"Huzwha!? Huh?" The loud clanging of a schoolbell brought me surging back to consciousness, my head shooting up from the hard surface I had been drooling on and my back smacking into the rather uncomfortable seat I found myself in.

Sitting up stock straight with my heart pounding, for a moment I blinked the sleep from my eyes and froze as my eyes focused, only adding to my confusion as they did so through glass lenses perched on my muzzle and took in the bizarre scene I found myself in. I was in a classroom... like an actual, prewar classroom, vaguely familiar to my limited time in school before going down to Stable 111.

I was sitting at a battered school desk, surrounded by more of the same in neat rows facing the dusty blackboard on the wall. The walls were peeling and cracked, the ceiling spotty with water damage and full of buzzing fluorescent lights, but there weren't gaping holes in the walls, so better upkeep than most ruins. I wasn't alone either, though to my horror those I hoped to see were nowhere to be found. No Jade... no Val or Summer, not even Fancy and Freya...

Instead the desks surrounding me were occupied by a variety of normal looking ponies, dressed in clean and neat prewar clothing. They seemed to fit in very similar styles, several burly bucks wore red and white leather sports jackets with D.B. across the back, mostly with buzz cut manes and short cut tails. Several mares wore somewhat dated and poofy dresses, lots of wide, long skirts decorated with cute embroidery and prim blouses, their manes shining and styled immaculately. Another group reminded me of the Arcano-Cats, black leather jackets, tight T shirts, denim and pompadour manes. The final clique was dressed as old world nerds... like that old movie dad loved so much about them getting revenge, ill fitting button up shirts, bow ties, suspenders, glasses, oily manes and lots of acne.

Most seemed around my age, though there was a portly purple buck in a natty brown suit droning on at the blackboard, a teacher? The strangers around me all kept their attention on him giving a lecture on E.U.P. and formation of the Wonderbolts apparently... In the corner almost as an afterthought and ignored entirely by everypony, a pale Gen 1 synth stood sentinel, a long, gem studded baton at its plastic flank.

None of them paid my sudden jolt in my seat or dumbfounded gaping any mind anyway, focusing on their books and the pads of paper they scribbled notes in, while my brain tried to engage without much success. How did I get in a school classroom? Why was I wearing glasses? Where was my hat? Actually, where was my armor!?

Looking down and patting myself frantically, I found my magical Shrouded Stallion trenchcoat and saddlebags were gone. Instead I was wearing an uncomfortable white, short sleeved button up shirt, the stiff collar was tight and a pocket protector full of writing implements was tucked in the breast pocket. Pulling the unfamiliar glasses from my face, I blinked at the thick black rims, why the hell was I wearing these? Why was I wearing any of it? What happened? Where was Jade!?

"Don't panic... Don't make a fuss either, just keep your head down and act normal..." A low whisper broke me out of the rising panic, getting me to turn towards the voice without freaking out.

The earth pony colt in the seat next to me was dressed in a very similar fashion as myself, a reddish-brown sweater vest was over his own crisp white shirt, and his black rimmed glasses were taped together at the bridge. He was definitely my age or younger, a bit gangly and scrawny, his dark black and neon green mane was spiky and messy, while his coat was oddly colored. It was a light green, contrasted by darker bands of the same making swoops and curls across his fur, a Zony?

He was slightly familiar overall, forcing me to squint at his nervous expression behind a history book held up on his desk to hide behind. It took a minute to puzzle out with all the other weirdness crowding my thoughts. I had to work to focus on the whole image and come up with where I'd seen a pony just like him, though to be fair I'd only ever seen a black and white picture of an older version...

"S-Swirl? You're Professor SWIRL!!"

"Sssshhh! N-No! Not really, er... my name's Oro, Oro Boros. I mean I sorta am him too, but not... just... calm down! You have to play along, I'm trying to help!" The younger version of the Institute head of Reverse Engineering squeaked anxiously, ducking behind his book and grimacing at the shout.

"Ahem! I see our new student is making friends already, let's see if he's bothering to pay attention to the lesson too. Mr. Times, at what celebration were the Wonderbolts formed under General Firefly?" The stern voice of the teacher distracted me from launching myself at the mini Swirl, freezing me half out of my seat with my wings flared and fangs out to goggle at the question.

Looking at Swirl's... Oro's? pleading look and waving hoof, I bit back the desire to tear his throat out with a slow breath. The pale synth in the corner had shifted, revealing a fancy stun gun on his other flank and his willingness to use it. Whatever insanity I had woken up in, the mini-Swirl said to play along and he wanted to help. Without my weapons, armor or even my magic (as I had already thought to summon lightning and barely got a flicker at my horn), playing along until I understood what was going on seemed the wiser choice.

Plus I actually knew the answer to this question, mom was a Shadowbolt and drilled the things she had to study to get in into my head growing up, the memory of her smiling face reciting the facts helped keep me calm as I grit my teeth and answered; "The first Celestial year of peace."

"Ah, excellent, nice to know you'll not be a problem student Mr. Times. Moving on!" The grey maned teacher bristled his mustache and returned to the board, letting me return my attention to my bizarre neighbor in a much lower voice.

"Alright, what the fuck is going on here, where is Jade! If you hurt her..."

"She's fine! They're all fine, for now... I promise, I want to help, but you have to keep up the act. This place is..." Swirl/Oro whispered back, interrupted by a sudden shout and the screech of a desk being bucked aside.

One of the 'students' dressed like an Arcano-Cat reared up, mussing his pompadour into a spiky mess as he gave a crazed shout. "That's it! I can't take it no more! Fuck this place and fuck all of ya! Done playin' yer crazy ass games!"

Taking a closer look as he bolted for the door, I saw his coat was marred by scars and his cutie mark was a bloody knife... He didn't fit in like the others passively watching him throwing a fit, he was a wastelander... a raider by the faint smell of blood and booze I caught as he galloped off.

The Gen 1 synth cut him off before he made it halfway there, charging from its corner and cracking his head with a swing of its baton. The crazed buck skidded to the scuffed floors, screaming with his eyes still spinning, then jittering in place and squealing louder with the synth turned the pronged end of the baton on him. The sharp smell of burnt fur and ozone came with the crackle of electricity the synth kept right on jabbing him with. The stench filled the room when he finally passed out and the emotionless robot dragged him out through the door he had been trying for.

There was a brief pause, then the teacher turned back to his lesson like nothing had happened, all the other students returning to their books doing the same. Synths... they were all synths? Or just mostly? Some had cutie marks while others like Oro didn't, but I started piecing things together. I was relieved to find at least my telekinesis worked, letting me float the ancient history book up as a barrier to hide behind like the cringing synth beside me I turned to whisper to.

"This is a... a dollhouse... isn't it? Like Dala's rooms, her birthday party... This whole school is some kind of game!?"

"S-Sort of... Not quite, but that's close. Look, just keep playing along and I'll explain." Swirl/Oro answered in a rush, then ended the conversation by lowering his book and raising his hoof, waiting to be acknowledged by the teacher before speaking up. "Mr. Scroll, may the new student and I be excused? He doesn't know his way around, so he asked me to show him to the restroom."

The teacher huffed at the interruption, but trotted to his desk and pulled a pink slip of paper from a drawer in his ancient wooden desk, scribbling a quick note he held out as he nodded gruffly. "Very well, remember to take a hall pass, and don't be late for next period Mr. Boros."

At the synth's urging as he got up and stuffed his books away in a canvas pack under his seat, I followed along up the row of students. I was annoyed to hear snickers and even get hit by a spitball from the cluster of sportsponies in the back row, but followed Oro to the teacher's desk as he took the hall pass and led the way.

We passed the synth guard returning to his post on the way, but the blank faced, soulless automaton paid us no mind and we left without incident, out into the halls of Daybreak Technical High School and whatever insanity the Institute had built here.

"A... a testing ground!?"

My angry shout echoed off the grimy tiles of the buck's restroom as I backed Oro towards one of the stalls, barely keeping my anger in check as the younger face of Swirl winced and jabbered back. "Y-Yes! Sort of... sort of not too, it is like a Dollhouse, otherwise I wouldn't be here like this obviously... I... j-just calm down. We've only got a little while before the next class."

"I don't care about the next stupid class! Where's Jade! My other friends! Why the fuck should I trust you at all Swirl... Oro, whoever you think you are synth! Explain faster!"

"I'm not him! I hate him dammit! Do you have any idea what it's like to be stuck in a place like this!? To relive the same day, over and over and over again! To be taken over whenever that asshole feels like blowing off some steam! To do... do horrible things and have no control over it! I'm trapped here, same as you! You're my best chance to escape and I will explain, if you just shut the hell up and let me!" I was surprised into falling back a step at the crazed yell from the scrawny buck, nearly shaking his taped together glassed from his muzzle and ending up panting with a manic look on his face.

"Alright... I'm listening."

At my grudging curiosity and difficult to maintain calm, Oro/Swirl slumped miserably, as if that minor bit of defiance took a lot out of him. He took shaking steps out of the dirty stall I had backed him into, moving to the row of sinks under the cracked mirror and splashing his striped face with the sputtering stream of water, then looking up to his own image with a grimace before flicking his pale yellow eyes to my reflection watching from behind him.

"This place is torture... I wish I was like all the others and didn't remember, didn't think... but the bastard is vain, made me smarter and better than most of the synths playing their roles. Officially, the D.B. School facility is a testing ground for studying the captured subjects, like you and that raider they dragged out. Improving synth infiltrators, making us better at copying you by studying your reactions to a fixed scenario." Oro turned and floated his glasses down to polish on his sweater vest, his voice a tired croak as he caught himself putting them back on, tucking them away instead as he clearly didn't need his either.

"Fixed scenario... so you repeat the same thing over and over, like Dala's birthday party? But you're self aware and have been stuck doing it... like Angel... Ok, I get that. How does that help study ponies you trap here though? Or is it just Swirl being as crazy as the other Institute heads?"

Insulting the stallion he was modeled on got a grim chuckle out of Oro, who still looked nervous, but warmed to the technical subject. "It's like a game. A psychological test. The school day will play out the same way every time, the only variable is the test subjects. They put them in classes, ask questions, study their reactions... all for fidelity. That's the official excuse anyway. Unofficially... it is Klein and Swirl's own dollhouse, and they are as crazy as the others... They have a special affinity for this place, Swirl used to go here when he was... me, I guess. I've been trapped here for longer than I care to think. That's why I want to help you, you helped Dala's favorite proxy escape, you can help me."

"Actually, it was more the other way around, Angel helped me... but ok, I'm all for getting out of here. How do we do it? Where's Jade and the others? Where's my equipment? Why doesn't my magic work?"

Choosing to trust a pony that looked like Professor Swirl wasn't easy, but the nerdy young buck was earnest and scared, pausing to check the ornate, gold and sapphire watch on his foreleg before answering. "The others have been put in different classes, with this hall pass we can try to find them, but we've only got so long before next period. Your weapons and outside clothing were confiscated when they processed you, they'll be in the office... as for your magic there's a dampening field, only minor cantrips and level 1 telekinesis are permitted. You should also know, we have to hurry. A status update goes to the Institute every morning, they don't know you're here yet, but they will when it goes through."

"Alright... no guns, no magic, no armor... terrific. First thing's first, take me to Jade. Now..."

I couldn't keep the growl out of my reply, actually I was proud to have held it back this long already. My worry for Jade trapped somewhere in this madhouse was clawing at me, I wanted to find Val and Summer too, but Jade took up an overwhelming amount of my mind. I shouldn't have let her come, shouldn't have allowed her to be put in danger, no matter what she said.

Because of her concern for my... sanity..., she insisted on sticking with me and it put her and our foal at risk. I was actually somewhat surprised the familiar snarl of that dark voice wasn't speaking up, further disturbed to find even the song of the Ministry Mares holding it back was nearly silent too... It was somewhat lonely in my addled brain now that I thought of it, just my voice and no others. Even when I focused on calling for them, any of them, even 'Be Dark...' for that matter, they were no more than a whisper carried on the wind from a long way off. They were still there, I could ...feel that much, but I couldn't hear them. Was it the dampening field Oro mentioned?

Whatever... Nothing mattered as much as getting Jade out of here and Oro took in my urgency with a gulp, nodding shakily and leading the way back out to the halls. "Right, the blue one first then. She's in..." Oro paused just outside the door for a moment, checking the ornate gold watch on his foreleg and flicking his ears before finishing. "Home Economics, this way. Let me do the talking if we run into any of the Gen 1s, and pray to the goddesses we don't run into X3-49."

"X... You mean the Courser?"

By the way Oro shivered, I figured I guessed right before he confirmed it fearfully. "Right, the hall monitor... She isn't part of the simulation as much as the others. X3 is the only one who goes outside, captures new subjects, deals with nearby agents... She's not as easy to fool, so we have to sneak around her patrols or you'll end up in detention."

Considering my one previous encounter with a Courser, I had no desire to face one while completely disarmed, or at all really. So I followed Oro's cautious pace down the locker lined halls, passing full classrooms playing out their parts and thinking. This was where Mr. Soil followed Mr. Warhorse and said he saw him getting seeds from a pony in a black coat, all but confirming his suspicions the patriarch of Warhorse Homestead was a synth anyway.

I could also see how this place got its haunted reputation in the area. The school bells rang, the lights were on, though every window I saw was barred by steel mesh and covered over in yellowing paint. All outsiders would see would be the shadows of synth students going through their programmed day, anycreature that entered would never leave with a Courser on the premises...

