Fallout: Equestria. We're no Heroes

by otherunicorn

Chapter 8: Unbalanced

Chapter 8: Unbalanced.
"The conditions for victory are (error: undefined variable)."

Once again I woke to the sounds of exoskeleton clad ponies going about their business. My Pipgirl indicated it was morning, not that it made a lot of difference to the environment in Stable Four. The general gloom never changed. As far as I could tell, the only fixed point in the day of these mares was meal distribution, and that only occurred once a day. Each mare would then either eat their bowl of gloop all at once, or ration their portion out over the course of the day. For some, that meal came at the end of their waking hours, while for others it was part way though, or just after they had woken. As for me, I had managed only one meal in the last three days. I wondered if my first unfinished meal was still about. Probably not. I glanced back at Demi to see if she was awake yet. She was looking back at me, so evidently she was.

"Morning, Anne," she greeted me as she withdrew her wing, and tucked it into the pocket on her barding.

"Do you like the pocket?" I asked. "It doesn't chafe your wing at all?"

"No. Actually it's great to be able to simply rest it somewhere," she replied. Good. I didn't need to worry about her using it out of obligation.

"Been awake long?" I asked.

"No, but I don't mind the lying in!" she smiled. "How do you feel now?"

"That is a good question. I've not actually thought about it, so that must mean I'm not too bad. Hang on a moment," I said as I struggled to my hooves. Apart from the usual inconvenience of being three legged, there seemed to be nothing wrong. "All appears to be fine. That miracle ingredient and a good sleep seem to have restored me to my usual self."

"Wonderful!" Demi quietly squeaked, her face showing delight.

I looked around. Mares were lying about on various mattresses. Others were guarding the door. Lee and another mare were messing around with the salvaged junk. The other mare was building an exoskeleton while Lee was building something that clearly wasn't one. Saffron was taking a nap. I couldn't see Rosemary or Helvetica, so they had to be off in the other sections I hadn't seen yet, or in the filly's room. Next to me, still lying on a filthy mattress was the aqua mare, Lana. She was awake, and watching me again.

"Lana, can you be moved?" I asked. "You’re paralyzed, aren't you? Do you have a broken back?"

Lana slowly shook her head. "I got zapped once too often. Some of my nerves are fried. I can't move my rear legs at all."

"Can you stand if I hold up your rear end?" I asked.

"I guess so. Why?"

"Is a nice clean mattress of any interest?"

Lana didn't wait for me to say another word, struggling to get her self upright and her front hooves under her. Using my magic, I assisted, levitating her rear as she walked her front half over to my mattress. Before lowering her to the mattress, I activated my cleaning spell, and gave her a once-over.

"Wow," she said quietly. "That felt wonderful, and this mattress feels so luxurious!" She settled into it like it was an old friend.

"Unfortunately, I don't have the strength to clean all of the mattresses at once," I explained to her, as others looked on with envy, "but I will do so when I can."

Turning my attention to the mattress Lana had just vacated, I brought up my material repair spell. Once again the accumulated gore and grime were chemically restructured and incorporated into the mattress, turning the disgusting thing into another nice, fresh, clean one. That done, I levitated my armored legs and Pipgirl over, and put them on.

"Lana, how often do the robots attack?" I asked.

"It's sort of random, though the longest gap between attacks is usually only three or four days, so I'd say they were due to attack again soon. Some times we even get two or three attacks all in a row," she replied.

Wonderful. The randomness would never let these mares relax. How many years had they had to hold up their guard? All of their lives, no doubt.

"How many robots usually attack at once, and how often do you manage to destroy one?" I asked.

"Usually it is only a few robots that attack at once. Maybe three or four of them," Lana replied. "It is rare for us to destroy one or damage one enough for us to salvage it. Usually we only manage to batter them a little before we are defeated, and any robot that we may have damaged is taken away by the others."

The robots had been having an unusually bad week, with the explosions before we arrived, and their losses since. Now, would that make things better or worse? I guess we would soon find out.

