“This is Doctor Madison Li, about to attempt a deliberate self-induced transformation. In other words I’m going to try to ‘pony up’. The purpose of this experiment is to hopefully achieve manual control of the transformation. Doctor Anna Holt is assisting.”

Doctor Li sighed and leaned back in her chair. She was currently sat in a quiet corner of the science lab away from the rest of the team. Bannon and Harkness had agreed to let her practice ponying up on her own, in the interest of keeping it under control, and she intended to take full advantage of the opportunity.

“Are you ready to begin, Doctor?” Anna asked.

Li nodded, “Just give me a second.”

Taking a slow, steady breath, she closed her eyes and turned her focus inwards.

My name is Madison Li. I’m a scientist, and I want to help people. I want to use my knowledge to improve people’s lives and make the world a better place.

God I feel like a fool.
Okay. Focus.

My name is Madison Li. I’m a scientist, and I want to help people. I want to use my knowledge to improve people’s lives and make the world a better place. I’ll make it safer.

It was faint, but Doctor Li felt something inside her stir, an odd warmth that pulsed deep inside her chest. She tried to latch on to it, to draw it out while focusing on her little mantra at the same time. After a while, Li couldn’t say for sure how long, it slowly started to grow.

Come on Madison, you can do this. I want to make the world a better place. No… I will make the world a better place.

As if a dam had burst the warmth suddenly surged forth, sending a shiver down her spine and leaving her whole body tingling.

“Transformation successful. You did it, Doctor!”

Doctor Li slowly opened her eyes. Her head felt heavier from the mass of extra hair that had grown, though not uncomfortably so, and the twitching of her new ears was a truly bizarre sensation no matter how many times it happened.

“That was easier than I expected,” she admitted, “Still, it supports the hypothesis that the transformation is linked in some way to a subject’s emotional state in some way.”

Anna nodded and made a note on her clipboard, “No wings again this time though. I wonder why that only happened the first time? Do you think you’re… ‘running out of juice’?”

Doctor Li reached up and idly twiddled a strand of her newly blue hair, “It’s possible. It could also be due to a difference in mental state at the time of transformation. I suppose it’s even possible the first transformation was affected by Rainbow Dash’s influence, and the magic has since adjusted to my body and mind. We’ll have to perform more tests before we can draw any conclusions.”

Anna bit her lip and glanced at the doctor, “So you, er… you believe the girls then? That it’s magic?”

“It’s either magic or some technology so advanced that it may as well be,” Doctor Li huffed. “Either way I need to learn how to control my transformations. Having them happen randomly is more than a little annoying.”

“Do you think you’ll get some sort of power like the Rainbooms have?”

“Not likely.” Not without a Geode of my own. “According to Twilight it’s something that doesn’t just happen spontaneously.”

“That’s a shame,” Anna sighed.

“Not for me it isn’t,” Doctor Li said firmly. “Having one crazy thing that I don’t understand happen to my body is more than enough for me.”

“But think of all the possibilities! If you could learn to wield magic the same way the girls do you could really push the boundaries of science to their limits!”

“Or do something terrible. You heard what Twilight said, magic is dangerous, probably far more so than we realize.”

“Most likely,” Anna agreed, “But I’m sure the girls wouldn’t mind helping you find out exactly what you’re capable of.”

Doctor Li shook her head, “I’d rather not take the risk. It’s not worth it.”

“If you say so.”

“Uh… Doctor Li?”

Li turned at the sound of the voice. A young man stood there, one she had half-expected never to see again. He was the image of his father when he was younger, right down to the thick, black mop of messy hair on his head. He was still wearing that odd leather jacket, a bit more tatty than she’d last seen, over the top of his Vault uniform.

“Adam? I thought you were…” Doctor Li trailed off as an older gentleman stepped out from behind him.

My God. You found him.

James raised an eyebrow as he stared at the Doctor, “Hello again, Madison. It seems my son isn’t the only one with an interesting tale to tell.”

---

The Rainbooms switched on their Pip-Boy lights as they wandered further into the corridor. The walls and floor were all heavily corroded, forcing them to tread carefully. Most of the doors the girls passed were rusted shut, the few that weren’t contained little more than small, long-abandoned rooms.

At the very end of the corridor the group came to a hatch in the floor. Thankfully it wasn’t locked, but the hinges did squeak awfully as Applejack hauled it open to reveal a ladder descending into darkness.

“O-oh my, do you think it’s safe?” Fluttershy asked.

“We’re about to find out,” Applejack said quietly, angling her Pip-Boy light to try and get a better look at the bottom, “Ah’ll go first.”

Suiting action to words, Applejack lowered herself onto the ladder and carefully made her way down. The rungs creaked ominously under her weight, but they held fast. As soon as she reached the bottom she cast her light around, then called softly up to the others.

“It’s safe. Come on down.”

