Chapter 16: A Little Deeper (292 AE)
For all the different ways Lonely Day had died, what happened after was always the same. She drifted in timeless space, felt forces tugging her towards the gulf that would terminate her existence, then turned away and returned to her body instead.
This time was different. As Archive drifted back towards Earth, she passed through boiling clouds and roiling storms and found she was not alone.
“It’s about time you died. Baconhead made it seem like a good death was part of your morning routine.”
Archive had no body and could not observe the being she heard, yet she recognized the voice easily. Discord. She didn’t actually see him, nor did she have any way of responding to what he had said. She had no mouth to scream.
“I’m supposed to help you,” the voice said, in a tone that suggested just how likely that was. “So here’s as much help as I’m willing to give. Any more, and it wouldn’t be any fun.” Pause, ground rushing towards her. She dimly recognized Motherlode, as it must appear from the sky. Forests sprouting all around it. “Remember what I taught you: an Alicorn is the Equestrian solution to balancing an unstable system. It has three parts: unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony.”
“You are not a balanced system. Oh sure, you’ve memorized all the unicorn spells, and pretended like you could write your own. But what about the third part? You’re hopeless. Bringing yourself into balance is not the only step… but it’s the only one I’m going to help you take.” His voice changed to laughter. “Good luck, my spell will only work once. Don’t die again.”
She landed.
Her whole body burned with pain, though the worst of it was in her chest and back. The air was cool and damp, but not too wet or too cold. Alex twisted a little, finding her back rested on cold stone. She let the pins-and-needles come and go to each of her limbs, twitching and kicking at all the right moments to help coax the sensation out.
There was absolute blackness around her, unbroken by ray of sunlight or even flicker of stars. The silence was almost as complete, though a single distant drip-drip of water broke it every second or so. Just as well, Alex was fiercely thirsty.
She was still wearing her jumpsuit, though there were holes in the front where high-caliber bullets had pierced her chest and killed her. The fabric was stiff there, and smelled slightly of decay. Getting out of the jumpsuit was Archive’s first task. She had no need for damp, bloody fabric clinging to her and sapping her heat.
The pain faded everywhere but her back, where crushing pain still flared whenever she tried to move. What had made her so tender? It wouldn’t matter what they had done to her body after she died, she always came back brand-new.
What had Discord’s words meant?
Archive’s thirst burned at her throat, but the need to know was even greater. The zipper of her jumpsuit was wrecked, so she had to half-rip her way out. This task was not as easy as she expected. Deep in the womb of the earth, her racial magic should’ve been burning strong enough to tear through Kevlar, nevermind denim. As in the moment just before her death, Earth’s magic simply would not come. Archive had to work feverishly at the binding, working the zipper apart with persistent motion. Only then could she clamber out, and discover why her back hurt so much.
She could not see what removing the jumpsuit revealed, for of course there was no light. Even so, she could reach up and feel twitching muscles that shouldn’t have existed but that she wasn’t surprised to find after all she had felt while struggling.
Limbs met her back that hadn’t been there, that shouldn’t have been there. Each wing extended slightly longer than a leg, covered in waxy feathers only slightly dirtied by all the time she spent on the ground. It took some concentration to move either one, yet by reaching up with a hoof she could trigger feelings she could then use to move them.
Lonely Day had wings.
Lonely Day was a pegasus.
She knew this after a surge of hope flooded her chest, and she reached for her forehead… but there was no horn there. She formed a basic illumination spell in her mind, and there was as little response as ever.
So Discord hadn’t made her into an Alicorn. As wonderful as that would’ve been for him to have fixed all her problems, it also would’ve been outside the actions she expected.
No, this fit him much better. Sending a spell that would change her into a pegasus when she was underground and couldn’t use any of her new powers seemed exactly like the being Equestria’s books described.
Alex didn’t need to search to figure out where she must’ve been. They had dumped her “body” in the mine.
She stumbled towards the sound of dripping water, watching her step in case there were drops she couldn’t see. She was afraid that there might be other dead in here with her, as though the mine might’ve been the usual place to dump troublemakers and discontents. She found none. If there were other dead ponies here, they had put them far enough away that she didn’t have to know. Little mercies.
She made it to the water after ten minutes or so of groping through the pitch blackness, where water dripped off the cold face of the mountain. There was a puddle on the ground, a fairly wide area wet enough to stay moist under her hooves. Alex found the drop and stood under it for a long time, letting the water fall into her open mouth. It tasted like minerals, but at least it wasn’t brackish.
“So… just how screwed am I?” she asked the cave. It didn’t respond. She sat down on the nearest patch of dry stone, casting about with her will. “Keeper, can you hear me?” The Keeper of Earth got annoyed whenever Archive bothered her, but she also owed her for her help and would’ve been able to easily direct her to safety.
Unfortunately, she did not respond. Archive’s connection had been as much a matter of her tribe as her office, and now that her magic was gone… “I wonder if there’s a pegasus version, maybe… maybe a sky spirit?” Again, the empty mineshaft did not offer her an answer. Her voice echoed in the total silence, and not even a bat replied.
A bat would’ve meant a nearby way out.
Alex whimpered as the weight of her dismal prospects began to press on her. She couldn’t die, not forever. If her body was destroyed or eaten, she could reform somewhere else. But in here, she had no way of doing either. Was she doomed to starve to death over and over again, until she went completely insane?
She drifted out of simple consciousness then, overwhelmed by the hopelessness of her cause. The mineshaft might’ve been sealed behind her. It might have numerous drops that took ladders to climb. It might have more tunnels than she could map. Worse, she had no lights, no food, and no hope.
She couldn’t have said how long she sat there. It might’ve been minutes, might’ve been hours, or might’ve been days. She had nothing she could use to measure time. Even the dripping wasn’t regular enough to be sure.
What eventually roused her from her reverie was nothing external. Rather, it was a voice. A voice from within her mind. “Calm down, Alex,” the voice said.
“S-Sky?”
“Shh,” whispered Cloudy Skies into her ear. “You’re not going to wallow like that. I won’t let you.”
“Have you come from… from wherever it is ponies go after they die? Are you going to tell me the way out?”
There was no glowing figure, no touch on her shoulder, nothing but the voice. “I’m not real.” She almost sounded sad about it. “You’re hallucinating. Something in the water maybe, or some side effect of coming back to life. You always come back overflowing with magic, but a pegasus can’t use it underground.” It sounded almost like a mental shrug. “I can’t tell you which, because you don’t know.”
“You’re too kind.” Alex’s voice was bitter. “It doesn’t have to be something that systemic. It’s not like I was some beacon of sanity to begin with. This last was just one too many. I’ve lost it.”
“No. Absolutely not. You’re not insane, Lonely Day. You’re perfectly sane, and you’re going to get out of this.”
“How?” Alex rose to her hooves again, walking back the way she had come. She had to move with great care, taking each hoof carefully on the uneven floor. She wasn’t exactly in a cave, but she wouldn’t have been terribly surprised if this mine was old enough to have been from before the event. Of course if that were true the wooden supports along the walls wouldn’t still be holding…
“Do I have to tell you?” The voice sounded annoyed, uncharacteristic for Sky. More than enough to convince Alex that she was really just talking to herself. “You haven’t just been dumped here with nothing. You’ve got your brain! Everything you know about mining. You know the way these tunnels are structured. Hell, maybe you’ve seen a map!”
She hadn’t. Complete maps of the mine were only available to supervisors, and getting one hadn’t been her first priority.
