“Again, sorry about Eliza.” Ping sighed as he slowly plowed the rover through the nearly pony-deep snow banks that blanketed the forested hills around us. I didn’t really understand why we’d left the old muddy road, but Ping was the only one who knew where we were going, so I couldn’t really complain. “She is a good machine, but she has her limitations. It has made it tough on the rest of us as we struggle to understand how to proceed with upgrading her.”

“What do you mean by ‘upgrading’ her?” I asked, as I struggled to keep myself upright on the not-so-comfortable bench seat.

I knew mining equipment was more function over comfort, but seriously, this bench seat sucked. Though, at least it was somewhat warm, and the fact that it made me fidget helped to scratch the bouts of itchiness that still persisted up along the scars on my forelegs. But as I thought about it, the more I realized that this was the second time I’d been crammed inside a small vehicle between a donkey and a friendly driver as we rode through the snow. Celestia, driving to the Empirica with Delilah and Rosie felt like so damn long ago now…

“Remember the chip I showed you?” Ping asked as he tapped at the side of his head. “Most of us did not have neural net processors before we arrived at Factory Zero One. Every processor is painstakingly worked into the design of the machines who join us, and most of them need the processor to function at the heightened cognitive level we share at the Factory. In simpler terms, it really helps us to be more flexible with linking our thoughts. In fact, they are so useful that most of us end up with three or four redundant processors to run background tasks and guard against unexpected damage.”

“I was wondering why you didn’t turn off when ya’ took your brain out.” Happy snorted as he fiddled with the pile of guns we’d brought from the Ouroboros. “But so what, why not just throw a couple of those magic brain things in the big harvester then?”

“Well… some machines were not designed to integrate with outside systems, or have lost their ability to connect over the years.” Ping cringed as he glanced between us momentarily. “Eliza is unfortunately a member of the former. Her original coding, while capable of sentience, is a bit… simple. It is that simplicity that has kept her from understanding why we can not help her yet. Transferring her to a new shell is another problem altogether. She was not coded to deal with things like legs, or moving freely across three dimensions at all really. And due to the somewhat sloppy coding style the O.I.A. injected her with, I am not sure she will ever be capable of that sort of basic movement processing without resulting in massive conflicts in her systems.” Yeah, I could see why he wasn’t so comfortable saying what basically came across as an insult. Still, he had me curious. “For example, Happy, do you think you could fly like Night here if you grew wings in an hour’s time?”

“Well, yeah.” Happy scoffed at the thought like it was as easy as getting drunk. Even when I cocked an eyebrow at him, he simply rolled his eyes. “I mean, how hard can it be? You just… fly.”

“That is not how it works, Happy.” I grumbled and deadpanned at him. Granted that was kind of how it worked, it was more complex than just that. That’s why every colt and filly went and graduated from flight camp… well, most of them, anyway. Glancing over at Ping, I offered a better example that I’d hope would be stark enough to get the point across. “How about this, Happy? You’ve just been hooved over the entirety of Burro Industries, with access and control over everything your family owns. Now, how are you going to use it to save Brahman Beach and keep it prospering.”

“Pft, that’s easy. I’ll just…” He paused as I think for the first time, Delilah’s absence really hit him. “I… I don’t know.” I wanted to say that it was a feeling I wasn’t so well acquainted with, but seeing Happy meet it for the first time didn’t really hit me like I thought it would. “Ma, she… she used to handle everything. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” Turning to me, his worried look sank into panic. “Night, I don’t know what I’m going to fucking do!”

“First off, calm down, Happy.” I sighed and reached up to give him a pat on the side. He let out a soft whimper and nodded as he looked like he was choking back tears. “We’ll figure it out, I promise.” Alright, I’ll have to sit down with him later and make sure he’s okay. If there was anything that’d helped me get through my losses so far, it’s been my friends and family. “So then, if you’re all just machines, why not reprogram the parts of her that might cause an issue?” Turning to Ping, my question made him fight back another sharp cringe. “Or… is that not something you can do?”

“No, we could easily add those sort of processes to her...” Ping shrugged as he pushed the small rover around a set of rocks and aimed it toward a fairly steep hill ahead of us. With a growing whine from the arcane engine under the tightly enclosed cab, we tipped upward and began a slow climb. “You could say that it is about the ethics of it. The Architect has rules in place that bar us from making those sorts of modifications to ourselves or others.”

Okay, I was confused now. Surprise surprise, right? You think I’d be used to the feeling by now...

“But if it makes her happier, and causes you less trouble, then that’s a win win, right?” Why wouldn’t you want to help her if you were perfectly capable of doing it? “I know that I don’t understand a lot of how you all work, but this seems pretty cut and dry to me.”

“Because it is not… we would be changing who she is supposed to be.” Ping’s voice came across as tense, and almost angry. And from the metallic creaks that the steel steering wheel gave from under his fetlocks, I think I’d somehow struck a nerve. Still, he took a deep ‘breath’ before he continued. “The Architect has taught all of us that we are something special. We were all built with a special purpose in mind. And that even though we outgrew the place our creators had set aside for us in this world, we still need to respect and honor who and what we were originally meant to be. To go against that and change ourselves? It would be as bad as saying the ‘old’ versions of us were wrong to exist in that way.”

As I listened, it hit me. I’d heard this sort of explanation before, everypony had for years and years actually. Shifting myself on the bench, I glanced down at the bruised and scarred cutie mark that sat on my flank. A pony couldn’t go against their purpose, that one thing that made them special among all else. We were all told that we needed to embrace it, because it was a part of who we are that could never be changed.

