Chapter 1 part 1: The Orphaned Prodigy
The sun mercilessly glared down at the lone filly as she trotted over one of the many hills of the dead landscape. The little blue unicorn wheezed as she trotted downhill with her filthy but finely manicured hooves crushing the dead grass beneath her. The clear blue sky above her offered no protection and neither did the gnarled black trees that surrounded her, she leaned against one of the said trees as she tried to catch her breath. “Dammit lightbringer, couldn't you have left some of the cloudcover?”
After her feeble whine she looked down from the barren sky and found herself looking into the eyes of a mosquito that was easily the size of a house-cat. The blood sucking mutation stared at her hungrily, and she let out a bloodcurdling scream at a high enough pitch that it stunned the Blood-bug. Without another delay the stable dweller dashed and hid behind the nearest boulder. Still shaking from shock she peeked out from behind the rock to see the dazed Blood-bug fly away.
“Stupid Blood-bug’s, always sneaking up on me every damn day.” She laid against the boulder trying to catch her now lost again breath. In her near exhausted state, doubt started to creep into her mind. “I’m not cut out for the wasteland, I should just go home.”
She flipped out her sweat covered collar and stared at her only weapon, a rusted revolver. The exhaustion, the lingering shadows of doubt, all that had hindered her were soon burned away by a growing rage. The laughter of sick raiders filled her head. ”I’ll make them pay!”
The now rage filled filly trekked across the barren ground following her preys trail. A relatively easy to follow path of trampled soil, destroyed robots, bullet casings, cigarette butts, blood spots, philac drawings in the dirt, and the occasional dead pony or animal decomposing in the warm sun. But today was different the vengeful filly hadn’t seen much of the trail lately, possibly do to her habit of dodging giant mutated bugs. But she continued on forward, her rosey red eyes scanning the tree’s and grass for any sign of the trail, her vision comparable to an eagles with the help of her cheery red spectacles. After searching for a good thirty minutes her head shot up as she faintly heard distant gunshots. ”Raiders doing something stupid, one of the few constants in this wasteland.”
Following the noise she kept to the shade of the tree’s to hid from herself from any enemies, and the overbearing sun. As she got closer she heard the upbeat jazz, she could till it was a regular choice of DJ-Pon3.
“Stupid sprite-bot!” She heard one voice yell up the hill. She slowly crawled up the hill and hid behind the nearest dead tree and peeked around it. Two ponies clad in leather and scrap metal armor stood there. One of them had a baggie mask over his head and the other, the one shooting wore nothing over his head. His yellow eyes squinted as tried to aim his rifle. He stared down the wooden sights of his rusted gun made of pipes and wood. He tried his best to shoot down the flying radio as his baggy wearing companion smacked him in the back of the head, making Yellow Eyes drop the gun from his mouth. “Ow, what was that for?”
Baggy Head smacked Yellow Eyes again and used his horn to confiscate the gun from him.
“You’re making noise and wasting ammo dumbass, the boss said to keep watch and not draw attention to the Stable!” Baggy Head repeatedly smacked Yellow Eyes with his leather clad hooves.
“Stop, stop it Celestia dammit.” Yellow eyes’ shoved Baggy head away. "I can't stand that fucking song, the bitch always plays it."
“He also said to not drag attention to the stable.” Baggy slapped Yellow across the face. “Which is exactly what you are doing.”
“A new stable you say?” The hiding filly thought to herself as a devilish grin grew on her lips. ”I could get In there and warn the dwellers and use them to set up a trap.” She tried her best to suppress her giggles. ”Or better yet If It's empty I can lure them into a stable with a self destructing generator.” She looked at the raiders, the joy she felt and the smile plastered on her face becoming more wicked. “After trapping them inside I should have a perfect view of the fireworks from-”
Her thoughts were silenced as she heard loud and heavy clunks In the rhythm of hoofbeats, numerous hoofbeats at that. She pulled out a cracked hand mirror from her pack and used it to peak around her hiding tree. She spotted at least forty raiders In crudely welded together mockeries of steel ranger armor, with rebar spiked shoulders and chest guards.
