“Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.”

Hell.

That’s what every inch of my body had felt like it had been through. Yawning as I stumbled my way back through the bright hallways, I knew that what I really needed was a good few hours of sleep to keep moving. As comfy as that bed… my old bed looked, I wanted to get out of this fucked up facility and back on track to finish my contract. Being some weird project mare didn’t stop the world up top from running, and I still had to do the job I was hired to do.

Along with my body, my mind ached for relief. I keep getting memories flooding back in, some of them simple, such as a single word, or maybe the pungent smell of something. Other times, it’s the voices and faces of ponies long dead who at one point or another ran into me when I was here. The thing that hurt my head the most, was why couldn’t I remember any of this before? I… I couldn’t have been here over a century ago, Mom and Dad… they raised me. I wasn’t some experiment, born from a theory and a test tube.

As my thoughts wandered, I tripped over the still form of one of the lab techs, his thick frame and heavily taped up glasses scattered across the floor noisily. As I watched, my head ebbed in pain as the memory of this stallion came back. He was the pediatrician who had always taken my blood, and he had the most annoying laugh I used to giggle at. And here he was, nothing but tattered and dry remains in the facility he loved working at. I’ve always known that something went wrong in the old world that left us with the wasteland, but it never had any faces that I could feel sorry for. There were no innocents in the wastes, only casualties.

Pushing on, I rounded the last corner back towards the blast door that separated the computer fillies room from this hallway. I was happy to see that it was open and that the entire round room was glowing with different terminals and readouts. Predious stood talking with the AI at one of the consols, glancing over to me with the faintest hint of a smile. What, was he impressed by the fact I came back?

“Still in one piece I see.” He shouted across the room, his voice ringing in my ears as my tired head started to spin. At some point, I lost my hoofing and I guess it was time to lay on the floor for a while. When you are a bounty hunter out in the wastes, you are no stranger to staying up for a few days on end, but add the freezing cold, heavy injuries, and the fact that the adrenalin just wore off? You’ll find that even the heartiest of earth ponies would collapse, but you know what? After the night I’ve had, I fucking earned a rest.

The heavy latches on the enclosed wagon slid open, the large doors before me swinging outward as I got to my hooves. I stopped as my eyes had to adjust to the bright light of outside, the stunning blue of the sky was more beautiful than I had ever imagined. I jumped out of the wagon excitedly, quickly finding that Mama was waiting for me in front of a funny looking door.

The wonder of my first steps outside was lost the moment I saw that she looked sad, which in turn made me sad. “What’s wrong Mama?”

The yellow pegasus used her wingtips to wipe the one eye that peeked out from her pink mane, wicking it away as she pulled her muzzle into a smile. “Sorry Harmony, but we can’t go to the zoo today.” As she finished speaking, her smile left her.

“But… why?” It was a crushing blow. She told me that one day she would take me to the zoo, she’d even showed me pictures of all the foals who walked around happily gazing at the different animals that lived there. “Did… did I do something wrong?” Did I disappoint her because I couldn’t finish the test she gave?

She hid behind her mane and let out a whimper.

“Come on ya little monster.” The guard who had ridden with me picked me up in his magic, taking me toward the door behind Mama. My sadness was instantly replaced with fear as Mama just stood there, doing nothing. I flailed myself against the magic and managed to break free, running toward Mama and giving her foreleg the strongest hug I could.

“Well I never. She is a young filly, not a monster. I’ll see to it you are given a stern talking to when we return. For now, not another word mister.” She huffed out, now running her other hoof through my mane. “It’s okay sweetheart, we just need to take a little nap before we can go.” I knew that it was going to be alright if Mama said it would be. “Doesn’t that sound nice?”

I nodded and let go as she now wiped the forming tears from my eyes. “Where’s Daddy?” I let go of her leg, now secure in the fact that I wasn’t going to be stolen away by any mean guards. “He always reads me a story before bedtime, I can’t fall asleep without it.”

“He’ll…” She paused as she got up. “He’ll be here in a little bit, I promise. Now why don’t we go and get you ready?” She brought back her smile, filling me up with joy again. When Mama smiled, good things always followed!

She led me down a bunch of twisting hallways that looked a lot like home did, so full of ponies in white coats speaking in funny words. I wondered if they had a little filly here as well that was just like me! Maybe we could become best friends, and write letters to each other. Mama led me into a large room with a shiny metal table in it that reminded me of the table Daddy always had me lay on for check ups.

