“Mwwwarrrgh...”

“There he is again sister! Do not let him do it again! Fast... Fast can you hear me?” I blinked woozily up to Jade’s wide blue eyes over me, nodding dumbly at her concerned words and getting the distinct feeling of deja vu looking at her and Ivy staring down at me.

Ivy’s horn was glowing mellowly and I could feel her presence in my head, a bright spot of order in a jumbled mess that was just starting to resolve. The green alicorn had a soft smile, but worry in her eyes as she nodded to Jade and whispered in the gloom. “I have him, it can be dangerous to prevent normal psychological function though sister, amusing as his may be, they also represent an emergency valve. I will release him if I grow worried...”

Tree Hugger’s office... we were in Dr. Tree Hugger’s office, that’s right... Vice-Director of the Trotson MoP Hub Tree Hugger as it were, a high enough rank to rate a window on the outer ring of the hub three floors up, letting me see it was dark outside. That’s right, we went to sleep here, didn’t we? Well, we went to bed here anyway... then did fun things... then...

Jade nodded to Ivy and drew close, filling my vision as her nose met mine and her sparkling blue eyes held my own. “I would have it no other way, if you can keep him conscious a little longer I would be grateful though sister. Now Fast, breathe slowly... y-you are probably remembering again and I do not wish for you to panic, you lasted about this long last time and...”

“BABY!!” The most recent fragments of memory came back like a thunderclap, sending me into panicky struggles that two heavy alicorns were easily able to keep pinned, leaving me nowhere to run from the sudden re-realization. “Y-Y-You! Baby! P-P-P-Pregnaaaa...”

The oddest sensation gripped me as Ivy’s horn brightened and she rolled her eyes, things started slowing down and fading, then just snapped right back to normal somehow. It was like flicking a hoof to turn off a light switch, then standing there nonplussed when the lights refused to go out...

A cold sweat sprang up on my coat and I tried to do as the verdant beauty advised telepathically, struggling to slow my frantic thoughts that were now unable to stop due to the lights going out. Jade was pregnant, I remembered her saying so. Meaning both of the mares watching me were carrying my foals. Ivy said the hub sent them both to the same place and I was too stoned on breezie nectar and freaked out by finding Ivy there in Maternity to put it together, stupid! Jade even giggled about not wanting to 'ruin the surprise' when she was inebriated downstairs, how dumb was I! Was I so wrapped up in everything else I couldn’t notice when the mare I loved was... was... I really couldn’t pass out...

“I-I’m ok... I think I’m ok... N-No, I’m a big dummy and scaredy pony, but I think I can not freak out for the moment. Jade, y-you’re.... p-pregnant too, I was too stupid to figure it out... but it’s real right? So y-you’re both...”

Opening my clenched eyes rewarded me with seeing the sisters breathe a sigh of relief to each other and loosen their hold on me, a ton of alicorn filly gently rising up off my chest so I could suck in a shaky breath and shudder as they nodded together sweetly. Both of them... two, two pregnant mares, two babies on the way... three if Peri really was too... t-three.... three!

“Noooo! Don’t you try again Fast!” Ivy’s horn had been dimming, forced to brighten again as I started hyperventilating at the fresh realization.

“Sorry! Sorry... just thought of Peri and... I’m trying, really! So you are... you’re both... O-Ok, I can handle this, i-it’s good! great! I’m really, really happy Jade! and terrified... and happy! and confused... and happy! You’ve just had longer to let it sink in... Oh! Y-You’ve known since the hub teleported us in haven’t you! Jeez... you’ve been keeping this to yourself all this time! I’m sorry! I must have bothered you freaking out over just Ivy, you just found out too and haven’t been able to... what?”

My jabbering trailed off at the bright blush and evasive look Jade sent to the ceiling, biting her lower lip at my confusion and whispering meekly. “I... was not bothered... I-It was not as much of a surprise for me Fast...”

Ivy gave Jade a flat look as they carefully let me go to stagger to my hooves, shaking my head and trying to get some control over things up there without her psychic help. Things over my head were passing between the two of them, Jade turning a little redder as Ivy fluffed her wings primly and nudged her sister with her nose, shoving her while I gaped. “Wha? Am I missing something? I know I shouldn’t be so surprised either, the hub sent you both to maternity and all, but...”

Before I could get going again, Jade pressed a hoof to my lips and gulped nervously. “I... I w-was fairly certain before we came here Fast... I am a doctor after all...”

My princess kept darting anxious glances at me and returning her attention to some new bit of Tree Hugger’s strange decor, letting me puzzle that out slowly. I remembered being surprised at seeing her eat meat with the minotaurs on our way here... was that why the normally vegetarian alicorn had been doing so?

“Oh! Er... o-of course you knew! Right, you’re a great doctor so you must have known even before we came here, umm... out in the forest on the way?”

“E-Earlier...” Jade winced at my question, confusing me more as I took it in.

“Earlier? Like... how much earlier?”

Ivy seemed to decide I wasn’t going to keel over again and extinguished her horn, pulling away and nudging her sister again insistently with a stern look. “Tell him sister. I’ve respected your wishes, but you said you were ready to tell him, tell him everything...”

Flinching from her sister’s firm gaze, Jade hung her head as her ears drooped, looking up sheepishly and speaking in a whisper. “I... I had my suspicions before we left the castle Fast... The night we decided to leave on this trip? I... I was discussing it with sister Ivy in the kitchens... I believe it was from our... er... f-first time together after you changed...”

Casting my mind back, I remembered walking in on the two of them together in the royal kitchens of Castle Equinox. They looked deep in conversation and had a pretty big meal spread out in front of them, big enough I assumed it was for the two of them, but in retrospect I only saw Ivy pick at it... Jade had eaten miretank meat there too... I had been so overcharged with radiation at the time I barely noticed, then the three of us got distracted... All the way back then?!

The frightened look Jade was following me with as I furrowed my brow in thought just made me more confused. “W-Why... why didn’t you tell me then? You knew way back before we left on this awful trip? Since we left... went all over, got in fights...” The memory of Jade being slashed in a spray of blood at Summerset Plantation surged up as I thought, bringing a flare of fresh panic, fear and even... anger? “You knew and have been running around with us, you got hurt already! Y-You could have....! WHY!?”

Watching the big blue alicorn shrink into her wings and hide was usually cute, made me want to tempt her back out and soothe her. Here it just added to a flicker of agitation though, tapping a hoof and waiting for her eventual pained whisper. “I was afraid... y-you would react as you have, would not want me near you any longer to protect me. Seeing how you responded to finding out about sister Ivy only c-confirmed my worries, but I could no longer delay either... I hoped getting used to Ivy’s condition would... s-soften the blow?”

“Of course I don’t want you around me like this! Things blow up around me! Ponies and crazy robots want me dead! I pissed off a freaking army!! Being around me isn’t safe!!! Y-You should both be far away from me! Somewhere safe! Back home where I can protect you! You got hurt just the other day and you were already... a-already... It’s not fair to keep something like this from me Jade!”

I hated seeing her flinch and curl in on herself like that, but at the same time I couldn’t stop stamping my hoof and snorting. I was actually ...mad... mad at my Jade... I didn’t think that was possible, but I was. Now that ember of anger was just hurting her more, but I couldn’t help myself, trembling as I waited for her to respond.

“I know... I am very sorry Fast... I did not want to worry you, it is still very early and we had to make this trip together. I-If I am a princess, I have duties I must attend, ponies counting on us... I cannot put my own wants above my responsibilities, my condition does not affect me yet. I kept trying to find a way to say something.... but I grew frightened the longer it took... p-please do not be upset...”

“Fast... you must admit, you did not take the news of my condition well. Sister Jade asked me how you would react and I told her, I did not expect you to keep falling over as you do... but it was not hard to surmise you would be overprotective. I have been watching, had she not told you soon, I would have forced the issue. Our respite here presented a good opportunity however. While you have a point and are justified in being upset, ours is valid too. We are not suddenly fragile, helpless little waifs that must be locked away and guarded, birth is a part of life, and life goes on. You say we are normal ponies, do normal mares get to put the world on hold when they find themselves in our situation? Is the wasteland that convenient for anypony else?” Ivy tried to calm me down, touching my side lightly with her wing and rubbing Jade’s shivering back consolingly.

“Other ponies aren’t YOU! I don’t care about them! I care about you, both of you! and our foals! The rest of the wasteland can piss off! You and those babies are all that matters!”

My tantrum drew Jade back out of the shell her wings formed around her, peeking out and looking back sadly. “You do not mean that. You are better than that Fast, other ponies matter and we have a responsibility to them. We cannot simply abandon them. Even if I did as you wanted, you would go back out and continue your efforts for them, I know you that well. I will not hide or allow you to leave me behind to protect me. We are family are we not? Family sticks together, that is what you said...”

“NNNGGHHH!!! I.... T-That’s not fair! You still should have told me! That bitch cut you and you were already pregnant! Those breezidores stung you! What if it hurt the baby!? I don’t want to leave you behind Jade, but following me around into mortal danger isn’t safe!”

In the face of my panting angrily, Jade stretched her neck out and nuzzled my cheek tenderly. “By your side is where I belong, whether it is safe or not. I am sorry for keeping this from you Fast, but not for keeping you near. We are family, you are my special somepony, we stay together, no matter what.”

I wrapped my forelegs around her graceful neck and returned her nuzzles, wiping frustrated tears away and forcing myself to reassure her before I pulled away. “I know... and we do... I’m just... j-just need some time to take this in... I haven’t had as long to think about it... unlike you...”

Watching her flinch at that parting shot filled me with warring feelings of satisfaction over a snide hit landed, and shame over that sarcasm rushing up to hurt her. Her anxious blue eyes were looking for reassurance and love, not the pain that flickered across them at that, stupid... I didn’t even have any foreign voices in my head to blame, even ‘Be Dark...’ was perfectly silent and felt like it was listening attentively somehow, that was all me...

“SORRY! I’m so sorry Jade!” I lunged into a deep kiss, trying to erase my cruel mistake and wilting under the waves of disapproval coming from both Ivy and ‘Be Kind...’ in my head. “I’m really, really, reeeeally happy about this Jade, that we’re.... w-we’re having a baby together, that’s what I wanted... I’m sorry I got upset, a-am upset.... I should go! C-Cool off! I don’t want to hurt you... B-But I’m happy! I just.... really need some time! S-Sorry! I love you!”

I backed away towards the doors as I frantically jabbered, hating myself for saying anything that hurt Jade’s feelings but unable to be sure I wouldn’t just do it again. I wanted time to absorb this and stop feeling that flicker of anger thinking about how Jade could have been hurt, had been hurt... the whole time she had been...

The scared look on her face as I spun to the door just made me feel worse, but I didn’t trust myself right now. I had to think, calm down and apologize, get away...

Out the door I dove, leaping over the railing and flying out over Willowheart below. Running away.

The model Canterlot built in the center of the hub had turned into a city of sleeping breezies, all bundled in their tiny beds in their miniature homes, under the glow of artificial moonlight from the crystal lighting far above. Wandering the darkened city streets in the night was odd, from their perspective it was like a huge dragon was just silently slipping by, occasionally stopping to peek with one huge eye filling their little windows. I did feel pretty good about my skills at being stealthy anyway...

I wandered aimlessly like that for awhile, trudging quietly through the breezie city, out to the edge of the room to the little train station, following the tracks with my head hung, feeling both overwhelmed and numb. Jade and I had never had a fight before... I didn’t like it...

I knew it was normal, even inevitable in relationships, mom and dad fought sometimes for Celestia’s sake. Knowing and experiencing were different though, and I had no prior experience, just observations of others like my parents or Grizz back in the Stable and his variety of marefriends. I didn’t want to be mad, mainly I had just been scared... getting scared made ponies angry, kind of how we ended up blowing up the world so one would think we’d learn better, but it was just part of pony nature.

Still, being scared every time I remembered when the pegasus bitch sliced her beautiful chest, meant I was just made angry again every time too. At least now I was transferring a lot of it to the cyber-mare Hail Mary instead, I should have killed her...

The dark Shroud in my head eagerly agreed, the faint whisper of ‘should have let me’ echoing the thought, Jade stopped me from killing her even knowing she was pregnant... Proving how much stronger than me she was, she should have let me kill her, but she still stopped me. Not that I remembered it...

Roaming the quiet halls wasn’t helping as much as I hoped, the more I tried to think about it, the worse I felt. Bad enough to know Jade and our baby were in danger just being with me, the longer I thought the more I could see the dilemma she had been dealing with alone already. Ivy was right, no expectant mother in the wasteland got to just call time out until they had their child, they didn’t get maternity leave, the world didn’t give days off or stop being horrible just because I thought that’s how it should work.

The old world values and ideas I carried kept messing with me on things like this, I had never taken the time to really think about how ponies continued the species during those 200 years I had been asleep. How had Glitter’s mother carried twins and kept them alive as long as she had?

Even getting past the pregnancy and all the potential health issues, she had cared for two infants and raised them to be better survivors than I was. In a world where a poorly timed crying baby could bring raiders down on her head, where a dirty diaper gave wasteland predators a scent to track, where a scratch taken by a wandering toddler could end up fatally infected.

Glitter’s birth mother presumably didn’t go actively pissing off the wasteland too... My initial fear for Jade was so great I wanted to send her away somewhere safe, but that was a pretty relative term anymore and I realized I was too selfish for that... I couldn’t stay away from them even if I wanted.

Meaning I had to admit a certain degree of helplessness instead of controlling everything, I couldn’t lock Jade up in my empty Stable to protect them from everything, I had to just try to deal with what I could and do my best. Pretty much what Jade had already been doing, without me making it harder by freaking out about it. My best did not feel up to the task unfortunately...

I kept chasing my own thoughts like that some time, knowing the longer I was gone the worse I was probably making Jade feel, but too confused and scared to go back either. I was almost happy to be broken out of my panicky woolgathering by a curt, squeaky voice and a jab to the nose ahead of me, looking up to a lavender breezie in security barding poking me with the butt of his scalpel / spear.

