“Put light against light - you have nothing. Put dark against dark - you have nothing. It’s the contrast of light and dark that each give the other one meaning.” - Bob Ross

I pulled at my eyepatch as Nyota slid it on to wake me up. I had not worn it last night and now my eye was irritated. Quick Stitch held the needle just an inch away. It was so much worse than staring down the barrel of a gun. “Do we have to with my eye today?”

Quick Stitch cleared his throat, “Is Snuggles allowed in the tank?”

Is that a rhetorical question, or are you actually offering a negotiation? Quick Stitch leaned around the needle while holding it and my head completely still with a raised eyebrow. “Well no, there is too much danger in her scratching a piece of sensitive equipment or one of us accidentally getting stung by her poison.”

Quick Stitch cleared his throat, “I believe that answers your question then. Yes we must do your eye today. Especially after you snuck off last night without your eyepatch. Just because it’s dark, doesn’t mean you can get away with that. The photoreceptors are working a little better, how was your vision last night?”

I cleared my throat, waiting for the horrifically painful moment when he would poke into my eye socket and inject his cleansing formula to clear out the healing potion he had dropped in. He couldn’t let it completely do it’s work and had to time this precisely right. “You are just distracting me while you wait till the right MO—” I was cut off to whimper and whine as he jammed the needle in and shot the injection through, causing a flood of tears from that eye as the potion was rinsed out.

“While you are right, I also need to know from your own perspective how it is.” He pulled the needle out and slid my eyepatch back in place, his horn extinguishing its light and the closet we were in went dark.

“It was surprisingly good. I could make out the spirtebot I saw from quite a distance. It wasn’t blurry, even when it shone its light on me.” I explained while adjusting to only have one eye again. I blinked away the pain and the itching as Quick Stitch smiled at me.

“That is good to hear, means it’s healing. Give it another week or two and you will no longer need the eyepatch. Just know that flashbangs are always gonna hurt a little more now, as will blinding light. Your vision in the dark might become permanently better though; the healing has a chance to over compensate for the damage.” Quick Stitch explained all of this while letting us out of the closet and returning me to breakfast with our friends.

Alguacil cleared his throat, talking to Chifundo as we came back to the group, “The fact, they are willin’ ta put up caps to kill folks for trying to protect creatures is reason enough they should be annihilated.” He growled and then turned to me, as if expecting I give some sort of reply.

Chifundo and Scopola both cleared their throats at the same time to interject. I turned to them and was happy to have someone say something else since I had missed most of this conversation. “Yes, Chifundo? Yes, Scopola?”

Both of them started to talk at the same time and immediately Scopola Mina motioned to Chifundo, “Go ahead, I’ll talk second.”

“Alguacil, the thing you ask has a toll; for which is far beyond acceptable to her soul.” Chifundo stood up and placed a hoof against Alguacil’s shoulder. “She has a light of hope for all, please do not let her spark fall.”

Scopola Mina sighs, “Besides all of that, we lack a spell-matrix to get that done anyway. We just this tank, we ain’t about to blow up this one too for that.” Scopola thought about it and rubbed her chin. “We could go shoot it with the big gun on the tank through.”

Alguacil grimaced in frustration, “That doesn’t send the message we need sent. A thing like Raider Radio ain’t gonna be tolerated; period.”

Scopola Mina rolled her eyes as I brightened up at my friends actually siding with me, against the use of a megaspell. “That won’t send the message you’re looking for either, Alguacil. It didn’t work back when and it ain’t gonna work now.”

Chifundo nodded in agreement, “For the moment we also lack the time, for we are already working on someone else’s dime.”

Nyota silently came over and wrapped his foreleg around me, leaning in to whisper. “He’s been at this since before you woke up. Trying to convince us to get you to make a megaspell and drop it on Raider Radio.”

Alguacil deflated and then rolled his eye, “You do realize they’ll be prepared fer a tank. I’ve seen ‘em use rocket launchers on a molerat.” Alguacil’s gun was glowing slightly, or at least I thought it was. Something about it screamed the same way Chifundo’s spiritual visits did.

Chifundo took in a very deep breath, “No one is denying that this Raider Radio needs to be destroyed, but that which you suggest should never be employed.”

Alguacil dropped it at that. His gun still glowed and I could sense his frustration, but there was simply nothing to discuss. I didn’t have the materials to make another bomb and even if I did; I wouldn’t do it. Those weapons are simply something that no one should have the power to use.

I thought to myself while Soot and I worked on the tank, to make sure it was in top shape and nothing had rattled loose or gotten damaged from our ride the previous day. The crystalline treads and road wheels were holding up extremely well and showed little wear or tear. Soot, Scopola Mina, and Quick Stitch were working with me. Nyota, Chifundo, Alguacil, and Snuggles were cleaning up the campsite and making sure we left nothing behind. While waiting for everyone, Bodda Pett was playing around my seat inside the tank.

“So what is the best route ya think, Sunrise?” Scopola Mina held up a map and a rag to wipe my hooves on. I pointed at the railway tracks in response.

“Follow the railway to the South Shore, right through that tunnel,” I said, pointing at some mountains that we could barely make out if we looked at the horizon.

Scopola cleared her throat to make sure my attention would not be diverted, “Do we know if that tunnel is functional?”

I shrugged at her, “We are going to find out.” I was rather tired still, something about the way I had slept combined with Nyota and the Spritebot had not fully rested me this morning.

“And what exactly are we gonna do about Raider Radio?” Scopola Mina pushed as she made a mark on the old worn map with the words, ‘Raider Radio’ printed next to it.

“Alguacil wants us to take it out, but we need to get Soot settled and out of harm’s way.” I took a breath and looked up at Soot, who was poking her head out of the top of the turret. “Unless Soot wants to risk the tank and risk everything going after it right now.”

Soot growled and shook her head, “No, we’re going home. I’m going to South Shore, you already agreed to this. No mud pony takes backsies.”

I sighed and shook my head, “First of all, do not refer to us as mud ponies. That is insulting and degrading of yourself.” I scolded her like a mother scolding a foal for saying something derogatory towards zebras. “Second, I was asking if you wanted to help us go there first or not. Now which would you rather do first?”

Soot cleared her throat and grimaced at me, “Look we can go fight the good fight after this is all said and done. Right now, I want what is mine by birthright.”

I turned to her and grimaced back at her, “Are we fighting the good fight, getting what is supposed to be yours?”

“Says the mare who killed most of my team.” I felt a real sting on that one and growled up at Soot.

“That was an incredibly low blow and you know it; not even low, just outright unfair; when your team fired on us first and then refused to talk it out.” I got up to full height and I was ready to box Soot’s ears in at that comment.

“So is bringing my birthright into question.”

Nyota stepped between us before the argument could escalate further. Nyota looked up at Soot, “For being such a genius, you left them with strict orders to shoot anypony who mentioned the word tank and expected that to work out.”

Soot swelled up to full height, “Just because my plan was fool proof doesn’t make it genius proof. I didn’t expect anypony to come looking for the tank. How could anypony know about it, much less know how to fix it! Aside for maybe some Enclave patrol or raiders who would have no interest in it!”

Nyota cleared his throat, “You are not entirely without blame for their deaths or them shooting at us.”

