Princess Twilight stood up and quickly dusted herself off. She’d been through the mirror portal several times now, but she still hadn’t quite got the hang of consistently coming out the other side without falling over. She allowed herself a quick glance up at Canterlot High before stepping aside. Moments later there was a flash as an old man flew out of the base of the statue and landed on the ground with a thump.

Starswirl the Bearded groaned as he rose to his hands and knees. “That was just as painful as I remember it being.”

Twilight winced sympathetically and reached a hand down to help him up. Starswirl looked like he would refuse for a moment, but after a quick glance at how she was standing on two legs, allowed her to aid him in clambering to his feet. He wobbled for a moment, but Twilight allowed him lean against her as he slowly found his balance.

“Thank you, Princess,” Starswirl said gruffly, looking down at his clothes. The portal had dressed him in a pair of light brown slacks with a matching tweed waistcoat over a white shirt. His trademark beard flowing down to his belly cemented the image of an eccentric old college professor. “Hm, this is new.”

“Have things changed much since you last came here?” Twilight asked.

“Indeed they have, very much so, in fact,” Starswirl replied, looking up at the school in wonder. “When last I came there was little here, merely some quiet woodlands and a large boulder that contained the portal…” He trailed off as his gaze started to wander, taking in the road, the surrounding buildings, and the vehicles that passed on the road.

Normally, Twilight would have been all too happy to let a fellow scholar indulge their curiosity, but they didn’t have the time. “Uh, Starswirl?”

“Hm? Oh! My apologies!” He shook himself and looked up at the school once more, “Lead on.”

Together, the two strode up the path to the school. Starswirl stumbled and nearly fell at first, but, with Twilight’s help, he soon got the hang of walking on two legs. When they reached the door, Twilight moved to open the door for him. Indignant at the thought of a Princess stooping to opening a door for him, he attempted to open the door himself with his magic, and immediately fell prey to the same mistake Twilight made when she first came to this world.

Fortunately, the only thing he injured was his pride.

Trying to express her sympathy while stifling a laugh, Twilight quickly opened the door and led her mildly bruised friend inside. A few short minutes later they found themselves at the lab containing the Diviner.

Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna were waiting for them inside. Their expressions brightened as they saw Twilight, but tightened when they laid eyes on Starswirl.

“Hey, I’m back!” Twilight said as she entered, not having noticed. “This is Starswirl the Bearded, one of the greatest wizards ever to have lived in Equestria. Starswirl, allow me to introduce Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna.”

Starswirl stepped forward and bowed slightly, taking care not to overbalance, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I just wish it was under less unfortunate circumstances.” He straightened up and smiled softly, “I must say, even after everything I’ve heard from Princess Twilight, this is still quite a singular experience. However, I feel I owe you an apology.”

“Oh?” Celestia folded her arms and arched an eyebrow, while Luna just looked surprised.

Twilight turned a curious look on him, “What do you mean?”

“The Sirens,” Starswirl responded simply. He opened his mouth to explain further, but Celestia held up a hand.

“It’s fine,” Celestia told him. “We’re not exactly thrilled that you sent them to our world, but you’re willing to apologise, and we have more important matters to discuss.”

“Very well.” Starswirl leaned to look around the Principals, “Is that the construct in question?”

Twilight nodded as the four of them stepped over to the machine, “Yes. It’s switched off for the moment, and we’ve disabled the internet connection that allowed the sabotage to occur in the first place.”

Starswirl hummed as he inspected the Diviner, “You realise it will take some time for me to become familiar enough with this technology to be able to assist you?”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Twilight replied. “I was just hoping that you could help with the magical side of things. If we can figure out how to open a stable magical portal, Micro Chips and I will be able to adjust the machine to actually do it.”

Starswirl nodded, “I see. May I see your notes?”

“Of course.” Celestia handed over a clipboard that was heavy with sheets of paper, “These are the notes that Twilight, er, our world’s Twilight took. They contain all of the Diviner’s specifications as well as everything we’ve learned about the new portal since the girls disappeared.”