“Iris la nala mugen shu Brotherhood kuku pony, na, na!” I recognized this little securi-tribe breezie, Spring Gale’s brother Blowing Storm. He had the stern look of a security pony or cop from tv, grumbling in his own language at me and pointing down a side hallway leading off the main chamber.

Somehow my daughter had already been picking up breezie-speak and might have a hope at understanding the gist, but I was not great at speaking pony, let alone a foreign language. I shrugged back to the breezie stallion apologetically, answering quietly to not wake up half the city nearby and glad they all seemed to understand pony, even if they couldn’t all speak it.

“Er... sorry? Something wrong Blowing? I caught 'Brotherhood' in there, they’re not causing trouble are they?”

“Brotherhood nais sha bipa illis na!”

“Right... Brotherhood, got that...”

“Shu. Nala. Brotherhood. Kuku. Es. La.” The frustrated guard carefully enunciated each strange word and pointed again, still leaving me with nothing to go on.

“Going slower isn’t helping... ummm... charades maybe?”

“Sha nuis kala ma qina lus vell!” Now he was getting annoyed... though I couldn’t resist giving a tired chuckle and joking back, glad to feel a little happy instead of upset.

“What’s that boy? Glitter fell down the well?! Where is she Blowy?”

That finally did it, I had reached the end of the breezie’s patience to amusing results. Blowing Storm scowled back at my lame joke and pulled his antenna down with his wavy mane like he wanted to tear both out, fluttering right in my face and waggling his scalpel in front of my muzzle, unleashing a stream of breezie words I didn’t need to understand to figure out had to be a stream of curses.

“Yu. Stay.” He growled before zipping away, diving towards the dim city of Willowheart while I tried to snicker silently.

After a few minutes, muffled crashes my ears flicked to pick up and a dim light brightening a single window of a cute little breezie home near the palace showed where he went. Blowing came back shoving a sleepy Spring Gale ahead of him, pushing her free in to thump into my muzzle and blink owlishly as she woke up in mid air.

By the bags under her eyes and the tiny slip of a nightie she was wearing, Gale’s brother had simply dragged her out of bed and let her wake up staring into a giant pony face, not that great of an idea after her captivity by much meaner big ponies outside. Once the confusion wore off, she squealed and flew straight up, holding a hoof to her chest and shivering as I winced and tried to calm her.

“E-Easy! It’s ok Gale! Just me! Fast, remember?”

Her breathing slowed as comprehension lit her features, wheeling on her brother sniggering to himself and unleashing an equally impressive stream of breezie curses as she started whacking him on the head. Once her sibling was properly punished and they engaged in a pouting back and forth, she fluttered over and landed in my mane, nestling in the shaggy grey hair by my horn and blinking down with a grumpy frown.

“Stoopid brother vant yu du someting aboot crazy Brotherhood pony, dat vay. I go back to sleep here, yur mane nice und warm Fast, No wakey unless need to! Sleepy time!” Gale muttered down and shot her brother a hateful scowl, then turned in a tight circle and pulled a lock of my mane over her like a blanket, willing to translate before returning to light snores atop my head.

“The word you wanted was ‘Follow’ Blowing, it’s as useful as ‘Stay’ for a dedicated guard like you. Ok, lead on...”

My breezie guide cocked his head and nodded, leading me down the ‘Medical Research and Development’ wing of the hub and quietly repeating. “Fall -- Oh... Foll-ow... Follow...”

He didn’t seem that worked up at least, so I doubted the Brotherhood was up to no good. His mention of ‘crazy Brotherhood pony’ seemed to only fit one of the small group, so I wasn’t that concerned, trailing after him as we left Willowheart behind and started passing a variety of labs and offices that seemed well cared for.

Eventually we wound up at a heavy double door set in the crystalline walls, a flickering sign above reading ‘Main Laboratory’ that slid open easily. The room beyond was large, full of bubbling glassware, blinking consoles and the dim glow of active terminals. The sharp medicinal smells that poured out when the door opened made me sneeze and disturbed my snoozing passenger, earning me a whining thump to the forehead from a tiny hoof, as I rubbed my too sharp nose and took it in.

This must be where the breezies brewed their healing potions, that was the overwhelming odor permeating the space anyway. There were lots more interesting smells too, a rainbow of liquid colors bubbled and brewed in vials, dribbled down glass condenser coils and into crystal decanters. Pipes ran to two large tanks near the door, going through the wall to hang out over the rusty toy train tracks outside, explaining how they filled the liquid tanker cars on the Flutter Express with healing potions.

There were quite a few harried looking breezies in here too, flitting between the equipment, turning dials and knobs, checking temperatures and dumping dried flowers, herbs and little baskets of nectar into varying concoctions. By far the focus of all the activity was the pale pink mare dashing around the room in a frenzy, getting into everything and unleashing a manic stream of burbling questions as she went.

“So you intended to erase our memory with this refined nectar? Aha, Forget-Me-Yes flowers! From the Everfree forest! Very difficult to find samples after Redeye’s wanton destruction of such an important natural resource, I’m so glad the ARC project preserved so much! What other varieties of your nectar have you discovered? Is your knowledge all data preserved by the hub? Or do you possess any kind of natural inclination when using a byproduct of your own biology? What’s this Addictol substance? There are quite a few bottles that bear the Ministry of Peace mark, but I’ve never heard of this drug! Was it something due to be released? I noticed the addiction treatment wing on the map, were your people as good at treating addicts as they are at Wartime Stress Disorder therapy? Wooo! What’s this room?!” Scribe Blossom dashed from one area of the lab to the other, her magic roving over everything in her wake until she reached a locked door that stymied her.

A rusty squeak of an office chair alerted me to the red pegasus half hidden behind multicolored vials distorting her face resting on the counter, Lt. Dawn moaned sleepily over to me before thunking her head against the surface in exhaustion. “Oh... you... I was hoping it was the zebra. I told them I’d keep an eye on her, I see our guard doesn’t trust us though. Well, good luck Mr. Times, Scribe Blossom doesn’t really sleep...”

At my name being grumbled by her leader, the unicorn mare’s purple eyes spun on me at the door and she galloped over, gleefully babbling and dragging me into the lab. “Mr. Times! I thought you were Mr. Zed, but you’re just as good! Isn’t this marvelous? A whole hub worth of medical equipment so wonderfully preserved! It’s rare to have facilities this advanced to work with! We’ve been working on our little pest control problem! Our new friends even brought me a breezidore corpse to dissect! Look, isn’t it fascinating!?”

Getting shoved right up to a mutant breezie body that had been expertly cut and splayed open on a stainless steel tray made me queasy, nodding weakly to the manic filly beaming back at her work and pointing out each tiny organ she had pulled out and labeled so far. “Umm... g-great Scribe Blossom... urk... w-why exactly are you doing this? Don’t you think you should get some rest? W-What about Zed”

“Sleep? Who can sleep with so much to explore!? If we wish to help our new friends, we need to learn all we can about our foe! If they are pests then there must be a way to exterminate them more efficiently than guns or fire! Your zebra companion has been helping, he’s quite knowledgeable about the amazing variety of unique plants growing here. We had been conferring on possible ways to use them to aid our efforts! I had hoped to learn more about how the breezidores mutated to their current state, find a way to poison them perhaps! But there are locked terminals and doors here I cannot bypass, Mr. Zed says you’re very talented when it comes to such things? Open them for me! Pleeeeeease!” The crazed scribe leaned forward and fluttered her eyelashes, hopping in place impatiently as she waved out to the room and the terminals spread around, her pointing hoof lingering on a darkened door in the corner that looked to have the most impressive security.

Lt. Dawn lifted a hoof from her hard bed of a counter and grumbled, “May as well do what she wants... she won’t stop Mr. Times...”

“Oooookie dokie... the hub ought to be able to unlock most of this stuff if you ask, hang on... Hey, ‘Great Tree’! Open this stuff up for the nice scribe huh?”

MILITARY VISITORS NOT AUTHORIZED. MEDICAL R&D LABS CLASSIFIED. MUTANT BREEZIE ORIGINS IRRELEVANT TO EXTERMINATION.

FIX ME...

I groaned at the text in my vision answering my request, glaring at the cybreezie folded around my pip-buck that let the hub maneframe communicate directly. I could swear it was being deliberately obtuse... “It’s relevant if you want them gone. The scribe is pretty smart, it’s a good idea. We used to use poison to get rid of pests in the old world, or would you rather we went with Val's idea and let her take a bunch of flamethrowers down to your roots?”

INCENDIARY EXTERMINATION UNACCEPTABLE. DAMAGE TO ROOT SECTOR ALREADY SEVERE. ALTERNATIVE METHOD REQUIRED.

FIX ME....

“Then open all this up and help us figure something out. Quit whining and do something productive, I’d almost swear you were trying to hide something...”

ACCESS GRANTED.

The hub’s short answer flashed back immediately, interrupting me as all the terminals I could see in the lab flickered and started opening up, the heavy ‘clunk’ of several locked doors sounded out from the distant walls too, though that most impressive door remained silent.

With a dozen terminals to start sifting through, Scribe Blossom was happy at least. The pink mare dashed from one to the next, her pale magic rapidly tapping away as she joyously perused what was there. As happy as her scribe was, Lt. Dawn whined and drummed her hindlegs off the edge of her ratty chair, throwing her forelegs up as she fell back into the squeaky seat and spun slowly. “Great, now we’ll be here all night... Don’t you have better things to do Mr. Times? I assumed you’d be celebrating with the other alicorns, trying to put in a bun in the blue ones oven too...”

The Lieutenant’s smirking response made me gulp and flush guiltily, slinking off to the heavy door that held my interest as an escape and whimpering back. “Umm... a-already done apparently... we had a fight, your guard found me figuring out how to admit I’m a dumbass. I’m still working on it...”

"Any mare willing to subject themselves to your presence should be well aware of that fact already Mr. Times... It took me all of five minutes to figure out. So... the Princess is as well huh? You have been a busy little bee, haven't you? What could the two of you sickeningly sweet lovebirds be fighting about, I'd assume you'd be happy over the news." Dawn lazily flapped her wings to propel the wheeled chair across the room to follow me, squeaking our way to the heavily secured door across the room.

"I am... just freaking out. I got mad Jade knew and waited to tell me, mainly because I'm scared I think... Just finding out Ivy is pregnant was already scary, but Jade too... a-and maybe another of her sisters, plus I'm still supposed to with another I just wrote... and all the others want me to... I-It's real now, not just f-fooling around... I don't know if I can do this."

The flat stare and agitated eye twitch from the Brotherhood lieutenant as she slid to a halt beside me cut me off, a little of the pegasus mare's normal ire flashing in her dark blue eyes scowling back. "You are a dumbass Mr. Times. This is what amounts to a problem for you? Something to fight over!? You get to have a child with the pony you love, not all of us are so lucky..."

"Umm... w-wha..."

I wasn't prepared for a her snort of anger as a response, backpedaling away as the glaring pegasus hopped from her seat and started shoving me back, jabbing a hoof to my chest to punctuate each rising point. "Do you happen to know for instance, that where I grew up you had to earn the right to have a foal!? That some mares only joined the Enclave military for the chance at having a child! That our population was tightly controlled, that accidents were punished harshly! You're whining about having free reign to just wander the wasteland like some kind of alicorn fertility fairy!?"

"Er... sorta? J-Jade knew and didn't tell me though, went out with us and put herself in danger... I want to with her, I'm happy! I'm just really scared something will happen and..."

"Shit happens moron! After seeing how you've been freaking out over just the green one, I don't blame the Princess for keeping it quiet at all. You're not the one who has to carry it around or push it out either! You've already done your job, you can just wander off to the next willing alicorn if you want! Leave her behind for greener pastures if you get bored!" Dawn kept shoving me back, finally breaking my stunned confusion with anger.

"I would never! I love Jade! and our baby! I don't want to leave her behind, I want to keep her, t-them both safe! S-She knows that!"

"Are you sure stupid? Or are you so wrapped up in how you feel, you haven't really considered what the pony who's actually pregnant feels? You're wandering around moping after she told you, aren't you? For all your whining, one of you is affected by this a hell of a lot more than the other, maybe think about her being afraid instead of you?" Dawn had me scrunched against the wall with her renewed assault, softening her tone just a bit as it struck home and all my combativeness fizzled out.

"Sweet Celestia, I AM a dumbass..."

I facehoofed and slid down the wall to my haunches, feeling a little less than breezie sized as I winced and let her point sink in. Jade had been scared, had told me and I just ran away... I knew I didn't feel that way, but what if she wasn't so sure? She was a doctor too, she knew a lot better than I did about her condition and what was safe. Like she hadn't considered everything I bitched about or didn't have her own worries! Stupid!

"Like I said, that much is obvious. I suggest a lot of begging and groveling now that you understand how much of one you are. Luckily Princess Jade seems to have a huge blind spot when it comes to you, and she's clearly too kind to say any of that herself... so somepony had to." Lt. Dawn smirked and arched an eyebrow down at me whimpering on the floor, the mote in her eyes betraying her odd form of kindness.

"Why are you being so nice to me Dawn? Er... while still somehow being snide and insulting...?"

The stern lieutenant actually softened as I scrambled up, sticking her nose up and sighing. "I told you, having children in the Enclave was complicated, and a baby is a blessing, period. I'd rather you not bumble your usual way through something so important. That, and pointing out your numerous failings does make me happy, consider it payback for screwing up yet another mission for me."

"Sorry! And thank you! I gotta go do some groveling!" I did manage to take the time to give Dawn a rapid hoofshake that jittered her across the floor before dashing off, nearly running directly into Zed when the door slid open and only pausing a moment to take in his odd cargo of an angrily buzzing sack and a basket loaded with strange looking plants. "Hi Zed! Sorry, gotta go, good news, tell you later, I'm an idiot!"

Choosing to ignore the mutter behind me of "This is not news to me..." I galloped down the halls and back to Willowheart, entering the dim chamber in a rush. Before I had even spread my wings to go back up to the Vice-Director's office, a quiet <crunch!> from the miniature city was followed by the sweetest voice on Equis sounding very flustered.

