The nine pirates had me surrounded. I jumped, trying to get out from the middle of them. The buck I tried to jump over plowed right into my underside, sending us both crashing to the ground. The others pinned me before I could get back on my hooves.

She all ours, you wanna be first Cap'n?

No, I think I'll go topside and send the unicorn and filly down here for the rest of you, have fun~

The captain disappeared, to my horror I felt things shift, some part of my awareness told me I was no longer in control of my physical self. No, no no! I needed to get in control before she harms my crew!

Break her.

The buck that had been shot in the heart stood on his rear hooves and brought his weight down on my back legs, breaking them. I let out a cry of pain that seemed to shake SaddleSands.

He moved to do the same to my forward legs, but before he did so my back legs recovered. The pain ended instantly and it was if my legs had never been hurt in the first place. The buck at first seemed upset, but then he smiled. His smile made me shudder, I started to quiver at the idea I saw form on his face.

Spread her.

The bucks holding me down spread my back legs apart, and the buck calling the shots got behind me. I saw what he intended to do, I knew what was about to happen, and in that realization, a fear I never knew existed welled up in me, a primal fear. A sense of rejection was thrown out of my entire being.

Get away from me!

Everything was blown away from me, the pirates, the ground, the buildings, the island, the sky. All that was left was a vacuum of darkness, with me at its center. In the stillness that followed, the fear and terror that consumed me slowly ebbed away, and my quivering subsided.

For several minutes I stood in suspended darkness before everything gradually returned. I stood back in the center of SaddleSands, the pirates were getting up, they were spread all around the town with confused looks.

Looking at the pirates, and considering what just happened, I realized something. I wasn't a part of the lobby, the lobby was a part of me. I looked around for the door, and saw it attached to one of the buildings. Why does the door need to be attached to a wall?

With a thought, a door appeared right behind the nearest pirate as he got up. Feeling victorious with my alteration of the lobby, I ran to that pirate and the door opened as I bucked him through it. It slammed shut and disappeared before he could attempt to leave, and in that moment my salvation appeared.

The other pirates saw what happened, and noticed the grin on my face. I was going to vacate these Celestia-damned bastards from my lobby. With a thought, the entire town became walled in, and I started charging the pirates.

First the rifle wielder, he tried to run from me, an opened door appeared in his path and swallowed him whole.

Then the five that were killed by the grenades, one after the other I sent them through the door. Two fell for the same trick as the second. Two others were bucked through. The last one had the door appear under him as he jumped away from me, falling into the waiting doorway. I found it invigorating that my body didn't seem to be physically weak in the lobby. Were this outside, I wouldn't be able to send these pirates flying with my kicks.

Leaving me and the buck that tried to violate me. He eyed me, hatred in his eyes, my gaze matched his. I charged at him, he charged me. Before we collided, a door appeared in front of him, closed. He smashed into it with a satisfying thud.

I then picked the door up with my mouth, and bashed him with it repeatedly. After smashing him to pulp, I waited for him to heal, then slammed the door on him one last time, this time with the door being open. He disappeared inside and was closed off from the lobby.

Being alone in the lobby again, I wondered how I was going to get my body back. I was in the lobby for some time, how long I wasn't certain, time moved at an uncertain pace in here. I changed the interior of the lobby several times, trying to provoke some sort of affect that would get me back to myself.

Wait, how did the other ponies know what was going on outside? There must be some way, Zerkash always seemed to be aware of what was transpiring outside!

Thinking to see the outside, the lobby changed. I was now in SaddleSands, I was myself, but not myself. I could see what I was seeing, feel the pain in my face, smell the fire nearby, but I had no control over my movements.

I saw Tabben sifting though a pile of goods, he pulled out a potion and gave it to Mek, and she gave it to me.

Good, I can kill her first once the wounds are fixed, the bitch has some buck and dash, should be easy to kill her shitty crew with those.

What! You are not killing my crew!

Everything flinched, and I saw Mek give me a confused look.

Fuck

I saw myself pull out Trust from my saddlebags and took aim at Mek, her eyes opened wide in alarm and confusion.

Trust didn't fire.

This shitty crappy fucking gun!

I felt pain in my chest as Tabben rammed me, his horn pieced into me. I felt heat and pain wash over me as heat radiated from his horn. I separated myself from the pain. Wait, I separated myself from the pain?

The wound in my chest stopped hurting, for me at least, the pirate captain was screaming in agony, she was speaking all manner of curses with my own mouth. Everything faded to black as my body passed out. I really hoped that Tabben hadn't just killed me.

I drew myself back to the lobby, the pirate was there as well. I understood now, she fell here because she was near death, as I had come here those other times when I was near death. It would be nice if I could enter the lobby without actually being in mortal peril.

I summoned an open door above her, slammed it onto her and closed it on her.

No you don't, you damn cunt.

I was hit from behind, being knocked to the ground I saw her standing over me. She didn't get caught in the hallway!?

Like I'm gonna give up that easily. Stupid bitch, I'm not leaving until I've taken everything from you. Your virginity, your body, your life, your crew, your ship, your crappy ass gun, everything!

She was going to take everything from me?

She was going to steal from me?

No. No she wasn't!

I'm tired of things being stolen from me. Ever since pirates came to my island a week ago, I've kept having things stolen from me.

My home was stolen from me on the first night.

My chance at a safe and comfortable life was stolen from me when Ruby died on the second day.

My belief that I was a normal pony was stolen the third day.

My freedom was stolen on the forth day.

My trust in other ponies was stolen on the fifth day.

My memories were stolen on the sixth day.

And today, my body was stolen from me.

I am tired of ponies stealing from me, of the wasteland stealing from me. I wasn't going to allow it anymore, I was going to fight against it. I am going to fight for what's mine.

Get out.

Make me, damn bitch.

Very well.

Letting my anger guide my thoughts, I made to get her out.

I giant hoof descended from the sky and crushed the pirate. The lobby was mine, it answered to my will, and I wasn't going to share it with scum like her. The hoof disappeared. The pirate crawled out of the crater, her bones healing.

Get out.

Fuck you.

The ground swung out to either side of her and crushed her, sending blood and gore everywhere. The ground returned to normal, revealing a pony shaped smear that was the pirate. The blood and gore returned as the pony became whole again.

Just wait and see, one day, you'll be just like me. Damn bitch.

Get!

A door appeared behind her, it was open.

Out!

A giant hoof slammed her from the side, and pushed her through the door, the door closed and I was alone again, and for the first time, I found safety in the solitude.

Glad that the lobby was clean of the pirates, I wondered about Zerkash's fate.

Looking around, I was sad that Zerkash was gone. Had he passed on and not bothered to say goodbye?

Thinking back on it, I hadn't recalled feeling his presence since Wildcard had taken custody of me. Had she stolen Zerkash from me as well? Just what was Wildcard capable of? She knew about the lobby, maybe she had some means of manipulating it?

