NARS

Ping...

I had never really seen the benefit of it until now.

Ping...

As I trudged through the growing darkness, descending down the silty slope that was the lake’s floor, I listened closely to the regular Ping’s that the Navigation And Ranging Spell pulsed out from my EVA suit.

Ping...

Much like standard radar technology, the NARS system sent out signals that would return when they struck an object, giving an indication of its size and distance. NARS may have had a much shorter range and was too power-hungry to be fitted to a PipBuck but it was far more accurate and reliable, provided you could interpret the signal properly.

Ping...

But the signal did bring home one disturbing fact. How utterly alone I was. Before we had used it to keep an eye out on each other while working outside the stable; the return signal from an EVA suit being very distinct. Here however I was using it to augment my EFS read out to give me a better chance of spotting anything that was coming to eat me.

Ping...

I kept an eye and an ear fixed on both systems as I trudged through the growing darkness, descending down the silty slope that was the lake’s floor. I was also cross with myself that I had not been using my EFS it ever since Seafire told me about it. It could’ve saved Ambrosia; possibly even Heather, and made dealing with the remaining raiders at the warehouse a cinch. Now I doubted if I would ever turn it off.

Ping...

Under the water however it was less useful. Dozens of tiny dots constantly moved around the fringes of my EFS and I couldn't tell what they were. My NARS was returning dozens of tiny little whispers indicating that they were only about a foot long, probably less, but the shoals so large that they obscured whole quarters of my EFS. If I was unlucky enough to have something larger come in from that direction only NARS would be able to indicate the difference

Ping...

I was so lost in thought that I almost didn't notice the end of the ground before I stepped off the edge.. I flinched back instinctively. The soft silt at my hooves ended abruptly to plunge down into blackness. I took a few deliberate steps back and looked around. It seemed I had come to the edge of some kind of shelf in the rock. Cautiously, I peered over the edge and looked down. I couldn’t see anything besides the rock that formed the precipice of the underwater crevice.

Ping...

I pulled open a pouch on my left hind leg and removed one of my emergency glow-sticks.

Ping...

Snapping the internal glass vial with my magic, I shook it vigorously and then gently tossed it off the edge.

Ping...

My expression went from curious, to concerned, to worried and then on to just plain shocked. The glow-sticks luminescence was swallowed up completely in the blackness below. ‘Don’t want to be falling down there...’ my inner pony noted.

Ping...

I stepped back from the edge and considered my position. It boiled down to left or right. Left lead towards stable seventeen. Right; toward the unknown. ‘No contest’ I thought to myself. A slurp of Rad-away brought my Rad levels back into the green. Taking a deep breath, I turned right.

Ping...

“Francium?” I kept my eyes closed and tried to keep my breathing regular. “Francium, time to get up for lessons.” I still didn’t move. It was so warm under the covers, my mattress was so soft, and - I could not hold it any longer as my mother dug her hooves into the sides of my tummy.

“Stop it!” I screamed, rolling from side to side. “That’s… hehehe… that’s not… hahahaha… fair!”

“But I thought you were asleep?” My mum kept rubbing my sides as I wriggled for freedom.

“I was…. eeep… but you were… hehehe… evil and… ahyeee... woke me up!”

Lithium stopped and I was able to extract myself out from under the covers and flop unceremoniously onto the floor. Once I had finally got my breath back, I dragged myself to my hooves and ambled round the bed into my mother’s forearms.

“Morning mum.” I nuzzled into her chest, her familiar perfume filling my nose.

“Morning.” She replied quietly.

“What’s for breakfast?” I asked innocently.

“It’s whatever you want for once.” She let me go and helped me to my hooves. I noticed that she was already wearing her nursing overalls and looked rather flustered. “I have to get over to medical early today so you can have what you like. Nothing too fattening though. We seem to be getting through the Cocoa powder much more quickly than usual. That stuff is rare and you seem to be eating all of it”

“What? I like my hot chocolate.” I looked over at the clock; it was six in the morning. “Why do you have to leave so early?” I asked curiously. “The day cycle is hours away.”

Lithium began levitating the final few things into her saddle bags. “Bracken pulled a muscle in his back doing some lifting so he is taking a few days off. They asked me to help out by filling in his shifts.” With a flourish she flicked the bags onto her back and did up the buckle. “You’re a young mare now so I expect you to be responsible. I’ll probably be home late so you can ask Adenine if Helix can come over and keep you company or something.” She said brightly.

“Ok mum.” I smiled at her.

“See you tonight love,” she said, smiling back.

With a final tight hug; that lasted longer than was strictly necessary, Lithium ruffled my mane and disappeared out the door.

Ping...

I had come across a field of what I thought was some kind of kelp at a depth of about eighty feet; the top of the supposed butter zone for finding our precious algae, and I’d expected to find it growing on the undersides of the giant leaves just like Helix had told me. But no matter how many I checked, none showed the tell-tale signs of our life saving algae. My only solution seemed to be to go deeper, but the problem was that the only way to go deeper seemed to be to go off the edge into the crevice. Despite walking for what must have been a mile I couldn’t find a way down.

Ping...

Ping...

Ping...

The kelp wasn’t helping either. An individual strand must have been a foot wide in the trunk and so tall that it left my range of vision. But the kelp weren’t just tall. They grew in thick forests of tightly packed trunks with massive three foot wide leaves extending outward reducing my range of vision to almost nothing. More than once I found myself at the cliff edge and had to calm myself, having nearly taken a step into the abyss.

Ping...

Ping...

Ping...

I took a slurp of Rad-away bringing my radiation levels back into the yellow. I was about to take another when,

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

My NARS returned a signal and I spotted a fast moving red dot on my EFS. I brought the harpoon off my back and aimed using my EFS. I tracked the dot as best I could, but the big leaves and the kelp trunks made it almost impossible to wield the harpoon effectively.

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

The dot traveled across my EFS, skimming the edge of its sensing range and then swiftly disappeared.

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

I had just finished slinging the harpoon onto my back when the red dot reappeared. No wait; two. They were still not on an intercept trajectory but they were significantly closer judging my the strength of the return signal. I extinguished my helmet light as not to draw attention to myself. Without it I was blind, all I could see was the augmented read out of my EFS.

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

The NARS sounded again. The dots began to bank right, turning towards me. I watched, a knot building in my chest, as they turned and started heading straight for me. I swung the harpoon down again as fast as I could, struggling against the water, and took the trigger in my telekinetic grip using my EFS to aim at the incoming dots.

Ping... ... ... ... Ping...

The shortening return sound indicated the closing distance. About ninety yards... Seventy... Fifty.

Ping... ... ... Ping...

As they got within thirty yards I tensed waiting for whatever it was to come screaming through the water towards me.

Ping... Ping

Ping... ... Ping...

Ping... ... ... ... Ping...

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

The sound faded away, the dot shrank to nothing and finally vanished.

