Chapter 11
Chapter 11:
“Why'd you help them?”
“What? The girls back on the road?”
“Yeah. I mean they tried to rob us.”
“Sugar come on, we're the good guys, we help anypony in trouble. Just because we lost our home doesn't mean we lost our morals.”
“But how did you know they weren't going to hurt you? That it wasn't just a trick?”
“I can read ponies very well, how do you think I can control them so well?”
“I still think you're making that up.”
“I studied a little psychology when I was learning archeology, it wasn't as interesting but I wanted to learn about the causes behind the mentality of famous ponies and their decisions. Between that and a kind of natural attention to detail I got quite good at reading emotions and facial expressions. I'd have thought your EFS marked them as green when they gave up, isn't that how it works?”
“I...I guess I was so focused on what was happening I didn't notice.”
“Well don't beat yourself up too much, you were just worried about me, and I think that's sweet.”
We reached the medical center again with no problem. A few guards had arrived from our original group and had set up a perimeter around the center.
Inside we found Crackshot and Brutus sitting in the foyer, deeply engrossed in some kind of card game I couldn't even begin to understand.
“About time you two got back.” Brutus said, looking up from the table at us.
“Yeah we ran into some friends of Ruby's. We ended up spending a lot more time around town with them than we'd expected.” I replied.
“And you're gone.” Crackshot grinned, flipping a pair of cards, making Brutus groan and slump in his seat. “Ha, better luck next time.” Crackshot laughed, sweeping a pile of bottle caps, as well as the cards, over to her and into her saddlebags.
“Oh good, you two are done playing.” I smiled. “I brought you presents.” I floated two of the books out of my saddlebags and set them down in front of Crackshot. “Flankenstein and the first volume of Sherclop Holmes.”
Crackshot looked at them warily. “I dunno if I can get into books...it's more reserved for eggheads like you...”
“I promise they're good.” I said. “Flankenstein has a big monster, violent angry villagers, crazy scientists. Sherclop Holmes is all just interesting in general.”
She sighed and put the books in her pack. “I'll give them a go tonight.” She nodded.
“That's all I ask.”
“And for the orange unicorn.” Ruby said, setting a blue box in front of him. He floated the lid off and broke into a big grin, lifting the shiny new powerhooves out of the case. “They've been modified to use a few different power cells. I figured since we're limited on our ammo types that would do better for you in the long run. Also...” She gestured to a set of tubes laid out along the front and back of where his hoof would sit inside. “These are little gun chambers, they only hold one 10 mm bullet each, but I figured that it was better than nothing, and what pony is going to expect a bullet from a powerhoof?” She smirked. “You gotta use magic to fire them too so I figured they were the absolute perfect weapon for you.”
“Where did you even find something like this?” He asked, looking them over in wonder.
“A friend of mine actually made them for when he travels as a caravan guard. He was interested in meeting you.” She explained and I had to suppress a laugh.
“Well I'd love to meet anypony that makes weapon modifications this fine.” He nodded happily.
“Any change from CB?” I asked, kind of regrettably since it drained the happiness from the conversation.
“Not so far, she's still asleep, right where we left her.” Brutus sighed, looking towards the hallway sadly.
“Alright, well I'm going to go check on her.” I said, starting off down the hall. I paused outside the door and sighed deeply, it wasn't going to be easy when she woke up again. She was going to be devastated.
Opening the door slowly, I saw her sleeping form on the bed, still unmoved from where I'd left her that morning. Moving to her side I leaned down and nuzzled her gently. This time though, she tensed, ever so slightly, and she relaxed again right away, but not fast enough for me not to notice.
“CB?” I asked softly, and slowly she opened her eyes to look up at me. They were bloodshot and soaked from crying. “How long have you been awake?”
“A...a few hours...” She stammered, fighting to keep from crying again.
“Why didn't you tell anypony? We've been so worried about you.”
“I didn't want to talk to them.” She whispered, shifting and sitting up slowly, though it clearly took a lot of effort to get herself to do so. The sheet where her head had lain was soaked with tears.
“Oh honey...” I sighed, getting up onto the bed and hugging her tightly. She pressed into my side and broke down into tears again, sobbing against me to muffle the noise. She dug into my still sore wounds, but I just bit my lip and ignored it.
“I know it's hard.” I said softly, hugging her, and resting my head against hers. “And I know saying that doesn't mean much. But I lost my mom too, my dad, my brother, and Rosalea...I lost everypony I knew when I got locked in that cryopod. I know it hurts, it hurts so bad that you don't think you'll ever be able to do anything ever again, but I promise you'll start to feel better. You'll never stop hurting, but you'll feel better...” I was the wrong pony to do this, I wasn't good at comforting words at the best of times, let alone when it was a scared filly crying into my coat.
“I just want her back.” She whimpered. “I-I-miss h-her s-s-so much-” she sobbed all the harder and I swear I could hear my heart breaking. “I don't know what I'm gonna do. Where am I gonna live? Who's going to help me with my homework? And make sure I eat! And don't oversleep and miss school! And... and... and...” She had started jabbering at a mile a minute but her train of thought stalled and she broke down into wordless weeping again.