I need to return to Sandstone. I need to confront Wildcard. I needed to confront the slave market. Assuming Tabben hasn't actually killed me that is. Considering the notion that I may in fact be dead, I walked over to the rusty door I forced nine pirates through.

Trying the latch, I was annoyed that the door now refused to open.

Not wanting to be in the lobby anymore, I closed my eyes and let it all fall to darkness.

I was on my side as I came too. My legs were bound, and I was in one of the buildings in SaddleSand. I seem to have taken up the habit of waking up a prisoner this past week. Tabben was sitting in the room looking over his supplies. Hearing me stir against the ropes, he looked at me. His stare was threatening, he was appraising me.

“You're name?”

“Winter Rain,” I answered, he slumped with relief before moving towards me. He knew I was myself just from that?

“Wait, that's all you needed to tell I was myself?” I asked, did he actually trust me?

“I can tell when a pony is lying to me about their name, its part of my special talent.” So no, he didn't trust me, he trusted in his talent.

“And just was that about," he asked, "is it going to happen again? Let me guess, it's part of your 'story'?” I nodded.

“I got rid of the pirates, but it could happen again if we end up killing a bunch of terrible ponies. Where are the others? I want to talk about this with everypony.” He undid my ropes, getting up I saw a scar on my chest where he had stabbed me.

“They're scavenging right now, lets go out and get this over with,” he informed me. The town was dead, I wasn't going to make a big deal over scavenging their property. They couldn't take it with them into whatever lies beyond the lobby anyway.

Going outside with him, I saw that the sun was still high in the sky, I must have been out for only an hour. Solar noticed us first, and in short order my crew had gathered. After I assured them I was fine, I told them about the lobby, Zerkash, my healing song, and about destiny labs. I then filled in Tabben and Golden on the events that lead us to Rustic, starting from the night I left my island.

“Well, I haven't heard that one before.” Was Tabben's comment, he seemed surprised, and a little impressed. The surprise was shared by everypony but Mek, since she already knew about some of the details. Wait, Tabben sounded impress? Why did that fill me with pride? I must be suffering some of his crazy from when he stabbed me.

“So we're here to find some answers about who you are? It sounds like it's a little bigger than that, you think?” Solar pointed out.

“Sounds like an adventure to me, and I'm all for that!” Golden cheerfully proclaimed.

“Sounds like somepony isn't up for going to Friendship City any more.” Mek said, “Ya wanna find answers, well I'm with ya the whole way. We got a facility to dig through on this island. Shall we get to it?”

“I still have those shock grenades I prepared. If you want we can do it now.” Solar suggested. I wanted to that, but something else needed to be taken care of first.

“Before we do that, I need a favor from you three.” I said, looking to Tabben Mek and Solar, “I need you to take out the pirate ship.” They shared a look, the same look they shared last night when I suggested stealing a ship.

“Done with the 'thou shall not kill' bit?” Tabben asked, and I shook my head.

“Take any that surrender as prisoners, otherwise, do what you must. I want everything they have. They stole it from other ponies, we'll make sure other ponies get it back. I also want one of those turrets they have on their deck. Do what you need to for capturing the ship, I'm leaving how you go about it to Tabben.” Tabben nodded. Having two ponies that could take charge did have its advantages.

“I guess this means you're staying here with Golden while we do it?” Mek asked me, and I nodded in confirmation.

“Yes, I don't want to be near anymore pirates when they die, I don't want to repeat what happened earlier if I can avoid it. I trust the three of you can handle it?” They nodded to me.

“Why do I have to stay behind?” Gold asked, almost pouting.

“To keep me company while I mope around, of course.” And to keep her out of harm. I won't be foolish enough to think I can protect her all the time as a member of our crew, but I can at least do this much.

“You'll be fine right? We won't come back to find you missing a leg and speaking in zebra will we?” Solar asked, I almost laughed at the picture. He returned my chuckle with a smile of his own, he was helping me feel better, and I appreciated it.

“We cleared the village, I have EFS either way, I'll be fine, you three be careful, we'll be waiting for you. Take what you can and do so quickly. We can worry about going through what we get later. I still want to get into the lab by tonight.”

With that they went to Shelter and got it running.

Golden and I sat at the dock and watched it sail off. I rubbed the scar on my chest. They probably made me drink the potion instead of doing things my way. A little bit of potion on the wound helps the skin heal properly from burns, causing less scarring. This scar was going to keep, but I was fine with that.

I needed a reminder of what happened today, I must never forget. I hope there's some way to keep dead ponies from taking over. Thinking that, my gaze turned to the dome atop the small mountain past the village.

“I was scared, when Tabben did that to you. Mek was mad, Solar almost tackled him.” Golden informed me as she saw me rub the scar. Solar tackling Tabben, that would have been a sight to see.

“He was protecting Mek,” I said “I need to thank him for that, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if she died over something so stupid as that.” I don't want the blood of my friend literally on my hooves.

We saw explosions happen on the deck of the stranded pirate ship, it had drifted towards the island, but it was still too far to hear the explosions over the waves crashing into the dock. It didn't take long for the fireworks to end, and our ship lined up with theirs, and I assume Tabben and Mek boarded.

“Rain... if Penny or I had died, would we have ended up in the lobby?” She asked me quietly. That thought chilled me, I hoped that if that were ever the case, they would chose to move on rather than stay by my side in their death.

“Yes, you would have. But that didn't happen, I saved you both. So don't worry about that. Worry about it if it happens, and only if it happens. Okay?” I pulled her close and gave her a reassuring hug, and she nodded.

“Okay, I won't worry about it... So Rain, how'd you get rid of the pirates when you were possessed?”

I recounted the story, leaving out the part that still made me shiver thinking about. She really enjoyed it when I told her how I took the pirates out, especially the last two.

“You crushed her with a giant hoof, that's so cool!” She swung her hooves around as if punching the air. My mind had conjured up the pirate captain being sent flying over the horizon by Golden's air punches, which made me chuckle a little.

We saw Shelter returning. As it got closer I noticed a lot of stuff laying on the deck in piles. Mostly crates, and what looked like the parts of a turret. Well, looks like we'll be able to arm our ship with something to handle future sea battles.

Shelter docked to the harbor and we all reunited for a quick rundown of events. Tabben had Solar bombarded the deck to send the crew below deck, and docked when that happened. Then Mek and Tabben went into the ship and cleared it out. No pirate was welcome to the idea of surrendering when they learned their captain was dead.

The three then got all the cargo that looked worth saving and brought it over, as well as parts from the turrets. Solar and Mek would be putting it together when we had the time for it.

We had stolen goods from the pirates, and salvage from the ruined town. Pretty soon we were also going to be in a mess of robot parts from the lab. Using what we had obtained, we made sure we were well equipped to handle the lab. Looks like we would be leaving SaddleSands a lot wealthier then when we arrived.