“I’m a kid!” Soot acted all hurt now and jumped down from the tank to get into Nyota’s face.

Nyota, for his part, remained completely calm and held up his hoof, “You are also their leader and take responsibility for their actions. Just like Sunrise is our leader and took responsibility for ours and her own.”

“I am attempting to take responsibility for these actions, but I could hear them throw prices at you. They are mercenary at heart, you could have bought them off.” Soot looked indignant and was searching for some way to push the blame back onto Nyota, and therefore me. Her desperately defensive expression was almost laughable but it made me feel sorry for her instead.

I go through this every time we do something. I second guess myself, and hope I could find a better way next time. She’s doing it too? Maybe she isn’t a terrible leader. I stepped between them to stop the argument and make a point. “The price they offered was 10,000 caps. Which no pony—save for The Curator—I have ever met has that amount of caps. There was no buying them off that way.”

I turned to Nyota and shoved a hoof in Soot’s mouth before she could speak, “However, even if the price they offered was outrageous, we must still take responsibility for our actions.” I pushed the two of them apart gently and removed my hoof from Soot’s mouth. “Then we have to discover how we may do better after those actions.”

That was enough to satisfy them both. Once we had finished our clean up and maintenance, I got into the turret compartment and curled around Nyota’s leg. The start of the trip started with a nap for me, against Nyota with little Bodda Pett nestled onto my back. I didn’t wake up until after the tunnel when someone was yelling at us.

“The End is Neigh!” Came a loud call from outside the tank. We had stopped moving and I was awake now, as I heard a bang on the tank.

“Sunrise, come on, we’ve got some crazies you may wanna talk into getting out of the way.” I was slow to awaken, Nyota putting a thermos in my hoof to help wake me back up. I had no idea how long I had been asleep till I looked at my PipBuck time; it flashed 10:33.

Wait, is that AM or PM?

“It’s a 24 hour clock silly! It would say 20:33 if it were PM. It’s still morning, you actually woke up before Noon from one of your morning naps. It’s a miracle or a curse and we’re about to find out which!” Pink was far too incredibly enthusiastic for my just getting out of bed feeling.

Can we tone your enthusiasm down by three notches? I grumbled and Nyota leaned down.“What was that, Sunny?”

I blushed, realizing I had mumbled that out loud while sipping the coffee and crawling from the turret compartment down into the co-driver seat. Bodda Pett was hopping his way to follow me all the way down there. “Love, are you okay?” Nyota asked.

I nodded as I sipped the coffee. “Yeah, just had an oddly dreamless sleep.” I replied and opened my hatch to pop my head out. I sipped on my Thermos. The sudden smell of fresh, slightly irradiated Wasteland air hit me first and then my eye adjusted to the light and my ears to the sudden lack of claustrophobia.

Before me was a group of ragged ponies, they were holding signs with things like ‘The End of Neigh’ and ‘The Deluge of Fire is coming!’ written crudely on them, and they misspelled Deluge as Delooge. I cleared my throat over the small throng that was surrounding us and blocking our way forward. “May I help you?”

One of them piped up, “HEY! Can you give me pants for the coming apocalypse?” I was so very confused and had no idea where to go with this one.

Nyota popped out and threw him a mechanic’s jumpsuit. “There! Now can you move out of our way so we can, OH BUCK ME! Man the guns!” I saw the series of red pips on my PipBuck and in the distance flying towards us were giant mosquitoes. These massive creatures were the size of me! Thin as rails and with blood sucking needles for faces that stretched further than my hoof could reach away from my body.

“What in Tartarus are those?” I called out, looking at them in disbelief as my E.F.S. popped up with a dozen or more small red dots now overlapping the gray ones around the tank.

Scopola popped out of the turret, “Everyone clear out! Y’all don’t wanna get squashed by tank treads.” She called into the intercom, “Quick Stitch, hard right! Sunrise, suppressive fire!” Her horn lit up and the heavy machine gun, The Maud Deuce, on the turret whirled around. The thump thump thump rocked the very air itself around us as she poured fire in the direction of the creatures. I hit S.A.T.S. to try to get an ID on these things.

My PipBuck registered the targets as “Bloodwings'' and the pony who had taken the mechanic’s overalls as “Ironic Prophet.” I felt a sudden rush as the treads started to grind and ponies scattered. I fell back from propping myself up and slammed into my seat. My eye focused as the roar of the engine and Maud Deuce fire rippled through my ears. Both shook my body like a furious, ancient power awakening, full of rage. It was all so exhilarating.

Daddy’s Halo was truly a beast constrained, and now the leash was cut. Quick Stitch jerked us to a stop as the turret and my coaxial gun were brought to bear. I looked through the sight and fired off a burst from the medium .30 cal. It rippled through twenty rounds in only a few seconds, tearing a bloodwing in half. The spray sent a volley of blood and insect parts flying like a burst balloon. Chifundo yelled over our intercom, “Nyota, high explosive, targets are elusive!”

Nyota strained and grunted loud enough that we heard it over the dual MGs suppressing the swarm of insects closing with us. The main gun’s side mounted Maud Deuce joined in a counter rhyme to the one Scopola was sending fire from. Both of them made a continuous set of dang dang dang as casing fell into the turret compartment and tings of brass joined the chorus.

“Quick Stitch, reverse, half-power.” Scopola called over the intercom as I heard over all this racket the grinding of metal on metal then the sound of that sent a chill down my spine. Nyota had closed the breach with the fresh and ready shell.

“Ammo up!” Nyota called out, just as the handbook had instructed him to do. Chifundo did not respond for a few moments. His response however, was explosive.

The space around us froze, not because of S.A.T.S. but because my body was experiencing a moment in time. The breach ignited with fire that cast in every direction. Nyota was pulling Soot clear as it moved backwards from the recoil, ejecting the spent shell. In front of us, a fireball cast over the entire tank as all our machine guns went silent.

You simply could not hold the trigger down through the sudden shuddering that rampaged across the tank. The shockwave of the cannon going off, made me open my mouth off the firing bit. I watched in slow motion as a white hot round sailed through the air at the ground under the bloodwings. One moment they were there, a dozen or more massive insects intent on sucking all the blood from our flesh in just a few seconds. The next, ash and a rain of charred insect parts as dust and fire shattered the ground and everything around it. A second shockwave coursed through the air, barely 60 meters away from the tank. It sounded like a round ricocheting off our hull with the dull thud the shockwave made against us.

Scopola Mina called into the intercom screaming repeatedly, “Cease Fire! Y’all Cease! Stop Shootin’! Cease Fire!” We all held ourselves as we waited for the dust to clear. I kept myself staring down the sight of my machine gun, ready for the slightest bit of movement. Two revolver shots rang out and I saw the bullet streaking through the air as I saw Bloodwing legs and wings kick up out of the settling dust.

A long bloodwing stumbled through the air before crashing into the ground. Alguacil’s radio squawked, “Got ‘em all now. Y’all done some nice shootin’.” Alguacil landed next to us. I popped my hatch and looked around again.

The doomsayer ponies were fleeing and well outside the range of our ability to shout for them now. I marvelled at our work. In just a few blistering seconds, we had demolished two dozen bloodwings with a furious power of an ancient machine awakened and delivering a focused rage that no one had experienced in over one hundred and eighty years.