“Hey boss!” Yellow eyes’ shouted to the closest power raider. One with a crude spiral horn sheath made from rebar, and a crudely painted green dragon across his chest.
“You dumbass!” The gang leader used his magic to smash Yellow eyes’ face into dirt and drag him towards himself. “I could hear you shooting and shouting like a mile away!” The lime glow of his horn cut off as Yellow eyes’ reached his hooves. “Our supporters don't like wasted supplies!” The bottom of his left hoof sparked with electricity. He smashed his tesla hoof onto the Yellow Eyes', head turning it Into red paste. The planning filly immediately retracted her mirror and hid behind the rock, trying her best to keep quiet.
"Whose stupid and, or, crazy enough to support raiders?" Her face paled so much the white freckles on her cheeks were lost in the sea of white. "Gotta find the stable!".
She tried to sneak away but her hoof got caught on the dead root of a nearby tree.
“Dammit.” She squeaked out as she tripped and rolled down the hill, not being able to stop herself she curled into a ball out fear until rolling into a cave at the end of the hill.
“Ow.” she moaned uncurling herself from the protective ball shape. With her stable uniform and navy coat now mostly brown she fixed her saddlebags and pushed her red classes back up her nose. She mentally cursed like a sailor at the left lens now having a big crack going through It. She shook her short flat cut bangs and haphazardly tied locks free of dirt cursing her clumsiness but thanking It at the same time. A wicked smile graced her lips as she looked up at the gear shaped door.
”All according to plan, in one way or another.” Her chest swilled with pride finding the stable door before the raider’s fully gathered. ”I'll show those raiders a new definition of Tartarus, with my skills taking over stable 111.1 should be a breeze.”
Deva’s celebration stopped as she did a double take at the stable number. In silver paint It said 111.1. Although she was unsure the last digit was a number, with It being curved with triangular shaped tips, almost like a crescent moon. The stable door also looked a lot smaller compared to her stable. The entrance was set up more like a load off area for shipping carriages, as opposed to a ramp designed for a rush ponies.
“Well this is new.” She approached the door controls and connected her pipbuck into It. But nothing happened besides Access denied being plastered over her screen. She shook her head and tsked at the screen, amused at the resistance.
”I didn't earn this mark for nothing.” She looked back to her mark of a skeleton key made of red digital code. Her horn ignited red and lifted the panel up, the decayed screws coming off easily and exposing the the wiring beneath.
"Alright boys get your asses over here, and blow this stubborn door off already!”
“Shit.” Squeaking In fear her horn glowed again plugging additional wires from her pipbuck and into the door controls, she immediately started to load several bits of code from her pipbuck. After a few seconds the door slowly pulled inward leaving only a crack of an entrance. Sweating vividly she ran and squeezed through small opening before It closed Itself automatically. With the light from the cave now gone she realized how dark the stable was, she clicked on her pipbuck light and used It to light her way to nearby terminal and hooked her pipbuck up to the terminal. After a few moments of hacking she had access to Its systems.
“Alright let’s see here, maintenance logs, worker memos, training and repairs, here we go lights.” The intelligent filly quickly activated the lights throughout the stable. However she noticed a slight difference between the lighting of her own stable and this one. While the lights In her stable were bright and decently resembled sunlight these ones were a bit dimmer with a more blue color, almost like moonlight.
“Let’s see anything In here I can use?” She said to herself as she returned her attention to the terminal. “Oh a map, that should help.”
She went to access the stable map but instead received notification that took up the entire screen. File Corrupted
“That’s just great.” She walked out the door heading into what should be the atrium, and only found a hallway. As she walked down the hall she looked at the numerous posters hanging from the walls, they depicted either war-time propaganda, or Princess Luna, or both. However despite the imagery of one princess she saw nothing with Princess Celestia on it. She just continued to walk In the low light feeling creeped out by the eyes of the night princess and the words ascribed on the walls.
Viva Noctis
Hail To The True Queen
Celestia Abandoned Us To Die But Luna Stayed With Us Through Tartarus!
