Cait found a crowbar and was jamming it in the tiny lip between the blast shutters and the floor, more determined than ever now that the power was cut and the whole factory went dark. She was deviously laughing, knowing there wasn't anything left keeping her from her goal. No more distractions, she wasn't making quick progress, but she was channeling raw determination, a buzzing in the back of her skull that kept her energized and awake.

Leighla chipped her talons scratching and trying to get a lip between the shutters, and opted to keep an eye on Sparks, trapped in her own suit of disabled power-armor and unable to eject. Ada shone a light on Cait, eyes towards the doors.

With a large hum of dynamos restarting, spinning up and finding pace again, the lights flickered, and then bloomed around the factory and East Boston as the remaining systems came back online.

Thunderstruck appeared in the center of the systems control room, eyes taking a moment to adjust to the scene and renewed lights.

The destroyed Tank-Bots, Sparks, everything around her, she looked up, keeping her head level and felt the new nerves feeling and sensing for the first time in her horn.

They all seemed to sense she was in the room, looking at her miraculous appearance from thin air.

She was an Alicorn, and the feeling of magic felt like a continuous lightning storm of energy on her brain. She felt more awake and coldly-sober in that moment that when she spoke to Cait, she stopped what she was doing immediately.

"Cait."

She said her name in a way as if she were meaning to ask 'really? You're putting too much effort into this, don't you realize there's a much easier way?' Thunderstruck grabbed all their attentions, and felt struck with sudden realization that the pegasus drastically changed.

She dropped the crowbar immediately, nodding.

"Huh." Cait said, looking at Thunderstruck and seeing the horn, "Oh, one of you." She said, like seeing an Alicorn was a daily occurrence for her.

"Cait, she grew a unicorn's horn!" Leighla said, taking more notice than Cait into the situation.

"Great! Now help us pry these gates open. Sealed damn-tighter than a whore's unused backdoor."

"Fuck you, Cait." Leighla said, "Just stand down for a second and can't you see what just happened?" The gryphon was the only one interested in Thunderstruck's transformation, Ada took in her new appearance as well, but didn't know what this meant either.

"Do...all ponies pop a forhead boner when they get that old?" Cait asked, completely ignorant, her vocie was soft and scratchy, vocal chords worn out from overuse.

"Thunder, what happened to you?" Lieghla asked, "Ignore her, she's been at that for thirty minutes after losing her voice swearing and cursing."

"I've been gone that long?" Thunderstruck asked,

"About that length of time," Ada said, "Your return was expected, but your new appearance was not. What happened to you?"

"I became an Alicorn, Ada. I met with other Alicorns who told me what they were doing, and how ponies need a safe place to grow up and actualize their potential. I was offered a role to help their mission, and accepted. As for the magic, I suppose I'll need to use it, or figure out how to use it here soon in the future."

A panel of lights behind the blast shutters turned on, and overhead the intercom speakers turned on, with a tapping on the mic, "You're an Alicorn..." The Mechanist said, "Please. Wait. I know what you are...Please. Let's talk face to face."

"About Fucking time- Agh!"

Leighla elbowed Cait hard in the ribs, making her take in a painful short intake of breath, and stopping her from ruining any more conversations. "What'd I do?"

The blast shutters rolled up, and Sparks was seeing her opportunity to move without threat of being shot or noticed and struggled to remove the clasps keeping her protected. With the weight of the suit making it hard to move, she could only will enough energy into one limb at a time.

"Who are you?" Thunderstruck asked, the Mechanist held up both palms to her, slowly going up to her head to remove the helmet from around her face.

The black hair was matted with sweat and helmet hair, the woman held it in the cradle of her arm. Wiping her forehead had dark-orange brown skin color, and brown eyes.

"I'm Isabel Cruz. The Mechanist was a persona I took to help the Commonwealth. How...do I have any hope of helping the Commonwealth against fighting an Alicorn with a group like yours behind you? You're...marauders aren't you?"

"We're not raiders. Never have been, never were. You need to get that out of your head this instant and listen to us. We broke in here because your robots were attacking people around the Commonwealth. Yesterday and this morning we were attacked by your robots twice and had to tracked them to the source."

