Fallout: Equestria. We're no Heroes

by otherunicorn

Chapter 7: Clubbing, Stable Four style

Chapter 7: Clubbing, Stable Four style
"War may never change, but its methods do vary somewhat."

Having indicated that the other mares should wait, I advanced slowly on the two robots Saffron had shot. Their build was as piecemeal as the ponies they were fighting. Bits of stable wall plates, parts that looked like they were from toasters, blenders, hot plates, whatever they could get their manipulators on, had been used in their repairs and modifications. From a nexus point below their sort of spherical, sort of boxish core, each had a number of arms, equipped with various tools or weapons, including a rotary blade, an energy weapon of some sort, a couple of claw manipulators and a club; there was no other way to describe it - about 4 hooves long, half a hoof diameter and made of metal. It could have no other use but bashing ponies. That was just so... wrong. I recognized it as something that some of the ponies were using to bash robots too. I did wonder why the ponies were not using the Robot's energy weapons, then realized it was probably the same old problem that plagued them - not enough resources. They would only have the small number of energy cells they retrieved from the occasional robot, and they probably had better things to do with the energy cells they salvaged, like powering a pony's cladding until such a time as they could acquire another spark battery.

As for the robots themselves, I recognized their basic form as a robot I had occasionally assisted repairing, but years of jury rigged repairs had morphed these into something else. I wondered how many robots could still be operational after all these years of abuse. Using my magic I reached out to them, penetrating them via the bullet holes, searching around for ruptures in the levitation system or the spark battery. The last thing we needed was for more of these things to explode. I felt smashed circuitry in the penetrated areas, but nothing that was likely to detonate. Feeling along the wiring, I located the spark battery in each, and severed the connections. That would stop them setting themselves on fire. I levitated the deactivated robots back along the corridor to the technically inclined, who practically pounced on them in their crippled, could hardly move kind of way.

And that left Saffron. Or more to the point, that left us, with Saffron somewhere up ahead. Hiding myself as well as I could in a corridor fairly devoid of cover, I moved to the door switch and hit the open button, hoping that it wasn't locked remotely, or from the other side. It was. Typical. Oh well, if this stopped me after that monster door we had to open to get in here, I needed my butt kicked. At least I could detect power was actually present this time. I leaned my horn against the switch box, and projected my magic inside. The power supply was simply disconnected from the button. The robots must be disabling doors to prevent any pony advancement. I soon repaired the connection with my magic, then gave the button another shove. The door slid into the ceiling. Good. Now to find Saffron.

I crept through the door, and into the moderate sized room beyond. Immediately I could see the effect of Saffron's first grenade. Things had been scattered all over the place, furniture, books, mugs and cups, even the occasional clipboard. Why the ponies weren't making their barricades out of those damn near indestructible things, I didn't know. Hmm, maybe they weren't actually tough enough to survive a direct assault. The one thing I wanted to see in this carnage was missing. There were no trashed robots. I crept in further, scanning the area again, and saw what looked like robot limb sticking out from behind an overturned table. Keeping it in my sights, I tried levitating it. This end of it was free to move, but the other was clearly attached to something, most likely the rest of the robot. There was no reaction, so I crept right up to the table and looked behind it. Sure enough, there was the rest of it, smashed and looking frail and unthreatening. They seemed so much bigger when they were operational. Again I used my magic to have a quick poke around inside it, disconnecting the spark battery. I took the time to levitate it up and move it through the doorway to the corridor from which I had come, dumping it just inside. I heard a couple of clangs as some items were thrown at it. Oops. I guess a pony levitated robot doesn't look all that different from a self levitating one, even if it is all dangly and limp! If there was a next time, I'd have to levitate it upside down.

Now, where had Saffron gone? There were three other exits from this room, and there was no visual indication as which direction he had taken. All of the doors were open. Okay, so sight doesn't work. What about sound? I moved towards the center of the room, as that positioned me between all of the door ways, and slowly rotated myself, listening. When you are trying to hear something specific, the most obvious sounds are the background noises your brain usually filters out, and stables were anything but truly quiet. Down the corridor which I had come were also a lot of noises, as a couple of ponies cautiously made their way up to the fallen robot I had left them, and dragged it off. Of course they would drag it, and drag their hooves as well, not that they were capable of doing otherwise. I turned my back on them, that being the one direction I would not expect Saffron, or robots, to be.

