13 - In the Line of Fire
The sun was setting. It took me six hours to move three kilometers. The distance between me and Fillydelphia had looked longer than that. The fact that I was seeing my legs as being longer than I knew they were meant something was majorly broken in my visual processors, or worse yet, my Sweetie Eyes. Yay…
I had my gaze clamped on the gate in the wall around the city. I wasn’t sure how they’d found enough auto-wagons to stack up and make a wall around the whole city out of, or if there were any non-wagon segments of wall. That didn’t matter. What mattered was there would be a mechanic in there.
The would help me. They had to help me. I’d thought about radioing the Sandfly for an emergency evac… but I couldn’t. My internal radio was down. I couldn’t use the radios I was delivering for that. They weren't mine.
Opening another ponies mail is treason. Like, actually treason. I’d be shot.
I’d survive, but that would hurt. I had enough hurt going on right now, so no thank you.
I needed to get to those gates, and at the very least, get access to a radio. Or get mine fixed.
I could do it at the gates. Gates. The final frontier. These are the voyages, of a very very hurt zeeb. Her current mission, get to the gates which are closer than they appear.
It was back to the same routine I’d been using for the last six hours.
Step. Sob. Step. Sob. Step. Sob.
I found myself one and a half tents into a small NCR camp set up in front of the gates before even noticing it was there. It was truly tiny. The camp consisted of two whole tents and a single defensive trench dug between it and the gates.
I looked at the trench with a mixture of contempt and despair. Obstruction detected! Shallow pit consistent with bronze age earthwork fortification. Probability of mission hindrance… One hundred percent!
Wait. No. I can just go around. It’s as tiny as the tiny camp.
I turned to go around it, and a lightly accented voice yelled something at me. It took me a moment to realize it was, “Uh, miss? Miss? Hey! Miss! HALT!”
It took me another moment to realize the voice hadn’t come from thin air, but had in fact come from a griffon. A tall one, dressed in battered armor which didn’t match the NCR’s gear. Black polymer plating over a thin Kevlar body glove. It had a little white talon painted on the shoulder plates.
I started into the griffon’s green eyes for a few seconds, trying to figure out what to do.
Oh. Yeah. Say something in Griffon! Ummm…
I blinked. “Ya machina.”
His eyes widened slightly. “Excuse me?” his voice held a hint of amusement and laughter.
Did I mispronounce it? Better repeat. “Ya machina.”
The griffon turned to his left put a talon up to his beak and yelled, “Medic!”
I frowned. Medic? No. I’m a postmare.
…
Should I tell him he’s wrong, or—
The griffon turned to a shorter earth pony-stallion who was dressed in a white jacket. “I think she’s concussed. Give her a checkup.”
“Are you sure she’s not with the enemy, sir?” the jacketed stallion asked.
“If she is, she’s too out of it to attack us,” the griffon said, sitting down and looking me over.
The stallion stepped over to me and took out a stethoscope from a black bag he wore around his neck and shoulder.
Oh! He was the medic. I didn’t need one of those.
I slowly raised a leg, my damaged one. “N— No… thanks…”
The Medic frowned and shook his head. “Yea, sorry, but no. You need some help.”
I nodded. “Yes, but not from—”
The pony pressed his stethoscope up to my barrel and made the weirdest face. “Wut?”
He reached up and wiped some of the much off my barrel then put the stethoscope back.
“I really don’t need—” I began.
He cut me off with a raised hoof. “Miss, you’re clearly injured and—”
I stared at him with what I felt was the most tired expression I ever had in my life.
“I don’t need a doctor. I need…” I was about to say mechanic when I noticed another pony in the camp.
They had a bottle of something. It was alcoholic. I could smell it! Coolant! Sweet delicious coolant. Give! Need!
“... a stiff drink,” I finished.
The medic gave me a deadpan stare. “You don’t need alcohol. Sir, I can't find her heartbeat or any sign of breathing. I do hear something mechanical and it’s straining hard. Given her leg, we can assume she’s got other hardware, and I’m pretty certain it’s broken, given how strained that artificial organ sounded.”
The griffon nodded slowly. “I see… So you’re saying she’s—”
“A cyberpony… Erm, cyberzebra, sir,” the medic finished, carefully touching their stethoscope away. “She’s hurt, bad.”
I heard a mare’s voice from behind me. “Sir! Given her lack of a flak vest and obvious energy weapons, I doubt she’s with the enemy. The enemy has a clear uniform, and even their heavily armored ponies and officers are using ballistic weapons. More likely she ran into them on the road and they left her for dead… and she fell in a river? They didn’t loot her weapons, so something had to have prevented them from taking it.”
The griffon stood up and walked towards me. “Good theory, corporal,” he said before looking me in the eyes. “Where are you from?”
“North… Over the mountains… I need a mechanic. Also alcohol. Please,” I begged, giving the pony with the bottle a look.
He frowned and looked between the bottle and me, but the griffon spoke up again before I could try to give him Sweetie Eyes.
“Ah, civilian… That’s a damn shame,” He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. “Miss, this is an active combat zone. We have no reinforcements, and are short supplies. I can’t offer you any medical attention, and Fillydelphia is currently occupied by a gang calling themselves the Tainted. We’re warning people away until the 501st arrive to retake the city.”
I blinked slowly. Processed what he said, the groaned. “Oh…” I paused to think of an appropriate curse word. “Expletive!”
Shit! I bucked it up!
The pony with the bottle winced. “Luna’s fetlocks… Sarge, come on, we can spare one dose of Pot-X for her. She can have mine.”
The griffon turned around to shake his head at his subordinate. “She can’t, Rust. We don’t have one for anyone.”
The medic cleared his throat. “One of the gang made off with my saddlebags. We’re limited to my field kit and Private Cream’s trauma pack.”
Rust’s face went pale. “I… Not even a—”
Suddenly it clicked with me what was going on. The Tainted had moved to cut me off at the pass! If they took the city and/or killed the town’s leaders I couldn’t deliver to one of the major cities. That couldn’t be the entire reason for a full scale attack… Especially not when the note said they couldn’t do that. Something had to have drawn their atten—
The moment of clarity struck twice.
Mom’s old lab!
She’d done a lot of work in the Crystal City MAS Production Facility, but her private lab had been in the MAS Prototyping Facility here in Filly. It was located beneath a donut shop downtown. Technically most of downtown... It was fairly deep underground, as it had to be below the subway system and the supporting stonework for that. Practically a Stable unto itself, thanks to the sheer amount of rock between it and the surfice.
It was still intact, as far as I knew.
Intact and filled with who knows what! If my coming here coincided with them learning about mom’s old lab… I had to get there! I had to stop them. I had mom’s ID, I could activate the lockdown mode. Or the self destruct. This Tainted gang couldn’t get their hooves on whatever advanced weapons, armor, or machines were down there!
I couldn’t let them take it. I had to try to stop them. Also, Homage used the old MAS broadcasting center! I could message her for help via the HUB Radio network. Probably.
ALSO! These soldiers were bucked and I was carrying a ton of medical supplies I literally had absolutely no use for at all. Those who can, do.
I opened up my saddlebag and took out the medical kit I’d looted off the Tainted assassin I’d killed… Yesterday? Today?
When am I?
Clearing my throat I held it out to the medic. “I took some of them down before the river existed on me into a wall,” I managed to say mostly coherently.
The medic blinked. “And you… managed to unbuckle that bag form one of their vests during a firefight?”
“No, I killed him,” I murmured. “And his friends. Flamer exploded… That helped a lot. They didn’t have any duct tape on them, or anything useful. Not even a beer. Just this junk!”
The medic took the bag and opened it. His eyes popped out of his head. “Holy Celestia! Sarge! There’s twelve stimpacks in here! Blue stripes! That means healing potions!”