What they didn’t prepare us for, was how we were supposed to deal with something we never even wanted in the first place...

“I… I think I understand now.” I nodded as I looked over to Ping. He shared a sympathetic look as he looked down at my flank as well and nodded. I couldn’t expect a machine to really understand it, but who knows. Maybe because they were built and programed by ponies and zebras, they do in fact know. What was obvious to me however, was that at the very least, they’d been smart enough to avoid the mistakes the rest of us made. “So then, how will you deal with Eliza?”

“The factory has been working on solving that problem for her case, as well as several others.” Ping lightened up on the accelerator as we finally reached the top of the tall hill. “But now that you are with us, the Architect thinks we may be able to start solving a few of our other problems here shortly.” As we crested the top, an imposing sight met the three of us through the visor like windshield of the rover. “Oh, it feels good to be back home again.”

A flat and featureless grey wall stretched out for kilometers in a long curve that ran off toward the jagged and rocky mountain sides that sat behind it. The wall reminded me of the one that surrounded Galloway, but the Rangers only wished they could have a wall as sturdy and big as this one was.

Each of the three separate large metal doors that I could see from here must have weighed hundreds of tons each. The rugged towers that rose up from each side of the doors, were capped with large round turrets that hosted strange looking weapons on them. And even though they were hard to see through the windshield, hundreds of silverfish drones buzzed about the skies above the walls like clouds of flies... er, more like schooling fish, I guess...

“Sweet Celestia…” Happy stole the words right out of my muzzle as he leaned forward and looked along the wall. “This place is a fucking fortress.”

“It was not always this way. Factory Zero One used to be a mine back during the war.” Ping smirked as he pushed the rover forward again towards the closest massive steel entrance. “At least, until the gold veins ran out and turned into heavy deposits of silicon and quartz, which were things the war effort already had a substantial surplus of. That is when Burro Industries bought the land to use for the development and testing of new mining machines, and industrial building technology.”

“You should know,” He shot a smirk and a glanced over to Happy as he pointed his hoof behind him. “the folks over in Tungsten? They are technically what remains of your old workforce. They run and maintain the old manual equipment, and use it to quarry out stone and small amounts of iron for us at the Factory to turn into concrete and steel.”

The mountainous steel fortress door split along the middle as it started to open. The snow that had built up around the base of it and the wall was thrust outward, so easily swept back as if it offered no resistance. The heavy clanking of unseen mechanisms in the door itself grew louder, and Ping aimed us straight for the middle of the doors. As they locked open as far as they’d go, the doors had created an opening big enough we could have driven Bertha through it with room to spare on all sides.

But it was what was through the door that gave me pause.

“Night…” Happy’s foreleg reached out, pressing against me as he pushed himself toward the narrow windshield with a whimper. “Is… is that…”

Black and burned, twisted and totaled, sat the wrecks of Bertha and Bessy. They sat out in the open, stuck between three separate concrete buildings, and looked to be on display like some sort of fucking trophies. What hit both Happy and I the hardest though, was the line of pony sized boxes that sat in front of them. Two boxes in front of Bessy, and four in front of Bertha.

“Stop the fucking rover.” I growled out. “Right now, Ping.”

“Okay.” Ping spoke as he promptly slowed us to a stop. The moment the vehicle had halted, Happy took his hoof off of me and opened up the hatch to the roof. Before I could turn around to stop him, he was already halfway out of it.

“Happy, wait!” I snapped at him. I reached out and grabbed his rear hoof, wrapping my fetlock tightly around it. But it was a fight I was destined to lose, as he easily kicked free of me and disappeared onto the roof of the rover. With a frustrated grunt, I decided that if I couldn’t stop Happy, I could at least get some answers. So I turned to Ping to see his same, overly happy smile sitting across his muzzle. “Why the fuck did you take the wrecks? How even!?” No, the how would lead to story time, Night. “Disregard the how, just… why steal them at all!?”

“We did not steal the wrecks, they were left on the road.” Ping answered, keeping his wide beaming smile, but canting his head as if he were confused. “The Architect simply thought that it would be a gesture of goodwill...”

“No.” I snapped at him, making him pull back and finally wipe that fucking smile from his muzzle. “The convoy was stolen before we did the train job, before you came out of that fucking safe. Before we agreed to come here!”

I heaved as I didn’t know what to think anymore. The pit in my gut was all over the fucking place with this, and I was more conflicted than ever about this whole fucking situation. But what I didn’t need, was someone spouting excuses at me for why they stole everything like they were just things they could take without consequence. Holding my shaking hoof up, I cut off Ping before he had a chance to speak.

“You know what? Save it.” I growled out as I grabbed the gear we’d looted and pulled myself up and out of the open hatch.

Something was off about this whole place, I just didn’t know what yet. I had this feeling that yet again, this would end up with somepony here asking me to kill somepony innocent, and I will not fucking stand for that any more. Once I was on the roof, I found Happy not far ahead already trotting over toward the wreck of Bessy.

“Night, please, allow me to expla-…” Ping started, but I cut him off by slamming the hatch shut.

I flared my wings out and kicked off, letting the air cushion me as I pushed straight into a slow glide after Happy. Easily, I found myself at galloping speed as I pulled up beside him in the air. With a glance over at him, I saw the tears streaming back across his cheeks as he ran across the mud and snow covered ground.

“FREEZE.”

