> Fallout Equestria: Frozen Ground Is Solid.
>  by Bunnyguys
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1. Spirans Apparatus.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

He wasn’t anything like what she first thought he was, the loud-mouthed and even harsh stallion she came to know as her friend and even more than that; he was... Surprising when he wanted to be. When he truly had time to think about his arguments, he was quiet and thoughtful, but the thing that surprised her most was the fact that he was right. He was absolutely right, of course, and she found herself only more and more confused as she thought about it; on how wrong she’d been before without ever realizing it. It hurt to be so wrong...





It wasn’t any kind of loud explosion that brought her back to consciousness; no great conflict, nothing alarming in fact. She simply woke up again as everything came online, standing straight, her head lifted up and everything inside of her working just as it did before.

Seventy-Nine was... Confused? That was certainly the word that fit the description of the feeling, but she didn’t remember ever having the feeling before now. The light mounted to her head was active, illuminating only the area in front of her with a white glow as no other lights in the giant storage room were active, her forward right leg hissed as it rose up; the hind left one mirroring it easily; and she stepped forwards, out of the line.

She committed processing power to analyzing the area around her, noting the rows of machines that surrounded her, all of them were much like she was; though the ones that were far ahead of her were different; they were male-based instead of female-based, though male or female they all stood silently and motionlessly; systems offline and waiting for something to awaken them.

Seventy-Nine began to wonder why she had gone online while they still stood quiet; she scanned through her programming as she slowly moved her limbs to turn to the left; there were no bugs in her systems, as far as she could detect, and there was no organic here to greet her, which would have been an obvious indicator of why she, alone, was awake.

Her metallic hooves kept her slowly moving until she reached the end of the row, giving her pause; the front of a twin to her left and the rear of another twin to her right. Her thoughts wandered... Was she allowed to leave her row? What if the organics penalized her for waking alone and wandering?

The machine slowly looked back over her shoulder, though her head-light could not show her what laid behind herself, only to her sides, all she could see was the black abyss, the row of her twin sisters, all of them standing silent, disappearing into it.

The Darkness... It filled her with fear, at least, she was certain it was that feeling. A hesitance to move forwards and a irrational fear of the Darkness behind her kept her bolted to the spot she was in, even if there was a hint of another feeling. Curiosity, or perhaps even a little courage.

Seventy-Nine slowly looked forwards, to the cement wall, running parallel with her twin sisters; to the right where were the rows of male robots ran, and to the left were rows of smaller machines; which looked like spiders, and she was certain there were more machine variants further down to her left.

She decided on going right. Carefully stepping around the corner her twins made and she began to follow the wall; her head-light keeping the path ahead clear of the Darkness. All she could hear was the sound of her hooves clinking against the cement floor as she moved and the hissing of the pneumatic servos that allowed her movement.

She stopped when she reached the male-based machines, looking over the first one, it was tall and thick, as they all were, but she noticed a difference between a few of them; metal impressions on their shoulders that read what squad they were in, and the white paint on their flanks that showed their numbers.

This one was part of Squad Twenty-Five, and his number was Two-Eight-One. He was just as silent and unmoving as all the others were until his head turned towards her, eyes black as night, a monstrous growl coming from his throat as green fire burnt in his mouth.

She raised her right hoof up to defend herself, a metal plate on her leg shifted away and a sharp blade slid out with a loud scraping noise echoing around the room, the sharp blade cutting through the thick, old air where Two-Eight-One’s head had been moving towards her, but now it was back in the original location, looking away from her; she found she could only stare at the male machine.

Her blade slowly slid back into her right hoof and the metal plate covered it again; she chanced looking away before she began to gallop forwards, her metallic legs beating the cement floor as she rushed to the end of the male rows, finding only a soft light illuminating the area; coming from above the elevator, she slid to a stop at the door and turned around, putting her back against it.

The unblinking, unmoving, and still entirely silent rows of fellow machines greeted her view; she reached out and hit the button for the elevator to her right, watching and waiting for another demon attack. A hallucination, it had to be, a bug in her programming, or a virus affecting her optical systems, certainly it had to be.

With a loud ding, the elevator doors slowly slid open, and she backpedalled into it, she tapped on of the other buttons and the doors slid shut once again; she could feel her systems overheating; her pneumatics hissed louder when she stepped back further until she found the back wall of the elevator.

The music that softly played from a speaker at the top of the elevator was strangely calming, though it also bored her more than she thought possible in her state of alarm; how could her brother, a fellow machine, become a demon like that? It was impossible!

The elevator loudly dinged again before the doors slowly slid back open, at least this time there was light... She registered the colder temperature as she stepped out of the elevator; slowly stepping on the tiled floor, a ‘click-clack’ that made her look down and tap her hoof against it, testing the sound.

She looked up and took stock of the area; it was well lit so she turned her head-light off. Seventy-Nine stood in a short hallway leading to the elevator at her back, so she walked forwards, looking to the right when the hall ended in walls, and she followed the orderly wall to her left on, watching the strange shifting wall to her right; it was a blur of different shades of white and specks of light.

Continuing to move on; looking away from the shimmering wall as she entered a small area, a desk sat cold and still as it probably had for a great many years, cobwebs and dust gathered on the surface; plus, there was a door to the outside with a pair of standing metal detectors just before it, though they didn’t seem to be working. On the floor was a pony, wrapped up in a huge, thick coat with specks of white all over it, their face covered with wrappings and goggles, their legs wrapped with furs and snow.

The machine paused, tilting her head as she slowly closed the tiny distance between them, leaning in close. Seventy-Nine was very curious, why would a pony lay here in the middle of a lobby? Wait, were they hurt? She looked the pony over for any source of crimson liquid, though she didn’t find any, and she reached to draw the pony closer, the temperature here was very low, so it could be because of the cold.

Seventy-Nine grabbed the pony’s thick, furry coat, looking back towards where she came from before she began to haul the pony to the elevator, sharp tug after sharp tug until the pony was safely in the ancient box. She looked over the options of the elevators’ panel, seeing eight choices.

She didn’t know which one she had come from and she chastised herself for inadequately dividing all of her processing power to her hallucinations. She tapped the button next to ‘armory’ and the doors slowly shut, then she could feel the box lowering down.

The machine took these seconds to overlook the pony for anything else, though it seemed that they were more or less intact, none of the ponys’ limbs were at odd angles and they even seemed to still be breathing, though it was very weak; she only found herself worried for this pony, what had driven them to walk through extreme cold?

With another ‘Ding!’ the doors slowly opened once more and Seventy-Nine pulled the pony out into the wide, open space; finding it to be filled with racks of weapons; though she hadn’t been surprised. It was an armory after all... She quickly rushed to grab every sheet of paper and clipboard as well as scrap pieces of metal that laid around the room, taking them to the ponies’ side.

She did her best to create to a camp-fire with what she had, putting the thick pieces of metal in a circle and ripping the thickest pieces of paper into strips and neatly setting them in the middle of the circle before covering it with whole sheets, and finally she snapped a pair of clip-boards in half, putting them in as well. She took a piece of metal and struck her hoof against it, creating a shower of sparks near the thick strips, and she continued doing it until the fire finally started up, white smoke funneling towards the elevator shaft...

Satisfied with a job well done, despite the fact that a fire indoors was a bad idea, Seventy-Nine moved to secure other pieces of paper, and then she began to clear away the weapons from the ponies’ reach on the floor; scanning the huge room to find their proper places, ensuring to lock them back into their places in their racks; however she refrained from actually using the locks, as she did not know the combinations.

Eventually this task busied her enough that she’d barely noticed the pony stirring as the temperature in the room increased; she set the weapon she’d last picked up, some type of shotgun, down on the counter she’d acquired it from, turning and moving to the ponies’ side once more.

She watched closely as the pony looked up at her, blindly blinking up at her before they realized what they were looking at, slowly looking around the room; first at Seventy-Nine, then to the weapons and lastly to the fire. They slowly pulled the wrappings on their face down, revealing dark white fur and their mouth; then they spoke, a deep bass voice shattering the quiet in the room. “Where-... Where am I?”

