Fallout Equestria: Blue Destiny

by MagnetBolt

Chapter 86 - Phantom Train

“You know what? I’m actually pretty impressed,” Midnight said. We were standing just outside the main entrance to the College of Winterhoof and the place was looking a lot better than the last time I’d seen it. Back then, it had been covered in terrible, supernatural darkness, invaded by a force from the depths of Limbo thanks to the actions of a gigantic idiot who was, in a change of pace, not me.

Now it was back to its old self, just as I’d first seen it. A dome of thick clouds shot through with wide windows and sculpted clouds. The city around it, though, seemed even more like it was just scraps hanging on. The anomalous holes in the clouds, with the odd vortices of wind keeping them open, still turned the cloud floor into swiss cheese and restricted flight.

There were more abandoned and dilapidated buildings than I remembered. It had been three years since the undead and the darkness and all the other trouble, and they hadn’t rebuilt. Maybe it was easier to just leave.

“Is this going to turn into some kind of backhoofed reference to how you’re impressed because we didn’t blow this place up during the war?” Emma asked. She tried to fix her hair again. We’d left our armor in the VertiBuck. We were here to make a good impression and ask to use their library, and without time to get written orders, that meant pressed uniforms and asking nicely.

“Nah,” Midnight waved a hoof. “I mean it. This place is as big as an Equestria Games stadium. It wasn’t easy to keep schools funded even in the best of times, so your little Enclave must be doing a few things right.”

“Oh yes, this is very exciting!” Tiplo said. The Greywing was wearing what he claimed was his good robe. I couldn’t tell the difference. Emma helped him walk across the pack cloud pathway. We’d taken the descent slowly, to give him time to rest and adjust to the altitude, but he was still a little weak.

“An educated population is a productive and useful one,” Emma said. “Anyway, Chamomile, lead the way. You and Destiny are the only ones that have been here before.”

I nodded and held the door open for the others, Destiny floating past with her new veil trailing behind her, the long edge shaping itself around the invisible, otherwise intangible spirit and showing her neck and part of her back.

“We’ll go to the Dean first,” I said. “He’ll be able to get stuff moving.”

“You went to school here?” Midnight asked. “I really am underestimating you.” She walked past me, and I almost missed a hitch in her step when she crossed over the threshold. “Huh,” she mumbled to herself.

“You okay?” Emma asked. “Is this the vampire thing where you need to be invited inside?”

“That’s not a real thing,” Midi dismissed. “It’s good manners, but not some kind of weird curse. This place has a strange aura. It reminds me of… really old times.”

“Let’s hurry,” Tiplo said. “I can’t wait to see their library!”

---

“You!” I pointed.

“You!” Ornate Orate pointed back at me.

“You’re the dean now?” I asked.

He pulled me into a hug. “And you’re not dead! Not that I was convinced you were dead, of course. I always thought you were merely trapped in another dimension. There were some very interesting readings after the events three years ago. I think I have a copy of the report in my desk if you’ll give me a moment to retrieve it, some of the radiation and particles we detected after your disappearance were truly fascinating--”

“You know I wouldn’t understand it,” I said. “I’m glad you got out okay. I wasn’t sure what happened after I got sucked into Limbo.”

“So it was Limbo!” Ornate Orate said. “You must tell me all about what it was like, and how you got back. I don’t believe anypony else alive has been there and back--”

Midi coughed politely. “Chamomile? Can we…?”

“Oh, right,” I said. “We’re here on business. Everypony, this is Professor Ornate Orate. Or Dean Ornate Orate now, I guess. He’s a really great and smart pony and a friend of my Dad.”

“Professor is a more prestigious title,” he said. “Anypony can do a bit of paperwork and signing on the dotted line. Not everypony can get tenure.”

“And this is Emerald Gleam, Midnight Shadow Sun, and Greywing Tiplo,” I said.

“It’s a pleasure,” Emma said, with a quick nod.

“Greywing…” Ornate Orate rubbed his chin. “I’ve heard that somewhere before. Ah! Yes! A secretive group of ponies! Is it true you’re part of a cult? I mean no disrespect, of course. Cults are really fascinating to study. The history of their religious practices and origins are often much easier to verify and trace than larger more traditional religions like the Church of the Sun or the Lunar Reformation.”

Tiplo shook his hoof. “Not a cultist, I’m afraid, just a scholar.”

“Even better!” Professor Orate smiled broadly. “We’re always happy to host a scholar. After the events a few years ago we lost a number of staff members. To retirement! There were surprisingly few fatalities, but the night terrors… it was easier for some to move to a sunnier, happier place.”

