Contains excessive graphic violence.

My Little Pony: Slaves to Celestia

A story of MARES and ROBOTS

Chapter 6 - Missus Roboto

Something Awful

I feel numb, everything seems so... soft.

“Sweet Heavens...”

I heard a distant female voice call for me.

...

“Sweet Heavens...”

The voice seems so far away...

…

"Sweetie..."

I opened my eyes.

My vision was blurred, I was slow to gain consciousness, but shapes began to form and shift before my eyes.

The dark brown cloth cover of a wagon interior began taking shape, then a black blur shifted and moved until it took the resemblance of a mare wearing a large hat.

Ah, it was a friendly face, it was Manie.

I realized by how everything was rumbling, that I was in our wagon, and that Manie was watching over me.

As things cleared up even further I could see her dreamy deep purple eyes and gentle smile.

What was she smiling about?

Was it me? Was she glad that I regained consciousness?

And why was I in the wagon? When did I get here?

When had it been decided that we should leave?

How long had I even been out?

There where so many questions whirring around my heavy head, so many answers to seek.

"Ah, you are awake." Manie said, once she had determined that I was clear enough to speak.

"How long was I out?" I asked, feeling that this had been the most important thing to find out first.

"Oh, just short of 12 hours."

It had only been 12 hours?

"You took quite a hit."

But wait... it had been afternoon when I... when we had gone to see Dispatch, 12 hours passed meant that...

I sat up and looked out of the wagon.

Yep, just like I had feared.

It was nighttime.

We were traveling out on the frontier at nighttime.

"M-Manie."

"Yes, Sweetie?"

"We need to find shelter, we can't travel out in the frontier at nighttime!"

"I know, I know."

"Then why are we out here!?"

"We had to leave..."

"But don't worry yourself about it, everything is under control." she reassured me.

"Under control? Nothing is under control! We are in the frontier, at night!"

"Don't worry about it, Sweet Heavens."

"There are night creatures out there, Manie!"

"I know."

"Then why aren't you worrying! We need to get out of here!"

"Sweet Heavens, you need to calm down. I said that we have everything under control."

What was she on about? What was under control? This situation was anything BUT 'under control'!

"WHAT is under control? What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Don't worry about that, just take it easy, you need to rest."

"Manie! You don't understand! They will kill us all if we keep going like this!"

She frowned.

"You are just under a lot of stress right now, just take it easy and rest, we'll take care of the rest." she got up and jumped off the moving wagon.

Then I noticed that Brook Cotton was pulling the wagon.

That's impossible, he was shot twice, his leg was broken, even with the weird metabolism some of us had there was absolutely no way in hell that he'd be up and walking with a shattered bone in less than a day.

"Brook?"

He turned his head to look at me, he was smiling, why was he smiling? Why wasn't he worried?

"Yep!"

"You can't be up this soon, can you? You took a bullet to the leg, there is no way you could have recovered this quick!"

"The Overwatch medics at Sun Valley did a good job, they fixed me up real quick." he turned away from me.

"Brook." I called for him, but he didn't turn back and he didn't respond.

Why was this? Was it something I said? Was he not in a talkative mood?

Did something happen to the others?

I crawled up to the edge of the wagon and leaned out.

They were all here, Blizzard Candy, Nurse Swirly, Cloud Tumble, Strawberry Feather, Brook and Manie.

They were all perfectly okay, they looked healthy, clean and were all smiling happily.

What were they smiling about?

"Guys?"

"What are you smiling about? What happened?"

None of them answered me or gave me any attention.

"Guys? Anyone?"

Still nothing. They kept ignoring me.

Why were they ignoring me?

Why didn't they say anything?

This whole ordeal was making me feel nervous, something didn't feel right.

Could this possibly be a dream? Was I dreaming?

It didn't feel like I was dreaming, everything felt real to me.

If this was a dream then it wasn't like any dream I ever had before.

They say that a sure way to find out if you are dreaming is by pinching yourself, but that is just a bunch of nonsense, for one how would pinching yourself help determine if you were dreaming or not? And how the hell were you supposed to pinch yourself with a damn hoof? We are ponies for Luna's sake! We can't pinch!