Seventy-Nine literally beeped in response; taking a step closer to the stallion, slowly laying down in front of him. Something began to drive her crazy; not only the need to learn more about the outside world, but the need to help him. “I do not know what this place is called. I only just awoke; but are you okay?” Her vocalizations were all nearly monotone, only inflecting up to indicate she asked a question, but she spoke at a high enough volume to cause the stallion to flinch.
.
“I-I remember, walking through glass doors, no- Raiders-s. There were raiders following me, th-the edge of the snowstorm, I had to get away, warn S-Spit they were coming again...” He spoke slowly as his teeth began to chatter together, and then the rest of him quickly started to shake, as he tried to take his coat off of himself, however Seventy-Nine stopped him; the coat still looked warm, even if the outside of it was slightly wet.

The stallion glared at the wall in front of him as he then took his goggles off; Seventy-Nine noted just how bright purple his eyes were when he’d looked back at her. They were fascinating to view, and so, so pretty... He attempted to stand, but instantly failed, clumsily losing his footing and falling to the floor, grunting in pain; Seventy-Nine watched helplessly, uncertain of what to do with the organic in front of her.

She’d helped him with the cold, but how could she keep him near the fire? Organics, what did they enjoy, what could motivate...? “Stallion, cease and desist.” She started, gently making him look to her. “Stay here and warm yourself, I will retrieve food for you... Don’t breath in the smoke of the fire.”

He chuckled and pulled away, grunting as he got his hooves back under him although he stayed still from there on, looking to the fire and leaning ever so slightly closer to it; she quickly stood, taking a simple one-sided saddlebag, it went on her right side, and then moving back to the elevator and stepping inside of it again.

The machine scanned over her options once more, however she noted each one carefully this time, eight floors in total. Lobby, Processing 1 and Processing 2, Factory, Armory, Employee Office, and Employee Residency.

She did not know what floor it was she had come from to get to the Lobby, but she was certain she was in the Armory. The best place for any food would be the Employee residency, so she gently tapped that button, hearing the soft hiss of the doors slowly shutting.

She felt the familiar feeling of weightlessness, being unconnected to the ground, as the elevator went down, and down, and down until finally the little bell rung and the doors hissed open; Seventy-Nine turned her head-light on as she stepped out, a familiar but different ‘click-clack’ of metal-hooves-against-tile was the only sound she could hear.

The machine moved into what seemed to be a large foyer, a pair of benches stood at each of her sides against the wall and an empty dais was ahead of her. With careful steps, the machine moved forwards, glancing back and forth from the left wall to the right one, she stepped to the dais, it was a grand, tall metal one, with large steps allowing a pair of ponies to climb on top of it.

Seventy-Nine dismissed it for now as she went around it; her more immediate concern coming back to the forefront of her mind, she stepped lively in a slight rush, on the end opposite the elevator she found a pneumatic pressure door, and with the tap of a button at the right side, it opened with a hiss.

An incredible long hallway greeted her, doors, about every two and a half meters on each side of her, were present as well. It was a puzzling conundrum. Were these all the rooms the workers lived in? Where would she find any food?

None of the doors were any different from any other, Seventy-Nine noted as she advanced down the hallway, and she could only wonder why that was. Ponies were known for being creative and celebrated individuality, even while they still conformed to herd instincts, the most notable example would be the Element of Harmony bearers, being literally more powerful for being together.

The machine stopped moving, belatedly noting something different about a door; she turned to look at it closely; this pneumatic door had what looked to be red paint marking “Dont open!!!” on it, in very large letters, a trail of the red paint on the floor led to the bottom of the door, and presumably, into the room.

How could Seventy-Nine not open this door? She looked to her right hoof and let the front metal plate slide back out of the way as a sharp blade, short and thin, scraped its way out, she turned to the right and hit the button for the door; and with a sharp hiss it opened quickly.

She waited only a pair of seconds for something to come out before she turned and went headlong into the room, instantly she viewed why there was a warning on the door; some type of walking corpse charged as soon as she’d stepped in, she haphazardly swung her blade upwards at it and missed, and with a great, thundering crash, it bowled her over out of the room.

It was on top and its weight kept her on her back, its coarse, decaying teeth biting at her facial plating, sparks from the bone-on-metal attack filled her view as she attempted to stab her blade into its side, and she heard the disgusting noise of sharp metal slicing through flesh and breaking bones, but it didn’t stop the creature, it reared up and her connection to its gut lifted her up as well, and when it came back down she did too, it slammed its hooves down on her cranium, as she hit the ground her head-light shattered, leaving her to drown in Darkness.

As it had reared up once more, it pulled itself off of her blade, and she had only, approximately, three seconds to aim it better, thrusting the sharp blade up into the neck of the creature as it came back down to bash her again, it easily impaled itself on her blade, the force of the blade thrust up into its neck as it come down clashed hard enough to separate the creatures’ skull from the rest of its body.

The still biting skull clanged against her cranium and bounced off, landing hard on the floor as Seventy-Nine turned to the right, pushing the already decayed corpse off of herself with her left foreleg and turning over to get her other hooves under herself, letting her blade slide back into her right hoof so she could stand on it.

She stared at the head in the Darkness until it stopped moving; looking left and right down the hallway, unable to see very much. She slowly backpedalled into the room, her hoof steps silencing as she moved onto carpet, she remained prepared for any threats as she began to search the room. It was a normal room, four meters across and four meters long.

There was a messy bed, a few dusty dressers, a small hoof-locker, most of an uneaten corpse, and the trail of blood leading straight to it. She began her search with the hoof-locker, using her sharp blade to break the simple lock on it and quickly opening it up, finding little more than a revolver, a cowboy's hat, and a stack of ancient comic books that she could not read in the Dark.

The machine took the revolver up, looking it over, in the bleak Darkness Seventy-Nine could not tell if it was a real weapon or not, the handle was made of wood and the rest made of something that made a ‘clink’ when she tapped her hoof against it, so Seventy-Nine took it, carefully placing it inside of the saddlebag she wore on her right side, giving her only one item of interest... She took the little hat as well, giving her two items of interest.

She searched the dressers next, finding warm clothing that she eagerly took, folding each one carefully and meticulously before she put them into the saddle bag; she looked at the corpse but decided it was better to leave it be, it would most likely not have anything of interest.

Seventy-Nine left the room, stepping over the decayed, uneaten corpse and only stopping to glare at the skull for a very brief moment. Feeling triumphant over the Things That Go Bump In The Night, the machine decided to forge ahead, even in the Darkness, and with careful, slow steps, she went to her left.

She hoped to find another door of interest, but also dreaded the idea, every ‘click-clack’ of her metallic hooves against the tile floor only served to make her feel more and more paranoid, but she couldn’t go back now! She had to prove to the organic that he was safe here, so she had to obtain food.

The Things That Go Bump In The Night would not be stopping her anytime soon, with slightly less cautious steps, she continued down the endless hall, moving faster, and when she reached the end of the straight hall she felt glad for it; it however forked apart, a path to her right and a path to her left.

The machine glanced around for any indication for food and belatedly noticed the small signs on the wall ahead of her, so she approached. Sadly whatever it said was indefinable as she was unable to understand it. It was either the Darkness or it truly wasn’t a language she understood.

There were however two tiny drawings on the signs, the left sign showed a trio of z’s, a z-z-z arching upwards, and the other seemed to be some type of plant-life, perhaps leaves? Ponies ate plant-life, many leaves in fact, the machine realized, and with a firm nod to herself she set off to the right, marching intently.

The rooms were beginning to get larger, or so Seventy-Nine assumed, as the spacing between each door was slowly increasing, until she came to the end of the hallway, another pneumatic door impeded her progress, but she did not allow that to stop her! With a harder-than-necessary tap of the doors’ button, it hissed open, revealing to Seventy-Nine an incredibly large room filled with light, nearly blinding her for a moment until her optics adjusted, but she was joyous to find what she did.

A very large, underground vivarium, with lights! There were many planters with growing plants; fruits and vegetables, Seventy-Nine carefully stepped into the room and tapped the button to shut the door, extremely glad to be out of the Darkness. She quickly moved to the nearest planter, looking over what was growing there.

She, of course, had absolutely no idea what it was, if it tasted good, or if it was even edible... Seventy-Nine realized too late that she had no idea what any of these plants were; but she would not give up now that she stood literally next her objective, something here had to be edible, at the least.

