Rarity grew increasingly curious as the Squire led her, Pinkie, and Twilight into a part of the Citadel they had never entered before. It was largely deserted, with only the odd Squire or Scribe passing by in the corridors as they went about their errands.

"Why are we going to such an out of the way area?" Twilight asked.

The Squire shrugged without looking back. "The Elder said something about keeping the magic stuff away from the main parts of the Citadel, in case something went wrong." Twilight tried to ask her something else, but the Squire huffed and cut her off, "If you've got questions, you can ask him yourself. We're here." Without another word, the Scribe shoved her way through a nearby door and held it open for the others.

Inside was a wide room with dozens of metal boxes stacked against one wall. Elder Lyons was standing in the middle of the room next to another small stack of boxes, along with Fluttershy, a Squire, a Scribe, two Knights in power armor, and two unarmored Knights.

Everyone looked around as the girls entered the room. Elder Lyons smiled as he spotted them. "Ah, good timing. Thank you, Squire Peters."

Fluttershy did a double-take as she noticed the Squire accompanying the girls. "Maddy? Is that you?"

Squire Peters nodded. "Yeah, I did what your friend told me and signed up with these guys." She rubbed her arm nervously. "I, uh, guess I should thank you again. Y'know, for fixing me up, back in the metro."

"Wait a moment..." Rarity gasped softly as she finally realized why she recognized the Squire. "You're the girl from the tunnels behind Galaxy News!"

"Yeah, no shi- I mean, uh, yeah, that's me," Squire Peters replied.

"Squire Peters was in a bad way when we first met her," Elder Lyons told them. "At first, we were hesitant to take her on, but Three Dog vouched for her, so we accepted her as one of our own. So far, Squire Peters has proven to be a hard worker and an adept pupil." He frowned at her as he added, "However, I'd still like to see some improvement to her language fairly soon."

Squire Peters sighed and looked away. "Yeah, sorry. I'm still working on it."

"Very good." Elder Lyons nodded and turned his attention back to the girls. "Now, for the reason I called you here." He placed a hand on the little stack of boxes before continuing. "As you are probably already aware, the explosion of magical energy from Raven Rock's destruction didn't directly affect the Brotherhood of Steel in any real way. What you are likely not aware of, is the fact that the first explosion of magic, the one unleashed during your escape from Project Exodus, did affect some Brotherhood personnel and equipment."

"I assume these people are the affected personnel that you're referring to?" Twilight offered.

"Indeed they are," Elder Lyons replied. "Squire Maxson is here merely as an aide," he gestured to the boy standing next to him, "but Squire Peters, Scribe Benson, and Knights Andrews and Johnson were all affected by the magical wisps released from Project Exodus."

Rarity noticed, curiously, that the Elder hadn't mentioned the two Knights in armor, both standing with their arms folded watching the proceedings impassively. "And those gentlemen?"

Elder Lyons gave a tight smile as the Knights glanced at each other. "These two… gentlemen... are the suits of power armor that Andrews and Johnson were wearing when they were struck by the magic, and they are currently empty."

Stunned silence greeted his admission. "But… they're alive," Pinkie said blankly.

Elder Lyons nodded. "We're not sure how or why, but somehow the magic has given them some level of sapience."

"Just like the Boogeyman," Twilight said quietly. As everyone turned to stare at her, she explained, "The Boogeyman we told you about, the one that was chased out of Rivet City, matches the description of a suit of power armor that fled from Project Exodus after being affected by magic. As impossible as it sounds, it looks like the magic brings any power armor it touches to life."

"Can, er, can they talk?" Rarity asked.

"Not so far," Elder Lyons replied. "As for your suggestion, Miss Sparkle, I fear you may be a little off the mark; twelve of our Knights were struck by the magic, but, aside from these two, the worst that happened was a little discoloration at the impact points."

Twilight frowned thoughtfully. "So several suits of power armor were hit, but only these two were affected? How is that possible?"

"Our Scribes believe it is something to do with where they were hit," Elder Lyons told her. "Both of these were struck directly on their fusion cores."

"Aren't fusion cores the things that power them?" Rarity asked.

Elder Lyons nodded. "Do you think their current, er, condition, might be something to do with the radiation the cores emit? I remember you saying that radiation and magic interacted in unusual ways."

Pinkie raised a hand as if she was in class. "Quick question, I thought nuclear fusion didn't cause radiation?"

Twilight looked mildly surprised that Pinkie of all people would ask such a question, but answered without commenting on it, "It's true that the fusion reaction itself doesn't emit ionizing radiation, and the tiny amount of tritium used in the reaction won't emit enough radiation to have any real effect. However, depending on the blanket solution and internal structures of the core, it's possible that intense neutron fluxes could cause activation of the core's structural material. Of course, that's assuming that the neutron fluxes themselves aren't affecting the magic in any way."