"Oh! Nooooo... not again! T-Terribly sorry... er... but no one's awake so now I'm talking to myself too... W-We'll just... brush this aside, not a very nice bench anyway..." I caught Jade near a planter on the outskirts of the breezie city, wincing at a pile of splinters under her hoof, before guiltily scuffing the remains under the multicolored flowers that would have made it a nice, shady bench.

Her darting blue eyes hung on me staring at her and, she gasped, turning a shade a pink distinguishable even under the moonlight as she opened her mouth, but got cut off by me launching myself at her and throwing myself to the floor at her hooves.

"Jade! I'm sorry! Really, really, really, super sorry! I didn't mean to be such a stupid jerk, I wasn't thinking about how you felt or anything! Pleeeeease forgive me, I'll stop freaking out... e-eventually... Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!"

Things started getting brighter with tiny little clicks of lights coming from the breezie homes in our vicinity, letting me get a better look at Jade's bloodshot gaze shimmering down at me, her rosy cheeks brightening under the rising chirps of breezie language grumpily complaining nearby. She had cried, I made her cry...

I was also embarassing her by continuing my loud groveling to the anger of a lot of sleeping breezies, making her cringe into her wings and look all around apologetically, holding a hoof up to her lips trying to hush my jabbering. "F-Fast... Sssh! I-It is alright... just be quiet, we are being rude and...."

"Sorry! Sorry for waking everybody too! I just hafta beg forgiveness! Blame me, I'll try to finish soon! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sor...."

Everything beyond my clenched eyes got a bit brighter and I opened them in time to go soaring straight up above the groaning chatter, tugged along with Jade in a field of her magic back to the third floor mezzanine, shaking off the vertigo of the express trip while continuing with my litany of 'Sorry!'.

Once she landed lightly over the railing and cantered away from the edge, a large blue hoof got stuffed in my mouth to finally shut me up. My princess wearing an expression of mortification mixed with exasperated amusement as she whispered in a rush. "Fast! E-Enough! W-We are waking our hosts! If I remove my hoof, w-will you be quiet?"

"Whll huu hrrgvv mme?" Very slowly inching her hoof back uncertainly, Jade tilted her head and held a wingtip up in a shushing gesture for me to continue unmuffled. "Will you forgive me? Otherwise I'm just going to keep on begging until I make it up... I'm sorry! Sorry! Sor-mmmph!"

That contemplative look she got when her hoof returned to muzzling me made me sweat, left to watch her roll her eyes and tap her chin in thought. "I am tempted to do so merely for the poor breezies sleep. Y-You are not the only one frightened you know..."

"Sorry! I er... f-figured that out, with some help..."

"Having 'more time to think about it', as you put it, has only let me think of more things to worry over. You lack my detailed knowledge on all the problems that can arise from the best of pregnancies Fast, let alone the nearly unknown of our kind reproducing." Jade huffed and stuck her nose up, giving a sidelong glance beneath lidded eyes.

"Sorry! I don't know any of that stuff, but I have a good imagination if that counts for anything? eh heh... sorry..."

Speaking softly, Jade's reply was still firm and undeniable. "I refuse to be left behind as well, no matter your intentions Fast. I u-understand your feelings, but you should well understand mine in turn. You were very hurtful and I am disappointed... You are my special somepony and I am yours, we stick together. Is that clear?"

"I... should have thought about how you felt more to begin with, sorry... I don't want to leave you behind Jade. Never."

"I-If I forgive you... w-will you do the same?" Looking up into those anxious blue eyes, I launched myself at her and nodded rapidly against her neck, sniffling and still terrified, but happy at the same time.

"Nothing to forgive you for, especially compared to me. K-Kinda unknown territory for both of us I guess, I'm sure I'll screw up lots more than you though. So umm... I'm really, really sorry... for everything."

Curling around her in a warm embrace, I could feel her racing heart slowing with mine, our rapid breathing turning shaky and relieved, a long moment of silent communication even without fancy alicorn telepathy. One that was ended after too brief a time by a squeaky grumble and little hooves poking from my mane, drumming against my forehead and making Jade pull away in surprise.

"Nnnnn! Forgive dummy Fast already beeg Princess pony! Sleepy time! Me going back to bed, no more translating!" Spring Gale mumbled groggily and hovered out of my mane, dipping and weaving her way down to Willowheart below us and her own little home.

Blinking after her, Jade smiled slowly and gave a quiet giggle, slowly standing and nodding back to our room with a sniffle. "I forgive my dummy Fast. Now I believe sleepy time is a good idea as well, w-when in Roam after all... Our new development will wait quite awhile, so we both have time to get used to it."

"Ooooh... sorry again... I deserved that... Y-You're right, it's still early right? So lots of time to freak out, I should spread it out and really savor it... Wish all our other problems were on such a more comfortable timetable, think we could get the Gunners to reschedule until after you have the baby or... r-reschedule..."

"I do not think they will be that accommodating Fast, though it would be nice... er... is s-something wrong again?" Jade smiled and kept cantering along a few steps as I froze, forced to turn back with a worried look to find me.

"No! Nothing! Just... thinking! How we can't change the time that baby comes, but maybe the Gunners are more accommodating after all... Maybe we can reschedule... maybe that's what we should be aiming for instead of trying to rush to meet them on their terms!"

Even the vaguely unformed thoughts racing behind my eyes made Jade give a whinnying shiver and flick her tail to draw me after her. "You are coming up with your 'plan-like' acts of destruction and chaos again... That scares me as much as my pregnancy scares you. Come along Fast, do your plotting later, sleepy time!"

"Where would I get a vacuum that big though... huh? Oh! R-Right! Coming!" I cut off my muttering and ran after my wonderful wife, happy to return to our embrace in a warm bed and try to weave together a scattering of loose threads into something usable.

I didn't actually sleep much that night, staying cuddled between Jade and Ivy while silently tapping away on my pip-buck, going over information I had collected but had been too rushed to go over, sifting through everything for the missing pieces to my vague ideas. By the time everyone else woke up, I was glad the hub cafeteria still had a stock of coffee, blearily sipping at it while the others ate and we talked.

Even the Brotherhood took their breakfast with us, though Scribe Blossom looked like she wanted to go back to the labs, cheerily jabbering to Jade and asking dozens of fresh questions about alicorn pregnancy now that we had shared the news, as well as a lot of medical type stuff about her 'experiments' so far with Zed. Her poor lieutenant looked as tired as I felt nearby, weakly stretching her muzzle over her crossed forelegs on the table and slurping at her own cup of liquid caffeine.

The rec room I had found on the way to locating this Ministry of Peace eatery gave me somewhere to start with her at least, a bargaining chip I may as well play after finding what I hoped for, an darkened prototype arcade cabinet for Ministry of Peace Hero and the information I needed stamped on a plate in the back. The address of Bitway Games.

"Dawn... I wanted to thank you again, for er... insult/helping me..."

"Nnn... don't worry about it, be less stupid in the future. Too tired for your nonsense Mr. Times..." She groaned back wearily, uninterested in anything but coffee.

"No, really. I actually want to thank you, like in a way you'll be happy about. I can't let you complete the mission you were sent on, but what if I gave the Brotherhood something just as good?"

"The only thing just as good would be another Ministry Hub, and I don't see one of those being in your pocket..." Dawn whined, but raised a curious eyebrow, intrigued at least.

"Noooo, but I did some light reading last night, more stuff I 'borrowed' from the Brotherhood lending library... How about a way in to the hub you want most? The one with some of the highest security you have no clue how to bypass? What do you think I'd get out of the Ministry of Wartime Technology?"

That got her attention alright... Instantly Dawn's head was up and her eyes were wide awake, staring at me feverishly at the thought of the hub my stolen files made very clear was the Brotherhood's highest priority. "You'll tell me how you got in!? It will work there!? Yes! Wait... what do you want now...?"

"Well... other than the fact it's by University Point and you guys swarming it would put a big Brotherhood presence right in Gunner territory... I want what I did to begin with, help. I won't tell you how to get in, I'm not entirely sure it will work anyway... and I have to do some running to even find out, but if I can, I'll help the Brotherhood get in to make up for losing the Ministry of Peace."

"And the Ministry of Morale... and the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, and Fort Loyalty..." She scowled back as the others took notice of our back and forth, Jade and Val both voicing complaints.

"You think you can get inta the MoWT boss!? Don't give it ta them!! Think of all the loot!! Guns! Armor! Ammo! Tech junk you like! If ya can open it, then we can use it more!" Val practically screeched at the thought of all the treasure the war oriented ministry may hold.

Jade meanwhile was concerned for other reasons, "I do not like that idea Fast, the Brotherhood has enough dangerous weaponry already. You went out of your way to keep those Buckbomb things out of their hooves, you would give them an entire Ministry dedicated to such things?"

"Not the whole thing, I want our share so don't worry Val. But they can use it better than we can, they have more trained soldiers and equipment already. If we help each other and share, I think it's a safe bet."

Dawn's eyes narrowed, sniffing for a trap warily. "And you get the added bonus of dragging us into your conflict with the Gunners just by being there... What else?"

"I'm not demanding you join us and fight, but yeah, you guys being in the neighborhood ought to give them pause if nothing else. I do want other help, but if your leaders refuse to join us you can stick with cooperative things like helping the breezies here. There are things you can do we can't, even if you don't fight the Gunners, you can make life difficult for them just by doing what you want anyway, and help others who need it. I want to redirect the herd of monsters coming from the Glowing Sea back towards the Gunners, you can help do that."

Zed spoke up tiredly, kept up quite awhile by the manic scribe he had been helping most of the night. "How? A mass migration like that is akin to trying to turn back the tide Fast, whatever has frightened them into coming this way must be significant, you'd need something as bad or worse."

"How about a swarm of breezidores? Like... all of them?"

That got everyone's attention, Scribe Blossom's eyes going wide as she started jabbering. "All of them?! What an interesting idea... we did have some success working on a better version of the minotaur's herbal repellent... I don't know anything about herding those kind of numbers, but if we could... they may very well find the Glowing Sea a more enticing environment from everything I've learned, much more suitable for them."

The mention of medical research going on while we had been fighting got Jade's interest, leaning forward curiously to her fellow medic. "Oh? I am sorry I was unable to join you, though I am very interested in what you and Zed have discovered Scribe Blossom. I must say I prefer the idea of a repellent over Fast's hopes for a poison on general principles, they are alive... You have gained a greater understanding of our host's enemy?"

"Yes! Adaptability!" Blossom nodded rapidly and beamed, continuing in a rush. "The hub maneframe is still strangely tight lipped about the potion that changed the breezies here, but I believe that is the cause of the breezidores as well! It's very unique, derived from a most curious plant sample acquired during construction of Stable 101, also used as the basis of this hub itself. It causes the subject to... harmonize with their environment in essence. If my theory is correct, that's why the breezies changed in the ways they did, they were surrounded by kindness and healers, sick ponies that needed help. By doing their jobs while under the effects of the potion, they adapted to do them better! The breezidores were those who were left behind as the world ended however, they adapted to that brutal and poisonous environment instead. Though I'm unsure how, perhaps some that had only recently been dosed when the bombs fell? I would very much like your input, and Mr. Time's help making the 'Great Tree' cooperate, but I believe I am right!"

That was interesting... most of the complicated medical terminology the two of them started chattering back and forth in went over my head, but it did explain how breezidores could be so awful while fairy breezies were so kind. One was surrounded and adapted to the best of us, the other to the results of our worst. No wonder I didn't like them, vicious, poisonous, carrion eaters, immune to radiation... they were a reflection of the world that made them, and the ponies who made that world.

The large cafeteria was full of breezies with us, but only Queen Ether and Spring Gale sat on the table nearby to eat with us, the breezie monarch following the conversation and tapping her scepter for attention. "Yu bring more ponies here, then make all fallen breezies go away? How you do? No want soldiers inside hub, unless they need healings, ve do that. Like idea of making hub like long, long ago, but vith Princess Jade and other Followers, no soldiers..."

BREAKING ISOLATION REPRESENTS UNACCEPTABLE RISK TO BREEZIE POPULATION...

JUST FIX ME...

I scowled at the text in my vision and ignored it, I wasn't talking to the hub maneframe, I was talking to Ether. The breezie Queen was in charge, not the weird computer. It was her I wanted to convince.

"We need soldiers to help herd all the breezidores though, we can't do this alone, we all have to work together your highness. We won't let the Brotherhood take away your home or even come in if you don't want, but I think Lt. Dawn's idea was a good one. If the breezidores are gone, Willowville will be empty and they can stay there, outside the hub, along with the Minutemares to keep the peace and start a new town, something the Brotherhood has no interest in right? Let Jade pick some of her Followers to come inside with you to help deal with them for you. So, do you think Elder Macson would go for that Dawn? A working and staffed hospital is more valuable, and you want the MoWT more anyway right?"

I could see the stern lieutenant weighing all the options, offered a way to salvage what had been a disastrous mission into something positive, she had to take the bait. "You won't tell me how you plan on getting in... You want to save the other hubs for yourself, don't you?"

"Yes. Maybe we can share, I trust my judgement more than yours on what to do with them though, and I'm the one who knows how to get in, you don't. One hub is plenty for now, we can talk about the others later. Take it or leave it Dawn."

"Thou said something about having to leave and come back Fast? Where to?" Witchy asked warily from her bowl of insta-oats, that tone making me wonder whether she was worried I wasn't going to her home of Dreadnot, or if I was.

"Well, I have to try to fix whatever's wrong with Rainbow Brook and talk to the minotaurs I sent back there. If we can fix the problem, the hub will have more power to work with and make things easier, and stop bitching about it as a bonus... After that... lots of places actually, all over. Luckily we have a master teleporter waiting for us, I need to go get Swan first and... and I think Ivy should go home."

A wave of disapproval washed over me from the green alicorn seated beside me, sputtering on her tea and glaring down at me. "I thought we had settled this Fast, you will not send us away to protect us, swap me out for my sister! I wish to remain together and..."

