After a disjointed, confusing period of darkness, the light of the next day was ushered not by divine Goddess Celestia, but by a boisterous Goddess Glitter. No less a Princess in my mind, but a good deal louder. "DADDY! Wake up sleepyhead!!"

I woke with a confused start and winced when the rickety hospital bed I was in crumpled in on itself, getting tied up in the threadbare blanket by my flailing limbs and yelping. Given the intense amount of pain I felt all over, I had valid reason to think myself under attack by some fresh wasteland horror that liked tormenting its meal.

"WHAAAAUGH! What! Who! More bees!? Huh!? I... O-Oh... good morning sweetie... owwww... it is morning, isn't it?"

My little filly had managed to hold off from waking me at the break of dawn, if the light filtering the room I found myself in was any indication. Enough time for her to find a sugary breakfast somewhere in what I slowly recognized as Redheart Academy, giving her jittery energy to spare that resulted in a spectacular powerbomb on my rickety hospital bed.

Glitter seemed almost pleased with herself and the destruction her little hooves had accomplished, bouncing on the flattened ruins of the bed I had vacated in my panicked scramble to the headboard. She smiled broadly with a manic gleam in her pink eyes, bouncing in place happily as she burbled to me holding a hoof to my pounding heart. "Ya-huh! Mommy said I get ta stay with you and play today while she goes out! So I came ta wake you up! Are you ok? You look silly dad, does it hurt?"

Yes actually... everything hurt, not that I'd tell her how painful her gleeful impression of an alarm clock had been. Even gingerly moving back to the mattress brought stabs of pain all over, the most severe being at my back. Realizing I was tangled up in my bedding and the clear tubing of the IV that had been knocked aside, made sitting again a teeth grinding experience.

Whimpering as I shook my head under her concerned stare, I raised an eyebrow questioningly at her comment about how I looked. When she grabbed a nearby stainless steel surgical tray as a mirror, I at least found out why everything hurt and I felt bloated. My face was puffy and swollen, along with numerous red welts on my flanks and sides, lending me a very lumpy appearance. Trying to move my wings to untangle myself proved whatever I couldn't see back there was even worse by the blinding bolt of pain it brought.

Looking away from the haggard face in the tray held in her hooves, I saw we were in Jade's makeshift recovery room at the ancient nursing academy. There were only a few young griffons still injured enough to warrant being confined here with me, most either still snoring or groaning at the noise.

I ruffled her bouncy silver mane reassuringly, blearily blinking at the room and wondering just how long I was out. "Nnngh... I'm f-fine sweetie, little sore is all. Where is mom anyway? She's going somewhere?"

I didn't have to wait long for an answer anyway, I hadn't disentangled my legs and wings when Jade's shrill cry rang out in the makeshift recovery room, the collective noise of her and our daughter waking the few snoring griffons still managing to cling to sleep. "GLITTER! There you are! What have you done young lady! I told you, your father needs to rest and recuperate! Not to serve as a crash test pony for your sugar fueled antics!"

Glitter gave a sharp "eep!" and clambered over me, hiding behind my cockeyed wings as her mother strode across the room, puffing air through her nostrils like a locomotive. She peeked out once Jade's shadow fell over the two of us, whining softly by my cheek in protest. "But Mo-oooom! You said I get ta watch him while you go out, right? I just wanted ta tell him... then the bed broke... somehow..."

"Yes, ...somehow... How mysterious I am sure. Good morning Fast, since you are awake anyway, how are we feeling today?" Jade arched her eyebrow and huffed, but did undo the gorgian knot I had gotten tangled in. The blankets, IV, myself and Glitter were all floated up and shuffled expertly until I was hovered up for her inspection.

"Like an overstuffed pincushion. I'm guessing I gave you more work patching me up, but why does it still hurt so much? Didn't all that radiation I took in help any? What about Val and Witchy? Swan... Swan's alright now too? She's not sick anymore? Dr. Vigil! We didn't go back, is he... and Sludge, is Sludge alright? Did he run off again? I still need...""

Jade's brows came together in a worried nicker, shushing my jabbering sternly as I was deposited on the flattened bed. "They are all fine Fast, you received the worst wounds by far. As I have tried to tell you, repeatedly, radiation does NOT fix everything... It cannot inflate a collapsed lung, and even our resistance to poison is insufficient to completely resist the flash bee's venom! It was your immune system's overreaction to the sting that was dangerous, you nearly went into anaphylactic shock before I could treat you! While I appreciate why you acted as you did to protect me... us... I am still upset with you. You are not invulnerable, nor able to shrug off any injury with a little radiation. You need rest and time to recover, so hush and follow doctor's orders for once!"

The way her blue eyes blazed during the obviously rehearsed speech jarred a little more memory loose as I winced under her. Jade had attacked the queen bee... I didn't think she even knew offensive magic, but she had actually hurt another living creature, for me...

Between her expectant snort and Glitter looking between us worriedly, that failure stung worse than all the actual stings I had taken. I was supposed to keep her safe, not be the reason she was forced to compromise her pacifist beliefs. I owed her for a lot more than just putting me back together after doing something stupid this time.

While I did hang my head in defeat and nod meekly, I couldn't help a little whining as I resigned myself to doing as my favorite doctor prescribed. "Alright, I'll be good Jade. Er... W-What about you though? Where are you going? Can't I come if I take it easy?"

"No." Jade stamped her hoof with finality, though both her eyes and voice did soften when she continued. "Since you are to rest, we will be unable to keep our appointment with University Point's leadership. I must go offer our apologies and reschedule, as well as return Mrs. Pestle's stolen goods. It is a short trip and I am sure I will be well protected, even without my brave knight. Is that not so? You may all come in, he is awake."

Who she was speaking to was easy enough to figure out, the rest of our group entered through the door she had. Her royal guard Witchy trotted up at her beckoning call with Val padding along beside her. Both were bowled aside by the large Swan galloping in behind them, barely kept from copying Glitter's morning greeting by Jade leaping in her way and holding her hooves out. I was amazed even Jade was able to hold her sister back, though privately grateful as the still nearly double sized Swan pouncing on me was a lot more life threatening than the much lighter filly in my hooves.

Jade had to rear up on her hindlegs and flutter her wings to meet her sister's level, but Swan skidded to a halt and pranced back and forth trying to get around her, biting her lip and whining. "But I don't wanna go to some boring city of little pony nerds... I want that little pony nerd sister. Why do I have to go again?"

Ignoring the others trailing in behind her and chuckling to themselves, Jade drifted back down to her hooves and straightened Swan's freshly cleaned alicorn angel outfit, speaking in a tired sigh that made it clear she had gone over this before already. "Because, I would appreciate it if you were able to teleport us there sister, to do so you must visit the town first. Do not sound so disappointed, Fast may not get up to any of your shenanigans anyway. Perhaps you will find something that interests you there, if nothing else it gives us an opportunity to enjoy ourselves today. Oh! I do believe they even have a functional salon staffed by talented spell casters specializing in related spells. Would that not be lovely?"

"Bleh... have fun big stuff, let Blue have her fun bein' all girly, I'll keep the boss company while you an' batty play dress up." Val prowled around the standoff and flopped down beside me, mussing Glitter's mane in her claws and dropping to a conspiratorial whisper with her other held up to cover her beak. "Don't worry kiddo, we'll find somethin' fun ta do once yer ma gets gone, just play along."

Glitter's happy gasp was short lived, I still didn't think Val understood just how sharp alicorn hearing was, that or she didn't care. She did now though, squawking and sputtering when Jade swung her way and put on a wide smile. "Oh no, I wish to spend time with you as well Valkyrie, we do have many recent ...events... to discuss. I insist you act as my guard today instead of Witching. You do not mind trading duties just this once, do you Witching dear?"

Witchy blushed and squeaked at the attention, unable to refuse her Princess and somewhat flustered by the order, turning between Jade and I with her slitted amber eyes. "B-But... Er... I suppose. If Valkyrie takes my place, she is capable of ensuring thine safety. T-That means I would take hers... hmm... I d-do not mind taking care of Fast, er... i-if thou insists."

"Now wait just'a damn minute Blue! I told ya, I don't take orders from ya, I take orders from..." Val screeched and drummed her limbs in a tantrum, but was cut off by Jade's dangerous purr as she leaned down to my face.

"Fast..."

"Dammit... Val, I'm sorry, but she's gonna make me order you to do it. Do you really want us both to go through it, or will you just agree? She's going to get her way no matter what..."

Val seethed and stomped in place in reply, smacking me with her lashing tail as she threw her claws up in surrender. "ERRGH! Gawd yer filly whipped boss! Fine! I ain't gonna get all dolled up though Blue, so just forget it!"

