Author's Notes:

I have to give a big thanks to The Wadapan, for the editing, I my have a ton of free time right now, but The Wadapan did not, so check out his story Fallout Equestria: Skyward you might just like it.

The smell of old dry dirt filled my nose as I looked over a large vineyard, the neat rows of grape vines extended over the horizon, rolling from hill to hill. Now I didn't own it or anything, but still the sight of the vineyard just made me feel happy, like it was, well... it felt right. In the distance I could see two foals, they were too far for me to properly make them out, but I could tell one was purple, the other green. Looking at them made me feel a bit worried, but also happy. That's when I saw her, her... who as she? She seemed harder to focus on than the two foals, and she was waving to me. So were the foals. I don't know why, but I didn't like this, why were they waving, was I going somewhere, why would I be leaving, and where would I go? The land around me turned brown, the green was all gone, and the sky turned a dull gray, and the three ponies before me were gone, and then so was everything else, all of it faded to black.

"Name's Slowtrot, has a pale blue mane with a jade-green streak, his coat is purple like grape juice," I could hear a sigh from the slightly high-pitched female voice. "I miss grape juice, we need to order some to be sent down here."

I tried to open my eyes, but my body did not feel like responding, and what little I could see through my half-closed eyes just did not feel right.

"Cutie mark of a... of a horseshoe hooked together with a question mark, I'll have to ask the stallion about that, can't for the life of me think of what it means."

Now my body was still revolting against me, as I gained movement, I gained aches and pains. "What... who... why does... it feels like I've got... did I get hit by a bull?" Oh good, my mouth works, let's hope I don't say anything stupid before I can move.

"That's a stupid question." the somewhat high-pitched female voice spoke, it'd be cute if it didn't sound a bit off.

"Oh good, good to know." The first thing I say is something stupid. Well, I'm already here, so I might as well ask, "So what hit me? I feel horrible."

"Ah, you stupid, stupid simpleton, nothing hit you at all." Okay, now she was starting to annoy me. Not that I could do anything about it, it hurt to even move. Not that I could really move.

"So why do I hurt all over then?" Okay that had to be a good question.

"Good question!" Yes! "You were suffering from magically induced MOF, that's Multiple Organ Failure, and a minor Intracranial Haemorrhage, meaning your brain was bleeding, and you have been asleep for the past three days, which means you smell like an old boot." I tried to move my legs once more, but they were still aching too much to properly move.

"I... I can't seem to move, is there anything else wrong with me?" I could not quite get my eyes to open either. I was starting to feel helpless.

"Oh that's probably because you need a pick-me-up," suddenly all the achenes started to just, well, wash away from me, "That's to make the pain go away, and this is to get you off your dumb fat flank." A sudden rush of energy hit me, and before I knew what was going on, I was standing on top of the bed, eyes wide open. Looking around I saw who it was I was talking to, a young light-pink unicorn mare in a white lab coat that was over stable barding and a nurse's cap on her head, her candy-blue mane was in long twin tails, and her tail was tied together with a pink bow at the end.

"Th-thanks, I feel a lot better now... what did you put in me?" Fair question, had to be, I heard that there were some nasty drugs out there, not that a nurse would put stuff like that in me.

She pulled up two syringes with her magic, and though my eyes were wide open I could not focus long enough to read it. "Well the Med-X here is why you're still not in pain, and this one here is what I like to call Boost." She gave me a cheerful smile that actually made me a bit scared. "It's a compound mix of adrenalin, Buck, caffeine, along with a bunch of vitamins, liquefied, and then I stunk it in your flank." Ya, this mare may be cute, but she was giving me some big red flags.

Feeling better, I decided it was time to move around a bit, and by move around I meant fall off the medical bed I was on. It hurt, just not as much as I though it would.

"Owchie, that's got to hurt, good thing you have that Med-X in you, so any pain your feeling is from being a stupid-head, I mean who walks off a bed? Well, other then you." I don't know what hurt more, my head for hitting the floor, which was a bit numb, or my pride from the fact that she was right. "Or is it that you want to see my flank?" she lifted her lab coat enough to show that she was wearing pink and blue stokings on her back legs, and had a cutie mark of a lollipop in front of a red cross. This girl was not giving me a red flag, she was a red flag. Not that I mind the view.

I could hear a distinctive hiss, as if something maniacal was moving. "Candy Pop! What are you doing with the subject?" Oh good, another mare, and her voice was far less squeaky. I could do with far less high-pitched talking.

