The two ponies quickly ran down a metal and concrete hallway. They were starting to lose their stamina as they fled for their lives. Behind them, a feral scream, and the crackling sound of flame and ember pursued them.

Halfway to the bulkhead door, one of them tripped from a twisted leg. The other stopped and looked back.

"Help me!" Yelled the fallen one.

The one still standing made a step to their friend, but froze when they saw their pursuer. The pony then made a choice and ran to the bulkhead instead, ignoring the other's plea.

"No! Come back! Please!"

The fleeing pony made it behind the bulkhead door and locked it. Immediately, that pony then sat and leaned against the door, crying while rocking back and forth as it covered its ears and tried to shut out the noise of the other pony's muffled screams.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'M SO SORRY!"

"Nuh-uh, no way." I managed to free myself from Yellow Jacket's vice like hug. "How did you even get in here?"

She rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof and made a low chuckle. "Heh heh...Citrus."

"Wait." I stared at the amber Stable mare, baffled. "So you had him pay the entrance fee with your one favor?"

"What? No." She shook her head a bit, then nearly whispered. "He got me a citizenship here..."

Oh no... I was beginning to wish that I misheard her.

"What was that?" I made a dry laugh. "Kinda sounded like you said, that he made you...a citizen here..."

She scratched her cheek and nodded. "He...he did."

I was silent for a moment before forcing the word out. "How?"

"I just asked if he could get me into the tower, then he had me wait outside for a bit while he talked to somepony inside. Nearly half an hour later, he shows up again with some fancy looking stallion and tells me that I'm a citizen now. A bit of wandering and asking around later, I found your office." She then walked past me, into said office without my permission. "Whoa, kinda small if you ask me."

I flipped a couple tables in my mind. This mare was persistent! Just when I thought I finally shook her, she managed to somehow worm her way back in my life! And what was that she said earlier, 'partner?'

"Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there. What was all that 'partner' stuff about?"

She then jumped onto my sofa and laid flat on it. "Just what the word means; I'm your new partner." She said with a big grin.

"Partner?" I then started a humorless laugh."Ha ha ha--no."

She turned her head sideways towards me. "Oh come on, you said it yourself. You sometimes go to places all over the wasteland, well that's what I want. A chance to explore it and have an adventure or two, besides." Shifting to her side, she placed her elbow on the sofa then rested her head on her hoof. "Ya might need me to save your flanks again...that and you owe me one, remember?"

Oh there was no way I was standing for this.

"Wait here!" I demanded, then left her in my office as I headed to the elevator.

Now on the floor I wanted, I exited the lift and stormed down the hallway. This floor was where most of the ponies in charge of Tenpony kept their own offices; each one was tiers nicer and fancier than my own. Reaching my destination, I knocked on the door loudly and waited for a reply.

A voice came from the other side of the door. "Somehow I knew you would be visiting me."

I then heard the click of the door unlocking before it opened. Walking in, I saw the same room I saw months ago. It was a large office big enough to be mine's mother, with a much nicer coat of paint and more windows, the ceiling was much higher here and could have taken the space of a couple floors. Mounted on the walls were all sorts of pre-war paintings showing a plethora of images like scenic landscapes, detailed portraits, and the occasional abstract painting that I just didn't get. At the other end was a fireplace built into the wall, in front of that was a wooden desk large enough to be mine's father. Behind the desk sat a dark blue coated unicorn stallion with a golden mane and tail; on his flanks were the images of a golden ribbon with scissors in the middle of cutting it. He was wearing a white vest with some sort of fancy red puffy handkerchief...thing around his neck.

I walked over the carpet leading from the door to the desk, yelling at him as I made the long distance. "Dammit, Ribbon Cutter!"

He smirked as he spoke in a casual tone. "Hello again, P.I., always a pleasu--"

"Can it!" I pointed a hoof at him accusingly. "The hell was that!? I remember all that beef you got for giving me my residency months ago! So why risk it again!?"

He stared at me with a straight face, then reclined in his chair and put his hooves together. "And here I thought we might have a pleasant conversation."

I eyed him and made a disgruntled...well...grunt.

"Just hear me out." Ribbon Cutter said. "Ol' Citrus is one of the few outside sources of food Tenpony trades with, so his word is well known here, and he asked me if I could get the girl residency. He paid all her fees and made a," he chuckled into his hoof, "'reasonable' donation to the tower. So far, the others have nothing to complain about."

Dammit...

"But where would she live?" I asked. "She may be a citizen here now, but she doesn't exactly have the caps for her own place."

A smile spread across his lips as he brought his hooves to his chin, while I had a feeling like I just nailed my own coffin.

"I'm glad you brought that up. Citrus told me that she came here with you, so it only stands to reason that she...heh...'bunk' with you, as they say."

My head tilted in disbelief. "...What?"

"Well, we wouldn't have her sleeping in the hallways would we?" Ribbon Cutter said with a shrug. "So, as far as the tower is concerned, she is your responsibility." He grinned that...grin at me.

I was ready to yell my counter argument at him when the door behind him to the side opened and a filly's head stuck out.

"Father, is something goin--" Her eyes went wide and a smile appeared over her face when she saw me. "P.I.!"

I quickly calmed myself and smiled back. "Hey, Taffeta."

Taffeta. She was Ribbon Cutter's daughter, and the same filly I saved months ago back in Friendship City. She was a small unicorn with a red coat that was bordering on pink; her mane was the same color as her father's, and she hadn't gotten her cutie mark yet.

The little filly ran to me and hugged my foreleg. "I heard you just got back! Did you solve another mystery? Huh, huh? I'd love to hear it!"

I patted her head. "That's right. I'm sorry, Taffeta, but I'm in the middl--"

Ribbon Cutter...well...cut me off. "Mr. P.I. was just about to leave, sweetie. Maybe next time."

"Aww." The filly looked disappointed.

Looking up from her, and facing her father, I could see that calculated smile of his; now I had a strong suspicion that he purposely brought his daughter here just to prevent me from arguing in front of her...

"That's...that's right, Taffeta." I said, ruffling her mane. "Some other time..."

She looked at me with a revived excitement in her eyes. "Ok! I can't wait! I do love your stories!"

Walking all the way back to the door, I turned and saw them both waving before I closed the door behind me in defeat.

Returning to my office, I spotted Yellow Jacket sitting in my chair with her rear legs on my desk and one of my books in her hooves.

"P.I., I wouldn't have guessed you where the reading type." She said as she turned a page with her hoof.

I spoke with a slightly irritated tone in my voice. "Please put that back."

She slapped the book shut. "Fine, fine. Just saying. I saw you had some Daring Do books, but back home, everyone read those. They were practically textbooks to us." She then walked over to my bookcase that had two rows full of books. One row was for Daring Do books, the other was for a different series that Yellow Jacket was returning the one to. "You know, I've never heard of this...," she half-shut her eyes to better read the book's faded title, "'Detective Pretext' series before."

Well since she seemed so interested, I felt the need to tell her.

"They were a series written by A.K. Yearling during the war. They were highly praised, but weren't as popular as Daring Do. Shame too, I really like his work with that series."

Yellow shrugged. "Meh, I heard Yearling was a chick..."

I cocked my head. "What? No. Well, I mean...no pony really knew..." It was here that I realized I was getting distracted from the task at hoof. "Never mind that. Listen, you're not staying with me, so tell me where your other Stable ponies are so I can just take you home."

She looked at me quizzically, then grinned. "Ha! Heck if I know! I was wandering around for who knows how long before I stumbled into Woodtrot!"

I thought she might come up with this excuse, so I came up with the answer on my way here.

"Alright..." I gestured for her to come closer. "Show me your PipBuck."

She just looked at me with a confused looking expression. "My what?"

"Your PipBuck. You know, that thing locked around your..." Really looking at her forelegs for the first time, I noticed that she didn't have one. Her Stable-Tec custodian suit may have been a bit baggy for her, but I doubted she could have fitted a sleeve around a bulky PipBuck. "Where's your PipBuck?"

She still looked at me like she didn't understand what I was saying. I then tapped mine with my hoof. "This! You should have one! Where is it?"

She blinked at me, and I swear, I think I saw the dots connect in her head.

"Ooh. Yeah, PipBucks..." She scratch the back of her head. "Some of us didn't get one."

I facehoofed; you would also hear about the strange social experiments Stable-Tec would do to Stable ponies. Stable 73's was probably one where you'd only give some ponies PipBucks, then watch the jealousy fueled carnage... or something like that, I don't know.

"Dammit!" I exclaimed as I covered my face with my hooves.

"What?" The amber mare asked.

"I was hoping that I would find where you came from by looking at your PipBucks mapping data." I ran my hooves down through my face as I said the rest of my sentence. "But you just had to not have one, didn't you?"

"Well sorry." She sarcastically replied.

That's it, I give up! The universe just keeps yanking solutions to my problem from me.

"Fine! Fine! You can stay!" I shouted. Oh how I wished I were the kind of pony who could kick a mare out into the streets...or hallways in this case.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Cried Yellow Jacket in revelry as got on her hind-legs and used her forelegs to punch the air above her with every word.

"I wouldn't get too excited if I were you."

She stopped in mid celebration, looked at me, then tilted her head sideways. "Why not?"

I smirked. "Because there are going to be some rules..."

While I smiled, she frowned.

"Is this better?" Yellow Jacket asked as she finished dusting the bookcase using an old feather duster I had in the office.

"Mhmm, I think you missed a spot over there." I said as I waved at the general direction of the bookcase. I wasn't even looking at her progress, as I was too busy re-reading one of my books. Ah, Detective Pretext and the Museum Case of the Missing Sapphire Stone, one of my favorites, and one I consider a classic...

"Hey! You're not even looking!"

Uhp, caught... One of the rules I enforced was that Yellow Jacket was to do whatever I said, and right now, that was dusting the office. I would always be away when on a case, so I never had any time to really clean the place, and just like my outfit, my working space had to look professional as well.

"Ugh!" Yellow threw the duster on the floor. "This is boring! When do we go on an adventure?"

I turned the page of my book. "First of all, I don't go on 'adventures'; I'm not some wasteland hero, I'm hired to go on 'cases'. Second of all, you're gonna have to wait for a client to come to us."

"Fine." She responded with a roll of her eyes. "And when will that be?"

I shrugged and lazily replied. "I-dun-know, could be days, could be weeks."

"What!" Her jaw dropped. "Well, what do you do in the meantime?!"

"I suggest reading that Wasteland Survivors Guide I gave you. Celestia forbid, you might learn someth--" A knock at the door drew my attention away from my book. "Or it could be any minute..." As Yellow and I looked at each other, I raised one of my eyebrows. "Ya mind getting that?"

With a roll of her eyes, she saluted me, then walked to the door and opened it.

On the other side was a small framed, steel gray, unicorn mare with an electric blue mane who wore a light blue dress that covered her cutie mark.

"Hey, P.I., I've got some work for--whoa." The gray mare had a surprised expression when she saw that it wasn't me who opened the door. Leaning around Yellow, she saw me behind my desk. "Sorry, didn't realize you were already with a client. I'll come back later."

