“He's plotting a way to journey home at last; he's never at a loss.”

What was I doing with my life?

The trip to the docks had been quick and uneventful. Most of the Steel Rangers in that area did a good job keeping the raiders at bay. Wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t care. The barge ride over to Friendship Island was a smooth one as well. Everything had gone as expected so far, but it just felt like the calm before the storm.

I sat alone in the cold morning air on a bench at the edge of the island. It wasn’t a particularly bright day today, but the ruins of Manehatten looked darker than ever. The sight pushed a thought into my head. Maybe the necromancer had the right idea. Maybe this was where we’d been heading, and what he’s doing is for the best. This city died a long time ago, but even in it’s death, it’s carried on. That continued existence had done nothing but cause more pain and suffering for those who refuse to give in and give up.

With a heavy sigh, I shifted my weight on the ice cold bench. I was such a fucking hypocrite. Here I was, supposedly some sort of bearer of ‘hope’, basicly on the edge of giving in to despair. I don’t know what happened to me. Everything was fine back at Tenpony. But now, from out here? Everything looked so… hopeless.

I mean, really. We were about to get on a century and a half old boat, sail into the biggest and most dangerous storm in history, and take on a pony with unparalleled magic. What fucking hope did we have?

“Cheer up, sis.” Pai chimed up. She blipped into my vision in blue. She wore a sad smile, one which I was sure I didn’t even have the will to wear myself. “It’s not that bad. You’re just nervous is all. Everypony get’s nervous.” She put her hooves up to her muzzle and forcefully dragged her smile wider. “You just gotta keep a good attitude.”

“Thanks, Pai.” I nodded softly. “You know, we haven’t talked for a while. How are you holding up?”

“Oh, you know. I’m hanging in there.” She lowered her hooves and shrugged. “I’ve just… had a lot on my mind.”

“Want to talk about it?” I sure hoped she did. From the tone she had, it sounded like it could do us both some good.

“It’s mostly just me missing Iron Will.” She sniffled and gave me a small, but genuine smile. “I know I had a long time with him, but it’s hard to move on from that.” She gave a soft, crying whine. “I know it’s selfish to have taken so much time to myself. I should have tried to help more often when you were in trouble.”

“No, you weren’t being selfish.” Goddesses know that Pai was practically a saint compared to what I’ve asked these last few weeks. “If it helps, you can take all the time you need.”

“No, it’s time I grew up.” She shook her head and wiped away her tears. “I need to move on from him. You’re all I’ve got left, and I can’t put you at risk any longer with being distracted.” She stared at me with a quivering muzzle. “You risked yourself and saved me from dying a slow death in the Orchard. It’s my turn to help you live through this task.”

A small box opened in the corner of my vision. A wavy line wiggled at a constant rate inside of it.

“Pai? What is…?” I began to ask.

“Something I’m not supposed to show you.” She spoke up over me. “It’s a signal being transmitted from this city. It’s pattern matches the wavelength to the tempest you’ll be heading to. Top secret to most, I found it when we entered Manehatten. By breaking the encryption to show you, I left my coding open.”

“What?” This was all so abrupt, I have no idea what she was talking about. “Your coding is open? What does that mean?

“I had to talk with a secure maneframe in one of the basements here. I convinced it to let me access the information, but...” She became even more blue that had been. I didn’t even know the pipbuck could display that dark of a shade. “I’ve broken nearly a dozen wartime protocols by showing you this, so the network made sure other systems would know too.” She turned around and showed her flank to me. On it was a small Ministry of Wartime Technology symbol. “Any spell matrix I try to access now will automatically restrict my access.”

“You’ve been… branded?” Could another computer see what was on her? Is that even how archanotech worked? Why couldn’t I have been more tech savvy? “Is there any way to remove it?”

“No.” She shook her head sadly. “Even if I have to have my memory wiped, it’s in my core coding. Removing it would corrupt me completely.”

“That isn’t necessarily true.” Frosty spoke up from behind me. I didn’t even have time to jump before she had her hoof on my shoulder. “I don’t mean to eavesdrop, but you’re an AP from an orchard if I’m not mistaken?”

“Yes?” Pai answered softly. “How did you...?”