The machine almost used her blade to cut a fruit from its vine when she realized her blade was not clean, and so she carefully used her metal hooves to pull it off, it was a very bright red and looked very, very squishy, so she was even more careful to set it away in her saddlebag. She moved around to the next planter, pulling a plant from the dirt to find a long, brightly colored orange thing that the dirt clung to, this looked much less squishy so it, and more of its kind, was put away with less care.

She found many fruits of many colors, plenty of leafy greens, but fewer vegetables beyond the orange things and bulbous browns. The machine truly found herself happy to be categorizing and storing every kind of plant-life away safely in her saddlebag, until she found that she truly could not put much else away, as it would no longer fit.

Seventy-Nine quickly turned to leave, opening and closing the door with button taps as she went, and though she dreaded having to walk in the Darkness once again, she was still feeling elated after all, she had found food for the pony she had rescued, who was hopefully still alive by the fire, and soon they would be speaking of the world outside; information was very important after all!

The machine turned the corner, paying little attention to the other path she did not take as she continued walking, ignoring the corpse and its’ detached skull as she passed it, she did curiously wonder about the dais however when she arrived at it, giving her a moment of pause. Had a smart, tall, and handsome pony once give an amazing speech there? She could only wonder as she stepped into the elevator and pressed the ‘Armory’ button.

There was another ‘ding!’ again when she reached the armory and the doors hissed open once more; she was happy to find the stallion laying peacefully on the floor; at least, after she noticed his chest still rising and falling as he softly snored. With careful steps close to him, she unloaded her saddlebag, setting the food down in one spot, putting the clothing right next to him, where the rest of what he’d worn sat, she put the little hat on his head to amuse herself, and then she finally checked the revolver.

She was saddened to find it was not real, but she was also very amused that she had confused it for a real weapon; so she let the amusement she felt carry her to set it away safely next to a pair of obviously real, metal pistols.

She returned to the stallion and tapped his muzzle to waken him, carefully placing herself behind the food she’d obtained for him and sitting down when he finally looked up at her, sniffing the air; he shifted up a little and glanced up, blinking as confusion settled on his face, staring at the small cowboy hat before he took it off.

He then looked to her and she pointed down at the food, and he shrugged, smiling as he wiggled closer; setting the little hat down at his side while he took an orange thing and bit into it, Seventy-Nine laid down as she watched him feed himself, without much better things to do, she asked him, “Do you enjoy that crunchy, orange thing?”

“Tastes like dirt... And what, you don’t know what this is called?” He gave her a confused, but also amused look, or she at least thought that’s what that look was.

“No, I do not.” She shook her head simply. “I am glad it is edible.” She nodded her head at him slowly, looking over the rest of the food slowly.

“It’s a carrot-” His eyes narrowed as he stopped, glaring at her. “Wait... You don’t even know what I could eat?”

“Why would I?” She asked, feeling slightly embarrassed as he glared up at her. “I’m not an organic, I don’t have a need to consume plant-life to continue my existence, as you do, my reactor powers me.”

“Well, since you rushed off to feed me, I thought you at least knew what a pony could eat!” He crossed his hooves in front of his chest; his eyes narrowing further into a glare.

“Again, why would I know? I am a war machine, not a tractor.” She stomped a hoof, leaning towards him as she stood up on all four hooves. “I was assaulted, by a creature, bringing you these items, you should be grateful, organic!”

His expression softened and even turned to fear as she stood taller than him, he looked away from her, speaking softly now. “Oh. Well, I am grateful; thank you for saving my life and for getting me food...”

Seventy-Nine watched him carefully, slowly sitting back down. “Perhaps you should just eat and I will continue sorting through the Armory. I simply cannot have firearms and ammunition laying around, some loaded while some are not, it is truly chaos in here...!”

She quickly got to work while the stallion ate his literally dirty food, Seventy-Nine hoped it wasn’t too bad for him, but she also could not bear to look at him at this moment, feeling ashamed of how she’d acted. He was the only friendly and active face she’d seen since she’d woken up, there was no reason to be so rude to him.

It was a short while until he finished what he wanted to eat and she’s finished cleaning up the armory, safely ‘locking’ away all of the ammunition as well as the weapons, there were all kinds of guns and explosives here. Seventy-Nine wondered just what the need of them were until she recalled her short time with the creature she’d encountered.

Seventy-Nine heard the stallion grunt and thump onto the floor, she turned to face him, watching him struggle to stand up, but he failed again; hissing in pain as he cradled his body with his hooves, she moved close, looking down at him.

He looked to her and spoke loudly, clearly, and with strong urgency. “I need to leave, okay? There’s a lot of things I need to do back home. Why don’t you help me get dressed...?”

She looked him over slowly, he didn’t look at all ready to be going anywhere, but she nodded, bringing his now-dry clothing over close to him, as well as the mare clothing she had found, helping him into it before she sat down in front of him, letting him get dressed without her clumsy hooves getting in the way.

Seventy-Nine watched carefully as the stallion began to stand up as well, his winter clothing weighing him down but making him much warmer, he grunted in pain and drew her out of her musing, but he stood up fully on his own; she relaxed out of her combat ready stance and sat down, bringing her hooves together lightly. A metallic ‘ting-ting-ting’ filling the air as she clapped.

He laughed and shook his head at her, wobbling a little before he stood a little taller, his head held high when he looked at her. “You’re the strangest robot I’ve ever met in my life, Seven-Nine.”

“Is that a compliment, or is it an insult?” The machine asked, standing and moving to his side, taking a gently hold of his jacket and pulling him closer, letting him lean against her side; her face close to his. He even blushed slightly, which was odd. Perhaps just feeling dizzy from standing?

“Well, I don’t think I know you that well, to decide if it's good or bad; you’re really smart but really dumb.” He pressed his weight on her, lifting his hoof and putting it around her, pressing further. “Come on, I need to leave. I need to get back to Spit.”

“Spit?” Seventy-Nine was curious, though she did still help him towards the elevator she didn’t feel she could argue with his decision to leave, as it was not her place. “You need to leave so you can spit? No, you refer to that as a location?”

“Yeah, it’s my town... We call it Spit, because, it’s just a little spitball of a town in the middle of nowhere.” He chuckled a little, but then hissed in pain from one of his steps as they entered the elevator and turned around, he leaned on her a little more and she adjusted for this before she tapped the button for the lobby, the doors slowly closing.

Seventy-Nine looked at him carefully, reaching up and pushing his goggles down over his eyes, making him laugh a little more, a smile on his face as the doors opened up again. He pulled his little bandana over his mouth and tried taking more of his own weight on his own, stepping with her out into the little hallway, and then into the lobby proper.

He helped her cross the metal detectors, she was scared they’d make noise and alert the organics she was leaving but he convinced her that they didn’t mind, and then she helped him open the door, having to push against the strong wind, that’s when she noticed the sound of wind blowing, the snow flying past in swirls of white flakes, she stepped ahead of him a little, eager to see the outside.

She noted the low temperature and carefully adjusted her systems, sealing herself with a few hisses and increasing her internal temperature, all the while she looked out across the cold, snowy, empty land, watching smaller drifts of snow get picked up by the cold and float away, just to clump together in the air and soon land together in a different area. It was absolute chaos to Seventy-Nine, but it was also beautiful.

“Holy shit, it’s cold!” The stallion yelled out, “Oh, Celestia, do I hate snow, fuck, fuck the snow; fuck it with Celestia's holy sun!” He moved forwards at the most breakneck pace he could achieve and she quickly helped him, taking most of his weight; at least, until she sank into the snow when the porch of the lobby disappeared under her hooves, leaving her to instantly crash down into head-high snow.

Seventy-Nine wouldn’t describe her own movements as ‘flailing in absolute terror, thinking that the snow was invading her body as part of a Zebra conspiracy and attempting hostile takeover’ but the stallion certainly would. He stood on the top most part of the snow, being a much lighter weight than the metal machine, he watched her attack the snow with her limbs ruthlessly for a short time, unsure what to do to help her.

