal. The first thing that I thought of was the Crystal Empire as the effects of the magic washed over me. I felt cold all over as I began to push through the barrier, like walking through the barrier that protected the Empire and kept the city warm, holding back the artic weather of the Frozen North. It also felt like I was pushing through flowing water despite still being dry, for I could feel something flowing over me as I moved through the portal. Just as suddenly as it began, I felt the heat of the morning sun as we stepped out onto the dry sand of the Marejave Desert. We were at the foot of a large dune that obscured our view of what was in front of us, but the sound of waves told us we were very close to the sea.

“Welcome Miss Éclair, Mr Fruity, and Nexus,” Oxanna greeted us softly. Fruity groaned at being referred to as “Mr Fruity” because of how Nexus had taken to calling him that. “Rust-Bucket City is just over this dune.”

“Thank you,” I said as I gave a curt nod, quickly beginning to scale the dune.

“I shall wait here for your return,” The alicorn said as she sat down on her haunches while at the same time cutting off her magic to sustain the portal. It closed shortly after Nexus pulled himself out.

My hooves dug into the soft sands as I trudged up the side of the hill. I feared I would slip and fall with how often the sands would shift and my hooves would sink deeper into the sandy hill. But eventually, after some cursing and struggling, I made it to the top and gasped. I could see a large lagoon with almost flat, calm water; and in the middle of this lagoon, with at least a hundred feet of itself on the beach, was the wreck of the RMS Luna.

I remembered the old news footage from before the war. The Luna and her sister ship, the RMS Celestia, had caused some controversy because they were going to be two of the largest iron-made passenger vessels ever made in Equestria. They were also steam-powered, meaning that they would require coal. Since the country was rationing its coal supplies, as well as having a shortage at the time, it didn’t make much sense. However, I remembered a spokespony of Gold Star Line (the company that owned the ships) that was interviewed, who said that alternative fuel sources had been looked into to be used to heat the boilers and remove the need for coal.

The ship was still fairly large. Though not as big as her sister, it easily eclipsed the old sailing ships of the time. The Luna had unfortunately not survived the test of time, for the rear quarter of the ship had collapsed. The stern was gone, and all the hull and superstructure around the second class portion was bending down into the water. There was a gap between the first class and second class superstructures which separated the two classes, and in between was the aft mast. Because the second class superstructure was bending down, the mast had also moved further back slightly. The only other obvious piece of damage to the ship I could see from up on the dune was that the third funnel had fallen over onto the deck. I assumed it had happened recently because it was still there, and if the ship was a functioning city, then the citizens could have ripped it apart by now.

Toward the bow I noticed something that surprised me. The ship had two deck guns mounted on either side of her forward deck, just in front of the superstructure below the bridge. I supposed it made sense to arm the ship as it would have been a big symbol of Equestria during the war. There also seemed to be some sort of lift mounted to the forward deck above the anchor, similar to the window cleaner cradles on tall buildings. It seemed that that would be our way onto the ship.

“Woah, that looks incredible,” Fruity whistled in amazement.

“Yeah, it does look amazing,” I agreed. “C’mon we gotta get to the bow of the ship.”

I spread my wings, ready to glide down to the beach where the ship rested, but Fruity stopped me.

“Hang on. Maybe we should walk,” He cautioned. “If they killed an alicorn in a panic when she teleported onto the ship, they might shoot you just for flying nearby unannounced.”

I grumbled, but he had a good point. However, walking down the dune and around the lagoon would add time onto our expedition here, time we did not have.

“It’s no fun when you can’t go at full speed,” The voice said in my head with a groan as we began to trudge down the sandy hill.

It took us at least twenty minutes of struggling with the shifting sands before we were able to reach the sturdier, compressed sand of the beach. I still found it interesting how water could make sand either hard and mouldable or soft and runny. Traveling along the beach was a heck of a lot easier than on the dry shifting sands of the dune. The closer we got, the bigger the ship became and the more details that became clear. The hull from the beach, all the way to where it began to bend down from where it collapsed, was lined with multiple layers of scavenged sheets of metal. The metal appeared to be from anything like flat sheets to old road signs or even billboards, and at several points along the hull, I could see large thick steel beams that were fixed to the side of the hull, stretching up to at least the boat-deck. It would seem the residents had attempted to prolong the ship’s lifespan by reinforcing the hull.

Another detail we made out was a makeshift shack built on the beach by the bow, with a large archway next to it that held the name of the city, made entirely from scrap metal. The shack looked to be a security station, as it was right next to where the cradle would land when it was lowered. With my cybernetically enhanced vision, I could see a pair of earth ponies in what looked like Stable-Tec security armour by the shack.

As we got closer, a light suddenly shown down on us from the ship, alerting the two guards, who ran forward until they stood just in front of the arch. I raised a wing to block out the light and looked up at the bow, noticing that a spotlight had been fixed to the hull so it could shine down upon approaching visitors. While shielding my eyes from the light with my wing, I noticed the guards rear their necks back like they saw something they didn’t like, and then one of them looked up to the ship and waved a foreleg in a signalling gesture I didn’t understand. What I did understand though, was that after he signalled for whatever it was, my threat warning flared to life.

“What’s going on?” I squeaked in alarm.

“Holy horseapples, those guns work!” Fruity shrieked as his wings flared out in surprise.

Sure enough, the deck gun on the port side had turned and its barrel was now aimed down at us. By the looks of things, it couldn’t go any lower but one wrong move and we would be blown to high heaven regardless.

“Six inch naval armament, single barrel. They certainly have a good defence system installed for their town,” Nexus commented quietly.

“Don’t move zebra,” One of the guards spat as they approached.

“You got a lot of nerve coming back here,” The other growled.

Fruity stepped forward. “Woah guys, why the hostility?” He asked as calmly as he could while the huge gun was aimed at us.

“This doesn’t concern you, pegasus,” The first guard said while he kept his gaze on me.

“Hey Bronze Wire, since when do zebras have wings or dress up like this?” The other guard asked.

“…Now that you mention it, I’ve never seen a zebra quite like this one before, and I don’t recall any of those lunatics we’ve had to deal with having any grey stripes either, Shelldon,” Bronze Wire replied.

I lowered my wing but pulled my stetson forward so the brim could shield my eyes from the light. “I’m no danger to your town. We just need to see Captain Avery on behalf of Dr Pear,” I told them as Dr Pear suggested.

The two guards blinked in surprise at the mention of their captain’s name. “You know the Captain?” Bronze asked.

“No, but Dr Pear does. She told us to ask for Captain Avery upon arrival,” I explained.

“You know the doctor?” Shelldon asked, just as surprised.

“That’s right, she’s been a big help to us recently,” Fruity replied with a nod.

