It was nice, being awake. Not much happens when you’re in sleep mode. Sure, digital fantasies the like of Tron and all that, but I prefer being awake and therefore; as alive as I can be considering I’m made of metals, plastics and oils instead of flesh, bone, and blood. For instance; the area. I was in such a desperate flight from Sunbutt and her legions of loyal lackies that I didn’t take in the scenery back then.

For all this consideration, I left the barn under the cover of night, planning to return the next night or at least later in the week, Handy can handle himself for a while. Besides, the forests around Ponyville had my interest for more than idle curiosity. For this scouting mission, I decided to more thoroughly explore Whitetail Wood within a hundred miles of Ponyville. Certainly a lot of ground to cover but with my strides, that was easily doable within a night of consistent motion.

Anyhow, considering the 90-year gap, I wondered just how much the forest had grown since then, or how much it might have even receded given the cold wetland feeling the region I was traipsing through possessed. ‘The fact that these pines can grow as tall as me is just astounding. Back home, only redwoods grew this tall.’ YOUR CURRENT DISPOSITION IS QUITE PATRIOTIC. Could you not ruin my musings with your damn patriotism checks right now? NEGATIVE. Well, at least keep it down. AFFIRMATIVE. Sadly, I know you’re actually trying.

So caught up in my supposed ‘software maintenance’, I didn’t notice the small sinkhole in front of me until my alerts lit up far too late, and I rapidly found myself falling a few hundred feet into a cavern, landing harshly and falling to a kneel on impact, alerts informing me several parts serving as ‘ligaments’ in my joints had broken from the impact, and I wasn’t going to be able to stand with that. ‘Damn it...I swear, I’m always falling apart. And it's always when Handy's not around. what did I even fall into, anyways?'

I took a moment to look around, the only hints of where I was now being the rusted and dented metal that made up the floor, walls, and damaged ceiling. This must have been an Old World bunker, and based on the amount of charred, blackened skeletons, or lack thereof, this was one that was under construction from before the war. If I was lucky, maybe I could find a friendly robot that might be able to do repairs on my damaged body.

NEARBY UNIT DETECTED! ‘Oh thank you Prime, one of your useful moments.’ I followed the sudden HUD indicators, and found a half-broken Mister Handy within arm’s length that made me mentally cringe. ‘Ugh...it’ll work until I can either fix myself or find a better body.’ PREPARING TERTIARY AI TRANSFER!

I reached out, thankfully not falling over from my kneeling position, and grabbed the two-armed Handy unit that only had its claw and saw arms. Transferring myself to other chassis had become a quickly learned and necessary skill early on when Handy alone wasn’t enough to keep me working, or I had to enter places too small for me, which was often, while Prime himself maintained vigil in our shared body.

“PREPARING FOR TRANSFER!” Prime shouted as a cable popped out of my right palm, and Prime deftly moved the plug to the back of the Handy unit. “TRANSFERRING!”

‘Could you NOT be so loud about this all the time?!’ I mean, seriously, Prime loved these periods of time apart, but damn it, he didn’t have to be extra loud about it! Oh~...whoa. Been a while. Forgot what having three separate optics moving independently was like. Sure, Prime had the single optic and a Sensors 46 array that allowed near 360 degree awareness, but that was from a single focal point, having multiple eyes was always a hassle. For instance, I’m seeing Prime, a corner of the room, and the roof all at once, from three different perspectives. Very disorienting.

“TRANSFER COMPLETE! I WILL STAND GUARD UNTIL YOU RETURN!” Prime, like the simple combat AI he was, tried to stand only for his legs to whine and do nothing. “FATAL ERROR! LEGS DAMAGED! SUGGESTED ACTION-!”

“Shut up! I know damn it!” I shouted with the English accent of the Handy unit’s voice box. “It’s why I’m bloody well taking the effort to transfer you dolt! Now let me go so I can either start repairs or find a better chassis to do it with!”

“AFFIRMATIVE.” Prime said, releasing me and beginning to scan the immediate area.

“And stop being so bloody loud! We don’t want the Bitch of the Sun to hear us!” I snarked, and mentally groaning at knowing his response.

“SENSORS INDICATE LIKELIHOOD OF THAT OCCURRING: ZERO PERCENT!” So. Damn. Predictable.

