FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter Nine

Dear Princess Celestia, are we fucked?

"Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime."

~18 Years Earlier~

Hooves wrapped around me from behind and picked me up bodily, I squealed a little, wriggling in his grasp as his other hoof pressed to my head and rubbed vigorously. The friction made me struggle until I worked my way free and he let me drop back down, his laugh ringing in my ears. I huffed in annoyance.

"Still working on that?"

I looked up into amber eyes under a wide-brimmed hat. The lines of age had not yet quite graced his face, and he looked down at me with an easy and almost paternal smile.

"I almost got it." I replied, my tongue stuck out the side of my lips as I returned to concentrating on the task at hand. I threaded the two wires together and did the same to a second set and flicked them together, creating a spark.

"What are you doing?" He asked taking a seat beside me, the shadow of his form blocked my light, luckily, I'd already finished my delicate work, or I would have huffed in annoyance for a second time.

"I'm shorting out the Matrix."

"The Matrix?" He asked, looking over the old cracked PipBuck between my hooves. I'd opened the back of it with some old tools and a little leveraged effort, but I was still working on the inside wiring.

"The Matrix that holds it together." I pointed to the book nearby, 'Magical Matrices, Maladies and Mayonnaise'. "The Matrix of the PipBuck stops it from being broken, it absorbs damage. It's why they're so tough. It also helps to do all the information it has to sort out, but I don't need it. It's in the way." He was about to ask a question, but I silenced him with a raise of my hoof, "Just wait" I whispered, leaning forward with a grin. "Here."

I directed him to hold a stripped wire in place, while I pressed the other one against it. A difficult task while trying to hold the dismantled device in my other hoof. Together we pressed the wires to either side of the PipBuck's motherboard. Using a battery harvested from an old SkyBandit, an electrical current flashed through the motherboard resulting in a flash of light and a poof of smoke that steadily formed a tiny mushroom cloud before dispersing.

With a grin and a slight tug, the still warm motherboard pulled free of the remaining casing with little to no resistance. "I did it!"

"Wow... what did you do?" He asked in a voice that made me giggle.

"Look, look!" I encouraged. I was now able to wire up the recording deck to a second much smaller battery. I locked it into a casing, wired up the Earbloom, and squealed in triumph. I eagerly offered the earblooms to him.

He took the small blooms from me gingerly and placed them into his ear. I clicked in the first tape and pressed play - his eyes widened and he looked to me. "It... works?"

I nodded rapidly, "Now I can listen to Dad's tapes!"

Lucky Horseshoe looked down at me, the mention of my father souring his expression, though he tried his best to hide it.

It was the same expression he wore when he left two days later.

*

~18 Years Later~

There's an old saying from a famous playwright in Equestria's history that goes; 'An old friend never can be found, and nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost.'

I think about that sometimes.

The sun had passed its zenith hours before and the slow shade of light above told of an impending darkness the following night. Though, all the Wasteland saw below the clouds was the slowly darkening grey skies overhead that had forever greeted them like the ceiling of a prison.

This far from the centre of Equestria the cloud cover was a little thinner. The mountains in the distance showed signs at their peaks of slight hues of blue, the smallest hints of red... the lightest notes of clear skies.

I'd tried to see it on the way as we'd trotted, sand and dirt kicking up around our hooves. I'd looked through rifle scopes, hoping to see the smallest glimmer of that blue sky, the lightest motes of actual sun. But we were still too far for such a pleasure.

I didn't see the sky right now, but the sun it seemed had come to me instead. In the white tower near the edge of Equestria, I saw something else, and I wasn't quite sure if it were something of pleasure... or mockery.

"Hello?"

That voice and that singular word felt like a stone. No one spoke. No one knew what to say or what to do. We looked up and our minds seemed to have frozen in the moment. The voice was a little off, of course, a little mechanised in its tone, as though coming through poor quality speakers. But it sounded... close enough.

I decided in that moment, that _You_weren't real.

*

"I thought you'd be taller." I remarked with a touch of snark. The look on my companions faces and the gasp from Sonnet made my eyes roll. "She's obviously not real." Though I had to admit... it was very convincing.

I heard the echo of Your voice in my mind. That singular word 'hello' bouncing around in my noggin like a painful pinball. That voice. I remember the first time I'd heard that voice. I was very young at the time, and I'd rifled through my father's things after picking the lock of a drawer he'd always kept private. The drawer had contained a few bits, some Naughty Mare magazines, the educational holotapes from his Stable and the PipBuck that he'd kept as a keepsake. The screen was cracked, the surface was dinged and its strap had been snapped as though something had pulled it from his arm by force.

I'd constantly wonder if that was why... I gulped at the memory. I didn't remember much about my father. I remember a crème coat, a flash of red mane and three legs. I felt the tingle and burn of my own disembodied hoof at that memory.

I'd taken the contents of the drawer back then. All of it. The PipBuck, the magazines, and the tapes. And one other thing. Buried in the back of the drawer and tucked into a small velvet box was a white orb.

A memory orb.

I don't remember how many times I'd watched it after that. Fifteen? Twenty? I'd become addicted. I'd had to use the old Recollector my parents kept around. I wasn't sure which one it really belonged to, but Mum and Dad clearly had no use for it by that point in my life. I remember the nights of laying down, the heavy metal crown gripping my head, the orb fitted into its socket as I let the experience it showed me lull me to sleep. The orb had whisked me into someone else's memory, had allowed me to feel their feelings, and see their sights - the world before it had ended. The colours had been so vibrant that I felt almost drunk on it. How could I not? There was nothing quite like seeing a Goddess with your own two eyes.

That's how I knew you weren't real. You couldn't be. I'd been in the presence of a Goddess before. This wasn't You.

My eyes drifted up to find Your... _HER_eyes staring down at me. Her shimmering mane of greens, blues and pinks looked washed with the light green tinge of the screens glare. She sat, only the top half of Her body was visible. The tinge of green marred Her beautiful alabaster coat and dyed Her long horn from white to lime. Her head adorned with the regality of a crown, with eyes the most brilliant violet that not even the screens lime glare dared to diminish.

Princess Celestia.

"What are you?" Lucky asked, stepping forward. He seemed entranced, I could only roll my eyes.

The large computer's screen displayed Her features in decent definition, but every once in a while, the connection seemed to fizzle and burst with static - a bad signal perhaps.

Before the mare on the screen could reply, I replied for Her. "She's a computer. Made in the image of the Goddess. I personally find it in very bad taste."

"And I find you in bad taste." The goddess on the screen snapped in offense.

I turned to look at the projection to find Her giving me an uncouth glare. Though there seemed a light blush to Her cheeks. "She talks," I commented curiously. "And what else can you do?"

I eyed the mare, I'd seen a small mote of personality and defiance in Her. But after my reply, She'd suddenly become meek and looked away as though She were unsure of herself. The simulation looked back at us. The Celestia computer, whatever She was, seemed conflicted about something. Nervous. But machines don't become nervous - at least not stereotypically.

"I..." She seemed lost for words. It was as though she had no idea what to say and no idea how to say it.

"Why would someone create a computer program like you? Security?" I asked curiously. "And why could you only be accessed by coordinates to Canterlot's Stable-Tec headquarters?" Only the soft hum of the monitors seemed to respond. "Are you going to answer my questions or not?" I barked.

"I am out of practice." She snapped back loudly in what seemed a computerised version of the Canterlot Voice, making my eyes widen and my hooves to take an instinctual step back. That voice... that reverberating boom of power in the voice that I saw in the Orb...

I pushed the thoughts out of my head and looked back up at the mare. One of Her digital hooves rubbed the side of Her head in a manner similar to how a pony might act when stressed. "It has been so long since I have spoken to anypony."

"Did you forget your subroutines?" I asked in a dry mock, earning me an annoyed glare from the digital princess. This program was very well designed.

The mare's head cocked for a moment and she seemed to be reading something. "The Canterlot Stable-Tec hub." She said quickly. "The system says it's a piggyback uplink?" A nearby screen flashed to life and I approached it.

"Neighvarro?" I read curiously.

Aero piped up, "It's a Military base in the Enclave. Back up in the clouds." He stated gesturing upwards with a tilt of the head before letting out a loud sigh, "Now I don't mean to break up this curious little quandary of a situation, what with the whole 'Goddess on a screen' program kinda thing, but we're here for a reason."