“Alright then, if the Doctor sent you then you can go aboard. Captain Avery will be in the Bridge on the top deck,” Bronze said before he turned around and signalled up to the forward deck with his foreleg again. This time the spotlight went out, the naval gun returned to its neutral position, and the boarding cradle began to lower.

“Oh, word of warning miss Zebra,” Bronze said in a serious tone. “Try not to annoy anypony or go anyplace you shouldn’t. Ponies here don’t like zebras all that much on the account of all the attacks this Illustrious Moon Tribe has been throwing at us lately.”

“Illustrious Moon Tribe!” I gasped. We had only heard about them as we travelled throughout New Pegasus and the surrounding area. Nothing we had heard had painted them in a positive light, and with our recent experience of rescuing Xian from Bonbon Springs, it only reinforced their bad reputation because they abandoned her there. She was just a defenceless filly and they left her there to die alone.

“Why on Equis would they attack such a huge and heavily armed ship like this for?” Fruity asked in complete puzzlement.

The guards shook their heads. “We haven’t a clue,” Shelldon sighed.

Once the cradle hit the docking platform at the bottom, we climbed in, and when all three of us were in, one of the guards pressed a red button on a control panel outside the cradle, and it began to rise up toward the deck. On the way up, I became aware that the ship’s orginal name was still on the side of the bow. It was just below the deck and behind the anchor, but was hard to see as time had stripped the lettering of their once gold paint, leaving behind the raised letters. The name was speckled with some bits of gold that still hung on and marred with over a century of grime, but as we rose towards the deck we could make out the letters that spelled out, “L U N A”.

The cradled soon reached the top, and a platform folded out automatically from the cradle and down to the forward deck to let us off. As we began to board the ship, there was another pony in guard armour standing there waiting for us.

“Welcome aboard Rust-Bucket City. My name is Sandshark. I am the Guard Captain, but you can call me Sandy for short,” The stallion greeted us in a welcoming manner.

“Um, hi, and thank you,” I greeted as we stepped onto the ship, a little surprised by his friendly nature. “I know we just met but can you take us to Captain Avery. It’s important we see her as soon as possible.”

“Wow, we just met the guy and you’re asking him to take us to the Captain. Can’t we get to know him a little?” Fruity whispered quietly to me.

Sandy nodded. “Of course, please follow me.” He turned and began to walk down the deck towards the superstructure. He wasn’t at all curious that we wanted to see the captain immediately. I wonder if he already knew.

“We don’t have time to dawdle Fruity. Do I need to remind you that Xian’s life is at stake here?” I almost growled quietly.

The purple pegasus sighed and his wings drooped. “Of course I know, but we can’t keep on worrying our tails off about it. It’s no good for any of us, especially you!”

“Sir is right,” Nexus chimed in.

“Who asked you?” I snapped with my wings flaring out as we began to follow Sandy. I quickly realised what I did and looked back to Nexus. “I’m sorry.”

“Do not worry about it ma’am. I completely understand,” Nexus said softly.

“This is really getting to you, isn’t it?” Fruity asked as he draped a wing over my back and gave me a reassuring squeeze.

I whimpered. “I feel so helpless. I’m here on a fucking errand while my daughter is in the clutches of a mad pony, most likely scared and alone,” I sniffed. “I want her back so bad.”

Fruity gently nuzzled my cheek. “So do I Crys. We’ll save her, don’t you worry about that.”

There was a metallic clunk in front of us, and then a squeak as a door was opened.

“To get to the Bridge we’ll need to go to the Market Place and take the stairs up one deck. That will put us on the Boat-Deck and then it will be a simple walk to the Bridge from there,” Sandy explained as he held the door open for us.

We nodded as we all entered the ship and into a corridor lined with doors at regular intervals. The corridor was mostly white but the carpet had once been a ruby red. It was decorated with wall lights that were stylish and made from brass that would’ve bathed the corridor in plenty of light, if the light fixture had a working bulb. While we walked down the corridor, I noticed there was another that branched off at a T-junction that connected to the corridor on the opposite side, and that each door had a number on it. This area was likely a living area since these rooms were once the LUNA’s First Class staterooms.

Sandy pushed open a pair of double doors at the end of the corridor for us, and when we entered the room on the other side, my mouth dropped open.

“Welcome to the Market Place,” Sandy announced.

The Market Place, what was once the ship’s Grand Stair Case, was exactly what it was called. Vendors of all varying types had makeshift stalls or stores built in the large space the stair case provided on its multiple decks, and there was a lot of activity already despite the early hour. Ponies were milling around, talking or browsing wares and vendors setting up for the day. The ship truly was a living city.

Shortly after we entered, I got a sense of hostility when ponies began to notice us, and that sense grew exponentially when the conversations seemed to stop and everypony stopped what they were doing and stared at us, or rather at me. My wings flared instinctively out of nervousness and I felt uneasy with everypony looking at us.

“This way, please,” Sandy said as he led us by some vendors near the faded wooden railing to the back of the large room, where the large white marble steps of the grand stairs met the deck. The whole deck we were on was made of black and white marble tiles; I dreaded to think of the cost of all this back before the war. The stairs were wide at the bottom and gradually grew narrower towards the midway point until it reached a landing where the stairs continued going up on either side to reach the next deck. On the wall facing the stairs were the remains of a large painting, faded to near nothingness over the near two centuries. Above that was a wooden plaque to tell the citizens of this ship which deck they were on. Apparently, we were on A-Deck, which was one of the top decks.

“Who let that conniving slag on board?” I heard a stallion whisper as we passed. I guess Fruity heard it too as I felt him bristle beside me.

“Haven’t security learned we can’t trust a Stripe?” A mare grumbled.

As we turned to begin walking up the stairs, my wings gave an involuntary flap.

“Somepony needs to put that zebra out of her misery. She’s all mutated and shit,” Another stallion said loudly.

Fruity growled and whirled around in the direction that comment came from. “You fucking what mate?!” He growled defensively, his wings flared threateningly.

“Fruity, it’s not worth it,” I sighed.

“Sir, as much as I would commend coming to your mare’s defence, picking a fight here would be a very bad idea,” Nexus said as he stepped in front of Fruity and levelled him with his stoic robotic red eyes.

“These tossers need to learn some bloody respect,” He harrumphed before he turned and followed us up the stairs to the Boat-Deck level.

“I’m sorry about the residents but I did warn you,” Sandy said as he made for a door that was close to the stairs.

We exited the door on the ship’s port side and were immediately blinded by the bright morning sunlight. Fruity and I had to shield our eyes with our wings until our eyes adjusted, but once we could see again and lowered our wings, the sight was quite breath taking. The clear blue water of the lagoon, the bright clear blue sky, and the golden desert sands all around us; it looked like a paradise in the wastes, or a perfect pre-war holiday destination. Sadly, the moment was ruined when we turned to begin walking up the deck towards the front of the ship, for the sight of rust, grime, rot riddled life-boats, and loose or dangling rigging cables made this ship an eyesore in a beautiful picturesque location.