“Hey, uh…” I coughed. I was a little afraid to ask this. There were answers I didn’t want to hear. “Do you know if Cube is okay? I think I got her out of the blast radius, but…”

“She’s fine,” Ornate Orate said. He put a hoof on my shoulder. “She spent months trying to reach you. She was driven but… difficult. I know she’d want to see you again.”

I let out a breath I’d been half-holding. “Thanks.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t know how to get in touch with her to give her the good news,” he apologized. “She didn’t leave us any way to contact her, and… she was rather upset about how little progress we made.”

“She didn’t... hurt anypony, did she?” I asked.

“Only our feelings,” the older pony joked. “So, you’re here on business? Let’s get that out of the way so you can tell me where you’ve been and how you got back.”

“We need to recover data that was damaged in transmission,” Tiplo said. Midnight held up the holotape. “I’m afraid it was beyond the ability of the Greywings.”

“I see,” Orate rubbed his chin. “And you believe we can be of some assistance?”

“You’ve got a sentient computer sitting in the library,” I reminded him. “If there’s anything in Equestria that might be able to recover the data, it’s that thing.”

“Ah, the Alpha,” the Professor nodded in understanding. “It wasn’t designed for that, as I understand. It’s just sort of a simulation. Not really my cup of tea, you know. When I want to play a game, I prefer the real classics. I have a wonderful set for Senet that’s a fourth-century reproduction of a pre-discordian era--”

“Why don’t you tell us about it while we walk down to the library?” Destiny suggested.

“Capital idea!” Ornate Orate smiled. “Now, where was I? Oh yes, the board. The original was made of ivory, but as you can imagine that’s problematic…”

---

“...and that’s why the piece moves diagonally!”

“I always thought it was because it represented a ship tacking against the wind,” Emma said. “But your explanation does make more sense.”

“It’s a recent discovery,” Professor Orate said. Around us, the student workers in the library were readying steel circlets with blinking lights and wires for the four of us. “It gives me hope that some day, we’ll be able to discover text that explains the concept of ‘en passant’ beyond vague references.”

“You don’t know…?” Midi snickered. “Nah, never mind. Ignore me.”

“This might be a good time to go over the rules and dangers of the simulation,” one of the students suggested.

“I’ve done this before,” Destiny said. “It’s not dangerous.”

“Oh sure, tell that to the kids that got trapped inside for five years,” Midi snorted.

“Trapped?” I held up a hoof to stop the kid that was about to put the circlet over my head. “What do you mean, trapped? I thought if we died in the game, it wasn’t a big deal! We even died a bunch and just kept respawning!”

“If it glitches the wrong way, it traps your soul forever,” Midnight said. “It’s true! It happened! These computers are way more dangerous than you think. You’ve built them yourself, Destiny. They’re like phylacteries!”

“That’s not entirely true, and even though I know you’re talking about a lich, technically a phylactery is just the word for a small box-- we’re getting way off track,” she settled down, the cloth going limp once the helmet was resting on one of the four reclining seats. “Emma, are you sure you don’t want to try?”

“After hearing about ponies getting trapped for years?” Emma asked. “I’m good, thanks. Besides, if I stay out here I can make sure nothing goes wrong!”

“Suit yourself,” Destiny said. “The important thing is, Chamomile and I have been inside this particular simulation before, and we know for a fact that it isn’t some kind of lotus-eater trap.”

“Ah, the lotus-eaters,” Tiplo said. “From the old myth where a sailor was tempted to stay on a lost island where the natives all ate lotuses and fell into endless, recurring dreams!”

“I’ve always felt like that myth was based on an ancient description of sleep paralysis, myself,” Ornate Orate suggested. “I know when I’ve had some strong cheese before bed, I sometimes have these dreams where I think I’m awake, but then I wake up again and again in the dream, like endless layers that make you question reality.”

“Really?” Tiplo asked. “I felt it was a warning against the temptation to escape reality when others were counting on you.”

“I can understand why you’d think that.” Professor Orate nodded, starting to pace. “That was the immediate motivation, and it’s implicit in the text that it’s why the sailor was able to break free, but depending on the translation you use, the final stanzas of the canto imply that he isn’t sure if he’s awake or just in another layer of the dream.”

“Having read the original Minotauran text, I believe the accurate translation is that he isn’t sure if reality itself has ever been real,” Tiplo corrected. “I believe the author was questioning not the sailor’s experience, but the nature of reality itself, and it’s possible it was metafictional in that he was becoming aware he was just in a story himself.”