It wasn't real ghosts haunting this place, but the ghosts of the past were definitely here. Like a living, breathing memory orb, Klein and Swirl's personal dollhouse, their private playpen to relive the past and torment ponies of the present. I'd never run into Swirl before, but Klein had seemed somewhat rational and sane when I spoke with him in Stable 75. The more I walked down the echoing halls of this monument to madness however, the more I realized he was just a different kind of crazy...

Frowning in thought as I mulled it over and followed Oro's tail, I nearly ran into his rump when he stopped short. I looked up curiously to my guide, just noticing the sound of approaching voices as Oro turned back from peeking around the corner with a panicked look, whispering urgently. "Shit! L-Let me do the talking, remember? Don't say anything!"

"Er... sure but what's..."

That was as far as I got, the sound of a familiar voice growing clearer as it neared the corner froze me in my tracks. "...you can see all the progress we've made Chancellor, the students of D.B. Technical will be well prepared to tackle this changing world. Though there's only so much we can do this small, I'd love to go over my proposal for Princess Celestia concerning an institute of higher learning to keep pace with the technological revolution, and to help safeguard Equestria of course..."

"Yes, yes, Mr. Sum, I found what I've seen so far and your letters intriguing, otherwise I wouldn't be here. We certainly need to make sure we keep a firm hoof on the advance of arcane science, developing so much relying on coal from those.... ugh... zebras... is pure folly. One step at a time however, should this tour and your Arcane Science Fair this afternoon go well, there is an opening at Trotson University we can discuss. Building a new school focused entirely on arcane technology will take time, especially with her highness asking the E.E.A. to focus so much effort on her vanity project for her sister in that awful Littlehorn Valley. It'll be years before we approve an educational facility that close to the zebra lands, merely for a royal joke! Now, let's take a look at... oh... hello, students out of class Zero?" The haughty voice that answered belonged to a pale stallion in fancy maroon robes pinned with a golden medallion, arching a dark black eyebrow as carefully manicured as his pointy goatee and slick mane when he nearly ran into Oro and I.

It was the pony he was speaking with that left me gaping, making small, strangled noises of confusion and growing anger as I got a good look. He was younger too, but I'd met the rich brown stallion looking down his white muzzle at us before...

"K-K-Klein..."

He wore a distasteful frown at the interruption, polishing his horn rimmed glasses on his pale tan suit as he huffed and focused on Oro. "Hmm? Ah... Mr. Boros and... a new student? I'm sure there's nothing to worry about Chancellor, young Oro here is one of my best students! You both do have a good reason for being out of class, don't you Mr. Boros?"

"Y-Yes sir Principal Sum, I was just showing the new student to the restroom, h-here's our hall pass!" Oro whipped out the pink slip of paper from his packs in a hurry, holding it out for Klein to make a show of inspecting carefully and adjusting his glasses.

The pale, bearded unicorn next to Klein gave an unconvinced huff when the hall pass was deemed acceptable, sneering at Oro. "A Zony? You have students of such... mixed heritage... attending here Zero? Are you sure he's... loyal to his proper pony lineage and not..."

The bigotry and superior attitude was practically oozing from the tall stallion, cut off from being even more insulting by Klein replying in a rush. "Oh yes Chancellor Neighsay, Mr. Boros earned his place here and commutes every day from Neighlem Village to attend classes. He's a prodigy student I've been grooming myself as my protege. His arcane science fair project will be sure to prove his value and dedication to advancing Equestria! Isn't that right Oro? Run along back to class and make sure you're all set up to wow the Chancellor dear buck!"

"Y-Yes sir... Come on Fast, you heard the Principal..." Oro gave a grateful bow and shoved me along, ushering me away with me still staring at Klein and the Chancellor pony trotting off.

He got me to a nearby stairwell and halfway up the first flight before my brain engaged and I put my hoof down, shouting in flabbergasted anger. "Klein!? That was Klein!!"

"Ssssh!! I know, but it wasn't too! That was Principal Zero Sum, before he was Klein... I told you this place is his and Professor Swirl's. He's not even awake, he's just following his programming, that's all. Come on, your mare is upstairs." Oro winced at the noise, managing to get me moving with the promise of finding Jade.

I still wasn't happy, the shock at running into what looked exactly like Klein warring with surprise and buzzing thoughts as pieces fell into place. That was Klein when the Institute was just an idea he was pitching to the Equestrian Education Association, putting this whole weird dollhouse sometime well before I was born, when Princess Celestia still held the throne.

The casual racism the Chancellor regarded Oro with also made me realize even that bright and shining past wasn't so great for everypony... "So, you really are a zony? Do you get treated like that a lot?"

Oro paused on the landing and looked back, a conflicted look on his green striped face. "I'm not a zony, I'm a synth modeled on one. I only get treated like that here because they're programmed to."

"Still... I mean, programming or not, you're the one that has to endure it. It couldn't have been easy for you, or Swirl I guess. I feel sorta bad for you, both of you."

"This was all a long time ago Fast. Don't feel too bad for Swirl either, he might have suffered, but he let feeling ostracized turn him into a monster. I'm not him..." Oro's answer held a bitter note, a self aware synth, trapped in a day his Institute creators wanted to relive.

"No, you're not, I can see that much. Thanks for your help Oro."

"You're welc-kaff! kaff! kaff!" He gave me a grateful look, though his reply was interrupted with a fit of coughing as he opened the door to the next floor up and thick black smoke wafted in from down the hall.

Coughing as my sensitive nose was assaulted by the smoke, it took me a minute to recognize the vaguely familiar burning smell wafting down the hall. I charged past Oro staggering into the hall in confusion when I did and spotted the source, unsurprised it was the room with the dusty placard reading; '235- Home Ec.'.

The anxious, frustrated, beautiful voice that met me when I ran in was giving a familiar cry from every other time I had seen Jade cooking, "No! Don't burn! Don't burn!!"

Just seeing her safe was enough for me to pause at the door and take in the sight gratefully, even getting a wry chuckle on finding Jade frantically waving smoke away with her wings in front of one ancient oven out of row of matching appliances. The fact she was dressed up as an old world cheerleader left me stunned by both the bizarre situation and how gorgeous she looked. It was a red and white outfit, somehow perfectly sized for her, the pleated skirt was short and swished around her flanks as she pranced in place, while the tight sleeveless top was emblazoned with a bright yellow DB.

The fact it was Summer who flew forward and dumped a bag of flour on the grease fire made me feel even better. She was dressed like many other mares I had seen so far, a wide, red skirt with an embroidered poodle, a simple, white, button up blouse, covered by a pale pink sweater jacket that left her yellow wings free to flutter beside Jade and calm her.

I saw the joy and reassurance sparkle in their eyes as they both flicked over to me and Oro galloping in behind me, then they turned to a plump, older pink mare with a curly purple mane. Clearly the teacher, she was wearing a flour dusted blue apron, waving smoke away and approaching through the murmuring crowd of students coughing and gagging at Jade's 'cooking'.

As excited as they both were, I caught Summer holding Jade back from simply charging right at me, turning to the synth teacher instead and keeping up the act. "Kaff-kaff... er... s-sorry! Just a little accident Ms. Bell, my friend isn't the best cook..."

"Oh my, I should say not! How did you even manage to start this blaze dear, if you followed the recipe it should not have resulted in... this mess! We're baking, not using the stovetop!" The teacher frowned at the blackened lump that was still sizzling under all the flour, facehoofing at Jade's meek muttering about 'improving' the recipe, then turning to Oro and I with a curious look when she caught Jade pout at me choking back a snicker. "Ah, guests! Can I help you Oro?"

"Umm... y-yes! Yes Ms. Bell, I er... we rather, were sent to take the new students to the attendance office. Er... something about their transfer papers. I'll just... take them off your hooves so you can clean up." Oro trotted up and took over, offering the home ec teacher a flimsy excuse.

I gulped at the curious tilt to the synth teacher's head and the attention of a class full of more watching the exchange, interrupted in their more successful culinary efforts. Most of all I was holding myself back from flying directly at Jade, keeping my gaze locked with hers, taking in the way she shifted on her hooves and bit her lip wanting to do the same.

Summer seemed to have grasped the idea of playing along without somepony like Oro there to clue her in though, making me extremely grateful the smart little pegasus had woken up with Jade as she spoke up. "Umm... right! We didn't do our paperwork, we just sorta went ahead to class Ms. Bell. Our fault!"

After a moment's thought, the teacher flinched back from Jade's scorched creation popping, waving her hooves dismissively. "Yes, yes, please get her out of here Oro dear. I'll see you in 5th period, I look forward to your wonderful efforts even more after this disaster. Sorry Miss Jade, I've never yet given up on a student, so we'll... start with the basics tomorrow."

"Umm... Y-Yes... thank you teacher, I'll try my best!" Jade answered earnestly, making me crack a weary grin as she pranced away with a bow to the exasperated synth.

As soon as we escaped to the halls and closed the door, neither of us could hold back, lunging into a trembling embrace and nuzzling each other desperately. I checked over every inch, making sure she was safe and unharmed, paying close attention to the long expanse of her midriff exposed between her cheerleader blouse and skirt.

"Oh Fast! I w-was so worried! I woke up without you and thought... thought you may be gone, that I was taken away by ghosts and trapped in some terrible afterlife without you! I-If Summer had not been there, I do not know what I would have done! A-Are you alright? Why are you dressed so? W-Who is your friend?" Jade planted frantic little kisses all over me as she spoke breathlessly, finally breaking off to acknowledge Oro prancing in place anxiously.

"I'm glad you're ok too hon, really, really glad... Umm, this is Oro, Oro this is Jade and Summer. It's kind of a long story, but he is a friend, I think... Thanks for taking me to them Oro, really."

"Yes, yes, you're welcome! We're on a time limit here and still have the griffons to collect before... shit!" Oro answered absently as he crept around the lockers at the corner, flinching back with a panicked look and hissing in fear. "X3! She's coming! Hide before..."

He fell silent when Jade's horn glowed and the four of us disappeared, made invisible by her magic just before the approaching hoofsteps came around the corner. The Courser mare was the one I caught a brief glimpse of before getting knocked out and dragged into this situation, a pale peach mare with a rose mane tied back in a severe, no nonsense braid.

She trotted right out to the intersection of hallways beside us, living up to the orange 'Hall Monitor' sash she wore over her black leather coat. The dark lenses of her sunglasses panned left and right slowly, pausing on us invisibly cringing under her blank stare. I could feel Jade trembling beside me, holding her breath and focusing on her spell with grim determination. When the fearsome Courser finally turned away and continued on her patrol, Jade kept it up until she was far enough away to slip off of Eyes Forward Sparkle, then nearly collapsed as we all reappeared.

"T-That... was more difficult than normal... I w-would not rely on it again..." Jade panted weakly, leaning against me and sweating profusely, lines under her weary eyes and the sparks at her horn showing just how much that took out of her.

Oro gave her a look of respect and clear relief, explaining as he trotted away and checked his watch again. "I'm amazed it worked at all. The dampening field cuts off advanced magic like that, maybe because it's an innate ability to you blue mutant alicorns… Whatever the case, we need to hurry, that was too close."

"Right, now Val and the others, then we get the hell out of here. Somehow..."

Sneaking back downstairs and through the halls while avoiding the occasional Gen 1 synth gave me time to explain what little I knew to Jade and Summer in a rushed whisper. While Jade nodded along with a confused look at the official explanation of running this insane pre war highschool as it had been, Summer followed along with an impressed expression and a barrage of technical questions.

"So we're mice in a maze... that's... I hate to admit it, but that's brilliant. Adaptive programming based on detailed psychological study in a static scenario... They learn what the average wastelander's knowledge level and typical reactions are. Is the data stored on site synth?" Summer muttered in thought as we galloped down the halls, dismissively addressing Oro in the lead.

The younger version of Swirl answered over his shoulder, running past splashing noises from an open door marked 'Pool' I was surprised to find as just that, a huge chamber with an indoor swimming pool full of fairly brackish water and synth students diving in to race down the few floating lanes. "On the local server until the morning download, yes. It's in the office too, so I planned on dealing with it once we got there. Never mind that for now, those two griffons are going to get X3 called in if they keep it up!"

I wondered how he was so well informed, focusing suspiciously on the golden watch he kept checking as we ran on. He skidded to a halt at a rusting pair of double doors labeled 'Gymnasium', distracting me from the question of how he knew where everyone had been taken by proving again that he did.

The loud squawks and screeches from within were accompanied by a strange, hollow sounding noise, echoing along with Val's angry shout as soon as he cautiously pushed one open. "Back! All of yas, back!"

'TOINK!'

It was a weird sound that was familiar, only placed when I saw her swoop by and catch a red ball bouncing off the back of a teal pony's head who had been unsuccessfully running away from the assault. A loud whistle blowing frantically from the puffed up cheeks of a red faced mare drew my gaping attention away as I put it all together.

Dodgeball... Val and Freya were involved in a version of dodgeball somehow even more violent than the standard game. The weathered wooden floor of the wide space was full of ponies running around crazily, all trying to avoid the pair of griffons staking out center court in agile flight. A trio of pale Gen 1s with their sparking batons were trying to approach and bring them down, but had taken severe damage and kept getting knocked back by the duo.

They were working together at least... that was something. Granted, it was to corral all the round, red plastic balls to the faded circle of tape below them, diving down to scoop up more ammo, then taking aim and knocking some poor synth flying head over hooves. The two of them were dressed in the black leather jackets of the Arcano-Cats like clique, unlike their victims in P.E. uniforms.