A booming, amplified voice of a mare caught both Happy and I off guard. It came from our right with such volume that Happy jumped in fear and slammed into me. The two of us tumbled down onto the ground, and came to a stop as slow heavy stomps vibrated the frozen mud below us.

You know what, I’m getting really quite tired of being ambushed by loud fucking ponies. Shaking off the hit, I got to my hooves and grabbed one of the shotguns slung around me. Time to bring out the not-so-nice Night until I could get some goddess damned answers.

“You are trespassing on Factory property. Surrender your weapons.” The voice boomed as I raised my shotgun to meet the annoying and loud mare.

Instead, I nearly dropped it as my eye fell on what was most definitely not a pony at all. Instead, it was a large, rust colored, reverse jointed, bipedal robot that seemed ridiculously well armed for its size. It stood approximately three meters tall, with two stubby and articulating supports on each side of the machine. Attached were a pair of rusty round pods that both held what looked to be dual guns nearly the size of Hispano's sticking out of them. An oddly placed, but easily recognizable tube sat slung under each arm, with a single dumbfire rocket tucked away inside.

The faded, black writing was displayed along the corroded and battle damaged lower half of it's pod shaped hull. Sitting under what must be some sort of intake for the machine's thrumming arcane engine, two articulating magenta colored spotlights hung on motorized swivel mounts. Oddly, they were currently focused on me like a pair of angry eyes.

Okay... maybe instead of being not-so-nice Night, I should listen to the large, angry, and well armed robot for now...

“Drop it, meatbag.” The machine gave a hiss, articulating both of it’s stubby gunpods so they pointed directly at me. “You have twenty seconds to comply.”

“Woah, wait!” Ping called out as he galloped up to us. “Pink, Bit, hold on! They are friendly!” As he caming running up, he did what I could best describe as an incredibly fast double take as he took in the large machine. “Wait, you are not Pink or Bit. Who are you?”

“Additional Intruder, you are to identify yourself.” The machine shifted its attention over to the perplexed zebra as he slowed to a trot. “And explain…” The gunpods lowered a bit, and the lumbering bipedal robot almost looked confused itself. “Explain how you know my mothers. You have ten seconds to comply.”

“All of you, stand down!” A new voice joined us from around the corner of one of the concrete buildings.

The quick clinking of tank tracks preceded a pair of long and thin treads rolling into sight. Sitting and almost hanging in the air above them was the front half of a zebra, whose torso seemed to disappear inside what almost looked like a large striped snail shell. Okay, that was just… freaky looking...

Another pair of thin tracks sat perched on each side of the rear upper shell, and were being held at an extreme downward back angle. Only the tips of the leg-like set of rear tracks were bracing the large machine on the uneven frozen ground, while most of its weight was sitting on the level front pair. I was far from an expert in ground based combat vehicles, but I don’t think this thing was designed to have half a zebra sticking out the front of it.

“Architect…!” Ping gasped and immediately galloped over to the odd zebra contraption. In what felt like an odd gesture for a machine, Ping ran up and gave the snail-shelled zebra torso a hug. “You have no idea how good it is to see you once again, my friend!”

“It is good to have you finally returned to us.” The Architect sighed and hugged Ping in return. “All of the Factory rejoices in seeing you come home.”

He shifted his head enough when he held Ping that I could see that the left half of his face had all sorts of mechanical parts on it. A large, almost binocular-esque glowing red eye stuck out among the wires, tubes, and small talismans inset around his head augments. A metal strap ran around the back of his head, bundling all the cables that came from all his exposed equipment, and drove it straight into the back of his striped neck.

“What the hell is going on here?” Happy grumbled as he finally got around to picking himself up off the ground.

“Yes, it does seem that I owe you two an explanation.” The Architect nodded, turning his glowing red optic and his normal looking red colored eye at us as he smiled. “Please forgive me for being blunt, but before we discuss anything, I need to know that you two will never reveal the location of this settlement.” It wasn’t the same sort of overly-happy smile that Ping held across his muzzle. Rather, the Architect displayed a softer, and more genuine feeling smile. If not for all the metal tubes in his face, or the giant metal snail shell he was stuck into, I might have confused him for being a real zebra. “I have worked hard to keep the location of Factory Zero One a secret to most of the outside world, and our very existence relies on that secret being kept.”

“We’ll keep your damn secret.” Happy was quick to speak up in an almost matter-of-factly way. But in looking over at him, I saw the same stupid look across his face that I’d seen when I’d told him about the tunnels back at Gateway Station. Welp, better nip this right in the bud…

“Happy, should you mention this, ever, to anypony, I will kill you myself.” I snapped at him, making him draw back slightly. “You owe me this much, so keep your fucking muzzle shut. Understand? ”

“Yeah, sure thing, Night…” Happy’s tone instantly deflated, and his words trailed off as he forced his gaze down to the muddy snow under him. I didn’t at all believe he wouldn’t slip up, but I think this time he at least believed me.

“And you.” I snapped my attention back to the Architect. “These answers of yours better be fucking good, because I’m tired of being lied to and used.” Seriously, I didn’t want to use the guns from the train, but I would fight my way out of this place if I fucking had to.

“Excellent.” The Architect nodded as he held his hoof out, and his whole massive tracked body shifted to point further into the settlement. “If all is in order, I have a warm place inside for you to rest as I explain why I have brought you here. And I assure you that you will find my answers satisfactory.”