I turned away from the data on the screen. I could hack with the best of them, and probably put together a computer or two, but networking systems was not my forte. It was gibberish to me.

"Fine, look around as much as you need," I said with a roll of my eyes. "And after this, you help us."

Aero could only smirk. "This ain't the last place my dad was when he was down here, Tome. That's the whole deal here, ain't that why we're here at all?"

I turned on him, "You think I give a shit? On our quest to help you, we've saved your ass, lost people we care about and generally been fucked about!" I poked his armoured chest. Most ponies would step back as I got closer, but he stubbornly held his ground. It might have been impressive, except his young features broke his attempts at bravado and only made me want to punch him. "So, here's what's gonna happen. After this, you're gonna help us get in and out of Canterlot without our flesh melting off, and when that nice Stable that saved your life has their Power Talisman, YOU!" I pushed his chest harder, forcing him to step back this time. "You are going to help that filly get her MOTHER BACK!" I yelled with a glare, my hoof pointing to Sonnet who seemed uncomfortable at being included. My face was right next to the winged bastard's, my eyes boring into his own before I took a step back and ran a calming hoof through my fringe. "Is that understood, Aero?"

His eyes narrowed at me. He seemed ready to impulsively do something stupid, his eyes flickered for the smallest fraction of a second, as though to try and see something behind him while not looking away from me. I knew he was checking on Stranger. Probably judging how fast he could drop me and escape... before Stranger dropped him.

"Why do you travel together?" The all but forgotten image of the Alicorn goddess spoke, breaking us from the moment. We all turned to Her silently, none of us breaking the silence to provide Her with an answer. The poor mare looked distressed. "I have not spoken to anypony in almost two hundred years, but my memory is strong in what friendship and care are supposed to look like."

I looked from this digital Princess to my companions. Sonnet looked to me, wondering what I might say. Lucky seemed stoic and quieter than usual, but I didn't fault him for it. Stranger looked at me, expectantly, judgingly.

The sound of a gunshot echoed through my consciousness. The memory of a gun, shaking in my jaw. The stain of tears on my cheeks. I think I'm gonna take option 'B'... the memory was like knives.

"Sorry CPU Celestia," I said, my voice flat. "You make the mistake of thinking we're friends." I saw my words cause a flash of pain in Lucky's eyes.

"Then why are you together?"

Her question actually brought a small cynical smile to my lips, "Unfortunate convenience." I walked out of the room, and back into the foyer.

*

My hoof stung.

I looked down at my leg. My right hoof moved to unhook the latches of my prosthetic, once removed, I looked over the scarred stump. It was red from the pressure of walking and the constraints of the prosthetic straps. Ignoring the sting of the touch, I began to massage the area gently to try and ease the ache.

What was I doing here? Moving from place to place on half-baked ideas and a warped sense of duty for a filly I had no reason to help. I felt the boiling inside me that had rose from the argument slowly quell within me, and for the first time in a while I felt I should probably slink back and apologise to them. They didn't deserve the way I'd snapped. Ugh... I hate apologising.

I heard hooves padding up behind me, the echo they made in the other room showed some interesting acoustics that became rapidly dulled as they passed into this small foyer.

"'Unfortunate convenience'?" Lucky's words were firmer than I'd heard them in a long while. I turned to him and my eyes ran over his form curiously. Something was different in the way he stood. Like it was a little straighter than usual.

I didn't see his hoof before it hit me.

The bastard still had some strength in him. I went from eye contact to suddenly facing the right-hand wall, my neck clicking painfully in the process. The world tipped and swayed and with a clench of my gut I forced myself to stay firm rather than fall over. The coppery taste of blood began filling my mouth and the pain on the inside of my cheek said something had split open on impact.

I looked up to the wizened old git. Ten years my senior, his fetlocks were a shaggy ruffled mess, his mane was overly long and over the years the colour had lost its lustre. But his eyes... they almost looked young again. The stallion who not yesterday had lost someone he'd fallen in love with, stood before me looking more whole than I'd seen him since Stable 2B.

"You get that out of your system?" I asked sarcastically, tapping my hoof to my lip. I already knew I was bleeding from the taste, but I always felt a masochistic need to see the blood.

I didn't expect the second hit. This one was stronger than the last and sent me into the reception counter of the foyer sending tattered boxes clattering to the floor. I was left winded and pulling myself up, I spat blood out onto the desks surface where it pooled on the counter before I slowly turned and looked him in the eyes.

"You only get the one," I said through grit teeth, my blood starting to hum from the adrenaline, "the second one you pay for."

"You deserve it!" He snapped, panting in his anger as though he'd ran a marathon, his body trembling with each breath. To collect himself he closed his eyes and began to take deep, long breaths. The shakes calmed and he visibly relaxed before looking to me again. He seemed to almost deflate as he sat down on the spot. "I abandoned you."

I hadn't expected those words. They brought my eyes directly to his and for a moment something almost snapped inside of me. The calm I'd attained quickly being shattered by words that were far worse than any physical blow he could deliver. It was everything I could do to stop myself from returning the favour and punching him back the moment after he'd spoken.

"Watch it." I warned. Every time this was brought up, my right hoof seemed to twitch, and something inside me needed to hear him scream.

"I abandoned you." His words sent a flash through me. The twitch worsened with each syllable, a phantom pain started to burn. "You were a colt," he continued. "And I-"

The prosthetic I still held in my good hoof swung and arced through the air, striking across his face. The metal bore into his cheek, and with my bad leg I followed up with an uppercut. My left struck his chin as hard as it could. The phantom pain in the amputated limb became reality - which only fuelling my anger.

Lucky was just pulling himself up as I dived at him. He reacted faster than I'd have expected for an old guy like him, his hooves finding my stomach, driving hard enough to launch me back into the reception desk. The breath was forced out of my lungs so hard that for a moment I barely felt the impact against the surface, time seemed to stop before I took my next regrettable breath - immediately pain lanced through my spine.

"I get it." He said, panting and wiping his mouth. "What I did. I get it. But we need to sort this, Tome. We can't keep going in circles. What about Sonnet?"

I shot him a glare. "She has nothing to do with anything!" I growled, my stomach finally ceasing the summersaults it'd been indulging in since his blow.

"She has everything to do with everything. I abandoned you-" I felt something clicking inside me, almost like something was cracking. I could practically hear it. My breath was becoming laboured and his words began to blur together. "-You feel like everypony leaves. So, you make sure she can't. But things need to change. Me and you need to sort this out and you need to start by finally taking that bomb off her neck!"

"This isn't about her!" I snapped, I was trying so hard to bring myself down to a calm state. I had to think. The best way to build a makeshift bridge was to use two or three sufficiently large logs of equal diameter- I began moving away from him, needing to just get away.

"What are you so afraid of?" His words halted my brain and my steps. I was three metres from him when he spoke his next words. "You are not your father!"

Snap.

Before I knew it, my revolver was unholstered. I turned and fired. The roar of the shot boomed about the room, the round thudding into the stone wall beside his head, throwing dust up into the air. I charged into the dust, pulling the trigger as I ran. A second round parted the left side of his mane, a thin slither of blood running down his cheek from the lightest scratch. I fired again, this third bullet passed under his chin and through the leather of his collar and out the back - but never once touched flesh. Now I was right up close, point blank. I placed the barrel of the revolver against his head and bit down hard on the trigger. Click. The gun jammed. It wasn't going to fire. I pulled the trigger again. Click. Same result. I pulled the trigger as many times as I could. Click. Click.Click. The rounds went around and around in the chamber, none of them firing. I bit harder on the trigger, as though it might help forcing them to fire even as the universe decreed they wouldn't.

One of them made a pinging sound before something exploded, the cylinder blew apart. The gun shattered in my jaw, cutting my lips to pieces and a solid chunk of shrapnel hurtled into my shoulder, burying itself deep in flesh. I buckled with a cry as pain lanced through my shoulder. I lowered down to my forehooves.

Lucky just watched as I slowly backed off and slumped against the counter. "Are we done?" He asked, his face wearing an almost pitying expression.

I glanced to him and Sonnet's face flashed in my mind. I hated Lucky so much, but I felt like he had a point. Which only made me hate him more. "I'm not a babysitter." I said through grit teeth, my hoof trying to stifle the blood from my shoulder as it soaked the inside of my coat. "I don't even know what I'm doing. I just did this shit because Stranger made me."