A quick nuzzle from Jade made Witchy turn bright red as Val stormed off, letting her gently shove the blushing batpony in front of me with no resistance as Jade whinnied in victory. "Wonderful! I appreciate your assistance Witching dear. I shall keep you in mind and find some way to thank you during our shopping, to make up for leaving you behind. Please be sure to keep Fast out of trouble for me, he is very talented at finding it..."

Witchy's slightly sleepy eyes widened and sparkled in the morning light at the enticement. She plopped herself at the end of my bed and trained her fluffy ears and commanding stare on me with a giddy chirp, breaking off only to bow to Jade smirking above me. Wonderful... Jade plainly thought ahead and was covering any escape route, giving a pleased nicker to me pouting in defeat.

Even Zed was against me, trotting up and interrupting my plotting a way out with a gag inducing mixture of goop he scooped from a clay jar with his hoof. I flinched when he nudged me forward and applied it to the sting on my back, piling on with the others in his deep voice. "Go along and enjoy your outing Miss Jade, I will see to Fast while you're away."

She did at least lean down and give Glitter and I both a quick kiss, returning to her unyielding bearing after she stood back from the affection and glowered at us. "Behave yourselves... We shall return shortly."

At that she shooed the others ahead of her and left, casting one last look of longing and uncertainty over her shoulder before she disappeared and left me to my thestral and zebra jailers.

Choosing to make the best of my confinement, I wandered around Redheart Academy with Glitter bouncing along beside me, taking in all the progress the Followers and freshly arrived small squad of Minutemares were making. My grumbling stomach helped make my argument with Witchy, getting her to relent from her strict interpretation of Jade's orders to remain exactly where I was.

There was a lot of work going on that caught my professional interest as a repair pony, the banging of hammers, buzz of magically powered saws and sight of heavy carts loaded with rubble hauled away by strong earth ponies made me pause and fidget. Subtly floating out my tools at a fizzling spark junction got an immediate response from my guard however. Witchy shoved my screwdriver back to my packs and smacked my bare flank with a squeaky 'tsk!', nudging me back on course to the cafeteria.

Just that attempt demonstrated she and Jade may have a point however, my magic was weak and unsteady, probably from overusing it with spells that weren't really part of my repertoire, but the shadow lurking in my head's spellbook instead. A quick experiment when she turned away just bore that worrisome theory out, producing a guttering puff of flame from my horn that quickly fizzled out, not the roaring torrent I had cast fighting the killer flash bees.

I did manage to take a detour outside, strolling unhurriedly through the courtyard at the center of the roughly rectangular complex and enjoying the sunshine warming my aching back. An experimental flap of my wings to join the numerous young griffons flitting about was a bad idea however. Before Witchy could even zip over me and block my path, I flopped back to the ground hissing in pain. The nearly lethal queen's sting was at the base of my right wing, making flying an extremely painful and inadvisable proposition.

Confined to the ground, I dusted myself off and got back to my hooves, curiously inspecting the ruined nursing school and all the work that had already been accomplished. I was surprised to see several unaffiliated wastelanders roaming about too, pitching in and building ramshackle additions outside the main building.

Pausing to puzzle over them, Witchy filled me in before returning to our course. "Locals Fast. A place of safety attracts settlers looking for something better. Many of them live out in the ruins, surviving as they can. They're flocking to the Princess' banner and forming a new settlement here."

The pride in her voice was unmistakable and I shared it, though my eyes hung on how dirty and thin many of them looked. They reminded me of Sludge and the things he said about the area. That University Point was great for smart ponies, not so much for others... Jade had seen it first in Sludge and stuck up for him, filling me with regret and shame over how I treated him in the light of day.

I mulled the thought over silently as I watched them, glad to see Glitter gallop off on spotting the griffon sisters Lila and Heidi helping out and waving them down to play. I was privately glad my injuries pushed back our meeting with the 'Board of Education' that ran the place. We needed to know more about how life really was in the shadow of their ivory tower.

We took our seats in an out of the way corner of the cafeteria, letting me absently munch on a bowl of insta-oats and bacon, while Glitter, Lila and Heidi babbled happily nearby. Witchy sat across from me with her platter of mutfruit and berries, sinking her pretty fangs into each bite and savoring the strictly vegetarian fare, while keeping a close eye on me morosely chewing.

"Are you alright Fast? You really should return to bed, we could bring your food there and let you get your rest..." Witchy finally spoke up, snapping me out of my woolgathering with her squeaky, concerned voice.

"Huh? Oh... Nah, I'm fine Witchy, just thinking. Hey, you live around here, what's it like for folks like these? Why do you think they'd all came to us so quickly? It's not like we're advertising on the radio or anything."

"Well, I have told you Dreadnot is rather isolated Fast, I'm not sure I'm the best mare to ask. Though I do not find it surprising the Princess would inspire hope where it is lacking, do you?" Witchy tilted her head at the question, her tufted ears cocked curiously.

"No, of course not. I'm more asking why it's lacking to begin with. University Point is a big town, so is Dreadnot from what you've said, even if they're not very open to anypony. Why does it look like things around them are so bad, when they're doing so well?"

She gave an evasive look when the topic of her home came up, bound by honor not to tell me certain things and clearly struggling with it. "Fast... Prosperity tends to come with a certain degree of selfishness. I... I know it to be so where Dreadnot is concerned at any rate. I believe things were better when Whinny was still a free settlement, the Gunners takeover had shaken things up before I left."

I idly brought up my pip-buck's map and looked over the relationship between the fallen town the refugees in Sanctuary had fled and the other major points in the area. I could see her point, The icon for University Point was to our east near where the river emptied into the sea, on the coast to the south was the unvisited icon for Dreadnot, while further south and inland was Whinny. If Sturges, Mama Xara and the others were any indication, it had once been a town for good ponies near the others, I imagined when it fell it had ramifications I couldn't fully grasp on the area.

"Selfish huh? Back in the Stable, we all worked for each other, everyone gets lifted up when we work together. I know that... It's what I was always taught about the old world, generosity, kindness, loyalty... I'm actually worried I'm starting to forget it though, being selfish myself..."

She giggled musically in response, shaking her head and sending her short mane swishing around her. "Fast, you are not... Tis silly to think you..."

I cut her off with a shudder to my voice that seemed to catch her attention, hanging my head and feeling my eyes sting. "I am. More and more I only care about what... who I think of as mine. Jade, Glitter, our baby... Val, Zed and... y-you.. Jade's sisters... I'd step over practically anypony here and leave them to die for you guys. Isn't that selfish? Wrong?"

While she gained a pretty pink blush at me acknowledging the sleepy growl in my head that saw the thestral as 'MINE', she shook it off and grew serious, waving a leathery wing out to the ponies filling the room with a sigh. "The Lunar Guard taught us to place the safety of our Princess above all others, including our own. Though I suppose yes... it may be wrong in other cases. It's also understandable though Fast, it's natural to want to protect those you care about, even at the expense of others. This is about what you spoke of before, isn't it? The voice in your head? That's not who thou art, you're the famous hero of the Commonwealth who saves everyone. I know it and so does everyone else, so..."

"I thought about killing Sludge to save Jade Witchy. Back in the hive... I was going to wound him and let him scream, let him die swarmed by those bugs while I slipped off with her. He's not exactly a really likeable buck, but he tried to protect Jade and he saved Swan, even though he was scared. But I was willing to sacrifice him, just because I didn't like him, because he didn't matter as much to me as Jade. That's not exactly heroic, now is it?"

My shaky and hoarse whisper got her to pause in her supportive denial, her mouth hanging open a moment with no answer. Looking into my bloodshot and watery eyes, she shook it off with a whinny and fluttered up from her seat, joining me on my side of the table and squeezing me in a hesitant hug that slowly grew firmer.

"It is when the hero is a real pony, not some silly... ahem, sorry, some simplified comic book depiction of one. It's pony nature to look out for ourselves first, our families, our tribes, our kingdoms... If Goddess Luna fell into that kind og thinking, I don't think her knight could be faulted for the same. I didn't treat Mr. Barrel much better either Fast, so we both owe him an apology." Witchy pulled back with a firm grip on my slumping shoulders, smiling brightly and flicking her ear to the right, nodding that way significantly as she continued. "Fortunately, it looks like we can do so immediately."

Following her gesture, I found the very same stallion we were discussing across the crowded room. Sludge seemed to scarf down food any time it was available, apparently finding an open feeding trough here a pleasant enticement to returning. While I wondered exactly how long he had been skulking around without looking very hard for Jade or myself, after getting a good look at the other locals I didn't feel quite the same annoyance with him as I had.