But maybe there was some sort of point in pinching oneself, like maybe it was to test if you still feel pain or not, with pain meaning that you are not dreaming and... something else meaning dream?

Or maybe pain was supposed to wake you up, as some sort of primal instinct, like, you feel that you are under danger and you wake up.

Maybe.

...

Could be worth trying, I guess it wouldn't hurt...

Or I mean, it would hurt, but, feh, let's just try this Tombs, alright?

I looked around for something to hurt myself with.

God I felt so strange right now, I was looking for something to hurt myself with because I felt nervous and surreal, how sick is that?

I noticed that the wood on the edge of the wagon was partly splintered, I didn't remember it being splintered, but maybe it had accidentally gotten damaged yesterday?

It did take fire in that ambush after all so it wouldn't be very surprising.

A bit of wood stuck out by the side, it looked quite sharp, I wasn't sure how I'd be able to grab it but perhaps that wouldn't be necessary...

How would I go about this now? Do I just rub my leg on the splinters, do I punch it or what? Uh...

Straighten up Tombs! This isn't rocket science, you are just going to cut yourself lightly, that's all.

I shrugged and slowly pushed my right foreleg at the sharp splinter.

It was... kinda painful I guess, it wasn't the worst pain I had suffered.

In a brief moment I had managed to puncture the skin on my leg, it wasn't a very deep cut but it was enough for some blood to begin seeping out.

Still, nothing had happened.

Does this mean that I wasn't dreaming? Or did it just mean that I hadn't felt enough pain?

I... guess it wouldn't hurt to try it again, maybe it just hadn't been enough.

Or maybe I was just being fucking retarded and hurting myself over nothing.

I slowly rubbed my leg against the splinter, trying to open the wound at minimal pain, it was all going well until the wagon bumped up all of a sudden which accidentally forced my leg into the splinter, it cut deep into my leg.

The sudden burst of pain caught be completely by surprise and I instinctively gasped.

I slowly pulled my leg off the bloodied splinter and looked more closely at the painfully pulsating wound.

It looked pretty bad, it had gotten much bigger now and was pretty deep, in fact that rosy thing in there might even be my bone.

I shivered at the thought.

"Sweet Heavens!" Nurse Swirly called to me, I looked over to her, she was looking back at me with an expression of deep concern.

"What are you doing?!"

"I..."

Good question.

What WAS I doing?

What had I really been expecting from this stupid experiment?

That all my problems would just, go away and that I'd wake up from some horrible nightmare?

I felt really ashamed over myself, I couldn't believe I'd do something like this, this wasn't like me at all.

"I don't know honestly."

She trotted up to the wagon and climbed in as it was moving, she sat down next to me.

She sighed.

"Ok, hold up your leg please."

I did as she asked.

She enveloped the leg in her magical field and held it in place before her.

She took a close look at the wound and then at the bloodied splinters at the edge of the wagon.

"What on earth made you do this?"

I laughed nervously.

"I... uh... thought I was dreaming so I-"

"You thought you were dreaming? And because of that you gauged your leg to the bone?" she interrupted and asked suspiciously.

"...y-yes?"

She let go of my leg.

"Sweet Heavens, be honest with me."

"Are you alright?"

"Alright?"

"I mean emotionally."

"I understand that this is all very... heavy on you, it is heavy on... well... all of us. But to do this..." she pointed at my leg.

"This is serious."

What was she implying?

That I was emotionally distraught and had hurt myself out of some misguided feeling of sadness?

"I'm... ok. I didn't do this for emotional reasons."

Or had I?

I had tried it because I felt that something was amiss, because I thought that I was having a bad dream.

Does that count as emotional? Or instinct?

"I... uh... thought I was dreaming, so I wanted to try to see if I could wake up by inflicting some degree of pain on myself to get myself to instinctively wake up, but then the wagon bumped and-"

"Sweet Heavens." she interrupted in a stern tone.

"Normal ponies don't do that to themselves."

"Swirly, I am not emotionally distraught, alright?"

"I freaked out and had a stupid idea that didn't work out like I thought it would. I did a mistake, that's all."

She glared at me for almost a full minute, I glared back.

