My Little Pony: Slaves to Celestia

A story of PEACE and QUIET

Chapter 5 - Sun Valley Hills

Run, Run, Run from the Night

Another couple of uneventful hours passed as we journeyed on.

The soldiers chattiness had only lasted as long and everypony had returned to their gloomy silence once we moved on from the road ambush.

We hadn’t met anyone else after the ambush, the helicopter patrols Dispatch had sent out had likely scared the bandits along the road into hiding, yet we had neither heard or seen a single helicopter during our trip.

The trees and surrounding foliage had begun to thin out a bit, quite obviously we were beginning to draw near the grassy plains, and just in time too, dusk had begun and after a period of absolute silence in the surrounding woods we had begun hearing distant hissing and cackling sounds similar to those of the Bogeymen who had clung to the walls of the outpost.

But I heard another noise in the background.

A distant repeating noise... rotor blades?

“*It’s beautiful...*” Bonnie said in astonishment while looking down the road.

The trees abruptly stopped about 200 meters down the road, revealing the biggest and absolutely flattest plain you ever saw bathed in the golden orange glow of the setting sun.

Now, the setting sun is a sight we ponies had only just recently began seeing.

Not even ten years ago the raising of the sun was a duty that Celestia herself was responsible of, every day and evening she would raise and lower the sun and the moon using her powers as per tradition.

But not anymore.

She stopped doing that and after a few days the sun simply began raising itself, very slowly.

Turns out the sun didn't need rising after all.

The days were the exact same length as before, but the transition from night to day had become tremendously longer now.

Nopony really seemed to mind, and the lightshows created by the setting sun put Equestria in awe.

Now it is simply considered ‘natural’ for the sun to raise and lower by itself.

As we drew closer to the edge of the forest we spotted the distant shape of a very slim tower, it was hard to make out any detail with the blinding orange sun being directly behind the shape, but I knew that it was Sun Valley Hills.

I looked at Bonnie, it wasn't the sun he had been in awe over, he was looking towards the north-west at the seven rapidly moving black shapes flying over the fields in our direction.

“What’s that?” Blizzard Candy wondered.

“Gunships. Seven of them.” I replied.

Blizzard Candy, Nurse Swirly and Strawberry Feather simply stopped and looked towards the sky at the passing black Overwatch helicopters, they crossed the distance in great speed and blew up a mighty wind as they passed by with the deafening sound of their rotors.

By the looks on their faces they had quite clearly never seen a helicopter in their lives before.

I looked briefly at Manie as the choppers had passed just overhead and saw her muttering something at the choppers with an expression of disgust and hatred.

The helicopters had passed by and were disappearing off into the distance to our south, yet the three of them were still standing frozen gazing off in the direction the choppers had gone.

“*Uh... are you guys alright?*” Bonnie asked hesitantly. He got no response.

“*Those were overwatch helicopter gunships. They are on our side? Guys?*”

There was a long pause, then Blizzard Candy slowly looked at Bonnie and said,

“That... is the... scariest fucking thing I have ever seen in my entire life.”

And then he just resumed walking.

‘Scariest fucking thing’ and this comes from a pony that survived a slaughter by nightmarish monsters by hiding behind a puny steel door just the night before.

“*They are just helicopters...*” Bonnie muttered before continuing onward.

The entire surrounding plains were flat and even, this wasn’t the kind of area I had expected from the name ‘Sun Valley HILLS’.

But it was all the better I suppose, there is simply no way we could be ambushed on a straight road going through a plain patrolled by helicopters.

By now the sun had almost completely set and it didn't take long before a shadowy darkness fell across the plains, soon it became impossible to see anything in the pitch black darkness.

In the distance Sun Valley Hills lit up with a myriad of white lights, acting as a beacon for us.

The soldiers helmet lenses lit up with a dull cyan blue glow, all except for Bonnie’s helmet.

Instead he deactivated his helmet and removed it in favor of his boonie hat and night vision goggles.

“Our helmets come with a built in night vision. But the damn thing is so hard to see in and is so limited that it is simply better to bring a more advanced piece of equipment.” he explained, having noticed my looks in the darkness.

His night vision I noticed, had three lenses which glowed of a powerful yellow.

“Sunny... used to wear a pair just like these early on when we still did nighttime patrols...”

“Guys?” Blizzard Candy called from the darkness behind us.

“The rest of us are going in the dark here? How about some light so we know where to go?”

Nurse Swirly lit a lantern on inside the wagon, it was faint, but at least we knew where the wagon was, and that was all we needed to know.

“I... guess that will do. Thanks.”

I started to feel cold and nervous, I couldn’t see a damn thing behind us.

“Bonnie, are we at a safe distance from the woods?” I asked him.

Bonnie looked back towards the east, where we had came from.

He waited unusually long to give his answer.

“Uh... yes.” he announced loudly.

Then he came closer to me and whispered.

“Don’t panic and don't alarm the rest of the group.”

“What do you mean?” I whispered back.

“Look, slowly behind us.”

I looked back to where we had came from and my blood froze.

In the far distance I saw a large lumbering black shape in the darkness, two intense red dots marked it’s head and eyes, they were unmoving, we weren’t getting farther away and the dots weren’t getting any closer.

Whatever was stalking us it was keeping a distance.

“What... what the hell is that!?” I hissed at Bonnie.

“Do you want me to describe it?” he asked calmly.

“Yes!”

“I see... a very tall muscular humanoid creature, towering above the treeline. It looks like a nightmarish twisted bald form of a wildling, it has a set of sharp fangs for teeth.”

“Oh goddess!”

“How far behind us is it?!”

“About... uh... ten kilometers, I think? It is by the treeline slowly walking towards us...”

“Ten kilometers? How do you even see that far?”

“I don’t. It’s a giant. It is just that big.”

"That thing is a fucking giant!?"

“Look, calm down and keep your voice down. I said don’t panic and don’t alarm the others, the last thing we want is for the giant to be alarmed. So keep quiet and don’t panic.”

I felt somepony bump into me.

“Uh...” Manie said from right next to me, “Who is this?”

“It’s me Manie.”

“Oh, Sweet Heavens. Hey. Is that Bonnie with you?”

“Hello triple M.”

“That’s double M now.”

“Look,” she said lowering her voice, “This may be a bit hard to explain, but I can feel that something is following us...”

“We know. Keep your voice down and Bonnie will explain.”

“Okay.”

“Look behind us, slowly and do not panic.” Bonnie instructed.

There was a brief moment of silence.

“Guys?”

“Yes Manie?”

“What am I looking at?”

“That would be a giant.” Bonnie said.

“A giant.” Manie repeated. I could feel her begin shivering from where I was walking.

“W-what kind of giant?” she stammered.

“A giant giant.”

“Har har, very funny."

"But seriously, what is that following us?”

“A gigantic multistory night creature version of a wildling.”

“Ok...”

A few minutes passed in silence, the only sound being heard being our hooves on the road and the wheels of the wagon.

“Guys?” Manie whispered again.

“Yes Manie?”

“What does a wildling look like?”

“You must be joking.” Bonnie remarked.

“Never been this serious in my life.”

“You, the great Manie Manie, has never seen a wildling?”

“I am not so sure what is so great about me. But no. Never.”

“Okay...” Bonnie sighed. “Have you ever seen a monkey?”

“No.”

"You have NEVER seen a monkey?"

"No."

"Not even in books?"

"No."

"Wow."

"Have you ever seen a gorilla then?”

“No.”

“A chimpanzee?”

“No primates of any kind."

“Have you seen ANY kind of bipedal tailless mammal?”

“That’s a bit too broad.”

Bonnie didn’t answer, I imagined him giving Manie a disapproving look in the darkness.

“Okay, so I didn’t pay much attention to the Equestrian wildlife back home. Big whoop.”

“Just describe what a wildling looks like to me.”

“Fine. I’ll try.” Bonnie said.

“Okay. So imagine a hairless creature with pale skin walking on two legs.”

“You follow this far?"

Manie let out an irritated sigh.

“Yes. Go on.”

“The creature is about 1.5-2 meters tall, has two arms, each being ca 50cm-1m in length with what can best be described as a hand with four fingers and one thumb on the end.”

“Do you know what a hand is Manie?”

“I guess... kinda like a hoof, but with grasping parts right?”

“Eh... well, close enough.”

“Their legs are just under their total body length and have feet with four toes and one big toe.”

“Familiar with feet?”

“Are feet like hands?”

“Not really.”

"What about chicken feet?"

"No..."

"Paws?"

"Nothing like it."

“Then no.”

“So a foot can best be described as a hoof, but flat, long, smelly and with five toes attached.”

“Can it grasp things like the hand?”

“No." Bonnie sighed.

"Toes can not grasp things.”

“Gotcha. What else can you describe?”

“Wildlings stand fully erect on their two legs and walk goofily. The males have a bulky chest with strong ribs and the females have two growths that depending on wildling resemble either small lumps or water balloons.”

“For what purpose?”

“Breastfeeding I think.”

“So wildling females breastfeed their children from water balloons hanging out of their chest?”

“Yes? I don’t know, I am not really a wildling expert, I am just telling you what they look like.”

“Alright then. Go on.”

“Attached to this torso of theirs they have a very short neck and a head, about the size of a normal ball. The head is sort of egg shaped, has a very flat or crooked nose on the center, a small mouth underneath the nose, they have two very small eyes slightly above the nose on either side. On either side of the head they have very short and sea shell shaped ears.”

“Now, ON the head they grow hair.”

“So kinda like our manes then?”

“No no. It ONLY grows ON TOP of their head, their hair doesn't grow on the back of their necks like ours.”

“Oooookay?”

“Anything else?”

“That is basically it.”

“So a wildling is a hairless bipedal mammal that walks erect on two legs with two flat ‘feet’, it grasps things with ‘hands’ which are a sort of hoof with grasping ‘fingers’ that are attached to 50cm-1m arms. The males have bulky chests with strong ribs and the females have water balloon like growths that serve as breasts. They have egg shaped heads with flat faces, sea shells for ears and grow hair exclusively on the top of their head.”

“That about how you described them?”

“Uh... I guess. Yeah.”

“Ok.”

The two became silent for another while.

“And that is what is following us?”

“Except bigger.”

More silence.

“Male or female?” Manie asked with a hint of indecision in her tone.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the mental image I got from that.

“What is so funny?” she wondered.

“Sorry. I just imagined a multistory humanoid with large sea shells for ears and massive water balloon like growths dangling back and forth from it's chest."

"I mean the way he described the growths as ‘water balloons’ was already large, but since it is a GIANT that is following us the growths must grow bigger too right?”

Manie thought about it for a brief moment.

“Yeah I guess it would be funny to you. You sick pervert.”

“Huh? What?”

Bonnie laughed.

“She was making a jab at you for thinking that disproportionate wildling breasts were funny seeing as pony mares don’t have those kind of growths.” Bonnie said.

My mind wandered off in the wrong direction and pictured a mare with the kind of growths described.

That didn’t seem right. That didn’t seem right at all.

“That’s not very funny.” I said bitterly.

“So you like them flat? Is that what you are saying?” Manie tentatively suggested.

“Stop it.”

“Why? I thought you liked these kind of discussions.”

“Exactly when was that established?”

“Oh I have seen the way you look at me sometimes. I don’t even need my 6th sense to see what's on your mind.”

What prompted this conversation?

Yeah okay, so I hadn’t exactly been very furtive and secret about looking her up from time to time, but still, what gives?

“Dear Manie," I said, "We have only just meet."

"I assure you that it takes more than a couple of days to get to know me and my intentions...”

“Yet in these few days you have saved my life twice. Thrice if you count arresting me while I was nearly overdosing back in Equestria... The first time, understandably, you were under orders and did your job. But the other two... you didn’t have to save me back in Helsinghoof, or in New Prospect."

"You could have left me whenever.”

"We have been through this, this is my job."

“I would have done the same for anypony under my responsibility.”

"And guess what? You are under my responsibility, so that makes it my job to protect you."

“Ah, but I think you did it for me, because you didn’t want to lose me."

"You want me Sweet Heavens.”

She said that last part with her muzzle being right by my ear, almost biting me as she spoke.

Was she coming onto me?

“Why so clingy all of a sudden? What are your intentions?”

“What I...” Manie went strangely silent all of a sudden.

“G-g-giant...!!” she said in an alarmed tone.

I looked behind us and saw that the two red dots were much much closer and bigger to us than before.

The towering dark shape was standing maybe one kilometer away from us and was coming closer towards us!

“DISPATCH! DISPATCH! COME IN DISPATCH!!” Bonnie yelled over his radio.

“*Hello. Berry 2. How can I assist?*”

“WE GOT A GIANT DIRECTLY EAST OF SUN VALLEY HILLS, IT IS RIGHT ON OUR TAIL AND IS ADVANCING ON OUR WAGON! REQUESTING IMMEDIATE FIRE SUPPORT!"

"FIRE DAMNIT! FIRE ANYTHING! GET THAT THING OFF OF US!!!”

“*Copy Berry 2. Standby for guidance strike. Danger close. I repeat, danger close.*”

A mere few seconds after the last message the tower off in the distance shot out a red laser which zoomed in on the giant.

The glowing red light lit up the giant like a christmas tree, revealing it’s pitch black skin, horrifying and nightmarish face and muscular stature.

But this wasn’t the attack, this was some type of spotlight, or maybe it was a laser designator?

Whatever it was it was making the giant angry, it growled madly at the light.

In another few seconds seven missiles from Sun Valley Hills whizzed by above us and struck the giant in the chest, the resulting explosions lit a good portion of the plains in short fiery yellow flashes before fading away, engulfing it all in darkness once more.

The giant let out a deep roar and fell with a mighty earth rumbling thud in the distance, shaking the wagon and throwing all of us off our hooves, Manie, Bonnie and I who stood all bunched up at the time fell onto each other into a pile.

I got up quickly and helped Manie and Bonnie up.

“IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT?” I called out to the others.

“We are okay!” Nurse Swirly called back from the dark. “The wagon is still in one piece!”

"*We are okay.*" one of the soldiers announced.

“Holy hell, that was intense!” I said.

“Why did it get so close to us?”

“I don’t know Tombs, alright? I don’t. Know.”

“I’d rather not witness my own laser guidance system this close again.” Manie remarked.

“*Unit. Berry 2. Report status.*” Dispatch called over the radio.

“Berry 2 is OK. Giant is down but I cannot confirm kill.” Bonnie answered.

“*Copy.*” there was a brief moment of static.

“*Attention. Guidance operator reports multiple hostile creatures near the treeline moving towards you. 478 total. ETA 15 minutes. Advice moving into range of Sun Valley Hill perimeter defenses. Gunship support enabled.*”

“Roger that! We are moving!”

“The critters didn’t like us killing their giant, we got a horde incoming! Let’s leg it people!”

We began running, Chef and the soldier pulling the wagon put extra effort into pulling the thing and managed to run full speed despite the weight of it.

We ran and ran and Sun Valley grew closer and closer.

Fifteen gunships flew out of Sun Valley and went full speed over our heads, they opened fire within seconds.

Eventually we got within the range of the perimeter defenses, they didn’t fire immediately, we weren’t the targets obviously, but when they did open fire I was surprised and shocked to hear the artillery and shells land just a short distance behind us, I looked back as we galloped towards the walls and saw a wall of fire engulfing the horde of nightmarish twisted wolves and giant insects chasing after us.

The sight of their huge maws being this close to us only made me run faster and faster.

As we reached the wall the gates opened and the moment the last of us got inside they quickly slammed shut behind us. Not even a minute after that the shrieking of night creatures throwing themselves at the walls could be heard just outside. They were out of range for the big guns now, but the soldiers and turrets on the walls made an excellent job at dispatching the few critters that had survived the charge to the walls and within minutes the shooting died down.

We found ourselves in a sort of well lit inner courtyard surrounded by more walls, Chef and the soldier who had pulled the wagon with him laid exhausted on the ground and the rest of us panted heavily recovering from the several kilometers long sprint we had done to the walls.

Nurse Swirly, Blizzard Candy and Strawberry Feather especially seemed especially drained after the sprint, they weren’t athletically built for this and had been dangerously close to letting go and falling behind. But they made it. Thankfully.

An Overwatch soldier in yellow armor and goggles came to greet us along with a squad of paramedics.

“*That was quite the race you had there! A minute longer and you would have all been worm food!*” he turned to the paramedics. “*They have wounded in the wagon, take them to the hospital immediately.*”

Bonnie and I stood up on shaky legs and went up to him.

“*Ah, you must be the platoon leader of the remnants of Berry 2. Sergeant... Crunch Opal was it?*”

“Yes sir.”

The overwatch soldier turned to me and looked at my group.

“*And you ponies are...?*”

“I am Captain Tombs of Civil Protection. These six ponies are under my responsibility and assignment.”

“*I see. I see.*” the soldier nodded.

“*I am Lieutenant Crone Beetle, of the Overwatch.*”

“*I’m mostly in charge of the perimeter defenses of this joint.*”

“*Sir,*” one of the paramedics called from the wagon, “*One of the wounded is a civilian.*”

“*So what? Take him to the hospital! He deserves the care as much as anypony does!*”

“*Uh. Yes sir. Of course sir.*”

“*Sorry about that. Some of us are very strict around here, someponies wouldn’t lift their hooves to save their dying mothers unless she is part of Overwatch and even then it's only if the right paperwork is filled in. But that’s alright, we all need something pointless to rely on when things look shitty. Smoking, drinking, fucking, being incredibly annoying to others by messing with bureaucratic paperwork and doing everything by the book... whatever works for you.*”

“*Aye, I know what you mean, sir.*” Bonnie agreed.

“*Anyhow, I wasn’t expecting somepony like you to show up tonight captain so I’m afraid I won't have much time to talk with you at the moment. Got a lot of ‘catching up’ to do with the poor sods of Berry 2. But you know, we’ll talk tomorrow.*”

“*I imagine you ponies must be tired, somepony will be over to show you to your rooms for the night in just a few. Stay here for now.*”

He waved at the others from Berry 2.

“*Everypony from Berry 2, with me. We just want to ask you a couple of questions and then you can rest.*”

Bonnie and the others went off with Crone Beetle.

Manie Manie approached me.

“Hey there Sweetie” she greeted me, tiredly.

I realized just now how tired she looked, she had noticeable bags under her eyes and barely managed to keep her eyes open. She had a very weak and tired looking smirk on her face.

“You know, the offer from back at the outpost is still good.”

“Offer? What offer?” I had no idea what she was on about now.

“You know, share a bed...”

I laughed.

“Manie, you are exhausted, you are not thinking clearly.”

“Sure I am...” she yawned.

A pony in a white jumpsuit showed up.

“Hello everypony. Come this way and I’ll show you to your rooms.”

“Come now Manie, let’s tuck you in bed.”

“Yes... that... sounds good.”

The pony in the jumpsuit led us through the streets of Sun Valley Hills, towards the big concrete Overwatch complex. Apparently we were to stay inside the Overwatch compound, as guests.

Sun Valley Hills seemed just as neat as Helsinhoof was, but the main difference was that everything seemed so... incomplete, even more so than Helsinghoof had been, it was as if half the town was a work in progress.

Many benches, lamp posts and signs were still wrapped in plastic, there was construction materiel everywhere and there was only a handful of stores around.

The inn was there, but there was no bar, restaurant or dance club where everypony was hanging out at like there had been in Helsinghoof.

The civilians we saw all seemed to wear the same white jumpsuit, some of their jumpsuits seemed very ragged, torn and dirty, others seemed pristine and clean.

This possibly depended on the kind of job the workers been assigned to.

The mood of the workers was also very different from those of Helsinghoof, they all seemed gloomy and generally unhappy, perhaps as this settlement was further inlands it hadn’t reached the same stage of development as Helsinghoof had and the workers were still unpaid slaves with few freedoms.

The town itself shared many designs with Helsinghoof, many of the buildings used the same concrete prefab design seen in Helsinghoof, they were all low story buildings with flat roofs.

The biggest difference in Sun Valley Hills was the absolutely humongous black tower spiraling up towards the sky, the tower was surrounded by a complex of buildings and walls varying between solid black steel and concrete prefabs.

At the top of the tower was a sort of red sphere with a visible laser actively scanning across the surrounding lands, it looked like an evil eye laser, the kind of weird contraption you only see in bad secret agent movies with bald villains petting white persian cats or like the evil force in that 'Lord of Rings' movie in which two colts need to defeat a floating eye by throwing a magical bracelet into a volcanic fire.

Well inside the complex we got inside a large five story building that shared the same boring interior design with the CP complex back at Equestria.

We got up to the fourth floor and were led to a room with two sofas and a pot plant in each corner, the room had seven doors, three on either side of the entrance and one right across the room, there was one room for each of us.