Ping...

I held my breath. The red dots had seemingly passed right through me and off at an even faster rate. Within seconds they had left the range of my EFS all together. I flicked my helmet light back on and the forest of kelp filled my vision once more. Carefully I slung the harpoon round my neck and settled it on my back.

Ping...

‘Just the first of many scares you will be having down here’ my inner pony said in a rather resigned tone. ‘You could have been exploring a mountain with the others or looking after Foxglove with Helix, but oh no you have to be down here giving yourself a heart attack every five minutes!’

‘But I am doing this to help our stable. And not just our stable, High-Voltage as well.’ I retorted.

‘Yeah you keep telling yourself that.’ My innerself turned its back and disappeared into a corner of my mind.

Ping...

After my second round of toast and picking through to find the best three or four apples we had in our stocks, I wandered back into my bedroom and started getting ready for school. I opened up my chest of drawers and pulled out my hair brush. Standing in front of the mirror I examined myself closely.

My body was just like any other mare’s my age. I was beginning to curve in all the right places, not as much as I wanted but better than some. My rich blue coast was glossier than most and I didn’t even have to take much care of it. All the individual hairs lay exactly where they should, I rarely had to brush myself down.

My long blue hair was all tangled and tousled from my pillows, the white streak running down the centre lost in a root-like sprawl of ultramarine, and my tail was just all over the place. I was determined to get my mane and tail as long as I could which was beginning to get on my mothers nerves. It took forever to wash, comb and dry but I had my reasons. If I ever made it into the EVA team and maintainance I was going to have to keep my mane and tail short until I retired; if I couldn’t have it long then, it would have to be now.

My eyelashes were beginning to lengthen naturally and grow thicker, highlighting my deep green eyes. I batted them playfully to myself. ‘Cut it out’ my inner self complained. Fine.

I made to start brushing my hair but I stopped. “No.” I said to myself. “Lets do this properly.”

I popped the brush back on the drawers and made for the shower. With a flick of my magic I turned on the water and heard the slight hum of the heating crystal kick into life.

I had always assumed that when we needed water it was simply piped straight to us from the pumping stations, but Arc had shown me the huge tanks towards the top of the core. The water was taken in from the lake, filtered and cleaned in maintenance and then was pumped up to the top of the core. He had told me that the main pumps were so powerful that if you got in the way of the water jet it would knock you out. The tanks allowed for a more easily regulated pressure and meant that when ponies wanted water, they got it without having to wait for the pumps.

When I saw steam beginning to rise from the water I stepped into the shower and savoured the sensation of my hair being soaked and the water running off my coat. I glanced in the mirror at myself, wet and steamy. I had to admit I thought I looked pretty hot, but I had always thought that Helix looked better with wet hair. I levitated up the shampoo and the soap and with practiced care began to wash both my mane and my coat simultaneously. I was determined that I was going to enjoy this while I had the chance.

Life is an amazing thing. No matter what you do to it, something always seems to find a way to survive.

The turtles were huge; at least I think they were turtles. The biggest were two metres wide and three metres long, they were like giant swimming pebbles. The turtles I had seen in pictures were more or less green, but this herd were a peculiar mix of blue, metalic grey and yellow. The mottled pattern on their shells made it look like lava but the blue tricked the eye into thinking you could see right through to the water on the other side. Not to mention that the yellow bits also seemed to have some kind of bioluminescence.

It was surreal.

The herd of maybe a dozen, a mix of adults and calves--do you call them that--were grazing on what looked like thick bladed grass that was growing out of the muck on the lake floor. There was not much of it, each little clump only contained maybe ten or so six inch sprouts but the creatures were steadily working their way along the top of the ridge where this plant was growing.

I had been worried at first, would they turn and attack me, crush me or simply just eat me but as I got closer they had just parted to let me through. Now I was waking in the middle of the herd at pace with their munchings, enjoying their company. I could get within a foot or so of one before it would gave a quick flick of its fins and glide away. It seemed that although they trusted me to be with them they still had some reservations about what I was and what I was going to do. I had also taken some trust in them by turning down my NARS. The pinging sound when you are standing in the middle of a herd was enough to give anypony tinnitus.

I walked with them for fifteen minutes or so. Just watching them eat and play with one another. There were two smaller turtles, only about a metre long, that were playing in amongst the adults. They seemed to be playing hide and seek. One would go off somewhere into the herd and hide under or behind one of the larger adults. The the second would flit between the herd, deliberately squeezing through tight spots and turning sharply to avoid leaving the safety of the herd.

One then came and hid on the far side of me. It hovered level with my chest just within a few inches, and kept pace with my walk by gently twitching its fins. I looked down at it and it looked back at me, blinking slowly with its big, deep blue eyes. Suddenly the other turtle appeared right in front of it. The blue eyed turtle let out a resonating noise that flickered with detailed harmonics and suddenly she was seeking. Her friend flitted away and disappeared into the herd and after another glance at me she took of with a wave of her fins.

I worked my way through the corridors as fast as I could. It seemed that doing a full mane and tail styling had taken far longer than I had expected and as a result I was now late. I kept hearing calls of ‘Hey’ or ‘Watch it’ as I stepped on someone's hoof, but I didn't care, I needed to get to school as quickly as I could.

I spotted the door to the room and made a beeline for it. Just as I got there a big stallion stepped out in front of me. I tripped over his outstretched hoof and went tumbling through the doorway. I landed on my face with a thump and felt my eyes rolling in my head.

“Hey, need a hoof up?” I looked up from my splayed position on the floor and felt myself blush. Tungsten was standing over me. He looked down with mild amusement and then held out a hoof.

“Thanks.” I mumbled as he helped me up.

“No problem.” He smiled at me again. His black mane swished as he turned back to the rest of the class who were all busy unpacking their stationery and books, jabbering amongst themselves. Thankfully it seemed no one else had seen my tumble. I watched him go when a voice startled me.

“Are you checking out my brother!” I snapped round to see Helix sniggering in the doorway, her saddle bags shaking as she tried not to laugh.

“Ummm, wait... no!” I stammered trying not to blush.

“Oh my gawd!” Helix gasped. “Oh I know what comes next!” She cleared her throat and began singing in a high pitched voice. “Fran and Tungsten at the bottom of the sea! K, i, s, s, i, n...”

“Quit it.” I hissed under my breath at her.

“First comes love. Then comes marriage then...”

“Quit it!”

“Oh, don’t you like the idea of snogging my brother all of a sudden.” She sniggered again. “Well, perhaps you would prefer to kiss me instead?” She puckered her lips and before Helix could react I planted a quick kiss on her lips.

Helix’s eyes shot wide. “Fran, what did you do that for?” She asked half confused, half surprised.

“Well, you asked.” I sniggered back.

“Remind me never to do that again...” She made a drama of wiping her mouth on her foreleg and the wiping that on my coat.