“It’s dark. I can’t see, so I can’t navigate. There’s no way a naked pegasus in a tunnel somewhere is going to be able to make light.”
“You’re right,” Sky agreed. “But you’re not helpless. You remember every step you’ve taken, right? You can build a mental image of the tunnel. Extend your wings!” She did, mostly by reflex. She wouldn’t have known how to do it if she had actually thought about it. “Now walk. Keep them along the walls, and go slow. Can you make a picture by touch?”
“I’m… I’m not sure.” Lonely Day started walking. She found she already had an image of where she was going from having walked here the first time, or at least the one wall she had hugged to get to the water. She reached her fallen jumpsuit exactly where she expected to find it. It wasn’t like seeing the mine, because of course she had never seen it. It was, rather, like getting up in the middle of the night, and not needing to turn on the lights or even open her eyes to find the bathroom. It was perfect familiarity, so much that she didn’t worry about bumping her head.
“That’s it! Now we just keep going. Explore every inch, and be careful not to fall. You’re not going to die and lose your wings before you even use them. If you do, I swear to god I’ll come back from the dead and haunt you.”
Lonely Day smiled for the first time since she had woken up. “But you’re not Sky,” she pointed out. “You can’t come back.”
There was no response. She didn’t bother trying to say anything else, not when she had a solution. Ponies could last three weeks without food, but she always came back famished so better round down to two. So long as she didn’t fall, she could always come back for the water. Lonely Day would keep walking, always taking the left fork until she found a way out of the mine.
It was either that, or give in to despair and wait for death. Make Discord’s magic be for nothing, and possibly lose her mind. Having Cloudy Skies come back to haunt her was no threat. If she thought it would’ve worked, she would have traded her wings for that any day.
She didn’t know how long she walked. Without sun or moon to judge by, Alex walked when she felt able and rested when she didn’t. She moved carefully, scouring the ground with her hooves and tracing the walls with her wings. Even a fallen nail might be enough to start a fire, if she could find something to strike it against. This was, after all, a coal mine.
She walked until she was too tired to stay awake, and still hadn’t explored her way back to where she started. She had found nothing useful either, only a few scraps of cloth or fallen stones she had no way of carrying. Maybe tomorrow she would make a bag for them from her jumpsuit. Of course, the estimate that it would take her two weeks to die didn’t mean she would be useful during most of the second week. Those would be days spent in agony, with a swollen belly and a delirious mind.
With no other measure, she counted her first night’s sleep as her first day.
She spent the entire night in research, reading everything she could about mines even though she knew it all already. Hoping, praying Jackie might find her way to her library and offer support. Unfortunately, with no thestral to open up the way, a pegasus Archive was as trapped within its shining walls as an earth-pony Archive. She had no way of sending a message, and no unicorn magic that might’ve stood-in for the thestral’s own powers.
The next day she found her way around to where she started, and had a map of the floor. It was massive, extending an area she roughly estimated at ten square miles. Worse, it melted into caves in places, or at the very least into huge irregular caverns mined by blasting instead of regular chipping. This made it difficult to keep track of where the entrances and exits might be.
If there had been a system in place for transporting coal to the surface, it had been removed when this level was abandoned. Empty bolt-holes were set into the stone floor, but the tracks they had once held there were missing. Even so, she recognized the layout as more or less the same as the one that this mine used on the floors that were currently worked. A single large service tunnel, branching off every few dozen meters for a thinner extraction tunnel. She had woken in one of these, far from the central shaft.
Naturally, escaping would be a matter of finding that central shaft. She was getting hungry by the time she made her way there, or at least to the place she suspected the shaft to be. Her one advantage was that they thought her dead. Hopefully they wouldn’t have taken many measures to keep a dead mare from escaping the mines.
She reached the main shaft without difficulty, and there she located the problem she had already discovered when she mapped it the day before.
The shaft itself was perhaps fifty feet square, with large metal struts anchoring what would’ve been a sturdy elevator if it were on this floor. There was only a single lift, and it was not here. Instead there was a gaping shaft, with a thin path around it on any given side. Part of this room had been cleared into what may have once been a dining/work preparation area, but like the tracks and the carts all the equipment and furniture was gone.
The shaft opened into lower floors she could not count, though she knew there was at least one. As to how many might be above her… she didn’t know. This was almost certainly a previous shaft, perhaps one that hadn’t been in use in the time she had worked in Motherlode. The elevator obviously worked, or else they couldn’t have brought her down here.
Unfortunately, these elevators were mechanical. There was no “car call.” Maybe they put anypony who caused trouble in the mines. Maybe if she waited long enough, she’d hear another elevator rattling down. What else could she do?
“You can fly,” Sky said, her first remark that day.
“I can’t. Pegasus magic comes from the sky, right? Well, I’m closed off to the sky. It can’t get down here. Even if it could, I don’t know crap about how to fly. Memorizing all the flying books in the world isn’t going to help me do the real thing.” She had become pretty good about holding out her wings to navigate, but that didn’t require any actual dexterity.
“There must be a little of the sky up there,” said the voice. “You can feel a breeze.”
She could. Not much, just a faint whistling of air from below, rising towards unseen places above. No light, so the path wasn’t direct. But the air was connected.
“Maybe a master pegasus could do it,” she admitted. “Maybe you could’ve, when you were older. But it’s my first time. Climbing a vertical shaft just won’t happen. Now, maybe if I was human, and had one of those headlamps… maybe I could use my hands to climb the supports or something. But I’m not human, and I don’t have a headlamp. I’m screwed.”
“You think so?” Alex didn’t say anything, covering her face with her wings. Not that it mattered. Sky wasn’t there, nor was there any light to see by. It was a good thing she wasn’t afraid of the dark anymore. “What’s that sound?”
Alex hadn’t noticed any sound before, not with the thick stone all around her. Even the dripping of distant water was a mere memory here. Yet despite the silence, she could make out something. She strained, listening with all the concentration she had.
It was voices. Faint, distant voices, coming from somewhere far above them. Yet voices nevertheless. Miners? Could it be she wasn’t in a closed mine after all? Alex stood up, spreading her legs a little to get the best posture she could. She took a deep breath, aimed her head up into the void, and shouted with all of her might. “IS ANYONE THERE?!”
Silence. Her ears were ringing from her own voice, so she couldn’t be certain. She took another breath. “CAN ANYONE HEAR ME? I’M TRAPPED!”
Silence returned. Alex didn’t shout any more, just sat back down to listen. If there was anyone up there, it would take her a few moments to adjust to the quiet and be able to make them out again.
She saw it before she heard it, a distant flicker of orange lantern-light high above. Yet in the realm of such total blackness, she almost couldn’t look right at it. She had been straining against the dark for so long that seeing light was like staring into the sun.
Someone shouted from high above, their voice clear enough that she could recognize it. It was the captain of her mining team. Jackie’s mining team. “Is someone down there?” With a direct line to him, Alex had no trouble understanding his voice. She couldn’t actually see the figure, but it would’ve been pretty foolish to dangle over the side of a mineshaft. She saw no elevator.
“YES!” Alex screamed, pointing her voice as straight up the shaft as she could. “Down here! Maybe…” She did some quick math. “Thirteen levels down from you!”
No response from him, though she could hear several distinct voices conversing, some of which she thought she recognized. At least half a dozen distinct speakers, perhaps more. Maybe if Discord had made her a bat-pony, she would’ve been able to fly in the depths and hear the ponies up there talking. Pity.