Trying to take some kind of control over the bizarre scene was what had to be the gym teacher, the mare with the whistle and a red and white ballcap. She was wearing a white sweatshirt that matched all the identical t-shirts stamped with 'D.B. High Athletic Dept.' in red that the students wore. Her furious shout let the tarnished whistle dangle from a cord around her neck as she tried again for order.

"Stop! Stop! Stop! I don't know how they do things at Boreas Elementary girls, but this is not how we play this..." 'TOINK!' The painful sounding smack of another red ball right to her face cut off, almost making me sputter laughter at the ridiculous scene.

Unfortunately, I had an idea Oro was right. This was too big of a disruption to the programmed simulation, Val and Freya weren't playing along properly. The synths were trying to cope and stay in character, but if it kept going, I had no doubt the Courser really would be called in.

"Val! Stop! Game over!" At my shout, Val dove directly at us clustered around the door, bringing Freya chasing after her, both still carrying a ball in each claw.

"Friggin finally boss! Knew you'd show up eventually, zap all these assholes ta crispy critters, then show me where my guns are at dammit!" Val paused long enough to make sure I was ok, squinting at the getup I and the others were in, then taking up a protective guard with her makeshift weapons held up menacingly to the synths warily coming out of hiding or groaning on the floor.

Freya joined her, but only scowled at the absence of Fancy, growling as she made the gym teacher flinch back from her held up ball. "Where the fuck is the boss pipsqueak!? You got us inta this mess, you better not have got her killed or I'll..."

"You'll do jack and shit bitch. Just shaddup and let the boss fry these fuckers, then we'll find yer cunt of a boss." Val replied for me, nearly starting an argument and momentarily forgetting the class full of synths.

Fortunately Oro broke them up, prancing up between the two griffons glaring at each other and holding his hooves up to the teacher. "Sorry! It's all right! These are both... umm... problem students, I'll take them to the office Ms. Laps!"

The sturdy looking earth pony mare gave Oro an unconvinced huff for a moment, then shrugged as the Gen 1 guards turned away and holstered their batons. Order had been restored and we were playing along again, so they were satisfied. More than that, I was getting the suspicion that Oro had some strange level of pull around here. So long as he offered a plausible enough explanation, the other synths seemed to just go along with it.

He apologized profusely to the teacher still rubbing the round mark on her crimson face, waving us back with his tail as he backed out at her dismissal. When the heavy doors swung shut again with a creak behind us, he took a shaky breath, glancing down the hallways anxiously. "Phew... just in time. Alright, now we..."

Before he got a chance to finish, Freya lunged after me, digging her orange claws into my uncomfortable shirt and slamming me against the nearest lockers, scowling face to face with her icy blue eyes narrowed. "Where the fuck is the boss shrimp!?"

I saw Val's claws twitch for pistols that weren't there, rearing up on her hindlegs instead and tensing those razor sharp digits behind Freya's back. Jade pushed her way between them before Val attacked though, looking a little odd calling for peace in the cheerleader outfit without asking for it as 'Gimme a P-E-A-C-E', but still managing to pull it off with her soft cry. "Do not Valkyrie! Miss Freya is as worried for her employer as you would be for Fast. She was not in the same class Summer and I awoke in Freya, we will do all we can to find her immediately however. I hope our new friend can prove as helpful there as he has so far?"

With her hopeful look down to Oro flinching from the noise, I saw even the synthetic version of Swirl wasn't immune to Jade's charms. He straighted up and nodded back nervously, speaking in a low whisper. "Y-Yes! I know where the last of your group is, the nurse's office! Just stay calm, please!"

"We'll get her back Freya, I promise. My magic doesn't work right and all our stuff is gone though, so we have to keep working together to do it and get out of here. Do like the nice synth asks, huh?"

Freya released me with a doubtful cluck, wheeling on Oro and frowning at the intimidated buck. "Synth? Yer one of them fake ponies those nutballs make? You better take me to the boss, or I'll find out just how real they make you bastards with a lil' personal dissection, got it?"

Helping me up with a glare at Freya, Val groaned at my admission I couldn't just fry anything that got in our way with electric death. "Fuck.. none of yer horn head tricks boss? Blue?"

"I am afraid not Valkyrie... even my invisibility is very difficult to perform. I am unable to heal or cast advanced magic, so please... none of you get wounded as you are prone to do, hmmm Fast? I am even lacking my more standard healing supplies, so I am most interested in going to this nurse's office Oro. I assume Miss Star was taken there due to her remaining wounds?" Jade answered primly, moving us all down the hall merely by setting a stately pace behind Oro leading the way.

"Right, they weren't done processing her yet, so she's still with the nurse. Her office is in administration, with all the other offices we need to reach. In just a minute the next class will start and we can just blend in with the crowd, stay together and follow me, alright?"

"Do you really want to trust this synth Fast? You said he's supposed to be Professor Swirl! An Institute Director! We're together and know where to go, we should just do it ourselves and stuff this thing in a locker!" Summer surprised me with the venom in her voice, her bright green eyes narrowed at the gulping synth flinching from her fury.

"He's helped so far and he didn't have to Summer. Another synth helped me escape the Institute when they injected me with their I.M.P. and I wound up like... this. I saw how other synths suffer in these dollhouses the Institute makes too. Some of them really are alive and this is torture for them, Oro's one of those. If he wants to be free and help us get out of here, I'm willing to trust him."

Summer didn't look happy at my answer, but bit back on her reply when the bells overhead rang and a horde of synth students started filling the halls around us. Just as Oro said, we blended in with the crowd and followed his lead, getting lost in the stream of ponies dressed up like the old world cliques that apparently dominated high schools like this before the end.

Filling Val and Freya in on the threat of the Courser roaming the halls as we pushed our way through and ended at Oro's locker, Val cut right to the chase with a worried huff. "One of those killer robots that fucked you up so bad boss? Gimme a gun synth buck, now..."

"I can't, it's all locked up in the office. Even if you had one, it's suicide to try to fight X3 or any Courser! If you've met one you should know that! I'll get you to them, but we'll need the passcode to the contraband cage." Oro replied as he spun the combination dial on his locker absently, gulping at both griffons crowding him and continuing in a rush. "B-But I know where to get it! That buck, right down there! In his locker!"

The stallion he pointed out was a fairly large, dark reddish brown earth pony of the sportsbuck clique. He had a buzz cut tan mane and spoke easily with the cluster of bucks wearing matching red and white school jackets, along with the accompanying mares in skirts and blouses like Summer wore.

I also noticed the shifty look he gave when a greaser pony in a black leather jacket sidled up, both of them using the cover of the small herd around them to surreptitiously exchange a hoofull of prewar bits for a small orange tin the jock dug out of his locker in his teeth.

"Richie, Rich Chocolate, a regular mobster in here, he swipes stuff from storage, so the code to the cage is in his locker." Oro answered in a small, tight voice, his eyes turning from Jade to a beautiful light pink Pegasus in a cheerleader outfit to match hers, rushing up to hug this Richie as he closed his locker.

Oro's yellow eyes didn't leave the new mare squealing in a high pitched voice as Richie swung her around and kissed her, her flowing white and gold mane whipping behind her. They were misty and sad watching the two of them, full of complex emotion that made him forget about his locker and us entirely, eventually prompting me to give him a nudge to snap him out of it.

"Somepony you know?"

"Bright Bridle... she and Richie... I told you this place is torture, those two are pieces of Swirl's past. Their models are based on ponies he knew when he was me, er my age rather." Oro sighed and flinched away as the couple broke apart and started down the hall toward us.

The reason was easy enough to understand when the burly Richie shoved me into Oro on his way down the hall, slamming us both into the lockers and cackling along with his crew of cronies and the pretty mare. "Whooooops! Sorry loser, gotcha again! What can I say, I see those stripes and just can't help it! Hahahah!"

Oro kept his head against his locker where he had been shoved as I stumbled away, biting back tears and taking slow breaths. Before I could do much more than get my balance however, Val spoke up in a menacing drawl that stopped the laughing Richie short. "Hey, asshole, take a look at this for me..."

The smarmy look on Rich Chocolate's face was wiped away by Val's fist smashing into it as soon as he turned back, knocking him into a few surprised passing ponies and away from his cheerleader marefriend, who yelped and ran after the dazed asshole groaning nonsensically on the floor.

Bright Bridle fretted over the groaning stallion and shot a dirty look up to Val polishing her claws on her leather jacket, sneering at both her and the pair of jocks that were part of Richie's clique glaring at her. "What? You two want a little too? Scoop up yer asshole friend and get goin'..."

Freya groaned in disgust, but stepped forward and joined her old partner with a tired growl. "I'd fuck off if I was you. This silly bitch loses all sense when it comes ta wimpy pony nerds like that one. Considerin' I got better shit ta be doin' and... the clusterfuck she caused when I didn't back her up with the last one, I can't really stay outta it this time."

They didn't seem very willing to take either intimidating griffon up on their offer and defend their woozy friend, instead turning away and trotting off together at a hurried pace when Val flexed her claws threateningly. Neither of us missed Freya's offhoofed quasi-apology either, though Val ignored it and chuckled at them scampering off, then prowled off towards his vacant locker, dragging me along by my starched collar.

"Not that I don't agree Val, but maybe we shouldn't be messing with these synths too much..."

"The ice queen's right, nobody picks on my lil' nerd an' gets away with it boss. Now shaddup an' help me open this thing up." Val shoved me up to Richie's locker and gave an affectionate nip to my ears, making her feelings clear through violence in her own usual way.

Looking between her cracking her knuckles and staring at the combination dial in concentration, I voiced my confusion at her expectant look to me. "I love you too Val... Now then, my help? Can't you just pick this lock like every other one?"

"You see a keyhole anywhere boss? It's a combo lock, not near as easy. I needs them freaky alicorn ears of yers, stick yer head right here and tell me when you hear a tumbler drop." Val answered by shoving my head against the cool metal of the locker, then sticking her tongue out of the side of her beak and slowly turning the combination dial above my head.

I wasn't entirely sure what she meant, but listened carefully to the slow 'click-click-click' of the dial turning. Before long, I heard what she must have meant, the quiet 'clink' of something inside the lock falling into place. I held my hoof up to let Val know without making noise, flicking my eyes up to watch her reverse direction and start turning the dial again.

After repeating the slow process three times, Val opened the locker with a victorious cluck and let me move aside as she opened it, giving an impressed whistle at the treasure trove inside. Richie's locker was a mess, the inner door festooned with faded photos and graffiti scrawled in marker, including a series of numbers I guessed was the code we needed. The thing that had Val's attention was the large stack of orange tins taking up most of the real estate though. Each had a cartoon image of a smiling zebra alongside the red text reading, 'Mint-als'.

Jade gasped when Val returned with her claws full of the orange tins rattling with the hard candy narcotics, giving an indignant huff as the griffon yanked Oro's book bag free and started stuffing the drugs in with a greedy glint in her eyes. "Mint-als! That pony is selling dangerous drugs to his classmates!?"

"Yeah, he is, was... just like he's supposed to Princess. He's following the program of a buck here when they first started getting imported from the zebra lands." Oro answered in a tired, miserable tone.

"Selling Mint-als in school, to his fellow classmates!? That is... that is awful! I knew recreational drug use was a prevalent problem before the end, but students!?" Jade remained firmly fixed on her biggest complaint, not even considering the crime was more than 200 years old and the current customers were just synths following routine.

She did pique my curiosity by how abhorrent she found it. I knew they were drugs from how many Mayor Shamrock in Goodneighbor indulged in, but had never paid much attention beyond that. They weren't Dash or even Nectar, and surely nothing could match the oh so tempting euphoria those produced, so I didn't care.

"What do they do hon? What's the big deal?"

Jade stamped her hooves in reply, her eyes wide in concern. "Mint-als are a very dangerous drug made from zebra alchemy Fast. It is a mental performance enhancer, making the user more charismatic and intelligent for a limited time. It is also highly addictive... For what possible reason would students..."

"Mental performance enhancer. That's why. Really raises test scores..." Oro's answer as he opened his locker just made Jade sputter more, her face turning red in absolute horror and fury over his matter of fact reply.

"Woooo… what's this? You been holdin' out of me synth buck? Gots a gun in yer locker right here..." Val shoved past Zero before Jade could find her voice, interupting what was sure to be a spectacular lecture by rummaging around in his open locker and retrieving a very strange collection of junk.

I wouldn't have recognized it as a gun, but I trusted Val's encyclopedic knowledge of all weapons and could see it once she held the rusty scooter handle grip in one claw, pointing the large bore pipe around as she fiddled with all the bizarre parts that had my interest. It seemed to have more in common with a pressure cooker than a weapon, very crude and cobbled together, but interesting.

"Let me see that Val..."

"W-Wait, that's not... I mean it is... but, it doesn't work quite right, it never did originally. It's for the Arcane Science Fair later in the loop..." Oro yelped as I hovered the weird weapon over and started poking at it, glad to see Summer give a curious glance over her shoulder while I examined it.

Checking it over with my pip-buck was even more informative. It was labeled simply as 'Junk Jet' and boasted impressive damage numbers, though the associated ammo reading was strangely blank. An early spark igniter was wired into the trigger, with a pair of vials containing glowing liquids to be dripped in and combined inside the pressure chamber, leading to a release valve that would propel whatever you loaded it with at dangerous speeds through the crude pipe barrel.

