“Three pistols on the ramparts, four rifles and a shotgun on the door,” I whispered into my earpiece. “No birds, no horns.”

“Anything behind the wall?” asked the voice of Hearteater.

I craned my neck, not really expecting to be able to see past the makeshift barriers. “No visual.”

“What, you can’t fly over?” a stallion’s voice snorted. “What the hell good are you.”

“It’s not that dark, Crunch. I think a low-flying cloud would be a bit suspicious.” I poked my misty camouflage for emphasis, despite the fact that I knew he couldn’t see it. “This is risky enough. I’d rather not attract the Enclave as well.”

“Oh for the love of… Heart, can you sneak past the wall and look?” he groaned.

“Uh…” the mare said.

I facehoofed.

“Crunch, did you seriously just ask the pregnant mare to run into the line of fire?” a female voice with a heavy Trottingham accent snapped over the line. “Goddesses, you’re an idiot.”

“What? She’s got that invisible stealth-suit-armor thing!”

“Uh, I’m not sure how you didn’t notice, but I’m kinda not wearing the suit right now. I haven't been able to. It doesn’t really fit around my belly at the moment.”

“And even if she’s invisible, there’s still a chance of her getting hit by stray fire. We’re lucky she even agreed to come with us.” The other mare ranted. “I mean, come on! She’s huge!”

“Wow. That’s just rude,” Crunch snorted.

“No it’s not. I am huge,” Heart yawned. "You really aren't paying much attention, are you?"

"Oh, shut up, all of you," the stallion grumbled. "I'll go do it myself."

"You should have in the first place," Split snarled through the transmitter.

Heart giggled. "You should stop fighting and just make out."

I stifled a laugh as both ponies stammered.

"You know," I began. "I'm not gonna be using my room tonight."

"Shut up!" Split squeaked.

"Oh, shit. Heart, you got incoming," Crunch hissed.

I darted to the other side of my cloud and scanned the ground. There was, indeed, a pair of large equines, a pony and a zebra, trotting down the street, glaring harshly at every corner.

"I see them." There was a faint flash of light, and a quiet bang. The pony collapsed, which sent the zebra into a panic. Before he could turn and dive for cover, though, there was another bang, and he collapsed on top of his dead friend.

"Well... that was anticlimactic." I turned back to the slaver encampment. "Good shooting."

"Thanks!" Hearteater chirped. "Any more?"

"Nope. We're clear to move once you get started." I caught sight of Crunch hiding behind a stack of barrels near the camp's entrance, a full squad of ponies in stealthy barding hiding in random places around him.