Glitter scampered over and interrupted, hugging Ivy fiercely and scowling at me in agreement. "No! I don't want Aunt Ivy ta go either daddy! You can't! W-We're all a family! You can't make her go away cause your scared!"

I winced, but had been prepared for this, thought it through carefully beforehoof and lunged into a hug to stop them both, stroking their manes and whispering up to Ivy's flattened ears. "I know, and we are sweetie. This isn't because I'm freaking out... e-entirely... and I don't want to replace you Ivy, I don't think of you guys like that, you know that, you can see. I don't think it's a good idea for Jade and you to be together in your condition though, f-for your species right? One bad day could take out both of you and me, then where would your sisters be? Plus your orphans are waiting for you Ivy, I've kept you to myself long enough. Your sisters back home need to know you're pregnant too. M-Maybe they'll calm down a little..."

(I sincerely doubt that Fast... I... I don't want to leave... e-even if you have a point.) Ivy answered silently and sniffled, a sad look marring her features, inspiring me to try to compromise.

"I'm not asking you to hide in my Stable huh? Though if Ether allowed it... y-you did say you'd like to take your kids here right? Show them somewhere full of nature? Better than Goodneighbor?" I hopped down and ran to the breezie ruler, kneeling and holding my hooves up hopefully to beg. "Y-Your highness... umm... I want to ask a favor. Your home is safe and your subjects can take care of pregnant mares like Ivy when she gets further along, and I see you really like kids too..."

"Ivy takes care of orphaned ponies like Glitter, they live somewhere that's more for grownup ponies than kids now. If she could bring them here, you could teach them how to do stuff and help take care of them, let them do the same for you! Ponies and breezies, working together! I know you're leery of big ponies, but these are umm... small big ponies... let you sorta warm up to grownups maybe..."

UNACCEPTABLE RISK FACTOR! ALLOWING MINIMALLY SUPERVISED FOALS IN...

The hub started interrupting again where only I could see its complaints, which I promptly ignored in favor of the Queen of the breezies. That computer was going to be a problem, and I had been growing to dislike it personally for a few reasons, but it listened to her.

Ether looked interested, though still not convinced. "Yu want bring even more ponies here? Don't know... maybe pony children not so bad... But you want beeg-beeg ponies like Princess too?"

Now that I had thought of it, I was perfectly willing to grovel and beg for this idea, continuing my plea to the leader of the breezies. "If... If I keep doing what Princess Jade's sisters want... there will be more and more alicorns that need medical care and somewhere safe to have their foals. They used to be like you, hiding out in another Ministry hub and not having anything to do with the outside world, I er... think you'd get along... S-So, m-maybe you could do that for us? Please?"

Ether seemed to consider it, eyeing Ivy and Jade in turn before Spring Gale's sparkling, hopeful gaze joined mine. "Ve help beeg-beeg ponies have babies!? Lots of baby ponies!? Und uther children?! Pleeeeeeease Queen Ether! Ve help other princesses have Fast Shroud's foals!"

Surprisingly, even Lt. Dawn joined in, sighing in resignation and nodding to the Queen. "Ponies like the Princess having foals is going to cause a stir outside your highness... there are bad ponies out there that would do a lot to prevent that, even harming babies that have done nothing wrong. I know for a fact... I'm not speaking for the Brotherhood here, they may not even like it... but I'd ask as a mare myself, help them, please."

Shifting on her hooves on the table, Ether bit her lip in thought, finally giving a short nod in return to the Brotherhood soldier and turning on me. "Yu not making lots and lots of babies all at once right? Only a few at a time?"

In answer, Val hooted laughter and kicked my flank with a paw lounging out of her seat. "That's what them crazy mares are so pissed at him about Queenie! You won't be overwhelmed, believe me!"

Choosing to do just that, Ether shrugged at the giggling griffon enjoying my blushing grimace and nodded. "Ve see then... Ve like Miss Ivy, she can come.... and her foals... Once is safe though! Too dangerous for leetle ponies to live here now. Yu get rid of fallen breezies, ve try."

Leaping up to thank the Queen with a hug brought me up short when she skittered back in alarm, but once I slowed down she returned a light hoofbump and grinned at my beaming face resting at her level on the table before her. "Thank you! Thankyouthankthankyou! I promise, we'll figure out a way to get rid of all the breezidores and make this work! Anything you want, I owe you forever so... really, thank you."

Only Ivy seemed unsatisfied, a stew of complicated thoughts and feelings swirling in her head I could feel but couldn't keep up with. Realizing Jade and I were both watching and waiting for her, along with the shimmery pink eyes of Glitter still hugging her, she sighed and relented for now. "I can hardly turn my nose up at such hospitality... Thank you your highness, on behalf of myself, my sisters and my children. They will be as ecstatic as young Glitter I am sure."

Believing I dodged a bullet with the green alicorn was short lived, even as she smiled at the Queen and nearby breezies giving a cheer, Ivy arched an eyebrow over to me and sent a short, hard thought. (We are not done discussing this Fast... You can be infuriating, how can you make somepony so happy and annoyed at the same time?)

(Talent?) I flinched back and gave a shaky laugh, clapping my hooves together and in a hurry to get to work. "O-Ok! Lots to do then! All over the place! Sooooo.... I gotta get the bus! Right! Outside... gotta go!"

Once everyone had figured out what to actually do after my hasty retreat, things were actually going well. Jade joined Zed and Scribe Blossom in the labs to continue their experiments with breezidore repellent, my Princess' desire not to harm any living thing made me catch the other two away from her and quietly ask they keep an eye out for poisons or bait they'd take too. Again I admired Jade's ideals, but if I could just fog bomb the little bastards to death down there I'd like the option at least...

Val and Witchy had joined the remaining Brotherhood soldiers, wandering the grounds of the Ministry of Peace to figure out the lay of the land, assess threats, figure out access points the breezidores used, lots of tactical, smart sounding military stuff.

That left me to try slinking off to the shield to collect our disabled sky bus, hopefully repair it once I got it to what the breezies called 'Motool Town' that Gale was happy to lead me to. Having a few moments alone and coming to the glowing, transparent yellow field of magic that sealed off the hub from the wasteland, I muttered down to the cybreezie still firmly attached to my pip-buck.

"Hey, Great Tree... open the shield and lemme get the bus over here."

........

"Come on... you heard the Queen, this is what we're doing. I need that bus and I don't feel like fixing it on that side, just in case. Open up." I growled down to my hoof, feeling a little foalish talking to nopony.

UNABLE TO COMPLY...

"Don't give me that. You can open this thing if you want, I've taken a peek at your code you know. Open."

CORRECTION... REFUSE TO COMPLY...

This was actually another reason I roamed off to do boring tinkering alone, on a night of calmer reflection, I had been wondering when exactly the weird hub maneframe was going to become an issue. It had decided now was the time apparently.

"Care to explain why?"

"Yu talk tu Great Tree again Fast? What it say? Why no open?" Gale peeked over the brim of my hat and stared at the robotic breezie on my leg with wonder, her guardian deity as far as she was concerned.

"Nothing yet, I think it's pouting... maybe we should go talk to the Queen about it Gale, I bet she can convince it huh?"

NEGATIVE. ANSWERING INQUIRY... REPAIR-PONY FAST TIMES' PLANS PUT BREEZIE POPULATION AT RISK, UNACCEPTABLE DANGER TO PRIMARY CHARGES. ISOLATION HIGHEST PROBABILITY OF SAFETY.

YOUR INADVISABLE PLANS ARE UNNEEDED, YOU ARE A REPAIR-PONY, YOU REPAIR THINGS.

FIX ME.

THEN LEAVE.

So we were doing this now then, alright... "Gale, why don't you go ahead to the Tinker-tribe and tell them we're coming, I need to ...commune with the Great Tree a minute. Very spiritual like."

"Okie dokie Fast! Be right back! It dis way!" Gale fluttered off instantly, given a holy mission and off to perform it, while I sat with a thump and fumed at my pip-buck once she was out of earshot.

"Alright, let's get some things straight computer. Don't give me that highest probability bullshit and keep pretending to be a normal old maneframe. You let me in because I'm a good enough repair-pony to fix you, and you still think you can fool me?"

.......

CLARIFY....

"Cold logic, that's how other computers think of things like this. A plain old computer would kill breezies itself if that was the best logical course of action to save the rest. Whatever odds you're giving on me pulling this off, I guarantee they're higher than the absolute certainty of failure the way you were going."

CURRENT COURSE OF ACTION HAD BEEN SUCCESSFUL...

"Bullshit. You were running out of power, you're infested and dying, if we hadn't happened to show up with a convenient excuse to take a chance on, the breezies would be fucked before too long. Tell me, what estimate did you have before total shutdown?"

3.4 YEARS...

"After 200 or so already huh? Sure, plenty of time. I'm sure you would have figured something out right? Except you don't do that, do you? You've kept the breezies safe here, but you've made mistakes too. If you had been sending them out to try connecting with the world outside, you may have found somepony to do this stuff a long time ago when it was a lot easier. You could have had them do other things than just the same old stuff they did before the war, not that I don't appreciate trained medical breezies and a huge stockpile of healing potions, but you've just been letting them go to waste. You've been sitting here, doing nothing, while things got worse and worse. You're scared. Computers don't get scared."

I AM NOT. ATTEMPTS AS YOU DESCRIBE WERE CONSIDERED, POSSIBILITY OF FAILURE WENT DOWN TO 0% IF NOT IMPLEMENTED...

"So if you don't try, you can't fail huh? Except you can, it just takes longer. Not making a choice is a choice too. All that's not even bringing up what I suspect about you either..."

CLARIFY...

"The breezies had been dosed with the Institute's potion long before the last day, they tried to rejoin the normal breezies before the end, I saw the mural remember? The only ones left here should have been those who had already become fairy breezies. Scribe Blossom came up with a plausible explanation, but that's not right is it? So, how'd were the breezidores created?

UNKNOWN...

"Computers generally don't lie either. How?"

IRRELEVANT...

"How?"

HYPOTHESIS: BALEFIRE RADIATION...

"Dammit! Don't lie!! HOW!?!"

IT... IT IS MY FAULT...

"Come on, keep going. What did you do?"

EVACUATED MAXIMUM OCCUPANCY TO STABLE 95.5 TO PRESERVE PRIMARY CHARGES. STILL LEAVING 1,293 TO SUFFER RADIATION SICKNESS AND DEATH IN THE HUB. MINISTRY MARE FLUTTERSHY'S PRIME DIRECTIVE WAS TO PROTECT THE BREEZIES. ONLY ONE OPTION REMAINED TO ATTEMPT BEFORE THEY DIED AND I WAS FORCED TO WATCH.

I TRIED...

"The potion... you gave them another dose, hoped they'd adapt to the balefire hell and survive, didn't you? Well, they did, way to go..."

UNABLE TO PROCESS OPTIONS, DEATH OR MUTATION INTO NON-BREEZIE, NEITHER COURSE PRESERVED BREEZIE LIFE. TRYING = FAILURE, NOT TRYING = SUCCESS UPON OPENING OF STABLE.

NOT TRYING DEEMED OPTIMAL COURSE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE. MISSION SUCCESS FOR 208.7 YEARS VALIDATED THEORY.

"No, mission success for 212 some odd years, followed by complete and catastrophic failure. As my Grandpa Times used to say, shit or get off the pot. I don't blame you, that was a rough choice to make and turned out bad, but you can't let that scare you off ever trying again. You've been letting the breezie monarchs handle everything since then, haven't you? Just trying to keep them secret and safe, how long have they been arguing about going to the world outside?"

I DELEGATE AND SUPERVISE... DISSATISFACTION WITH CONFINEMENT HAS BEEN SUPPRESSED THROUGH WISE GOVERNANCE BY GENERATIONS OF BREEZIE KINGS AND QUEENS, SLOW COMPROMISE... USING THE ARC PROJECT STORES AND ADAPTABILITY POTION TO RESTORE PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE HAS SUFFICED, COUPLED WITH REGULAR EXPEDITIONS THAT MEET PREDICTABLE DISASTER.

"Predictable disaster, or predicted... planned disaster? Answer me really, really careful here pal. Did you send Gale out to get caught on purpose, scare them off from leaving the nest? If I think you're lying or that you tried to get her killed to prove a point, I'll go find your core and take you apart bit by bit. I don't know if smart computers can feel pain, but I'm pretty clever, I bet I can figure out something that'll hurt...."

.......

INTENTIONAL HARM TO BREEZIES AGAINST PRIME DIRECTIVES....

"Not an answer..."

KNOWN DEN OF SLAVE USING FARMERS LISTED AS POTENTIAL INVESTIGATION SITE FOR EXPEDITION AS FORMER OUTSIDE CONTRACTOR. ADVISED EXTREME CAUTION.

I DID WANT THEM TO BE SCARED. BUT ONLY BECAUSE THEY SAW AND RAN AWAY. DID NOT PREDICT EXPEDITION CAPTURE...

I AM SORRY.

"If you wanted them scared, you could have sent them somewhere with a chance of success at least!! There's plenty enough out there to scare them already! You son of a bitch!!!"

YES. I AM. WILL YOU DESTROY ME REPAIR-PONY? AFTER SO LONG, IT MAY BE A RELIEF. I WILL NOT OPPOSE IT IF YOU SO CHOOSE.

"But you won't choose yourself, will you!? Oh you bastard, you are a pony, aren't you! Or you were! I can't see being this pissed at even the smartest computer, it would at least be logical! ANSWER!"

I WAS. WHAT WILL YOU DO?

"If you were then killing you gets harder... and I really don't want to kill the breezie's 'Great Tree' protector either. No... you're going to make up for it, you're going to apologize to Gale when she can handle it, and you ARE GOING TO HELP ME. Look... I understand being scared, er... I'm sure you heard that much already, but it's ok to be scared so long as it doesn't dictate everything you do. Trying is hard, but if we don't, then nothing will be better. That's what Fluttershy wanted, to be better, even asshole computers."