A set of blueprints on a folded over piece of posterboard stuffed in Oro's locker gave me something more to look over as Summer checked it over, drawing my eye due to the exploded diagram of what looked like a party cannon. The poster for his arcane science fair booth showed how he took Pinkie Pie's signature party favor as inspiration, then started working out how it functioned and how to make a smaller one.

Since the party cannon schematic included such confused notations as 'Confetti --> ??? --> Explosion!', Oro had to come up with some creative solutions to reverse engineer it, including a few zebra potions apparently. It was a chemical propellant firearm... a very early gun...

"It's like a blunderbuss... I've never seen one this crude before though, it has to be one of the earliest models I've ever seen." Summer joined me in examining the odd creation with a critical eye.

Oro gave a bitter sigh at the two of us, his eyes downcast as he spoke wearily. "It is one of the first... another piece of Swirl's history he doesn't have the sense to feel ashamed about, but I do... That's an early ancestor of every other ballistic weapon in Equestria. Swirl's arcane science fair project..."

"Professor Swirl helped introduce the idea of firearms to ponykind? You mean he was partially responsible for everything that came after... the guns, the killing, the war... Oh Oro..." Jade shuddered and eyed the Junk Jet like a dangerous snake, stroking Oro's back but unable to suppress a shiver looking down at the younger Swirl.

When I was a foal, dad told me there weren't any guns when he was my age, that Equestria was a very different place... He said things like guns and the zebra made drugs Rich Chocolate was dealing were new things, always with a sad look that the world I was born in had changed so much, so quickly. Now I saw where part of that change originated.

Just some buck's science project had changed the world... an idea put out there that couldn't be put back. The very thing I had seen Klein dismissively point out about my own grandfather in a memory. Grandpa never considered what might happen with the things he did, he just did them... Apparently Swirl wasn't that different, and Klein was there to take advantage of his 'star pupil' too...

"It probably would have happened the same anyway, if I... he didn't come up with it, somepony else would have. The E.E.A. representative you met earlier Fast, he saw it at the arcane science fair. Klein saw me... saw Swirl as talent to recruit, and they both saw the potential of this... this thing he made as a high school colt, to 'defend Equestria' and make bits. His path in life, who knows how much misery, it all started with this hunk of junk. All because he was good at figuring out how things worked and trying to be like Pinkie Pie, a mare everypony loved, hoping to be accepted prove his loyalty to Equestria..." Oro reached for the floating Junk Jet to shove it back in his locker in shame, but was prevented by Val snatching it away possessively, interrupting the fascinating bit of Professor Swirl's history by focusing on the only thing she found interesting.

"It's a gun. That's all that matters buddy. Feels better already with a weapon in my claws. Even if it don't work right, boss can fix it, right boss?" Val grinned manically while hefting the weapon and getting a feel for it, her violet eyes sparkling with desire to try it out already.

Giving it another dubious look when she held it out and had to shove Freya away from making a grab for it, I glanced to the set of tools Oro had lining his locker and nodded. It might not work right now because that's how the simulation was supposed to go, but if nothing else the E.E.A rep Oro talked about was right, it had potential...

"Why hello! My there are a lot of you, is something wro…."

FWOOOMP!

The busy looking secretary waiting inside the school's office was cut off from completing her rote response to us barging in suddenly, when her head was shredded by a hail of pencils, bottlecaps, screws and scrap fired at high speed from the barrel of the Junk Jet, letting us charge in behind the cackling griffon.

"Oh my gawd I love this thing! Find some more crap to shoot outta it!" Val took the lead, kicking the synth bleeding and twitching in her chair to the floor.

The five of us spread out into the waiting area of the office quickly, locking the door behind us for what it was worth. Thankfully Oro seemed to be right again, only the receptionist was present when we entered. Our arrival timed by the fancy watch he kept glancing at to coincide with the programmed loop of behavior all the other synths followed. According to his rushed explanation, Principal Klein was still schmoozing with the E.E.A. Chancellor, the nurse was called out to deal with a scuffle and bloody muzzles, and the Counselor was helping to set up the Arcane Scienc Fair, leaving minimal resistance to deal with.

A pair of Gen 1 synths did come clopping out of the side passages behind the counter, but Val and Freya dove in before the slower moving robots could respond. Another 'Fwoomp!' and hiss from Val's Junk Jet obliterated the pale plastic hide and arcano-tech guts of one, while Freya tackled the other and slashed away with her claws until she wrestled its baton away, then finished the job by beating it into scrap with the sparking weapon.

"Huff... huff... friggin ugly ass robots, hey Blue, yer my medic so move yer flanks, the boss better be ok!" Panting a moment while still crouched over the ruined synth, Freya stalked off to the nurse's office with Jade in her wake, immediately making for the sole green dash on E.F.S. I hoped represented Fancy.

I followed them long enough to make sure it was safe and find Freya shaking her employer awake on the narrow cot in the tidy office. Fancy had been put in a cheerleader outfit that made the pale mare match Jade, who pranced in and tried to assess her condition with her weakly flickering horn.

She turned to all the cabinets for medical supplies when reminded her magic wasn't reliable at the moment, fretting to Freya actively slapping Fancy's cheeks. "One moment, there should be some here Freya, you need not treat her quite so roughly. Let us see... smelling salts... W-We will have Miss Star back on her hooves in two shakes, I promise."

With her safe and in her element for the moment, I turned back to the row of offices and galloped after Summer and Oro with Val right on my tail, my griffon friend still scooping up coffee mugs, ashtrays and other junk to stuff down the barrel of her new toy. The Principal's office they entered was dusty and weathered by two centuries of entropy, but still perfectly preserved. Summer immediately went for the large wooden desk covered in neatly stacked papers, a ratty old quill sticking up from an ink bottle, and the focus of her attention, a glowing terminal her hooves flew across.

Oro had trotted over to a newer addition in the corner, a sleek metal casing housing a humming maneframe. When he placed his hoof against a panel on the front, a keyboard slid out and revealed a small screen flickering to life. "I'll work on deleting all the data, the controls for the school itself are accessed through the Principal's terminal there if you can..."

"Already on it synth, you just focus on that and let me work." Summer interrupted him, her gruff tone so unlike her normal, friendly demeanor, I had to investigate despite Val's grumbles about finding our gear.

On the way I looked over the ancient pictures and knick knacks on the walls curiously. One image showed Oro, or Swirl when he looked like him anyway, holding up the Junk Jet Val was currently reloading and beaming at the ribbon pinned to his sweater vest. A hanging banner behind him in what looked like the gym we just left proclaimed the occasion as the DB High Arcane Science Fair. The rather severe looking E.E.A. stallion was shaking his hoof and holding out a rolled up scroll, with a distasteful grimace at having to hoof the prize over to a zony I was sure.

It wasn't the only image this Chancellor Neighsay appeared in either. He showed up in another picture where both he and Klein looked like the ones I ran into earlier, before what took a moment to recognize as the prewar form of University Point. Then in a third picture where both were a good deal older, Klein wearing the dark blue suit and labcoat I had gotten to recognize him in as the war reached its climax. The two stallions wore proud, smarmy looks before the shiny and unfinished rotunda of the C.I.A.T. campus.

A yellowed scrap of newspaper pinned to the wall caught my eye as it featured a stallion in a DB High sports jacket we had met already, Richie... The newsclipping beneath the glaring headline was a little ominous, reading simply; 'Star Buckball Player Still Missing'.

Instead of dwelling on it, I focused on Summer and the suspicious little glances she shot at Oro's back, cautiously whispering to the busy Pegasus over Val's objections. "Hey... you alright Summer? You got all this under control?"

"It's complicated, but I think I can shut down security and the dampening field Fast. Don't worry, I got it. Just double check that synth on the maneframe." Summer's curt reply directed towards Oro was valid enough, but just made me more curious.

"You have a problem with him? You haven't noticed him doing anything, have you? I don't exactly trust a pony that looks just like an Institute director either, but so far he's been honest and helped. Anything I should know?"

"N-No, I just... I keep thinking about Dance... The Brotherhood, hell... Paladin Dance himself drilled how dangerous and abhorrent synths were into us every day. He never knew he was really... really a synth just like all of these either. He was playing a part they gave him, pretending and playing stupid games, like this entire place... At least that one knows he's a lie, but he still plays along." Summer bowed her head and spoke through gritted teeth, not keeping her voice down or disguising the anger directed towards the Institute and their creations.

I was surprised at the fury flashing in Zero's yellow eyes meeting Summer's from across the room as he barked back. "If I didn't I'd be reformatted! Erased! KILLED! I put up with a lot of shit from them too, but they don't have a choice, that's how they're programmed! Don't think I'll just take it from a real pony that knows better though!"

"Whoa there... eeeeasy Oro..."

I tried sliding between Summer and the crazed synth advancing on her, but he was continuing to unload on her, a lot of bottled up shit just pouring out. "How would you like to be part of a 'stupid game' for a hundred years! To have no freedom, even in your own mind!? To be taken over like a puppet, so he can play out every fucked up fantasy... every sick and twisted... Do you know how many times I've been forced to kill Richie!? How many different ways I've fucked... raped... Bright against my will!?"

"I... I thought..." Summer gaped back along with me, shrinking in her seat from Oro advancing on her.

"They tormented him in highschool and I have to spend my entire damn existence paying them back! When they're not even the ones who hurt him, they're not who they think they are, they're victims as much as I am! I envy ones like them, like your friend, the ones who don't know... don't remember... They at least think they're free! They get to forget! I. DON'T!" Oro snarled in a manic voice full of a note I recognized from the strangely quiet mutter in my head, a pony on the edge of madness.

Summer's stunned face twisted in a grimace, a tear rolling down her cheek as she stared back at the panting synth. "I... I'm sorry... I didn't realize what it might be like. Part of me still believes the Brotherhood line, that you're all just fancy robots that don't really feel anything... aren't real... I was upset about Dance and you... you were just somepony to blame."

Standing between them in the uncomfortable silence that followed, I could see the hurt festering in both of them. Oro's from ages of the Institute's own brand of slavery and torment, Summer's from the feelings of betrayal and lingering loyalty to her friend Paladin Dance. Ponies and Synths alike suffered from under the Institute's hoof, they were driven apart by their differences and fear, but were really the same, as this place proved. We were all just toys to experiment with... the synths forced to fit the roles and lives assigned to them to the play the game, and the ponies that got dumped in here as contestants.

"Summer... Even if Dance was playing out a part the Institute wrote for him, the things he did, who he was once he went out into the world... his friendship with you and me both, I have to believe those things were real. If it was all just programming, the Institute wouldn't have such a rogue synth problem, they'd never rebel or want to be free like Oro does."

"N-No... I see what you mean now Fast. I'm sorry it took meeting one of you that's suffered so much to see it, but I do now Oro. S-Sorry... and thanks for helping us..." Summer sniffled back, but wiped her eyes and looked up to Oro's softening gaze eye to eye, no longer clouded by hate or fear.

Oro slumped with an unsteady sigh in return, all the fight running out of him as he returned to his meeker posture and croaked back. "It's ok... I never expected it to be easy. One thing walking in a zony's hooves here has taught me about, it's prejudice. I just hope other real ponies are as able to be so open minded. Er… if it helps, about your friend I mean... I really do envy the ones like him that don't know. They're not pretending, they really believe they are who they think they are. If this Dance was your friend, that was his choice, his feelings. They weren't a lie, they were the truth to him."

"Alright, enough mush an' bullshit! Guns boss. Now..." Val broke the uncomfortable silence by clapping her claws together loudly, dragging me out the door just as I heard Fancy starting to shout in the opposite direction.

A heavy steel door reading 'Storage' waited for us at the end of a long hallway down the office, where Oro informed us our confiscated weapons and armor waited. Val crowed in victory over the lock blocking our way once she picked it, opening the door to the dim space beyond. The room she prowled in and secured before allowing me to follow was fairly big, the buzzing lights overhead flickering to life illuminating the heavy steel cage taking up the majority of the space beyond the small entry area full of stationary, pencils and other common junk.

Beyond the rusty bars ahead was a variety of loot Val's claws were already twitching at. Piles of tattered wasteland clothing and bits of armor, boxes of weapons ranging from crude pipe pistols and clubs, all the way up to fancy battlesaddles and magical energy weapons. There were bins full of purple healing potions, orange packets of Rad-Away and drugs of all kinds, shelves of junk and knick knacks taken from all the unfortunate victims of this place.

A barred gate with a small keypad blocked our entry, a lock impervious to Val's talented claws, but took the series of numbers we had copied from Rich Chocolate's locker with a positive sounding beep. Val dove from sticking her beak through the bars and prancing on her paws impatiently, charging after her own weapons she had already spotted while I punched the numbers in.

Following behind her, I saw my own black trenchcoat and fedora hanging nearby and floated them over in relief. Shrugging out of the scratchy dress shirt and fighting with my wings to put my coat on, I felt a lot better just being back in the well worn and comfy outfit. The armor of the Shrouded Stallion had become my own old friend and I felt wrong not wearing it.

Digging through the bins nearby turned up Jade's armored lab coat and medical box saddlebags, along with Summer's toolbelt packs and my own scarred and broken in leather saddlebags I hugged to myself. The hum of the Ministry Mare statuettes inside rose up once I had them in my possession again, but were still oddly muted. Whatever connection I had to them hadn't been broken when they were taken from me, but was still dim even with them shook to the top of all my junk for me to look over curiously.

Val's snickering got me to look up from my collection of soul jars wistfully, taking in their smiling faces and soothing light, but only hearing a whisper from them in my head. She had found Freya's light blue combat armor and other gear, currently amusing herself by rooting around in the pale griffon's packs between her paws, while absently squeezing a tube of wonderglue into the armor's breastplate.