Off to my left I heard a couple of muffled explosions. Okay, that was likely to be Saffron. Following that, there was the rhythmic beat of an armor clad pony galloping, a couple of thuds that resonated through the walls - probably him bashing into them while trying to corner at speed, then more sounds of galloping. I turned to face that way, readying my weapons. The galloping grew louder, then from around a corner, or a zigzag, if how little he slowed was any indication, Saffron appeared, running as hard as he could, and looking back over his shoulder, which was unfortunate, because he did not see me. He plowed into me, making the room spin. Well, actually it was me spinning, but from my point of view, it was the room. Saffron faltered in his headlong charge, regained his footing, and vanished down the right corridor as I whacked into the wall not far from the door way. I doubted he even realized what it was he had hit.

I tried to regain my hooves, but my balance wasn't obliging me. If something had Saffron running that hard, I didn't want to be here when it arrived, and that would be very soon. I could hear the whining of motors and squeals of tires of his pursuers. Okay, one, two, three, up! Oops. I failed at my second attempt to right myself as two somewhat heavier sentry robots powered into the room. The first fired its energy weapon at me as it passed, and every nerve in my flesh became fire. Some form of stun gun. Okay that wasn't standard issue. If I wasn't more machine than pony, I had no doubt I would have been rendered immobile. As it was, my mechanical body allowed me to fire my combat shotgun at the second of the sentry robots, not that it was any more effective than a rude gesture would have been. That bot merely veered from its course just enough to ram me and send be back against the wall. As my hold on reality started slipping away, I again fought to regain my footing, the screams from my nervous system making it very hard to feel anything useful, such as where my hooves were. I may as well have saved myself the effort, because as soon as I was more or less up, several of the floaty, spider robots flew into the room, and decided to go clubbing, with me as the venue.

I was still to stunned to feel anything but dull blows, for which I was grateful. As my brain struggled with consciousness, the beating became a part of my environment, unpleasant, but something that could be ignored for the moment, as there were things I needed to do, like get to my hooves. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have realized the best course of action would have been to stay down, and pretend to be unconscious, but no, being the confused idiot I was, I defiantly stood, and tried to force my way past the robots. A hard whack against my rump knocked my rear legs out from under me, and I half sat, half collapsed onto my butt. In my E.F.S. I noticed that my shotgun was now conveniently pointing more or less at the center of the robot immediately in front of me, so I let it have it. First shot. Wow, that left a little collection of dents. Cool! Second shot. Tearing. I made some tears in its casing. Yay! Third shot. Woo-hoo. Penetra.. pene... penetration! Eat that you fucking metal balloon on toothpicks. Fourth shot. Oh that wasn't me. I hadn't pulled the trigger yet. Wow look at all the pretty colors. I think I'll, shoo, soot, shoot that one. Whoa, nelly. The pretty one looks like a pony. Maybe I won't... Thud. Oh, the floor. How did I get down here? Oh, that feels better. The clubbing has stopped. I think it has stopped. I can't feel it anymore any way. Hmm, this bluish metal thing I'm lying on is pleasantly soft. Who knew they could make soft metal floors. May as well take a nap while I'm here. Oh, that's right. I'm meant to be fighting robots, or something. Damn, what's with all these gunshots? I've stopped shooting. I don't want to shoot the pretty ponies. Damn, that noise is keeping me awake. Oh, no it isn't......

---

The stench gradually worked itself into my awareness, as did the gnawing hollowness in my gut. There was a foul taste in my mouth, and the clubbing was back. Too many impacts to count, and all of them at once. Wow, that hurt. But there was more. A softness, both above and below, and it felt a lot softer than that floor had, even at its most luxurious. I could hear the general murmur of ponies chatting, doing ordinary sorts of things, as well as the assorted whirring and clicking of exoskeletons. Okay, that was good, as it meant I was a battered wreck among friends instead of the somewhat less desirable battered wreck among foes. I forced open an eye. The other one didn't seem that interested in responding. The wonderful thing about cybernetic eyes is they don't rely solely on your brain to focus them, so even when you are totally out of it, you can still see in remarkably sharp focus. I was focused on that aqua mare who had been watching me so intently when I first arrived. What was her name again? Lana.

"A particular somepony is awake," Lana announced. That initiated a burst of activity around me, including the sudden removal of my feathered blanket, as its owner stood, and moved around into my field of vision.

"Hello Anne," Demi said gently, "How do you feel?"

"Pfft," I managed.