“Do you two need a room?” Midnight quipped. “And maybe a blackboard?”

“We’re all set on the dive,” the students said. The crowns were placed over our heads, contacts gently pressing against skin. “Ready whenever you are.”

“We’ll discuss this further after your game,” Professor Orate said. “I’m sure you’re looking forward to meeting this computer program.”

“Good luck, everypony,” Emma said.

“Hit it,” I said.

“Here we go,” the student lab assistant said. He took a deep breath. “Diving in!” His hoof came down on a big red button, and everything flashed to black.

---

The smell hit me before anything else. It was a video game, it shouldn’t have smelled like anything, but the immediate overwhelming odor was the earth after rain. It was a smell I associated with my childhood, with going out to mountain peaks with my mother and father and digging in the dirt where I wouldn’t disturb anything important.

Layered over it was a stink of garbage and rot. Industrial and metallic. The light flickered on around us, and the floor rumbled under our hooves. We were in a train, rumbling down the tracks with only a vague sense of what was outside showing through small, slitted windows.

“This is new,” Destiny said. I looked over at her and… I couldn’t help but smile. I’d almost forgotten what she looked like. Really looked like, I mean. Not just a floating helmet, but a pony. Blue so pale it looked white except in shadow, a mane like a trailing sunset in dark colors, and bright rainbow freckles on her cheeks and ears.

She twirled the staff that had appeared next to her. She had the same wizard robes she’d worn last time we’d been in the game. I lifted a hoof to examine myself. There was no sign of the changes SIVA had made to my body, but I did have some light metal armor and a big sword. I pulled it from my back with my mouth and gave it a test swing. It was still awkward to try and fight by swinging my head around.

“You look just like you did when you were alive,” Midnight said to Destiny with approval. She was wrapped up in tight black leather belts that looked more like raider gear than real clothing. She carefully poked Destiny’s flank. “You must have a better sense of self than I thought.”

Destiny squeaked and hopped. “Stop that!” she blushed brightly. “I’ll have you know last time I was in here, I was a powerful and deadly wizard!”

“I think I’m some kind of fetishist,” Midnight said, looking back at herself.

“And I appear to be a priest,” Tiplo said, amused. He looked twenty years younger, and his robes were gold and white, with sun sigils over his cutie mark. “I believe these were vestments worn by an old Celestial cult, though I can’t recall the name.”

“Too bad,” Midnight shook her head. “Trust me, Nightmare Moon’s rituals are way more fun. Two words -- blood orgies!”

“I’m a bit old for that much fun,” Tiplo chuckled.

“The game wasn’t like this last time,” I said. “I don’t remember any trains.”

“There didn’t used to be trains,” said a voice from the shadows. An orange pony with a cowboy hat and armored vest stepped out of the gloom, adjusting the bandanna around her neck. “But then everything changed. Flim-Flam Corp is destroyin’ the planet!”

“Is this part of the game?” Midnight whispered, leaning in to whisper into my ear.

“It’s new DLC,” Rouge whispered into my other ear. She’d appeared out of nowhere, the masked pony just suddenly there like I hadn’t noticed her before, not alarming, just unexpected. “It’s really great to see you girls again! And you brought new friends!”

She hopped over to Tiplo and grabbed his hoof, shaking it quickly. “Hi! I’m Rouge! It’s super nice to meet somepony new!”

“You know, you look exactly like--” Midnight started. Rouge put a hoof over her mouth.

“Shhh! I’m legally distinct!” Rouge cautioned.

“Are y’all done foolin’ around?” the cowpony snorted. “This here train’s almost at the reactor! Remember the mission! We’re gonna stop Flim-Flam from suckin' the life outta the planet by blowin’ it up!”

“Oh thank buck,” I sighed. “Something I can do.”

“It’d be awful if we had to talk to anypony or make friends,” Destiny joked.

“We try to adjust things to keep them interesting and fun,” Rouge said. “That’s what games as a service means!”

“We don’t have time for games,” Midnight said. “Did everypony forget why we’re here? We need to get that holotape decrypted! We’re not here to play around!”

“Actually we need to get the data repaired,” Tiplo corrected. “They’re two very distinct operations. You are right, though. As entertaining as it is not to have sore knees for the first time in thirty years, I believe it’s important to take care of business first.”

Rouge smirked. “I already know about the tape.” She held up a hoof, producing the tape out of nowhere. “Don’t worry. It’s being worked on. It’s just going to take a while, and in the meantime, why not have some fun?”

“You’ll get the tape as payment after the mission’s over,” the cowpony said. “Y’all mercenaries had better be worth it. APPLEANCHE is fightin’ on the back hoof and we need all the help we can get to smash the system!”