The griffon squawked, making a sound which reminded me of a surprised raven. “And you’re just giving them to us?!” He asked looking me in the eyes, then frowned. “You don’t look concussed. You know we can’t pay the Princess’s ransom for those, right?”
“It’s war, isn't it?” I asked with a confused frown. “You need them. I don’t. Take them.”
Rust trotted over to me and pushed the bottle into my hoof. “Sound like you value this more than those. Take it.”
I looked at him with the most loving, eye watering gaze I’d ever had. “Thank you!”
He smiled. “You’re wel—”
I tipped my head back and drained the remaining liter of liquid. Whisky, I think. It wasn’t too potent, but I heard my coolant pump and core make a little happy humm as I stopped running entirely on damp air and sadness.
I was running the whisky straight as coolant. No synthesis. I’m so low I’m in emergency mode. Poop!
I handed the bottle back and looked at him hopefully. “More?”
The griffon looked at me for several seconds, wings flared in alarm. The medic looked white as a sheet, as if he expected me to drop dead. Rust reached under his uniform’s trench coat and brought out a second bottle.
I drank it all.
My systems gave me the green light and began to process… the very last cup or so into coolant. Oh wow. I’d been out out!
The entire squad of six ponies and one griffon were staring at me like I was Celestia herself. Why? All I did was drink down some spoiled wheat juice.
Hoping a joke would diffuse the situation, I smiled a little. “So uh… I don’t suppose the bandits have some Ultra-Sentinels I could punch?”
The Griffon Sargent facetaloned. “You’re that Zeeb! That’s why you said you were The Machine! Right! Okay. So, no. They don't. But they’ve got a big-ass brute of a pegasus in some hot rodded power armor with too many guns, and about a hundred infantry mares that I know of. Probably more! I had no idea the Tainted were that numerous!”
He stepped over to me and bent down to look me in the eye. “You may be a bad enough mare to beat down a Sentinel, and I respect that, but there’s an army in there pressing the locals for recruitment. Their number could have exploded, for all we know. Filly’s always been inhabited by ponies who value personal freedom. Spending years as slaves tends to do that. They aren’t exactly loyal to the NCR.
“You’re not going in there. No one is going in there. Not till the 501st gets here with AJ’s Rangers.”
I frowned. “What makes you think I’m going in?”
“You look like a mare who thinks she’s a one-pony-army, but isn’t,” he answered honestly.
I snorted and smiled at his comment. “Hahahahaaaaaaaagh!”
I almost fell over as laughing sent a massive wave of pain through my shot diodes. I heard the squad hiss in sympathetic pain.
“I’m just the mail mare,” I said once I was able to speak again.
The medic winced. “Miss, please lay down. The 501st will have medics with them. If you don't die from… Look, just… lay down. Be still. Wait.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. I lived here before Redeye… I was hoping to see if my mother left anything in our old home. And I need to deliver the mail.”
The griffon clenched his beak and huffed. “I don’t recommend going in there. Especially not in your condition.”
I smiled faintly. “I’ll be better if I can have another whisky.”
The medic winced. “Please don’t! I can smell your liver’s fear from here.”
“She drank Conan’s Brew and lived,” the griffon pointed out. “At least, that’s what DJ Pon3 said.”
He turned and looked at me. “I can’t let you in… but will another drink really help you?”
I nodded. “I… have a few tricks,” I said with a sheepish smile.
The medic frowned for a moment hen his ears perked up. “Of course! Zebra magic! Are you converting alcohol into a healing potion?”
“Kinda?” I said with a frown.
I mean, it wasn’t exactly a lie but—
The griffon looked over to his squad. “Well? I know you six looted the bar on the way out of the city!”
A sheepish looking mare with a violently green mane handed me a bottle of vodka.
“Anypony have some salt?” I asked looking around hopefully.
Rust produced a small brick of salt. It appeared to have soaked up some kid of liquid then dried again, as it was yellow and a bit blobby. Everyone looked at him like he was an idiot.
“What?” he asked sheepishly. “Pork flavored salt is good!”
Preserving salt. Whatever. It would work.
I took it from Rust, opened the vodka, popped the salt into my mouth, and dissolved it on my tongue with the vodka.
I felt my systems perk right up! I could move at more than a slow plod now. Yay for half-walking speed! WOOO!
I winced. The fact this felt so much better than a minute ago was more than a little distressing… It was still more damage than most auto-wagons were when they got listed as totaled…
I looked back into Rust’s eyes just in time to watch him shudder. “Okay, not even I’d do that.”
“Feeling better?” the sergeant asked, less in concern and more as a statement of stunned disbelief.
I nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Aaannny chance that healing potion will work for us?” The mare who gave me the vodka asked hesitantly.
I shook my head. “No. You can’t do that kind of magic.”
Unless of course she was a Robobrain III I didn’t know about. Not very likely.
“Shame,” the sergeant sighed stroking his beak. “We could use a healing ritual easy as that one.”
Healing ritual… healing… magical healing… Oh, my, Celestia, I am a bucking, idiot!
I facehooved and moaned. “I actually know one of those… Like, a proper one.”
The griffon snorted and shook his head. “Mare, you have to be really banged up if you forgot to use your own magic… Legally, I can’t stop you from heading inside. You're not a citizen, but we have a Freedom of Travel law enshrined in the constitution. But please, I beg you, don’t go in there.”
He bend down to look me in the eyes with all due seriousness as he said slowly. “Their leader’s wielding quad autocannons! You don't stand a chance.”
My eyes narrowed. Him! My eye twitched. “I have a bone to pick with him…”
“Whatever magic you have—” The sergeant began with a sigh.
The nice Vodka Dispensing Mare interrupted by talking to the sergeant. “Sir! I—” She paused, took a breath, and shifted to a less formal tone of voice. “Sviatoslav, off the record… Might I suggest asking her what she can do? Maybe trade more hooch for some magic? I don't think any of us know what zebras can do for real. Maybe she does have something that can help. Couldn’t they all turn invisible, pre-war?”
“Er, well, I suppose…” the sergeant said with a flutter of his wings.
The squad looked at me. Feeling a bit put on the spot, I decided a short lecture was do. “Um… Zebra magic is similar to Earth Pony magic. Rather than preternatural physical prowess, our magic is more focused on the bond with nature. We can sense the spirits which live all around us, inside of seemingly mundane objects.
“These spirits can be bargained with, and each has a particular variety of things it can do for you. Anyone with any natural talent in perceiving spirits can be a Shaman with the right training, not just zebra. It’s just that all zebras have the potential to become Shamen, while the talent is very rare in other species… We also have better luck interacting with spirits. We’re more likely to be successful, and they ‘charge’ us less. Uh, personally though, I’m really really bad at doing anything other than knowing if the rock I am standing on is spiritually or magically significant.”
“But, you could heal yourself?” The sergeant asked with an odd tilt to his head that made him totally look like a normal hungry birb.
Hehehe!
I nodded. “Yes. At least, for a little bit.”
“In that case, walking for, what? Hours in that condition? All without using your powers to get to help as quickly as possible is a sign of head trauma…” He said matter of factly before turning to the medic. “Gauze? Can we hold her on medical grounds?”
“Only if she agrees to be trea—”
“I don’t want treatment,” I said firmly.
“We cannot, sir,” the medic finished with a sigh.
“The real reason is that I uh… I'm really bad at it. Last time I tried to enchant something, I ripped all of my skin off,” I said with a blush and a tail droop.
I also made every changeling in a 30 meter radius involuntarily shapeshift into the opposite sex. But they didn’t need to know that.
Magical Vodka Mare laughed. I turned and gave her a hurt look. She winced. “Nothing personal! Just, it’s funny to see a zebra who isn’t all ancient, wise, mystical, and way more skilled than I’ll ever be.”
I nodded. That made sense. Most of us spend every minute of every day honing our trades to perfection. That’s why I took delivering the mail so seriously.