“Well, Fruit Cup and I have done a lot of adventuring in our time. Let’s just say you aren’t the only one out there.” Frost said with a smile. In an instant, Pai changed the screen back to her normal vibrant pink. The mark on her flank however, didn’t disappear. “As I was saying,” Frost cleared her throat before joining me on the bench. “If somepony were to get to the physical maneframe that branded you, theoretically they could use the attached terminal to also clear you.”

“Only if you had the correct clearance.” Pai spoke up. It felt odd to be the third wheel in a conversation between a Steel Ranger and my pipbuck. “But if you could find the source of the signal, you might be able to find where the mainframe is.”

“Storm, if you don’t mind?” Frost said as she hooked her hoof around mine and brought my pipbuck up to her nose. “Huh, Doppler was always the radio expert, but looks like background noise to me.”

“Trust me, it’s coming from this location.” Pai chirped. “I very much doubt that background radio waves would have this secure of a mainframe.”

“If this is what you say this is, then it’s a fairly wide band broadcast. It takes a lot of constant, uninterrupted power to run a transmitter like this.” Frosty dropped my hoof and rubbed at her chin. “Theoretically, the tidal generators on the old bridge remains might be strong enough to still be powering it.”

“It would have to be spliced into the power source directly.” Pai gasped. “Maybe it’s in the sub basement!”

“You know, you might be right.” Frosty smiled and gave me a pat on the shoulder. “I think I’m going to go down there and take a look.” She pulled herself to her hooves and stretched out. “I originally came out to tell you that we got word from base that the Nautilus will arrive within a half hour. Make sure you have everything you need, or go up to the markets to get it if you have to.”

“Alright, I’ll be ready.” I replied. With a sigh, I looked back down at my pipbuck. I wasn’t sure ‘ready’ was something I’d ever be for this trip, but we had to do it. Flipping to the inventory, I took a look at the meager supplies I had on me.

“Degenerate.” Frosty snapped angrily.

That snapped my attention back up to her. She snarled as Tasteless stuck her tongue out just to spite her. I had an inkling that Tasteless had gotten to know Gauge during maintenance, but this just means their discussion went a bit ‘deeper’ than that. The two mares passed each other, not dropping their glares at all until they were a good twenty feet apart.

“What a prude.” Tasteless snorted as she hopped over the back of the bench. Her tail nearly missed my head as she did, and when she sat down it was with a resounding clang. Her augments looked much cleaner than they had been before, and she flaunted them as I looked. “Oh, don’t they just shine?” She smiled and gave me the most raunchy smile I’d ever seen from anypony since Ficha.

“Really? With Gauge?” I sighed. Tasteless was a blunt mare, and I was afraid that she really didn’t care about the actions she took.

“What? Was it that obvious?” She asked with a smile. “So you know, it was her that came on to me. She went from admiring my augments, to ‘hey, let’s endurance test their nerve connections’.” She stretched out her wing and brought a cigarette in it to her lips. She looked at me and glanced to my satchel. “Got a light?”

“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes and hoofed out my lighter. “How old are you?” I asked as she took it from me. “On top of that, is it even sanitary?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She snorted before she flicked the lighter and lit up. “I suppose I haven’t had a bath in a while, but everything still works down there.” She drew in a heavy breath and tossed the lighter back at me without even looking. A smile crept across her face as she blew out a ring of smoke. “And oh goddesses, does everything still feel great.” She glanced over to me where she found the most horrified expression I could make. “What? Weren’t you shacking up with what’s his feather?”

“What?” Almost immediately I could feel the radiating heat of the blush on my cheeks. “Why do you say that? He’s just a friend.”

“Uh-huh.” Tasteless said boredly. She took another drag from her smoke and leaned back against the bench back. The pose she sat in looked painful, sitting with her rear legs out like that and her back on the bench. She certainly was a weird mare. “Cute cover story and all, but don’t act like nothing happened. Predious told me everything.”

“Ah.” I sighed. After this whole trip thing is over, assuming we aren’t all dead, I’m going to shove my hoof, so far up that jerky-ass bastard’s…

“So bored!” Tasteless whined. “Just tell me how he was already.”

