Chapter 29: Mopping up
Chapter 29: Mopping up.
"I think we will need a bigger bucket."
Lana and I looked at the space where Ruby had been lying, a trace of her blood remaining on the ground before us.
"What... just happened?" Lana asked.
"The alicorn... teleported?" I half-asked in reply, almost as puzzled as Lana.
"Why? And where did she take Ruby?" Lana prompted. As if I could know that...
"Oh shit," I said, facehoofing. "I think I just accidentally inducted Ruby into Unity."
"Say what now?" Lana asked.
"It didn't occur to me that the way any alicorn would save a pony would be to save her soul or whatever it is they think they are doing to ponies when they turn them into more alicorns," I admitted.
"What? Ruby is going to be the same as that creature that took her?" Lana asked.
"If she survives, yes, that is what will probably happen to her," I agreed. "At least she may live. I've heard they don't remember their old lives though, so she will be a totally new creature," I explained, shaking my head at my stupidity. Should I have got the whole medical team up to help? That was assuming we could have found them. She would have been lucky to survive long enough. I just hoped, no, prayed, that even if they reformed her body, they would not destroy her mind.
"Oh. that's sad," Lana said. "Her sister will be upset. Ruby pretty much raised her. Is there anything we can do about it? Can we find out for sure what happens to her?"
"I guess I could ask the alicorn when she returns, as it seems I have exchanged my paying them attention for Ruby's life. I just hope this 'Goddess' doesn't want me to go to her in person." I stopped talking, looking around me. Violet's body was still hanging above us, as were the bodies of the merchants and some raiders who had met similar fates. "Shall we get Violet down and bury her?"
"No," Lana shook her head. "We can bury the others, but we will not dishonor Violet that way. Refusing to partake of one of our fallen is the ultimate insult. After all, that is the only way they can continue to help us, to be part of us."
"Say what?" I spluttered. "Eat her?"
"Oh, you know, like we did with our other fallen. We put them in the recycler so that they can become part of us when we eat the food the recycler reproduces. We don't eat the actual bodies. That would be so totally gross!"
"You had me worried for a moment!" I admitted, although I did feel a little hypocritical, considering my propensity for draining blood from my victims, freshly dead or alive. "Not that I am in any position to judge," I added.
"Huh? Oh, never mind. Can you levitate me back up, so I can get Violet and the others down?"
"Sure, hang on," I said as my magic again wrapped around the aqua mare and lifted her up the tower. "I'll tell you what I mean anyway, because it has been gnawing at me ever since it happened. For a the lack of a better description, I'm a cyborg vampire. I'm pretty sure I told you about this before. My body has an inbuilt transfusion system. When I'm in danger from blood loss, the system takes over, and takes blood from the nearest compatible donor. One of the ponies I drank from was Rosemary, although she was already dead before I bit her. As such, I would be a hypocrite to frown on your way of honoring your dead. Raiders, on the other hoof, who kill ponies with the intention of eating them, are..."
"One of the most disgusting things in the wasteland," Lana finished for me. "Seriously, I don't think Rosemary would have minded. She was the sort of pony who would have let you take her blood even if she was alive. She would have felt honored that she could help you in death."
That helped lessen my guilt somewhat. I did feel some relief. I recalled the time when I really felt Rosemary was part of me. Unfortunately, by the same measure, Blaster and numerous other raiders and scum of the wasteland were also part of me. Hopefully my transfusion system had a decent set of filters, or otherwise I would be sucking in all their diseases and drugs. Hmm, that was a thought.
"And, not that you have any intention of doing so, don't even try to recycle the raiders. They are full of drugs, chemicals and diseases. They'd probably poison the recycler," I warned.
"We would not give the raiders the honor," Lana replied.
"And, even if you wish to honor me should I die, please don't feed me to the recycler for the same reason. Besides, I'm mostly mechanical anyway," I added just as the machinery driving the elevator sprung into action. Great, sound effects to go with my statement.
The elevator clanged into place behind us, and Demi stepped out, and glanced around, noting Lana up the tower. "Did I miss something?" she asked. "Apart from Ruby, that is."