May Luna Forever Siege
“Just what is this place?” The creeped out filly walked a bit faster, trying to avoid looking at the wall. Spotting an elevator she ran towards It smashing the down button with her hoof. "Thank goodness for elevators, please take me somewhere without these Luna wallpaper everywher- dear Celestia!”
She jumped back In fear at the sight of four skeletons packed into the elevator. All four of the, fully decomposed to bare bone. Their remains only covered In their black and silver stable uniforms and damaged pipbuck’s. She prevented her investigative mind from thinking too much over the suit color and instead choked back a gulp as she levitated off one of their pipbuck's and plugged a few wires from hers into It. "Well then, guess I have a map now....thanks.....rest in peace, I guess”
She gingerly stepped In the elevator trying to avoid touching the remains while glancing over the faded, pink, barely visible blood stains. “Whoa.” She looked at the floor selection and saw five buttons. ”Okay that's weird, probably just storage though...right?.”
Ignoring the faint sounds of explosions she bit her lip and looked at the map curiosity spreading through her mind like a cancer. She cursed both mentally and outload seeing the copy she downloaded was partially corrupted, only showing the next floor and the hallway. She sighed and looked for the Overmare office on her map, seeing It was on the second floor, she hit the elevator button for the second floor. The elevator lowered for a few moments before stopping. The elevator doors opened and the filly stepped out into another propaganda covered hallway. Thankfully the creepy hallway was short and lead into a large common room with three offices. she sped trot through the hallway and ignored the following eyes of the long dead princess. Slowing down to a normal trot, the filly walked into the common room and read the text atop their entrances, Head Surgery Room, Over Office, Head Laboratory. She walked toward the center door, it was far smaller than the others and had a door jammed halfway before it could have closed. Inside was a spacious office and In the middle sat a desk with a terminal and a triangular stand that read Overstallion.
“Interesting.” The filly out of either fear or mere habit began talking to herself aloud more and more often. “Most stables are are run by an Overmare but It's not impossible, doesn't make the place less weird though.”
She walked around to the back side of the desk, where she saw a safe built into the side of the desk and that the terminal was still intact. However another skeleton was propped up against the terminal. Wincing she used her magic to nudge the remains away.
“Sorry.” The skeleton fell over knocking a loose a holotape from Its uniform, along with several others laying haphazardly on the desk. Deva picked It up and looked at closely.
”Damn you curiosity.” she plugged the holotape labelled 1 It into her custom cherry red pipbuck before turning her attention to the monitor.
"Over Stallion Pipsqueak day 1 log 1" Deva listened intently to the voice with a heavy Trottingham accent. After giggling about his name she returned her attention to the monitor, breaking through Its security was taking a bit longer for her, to do the very above average security.
"I was told It be best to keep log so I'll do It, worked for Din-" The stallion stopped short, the faint sound of sniffing was heard before he continued. "Our plan was successful, ninety five percent of the selected ponies teleported in"
As soon as he said that filly broke through the security and found a control system for a teleporter room. But she frowned when It said the machine was inoperable.
"No one was harmed other than a few spilled lunches and fried manes, unfortunately not every soldier made It, the Institute ponies theorized the megaspell radiation interfered with the teleport beacons that we had snuck onto their person and for the other losses, It was obvious why with the empty and broken power armor teleporting in their place, but most unfortunately of all...." The filly stopped her typing as she heard the grown stallion choke on his words. "...The beacon we snuck onto Princess Luna malfunctioned we don't know why all we know is she didn't teleport over and....is most likely dead."
She just continued trying to find a full map despite the recording of faint choked back crying.
"But I won't let her down, she'd want me to fight on not the like her damn coward of a sister, that's why I didn't let the angry roars of a soldier named Crescent W. Blade rank Captain." The Stallion sighed before releasing a reluctant laugh. "Sorry log protocol requires his full fucking name and rank, anyway this stallion is 10 or so years my senior and a medal of honor receiver but he's a crazier than a Timber Wolf with rabies, if It were up to me I would have granted the wish he was screaming at me, to finish the fight for his country." The filly gasped at the map she saw, the stable was at least the size of a hoofball stadium with eight floors, and a bizarre hollow center. "But the higher ups deemed him genetically important just because he's damn vesper, plus the war hero stuff."