“It’s not like that.” I snapped at her. “I have too much on my plate at the moment if you couldn’t tell. Adding a relationship on top of that would probably kill me.” I reached into my satchel and dug around for my own smokes. With all these fucking questions, I needed one too. I stopped when I thought back to what I’d just said. “Not that I thought about having a relationship with him.”

“Aww, don’t be like that. If something happens to either of you on this mission, you won’t be able to get another chance. Besides, you’ve been rather bitchy lately.” She said calmly as she reached up. With her hooves to her head, she craned her neck and forced it to give a couple of loud pops. “You need to let your mane down and loosen up. Getting your flank plowed might actually do you some good.” She let out another smoke ring that wafted away in the cold morning air. “At least taking the stick so far out of your…”

“Okay, that’s enough.” I grunted. “Fine, I get it. It’s obvious what I think about him.” I curled my hoof around my smokes and pulled them out. Sticking one of them in my muzzle, I leaned back against the bench. “Still, I don’t have the time to deal with it. After this is all over, maybe I’ll talk to him about it.”

“See?” Tasteless chuckled. “How hard was that? You’re practicly fucking already.” She sat up slightly and leaned over to me. “Though, you might not want to wait too long. Who know’s if we’ll make it back from this little excursion.”

“I said I’ll think about it, and that’s all you’re getting.” I rolled my eyes and lit my smoke. Seriously, when did I start taking relationship advice from a pony like her? Oh yeah, when it became so unbelievably fucked up that we might all die today. Right.

“Storm?” Gauge called from behind us. “Mom needs you down in the basement.” She scrunched up her muzzle as I looked over. “I mean, Frost needs you. She said she knows where the signal is coming from?”

“What do you mean it’s coming from another Orchard?” I snapped. One was a bad enough nightmare to get through, even without somepony like the Necromancer to deal with.

“Sorry sis,” Pai squeaked and shrank in my vision. “The signal is only being routed through here, but it’s being sent through a cable that this mainframe says is an unregistered orchard.”

In the lowest level of Friendship City, and behind all of the electrical equipment, sat a rusted box. Opening that box had revealed a very water damaged terminal, one that Frosty had used to pull up the mainframe on. It was funny how something so inconspicuous could be the cause of so many mysteries. That was the point of hiding though.

“How many of these things did they fucking build?” Fruit Cup grunted and kicked at the floor. “There were only supposed to be seven!”

“Honey, calm down.” Frosty turned back from terminal and gave him a stern look. “We know what we’re against, and that’s more than anypony has had before.” She froze up for a moment. Quickly, she turned and started typing on the terminal. “If it’s like the other Facilities, maybe there’s an AP in there as well!”

“Kinda thought it would be bigger.” Predious muttered under his breath.

“What do you mean?” I turned around to find him surprised by my question.

“The mainframe.” He snorted. “Normally, they’re fairly large. Large enough that it should have had it’s own room.”

“Well, if anypony knew, it would be Pai.” I shrugged and held out my pipbuck. “Why don’t we ask her?”

And she never popped up.

“Pai?” I said as I brought the pipbuck back to my face. The silence I got in return was disconcerting to say the least. I glanced up to Predious, who seemed just as confused as me. “When I said she could take time to herself, I didn’t think she’d take it now.”

“Hey!” Frosty remarked as she took a step back from the terminal.

“Sorry!” Pai’s voice crackled from the speaker on the box terminal. With a flicker, the screen of it refreshed and displayed a little green smiling pony. “When you said there might be an AP on the other end, I had to see for myself!”

“But… I thought you couldn’t go to any other systems.” I said as I pushed past Frosty. It was odd to see Pai like this. She was rendered so simply here, it was… odd.

“Well, yeah. But as I’d said, I broke into this particular system. I left the backdoors open and slipped in again.” She made the screen flicker again and she disappeared for a few seconds before returning. “Speaking of back doors, look what I found!”

A loud hiss emitted from the wall next to us. With a mechanical whine, it split along the center and folded inward. Inside this hidden room, was an odd collection of things. A shelf, littered with archanotech parts, scrap metal, and tools lined the entrance wall. A foot or so past that, the room opened up to a large looking computer. In front of it were a pair of rotted away chairs, and two skeletal ponies sitting between them on the floor. Their bones we’re intertwined, and I shuddered to think about what their last moments were.