"I doubt Freya'd like that Val, you two were almost getting along too..."

Val stuck her beak up at the soft admonition, huffing as she tossed a couple of pale blue grenades over and returned to her pilfering. "Psshh, used ta do this stuff to her all the time boss, she loves it. Here, been forever since I got ta play with her crazy freezy grenades, they're loads of fun."

I'd never run into the icy blue colored metal apples my pip-buck identified as 'Cryo-Grenade x2' before, so I pocketed them curiously, though I wasn't quite willing to go along with her trying to ignore my point either. "Seriously Val, you heard her earlier... that was kind of like an apology, or a griffon version of one anyway. Maybe she really does feel bad and wants to be friends again?"

"An' maybe yer bein' too cutesy fer yer own good again boss... but yeah, I heard her. Enough tryin' ta be mushy with me, how 'bout you? Kinda surprised ya ain't lost yer temper yet, what with all these synths around. Even said you ran into that one Klein asshole? You uh... doin' ok? Ain't talked to ya about that er... that shit in the basement at the castle..." Val grumbled back, but her tone softened and she actually fumbled her way through worrying for me in her way.

"Alright... pretty good all things considered, I haven't umm... heard anything in my head since we got here, I think it must be those dampening gadgets in this place that interfere with my magic. I'll still feel better once we're out of here though." I replied while closing my saddlebag containing the distantly whispering soul jars.

I missed the Ministry Mare's vibrant and clear voices, but now that I confirmed they weren't quiet because they had been taken away, that theory seemed reasonable. If it made that darker voice with them shut up for awhile, maybe I could even use one of those dampening devices. Flapping my way up with my reacquired tools, I made my way up to examine the smoke alarm like gadget on the ceiling I suspected to be the culprit, while Val happily looted the place below me.

"Yeah, me too, kinda regretting suggesting we hide out here ta begin with. I like the free jacket though. Guessin' you ain't got no complaints about what they stuck Blue in neither, doooo ya boss?" Val cackled as I blushed at her teasing, returning to her looting and speaking softly. "Thought so... Maybe I'll snag the one they stuck that snotty bitch in once we're gone. Glad yer cheered up too, sound more like yer old self. Not that I don't like it when ya lose yer cool a lil', but was worried about ya goofy. If them widgets help Blue fix yer head, snag them too. Between that, all this crap and the bet I did manage ta place at the Downs, this has been a right profitable evenin' boss!"

"It's all stuff they've taken from other victims here Val, so I guess it's alright to take. It just sucks for them... how long the Institute's been doing this, how many ponies they've experimented on..."

"Bah! Quit soundin' so mopey! It's ours now boss, they don't need it no more, we do. Now that we got our shit, we should just bust outta here and leave this crazy ass haunted high school. We can come back with Swanny and let the big daffy mare smash the whole damn place flat. Matter of fact, we should..." Val waved my somber tone away, continuing to ransack the cage of loot until a rusty creak of a door and approaching voices made her stick her head up warily.

From my position hovering near the top of the cage, I could see the crack of light on the other side of the room from the door we entered. I only got a brief glimpse before Val grabbed my tail and yanked me down into hiding behind the shelves, but I saw two ponies entering the room from the halls outside. One was Rich Chocolate, while the other was Principal Klein...

"...good, now hurry up and resupply me Principal, then go discipline those transfer students who stole my stock!" Richie's voice rose in an angry, desperate tone, making me take a peek through the shelves to spot how bad he looked beyond the black eye Val gave him.

He was sweaty and he kept scratching at himself under his red and white jacket, even biting his hooves impatiently as Klein shushed him. "Be quiet Mr. Chocolate! You were just resupplied the other day, maintaining your stock, including what's necessary for your own... needs... is your responsibility. This is hardly the time to bother me with your own distribution problems, pulling me away from Chancellor Neighsay was absolutely unacceptable!"

"Oh yeah.... wouldn't want the E.E.A. rep to find out how test scores here have risen so dramatically, would we Principal? What was I thinking? Might endanger your promotion to Dean of Trotson University... wouldn't that be a shame..." Richie mastered his symptoms enough to put a snide sneer in his reply, making me wonder if synths really did suffer withdrawal, or it was just part of the act.

Klein's voice grew cold and hard when he answered, floating the horn rimmed glasses from his muzzle and tucking them in his suit jacket to glare eye to eye. "Yes. It would. I don't appreciate the implied threat Richie. I expect you to uphold your end of our arrangement..."

"I've been thinking sir, once you have moved up in the world and all, I'll need you to ensure my supply will continue. Cut out the middlemare. Then there's always the future to consider, I might apply to Trotson U myself if it's going to be in such good hooves..." Richie continued his poorly veiled extortion in that smarmy tone.

"Now, now, there's no need to get so testy Richie, that's just the withdrawl talking I'm sure. I believe there's a tin right over here for you, we can discuss such plans once you're feeling more rational. Hang on just a moment..." Klein's tone shifted to smooth and placating, making my tail bristle as I heard a distant whisper from 'Be Dark...' struggling to be heard.

The synth version of Klein was playing out his role... based on things he did at varying times and all mixed up into a hodgepodge narrative, but still following basic rules. Val interfering in the script by stealing from Richie may have pushed things up a bit, but they fell back to their programmed behavior and this was part of it. This was a shadow of things that had actually happened...

The faded newsclipping about the missing buckball player came back to mind as I peered through the shelves and watched Klein shuffle around in filing cabinets outside of the cage. He was making a show of looking for RIchie's Mint-als, which he clearly needed by how closely he watched and the drool he had to wipe away from his muzzle.

It was all just a distraction though, Klein made to put his glasses back on for a better look, but drew a shiny, early little magical energy weapon from his jacket with them. Even though Richie was both a jerk and a synth that would simply be replaced and play this all out again, I wanted to yell out a warning as Klein turned.

I actually wasn't sure if I would have or not, as two things happened at once that drove all other thought from my mind, the buzzing lights and smoke alarm like gadget overhead flickered, then a blinding amount of pain exploded right between my eyes.

I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood and bashed at my skull with both hooves, barely noticing the quiet 'zap!' and flash of blue light across the room, followed by the smell of ozone and ash. Val held me tighter and clamped a claw over my muzzle as I whimpered and thrashed in place, overwhelmed by the rush of noise in my head and glancing up through teary eyes to see the cause. Summer deactivated the dampening system...

"Boss! Boss c'mon, hold still an' quit fightin' dammit! Don't freak out now!" Val shifted carefully to pin me down and hissed in my ear, poking her head up to make sure Klein hadn't noticed anything.

From where I had my head shoved down to the concrete floor, I could see under the shelves and through the bars across the room, puffing angry snorts of breath around Val's claw and seething at the pile of glittery ash at Klein's pale hooves. Oh fuck this was horrible... making me disjointedly reconsider trying to use the dampening gadgets. They didn't silence the voices, they just made it where I couldn't hear them for awhile. The song of the Ministry Mares rose in volume and fought valiantly, but the darker shadow with them had been gaining strength and gotten up to screaming to be heard while I had been able to ignore it.

Hearing the synth Klein's voice dismissively speaking as I watched him wipe his hooves clean of the ash that had been his student and accomplice was just feeding it too... "Well, earlier than I expected having to tidy up loose ends, but you forced my hoof Richie. At least I should have the rest of the day until your absence is noticed, plenty of time to finish up with Chancellor Neighsay. Hmmm the tragedy of a missing student may even be spun to work in my favor. Now where is that dustpan..."

I clenched my eyes shut and shuddered at the roar and pain in my skull, smelling the scorched scent of Val's feathers getting zapped by an aura of lightning I could feel flickering to life around me against my will. I couldn't see it, but I could tell Best Served was getting tugged from my bags while Val fought to hold me down, my fangs extended and muscles strained with reserves of strength that was steadily pushing back. I was going to lose control... No! Don't!

A loud bang from the door we had entered getting bucked open made me snap my eyes open, gaping up to Fancy framed in the doorway and snorting angrily. "WHERE IS HE!? Aha!! There you are, you stupid bastard! This is all your fault! I got shot!! We're trapped in another mad scientist loony bin, all because of you and your stupid plans!"

All of us simply blinked up at Fancy huffing and puffing from her tantrum, strands of her golden mane falling in her furious green eyes while me, Val and even Klein were left dumbfounded at the interruption. Amazingly, Fancy's fit even cut off the roar in my head, it seemed 'Be Dark...' could be shocked into flabbergasted silence too.

You could hear a pin drop in the storage room, finally it became awkward enough for Fancy to break the spell she had cast herself "W-What!? What are you all looking at me like that for? It's true! Hey, who the hell is... Eeek!!"

A trio of blue magical energy beams lancing overhead made Fancy finally figure out there were more important things than her tantrum, whether she had a point or not. Lucky for her, Freya had come bounding after her boss and didn't need nearly as long to figure out Klein wasn't on our side, yanking Fancy by her curled tail before she got herself vaporized like Richie.

Klein's voice came with the sound of the keypad on the opposite cage door, not angry or panicked, just that cold, calculating tone. "Another student? You really should pay attention to signs telling you to stay out dear, unlucky for you..."

"No... unlucky for thou, Klein..."

The Shroud's voice growled out as I burst from cover along with Val, savoring the timeless moment of S.A.T.S. showing surprise registering on the synth's face. It was back to existing in uneasy alliance with the Ministry Mares and myself though. Fancy might be an insufferable brat sometimes, but I had to thank her for that much.

Of course that gratitude still came with a whole bucketload of salt... Blowing Klein's head off might be immensely satisfying and better it was my choice rather than losing control again, but it was still something I would have avoided if possible. The reason was expected after running into that synth's maker, enough forewarning to flap backwards madly before his corpse hit the ground and glowed bright green.

Klein had bragged about that modification to his own doubles, so we only clipped the cage door back out when his younger synth body exploded like a plasma grenade rather than melt. Val and I rolled out into the offices in a smoking tangle of singed feathers, winding up woozily looking up at Fancy cringing behind Freya and hissing against at least one broken rib when I whooped in air.

Of course setting off large explosions with a Courser hall monitor running around wasn't a great idea in general too. I only heard Oro's panicked scream fighting with Jade's for a moment, then every clanging schoolbell in the place started going off and the lights pulsed red. Whether it was a plain old fire alarm in response to the smoking crater that took up half the storage room and blew a hole in the wall showing the hall outside, or more specifically about killing the principal, the result was the same...

'Dammit Fancy!! Did no one explain we were still in danger, or did you just not care again!" I shouted over the alarms as I staggered up, but paused at the pale mare's pouty, stubborn scowl. "That said, er... thanks, sorta... I come up with stupid plans and you throw hissy fits, but sometimes they both work out. I owe you one."

She might not know why I thanked her, but doing so kept Fancy's retort from devolving into another fit. She snorted away her clear confusion and settled for accepting it as her due, sounding almost pleased and nice. "Y-You owe me a lot more than one! I'll consider forgiving you if you get me out of here dammit!"

Oro ended the brief pause while my brain finished rebooting, howling with renewed urgency once armor and weapons were distributed and Jade had a bare moment to heal. "We ALL need to get the hell out of here! X3 will be here any second! She'll go right to where the Principal just fucking EXPLODED, so I suggest going pretty much ANY OTHER DIRECTION! NOW!"

Nobody argued with the synth zony's very valid point, charging past the office counter and out the door Oro was prancing in place at. Val and Freya took the lead in businesslike fashion, each taking one side of the door, peeking out before taking up a guard outside it. They communicated silently and ushered us after them with quick claw signals, waving us out into the hall with their pistols drawn.

I was sticking right by Jade, letting Oro, Summer and Freya run out first, then keeping on her fluffy tail to bring up the rear guard. The crash of Val's dual 12mm pistols and chatter of Freya's light machinegun at her flank sounded out and sent me flapping up to uselessly shove at Jade's bulk, trying to cover her and spotting two Gen 1 synths on either side of the hall getting shredded into scrap by their accurate fire.

The halls were getting crowded, all the synth students and teachers really were treating the blaring alarms overhead like a fire drill, shuffling out and getting in the way, but also offering cover from the approaching white plastic faces of more synth guards. Val of course felt no compunctions with simply thumping out a few 25mm grenades in their general direction, blasting large clumps of panicking students into glowing green goo and clearing a path over Oro's jabbering objection. "T-Try not to just kill them! They're victims too! There may be other test subjects mixed in too if it makes any difference!"

"Fuck 'em... Alright synth buck, which way to get the hell outta here the fastest?" Freya grapped Oro by his sweater vest and yanked his striped face up to hers, ignoring him and shouting to get through the obvious fear etched on his features.

"Umm... er... f-fastest... I guess that waaaaaIIIIEEE!!" Oro gulped and pointed a shaking hoof down the right hoof hall, then he visibly paled and struggled in Freya's grip, pointing the opposite direction with a terror driven yelp. "RUN!!! AWAY FROM HER!!"

We were lucky Jade was faster to take up his warning than the rest of us, her glowing blue shield flared to life, blocking the hall Oro was trying to get away from. Several fizzling impacts against the barrier helped spot the pony calmly approaching through the sea of synths parting around her. Had any of the feathered darts falling to the floor against her shield hit, we'd be right back where we started, or worse...

The Courser was coming, the blank stare of her dark sunglasses a pitiless gaze locking on to us as she spoke with all the authority of the bizarre orange hall monitor sash she wore. "All students will return to their classes immediately... Unit Oro Boros will surrender to be serviced for deviation from programmed routine..."

