That was another new hit by Velvet Remedy and I'm your faithful DJ Traveling Miles, joining you for another wonderful day in the wasteland! A big thanks to all my loyal, local listeners out there in the Commonwealth, I love the new songs and having DJ Pon3 available to listen to again as much as anypony, but it's nice to still feel wanted ya know!

Besides, as much as I love my hero DJ in Manehatten, the great DJ Pon3 has all of Equestria to cover, while good old Miles is only concerned about all you wonderful listeners here in our little slice of the wasteland. Gotta love sharing the new music and news from the rest of Equis though, and I encourage everypony to give Pon3 your ears when he gives the Commonwealth report every day, I cover it as soon as it comes out if you miss it but everyone wants to be first in the know and DJ Pon3 has all the news you wanna hear first!

So what's going on today you ask? Well let's take a look at what we got! In local Diamond City news, the upcoming nuptials between Neighson Svengallop and his fiance Fancy Star are still the big deal, our 'noble' leaders have a lot of work being done preparing for an upcoming noble wedding. Even harder when one of their number got himself dead as a doornail... The real story as anypony can read in our favorite reporter mare's Publick Occurrences, is that neither the groom or bride to be has been seen for weeks! Kinda hard to have a wedding with both participants gone huh?

From Goodneighbor we've got more good news though! The party town is taking on new prominence after the crazy shindig on Nightmare Night, rivaling our own great green jewel more every day. The aftermath of the King's attempted coup has been mostly cleaned up, Mayor Shamrock is really taking charge and sharing the wealth he recently unlocked. Everypony's favorite local songstress Magnolia even sings every day so catch the show when you're in that neck of the woods, I know I will!

Speaking of the alicorns of Trinity Tower, there's a new little village growing in the shadow of the tower I love pointing ponies towards. If you're caught in the maze of downtown Trotson and it's getting dark, need help from raiders or on the run from Bloodwings, hell if you just wanna see a town full of pretty alicorn mares, head to Unityville and take a look! I promise, those fillies are a lot friendlier and if nothing else it's a spot of safety to rest at. You won't find a better guarded community in the Commonwealth, I guarantee that!

Before any of my raider-y type listeners get any bad ideas I should make it clear, Unityville is part of the burgeoning Kingdom of Sanctuary, under the protection of Princess Jade and her Shrouded Knight, so I'd think twice about planning any trouble. The growing kingdom in the north is really improving things in the northern Commonwealth. Especially since they offer... well, sanctuary... to all who seek it, more and more homestead farms and tiny settlements in their neck of the woods are flocking to their banner.

The southern Commonwealth isn't doing nearly so well though, our thoughts and prayers to the goddess go out to all my listeners down that way. From Eclipse to Jamocha Plains, University Point to Dreadnot, everypony is scared of the Gunners and their increased activity. Whatever's pushing the monsters of the Glowing Sea out is shoving the mercenaries ahead of them. Though their apparent plans of expanding their territory are being mysteriously stymied.

A certain Shrouded Stallion keeps appearing every night somewhere new, wiping out squads of the marauding mercs and leaving his mark behind. The knight of shadows has even the toughest of the tough spooked from everything I'm hearing, the bounty on the Commonwealth's favorite hero has gone up to 20,000 caps. Tempting I know, but none of my good little listeners would ever take them up on it, riiiiiight?

That's your morning news break, now get out there and do what DJ Pon3 says, fight the good fight and make the wasteland a better place! It's another wonderful day in a wonderful world, we just have to make it that way and believe. Here to help you out there is my favorite singer in all of Equis, the fabulous Magnolia live from her latest show in the Tapioca Lounge, reminding everypony that even now, it is just that, a wonderful world..."

Magnolia's melodious voice playing from my pip-buck was a great way to start another day in Castle Equinox. We really had needed a real rest, falling into the busy work of clearing the castle and the simple joy of being a repair-pony again was a wonderful balm for my battered soul and I felt great flying above the clean and busy courtyard below, despite the grinning griffon whacking me with the twisted stick we had found in Fair Lines Estates.

"Faster! C'mon boss faster! Ya finally got things down where ya ain't an embarrassment every time ya go weavin' yer way up here, but yer soooo slow! Ya can fly good enough, just learn ta do it faster ya big wuss!" Val chortled and looped around me, totally healed and brimming with energy from being cooped up to recover.

"Faster would be easier without all the weights Val... plus you make me wear this battlesaddle too..." I grumbled back and got another stinging smack to the flanks for my complaints to my flight instructor. The heavy steel shackles she had dug up and wonderglued whatever weighty chunks of scrap she could find to really weren't helping...

"Quit yer whinin'! Get faster with em on, then you'll be better without em, yer still a lightweight boss, gotta toughen ya up! Bored ta tears just sittin' around all day, trainin' them Minutemare newbies ain't near as fun as this!" Val did another agile loop around me as I struggled through her weaving course, around the broken towers and parapets of the castle, letting me look over all the progress we were making during our break.

I saw villagers from Eclipse through the windows and holes in the dark walls, helping to clean up and deal with the remaining Miretanks. It turned out that removing the cement like muck the turtle monsters made their nests from was a lot easier with their help. A local brew made from glands they expertly extracted from every miretank corpse we brought them helped dissolve the sludge and open more of the castle every day.

My view was short lived, we wheeled around the dreaded next tower to Val's expected whoop as she grabbed both legs on my left side. "Aaaaaalllright boss! Here! We! GO!"

At that I was spun in a dizzying whirlwind by the strong griffon claws holding tight, flapping my wings madly in preparation for being flung loose. Just righting myself would be hard enough, hell figuring out which way was up and which was down was a struggle, but the chunk of scrap metal she had crudely nailed up here as a target was the objective.

Whatever a dizzitron was, she kept screeching it would be worse than her improvised efforts as she tossed me free, that damn stick whacking me from all angles just to add to the confusion. I tried to focus on the horizon and level off, looking for the mean looking face Glitter had helped her decorate the junk with.

Blue Moon extended as I thought I lined the new targeting reticule up on the scrap of pink, firing a quick short blast that didn't blow the roof it was bolted to off. After some careful examination and reading the holotape in the safe with it, I had found the strange magical energy cannon had two settings, 'Pew-Pew' and 'Ka-Boom!'... The naming conventions of the weapon's settings weren't the only sign the pony who made it was a little off, but it meant I could practice being a horrible shot with it, as opposed to only being horrible when it counted.

At least today I missed the giant castle entirely, though I supposed that was bad as it was pretty much the biggest target available. Instead of scorching the heavy tiles of the roof with the pale blue-white beam, my stray shot went out to sea and I got whacked with Val's split ended stick hard enough to send me veering off course to her annoyed squawk. "Miss! Come on boss! Any itty bitty pegasus foal'd fly rings around ya!"

Finally I woozily managed to get rightside up and raced around the tallest spire, gratefully drifting down to the courtyard having completed this arduous part of our morning training, aiming for the heavy metal grating that covered the radioactive pit leading deep below the castle. On to the next part of my new routine I had grown to actually look forward to.

Val landed in a much more graceful display than I could manage, though I didn't crash into anything and managed to stumble to a stop still on my hooves, so an improvement... She grumbled playfully as she unlocked my shackles with her claws, muttering about increasing the weight and adding more laps, finding a better place to train me soon, something better to hit me with, the usual...

As Blue Moon collapsed back in on itself, I brought up the weird instructions holotape again, puzzling over it for the hundredth time over the last few days. Just like the weapon itself, this came from Dr. Mobius, head of the Institute's Theoretical Imagineering Division, the one the others were afraid of. I still had no idea how they could be based on just what I read, how could the pony who left these bizarre instructions be scary?

Blue Moon - Prototype Moonbeam Magical Energy Weapon - Experiment #21038

Present for you Princess, birthday? When was Hearth's Warming Day? That long ago? Hmm... well, who knows when you'll get this anyway, presumptuous to assume the ability to accurately predict when and where along the flow of temporal causality you may read this isn't it? Yes, probably so, happy nearest significant date then!

After our last discussion re: the properties of the Moonstone Marigold returned with and the research Trottenheimer and Horse were engaged in. I was quite sure there had to be a way to coax some kind of less explode-y, creepy and or soul sucking reaction from the material. Spent six hours humming upside down in the shower before I got it, harmonics! Singing! Singing always works, we're ponies after all so why not!

Anyway, I mostly remember making this thing now, it's pretty neat actually! Some highly calibrated sonic talismans arranged in the proper array, little plasma caster guts, some gems I had rolling around and viola! ...though where did I get the diamond blue moon thingy? Ah, blue moon, haha, just got it! Oh yes, Gleam, lovely mare when she's in the mood to be, very clever spellslinger.

So, instructions! Ummm... pointy end faces the thing you've taken a royal disliking too. Oh, two settings, things a bit of a glutton for power at maximum efficiency. Pew-Pew only uses a little but not much better than your standard Novasurge, much prettier though! Ka-Boom is rather self explanatory isn't it?

Oh, tends to cause a lot of wear and tear with all the harmonic vibration and what not, my interns worked so hard to make it worthy of a princess too. Repair talisman ought to keep it clean and shiny though, just the accessory for the war princess on the go, always looks good, sleek and lightweight, at home on the battlefield or in the ballroom, wherever you want to turn things to ash. Enjoy!