My next problem was to work out some sort of strategy get the mares out of here, and that would mean getting rid of the robots. At this point I was assuming the mares would want to leave. That was a good point. I should ask them. Helvetica was probably as good a pony as any to ask, as her task as the Recorder would give her insight into the opinions of all of the ponies here. She could also tell me the pony numbers, and how many foals there were. I also wanted to get a look at Helvetica's supply computer, which was also presumably where she recorded the stable's history. Hmm, I wondered if she would let me see that. No doubt she would have been recording things about me there too, and if there was any suspicion, which I doubted, they wouldn't want me reading that.

I looked down at Lana. Heck, I may as well ask her. "Lana, how many ponies live down here?"

"There are forty six mares and five fillies, and three filly-foals," she replied. Talk about creating a genetic dead end. Even if their stallion had survived, their gene pool was too small. I really hoped I could find something about the hidden purpose of this Stable. So far it was defying my mind's attempts to explain it.

"How many originally moved into this stable? Do you know?"

"Umm... Helvetica would be the best to ask, because she can look it up, but I think it was a thousand or two," Lana replied.

One or two thousand? That would make this a large stable! Stable Lab Four only ever supported around five hundred ponies at any time. So asking Helvetica was going to be the best option after all.

"Do you know where Helvetica went?" I asked.

"Down there, turn right, follow it to the end and turn left," Lana directed, with a nod of her head to one of the doorways. "The recording room."

"Thanks," I replied. As no objection had been lodged, I assumed I was free to walk down there. "Coming, Demi?"

The hallway down to the recording room was like much of the rest of what I had seen of this stable, with grimy and charred paint, indicating that there had even been combat or at least fire in the area. I was assuming that this was the only area of the stable in which the ponies had access to their food supply, so for them to have been forced so far back, was an indication of just how bad it got here at times. I wondered if they had ever considered welding doors shut to prevent the robots from getting through. Of course they had. They'd been fighting for two hundred years. At most, welding doors shut would delay attacks. Of course there was now the major issue of inadequate resources; they would have very little to weld with. The stable, if I could consider the robots and ponies as part of a greater whole, was cannibalizing itself.

I turned the corner into the room marked "Records" with an official sign. Okay, that made sense. Inside were two ponies: Helvetica herself, and a miniature version of her. The miniature version was around four or five years old. Okay, that was one of the fillies accounted for. Helvetica was standing in front of the terminal, using unicorn magic to type. Having no feeling in her rear half, and with the exoskeleton holding her up, she didn't need anything to sit on, because it would make no difference to her comfort. She looked around at me, making no effort to hide what was on the screen.

"Hello Anne, hello Demi. Meet my tiny spark of joy in this horrible place, Arial," Helvetica introduced her daughter. "She will be our next official Recorder. She can already read and type. We are still working on spelling."

"Hello, pretty ponies," Arial greeted us. I greeted the filly in return. Demi squee'd then settled to the floor to play with her. I turned my attention to her mother.

"Such a little darling! So beautiful! You had Arial before you broke your back, I assume," I commented.

"Indeed," Helvetica replied, beaming with pride. "She'll be five soon."

"And what's your age, if that's something you don't mind sharing," I prompted.

"Coming up to twenty one," she answered. What? WHAT?

"So young!" I commented. Her hard life had matured her beyond that physically. These poor mares.

"That's not young around here," Helvetica said. "If you make thirty you are doing well. We have our foals as soon as we feel it is safe for the mothers. To leave it any longer risks the mother being unable to keep her part of the gene pool alive. For example, due to my injuries, I can't have another foal now. If I had waited just one more year, I would have lost my chance. Most of the others in cladding can't have foals either. Once the robots get to us, we are pretty stuffed."

I suddenly and unexpectedly found my eyes filling with tears. "Unfortunately I can understand that all too well. I had my ability to have a foal taken from me before I had any of my own," I almost sobbed. You would think that after nineteen years, I would be so used to being sterile that it would be old news, but no, my brain constantly reminded me of the missed opportunity, and the more time passed, the greater the regret. The desire to forget was no doubt part of what was behind my abstinence from sex. All me having sex would achieve would be to remind me of what I had lost, and where is the pleasure in that?