'Let me... Princess... Danger... LET ME!'

I winced at the dagger of pain between my eyes, but carefully considered the snarl of 'Be Dark...' volunteering to actually be helpful. My one experience with a Courser taught me more than I needed to know, that robotic assassin wouldn't stop coming no matter what... Jade getting out of here was all that mattered, if I let the monster in my head loose, I could at least buy some time...

I crouched at the edge of Jade's shield and got between her and the approaching synth, floating my weapons out and conjuring the image of the black stasis pod in my head, loosening the chains binding it and letting the hatch open with a victorious roar coming from the thing inside.

Black lightning started flickering around me as I growled back to the others, offering up as much of a plan as I could. "All of you, run! I'll try to slow it doWNNN! HEY!?!"

Before I could finish, Jade yanked me by my tail and tossed me to her back, galloping down the hall behind Val and Freya clearing a path. Her goddess voice tolled out as I struggled against her, her blue eyes glowing as she scowled and simply forced me to come with her. "YOU MAY NOT FAST! We are escaping, TOGETHER!"

If it was anyone else, the surprised snarl in my head would fight back. She knew it too... knew what I was about to do and prevented me from doing it. She took charge in a crisis and broke the spell of infectious panic spreading from Oro trying to get away, speaking a firm, regal voice as she ran on. "The quickest route to the outside Mr. Boros! We are counting on you! Valkyrie, keep our brave guide safe and clear our way! Summer, Miss Star, please stay close to me and I shall try to keep a barrier between us and our pursuer!"

'Be Dark...' strained and fought when the chains binding it tightened again, but couldn't argue with her. The song of the Ministry Mares grew brighter and sweeter as I took in her determined face, the whisper of 'Be Kind...' resonating with the love and pride I felt for Jade. She wasn't a fighter, but she was a leader... a true Princess...

The raspy shout of 'Be Awesome!' joined it when I saw Val glaring back from the lead, looking away from blasting another synth to shout her agreement. "Good goin' Blue, don't let that slippery fucker run off and go nuts! Ya ain't sacrificin' yerself with that solo act bullshit again boss, so think of somethin' else!"

"A-Alright, we run away together then! I promise, now lemme go Jade!"

I flapped my way free after Jade shot a dubious look over her shoulder, reading my face like a book. She released the field of her telekinesis keeping me pinned to her broad back and gave a little buck to bounce me loose once she was satisfied I wasn't going to do anything particularly stupid. That let stumble to the tiled hall at her side in time to shoot another Gen 1 popping out of a stairwell door we passed, skidding through a turn with the others at Oro's direction that at least put the Courser out of sight for a moment.

"I don't give a damn what you do, but we're gettin' the boss outta here shrimp! What the hell are you chickens so freaked out about anyway? It's just a friggin fake pony thing like all these others!" Freya shouted back from blowing a plume of freezing mist ahead of our path, turning a large cluster of Gen 1 guards and synth students alike into ice sculptures.

Val snapped back, swapping one of her pistols for her flaming Shiskebab sword and cutting a swath through the synths blocking our way. "Them spooks in the black coats ain't like the other faker ponies bitch! The Courser kind are real hardcases we don't wanna mess with!"

With my usual go to 'plan' of acting as a distraction and throwing myself at the killing machine behind us out, I was at a loss for how to deal with it. Thankfully Summer turned from staring at Freya's strange cryogenic flamethrower with a sparkle of inspiration in her bright green eyes, fluttering to the lead to speak with Oro in rushed conversation before yelling back to us.

"I think we have an idea! This way!" With no better option, I nodded back to the pegasus mare as she took the lead with Oro, making another turn towards the gymnasium we had found Val and Freya in. Whatever she came up with, I trusted her.

Running like our lives depended on it, which they most definitely did, along with creating enough chaos behind us to slow down the Courser chasing us, we managed to make it to Summer and Oro's chosen battlefield with a few precious moments to prepare. Now we waited in fear and silence, as ready as possible to make our stand in the gloomy school's pool, the sound of the chlorine smelling water dripping and lapping in the poorly maintained pool echoing in the cavernous space.

I was surprised the crumbling concrete and tile still retained water, like the rest of the school, it was kept up just enough to retain its basic prewar appearance and function, but maintenance wasn't high on the list of priorities at D.B. High. The synths all acted as if everything looked as it did 200 years ago, ignoring the age and wear so long as they could go about their routine.

There was a lot of mold on the cracked tiles, the water was murky and full of floating detritus, trash and leaves that blew in from the broken skylights overhead that were unfortunately still barred. The bleachers were rotting in the damp environment and the tiled pillars holding up an upper deck of stands above them were crumbling, chunks of the concrete structure falling away to the floor beneath.

The perch of the leaning high dive I occupied let me look over to the others in their positions nearby, keeping the Last Minute trained on the only entrance and staying flat on my belly. We were as ready as we could get and I couldn't fault the rushed idea Summer and Oro had come up with. The technically minded pegasus had spent some time actually talking to the zony after they had cleared the tension between them, and the interesting Courser model of synth had been a topic of conversation while they worked in the office.

Ironic that a former Brotherhood mare and a synth they so hated had collaborated, but their working together and sharing of knowledge may just save us and I had faith in them. Glancing to where Jade was hiding still made me gulp anxiously though. I had a tight hold on the reins of 'Be Dark...' stewing in my head, but had to resist the tempting seduction it kept putting out. It merely waited and watched, ready to take over at the first opportunity.

'Awareness!' overrode the patient mutter and flicked my ears, dragging my attention to the slow clop of hooves on tile approaching. Just like the other Courser I had encountered, the peach mare pushing open the creaking steel door to the pool had that unhurried and unconcerned blank stare when she entered, pausing and panning her head back and forth slowly to take in the ambush she clearly expected.

I was in an obvious sniper's perch and her combat programming would make my hiding pointless in bare seconds. I had no illusions about actually dropping her with a sneak attack though, activating S.A.T.S. and reluctantly moving the glowing target outline off her head. Instead I selected the tranquilizer gun floating beside her, using up the full spell charge against the highly effective weapon and hoping that was enough. All it had taken to capture us in the first place was one dart from that thing, it had to be taken out of the equation right away.

As soon as time resumed and my gauss rifle started whining up to full power, her ears flicked and she dodged with that spooky speed the other Courser displayed. Her weapon lagged behind her however, she expected a direct attack so reacted with that in mind, letting the dart gun bob in the air behind her without nearly the same degree of agility.

It was still only the second shot that managed to hit the damn thing though, blowing her weapon to pieces as the Courser made it behind the cover of a thick pillar. Even with Oro explaining her likely reaction, I was still surprised at how fast she adapted. The Courser he called X3 shot out from behind cover in a blur, a sleek and shiny combat shotgun floating up from her leather coat and taking aim at my perch on the fly.

Three loud blasts reverberated in the huge room and the rotting high dive platform was chewed up as I scrambled back, her aim so impeccable I imagined she was using her own version of S.A.T.S. provided by the black Institute pip-buck on her foreleg. The diving board disintegrated under my hooves, forcing me to flap up and away as her other shots hit the weakest points of the structure that gave a loud groan and started falling over, nearly dragging me with it when I was hammered in the chest by a final blast that knocked me back, distance and my magical armor the only thing that let me keep going in time.

Even with the entire length of the rectangular pool between us as I dove for the corner diagonal to the one she was running towards, I had no doubt she could follow up and nail me again before I hit the ground. Fortunately Val was waiting in the rafters above the door in and dove down right on cue, unleashing a storm of 25mm explosives and blazing red magical energy beams from right on top of the Courser. The bitch charged through the firestorm at her hooves, breaking for the shelter of the overhanging stands following the long side of the pool.

Val pulled up and landed on the stands above her, cutting off any retaliation from that shotgun already aiming above and behind X3's head, right where Val's tail disappeared from view. Before she could recover, I swooped down the length of the far side of the pool and banked back, blasting across the water with the Terrible Shotgun to keep her moving parallel with me.

Summer and Fancy popping up at the end of the bleachers she was running down and opening up with the bright beams of their magical energy weapons forced her to adjust course again. X3 never faltered or slowed down, but abandoned the wooden bleachers and hopped down to the wet floor in front of them, running just under the overhang of the stands and along the poolside.

I was amazed Fancy had been convinced to put herself at risk and fight, but once her bodyguard Freya had been informed of the threat a Courser posed and accepted this was the best way to ensure her employer's safety, they had gone along with the hasty plan. The spoiled filly still gave a shrill scream when the Courser fired at her, blowing a large hole in the rotten wooden stands she sheltered behind and forcing her down.

Summer on the other hoof was almost recklessly brave, taking up the slack and actually flying out into the Courser's path, making herself bait. She skimmed the sparkling tiles at the edge of the pool in an agile and speedy flight, heading towards the end with the destroyed diving board I had abandoned and the cover the wreckage offered.

Despite all her dodging and expert rolls in the air, the Courser's shotgun snapped up and fired on the small pegasus mare, blasting a cloud of feathers and blood from one wing that sent her skidding to the floor with a scream. No! This wasn't part of the plan dammit!

The unwelcome snarl and pain in my head was tempting, before I could act however, Oro dove out from behind the last pillar and charged over to Summer, putting himself between the bleeding pegasus and the approaching Courser. The next blast from her shotgun tore into his striped flank and he shouted in pain, but bit at Summer's collar and limped onward, trying to drag her away as X3 kept plodding forward.

The combat shotgun floating at her side remained trained on the two of them, while the Courser gave a slight turn of its head and raised an eyebrow at me seething across the pool at the trail of red blood they were leaving behind them. The implication was clear, keep attacking and she'd kill them...

"Unit Oro Boros, you are malfunctioning. This incident will be reported to Professor Swirl and you will submit to reformating." The Courser spoke in a carrying voice, keeping aim at her hostages as she strode closer.

Oro stayed sprawled atop Summer, giving a muffled plea through his teeth still dragging her limp form away painfully. "A-Alright, just don't hurt her. I'll go, there's no reason to punish them too!"

In reply, X3 glanced around the room curiously, looking up to Val peering over the overhanging stands, over to Fancy hiding in the bleachers, then to me glaring at her from across the pool. "These test subjects have proven most troublesome... They will be sedated and held for site administrators to decide their fate. Their injuries will be healed provided they surrender immediately. Do you agree?"

She ended by staring at me, the barrel of her shotgun never wavering from Oro and Summer inching away. I scowled back and fought with the furious snarl in my head demanding her head, watching her foreleg taking another unhurried step forward, past a rotting foam swimming board blending in with the other trash. Close enough... we'd have to risk it.

The Terrible Shotgun floating in my magic dipped down towards the tiles and I bowed my head, gritting my teeth against the chant roaring between my ears. Just wait... be patient dammit, cooperate... 'Be Unwavering!'

"Ok, you win... I'm putting it down, see? Just take it easy annnnnd.... NOW!"

As soon as I shouted and took flight, X3 fired. The dead aim of her shotgun impacted Jade's glowing blue shield appearing in the way, along with the invisible alicorn standing right behind Summer and Oro, protecting them both from the blast harmlessly impacting the barrier. Val moved in the same instant, lobbing more grenades down at the Courser's hooves, leaving her nowhere to go but towards the bright blue sphere the three of them sheltered in.

As soon as X3's hooves landed from her agile hop forward, they slid out from under her and forced the fearsome synth into an almost comical slipping, sliding dance atop the nearly invisible sheet of ice between them. Freya had been careful using her cryogenic weapon on the standing water surrounding the pool, making a smooth, slick obstacle even the Courser hadn't spotted.

With the bitch off balance and unable to find traction, Freya pounced from the upper stands and joined Val while I flew across the pool. The two griffons dove and spun around the disoriented Courser in a graceful, deadly display, opening up with their considerable firepower and forcing X3 to go sliding towards the water. A pair of apple shaped grenades tossed at her hooves gave the final push, blowing the synth over the edge and into the deep end.

Coursers were a hybrid between Gen 2 and Gen 3 synths, I remembered and Oro had told Summer about the dense metal endoskeleton that made them so tough. It also made the bitch sink like a stone... Unlike more biological Gen 3s, the Courser had no chance whatsoever at swimming.

Of course it could always walk back out, but Freya wasn't going to give it the chance. A plume of freezing mist blasted out of the cryogenic weapon on her flank as soon as the Courser hit the water, creating a rime of frost over her surprised features as she sank beneath the freezing water.

I hovered over the spot X3 disappeared in the dirty water, keeping my weapons trained on the shadow down there just in case. I looked to Jade releasing her shield to hurriedly heal Summer with cautious relief, she was ok... Summer would be ok... even Oro's wounds were already regenerating thanks to his built in healing talisman. We actually did it...

"That's it ice queen, freeze that fuckin' bitch solid! Who wants a synth cunt smoothie!? Can't believe she fell for it! Fire n' Frost, back in action! How you like us now you nasty friggin.... BOSS! Look out!" Val was dancing a gleeful little jig and shaking Freya while she poured on the ice, smiling in victory with her old friend, until a panicked look crossed her face and she pointed to the water below me.

I didn't spot the floating rope of a swimming lane light up with the pink glow of the Courser's magic until it snaked up and wrapped around my barrel, yanking me down into the freezing cold water I sucked down my airway with a surprised gasp of shock. I may have found alicorn biology gave a lot of resistance to the elements, but quickly learned that didn't mean immunity...