“Do you have any rope? If you had two hundred feet or so, you could pull me up easy!” Well, not easy. Ponies were not very good pullers, which is why fifty feet of that would be wrapped around legs, necks, whatever. Some of it had to be something for her to hold onto as well, without any fingers. Free climbing ropes was a primate art. She hadn’t even heard of griffins being able to do it.
There was a shorter delay this time. “There’s no food and little water!” the male voice called, after a time. “Whoever you are, you would just be coming up to die with us instead of alone! You’re better off down there.”
There was no time to ask questions. No time to figure out who they were or why they were up there. Alex knew in that instant that if she didn’t convince them right now, she would die down there. “Is Jackie the bat-pony up there with you?”
Short silence, then. “Yes! What difference does that make?”
She had no doubt that Jackie had recognized her voice. Assuming they were telling the truth. “Jackie, tell the miners up there the Archive of Mankind is trapped down here! Explain to them the power I showed you! Explain to those miners I can come back from the fucking dead, and that if they bring me up, I’ll swear by Celestia’s goddamn throne that I’ll get them out of this mine alive!”
Lonely Day had to stop screaming. Not because she thought she had got her point across, so much as she had screamed herself hoarse.
She couldn’t make out whatever words were passing above, even if those words were deciding her fate. She could only wait.
Eventually the shift captain's voice returned. “Your sister the changeling is here! If you’re lying, we won’t give her any more water. Do you still want us to get you?”
Ezri? Day’s mind raced, but she had no time to consider how she could have got there. Alex did not know how long had passed since she had been killed. With such a destructive death… “Yes! Absolutely!” She didn’t tell them about her water, not yet. She would save that if they still said no.
“We have to tie our ropes together!” A different voice. Jackie’s voice. “Give us an hour, Archive!”
“Alright! I’ll be here!” Well she would, after returning to her trickling rock and drinking until she had to pee, then dragging her jumpsuit to the opening. She spread it out there, so that the ponies would be able to find the water even if she slipped and fell.
She still saw their lantern-light flickering above, but she called anyway. “Ready yet?”
“Almost!” called another voice, one she had heard around the camp but couldn’t put a name to. Which meant she had never known it. “It’s going to be close! You’re not too heavy, are you?”
“No!” She was fairly sure she weighed less than half of what she had before, but wasn’t about to tell them that. She knew several of the ponies up there, and it was possible Jackie had identified her as an earth pony. Best not to break from that perception until she had to. When she got out of this, she was going to buy Jackie… something. Citizenship in Alexandria seemed a good start.
Time passed. The light above her went from steady yellow to flickering orange. “Rope is coming down!” It was the shift captain. “We used the rest of our lantern oil on you! You better be worth it!”
She didn’t respond, watching the outline of the rope get closer and closer. As it did it began to lose detail to the gloom, so that only a vague suggestion remained by the time it got within her reach.
Vague suggestion was more than she’d had before. When it came within reach she had to lean further than she wanted to, catching a loop of it in her teeth. “Stop, I’ve got it!” She pulled it back, testing the strength of the knot with her hooves. Sturdy. She better hope every knot was this secure.
“Bye Sky.”
* * *
The rope didn’t break, though more than once the whole thing cracked or began to slip and Archive thought she might be able to learn to fly. Firelight and grunting voices got closer and closer as the ponies tugged her towards the light. They didn’t have any pulleys, but they were using a piece of curved metal to stop the rope from catching or ripping on the edge of the floor.
She saw over a dozen ponies, most of them dressed for mining. Some weren’t miners at all: she saw one of the cooks, and at least two different foals watching their parents or siblings pull. A pile of wood-scraps and cloth provided light, flickering in the shift captain’s feeble levitation.
Alex scrambled up the edge of the shaft, resisting the temptation to collapse in a panting heap. The eyes of a dozen ponies watched her from the gloom, unblinking and intent. In their faces Archive saw enough pain and desperation that she nearly started to cry right there. She didn’t, though. These ponies might not know who or what she was, but they were former humans who believed in what humanity had been. Their faith in what she represented wasn’t enough to forget her hunger, but it was at least enough to ignore it.
Shift captain Miles looked her over, his eyes plainly avoiding her flank and everything else back there. His adherence to the human nudity taboo did not make him look any less stern. “So you’ve been a pegasus this whole time?” Her wings weren’t particularly impressive, with the way they poked awkwardly from the side of her body, since she didn’t really have control of them. “Is that why they wouldn’t let you leave?”
Alex hadn’t got a good look at her wings. Now that she saw them, she was beginning to understand why they were so sore. She looked like a bird that had fallen out of a tree during a rainy day. Dust and mud covered her everywhere. Her feathers poked out in irregular ways, and more than a few broken ones emerged from the mass. She smelled too, something she hadn’t really noticed when she thought she was going to starve to death. She did not look like the sort of pony to make a miraculous rescue. Hell, most of the ponies watching her probably thought she was indecent.
Of all the eyes, several of the mares looked on in absolute shock, Jackie included. Whatever captain Miles’s theory might be, she couldn’t possibly have concealed her true species in there. “Unless you’re a changeling. Like your sister.” That was Ambathy, one of the mares she had never gotten along with. “Lying about what you are is punished here.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m not a changeling, but it wouldn’t matter if I was.” She stepped forward, trying to make herself seem taller. It was easier than normal: she was taller. Not as tall as Jackie to be sure, but taller than she remembered. Must’ve been a pegasus thing. “I can get us out.” She gestured vaguely at the shaft behind them, stretching down into darkness. “First, I’m going to need some information. How the hell did all of you get down here?” She searched out Ezri in the crowd, eyes scanning for her black form. She couldn’t spot her at a glance.
“I think it’s a bit hasty for us to be giving you information, Kristy. Why don’t you explain how you’re going to get us out of this mine, then we’ll answer your questions.” Fire flickered in the faint glow of his horn’s levitation, cloth and wood scraps near the end of their life.
Alex nodded. “Alright. Someone get me chalk or charcoal. Mining chalk would be the best.” She gestured around, at the piles of old equipment, rusty tools, and dark lanterns. “One of you has got to be carrying some.”
Miles nodded, and a burly earth pony stallion with glasses perched on the end of his nose tossed some to her. Mining chalk wasn’t all that different from regular chalk, except that it was blue, about as thick as sidewalk chalk, and slipped into a sheath on an elastic band. Alex had to twist the band twice around for it to fit on her thin leg, but fit it did. She walked over to the nearest wall, brushed it clear with one leg, then started to draw. “I’ll need you in a second, Miles. Or any other unicorn who feels inclined.”
“What the hell is that supposed to do?” It was Ambathy again. “You lied to us, Jackie. You’re not getting any water either.”
Archive put power into her words. “Shut up.” She met the mare’s eyes as she did so, though she continued to draw. This rune was complex. “You people won’t tell me what’s going on, but if you expect to get out of this I expect you to act like an adult.” Nopony spoke, though plenty of them stared, crowding to get a better look. The one she was really looking for stayed away, as well as Jackie. What were they up to?
It took her only a minute to complete her custom version of an everburning-crystal light rune, the spell Equestrians used to light up tombs and other remote places that didn’t see many visitors. “There.” She pulled back, gesturing. “Miles, you’ve been a pony the longest. Do you recognize this?”
The unicorn was at the front of the crowd, and he looked the entire mass up and down with intense concentration. “Equestrian letters,” he eventually said. “Not sure how they’ll help us. Or what you need me for.”
“You will.” She stepped out of the way. “Put your fire down, then touch your horn to the center of the diagram.”