"Well... alright... if you say so..." she said eventually, floating up a bandage before her.

"Now, let's get that wound patched up then."

I held my leg back up, it had bloodied considerably since the last time I looked at it, it probably wasn't such a great idea to suppress the pain and put my weight on it, I should have kept it on an even level to lessen the flow of blood.

She shook her head and used her magic to pull out a few small splinters still stuck in my wound, then she wrapped the bandage around my leg and tied it up tightly, almost too tightly.

It took barely ten seconds before the bandage was soaked in crimson blood, I was surprised to see how quick it had soaked, then I looked down and noticed that I was sitting in a small puddle of my own blood.

I felt a bit dizzy and nauseated at the sight, the pain got considerably worse when I realized how much blood I had actually lost doing my stupid experiment, I couldn't help but cringe at every pulse I felt.

Nurse Swirly gave me a weak smile.

"All better?"

I gave her a pained expression.

"N-no... but thanks."

"That's all I can really do right now, tell me if it gets any worse." she stood up.

"Wait!"

"Yes?"

"Manie and Brook aren't very willing to talk, could you tell me why we are out traveling on the frontier at night? Why did we leave Sun Valley Hills?"

She smiled, the same creepy and inappropriate smile that Manie and Brook had given me.

"Don't worry, everything is ok."

Not again...!

"WHAT is ok? What are you smiling about?"

"Everything is alright, we have taken care of everything."

"Taken care of WHAT?"

"Everything." she jumped off the wagon and returned to Strawberry Feather's side, the two just smiled blankly ahead of them, they were all just smiling blankly ahead of them, as if they didn't have a worry in the world.

Something shrieked from the woods on the side of the road, my heart took a skip.

It sounded unnatural, almost birdlike, but still unnatural.

I felt a heavy sensation of panic brewing up inside of me, my heart began pounding.

The others had either ignored or not heard the shriek.

"Guys!" I called out to them.

They ignored me.

I heard another shriek, this time on the other side of the road.

I rapidly scanned back and forth between the trees, but it was all in vain, I couldn't see anything in the darkness, it was just us, the wagon, a small strip of road and the trees.

"Did you hear that!?"

They didn't respond.

I heard multiple creatures move through the undergrowth on either side of the road, brushing by bushes, snapping twigs and stepping on leaves and wet grass, but I couldn't see anything.

Sweet Luna... how many of those things were there around us?! It sounded like there were more than a dozen!

"Guys! Please, this isn't funny! We are getting surrounded!" I alarmed.

But they kept ignoring me, damnit!

Fuck this!

If they weren't going to be on their guard and arm themselves then at least I will!

I quickly turned around to grab a weapon from our supplies, only to notice that there were no supplies, the wagon was empty.

What in the actual fuck?

Where the fuck were the supplies? Where were the weapons? Where the hell had Swirly gotten her bandage from!?

I faced out of the wagon again.

"GUYS, WHERE THE FUCK ARE ALL THE WEAPONS!?"

All of a sudden the creatures around us all began tittering, hissing and cackling at us, red dots were popping up all around us by the sides of the road.

We had been completely surrounded.

They were taunting us, waiting eagerly for something.

"Guys! LISTEN TO ME!"

What the fuck was going on!?

Why were they ignoring me and the night creatures!?

This HAD to be a dream, there is just no reasonable way to explain this!

Or is it? Gah! It all feels so real! The pain! The fear! Everything!

Something growled deeply.

Oh, goddess, Luna please no, please don't let this be- a dark shape jumped at Strawberry Feather, grabbing him and dragging him into the woods on the left side of the road, it had all been so fast, I hadn't even seen what had abducted him, but I knew exactly what it had been.

Strawberry Feather screamed away in panic and terror as he was being ripped to pieces by the balverine in the darkness, in a second a bunch of other creatures jumped past us, charging off in the direction where Strawberry Feather had been dragged away, his screams died away, leaving only the sound of the incessant cackling and the crunch of bones for us to hear.

But no one said anything, Nurse Swirly hadn't reacted, no one had.

THEY DIDN'T CARE.