I shook my head and closed the message, that was the mysterious Dr. Mobius? If I hadn't carefully gone over every talisman and bolt of Blue Moon myself I'd just think he was a goofy old pony. After checking over his insane weapon carefully though, I had to admit he was actually a goofy genius.

Just the arrangement of the array he built was a masterpiece, a delicate sculpture of spell matrices precisely aligned in the shielded silver chamber at the heart of Blue Moon. All focusing the power of a rough hunk of pinkish, translucent stone, a mellowly glowing, roughly cut chunk of rock similar to quartz that should not be any more dangerous than the nearest hunk of granite I dug up out of the sand, but absolutely was.

However it actually worked, the bizarre settings let me use it more flexibly. 'Ka-Boom!' drained a full clip of the MFC ammo it took, while 'Pew-Pew' ran through just one at a time. Nice, but it also let Val giddily adjust her training, thus every day I was faced with that sloppy sneer on the target Glitter painted and every day I missed...

Once Val was done unshackling me, she sauntered ahead, leading the way to the makeshift mess hall tent in a corner of the courtyard, following the delicious smells of Miretank Omelettes cooking to feed the troops. The tribe of fisherponies in Eclipse had taken a great many of the slimy green miretank eggs, talking about caging and raising the monsters along with hunting the wild ones.

We'd be hard pressed to run out of the eggs anytime soon though. The castle was absolutely stuffed with them, some hatching at the presence of a pony to flop and snap at, though they tasted great tossed in a boiling pot and cooked whole. So far my pip-buck had resolutely refused to clear the 'Eliminate the Miretank Infestation' objective from the mission it had volunteered for taking the castle, so there were still more to clear out.

The grizzled old cook Greasy Spoon let me have an earful of his complaints about getting the castle kitchens in working order as we got our food. Wherever they dug up the old greying brown earth pony codger, he was relentless and ran a tight ship. The steel grey maned old buck immediately tromped out from his domain of cookfires and hotplates to start in again, granted the kitchens would make it a lot easier to feed all these Minutemares, but it was already my list.

Plus he distracted me from looking for the ponies to do it, spotting the trio of Minutemares I was looking for in the corner laughing amongst themselves. I turned to my repair crew with only a momentary wince at the black patch each wore on their tan Minutemare coats. A Shrouded Stallion insignia, above a crossed wrench and hammer. The rough text of each read 'Fast's Fixers'... My own squad of Minutemares that insisted on naming themselves after me no matter how much I whined about it.

I dragged my eyes away from the homemade patches and smiling faces of the trio of mares waiting on me, along with the pale filly in the pink dress who had become their unofficial mascot. Glitter had even convinced them to make a patch for her too, so her rose colored jacket now bore the same mark. She hopped up and waved me to her seat excitedly, snuggling against me when I sat down and slurping the sugary sludge of Sugar Apple Bombs milk in her bowl.

Clicking away at my pip-buck let me go over my lists of work while I sat with them and dug in, reminding me of home, just another day and another set of repairs to work on, just like Stable 111. "Ok... Repaired most of the major breaks in the power lines, spark regulator junctions 14 through 18 still need work but we got the big stuff. That squad came back from the old Porcelain Prince Plumbers warehouse so we got all the pipes and stuff we needed today. Pepper Pot, you're on fixing the main line before we can bring the water talisman online ok?

First off today though, Peri and a few free unicorns are going to help us deal with that Vertibuck. That'll not only let us get in the gatehouse easier, but give us a new toy to play with huh? We'll stick it down by all the power armor frames we already pulled from the walls and guardhouses in our workshop.

That's most of the big stuff, but I think we're finally ready to turn the power back on today if the rest of you fix all the breakers and fuses on the list. I'm almost done with the reactor down there, it's not pretty, but it should work. I'll go down there this afternoon and put the finishing touches on it. Once we've got power then fixing stuff will get a lot easier, like working on getting the kitchens sorted out.... right?"

My crew listened attentively, nodding obediently to Greasy Spoon's glare at the mention of his precious kitchens. But I caught several giggles and lidded looks from the mares whispering to each other. It was mostly young recruits with a talent for repairs, but little training. Teaching and getting them up to snuff had been a struggle so far.

Val snorted at the trio snickering and blushing, leaning over at my confused look and whispering in my ear with a restrained laugh. "You're going down to the reactor again boss, them fillies figured you out.... what you're like when you come back out...."

My eyes widened and I felt my face heat up, looking to the trio of repair-mares working under me giggling to each other and primping their grease spotted manes. The oldest of the trio, Onyx Operator, a stunning unicorn mare with a coat darker than mine and a rich purple and silver streaked mane, gave a leering grin and nodded. "You go down there and come out a different stallion sir, much closer to what we all expected from the stories of the great Shrouded Stallion than... this... So what's it going to be tonight? Fighting or fu..."

At my sudden glare and holding my hooves above Glitter's ears in warning, Onyx huffed and edited herself with a groan, the more mature mare picking up the teasing thread of her question after just a moment. "Ahem... Killing or kissing sir? Should we go tell the Princess or Peri today? Or you could not go running off... I could always help out instead..."

"HA! hahaha.... heh... er... n-no, that's alright private... ummm.. Come on, I'm not that obvious am I? Quit joking around, lots of fun repair work to do today... I leave to go do important... Gunner killing... stuff..." I whimpered and shrunk away from the gaggle of pretty mares in tattered old blue repair jumpsuits sitting with us.

The pocketed blue suits had been recovered from a half sunken Soapy Suds Laundry, out in the swampy spit of land being booby trapped and fortified from what I had heard, they were now the uniforms for the newly formed repair corps they insisted on calling Fast's Fixers... Unfortunately they did nothing to hide the shapely curves under them, I could swear they were baggier when the scavenging crew brought them back, they had been doing more than just adding the silly black patches.

Onyx tittered and stood to swish her tail seductively, setting her leather tool belt jingling as she planted her forehooves and advanced, leaning over the table as I retreated. I was really supposed to be in charge here... instead my recruits kept finding new ways to tease and mess with me, especially her.

I could sort of understand her attitude after Glitter explained it for me, one meal enough for her to figure out why she liked messing with her superior officer. She had been the repair-pony for a tiny settlement up north, a Miss Fix-it working on simple stuff to help her farming family and neighbors, a big fish in a small pond.

I was younger than her, only by a few years but it had to be hard taking orders from a snot nosed buck. She liked having control over things, not necessarily a bad trait for a good repair-pony. She wasn't in charge of the squad, but could easily control what reactions she got out of me to her delight.

I was also beginning to suspect Val's claws at work, they got along too well during our breakfasts lately. "You're not exactly subtle sir, it's amazing you can go down there at all but when you come back... well it takes a mare's breath away sometimes! Flying off to bring the fight to those Gunner assholes isn't fooling anypony, there's Peri you know... Even if she wasn't so chatty and proud when it's just us gals, she's reeeeally loud when you get back sir..."

Glitter looked up curiously and pouted, "Wait, you see Aunt Peri before you come back from fightin' those bad ponies daddy!? How come you don't take me! You barely make it back in time ta tell me a new story, but you're already back an' havin fun with her, no fair! I wanna go too!"

Her whines made my squad try to muffle their snickers and look innocent, looking up to the flapping tent and whistling, while I bashed my head on the makeshift table of crumbling brick legs and a mostly intact door. "No! Umm, n-no... We.... g-go do grown up stuff sweetie, er... really boring... umm... M-Minutemare stuff...t-training... You know how I get all twitchy instead of getting bigger like mom, we do... e-exercise and stuff! So I'm tired enough for a bedtime story, right?"

Her suspicious look was only egged on my Onyx smirking and nodding eagerly. "Oh yeah sweet pea, bit of cardio and calisthenics, though as our squad leader the general should be doing the same with all of us right? All the other squads do their exercises in the mornings with their commanders, but I don't mind a good work out before bed sir..."

Between Val rolling laughter hard enough to fall off the broken column that served as a bench, the other two squad members giggling and blushing a rosy pink that did not compare to how red I was, and Onyx leaning over the table further to flutter her eyelashes and wiggle enticingly, Glitter got a bored, flat expression and stuck her nose up. "Ohhhhh.... That kinda grown up stuff... I'm not dumb daddy, you could just tell me. That's ok then, Aunt Peri's really happy talkin' bout havin' a baby an stuff, so it's alright if that's why I guess, long as I get a new story!"

I rattled the dishware bashing my head to the table and hiding under my hooves with an embarrassed whine, while Glitter returned to her sugary breakfast happily, Val and my troops tittering to themselves. I had been trying so hard too... I knew she wasn't stupid, I knew she had a much rougher foalhood than me and wasn't nearly so innocent as I was at that age, that didn't mean I wanted her to know though...

I was still struggling to keep control over all those impulses normally, but soaking up all the radiation fixing the reactor made it impossible. I only stayed down there for short spurts at a time, anything past orange on my rainbow colored radiation meter seemed to get me going uncontrollably, so I tried to keep coming out before I reached that point. Piecing together a nearly ruined arcano-flux reactor wasn't exactly an easy or a quick fix though, sometimes I pushed it.