“Am I getting a check up, Mama?” I looked up to her, finding that she had started to cry again. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine dear.” She nodded her head, but didn’t look at me. “Now you be a good girl, Dr. Lightheart is just going to give you a shot that will make you go to sleep easier.” While she finished, I felt myself lift off the ground, being carried toward the table by the strange stallion’s magic.

“Alright there Harmony, you’re just going to feel a little poke. I promise it will only hurt for a moment.” He smiled to me in the same way as the doctors who saw me when Uncle Humerus was sick. I let out a small whimper as he pushed a needle into my leg, making it go numb. Mama said it was supposed to make me sleepy, so even though it was scary, I had to be a strong filly for her.

I was picked up and placed onto my back as the serum took effect, the door across the room opening as my aunts filed in. Aunt Dashy was poking at Aunt Applejack as they walked in. “You saw her in the tests, I’m telling you, she has potential.”

Applejack rolled her eyes and pointed a hoof toward me. “Ah know, which is why we’re puttin her inta cold storage. Hey Twi, are ya sure this is even gonna work?” I wanted to wave to them, but I couldn’t move at all anymore. The sound of snapping came from my sides as I could just barely see straps being pulled around me. Why would I need to go to sleep with straps? Why couldn’t I sleep in a bed?

Aunt Twilight spoke up as the seeds of doubt took root in my mind. “Yes… Fluttershy’s base theory and Pinkie’s design has successfully been implemented before, she should be perfectly preserved.” No, this was all wrong. I didn’t want to go to sleep anymore!

I tried to sit up, but I didn’t have the strength to do anything but try to pull at the straps holding me down. I whined as the tubes that I now noticed were sticking in my legs stung through the numbness as they were tugged and pulled with me. I was so afraid that I started to cry. I knew daddy had told me that I was a big pony now, and that big ponies don’t cry, but I needed him here. The table I was on jolted and lifted up, rotating me forward as I tried to call out for him, but my muzzle was numb and I couldn’t even speak.

Even though I couldn’t feel them, I knew that tears were streaming down my cheeks as the six mares in front of me stopped talking, standing in silence as the table held me in front of them. I so desperately tried to tell them I wanted to go home now, but nothing came out when I spoke but half a whimper. Mama covered her eyes with her wings and cried out, running from the room in tears. She... left me. I hadn’t been a good filly and disappointed her, so Mama left me. I cried harder than I ever had, the soft hum of something came from around me as a glass tube rose up, completely enclosing me.

I shuddered as fear took its hold when the sound of gurgling came from below me, what sounded like water rushing around under me made me tremble. As the water reached my rear legs, I felt through the numbness that it was ice cold. It was so cold that it hurt and I tried screaming out for dad. He could take it away and make it stop. Then the water reached my waist, then my chest, where the pain was unbearable as I continued to cry. As it washed up my neck, I knew I couldn’t cry anymore, hyperventilating as it rose higher and higher with the intent to swallow me whole. I sucked in as large of a breath as I could as it rose to my muzzle, holding my breath for only a few seconds before the cold forced the air from me.

My world grew dark as my lungs sucked in the blue fluid, the panic I felt receding into the depths of my mind as the cold was exchanged for warmth. It felt like mama always had when she held me, welcoming and loving. Instead of fighting, my body finally gave up as all the rest of my feelings drifted away, going to sleep in the waters embrace and waiting for the time when Mama would wake me up to go to the zoo.

I could feel the warm tears running down my cheeks as I lay on the floor, the familiar feeling of my saddlebags under my head was joined by the warmth of a blanket that had been laid over me. My thoughts raced through my head as I struggled to hold on to the memories before they slipped back into the recesses of my mind. Why had they done that to me? I had tried my hardest to be the filly they wanted, but they put me to sleep anyway. Had they forgotten that I was still alive, or did the end of the world keep them from waking me up? Did I have a life before living with Mom or Dad in the wastes, or did they wake me from my chamber in the first place?

I couldn’t help but whimper and put my hooves on my head. It was too much too quickly. My entire life was built on a foundation of secrets and lies, and now I don’t know who or what I am anymore. Am I Storm the bounty hunter, or Harmony the failed project?

“Ah, Miss Storm, you’re awake.” The voice of Predious was a welcome distraction as his approaching hoofsteps helped to refocus my thoughts. “You’ve been out for just over four hours, are you feeling any better?”