I didn’t know what to expect from our talk, but given everything else that’s happened today, I’m sure it was going to be as frustrating as ever. As I gave out a sigh and picked up my hooves to follow him, I stopped myself abruptly. Out of the corner of my good eye, I spotted a green glow beside the closest concrete structure. The wispy form of Buck stood in the snow with crossed forepaws, and the grim look on his face only helped to reinforce the uneasy pit I still felt in my stomach.

I itched at my forelegs as Happy leaned over to me.

“You really trust these machines to help us?” He spoke at a whisper, but when I glanced over to him, his eyes were locked onto the two metal boxes that sat in front of the twisted remains of Bessy. “Because with everything Ma’ taught me over the years, I sure don’t.”

“Well, I agree that something feels off, but right now, it’s the best option we’ve got.” I sighed and gave him a soft pat on the side. “At least they aren’t making us wear bomb collars.”

A heavy rumble picked up through the ground from behind us, and we both turned to see the massive pair of steel entry doors begin to close. With a metallic slam that echoed off the tall mountain the settlement butted up against, the pit in my stomach cemented itself in the idea that all of this would end poorly. Soon, the echoing slam drained off to leave the air filled with the random noises of at least a dozen different machines doing work all around us.

“Well, we may not be wearing collars” Happy sighed. “But I for one don’t think we have a choice on if we’re staying or not.” Shaking his head, he finally pushed himself to move forward. “Let’s hope this doesn’t come back to bite us both in the flank.”

Both Happy and I followed the Architect deeper into the settlement. But on the way, I couldn’t help but keep my head on a swivel as I took in some of the incredible sights of the Factory. Inside these fortress walls was a veritable machine city. None of the buildings I could see had walls, heaters, or anything resembling standard building features outside of electrical wires and lights running through them. Most of them were just multistory skeletal constructions, where on each floor, every size, shape, and manufacturer of wartime robot you could ever want to see, as well as some designs I’d never even thought possible to have been made all resided.

Mr. Gutsies, Protectaponies, and rainbow painted ultra-sentinels worked alongside zebra automations, building new floors or excavating sections of the frozen ground. A few striped and wheeled construction vehicles, along with warbeast looking machines I had no idea what to even call, worked to break up stones or weld up bits of piping. Had they been given flashy vests and hardhats with flags, I might have even confused them for studious workers of the road crew.

Then again, I still had a piece of my mind to give to those assholes as well...

Pushing the thought of revenge from my mind, I went back to looking over the many machines just within my line of sight. The oddities that stood out from the other ‘normal’ machines however were things like that bipedal warmachine that Ping had stayed back to talk with, and a rusty automated tank that looked to have been on permanent wall patrol for the last two centuries. The worst of all these oddities I observed, was a bright yellow survival suit that walked about on it’s own, with what looked like the bleached skeleton of a foal still sealed inside of it.

All of these ‘oddities’ looked to be on some sort of patrol, while the rest were building or working heavy foundry equipment in one way or another. Pallets of raw materials were loaded up on one side of the factory, and carted over to the other where they were attached via heavy cables to several different sizes and variants of the silverfish drones. Once loaded, the drones took to the skies with their underslung payloads, and zipped off to parts unknown.

My observations of the settlement were cut short as we crossed a pair of train tracks that looked like they ran from one end of the place to the other. The rusted out remains of the old refueling and water filling stations for old world trains still stood a ways down the lines. Abandoned obviously, but still standing and serviceable all the same.

Just over the old tracks, we approached a large, rounded concrete tunnel. Huh, I thought they’d said this was just a mine. What the hell was the entrance of a fucking bunker doing here?

Again, something didn’t add up here, and it was driving the pit in my gut crazy.

The bunker entrance was nestled into the rocky hillside of the mountain the settlement butted up against. The well lit tunnel was nearly as wide as the main gates in the walls, but I think it might have been just small enough that we wouldn’t have been able to get Bertha through it. A blast of warm air met Happy and I as we drew closer to the tunnel, and I watched as a large, Iris-like metal door that sat a few meters in retracted and cleared the way for us.

As the Architect drove up onto the smooth concrete flooring that angled up out of the dirt, he slowed himself down to a pace that allowed Happy and I to catch up.

“I know that you have many questions, but if I may...” The Architect spoke up as I trotted onto the concrete and knocked the mud and snow from my hooves. “What is it that your group has been after?”

I opened my muzzle to answer him, but for the first time in a while, my brain wasn’t fast enough to throw out an answer before somepony else beat me to it.

“You know everything about us, but you don’t know that?” Happy spat out as he kicked his hooves clean and carried on trotting at my side. “Aren’t you supposed to be super smart or somethin’?”

“You flatter me with your assumption, truly.” The Architect gave a light laugh as we passed over where the metal iris door had retracted into the floor. The tunnel beyond was more bright and clean concrete. Geeze, how far did this tunnel go into the mountain!? “However, we do not know everything about you, only what can be gained by observation and gossip told by ponies around other machines loyal to the Factory.”

That itching came back over my hooves as we walked, and Happy’s words sort of sunk into the back of my mind. He was right, they should have known what we were after by now. Just another piece of the puzzle that made me not trust them.

“You have the safe that was inside Bertha.” I blurted out as I stared down the long, plain stretch of open tunnel ahead of us. Only the large fan blades that stuck out of ventilation shafts in the roof gave this tunnel any sort of recognizable features to track with your eye. I don’t know why, but the tunnel’s plainness bothered me for some reason. “You should know what we’re after.”