The machine stopped all of her movement when she came to the conclusion she was not being assaulted and conquered by tiny aliens, thus she looked up at the stallion, shoving a hoof up through the snow at him. He took her hoof with both of his forelegs and began to pull her up; until he realized he was then only sinking further into the snow, he couldn't pull her up like this...

He let go, almost falling over onto his haunches, his breath billowing in the wind as he glared down at her, he glanced out over the frozen wastes and then looked back at her, he pointed at the lobby, and she turned and looked. She began to walk through the snow, the stallion staying up above her, then she scrambled to climb back up onto the porch of the lobby; he grabbed her by the head with his hooves and tried to pull her up, but she batted him away when she detected he was pulling her cranium off from her neck, she fell back down into the snow and he fell onto his rump.

Seventy-Nine got back onto her hooves and leapt at the snowy porch, most of the snow had been moved during the last attempt and this time she had a better grip, she pulled herself up onto solid ground, looking down at him; he was panting hard, his breath rapidly flowing away in the breeze.

He reached up and grabbed her, pulling her towards the lobby doors again and taking her inside, firmly slamming the door shut behind himself before he fell to his knees, his chest rising and falling quickly, he was practically heaving for breath as he looked up at her. She looked at the doors and then to him; she felt to her own knees next to him, regretting even thinking snow was beautiful, Seventy-Nine, in fact, loved how he put it and repeated his words in monotone. “Fuck the snow. Fuck it. With the sun.”
> Chapter 2. Loquentes Apparatus.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

He wished there was another way, but really, there were no other options, none at all! He’d prefer anything to what he had to do. He’d rather eat stones for the rest of his life, bath in lava, even fight the entirety of Tartarus itself with nothing but a small rock that he’d eaten! But there was no other option...





They, Seventy-Nine and the dirty-white-furred stallion, both sat in the armory, very quietly. They’d both already softly agreed to never speak of those moments in the snow ever again; he was once again stripped naked, the fire was started for him, and Seventy-Nine sat next to him, also warming him with direct contact; her internal heater keeping most of her body warm.

He murred softly, an enjoyably adorable noise from the stallion, as he shifted to press against her side; he was still recovering from frostbite, but no longer hypothermia, if she wasn’t confusing those two afflictions, and now she only questioned why she had thought to let him even leave the lobby and go into the snow. He was worried for his home, she thought, but were ponies truly so irrational as to go into the dreaded snow?

“Do you have a mate in Spit? Or any other type of loved one?” She asked, leaning to press back against him. The stallion looked at her like she was crazy, or like she was suddenly a lettuce leaf. She wasn’t sure if he was confused or hungry. She wished a ponies’ face was easier to read.

“Well, no, I don’t really have anypony there I’m really close to. It’s still my town though, I can’t just leave it and disappear. They’ll think I’m dead and take my stuff if I don’t get back soon.” He frowned at her, and this expression she could not confuse.

“Do not fret.” Seventy-Nine reached up and carefully pat his head twice, feeling that was the perfect action to comfort a pony, as one pat would not be enough, and three pats were too many. “As soon as you are able to travel alone, you will go back to Spit, your home. This is my home, and I do not know it. I shall explore it, perhaps, I will wake my brothers and sisters.”

“Oh, Brothers and sisters?” He questioned, shifting slightly closer to her before he continued; “I didn’t think a robot would say they have family. You really are special, aren’t you?”

“Machine, not robot.” She gave a slight shrug however, ignoring the curious look in his pretty, purple eyes as she answered. “I don’t feel anymore special now then I did when I awoke with my sisters, so I cannot give a specific yes or no answer.”

The stallion chuckled and shook his head, pressing a hoof to his face. “I’m glad you’re honest, Seventy-Nine. Well, actually, on that topic, can I ask, do you know what happened to this place, I mean, the megaspells didn’t hit it...?”

“Megaspells? I do not know what those are, and I cannot tell you what happened to this Facility, I encountered no living ponies in the Employee Residency area to tell me, I found only a few signs of life.” She tilted her head a little, recounting her encounter with the Thing That Went Bump In The Night; it had broken her light and thus she was still dreading the thought of going into an unlit area.

“Well, the megaspells, they were-...” He paused. “No living ponies? But you found dead ones?” She nodded firmly at him to answer and he continued to speak before she could. “You know, you should’ve mentioned that.”

“It did not seem to answer your question, I am sorry.” Her ears very slowly swiveled down and she bowed her head to him, feeling shameful. “I found a creature, pony-like, decaying but living, it attacked me on-sight and I terminated its continued existence. There was also a corpse there, it had seemed to be eating it.”

“A ghoul, huh? Weird...” The stallion looked away from her, rubbing his chin with a hoof. “Never seen one of those up around here. The cold freezes them, since they’re pretty much dead and don’t make much body heat.”

“It was a Thing That Goes Bump In The Night.” The machine nodded firmly at him as her ears returned to their normal position, she looked to the fire and stood up, pulling the last of the paper she’d found in this room from a nearby drawer and slowly put the pieces into the fire to feed it.

He watched for a short while, then he looked to his hooves, then back to her, his face looking to be hungry/confused; his beautiful purple eyes focused on her. “A thing, that goes bump in the night? What are you talking about?”

“It is a foals book, called ‘The Thing That Goes Bump In The Night.’ It was was written by Happy Sings. Correction, Harpy Sings. Correction, Harp Songs.  My data on this subject is corrupt and confusing, I am sorry.” The machine moved to lay back down next to him, settling against him.

“Hey, it’s fine. No one’s got a perfect memory.” The stallion couldn’t help but smile at her, laughing a little. “A foals book though? Why do you know about a foals book? Did ya find it downstairs with the cowboy hat and the toy gun?”

Seventy-Nine shook her head firmly, her ears splaying down once again. “I am sorry, that data is corrupt and unreadable, I cannot answer your question beyond that I did not find it in the Employee Residency area.”

“Hey, don’t be so down. It’s fine.” He shrugged slightly, giving her a smile, she let her ears shift back to their default position, giving him a little nod. She hadn’t been very sad, but if it made him smile at her like that then she did not mind playing pretend. “So, are we just gonna keep killing time like this?”

“It is impossible to kill time, as time is non-organic.” Seventy-Nine stated simply, happy to correct him. The stallion did his best to just nod and not laugh, smiling at her and closing his eyes.

“You know, is your name Seven-Nine? It’s on your flank...” He looked over his shoulder to spy said metal rump, shifting his weight away from her. “And hey, I don’t think you even know my name!”

“I assume my name is Seventy-Nine, and I am sorry once again.” The stallion set his hoof on her head before she could lower her ears, then he pat her twice, a bright smile on his face; but she still couldn’t help but stare at his eyes. They almost seemed to shine purpleness, in a strange, pleasing way. “What is your name then, Organic?”

“My name’s Compass Rose. Most of my friends just call me Compass, so I suppose you can too.” The machine looked to his rump, half-wishing his name had just been printed there as her’s was, but she was greeted with the compass rose on his flank as she’d expected.

“So, I am your friend, Compass? I enjoy this idea; it does amuse me.” She shifted forwards, giving the slightest of awkward metal-on-skin nuzzles before she pulled away from him; she slowly stood up once more, moving to feed the fire again, before she dumbly realized she’d already used up all of the paper, it quickly died from there.

He watched her closely, smiling and laughing a little, as he seemed wont to do. “You really are a lot different than any other ro- Machine, I’ve ever seen before. I’ve never heard of this place either. I’m starting to think this was another whole... Super secret project. One of the biggest secrets in Equestria, though, lately there’s been a lot of those.”

“Or, there was no time to tell anypony about it, yes? You spoke of these ‘megaspells’ like they were explosives. Your surprise that this facility is empty, devoid, so far, of life, despite not being bombed by these megaspells, indicated that this was a large, deadly attack, eliminating much life.” She looked at him over her shoulder curiously.

He blinked, but nodded. “Yeah, wow. That was smart... I mean, you seem smart, but not like...” He waited for her to speak for a moment but he rubbed the back of his neck when she failed to, seeming to just be glaring at him silently, but he could only guess if she was angry or not, or if she felt anger at all. “Sorry... I guess I mean, you’re naive?”