Looking back to Witchy's encouraging hooves shooing me up, I groaned and climbed out of my seat, feeling unease and shame instead. It would be better to do this on my own though, rather than wait for Jade's prompting. I did owe it to him too, if I was going to stay in control... stay myself and at least somewhat sane, there was bound to be some discomfort.

The quiet whisper of 'Be Kind...' helped drag my hooves across the cracked tiles, approaching the dirty yellow earth pony and coughing to tear his attention away from his heavily laden tray. When he looked up with his cheeks stuffed, I was concerned he was going to choke, sputtering and thumping his chest under his wide and guilty brown eyes.

"G-Gah! There you are Mr. Fast! B-Been lookin' all over for you an' her highness! Actually wore myself out tryin' ta find ya with all these folks runnin' about, so just thought I'd grab a teensy bite ta eat, r-restore my energy before returnin' ta the hunt ya know! Wonderful ta find ya up and about, the Princess was awful worried and..." Somehow, even Sludge's lying didn't put me off today. Whether I could find it strangely endearing after getting to know him a little, or just worried he was probably doing it out of fear I couldn't say.

"It's alright Sludge. I'm not mad and you don't have to be worried. You can go back to your meal if you want, I just needed to... to say I'm ...sorry. I really am sorry, for how I treated you and... e-everything."

Witchy helped by performing a formal bow to the surprised buck, her voice a sincere whisper and her ears laid back. "We are both sorry Mr. Barrel. The Princess told me how brave you were in defending her when I was not there to perform my duties. I apologize for being suspicious of you and thank you for all you did."

Sludge's bristly muzzle hung open, giving an unappetizing view of his breakfast for a few uncomfortable moments. When he finally managed to blink and swallow, his pockmarked face turned a little red and his narrow chest visibly swelled up. "Brave? Me? W-Well... never had a pretty filly like yourself call me that before missy! Lots o' other names; liar, two-timer, swindler, deadbeat, slimeball... but never brave! Huh... sorta nice... Glad ta be of service an' all that, don't suppose that's enough for a lil' reward from a batpony beauty eh? Never seen your kind around much, but always thought you Dreadnot ponies were cute."

While the praise made Witchy blush and chirp, she still looked confused over Sludge's leering grin and waggling eyebrows when he said 'reward'. I'd just as soon she accept the compliments about her appearance and not figure out where he was going with them in this case though, pushing her foreleg away as she rooted around in her bags for the jingle of caps and feeling my eyelid twitch as I held on to my temper tightly.

"Don't push your luck too far Sludge, I am sorry... but I'm not in a fantastic mood today..."

At that he actually chortled, beaming with a gap toothed smile at my grimace of one in return. "Aha! There he is, had me worried I found the wrong little black alicorn fer a minute there Mr. Fast! Just kiddin', no worries. Don't mean ta rib ya too much neither, imagine you ain't feelin' too jokey lookin' like a lumpy potato an' all! Them bees really did a number on ya didn't they? Didn't get ta see all the swellin', but figured it'd be impressive just from the couple I got over the years. Awful surprised seein' ya up an about though, was a big damn hole in ya when we left that place."

"My wife likes reminding me I'm not as tough as I think I am sometimes, but I can at least limp my way around. I'm glad you weren't hurt, err... by the bees at least... and I am really sorry for the umm... ear... W-We'll let you get back to your meal, eat as much as you want and stick around if you like. I'm sure Jade will want to talk to you when she gets back too."

Sludge flicked the ear I had so rashly severed last night in a subconscious gesture, but shook his head and held me back from making a retreat, patting his ratty flannel shirt rapidly as he spoke. "Huh? Oh, that. Don't worry about it, right as rain an' mares dig scars! You an' the cutie don't gotta be that sorry ya know, generally you'd be right ta keep an eye on old Sludge. Hold up 'fore ya run off, did come back for more than just the grub before headin' back out an' spendin' some of them caps the Princess gimme ya know. Here, from the doc..."

My eyes hung on the dingy orange holotape he finally fished out with his teeth. This time when I smiled it was genuine, even though I felt a pang again at how I had thought of him. Sludge was with us when Swan teleported away, meaning he had gone back and returned to bring me this priceless treasure. If that was from Dr. Vigil, it had to be what the mutated Institute scientist had promised.

Plans for a teleporter... a way to reach the Institute...

Mission Added: Arcane Relay Race

Objectives---
---Build Teleporter Relay
-----Construct Control Console
-----Construct Crystal Reflector Platform
-----Construct Magical Beam Emitter
-----Construct Arcane Relay Dish

Optional Objectives---
---Seek help from the Brotherhood
---Seek help from the Railroad

After briefly squinting over the wall of text and schematics contained on Dr. Vigil's holotape displayed on my pip-buck, I had moved to the administration offices of the nursing academy, taking them over as a workshop to start really picking apart the complicated plans. Enough power had been restored to use the terminal in the mostly untouched office, and a little tinkering brought the school's server back online to add a some needed processing power.

Witchy didn't look very happy at the manic pace I had been moving at, but considering most of it was tapping away and thinking instead of physical exertion, she couldn't make a convincing enough argument to dissuade me. Not that there was one for her to come up with at all, but it kept her from worrying too much.

Thankfully I had plenty of help to commandeer if I wanted it, though I usually felt weird ordering around Minutemares or any of the young griffons still deciding where they wanted to go from here. Lila herself was especially helpful as she seemed very adept and tinkering with computers. She not only found me parts to use to put together the impromptu workshop from around the ruins, she kept her sister and Glitter amused and under her watchful eye while I worked.

Currently she was using one of the extra terminals she had lugged up to the second floor to play Glitter's collection of holotape games. Well... my collection of games that Glitter had puppy-eyed her way into inheriting, but they were happy and left me to concentrate. I did feel bad ignoring my daughter, but Glitter recognized my obsession when she saw it and was fairly patient and understanding.

After working through the morning puzzling out Vigil's cryptic notes and rough diagrams, I was left with the new mission blinking on my pip-buck. A comparison to the pieces of decommissioned relays I had scavenged in our travels so far still left several large components to come up with.

Even worse, Dr. Vigil wasn't lying when he said the magical teleporter relay wasn't his area of expertise. As one of Dala's workers in the Biosciences division, he only knew the broad strokes and basics. His solution had been to basically brute force a way in. His junkyard version of a teleporter wasn't nearly as refined or efficient as the functioning examples I had seen, requiring more power, more parts and more space.

We had resources and friends to draw on at least, Rusty Clank back in Hexington and his stockpile from Watts', all the goodies still wasting away in both the Ministry of Morale in Goodneighbor and the Ministry of Peace, but even all that would leave these last major components I wasn't sure where to find, along with a metric fuckton of high class gems and crystals.

My pip-buck had volunteered the option of seeking help from the Brotherhood of Friendship or the Railroad, but I still wasn't sure about either option. Both groups might have the means to help, but they also had their own goals and ideals. I could easily see Elder Macson usurping any relay we managed to build together to storm the Institute and burn it down, or Des from the Railroad seeking only to free synths. So long as the only way in was mine, my goals took precedence and I didn't have to answer to anypony.

Looking up to take another swig from one of many Sparkle-Cola Rad's pried from a vending machine downstairs, I groaned spotting Zed trotting in the room with that awful gunk of his again. Between the radioactive beverages, rest and his foul smelling medicine, I was feeling marginally better at least. So I thunked my head down to the desk to expose my back in resignation, rubbing my head in my hooves after overtaxing it.

"Not going as well as you hoped Fast? You were quite excited when you started..." Zed chuckled and spread his tribal remedy on my wounds, idly looking over all the patchwork wiring and humming terminals lighting the room.

Witchy took the opportunity he offered to try again, nodding eagerly when I rolled a tired eye up to see her squeaking. "You haven't done anything but stare for the last hour Fast. I think it's time for a break, the Princess said you should be resting..."

"Nnnngh... I am resting, I haven't moved my butt from this seat this whole time. I want to go out and look for parts, I bet University Point would know where to find some... Staying here is just getting frustrating and I feel fine! I could at least send out some letters from there and find Jade..."

"A-Absolutely not! Princess Jade said to make you stay here, so that's what you're doing Fast! I'm probably already in trouble for letting you do all this!" Witchy dropped from the rusty light fixture she had been using to roost overhead, moving to block the door out and stamping her hooves.

"Daaa-ad! You're not s'posed ta go nowheres, you're s'posed ta play with me! You gotta see this, Lila is awesome at this game!" Glitter piled on and tugged my tail insistently.