“If this is some kind of joke…” He lowered the fire to the ground at their hooves. The flames began to sputter and protest against the moisture there, starting to go out. Flickering shadows began to dance all around them.
She rolled her eyes. “The Frontier Mining Group neglected your education.” She stepped up beside him. “Now, repeat after me exactly. If you get one word wrong, you have to start over. Don’t say anything else. Okay?”
“This is a waste of our fucking time.” Ambathy glared from the side of the room. “We’ve only got a few more days to live down here, and you’re wasting them on a practical joke. Not sharing with you is too kind: we should put you back where we found you.”
This time it was Miles who shouted. “Shut the hell up, Ambathy. We can judge her after we’ve given her a chance. Would’ve been a huge waste to get her otherwise.” He put his horn back against the wall. “Ready Kristy. Whatever this is, you better impress. For your sake.”
She nodded, then began to speak. “To bring Celestia’s light into the gloom of night, I remember the hope for sunrise cuts through midnight.”
Miles repeated after her. It didn’t matter that a pegasus had drawn the runes. It didn’t even matter that the unicorn in question had little practice with magic and no idea what he was saying. The instant he finished speaking, the rune burst into brilliant life. This particular spell imitated sunlight. Though it was faint compared to the real thing, the little fires they had been burning were nothing compared to this.
The unicorn himself crumpled into a panting heap, resting his head against the wall. He didn’t gasp with surprise like the others, just breathed as the sudden price of the spell struck him.
“What is that?”
She wasn’t even sure who asked. On some level Alex supposed it didn’t matter. The Frontier Mining Company had protected these ponies from the magical influences and strange directions culture had grown since the Event. She had known they weren’t really teaching unicorn magic beyond basic levitation, or teaching winged ponies to fly. Even so, she couldn’t ignore the anger she felt. These ponies had their lives stolen from them like everyone else, and they hadn’t been granted the consolation prize of magic in exchange. All of the disadvantages with none of the advantages.
“It’s runic magic. The kind Equestrians use for all their enchanted stuff. We use some of it too, though it’s not obvious at first glance. Look closely at the mechanism lifting the elevators next time you’ve got time, and you’ll see…” She trailed off. “Now, would someone like to explain how you all got down here?” She cast her eyes about, spending a fraction of a second on each face. There were foals here, and staff that weren’t miners. The gathering made no sense. Not to mention the equipment was all old, and they had been dumped into a shaft that had already been excavated and harvested, perhaps years and years ago.
Jackie made her way through the crowd. Alex took in the changes to her at a glance: deep gashes in her back and sides that looked like they had come from whips. A slightly sunken caste to her eyes, and a worn-down expression. “We may’ve kinda-sorta tried to unionize,” Jackie said, shrugging. “After you didn’t come back, I mean. Everybody knew they must’ve done something to you. Some of us tried doing other things they always made excuses about. Leaving the grounds, buying tickets, things like that.”
Miles picked up the story from there. He seemed to have recovered from the effort of the illumination spell, though he still swayed on his hooves. “Have you really been down here all that time, Kristy? It’s been more ‘an two weeks since you disappeared.” At her nod, he gestured. “Somebody bring her some food. Didn’t someone say they had a sandwich they were saving?” There was a short argument. Alex was too weak to voice her opinion either way. Eventually it was won in her favor and a pony brought her half a sandwich wrapped in paper.
She devoured it as Miles went on. “We organized, not just the miners. Not everybody participated, but we all did. Went on strike. There were negotiations, and we thought we won. They gave in to all our demands. We should’ve seen it was too fuckin’ easy.” The crowd murmured their assent. Alex counted 28 distinct voices. Not even a fourth the population of miners in Motherlode. “Things got better. A few days later, they had this new project for us to work on. Supposedly we were going to be excavating a new barracks, so we could have better living conditions. Stays cooler down here in summer, warmer in winter, you get the idea. Took us down one of the old shafts…” He trailed off.
Another voice piped in. “Everybody was supposed to help! Elevator was coming up and down with more people… then it stopped. Nobody answered when we called! That’s when–”
“That’s when we realized what they’d been planning.” Jackie’s voice was dark and full of anger, though more of it was at herself than any external source. “We were the most involved with unionizing. It hadn’t made much sense for the kids to be coming either, but if they were going to get rid of us — had to get rid of them too.”
“I see.” She still had questions for Jackie, still wanted to know what had happened to Ezri (if she was even here). Yet those questions could wait. There were ponies here who needed help. Miles, evidently their leader, had already made it quite plain he didn’t know how to save them. Miles had been a fair captain, when she had been on his labor crew. Evidently his fairness hadn’t let him stand for what they had done to her, either.
She nodded in his direction. “If it’s alright by you, Miles, I’d like to focus on water next. And I’d like to put everyone to work in the meantime.”
“What do you have in mind?”
She lowered her voice, though of course the crowd were all ponies and could probably hear her just fine anyway. “We won’t be escaping overnight. I’d like everyone to work on making this place livable. It’s what they sent you here for, we must have some of the tools. Even if it just means clearing away rubble and laying out ground-cloths to sleep on. I can get everybody out, but it’s going to take time. We have to keep ourselves sane until we’re ready.”
“That makes sense.” He returned his voice to his previous shouting volume. “You heard her, everybody! Let’s get to work!” He looked back down again, even as the crowd started to disperse. Nobody looked happy, but there was far more hope in their faces than she had seen when she clambered over the ledge. “What about you?”
“I’m going to work on a water spell. We’ll need a basin or a bucket, and every unicorn we have. It’s too much spell for just one unicorn.” Well, too much for any of these unicorns. Joseph probably could’ve done it in his sleep, if he hadn’t been dead for two decades now.
“There are spells to just make water?” He didn’t sound disbelieving, not as he had before they started talking.
Alex shrugged. “None I know. There are spells for changing the temperature of gasses, though. Good thing it’s so damp down here.” She slid the chalk a little further up her leg, so that she could walk without breaking it. “But before I do… I think I’ve got to have a word with my sister. Where is she?”
Ezri’s face emerged from the gloom just around a corner, ears flat. Like Alex, she had abandoned the pretext of wearing clothes. She didn’t look good: Alex could pick out more definition to her “bones” than she had seen in a long time.
“Could you give us some time alone?”
“I’ll go find a basin.” He hurried off, and Alex stepped into the gloom beside the changeling. She felt another figure behind her, and turned to see Jackie had followed them into the poorly-lit mineshaft.
Alex tried to smile. “So… how long has it been, exactly? I didn’t have a watch.”
“Almost a month.” Ezri stopped a few paces away, looking down. “Why do you have wings?” Her whole body shivered, as though she might be on the edge of tears.
She frowned, taking that moment to press them back to her sides and out of her way.
“Lea– Ezri told me you would come back. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, sweetheart.” Jackie shrugged one wing. “I didn’t know ponies could do the whole Osiris thing. You pick up a few extra bits on your way back up the Nile?”
Alex shook her head. “It’s a little complicated. It’s never happened before.”
Jackie rolled her eyes. “You idiot; should’ve chosen the bat wings instead! They’re way cooler.”
Lonely Day did not answer. She reached out to embrace the changeling, pulling her tight against her chest. “I’m so sorry, Ezri. I didn’t–”
“I didn’t know if you would come back!” The child tried to keep speaking, but Alex could understand no more through her weeping.
“I know.” She waited. In the nearby cavern, Alex could hear ponies setting to work. Clearing rubble, moving crates, talking. There was hope in their voices.
She almost understood.