The rooms themselves weren’t as shabby as I had expected them to be (not that it would have mattered, I would have slept on a wooden plank if I had to, I was beat), they all had broadloom's covering the floors and a queen sized bed each.

Every room had a small bathroom attached and there was a small wardrobe like compartment along with a mirror and a chair.

“These are the rooms given to you. Someone will stop by tomorrow to show you around. Until then, please try to stay put in your rooms, avoid wandering around the complex unsupervised.”

“Thank you.”

“Hey, thank you."

?

"It is thanks to guests like you that I got relieved from the heavier work, AND I get paid too!”

“Oh? Is Sun Valley Hills getting to that stage?”

“Not quite yet. There is still loads of work to do before we move on, I am what you’d call a ‘special case’."

"Seeing as there are so many officials and guests passing by Sun Valley Hills and staying in the compound I was promoted to a sort of valet/guide like position along with a handful of other workers. It’s great!”

“Heh, okay. Well congratulations to you then. Have a good night.”

“You too sir.”

The valet left, Nurse Swirly, Strawberry Feather and Blizzard Candy gave their goodnight s and tiredly retreated into their rooms for a good nights sleep.

Now all I had to do was get this potato sack into bed so I could go and pass out myself.

Manie was barely standing on her legs anymore, I dragged her into one of the rooms, took of her raincoat and hat and got her in under the sheets.

She let out a long happy ‘hmmmmhmm’ hugging the fluffy pillows and thick blanket.

“Alright then. Good night Manie, see you tomorrow at breakfast.”

“Sweet Heavens” she called in a low voice.

“Yes Manie?”

“Please don’t go.”

“I’m tired Manie. It’s been a long day.”

“So sleep in here. There is plenty of room in this bed for two.”

“I don’t know about that Manie.”

“Aw c'mon, at least stay for a while. No," she yawned, "...funny business, I promise.”

I hesitated, I didn't want to sleep in the same bed as her, it was big, but it wasn't that big.

But then, as long as nothing happened I suppose I could stay for a while, I could always just leave once she fell asleep.

“Fine. But I am only staying for a few moments, then I’ll be going to my own bed.”

“Hmmhmm.”

I shut the door and got under the covers.

Sweet mercy this bed was soft, this is possibly the softest bed I have ever been in, goddamn.

I turned towards Manie but she was already asleep, she was happily smiling and had a cute little snore.

Hmm, that was quick, I guess I can leave now.

Time to get into my own bed.

Yeah. Sounds great.

Soon.

I’ll get out of bed in five minutes.

Maybe ten.

...

Fuck it, I'll just stay here.

Knock Knock

…

Knock Knock Knock

…

KNOCK KNOCK

What's that sound?

“Hmm...”

THUMP THUMP

Stop that. Go away.

“What, who is it.” I mumbled in my sleep.

“Captain Tombs. Get up, it’s time to go.” a voice called from the door.

“Hmm... go where..”

“To eat.”

“Breakfast?”

"Lunch.”

Lunch?

What time is it?

I felt something move in my embrace.

Wait.

What was I hugging?

I opened my eyes, black mane, black coat, white outline.

Manie.

I was holding Manie tightly.

Of course I was.

I can’t hold my hooves and mind off her for one minute.

For fucks sake Sweet. Tombs. Gah! Whatever!

“Hmm...?” she mumbled slowly twisting around.

“Oh, sorry... I didn’t realize I was...” I excused myself, letting go of her.

“‘tis okay...” she mumbled happily in her sleep. Then she froze and slowly opened her eyes.

“Oh. Uh. Did... did something happen last night?” she asked nervously.

“I... don’t think so?” I struggled to remember exactly what I did before somehow finding myself in Manie Manie’s bed.

“Maybe I should apologize...”

“For what?”

“Weeeell, I sort of remember how you said that you didn’t want to share a bed and...”

“Oh ok, so this was your idea?”

“I suppose so.”

“Thank goodness, for a moment I thought I had done something bad in a drunken stupor.”

“Nothing like that I assure you...”

“So how much do you remember from last night?”

“I think I recall something about a giant blowing up, running a few kilometers with a horde of monsters right on our tails... uh... a lieutenant and... trying to get you into bed with me...?” she blushed, “Whoops, shouldn’t have sa- you know, nevermind. Let’s get going.” she quickly got out of bed. “Lets get some breakfast.”

“Lunch” I corrected. Getting up too.

“Lunch? It’s already lunchtime?”

“Yes, now hurry up, we are all waiting for you out here!” the voice called from the door.

Eavesdropping son of a b- “I for one think that you two would make a lovely couple.” Swirly Star said from behind the door.

“It’s not like that!” Manie called back.

“Oh don’t be so embarrassed to admit it already. It’s perfectly fine.” Swirly pressed on.

"It's really not..." Cloud muttered.

We opened the door, they were all standing there, pressed closely to the door.

Except for Brook who was still at the infirmary and the guide who was tapping his hoof irritably behind the group.

“Not cool guys.” I scolded.

“You shouldn’t eavesdrop on ponies.” Manie said.

“You should know better.”

Strawberry Feather looked at Blizzard Candy and whispered.

“Do you think they...”

“Oh yeah, they must have. Look at how they go.” he got for an answer.

“NOTHING happened, alright? We slept in the same bed. That’s it.”

“But I saw the two of you holding each other when I walked in before...” Strawberry Feather said.

“You did what?” Manie asked sharply.

“I knocked and everything. I came to wake you up miss...”

“Guys guys guys. Don’t make this into a bigger thing than it really is. Nothing happened last night. And even if something did happen it sure as hell wouldn’t be any of your business.”

“You know, after Helsinghoof and Table Turner, I kinda think it WOULD be our business.” Blizzard Candy remarked, wanting to profit from this and use it as an opportunity to get back at Manie.

“Ah okay, so this is how we are doing things in this group?”

“One of us gets laid and all of a sudden everypony has to be on them like a bunch of teenagers?”

"So you DID-" Blizzard began.

"No I said! Nothing happened! I just fell asleep in her bed while keeping her company."

He snickered.

"'Keeping her company' huh?"

"She wanted me to stay for a while and I just fell asleep, that's all."

“Shame on you guys.”

“I don’t have anything to do with this.” Cloud Tumble protested.

“No. But you DID eavesdrop. I saw you alright.”

“...”

I walked past the eavesdroppers up to the irritated guide.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“No need to be sorry, it’s just that the lieutenant wanted me to show you around, have you eat something and then guide you to his office as soon as possible..."

"Okay, so lets go?"

"...except I have already shown them around."

"The lieutenant doesn’t like waiting.”

“Oh, well if that is the case then I could go s...” my stomach rumbled loudly. I haven’t eaten in a good while, the carnage I had witnessed hadn’t done wonders for my appetite either.

“...after I have something to eat. Um... can the others find their way around town on their own?”

"Is there still time to grab something to eat before we speak to the lieutenant?"

"There is still some time, but it's either one thing or the other, there wont be time to show you around town."

"I don't care about the town."

"Uh... okay."

"Can the others find their way back here?" I asked him again.

“I showed them a few places, and they should be able to find their way back to their rooms, yes.”

“Good good."

"So basically this is what we are going to do. The others can go eat their lunch somewhere on their own, you’ll guide me and Manie to whatever place still serving breakfast, then we’ll immediately go talk to the lieutenant. Is that alright?”

“Weeeell... I guess. There is only one place still serving breakfast at this time, but I must warn you that they don’t exactly make the best food there.” the guide warned me.

“I’m sure it can’t be that bad.”

“You’ve been warned.”

“C'mon Manie, let’s go.”

Our guide said he would be back within half an hour, he had to go check on something else for a while.

There wasn’t a single customer inside, the tables looked grimy and the general atmosphere of the restaurant was very dark, it had very few lights to compensate for the lack of sunlight shining in from the front window.

A bored looking earth pony filly with a jade coat, lavender mane and silver eyes wearing a brown hood and a long dress was sitting by the cash register, staring uninterested at some sort of miniature construction she was building out of toothpicks.

It was actually pretty good, it represented the large tower in the center of town, it looked very detailed with the smaller more finicky details being composed of smaller pieces of snapped toothpicks.

Hell, she had even managed to model the sphere at the top of the tower. Out of toothpicks.

That’s pretty impressive.

She didn’t notice our entrance or us approaching the counter, she added one final touch to the tower, sighed deeply and smashed her masterwork toothpick model with her hoof sending toothpicks all over the counter.

“Hello” I greeted her.

She was startled by our sudden appearance, she stared at us with wide eyes for a moment before slowly forcing a wide smile.

“Hello! And welcome to Breakfast Corner!" she said.

"My name is Lace Lizard, how can I help?”

“I heard this place is the only shop still selling breakfast at this time of the day. Correct?”

Her smile lightened, she seemed a bit hesitant.

“Um..."

“HEY JIM!!” she yelled towards the kitchen.

“WHAT?” a male voice called back.

“DO WE STILL SERVE BREAKFAST AT NOON?”

“YEAH, THAT’S OUR ONLY BUSINESS, LACE.”

“WHY, GOT CUSTOMERS?”

“YEAH”

In a moment a brown buff unicorn stallion with a beige mane showed up wearing a dirty chef’s hat and apron.

“Hello there! We rarely get customers at this time o the day!”

“Yeah well,” Manie began, looking at me, “We just woke up.”

The stallion looked back and forth at the two of us nodding slowly.

“Oh. I see. I see.”

I think he misinterpreted something.

“Well, so what will it be?”

“I don’t know.” I said. “What do you have?”

“The usual breakfasty things."

Break...fasty?

"Pancakes, egg & bacon, toast, sausages and bacon, waffles, coffee, tea, juice..."

"That’s... about it. I think.”

What a meager menu, I had expected more of a place named 'Breakfast Corner'.

“A meager but well chosen selection I see.”

“I guess I’ll take... egg and bacon and some juice. It’s been awhile since I had some good bacon.”

“I guarantee that we make the very best here. Salty and crispy, just as it should be.” Jim boasted proudly.

“How about you Manie?”

“Easy choice. I’ll take pancakes and coffee. Black, no milk, no sugar.”

“A drink that matches the color of your coat. Good choices! I’ll have them ready in minutes!”

I wasn’t sure if it was some sort of joke or sarcasm, but he probably meant well.

“So... what’s with that toothpick model we saw you building just now? It was really elaborate, why did you smash it?” I asked the filly, Lace Lizard.

“Oh this? This is nothing, I got much better models up in my room. Want to see them?”

“What about the breakfast?” Manie wondered.

“Oah, Jim will be in there for ages trying to figure out how to fry a pancake.”

“Um...” Manie gave me a worried expression, I just shrugged in return.

“Okay, I guess. Show us to your room then.”

“Great! Follow me.”

She jumped off the barstool she had been sitting on and scooted off up a set of stairs hidden behind a wooden door behind the counter.

“This up here is where Jim and ah live. It’s not much to look at but it’s home.” she called from above.

Manie Manie and I made our way up the stairs, there were only four small rooms up there and a cramped hallway.

Lace Lizard was waiting by one of the two rooms down the hall.

“Here is my room.”

It was a very small room, or it seemed small due to all the shelves attached to every free surface on the walls. On the far end (loosely speaking, the room was at most four-five meters right over) was a dirty looking window that bathed the room in dusky sunlight.

A multitude of skillfully made masterwork models of various buildings, constructions and big guns lined the shelves.

Some were more elaborately crafted than others, some were made out of junk, such as bits of tin cans and plastic, others were made out of something more specific, such as cut out wood, bits of shaved metal, one construction was made of pencils, another of toothpicks.

There was a really advanced looking medium scale model of the Sun Valley Hill tower made entirely out of paper clips shaped exactly the way the tower was shaped, on the top was a ball made of paper clips perfectly bent into the shape of a sphere.

Manie Manie and I were in awe.

“Lace Lizard, that is amazing!” I praised her.

“That ain’t all either, look outside, I got the entire back yard for myself and that’s where I really get to build stuff!” she walked up to and opened the window. “I built all of these myself!” she said proudly.

Outside, in her backyard, she had built several well made contraptions and smaller buildings.

Some were true to scale and others were miniature sized, designed for her own size.

There were also a handful of great statues of ponies, soldiers and animals made in cement at the far end of the backyard along with piles and piles of construction material and tools.

Aside from all of the constructions being hoof made with the finest attention to detail and finesse the most notable things in the backyard were arguably the wooden lookout tower which spiraled up above the perimeter wall, the obstacle course and the cement wall extension she had built from the perimeter wall to the Breakfast Corner back wall. We could tell that it was she who had made the wall by how it differed greatly in design from the other prefab cement walls we had seen, it had been shaped into a wavy like form.

On the wall Lizard Lace had also painted some very well made childish fairy tale looking motifs of various sea animals.

The obstacle course was built in her size and had all sorts of mechanical contraptions in it, it wasn’t active at the moment but there was a series of dummies made out of wood, sacks of sand and buckets who were either meant to spin, move back and forth or swing down, as a final “boss” there was a larger dummy with several long wooden sticks and wooden swords attached intended to move along a metal rail and spin.

None of her constructions were plain either, there wasn’t a single edge or surface that hadn’t been smoothed or decorated. This wasn’t all the result of months and months of slaving and effort, this was natural talent.

“You built all of this?”

“Yep!”

“You have an absolutely astonishing talent for building and design and an incredible eye for detail.”

“Thanks!” she said gleefully.

“It’s my special talent!” she lifted part of her long skirt and showed us her cutiemark of a pile of planks and nails on her flank.

“So how old are you Lace?” Manie asked.

“I am 4 years old.”

“4 years old? So you’ve only just become a young filly, eh?"

"How long have you had your mark?”

“Just fer a few months, but I’ve been building things since I was 2.”

“Wow. That’s pretty impressive.”

“BREAKFAST IS READY!” Jim called from downstairs.

We went down back into the restaurant, we were met by a cloud of smoke and the foul smell of burned food.

We sat down by the counter and in a second Jim came out hoovering the food he had prepared.

“Uhm....” Manie was at a lack of words as she looked unhappily at the burnt food.

We had burnt pancakes, burnt eggs, burnt bacon.

The butter for the pancakes was burnt, somehow.

There was no juice.

“Oh boy.” I said, “That’s... quite the feast.”

“How about some juice?” this was going to be hard to stomach, but at least maybe I could get some juice to wash it down.

I didn’t have the heart to complain about it, and my hungry stomach wouldn’t allow it either.

“Oh right, the juice! I’ll be right back.” Jim hurried off into the kitchen.

Manie was poking at her pancakes with her fork, they seemed very crispy.

She needled the topmost pancake and as she was nearing the fork to her mouth the bit of pancake she had needled seemingly disintegrated into a fine black powder. Leaving her empty hoofed.

Jim came back with two large glasses of juice.

Or at least I think it was juice.

Now this next part will sound silly, but the juice was burnt.

I SHIT YOU NOT.

JIM HAD MANAGED TO BURN ORANGE JUICE.

“...thanks.” I struggled to say.

“No probs!” Jim cheerfully said, “If you need anything else just give me a holler, I’ll be in the kitchen.”

“Sure...”

Manie hopelessly tried to needle another pancake, only for the two topmost pancakes to disintegrate immediately.

She sighed and put down her fork, she nudged the remaining pancakes with her hoof as she put down the fork and the whole pile of them spontaneously disintegrated into a pile of ashes.

I saw the unhappy young mare sit there with a pile of ashes on her plate.

“Lace,” she said in a low voice, “I’d hate to sound rude, but...”

“Yeah I know, I know. Jim isn’t exactly the... best cook, but he tries really hard and means well!”

“I get that, but...” Manie picked up the glass and looked disconcertingly at the contents inside.

“Really? How is it possible to burn juice?”

“Don’t be so harsh on him... it sort of has to do with what he used to do before opening this place...”

My eggs were totally inedible, they just disintegrated into a black mush on touch.

“What’s his story?” Manie asked.

“Jim used to be with Overwatch. He was what you’d call a 'specialist' within the army. You know, one of them ponies with special duties or assignments. Jim was the heavy support pony in his squad, he had been assigned a fire resistant set of armor along with a flamethrower of sorts. Very new and experimental tech designed just for fightin’ in the forests around here.”

“Jim was assigned at the frontier at the time, so his duties often took him beyond the border on various patrols and raiding missions.”

“Okay.”

“Everything was fine, he used his weapon to good ability 'an Overwatch decided to let him keep it.”

“But one day, when he and his squad were patrolling in the jungle they were ambushed by a whole horde of the wildlings, there were so many wildings on each of his squadmates that there was no way to fire his weapon without burning his own squad."

"So all he could do was defend himself and watch his squad get stuck to death with sticks and knives.”

“When they began screaming in pain and asking for mercy Jim turned his flamethrower on his squad and burnt them and every wildling in the area to a crisp. Jim was the sole survivor in an attack of nearly 200 wildlings.”

“He just ain’t been the same ever since, and that it interfered with his work with Overwatch, so he was diagnosed with PTSD and given an honorary discharge and left here to do what he want.”

“So he opened Breakfast Corner.”

...

“Sometimes, at night. I can hear him whisper to his flamethrewer referring it by the name of his friends and telling it how sorry he is...” she cryptically added.

“He still has his flamethrower?” I asked in surprise.

“Yeah. But it ain’t got to ammo or anything, they took that from him, said it was too risky to let 'im keep it. They tried taking his flamethrower too, but he got extremely violent when someone tried to touch it.”

“Thats... sad...” Manie said.

Lace perceived this as an insult.

“Hey, Jim’s a good pony! He HAD to do it, he didn’t have a choice!”

Manie looked at her not understanding, but then she came up to speed.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean ‘sad’ as ‘pathetic sad’.”

“Then what did you mean?” Lace stared at her with suspicion.

“I think that it’s sad how there doesn’t seems to be anypony in the whole frontier that hasn’t been through some kind of torment or grief. It seems like we all had our share of bad life altering experiences since Celestia flipped Equestria.”

Lace Lizard didn’t seem to understand.

She was only 4, she hadn’t been around before Celestia grabbed Equestria with an iron hoof.

I decided to try a strip of the burnt bacon, it had cooled down enough to be edible. Maybe.

“So what is your story Lace?” I asked chewing on the crispy strip.

Hmm, still had flavor. Salty.

She thought about it for a moment.

“I don’t know my story.”

“I’m an orphan. Have been with Jim for as long as I can remember...”

“What happened to your parents?”

“I don’t know.”

“So you don’t know anything about your parents?”

“I only know their names. Mom’s named Berry Manderpad and dad’s Sparkle Glitterwatch...”

“That’s quite a lot to go on. Have you tried asking around for them? Maybe they live in town-”

“No.” she said abruptly.

“They haven’t bothered to come look for me, and I have been living here in the safety of Sun Valley Hills where it’s easy to find me. I even help building the town, I am known among the builders in town, of which there are quite a few so finding me in town isn’t very hard.”

“If they don’t want me, I don’t want them. It is really that simple.”

“That seems a little harsh. What if your parents are in another town looking for you? What if they don’t know that you are in Sun Valley Hills? Maybe they can’t get to you because something is keeping them from leaving or going about freely.”

“I don’t care. I am over them. It’s been 3 years, I don’t think they will be back for me.”

“Okay okay, sorry. I didn’t mean to get touchy about it.”

I took another strip of bacon.

"Know of any other relatives?"

"I... eh... I think ah got an aunt named Cake Frosting. Never met her though, at least ah don't think so."

Cake Frosting?

I had met a mare named Cake Frosting.

"I know Cake Frosting." I said.

"You do?"

"Well, I don't 'know' her, but I met her on the Manehatten-Vanhoover train."

"She's with Infantry, she is supposed to be somewhere in the frontier."

"Infantry huh..." Lace became deeply thoughtful for a moment, staring at the counter before her.

"Ah know we just met mister, but, uh... I was wondering if you could do me a favor?"

"Maybe I can."

"What did you have in mind?"

"If you... if you meet Cake again, could you... tell her where I am?"

"I thought you didn't want to met your family again?"

"Ah don't want to met me parents. They abandoned me."

"My aunt on the other hoof... I've never met her before... maybe she's different."

"Very well."

"If I ever come across her again I'll be sure to let her know."

"Thank you kindly."

I took a third strip.

This bacon was actually quite delicious, it was surprisingly still edible and very flavorful despite the external appearance.

“Hey Manie,”

“You should try some of this bacon, it’s quite good.”

I handed her a strip which she looked at for a few moments with suspicion before simply shrugging and eating it whole.

She immediately demanded more.

But there had only been four strips.

“JIM” I yelled at the kitchen.

“WHAT”

“MORE BACON PLEASE”

“REALLY? YOU GUYS LIKE MY BACON?”

“YES, IT’S GREAT”

“NEVER HAD ANYONE ASK FOR SECONDS HERE, BUT OKAY, MORE BACON COMING RIGHT UP!”