Mek had taken a liking to a battlesaddle one of the pirates on the ship had. It had a barrel to each side that shot high powered shotgun shells. While slightly more powerful than the combat shotgun, its real power was the fact that the battlesaddle auto-reloaded and could shoot it short bursts. It was made to perforate without mercy. Had she wanted it earlier in the day, I would have denied her, now I wasn't so willing to handicap my crew against potential enemies.

I showed Golden how to use the spark grenades Solar had given us. Spark grenades let out a pulse of electricity that was harmless to ponies, but debilitating to machines. The worst that could happen to us with a spark grenade was a bad mane day. Looking over Golden, I was annoyed that she didn't have any proper protection. What I would give to find some filly sized barding to cover her up in.

As Mek was trying out the new battlesaddle, Solar returned from scouting the island for the entrance to the facility.

“The dome on top is completely sealed off. I suspect that the facility is split into two wings, the dome, and the manufacturing floor. Once we get inside we should look for a map that leads to the dome. Or if there is no map forthcoming, we just try and find any path that leads up. The entrance is past the clearing you were held in. The facility is built into the mountain.” he informed us. He looked pretty excited considering that we were about to enter a supposedly hostile environment.

I looked to my crew, this was a risk, a risk for me to find answers. I am a selfish pony, and they were choosing to accompany me.

“Let's go, and thank you,” I said to them. Before I had even realized it, I had a crew of capable ponies at my side, willing to confront danger with me. Maybe we're all just a bunch of fools, but it made me happy to not be handling this alone.

“Think nuthin of it,” Mek said, she was with me because I saved her, and she enjoyed my singing. She cared for me more than is practical, but it was precious to me.

“I'm not gonna miss out on an adventure,” Golden proclaimed, I had saved her twice. And now she was swept up in my quest, in our adventure. She was the light that reminded me that the wasteland wasn't just darkness.

“Well, think of all the salvage just waiting for us, I'll admit, I'm looking forward to what I can put together with what we gather up!” Solar proclaimed. I had given him a purpose, a ship and a crew to be a part of. Though he was scared of fighting, his knowledge and skill proved a boon to us.

“Like I'm going to be left out of a mess like this. Whatever this is, it involves a lot more than just you, and I intend to be a part of it. Stop thinking we need your gratitude and get moving, we're with you,” Tabben said, in a very Tabben fashion, as in sounding both insulting and inspiring.

He was here to look after Mek, and Golden. Somewhere over today's events I started to respect him, and his arrogance lead him to take charge when I couldn't, when I faltered, he took up the slack.

I looked at the ponies around me. They were my crew. Today I saw us work together, and we were still standing despite Tabben overheating, and the pirates capturing us. I didn't want to lose any of them. We had met at different times, under different circumstances, but they were important to me.

I did not want my crew stolen from me. I would fight for them, as they would fight for me. With a fire burning in my chest, I led us towards the facility.

“Ya look pretty happy right now, lets see if we can leave this island behind with a smile on our faces tonight.” Mek said, addressing first me, then the rest of us. We all shared a look, it was a promise of sorts, and I intended to hold us to it.

We approached the entrance to the facility. There was rubble and debris strewn about the entrance, as if a great deal of gunfire and battles had taken place here. The entrance was a tall steel doorway embedded into the rock face, its doors long removed by previous scavengers. Looking inside we could see with what internal light remained, a hallway weathered by bullets, explosions, and in some spots blood.

Walking towards the door, red bars were slowing appearing on my EFS, they were stationary. Having Mek take point, I followed behind her, the rest of the group taking up the rear. Solar flying above Tabben, Golden staying near Tabben's side.

“I'm seeing red bars, lets try and stay quiet, we should be fine if we handle the machines one at a time.”

Edging in, we found a staircase leading up before we ran into any machines. Climbing the flight of stairs, we must have ascended at least thirty meters before finding ourselves at another floor. Entering the floor, we got into our first firefight.

“Attention zebra sympathizers, you are to be shot, upon being shot we shall commence shooting you again. If you are not zebra sympathizers, we apologize for any unintended fatalities.” Came from a floating robot down the hall. It was a large metal ball that had several appendages, two of them were shooting green laser beams at us!

Mek was hit several times before she returned fire. The machine was five meters away, but I tried my luck with SATS. Between my less than accurate barrage and the flack storm Mek fed it, the bot turned to scrap.

Inching to its corpse, it looked as though it was starting to mend its broken appendages, which got an excited gasp from Solar. He quickly zipped past us and with a wrench in his mouth, ...and a screwdriver in his wings?

I didn't know pegasai could do that with their wings. Well, that aside, Solar dismantled the robot and took something out of it, causing its strange self mending to stop.

“Repair talismans, these robots have repair talismans. This place is a gold mine! With half a dozen of these we could make Shelter have limited self repair capabilities.” He excitedly told us.

That sounds like all kinds of useful, and we hoped our luck would pan out with this idea.

Going through the facility, we found that most of the rooms had been cleaned out. As advertised, this was a scavengers paradise, assuming you don't die in here. We passed several bones of ponies that failed to make it out with their prize, their own corpses having been scavenged.

Solar insisted we save the grenades for if we fight more than two at a time, so we did. We went from room to room. The facility was larger then we anticipated. Time slugged on as we took down robot after robot, looking for another way up, or a map.

Solar was in a very good mood. I've never seen him this happy before. I'm surprised his cutie-mark wasn't a gear considering how he knew how to dismantle the bots. One bot we took down was distracted by Mek and myself. Solar flew behind it while it was firing at us and dismantled it as it was distracted with us!

Being at the front of our line, Mek and I sustained several injuries. Thankfully the pirate goods we stole had potions. As we got further and further into the facility, working our way up, things got more and more dangerous.

After climbing another set of stairs, we found that the robots on this floor worked in pairs, and never wandered far from a turret that offered supporting fire. It was time for us to rely on our spark grenades. I considered it strange that the robots became more dangerous the further in we got, maybe it was to ensure the dome at the top only had the strongest machines defending it? But if that was the case, why not have the last floor have every bot in the facility in it? Realizing I was trying to understand two century old security systems, I focused more on dealing with it instead of wondering why it wasn't as dangerous as it could be.

Because of the stronger machines, this floor had less evidence of scavengers. We started to find things in the side rooms. Caps hidden in waste bins, unopened sparkle cola. We found a memory orb in a small locker room, I had to wonder why the locker room was so far into the facility. And then we found a map!

On one of the locker room walls was the map. It showed that we were on the fifth floor of 'Deterrence Facility Seven', and it looked like 'PA Lab 1' was the seventh floor of the facility. I guess this locker room was for the PA lab, it seemed that the two facilities were connected, yet served separate purposes.