The Boat-Deck was the ship’s top most deck, but it also housed the ship’s first-class activity rooms, as well as the officer quarters and the ship’s wireless communication system. We walked down the deck between life-boats and the metal wall as we approached the front. A gaze up gave us a good sight of the ship’s enormous funnels that stood above us by at least five stories, and the first funnel was billowing smoke. Ahead we could follow a path that would take us around the superstructure. We could also climb some stairs to a structure that sat higher up and had small chest-high walled sections that branched off and extended until they hanged over the side of the ship by a couple of feet.

“The Bridge is up these stairs,” Sandy said as he began to climb them with us close behind.

Once we reached the top, Sandy knocked on the door to the Bridge. It took a few seconds before the door opened to reveal a rather thin and lanky unicorn stallion wearing a sailor’s hat.

“I have some visitors for the Captain,” Sandy told the unicorn.

“The Captain is busy and does not want to be disturbed,” The unicorn replied in a bored tone.

Sandy gave the unicorn a flat look and a deadpan reply. “They are here on behalf of Dr Pear.”

The unicorn blinked before opening the door and stepping out of the way.

As we entered the Bridge, I was surprised with how well lit it was, until I noticed that the entire front wall was made up of large square windows that overlooked the bow of the ship. There was a large ornate wooden steering wheel mounted to a telemotor, and several telegraphs on either side in front of the windows.

There were a few ponies on the bridge, some looking over reports while others seemed to be looking at diagrams of the ship, while a couple more seemed to be standing around trying to look important. A mare no older than me with pearly white fur and her sea green mane pulled back and tied into a neat ponytail approached me. She was wearing a tri-pointed hat with a large red feather stuck in it, and a well-worn black coat with long tails that had the Gold Star Line insignia stitched onto the left shoulder, and on her chest was the name of the ship.

“Good morning, I am Captain Avery. How can I help you?” She asked softly while her deep blue eyes flicked between all three of us.

I was momentarily stunned that this young mare was the captain. Everypony else in the bridge was almost twice her age.

“Aren’t you a bit young to be a captain?” Fruity blurted out. If it wasn’t for my current mood I would have likely reprimanded him on his lack of tact.

“Technically I’m not, as this isn’t a sea worthy ship but more of a town, so I’m more of a mayor since our settlement is made out of the ship” She explained tiredly, almost as if she had to explain it numerous times.

“Oh, I get it!” I exclaimed when she finished her explanation. “Heh, oh-um, my name is Crystal Éclair. This is my coltfriend Fruity.”

“And this glorious hunk of junk is Nexus,” Fruity said with a smirk as he gestured to Nexus.

“A pleasure ma’am,” The machine greeted with a respectful nod of his head.

“Certainly an odd bunch we have here, but welcome aboard Rust-Bucket City,” The Captain said in a slightly perplexed tone.

“Sooo, anyway, we are here to retrieve something that is apparently on board this ship,” Fruity said to get us back on track.

I nodded. “Yes, a piece of equipment from the M.o.A that was being transported before the bombs fell. We have been supplied its keycard by Dr Pear.”

“A piece of… wait, are you talking about a big box that nopony has been able to open unless they have a specific key?” The Captain asked in surprise.

We gave a confirmative nod.

“There has been a recent development in the Marejave close to the New Pegasus region, which requires the acquisition of this device,” Nexus explained. I was surprised he told her the truth but was vague enough that he didn’t give anything away. “It is imperative we retrieve it immediately.”

“Very well, but may I see some proof of this first?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. “Not that I don’t trust friends of Dr Pear, but the attacks from the Illustrious Moon Tribe have left us all a little suspicious of newcomers.”

“What do you mean by that?” Fruity bristled.

“Long story short, we let some zebras from the tribe on board several years back. They seemed friendly enough and we had encountered them before, so we had no reason to distrust them. They looked around the ship and then left, but after a few days, we got attacked by a large group of black striped zebras.”

“No wonder your citizens were showing some hostility towards me,” I sighed.

“I’m sorry, but we’ve had to weather attacks from them for at least five years now. The only reason we’ve gathered from listening to them when they attack is that they believe there is a ‘holy weapon’ on board.” Avery shook her head. “Lunatics,” She said under her breath.

“Well, we just want to get this and go. We don’t want to waste your time or get in your way,” I said with a bit of urgency in my voice while I pulled out the keycard and security code we were supplied.

The Captain nodded as she checked the credentials before she walked over to the back wall where four devices were mounted. Each one had a sound horn in the middle, and on either side they each had a lever. Avery walked up to the middle right one, pushed its left lever up, and put her muzzle close to the sound horn. The lever also turned out to be a horn, and that’s when I realised the bank of devices was a ship wide communication system.

“Bridge calling Engineering,” She called into the phone. There was a pause before the Captain spoke again. “Can you come up to the Bridge please, Jet?” There was another pause before the Captain nodded. “Thank you, see you in a moment.” She then pulled the lever down and stepped away.

“The ship’s top engineer will be here soon. She knows this ship better than anypony and can easily take you to the cargo hold quickly and efficiently.”

We didn’t have to wait too long for this Jet to arrive. Shortly after the call, the door to the Starboard side opened and a nervous looking yellow unicorn with a fiery orange mane in a ponytail entered the bridge. She wasn’t wearing anything, so we could get a good look at her cutie mark: a blue flame, the type you see from a gas burner or blowtorch.

“Y-you wanted to, um, see me Captain?” The mare asked meekly.

Avery smiled warmly. “You do not need to worry Jet Blaze, you are not in trouble. In fact, I have a simple task for you.” She gestured with her hoof towards us. “Can you please escort our guests to the cargo hold. They have a key for something down there.”

Jet Blaze followed her Captain’s hoof and looked at us. Her eyes widened in surprise at seeing me and Fruity, possibly because we were both pegasi, and more importantly, that I was also a zebra. Thankfully, she didn’t show any signs of hostility for me. When she saw Nexus, however, her eyes grew twice as big and became star struck. She displayed a look of great excitement as she looked at Nexus, who in turn tilted his head in confusion at the unrecognisable show of emotion towards him.

“Oh my gosh, what an awesome robot!” She squeaked and quickly rushed up to him.

“Here we go again,” Avery sighed.

“What’s your name, what type of robot are you, who made you, what can you do, ohhhh tell me please!” She rapid fire questioned the surprised machine.

“Jet, cool your jets and calm down please. Now is not the time to get all googly eyed,” The captain chastised.

The young mare’s ears wilted and she stepped back out of Nexus’s personal space.

“S-sorry Captain,”

“Right, can you please take these ponies down to the cargo hold as quickly and as efficiently as possible?”

“Um, but it’s a real mess down there and waist deep in water.”

“Can you do it is what I’m asking?”