By Celestia! The mail! If they killed the town leaders before I delivered the radios to them, I’d have to wait for an election!
I narrowed my Sweetie Eyes, and based on the way everyone took a step back from me, radiated pure determination as I said. “I’m going in.”
The sergeant sighed loudly. “Okay… Look, if your old keepsakes mean so much to you, go ahead. It’s your grave… Odds are good they were stolen or vaporized over the years. Just FYI. Also… your best bet is the old sewers. Redeye did a good job clearing them out. Most are passable, and easier to move through than the streets, even if they were not currently occupied.
“I don't think the bandits know about them. Find the first one, duck in, follow the maps, and by Luna, if you’re in there when we move to retake the city, keep your flanks behind cover and your head down!”
“Ya machina,” I smiled and gave him a wink. “I’ll be fine.”
I didn’t really think so, but I had the feeling if I told him ‘I’ll probably keel over if I take so much as a BB’ he would have forced me to stay, laws be damned...
☢★★◯★★☢
Filly was exactly the way I remembered it. A completely bucked over ruin composed of endless rows of red-brick apartment buildings and stubby tan-brick skyscrapers that looked like it had exploded, or been exploded on. Twice.
It was nice to feel at home! Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to look around and be nostalgic.
I pried open the first mare-hole cover I found and slipped down into the sewer. Fortunately not literally. The ladder down into the dark, half-ellipse cobblestone tunnel was sturdy enough to hold me the entire way down without even a squeak to betray my presence.
As my hooves touched the dry, brown, crumbly dirt lining the bottom of the ancient sewer, I was super glad the place was a good two centuries out of commission. Given the almost solid flooring of ‘dirt’ that looked to be at least two hooves deep…
Well, I was just happy enough time had passed for the stuff to decay into proper soil.
”Uh, hon? Poop doesn't work that—”
Shut. Up. Dad! I thought hard, my left eye twitching. That’s. How. It. Works. Today. Understand?
”... Yeah, okay. Just… if you get into a fight like this, you’re dead. Please, Machine Spirit up. At the very least, it will help you get there quicker. You know you’ll take all night at this rate, and you’re right. The Tainted definitely want something in your mom’s old lab.”
Those were a set of points I really couldn’t refute.
I nodded, took a deep breath, and steadied myself. I hadn’t done this properly in a long time. I think I pulled a bit of it in the ambush, but I wasn’t quite sure if that was desperation or proper spirit magic.
I shivered. In my current state, if I bucked this up—
”Gears, sweety, you’ve never hurt yourself when you made mistakes. Only others, and nopony is nearby. You won’t make mom slough off one of her robotic limbs again. Just do it.”
“Okay dad,” I said out loud. “Let's go.”
I focused inwards, looking for myself. With the blinding pain in my side, and my core, and my leg, it was almost impossible to slip into a proper meditative trance, but I managed to get there with a little bit of determination and a few minutes. I reached into the veil, seeking the ethereal font of power within my spirit.
Ah. There it was. Not so much a font as a small cup. After so many years of ignoring my power aside from putting on a show to scare off the occasional windigo, and without anypony or zeeb making sacrifices to me, I didn’t have too much power not committed to, well… getting to be alive as I was now.
It takes a lot to be a mortal. A cost I was happy to pay, even considering the present situation.
I winced, realizing I didn’t have enough magic to make me do anything beyond my body’s normal capabilities. On the battlefield, that little trick is what made ‘zebra robots’ so deadly. Enough magic in our systems, and the most powerful of us could tank artillery fire, jump over a single story building in a single bound, and tear a pony apart with our bare hooves… All that with a body made from an artist's dummy made to scale with a pony. Little more than a few sticks, hinges, and ball joints.
A proper war golem was a small platoon unto itself. If we’d had more than a few hundred of them, we might not have had to use balefire.
I was not any kind of proper golem. Right now, I could make myself run as my platform was designed in spite of my damage. For… About 16 minutes and 40 seconds.
I focused my will, took hold of the magic within me, and demanded my body function properly.
My whole body shimmered. A bright silver light shone through the various holes in my chassis, making spots of my skin above those holes glow brightly as my magic took up the forms of sheared off gear teeth, temporarily bent rods back to true, patched holes, and restored damaged components.
The pain faded, still there, throbbing, dull, dampened down to background noise. I could ignore it for the time being. Except. For. My. Diodes!
WHY?!
I felt panic in the spirit world around me. Minor spirits in the machines, stones, earth and buildings around me as far as I could sense started to suppress their auras, fearing I would feed on them to restore my own power.
I bit my lip and through about doing just that for a moment…
NO!
No. That is wrong, and we left that life behind. We are not a random Machine Spirit any more. We are Whirling Gears, a zebra mare, and a good pony! I won't hurt others just so I gain some kind of advantage. That’s wrong!
I started to walk down the sewer, taking note of the ancient utility map stuck in a glass case on the wall. It was almost unreadable, but its dusty lines showed me the sewers ran directly under the streets. I knew where I was going. I had about fourteen minutes to get there.
Time to run!
Meter after meter of cobblestone wall flew by. It felt so wonderful to be able to run at my full speed again! It would have been nicer if I knew I wasn’t running towards a cliff. Not a literal cliff, but at some point soon my energy would run dry, and then, well…
Pushing that aside, I focused all of my attention on running and navigating.
Left, right, left, left, right, left, right, right, left…
Seemingly arbitrary directions, and a bit counterintuitive, but nopony ever said Filly was a well designed city. You can't just turn an ancient town built before wagons into a modern city and have roads that ran in a nice efficient grid.
Celestia forbid you just level the old obsolete dangerous buildings and appease the spirits by building them nice, newer, shiner homes… That you get to use too, along with a sensible grid based street system!
I made the last turn and emerged onto the street I knew I had to go topside at. If my memory serves me right, the street above me was just behind West Filly High School, and across the school’s hoofball field was the Donut Joe’s.
I could see a mare-hole up ahead of me. Its ladder was intact. All I had to do was climb that ladder, sneak across a large open sports field, get into an old shop that may or may not still be there, and get behind the counter… Or uh, over to the area it used to be, assuming the restaurant had been repurposed for some reason.
Unfortunately… I was out of magic.
I had pushed myself as hard as I could. I reached the ladder. My hooves pulled me up onto the first rung, then the second, the third… fourth… fifth… I was… almost… out.. Just... another…
Sleep…
☢★★◯★★☢
I came to suddenly, immediately realizing I’d fallen asleep. It was a weird feeling. I couldn’t remember the last time I was unconscious and didn’t wake up in the hell that is the spirit realm.
Compounding this weirdness was how I was now at the base of the ladder. I distinctly remembered climbing some of it.
I was also encapsulated by some kind of orange energy field. What was… Oh… Shit!
Somepony was holding me telekinetically! All of me!
I thrashed in their grip, turning to look for the pony keeping me captive. If I was lucky I could line up my LAER in spite of their TK holding me down and—
And I was being held prisoner by a tiny orange unicorn filly who was probably, at best, 14 years old.
She was dressed in a blue and black cloak which had definitely been cut out from a larger cloak, given its poor fit, and also looked very familiar. It took me a moment, but the dim glow of her horn eventually let me make out the white patch on the back of her cloak. SWAT, Filly. No. 8792.
Hey! Dad, that’s your badge number!
”Oh, hey! It is. I was wondering where I left that cloak… Think she’ll give it back?
We’ve got more important things to ask.
I cleared my throat unnecessarily. I thought the filly might not have noticed I was awake, but she had. She had slowly moved so her cloak wasn’t covering her forelegs… Which were shod with a pair of power hooves.
Okay. Do not anger the filly. She’ll literally punch your head into a pile of slag!
“Hello…” I said slowly and carefully. “Why are you holding me prisoner?”
The filly’s voice trembled slightly. She was terrified. Her body didn’t show it, but her voice did. “The Tainted have robots. I’ve never seen you. You’re a robot. You’re one of theirs.”