"That. That can't be true. These robots are programmed to protect. Their subroutines are clean: observe, evaluate, and react accordingly."

"Protect who?" Ada asked. "For the last four days, without provocation or hostile intent, your robots have killed members of my group, and have continued harassing us non-stop. What are your parameters set? Who is your designated ally and target coordinates? How have you tested them in the field for someone who isn't designated as you?"

"The testing was thorough, I ran every scenario, they all passed." Sparks said.

"Then somewhere along the way your orders are being misinterpreted. I don't doubt you've tested them, but out in the Commonwealth, these machines are attacking everybody and hunting us down relentlessly." Ada said.

"But these programs were meant to save people, not kill them. All data sent back showed numbers of hostiles killed and lives saved." Isabel argued, not sure where the problem was originating from. They blamed her, but her mind was racing through all the possibilities on why there could be a failure on her end.

"Isabel, protecting the Commonwealth shouldn't be about number of hostiles killed or lives saved at all. If anything, a robot should never have to be used to kill or hurt. That the fact you keep seeing numbers come in, doesn't it seem confusing if the number of people they find is equal to the amount of people dead? If every scenario is seen as a counting game for robots to keep track of dead hostiles, then they'll continue to ignore the safety of human lives, and kill everyone. I'll ask you this once and only once. If you don't believe me, but we came here to stop your robots from hurting people. Otherwise. Stand in front of your latest batch of robots, unarmed, unprotected, and we can all wait and see what happens." Thunderstruck said, reaching for her weapons, she realized she lost her sword, and would need to track it down.

"Or, you can pull the plug on their programming and start again."

Faced with testing her robots logic against herself, and with her options being check the programming, or shut up and stand infront of a tank, she had to back-track on her words.

"Come with me?" She asked, freezing as Sparks was finally able to peel off one wing plate and was flapping to flip herself upright, growing more mobile by the minute. "Let me help her first."

\111/

Shedding their suits of power armor and lead into the Central Control Room, Isabel sat in a rolling chair that scooted across the floor til she was at a bank of monitors. Tapping three times on the escape key, she brought up the lines of code, and shaking her head. Trying to find the one line of logical code that proved she was still right.

Deploying a stastical model, she removed the default parameters she installed and wrote in, fingers flying over the keys as Sparks joined her in the data search.

"Run it." Isabel said to Sparks.

"Where is this group going?" Sparks asked from her own monitor, typing in corresponding actions to initiate simulated trials.

"Doesn't matter, so long as it's outside the Commonwealth this time. Way outside our reach this time. I want to remove all other factors."

Sparks knew how to operate and write code as well with Isabel, but once she ran the program, Isabel frowned.

Watching data slowly scroll across her screen, she checked it and compared it to Sparks monitor, then back to her own station.

"Remove clothes, symbols, and outward identifiers,"

Running it again, responses came back from their program, information offered up and details about what the robots saw and did.

"Remove aggressive attacks against the robots."

This only made the numbers of recorded casualties shoot up, making even less sense to the programmer. "What the hell is wrong?"

"Remove environmental factors."

Humming as both Sparks and Isabel ran simulations again, nothing changed.

"Remove Roboco as their base center of origin."

With the computers churning out scenarios, the data was only pointing and leaning in one direction.

The moment the robots left the range of the Robco factory, they instantly went into an aggressive mode, deeming everything outside of the factory as hostile.

"That can't be right," Isabel said, "How are they doing that? They're not supposed to be doing that." Scratching her head and hair, she ran the numbers again to be sure.

"It's me." She said after two minutes of seeing the responses, "But they're supposed to protect..." She said to the computer.

"You're right," Isabel admitted, sinking down into a chair. "I should've never messed with the original sentry commands. It works as long as they're in range of the Cental Command Console, then they get further South or North, and then...it all stops. It trips them into remaining in a hostile state where they view everything except for Robco as hostile. They run out of internal memory and start dumping information to make room to keep operating"

Staring at the monitor, "Oh my God, what the hell did I do? I was trying to help the Commonwealth with these robots. They're all I know. I've done it on small scale, designated robots to protect and patrol certain areas, but once they switch to roaming programming I installed, it bucks the commands completely. Flips the switch...that hasn't happened before. Sparks...we ran this...we did." She said, looking to her companion.