Before she turned to walk away, I yelled, "Homage, wait! She's not a client!"

Homage. She was also one of the few tower residents I tolerated, right up there with Chesterfield. ...Ok, maybe a bit higher than Chester... With Homage, it went a bit more than tolerating... In the few months I've known her, I kinda grew to like her, though I was too much of a coward to tell her. Plus I had no idea if she ever thought of me like that, and I feared that if I asked, I would end up scaring her away by being too forward; that and I have little to no experience with mares when it came to 'relationships'.

I shook my head. No! No more thoughts about that right now! As much as I would have liked this to be a social call from her, I knew better, after all, I did hear her say that she had work for me.

I gestured for Homage to enter. "P-please, come in."

Yellow stepped aside and allowed Homage in. Once inside, Homage turned to Yellow Jacket and offered up a hoof to her. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Homage, and you are...?"

Yellow took Homage's hoof with her own, then shook it. "Yellow Jacket. I'm P.I.'s new part--"

"ASSISTANT!" I blurted. "She's my new assistant..." Both of them turned their heads towards me, Yellow Jacket mouthed 'really?' to me.

With a smile on her muzzle, Homage nudged Yellow Jacket on the shoulder. "Hey, that's something we both have in common."

"Really?" Yellow said. "Who do you work for?"

"I work for..." She turned to me and smiled. Oh, is it getting warm in here? Maybe I should open a window. "Why don't we just show her. P.I., I see you have a PipBuck now, looks nice on you. Turn on the radio, he should be airing right about now."

Obeying Homage and mentally jumping of the walls. She said it looked nice on me! I turned on the radio and turned up the volume so we all could hear.

"--nd now for some news! Just recently, the settlement of Woodtrot had a problem where over a dozen of the town's mares just vanished, and no pony was able to figure out why... That is until a private investigator ventured into the town and found them! Turns out, a couple bad apples in the town's security force thought they could make a couple caps by kidnapping these mares and trading them to slavers. But thanks to the efforts of one heroic pony, those mares are home safe and sound. All I gotta say is, good work, Detective!

"Him, that's who I work for." Homage said as she pointed to my PipBuck.

Yellow stared at it as well. "Was that guy talking about you, P.I.?"

Trying to hide my blush, I looked to Homage. "Did he really have to make me sound like some hero? You know it was just a job to me."

"Heh, Sorry." Homage scratched her mane as she grinned. "DJ Pon3 often gets carried away a little bit. Besides, sometimes, the wasteland could really use a hero..."

"I liked it." Yellow added.

Homage smiled. "Glad to hear that somepony does, but if you don't feel comfortable with it, P.I., I can convince DJ Pon3 to tone it down some."

I nodded. "Thanks, please do. Don't want to give the impression that I'm some hero for hire. Now...about that job you mentioned. What do you got for me this time?"

"Wait?" Yellow Jacket muttered, then pointed to Homage. "What do you mean 'this time'? Is she a regular or something?"

Homage giggled. "I guess you could say that. To be more precise, I'm here on DJ Pon3's behalf."

Yellow cocked her head as she eyed Homage. "His behalf? Why doesn't this DJ show up here himself?"

Homage glanced at me and we both chuckled at Yellow Jacket's question. Homage then answered her. "Pon3 is sort of a recluse. The guy never leaves his studio, so he often has me doing errands for him. This is one of those instances. You see, he has his own sources for what goes on in the wasteland, but every now and then, he comes across something that seems newsworthy, but just doesn't have enough information about it. So for those occasions, the DJ hires P.I. here to see what he can dig up before he informs the wasteland over the air."

"Oh I see." Yellow Jacket said as she turned her head to me. "So you're like the DJ's umm... field reporter."

"Heh, something like that." I answered with a shrug. "So, Homage, what does he have for me this time?"

Homage walked over to the chair opposite of me, then sat down. "There's this place called Lakeside; an old army base now settlement."

"Why is it called Lakeside?" Yellow asked.

"Heh, probably because the place was built next to a lake." Answered Homage with a shrug. "But I wouldn't go swimming in it if I were you, only ghouls would find it pleasant."

"So why go there?" I asked.

The gray mare responded. "'Cause something is going on there, I--Pon3 heard reports about ponies dying one after another in there."

"And that's strange?" I said as I raised an eyebrow. "This is the wasteland; ponies die every day."

"True. But Lakeside has much better defenses than Woodtrot ever did. The place would never allow a raider or slaver even near it. Plus, all of the dead ponies were found the same way."

Interested, I leaned over my desk, maintaining eye contact with Homage. "And that is?"

"Get this because this is where it gets interesting...they were all burned to a crisp. Lakeside might have itself a serial killer slash arsonist."

I reclined back into my chair. "Maybe it's just a couple of disgruntled settlers with flamethrowers or enchanted weapons taking their rage out on each other?"

"Ha! Not a chance!" Homage quipped. "Only the ponies in charge of defending the place are allowed things like those, the others have to settle for plain, unaltered, small caliber weapons."

I folded my forelegs. "Unicorn magic?"

Homage was quick to turn down my theory. "Doubt it; flame magic isn't something easily learned, and Lakeside doesn't have that many unicorns. Besides...the ponies who got cooked were all unicorns..."

"Hmm." I put a hoof to my chin. As I put some more thought into this, Homage continued.

"Pon3 wants you to go there, investigate, and possibly assist in catching whoever is doing this."

"I don't know..." I scratched my mane. "Wouldn't Lakeside's security be able to find the killer?"

Homage shook her head. "Those ponies may have the guns, but they don't have the same investigation skills you have. Also... consider it a personal favor...from me."

The second she finished that sentence, I slapped my desk with a hoof.

"I'll do it!"

The elevator hummed around Yellow Jacket and I, as it carried us to the shopping floor of the tower.

"What was all that?" Yellow jacket asked.

"What do you mean?" I responded. "You wanted an 'adventure', now we got one."

"Not that. You looked really nervous talking to Homage."

"What? No I didn't." My eyes unconsciously shifted left to right. Crap, she noticed back there!

A smile spread across her muzzle "P.I.," she then nudged my shoulder with hers, "if I didn't know better, I'd say that you like her."

"W-what? T-that's ridiculous I--" I watched as her smile grew bigger and bigger the more I denied it. I then sighed. "Is it that obvious?"

She softly punched my shoulder. "Oh yeah. I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you though."

I scoffed. "And why's that?"

Looking at the back of her hoof, she responded. "She's into mares."

"And how would you know?"

"Hey," she leaned against the elevator's wall, "back where I'm from, the place was filled with its fair share of fillyfoolers. A lifetime of living there, and you get a sixth sense for who is and who isn't... That and she kept eyeing me."

I simply rolled my eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever. Which one of us is the detective here?"

She shrugged. "Just saying."

The elevator stopped, then opened its doors with a ding as it arrived at the shopping floor. Yellow Jacket followed me as we made our way to Chesterfield's shop. Entering his shop, the bell above the door chimed as we entered, followed by Chesterfield's voice from the backroom.

"Here for a couch? Oh...hey, P.I., back so soo--" His voice took a different tune when he noticed Yellow. "Well heeelllooo, why has a fine mare such as yourself come to grace my humble store with your presence?" He then put his elbows on the counter, his head on his hooves, and rose his eyebrows to Yellow Jacket multiple times.

Yellow Jacket returned his gaze with an awkward smile and wave. "Umm...hi?"

"Ya done flirting there?" I said to Chesterfield. "Because we're going to need some things."

"P.I.," Chester said, still staring at Yellow, "who is this voluptuous mare with you?"

I chuckled a bit, then put a hoof on Yellow's shoulder. "This is Yellow Jacket; she's my new assistant."

I swear, I felt her twitch when I said 'assistant'.

Chester looked at me and tilted his head to the side. "You got enough caps to hire an assistant now?"

I scratched my cheek. "Not really...she's more of a...'mandatory' assistant."

"Hmph, lucky stallion you." I could see a hint of jealousy in his eyes. "So, what can I do you for?"

Well, at least he stopped the whole lovey dovey eyes to Yellow for the moment.

"Just got another job, gonna need a refill on supplies; also, a weapon and protective barding for Yellow."

Chesterfield seemed upset about that last part. "You're sending this gorgeous flower into a gunfight!?"

"Hey!" Yelled Yellow Jacket. "I'll have you know I'm not some pushover!"

I grinned to Chesterfield. "Yeeeah, she's kinda the one who insisted on tagging along with me."

"I see." Chesterfield then looked towards Yellow and bowed his head a bit. "I apologize if I gave you that impression. You're more than welcome to try on any of the barding on the mannequins to see which is to your liking."

Yellow walked around and inspected each of the mannequins. A minute later she yelled across the store. "Umm, you don't have anything that covers the whole body? I don't want to get shot in my flanks."

"Sorry." Chesterfield replied. "What's on display is what I have."

"Oh... On second thought, maybe I don't need barding."

I glared at Yellow from across the shop. "You're going out into the wasteland...with no barding?"

She pawed at her Stable suit. "Well this does have sentimental value, I'd hate to get rid of it."

"Sentimental value?" I said as I looked at her with an abashed expression. "But it doesn't even fit you properly."

She shrugged. "Hand-me-down."

What, does she come from a long line of janitors?

"If you just didn't want to get rid of it, you should have said something." I turned to Chesterfield. "Got anything she can at least put over that suit?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I still have some of that material I used to make your vest. Give me a minute and I'll see what I can do."

Ten minutes later he emerged from the back room with something held in his magic that resembled the more traditional looking bulletproof vest of old. He opened the straps, which causing a tearing sound, then placed the vest on Yellow, over her suit. The words 'Custodian' were unfortunately still visible.

Great, I can already hear DJ Pon3's newest broadcast.

"This just in! The Detective and The Custodian did stuff today! More news at eleven!"

"Hmm." Chester looked at the vest with a perplexed expression. "Seems a bit tighter than I'd thought it'd be. I could re-size it if you want me to."

"No," she replied as she shifted her shoulders a bit, "it's fine."

"Now you just need a weapon." I added.

"I've got a wide selection here." Chesterfield said as he gestured to the weapon rack behind him. "Tell me if anything catches your eye."

Yellow Jacket quickly skimmed her eyes along the rack, scratching her mane as she made the occasional 'oohs' and 'umms'. "Uh...do you got anything small and easy to use? I've never used a gun before."

Nodding, Chester pulled something off the rack with his magic, then presented it to Yellow. "This here is a nine millimeter pistol. It doesn't have much heft, little recoil, and can be easily maintained."

Yellow examined it for a while, then nodded. "I'll take it."

Chester nodded. "Delighted to hear that. I'll find you a holster for it. "

"So..." I said. "How much will this all be?"

Chester chuckled. "I'm just charging you for the refill." He turned to Yellow. "Consider the gun and vest a gift."

"Umm, thanks..." Yellow responded.