I blinked, hoping she was just taking my exposed leg and coming to the right conclusion by accident. I shook my head slowly, not wanting to provoke a scared filly who both held me still and could sheath her hooves in plasma at any moment.
“I’m not a robot. I’m a cyborg.”
“I can see you,” the filly said quietly. “You’re like those Zebra robots in the badlands. I’ve been there before. You’re one of them. Just… Just wearing some poor pony’s skin!”
She looked at me, both terrified, disgusted, and also ready to do something about the ‘evil monster robot’.
Even worse… she was spiritually awake. She could see me. The real me. Inside the shell.
There was only one way out of this. Tell the entire truth as quickly as possible.
I cleared my throat. “No. I’m not a zebra robot. I was made in Equestria, by Equestrians. Not every Shaman was working for Zebrica. Also, I am not a robot. I am a cyborg. I incorporate organic parts.”
“Yeah!” She said, her terror fading slowly into aggression. “That poor zebra’s skin! I— I’m going to take you to jail. As soon as it’s safe up there.”
Jail? Wut?
I blinked and tilted my head. “Jail? Are you serious? This is my skin. I grew it myself just yesterday! … Twice, actually.”
The filly nervously reached beneath her cloak and pulled out a police badge. “I— I’m an officer of the law! I finished the training simulations just like they used to. You hurt somepony, so— So I’m going to put you in jail!”
”Hey! That’s my badge!” Imaginary dad exclaimed, half upset and half amused.
I facehooved and moaned. Of all the ponies I could have possibly found, I get the filly who happened to stumble across some gear dad discarded all those centuries ago and decided to be a policemare…
“Look,” I started with a wary and cautious sigh. “I’m way too low on coolant, hydraulic fluid, and magic to cut a piece of this pelt off to show you that it’s mine. Is there any way I can prove to you that I’m not a Zebrican war golem?”
The filly narrowed her eyes, still shaken but clearly not as scared as she used to be. “You know what they were really called. Nopony in Equestria knows that.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Then how do you know it?”
She squirmed in place for a moment. “I… Was in the badlands. There’s remnants of your army there. I learned it from them. Where did you learn it?”
I took a deep breath of frustration. “My pony mom was an apprentice shaman and taught me what little she learned. You’re a pony. You can see spirits. You know it’s not just zebras who can do it. Sometimes, long before the war, a zebra with an awakened pony friend would teach them zebra magic. That’s how my mom knew how to make me. Anypony who studied Shamanism a little bit, or even Zebrican history, would know that zebra robots are not actually robots, they are spirits bound to a mechanical body.”
“Yep. Which is what you are. Don’t lie! I can see you in there,” She exclaimed taking a step forward while menacingly charging one of her power hooves.
My ears flicked back at the arcane hum as power began to build up. “I’m a cyborg! Not a golem. I am a full body prosthesis. Of course you see a machine spirit when you look at me! Any device this old and complex would have one, but I was not designed as a war machine!”
“Yeah, but there’s no soul either. I’ve seen other cyborgs. They have souls,” the filly said as she popped her neck in what she must have thought was intimidating, but even in my dire situation, was adorable. “You’re just a spirit and some scraps!”
“OR,” I said quickly, hoping it would make her hesitate.
It did.
I cleared my throat. “Or, maybe, I’m so seamlessly integrated with this system that I’m a person. I’m talking with you, aren't I? Could a spirit do that?”
The filly nodded firmly. “Yep. Older spirits can talk out loud to you. Ancient ones can even make bodies for themselves. That’s what Discord was. A really really old chaos spirit. You’re an old machine spirit. Don’t lie!”
Dammit! Where did she learn so much about zebra magic?! … The Herd! She must have been born in the Herd and had a mentor.
I took yet another deep breath. “Okay, yes, but— How do you even know this much?”
“I’m from the Herd. We have Shamanism classes in elementary school,” She answered. “So you’re not gonna get to pull any fast ones on me!”
“Ah…” I debated changing tactics for a moment. Maybe there was a better way to explain myself than just telling her I was obviously a cyborg because I have organic parts too and it isn’t specified that a cyborg has to start out as an organic.
“Okay, how about I explain who I am to you exactly?” I offered with a friendly smile.
The filly paused, then nodded. “Okay… I should get your name for the paperwork anyways.”
I decided to ignore the nagging question of who she’d be doing paperwork for, and bowed politely to introduce myself. “My name is Whirling Gears. I am the lab prototype for the Robobrain Mark Three. I came here in spite of the gang because I was built in a MAS lab not far from here. I am damaged, and I have business in that lab—”
I realized mid sentence that there might also be some spare parts on the workbench I could swap out, and smiled. “And, now that I think about it, there might be some spare parts to repair myself with in there, too. If you let me take you to the MAS lab under the Donut Joe’s across the hoofball field from this mare-hole, I can prove to you I’m not a Zebra made golem, but in fact, a robotic body constructed from cybernetic modules and Robobrain parts.”
The filly gave me a blank look. “Who is wearing a random mare’s skin.”
“It’s my skin!” I snapped. “I was built with this on me okay? My model was intended for infiltration.”
Her blank look intensified. “Which just happens to be possessed by a Machine Spirit.”
I mimed taking another deep breath because it seemed socially appropriate. “My mom put me in here because she was scared and alone when the megaspells hit. I call her my mom because she built me a body and put me in it and the person who does that for you is by definition your mom.”
The filly frowned then nodded slowly. “Well, I mean… Can't argue with that.”
She looked me over, then nodded again, even slower. “Okay, we’ll go across the field to take a look. But if you try to run or alert the Tainted in the field, I’ll punch one of your legs right off!”
She threw a punch at the wall next to her. A bright flash of blue-green plasma blazed against the stone, vaporizing a large section of the tunnel… and fortunately not bringing it down on our heads!
I gasped, staring at the hole in terror.
“Yeah, you know what these can d—”
I turned to her and fixed a Glare Configuration onto her pink eyes. “Are you stupid?! You could have buried us alive!”
She blinked, winced, then gave me an apologetic smile. “Oh… Uh… yeah… sorry.”
“I’m well aware of what power hooves do!” I snapped. “I’m also incapable of running right now! Or even fighting! That’s not me speaking emotionally, I’m speaking mechanically. I’m that broken, okay?!”
My tiny captor blinked in surprise. “Is that why you were just staring at the street and radiating power for fifteen minutes? You can't climb quickly either?”
“No,” I corrected. “I’m low on coolant and overheating… and just used spirit power to force myself to move. I was tired… and... apparently forgot to close my eyes before napping.”
Celestia, that was beyond embarrassing!
“Oh. That makes sense. I’ve done that too,” the filly said with a sage nod which made me appreciate foal-logic for what might have been the first time.
Then she said something so adult it felt wrong to hear it from a barely-teenager’s mouth. “They’re executing people up there. I’ll see if it’s safe.”
Before I could adequately process the horribleness of a filly casually informing me of executions as if they “weren't no thang”, the filly’s cloak parted as she spread her wings and flew up through the mare-hole.
AWWWW! SHE WAS A BABBERS FLAPPY-POINTY-PONE!
Wait...
ALICORN! YES! THAT’S THE WORD! Now, back to squee and awstruckness. Yes.
WHAT?!
“How many alicorns are there?” I asked of the universe as her telekinetic grip still kept me in place at the bottom of the ladder.
I felt myself slowly rise upwards as she lifted me up to street level and set me down next to the mare-hole.
“A lot!” she whispered. “We’re a little too obsessed with making sure our species survives, if you ask me… I left home because I didn’t want to be a broodmare like all the other fillies. Be quiet, they aren't too far away. Where exactly do we need to go?”
I took a quick look around to make sure we were where I thought we were. Fortunately we were right next to the High School at the intersection of Sunset Lane and Shimmer Boulevard. The Donut Joe’s sign was, however, nowhere to be seen.