When I came out I felt great but everything got a little fuzzy. Val and I flew off and found some Gunner patrols or small supply drop she knew about far away from Eclipse, attack and scare the hell out of whoever was left, drawing attention away from what we were doing here and burning off some of the excess energy I accumulated. Not all of it though... I did usually wind up with one blue alicorn or the other as a result when we got back, or both... I thought I was keeping myself under control fairly well, but apparently not...

Just talking about it had my mane itching and the youngest repair-filly almost had sparkles in her eyes already, a light pink earth pony with a rich red mane named Pepper. She came from Hexington and informed me she had been inspired by our actions there, working at helping with all the improvements to the formerly grim town had revealed a natural talent for repairs, so she had proudly joined the growing Minutemares.

Now she piped up beside the oldest mare Onyx, the apparent leader of their little herd. "Why do you get like that sir? W-We all umm... d-don't mind or anything, it's just funny and er... i-impressive... We counted yesterday... N-Nine..."

Ugh... I facehoofed and tried to remember the frantic scramble yesterday, holding tight to Glitter's ears over her annoyed pout. I managed to find Jade and Peri both when we got back, out to the makeshift little boudoir we had turned Bobbing Cane's museum home into. The wealthy creator of the Shrouded Stallion comics had owned a big bed that had survived pretty well in the ruins below the castle and.... they heard from up here?!

My wings were finally becoming somewhat cooperative and responded to my embarrassment, trying to hide me as I shrunk behind them and muttered weakly, why did the only ponies in the Minutemares that were here and had even some repair skills have to all be fillies... Apparently the bucks wanted action and adventure, fixing things was too boring for the snobs. "It's... a long story... I can't help it ok? Sorry, I try really hard to not... you guys are my squad right? It's not right for a superior to... inappropriate... Er.. L-Let's all just get to work, right guys! Another day of fixing stuff, that's plenty fun!"

The lidded eyes and giggles they answered with weren't really helping... The young pegasus mare did though, one of Burny Jet's many, many grandchildren who had foregone the family Red Rocket Courier business to join the Minutemares, an idealist but a skilled mechanic. Cool Jets at least got her blushing laugh under control and raised a light orange wing, tossing her yellow and blue mane and speaking up at my raised eyebrow.

My hooves hovering above Glitter's head still warned her to watch her mouth, but thankfully her comment was professional and a help. "Arcano-Cat's have got the gear and the skills for power armor sir, down by Grandpa's headquarters, that's not too far away and I could take you to get their help."

"Arcano-Cats? They have something to do with your grandpa's business? He has a headquarters? I thought he lived in Diamond City?" Gratefull for the distraction I probed for more, Burny Jets was the only Diamond City noble I had actually liked before we got kicked out.

The pegasus mare took a big bite and murmured around it happily, "Oh yeah, he does, but didn't start out there right? Grandpa was quite the adventurer in his day, ran his own crew, took over the big Red Rocket Garage across the bay from the skyport, lot more there than skycarriages lemme tell ya!

Arcano-Cats are what's leftover from his old gang, continuing the life of freedom daddy-o... sorry, used to run with them myself, lots of us Jets did. Anyway, if you can convince them to help, you won't find better power armor techs or crazier parts. They could get those rusty old frames we keep standing up by the tower into better shape than they ever were. Might be useful if we're really gonna tackle the Gunners right?"

Val finally stopped her muffled guffaws and nodded, wiping a tear away as she excitedly agreed. "Those ponies are awesome at power armor boss, always wanted ta save up fer my own griffon suit when I lived down this way, they had it all and were pretty fun. Kinda cooler than a big nerd like you, but when it comes ta tinkerin' with crap you guys are griffons of a feather. Not far from Dreadnot too, make that batty mare happy at last, she back yet by the way?"

"Not unless she came in last night, it's possible, but I'd expect to have seen her by now. Ah, there she is, on her way now, another place to add to the list then Val." I had checked over my pip-buck's map at the notice of 'Map Updated' and found Witchy's locator tag slowly heading back towards us. the batpony mare was less of a morning pony than I was, her determination to (mostly) stick with her mission must be driving her on.

Getting her to relax a little about getting to her home of Dreadnot had been a battle, whatever she wanted wasn't an emergency at least, she just reeeeally wanted me to follow her home. I was unsure I could get her to go to Goodneighbor for me, but she had been to the party town before and we were short on fliers to make the trip.

Offering her Bobbing Cane's blue memory orb of his meeting with Princess Luna finally convinced her, she wanted it on general principles to begin with. Explaining she could borrow it got a immediate whine, but further detailing the Memory Den back in Goodneighbor and what they could do with it changed her tune quickly. Even a batpony like her could view the magical memory with their fancy M.O.M. recollector machines. She had been off like a shot, carrying several letters for the Red Rocket Couriers and instructions on who to talk to personally.

Periwinkle wafting into the mess hall tent derailed my thoughts about her errand, the blue alicorn trotted right over and sat beside me happily, sniffing at her food and wiggling in place, oblivious to Val and my squad's sniggering as Onyx waved a welcome. "Morning Peri! The commander says you're going to give us a hoof with the Vertibuck today, any other big plans later? General Fast is going to finish fixing the reactor this evening..."

The ethereal Minutemare blinked and rose to the bait perfectly... Nodding rapidly and floating her dirty notepad out, flipping the pages in a blur as her lidded golden eyes widened a bit and she smiled. She turned the battered notepad and forced me to cover Glitter's bright pink eyes, showing off a highly complicated diagram of stick figure ponies in a compromising position. "Yes, I get to help all you fixer ponies today, if Fast is going down again then.... ah... this one, it seems fun. I hope you absorb a lot Fast, it will take awhile, I want several more pages after too..."

Wincing at the rough, amorous blueprint, I gaped at her smiling face. "W-Where do you keep coming up with all these Peri?! I thought you never..."

The blue alicorn beamed her reply over the uproarious laughter and Val banging her claw to the table trying to catch her breath. "One of sister Jade's books in Sanctuary. I didn't care much about her library thing and all those long books full of words, but this one had lots of pictures. Funny name, ummm.... the Pony Sutra, that was it."

Despite my public shame, I couldn't help tilting my head and trying to puzzle it out. "Ok you're there... can you bend like that? H-How the hell am I supposed to get a hindleg... oh... I see...then your tail...really!?" I shook off my widening astonishment at what she wanted today, I had thought I might be getting close to the end of her notepad, but she just kept coming up with more. I was beginning to suspect she was adding to it, filling the pages with more when I wasn't looking, was that even the same notepad?

MORE echoed out insistently in my head and I shoved it back down again. Trying to just focus and join in with the merry breakfast and think of the work to do today. That dark voice in my head worried me sometimes, it had been mostly dormant after a few days of relative safety and a lot of love that seemed to lull it mostly back to sleep at least, but kept grumbling its own contributions at odd times.

I knew that was just the darker parts of myself, compartmentalized and treated as separate in an attempt to control and use it. The distinct voices of the Ministry Mare statues made it easier to think of it as just another one, a distinctly meaner and darker one, but still me right? Secretly, kept hidden from even Jade, I was starting to worry about it...

Finding out there had been a real Shrouded Stallion had got me started, the more I found out, the more anxious I was getting about it. Reading the book of fairy tales detailing his adventures in the days before Princess Luna was banished to the moon had just been making it worse, one story at a time.

There were some eerie similarities between the dream creature that acted as Luna's sword and shield, and that growling voice in my head. The question of my miraculously pristine Shrouded Stallion action figure, still hung over my head too, Zed insisted it was a soul jar like the much cuter Ministry Mares statuettes and that I had somehow made it. I had stubbornly ignored the zebra's superstitions and knowledge of black magic, but it had now gotten to be a more pressing concern. I wasn't crazy... I just used the character to try to make things better, I didn't think I was really the Shroud... not crazy...

But he wasn't going to sleep entirely anymore... It woke up at any perceived injustice and reveled in death and vengeance, but it always went back to sleep before, just my darker impulses and temper personified. It had found other things to latch onto lately though, jealousy and possessiveness for example, aggression and male dominance for another... My new body seemed to suit that part of me just fine, adapting to it all much faster and easier than I was.

The more I thought on it, the more it was almost an antithesis of the Ministry Mare's voices, corrupted versions of each virtue had come up as I found each one. Twisted Generosity in the greedy possessiveness I felt toward whatever or whoever I viewed as MINE. The ability to lie, both for the greater good trying to inspire the wasteland with tales of Princesses and Heroes, along with the willingness to terrify the wicked with those same stories had to be corrupted Honesty.

Dark Laughter came cackling out far too easily at the suffering of the wicked, no longer part of the act but actual enjoyment. Corrupted Kindness in the jealousy and desire to rut with any mare that moved, or to be kind by rampaging against the wicked, saving the innocent by killing the evil... Though it did have problems with the whispers of Fluttershy's spirit fighting it most of all. What would it make of Loyalty and Magic? Was that gathering mote of darkness turning into some kind of negative Elements of Harmony in my head?

I kept thinking about the sealed tomb deep below the castle... Was he there at all? Or was he already free... The superstitious Eclipse villagers were rubbing off on me. I was privately getting scared.

As talented a healer as Jade was, she wasn't really a shrink, and there weren't any wasteland psychiatrists out there to talk to. I had to admit, the funny mare I met in Goodneighbor was right, there were enough fucked up ponies out here it would make a great business, no shortage of customers...