“Yeah!” The sharp enthusiasm of the AI made my head hurt. “When you collapsed, I was sad because I thought you were going to leave me like every other pony who’s visited me, but you’re still alive, so yay!”

“You’re not getting out of your half of the deal that easily.” I grumbled, pushing my self from the floor as I rubbed my hoof at my half open eyes. I would have rather enjoyed more, but four hours are better than nothing. “You promised to help us, so unless you want to be a liar…”

This time, it wasn’t just the projection of the filly that turned red, but every light in the room changed with her. “I TOLD YOU, I DON’T LIE!” She screamed out, staring me down as her voice shook the rest of my weariness from me. Right, probably still a bad idea to anger the unstable filly death machine. The room shifted to a blue tone as the projection looked at me sadly. “I had hoped that knowing that this was your home would make you see that we are like sisters, but I guess you are as disappointed with me as everypony else here was.”

“No, not disappointed.” Great, now I put her where I had been as a filly, and I hated knowing that. “Just… exhausted, frustrated, and wanting to get the hell out of this place so I can go home.” A day in bed, a good meal, maybe a long bath? That would be heaven to me right about now.

“And where would that be?” Predious craned his neck with a smirk across his muzzle, once again trying to nudge any juicy tidbit of my personal life from me. Though, my answer wouldn’t be one to reveal much, I still didn’t want to encourage him to ask more about me.

“When you are a bounty hunter, home is the closest inn.” I spoke as I hoofed my satchel up to my muzzle, biting down on the old, worn leather straps and slinging it around my neck. Home, though a fantastic sounding notion, was at the back of my mind now. Pushed there by the fact that it was still a long trek back to where I needed to deliver Predious. “One we should be heading to as soon as possible.”

“Ooo! Let me come with you!” The bright pink projection bounced up and down on her hooves excitedly.

“You know, I would, but you are kind of stuck here.” Lying through my teeth about her sticking around wasn’t normally my thing, but the fact that she’s a tad bit psychotic really makes me not want her to be around me. My thoughts were interrupted as she fuzzed off her pedestal, the entire rooms lighting dimming out for a second. Oh goddesses, why did I have to open my muzzle again. Of course she’s going to make us stay now.

My pipbuck let out an audible beep before text scrolled across my augmented vision with the words Download Successful. The AI filly popped into my vision with a bursty of digitized confetti, the sound of kazoos and party horns played as she smiled to me.

“When I was just stepping in earlier, I didn’t realize that it was quite so comfy in here!” Her voice came through the speaker as she bounded around my vision, hurting my eyes as I tried to follow her.

“But…” I waved my pipbuck in front of her. “How the hell did you get in here!? If you could transfer, why don’t you just use your monster thingy?” I looked to Predious, who was snickering to himself, enjoying this I’m sure. “Predious, help me out here!”

The filly shifted my vision to red. “Hey, he’s not a monster!” She huffed for a moment before assuming an indifferent look. “He’s a cyber minotaur, and he’s got a name.” She turned around and gazed in the direction of the metal beast’s wall impression. “Iron Will, quit being so lazy and get your flank over here!”

With a metal rumble, the minotaur stiffened in his recess, taking a heavy step out before turning towards us. The dull blue his eyes had given before was more brilliant than it had been, probably due to the fact that it had more power now. It glanced down to my pipbuck before sending twin jets of steam from it’s muzzle with a hiss, throwing a hand up into a salute.

“He says he’ll come with us if you’ll allow it.” She smiled to me and turned my vision orange. “Oh come on sis, can we keep him around?”

“Don’t refer to me as sis, my name is Storm.” I plainly remarked, going over the pros and cons of having a machine like this around. Con: It’s loud and hard to miss, so sneaking around was going to be out of the question. Pro: It’s loud and hard to miss, meaning it might keep some of the fairly smart ponies out there from messing with us. Con: it runs on some sort of energy, so I’m not sure how it would be powered when we get far away from here. Pro: it’s got a ton of power behind it, literally. Could be useful if I need to make my own exit, or fight something I couldn’t before.

“He obviously requires energy, how would he be serviced outside of the facility?” Predious must have been mirroring my own thoughts himself. I’ll give that guy one thing, and that is that he doesn’t miss much. To bad I’m hoofing him over, as I’d be dead without his help earlier. Though, if the minotaur joins up, I might not need anypony else’s help anyway.