This Stable-Tec hell was distressing me more by the second. If I didn't get out of here soon, I'd be in danger of going Pinkamina on everyone. "Let me cut to the chase," I addressed Helvetica. "If you were given the chance, would all of you want to leave the stable, even if it is a different kind of hell up there?"

"We don't want to stay here. It is just too horrible," Helvetica stated. "Even though it is obviously dangerous where you came from, I know I would risk it in the hope of giving Arial a better life. With our stallion gone, there is no life for us down here anymore." Hmm... no comments about Saffron. Perhaps they were mistaking him for being a cripple inside his armor. "It isn't something we think about much though, because there is no way for us to leave."

"What if all the robots were destroyed?" I asked. "Would you still want to leave, or could you make this place your home?"

"I would still want to leave this place. This place only has memories of terror and pain. It could never be our home," Helvetica assured me.

"Would you need to discuss it with the other mares or..." I asked.

"I know we all feel the same way. Why do you ask?"

"I ask because I have no intention of staying here." I replied.

Helvetica practically deflated before me. "After it took so long for us to get reinforcements too," she sighed.

I looked over at Demi enjoying the company of the filly. They were playing some sort of hoof tapping game with each other. I think the filly was teaching it to Demi. I sniffed, wiping the drying tears from my eyes with my magic.

"We are not who you think we are," I admitted, feeling a little guilty. "Your requests had nothing to do with our arrival. We simply fell down a hole from above. I am on my way to the stable I came from in the hope of being able to cure my mother."

"Do you mean that mare that looks like you, Lee? Can't be. If you are thirty four, she's too young to be your mother... unless... oh."

"Yes, she's another cyborg."

"You don't interact like family," Helvetica observed.

"No, we don't. That body is that of my mother. There is something in her head that has messed up her memories. She thinks she's some sort of alien. I'm hoping that can be fixed so I get my mother back. I have to get to Stable Lab Four, and I have to do it soon."

"So, are you going to leave us then?" Helvetica quietly asked, her voice pure disappointment.

"No, I'm not going to leave you, any of you," I replied. "I'm going to take all of you with me. I expected you would want to leave, so now that I am sure you do, I need to work out a strategy to get all of you out of here. It will be quite difficult with your restricted mobility. That makes everything so much harder. The world up there is so much bigger than you could imagine. Really, you need to be taught what to expect, but how we can do that, other than us trying to put what is inconceivable to you into words, I have no idea. That is just one of the problems we need to consider, and the sooner we start, the sooner we can act."

Helvetica seemed relieved. After a few moments to compose herself, she replied. "The robots won't make it easy to get out. According to the records, they have blocked every attempt to escape in the last two hundred years."

"By the time I'm finished here, there won't be any robots," I growled. If our monumentally uncoordinated stuff-up encounter from a couple days back had netted us a total of ten floaty robots and two sentries, I'm sure a planned attack would do somewhat better. With some care, if we went hunting, victory was conceivable. First though, I expected we would need to hold our own against a reprisal for our previous "victory", and I had the very strong feeling that reprisal was imminent. I'd have to discuss the weapons situation with Loopy Lee too, and find out just what sort of weapon she was making. I'd have to convert my buckshot into solid rounds, a relatively simple thing to do with my magic, and one that would greatly improve the performance of the weapon. I didn't think the Cybercorn carbine would be particularly effective against the robot's armor, unless I could launch significantly heavier projectiles, and continued use of it was so tiring. Studying the remains of the robots would also give me some clues on their weak points.

"I'm going to go and chat with Lee and the other girl working on the scrapped robots, and see if I can learn anything from them. I'll be back shortly," I announced. "Demi, do you want to stay here for the moment?"