Cutting down the gutted and flayed bodies of ponies was the sort of task from your worst nightmares, and I wished I didn't have to. I wished it on the others even less. As Lana and I were already doing it, proceeding as things were, was the way to go. To keep Demi from trying to help directly, I had asked her to climb up to the crow's nest and keep watch. Lana and I eventually managed to get all of the corpses down. It wasn't easy, physically speaking, either. I had to levitate Lana, and while not dropping her, I had to take the bodies she had cut free. Raiders were then levitated over the barricade and uncermononiously dumped outside in a growing heap. We would burn or bury them later, depending upon if we found appropriate combustibles or a unicorn with a decent conflagration spell.
With the bodies of the merchants we took more care. They were carefully lowered over the barricade and placed as respectfully as possible on the ground, pending a funeral, or whatever action their son wished to take. That left poor Violet, who was lying inside the barricade, with us. Before we could do anything to lay her body to rest, we first had to gain access to the recycler. And to do that, we really needed to clear out the raiders and rescue everypony. Occasional and very distant bangs and thuds vibrating through the structure of the stable suggested that Saffron was still busy cleaning up down on the lower levels. I figured he was the only pony down there capable of continued barrage, so as long as we could feel the vibrations, it was a safe bet that he was all right. Then again, the Stable Four residents could be putting up their own fight too, although I had no idea where they would have acquired explosives. I doubted the raiders had access to much in the way of explosives, despite the crate I had found earlier. Chances were that was their entire supply. Was I talking myself in circles? Bah! More action, less thinking, silly pony!
Opening the main stable door was the logical next step. Any ponies that had retreated into the old subway tunnels would be able to assist us in ridding the stable of the unwanted visitors. I assumed they would be keen to get back through that door too, if only because we had found no other way out of the subway tunnel... well... no safe and pleasant way, anyway. At least now I had some idea of what being flushed away felt like.
Leaving Violet's body on the floor of the atrium, out of the way and covered, Lana, Demi and I returned to the top level, and entered the vestibule of the stable, the merchant's son trailing behind. It was as it had been when I had raided the ammo boxes for grenades. Not surprising really, as our attack hadn't really given any of them a chance to return here. Hmm, maybe the stable dwellers had managed to get some explosives after all. Maybe they traded for them, or maybe they had managed to get some from fallen raiders. They could even be lobbing shorted spark batteries and levitation modules at the raiders for all I knew. Heck, hadn't I just been over this? I shook my head, trying to break it out of these weird thought loops. Whatever the case, it was time I stopped fussing about the dead, and helped the living.
Examining the controls to the main door, I found the damage was more mechanical than anything else. The switches had been broken, preventing their activation. I pressed my horn to them, and within a few moments, the materials from which they were made merged back together, and they were restored to operating condition. That done, I projected my magic down the wires, following the cabling all the way down to the lower levels, to the circuit breakers, which had been tripped. I used my magic to close them, and the door control panel came to life. I activated the switch and was rewarded with the whirring, grinding and rusty screeches of the ancient door mechanism as once again Stable Four opened itself to the subway.
Damn, these stable doors moved slowly; their weight and complexity deemed it so. Me knowing that didn't have any bearing on my impatience though. The racket it made was apparently enough to alert all nearby ponies too because by the time the door had rolled out of the way, several of them had appeared ahead of us, in the gloomy tunnel beyond. Dim shapes stood there, reflections glinting off their eyes and the guns they were holding in their muzzles, all of which were pointed our way.
"Lana? Anne?" a voice called, expressing a mixture of tension, hope and perhaps a little relief.
"Yes," I responded. "We are back."
"Thank Celestia," somepony said, as the tension left the air. I heard weapons being holstered.
"Is it safe in there yet?" another pony asked. My eyes sought them out, and I found the speaker was Chicory. She was in her wheelchair.
"I'm not sure if it is safe yet," I admitted. "We've killed all the raiders on the top levels and on the surface. Saffron is down below mopping up. I thought some of you might like to help with the purge."
"Raiders? The ponies that attacked us were raiders?" another asked as the gathered ponies began to walk and shuffle towards us. A twitter spread among them, as if there had just been a great revelation.
"What?" I asked. "Of course they were raiders. No other kind of pony behaves that way, or dresses that way willingly, for that matter. How did they get in?"
"Umm... we let them in," one pony admitted, blushing furiously. "They approached us offering to trade."
They let them in? Despite my warnings, they didn't recognize them? "Oh, sorry." I slumped. "I let you down again."
"Say what?" a mare asked.