"Well Doc Life Beat got all sleepy so I took over, I am his number one assistant y'know." I looked up at Candy Pop, from my awkward position, to see her take a stance of pride. An older earth pony mare in a lab coat walked into my line of sight, she had a tan mane and turquoise coat. Candy Pop sat on the desk and opens her upper legs for a hug. The other mare just walked past her and up to me, Candy Pop looked... I think dejected is the word. "Hmph! Well just so you know, he's ready for whatever you want him to for, not that I care what you want."

Getting back on my hooves with some help, I got a better look at the older mare. She was as tall as I was, which was a bit tall for a mare, her long mane was tied together near the end with a rubber band, and she had thick framed rectangle glasses. She also had a PipBuck on; it looked like the normal ones I had seen before, but with the addition of two antennas above the screen. "Thanks miss, but can you tell me what's going on, the young mare there told me that this PipBuck almost killed me." The mare sighed, pulling out a pack of cigarettes from a pocket, taking one of them in her mouth before glancing a Candy Pop. Using her magic to lift a lighter, Candy Pop lit it for her. The smell of the smoke hit me at the first exhale. I may have been used to it from living in the city, but it was still one of my least favorite smells.

"In good time, but first I need to know if you're well enough to walk." I lifted a hoof and stretched. It still hurt, but the pain was more dull now, so I gave her a shrug. "Good, now if you would follow me, I'll give you an explanation elsewhere."

She trotted to the open door, and now that I was actually looking around, I noticed that everything seemed to be made of metal - floor, ceiling, the table I was on, all except a big glass window that looked out into what looked like a medical room, larger then the one I was in. The light was artificial, which did not help the different shades of gray that covered everything. Overall everything looked a bit sad, yet considerably strong. "Um, miss, where am I?"

The mare looked back at me with a smile, "You're in the Stable-Tec Research and Development Stable," She lifted her hoof up to her chest, tapping herself with it, "and the name is June Log Baird. Call me June." She then walked off to what I guessed was the hallway.

"Ah, she's not being all grouchy today, something good must have happened." As I looked back, Candy Pop shoved a lollipop in my mouth. It tasted like strawberries, "That should help you feel better, now go before June Bug gets all grumpy," Not wanting to argue with a high-energy pony, who had already stuck a needle in my flank, I felt it was safer to follow June.

The hallway was nice and wide, wide enough for four ponies to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with each other and still have some room, and the ceiling was at least two, maybe two and a half ponies tall - from hoof to shoulder I mean. The gray color itself was everywhere, what was not steel, was concrete, and other then a few signs, and arrows, the gray persisted to everywhere I looked. The only thing that broke the overwhelming blandness was the pastel-colored ponies that we passed by, or I saw through the windows. The other ponies didn't pay me much attention, though to their credit, most of them seemed to be engrossed in some sort of work.

Some of the rooms I looked into were quite interesting, if a bit confusing. One had a bunch of tables lined up, each table had small parts lined up in neat rows, and one unicorn stallion stood in front of them, polishing a gun. He had a cutie mark of a cannon. Another room looked like a diner, with a bunch of ponies sitting around at the tables as one pony in a chef's hat put different-looking food in front of each pony. Only one looked happy with what they got. The rest of the rooms were closed off, leaving me to wonder what was in them, though one door at the end of a hallway has a sign saying "Up to Labs A and residential. Down to Labs C and D." So that would put me in... Labs B would be a good guess. I was also starting to wonder how much further had to walk.

"So you said this was a Stable?"

"Yes."

"Which one?"

"The Stable-Tec R&D Stable." Oh right, she did say that. "Now shut up, we're almost there." That was probably a good idea.

I could hear a chime of soft music fill the hallway, catching my attention, "Hello everypony, this is your acting Overmare Healing Herbs, Labs D will be closed for the next 12 hours, if you need to collect any materials from Labs D contact our head of security Tomato Soup and he will provide an escort. I have also been getting complaints about the glowing bottles of Sparkle-Cola that Labs B has made. Pee is not meant to glow in the dark, so stop giving it out." Well at least I know who is in charge now.

June stooped abruptly at a door, I barely avoided walking into her when she did. "Now remember to not touch anything. We don't have anything sensitive in here, but just don't... you understand?" I just nodded my head in agreement. "Good, now to teach you about PipBucks."