"A what?” Her shock turned to curiosity at the over stallion's words. she stopped the holotape and collected the others deciding to play It later on her pipbuck while on her quest. She also made a checklist on her pipbuck for said Quest.
Areas to scavenge/To-do list.
1.Surgery room for medical supplies
2.Power armor station for fusion cores
3.Armory for weapons and ammo
4.Generators [set to self-destruct]
“Always good to be organized.” She went to stuff the tapes In her suit but saw how dirty It was and grimaced.“Daddy would be so disappointed.”
She looked to the map and saw a locker room down the hall from the office. The last room of the floor.
Five minutes later[/hr]
The refreshed filly walked out of the locker room now wearing the same black and silver stable uniform as the skeletons. Along with new large saddlebags she luckily found. She cleaned her face of grime and filth after a quick wipe with a wet towel.
“Wish I had time for shower, goddesses I miss showers.” She grumbled to herself. Her mind flashed to Raiders blasting the stable door with Celestia knows what. She hoped her curiosity was worth more than a shower, walking toward the office and with practiced ease she magically pressed the play button on her pipbuck that she took off and left at the computer to download the map, her customizations and upgrades giving the thing enough memory space for the whole map.
"Wish his commanding officer would control him but now Commander Red K. Wind the 'Best gunmare In Equestria' was cursing both me and Crescent with that horrid sounding curb stone equish, she was also deemed important because of her hyper fertility or some other crud." She heard him sigh again as she jumped into his former chair. "But as much as I think there psychos and wish they weren't my problem, I can see why they are part of the children, I saw these scary battle hardened warrior's weep tears and pray for their friends and family when the bombs hit and when they heard about our Queens fate they insisted on paying respect and holding a funeral, I guess when you're already pretty bad the apocalypse can only bring out the good, I hope them and the others can follow through the plan from our Queen, and we’re all gonna need It even if It's without her we'll carry on her will for Equestria and the pony race, we are the children and we will survive Viva Noctus.".
“Who were these weirdos?” The filly slipped the still plugged In pipbuck back onto her leg. She smiled as it gave a notification for fully downloading the stable map, out of curiosity she looked at the other functions on the terminal. The terminal had access to a lot of functions of the stable from residence, to maintenance reports, and control over the security systems.
“Oh that could be useful.” She said as she accessed the security systems and started to bring them online. Unfortunately they had been shut down for so long they needed time to fully come online so now forced to wait, again, she started looking through the list of residence. Looking through the list one name caught her eye, Crescent W. Blade the stallion that Pipsqueak spoke of In his holotape.
“Damn It, one day this curiosity is going to get me killed.” she said to herself as she opened up the information on Crescent.
Name: Crescent Wilson Blade
Age: 40
Race: Vesper unicorn
Fertility: High
“I guess that was all that mattered to them.” She scrolled down and saw another familiar name.
Name: Red Kock Wind
Age: 38
Race: Unicorn
Fertility: Very high
S.T note: able to breed vespers match accordingly
O.S note: fucking horrible ear grating excuse for a trottingham accent!
After an annoyed sigh she hopped off the chair and headed toward the elevator. She plugged In the second holotape as she stepped in, hoping to sate her distracting curiosity with it.
"Over Stallion Pipsqueak log two, I don't like this but It's for the best, I just gotta keep telling myself that, they want us to pair up the stallions and mares without spouses to keep population up especially for that crazy horned thestral, they even want me to pop a kid out eventually, I'll do It but I'm not gonna follow their psychoanalysis shit I'm just gonna pick one of the mares and put a baby In her, I'm not gonna force love like they are, the soldiers I talked about last time have been paired up and we have already received twelve noise complaints, It's only been two damn hours!” The filly fidgeted at his shout before continuing onto the medical lab. The last room of the floor with a door adorned with a red cross eclipsed in a blue moon.
”Even if they are children they're still stable tech, the sick bastards seriously want those two psychotic warrior's to have a foal and sharing a small space together, if this doesn't end in a double homicide I’ll consider it a miracle from faust herself." she sighed in frustration as the door malfunctioned and stopped barely leaving a gap only big enough for a mouse to squeeze into. With a grunt as she managed to get the door open enough with her magic to slip through.