The closest I could think of was Ivy, my telepathic friend could take a look up there, make sure I really wasn't crazy. Though that did bring up the last time a green alicorn had tried taking a really good look in my head and just worried me more. What was it Virescent said once she got shoved back out? That I had something in there that scared even her? Ivy could help maybe, but she had her orphanage to tend to. I asked Witchy to talk to her and take my own letter anyway, but my problems were my own and I was way too busy to let them distract me.

"A-Alright ladies, enough teasing, finish up and let's get to work. Glitter, why don't you go find mom while we can get to work getting this Vertibuck out of the way. You're going to help her be a good princess right? A princess' daughter is a princess too you know, you have responsibilities of your own and I believe in you completely, so let's get started huh?"

My precious daughter chugged her second bowl of sugary milk sludge and leapt up, giving a salute with a proud, determined smile. "Right daddy! Let's go!"

Working let me relax and lose myself to the pleasant tedium of fixing things, my real job, what a good part of myself still insisted I should be doing, waking up every morning partially thinking I was in my room in Stable 111, no matter how much time had passed.

The wrecked Vertibuck wasn't a total loss surprisingly, beyond the mounted minigun in the cabin, once we tugged the skeletons of the previous pilots free I saw a large portion of the controls and mechanisms up there were still intact. I had been worried I'd need to charge myself up early to pull it free of its final landing, but with myself, Peri, Onyx and a few spare unicorn volunteers, we managed to to wrench it free and float it over to join all the rusty power armor frames by the southwest tower easily.

Preparing to turn the power back on took a lot of preparation and we ended up roaming all over the castle, my small squad split up and worked hard. They might tease or be distressingly infatuated with me sometimes, but they were coming along well and were honestly proud in their work. They did all make those silly patches after all, a real crew of repair-ponies, like my coworkers back in 111.

Wandering all over the place let me check on the others as I went, stopping in my work to make Jade take a break and nuzzle together as her Followers slowly took the ballroom apart. My initial guess had been right it seemed, under all the miretank muck and nests was the remains of an emergency hospital to deal with all the sick and wounded of the Last Day. A lot of it was ruined of course, but the tribal goop that dissolved the muddy constructs slowly revealed bits of interest and useful scraps.

Val amused herself training the greenest Minutemare recruits who had flocked to the castle, some even local from this part of the Commonwealth. Recruited by salvage crews spreading out in the area or recon patrols, all wanting to take a stand against the mercenaries who were turning the southern Commonwealth into their own empire.

The fiery griffon was an excellent drill seargent, I got the idea she was practicing and warming to it after spending so much time teaching me to fly personally. She did enjoy whacking ponies with that twisted, dual ended stick of hers she informed me her pip-buck insisted on calling the 'Staff of Sameness'.

A weird name, and disappointing for Val, she wanted something cooler like 'The Incentivizer' or 'The Ugly Stick'. She still put it to good use, instructing the recruits in the use of magical energy weapons, firearms, explosives, Gunner tactics and formations, a regular font of deadly wisdom.

Even Zed caught the teaching bug surprisingly. I had run across him on the beach early in the mornings or late in the afternoon, leading a growing gaggle of villagers and Minutemares in the slow, graceful movements of Fallen Caesar style, spending his days learning himself from his new friend. The burly silver mare Steel Saber he had been hanging out with was a mystery, they looked friendly and had been amazing dancing together, but Zed didn't exactly wear his feelings on his sleeve.

Glitter had been our little ambassador of cuteness, swaying the hold out villagers to our side and making fast friends with the herd of fisherpony foals. Jade even tempted them all into attending short, improvised classes in exchange for being invited up to the castle and being taught by a princess.

During the cleanup both the Minutemares and Followers were given instructions to be on the lookout for silver keys, coming up with several crescent moons and a couple half moon keys during the tedious work of sifting through Miretank refuse. The excitement of a 3/4 moon key had helped a lot, not the full moon key I wanted but better anyway.

With it we got into the southwest tower, which was indeed an armory, though originally it was the ancient blacksmith workshop by the huge forge and smelters built into the walls. We had cleared it out of hidden Miretanks that had tunneled their way up and taken it over. They had ruined most of what was once a nice, fortified tower with a wealth of weaponry and a more modern machine shop for the soldiers stationed here. Some of the tools and parts would clean up at least, lots of locked ammo boxes for Val to pick open were half buried in the muck too.

The most interesting loot had to be the heavy brass shells scattered about, spilling from shelving long crumbled under the heavy weight. Ammunition for the mortars and anti-air guns festooning the castle walls outside. At least these weren't ruined, in much better shape than the guns to fire them.

I had been tinkering with the fortress weaponry idly with no ammo to use with them, now they were reprioritized. Cannibalizing several to come up with maybe two mortars in good shape would work, but there were still some sensitive parts that hadn't survived on any of them, unless I could come up with a replacement they were just big decorations on the walls.

I still kept waiting for somepony to find a freaking full moon key though. Both the lock to Luna's chambers in the highest towers, along with the heavy barred gate sealing the Shroud's tomb deep below, required that particular key and there was no way past them without it.

Val had even taken a crack at picking the thick iron lock on the chains at the tomb for me, sweating and fussing over it for an hour, chipping a claw and cursing a blue streak. An ancient magical lock was just too much for her to get past, the first lock that had ever thwarted her that I had seen.

At least we could get in the armory that had become a slowly improving workshop now, an area my squad claimed and cleaned out a little more each day. It was a wide open chamber on the ground floor with lots of rooms to be cleared up the winding stairways. My crew had staked out their own rooms up there once cleaned out so they were happy.

Even better, after a lot of commotion a heavily overloaded wagon was pulled across the drawbridge, drawn by a gleaming copper mare that sent Glitter pelting off to tackle her with a clang. AssaultJack made the trip all the way from Sanctuary and Haygone in a matter of days, even hauling all that junk... I was always impressed with the robotic killing machine, that thing was very, very fast...

I had to put up with a lot of Applejack-esque recriminations for leaving her behind in Goodneighbor, but we were kind of in a hurry and coudn't slip away with her through the air. I was glad to have her back though, between mostly intact castle walls and the deadliest robot I had ever seen, I felt a lot better about leaving Glitter here when I had to. Not to mention how much just that one robot improved our odds against the Gunners, or the wealth of toys she had brought at my command.

A new robot workstation from Watt's thanks to Rusty Clank in Hexington, along with a lot of parts and a care package of muffins from his kind wife Copper Coil, a nice letter from a busy but much happier Oblige Heart, and a leather satchel and letter for Zed from his grandfather. I wondered what Hexington was like now, I heard good things on the radio, but it had been so long since we were there now, back when I was still a normal unicorn even...

As a bonus, AssaultJack had taken a jagged course that led to Sunshine and Rainbows Co-op, just a stones throw away from Fort Haygone. The Minutemare's had been steadily clearing out and taking over the prewar fort, happy to send tools, a faded yellow power armor workstation, and what power armor parts rusting away to ruin that remained from the Equestrian Army motor pool there. Now we were in business!

I left my squad to their work after going over it all the new goodies with them, trotting off to join Jade and Glitter for lunch in the Princess' favorite newly available part of the castle.

The library was one of the areas of the castle opened with the 3/4 moon key, something that overjoyed Jade despite its ruined state. The cavernous room was still full of bookshelves going up two levels, leaning against each other like fallen dominoes, sagging into wreckage the miretanks incorporated into their nests, but books and scrolls survived here and there to be salvaged and catalogued, a new Library for the followers roaming the castle to tend.

Lunch was my favorite part of my new routine, sitting together with my favorite fillies, eating more of the wonderful varieties of meat the villagers kept butchering, no flirty subordinates messing with me, it was bliss that was all too short lived. Giving my ecstatic princess a hug, I left to reluctantly get back to work, my hoofsteps ringing down the now cleaner dark marble hallways.

Even with a pip-buck map, this place was a maze I still wasn't used to, where was the turn to the stairs on this floor again? I distractedly passed one wooden door after another, past the flurry of activity going on in all corners of the castle trying to find my way around.

After an hour I was annoyed and so absorbed in not admitting I was definitely, totally, 100% lost, I didn't notice the nearly silent flapping of leathery wings zooming behind me. I barely turned in time at the warning flick of my enhanced ears to get a facefull of batpony slamming into me like a pain train, sending us to a tangled heap against the nearest rotting tapestry.

"Fast! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!! Oh that was so wonderful! Seeing the goddess myself! That Memory Den place is amazing! They even copied it so I can..." Witchy jabbered and hugged me with amazing force, sweet Celestia the thestral filly was as strong as Jade!

Her crushing embrace was made even more uncomfortable being pinned against her gleaming blue steel breastplate, crunching me against something with a lot less give than a warm pony chest and making me wheeze back, struggling and getting tangled in the ancient tapestry depicting the mare in the moon.

"Ow... t-that's great Witchy... air... need... air..."

Well, her grip loosened with a gasp anyway. She still held on and kept nuzzling happily though, chattering on in her squeaky voice. "S-Sorry! I'm so happy though! You have no idea what that means to me! Everypony back home will be so jealous! Bringing this memory orb back home will make me much more popular! I-If you ever go there..."