But then she didn’t.
“I won’t leave you alone. Sometimes it might take me awhile… but when I promised I would take care of you, I meant it.” She saw a million faces, each one a human child orphaned by the Event. She could not care for each of them, but she could care for Ezri.
Eventually the drone broke away, suddenly grinning. “Hey Mom, I almost forgot!” She hurried back into the darkness, past where Alex could see. She emerged a few moments later, dragging Alex’s saddlebags behind her. “When we came down here, I brought these! In case…” She buzzed a little, embarrassed. “Well, I knew the ponies were being mean, but… I was afraid if I said something they would be even worse.”
“Smart little bug you are.” Alex touched her briefly on the shoulder, then turned and hurried back into the main chamber.
“We already ate all the food!” Jackie called after her. Alex ignored her.
She met Miles in the entrance, where he was levitating a large washbasin. “Something wrong Kristy?”
“No, but we don’t need that anymore. I’ve already got a copy of that spell ready. I didn’t know my, uh, sister had brought it.” Alex flicked open the side of the bag, and tucked it in. She looked around at the working ponies, then raised her voice. “If any of you are thirsty, follow me!”
Light radiated outward, from bright crystals wrought by Equestrian hooves.
“What is that?” Miles glanced in the opening, staring open-mouthed at what seemed to be a library that opened out of the floor.
“A gift from another universe,” Alex answered, clambering in. She was the first, though several nearby ponies stopped to stare. “Come on!”
* * *
True to their word, there was no food in the library. There was a warm, comforting space not really meant to hold so many people at once. In they came, eyes filled with wonder at a level of magic not even possible in Alexandria’s great university.
She gestured into the kitchen. “The sink there has drinkable water, Captain Miles. There’s not an unlimited supply, though. It draws the moisture out of the air, but only so fast. There’s also a bathroom, but if you could make sure nobody uses the shower, that would be good. It… This place was only built to handle four people.”
“Got it.” It took some minutes. Everybody had to stop what they were doing and take a look at the “magic bag.” Many brought canteens or buckets to be filled, and a line formed in front of the sink. Miles supervised, allowing each pony in line twenty seconds.
While they drank, Archive cleared off the dining table and spread a large sheet of paper on it. She replaced the crude miner’s chalk with a lump of soft charcoal, holding it with her hoof as she drew. The rune made her illumination spell outside look like a preschooler's scribbling.
Jackie sat down beside her, inspecting her work. “What are you drawing?”
“This is a runic gateway. A teleport. You wouldn’t happen to know how many levels down we are, do you? And what the terrain is like above us?”
She didn’t, but another of the miners did. Alex worked the figures into her equations, filling the five-foot square of rough paper with Equestrian symbols. A teleport was the most complex magic Equestria had taught them, and only a handful of their books had described it. The runes for this spell had been present in only one of those, with numerous warnings that it wasn’t something a novice spell-caster could attempt. Alex wasn’t just attempting it, she was retro-engineering it. It had to accept power from seven different unicorns (each one they had). It had to balance the magical load between them, and it had to carry an occupant covered in delicate technology without deep-frying half her circuits.
Miles made his way over when he was done distributing the water. Defeated, suspicious looks were gone from every face. Archive could feel their hope. “I didn’t think you could actually help,” he said from behind her, looking down at her work. Archive was checking her measurements with a slide rule as he spoke, recalculating each angle to be sure. A bad teleport would be a terrible way to die.
“Why’d you save me, then?” She didn’t look up from her work.
Miles didn’t answer for several moments. “Seemed like the right thing to do. Even if we were gonna die a little faster, it seemed rotten to let a kid die alone.”
“You won’t die today.” Archive got to her feet, meeting his eyes. “The ponies who put you here, though…” she frowned. “Can’t say the same about them.”
“Are we going to…” He lowered his voice, whispering right into her ear. “Are we going to kill?”
Archive shook her head. “I hope not. But what these ponies did…” She turned, walking slowly towards the stairs. “Hey Ezri!” She didn’t even bother with the fake name anymore. “You wanna see the part of the shelter I wouldn’t let you see?”
Miles followed as well, though less closely than the changeling. A few others watched, though not many were so bold as to follow her downstairs. They had just been given gift enough to be satisfied for a short time. Unfortunately they had used all their food, or else they could’ve been filled in that way as well. If only she had known there would be so many refugees.
Alex stopped in front of the maintenance area, with its solid steel door. She reached up to the keypad, pressing its overlarge buttons in careful sequence. The HPI didn’t know how to make spirit locks. After a few seconds, the door clicked, swinging outward.
The maintenance area was about twice the size of the bedroom. A worktable sat in one corner with various electronics and mechanical components in shelves and plastic crates around it. Power tools of all kinds from before the Event, or at least manufactured just as well.
Of course, most of the room was devoted to machines. The compact plumbing system. Hydrogen storage tanks, water tanks, fuel cells. Alternator. Various backups for each of these systems, each with the plain black HPI manufacturing imprint on them.
Alex hadn’t come for any of those, though. She made her way to the corner of the room, where a large mass had been covered by white cloth. She took it in her mouth and pulled, twisting violently to one side and exposing the object beneath.
It was a suit of HPI Interceptor Armor, made for an Equestrian body. Thin titanium alloys meshed with carbon fiber and nanoplastics, surrounding servos and its various systems. The back in particular was larger than it needed to be… but considering the little thing had to generate its own power, that was more than expected. While not in use, the suit opened up like the shed shell of an insect, its padded inside open and waiting for a pilot. This was why Archive had drawn the spell before putting on her armor.
“Who the hell made that?” Miles was indignant, not looking away.
“They’re called the Human Preservation Initiative.” Alex walked up to the armor. She had to unlock the cyber-gauntlet from beside it, sliding it onto her leg. “It’s kindof a long story. I worked for them for a few centuries. Their pony armor has gotten much better since the first models.”
Ezri buzzed suddenly past her, between her and the armor. She glared up, but didn’t say anything.
“What is it?”
“You’re gonna leave,” she squeaked. “You’re gonna go fight. L-leave me again.”
Lonely Day wouldn’t lie. “Not for long.” She dropped down to the drone’s eye-level. With how much the little thing had grown since they met, she didn’t have very far to stoop. “I’m going to get help. When the ponies back in Radio Springs hear about what’s been happening, they’re gonna be furious. I won’t even have to fight.”
Ezri embraced her, clinging to one of her legs. She didn’t hold on as long as she had before. “Be careful.”
“I will.” Ezri let go, turning to hurry out the door. Alex heard the sound of the bedroom door opening and closing.
Alex spared one look for her mottled wings. “Uh… hey, Jackie!” she called, waving enthusiastically at the thestral in the doorway.
Jackie approached, eyes more for Alex than the armor. “Need somethin’?”
“Yeah.” Alex took a first-aid kit from where it hung on the wall, unzipping it. She took a large roll of bandages in her mouth, tossing it to land at her hooves. “I don’t want these wings causing me trouble. Could you help me wrap them up before I get in?”
“They look awful.” Jackie kicked the bandages closer, then drew out one of the pegasus’s wings. She shook her head. Her face wrinkled in disgust. “Smell worse. Wouldn’t you like to clean them first?”
Archive shook her head. “No time. We still don’t have any food. The sooner I get to the city, the sooner these ponies get help.”
“At least a quick rinse.” She turned. “Stay right there, Alex. I’ll be right back.” True to her word, the thestral returned with a bucket of warm water and a big sponge, setting them both down beside her. “Not that I know, but I’ve heard that ponies who don’t take really good care of their feathers can lose the ability to fly forever.” She took the damp sponge in her mouth and started to work.