"We never went or checked out what was happening in the field." Sparks admitted. "We never went out and visually confirmed ourselves that what was coming back were the results we wanted. This keeps coming back as the robots dumping their programming to make room for more raw data coming in."

She looked up to Thunderstruck, "...I see the numbers...but...have a hard time admitting the truth." Her voice peaked, screwed up tight in her throat she hoarsely said, "I...killed all these people...and I can't just take it back," Her eyes looked away from the screens in disbelief, she didn't want to accept the truth, even though she already admitted it and saw what was being shown in front of her.

"I can't do this anymore," She said. Sensing Isabel's shifting tone and emotions, Thunderstruck pulled her attention back to the present.

"We're to stop this from happening again. But, Isabel, I know as much as you did when you first walked up to this factory and have the same thoughts about robots then, as I do now. They can be useful. They CAN protect, they CAN be used for good. We just can't overload them with too many programs and orders. They're meant to be assigned to single locations, patrol certain routes and areas. You two may be one of the few people who actually know how to make robots do what we want them to, so for that, I'm not here to hurt you. But, you're not going to stop, Isabel, neither are you, Sparks."

"I'm am-" Cait said before being shushed. This time Leighla grabbed Cait's mouth, her claw wrapping around her entire head and she squeezed to keep more syllables and consonants from being strung together in the worst combination possible.

"Not helping!" Leighla said. Cait tried shaking Leighla off, making light pleading noises and whining. Punching up at the gryphons arm, Leighla eventually let go after several strikes.

"Listen, I'm going to get in touch with some people who I know can help." Thunderstruck said.

"You can't trust me to not screw up the programs again. I made a mistake that's killed over 120 people so far. I don't even know who these people are or what they did, where they are...I...If you hadn't fought your way in and told me all this...I don't even know how long it would've been before we ever realized."

"Then trust me that I want to do what's right. The way we came in, we were more scared of getting swarmed by your robots, that's why we had to be fast and brutal to get in here. But, your plan for protecting the Commonwealth, I have that plan too, it just moves a little bit slower, and will take a little bit longer to work out all the details, but I promise you, making the Commonwealth secure for everyone is a goal everyone wants to achieve."

Isabel sighed, depression hanging around her neck like a dead crow. She didn't want to look at anyone or anything right now, she could barely stand to look at her reflection in the glint of the monitors. "I need..."

"Just tell your thoughts to be quiet for a minute and count really slow," Thunderstruck said.

Isabel nodded, "Sorry for fighting you," Sparks said. "You tried to warn me, but I didn't listen. Why didn't you take the final shot up there? You could've had me."

"I have my reasons. I'm taking over this factory, and the both of you are going to bring it back to 100%. This factory and everything in it now belongs to me. Understand? Otherwise, I leave Cait here alone with the two of you, and we'll see how that lasts."

"Now, Isabel...let's start with removing your old code. Leighla...Cait...Ada. You're free to go back to Sanctuary Hills. We're going to be here for a while. Don't tell anyone what's happened here, except that it's been dealt with. The Mechanist is no more."

"What do we tell them about you?" Leighla asked, "You changed."

"It's how one of the Alicorns came across to me," Thunderstruck said, "He said to me...Just because we may be Alicorns, doesn't mean we know how to get along with each other yet.. I think that was a warning."

"What kind of warning?"

"Leighla... you know." Thunderstruck said, looking into the gryphon's eyes. Even now Leighla still towered over the Alicorn, but letting Leighla make the connection made her wince. Thunderstruck was able to piece together as much as she could about the gryphoness, but neither of them had the time or conveinence of sitting down and discussing details about their previous lives.

"Alicorns live for a long time...and until we come together and put aside our differences and do what we were created to do, then we're playing for keeps."

"For Keeps?" Cait asked.