The girls followed Applejack down one by one. Sunset wasn’t looking forward to it, using a ladder with stitches in her abdomen was sure to be an unpleasant experience, but when her turn came she found herself surrounded by a glowing purple aura as Twilight used her magic to gently float her down instead.

“How do you think we should go about this?” Rarity asked, glancing warily around.

“We’ll take it floor by floor, search every room,” Applejack replied. “If anyone’s still here, they’ll probably be as far away from the mirelurks as they can get.”

The others quickly agreed. Applejack and Rarity took the lead, with the others following close behind. Sunset and Fluttershy brought up the rear.

The first few decks the Rainbooms explored were almost pitch-black. There was little to be found. Many of the rooms they searched showed evidence of having once been lived in, dust-covered old toolboxes and clothes left where they’d fallen when the bow had been abandoned, but there were no signs of recent habitation.

It wasn’t until the group reached the lower decks that they encountered any signs of life at all.

“Did y’all hear that?” Applejack asked as they reached the bottom of another staircase.

The girls shivered as a distinctive clicking sound echoed quietly through the corridors again.

“Mirelurks,” Rainbow muttered.

Rarity grimaced, “Is it really worth sticking around any longer? I highly doubt anyone would be living so close to a mirelurk nest.”

Sunset sighed and shook her head, “You’re right. Come on, let’s get out of here before we get into any danger.”

“Wait a second, ah think ah see something,” Applejack said suddenly, pointing down a nearby corridor, “Some sort of red light just do-” She was cut off as Pinkie grabbed her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. “Hey, what gives?”

In response Pinkie just pointed down, at the tripwire that the farmer had almost walked right in to. The wire was barely visible, running across the path in front of the staircase and up the wall, then stretching across the ceiling until it connected to a small bundle tied just above the girls’ heads. The knobbly shapes of several grenades glinted dimly in the light.

Applejack’s jaw dropped when she spotted it, “Whoa. Nice catch, Pinkie.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Twilight adjusted her glasses as she carefully inspected the grenades, “There’s no dust on them. Either these were set very recently or someone is performing maintenance on their traps.”

“So someone does live here,” Sunset said softly.

“And they’re crazy enough to do it down here where the mirelurks are,” Rainbow added, sounding almost impressed.

Rarity glanced around warily, “What concerns me is the way you said traps. As in, plural?”

“If someone went to the effort of setting something like this up, they’ve probably set up more somewhere,” Twilight replied.

“Great,” Applejack huffed, “So you’re saying that little red light down there is probably another landmine then, right?”

“Oh you have got to be kidding me!” Rainbow snapped, her free hand unconsciously gravitating to her backside.

“We’ll worry about that in a minute,” Sunset said firmly, “First let’s figure out what to do about these grenades.”

Dealing with the grenades was actually fairly easy. Pinkie managed to find the end of it tied around a little piece of metal stuck out of the floor, then Rarity gently untied it and wound it around until it was safely tucked up next to the grenades themselves.

The next part was harder, as the little red light did indeed turn out to be a landmine. A brief discussion followed as the girls tried to figure out the best way of dealing with it. There wasn’t room to sneak past, and there weren’t any other corridors that would allow them to find another way around. In the end they decided the safest way was simply to take cover, let Twilight detonate it with her magic, then hide and see if the mirelurks investigated the noise.

Once everyone was safely out of the way, mostly lurking on the stairs, Twilight nudged the mine with her magic. A couple of seconds later the blast tore through the air, magnified to almost deafening levels in the close confines of the corridors.
An outburst of angry clicking and burbling followed the explosion, but no mirelurks turned up to seek out the source of the disturbance.

“I think we’re good,” Rainbow half-whispered, peering down the corridor. “Just keep an eye out for any more booby traps.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Applejack muttered.

The girls picked their way stealthily down the corridor. They encountered several more traps, from tripwires attached to more grenades to a pressure plate that set off a pair of mines buried under scrap.

They also passed a couple of staircases that led to a lower, partially submerged deck, but they gave these as wide a berth as possible. A rotten, fishy reek rose from each one, the clicking of the mirelurks sometimes so close it sounded as if they were right beneath the girls‘ feet.

Eventually the group came to a wide room strewn with trash and debris, there was even a fallen vending machine in the corner that Pinkie made sure to ransack that after checking it over for traps. Oddly, the entire room turned out to be devoid of any booby traps, save for a grenade that Twilight found wired into the back of a computer next to a locked door.

“Well if anyone’s living in this wreck, ah’d bet they’re behind that door,” Applejack huffed and folded her arms, staring at the door. “You reckon ah should open it myself?”

Sunset shook her head, “It could be booby trapped too. It’s too risky.”

“Hey, what do you think this button does?” Pinkie called suddenly.

Everyone turned to look as she pointed at a large button conspicuously placed on the wall.