The train whistle sounded, and the car lurched slightly as it came to a halt, brakes hissing and steam blasting past the windows.

“Let’s go!” the cowpony yelled, kicking the door open and jumping out.

“Get going,” Rouge said, waving goodbye. “I’ll catch up once I have this doohickey all fixed up and shiny with data!”

Destiny and I shared a look, and I jumped out after her and onto a train platform. The cowpony was struggling with a pony in strange-looking security armor. I charged at them and spun into a back kick, hitting the armored pony’s chin and knocking them out.

“Bolt!” Destiny yelled from behind me, a crackling lance of lightning streaking out and hitting another pony who had been lining up a shot with a rifle. Sirens and alarms started up around us, slowly at first and rising to more urgent-sounding alerts.

“Nice one!” I called back to her.

“We gotta git to the reactor!” the cowpony called out.

“Hey, I didn’t catch your name,” I said.

“You mercenaries always forgettin’ the details,” she sighed. “Just call me Jersey Lightning. If you wanna get paid, you better impress me with somethin’ better than some fancy footwork and a little magic, ya hear?”

“Got it, boss.” I gave her a salute.

“My, I never knew computer games were this exciting,” Tiplo said, carefully getting off the train. “Where did Miss Midnight go?”

“‘M ‘ere!” her muffled voice called out from above. I looked up. She was hanging from a streetlight. Another one of the armored ponies was in her grasp, and they were either making out or-- well, I’d be naive to not notice her fangs in his neck, I don’t know why I was kidding myself.

She dropped the limp body and jumped down, wiping crimson from her lips.

“Was that necessary?” Destiny asked.

“Absolutely not,” Midnight replied smugly. “It was fun.”

“Come on!” Jersey Lightning yelled. “We gotta git inside before they ramp up security! We’ll meet in front of th’ reactor!”

She ran up the street, kicking open a steel security door and bolting inside. I looked up, shielding my eyes from the glare of the lights. “Woah,” I whispered.

Ahead of us, a building wrapped around a tangle of machines and pipes reached into the air, a corporate logo the size of a city block painted on the side. A plume of green energy shone into the sky from the reactor building, venting into the air and leaving a slick on the clouds above it like the rainbow sludge of an oil slick.

“Do you think this is a heavy-hoofed metaphor?” Midnight teased. She bumped into my flank. “Come on. I wanna see how you use that giant sword!”

---

I swung the back end of my sword into the snarling cyborg hound, sending it flying into the railing of the narrow bridge. The thin metal gave with a sharp snap and the monster went over the edge.

“Nice one!” Midnight yelled.

“Looks like you might be worth the money,” Jersey said, stepping past me and looking down into the void below us. “You see that down there?”

I peered over the edge. It was like looking down from the clouds. Dozens of stories below, I could see buildings, mixed with rubble, trash, and a haze of smog.

“Another city?” I asked, confused.

Jersey motioned at the lower city. “That’s the old city. The more these reactors suck the life out of the planet, the worse it gets down there, but the ponies up here don’t care. They live on this big ol’ metal plate and pretend there ain’t nothin’ below.”

“Cool,” I said.

“No, it ain’t cool!” Jersey spat over the edge. “Wait! Shoot. I shouldn’t have spit down there, it’s gonna hit some innocent foal. Dangit!”

She stomped off, kicking at the railing and grumbling to herself.

“You don’t have to heal every little scrape,” Destiny said. Tiplo was holding a golden sun amulet, glowing light softly blowing out of it like pollen from a flower. The wounds Destiny had picked up when the monsters jumped us out of nowhere were fading. They’d already been little more than bruises..

“It’s no trouble, M’lady,” Tiplo said. “Actually, it’s rather amusing using magic like this. Imagine if every pegasus could do it!” He put the symbol back in his robes after a few more moments and stepped over to the edge next to me, following my gaze to the undercity. “I suppose this makes me feel better.”

“About what?” I asked.

“This simulation, reading our minds, fooling our senses, making things up as it goes along,” he explained. “It must take a simply incredible amount of processing power! And yet, despite that, it’s all just a game so Kuulas can focus on repairing the data. A distraction. We never had a chance doing it by ourselves.”

“It’s not really Kuulas,” I reminded him.

“Yes, only a fraction of it. A processing node cut off from the rest. Imagine how powerful the original must be! No wonder my ancestors treated it like a goddess.” He sighed. “And here I am, touching its mind. This journey has been worth it for the experience alone.”