My display changed to grey as the AI yawned. “Oh he runs on spark batteries, simple to find at any supermarket and you only have to change them once a week.” she scrunched her face up and put a hoof on her chin. “You do still have supermarkets outside, don’t you?”

“Yes.” Predious answered quicker than I could, which was good, because I wasn’t sure what to tell her. Not having done any ruin exploring before, it had been easy to forget that she’s been trapped in here for over a century with no way to know what the outside world was really like. “Though, things may not be quite like you remember ponies talking about them being.” That was most definitely an understatement. “Well, what do you say Storm?”

“Fuck it, why not.” With as bad as this night’s been, I really need all the help I can get. “Just so you know, you can follow us as long as you do what I say. I’m the one in charge, so you don’t go around killing ponies and causing trouble without my say.”

“Okie Dokie Loki!” She bounced on her hooves with a bright smile. The compass on my display spun on it’s own and displayed a triangle marker just above the marker for southeast. “This is the fastest way out if you would like to continue towards the previous engagement you spoke of earlier. I hope the ponies you are meeting don’t mind me coming along.”

Normally, I’d say no, but the fact that the contract was posted by the Steel Rangers made me a bit uneasy in the first place. More-so now that I was wearing something on my hoof that was more valuable to them than anything I was carrying. The good thing was with her robotic friend with us, they probably wouldn’t be stupid enough try anything rash.

“By the way, what are we supposed to call you?” Predious spoke up as he gathered his own saddlebag. “This whole time we’ve been speaking, I don’t think I ‘ve heard you say it once.”

“I… umm… no pony’s ever asked since the lockdown. I know I have one, but it’s corrupted in my files...” She shifted my display to blue and curled herself up. “I… I don’t know my name.”

“Well, why don’t you just choose one?” Predious, the voice of wisdom once again.

“Because a name is special! Father gave me that name because I’m unique, I can’t just go overwriting it!” She sniffed and wiped the digital tears from her eyes.

“You father? You mean Dr. Panacea?” I wanted to call him dad as well, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say the words. That was another life, one which I can never get back. Storm Rider is the only name I want to go by now, and my Mom and Dad are the only ones I want to refer to by those names.

For a moment it looked like she was frozen in my display, sitting unmoving as I waited for her to answer. Instead, she quickly let out a gasp while snapping the display from blue to pink so fast that it was almost blinding. “I could think up a nickname! It wouldn’t overwrite my name and you can call me by it!” She sat down and pulled out her bubble pipe, turning the screen purple. “Now what should it be…”

Both Predious and I sat in silence for a moment, waiting as she did nothing but sit there again. “Not as easy as you thought, is it?” I laughed and shrugged. “You know, if it’s to hard, we could just think of one for you.”

“No no.” She swapped the color to yellow for a moment. “I’ll think it up. Just…” She gasped and changed the screen to pink again. “You both can call me PIE!”

“As in the food?” I didn’t so much get it, but it was simple and easy to remember.

“As in the letters P.A.I.” Predious spoke up with an interested tone. “I think she just figured she was a pink AI, so she combined them.” He shrugged and got to his hooves. “Now that it’s settled, maybe we should get moving?” He held his hoof out, pointing it in the direction we had to go. “Would you still like me in front?” Did he find a map while I was resting, or was it one hell of a lucky guess?

It was unimportant, as he at least still knew what I wanted. “Yup, you know what they say, age before beauty.” I gave him a quick smirk as he trot by, his magic levitating me my rifle as he passed. I quickly slung it around me and let out a sigh as I just couldn’t pin down why he was cooperating when he knew I was going to turn him in.

“From what the files say on project harmony. I’m thinking you may just be just a tad bit older than me.” He laughed out as I got in line behind him, the giant steel machine turning around as we passed it. It’s heavy stomps we punctuated by the distinct whines of hydraulics as we walked, entering the halls that no longer seemed anywhere as frightening as they once had.

“Hey, watch it buster. Didn’t anypony ever tell you not to talk to a mare about her age?” Even though the halls weren’t as bad, that didn’t mean I still didn’t want to distract myself. This proved not to be so much of a problem as we made it to the rubble blocked entrance in only another minute of trotting. It took so long to get to before, I was sure it was further away. Maybe it was another trick of the shadow pony I had seen, or maybe I was much more afraid than I had realized I was at the time.

“You might want to stand back.” Pai tapped on the display with her hoof, successfully getting my attention. My legs froze up as a long hiss sounded from behind me, the sound of metal grinding against the tiled flooring was all I needed to hear before I instinctively flung myself to the side.