“Well perhaps Tungsten will be more appreciative.”

“Oh so you do like my brother!” Helix was suddenly grinning again.

I just couldn’t win.

“Helix! Francium! what are you doing!” We both jumped as Parchment, our aging teacher, stepped through the door to find us right in her way. “Sit down this instant!”

“Yes Miss P.” We both mumbled in unison.

Helix and I amble over to our seats towards the back of the room. I glanced over at Tungsten who was chatting to a very beautiful young mare called Seafire. I felt a twinge of jealousy

Wait...

Oh no! If I was feeling that then that could only mean...

I fancied Tungsten!

But I hadn’t really given him much thought, had I? But he was always nice to me, ever since I had met him; though that may been cos he knew I was Helix’s best friend, and I liked his black mane and the way it swayed and the trio of deep silver metallic cubes upon his flank and...

And...

I could never let Helix find out!

Ping...

Success!

After leaving the turtles to their slow munching, I had traversed maybe another half mile along the top of the ridge and discovered that it was gradually dropping. Eventually, I ended up at one hundred and ten feet below the surface when I came across another kelp forest.To my joy, a quick inspection revealed that there were copious quantities of algae growing on the undersides of the leaves.

Ping...

I levitated a small spatula out of one of my pockets and began to scrape the algae into a selection of vials that Helix had given me from her chemistry apparatus. It was surprisingly viscous, sticking to the spatula which made getting it into the tubes rather difficult. With difficulty I managed to coax the first scoop into the top of the tube and watched with satisfaction as it slipped slowly to the bottom.

Ping...

Ping...

Ping...

After filling that vial I managed to fill another two off the same leaf. I slipped the vials into various pouches on my EVA suit, making sure that they wouldn’t slip out.

Ping...

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

I dropped the spatula with a jolt of my magic, looking up frantically at the lone dot darting in and out of my EFS. I dropped into the oose, searching frantically with my magic and hooves for the precious vial. But the degrading organic gloop made it almost impossible.

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

Red flashed twice. And again.

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

A shiver built at the top of my spine. I turned slowly in my solitary pool of magical light, watching the marks as they skirted the edge of my EFS. What were they doing?

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

The red appeared again off to my left, two fast moving flashes. My head snapped the other way tracking a trio of red marks on my right. Then more marks; six behind, six in front.

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

They were circling.

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

Corralling.

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

Hunting.

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

Me.

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

I brought the harpoon off my back, sliding the safety off. More red marks joined the encroaching circle, tightening around me and forcing me to step backward toward the edge.

“I haven’t got all day.” I snarled, more to myself than to the fish. “If you’re going to attack me, get a bloody move on!” Only fifty yards away and still couldn’t see anything. They drew closer and closer to me, growing all the time.

Ping... ... ... ... ... Ping...

I braced myself, the harpoon shaking in my magic.

Ping... ... ... ... Ping...

Sweat stung my eyes as I struggled to keep them open.

Ping... ... ... Ping...

My magical grip tightened on the harpoons trigger.

Ping... ... Ping...

The NARS pings were almost on top of each other

Ping... Ping...

They stopped. Ten yards away from me and yet right on top of me. How could they be right on top...

Ping Ping...

The swarm descended. I dived sideways. A flurry of shimmering black and white metallic glints scythed past before I felt myself squishing into the ooze. I lifted my head and met twenty sets of ferocious fangs set into open jaws. The swarm slammed into my helmet. The helmet light snapped clean off by a heavy impact, plunging the attack into darkness. I felt myself tumbling over backwards in slow motion, landing with another squelch.

Ping... Ping...

I dragged myself to my hooves and ran blindly through the kelp. I couldn't think. Couldn't see. Light. I needed light. Scrunching my eyes I fought to remember the light spell I had used a hundred times before. My horn flared to life. 'Shit!' Digging my hooves into the slit, I slid to a halt a bare foot from the cliff's edge.

Ping... Ping

They were right behind me! I spun to face them. Sharp metallic fangs glistened in the light of my magic. I brought the harpoon up to my face on instinct alone, putting something, anything, between us.

I cowered back, closing my eyes and waiting for the inevitable.

Ping... Ping

Ping... ... ... Ping...

Ping...

My eyes cracked open. They were gone... where'd they go? The last vestiges of movement over head caught my eye, but I couldn't make myself look. My knees gave out and I dropped to the soft mud. Gasping for breath I tried to calm my still beating heart.

A goofy smile pulled at my lips. I was still alive. I was still alive! I wanted to laugh. I had never felt so... well, alive.

Ping... ... ... ... ... ... Ping...

My eyes shot open, my heart contracted in my chest. A single red dot illuminated my EFS.

Ping... ... ... ... Ping...

Ping... ... ... Ping...

Ping... ... Ping...

Ping... Ping...

Ping...

A gigantic black mass ripped through the kelp. Its maw opened revealing rows of razor blades for teeth. The harpoon was up in a beat of my heart and fired in the next. The silver lance took the creature in the back of its mouth, for all the good it did. It slammed into me sending my readouts strobing. My hoof slip off the edge, the world tilted and dropped out from under me.

I joined the back of the queue in the mess hall, levitating a tray off the rack and turned back to Helix.

“I told you I don’t know. To be honest I haven’t really thought about it.”

“Does that mean you haven’t because you’re not interested or because you don’t want to think about it?” Helix took her own tray and joined the queue behind me.

“How am I supposed to know that. Whichever it is,” I sighed, “it’s always just seemed weird to me. You can have a husband or wife but you’re not allowed to reproduce with them. Doesn't that like defeat the whole point of it. Arc has been reading some of the old journals from back from the beginning of the stable. Back before they started the mapping program. There’s loads of stuff in there, amazing stuff. Scary stuff too, though. Stuff that could really mess stuff up.”

Helix looked around for a moment then leant to my ear. “Like what?”

“Well in one thing that Arc was reading recently was an open letter to the Overmare and Overstallion at the time suggesting that they step aside and let someone of royal linage take control of the stable.”

Helix gasped, quickly turning it into a cough as several heads turned.

“Wait, you mean like... daughter of Celestia? Or Luna? I never knew that they even had children.”

“No. I think that was a son or daughter of another royal.”

“Another royal?” Helix was finding it hard to contain the shock in her voice. “But there has only ever been Celestia and Luna. Or there only were.” She corrected solemnly.

“That’s what I thought too, but it doesn’t indicate what race they were or who the royal was.”

“Wait hang on. If that is all true, then does that mean that someone in here could be the great, great, great grandchild of some ancient royal pony.”

I shrugged “Its possible.”

“I could be a royal!” Helix squealed. “You could be. Think of what that could mea...”

The lights went out. Instantly I lit my horn; and felt a slight sense of pride that I was the first to do so. Every other unicorn followed suit and quickly the room was bathed in soft multi-coloured light. I scanned round the room, hunting for anypony who seemed to know what was happening.