“Thousands of words, hundreds of phrases and analogies, a few common expressions, all... Crammed into my head, strategies on how to attack a military base, how to work a heavy artillery piece, how to select the important officers as targets between the ranks of foot soldiers, to strike at a ponies throat or legs if they are armored, to always slice the throat when they are downed... All this and even more, clutter my memory, how to behave in a social situation is nowhere to be found...”

He listened carefully as she spoke, and she was glad he did so, she came close to him again, sitting down in front of him; speaking further in her cold monotone. “I have no memories of parents, or a family like a pony would have. Nopony to teach what is right or wrong; what to do in certain situations, how to speak to a stallion in negotiation, all I have is words and their meanings, a subroutine on how to string them together so I don’t yell gibberish at all times...”

Compass nodded slowly, thinking hard for a little while. “Why don’t you come to Spit with me then? I can teach you some things, about talking, about the wastelands. About ghouls, the ponies, zebras; the war... Everything you need to know to survive in the wastes! All in exchange for a few guns here.”

Seventy-Nine froze and she would blink if she were a pony. “Guns? Why do you have a need for these weapons?” She looked around the room at her neatly sorted and safely, nearly locked away weapons, her ears splaying down again.

“There’s a bunch of raiders that have been bothering Spit recently. I got here because they chased me off of a good place I’d found, a big green belt of land that looked better to farm than other spots around the Great North.”

“Raiders? Expand on that. A group who prey upon other groups within their own territories?” She looked to Compass, shifting closer to him, her sensors glancing him up and down. “They are dangerous then, need to be eliminated? I am certain I could handle that.”

“W-well, not outright killed, I’m not saying that...” He paused and considered it for a second.  “Some groups of raiders are really bad, murderers and rapists, slavers and foal-killers; horrible ponies... But these ones are just bullies with guns, and we need to scare them off. Make them somepony else’s problem, at least...”

“Understood. What knowledge would you provide to me and my family in exchange for protection then? What specifically?” She began to tally the weapons she had available in her head, but didn’t include the toy she’d found, she projected the strength of her family, but found that they were most likely true overkill for anything other than a large army, even though the number of weapons that had was incredibly lacking for each machine.

Most likely all of these weapons were meant for the organics running the facility, while all of her family’s weapons would be shipped here from some factory, most likely stripped of everything by now... Scavengers after the end of the world?

“Well, we can teach you... Good ways to keep warm, how to handle your weapons in the cold weather. I guess you don’t need to know exactly things about food, but ya know. Oh, politics. You’d need to know everything that’s been going on, from the end of the war to now, like the Enclave, Red Eye, and our Saviour, the Lightbringer. Littlepip...”

“Yes, it sounds we’ve missed many great events, and I would be happy to discuss these things with you, Compass. My family needs knowledge to rise together, rebuild and protect the ponies of Equestria, if the world has been destroyed by the Megaspells, and Spit can be our allies.” Compass smiled at her and shook his head, sighing softly as her optimism rubbed off on him.

“Well, first we have to figure out how to get you to Spit. I have to get home, soon.” He brought his hooves to his face and slowly rubbed his eyes; he looked a lot more tired than she had thought previously. She took the chance to examine his features closely.

His fur was a dirty white, most likely not a pure white due to how dirty the male was, or it possibly was true that he was simply a light gray? His eyes were a beautiful shade of bright purple that she had trouble looking away from, but she did tear her sensors from his gaze to look at the number of scars on his face...

A long one on the right side of his nose, cut deep, a straight line down to his top lip, getting lighter as it went down, implying he’d looked down at the blade went into his flesh. There was a small helter-skeltering of scars on the left side of his face that was rather faint; it was the sign that an explosion had happened not too far from him. There’d likely be more of the same pattern on his side, but she could not see past the coat he was wearing.

His right ear had the tip cut off, a sharp angle implying a sharp blade, likely the same from the scar on his nose, he must have ducked a side-swing and had the tip of his ear sliced off in the process, but that was only a guess.

“Are you staring at me or...?” Compass spoke softly, his eyes narrowed, looking sharper for a few moments before he relaxed again; and Seventy-Nine looked back to his face in general, his muzzle was rather short, his whole body wasn’t very large at all, but he was very lean, which would explain his heavy weight, a body made for galloping far in a short time, but not truly long-distance. She couldn’t identify what exact breed he was with charistics from many different ones, he was most likely not very pure blooded.

“Studying you, that is all. You are the only living pony I have had a chance to closely study in my memory, you are fascinating to me, Compass, truly. I am very glad I helped you survive.” She slowly stood up and moved away from the stallion; she went to the shotgun racks and pulled one free, a Ponycor Jackhammer; made to quell any riots in Equestria, in part, by the Ministry of Wartime Technology; her side-plating opened up easily and she implemented it into the holster on her right side.

She paused for only a second to register that she had holsters in her sides to hold weapons, but she continued as she opened the shelf under the rack, pulling out a box of shells and carefully placing it inside of herself. She would soon try to find schematics for her kind so she could see everything she had, rather than discover it all through her subroutines, or ‘instincts’.

She sealed her side again, the unloaded shotgun and its ammo secured safely inside of herself. This prompted some type of system to activate, showing the outline of the weapon, a “Riot Shotgun”, appeared in her peripheral vision, down to the right; as well as an ammo count of “48”. She assumed it meant forty-eight shells.

She finished examining the holographic counter and weapon outline and she moved to the pistol racks, taking a simple Colt N99 10MM pistol, also developed by the Ministry of Wartime Technology, but for the use of being a soldier’s side-arm, walking on three hooves back to Compass and offering it to him.

He looked uneasy, but he took the pistol into his mouth, holding the grip gently with his teeth; she would tell him to hold it tighter, but that wasn’t needed right now. She would instruct him in its use later. She went back for a box of ammo for him, and when he took that, he held it to his chest, as if it would disappear if he let go.

“Compass, do you know how to get me to Spit, through the snow?” She seemed to shake him from his thoughts as he glanced up at her, sitting and thus reaching with his free hoof to remove the pistol from his mouth so he could speak.

“Yes, a sled. We can make a sled, or we can make you really wide snow-shoes; it spreads out the pressure on the snow, so that you don’t sink down into it.” She considered that, but she wasn’t programmed with the knowledge on winter-weather war tactics.

She would have to brush these types of tactics soon, it seemed... She knew many urban warfare tactics and assumed that’s what her squad was meant to do to, fight in urban areas with shotguns and SMG’s as those were the weapons she had been programmed to use.

Oh. She was glad she realized she didn't know how to use an assault rifle before she tried to then. Well, using one was simple, but it went beyond usage, maintenance was essential to long time use! “Compass. How are we going to make a sled?”

“Uh.” Came the response. At least his eyes were still very pretty when he looked at her, distracting him from looking over the N99 pistol she’d given him. “Got a big piece of scrap metal or wood around? I guess I’ll have to pull you, but I already feel a lot better.”

“Well... There is a dias in the Employee Residency, but, do we have to ruin it?” Seventy-Nine wouldn’t say she was whining like a young filly. “It’s really nice.”

“Seventy-Nine.” He blinked and sighed, rubbing his face slowly, as if he was annoyed and confused... Or hungry? “Go rip it apart.”

She wouldn’t say she cussed at him. He would. She wouldn’t.
> Chapter 3. Occidere Apparatus.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m having the time of my life! There were sparkly things and lights and silly robots and stuff, and all the ponies were so nice! Well, most of them. The big ponies in the uhm, mom called it armor or something, they’re not all so nice. A couple of them are really mean, but I don’t know why. They said bad things are gonna happen soon. I think they’re being silly!





The cold snow was as devilish as ever, but it seemed that it wouldn't impede Compass’ progress to return home. It had been an endeavour for Seventy-Nine, mentally, to rip the dias apart, bring up a sizable piece in the cramped elevator, just for Compass to tell her to make holes in it with her leg blades.

He just put some rope, he conveniently always carried, into the holes and made her tie them together. He claimed he needed to save his energy instead of tying the ropes, despite the obvious difficulty she displayed doing so. Stupid organic... Still, now she was laying on the makeshift sled and he pulled her along, grunting every once in awhile as he went on in the cold snowy weather.