"Chester..." I tilted my head. "You never gave me any freebies..."

The shop pony grinned. "Ha! That's because you lack the feminine aura that Yellow Jacket possesses!"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah...that's it..." I pulled out a bag of caps which I then dropped onto the counter.

Chester slid it over to himself. "I'll have your things sent to the front immediately."

Nodding, I then exited the store with Yellow Jacket. On the way to the elevator, around one of the hallway corners, I spotted the last two ponies I wanted to see right now. Thankfully, they didn't see me yet, but were heading in my direction. What the heck were they still doing here in the tower?!

I began a quicker pace to the elevator. Confused for my sudden increase in speed, Yellow kept up with me. "Whoa there speedy, what's the rush?"

Now at the closed elevator doors, I kept tapping the 'call lift' button non-stop. "J-just excited to get right on this case." Finally, the lift's doors opened with a ding. I practically pulled Yellow Jacket in the elevator with me, then started mashing the button inside the lift.

Please go, please go, please go!

Crap, the two ponies I was trying to avoid where now in the hallway me and Yellow were just at.

They were both mares twice my age who I've known for a very long time. One a unicorn, the other an earth pony. The earth pony's name was Chert; she was light blue with a silver gray mane and tail, and whose cutie mark was of a chunk of rock with some kind of shell fossil in it. Reticle was the unicorn whose coat was a shade of yellow that was bordering on white, her mane and tail were a dark-ish red color, and on her flanks were the images of a rifle scope.

While Chert was looking down another hallway, Reticle noticed me, then tapped Chert on the shoulder and pointed to the elevator. But before they started making their way to me, the elevator's doors closed.

Oh thank Celestia...

I leaned against the side and tried to control my breathing, as I must have been hyperventilating during all that.

"You ok, P.I.?" Yellow asked.

In between breaths, I answered her. "Y-yeah...I'm fine..."

Once we passed the security checkpoint and received our supplies, we walked through the armored doors and officially exited Tenpony Tower.

"Hey?" Yellow said. "Where's our ride?"

I turned to Yellow and noticed that she was looking around the Celestia line. "Our ride?" I asked, confused as to what she means.

"Yeah, those bucks with the cart."

I burst into laughter while Yellow just stood there and waited for me to finish. "That was a one time thing; those bucks were hired by Citrus, not me. No, we walk."

She gawked at me. "We have to walk to Lakeside? Do you even know where it is?"

"Relax." I lifted up my PipBuck leg, showed it to her, then walked down the tracks. "Homage uploaded the coordinates."

As I walked further from her, I heard her kick a rock in frustration, then ran to catch up with me.

"Heh...welcome to the wasteland." I said with a half smile as we walked forward.

We walked for several miles once were out of Manehatten. We avoided well known raider encampments, heavily radioactive places, and other such dangers. We rarely spoke on our way to Lakeside, as Yellow just viewed the scenery which mostly consisted of bombed cities, debris riddled cracked roads, long broken chariots, charred homes, lifeless hills, and rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. At some point, she pointed to the big pink ball of gas that was on the side of a far off mountain. I told her that used to be Equestria's capital: Canterlot. Her ears drooped a bit when she heard my response, then replied with a simple "Oh...". Whenever we passed the scorched skeletal remains of ponies, Yellow would always carefully walk around them, trying her best not to disturb them from their eternal rest.

It wasn't until night fell that we decided to take shelter inside a small cave by the side of a hill. Inside, I began to work on starting a campfire while I sent Yellow to collect more wood from the dead trees outside. Half an hour later she returned with more than just wood, she was dragging the carcass of a rad-hog with countless sticks piercing its hide. I stared at her with my mouth hanging open as she just stood there, looking triumphant.

An hour later we sat near the fire, eating flame roasted hog.

"So." Yellow said with a mouthful of food. "We getting close to Lakeside?"

I took time to chew, then swallowed. "Not that far now, should get there in the morning."

"Good. I was getting tired of endlessly wa--" She became silent then quickly turned to the cave's entrance.

"What?" I asked. Then I heard the sound of music. It was some kind of polka...oh, I know what it is. "It's just a sprite-bot."

Sprite-bots. They were automated drones with a design that resembled a bulky metal parasprite. They were deployed by the Ministry of Morale (or M.O.M for short) to spread uplifting messages to the ponies of the pre-war world. Basically, they were floating radios that wandered the wastes, sometimes annoying travelers with either unwanted polka music, or if you were near Fillydelphia, some glorified speech about unity and sacrifice from the king of slavers, Red-Eye.

But before I had a chance to tell Yellow Jacket all that, she ran out of the cave.

"Dammit." I put down my meal and chased after her.

Once outside, I saw her scanning the treeline, then bolting to the source of the music.

"Hey!" I yelled. She didn't stop, so I followed.

She finally did stopped when she found the floating machine.

"Hey! You there?" Yellow said as she stepped in its way and tapped the side of its chassis with a hoof. The sprite-bot just kept trying to move around her, but Yellow wouldn't let it.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I approached her.

She started beating on the thing harder. "Dammit! I know you're there! Answer me!"

"Yellow!" I shouted. "The thing is just a robot! It's not going to answ--"

A metallic voice emanating from the sprite-bot proved me wrong. "Yellow Jacket, please stop hitting it."

"There you are." Yellow smiled, then slumped to her knees. "I was starting to get worried."

The voice responded. "I'm glad to see you're alright. I heard about Woodtrot."

"I'm fine, and if it wasn't for your advice, the situation would have been much much worse for me."

"Good to hear that you took my words to heart then, if anyone saw they wou--" As I stepped closer to Yellow, the sprite-bot turned slightly, then focused on me. "Yellow Jacket, who is that?"

"That's P.I.; he's the detective who saved me, and my new partner."

"Assistant." I corrected her.

"He saves you, then becomes your assistant?" The voice said.

I facehoofed; I could have worded that better. "No, she's my assistant... Anyway, who are you?"

The voice was silent for a moment. "Just call me Watcher." The robot turned back to Yellow. "Yellow Jacket...does he know?"

She lowered her eyes and muttered. "No..."

What followed was a metallic sigh. "Well, I can see that you followed at least three of the things I told you. You've got a weapon, made a friend," I shot darts at the back of Yellow's head, this was more like a...forced companionship, "and you...well...if you do decide to tell him." I looked at Yellow skeptically. Was there something going on here? Or was I just putting too much thought into this? "Just...just make sure he's a pony worthy of your trust."

Yellow nodded. "Ok...I-I'll think about that, Watcher."

"Good, well it was nice talking to you again, but I have to go now. You be careful out here." The sprite-bot turned to the other direction, then drifted away.

Yellow waved to the robot. "Thanks, Watcher! You too!"

Once the bot was out of sight, we returned to the cave. As we sat by the fire, I glanced at Yellow. "Is there uh...something going on here that I should know?"

"What?" She looked at me, then shook her head. "No."

I eyed Yellow for a good ten seconds before dropping my suspicions. "...Okie dokie loki." I don't even know why I said it like that...

Once morning came, we packed up and continued our way to Lakeside. Finally, after an hour of walking down the road, our destination was visible over the next hillside.

Ahead of us was just what Homage said. Lakeside was an old army base next to (who would have guessed?) a lake. The giant gate that served as the entrance to the town was made of solid concrete and had survived the bombs almost intact. A huge chain link fence with razor wire encircled the settlement in a square shape, at each corner stood watchtowers. Some were the original towers from back before the bombs, while others were poorly rebuilt out of planks of wood; even now they all had ponies armed with rifles, scanning the horizon for any trouble coming their way. Heck, if we were raiders, we would have been dead by now, and the last thing we would have seen would've been a flash from one of the towers. Inside the base were the original buildings and a whole lot of makeshift homes made from scrap metal and wood. Even from here, I could make out some sort of shiny monument in the center of the town.

Once we reached the gates, we were stopped by four armed guards; two at the bottom of the concrete gate, and two on top of it.

"Stay where you are while we search you for contraband." Said one of the guards.

The two guards approached us while the ones at the top kept their weapon sights on us. One of the guards searching us was a unicorn; as he waved his horn around me, I noticed it glowed brighter when it neared Conversationalist. After doing that to the both of us, the unicorn looked up to the ones up top, then shook his head. Their response was a nod before they put their guns away.

"Sorry about that." Said the unicorn guard. "We don't allow non-security ponies here anything bigger than a pistol."

"Why?" Asked Yellow.

"We are a well defended community, so there really isn't any need for the civies to be walking around with machine guns or rocket launchers. You can still own a weapon here, but it must be a pistol."

"I see..." I said with a nod. "Excuse me sir, my friend and I are very parched from our journey, could you direct us to the bar?"

"Wet your whistle eh?" The guard said with amusement. "It's next to the crystal tree in the center of town, can't miss it."

"Thank you." I then walked through the gate.

Yellow ran up to my side. "A bar? Why are we going to a bar? Shouldn't we start investigating?"

"Heh, that's cute...no. Right now we have nothing to go on, other than hearsay. We're going to need more information about the place first, and what better place to ask ponies questions than where ponies who are drunk off their asses hang out?"

Yellow stopped for a second. "Oh. Yeah I knew that."

Sure she did... now, the guard said that it was next to the crystal tree. Walking to the center of town, I could see that the the guard was indeed right; there was no way I would have missed it. Right in the center of the plaza was a blue-ish tree made of crystal that about two stories tall, the leaves were of a lighter blue and partially transparent, while at the end of many of its branches were small multi-color orbs. Beneath the tree was a little chest high fence to keep ponies from...knocking into it...I guess, while several yards away were buildings encircling the tree; one of them the bar.

Entering said bar we surprisingly spotted no drunk ponies, but instead the sober bar-pony manning the bar. Yellow and I took a seat by the counter as I waved to get his attention. The barkeep approached us and spoke in a strange accent. "What will it be lad and ladette?"

My reply was, "Two sparkle colas, please."

Five seconds later, the barkeep slid over two colas and a bowl full of what looked like small shiny spheres, each a different color.

I pointed a hoof to the bowl. "Umm, I didn't order...whatever these are."

The barkeep smiled. "Try one, they're complementary."

Well if it's free... I picked one up with my hoof and popped it in my mouth. There was a slight crunch followed by a gush of sweet tangy juice. "It's not bad. What is it?"

The barkeep answered me. "Good aren't they? They're crystal berries, grown from the crystal tree outside."

"Wait." Yellow said as she finished chewing hers. "Berries grown from a crystal tree?"

"Aye," the bar-pony said with a smile and a nod, "they grow from this tree. It's a gift from the Crystal Empire."

I spoke after I swallowed my second berry. "The Crystal Empire? They're still around?"

He nodded. "Aye, why? Have you never heard of what became of it?"

I slowly shook my head. "No, not really. I'm not much of a historian, so I just assumed they were just like the wastes."

He chuckled. "Well you'd be wrong. Would you like if I gave you the rundown?"

"Please do." I took a sip of my sparkle cola as I listened to the barkeep. Ah, cold.