“What’s going on?” Helix whispered suddenly pressing herself against my side and almost pushing me over.

“How should I know?” I muttered back. “I can still feel the turbines. The repulsion field around the tower is still up or we would have been crushed by now.”

“Repulsion Field?” Helix asked, but before I could answer the lights flickered back to life. At the same time several Pipbucks started beeping madly. In an instant the mares and stallions faces went from bemused to panicked. The buck next to me read his pipbuck and went pale. He shoved us both unceremoniously out the way.I opened up my own PipBuck and began to flick through the radio channels. Nothing was working, they were all static except the last one. The gold channel; emergency broadcasts only.

“... to gas syphoning. Internal gas leak in linking tube GS to AP. All medical staff to stations. Repeat - All maintenance staff to gas syphoning. Internal gas leak in linking tube...”

The whole tower shuddered slowly, the lights flickered and the emergency voice cut out sharply. I lifted a hoof to let Helix up who was trying to hide underneath me. She pulled herself up with a strange expression, somewhere between ‘sorry’ and ‘I am terrified’, on her face.

Then my Pipbuck burst back into life. “Situation contained. Explosion in GS to AP contained by repulsion field. Capacitors down to ten per cent and recharging. Six casualties, one serious. Medical staff GS and AP. Situation under control. Explosion contained. Medical staff GS and AP Repeat. Situation under control. Explosion contained. Medical staff...”

“Explosion?” Helix asked in shock. “How did the gas explode?”

“A spark probably. Or magic if somepony was careless enough.”

Helix looked surprised “You can set off gas with magic?”

“Of course you can. Almost every spell creates some kind of spark when it forms,” I replied. Helix continued to look surprised, and also scared and shocked which admittedly gave her a strange expression.

We both jumped as Parchment appeared in the doorway to the hall and began shouting “All students follow me back to class! Chop chop!”

“Back to class?” one of the other kids whined. “But I didn’t get to eat my pudding.”

“You can have pudding whenever you like,” Parchment said flatly. “Now follow me.”

“Forget pudding, I didn’t even get a starter.” Helix mumbled. I just nodded in agreement.

I opened my eyes and was mildly surprised. I could see nothing. I tried again with the same result. ‘OK, Lets try something else, cos that clearly isn’t working.’ I tried to roll over and managed to place one hoof flat on the floor. ‘Success!’ With a great effort I pulled myself to my hooves, but something was not right. With more concentration than it usually took, I managed to bring my horn to a soft glow but almost lost it with a gasp. An angular crack had lanced across my helmets visor.

The half inch thick polycarbonate, enhanced and reinforced with all manner of incantations, had fractured completely from top to bottom. I peered closer and saw that it had propagated diagonally between two bolt holes that fixed it to the unibody of the helmet; stress concentration was a killer.

I took my horn to its full brightness and looked around. The thing that had slammed into me was nowhere to be seen but there was plenty of other life. The floor was entirely covered by what I knew must be starfish but, like the turtles, they were not the colours that I was familiar with. Rather than being rich oranges and reds they were metallic greys and blacks, similar to the turtles, but they were dotted with spots of white. I could even spot a few crabs, again of strange and peculiar colours. I couldn’t even begin to understand the seemingly illogical changes to the creatures colour, but I knew that I had more important problems.

‘Ok Fran...’ I said to myself, ‘you’re, ’ I checked my PipBuck, ‘two hundred feet down. Your suit is damaged. You are running out of Rad-away, but you have,” I checked the vials, “three test tube full of the algae stuff. But how much air do you have left?” I checked my PipBuck again and gulped.

I didn’t know how long I had been out, but between that and the increased energy use to prevent the visor failing completely, I had used over eighty percent of the deconstruction talismans energy giving me just forty more minutes of air if I remained at this depth.

Crap.

I had to start gaining height and fast. The question was how?

I turned round and looked up. The cliff rose high above me, disappearing into the gloom. It was far too steep to climb directly but if I was careful I might be able to traverse along it and work my way up like that. The alternative was to walk until it began to rise naturally, however that might not happen for miles, and I just didn't know if I could risk it. I brought up my map and saw how much trouble I was in.

I knew from stable seventeen that strong underwater currents ran down the middle of the lake, caused by the geothermal vents on the lake bed. Somehow, I must have caught one of them on the way down. My map placed me a whole five miles away from where I had entered the water. I’d been swept past High-Voltage and round the first in a series of meanders. If I hadn’t been caught in a small back eddy, which would also explain why there were so many creatures around me, I knew I could have easily been carried half way to Hoofington by the strong central current.

I reactivated NARS and started walking as fast as I could back towards High-Voltage, the repulsion field aiding my movements and allowing me to achieve what on dry land would constitute a slow gait. I knew that if I kept against the left hoof edge of the lake as I waked then eventually I would reach the surface. The only question was, would it be soon enough?

Ping... step, step.

Ping... step, step.

“Well that was a slightly more interesting day.” Helix stretched out tossing herself onto her sofa as I shut the door to her families room behind us. “Though not quite in the way I think most of us would have wanted.” She rolled onto her front and looked at me with her big blue eyes. “You’ll know this. How come this stable can survive both the crushing pressure, one hundred metres down, and the force of a gas explosion inside? It just seems impossible. I know unicorn magic is good but is it really that powerful?”

I turned on the kettle and got myself out a mug, tea leaves and the strainer. “I reckon that most ponies thought that when Stable-Tec laid the plans to this place down in front of them. And its not just one hundred metres down, its one hundred and fifty.”

“One hundred and fifty!” Helix mumbled. “Crazy, absolutely crazy. So come on, how do they do it?”

“It’ll be boring,” I warned.

“Come on. It can’t be that bad, surely.”

“It can be that bad. And don’t call me Shirley.” I held my serious face for as long as I could, but it was no use.

Helix shook her head, groaning as I broke into a grin. “That was bad Fran. Even for you,” she sighed. “Well come on. How’d they do it?”

“Right. The stable is basically built in two ways. One way is out of steel rings, which are supported by an inner steel structure. They form the outside of the core the structure for the adjoining tubes. The domes are built out of hundreds of triangles that are shaped in such a way that they form domes. Under the domes are arches of steel that support the triangular panels. Now I want you to picture a tube in your mind, a series of rings one after the other. Now imagine an arc of energy bouncing across the top of each ring, all the way to the end.”

I looked at Helix. Her eyes were closed and she was biting her lip, trying her best to hold the things I was telling her in her minds eye.

“Now imagine that its not just one arc, but millions forming a field of energy around the outside of the tube. Can you see it?”

“Yes.” Helix replied softly.

“That field effect covers every adjoining tube and bounces down the outside of the core as well. The spell it is based on is the same one I use when I do my welding practice.”

“The repulsion spell?”

