"We have a lot of things to talk about." I had told them, whence morning had arrived and we were eating our breakfast, mine having consisted of ambient emotions throughout the neighborhood and canned peaches...

Cait had paused from his meal to look at me, his expression at first confused, then I sighed, "About yesterday."

Understanding dawned and he looked away back to his meal, the usual smirk replaced by a grim line of stubbornness overtook his features, "Aria, we voted on it, and agreed that it was too dangerous to let it go."

I sighed, "Don't you think some things deserve a second chance? It wanted its freedom, just like I did back in the stable." I grit my teeth, "Aren't I dangerous to let go under that reasoning?"

"Aria. Your a changeling, not some super hacker artificial intelligence that could literally make its own army."

"You're right, I'm a changeling." I snorted, "A creature of deception and master of illusions who no one in the war never even knew existed until the failed attack on Canterlot. I drain emotions from everyone around me, either gradually or directly, and the strongest of us were rumored to be able to put others into a weakened hypnotic trance."

Cait was speechless for just a moment, then he opened his mouth, "Yet he is not you. He murdered half a dozen rangers and several more scribes before we came here. By locking down their armor then sending a hacked bot to finish them off while they were unable to move." He gestured at me, "You wouldn't do that."

Grey cut in from the other room, "Wouldn't be so sure about that tech-junkie," He entered, an unlit cigerette hanging from his mouth as he looked between us, "Ponies in her stable had to do all sorts of cruel and unusual things in order to stay alive, including killing their own family."

I went silent, looking down at the ground, of course he'd pull that up. I didn't want to kill the other members of my caste, I was forced to by our overseers. Either one of us lived, or no one at all. Changelings I had trained, fought, and lived with, dead at my own hooves. An entire caste's legacy narrowed down into one changelings hooves. Then disgraced as that sole survivor escaped to where she is today. Even the slight twinge of pain where the Aqualight had struck me was now muted in retrospect to that. Cait looked unnerved, and I couldn't blame him. I grabbed some of my stuff, mainly Ambush and the bags containing her ammunition.

I started for the door, Cait's voice rang out, softer than I'd ever heard it before, "Aria...Is...That true?"

I didn't acknowledge it, "I'm going out, need to track down a sprite-bot." I left without another word.

I only bothered to disguise myself as my usual disguise long enough to clear eyesight of the city before ditching it and taking off into the air, wings unfolded and buzzing quietly as I flew at a leisurely pace, high enough in the air to try and better try and spot one of the basketball sized balls of floating metal with wings, It took a while, but I managed to track one down, the eerie pre-war polka music that was blaring from it having given its position away as I flew over a ruined house, and touched down right as the bot in question went out a broken window. I stood in front of it, and followed it for a while, and I was rewarded by the robot going silent, and swiveling in place to face me. Without the music, the little thing was completely silent. Before long the monotonous voice of Watcher emitted from the bot, "Hello Aria. What took you so long?"

Right to business, great. "Hello Watcher, and to answer your question," I shook my bandaged leg at him, my own voice weary, "Got knocked out for a week by an Aqualight, doesn't help that I also had to manage some other tasks in order to try and acquire some gear for heading north. Managed to get your information by the way."

It was silent for a moment before replying, "Ouch, not many survive being hit by one of those. Though judging from your expression, that's not the only thing that's hurt since the last time we've met."

I deadpanned, a feat perfectly easy to do when your a creature who can disguise as another a whim, "That's not even the start of it."

"Well if you want someone to lend an ear, I have a bit of time." Watcher offered.

I sighed, "You'd really want to hear?"

"Yes." Came the monotonous reply, and I sat down.

Well I had some time to waste, so I filled him in on all the details while he downloaded the large cache of files he wanted from my pipbuck. By the time we had arrived to the present, he had enough time to transfer his end of the bargain, the map of the Crystal Empire to my pipbuck and disconnected the sprite bot. After my tale had ended Watcher took a few moments, before commenting, "That's a lot of stuff."

I couldn't help myself, I chuckled, "Yes. Not so much I bet as some folks... But a lot of stuff for someone who just left the Stable."

"Though you shouldn't really blame them, some things can't be saved, Aria..." Watchers voice droned, though I imagined it was a slightest bit sad, hard to tell from a monotonous robot voice, "If it helps, robots out here tend not to be sane anymore due to time having corrupted their circuits and by result, programming. Cait did the right choice by dismantling it. But while morally, from your view, I can understand that this seems to be a wrong decision."

"How is it not wrong?" I quietly spat back at him.

"Bias." The spritebot declared, as though that one word was the answer, "Yours is to your fellow 'test subjects', while I use the term generally, this applies to anything that would otherwise seem otherwise impossible to reason with. This 'Maul' character could of easily killed you by the sounds of it, yet he didn't because of your actions, and healing an injury."

"What does this have to deal with the program though?"

The bot took a moment to look down, before staring at me directly again, "The difference between Maul and a machine designed to kill things is that, one had a wound and was sane, while the machine lacked what we would call, a 'soul'."

"A soul?" I asked, questioningly.

Watcher explained, "A soul is like a spirit, your subconscious if you will, it manages the body, helps you decide between right and wrong, and oh so more. It grows with compassion and friendships, but things like betrayal and murder breaks it, not just any killing mind you, but murder as in killing unarmed foals and ponies you know for sure are innocent."

"Ah." I said, looking down, "Then I must not have a soul."

"Why do you say that?" Watcher questioned, it was so damn hard to tell if he was surprised or outraged, or even feeling anything at all with that Luna damned monotone.

"Because what creature with a soul murders their own family?" I shot back, and to my surprise...

Watcher responded, "One forced to in order to survive. It's not your fault that those... I despise to call them this... Scientists, decided to play the gods of both creation and death."