What he told me went something like this.

During the war, the Crystal Empire tried to stay out of Equestria's war. They would only provide aid to Equestria and never fought with the zebras directly. This went well for a while until the Crystal Empire's second hosting of the Equestria Games, where a zebra terrorist attack caused a panic in the empire. In their fear, a majority of the empire's populace demanded that they declare themselves independent from the rest of Equestria. The Crystal Princess having no choice, obeyed the wishes of her people and did so. For she knew that her people just recovered from their thousand year curse, and the last thing they needed was to be involved in a war that they wanted no part of. This decision ended up saving the empire; for when the bombs fell, the Crystal Empire wasn't hit.

"Why would they give this place a tree?" I questioned.

"We're not the only settlement that got one. About a week ago the empire gave them to a few towns as a show of good will to the ponies of the wasteland. The trees need little water and can grow in the poorest quality of soil, they also provide the berries which grow all season, and are full of all kinds of vitamins. And all they asked for in return, was that we spread the word around about the empire; possibly to inform ponies like you that they're still around."

"Well," I said as I turned to Yellow, and saw that she wasn't even paying attention, as she was too preoccupied with the rest of the berries in the bowl, "at least one of us heard about them."

"Huh?" Yellow muttered around a mouthful of the fruit.

"Say, barkeep." I turned to him. "We've heard some rumors about some murders here. Is there any truth to that?"

The barkeeper lowed his eyes and sighed. "I'm afraid that's true, but you shouldn't worry. Whoever is doing this is only targeting unicorns. So you two should be safe."

"Do you know when the killings started?" I asked.

He rubbed his chin. "Hmm, The first murder was five days ago. It happened under Lakeside, I think."

"Under Lakeside?" I said, a bit astonished. "Is there a subway down here?"

The barkeep chuckled as he shook his head. "No no, the base used to have underground facilities. Now we just use it as storage and a place for the eggheads to do their research."

"Research? What kind of research?" I took a sip of my cola.

"Full of questions, aren't you?" He grinned. "Aye, you see the base had its own water purification system in place. It's a machine that siphons water from the lake and makes it drinkable; not on a grand scale I mind you, but enough for the town to get by."

"And what does this have to do with research?" I inquired.

"Patience boy, patience. I'm getting to it. You see, the machine was found when we settled here, and it was surprisingly still in working order, but it was never designed to filter radiation, and I'll tell you, that lake is a cesspool for the stuff! The eggheads managed to alter the machine to cleanse some of the radiation, but not all. For quite a while they have been trying to figure out how to max it's cleansing output, that way the town could trade clean water to neighboring settlements."

"And have they had any success?"

He shrugged. "None that I know of."

"Hmm." I finished my cola, paid for the drinks, then turned to Yellow. "We should go now."

Yellow looked to me with disappointment in her eyes and berry stained cheeks. "Already? But...but berries..."

The bartender laughed. "You can take the rest with you."

Yellow beamed a smile as she quickly poured the rest of the berries into her saddlebags. Stepping out of the bar, I then made my way to the direction of the nearest building that I assumed was the security building.

"So what now?" Yellow asked as she walked alongside me.

"Now we go and ask the ponies here who might know more about the murders."

Yellow looked to me with concern in her eyes. "But what if they don't kno--"

"AAAAAAAH!"

The blood curdling scream of a stallion caused both Yellow and I to jump. After quickly regaining our composure, we ran to the source of the scream.

"Or we could see what all that's about!" I yelled as we ran past buildings until we spotted smoke coming from an alley.

Looking into it, we saw a unicorn stallion engulfed in fire, still screaming and writhing on the floor, trying desperately to put out the flames. Running up to him, I pulled off my duster coat and started slapping it against him in an attempt to smother the fire. With Yellow's help, we finally managed to put him out, however, the damage was done. He was left with severe third degree burns; what was left of his coat and mane were charred black and flaking off. With his eyes closed, he faced the side of a building as he violently shook, clinging to life.

Yellow Jacket pulled out a healing potion from her bags, uncorked it, then tried to bring it to the stallion's lips.

"T-that won't work." I muttered as she still tried to force it into his unopening mouth, only for the potion to trickle down his chin and onto the ground.

"Well why not!?" Yellow Jacket yelled as she turned to me with concern in her eyes. "You said these things can heal a pony!" She looked back to the stallion. "Come on! Just hurry up and drink it!"

I shoved Yellow aside and lowered next to the stallion, then started rummaging around my saddlebags.

"I said they can heal wounds! Not something extreme like broken bones or intense burns like this!" Finding what I needed at the bottom of my bag, I pulled out a syringe of Med-X, yanked the cap off the needle, then jammed it into the stallion's side and pushed the plunger. There was a sound of pressurized air releasing, as the syringe injected the drug into his system, easing the stallion's pain. "This is all we can do for him now." I looked down both sides of the alley and saw they were devoid of life, whoever did this was long gone. I then leaned into what was left of the stallion's ear and whispered. "Who did this to you?"

He struggled to open his cracked and bleeding lips; what followed was incomprehensible whimpers and mutterings, but I was able to pick up two words before he went silent. "S...specimen...se...seven."

Yellow's eyes shrank to the size of pinpricks as she stared at the stallion. "Is...is he?"

I sighed as I inspected him; he'd stopped shaking, and was no longer breathing. "Yeah, Yellow...he is..."

She looked to me with anger in her eyes. "We'll get the sick bastard who did this...right?"

I nodded as my expression was starting to match hers. "We'll try. Even if--"

"You there! Stay where you are!" Four armed guards suddenly emerged from the same street we came from; their rifles aimed at us as they slowly approached.

My eyes widened as I quickly looked to the dead stallion, then back to the guards.

"Umm...this isn't...what it looks like?" I said as Yellow and I slowly raised our forelegs.

"Well... you did want to go see Lakeside's security." Yellow said as she tried to get comfortable.

We both laid in bunk beds that were jutting out from the wall of the cell we were in. Yellow laid in the bunk above mine, while I was on the one under hers. We both had our saddlebags and weapons taken when we were brought here.

I peeked over the side to get a better look at Yellow above me. "Why do you get the top bunk?"

She looked under her cot, saw my scowl, then chuckled. "Called dibs."

I repositioned myself to get more comfortable on my back as I crossed my forelegs and glared at Yellow through the bottom of her bunk.

And she was supposed to be a year older than me...

I stayed like that until the sound of the cell door unlocking got my attention.

"Alright." Said a middle aged maroon earth pony stallion in guard barding, opening our cell. "You two are free to go."

Yellow hung her rear legs off her cot as she sat up. "What? Just like that?"

The earth pony nodded once. "Just like that."

I started to crawl out from my bunk. "Umm, not complaining or anything...but mind if I ask why?"

He looked at me for a moment before he spoke. "I know you two didn't kill that unicorn. I got word earlier about two ponies matching your descriptions, arriving into Lakeside just this morning. I can see that you two were just at the wrong place, at the wrong time."

I breathed a sigh of relief; I was actually worried that we were gonna hang for that buck's death. "Umm, now that we're free, mind if you point me to the pony in charge?"

The gruff pony gave me a stern glance. "Son, you're speaking to him."

My eyes widened and my head leaned back in surprise. "Oh! And you are?"

"Captain Barley." He said in a calm, authoritative voice. "Is there something more than giving me your gratitude for being released?"

"Well I'm glad you asked." I scratched the back of my head. "You see, we kinda came here because of the murders."

He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at me. "Excuse me?"

Oh crap. I could have worded that better. He probably assumes I have some weird death fetish or something now. I mean, how do you explain that I came here to do his job of catching the killer for him, without insulting the guy?

"Well, you see...umm...about the murders. I--"

"Oh for goodness sake!" Yellow Jacket interrupted, then pointed a hoof under her bunk to me. "He's that detective mentioned on the radio yesterday, and he's here to help you catch the killer!"

Answer to my question from earlier...like that.

He turned back to me and looked me top to bottom. "The one DJ Pon3 mentioned? The one from Woodtrot?"

Yes, yes! This was working. I just nodded quickly.

He seemed in thought for a moment. "Hmm, normally we would handle this on our own, but with so many deaths already..."

I leaned forward a bit. "So?"

He looked back to me and replied with an affirmative nod.

We then exited the cell, got our weapons and bags back, then made our way to an old conference room where we continued the conversation.

"So?" I said before sitting down on an old chair. "How many deaths so far?"

Captain Barley also sat, then sighed. "The one you two stumbled upon was the sixth."

"Oh..." It was here that I remembered one detail Homage told me. "Captain Barely, I've heard that all the victims were unicorns. Is this true?"

He nodded.

I continued. "Is there any connection as to why the killer would only target unicorns?"

He looked down and slowly shook his head. "I'm afraid this might be a jealous local. You see, we don't have that many unicorns here, and a majority of them work with the water purifier. It's safer operating the machine from a distance with magic, in order to avoid the radiation. It's because of this that the unicorns demanded they be paid more, stating that they have to work so close to a health hazard. It was either pay them more or let the town die of thirst, so I gave in to their demands."

Well that's as good a motive if any. "Any suspects?" I questioned.

"Heh, son, you saw what happened to that buck; only something like a flamethrower could do something like that, and so far, we don't allow anything like that in the town. If it were as easy as finding somepony with one, you wouldn't be here."

"True, but, what if somepony was able to build one inside the town?"

He quickly dismissed my theory. "Unlikely. The components for one are hard to come by, and if somepony somehow did manage to jury-rig one, it wouldn't be that effective. Besides, the unicorns in my guard do daily scans in the town. You were at the gates, you probably saw the detection spell."

"Hmm..." He had a point there. This place did run tight security and it would be nigh impossible to smuggle something as big as a flamethrower into the town, let alone build one and somehow manage to keep it hidden all this time.

My best bet was to start my own investigation, and what better place to start than the most recent. I turned to my companion and saw that she was reclined in her own chair, waiting for Captain Barely and I to finish our conversation.

I got up and gestured for yellow to do the same. "Let's go, Yellow."

She started to get to her feet. "Where we going?"

"Back to the alley. It was the most recent killing, so there still might be clues there."

"I'll go with you." Captain Barely also got up. "I know this town better than anyone."

"Alright." I got the feeling that even if I said no, he would have accompanied us anyway, but he did have a point. Having somepony who knows the town could be helpful.

Arriving back to the alley, I saw that a crowd had gathered behind the guards who were blocking the entrance, and somepony had covered the dead buck with a weather tarp. Once the guards saw Captain Barley, they moved aside and let him, Yellow, and I through. Now that I was back here under a less stressful situation, I was able to properly look for clues.

As I began looking around, Captain Barley approached me. "Do you think the killer doused this buck with some kind of accelerate, then lit a match or something to set the fire?"

I actually suspected this on the way here, but once I looked around the alley, I shook my head.