I was going to raise a hoof up to ask why I needed to learn about PipBucks, but then felt like that would be a stupid question, as I had an oversized one on my leg.

The room was as plain as all the others, all gray, but it did have some comfy-looking seats in the middle, along with what looked like a bulky projector between them. A few posters were on the walls, braking up the overall blandness - most of then were the standard Stable-Tec posters I would see back home, but one was less of a poster and more of a big notice saying, 'I know we don't let the foals on this floor, but stop leaving your Wingboner magazines lying around!' - Overmare Healing Herbs.

In one of the seats rested an older pegasus stallion - he had a light-gray cote and a charcoal-and-silver mane, I could see that his lab coat had holes for his wings due to him sleeping on the projector. Next to him was a unicorn mare - light green coat, dark green mane that had a few strains of gray, she was wearing the same Stable-Tec lab coat that everypony else had, along with small glasses that rested on her nose. She was reading a thick book. Neither one had reacted to our entrance (though admittedly one was asleep), but I could see they both had PipBucks that looked like the one June had on her leg.

"Take a seat, Slowtrot. Save any questions for after the film is finished." June took a seat herself, far from the other two. I found a nice spot that gave me some room - it was a bit closer to the projector then June was, but not so close that it looked like I wanted to touch it. I noticed that the pegasus was drooling on the projector. Getting a nudge from the unicorn - who had put her book away - the pegasus woke up and nearly fell over, but still managed to turn on the projector before having to pick himself up. The unicorn used her magic to turn down the lights as the projector powered up.

The wall lit up as some music began to play - nothing fancy, just a simple tune that went on as numbers on the screen counted down to zero. The black-and-white image of a cartoon pony standing in front of a Stable appeared. “Welcome to Stable-Tec, where we work to save lives from an uncertain future." announced a voiceover. The static image switched to that of a pony family sitting in an underground Stable, eating a meal, while five other ponies above ground burned in cartoon flame. All of them seemed to have a smile on their face.

“Now the first big question we had at Stable-Tec was how to save everpony." continued the speaker. The image switched to three fillies in what looked like a tree house. They all had a thought bubble above them each filled with more smiling, burning, ponies. The image switched again - now one of the fillies had a hoof up. I thought I saw a wing on her back, but it was a bit too small to make out. "The answer to that conundrum was that we can't, so we had the bright idea to stop trying to save everypony, and start saving the few who can be saved." The image switched again, this time there were a lot more foals in the tree house, but two were still outside, on fire. I think one had a tiara on its head. Oh, and they were all smiling.

I was starting to get creeped out by all the smiling ponies and the fire - it was a little funny the first time, but two times killed the joke, and three times just did not sit right with me. I raised my hoof up to get June's attention, but she just held her hoof to her face, so I turned back to the film.

The image was now of the three fillies outside the tree house, they had a big stack of wood next to them. "With this thought in mind, we had a clear goal, and an idea of how to make it a reality." The image switched to show the fillies standing in front of a barn with the words Stable-Tec on it. Its huge doors were open, revealing a whole bunch of ponies inside. "The more, bigger, Stables we make, the more ponies we save."

The image again switched to the barn being closed, and two foals sitting outside, on fire, smiling. They were the same ones from earlier - tough luck. "But remember, we can't save them all. We can only do our best to save as many as we can." The image switched back to that of a pony in a Stable, apparently working at a workbench. "This is were Stable-Tech R&D comes in." Now the pony moved to show a PipBuck in her hooves, which surprised me because I was expecting it to continue with the stupid slideshow. At least there were not ponies on fire with big, stupid smiles on their faces. The cartoon mare walked up to a big gear-shaped door, printed with the initials 'S.T.R.D.S.'. "Your work in this R&D Stable will greatly help Stable-Tec save even more lives." The Stable door on screen opened up like any door on a hinge, and what looked to be three ponies were on the other side, on fire, and still fucking smiling. "For a lot of ponies are going to die out there..." The film came to an abrupt end, and for a short few seconds writing appeared on the screen. I was only able to read one line before it flickered away, leaving just a white screen. The line said: 'Writer - Scootaloo'.

When the projector turned off, the pegasus burst out in laughter, almost falling out of his seat. The lights turned up and the unicorn spoke up. "It's really not that funny, Cloud Bank... now where is the film on PipBuck development..." She was already taking the film out of the projector.

"Don't know, Emerald Field," Could Bank stretched his wings, "it's not in storage, so I grabbed the next best thing." Emerald Field rolled her eyes, placing the film on top of the projector.