“I know CB, I'm so sorry...” I looked down at the green filly. “We're all here for you. Ruby and I are going to take care of you,” I said. “We'll take care of you and make sure you're safe, and Brutus and Crackshot will be there for you just like they always have. So will everypony else from the Collective, and I promise we'll find the ponies who did this and stop them.” She was quiet for a minute, just sobbing quietly against me, clearly trying to get herself back under control.
“I-I wanna h-help.” She sniffled, looking up at me slowly.
“The best thing you can do right now is to rest, and try to get better.” I said. “We don't even know what we're going to do right now.” She let out a deep sigh and sat back slowly, I think she was finally cried out. “Do you want to go see the others? I know they're all worried about you.”
She looked thoughtful for a minute, reaching up with a hoof and wiping her eyes gently. Finally she nodded and I smiled a little. “Alright, come on my little pony,” I said, getting up and lifting her into the air with my magic, sitting her on my back and heading out of the room.
//////////
Everypony was glad to see CB awake and out of bed, though it was understandably somber. She sat between Brutus and Ruby and just rested against his side quietly. We talked about what the plans were for the next few days.
“I want to go back to the base and look for clues.” Brutus said firmly.
“Seconded.” I nodded. Most of my computer equipment might have been old but it was designed in an era of war, they were designed to take a beating. Sure they were no pipbucks but there was a good chance some of it had survived.
“I think everypony wants to go back and find out what happened.” Crackshot said. “Some of the guards were already talking about it.”
“Well we just need to step up and volunteer then.” Ruby added.
“I'll talk to E...” He trailed off when he felt Cb shift against him. “Sorry little one.” He sighed.
She just shifted off his side and rested against Ruby now instead, her face still blank and impassive.
“We'll talk to the rest of the council and get the plans ironed out. We're still trying to assess all the damage.”
We were interrupted by a pegasus with a sniper rifle. “Excuse me.” He said quietly. “Brute Force if we could borrow you? We have discovered some rather disturbing information and are asking all the remaining team leaders to come in to consult.”
“Oh, of course.” Brutus nodded, getting up and moving to the guard. “I'll be back, don't go running off without me.” He said, heading down the hall.
Everypony got quiet again for a time until CB finally spoke up. “Ruby?” She asked softly, looking up at the pegasus from her spot against her.
“Yes?” She replied, looking down at her.
“Are you and Cane still getting married?”
“Of course we are.” She smiled. “I have friends in town who are helping with it so that we can still focus on getting the collective back in order.”
“Can I help?”
“Of course you can. When we go back to town in a few days you can come with us and you can meet my cousin Lilith. She and my friend Clank are doing all the work so I'm sure they'll love the help.”
“Are you sure you're up for it?” Crackshot asked.
“Yeah, I don't wanna stay here, it's quiet and there's nothing to do.”
“It's probably a good idea to keep busy yes.” Ruby nodded. “Plus it'll free up that room for somepony else.”
“I wanna go back to the base with you.” CB said after a minute.
“I don't think that's a good idea.” I said, a sentiment echoed by the other two.
“I'm not asking.” She said flatly, sitting up and looking at me seriously. “I'm going.”
“It's not our call squirt.” Crackshot said. “It's up to Brutus.”
“What's up to me?” Brutus asked, coming back down the hallway.
“I'm going back to the base with you.” CB said.
Brutus opened his mouth and closed it again, looking at her quietly for a moment before speaking. “We'll have to talk about that later. Cane I need you. I don't know if you can help but we're bringing in all the unicorns on it.”
“Alright.” I nodded, sharing a confused look with Ruby as Brutus and I started away.
“What about me?” CB asked.
“No offense kiddo but we need magically talented ponies.”
“I'm magically talented!” She said, assuming the old indignant CB voice. “I kicked the crap outta that pyro pony! Tell him Cane.”
“Well..she did do that yeah.” I said slowly.
“See? Magically talented!”
“Do you know how to extract memories against somepony's will?” Brutus asked flatly.
“Uhh, no.” CB said, slumping in defeat.
“Don't worry about it CB, it's not a magic just anypony knows, I don't even know if the version I know would work on somepony else. The one I know I've only ever used on myself for note storing.” I said, trying to be cheerful about it, but she just slumped down against Ruby again and went quiet, making me feel terrible all over again.
“Come on Cane.” Brutus said after a minute and I nodded and followed him down the hall.
/////////////////
We went downstairs and through a well guarded hallway.
“What's going on?” I asked, amazed at the amount of effort put forth by the remnant just to guard this hall.
“We caught some traitors.” Brutus said, coming to a stop in front of a storage room door. “They're in there.” He pointed to the door then continued on to another room just down the hall. This had clearly been an administrative office earlier. The surviving 3 members of the council sat at a table with 6 unicorns, already deep in discussion. They paused and looked up at us when we entered.