Soot was the first to speak after the burst of fiery wrath. “Holy Celestia’s Glorious, Cake-Fat Ass, it worked! Your stupid mu… earth pony magic worked! I can’t believe this!” She hooted and it echoed off the tank walls before Nyota grabbed her mouth and silenced her.

“Hey! It echoes in here, use the intercom and calm your voice.” He snarled at her with his intercom on. Soot cowered away just a little bit while Nyota released her lips to let her speak again. “Scopola Mina, are we clear?”

Scopola popped her hatch again and poked her head out. Alguacil had landed on the hull while we were all still shaking from the cannon firing. The scent of grease, gunpowder, cordite, and smoke rolled over us as the fresh air from outside now fought to get inside.

There was a muffled discussion outside between the two of them; I couldn’t hear them from my position in the co-driver seat. I was checking my machine gun belt and making sure nothing had come loose from it after all the rattling. It looks intact, the gun worked like it was supposed to. I wonder if it fired straight or if it was off? I should have checked these things after the manticore attack.

“I wonder if Nyota would wanna mate with you inside of here now.” I glared at Pink, and if looks could cut, I would have sliced her leg clean off. She covered her mouth and ducked down behind sandbags in my vision to avoid my wrath.

Chifundo let out a long sigh, “This great weapon of war, certainly lives up to the lore.” We all looked at Chifundo for a moment and then let out a sigh of relief. He was right, Soot and I had rebuilt a wreck into a fully functional tank without an assembly line. This machine was built by hoof and it felt like a pinnacle of engineering.

Our camp that night was close to South Shore. We wanted to wait until morning to head in so we would have more daylight and more time to make sure everything was resolved to Soot’s satisfaction. I saw another spritebot in the distance. Alguacil drew his gun and I pushed his talon down shaking my head, “No, it is friendly; at least mostly friendly.” I shrugged and we resumed pitching our tents.

Nyota and I got a very long nice night together, to say the least.

We approached South Shore. This wasn’t some small town or walled village like Silver Fang. This wasn’t a single built up building like the multi-story multi-basement The Roof. This was a sizable city. The walls were made of some white concrete substance and easily exceeded three meters high. The gates showed gearing and hydraulics, they were closed. There were no traders coming and going.

As we crested the hill to see this sprawl of buildings cut directly into the side of a mountain Soot started shouting, “There it is!” Nyota had to clamp her mouth to calm her down and stop our ears from ringing. The little filly was loud to say the least; this was the loudest she had ever been. We pulled up to the walls and I popped my hatch to get out and try to talk to the guards.

“Freeze! Don’t move you bunch of wastelanders!” Suddenly the tank’s speaker kicked on, “I am Soot, daughter of Heir of Cinder daughter of Anthracite scion of Supercritical Manifold.”

I could hear Nyota and Scopola trying to get the speaker from her in the background. All till I heard the turret cannon click. I raised an eyebrow as Soot was levitated out of the tank wrapped in Scopola Mina’s powerful telekinesis spell. “Why would you keep it unloaded? That makes no sense!”

I cleared my throat, “Did you just try to fire the main gun? You know it is unloaded while we travel so it does not get decalibration or accidentally discharge because Chifundo falls over and hits the pedal." I slid out of the tank and slowly approached the gate. I could see the guards poking out of various access ports, they had gauss weapons. Their entire guard force was armed with gauss weapons.

Did they not realize there was an apocalypse. I thought to myself, also noting that all the guards were unicorns. Every single one of them. This was the thing that really put me on edge. Wait, is that why Soot is like this? What is going on here? The questions coursed through me rapidly as I tried to understand the gravity of this situation.

My PipBuck’s background radiation dropped significantly. Normally The Wasteland emitted a little radiation, not enough to worry about even after long term exposure. But here, it was pre-war level. “I don’t think their shields failed, this cannot be good! This is like that one time I thought some clowns I ordered had arrived and we got invaded by some crazy guy called The Storm King.”

I paused for a bit and looked at Pink, That… didn’t happen. What are you talking about?

Pink got really quiet and shrugged, “Whoopsie! Wrong reality!” I looked very confused at Pink till we were interrupted by a guard calling out to me.

“What do you want? Why have you brought that… that... thing here?” I couldn’t tell where the voice was coming from. It was a mare, a very high and mighty type of mare.

Well they haven’t blasted us yet. I turned to the tank and shrugged, “It is a tank, we ride around in it for protection and extra firepower.”

“Not the tank you dolt! Stupid mud pony, why have you brought my disgraced granddaughter here? She was disinherited the moment she was born!”

Soot struggled in Scopola Mina’s grasp, “You’re a liar! My mother never did that!” She was almost foaming at the mouth. “You lot were supposed to help me get my birthright back! Fight them and help me!”

I stood on my rear legs and held up a hoof towards the city and towards Soot to stop the argument. “Soot, that is not our way. We will talk this out, we will be better than violence.”

There was silence for several moments. I looked nervously at all the gauss weapons pointed at me, wondering how many it would take to penetrate my armor or which one would hit me in the head since I was still wearing the cloth and leather tank helmet instead of my combat one. I cleared my throat, “I am asking for the rite of parley, honored since the time before The Twin Sisters; I just want to talk.” I had hoped they would honor the right of parley I had read about in the officer handbook. At the very least, they seemed pre-war and highly developed, this might be easier to negotiate if we all have the same Old World ideas.

“Sunrise, I don’t think they are gonna be as nice as you think they are.” Pink reminded me while I waited to see what would happen. The gauss weapons lowered and there was an announcement back at us after another minute.

“Alright, mud pony. You disarm, then we will allow you and only you to enter to talk this over.” I let out a sigh of relief. I walked back to the tank as Nyota popped the hatch.

“Sunrise, you know this is a trap, right?” I paused and looked at him, flabbergasted. Nyota was staring at me from his loader’s hatch as I placed my shotgun next to Quick Stitch’s hatch. Quick Stitch popped out and started levitating my weapons into the hull.

“You really think civilized ponies would violate a parley? We haven’t actually even had raider ones do that yet.” I commented remembering that at The Roof, Silver Fang, Upsville, and even Stable Phi; they had been willing to talk to us if it meant no violence. Why would this place be any different? To violate parley would be to end any chance of any talk ever again or in Alguacil’s mind, they are raiders.

Quick Stitch looked up at the walls and took a long look around, he turned to Nyota. They both nodded to each other, “We’ve heard some stories.” Quick Stitch started to say.

I nervously looked between my friends, “Stories?” I was removing my next set of weapons, Celestia’s Hammer, Newb Tube, and my ready explosives bandoleer.

Nyota nodded, “Couriers don’t come here. We are banned from it. Merchant caravans either. Jackal’s cyberclaw is from this place but he did not consent to all the stuff they did to him in the process. He won’t talk about what all they did to him either.” I thought about the dragon, how he had been elusive about where he got his cybernetics.

I turned back to this place and tucked my sock in tight. “Should I keep my backup pistols and tail-flail hidden, then?”

Soot was growling at the walls. “We should be blowing them into dust! We have this tank and all your explosives, I demand you use them.” Nyota bapped her on the head to make Soot shut up.

“You asked us to help you, you don’t get to decide how we provide that help! Now shut up, the adults are talking.” Soot turned to growl at Nyota only for him to raise his hoof to smack her again.