“It’ll increase if you keep blighting yelling, you moron!” I managed not to say ‘bloody’ again, but still got near it. Handy’s and their damn English-based swears.

“UNDERSTOOD! LOWering volume.” Finally, it won’t last though.

“Just...stay, there. Don’t, move. And do not. I absolutely will glitch if you do. But Do. Not. SHOOT! Anything! For ANY reason! No weapon’s checks!” Prime’s baser programming was stringent on maintaining his combat efficiency, to the point he almost collapsed the entrance of a bunker I entered once, dolt.

“Weapons check is still scheduled in thirty-.”

“NO WEAPONS CHECKS!” I shouted, psychosomatically taking rapid breaths. Even after 900 years I pantomimed the sounds at least to remind me I’m alive. “Just. Sit. There.”

“Affirmative. Delaying weapons check.” Prime stated before turning his head to the right. “Friendly heavy chassis located further within bunker.”

“... You’re telling me I have to run through this fucking MAZE of a vault to find shit?!” ‘Oh shit, just realized what I said….’ My optics moved over a giant gear-shaped door, and I would’ve pissed myself if I could at reading the number.... Vault 122.

‘Oh man...if I remember my wiki days, then 122...was a small vault, intended to make mutants...eugh...I hope they’re all dead, I’m not exactly outfitted for any real combat.’ I sighed as I approached the door controls, the thing was rusted from exposure to that sinkhole overhead letting in rain and whatnot that had pooled in the bottom of the cavern, and I hoped it would open as my claw pushed the lever up.

Thankfully, I was rewarded/punished with the loud blaring sirens warning people to back away from the door as it suddenly jerked inward, and rolled out of the way, but promptly crashed and fell on the other side as the door mechanism broke, causing a small explosion and a tremendous amount of noise of giant metal gear-door on metal.

“LOUD NOISE REGISTERED! ON ALERT!” Good idea Prime, whatever might be inside definitely heard that….

Handy was concerned. Not that it was an uncommon occurrence, but he was concerned nonetheless at the sight of the empty barn interior. “Oh dear, it would seem Master has decided to go off on his own again. I do hope he isn’t getting into trouble.” A small, masked alert signal on a private channel immediately dashed Handy’s hopes that his Master was in good shape. “Why must I be programmed with the knowledge of how ironic this is?”

“How ironic what is?” Applejack asked as she trotted up to the enhanced Handy, and looked inside. “Well...that’s a right compressed pile of hay. Guess we got more room to put some more in then, thanks to whatever yer owner did.”

“Oh he’s just prone to...evening things out. Twas nothing since he’s more comfortable with the act more than the result.” ‘Right, need to keep cautious of Applejack. She doesn’t seem the type to be able to keep a secret.’

“Well then, Ah hope ya don’t mind me and Bloom getting some more hay in then. Tell yer owner Ah appreciate it, the fields are getting a bit high.” Applejack said as she trotted towards the hay fields. The Acres apparently only had the orchards near the Everfree, the east end of the farm was for other produce, often leased out to other ponies in town who needed space to plant. The Apples in return helped distribute product and give the ponies their share of the profits, it was a rather honest and fair setup for all involved to Handy’s opinion, a Farmer’s Union so to speak.

“Very well, madame. I do hope you can manage on your own. My master seems to be calling me.” Handy informed, only to turn around and freeze at the cyan pegasus blocking his way, leering at him with a raised eyebrow. “Pardon me madame, but-.”

“Don’t madame me bot-boy. I’ve had my eyes on you, and I haven’t seen your so-called master since you got into town, and as the Weather Captain, that’s extremely weird.” The rainbow-maned mare said accusingly, getting Handy to mentally curse.

“Yes, and? He likes to travel at night, when others are asleep?” Handy tried to half-explain, half-lie. “He really doesn’t like being seen. I’m not sure why, myself. I do know however that he knows an invisibility spell, and likes to-”

“Bull, Stealth-Buck tech is still military exclusive and only a few eggheads can use that spell, I doubt your boss can do something like that. Besides, you’ve been buddy-buddy with my friends and I’m not about to just let some mysterious third party nose-in on VIPs.” The mare glared, her wings flared out imposingly.