Seeing how Zed was finishing up and I was clearly outnumbered, I sighed in defeat and hopped down from my squeaky office chair, following Glitter back to the terminal on the floor her pip-buck was patched into and the pair of griffons crowding the screen. In this case the game was 'Striped Menace', a platformer where the player jumped and climbed ladders to reach the captive Princess Celestia at the top, defeating the evil Caesar that lobbed barrels and bombs down to keep his prisoner.

Since the half junked terminal's holotape slot was corroded, this was being run through Glitter's pip-buck and there were a few differences from what I was used to displayed on the terminal screen. Everything was tinted pink instead of the standard green for one, while the Stable-Buck character was a Stable-Filly, matching the cartoon image displayed on Glitter's health status screen.

This also meant Stable-Filly was an earth pony instead of a unicorn like my play throughs, gaining a bucking special ability rather than a zap of magic from the pixelated horn. That made me idly wonder what the clever game would do if I tried playing it now, the slightly unhealthy looking Stable-Buck on my own health screen sported both a horn and wings now after all.

These details quickly fell by the wayside as I watched Lila play, she was at the final level with a high score threatening to blow past mine. Her dexterous orange claws were a blur on the keys and her beak was set in a grim line of concentration, not reacting to Witchy and I joining in the audience in the slightest.

"Go sis go! Kick his ass!" Heidi cheered manically, making her sister grumble in distraction at the fledgling shaking her excitedly.

"Watch your language Heidi, and quit shoving me! Almost... aha! Gotcha stripey! How ya like me now bitch!" Lila's admonishments went out the window as she beat the final boss, her jeers at the digital Caesar catching Zed's eye as he cleaned up, getting a confused blink from the zebra hearing a name he heard all too often from Val.

"Eh... s-sorry Zed, it's a prewar game soooo..."

"So my people are the villains... of course. I'm used to it Fast." Zed rolled his grey eyes in reply, trotting over to watch the fanfare playing out with the end credits.

I only winced a little watching Lila's name replace mine on the top scores screen, managing to give an impressed whistle as Glitter and Heidi did a cheering little dance around her. "Wow, you're really good Lila, have you ever played before? Where'd you learn so much about computers?"

"Oh, um... Ma had a lot of holotape games swiped from the old world kids going to the school back home boss. Debugging terminals ta play them on was harder than learning ta beat em. The last stage was corrupted on Ma's copy though, and I saw the mini-boss had it, and... Sorry, I won't goof off any more. If you're takin' a break and don't need me ta watch her for awhile, we should get back to work anyway so..." Lila wilted and fell back to well trained deference now that she wasn't lost in the zone, moving to collect her sister before I stopped her.

"Easy Lila. You're not in trouble, so just calm down. I told you before, it's ok to take it easy and be kids, so consider it standing orders. Lila must goof off at least a little every day, got it?" Tickling the griffon didn't get the squealing laughter I could out of Glitter, but she did crack a wary smile and nod. "And I guess I should take my own advice and relax a little too, I'm not making any more headway like this."

While I continued my efforts to get the responsible young griffon to relax and think of herself less as my employee, her younger sister had no such problems adapting to things with Glitter by her side. The two of them dragged Witchy over to take a turn, slotting the game into the batpony's own pip-buck and patching it to the terminal, so they could see what a thestral Stable-Filly played like. Which was something that kept catching my eye too, as they spoke over each other to explain how it worked to the overwhelmed looking Witchy.

I did manage to get a little more out of Lila while we alternated watching the three of them giggling at Witchy dying repeatedly. I had been trying to check in with all the fledglings during my roaming around today, seeing if they had come up with any ideas about where they wanted to go from here and trying to reassure them. Lila and Heidi making such fast friends with Glitter just made them a more personal project.

I made sure they understood they wouldn't be split up and would be looked after no matter what. Just the encouragement looked to fill the older sister with relief. They were all slowly getting the idea we really did care and weren't going to use them as indentured servants, or make their lives anywhere near as difficult as they had been. Privately I had a couple ideas to offer them, but I'd need to talk to some old friends before getting their hopes up, and see if the siblings came up with anything they'd prefer in the meantime.

She peered at my abandoned terminal on the desk once I took her spot, looking for permission to take a look I gave with an encouraging wave. It didn't take much beyond watching her claws work the buttons to figure out Lila had talent when it came to computers, giving us something to discuss that brightened the serious fledgling up, along with me in the process.

Watching how her eyes lit up talking about ancient computers, I had to grin at how different Lila was from Val, who would already be bored to tears. The epiphany I had back in Magpie Roost struck me again and made me a little shamed that it took seeing it myself for it to really sink in. Not all griffons were hard beaked mercenaries who were only good at violence. Thinking so out of hoof was as bad as dismissing Sludge as a thieving conpony without any merit.

Maybe that was another part of that selfishness I talked about with Witchy, it was easier to only care about yourself, your family, your tribe or kingdom, if you simplified anything not included in that group. Zed may say he was used to ancient pony prejudices, but just a simple holotape game demonstrated how we had used that kind of 'us vs. them' thinking to blow everything to hell.

In a way it was a corrupted kind of loyalty, a thought that made the normally bold shout of 'Be Awesome!' sigh in my head. I may want to attribute that kind of thinking to the darker voice currently sleeping up there with it, but if I was honest it was me too. Like Witchy said, it was pony nature.

I was pretty sure we'd always struggle with it collectively just as I did personally, but I was also sure groups like the Institute were deliberately stoking it, bringing my thoughts back to the present as Lila clucked at the screen under her breath. "Hmm... some fancy stuff here boss, you really gonna build this thing?"

"If I can, yes. I have no idea where to find some of that stuff though, the radar dish thing is a good example. According to what our friend wrote there, it'd take one basically as big as this room. I guess maybe there'd be one at the Trotson Skyport, but the Brotherhood is there and I don't think they'll let me steal it... At least not until I do what I promised and try to get them in the Ministry of Wartime Technology, which I'm putting off as long as possible. They'd still wanna know why too..."

I was mostly thinking out loud and griping, putting it aside when Glitter huffed in my hooves and wiggled for attention before I really got going again. I was surprised when Lila offered an answer though, scratching her yellow and green plumage in thought. "Well.... there is one of those big rusty dish things at the Arcano-Cats. Got to go there on a trip with Ma once to dicker with 'em, they're not so bad."

"They're a buncha cool ponies daddy-o! Lila liked all the neat junk they had, an' they had this awesome obstacle course thingy they let me play on!" Heidi giggled happily in support, making me goggle at getting a lead on at least one piece of the puzzle.

Glitter wasn't nearly as cheered however, pouting and crossing her hooves with a whine. "Guuuys! Don't! If ya tell him where ta find stuff, he's gonna go back to being all boooooring again!"

Giving her a reassuring hug and nuzzle at least improved her mood, reminding me how patient she had been today already. "I promise not to go back to it so soon sweetie, but it is important to me to find that stuff. Maybe I should've talked with you guys about it instead of getting all wrapped up in it though. When we work together, we lift everybody up, right? So, does anybody know where to find... hmm... a reeeeally big hunk of crystal, a magical beam emitter, or a lot of fancy computer parts?"

I felt a little crestfallen watching the confused looks the question got from everyone, though Witchy furrowed her brow and asked a hesitant follow up that gave me a little hope. "A... magical beam emitter? I'm not sure what that means Fast, could thou simplify it a bit?"

"Er... well... it's something like the guts of a magical energy weapon, just a lot more powerful. It takes electricity like in a spark cell in and shoots magic out. You can adjust the frequency and range on it to make different effects. That and the gems you use is why different M.E.W.s shoot in different colors. Something like that."

I fidgeted hopefully watching Witchy think it over, worried I lost her or she was stretching to come up with something to be helpful. She wore a thoughtful frown and tapped her chin, finally whispering quietly in reply. "W-Would such a thing be found in a bigger magical energy weapon then Fast? Like... l-like a cannon? A very large one?"

"Sure, one like that would probably work with some tinkering. Why? Do you happen to have one lying around I can borrow?"

Half joking to cover my excitement, I figured out why she had asked and looked so concerned just as she answered. "D-Dreadnot... There are very large magical cannons on Luna's flagship, b-back home..."

I didn't like how worried she looked when the subject of Dreadnot came up lately and wanted to encourage her, scrambling up to give her a grateful, cheering hug in thanks. "Of course! That's perfect Witchy! Thank you!! See, now I have another reason to go there like you wanted when we met. Sorry it took so long, but we can go and you'll have kept your word, then you won't have to worry about it anymore! That's awesome! You're the best Witchy!"

I could feel her tense and her cheek heating up as I nuzzled and babbled, a little anxiety still in her voice as she chirped bashfully at the affection. Witchy had been generous with her time and patience waiting all this time though, she deserved a much better reward than a simple hug as thanks. Whatever worried her about going home, once it was done maybe it wouldn't be hanging over her head anymore.