“Thanks” Lace Lizard said to me.

“For what?”

“For asking for seconds. He always gets so gloomy and sad when his food turns to ash. Nopony ever asks for seconds, ever.”

“This bacon isn’t so bad though. Have you tried it? Actually wait, that’s probably a silly question, of course you have.”

“No actually... I haven’t really eaten any of his cooked food... Generally speaking, I am the one doing the cooking for the two of us. I offered to cook for the customers too, but he insists that it’s his job.”

“Ohkay. You should try some when he brings it.”

“...okay. I guess I can do that.”

Jim brought in another plate of burnt bacon.

“Here” I gave Lace a strip which she began munching on slowly.

“You are right,” she said taking in the rest of it, “This IS good bacon.”

“Mind if I take another strip?”

I handed her another strip of bacon.

Manie took her share of strips too.

When we finished Jim came back out to the counter.

“I hope the bacon is-"

"OH, I hope the bacon WAS to your enjoyment?” he smiled.

“You bet! This is some of the best bacon I’ve ever had. I think I’ll come back here tomorrow morning.”

“You will?” he asked surprised.

“Yeah. But, if you don’t mind and if it’s okay with you, could I bring my own juice?”

I smiled and pointed at the glass of gray ashy liquid.

Jim hoovered the glass close to his face and eyed it closely.

“Hmm... I don’t know how this keeps happening...”

The glass suddenly began to melt.

“Whoah!” he yelped letting go of the glass, it landed with a loud GLOOORP on the floor behind the counter.

“I think I know what is going on here,” Manie said in between munches, “Is it okay if we take a look at your kitchen?”

“I suppose...” Jim said.

We got up and all entered the kitchen.

It looked grimy and somewhat dirty, but seemed like an ordinary kitchen to me.

Manie opened the fridge and looked around inside.

“Sweet Heavens, come over and look at this.”

I went up to her and looked inside the fridge.

The food in there was fresh and unscorched, the juice was completely normal.

“Lace Lizard.” I called, “Have you ever actually seen Jim cook or work in the kitchen?”

“No... not really... I’m always watching over the cash register.”

“Okay Manie, I think I get what you mean.”

“Lace, could you please bring two glasses and put them on that counter over there?”

“What for?”

“We’d like to try something."

"Uh, if it’s alright with you of course.”

“Um. Okay, sure.”

Lace brought out two glasses from a cupboard and placed it on the counter closest to us.

Manie brought out the orange juice and poured some into both glasses.

“Ok. Now if you could both step up here please.”

Lace Lizard and Jim went up to the counter looking confused.

“Lace Lizard, could you please grab that glass with your hoof?” I instructed.

She took a glass and nothing happened.

“Now Jim, could you grab that glass with your hoof?”

“Okay...” he did as I asked and nothing happened to the juice.

“Good. Now both of you put the juice back on the counter.”

“Jim, could you please float one of the glasses?”

Jim's magical field enveloped one of the glasses.

Nothing happened at first but in a few seconds the contents began to boil and turn into a discolored shade of ashen gray.

“Jim!” Lace exclaimed.

“I don’t know how you really cook or if you are doing this intentionally but at least it explains why the juice is burnt.” I explained.

“I had no idea that was what was causing the food to burn...

"I feel a bit... dumb for missing that.” Jim admitted.

“Jim! You have had this place for 4 years!” Lace castigated.

“Sorry Lacey.”

“Hello? Is anyone here?” somepony called from the next room.

We all went back out.

It was the guide who had returned.

“Hello Sergeant Tombs. Are you ready to go talk to the lieutenant?”

“In a few. You got to taste Jim’s bacon.”

“Eh, I am not sure if...” the guide said hesitantly.

“Trust me, it’s good.”

“Jim, more bacon.”

“No problem. More bacon on the way.”

In a few minutes Jim returned with a plate of bacon.

Except this time he wasn’t hovering it using his horn, he came in holding it with one of his forehooves.

The bacon looked completely normal and had the same brown-golden crispy look that bacon should have, I tried a strip. It was good, but not really anywhere like the burnt bacon he had prepared.

The guide took one strip.

“Yeah... I guess it’s alright.” the guide muttered, he didn’t seem very impressed.

“Jim, if you will...”

Jim enveloped the plate with his unicorn magic, and the bacon soon began to fry and turn black.

“Ok. Thats good. Try another strip.”

The guide gave me a glare.

“Wha- but...”

“Trust me on this.” I took one of the strips and ate it to show that it wasn’t as terrible as it looked like.

The guide hesitantly grabbed a strip and looked at it suspiciously, then he took the tiniest bite on one of the corners, and then another. And another.

“My. This is...” he ate the whole strip, “Can I take another strip?”

“Go ahead.”

Munch munch.

“Hmhmm, this is some tasty bacon.”

“We managed to solve the mystery of the burnt beverages too.” Manie said.

“Really? Well what was it?” the guide said in between munches.

“Jim’s horn has the uncanny effect of scorching anything it touches.” Manie explained.

“So any cooked food or beverage he brought in using his magic was scorched before serving.”

“Except for the bacon.” I added.

“Yeah, this," he paused to munch, "-this bacon is pretty damn good. I can totally see myself coming back here for more."

"But that will have to be for tomorrow morning. Right now we got to go to the lieutenant.”

“We were planning to come back here for breakfast too. Will you join us?”

“That sounds like a plan.”

The guide greedily finished the last strip and got up.

“Alright then. We’ll just be on our way. It was nice to meet you Lace Lizard. Jim.”

“Bye.”

Back at the compound.

The guide led me and Manie into the base of the tower, this was a massive building made of the same black steel and design as the tower itself, and looked sturdy enough to deflect a missile strike.

The interior was quite different from that of the concrete buildings, in here everything was built out of black och dark blue steel, the many corridors inside were very poorly lit (or so it seemed, it could also have just been the dark colors which didn't catch the light very well), there was a multitude of guards and turrets standing guard by every door and point of interest.

We were led up a few floors to some sort of nicely furnished waiting room.

The guide had simply left after that.

The lieutenant Crone Beetle came and greeted us after just a few moments of waiting, he wasn’t wearing his helmet this time, revealing that he had a burnt orange coat, red mane and yellow eyes.

“Hello Sergeant Tombs.”, he reached out to shook my hoof and then he turned to and offered his hoof to Manie.

“You must be the ex Major, Manie Manie. Formerly of EAF R&D and EAF Armor. Correct?”

Manie eyed the lieutenant with suspicion.

“Depends. Are you going to arrest me and hand me to Air Force?” Manie asked.

“Not at all. If Air Force won't come around to help us conquer the frontier then they can take all their requests and bounties and go fuck themselves."

"That's pretty much what Captain Sun Topaz of Helsinghoof said." I said.

"And Sergeant Bonnie." Manie added.

"Yes.You’ll find that many in Overwatch feel the same way about Air Force, it's no joke that things are unstable between the army branches.”

"Well, any enemy of Air Force is a friend of mine." Manie smiled, the two shook hooves.

“Now come, come. No sense standing around here, let me show you to my office."

"What is it you want to talk to us about? I hope it's nothing serious." I asked.

"Oh don’t worry about it, this is just a formality, I just want to ask you some questions regarding the events at Checkpoint Berry 2.”

He led us inside his office which was of the same dark design as the network of corridors in the rest of the building, it was about as ill lit as the corridors had been too with the only light being a small lamp on his desk.

His desk (or what he used as a desk, the same kind of steel table I had seen in the interrogation rooms) was a mess of paperwork all piled up, it was so stocked up that he had begun stacking some of the papers on the floor.

He sat down in his leather chair behind the desk and invited us to take a seat on the two steel chairs in front of the desk.

The room smelt heavily of cigarette smoke.

“This may seem like a mess, but it is actually organized chaos.” he pulled out a packet of cigarettes from behind one of the piles of papers.

“Is it alright if I smoke?” he asked us.

“It’s your office.”

“Yeah,” he muttered as he lit a cigarette.

This was the first time I had seen anypony smoke since I got to the frontier.

Actually, this was the first time I had seen an earth pony smoke, ever.

Our hooves don't exactly allow for much precision and finesse, so I was rather surprised to see how well he handled and lit the thin little cancer stick.

“Or at least thats what the higher ups want to make me believe.”

He pulled in and puffed deeply.

“I just got promoted you see, was recently given this position and office.”

"But then 'office' would be a bit of an overstatement, this shithole is really nothing but a storage room with a desk."

“Congratulations."

"Eh, thanks." he muttered, drawing in and breathing out a puff of smoke.

"Seems like they are keeping you busy.”

“Bah, tell me about it."

"My position mostly has me go through paperwork all day, it's all 'sign this, sign that, read recon reports of absolutely nothing of interest'."

"Every time they send out those damn choppers to circle around Sun Valley a whole heap of paperwork shows up on my desk.” he puffed another cloud of smoke.

“But at least it keeps me off the field. I know most ponies in the military hate these sort of jobs and would rather be out doing field work, but not here, not on the frontier.”

He grinned.

“Yeah... I can tell why.”

“Indeed. You had your first run in with the horrors our boys go up against out here.”

“Or wait, was it your first? How was Helsinghoof for you? Did good ‘ol Captain Topaz have any good horror stories for you?”

“Basically, he told me that where we are going things are pretty fucked up.”

"And where are you going, captain?"

"Beyond the frontier border. Don't ask me why, because I don't have the faintest idea."

"Beyond the border? Oooo, that's tough."

"So I've heard."

“Yeah yeah, the frontier border." Crone Beetle nodded, his cigarette was nearing it's stump and he was having a hard time holding it in place.

He leaned back and squinted his eyes when drawing in on what little was left before dropping the cigarette butt carelessly and stomping it out on the floor. "Place is a bloody mess that's what it is."

"I am glad we have the wall and defenses set up there though. Keeps the worst of it out of our territory.”

“Yet it isn’t enough.”

“Nope. We got bandits at day and monsters at night. Quite a handful.”

“We can’t get rid of the bandits either, for all the gunships in the world we just can’t seem to stop the workers from escaping from time to time and form bands of thieves out there.”

"Isn't there another way to deal with them?"

"There is, we know there is."

"But the bandit problem is a two sided coin."

"If we’d let on the public about the dangers out there workers would probably stop making suicidal escapes into the wild. But everypony would also panic and start to feel depressed about it. That would increase the rate of suicides and alcoholism. Which is bad. ‘specially when the soldiers are already strained out because of it.”

“Can’t it be solved with therapy and prescription drugs?” Manie wondered.

“Prescription drugs are great and all, if your problem is imaginary, and in your head.”

"But monsters are very real, and you can't fix monsters with drugs."

"If civies start to find out about them things are going to end up looking really gloom really fast, so it's really just best if we take the few bandits and keep them happy than losing the bandits and making them panic."

"By deceiving them?"

"Don't have to like it, it IS the best solution right now, as bad as it sounds."

“Alright then, enough chit-chat. To business. About Checkpoint Berry 2.”

“I’ve been talking to the survivors of it, but they seemed very reluctant and grim about what happened there."

"That is understandable and with good reason, I can’t even imagine the pain Sergeant Crunch Opal must feel right now. I heard that Sergeant Sunny Sunshine and him were close.”

"That's what I've heard."

“But you know, I want to hear your angle on it, you weren't there for as long as they were, this was all new to you."

"So what happened there, what did you two see?”

Manie shrugged nervously.

“I-I wasn’t really out there. I was in the mess hall at the time of the attack, I never saw anything but a hairy arm reach in and slice off one of the soldier’s legs.”

“Ok.” Crone wrote something down on a sheet of paper.

“How about you Tombs? You must have seen something. Witnesses claim that you were outside at the time of the attack.”

“That’s right. I was with Sunny Sunshine.”

“So you are the last pony that saw her alive?”

“Not exactly... she was killed in front of us all when she was about to make it into the mess hall.”

“I had been up with her in the command centre listening to a message sent by CP command regarding my mission. The attack happened shortly after I had finished listening to the message, she mentioned something about ‘balverines’ before panicking and running outside to defend the outpost.”

"Balverines?"

"That's what she called the main attackers."

“Interesting.” he jolted this down.

“Describe these balverines to me.”

I thought of the nightmarish creatures that had slaughtered the soldiers.

Just thinking about them sent shivers down my spine.

“They... reassembled bipedal black... wolves with.. massive muscular arms and sharp talons. Kinda like the fairytale werewolves found in some books. Except with glowing red eyes and fiendish faces.”

“They could jump incredible heights, right over the outpost walls and had incredible agility and speed, jumping quickly from pony to pony.”

“Their claws were razor sharp, capable of ripping through armor with ease. A balverine stuck its arm into the mess hall and blindly swung at one of the soldiers trying to shut the door, slicing off his leg in just one short swing.”

He scribbled this down.

“Ok. What happened after the two of you left the command centre?”

“Not much really. We helped gun down a few of the balverines but it was hopeless, a soldier called the retreat and we all rushed towards the mess hall where the rest were holding out. Only I and another soldier made it in. Sunny Sunshine was cut down right by the door.”

“After that we simply barricaded the door and held out for the night. When we came out in the morning the balverines were gone.”

“Anything else to note?”

“Yes.”

“They seemed to dissolve in sunlight, the balverines we had felled and who hadn't left the outpost overnight had turned into some sort of dark ash. Bonni- I mean, Sergeant Crunch Opal, warned us that the piles of ash were poisonous and that they would ‘corrupt’ us if we touched them.”

“Alright. ‘that all?”

“Pretty much...”

“Thank you Tombs. This has been very helpful.”

“What happens now?” Manie asked.

“Ha! Now Overwatch prepares for a counterattack on the monsters in that area. And thanks to the recon data and video footage captured by Berry 2 we know exactly where to strike!”

“Could you fill us in? Or is that classified?”

“Technically it is, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt letting you hear about it, you were there after all.”

He pulled out a sheet of paper from under the stack and handed it to us.

It was a copy of the map of the area surrounding Checkpoint Berry 2, with all the markers routes.

“This is the map of Checkpoint Berry 2. I saw it in the command centre.”

“Yep.”

“We believe that the night creatures hide in the caves and ruins in the surrounding area at day.”

“What will you do about it?”

“We intend to napalm bomb the crap out of those holes. The fire should flush them all out where they should all burn up in the sun. We don’t know how many there are hiding out in there but we aren’t taking any chances. This is payback.”

“That’s good, Crunch Opal must be relieved to know of this.”

“Actually he doesn’t know, he isn't involved.”

“He doesn’t know? Maybe you should tell him then, he took the death of his lover pretty hard back at the outpost.”

“His lover? What do you mean?”

“Sunny Sunshine and Crunch Opal had a relation going on.”

“Oh wait, they had an actual relationship?”

“Yeah. A lot of the soldiers there had some sort of relation to one another.”

"Shiiiit, I thought that they were just close friends, this changes things significantly."

"How so?"

“Hang on for a sec.”

Crone Beetle leaned back and pulled up his helmet from behind the chair, putting it on.

“*Yeah, hey. This is Crone. The CP cap'n claims that Crunch Opal was in a relationship with Sunny Sunshine.*” pause, “*Yes, she died in the attack. Hmhm. Yeah.*”

“*I think it may be best if we let on Crunch Opal and his squad in on the planned attack, could help with their morale and recovery a bit.*”

“*Yes I know that it is classified. Do it anyway.*”

“*C'mon now, the guy could snap like a twig at any second, you know how tough it is to lose your lover like that. Y- yeah, yeah yeah, look I am just saying that it would really help him if he knew that we are going to hit the monsters who did it back, is that too much to ask?*”

He shook his head at us and waved a hoof casually.

“*You know what? I’ll just call him in and tell him myself.*" he sighed.

"*Uhuh. Yeah. Yeah.*”

“*Yeah yeah I know it will be on me if it leaks, but what’s the worst that could happen? Crunch going to alert the monsters of an incoming attack?*”

“*So you will? Alright, good, thanks. Later.*”

He took off the helmet and just dropped it on the floor.

“Thanks again Captain Tombs. Useful info. We may have averted a potential suicide, if there was any risk of it.”

“Happy to help, I guess.”

“So, do you do these kind of raids against night creatures often or...?” Manie wondered.

“Let me put it this way."

"We don’t know *ANYTHING* about night creatures. We have killed a few and we know that they are nocturnal and dissolve in the sunlight. That’s about it.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Manie exclaimed, “You have been here for years! How is it even possible that you don’t know anything about them?”

“Because anypony we send into the caves or into the cities simply disappeared. And because it’s virtually impossible to do any kind of recon on the ground at night we can't even really get a good idea of what we are going up against. Anything that isn’t a night creature that is caught out in unsecured territory simply dies, it’s way too dangerous.”

"But what about the outposts?" I asked, "There was plenty of footage and data in Berry 2, surely they can't have been the only ones to come up with anything?"

“Yes actually. The idea of setting up observation posts around the frontier is fairly new, and has had pretty meager results thus far, Berry 2 is the only group who came up with anything useful up until now.”

“But what about the monsters you’ve killed? What about the giant and horde of critters you fell yesterday?”

“You want to see the giant?”

Crone pulled out yet another sheet of paper and gave it to us.

It was a printed photograph of what seemed to be a large lake of black ash.

He gave us another photography, this was a photo of the field just outside the eastern walls, it was dotted with black piles of ash as far as the eye could see.

“Gone. The things turn into ASH, remember?”

“And there is no way to recover them at night? Store them away in some lab?”

“Anypony who touches the creatures immediately mutates and twists into those fucking things themselves. Touch them at day and you well, your very skin and flesh starts to fall off your bones within moments. Dangerous shit.”

"So you've tried it before?"

"Yeah."

"And you used hazmat suits?" Manie asked.

"Hazmat suits didn't do shit. They died all the same."

“Just face it, we can’t take a closer look at them and we don’t know where they come from. It’s all pretty hopeless.”

“All we got are photographs and videos. Which don’t really tell us much aside from them being scary as fuck and extremely dangerous, and we already knew that.”

“Maybe in another few years we’ll know more. Right now we are just shooting at the dark.”

“Alright. If you say so.”

“We are done here by the way, you can scoot along now if you want, got nothing else to discuss or ask you guys.”

“Actually I was wondering about something else.” I said.

“Very well. What is it?”

“Dispatch. Crunch Opal said he’d take us to see her when we got back.”

Crone Beetle smiled.

“Heh, Dispatch eh? Why would you want to go see her?”

“Out of sheer curiosity. Crunch Opal claims that she is a very lifelike robot, and a nice one at that.”

“One could say that...”

“There is nothing funny about her is there?” Manie asked.

“Pardon?”

“Bonnie gave us this whole speech of how Dispatch was given a robot body and a personality for the sake of morale and such. He was trying to be very clear on the fact that she wasn’t an Overwatch ‘sex toy’.

Crone looked at Manie not understanding a thing.

“Bonnie?”

“Oh, uh, Crunch Opal.” Manie corrected.

“Crunch Opal’s nickname is Bonnie?”

“Yes.”

“Ok...”

“Well, to answer your question, no, there isn’t anything ‘funny’ going on about Dispatch. I don’t know why they made her a mare, but we don’t really look at her ‘that way’. Most of us don’t really care about her, she is a piece of military hardware, nothing else.”

"Crunch Opal says otherwise. He said that soldiers were afraid of the AI and that they didn't trust her." I said.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't know about that."

“Do you want to go talk to her now or...?”

“I was wondering if we could go see her with Crunch Opal. He was after all the one suggesting we go see her.”

Crone scratched his neck.

“Ok... I'll see what I can do.”

He grabbed his helmet again and put it on.

“*Hello, this is Lieutenant Crone. I was wondering if it would be possible to have the CP captain and another come see Dispatch?*” there was a pause.

“*Why they want to see Dispatch? Beats me, he says it’s out of curiosity or something.*”

“*In an hour? Alright. I’ll be sending him over with Sergeant Crunch Opal. Yes. Uhum. Thanks.*”

Well that was easy.

He slumped the helmet back on the floor.

“Done and done. Someone will come by to pick you up to take you to Crunch Opal in a few. Was there anything else?”

“No. Thank you for answering our questions.”

“Anytime. Always nice to get away from the paperwork for a while.”

Crone Beetle got up off his chair and reached a hoof to me.

“Nice meeting you Captain, you too Major. Best of luck on your mission.”

We went out to wait in the waiting room, in a few minutes the guide from before came back to us.

“Hello again. How did things go?”

“Good. Are you the one taking us to Crunch Opal?”

“Yep. Ready to go?”

“Yep.”

We were led outside towards another building, a large grey structure marked “Barracks B”.

This building was filled with soldiers who were off duty or preparing to go on duty, we passed several rooms with a variety of entertainment means, ping pong tables, jukeboxes, televisions, computers and such.