Several more quiet bangs went off, and three of the guards on Crunch's side fell in quick succession. I couldn't help but grin at the effectiveness of our sniper.

~~~

I laughed. Everything was funny. The lights were funny, the refrigerator was funny, even those really angry robots trying to blow up the door were funny.

"This fruit has a really nice texture." Knives giggled as she bit into a cucumber. She was funny too. And pretty.

'You thought she was a colt when you met her. And something is wrong here.'

I frowned. Halt dein Mund Gehirn. Schönen sie ist und großen Stabile ist.

I blinked, and snorted a laugh at what I'd just said to myself. "Oops, wrong language."

'Pay attention, moron. Something's off about this place,’ my lame, downer of a brain continued

I rolled my eyes at my silly conscious.

"Zim, ye want some?" The pretty mare held out what was left of the cucumber.

"Sure! Have some cheese." We swapped food. I loved this place. "Anything on the... uh... boxy... thing?"

She giggled. "Aye. Ah guess th' Overmare really liked it here."

"I know, right?" I chomped down on the cucumber. "The food is so good."

'Stop eating and think!'

Knives' ears went down. "Wish Ah could taste it."

Mine went down as well. "Oh, right... sorry."

"It's alrah... alr..." She burst into laughter.

She had a really nice laugh. It was like... bouncy 'n stuff. I started laughing too.

The angry robots were still hitting the door. I kinda wished they'd be happy too. They were yelling an awful lot.

"Ooh... somepony else made th' robots angry, too." Knives let out a low whistle. "Sompony was talkin' about how they all needed tae get out ay th' Stable and th' robots took 'em."

"Really?” I scratched my head, trying to think of anypony who wouldn’t want to live in an awesome Stable like this. it had everything! Food… a bed… food... “Why would they want that?"

"It says, 'Poor stallion kept yelling about how the robots are controlling everything. I don't know why he'd think that, though. They're so nice!'” Knives read, giggling a bit. "Nae, they're nae. They're just big... dummies."

I laughed in agreement.

"'He told me they're messing with the water, trying to make him forget, but that's just silly. We've only been in here a'... a week?" Knives blinked. "Weird. She wrote a lot fer one week."

I trotted back into the kitchen. "Whaddaya mean?"

"Well... there's almost a hundred entries here." She poked the computer screen. "What's that, a few months?"

"I think so?" I scratched my head, shrugged, and pulled out one of the numerous hay sandwiches in the fridge.

"Please enjoy this wonderful meal."

I smiled at the fridge. "Thanks."

'There's something horribly wrong here.'

"'The robots took him down to the infirmary, and sent him right back up, good as new. He was a bit twitchy, though.'" Knives was suddenly looking less happy. "Zim, that's suspiciously... uh... suspicious."

'She thinks there's something wrong, too. Think!'

"Oh, come on, that's just silly. I'll bet my... uh... I'll bet my cutie mark that nothing's wrong!" I lifted my jacket away from my butt to show said mark, and nodded decisively.

Knives stared at me for a moment before she started giggling.

I blinked at her. "What's up?"

"Lotus."

I looked at my cutie mark, which was, in fact a rainbow lotus. "Yes. Yes it is."

"Lotus Eaters!" She covered her mouth with a forehoof. "Zim, what time is it?"

I looked at my pipbuck. "Almost midnight."

"And what time did we get here?"

"About seven." I stared at her for a moment with a smile on my face. "Oh dear."

"Exactly! Zim, Ah think th' damn food is drugged." She threw her hooves into the air and started laughing.

I blinked at the cucumber I was still clutching in my fetlock and soon joined her.

"Whadda we do?" Knives asked between chuckles.

"Stop eating for..." I snorted. "Stop eating! I don't know what they're using, but I... pfft, hahahahah!"

Knives was desperately trying to hold back her own laughter. "That's nae funny at all!"

"We... we gotta figure out a way to get out of here," I barely managed to say. "Did you see anything about hidden passages or anything on the computer? Maybe a security password?"

"Nae." Knives stifled another giggle. "Nothin' at all."

"Okay..." I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself. Looking at the door, I grimaced at the realization that it had several large dents in it. "Okay... so… we have only one exit, and a bunch of robots trying to break in. Maybe you could make an… uh… electric bomb?”

A bit of anger broke through Knives’ drug-induced glee. “With what? What dae ye think Ah am, McGryffon?"

I winced. "Sorry, I just figured that since you... well..."

"Dae ye know how much power it would take fer somethin' like that?" She frowned. "Aam nae even guid enough wi' magic the set that kind ay thing up. Th' only electrical thing Ah've got is this."

She pulled out a small black box, which I recognized as part of the shock baton she'd been using when we met, with two sparking nubs.

She harrumphed.

"Right... sorry..." I scratched my neck. "I guess I shouldn't assu-"

Suddenly she squealed with delight and threw her forelegs around me. "That gives meh an even better idea!"

She tossed the box on the computer desk and rummaged through her bags.

I blinked and watched her in fascination as she pulled out the machete and several bundles of wires, throwing them all onto the desk and humming to herself. Several tools began to orbit around her head, held by her magic, and she set to work.