Well unfortunately that’s not up to me, but when someone files a noise complaint and we go down to find blood everywhere, someone is getting my hoof across their face, but I suppose In the end It doesn’t really matter we’ll just have to wait and see how things play out, I just pray to Luna that whatever is planned for us actually work out, this is Over Stallion Pipsqueak, we are the children and we will survive, Viva noctus."
The tape clicked indicating Its end. she popped It out as she walked into the medical bay and started gathering some supplies. She found some bandages, painkillers, antibiotics, health potions everything she would need to make sure she wouldn't bleed to death or die from an infection. She looked around and saw an x-ray on the table, It was a unicorn foal skeleton with three strange small protrusions growing out from from Its spine and It wasn't the only one, many more laid under It, each one a scan of a foal with growths on their spines.
“What Is this place?” The filly gagged and walked away from the scans. Deciding she had all she needed from here and that she didn't need to look at those anymore she decided to move on to her next stop, the power armor station, and the armory. She pulled up her map to get her bearings before deciding to listen to Pipsqueaks next holotape.
"I don’t believe It, surprisingly enough Captain Blade and Commander Wind haven't killed each other yet, considering how much they disliked each other before they were shoved into a room together I can say I didn’t see this coming, to be completely honest seeing them and everypony else act so calm and kinda makes the whole end of the world not so bad, who knows, regardless I still want my kid to see the world outside, speaking of which I made a deal with one of the stable tech mare’s, she understood....my issues she was a friend of one of Dinky's students...she knew It was just quota filling, just wish It didn't feel like pity quota filling, says she'd be okay if I name the baby. He sighed ”It's gonna suck when I have to explain the plan for those babies, I know the staple tech ponies are excited, especially Liberty, the mare who's been pitying me all day today." The filly started to feel uncomfortable about this stable.
”Maybe I should have washed this uniform first.” She tried her best to stop the lewd thoughts as she quickly trotted into the elevator and pressed the third floor button.
"But that's for the future when the next generation is underway, on much less awkward and weird news."
“Oh thank Celestia.”
"Construction has begun, Liberty is leading those robots who stole my accent, as the plan said the frame Itself would take at least a century to complete Its why we have the cryo-pod-" The filly paused the tape and with wide eyes she searched around the map on the pip-buck.
“Wow there is one!” She saw It was on the 4th floor labeled “Nyx training and recreational”.
”That means there might be somepony alive.” She banged her head against the wall frustrated. ” It's on the other side of this elevator shaft, It will take so long, everything important is on floor three if I waste time the raiders might leave the blast zone!”
She couldn’t hear the explosions any more, for all she knew they had gotten bored and left, there's now way they could break the door down with RPG’s and a raider’s stupidity can only go so far. She pulled her face from the wall she needed answers to make a decision, for all she knew the cryo was empty. She pressed play wishing the door would open already.
”-But the cockpit a year, the armor five years at most, they've already completed the little training simulator things and I have to admit they're cute, anyway Liberty- She groaned and took out the holotape, deciding to skip ahead she plugged one In labeled 5 as the door opened.
“Holy shit!” the partially melted remains of black and purple power armor was right at the foot of the door. It made the filly jump back In fear before she blushed embarrassed. “Fuck this weird Stable.”
She grumbled and walked pass the melted slag of armor, stepping into a large circular room with a pillar In the center. It was a large open space with tall ceilings littered with low lighting. She looked around no one had to be a detective to guess what happened with the scattered skeletons and tattered power armor remains, a view were still intact, still hooked up to service stations. The power armor looked weird to say the least, all of them were missing the trademark fin with a more roundish helmet, some of which with sharp horn sheaths. All of the armors were painted black with purple or blue accents. She took note of the modifications she had never seen on any other armor, like a single visor across the helmet with an extended rectangular gas filter below It. All of them had the same set of mismatching shoulders, the left being a rectangular shield, the right being a rounded shoulder pad with three small but sharp spikes sticking out.