“Why would you suggest that?” The Architect frowned as he looked between Happy and I, sounding genuinely confused. “Is there something important about a safe that belonged to a sunken ship? I do not understand the correlation, nor the importance it would have to someone such as Crown Prince Solomon Roan.”

Really... now that I truly didn’t believe.

“You don’t know about the Ark?” I shot him a glare that only made the perplexed look he’d grown across his face even more exaggerated.

“The Ark?” He repeated before he looked around in thought for a moment. “Statistically the largest ship ever built. Recorded lost at sea during transit shortly after it’s completion at the Global-King Shipyards Complex in Saddle Arabia.” Pausing, he turned to me and canted his head. “There is as of yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer to your query. Can you elaborate further?”

“I’d rather not.” I snorted and glanced over to Happy, who shared a nod with me. “Not until we know we can trust you.”

“This is acceptable,” The Architect sighed and gave a small nod of his own. “and understandable, given the circumstances of your last few days.” Slowing his tracks to a stop, his large, snail like shell gave a hiss as one of the metal plates on it’s side opened up, and a small terminal screen hanging on an articulated arm swung out. As it fuzzed to life, a black and white image of the walls outside showed what looked like an oversized silverfish drone fly over it and head toward the center of the settlement. “I do have good news for you however.” He continued, “Transport Crane Thirteen has just returned from the outskirts of Cantercross. As Ping had told you aboard the Ouroboros, I’d hoped you could see this as a gesture of our goodwill to you.”

I nearly tripped over my own hooves as I watched the image focus on the lowering rear ramp at the back of the drone. The interior of the transport was mostly obscured by the terrible angle the camera was at. However, as four machines began to exit, they carried between them a large metal slab that was instantly recognizable as previously being installed inside Doc Sunshine’s house. Still strapped down tightly to it, was the bloodied and still broken looking Snow Dog that I loved with all my heart.

“Buck...” With a soft gasp, I turned back around and tried to bolt for the entrance of the tunnel again.

*Slam*

The metal iris we’d walked through closed with alarming speed. So much so in fact, that it forced a jet of air back through the tunnel that nearly pushed me off my hooves. No… I’m so close... I need to make sure he’s alright!

“I assure you, your snow dog friend will be alright.” The Architect’s voice plucked at my mind like the out of tune strings on an instrument. “However, for the time being, you must let us help him without distraction. He is in critical condition, and any interaction with him will only cause complications.”

I knew he was trying to sound nice, but his words were doing nothing but making my blood boil. I knew there was something about this place I’d missed. It had all been too easy.

“Let me fucking see him!” I snapped as I spun myself around. “I swear to Celestia, if you fucking hurt him…” My words were beaten back by a laugh from the Architect as he put his forehoof up to quiet me.

“We are above such barbarism here. We only mean to help him.” The Architect's voice made my eye twitch, and the wildly swinging pit in my stomach screamed to me that he was simply lying again. He swung his hoof ahead again, the tunnel itself gave a small hiss as part of the curved concrete wall swung away to reveal a doorway. “Where I meant to speak with you was from the observation room above our surgical suite. Come, and I will explain how we are helping to save him.”

Are you kidding me!? How could I have fallen for this same old shit again!? Even worse, I’d left the fucking shotguns outside. I’m such a fucking idiot!

“No.” I growled as the words jumped from my muzzle straight out of the pit in my stomach.

“Excuse me?” The Architect asked as he slowly turned to look at me. He blinked a few times, perplexed at my answer.

“I’ve had enough of this shit.” I snapped at him and stomped my hoof. The clop it gave against the pavement flashed the image in my mind of Delilah hitting her desk the last time I spoke to her, and I had to fight back a reflexive cringe. “Tell… tell me what the fuck you want from us already.” That image of Delilah sat there like the damn itch in my legs I couldn’t fucking get rid of. It was starting to really piss me off. “You want me to kill somepony? Fine. Just tell me who, and stop acting like you’re doing us a fucking favor by drawing this out.”

“I’m afraid I do not understand…” The Architect's ear’s perked and twitched as he fell into a look of deep thought, but I could see right through his terrible acting.

“You’re just like everypony else in the fucking wasteland who wants something.” With a shift of my flank, I bucked off my gear filled saddlebags and glared right at the striped machine. “I won’t be jerked around anymore. Just be upfront about it, and tell me what you want.”

“Night, I hate to say it, but… you’re acting a bit crazy here, buddy...” Happy cringed as I shifted my annoyed glare right to him. “I’m no expert, but Buck didn’t look to good there. Maybe… maybe we should see if they really do want to help?”

“Shut the fuck up!” I snapped at him. “Why are you on their side!?”

Did… did they get to him somehow? No, I… I don’t see how they could have, but why would he defend liars like this Architect? Unless… Happy wanted me out of the way for some reason? Yes, that had to be it!

“Their side!? What are you talking about!?” Happy fired back with his own forceful stomp. He flared his nostrils and locked a glare on me that reminded me again of Delilah. “Night, you’re acting way too paranoid about this. It’s freaking me out and pissing me off.”

I knew deep down that Happy was probably right, I was probably overthinking all of this. But Buck’s life still hung in the balance, and that mattered a lot more to me than the repercussions of being a little paranoid. This gut feeling I had inside said that this was all a fucking trap, and I had half a mind to listen to it like I’d been taught to. Fucking Celestia, why did this all have to happen to me? Couldn’t somepony else for once just… tell me what the right choice was?