"If I had stayed with you, or taught you better, maybe this wouldn't have happened," I said.
"Don't blame yourself, Anne," Chicory voiced. "We could have asked Cherry Sundae, but she was on the lower levels, and we thought the ponies that approached us were honest, so we didn't bother to check. Violet made the call to open the gate, but none of us objected, so we share the blame."
"In the future, I suggest that you treat all outsiders as suspicious!" I suggested, as I slowly turned to face back into the stable. "Come, let's see if we can clean the rest of the bastards out the stable. Oh, how many of you took refuge here? Are any of you injured and needing assistance?"
"There were a few minor wounds here and there. Our cladding saved us from anything too serious. We had enough healing potions with us to deal with the worst," Chicory said. "As for who took refuge here, it's mostly just those of us that had moved up to the Atrium. Some made a break for Level Eight to warn them. They took the elevator down. They were going to stop at hydroponics and warn anypony there. If there were any on the other levels, which I doubt, I don't know what happened to them. Violet felt obliged to cover our retreat. Ruby volunteered to assist her. I hope they made it down to Level Eight with the others."
"Unfortunately they didn't," Lana interjected, in a hushed voice that managed to be heard despite its softness. "I fear we have lost them both. The raiders did unspeakable things to them. We've laid Violet's body in the atrium. Ruby was still alive, barely. An alicorn took her when we asked her for help. Maybe the alicorns can heal her. Maybe not. Either way, I don't think she will ever come back, and if she does, the experience will have changed her. A raider's attack is nothing like a robot's attack. It is so much more... personal."
The collective utterance of grief cut to my soul. I had known it was coming, but I hadn't expected it to take on an almost physical form. Tears escaped, but I did not give in this time. I would cry for the lost, but I wasn't going to curl up and feel sorry for myself or lose myself grieving for them. They were gone. My tears could not help them. There were others here, alive, that needed my help.
"Fuck these raiders!" I yelled. "Let's go show them that you don't mess with Stable Four!"
We caught up with Saffron on Level Seven, which was pretty much as far down as you could go without access to the elevator. There were a few rooms on Level Eight that were accessible down the stairs, but hopefully that thoroughly bent and jammed door had prevented further ingress.
The more mobile mares from the atrium had joined me in sweeping the stable for stray raiders. We had fanned out, and combed every corridor, every room, and even every locker on each level as we proceeded. Fortunately we only found raider corpses, or parts thereof. Saffron wasn't displaying any subtlety. Twice we found raiders that had been killed in a much more personal fashion that just by shooting them or blowing them up. On one hoof it hurt to see Saffron inflicting such injuries. On the other, it made me feel a little less like a raider myself for doing it to the fellow I had cornered up on the surface. Saffron clearly took this assault on Stable Four as an attack against him personally. I suspected the two mutilated raiders had used the same "I don't want to die" line as the bastard on the surface. Clearly these blockhead raiders had no concept of how much rage that line could raise in those who had been exposed to their ways. So once again the stable walls were being decorated with blood and blast patterns. I wondered if this stable was destined to be a permanent war zone. Then again, up on the surface was pretty much the same.
Saffron removed his helmet, and it did its origami trick, folding itself out of the way.
"That's it," he informed me as I approached. "Every last fucker outside the Level Eight sanctuary is history. I've already been down to the bottom of the stairs to Level Eight, but that door is still jammed shut. All vents and service passages are still shut. With the elevator off line, no raider can have got down to Level Nine or Ten, then worked their way back up to headquarters."
"Thank Celestia for that," I sighed with relief. "I'll reactivate the elevator from here, and we can go down."
"I'm going to head back to the surface and make sure no one else comes down," Saffron stated.
"We did leave an armed team up there," I informed him.
"I don't care. We are still too vulnerable until we lock up the barricade again. Assuming no one else has done so yet, I will attend to that myself," he insisted, turning and beginning the long climb back to the top levels. At least with him going up the stairs, I knew nopony would be coming down them uninvited. I refrained from offering him use of the elevator. Lana separated herself from our group and trotted after him. She had a wheelchair to retrieve.
"I'll go up and assist Saffron, and levitate him up to the surface if need be," Shadow stated. I jumped. Damn, that was one sneaky pony. I hadn't realized he'd been with us. I could almost imagine he had been in this room all along. If he hadn't been able to reach one of the safe areas, he was quite capable of hiding. I watched as he vanished into the gloom, then turned my attention to the nearby elevator.