Looking into those cross amber eyes, I tried to maintain control with a muscular mare tangled together with me, firm but soft in all the right places... Shaking my head forcefully, I scrambled back and got more entwined with her and the tapestry keeping me here. "I will! I promised right?! Just umm... c-close Witchy, too close! H-Hard... Difficult! I mean difficult to... umm... restrain myself soooo...."

Witching Hour turned a distressingly adorable red and squeaked, struggling to pull free and tugging the rotting tapestry with her. A rip started and she looked even more flustered, damaging what remained of an artifact of Luna's castle. Carefully trying to extract herself, she fell back and tugged, pulling a scrap free to her horror but also yanking the whole thing down an inch or two with a click.

Everything got all spinny and suddenly we were in a dark passageway, a winding set of stairs leading down and lit with torches held by those creepy stone hooves. We both looked around in loopy surprise and stumbled back up, Witchy positively giddy as she gasped. "A secret passage! I found one of Luna's secret passages!!"

"Woooo... dizzy... I think she made them spin around a lot faster and a lot more times than necessary for fun... Good job Witchy, wanna take a look?"

She nodded and clapped her hooves together excitedly, walking down the damp stone stairs with me to the unknown and chatting as we went. Viewing Bobbing Cane's memory orb of his meeting with Luna and finding one of her passageways in the castle giving her plenty of energy even in the light of day, she only yawned a couple times as she filled me in on her trip.

"I delivered your letters as you asked, the Mayor said he would send word back with a courier and help how he could. Goodneighbor looks much better than how it was when I left before, there are an awful lot of alicorns still roaming around the place though. They were nice, but I saw them chase after more than one buck with the misfortune of having dark colors..."

They weren't still swarming the party town anyway... though from her recounting they were still hunting for me. I shook it off with a shiver and tried to change the subject as we descended. Pausing on the winding staircase to point out an odd switch only a little ways down. "An exit here? Usually they're at the top or bottom, not halfway down... let's see what it doooooeeess!!!"

Pulling the ancient lever caused a grind of gears and suddenly all the steps fell away, clicking down and forming a long, twisting slide we were both slipping down. It would be a lot more fun if I knew where it wound up, Witchy's heavy armor ended up propelling her faster from behind me, her chest thumping into my back and her scrambling hindlegs around my waist, effectively tangling the two of us up again so neither could try to fly and pull out of the looping ride.

A dark stone wall waited at the bottom and I flinched, anticipating a sudden, painful stop, immediately followed by a heavy batpony smashing against me. Instead the blockade spun aside and we went tumbling out to the courtyard in a tangle, drawing the attention of the gaggle of activity in the courtyard. Jade was easy to pick out of the crowd, always head and shoulders above her admirers and easy to find looking over to our bizarre entrance.

I pulled myself free and cantered over to Jade and Glitter prancing around her legs happily, ignoring the crowd that had gathered out here for some reason. "Hey Jade, hi sweetie! Found another secret passage, you gotta try this one Glitter, it's got a slide!"

Jade gave an anxious but warm smile at my excitement, gently pressing a hoof to my muzzle to stop my rambling and pointedly looking over my shoulder. "T-That is nice Fast, we have guests however..."

There was always something going on in the busy castle these days, the heavily laden carts by the drawbridge said this was probably more of the same. I followed her pointing wing and shuffled around with a pout. Dealing with others wasn't really my thing... who could be so important that... Oh...

"Hello Fast, wonderful to see you again. Glad to see you are doing so well, healthy and happy hmm?" Ivy smiled down at me, leaning down to nuzzle over my sputtering and nervous attempt to back away.

Just Ivy was ok, I had promised her too after all.. Still a conflict in my head over fulfilling my word with the stunning green mare, but after spending so much time and energy with Peri with Jade's blessing I had slowly gotten used to the idea. Besides, Ivy was nice... she looked incredibly fetching in her flowing cream colored dress and matching bow in her blue mane too... It was the others behind her that worried me now that I was paying attention, a full wing of alicorns in Minutemare gear stood among several pegasi dressed the same. Lime? Stormy?!

I didn't know the purple with the chestnut and orange streaked mane, but I had briefly met the green with the medium length, yellow-green mane before. My guard the first time I visited Trinity Tower, the one who told me why the alicorns had been changing from how they looked under their mother. Something about the soul shaping the vessel it was in if I remembered right. The dark blue Stormy tossing her silver and lilac streaked mane and licking her lips was the one I had saved from the Church of Balefire attempting to martyr her, so we had technically met once too.

Much more concerning was the hungry looks they all gave as they peeked around Ivy, holding her verdant wings out to keep them back and tittering to herself. "Not to worry Fast. Perwinkle has been a bit of an inspiration, these are troops under your command now. You both remember your promise yes? This is why. Behave yourselves Lime, Stormy, Flitter, no ponynapping or running off to tell Umbra right?"

All three gave slow, sleepy nods reluctantly and shuffled in place. I should have expected this at some point, Peri was the first alicorn Minutemare, that didn't mean others might not decide to join now that they could do as they wished. I kept an eye to the skies for the Trinity Tower mares hunting me anyway, figuring they may investigate the castle and move on, but having these three join all the troops occupying the place meant I couldn't hide... Plus Ivy didn't agree with my reluctance or Jade's unwillingness to just openly share me with any of her sisters on tap, she was just a lot more gentle and less insistent in her nudges and prods towards getting what she viewed as fair and logical.

"He'll do what we want eventually though, won't he sister? Peri said he..." Lime whined and tried to push forward, making me skitter back and glare daggers at Peri, humming obliviously to herself to the side. She saw no issues whatsoever.

Jade shook her rosy face and stamped her hoof, giving her sisters a stern look and arching an eyebrow at me. "N-Now, now, none of that. We are trusting you, please do not betray that trust. I have explained it is not that simple, patience! B-Besides... I believe Ivy is ahead of either of you, then Swan after that, that is what was promised and no more. Fast will keep his word, once he has we can r- revisit the subject. I am most displeased about this Ivy, you could have written ahead..."

Ivy gave an amused, innocent look back and shrugged, that mare liked to stir the pot sometimes... "It would ruin the surprise wouldn't it sister? Lime, Stormy and Flitter are trustworthy and honorable sisters, they truly wished to join your Minutemares and help others, finding you is just a bonus hmm? I believe you will find them invaluable, for example Stormy is still tracking the remains of the Church of Balefire and wished to help here, and Lime informed me of something you may be interested in didn't you sister? Tell Fast what you told me."

Blinking those heart shaped sparkles from her eyes, the forest green filly nodded and pointed a wing at a random Minutemare buck hauling a cart of supplies across the courtyard. "Oh! Yes, that one doesn't belong."

"Huh?" I looked over the pale buck and squinted, what was she talking about? A white unicorn with a blue and yellow mane, floppy tan Minutemare hat pulled low, quickening his pace away from the gathering in the open courtyard while Val drew her pistol and stalked after him.

Lime gave a frustrated snort and a series of thoughts and images flashed through my head, a week without unity made the return of the mental connection a little rusty, but I puzzled out what I got. Cutie mark decals, flashes from scenes all over the Commonwealth, a familiar church... "That one does not belong..." Lime repeated and I got it.

"Hello Beacon... what are you doing?"

The member of the mysterious Railroad winced and slumped to a halt, shaking his mane and amazingly changing it and his tail back to their normal dark as he trotted over, shuffling guiltily and shrugging. "Heh... you green mares are a nightmare for undercover agent types like me you know, totally unfair... Hiya Fast, came down to meet up and figured I'd catch you here since you're so busy, take a look around..."

Val sneered and got right in his face, shoving him back and growling over to me. "Spyin' on us boss, lemme kick his ass, please..."

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! E-Easy there red, gotta be cautious ya know... I got something you guys wanna know though! Remember that Switchboard place I was telling you about Fast?" Beacon backed away from the angry and healthy griffon itching for a fight and the Minutemares surrounding him at her commotion.

"Vaguely, maybe I'd remember better if you actually told me anything. My pip-buck says it's a Pony Joe's...."

"R-Right! That's it! Er.... figured you may wanna come give me a hoof there on your little rampage tonight. You've been messing with the Gunners right? They're moving on the place and it's distractingly far away... not that that little tactic is going to work much longer. I heard about this place, their spies aren't near as good as me, but they're good enough... Come on, chance to fuck with the Institute and the Gunners at the same time!" Bright Beacon explained in a rush, yelping at Val's claw poking his chest and yanking away bits of his clever Minutemare disguise.

Mission Updated: Trotson Calling

Objective--------
---Meet Beacon near Pony Joe's (failed)
---Investigate the Switchboard

I groaned at the text in my vision and called Val off with a grumble. "Fine. I'll listen, in a minute... Peri, would you do me a favor and make our guest wait in the throne room? Don't let him out of your sight ok?"

The big blue mare nodded sleepily and loomed over the Railroad spy, pointing the way with a wing and staring directly at him even as she answered. "Ok Fast, I'll watch him, I want another page when you get back tonight though, sister Ivy can wait. You move, that way, don't go anywhere..." If there was one thing I was sure of, it was Peri followed orders exactly when it suited her, I didn't expect even Beacon to slip away from her.

Beacon whined and yelped at the blue Minutemare shoving him along, I didn't go out to find Gunners till dark, let him stew awhile and see how he liked it. I was still annoyed with the mysterious group, holding tantalizing answers about the Institute and refusing to trust anypony easily. I was getting anxious to get out of sight of Jade's sisters though.