Quite frankly, after the way the thestrals of Dreadnot had treated her, I was perfectly fine with going there and taking the damn part I needed, along with her, then bucking the snot out of any of them that got in the way. She was one of us now, not them. Witchy was family, whether it was right or wrong to put her above them, that was a hard fact they'd have to accept. It was pony nature apparently...

Thinking those thoughts with the warm filly in my hooves, the sleepy mutter of 'Be Dark...' rolled over with a rumble, the echo of 'MINE' stamped back down on as I managed to let her go. Following where her wide eyes flicked, I realized my traitorous wings had stood up, getting a brighter blush out of her when I saw her leathery ones fluttering too.

"Daaaaad..." Glitter huffed when I backpedaled, scratching my itchy mane sheepishly. Not that my daughter was bothered by the embarrassing display, more by my excitement over getting a source not just one, but two possible parts settled. "You said you wasn't gonna go all mad scientist pony about this junk... I. Wanna. Play."

"R-Right! You're right sweetie, absolutely. Er... actually, looks like Zed's goop has been helping a lot, my wings moved without hurting so much. So, wanna go for a ride to stretch them out a little?"

"Really!? Yay! Can we play tag with Lila an' Heidi! Or race? Or do loops!" The offer cheered her immediately, worth biting back a yelp when she jumped on my back and squealed happily.

Witchy regained her composure quick enough to cut us off from trotting away though, shaking her head and blocking the door. "No! N-No flying! You heard your mother Glitter! You don't want me to get in trouble, do you?"

Fortunately, the royal guard was severely outclassed in getting her way by the little filly. Glitter stretched up and planted her hooves in my mane, leaning over my horn and scoffing in reply. "Mommy won't be mad at you, she loves her awesome guard Witchy! Just say it was daddy's fault, or mine. We'll just play for a liiiiiitle, teensy, tiny bit is all. Pleeeeease!?"

"B-But..." Witchy gave a valiant effort, but I could practically feel Glitter's weaponized cuteness dripping down from over my head like saccharine syrup, far too sweet for the poor batpony to stand a chance.

I would feel bad for her, but I'd lost this confrontation enough myself and enjoyed having it on my side, leaning my head down to put those glistening puppy eyes right at Witchy's level and giving her a pleading look myself. Slumping away with a sigh, Witchy's ears drooped in utter defeat. "Thou art most unfair young Glitter... I surrender."

As it turned out, the aerial game of Windigo Tag was a good deal harder than the ground based version I was used to, though it did offer a good bit of exercise that had me panting. Compared to a bunch of natural born fliers, I was even slower and clumsier in the air than normal and it showed. I counted myself lucky to haul myself up and stay there with my aches and pains, but they did slowly fade once I got warmed up.

Glitter had managed to corral more than half a dozen griffon participants into her game above the open courtyard, the simple bit of play one of Mabel Magpie's approved bits of training back in their home. I could see why, if you were the Windigo, you had to chase down the others all soaring away from you, forced to get close enough to freeze them with a touch. If you were being chased, you had to be able to evade, displaying speed and agility I clearly lacked, making Glitter and I a prime target.

So far, the best role was being frozen, requiring only that I keep my relative position as well as possible. This only lasted as long as it took for one of the chased players to unfreeze us with another tag of course, which most of the young griffons seemed to view as something I actually wanted to happen... Granted I was their boss and it might be out of some honor bound loyalty, but I wished they'd take my wheezing eye rolls and short shakes of my head over Glitter's giddy yells to get back to it.

At least Lila was old enough and able to take a hint, when she was the Windigo she froze me and kept the others away for a few minutes to catch my breath. Between her and Witchy joining in the game, Glitter enjoyed herself immensely and I didn't have to quit too soon.

Our periods of being frozen high enough also let me get a good look around the small settlement springing up around us under the noonday sun. The skies were fairly clear and a crisp, cool blue of late fall or early winter, chilly enough for Glitter to stay bundled up in her jacket and the fuzzy Yakyakistan hat from her growing collection of odd headwear she scavenged wherever we went.

Beyond the Minutemares and Followers busy working and occasionally looking up to follow the game, quite a few of the new arrivals paused to cheer and yell from the ground, with a young pegasus colt hesitantly flapping up to join in from among them. By the smiling faces of his parents and the other settlers who had come here, I got the idea something as simple as watching children play openly was a rare treat to be savored, a sign they had made a good choice in coming to start something new under Jade's kingdom.

I also got a better look at why they might feel that way thanks to vision and hearing that let me see more ugliness than I cared for around this little pool of security. There were the pops of distant gunfire that made my ears flick in multiple directions, leading the eye to numerous ruins bearing the macabre decorations of raiders. I also caught the skittering movement of Miretanks near the river, the faint roars and growls of other local wildlife and the shambling movement and windborne scent of the undead infesting more ruins.

Despite all that, my spirits were lifted by the relaxing day and fellowship. I was still frustrated and my mind raced with things I wanted to do, places I wanted to go and thoughts about Jade and the others leaving us behind, but my gorgeous doctor knew what she was doing when she ordered me to rest. Watching everyone working around us and helping as I could, reminded me of back home in Sanctuary when I first came out of the Stable.

It put me back in touch with the common pony and the real reasons we ended up in such dangerous situations and adventures. Most of these folks didn't care about the Institute and their shadowy conspiracies and plots, they just wanted to live a better life. That's why they believed in Jade as a Princess, why they joined her kingdom and worked so hard together under her banner.

Jade gave them hope for that life, accepting everycreature that was willing to try with her unwavering kindness. Not just if they were smart, or rich, or strong, or the right species, or just the right subset of pony. All along, Jade had believed all of us could be better together.

When I caught sight of a patrol of a trio Minutemares coming back in a hurry, I was dragged away from the soothing thoughts by the harder ones under it. We could be better, but there were still plenty out there who were determined to be worse in this world...

I had to disappoint Glitter and glide back to the roof, my anxiety only growing when I spotted the oldest griffon Bruno among the returning Minutemares. He saw all his friends drifting down from the game in confusion and left the Minutemares behind, thankfully coming directly to me struggling into my coat and flagging him down.

"What the hell do you think you're doing kid? Jade said none of you guys are fighting with the Minutemares! Do you have any idea how pissed she'd be if she saw you wearing that!?" I grunted and hissed getting my armor on over my lumpy hide, snorting at the surly griffon wearing a blue Minutemare scarf over his ancient school uniform.

"Yeah, yeah, the prissy Princess don't like it. Wasn't fightin' Gunners an' that's what the orders were though. Besides, somebody's gotta help out clearin' all the creepy crawlies nearby since yer playin' games an' goofin' off. You wanna take a look at these fuckers though..." Bruno ruffled his feathers and sneered, but a little concern slipped in his voice as he pointed up the cluttered roadway the Minutemare patrol was taking to the makeshift gates below.

A clanking, clattering noise was echoing off the ruined buildings, drawing the eye to the glint of sunlight on metal and erratic motion matching the red dashes appearing on Eyes Forward Sparkle. Several multicolored beams of magical energy weapons fire shot out wildly and got me to draw the Last Minute, focusing the gauss rifle's scope on a number of bizarre looking robots giving chase.

While I had run into all number of standard and even unique robots in our travels, these were something completely different. They didn't match any Robronco factory design, looking like some kind of nightmare mish-mash of deadly junk. I panned from the bulky torso of a Sentry-bot somehow held aloft on the glowing wings of a sprite-bot, to the treaded hindlegs of a Brainbot rattling as it bore a Ponitron's body, waving several Mr. Handy spidery weapon limbs around.

There were others that weren't quite so strange, but all of them had a lot of skulls, spikes and jagged bits welded on, either colored by blood, or red paint to give the impression. Following behind this vanguard were what initially looked like more robots, but a closer look at their regular gallop and the hints of pastel fur under all the rust, along with the hoots and jeers, proved them to be ponies... Ponies wearing armor that appeared to be made from heavy robot casings...

A glance back to the sounds of panic from the wasteland settlers and shouted orders from the Minutemare troops decided me and I shoved Glitter back, relieved at Witchy landing beside me and hastily assembling her long anti-materiel rifle. I cursed and charged the Last Minute to full power, panning from a fiery pinwheel of a Mr. Handy outfitted with multiple flamer units. I tried to draw a bead on the cloudy brainbot casing atop a spike covered Ponitron in the lead.