“Yep, you got it. Now for the domes its a little harder. At the corner of each triangle there is a node, and this network is formed all over the top of the triangles. Here the field jumps from node to node creating the repulsion field required to hold back the water.”

“Yes, I can see that. Helix opened her eyes. “So that is what is holding up the water, not the glass panes?”

“Yep. The force is transferred directly into the steel frame of the stable and into the ground. There is no way, even with all out magic and spells that we could enchant the glass to be able to take such pressure alone. So we don’t, the field does instead.”

“Does that mean there is a small gap of air between the field and the dome itself?” Helix asked. Wow she was really thinking about this.

“That is a really good question, and the answer is no.”

Helix frowned slightly. “How come?”

“The field isn’t perfect. It takes about ninety-five percent of the force, the rest is taken by the glass underneath.”

“So we could still break a glass pane and get flooded?” I just nodded. “So how come the explosion didn’t blow the glass out?”

“The field also works in reverse, well kind of. The explosion would have pushed on the glass, which would have pushed on the water which would then push on the water on the other side of the field which would have been pushing back. And the glass survived the brief vacuum inside the tube, which was caused by the explosion burning away all the oxygen because of the enchantments upon it...” I glanced down again at Helix and was surprised to see her grinning. “What?”

“Its just after all that talk about forces and stress and energy fields, part of it is still solved with good old unicorn magic.” She leant up and kissed my horn.

I immediately felt myself go weak. My knees felt soft, my telekinetic grip faltered and the tea dropped into my lap. Note to self: don’t drop nearly boiling water near or on your reproductive parts cos, like you would expect, it really, bloody hurts.

“Yeaowh!” I spasmed away as the scaling water splashed all over my legs. I sent the cup flying as I tried in vain to rub the hot liquid off my body, all the time going, “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow...”

“Fran!.” Helix leapt up and began to pat down the areas of my hide where I had spilled boiling tea with a damp cloth; she must have whizzed from the kitchen in a second. “I am so sorry. Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

“Its almost boiling water, what do you think.” I said half laughing, half through gritted teeth as I held back tears. That really really hurt!

“I am so sorry, I didn’t know that was going to have such an effect on you.”

“Yeah, there’s a reason we don’t usually touch each others horns.” I took the cloth and held it against a spot on my inner leg that had got hit the worst, the coolness briefly relieving the hazing, hot pain that was beginning to grow. “Do you have a first aid kit?” I hissed through my teeth.

“No, I don’t think so...” Helix magically dunked the cloth in the sink again and then held it to my leg. “Oh, I am so sorry.”

“Its fine. Nothing a little Med-X can’t fix or a swig from a healing potion.”

“Do you want to go to medical?”

“I don’t know, maybe. Ice water and a towel will do for now until your mum gets back. Her magic will do the trick.” I gasped as I felt the hot sensation beginning to override the coolness of the cloth. “Ice. Get ice.”

Nodding, Helix passed me the cloth, got up and went to the sink, lifting out a bowl from a cupboard. After filling it half full of ice from the freezer she went to the sink and turned on the tap.

“That’s odd?”

“What is?” I asked.

“There is no water coming out?”

I couldn’t remember that ever happening before. “Try the other one,” I suggested.

“Nothing. Hang on I’ll go and try in the bathroom.” Helix disappeared into the next room.

I jumped slightly at a knock on the door. “Come in,” I called, unlocking the door with my magic.

The Overmare entered followed by a member of the medical staff that I recognised as working with my mother. They both looked at me lying on the sofa holding the towel to my burnt leg and stomach. The medical mare instantly came over and pointed her horn at my scalded coat. Her horn glowed and I could physically feel the cells in my body rapidly regenerate. Within seconds there was no indication that I had injured myself at all.

“Thank you…” I said, rather surprised.

“You’re welcome,” the other mare replied sadly. Why did she sound upset? I glanced back to the Overmare and she, too, looked shaken.

“None of those work...” Helix came back into the room with the bowl still full of ice. She stopped dead at the sight of the Overmare. “What’s going on?”

“Take a seat Helix,” the Overmare said in a voice of forced calm. Helix settled herself down next to me looking very anxious. The Overmare took a deep breath “I’m guessing you both know about the explosion that happened earlier?” We both nodded. “Well I’m afraid that it had some unforeseen side effects.”

I didn’t like waltz’s.

Ping... step, step.

Something about the music sounded slightly drunk-

Ping... step, step.

-and how the dancers never were.

Ping... step, step.

And who invented three-four?

Ping... step, step.

I ought to give them a right good buck.

My assent to the surface had turned into some kind of ridiculous dance, all in the name of trying to keep myself moving. I had gone through so many stupid walking patterns that by the time I figured out what fit I doubt it really mattered any more. What I had ended up with was just plain stupid, but it had been the only one I could think of that matched the EVA suit’s slightly delayed walking style.

The only other consolation was that I could swear that I could see out of the water above me. The cliff edge had been rising slowly and steadily, presumably moulded by the flowing water which I was still pushing slightly against. My PipBuck said that I was one hundred feet down after twenty minutes, so I was half for half, but needed to pick up the pace. I didn’t want to run out of air just metres from the surface.

Ping... step, step.

Ping... step, step.

Ping... step, Ping...

I immediately scanned my EFS and spotted the singular large signature heading straight for me. Damn that thing had closed in fast. I spun, reaching for the harpoon on instinct before realizing that I had lost the damn thing. ‘And you fired it to’ my inner pony added. So I did the one thing I could. I turned and ran. I ran as fast as I could.

Ping... Ping...

My inner pony decided it would be fun to count off the distance as the thing closed.

Ping Ping...

'Thirty meters.'

Pin-Ping...

'Twenty meters.'

Pi-Ping...

I wasn't going to make it... not by a long shot. If this was how it was all going to end than I was at least going to put up a fight. Skidding to a halt I faced my foe. With no real weapons I used the only thing left at my disposal. The glow from my horn filled the area around me with light.

P-Pin...

The thing came bursting into view out of the darkness. Another mass of black, but this time it was glinted with white and much, much bigger. I fired my spark spell. The black, glittering monster deftly spiraled away from my bubbling jet but it got caught in the backwash of the spell and let out an almighty screech that I could feel resonate through the water.

I followed its movements with my EFS as it circled. It charged; I fired. The same thing happened again. It dodged left with a flick of its fins, but not fast enough. It let out another pained screech as the bubbles scorched its scales.

I watched the dot pan round my EFS and then swing in for a third time. I waited and this time fired slightly to the left, into the area that it had dodged in its last two attacks. It worked! The creature swam directly into my spark spell. Its head warped with the impact and it released an ear splitting wail. Glistening hide had peeled away to reveal a blistered and twisted under skin.

Then I realised it wasn’t the spell doing the damage, but the stream of superheated water that it left in its wake. The scales were designed to stop fangs and claws, not eight hundred degree gauts of water and steam.