Pressing my horn against the elevator controls, it only took me moments to project my magic through stable wiring, down to the circuit breaker a couple of levels below us. I closed the breaker, bringing power back on. I hit the call button. Not surprisingly, the elevator car was on Level Nine, so it didn't take long to reach us. Just in case, I brought my weapons to bear, but as expected, the car was empty when the doors opened. Immediately I stepped into it, followed by as many of the others that would fit, and we descended the two levels to Level Nine, walking and shuffling out as soon as the doors opened. Once out of the elevator, we went straight up the stairs to Level Eight. Of course our little group became somewhat separated at this point as the more mobile sprinted ahead, working our way to the room where we had the big battle with the robots. From there we entered the "shooting gallery" corridor that lead to headquarters itself, slowing as we did, calling out. Several heads appeared from around the familiar barricade, weapons in mouths. Recognizing us, the heads vanished, reappearing moments later sans weapons. There was a little cheering, and some of them moved out to meet us.
"Welcome home Anne! Welcome home Demi," Helvetica greeted us, shuffling around the barricade. She looked as well as the last time I had seen her, which was pretty good for such a severely handicapped mare. "Where's Lee?" she asked.
"She isn't with us this time," I answered, deciding to spare Helvetica the details for the moment. Even if my mother was dead, the Lee that Helvetica knew was "alive" despite her missing an epidermis (and all the organic material that went under it) at the moment. "What about you? Any fatalities or injuries?"
Helvetica shook her head. "Those who chose to take refuge down here made it without loss or injury. We disabled the breakers to prevent anyone gaining access short of unjamming or cutting through that door. What about those in the atrium?"
"Two losses, Violet and Ruby. Violet died. Ruby..." I started, beginning to choke up again.
Cherry Opal, Ruby's younger sister appeared from behind the barricade. "What happened to my sister?" she asked, her voice quivering and her eyes wide with apprehension.
Looking down at her, I barely held back my tears. "I'm sorry, Cherry Opal, but your big sister was taken away," I apologized.
"You mean she is dead, don't you?" Cherry Opal quietly voiced. "Why don't grown-ups just say dead when they mean dead?"
"Cherry Opal, I don't mean she is dead, because she was alive the last time I saw her. She really was taken away. Ruby was very badly hurt. An alicorn landed in front of me when I was trying to heal Ruby. I asked the alicorn if she could help. She said she could, and took Ruby with her. After that I don't know what happened, but we may never see Ruby again. I will need to go to the surface to find the alicorn soon. I will ask her about Ruby then."
The filly nodded, then turned, head hung low, and walked off. Her demeanor suggested she understood the situation all too well.
Several hours had passed and we were still cleaning up the stable. I was standing on the narrow strip of ground around the service elevator shaft, levitating the bodies of the raiders up, and over the barricade. Even in death they were a problem. We had to get rid of their stinking corpses, and by Celestia, did they stink! They reeked of death and decay even when they were alive, and now that the stable was smelling that much better than it had when we had first discovered it, we didn't want them stinking up the place. I watched as another mangled corpse floated up the shaft, reached out with my levitation magic, and grasped it. As soon as I had a good hold, Shadow's levitation magic stopped, allowing me to heave the thing over the wall and into the growing heap.
"We've got company, and they don't look too happy," a voice called from above me. Plummet was up the tower in the crow's nest. We'd had to levitate her up there, as she was incapable of climbing herself. I think she was enjoying being useful. I could see her orange face, framed by her strawberry and white mane, looking down through the access hatch at me.
"Who? More raiders?" I asked, moving to the stairs up to the crow's nest. I began my way slowly up them, hindered by my damaged body.
"I don't know," Plummet responded. "They look different, but they are too far away for me to be sure."
I could hear the approaching ponies getting louder as I finally made my way into the crows nest, moving around Plummet so I could look over the side at the approaching mob. A quick check of my E.F.S. showed a mass of markers flickering between red and amber. Angry, possibly, even probably hostile. That reminded me of ... what? When had I seen this E.F.S. behavior before. Oh, that's right, I was up in this very spot when the merchants had approached, angered at what they thought was a raider toll way being set up on this route. Could this be the same merchants? It was possible I guessed. After all, had not a caravan been hijacked here recently. Perhaps the colt was not the only survivor, or maybe their failure to arrive at their destination had alerted the others.