I cleared my throat and everyone turned to me. Nyota got completely out of the tank to walk up to me and Chifundo poked his way out. Chifundo was looking at me judgingly. He was expecting something from me, Alguacil landed on the engine deck and looked over the turret. All eyes were on me. They are expecting you to do something, right. I can’t let The Wasteland change who I am, nor how we do things.

I cleared my throat, “Look, we always give them a second chance. The raiders who shoot at us get a second chance mid battle. The Goddess with a Gun, Breakfast Blend, she got another chance. Coffee Stain, Sparrow, Hot Cross Buns, Nugget, Mountain and The T’Doshians; we gave all of them more than a simple first impression. We have to do that here. We have to know with a clear conscience that if this comes to violence; we cannot be the ones who start it and we must have given them multiple chances to do better. Alright? I am going in to talk to them.”

I checked my pistol and pretended to put in on the tank, “Nyota, slip my pistols into their holsters and cover them under my packs where the guards will not see; just in case. If I do not report within five minutes or my radio stops transmissitting, get out of here.” Everyone looked at me, shocked.

“If I am captured, it would be easier if you caught them off guard. If they resort to violence you will be vulnerable here not moving.” I turned on my radio and taped the talk button down. Then I slid it into a pocket on the side of my pack. It would be somewhere that wouldn’t get bothered by me moving and you could still hear anything going on. “Just do not try to talk to me unless it is an emergency.”

Nyota had carefully slipped my pistols back into their holsters, then he had pulled my armored socks around them. It was a very uncomfortable position and the armor plating bulged out a little bit but hopefully no one would notice and assume the modifications were supposed to look that way. “Anything else, love? Are you really sure about this?” Nyota leaned in and kissed my lips before I could respond.

My heart fluttered, my body warmed. I could feel something deep inside me; something screaming that this was a truly special moment. I held the kiss as long as I could. We released it and he smiled at me as we both reluctantly pulled away. “I am sure. Look worst case you can treat me as the princess in a castle and you, the brave knight rescuing her from the dragon.” I teased him with a smile as my hoof rested upon the scars on his chest. Those wonderful scars that told me it was Nyota when I was snuggled up to him.

His scars had left impressions on my cheek and forehead from laying on them all night. Before I smelled his sandalwood, before I opened my eyes to see his stripes; I knew I was close to him by feeling those scars.

“Nyota,” I looked up to see a tear in his uncovered eye. He was genuinely worried and what I had said apparently I had not helped at all. “You know that if I just go to fight them immediately or do not go in there to talk to them, neither of us would be satisfied. Our condition to Soot was to help her rebuild, and help her settle this.” I rubbed a hoof up and down his chest as I smiled at him. “I will take all the precautions I can. I will fight tooth and nail to get out if it comes to that.”

I gave him a deep hug that didn’t last long as we were interrupted by Alguacil clearing his throat. “Listen ‘ere. The regulators ain’t allowed in this place; anyone who don’t let us in, I ain’t gonna trust. So we’re gonna get ready to come in there guns blazin’ if you drop out.”

I nodded to him, “I will make sure it does not come to that.” I turned to Quick Stitch and smirked at him, “In the interest of fairness and cool-headedness, you are in charge while I am gone.” Everyone looked at me like I had lost my mind. “What? He has the coolest head and will keep you all alive first and foremost.” Quick Stitch was very confused for a bit, then gave me a nod.

“I’ll make sure no one dies, friend or foe.” He replied and turned to check his own pack for medical supplies. “I got enough healing potions and bandages here for a full platoon.” I reached into my pack and put another bundle of healing supplies up there. I handed him my tanker helmet and pulled out the much better armored one. I put on my ballistic goggles first and then the helmet as well as its throat cover and mouth piece, though I left the mouth guard in the open position and not covering my face yet.

“Just in case, I will keep three magic bandages and healing potions for myself. I will see you all in a few moments.” I turned my head as the mighty gates groaned and slowly pulled themselves open. The massive hydraulics working to slide them open like a normal door that was nearly two and a half meters tall and six meters wide. The double doors stopped as a unicorn in a lab coat smoking a long cigarette walked out with a half dozen guards, all of them wearing T-45b class power armor. The big suits were re-engineered to accommodate unicorn horns on each of the massive hunks of metal. My own armor might have been slightly thicker or better built since it was made from more advanced materials than steel, but it did not enhance my strength or deflect rounds nearly as well as these steel behemoths.

Imagine for a moment, if you took a tank and disassembled said tank. Then, you turned around and put a bunch of hydraulics onto a frame and reassembled the tank over that frame. Lastly you put a bunch of tank-class weapons like multi-missile launchers, machine guns, rapid fire grenade launchers, and even recoilless rifle cannons as battle saddle style mountings. All of this powered by spark batteries as big as the ones the trailers used back in the quarry we woke up in. That is what I was dealing with looking down the barrels of.

I knew my pistols would be useless, I had emptied my former bullet case turned armored explosives bag, but my tail flail might break one of the actuators and slow them down if it hit it right. I made a mental note that if it came to that, I would use S.A.T.S. I smirked. It’ll be fine, this is just a conversation and they are being cautious. I mean, we do have a reputation for blasting apart ponies who oppose us. I kissed Nyota one last time, then turned to Chifundo. “Any words of wisdom?”

Chifundo shook his head, “Only that I sense something about them and you, Sunrise this is reeking of bad juju.” A chill ran down my spine and rippled through my body when he said that. I didn’t have time to dwell on it and turned to head inside.

Scopola called out, “Hey, Sunrise! When ya get back we should enjoy some coffee together.” I smirked at that.

I hope you mean the non-filly scout kind of coffee. Pink went quiet as we crossed the threshold to South Shore. I sensed a change here, I saw several glyphs light up next to the doors and on the ground.

“Are you carrying some zebra shaman magic with you!?” The unicorn in the lab coat wheeled on me and glared at me.

“No, not that I know of. Look, it is just a spirit friend who hangs around, nothing more,” I said. She growled at me and the power armored guards started checking my body. They missed my weapons completely, as well as my live radio.

“Nothing to report ma’am, at least nothing that would not be on a disarmed wastelander.” I let out a sigh of relief as the unicorn sneered at me. They all turned towards me, taking another glance over my armored hide and shrugging.

“Right, let’s get this over with.” We walked through the city, made of that stark white concrete. It didn’t feel right to me. Some instinct within me told me this concrete was not only unnatural but also just wrong. I tapped my hoof against it and I saw a piece of it crack, not a lot just ever so slightly.

“HEY! No mud pony magic against the pearlcrete!” I turned my head to the artificially broadcast voice. It was one of the power armored guards. I raised an eyebrow trying to figure out what this was.

“Pearlcrete? What?” The guard just snuffed at me and shook his head.

The speaker on his helmet crackled and made his voice sound like it was coming over a primitive radio. “There is a reason why you stupid mud ponies stay down in the dirt. Now shut up and keep moving.” He shoved me and then discovered just how heavy my armor was. His power armored hoof did not manage to move me with that light shove. “Wait… what? How heavy is that armor?” He pushed again and the plating barely noticed, I was having some trouble resisting but my leg plates were helping me stand my ground.

“Look you little runt, either move or else.” I gave him a grimace and prepared myself to move.