"No, if that was the scenario, there would be a pool of it somewhere, and that wouldn't have happened." I said before pointing at the wall near the body where there was a huge scorch mark with a stallion shaped gap. This indicated that something projected out a wide stream of fire at a high pressure; the fire was also hot enough to kill the buck within minutes. So far, this all pointed to a flame thrower being the murder weapon, but there had to be some other way...

My eyes widened as I rummaged around my saddlebags until I pulled out the same pillowcase still filled with gem powder from Woodtrot. I then uncovered the dead stallion's hoof from under the tarp, then proceeded to sprinkle the powder onto it. Three Canterlots later and...nothing. The hoof didn't glow, meaning that the fire wasn't caused by unicorn magic.

Just as I was getting stumped, Yellow called out. "Hey! What's this?"

I turned around and saw that she was standing next to a bunch of boxes gathered together and was pointing inside them. Now that I got closer to them, I could see that the boxes where somepony's feeble attempt of making a shelter. The boxes were also burned, and peering in to where Yellow was pointing, I could see four hoofprints. What was strange was that the hoofprints were burned into the cardboard. Did the killer drop whatever it was they used to kill the buck and momentarily set themselves on fire by accident?

A couple more minutes of searching turned up no further clues. Well if I can't find anything more from the latest killing, maybe I can figure something out from the earliest one.

"Captain Barley." I turned to the town's leader. "Can you take me to where the first killing happened?"

Without hesitation he responded. "Of course, follow me."

All three of us walked past the guards, once we made it through the crowd, a young unicorn colt squeezed through the mass of pony legs and ran up to us.

"Mister! Hey, mister!" The colt shouted.

I stopped when I noticed he was running in my direction, then pointed a hoof to my face. "Me?"

When he skidded to a halt in front of me, I saw he was light purple with a gray mane. In his magic he held a small change purse, which he opened, flipped upside down, and shook three caps from.

Confused, I stared at the caps, then back to the colt. "Umm?"

"Here." The colt said before he slid the caps closer to me.

I still wasn't following. "Uh, kid? What is this?"

"You're one right? A real life derec...deetek..." The colt was clearly having difficulty pronouncing the word.

"Detective?" Yellow Jacket suggested.

He pointed a hoof to me. "Yeah! That!"

"Um, yeah...yeah, I am." I replied before curiously looking down to the colt. "Why, are you looking for one?"

The colt rapidly nodded his head. "It's my mom, mister! She hasn't been home for days!" His eyes were starting to water. "Please take my caps and find her for me!"

I lowered myself to be at eye level with the colt. "What's your name?"

The colt answered me nervously. "M-Mulberry."

"Hey, Mulberry. I'm P.I." I said calmly with a smile. "What does your mom do?"

"She...she sometimes goes out of town and looks for things to sell."

Sounds like his mom is a scavenger. "And how long does she usually go out looking for things?"

Mulbery scanned the floor beneath him as he tried to recall. "She...sometimes takes two or three days."

I tilted my head a bit. "Maybe she's out there still looking for stuff?"

"Maybe, but," he stomped the floor once, "this feels different; she never took this long!" His face became one of worry as his gaze lowered to the ground. "And I heard about what happened to some of the ponies in town."

Oh no...I hope this doesn't mean what I think it's meaning.

"Uh, Mulberry? ...Is your mom a unicorn?"

As he once again looked me in the eyes, I could see confusion as to why I would ask that, then he shook his head. "No, mister. She isn't. She is a earth pony with a...blue-ish green fur and...and a brown mane!"

Phew...dodged a bullet there. His mom is probably just taking longer than usual. I got the feeling he wouldn't accept my answer, so I thought of the next best thing to ease his worry.

"Tell you what Mulberry. I'm on a very important case right now, but once I'm done, I'll find your mother lickity split."

His mouth formed into a smile as his eyes gleamed with hope. "You promise?"

Smiling, I picked up the three caps with a hoof and deliberately brought them closer to his sight as I put them in my saddlebags.

"I kinda have to now. You hired me."

Yellow and I were practically shoulder to shoulder as we walked down a narrow hallway that had steel walls, concrete flooring, and the occasional bulkhead door. Captain Barely had lead us into one of the base's original buildings; it had a set of stairs leading to the underground section of the base which we were now in.

"Don't open the doors with red paint." Barely said as he led us to the first killing. I did see that some of the bulkheads we past had a red 'X' painted somewhere on them.

"Why not?" Yellow asked.

Barley responded to her question. "Because the place was unmaintained for centuries when we first arrived here; water from the nearby lake seeped in and flooded some sections of the facility. We managed to save a majority of the place by closing off some hallways." He looked back to us. "Heed my warning though; less you get washed away with a surge of radioactive slush water."

While we followed Barley, my PipBuck started making clicking noises from being in proximity of one of the marked bulkheads. Yeah...I'd rather avoid an indoor swim only a ghoul would enjoy.

The hallway ended into a large room filled with all kinds of lab equipment; chemicals in jars, and equations written on papers were strewn around the place. Small and big machines alike all were either lined against a wall or scattered around the room on tables. I had no idea what any of their functions were, so I became cautious as to not accidentally break or activate something. My assistant on the other hoof was already reaching toward the big red button of one of the machines.

"Don't touch!" I yelled before lightly slapping her hoof way from it. "You could have activated the place's self-destruct or something!"

Yellow Jacket opened her mouth to yell back, but before she could, Captain Barley waltzed up to the machine and slammed the button. I watched in astonishment as instead of the place blowing up, the machine made a ding noise, then spat out a cup full of steaming dark liquid.

"Or," Barley said as he looked to the both of us, "she could have made a cup of Joe."

I nervously chucked as I re-adjusted my hat in an attempt to hide my embarrassment while Yellow Jacket just stuck out her tongue at me. I...I don't drink coffee...how was I supposed to know!?

"So, um." I coughed. "What is this room?"

Barley took a sip of the coffee before he spoke. "This here is one of the rooms the scientists use."

"What do they use it for?" Yellow asked.

"Heck if I know." Barley shrugged, then took another sip. "Dr. Baguette was the one in charge of the underground section of Lakeside. All I know about this room is where the coffee machine is."

I caught something in his sentence. "You said Dr. Baguette was in charge of this place?"

"Mmhmm." He slowly nodded. "Baguette was the first one killed."

I blinked. "Here?"

Barley shook his head. "No. If you walk down that other hallway," he pointed to the hallway opposite of the one we came in from, "you'll see a big scorch mark on the floor. Judging from the position she was in; it looked like she ran from this room. That hallway has nothing but that mark, so there might not be any clues to find there, but since she must have been in this room, there might still be something here."

Hmm, made sense. I looked around the room. Oh boy... with so many science-y things in here, it would be hard to differentiate clues from things that are unrelated to the murder, but...I had to try. First, let's learn more about this Dr. Baguette.

"Captain...who was Dr. Baguette." I asked.

"Like I said, she ran the underground section of Lakeside. She was pretty much the lead scientist down here. She organized the unicorns who maintain the purifier, while on the side, researching for a way to purge radiation from our water." He sighed. "Her death was a major blow to the town. Now I'll probably have to get Bismuth to take over for her."

As Barley was talking, Yellow walked around the lab, looking at all the strange gadgets and doohickeys. She stopped when she spotted an orange sitting inside a glass box with no lid. She picked it up with her hoof and was about to peel it when a voice shouted from the other hallway.

"Stop! Put that back down!"

All three of us turned at once to the source of the voice. Standing in the hallway was a unicorn buck a few years older than me who was wearing a lab coat. His fur was dark red with a light green mane and tail.

Barley spoke. "Matter of fact, that's Bismuth right there."

Bismuth approached Yellow and spoke in a very taut voice. "Please put that back before you ruin days of work."

Yellow eyed Bismuth, then the orange in her hoof. "Um, dude? It's just an ora--" The orange then sprouted six insect legs that tried to get a hold on Yellow Jacket's hoof. "What the!? Yaaa!" She screamed as she shook it off her hoof. After landing back in the box, the 'orange' scurried around in it.

"It wasn't always." Bismuth replied matter-of-factly.

"The hell is that!" Yellow demanded as she nervously rubbed her hoof, almost as if she could still feel it trying to crawl on her.

"That," Bismuth said as he pointed to the creature in the box, "used to be a rad-roach."

I walked up to the 'fruit insect' and stared at it with interest. "Ok, I'll bite." I tapped the glass. "How'd you do it?"

Bismuth replied to my question. "We used a polymorph spell on a rad-roach. It was one of Dr. Baguette's...pet projects."

I glanced at Bismuth. "Polymorph spell? I thought that was lost pre-war knowledge."

He chuckled. "It is, but Dr. Baguette was working to re-discover it."

"Umm." Yellow Jacket raised her hoof. "Can someone care to tell me what this polly-want-a-cracker spell is?"

Bismuth looked at Yellow almost as if she were a foal. "It's pronounced 'poly-morph', and what it is; is a very complicated spell."

Yellow rubbed the back of her neck. "I get that, but what does it do?"

I saw his eye twitch; he clearly wasn't in a very good mood, but still took the time to explain anyway. "It's a spell that changes one thing into another. For example; rocks into gold, a balloon into a bowling ball, or...rad-roaches into oranges."

It took Yellow a couple seconds to process all that. "Oh I see now! Kinda sounds neat."

"Yes...neat." Bismuth said before he used his magic to pick up the cage with the 'rad-orange' in it and moved it over to a shelf that had five other similar cages. I couldn't help but notice that under each of them, taped to the shelving were strips of white tape; written on them were numbers that went from one to six.

The dying buck from the alley's voice played in my head. 'Specimen seven'. My eyes widened as a new notification appeared in my E.F.S

So far, I had a strong suspicion of Bismuth. It seemed like he had the most to gain from the Doctor's death, and polymorph spells were being practiced here. Could Bismuth have used that spell to create or hide a flamethrower inside Lakeside? But some things weren't adding up, there was still the question of why?. Why kill Dr. Baguette and five other unicorns? What was there to gain other than her position? Was there a higher pay raise or some other thing I just don't know about?

Captain Barley approached the unicorn and placed a hoof on his shoulder. "How are you holding up? No pressure, but I'm sure you'll do fine being head scientist from here on out. Bare in mind that I'm not asking you to replace Dr. Baguette, but instead to take over for her."

Bismuth sighed. "I know, Captain Barley...it's just that...she was an amazing pony to even manage all of this. It's a tough job, but somepony has to do it; it might as well be me..."

As those two were in the middle of their conversation, I quickly scanned the room and found the one thing I was able to recognize. A terminal. I went unnoticed as I pulled out a wire from my PipBuck and plugged it into one of the terminal's ports. A couple button taps later and the words 'Copying files' appeared on the PipBuck's screen. Now done, I unplugged the wire from the terminal and watched as it retracted back into my PipBuck.

I turned to Yellow who just watched me with a confused look the entire time I was downloading. I then faked a yawn. "Well... It's getting late; Yellow and I should find a place for the night."

Captain Barley's ears perked up as he turned to me. "It is getting late, isn't it? I can arrange a room for you two in one of the inns in town. But detective, if you find out anything more. Do not hesitate to find me."