“Oh Doctor Sugarcane, welcome. Has Brute Force brought you up to speed?”
“Uhh kind of, but he didn't want to get too into detail just in case of others around us.” I said, not sure if Brutus would get in trouble for not being more forthcoming.
“We caught two of the medical staff in contact with the Pyro Pony Collective. Turns out they were part of the reason we were attacked, seems they weren't expecting the attack so soon from the transmission we intercepted, but we haven't been able to trace it at all. We were hoping somepony might know the old memory extraction spells and Brutus said you knew some form of them?”
“Yes but the spells I know aren't the forced kind. The ones I know are for extracting one's own memories or the memories of somepony willing to let you.”
“Well we'll take what we can get.”
“I know a few techniques to make ponies more compliant.” One of the other unicorns said. “I'm sure we can find a way to mix the techniques to get the answers we need.”
“We've moved the recollector equipment down from the room Mare-Do-Well had them set up in and set it up in the room beside the supply room we have them in.”
“Who do we have?” I asked.
“Nurse Gauze and Doctor Feel Good.”
“The black and white nurse?” I asked, remembering her taking care of me in the medical bay after the turret blew up.
“Yes and the doctor is the purple one.” Brutus said.
“Alright, now lets get to work.”
/////////////////////
The night was a long one. I worked with two other unicorns, they were going to conduct the actual interrogation so I spent a good few hours teaching them to extract memories while the recollector was set up and prepped. I didn't have the stomach to interrogate somepony else so forcefully so I was glad they just asked me to teach the other two as best I could. By the time the machines were hooked up and ready to go both the unicorns had mastered the basics and were getting proficient at the few advanced techniques I knew.
“Will you stick around down here in case we need to know more from you?” One asked as he prepared to go into the interrogation room after they had moved the two medical ponies into it.
“Yeah I'll just crash in the empty room at the end of the hall.” I said, pointing to the ajar door with the empty bed visible inside. He nodded and, removing any trace of happiness from his face, walked into the interrogation room, closing the door behind him.
“This is really weird.” I sighed, dropping into the chair beside Brutus. “I mean I know we have to do this but it just doesn't sit well with me.”
“Me neither.” Brutus said, shaking his head. “But you're right we do have to do this. We need to know what happened, we need to stop this from happening again to some other group somewhere else, it's been a long day, why don't you go get some sleep? I'll wake you if there's anything we need you for. I'm sure Ruby would be happy for the company.”
“I already promised the others I'd crash down here so they could come get me right away if they needed me.”
“Alright well go do that then.” He shrugged, sitting back against the wall.
“I'm not gonna wake up to you spooning me am I?” I asked, smirking as I pushed myself up.
“Pft, I could do WAY better than you if I wanted.” He countered.
“I dunno. I met Ratchet back in town.” This made Brutus blush a little.
“His husband wants to meet you by the way.”
“Oh he's married now eh? That's nice.”
“I don't see why you're so secretive about your life, I would think after watching over so many generations of your family it's not like Crackshot is going to disown you. I also know what Ruby promised you and I'm more than willing to support her in that decision if the need should arise.”
He just got all the more flustered and looked down at the ground quietly. “It's not so simple.” He grumbled.
“I know, and I'm not trying to force you or nag you, I'm just saying.” I said, heading down the hall quietly. Yeah it probably wasn't the time to get on his case about his love life, but I felt more awkward about the interrogation than I did about his love life so I focused on it intentionally to try and distract myself. Eventually I managed to get some sleep, but it was to be short lived...
//////////
“Cane, hey Cane, wake up.” Brutus's voice cut through my visions of fire and changlings and I was dragged back to reality.
“What?” I muttered, rubbing my eyes tiredly and looking up at him.
“They're about half done the interrogation,” he said seriously, “But they say they have an orb that's for your eyes only.”
“Oh?” I got up off the bed and shook the exhaustion from my body. A quick glance at my pipbuck showed I'd only been asleep about 3 hours.
I went out into the hallway and one of the unicorns sat in a chair across from the interrogation room. She looked totally exhausted. Sitting beside her were three memory orbs. When she saw me coming she got up and floated one of the orbs out of the container. “We got these from Nurse Gauze.” She said. “I'm sorry to be the one to give you this news but you're gonna want to watch it. You're going to need to talk to Ruby too...”
“What is it?” I asked, suddenly extremely worried. “Did she do something to me when I was in the hospital?”
“No, it's not as bad as all that, but you're still not going to be happy...And I'm sorry about the end of the first memory, I tried to cut it back but without properly calibrated equipment I could only do a rough approximation.” She sighed, looking at the ground quietly.
I took the orb and looked at Brutus and he shrugged. “I guess go crash on the bed again. How long is it?” He asked, looking back at the unicorn.
“It's a few hours all told, it's pieced together from a number of memories.”
“Alright. Well I guess I shouldn't hold off any longer.” I sighed, going back to the bedroom and settling onto the bed. “Again same rules apply. If I wake up and you're doing things to my unconscious body it will not end well for you.” I smirked at Brutus, trying to work out some of my worry over what I'd find in the orb.