"OH GOD!! THEY FUCKING TOOK STRAWBERRY FEATHER!!!" I tried to alert them, but they refused to listen!

Another dark shape jumped out and snatched Nurse Swirly, she died in the same fashion.

"GUYS! PLEASE! DO SOMETHING!"

Two balverines jumped up next to Cloud Tumble, grabbing him with their sharp talons.

He tried to furiously fight them off, bucking wildly and twisting in their grip, but their claws cut into him deeply, one of his wings was severed before he was dragged into the forest to be devoured.

Brook ignored the severed wing and walked right over it like it hadn't even been there.

I was beginning to lose it completely!

I shivered and quaked, I could feel and hear myself whimper and breathe irregularly, my heart was racing so quickly that it hurt to breathe!

I couldn't control myself!

I couldn't control any of this!

Something jumped up next to Brook Cotton, it was another balverine, I instinctively reached back to find something to defend Brook and myself with but then I immediately remembered that there was nothing in here.

Brook stopped the wagon and smiled at the balverine, he smiled at it.

It swung it's talons at his neck, severing his head in one clean sweep, it grasped his severed head in it's mouth and jumped away, Brook's decapitated body began to spew blood all over before falling limply to the ground.

Manie and Blizzard Candy turned around to look at the wagon, they just kept smiling!

This was DEFENITELY a dream, there is absolutely NO WAY they would be like that in a situation like this!

PLEASE LUNA, LET THIS BE A DREAM!

LET IT ALL JUST BE A TERRIBLE NIGHTMARE!

Another balverine jumped out behind them, it stuck both it's talons through Blizzard Candy's neck, the life flickered away in his eyes but his expression remained frozen in that horrible smile.

The balverine lifted his body up above the ground, Blizzard's head slowly slid down into the claws, reaching his eyes before the balverine did a sudden violent downward pull, severing his head and slicing part of his torso into sickening strips of meat.

It leaned over it's kill and began to devour Blizzard Candy, not even caring enough to drag him away into a more secluded area.

It tore off big chunks of flesh from him, more balverines joined in the feast.

And Manie, she... she just stood there next to them, smiling passively at them as they raced past her, pushing her out of the way and splattering the blood of her young companion on her.

This was going way past my limit, I lost total control of myself, I couldn't move my head or my legs, I was completely frozen in terror, forced to watch my companions get slaughtered as I waited to die.

I felt tears pour down my cheeks, I was crying to myself...

Oh please Luna, please, get me out of this nightmare...! Please...!

I felt something massive stomp behind the wagon, shaking it and everything around us violently.

Manie and the balverines lost their footing and collapsed, I couldn't move, I couldn't see, but they all got up and turned towards the wagon staring upwards in awe, the balverines had interrupted their feast to stare in awe at something.

Oh dear god, what was behind me? What had quaked the wagon?

Please don't let it be... please no, no no nonono- the wagon was lifted off the ground, I lost sight of Manie and the balverines. -nnononononoonono!!

The sudden vertigo made me feel nauseatingly sick, despite my attempts at forcing some sort of control of myself I hurled violently, getting the sickening yellow grainy ill smelling substance all over the wagon and myself, it mixed into the blood I had lost earlier, turning it into some disgusting sick soup.

The wagon was turned around, I was met with the horrifyingly sick visage of a giant, it was much more terrifying this close up than it had been from afar, it had an absolutely massive fanged maw that smelt of rotting flesh, a huge cavernous rotting hole of a nose and was staring at me with big hollow eyes which glowed with an absolutely satanic tainted blood red color.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

The giant roared deeply at me, the rotting smell was making me feel on the verge off passing out.

Wait.

That's it!

THAT'S IT!

If I passed out maybe this would all be over and I'd wake up!?

I laughed nervously and manically over how fucked up and insane this situation was, no, how insane this DREAM was, because it HAD to be a dream, it just had to!

It was only a question of waking up from the dream, I needed to find a way!

I calmed down significantly once I convinced myself that this was only just a dream, that it was all fake, a... a... sick horrifying figment of my imagination!

I regained some degree of control, I crawled up to the edge of the wagon, ignoring the giant and looked down.

Manie Manie and the balverines were still down there, staring up at me.