I also saw that the facility had basement levels, and that the manufacturing room was at the bottom. Next to the manufacturing room was a very large storage chamber where I assumed robot parts were kept. There also seemed to be maintenance elevators that connected from the manufacturing room to every floor in the facility, one elevator per floor. I wondered why it was separate as apposed to a single elevator. Must have been some weird old world design choice.

“Solar, you said that this place replenishes its robots right?” I asked, a grim suspicion starting to form.

“That's right, it's the reason why there are still robots in here,” he pointed out.

I took an assessment of our supplies. We had enough ammo and potions to handle what was left of the facility, but we were running low on spark grenades. We should be able to reach the lab, but if the facility replenished its machines, we may have to fight our way back out.

“How long do you think we have before the facility replenishes what we've destroyed?” I asked, a little alarmed. The look on his face informed me that he was now on the same page I was.

“I wouldn't be surprised if the first and second floors were already replenished. The old world facilities like this were able to pull out a robot every couple minutes. Getting out of here could be tricky.”

“What about using these?” Mek asked, referring to the maintenance elevators, “We finish up whatever we find in the lab, take the sixth floor elevator to the manufacturing floor, then take the elevator that leads back to the first floor. We have to deal with whats in the manufacturing floor, but its bound to be less then going back through all six floors.”

Tabben walked to the map, tore it from the wall, rolled it up and gave it to Golden.

“We can worry about that after we're reached our destination,” Tabben said, taking charge. “I don't know about you, but I am not turning tail now that we're this far. Lets move, the longer we're here, the more machines that get replaced.” We all shared a look, and nodded in agreement. Tabben mumbled something about hating robots, and we pressed forward. He seemed more agitated than normal, I guess he didn't like keeping back while others did the fighting.

Halfway through the sixth floor, our spark grenades ran out. Every encounter that followed was a gunfight. The robots on this floor were different from all the others. These machines were mechanical ponies, they were heavily armed, either having powerful machine guns or grenade launchers, and they had flame throwers.

Tabben, Golden, and Solar had to fall back while Mek and I tackled the fights. Golden had nothing to offer in the fights, Solar was out of grenades, and we were unable to make the machines fall for any mine traps. Tabben stayed behind because of the flamethrowers, he needed to stay away from the heat, or we were all at risk.

Thanks to the climb, we had gained distance from the bottom floors, causing my EFS to be cleared of interference. I could guess that we either had two or four left to handle. Mek and I hit a junction between two rooms in the hall, shortly before we passed the rooms one of the mechanical ponies rounded the corner ahead of us and fired at us.

Mek and I dove into the rooms, I to the left, her on the right. A wall of fire shot down the hallway, trapping us in our rooms. I saw on my EFS that the red bar had a twin join it. The stream of fire continued as one of the machines ran towards us!

Getting Trust ready, I went into SATS as the robot came into my room, it had walked through the fire unscathed and was about to fire at me. Toggling my shots, we fired in unison.

Four bullets caused its head to explode into metal debris, twenty bullets turned me into a mess of pain and blood. I wasn't sure how many bullets I was spared by my barding, but it didn't feel like enough. My quick movement spared my head and chest, but my legs and sides were riddled. Thankfully, the bullets had passed through. Before I could get a potion down, I noticed that the other mechanical pony was standing over me.

“Die zebra scum!” It said as I watched as its machine gun started to spin up. I stared transfix, not quite registering that I was about to die. I closed my eyes out of reflex upon realizing I was about to be shot in the face.

Instead I heard a crunch and the sound of metal falling over. I opened my eyes to see that Mek had rammed the machine. It swiveled its gun to kill her, but it was cut short by a barrage of shotgun blasts at point blank range.

Mek moved over to me and helped me get a potion or three down. Machine guns didn't care too much about how agile I was. I'd have to remember that in future battles, machine guns are all it takes to take me down.

“Thanks, I thought I was a goner right there.”

“Well, I owe ya quite a bit, but I would have done it regardless. Maybe ya should try thicker armor.” I nodded in agreement and she waved the others to join us while I waited for the potions to work through my wounds.

“According to the map, we're almost there, how does your radar look?” Solar asked me, indicating the direction we were heading before we had been ambushed. My EFS was clear in that direction.

“It looks clear, lets move before that's no longer the case.”

We moved quickly, and indeed we were not harassed as we approached our destination. Reaching a turn in the hall, we found ourselves in front of a large door similar to the fake door I walked through less than a week ago. The hall looked as though nopony has been here in a long time. I placed my hoof on the door, but it didn't pass through. Well, that was a problem. Looking around the wall I saw no means of opening the door.

“This is a problem.” I admitted.

I heard a loud 'ding' from back the way we came, and saw a slew of new red bars on my EFS.

“We have company!” Golden said, moving back to me and behind me.

Looking around the corner, I saw that at least four robo-ponies were standing in the open elevator shaft, a wall of fire flew down the hall to us and we hugged the sealed door as best we could to-

As we pushed each other into the door, we all suddenly fell though it. The door was still closed, it was a false door just like the other had been, I guess it was just a little more finicky with letting us through.

Still, we were through, the fire and robo-ponies didn't join us. So we were safe for now. Looking around I saw we were in a small room, another giant cog shaped door was on the opposite side of the room. In the room was a corpse rolled in the corner, a pistol and a spent clip lay next to the earth ponies remains. The body was also wearing a pipbuck.

Above the cog on the wall were the words 'Practical Applications: Lab 1'. I eyed the pipbuck attached to the dead pony, remembering the amount of caps I had been offered for my own back in Sandstone. The pony's cloths were well preserved, I suspected that we were the first ponies to ever enter this room in two hundred years. As I bent to take the pipbuck, I noticed the name tag, 'Stable-Tec Liaison Babs'. This pony was with Stable-Tec? What were they doing here?

Carefully removing the pipbuck from her bony leg, I went through its data storage to see if any answers were forthwith. There was only one thing in the pipbuck, an audio recording. I brought the device to everyponies attention, and played the recording. A mares voice filled the air.

“If you are listening to this recording, than hello, I'm your great great-something or other grandmother. I set the bypass spell for my blood, only a pony related directly to me would be able to enter into this room. So, hello. Heh, its weird, I'm recording a message for family I'll never meet.” The recording went silent for a few moments, we were looking at each other, which one of us was she referring to?

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry that everything ended, I'm sorry that we let our stubbornness let us destroy Equestria. I'm sorry you had to fight your way to this chamber. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry we couldn't save Equestria. We tried, we tried so hard, but we failed, and I'm sorry.” There was light sobbing at the end, and for a minute I thought the recording had ended. I was starting to notice the trace of an accent, not to dissimilar to Meks. It didn't have the slurs, as if the pony speaking was talking with the tone, but in a manner of trying to not let their accent show.