She enjoyed it, but she was at least kind enough to not gloat about it, the fact she had an organic pulling her along on a sled, in this beautiful, if disgusting wasteland of evil snow invaders. She could almost call it romantic. Wait... Romance: a prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place as heroic, adventurous, or mysterious.

Yes, romantic worked just fine. She’d fought for him, so it was heroic, they were literally on an adventure, and he wouldn’t tell her anything about Spit, so there was mystery. 

Another mystery: Seventy-Nine wondered why Compass’ eyes were so pretty and purple. Could it be an after-effect left after the Megaspells destroyed the world? She didn’t have enough information, sadly, and the query could not be answered.

She would have to speak to Compass about his eyes, see if it was the sign of a dangerous disease? Probably not, but it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious about it. Still, it wouldn’t affect her! She was a machine, without the weaknesses of an organic!

“Seventy-Nine, we’re almost there! See it in the distance?” Compass shouted over his shoulder, panting, his breath a stream of visible air as it came out of his mouth, through his little bandana, she saw a hint of his purple eyes, as if they shined.

Seventy-Nine tore herself from his eyes and looked around him, seeing the wall in the distance, it wasn’t very imposing, but it probably kept the wind out at the least. This must be Spit. It was the smallest and largest town she's ever witnessed, as she'd only ever witnessed one town total.

The wind was getting worse; stronger, and it was getting even colder. She was glad she noticed the temperature, because Compass was visibly shivering, even though he wore plenty of warm clothing.

She slowly stood up before she leaned over to her right and stepped out onto the snow, she sunk down slightly, to her knees, but the ground was close enough that she was stable on it, so she stepped off of the sled.

She looked up at Compass as she started walking past him, trudging along in the deep snow; he abandoned the sled quickly when he saw she was no longer on it, she could see his mouth moving, but she was unable to hear what it was he was saying. The sound of the wind had begun to over-powered his voice.

The snow got lower and lower as she moved towards Spit, until she stood at the wall, belatedly noticing that the part to her left was actually a gate, being able to slide outwards to open; Compass stomped up to it and began hitting it, the sound of the wall shaking was easy to hear over the wind.

It took a minute, approximately, for a number of voices to begin shouting from inside, then the gate began to open up, Compass moved away and Seventy-Nine followed his example quickly, standing at his side. There were three ponies opening the gate, but one stopped when they saw who was standing and waiting.

This pony was a small, blue stallion, blue mane and fur covered him, who smiled and laughed out when he saw Compass standing there, walking over and grabbing Compass’ shoulders with his hooves. “By Celestia’s beard, you’re alive!”

“I’m hard to kill, I thought you knew that!” Compass yelled back happily, the small, blue stallion let go and turned around, walking back to the gate and going inside, Compass followed him, and Seventy-Nine followed Compass quickly, staying at his heels until she was inside.

The two other ponies holding the gate closed it behind her; one was a tall stallion, brown fur with a green mane, the other was a stocky mare, well-built, who was colored exactly the same, so they were probably related somehow. The stallion had a cutie mark of a shield, and the mare had a castle wall on her flank.

Seventy-Nine turned to look over the tiny town as the two buff ponies went about their business, if it could actually even be called a town. there were about... Twenty huts scattered around, most of them were away from the wall, one large long house in the middle and plenty of tall, but thin standing pillars around, keeping the huts separated from the wall.


Seventy-Nine tried to puzzle out why this village was built like so, but Compass was in her face, staring at her, the blue pony was behind him and looked curious. She beeped in Compass’ face and tilted her head, leading him to smile at her. “Hey, earth to machine, are you in there?”

“I copy, Compass. I’m right here. Why are you asking where I am?” She leaned closer to him and he leaned back, chuckling a little and shaking his head.

“It’s just an expression, dummy, when a pony is thinking so hard about something that they don’t seem to even be there.” He sighed softly, rolling his eyes.

“Dummy? I am not a replica of a pony, silly Compass... Wait... Oh, I am.” He laughed out loud and couldn’t stop grinning. Seventy-Nine was happy to make him laugh, even if it was at her expense. “Are you going to provide me with a tour, Compass?”

“Yeah, yeah, alright.” He shook his head. “Come on, follow me.” He turned and started walking on, passing a few huts that seemed to be housing, one had a sign on with the buff ponies’ cutie marks on it. She briefly wondered if she could own a home here, but would she need to? She could remain with Compass.

Seventy-Nine paid attention as Compass spoke to her, over his shoulder. “Alright, so the long house, it’s where everypony goes to enjoy each other’s company, have a few beers and Sparkle Colas, uh... There’s a bathhouse on the other side, a natural hot-spring actually, it’s awesome! Well, not that you care.”

“Everypony in town knows each other, really, so I guess you’ll met them all, but... Hey, Blue come here.” Compass stopped and Seventy-Nine came to his side, watching as the blue pony came close, having been walking slightly ahead of them. “This is Blue. Blue, meet Seventy-Nine.”

She almost spoke when this Blue did, a smile lighting up his features, she looked him over as he spoke. “Uhm, my name is Blue, well, kinda! I’m in charge around here, but I can’t get anypony to call me mayor, heh... It’s nice to meet you!”

He was short, but also stocky, which was probably a trend here. He had a horn, so he was a unicorn, but the slight amounts of feathering on his shoulders, which meant he had strong amounts of pegasus in his blood, he had no scars that she could see, but even his eyes were blue. She beeped when she was done looking at him. “I am pleased to meet you, Mayor Blue.”

“Ahem, right!” He stood taller, brimming with pride, as somepony, even if it was a robot, finally called him mayor. “Well, let me be the first Spit resident to welcome you here, formally!” He then bowed to her, the feathers on his shoulders puffing out slightly, she could now see his cutie mark was a snowball, for whatever reason.

She didn’t bow back, she was uncertain why he bowed to her in the first place. Perhaps he was simply amused by her? She was not one of the Princesses, she had no wings or horn.

Still, Compass gave Blue’s shoulder a couple of pats and he chuckled, shaking his head. “Come on, Seventy-Nine, I want to see if anypony’s looted my house yet.” Compass then started walking and Seventy-Nine followed.

They passed a good amount of little huts, mare and stallions, fillies and colts, looked out briefly to see why the gates were opened and seemed relieved to see Compass and Seventy-Nine, rather than something else. The raiders that had been plaguing them?

Soon enough Compass suddenly stopped in front of a tiny shack, smaller than all the other buildings and sighed out loud, grinning. “Well, here’s my home, Seventy-Nine.”

“This is your home?” She tilted her head as she looked the building up and down. It was made of a stronger metal, not the wavy tin of all the other buildings but something else, and it didn’t seem to have any wood in the construction. “It is small.”

“I guess, but it’s home.” He chuckled and went to the door, giving it a quick kick to open it up, stepping. It was Dark inside... Seventy-Nine wasn’t certain she wanted to enter until the small shack was lit up with an orange glow, Compass stood inside with a lantern handle in his mouth, grinning at her.

She stepped inside and turned to close the little door, blocking out the last wisps of the wind, allowing her body to unseal and pressurize to the new climate. She moved away from the door and glanced around, noting all of the little trinkets around, bottles hung from the ceiling and pictures nailed haphazardly to the walls.

Compass stood next to a small desk, made of wood, and he looked over everything on it, which seemed to be more pictures and trinkets of different types, such as little globes with tiny plastic things that swirled around inside and some kind of green statue of a mare holding a book, or tablet, as well as a torch.

There was a couch, against the right-side wall, no bed however; but there was a stove, with a long pipe that went up through the ceiling, on it was a simple pot. Seventy-Nine nodded when she done looking around, taking a step forward when she noticed the sound... A crunch of dirt.
She looked down to inspect the dirt when she noticed Compass begin to move again.

Compass started to strip himself, taking off his big coat and the mare clothes she’d gotten him, mumbling something about giving them to the neighbor’s filly before he set them all down on his desk, the N99 pistol went on top of the clothes and he sighed before he went to the couch and laid down on it, settling himself and closing his eyes.

“I like your home.” Seventy-Nine said simply, there was a short, tense silence before Compass laughed, grinning as he glanced at her, shifting onto his side. “It’s... Quaint. Do you collect all of these items around?”