They looked like raiders and they sounded like raiders, so raiders they were as far as I was concerned. The flat crack of the 2mm slug blowing through the first junkpile got them to adjust course and make me wonder however. When Witchy drilled a hole through another Ponitron body behind it, the rest fanned out and took cover, waiting on their living minders to catch up.

Their marks on E.F.S. kept wavering between red and green, making me reluctant to just start shooting until I better understood this new flavor of crazy in the wasteland. The cackling laughter and shouts still rose my hackles and brought the growl of 'Be Dark...' closer to the surface with the promise of blood, but so far they weren't shooting either and their mechanical minions had stopped cold.

Finally, a big buck wearing a Sprite-bot for a helmet came out from behind a tipped over bus in front of our perch, trotting out boldly, waggling an M.E.W. shotgun attached to his crude battlesaddle and shouting. "Oy in there! New in the neighborhood ain'tcha!? Thought we'd roll out the welcome wagon since yer in Rust Devil territory!"

"Rust Devils? Who the hell are these nuts..."

"Get 'em Daddy!" I facehoofed at Glitter holding her boxy M.E.W. Righteous Authority in her mouth, glad to see Lila already collecting the curious little filly before she could rush to the edge of the roof and peek.

With her cared for and ready to be whisked away by her new friends, I turned back to the surreal speech the gang leader below was still giving. "...willin' ta overlook not payin' protection yet since yer new around here, but hear we gots a celebrity! We want the comic book pony!"

"What the hell did I ever do to these lunatics?" I groaned and put my hat on, stepping up to the ledge and flaring my wings to reply in the Shroud's voice. If they wanted me, I could at least keep them focused away from the settlers downstairs and maybe lead them away. "Be careful what you wish for evildoer... If you would summon the Shrouded Stallion, here he is!"

The theatrical declaration didn't have quite the impact I hoped for, instead of getting either gunfire or screams as I was used to, the stallion below tilted his round helmet a moment, eventually removing it to show a orange face and dirty brown mane stained with grease. He kept squinting his yellow eyes up at me in confusion, looking back and forth at all the green dashes on E.F.S. I could see below me, indicating the Minutemares and young griffon mercenaries taking defensive positions.

"Aw fuck... the Shroud? Dammit Tin Snips! This ain't the right comic book pony you stupid twat! We don't want THIS one!!!" The odd raider threw his helmet at a pink unicorn mare taking cover behind a mailbox below, raging and pointing a hoof at me in accusation.

The scent of the unwashed raiders below took on a hint of fear and tension as the mare flinched and jabbered back, peeking out from her cover and wiping her dirty goggles to get a better look. "It's not my fault! Y-You heard that weasel same as I did Jagged! W-We was comin' ta squeeze these settlers anyway and that one we caught said... h-how was I posed ta know!?"

"Bring that bastard up here!" The buck in charge, Jagged, stamped his Ponitron armored hooves and howled in fury, his tantrum only confusing and annoying me more when he held a hoof up to wait.

The clattering hunk of junk that came up the street from well behind the rest took its time, chugging and belching smoke, giving me plenty of time to try to figure it out. It had the bulky legs of a Sentry-bot, though the six of them were covered in rusty armor and spikes, as well as lengthened by heavy red girders and spread out further to accommodate the weird body atop them. The way it half rolled and half walked over the rubble and wreckage in the streets lent it a weird, spidery appearance and gait.

It was basically a mobile platform, festooned with toolboxes, winches, canisters of gas for a welding torch rig and a sparking generator. A retracted crane with a sharpened claw swinging as it moved served as one 'arm', while the other appeared to be a missile launcher. A rusty green dumpster was welded to the thing's back, full of scrap and junk shuddering around under its unsteady movement. The thing that really grabbed my attention once I picked it out from all the chaos was the ugly looking cage under the tiny, heavily armored Sentry-bot head.

More specifically, it was the bruised and beaten yellow pony inside the cage that I was focused on. Sludge's legs dangled from between the bars and he looked up miserably, flinching when the raider leader made the contraption lower itself with a hiss of poor hydraulics. That put it low enough so he could reach through the bars and grab Sludge's collar, slamming his face against the bars and screeching. "Start talking asshole! This is the one you was talkin' about!?"

"Y-Yeah? You said comic book pony! T-That right there's the famous Shrouded Stallion... h-hero, do-gooder and personal friend of old Sludge, s-so you better watch yerself!" Sludge whimpered and tried to sound brave, giving me a pitiful look and shrugging helplessly.

"MARE you stupid fuck! We're lookin' for some crazy comic book MARE! It was in the damn name even!! MechanaMARE! If this is a total waste I'm throwin' you in the robot fights as the opening act!! You lyin'! Chickenshit! Deadbeat! Cocksucker!!" The raging stallion slammed Sludge's head against the bars with each insult, blooding his muzzle and making his eyes roll back in his head.

"ENOUGH!" The Shroud's voice roared out and got him to stop, looking up with a smirk at me glaring down at him and continuing in a rumbling growl. "Let him go, right now evildoer..."

Sludge fell back in the cage when the bastard let him go, chuckling back with an evil grin. "Oh, so you do know this asshole? Guess he wasn't lyin' about everything then. Sludge here owes us a lot of caps, said his big hero friend here could cover all the bets back at the Downs he's been duckin' us on. Whoever you're supposed ta be, it ain't the comic book asshole we're after so we ain't got no reason to waste ya yet. If ya want him back, pay up. Then we can talk about you Minutemare twats settin' up shop in our turf without payin' protection."

"Shit... Cover me Witchy, let me go down and try to figure something out before they kill him..." I whispered to the batpony at my side, stepping off the roof and dropping to the road before she could squeak a denial.

I hadn't gone out looking for trouble and might be a little annoyed at Sludge's boasting ending him up as a hostage, but seeing him abused by the sadistic asshole was waking 'Be Dark...' all the way up. He might be a coward and a liar, but he was MY cowardly liar. I not only needed him alive to keep dealing with Dr. Vigil, I owed him... I was pretty sure Jade would understand me ending my recovery early in this case.

Having me come away from the fortified position looked to give the strange raider some confidence, only growing as I prowled right up and the muscular stallion looked down his nose at me with a sneer. "Glad yer bein' reasonable twerp. Jeez, what is it with brats these days and all these old comics? Who you s'posed ta be again? That Shroud asshole like the one on the radio?"

The tall earth pony in charge of this crew didn't seem that bright, but the unicorn he had yelled at nearby called Tin Snips was more informed and intelligent. Now that I was down here, she got a good look at the horn poking from my hat and her light teal eyes widened, stammering a warning to the stallion making a show of strutting closer and poking my chest. "J-Jagged... I don't think that's some kid... I think that's the... r-real one..."

I caught more of his crew murmuring to each other from cover as his cheeks puffed out and he spewed rancid smelling laughter. "This scrawny little shit?! C'mon Tin! He's just some goofy brat playin' dress up! Hear about dumbass punks pullin' that trick ta scare off other crews, but we ain't fallin' for it brat. That real Shroud guy is 'posed ta be some kinda badass, not a puffy faced little runt!"

The jerk kept poking my chest and shoving, walking in a slow circle around me while I kept my head low and tried to keep a tight hold on my temper. My fangs were already out and I could feel my eyes glowing under the brim of my hat, the sun overhead giving enough shadow for his lieutenant to spot the phenomena and gasp, slowly inching her way back.

"You caught me on a bad day, but you should listen to your underling. If Sludge owes you money, I'm willing to cover his debts, but that's it. This place is a settlement of the Kingdom of Sanctuary now, the ponies here are under the protection of the Minutemares and the Shrouded Stallion, just like Sludge is. Take your caps, let my friend go, then get going, right now... Do that and I won't kill you... all of you..."

I heard Sludge give a strangled little noise in his throat at being called a friend, only making me feel worse for how I had initially treated him and determined to get him out of this somehow. 'Be Awesome!' and 'Be Kind...' hummed in approval, engaged in a headache inducing tug of war with the darker voice now hissing and straining along with the general protective feeling. Unfortunately that voice wasn't really going along out of any real friendship or caring for the frightened buck, but was perfectly willing to use any excuse to indulge that sleepy bloodlust.

The greasy raider was only goading 'Be Dark...' on too, normally it wouldn't be quite so awake in Celestia's bright sunshine, but Jagged's cruel laughter and increasing shoves was pushing all the right buttons. "HA! You will huh? How's ya gonna do that twerp? Huh? HUH? Only see a few of those goofy Minutemare assholes hidin' up there behind ya! Matter o' fact, may as well send that group of sappy, sunshine an' rainbows do-gooders back to their bitch Princess with their tails 'tween their legs!"