The giant looked back and forth between the group and me.

Then it lifted it's massive foot and stomped the balverines, missing Manie by a margin and sending her flying down the road.

I laughed at this insanity, what had prompted the giant to do that?

Had it been my imagination or the giant itself?

Could I trick myself into dreaming that the giant picked up Manie and brought her close to me?

The giant leaned down, sending me tumbling to the back of the wagon, I barely avoided falling out of it, and to my death, by grabbing hold of the edge and holding myself in place inside the wagon.

In a moment the giant stood back up, bringing the wagon to an even level, I crawled back up to the edge.

It held Manie Manie in it's grip.

Ha ha! I did it! I fucking did it!

I made the giant pick her up!

Manie had some sort of ashy black aura about her, this was 100% sure proof that this was a dream, I knew for sure now.

Bonnie and Lieutenant Crone Beetle both told me that the touch of of night creatures or their ash is highly lethal, thing is, I had never seen that happen in practice, so I can't even imagine what it would look like or what it's effects would be!

But then, I had never seen all my companions get slaughtered either.

So maybe that didn't make any sense.

Ugh, I don't even know, I don't even know, I am not thinking straight!

Manie was glaring angrily at me, why, I had no idea.

"Sweet Heavens!" she called to me.

"Manie!" I called back.

"Sweet Heavens!" she called again.

"Manie!"

"Snap out of it!"

"I am trying Manie!"

Manie turned to look at the giant, who just looked back at her with a querying expression, or at least what I imagined that a nightmarish towering giant's expression would look like when questioning something.

“Should he be like this?”

“He seems to have a slower than average recovery from anesthesia, has he reacted like this before?” the giant asked her in the most unfitting plain and pony like voice you'd imagine.

“How should I know!” she said to the giant.

I laughed again.

This was hilarious!

This exchange was completely out of place!

“Ah, uh." the giant looked at me,  "I just figured you would... uh... know since the two of you are...”

“Since the two of us are what?”

“Together?”

“What!! Why on earth would you think that!?” Manie exclaimed in shock, the giant gave her a puzzling expression.

“Ah... you know what, I am sorry, it was wrong of me to assume such a thing.”

“He’ll be alright. He just needs a little longer, that’s all.”

Then all of a sudden, the giant neared Manie to it's maws and bit her head off about the same time it dropped the wagon.

The wagon fell at a significant speed towards the darkness below, I felt light headed, scared and utterly insane, I had never had a dream this twisted and real in all my life, this was the most shocking experience I've ever had, and now, it was finally about to end.

The free fall felt like it took forever, but all things have an end and eventually I reached the ground, slamming into it like a tomato hitting a Trixie poster at high velocity.

I felt the air being sucked out of me, I woke up in a sudden shock with the sensation that something or somepony was pulling my legs, my sudden awakening startled both Manie and the cream colored stallion wearing a doctor's coat she had been speaking to, making both of them recoil away from me.

In a blink I sat up and leaned forward, clutching to my chest and breathing hard, my heart was racing and I felt cold and sweaty.

Thank god, thank Luna it was all over.

I noticed that the machine that was hooked up to me was beeping quickly and loudly, was that my pulse?

Luna almighty, was my heart really beating that fast?

"Sweet Heavens!" Manie called, rushing up to me.

"Are you okay!?"

"Noooh...!" I wheezed, struggling to breathe out.

"Ihm nooht!"

"What happened to him!? What did you do!?" she stressed the doctor.

The doctor slowly went up to my side, he put a hoof on my forehead and lit a small light in my eyes.

"I gave him an adrenaline shot, he is perfectly alright."

Adrenaline shot?

I looked at the leg I had carved open by accident.

There was no deep wound, but there was a significant needle mark.

I held up my leg.

"Is this," I wheezed "where you, needled, me?"

"Yes..."

"I uh, must apologize however..."

"Aphologize? For whaht?"

"I... accidentally pushed too much and needled you to the bone."

"It's nothing to worry about, but I think it should be mentioned in case you are wondering about the pain."

"The... pain?"

"Being stabbed to the bone hurts, son."

"Do you feel anything?"