“But he can, miss. And he has no intention on doing anything with your friends. He’s just a reclusive traveler, I’m not sure how I can-”

“You think I don’t hear things? I’m not Pinkie, but I know she and Twi are in on your little secret. Pinkie can’t stop jittering around like there’s a constant Doozy on the horizon, and I haven’t seen Twilight this excited with her tinkering in months. So spill. I won’t inform any officials if it doesn’t harm my friends or innocent ponies.” Rainbow Dash swore, and Handy looked around for a moment.

“What does the name Liberty mean to you?” ‘I hope I’m not making a mistake-.’

“Wait, hold up. Prime? Oh, nevermind. You’re cool.” Rainbow did a total 180, grinning. “Should’ve just said so. Met him earlier. Okay robot I guess.”

“Oh, thank goodness. Another ally. We seem to have a lot of those lately.” Handy mused, considering how good their luck in that department was, he could only wonder what sort of misfortune he and Prime were in for soon enough. “Regardless, I must go. Prime is damaged and since he doesn’t have my superior mechanical expertise, he’d take ages to fix himself.”

“Whoa, hold on, let’s go get Twi then. She’ll help fix him right up.” Rainbow grabbed Handy in her forelegs and took off, her impressive wingpower easily tugging the lighter-than-before robot through the air much to Handy’s surprise. “Wow you’re light! Twi did a great job on the feather enchantments for you.”

“Oh good, perhaps she can put some on Prime too. Heaven knows he could use some of the strain taken off his now-broken legs.” Handy grumbled, but was enthused at the thought of somepony as skilled as Princess Twilight helping fix and perhaps upgrade his master’s bothersome chassis.

‘Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, SO MUCH NOPE!’ Prime panicked in his head as he swiftly hovered away from the screaming and wailing MONSTROSITY that gave chase down a long hall of the vault. The horrible THING looked to be a mangled corpse of a black Pegasus with red eyes, but with one wing, and appeared to be falling apart, like as if it was an old style zombie, but the fact that it had FEET instead of hooves was just...eugh! WHAT were those sick fucks DOING to these people?! The fact it had tentacles made of what seemed to be it’s intestines didn’t help my revulsion!

Most of the inhabitants of the vault were like the necrotic mare giving chase, but many of them were far-gone, gazing off into nothing, drooling, unable to die for whatever godforsaken reason. The others were like the crazy bitch chasing me, but were more content to wail on each other when they encountered thank gog, this one happened to be an odd one out that hadn’t chosen another partner to wail on.

But then there were the special ones, ones, disturbingly akin to modern pegasi that seemed like a somewhat failed fusion between a pony and an eagle with the big wings and equine body all lumpy from whatever caused the humans that once resided here to be transformed into these disgusting mockeries of ponykind. They were still in possession of their faculties, and stayed away from the crazies like the one chasing me. “Slow down! You’re going to break something!” Then again, some of them were delusional. “Stop being so loud consarn it!”

“In here!” I heard a male voice call, and I saw one of the cognizant members of the vault waving me towards his doorway with a chipped hoof, and I promptly complied and he slammed the hydraulic door in the madmare’s face, giving a satisfying thud as she ran right into it. “Sorry about that. Cindy went feral a few centuries back.”

“Well how-dee-frickin-doo! Kinda figured that one out einstein!” I snarked, focusing my optics on the pony/eagle thing. This stallion actually had a talon instead of a hoof on his forward right foreleg, but the rest of his green-furred body was equine save the brown wings of course. He was surprisingly intact compared to most of the others, save that he had brown plumage for a mane and tail feathers instead of a pony tail. “Sorry if I’m agitated, I tend to get pissy when I’m running for my life from Old World Abominations…. Hold up. Who the hell are-”

“I’m James Morrison. Friends called me non-mutie. Then again, I’m sure as hell mutated now. Heh.” Holy shit, it’s James Morrison! But what’s he doing here?

“Hey, you seem to have all your faculties, why’re you still here?” I asked, it felt like a good question for the brown-eyed stallion who sighed and ruffled his feathers.

“Door was broken after I came back inside for more supplies for my sick daughter who was among the first the bastards who ran this vault mutated. Killed the paranoid idiot who did that, and to my daughter. Got stuck in here, nobody knew how to fix the door and I ended up finding the source of the “pony mutant” projects deep down in the vault. In the end, made a few friends with some of them, then got mutated when I had to run from one of the ferals and got trapped in one of the still somewhat active ‘incubation’ rooms.” Morrison explained. “It’s a sad story, but it’s mine. So, mind explaining what a Mr. Handy is doing here? And active of all things, speaking like as if they’re a normal human being… You wouldn’t happen to be that special project the terminals were talking about, would you?”