Again, I placed my forehooves on the railing around the crow's nest, putting myself in view as I looked out at the mob. This time my rifle Victory was not propped beside me. I didn't think she would be needed.
"Ponies, may we be of assistance?" I called to the mob.
A hush fell on them as they paused in their advance. Their designated spokespony took a step forward, and looked up at me for a few moments, before recognition painted itself across his face. "Oh, it's you, the pony we negotiated with the first time we were here. We heard that raiders had taken this stable," he replied, "so we gathered a posse in order to come and help those that live here. Can we be of assistance?"
"Thank you for your offer. Unfortunately, raiders did manage to take the stable while I was away for a few days, but we were able to retake it on my return," I responded.
"Ah, that is good to know. Most of us are merchants, not warriors!" he replied. "So avoiding a fight is always welcome. We were alerted when one of our caravans went missing in the area. Do you, perchance, know what happened to them?"
"Unfortunately, I do. We have placed their bodies around the other side of our barricade, and were planning to hold a funeral for them later today. Their son survived. Perhaps he may wish to return with you. It was he who alerted us to the problem. If you have any idea on how to deal with the corpses of seventeen raiders, we welcome your input!"
Out of respect for their fallen, the merchant posse first held funerals for their own. The graves were dug a short way from the travelled path, atop one of the many small hills. A few crudely fashioned gravestones were erected; names were engraved into the rocks salvaged from the area using my magic. Then, and only then did they turn their attention to our smelly problem. Between them and us it took several hours to excavate a deep enough pit to contain the bodies of the raiders. That done, we had to cover it over again after their bodies had been thrown in. In doing so, we created small hill. A marker was placed on top, not out of respect, but to warn others the ground was a grave site, thus unstable and prone to sinking.
Items that were recognizably taken from the killed merchant were gathered from around the upper levels of the stable and returned to the merchant's son. While the traders were here, a little trading was conducted, with us selling the spoils of the battle with the raiders for items we needed.
Among the spoils was another .32 pistol. I used parts from it to repair the weapon I had swindled from the colt earlier. He was going with the merchants, his goods piled on his back, his head held high in mock confidence. I called to him and beckoned for him to come over.
"Now, young fellow," I said to him, "I hope you learned something about guns in our earlier encounter."
He nodded, looking embarrassed.
"Good. Now, if you would be so kind, I'd like my 10mm bullet back. I'll swap you for your old gun. I've fixed it up for you, too. Now you have something to fire those .32 bullets you traded for before," I stated.
"Thank you," he responded, taking the offered pistol, and examining it before stashing it in his pack. He returned my 10mm bullet with a genuine smile.
"Just remember, never point a gun at a pony unless you intend to shoot them. Only use it to defend yourself. Get some practice in too."
"I will," he said, nodding. "My uncle can teach me. He shoots good."
"Your uncle?" I asked.
"Yeah. He's one of the merchants that came to help. That's why I'm going back with them," the colt explained.
"That's good to hear, kid. Maybe we'll trade with you again, some time in the future."
"Yeah. Until then, Miss." With that he turned and trotted off to catch up with the pony I assumed to be his uncle. I wouldn't say it was a happy ending to this unfortunate event, but it was satisfactory. And through the whole encounter we had never swapped names.
As it was getting dark, I returned to the stable, intent on finding myself a mattress. I was planning to stab myself with my horn and do a few repairs to my cyberframe with my magic. It was too bad that I required actual contact with the metal. I really could do without the need to gore myself every time something broke!
Demi fell in beside me as I shuffled towards my selected mattress, pulling a healing potion from her saddlebags. I hadn't said a thing. Together we settled on the mattress, and proceeded with the repairs.
The repair session could have gone a lot better. It seemed I would need to spend some more time in the auto-clinic at the Lab. My body was continuing to misbehave, despite the straightening and welding I had done to my cyberframe with my magic. The damage was obviously more than just structural. Walking all the way back to the Lab wasn't really possible as I was; I was down to one good leg! The solution was fairly obvious. A couple hours with my sculpting magic on the remains of a sentry bot that had already been partially converted into a wheelchair resulted in a chair that was suitable for my small frame. Gadget cast the required hookup spells so I could control the thing. Unlike the other wheelchairs, this one also had a front wheel to save me from trying to use my crippled foreleg. Now I was just one step away from being a brainbot!