'Do I feel anything', fuck, I feel a lot of things right now, there wasn't a single horrible impression that I could put my hoof on right now.

"I'll.... get back to you on that."

"Uhuh."

"So... where am I?" I asked, curiously looking around the room.

It looked like some sort of hospital, this room only had one bed, mine, but there was various apparatus that looked like it had some type of medical use, the walls were painted in a soothing (and nauseating) light green and white, on the wall to the left of me was a large framed poster of a sad looking cat desperately holding onto a clothing line and the motivational phrase 'HANG IN THERE, BABY' written under it.

“You are in the Sun Valley Overwatch military hospital.”

"How long have I been out?"

“2 days, Sweet Heavens. You have been unconscious for 2 days.” Manie informed me.

"2 days? Damn..."

"So what happened to me? Why have I been out for so long?"

“You took a pretty serious blow to the head.” the stallion said. “You came in with a heavy concussion and two broken ribs, had your concussion been any stronger we would have lost you to brain hemorrhage. You barely survived.”

"Frankly, I am surprised you recovered this quickly, your ribs have healed nicely and your concussion has almost subsided."

"You are clearly blessed with rapid metabolism, you are a lucky pony Captain."

Had I really been that close to dying?

I had gotten off pretty easy compared to Bonnie... Dispatch had simply thrown me on a table, Bonnie had been bucked into a wall.

Shit... what had happened to Bonnie? And to Dispatch?

What has happened in the 2 days that I was out?

"What happened to Bon- Sergeant Crunch Opal?"

"Crunch Opal?"

"He is... um... I am not sure how to put this..."

I froze up.

"Is... is he dead?"

"No... no... he is still alive."

"He... broke is lower spine. He has been drifting in and out of consciousness."

"Will he recover?"

"I'm afraid not... his spine was completely mangled, he has suffered from considerable nerve damage, he will never walk using his hindlegs again."

"Goddess..."

"Where the two of you close?"

"Eh..."

We had only just known Bonnie for less than a day, yet we had been through quite a bit with him and he had treated us like his friends.

We weren't close, no, but it saddened me that he had suffered a crippling injury like that, especially this soon after the loss of his love.

"In a way. Me and Manie have been through a lot with him during the short time we have known him."

"I see."

"I'm sorry about his injury then, I wish there was something we could do for him."

"Isn't there?"

"His spine is broken, there are various cybernetic replacements, the technology exists."

"But they are incredibly expensive and with the sergeants pay check..."

"I understand... It can't be helped then."

The doctor looked at his wrist watch.

“I'm sorry, but I’ve got to go, I got wounded to take care of."

"Call for me if he is in need of immediate medical assistance.” he said to Manie.

“Uh... ok.” she replied.

The doctor left the room, after he shut the door Manie turned to give me with a worried look.

She gently sat down on my bed, next to me.

“How are you feeling?”

"God..." I sighed, I had recovered from my dream, my breathing had settled down and my heart was slowly wiring down.

"You have no idea what I have been through..."

"What do you mean?"

"I had the most insane nightmare of all my life, I don't think I'll ever forget it."

"Tell me about it."

"I dreamt that we were all out traveling on the frontier at night, I woke up in the wagon with you watching over me."

"You told me that I had been out for... uh... half a day or so and that we just 'had to leave' Sun Valley Hills."

"Why?"

"I don't know, you refused to tell me."

"Why would I refuse? Did you say something that made me upset?"

"I don't know Manie."

"You just told me that we had to leave Sun Valley Hills, that you had everything under control and that I was supposed to not worry about it and rest."

"So I was the one in charge when you were out?"

"I don't know, it sounded like it."

"That doesn't sound like anything I'd do, not after Berry 2 at least."

"Manie, for Luna's sake, it was an imaginary dream version of you, you could have said and done anything in my dream."

"REALLY Sweet Heavens? You couldn't have phrased that better?"

I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead, why was she being so painful about this, here I sat trying to tell her about this terrible fucking nightmare I had and she didn't even take me seriously.

"That is not what I meant Manie."

"No, but you were thinking about it."

Thinking about 'IT'?