"Well, that's a start," she said, her voice expressing concern. "Can you be a little more specific?"

"I hurt from one end to the other," I slurred, raising my head a fraction to get the mattress out of my mouth... Yuck!

"That's wonderful!" somepony exclaimed. The speaker moved into my view. The pink and purple of Helvetica. She looked great for a cripple in wrapped in cobbled together junk. There was certainly more life to her than the last time I had seen her up. I guess the healing potion had done its work. Speaking of which, with the way I felt...

"I'm pretty sure about this, but you didn't waste our last healing potion on me, did you?" I queried. If they had, I couldn't imagine what I would have felt like before receiving it.

The answer came from Saffron. "Nope. With what you told me about yourself, I figured you would recover without it this time, but I have to admit we didn't expect it to take this long to regain consciousness. You weren't bleeding badly. Mostly it was just bruising and swelling. The others argued for it though, with how long you were out. It would have been near impossible to get it into you though. We barely managed to get you to swallow a little water. Demi does have a little something for you now, though." I guess the secret of his gender was blown. Hey - he was okay!

"You sure are one tough filly," another mare stated. Rosemary? "After a beating like that one, I'm amazed you survived."

"Is everyone else okay?" I asked, trying to glance around, finding my bandaged eye and position near the floor somewhat restricted my view to only the few ponies near me - the others that had been recently injured.

"Thankfully, yes," Rosemary replied. "None of us got any more than a bruise or two this time."

"And, Helvetica, why is it wonderful that I hurt from one end to the other? " I asked, my eye seeking out hers.

"When I woke from my first beating, my back half didn't hurt at all. Just my front half did," she explained. "I thought I was okay..."

"Ah, I see where you are coming from. This must be one of those few occasions when pain is good. Well, relatively speaking." Well, good for an ordinary pony, maybe. All it indicated to me was the nervous system of my organic coating was still working, even after being hit by that electrical discharge beam. I figured the cybernetics underneath should be fine. I guess it was time to test out that theory. I began to rise, and that just about caused a mass panic in the stable dwellers around me.

"Whoa girl, take it easy!" Rosemary warned, "You may still have some serious injuries!"

"I'll be fine," I responded through gritted teeth as my bruised outer layer reminded me of all the impacts. I stood despite her objections.

"Are you made of metal or something?" Rosemary asked, seeing that I was managing quite well.

"Yes."

"Huh?" she voiced.

"Yes, I am made of metal." I said, returning my attention to my battered body. Having got to my hooves, the most annoying sensation was coming from my shortened foreleg. Simply put, it wanted out! I initiated the release sequence on my Pipgirl, and the armor on both fore legs, gently rearing to free myself from them. A quick look down showed that my one and a half fore legs had survived pretty well, but there was evidence of a blister or two. That would explain the annoyance they were expressing. I carefully activated my cleaning spell, and forced all the accumulated sweat and grime from them, then gently guided the spell up around the more painful areas, in other words, the rest of me, cleaning the areas that weren't obstructed by bandages, such as my right eye.

Helvetica was staring at my amputation. Clearly that was not what she had expected to find under my "cladding".

"Perhaps I should have said that I couldn't feel my fore leg," I commented to her, "it being missing and all."

She opened her mouth to say something, paused, then shut it again. Score one, Anne, not that we were competing.

Demi snuggled up beside me, closer than she usually could when we were standing, the battle saddle usually being in the way. I wondered how that had fared. Demi wrapped her wing around me again, hugging me gently. "I was so worried," she said. From her intonation, I could tell she wasn't just paying me lip service.

"Demi has been caring for you for two days straight," Saffron told me.

"What?" Two days? I had been out cold for two days! That must have been one heck of a beating I had received. I guess my poor old organic brain didn't like the shaking. "I did hear you right, didn't I? Two days?"

"Yup. Two whole days. You've just missed the daily feed for the second time running."

"That would make it three meals I've missed," I muttered. No wonder I felt hungry. At the moment even that nasty yeast extract was appealing. "The robots interrupted my first meal. I really could do with a drink too."

"As I was saying, Demi looked after you pretty much the whole time, only leaving you when she had to. And when she wasn't administering to you, she was sleeping by you, keeping you warm with her wing." Saffron told me. Yes, that sounded like the Demi I was getting to know.

"Thank you, Demi," I said to the filly that was hugging me. "I really do appreciate it. I really do... like it... a lot."

Demi blushed, and looked down.