"Don't call her that swine! Thou invites Luna's wrath if you persist..." Lightning started flickering at my trembling hooves, fading between black and white while I struggled and thought desperately. "Please, just take the fucking caps and go buddy... I don't want to do this today... I'm feeling generous and introspective, but If you keep pushing I'm gonna lose temper..."

Jagged chortled and jeered, the rusty blade of an Assaultron's weapon clicking out from the strap on his armored foreleg in what was apparently supposed to be an intimidating display. "Awwww... Lookit boys! He's shakin! Is ya gonna throw a lil' tantrum? Don't like me makin' fun of the big blue freak everypony's yappin' about these days? I know! We'll send the mutant a lil' snack to apologize! We'll just scoop the out eyes of you and every other lil' brat hidin' back there for that stupid cunt to..."

If he thought he was fast enough to end his insult on the telegraphed slash I saw coming a mile away, he was dumber than he looked. He never got the chance however, as soon as he went over the line insulting Jade like that, my control slipped and I showed him what real speed looked like. My head ducked beneath his foreleg and snatched Best Served in my mouth in one fluid movement, jerking the starmetal blade up in a glimmering arc that sliced his leg off before even I knew what happened.

I hadn't really meant to do that... I was trying to behave, we could have done this some other way... Even if Jagged was stupid, his crew of raiders wasn't nearly so much so. They were nervous and whispering to themselves, willing to just take the caps and call it a win. He insulted Jade though, he hurt Sludge, he threatened kids and he just. kept. pushing.

There was a second of silence as he blinked at his suddenly shorter foreleg in confusion, still expecting me to have been hit by his attack and not able to put things together. Then time seemed to catch up and the stub spewed a fountain of blood out, splattering over me, then staining the road as he fell and howled in the gutter.

The rest of the Rust Devils still behind cover were stunned, though the robots keyed to Jagged as their leader followed their programming and reacted as fast as their processing speed allowed. Magical energy beams, gouts of flame and the fwoosh of missiles all converged on where I was standing, forcing me to run in an electric flicker and draw my guns on the nearest.

Witchy, Zed, the Minutemares and the small army of mini-mercenaries from the building caught up next, a variety of small arms fire exploding out from their fortified positions at the gates and windows, while the zebra leapt after me and closed on the surprised raiders. The Rust Devils were slowest on the uptake, but were focusing on the building and shaken at the bloody display their screaming leader was still putting on. If it weren't for the menagerie of ugly robots, the numbers would be fairly even, if I could take that advantage away it might be possible to salvage this.

The bizarre nature of their junkyard contraptions made that difficult though, all the mismatched parts made them move and fight differently than I was used to and access to the input port to hack one could be hidden anywhere under all those spikes. Worse yet, Sludge was stuck in the middle of it all, yelling in fear at his ride lurching in the street and firing missiles wildly, while nobody could risk taking the mobile platform out without hurting the hostage.

The fireball Mr. Handy zipped in my path with all four limbs spewing flame in a wide fan. I was going too fast to avoid the indiscriminate attack, Witchy's .50 slug blew through the round red body from above before I was roasted however. Giving me time to lurch up to the air and bounce off the remains falling to the street.

I managed to slam directly into the cage Sludge cringed in, clinging to the bars inside the range of the robot's weapons and trying to ignore his yelps. "Great rescue!! Thanks a lot!"

"Shut up and stay down! Fuck, fuck, fuck... Your boots! You still got those rubber boots you used in the ruins Sludge?!" At his wary nod, I shouted as I was forced to dive away from the other robot's fire swinging our way. "Put them on! QUICK!"

The flying Sentry-bot torso proved itself to be a disturbingly effective combination of parts by catching up to my course and smashing me out of the air, the heavy, spiked club of its only appendage hitting like an anvil. Seeing the clunky thing diving after me on those blurring pink Sprite-bot wings, I activated S.A.T.S. in the middle of the fall and targeted the delicate weak spot with the Terrible Shotgun.

30% odds weren't great, but I managed to blow one of the gossamer wings off on the fourth slug, then my back exploded in pain on smashing into a rusty carriage while still facing it whistling down after me. Witchy's strong hooves yanked my own as I screamed, pulling me away just ahead of the now flightless robot crushing the dead vehicle under its mass.

We rolled to the street in a tangle, the whining, lopsided robot unable to follow wrapped up in the wreckage and with no way to propel itself around. The weird combinations gave the Rust Devil's machines different strengths, but they gained new weaknesses too. A normal Sentry-bot would have shrugged off the impact and plowed into us before we recovered. Instead Zed crushed the tiny head with a flying kick, using it as a stepping stone to dive after the Rust Devils sheltering inside the ruined bus nearby.

Witchy made it to her hooves first and was crouching over me protectively as she fired her long rifle again, wincing at a scorching pink beam heating up the bloody plates of armor on her flank. She was trying to do what Jade asked, trading places with Val and guarding me as well as she would her chosen Princess...

I felt bad about that, but grateful to the beautiful royal guard knowing she would go so far for Jade too. My prone posture under her let me see a skull faced Ponitron galloping at her from behind and return the favor at least. I wrapped my legs around her middle and rolled with her through the empty doorframe of a burned out bookstore off the street, firing all six .45 rounds from Vengeance and managing to shatter the glass dome and brittle bone of the things head.

"This is not staying out of trouble Fast! The Princess will be furious!!" Witchy's voice reached nearly ultrasonic levels in her panicky anger, keeping my head down below the rubble forcefully and drawing her silver combat rifle in her teeth.

"I won't tell if you won't?!"

The chatter of the elegantly crafted weapon gave me cover to reload my revolver with armor piercing rounds and focus on casting the strongest blast of lightning I could manage. I reeeeeally hoped Sludge put on his boots.... There couldn't be many of the smaller robots left by now, beyond the hulking thing keeping him prisoner. They were still locked on me as the primary target too, unless one of the other raiders out there had given them different orders, meaning they were clustering up, but I'd only get one shot at this.

"You were warned evildoers! Now you face Luna's judgement!"

The Shroud's voice hopefully helped spook the remaining Rust Devils, giving me an opportunity to leap out the broken window and unleash a crackling web of electricity from my horn. The robots advancing on our bit of cover jittered and smoked under the onslaught, the blinding bolt leapt from the nearest to the next behind it, ending at the tall and highly conductive machine holding Sludge. Several of the crudely put together machines blew their capacitors in puffs of ozone smelling smoke or spewed flames from their seams.

Silence followed the crack of thunder echoing in the ruins, then the long legged platform thing creaked and groaned, slowly tipping over with Sludge yelping from the cage on the way down. Well, at least he was alive... that went better than expected...

I shouldn't have pushed my magic though... I swayed on my hooves at the drain that made my head spin, stamping a foreleg down to catch myself and trying to cover up the weakness in front of the remaining Rust Devil ponies. Their marks on E.F.S. were still red, even though there were quite a few less of them now and so far they hadn't resumed shooting.

The blast of a double barreled shotgun overhead made me flinch, woozily blinking at the smoking shell of a Sprite-bot peppered with buckshot crashing to the street in front of me. The fizzling little robot had been above apparently, out of the kill zone of the lightning...

Carefully craning my neck back revealed Bruno perched on a streetlight above, flicking open his shotgun with a smirk and reloading with a bored drawl. "Missed one boss! The rest of you fucks, put em up 'fore ya get the same!"

The sound of a lot of weaponry clicking from the walls and windows of Redheart Academy seemed to decide the surviving raiders. The first pair of rusty armored hooves up were the pink ones of Tin Snips, the goggled mare peeking out as the marks on Eyes Forward Sparkle started turning green at her yell. "We give! Er... Surrender even! The n-nice Princess pony takes surrender, right?!"

Witchy had run out and stamped a hoof beside me, unobtrusively letting me lean against her as she chirped angrily and took over. "Princess Jade is a noble and kind ruler who shows mercy, thou should consider yourselves lucky for that! Throw down thine weapons and come out!"

Sludge's pained yell from the smoking ruin of his prison broke the remaining tension, letting me relax and try to stay standing as the Minutemares galloped out and started disarming the raiders. "Wonderful, now somepony get me outta this damn thing already!!! Feel like I just made out with a light socket!"

"Attention, ponies of the Commonwealth! I, the Mechanamare, have come from Equestria's golden past to bring about an age of peace in the present. Do not be alarmed. These robots are your allies, your protectors, and they will not rest until the Commonwealth is saved. Together we will restore justice and bring about the dawn of a new age in Equestria."

Sitting on a crumbling stone bench in the courtyard of the Academy before our gaggle of bound Rust Devil prisoners, I listened to the bizarre holotape Tin Snips had hoofed over incredulously. Jade's Followers were providing healing to everyone, including the tech savvy raiders, making the survivors fairly cooperative as a light peach nurse bound their remaining wounds.