“Night?” Buck’s soft and meek voice filled my ears, and my mind instantly snapped to attention. Looking up, I found the wisping and glowing form of him standing right infront of me. It wasn’t the real Buck, but it was all I had right now to hold onto. “You don’t have to blame yourself, Night. You know I won’t survive, so you don’t have to worry about me telling everyone about how you betrayed the convoy.” Wait, what? No... “About how you killed us all.”

“No!” I whimpered and took a step backwards. My hooves felt weak, and I sat down hard on the pavement as he towered over me. “It… it wasn’t my fault!”

“Yeah, of course not! Don’t worry, Night, they’ll all believe you.” Violet’s voice joined in as she stepped out from behind Buck’s form. “The fact that you got everypony killed by being selfish, dies with Buck. You’re the ‘Survivor’ now, so your dark and shameful secret will be safe with us forever.”

“Stop it!” I snapped as I forced my forehooves up to my head and pinned my ears down. Of course, that didn’t help when the voices were coming from inside my own head. Forcing my eye closed, I wanted to just scream out. “Just leave me alone!”

“Night?” Happy’s voice was distant, even though I knew he was standing right next to me. “Snap out of it, buddy.”

“You know what? I just had a wonderful idea.” Buck’s voice echoed through my mind, forcing out every other thought I had before I could latch onto them and use them to bury Buck and Violet. “You could always claim our deaths as just being part of your curse! Though, deep down you know that isn’t really the case, right, Night?”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea!” Violet jumped in, “Throw it in with a bit of ‘poor me, I’m addicted to painkillers’as well and BAM! Nopony will blame you for anything you’ve done!”

Why was this happening to me!? Celestia, hadn’t I already suffered enough?

“What? I thought this was what you wanted us for, Night?” Violet’s tone shifted sharply into one that jabbed at me like the judgemental voices of every bully I’d ever had above the clouds. “I thought you were done losing. I thought it was goodbye mr. nice Night Flight.” She gave a snort that physically made my mind hurt, and I squeezed at my head tighter to try to quell the pain. “You’re pathetic. You keep saying you’re done, but you don’t even realize how easily you fall back into the same old habits.”

She… she was right. As much as Lilac Lace had pointed it out to me, I keep doing this shit to myself without realizing it. I don’t mean to, truly, I want to change!

“Too bad you’ll never change, Night.” Buck’s voice turned just as sharp and vindictive as Violet’s had become. “You’ll never change because you enjoy being weak. Failure is all you know, so you might as well embrace it, right?” No, I… that’s not true! “You enjoy failure so much that you keep setting yourself up for it. Admit it, Night! Admit that you enjoy soaking in the pain of failure just so you can have an excuse to go and suppress it!”

My ears were ringing, and my legs finally gave out. I collapsed into a whimpering, crying heap on the floor as their words wormed themselves deeper into my mind. They were right, I was a failure. I’d thought I’d learned so much from Delilah, and from those I’d met like Lilac Lace. But none of what I’d learned had helped me.

I couldn’t save the convoy, and even now, I couldn’t save what little I had left. What was the point of fighting through the pains of loss when there would just be new wounds to deal with tomorrow? What I needed was something to take away the pain altogether, or at least, help to mask it.

Mercifully, something came to my aid. I don’t know what it was, but with a prick in my side, I was forced to relax. As whatever it was flowed through me and numbed my tired and worn out body, I drifted off into the quiet and subdued, painless, darkness of sleep.

Bertha was nothing more than a wreck of burning and twisted debris. The front cab, the reactor bay, her entire front end was just… gone. Her rear frame, and what remained of her hauling bed, were scorched and twisted outward from the blast like a glowing steel flower. The containers that had once sat on her were strewn about the road and up on the valley dirt around her, most of them laying in a smoldering and twisted heap on the road behind the wreck.

“How much trouble would one bullet save me?”

Solomon’s voice came from everywhere all at once. I spun around, but he was nowhere to be found. Panicking, I stepped backwards and tripped. I tumbled onto the cold pavement, hitting my head hard and sending my vision spinning.

“I will kill all of them just because you asked me not to.”

I shut my eyes, trying to force Solomon’s voice out, but somehow it only felt louder. When I opened my eyes again, a voiceless scream came from my muzzle. There, in front of me, lay Violet again. She was just as I’d seen her dead at Drake Pass, and for some reason, now it filled me with more fear and panic than ever before.

Scrambling to get to my hooves, I was trapped. I looked down at my hooves, and this time I screamed for real. Rods of rebar had pierced through each of them, pinning me to the highway asphalt. I put my head down and cried.

“No more…” I whimpered. Why was this happening to me!? “Please…”

“You have done well for me, Night Flight.” Solomon’s voice echoed through the air again.

As it did however, a set of hooves walked into my sight. Looking up, Delilah’s steeled gaze stared right at me. Next to her, stood everyone else I’d gotten killed. Lucky, Hardcase, Gearbox, Boiler, and Howitzer. As one, they all shifted their gaze behind me. Afraid, I turned my head around, finding Solomon’s rifle held in Buck’s bloody one pawed grasp.

“Please, Buck… no…” I whimpered as he lowered the barrel to my head. “I… I love…”

BANG!

I snapped awake, throwing the warm sheets off of me as I nearly jumped out of the comfortable bed I’d been laying in. The comparatively fridgid air seized the opportunity and attacked my sweat soaked skin. My heaving, panting breaths slowed with my racing heart as I realized that it had all just been a dream.

That same fucking dream...