With both Ivy and Lime here to facilitate a weak form of unity in the immediate area, I got several lewd flashes from Peri and her carefully documented plans being shared with her sisters, questions flying back and forth, a murmur of that driving lust that sent me running away from Goodneighbor racing between them...

Jade was in on it too, though it was hard to tell what side she fell on now. Her face matched my own blazing red coloration, but some of the thoughts she had in response to the others weren't exactly chaste. She did shake it off and save me though, giving a whinny and calling after Peri frog marching Beacon ahead of her. "Ahem... t-thank you Periwinkle, I am interested in hearing what our spy has to say for himself as well, he is sure to be tricksy so watch him carefully. Now then, Preston I believe you have new recruits to assign and so forth, perhaps you could attend to that now?"

"Right you are Princess Jade! Come along ladies, this way, lots of work to do! Let's find out what you're good at and get you a squad! Hop to!" Preston Gardens pushed forward from the gaggle of amused onlookers and escorted the new arrivals away despite their protests, his stern tone of military command getting the trio of much bigger ponies than himself to march at his direction.

Grateful for the escape route, I nodded and waved over their pouting whines. "Yeah! Umm... Nice to see you Lime, Stormy, er... good to meet you too umm Flitter? N-Nice to have the help I guess... I'll just go and, totally not hide now..."

With my routine broken, I was getting increasingly grumpy and pouted down at the bottom of the pit, running through the checks on the clattering, patchwork reactor still leaking a steady stream of radiation, but now down to a comparative trickle. Roaming the castle wasn't safe anymore, I could run into one of our new arrivals around any corner and it was making me nervous. Not to mention the presence of several female alicorns had my mane itching constantly...

Worse yet, my repair squad had already started making friends with our new arrivals... Onyx quite liked seeing me scamper off and so flustered, so she was exceedingly welcoming. As a final nail in the coffin, most of the purple Flitter had once been a unicorn working for the Ministry of Wartime Technology, she retained enough of her past life to make her a repair-pony....

Beacon was annoying enigmatic still, a font of information on the subjects he wanted to discuss, but nothing else. I was tempted to let Val start pummeling him until I got answers, but Jade was the kind voice of reason as always. Thanks to a little gentle prodding from her, Beacon admitted the Gunners were most likely gearing up for a fight too.

This Switchboard place he wanted us to go to was a prewar Ministry of Morale facility, not a great deal left when the Railroad had to vacate it, but the Gunners didn't know that. It was swarming with Gen 1 synths too, guardians left behind after the Institute raided the place, attacking anything that dared approach. Between them and the minefield around the place, the Gunners hadn't made a lot of progress, but they were preparing to make a push in to take the place.

So that was my target tonight, once I was done here Val and I would fly off to find the place and proceed with more of her flight training, of the decidedly combat oriented variety. After giving Beacon a good enough glare, at least he assured me he'd be more forthcoming once we were on our way. Taking him with us to the far flung facility would be harder if not for my audience down here...

"My it is quite pleasant down here isn't it? You could have done a less effective job, but still very nice. Do you and sister Jade come down here to..." Ivy spoke up from her perch behind me, stretching her wings and basking in the mild trickle, watching with sparkling green eyes full of mischief.

"No! N-No... we don't... though I guess we could.... Nnnn! Stop Ivy! Hard enough to concentrate down here already, maybe you should fly up and get ready if you insist on coming with us, though I'd prefer you didnt."

The glow of her eyes just brightened as she laughed and brushed my grumbles away. "Nonsense. Sister Peri has suuuuuch interesting stories and memories! A date! I insist on a date as well, I was a proper old world filly once you know. Though I do enjoy the run of your thoughts, you are struggling very hard against your new nature, such an entertaining battle."

Pouting as I worked, I ran through another check before accepting my modified reboot sequence. "Sure, a real hoot... Just trying not to be a perverted psychopath..."

My tone must have gotten through to her, though with Ivy it was just as easily lifted right out of my brain, she sounded less flirtatiously delighted and more kind and serious when she continued anyway. "I don't mean to make fun Fast, I took your letter seriously and am happy you chose to confide in me. Forgive me, I spend most of my time with foals and much more innocent thoughts, though a good portion of yours aren't that far removed."

"Er... thanks, I think... So how is the orphanage? Shamrock and Cat are both honoring their deals right? All the kids ok? You umm... doing alright taking care of children again?"

Her kind smile brightened and she nodded back, "Oh yes, doing very well thank you Fast. I had my worries taking on the job, but I've grown to enjoy it. My sisters often volunteer to help, hence I'm able to take my little outing to see you, though the children complain they need less of their guide services lately.

Thankfully the Mayor has been most generous, I believe your example shamed him a bit, the floor of the M.O.M. hub he gave to the orphanage is coming along nicely and he is providing more work than spying and pickpocketing again. Cleaning all that pink sludge from the tower requires a lot of work!

Wicket and the rest send their regards, mostly to young Glitter, though Wicket said to tell you... ahem... 'Treat Miss Ivy right Wanker' and that he is getting a good deal of experience repairing things for Shamrock. He is already more skilled than that silly Light Fantastic pony in the Mayor's employ.

Our partners at the Combat Zone have been pleasant as well, Cats Paws delivers our share fairly so you need not worry. She even gives the children jobs as well, acting as barkers to draw in customers and such. I believe both she and the Mayor are helping make sure my charges do not return to their previous larcenous ways.

All in all, you have helped do a great deal of good Fast, you should be proud. Why I find it laughable you are concerned about your darker impulses, you are not an evil pony Fast. I don't mean to make light of your fears, but most of your mind is pure of heart and deed, a proper old world pony still."

"Most...and the rest?"

"Hmm... more typically masculine than when I last spent time with you, though you were sick and weak then too. I can sense the rather powerful spiritual protection you have on your side as well. Those little voices should allay your fears Fast, the Ministry Mares were always strongest together, but the four you have are already forming a powerful bulwark against darkness. All six together were enough to repel even our mother and true unity you know.

I have seen nothing to alarm me yet, I am keeping a close eye on your thoughts though, seeing how you react to certain playful prods and pokes. I would prefer to see you under stressful conditions, where the aspects you're so worried about are more likely to come out. Another reason for our date! I must say that's a quaint but enjoyable idea, when the others experience Peri's memories, you may sway more to your side concerning feelings and connection before mating." Ivy answered softly, trying to cheer me up and console me.

I wanted a shrink and Ivy was it, taking it seriously with the benefit of telepathy. I still didn't like the idea of her coming with me though, no matter her reasons. "No nearly getting killed on our date, huh Ivy? I don't think I can take it... Now seriously, you may wanna fly up a little. I'm about to do something no proper repair pony would even think of doing."

Ivy made no move towards budging her rear from the pile of crumbled masonry she was perched on, fluffing her wings and waiting with a huff. "If you are so concerned for my safety, better I remain hmm? I don't have sister Jade's talent with healing spells and have never been very combat oriented, every little bit helps. Go on, open it. Though who is Sprockets and why would he 'smack you silly' for doing this?"

"A brave old repair-pony I knew once... Ok, hold onto yer butt, here we go..." I smiled wistfully hearing her mention the pony who saved me with his dying breaths, Sprockets would buck the snot out of me for even thinking this...

At least she knew what was coming, the very idea of doing this made every repair-pony instinct scream out in horror, but this was the best option. The reboot sequence I programmed would drop it down to minimal levels, but doing a proper shutdown on this hunk of junk like I should was too risky, I wasn't sure I could get it going again if I did.

Willing myself to ignore the alarms in my head, I hit the command with my magic and gripped the gem studded hatch as the whole contraption slowed down to a low hum. Even in this state, wrenching open the core sent a roaring chatter of radiation spewing out, sending my rainbow coated gauge straight from green up to orange.

I squinted against the glare of the storm of magic inside, reflecting off the faceted crystalline chamber and finding the bent, emerald tipped focal arm that was the problem. Quick as a flash, I grabbed it with my surging magic and bent it back into shape, slamming the hatch closed, listening as it went through with the reboot and came back up to full power. I heard a distant cheer and several sparks and small explosions of blown capacitors, but the deep hum settled out and it sounded good. I counted that as a victory and panted as I checked my pip-buck. Right at the border between red and purple...

"Oh dear... slow down, don't rip!" Ivy called out in distress behind me, her simple cream dress stretching close to the breaking point as she shot up a few inches in one spurt. It was a close call and she took shallow breaths, but the poor garment survived until she stopped with a whinny, tossing her blue mane and tittering as she gave me a sultry look and continued.

"Very invigorating, but I just bought this dress, should have splurged for the size adjustment enchantment I suppose... Ahhhh I see what you mean now, you are quite worked up already aren't you? You liked that hmm? Enjoyable as I may find that, oooh and that... and that... and... my, my, my! Such thoughts Fast! How delightful! Later however, focus Fast, this is no different than unity, mental discipline and control remember?"

The cool thread of her thoughts touching mine helped a lot actually, I realized I was leaning forward and strutting towards her already, both wings and ears standing straight up, mane itching madly, a warm fog trying to overwhelm my brain and a goofy look I had to wipe off my face. I never went down here with anypony to distract me before... Right! Gunners! Mission and all that, off we go then!