“I promise nothing.” He smirked, turning and starting out of the room. I sighed deeply one last time to try and relax my racing heart as I floated the orb up and touched it to my horn.
<-=======ooO Ooo=======->
“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Feel Good was standing in a hallway in the base looking at my host.
“I'm positive.” Gauze, my host, replied. “Not only did the boss say he needs genetic samples, which by itself is enough for me to just do it, he locked down the medical bay and made us look like idiots.”
“You came at him with a big rubber vagina and told him you'd hold it for him, what did you expect?” Feel Good snapped.
“He saw it through the window and freaked. I hadn't even finished prepping yet.”
“He's barely been awake again for 12 hours.”
“The boss said to do it. If you don't want to I'm sure I can just do this myself and pass along your lack of participation. I bet that'll go well for you.”
Feel Good glared at her for a moment and then shook his head and steeled himself. “Alright, lets do this.” He reached up and knocked on the door as Gauze floated out a cattle prod, the one I assume she'd been referring to in the hospital.
She sparked it to life as a very drunk Ruby opened the door. “Hel...” She started but as soon as she was visible Gauze struck, the cattle prod shooting forward into Ruby's neck, grabbing her with her white magic and hurling her backwards into the room beyond, which I saw now was her old quarters, where she crashed onto the bed.
“HEY!” Gauze looked over and I saw myself, struggling to draw my guns before the magic field broke and they fell to the ground at my hooves. She started towards me, Feel Good coming in behind her and closing the door behind him.
“W...What do you want?” I was demanding, looking around the room, likely in search of another weapon.
“You made us look like idiots.” She hissed, the cattle prod sparking in her magical grip as she shoved it into my chest, ZAP. I screamed in pain as my limbs spasmed and I fell to my knees. “The boss wants samples...” She held the cattle prod out again. “He,” ZAP “Will,” ZAP “Get,” ZAP “Them!” ZAP ZAP ZAP.
The last shock threw me backwards into the desk, a Wild Pegasus bottle falling over, pouring down, running down my muzzle and dripping into my mouth as I lay still, panting hard.
“Gauze...relax you don't wanna fry his brain.” Feel Good grunted, grabbing the cattle prod in his own magical field and yanking it away from her. “Just get to work so we can get out of here.” He said, moving to Ruby on the bed.
“Don't you hurt her...” I groaned as the stallion adjusted her gently to lay down on the bed, a needle floating out of his saddlebag and injecting into her neck. She whimpered and went completely limp.
“She's not the one you need to worry about.” Gauze growled down at me. She reached into her own saddlebags and withdrew another needle, the sperm collector, and what I recognized as one of the enviro-suit filter masks, but fitted with some small pads crammed into the air intake . She took the filter in her grip again and forced it over my head with little effort, it was clearly drugged because after a few breaths I went limp on the ground and she broke into a big grin as she floated the needle up and drove it into my neck. She watched for a moment and I'm embarrassed to say I grew very aroused. She then rolled me on my side and smiled. “Good boy...awe a good BIG boy.” She chuckled darkly. “I'm sure Ruby would have enjoyed a ride with you, and as far as you'll remember she did.” She hissed in my ear. I just fell back against the ground silently as she slid the collector over my member and started it going.
“You finished modifying Ruby's memories yet?” She asked, floating me into the air and dumping me on the bed while the device still chugged away. Feel Good had his horn pressed to Ruby's forehead.
“Almost. They're drunk so I'm just removing the attack and fuzzing the rest of the night over. Then I'll do the same to him.”
“Why don't you give them some memories of hooking up?” She asked.
“It's too tough to recreate feelings like that from memory.” He said, shaking his head.
“Well maybe you could have some fresh memories to implant them with?” She asked in a coy voice, kissing his neck and nuzzling it softly. “Just swap out the ponies in the memory for them?”
He smirked a little and nodded. “Yeah I think that'll work.”
She just grinned and turned lifting her front half onto the bed and looked back at him. “Well by all means big boy.” She cooed.
~Oh sweet Celestia take me now~ I cried silently as I felt his hooves come down on her shoulders. The memory started to fade but not before I felt the sensation of his penetration. If I could have thrown up at that moment I would have. I felt a sudden need to apologize to Ruby...
//////////
The memory came back, Gauze was sitting in a small office I didn't recognize. She was sitting in front of a terminal, modified with transmission equipment. She had a memory cube sitting beside the keyboard and was talking to a computer generated pony face with a synthetic gender neutral voice.
“But sir I don't understand why you don't just want me to bring him to you.” She said, clearly frustrated.
“Because he's not ready. In time he will come to me and when that time comes we'll both be ready.”
“So what's the point of this?” She asked, poking the memory cube with a hoof.
“To put the fear of this world into him. He needs to know how fucked up this world is and what he has to look forward to.”
“His friends are strong, they've lived here just as long as we have they know too much, they'll protect him from any serious effects.”