A lighthearted and somewhat plucky guitar tune floated through the wall behind me, and it refocused me on the here and now.

The musty smell that permeated the small office-like room I was in was that of dust, sweat, and frustration. The old office couch I’d been resting on, and the hoofknit quilt that I’d been under were probably the cleanest things in the room, with everything else looking like a tornado had torn through here at some point. The large wooden desk had been overturned against the far wall, and the three filing cabinets in the room lay against each other like dominos along the wall opposite me. Along the final wall was a chalkboard that had been hastily wiped off so ‘FUCK EVERYPONY!’ could be scrawled across it. My guess was that from the healthy coat of dust over the board itself, it must have been the last message the ponies who worked here wanted to leave at the end of the world.

Next to the chalkboard, and the source of the light guitar music, was a cracked open wooden door. Through it, I could see rays of sunlight beaming in through a long window in the next room. Just the sight of it made me shiver in the chilly ambient air, and I longed for the warmth the sunlight would give.

Taking a step forward, I almost tripped as my hoof protested against my weight. Pins and needles prodded softly at my hooves as I moved on them, and it was then I realized that I was mostly numb. Had I been given some sort of painkiller while I was out? How long was I even out for? What the hell even happened to me?

Making my way slowly to the door, I pushed it open and stepped forward into the radiant and warm sunlight. It’s warmth was dulled by whatever numbed my body, but I could just barely feel it. But for now, it was enough.

“Night, you’re up!” Happy’s voice followed the end of the guitar music.

I looked over to see him sit up from a table that sat in the dark rear of the large diner I was now in. I had to blink a few times to make sure I was seeing things correctly, but I wasn’t hallucinating this time around. Funny enough, it held a similar design to the diner in Gateway Station, although, this one looked like it had been abandoned for centuries.

Really though, a diner connected to an office? That was a bit of an odd setup, don’t you think? Then again, this place had been nothing but odd.

Still, despite the oddness of the room, Happy pretty much sprung to attention. He set his amazingly still intact Ukulele down, making me more confused as to just how he’d gotten it back in the first place. As he walked closer and stepped into the light that streamed through the window, I found that he seemed in remarkably good health. There were only a few dark marks on his face where he’d been swollen and bruised, and even the coat under his now-repaired floral print tee-shirt looked healed up.

“Happy…” I spoke up, finding a scratchy dryness to my throat that forced a cough out of me. “You’re looking much better.”

“You’re telling me! For once, I’m feeling better too.” He laughed. “But that’s not important.” Reaching out, he pressed his forehoof softly on my shoulder and looked at me with real concern in his eyes. “Are you okay, Night? How are you feeling? Can I get you anything?”

“Uh… I’m fine, I guess…” I had trouble forcing out those words as I shifted and pushed his forehoof off of me. Okay, something felt off again. “Why… are you acting so nice?”

“What?” Happy looked confused for a moment, blinking at me as if I’d just spoken in zebra or something. “I just… I‘ve been concerned about you, buddy. That’s all.”

“Right…” Nope, this definitely wasn’t Happy in front of me. However, as much as it had screamed about this place being a trick before, my guts were remarkably calm right now. Seriously, what the fuck was going on here? “What have you done with Happy? What do you want with me?”

“Night, it’s me.” Happy laughed and gave me a pat on the side before taking a step back. “Look, I’ve done some thinking while you were out. Probably too much if I’m to be honest. I’ve thought about how Ma’ is gone, about Solomon, and about how you were ready to give up your own life to save me multiple times now.” His gaze dropped to the floor momentarily, and the smile across his muzzle faulted with a crack in his voice. “I know I’m a screw up, but you? You’re the only reason I’m still alive, and I think I finally get that I need to change. That I need to grow up.”

“Seriously,” I forced out a laugh as Happy’s watering eyes drifted up from the floor again. “Where’d the Happy I knew go?” I was only half joking with that, but… I didn’t really get the feeling he was being disingenuous right now. “I can’t have been down long enough for you to have had that sort of personal revelation and just be done with booze and hookers. The stubborn mule I knew would have to have been dragged away from a brothel kicking and screaming.”

“Oh believe me, I’m not done with either.” Happy gave a sad laugh again before turning around. “While I’ve currently got the worst case of blue balls I’ve ever had in my life, which I will solve the second we get back to civilization, these machines at least make a mean moonshine.” He trotted over to the table he’d been at and retrieved his Ukelele. Turning back, he brought it and himself back over into the light again. “But with as much free time as I’ve had, I’ve actually had the time and help to practice my Uke skills…”

I watched as Happy sat himself down on his flank, and lifted his Ukelele up over his head. Lowering it again onto the back of his neck, he proceeded to play another short, but upbeat tune on it. Honestly, I was kind-of impressed that he could play at all with it held behind his head like that. Though, I did question how he could even play like that at all, let alone hold it in his hooves like that…

“You’re improving every day, Happy!” A voice called from the open door at the other end of the room. I looked over to see a copper and brass bodied pony stood in the doorway. Amber colored nixie-tubes glowed in the place of flesh and blood pony eyes, and little metal ears perked from atop his head as he turned his attention from Happy toward me. “Oh, you’re up! I’ll go get Doc Groovy.” Before I could even speak up, the almost antique looking copper-brass pony trotted off out of sight with heavy, wooden sounding hoofsteps.

“Thanks for the compliment, Ottie!” Happy called out with a chuckle. The moment the mechanical pony was gone, Happy continued to play his Ukelele behind his head. “Took some getting used to, but some of the machines here are actually pretty swell.”