Starswirl thanked her and took the clipboard, quickly reading through the contents. The others waited patiently as he read, checking the Diviner or quietly chatting amongst themselves until, finally, Starswirl sighed and lowered the clipboard. “If these notes are correct, I believe we will be able to re-open the second portal safely.”

“Great!” Twilight cried as the Principal’s both sighed with relief.

Starswirl nodded, “Indeed. We have the magical signature we need, and it seems you’ve already figured out how to modify the machine to actually handle a portal. Your proposal about bringing enchanted crystals from Equestria to help stabilise the connection should work too.” He frowned up at the mirror in the middle of the Diviner, “However, finding the correct combination of gems, magical frequencies and enchantments to both create a two-way portal and keep it stable for any length of time is going to be difficult in the extreme.”

“True, but it’ll be a lot faster and easier if we’re working together,” Twilight said confidently, earning a smile from Starswirl.

“Pardon me for asking, but… how long do you think this will take?” Celestia asked.

“We realise this isn’t going to be easy,” Luna added, “but those poor girls have been missing for almost two days now.”

Twilight and Starswirl shared a look, then the Princess gave them a solemn nod, “Don’t worry, we’ll get to work right away. We’ll bring them home as quickly as we possibly can.”

There was a loud crack, and Sunset felt the unfamiliar kick of the rifle against her shoulder. The instructor gave a curt nod as she lowered the rifle, “Not bad. It’s not perfect, but you’re hitting the centre of mass every time.”

Sunset nodded back and racked the bolt on the hunting rifle, ejecting the spent cartridge and chambering another in a pair of smooth movements. She’d been reluctant to accept weapons training at first; the memory of using a gun against someone for the first time still lurked at the back of her mind, but, given how dangerous the wasteland had proven to be, she didn’t feel that it was something she could refuse. If learning to use a gun properly was what it took to keep her friends safe, then so be it.

At least she wasn’t alone. Applejack was standing a few feet away, practicing with another hunting rifle. Neither of them were exactly sharpshooters, but they were both hitting the targets consistently. The fact that the targets they were shooting at were painted onto human-shaped mannequins certainly wasn’t helping Sunset’s state of mind, however. Shaking her head to try and clear it, Sunset sighed and flicked the rifle’s safety on before lowering it and looking around the courtyard for the rest of her friends.

Twilight wasn’t there. After the debriefing, the Rainbooms had been permitted a hot shower, which, admittedly, had been gratefully taken advantage of, but Twilight had barely finished hers before Doctor Li whisked her away to show her some sort of big science project she wanted help with. Almost immediately after, a Knight had arrived and stated that Elder Lyons had authorised his instructors to give the girls some weapons training, if they wished.

And so, with nothing better to do, the girls had found themselves in the courtyard once again. Sunset and Applejack were the only ones that had actually accepted the offer of using the guns. Fluttershy had, understandably, flat out refused to handle a weapon, and was currently talking to a standby medic by the resting area. Pinkie and Rarity had declined to use the guns as well, citing that their magic was more than effective enough if it truly became necessary. Rainbow Dash, for her part, was currently engaged with an instructor on the other side of the courtyard, learning the basics of Brotherhood knife-fighting and unarmed combat.

Another loud crack brought Sunset’s attention around just in time to see Applejack huff and lower her rifle, “Well, that’s the last of my ammo.” She gave a satisfied nod and turned to Sunset, “What now, sugarcube? Are we shooting some more, or what?”

Sunset shook her head, “We really should get going if we want to catch Adam at the Vault before sundown.”

“Ah hear you.” Applejack flicked on the rifle’s safety and held it out to the instructor, but the man just shook his head.

“Elder Lyons says you can keep the guns,” he told them. “We only use these hunting rifles for target practice anyway, we use laser rifles on operations.” He bent down and pulled out a few boxes of bullets from a bag at his feet, holding them out for the girls to take, “Here, take these.”