The monster contorted in pain, twisting broadside. In the dim light from my horn I finally saw its glistening profile. Five metres long, but only half a metre high in the main body, it was more like an underwater snake than a fish. It had trio’s of fins positioned along its length tapering down to a singular deadly looking spike on its tail. A mouth split into three, with rows of razor sharp white fangs lining the inside. Its entire body was covered in black, shiny scales, almost like slivers of overlapping obsidian.

The creature unleashed a sudden burst of speed and opened its maw. I fired off a single shot of boiling water in an attempt to fend it off. The jet went straight down the creatures mouth, but didn’t stop it from slamming into me and grabbing hold of my helmet in its fully extended jaws.

I fired repeatedly into the monsters maw as it swam in all manner of directions, squealing and grunting with every gout of steam that expanded down its throat.

A light flashed up on the inside of my helmet. A light that I had never seen illuminated before but I knew from my training it was bad. The overload indicator. The monster’s bite must have been grabbing hold of part of the repulsion field and the suit was compensating for the increased pressure by pumping more energy into that sector. It was too much. The deconstruction talisman was under too much strain. Any moment now it was going to give out and then it would be a fight between the lack of air, the crushing water pressure and the monster’s jaws over which would kill me first.

I felt myself and the creature slam into the ground. We tumbled and rolled in dirt, kicking up pebbles and rocks. The deconstruction talisman failed. I saw another fracture lance across the my visor. The monsters teeth sunk into my chest. I let out an involuntary bolt of magic. The monster released me but the teeth that had punctured my chest remained. I caught a glimpse of sky, a flash of glistening black and then white.

I cried. I cried until all my tears were spent, until my chest hurt, until my eyes were raw. Even then, I couldn’t hold back the tidal wave of grief.

I couldn’t.

All I could see in my mind was the face of my mother as the last breath of air left her lungs and water flooded in. The fear in her eyes as her body gasped for air that wasn’t there. And then the fading light in her eyes as life fled from her body.

It was the gas. The stupid gas. And the stupid repulsion field and the freshwater pipes. The whole thing was stupid. But my mind couldn’t come up with a better way of doing it.

The Overmare and the medical pony that had tried to revive my mother had left hours ago and now it was just Helix, Adenine, and I. Adenine was cooking dinner, now that the stupid water had been turned back on, and I lay on the sofa with my head in Helix’s lap.

I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t know how to start coming to terms with what had just happened. I didn’t think Helix knew how either. Her mother was just metres away, healthy and alive, but so easily it could have been Adenine that had died, and I could just see, in that way that Helix was staring into space, that’s what was rushing through her mind.

And then it came floating back to me. ‘See you tonight love.’

And I had said nothing in reply. I’d just let her hug me while I thought about what amazing breakfast I was going to conjure up in her absence. I felt the touch of her hooves and her embrace as she held me and loathed my inattentiveness for not savouring every nanosecond of her touch.

The flood of tears returned and suddenly I was on my hooves kicking the ground as hard as I could to vent my anger at my own body. It wasn’t enough. I turned and slammed my forehooves down on the coffee table in front of me. They went clean through, the reconstituted plastic fracturing easily under the shock loading. I beat it again and again until it was in more than a dozen pieces littered all over the floor.

I stood there panting. Silent tears streaming down my face before I slowly fell to my knees amidst the shattered fragments. How could I have been so insensitive to my own mother. I hated myself, I really did and I didn’t know if I could ever forgive myself.

“Fran?” A frightened voice asked. I looked round at Helix, her hoof on my shoulder. She glanced at the remains of the coffee table.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, with practiced ease I began to reassembled all the pieces. A few smaller fragments had pinged across the room or had gone missing under the furniture, but within ten minutes I had ninety percent of the table back together. At least I was good at something.

I looked up at the sound of the door opening. Tungsten slid quietly into the room but stopped at the sight of Helix and I. He looked apprehensively from me to Helix and then to his mother as if asking if he was allowed in. Helix patted the seat next to her and Tungsten took the hint, taking a seat next to his sister.

I glanced up at Tungsten from my position on the floor. He smiled back trying his best to look reassuring and comforting. That in itself was a little lift, but it didn’t change my mood. He glanced around at the little pieces of plastic littering the floor. “What happened?’ he asked casually.

I was about to respond when thankfully Adenine spoke up. “Dinner is ready. Tun, do you want some?”

“Sure mum.” he replied, not taking his eyes off me.

Adenine brought over three bowls of mushroom soup and laid them carefully on the newly repaired table. With a flick of her magic she pulled out three soup cups, salt, ground seaweed and laid it on the table before us. I retook my seat next to Helix and took a bowl in my hooves.

“Make sure you don’t drop that like earlier.” Helix smiled slightly at me.

“That was all your fault remember.” I returned the smile but I didn’t feel it inside.

I levitated the soup cup, filled it and lifted it to my lips. It smelled delicious. Hints of various herbs blended perfectly with the nutty twang of the mushrooms and all of this was being gently floated to my nose by the rising steam. I took a slight sip and felt the warming broth slide down my throat. For an instant I was gripped by a sudden fear that it was going to flood my lungs and I would drown in a room full of air.

“Are you alright?” Adenine intoned. “Not enough salt?”

“No, it’s perfect.” I assured her taking another sip. “It’s perfect.”

I drowned. I must have. The huge black monster. It’s white fangs digging into my side. The moment the deconstruction talisman failed. The flash of white.

I opened my eyes.

Stones greeted my vision. No, pebbles. Rounded, smooth, and numerous different muted shades of blue, green and grey. Two cracks ran across the visor of my helmet and taste the orange twang of Rad-away. One of the small valves had come off and the entire contents of the bag had been squeezed into my helmet. I slurped it up; no point in wasting it.

I considered rolling over and eventually came to the conclusion that it couldn’t get much worse. I was so wrong.

The moment I moved I felt the presence of the two fangs digging deep into my chest. I collapsed back onto the shale groaning in pain. I didn’t want to move again, but I knew I had to. Clearly no one was around and no one was coming to help me. I forced myself to sit up so I could see the damage, gasping for breath.

Both perfectly white teeth were buried a good four to five inches into my side. One parted my lowest pair of ribs, while the other stuck into the side of my gut. Both were excruciatingly painful and yet somehow I didn’t seem to care that much. There was a slight smattering of blood on the pebbles were I had lain unconscious, far less than I would have expected. EVA suit’s rubber seemed to be keeping them, stopping me from bleeding to death, however they would have to come out if I was going to get healed.

I brought up my magic and opened up a pouch on my hind leg to pull out the one healing potion I had. But it wasn’t there. I felt down with my hoof and let out a cry of frustration. The glass vial that contained the potion had been shattered in the struggle with the black monster. All that was left was a collection of glass fragments.I panicked for a moment, feeling for the vials of algae. A wave of relief washed over me when I found all three still intact.