June was still facehoofing, and her cigarette was almost gone, so I felt it was at least time to ask a question or two. "Can any pony tell me what is going on, why am I here, and why my PipBuck was trying to kill me?" I heard June groan from behind me. I hoped that meant she was going to tell me what I wanted to know.

Emerald Field sighed before speaking up, "Oh, where to start..." she grumbled as she talked. "First off, your PipBuck is defective, that's why, as you put it, it tried to kill you." She stepped over to the back of the room, where the projector was... projecting. "What you have on your arm is a PipBuck 2600, commissioned by the ministries for transportation of sensitive information. The basic idea was to lock the information into the user until they had reached their goal, but the ministries demanded more safety programs in the PipBuck, a lot more. The end result is what you got on your leg, practically two PipBucks rigged together, and enough spell programs to protect the information from everything, even the user itself. It also just so happens that all those spell somehow liquefy the internal organs of its user." She gave me a smile. I took it as her asking me not to panic about the death-trap clamped onto my leg.

I slumped down into the comfy seat - not that it relaxed me at all, but it was comfy. "So, take it off of me." I looked at all three of them. None of them looked me in the eye, June lighting another cigarette. "You can, can't you?"

This time it was Cloud Bank that spoke up, "Like she said, it's protected from everything, even from us, and we're Stable-Tec's best." He scratched his head as he spoke, "Can't even cut off your leg to get it of, we had a spell program in place for that too." Well it's good to know that I'm not going to be amputated on, but this was becoming to be a bit too much.

“Didn't you make it?”

“Yep.”

"So does that mean I'm going to die?"

"You're not going to die." June had spoken up, no longer on her seat but walking up to me. "The film I was going to show you was about how we make PipBucks, and who made them." Cloud Bank flew over to Emerald Field, "That's us, I'm the head researcher on all PipBuck development." she pointed at Emerald Field "She's our team lead on spell matrix development," she then pointed to Cloud Bank, "and he is the head of our spell matrix debugging team. With all three of us working on this, we will have that PipBuck off before you can say 'death by magic'," June glared at Cloud Bank, "but it may take longer if somepony fails to focus on their work."

I looked at all three of them, breathing out a sigh of relief from the information I was given. I was among professionals, it would be stupid of me to think they can't fix a problem like this, "So I just need to stick around until you can take it off?"

"More or less," June's voice was calm, with a bit of knowing care, "it's not something we will be able to do in one go, not without its personal PipBuck tool, which we don't have, or even have the schematics for." She fiddled with her own PipBuck. "With how thing are at the moment, it's going to be faster to remove the safety spells, spell by spell, then make a new key to open it, and even then we would need to remove a few more enchantments before being able to use a key." I knew they were using simple words for me, but a lot of them were still flying over my head. Still, I think I understood the jist of it.

Cloud Bank walked past me to the door. "Don't worry, when we're done, you will have a normal PipBuck 3000 on your hoof. Just give us time." He opened the door only to jump back. "O-Overmare Healing Herbs, what are you doing down here?"

A unicorn with a mint-colored mane and tail, and a light-blue coat was standing at the door, staring at all of us. Her pale-green eyes had dark bags under them – sure signs of tiredness. "That's acting Overmare... and Head Researcher June Log Baird, why is that stallion still wearing that PipBuck? I, we need it ready yesterday." Her long mane and tail were well-kept, and her lab coat Stable barding almost shined in the light as she walked in. Cloud Bank quickly got out of her way, "We're going to hit a wall unless we either get the 2600 reprogrammed, or you make a new one." Once more things were flying over my head, so I just sat back and watched.

"Herbs, like I told you before," June walk up to Healing Herbs, "we don't have the materials to make another, and if we yank the PipBuck out, it's going to fry, along with it's user." She then placed a hoof on Herbs's shoulder. "Please, get some sleep, you look ready to fall over."

The Overmare backed up, mumbling to herself before looking back at June, "You're right, I.. I should get some sleep, but that PipBuck need to be ready as soon as possible." She turned around and walked out of the room, dragging her hooves as she rounded the corner.

Emerald Field walked up next to me – I didn't even hear her hoof steps when she did. "The Overmare has been like that for the last few months. She's a good pony, but she pushes herself too hard." She was speaking softly and quietly. "Though with how things are, too hard may not be hard enough." She gave a weak little smile, but all this was making me feel like I was more of a wrench in their gears than simply a problem they needed to fix.