It was amazing how focused she was, even despite the drugged food. Her eyes flicked back and forth across the desk as she tore the handle off the machete and stripped wires, soldering them together with incredibly small bursts of her welding spell despite how much it must have been draining her.

It was the most beautiful and hypnotic things I'd ever seen.

And suddenly, it was over.

Now covered in sweat from heat and magical exhaustion, she held up her creation and beamed at me.

I blinked. "You... made a fancy machete?"

She rolled her eyes. "Nae, Ah made a fancy shock machete."

"Why?" I asked.

"Uh... Ah..." She groaned and rubbed her face. "Goddesses may head hurts. Ah guess... Ah can use it oan th' robots?"

I blinked again. "What robots?"

"Th' ones outside! They're tryin' tae beat th' door down?" She groaned again. "Zim, focus! Its like ye said, we need tae get out ay here!"

I nodded blissfully.

She smacked me. "Zim! Robots! Death! Plan?"

I rubbed my face. "I dunno, fight through them? Isn't that why you made the... sword-thing?"

"Ah... Aam nae sure... really..." she looked at the weapon. "Why did Ah make this?"

"Goddesses, we really are drugged, aren't we..."

"That wasnae obvious before?" Knives snorted.

"Alright... if we can catch them off guard maybe we can kill them?"

"Can robots even be surprised?"

"I don't know, maybe? Its kinda all I got right now." I glanced at the door again. A sizeable dent had formed, though I wasn't sure when. "Maybe we can wait until they run out of ammo?"

Then came the sound of the door being punctured by a missile. A small gout of flame puffed in, igniting the nearby sofa and filling the room with smoke.

"You know, this date was supposed to be fun." I drew my shotgun.

Knives looked at me and hrrm-ed. "Ye know, Aam nae sure why this is springin’ tae mind nao, but Ah read about somethin' that we could dae here."

I turned to ask, but was interrupted when she suddenly pulled my face to hers and kissed me.

Several thought went through my head, the first being: 'Holy crap! She's kissing me?' The second: 'Yes! Score!' Followed by: 'Weird... she tastes like copper and engine oil.' The last thought was something along the lines of: 'Kiss her back!'

So I did.

The kiss lasted for quite a while, with both of us finally separating when we remembered that we needed to breathe.

We stared at each other with dopey grins on our faces.

"Well... maybe those novels give some good advice." Another gout of flame burst through the hole in the door, making both of us jump. "Maybe nae th' best timin' though."

I shrugged. "Hey, this date was going nowhere anyway. Heh. Might as well spice it up a little."

She blushed. "Well... least we-"

Fsshhh-thoom thoom thoom thoom!

We covered our ears as an apparent hail storm of missiles struck the door, which creaked as it was continuously forced inwards.

Knives ran up to the door, poked her grenade rifle through, fired a few shots, and took a position beside the door. I took mine on the opposite side.

"Ready?" I asked with a grin.

"Nae really, nae."

The door took one last hit, and was thrown against the far wall as rest of the volley hit it.

We stuck our weapons around the corner and started firing. While I fired at random, Knives kept making more careful shots. More missiles and a bit of laser fire streamed in as Knives' grenades detonated. She peeked around the corner and took careful aim. The sound of her firing was immediately followed by the sound of one of the robots exploding.

"Woo! Got its power gem!" The mare pumped her hoof excitedly before she fired again.

Another robot began screaming some anti-zebra propaganda and firing on its allies.

Knives laughed. "Awesome. Two in a row."

“Wow. You’re awesome with that thing.” I grinned at her around my shotgun and poked my head out to fire a few shots of my own, all of which were significantly less effective than hers.

She shrugged. “Well, dad did say that where ye hit is more important than how hard ye hit.”

“Still, though… There’s a lot of them.” Another was destroyed as the malfunctioning one destroyed one of its more heavily-damaged former allies. “I don’t think either of us has that much ammo.”

“True. But Ah think we might be able tae make a run fer it nao...” She grinned mischievously and whipped the shock machete out. “Because Ah have this.”

“You’re gonna- KNIVES!”

She charged down the hallway, ducking past the frantic robot and magically kicked the blade into another’s abdominal joint. It immediately began sparking as the electricity coursed through it.

“C’mon, Zim! Hurry up!” She giggled.

I swore and flew over the robots, who were still engaged with their comrade. Apparently they weren’t much good at fighting each other.

She kept ducking between them, often taking ineffective slashes at their shells, but occasionally, she would manage to jam one into a vital joint and either fry it or frenzy it. All the while she was giggling and laughing happily.

I glanced at my pipbuck map. We were, at the very least, heading towards the exit, but nevertheless, I kept swearing and hoping to Celestia that Knives didn’t get horribly injured.

“Why the hell are there so many of the things?” I groaned. “The ponies were fucking drugged! They didn’t ne-OOF!”

A missile struck the ceiling just behind me, its explosion throwing me further down the corridor and into the ground.

With a grunt of pain, I pushed myself up and found myself face-to-legs with one of the robots.

It pointed its laser minigun at me and revved it up. I gave my wings a quick flap to push myself out of the way.