“As long as you have perhaps, but he'll still be terrified. It'll shake him to the core, no matter what his so called friends say to him. How's the bonding project going?”
“We're perfectly on track so far. He has shown a genuine interest. We're setting up events so that they will grow closer together. We're hoping to move to caring about her and even loving her”
“Good. He needs somepony to worry about losing when we make our move, and it helps that she's his great great grand daughter.” He said sarcastically, which was an impressive feat with the robotic voice. “Because you know family is so important to me.”
“Well we'll be ready to make our move in two months just like you wanted Sir. We've slowly brought in your ponies to replace fallen personnel as well as the school teacher, the quartermaster and two other medical staff are your soldiers.”
“Excellent, now go strike some fear into the heart of that unicorn bastard.” He said, the computer monitor going dead.
“Yes sir,” she said bitterly, getting up and floating the memory cube into her pack. She walked slowly through the halls, stopping outside the door to my room and looking around slowly before floating out a tranquilizer gun and knocking on the door. I saw myself open the door. My eyes looked at her curiously for a moment and I recognized the hidden panic. “Can I help you?” I asked.
“Boss wants to talk with you.” She said flatly, floating the gun up and pointing it at me.
“Hey now...” THUNK. I was cut off as a dart fired silently out of the device and embedded itself in my neck. “Wha...” I stumbled back a bit and passed out in a matter of moments.
She floated my limp body into the air, closing the door and setting me down, turning Ruby slightly so I was partially pinned under her.
“Don't know what makes you so special but I'm sure this thing is nightmare incarnate.” She said, floating the cube out and touching it to my horn. I tensed for a moment as a spark leaped from the orb to my horn and then I went limp again. She tucked the orb back into her pack and moved back to the door. “Don't scream too loud.” She smirked, pressing her horn to mine, presumably to strip the memories of the last few moments from my mind. opening the door and peering out slowly before slipping out and closing door behind her, wandering off at a leisurely pace.
Again the memory started to fade away. At least this time it finished with her going into the main foyer...
////////////
I was back in the small office. The Pyro Pony who'd killed EB was standing in front of me and Gauze was freaking out at him, this was obviously taking place in the early moments of the attack on the base.
“We were supposed to have two more weeks!” She snapped at him.
“We were ready sooner.” He replied simply.
“But we're not ready for this.”
“We brought in an extra 12 ponies by commandeering some of the caravans and putting out ponies on them. So the boss decided now was the time to move.”
“I need more time to get my things and get out.” She said, moving towards the doors.
“Oh you can't come with us at the end. We still need somepony on the inside to keep us in the loop. The boss isn't ready for Sugarcane yet.”
“THEN WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!” She demanded.
“Because it's what we do.” He smirked. “This ponies have become too complacent with their lot in life. Relative safety, stable lives, education and training for their children. It's disgusting. We're going to gut this entire building and kill anypony that tries to stop us, then we're going to burn it to the ground, to show we fear no organization. We shall take the children and they will be raised to fight for us, or they will be left to the manticores.”
“You really are a monster.” She said coldly. “Now move it.” She was trembling with fear but was trying to hide it.
“Oh no no, you need to be believable.” He said, turning and bucking her side as hard as he could, sending her end over end until she collided with the far wall and collapsed in a heap. I felt for the second time like I was going to throw up from the dizzying motion, and the pain of both the impact of his hooves and the impact of the wall. This memory began to fade too, but it seemed to be because she blacked out. I don't know how long I was lost in this darkness before...
<-=======ooO Ooo=======->
I groaned and rolled over, dry heaving off the edge of the bed. Coming out of the orb had been disorienting and not at all pleasant. My body still ached with pain, both my own real pain and the memory of the pain Gauze had felt. I rolled back and covered my eyes with a leg, waiting for the remembered pain to fade and be replaced with just the dull ache of my real pain.
“You okay?” I jumped in surprise, looking over I realized Ruby and Brutus were standing beside the bed.
“Uhh...I'm fine.” I said, shaking my head. “Just a lot more jarring than I thought.”
“See? It would have been okay.” Brutus said. Ruby rolled her eyes and turned back to me.
“What would have been okay?” I asked, looking from one to the other and back.
“I was...” Ruby blushed a little and sighed. “I was gonna lay down beside you and kiss your neck and Brutus was going to groan softly in your ear so you thought he was taking advantage of you while you were out.”
“Oh...well that's fine then.” I broke into a big grin, probably trying too hard to mask my real emotions. Ruby was my grand daughter...what was I going to do? I still felt the same about her, but our whole relationship suddenly felt so twisted and wrong...and it's not like I could just pretend it wasn't true, the other unicorns had seen these memories themselves, and the council would see at least part of the second and all of the third memories, certainly enough to know what's what.
“I need to talk to them.” I said seriously, looking at Brutus and climbing off the bed.
“Uhh...alright. I'm sure nopony will object.” He said dumbly, clearly surprised by my sudden change in attitude.
“Sugar what was in that orb?” Ruby asked, very concerned herself.