"I don't think that's true."

"What am I supposed to do with her? Raise her?" I demanded, rounding on him, ignoring another stab of pain.

"Maybe. I don't know." Lucky sighed gently before sitting down and dapped slightly at his cheek wounds, grimacing a little with each touch.

"You never do, do you?" I asked with my brow furrowing. "You don't now, and you didn't back then. It's like you don't even try to understand."

"Tome-" He began.

"YOU ABANDONED ME!" I spat bloodily at him.

"I never meant to." He actually seemed contrite. Too fucking bad!

"Bullshit!" I snapped at him, forcing myself to step up close to him. I swallowed and forced a calmness into my voice, barely containing the rage that swelled within me. It was as though a dam had broken and it was all I could do to stop the surge. "I was a colt." I told him, just in case he'd forgotten. "You told me you'd be there, and you weren't. You left."

"I couldn't stay, I wasn't good for you."

"As if that's a good enough excuse. You could have found somepony else ya know? You could have found somepony to take me in, you could have found a way for me to be safe, but you didn't. You just left."

He turned away from me. "I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, you turned out well." He gave me a sad smile. "You were better off without me."

'It's a kinder life than what she'd have with me'. My own words to Stranger when I'd first met the filly slipped through my mind like an echo of his own. I turned away from him, holding onto the counter for stability as everything inside me seemed to be unravelling. My hoof inching over and settling near the desk lamp.

Lucky stepped closer behind me. "Now let's-"

The lamp broke on impact with his face. The dusty bulb shattered as if in slow motion. Lucky crumpled to the floor and this time he was too dazed to launch me off again. I was on him, hoof and stump raining down as hard and viciously as I could. I heard his words again in my head. 'You are not your father'. What the fuck did he know!?

Adrenaline fuelled each hit, numbing me to the blinding pain that flashed through my stump as I struck him again and again. My shoulder tore and yet more blood drenched my front from the wound. The adrenaline however, wasn't quite enough to blind me to the new pain as his leg crashed up between my legs. My body seized up instantly and my eyes crossed as I felt like my stomach was trying to crawl up my throat.

His hoof connected with my face, dazing me as he rolled me over. Once on top, he struck again. Once, twice, three times before my hooves reached up, wrapped around one of his forelegs and twisted harshly. I bore down in the twist and he was launched forward, shifting enough to the side to let his head hit the ground next to mine. I pushed him back up, his face taking on an almost glazed expression before my back hooves coiled back and launched hard into his chest.

Lucky hit the far wall with a dead thud.

Panting on my back with the deafening thuds of my heartbeat in my ears. I could taste bile as my stomach still coiled and flipped with the desire to expel that morning's breakfast, and my stump was in enough pain to bring tears to my eyes. Strangely, of all things I was barely feeling the shoulder wound.

It felt like years passed as I lay there collecting myself. The ocean of rage inside me slowly quelled its maelstrom of hate until I wasn't sure any of it was still burning, I just felt cold inside. Though... I did wonder if that was just the blood loss.

Slowly but surely, I managed to pull myself to my hooves. I looked over to Lucky - a pile of limbs on the floor. I made as if to check on him, stepping forward onto my left hoof only to recoil at the pain. Looking down at the scarred stump I saw that the skin had split and blood dripped down the limb and to the floor. I sighed and shuffled over to my saddlebags in the corner. Pulling out a medium health potion I took a swig and watched the bleeding stop and the redness slowly quell, I also felt my shoulder and various other places start to heal. My groin still hurt like a bitch though.

I looked down at the healing potion and then back to Lucky and rolled my eyes. I shuffled a little over and picked up my prosthetic where it had fallen. Latching it back onto the stump with a grunt, I limped over to the stallion, doing my best to keep weight off my left leg while it was still sore.

I rolled the older stallion over and grimaced at the sight. I'd tore open his cheek and his muzzle looked to be either broken or fractured. He also had two hoof marks in his chest, already starting to swell and deepen in colour. I'd likely broken a rib or two. I picked up the potion, took one last swig before I shoved the bottle into Lucky's mouth and forced him to swallow its contents.

He coughed and sputtered, sitting up quickly with a grunt. His hooves went to his chest where he was still bruised, his breathing coming in laboured pants.

"Oh fuck..." He coughing harshly. When the coughing fit stopped he tried to stand only to stumble a little. He clutched his stomach, seemed uncertain for a moment before he gagged and threw up on the spot. Once his stomach had expelled all its contents over the floor, he wiped his mouth and turned to face me. "Please tell me we're done?" He asked weakly.

I thought about it for a moment, the silence hanging in the air. I shifted my stance, using all of my weight as my left hoof swung round and connected with his jaw.

The prosthetic bit hard into my stump as the elder pony slumped to the ground. I seethed and grit my teeth as the skin once again split open under the painful blow.

"Yeah," I grumbled. "We're done."

I moved over to the counter and rested my back against it as I slumped to the floor. I took a moment to breathe before looking down and carefully unlatched the prosthetic. It rattled as it hit the ground.

Lucky took his time before slowly pulling himself to his hooves. He swigged the last of the healing potion and looked over to me. He seemed to debate something silently before he hobbled over, one hoof clutching his barrel as though his ribs still pained him, and he sat against the counter beside me.

Together we surveyed the wrecked room.

Feeling we needed something for the moment, I reached over, grunting as I pulled my saddlebag closer and rooted inside it. Upon finding what I was looking for, I pulled out a bottle and presented it. Hard Whiskey. I bit into the top, pulled off the cap and spat it across the room before taking a burning gulp. The heat had me coughing for a moment before I offered the older stallion some.

Lucky glanced from me to the bottle before accepting it gratefully. He took a larger gulp than I had and handled it better than me. He swallowed it and seemed to almost nicker in appreciation.

We sat in silence passing the whiskey back and forth until we'd cleared almost half the bottle. The burn of the alcohol had quickly begun to kill the pain. I found my eyes running over the walls contents out of casual curiosity, the nearest wall was coated in papers and diagrams, things of note that had once been important but the years had worn away their context and understanding. I saw information on frequencies, and notes about changes that needed to be made, and even a strange diagram of a room much like this one but one filled with colourful designs over the walls and ceilings.

Lucky was looking at the wall too, a small smile playing on his cheeks. "She could sing, right?"

I couldn't help but chuckle, the smile that stretched made me wince a little as pain flashed through my cheek. I tasted a little copper. "Yeah, she could sing." I agreed, knowing who he was talking about. "Not as good as Sonnet but so much better than you."

"And you." He countered as we sat there together. The moment felt like a breath. It stretched from seconds, into a minute, and for a little while it seemed pregnant with things that needed to be said. But eventually that quelled into a comfortable silence that lasted longer than I expected but was probably shorter than I thought.

"She died for me." He said finally. "Lilly died for me."

I heard it in my head again. 'I think I'm gonna take option 'B''. The silence that followed this time was less pregnant and more expectant. I felt like I needed to say something, but for the first time in a long while I was lost for words.

"You've been an ass, you know that right?" His words were unexpected and I couldn't help but breathe out a chuckle.

I considered his words and shrugged with a light smile. "Yeah... I think I have been."

"And you know things do have to change, right?" He continued, "But you seem so terrified to do what you need to do."

My eyes stayed fixed on the wall but a small smile played on my lips again, "Yeah, it's almost like after everything that happened in the past, I have abandonment issues or something." I slowly turned my head to him and raised my brow with a dry smirk.

He held my gaze for a moment before looking back to the wall, "Yeah, I guess I deserve that." He sighed and then turned to me again with a concerned expression. "You know why I did it, right?" He almost seemed to be pleading with me to understand.

I rolled my eyes, "of course."

"Then why-?"

"You don't get it." I breathed at him. My eyes found his and he seemed shocked to see sadness in my expression. "I know why you left. I get it and you made the right choice. But it doesn't matter that it was the right choice."

He shook his head, looking confused, "How can that not matter?"

"Because I was a child." I insisted. "A foal. I had no one. Dad had left, Mum was..." I swallowed before finishing and looked away. "You were there. You found me and helped me, and you were there for three years and then you weren't." I watched him gulp a hard swallow at my words. "Do you even know what I had to do to survive?"

Lucky nodded, his face a mask of guilt and shame. "I know."