My eyes shifted to Bismuth. "Will do, Captain...will do."

I opened the door to our room and saw that it was just like the rest of the building we were in; constructed from wood for flooring and various scraps of metal acting as walls. Well at least we have an overlook view of the crystal tree. The only furniture in the room was two chairs, a table, and an old bunk bed. The second Yellow saw the bed, she ran up to it, yelling, "top, mine!" Then climbed up to it to secure her throne. I didn't even care as I crawled into the bottom bunk and laid on my back, then raised my PipBuck to eye level. I began searching through its contents until I found the files I downloaded earlier. In order to avoid reading the entirety of unrelated files, I focused on the ones dating back to a few days before the first murder up to today; doing so showed that only two entries matched my search. The one before the murder was a log.

Well, that solved one mystery. Apparently, a perfected polymorph spell would be worth a fortune; if Bismuth is the killer, then that would have been a very good motive to kill. I also noticed that the doctor mentioned that there were seven other unicorns researching the spell, so far, there were six murders; meaning that two of the researchers were still alive. If one of them is Bismuth, then that must mean that there is one last researcher still unaccounted for. Maybe this last file would provide some more insight.

The file was an audio file, which I played. There was the sound of somepony breathing, followed by a couple moments of silence. Finally, a stallions voice spoke; it was Bismuth's, and he sounded stressed.

"T-the...others are dead. There's just two of us left now. This has to end...she found out I was trying to track her down, so she's been on the move trying to evade me. However, I noticed by the trail she leaves that she's regularly in the vicinity of this one house a couple blocks behind the bar; the one by the crystal tree. I'm going to hide out in that alley and wait for her to show, then I'll use that thing I made and finally put an end to this...tonight."

Wait? Tonight!? This audio file was dated today! Around the time Yellow and I found the buck in the alley!

I quickly got up from bed, then ran out the door. Yellow, noticing me panic, jumped off the top bunk and caught up to me. As we ran to the house mentioned in the audio file, Yellow yelled, "what's going on! Why are you running!?"

As I ran, I answered her. "It's Bismuth! He's the killer! And he's about to do it again if we don't stop him!"

Passing the bar, I tried to explain to Yellow about the polymorph spell, the fortune, the audio file, and the last researcher. She just followed me as she tried to understand it all while I looked into alleys for any markers on my E.F.S. I stopped when one alley showed two green markers; nearing it, I saw the silhouette of two figures in the dark narrow space. One in the shape of a mare peering into one of the house's windows, and the other a stallion hiding behind a dumpster. The stallion's features were illuminated by a faint light coming from the magic he was using to hold on to something. It was Bismuth, and he using his magic to aim something at the mare; the thing looked like some kind of weapon made from different machine parts.

Without even thinking, I charged into Bismuth, surprising both him and the mare, and causing him to drop device before he could fire it. "You!?" Bismuth shouted as I tried to subdue him. He still struggled to pick up the device with his magic; once he did, he tried to aim it at the mare, but before he could fire, Yellow ran up and kicked the machine aside, causing it to shoot out two wires with needles at the end into a garbage bag instead. The crackling sound of electricity could be heard running from the machine to the bag.

"You're not killing anyone tonight!" I shouted as I tried to pin him.

He just looked at me with confusion and panic in his eyes. "Kill!? I'm not trying to kill anyone!"

"Yeah right! I know about the polymorph spell, and that you tried to kill the other researchers so you could sell it on your own!" I turned to the mare in the shadows. "You even tried to kill one just now!"

The mare stepped out of the shadows and...the mare wasn't a unicorn at all. She was an earth pony with a blue-ish green coat and a brown mane with a cutie mark of a leafy tree branch that had some kind of white flowers with yellow and black centers. I had no idea who this mare was, but something about her struck a chord with me; almost like something I put in the back of my mind, then just forgot. Staring at the mare, the answer to who she was arrived when a familiar looking sleepy eyed colt walked out of the house the mystery mare was looking into.

"Mommy?" Mulberry? Then that must mean the mare is...his mother. The mare just stood there and stared at Mulberry with hesitant eyes.

"Get off me!" Bismuth shouted as he managed to push me off him. Once we both got to our feet, he pointed a hoof at me. "You've ruined everything! I was this close to--" He turned to Mulberry who was approaching his mother. "No!"

Mulberry didn't even hear Bismuth as he hugged his mother's leg. "Mom! You're back!"

A smile appeared on the mothers face as she was being embraced by her son, but that quickly changed to one of agony. She then pushed Mulberry away and yelled. "Sweetie! Please stay away!"

The colt got back to his feet and stared at his mother with a hurt expression in his little eyes. "Mommy? Why?"

The scar over my mouth started to burn...

"Dammit!" Bismuth ran past me and Yellow, then quickly scooped up Mulberry with his magic and ran off.

Yellow and I were about to give chase until Mulberry's mother crouched in pain and started screaming. We both looked at her in confusion as her hide started smoking, then slowly changing into a charred black until it all turned to ash and blew into the wind. It almost looked as if she were being burned alive from the inside. Her skin started to crack open, then what looked like molten lava bled from those cracks and covered the rest of her body. When she finally stopped screaming, she got up and stared at us with empty glowing yellow fiery eyes; her body looked like that of a statue with glowing veins of fire and magma separating the obsidian plates her hide seemed to be made from. Every breath she took puffed out embers from her nostrils and mouth.

We were both speechless as we watched her transformation finish; Yellow was the first one of us to break that silence. "What. The. Fu--"

The lava pony opened her mouth, then spewed fire in our direction. I reacted immediately by tackling Yellow out of the way, both of us flat on the floor as the flames went over us. The moment the flames stopped, I got Yellow and I to our feet, then ran out of the alley; around the corner of one of the buildings, I saw Bismuth with Mulberry on his back, waving at us to follow him.

Yellow and I looked back in fear as we ran to Bismuth with Mulberry's mother in hot pursuit of our tails while the sounds she made were almost like that of a feral ghoul. With Bismuth ahead of us, he led us to the building that leads to the underground section of Lakeside. With his magic, he opened the steel doors, then ran in and stood by them while he waited for us to get in as well. Yellow and I practically dived in before he slammed it shut behind us, then barred the door with a steel pipe.

I leaned against the door as Yellow and I tried to catch our breath. Despite all the panting, I was able to ask one question. "The...hell...was that?"

Bismuth responded, as he was also panting. "It's--" I almost jumped as something slammed against the door, again and again. "I'll explain downstairs."

I quickly got up and stared at the door, It was starting to glow red and I could feel the heat emanating from it. Just then, a rocky hoof punched through the brightest part of the metal and was waving around, trying to get a hold of us. She was burning through the door! Yellow and I then pulled out our guns and started shooting through the hole she made, they hit her and chunks of obsidian were blown off, but she seemed more pissed than hurt as they regrew! Backing away from the door, we followed Bismuth down the stairs.

"Yeah! Downstairs sounds good!"

We made it back to the same laboratory we were in hours ago; most of the hallways were dim, seeing as nopony was supposed to be here at this hour. On our way here, we sealed several doors in order to slow down our pursuer. When Bismuth set Mulberry down on a chair, I noticed that the colt was shaking with fear as he just stared into dead space.

After inspecting him to make sure he was fine, Bismuth spoke in a hushed tone. "Honey Suckle... Her name is Honey Suckle."

Yellow crossed her forelegs. "Ok, the super deadly flame pony trying to kill us has a name, that's nice. THE HELL IS SHE!?"

He sighed, then looked to the floor. "She's the tragic result of my team's hubris."

I leaned my head forward towards his direction. "Yeah, I'm going to need a little more insight on that. Let's start with an explanation."

"Yes...of course." Bismuth said with a slow nod. "You're involved now, you might as well know." He took a deep breath as he tried to relax, then started rummaging around the lab, picking up all sorts of machine parts, and placing them all on a table. "You two know about the polymorph spell Dr. Baguette was working on, right?"

Yellow and I both answered at the same time.

"Yes."

"The gist of it."

He continued. "The idea was simple at first. Perfect the polymorph spell and use it for the good of the wastes. Settlement needs building materials? Turn nearby rocks into lumber. Not enough food? Change dead trees into fresh hay. Out of medical supplies? Convert a sparkle cola into a healing potion. The possibilities were endless." A brief smile was on his face for that last part, but then that was replaced by a scowl. " As incomplete as the spell was, each one of us could use it only on small inanimate objects, and even then it was a half decent job. But then some members of the research team thought they could do more; they then convinced the rest and myself to use the spell on living things. A rock is one thing, but a living breathing creature is another; the spell...rewrites DNA, so to speak. We started experimenting on small creatures; roaches, mice, flies, those sort of things. The team then got full of themselves and suddenly decided to go one step beyond."

At this point, I could guess what that next step was. "You decided to use it on ponies..."

Bismuth lowered his head in shame. "The team had one mindset when it came to that step. Use the spell and rewrite a pony's DNA in order to make them immune to radiation."

Yellow's eyes widened. "Could you do that!?"

He shrugged. "In theory...it was either that, or more resistant to it."

I looked to the frightened colt. "But what about Mulberry's mother? When did she get involved in this mess?"

Bismuth turned to Mulberry; the little guy wasn't even paying attention to us, as his mind just couldn't process that the thing trying to kill us was his own mother. Bismuth spoke in a lower volume so the colt couldn't hear in case he snapped out of it. "Honey Suckle was...she was a friend of one of the researchers. She was a scavenger who hit hard times; nearly every place that once had worthy salvage was picked clean, so she was hired to be our seventh living test subject with the spell. We told her of the risks, but she still agreed because she was in desperate of caps for raising her son. Once we were ready, all eight of us preformed the spell on her; at first, it looked like it was a complete success! We then had her walk through one of the most irradiated areas near the water purifier; the radiation hadn't affected at all! We thought we did it! We believed that we achieved what wasn't possible for nearly two centuries!" His face then became downtrodden. "But then..."

Right on cue, the sound of Honey Suckle's howling and metal sizzling could be heard through the closed bulkhead; judging by the pitch of it, she was two or three doors away from reaching us.

Yellow looked to said bulkhead with concern while pointing to it. "Uh...I'm gonna take a guess here and say that that happened!"

I looked to Bismuth with a slightly confused look on my face. "I thought you guys were trying to make her rad proof. What happened?"

The science pony picked up what he collected on the table with his magic, then started putting them together. He spoke as he concentrated with what he was doing.

"DNA is...fickle... If you aren't careful, you might cause a domino effect, and who knows what the end result could be!? It also didn't help that we were working off an incomplete spell... We hadn't realize our mistake until after the radiation test...when the team and I were down here celebrating with Honey Suckle. Imagine our horror when she started screaming and...changing before our eyes; that's when she started attacking us. The team scattered while Dr. Beguette and I ran together with her chasing us..." He squeezed his eyes shut as they started to moisten. "That's when Dr. Baguette died... I could have helped her, but I was too much of a coward and hid as our mistake burned her to a crisp, then ran off." He looked at Yellow and I with a pleading look in his expression. "You have to understand, Honey Suckle has no control over when and where she changes, neither does she have control over her actions when she becomes that...thing."