Midnight came up behind him and slapped him on the back with a wing. “We should play along so we don’t disappoint her, right?”

“You’re absolutely right,” Tiplo agreed. “I believe she’s just ahead of us!” He cracked his neck and ran in after her.

“Oh boy,” Destiny groaned. “Let’s go. Healer mages can’t fight on their own!”

---

“Can’t fight on their own,” Midnight snorted. Tiplo struggled for a moment, freeing the head of his warhammer from the body of the cyborg drone he’d downed. A spray of oil arced into the air before the wreckage vanished in a sprinkle of lights.

“That’s how it was in most games.” Destiny folded her forehooves, looking annoyed. “Nopony wanted to be a healer because all you did was cast cure spells on your teammates.”

“They must have changed it to be more fun,” I said. “He’s taken out more of them than you have.”

“I have limited MP,” Destiny reminded me. “I have to save my attacks for use against dangerous foes. I could get just as many kills as he has, but I’d be wasting my potential.”

“Come on you slowpokes, we’re almost there!” Jersey Lightning yelled. She waved us through the last security door and into a yawning open area. If I looked all the way up, I could see a patch of sky through the haze around us.

“This here is the main magic storage tank,” Jersey said, leading us across the bridge to the hanging machinery. “The pumps are down below but if we blow this thing, it’ll wreck the whole plant.”

“How do you suppose it all works?” Tiplo asked.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to make sense,” Destiny reminded him. “It’s not our world. Things here can just work however Kuulas wants them to work for the sake of the story.”

“Perhaps, but it’s all remarkably internally consistent,” Tiplo said. “There’s no reason to assume it isn’t based on real designs. It could be something we could build in the real world! Imagine it, an unlimited source of power...”

“Not unlimited,” Jersey Lighting snapped. “Ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. The land around here used to be green. Farms as far as the eye could see. My granny, she told me ponies would plant crops and they’d grow twice as fast as anywhere else! It was the magic and love of the mother earth herself.”

“Sounds nice,” I said.

“Musta been like paradise,” Jersey sighed. “The crops, farmin, the soil, all that was part of the natural order. The earth gave life, and it went back to the earth. Some unicorns came to study the magic here, and found a way to let everypony use it. That was the beginnin’ of the end. They sold the farmers machines that used the magic, then they sold them the magic right out from under their own hooves, and when the crops totally failed, they bought the land and built this city.”

“Definitely a heavy-hoofed metaphor,” Midi mumbled. “Sort of weirdly tribalist, too.”

“I ain’t tribalist!” Jersey blushed. “There are some perfectly fine unicorns like yer friend here.” She waved vaguely at Destiny. “Y’all can’t choose how you’re born, but you can choose the life you lead. The ponies runnin’ this place could stop bein’ greedy and start carin’ about the future instead of their profits, and I’ll be their best friend. Until then, we’re enemies.”

“That’s a very mature way of looking at things,” Tiplo assured her. “So, how do we disable this reactor?”

“We’re gonna blow this here tank to Tartarus!” Jersey yelled, slapping the knot of pipes and pumps humming away in the wall. Thick pipes lanced down to the depths below, a deep well glowing faintly with green light, like a million fireflies swirling in clouds below us.

“It cannot possibly be safe to even stand here,” Midnight noted. “I’d feel a lot better with a few meters of water between me and anything that glows in the dark.”

“I don’t think it’s radioactive,” Destiny said. “It looks more like some kind of wild magic.”

“That’s cause it is,” Jersey Lightning said. “It’s the lifeblood of the planet, the magic that makes the world alive. Every earth pony can feel it, and the Flim-Flam Corporation wants to burn it up just to keep the lights on!”

“That makes it sound more dangerous,” I said. “Magic can be pretty unpredictable.”

“Lifeblood, huh?” Midnight rubbed her chin.

“I doubt you can drink it!” Tiplo laughed.

“Eh, I’ll let it go,” Midnight shrugged, looking away dismissively. “The morality system in these games is always weird. The ‘good’ option has the best reward and everyone praises you, and the ‘evil’ one never gives you anything worthwhile.”

“You set the bomb,” Jersey said, tossing me a brick of what felt like clay, wrapped in wires and studded with metal.

“Uh…” I hesitated.

“May I?” Destiny asked, levitating it out of my hooves and turning it over to reveal a clock strapped to the front of the device. “Ten minutes should be enough time to get clear, right?” She started punching in numbers, then stuck the bomb to the front of the armored casing of the magic tank. The clock on the front started ticking down.

“You know, I just had a thought,” I said. “This is sort of like the big magic tanks they had on the Exodus White.”