Looking around through the fog, trying to see where I was and found myself jumping, then cursing at the resulting stab of pain. Through my watery eyes I saw the black monster, beached on the shale just a few metres away. Blood seeped between the joints in its scales where I had scalded it on the outside, dripping down onto the pebbles. I could see where I had fired shot after shot of boiling liquid into its mouth. The flesh inside its mouth had scrunched up and tuned a horrible sick red colour, leaking a sick yellow pus from the wound.

I began to slowly drag myself away from it; I didn’t want to survive one attack to be done over by another. But had I survived? If I couldn’t heal myself in time I would probably catch an infection or bleed to death internally. No this battle for survival was very much still on.

“Come on Fran. Think! What do you need? What do you have?” I looked around again. “I have nothing that can improve my condition as it stands. No healing potions. I have Rad-away but my rad levels are in the green.” I sat and thought for a moment. “What I need is to get help. By getting myself to it... or bringing it to me. A fire? No, that could bring the wrong kind of attention. What else? Can’t think of anything else.”

I flopped onto my back and lifted up my left hoof to look at my PipBuck. “Where are you in comparison to High-Voltage?” I raised my eyes in surprise. “Wow. Only one and a half miles from the hut.” I looked in the direction of the city and could just make out the two vast towers through the haze. “Right you have a destination. Now you just need to get there.”

The only option I had was to drag myself on my back, using both my fore hooves to pull and my right leg to push. I tried to move my left leg but the pain was excruciating. I suspected that I had broken my leg, possibly in several places. I couldn’t lean forward to apply a splint and I could never risk using my magic as the pain might cause it to judder or jerk and screw it up even more.

No. I was just going to have to drag my badly injured body all the way to High-Voltage.

“Well,” I gritted my teeth, “here goes nothing.”

Every event in my life become tortuous. From pulling my limp body out of bed in the morning, to when I slipped asleep on the sofa with my aching head resting on someponies shoulder at night. Helix usually stayed, but sometimes Tungsten would care for me. Daily life around others in the stable was far less soothing. One long perpetual river of pity, flowing in one ear and straight out the other. It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate the gestures of sympathy and solidarity I received, I just didn’t care. I had too much else to fight through without accepting other ponies sadness as well.

My mother’s funeral had come and gone; the customary ceremonial incineration then scattering of ashes throughout the four sections of the orchard. I had been offered the privilege of being the first to scatter but knew the moment they handed me the ornate titanium urn I would break down in tears. I had let Adenine take my place, it seemed only right as she had been as close to Lithium as I was to Helix; I probably owed my close friendship with Helix to my mother. I wondered for a moment how Adenine felt at this moment having lost her best friend.

I was stirred from my stupor with with a change in the light around me. “Fran?” I looked round and was surprised to see Tungsten. I’d been so lost in my thoughts that he’d had to stand next to me before I had even registered he was there.

Tungsten set a saddle bag down beside me. “May I?” He gestured to the ground. I gave the tiniest nod and then turned back to staring into space.

Tungsten adopted the same position as me; leaning against the warm metal wall of the orchard, hind legs flopped out before him, fore legs falling naturally across his chest. I tilted my head back and let it knock against the metal wall with a slight bump, looking up at the ceiling and the banks of artificial sunlight bulbs set into the roof. Tungsten copied me, just without the bump.

“Fran. I don’t want you to take this the wrong way but you need to look after yourself.”

“How so?” I mumbled back without moving a muscle.

“Helix said that she and mum have been having trouble getting you to eat anything, or even drink.”

“So?”

“So, it’s not good. We know you’re in a lot of pain and you just want to think and be alone, but you need to take care of your own body or you’ll end up in even more pain.”

Was he pleading with me? “And?”

“And we don’t want to see you get hurt even more. I don’t want you to hurt any more.”

I considered for a moment “I can’t hurt any more than I do now.”

“Perhaps you can’t, but those around you can.”

“Like who?”

“Helix for a start. She came home from school today, tears streaming down her face. All because she’s frightened that she’ll lose you. Your pain is spreading and hurting those around you and if you don’t stop you may lose them as well.”

I turned and looked Tungsten right in the eye. “I don’t care,” I said as coldly as I could.

“Really?”

“I told you I don’t care about anypony.” I hissed back viciously.

“Then why are you crying?”

I lifted my hoof and felt the wetness on my cheeks. A single drop ran down and curled under my lip and onto my tongue. The slightly salty taste cut through my blended pallet. Before I knew it I was on top of Tungsten, hooves wrapped tight around him crying like I had never cried before. Then I whispered the only thing that made it through my scrambled and bruised mind.

“Help... me. Please.”

Tungsten held me, his hooves slowly wrapped around me, squeezing gently. If he was surprised at my breakdown he concealed it well. I pressed my muzzle into his rich silvery coat. It was much more coarse and dense than his sister’s, even slightly rough, but I didn’t care in the slightest. He let me hug and cry all I could, gently rocking me in his embrace, until I couldn’t hold on any longer. All my energy gone I rolled off him and collapsed onto the grass, enjoying the coolness against my back. Tungsten pulled himself up, opening his saddlebag. He pulled out a flask and a soup bowl and set it on the grass next to me.

“Mum said that you really enjoyed her mushroom soup so she whipped up another batch.” With care, Tungsten poured out a small amount of soup into the bowl and then helped me up. He set me back against the wall of the orchard and passed me the bowl. I reached out with my magic but found that I couldn’t lift the bowl. I tried again but my horn just wouldn’t work.

“She suspected as much. You’ve become too weak and dehydrated to be able to formulate your magic properly. Here.” He held it out for me and I took it in my hooves. I could smell the rich blend of aromas and suddenly found myself drinking it down as fast as I could. It was a good thing it had cooled, else I’d have scalded myself, again.

Tungsten poured me another bowl and waited until I had finished a second serving before talking again. “This will probably seem a strange question, but what do you feel you need help with?” I looked at him, confused. “Well, why haven’t you been drinking or eating properly?”

“I don’t know. Well, I kind of do but it seems silly.” He just waited patiently for me. “I don’t want to notice that she is gone so I kind of stopped doing everything that made me think of her.”

“And that included eating and drinking?”

“Eating, drinking, waking, walking, sleeping, resting, reading. Everything. So I just came down here and did... nothing.”

“I can’t say I completely understand, but I can see why. It seems... logical.”

“Why is that important?”

Tungsten opened his mouth and then shut it again. Wait, was he blushing.

“Why?” I persisted.

“Because it’s just like you. You’re logical Francium. In everything you do. You think things through and take the sensible and reasoned approach. In this case, pain came from association. Take away the association and you can take away some of the pain.” He gave me a warm rich, even radiant smile. Like he was proud of me.