Redeye probably scrapped it for the metal. It had been a giant sheet metal donut, after all.
Fortunately I could see the corner of the donut shop around the edge of the school… I could also hear someone speaking loudly in the distance.
“We need to go east, around the school, across the field, and into the Donut Joe’s.”
The filly eeped. “Oh that’s not good! That’s where they’ve rounded everypony up. I uh… I was going back to the station to try and see if there was any tear gas left so I could... You know... Try and save everypony.”
I winced at the thought of trying to make it all the way across town again in my current condition. “I see… If the MAS lab is intact, or at least, mostly intact, I could see if there’s a way to get security robots to follow your orders. Assuming your badge is a real one.”
“It is!” She said with a proud smile. “The Dream Pod said I could keep it because I was the bestest SWAT Filly ever!”
”Crap! She knows!” Imaginary Dad and I said in unison.
”Also, I object! I was the Bestest SWAT pony Filly ever knew! I got three keys to the city! Never found out where the locks were...” He added grumpily.
“We’ll also be safer down there. It’s a bunker, with internal security turrets,” I added, doing my best to ignore dad’s rambling grumpiness and keep focused on persuading the crazy-powerful filly to just get me to the donut shop.
We did not have a better option!
She frowned and looked up into my eyes with genuine worry. “Do you have the codes?”
I nodded and tapped the side of my head. “I do. My mom was going to use this body for herself at first, and built her ID card into my head. It’s right under this plate, and thankfully the bullet that went through my head yesterday totally missed it.”
Her worried look turned into a deadpan stare.
“You’re a machine spirit. You don’t have a mom. You’re eternal.”
“Again with this…” I groaned, quietly slapping a hoof against my face. “We really don't have time to argue over this. Your mom is the pony who made you a body and put you in it, right?”
“Uh, well… I guess?”
“Then every robot, construct, whatever, has a mom, and unlike organics our moms can even be male! But I’m not a robot, I’m a cyborg, I have meat parts and metal parts!” My left eye started to glow and twitch.
Only Wander gets to call me a robot! It’s cute when she does it. You’re not her, you— Tiny alicorn!
HA! How do you like that. You’re moar smol than Homage, so you’re on the bottom of the alicorn rank totem pole!
”She could grow up to be the tallest,” Dad said with a snicker.
Yeah, but that’s not today!
He laughed. ”You're also silently using her height as an insult to make yourself feel better when you know she’s going to be taller than you by next year, and is, you know, an alicorn, and therefore you’re the dirt her totem pole is sitting on.”
I ignored him.
”I need to teach you hot to silently insult ponies better.”
I ignored him extra hard.
“Let's just go… I’ll follow you.” The filly said with a weary frown, her ears slowly laying back as she spoke.
I nodded and began to puzzle out how we might slip past a whole hoofball field of ponies, when she slid one of her hooves out from her powerhoof enough to access a pipbuck and activated a StealthBuck, vanishing from sight.
Ah ha! That’s how she got around the city without being captured so far. Clever… Maybe we had a chance. Now, how was I going to slowly limp my way across the field without getting spotted?
I heard the filly’s voice from just to my left. “So um… Do you have one of those those magic zebra cloaks?”
“Sadly, I don’t have an invisibility cloak,” I sighed as I realized I’d need to lie for the moment. “Don’t worry. I’m sneaky enough… Sometimes. Uh, by the way, what’s your name?”
“Oh! I thought I… It’s Roller Bearing. Friends call me Roll.”
”This is a golden opportunity and if you waste it, I will disown you for the next ten minutes,” Imaginary dad warned unnecessarily.
I nodded to the SWAT filly. “Alright, Roll, let’s roll.”
I heard a tiny facehoof and groan.
Dad cheered in the back of my mind.
Then a shot rang out from around the corner.
It shattered the sky, a single thud, you felt it in your lungs and heart more than heard it. A cannon. A lil’ babbers one, but still a cannon.
I wanted it!
I rushed over to the school’s wall and hugged it. The shot hadn’t hit anywhere near us, but if a firefight was about to start…
I hugged the wall and waited for a few moments. No more shots, but someone was shouting angrily. Their voice was too distant for me to hear, but I could tell it was electronically boosted.
“We need to get a look…” I whispered to Roll as I began to scoot along the wall towards the corner.
I shuffled along, moving towards the corner. It was a long ways, nearly a hundred meters. When I reached the halfway point the shouting pony’s voice became clear.
I don't want to hear about any soldier under my command being captured unless they are hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight! That's not just horseapples either. I want ponies like the lieutenant in Neighsadonia, who, with a Zebra’s pistol against her head, swept aside the gun with her hoof, jerked her helmet off with the other, and busted the hell out of the stripe with the helmet. Then she picked up the gun and she killed another Zebra. All this time the mare had a bullet through her lung! That's a real mare for you! I’d have married her after the battle, but they shelled her to dust. That’s how much the enemy should fear you!
I heard a pony shout something in anger and fear. I couldn’t quite make out what, but it sure pissed off loud-pony.
“QUIT WHINING! You have been conscripted. You’re not civilians anymore. Neither were they. Those ponies defied direct orders from a superior officer during wartime, and attempted to flee conscription. That makes them traitors to you, your contryponies, the Princesses, and Equestria. Their executions are not just legal, I’d be breaking the law by showing them mercy. The next pony to cry over the death of a traitor will join them! Loyal Equestrians have nothing to fear.”
What the hay? I frowned and perked my ears as I slowly scooted further along.
”Article Thirty-Eight, Section Five, Subsections Six, Nine, and Thirteen of the Wartime Emergency Powers Act give me the right, son. Do not question legal authority when you don’t know the laws it operates by! Laws which you should have learned in school. I imagine you spent that time learning how to jerk off your coltfriend better!
“Which, while it is a wholesome pastime, is not what you were in school to learn.”
I scooted closer to the corner, taking heart in the fact that his ranting probably had him and his men a little distracted.
”That wasn’t a homophobic remark, you absolute pile! He’s cuddled up against that guy in terror, who has a leg arround him. They’re obviously a couple, which is fine by me! Ponies fight better with a loved one at their side and a good rut is one of the best ways to handle battlefield stress. If you ask me, all of Equestria’s new soldiers should pair up for basic training at the end of this little shitshow of a motivational speech.”
I heard a pony quietly shout. “Equestria is gone, you buck-wit! Ancient laws don't bucking apply to us!”
Another shot shook my chassis, rattling something loose with the report alone. This time I heard something wet and meaty splatter.
“Oh… Oh, Celestia no…” I whispered.
Power Armor Pony was completely insane!
“Negative! Princess Luna is dead, but Princess Celestia is still with us,” Power Armor Pony bellowed. ”Even now she is held prisoner by the false Goddess! Equestria’s crown returned to her upon Luna’s death, therefore, Equestria yet lives.
“Zebrica has not surrendered! We are not yet beaten! Not so long as I draw breath! The war is still on! You will either be a part of the Princess’ liberation and our return to glory, or you will be eradicated!
“Since you won't remain quiet and listen to your commanding officer welcome you into the service, let’s start building a little loyalty. Choose a side, ponies! Loyalists, or traitors?”
I hesitated for a few moments, gathered my courage, and kept creeping towards the corner. I had to see. I needed to figure out a way to cross the field. I couldn't just go around the school. It was L shaped. No matter which way I went the field had an open sight line to the donut shop and its entrance faced the school!
No back door either. For MAS security reasons...
I made it to the corner as he stopped ranting, and timidly peaked around just enough to get a view with one eye.
The hoofball field had been turned into a prison yard. Not by the citizens of Fillydelphia, by the Tainted. At least two hundred of the olive green vest wearing bastards stood in a ring around what looked to me like a thousand ponies. The prisoners were all thin, clearly sufferers of long term hard labor and malnourishment. The really severe kind a pony never quite fully recovers from...