Destiny froze. “I wish you hadn’t said that.”

“Why?” Midnight asked. “What big magic tanks?”

“They stored up power from Queen Flurry Heart and used it to run the whole city,” I explained.

“And more importantly, if they overloaded, they would make a boom as big as a megaspell!” Destiny said. She started prying at the bomb. “It won’t come off!”

“Course not,” Jersey said. “It’s stuck on with wonderglue.”

“Can we disarm it?” I asked.

“Do you know how to disarm a bomb?” Destiny asked. “Wait, you do! You’ve disarmed one before!”

“Technically that’s true,” I agreed. I leaned in to look at the bomb. “Uh… we cut the red wire, I think?”

“All the wires are blue,” Midnight helpfully pointed out.

“We might be in trouble,” I decided.

“Come on, plan A was always to skedattle!” Jersey yelled, waving for us to come with her. “We just need t’ get outside!”

“The building might act as a containment vessel,” Destiny said. “We’ve got a little over nine minutes left, let’s put some distance between us and this--”

The steel floor under us rumbled.

“It’s a boss fight, isn’t it?” I asked.

“On a time limit!” Destiny groaned.

A massive shape dropped down from the roof above us and slammed into the walkway, hitting hard enough that something in the supports twisted and Jersey Lightning, who’d run ahead, was thrown to the side, dangling by one hoof from the bridge.

“Ah can’t get up!” she yelled. “You’ll have to fight it without me!”

At first it looked like it was just a hemisphere of steel that had landed on the platform, but then ports opened on the armored surface and spikes popped out, crackling with electricity. The edge of the shell raised up, and a long mechanical tendril snaked out, tipped with sensors and vice-like jaws.

“It’s like a giant robot whelk,” Tiplo said. “Fascinating!”

“Why can’t we fight anything with blood?” Midnight groaned. “It’s all robots and weird cyborgs!”

“Probably because you’d make it all gory,” Destiny said. “Most games were made for foals, you know!”

“We don’t have time to fight it,” I said. “Let’s run for it! We can outrun a snail!”

“Good idea,” Midnight agreed, taking to the air and flying around it in a wide arc. “I’ll save our little cowpony NPC buddy and--”

She slammed snout-first into a glowing wall of hexagons that appeared in the air.

“Ow,” Midnight groaned.

“I believe the beast is projecting a shield,” Tiplo said. “It’s shaped like a big bubble around us!”

“It’s going to trap us here until the place explodes!” Destiny swore. “We need to take care of this fast!”

“Form up!” I yelled, drawing my sword and holding it at the ready in my teeth. “I’ll go in first, Midnight flanks, Tiplo and Destiny, you support us!”

“Got it!” Destiny called out.

I charged at it, jumping into the air and flying at the exposed head. My heavy blade smashed one of the fragile sensors with a screech of metal and a shower of sparks. It retaliated with a bite before I could get away, catching me in its jaws and squeezing before tossing me away, throwing me to the ground and almost off the edge of the platform.

“Oof!” I grunted. “He’s strong.”

Tiplo knelt down next to me, his magic healing my bruises and helping me shake off the blow. “I’ve got you,” he assured me.

Midnight appeared behind the whelk and flew down at it, trailing shadows like roiling smoke. The machine’s head twisted to follow her and spat a stream of green. She made a confused sound as the thick liquid smacked into her and splattered everywhere. The thick mucus tangled her wings and she fell, hitting the bridge with a soft splat and sticking there.

“It’s some kind of glue!” she yelped. “I can’t get free!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this!” Destiny yelled. “I’ll show you the power of magic! Fire-3!” She pointed her staff at the mechanical monster and a lance of fire launched out at it, the air around it wavering and crackling with sparks like the individual molecules were fusing in the heat.

It hit the whelk and burned away the armor on the left side of its exposed head. The metal glowed red hot, and the monster shuddered like an engine starting to seize up before quickly retracting, its vulnerable sensors whipping back under that armored, spiked shell.

“Hiding isn’t going to help!” I called out. “Here I go!” I charged, jumping into the air so I could use the weight of my whole body to bring the sword around in a big circular slam down on the shell. No matter how tough it was, I’d crack it open!

The edge of my sword hit the shell, and the sparks dancing between the spikes on its back lashed out, a megavolt of electricity slapping me away and making my heart skip a beat.

“It might be unwise to attack the shell,” Tiplo noted.

“Figured that one out, thanks,” I replied weakly.