Demi nodded and smiled, before returning her attention to the pink filly. I left, walking back the way I came. I'd have to remember to ask Lee about my battle saddle too. I'd not seen it since I woke the evening before. I wove my way back through the mattresses that covered a good portion of the floor of the main room. I could see Lana smiling up at me from the mattress I had slept on the night before. Two other mares had crawled from their filthy mattresses, and were sharing the one I had cleaned minutes earlier. I smiled at them as I passed.

I approached Lee, who was still acting like a biped, though she was sitting so the work bench was at a convenient height for her front hoof "hands" or whatever it was she had called them. I could tell she was working on her weapon, because her construction incorporated a number of coils like the one she had showed me the night before. She had them stacked up along an aluminum alloy clad, ceramic lined barrel taken from an energy beam gatling. The coils were all wired to a control box under the barrel. There were both a magazine and an energy cell holder attached to a receiver from what looked to be one of the stable's original supply of ten millimeter submachine guns. It also had a very weird sort of grip and trigger arrangement added to it. She looked up from what she was doing.

"Anne."

"Hi Lee, how is my battle saddle?" I asked.

"Fine, fine," she replied, nodding to the floor beside her. Sure enough, there was my saddle, looking as good as could be expected. It had various dents and scrapes, but both the weapons appeared to be in fine form. "I fitted my Cybercorn carbine to it, as yours took some damage, and as you well know, I can't use the damn thing anyway, not that it matters now that I have this!" With that, she hefted the monstrosity she was making from the bench to show me, her hooves somehow holding onto its two grips.

"Would that perchance be some sort of linear accelerator?" I asked.

"Indeed it would," she replied. "It's a gauss gun. I've used these coils from the levitation devices in the floaters to provide the flux. I chopped up the finer control linkages from them to make myself some ammo too. The ammo is quite light, but this gun puts so much kinetic energy into a slug, it doesn't matter. The muzzle exit speed is somewhere around 2000 meters a second. Those bloody tin cans don't have a chance."

"And you built it in a night?"

"Hell no. I've been working on it on and off since the fight."

"And for the big question, does it actually work?" I asked.

Lee nodded. "During development, I fired a couple of slugs down the corridor. All I need to do is make it a little more robust, and I'll be set."

I pointed to the pile of scrap that had once been several robots. "Is there enough left of those things for me to examine them for weaknesses, or anything else that would help fighting them?"

"No," Lee answered, "but I already did that. For the floaters, aiming right for the center of the ball shaped upper body is the best option. You are hitting the armor head on, so there is less chance for deflection. You will miss both the spark battery and the levitation system, so they won't explode, but you will take out their CPU, which will kill them instantly. On the other hand (there was that word again!) if you do want an explosion, aim for where the ball joins to the nexus, and you will get the levitation system, and a nice explosion or two, which is useful if they are all clustered together."

"And the sentries?" I asked

"Shoot their guns first, then shoot them in the head. Aim for the missile launcher if you want a nice big bang, assuming they actually have any missiles left - these two didn't, or try to blow the arm with it off if you don't. The head has the sensors, but more importantly, if you can get a shot through the front, the internal shape of the head will deflect it down, towards the more sensitive parts inside the body. It's the easiest way to bypass the armor," she assured me. I had to admit this Lee seemed to know her stuff. I wondered how much of it was information gleaned from my mother's mind, and how much belonged to this alternative personality. I was guessing it was more of the latter, as she seemed so clueless about our family history.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Yup, this," she replied and tossed me a small module with her hoof. I caught it in my magic and turned it over a few times, examining it.

"Some sort of uplink," I concluded.

"A transmitter-receiver pair," she agreed. "Perhaps it is for Inter-robot communications. Perhaps it links back to a master controller. Whichever the case, we can assume the robots can, and do communicate remotely. Saffron found out the hard way that they can and will employ strategies. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a master computer somewhere controlling their moves. Find that, and we increase our odds of beating them."

"Oh shit," I said.

"What?" Lee asked.