“Um, yes captain.”

“Good, now please escort them down to the holds.”

“Yes Captain,” Jet Blaze squeaked and then looked to us. “Um, err, p-please follow me.” She turned and walked to the starboard door. She then opened it and walked onto the bridge wing, waiting for us to join her.

Once we left the bridge, she gave us a nervous smile before we descended the stairs back down to the Boat-Deck and began to walk back along it towards the door to the Grand Stairs. As we walked along the deck, we noticed that on this side a couple of the rotten lifeboats were dangling from their davits as they had slipped from their cradles. We could also see the third funnel further down the length of the ship. It was almost collapsed flat from where it had fallen over on the Boat-Deck housing, while slightly retaining its oval shape with what lay on the Boat-Deck itself.

“We will take the Grand Stairs through the Market Place all the way down to D-Deck. It will be as far down as we can go quickly, but I can easily lead you down to the holds from there,” Jet Blaze explained as we entered the top level of the stairs again to the hostile murmurings of the citizens present.

“ATTENTION! THIS IS THE CAPTAIN SPEAKING!” A voice suddenly boomed over the PA system. “I have personally met the new visitors and I have deemed them trustworthy. Anypony caught interfering or harassing them will be punished accordingly. Thank you,”

“Well, that was loud,” I whined as I used the elbow of my wing to rub at my ear.

“That should help satisfy some of the ponies here, I hope,” Jet said as we entered A-Deck.

Everything went quiet as expected. I gave a nervous smile while we walked around to the stairs that would take us down, but thankfully there wasn’t anywhere near as much murmuring after the announcement. I could still feel an air of hostility though, even if it wasn’t as openly shown.

The stairs retained their style for A and B-Decks, while C-Deck looked similar but wasn’t as fancy. After that, they changed to more generic looking stairs as we moved down into D-Deck.

As we hit the bottom of the stairs on D-Deck, we found we had only two ways to go: a door on the starboard side or a door on the port side.

“So, which way?” I asked, eager to get moving.

“Um, t-this way please.” The nervous mare used her magic to open the port side door and we entered a long corridor that seemed to go the entire length of the ship. The corridor was labelled as the “Crewpony’s Passage” as, according to Jet Blaze, it once spun the length of the ship before the aft section collapsed. Once inside the corridor, we began to walk towards the bow of the ship, but as we did, a metallic groan filled the air.

Fruity’s wings snapped out as he looked around in alarm. “What in the flying fuck was that?”

“Just a stress groan. You hear them all the time in here, especially when you’re deep in the bowels of the ship,” Jet Blaze explained matter-of-factly.

“Have you never been on a ship before?” I asked Fruity.

“Of course, I’ve been on tons of ships… IN THE FUCKING SKY!” Fruity said sarcastically.

I blushed in embarrassment at forgetting Fruity wouldn’t have had access to such ships up there. Also, I highly doubted that the Enclave would have let him on any of those flying things we saw while on the train to Manehattan.

While we bickered, Jet Blazed slinked back with Nexus.

“Hi again! Ohhh, you are like, amazing!”

“Um, thank you Miss Blaze,” Nexus said, again taken aback by her excitement towards him.

“You certainly are no Ponytron, way too advanced. What are you?”

“I’m a…” He stopped as Fruity and I both gave him a look that told him not to tell her. “…a Series 4000 Mechanoid.” Thankfully, Jet Blaze didn’t seem to notice his momentary.

“Ohhh, I’ve never heard of one of those! Who made you?”

“I was a prototype service droid produced by Robronco.” There was a subtle twitch within his reply that would have easily been missed if you were not paying attention.

Fruity smirked and chuckled quietly to himself at that.

I looked from Nexus to Fruity a couple of times, as Fruity chuckled at the exact same moment Nexus told his second lie.

“You don’t have anything to do with this, do you?” I whispered.

“Hmm? Oh, I taught Ol’bucket Head how to lie,” Fruity replied with a proud smile. “Otherwise he’d have just told her exactly what he was.”

“Why in the name of Harmony would you teach him to lie?” I demanded, barely able to keep my voice above a whisper.

“It was a necessary thing to do. If he’s going to live among ponies now, he’ll need to know how to lie, as it’ll be an essential quality to have to make you more alive.”

I couldn’t help but smile and lean against the pegasus. “I knew you cared about him.” I giggled when Fruity started to sputter helplessly in trying to utter denials.

While working our way towards the front of the ship, I began to notice that there were steel girders or beams attached to the walls at regular intervals. When asked about them, Jet Blaze would tell us that they were reinforcement struts to help keep the ship stable. I supposed I could understand that since this ship was over two hundred years old now, and if the outside has had reinforcements and patching up, it was only natural that the inside also had some strengthening.

It was maybe a couple of minutes after we entered this passage that we came to an open door that led into a stairwell. The stairs going up led to crew quarters and other facilities dedicated to the crew. Only under the forward deck while going down would lead to the cargo hold and firepony’s passage. We could easily make it down to the deck below, but that was as far as we could go as the stairs to the holds had collapsed. At the bottom we could see the remains of the broken stairs and murky water.

“I was afraid of this,” Jet Blaze sighed. “I’m so sorry. No pony has had need to come to this area of the ship in months, so I haven’t been informed of any deterioration to any of its structure. Don’t worry, we can still get to the hold, but we have to detour back up to the Crewpony’s Passage and head down towards Boiler Room 8.”

“Argh, we don’t have time for this!” I growled in frustration.

Jet Blaze flinched back from my outburst.

“Crystal, calm down,” Fruity said as he rubbed at my withers with his wing. He then turned to Jet. “I’m sorry, she’s been through a lot lately, but we really can’t spare much time.”

“Um, ok, I’m sorry. Please follow me, I’ll try to be as quick as I can,” Jet whimpered as she led us back up to D-Deck and the Crewpony’s Passage, and down along its length. As we got about halfway towards the boiler room, the entire ship shuddered violently as a thunderous boom rocked the ship.

“What in the fuck was that!?” Fruity exclaimed as we nearly lost our balance from the violent shudder that followed.

“That sir, would be the ship’s six-inch gun firing,” Nexus pointed out.

“No shit, captain obvious,” Fruity grumbled.

“Why would they be firing the deck gun?” I asked in alarm.

Just as Jet Blaze opened her mouth to answer, an alert sounded from the ship’s PA system.

“Attention. All crew to battle stations. Illustrious Moon Tribe zebras spotted off the starboard bow, engage and deter. All citizens, please remain indoors and away from the windows until the situation has been resolved. Thank you.”

“Illustrious Moon, now? Oh no, we can’t get caught up in this,” I cried in despair.

“Please Jet, we need to get this device now and leave,” Fruity urged.