“Well, guess I should tell you about myself, let you know a little of who your grandmother was. My name is Babs Seed, and I am a liaison between Destiny Labs and Stable-Tec. Destiny helped us with our stable project, we helped Destiny with our technology and building schematics. Destiny's labs are as tough as any stable, so there's no doubt that this building will last long enough for somepony to find me. Wanna know something neat? I'm a cousin to a ministry mare, as well as the president of Stable-Tec, that means you've got some family ties with them as well. Not sure what good that'll do you in your era, but its a neat fact none the less.”

There was another pause of silence, it sounded like Babs was mumbling to herself.

“You should be with some other ponies, two others who can open doors two and three. Break believes that Equestria can be saved by either of those two ponies, Saphy thinks the same. Stay with them, and make sure they live long enough to realize Saphy's trust. I'm sorry you had to find me like this, but somepony needed to make sure the Deterrence Facility was fully running. I stayed behind, the rest of the staff fled to the sea. The bombs fell yesterday, we lost contact with every facility, every city, everypony. My friends are likely dead. But since you're listening to this recording, my children survived. Welcome to PA Labs 1, the heart of Destiny Labs, I hope you find what you're looking for here." There was another pause before she continued.

"Please, take care of each other. If its one thing that I've learned from the war, the one thing I want to pass on to you, is this. Family, and friendship is the most important possession you can have. Not coal, not magic, not megaspells. Family and friendship didn't destroy Equestria, but it did bring me happiness.”

There was another long pause, before the final words played.

“I'm sorry, and thank you for listening.”

Silence fell upon us, none us spoke for several minutes, considering the words we listened too.

“I don't like this,” Tabben was the first to break the silence, “it sounds like somepony knew were we going to be here, somepony from two hundred years ago!” He went to the door we came in and put his hoof on it, it didn't pass through. He nodded to himself, confirming something. As Tabben moved to the other door, I saw Solar also try to put his hoof through the door we came though.

“I can understand where she's coming from.” Mek said, “I suppose she was hoping someponies like us would make it here. She was hoping her children would survive the end of days. We were her hope.” That surprised me, thinking on it, her children would have needed to survive for anypony to find her message. Mek was right, she found the connection before I did, why was that?

“I don't get it,” Golden admitted, “she set this place up to keep ponies out of here right? So she thanked us for getting past her robo-ponies?” Tabben put his hoof on the other door and his eyes opened in alarm when his hoof passed through.

“...Tabben?” I asked. He seemed at first surprised, but it shifted to anger in short order as he turned to us.

“I'm not a spell savant, but I can guess what a bypass spell does from what that message said. The doors will only let ponies through if somepony related to the one tied to the spell goes through. Wildcard knows about Destiny Labs, she knows about this!” He screamed as he indicated his hoof through the door. “Come on, lets see what's inside, if Babs was right, then that means noponies been in here for two centuries. Lets get some answers.” Well, I thought, he said he wanted to be a part of it, and now he's upset. I guess it's the fact that he was a part of it before any of us were aware of it that bothered him.

Someponies in the past were either conspiring to help us, or to kill us. Red Quill's final message warned ponies against my family line, while Babs thanked us for 'saving' hers. I placed her pipbuck in my saddlebags and moved through the door with Tabben, and the rest followed after.

We were in another room, just like the previous. No dead ponies in here. Having a feeling it was my turn to open the door, I trotted to the last false door keeping us from PA Labs 1 and put my hoof through it. In short order we all entered our destination.

Just like in the joint facility, it was dark, but shortly after entering the lights came on. We were in a staircase that spiraled up. After a short climb we arrived in a big chamber with large terminal screens on a third of the circular room. There was another arcane device similar to the three in the other lab we visited to one side. On the opposite side of the room was an operating table with a machine nearby equipped with several arms and medical tools. In the center of the room was a small pedestal with a metal orb smaller than a ponies head resting on it. There was a line of wires that connected the orb to the terminals in the room.

As we walked in everything turned on. A rasping, static noise assaulted all our ears for a moment before silence returned to us. The room was completely clean. No mess, no evidence that this place had been empty for two centuries. A time capsule from the past, perfectly preserved.

“Greetings President Break, Vice President Red Quill, Liaison Babs, it has been – Error, logic matrix confliction in order, one moment please.” A synthetic voice came from speakers in the wall, confusing most of us.

“A logic matrix? Was this a terminal that could think!?” Solar was terribly excited at the prospect.

“Odds of senior staff still being alive fall below 0.02422 percent. Assuming descendant protocol. Please give names for identification purposes,” the terminal asked.

“I'm Solar, this is Winter Rain, Mek, Golden Blur, and Tabben.” Solar quickly answered.

“Confirmation required, 'Winter Rain' is this information correct?”

“...Yes, its correct. May I ask what I'm talking to?”

“You are talking to CMCM, Crusader Mainframe Cutie-mark Matrix. I am a prototype of the Crusader Mainframe design. Differences between final line and prototype include the lack of a brain upload functionality, inclusion of an empathy node, and processing power. A pleasure to meet you.”

“And what's a Crusader Mainframe?” Solar asked. For several moments it didn't reply, I suspected it would only answer my questions.

“Um, could you answer any and all questions we ask?” I took a shot in the dark.

“Certainly President Winter Rain. The Crusader Mainframe was designed by Stable-Tec to facilitate complex functions outside the computing limits of a terminal. Three were created, their use is classified, but Stable-Tec assures it's for a good cause.” It looks like it considers me the boss. Its nice that something worked in our favor for once!

As the CMCM was telling us this, we started to wander around the chamber. I looked at the terminals, only two of them were showing anything. One was a birds eye view of Saddlesands, the other screen was broken into smaller pictures of the Deterrence Facility. Tabben was looking over a desk and some drawers in the side, Solar and Mek were appraising the orb in the center.

“Is this you?” Mek asked.

“That is my empathy node, it is 28% of my whole, the rest is- Error, cannot establish connection with rest of the mainframe. Damage detected in the broadcast and receive array. Apologies, not all information will be available until link is reestablished with the rest of the mainframe.”

“You're in pieces?” Solar asked, skeptical.

“Correct, to facilitate properly over our spread out facilities, President Break though it prudent to spread me between the facilities. Information was compartmentalized to optimize functionality. I must apologize, my knowledge is currently limited to PA Lab1 information and general shared information.”

“Okay then, what was done here then?” I asked, I wanted to ask 'What am I', but my curiosity kept me tied to the chain of the CMCM's answers.

“This facility was used to initiate the assignments of Destiny Labs. Assignments 7,  8, 12, and 13 were initiated here. The assignments consisted of CP, CR, CA, and CDM. Assignment 13 was the only megaspell assignment initiated in this facility. This facility was also used for case by case projections and alterations.” There were those acronyms again.

“What do those acronyms stand for?” Tabben asked, surprising me.