“Remember my first night here? You and I at the bar after I fled the medical bay because they wanted a...sperm sample? We snuck out and went back to your quarters?”
She blushed a little and just nodded.
“How much do you remember after we got back to your place?”
“Uhh, we drank some more, got into the bottle of Wild Pegasus you brought from your office, and we...” She trailed off and glared at Brutus.
“What? Like I don't know what you two do in the privacy of your quarters?” He smirked. “It's nothing I haven't heard from you before.”
“We...made love.” She replied finally.
“Yeah, except we didn't.” I sighed. “Gauze and Feel Good showed up and attacked us. They drugged us and took that sample by force. Then THEY 'made love' on the end of your bed while we were drugged just inches from them and then they implanted their memories of the experience into us.” This made Ruby turn even redder, but this was from rage.
“I'll kill them!” She bellowed, starting to get up off the bed but I nudged her back.
“Remember my nightmare? The demon pony?” I asked and she nodded again.
“It was a memory cube sent to them by their boss. It turns out that they were getting Pyro Ponies onto the staff at our base, slowly replacing key personnel with their own. It's how they managed to seize the base so fast, and one of them brought it along with an order for them to get me into it so that their boss could make me scared of the wasteland.”
“That's fucked up.” Brutus said, shaking his head. “Who the fuck is so interested in you and wrecking your life?”
“No clue, but I'm not happy about it.” I said. “So can you get me in to talk to them?”
“Yeah I'm sure I can I just have to go clear it with the council.” He said, starting for the door. When I didn't move to follow he paused and turned back. “You coming?”
“I'll be there in a second, I still need to talk to Ruby.” Brutus nodded and left, closing the door behind him.
“What's up?” She asked, sitting back on the bed and looking at me curiously. “You still look seriously troubled.”
“I...I...” I sighed deeply, now wasn't the time to tell her she was my grand daughter. I'd have to find a better time and way to address it. We'd been through so much I couldn't just self destruct her whole love life. “I need to apologize...for every time we've ever had sex.” I said after a moment.
She burst out laughing. “Why would you ever need to apologize for that? You're...very good.” She grinned.
“Those memories,” I gestured to the orb, “are Gauze's. The first part of it ends with her and Feel Good...beginning to have sex...”
She looked at me in amazement. “So you felt his...?” I nodded. “Going into you...?” I nodded again. “But into a...” I nodded. “Except you don't have one...”
“So it was the single weirdest experience of my life, and I don't even know what to think of how it feels to you...”
She leaned forward and hugged me close. “It's not weird.” She said, kissing my horn gently. “It's amazing. I might even go so far as to say Earth shattering some times.” She winked. “Maybe one night, when all this crazy-ness is behind us, we'll have a night of pure passion, and each record it into an orb, and we can swap them and see how it feels for the other.”
“Maybe...” Was all I could manage, stepping back and forcing a cocky smile. “I mean I know I'm good, but could I really pleasure myself?”
“You're a guy, I'm sure you've pleasured yourself plenty.” She laughed. We were interrupted by a knock on the door before I could reply. Brutus opened the door again and looked in.
“If you two are finished making kissy faces at each other the council have cleared you to talk to the prisoners.”
I nodded and moved out of Ruby's grasp, heading to the door.
“I'll keep the bed warm for you.” Ruby called in a sultry tone.
“Thanks, I'll be back in a few and I'll make you squeal like a radhog in heat.” Brutus replied and I just laughed as he got a pillow in the face for his effort.
In the hallway Brutus looked at me as we walked. “You're really shaken by what you saw?”
“To my core.” I nodded. “I NEED to know who they're working for. How somepony could have a personal vendetta against me 200 years after my supposed death is beyond me.”
“Well you're going to want to steel yourself before you go in. They aren't in the best shape...the interrogators worked them over pretty badly.”
One of the unicorn interrogators sat tiredly in a chair beside the door. “Do me a favour?” I asked her and she nodded and sat up. “I'm going to try to get answers from them about who they work for...”
“Good luck with that, they haven't really been open about it, in fact Nurse Gauze doesn't seem to even know the name of their boss.”
“All the same, keep an eye on things and when you see me make my move against Gauze I want you to burst in and demand to know what I'm doing, and then I'm going to throw you out without answering, then I'm going to bar the door so nopony else can get in.”
“Why?”
“Because I want Feel Good to be genuinely terrified that I'm going to do something rash to try and get answers. Assuming he doesn't call my bluff I'll get the answers I need.”
“A...Alright.” She nodded, sitting down again, Brutus moving to sit with her.
I stood for a moment before nodding to the guard, who opened the door for me. I walked in and was still horrified at the sight before me. Both unicorns were stripped of their uniforms and chained to vertical tables in what had to be terribly painful positions. Both had been severely beaten, both had had their horns smashed right off their heads, a table with a sink along one wall still held the shattered pieces of bone, the sledgehammer that had been used still sitting beside the table. All sorts of tools sat on another table between where they were chained. ~Sure, we're the good guys~ I thought sarcastically. ~This really conveys that impression.~
“What do you want?” Feel Good asked bitterly. “Haven't you and your friends done enough to us?”