The young mare nodded, and we began to gallop down the corridor, almost falling over again as the ship shuddered from another violent quake from the ship’s gun. We quickly came to a steel door with a wheel in the middle, and after opening it we found that we had to descend a ladder into a very large, very dirty, and really hot room. The room’s interior was mostly taken up by the ship’s massive boilers that were keeping the ship stocked with steam. A quick observation told me that the steam from the boilers was being redirected somewhere else. Considering the aft section of the ship had collapsed, I supposed they have moved its steam turbine and power generation systems to the front. Unlike from the stairwell, which led to the bottom of the ship and into water, the boiler room was free of water.

“You shouldn’t be in here!” A pony down by the boilers yelled up at us.

“Sorry Foreman, we had to take the long way around. The stairs have gone,” Jet Blaze called back down while she led us along an elevated catwalk around the boilers, towards the bulkhead.

“What do you burn in these boilers?” Fruity asked as we rounded the tops of the boilers.

“We don’t burn anything really. It would seem the original builders knew of the controversial fuel method of this being a coal-fired vessel, so they adapted the boilers to take other fuel sources after a simple lining refit. Since we do not have any expendable or renewable combustible fuel sources, we opted to use one of the other fuel methods, and that was magical energy. The ship’s fuel sources were depleted when ponies settled in here, but after several scavenging expeditions for resources we soon found a hefty stash of Fire Opals. When I became Chief Engineer, I was informed about them and that what we have now is all that is left, but thankfully these opals can be recharged by a unicorn’s magic,” Jet explained with enthusiasm.

“Constant recharging will not do those opals any good, Miss Blaze,” Nexus calmly chastised.

The young mare sighed. “I know. I’ve already noticed that the time between recharging’s has decreased.” She shook her head. “But there is nothing else we can do unless our scavenging teams can find an alternate means of producing electricity for the ship.”

As we got to the door, Jet Blaze opened it and allowed us to enter a corridor that seemed to be two passageways in one, as we could see through the grated floor below us to the murky water below. There was a screech as Jet closed the door behind us, followed by another stress groan.

“Oh, it sounds so much worse down here,” Fruity moaned with a cringe from the sound of the echo.

As we began to walk up the corridor, I noticed how the floor was suspended from the ceiling by metal rods that connected to each of the metal floor segments. Each segment would bow slightly or groan as we all walked on them, which made my stomach drop with worry.

“There should be a spiral staircase up ahead,” Jet informed when another thunderous boom from the ship’s gun gave way to a violent shudder.

Worry filled my entire being when the corridor’s suspended floor began to bounce and creak. Seconds after the violent shudder, we all thought things were going to be ok until something popped. One of the support rods pulled through the floor form where it was holding the segment, revealing the washer and nut that had been below.

“Ah bollocks,” Fruity cursed as that rod failing was then like a zipper being undone.

With the strength of the floor compromised, combined with our weight, the zipper effect took hold and before we could react, the floor below us collapsed and we all fell nine feet into waist-deep, murky and stagnant sea water. Unfortunately, I hit the water harder than most, beside Nexus, and caused a mini-tsunami, along with a metallic clang when my butt hit the floor below the water.

After scrambling out of the water, and then almost getting washed away by the wave I caused, Jet Blaze looked towards me in confusion. She stared nervously before Nexus came out of the water next to me to make it look like we landed together and shook the water off his body. The confused look faded when she saw Nexus beside me, and I felt relief that her suspicion was off me.

“I hope I’m rust resistant,” He muttered.

“Maybe it’ll keep you quiet if you do,” Fruity snarked.

“Well, ugh,” Jet shivered from the water around us. “At least now we don’t need to go down the stairs.” She then lifted a hoof out of the murky water and pointed up ahead to a closed bulkhead door. “The holds will be up ahead through that door.”

“Finally, we can’t spare another moment,” I moaned with impatience.

Suddenly, there was a heavy bang against the door in front of us that made us pause.

“What in Equestria was that?” Fruity asked in surprise.

“It would seem something struck the door, sir,” Nexus pointed out, which made Fruity sigh and shoot the machine a flat look.

“You’re doing this on purpose now, aren’t you?”

“You hear that?” I asked when the sound of something making clicking sounds began to fill the air.

Jet Blaze narrowed her eyes in concentration as she tried to hear the sounds. I suppose I could hear it more clearly being mostly machine, and all but to Fruity and her, the clicking was muffled since it was coming from behind the bulkhead. As the young mare listened, her eyes slowly widened until a look of horror crept across her face.

“Oh no, we-we got Mirelurks,” She squeaked fearfully.

I opened my mouth ready to ask her something, when another heavy impact hit the door and water suddenly began to spray out from its edges.

“Why is there water shooting out of the door?” Fruity asked in shock.

“Damn it, I thought security said they cleared out all the Mirelurks the last time they got inside. Shit, if water is pouring out the door then that means the new Mirelurks have likely made a new breach in the hull, and now the compartment’s flooding,” Jet Blaze exclaimed.

There was another hit to the door, causing more water to pour from the gaps.

“Oh no. Hurry, we better get up the stairs before that door fails, otherwise we’ll have tons of water rushing in here and Celestia knows how many Mirelurks that’ll wanna eat your face!” The young mare exclaimed as we quickly began to wade through the water towards the spiral stairs that were off to the right around the corner.

“Fuck, water’s got into my plasma guns,” Fruity grumbled. “Can’t use these now until they dry out.”

“Oh no. I hope you got something else you can use, Mirelurks are hard to kill because of their hard shells,” Jet said as we made it to the short corridor next to the bulkhead.

“What are Mirelurks anyway?” I asked as we got into the corridor.

“You don’t know what a Mirelurk is?” She asked in surprise, like it was common knowledge or something.

“We’re pegasi, it’s not like we’re brought up on surface affairs up in the clouds,” Fruity snarked.

“Oh um, s-sorry, I, um, sorry.”

Suddenly, there was another heavy bang to the door, which then burst open with a heavy thud as the pressure of the water forced it open. A torrent of sea water began to roar down the corridor we were just in and quickly began to flood the corridor with the stairs.

“Quickly everypony. Back up to the catwalk,” Nexus said with urgency.

We quickly ran up the stairs back up to the catwalk. Next to us was the bulkhead with another sealed door, thankfully no water leaking through it, and down the other way was the catwalk that we fell through earlier. Below us, we could see the area was filling up water and it had already risen to twice the depth it was at before. While we were looking down at the rushing water below, a large brown, diamond-shaped object floated along. By the shape and texture of the object, it wasn’t a piece of wood or debris, and it also had barnacles on it which suggested it was some form of sea life.

“What was that?” Fruity asked after he noticed the brown thing float by below. He then quickly whirled around on Nexus and jabbed him with his hoof. “Don’t you say a word.”

Nexus put a hoof to his chest. “I wasn’t going to say anything, Sir.”