"Come on Demi, show Anne." Saffron suggested. Show me what?

Demi blushed harder, if that was possible, and fidgeted nervously.

"Don't be shy about it. It's something to be proud of. It's better than mine," Saffron stated.

Demi retracted her wing and took a step forward. Reaching back, she shyly pulled up the rear of her barding. A cutie mark! A few days with us and she had her cutie mark, and it was a cute one too. It showed a stylized pony sleeping, protected by a feathered blanket. I looked closer. Oh. It wasn't just a pony. It was this pony. It was me. I blushed too. Rearing up, I wrapped my forelegs around her and gave her a big hug. "So sweet," I whispered into her ear, "just like the wonderful pony it is on. It's lovely. I hope you like it."

She nodded, shyly smiling. That was a relief. Her shyness was about my acceptance of her new cutie mark, not about her being embarrassed by it. And Saffron thought it was better than his? Well, considering that he had deemed its having an eye patch as prophetic to his current condition, that was understandable.

"I'm a little puzzled," Rosemary said. "I've seen Demi fawning over you for two days, yet watching you two now, I don't get the two-kids-in-love vibe. It's more... mother - daughter..."

Demi blushed again, then said, "We aren't lovers, but I think Anne is the best mare in the whole world." Wow. That was some pedestal she had put me on!

Rosemary looked at me kind of sideways, through squinting eyes. "You are a bundle of contradictions, girl. You say you are made of metal, but clearly you are flesh. You're a filly, but they call you a mare, and you speak and act with the authority and experience of an adult, of a commander."

"You haven't filled them in?" I asked Saffron.

"Nope," he replied, "That is your prerogative." Fair enough. He was considerate as well.

Returning my attention to the mares, I addressed them. "I'm rather like you girls actually," I said, "and Helvetica, I do know what it's like to have your spinal cord severed, as it happened to me about nineteen years ago." Her shade of pink turned to a shade of red. "I am a trained combat cyborg from Stable Lab Four."

That brought a cacophony of questions and a few wary glances as the mares around me competed for my attention .

"So how old are you then?"

"This is Stable Four, so are you from here? I thought you said you came down the supply shaft. Is there more to this stable than we know about?"

"So are you really made of metal?"

"What happened to your leg?"

"You can't be more than fifteen? If you are, why haven't you aged?"

Too much at once. I was feeling very tired again. Demi immediately dropped a bowl of the black yeast extract in front of me. This must be what Saffron said Demi had for me.

"Eat it. It will do you the world of good," Demi instructed. The other mares fell quiet for the moment. None moved off but Demi, who returned moments later with a well used bottle containing what looked to be very clean water. The stable's water talisman was still operational.

I looked at the yeast extract. What choice did I have? Breaking out our regular supplies in front of these mares would be so unfair to them. Hell, at this point, even the yeast extract was rather appealing, if for no other reason than it would appease one of my physical annoyances. I gave it a lick. It didn't taste quite like I remembered. There was something... odd... about it. I trusted Demi, so I continued to lick at the paste. With each successive lick, my pain subsided. Okay, now I recognized that flavor. There was healing potion mixed into the extract.

"Where did you get this miracle ingredient?" I whispered to her.

"I got it from Saffron's suit. He had enough to spare a little and keep some in reserve for himself," she explained, "and before you ask, it's not even a quarter of a dose, but that is all his suit would give us. The healing spell matrix refused to give up any more."

"Oh, I'm an idiot!" I whispered back. "I have a couple more doses I took from Saffron's old suit. They are hidden away in my battle saddle. They are just in odd bottles. That may be two more ponies we can save."

I drank some of the water, then returned my attention to the bowl. Seeing that I was not going to answer their questions for the moment, the mares turned their attention to Demi.

"How long have you known Anne? Why is she the best mare in the world?" somepony asked. Hmm, that was something I'd like to know myself!

Demi blushed again. "I've know her for about five days," she admitted, and that brought a few expressions of surprise. "As to why she's the best mare in the world, she saved me. First, her team saved me from slavers, but anypony could have done that and it wouldn't have made much difference to me. What Anne did was to save me from myself. Before her, I had never met a pony that accepted me for what I was, or embraced me for who I was. Even when I was a prickly ball of self pity and hate, she showed me true kindness...."