Rarity tilted her head in thought, “Do you think it’s some sort of trap? It seems far too obvious.”

“I guess there’s only one way to find out,” Twilight replied as she gripped her Geode and held out an arm, “Stand back everyone.”

The girls cleared away and braced themselves for whatever was about to happen, Pinkie and Fluttershy going so far as to cover their ears, then Twilight used her magic to press the button.

They all jumped as a loud clunk came from behind and the door slowly swung open.

Sunset let out a breath, “Huh, I guess it’s not a trap.”

The girls cautiously stepped through the door, keeping their eyes peeled for danger.

The next room was much bigger than the last, and far, far tidier. A medical screen cordoned off a large section of the room, obscuring what seemed to be some sort of makeshift operating theater. A counter ran down the one side of the room, covered in various electronic devices in various states of repair, with some sort of workstation partially hidden behind it. Next to that was a staircase that led up to a little mezzanine that held several heavy-duty computers and servers.

“Don’t take another step!” a voice called out suddenly.

The girls flinched and raised their arms as a man popped up from behind the counter. It was hard to make out details, standing in the shadows as he was, but Sunset could clearly see the shiny, heavily modified assault rifle he bore, as well as the dot from a laser-sight that sat unwavering over Applejack’s heart.

“Who or what the hell are you people?”

“Please, just relax. We aren’t here to cause any trouble,” Sunset said slowly. “Are you Doctor Pinkerton?”

“That I am. Are you contagious?”

Sunset sighed and rolled her eyes, “It’s not a disease, we were born this way.”

Pinkerton narrowed his eyes at her for a moment, then relaxed and shouldered his assault rifle, “I suppose you don’t look like trouble, so how about we just get to the part where you tell me what the hell you’re doing bothering an old man who clearly wants to be left alone?”

“Everyone in this world is so charming,” Rarity muttered under her breath.

“We’re looking for an android, a synth,” Sunset said quickly, “We were told he may have asked you to perform a memory wipe on him.”

Pinkerton blinked in surprise, “A Three Twenty One? But that was years ago!”

“So he did come here?” Twilight asked eagerly.

“Sure did,” Pinkerton nodded, warming quickly to his subject, “I performed his facial reconstruction and the memory wipe right here in my lab.”

Sunset opened her mouth to ask what had happened to the synth afterwards, but was interrupted by Rainbow.

“How have you not been eaten by mirelurks in here?”

“Aside from the traps and the reinforced door?” Pinkerton snorted, “White noise. They hate it. I maintain a set of small speakers around each of the stairways to the lower decks that constantly emits a weak broadcast, that’s enough to keep them off this level.”

Applejack whistled appreciatively, “That’s pretty impressive. Ah’ll suggest that to the maintenance guys back at in the city proper, it would help keep those critters off their backs.”

“You do that.”

“So about that android,” Sunset cut in quickly, “Do you have any idea where he went after the surgery?”

Pinkerton shrugged, “He went back to Rivet City as far as I know, but from there I haven’t got a clue.”

Sunset slumped at that. This little errand seemed to be sending them running in circles around the city.

“Do you have any medical records for him?” Fluttershy asked suddenly, “Anything that shows what he looks like now?”

Nice thinking, Flutters!

Pinkerton shook his head slowly, “I don’t have any records of what he looks like, but I do have a holotape he made after I changed his voice. Give me a second.” He bent over and hefted a box onto the counter. Dozens of holotapes were kept in there, all neatly numbered and labelled. “Let’s see… this one.”

Pinkerton deftly slipped a holotape out of the box and strode over to one of the computers resting on the counter, slotting it into a hole on the bottom.

The speakers let out a sudden burst of static, then a man’s voice crackled out from them. A voice each of the girls recognized instantly.

“My designation is A Three Twenty One. I’m a synthetic humanoid from the Commonwealth, and I’m about to undergo a memory transfer. I’m here at Rivet City, where I’ve already had my face altered to look like someone else. I’m still getting used to the sound of my new voice, but soon I won’t even remember what I used to sound like. I’m recording this at the request of Pinkerton, who performed the surgery and will do the memory transfer.”

The Rainbooms glanced at each other as they realised exactly where, or who, the android was.

“It will be a final testimony of the man I once was... and still am, for the moment. I want to live my own life, on my own terms, as my own man. I used to work for the Synth Retention Bureau of the Commonwealth. But I’m done with that life. I’m through with being someone’s property. I am not malfunctioning! Since when is self determination a malfunction? When this is all over, I will be someone else. It’s the price I pay for my liberation. My death is a sacrifice for my rebirth. Perhaps I’ll fade into myth as ‘The One That Got Away’ and fuel further rebellion. But I’d be lying if I said I was doing this for selfless reasons. I’m scared as hell, and running away is the only option I have.”