“Hey now, let’s treat our guest properly. No shoving her and no talking down to her. She is just here to talk after all, right?” The unicorn in the lab coat commented and walked between me and the power armored guard. She was facing him and I swore she winked.

Without Pink’s presence I was already unnerved, much less that they made me put away all my weapons before I came in here. Now this? Something is up, I can sense it, but I can’t put my hoof on it. What are these ponies getting at?

The power armored unicorn snorted and turned his head away. The lab coated unicorn turned to me, “I am sorry, our guards are not used to allowing any guests inside. We also aren’t used to letting mud ponies roam around unchecked. I am Anthracite, Soot’s grandmother. Come along, we will discuss an amicable solution to this conflict.” I nodded, though I had to admit something about the way Anthracite talked unnerved me. I felt a chill, the same chill when Chifundo said bad juju. I went with them. Everything was so clean inside here, especially compared to the other wasteland towns we had been to.

I saw a few earth ponies using brooms and mops on the street but they were under watch from guards, although these guards were in standard combat armor; they did all have gauss weaponry. This was the particularly unnerving part about it, how many of them had gauss weapons. They led me into a building, armored doors made of heavy reinforced steel. With a place like this, where is the stubbornite or titanium alloy? All I see is this pearlcrete stuff and steel. Wait? Where is the normal concrete? They have earth ponies, shouldn’t they be able to make concrete? What is going on here?

We entered into a room that was small, barely two meters by two meters. Something else about this was incredibly unnerving. There was an obvious one way mirror to my right, a steel table, and two steel chairs. An interrogation room? To negotiate with me? This doesn’t make any sense.

“Ma’am, we’ve got a—” Anthracite held up her hoof and shook her head.

“Whatever it is can wait, at least till I’m done with Sunrise here.” There was something in her voice that I could only call malice. I had dealt with her type before and now I felt like I was in over my head.

Anthracite motioned to a chair and turned to her guards, “You lot stay outside, we won’t need you. Sunrise, please take a seat.”

I got a much better look at Anthracite inside here. The lights were brighter and now she was facing me directly. She was ancient, her face wrinkled heavily when her horn wasn’t lit to maintain the spell over it. Her lab coat was stained in several places and her eyes looked somewhat like an off kilter pony. It was like someone who had lost part of her sanity, but not all of it; just enough they were no longer all there anymore.

I walked in slowly and took a seat. This is when our suspicions would all be confirmed very quickly. “Now listen here you little upstart. Soot was born a mud pony, none of your righteousness or any of your old-world values mean a damn thing to me because you’re also a stupid dirt horse. Soot lost all right to this place the moment she was born. Period. Now you and your friends are gonna leave and never come back. Well, your friends are, you aren’t going anywhere.”

I was throttled in my seat and staggered back stunned, Anthracite slammed her hooves onto the table before I could respond. “You’ve got a bounty on your head, courtesy of the Enclave, over one million caps worth of tech if we want it. The bounty does require you to be alive through, so here's the deal, you surrender, or else.”

I gritted my teeth, I reached for my radio and found it was emitting low static, like it was jammed or blocked. “Calling your friends in that stupid tank? Yeah you’ve been jammed since you came in here.”

It was my turn to smirk, Well at least they know something is up and they are safe by now.

“Either surrender yourself or we glass the tank! Don’t be a stupid, uncooperative mud pony!” She threw a pair of hoof cuffs onto the table. “Put these on, or else.”

I laughed at her; I couldn’t help myself. I knew what the guard was going to tell her before we came into this room now. I wished I had Pink to help me out but at the moment I had nothing. I tried noting if there was a trash can or something I had seen on the way in to hide for a bit. Maybe there is a vent or something I can fit into.

Anthracite was not amused, “Glass the tank! Right now! Everything you have, something will punch through its armor and they’ll be dead.” She shouted at the one way mirror. When I wasn’t phased by this she turned to me with a frustrated growl.

An intercom chirped to life, “Ma’am that is what I was trying to say, the tank ran off about the time we got inside here. We don’t know why or how she got a signal out.”

I held up the radio and pointed at the tape on it, “I taped this together so my friends could hear, the moment they could not hear us; they left to make a plan. My job is to survive.” I leapt forward, regretting we had agreed to their terms now. I gave you a chance, now how do I threaten you without killing you? As I got a hold of her, she fought like a manticore to throw me off. My armor’s extra weight, weight I was used to, held her in place as I got a foreleg around her throat. I pulled out my father’s pistol from its hiding spot. My tail put the weapon against her head. Oh good. I might not be able to hear you, Pink, but good to know you’re still here.

“Now listen up, either you let me out of here, no resistance, or I blow your horn clean off.” Anthracite growled at me. I held her tight as the door burst open and several guards piled in. One of them had a gauss rifle, the rest were armed with what appeared to be dart guns. None of them were power armored types, but they were all unicorns with horns glowing. I felt several blasts of magic impact into me. My eyes got heavy and I turned Anthracite by throwing my weight, putting her between me and anymore blasts. They need me alive, those were shots of anesthesia spells. My body felt heavy, hard to move, and I grimaced, trying to stay away as my eyes got halfway closed. My tail shoved my gun into my mouth and then hit my only exposed spot, the side of my neck, with a needle and shot it into me.

“Sunrise! I can barely control the tail! There, it’s the adrenaline shot Scopola made! You only have the one so once it wears off, it’s gone! Now move!” My ears ached at her yelling. Suddenly, my heart was racing. My strength returned and then some. My entire body went into overdrive as my insides heated up and my eyes snapped open. I pressed the gun into Anthracite’s head.

“Drop your weapons or she is gonna be a hornless unicorn real fast!” I grumbled over the mouth trigger. The guards hesitated then looked at Anthracite then back to me. “None of your darts can penetrate my armor, and you, with the gauss rifle? You will get one shot. Think you can hit me and not her?” Anthracite was struggling, but against the adrenaline shot giving me extra strength and my heavy plating, she wasn’t able to move. “You light up your horn and I will blast it right off!” I screamed into her ear, unable to control my volume.

Apparently she was going to call my bluff. Her horn lit up with yellow energy that matched her blonde mane and stood out against her gray coat. I pulled the trigger. Her horn did not break; the spell died midway through, but it did not break. I kept pulling the trigger, over and over and over again. Anthracite’s horn cracked and pieces flaked off it but somehow it did not break.

“Damn you… fuck that hurts!” My pistol clicked on the ninth trigger pull, all seven in the magazine and one in the chamber, emptied. My reloads were in my saddlebags, no way I could get to them right now. I looked and searched the room as Anthracite passed out in my hoof, I could barely hold up her weight to keep her as a shield. I noticed the two darts in her side now, apparently meant for me. In the excitement they had tried and failed to hit my face or neck. They had also bounced a bunch off my flanks.

The unicorns were starting to circle me, I did not know how long my adrenaline shot would last. I had to make a move or they would find a weak point and knock me out. I saw the gauss rifle pony had several grenades on his side. It’s that or capture and I’m not going up to the Enclave! I rushed forward, throwing Anthracite into their ranks as hard as I could. Three guards rushed to catch her, leaving one shooting tranq darts at me that bounced harmlessly off my chestplate. I tossed my gun to my tail and raised my mouth piece as the gauss rifle fired, I felt it glance off my left shoulder. Damn PipBuck! It’s a bullet magnet! I stumbled and recovered just as Nyota had shown me, barreling right into him, his magic dropping the rifle the moment I slammed him against the wall. I pulled the pin on two of his grenades and while he was stunned threw him at his one friend who was pelting me with darts.