Pinkie nodded and hummed thoughtfully, leaving Rarity feeling rather self-conscious of the fact that she had barely followed the explanation at all. Thankfully, Twilight's moment of nerdy exposition was apparently over, as she sighed and said, "I wish I had more time to spend trying to figure exactly how and why magic and radiation interact the way they do, but I've just got too much on my plate already. I know Sunset is working on a similar issue to this with Pia Nalaar at Rivet City, maybe she had come up with something?"

"We'll ask her when she gets back to the Citadel, but surely you must have some theories that we can work on," Elder Lyons pressed.

Twilight's face crumpled as she shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I don't; and before you ask, I can't spare the time or energy to even try and come up with one. I'm already working on two different scientific specialties, which themselves are so specialized that they draw on at least a dozen other scientific specialties between them. It's too much. I can't, I just… I can't."

The sight of Twilight hanging her head in defeat prompted Rarity to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder, snarling at Elder Lyons as she did so, "What the hell do you think you are doing, trying to dump everything on Twilight? Don't you have your own scientists?"

Elder Lyons glanced uncomfortably between Twilight and her friends. The fact that even Fluttershy was giving him the stink-eye seemed to particularly bother him. "I, er, didn't mean to overwhelm you, Miss Sparkle, we just wished for your input given that you have more experience than our Scribes in matters of magic." He loudly cleared his throat. "We'll put it to Miss Shimmer when she returns. Er, I don't mean to push, but I was hoping that you- that all of you, would be willing to help us with a quick experiment or two, while we're all here."

"What sort of experiment?" Rarity asked suspiciously.

"The magical kind," Elder Lyons replied. He gestured to the power armors, and one of the suits dutifully stepped forward and opened one of the metal boxes. Inside, sparkling in the light, was a collection of raw, uncut gemstones in a kaleidoscope of colors. "These were mined from the exterior of Raven Rock. I gathered the personnel who've previously been exposed to magic in order to see if they, under your supervision, can draw some of the magic out of these crystals."

Rarity gave him a flat look. "After everything that has happened? Everything that still happens whenever someone pokes around with magic they don't understand; do you really think that this is a good idea?"

"Why do you think we're in a secluded section of the Citadel?" Elder Lyons countered. "Besides, these crystals are small and, as far as we can tell, contain only a small amount of magic, and we'll only be using one crystal with one person at a time. It's about as safe as we can make it."

"I'd better get some Nuka-Cola ready," Pinkie said, digging a bottle out of her hair.

"Whatever for?" Elder Lyons asked in complete confusion.

Pinkie fished a bottle opener out of her pocket and held it at the ready like a knife. "In case I need to blow something up in a hurry."

Elder Lyons shot an alarmed look at the other girls, as if expecting them to rebuke her, but they just nodded grimly and backed away to the door, Rarity pulling Twilight's wheelchair since Pinkie's hands were full.

"Who's going first?" Twilight asked.

"Er, well…" Elder Lyons looked around at his little group. After brief consideration, he motioned for Squire Peters to step forward. "It'll probably be safest if our youngest member goes first."

"Cool!" Squire Peters grinned and eagerly stepped up to the crate. "So, uh, what do you want me to do?"

"Just take a crystal from the box," Elder Lyons replied. "One crystal," he reiterated firmly.

Twilight shifted slightly in her wheelchair. "Try to pick one that calls to you, as if it was somehow meant for you."

"Riiight." Squire Peters frowned as she stared into the box. After a few seconds of humming thoughtfully she reached in and pulled out a small pyramid-shaped crystal. "I guess… this one?" Her chosen crystal was a deep orange color with faint veins of white and yellow running through it. The light refracted through it beautifully, lighting up the walls with hundreds of little dots in every color of the rainbow. "What now?"

Elder Lyons glanced hopefully at Twilight. She tried to shrug, then winced and hissed as her wounds reminded her that that was not a good idea.

"Careful, darling," Rarity admonished gently. "You just rest, I think the rest of us have enough experience with magic to try and have a go at this." She cleared her throat and drew herself up to address Squire Peters. "Now then, er…" Rarity floundered for a moment, then decided to just go with the first thing that popped into her head. "Do you feel anything?"

Squire Peters opened her mouth to reply, then closed it and looked down at the crystal in her hand. "I… I don't know," she said slowly. "It feels kinda tingly, but… it feels like there's something... I don't know… missing."

"Why don't you just focus on that tingly feeling for now," Fluttershy suggested. "I know this sounds weird, but try to pull that tingly feeling out of the crystal and into your hand."