Wow. My simple act of caring for another pony, and making sure she had the chance to keep on living impressed her that much? Seeing that she was lost, I had offered her a place in the world - in my world. I thought back to the event for a moment. What had I done exactly? I had made her some barding, barding with provision for her to expose or hide her single wing as she saw fit - acceptance for what she was. I had not argued with her view on life, had not told her to get her act together. I had given her some basic supplies. Given: no payment required, no favors to be called in. Perhaps the most important, I had given her an anchor in the storm of her life after being abandoned by her parents. I had given her hope. She was a complex filly, very perceptive and intelligent. I concentrated on licking my meal, so the others wouldn't notice just how red I was getting, though I did lean gently into Demi when she moved alongside me again.

"Wow, fast turn around," somepony commented. "Five days. What do you mean for what you are? A pegasus? There's nothing wrong with being a pegasus that I know of. Is it different out there?"

"I'm not a pegasus," Demi admitted quietly. "My parents are earth ponies, and I was born with a single wing." Well, that was an improvement on Demi's part. Last time she had to explain that, she was a screaming ball of rage!

"Anne's good at that, saving people from themselves," Saffron interjected, "I guess you could say I'm Saffron Fields the Second. You wouldn't want to have met Saffron Fields the First."

"Your... father?" one of the mares asked.

He shook his head. "Nope, I'm referring to the bastard I was before I met Anne." I noticed he did not go on to describe the details of that meeting!

As the conversation progressed, it became apparent that I didn't miss much during my two days asleep. My party were deferring to me as their leader, and if any information was going to be shared about us, it was going to be with me present and conscious.

"So, Anne, would you care to answer our questions... please. We'd like to know," Helvetica said, interrupting my stream of thought.

"Hmm. I'm thirty four. I bet you didn't see that one coming! I really am a cyborg, which is why am still so small. I still have flesh, but a lot of my body, my skeleton for example, is artificial. Cyborg bodies don't grow. I was fifteen when I was converted. Don't ask, but that was when I was paralyzed. More recently, my leg was blown off by a raider."

"What's a raider?" Rosemary asked.

"A raider is a pony who behaves like the robots in this stable do," I answered. Close enough. The comment made some of the mares shiver visibly. If they were ever going to leave this place, it was information they needed to know. That brought up an interesting point. What exactly was I going to do about the situation down here? My primary purpose was to get out of here so I could take Loopy Lee back to Stable Lab Four, to hopefully restore my mother. To do that, I had to fight robots. As there were other ponies these robots were threatening, the decent thing to do would be to destroy all of the robots, not to just fight my way out. Would these ponies want to stay in this hell hole, even with the robots out of the picture? Maybe. It was their home after all. More likely, they would jump... er... stagger enthusiastically at the chance to leave. If they did leave, and I went my own way, how long would they last? They were tough. They were fighters. They were also completely clueless as to the ways of the wasteland. They were way too trusting to last long. That meant I had to take them with me. Where to? Stable Lab Four? Maybe, if it had survived. In that case, I would need to overthrow those in charge, and that was a big ask. There had to be somewhere else. Friendship City perhaps? They had good doctors there. Maybe they could even help with Loopy if Stable Lab Four was a bust. That led to the next problem. How does one get a stable full of cripples to travel? I still didn't know how many ponies were down here.

"Anne, where is this lab you came from?" Rosemary asked. "This is Stable Four. We know of no lab, other than the one in robotics. Anne? Anne?"

"Oh, sorry. Deep in thought," I responded. "We came from the surface, like I said before. Lee and I have been wandering around up there for fifteen years. Before that, we escaped from Stable Lab Four, and no, it's not this stable. It was a top secret stable that was never open to the public. Our ancestors were already living in it when the megaspells went off."

"That's a little confusing. Two Stable Fours? "

"You don't say!" I agreed. "Until just now, I didn't know if Stable Four and Stable Lab Four were two separate places, or just two names for the same place. I knew the history of my own stable, and what it was called, but I couldn't find anything on whether a Stable Four existed. It also implies there must be at least three other Stable Labs too, may Celestia have mercy of the souls of any ponies in those."

"Now that is a scary thought," Lee interjected, "not that I can remember anything about your stable... er... our stable."

"Oh, hello Lee," I said to the mare who had just toddled over on her rear legs. She had gone bipedal again.

"So how are you, kid? You took quite the beating before I could rescue you," she said. So the pretty pony with the gun had been Lee. Of course it had been Lee. Who else had a shotgun? No one.