"Then why didn't you all go to Captain Barley?" I asked.

Bismuth lowered his head. "Believe me, I wanted to. But Barley would rather have had her killed...or tired to. You've seen how ineffective your weapons were, there would have been a lot more blood shed if they hunted her." He shook his head. "No...instead the rest of the research team tried to capture her in order to see where they went wrong so they could still make their fortune and satisfy their greed...they didn't succeed. Only me and two other members were hoping to cure her...you met one of them earlier...in the alley..."

The buck...

So this is the reason I was sent here... I came here expecting to find a psychotic murderer with a fire obsession, but instead, what I found was a mother who put herself in this situation because of her love for her child; forced to become some in-equine creature, all because some scientists were more interested in making their fortune, rather than making absolutely sure that they knew what they were doing. Even if they succeeded in recreating the spell...would it have been worth the lives it took to make it happen?

"Sounds like things would have been better if the doctor never even though of trying to recreate it." I said with a straight face.

"That's the thing though..."Bismuth snickered. "She wasn't the one who thought of that..."

I tilted my head. "What do you mean?"

"Dr. Baguette didn't wake up some day and decided to recreate a two hundred year old lost spell... I'm not sure who, but somepony gave it to her..." I was even more confused, but before I opened my mouth, he continued. "She was given terminal data that had notes on how to recreate the polymorph spell; the data was heavily damaged, but still had parts of it intact. Dr. Baguette was just filled in the gaps to the best of her ability."

She was given notes on how to recreate the spell? Who could have done that, and why?

"Who gave her the no--" I was cut off when the sound of something ramming itself again and again came from the room's bulkhead door. Quickly turning to it, I could see that it was slowly starting to glow red as it heated up.

Aw crap... I thought we had more time than this!

Yellow backed away from the door. "Guys! I think we are out of doors!"

Bismuth was frantically picking up his pace as he continued to put seemingly random parts together.

"I-I need more time!" He yelled.

I ran up to his table. "What are you even doing with those!"

"I'm trying to make another stun gun! With what I have, I can only make one that can fire one shot, and you two ruined my opportunity to incapacitate her when you jumped me earlier!"

Yellow looked away and rubbed her neck as I tapped my front hooves together in embarrassment. Heh heh...whoops...

Without even looking as us, he pointed to one of the other doors as he worked. "I'll need one of you to go around and get her attention while I finish making this!"

There was a moment of silence that was broken by Yellow's voice.

"I'll do it!" She then turned to the other door, but before she moved to it, I bit her Stable barding's collar, stopping her. Surprised by the sudden jolt, she turned her head to face me.

"Nuh-uh." I shook my head after I released her. "It's my fault that Bismuth missed, so it has to be me who goes out there." I walked to the door and opened it, halfway through, I turned back to her with a nervous smile on my face. "Besides, out of the two of us, I've been in more gun fights; this should be like one...except with fire...and she regenerates..." I turned to the hallway and made one step in, then looked back to Yellow. "And she's scar--"

"Just go already." Yellow said with a deadpanned expression.

I quickly nodded as I walked into the hallway. "Right, right..."

After going around a couple hallways, I leaned against a wall next to a corner; peering around it, I saw Honey Suckle as she breathed fire onto the door to the room I was in earlier. Parts of the metal were already starting to slowly run down to the floor as if they were liquid. I drew out Conversationalist and stared at the ceiling.

Ok, all I have to do is keep her busy until Bismuth is done with the stun gun...thing. I just need to not end up an extra crispy detective with a side of fries, easy...right?

After a few deep breaths, I jumped around the corner and started yelling at her around Conversationalist's mouth piece. Despite my shouts being muffled, she turned to me. I then shot at her three times; they all hit her in her side, however, she didn't even react to what should have been pain to a normal pony! Instead she looked to the three gaps in her plate armor, then to me. The holes I made slowly closed up as she started running towards me! I quickly turned around and dashed down the hallway; as she chased, flame erupted from her mouth, trying to set me on fire! She was too far, so the flames went over me, but close enough for me to feel the intense heat through my duster coat. I didn't know the layout of this place, so I just ran through any door that didn't have a red X on it, hoping that I would find another.

After running behind one, I slammed it shut as she hit her head against it. Clearly that angered her as I heard her pounding the door with much fury.

I gave myself a small breather and inspected the room I was currently in. Judging by the copious amount of terminals in here; my guess was that this was the terminal room for the researchers. There was one big terminal by the wall that had a just as big desk besides it. Sticking out from behind the desk was the shaking horn of a unicorn.

"Umm...I can see you hiding there." I said in the horn's direction.

The unicorn horn froze on the spot, then the owner stepped out from behind the desk. It was a blue eyed, red coated unicorn mare with a yellow mane and tail wearing a lab coat similar to Bismuth's.

"Who are you?" I asked.

She responded with a nervously weak voice. "I'm...I'm Savvy..."

Savvy? Now where did I hear that before? ...Oh right! Bismuth's audio file said that there were two of the research team members left, so other than Bismuth, Savvy would be the last one.

A loud bang caused me to look to the locked door, where Honey Suckle had managed to punch a hole through the weakened metal.

"Savvy!" The unicorn almost jumped when I called her. "I need you to go down that other door!" I pointed to one of the three doors this room had while I walked to the center of the room. Suddenly, Honey jumped through the door that barred her path; it was practically putty after the amount of heat she used on it! Honey looked at me, then to Savvy, unsure of which of us to kill first. "Dammit!" I pulled out Conversationalist, then started unloading on the flame pony, making her refocus on me. I then opened the door opposite of the one Savvy was opening and backed into it, shooting at Honey as I did so. The second Savvy closed the door behind her, I made a 180 and ran down the hallway, with Honey hot on my tail! Every door I passed had an X and I needed someway to shake her for a bit... Just ahead was a door with no X, which I quickly opened, then ran into.

It was a dark room with no visibility. I quickly turned on my PipBuck light and saw stacks of wooden crates filling the entirety of the room. Turning around, I could see a fiery glow reflecting off the hallway's walls. I swiftly deactivated the light and hid behind one of the crates. When Honey Suckle ran in, she immediately became the only source of light as she turned the once pitch black room into one of crimson. Peeking around a crate, I could only make out her glowing eyes and lava like veins that parted her stone like armor. She growled as she scanned the room for me. My nose stung as she made the air dry in her search, each time she jumped around one crate, I jumped to the next; I didn't need my E.F.S. to know where she was in this dark room when she was the only source of illumination in it.

Alright, I think I can do this for a couple minutes.

Just when I felt sure of myself, Honey Suckle howled, then hurled flame from her mouth in all directions, setting the crates on fire. My eyes widened in shock as I dodged one stack of flaming crates falling to the floor. Now that I was exposed, she saw me, then snorted ember as she slowly walked towards me. I immediately looked for another door but saw that there were none! I had trapped myself! She stood in the way to the only entrance this room had, and any other path was blocked by flaming debris. She didn't run, she didn't have to; some part of her probably knew that I had nowhere to go. I positioned myself behind a crate that failed to catch fire and started shooting at her from around it. The bullets didn't even faze her as she still made her way to me...step by step. Ducking behind the crate and leaning against it, I reloaded, then started coughing as the room was filling up with smoke.

So this is how it's going to be huh? Death by fire... Oh this is going to hurt, isn't it?

In the corner of my eye, I saw a hoof that looked like dried lava placed on the corner of the crate I was leaning on. The wood sizzled as Honey put her weight on it; looking up to her, I watched as she slowly opened her maw. The inside of her mouth looked like a furnace, ready to coat me in very painful fire. As the heat started to make me sweat, I looked away and flinched as I awaited it.

What I got instead was the opposite. Just as her mouth got brighter, a loud bell sounded off then died, followed by a shower of water coming from the ceiling. Opening my eyes and turning back to Honey, I saw her back away from me as she glowed in pain. The smoke from the crates must have turned on the room's sprinkler system! Each drop of water that hit her turned into steam, causing a loud sizzling sound and the room to darken. No longer enduring the drench, she ran out of the room and back to the hallway were it was dry, then just stared at me from afar as I got soaked. As I stood there in the dark, my clothes, coat and mane getting soggy...I smiled like somepony who just got a joke that was told hours before. My PipBuck clicked a few times; the water was slightly radioactive, but I didn't care.

Yellow's voice then echoed from down the hallway behind Honey. "Hey! P.I.! We're ready! You still alive down there!?"

"Apparently!" I yelled. Geez, what took so long?

"Good! Now we need you to lure her to the room by the water purifier!"

"Umm..." I watched as Honey looked down the hallway behind her, then started following Yellow's voice. "Already on it!"

I tailed Honey from a distance, leaving wet hoof prints on the concrete floor. She then entered the room where the others were waiting; it was a large multi-story area with stairs leading to both higher and lower sections of the place, there was a large window looking into the neighboring room housing a large machine that had tons of tubes going in and out of it. My guess was that it was the water purifier. Honey didn't care about the rooms decor as she walked to the center and scanned all around the room, looking for the source of voice from earlier.

She found it when Yellow stood before a door leading to a set of descending stairs.

"Yo! Come get me!" She taunted as she ran down the stairs. Honey pursued the amber mare while I followed the fire-pony.

The stairs led to a hallway with three passages, the one ahead led to an empty room with much bulkier doors than the ones I've seen so far, while the others went to two other corridors.

Yellow was inside the empty room, waving to Honey. "Over here!"

Honey Suckle growled as she ran into the room after her; the second she entered, Yellow ran through the other door and closed it. Meanwhile, Bismuth emerged from behind the first door and slammed it shut, trapping Honey in the empty room.

With a smile on his face, Bismuth glanced to me and gestured for me to follow. We went through one of the pathways as it led around the room Honey was in, halfway through, I saw Yellow at the other end, walking towards us with Mulberry in tow. There was a window on the wall were we could see Honey inside the room as she tried to melt her way through the doors.

"She's not getting out from that room." Bismuth calmly stated. "That used to be the base's explosive ordinance room; those doors were made to withstand high temperatures in case of a fire."

"What now?" I asked.

"Now, we wait. She might give up and revert to herself, when she does..." Using his magic, he showed me what looked like the same weapon I saw him use in the alley earlier. "I'll stun her with this, then see what I can do for her."

With the exception of Mulberry, all of us watched as Honey pounded the doors to no avail; we might not have been able to hear her, but guessing from what looked like frustration on her face, she appeared to be growling and screaming the entire time. She turned and spotted us watching her, then blasted fire in our direction. Yellow and I ducked while Bismuth remained unwavering; as quickly as it came, the fire dissipated from the window.

Oh...of course they would have given the window the same fireproof treatment...

Peering back in, I saw Honey was beginning to slow down in her assault on the doors. Her breathing quickened, sending billows of ember and soot before her, until she collapsed to the floor. Once again I witnessed her change, only this time in reverse. The second she was herself, all four of us went to the room's bulkhead and opened it.