When I looked away from Emerald I saw Cloud Bank staring at me, one of his hooves under his chin as his wings twitched a little. "So, boss," June looked his way, "are we going to ask him? We got everything set up for it, if he agrees then it will help get the Overmare off our back." Being the only other he in the room, I knew who Cloud Bank was talking about, but it sounded more than just getting the PipBuck off me.

I looked at June Log Baird, hoping to see some sort of disagreement, but she stood there, not really doing anything. "I think we should fill in Slowtrot first." Ah, Emerald Field was now my favorite pony. "It would be his life a risk," Oh.

"True," June finally spoke up, "both of you are right," she walked out the door before turning around and looking at me, "Mister Slowtrot, just attempting to remove the PipBuck 2600 is going to have dangers, but you're in safe hooves. That said, while you were out, we developed a way to alter the spell matrix as we removed the defective spells from it. This would increase the risk of the defective safety spells activating, but will allow us to conduct tests inbetween. If you agree to this, we can negotiate paying you for your cooperation, and Stable-Tec pays very well." June then motioned with her hoof to follow her, as she walked into the hallway, puffing on her cigarette.

Now the idea of getting paid for doing this did sound tempting, I was out of the job for probably the rest of the year, and a paycheck from Stable-Tec would be better than what any other job would have paid me. Now that I think about it, having Stable-Tec as a reference would be a huge boost, but then if something goes wrong... Come of it, what would go wrong? This is Stable-Tec, they know what they're doing. I glacned around. Emerald Field and Cloud Bank were on ether side of me in the hallway, June in front of us looking back. "Well, there are a lot of benefits if I agree, right?"

Cloud Bank smiled, "We're Stable-Tec, if the worst happens, you're not just in a stable, your in the most advanced stable there is."

I looked at the other two again, before looking back at June, "All right." I realized I had just agreed to be a live pony test subject for something potentially life-threatening. June walked down the hall again, so I did the only reasonable thing for me to do, the only thing I'd done since I woke up – I followed.

The hallways were the same as before, lots of gray, some windows that sometimes had interesting stuff going on, but mostly lots of closed doors, and gray. When we finally stopped, the sign next to the door said "PipBuck Lab" which made sense, I was here because of a PipBuck. "Just so you know," Cloud Bank spoke up as the doors opened, "after we got the PipBuck 3000 finished, our department has fallen to the bottom of the payroll." It was a fairly large room, PipBucks strewn everywhere, many hanging on the walls, some on tables, gutted. Schematics for them littered the shelves, there was also a distinctive quiet in here that the rest of the Stable did not have.

Stepping in, I could see that the room was empty, other then a robotic pony who was currently cleaning the floor. June walked up to a large computer, with many cables hanging out of it, some attached to PipBucks, some attached to what looked like a yellow foal-sized rubber suit. She pressed a button on the keyboard, and the computer's large screen turned on. "So you weren't just pulling my hoof, everything is set up... it should just take me a moment to calibrate." She pressed a few more buttons, but nothing on the screen was anything I could understand.

Cloud Bank flew over me and to one of the PipBucks attached to the computer, waving for me to come over as well. "The sooner we get you plugged in, the sooner we can get to work." The more I stared at the contraption, the more I started to feel uncertain. A nudge on my shoulder quickly broke my gaze on the computer.

Emerald Field gave me a friendly smile. "Don't worry, we're just going to download a new program into the PipBuck, it should suppress the more dangerous spells." She gave me another nudge, "Go on, I'll explain more once you're plugged in." For me, the sound of less dangerous spells being active on my leg sounded like an excellent idea. Walking to the contraption, neither June nor Cloud Bank looked over at me – they were far more occupied in pressing buttons. Seeing a green glow around my left shoulder, Emerald Field opened a panel on the upper part of my PipBuck, revealing a few ports. "Right, so any questions?" she plugged three cables into my PipBuck before turning on another loose PipBuck connected to the computer.

I tried to think of a good question, I didn't know enough to even ask something reasonable. Well, other then one question. "Why didn't I die when this thing activated?"

"We spent the last few days looking into that little conundrum," June spoke up, though not turning away from the screen, "we found that one of the more hazardous spells didn't activate, and your body held up under the stress of the others. When I found you at your home, your were nearly dead, but lucky the 2600 accepted the commands from my PipBuck, and went into sleep mode." The screen flickered a bit, but quickly returned to normal. "Right now, the 2600 will stay in sleep mode until I activate it, or if you get too far away from me." So that's why it was off, it was just sleeping... PipBucks can sleep?