“Oh, alright then. Uh, thanks,” Applejack replied, shouldering her rifle and taking two boxes.

Sunset glanced down at her own rifle, hesitating for a moment, before slinging it over her shoulder and accepting the proffered ammunition. Trying not to think about when she might actually be forced to use the rifle, or on who, she thanked the instructor and left, gathering the rest of her friends from the courtyard before asking a squire where they could find Scribe Rothchild.

The squire almost exploded with excitement when Sunset asked him for help. Barely able to contain his stammering, the boy shakily pointed to a set of double doors in one corner of the courtyard.

“It seems someone here has a fan,” Rarity said coyly as the girls headed to the doors.

“Duh, we’re awesome,” Rainbow replied with a grin.

“Let’s just find Twilight and Rothchild and get out of here,” Sunset cut in, not in the mood for any talk of fans or followers. “The sooner we go, the sooner we can find Adam, and the sooner the Brotherhood can take the purifier back.”

Fluttershy looked around at the Knights and squires around them, all going about their business quickly and efficiently. “I hope this doesn’t end up turning into another war,” she said quietly.

“Me too,” Pinkie agreed.

“There’s going to be a battle, at least,” Applejack supplied with a grimace. “Ah just hope we don’t get caught up in the middle of it.”

“We’ll cross that bridge if and when it comes to it,” Sunset said firmly, striding ahead to open the doors. “In the meantime, we just have to- whoa…”

The rest of the Rainbooms hurried forward to see what had grabbed her attention, each of them letting out a gasp of awe as they saw it too. Through the doors was a lab, similar to Rivet City’s science lab. Inside the lab, surrounded by a framework of steel girders, stood a huge robot.

Easily forty feet tall, the massive humanoid was covered in burnished metal plates, with patches of rust showing through on the few parts of the inner frame that were visible. Its faceplate was utterly blank save for a visor-like slit in place of eyes.

“Magnificent, isn’t it?” The girls turned to see a red-robed scribe watching them. He smiled and gestured down some nearby stairs to the laboratory floor. “You’ll find Scribe Rothchild down there, along with your friend, Twilight.”

Nodding their thanks, the Rainbooms hurried down the steps, spotting Twilight, Doctor Li, and Rothchild, all talking animatedly over a single computer terminal at the robot’s feet. Doctor Li spotted the girls approaching, gently nudging Twilight and nodding in their direction. Twilight smiled brightly when she saw them, “Hey! Is it time to go already?”

Applejack nodded, “Yep, we’re going to go and find Adam before he ends up getting lost and disappearing again, or something.”

“We were just coming to find Scribe Rothchild, to find out where Vault 87 is,” Sunset added, unable to tear her gaze away from the robot.

Rothchild smiled proudly as he noticed where her attention lay. “It is magnificent, isn’t it?”

“It looks awesome!” Rainbow cried. “Is it some sort of super battle robot?”

“Pretty much,” Rothchild chuckled. “We discovered it when we first occupied the Citadel, around twenty years ago. It was built before the war as a super-weapon, the most powerful robot ever to have existed on Earth. They called it Liberty Prime. Unfortunately, finding a suitable power source was a fruitless endeavour, that is, until Doctor Li arrived with her most recent research on nuclear fusion.”

Doctor Li sighed and stretched, rolling her neck. “Thanks to the breakthrough we had in Rivet City, I believe we have a generator design that is small, but still powerful enough to bring Liberty Prime up to operating capacity.” She nodded to Twilight, “That’s partially why I wanted Miss Sparkle here. Her skills with coding are far beyond any of ours, so I was hoping she would be able to modify Liberty’s programming to increase efficiency. Not to mention seeing if we could get her input on any further improvements to our power supply.”

“I didn’t really do all that much,” Twilight said modestly, blushing at the compliment.