I scrambled back to my hooves and galloped after Knives.

“How far is the exit?” She asked.

“It’s through the Atrium. This way!”

A missile flew over my head, nearly hitting Knives before it struck the far wall. She grimaced and galloped after me.

“If we keep going left and up, we should be able to make it before the robots do.

“What if they’ve sealed it up?”

I blinked. “Then we’ll need to find another way out or we’re fucked.”

Knives gave me a surprised look over her shoulder. “What?”

An energy beam struck one of her back legs. She screamed as she tumbled across the floor, slamming into the wall.

I stopped by her to help her up, only to push her down again to dodge a missile. A glance back revealed the line of robots rolling down the two branching corridors behind us.

I picked her up in my forelegs and flew, zipping through the Stable as quickly as I could manage, with robots pouring out of what felt like every hallway we passed. I was frantic, panting from exhaustion and fear, feeling like my wings were about to just give up.

It didn’t matter, though. When we rounded the corner, one of the robots was there, waiting with the one we’d broken when we got here, and fired at me. I barely managed to release Knives before the missile hit, and I crashed into the rubble and junk from our entry. Knives took advantage of her momentum and used it to drive her machete into the robot’s sensors.

To my horror, there was no sunlight. The hole in the ceiling was now completely filled with detritus.

“Zim?” Knives limped over to my side. “Zim, are ye alright?”

I shook my head. “We’re screwed.”

“Nae, we’re nae!” She yelled with a frown.

I forced myself up and gestured to the rubble pile, flexing my right wing. “Knives, there’s just too much of this crap. They’ll get here before we can move it all.”

“They’re nae even that tough, if Ah can kill ‘em.” She growled and pointed to the dead robots. “Aam riggin’ their guns up, sae we’ll have that too.”

“You’re gonna what?”

“Just watch!” She spun the robot’s corpse around and beat the thinner metal on its launcher arm until the shell fell off, spraying lubricants and various other machine-related fluids everywhere. She then took several of its wires, studied them for a moment before opening up the other arm and ripping those wires out, and put several of them together. To my surprise, the weapons on both arms fired, creating a new crater in the far wall. Knives grinned at me. “See? Easy.”

I just stared at her. She stared back at me, covered in oil and dirt, her coat was charred in several places, and her mane had become a complete mess.

“Knives? I think I love you.” I said. “Probably way the fuck too soon in the relationship, but at the moment I really don’t give a shit.”

She blushed, her face bore an expression of surprise and confusion.

“And if we die, I just want to say, that was the best damn kiss I’ve ever had.” I nodded and stomped my hoof with a sense of finality.

She blinked her beautiful mismatched eyes a few times. Her shocked look turned into a smile. “Ye know, that was probably th’ nicest thing a date’s ever said tae meh. And ye know, what? Fuck dyin’! Aam nae sure if it’s th’ drugs or th’ adrenaline, but we’re fightin’ our goddess-damned way out ay here, and when we dae, we’re findin’ th’ nearest bed and ruttin’ each other’s brains out!”

Her hoof slammed the ground as well, and we both nodded.

“Let’s do this,” we chorused.

She threw her weight against the robot, pushing it just past the corner, where she spun it around and set its weaponry firing down the hallway.

She fired her grenades along with it, while I joined her with shotgun blasts placed as well as I could manage, occasionally making a missile detonate in the launcher, sometimes just disabling some key component on a weapon.

We took out a dozen of them before the turret ran out of rockets, at which point Knives hoofed me her rifle and went to set up the other robot. In a matter of moments, we were hiding behind it and shooting at any robots that managed their way past our turret.

More and more kept came. Each one falling to the ground, only to be shoved aside by another, and another, and another.

A grenade sent one spinning on its legs, firing wildly.

My shotgun blew a leg off, its owner falling to its side.

Knives’ rifle clicked.

She tossed it aside and drew her sword, charging into the fray.

“BLOOD AND VINEGAR!”

I followed her in.

She ducked behind one, which was destroyed by another trying to get her.

I blasted a hole in a thirds torso.

She broke an inhibitor.

I broke a weapon.

One managed to get her in the side with a laser volley, I cut it short with a blast to the arm.

One grazed my wing, she stabbed its eyes.

A missile knocked her down, I blew its sensors out and pulled her back up.

It felt like hours.

I couldn’t even feel my legs anymore.

Both of us were out of breath.

Charred.

Bruised.

Exhausted.

But the last attacker fell with a final scream against zebra kind.

We stood there. Panting.

The few robots left were the ones incapable of movement or attack.

Knives and I looked at each other.

“Well…” I said.

“That was quick.” She finished.

We smiled.

We chuckled.

We found ourselves laughing in relief, tears streaming from our eyes as we collapsed against each other.

I felt happy.

Knives wiped a tear from her eye. “Ye know… Ah think we can dae without th’ bed.”

I blinked. “What are you-”

She kissed me again.

Never thought I'd like the taste of oil.