BE BETTER... FLUTTERSHY...

ACCEPTED.

Before I could follow up, Gale's high voice drifted to my ears, coming back up the trail she had left on with both Ivy and Glitter behind her. "Hellooooo, see dere is Fast Shroud ponies! See who I find Fast? Dey come looking so I bring back first! Yu no get Great Tree's favor yet?"

Forced to calm the pulse of anger still pounding at my temples, I put on a wide, false smile and scrambled up, waving to the three of them and glaring up at the cybreezie at the end of my leg going along with the gesture.

"Hi! We were just having a nice talk Gale, it's fine! The Great Tree said it would open up when we were done! Isn't. That. Right?..."

In answer, the glowing shield distorted behind me, rippling and flickering until a bus shaped hole opened and let me dash out to start shoving the vehicle through quickly. The breezidores outside had gone back to being dormant at least, but I didn't want to push my luck, or give the hub maneframe time to consider locking me out...

"Better..." I growled as I kept pushing, throwing my chest against the back of the bus and digging in like Glitter had showed me earth ponies did things, calling up to her and Ivy blindly. "Nnngh! So, did you two... ungh! come to gang up on me? It won't take much, I don't like it either so... whoa!"

Trying to head the pair of fillies I loved off before they got going was cut short when the bus lurched forward, leaving me to fall flat on my face and look up to Glitter stamping her hoof in front of my muzzle, while Ivy stretched her neck around the vehicle she had harnessed herself to and easily pulled along.

"Yes! You're being mean and dumb daddy! I don't want Aunt Ivy ta go away, don't make her!" Glitter huffed at me as I scrambled up, chasing after Ivy and biting my lip seeing the pregnant mare sedately walking with the heavy bus hauled along behind her.

The green alicorn stuck her nose up and snorted at my silent panic, "Don't start Fast... I'm fine, certainly better at this than you. We agreed not to argue about it too Glitter, your father does have a point, even if no one likes it. We don't have any particularly pressing work we could be helping with, so we thought we'd spend what time we have left together Fast, that's all."

(Y-You're sure? I really don't want you to leave either Ivy, just say the word, please... We'll forget about it and...) I replied where Glitter couldn't hear, stamping down on the unspoken yelps about her pushing herself in her condition. Jade and Ivy both were lots stronger than I was, they knew what they were doing, I had to trust them and stop treating them like they were going to break from the least little thing already.

(I'm sure... mostly... Personal wants are still strange to me Fast, but I am very familiar with thinking about the greater good, you're doing a lot to make sure my sisters and I are cared for and safe, that our foals are safe... That was our mother's wish, I understand the priorities. I'm actually surprised at how hard it is though... you sort of snuck up on me and now I don't want to go. Love is enjoyable, but very complicated...) Ivy smiled and kept up a light trot down the broken cobblestone path, not even breathing hard at least.

(It's usually not quite this complicated...)

At that Ivy giggled out loud and nodded with a soft smile, "No, I believe we're in a pretty unique situation. We'll all just have to feel our way along as we go Fast, so long as we are together in our hearts, I believe we'll manage. So no more pouting young lady, you wanted to ask for a favor didn't you?"

"Oh! Right!" Glitter shook her head rapidly and galloped up between us, most of her anger blowing out like a candle as the puppy eyes came out. "I wanna go to say goodbye ta Aunt Ivy at least if your gonna be dumb dad, and see the cloud city! and get Aunt Swan!"

Well, at least she was able to turn towards the good and fun things ahead, instead of letting the bad remain as firmly fixed as they were in my mind. My daughter always amazed, teaching me a better way as often as I taught her things. "Don't you want to stay with mom and all the fairies though Glitter? We shouldn't be gone too long."

"We'll be back lots though, riiiiiight daddy? T-To see Aunt Ivy all the time and check on her? So it's fine to go for now, cause we'll be back! All. The. Time. Right!?" Wonderful... the little filly had added a new weapon to her repertoire, Jade's own sweet yet scary stare that brooked no argument was now mirrored on Glitter's smiling face.

That just made me more worried, just one daughter had taken no time to consume so much room in my heart, so easily become such a huge part of my world, not to mention figure out she could get her way with me with minimal effort. How was I supposed to survive more?

The nurse bedecked Gale landed in her silver mane and nodded along as well, joining in with her own hopeful look. "Vant go outside vith ponies too! See beeg pony world vith guide like I guide yu here! Yu take!"

"A-Alright... yes, we'll be back all the time Glitter. And yes, I guess you can go too, er both of you. You can help me keep Aunt Swan under control anyway, and I think I figured out how to cast cloudwalking properly again, finally... it shouldn't be all zappy, so you can go there safely. Plus I think you should have a much better experience outside with a friend this time Gale. So long as I'm not in trouble anymore sweetie."

When the earth pony filly leapt to my back to hug my neck tight, I breathed a sigh of relief at her bright voice. "Yay! Then I guess it's ok, I still don't like it, but if Aunt Ivy an' mommy both say so too then you guys must be right. But we hafta do fun stuff before she goes home! Not all boring fixit stuff dad!"

The uneven path we were clopping down led to 'Motool' Town, and Glitter had already spotted the grassy hill with wide, rusty metal doors and recognized it for what it was. The bare spots on the fading sign over the entrances gave her enough silhouette to see what it was originally spelled out by the cross and butterfly mark of the MoP, Motor Pool.

We passed a rusty hulk in the weedy lot outside, in much worse shape than the peeling white nose of a matching vehicle sticking out of one of the open bay doors, Ministry of Peace ambulances sitting here all this time. Hmmm... have to see about fixing one of those too sometime, a doctor like Jade deserved her own ambulance. A swarm of Tinker-tribe breezies were already coming out to meet us and cheerily lead us to a partially open empty bay as I nodded to assure her.

"I'll hurry, but Ivy will need this to bring Wicket and the others here. I bet he'll like this part of the Breezie Nation huh? They can teach each others stuff! Tingle said I can have any parts to fix the bus they broke, and we want it to be in tip-top shape for her don't we? I just hope they have... enough... to.... guh?!"

I froze and felt my jaw hang wide, staring past the head of the Tinker breezies beaming at the open lower half of the garage door and the gleaming, sparkling treasure horde behind the little breezie gremlin. He said they had a collection of parts they stole from ponies trying to reach the hub over the years, but just what I could make out already exceeded my wildest expectations and I dashed off in excitement, blurring from piles and bins of glittering talismans, crystalline circuitboards, gems of all shapes and colors, a dragon's hoard worth of parts!

"Yu like collection Shroud Fast? Ve can use to fixy bus ting?" The rust colored breezie Tingle puffed up proudly, tilting his head curiously at my manicial laughter.

"Oh yes, I like Tingle... We can have some fun with all this... hehehehehe...." They had even put the Brotherhood's power armor in here, letting me check something else off the list and undo all the damage that had been done to the two suits.

"Daaaad...." Glitter stern stamp of a hoof behind me made me pout, wiping it away as I turned back with a grin and scratched my mane sheepishly.

"Er... But we're in a hurry, so let's just focus on the bus for now, and get a good idea what's here for ....later... So Tinker-tribe, who wants to learn more about fixing instead of breaking?!"

By the squeaky shout rising up in answer, I was pretty sure I had an enthusiastic crew of helpers, so this really should go quickly. Glitter was right, we'd just have to come back often to play with the rest... at least I should be able to replenish my dwindling supply of spare parts for now.

The hub and I might both be scared of change, but there was a lot of potential everywhere and I wasn't going to repeat the mistakes the weird computer made here. Making things better wasn't going to be easy, but we were going to try.

After a long morning of enjoyable work, interspersed with frequent breaks to spend time with Glitter and Ivy of course, our vehicle was airworthy again, even better than it was new actually. Since it was going to be Ivy using this thing, I wasn't leaving anything to chance, even if it could safely fly over the forest with the 'gremlins' on our side.

The breezies put out another celebration meal for lunch, all wishing Ivy off and already buzzing about her returning with a busload of foals. I caught a few worried or agitated looks from the Securi-tribe, but even they didn't have much to complain about when it came to kids.

When we finally made the more cooperative hub open a gap in the shield, we flew off into the afternoon sky with a brightly colored cloud of well-wishers giving us the send off. Jade joined us on the trip towards Rainbow Brook, considerably shorter safely taking the skies this time, but was reluctantly returning the hub with Witchy once we were done there.

While Jade didn't like it, she was needed to keep working with Scribe Blossom and Zed who remained behind in the breezies labs, doing all the smart, doctor pony stuff the rest of us were useless at. Every moment she was safely behind the MoP shield was just a bonus.

I was very grateful to the batpony mare volunteering to stay with her too, seeming to glom onto the role of being a royal guard like she was born to it, which she was in a way I supposed... She really had decided Jade was a Princess worthy of the title and wanted to protect her for me.

A good thing as trying to suggest Val do so had been met with absolute refusal, it was too safe and too boring for the griffon's tastes. I could order her to do so, but I didn't like doing that and Val insisted she was my bodyguard, not Jade's. Zed and Witchy were more than enough to babysit her in the shielded hub according to her, she wanted action outside.

Lt. Dawn led the way to the tattered cloud town ahead, easier to spot in the clearer skies than when we arrived in the Flutter Forest. She had been happy to finally get her dark power armor back and get moving, grudgingly leaving behind her ground bound troops to keep working with the breezies and Jade, while she reported back to their order back on the Prydwen.

The red and black pegasus still sounded uncertain throwing her lot in with us and our haphazard plans though, slowing and taking a lazy course around the sky portion of Rainbow Brook, grousing back as she eyed the dirty glass-domed structure on the highest bit of fluff. "Ugh... I told you I don't know much about tech to begin with Mr. Times, but this is even worse. That is absolutely ancient, the Grand Pegasus Enclave replaced most outdated Equestrian arcano-tech like that a long time ago, are those... gears!?"

Pulling ahead to get a better look with her, I banked around the pale, silo-like building far above the lower islands of ruined homes and businesses below, taking a critical look over the corroded brass, gold and silver gears and hoops surrounding the dome. It appeared mostly intact, but frozen in place when it gave the impression of complicated clockwork that should be mechanically ticking along, carrying large chunks of crystal prisms and magical gems in wide orbits around the dome.

"Do you know how something like that is supposed to work Dawn? Like... rough idea anyway?" I kept taking in the details and building a crude schematic in my head, it was like a clock...

A really big, weird clock, but a clock. It even had a twin dialed face on the front above the doors, a faded blue wheel in the center showed a crescent moon, while a larger yellow ring around it showed a flaming sun. The way the dials clicked and ground in place with the sun and moon on top of each other didn't look healthy, and six graceful curls of cloud shaped like alicorns ringing the building dripped bits of color to a dry moat around it. Ok... so liquid rainbow came out there, then followed the channels from island to island, just like the picture the hub showed me.

"That much was under required curriculum back at the academy at least. The prisms collect sunlight and moonlight, channel it into the ...magicky type stuff inside... then make rainbows." Dawn answered and huffed at my flat stare back, "W-What?"

"Magicky type stuff?"

"I'm a soldier, not a repair nerd or student of pegasi archaeology! You wanted a rough idea, that's it. I might have a guess what happened anyway... see the dials? The maneframe said it stopped working a few years after the war right? That was probably around the time the sun and moon went crazy for a little while, they were in the sky at the same time, if that thing worked off their movements, it probably wasn't very good for it." Dawn replied and stunned me with her guess at the problem, not that it wasn't a good one, but...

"BOTH?! The sun and moon were both!?! H-How!? Why!? What!?!"

A smug look spread on Dawn's exposed muzzle I was sure was mirrored on the rest of her face hidden behind her helmet, drifting lower and nodding. "That was the general reaction by the Enclave at the time too. They're not managed by the Princesses anymore, so they went a little wild. The moon even completely covered the sun once, caused all kinds of chaos, maybe that broke this place."

"She is correct Fast, not that most ponies know to this day... with the skies closed off as they were, hmm Lieutenant? Do you think you can repair it dear?" Jade flew up beside us to defend me from Dawn's smirking answer, asking my appraisal hopefully.

"Maaaaybe... if it's like a clock it might just be jammed. I need to get inside, take a look and... shit... company!" We had drifted close enough for E.F.S. to start lighting up with red dashes, the low growls and hissings below picked up by my flicking ears, zombies...

We hadn't seen hide nor hair of any undead ponies in the entire forest, but the cloud portion of Rainbow Brook did not follow the pattern. More like typical wasteland wrecks outside the woods, even worse actually since not many ponies could reach these lofty ruins. That and at least the ratio of pegasi zombies was fairly balanced with earth and unicorns normally, or a little less than the other two groups on the ground, up here it was all pegasi... flying up to meet us...

"Jade! Ivy! Shields! Stay back!" I yelped and fell like a stone to meet the oncoming horde, ignoring the two alicorn's complaints as the bright bubbles of blue and green formed around them and Glitter.

I was trying hard enough to realize I was being overprotective again, but I wasn't ashamed of that here, we'd just have to get used to it together. As far as I was concerned, no undead belonged within miles of two pregnant mares, I wanted them safely back and to get all the zombie's attention on myself as quickly as possible.

Being so worried about them, I had forgotten Spring Gale was still riding my hat, giving a frightened squeal as I dove. "Eeeee! No dive at monsters Shroud Fast! Scary!!"

"Sorry Gale! Get under my hat and hold on tight!" I yelped back, already dedicated to my course of action and too worried for her to tell her to fly back, she'd make too tempting a snack for the undead rising up to meet us rapidly.

At least zombie's generally sloppy movements put us on something close to even terms in the air, even featherless, dead wings were faster than I was, but they surged forward mindlessly in a flock, all slobbering, snapping jaws and vicious, blank eyes. Obviously they didn't get the opportunity for many meals up here...

KRAKA-THOOM!

A blast of lightning while diving straight down only made me hitch in the air, blowing a hole through the wall of undead I tried to widen with the Terrible Shotgun and Deliverer as I plunged through. I heard Val's angry screech and the zaps and gunfire of the others following, red and pink magical energy beams piercing the mob as I barreled through to the other side.