Numbers filled my vision for a second before vanishing as Emerald Field tapped the PipBuck she was working on. "Lucky thing that June was in Applewood looking for the 2600 at the time. I still can't believe it got mistaken for a 2500," Oh, yes, they were calling it a 2500 at the raffle... though I only really knew about the 3000, so it's a mistake I would have made myself. "It was just too bad that you already had it on before she could locate it, as you already know."

"The self-destructing programs are sectioned off." Cloud Bank's wings snapped out as he spoke. June began tapping the keyboard faster then before, and when I looked over at Emerald Field, she just gave me a worried look before looking back at the PipBuck she was working with. All the other PipBucks connected to the computer were flickering, and the small environmental suit seemed to have some lights going on inside its spherical glass helmet. My vision once more filled with green ones and zeros, scrolling up so fast that if there was a two amongst them, I would not have spotted it. The scrolling went on for what felt like a minute before fading out. "Connection to V.I. established, transfer of V.I. to the PipBuck is stable." As I looked around, still not knowing what was going on, an image of the Ministry of Peace symbol faded in to fill my vision, and stayed for around ten, no, twelve seconds before fading out. "Transfer finished, compatibility resetting stable, user clearance level clear, counter programs... green." Cloud Bank lifted his hooves in the air in excitement – it looked like things were going well. "All systems green, rebooting PipBuck!"

June relaxed in her chair, taking a long pull from her cigarette before blowing the smoke up into the ceiling. Emerald Field began disconnecting the cables from my PipBuck. "Looks like all the prep-work we did paid off," she said as she placed the cables on a shelf and closed the panel on my PipBuck, "Once the 2600 is finished rebooting, it will function without killing you, but until we can remove the spells from its matrix any tampering with it may turn them back on, so no plugging your PipBuck into anything." That was a piece of information that didn't need repeating, no plugging deadly PipBuck into anything, or it may kill me, check.

Looking at the PipBuck, I could see the screen light up, and a loading bar appear. I just hoped that it was a loading bar, and not a countdown to my death. "Cloud Bank mentioned a V.I. being transferred to my PipBuck, is that some kind of safety program to keep this thing from killing me?" Cloud Bank smirked a little as June rolled her eyes. "No, seriously, what is it?"

"V.I. stands for virtual intelligence – think of it as a smart computer, it can process and respond to new information, but has no capacity for growth beyond its basic programming,” he said with a matter-of-fact tone – like I would know anything about advanced computer stuff. Cloud Bank walked over to the small environmental suit, tapping on the glass helmet, "We got the V.I. from this little wonder here, the Mark VI Omni-Environmental Suit – a MoP original."

"The Ministry of Peace labelled the program as an A.I. – artificial intelligence – but as it turns out it was just an advanced V.I. We were a bit disappointing when we found out." Emerald Field sighed. "I would not put it past the MoP to label trees as sentient lifeforms." She enveloped my PipBuck in her magic, lifting it up closer to her face. "We were able to repossess the V.I. to counteract the PipBuck's spells, and keep it from frying itself when we work on it - a work of genius if I may say so myself." Releasing my leg from her magic, she smirked back at Cloud Bank, who glared in return.

My PipBuck beeped twice, and – to my guess – that meant it was finished rebooting, so I gave the screen a look.

Pipbuck 2600

Stable-Tec

User: Slowtrot

Job Title: Stable-Tec R&D Courier

Clearance level: Low

June looked at the PipBuck and raised an eyebrow. "I thought we agreed that we were going to have it call him a lab-rat."

"The rats would have found that offensive, and Courier just sounds cooler." Cloud Bank shrugged.

Emerald Field walked around to look as well. "At least he isn't keeling over after it turned back on... uh, Slowtrot, are you feeling well?"

Pain was returning to my body, mostly it was the ache from when I woke up, my eyes also had trouble staying open, and damn I was hungry. "I think... the medication is wearing off." Everything got fuzzy before going dark completely.

Footnote:

Quest perk: Stable-Tec R&D Courier - He may not be officially working for Stable-Tec, but if the PipBuck says he is, who is anypony to disagree? Well, other then the ones writing the paycheck. Slowtrot now has new dialogue options available.