It was like being stabbed by a thousand knives over every inch of my coat, I struggled and bucked against the ropes binding me, but all the energy and warmth was being sucked out of me. Suddenly I remembered what feeling cold was like a thousand times over, dragged down into the dark and feeling the water draining the life out of me like a vampire.

Ice was forming in my wings frantically flapping underwater, it was already like slush and getting harder to move through. My limbs wouldn't respond properly, jittering and shaking against my bonds uselessly, my lungs burned and my vision was going dark. Even with what remained of excellent nightvision, I could barely make out the shadowy form of the Courser placidly standing at the bottom of the pool, lit up by the glow of her magic surrounding the rope between us.

She was going to drag me down with her, down into the cold and dark... This was what death felt like...

My fading view changed the dark form of the Courser to a strange, blurry image of Goddess Celestia, her beautiful face cast in shadow by the bright light behind her and a stern frown on her face looking down from on high. I was filled with a strange sense of nostalgia, it felt like those last seconds of consciousness before going into stasis back in Stable 111, the thought summoning the image of the black stasis pod I envisioned as the Shroud's mental prison.

Even the imaginary version of the ironically named Icebox back home was freezing and dark, the rusting metal walls covered in frost and the flickering overhead lights dimming to a single, fading spot of illumination around myself and pod 101. The mental construct and everything it represented was falling apart and dying...

I could feel fury and even terror from the normally fearless voice of 'Be Dark...' screaming from the battered stasis pod before me. It was panicked... terrified of going back into the dark and silence alone...

Not that I blamed it... I didn't want to die either. I realized for better or worse we were stuck together... if I died, it died...

In that timeless void at the edge of death, the glowing motes of light circling above the pod were some of the last sources of light and glowed even brighter, taking on form and definition as I watched weakly. Five ghostly mares looked down on me and the shuddering stasis pod sadly, Ministry Mares Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash looked just like their statuettes... The closer to death I got, the more real they seemed to become, all of their youthful faces full of sorrow and concern, whispering their encouragement and eyeing the shadowy coffin they trotted around warily.

I didn't share their obvious distaste at the poor, pained spirit that had somehow been locked up in my head though. I didn't think it was just me losing my mind either... However it happened and whatever it meant, this was all real... For once I sympathized with that insane shadow clawing at the walls of my skull, It was cold and dark and lonely... It just wanted what I did, to not die down here, to go back the world above, the light and life and warmth...

"I d-don't want to die, and you don't either... I need your help, all of your help, please... O-Ok? L-Let's get out then... t-together..." I whispered up to the wan red light flickering in the cracked porthole in the stasis pod's hatch, hearing it clearly hiss back a reply of, "Together..."

The Ministry Mares gave a determined, worried nod, drifting to the source of the chains hanging from the darkness overhead and taking them in their spectral hooves. The rusty iron links glowed with their rainbow colored light as they faded from view, unwinding and loosening from the Shroud's prison with a harmonious note filling the dimming room. High and sweet, balanced by the lower note of bass reverberating from the stasis pod.

The lid opened wide and the roiling, shadowy smoke snaked around me. I didn't pull away this time, but embraced it. The symbolic power cables that crossed the chamber on the way down to the wellspring of my magic lit up in a blazing blue glow. Several more joining the frayed and shorted connection that had already blown away from being wired into the pod that kept the Shroud trapped in a shower of sparks.

I idly worried about the damage I was doing down here... but this prison was weakening already and meant nothing if we both died. If it meant seeing Jade and Glitter again, I supposed I really would sell my soul...

"HHHHOOOOOOUUUUUAAA!!! Kaff! Kaff! Kaff!" A roaring noise filled my ears as I whooped in a blessed breath of oxygen, coughing out a gallon of water and barely staying on my shaking hooves.

"FAST! There he is! Help him!!" I could hear Jade's teary cry overhead, giving me something to try to focus on as I kept heaving water out dizzily.

Standing... I was standing on a solid surface and Jade's voice was up, coming with garbled shouts and other noise, but her voice was clear. That roaring sound drowned everything else out though, making me blink blearily and try to get my bearings.

"How the fuck is he doing that!? W-What's going on!?" Fancy's surprised shout wasn't one I wanted to hear, coming as I saw the black lightning flickering around my dripping hooves, puzzling over the shredded and scorched rope strung with floaters around me, then the thick coat of frost and slush stuck in my fur and the large chunks of ice falling around me.

Val's overjoyed screech was better, also coming from above, but closer and more urgent. "ALRIGHT BOSS! C'mon buddy, shake it off and move! Before that bitch gets goin' again! Up baby bird! Fly dammit! Can't reach ya!"

Bitch? Fly? Where? Where the hell was I anyway? At least one question was answered as I finally dragged my head up, wheezing and shivering as my glowing eyes fell on who she meant. The Courser!? X3 was standing not five feet away from me, only prevented from reengaging combat by the blocky chunks of ice freezing her to the cracked and tiled floor.

"Get yer freaky fuckin' boss outta the way Val, or I'm goin' back ta freezin' em both before that cunt gets loose again! I'm convinced, can't let that crazy robot get away or we're fucked!" Freya's screech was followed by Val squabbling with her, though it helped me focus on her point and realize the grim faced Courser was silently straining every muscle to move, and the ice was cracking...

My body was stiff and my head ached under an enormous flow of magic pouring out of my horn, my wings felt brittle and numb as I tried flexing them too, dislodging a lot of ice from my feathers as I finally managed to look up where everyone was talking from. Then I simply gaped a moment, putting things together as my eyes focused and I realized where I was.

Still in the bottom of the pool... My confusion was easy to excuse though, considering that all the water that had been drowning me was currently gone, rushing up in a vertical torrent in a wide circle around me and the Courser. The wall of water flickered with the bright blue glow of my magic and black lightning racing across the surface. It kept going in a swirling, torrential storm of power in a roughly cylindrical shape that rose all the way up to the tall ceiling, keeping Val from swooping down from where I saw her circling overhead. I was pushing a few thousand gallons of water into defying gravity and common sense...

Right... Gaining lift with my half frozen wings was painful and difficult, but I lurched my way up while that strained shadow in my head kept pouring on the magic. I managed to flutter up a few feet, shaking more ice free and getting my nearly frozen blood pumping again. Then I heard the whine of overtaxed servos below me and a terrible, ripping noise, followed by the nearly indistinguishable patter of congealed blood falling to the floor below and a freezing cold hoof grabbing my hindleg.

"Test Subject is emitting magical energy signature flagged as level omega priority, you will not escape..." The Courser had ripped a foreleg free of the ice, discarding its own flesh and blood like a grisly sleeve for the shiny metal bones to grab me.

I had to admire her tenacity, but she was making empty threats. There was the strange sensation of doing two things at once, not that I couldn't normally juggle multiple tasks with my telekinesis, but the grip on Best Served wasn't quite mine. It did flash through the air between us and slice X3's foreleg neatly off however, while I had dragged a pair of pale blue grenades from my bags.

When the Courser's grip disappeared, I lurched up higher without her holding me back, pulling the pins on the grenades Val had pilfered from Freya's gear earlier. The two metal apples clinked to the tiles at her hooves as I felt the magic at my horn give out, the walls of rushing water around me crashing down while I slowly went up.

I wasn't sure I'd make it, even without the strain of casting that impressive bit of magic. The pale bluish white glow of Jade's telekinesis suddenly surrounded me however, yanking me up just ahead of the water vacating all the empty space below it. I popped out of the pool like a cork and went rolling across the floor, caught in Jade's dripping wet hooves and squeezed like an accordion.

Looking up to her face nearly covered by her sodden mane as she gave teary nuzzles and kisses, I managed to return the affection weakly, rolling an eye over to the muffled 'crump!' noise coming from the pool and satisfied at the spikes of ice breaking the surface. Cryo grenades... I doubted the Courser was dead per se... but she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Oh Fast! T-Thank the goddesses! I thought I lost you! H-Hypothermia! We must warm you up, quickly! Oh dear you are freezing! A-Are you alright? How... are you.... are you still yourself? Fast?" Jade shivered and rubbed her hooves over my numb hide frantically, pausing in her fretting to bump noses and stare closely at my bloodshot eyes.

"S-S-Still... m-me... G-G-Glad... a-alive... L-Love... you..."

She gave a strange laughing-crying wail at my croak of an answer, kissing me and returning to vigorously rubbing some feeling back into me. Much as I'd always love her touch, I appreciated her sniffling to her senses enough to start casting spells even more. Especially since she knew the kind of utility and cleaning spells that wicked the water away from us both and made a rushing current of warm wind to surround us.

Her mane poofed out in a frizzy ball and her feathers fluffed up to make a warm cocoon around my shivering body pressed against hers, still sobbing and nuzzling as I weakly licked at her neck trying to reassure her. We stayed that way quite awhile, Jade rocked in place and cooed, letting me slip in and out of shaky consciousness while she worked on raising my temperature.

I was vaguely aware of the others around her, checking on me and recovering from their own wounds. There was hushed talking, then at some point I was shifted to Jade's back and we were moving again. Gunfire made me snort awake and try to move again, only to get shoved back down by Val's claw covering me in a variety of dry clothing suspiciously of the same styles all the synth students wore and her soft grumble in my ear. "Rest up boss, we got this. Scared me there asshole..."

By the time we made it to the exit to the school, I was basically awake and aware again, struggling to peer up from Jade's feathers and my variety of blankets to eye the heavy doors out. I wondered what the hold up was, slowly figuring it out when I saw the advanced terminal by the secure looking exit. I struggled to get down, but was smacked by Val and pinned by Jade's wings, still deemed to weak to move around on my own.

I supposed Summer could hack the lock, though I was curious why she remained away from it in whispered conversation with Oro. I caught the worried look he shot my way when he caught me peeking past Jade patiently standing away from the exit, then he turned away and checked his fancy watch again before returning to talking with Summer.

A loud explosion and cloud of dust blasting the doors in woke me all the way up just as I was starting to drift off again, the thick steel doors were bent and wrecked, allowing a squad of shadowy shapes to come galloping in. If they weren't green on E.F.S., I would have fought my way loose in panic. As it was, I watched in confusion as several ponies in brown leather overcoats and heavy battlesaddles came charging in, waving us out with rushed orders. The Railroad?

Jade trotted out with me shivering on her back, clearing through the haze of smoke to the ruined streets of Trotson. Watching Oro go charging out and meeting a familiar cream colored mare in the same brown overcoat of the Railroad just confused me more, finally enough of a reason for Jade to let me loose to watch the two synths embrace.

"A-Angel?"

I stumbled when I hopped down to the cracked asphalt, then was nearly bowled over by the synth double of another Institute director breaking away from hugging Oro to greet me happily. "Fast! Glad we made it in time and you're ok! Great work bringing this facility down, we've got to move fast, but there are a lot of synths to liberate in there and important data on the Institute!"

"You... wha? Why are you here? How'd you know..."

My pounding head didn't make figuring things out very easy, though I was glad to see all the Railroad agents securing the outside. At least we wouldn't have to worry about any unpleasant surprises on escaping, making it feel like we were really safe and free.

It was still confusing as hell though, only more so as Angel tossed her rose and violet braid back in a laugh and dragged Oro from the deep conversation he was engaged in with another familiar pony. It took a minute to recognize the pale stallion with the dark mane, usually Beacon was in more of a disguise than the Arcano-Cats jacket and dirty shirt he was wearing.

He cantered over with a broad grin at Angel's invitation, giving the zony with him rough noogies as he chortled an answer. "Oro of course! We had to kind of jump into action on short notice when we heard you guys were caught, but I knew you'd help him like you did Angel here! I told Des you'd make a great Heavy, we've wanted to raid this place forever, but that Courser hall monitor made it too risky a mission. When Oro let us know you were on the scene though, we scraped together a crew and came running. The Railroad watches out for our operatives after all! Well, it was him and a little help of course. Don't be so shy Patriot."

At his smirk to Oro, the zony's fancy watch clicked and unfolded from around his foreleg, changing into a gold and sapphire Cybreezie flitting into the air on glowing blue wings. Oro's shrugged sheepishly, waving off the bit of jewelry he had constantly been checking as it flew over and buzzed in the air in front of me. "Er... sorry, Patriot's really security conscious, I couldn't tell you..."

That was how he knew where everyone had been taken when we arrived... how he tracked the other synths and had such pull with them, he'd been getting outside help the whole time... The tiny robot actually sketched a bow in the air, bobbing down towards my pip-buck I managed to hold up on a shaking hoof. Its mouth attached to the pip-buck's patch cable as it folded around the device, communicating with a chatter while I tried to catch up, squinting at the text that scrolled across my vision.

'THAT'S TWICE I'VE HAD TO RISK MY SECURITY TO FREE YOU FROM INSTITUTE CAPTURE. YOU'RE MAKING A HABIT OF IT FAST. THOUGH YOU DID HELP RESCUE TWO OF MY FRIENDS AS WELL.'

"W-What the fuck... You... Who asked you to! What the hell were you doing in there, why didn't you say anything!? Who the hell are you anyway?"

'SORRY, CLASSIFIED. I SHOULDN'T GET THIS INVOLVED, SAFER FOR EVERYPONY, CAUSALITY, SCREWS WITH PROJECTIONS, OBSERVATION AFFECTS OUTCOME. NEXT TIME WE SPEAK, I'LL EXPLAIN. FOR NOW YOU SHOULD REALLY GO REST, YOUR PIP-BUCK MEDICAL READINGS SHOW YOUR CORE TEMPERATURE IS STILL DANGEROUSLY LOW. YOU'LL CATCH COLD.'