“Neat, huh!” Pai’s voice boomed through the large terminal screen in front of us. The screen was dim, and the white line that ran across it moved as she spoke. I’d overlooked it because I thought it was just white paint. “This system is much more accommodating than a pipbuck! This has a lot of power behind it, and it makes me feel so good!” Her voice emphasized her words like I’ve never heard out of her before. It scared me. “And it’s comfy. It’s like I was meant for this system.”

“Don’t grow up too fast.” Frost called out. It was her turn to push past me in a hurry. I almost lost my balance when she did, and when Fruit Cup pushed past me as well, I flopped over.

“Hey, it’s not like this thing is going anywhere.” Predious snorted and walked over to me. He held out his hoof to me and rolled his eyes. I wrapped my hoof around his and was surprised when he almost effortlessly picked me up. “Besides, don’t we have a ship to catch?”

“Submarine, actually.” Pai remarked casually. The white line on the screen fuzzed and became a large selection of jumbled, scrolling information. “Wow, this thing is connected to quite a few other systems. I’m going to have so much fun figuring everything out!” She squeaked through the speakers hard enough that a spark shot out of one of them. “On second thought, maybe I should slow down.”

“Hey.” I whispered as I leaned towards Predious. “What’s a submarine?” I recalled that I’d heard Harmony and her mom say the word a few times, but I never really cared.

“It’s a boat that travels underwater.” Predious blurted out. He looked down at me with a confused look. “Seriously, you’re pre-war and you didn’t know that?” Now why did he have to go and say something like that?

“What did you say?” Fruit Cups shot his glance back.

“Nothing.” I snarled at him. In that moment, I could feel the flames inside me ignite again. They’d been so calm recently, I wasn’t sure why they’d chosen now to flare up. “Just, ignore him.”

“O-okay.” Fruit Cup flashed a nervous smile before he looked back toward the computer. His legs shook for a second before he sat down, scooting closer to Frosty as she worked at the console controls under Pai.

Seriously, what was it with some stallions that they couldn’t stand up when a mare got angry? Whatever Frosty saw in him as a husband, it wasn’t his ability to be steadfast against a threat, that’s for damn sure.

“Storm, you need to calm down.” Predious said as he put his hoof on my shoulder. I turned and glared at him. He couldn’t tell me what to do. He was just…

My thoughts dropped off as I stared into his eyes. Even through his, I could see how brightly mine were glowing blue. I felt my anger wash away into nothing, and the glow faded with it. As the tension left, and the adrenaline wore off, I could feel my heart beating quickly in my chest. Was I really that worked up?

“Ooo! The orchard is pinging my mainframe!” Pai gasped. Her smiling face came back up on the display for a moment. Then, everything went dark. Every light on the mainframe and even the lighting in the basement died all at once. Nopony down here moved a muscle for nearly a minute.

“What happened?” Predious whispered.

As if they were words imbued with magic, the sound of soft humming came from inside the mainframe. The whirring of cooling fans met our ears, then came a quick flicker on the mainframe monitor. A small green line of text appeared in the bottom corner.

“Huh, looks like it shut itself down.” Fruit Cup said as he peered over Frosty’s shoulder.

Pred gave a soft gasp and stiffened up. A spike of fear ran through me as I probably came to the same conclusion. Back where I’d found her, Pai said she couldn’t shut down or she’d die!

“Is Pai still there?” I spat out and shoved myself between Frosty and Fruit. “Is she safe?”

“Only one way to find out.” Frosty sighed. She hit a few keys on the console and struck the return key. After a few seconds, the random lights around the mainframe flickered on, and the lights in the basement returned.

“Oh, she’s good.” Pai hissed through the speakers. The waving white line we’d originally seen returned and wiggled as she spoke. “She thinks she can lock me out of the system? Well she was made from Me.” Pai nearly growled through the speakers. “Frosty, if you would be so helpful as to manage our own backdoors, I’m going to show her what a mistake it was to try to kill me.”

“Who’s ‘she’?” Predious got out what we were all thinking.