~~~~~

"How far until we get there?" Wretch paused to wipe some of the sweat from her brow. "I can't see too far through all this dust."

"I'unno." Xixixix shrugged. "I just walk until I get where I'm going."

Wretch sighed. "Of course you do."

The zebra propped his foreleg on the unicorns shoulder, walking beside her on his back legs. "Wretch, please, don't be so down, with those big fat eyes and your big, fat frown. The world doesn't have to be so grey!"

"What?" Wretch gave him an incredulous look.

"Wretch, when your life's a mess, when you're feeling blue, or are in distress, I know what can wash that sad away." He took a dramatic breath. "All you have to do is-"

"If you tell me to put anything in my ears, I'll hit you."

Xixixix blinked. "Why would I say something dumb like that?""

Wretch stopped for a moment to deadpan at him. He only put on an innocent grin.

"How are you doing, Green?" The black-maned unicorn called towards the cloudy sky.

The filly didn't respond. Instead, she continued to soar lazily through the air, partially hidden by the thin upper mists, flying upside down and munching on a piece of pickled yucca with a blissful smile on her face, her forest green locks billowing about in the wind.

Xixixix smirked. "So majestic. I wonder how she learned to fly."

"Probably from her parents, like I'd imagine most pegasi do." Wretch rolled her eyes.

"HEY GREEN!"

Green yelped, and almost immediately dropped out of the sky, barely managing to catch herself before she hit the ground. She hovered there for a moment, trying to prevent her heart from escaping her ribcage while Xixixix trotted up to her.

"Where'd you learn to fly?" He asked with a merry smile.

"Uh... my... my mom taught me?" She stammered. "It was when Bark still had bomb collars... he said there was no point in owning flightless pegasi."

The zebra blinked. "Well, he's probably the smartest slaver I've ever heard of, then. Most of them are too stupid to figure that out. Pegasi that can fly are worth quite the pretty bit."

"And you know this, how, exactly?" Wretch gave him a suspicious glare.