I couldn't tell if I was still delirious, or if the Railroad's mysterious 'Patriot' was slightly off. The bizarre little robot detached from my leg and flitted off before I could question it further, returning to Oro scratching his spiky mane with a shamefaced smile. "Er... sorry again... and thank you. Thanks to you I'm finally, finally free of that place. I and those of my kind we can help escape from this prison as well all owe you our lives, all of you..."

He ended with a warm look to Summer, holding a striped green leg out to the petite pegasus returning the friendly hoofbump with a smile. "Don't mention it, we owe you too Oro, me especially so... thanks. I'm sorry again for... for everything. I hope you enjoy your freedom, and maybe I'll see you again someday."

Interrupting the touching scene, Fancy threw her hooves up and threw a fit, stomping down the ruined streets to the east with Freya shoving busy Railroad agents out of her way. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! I hope I never see you again robot! We're going back to the castle, I've had enough of all your craziness for a lifetime stupid! I need a bath!"

"Charming friend you've got there Fast, you do meet interesting types. Welp! We've got things covered here if you wanna get back to home sweet castle too Princess. We've only got until morning to clear as much as we can outta this place, then the Institute will realize something's wrong and send in the cleaners. Though after that I bet your old crew would be interested in a little anonymous tip, eh cutie?" Beacon spoke in his usually upbeat and unbothered tone, giving Summer a knowing wink.

After a moment's contemplation and a quick, questioning look to Oro and Angel nodding their agreement, Summer smiled and snapped a salute in reply. "If you're saying the Institute will come swarming this installation and you guys will already have the... er... synths like you two out... Yes, yes I do think the Brotherhood would be very interested, I'll go to the radio room and pass it along, by morning..."

"Lovely! Just because we don't quite see eye to eye doesn't mean we can't throw them a bone now and then, eh? I'd invite you to hang around and chew the fat, but looks like you all went through the wringer in there. Come on by Railroad HQ sometime Fast, I'm sure Des won't be able to keep you out of the inner circle after pulling this off!" Beacon grinned and clapped me on the back, sending me stumbling as he moved on to kissing Jade and Summer's hooves, flinching away when he attempted the same with Val's claw.

Then he simply cantered on to the school, whistling a merry tune and ordering Railroad agents around on his way. My brain was still too sluggish to hope to keep up, gawking at the swarm of Railroad ponies entering the haunted high school with a million questions buzzing in my head. Jade trotted up and cut them all off however, floating me to her back again and huffing over my weak objections.

"Mr. Beacon is quite right, that is more than enough for one night. We will return to the castle and see to your health Fast, I am grateful you have repaired the royal baths to Fancy's standards as well Summer, though she will just have to wait to use them. You are to go soak in a hot bath and let me take care of you dear, no objections!" Jade waved a wing behind her as she trotted down the street after Fancy with Val and Summer, a stern but exhausted and worried tone to her sweet voice.

Considering I was still shivering and the idea of a long, hot bath with my personal physician sounded like heaven, I nodded and stayed where I was without complaint, hugging her neck wearily. It would take some time to make our way clear of the bloodwing infested city so we could fly back, but at least we were back out under the night sky and free of the Institute's cage.

The castle was quiet and sleeping with only the graveyard shift of Minutemares to meet us at the gates when we made it back. Several of the tired guards rubbed their eyes in confusion at their Princess appearing in the skimpy, red and white cheerleader outfit under her more professional white lab coat, which she quickly buttoned with a blush when she noticed where their stunned gazes trailed down to.

Val yawned and prowled off, mumbling about finding a drink and arching a feathery brow at Freya as she passed her, the jerk of her head as much of an invitation as she could muster. I was glad to see the snowy griffon whisper to her tired and grumpy boss Fancy, given the grouchy reply of, "Go do whatever you want Freya, I'm going to bed! Since the prissy Princess won't let me have a proper bath! Go thaw out quick stupid, so I can have my turn!"

That was about as much sympathy as I could expect from the spoiled filly storming off, her bodyguard Freya following suite with a huff of an answer to no one in particular. "Well since I gots time off an' all, maybe I'll find a drink too, separately... and did you put glue in my fuckin' armor again you bitch!?"

Summer joined us in a tired giggle watching the two griffons shoving each other into the castle halls, fluttering off to the FIxer's tower with a sleepy wave. I was glad to see the pile of parts and control console from Easy Filly Downs stacked just outside the door to my repair crew's quarters, the coppery AssaultJack robot guarding them snapping a salute to the little pegasus joining it at the door.

Jade quickly hustled me off when she caught me staring at the new parts joining the others we had acquired in a cluttered pile in the courtyard, though not quick enough to stop the flash of text in my bleary vision;

Mission Updated!: Arcane Relay Race

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

That left just one part to collect, the magical beam emitter from Dreadnot... I was still shivering even under a pile of rags and loosed a miserable sneeze as Jade led me away, but the ember of anger thinking about going to meet the thestrals was a bright, hot spark in my chest. The things those 'emissaries' said about Jade... the way they treated Witchy...

"Ohhhh no, all of your tinkering and plotting will wait Fast. You are to come with me and get your core temperature back to normal immediately! Doctor's orders, no thinking of anything other than your health and me. You frightened me very much and you know the penalty." Jade easily saw the thoughts whirring through my feverish brain, fretting over my wince at the pain between my eyes I failed to hide.

Giving an affectionate nip to my neck, Jade surrounded me in the glow of her magic and yanked me up when my hooves dragged and my eyes lingered on the pile of teleporter parts. She whisked me up the long flights of stairs to Luna's wing of the castle, checking my temperature and health with the glow of her magic floating me through the halls at her side, moving at a brisk trot and making right for the royal baths.

So it was that I soon found myself in the most opulent, steamy, sudsy bath I could imagine, basking in the glow of feeling alive and warm again after soaking in the wonderfully hot water long enough to stop feeling like a pony-cicle. Of course getting lavished with attention from a beautiful alicorn didn't hurt my mood either. It only took a little convincing and roaming hooves while scrubbing each other to graduate up to a bit of restrained passion that warmed up all the places even the hot bath couldn't reach.

We were both simply glad to be alive and together, desperate to touch and feel each other as if to affirm the other was whole and healthy. I could still feel her lingering fear in her strong, shuddery embrace, how she held me tight and wouldn't let go, whimpering in both delight and shaky relief. I wanted to do everything I could to put it behind her, to let her know how much I loved her and that I'd never leave her, no matter what it took.

It took awhile to satisfy both her and the frisky, needy growl in my head that drove me on despite how tired I was. I was glad it was getting along with the unflagging energy of 'Be Unwavering!' to keep going until Jade was sleepy and happy, nibbling on my ear and holding each other in comfortable silence. She sounded much better when she finally sat up from dozing in our reclined position against the edge of the huge bath, fully waking up with a snort when I sneezed against her fluffy chest.

"Whzaa... O-Oh! Oh dear, you sound as if you may be catching cold Fast. We must focus on heading that off before any more... p-physical therapy... You stay just where you are and continue soaking, I shall trot down to the kitchens and find you some nice soup or stew, that is just the thing." Jade reluctantly clambered out of the bath, shaking herself briskly, incidentally giving an excellent view of all her curves in jiggling motion, with a lidded look over her shoulder to where I drooled.

I managed to hide the pain in my head that time, more focused the immediate threat I carefully danced around. "Mmnnn er... y-you're not making it, are you hon? I'm not that hungry... s-so no reason for you to bother..."

Smiling as she toweled herself off, Jade gave a cute little whiny and leaned over to kiss my horn. "I am sure the castle's cook Greasy Spoon will not mind if I ask him to warm something up dear. Only because the kitchens are his domain and he will be able to prepare something much quicker. Otherwise I would of course cook for you, I learned many things while I was captive in that informative classroom I wish to try soon. I know how much you love it when I do so!"

"Y-Yup! Sure do! Some other time then... hehehe..."

I nodded back with a crooked grin, hiding my unconvincing expression under the water as she trotted out happily, humming under her breath and swaying her flanks playfully. When her tail disappeared out the door, I breathed a sigh of thanks to the goddesses at dodging that bullet, one near death experience a night was enough... Much as I loved her, Jade's cooking was as likely to kill me as that Courser.

When she ducked her head back in behind the ancient wooden door creaking shut, I squeaked in panic and wiped the relieved expression off my face, meeting her soft blue eyes coming down in a stern look. "Do not move Fast... You must continue to stay warm and I do not want you wandering off. I will return shortly to take you to bed. Understood?"

"Right! Not going anywhere hon, counting the minutes till you get back, promise."

At that she closed her eyes in a sparkling smile and cantered off, leaving me alone in the steamy bath to soak and think in silence. I wasn't shivering anymore and my muscles felt like jello, letting me lean back against the curved edge of Luna's own bath and relax. There was a lot to think about buzzing in my head, more knowledge about the Institute and its origins, Klein and Swirl, the Railroad and their mysterious benefactor Patriot, and of course the Shrouded Stallion, the much closer and clearer voice of 'Be Dark...' muttering quietly with me...

It was an uncomfortable enough line of thought I cast my eyes around the room for distraction, taking in the work Summer and the other Fixers had done here. The bath itself was nearly the size of a small swimming pool, initially triggering a mild bit of panic after my last swim. Being smaller, hotter and shaped like a huge seashell helped get over it, plus Jade joining me in a bit of skinny dipping put any lingering trauma aside entirely.

Rusty showers occupied one corner and I spotted several small plastic bins of 200 year old shampoos and homemade soaps under the cracked stone benches under them. The lingering smells identified one of them as what gave Summer's mane that sweet scent, so I guessed her and the other repair-ponies in my squad of Fixers really did come up here.

There was still some stubborn mold in the remaining ancient grout of the tiles, with brighter white patches where fresh fixes had been made, breaking up the dark blue, blue-green and sea green color scheme a bit. Several mosaics of bright tiles adorned the walls, remarkably intact after so long, depicting seaponies, shells, fish and even sinuous sea serpents.

Leaning my head over the edge of the bath, I stared up to the full moon shaped light at the center of a fresco of the night sky overhead, picking out the flaking details of pegasi and stars. Spotting a few that were frolicking on leathery bat wings instead of feathery ones brought a sliver of pain between my eyes however. The image of the snide, hateful emissaries from Dreadnot taking their place in the painting.

"Shut up... Just behave, Witchy said..."

I clenched my eyes shut at the headache and answered the talkative voice causing it, shutting out the view of the painting. I didn't like the petulant grumble so clearly replying, wishing the sun would come up sooner than a few hours from now. I was afraid I had broken something vital in my head to escape the Courser, the gentle spirits of the Ministry Mares were still there and restraining it, but their ability to do so had been weakened.

Jade's sweet nicker eventually coming from the door got me to open my eyes and then just gape stupidly, drinking in the sight of her standing in the doorway in the sexy cheerleader outfit she hadn't discarded. She had a demure smile and fluttered her eyelashes, blowing away all my worries and reminding me why I'd pay any price to get back to her. Even if I had risked my sanity or soul, it was worth it...

'Be Kind...'

She giggled at me scrambling out of the tub in a rush of water, holding up a bowl of soup between us before I pounced on her, then booping my nose when I skidded to a halt before her. "Dinner first, then dessert Fast..."

Jade prancing back down the hall towards Luna's chambers and swishing her pleated skirt with her fluffy tail made perfectly clear what desert was. I barely remembered to shake myself dry before cantering after her, following the twin, delicious scents of wonderful smelling food and the mare of my dreams.

I made her laugh again chugging down the tasty miretank soup as soon as I had it in my hooves. Once she was satisfied I had eaten something and checked my health with her gentle magic, we went right to committing repeated, minor sacrileges on Goddess Luna's own palatial bed, shaking out all the dust from the last 200 years.

It was good to be alive... to fall asleep in each others hooves, planting sleepy kisses to her favorite spot on her neck as we drifted off together, knowing Glitter was nearby and sleeping without a care. Safe and warm, free and healthy, the little pocket of love and light banishing all the shadows and darkness in the wasteland and my own head.

I had a strange dream in those predawn hours. It was familiar... like other, half remembered dreams I had been having recently, though this one was disturbingly clearer and vivid... There was the sensation of speedy flight, banking and swooping through the night sky, faster and faster... the wind and salty smell of the sea filling my nose.

There were strange gaps, feelings of being without a body and moving even faster, a flicker of lightning across the sky, a shadow swimming through the darkness blanketing the world below. Disjointed images and feelings came as I moved further and further away, seeking something, somepony... hiding where I was going.

It was a maze of rust and steel, a forest full of creatures I slipped past like a ghost. I was a hunter, following my nose to a familiar scent, tracking it like a hellhound. It was deep inside the shadowy labyrinth, but I found the prey eventually.

There was terrible, awful joy of chasing and toying with some frightened rabbit like thing that smelled of terror. The dark thrill of stalking and cornering it. Satisfaction and victory at taunting it, a sadistic pleasure far removed from the kind I had been torn away from with Jade when this nightmare began.

Then came the screams...

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

Cold Blooded----------------
---After both getting a chance to examine Freya's cryogenic weaponry, then being on the receiving end of them, you've learned more than you cared to learn about icy death. From modern versions like the Cryolator, Freezethrower and Cryo-grenades, down to simple ice arrows of ages past, you now do 20% additional damage with all ice enchanted weaponry, as well as gaining 10% resistance to freezing damage. You also have access to ice based recipes at the work benches.

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