They were dressed mostly in rags and standing in small terrified clusters with gaps in the crowd occupied by what looked and smelled like—
Yep. Those were gore piles.
Then, on an impromptu stage which had once been a set of bleachers, I saw him. The madpony in power armor.
No mistake about it, that was the pony who had committed the Magebridge Massacre. He was beyond huge. He stood taller than any alicorn I’d seen so far. While that number was small, he was not. He was huge!
There’s no way he was a smaller pony in an oversized set of armor either. His armor featured a helmet with a visor. He had his visor raised, and I could see that his face filled the entire helmet. His head was that big…
Bright orange eyes, narrowed in contempt, disgust, and rage… With an urgency, desperation, and a terrifying feeling of power that burned in the shadows his visor cast. His fur was a teal color which reminded me of mom.
That terrified me. He was like a dark reflection of her. You couldn’t even see his muzzle, it was hidden behind a respirator built into his power armor. He looked less like a pony, and more like the most terrifying cyberpony ever. Only, he couldn’t be. He’d have to be a brain in a jar in there… and I was the only brian jar around.
He was a huge, monstrous, evil pegasus, in the single most advanced looking set of armor I had ever seen in my life! It clearly was fully sealed, but I couldn’t see any seams. The plates covered everything. EVERYTHING!
The suits integral battle saddle was entirely custom, and supported four huge gatling style autocannons which, for some reason I really didn’t want to know, clustered each individual cannon’s nine barrels into groups of three.
I whimpered. “Please don’t fire three barrels at once in some kind of compound tri-barrel cannon…” I begged reality.
”No such luck… That’s Gale Force’s armor. Hell, the pilot even looks like him… I think? Hard to say with just the eyes visible. But yeah… That’s how those guns worked. They’re Celestial Arms Tri-Vulcans. Best gun company in the world, best crowd suppression and in-air-combat weapon they ever made.”
Deciding to not get lost thinking about where I’d picked up that information for my subconscious to remind me of via Imaginary Dad, I started to study the crowd and the ring of ponies, hoping the Tainted soldiers were watching inside the ring and not out it so I could slip—
A pony shouted towards the stage angrily. “Pip’s not a goddess, you idiot! I *met* her. She’s just a unicorn with a weather machine, and she’s not holding Celestia’ hostage. Celestia’s a ghost in a machine! A bucking memory backup! Did you even read the—”
”Does anypony stand with this traitor and their lies?!” The power armored madpony demanded.
“Buck, yes, we do, you deluded idiot!” Somepony very very very foolishly yelled in agreement.
The single most ugly sound I’d ever heard blasted through the crowd as all four Tri-Vulcans spun up and fired in unison. I yelped in terror as the impossible amount of automatic fire screamed through the air. A wagon-thick line of ponies became chunks of flesh and bone amid the unmistakable bright-white flashes of detonating HEAP exploded inside flesh and bone.
I instinctively looked back towards the madpony, pure terror demanding I know exactly where he was and what he was doing. For some reason, my fear guided me to look at his breastplate. He was so huge, that even a hoofball field away from him I could just barely make out the writing on his armor.
A MoA emblem. A division emblem consisting of a circle with four dots around it at equal points, as if on a cross centered with the circle. Above the crest were a few words, Mors a Astra.
Old Equish. Come on. You know that form middle school wizardry…
Death from the… something.
WHY ARE YOU DEBATING THIS?! IT MEANS DEATH FROM HIM IF YOU CAU—
The madpony’s head turned to face me. He looked directly into my eyes, and his eyes wrinkled as he smiled with pure and undiluted joy. Those were the eyes of a colt in a candy shop with a thousand bits to spend and no parental supervision.
That confused me too much to even think about running or hiding as he pointed to me… and bellowed, “Zebra spy! Fire at will!”
Twenty of the Tainted spun around at the order, saw me, and looked surprised.
I dropped to the ground just in time to avoid the first volley of fire as the Tainted began to shoot at me. I rolled, moving back around the corner, and I realized I was a dead mare walking.
I couldn’t fight them all. I couldn’t fight that pegasus on his own if he got out of his armor and I was in pristine condition!
I heard the Tainted’s hooves pounding against the pavement as they ran to get a firing angle on me. I stood up, drew my pistol, and began to fire blindly around the corner at an angle that shouldn’t hit the prisoners.
I wasn’t about to just let them send me back to hell! I’d take a few of the evil jerks with me!
”That’s my girl,” Imaginary dad said proudly but sadly. ”I’m sorry it’s ending this way...“
The fact he didn’t have a way out like usual really rammed it home for me.
This was the end.
The Tainted began to spill around the corner. These ones didn’t have pistols and shotguns. They had rifles, good ones. Big, heavy caliber hunting rifles, and a few automatics to boot.
I continued to shoot. Two of them dropped to my pistol’s bolts of green death. They fired. I felt myself start to cry…
Their bullets hit an orange shield as it sprang up in front of me.
Huh?
“RUN, YOU IDIOT!” Roll screamed at me from down the street towards the donut shop.
Her StealthBuck field crackled, shimmered, and fell away, unable to to sustain itself while she was casting her spell.
I ran towards her, knowing she had no cover of her own while she provided it for me. We needed to share the shield!
Hope pushed my battered chassis to something approaching its top speed. The emotion I felt, Roll’s sacrifice, together they gave me just enough of a spark to make that happen… barely.
I could feel my chassis start to rip apart from the stress of pushing myself this hard on this little energy. I made it to Roll within a few seconds. I could see her gritting her teeth and whimpering under the strain of keeping her shield up while it was being struck with literally hundreds of bullets.
She wasn’t going to be able to run.
I dropped to the road, slid underneath her, jumped up, ignored my left foreleg buckling as it took my full weight for a moment, and sprinted towards the donut shop with Roll on my back as swarms of bullets whizzed past us on all sides.
“Keep that shield going!” I ordered in panic.
“No bucking shit!” Roll snapped back.
Some of the Tainted were faster than me. They sprinted along the side of the field and were moving to block us, to fire around the shield!
I turned slightly, just enough to bring my LAER to bear, and fired again and again. Five bolts of lightning arced through the air. One dropped the leading soldier by removing his neck.
Two more grazed one of the others. They screamed and fell to the ground, thrashing and soiling themselves as the electrical charge fried their nerves.
I winced. And here I’d thought Bad Touch was a horrific weapon...
“That’s no spy,” the madpony declared. “Give me suppressing fire! I will engage the soldier.”
CELESTIA, WHY?!
We were halfway there! Half way! Why did he have to start shooting, no way Roll could stop those reaper-ponies he called cannons!
I heard the sound of rockets igniting. He had missiles on that thing too?! That’s just not fair!
I wiped my head around to see if I could maybe dodge the missile. It wasn’t missiles. It was rockets. Rockets built into the madpony’s power armor as some kind of jump pack!
He arced through the air, firing dozens of tiny little thrusters to maintain a course which looked like he would land on me. He was going to literally crush me underhoof!
I put on even more speed. I felt something in my barrel creak, bend, and threaten to snap. It felt like being stabbed repeatedly with an ice pick, but I wasn’t about to let him crush me to death!
THOOM!
The madpony’s hooves slammed into the pavement just behind me. He laughed, genuinely thrilled he’d missed. Oh, Celestia, no! He wanted to drag this out! He wanted to play!
Wait, no. That was good! Donut shop. Must reach donut shop!
I ran. He speedwalked. He kept pace with me. Curse those huge legs!
“You’ve gotten further into Equestria than you should have, Zebra,” he said, his voice dripping with glee and pure rage. ”But then again, you haven’t met Gale Force either.”
WAIT, WHAT?! Is it the actual guy or does he just think he's the actual guy?!?
I heard his Tri-Vulcans began to spin up and yelped. “I’m not from Zebrica! I’m a citizen! I was made here!”