"O...kay?" Squire Peters shrugged and frowned at the crystal again. "How do I know if it's- whoa!" The crystal flashed brightly and an orange glow rippled across Squire Peters' body as she ponied up. "Wow! That felt awesome!" She grinned widely at her success, though her smile faded as she saw the looks on the Rainbooms' faces. "What's up? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Rarity just stared at her, utterly thunderstruck. She had felt before that something was familiar about the squire and, though the orange pony ears and tiny orange wings were certainly unusual, the mess of scruffy purple hair sitting on top of her head was instantly recognizable to anyone who knew the three troublemaking disaster-magnets of the Canterlot Movie Club. "Scootaloo…?"

"Come again?" Squire Peters said blankly.

Elder Lyons eyed the girls curiously, clearly putting two and two together. "She has a counterpart in your world, someone you know."

"Wait, what?" Squire Peters gave him a questioning look. "What's a counter-whatsit?"

Rarity shared an awkward look with her friends as Elder Lyons explained about counterparts in other realities. It was plain from the looks on their faces that Pinkie, Twilight and Fluttershy were all feeling just as guilty as her that they hadn't recognized who Squire Peters really was much sooner.

When Elder Lyons was done explaining, Squire Peters and the rest of the gathered Brotherhood personnel looked more confused than ever. "So… there's more than one version of… like… the world? And they've all got different versions of the same people in them?"

"The details are a little more complicated than that, but yeah, that's pretty much right," Twilight replied.

Fluttershy bit her lip nervously. "Um, should we tell Rainbow? About Madd- I mean, Squire Peters?"

"Tell me what?" The group whipped around in surprise to see Rainbow, Sunset and Applejack file into the room accompanied by a Squire. They all stopped in their tracks as they spotted Squire Peters. Rainbow in particular looked as if she had been punched in the stomach. Her face crumpled as she looked anywhere in the room except at the Squire.

"Rainbow? Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked tentatively.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" Rainbow replied unconvincingly. "Anyway, I've got shit to do. I'll see you later." Without another word, Rainbow turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her hard enough to dislodge a trickle of dust and ancient plaster from the ceiling.

"I'll go after her," Sunset said quickly. "You guys do… whatever the hell you were doing." She threw Elder Lyons a glare as she opened the door and slipped out after Rainbow, leaving a strained silence in her wake.

Squire Peters looked around at everyone in blank confusion. "Uh… what the f-, what the hell just happened?"

Rarity coughed delicately before answering. "Scootaloo goes to the same school as us. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she worships the very ground that Rainbow Dash walks on, and Rainbow herself has essentially adopted Scootaloo as a little sister. Seeing you in this, er... form, must be bringing up some rather complicated feelings."

"Ain't that the truth," Applejack muttered. Rarity looked over at her just in time to see her pull the brim of her hat lower and step back out of the door. "Ah'm gonna go get some sleep. See y'all later."

The Squire who had brought the three, a scrawny boy no older than ten, glanced anxiously after his three charges, clearly wondering whether he had done something wrong. Seeing his expression, Elder Lyons sighed and said softly, "It's alright, lad. I asked you to bring them here, not make them stay. Was there anything else?"

The boy nodded nervously and pulled a folded sheet of paper out of his pocket. "A message came from Project Purity for Miss Sparkle. They've written it down for her."

He had barely finished his sentence before a purple aura took the paper from his hands, eliciting a startled yelp. Twilight mumbled an apology and used her magic to unfold the sheet, reading it carefully. "It's a coded message from our mutual allies. I'll give you the details somewhere more private, but the gist of it is that their numbers have grown. Apparently, Horrigan has been sent to Raven Rock, too, so you should make sure we don't have any troops in the area."

"Thankfully, we don't," Elder Lyons replied with a scowl. "I can't say I'm happy to hear that Horrigan is on the move, though. I thought they were keeping him on a tight leash?"

"Like I said, details later," Twilight said pointedly.

Elder Lyons nodded. "Fair enough. I'll have Liberty Prime and the Lyons' Pride recalled, just in case. It'll take a little while for them to get back, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Until then…" He looked around at the remaining Rainbooms and sighed heavily. "I suppose we may as well end this experiment here. I was expecting some form of issue with rogue magic that we'd need your help containing, not a coincidence that would upset your friends. You have my apologies."

"Apology accepted," Rarity said quickly. Without another word, she turned on her heel and hurried after Applejack.

---

Sunset followed Rainbow through the corridors as quickly as she could. There was no way she could keep up with Rainbow's super speed, but she was fairly certain that she knew where her friend was going. The number of shocked-looking and windswept personnel she passed on the way let her know that she was on the right track.