I flew straight up with Ivy looping around me gracefully, displaying my inadequate skills even so charged up. Once we hit the top I almost managed to get through the hatch at full speed, clipping the side and weaving in the air as I regained control, looking down at the cheering crowd standing on the metal grating and patchwork scrap sealing off the pit.

A crowd of happy looking ponies, all looking around at the castle flickering to life around them, lights blinking on from the windows and brightening the courtyard beyond, banishing a lot of the dancing shadows of fire barrels used to warm the area and see for normal ponies. Despite the surge of energy urging me to DO, I took a second to enjoy that wonderful satisfaction of a repair job well done. We had power again, things would get easier from here.

Jade fluttered up with Glitter on her back, Val right at her side with us as the pair hugged and nuzzled their goodbyes. Having my daughter with her kept me from getting to fixated on the love of my life pressed against me. Ivy was right though, I was already highly agitated, my eyes drinking her in, drifting to Val rechecking her weapons and waiting impatiently, down to Peri and Witchy both watching with a pout since they couldn't come this time, scanning the crowd for pretty mares and finding Onyx wiggling in a flirty display.

I swear that mare had found a way to make her jumpsuit even tighter and had cleaned up, her purple and silver mane had no business looking that clean and styled after a day of repair work around the castle. Her lidded eyes even had a bit of pale lavender eyeshadow and widened with a grin once she caught me looking, blowing a kiss and falling into gales of giggles with the rest of the repair squad, leaning up to whisper to a confused looking newest member. The light purple alicorn Flitter cocked her head and stretched an ear to listen, then got a rosy blush and stared up with sparkling brown eyes. Ugh... Onyx and I were going to have a talk if she kept this up...

All this excess energy was for more important things dammit, I snorted and shook my head, giving Jade a kiss and nodding to Val and Ivy. The green alicorn returned the gesture and flicked her horn down at Beacon watching with the crowd, surrounding him in the green glow of her magic and yanking him to her back with her own topped off power levels.

I thought a few instructions to Ivy and flew out into the night, off to the west towards the tall spire of the S.P.P. hub and the arrow on my compass pointing towards 'Pony Joe's', or the Switchboard according to Beacon. Whatever it was the Railroad wanted from this place, we were going to find out, one way or the other.

"H-Hey! C-C'mon Fast! N-Not funny!! Call her off!!!" Beacon yelped from the bubble of Ivy's green telekinesis holding him in the air, above the hard ground zipping by a loooooong way below as we flew on.

I was willing to help and give him some leeway, but Val had a point, he was spying on us... I was tired of deflections and vague innuendo, I wanted answers right now, before we reached the ruined town below at the outskirts of Trotson. Ivy huffed and gave a warning jiggle to the scrambling unicorn while Val just laughed at his distress. Turning around to fly backwards still wasn't very easy, but I awkwardly managed it to stare in his blue eyes with my burning red ones and shake my head.

"No. Start talking Beacon, I am running really low on patience at the moment and more aggressive than you're used to. You know about the Institute, I want to know too, now."

"Ok! Ok! Just gimme somewhere better to talk from! C-Can't really think like this!" From the way he shivered and fought, I realized most ground ponies weren't as comfortable as I was up here, even before I grew my own set of wings. A thought to Ivy sent him to her back and he clutched her neck gratefully.

"If he tries shutting up again Ivy, feel free to just do a few loops..."

"Oh I am sure I can give him incentive, I could just read what you want to know out of his head though Fast, no reason to... convince him." Ivy smiled back with a curious look, granted having a telepath would make this easier, but...

"I don't want to take the information. I do want to be friends Beacon, but I am tired of your caginess. I want you to tell me, voluntarily... mostly voluntarily anyway. So?"

"Alright! Jeez, I liked you better before you went down in that pit. So, the Institute... I actually know a lot, seeing how I'm a synth myself and..." Beacon regained his composure and started back in with his normal smooth patter, but Ivy cut him off instantly.

"That is a lie."

I glared at the wince he gave at Ivy's declaration and snorted an angry breath from my nostrils. "Thank you Ivy. I'm not above asking her to be a living lie detector Beacon, try again..."

"Aw just lemme kick his ass boss! Won't even use the green machine here to rip it outta his head, least ya could do!" Val growled beside us and added further incentive for the Railroad member gulping nervously.

"Ok, that was just a harmless one though... suppose you won't believe I'm the real leader of the Railroad either, you green fillies are no fun at all. Alright Fast, I'll be square then, not used to the whole honesty thing though. We really do have good reasons to be so cautious though, it doesn't take a telepath to force answers out of somepony, any of us captured could wind up having the memories sucked right outta their brains. The Institute puts even the old Ministry of Morale to shame on that front, you've seen the Memory Recliners in the Memory Den right? They've improved the technology since then...

So, I guess first off... I can't really tell you much of anything about your Stable... 80 years is way before my time or the Railroad, they didn't have advanced Gen 3 synths back then and that's who we're concerned with. They got too good at making fake ponies though, you've seen enough from Angel to accept they're alive right? That makes them slaves..."

Ivy chiming in with "True." wasn't entirely necessary, he was right, after meeting Angel I could accept the synths were capable of more than being convincing fakes. With that in mind he was right, those that were self aware and alive were nothing more than slaves. "And you guys try to free them, I get that. I want to know how. Plus I want to know what you do about the Divisions, where they are, what they're up to, anything."

"Well... We have help for one, an insider, Patriot. He helps get them out, teleports them to a drop point and we skedaddle them outta there, help disguise and hide them, give them new memories if we need to so even they don't know they're not a normal pony. Best way to hide them and give them a life.

As for what the Institute is up to, lots... Sure you've figured that much out yourself, they're not exactly a cohesive unit. Synths have certain protections built in, so even the ones we free can't tell us much about them, so this is all pieced together. Dala has gone dark since you escaped, we know that. Figured she'd be all over the place once you... changed, but she's still awful quiet.

Vega is dealing with his own problems, his latest pawn turned on him and has been causing all kinds of mischief. Hasn't stopped his plans for a 'royal wedding' in D.C. or his drug trade, that X-Cell stuff he's spreading is getting all over, but we're pretty sure it's coming from somewhere on the coast.

Gleam is a total mystery, she doesn't interract with the outside very often soooo... not much to say there. Same with Klein, he does play around and test his tech out here, but he operates in Gunner territory mostly, hard for us to move around down here. Swirl operates in the northeast though, lot of rumors up near Neighlem, the things he focuses on are dangerous though, and weird, benefited from some of his tech myself actually."

"Benefited how?"

In answer, Beacon shook his head and his dark mane turned red to my astonishment, how did he do that? Even more impressive, his horn glowed a bright yellow and his whole coat turned pink, now he looked like a totally different pony... no wonder I never noticed him when he said he had kept tabs on us.

Shaking again shrugged off the false colors and he tugged a strange, dark, chitinous amulet from beneath his ragged shirt proudly. "Infiltration talisman, pretty clever huh? Swirl is Reverse Engineering, any bit of foreign tech or non-pony magic, he has his hooves in. This was derived from Changeling magic, comes in pretty handy for undercover work, lemme tell you!"

"Ok... I can imagine. That's five of them, what about Mobius..." Looking down at Blue Moon folded in at my side, I waited for information about the mysterious sixth Division Head eagerly. That one had my curiosity piqued, the others sounded scared of him from what little I had gathered.

Unfortunately, Beacon wasn't very informative on that subject either. "Mobius... That's a hard one Fast, Doc Mobius hasn't really done anything in ages. He used to be one of their best and brightest, had a hoof in almost everything they did prewar, an idea pony. Theoretical Imagineering took any crazy idea and ran with it, made shit just for fun, Rainbow Dash loved the old pegasus I know that.

Now though... He had a falling out with the rest of the Institute at some point Fast, nopony really knows why or how, but he went and hid after scaring the bejeezus out of the rest of them. Somewhere in the forbidden zone or beyond is our best guess. We got almost nothing on him and the synths we save know even less, only that the others view him as a taboo, nopony is even allowed to mention the old codger. Part of what has things all up in the air though, no idea why, but apparently he's been moving again and it's freaked them right the fuck out."

"The Forbidden Zone?"

"Ah, the Glowing Sea is a name you've probably heard for it instead, same diff. Some of us figure he has to be the reason the Gunner's are getting pushed out, but doesn't seem like his style. Kinda hard for anypony to keep an eye on that blasted hellscape with all the rads and monsters, but whatever's going on in there probably isn't him." Beacon replied.

"How do I get into the Institute Beacon? Any of them will do, though Vega is topping my list, I want my Stable back..."

"Er... build your own teleporter I guess? I really dunno Fast, we can't even get synths out on our own, let alone anypony in. We've got an admittedly narrow focus too, so we can try to help, but you'd have to talk to the others. Why I been trying to get you welcomed into the fold, once we clear this place out, you should earn their trust." The pale unicorn shrugged from Ivy's back as we flew on, approaching our destination by my pip-buck map.

"Why don't you trust me already? Haven't I proven I'm going to fight the Institute no matter what?"

At that Beacon gave a sly, appraising look and answered cautiously. "Yeeeah... but we don't know how you'll do so. What kind of a hero you really are, what your beliefs are, how you think things should be. Your Minutemares are a good example, but you're friends with the Brotherhood of Friendship too, brought them into the Commonwealth yourself. You talk to the outside too, we hear plenty just from our new radio channel on that score, the rest of Equestria probably won't understand synths or be willing to see them as anything as robots, slaves."