“Some of them I’ve collected, sure. The snowglobes are my favorite, and the Liberty statue is my greatest find, but most of these pictures I’ve found. Some are before the war, a little bit after for a few of them.” He looked up at the ceiling, at the bottles. “We can’t forget the past and let it go.”

Seventy-Nine didn’t know what to say, but Compass filled the silence, continuing on. “Caps are the currency now, after the war, but some ponies here in Spit don’t have any at all, so, when I do things for them, they give me anything they have, bottles and trinkets, silly things the foals make for me...”

He sighed. “I don’t have blood-relations here, no special somepony, or a foal of my own, but this is my home. I live here, I love the ponies here.” He chuckled next, with a bittersweet tone filling his voice. “Some of the colts and fillies here call me Uncle Compass.”

“They’re lucky to have you here.” Seventy-Nine said softly, well, as soft as she could. “You’re a brave pony. I’d say you are a hero, braving the cold, returning from the brink of death just to come back here, for these ponies who are your family.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but for once, Seventy-Nine continued on. “They are your family, Compass. I trust my family, because they would never betray me. I know that they wouldn’t, we are all the same, anyway. These ponies love you as well, I’m sure.”

“Thanks, Seventy-Nine... I think I’m going to take a nap.” Seventy-Nine nodded to him before he turned over, grunting softly. “Why don’t you take a look around town, huh?”

She hesitated, not certain she wanted to leave his side, but she nodded to him, even if he couldn’t see if, before she turned and left the little shack, shutting the door behind her. She glanced around carefully before she began to head for the long house, she noticed the ponies she passed stared, but she didn’t mind.

She was an oddity after all, a machine walking around after the end of the world... The end of the world. Seventy-Nine stopped walking as she thought about it... The war ended, and the world was destroyed...

Organics were the cause of it, but these organics were long dead and gone, weren’t they? So no justice could be earned, beyond reversing the effects of the war she was built to wage in, but that wasn’t really justice, was it? Still, without a war to fight, most of her programming was moot, but, she could still wake her family and repair this world, couldn’t she?

She noticed a pair of eyes looking up at her, tiny blue ones. She then noticed that it wasn’t just one pair of eyes, but actually several! There was a tiny herd of four tiny ponies standing in front of her, all of them looking up at her curiously, the youngest at the back and the oldest standing nearly nose-to-nose with the machine.

Three of them were fillies, the tallest and oldest filly was the closest to Seventy-Nine and looked to be about eight years old, she was very blue, with a long, blue mane and blue fur, the blue eyes were hers, her shoulders were feathery and she had a horn on her head. Seventy-Nine knew just what to say. “Mayor Blue, you’ve gotten younger and you’ve become a filly?”

The filly frowned and her little herd all giggled, two of them moved to the right to get closer to Seventy-Nine, but the youngest stayed behind the blue filly, whom shouted in Seventy-Nine’s face. “I’m not my dad! Ponies call me Bluey! It’s ‘cause I’m all blue, like my dad, but my name’s Cold Shiver!”

“Ah, I see. I’m glad to know there’s a difference between you and your father.” The younger ponies continued to giggle, but Bluey did as well, this time, smiling at Seventy-Nine, giving her a chance to look at the other foals.

The youngest was essentially a foal, tiny and bubbly and the color of sand, with a mane that was a light-red. The other two were twins, colt and filly who were inverted colors. One had a mane that was the color of stone, with fur that looked black-as-night. The other had a mane that was dark, with fur that was grey-as-rock. No horns or wings among any of the three.

The tiniest filly spoke up, her voice was high-pitch, and very hard to mistake, she practically bounced when she spoke, as if talking made her move, she was certain there was a type of pre-war dog that acted much the same. “You’re really funny, Miss Robot! A lot sillier than anypony else in Spit!”

“My name is Seventy-Nine, little one. What is your name?” The filly’s eyes lit up, smiling bright as can be, probably happy to get a chance to talk about herself, she took a quick, but deep breath.

“I’m Sandy Shores, and my family is from the west coast of Equestria, we’ve gone really, really far, really fast! Uhm...” The filly paused for only one moment. “Seventy-Nine is a really, really big number, isn’t it? I can only count to seven so far, but I’m trying really hard!” The machine nodded and patted the filly’s head twice, and Sandy giggled in kind.

“I’m Black Diamond!” Seventy-Nine looked to the two twins, the male having spoken, his tail practically wagged when he turned to show off the Diamond on his flank, the black shape contrasting with the stone colored fur, he was brimming with pride.

The other twin quickly shouted next before she turned, a slab of stone on her flank, contrasting with the black of her fur. “I’m Argento Marble, hehe, bet you don’t know what that is!” Seventy-Nine had no real idea, the filly continued still. “We got our cutie-marks helping our parents dig out the ground for the wall around Spit!”

The two twins turned to Seventy-Nine, both mumbling under their breath to each other about who was supposed to say how they earned their cutie marks, but before an argument could break out, Seventy-Nine took the chance to speak.

“I’m happy to meet you all, little ones. Can you tell me about Spit, maybe? Or these raiders that have been bothering you?” All of the foals’ faces fell when Seventy-Nine mentioned it, and the oldest looked away, but the youngest filly spoke first.

“Well, uhm, they’re all meanies. They come and say bad things to our parents, then they go and take our food, and sometimes they break stuff. I don’t like them.” The filly harrumphed and looked to the snowy ground at her hooves, giving a weak stomp.

The next to speak was the young colt of the group, his voice now full of anger, though he spoke quietly, as if he wasn’t supposed to speak of it at all. “They’re assholes who take from us. Our dad says to Old Man Blue, all the time, that we need to go beat them up.”

“Diamond, shut up!” Argento shouted loudly. “They have guns and stuff, like mom says, we should just keep giving them stuff, so they leave us alone! As long as we’re all okay, it’ll be fine.”

“You do sound like mom, so I guess I’ll be dad!” Diamond growled at his sister, then he spoke deeper, as if he was copying somepony else. “But what if one day they want too much? What then, Granite, what then? They’ll kill us, that’s what’ll happen!”

“Children.” Seventy-Nine said evenly, both twins stopped glaring at each other and looked to the machine. “Calm yourselves, nothing bad will happen to you as long as I stand near, do you all understand?”

They each hesitated before they all nodded, only Argento and Sandy spoke, saying “Okay.” and “Yes, Miss Robot.” respectively. Bluey glared into Seventy-Nine’s sensors, her blue eyes were piercing.

Bluey’s mouth opened and then shut, then she spoke. “And what are you going to do, Seventy-Nine? None of the adults will do anything about them, they’re all too scared. Even though Mister Stone says all that stuff, he’s scared too!”

“I’m going to protect the future, Bluey. Don’t worry.” Seventy-Nine glanced to the gate when the wall began to shake, like somepony was knocking on it. Could it be them? Now?

Seventy-Nine watched the tiny herd move away and split apart, heading towards their respective homes quickly, Bluey jumped and hopped as she went, obeying the Pegasus in her blood, the part that said to fly.

The machine looked to the gate as the two other twins in Spit, the same-colored pair went to the gate, as well as Mayor Blue; Seventy-Nine rushed to the gate quickly, stopping when she came close, she remembered that she never loaded her shotgun, and now it was too late to do so, “0/48” still in her right peripheral... She would have to make it through any encounter at the moment without the weapon.

She watched the Mayor and the two buff twins push the gate open against the wind before she noticed Compass join her at her side, he was wearing only his thick coat, huffing and puffing with his warm breath showing in visible clouds; his pretty purple eyes glancing at her quickly.

The Mayor and twins backed up when the gates were opened up, and a group of five ponies entered, three of them were unicorns, carrying pistols with their magic and two of them were earth ponies, wearing battle-saddles with rifles on them, but all of them wore leather armor with spikes and plenty of straps all over their bodies. Seventy-Nine thought they looked dumb.

Still, they waved their weapons around, growling orders to the Mayor and the twins, seemingly trying to drag in the other adult ponies who came near to see what was happening into their orders, yelling for them to bring out their food, their mares, and anything else they wanted, and while the Spit ponies rushed to get the food, no other order was really obeyed.