I just woke up after seeing my companions getting eaten and vomiting all over myself.

The thought that I would immediately imagine sex with Manie was... sick.

"Whoah! That better not be what I think it is!" Manie said standing up and backing away from my bed.

???

I looked down.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I WAS thinking about it, I WAS fucking sick!

I blushed and sat up, trying to hide my... excitement... as best I could.

"I am SO sorry."

"Sweet Heavens! What the hell!"

"...I don't know what happened! Honestly!"

"I JUST woke up from the worst nightmare of my life and I am... my god, I don't even know myself anymore."

Manie grabbed the chair by the door and brought it up to my bed, she sat down on it and leaned back.

"Okay, I don't have a problem with you... um... getting excited over me, but jeez, really? Now?"

"Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Be ashamed."

"I am."

"Well... good."

"Good..."

"Great."

"Yeah..."

Bleh, forget the nightmare Tombs, better not to talk about it, she wasn't taking it seriously anyway...

She shook her head.

"So how about... the rest of you... are you okay? Physically?"

I felt a bit shaken up still, but I was otherwise fine.

I prodded my chest testingly with my hooves, putting some pressure on my ribs, they felt alright, I had all the important bits in the right places.

"I guess. Yeah."

"No headaches or anything?"

"Not really."

"Cool."

"Think you'll be able to get out of bed today?"

"I think so. Depends what the doctor says."

"Why?"

"Appleja- Dispatch has requested to see you once you woke up."

"Apple...jack?"

"Dispatch."

"So who is Applejack then?"

"Urgh, Dispatch is Applejack, Applejack is Dispatch."

"Uh, what?"

"You don't remember?"

"Remember wh-"

Hang on, that's right.

The exchange between Manie and Dispatch, Dispatches sudden personality change, the cider.

Dispatch had had some kind of personality change after consuming the apple cider, which made her change into some mare called Applejack.

God, I still felt fuzzy, I knew there was more to it, more that I had heard, but I was struggling to remember exactly what had happened before Dispatch attacked me, my mind raced trying to remember what I had lost, fragmentary memories and scenes began piecing together, but I still struggled to figure out what was what and in which order everything had happened.

"Y-yeah, hang on, I remember, Applejack, yeah." shit, why did that come out in such a hesitant manner?

I wanted to make her get the impression that I knew what she was talking about, not mumble like some cooky old stallion with alzheimers.

In fact, Manie didn't look very convinced, this wasn't the expression I had been going for.

"Nice try." she said.

"I saw you, I know that you were passed out."

But I hadn't been, I remembered, I had heard the whole thing, I think.

"I-I wasn't. I was still conscious during your exchange."

The exchange, must remember the exchange, what had they said? What had they done?

"Were you now." she said suspiciously.

"Prove it."

Agh! Damnit! I knew she would say that!

Alright, think Tombs.

Dispatch drank the apple cider... which made her change into this 'Applejack'.

She went crazy and attacked me and Bonnie, knocking us both out.

Dispatch then threatened to take control and wipe out Overwatch in a fit of rage.

Manie then said something to her that made Dispatch back down and submit peacefully...

Then... um...

Wait, wait, that's right, Manie then saved Dispatch from a memory wipe... by taking Doctor Tulips hostage!

"You took Doctor Tulips hostage, and saved Dispatch from having her memories wiped again."

Manie became strangely silent, she bowed her head.

"I... was hoping you wouldn't find out about that." she said eventually.

"Find out about what?"

"Me taking Tulips hostage... it isn't exactly my proudest moment..."

True, it hadn't been like her. Or what I thought she was like.

I hadn't expected Manie of all ponies to do such a thing.

Everything I had heard and seen of her had painted her as the weak victim of a sea of bad circumstances, that she had stood on herself and taken another pony hostage for her own cause made me feel both... surprised AND impressed at the same time.

"You did it for a..."

Hmm, I was about to say 'for a good cause', but had it really been 'good' if Overwatch military operations were now in the hands of a rogue independent artificial intelligence? A machine?

But then, on afterthought, Applejack was not a machine, she was not an 'artificial' intelligence, she was just an intelligence, the mind of a pony put into a machine.

Question is, what did this change?