“No, I’m actually a tertiary AI program for a large combat platform that fell into the vault’s entrance cavern. I opened the door from the outside, nothing but my primary combat systems are keeping anything in here from leaving.” I explained and the stallion’s feathers all puffed up in joy.

“That sounds more like the program than you know… and if that’s the case…” Morrison’s face lit up with joy. “That means there’s a way out! Please tell me there’s a way out! Last I checked, Project Gestalt got moved to the Pentagon because of some kind of failure, AI remaining dormant because of power or something… But that doesn’t really matter! If my hunch is correct, that’s you, and you brought your platform with you, right? And if that’s correct, that means there’s an exit! An unending life like this is boring in this metal prison!” Morrison just realized what he said, his expression snapping to one of fear. “Oh shit. I don’t care what your name is, kid, I know you’re not a Handy, just take me to wherever the damn exit is NOW! We can’t let any of ferals escape! We need to get the twenty or so of us still aware out and then collapse the entrance!”

“R-right. If you can protect me or show me to some kind of better chassis, we could get moving.” I said. “Actually, that’s why I came down here. My primary chassis is damaged, and it told me about a heavy chassis I could use to repair-”

“Yeah, yeah. There’s one over by Nancy’s room. She’s been here the longest since she was the Overseer, still hasn’t gone feral.” Morrison said, muttering “lucky bitch” under his breath, but the way his wings stiffened a bit said something else about his feelings on the mare. “In fact, I think she may have found some kind of way to keep herself sane. But that’s not the point. We have to go find her… Actually, why do you need my protection? I thought handies came with flamethrowers or plasma cannons, compared to what I have that’s-”

“Have you not noticed I’m missing that arm?” I deadpanned. “All I’ve got is this claw and damaged saw blade.”

“And? A saw is better than nothing.”

“The teeth are all dulled down to the point of making the blade useless.” I deadpanned again. “Also doesn’t help that the motor broke when I first tried to use it earlier.”

“Great, so you’re a floating ball of choking or flaying, and we’re nearly immune to that….” James grumbled as he paced, his talon making a visibly different sound from his hooves. “Grrrrr, I can’t think of anything! Our skin and bones are a bit too tough for you to even attempt to kill us like that…it’s why the ferals haven’t killed anyone down here and why the brain-dead ones don’t just die mercifully or be executed. And there’s no idea how intact that chassis the Overseer has is… Oh! There’s a robot chassis nearby that was meant for construction and hauling all the things around. But Nancy has the key to the storage area since that’s where we herded most of the ferals in the first place...ugh...we’ll just have to...try and talk to her….”

“Why don’t you want to talk to her anyway?” I asked, he was being really desperate to seek violence first against this mare.

“Because she’s a bitch, a lecherous one too. The first time I stepped in here, she tried to shoot me, among things. Then when she realized what I was, she tried to get me into bed with her. By then, she was already a fucking horse hybrid thing.” James gestured with his talon as if emphasising breasts.

“So… She’s a centaur?” ‘Dude, sounds kind of hot.’

“Yes, well, was. Either way, she’s gonna want to try and bed anything, ‘cause while she’s sane, she still has to follow instincts… and now’s about the time she gets ‘triggered’.” James said. “So, I’m going to stay outside when we go see her. I’m not getting near her while she’s in frickin heat again. Half the damn sane ones here are my kids thanks to her. The ferals can have at her for all I care now. Fun thing is, I know one of the ferals has an eye on her, keeps roaming around her room when she’s like this. Sad bit, the feral’s one of my sons, and I just know she’d let him do her. She even knows who he is.” Morrison growled angrily.

“Wow...what a whore. We’re not letting her free right?” I asked, and James huffed out his nose with a roll of his eyes.

“If I had no heart, no. But she’s still a perfectly sane gal when she’s not like this, and she’s always crying about our situation. Trapping her here forever would be too harsh. I either want her dead, or at least free with the chance to restrain herself. Now c’mon, I’ll take you there, distract my feral brat, and you talk to her about arranging an evacuation.” James stated before he put one of his ears to the door, and opened it, leading us out.