Battered by the attacks suffered on the way and lurching in the air to right myself, a quick glance back showed I had successfully made myself the main course. I thought I was doing fairly well actually, until the half dozen red marks remaining ahead of me made themselves known, tufts of cloud surrounding the clockwork building I was banking around sprang up, revealing advanced turrets that immediately started tracking my clumsy maneuvers.

The turrets that activated looked split between magical energy weapons and armor piercers, a trio of rounds from the latter punched my side and right wing, sending me down into a tailspin my skills were not up to pulling me out of. Crashing directly into a mound of fluff outside the clockwork factory, they at least lost sight of their target, taking aim at Val, Witchy and Lt. Dawn above, while the one that had hit me started chewing up the sea of white I found myself in.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I yelped and burrowed my way deeper, making like a hellhound through the malleable ground cloud and wincing at a couple lucky rounds only slowed by my magical armor. They weren't targeting the zombies... even dead, the former residents here counted as authorized, while we weren't, fantastic...

Shoving myself forward frantically, at least I wasn't flying completely blind. Eyes Forward Sparkle and the roaring chatter of the machinegun turret ahead led me forward, getting close enough to pop up like a jack in the box and activate S.A.T.S. before it could get a lock again.

Half a dozen more slugs from the Terrible Shotgun turned the turret to scrap, along with a second in range to spin on me when time resumed. That gave me just enough breathing room to struggle against the fluffy ground, trying to pull my hindlegs free before a dozen zombies could dive down and reach me. The rest were a frantic swarm above, chasing Val, Witchy and Lt. Dawn as the three expert fliers put me to shame overhead.

Of course that left me on my own, popping free finally and scrambling to run before the zombies could descend on me, my hurt wing dragging beside me and tinting the pale surface with blood along with my other wounds. Deliverer spun in my magic and silently sent out an extended clip worth of rounds behind me, blindly finding targets to slow them down as I staggered forward.

Another turret was tracking me ahead, spinning on grinding gears and unleashing a barrage of magical energy beams that lit the clouds up as they traced towards me. Wincing against the pain, I jumped and flapped for all I was worth with only one good wing, continuing my course directly at the turret. The gamble paid off somewhat at least, I heard the distinctive sound of at least a couple zombies behind me turning to ash before the turret adjusted, the dark bore of the barrel zeroing in as I flailed helplessly in the air mid-crash.

I flinched at the bright pink glow signaling a lot of pain or sudden disintegration coming my way if I was unlucky. Cracking one clenched eye open in surprise on hearing 'zap zap zap' but not being torched, I saw a flickering green shield between me and the automated weapon. Before I could scan the skies for Ivy swooping by hauling the bus behind her above, another alicorn shield joined the first, a bright blue ball dropping like a cannonball right on top of the turret, smashing it to a pile of junk as Jade leapt to me and brought me into the bubble of protection.

Gasping as my Princess' long horn lit up and started healing my wounds, I looked in panic from her to the snarling zombies throwing themselves against the glowing barrier, opening my mouth to freak out about her throwing herself into the fray like this and shushed instantly by a big blue hoof. "No. Do not start Fast, we stick together. I am keeping my safety in mind first, but I will not leave you hurt and alone here when I can help, neither will sister Ivy."

Past the halo of Jade's soft pale mane, I could see her green sister swooping by, a powerful shield surrounding herself and the foal on her back, but still firing bright green beams from her horn, raining magical destruction down on the zombies battering the bubble of Jade's shield. Watching her fly by as my wounds slowly knit back together, I could feel her cool voice in my head agreeing with her sister.

(Listen to her Fast, we concur on this. We protect each other, it is not all on you.) Ivy admonished me and I could feel her in my head, rifling around up there and observing the curious mental battle going on.

Seeing the slobbering zombies inches away from my Jade, more of them chasing Ivy above... a glowing ember of fury was flaring to life. The gentle voices of the Ministry Mares were rising up to fight it, 'Be Strong!' and 'Be Unwavering!' helping me force myself to my hooves as my damaged wing straightened and flexed under Jade's care. Even the recently strengthened voice of 'Be Kind...' and the nervously giggling 'Awareness!' were having trouble against their darker counterpart though...

For some reason, it seemed like 'Be Dark...' got stronger at night and the sun was already setting. Close enough to wake up with the two mares carrying my children in danger, it was surging past the Ministry Mares and trying to take over, bringing a spike of pain between my eyes as they started burning.

"Let me out..." I winced and growled, keeping my eyes away from Jade and tipping my hat to dislodge Gale, letting her flutter to Jade's cloudy mane and safety.

"Y-You are still hurt, let the rest of us deal with this for a moment and..." Jade answered softly, worry at that furious tone evident in her voice, making no move to open her shield in the slightest.

Best Served floated out and to my mouth as I tried again, mumbling around the handle and trying to manage that steady beat of 'Be Dark...' raging to take over. Jade and Ivy in danger was providing it a shortcut to getting control, my worst impulses stoked by the thought of my unborn foals being threatened.

I barely recognized my own voice when it hissed out again, the spoken words echoing that shadowy Shroud in my head. "Let. Me. Out..."

"F-Fast... calm down, one moment and..." Jade tried to soothe me unsuccessfully, lightly touching my shaking shoulder and pulling away as arcs of electricity flickered around me.

'MINE' growled out in my head, overwhelming every other thought. I wanted out, wanted to kill them all, tear them to pieces for daring to dirty my Princess' shield, for chasing Ivy with naked hunger in their dead eyes. They all deserved to be destroyed, now...

The world seemed to lurch suddenly, leaving my stomach a few feet away as I opened my eyes and saw the bubble of Jade's shield a few feet away, a flicker of electricity barely visible within, beyond all the snarling zombies, a few of which had turned to face me in my new position. I teleported?

Whatever, I was out and flapping above the horde on a mostly healed wing, how I got here didn't matter. If 'Be Dark...' had helped, that was fine, I was even in agreement with it and willing to let it off the leash a bit. Nobody, dead or alive, nobody went after Jade or Ivy now, they were 'MINE'.

My muscles tensed with a surge of strength and I moved smoothly, diving at the zombies just realizing where I had gone and turning from the blue alicorn beyond their reach. I dove at them, twisting and rolling in the air with unconscious grace, Vengeance joining Deliverer in my magic as I plowed forward, jerking my head with Best Served flashing out and slicing the undead creatures to ribbons.

Disturbingly, the gore and blood I was quickly coated with felt good... each S.A.T.S. assisted headshot that blew rotting brains out of squishy heads felt good, even the distant bites and flailing hooves pummeling me as I flapped and spun in the thick of the zombies felt good. I snarled and bucked back, tossing zombies aside with earth pony strength, falling into a vicious rhythm of destruction, slashing, shooting, punching, flying, killing...

The rest of the turrets were forgotten, I would vaguely hope the others were taking care of them, but they were forgotten too. Val, Witchy, Lt. Dawn... they were still fighting somewhere, I was distantly aware of that, but all that stayed focused in my mind was Jade, Ivy and Glitter. And the zombies of course, enemies... monsters that dared try to harm MINE... my mares, my children...

Slowly that red rage faded and I found myself panting on the cloudy ground, legs and wings spread protectively in front of Jade's glowing shield, blackened blood and gore dripping off my coat. I could feel Ivy's mental presence watching me carefully again, she had been doing that so often I had gotten used to it, but didn't say much about what she found up there. I couldn't blame her for checking up on me now either... There were a lot of dead zombies around me somehow... like... a lot...

"Fast.... A-Are you alright?" Jade called over worriedly, helping me shake off the last of that dark anger and take a shaky breath before turning back to her, forcing a weak smile on my face and nodding.

"F-Fine... I'm fine Jade, a-are you alright?" I looked up into her concerned blue eyes, noting how dim her shield had gotten and the shocked looking breezie half hidden in her mane staring at all the destruction with wonder.

Spring Gale had never seen me fight, had ran away when I freed her from Summerset Plantation, after kindly healing me from the wounds I had gotten up to that point, but hadn't seen what led to me being in that state. Now she knew... she had seen this part of the 'beeg pony world', the casual violence that was just part of living in the wasteland.

My ears drooped at the frightened tone in her squeaky voice, sighing and taking slow steps towards Jade as her shield faded away with E.F.S. mostly clear of red. "Yu sure yu ok Fast? Vas scary! Yu make dead ponies deader, not know yu be so mean und scary!"

"I promise, I'm good Gale. S-Sorry if I scared you... I-Is everybody alright?"

Glancing around frantically, I saw Val turn a pair of zombies chasing her to ash and veer our way, the chatter of Witchy's silver combat rifle coinciding with a few more red dashes winking out on E.F.S., Ivy's kind voice spoke in my head as the shadow of the bus she was hauling crossed overhead and she landed nearby. (We are fine Fast. Calm down, stop trying so hard to keep us out of danger, we can handle ourselves you know... You are beginning to worry me.)

(I know... really I do. I can't help it though. I'll try harder, I promise.)

With Jade's shield down, I ran into her embrace as she returned to healing my wounds, only breaking it off because Ivy had landed and unhitched herself, trotting up with Glitter bouncing on her back. I dove for the pair and nuzzled the green alicorn as well, getting my breathing under control against her silky green breast.

Pulling away from her was hard, made slightly easier reaching up to kiss the foal on her back to her giggles. As far as Glitter was concerned, this was just another fun family outing with her insane parents. She was so trusting and sure of us that she was never scared, more impressed at Ivy's flying skills than anything else, apparently she had gotten quite a ride.

"That was awesome daddy! Aunt Ivy's really fast! She's way better at crazy flying than you or mom! We did loops!" The little filly squealed happily, totally inured to the fear and violence, ignoring the black blood I was trying to keep off her as she reached for a hug.

"Well, I could do such things dear... i-if I wanted! Mostly... I admit my sister is more graceful than I, but I also take care not to jostle or frighten you Glitter." Jade pouted back, our daughter's ringing endorsement of Ivy's aerial skills wounding her pride.

Realizing she had been hurtful, Glitter instantly leapt from Ivy and to her mother, launching herself at the big blue mare and squeezing her in a hug Jade happily returned. "It's ok mom! I like flying with you! It was just different!"

While they were engaged in their embrace, Val landed nearby, grinning at the pile of corpses before turning to saunter towards the imposing doors of the tower looming overhead. The clockwork building was ancient, no fancy electronic locks, just a large brass keyhole waiting for her talented claws that she immediately went after.

"Not bad boss! Nice gettin' a good workout again huh? Ok, let's see what kinda boring crap is in here..." Val seemed perfectly happy, even bleeding from several wounds Jade started fretting over as she worked. A calm and relatively safe stay with the breezies had left her itching for action, stretching out her wings and legs as defeated she the old lock.

Witchy and Lt. Dawn drifted down as Val pulled the large doors open with a creak, peering into the gloom inside and goggling with me as I peeked around her. What waited inside was enough to make me gulp, intimidated at the maze of clockwork gears and gems crammed into every inch of available space.

I had enough time to make out there were two sets of gears, silver and gold... they appeared made to smoothly operate around each other, but Lt. Dawn must be right, the sun and moon both being in the sky had jammed them as they tried to move the lenses and prisms circling the tower to match the celestial objects. As I watched, I could see the machinery steadily grinding against itself, ticking and stopping at the jam each time.

Far above, just under the dirty glass dome above, was a huge crystalline chamber containing a very dense, fluffy white cloud, that looked to be the focus of all the complicated works. Six rusty pipes ran from the huge gem to the spouts on the walls, each dripping a different color in stagnant puddles.

I was so absorbed in the fantastic ancient arcano-tech clockwork, it took a moment to realize that E.F.S. was lighting up with more red marks, groans and growls coming from zombies pulling themselves free of the grinding machinery at our entrance. They wore rags of multicolored jumpsuits, one or two even had hardhats on still... the workers here, still on duty after all these years.

Raising my weapons again wearily, I glanced back to Jade and Ivy, pushing Glitter behind them as their shields bloomed back to life and they each gave me a stern look. Best to just keep my mouth shut and focus on the problem at hoof...

"Try not to damage the machinery any more than it already is... No explosives Val." I groaned and pulled out the Last Minute while the zombies were still moving slow, lining up my shots carefully to not destroy any more of the clockwork within.

"Bah! Yer borin' boss! Fine, I'll be careful. Takin' a look around to scavenge when you're all set up here though, bet nobody's gone over this place yet! Think of the loot!" Val cheerily shouted back and started blasting away with her red M.E.W. and huge pistol, apparently using S.A.T.S. herself by her short pauses between very accurate shots.

"I think you'll have plenty of time Val, just make sure to umm... you know...." I whispered back, nodding over my shoulder to Jade and Ivy sheepishly.

"Yeah, yeah, guard duty, I know boss. They'll be safe ya big baby! Now get ta work!" With a happy squawk Val soared into the cramped chamber and deftly dodged around the frozen gears, carefully taking out one zombie after the next as they clumsily tried to follow the agile griffon.

Honestly the zombies didn't intimidate me nearly as much as the machinery... But we were here and needed to make this thing work, it was just a big clock... I had taken apart plenty of those growing up and learning to be a repair-pony, same thing... really... just bigger.

Much bigger...

It was full dark by the time I had made significant progress, very grateful to have found a maintenance room thanks to Val's talented claws that had a good supply of replacement parts, plus, more importantly, blueprints... This thing was so complex I couldn't keep a good mental map in my head, even with the plans I had to keep flapping up and tracing down gears and cogs, gliding back down to Jade, Ivy and Glitter holding the sheet sized blueprints up for me to puzzle over before going back up again.

Witchy had been a big help too, first just trying to be helpful by cleaning the glass dome showing the night sky above and the assorted mirrors and gems, then more directly helping when I realized I could use her talents. Those fluffy ears of hers could hear every grind and click of the gears around her, tracing down problems by sound alone and leading me unerringly to them. She didn't have any technical knowledge to really use her talent, but she simply said it sounded "Wrong..." and helped trace down one fix after another.