“CP, Cutie-mark Projection, a means of determining a ponies destiny and minor future prediction by assessing the subjects cutie-mark. CR, Cutie-mark Resonance, a means of tapping into the harmonic frequency with cutie-marks. CA, Cutie-mark Alteration, in the case of a subject wanting to change their talent or destiny, a CA procedure can offer that change. CDM, Cutie-mark Destiny Matrix- Error, cannot access, file is fragmented between nodes, please reestablish contact with rest of the mainframe to defragment.” Tabben and I shared a frown at that.

“And what am I? Red Quill said to look out for ponies with my traits, I can heal with a song and can talk to the dead, this is because of Destiny Labs right?” I asked, now concerned that the CMCM may not have the answer.

“One moment, scanning occupants.” I suddenly felt my flank tingle as the orb in the center of the room started glowing. Looking to my cutie-mark I saw that it was glowing as well. I saw the same happening for the others, Mek's and Tabben's cutie-marks were covered, but still glowing. Even Golden's blank flank glowed a little, I think I saw the silhouette of a cutie-mark!

“Projection in progress. Subject 13 found, queuing. Subject 11 found, queuing. Alert, blank flank detected, queuing.”

“Hey!” Golden embarrassingly exclaimed.

“Warning, death probability high on all accounts, queuing.” Oh, death probability high? What were the odds? I sarcastically thought as the machine paused for a second before continuing.

“Winter Rain is the current end result of Assignment 13. The president implemented a megaspell with CP and CA to birth a pony who's special talent was to sing the harmonic frequency. Results were not to take affect immediately, time was needed for the assignments secondary objective to be fulfilled. Projected for the pony to be born nearly two centuries later, the presidents bloodline leading to said birth needed to find the golden fragment. The subject and the fragment were to then unite and facilitate countermeasures against the second doomsday. Analysis shows that the Assignment has deviated from projections, assignment failure rate is 46%. If Subject 13 arrives in PA Labs1, CMCM is to give the subject the Soul Recollector. Queing”

“What's the golden fragment?” I asked. I was the end result of a ploy by Break to save Equestria. Red Quill and Wildcard stated otherwise. I was a little overwhelmed by it all. Me? Save or destroy Equestria? Wait, was that what my father left for? To find this fragment? And what was a Soul Recollector, did it augment the lobby somehow?

“Inquiry added to queue. Tabben is a part of Assignment 11- Error, cannot access assignment, please reestablish contact with rest of the mainframe.”

“Stupid machine just wants to piss me off,” Tabben hissed.

“Initiating Cutie-mark Projection on Golden Blur.” The CMCM glowed again, Golden's flank shined again as well. “Cutie-mark Projection complete. Warning, Cutie-mark Projection could not be completed. Cause for failure is death of subject before receiving her cutie-mark. Recommend Cutie-mark Alteration.”

We all shared a look of alarm.

“I'm going to die a blank flank?” She asked, fear quickly clouding her features. I walked over to Golden and hugged her while addressing CMCM.

“Would that save her?”

“Queuing. Death of su-”

“Skip the damn queue, can Golden be saved with the CA?” Tabben interrupted.

“Skipping queue. Golden Blur has no projected cutie-mark because she is destined to die before receiving it. With CA its possible to change her destiny to one where she dies after receiving her cutie-mark. CA has been done four times for this reason, each a success.”

“Wait, are you saying I can choose my cutie-mark with this CA thing?” Golden asked, her mood lifting at that prospect.

“Affirmative, projecting talents and possible destinies.” Several of the terminals on the wall came alive with information. We walked in for a closer look.

“Subjects talents lie in speed and covert operations. Now displaying possible destinies.” The screen then showed several cutie-marks along with a small description of what they entailed. There was also a number next to each cutie-mark with a positive or negative indicator next to it.

One particular mark caught our eyes. Golden saw it first and almost squealed.

“Is that a sonic rainboom!? I can have that as a cutie-mark?” She excitedly asked, the cutie-mark in question was a gold circle, with a rainbow outline, 1st was written in the circle. It had a positive number next to it, the highest of all of them.

“What does this number mean?” I asked.

“Compatibility.”

“And choosing this will save her?” Tabben asked.

“Affirmative, projects predict life expectancy increasing by a decade, with 76% accuracy.”

“I want that one, Oh this is awesome, how many fillies get to choose their own cutie-mark!” Well, there's also the fact that you'll get to live longer, but I didn't want to sour her current mood. Tabben was looking at me expectedly, and I nodded to him.

“This one, she wants this one, what do we have to do?” I asked the machine.

“Please have Golden Blur stand under the cutie-mark operation machine in the east corner of the lab.” Seeing the arcane device in the side of the room, we walked Golden over there, and she started to look nervous.

“It's not gonna hurt, is it?” She asked sheepishly.

“No anesthesia required, procedure has been known to cause a tingling sensation, but no pain.”

She stood under the device and it started to give off a magical glow. Her flank was wrapped in light and she looked at it expectingly. I felt a shiver run down my spine, like somepony had just walked on my grave. We were altering Golden's destiny. It was to save her life, but there was something wrong about the whole notion. It felt, unnatural, at least to me it did, Tabben looked pretty pleased with this outcome.

The light faded and we all saw that Golden was still a blank flank. She looked at herself, shocked.

“Procedure completed, Cutie-mark Alteration successful.”

“No it isn't, I'm still a blank flank!”

“Procedure successful, your destiny has been changed. You still need to earn your cutie-mark, but you can be certain of what it is now. Subject's life extended. My apologies, my ability to elaborate on projected destinies was removed by Presedent Break, reasons stating:” The CMCM's voice changed to that of a mare.

'Knowing our destinies caused Equestria to fall to war, I don't want anypony to ever repeat that mistake, as such I'm having CMCM incapable of delivering particulars on CPs, in addition, once Equestria's future is secured, Destiny Labs will destroy all traces of our research to protect the future from this forbidden science'.

So, Break didn't want us to know our own destinies, no, she was giving us vague hints, it was the particulars she didn't want us to have. If knowing their destiny caused Equestria to fall to war and eventually get blown up, why was she informing us of what was intended for me? Red Quill was worried about using their methods to fix everything they had broken, was Break doomed to repeat that mistake through me? I certainly hoped that wasn't going to be the case.

“Proceeding back to queue. Subjects likelihood of death high, no recourse available, my apologies.”

“Thanks for nuthin, in that regards,” Mek bitterly said.

“President Winter Rain, to your earlier inquiry, the Golden Fragment is a piece of star metal that fluctuates on the harmonic frequency. It is believed that a piece of it exists somewhere in Equestria. It was the task of President Break's descendants to find it for subject 13. When used in tandem with subject 13's harmonic frequency, the effects are amplified.”

Star metal? As in metal from the stars themselves? And the fragment would empower my healing song? I think I can see how that would help Equestria, but just how powerful would that make my song? The machine continued.