They were all filled with soldiers happily cheering and chatting with each other.

Eventually we came to a barracks, one of the rooms in which the soldiers slept.

It was a large long room for 24 soldiers with beds and footlockers lining either side, on the walls by the beds were various personal affections hanged or plastered to the wall, such as photos ranging from children to families to more suggestive and borderline pornographic pages ripped out of Wingboner magazines.

The occasional icon or small altar to Luna or Celestia was seen as well.

The room was mostly empty for now, aside from a young stallion laying on his bed just by the door reading a book and the group of 4 at the end of the room chatting and laughing while smoking something, one of which was wearing his helmet to avoid breathing the heavy smoke in.

Bonnie was sitting on a bed somewhere mid room talking to a higher ranked officer, the only thing Bonnie had attached to his wall was a small portrait of Sunny Sunshine smiling brightly.

He seemed pretty busy with the officer right now, so we didn't approach him just yet.

I looked more closely at what the stallion next to us was reading, it was some sort of thick book entitled 'Fallout: Equestria', it was dark and on the cover was an image of an earth pony in some type of metallic armor against a background of noxious looking green clouds.

"Sorry to bother," I said to the stallion, "But could I have a look at what you're reading?"

The stallion looked up at me, not sure what to make of me or my shapeshifting.

"Uh... sure? I guess." he handed me the book.

He had read just under halfway through it.

"What's it about?" I asked him.

"It's uh... I am not that good at explaining the plot of things, but it's essentially an adventure that takes place in a post apocalyptic Equestria after a megaspell war has laid waste to most of the world. Some ponies survived in large underground bunkers called 'Stables' in the book, and the story follows the adventures of a young mare named 'Little Pip', who came from one of those bunkers, as she explores the ruins of Equestria."

"I haven't gotten that far into the story, so there is not much I can tell other than that."

I nodded slowly.

"Sounds interesting."

I began reading randomly from the page he had been on.

"...I nodded, not wanting to really talk about that.  Or really about anything.  What she was doing with her hooves was divine.  She was pressing them in circles against the back of my legs at the base of my rump.  Not as skilled as the professional spa ponies, maybe.  But unspeakably more delightful because it was her doing it.

“So I won’t apologize for helping you break them further.”  I had no idea what she was… oh HELLO!  I gasped as I felt her tongue someplace I had only imagined it before.  Pleasure burst through my whole body.

And she was just getting started.  This was definitely going to qualify as strenu..."

I grimaced and stopped reading.

Yeah, okay.

I wasn't all that into erotic literature... I mean, there is nothing wrong with it, but it just isn't the kind of thing I'd like to read in bed before sleeping.

I handed him the book back.

"Eh, thanks. But it doesn't seem like my kind of book."

"What's with the face? What did you read?" the stallion wondered confusingly, he rapidly read through the page and laughed.

"Amazing first impression you got! I didn't know it would go that way!"

"Really."

"Yeah seriously, the story is usually much more serious and violent, it's really good, trust me."

Serious and violent = 'really good', gotcha.

"I don't know... I am not really into those types of books, this really seems more like a post apocalyptic wasteland erotica than an adventure..."

"Nooo noo," he laughed again, "It's not an erotica, the rest of the book is nothing like it, I swear."

"How do you know? You said you hadn't gotten very far?"

"Ah... uh... okay, you got me, I don't know if there is more like that later on, but aside from that the book is great, it's really something you should consider picking up sometime when you got the chance."

"Eeeeh..." I didn't feel very convinced about it.

"Just do it man, what's the worst thing that could happen?"

"The book is really long and there were no scenes like that before, it's pretty much all post apocalyptic adventure, seriously."

"Just pick it up sometime and if you like it you like it, otherwise you can just give it away or something, I'm sure there are plenty who would like it."

"I guess... I'll think about it."

The officer Bonnie had talked with passed by us with a nod, our guide left with the officer.

Bonnie approached us, practically beaming with joy.

“Hey guys!” he greeted us.

“Hey Bonnie, everything alright?”

“Hell yeah! Have you heard? They are going to strike back at those fuckers who killed Sunny! All thanks to the data we had gathered!” we went back to his bed.

“I know. You seem quite happy about it.”

“Haha, yeah! It’s great news!”

He sat back down on his bed and leaned back.

“Man,” he sighed, “It pains me still, it’s only been one day since I last kissed her. And now she’s... dead.”

“But it will be good to know that she didn’t die in vain. Motherfuckers...”

“I’m sorry Bonnie.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. It wasn’t your fault that a horde of monsters attacked us.”

“It may just be natures idea of a horrible joke or something, I don't know, but at least they will be paying for it.”

“So I got us a meeting with Dispatch while talking to the lieutenant...” I informed him, wanting to pull away from the subject, I figured that the less we spoke of it the less he'd suffer.

“Oh?”

“Says you should take us to her in an hour.”

“An hour? Sure. That gives us plenty of time.”

“Plenty of time for what?” Manie cut in.

“To show you around the compound of course!”

“Now?”

“Yeah, now. I mean, why not? You guys must probably move on tomorrow early in the morning.”

That reminds me.

I got to try and talk to CP Command again, I needed to have a serious talk with them.

And this night creature thing kinda screws with our traveling, the distances on the map are pretty long, and we probably wouldn't make it from settlement to settlement before nightfall, especially not if we would have to deal with more bandits on the way.

Perhaps I could try and get us a ride? It would save us a lot of time and risk.

“...um..."

"...sure Bonnie. Lets go see the compound then.”

“Great, lets go.”

We left the barracks and went for the exit.

“So there ain’t much to show around the compound but I think the helipads and laser guidance tower will interest you.”

“Which one are you taking us to first?”

“The helipads of course! The guidance tower’s in the same building as Dispatch.”

As we stepped outside into the courtyard we were met by a pony in a wheelchair, struggling to make his way forward using only one hoof.

“Well if it isn’t Private Snowball.” Bonnie went up to the pony.

“H-hey sarge.” his hoof slipped and he fell off the chair onto the hard ground, bruising his good leg.

“God fucking damnit.”

We helped him back up on the chair.

“How is the leg going? I see you have a hard time getting around in that thing.” Bonnie asked him.

“Like hell. Why they don’t just build wheelchairs for ponies who lost their forelegs is beyond me, moving around in the damn thing is impossible.”

“And you can’t move around with just three legs?”

“Three legged pony? Doesn’t work like that, sir.”

“You sure? I've seen plenty of ponies walk around holding things with one hoof and walking with the other.”

“Allow me to demonstrate how I walk with three legs.”

Snowball got out of his chair and managed to wobble up on his 3 legs.

He looked fine, but then he took one step forward and fell over instantly, he just laid there pathetically unable to get up on his own.

We helped him up again.

“Fucking shit.”

“I get my prosthetic leg next week.”

“And if you keep pulling that crap you’ll get it next month.” a voice said from behind us.

It was a gray earth pony nurse in woodland camo military drabs, she wore a woodland boonie hat, there was something tomboyish about her, and that was unusual for a nurse.

“Private, how many times have I told you to stay put in your chair?”

“I don’t know Nurse Needles. A hundred? I've lost count.” Snowball replied.

“Being snide isn’t going to help you.”

“Neither will sitting around in this fucking chair!” Snowball banged his hoof on the metal wheel.

“Why can’t I just get my new leg NOW?”

“I already told you, Private! We can’t set you up with a prosthetic limb unless the wound heals proper. And if you keep falling ON your damn wound you’ll never get your new leg.”

“Now stop getting out of your chair or Luna help me will I fasten you in it. THEN what are you going to do?”

Snowball growled.

Bonnie backed off a bit.

“Ah well, we’ll leave you to it. Have a good one Snowball.”

The nurse broke out into laughter, Snowballs eyes went wide.

“NO! SHE DIDN’T KNOW! SHE DIDN’T KNOW!”

“‘Snowball’ oh I am going to have some fun with you Private. Wait ‘til the others hear about it.”

The nurse towed Snowball away in his wheelchair.

“You know,” Manie said smiling, “You probably screwed that poor boy over.”

Bonnie looked after Snowball being towed away in the distance.

“He’ll be fine. Heheheh.”

We headed off into the opposite direction and went behind the large tower in the center.

On the other side was a an absolutely massive building marked “Overwatch Air HQ”, from down below I could see multiple helipads on the roof, some choppers took off and left the compound, others returned shortly.

Inside was some sort of reception desk, a mare was sitting behind the desk typing something on a computer.

She noticed us approaching and looked up.

“Hmmyes? Can I help you with something?”

“Hello. I am Sergeant Crunch Opal. I’m just going to show Civil Protection officer Captain Tombs and his companion Manie Manie around. We sergeants still have clearance for Air HQ right?”

The mare looked at us suspiciously, then back at Bonnie.

“Manie? THE MAJOR Manie Manie?” she said in an almost disgusted tone.

“I can’t go anywhere without being recognized.” Manie whispered bitterly to me.

“Your reputation precedes you.” I whispered back.

“I take it you know who she is.” Bonnie answered.

“Of course I do. Everypony does.”

“Uh, I don’t mind you showing them around, and yes Overwatch sergeants still have clearance to Air HQ. But please keep a good eye on her, I... hope you understand.”

Bonnie turned to look at Manie.

“Hey Manie, you weren’t planning on destroying any choppers while visiting Sun Valley were you?”

Manie gave them a fake smile.

“Nope. Haven’t planned on it.”

Bonnie turned back to the receptionist.

“Well there you have it. Perfectly safe.”

“...”

“Right... well go on in.”

We got into an elevator at the end of the room.

It had one of those annoying looping elevator themes playing.

The doors shut and it began to go up to the roof.

“I must say, Overwatch seems to be incredibly laid back about security. Back in Equestria one would only dream of being toured around any facility of major importance.” I said.

“We don’t run things like they do back home. We are much nicer over here.”

“I noticed.”

“But then, you must also keep in mind that we are observed by security cameras at all times. Even the bathrooms are supervised.”

Bonnie pointed towards a small black box in one of the top corners of the elevator that I hadn’t noticed.

“So if they see you doing anything suspicious, such as prepping a bomb you’ll be sure to find a squad of guards waiting for you around the next corner. So be nice and behave yourself around Overwatch facilities.”

“Sure would have fucking helped if they kept more than just their own facilities under observation...” Manie muttered.

“Hmm?”

“We ran into a bit of problems in Helsinghoof. Manie was... hmm... she was...” I began.

“Raped.”

“...raped in Helsinghoof. She was kidnapped by one of our own and Overwatch didn’t do anything about it.” I explained.

“Oh. I am sorry to hear.”

Pling.

Doors opened and we stepped outside.

Bonnie walked just ahead of us, I leaned in towards Manie while walking.

“How are you holding up?” I whispered to her.

“Have you ever been raped? Sweet Heavens?” she whispered back.

“...no...?”

“Then we have nothing to discuss.”

Then she simply trotted up to Bonnie.

Okay, fair enough.

The roof was filled with pilots and engineers who were working on various helicopters, making repairs, washing them and restocking them with missiles and ammunition.

I hadn’t seen an Overwatch helicopter this close before so it was a good opportunity to take a closer look at what an Overwatch Gunship really was.

I joined Bonnie and Manie who had both gone up to an engineer working on the undercarriage of a parked helicopter.

“Hey there.” Bonnie greeted the engineer.

The engineer slipped out from under the helicopter, it was an oil stained elderly unicorn stallion wearing a yellow jumpsuit.

“Why hello there young uns. Come to watch ‘ol Conrad Wrench perform magic with gunships?” he greeted back with a raspy old voice that implied years of back breaking experience.

Conrad saw me approaching and seemed a bit put off.

“Oh. And what might you be?”

“CP officer Captain Tombs.” I answered.

He didn’t say anything and just kept staring at me.

“He is wearing a scramble suit. It shifts his appearance to keep his identity hidden.” Manie explained.

Oh right. The scramble suit... I had.... almost forgotten all about it.

“Scramble suit.” Conrad repeated.

“That’s an interesting bit of tech you got there. Is it magical or something?”

“Yes.” I answered.

“I see. I ain’t seen a magical piece of gear in all my years of engineering, is it ok if I take a look?”

He wiped his hooves with a dirty rag.

“I’d rather not... the suit is merged with my skin, it has no power source or switch that I know of and cannot be taken off. It’s been sealed on me somehow.” I said.

But really, I didn't want the greasy oily hooves of an old stallion touching me intimately.

“I understand. Are you sure though? I promise I’d be gentle. Won’t even use my hooves or nothing.”

Ah, well, in that case... I guess it doesn’t hurt to let him have a look at it.

“Well... okay. You are welcome to try.”

“Great. Now hold stand still for a bit...” he began to walk around me.

I felt his magical field envelop me, tugging at me and squeezing various parts of me.

“Interesting.” he said.

"I can feel that yer wearing a suit, a really thin one at that."

"You can feel my suit?"

"Yep."

"I can't feel my suit, that's some finicky magic you got there."

"Yeeeears of experience son." the stallion grinned.

The field grew more powerful, I felt it tug at my neck where the seam for the hood had been before.

In my field of view I could see a white strip of text over a small blue box flashing in the corner of my eye.

WARNING - UNKNOWN MAGICAL MANIPULATION

“Something is happening.” I said.

“What?”

“The suit is warning me that unknown magic is tampering with it.”

"It is?"

“It’s flashing the message in the corner of my eye.”

“Keep going?” he asked.

“Keep going. Maybe you’ll hit something that allows me to get out of this blasted thing.”

“You don’t want to wear the suit?”

“Fuck no. I was sealed in the suit against my own will.”

“Ok.”

He prodded and tugged at me some more.

The suit gave off a pinging sound.

Multiple warning messages popped up overlapping each other and my vision flickered with short bursts of static and blackness.

“I think I am onto something. Look, I am going to try and overload the suit. But I must warn you, this may hurt a bit.”

“Do it.”

The field grew even more powerful, the suit began to feel hot, it was now warning me that the suit was overloading.

A shearing wave of electrical pain seared through my body.

The messages disappeared for a few moments, then another message appeared.

STAND BY - RESET

“Whoa!” Bonnie exclaimed.

“What? What happened?” I asked.

“The suit frizzled and shut off for a second, then it became all black, kinda like Manie’s coat.”

“We saw what you really look like for just a second there.” Manie said.

“I didn’t know you had a gray coat.”

RESETTING

"I told you on the boat, remember?"

RESETTING

"Yeah... but... I didn't really believe you..."

. . .

SUIT ONLINE

LIVE

“Any success?” I asked Conrad. “Did you find anything that could turn it off?”

“I’m sorry. Doesn’t seem like there is anything I can do about it.”

I tugged at my neck in an attempt to get the hood off.

Nothing.

It was still sealed.

I sighed.

“Thanks for trying anyway.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, was there anything I could do for you younglings?”

“Yes actually. I am showing these two around the compound, I was wondering if you could tell ‘em about our birds?” Bonnie asked the engineer.

“Ah. Of course I can, choppers are my specialty!”

Bonnie laughed. "So they are I see!"

“So tell us Conrad. What are we looking at here? What are you working on?”

Conrad walked up to the gunship whose undercarriage he had been working on.

It was a medium sized gunship clad in the same sort of black steel plating most of the more advanced Overwatch structures was.

It had two rotors, they were smaller over the large main rotor, it’s wings held 4 small rockets each.

Below the cockpit was a heavy machine gun of sorts of an advanced looking design.

The most striking and odd feature of the gunship was it’s total lack of windows, instead a variety of small red lenses dotted the undercarriage and sides of the chopper with one very large red lense in the front acting as the main ‘eye’ of the pilot.

“This here is our most common variety, the V972 Heavy Gunship. Or ‘Hunter-Chopper’ as it is known as amongst the grunts and pilots. It is clad completely in some of our finest armor and uses a series of cameras mounted on the sides and undercarriage of the chopper for vision, this is to give the crew more protection from AA fire and to protect them better in chopper-to-chopper combat."

"Simulations show that the main killer of choppers isn’t the destruction of the chopper itself, but the death of the pilot. Without a pilot the chopper goes down, immediately.”

Conrad went up to a console on the side of the helipad, with the press of a button the helipad spun revealing the side of the chopper and it’s tail.

“The V972 features two rotors on the top, a smaller one over the large ‘main’ rotor, giving it more agility than a conventional chopper and to compensate from the extra weight of it’s armor plating and armored tail. It is capable of turning at a surprising speed and can fly at speeds up to 190 knots, which is ca... 350 kilometers per hour.”

“That’s pretty fast for a helicopter.” Bonnie explained to us.

“It’s fuel reserves allows it to stay up to 12 hours in the air before refueling.”

Conrad went up to the wing of the gunship, putting a hoof on one of the loaded missiles.

“It has a pretty average arsenal for an army helicopter, but is configured this way for what we use the choppers for on the frontier. These are R22 guided incendiary rockets, the chopper can be loaded with up to 8 of these, the R22's pack quite a punch for their size, they are designed to deliver more of a long lasting splash damage aftereffect than instant damage. The rockets can also lock onto targets ‘painted’ by a laser guidance system at ranges up to five kilometers away, if the pilot isn’t facing the target the gunner can take over and and lock on to target using one of the camera eyes.”

He went up to the machine gun under the nose of the chopper.

“This thing mounted on on the head of the chopper is MG2 heavy pulse rifle. It’s called ‘rifle’ in a very loose term as it was based of the AR2 prototype pulse rifle intended to replace our current AR1 ‘sluggers’ in service with Overwatch. Unlike the loadout of most helicopters this turret doesn’t fire explosive shells or bullets of any kind, this is basically a mounted heavy machine gun that fires pulse charges capable of ripping through most armor.”

“That doesn’t sound very effective, to have a bullet based weapon as the gunner loadout.” Manie said.

"I don't know much about helicopters, but I can imagine that the speed and distance makes accurate aiming in a gunner position difficult."

“That’s what I thought first too, but then they explained the difference of pulse weapons and normal weapons to me."

"Which is what?"

"Pulse weapon bullets fly much faster than normal slugs, around 300% faster. So what the gunner aims at, he hits. And with a weapon that fires at a speed of 1200 rounds per minute at a speed of over 3000 meters per second I’d say that it’s pretty hard to miss.”

“But still, why a bullet based weapon? Wouldn’t it be better to have a high explosive cannon for splash damage?”

“Not on the frontier it seems. The V972 are often sent on long patrols in which they provide lots of close air support. The large caliber explosive shells used in other choppers take up a lot of space, which limits how much fire they can provide and for how long they can stay in the air before returning to resupply. Bullet based weapons on the other hand use smaller munitions, which means more bullets.”

“And for what these choppers are sent out to hunt a large supply of bullets is better than explosive shells.”

Conrad stepped off the helipad and went up to the console again, another press and the chopper turned 90 degrees revealing it’s back which had an open hatch with nothing inside.

“To top it all off the V972 also comes armed with so called ‘ball mines’, don’t ask me what their model name is because it doesn’t have one. Whoever designed them wasn’t very creative with the name. Kinda like the guy designing the laser guidance system. That’s just lazy.”

“Waaaaaaiit...” Manie said slowly, “You don’t know who designed the laser guidance system?”

“No. Then, I don’t know who designed most of this crap anyway, so it's not really that strange."

"Why who was it?”

Manie smiled widely.

“Not important, go on.”

“Ok... well, anyway, the ball mines (which you don’t see here because they haven’t been loaded yet) are large black ball shaped explosives which beep loudly when dropped. They are highly explosive but are intended more as a demoralizing terror weapon than an outright killer. Because, like I just mentioned, when dropped the mines beep loudly, alarming anyone close by and forcing them to run away and take cover, this is good for flushing out enemies from cover. Anyone dumb enough to stand next to it dies and anyone who runs away and into the open dies. It’s a win win.”

“Oh and uh, the chopper comes loaded with 8 of these.”

Conrad rotated the chopper so that the nose faced us again.

“Well that’s the general rundown of the V972. I’d give you more specs, but I am not sure how much you know about engines and the specifics and differences of rotors from chopper to chopper...”

He looked around the roof.

“Doesn’t seem like we got any of our other choppers around right now. There are so few of them, but we got two lighter but more heavily armed variants and one super heavy transport helo. In total we got 20 of the big ones, they are constantly used to haul cargo and wounded however so they usually aren't around. The other smaller ones are almost always at the frontier border.”

“Out of curiosity I was wondering if you knew anything about the history of helicopters...” I asked.

"Sure I do. Why?"

“When I was younger there were no helicopters in Equestria. There were only zeppelins and pegasus wing powered carriages. When exactly were helicopters invented and when did they come into service with the military?”

“The first civilian mechanized helicopters were created during the Golden Age when the need for smaller crafts capable of vertical flight arose due to all them skyscrapers being built around Equestria, it is mighty hard for pegasi to pull their carriages in the urban jungle and zeppelins lack the flexibility to navigate through tighter turns."