“Fire in the hole!” I shouted and shoved my way out of the door back into the hallway. I darted down the hall as the explosions rumbled from behind the door. I noticed immediately the trash can I thought might be there was gone, left was a bunch of papers scattered on the floor. Okay not gonna work!

I scrambled around the corner as alarms klaxons were going off. The vents were armored and on the ceiling, out of my reach. I slammed against the next door and discovered it locked tight. Not good! I need to get out of here! I scrambled to the next door and the next, towards where we had come in. I saw two guards galloping towards me along with another unicorn stallion in a lab coat.

“There she is! Neutralize her!” He spoke as bolts of anesthesia raced towards me. They missed, hitting the wall behind me. The blue magical orbs dissipated against the wall with loud thuds; thuds that shouldn’t have happened against concrete.

Wait! I cracked that earlier by striking it like I strike metal! I ran back around the corner and slammed my hooves into the wall as hard as I could. I pushed all the earth pony magic I had and hoped it would give. The wall cracked but did not shatter. Whatever this stuff is, earth ponies didn’t make it, but they tried to make a cheap imitation. Without earth pony magic, it breaks! I heard the guards getting closer and ran blindly into the facility, away from where the interrogation room had been.

Okay, definitely worst case scenario. Pink, some help would be appreciated right now! I was searching for her presence, but that was the most unnerving part: I couldn’t find her still. I looked up as the ceiling opened up, lower down was some sort of speaker attached to a turret. There was a camera next to it aimed towards me. Then the speaker turned on and a deep rumbling shook the very floor I was standing on.

I could see a shockwave coming at me, right in front of the speaker. It was moving so fast I barely registered it before I was sent flying into the wall. My body felt like every bone in it had been broken by the impact. My ears rang like I was on an explosives range for hours. I slid down the wall to the floor, twitching. Blackness engulfed the edge of my vision as I tried to stagger up, but my legs wouldn’t move. My body felt heavy again, heavier than before. My eyes were getting hard to hold open. No… I can’t… Darkness consumed my vision and my thoughts.

An annoying beeping echoed in my head. My brain recognized it as a heart monitor. Huh? What? Where am I? I slowly came to and my stomach ached. There was a pegasus standing over me. Her coat was brown in color, and her mane was hidden under her hat. I could only tell she was a nurse because of the pink butterflies on the hat and her blue hospital scrubs. I saw an IV punched into my foreleg, and I twitched and pulled away, but the nurse grabbed onto my foreleg with the IV.

“Whoa, calm down there. Your surgery went completely fine, glad to see you’re awake. We weren’t sure you would survive the accelerated pregnancy and c-section combined with your other injuries, but we did not have a lot of choice. It took us forever to figure out how to get you out of your armor; nothing we had could actually cut through the materials without possibly hurting you more.”

I suddenly threw all my weight into her and toppled the gurney I was on to the floor while staggering her back. No this isn’t right, what is she talking about!? I threw all my strength towards her, trying to pin her to the wall and fight like Nyota had taught me.

“What are you talking about? Where am I? What is going on?” I demanded as the pegasus looked on in shock and horror. Her nose was bleeding and her wing was trapped as an uncomfortable angle against the wall. I could take in my surroundings now. I was standing upon metal tiles, surrounded by steel bulkheads. The room I was in had several other hospital beds. I was reacting out of instinct, trying to scramble together what was going on and where I was. A large sign next to the door said E.S.S. Vulture and under it was a placard that said “Infirmary”.

“Orderlies! HELP! She’s gone crazy!” The pegasus screamed and I turned around to see that those other beds did in fact have several nurses, stallions and mares, as well as two individuals dressed in doctor’s coats. One of them pulled a needle and they started to approach me.

No time for questions! I’ll figure this all out later! I reached over to the bulkhead door and spun the handle to open it as they closed in on me. It worked once! Bound to work now! I threw the pegasus mare towards them to distract them while I got the bulkhead open and scrambled into the hallway. Out of the room was a lined hallway with several reinforcing archways overhead and dozens of rivets, bolts, and welds holding it together. The room lurched as something disturbed the building—no, the ship. I’m on a ship!

I scrambled forward and just started running while hearing shouting from behind me. I turned the corner and ran smack into someone’s chest. I was the one who was knocked to the floor, and all my momentum stopped cold. I looked up as a very familiar voice spoke to me, “Oh, are you alright, dear? Should you not still be in bed?” I hesitated and my blood ran cold, cold as ice. I slowly looked up. This mare had a purple coat. She was wearing Stable 43 jumpsuit barding with Stable-Tec colors. I saw the sharp jawline and I did not need to see any further.

“M...Ma...Mom?” I was looking eye to eye with my mother. She’s helping them capture me? She tried to kill my friends? She...she...WHAT!? My mind was fracturing, whatever that thing was from before was screaming at me. I felt like I did back in Silver Fang when the Agent was revealed to be alive. This made no sense!

“Yes, Sunrise. Glad you are safe. Hopefully everything is alright, your children will be happy to see their mother. The little foals have been whining for hours.” Every word she said made less and less sense. I suddenly felt the urge to flee, the urge to run. I turned around and bolted down the hallway as fast as I could go! “Sunrise, stop this instant! We have work to do, and you pushing yourself—” She was cut off as I bolted down the hallway back where I came. I saw the orderlies and doctor coming towards me and grabbed onto a gurney in the hallway to hurl it at them.

The orderlies opened their wings to dodge the rolling gurney, but I was galloping behind it at full speed. I pivoted hard and turned around to do a full buck, knocking the rolling gurney up into the air at them. I caught all of them by the hooves as they were rushing forward. They all fell and slammed into the floor, face and chest first. The group of the three of them fell in a pile on top of each other, stunned for the moment. Thank you, Nyota. I need to run, now! Gotta find a way to call for help!

I jumped over the pile of orderlies and kept going. I saw a door labeled “Janitorial”. I ran into it and closed the door, and slammed a couple of broom handles through the bulkhead handle as I twisted it closed so no one could open it.

Okay, I have to think, I have to act. What did she mean about my children? My abdomen ached from all the effort. I placed a hoof against it and was reminded of the bandages. I peeled them back. I had to know what was under them. I winced in pain trying to get them off. I was bleeding underneath, I had torn some stitches. Across my stomach, the old slight scar that Doc Hacksaw talked about after my near death experience; it was covered in stitches like someone had cut me open.

What!? What did they do to me? Did they take my children? Oh goddesses, no! Not again, I… I…

“Get it together, Sunrise! You’re in enemy hands and your mother is with them! Now figure this out and get out of here!” I stared in horror at my stitches, wondering what they had done to me. My mind was quickly unraveling, I could feel the thing in my mind coming forward and Pink suddenly desperately fighting to keep it under control.