“Judging by the size of its shell, I would say that was a Mirelurk Razorclaw. We should avoid that if we can. Those things have enough power in their claws to cut an average pony in half,” Jet cautioned.

The water seemed to stop rising a mere foot below the catwalk, which was good. It meant that the water in the compartments had equalised and now we could continue.

Jet Blaze used her magic to grasp the release wheel on the bulkhead door and grunted with effort as she tried to turn the wheel.

“Ugh, it’s jammed,” She whined, and with a huff and a puff, she released her hold on the rust-coated wheel.

I was about to step up before I turned to Nexus. “Nexus, can you give it a go please?” I asked him.

“Certainly, ma’am.” He then approached the door and grasped the wheel with his forehooves.

The metal groaned as the locking arms slowly began to move as the machine exerted his superior robotic strength onto the wheel. With a screech the locks disengaged, and the door was released, but we still had to open it. It would seem being in a flooded compartment had corroded the metal enough to almost rust it shut. Thankfully, with Nexus we were able to force the door open with a loud, straining screech.

The door opened to reveal a large open space with mesh fences to act as dividing walls. It looked like each side was split into three storage compartments, and each mesh fence compartment housed several crates which were in various stages of deterioration. The water level seemed to get gradually shallower towards the front of the ship where it sat higher on the beach.

“This is Cargo Hold 1. Where is it you need to go again?” Jet asked as we entered the first cargo hold.

I looked at the small piece of documentation regarding the weapon and its transportation detail to find where it would be. “Um, Hold 2, Block 4.”

“So where’s that?” Fruity asked while he looked over the catwalk.

“That would be in the next Cargo Hold beyond the bulkhead up ahead. Your device will be in the first holding pen on the starboard side,” The young mare answered.

“Alright then, let’s get a move on.” I quickly began to trot towards the next bulkhead.

“Whoa, slow down. This compartment had a Mirelurk in it, there could be more,” Jet Blaze warned.

And sure enough, in my haste to get what we came for, I alerted another one of those crab monsters and it burst up out of the water, making me jump back in fright. It looked up at me from below the catwalk and thrust its large pincer claw into the corroded metal, piercing right through on its first strike.

“Holy shit!” I squeaked.

“I can’t shoot the bastard while my battlesaddle is all waterlogged,” Fruity complained.

“My revolver won’t pierce that thing’s shell either.”

“Do not threat sir and ma’am. I will handle this,” Nexus said as he approached the railing of the catwalk.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Freak-face,” Fruity warned as he put himself in front of Blaze protectively.

Nexus waited for the Mirelurk (which appeared to be all green in colour) to move out from below the catwalk, and when it did, he jumped over the railing and down on top of the mutated crab. The creature reacted quickly and reached up with its large claws, grabbing Nexus’s forelegs with each of its large pincers, but the machine’s heavy weight pulled it down into the water again. I gasped in shock at the unexpected development, especially when the monster resurfaced with Nexus hanging by his forelegs in its claws, now having gotten used to his weight.

“Nexus!” I cried in alarm.

I could see another pair of much smaller pincers on the creature’s torso. They seemed to be trying to pinch at the machine’s armour while it had him suspended, but they were not getting through.

“Damn it, chromedome,” Fruity whined as he looked around for something to use as a weapon.

Suddenly, Nexus pulled his rear end up and kicked out with his hind legs, kicking the crab in the face with a boot-covered hoof. The creature let out a burbling cry and dropped Nexus, who then landed on his hooves. The Mirelurk recovered quickly and swung a pincer down at Nexus’s neck to decapitate him, but he ducked under it, came up quickly with an uppercut, and clocked the creature again in the face which made it stagger back on its four legs. The green-shelled Mirelurk made a pitiful whimpering sound as it looked at Nexus, a large crack now visible on the shell across its face.

“Wow, so cool! He’s beating a Mirelurk all by himself with his bare hooves!” Jet Blaze gushed at watching the infiltrator use his cybernetic strength to overwhelm his enemy.

“Finish it, Nexus!” I called down to him.

The machine nodded to us as he approached the injured Mirelurk, which was now trying to back away from the machine. Nexus didn’t let it escape as he quickly closed the gap and threw a hoof punch towards the crack in the creature’s face. The Mirelurk raised its pincers to block the attack and Nexus was forced to grab a hold of one of the pincer arms. He then twisted his forelegs around the pincer arm and began to pull as he tried to disarm the creature. The crab monster let out a painful shriek when Nexus kicked at the joint in the arm with a hind hoof while he was pulling on it, which caused the arm to break in two. The crab screeched and shrieked in pain as Nexus yanked its broken claw arm away, but this gave him the opening he needed. While he had hold of the pincer, he turned it around and thrust it into the creature’s damaged face. The Mirelurk’s face split in half as the claws tore through the broken shell and into its brain. The Mirelurk let out one last gurgle before it toppled over onto its side, dead with its own severed pincer arm lodged into its face.

“Threat eliminated,” Nexus said with a hint of pride.

“While you’re not doing anything, go close the bulkhead door so that other one doesn’t come looking for its friend,” Fruity said with a hint of sarcasm while he pointed down the way we came.

“Yes sir,” Nexus replied as he trudged through the water towards the burst bulkhead.

While he was doing that, we found some stairs that got us down to the bottom of the ship. The water was chest deep and the floor was covered in sediment, but the closer to the bow we got, the shallower it became. We heard a soft metallic groan and looked down towards the way we came and saw the top of the bulkhead door close. It was deep enough back there that Nexus was submerged while he pulled the door closed.

“Good thing he don’t need air,” Fruity commented.

Suddenly, a metal pole poked out of the water before it got wedged against the door frame, and then Nexus’s head soon emerged from the water as he made his way back towards us.

“I had to wedge a metal bar into the release wheel since the door was buckled,” Nexus explained as he rejoined us.

“Did you see the other Mirelurk in there?” Jet Blaze asked.

“Yes ma’am. It was idly floating in the deeper portion of the other compartment. It didn’t notice me.” This answer made Jet smile. I think just the fact the machine was talking to her was making her happy.

“Hey, that bulkhead door up ahead is ajar,” Fruity pointed out.

Sure enough, the door up ahead was slightly open. I felt anxious and slightly excited to finally get this over with. The only thing on my mind was getting this so we could rescue Xian. I again began to push on towards the door.

“Oh, she’s off again,” Fruity groaned. “Oi, get your plot back here.”

“The longer we take, the more chance that asshole will likely hurt Xian,” I growled.

“Did her mane just… what’s going on?” Jet Blaze asked in surprise.

“Magical energy readings are at their highest I’ve felt from her. Her Pegasus magic is radiating strongly,” Nexus said, just as surprised.

“Crystal, calm down please. We will get the Pulse Wave Emitter and go save our daughter, but we can’t do that if you let your emotions run wild,” Fruity said softly as he approached me. “Please.”