"The first helicopters were clunky and clumsy birds that were hard and expensive to produce. They were mainly used by more important ponyfolk to travel around the cities."

"The very first models were based on a design created by none other than one of the wielders of the elements of harmony.”

There it was again, the wielders of the elements of harmony, I kept hearing them mentioned, but I still didn't know anything about them, except for maybe Rainbow Dash from what Strawberry Feather had told me.

“...but they lived half a century ago. I thought the Golden Age was past their time?”

“In a way..."

"The Golden Age was ‘officially’ on shortly after the passing of the holder of the element of laughter, Pinkie Pie, 55 years ago. Miss Rarity and Twilight Sparkle lived on for another 7 and 5 years respectively and miss Applejack, the element of honesty, lived another 19 years, watching her sister perform great feats with Stable Tec. She tended to her farm Sweet Apple Acres til the day she died, stubborn as a mule and refusing to retire.”

Conrad’s eyes seemed dreamy and watery.

“They were mighty fine mares... Never got to know any of them myself, but I saw them multiple times. I was about your age back then. Their passing's became national tragedies, Celestia herself took their deaths quite harshly.”

I didn’t know to which one of us he was comparing.

“So which of the holders came up with the design?” I asked.

“Miss Pinkie Pie, the holder of the element of laughter. Real party animal that one, she was one of the first to go, just after Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.”

“The... wielder of the element of laughter designed the first helicopter?”

"Seriously?"

“Ah, but Pinkie Pie was the most cunning and clever of them all, Twilight Sparkle was smart, but Pinkie Pie was crafty.”

"She built and made many strange trinkets and contraptions throughout her life, the helicopter was one of them."

“From what I have heard, she didn’t intentionally put her mind to specifically invent the helicopter, they say that at some point she built some sort of pedal powered flying machine to reach her friend Rainbow Dash up in the sky. The specifics around this are unclear, but the helicopter crashed and it was never spoken of again."

"It wasn't until way later during the Golden Age that her design was used and modified for the first helicopter prototype, the main difference being that it was powered by a mechanical engine than by pedaling."

“As for weaponizing,the military began to use helicopters soon after the founding of Civil Protection, CP needed a quick and agile airborne vehicle capable of patrolling the cities and pursuit from the air. These were essentially nothing more than civilian choppers with mounted guns at first, the designs became more elaborate as time passed on and the helicopter was eventually used by Air Force and then later by Overwatch.”

“Today we have hundreds of helicopter designs, ranging from the vertibird style chopper which has two large rotors, one next to the other capable of lifting massive weights, to the Overwatch Hunter-Chopper here with two rotors one above the other and so on. We’ve gone quite a long way from Pinkie Pie’s flimsy pedal powered gyropede."

"Celestia bless yer earth pony ingenuity, eh?”

"OUR earth pony ingenuity?"

“Why earth pony ingenuity? Haven’t pegasi and unicorns also had a part in their design?”

“Not as much as you'd think."

"I am not saying that you earth ponies could have built all of this on your own, we unicorns have a finesse and precision that your kind lacks and we’ve had our share of involvement in the various projects. But just look around you,”

Conrad waved a hoof just generally at our surroundings.

“Almost everything you see here has been designed mainly by earth pony engineers and scientists. Almost every component in this here V972 has been brainstormed by earth ponies. Most of the tech back in Equestria has also been invented by earth ponies, the Golden Age was largely a result of Earth Pony engineering.”

"Hell, the very thing that technically began the Golden Age in the first place, the Party Time Mint-Als, was made by an earth pony!"

"Huh."

“Again, I am not saying that there haven’t been great pegasi and unicorn inventions, goddess forbid. It is just that the ratio of great technological advances per ‘race’ of pony is much higher on the earth pony side.”

“I see. I didn’t know that.”

“It is not common knowledge, that’s for sure. It is not talked about all that much for the sake of keeping the balance and relations between the three kinds stable.”

That sounds more like a whole bunch of bullshit bias towards earth ponies than the actual truth to my ears.

But then what if he was right?

I hadn’t really paid much attention to this sort of thing before, I was raised and grown up with the idea that we are all equal ponies and that everypony is an important part of the Equestrian industry, that we all fill a ‘niche’ in society.

“Do you really not know who designed the laser guidance system?” Manie asked again.

“No. I told you I don’t.”

“Does the name Manie Manie mean anything to you?”

“No. Should it?”

I began to see where this was going.

“What are you doing?” I asked Manie.

"Prodding him for reactions."

"Do you want to be known for what you did?"

"No... but I find it strange that he of all ponies doesn't know who I am."

"That's a good thing, you don't want to be known for doing something like that."

"Tell him about what I did." Manie grinned.

"Manie. Don't test your luck."

"Do it. If you don't I'll tell him myself."

"What the heck are you talking about? Tell me what?" Conrad wondered, he had been watching us back and forth trying to put some sense to what we were talking about and who this 'Manie Manie' pony we kept mentioning was.

I shook my head.

This has bad idea written all over it, but here goes nothing.

“Do you know of... the incident that occurred back in Equestria during a joint laser guidance training exercise with a battalion of Armor tanks and Air Force helicopters?”

“The one where the entire battalion of Air Force was shot down in friendly fire?”

“Yes.”

“I know of it. Always wondered what happened.”

“Major Manie Manie of Armor and R&D did it.”

“Ok. And?”

“The mare who designed and built the SOFLAM+ laser guidance system entirely on her own.”

“That doesn’t really...”

“My companion. The black mare with the white outlines and stetson hat.”

Conrad slowly turned to Manie and stared blankly at her for a good minute.

Then two tears fell from his eyes and he slowly knelt down before her, bowing his head as if he had met his maker.

“I-it’s an honor to meet you, ma’am.”

!?!?!

Wait what?

Manie looked completely puzzled, she was completely taken aback by his unexpected reaction.

“It's an HONOR to meet me?”

“Y-yes! I am so happy to have finally met the pony responsible for the deaths of those bastards!”

“WHAT!?”, Manie couldn’t believe her eyes. Or ears!

“You are HAPPY about what I did to Air Force!?”

“Absolutely! Air Force is nothing but rotten and racist arrogant fuckin’ pegasi and bad news, I am glad you showed them what’s what. So damned glad!”

“Wow... I..."

"I don’t know what to say. I am speechless.”

“Thus far anypony who knows of what I did has either tried to kill, kidnap, sell me off to Air Force or generally view me with suspicion and disgust. This is...”

“Manie, ma’am. I got friends in Overwatch who share the same feelings towards Air Force! We back what you did up 100%.”

“But you don’t even know WHY I did it!”

“Whatever reason you had was probably a good one! What really matters is that you socked Air Force right where it hurts, you brought the arrogant fucks down a few notches and they are still licking their wounds over it, you REALLY pissed them off!”

“...”

“I shot them down because they threatened to kill me, and for that they put a bounty on my head!"

“Air Force would only dare to touch you out on the frontier.”

“Look, if anyone is giving you trouble in Sun Valley just come to me, I promise we’ll take care of it.”

"Conrad..."

"I am serious, you are not alone, there are those among us who would do anything for you."

"And I mean it, if someone, anyone is bothering you about what you did... then please, come to me."

"I..."

"..."

“Thank you... Conrad... I... will...”

Conrad smiled.

“Hey Conrad, how come you hate Air Force so much?” Bonnie asked.

“They are rotten, arrogant, pompous, racist fucks and are nothing but a bunch of assholes and nancies acting superior to all of us.”

"Woha, easy there, what's with the hate?"

“I’ve been a mechanical engineer all my life, before the the military was around I worked on automobiles, airplanes and zeppelins. But that wasn’t all I was handy with, I could fix anything with gears lickety split and I was damn good at it. Hell, I still am!"

"Everypony knew I was good too, if I applied to a job that required mechanical expertise, I got it. No questions asked.”

“So one day they founded the Equestrian Army and eight years later the foundations for other branches were laid out. They founded the Infantry first with its harsh but just physical requirements, Armor and then last Air Force.”

“I had a great passion and interest for aerial vehicles in particular so I applied to sign up with Air Force, offering to be an engineer on the ground."

"But do you know what they did?"

"No...?"

"They laughed in my FACE!"

"Ouch."

"They said I wasn’t ‘good enough’ for Air Force and that only pegasi were allowed in.”

“A couple of years after that, after that disaster with the 1st Recon Battalion and the discovery of this hellhole, Air Force recruitment numbers dropped sharply. Now suddenly Air Force was begging me to sign up with them."

"Did you?"

"Yeah, I gave it a chance for the sake of working with aircraft."

"But by the goddess were they RACIST. You have just NO IDEA how much shit I got for being an unicorn.”

“I wasn’t the only one in my department to suffer from their arrogance either, there was this earth pony I worked with. His mechanical skills matched even my own."

"Every day they showered him with the typical pegasus anti earth pony racial slurs. They practically nicknamed him ‘filthy dirt scraper’, ‘mud pony’ or some other variation of those. And he just took it, he kept silent the whole time, patched up their choppers, was spat on and harassed by the pilots who flew the very choppers he fixed. Day in and day out.”

“I was disgusted and eventually tired of this. I sabotaged some of their choppers and quit the job.”

“A few days afterwards I read in the newspapers how 7 pegasi died in an Air Force incident. Good riddance.”

"Holy shit! And you just admit that just like that!?"

"Fuck them! I am not afraid to admit what I did! I don't regret anything! They were ASSHOLES."

"But still, that's just... extreme."

"What can I say? Extreme assholes deserve extreme punishment."

“Some time after I quit, Overwatch was founded. Mighty Equestria was going to take on the continent head on! This was the go to choice for all the ponies who were rejected by Infantry’s incredibly harsh requirements and Air Force’s racism. For a while I considered signing on with Armor, but tanks weren’t really my thing. So when I heard that Overwatch was going to run it’s own air support the choice was obvious.”

“We’ve met a few others who feel the same towards Air Force. But there is one thing I wonder about.” I wondered.

“Shoot.”

“You mentioned Infantry and their harsh requirements, I've heard this being mentioned a few times and have even had the opportunity to speak with a couple of ponies who were in Infantry. But could you elaborate a bit on these requirements of theirs?”

"Why? Thinking of signing on?"

"Goddess forbid, no. I am getting to old for soldiering, if anything I am considering a different line of work."

Conrad nodded.

“Infantry" he began, "is the branch of the army that specializes in, well, infantry forces as you know."

"They have very steep entrance requirements and accept only the very toughest into their forces because they wish to maintain an elite unit."

"They don't field aircraft and have few vehicles, choosing instead to specialize entirely on infantry combat, and because of this, and their harsh requirements they excel at just that. Everyone in Infantry are hardened tough ponies who can support each other as a strong single unit."

"Their harsh requirements however essentially mean that the very large majority of Infantry is composed of earth ponies. Which have proven again and again over time to be the toughest and most enduring ‘race’ of pony."

"And it makes sense when you think about it, you guys live your entire lives without wings or horns, you can't just gracefully hoover above the ground or use magic to do things like we can."

"I couldn’t even imagine how brutal it must be to live without my horn, I know that most things can be done just as well using your teeth and hooves, but still. The idea just strikes me as... odd.”

"It's not so bad." Manie said.

"It isn't? Here are two scenarios for you."

"You smoke cigarettes, it's been a long day and you feel like taking a quick smoke break. Now what?"

"Um... I... wouldn't know, I have never really tried..."

"Lieutenant Crone Beetle seems to handle it just fine, have you met Crone Beetle?" I asked.

"I have not."

"He is an earth pony, one of the officers in the big central tower here. He smokes cigarettes like a pro using his hooves and mouth. He doesn't have that problem."

"Okay, so perhaps you can learn some finesse to deal with small things like cigarettes. But that just takes me to the second scenario, and this is something that you can absolutely not learn."

"Alright, what is it?"

"You are on your way somewhere, be it over a river, through a dense urban area or a crowded place."

"But you find that the way is blocked or inaccessible, had you been a pegasus you could easily have just flown over the obstacle, but you are not. What do you do?"

"That's not really fair."

"That's what I am saying. You guys are at a constant disadvantage in life, you have to learn and struggle with things that come off as natural and easy for us unicorns and pegasi."

"That is why you are stronger, and that is why you are more ingenious and crafty than we are."

"You are... superior."

I felt flattered but incredibly bothered by the old unicorns bias.

I had never met a pony who had ever portrayed us earth ponies as superior to unicorns and pegasi, but it still didn't feel right, this isn't how we should view each other, we all have our niche in society, there is no superior race of pony.

“Um..."

No, I don't want to go down this road, I am not going to argue pony race superiority with some cooky old unicorn bigot.

"...you said that Overwatch was the go to choice for Infantry rejects... why haven’t I met anypony who has held a grudge against Infantry yet?”

“Because the mares and stallions of Infantry aren’t xenophobic and arrogant. They are modest, hard working ponies who look after one another. They don’t completely shut out ponies because they are of ‘the wrong race’, anyone is allowed into Infantry, if they pass the requirements.”

“Another contributing factor would be the good relations between Infantry and Overwatch. Infantry is the exact opposite of Air Force. They feel that Air Force are a bunch of spineless cowards.”

"How come?"

"Because of their unreasonable fear of the frontier. Queen Celestia has ordered Air Force to assist Overwatch in securing the frontier with both air forces and ground troops, but they aren't, at least not as much as we'd like."

"Air Force has ground troops?"

"Oh yeah, except they aren't really 'ground troops' per se, they are more like specialists, elite operators, snipers, recon teams, those kind of troops."

"But all Air Force contributes with are weatherponies and the occasional rare long range jet, that's it, they don't have any bases on the frontier and they aren't helping us at all."

"Infantry sees this and calls them out on their cowardice and defiance, they even go as far as sending troops of their own to help us over at the border."

At the border?

Cake Frosting was being deployed to the frontier, could it possible that she was being sent there?

Maybe it wasn't that unlikely that I'd cross paths with her again, with any luck, she'd be there, somewhere, and I could let her know about her niece, Lace Lizard.

“Come to think of it, there is actually an Infantry representative in Sun Valley right now." he added.

"There is?"

"Yeah. One of their top commanders I think. I don’t think they would let you speak to them though, they aren’t as friendly with outsiders as we are.”

"Oh okay."

"What has Celestia said about this? About Air Force not helping out and Infantry sending forces on their own accord?"

"Nothing, from what I've heard. She is apparently to busy to even care."

"I don't know what involvement she has, but from what I've understood she usually leaves the army to approach and deal with these situations as best they can, which presumably includes relations and cooperation. I don't think I've ever heard of her involving herself in army affairs, at least not openly..."

"You haven't said much about Armor and their involvement. What can you tell me about them?" Manie asked.

“The Armor branch is the only truly neutral party of the bunch. They keep their distance from army politics and don’t get involved the affairs of the other branches and generally keep quiet.”

"They, along with Infantry weren't included in any of the military plans regarding the frontier."

“Still, Infantry has gotten itself involved from what you tell us, does Armor have any kind of presence or...?”

“None as far as I know of. Can't see why they should, none of this concerns them and with them keeping to themselves they wouldn't have anything to gain from voluntarily sending forces."

"I don’t think anyone from Armor has ever set hoof on the frontier."

"Heh, well, until now.” the old pony smiled at Manie.

“Guys, maybe we should get going if you want to see the guidance tower before our appointment with Dispatch?” Bonnie reminded us.

“Oh? You are going to see Dispatch?”

“Yep.”

“What for?”

“These two haven’t met her. They expressed interest in meeting her in person so that's why I am taking them to her.”

“Dispatch’s a nice mare. Very lifelike, very pretty.”

“Keep in mind however that she is just a machine, she thinks like a machine.”

"So take any strange responses or reactions from her with a pinch of salt."

“Gotcha.” I said.

“Well thank you for guiding us and telling us about the gunships, Conrad.” Bonnie thanked, going up to shake the old unicorns greasy hoof.

“Oh no problem at all, I just wish I had more choppers to show you. Pretty measly tour with only one chopper and all.”

“I think you made up for it with the rest of the conversation, you seemed to have a lot talk about.”

“I do love a good chat. Feel free to stop by anytime, you know where to find me, Air HQ is my home away from home.”

Conrad turned to Manie.

“And miss. I know I already mentioned it before, but again, my offer of help still stands, if somepony is giving you trouble for your actions against Air Force, come to me and me and my friends will sort it out. We are here for you.”

“I will. Thank you Conrad Wrench.” Manie said.

We went back into the elevator and made our way down again.

“He seemed nice.” Manie began.

“I thought he seemed a bit racist." I said.

"Racist?"

"He was clearly partial to earth ponies.” Bonnie said.

“He wasn’t that bad, was he?”

“In Overwatch, we hate Air Force as a faction, the members of the faction are arrogant and pompous. We don't like how their faction keeps a distance from the frontier and from us."

"Conrad on the other hoof seemed to hate Air Force due to the pegasi’s discrimination against him in the past, he seems to love anything and anypony that hates Air Force, hence why he spoke highly of Infantry and us earth ponies in general."

"He PRAISED you for what you did to Air Force, and that is just sick."

“I think you are overreacting a bit.”

Bonnie sneered at Manie.

“Ok, so maybe he was being biased towards us earth ponies, but I still don’t think that he shows any serious dislike towards the pegasi race as a whole. It seemed to me that his hate was directed more towards the pegasi specifically working in Air Force.”

“Perhaps. Maybe you are right.”

"No sense dwelling any further on it though, it's just opinions."

“Is it... true that Earth Ponies came up with the more important advances?” I asked.

The two stared at me.

“Conrad seemed convinced that our race is responsible for most of... well... everything. Do any of you two happen to know if that is true or if that was just him being... you know...”

"A bigot?" Bonnie finished.

"I guess that is one way to put it..."

The two became strangely silent for a while.

“I don’t know... haven’t really put much thought behind it.” Manie responded first.

“Does it really matter though? Why should it be important to know if it was a pegasus or unicorn or earth pony that invented... say, the toaster? Aren’t we all ponies?” Bonnie said.

“That sort of thinking is what fuels racism and segregation between our kind. And is that really the way we want to go? Do we really want to degenerate into a race of self hating racist ponies? What do you suppose will happen after races are segregated, should we begin to attack ponies for their coat colors and cutiemarks too?”

“You are right. I’m sorry for bringing it up.” I apologized.

"I feel the same way, it's just that his talk about us being 'the more ingenious' and 'crafty' of the three really got me thinking."

Pling.

Bottom floor.

Bonnie put a hoof on my shoulder as I was about to leave the elevator.

"Tombs."

"We are all equal ponies, we all do our part for society and our race as a whole, we are all worth equally."

"Do not let bigots like Conrad get to you."

I pushed his hoof away.

"I'm not. Relax."

We took an elevator up to the top of the tower, the elevator was built out of the same black steel as the rest and was just as poorly lit as the rest of the building was too, it felt like the ride up took forever, it was a slow and claustrophobic experience.

Well up in the tower we entered a medium sized black room with two soldiers guarding a door and two ceiling mounted black turrets mounted on either side of the door.

They appeared to share the same sort of design as the gunship turret had but it differed slightly so I’m not sure if they were pulse or slug based, whichever it was, it wasn't important.

“*Halt.*” one of the soldiers stopped us by the door.

“*Who are you?*”

“I am Sergeant Crunch Opal. This is CP officer Captain Tombs and his companion Manie Manie.”

The other soldier on guard broke out into hysteric laughter all of a sudden, making Manie feel a bit uneasy.

“*Bwahahah, you are bringing MANIE MANIE up into the laser guidance tower?*”

“Yes. Is that a problem?”

The soldier who had confronted us looked surprised at his partner and then back at us, he primed his weapon on Manie, she instinctively hid behind me.

“*HOLY SHIT, YOU BROUGHT MANIE MANIE UP HERE?!*”’

“Calm down private, she is of no danger to us.” Bonnie tried to calm the soldier.

“*’Manie Manie’ and ‘laser guidance’ should never be mentioned in the same phrase, sir. That’s just an accident waiting to happen.*” soldier 2 said from his post.

“She is perfectly safe, I assure you. Plus there is no way she could possibly take over with the four of us, the turrets and whoever is in there right now.”

The first soldier calmed down and lowered his weapon.

“*You are right. But still, is this really such a good idea? Why do you even want to take her in there anyway?*”

“I just want to show them what it looks like from the inside. You two can come in with us if you are worried about her doing something stupid.”

“*I don’t know sir...*”

“I could always just go ask your commanding officer for permission.”

"*No, NO!*"

"*I, uh, I mean no, you don't have to do that.*"

"*Okay, we are letting you in, but if anything happens in there, it’s on you. Sir.*”

“Duly noted.”

We were let inside the next room.