Honey Suckle was back to normal as she laid on her side, then raised her head from the floor and looked at us with teary eyes. "Did I...did I hurt anyone?"

Bismuth smiled as she shook his head. "No, thankfully you did not."

"Oh..." Exhausted, she lowed her head back to the concrete. "Good..."

"Mommy?" Mulberry slipped past our legs, nearing his mother.

"No...sweetie...stay back." She weakly raised a hoof, imploring him to stay where he is. "I'm still not safe..."

Bismuth showed her the stun gun. "I'm going to have to use this; if you're unconscious, you might not turn."

Honey feebly nodded. "Do it."

Bismuth inhaled deeply, then aimed the weapon at the mare and fired. Two needles on wires launched from the device, jabbed into her, then immediately sent a current of electricity into Honey. A couple seconds of her spasming later, and she was out cold. Bismuth removed the needles from her then tired to pick her up, I walked to them and helped by carrying her by one side while he took the other. We took Honey while Yellow carried the foal on her back as we made our way to the stairs.

Once we had her by the foot of the stairs, I started to feel my side get warm, then warmer, then hot! Bismuth and I quickly turned to Honey and saw her coat burning into cinders; urgently, I dropped Honey as she started to change again!

"I thought you said she wouldn't change!" I exclaimed.

Bismuth yelled back. "I said she might not change!"

We both ran up the stairs; confused, Yellow looked back and saw why we were in such a hurry, then ran ahead of us towards the door.

"Hey!" Yellow shouted. "The door won't budge!"

Bismuth and I both pushed when we reached the top, and sure enough, she was right...it didn't move an inch. Looking back down, I observed as Honey was once again a flame pony; she leaned her head up and saw us pushing against the door.

"On the count of three, we push!" I yelled. "One! Two! ...Three!" At three we all rammed the door, but it remained closed.

Once again, Honey took her time getting to us; clearly the lava pony in her enjoyed toying with her prey. Looking down at Honey, I spotted a door halfway down the stairs that was marked with an X. It was there that I made a decision. I ran down to it, looked to the two ponies struggling with the door, the scared colt, the nearing Honey Suckle, then finally to the door.

A part of me really didn't want to do what I was about to, but I quickly silenced that part by shouting my weak attempt at rationalizing why I should. "Aw hell, I'm already wet!"

I then struggled to open the bulkhead door, straining myself; I succeeded, and was rewarded with a powerful wave of lake water that washed both me and Honey back down to the empty room. With every other door in this floor closed, the room quickly started to fill up. Even if I wasn't the worst swimmer, there was no way I would have been able to fight against the current, so I just held my breath hoping for the best. The water was murky and hard to see through, but I could still make out the glowing form of Honey under the water a good distance from me. She was trying to scream underwater and the area around her was bubbling, all I could hear was the sound of my PipBuck rapidly ticking and what sounded like a waterfall. As I was running out of air, the waterfall like noise stopped and the force of the current subsided; I then tired to swim my way back to the stairs when all of a sudden I felt rocky hooves take hold off one of my back legs! It was Honey! The water around her was still warm, but no longer boiling; I struggled to release myself from her grip, but she just wouldn't let go! The pressure in my lungs built to the point where my mouth involuntarily opened as it tried to gasp for air; instead, what I got was a mouthful of foul tasting water painfully forcing its way into my lungs.

Right when I was starting to lose consciousness, I heard the splash of somepony diving in. It was Yellow! She swam up to me and saw Honey was keeping me from surfacing; she then swam to a wall, put her back hooves to it, then kicked, propelling herself towards Honey's hoof. When Yellow impacted it, Honey's whole leg disintegrated into a cloud of ash; freeing me. I had no strength left, so Yellow pulled me to the stairs, but as everything was getting dark, the last thing I saw was Honey as the rest of her body ceased glowing, then slowly broke apart.

A minute or two later, I frantically coughed up spouts of water; once my lungs rid themselves of the liquid, I gasped for sweet sweet air! I was no longer underwater and my head was resting on somepony's hooves. Carefully opening my eyes, I saw Yellow Jacket's face as it hovered over mine; water was dripping off her black and yellow mane and onto my forehead. She took a deep breath, then lowered her face toward mine, lining up her mouth with mine. Before she did, however, I put my hoof to her mouth, stopping her.

"Stop...I'm alive..." I spoke almost as if I were woken very early in the morning.

Once she was satisfied by my response, she let go of my head, causing it to drop to the floor. Ow...

She got to her hooves then looked down to me and responded with a cocky tone in her voice. "Told you! You need me to Save.Your.Flanks."

Ok...she may have had a point there, but she'd never hear me admit it. Especially not now since I was long consciousness again, only this time from exhaustion.

When I awoke for the second time, I was on a bed, naked with an I.V drip in my foreleg; the I.V. bag held some sort of orange liquid. Looking around, I saw that I was in some sort of medical room; there were diagrams and posters on the walls depicting the image of a smiling yellow pegasus mare holding onto a tray full of fruits and veggies. Most of them had the same message saying 'Remember fillies and colts; it's important to eat at least one more bite of the proper food for your growing bodies.'

I suddenly heard the voice of a mare.

"Well, I see you're awake." From behind a white curtain where my clothes where hung over to dry, emerged a nearly white coated, glasses wearing unicorn with a blue mane; she was around Bismuth's age. "You soaked up a lot of radiation from your little swim back there, so we had to purge it from you. Normally we would have had you drink the rad-away like your friend, but you weren't awake for that, so I took the liberty of introducing it to your blood stream. Hope you don' mind."

Looking to my forearm, I winced as I hesitantly stared at the needle piercing my skin, then shuddered. Ugh...needles...not a fan...

Trying to ignore it, I attempted to make small talk with this new mare. "So, umm...where are the others?"

"Right here." The doctor said before she pulled back the curtain to reveal Yellow, Bismuth, and Mulberry sitting on a wooden bench.

Yellow waved and spoke nonchalantly. "Yo."

"You're...still wearing your Stable barding?" I uttered. I could see that her mane was dry, but there were still dark splotches on her suit. "Aren't you going to catch a cold?"

She shrugged. "Meh, a little water never killed anybody." Her smirk quickly turned to a frown as she realized what she just said.

That...reminds me of something.

"Bismuth." He looked to me. "About Honey Suckle..."

"I know." He said with regret in his voice. "It's a shame, but, if you didn't do what you did...we all might have died down there." He then turned to the unicorn mare. "If you hadn't come when you did, we might still be trapped down there. What were you doing there anyway, Savvy?"

My eyes widened as I stared at the glasses wearing unicorn.

"I got an alert on my terminal here saying that somepony was tampering with the main server. It was fortunate that I went down to investigate, other wise you would still be down there. I don't know why somepony would jam that door with a steel bar though?"

"Wait..." I muttered. All of them except for Mulberry turned to me. "You're Savvy? Do you have a sister? Or somepony who shares the same name here?"

She seemed confused by my question. "No, why?"

"I met somepony down there who said she was Savvy...in the terminal room..."

Shocked, Bismuth ran to the terminal on Savvy's desk, then started hectically typing.

Bismuth's face became one of shock. "It's gone!"

"What?" Savvy muttered as she walked behind Bismuth, and looked over his shoulder to the terminal's screen. "All the data we had on the polymorph spell...it's been deleted from the local network...wiped clean..."

I then heard a familiar gruff voice. "And is that really such a bad thing?"

Turning to the new voice, I noticed Captain Barley standing at the doorway.

Bismuth averted his eyes from the screen; he seemed surprisingly accepting of what just happened. "No...I guess not..."

Barley then focused on me. "While you were out, Bismuth told me everything. If I had known sooner that these experiments were being conducted, I would have put a stop to it." He looked to the terminal. "I don't know who erased that data, nor do I care; it would have been too dangerous to have around. We wouldn't want somepony else to give it a shot and cause a repeat of what happened down there. He then approached my bed. "From what I hear, if you didn't get involved, Bismuth would have been killed the moment he thought he could take Honey alive. Your actions may have saved his life and who knows how many others, and for that you have my thanks."

I tried to tip my hat to him in return, but instead found that my hoof went through air above my head. Oh right...hat is also drying... Fine, regular old boring nod it is then.

"I know I'm not the one who hired you, but I would appreciate it if you at least accepted some form of payment from me for what you did."

If I were a humble pony, I would have graciously declined his offer, but I'm not one, so I might as well accept whatever amount he offers. I like to think of it like...bonus caps.

After accepting, I slowly pulled out the drip from my foreleg and felt squeamish as I did so.

Bullets? Yes any day. Explosions? Come at me debris! Fire? Nice and snug. Needles? Heeeck no! I'd rather get a combination of the first three!

With the needle finally out, a small dot of blood began pooling where it once was. I quickly brought the injection spot to my mouth and closed the gap with my tongue; hopefully the saliva would help it heal quicker. As I did so, I noticed the other ponies in the room where staring at me with raised eyebrows.

...What?

I noticed that the only one who wasn't staring was Mulberry; he was just silent and stared ahead with unblinking eyes.

I waved at Barley to get his attention, then pointed to the young colt. "Barley? What's going to happen to Mulberry?"

The earth pony turned to the colt then sighed. "I'm not sure... with his mother gone, there's no pony to take care of him. It's a sad thing, but he might be sent to this one place up in the Hoof called Chapel. I hear it's a haven for orphans." He then took out a pack of cigarettes and a match box, place a cigarette in his mouth, then used his hoof to carefully take a match, then rubbed it fast against his barding, lighting it.

Mulberry screamed then buried his face in his hooves the second he saw the small flame. Bismuth blew out the match then walked up to the sobbing colt and tried to console him.

"That...won't be necessary." Bismuth sighed. "I'm partially responsible for what happened to his mother, so the least I can do is take him in and raise him myself."

Barley looked to Bismuth with intrigue. "Bismuth...you sure?"

"Yes...I helped ruin his life, so it only seems fitting that I take responsibility."

Barley gave this some thought, then shrugged. "Very well then, if that is how you feel." He then turned to Yellow and I. "As for you two, I'll have one of the guards compensate you on the way out." He then left the room.

I got out of bed and stretched my muscles, then I put on my clothes and saddle bags. (I needed Savvy's help to reapply the tie. Using magic to tie it is much easier than doing it by hoof.)

Finally putting on my hat, I turned to Yellow. "Ready to head back?"

She grinned as she jumped out of her seat. "Ready!"

After saying goodbye to Bismuth, Savvy, and Mulberry (Mulberry didn't respond...) I opened the door and stepped out.

Bismuth's voice then called out from behind me. "Wait! Detective! You dropped three caps on the bed!"

Without looking back, I walked forward and yelled my response.

"No! I didn't drop them!"

Author's Notes:

Man! This was a hell of a chapter for me to write, procrastination was running rampant while I worked on this!

Feel free to comment, I'd really like to know your opinion about this story.