“The orchard AP who I just stole half the project files from.” Pai answered both audibly and through the screen. Grainy pictures of a sunny island popped up. It showed what looked to be an old Pre-war resort, complete with happy ponies running along sun baked beaches. “She runs The Omega Orchard and it’s Tempest generator.” As she flipped through the pictures, the multistoried hotel gained a new structure on the top of it. The more pictures she flipped through, the taller it grew, until it looked like it beat the height of any ruin here in manehatten.

“Great Goddesses…” Frosty muttered under her breath. “Is that…?”

“As you know, the island is protected by a class five hurricane. It is generated by this,” Pai said shortly before changing the picture to a large room. The room looked like many that existed in my orchard when I was a filly. The only exception, was a rectangular case that was built into the floor. It had caution strips around its rim, and what looked to be plenty of failsafe levers around it. “Storm, you might remember that my Orchard had a semi-dormant Windigo kept for research. That research was applied on this one to create the perpetual storm.”

“Yep, we’re all screwed!” Fruit Cup whined.

“Oh, be quiet, dear.” Frosty snipped at him.

“As great as that is to know,” I spoke up over the two of them. “Why is the necromancer going there?” It’s not like he needed the windigo, he could have gotten the one on my orchard even before I showed up. So what was it?

“The only thing I could guess, is that he wanted to get into the secure storage vault under the resort. The Ministry of Arcane Technology used it to store all sorts of antiques and artifacts.” She sighed and cleared the screen of the pictures. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t get any more before she spiked me.”

“It’s more than enough, Pai.” I smiled my first genuine smile of the day at her. “I’m just glad you’re alright.”

“I’ll be more than alright if Frosty helps me out against her.” She projected a beaming smile across the screen before turning it back into the wiggling line. “If she stays here, we might be able to override some of the island’s systems from here.”

“Then I’m staying too!” Fruit Cup yelled and nearly dove onto Frosty. “I won’t go without her.” He wrapped his hooves around her so tightly that it looked like he was squeezing the air from her lungs.

“Dear, please.” Frosty grumbled and forcefully pulled his hooves from her. “You can do much more good if you go with them. There’s only one command console here anyway, so you couldn’t help.” She leaned up to his muzzle and gave him a quick kiss. “You need to look out for our family over there.”

“Yes... honey.” Fruit sighed softly.

“Great!” Harmony called out from behind us. “Cause if y’all are ready ta go, tha boats here an’ waitin’!.”

“Don’t worry, Storm.” Frosty looked up to me and gave me a confident nod. “With my armor, we’ll make sure to keep in touch using the Nautilus’s communications. You just get there and kick that bastard’s ass.”

“We’ll try our damnedest!” Predious chuckled as he threw a hoof around my neck. “And we aren’t coming back until he’s dead. Isn’t that right?”

“Yeah.” I said in earnest. “For once, I think we’ll be able to do this.”

I wasn’t sure what I’d expected when Predious told me it was a boat that went underwater. Whatever it was, the truth both made sense and scared me at the same time. Even before we’d all boarded, the place was cramped. Exposed pipes and electrical lines ran through every room, and the hallways were barely big enough for one and a half ponies to get through, let alone a pony in power armor. Hell, we’d spent the better part of twenty minutes being lead through a maze of hallways and stairways just to get to where we could stay out of the way.

“Now I know what a stable dweller feels like.” Predious muttered from behind me as we both squeezed ourselves into the bunk room. Funny they should call it that, seeing as it was just an area where there were twelve or so hammocks hanging from the pipes. Not so much the same as half the military bases in equestria.

“Yeah, but at least you don’t have to live here.” Tasteless commented from one of the lower hanging hammocks. “Also, dibs on this bunk.”

“The journey should only take a few hours.” A mare spoke up from the doorway. “Also, speaking from experience, this is much more cramped than a stable.” I looked up and saw something I hadn’t been expecting. “You may relax if you like, but I take pride in my crew’s efficiency.”

The batpony mare that stood in front of me wore a tight fitting naval outfit, and a short billed officers cap. All but the bangs of her purple mane had been tied in a low hanging bun, while the two long strips framed alongside her face. It pulled my attention directly to her yellow eyes, which were unfocused, but friendly. Funny enough, she didn’t look like she had any wings.

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” Tasteless blurted out suddenly.

“Of which do you refer?” The mare’s expression became more stern as she spoke, but her voice was still one of kindness and courtesy. “The fact that I am of the batpony variety, or the fact that I am blind?”