“President Winter Rain, as part of Assignment 13, I'm to give you the Soul Recollector, please proceed to the operation station so you're pipbuck can be replaced.”

“Wait, you're replacing my pipbuck!? Why, what is it? What does a Soul Recollector do?” I wasn't keen on the idea of giving up my fathers gift, not without knowing why.

“A Soul Recollector is a device made in joint work with Stable-Tec, The OIA, and Destiny Labs. A Memory Recollector and a Pipbuck were designed together by the OIA and Stable-Tec, and Destiny Labs infused its spell matrix to be able to work in tandem with the functions of subject 13. Retaining all functions of the other devices, you will have all programs and spells granted by a pipbuck. In addition you will be able to record and see memory orbs with the recollector functionality. Finally, you'll be able to access soul orbs, communicate with soul jars, and have limited soul interaction in memory orbs.” Once again I was overwhelmed with information. I had no idea what soul jars or gems were, but at the very least I got that with the device I'd be able to watch memory orbs, in addition to all my pipbuck functions.

“And what about my current pipbuck?”

“It would be removed. You will still have it, but will be unable to wear it while wearing the SR, wearing two pipbucks at a time causes spell interference.” I'd still keep it, just couldn't use it. I didn't like the idea of swapping out the old for the new, but I had a feeling I'd need the SR for this endeavor. If I am destined to either save or doom Equestria, I need to set myself on the better path of the two. To do that, I'd need to find the Golden Fragment, I need to find my father.

I walked to the operating room, hoping that it would just remove my pipbuck the same way Wildcard had, hoping it didn't take my hoof off instead. The machine told me to hold out my hoof and stay still, I did just that.

In quick order the robotic limbs went to work removing my pipbuck. A panel opened from the machine revealing a pipbuck that looked surprisingly similar to my current one, besides a small circular indentation next to the screen. My pipbuck was removed and the new pipbuck was placed.

If this machine could put on pipbucks, I wondered if any of my crew wanted my old one, or the one we got from Babs. It was my fathers gift, but it would be doing nopony any good if I just carried it around in my saddlebags. I spent the entire day scavenging from the dead, it would be rude of me not to put my pipbuck to use over keeping it for sentimentality.

Taking less than a minute, my old pipbuck was given to me by the machine as I appraised the new one. It was the same make and size, same colors. Next to the screen was a small circle that could fit a memory orb into. Going through the data tags, I found that the map had was completely filled in with terrain, but locations and points were cleaned out. If I wanted to find the other labs, I'd need to hold onto my old pipbuck.

“Uh, anypony interested in pipbuck? We have two and a machine that can attach them.”

“Oh oh I want one!” Golden exclaimed.

“I'd be interested!” Solar eagerly said.

Looking to Tabben and Mek, I saw that they were not interested.

“I don't want one of those things on me, I've done just fine without one, they can have it,” Mek said.

“I'm likely to melt mine, so I'll pass,” Tabben pointed out.

I pulled out Babs pipbuck and gave both of the pipbucks to the machine.

“Can you put these on my friends?” Indicating the pegasai.

“Right away President Winter Rain.”

“Just call me Rain.”

“Affirmative.” And two minutes later my friends had new devices on their legs. Solar got mine, it would be easier for us if the navigator had my pipbuck.

So, I could now see memory orbs. I wanted to try it out right now, but I should wait till we're back at Shelter, we still had a facility to fight our way out of. I then lamented the fact that my pegasia friends now had SATS, but no weapons to use it with.

“Neato! So these bars are that radar you and Tabby keep referring too, so cool.” Golden said as she was looking around the room, checking out the pipbuck's functions.

“We have any more questions? Oh, I know. CMCM, is there a way to shut down or get past the machines in the Deterrence Facility?” Tabben asked.

“Affirmative, once you leave the machines will shutdown for half an hour before powering back up. That is sufficient time to reach the front gates.” That got a huge sigh of relief from everypony.

“Do you have a name besides CMCM? Are you portable?” Solar asked.

“I have no other designation. I can be removed from this facility, but the facility will lose all its functionality if I'm removed. If you wish to transport me, simply remove my node from the lab interface. I will be offline until I'm supplied power.” Solar seemed happy to hear that, he wanted to bring the crusader mainframe with us.

Thinking on it, we would need to take it with us. I had no idea how to fix the broadcasting array, and it sounded like I would need the rest of the mainframe to get all our answers. Solar was giving me an eager look.

“Lets get out of here, we're bringing Crusader with us. That's your name now.” I ordered. I wanted us off the island before anypony else made it here. I doubted any pony would believe us if we told them pirates destroyed the town and then we came in and cleaned up. There was also the likelihood of Wildcards pursuers finding us.

“Setting up shutdown protocol. Deterrence Facility machines will be powered down for thirty minutes, starting in two minutes. Activating Whitewash protocol. Two minutes till power down.”

And with that the machines and monitors started to sizzle and break. To our alarm, The terminals shattered one by one, the wires seemed to overheat, the surgical bot and arcane device in the room exploded as we backed away from the devices. Solar quickly detached the metal orb from the pedestal, balancing the orb between his wings as we moved to the door. Crusader was too big to fit in his bags.

I got us through the first door, Tabben through the second. We waited for the red bars to disappear before going through the last door.

“It took us two hours to get here, we should make it back to the entrance in half an hour as long as we don't linger, okay?” I checked with my crew, I was tired of being shot at today. I wanted to get on Shelter and go to bed.

After they nodded to me, we waited for the bars to disappear. When they did, Mek and Golden went through the door and we followed, before going through, I whispered a goodbye to Babs, and we left her to her solitude. Solar winced as we passed the deactivated robo-ponies, he clearly wanted to take them apart.

Moving on down through the facility, we were surprised to notice red bars when we reached the third floor, we still had twelve minutes left.

“Something is ahead of us, and its moving.” I informed the others, Solar and Golden had already noticed. Should we proceed with caution, or set a trap?

“Lets move forward, slowly.” I said, Tabben looked like he wanted to say something, his eyes on the maintenance elevator, but he kept quiet.

Moving forward, we quickly learned that what was ahead wasn't machine, cause it was talking. Since the bars are red, they were no friend of ours. Taking cover, I had us prepare an ambush.

Half a minute later A large bipedal figure with horns on their head rounded the corner. The unexpected sight made me forget we were going to ambush him. He spotted us.

“Now, we don't want no trouble, just come back with us Ms. Rain and nopony gets-” he started to say before Tabben started shooting at him.

“Fall back, fall back!” He ordered. We had the advantage and he wanted us to flee? Something hit me and Mek, knocking us into the hallway. I staggered up and looked around, but there was nothing there. Then I saw Mek get impaled in her back leg by something invisible. Tabben frantically shot at the invisible thing attacking Mek, I helped as best I could, firing at an invisible target was more difficult that I liked for this situation.