"Alright... fair enough, what's wrong with the Brotherhood though?"

Beacon hedged here, flicking his blue eyes down at the telepathic alicorn giving him his ride and giving an annoyed huff since he couldn't really lie. "You should find out yourself Fast, don't want to color your opinion of them. You're due to go visit their cloudship right? Meet the mucky mucks up top? Do that and tell me what you think yourself. Now, are we good or not? Cause we're kinda... closing in here and we don't wanna just dive right down on the place directly, if you could sorta aim for that stream to the north instead beautiful?"

Ivy glanced at where his shaking hoof was pointing below and then over to me with a questioning look. Turning my sharp vision down towards the stream and then back to the arrow in my vision, I saw what he was talking about. There was a lot of light and movement down in the ruined warren of buildings and crossing streets that way, Gunners... lots and lots of Gunners...

Dozens, heavily armed and surrounding a fairly intact brick building with a faded, giant donut on top that looked like a dragon had taken a big bite out of it, the tilted text on the leaning decoration reading; Pony Joe's. Other than it being so well preserved compared to everything around it, I didn't see what could be the big deal, it was a fairly small donut shop, though surrounded by a minefield that was keeping the Gunners back at the moment.

Even from this far away, I could spot several specks venturing closer an inch at a time, explosive minded ponies disarming the barrier one metal disc by one, though while I watched a bright green flash lit up the night and a trio of regular explosions went off near it, that was an unlucky minesweeper..

Val gritted her teeth and hissed with an eye to the skies, spotting a couple specks flying above the activity. "May not be a bad idea boss, they're keepin' a close eye on the any attacks from above, don't think they're gonna let ya use that lightnin' trick of yers again... Hate agreeing with the liar, but stream's outta the way and not far, let us get a good look."

Good enough, I trusted Val's opinion completely and started silently gliding down to where Beacon pointed, aiming towards a cleft in the muddy slope leading to the small river, full of brambles and mutated weeds finding a way to grow even in the wasteland. Peeking up from the bank around a crashed carriage that looked to have fallen from the broken bit of elevated highway crossing the river, I got a good look at all the activity and swore in a whisper.

Eyes Forward Sparkle was a wall of red, dozens of Gunners just in sight and surrounding the innocuous building, entrenched in the ruins of the small town around it, equally alert for any threat from within or without. Ivy's whispered warning just made me less confident too, "I can't read the griffons, but I can tell what the ponies are thinking. They are worried about you coming Fast, I don't think you'll catch them napping. Very angry and nervous, they want this place to replace their losses and to stage an attack on... oh dear... They are aware you have taken Castle Equinox, they are coming..."

That made a cold sweat spring up on my coat, they had power armor... nice new looking suits painted green, an excellent supply of heavy weaponry battle saddles dispersed among the rest of the green combat armor wearing ponies, these were the best equipped and meanest looking Gunners I had encountered.

Asking Val about it confirmed my suspicions, her violet eyes were squinted against the distance and dark to see what I could, but gave a grunt of a reply. "Yup... these are a mix of A and B listers boss, the big boys from down south are moving up. Even without the mindreader, I could tell ya the same, they're here for a fight. Might have a few days, but they're gonna attack. Soon..."

Great... All the enjoyable progress fixing and fortifying the castle and Eclipse suddenly seemed woefully inadequate. These weren't even the varsity squad? Where did they get gear like that? How was I supposed to fight that?! All those ponies were counting on me! I had picked a fight with this!?!?

Ivy nuzzling at me from behind shocked me out of my mini panic attack, anypony else wouldn't have known, but of course she did. Her affection just stirred up pleasantly distracting, but terribly ill timed urges, cut short by her pulling away and cocking her head, giving a satisfied nod as she spoke. "Better. Calm down Fast, you are a very resourceful pony, you will think of something. Focus on the present, how will we get in with them swarming over our goal? I'm afraid I can't make anyone invisible like Jade or Peri so this may be difficult."

"Ask and ye shall receive pretty filly! Hadn't really planned on going in the front door, good spies sneak in the back right? Ta-da!" At Beacon's hushed but jovial announcement, the pale unicorn tugged a clump of brush and weeds away in his magic, parting like a curtain to reveal a large outflow pipe pointing at the sluggish stream behind us, not far down it was a heavy security door and terminal barely glowing in the dark.

"What the fuck is it with you an secret passages boss? Ok, that gets us in, doesn't do a thing about that company of Gunners though. Not that I ain't itchin' fer a fight, that's Gabe's banner over there, and Vera's there... but I prefer livin' afterwards." Val dug out her cracked binoculars and peered through them as she grumbled.

I was relieved she was keeping her survival in mind after Gunter and not diving headlong at her former tormentors this time. There had been an almost imperceptible difference in my fiery griffon friend since she so messily killed the sadistic griffon. No major change, but she seemed more genuinely happy instead of faking it, even with the threat of her former comrades over our heads.

Her normal flirtatious behavior had a deeper note to it too, a true warmth rather than amused teasing. We had gone out with me in this state repeatedly now, but she had never taken advantage of it, insisting she still wanted the full silk sheets and candles treatment. Just the thought of which made me angrily stomp down on several inappropriate thoughts. Opening up had helped her I hoped, I definitely felt closer to her after she finally let me in and told me what those evil bastards had done to her... How they had killed the pony she liked, hurt her, forced themselves on her... taken what was MINE...

"Fast..." Ivy was staring at me closely, making that dark voice in my head grumble and duck back down in its cave as I shook it off guiltily.

"S-Sorry... just thinking... She's right, that is a loooot of Gunners and you say there are Gen 1 synths inside?"

Beacon nodded the affirmative, but Ivy cut him off before he could launch into expounding on the simple answer. The green alicorn was still staring at me closely, cocking her head like she was listening to a far off noise. Finally she warily looked away to stare out at the Gunners, a mischievous smile curling her lips as she spoke. "I think I can help there, I told you it was good for me to get a bit charged up Fast. Watch..."

I did, closely as her long horn was glowing bright green along with her matching eyes, but I didn't see her magic affecting anything yet. Suddenly shouts rang out and weapons started firing at... nothing? A pale blue stallion with a missile launcher battle saddle was tearing into his own comrades, screaming and launching one whistling explosive after another trying to kill something that just wasn't there.

Several more bright explosions started going off from the minefield around the Pony Joe's, the minesweeper ponies out there either walking right into beeping mines or actually floating a dozen up carelessly, flinging them towards their fellows in a beeping cloud of death. Whaaaaa....

I looked up at Ivy's smirk with new respect, compared to invisibility or teleportation, I had sort of considered her telepathy and talents with shields to be less combat effective. Seeing her in action here though... she was in their heads and sowing chaos without lifting a hoof. She grinned down at me as she stood up straight and proud, a beautiful, powerful mare unleashing the true strength of her gifts. Puffing up in triumph, she flared her wings in a gorgeous display, letting the chilly breeze send her mane and tight dress rippling, enticing glimpses of those curvy flanks, a delicious expanse of green with a hint of...

"A-Ahem! Flattering as your thoughts are Fast, the task at hoof remember? A bit difficult to keep up at this range and with so many, but I can do more if we get closer. Though robots and griffons are immune of course." Ivy blushed and her wings folded back, smoothing out her fluttering dress as she trotted over to the waiting door.

Val lingered to watch the chaos still going on before flapping over to clutch Ivy with glee. "Holy shit! That is awesome! Can you make em think their naughty bits are on fire or somethin' fun like that? Oh the possibilities, lemme think on it, we'll make a list, got some special hallucinations a couple of em deserve! You just went up in my estimation babe!"

"That'll keep em busy awhile if nothing else! I'm impressed too sweetheart, very classy way to kill. Ok, let's go kids! We'll be in and out before they know what happened, dumb synths won't even see us coming with these yahoos up here! Off we go!" Beacon cheered and tapped away at the terminal, opening the heavy steel door with a hiss and revealing a long tunnel lit in orange emergency lights, stretching off towards the Pony Joe's above.

"Right, in and out... sure." I groused and followed the others, still brimming with questions but eagerly anticipating violence ahead.

Ivy's manipulation was brilliant and a safe way to hurt them, but didn't compare to the visceral sensation of blasting their brains out personally. Val confirmed it for me, these Gunners deserved to pay too, bigwigs... the higher up the chain they were, the closer they were to the ones that actually hurt her, thus they all deserved to die. It was justice...

The soothing feeling of Ivy's mental touch brought my eyes up to meet her own looking back at me closely over her shoulder. She was watching carefully, giving a worried nicker and flicking her tail with a wiggle, drawing me on and quenching that flare of rage with concerned caring on her face. I could do this, I had help, friends...

"Let's go."

New Perk Added!-------------------------

Inspiration Manifestation----
---You're a lot more popular than you ever were in the Stable, though that comes with its own problems and benefits! Because you lead by example, your companions deal 20% more damage while taking 20% less, along with an increase to their carry weight by... you guessed it, 20%. Mysteriously they also cannot hurt you (in combat anyway... by accident...) nor you them. The Magic of Friendship is a strange and powerful thing, stray 'friendly' fire just ricochets or bounces away harmlessly!