"The other Alicorns...We're all off in our own corner of the world. But...imagine there's another factory, with another horde of robots, with another pack of gryphons and an army behind it, all lead by another Alicorn." Thunderstruck let out a shaky breath. "There's other Alicorns doing the exact same thing we're doing right now. Building up our strength, staking our claims, drawing lines in the dirt and setting borders around what we have control over... Like kids trying to figure out how to get along, there's going to be some disagreements along the way until we grow up like the Alicorn of Endurance did. Grow old...I think that's what he was warning me about. That it'll take...generations to come together and stop fighting. Adam the Ant fought and saw how hard it is to put things right with fighting, and is now waiting for the rest of us to do the same."

"So what's the plan then?"

"Adam's had a hard life, and since he's the first, he gets credit for having to go through the worst type of loss and sacrifice. I still care about all the people I know today and won't let anything come between me and trying to make things right with the world. There's too much chaos and suffering for me not to take action." Thunderstruck said.

"Tell everyone that i'm fine, and just taking care of business. Scavenging, scouting, picking over the scraps, and that I'll be back when I'm ready. For now, I want you keeping an eye on things till Nate or Meathead get back. I've got some things to figure out. I'll be sending robots towards Sanctuary Hills once the issues are worked out. Until then, it's just going to be me learning everything I can from our two new friends here."

"Then we'll see you, when we see you." Leighla said.

"Think I'll head out when it's light, still too dark now." Cait replied.

Thunderstruck turned to Isabel and Sparks, "What's the first thing that needs to be done to bring the plant back online?"

"Reset the breakers, check the fuses, run down all the capacitors, make sure they aren't blown, replace any that are. The servomechs and junkbots are doing most of the work now, but it'll still take about two days for the whole system to be back to what we once were before you came crashing in. I've got miles of cables to check now, and Sparks knows how to fix and work on as just as much as I do."

"Well then, let's get to work then. There's people and ponies waiting for us," Thunderstruck said, "That, and I want you to tell me how you know about Alicorns."

\111/

"Sparks and I crossed paths with a Unicorn called Firelance years ago. He and his buddy Sola helped us get into a large computer factory down south of here, but were kicked out by the Brotherhood of Steel a few months later after they were long gone. They wiped out our defenses, destroyed our robots, took control of our computer banks; All our harddrives. Anything we were working on, telling us over and over again that it was too dangerous to be leaving all this tech in the hands of commoners; Regular wasters and scavengers. Anyway, we spent a little time in Firelance's company, and he was a weird egg. Had alot of knowledge about computers and what they did, or were supposed to do, but not much practical knowledge. He wasn't much of a fighter back then, course that could've changed. I doubt he would've been able to do the same you and your crew did to get in here, he would've tried hacking the robots or shut them off completely to sneak around them, to get in. A warning about him, he is an expert shot with his horn. He could lift and fine-tune a whole tank-bot with his magic, inside and out, disassemble and reassemble like a wristwatch. He knows more about computers than any other person or pony we've come across in years."

"And his companion? Sola?"

"He carries enough weapons with him to start a small war; combustion and energy pistols, knives, plasma and ballistic rifles, he fixes guns and knows old-world knowledge like he was reading it from a book. He's a warrior and a scholar, but the personality like a cat. You think he likes you, but then something sets him off, a slight offense you didn't mean to make and he takes it personally. He's quiet and doesn't take revenge by taking your life, he gets back at you by taking everything you have but your life, and leaves you with nothing."

"What did you say or do that might've offended him?"

"Not that we could remember, complimented him on how well he took down the robots, said he was smart to disable the robots and security system trying to kill us, thanked him for helping us get in...somewhere along the way we must've said something that irked him."

"Something set him off, we don't know how we offended him, but he took it personally." Sparks said, nodding, "He turned into a cold man after that. Like he was possessed. Didn't say more than what he needed to after that. From being courteous to suddenly like we personally killed his mother himself."

"We apologized, multiple times, but he still shook it off like there was nothing we could say or do to change his mind. A few months later, the Brotherhood came and took everything, and kicked us out."

"Some people just can't accept a compliment, I guess," Thunderstruck wondered.

"Firelance was a bit more open, and accepting, told us not to worry about Sola. They left a few hours later, and we never saw either of them again," Isabel said.

\111/

Next Chapter: Ch. 93 Rage Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 18 Minutes