Over the course of the next week we prepared for our next excursion to the Lab. Chicory and Helvetica were among the mares that were going this time. We were going to take the two trailers that Gadget had completed so far, and each could carry five ponies. Chicory's wheelchair was to tow one, while mine was to tow the other. My chair having three wheels went against the proposed use of our limited supply of wheels, but having access to the Lab made that less of an issue. We hoped we could have all of the mares mobile again before long. We hadn't found a new place to move to yet anyway, so it wasn't as if the whole stable worth of ponies was going to be migrating at once.
The lack of custom cybernetic parts would not be the problem I initially thought, as we had access to an extremely powerful metal forming tool. It had simply slipped my mind that the tool happened to be attached to my head. If the Lab couldn't produce a part, such as my missing leg 'bone', I could. Nonetheless, I was hoping that none of the mares would need any such parts. The auto-clinic should be able to break and reset bones where needed, and nerve implants such as those it had used on Lana should restore mobility to paralyzed limbs. How well that would work on a mares Helvetica's condition, time would tell. Even with control restored to her body, it had atrophied so badly that it would take months if not years of physiotherapy for her to be able to move properly again. A nasty thought occured to me: perhaps being converted to an alicorn would restore her body so much quicker, although at the cost of her mind. And thinking of alicorns, that one had not re-appeared yet. I had gone up to the surface each day for a quick look about. The ponies on watch told me they had seen nothing.
Other ponies in our little caravan included Shadow, who had volunteered to come along as the male representative, chief medico, and one of very few able bodied ponies. Demi was of course the other, unless you thought of her as a pegasus, in which case she was as crippled as the rest of us. Bubbles was coming with us in the hope that the auto-clinic could sample her genetic material then grow some new forelegs for her. Cybernetics would be no good because they wouldn't grow with her. She'd end up like me: permanently miniaturized, assuming the machine could even get the parts to fit in her tiny body. Cherry Sundae needed new eyes, and would serve as a second medical pony. Parsley, the other blind pony was being brought for the same reason, as well as needing other areas of her crippled body fixed. Her chance of being able to see with cybernetic eyes was greater than that for Cherry Sunday, as she had not been born blind. The remainder of the caravan were selected from among the other mares, some of the more combat capable, to serve as part of our defense measures, and some of the more crippled, simply because they needed the greatest amount of help. All up there were sixteen of us, with five mares on each trailer, two in wheelchairs pulling, three on foot, and one small filly riding Cherry Sundae.
Of course the day we were ready to set out, the heavens had decided to give the wastelands a good soaking. Again. Had it just been me, I would probably have set out anyway, because waiting for better weather, day, night or whatever simply wasn't my style. I would get nothing done if I waited for favorable conditions. So while we waited for the weather to improve, I was out in the worst of it, helping Gadget upgrade the trailers to have roofs. The roofs were not anything spectacular - just some sheets of metal we had salvaged from the abandoned subway car held aloft by several metal poles from the same source. The trailers already had walls that were just high enough to give the ponies some protection if they ducked or were lying down.
As we were finishing the roofs, the downpour finally abated, only to be replaced with drizzle. At least our efforts were not wasted! Rain was still rain. That was when I decided it was time to set out. I was done with waiting. As we returned to Level One, I blasted the water out of my coat and barding with my cleaning spell, and helped Gadget to dry off too.
Over a dozen pairs of eyes stared at us as we descended the stairs into the atrium, each pair belonging to a pony that was ready to go but patiently waiting. All of the ponies making the trip had already been dressed in stable security barding where possible, or had their cladding armored where not. Waterproof hoods and capes were fashioned from the materials taken from the subway car's seats. A synthetic material, it had been protected with spells to prevent constant use by the public from wearing the seats out. That made it damn hard to cut too! In the end we had been forced to use magic to make the capes, and that of course fell to me and my material manipulating magic, as if I wasn't busy enough already. Thinking back, it was easy to see why it had taken a week to prepare!
"Right, folks," I announced, "the weather had gone from impossible to just plain old miserable, so we are good to go."
"Yay," someone quietly said.
Goodbyes were said to the ponies who were seeing us off, and we all shuffled and struggled up the stairs, or into the elevator for the short trip up to Level One. There was no pushing or shoving; the Stable Four experiment really had produced the most wonderfully cooperative ponies. It was too bad that the hell up on the surface had not had the same effect on the general population.