“Ok, ok. I’m sorry,” I whimpered. I took several deep breaths to help calm myself down and settle my nerves. We were so clos now. I could hold it together a little longer.

“I should get a hold of Security after this and tell them Mirelurks are getting back inside. I should also get a team together, so we can find and patch the breach they are using to get inside,” Jet Blaze thought out loud, to try and get our minds off what our real problem was.

The ship made another horrifically loud groan, which down in the hold sounded like a death groan as the old metal almost felt like it could shatter at any moment.

“I need to get off this ship,” Fruity whined. “These sounds are freaking me out.”

“Once you’ve lived here for a few years, you get used to it,” Jet smiled as we began to approach the ajar bulkhead door that led into Cargo Hold 2.

Nexus stepped ahead of us as he gripped the door and pulled it open with his robotic strength. The door screeched loudly as its rusty hinges were forced to move. Once open, we cautiously stepped inside with Nexus in front.

“It’s clear,” Nexus called back to us.

“What you are after is in this holding pen,” Jet announced as she gestured to a mesh-fenced section to the right of us. The mesh gate had come off its hinges and lay in the shallow water. Inside the cargo section were numerous crates, some wooden which were rotten to fuck, and metal containers which were also in various states of corrosion. However, there was one box that stood out to us: a military green box at the bottom of a pile of wooden crates that had the markings of the M.o.A on the side and had an interface that was active.

“Alright, let’s do this,” Fruity said as we approached the crate.

I nodded and took out the security card while Fruity used the documentation to input its authorisation code. Once the code was inputted and verified by the interface, I then swiped the card into the card reader. The red light blinked several times before it flashed green, and with a beep and a hiss, the crate split open and revealed its contents.

An internal section raised up the weapon for us. Sitting on the cradle was a weapon I would have said was something out of a science fiction movie, as it looked like an alien ray gun you would likely see in such a thing. It was silver in colour, mouth-operated, had copper coils around the main body next to the mouth trigger, a silver cylindrical main body with two sets of diodes on either side, and a smooth barrel that ended at a large flared dish like muzzle.

“Weapon identified. Pulse Wave Emitter.

Weapon designed as response to Disruption Weapon technology. Weapon fires electrically charged blasts, capable of shorting out power armour and other mechanical devices. If emitter frequency is changed from default and to one of several pre-sets, weapon would be capable of causing fire damage, concussive, and more.”

“Hey, are you ok? You kinda spaced out on us there,” Fruity asked after he shook me.

I shook my head. “Ugh, yeah, uhh, my electronic brain decided to do that thing again when I saw the Pulse Wave Emitter.”

“Ah ok, well let’s take it and go.” Fruity stepped up to the crate and used a wing to grab the weapon. As soon as the weapon was in his grasp there was an electronic screech from a speaker.

“Attention. This is Captain Avery. Zebra attack has been repelled, I repeat, Zebra attack has been repelled, and all citizens are free to resume your daily activities. All guards please remain at your posts until further notice. Thank you.”

“Celestia almighty!” Fruity yelled as he jumped. “Was she just waiting for me to pick that up to announce that? That scared the living tartarus out of me.”

“Alright, job done. Now let’s go, we can’t afford to waste any more time,” I grumbled.

Fruity nodded. “Ok Jet, we need to get topside ASAP.”

“Alright, we will have to go back the way we came but at least we know a direct route now,” She said as we all turned around to backtrack.

Thankfully, backtracking through the holds and through the boiler room didn’t take too long at all, and the Mirelurk didn’t seem interested in us at all despite the catwalk being a foot underwater towards the bulkhead door to the boiler room. We had to be extremely quick getting through the door, as water would start pouring into the boiler room again. Luckily, the small amount of water that got in would easily be dealt with. After that, we quickly made our way to the Crewpony’s Passage.

We entered the long corridor to a surprise. Stood several feet down the corridor towards aft were four black striped zebras in red cloaks. Each of the zebras were also adorned in numerous gold rings around their forelegs, necks or dangling from their ears, and each one looked surprised to see us.

“What the fuck!? How did they get in here?” Fruity exclaimed.

“Eep! Illustrious Moon,” Jet Blaze whimpered.

The Illustrious Moon Zebras looked at us in shock, their eyes flicked from me, to Nexus, and to Fruity; or more specifically, his wing where he had the emitter tucked safely under it.

“Two artificials and they have the Holy Weapon,” One of them exclaimed, a zebra mare.

“We must report this to the elder,” A zebra stallion suggested.

“We are not equipped to combat the artificials. Retreat, the elder must know,” Another stallion confirmed.

“You ain’t going nowhere,” Fruity threatened. Before any of us could act to stop them, however, one of them threw something at the floor which caused an explosion of smoke. We coughed and sputtered as the smoke swept over us, but when it cleared the four zebras were gone.

“How the fuck?” I coughed out when I saw that they were nowhere to be seen.

“Smoke screen, used to hide their retreat while using their stealth cloaks to evade detection,” Nexus said.

“Captain Obvious, shut up,” Fruity griped.

“How did they get in here anyway. I thought the attack had been repelled?” I asked.

“They um, must have got in through the, um, wrecked section of the ship,” Jet Blaze suggested. We nodded as it sounded plausible.

“The attack was possibly a distraction to allow an infiltration team to slip in undetected for the Pulse Wave Emitter,” Nexus added his opinion.

“We better let the captain know before we make ourselves scarce,” Fruity suggested, which made me internally groan in frustration.

As we began to make our way back up the decks towards the bridge, something from our encounter began to eat at me. I turned to Fruity as we began to climb the Grand Stairs.

“How did they know what I was? We haven’t encountered any Illustrious Moon zebras before,” I whispered to him.

Fruity blinked as he thought. “Good question. I was wondering that myself. Hmm.” We started to enter the market area again of the Grand Stairs where the citizens had begun to resume their daily lives. “The only thing I can think of is that they must have seen you damaged at some point while we were unaware of them.”

It made sense. We have been in the Marejave longer than the Manehattan region, and the zebras of the tribe would likely know the area far better and could have seen me at any time. I just hoped they wouldn’t start doing what Colonel Ironside was doing to me right now.

After we left the Grand Stairs with only a few insults and accusations of bringing the zebra attack, we made our way to the bridge and were greeted by Captain Avery as she stood on the bridge wing overlooking the forward deck and its two guns.

“Ah, welcome back. Were you successful in your search?”

“Yes, but we have something more important to tell you,” I started while my wings twitched with irritation.

“Yeah, we ran into a group of Illustrious Moon zebras down there,” Fruity continued. “They must have snuck aboard during the attack by the ruined part of the ship.”

“That is a problem. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I will get in touch with security and see if anything can be done to monitor the uninhabitable section,” The captain thanked us with a grateful nod.

“Since we have what they came for, maybe they will stop attacking you now,” Fruity suggested before he turned to Jet Blaze. “Thanks for the help.”