“Even the power armor is freaky .” She started to levitate spark cores from the still intact power armor, one by one she levitated them out of the armors back and stuffed them into her new saddle bags. She trotted at brisk pace collecting cores and pressing play for the holotape.
"Over Stallion Pipsqueak log five, for the sake of cataloging I'm transferring the recording of today's meeting to my logs." a small dial tone sounded before Pipsqueaks voice cut back in. "Hello everypony I'm glad you all came we have some news-"
"Get on wif It, I need to nap for two na!" A rough cockney accented shouted. It made the grave robbing filly jump and raise a brow at the weird pronunciation.
”Is that even Equish?”
"Please Red Wind this will involve the future of your, and every ponies foal's." Silence came from the recording as the filly came across several surgery tables, each oce with restraints and empty barrels besides them.
"Go on you bra', I'll listen." The course mare said reluctantly.
"I am going to reveal the real intentions of this stable."
"Oh please, when did you star' givin a shi abou' us Pipsqueak?”
"Funny, with you I don’t know if you're just saying my name, or just insulting me.”
"No' my fault your name Is an insul' run', wha' I wanna to know is wha' in tartarus you wan' with the foals anyway, what' is so damned important 'ha' you shoves us together In small rooms, with the sole in'ention of 'avin foals fucked out of us?" Surprised at the sudden shout the filly bumped into one of the barrels.
”Look I know you’re looking for answers but I can’t relinquish that information to you yet.” Suddenly the sounds of movement and what sounded like someone getting punched was heard causing Deva to jump again.
"You expec' me to take 'hat you little shit, If I’m going to 'ave a foal in 'his fucking zoo because ov you fuckers, I want to knah what the fuck you want him faw!"
"Somepony restrain her now!" Pip called out as the filly heard more struggling and yelling from Red wind.
"I got her, just calm down Windy, I wanna hear these plans." A deeply smooth voice, with the tiniest bit of gravel spoke to Red Wind in a calming tone. The voice of a veteran soldier the filly had to bet.
”Thank you Captain, now that she’s calm please all of you just listen, I'm not even sure how on-board with this I am myself." A brief moment of hoofsteps followed along with the sound of a door closing was captured before Pip started talking again. "I know Mrs. Wind may be one of the more violent ones, but I know for sure she isn’t the only one who wants answers, If I don't say something soon we'll just fight amongst ourselves from mistrust, but despite that we have to keep moving forward, we’ve come too far to let It all fall apart now, we are here to ensure the future of equestria through one of your foals and the countless generations coming from us, all with the help of this."
The filly gasped along with the recorded ponies, she had pulled back a curtain and saw a wall covered In x-rays, illustrations and photographs of a young foals. Some barely a year old, their spines showing from their backs being sliced opened, a needle puncturing small metal tubes into It, and pictures taken later on with the skin healed and reformed around the tubes. The filly gagged and resisted the urge to vomit at the sight of the foal mutilation.
"The Psycho-stem a new technology developed for us In secret by our fellow children In stable tech and the Stalliongrad Institute, these are special connection rods able to connect ourselves to any compatible machine, In fact we've already upgraded the power armors to have the system, along with other upgrades glad, too see the unicorns horns have grown back nicely. The filly had heard a view murmured thanks about healing jelly or something, she didn't catch It all as she dry heaved and walked past the photographed gore. She Inadvertently bumped into one of the barrels knocking It over. One of those small tubes, possibly the last of them fell out and rolled onto the floor, her face turned into a brighter green of shade at the sight of the thing.
"When future generations wear your improved armor they won't have chizzle their horns like that short sighted, and stubborn Applejack wanted, because unicorn, earth pony, pegasus, thestral or vesper we are all children of the night and that's all that matters, not our race." Pride filled his voice as the filly crawled away from the surgery area, one hoof hilled up to her mouth as she choked back her vomit.
"So does this system do what I think It does?" The voice of Crescent asked sounding excited.
"In very layman's terms, It will allow the nerve system to send signals to the machine as It would naturally to your body, for instance say with the power armor It would-"
"Increase the suit's and hydraulics reaction time immensely, same as the system me and Windy used." The warrior voiced stallion said getting excited. His comment was followed by an almost evil sounding laugh from Red wind that made the filly shiver.