Once out of the stable and in the service elevator shaft, ponies with enough mobility to use the little elevator to the surface queued for their turn to be carried up to ground level. The levitation capable unicorns, myself included, lifted the supplies and equipment up and over the barricade, into our little staging area. Rusty had climbed up into the crow's nest and was guiding the items safely to the ground once they passed out of our line of sight. Clearly our little fortress needed some expansion. A protected assembly and staging area would be good! We were too vulnerable outside the barricade while we were busy with packing and loading our trailers. At the moment we were making do with Saffron standing guard from the crow's nest. I gave him a wave. The armored figure returned my greeting.
When all of the supplies that needed to be lifted were up on the ground, the unicorns started levitating ponies up instead. I was one of the first to be lifted. Once top-side, I shuffled out and set about strapping myself in my wheelchair. Chicory had been one of the first up the elevator, and her wheelchair had already been coupled to her trailer. Some of the mares were already in the trailers too, stowing their goods and making themselves comfortable.
As I watched the other ponies, I again contemplated the construction of the walled staging area. A good idea would be to build a little market area like the one Red Tape had at the Lab. That would be needed if trade was going to be successful. There was no reason those from outside the stable should ever be allowed into it, unless the mares decided to do something crazy like running a hotel, so the more ways we had of keeping outsiders out, the better. A two stage entry with a shooting gallery would be another improvement. The single door currently in our barricade left the stable too vulnerable. Of course if we did find a better place for the mares to live, all this was moot.
Helvetica struggled into the trailer and took up position immediately behind me. She leaned over for a quick chat. Apparently Gadget had cast an interface spell that would allow Helvetica to drive it should we need to separate the wheelchair and the trailer, something we were not inclined to do considering that my wheelchair was providing nearly half of the pulling power. While we were talking, I related some of my ideas for the stable to Helvetica. Her position as official recorder may have been over, yet somehow she still seemed to have a little more sway than others, even in a stable where all were equal. If someone was going to take control of the project, she was a good mare to choose.
"We all appear to be on board," Helvetica informed me.
"Good stuff," I responded. "It's time to get this show on the road!"
Footnote: Progress to next level: Divide by zero error. Perk:
Special thanks to the team of proof readers.
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Awwww yaaaa Ive been waiting for this to update, its sad to hear about the mare taken by the alicorn, though hopefully she will be return to them after the day of rainbows with her mind returned.
yay finally they are getting the crippled ones cybernetics been looking towards it for a while good chapter
Well, since the attack on Stable Two has been mentioned, I guess chances are quite good that Ruby's mind won't be too far gone by the time the Goddess croaks. Hang in there, kitten!
puppeh feels that this story will have its resident pretty princess soon
1902898
Every story has to have a pretty princess somewhere! There are just so many of them!!!
Oh, Puppeh, how is Lee doing up there in pony heaven with you?
Dammit. Another side story I have to read. I have things I have to do, too, you know?
I'll read this if I get around to it. I still have to finish reading The Divide, and then I have to get around to New Roam, Shattered Gleam, and The Last Sentinel. All while writing my own.
"Progress to next level: Divide by zero error." Wahahahaha!!! Good one!
Alright, I'm finally caught up on this story. And all I have to say is that this one is pretty awesome. Still think Leebot looks like a pony terminator, though...
2134275
Exactly. She was at maximum level possible with her then current life style. She didn't get any perks either, so none was specified. Then she got some downloadable content (the new adventure) so she can level again.
2142425
Just wait!!! Magic explosions!
2145523
But I ain't that good at drawing! Limbs should be more skeletal, likewise the hips area, but the ribcage area is enclosed by a flexible bullet resistant membrane.
Saved you from coming up with names, hm? Author laziness disguised as deep thoughts
Just one more wheel
oh, in "project horizons" this really happened...
Isn't that the way a horrible cannibal-bloodlust virus started circulating in Blackjack's stable?
Hey, at least that means they made a positive contribution to the wasteland in the end
Myeeeah, that theory is only sound until you realise diseases can spread
Actually, did they ever figure out where that smell came from? I don't think that was ever mentioned
Is there by any chance exposed metal sticking out of your right foreleg?
Yes, you definitely need more maintenance