"How many computers are likely to be in a stable like this? Oh, you wouldn't know, would you? There would be one maneframe, and that would coordinate all the functions of the stable. According to what I have read it would be running a basic artificial intelligence so it can adapt to the changing circumstances in the stable without constant input from ponies. It controls everything from food production to door security." I explained.

"That would be expected," Lee responded. "So what is your point?"

"These ponies aren't fighting robots. They are fighting the bloody stable itself! And they have been dutifully recording their every move on the same bloody computer that is their nemesis!"

"That would be a problem, yes," Lee agreed.

"Get that bloody gun of yours ready as quickly as you can. If I'm guessing right, they already know about it and are getting ready to do something about it," I said. I turned towards Saffron's sleeping form and raised my voice. "Saffron. On watch. NOW."

He stirred, raising his armored head. "What's the problem?"

"If I'm reading the situation right, we are going to be attacked soon, and with a significant force," I stated. "Mares, prepare yourself. I'm expecting robotic company."

I levitated my battle saddle from the floor, carrying it with me over to where I had been sleeping to retrieve my barding. Hastily dropping them on my back, I headed back down the corridor to the recording room, and Helvetica. She was still dutifully typing away.

"Stop typing!" I squeaked.

"Beg 'pardon?" she replied.

"Have you typed in about the gun Lee is making?" I asked.

"Yes, why?"

"Type in that it just exploded and killed Lee," I instructed.

Helvetica fell silent, and down on the floor beside me Demi went deathly still. Shit, I could have handled that better.

"I didn't hear an explosion..." Helvetica started.

"Sorry, I should have explained myself better. Lee is fine and so is the gun," I glanced to the side. "Sorry to scare you Demi."

"Then why do you want me to type a lie into the records?" Helvetica puzzled, looking somewhat relieved.

"I've just found out something very worrying. The computer that you type these records into is the same computer that is controlling the robots," I explained, dropping my battle saddle on the floor. I started to put my barding on.

"This computer here controls the robots?" Helvetica asked, somewhat taken aback.

"That's just a terminal, Helv," I stated. "The data you type here is stored on the stable's maneframe, and Lee thinks it is the same computer that controls all the robots."

Before the conversation could progress any further, an explosion sounded from out in the main room.

"Shit, it's too late. Forget about typing, Get your daughter and Demi to a safe place and prepare yourself to fight," I instructed. I levitated my battle saddle on, fastened it, and scrambled out as fast as my three and a half legs could carry me.

And once again I stepped into bloody carnage. This was getting old. The mares that would usually be gathered around the barricade had been thrown about the room, blood dripping from numerous shrapnel wounds. The barricade itself was twisted, and lying on the floor, presumably giving a clear view down the corridor. Saffron was off to one side, climbing back to his hooves. Lana and her companions from the other clean mattress were determinedly dragging themselves towards the wounded to help them. I flipped open my battle saddle first aid compartment, and pulled out my three remaining healing potions and the remaining bandages and other medical supplies. I gently tossed them to Lana, not wanting to break any of the bottles the potions were in.

With the medical situation now in good hooves, I headed towards the flattened barricade and the door. "Saffron, what happened?" I called.

"One fucking missile," he called back. "Didn't even see the sentry until it was firing."

We arrived at the ruined barricade at the same time, just in time to see a cluster of floaters entering the other end of the corridor. I hit the floor, opening my battle saddle as I did. There was little point in firing at them with the shotgun or Cybercorn carbine, but my sniper rifle, Victory, was a different matter. That was capable of doing some serious damage. I just wished I had a lot more ammunition for it.

Fwoomp. Saffron launched a grenade down the hallway. It went off right in the middle of the cluster of robots, throwing them about. Immediately there were two secondary explosions, and some robot parts bounced down the hallway towards us. That was a good start. I levitated Victory into position as the functional remnants of the Floater squad charged down the hallway. They'd mistimed their attack. Had they charged in straight after the missile, we would have been in real strife. I aimed at the nexus of the first and fired, being rewarded with an immediate blast and fireball that threw more robotic junk at us. I dodged my head to one side as a piece whizzed by, only for it to whack into my rump. The sting indicated it had probably cut me. Okay, exploding them that close was not a great idea. Saffron fired a short burst with his minigun and another dropped. I aimed at the third and let it have a bullet through the center of the casing. It lurched, throwing its spider-like arms in all directions before dropping to the floor with a clang. Better. Much better.