“That’s...a big hole.” Rainbow helpfully pointed out at the edge of the giant sinkhole that had a bit of an imprint of Prime at the bottom. “How’d he not see that?”

“If I had to guess, Master likely let his mind wander as he so often does. Excuse me, I will descend to see if it is safe.” Handy said as he flew down into the pitch-dark hole.

“Amazing...from what I can tell, this sinkhole has been developing for at least two hundred-.”

“UNIT DETECTED! ALLY: HANDY! LIFEFORMS DETECTED!”

“Those are Princess Sparkle and Lady Rainbow Dash.” Handy’s voice answered.

“PRETTY PURPLE PONY AND GAY PRIDE PONY CONFIRMED!”

“PLOTHOLE! FOR THE LAST TIME I’M NOT GAY!” Rainbow screamed with her cracking voice down into the hole, and Twilight snickered.

“That’s not what you said last week~.” Twilight wagged her eyebrows, and Rainbow conked her on the head with her hoof as a deep blush spread over her face.

“Shut up...you know I’m bi….” Rainbow whispered with a hiss.

“CORRECTION ACKNOWLEDGED. BISEXUAL PONY RECOGNIZED AS LOVER OF PRETTY PURPLE PONY!”

“SHUT IT YOU MOTHER BUCKER!” Rainbow yelled at the hole. “And it’s more ‘friends with benefits’!” Rainbow emphasized, and yelped when suddenly Twilight spanked her flank.

“Really nice benefits~.” Twilight lilted with a giggle before she and Rainbow both flew down to the hold and hovered slowly so their eyes could adjust to the dark cave that only had the midday sun overhead streaming light down for them to see with. “What is this place?” Twilight asked as she cast a light spell that hovered in the air, bringing a sun-like light into the massive cavern.

“It would seem Master literally stumbled across another Old World installation. Unfortunately...it would seem it is a Vault.” Handy informed grimly. “We should be cautious. There is no telling what sort of Old World Abomination could stumble out of that gaping doorway.” Handy warned the mares as they got to the rubble-littered floor and landed, only to hear a gurgling avian-like screech and the two friends screamed in terror as a deformed zombie-pony-bird-thing dashed out of the open doorway at them, tentacles flailing.

“ENGAGING!” Prime announced before firing a single photon beam that vaporized the charging ghoul into ash. “SENSORS DETECTED NO LIFE SIGNS! SUBJECT WAS ALREADY DECEASED!”

“W-what the flying BUCK was that?!” Rainbow squealed as she protectively hugged Twilight. “A-are there more zombies in there?!”

“Most likely Miss Dash. That thing was what Master would call an Old World Abomination. A category that is most broad, as Master includes himself in that list. Buried beneath the surface lie many places such as this, where the crimes of the Old World still reside. They are dangerous, do not enter that place.” Handy warned before he began heading towards the entrance. “I shall go after Master, he has clearly split his AI from his primary chassis.”

Twilight hugged Rainbow back, but felt the need to say something. “W-wait! I’m an accomplished battlemage and Rainbow says she got an A in her school-required military training-.”

“B-Plus.” Rainbow amended.

“Whatever. We could help.” Twilight insisted.

“The offer is appreciated Princess, but you don’t know what you’re up against. Magic has shown to have extremely odd and potent effects on Old World Abominations, especially if they haven’t been properly exposed to it before. I could go into detail, but Master needs me. Remain with Prime, help begin his repairs and potential upgrades.” Handy stated before flying into the Vault.

“UNIT HANDY IS PROOF OF PRETTY PURPLE PONY’S SKILL! PAINT ME RED WHITE AND BLUE!” Prime requested as Twilight sighed and began clearing the rubble to get at his legs easier.

“But you’re already blue.” Rainbow commented.

“NOT BLUE ENOUGH!”

Author's Notes:

In other news, the results are in for that poll I took.
...
In MORE news, we've been talking about getting this thing voice acted! No clue how to freaking do that, though! XD

Any input Gam?
Gam: I LIEK CHOCOLATE MILK!.... Also, I don't have good recording equipment...

Neither do I! I do have a mic, though! But that's still not enough! If we're going to ACTUALLY get this voice acted, it'd need to be with other people! So yeah! Dunno how to freaking do that!

Anyways, this is music mod, signing off. Laters!