"Do you?" I challenged. "Do you know how much a stallion pays for an adolescent? You'd be surprised. Made a lot of bits, plenty of repeat customers. Do you know how much a cheap second-hand revolver costs that's likely to jam but you buy it anyway in case one of them likes you so much you have to use it to stop yourself being taken away by them?"

He shook his head, not wanting to listen, "Please-"

"Do you know?!" I looked at his expression, my eyes boring into his until he looked away, unable to hold my gaze. I used that moment to wipe my eyes, passing it off as taking my glasses from the bridge of my nose and giving the lenses a clean. "I told you; you didn't know then, and you don't know now." Once I'd slipped my glasses back on and the world came into focus again, I leaned my head back and sighed softly. "Your curse. I get it." He turned back to me. I nodded to him, "I get it," I continued, a little more softly this time. "You probably saved my life by leaving. You were right and have every right to feel proud of that decision." I held his gaze for a moment, "But I have every right to hate you for it.

I saw his eyes shimmer and he turned away, wiping them openly, showing less compunction for hiding his vulnerability than I did. "And do you?" He asked, his voice croaky with emotion. "Hate me?"

I hadn't expected the question, and I thought about it for the moment. I looked him up and down and just sighed to myself.

"No."

He seemed relieved and leaned his head back, resting it against the counter. The silence was comforting and despite the pain, the heavy conversation, and everything that had happened... I found myself almost enjoying the moment with Lucky. It'd been a while since I'd had something like this. A fleeting moment of serenity. Like a weight inside me had finally stopped crushing me. I suppose it'd just been a while since I felt at peace.

I took another burning swig of whiskey and offered the bottle to him. He took it and without another word, tipped the bottle back and began gulping the contents. I watched with a mixture of surprise and annoyance as he managed to down the rest of the bottle, emptying it in four gulps.

"So." He began, dropping the bottle to the side with a clatter. "Stranger. What's the story with you and him, you haven't told me yet?"

The surprising switch of topic had me chuckling. "Oh yeah. He's a real piece of work." I smirked. He eyed me expectantly when I didn't say anything else. I rolled my eyes and relented. "Okay, after everything, I tried to find... a better job. I started working as a scavenger a bit, did pretty well too."

"Lock Picking?"

"So useful." I nodded in gratitude. "You'd be surprised how rare a skill it is."

"5.5 slot head screwdriver?"

I scoffed at him, "Of course, what do you think I am, a savage?"

"I taught you well." Lucky nodded slowly.

"That you did." I nodded with him. Almost losing my train of thought over the statement. "Oh, yeah. Well, I picked up hacking from this one guy that was working there with me, and he recommended a job to me. Pretty big one too. I'd done scavenging for like... two years by this point?" I said uncertainly. "Maybe three." I mused before shaking my head. "Anyway, I'd been doing it a while, and he shoved me on the tail of this camp. They were slavers but they had some good stuff. Now, I'd never taken from people before, I mean, not like this anyway. I started scoping them out because I thought that'd be smart, but my-" I raised my stump and gave him a look. "It did its thing. Knocked a rock down the side, gave away my position." He grimaced and I chuckled a little. "They probably would have killed me but they saw the old tentacle." I paused and looked musingly over my scarred stump, waving it a little, I was feeling quite drunk by this point. "They saw what it was." I continued. "They thought it was funny. Locked me all up, manacled the damn thing and paraded me around for... three weeks. They-" I stopped there, my mood beginning to sour at the memory.

Lucky must have seen my expression because his hoof rested on my thigh. "You don't have to continue, Tome. I can guess what they did."

I nodded in appreciation and took a hard swallow. "Stranger rescued me... kinda. He went around killing the slavers, and I took up the nearest sharp thing I could find and did 'this' to myself." I raised my stump again. "Almost died from blood loss, Stranger dragged me out and stuck with me ever since. Goddess knows why, he judges me more than anyone. But he's good with a rifle, better shot than me, and he doesn't need to eat so I get all the food for myself. Kinda the ideal traveling companion."

"If you hate him judging you so much, why do you keep him around?"

I grinned a little, "Because when I get pissed at him, he doesn't argue back. I can just vent. Besides," I took a deep breath, "maybe I wanna be what he wants me to be."

Lucky's eyes widened. He turned away and we both took in a synchronised deep breath.

"Wow." He said softly.

"Yep." I replied gently.

"Yeah." He said, his eyes traveling from the wall up to the ceiling. "That's like... the deepest bullshit I ever heard."

The silence was broken by both our laughter.

*

'The most technologically efficient machine that ponykind has ever invented is the book'.

The quote ran through my head as I looked over the Crusader Mainframe. The side of the large grey dominating machine had a series of numbers under the initial title, 0.1.0. My eyes travelled from the side to the large screen, the light green that washed out many of the colours bathed the room in a sickly glow that was interrupted only by the dulled hues that glanced across the screen as Celestia moved. Or at least, the program calling itself Celestia.

She'd barely spoken. Looking at me as though I were alien or something She hadn't seen in a long time. Once in a while She'd say a little something and each time I heard Her voice I felt a tingle down my spine. It wasn't Her. It wasn't Her.

"What are you?" I asked softly, looking over some of the diagnostic screens. But the information told me nothing. I was a hacker, not a programmer and much of this was as alien to me as though it were written in Zebra.

"I-" She began, only to close Her mouth and visibly gulp. "I think this place is the Alpha site."

"As in the primary?" I asked casually.

"No," She said, shaking Her head, "as in, Alpha and Beta. A precursor to a completed project. The prototype."

I gave Her a look, "a prototype for what?"

"I... I shouldn't say. I don't think..."

"You're a program. You don't think, you compute. No matter how many bells and whistles they put in to make you talk like a pony, you are NOT Princess Celestia." I insisted firmly, narrowing my gaze.

The mare's expression hardened and She looked like She wanted to protest. "You should leave." Her words held venom, but something in Her eyes told me She was afraid that I'd actually listen, like She was constantly at war with Herself over whether She wanted us there or not.

I smirked a little as I worked my way through the programs. There didn't seem to be much information in the system. It was surprisingly easy to get into the programming though, not that I could understand any of it. Code and algorithms scrolled by, every line having a purpose but all of it lost on me.

"You're an AI construct." I commented, "A good one. Excellent emotive responses. I'm guessing that military base we're connected to was working on something like you, probably a security system for the war. Though, I don't know why they'd choose you, you're hardly imposing." I shrugged.

Her eyes narrowed, "And what do you mean by that?" She asked, seeming affronted by my comment.

"Well personally I'd have chosen Princess Luna. Or Nightmare Moon, ya know, someone that's imposing. Could use that Canterlot Voice and scare away any that try to come near you and... whatever it was you were designed to protect." I looked up to Her to check if I was in the ballpark on Her purpose. But She remained tight lipped. "Why are you so nervous around us?"

She looked down at me and seemed to be chewing Her own tongue a little before answering; "What am I supposed to say?" I hadn't expected the question. "Am I supposed to tell you everything? Could you even understand if I did?" Her questions were rhetorical of course, so I made no effort to answer. "I think it's best," She continued, looking anxious about the coming words, "If you finish up what you're doing here, and leave as soon as possible."

Whoever designed this program new what they were doing. The program looked miserable. A depressed AI - the wasteland only seems to get weirder.

"We'll be out of your hair as soon as I can find some information in here that might give us a clue as to Aero's daddy-issues. But all I'm getting is algorithms."

"Can I try?" Sonnets voice called from the doorway. The others had camped out in the larger room beyond that used to be the reception. The open space on the floor gave them enough room to spread out relatively comfortably. Interestingly, none of them had made comment on mine and Lucky's fight.

I didn't bother turning to the filly, "I've got it handled." That earned a snort from the Celestia program.

"You don't know what you're doing, do you?" The filly said sceptically.

I forced a laugh, "I'll have you know I am excellent at computers." I said, my mind running back to the Neighagra Falls incident with the exploding computer - that was totally not my fault.

I heard the tapping of a keyboard next to me and almost jumped out of my skin as I noticed the filly was suddenly next to me. "This computer is a Beta prototype." She commented, running through the programming with an expression that told me it was easy for her.

"Well that shows just how good you are," I smirked, "Because the program itself just told me it's an Alpha site, not a Beta." I said smugly, "Now clear off."