“It’s true,” Alex admitted, perhaps a little reluctantly. Jackie had a point, anyway. A few minutes weren’t going to make a difference, and she did have a great deal to lose. A little of the pain she had felt over the last several days began to fade, as Jackie’s sponge pushed many of her mismatched feathers back into place. Dirt and grime slid off to pool on the ground at her hooves.
There was no soap in the water, and much of the dirt stayed behind. Even so, a few minutes of Jackie’s attention and her wings felt much better. The thestral vanished again into the bathroom, coming out with one of Alex’s towels. Alex learned then that wings tended to swell when they were dried, layers of thick downy feathers expanding to leave her sides fluffy and absurd looking. It was a good thing the ponies trying to hurt her wouldn’t see how silly she looked under the armor.
“There.” Jackie gave her one pat on the mane, before unrolling the bandage. “This isn’t going to feel great, you know. Wings aren’t meant to go in and out of storage.”
She nodded. “I’ll get armor made for it next time I get the chance.” Of course, she would probably have to get involved with the HPI’s various assignments again if she wanted any service from them. Unless Athena started pulling strings for her. And Jackie was right: it was incredibly uncomfortable to have your wings tied and rendered immobile. She found herself all the more grateful that she had taken the time to clean them off a little first.
When this was over, she was going to have to find a pegasus who could teach her to do this properly. Book knowledge or no, this seemed like the sort of thing you had to practice. Wings were so complicated and delicate, all those little bones and different types of feathers. No time to get to know them now.
“There.” Jackie stepped back, inspecting her work. “That ought to hold.” She lowered her voice. “You’re going alone.”
“I only have the one set of armor.” Alex walked past her, dragging out a step stool, and climbed up towards the open back. Even the smallest size armor had been a little big on her, but now to look at it she felt a little less like a child. If being a pegasus meant being older, than she could get used to the wings. “Even if I had more: these are miners, not fighters.”
“Are you a fighter?”
Alex climbed into the opening, clicking one hoof at a time into place. The suit came to life around her, tightening against her body. Restraints closed against her legs first, then moved up her body. The open back of the suit slid together with metallic clicks, humming faintly. She slid her head up into the helmet. It beeped once, then filled her eyes with the information from her HUD.
“NETWORK CONNECTION UNAVAILABLE. ANTENNA DIAGNOSTIC GREEN, ARE YOU UNDERGROUND?” She ignored that, along with most of the information. Weapon magazines green, fuel green. All systems functional.
Archive was ready.
She turned, letting the servos quicken her movements and help her lift the weight of the suit. Earth-pony Alex could’ve easily muscled the suit around even when its power was dead. Pegasus Alex had a feeling that when she ran out of fuel, it was going to stop right where it was and not move again. “That spell I wrote–” she began, walking past Jackie and towards Miles. “I need every unicorn to help cast it. Bring them outside.” Her voice came out through the speaker, only slightly muffled.
He nodded, hurrying to catch up with her. She was taller than he was within the armor, taller than anypony. As she climbed the stairs, ponies stopped to stare. With all the staring they had been doing over the last few hours, she would’ve thought they would have gotten used to surprises by now.
Despite the strength Interceptor Armor gave, it did not rob her of dexterity. She stopped in front of the table and gripped the spell in an extendable claw, carrying it forward with her towards the opening. She walked back into the light of the last spell she had written and laid it out on the ground, placing a little stone on each corner to keep any breeze from disturbing it during the casting. Such a mistake with a teleport spell might be fatal to the casters as well as the unfortunate being transported.
Several ponies started to emerge from the bag, not just unicorns. Miles was among them. “I see what you’re planning. Are you going to lower the elevator down?”
She nodded. “Not for you to go back up, though.” She did not bother to muffle her voice. Instead she spoke out as loudly as she could. “Once I escape, they may suspect you all are alive. If they do, they may decide to be more certain than leaving you all to starve. I’m going to send the elevator down as slow as it can go. Stop it here, but don’t go back up… don’t leave until you’re certain you’ll start starving otherwise. I must have at least three days.”
“So you’re not–”
“I’m going for help.” Alex walked over to the spell. “Keep the door to the library open; it needs the circulation with that many ponies inside it. Don’t ever let it shut, or you won’t be able to open it again.” She hopped over the diagram, then waited. “You all will be fine for a few days! I know how much it sucks to be hungry, but it won’t last! I promise I’m going for help that can take care of all of you! If you try to leave sooner, they will almost certainly kill you! You must wait!”
“Three more days. We can do three days. Can’t we, everybody?” Ponies called their assent, though most were weary as they did so, weak. But it was something. Enough to make Archive smile in her helmet.
It took nearly half an hour to explain the mechanics of the spell and prepare the unicorns helping to conduct it. Alex tried to sound confident, but she was glad for the helmet. They wouldn’t be able to see how worried she looked. She had never written a spell this complex, after all. Even a minor miscalculation could kill.
This chapter has some fanart!
Huge thanks to Kovoranu for drawing this awesome piece! There's a much higher res version on his Deviantart.
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Day got turned into a pegasus! What's next she grow a horn making her an alicorn or a pegacorn? hmmmm
Great chapter as always, can't wait for the next one! WOO
Look at how far we come, although the story gets more and more complex overtime
Perfect timing going from earth power to wings, Discord. ...PERFECT... TIMING.
Can't wait till those guys get what's coming to them
I think I'm starting to see what Discord's plan is, but the timing of it is really really bad...
Lonely Day is gearing up to bring down hell on this group. And damn do they deserve it.
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Oh my god this is adorable
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8_kCh1QeTtEY0dtNl9waVloZUE/view?usp=sharing
I edited the cover image
6792381 I KNOW!!!! She's like, "What are these strange things on my back? And... Why are they fluffy?"
6792225 I think that's the point, as Discord is forcing Archive out of her comfort zone (otherwise "it wouldn’t be any fun.")
Also it's the first time Day died since she and Discord met.
Really can't wait for the conclusion of this arc. Since the list of crimes Alex is going back to Radio Springs with include at the very least enslaving ponies and murdering or attempting to murder anyone who tries to leave or stand up to them, I can't imagine the company surrendering to face justice. And let's face it, now that it's been introduced, we have to see that suit in action...
I wonder what did Discord mean by "only works once"? If Alex dies again, will she reincarnate as an earth pony again and have to work towards alicornhood without his help, or will she just stay dead next time? That's not a detail Alex is likely to be happy not knowing...
Zutcha's pega-Alex is adorable as well.
Ooh, things are picking up again!
Time to go to war. Mwahahahahaha...
What's the old phrase? 'Beware the nice ones'?
6792395
Don't do that. You don't edit other people's art.
Whelp, a New Year brings a New Day!
So they left kids down there to die of thirst or starvation, huh?
Don't aim for the head, Day. Much too quick.
6792541
HA! I didn't spot that the first time.
Zutcha's artwork is as awesome as always.
And this new bit of story line shows that no matter how much time has passed, Alex is still Alex. Doing everything she can do to help others at the risk of herself. She's gone through a lot lately with the loss of her closest friends, and the loss of the majority of her earth pony powers. I really hope at some point we will get to see her at full alicorn strength.
Love the power armor. Hopefully someone will link this story to kkat. As great as Fallout:Equestria is, this story is rapidly climbing up to it's own place, high up on brony mountain. More so due to the fact that Lonely Day's world isn't a mirror of some other, and truly anything can still happen.