The Mechanamare? Like... the villain / reformed villain in the Shrouded Stallion comics? The robot themed character certainly seemed like something right up these kook's alley, but they actually expected to find her here? She was a character... not a real pony. Well... I supposed I didn't have room to talk, but still...

"This was who you were after then? Somepony's actually going around calling themselves the Mechanamare?"

The hogtied filly blinking through her goggles at me answered concisely, and a little bitterly when talking about the idiot leader she had replaced. "Yeah... It was a miscommunication Mr. Shroud... We caught the bet welcher Sludge and was gonna take him back to the Downs, then he heard Jagged ranting about a comic book pony and you saw where it ended up... Stupid bastard didn't take any of the stories seriously. May said not ta go pokin' around you Minutemares until she had more info, but..."

Tin Snips didn't strike me as a typical sadistic or brainless raider from the start, it only took awhile interrogating her to see that impression was accurate. Now that the thug Jagged formerly in charge of their crew was nearly dead from blood loss, she was the spokesmare for all of them and had clearly been the one actually making things run for awhile anyway.

"But that asshole decided to come pick a fight anyway, huh?" I jerked my head to the prone, pale and three legged form of Jagged nearby.

It was only thanks to the compassionate ideals and efforts of Jade's Followers he wasn't dead in the gutter, but he wasn't going to be jabbing anypony else with that foreleg rotting out there in his place. Tin glared at him and nodded, her expression under the dirty blonde dreadlocks tied by bolts and screws making it pretty clear she agreed with me and Bruno keeping his shotgun trained on the unconscious buck when it came to his survival.

"Yeah... Fucking moron, I tried to tell him. Last we heard that Mechanamare bitch is way up north, not down here. You really are him though, aren't you? The real Shrouded Stallion from the radio? Brats playing dress up don't have wings and a horn both... So? W-What are you gonna do with us? If you're goin' through the trouble of healing us, I'm kinda hoping it's not just so the torture hurts worse..." Tin sighed bitterly, shrugging at their helpless situation but thinking clearly and logically.

"No, no torture." I replied and rubbed the spike of pain between my eyes, ignoring the mutter in my head wanting to do exactly that. "Usually Princess Jade would deal with ponies like you and ask you to be better, since she's not here right now, you're stuck with me though. I want to do what she'd say, I really am trying... but how much of a problem are you going to be if I do? Tell me about yourself and this weird gang of yours Miss Snips, give me a reason not to kill you."

"Aw just pop the lot of em boss! They're just gonna come back if ya let em go! You goofy ponies can't be this stupid!" Bruno screeched before she could answer, reminding me of Val in his exasperated tantrum.

"Quiet kid. You wanted to play Minutemare, this is the kinda thing you'd have to do if you did join them."

Witchy nodded along with my terse warning to the flabbergasted griffon, chirping earnestly to the gaggle of prisoners. "Fast is right, Princess Jade is a proper example of nobility and grace. Those who hath surrendered under her banner of mercy receive it. If thou really wishes to join their number Bruno, you should accept it."

Watching the back and forth suspiciously, Tin Snips hesitantly answered after some thought. "What'dya wanna know? I mean, we ain't a bunch of dumbass raiders... except screwheads like Jagged there. We're... entrepreneurs... salvagin' robots and junk, explorin' old ruins ta find it, lots of stuff. Jagged was a dumbass, but I gots a degree from U.P. for Celestia's sake! We run Easy Filly Downs across the river, that's why we snatched the weasel there, he owes us caps for bets he put down himself, we didn't force him."

"D-Don't ya listen Mr. Fast! Them Rust Devils ain't much above raiders, no matter her fancy speechifyin'! If'n somepony's got some piece o' robot junk they want enough, they'll come an' take it if they can. Run protection rackets all over these parts and roam up an' down the coast lookin' fer tech!" Sludge hollered from his safe spot well behind me, his broken and bloody muzzle being tended by a frustrated purple nurse trying to make him hold still.

"But you do owe them caps, don't you Sludge?" By his wince when I asked, I assumed that much was true and groaned, returning to Tin and tapping my chin. "I meant what I tried to tell your idiot leader. I'll cover his debts if you leave him alone from now on. I'm even willing to chalk this up to what you said, a misunderstanding... We don't know much about this area, just like you didn't know about us. But now that you know better, I expect to have my warning followed. Anywhere under the protection of the Kingdom of Sanctuary is just that, protected... If you show up for anything but legitimate business, you'll be treated as raiders. Any settlement under those flags is off limits, no bullying or extortion, no stealing, no killing, no nothing..."

Tin Snips followed my glance to the twin flags of the Minutemares and Followers flapping above Redheart Academy. She gave an evasive look under my raised eyebrow waiting for her reply, seeming to decide honesty was the best option. "I don't speak for our boss... I'll relay the message, i-if you let us go back to give it, but it's up to May Flowers. You wanna talk to her, she's back at the Downs. Is that it?"

"Hmm... not quite. First off, if you really do salvage tech from all over... there's some stuff I'm looking for. Would I be able to go to this... Easy Filly Downs of yours and buy what I want if you have it?"

Tin squinted in surprise, but gave an eager nod in reply. "Buy it or win it at the robot races and fights. We don't turn away caps at the Downs, might not get the best reception with some of our regular customers, but that's your problem."

Interesting... that gave me another potential lead for teleporter parts if I was lucky. That just left one more question that was bothering me. "Ok, last thing then. Who's this Mechanamare you were after and why were you hunting her down? Consider me curious about somepony else playing comic book character running around the Commonwealth."

"Oh... that crazy bitch... Dunno who the hell it is, but she's competition. All these roamin' bands of robots started showing up in the north, going after ruins and salvage in our turf, playing that crazy message from the holotape. Wherever she's getting her bots, our boss wants it and her for fucking with us. She started the fight and guessin' she ain't one of yours if you don't know about her, so that's between us and her. Right?" Tin answered immediately and I couldn't fault her reasoning, it was curious, but wasn't anything I had heard about and didn't have anything to do with us apparently.

When I stood with a wince and drew my knife, Tin Snips' eyes grew fearful for a moment watching the glittering starmetal blade floating towards her legs. It parted the ropes binding her as easily as it had Jagged's leg in this case though, letting her rub her limbs and cautiously stand, looking at my outstretched hoof dubiously.

"Fine. Glitter, count out the caps for Mr. Barrel's debts if you would sweetie. The Minutemares will escort you to the river and give your guns back there, after the Followers are done healing you Miss Snips. The robots that attacked us are spoils of war though, if your boss is mad about those, tell her to blame Jagged for pissing me off. Deal?"

Tin Snips' hoof met mine in a curt shake, looking relieved enough at a way out of here alive to not complain about me claiming all their toys. That mobile tool platform of theirs especially was something I could use, a way to speed up repairs and fortifications to the new settlement I had an idea it would need just in case Tin's leader was as stupid as her underling Jagged. Hopefully the mare in charge of the Rust Devils across the river was more reasonable like Tin herself, but I wanted to be ready if she wasn't.

I barely sealed the deal with Tin and put away my knife, when a blast of numbing magic hit me and I flopped to the ground like a limp noodle, the Rust Devils, Minutemares, Followers, griffons and all my friends spinning to the booming goddess voice screaming from the gates. "FAST! I TOLD YOU TO BEHAVE YOURSELF! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!"

Rolling an eye her way, I could just spot Jade galloping in with her eyes blazing under her soft and recently groomed mane, Swan and Val chasing after her looking disappointed they missed all the excitement. She sounded pissed alright... justifiably I guessed after returning from what looked like a relaxing day in University Point and finding a warzone outside, but she didn't have to just tranquilize me out of hoof like that...

Witchy squeaked and ran to her anxiously, rapidly chattering in her high pitched voice and trying to explain the scene she walked in on, while Glitter giggled over me, booping my numb nose with a lilting tease. "Ooooooh daddy... You're in troub-uuuuull!"

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

Chain Lightning----------
---Your further arcane studies and skill with the Lightning school of magic have improved your control over your signature spells. Your lightning strike spells now have a chance of leap from one target to the next, up to three times, for 20% less damage per jump. The odds of doing so increase when used against robots, power armor and targets wearing a significant amount of normal metal armor.

Reputation Change!------------

Rust Devils -- Merciful Thug
----This gang may be smarter than your average raider, but they're not far removed. Individual bands roaming the wastes may be more or less hostile, depending on the situation and members, while the leadership in larger camps like Easy Filly Downs should at least initially allow you in. Watch your back and be glad you're not the mysterious and vilified Mechanamare.