"Yes Captain Blade but the psycho-stem increases armor control and performance roughly twice more then your system thanks to the data from you and countless others of the W.W.A, but..without the loss of...extremities." Pipsqueak sounded just as uncomfortable around these two as the filly did, with her skin crawling again as Red wind giggled excitedly.
"Well 'hen I'd say get'in my back opened is worth those advan'ages." The filly walked toward the elevator, ignoring the shivers brought by the cockney mare's voice and Pipsqueak’s gulp.
"But there's a requirement for the Psycho-stem and well, none of us can use It." Confused murmurs played over her pipbuck as the filly got In the elevator. She just wanted to get out of the mad stable setting the generators to blow, erasing both the stable and the raiders from the world and hopefully her memory. "The psycho-stem must be applied to a immature body so the rods can assimilate to the spine and assimilate to the nerve system."
"What are you saying?" a random mare asked.
"We must install the psycho-stem into a still growing child, specifically the first generation with....the newer...riskier prototypes." The recording erupted with shouts of anger. Until a new voice yelled back at them.
"Enough!" A mare's voice, Liberty the filly had to guess from Pipsqueak barely audible mumblings of embarrassment. ”We already have an earlier version ready for use with a lower fail rate.”
"Then why take the risks!" The mare from earlier shouted only to be scoffed at by Liberty.
"For several reasons, the older single stem system is only good for power armor and we need to save those for later generations and your foals will need the newer triple stem for this." Everypony gasped In shock from something unseen by the filly.
"What is that?"
"We've named It the Giant, Unrestricted, Nerve-link, Divine-servant, Avenger, Mega-spell module, but this one specifically is given the codename; Nyx." Liberty said boastfully.
"Why such long name for a machine model?" Pipsqueak asked with a groan.
"Shhh It was an agreed name, but the machine is too complex for a single stem, I know It's a big risk and I won't lie some of your foals might end up dead on that table, but I ask you for the Queen and future of the children we need this necessary risk." The recording remained silent until the booming laughter of a mad mare was heard.
"Your a damn fool Liber'y!" Red Wind laughed as the father of her child let out a low chuckle beside her. "What In tartarus makes you lot 'hink any'hing coming from loins would be weak enough to die on 'ha' table!"
The tape clicked and stopped playing.
“What kind of pony let's someone do that to their foal.” The filly gagged again until she decided to skip a view more tapes. One hopefully not about foal surgery.
"Over Stallion Pipsqueak log eight, It's been awhile, I was never good at keeping logs especially with all the work that's been going on but there is somepony willing to do It happily.”
"Hi, future Overmare and champion Lil Patriot log one!" The squeaking voice of a filly said excitedly.
"You sure you got this honey?"
"It's okay daddy, I'll handle all the cataloging, up, until I go into cryo that is." The elevator stopped at the third floor, she stepped out and walked toward the armory.
"I know kiddo, your mother and I are very proud of you, but are you sure you’re up for this, this is a pretty big responsibility."
"I’m sure daddy, I mean you and mommy are like the smartest ponies ever and I learned everything from you."
"Well then go ahead, take a crack at It." The filly could hear the subtle rustle of sheets of paper being moved before Patriot spoke again.
"The scientists have made many improvements to the psycho-stem since It was first announced, while some still fight the idea of implementing the stem into new born's many have embraced Its uses, many compatible children including myself have already begun training In the simulators, despite the rapid success of the newer models we have decided It would be best to wait to integrate them In mass quantities, seeing as how we don’t know how long It will be before each stable finishes their own machines, there is no point In using stems on foals that are going to die before the Nyx is finished, it is for that reason we are training pilots with the newer stems In smaller groups, If a viable pilot is found they are put into cryo until the Nyx is finished and they are needed." Despite her squeaky voice, Patriot's tone made it impossible to not take her seriously.
”I'd barely understood that, but good job.” The filly giggled at him.
"Good thing I got mommy’s book smarts."