"So what happened out there?" I asked, reaching up with my shortened leg to feel around my bandaged eye. I must have been badly bruised or cut for them to bandage it. "And can I take this bandage off now?"

"It should be okay," Demi agreed, and began to lip at the knot holding the bandage in place.

"I think I was what happened out there," Saffron admitted. "Sorry, but I'm pretty sure I collided with you on the way through, which somewhat stuffed up what I was trying to achieve. I was rather hoping you would shoot the bastards that were following me! After I blasted the first few floaty robots, I followed one that turned tail, which wasn't my smartest move. It led me into an ambush with those bloody sentry robots, and once they were behind me, all I could do was run. My weapons all face forward!"

"I was already sneaking up the corridor after you, Anne, when Saffron went through, so I started shooting as soon as I saw what was going on. Some of the others came out too, and between us we bashed and shot seven floaty robots to junk," Lee added.

"What about the sentries?" I asked as the bandage fell away. I was relieved to be able use binocular vision again. Wait a moment! Sentry robots in a stable? What the hell did a stable need sentry robots for? The floaty things were originally intended for domestic service, so their presence was easily explained, but sentry robots were machines of war. Was there something to defend down here? Was the robot revolution planned?

"With the floaters out of the way, the sentries became manageable - just. Bits and pieces of them are over in the corner with the rest of the salvage," Saffron finished.

"And I'm making a new weapon from them!" Lee exclaimed, holding up a coil with her hoof. Eh?

"How are you holding that, Lee?" I asked.

"Well, duh, I'm holding it in my hand. How else?" she replied, as if it was totally obvious. The only thing that was totally obvious was that she was completely nuts... and the universe seemed to be prepared to humor her. I took a closer look, and could only just make out the slight honey tint to parts of the coil. Magic. Her horn was barely glowing. If you weren't looking for it, you wouldn't notice, even in this poor light. She must be subconsciously using her magic to create an alien body that only she could see... and apparently use.

"Too much," I muttered. "I think I'll go back to being unconscious for a while. Please excuse me." I carefully lowered myself back onto the vile mattress. Kneeling there, I activated my cleaning magic, using it on the section of the mattress on which I wished to lay my head. It proved difficult, as the mattress itself was so aged it threatened to disintegrate if the blood and grime binding it was removed. I was just about to give up in disgust when I realized I was approaching the problem the wrong way. My horn lit up, as I brought up my material repair spell and focused it on the ailing mattress. The accumulated gore and grime were restructured into inorganic, non-odorous materials, the iron component going into repairing the rusty wires and springs inside the mattress, while the remainder I combined with the old covering to create a new, soft, quilted one. The color was a little odd, but hey, it was clean, it was fresh, and me and my favorite blanket were going to use it.

I lay down on my nice new bed to the sounds of amazement coming from those dwellers around me.

"We so need to learn that spell," I heard one of the stable dwellers comment.

"At least we know who to talk to when we redecorate," I heard Saffron say.

I hoped he wasn't planning to stay here. I hoped... yawn. The mattress wobbled a little as Demi lay down beside me, snuggling up. "I love you," she whispered. Well, I think she said it, because by then I may have been dreaming. I loved her too. She was becoming the child I could never have. Now that Lee was only the shell of my mother, a stranger residing within, Demi was becoming the most precious pony in my life.

---

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: Lateral thinking. When dealing with problems, alternative solutions sometimes make themselves obvious.

Comments

I am loving this story. Especially the character of Demi. However it seems a bit quick for her to be spouting "I love you" to Anne.

[Fallen Knight]

96491

Not really since she considers Anne her mother more then her real one, she probably always wanted to say that so now that she has someone who cares for her she can.

Awesome chapter,and wonder what the goal of this stables experiment is, probably how ponies would develop without leadership,in a hostile environment (since just without leadership KKat did in her story )

[otherunicorn]

96491
Don't forget what context I put it in - Anne isn't sure if it was real or dreamed.

[Arcane Scroll]

Another great chapter and such a cute image!

[Arcane Scroll]

97777
Also, I gotta say, best chapter title ever!

[otherunicorn]

97781
>best chapter title ever!
:)

97284

Oh sorry. I didn't pick up on that when I first read it somehow... -.- (I can be an idiot at times)

On a different note, did you draw the picture in the story?

[otherunicorn]

105610

Yes, I do my own art in the story.

[Turtledude]

106413

Muahahahah! Same here, except I post mine outside the story (in the comments)