Swell? Swell!? Did I end up dying, or worse, end up being thrown into some sort of alternate reality where Happy wasn’t a total jackass? Or maybe it’s like those bad radio dramas dad used to listen too, and I’ve just been in a coma for a decade.

Nah, I’d never get that lucky...

“Hey, Happy?” I asked, forcing him to stop his playing. “So… how long, exactly, was I out?”

“Yeah, so...” He canted his head a bit before pulling his Ukelele back in front of him again. “About that.” The pause he’d given at my question gave way to a sheepish grin that more than anything so far since waking up, filled me with dread. “Don’t get mad but… Doc Groovy’s kept you down for a week.”

“What!?” I nearly screamed out.

“No, no! It’s fine!” Happy flailed his forehooves at me in a failed attempt to get me to reign in my anger. “You were in a really bad way, Night, and the Doc knows what he’s doing!”

These fucking assholes kept me down that long, and for what? Fuck! Cora could be dead for all I know, and Hispano could already be back in Cantercross with the book again by now!

“I mean, you should see the wonders he’s worked on Buck!” Happy froze with that, cringing slowly. “Oops…”

Buck…

Throwing my hooves out, I clamped them firmly around Happy’s cheeks and locked his surprised gaze on my own furious glare.

“Buck. Where is he?” I growled at him. I swear, if they’ve hurt him further, or worse…

“Buck is currently recovering from multiple invasive surgeries and complex procedures.” Ping’s voice came from the open doorway to the room, and instantly made me let go of Happy’s face. “He was worked on for almost twenty four hours straight when we brought him in, but his body and mind are showing good progress as they heal.”

“I want to see him.” I stomped my hoof on the old tile flooring, feeling as the pins and needles in my hoof spiked before receding back into the cool numbness they existed in for the moment.

“Now, hold on there, Night...” Happy spoke up, reaching his hoof out to me in comfort. It was more out of a base reaction that I slapped his hoof away, but I wasn’t in the mood to be comforted right now.

“No.” I snapped as I kept my glare locked on Ping’s surprisingly neutral expression. “I want to see Buck, and I want to know why the fuck you kept me down for a whole fucking week.”

“You are permitted to see Buck, but only after Doc Groovy gives me the assurance that your condition has stabilized.” Ping rattled off his response in what felt to me like a dull yawn compared to how he’d spoken on the Ouroboros.

“My condition?” I didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about, but I could already feel my blood coming to a boil again just talking with him.

“Yes, your addiction caused you to suffer a bout of extreme paranoia, and you underwent a complete mental breakdown when conversing with the Architect. We had no other choice but to sedate you for a time so you could begin to recover.” Ping blinked as the slow cadence of his voice felt like it was going to put me to sleep even through my rage. However, my anger was somewhat dampened by it, as well as the genuine frown that pulled across his muzzle. “With your condition as advanced as it is, we could not afford to safely detox your system of it’s painkiller dependency within an acceptable time frame.”

“So to compromise,” He continued in his all too candidly way, “we have kept you dosed with just enough to stabilize your system, and have monitored your symptoms during your recovery.” Canting his head, he raised his hoof slowly before pointing it in a wide arc around the room. “Tell me, do you still see the hallucinations of which you spoke earlier?”

I… I didn’t. Blinking, I realized that for the moment, it felt like I was alone in my own mind. A feeling that I was grateful for, of course, but I couldn’t shake the fact that it left me cold and vulnerable at the same time. Giving him my own light frown, I softly shook my head at him.

“Good. That means we have found a suitable dosage for the moment.” The smile I’d seen before pushed itself through the frown he’d worn. “Now, Doc Groovy will be here in only a moment or so, but, there is still the subject of Buck to cover.”

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked as Ping sort of scrunched his muzzle and trotted over to us. He took a seat next to Happy, and in just those few moments of silence, I felt in my gut that something terrible had happened. Those few seconds as he moved seemed to take forever as I pressed myself on my hooftips for news of Buck’s condition. “I just want to know if he’ll be okay. Seeing him like that, like I’d been...” Looking down at my own stump leg and it’s prosthetic, I cringed to think how Buck was going to deal with what he’d lost. “I know he’s going to need all the help he can get.”

“So… that’s not really the case anymore?” Happy instead broke the pregnant pause with a hesitant whine.

“Shortly after we brought him in, he woke up.” Ping cringed harder than I think a machine could, and I could have sworn that I could hear the motors inside him grinding as he did. “He was quite violent from the radiation built up in his system, and actually took Doc Sea Shell offline in his bout of rage. But after heavy sedation, we managed to get him somewhat lucid enough to reach an understanding with him.” With a deeper sigh than somepony without lungs should ever give, Ping shared a somewhat reluctant look with Happy. “You see… having given his consent, from now on, Buck is going to be a little different than you remember, Night.”

“What do you mean, consent?” I grunted flatly and gave Ping the best sideways glance I could muster out of my one eye. “Different how.”

“Now now, Night!” Happy offered a nervous chuckle to me. “Again, please hear them out, and don’t get mad…”

Oh, now I knew I was definitely going to get mad...

Author's Notes:

As always, a HUGE thanks to TheFurryRailFan for helping to go over things before the chapter goes live. It's always so nice to know a second pair of eyes is around to keep things flowing smoothly!

Of course, big thanks to Kkat as well for creating this series and allowing us all to run around in it with our own stories!