"The site IS Alpha, but the computer is Beta." She pointed at it. "The Crusader Mainframe. Developed in Canterlot by Stable-Tec." She read out, running down the list of specifications. "This is a lot more advanced than the one we had..." She mumbled, narrowing her eyes as she looked over the code.

My brow raised, "The one you had?"

Her cheeks flushed. "I mean-"

I watched her expectantly, waiting for her to reveal something about her Stable.

Her cheeks puffed up petulantly and she stamped her foot. "Fine, we had one in the Stable, it wasn't as good as this one though," she shrugged, turning back to the screen. "I think we had the Alpha."

"Wouldn't Alpha be higher than Beta?"

She shook her head, "In computer sciences, the Alpha is the initial test where components and resources are still being refined for the final version. The Beta has all the 'bells-and-whistles' -as you'd say- put in to see if they all work together as intended, and if all is good, they ship out to the main."

"Where'd you learn this?" I probed, hoping I could keep her talking. This was the most she'd spoken about her own knowledge base and the first hint of her Stable I'd been given in a while. So, her Stable had the Alpha model of the Crusader Mainframe? That was interesting, the question I really wanted her to answer, was 'why?'.

"I was allowed to play with it during Process Time." She said, smiling at the memory.

"Proces-?"

"OH!" She interrupted, jumping up and down in her excitement, cutting me off. "There's a basement level!"

My eyes flashed to the screen, but I couldn't make heads-nor-tails of the information. "There is, how do you know?"

"There," she pointed to the screen, showing a few lines that made no sense to me.

"A equals a large 'E', a, Pg plus a strange B and Pt?"

The filly smirked at me. "Weren't you supposed to be the smart pony, Mister, Master, Tome-Sir?"

I swatted her round the head for that one. "I can calculate with the best of them, plan seven moves ahead of everyone I know and I know more about magic than any other Earth Pony and most Unicorns that I've met. I AM smart. What I'm not, is able to read equations." I countered tersely, making a mental note to read a book on algorithms and computer programming in the future. I'd be damned if a filly knew more than me about any subject, especially this smart mouthed one.

"It's an OPF for an ADN." She began, speaking a little more smugly than I'd have liked. "An 'Optimal Power Flow' for an 'Active Distribution Network'. Basically, it's an algorithm that tells the computer how to distribute power, and this equation below it says that the power is sent from bottom to top. Now. We're pretty sure there aren't any rooms above us." She said, putting on a rather academical voice, like she was trying to sound older than she was. "Because there's only two rooms in this place that we've found, and not enough space for a large power plant sending all that power to the second floor, and with this thing," she motioned to the Crusader Mainframe, "I think the power is more needed here. So, I think there's a basement where the power plant is kept."

That was actually quite impressive. I looked over the programming and still couldn't understand it, but it really seemed like she knew what she was talking about. I looked to her and noticed that she was staring at me, and her large smile looked at me expectantly. I felt momentarily awkward.

"I erm... yeah. Good work." I said and reached out, nervously patting her on the head and giving her a strained smile. "Well, best tell the others." I said chipperly, turning away from her even as her smile fell. "We need to find the way down, there might be something there. Off you go." I turned back with a big smile, and looked at her now narrowed eyes, puffed up cheeks and petulant expression.

"Shit-head!" She yelled and jumped down from the small stool and stalked out of the room.

"W-what did I do?" I asked after her, but she didn't answer.

What was the deal with that? I heard a sigh beside me and looked up at the Celestia Program who returned my gaze with a deadpan and unimpressed expression.

"You're terrible with children."

*

"Stay inside." I commanded as the petulant filly folded her hooves at me.

Myself, Stranger and Aero stepped outside, leaving Lucky to keep an eye on Sonnet. The circumference of the tower wasn't as large as I'd expected it to be, so it didn't take long for me to hear "I've found it!" from Aero.

I galloped around the side of the tower to see Aero struggling to move a large rock that leaned against the alabaster wall of the tower. Beneath the rock was what looked to be a door that was almost concealed by the rock's presence.

Aero pushed hard and the rock began to slowly shift, but he was struggling and I could hear his armour creaking from the strain of the boulders weight. I rolled my eyes, "Here." I padded over, put my weight behind it and heaved. I felt the stone shift, lift and then fall to the side with a great thud. I did what I could to hide my exertion and maintain a calm façade.

"Earth Ponies." Aero rolled his eyes while I tried not to smirk.

The rusted door was oval shaped with a hole where the handle used to be, presumably either broken off on purpose or perhaps just by the centuries of unkindness.

The dust and sand kicked up by the breeze had clung to the side of the white tower to discolour it a little in places, but the crack of the oval door was not as discoloured as I figured it should have been. Flakes of rust broke beneath my hoof as I ran them over the newly rediscovered door, noticing that the yellowing streaks looked like rust had once clung the door shut and had been broken at some point.

This door had been opened. I looked to the ground, noting the deep gouges in the other stones strewn about as though something large and heavy had been dragged over them into place.

"This was opened before, and the stone was placed there on purpose." I concluded aloud, crouching down and pointing to the marks. "Someone didn't want anyone else going down there." I stood back up, my eyes rose to the horizon. Something moved.

My hooves immediately went for my saddlebag, I pulled out my small telescope and looked to the distance. The mountains of the Equestrian border looked closer than I remembered, their peaks capped with snow and the base of them could be seen as blackened and gnarled in a manner I didn't recognise as natural. The more immediate scope of my field of view, however, yielded me no clue as to the movement I'd seen. The dirt lay as it always did, dull and lifeless. My eyes scanned carefully, seeking any sign of what I had seen, but there wasn't anything.

"Something wrong?" Aero asked from behind me.

"No," I replied, "it's nothing." But even as I said that, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched.

I turned my attention back to the door and stepped up to it. I tried to gain purchase on the hole with my right hoof to pull it open, but it was difficult to get any sort of leverage.

"Stranger?" I asked, turning to my bandaged companion who had been stood nearby, watching events unfold. He nodded and stepped forward. He regarded the door inquisitively before his horn began to glow. At once the oval door was engulfed in a light purple aura, it pulsed for the moment before there was a loud creaking. There was something that seemed to snap inside causing the door to tear off its hinges with enough force to break from the Unicorn's telekinetic grasp and fly over our heads. I found myself ducking for cover as it flew close enough to billow my mane before it landed harshly into the dirt with a loud clatter.

The three of us looked down into the depths of the opened doorway. 'Depths' was an appropriate word. It was dark down there, a set of stairs that led down into the darkness lit only by dull red lights that barely illuminated more than a foot in any direction. The smell of the air inside it was stale and cold... like, really cold. I felt a light shiver run through me as it seemed an almost old winter air drifted from the darkness.

"Ooooh, spooky." Sonnet said gleefully, her head poking a look down into the darkness.

I jumped at her presence. When did she get there?! "Hey, I told you to wait inside!"

"Awwwww. Please!" I swear her eyes grew bigger and shimmered...

I replied with a firm, "No." Not letting myself get caught up in that cursed cute expression, "Have Lucky read you a story or something."

She puffed up as usual, "We've read everything."

"Find something." I rolled my eyes as she stomped her hoof petulantly before stalking away, seeming to make sure every stamp of her hooves was as loud as possible.

I looked to Aero, "Use your suit's torch to light our way, keep an eye on your EFS, tell us if we have company down there. Last thing I want today is to be gnawed on by ghouls." He nodded as I pulled out a spare revolver I'd purchased at the previous town. It wasn't nearly as high a calibre as my last one, but there wasn't much I could do about that.

I spun the chamber and made sure it was in appropriate firing condition. Taking extra care to also check the cartridges for damage to prevent a repeat of the last misfire. I didn't want to lose another gun.

Stranger beside me did the same check with his rifle, clicking a bullet into the chamber and turning to me, his singular visible eye waiting for my order.

"Aero, then me, then you. Keep our asses covered." Stranger nodded at the decision. I wanted to keep our front covered with our best movement tracker, our back covered with our best shot, and me safe in the middle with two meat-shields in each direction if things went south.

I was a shit shot. No sense in me being front-lined.

We stepped forward. The moment we stepped into the darkness the difference in temperature was intense. Almost immediately my breath frosted in the air before me and I became rapidly concerned with the stability of each of my steps. The stairs were made of cold metal that thankfully did not give way to ice, but the wall to my left that followed the stairs downward glistened in the dull red lights in a manner that made me think of frost. Why would it be so cold down here?