Sure enough, when Sunset emerged into the courtyard, she spotted Rainbow over in a corner, thumping away at a punching bag as if it had grievously insulted her. Sunset had actually expected Rainbow to be doing laps of the assault course, so she was a little relieved that she wouldn't have to try and flag down the athlete just to talk to her.

Waving away the small group of Squires that was gathering to stare, Sunset stepped up alongside Rainbow. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Rainbow said curtly, not breaking her rhythm for a second.

Sunset nodded, realizing that that had probably been a stupid question. "So… I guess we've found this world's Scootaloo."

"That's not Scootaloo!" Rainbow snapped, punching the bag even harder. "That little shit used to be a raider! Scootaloo would never do something like that! That little runt back there isn't fit to clean Scootaloo's sneakers!"

"That's not fair, Rainbow," Sunset retorted. "The moment we gave her a chance to do something decent, she took it; just like Becky and Tara did. We already know that Maddy's parents are dead, and who even knows what happened to her aunts-"

"They live in Rivet City." Sunset stared at Rainbow in blank surprise. "I delivered a few things for them when we were staying there. I thought I recognized them, they even mentioned that they lost their brother, sister, and niece, but I never put it together until now. They had family out there in the wastes, and they never. Bothered. Looking for them!" She punctuated each word with a wild swing at the punchbag.

Sunset stepped back, shocked at Rainbow's sudden vehemence. Something didn't feel right. It wasn't normal for Rainbow to viciously insult someone, then defend them in the very next breath. Something else was going on. Sunset was fairly sure she knew what was up, but she had to be careful with how she approached it, or she’d risk having Rainbow close up on her. "Rainbow? You know you're awesome, right?"

"Huh?" Rainbow paused in her physical onslaught, thrown off-guard by the random question. "Well, duh, of course I'm awesome. Heck, I'm the reason most of the Enclave Vertibirds fly in pairs in a defensive formation now."

Sunset nodded. "Exactly, so no-one is going to think you're any less of a badass because you're missing home."

Sunset was expecting Rainbow to deny it; to say that she didn't miss anything, that Sunset was just being ridiculous, and everything was fine. So it was somewhat surprising when Rainbow simply sighed and lowered her arms, looking dejectedly at the floor. "This world sucks."

"You're right about that," Sunset agreed fervently.

Rainbow shook her head. "I'm not even talking about the radiation or the fact that it's all a freaking wasteland. I just can't stand the fact that there's people out there, other versions of us and our friends, who've ended up being put through so much shit, or even just grown up around the wrong people. What if I find the other version of me and she turns out to be some kind of psycho?"

Sunset placed a reassuring hand on Rainbow's shoulder. "No matter what kind of person she is, if she's anything like you at all, she'll be one of the most loyal and awesome people you'll ever meet."

"Heh, thanks, Sunshim," Rainbow said quietly.

Sunset smirked, an evil thought popping into her head. "And don't worry, I won't tell the others how much you miss seeing Bulk Biceps every day."

Rainbow snorted and tried to splutter out some sort of denial, but she was cut off by a loud and very familiar voice yelling out, "YEAH!"

The two girls slowly turned to look across the courtyard. Standing near the assault course, next to a stand full of barbells, was a hugely-muscled man with a blonde buzz cut.

"No... way," Rainbow muttered, staring at him fearfully. "Seriously? This world has a Bulk Biceps, too?!"

Sunset nudged Rainbow and cried out with false glee, "Look, Rainbow! The universe heard us speaking of your lost love and is giving you another chance! Go to him!" She ducked Rainbow's retaliatory swipe, cackling at the look on her face.

"You're lucky we need you in one piece, or I'd kick your ass from here to Megaton for that," Rainbow spat, though she couldn't help a lopsided smile as she said it. She shook her head and sighed. "Seriously though, we should probably get some food and rest, we all need to get stronger if we want to get ahead in this world."

Sunset grinned and threw an arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry. We've made it this far. As long as we stick together, there's nothing we can't handle."

---

Horrigan crossed his arms as he stared up at the Vertibird hovering overhead. It was a different model than the usual ones; a variant designed with special cranes and winches for hauling up heavy cargo without having to land. This time around, that cargo was going to be Horrigan himself.

"Are you sure you'll fit?" One of the nearby soldiers asked.

Horrigan nodded. He'd have to curl up into a ball for the duration of the flight, but it meant that when they reached their destination they could simply switch off the electromagnetic clamps and drop him into combat, near-instantly. Looking around, Horrigan saw the gathered soldiers, scientists and workers all staring at him, waiting for orders to board their own waiting Vertibirds. "Everyone, mount up! I want us off the ground and on the way in five minutes!"

Next Chapter: Chapter 80 - Into The Depths Estimated time remaining: 27 Hours, 56 Minutes