Looking forward, as always, to the next chapter. And, lest I forget.
Happy New Year Starscribe!
6792612 Sorry... I can take it down if you want.
Is there a difference from using Alex or Archive or does it just add more authority or something?
It's very corteous of Sky's hallucination to tell Day she isn't real, [1]
That chapter also add further confirmation of the Equestrian origin of (part of) the Staff with that runic magic in the machines.
I still wonder about the ages of the Equestrians though: they must have lived on Earth since the Event and now, almost 300 years later, even Sky died of old age. Maybe descendants of incognito Equestrian immigrants?
[1] I don't know what emoticon to put here:
for joking or 
because it shows how much Day cares about Sky, who even an illusion of her won't let Day fall into madness.
6793014
What staff? And what Equestrians are you talking about? There were a number of Equestrians who volunteered to emigrate to Earth after the event. It was all official, no need to be incognito. Many of them taught at the university to help train newly converted humans how to use magic, or fly, or other pony things. Yes, surely many ponies in the present are descendants of the Equestrian transplants, but more are probably descendants of former human returnees. The issue with this mining operation isn't Equestrians taking advantage of Earthlings. It's modern natural-born ponies taking advantage of returnees. It's been three hundred years. A pony born forty years ago has known nothing but a post-human world, regardless of whether their great grandparents were originally human or equestrian. At this point ponies are just ponies, and magic is just integrated into society in lieu of failing technology. It has nothing to do with race or world of origin. It's simply a matter of preying on defenseless people with no resources and no support.
6793319 They didn't emigrate to Earth: they searched Earth for (something like) a Princess. There was no mention any of them would have stayed on Earth after their mission was over, and Sunset was a last moment decision.
True Sight and the other ponies under Odium's control arrived to Earth and tried to pass by transformed humans at first. Who's to say there isn't another faction who used a similar tactic? Leave Equestria officially or unofficially, and then pass by a transformed human (that's what I meant with incognito). I don't know why somepony would choose to do that, but there's some evidence pointing something like that might have happened.
By staff I mean "ponies in charge"... of the mine in this case. For the next part I'll add relevant quotes by the end of my post
Quote 1: First of all, there's speculation by Sunset that "something" may have passed from Equus to Earth by the number of times Luna opened the portal to Earth, which was proven true wuth Odium's faction alone, never mind.
Quote 2: When she tried to buy the train ticket to Radio Springs Archive couldn't read the teller's link to their Earth legacy, not unlike most of the staff. She assumed they actually go by an Equestrian name (meaning Equestrian by birth or by upbringing) because of that reason.
Quote 3: There are advanced magic runes in the mining machinery. The transformed humans didn't recognize them because,,, why should them? they didn't now about magic when they had fingers.
Quote 1:
Quote 2:
Quote 3:
Ask politely for a train ticket. Get shot.
Rise from the grave and return with some f'kin' power armor and guns.
That is how we roll!
Well... revenge is a dish best served in cold, titanium alloy powered armour. Here's hoping the next chapter has a picture of Alex in her Iron Mare suit!
Seems Ezri wasn't being fed without Archive. I would have hoped that Jackie could give some nourishment to the sister of her rescuer.
Poor Alex... Thinking Radio Springs will help.
Am I the only one that finds it interesting that LD swears by Celestia's Throne? Just... caught my attention.
6793571 Again, Alex not being able to sense their human past doesn't mean they must have snuck over from Equestria. It isn't a matter of them being from another world. It's that they were never human. They were born ponies in this world, so that's what they identify as. That's why Alex doesn't sense human in them. THat's why she exists as Archive at all. She didn't want to the generations to come who are born ponies to forget humanity. It's happening in these guys. And they aren't preying on the former humans out of any cross-species animosity. Former humans just have no family, friends, resources, home, experience, or even familiarity with their body in this new world. That makes them easy to trick into slavery.
Also, I realized what you meant by "staff" after I'd made my last comment. I was playing WoW at the time and I was thinking of a staff like a wizard staff.
I'll admit it. The first two stories were't really my cup of tea. The first one ended with a strange cliffhanger, and the second didn't really build into the world enough for me to get invested. But this story, especially with the current arc, has me really interested. I like archive's powers, and the experiences she goes through. I like where her character has gone. This really is one of my favorite stories at the moment, and I look forward to reading each coming update.
6796292
True, I can't deny that (very likely) possibility. However I find it very curious how quickly Archive made the correlation of "unable to read human past" with "goes by Equestrian name," especially when she's referring to a pony who has always introduced himself with a human name.
6796716 Again, she can't read their human past because they don't have one. It'd be like someone trying to read your dog past. You were never a dog, so you don't have one. And Equestrian-style names are quite common. Even in Alexandria, ponies use them. Cloudy Skies went by an Equestrian-style name, and we know she was on the up and up. It's just a cultural thing. That's just their name. Probably the reason they're pretending to have a human-style names is to seem more trustworthy to the former humans they're tricking.
Look at it this way. Say a German person moved to America and has kids. They might name their kids German names, like Franz, Helmut, or Otto. Those kids were born in America and identify as such, but with some German heritage. They have kids of their own. They might give their kids German names or maybe more common American names. Those kids are second generation Americans. They identify as nothing but American. They name THEIR kids American names. And so on and so on for a couple hundred years. Where are you from and where where your ancestors from? If they're different, do you identify the same as them? My great grandparents came to America from Sicily, Switzerland, and Hungary. But I'm an American with an American name. (Actually, my first name's earliest roots come from Greek.) It's all a matter of cultural mixing and integration. But if I were part of an illegal operation trying to trick, say English people into slavery, you can bet I'd throw in an English accent and call myself Nigel to try to get them to trust me.
Got to fill out all your skill trees before you can ascend, Alex. Good thing old Uncle Discord is willing to lend a helping appendage, huh?
In any case, that company is definitely going to regret what they've done. Hopefully. If the rot goes deeper than Archive expected... Well, a mare in power armor has ways of adjusting policy.
Definitely looking forward to the next chapter.
Holy shit a story chapter WITHOUT a major cliffhanger?!
WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH OUR AUTHOR?! O.O
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So Alex is a Pegasus now? That...... will be confusing.
By the way, Starscribe, didn't you say that the reason all those miners had enough food and were able to survive for as long as they did was because Ezri got as much food out of the library's pantry as she possibly could? Hence why those shelves were bare by the time Alex got to it? I've got to wonder. How? How the buck did Ezri manage to get into the library? I thought only Alex was able to access it.
This is not the alicorn fury I expected.
BUT FREAKING POWER ARMOR MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER!!!!
ONWARDS, ARCHIVE, LET THERE BE BLOOD AND FIRE!
vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/falloutequestria/images/6/6a/War_Machine.png/revision/latest?cb=20130202081345
PS: I swear to god if you jump-cut to several decades later now I will find a way to cut you... ... a piece of cake made with my tears
6792612
I make beter Alex tan u!!1!
Just in case, this was meant as a joke :P
Sorry for taking so long to get to these comments, everypony. School just started, and it's always crazy when a new semester starts. It's all I can do just to get the content ready so there won't be any interruptions...
6768600
I think she was just out of magic at that point. She'd been shot enough times, and with everything else going on... the well was just dry at that point.
6768633
It's true, clifhangers are pretty cruel. At least it only took one week!
6768638
Because you found an error! Should be fixed now though! ^^
6768669
Well we knew now!