“FALL BACK!” He ordered again. Mek managed to free herself, and hoof in hoof, we ran. Every couple of steps Mek would turn around and fire a flack of shots back the way we came to slow down our pursuers. Solar tossed mines past us to impede our pursuers.

I gave Mek our last potion, she downed it as Tabben led us back to the maintenance elevator. Golden had started the lift before we arrived, but it was still climbing up. We fired a consistence stream of fire down the hall while we waited for it. When the elevator arrived, we all pored into it and started our trip down.

“Solar, I want you to leave every mine you've got in here when we get off. They don't have a map of this place, so I doubt they'll try one of the elevators on the other floors to get down here. We need to move and get out before they decide to block the front door.”

“Tabben, who are they?” He looked at me like I had to ask.

“Wildcard's goons of course. We'll be dead before we can deal with them, well, all but you will be dead. If I wasn't burnt out they wouldn't be a problem,” he grumbled, “But they are a problem. Lets hope they didn't rob our ship while we were in here.”

We appraised the map and determined a route through the manufacturing floor. Hopefully we'd make it out before our time was up. When the doors opened, we bolted, Solar staying behind to leave his trap.

The manufacturing floor was big. It was a tall chamber, on the far walls were lines indicating different floors of the facility, floors b6-b1 were visible from the manufacturing floor. It was a mess of conveyor belts and machine parts. Mechanical arms were frozen in the middle of assembly, we had to move around them at some parts. In other places Mek just outright shot through the obstructions.

“Those goons were not what I pictured when you mentioned them last night!” I shouted as we ran. There had been three, no, four. The invisible one didn't show on EFS.

“Well, Wildcard's goons are a real piece of work. They're pros at what they do, the sooner we get out of here the better. If we don't have them on our tail when we get out, we can deal with their mode of transport.” We were running for our lives, and Tabben was already thinking of how to screw over our pursuers. His spiteful thinking was a boon right now.

The floor had stairs leading up to b1 of the facility, they were built into the far wall that also connected to b6-b2, the facility itself having a high ceiling. Solar was waiting for us at the top of the stairs, having flown up, his saddlebags almost overflowing with parts. The buck looked far happier then anypony born in the wasteland had any right to.

Moving through b1, Something caught my eye, I urged the others ahead, I could catch up to them quick enough as I went into a room labeled 'Babs Office'. Taking a quick look around I found a locked terminal, a broken safe, and nothing else. As I made to leave something else caught my eye. Nestled between the wall and the shelf was a memory orb, missed by the scavengers that came before. Claiming my prize, I bolted after my crew, running as fast as I could.

As I made it to the first floor, red bars filled my EFS. Time had run out. Thankfully, the robots on the first floor were the least dangerous! Shame I was out of potions and spark grenades. After taking down three machines and sporting new burns in my flesh, I caught up to the carnage that Mek's guns had brought upon the robots.

Not seeing any sign of our pursuers, I caught up to my crew. Mek and Tabben chided me for my curiosity, and we got out of there. Not sure how far behind Wildcard's goons were, we moved ahead to the ship. Golden, Solar and I went ahead to clear it if needed, and get it started otherwise.

Running past the town, we failed to notice the craft the goons arrived in. We saw no other ship tied to the dock. I felt a bullet hit the ground near me and I whipped around. The gunner wasn't in range of my EFS, but I did get a look at a new addition to the town.

In the center of the town was a metal wagon. It was black and it looked like several of the windows had guns mounted to it. Jumping to the side, I strafed to Shelter to avoid getting shot. I heard other gunfire commence and looking behind me I saw Mek and Tabben charging the wagon.

I left Shelter in the hooves of our pegasai and ran too the wagon. It looked like Mek had pinned the gunner down, as he was unable to return fire. Getting closer, I saw his bar show on my EFS, and with him distracted with Mek, I got in there and assaulted the gunner.

It was a pegasus. What kind of pegasus gets themselves trapped inside of a metal box? Four hoofs to the head incapacitated him. I pushed him out of the wagon and appraised it.

“Let's take anything that resembles a potion and destroy the rest.” I eyed the weapons, wondering if we could cause some sort of explosion to destroy the thing. To my surprise, Mek went under the wagon, shot a part that looked important, and the entire wagon sagged a little.

“That'll keep it grounded,” she said.

Considering that to be good enough, we made it back to Shelter, untied ourselves from the dock and left SaddleSands behind us.

“So that was...?” I asked, not sure what we had just broken.

“A sky wagon, pegasai use them to transport things, I repaired one once a couple years back.” Mek informed me. Sounded useful, but we already had Shelter, what would we need a sky wagon for? I guess we could have sold it, but we were too caught up in fleeing to take the opportunity of stealing it.

Damn.

Sailing out, I asked our crew about where we should go from here.

“I want to find out what Assignment 11 is. It's in one of those Labs, so we should go to the one next in line.” Tabben said, I doubted he was giving me room to argue.

“We need time to get ourselves together, we have a lot of stuff to put to use,” Mek said, eyeing me, “one way or the other.”

“We're out of grenades and potions, we should resupply first before going to the ne-” Solar started, then frowned, “Actually, I think we can do both.” Well, if that will spare me an argument with Tabben, I'm all ears for it.

“The next closest facility is Joint Facility 1 to the north, Rust-Hallow isn't that far out of the way from there. We can resupply there and then move on to the next lab, sound good?”

I liked the idea, but Tabben and Mek shared a look, they both seemed uncomfortable with the idea, but didn't object.

“Sounds good, set a course.” I looked between my companions before asking, “So, what's at Rust-Hallow?”

“The majority of the IFA, along with the Evercrest,” Tabben admitted.

Looks like some of my crew was going to be visiting home shortly, I was a little jealous.

“Now stop it with those looks you two.” I started, “This is an opportune moment to count the good. We made it out of the facility with answers. We got a ton of things to spread to the needy ponies of the sea. We got ourselves a bunch of new toys. We set back Wildcards goons for at least a few days. And we're all still alive. We should celebrate!”

They both looked at each other, then at me. Their expressions changed from solemn brooding to sly grins.

“I can't say no to a good party, so lets get things set up. I think we can let Golden stay up late for this.” Tabben said, and Golden let out a hearty cheer.

We got things together, parked Shelter near the closest sand island north of SaddleSands, and had our party in the mess hall. That night on the sea, five ponies celebrated their first real victory as a crew, and they had left the island behind them, smiling.

Footnote: Level up. Lvl 8.

New Perk: Bring Me My Red Shirt – You crew deals 15% more damage while fighting by your side.

Quest Perk: Soul Recollector – You can now view memory orbs, soul orbs, converse with soul jars, and soul-read memory orbs. Be wary, chance of destroying memory orbs when attempting soul-reading. Next Chapter: 8. Memories of Harmony Lost Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 15 Minutes