No answer to my mental query presented itself as we descended. Instead we were met only by the dim darkness and the scarlet glow of lights that adorned the walls and ceilings that followed us down into the frozen abyss. With each step I found myself tempted to clutch at my barding and draw it closer around me as the temperature somehow grew even colder as we descended. The atmosphere was heavy. Our hoof-steps echoed in the manner of a vast chamber, but thus far only walls and steps had presented themselves.

We finally reached the bottom. Surely the stairs had taken us less than a minute or two to descend, but the oppressive atmosphere and freezing air had made our travel feel far longer. Aero took a few tentative steps forward, making sure the place was safe before his weapons relocated themselves into their standby position, facing upwards with a mechanical whirr. "It's clear."

I trusted his judgment and holstered my revolver. Stranger did the same with his rifle, slipping it back into the saddlebag holster on his side. The room around us was much larger than I expected. It was twice as wide as the tower was thick and frosted pipes snaked their way vertically down the walls on all sides. The metal of the stairs gave way to a metal catwalk-grating of sorts that made up the floor. Dull light allowed us to see through the grating to a flooring below that was a mass of pipes and smoking vents that seemed all part of some vast machine. The grated floor was circular in nature and in the centre of the room was a large circular metal mass of some kind of device, protruding from the top of the device was a thin pipe that led its way up to the ceiling.

"What is this place?" Aero asked, his breath visible in the cold air as he looked around.

"I don't know for sure, but I can hazard an educated guess about some things." I commented, my eyes lingering on the vents that billowed out white frosted air.

"Yeah?" Aero questioned.

"The vents." I nodded to them, "They're keeping the place cold. This is a machine of sorts. Sonnet said that down here was a power source; well some power sources need cooling or they bust."

"This cold?" Aero asked incredulously.

I shook my head, "Nah, nothing I know of needs to be this cold." I felt a shiver run through me that wasn't entirely due to the temperature. I'd heard of different kinds of batteries and even high powered SkyTank systems that needed thick casings with liquid nitrogen pressurised within. Those were the coldest I knew, but why something needed to be both this cold and THIS BIG... I had no idea. But I had a feeling I wasn't going to like the answer.

I approached the centre of the room, looking over the circular device that protruded largely from the floor and connected itself to the ceiling. There was a panel on it with a glowing blue line, reaching out I pushed on it curiously, pressing it in. With a loud hiss, a huge bellow of frosted air erupted around the circular device and with a cacophony of mechanical whirring it began to slowly rise from the floor. It turned as it rose, pieces locking into place before the front opened before us. It seemed to be a pod.

As it opened, red light from within bathed us. The contents... to call it disturbing would be an understatement. Something in my brain argued that it shouldn't matter, it was hardly our concern. That it would only be Aero's concern in the long run. But somewhere, deep within, buried in the farthest reaches of my mind there was a singular voice that gave way to the smallest doubt. A voice that didn't quite believe this would end in my favour, or anyone else's.

*

Aero stared at the grimy floor of the foyer. We'd headed out of the frigid room quickly and back up. Sonnet -still red faced from a threat of a tanned flank after I'd found her with my earbloom and recorder- was beginning to shake her dejected grumpiness and rapidly replace it with curiosity as we began discussing what we'd found. Aero barely seemed to be listening as I spoke to the others and paced around the room tensely. The featherbrain's expression was somehow a mix of existential horror, thoughtful concern, confusion, and denial all mixed into one. I wasn't quite sure how he'd managed such a feat, but I was almost impressed. Or at least, I _would_be impressed if my mind wasn't galloping a million miles a minute.

"Emergency power?" The filly asked, her expressions also managing to be a mix of interest, concern and petulant grumpiness.

"Its original power source has been removed. So yes, the place is on emergency power." I repeated through clenched teeth. "Likely it has considerably less since we woke up the Crusader systems, it could shut down any day now." I spoke quickly, pacing back and forth as my brain worked over the variables. How much yield? And what could something like that be used for that didn't make me want to shit myself?

"There has to be a mistake." Aero shook his head.

"There's no mistake." I grunted.

Aero could only shake his head. "No, maybe somepony else, maybe it was the Zebra's or mercenaries-"

"The mark!" I snapped harshly, unable to control the tone of my voice. I wasn't angry, I was panicking, and trying really hard not to. "The Enclave mark was printed there as a calling card! And you KNOW he was here!"

He looked up to me, his eyes almost pleading for a different verdict. "But he has to-"

"WHAT?! Have a good reason? Have an explanation? Have a plan? Tell me what kind of reason you think a military man such as your father needs with a FUCKING MEGASPELL?!!"

The sound of the filly gasping and the following silence that fell across the room was the only answer to my query. My mind cast back to the pod. It was a cryopod, designed to absorb the heat given out by the power source.

A power source that had me close to shitting myself. The pod had been empty, a painted mark of the Enclave on the inner lining left there by those that had made off with their bounty. In large letters along the inside of the pod read the words; 'Megaspell Housing Chamber. Please keep clear and protected from magical interference. Magical interference may result in catastrophic failure of containment systems.'.

A damned Megaspell. I couldn't envision it in my mind without seeing the radioactive craters that littered the landscape.

"Megaspell? Like... like the bombs?" Sonnet asked carefully.

I nodded to her, "Don't know much about them?" My tone was monotonous as I did my best to keep myself calm.

She gulped and her right hoof ran over the left side of her neck, massaging where the blinking slave collar met her skin. "N-not really," she answered nervously. "My teaching was mainly technical and medical... not... bombs."

I nodded. That made sense with what I'd seen so far. Her magic allowed her to heal plants and grow things and her knowledge of biology was far beyond most of her years, but she had yet to really show any large adeptness in overall magical skill, so it was likely her studies hadn't ranged that far.

"They weren't just bombs." I answered, my mind moving back to the information I'd absorbed over the years through books, tapes, and the teachings of Unicorns and other ponies I'd met. "They were anything Equestria needed on a large scale. Megaspells by definition, were amplification magic. A singular spell was placed in the centre of a matrix, that matrix sent it through hundreds of active amplifying seals before it was released. It could turn a simple water to ice spell into a huge blizzard storm that could freeze a whole town, a simple healing spell into something that could heal a whole battlefield-"

"-and a balefire bomb, into something that could level a city." Lucky continued. He sat solemnly in the corner, hugging himself. This news seemed to have shaken him.

I nodded to him in affirmation and looking to the filly, I noticed she'd grown a shade paler at my words.

"Bale-?"

Aero answered before I could, "Dragonfire." He said softly. Everyone's attention turned to him, he noticed, meeting each of their eyes before he looked to the ground and shrugged. "We have to deal with 'em once in a while. Dragons, that is. I dunno how Balefire is made, but it's all just Dragonfire. Zebra's made friends with 'em durin' the war, got a whole stock of 'em. Turns flesh to ash, turns stone to slag, turns steel to butter. Some think they're just dragon eggs that go boom when ya poke 'em. I dunno what the truth is, but if my father has the means of makin' one boom, I need to find out why."

*

"This isn't working." Aero kicked the machine in frustration.

"Do you mind." Snorted the regal mare on the large screen who watched them as they worked. Aero ignored the Celestia program and kicked it again.

"I don't think you could but I'd prefer it if you didn't try and break the computer." I asked dryly from the corner.

He huffed, "I put in the bloody coordinates. It ain't pickin' up shit."

I padded over and pushed him out of the way so I had access to the computer. I brought up the systems and looked over the settings. "I just don't think this thing is designed to connect to systems like that."

"It reached Canterlot, that's like, a hundred miles away. The 'Folly' shouldn't be half the distance."

I shook my head, "I don't think it's a matter of distance. I just don't think this thing is designed to communicate with Enclave systems."

"Can't ya rig it or something, Tome? You always say you're smart."

I rolled my eyes. "Even I can't make a machine do something it's not supposed to do."

"Bullshit," he countered, "didn't ya make your tape thing outta a PipBuck?"

I sighed, rubbing one of my temples. He just didn't listen. "Yes, I did. But I had the right tools that-" I paused as something occurred to me. "Wait here." I ran back into the foyer and grabbed my saddlebag. I began looking through the content, burying my hooves down into the bottom of the bag, removing larger things that were in my way. Eventually I felt them.

I brought them into the main room. "Remember Whitetail Prison?"

Aero gave me a look, "With those python ghouls? Who could forget."