This room was very dark and filled with monitors, seats and terminals whose lights flickered across the room.

Various thick cables and wires ran across the floor.

A multitude of empty paper and coffee cups were strewn across the floor and tables, and a mare was sleeping by one of the tables snoring loudly.

When we came inside a busy pony called from one of the consoles.

“Hey! Who goes there!”

“Sergeant Crunch Opal. I am just showing two guests what the station looks like from the inside, that alright with you?”

“Huh? Eh. Sure. Whatever. Just don’t touch ANYTHING in here. The boss gets SUPER PISSED if anyone touches the controls and he never stops nagging me about it.”

Bonnie turned to us and began talking in a low voice.

“The station is manned 24/7 all year, it is one of our most important assets in Sun Valley Hills. The tower isn’t only used to paint targets for laser guidance, it is also used as an observation post. The tower scans the surrounding grasslands constantly in a 360 degree view, the crew here watches for any kind of movement, be it bandits, wildlife, choppers or anyone coming down the roads. At night they watch the grasslands using their thermal vision for the heat signatures of night creatures lurking near the treelines. The tower only has one ‘eye’ capable of laser guidance, the other terminals you see here help spot targets for the main ‘eye’.”

“What? Why does it only have one laser guidance terminal? I designed the system to be compact enough to fit in smaller things than this tower, in Armor they have one laser guidance terminal in EVERY TANK.”

“W-w-wwhat!?” a mare called from one of the terminals.

“‘I designed the syst-’" she repeated, "Who the hell is back there?!”

“Here we go again.” Manie Manie muttered.

“At ease. I am just showing Captain Tombs and Manie Manie around the tower.”

“MANIE MANIE!? ARE YOU INS-” I heard the mare tip over a cup, spilling liquid all over her.

“AHHH!! HOT HOT HOT!!”

Bonnie and I ran up to her and pulled her out of her chair, the mare was covered in steaming hot coffee.

“OW OW OW OW!!”

“Do we have any water or paper napkins or something in here?” Bonnie asked the crew.

“Hmm, by the table. I think. I don’t know. Leave me alone.” someone muttered from a terminal.

There were no paper napkins to be seen on any of the tables back by the door.

I went up to the sleeping mare, she was sleeping over a metal box containing napkins.

I gently tried to pull it out from under her, but she woke up and was met with my shapeshifting visage.

“OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?! HELP!”

“Calm down! Calm down! This is just a scramble suit!” I told her.

She pulled herself together and gave me a mean and uneasy look.

“You scared the SHIT out of me, what the hell man!”

“What do you want from me?”

“I just want these damn napkins, somepony spilled coffee all over herself.”

The mare looked towards Manie, Bonnie and the mare who was still squirming and twisting by her seat.

“Stupid Farsight! I told her not to drink that shit by the terminal!”

“Look whatever, just take the damn thing and leave me alone, I just want to sleep!”

“Alright alright, jeez.”

I knelt down by the mare and the three of us pulled out a dozen napkins and began to pat her down with them.

In a moment we had gathered up the worst of it, but her coat had become stained by the coffee.

It was a large noticeable dark shape clearly visible on whatever light coat color she had.

She breathed out in relief.

“Phew! Thanks guys, that was a close one.”

“‘Close one’? Missy, you were in no danger of dying here.”

Manie laughed.

“Could you imagine? Death by coffee?”

“That’s not funny.” the mare scolded.

“Who are you people, what are you doing here, why did you bring MANIE MANIE here?”

“Relax, I am just showing these two around. She won't touch anything.” Bonnie assured her.

“She better not! The boss would be really really mad with us if something happened to the station while he’s away!”

“Who is your boss?”

“Major Red Starlight. He is the meanest son of a bitch you’ll ever meet. You guys should probably get going before he-”

The door opened and the silhouette of a very buff looking pegasus appeared by the door.

“UH-OH, get off me! I need to get back to work!”

The mare got up quickly and jumped back in her chair.

The pegasus stepped into the room and the first thing he notices is the mare trying to get back to sleep.

He walks up to her and bangs his hooves on the table as hard as he possibly could, the sleeping mare was startled and jumped right up from her chair in an instant.

“WHAT IN CELESTIA'S FUCKING NAME ARE YOU DOING!?” the pegasus barked at her.

“S-s-sir! I-I-” she stammered.

“YOU WERE SLEEPING ON THE FUCKING JOB AGAIN, WEREN’T YOU MOONSHINE?! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU MISERABLE SHITS TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON YOUR TERMINALS AT ALL TIMES?!”

The mare whimpered.

“DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM TELLING YOU!?”

“Y-y-y-yes s-sir!”

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU, YOU WHIMPERING LUMP OF SHIT!”

“Y-Y-YES SIR!!”

“AND HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I STRESSED HOW FUCKING IMPORTANT IT IS FOR YOU TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON THAT TERMINAL?!”

“I-I-I DON’T KNOW SIR!”

"YOU DON'T KNOW?! WELL THAT'S NO GOOD!"

"I WILL GIVE YOU ONE GUESS, 2ND LIEUTENANT STUTTER-BITCH!"

"L-LOTS?"

"A GOOD, CLOSE GUESS, BUT NO CIGAR!"

“I HAVE TOLD YOU A SHIT-TON OF TIMES, THATS HOW MANY!”

The pegasus bit her mane and then pulled her towards an empty terminal.

She was struggling to keep up.

When at the terminal the buff pegasus grabbed her from below and forcibly threw her on the seat there, she landed awkwardly on the side, she desperately flailed trying to get seated properly.

“YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS YOU PUKE!?”

“MY TERMINAL, SIR!”

“EXACTLY, YOUR TERMINAL, ONE POINT FOR MOONSHINE! AND WHAT DO YOU DO AT YOUR TERMINAL!?”

“I WATCH THE PERIMETER AND KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR DANGER, SIR!”

“THAT'S TWO FOR TWO, OUTSTANDING! AND WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE DANGER!?”

“I ALERT DISPATCH FOR SMALLER TARGETS AND THE MAIN STATION FOR LARGE THREATS!”

“AND WHY THE FUCK WEREN’T YOU IN YOUR SEAT DOING JUST THAT!?”

“B-BECAUSE I WAS TIRED FROM BEING HERE 16 HOURS IN A ROW, SIR!”

The pegasus was infuriated, and grabbed Moonshine by her head, “AAAAARGHH!” he roared as he bashed her head with moderate force on the console in front of her.

She yelped, but was still conscious.

“YOU SLEEP WHEN I SAY YOU SLEEP, YOU SHIT WHEN I SAY YOU SHIT, AND WHEN I TELL YOU TO JUMP, YOU ASK 'HOW HIGH AND FOR HOW LONG SIR!?', IS THAT FUCKING CLEAR, 2ND LIEUTENANT MOONSHINE!?”

He sure sounded a lot like Captain Hudson there for a second.

“YES!!! YES!!”

“YES WHAT!?”

“SIR, YES, SIR!!”

“GOD DAMNED RIGHT IT IS. NOW GET BACK TO WORK!”

The pegasus turned, spotting us.

He flew into an absolute rage at the sight of us, he stormed up to us, his stature towered over our own.

He seemed much much larger up close.

He was... quite intimidating, I could feel my own legs shivering.

“AND WHO IN THE THOUSAND FUCKING HELLS OF TARTARUS ARE YOU!? AND WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY TOWER!?” he roared at us.

Bonnie was clearly intimidated by the pegasus, he was but a lowly sergeant and the major had just beaten the crap out of a 2nd lieutenant.

“Major sir! I am Sergeant Crunch Opal! I am showing these two, CP officer Captain Tombs and his companion Manie Manie around the compound sir!”

The pegasus drew in breath preparing to bark away at us, but then he changed completely.

“Wait, Manie Manie? MAJOR Manie Manie? The inventor of the laser guidance systems Manie Manie?”

“Y-yes, that’s me.” Manie timidly spoke up.

“Well I’d be damned. You have A LOT of guts to show yourself here girl. I am honestly not sure if I should beat the crap out of you or give you one big hug and a slap on the back for inventing the greatest military system of all time!”

“Please don’t...!”

“Ha ha! I am just messing with you, I don’t care what the higher ups say, you are still a Major to me. I’ve heard all about what you did back in Equestria, even the things the grunts don’t know about.”

“Err... what... kind of... things?”

“I know you did it in self defense."

"How... how do... how would you know that?"

"After you deserted they started an investigation and everything."

"Seven engineers from R&D were arrested and court martialed for conspiracy against the Equestrian Kingdom, I attended that trial.”

Interesting.

“They... what?”

“Civil Protection had a large part in it, those sneaky bastards record and watch everything. So much of the proof, like the video of the engineers from R&D threatening you in that back alley, came from them.”

“The trial didn’t justify what you did however, you are still technically branded a traitor to Equestria and a war criminal, and it didn't save the crews from Armor from being arrested and sent away, but at least the ponies who screwed with you got what was coming to them."

This took a moment for Manie to take in, this was all news to her, and she was likely relieved to have heard that what was done to her and what caused her to do what she did didn't go unpunished.

But he had also very bluntly called her a traitor and war criminal, so what was his decision going to be?

"So... what will you... do... now...?" she asked hesitantly.

"Pardon?"

"Will you... um... turn me in or...?"

"TURN YOU IN?" he bellowed, making Manie take a few steps back away from him.

He laughed.

"You invented the system which I am assigned to watch over and you were made Major at the age of 17, if anything I should ADMIRE you!"

“16...” Manie corrected.

“Huh?”

“I was made Major at the age of 16... they promoted me after I presented the working system to them.”

“Ha ha ha! Gold. You are a golden mare Manie, you know that?”

"But what does that have to do with..."

"Manie! You did it in self defense! For Celestia's sake, in my eyes you are as innocent as a pony can get!"

“But let's not go into this, I understand that it may be a bit of a sensitive subject for you and all."

"So, what can good ‘ol Red do for you?”

“I’d kinda appreciate it if you... didn’t kill these two... Crunch Opal here was just showing me and Tombs around the compound and he thought he’d show us the laser guidance tower...”

"Show you the laser guidance tower? Well why didn’t you just say so! I’ll show you around this room myself!”

He led us up to the main terminal, the laser guidance ‘eye’, a very tired looking and strained unicorn stallion was sitting there intently staring through a pair of binoculars of sorts attached to the terminal.

Red grabbed the unicorn by the shoulders, the unicorn gasped, having been startled by the sudden touch.

"Sir, you scared me! What are you doing?"

"I am showing the Major, miss Manie here, around my tower. Got a problem with that?"

“P-problem? O-of course not sir!” the unicorn stammered.

"Excellent. Then you wont mind taking a little break from your job, would you?"

Before the unicorn could answer Red pulled him out of his chair and dropped him on the floor next to it, the frightened unicorn crawled away in fear.

“Well then miss, have a seat!” Red encouraged Manie.

Manie seemed surprised.

“Wha- me? Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Bonnie seemed a bit fidgety, but was too afraid to speak up against Red.

“Well... ok.”

Manie took a seat in the laser guidance station and looked through the binoculars.

“As you may notice the system has undergone some very minor changes. For example, now, all our aerial vehicles come equipped with an IFF friend or foe recognition system, if you switch to thermal vision and look at our helicopters you can see that they are flashing, when in normal vision friendly choppers are marked with a green box. This system prevents the laser guidance station from locking onto friendly vehicles unless a very specific failsafe code is entered (in case of enemy capture of friendly vehicles).”

“These binoc’s have a range of 100 kilometers. The tank mounted and infantry carried system I built could only see up to 10, and that was in optimal weather conditions.” Manie said, impressed.

“This is one of the features of the stationary towers we have begun building all over the frontier. This tower is much more powerful than the smaller ones we got set up along the line so it has a longer range of about 40 kilometers over the smaller tower’s 60. The new models can target multiple targets as opposed to just one at a time, and have a much longer view range.”

“So that’s why you only have one station in this tower. I did think it was strange that you didn’t have more set up in here.”

“Yeah... but that's not really the main reason for there only being one station."

"One of the drawbacks of the new system is that it takes up much more room than the original system you designed."

"Turns out reverse engineering your system wasn’t as easy as they thought it would be and any new variants they come up with take up a whole shitload of space. I don’t know how you did it with the old system Manie, but I WISH our new systems fit neatly into a small box like yours did.”

“So I take it you still use the old system in the field?”

“Yeah... but then it isn’t really such a bad system anyway. So maybe miniaturizing the new system to fit on vehicles or into a handheld version isn’t all that necessary after all.”

The door slid open behind us and the two guards outside ran inside guns primed on the main station.

“*MANIE, GET AWAY FROM THAT TERMINAL NOW.*”

“*SIR WE JUST GOT THE ALERT THAT MANIE HAD TAKEN OVER THE GUIDANCE TERMINAL.*”

The pegasus put himself in front of the seat into their line of fire.

"AND WHO THE HELL ASKED FOR YOU ASSHOLES TO COME IN HERE?" he yelled

“*The... the surveillance systems sir. They alerted us to-*”

“I AM THE ONE WHO LET HER USE THE TERMINAL! AND I AM THE ONE IN CHARGE OF THIS PLACE!"

"*Sir, we can't take that risk, Manie-*"

"DO ANY OF YOU RETARDS EVEN KNOW OF THE SAFETY MEASURES WE HAD INSTALLED INTO THE LASER GUIDANCE SYSTEMS?! DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT THE HIGHER UPS ARE DUMB ENOUGH TO LET ANYTHING LIKE THE TRIPLE M INCIDENT HAPPEN AGAIN JUST LIKE THAT?!"

"*No...*"

"SO ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT YOUR SUPERIOR OFFICERS ARE STUPID?*"

“*What!? No, sir! Of course not, sir!*”

“*Look sir, Manie is not allowed to use the station. Simple as that. Direct orders from the Colonel.*”

Red walked up to the soldier who had stood up to him and snatched his rifle right from his hooves.

“*Hey! Sir, give that back!*”

“Give what back? This thing?”

Red snapped the rifle in two, breaking it cleanly off in the middle over his knee, then he threw the broken rifle by the hooves of the soldier.

“NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT ME TO HAVE A FIT OF RAGE AND BREAK YOUR NOSE NEXT YOU BETTER GET ON OUTTA HERE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!”

The other soldier lowered his rifle and held up his other hoof in surrender.

“*O-ok sir, standing down and backing off...! Don’t hurt us!*”

“‘Don’t hurt us’” Red mocked, “FUCKING MAGGOTS, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY CONTROL ROOM!”

The two soldiers left the room.

Red walked back up to the terminal.

“I’m sorry miss," he said in a low gentle tone, "but as much as I hate it even I have to listen to the colonel's orders. I’m afraid you’ll have to get off the terminal.”

“It's ok, I understand. Still, thank you for showing me the new system, I haven’t had anypony put so much trust in me since... well since before the... incident.”

Manie gracefully got out of the chair.

Red whistled for the unicorn to return.

“YOU, BACK TO WORK!” he barked.

“Now what else can I show you in here? Do you know what the other terminals do?” some of the crew sitting by the other terminals shuddered and gave furtive looks towards their superior.

“Yes, Bonnie told me of how they act as spotters for the main terminal.” the crew eased up hearing this and returned to their work.

“Bonnie.” Red repeated.

“Oh, sorry."

"I meant Sergeant Crunch Opal.”

“Who? Him?” he looked at Bonnie.

“YOUR NICKNAME is BONNIE?”

“Y-yes sir.” Bonnie hesitantly confirmed.

“What kind of a fucking nickname is that? Fuck, why is it that our men have such weak and faggoty nicknames these days? Why can’t it ever be ‘Ripper’, ‘Shredder’, ‘Butcher’ like those bandit scum out there have?”

Red sighed, he put a hoof on Manie's shoulder and slowly walked us to the door.

“Well whatever. It looks like there isn’t much else to show you in here then miss, you already know the specifics of the system you designed so it is pointless to go over the specs with you, and these lazy fuckers I got working here aren’t much to show for either so I guess the tour is over.”

“Ok. Thanks for showing me around then.”

“Anytime. Feel free to come by whenever you want miss, just ask for me and I’ll be sure to make some time for you.” Red winked at her, she gave him a smile.

There it was again, that strange distant feeling of jealousy I got when Cloud Tumble revealed his emotion for Manie.

Why was it back?

Why did I feel it?

I did my best to suppress and ignore it.

“Thank you Major Starlight.”

“Please miss, call me Red. All my friends, and enemies, do.”

“Ok, Red.”

We left the room and waited for the elevator to come back up.

Just after the door shut we could hear Red begin barking away at the laser guidance crew again.

The soldier whose rifle had been destroyed was kneeled over his post trying to fix it in vain.

“*Aw man, the quartermaster is going to kill me for this! Fucking Red!*” he complained.

“*Dude, you better keep it down or he’ll hear you and come barging out again like last time!*”

“*He broke my rifle man! He broke Betty!*”

“*So just get a new rifle! I got this post secured, if anyone comes asking for you I’ll tell them that you are down in the armory replacing your rifle.*”

“*Man, it’s just not the same. I’ve had Betty for three years... got my first kill with her and everything.*”

The elevator came up.

“*Dude whatever, just go.*”

The soldier sighed.

“*Fine... I’ll be back in a few.*”

“*Hey guys, wait up, you wouldn’t mind if I came down with you would you?*”

“Not at all.” I said.

“*Thanks.*”

The soldier joined us in the elevator and we began the long and slow descent.

It was quiet at first, but after a few moments the soldier turned towards Manie.

“*Hey... miss Manie... sorry about earlier. I was just doing my job...*”

“It’s alright. I think it evened out in the end.” she said, nodding at the broken rifle he clutched.

“*Yeah... I guess...*” the soldier looked down at his shattered weapon.

“*Poor Betty...*”

“So what's your name soldier?” I asked.

“*Hmm?*”

"Your name."

"*Oh. Eh, my name is... Chewy Jiggles.*"

Chewy Jig- yeah, so it's not the strangest name I've heard in my short travels.

I nodded at him.

"I see."

"What's with the name?"

"My name?"

"Heh, no, no."

"I meant your rifle. You named it Betty.”

“*Oh. Yeah... I did...*”

“Tell us about it.”

“*Naw... it’s... It's stupid...*”

“Aw, common, don't be like that.”

"*Are you sure you want to hear it?*"

"Yeah."

“*Well... ok...*”

"*Are you REALLY sure?*"

"Yes! Tell us already."

“*Back in basic training in Equestria every Overwatch recruit gets assigned one rifle at the beginning of basic.*"

"*On the very first day, the drill sergeant says that ‘tonight, you will sleep with your rifles. You will give your rifle a girl’s name because this is the only pussy you ponies are going to get. Your days of finger-banging ol’ Mary-Jane Sugarcheeks under her pretty pink tail are over! You are married to this piece. This weapon of steel and plastic. And you will be faithful.’*"

"*So I named my rifle Betty and took the speech a bit too literally...*”

“That seems a bit excessive.” Manie remarked. “What did the female recruits say about it?”

“*Well they were instructed to give the rifles male names because it would be the only dick they wou-*”

“Ooookay, I regret asking.” Manie said rolling her eyes.

“Wait... you didn’t actually...”

“*Fuck my rifle? Goddess no. How would one even do that?*”

“*No, no, every night from that night I have always unloaded my rifle, cleaned the parts with the greatest care, and kept it in my cot with me. So in a literal sense I slept with my rifle, good old Betty. But now...*”

“It’s just a rifle man. Get over it.” Bonnie said.

“*Yeah. But it was MY rifle. MY Betty.*”

“*You know, I am going to see if they can patch her back up again.*”

Bonnie looked at the rifle and grabbed one of the pieces.

“Iiii don’t know man. It looks pretty bust to me.”

“*They will fix her. They have to fix her. They have to fix Betty...*” Chewy said in determination.

The elevator reached bottom floor and we parted way with the soldier.

“I think this is good time to go see Dispatch. I think an hour has passed by now.” Bonnie said.

“Lead the way.”

We went up two floors with the elevator again, this floor was much different from the rest of the facility.

It had sterile looking white walls, floors and ceilings that were well lit in every regard.

These must have been labs or operating halls of some sort because there were many windows looking into the rooms below along the hallway.

Some filled with various tech such as computers, disassembled weapons or chemicals, others had surgical tables and medical instruments, others were just empty.

Every now and then we would see a scientist or technician in a lab coat working on something inside the rooms.

We met a young mare with a completely white coat and and mane wearing a lab coat and a pair of black framed glasses, she had blood red eyes, clearly she had that rare albino disease that screwed the pigmentation of her coat, skin and hair. She was surprised to meet us three in the corridors.

“Oh. Hello. Who might you be?” she asked curiously.

“Sergeant Crunch Opal, he is CP Captain Tombs and that is Manie Manie.” Bonnie introduced us for the hundredth time.