“I know a very large number of things that I really shouldn’t. I also don’t know an equally large number of things that I should, but that’s neither here nor there.”

“That doesn’t explain anything.” Wretch growled at the zebra. “How do you know what slavers are doing?”

He responded with a perfectly calm and neutral stare. He held the gaze for a few moments, to the point where it actually made both ponies feel somewhat nervous.

"I have thousands of memory orbs stored away throughout Canturbury." He began trotting again. "Surprisingly few of them are pre-war."

Both ponies shivered under his gaze.

He smirked. "Ooooo, spooky zebra. Run away, run away!"

Green snorted and giggled, earning a confused look from Wretch.

The pink unicorn opened her mouth to speak, but immediately covered her ears when Xixixix screamed.

"IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?" He charged off, leaving a cloud of orange-tinged dust in his wake.

"What the- hey!" Wretch growled. "Where are you going?"

The stallion charged into the orange mists.

Wretch considered calling after him, but huffed and turned away. A second later she turned back when she heard him screaming.

He charged back through the mists, and stopped in front of her.

"Yeah, it's exactly what I think it is," he said in a cheery voice. "We should run. Fast. Very fast. Beyond rapidly and right into 'there's a gorgon trying to say hello' fast. If we go that way we should be able to make it to the edge of the herd before they trample us."

With that, he grabbed Green, put her onto his back, and galloped away, once more screaming his head off.

Wretch stared after him, her mouth hanging open. She suddenly became aware of a rumbling sound.

She glanced back and forth in confusion for a moment, taking note of the fact that the mists seemed to me shifting.

"Wretch! Run!" Xixixix yelled.

The rumbling was accompanied by a familiar buzzing sound. Wretch's ears twitched as she listened. Her eyes widened slowly.

A gigantic black blob just barely visible in the dust. A herd of rampaging, gibbering equines, one she recognized.

"Wow... he never told me... oh goddesses..." She stepped back and swallowed a lump in her throat. "There's this many?"

“WRETCH! COME ONE!” The zebra grabbed her tail in his teeth and pulled, making her yelp. With a last glance at the rapidly growing blob she started following him.

Green clung to Xixixix’s mane, her eyes shut tight as the stallion charged through the sands at top speed with the shocked Wretch close behind. The screaming of the herd penetrated the filly’s ears, and though she couldn’t understand the words, she got the distinct impression that they wanted her to join them.

They were gradually getting closer, the dark mass on the horizon spreading out more every second. It looked like it could consume all of Canturbury if it continued. Green wasn’t sure if they could get out of the way in time.

The pony and zebra picked up their pace, their hooves leaving tracks in the sand, their breathing heavy.

Then Wretch rammed into Xixixix’s backside, and fell flat on her own as the stallion came to a sudden stop in front of a cactus.

"Hey! I recognize this cactus!" He yelled, giving the succulent a buck.

Wretch gawked at him. "What are- ack!"

She suddenly found herself in the middle of a staircase, with a torrent of sand pouring onto her head. "Owwwww... my ass."

"Wonderful! I guess we can just hide here until they pass." Xixixix happily trotted down the stairs and, upon reaching the bottom, closed the entrance with a push of a nearby button, and let Green off his back. "Maybe we can explore a bit, too."

Wretch groaned in response.

~~~

Footnote 1: Diamond Knives

Level up! (14)

Speech: 30

Survival: 40

Perks:

Intense Training: +1 Endurance. Endurance = 3

~~~

Footnote 2: Zeed Kazdri

Exp: ???%

~~~

Footnote 3: Prism (Zim) Blitz

EXP: 98%

`

To-Do List:

Active Quest:

For whom my heart does beat:

-Go on a first date with your crush, you lovebird, you!

-Oh, and get out of the Stable, moron.

Sifting Through The Dust:

1) Find information on the location of Ashes.

2) Find information on the location of Obsidian Knives

3)Find information on the location of Nezan Kazdri