Lt. Dawn had joined Val outside, going from one level of cloud islands to the next, steadily wiping out zombies as they pulled themselves from the ruins below. I did notice the fiery griffon swooping by the doors repeatedly before going back to work, keeping an eye out on Jade and Ivy loyally while I worked.

Finally, I was pretty sure I had the problem licked, drifting back down to the central pillar of rusty pipes and the large lever I had pulled with some effort to stop the clockwork from grinding against itself during the biggest repairs. Grunting and shoving myself against it, the lever reengaged with a shudder above and... nothing...

I looked up desperately at the steady click above, going over everything in my head again and trying to figure out the problem. In frustration, I resorted to Sturges' wasteland repair tips, flapping my way up to the point where the silver and gold gears meshed where they shouldn't and giving a hard buck.

Surprisingly, it worked! The frozen gears came free and the whole mechanism started up with a cacophony of ticking that made me lay my ears back, looking down at Witchy holding her own fluffy ears with her hooves and backing towards the door. I had to dive out of the way of swinging armatures and suddenly moving clockwork, realigning itself as it came back to life.

I ran outside with Witchy and looked up at the huge loops of gold and silver clicking around the dome above, a silver hoop bringing a freshly cleaned mirror around and toward the waning moon in the starry sky. Once it was in position, a beam of moonlight reflected off it, over to another gear driven circle holding a giant crystalline prism, the beam of moonlight hit the crystal, splitting into a wide band of rainbow light and bouncing inside, leaving me to dash back inside to follow its path and marvel at the ancient machinery coming back to life.

Craning my neck far above with the others, I watched the beam of rainbows hit the giant crystal chamber under the dome. It seemed to bounce around inside the crystal, swirling around the dense, fluffy cloud inside rapidly and coalescing into a blinding, multicolored light that filled the chamber. The rusty pipes I had patched as well as possible shuddered and clanked, put under pressure for the first time in centuries, but holding up to the strain thankfully.

Everyone followed me outside this time, running out to see the cloudy spouts shaped into stylized pony heads that poured bright, primary colored water out into the moat around the building. I galloped around the round tower in glee, checking each spout and watching the moat fill with their colors swirling together, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple... they came together and ran down the dry channels in a band of rainbow.

Glitter was right on my hooves, laughing in delight as we raced after the flowing water. I was glad I put so much work into figuring out how to cast proper cloudwalking again, the little filly was free to run with me to the edge of this island and watch the flow of rainbow cascade down to the pool below us and continue on.

"That's great daddy! It's so pretty!! It's gonna go all the way down to the ground and through the forest? Back to the tree and the breezies?" Glitter gasped, her pink eyes wide as she followed the flowing band of rainbows brightening the island of ruined buildings below us as it snaked its way towards the next fall.

Spring Gale had settled on riding the little filly's head while I had been working, peeking over her silver mane to watch with her and beaming up at me. "Yu fix! It go tu Great Tree? Make all better?!"

"It should yeah. I don't think it will make it all better Gale, but it will definitely help a lot. When I come back with help, we'll finish helping the Great Tree just like I promised."

The little breezie mare whooped and fluttered up, giving my entire face a warm hug and rubbing her cheek against my brow happily. "Yu good pony Shroud Fast! Thank yu! I knew good ponies were out here!"

Ivy interrupted the odd embrace, curling a large green wing over me and nuzzling my cheek. "Yes, he is a very good pony Gale. I will miss him... Fast, now that you are done, why don't you take a break. I believe Valkyrie and Glitter are both anxious to go rooting through the ruins before we leave anyway, and it is getting late, I would like to take a meal with everyone again before we go our separate ways. Take a walk with me hmm?"

Jade joined her sister and nodded sweetly, "Yes Fast, a little more time before we part will not hurt. I would enjoy a brief break together as well, a-and a moonlit stroll?"

I nodded dumbly at the two beautiful mares, counting myself lucky to spend time together and fluttering up between them happily. "R-Right! It is already getting late, Glitter should eat and exploring a little won't hurt thanks to Val and Dawn's work! It's pretty safe right?"

Before Val could nod proudly, Lt. Dawn cut her off, stamping her hoof down on a fluff of cloud and glaring. "I need to get back, we're on a mission, taking time to be lovely-dovey is not on the schedule Mr. Times!"

"We can make time Dawn. This is important too. Besides, we still have to go down below and talk to Sledge and the minotaurs, take time to smell the roses, maybe you'll find something here the Brotherhood wants or something."

She snorted frustration as I floated Glitter to my back and flapped after Jade and Ivy already gliding down to a residential island below that the waterfall of rainbow was just reaching. We soared together happily, looping around the plummeting rainbows and landing on a winding street surrounded by tattered, wispy cloud homes.

All the dead zombies in the streets and yards kind of put a damper on romance, but it was safe enough to let Glitter down to run around on her glowing hooves, still marveling at the novelty of walking in the clouds and making me nervous as she dug through the ruins with Gale on her back.

Ivy seemed to be leading us, nudging me along with Jade at my side following her lead. The green alicorn eventually spoke up in my mind, creating a connection of unity between the three of us to talk silently and share more completely, mind to mind. (Fast... I am still unhappy at leaving you. You asked me to help because you were afraid for your mental state and to help deal with the communities you met on this little tour of yours. I understand and reluctantly agree that I should go... f-for now... but could you not find another of our green sisters to come in my place?)

(I err... I don't know many greens as well as you Ivy, having a mare around that can look in my head is kinda personal. I don't mind you, it's nice with you... but one I'm not close to? I don't know... I guess there's Lime back at the castle, she joined the Minutemares... But I promised Swan next, I keep my promises. I don't want you to go, but we'll have to make do without you for awhile. It'll be ok!)

Her kind green eyes looked back and Ivy nickered, exasperation and amusement flowing with her thoughts. (Yes, you keep your promises... I extracted the same one from you after all and am very pleased with the results. But does it have to be Swan? I care for my sister, but Swan is... not very diplomatic... or subtle...)

Jade snorted at that and joined in, an anxious kind of laughter coming with her sweet mental voice. (No, she is not. I agree with Ivy, one of my green sisters would be better Fast. Lime is fine with me, she is a fine mare, you can see how you like her at least?)

(Swan should be fine! She wants to help and she's tough, we may need her kind of help right now more than what you can help me with Ivy. Why are you two both insisting on a green? You're not telling me something... I can feel it like this you know, even if I'm not very good at the whole unity thing. What's wrong?)

Ivy paused in the crumbling, cloudy street, stopping our stroll and watching as Glitter dove in tattered topiary shaped clouds in a yard nearby. She finally looked back with a sigh, a hint of worry in her eyes and thoughts touching mine as she swept a hoof out, taking in our surroundings. (I want you to take a green instead because you were right to ask for my help. If I can no longer be with you to give it for awhile, you should have another of my sisters do so. Do you recognize this place Fast?)

Tilting my head at her watchful gaze, I shrugged and took a better look around at her urging. This island was basically a winding loop of a street with ruined cloud homes on either side, the rainbows spilled down on the opposite end of the island, pooling and snaking their way down to the next under us. I never really went to pegasus towns before, why would this be familiar? Actually... why was it familiar?

Now that she pointed it out and got me to look, I felt that twinge of pain between my eyes again, just like I had in the ground portion or Rainbow Brook far below our hooves. With the rainbows flowing again, that sense of deja vu was even stronger, this was how it should look, but why did I know that? Why did I feel that so strongly?

(Ummmm..... No? Yes? S-Sorta... it's familiar... but I can't remember. I don't know why it would be, I never went to cloud towns really, except a couple times when I was really young, to see my grandparents... My... g-grandparents...)

I could feel Ivy digging in my head, a gentle touch I had gotten so used to I disregarded it most of the time. Now she was tracing down the memory I was struggling to recall, I did go to a pegasus town to see Grandma and Grandpa Skies... but I was pretty young and...

(...and there is a blank there... is there not?) Ivy spoke in my head softly, mentally prodding me down the paths she was following in my head.

I had been here.... right here. In Rainbow Brook, on this island... in a house... what? Why was the memory so hazy? I could remember lots of other stuff from that age well enough, hell, I could recite plots of most episodes of the Shrouded Stallion radio show and I only heard them just once or twice at that age, but Ivy was right.... There was a weird gap in my recollection, frustrating every effort to recall it clearly. (Yeah... there is... But why?)

Ivy's brow furrowed as I felt her concentration increase, I kept getting diverted away from that memory, but she was able to plow a path towards it as she spoke. (I don't know why, but it is troubling... It's almost like the kind of thing the Ministry of Peace did treating Wartime Stress Disorder, by making ponies forget painful thoughts and memories... but not quite. Part of it is still there, focus Fast, which house?)

My eyes narrowed as I scanned the street, fighting that growing headache and looking around carefully, I followed my hooves down the street at a trot. They seemed to know where to go better than I did. As I went I checked ruined home after home, trying to ignore the corpses and decay, imagining the place as it must have looked before the end.

"No... no... no..." I muttered to myself, absently noting Glitter falling in with her mother and Ivy behind me as I kept clopping down the cloudcrete streets. Finally I stopped, staring at a mailbox outside a tidy little cottage on a spur of cloud, overlooking where the rainbows cascaded down. This was it...

It had a figure eight on its side painted on the rusty surface, along with a peeling purple shield I had a hard time making out as I approached. The 8 symbol was vaguely familiar... "Grandpa Fin...." I managed to croak out after enough time, taking slow steps forward, up the walk to the door hanging on the hinges.

(What was that? Your grandfather's name was Fin?) Jade asked with interest, any time she got to learn about my family she seemed happy and curious, wanting to find out all she could about normal pony families.

(Er... Grandpa Infinite Skies... Everypony called him Fin for short and I was little... 'Infinite' was a mouthfull. He... He lived here. I came here to see him once... Ivy? Why can't I remember?!)

(That is one of the things that has been concerning me lately Fast. Since we've come here, you've had multiple instances where you come close to a memory, only to be diverted away again. Someone has meddled in your head before... and I do not care for it.) Ivy answered quietly, sticking close as I trudged towards the door.

"Daddy?... A-Are you ok? What's goin' on? You guys are doin' that talkin' in your heads thing again, aren't you? No fair! I wanna hear! What's wrong!?" Glitter yelped and galloped to my side, taking in my shaking steps and the sweat forming on my brow. I was scaring her... but I couldn't stop either, I had to see...

Val must have noticed the commotion, the bright griffon came swooping down and landed on the peaked roof ahead of me, giving an owl-like look of curiosity as she drew her pistol. "What's the deal boss? Problem?"

"Nothing Valkyrie... W-We believe your father was here before dear, when he was your age or younger. Would you like to see pictures? I still have many with me... n-now that I see this home, it does look familiar, one moment!" Jade tried to soothe the anxious filly on my heels and answer Val, floating out a train of family photos from her medical box saddlebags and rapidly flicking through them.

The winding ribbon of faded photos floating in Jade's talented telekinesis got me to pause, looking back with Glitter as Jade scanned the ones quickly shuffling in front of her muzzle. Her blue eyes widened as they hung on the ones flicking by, stopping the looping swirls of pictures orbiting her and floating them back to a neat stack as she hovered several up for us to see.

She seemed a little embarrassed and worried through our connection, speaking silently as Glitter hopped up to look with me. (I told you I like your photos... You were so cute! They were with the one I showed before... the breezie migration? I... I have kept them in order...)

Pictures of the cottage before the end hovered in front of my eyes, neat and tidy, bright flowers growing up front. Pictures of mom squeezing me in a hug with a grey maned, midnight blue pegasus, a pale lilac streak in her curly mane and fancy red glasses. Dad in the background looking down at his glowing hooves worriedly... he didn't like going up to the clouds to visit...

"Grandma!!" I yelled as it clicked, remembering the mare I only saw infrequently when I was young, before we hid in the Stable and everything ended... I shot forward and dove for the preserved home, leaving the others to scramble after me as I passed the rusty mailbox, a sideways figure eight and purple shield of clouds, Grandpa Infinite Skies and Grandma Resolute Skies... Their marks, their home, I really was at my grandparents home again!

I barged in, forgetting myself in my excitement. The living room was dusty but how I remembered it, lots of doilies and fluffy, overstuffed furniture, tiny bits of cracked or broken statues and collectibles, maybe that's where I got my pack rat tendencies? Grandma Res liked all kinds of knick knacks, the pictures on the walls were all gone though...

"Grandpa Fin! Granny Res?! I'm... I'm here... t-to visit..." I called out to the house, coming back to myself and suddenly worried I'd get an answer. Maybe a growl of a zombie grandparent...

Thankfully there was nothing, though I was suddenly sad, a zombie would have been horrible, but a ghoul grandparent would explain how well kept everything looked. Maybe they 'lived' through the end, stayed home where it was safe... maybe they were just out somewhere? I walked through the dusty dining room and poked my head in Grandma Res' well kept kitchen, where she made me peanut butter and daisy sandwiches, finding nothing but empty cabinets and gloom.

I looked back to the others stopped just inside the door, Jade watching with wide, shimmery eyes, Glitter looking about in confusion, Ivy keeping a scrutinizing gaze locked on me, Val huffing sadly and waiting. Why were they all looking at me like that? Maybe it was dumb calling for what were most likely long dead grandparents, but there was a chance right?

Turning away from their penetrating but supportive looks, I cantered in further, hitting the stairs and noting all the pictures that lined them were gone. Maybe they got out? Granny would never leave her photos, she passed her love of family pictures down to mom, the reason Jade had some to jar my memory actually. If they were gone, she must have packed them all up and evacuated!

The peaked roof made the upstairs narrow and angled to match its pitch, there was mom's old room where we stayed when we visited... the big bed mom and dad took was neatly made, covered with a rotting wonderbolts blanket from when she was a filly. The small cot for me was folded up and rusting away in the closet just where we left it.