The heavy duty pistons that were designed for use on things like forklifts, gave the robot an impressive speed as it took off toward the large pile of debris in the way. For a moment, I was afraid that it having it’s head and horns forward was going to mean that it would just crunch backward into itself from the impact, but it struck the blockage with a heavy whump, and immediately the area we were in was nothing but thick dust and a shower of concrete and dirt. I rubbed my eyes as the dust cleared, the sight of the mechanical beast on the other side of the large hole it punched in the pile filled me with a sense of awe.

“Woo hoo!” Pai called out, twirling and dancing across my vision as digital confetti rained down. “Way to go! Iron Will is THE number one smasher around!” The minotaur turned and bowed to us before striking a pose that I had seen old world bodybuilders do to show off their muscles.

I pushed myself up and dusted myself off, keeping an eye on Predious as he did the same. Now that we were getting closer to the exit, he could bolt at any minute. The second we were outside, if he made a move, I didn’t really want to go searching through a blizzard to find him after last night. Without another word, onward we trot, winding our way to the hallway with the generator access hatch. We passed through several more uninteresting hallways after that until we reached a thick blast door that had a digital keypad on it.

“What’s the code to open it?” Predious beat me to the punch.

Pai shifted my color to grey and propped her head on a digital table with her hooves. “The code is…” She gave a long pause, stretching this out for some reason. “1… 2… 3… 4… 5.” Predious hit the buttons as she spoke, perking his ears as she finished.

He shut his eyes tightly and put his hooves on the his head. “So the combination is... one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! That's the kind of thing an idiot would have on a safe!”

I blinked as I realized that was the same combination that dad had for the safe in their home. I was about to speak up, but the loud squelch of grinding metal made me cringe as the heavy door rose slowly into the ceiling. Before us sat a long, stark white hallway that stretched on for what had to be a thousand feet or so, ending in a small, grey circle. It was just about the brightest place I had ever seen, or would probably ever see, and it made me angry that they didn’t use this many lights in any of the other hallways. I could have used that shit when everything was creepy as hell. Would it have helped? Probably not, but I would have at least felt better.

I prodded at Predious to keep moving, and only got a grumble before he took to trotting ahead. I followed him, wondering just how much further it was to get to the exit. As we got closer, the circle turned into an oval shaped hatch and the marker on my display disappeared. Without warning, there was a mechanical hiss, making me panic and throw myself against the wall in an attempt to avoid the minotaur’s charge. Only after I hit my head against the wall, did I make out that the hiss came from in front of me, not behind.

As the hatch swung open, I could see the dark and foreboding cloud cover of the wasteland sitting low in the sky as it always had. With a sigh, I got up and noticed that Predious had frozen in his hoofsteps, a look of fear was in his eye as he trembled slightly. I caught a glimpse of a dark figure outside of the hatch as I got my hooves under me, quickly getting to my hind legs and swinging my rifle around toward them.

The pony was cloaked in some sort of fancy robe that concealed their identity from me completely. As I realized I hadn’t reloaded since the fight, I waited for them to make a move before reacting further. “Hmm, interesting. So you’re the reason it disappeared...very interesting.” It was the voice of an older stallion. This realization took my mind off of him for only a moment, which he used to turn and walk from my limited view.

I didn’t know what he was talking about, but the fact that he knew this exit was here was reason enough for me to stop him. What he just said told me he knew what had been happening down there, and if so, maybe he was responsible for it and I could pay him back for the shit I went through. I bolted past Predious and stepped through the hatch, finding myself sink fetlock deep into mud. For some reason, all the snow in this area had melted, and had made the ground a soggy pit. The cloaked figure hadn’t left any hoofprints, and as I found, was nowhere to be seen as I walked around the cleverly disguised exit.

“A rock? That’s what they hid the exit in?” Predious sounded upset for some reason, but it answer the the question of why we walked out into the middle of an old farm field. The field was strewn with boulders and rocks of various sizes, and a farmhouse, barn, and silo could be seen at the other end.

“You know what? I could care less.” I slung my rifle around my neck again, tilting my head up as the cold breeze ran through my mane. “I’m just glad we made it out.”

A glimmer had caught my eye off on the horizon. I don’t know whether or not it was nostalgia from my old life, that I had never really had taken the time to properly look at it, or the fact that the past day had been nothing but darkness and fear, but the sunrise managed to force a small smile to my face.