A couple of odds and ends whizzed overhead from behind me, striking the robots without great effect as some of the other ponies resorted to their standard defensive move of throwing whatever they could get their horns and hooves on. Their main weapon, the ballista had been destroyed when the barricade had been flattened. So far, I hadn't heard Lee fire any weapon. I took aim at the nearest of the Floaters, but didn't fire as Saffron peppered it with another burst from his minigun. I was aiming up on the next when I noticed some heavier machinery moving up behind the Floaters. I pulled the trigger and the next Floater fell, giving me a better view of what was beyond. There were at least two of the sentry bots back there.

"Lee, if you are still with us, now would be a good time to test your gun!" I yelled as I aimed at the next Floater. As it fell, Saffron launched another of his grenades in a high arc. It hit the ceiling of the corridor, deflecting down towards the sentries before it detonated. More Floater debris flew about as the blast threw parts of fallen robots in all directions. The sentries merely rocked on their wheels, forcing them to adjust their approach slightly. As I was aiming to take a head shot at the first, it fired its stun gun at me, and again my body turned into fire. At least it wasn't a missile or the energy beam gatling, but bloody hell, this hurt! My rifle dropped the short distance to the floor. I lay there, twitching, unable to raise it again. It was time to play dead for a while, merely because I was incapable of much else. At least if I stayed still this time, I might have a chance to recover some without getting beaten to a pulp.

Saffron was engaging in a gatling battle with them, gatling beam weapons against minigun. Sparks splashed around him. Shells ricocheted off them, some arcing back into the room and showering us. The sentries were so close now they were almost in the room with us. Behind them more of the Floaters were following. Just how many of the things were attacking this time? Were they planning to bash the whole lot of us to unconsciousness? If we didn't stop them soon, they'd be able to get to the foals! Lee, where the hell are you? Don't tell me the missile took you out!

Despite the fire coursing through my nervous system, I felt a sharp stab in my butt. What now? Then just as suddenly, the raging pain was being quenched, coolness expanding out from that point. I managed to look back, finding Lana there, an empty Med-X syringe held in her mouth. She nodded. Yay. Clever girl. Keep your fighters operational. As soon as I was able, I levitated up Victory, slammed a fresh clip into her, and returned the mostly empty clip to my saddle's auto loader. I aimed again but before I could pull the trigger, the air visibly distorted around the lead sentry, and with a blue flash, its gatling arm tore clean off, bouncing away behind it. I adjusted my aim, and put a slug straight through the resultant opening, resulting in the robot's legs spasming about as its circuitry shut down. Moments later the air distorted again, and the head of the following sentry exploded, the robot simply going limp. Wow. That was some gun Lee had made.

I fired at the first of the Floaters behind the disabled sentries, taking a second shot when the first failed to drop it. The air distorted again, and with a mighty clatter, another of the Floaters was thrown back along the corridor, knocking others out of the way. Lee's rate of fire was fairly low. That left me and Saffron to hold them at bay. Aim, fire. Aim, fire. Aim, shit. "More sentries incoming!" I yelled. I targeted the sentry's launcher and fired, immediately ejecting the clip and slamming another home. I looked up in time to see the top half of the sentry pirouette to the floor, courtesy of another slug from Lee's gauss rifle. I aimed at the head of the next and pulled the trigger. It slowed but didn't stop. The blue-white lightning of its stun gun arced out, but its aim was off and it set an unoccupied mattress alight. The air distorted again, and the sentry blew apart.