“Woah, woah.” Tasteless giggled. I so greatly wanted to reach over and smack her hard. “So wait, you're blind as a…”

“Yes.” The mare snapped. Now she both looked and sounded angry. “As a batpony. That joke never get's old.” She grumbled and turned around to leave.

“Excuse me, Miss?” Predious spoke up. As he did, I turned my gaze to Tasteless and prayed that my eyes were glowing enough to beat it into her head that she was being a bitch.

“That’s Captain to you.” The mare retorted. “Captain Doppler.”

“I don’t mean to make light of it, but navigating a ship as cramped as this while blind is fairly remarkable.” Predious sat down in one of the lower hammocks and canted his head.

“I'd been aboard this ship for years even before I was her captain.” She said with her soft voice again. “For most of my life, living aboard her has been my livelihood.” She gave us a soft smile as she spoke. “I know her and her crew inside and out. Sure we replace both parts of her and crew ponies now and again, but she never changes enough for me to become unfamiliar.” Her smile faded. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must get back to the con.”

“What an interesting mare.” Predious sighed as he laid back into his hammock.

Speaking of interesting ponies, I hadn’t seen Gauge or Shadow since we boarded. I wonder where they’d run off to. As I pondered that, there was a knock at the door. I spun around to find an annoyed muzzle pushed close to my own.

“We need to have a chat.” Diesel grunted. He stepped back out into the hallway and pointed his hoof down to the other end. “Last door on the right. Gauge is waiting.”

“I’m sorry Gauge broke me out, but I won’t apologize.” I groaned in annoyance. Really? He was blaming me for everything that happened? “If you hadn’t held me hostage to play twenty questions, I wouldn’t have mistrusted you.”

“As true as that might be, there is the right way to go about things, and the wrong way.” He snapped back at me. “Getting my sister involved, dragging her halfway around the wasteland, and nearly getting her killed is not the right way.”

“You will respect that mare, Diesel.” Skyline called from the hallway. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear her walk closer. “She’s probably the only reason that Gauge made it the entire way, and she’s the entire reason you’re mother made it to Tenpony alive.”

He didn’t drop his glare at me, but he did at least keep his muzzle shut. After a few moments, he straightened himself out and walked down the hall out of sight. From behind him, entered not just Skyline, but Shadow. She grunted as she squeezed the two of them into the bunk room and let him flop down onto the floor. Thank goodness for the slimmer enclave power armor I guess.

“He’ll be fine,” She snorted before she gave a small flap of her wings. She floated up to one of the upper bunks and rolled herself into it. “There’s a reason pegasi avoid working on boats.” She sighed and rocked herself slowly. “It’s amazing you’ve managed to get the three of us on here.”

“Heh. Three pegasi and a bitch board a submarine,” Tasteless chortled. “Sounds like the start of a bad joke.”

“The real funny thing about all this, is that many of us think we’re prepared for what we’ll find when we get there.” Skyline spoke up in an exaggerated tone. “I’ve been in this situation before. It always ends up with somepony dead by the end of it.” Normally, I’d be alright with getting Tasteless to shut up, but that was just morbid. “It’s a joke that you think you might walk out of that place at all.”

“You can’t focus on the negativity, Skyline.” I sighed and sat down. Yeah, feeling like we’re going to fail is my job, afterall. “We’ve got more info on what we’re walking into than anypony. We’ve got the support of the Steel Rangers. We can do this.”

“I’m not being negative.” She growled and peeked her head over her hammocks edge. “I’m being realistic. The sooner you start thinking the same, the less it will hurt when the shit hits the fan.”

“You see, Skyline?” I couldn’t help but share Preds smile. Sure, Sky might have had some bad times years ago, but with all of us together, we were strong enough to win. “We’re going to show up early, kill that asshole before he does what he’s there for,” I looked up at her to see her roll her eyes at me. “And absolutely nothing is going to go wrong.”

Just as I finished those words, there was a resounding boom from somewhere in the ship. The walls shuddered and groaned, and the sound of a bursting pipe down the hall wiped the smirk from my face.

“I knew it!” Fruit Cup screamed from down the hall. “We’re going to die!”

Fuck me and my big muzzle.