“We’ll just hit it from long range!” Destiny said. “Ice-2!” She twirled her staff, launching a spike of ice at the monster. It hit the shell hard enough to dent it, but the moment it did, a bolt of electricity cracked back at her like a whip. She yelped in pain.

“That’s not gonna work either,” Midnight said. She shook a hoof, dislodging more of the gunk the thing had spit on her. “It’s time for me to show you my super cool vampire techniques.”

“Do they include immunity to electricity?” I asked.

“No, but I’ve got just the thing to lure out a monster that can afford to just sit and hide until we blow ourselves up.” Midnight smirked and stepped closer to it, cocking her hips provocatively. Music seemed to come from the air around us, and a spotlight shone on Midnight. She reared up, clapped her hooves, and started swaying, moving in a seductive dance that made me think of drunken revels and hazy rooms.

It wasn’t even aimed at me, and I was drooling. She really did have crazy vampire powers. That didn’t mean it logically should have done anything to the robot whelk, but the shell shifted, the edge lifting up and the head peeking out to look. It watched her for a moment and then extended fully, swaying in time with her hips.

“My, that’s impressive,” Tiplo said. “It seems distracted.”

“We’ll hit it at the same time, Destiny. Ready?” I asked. She nodded back at me. I flew around the side in a wide arc, not wanting to get between the monster and Midnight in case it broke the spell, staying in the blind spot made by the damage to one side of its head.

Destiny chanted a spell, and I tried to sense the timing, waiting for just the right moment before charging in, bringing my sword around in a wide arc. The edge of my big sword slammed into the creature’s armored neck, the plates weakened by the fire blast from before. At the same time, another spear of ice hit it on the other side, the two blows acting like scissor blades. The mechanisms in the neck shattered, and the head popped off, flying into the air and exploding in a shower of sparks.

The shield dome flickered and died, and the lightning running down the heavy steel shell faded. A moment later, the whole thing tipped to the side, sliding off the edge of the bridge and down to the rocks below, exploding.

“We did it!” Destiny yelled, hopping in place.

“My, this really is exciting. Is this what you do all day in the wasteland?” Tiplo asked, wiping his forehead.

“There’s usually more swearing and blood,” I said. “Otherwise, yeah, pretty similar.”

“Can one of you girls with wings help a pony up?” Jersey called out. “Ah’d like to skedattle before this whole place explodes!”

---

“Drinks are on me!” Jersey yelled, kicking the swinging door open and triumphantly strutting in. “We blew that whole place sky-high!”

“Welcome back,” said the mare behind the bar. I looked over at her and froze in place. She was tall, dark, beautiful, and maybe most importantly, an alicorn. Her mane flowed around her like a drifting nebula, stars glittering in its depths. Her voice was a seductive lure backed by absolute power.

“Nightmare Moon?” Midnight gasped. “Oh my gosh!” She squealed happily. “This is the best game ever!”

The batpony flew over to the bar, tapping her hooves happily and prancing in place.

“I felt this was a more appropriate guise to take this time,” Nightmare Moon said. She smiled at Midnight, showing fangs. “I knew you’d enjoy it particularly, my little pony.”

“If you’re here, does that mean--”

Nightmare Moon reached over the bar and put a hoof on her lips. “I’m not your real queen of darkness, I’m afraid.”

“I can tell,” I said. “I met the real thing. Or her ghost, sort of? It was in Limbo and I’m not sure what it counted as.”

Her eyes glowed softly in the dim light, and she tilted her head. “I believe ‘vestige’ would be the right term. A copy of a shadow. A picture of a grand eclipse captured in darkness.”

“See, you even sound like the real thing!” Midnight said cheerfully. “She was always so poetic!”

The alicorn chuckled. “I trust you had some fun on your mission?”

“It was definitely… something,” I said, stepping up to the bar and sitting down. Nightmare Moon dramatically produced a cocktail shaker and gave it a few theatrical shakes before emptying it into a tumbler and sliding the drink in front of me. I took a sip. It tasted like… well, I’m not exactly sure. Like cotton candy, raspberries, cinnamon, and vodka, but not exactly like any of those things.

“Since you’re here, does that mean the data recovery is finished?” Destiny asked. She sat down next to me, leaning over to sniff at the drink in front of me.

“It finished just as you arrived,” Nightmare Moon said, placing a second drink in front of Destiny. “I adjusted your perception of time accordingly.”

She motioned to the end of the bar. Rouge waved to us from there. She had a giant parfait-slash-milkshake-slash-aloha drink that just barely fit into a punch bowl. The masked pony held up a holotape, and it glowed with potential.

Nightmare Moon cleared her throat, focusing our attention back on her. “Before we discuss your data, there’s a more critical matter.”