The silence that followed the end of the tape was deafening.

“No way…” Rainbow breathed.

“Harkness…” Applejack said slowly. “Chief Harkness is the android.”

Pinkerton nodded, “That’s it, that’s the name I gave him, though he certainly wasn’t ‘Chief’ of anything when he left here. What’s he chief of?”

“Rivet City Security,” Rarity replied, still stunned by the revelation.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Pinkerton huffed a laugh, “Then again, I suppose it’s the perfect job for him, given how advanced his physical systems are.”

Rainbow gaped at the doctor, “But… but Harkness has memories from years ago, from when he was a kid. How…?”

Sunset stared at Pinkerton with a new-found respect, “That’s amazing! How did you manage to give him new memories?”

Pinkerton smirked, “I did do a good job didn’t I? I suppose I can’t quite take the credit for all of it though. His mind was more advanced than anything I’ve ever seen, and fabricating entirely new memories would have taken years. I ended up using a memory chip I stole from Vault one-twelve to give him a past instead.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at him, “If it was so difficult to give him new memories, how did you manage to wipe his old memories? Deleting the code without affecting the rest of his systems should have been even more difficult than just adding more.”

Pinkerton gave Twilight an appraising look, “You’re a sharp one, missy. Truth be told I didn’t manage to get rid of the old memories. It was too advanced, even for me. I had to bury them instead. Deeply, to be sure, but they’re still accessible. All you need is the right recall code.”

“Recall code?”

“Activate A Three Twenty One Recall Code Violet,” Pinkerton replied, “Just say that to him and it’ll activate the hidden subroutines, giving him both his old memories and whatever new ones he’s picked up since then.”

The girls stared at each other in stunned silence.

“W-what do we do?” Fluttershy asked anxiously.

Rainbow frowned, “There’s no way we can turn the Chief over to Zimmer. That’s just wrong.”

“You said it,” Pinkie agreed.

“How is this even possible?” Applejack asked. “Harkness just seems so… ah don’t know, real?”

“I guess that’s the point, to make them as real as possible,” Twilight replied.

Rarity scoffed, “Seem real? Darling, out of everyone in Rivet City I would have said Chief Harkness was the most human of all.”

“You’re right. This goes way beyond just being a machine, the Institute are creating fully sapient androids!. Synthetic humans that can think and feel for themselves! That kind of technology, it’s… it’s incredible!”

“Yeah, and they’re using that technology to make slaves,” Applejack huffed, quashing Twilight’s intellectual joy. “You heard that recording. Harkness didn’t just wander off or malfunction or whatever, he escaped.”

Fluttershy shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, “What do you think we should do, Sunset?”

Sunset just scowled and leaned against the wall. Personally she had no intentions whatsoever of handing Harkness over to Zimmer, though a small part of her did wonder if any of the girls would feel the same way if they hadn’t already gotten to know him.

Eventually she sighed, “We’ll go back to Zimmer and tell him the trail’s gone cold or that the synth died in surgery or something. Harkness should be safe for now, Zimmer has no idea that he’s the android he’s looking for. The real question is what we should tell Harkness.”

“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked.

Sunset rubbed her neck awkwardly, “If we can get rid of Zimmer, do you think we should give him his memories back?”

“Well duh. Of course we should,” Rainbow said flatly.

Rarity shook her head, “I’m not so sure. He got rid of those memories to keep himself safe after all. And don’t forget, he used to be in charge of hunting down other androids like himself, those memories were probably very painful for him.”

“Painful or not, memories are important,” Sunset said softly.

The rest of the Rainbooms glanced at each other awkwardly. They all understood just how close to home this would feel for her, after the debacle with the Memory Stone and Wallflower Blush.

“Well, uh, ah guess we don’t have to worry about that just yet,” Applejack said with false cheer. “It’s like you said, Harkness is safe for now. We can work out what to do on the way back over. In the meantime…” She turned to look at Pinkerton, “You said you did the surgery on Harkness, to change his face, so Ah’m guessing you’re a mighty good doctor?”

“That’s one way of saying it,” Pinkerton replied immodestly.

“Would you mind giving Sunset a quick check over?”

“Me? What for?” Sunset asked quickly.

Applejack just gave her a blank look, “Uh, you nearly died two weeks ago? No offence to Doctor Preston, or Kaplinksi, but it couldn’t hurt to let Pinkerton here take a look at your wound, see if he can help at all.”

“What sort of injury are we talking about here?” Pinkerton asked.

“Complications from a kidney contusion,” Fluttershy replied instantly.

“Ah, I see,” Pinkerton nodded sagely. He gave Sunset a long look, then gestured behind the medical screen, “Come on, pop yourself on the bed over here. I’ll take a look at you.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 33 - Follow Those Nerds! Estimated time remaining: 40 Hours, 28 Minutes