The raiders were becoming angrier as their orders were ignored, that was, until one caught sight of Seventy-Nine, or so she thought, until the unicorn stomped over to Compass, the gun held in his magic pointed straight at her friend’s head. “Hey! I thought you were dead, asshole... How’d you live?”

Compass nodded his head towards Seventy-Nine, and the gun went to her head, and the stallion got in her face, his face a twisted veneer of sadistic enjoyment, his fur was a light green and his mane was dark green, his eyes a shade of brown. “Oh, yeah? You saved this bastard’s life? I was trying to end it, like this!” The gun floated right back towards Compass’s head and Seventy-Nine reacted.

The armor plate slid away as her right hoof went upwards, and her blade came out, going straight into the stallion’s neck; crimson blood spurted out both sides of his neck and his pistol fell to the ground. She pulled her blade out and turned around in a quick circle, using the moment to cleave off the stallion’s head before she heard a gun fire.

It was a rifle, from the sound of the crack that echoed through the air, and she heard the bullet barely pass by her head, thankfully she’d already been moving before the gun had fired. She stopped when she was facing the raiders again, noticing that the twins were ganging up on one of the earth ponies, Mayor Blue had his attention divided up between two of the pistols floating in the air, trying to wrench them from the raiders with his magic facing off against theirs, but one earth pony was focused on her.

She leapt straight for him as he chambered the next round in the rifle, the look of anger on his face turned to fear as she closed the distance, but she didn’t stop, instead she let her mass ram straight into him, pushing him straight off of his hooves and she pounced, her blade coming down and puncturing straight through his chest, breaking his ribs easily.

She pulled her blade up and let it cut its way through his chest, slicing through his flesh easily until his bones stopped her blade’s ascent; Seventy-Nine pulled it out of him and pulled her hoof close to her chest, pushing it straight back down through his neck, cleaving through his wind-pipe.

She heard another gunshot then a second one followed before a third filled the air, so Seventy-Nine jumped off of the corpse, looking to see who’d been hit. It turned out to be the two unicorns, who’d both been winning against Mayor Blue’s efforts to keep their pistols aimed away from him, but Compass had gotten his pistol out of his coat, loaded it, and shot both of them.

But not before Mayor Blue had been shot in the chest, slumped face first in the snow, his hind legs still supporting his rump and leaving it in the air, which wasn’t a dignified death pose... The earth pony was on the ground, shouting for mercy as the twins, as well as the rest of the adults who hadn’t run when the shooting started, worked together to beat the raider to death.

Compass was standing apart from that, his eyes closed and the pistol fell from his mouth to the ground. Seventy-Nine looked at her blade, noting that it was covered in red blood, which was freezing quickly in the cold air. She returned her blade inside of her hoof, watching the metal plate cover it again. Her hoof was also red with blood...

She hadn’t even thought about taking life, and she did not feel disturbed that she had. This is what she was made for, after all. She just hadn’t been made to kill ponies, but the other type of equine: Zebras. As if there was even a difference between them...

She watched the ponies around the now-beaten-to-death raider all panting in the cold, hooves bloody, anger sated and now remorse would set in, and they would feel the adrenaline leave their system. Seventy-Nine reached down and ripped the rifle from the raider she killed, checking it over and pulling the slide back with her hoof, checking the round inside.

It was loaded and ready to fire, surprisingly well taken care of too. She pulled it to her left side as the metal plating opened up, and she set it into the left holster when the holster slid out, but the rifle was too large to pull back inside of herself, so she made sure it was secure, then she began searching the corpse next to her for more rounds, finding two full magazines for it and she set those inside of the ammo hold on her left side. She now had “4/10” in her left peripheral.

She let the metal plating slide back into place, though it seemed a part of it split apart to allow the weapon to stay where it was, at her side, so she could use it. Could she use it like a battle-saddle? She didn’t want to pull the trigger just this moment, of course. She needed to find those schematics to see her own inner workings...

Her right plating slid back and she pulled the box of shells out, opening it up before setting it down. She pulled the empty magazine from the automatic shotgun and started to fill it with shells; and when it was full with twelve, she put the box away and slapped the magazine back onto the shotgun, pulling the bolt back to load it.

“Seventy-Nine.” Compass growled behind her, his voice deep and filled with anger, she glanced over her shoulder to see him for just a moment, acknowledging him for a brief moment. "Wh-what did you do? Look at what you've done!"

"Saved your life, Compass, as I am built to do. I could not allow a terrorist to execute an unarmed civilian." She stomped her hoof in the snow and moved it around, cleaning the blood from her metal skin. "If you have any complaints, you can mail them to the Ministry of Arcane Sciences."

"I-I thought you were so smart, you answered my questions, you asked questions, saved my life... But you're really just a machine, aren't you?" He was panting, rubbing the clear liquid running down his face away before he turned towards mayor Blue, rushing to the stallions side and tipping him over to see to his wound.

Seventy-Nine turned away to the large gate, walking purposefully in the deceased stallions' already fading path in the snow. Her weapons were loaded and she was ready. She could not allow terrorists on Equestrian soil to attack civilians freely.

It felt like she traveled for a couple hours though she knew it was only thirty minutes as she moved through the snow until she finally saw it. Light in the distance.

Walking purposefully until she noticed how low the snow reached until nothing remained to hide what she had been treading on. Thick ice below her every step. It would be fine so long as she did not deposit her weight to closely together.

"Hey, Pine, you back yet!? Is that you?" Seventy-Nine stepped back as she regarded the stallion brandishing a crude, but sharp sword in his mouth, holding it tightly just across the ice. It had to be very cold in the snow and the metal handle couldn’t have helped that, maybe it would freeze to his lips. She stepped forwards on the unstable ice, her metal hooves clicking against and cracking it as she moved slowly.

The tall, imposing stallion suddenly charged, swinging the sword hard, she barely had time to raise her right leg, her own thick blade shooting out to block his, the two met and sparks filled her view with the display of his power. This raider took the chance and brought his blade upwards, bringing a hoof up as well and kicking her in the chest.

She took the blow without complaint, moving her left hoof and pressing it against her other leg, adding to the pressure she was applying as she advanced, walking with two legs. He compensated, barely, as she walked forwards towards him, his neck straining against the strength of her two robotic limbs.

He shot over to her right, swinging his blade again at her, and she blocked it much more easily this time. He would get tired and cold especially as the storm brewing in the air continued to envelop the area, he would be slower. With a calculated leap towards him she pushed him away, knocking his sword upwards and almost out of his mouth.

The raider stopped her next swing with his hoof, the thick keratin of his hoof barely missing the sharp metal, he kicked her leg away and then brought his head down on hers, the loud ‘clang’ of skull-bashing-metal filling her head and knocking her off balance; he swung his head around and cleaved her left leg apart; leaving her to fall forwards against the ice.

Seventy-Nine caught herself with her right foreleg, her hindlegs both served to push her towards him, allowing her to headbutt him with twice the force he administered to her, even as he braced himself for it, she still cracked his skull open, blood splashing out onto her head and all the snow nearby, steam wafting in the air only for a few second before it all began to freeze.

With a great ‘whump!’ the large raider fell to the snow, she took his crude sword into her mouth and walked into their little camp, she moved into the nearest tent, finding a small stallion and a weak mare, and she cut them apart with the sword, their screams going unheard due to the wailing of the now crashing storm taking over the camp. Seventy-Nine moved onto the next tent, and the next, and the next.

There was but one tent left when she’d been unable to move much faster than a snail’s running pace, the blood covering nearly every part of her now was freezing her in place. She barely made it into the tent when she found only a trio of foals, a filly barely eight, a colt barely five, and a foal she doubted to even be three, snuggled together in a bundle.

She stuck the crude blade into the ground, looking down at them carefully. She almost reached out to the filly, in an effort to move on top of her and beat her to death, but instead, she tapped her. Seventy-Nine woke the filly, saying nothing but gathering up all of the warmest items in the tent and bundling them all up in them, and she took the three home by herself, carrying them all on three legs over the frozen ice.

She could not remember making it past Spit before her frozen bloody limps failed her and she could walk no more. And finally, Compass came out beyond the gate and saw her, rushing to her with a gun in his mouth. She could remain online without charging anymore. She opened her back and unfurled her solar plates before she turned herself to low-power mode.