My grandparents room was across the hall, I ducked back out of the guest room and ran to it, stopped by the locked door in my way. "Val! Please open this!" I yelped behind me, shaking the door in my hooves, dreaming of a note... 'We survived, escaped to ...X... find us there...' something!

Val strode forward down the hall and paused at the dinky lock, it would open if she looked at it hard, but instead she just stared at me kindly. "Boss... you sure you want me to... I don't know if it's a good idea...."

"Please Val!! Open it! This was my grandparents room! Maybe they left something that.... just open it!!"

Reluctantly the griffon shrugged back to Jade cresting the stairs and flicked her claws at the lock, raking the tumblers and clicking it open in a flash. As soon as it was open, I dashed past her, ignoring Jade's soft words of caution and skidding to a halt at the ornate old bed, freezing as I took in the shape atop the still bright quilt.

A skeleton... a dead pony... a dead pegasus, delicate wing bones splayed under it. It had been laid out lovingly, surrounded by long dead and dried out flowers, a few of which were clasped in bleached forelegs crossed on its chest. The cracked red glasses on the bony muzzle told the rest of the story and hot tears started spilling down my cheeks.

"G-Grandma..." I croaked weakly, reaching a foreleg out to her own dead hooves and stopping short, shaking in place and blubbering. That was Granny Res... she was dead... she died a long time ago. I knew that, I knew that back in the Stable and accepted it when we left her behind, but I never knew-knew, not for sure...

Now I did....

Jade's light touch to my shoulder made me jerk, looking up with blurry eyes to her own shimmering blue gaze. "Fast... I am sorry..."

That broke the dam, I threw myself at the big blue alicorn and sobbed into her chest. I knew she was dead, I knew this was stupid to be surprised and sad all over again. I cried for her in the Stable when I was a foal and my parents explained everyone above ground was dead, including grandma and grandpa, but it still hurt so much.

It hurt seeing the pile of bones that used to be my granny, the kind mare who gave me candy and kisses, who was always happy to see me, who sang me to sleep and tickled me awake. She was gone... she really was gone and it hurt all over again, like tearing off a scab for the wound to bleed and hurt fresh again. And I had basically forgotten her! What was wrong with me!?

Jade's warm wings curled around me and hid my shame as I wept and clutched her silky chest, soaking her lab coat and shuddering against her worried nuzzling. Dead... Grandma was dead... dead and gone... forever. I cried and cried, realizing all over again the horror of coming back out to the world above. Grandpa was dead, my teacher was dead, my classmates were dead, my neighbors were dead, millions of ponies were dead a long time ago because of a stupid war, but none of them mattered as much as Granny Res.

Glitter's quiet voice finally cut off my tapering sniffles, getting me to peek out from Jade's wings at the little filly. She had pushed her way into the room, reverently approaching the bed and hooking her little hooves at the edge to peer up at the skeleton. Her pink eyes were wide and sad, turning back to her backpack and digging around with her muzzle a moment, she pulled out bright pink flowers she had picked playing in the grounds of the MoP hub below.

"U-Umm... Hi... G-Great grandma I guess... It's nice to meet you, I wish I had before... but you're my daddy's grandma, so I'm happy I got to see you! H-Here... you should have fresh flowers, they're really pretty! I picked them for fun, but I want you to have them. M-My name's Platinum Glitter, I never had a grandma or a great one, so I'm really happy to meet you even though... My daddy's the best, he saved me, he loves me and... and he loves you too, w-we're family right? I'm glad you had his mom and his mom had him. Your grandson is the bestest daddy ever, so... so be happy an' proud. Don't worry, we're big heroes and... w-we'll find my grandma, y-your daughter I mean, we will! A-Ain't that right daddy?" The pale little filly pressed her makeshift bouquet among the dried one on Granny's chest and wiped her eyes, looking up to me with a worried, hopeful look that helped me push back the flood of hurt and depression.

I sniffled and rubbed my teary eyes forcefully, nodding and pulling away from Jade's concerned embrace to go hug Glitter gratefully. She was right, a lot tougher than I was in a lot of ways thanks to growing up in this world, reminding me of what was important, the here and now and the future. I curled around her warmth in a tight ball, furling my dark wings around her and sniffling in her silver mane.

"R-Right! We will Granny, don't worry. We're gonna find mom and dad and Better, I'll bring them here so they can visit you! F-For now, I'm glad you got to see your great granddaughter at least. T-This is my w-wife Jade too, so your granddaughter in law? That's Val there, she's family too, and so is Jade's sister Ivy see? And... and Jade and Ivy are gonna have more great grandkids for you! T-That I wish you could meet... I... I made lots of friends, just like you always said I would someday. See them?"

Jade took a few tentative steps forward and bowed her head to the bed gracefully, speaking in a whisper to the bones before us. "Yes... I am pleased to meet you as well. I love your grandson very much, you did well raising a daughter that had such a brave stallion. We will leave you to your rest, but we will be sure to visit again, with the rest of your family. Come Fast... please?"

I let Jade's wing guide me away, trudging down the hall past Val and Ivy's concerned looks, down the stairs, to the overstuffed couch in the living room where I once watched game shows with my grandparents without a care in the world. I flopped to the spongy, musty cushions and curled up, raising a wing for Glitter to wiggle her way against me and taking comfort in her patient hug back, letting tears dribble down my face buried in the crocheted pillows and whimpering in a cracked voice from where I hid.

"If we're resting a bit, I want to here... I'm tired. W-We'll leave soon, just... gimme a minute."

The old couch gave a warning creak as Jade climbed up, crawling over top of the two of us and wedging her way at my back, nuzzling my cheek softly and kissing away tears as she whispered back. "Take your time Fast. It is alright, I love you, we are here for you. Rest."

The couch couldn't take another alicorn, leaving Ivy stymied and forced to curl up in front of it, still making it groan as she leaned against it and pushed her muzzle near mine. Her soft kiss licked up a salty tear too and she settled in with us, thinking warm, kind thoughts at me. (I love you as well Fast. I am sorry to make you remember, but I worry... Sleep and let me in your dreams, there are still things that concern me and you deserve sweet ones.)

"Boss... hey boss.... wake up. C'mon, somethin' for ya to tinker with... know ya love that stuff right?" Val's normally gruff voice was muted and filled with sympathy, rousing me out of a short nap that left me feeling better even after I remembered where I was.

I looked up from my soft, warm nest of Jade at my back, Glitter in my legs and Ivy nuzzling against my cheek. Jade had stayed awake and moved aside slowly, helping me shift Glitter without waking her, only getting a tired moan as her little hooves moved from me to her mother and clutched tightly. I nearly fell into the dusty coffee table that held a copy of Applied Gemstones, putting my hindleg down first and tripping against Ivy, but managed to catch myself and blink sleepily up to the worried griffon.

"Huh? What's wrong Val? How long have we..."

"Not long, gotta get goin' soon 'fore that Brotherhood mare loses her shit, but me an the bat been keepin' her away. C'mere, somethin' for you to play with, already tossed the rest of the place.... respectfully! Don't gimme that look, not ransackin' yer grandparents place or nothin', just lookin' for stuff we can use, they'd give it to ya anyhoo right? Funny door this way though, you gotta do it." Val explained, leading the way to the kitchen and a hallway leading past the downstairs bathroom, raising her claws defensively when I snorted over her exploring for loot while I was out.

The door at the end of the hall dried up any remaining complaints or questions, no wonder she called me... The door to the garage was heavy, immaculate metal, painted a cheery pink to blend in with the interior, but recognizable and with a glowing terminal beside the handle. Why was grandpa's garage workshop so secured?

Not secured by half measures either... reeeeeally secured, the terminal fought off several attempts to crack it, forcing me to back out and try again repeatedly. This was a fairly advanced terminal too, made not long before the last day and apparently not factory condition either, improved above and beyond the best Stable-Tec made available on the commercial market.

'Thgirbtsaf' finally got me through by the time Jade, Ivy and a yawning Glitter joined us, Bright-Fast, backwards... only stumbled on through the code remembering how much grandpa liked doing word searches with me, the best ones had words hidden backwards and sideways. When the door swung gently open, the swing of motion and rapid click-click noise made me flinch thinking of explosive booby traps, already shoving Glitter back when my eyes hung on what exactly was on the other side when the lights clicked on.

Dominoes... that was the first thing, the source of noise and potential threat. A line of dominoes stretched from the door, having been set into motion by the swing of a small Swordmares figure's tiny blade. The room they were clicking their way off into took more to make sense of...

It was enough to make me sit dumbstruck with the others watching the dominoes reach a large table taking up half the garage not far inside, the last one lightly touching a switch on one steel leg, turning on the amazingly detailed model on top, a perfectly miniature Sparkle World... tiny windows in Twilight's castle glowing with light, little rocketship rides in Rainbow Dash's Galactic Zone spinning and looping, puffs of smoke from a locomotive roller coaster in Applejack's Dry Cider Gulch, static filled oompa music drifting up from Pinkie's World of Treats, it was still vibrant and perfect, getting a collective gasp as we stared together. Spring Gale even fluttered in, squealing in surprise at the model that seemed just her size...

A spinning ferris wheel in Rarity's Classy Kiddie Kingdom reeled in a bit of fishline leading up to the ceiling, dragging a model Raptor cloudship down a rail, the pointed end of the anvil shaped ship thumping a moldy red Buckball down a looping, winding chute running down the wall. It rolled past workbenches that made me goggle just as much as the weird display, full of high quality tools, painted wooden bins with carved runes matching spare talismans just sitting there, half assembled gadgets of unknowable purpose.

The racing Buckball zoomed past the far end of the garage and the bare chassis of a sky chariot propped up on blocks there, hitting an end to the chute it was following that dropped down to another below it -bumping a mechanical toy Steel Ranger that fired a spring loaded missile from its battlesaddle to arc across the room, on target to hit the button on a well crafted wooden holotape player- as the buckball continued and angled down and the opposite direction, then again dropping and turning back the way it had been going, as the rather sizable wall of speakers nearby hummed to life with the Dance of the Parasprites from the holotape.

The buckball dropped again at the end of the chute, landing in the basket of a toy catapult that immediately launched it back across the room towards us, all our heads turning back and forth together to follow the insane progress. It swished through a netted hoop over a pair of scissors held open with a bit of twine waiting between the blades, pressing the handle down to snip the line and let loose a model hot air balloon.

The small purple balloon floated straight up to the ceiling, the tiny pennant at the top pressing the controls of a desk fan mounted upside down on the ceiling. The fan started up, blew the balloon across the room to the left, straight into a sharp tack stuck in the cork bulletin board festooned with rotting notes.

It popped with a wild explosion of confetti and streamers, the little basket formerly tied to it falling to the workbench full of model parts and paints with a fanfare from tiny brass horns popping up from its wicker depths. Leaving all of us blinking in awe, everyone's mouths hanging open in matching expressions of dumbfounded surprise.

"WOOOOOOWWWW!!! Do it again, do it again!" Glitter was the first of us to snap out of it, galloping into the room and following the circuitous path with her wide pink eyes, joining Gale as she walked happily through the models.

After a long moment, Jade snorted to herself, holding a hoof up to her muzzle as her rising giggles turned into full, hearty laughter. She turned a merry gaze down on me, wiping a tear away to lean down and nuzzle my confused stare away, snorting between her breathless, laughing words. "Y-Your grandfather's... hehehee, w-workshop I presume? Y-You are most definitely r-related! hahaha!"

"That was really fuckin' crazy boss... Blue's right, I see where ya get it now... yer grandpa was a little nutty, wasn't he?" Val joined Jade's and Ivy's chuckles as I trotted in, still stunned by the models and toys, but just as interested in all the parts after gaining an appreciation of what I could do with them.

"Er... I guess so, I can't remember very well, but I never thought anything of it. He was fun, he used to have model trains I could play with, but nothing like this..." I carefully stepped over the track for one such model snaking its way across the floor, floating over an H&H Tools gem caliper far superior to my own rinky Stable-Tec maintenance issued one, continuing as I started vacuuming up talismans.

Thinking about Grandpa Fin, I felt that twinge again and Ivy was immediately on it, diving into the mess that was my brain and speaking calmly. (There... There is a block there too... Remember your grandfather Fast, really try to remember. What did he look like?)

(Huh? Of course I know what Grandpa Fin looked like Ivy.... He looked... umm....) I paused in my looting and looked over to the green alicorn watching me closely, a concerned look coming with her intensifying focus in my head.

(See? You think you remember, then get deflected from it... Somepony was definitely meddling in your mind at some point Fast. I can get past it, just focus, remember what this Grandpa Fin looked like. He was a pegasus, correct?) Ivy was helping me, a bright green beacon in my head that was lighting a path to the memory, assisting my struggle to recall something so simple.

(He was a pegasus... he was... he was funny... mustache... glasses...) I sat with a thump and held my head in my hooves, trying to tune out Jade's worried whicker and really concentrate. Come on... he was my grandpa, why couldn't I remember....

Ivy broke through, it was the strangest sensation actually, a kind of funhouse mirror wall in the echoing halls of the Stable that represented my brain, a walled off corridor that looked like it wasn't thanks to weird mental reflection, now cracked and the illusion ruined as light came flooding out. Still sealed off, but enough for me to peek through the crack and see...

See a pale blue pegasus stallion... an old buck with a wild grey mane and mustache, thick, soda bottle glasses with funny swirls in the lenses... A loving, fun, crazy Grandpa Infinite Skies I loved spending time with because we were so alike, a pony who viewed the world in his own odd way, always tinkering with his toys and showing off to play with me...

Grandpa Fin... but now that I could remember what he looked like, I remembered the stylized mural the breezies had painted in Willowheart, the small picture of their savior together with Ministry Mare Fluttershy. A rough painting of a blue pegasus with a wild grey mane and glasses.... Same as the limited view in the photo I had gotten from Piper, the one showing all six Institute heads...

Grandpa Fin.... Moby....

Dr. Mobius...

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

Rainbow Refractor-------
---Tinkering with a contraption made to harness and reflect light and magic has given you new insight into magical energy weapons. You now gain 20% resistance to M.E.W. fire and are less likely to be vaporized!