“The ponies that did this to you aren't my friends.” I replied flatly, putting on the best neutral face I could manage. Gauze was clearly in much worse shape than Feel Good, which made sense considering all the memories I'd seen had been from her perspective, she seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness.
“So you saw what they took from her?” He asked. “Come to exact a little revenge for what we did to you and your marefriend? Well here I am, come get some.”
“No no, I wouldn't dream of hurting you.” My voice was completely calm and neutral. “Inflicting pain on somepony to get answers doesn't help. You just start to make things up or agree with what we ask, anything to make the pain stop. At that point the mind can be affected pretty badly and memories can come out wrong. Fractured or incomplete, or memories that the host wants so desperately to be real that maybe they are presented as such in the orb.” A lot of this information was things I had learned from the guidebook that I had gotten the simple spells from. I hadn't bothered getting into the parts about the forced memory removal since at the time I'd never imagined a need for it, and I didn't know how much of the information was still accurate. There had been almost a year and a half from the time I learned the spells to the time the apocalypse happened so there could have been many advancements in the field since then, but Feel Good didn't seem to know any better than I did. “Just give me the name of who you work for and I'll leave again, even try to get the others to give you a chance to rest.”
He just laughed bitterly and looked away from me. I sighed deeply and shook my head, looking at the tools and medical equipment around the room. My eyes settled on a pair of anesthetic gas canisters and the mask sitting on the top, a pair of rubber tubes connecting the first two together. I wasn't a bad guy...I'd never hurt somepony like this...but he didn't know that. Maybe I could bluff my way into an answer...?
I wrapped the tanks in my magic and rolled the trolly over as I walked up to the tables.
“What are you doing?” Feel Good demanded, turning back to me quickly.
“She doesn't remember, but you still know what you did to me on the first night I got here right?” I asked and he nodded slowly. “Well,” I floated the mask off the tank and pressed it to Gauze's muzzle, looping the straps behind her head and tightening it into place. “Assuming you're a real doctor you know that a body need oxygen to survive.” He just glared at me. “I also assume you love Gauze. I'm not pleased to admit it but the memory I got of that first night included the start of your...love making.” I couldn't think of a better way to put it, and I was trying to play this as cold and mean as I could. “So as I said, hurting YOU does nothing, eventually answers come out, maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong. Seeing Gauze hurt like this made your stubborn, you were the better buck, those horrible unicorns beating a helpless mare like that to get information out of her...Well that's not how I play.” I turned the gas on and actually heard Gauze sigh in relief as it started to take effect on her body.
The door burst open and the unicorn ran in. “Cane what are you doing?” She demanded, but I grabbed her tail in my magic and slid her out of the room, slamming the door and sliding one of the massive cabinets in front of it, then took hold of the two security cameras and twisted them away so nopony else could see in, no line of sight means no unicorn outside the room could easily move the cabinet to get back into the room.
“W...What are you doing?” Feel Good demanded.
“Remember what you did to me that first night?” I asked and he nodded.
“I'm going to do something similar to Gauze here. Except instead of taking a semen sample from her I'm just going to keep turning the gas up slowly. Eventually we'll hit the point her body becomes oxygen starved and she starts to die.” I grabbed a clock off the far wall and floated it around so Feel Good could see it, setting it down on a counter point towards him I waited until the second indicator ticked past the start of the next minute then twisted the gas valve gently. If this didn't work I knew I'd blown my chance but hopefully...”Every minute you don't give me the name of your boss I'm going to increase the gas by two percent, and I started it on 15 percent to help her with the pain, so we're at 17 percent now.” I said, watching the needle tick along slowly towards the start of the next minute.
He held out amazingly well, I got to almost 60% before he demanded I stop.
“Come on, just give me a name and I'll turn the gas down.” I said simply.
“He'll kill me.” Feel Good choked, tears at the edge of his eyes.
“I'll kill her.” I said flatly and he sobbed loudly, whimpering quiet pleas to let her go. “ANSWER ME!” I roared.
“COAL!” He screamed back, breaking down into tears. “His name is Coal Cane! Now let her go!” I stepped back in shock.
“You're sure?” I asked him and he just nodded, pitiful sparks tumbling from his shattered horn as he tried to turn the gas off, tears falling to the ground. I reached out and turned the gas down and the oxygen up, giving her a good mixture to keep her pain numbed but her body still alive. I slid the cabinet away from the door and Brutus and the unicorn burst into the room.
“You didn't say you were going to block the cameras!” The unicorn snapped at me as she ran back into the room, pausing as she assessed the strange situation she found herself in, one prisoner in tears and the other sedate and asleep. I ignored her and wandered into the hall quietly.
“Cane? What happened?” Brutus asked, following me. “I could only hear what was happening since you blocked the cameras. Who's Coal Cane? He has to be related to you.”
“I...yeah...” I turned and looked at Brutus. “He's my brother.”