“Nice try, Stripe. I can see the way your brow and cheeks slope. You’re Imperial born. Time to die.”
I felt Roll jump off my back. I turned to see if she was going to be clear of the line of fire. At least one of us might survive—
Roll jumped from my back, her cloak billowing out behind her. She drew back her right hoof, her fully charged powerhoof glowing with a bright nimbus of plasma, and delivered a haymaker right to the side of Gale’s head.
I smiled as hope filled my core once more.
Then, the flash cleared. Gale’s head was still there. Roll’s hoof had struck a shield spell. I could see the faint purple glow as the shield faded back to a transparent state.
The hope died. It lasted 0.6 milliseconds. New record?
Roll threw two more punches, alternating front hooves in an upright fighter stance. Gale simply looked down as the blows bounced off his armor’s shield system. ”An admirable attempt, for a traitor.”
Roll’s ears drooped back as she realized her powerhooves couldn’t hurt him. “Ohhh… I am become error,” she whimpered in terror.
“NOW!” Somepony screamed.
The crowd of prisoners rushed for the soldiers, all of whom had turned to watch the fight. Within half a second, some of them had guns. Shots rang out, then more of them had guns. The prisoners were arming themselves like Griffon Union soldiers circa 2073.
The riot went from zero to one hundred in less than three seconds. Absolute chaos exploded out form the hoofball field as the Fillydelphians went into what I could only describe as a murder frenzy the likes of which even Celestia had never seen!
Gale spun around to see what was happening.
I spun around, grabbed Roll with my teeth, continued spinning, and resumed our mad dash for the Donut Joe’s. I heard the Tri-Vulcans fire. About a billion bullets flew past my left side and absolutely annihilated the donut shop’s front doors.
There wasn’t even a single scrap of the door frame left.
Thank you rioting ponies! I will give you all hugs if we survive this!
“By all means, run. I love a moving target!”
I made it to the door-hole and raced inside the restaurant. Instinct told me to jump to my left. I jumped. The Tri-Vulcans atomized the floor where I had been standing and blasted a huge hole through the donut shop’s back wall.
I raced to get around the counter. The elevator was behind the counter. It sealed when you went down. We would be safe if—
The Tri-Vulcans fired again. My right-hindleg suddenly became nothing but pain! Then… then I couldn't feel it at all and I fell flat on my face, dropping Roll as I skidded across the floor to the edge of the counter.
My leg! Oh, Celestia, he’d blown off my leg! The stump was pure fire and stabbing! The pain was nearly blinding. But I had to move!
I reached out with my forehooves, crawling around the edge of the counter.
Elevator! Must elevator!
I heard heavy hoof falls, metal on tile, as Gale walked up behind me. “In spite of your cowardice, Zebra, I will grant you a warrior’s death in battle. Stand up, if you can.”
I grit my teeth against the pain and pulled myself over to where I knew the hidden elevator was. Roll moved with me, able to tell where I was heading and probably knowing I was going for a trapdoor.
Celestia! I could hear him! He’s so close, where is the button?! WHERE IS THE BUTTON?!
There! Under the counter! There was the button. Old, rusty, the little hidden plate gone. But. Button!
I reached up and pushed the button.
Please work! You’ve been exposed to the elements, but please work!
Oh, no! Celestia, please let the base still be powered.
Nothing happened.
Oh… oh poop.
The armored monster rounded the corner and began to walk towards us, shredding the countertop by simply walking through it, revealing that he never had to walk around in the first place.
He raised his right foreleg, proceeding towards us on three legs as he deployed a large serrated blade roughly the length of my torso from his armor. “I want to thank you for causing this riot. Their failure to do for their country what their country's ponies have done for them has shown me these ponies can never be soldiers. Your deaths will be painless. That is the only kindness Imperial Zebras and traitors deserve.”
Something electronic chirped. The floor tiles under me dropped down a few centimeters, then parted, and we flew downwards as the elevator took off at an insane speed!
Gale bellowed in rage and lunged forward. The hidden doors snapped shut over the elevator. His knife stabbed through them with a shriek of tearing metal and a shower of orange sparks, which showered down over the two of us.
Roll screamed. I joined her.
Another shower of sparks! And another, and another.
He was hacking his way through the elevator doors!
The elevator screeched and groaned as it quickly slowed down. We hit the bottom of the shaft with a jolt that shook some loose parts out of my leg stump. Gale continued to hack at the doors above.
I looked around the small barren concrete room until I saw the large gear shaped door embedded in the far wall. I pointed to it. “Roll! Float me to the doors! NOW!”
Her horn blazed to life. I was yanked off the ground as she ran towards the door. Towards safety. I didn’t care what kind of magic was on that knife, nothing cuts through a Stable-Tec blast-door!
A greeting shriek of metal made my ears ring and ache as the mangled elevator doors fell down the shaft, immediately followed by the roar of rockets as Gale lowered himself down the shaft.
Roll made it to the blast door, spotted the security card scanner and practically threw me into it.
The scanner crackled, hissed, and then chirped, letting me know it was reading my ID.
“READ FASTER!” I begged the non-sapient machine spirit living in the ancient scanner.
The reader chirped again. “W—- W— W— Wel— Welcome, Doctor Swan.”
Massive power armor boots slammed into the ground. The door creaked and slowly began to roll open.
”WHERE DID YOU GET THAT CARD?! Gale screamed as he twisted and turned, struggling to break free of the narrow steel-reinforced elevator shaft.
The doors creaked open more… Almost enough to slip through!
Gale’s armor hummed as he fed the servos more power. The elevator shaft groaned and squeaked, starting to buckle.
”WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!”
The door opened enough for us to move through. Roll threw me through the door, drew what was definitely a proper SWAT Auto-9 form under her cloak and began to fire at Gale as she backed through the door, mag dumping the sleek black pistol in his direction on full auto.
Bullets ricocheted around the room like sand in a sandstorm.
”WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!"
I crawled to the security panel on the opposite side of the door, reached up to it, and slammed the button down. A quick remodulation of my voice synthesizer, and I was able to use my mom’s voice.
“This is Doctor Swan. Red Alert! Engage External Lockdown. Code Sigma-Nine-Three-Gamma-Two. Seal all entrances and fire on all non-MAS personnel, except Fillydelphia police forces.”
A klaxon alarm immediately started to shriek, managing to drown out Gale’s enraged screams and curses. I heard the external pop-up turrets deploy as the blast door began to roll shut, its opening sequence aborted by the lockdown.
The blast-door slammed shut and with a loud metal screech, locked in place. The internal popup turrets hummed as they slid down from their hidden spots in the ceiling, ready to help if the door was breached.
Thank Celestia the automated security protocols still worked!
Roll looked up at one of the turrets and winced. “Heh… Good thing I wasn’t lying about my badge. Right?”
I nodded. “If you had been, you’d be dead,” I paused for a moment then added. “Also good that my synthesizer wasn’t stuck.”
I set my voice back to normal.
Roll picked me up again with an exhausted moan. “Come on… We need to get further inside, just in case he breaches that. Somehow.”
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah… let’s go see if mom’s lab has a spare leg… Kinda… Kinda down a leg… Never been down one before. This sucks.”
“Yeah, it does,” roll agreed with a nod as she started to jog into the dimly lit, decaying, boxy metal floored corridor.
I blinked. “Um, objection! You have four legs.”
“Alicorns regenerate if there’s enough radiation. You know, like ghouls,” she explained.
Oh! So… They weren't like, ascended ponies. They were mutants. Neat!
A very big thing smashed into the blast-door, making the whole hallway ring like a drum. The door held. Looked like it would continue to hold forever. We ran anyways.
Roll came out the main hall. A huge circular room with over a dozen different hallways to choose, each one going to a different wing of the facility. I had no idea how big this R&D facility was. It could have stretched under half the city for all I knew.