"Pythia." I corrected.

"Whatever. They sucked."

"Very true, but do you also remember these?" A look of recognition passed over Aero's face as I showed him the devices.

"Are these-?"

"Yeah. Futurity had them latched onto the communication system, they allowed him to use the Prison's network to hack into other facilities cameras he shouldn't have had access too. I swiped them when we were dismantling things for scrap for your suit."

"How'd ya know we'd need 'em?" He asked, which I could only answer with a shrug.

"I didn't." I shrugged, "I used to be a scavenger as a job remember. You get a certain kleptomanic urge once a while that never quite fades no matter how out of the job you are. Besides, they looked useful."

"Well I'm glad you got your 'kleppo' on." Aero said with a grin as I rolled my eyes. Ugh... 'kleppo'?

I moved to the side of the Crusader Mainframe and slipped down the side of it. It was a tight squeeze and I had to suck in my gut to be able to fit. In front of me were a mass of cables and wires. I looked over them, seeing a set of thicker cables that looked similar to what I'd seen in white tail. I leaned down with my mouth and bit into the handle of my shiv, I pulled it from its confines and leaned in carefully. Thankfully, I'd had a cautious enough mind to wrap the handle in an insulation tape, just in case I ever had to stab anything like a machine or malicious robot. It wouldn't do to be getting electrical shocks through the teeth. I slipped the blade into the rubber of the cable and slowly slid down and around, cutting a small square out to reveal the wires.

"You know what ya doin'?" Aero asked curiously from the other side of the mainframe.

"Not really, but they'll be plug-and-play, I'm sure." I assured him as I lifted up the broadcaster device. I looked over it and saw a back panel that had two wires poking from it, one coated in red, the other blue. I glanced from that to the cables, noting three colours; one white, one red, and one blue. Well, this seemed pretty straight forward.

Aero sounded sceptical as he replied, "And you know this how?"

"Because," I began as I stripped the exposed wires. As carefully as I could, I sliced into both the red and blue wires in turn with my shiv's blade, opening them up to their metal insides. I sheathed my blade back into the slit in my collar. "Futurity isn't the kind of stallion to waste his time. Especially in a dangerous environment like Whitetail Prison." I answered. "He'd make it simple." I muttered as I wrapped my hoof in part of my jacket, hoping it'd insulate me enough as I slipped the metal of the blue wire into the blue cable and wrapped it around. Something got hot and an electrical zap travelled up my hoof. "Ouch! Fuck." I grunted, shaking my hoof.

"You okay back there?"

I rolled my eyes, "I'm fine, Aero." I held the red wire and grit my teeth, preparing for another shock as I slipped the metal threads together. Another zap had me seething and wanting to jump up and down on the spot. I would have if I wasn't in so confined a space. I grumbled from the pain and settled the device into place, using its latches to fix it to the sides of the cable so it wouldn't fall down. I pressed a button on the front, and a green light lit up. That seemed a good sign.

The others watched with curiosity as I stumbled out from behind the computer and moved over to the terminal. Bringing up the settings. "Now it should just be a simple case of changing the routing-" I mumbled to myself, looking through the routing settings... but it wasn't there.

"Somethin' wrong?" Aero asked.

"Nope." I said all too quickly as I checked through the network settings to see if they'd put it in there.

"Are ya sure?" Aero's voice was becoming increasingly sardonic.

"Shut up." I grit my teeth. I knew this was working, the light was green and everything.

"It's under 'General Settings'." The program offered.

My eyes slowly looked up to the Celestia program who was seemingly avoiding my gaze... and anyone else's. All eyes slowly turned back to me and I felt my ears burn.

Sonnet cocked her head and gave me a confused expression. "You didn't check 'General Settings'?"

"It's a stupid place to put it anyway." I quickly brought up 'General Settings' and found it under 'Uplink Node'. 'SPPA1.0.2fc'. I selected the option and the screen that had, until just then, harboured a sour looking Celestia, suddenly fizzled out and seemed to flutter and flitter until a winged military symbol took up the screen with the words, 'G.P.E.R. Titan's Folly Interior Network'.

A high-pitched scratching sound was heard on loop before the screen fizzled and cleared. A stallion stood there wearing a brown cap. He was a Pegasus, with a brown mane and a lighter brown coat. He was handsome, but young, only looking a little older than Aero himself. His golden eyes narrowed as he looked at the screen. "Who is this?!" He demanded. "You're callin' a secure system, how'd you break through mah firewalls?!" He spoke with an accent that was much thicker than Aero's.

"Windsheer, it's me." Aero said, stepping forward.

A look of shock ran over the stallion's face. "By Luna's starlit cunt." I raised my brow at the colourful language and glanced to Sonnet whose own brow had raised in tandem with my own. To my curiosity, she pulled out a pad from the pocket of her Stable suit and began writing in it. "Jeez Aero, where the fuck ya bin? Oh, the boss is gonna throw a fit." The stallion that Aero had called Windsheer seemed to visibly sweat at the concept of the 'boss'.

"Yeah," Aero said a little nervously, "Yeah, that's why I'm callin'. You need to patch me through."

"Oh, yeah - wait, no. No. first off, how'd you get on this channel, ain't nothin' down there like that."

Aero shrugged, "'Sheer, I don't know. We did a thing and it worked, can ya just put dad on please."

I rose my brow as the Stallion gulped and nodded, seeming to work on his terminal to set up the connection. So, Aero's dad was the 'boss'. He'd said the guy was important, but I'd just figured he was a Captain aboard a ship or something. Then again, I'd never bothered to speak with any Enclave, former or otherwise. There were always a few areas where my knowledge was quite lax and the Enclave hierarchy structure would probably be near the top of the list.

"Okay," the stallion on the screen finally said. "Ah've set up the call, he'll be ready in a minute.

"Thanks." Aero said, giving him a small smile.

"Aero, dude. We were all worried 'bout ya. Whose these ya with? Wait... this ain't no kidnap and ransom sitch' is it?" A flash of panic flashed across Windsheers face.

"No, no, no." Aero said rapidly, waving a hoof in dismissal, "Seriously, no. They're helpin' me, a lot. It's just... there's a lot that's happened and not enough time to get into it."

Windsheer nodded in understanding. "Well, that I can understand. But hey, I got a little news." Aero's ears perked up. "I got accepted into Central."

"No way." Aero's eyes lit up. "For serious?"

"Yeah," Windsheer grinned, his cheeks burning a little. "They takin' me on for communications, they saw ma code and thought I was a good fit. I might even make it big."

"Dude," Aero breathed, "That's really great. I'm happy for ya."

The stallion shrugged, "Yeah." Though despite the shrug he seemed happy to get some praise for the accomplishment. "Though, if ah'm honest, the code they liked so much, you just treated like tissue paper." He narrowed his eyes. "If they stop takin' me seriously, ah'm blamin' you by name."

Aero scratched the back of his head and gave a sheepish grin. "Yeah, we-"

"-Oh, gotta cut you off. It's ya Pa. Look just... Prevailin', no matter what he says, you know he cares." Prevailing?

"Yeah, sure." Aero said solemnly.

With a last friendly smile, Windsheer pressed a button and the screen filled with the familiar Enclave logo again, sporting the 'Titan's Folly' internal network registration, before with a touch of static, the screen showed a new face.

Much like Aero, his father had a coat that was almost black, but of a slightly darker shade to Aero, though whether that was due to the tint of the screen or not, I couldn't tell. While Aero's mane was a snow white, his father sported a shock of gold. His mane perfectly groomed into a militant mohawk that was buzzed close to his scalp. His eyes were as gold as his mane, and they looked down into his sons own blue eyes with as much familiarity as they might a stranger. Non-existent were any signs of paternal affection; and in fact, behind those cold eyes, I thought I could see something akin to a vague dislike.

That expression had never been placed in my direction with my own father, but the coldness felt akin to the emptiness of loss within me, and it set a light roiling in my stomach, reminding me of days past after my own father had left.

"Corporal Wind, you are overdue for report, and way off base. Where are you?" When he spoke, I found no traces of the same accent that lilted Aero's usual verbiage. The stallion looked past the terminal as he spoke and nodding to someone else in the room.

"Nice to see you too, Dad." Aero said with a sardonic tone.