Footnote: Level up
Perk Added: Terrifying Presence: You can intimidate foes through dialogue; closing dialogue results in the foe fleeing for 5 seconds.
(So I'm going to be slowing down a little on this story for a while. I'm planning the story still, and I've started work on another (Non Fallout Equestria) story with two other authors so I'm going to be focusing on getting that story started for a bit. One of the other authors is TheKingOfHearts and his story is MLP: Off the Record. It's been doing really well lately so please, if you haven't already, head over and check his story out.)
This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding.
You can read Fallout Equestria by Kkat on Equestria Daily
The Fallout: Equestria logo used above was designed by DotRook, who, according to the original deviantArt page, allows usage in supplementary materials created for and associated with the series. Images really do make a difference, so he has our eternal gratitude and respect.
If you enjoy Fallout Equestria Side Stories, you will want to check the Fallout Equestria Side Stories post on Equestria Daily and the Fallout Equestria Side Stories thread on Ponychan
The Ponychan group is also a hatching ground that you can join if you want to share your experience, writing or comments with us.
Stats
Page generated in 0.031 seconds
Total duration
927 users online
426,352 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
wow cant believe Coal survived and wants his brother dead good chapter
Ruby's Sugars grand-something-daughter? I've seen that coming since the orb in which Rosela told him about being pregnant
Does it even caunt as incest after so many generations? 
The interrogation? Simply great idea! And if we're talking about Coal... I had my suspicion from the memory where he told Gaze about Sugars relation to Ruby, but I'm pretty surprised that he's still using his old name... Still a very nice plot twist and everything makes sense now. You're a good story teller 
I also liked the scene between Cane and CB but one part seemed weird:
I don't know what I'm gonna do. Where am I gonna live? Who's going to help me with my homework? And make sure I eat! And don't oversleep and miss school! And... and... and... I can understand shock, but who thinks about school and homework when confronted with the death of his parent?
P.S. Where's the promised title art ?
1424411
but it WILL come! I promise!
The part with CB is actually taken from an experience in my own life with a young girl I know who's mom passed away. She got really really upset (obviously) and worried herself sick about the really unimportant stuff, like school, like homework, over sleeping. Adults worry about things like funeral arrangements, bills, trying to make sure home lives are stable, kids worry about the stuff that their parents always told them was important that the children didn't believe was. It's also entirely possible that she was unique in her concerns, but I based that conversation off of the one I had in real life with her and her dad. As to the cover art I am very sorry. I have an artist doing the picture who is just lazy! Unfortunately she's also my sister so it's tougher to give her a hard time.
ALSO, just because things seem clear now doesn't mean I don't still have a few tricks up my sleeve
Behold! A temporary cover! The evil pyro pony
1425296 I never said that the story was over
I just meant that while suddenly everything made sense I stopped thinking: "The guy has potential, but some of the horse apples he put into the fic just don'tmake sense... What a shame..." But you've already knew that 
The fic needs way more attention! 
1427269>>1427822
LOL, when you guys say it needs more attention does that mean from me? Or from the public? Cuz I'm just not sure
I'm putting the finishing touches on the start of the prologue of the new story and that'll go up in the next few days. ALSO I'm on vacation starting Sunday so I might find time to do another WNC chapter
1427883 Of course it needs more attention from you, didn't you hear all that criticism that's supported to break your creative spirit?
"It needs more attention" means that more ponie-crazied individuals should read it
1428205
Lol I just worry about upsetting/offending people so I was making sure
1429422 You are the author. It's your vision and creation. You're making your own magicks
Hater's gonna hate, ignore them or make CUPCAKES out of them 
1429447
That is all
1431414 You could also skin dem and make ze beautiful dress
1432299
1433487 Yes a classy suit like Barb the Raider Chieftain in Murky Number Seven had
1439062
Lol I haven't read that one but I can imagine it.
1439576 Here's the fragment from the chapter Sixty minutes in Hell:
Barb, however...gradually came into clarity. Upon witnessing him...I simply screamed.
The chieftain wore the carved skins of dark coated ponies. Hanging across his torso like crude barding, they, if anything, helped him blend into the darkness even more. He...he'd made camouflage out of ponies! Draped across his shoulders, I could see the dark blood still sticking to the back of his neck. Layered like barding, it settled across thin leather armour that bore carved designs of barbed wire running below the still wet skins. Held on his front hoof, a long blade seemed to pulse with dark magic...a spell imbued weapon or something? Seeing my gaze flicker from side to side of his new sick attire, Barb chuckled, trotting forward, making my eyes go wide when the barding of skin rippled and glistened.
I fear and love this psycho
1439821
Oooo I like it
1441037 I only read the good stuff and drop the crap
1444765
Lol, thanks
At the risk of self promotion I'd love to know what you think of the start of my other story 
1444792 Get bored after "gentercolts"
JK, I simply didn't had the inspiration to start a new story, maybe anothe time 
1445359
LOL! That's fine. There isn't much to it yet