Roll, still panicking just as hard as I was, took an immediate right and began running towards the Anomalous Materials wing.
“NO!” I yelped, my core spiking in panic.
She frowned. “Huh?”
“Not there!”
“Why not?”
“Do you not see the sign?”
Anomalous Materials
HEV Suit Required Past this Point
Roll frowned. “Oh… Where do we get one of—”
“Robotics,” I answered. “Which, is where we need to go. It’s that way!”
I pointed towards the correct hallway.
Roll turned, looked up at the sign this time nodded, then began to run again.
We ran in silence for a while. Ears perked. Waiting for the sound of a blast-door falling over. Or an explosion.
Nothing. Yet.
Just Roll’s pounding hoofsteps echoing off the bare, peeling paint covered walls and exposed ceiling-mounted power conduits.
Celestia… If you can hear me, from beyond the grave… please, pretty pretty please, can I have a few hours of safety?
I think I deserve that.
Failing that, can there please be a spare leg? So I can keep running. Thank you.
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Dear gears: if you were thinking straight, I'm pretty sure you'd realize your queen would approve of this particular use case.
Heh.
HAH!
Oh gears.
Heh.
Also that asshole needs to go bye bye. I'd suggest drowning him in the smooze-like pool THEN balefire said pool, but we wouldn't want to accidentally somehow set it off would we?
9540537
I am not sure if I should be proud or ashamed.
Aww, it's a tiny weeny cutesy bitsy smol Alicorn filly that she met for the first time today
Oh I can barely wait for her to meet a true Alicorn city... and for their maximum ruler to BE the tallest!
I wonder if Gears will ever realize that "imaginary dad" is actually "haunting dad". Or how she's going to feel about haunting dad seeing her get frisky with other mares. Or using her lumpy silicon cylinder to plug her (correct) holes
Pip knows how many wrong ones she got today
So, zebra-homicidal maniac power-armored pegasus that thinks it's still Equestria and looks disturbingly like her mother? And that haunting dad recognizes? And that recognizes her mother's name with a even hotter boiling fury? Oooooh boy, that's not ending nicely is it?
I bet she'll be able to fully repair herself in this temporary safety bunker... except for her diodes, that is. The Rules of Comedy demand that those remain damaged and hurting until the end of the story, no matter how many cuddles and unwanted holes she gets until then
I take it psychonutzoid pegasus in War Machine armor is going to take a leaf out of his cousins Bulk Biceps book? when faced with an impenetrable door, dont bother.
Go through the wall?
Finally the full requirements.
Now that's not good. Maybe they'll just give her a drink.
Oooo, no kidding.
Coolant, finally!
Sure, let's go with that.
Lecture time, Twilight approves.
That would be very inconvenient.
Hmn. I wonder if she could do it enough on the fly that it could be a useful one-zebra army tactic.
Hmn. Could be good, could be bad. Kid or kids just trying to survive vs. Lord of the Flies.
Huh.
It's the police! Cheese it!
Now that's not good.
I wonder where the pod is that this filly trained in and under what circumstances she was able to.
Excellent.
Ahh, so they are conscripting people and executing the ones who would prefer to say no. And under the claimed authority of Equestria?
Yeah, seems that way.
That gun setup has got to be compensating for something.
Opps. RIP Gears.
And possibly Roll if this escape goes badly.
In the Wasteland, could be either.
Fantastic. Sometimes being the convenient distraction is as important as taking advantage of one.
Interesting reaction.
Spare parts here we come. Hopefully.
Oh, no. The same head you just took a bullet through not very long ago, Gears? Please tell me you have another head, or this is going to be... hilariously terrible.
Oh, good. XD Wasn't sure you were functioning well enough to even think of that. I mean, you forgot to close your eyes before going to sleep!
Ahh, the padawan has become the Master.
The legend of 'The Machine' grows.
Two bottles of whisky, a bottle of vodka, and a small brick of salt.
Once that gets out, ain't nopony going to try to out drink her.
Told ya!
Hopefully, poor Gears will be able to get some R&R before the next thing happens.
Dear 9548314 : I specificly set myself to think gay. Why would I be thinking strait in this situation?
9548678
And ofcourse they all insist that's not how it works, and she's just a realy good leader... then she steps down after a 1mm taller alicorn moves in...
Oh it's so worse than that...
Yeah about those diodes... https://youtu.be/vA2vCG6WwQA?t=229
9548890 "Nothing is impenetrable, son! When faced with an immovable object, an irresistible force must simply go even further beyond!"
9548978 Hey! Looks like you enjoyed this one :3 Yay!!!
Seeing as how Filly is basically a giant collection of tenements and not a proper town since all those former slaves refuse to follow anyone but themselves, creating a pseudo-libertarian commune, which pretty much survives by doing odd jobs... Which has no actual former leaders...
Well, I'd say her job is already impossible here. It's almost like she needs a knowledgeable guide...
Army? No. Platoon? Yes. There's a finate cap on how much power she can ahve at one time which is 100% age based. She's simply not old enough to be that buff. Howeaver, the odds of finding somone post-war with something big enough to sacrifice to give her back full power is very low. Zebras generally used literal piles of gems... The scarafice's value is based on how much you value the thing being absorbed by the spirit.
Stay tuned!
It dick didn't grow with the rest of 'im :P mmm... wait, he's a sub... also gay... Um... Humm... I guess it's not compensating since he doesn't use it. Uh... Compensating for personality traits?
They say piranha can strip a stallion to the bones in 30 seconds. Fillydelphians laugh at piranhas.
9549401 To be fair, that is a valid concern, but I can't be that mean yet!
9549724
I assure you she gets some.
9549939
Oh you.
but srsly gears thought processes there were WAY outside normal operating parameters.
poor gears :( i needz to give her a hug! (I hope she gets epic level upgrades, it would be amazing if she whoops the asshats ass)
Power Armor Pony deserves a LAER shot through the visor. Can I help?
9552881 If you can hit someone with 11 Agility and that much DT, go for it, bro.
No, no you cannot
Yes, yes he is
Ohhhh... there's probably a reason for that
The real guy unfortunately
Yeah, he's probably Swan's brother
Ohhh sounds interesting
9553620
It's actually just the crowbar storage.
Best line in the fic. By far.
9553899
Now you're just making that section seem even more interesting
Crowbars that require their own section of a secret underground lab, as well as H.E.V. suits, are crowbars that I want... no... that I need to see
There is no such thing as too many guns! HERESY *BLAM*!
Oh, wait. It's the enemy's guns. Fine. You are pardoned. We'll pass this on to your next of kin.
I hope she manages to get that armor at some point. Assuming she can wear it.
Oh dear. Of course, the whole thing sounds much worse when it's not her (being robotic and all), but they don't know that either.
It took seeing the video, but I finally get the diodes joke.
surface
Normally, "they" had exploded. I think you were referring to the city in general (thus singular) but it doesn't read (or need to read) that way.
how to
brain jar
9646845
Not a chance. It's too tall and she's too wide.
She REALLY likes her job.
Dramatic dam dam dam! The plot thickens, although Gears plot was thicc enough as is. What is it that that mad pegasus knows that Gears dosn't? And will the pointy flapper pone be our new team member/adorable mascot? Only time and the next chapter can tell!
Nitpicks:
"Celestia, that was beyond embarrassing!" Libebreak mistake
”I need to teach you hot to silently insult ponies better.” How?
"I don't want to hear about any soldier under my command being captured unless they are hit" You need some of them "... Can't remember what " is called thou
"and I was the only brian jar around." That is either a really good referance, or a typo
"I *met* her." Should properly be in ittalic or bold
"I heard heavy hoof falls" Is it not the wrong word there are in plural?
"drew what was definitely a proper SWAT Auto-9 form under her cloak and began to fire at Gale as she backed through the door" from
Sacred Band of Thebes anyone?