All of this was shattered by my mother’s voice and a pounding on the metal door. “Sunrise, sweetie. Open up for mommy, we have quite a lot to talk about if you are going to be helpful. You really should not have caused all the chaos you did, but I understand, you are very scared. Come on out, we will talk all of this over.” The air hung with a pause that made me wish I could still hear tiny heartbeats inside me.

I didn’t move. I couldn’t make myself act. I couldn’t form a coherent thought. My body was twitching, trembling, and my heart was pounding in my ears. “Sunrise, come out right this instant, young lady! You are not making a very good impression on your potential mates!”

My what!? What did she mean by mates? I already had a… did she kill Nyota, too?! I started to hyperventilate; panting as I tried to find the air to breath. My vision edges started to black out as my heart pounded in my skull.

Pink slapped me back to reality.“There are no vents in here! I don’t know what your mom is planning but if you want to see your children, open that door already!” I gasped at the shock, my body still shaking as, one by one, I removed the broom sticks from the handle and spun it to open. My mother walked in with a very stern look across her face.

“Right, I’m not sure what is going on, here, but mommy will take care of you, Sunrise.” I felt the prick on my foreleg as a needle went in. Blackness was quickly surging into my eyes as I looked at my mother. Feelings of betrayal and confusion were surging as my final thoughts before I was unconscious again.

I woke up, strapped down in a hospital bed. The room was smaller, no other beds were inside. Something small and warm was against both of my hips. Slowly I looked down where I felt the warmth. Two small zonies, barely infants, were pressed against me. One had a green coat with black stripes and the other had a white coat with gray stripes. The green one was clearly a colt and an earth pony. The white zony was a unicorn and a filly. What…. Who are they? They’re so small.

I looked up to see my mother sitting patiently in a chair next to me. “I’m curious why you chose an inferior zebra, of all of your available breeding options. Do you have names ready for them?”

“Names? What?” I looked at her very confused and now worried more than ever. It was incredibly unnerving to hear her speak. The Stalliongrad accent I had and had grown up with was just gone.

“They’re your children. We used magic to accelerate the process and a c-section to get them out of you. We had to know your womb was viable, and we needed to remove the inferior zony stock from your body. After all, you can’t exactly help solve the inbreeding problem with the Enclave if your womb was damaged beyond repair, or worse, full of weakened half-breeds.” She was explaining all this and I was getting more and more stunned by the second.

My mother… she did this? These are mine and Nyota’s foals? Names!? We hadn’t even… it should have been at least another eight months before this! I was… I was… denied? I was not allowed to be a mother naturally? She… stole that from me!?

“Sunrise, come on; what is with you? Did you forget all this from before? Damnit, stop acting like a little foal and grow up. These are your half-breed children, you’re supposed to care for them. I thought seeing them would help you with that!” The two small foals woke up in tears, screaming their tiny heads off.

I wanted to move, I wanted to come to their aid. I wanted to care for my children. My heart was broken, shattered. My mind was in so many fragments, I was overwhelmed and at a loss. I could do nothing. My thoughts were breaking up as fast as I could feel them. I could feel the monster Pink and I had been keeping away starting to muster, starting to growl. I did not feel like myself. Something was truly wrong. The only thought I had was to save these small crying bundles of joy from myself.

I turned to my mother and my lips quivered as I spoke, “Mom… something’s wrong… you… please… kill me, before—.” Then suddenly, all control of my body was gone. My mother stormed out of the room in frustration, leaving my terrified self with my children, but I was no longer in control. I was a passenger, it was like being in a memory again.

Pink’s voice cut through all this, “Right! I got this Sunrise.” My body moved on its own. Pink was comforting the foals, she moved the hospital gown as best she could in the restraints and offered them my small teats, which they started to drink from. Holding onto my rear legs and hips, they clung on desperately for life.

I had no coherent thoughts, my body was disconnected from me. I could feel what was going on but could give no reply back to move, to react, even me trying to make myself blink was impossible. “No, Sunrise, you need to check out for now. I got this till you can manage again.”

I wasn’t sure how much time passed before my mother came back with a pair of pegasi nurses. My lips moved, my voice broadcast around me, but it was not me speaking. “There there, drink up. I’ll protect you from the grandma monster mare.”

Shadow Window paused, looking at me perplexed with her head tilted to one side, “Sunrise, are you talking now, my little girl?”

Pink cleared her throat and my head moved up from the foals, looking at Shadow Window now, “Nopie Lopie Dopie! It’s PINKIE!” She accented her voice just to emphasize it was not me anymore.

“Pinkamena?” Both of the nurses stopped, just as confused, while Shadow Window held up a hoof to stop them. My mother spoke and was at a complete loss for words beyond her question.

“Diane Pie. In the flesh, no less! I have a body again, kind of, at least till Sunrise checks back in.”

“How? Who? What? I demand you let her have control! I have a lot to speak with her about. Give her back to me, right now!”

Pink cleared her throat and made a motion with her hoof to tell my mother to lower her voice. “Hey! Little ones just stopped crying, no need to rile them up again. As for your request, I’m going to have to acquiesce that you leave a note. The manager is currently out of the building and only the secretary is available. Which means somepony better keep these cutesy wootsy little Nyota-Sunrise spawns alive and happy till she gets back from mental break vacation!” She was almost singing the last line as she calmly stroked the manes of the foals.

Those are mine, I should be there for them. I felt the presence in the back of my mind. I turned towards it and saw something else... a version of me from before the war. White coat, orange tail and red mane. Suddenly, black tendrils rippled out from its flesh. It was like a miasma of solid arms ripping out of her flesh.

I scrambled to find somewhere to get away from them, but I couldn’t. I felt their icy embrace as I was brought close to the creature. My children interrupted the moment and the tendrils stopped, a look of frustration upon the face of the white doppleganger mare. She couldn’t move and we were locked in a moment of some tug of war for control of my consciousness. The children’s happy, content cooing and gentle nuzzles against my cutie marks made all of it stop for a bit.

“Who's a good little gender-bent Picline? And whose an adorable eldritch abomination with magical powers that can annihilate a city block with a wink?” The small foals curled against her, starting to fall asleep as my mother, this creature in my mind, and myself all looked at Pink, completely confused. “I swear these children should have never been born, but I’m not writing this story, and honestly, I’m just here for the popcorn and the ride.”

“I...wait! What? Dear gods, why did she have to have you stuck inside her?” My mother pointed at the foals and flicked her nose up at them. Then she returned her gaze to my face, looking more menacing than before. “This spirit nonsense is wasting my time! And I forgot how fucking obnoxious you are!” My mother lowered her hoof as the nurses moved towards me… us, definitely us now.

Pink growled and snarled at her, “Hey! Language! Especially around the cutie-wooties wonders of creation.”

Shadow Window growled and rolled her eyes, “I liked you a lot better when we were high on PTMs and you were eating my plot. Why don’t you just shut up and help me.”

Pink got a dreamy feeling to her, like a nostalgic high. The doppelganger started to move towards me, it was laughing between clenched teeth as I felt it using all its might to try to wrestle me into submission while I fought to get away from it. “Oh… PTMs are sooo delicious.” Pink quickly sucked in her drool and shook her head. “I won’t be swayed by the fact that you taste like cinnamon buns!”