“Oh, um, thank you,” She smiled with a blush.

“Yes, thank you Miss Blaze. You were an immense help,” Nexus complimented, which made the young mare smile brightly.

“Um, yea, thanks… Can we go now?” I moaned, my patience now at an all-time low.

“Yeah, we should go now. Thank you for this. This device will be a big help for us,” Fruity said as we turned to leave.

“You are welcome, and please give my regards to Dr Pear,” Captain Avery said with a wave as we walked down the steps.

After again backtracking through the Grand Stairs, through the First-Class Cabins and back onto the Forward Deck, we took the lift down to the beach. It was mid-afternoon by the time we met up again with Oxanna, who was sat at the top of a dune that overlooked the lagoon.

“Ah, welcome back. I see you were successful. Are you ready to return?” She asked when she noticed us.

“Yes, we are so ready,” I said, very eager to get back so we could get to the facility.

“Very well. Just a moment, please.” She closed her eyes. After a few seconds she nodded, and her horn blazed to life. “Please stand back,” She warned as she begun the spell. Within moments, a disc of energy materialised before us. The swirling purple magic then pulled back to reveal the front of the ski lodge with Dr Pear standing in front of the doors. “It is ready.”

“Thank you,” I said, and without any further delays I walked through the portal. I cringed at the unpleasantness of passing through the barrier, but it only lasted for a few seconds, and before I knew it I was back in the cold air of Mt Coltson in the Alicorn Sanctuary.

“Alright doc, we got it. Now what?” Fruity said with a shiver after he passed through the portal after me.

“We can’t wait any longer Fruity. We got the weapon, now let’s go!” I growled, my patience now gone. I flared my wings, and with a powerful beat I sped up into the air and began to propel myself as fast as equinely possible towards the Production Facility.

“Crystal wait… Shit!” Fruity shouted after me.

XXXXX

“This is not good,” Dr Pear said in alarm. “You better get after her and stop her.”

“Fuck, just what the hell has gotten into her today?” Fruity whined as he fanned out his wings in preparation for flight.

“She cannot enter the Facility alone. You CAN NOT let that happen.”

“What?” The Pegasus stallion asked, caught a little off guard by the seriousness of the cybernetic doctor’s warning.

“If she enters the Production Facility alone than all is lost.” Dr Pear prodded Fruity in the chest to drive her point home. “Inside the facility, he doesn’t need her alive. He will kill her and harvest her body for my spell. NOW GET GOING!”

“Y-yes ma’am,” Fruity squeaked in shock and fear for his fillyfriend. He quickly beat his wings and shot up after her, following the teal and golden orange contrail left behind by the mare.

Dr Pear watched as the two pegasi disappeared from view and let out a heavy sigh. “Please catch her Fruity. He can’t win, or all of Equestria will fall to a cybernetic future with no will.” After another moment, she realised there was still another member of Crystal’s group still there with her: the machine that had joined them after once being sent to hunt them down.

“Nexus?” She blinked in confusion as the Infiltrator stepped up to her.

“Is there a way to get to the facility ahead of them?” He asked, a hint of worry in his strong voice.

Dr Pear thought for a moment until she noticed that both Tratos and Oxanna were still there. “Yes, the Phase Gate, but we must act quickly.” The robotic mare then turned to the two alicorns. “We need a Gate to the Production Facility ASAP,”

-Meanwhile in the skies above the Marejave Wasteland-

The purple pegasus stallion huffed and puffed as he pushed himself to his absolute limit to catch up with his speedy fillyfriend. His wings burned and ached as he finally managed to pull up alongside her after they passed over what used to be the industrial district of Las Pegasus.

“Crystal, we need to stop!” Fruity shouted over the wind.

“No! Xian needs me! I can’t abandon her and leave her to die!” The pegasus zebra shouted back, her eyes a blazing orange.

Shortly after that declaration, Crystal began to accelerate and pull ahead of the struggling purple pegasus stallion.

“Oh, come on!” Fruity whined as his fillyfriend started to pull away. “Crystal, you’ll be heading into a trap!”

His warning fell on deaf ears as she continued to gain speed while sparks of electricity began to spark off her in random spurts.

“What’s going on?” Fruity asked himself as he began to witness a change. While more sparks began to dance around her like an aura, her mane and tail from the roots to the tips changed to a golden orange colour and her speed increased even more.

“I can’t keep up. Fuck, you fat bastard this is what happens when you get obsessed with Mutfruit,” Fruity chided himself.

Suddenly, the air began to crackle loudly. As he looked up to see Crystal as she pulled away, he saw the formation of a mach cone form around her.

“No way,” He gasped. “Just who’s magic was she fused with?”

The cone grew thinner and thinner until with a powerful burst of light and sound, there was an explosion and Crystal disappeared across the horizon in a burst of lightning. Fruity felt a shockwave crash into him and sent him tumbling through the air and towards the ground. By the time he finally managed to regain control, Crystal was gone, and an expanding ring of lightning and thunder clouds were all that he could see.

“Did she just do a Sonic Lightboom?” He asked himself in amazed bafflement.

Comments

[Wildfiretiremile]

GASPS NEW CHAPTER YAY!

[TitaniumTao]

Wow she just killed herself, her child and maybe everyone else. She's charging into a fortified bunker, filled with a unknown amount of cyber-enhanced killing machines, traps, and kill boxes by-herself. She has a weapon that she doesn't even know how to use well, and her foe has a hostage which to force her to surrender. Really if she gets their within earshot it's all over.

[Lex the Pikachu]

8935459
then at least it will still take her a little time to get there since the Facility is on the other side the region.

[Tanis]

Is anyone else here, also hoping that Pixie/Unit-03 survives this? She's becoming quite interesting to watch. She's probably the best evidence yet, that while the Colonel's use of Neural processors in these infiltrators, was inspired; they actually work too well (doubly so with the memory copying function), these infiltrators keep developing independence, which is a real problem for the Colonel's plans. even Unit-1000 is showing early traces of independent thought; though only time will tell if that turns out to be a good thing.

[Goggles5150]

Awesome chapter!!!

[Tempestus]

8936664
I am hoping it will be good

[Alicon Glactistar]

Lightning Dust.

[jen_lee_hattie]

Well this is getting fun hope you make more of this.

[Lex the Pikachu]

9133026
19 is almost ready

[platogkrone]

8936664
I'm more worried about the real Pixie Lulamoon.

[Tanis]

9815294
The follow up story clarifies what happens to the original Pixie.

[Asolem2]

“Why on Equis would they attack such a huge and heavily armed ship like this for?” Fruity asked in complete puzzlement.

There is probably an interesting reason

[Asolem2]

“Two artificials and they have the Holy Weapon,” One of them exclaimed, a zebra mare.

Interesting indeed, "Holy weapon" huh