6768744
It's a loose interpretation of the show itself and the way Luna travels between dreams. That's where it starts. So far as the drilling down mechanics (which obviously the show doesn't give us) I've used "Changeling: The Lost" and its depiction of dream magic and dream travel, because it's consistent, awesome, and a little bit otherworldly. Not to mention obscure enough that I didn't expect many people to get what I was doing unless I said so explicitly. >.>
6768817
New year, new Alex!
6768868
Well I'm glad you had a great Christmas!
6768993
She was hiding in the saddlebags, yeah. Though she only had a few weeks of food in there, which ran out before they started shoving people in the mines.
6769074
And there will be conciquences. Or... there were consequences? IT gets a little confusing.
6769324
They do in the other universe I wrote about, My Little Apprentice. In this one I wanted them to be radically different though, so I wrote them without weather magic (except cloudwalking, which all flying things seem to have in Equestria). Instead their magic is tied to dreams and enhanced senses. I know there's no canon evidence Luna's powers are shared... but I tend to think of writing like a roleplaying game sometimes. I like when things kinda balence out power-wise... so giving them dream magic is a way to make up for not having weather-magic.
6769469
Oh, they did. Unfortunately, we already know that...
6769529
Well one less than she had before that!
6769586
I can't do my usual cryptic message here because we already know what happened, but... imagine I wrote one a week ago! Woaahahaha (waves arms around)
6770256
Don't get me wrong, she majorly screwed up in lots of ways this chapter, but...
Taunting that guy might've been her one chance of surviving that scenario at that point, at least in her mind. She was across a room, unarmed, and didn't have her magic anymore. No super speed or strength or anything. Gun aimed right at her. It was all she could do at that point to try and intimidate or negotiate her way out, because anything physical she tried would've just ended with her shot. Needless to say, intimidation does not appear to have been the correct choice.
6771106
Considering Alex kinda gave her her whole existence, I have no doubt Ezri would die for her mother. Much as Alex would've tried to get her to stop...
6771485
You wouldn't be the first person to worry something like that was gonna happen either.
6771558
Spoilers in this response, so don't go forward non-spoiler people.
That was actually a major fear of mine in having a character that's immortal, particularly as the protagonist. That was one of my major goals with this whole pegasus thing. Before the consequences were what happened to her friends. Now we've got another one: she won't be able to learn pegasus magic if she dies. That, and her re-spawns seem to be coming slower and slower. Probably why you're not supposed to die over and over...
Or the best. There was a small group of ponies mentioned that went to stay on earth with Sunset as their leader to protect earth from magical threats it couldn't handle. Until its own population became competent enough to fend for themselves. That group is still around somewhere, though probably they're not enslaving ponies to mine coal...
6771573
Simple: You're making an unfounded assumption that's Karate. It's a martial art for sure, but the structure of human and pony muscles simply aren't the same. Only the general principals would have any value... which is exactly what Alex said in the chapter. Whatever they're doing in the episode, it's a pony martial art designed entirely for ponies.
6774549
She thought it was her best chance of ending the fight. IT didn't work.
6777806
Attacks I don't know anything about, but I do care about the quality of my work and want to produce the best possible story. Specific complaints about what's wrong with it might help more than saying it's stale or lacks soul, which... I can't really quantify into improvement. Or replicate, since they're entirely subjective. But if you're got specific things I could be doing better, don't hesitate to say so! I do this whole fanfiction thing so I can improve my writing, after all. That, and because I've got a passion for it. That's the only reason I spend any time on this stuff.
6779194
Yeah, he is. Or... something like one. I like the otherworldly for my adversaries... at least when it comes to opposing forces like Archive or the Keeper of Earth.
6781481
This time Alex got to fight it on somewhat more equal terms. Last time she was a pitiful little earth pony with no chance. This time, well... it'd be different. Not sure she'd win, but it'd be different.
6792091
Yeah, it does get more complex. Jury's still out on whether that's a good or a bad thing.
6792225
Well he wouldn't be Discord if he gave you wings when you actually needed them, would he?
6792352
They sure do!
6792381
She sure is!
6792527
Well, I think not knowing what's going to happen to Alex when she dies next time will hopefully make her death a little more worth preventing in her mind. She's grown in need of an attitude adjustment, that's for sure.
6792686
Hey, somebody got it! ^^
6792903
Thanks! I'm... well, I'm hoping we get to see Alex as an Alicorn too. I still don't know for sure if she'll make it, but I'm rooting for her as much as anyone else.
6792958
They're not precisely the same person. More like... two aspects of a similar personality. Alex is an auto mechanic from LA who watched her friends die. Archive is the spirit of humanity itself, immortal and unchanging. They do different things.
6793849
A sweet reckoning be a'comin, that's for sure.
6796346
I hope the story continues to be as interesting, then! It's been a blast to write, that's for sure.
6797983
Too many cliffhangers in a row are exhausting.
6798663
That's not quite what happened.
The miners had actually only been down there a day or two. The banishment was relatively recent. So here's what happened, it's in the chapters, but it's a little subtle and background, so it's easy to miss.
Alex knew that her friends would be prime targets once she got uppity, so she put Ezri and Jackie into the library before she confronted the boss. She figured they'd try to have them killed too once she caused trouble, which they probably did. But they couldn't find them, or do anything about the library. Meanwhile, Jackie and Ezri ate all the food to survive. Eventually it ran out and they had to leave...
But by the time that happened, the union thing had started. They were able to hide amidst the protests and stuff. With all the unionization stuff going on, the friends of a pony they'd killed were no longer first priority. Even so, they were still on the list of troublemakers, so they were included in the planned cleansing of the mining camp. Once they left, Ezri and Jackie had no way of getting back into the library, the miners just hadn't been down there very long.
6800659
Hah, no. No cuts in the middle of the action.
6805353
That's a pretty gud alex.
6808835
Sweg.
I think...
> Discord wants to make Lonely Day a proper Equestrian Princess (Who wants to see Alex as a unicorn?)
> Wow, after many chapters HPI is mentioned again.
> Is that... Ooh! Looks like the place is gonna get raided by Alexandria's finest! Or probably HPI's brightest? Whatever now, Here we go.
Ooooo pony power armor? I like where this is going, but I've been playing too much Fallout and planning to start on Fallout Equestria.
And Lonely Day gets to learn to fly. I'm glad we got pictures from Zuka back even if for just awhile, his (Hers?) art is just so cute!
And also further proof that the mining corp is bad news. Wage slavery is a terrible thing but starving a whole group of workers and there kids is beyond even mustache twiriling evil.
Blow this evil operation Alex.
Starving people? To death! That's complete evil.
And the armor... YES
I'm eager to see what happens.
Really enjoying the story Starscribe.
6812627
Read Fallout Equestria, has references to fallout 3 and mlp (before the end of season 3). As you may know. I got sucked into reading it in a weekend, it's a well written story.
6800659
Nicely put. Have a like.
Got to say this scene reminds me of a few fallout fimfiction stories.
Art for Chapter 16
https://ierf.deviantart.com/art/A-little-deeper-703257214?ga_submit_new=10%3A1504821939
8414145
That's incredible work. Could I link that in the author's notes for this chapter? People might miss your comment.
oh, this made me think of a comic-book villain: i forget his name. he appeared in two issues of War Machine. thanks to a deal with Kali, goddess of death, he could come back to life repeatedly, BUT he did have a limit: the number of people he had killed.
War Machine blasted a hole in the ground and dropped him into it and then collapsed it, causing him to suffocate over and over until he finally ran out of lives.