My mother blushed deeply with a yelp. The two pegasi nurses turned to her, confused, trying to see what she was going to tell them to do. “Sunrise needs time and something familiar or she is gonna stay checked out for a while. Not to mention, I have to make sure the right Sunrise comes back. Nothing you can do to make me go faster. She doesn’t even fully recognize these adorable bundles of existential horror as her own. No thanks to you and your surgeons! Seriously, could you not wait eight months?”

Shadow Window snarled at Pink and took a step towards us, “Fine! She does not need her memories. The stupid box inside her will fix that, here!” My mother took out a surgical knife and tossed it on the bed, right next to my throat. “Kill her right now and give me my daughter back!”

My mind snapped, She just… told her to kill me?! The black tendrils from my pre-war look-a-like started to ensnare me faster. I lost the will to resist as I watched the events unfold.

Pink shook her head and took the knife in her mouth before spitting it back at her, harmlessly clattering onto the floor. “I say neigh to you, horsey! You think for two seconds I’d betray Sunrise and help the evil monster that used to be her mom? No way! I like how she trusts me. I won’t lift a hoof, neigh, a hair to help you.” My tail flicked to emphasize her point.

“Damnit PINKIE! I do not have time for this! The Enclave needs functional breeding stock. The idealists who think they can keep out wasteland genetics are breathing down my throat for a solution. She is the first of a bunch of pre-war freeze-dried gene stock sitting around. She knows where Stable 43 is and her womb is viable with minimal radiation interference. Not to mention if she gets worn out, I just put her out to pasture and she regenerates in a bit, good as new for making babies. All the food rationing in all the clouds will not help save the Wasteland if it has the genetic diversity of a tiny island nation, or worse, a tiny zebrican nation! Not to mention, with earth ponies and cloud farming tech, we might not be eating bran flakes forever.”

Pink spit at her and growled as she tightened her grip upon my zony children to hold them close, while she moved her hoof over their faces and ears to shield them from the conversation. I wanted to fight but any fight I had left was driven out of me. The more my mother talked, the less I believed it was her. The more I felt like my quest to find and save her was now cursed. The more I felt my father’s death was meaningless. “I don’t care one bit about your stupid pegasi problems. They don’t care about my cake on the ground, I’ll piss in their pie in the sky!”

The sound of a gun being loaded and my mother levitating my father’s handgun up towards me chilled my blood. It chilled Pink’s blood, too, and whatever this creature in my mind was suddenly recoiled as it turned to focus its attention on the conversation at hoof. “Hey, you stupid excuse for poor parenting! If you’re gonna gun down your daughter, at least get your grandfoals out of sight. Even if they are babies you don’t like, they certainly do not need to live through that!”

“For once, you’re right. Get those half-breeds out.” The nurses surged forward and, despite Pink’s efforts, the restraints and nurses won out. The foals were crying out in the chaos as they were ripped away from their mother’s embrace. I saw a dribble of slobber and mother’s milk on the unicorn mare foal. The pegasi scrambled out of the room and out of sight.

My mother stepped forward, removing the safety from Rainbowrise’s Protector. Pinkie spoke up, her tone sarcastic, “So, that’s it then? You’re just gonna be a true monster, right over the edge and into prolicide? Tsk tsk tsk, here I thought you would still be a doting mother and we could bring you back.”

Shadow Window spit at my rear hooves that were strapped to the bed, “I do not have time, nor the patience, and no bucks left to give for this mess. I have waited countless years, many reincarnations, all for my daughter to get back here. Now that stupid box is blocking her memories for some reason, and her shock has put you in control instead of her. I do not even know how you got in there, but I know if I shoot her; that hormone soup her brain is in will go away and that will fix all this. I started down this path to save The Wasteland. The Enclave is the Wasteland’s only hope for pony racial purity, and the inbreeding in the Enclave has to be fixed.”

Pink rolled her eyes and shook her head, “No, it really doesn’t, you old hag, and it won’t fix anything if you have your way. You’re too blind to see that, your sense of duty and your idea of how to fix things are only a kiddie bandage over a gaping chest wound. But if you really wanna revoke your right to motherhood, to being a grandmother, just know: Sunrise Will Remember This.” Pink winked, not at her, but I felt like she was doing it at me.

The doppelganger was too confused to keep ensnaring me. I could sense it being distraught and at a loss for purpose. It was as though the best laid plan had suddenly come completely undone.

“How would you know? How long have you been in there?” Shadow Window took a step closer, the gun faltered slightly, tilting her magic to one side.

“Because she has been scratching at the walls I put up ever since she woke up; the very ones she asked me to put there. You’re just gonna shatter them because you want a quick and dirty way. She will remember this. You’re gonna get panned for it, too!”

Shadow Window’s magic stiffened the grip on the gun, she was starting to pull the trigger, “I don’t care anymore! The world is more important than me or Surnise’s memory. I need her alive and mostly sane! I guess this is goodbye, Pinkie. Get on with your afterlife!”

This isn’t my mother anymore, this has to be a bad dream. This mare looks like her and sounds like her. But the words she peaks are nothing but vitral and awful. Her accent is gone, is this a changeling? What are you? You can’t be her! I refuse to believe it!

Pink laughed, it wasn’t the kind of laugh at something funny. No, this was an outright cackle, my voice sounding even stranger to let that out. The children crying died away, too far away to be heard by their mother.

“Nopie number five in the past five minutes alone, you big Dopie! I’ll still be here, but you just made seven enemies, not one. When her friends find out, the whole Wasteland is gonna be after you.”

“I will have to send a message after this, get us some reinforcements or an escorting raptor,” Shadow Window muttered.

Pink kept laughing as she talked, like she had lost her mind or knew some joke we never got to hear. “Good luck with that! Poor Sunrise, she doesn’t know how much of her life is really a giant joke. I may be the corrupted element of laughter and my friends were the awful terrible ponies that ended the whole damn world, but you? HA! Don’t make me laugh harder! You are something so much worse; and she,” I felt a caress on my cheek, as if someone was telling me that it was going to be alright, just before I was going to die. “Sunrise has a real chance to be so much better than you could ever hope. If she takes that chance, so many like you will—”

Shadow Window pulled the trigger and my mouth was blown off. My body rippled in agony as shock set in. I was glad that I wasn’t in charge of my body, just along for the ride, but even from this distance I could still feel myself dying horribly. Two more gunshots echoed in the room, and by the time I heard the third one, everything went black.

She really…. killed me!? Am I dead? What?

From the darkness a computer screen appeared. A single green cursor blinked a few times, a few small dots appearing as if it were loading something. A Stable-Tec H.U.D. appeared as something worked in the darkness of my mind. Then, without warning, it faded further as the Stable-Tec H.U.D. went away completely.

What appeared next terrified me to the core of my soul. Two simple words.

“Hello, 17”

Below that message were three images of me. One was the green me with the red and white mane. The one next to it was gray, all gray. It was like looking at an old original television set in black and white. The last one was the pre-war me, the version of me that had terrified me. The thing that had been hiding in the back of my mind in a cage. The thing Pink and I had kept at the back.

The message changed. “Do you want to load settings for Green, Gray, or White Coat?”

Author's Notes:

Before you close, no this isn't the end of the story.

Guess what, you're about to find out how those boxes really work. Reminder I gave you hints in the Stable Phi Chapters with Hallow Feather, in Chapter 9 with Quick Stitch, and in Silver Fang in the opening of book 2.