"But it was I who pulled the trigger, none the less." My voice lowered to a whisper, "Any of my other caste members would be far more suited to this than I... 12 was a great tech junkie, 17 an heavy duty warrior, 4 was a lot more sneakier than I ever was, and 8 could list every single element on neighton's chemical chart and its atomic weight and number. 28 was a leader, born and raised, only to die at a young age..."

"But you are not them, and they are not you." Watcher replied, "You have your own set of skills and personality. Tell me, what do you think most people concentrate on for preparing to get into a firefight?"

"Being able to heal themselves if they get hurt?" I answered, it was only natural after all, if you couldn't heal yourself after a battle you'd might as well be dead out in these hostile environments.

"They focus on guns." Watcher bluntly replied, "lead spewers, fire breathers, explosives, knives, blades, energy weapons, power armor, Combat drugs, and occasionally the odd pool cue. In other words, most people tend to think more on how to kill the enemy the quickest so they survive, just not how long they're going to survive after they kill their enemy." The sprite bot hovered closer, "Tell me, how many times have you healed someone at the expense of your own magic since learning those healing spells?"

I started to count them, out loud, and after a few seconds the sprite bot interrupted me, "A lot. And did you ever think someone else would be able to heal themselves?"

"Well yes, but stim potions aren't a very effective means to get a bullet out of your gut or resetting bone." I learned that the hard way with 19, the poor sap had been hit with a hollow point round, only the round didn't want to leave when we gave him a stim potion to leave, and he later died of trauma as the round was still digging into him after the fight was over. Needless to say a lot of us had been traumatized back then before we were allowed to use magic.

"Exactly." Watcher droned, "You think about helping others over killing every single thing that opposes you. And if that doesn't mean you have a soul, then a lot of good ponies I know don't have them either."

I sniffed, a small smile donning my face, "Can't argue against it if you put it that way watcher, thanks."

"No Aria, thank you." Watcher replied, if a sprite bot that was unable to change its faceless expression could look serious, it would be, "You remind me a bit of a friend of mine actually, she'd always worry about others, and keeping everyone alive rather than war." The sprite bot was silent for a few seconds, as though whoever it was behind the bot was mumbling something that the microphone couldn't pick up, "Also think I figured out your virtue, but I'll leave it until I have more eviden- do you hear that?"

I tilted my ears, catching nothing, my senses not feeling anything either, "Hear what?"

"Hold on, think this thing has caught a new radio...signal...Huh that's new."

"What?" I hated being left in the dark, some say ignorance is bliss, I find it annoying, I checked my pipbuck, yep. That was new, I flipped it on.

I was met with a series of beeps, and a new coordinate on my pipbuck as a message played with it, "-ryone is welcome to see the next big movie in the wasteland, where magic emitters, starmetal alloys, DNA hybridization, force field particle research, Auto-Doc advances in cranial, cardiac, and trauma surgery... the hopes and dreams of a century are investigated upon in dramatic film! Learn how to make these wonders a reality, now showing at your local drive-in theater! Come on down to see the latest in evolutionary medical technology, everyone is welcome to see the next big movie in the wastelan-" It continued to repeat, and I shut it off.

"That's something I gotta see." Watcher said, "How about you? Up for a movie?"

I snorted, "This sounds like the basis of a pre-war romance book."

"So is that a no or a yes?"

"Fine." I groaned, "But if we get shot, I'm blaming you."

"Alright, alright."

It was turning towards night, or what was considered as night in the wastelands anyway, when we arrived, and I'll admit, I didn't walk or fly the entire way there, needless to say, seeing a Sprite bot drag someone around ontop of it would of gotten a few chuckles out of Cait if he had been there. Of course when we got there we did what any sane person would do, well what any sane pony with a sniper rifle scope would do anyway. Besides the unhealty amount of wrecked pre-war carriages that were here, there semed to be no one in there, well nothing but a strange black pillar with red lines running up its sides in strange square like patterns.

Curious I asked watcher, but he was at a loss for what it was as well. We approached it, and as the clock reached 11:30, the obelisk lit up, and flashed the image of a two ponies in rubber suits with fishbowls on their heads crossing hooves with each other. I sat down in a ruined carriage, and watcher floated down next to me, "Huh. So it's an actual thing." he asked, once the movie had started and we had gotten into a combat scene between the two male colts.

"Eeyup." I responded, eyes locked on the combat, and occasionally snickering at the melee, even I could tell they were bad at fighting. For one, their hooves weren't placed anywhere near where either colt could gain the upper-hoof. a quick shot to the throat, being near every caste's favorite.

Time passed, and the giggling died down as we got into the more serious aspects of the movie, but something was wrong, I felt it in my gut, my eyes were also getting heavy, and watcher hadn't made a comment since that last one, "Watcher?" I asked.

No response.

"Watcher?" I asked again, eyes drooping, as a yawn threatened to break free.

No response.

"Watch...er?" I nudged the sprite bot, but it rolled along the bench. I flicked my head around,and too late I could see that the obelisk was breathing out a thin light blue mist from its confines, and as I tried to bring myself up, I collapsed, rolling out of the carriage and impacting the ground. But before I could feel it, the depths of unconsciousness consumed me.

Xp Footnote: Level-up: New Perk: Medical Harmony: This replaces the medical glow spell, and in turns allows you to spend your magic faster than the last medical glow for an even faster healing rate, but on multiple ponies in one cast rather than one for each one. No injury surpasses your limits but severed limbs, incurable diseases, and radiation sickness.

Companions Lost: You have lost all your companions, they will be waiting for you back in The Hole.

DLC: Summer Smiles: downloaded.
Maximum Level cap increased by 5! New Perks and Traits available!

Next Chapter: Summer Smiles DLC 1: No place like The Big Grin. Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 47 Minutes