“But it didn’t work. By doing nothing I had nothing to distract me. And not only that; I caused other people pain, too.” I shyed away only to feel his hoof touch my chin.

I let him guide me back up and I took his gaze. His metallic blue-grey irises caught me and I before I knew it I was kissing him.

It lasted only for a moment. When we broke apart Tungsten was looking at me in shock. He had clearly not seen it coming. In all honesty neither had I, but I wasn’t sorry that I’d done it.

“Fran, I...” He began, but he didn’t seem to know what to say. He thought for a moment more before taking my gaze again, but this time he looked serious. “Fran, its not that I’m not flattered but I just want you to think. I know you are looking for someone to be close to--I would if I had lost my mother--but just be sure that its what you really want and not an act of desperation.” He flushed deeply. “Please don’t take that the wrong way.” He added after a moment.

I nodded slowly. “No, you‘re right... I... I need to think... think everything through. Alone,” I added.

Tungsten nodded back just as slowly. He began to pack his things back up, fumbling slightly. I was going to let him just walk off but I needed to say something.

“Tungsten? he turned. “Thank you for the soup.” he smiled weakly. “And thank you for being logical and rational.” Now that was the smile I liked; the warm radiant one.

Tungsten left me sitting in the orchard, lying on the soft green grass, watching the leaves wave in the downdraft from the SRS and feeling something I hadn’t felt in weeks. Happy

There was something terribly monotonous about the way I forced myself across the damp earth, leaving a shallow trail in the mud where my injured leg dangled limply. It was just a case of repeating the same moves over and over and over, every time forcing myself another leg length closer to High-Voltage.

I had managed to halve the distance to the small hut, for all the good it did. I could feel my body tiring rapidly as the light beginning to fade. Before, I’d been running on the remaining adrenaline boost from the monster attack and the motivation of knowing what I needed to do; now, I was running on nothing but willpower. The temptation to just flop down and sleep was so strong, if only my inner pony would let me lay. I was also convinced that I was suffering from severe dehydration, or maybe poison from the black creatures fangs because I was having a very convincing argument... With myself.

“Well, you’ve really done it this time haven’t you, Fran?” I snapped.

“What do you mean, this time?” I thought back.

“You know what you mean. All of this is your fault.” I shoved myself along the floor.

I snorted “Oh please. How is this my fault? I got attacked by a giant multi-jawed black monster!”

“Well, you know how to sidestep a question.” I said darkly

“I chose to help them. Me. High-Voltage. One thousand ponies. Without me they would not stand a chance.” I shouted at myself.

“Again, you’re missing your point.” I replied flatly.

“Ok, so I have two agendas. Help High-Voltage so we can track the signal from the PipBuck.” I admitted.

“Still no.”

I threw up my hooves in dismay and ended up flat on my back. “The tube! There was nothing we could have done. Besides, haven’t we had that argument before?”

“Yes we have, but no, not the tube.”

“Well, then I don’t know. Just tell me.” I snapped back, dragging myself up.

“Well, it all has something to do with you trying to play the hero.” Why did I say ‘Hero’ like it was a bad thing.

“I’m not trying to play the hero here. I’m trying to help. I’m trying to make sure that ponies don’t die.”

“Why are you trying?” I questioned. “No one asked Miss Francium to help. No one said she should. No one wants her to help.”

“That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t”

“No, I’m not saying don’t, I’m just trying to get you to examine why you’re doing this. Look at where it’s landed you? Helping one thousand ponies could well get you killed and at the bare minimum might send you completely fucking loopy! Come on, you’re having an argument with yourself for Celestia’s sake.”

“I can resolve the argument between my ego and superego when I am dead,” I retorted. “I can sit them round a table along with my Id and the four of us can play a few games of poker; really get to the bottom of our personal issues.”

“So which of those am I?” I asked.

“How am I supposed to know. I’m doped up on some kind of venom, seriously dehydrated, and slowly bleeding to death.” I thought back furiously. “You could be an egg in my ovaries that is really cross about probably never getting the chance to become a pony because I prefer mares, for all I know. Or perhaps the pain in my lower left rib incarnate, come to add verbal abuse to the crushing physical pain.”

“No really... who do you think I am?” I asked.

I stopped. My voice barely above a whisper, I asked, "Who am I?"

“Who am I?” I asked again a little louder.

“Who am I?” I repeated louder still.

Then I realised. I didn’t know.

Here I was, half dead, dragging myself across the muddy banks at the shore of the lake that I had once called home, trying to get back so that I could save one pony in one thousand, all so that I could have even a slim chance of being able to save what remained of my former life.

I had lost all grounding on who and what I stood for. In the stable it had been easy. You had a position, expectations and rules to follow. You never bothered breaking the rules, there was no real gain to be had. You did as you were supposed to and got to do what you liked in your free time.

But now there was no pattern, no tangible position of leadership, no logical progression of life... or death.

And with no rules there was no way of knowing how to... well the only phrase that seemed to fit was ‘how to play the game’. You would do something expecting somepony else to reciprocate in a certain way, to the rules you played by, but it wouldn’t come back as you expected as that other pony would play by a different set of rules. So how could you possibly win?

I collapsed, looking up at the darkening sky and the omnipresent clouds. I didn’t know how to live anymore, what my position was, what was expected of me, what the rules were.

A voice came from the back of my mind. It was one I rarely heard but I knew exactly what it was. “You know what that means don’t you Francium.”

“What?” I gasped through the lump in my throat.

“You need to choose how to live. You need to make your position.” the voice whispered slyly.

“And?” I asked. But I knew what was coming.

“Make everypony else play by your rules.”

I didn’t remember quite how I made it back; It all seemed to just blur together, just dragging myself across the dirt. But what will forever stand out in my mind was the sight of Helix looking over me.

“Move aside!” Some pony ordered. I think it was Clear Shot, but I couldn’t be sure. “Get a stretcher and somepony wake Stitches. Now!”

My vision swam in and out of focus but I could make out Helix’s beautiful soft purple coat; nothing else shone quite like that.

“Helix.” I groaned.

“Don’t talk.” She replied sternly.

There was a clatter as some pony arrived with a stretcher. I felt them slide it up to me and herd them counting as they prepared to move me.

“No... pockets. Algae.” I felt some pony pat me down and felt the vials slip from my pockets. “Enough?” I asked.

I felt a hoof run through my mane with the touch only a lover would use. “Plenty.”

And that was all I needed to hear. I felt like I was back in Stable Seventeen after a hard days work. Letting that thought fill my mind; the sensation of collapsing onto my bed, fully clothed and filthy, I set aside the rough motion of the stretcher, the calls and shouts for help and quickly drifted off to sleep.

Footnote: Level Up!
Quest Perk: I will survive!
After surviving another near death experience you seem to be working out how best not to get yourself killed.
20% Damage Reduction when in combat and HP is below 50%.