She looked past us to Tiplo.

“Ah,” Tiplo said. “I thought something might be wrong, but I didn’t want to worry anypony.”

“What do you mean, something wrong?” I asked, turning around to look.

“A few minutes after you entered the simulation, Tiplo’s body began to fail,” Nightmare Moon said, her voice somber. “I am using the bioneural feedback from the Alpha system to provide some amount of life support, and your friend, Emerald Gleam, is attempting first-aid, but I believe it’s too late.”

“I knew I wouldn’t be going home again either way,” Tiplo sighed. “My old bones are too weak to make the trip. This was a grand last adventure, though! The most exciting time of my life!” He smiled and sat down with us. “I have no regrets.”

“There is one option,” Nightmare Moon said cautiously. “There was a flaw with the neural dive equipment which was never truly corrected. I could transfer your consciousness into the system.”

“I told you ponies got stuck inside!” Midnight exclaimed, pointing at Nightmare Moon. “I knew it!”

“I was able to implement a software fix, but the hardware is still capable of the transfer,” Nightmare Moon explained. “You would not be able to leave this simulation, and as it is a single maneframe it is vulnerable to outside forces.”

“Not as vulnerable as my body is,” Tiplo joked. “I suppose I have very little to lose if I'm already dead, hm?”

Nightmare Moon nodded sadly. “I’m sorry I can’t do more.”

“Well, then I consent to whatever you need to do,” Tiplo said. “I never got a chance to explore the real world. I’d be a fool to refuse a second chance!”

“Rouge?” Nightmare Moon called out.

“Right!” The masked pony hopped to her hooves and pranced over to Tiplo. “Why don’t we go for a walk? I bet there are some things you’d want to talk about in private about what’s gonna happen.”

“Perhaps that’s a good idea,” Tiplo agreed, his voice weak.

“Don’t be scared,” Rouge said. “Things are going to be okay. I promise. And I’m basically part of a super powerful computer, so that means I can back up that promise with math!”

“Really?” Tiplo asked. “I’d love to see the equations.”

Rouge patted him on the back and led him outside. “I’ve got a whiteboard out here. We’ll go over it together!”

“Is he really…?” Destiny whispered.

“I’m afraid so,” Nightmare Moon said. “His heart was already close to failure. I’m afraid it’s a product of his habits, age, and altitude.”

“So we got him killed by bringing him here,” I mumbled.

“His body has failed, but I will ensure his mind lives on,” Nightmare Moon said. “It is the best one could expect.” She sighed and looked into the middle distance. “If you could, please tell the ponies outside that he would appreciate visitors. There’s an ineffable quality to real interactions with other ponies.”

“I will,” Destiny promised.

“Good. Now, I was able to recover the data, but I’m afraid there is another problem,” Nightmare Moon said. She slid the holotape across the bar. “The transmission is encrypted.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard to crack,” Destiny said. “Do you need some extra time? We can try my passcodes to save time.”

“Your passcodes won’t work, and cracking it will be impossible. The data is encrypted with a kind of lattice-based cryptography I developed to be resistant to attacks from future theoretical attackers, including myself or copies of myself. It is unbreakable in finite time with current resources.”

“How do you know it’s fixed?” I asked. “If you can’t open it to see, it could just be broken.”

“That’s a very good question, Chamomile,” Nightmare Moon said. “The data format has some homomorphic properties used for error verification and post-encryption manipulation. The probability of the data being improperly repaired is insignificant.”

“If my passcodes won’t work, whose will?” Destiny asked. “I have the highest clearance possible!”

“No, you don’t,” Nightmare Moon said bluntly.

Destiny was about to yell back at her, but stopped, realization flashing across her face. “You can’t mean… no. You’re joking. You can’t be serious!”

“I’m afraid so. The only pony that can open this file is Sunset Shimmer.”

There was a long, dramatic pause.

I cleared my throat. “Who the buck is that?”

Comments

[Thought Prism]

Ok, this was fun. Godspeed, Tiplo. At least he gets to play through the rest of Final Fantasy VII now, haha. Because this was clearly an homage to it. It's fitting that more games keep providing inspiration, since this whole shebang originated as a game crossover.

I'm not sure how the hell they're going to find Sunset, though, assuming she's even still alive. My best guess is that she's the Siva core on the Exodus Black.

[Reese]

"“Not unlimited,” Jersey Lighting snapped."
"“Not unlimited,” Jersey Lightning snapped."?

I continue to enjoy this story; thank you for writing!

[Ahsoka Tano]

Time for some time travel