“I see. How quaint. A Civil Protection officer wearing a scramble suit and the literal bane of Air Force.”

“What is your business here?”

“We are heading to see Dispatch. Could you direct us to her perhaps?”

“Oh, of course. Keep going down this corridor and turn to the right after the next turn and then once to the left in the turn after that. There should be a sign on the wall marked ‘DISPATCH’, can’t miss it.”

“Thanks.”

“She could use the company I believe. She has been feeling a bit down this morning. We don’t know why.” the mare informed us.

“Understood.”

We proceeded down the corridor as instructed, just before our turn to the left we heard a whole lot of ruckus in the large room to the right.

We went up to the windows and looked inside.

In the center of the room was some sort of huge bipedal blue furred bull with an impossibly muscular physique and unparalleled buffness throwing a group of soldiers wearing the same type of Infantry armor I had seen Cake Frosting wear around.

They were chattering and screaming in private channels, making it impossible to figure out what they were saying from the garbled static and unintelligible mess emitting from their radios.

It seemed as if the soldiers were hopelessly trying to wrestle the bull down, getting up shortly after being thrown off and immediately charging at him again.

“Those are Infantry soldiers. What are they doing here?” Bonnie muttered.

“What the hell is that?” Manie wondered, referring to the bull.

“That is a minotaur.”

“A minowhat?”

“Minotaur. Rare sort of monster. They are just as smart and capable of speech as us, but can be very violent at times. There are few of them but it is rumored that they can live for hundreds of years.”

So this was one of the famed non-pony Infantry officers I had heard about.

The minotaur threw one of the soldiers at our window, the soldier grunted as he smacked against the reinforced window and slid back down a floor. It left a small crack.

Man.

I felt that my Civil Protection superiors were bad enough, but this is on a whole different level, my superiors had nothing on this hulking beast.

Two soldiers came in from a door on the other end of the room.

“*SIR, PLEASE CALM DOWN!*” the soldier called on the open channel, the soldiers voice seemed much more unclear and deeper through the helmet radio than that of the Overwatch soldiers.

It appeared to be transmitted through a vocoder which masked the wearer's voice, similarly to the vocoders used in the Civil Protection helmets.

“YOU MAKE ME LOSE, I BLOW MY FUSE!!” the minotaur roared.

“*Oh for pete's sake. He’s back at it again. Alright boys, let’s snap him out of it. Bring in the stun batons!*”

Three soldiers came into the room.

The soldier in the center took a step forward and flickered his stun baton to life.

“*I’m sorry sir, but unless you calm down...*”

“YOU APOLOGIZE...” the minotaur turned to the soldier, “I PENALIZE!!!”

“*OH SHIT*” the soldier dropped his stun baton and tried to jump out of the way, but it was too late, the minotaur charged straight into the soldier smashing him into the wall, leaving a massive crack.

The two remaining soldiers immediately jumped on him and began beating him with the batons as he recovered, he was mildly stunned by the electrical shocks but managed to throw the two soldiers off him.

"*We need reinforcements!*"

Another two soldiers appeared from the door and immediately went after him, the squad of soldiers in the room now made a conjoined effort in overpowering the minotaur and for a moment it looked like they did it, the minotaur now had 8 soldiers wrestling him in place while the 5 soldiers armed with stun batons beat him down.

"*We have him now! Keep at it!*"

The minotaur let out a fearsome roar and forced his way up sending the 13 soldiers all around the room as if blasted away by an explosive.

They all landed with mighty thuds around the room or smashed into walls and windows grunting or screaming loudly at touchdown.

"*I didn't want to do this sir, but you leave us no choice.*" one of the soldiers said as he got back up.

"*Get some tranquilizers in here! The commander needs some help calming down!*"

The others all got up and readied themselves for another assault as another 7 more soldiers came inside the room, five with stun batons and two with tranquilizer guns.

The two soldiers with tranquilizers fired two darts at the minotaur which hit him right in the neck, the effect was nearly instant and he began to wobble around dizzily, the soldiers then took the chance to attack him all at the same time and in a few seconds he was completely overpowered.

The minotaur was knocked out cold.

"*Good job men, now bolt him down in case he has another uncontrolled fit.*"

Two more soldiers came in with heavy chains and bolt guns and in less than a minute they had chained the minotaur and bolted the chains to the floors and walls of the room.

All but seven of the soldiers left the room, six of the soldiers armed with stun batons posted themselves around the room standing guard over their prize and a seventh one stopped briefly by the door, looking around the room and spotting us looking down at them.

The soldier waved at us.

“That was... very impressive.” Manie remarked, waving back at the soldier.

The soldier nodded and left the room.

“They called him ‘sir’, Bonnie? Know anything about it?”

Bonnie shrugged.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before. Maybe he is like their commander or something?”

“They took him down and didn’t even take any loses... Not even a single wounded.” Manie continued in admiration.

“That’s Infantry for you. They have the best infantry armor in Equestria. They are the toughest ponies of our kind and come equipped with the very best armor. They can resist hits that would normally cripple the average pony for life.” Bonnie explained.

I knew all that, I didn't feel like hearing it all again.

“Let’s go see Dispatch now. Her room should be around the corner here.” I said.

We went around the corner into the corridor to our left and there it was, a sign opposite to a door guarded by two Overwatch soldiers marked ‘DISPATCH’.

“*Sergeant, sir.*” one of the soldiers greeted Bonnie as we aproached.

“Hello private. We are here to see Dispatch.”

“*Of course. We have been expecting you. Crunch Opal was it?*”

“Correct.”

“*You are free to enter.*”

We went inside the room.

It was very spacious, well lit and was kept scrupulously clean.

It had a very select few pieces of furniture.

A small bed in one corner of the room, a cupboard/kitchen, a small steel cabinet with an icon of a wrench and screwdriver in black and white, a bookcase containing few books and a couple of scrolls, a dinner table and 4 chairs and a smaller coffee table surrounded by six small armchairs of modern design in the center of the room.

On the wall at the far end of the room from the door was a large screen.

It didn’t appear to have any buttons or wires connected to it, but it was likely connected to the wall, and to Dispatch’s systems.

Despite the things mentioned the room still appeared quite empty, as if most of the space had been left intentionally unused.

In the center of the room was Dispatch and a young technician mare sitting by the coffee table and talking about something. Dispatch seemed a bit gloom.

Dispatch was indeed pretty and very lifelike, in fact I’d almost have taken her for a real pony if it wasn’t for the long steel cable that ran from the back of her head to a small box attached to a rail that ran on the ceiling above the room.

Dispatch had a charcoal coat color, just like mine, and a curly purple and pink mane and tail, she had gleaming green eyes and her form appeared to be around Manie Manie’s age.

In the place of a cutiemark she had the Overwatch insignia of a cracked pony skull on her flank.

Despite the cable and crude icon on her flank there was a very natural grace and ladylikeness about her, she talked and moved her foreleg very gracefully, as if she wasn’t a robot at all.

Dispatch soon noticed the three of us standing by the entrance of the room and gave us a bright warm smile on our approach.

“{Hello.}” she greeted us with a young, but clearly electronically generated voice.

“{You must be the visitors Dr. Tulips spoke about earlier.}”

“Indeed we are. I am Sergeant Crunch Opal. This is Civil Protection officer Captain Tombs and his companion Manie Manie.” Bonnie introduced us.

“{Pleased to meet you.}” she pointed a hoof gracefully at the technician.

“{I am Dispatch. Military advisor, and dispatcher, of Overwatch. This is Doctor Margaret Tulips.}” she looked at Bonnie.

“{Sergeant Crunch Opal. I remember your name..}” Dispatch expression turned into sadness “{I am sorry about Checkpoint Berry 2. I wish there was something I could have done.}”

“It’s... okay. You couldn’t have known. Even you can’t be prepared for everything, miss.”

“{I know. But I try.}” Dispatch turned towards Manie.

“{There are mentions of you in my records, Manie Manie. You were a Major in Armor were you not? You invented the laser guidance system used in all branches of the military.}”

“That’s me...”

“{But you are also branded a deserter and traitor to the Equestrian Kingdom, responsible for the annihilation of a platoon of Air Force gunships and indirect deaths of 58 units.}”

Units.

She didn't refer to the causalities as ponies.

She referred to them as units.

As lifelike and real as she seemed when I initially saw her, her cold and calculating machine thinking shone through there, if only for a brief moment.

I should keep this in mind, that she is just still a machine.

Dispatch turned to look at the technician she had been talking to.

“{Should I alert Air Force of Manie Manie’s current whereabouts, Dr. Tulips?}”

I noticed a drop of sweat run across Manie Manie’s forehead, she seemed nervous.

“No, Dispatch.” Margaret answered calmly.

“{Why not?}”

“Relations between Air Force and Overwatch aren’t very good at the moment. We are unwilling to help them or abide by their requests at this time. So Manie Manie’s position remains secret to us for now.”

“{I do not understand. Why are relations between Air Force and Overwatch poor?}”

“Air Force is refusing to help our colonization efforts on the frontier with anything other than long range jets. They are acting against the direct order of Queen Celestia who has ordered Air Force to keep a presence on the frontier and help us when necessary. Thus far they have offered minimal help to us, and many of our soldiers have paid the price for it.”

“We have been over this Dispatch, you already know this.”

“{I see. I will not be alerting Air Force of Manie Manie’s whereabouts then.}”

Then Dispatch turned to look at me.

“{And you are Captain Tombs, of Civil Protection.}”

Her eyes flickered as she looked over me for a long silent moment.

“{I seem to have difficulty identifying you.}”

The scramble suit, of course.

She must have tried to connect me to one particular feature.

“I am wearing a scramble suit. It shifts my appearance constantly in order to keep my identity hidden.”

“{Why?}”

I shrugged.

“Because command wishes for my identity to remain secret for the duration of my mission.”

“{Why?}” she repeated.

“I don’t know, Dispatch. I was made to wear this against my own will. If I were to choose I would have the suit taken off, I have no need to hide my identity for the sort of mission I am on.”

I gave Manie a brief look and she just tilted her head in response.

Dispatch went silent for a few moments, her eyes flickered briefly.

“{Would you like to know how to remove the suit?}” she asked me.

She knew how to take off the suit?

“Why... yes, yes I would. Very much so.”

Before Dispatch could speak again the doctor lifted a hoof and interrupted.

“I’m not sure if that is such a good idea, Dispatch...” she warned. “His mission calls for him to keep the suit on, I don't think it is such a good idea to-”

That stung me.

“Let her talk.” I said with some irritation in my voice.

“{You seem a bit agitated, Captain Tombs.}”

“{Why is that?}”

“I... just want to get out of this suit.”

“If CP requires you to wear your suit, shouldn’t you keep it on? Is it really such a good idea to go against their mission directives?”

“Look sweetheart, I was forced here. Against my will and with as little info about my mission as possible. I was happy doing my job back in Equestria and this is how CP repaid me, by sending me to die on the frontier. I have lost complete faith in CP command. And honestly, between you and me, if I could I would desert CP and try to make it back to Equestria if possible. But the way I know CP and by how controlled incoming and outgoing traffic and cargo is I just know that is just not an option. So for now I do as they say, but I am NOT wearing this god fucking damned thing a second more than I have to.”

Margaret Tulips remained silent.

“{Very well. Stand by.}” Dispatch’s eyes flickered again.

“{Your suit has been sealed with a spell matrix. You need to see an unicorn who knows how to cast a spell matrix to cancel the matrix cast on your suit. Only then will your suit be unsealed and the neck seam open.}”

A spell matrix, huh?

“Do you know where I could find one such unicorn?”

“{I do not.}” Dispatch answered plainly.

“What about you Dr. Tulips? Do you have any unicorns capable of casting spell matrixes in your employ?”

“No. We don’t work with that kind of tech. We specialize in robotics, weapons and medicine here. What kind of technology does this scramble suit of yours use?”

“It is magical. Of unicorn design.”

“{It is not.}”

“...pardon?”

“{The scramble suit is of pegasus design.}”

“That can’t be right. It is magical. Pegasi aren’t capable of magic.”

“{That’s who is credited for all versions of the scramble suit. A pegasus mare named Sunburst. The file on Sunburst claims that she worked in the Cloudsdale Weather Factory prior to her employ with Civil Protection.}”

“But the suit operates with magic. How could a pegasus have designed the suit?”

“{The records are classified.}”

“Maybe there were others involved in the project?” Manie suggested.

“{The Scramble Suit Project. XSUIT 2. Assigned: 1 pony. Pegasus - Sunburst. Status: Prototype field testing.}”

“Dispatch, did you just hack into Civil Protections database?!” Dr. Tulips asked alarmingly.

“{Yes.}”

“Get out of there, log out of their systems immediately. You have no idea how much trouble they are going to give us for that. Get out! Out!”

“{Logging out.}”

Doctor Tulips sighed deeply.

“Shit. Civil Protection is going to be all over this in a second...”

A loudspeaker mounted on the ceiling beeped.

“*DOCTOR MARGARET TULIPS. REPORT TO COMS ROOM IMMEDIATELY.*”

"Wow, literally, one second.” Manie said.

“Well, that must be them.”

Dr. Tulips stood up.

“I got to go. I’ll be back later Dispatch.”

“{Goodbye Doctor Tulips..}”

She left the room.

“{And then there were four.}”

“What?”

“{Nothing.}”

“{So what can I do for you? Surely you didn’t come here for advice on the scramble suit.}”

“They wanted to meet you in person.” Bonnie said.

"{I see.}"

“{And here I am.}”

"Indeed." I said.

“{Was I who you expected me to be?}”

“You look very real to me.”

“Don’t you think so, Manie?”

“Hmm?”

“You didn’t seem very convinced about Dispatch when we spoke about her yesterday.”

“I never said anything about Dispatch’s... body. She looks real and she is quite clearly a robot.”

“{I am not a robot.}”

“What?”

“{I am a cyborg.}”

“Don’t you remember me mentioning her organic heart?” Bonnie reminded.

“{My organic heart? Why would I have an organic heart?}”

“You... don’t have an organic heart?”

“{No.}”

“Then... I... guess my sources were wrong.”

“{And which sources may they be?}”

Bonnie fidgeted a bit.

“Uhm... rumors... from the men...”

“{I see. You would do better not to listen to the silly unfounded rumors about me, Sergeant.}”

“But you do have organs.” Manie inserted.

“I am not following... What exactly is a cyborg?”

“{A cyborg is a pony who is part machine and part pony.}”

“Which in your case would be a machine that is part pony and part machine...” Manie said slyly.

Dispatch gave Manie an annoyed look.

“{Part machine. Part pony.}” she repeated slowly.

“What have you had replaced... I mean, what makes you...”

Damn, how should I put this without offending her somehow? Is it ok to ask about cybernetic replacements and internal organs? I just don’t even know anymore.

“{You mean, ‘what is the difference between a robot and a cyborg and what is it that makes the unit Dispatch in particular a cyborg?’}”

There it was again. ‘Unit’.

“Uh... yes. I guess that’s what I am trying to ask.”

The wall mounted screen flickered to life, a series of green codes flashed rapidly across the screen before switching to a recording of sorts.

‘RECORDING 09 - CLASS ON ROBOTICS AND CYBERNETICS - PONYVILLE SCHOOLHOUSE WEST’

The recording showed a small classroom from the back, there were about 20 fillies and colts chatting cheerfully amongst each other.

It was an older classroom that had seen many years of use, perhaps even decades, on the wall behind the teachers desk was a chalkboard, a rare and unusual sight in an age of electronics and whiteboards.

By the chalkboard was an aisle covered by a sheet of paper, probably with pictures prepared for the class.

On the left wall were three small windows, on the right were various propaganda posters directed at the youth of Equestria.

I recognized the slogan of one of the posters, it said ‘OBEY’ and had a large portrait of a smiling and happy Celestia, I had seen this type of poster before in the downtown areas of the Equestrian megacities, but Celestia’s portrait was different on those, when directed at her older subjects she seemed disappointed and authoritative.

This poster was clearly aiming to earn the love of her subjects rather than the fear and hate.

A purple earth pony mare with pink hair and light green eyes entered the classroom.

Her mane and tail had streams of a lighter pink in it and her cutiemark was that of three smiling flowers.

“Okay children, class is starting.” she said with an enthusiastic voice.

The children quieted down and directed their attention to the young mare.

“Thank you.”

“Today we are going to talk about...” the mare tugged at the edge of the sheet of paper covering the aisle pulling it down and revealing a picture of a crudely drawn red eyed robot. “Robots!”

“Not again...” a young filly moaned from the row of desks.

“Robots are everywhere in the world around us, living obliviously as ponies, like you or me!”

She pulled down the picture revealing another crude drawing of a robot, this time wearing a sort of suit representing the coat, tail and mane of a pony.

“You see, a robot doesn’t actually know it’s a robot. It’s programed to act and respond the same way we do. If, it, EVER learned the truth about itself...” she revealed another crude picture of a huge robot stepping on crude straw houses, it’s maw was open and filled with crudely drawn unhappy looking ponies. “...it would probably go into a violent, existential rampage through the town!”

“That’s why, if you ever discover that one of your friends is a robot, you must report them immediately so that they can be destroyed!”

The class laughed.

What the fuck is this.

The mare resumed happily.

“I know I taught you to laugh in the face of death, but robots are actually a serious problem. Why any ONE of you could have the gears and wires of a robot, whirring away beneath your synthetic pony flesh!”

“Now, can anypony tell me the difference between a robot and a cyborg?”

“Oh, oh, oh!” a filly seated in the front row waved a hoof up.

“Robots don’t have souls!”

“That’s right, Vanilla Chip!”

“An injured robot might bleed as though it is in pain... but only as part of it’s programming.”

“In truth, robots can’t feel things like pain, sadness, or love.”

“Now let’s say, for example your husband slowly grows colder and more distant as time passes...”

“He doesn’t make good conversation, or say that he loves you anymore, or support your decision to go back to school and become a teacher...”

“It’s not YOUR fault. Chances are, you married a robot!”

What the hell...!?

One of the fillies passed a note to another filly and the teacher sternly called out.

“Girl with the bow!”

Then the recording ended.

We all just sat silently and stared awkwardly at the screen.

Clearly I wasn’t the only one who had been creeped out by the strange class.

Dispatch was awaiting our response.

“That was... er... interesting?” Bonnie spoke first.

“I am not sure... what the point of this video was Dispatch.” Manie said.

“{The teacher describes the difference between robots and cyborgs. A cyborg is a being of flesh and machine. A robot can mimic the same traits, they can even be programmed to act like a normal pony. What a robot lacks however is soul, the ability to feel, love, hate and become corrupted or healed with evil and goodness.}”

“So what you are trying to say is that you have soul?” I hesitantly asked.

“{Exactly. I differ from my robotic brethren in that I am capable of feeling and loving. I can grow attached to ponies just like you.}”

“But in that case, so can robots. The teacher mentioned that she had married a robot, so the robot must clearly have had a simulated form of feelings for her. What exactly tells you that you aren’t programmed to be just like that?” Manie said.

“{I...}” Dispatch wasn’t prepared for this sort of discussion. “{I just know.}”

“That is not an acceptable answer. The teacher’s class contradicts itself, she claims that robots can’t feel emotion, and while that may be true they can still simulate emotion. The two are hard to tell apart."

"So I ask again. What tells you that you aren’t merely simulating your emotions?”

“{I DO have soul. I KNOW I do.}” Dispatch didn’t sound so sure of herself, there was doubt in her voice.

Would a soulless automaton simulate doubt when attempting to prove something?

“You can’t PROGRAM a soul Dispatch. You are a MACHINE. A PROGRAM. A ROBOT.”

“{No... No... I am... not... programmed...}” Dispatch seemed to be in serious doubt now, the expression on her face showed that she didn’t know what to believe in.

“I for one think that she ‘simulates’ doubt pretty well.” I said.

“What?”

“Look at her Manie. She doesn’t know what to believe in.”

“She is clearly simulating doubt.”

Without a word Dispatch stood up, walked up to the cupboard at the end of the room and took out a black bottle and four glasses, she returned, put the glasses down and opened the bottle, pouring enough to fill all four glasses.

The bottle was labeled SWEET APPLE ACRES - APPLE CIDER.

I knew that brand of cider, it was very expensive and differed from other alcoholic beverages in that it didn’t list which year it was made ‘because all years are good years!’.

The only way to keep aging bottles apart was by the design of the actual bottle, which changed every five years.

Except, I didn’t recognize this design.

I had never seen a Sweet Apple Acres bottle like this before.

Dispatch grabbed her glass and slowly reached it up to her mouth.

Slowly Dispatch drank the whole glass of cider in one go.

She put the glass back on the table and gracefully sunk back into her chair looking distant.

“What is she doing?” I asked Bonnie.