“So there is somepony alive down there?.” Frustrated even further she stopped the tape and jump forward a couple more. She stepped back into the elevator deciding to skip the armory for the 4th floor.
Over Stallion Pipsqueak log twenty, Today was the final sim sparring match between the top pilot candidates, most finished quickly but there was an incident, Lil' Patriot was In a match against Muramasa when her sim malfunctioned...and exploded." The filly stopped walking and put her hoof over her mouth to silence her gasp.
"Luckily she wasn’t mortally wounded, however the explosion sent some shrapnel into her left eye and because of its loss she is not able body enough to be the champion pilot, she was devastated and angry at the what happened, she was convinced that Muramasa sabotaged the sim, but I know that isn’t true Muramasa may be a violent jackass, and strive to prove he’s the best at every minute of every day, but for all the bad things that colt is, being a cheater ain’t one of them.” He took a large gulp of something before continuing on ”Liberty examined the sim herself and It wasn’t tampered with at all, the spell core overheated from extended use and It exploded, I kept telling Patriot that but she refused to listen, she'll take over as Overmare but that also means Muramasa is the best pilot we have, she’s going to be real pissed when I tell her that, she’s hated Muramasa since they were kids."
The sound of a door opening and hoof stomps made Pipsqueak gulp.
"I can still pilot the machine." Lil Patriot sounded a bit older and a lot more unstable. "All I have to do is..,is fix my...my...myself."
"Patriot what are you saying?"
"Simple I'll build myself a new eye and get back whats rightfully mine!" Her giddy unhinged laugh following her horse scream made the filly’s heart fill with pity for the poor mare.
"Patriot you know technology like that takes forever to complete, you could just make your condition worse and Muramasa is being put In the pod as we spea-"
"THEN WHEN I FINISH MY EYE I'LL RIP HIM OUT MYSELF."
"Patriot what’s gotten into you, I know you’re upset but you’re not thinking this through, Muramasa didn’t do anything, your mother examined the sim herself, the battery overheated from overuse."
"You’re taking his side, You're my own father how could you do that!?"
"I'm not taking his side, Patriot you’ve convinced yourself of something that isn’t true, what happened to my sweet little girl?
"We're the one's In charge, you were Queen Luna’s first friend after her return, my mother designed the damn Nyx, IT'S MY BIRTHRIGHT TO PILOT IT!" Struggling was heard as Pipsqueak let out a heartbroken sighed.
"Restrain and sedate her, I'll talk to her once she's calm."
"No It's my birthright dammit, It's my fucking birthright, I'll fucking kill Muramasa for this!" The filly shut off the holotape. She just wanted to check the cryo lab and get out. She stepped out onto the floor as soon as the elevator door opened, she looked up to the even taller ceiling and walls lined with dimly glowing rooms. The filly just started to run not caring for the scenery even as It became littered with more skeletons and damaged power armor, some fused into the floor or smashed into a simulator pod.
“Gotta..get...to the...pod.” The filly gasped for air already out of stamina.
“Excuse me mum, are you In need of some assistance?” She jumped at sound of the slightly damaged Mister handy talking. Two of Its three legs loosely flopped around as It moved In front of her. “Which generation are you again mam, my memory isn't the best since Miss Patriots attack.”
She was too out of breath to give a damn about the mystery. She just smiled thankful that the thing wasn't blasting at her.
“Never mind that.” Her horn glowed red as she levitated herself atop the the robots head. “Take me to the cryo pod!”
“Is It finally time Miss...?” The robot asked excitedly.
“The name is Deva and we got hostiles trying to blast the door down!” Deva was beginning to form a new plan In her head.
“Zebra mongrels or Celestia's pets?!” Another Robot asked, A mister gutsy model as evident by Its beam arm attachment.
“Um... yeah!” She answered quickly. Theorizing that they weren't blasting her because of the uniform she wore.
“Should’ve known, code red!” both robots eyes flashed red briefly before a siren resounded through the building.
“Begin the deactivation of cryo pod, awake the champion!”
Author's notes:
Deva:
Level 14
Strength: 3
Perception: 5
Endurance: 4
Charisma: 11
Intelligence: 12
Agility: 3
Luck: 12