The stallion on the screen sighed and rubbed his temple. "Would it be possible for you to not be petulant." I personally tried to stifle the smile that crept over my cheeks. I could almost relate to the stallion's frustration with Aero in being petulant, but then again, I didn't know all the details behind Aero's feelings for his father. "Where are you?" He asked again.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

Both me and the stallion on the screen sighed, though I'm sure for entirely different reasons. I'm not sure what Aero's father was frustrated about, but personally I'd rather enjoy it if Aero got to the point and didn't drag this out.

The stallion seemed to look over his shoulder as though listening to something from someone offscreen. He looked back to the screen and his brow furrowed. "Why are you at the SPP Alpha Site?"

Shit. I wasn't quite sure how we'd planned to ask him about the Megaspell without releasing our location, but the fact that a member of the Enclave in a superior position knew where we were felt somewhat disconcerting. I didn't like Pegasus at the best of times.

"Track the signal?" Aero asked curiously.

"No, we tracked your armour."

My expression dropped, as did Aero's. Aero's words when we'd first met rang through my mind; 'I've disabled my tracking signal so they can't find me via their AEFS'.

"W-wha-"

"What?" The stallion asked with an amused expression. "You thought that because you'd turned it off, we couldn't turn it back on remotely?" He couldn't help but chuckle at his sons face.

"And you never thought to come get me?" Aero asked, giving his father a dark glare.

His father seemed confused. "Did you want me to?" He asked.

Aero scoffed and shook his head, "No, I didn't. But it would have at least showed you gave a shit about me. How many times did I almost fucking die?!"

A hoof struck a table and through the speakers the sound was loud and jarring, but rather than start yelling back, I was almost impressed that when the stallion spoke again he did so in a calm and even tone, though it was still tinted with malice. "One, you will watch your language and your tone with me. Two, you had some of the highest training available in your formative years, and despite you dropping out you showed great promise. I would be very much disappointed if you couldn't handle yourself."

"Disappointed?!" Aero yelled in indignation.

"And THREE!" The stallion yelled over his son's exclamation, "The only time we lost track of you was in the Everfree Forest, and only our Wonderbolts can brave that area and I would hardly deploy them for one soldier."

"I'm your son."

"And you expect that to grant you special treatment?" He asked with an almost curious tone. "Besides, you made it out just fine, minus a leg but you seemed to have sorted that out."

"And you don't care?" Aero asked, his teeth gritting so hard it was audible across the room. Aero looked away from the screen in disgust.

"I-"

"The Megaspell!" Aero yelled, cutting his father off in a manner that actually managed to startle the stallion. "What do you need it for?"

His reaction was a curious one. He seemed to run through a range of visual emotions, his face contorted subtly into more expressions in so short a time than he'd displayed since the call began. He almost seemed to be debating with himself on how to react. Instead he simply leaned back and breathed out a sigh. "Come in, I'll debrief you."

"No."

Everything seemed to stop.

I looked at Aero from the corner in curiosity. Why did he refuse? His father would give him the information he wanted, he'd find out what his dad had been doing down here. So why refuse that? Also, he'd be out of a debt if he left before he could help Sonnet. It was a win-win for him.

"Don't be difficult, Prevailing." My ears pricked up.

"That's not my name." Aero's tone had taken on a low and hateful tone.

His father rolled his eyes and he let out a frustrated groan. "You are not still doing that?" He asked with an almost pained expression. "You should have grown out of that stupid moniker years ago, Prevailing. Now come home."

Aero scoffed and stepped forward, closer to the large screen. "You don't get ta tell me what to do. You don't have that right! You were never there, never there growin' up. Never there durin' games!"

"Don't do this." His father said sternly. "Prevailing Wind, I can forgive the insubordination and protect you from the consequences. Just come in." The tension between them had grown heavy, and Aero seemed to be almost radiating a hatred for his father that felt like it'd been building up for a while.

"Fuck you." Aero's eyes narrowed. His father sighed and looked over the terminal again and nodded to someone offscreen again. "Why do you have a Megaspell?!" Aero yelled, stamping his hooves on the console in a manner that made me worry he'd break something.

"Prevailing, you are an embarrassment. And your mother would be ashamed."

Aero opened his mouth to respond, but the lights in the room suddenly went dark with a loud booming sound. Something whirred in the distance and red lights lit up the building in both this room, and the foyer. "What have you done?" Aero yelled.

His father shook his head. "That is certainly not me, Prevailing. It simply looks as if you have drained what little was left over of the emergency power. The call will likely soon disconnect itself." Suddenly the air was filled with a high-pitched whine that rattled our skulls and made me feel like our ears would bleed. "Now this, this is me." I heard over it. As quick as it'd come, it stopped, and I stood there gasping. I reached up and wiped my nose, finding my hoof bloody. What the fuck had that been?!

Aero was stumbling, his own muzzle bloody from his nose and the sides of his head streaked in red from his ears. "What was that?"

"A high intensity signal beacon."

"Signalling what?"

At Aero's question I heard something. Were those... drums? Something was coming from outside. I couldn't see anything through the door. I moved down the room to the foyer and looked out, the large gaping hole in the wall that we'd walked through, watched out over the expansive mountainside in the distance and the forests nearby. The edge and border of Equestria.

I saw something.

A light movement, something that my eyes couldn't focus on, and once again I thought I heard drums. The fur on the back of my neck stood on end, I turned and galloped back into the room. "We need to go! NOW!" I yelled.

Aero's father's eyes met mine, the first time he'd seen me as I'd purposely stayed from view during their conversation. It was family business after all. Something in the stallions gaze made my skin crawl.

Aero turned from me to his father, "Signalling what?!" He screamed in demand.

His father's lips slowly curled up into an almost cruel smirk. "Zebras."

The power shut off entirely and the screen and room went dark.

Things were eerily silent. The room felt like it crept around us in the the black, and slowly but surely we all backed from our corners to the middle of the room. We looked in different directions, barely breathing as we listened to the silence.

There was no drums now, the dawning night barely held a single whisper, and though nightlife in the Wasteland wasn't quite as alive as it was in such places like the Everfree forest, I usually expected it to harbour at least something. The rustle of something in a dead bush, or the gentle sound of a gunshot far away... but now there was nothing. Our breathing almost seemed to thunder in our ears in the stillness of the moment.

"So." I whispered softly in the darkness, glancing over my shoulder at Aero. "Prevailing Wind?" I asked.

Aero hissed, "Is now really the time?!"

Something flashed at the corner of my eye as something flew through the air. It landed on the ground and rolled between our legs.

"Watch out!" I yelled and grabbed Sonnet, diving out of the way as it burst. But it wasn't an explosion like I had expected. It erupted in a cloud of blue smoke that stayed low to the floor and billowed out around us. I took a single breath of it to realise that was a bad idea. It seemed to suffocate my throat and immediately my head began to swim.

"Shit... no..." I tried to get out of the smoke with Sonnet, who had now gone limp in my hooves. My vision was swirling and shifting and I wasn't sure which direction I was going.

"Kuwafunga." A deep voice spoke nearby, my head swimming as I looked up. Above me stood a Zebra. I'd seen one or two in my time but his stature was particularly imposing. His shoulders were covered by a large cloak that seemed to wrap around him, the edges of the cloak were embroidered in gold, and his right ear was adorned in jewelled piercings. His neck seemed to be supported in what seemed a golden and marble brace, his hooves cuffed with braces that were tied together with what looked like black lace. His eyes a deep blue, and piercings travelled from his pierced ear down over his brow, down further to his cheek and then the corner of his mouth; a mouth that was twisted in disdain as he looked down at me. "Kuwaandaa kwa ajili ya kuhojiwa. Foolish pony." He spoke the last words in Equestrian, his eyes boring into mine as he raised his hoof. A flash of violent pain was the last thing I knew as his hoof struck me. Darkness fell.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Mr. Fixit - Time to get to work! +10% to Science and Repair!

A/N: FINALLY!!!! Sorry for the year long wait. I had commissioned stories to punch out, but now we're back!!!! Gonna be doing another Audiobook Chapter after this, and then onto writing Chapter 10 and 11!!! I hope you all enjoy this, PLEASE comment and review, even if you hate it. ^-^ For those interested, we are around 35% through my planned story thus far.

Editor note: A pleasure to be asked to edit, as always :) Still getting used to being back in the saddle. I hope everyone enjoys! Thanks to Almanac for offering me the role and giving me something to do that isn't get frustrated with PUBG. Haha.