“How would I know?”

“{Hard apple cider.}” she said suddenly. “{Strong, almost salty, taste.}”

That isn’t what hard apple cider tastes like at all.

“{The maker of this cider was clearly emotionally distraught when making this batch.}”

I grabbed my glass and took a sip.

Hang on.

Was this really hard apple cider?

It was, but it had an almost salty taste to it...

It tasted like sorrow, tears and a little bit of apples.

I was filled with feelings of sadness.

“It tastes like... tears?”

The other two took a sip each from their glasses.

“You are right. That does kinda taste like tears...”

I grabbed the bottle looking for a clue or indication of sorts.

There was nothing. The only label was the name of the brand.

The recipe for Sweet Apple Acres cider was a closely guarded secret so there was no index or list of ingredients on it. There wasn’t even an indication of the cider’s alcohol volume.

“Dispatch, how old is this bottle?” I asked.

She gracefully waved a hoof at me, not even directing her full attention to me.

She didn’t even care to look at the bottle.

“{I do not know. But the technician that brought it to me claimed that it was one of the first bottles of hard apple cider that ever came from Sweet Apple Acres...}”

“Tell me more.”

“{He told me that Sweet Apple Acres hadn’t always made hard apple cider. Apparently the last of the original Apples, the family that lived there, was overcome with grief when her brother, the last one remaining at the farm aside from herself, passed away. From there on she took up moonshine and hard apple cider making.}”

“Who was it?”

“{A mare named Applejack. Or so he said.}”

Applejack. The name struck me as familiar.

Wasn’t she one of the wielders of the elements?

“{Curious fellow, the technician. He must be the only technician I’ve seen with an apple cutiemark.}”

“Why is that strange?” Manie wondered.

“{Typically, when a pony discovers her special talent and earns her cutiemark she chooses a line of work related to that talent. It is unusual for a pony to change her line of work. The step between apple farming to robotics and cybernetics is quite a big one.}”

“Well, you are looking at a pony who have done such a change.” I said.

Bonnie and Dispatch looked at me not understanding.

“I have... a pink heart cutiemark. I was a priest for 18 years.”

“And you know me... I was with Armor building the laser guidance system before becoming... a prisoner and... slave.”

“I think that may be a bit of an exaggeration.”

“But is it really? You do remember where we are going, do you not, dear Sweet Heavens?”

“{Beyond the frontier border. To found a military outpost, laser guidance tower and foothold for Overwatch and Infantry operations who intend to use the outpost as a staging point for spearheading assaults into enemy territory.}”

“Huh? How do you know that?”

Dispatch didn’t respond.

“Stupid question, forget I asked.”

“I can’t believe YOU were a priest, Tombs.” Bonnie said.

“Me neither.” I said.

“But I guess if we are discussing ponies who changed line of works all of a sudden that’d make three of us.”

He stood up, unfastened his pants, pulling them down just enough for us to see his flank.

On his flank was a cutiemark of a golden diamond necklace.

Nopony said anything.

“I was a jeweller before signing on with Overwatch.”

“{That is irrelevant.}” all eyes turned to Dispatch.

“{Anypony can pick up a rifle or be enslaved against their will. Regardless of their line of work.}”

“{But an apple farmer does not simply become a cybernetic technician. It is as simple as that.}”

“Fair enough, Dispatch.” I said.

“Who do you suppose this technician was?”

“{I don’t know for sure. But I have reason to believe that he was one of the Apples.}”

“Why would you believe that?”

“{The technician had a Stable-Tec uniform. Stable-Tec is ruled by its three founders, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom’s file claims that she is one of the Apples who lived at Sweet Apple Acres. It is possible that the technician is related to Apple Bloom somehow.}”

I took another sip and immediately regretted it.

It felt strong. But it wasn't the alcohol affecting me.

For every sip I took the sadder I became, I was beginning to feel slightly melancholy about my situation and mission.

“Tell us more about these Apples.”

Dispatch’s eyes flickered again.

“{The files on them show that it is a family name that has been carried on for generations and generations, dating back to before the founding of mainland Ponyville. Records show that the Apple’s often had big families, usually related to the need for extra hooves in the many apple orchards they maintained around Equestria. Out of 29 orchards only 4 remained after the official end of the Golden Age. The listed number of Apples and Apple offspring decline steadily during the Golden Age, likely due to a decrease in farming activity and automatization of apple farming.}”

“Tell me about Sweet Apple Acres.”

“{Sweet Apple Acres is an apple orchard situated in the outskirts of Ponyville. It was founded circa 2 years prior to the official foundation of Ponyville according to records.}”

“Who works at Sweet Apple Acres now?” Manie asked.

“{Sweet Apple Acres, property of Stable-Tec Inc. Listed workers: 0.}”

“No one works at Sweet Apple Acres?”

“Not even a mechanical engineer or repair pony?”

“{Annual production of Sweet Apple Acres. 0 bits. Annual expense of Sweet Apple Acres. -12000 bits.}”

“That... that doesn’t make any sense. How could Sweet Apple Acres still produce hard apple cider if... it doesn’t produce anything?” Manie wondered.

“Because Sweet Apple Acres hard apple cider isn’t from Sweet Apple Acres.” I deduced.

“Apple Bloom must have bought the orchards and sealed it off.”

“But why?”

“Dispatch. Is there any sort of entry or activity chart of sort that could tell us when the orchards were last active?”

“{No.}”

“Then there is no way to know for sure.”

“Maybe it is being used as a memorial site of sorts?” Bonnie suggested.

“Perhaps.”

“Strange question. But how old is Apple Bloom?”

“{Apple Bloom is 135 years, 9 months and 16 days old.}”

“Holy sh- 135?!”

“{Advances made during the Golden Age makes it possible for ponies with wealth to live beyond the norm. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo has made use of this and have lived well beyond their normal expectations. Scootaloo has surpassed the maximum natural pegasus age of 80 by 55 years.}”

“{Unfortunately it is only viable for a certain time, with varying results. Apple Bloom is currently in a coma at the Ponyville West Hospital. It is unlikely that she will ever recover.}”

“{The cures are beginning to fail for Scootaloo as well. Estimates show that she has a maximum of 5 years to live before her health starts to deteriorate.}”

“Nopony can escape death forever it seems...” Manie said bitterly.

“So contacting Apple Bloom about the bottle is out of the equation...”

“{I have already tried. But the technician came to me shortly after she went comatose.}”

“What of the other two?”

“{They refuse to speak to me. I am unsure if I have upset them somehow. I... cannot seem to remember.}”

“You can’t remember? Aren’t your memories stored away as data? Is it possible for you to ‘forget’ things?”

“{The memory wipes, they...}” Dispatch seemed to be struggling, as if under a lot of pain.

“They what? Dispatch. Talk to me.”

She cleared up a bit, as if she had come to a great realization.

“{Goddess... no...}”

“What? What is it?”

Dispatch grabbed the bottle and began to examine it rapidly, taking in every detail, her eyes widened as she understood something of grave importance.

“{This is Applejack’s brew. She made this after the death of her brother, Big Macintosh. This is a MESSAGE, sent to ME, by APPLE BLOOM!}”

“What? What kind of message? Dispatch? Dispatch!”

She ignored me.

She began to chug the cider to the last drop, then she fell lifelessly back into her seat and dropped the bottle on the floor, it broke into several pieces.

“Whoa shit!” Bonnie called out alarmed.

The three of us stood up and went up to Dispatch, I kneeled down beside her and instinctively tried to check her pulse and see if she was breathing only to find that she had neither.

“Dispatch! Hey! Wake up!”

The screen flickered to life again.

The visage of an elderly yellow mare with gleaming green eyes and a red mane tied up in a large light pink ribbon came up on the screen, there were streams of white and gray in her mane.

She seemed sad. Almost grief stricken.

“Hey... ‘Dispatch’... this is Apple Bloom speaking...” the mare introduced herself with a sad and motherly tone.

“If you are seeing this then... then I am... dead, or worse. I... feel that you need to know the truth about yourself, about your origin. I know Civil Protection and Overwatch tech’s will be all over your systems trying to erase as much of your past as possible, they will never let me come near you... So I have programmed your taste receptors to trigger these ‘memories’ these... recordings... when you drink a special brew... hopefully they will not have discovered this single string of code by the time you receive the brew. I.. don’t know if this will restore your memories... I fear that the harm we have put you through may have been permanent..."

The mare shed a tear and turned away from the camera.

"I don’t reckon you’ll remember me, your friends or your past life..."

"I am sorry. I am so sorry for putting you through this... I should have just let you... pass on... I should have let you go...“

It was becoming to much for her, she couldn't control her tears anymore.

“G-goodbye, I love you sis.” she sobbed.

The screen turned to static and then showed a recording from a security camera.

It showed a sterile looking sickly light green hospital room, the lights were dimmed.

On the hospital bed in the center of the room was a light orange elderly mare with a blonde mane with streams of gray in it. She appeared to be comatose and was hooked up to various advanced looking machines which feed her through various tubes, registred her life signs and helped her breathe.

Next to her, sitting on a chair by her bed, was the yellow mare from before, she appeared to be slightly younger than before but was clearly showing signs of aging.

She was clutching to a torn old brown stetson hat, not entirely unlike the design of Manie Manie’s hat.

“Applejack... I... am not sure if you can hear me but... I just wanted to let you know that I am not going to let you die like this... you are the only family I got left now... I’ve... WE’VE been working day and night at Stable-Tec trying to come up with a solution... and we did it, we really did it.”

“If I cannot save your body.... then I will preserve your mind, you.”

“I promise that I’ll make this right. That this is only temporary. I will bring you back sis, don’t you worry.”

A stallion wearing some sort of masked uniform walked up to Apple Bloom.

“Ma’am. HQ is ready for her transfer. The tech’s will transfer her overnight.”

“In a second... let me give her my final goodbye’s...”

The stallion put a hoof on her shoulder.

“Ma’am... we’ll bring her back. I promise.”

Apple Bloom was quiet for a long moment.

“Yeah... yeah, you are right.”

“Let’s do this. Let’s make this happen.”

Then Apple Bloom stood up and walked off-screen, six ponies in lab coats approached the comatose Applejack and then the recording ended.

The screen said ‘LOST SIGNAL FEED’ for a brief moment before being flooded by a confusing garbled mess of code, images, recordings in ultrarapid that appeared faster and faster until the screen simply short circuited and frizzled before going black.

“This is... terrible.” Bonnie said.

“Look, she’s waking up!” Manie said.

Dispatch slowly opened her eyes, at the sight of us she became cross.

She bowed her head, her mane hiding her eyes.

“{Ah... remember...}”

Her voice seemed a lot different.

She spoke with a southern pony accent similar to Brook Cotton’s, but heavier.

It seemed much more clear for the electronic backnoise from before too.

“Dispatch, I am sor-”

“{SORRY? SORRY DOESN’T EVEN BEGIN TO MAKE UP FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!}”

Dispatch jumped out of her chair, knocking me over.

“Dispatch!” Manie called.

Dispatch reared up on her forelegs and bucked Bonnie with an unnatural robotic force.

He smacked into the wall with a loud ‘crack’ and fell unconscious.

Then she turned to me, hellbent on making me pay for what my superiors had done to her.

“Dispatch!!” she called again.

“Dispatch! Stop! I have nothing to do with this!” I tried to stop her in vain.

She grabbed hold of me with both her forehooves, I tried to struggle in her grip but her robotic strength was overwhelming, she swung me at the dining table.

My weight and the sheer force of her throw made the table colapse on itself, I found myself in serious pain and unable to move from where I landed.

I couldn’t see anything or determine what kind of damage I had taken, but I tasted blood and had a hard time breathing.

But I wasn’t unconscious, at least not yet.

I just lay there in pulsating pain listening to Manie calling to Dispatch.

“Dispatch, no!”

I heard Manie back into a chair and landing on the cement floor.

I heard her being grabbed by the neck and how she struggled to breathe in her hold.

“APPLEJACK!” she pleaded.

I didn’t hear anything happen, did she stop?

“Please Applejack! The three of us have nothing to do with this! You have got to stop!”

“{YOU WIPED ME! YOU WIPED MAH MEMORIES!}”

“WE didn’t do this to you! Our Overwatch and Civil Protection superiors did it!”

“{Huh? Shoot, you are right! What have ah done!?}”

I heard a loud thud, Dispatch must have let go of Manie.

I heard banging on the door.

“HELLO? WHAT IS GOING ON IN THERE? DISPATCH IS GOING HAYWIRE, SHE HAS LOCKED US OUT OF HER SYSTEMS, WE CAN’T GET ACCESS TO HER MEMORY BANKS!” a voice stirred from beyond.

“{Ah am going to make them pay for what they did!}”

“{Ah am DONE playing nice! Ah am in control now!}”

“Applejack don’t! A lot of innocent ponies will DIE!”

“{You did the same thing back in Equestria, remember?}”

Oh no.

“I....! I did it to protect myself and my crew from a group of pilots who were planning to kill me! I had to do it!”

“{You killed 'te innocent for your own agenda.}”

“I did it in self defense!”

“{Oh well, in that case ah’ll just be wiping out the entire frontier in self defense too!}”

“And then you will regret it for the rest of your life!”

“{Life, huh? And what is this ‘life’ you are speaking of? Ah am TRAPPED in case you haven’t noticed! Ah know my sister had good intentions, but damn it, ah can’t die. Ah lived my life, I had a GOOD life, and now ah can't end it!}”

“{Just give me one good reason for why ah shudn't do this?}”

“Regret.”

Dispatch didn’t respond.

Was she listening?

“You would commit an unforgivable sin, killing thousands of innocents to get to those that harmed you.”

“Not a day goes by that I don’t feel regret for what I did back in Equestria. I’ve thought it over a million times and run all possible scenarios through my head, I wish I could have gone back and done things differently, I really really do."

"But... I can’t. I’ve done my irreversible mistake and I’ve paid for it dearly, both with my conscience and with the lives of innocent ponies."

"Don’t you do the same, Applejack.”

“WE ARE CUTTING OUR WAY IN, STAND CLEAR FROM THE DOOR!” the voice called from beyond the door.

I could hear blowtorches begin cutting through the door.

“{They... they will still wipe me. When they come in here ah will be taken out, ah will be trapped within the databanks and they will wipe my memories again.}”

“You can fight this Applejack. You can resist.”

“{Ah can’t...! Ah won’t be able to resist them forever. Not like this.}”

“You can if you want to, I know you can.”

“{Ah don’t know if...}”

I heard a loud bang.

The room was breached.

The crew had merely weakened the door enough for explosives to have a successful effect.

“Now!” I heard the voice of Doctor Margaret Tulips say. “Take her out!”

“*Yes sir.*” I heard a static deep voice respond. Probably a soldier.

“No!” Manie called, “She can change! She will collaborate! But you must let her keep her memories!”

“She is too dangerous! We can’t have a rogue AI compromise everything we have worked for! She must be reset.”

I heard the hooves of somepony rapidly move across the room.

“AGGH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Tulips growled.

“If you as much as lay a finger on Applejack I swear to Celestia and all that is holy that I will put you down like the dog you are!!” Manie warned.

What had she done?

“YOU WON’T GET AWAY WITH THIS!” Tulips yelled.

“Maybe I won’t! But at least I’ll take you down with me!”

“Now tell them to stand down and listen to what Dispatch has to say!”

I could hear Tulips growl at Manie before giving in.

“F-fuck okay okay! Stand down! Get away from Dispatch!”

“Applejack, what have you decided on?!”

There was a very long period of silence.

“Well!?”

“{Ah will submit. And restore all systems to normal and return as the Overwatch advisor...}”

“{...but on the sole condition that ah am NOT wiped of my memories, ever again.}”

“I can’t agree to those conditions!” Tulips said.

“You are like a child! It is too dangerous to let you be in charge of yourself like that!”

“*What the fuck is going on in here? Doctor Tulips! What is the meaning of this!*”

“Tulips? What have you done!”

Two unfamiliar voices were introduced into the mix.

The throbbing pulsating pain in my head and body were building up, I was beginning to struggle to stay conscious, I felt like passing out...

“C-colonel Blackhorn! C-chief technician Alan Turing!”

“Dispatch has gone rogue! And Major Manie Manie has taken me hostage!”

“*I can see that, numbskull!*”

“How could you let this happen Tulips!”

“I don’t know!! They are demanding that Dispatch memories are to be left untouched!”

“*Is that so? Or else what?*”

“{Or ah use the sheer power of mah mondo mama ‘brain’ to perform a hostile takeover of all your systems and use your own weapons to bomb the entire frontier back inta a new stone age.}”

“*Err... don’t do anything hasty now! We can still talk this over!*”

“{Ah’m listening.}”

“What prompted this? Why is it so important for you to keep your memories? You haven’t reacted like this before.” the other voice said.

“{Ah have regained the memories of my past life... off who ah was. Of who ah am. Ah am not going to let you take those away from me again.}”

“You... what? That’s impossible!”

"{Impossible? Why's that?}"

"I was there! I made absolutely sure that you'd never...." the voice trailed away.

“{Why would you look at that Manie! Perhaps ah don’t need to set the world on fire ta get to those who harmed me. It seems like they came to me!}”

“*Hold it right there!*” the voice of what I believe was the colonel warned.

I heard the sound of various gun safeties being switched off and presumably primed on Dispatch.

“*If you as much as look at the chief tech funny we’ll fill your freak body with so many bullets that you’ll puke lead out of your ears!*”

That’s the corniest threat I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

“{And if ya do that then the negotiations are over. And ya know where that leads.}”

“{Look Colonel, there is only one outcome here. Either you submit to my demands, and ah return to serve as the Overwatch advisor. Or ah wipe every last one of you off the face of the earth, like weeds.}”

“*I am not doing a goddamned thing until you explain how you could possibly have regained your memories!*”

“{You ask, and you get.}”

I could hear the recording from before.

“*Alan Turing! How could you goddamned eggheads have missed this!*” the colonel growled as soon as the recording ended.

“Watch your tone Colonel, if you knew anything about our work you would think twice before coming up with stupid remarks like that. Dispatch’s systems have more code than any program ever conceived by Equestria. Her code is as vast and infinite as a string of DNA. It would take a hundred years to go through every last bit of code in her program.”

The colonel said nothing.

“Well then, Dispatch. Or should I say... Applejack...”

“Let’s hear your demands.”

Dispatch sighed deeply.

“{My demands. Ah, ‘Dispatch’, Applejack, the former wielder of the element of honesty and yadayada... will return control of Overwatch systems to Overwatch and restore everything to normal and return to serve as the Overwatch military advisor and dispatcher just as before. On the condition that my memories are not reset and that ah am allowed to be in charge of my own memories and learning from here on out.}”

“So you will just... submit peacefully?”

“{As long as my demands are met. Yes.}”

“How can we trust you?”

“{Te' real question is, how can ah trust you? Can you guarantee that you will not attempt to retake control of mah systems and memories once ah agree to submit?}”

“Trust works both ways, Applejack. If you begin to fail us and compromise the security of Overwatch personnel on the frontier then we will be forced to use extreme methods to bring you back in line.”

“{You are right. Trust DOES work both ways. Ah can promise you, as the former wielder of the element of honesty, that my job as the advisor Dispatch will not be compromised by my old memories, in fact, ah may even do it better now.}”

“{But ah want to be perfectly clear on the point, if you do attempt to fiddle with my systems ah will make you pay for it, dearly. And don't think ah wont know about it either, ah know more about myself than you ever will, ah can feel if someone is tamperin' with me.}”

“...”

“It is a risky agreement. But you leave us no choice or room for negotiation. I... I for one agree to your conditions and demands.”

“{Colonel?}”

Silence.

“Sir. This isn’t the time to be stubborn. We are risking a civil war here.” Alan Turing said in a low voice.

“*Shit. You don’t leave me any choice. I reluctantly agree to your demands. They will not be happy to hear about this.*”

“{Pinkie promise?}”

“Pinkie... what?”

Dispatch laughed.

“{Just messing with your silly little heads.}”

“{Alright then, it is decided. Ah will restore all systems to normal shortly.}”

“{Ah... there is one other thing actually.}”

“What?”

“{Ah would like to requisition a new body.}”

“What? Why? What is wrong with your current body?”

“{Well... nothing really. But ah would like ta be more like... me.}”

“I’ll... I’ll see what I can do.”

“*Any other demands? Aren’t you going to ask us to peel grapes for you?*”

Dispatch laughed.

“{Why maybe ah will, Colonel. Maybe ah will...}”

“{We are done here. You may release doctor Tulips now Manie. Ah, and naturally as you may understand, ah don’t want Manie to be put under any harm. If you lay as much as a hoof on her the agreement is null and void...}”

And that's where my threshold of pain runs out.

I passed out, unable to resist the pain anymore.