With a fwoomp, another of Saffron's grenades arced along the corridor, this time to the room beyond. "We advance now!" he shouted, as he walked towards the doorway. I stood, hurrying to join him, Victory levitating in front of me. Several of the more mobile stable dwellers fell in behind us, Lee taking up the rear. I risked a glance back, and saw her, still walking on just her rear legs, with her creation held with her fore hooves. With her standing like that, she had a clear shot over all of us, except perhaps Saffron.

"Keep your head down, Saffron," I told him. "That way Lee has a clear shot past us." He nodded, lowering his head.

Our little strike group slowly walked and shuffled down the corridor towards the far room, moving over and around the remains of the first two sentries, and numerous Floaters. About a quarter of the way down, two more Floaters dashed in, taking hastily aimed shots with their stun guns. One hit Saffron. He didn't seem to notice. The other caused a yelp from a mare behind me, but I did not hear her fall. Neither of the robots lasted long enough to get a second shot. I took one down, and Saffron the other, with his minigun.

"I'm nearly out of ammo for the rifle," I warned.

"Use what you can. With three of us shooting at them, they will fall," he stated. Okay, strategy change. I flicked the safety catches on the Cybercorn carbine and shotgun off, and returned Victory to my saddle. I'd aim for the robot's weapons, and save Victory for emergencies.

We were roughly halfway down the hall when the next group of robots attacked. Again it was just the Floaters. Lee managed to get off a shot first, and that sent the first of the Floaters crashing back into those behind it. I launched three steel balls in quick succession from the Cybercorn carbine, aimed at the weapon of the second, and it disintegrated in a shower of sparks. Okay, that worked. Both it and the third robots lurched around as a volley of slugs from Saffron tore into them. I allowed three more balls to drop into the barrel of the carbine at once, then propelled them out as one. It took only slightly more strength than launching a single ball because I only had to deal with the air resistance in the barrel once. The weapon of the fourth bot exploded as it was bringing it to bear on us. Another shot from Lee sent the whole robot bouncing back the way it had come. That one exploded, fortunately far away enough from us and the downed robots not injure us or cause a chain reaction. In fact, those downed robots would be a real hazard. They were haphazardly heaped ahead, and as well as the danger from possible explosions, they were simply blocking our way, even more so than the ones we had already squeezed past.

"I'm going to clear the way ahead." I stated, activating my pushing spell.

"Noted," Saffron responded. I started with the robot furthest from us, and simply flung it further into the far room. I moved to the next furthest and so on, until a heap of the things was building up against the far door. We continued on our way. In fact, we had not stopped in our purposeful but slow advance. I could hear motors and tire squeaks ahead. "Sentry bot ahead!" I announced.

"Ready!" responded Lee.

"Get your push magic ready!" Saffron warned, before he launched a grenade, even though the sentry was not yet in sight. Push what? Considering how ineffectual the previous grenade had been against the sentries, I was wondering what the point was, when the room up ahead exploded. The blast knocked us all over, bits of robot and shrapnel whizzing down the corridor towards us. Ah! I thrust out against the incoming pieces of metal. I didn't get all of them. I didn't even manage to stop the ones I did get, but I did manage to deflect anything significant away from the group. Smoke was making it hard to see anything ahead now. I listened for sounds of the sentry moving about, but heard nothing but the quiet crackling of the fires ahead. I guess that was one way to use your available resources. Saffron had used my pile of smashed robots as an explosive, detonating them with his grenade.

I clambered back to my feet and began to slowly advance through the smoke when I heard the door ahead slam down, blocking our way. I reached forward with my magic and felt about. There was no doubt the door was shut. I tried pressing the button to open it, but nothing happened. No response. Okay, so the stable had shut and locked the door, either to contain the fire, or to contain us. This battle was won.

"The battle is over!" I called. "Grab your salvage, and let's get out of here!"

There was some subdued cheering from the ponies in the corridor with us as we turned and made our way back into our room, dragging the remains of numerous robots with us. Now that the battle was over, I took the time to glance back at the cut on my rear. It wasn't bad. A splash of alcohol, a few moments of extreme stinging, and I'd be fine. As soon as we were through the door, the mares dispersed, the ones with salvage heading towards the workbench, others moving to help where needed. Despite the general carnage the missile had caused, there was hope on the faces of the mares.