“Er, sorry to butt in,” Rarity interrupted, “this is all very fascinating, but we really ought to get going soon.”

Scribe Rothchild dipped his head in apology. “Of course. My apologies.” He gestured to a large display on a nearby wall, “Our map is just over here.” Following the scribe over to the display, the girls saw that it was a digital map of the Capital Wasteland. A reticule meandered constantly across the map, pausing intermittently over various landmarks. Several Vaults were prominently highlighted.

“We are here.” Rothchild pointed the Citadel out on the map, before pointing to a marker to the Northwest. “Vault 87 is up here, but the entrance is lethally radioactive. The only other possible entrance, and the route Adam followed, will likely be through Little Lamplight Caverns, over here.” He pointed it out on the map.

Applejack frowned as she looked up at where he was indicating. “That looks like an awful long way to go.”

“It’s on the far edge of the Capital Wasteland. Getting there won’t be an easy journey,” Rothchild admitted. “The ruins to the West of here are incredibly difficult to cross, on account of how much rubble there is, so your best bet would probably be to head north until you clear the city ruins, then head west past Megaton.”

“That’ll take way too long,” Rainbow huffed. “I say we cross the city ruins. We can do it.”

“Ah’m with Rainbow on this,” Applejack supplied. “Between Rarity’s magic, and the three of y’all’s wings,” she gestured at Rainbow, Twilight and Fluttershy, “we should be able to handle a little rough terrain. No problem.”

Rarity sighed theatrically, “While normally I would argue against such an arduous trek, I must admit that it will certainly be preferable to getting shot at.”

Sunset folded her arms, frowning at the map as she considered. After a few moments she came to a decision. “We’ll see how bad the city ruins are. If we can cross them safely, we’ll go that way. Everyone, make sure to mark the Citadel and the Little Lamplight Caverns on your Pip-Boy maps.” She glanced at Rothchild as the others obeyed, “Thanks again, this is a really big help.”

“Don’t worry about it, just be careful out there,” Rothchild replied. “I doubt the Enclave will be sending anyone after you just yet, but there are still plenty of other dangers in the open wasteland.”

“We’d noticed,” Applejack muttered darkly.

Rainbow grinned and nudged her shoulder, “Don’t sweat it, we’ve got this.”

“I sure hope so,” Sunset put in. “Come on, girls, let’s get our packs and go. Thanks again, Scribe Rothchild.”

“Don’t mention it,” Rothchild replied with a nod.

Leaving the scribes and scientists to their work, the Rainbooms made a quick detour to the storage room where they’d left their packs, before heading back up to the main gate. There was a short wait as the gate was raised to let them out, then the girls stepped out into the wasteland.

Sunset paused as soon as they were safely out, her friends stopping alongside her. The boom of the gate closing behind them didn’t seem anywhere near as loud as it had when they were entering. The mist from the morning was still around, but it was far less thick than it had been, wan sunlight filtering down through it in dappled spots.

“You okay, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

Sunset glanced at her before turning her attention back to the way ahead. “I think so. It’s just… here we go again, you know?”

Applejack nodded in understanding. “Ah hear you. But things are different this time.”

“Indeed,” Rarity agreed. “This time we have a better idea of what to expect, and how to deal with it.”

Sunset looked around at the rest of the Rainbooms. Each of them nodded to her in turn. “Let’s do this,” Fluttershy said firmly. “Let’s go and find Adam.”

Bolstered by her friends’ resolve, Sunset refused to allow her courage to wilt. Pulling her rifle off her shoulder, she took a moment to make sure that it was loaded. “Alright. Let’s do this.” Suiting action to words, she checked the direction on her Pip-Boy and set off into the mist.

Hello again!

My original plan was to have the girls head out into the wasteland in this chapter, but that little journey ended up ballooning a little more than I expected, enough to make a full chapter in its own right, so I decided to split them up. Next time, the road to Little Lamplight...