The mattress that had been set alight had been extinguished, and the wounded were being attended to. Lana was slithering across the floor towards another of the wounded, dragging herself along with her front hooves, a packet of bandages held in her mouth. Her rear legs may have been crippled, but her determination was unhindered.

"Good job Lana, and thanks," I said as I passed her. "Was anyone killed?" She shook her head. That was a load off my mind.

"Healing potions?" I enquired.

"One left," she said through her mouth full of bandage packet. "Two lives saved. Thank you."

I nodded. She wasn't wasting them, but then I knew she wouldn't when I first gave them to her. Looking around for Helvetica, I found her over in the door way that led down to Records. I headed straight for her, noticing that she was visibly trembling. Oh. No.

"Demi? The foals? Are they okay?" I choked out, worried.

She nodded slowly. Oh, thank Celestia for that!

"What has you shaking then?"

"The... the r..robots f..fired a m..missile..." she managed.

"I noticed that. That model is somewhat prone to doing so," I responded.

"Y... you don't u..understand," she stammered, "The last recorded m..missile attack was before any of us were b..born."

"Oh, the resources thing again. Of course," I responded. I must have seemed cold to her, but then, I was used to these robots firing missiles in my direction. I had come across quite a few of them aimlessly wandering around the wastelands over the last fifteen years. "So now you understand what I said about entering data in the records. You effectively told the robots that we now have a weapon that can easily destroy them. Add that knowledge to the addition of three new fighters who they already knew were very hard to deal with, and they knew the balance had changed. That was something they could not allow. They were so desperate to get rid of us, they committed at least five sentry robots to the attack, and who knows how many of the floaty robots. And one very rare missile. Possibly even their last."

"W..what do we do now?" she asked, big eyed.

"Get on your terminal and start typing. Record that the final large explosion killed the ponies in the corridor, including three of the newcomers. Mention that only the non-combatant, Demi survived. Say that the missile caused so many injuries that it will be hard to defend yourselves for a week." I suggested.

"W..won't that encourage them to attack again?" Helvetica said, finally calming down enough to stop mangling her words.

"It may, in which case we blow more of them up, but seriously, on learning of our deaths, I think they will see their action as a high priced victory, and that you are no longer a threat, that the balance has been restored," I explained. "If they really wanted you all dead, you already would be. They control your food and air. If we weren't here, an attack like that would have wiped you all out. They are playing with you."

"What?" Helvetica gasped.

"These bloody stables were never meant as a safe place for ponies to go during an apocalypse. They are ministry sponsored social experiments, one experiment per stable," I explained.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the robots never went rogue. They never turned on you. They were programmed to behave in this way from the very beginning."

---

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: Reformation. Through more varied use of your repair spell, you are now able to achieve a greater range of material conversions than previously. But remember, this ain't alchemy, Honey. You can't turn lead into gold. The laws of chemistry still apply.

Comments

[Scully]

nice cant w8 for the next update well done

[Jacky2734]

congratulations, you've got me tracking a third FOE side story, not including Project Horizons. 5 stars.

[Nyerguds]

Aww. Come on. The FO:E project were always more about unintended fridge horror than downright playing with the inhabitants. This would be so much cooler if it was some experiment of each inhabitant getting one personal assistant, and then the robot production unit is irreparably damaged, and the stable maneframe draws the wrong conclusion of compensating that in ponies whenever a robot quits working

Then again, that particular scenario was already kinda done in FO:E, in Stable 29.

[Twilight Sparkle1337]

I BUCKING LOVE THIS STORY

[Turtledude]

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: Reformation. Through more varied use of your repair spell, you are now able to achieve a greater range of material conversions than previously. But remember, this ain't alchemy, Honey. You can't turn lead into gold. The laws of chemistry still apply.

Ha. Not in my story. Zebra magic for the win!