Could Applejack be relied on to do her job?

Or would she have another fit of rage?

Should we all fear some kind of apocalypse by her hooves?

"You did it for a cause... to protect Applejack."

"While you took a considerable risk, considering that we don't know if she can be trusted, you did what you thought was right, and you saved a lot of lives making her stand down."

"Yeah I, uh... the lives would have been saved anyways, I took Tulips hostage to save Applejack and Applejack only."

"And I honestly don't even know why..."

"To save Applejack from the memory wipe, right?"

"Yeah, but why would I want to save her from the memory wipe?"

"Like, what is Applejack to me? Why would I put myself into risk like that to save somepony I have no relation to whatsoever?"

She's right, why would she risk all that to save Applejack?

What was Applejack to her?

Why would she even care?

"Because... you... care about your fellow ponies?"

Argh! That's not helping her! Remember Tombs!

What happened and really who is 'Applejack'?

Applejack, one of the... the... six heroines of Equestria and wielder of one of the helements of armory, the... element of... honesty, was it?

Ah, wait, I should know Applejack, my grandfather wed her in the church I watched over... she has... she had a husband called Applesnack. But eh, that's irrelevant...

She has a sister, Apple... Bloom, who is one of the three presidents of Stable-Tec, the mega corporation that produces all kinds of tech and household appliances...

What else was there, there was, there was... videos, right, there had been two videos about Applejack's past.

Her sister, Apple Bloom, had in one of the videos revealed that she had implanted memories in Applejack's data that were triggered by the hard Apple Cider from Sweet Apple Acres, there had been hundreds of memories, a whole shitload of data, possibly of her past life.

She had apologized for forcibly transferring Applejack's mind into a machine and for subjecting her to the memory wipes.

It was a horrible fate, Applejack was immortal, she can't die, yet her memories were being wiped time and time again.

It was something that would render even the sanest and most stable ponies insane.

To lose ones memories like that... decades, hell, over a century of experience... wiped, as if it was 'just data', that's...

I know why she saved her, why she risked herself even though she didn't have to.

"...it's because you pity Applejack..."

Manie looked at me curiously.

"...pity her?"

"She was one of the wielders of the elements of harmony, she has lived a long and eventful life, she fell into a deep coma, awaiting her death only to be immortalized by her sister by being transferred to a machine, her eternal prison."

"But somehow, this machine she is in has been given to Overwatch and Civil Protection, they have abused her, tortured her, they wiped her memories again and again, making her forget all she loved... they made her forget over a century of memories, the memories of her friends and family, everything."

"I think you did it because you felt sorry for her, and because you felt that she deserved better."

She didn't say anything for a long while, she was thinking.

"You know... you may be right."

"I acted on impulse when I defended her, but now... I think I understand why I did it."

She stood up.

"We should go."

"Go where?"

"Go to Applejack. She needs us."

"Now?"

"Yes."

I looked to my sides, trying to figure out if there was something else attached to me aside from the cardiac monitor controlling my heart rate.

There were night stands on either side with things I hadn't noticed before, on one table was a vase with a very meager, but pretty bouquet of flowers and on the other was a bottle of apple flavored fruit wine and two cards, there was also a small package with my name on it.

"What's this?" I asked, indicating the flowers and the gifts.

I took off the sensor connected to me, the cardiac monitor flat lined, detecting no pulse anymore.

Manie turned the machine off and sat back down on her chair.

"Gifts, from our friends."

"Friends? What friends?"

She sneered at me.

"What?"

"You are the one who wanted us to follow you on our own accord, you have treated us well despite the circumstances, we are your friends."

"I am dragging you all to hell and you consider me a friend?"

"We trust you, Sweet Heavens, you know that."

Wow.

I honestly hadn't considered them to be 'friends' by any stretch.

Manie, maybe, because we had been through a bit and because I looked after her, but the others?

Brook? Blizzard Candy? Nurse Swirly? No idea.

They literally have no reason for sticking around with me aside from the possibility of them being hunted down by CP, and judging from all the talk of bandits, that wasn't very likely to happen.

I mean, I guessed that with Cloud Tumble and Brook, they could easily try and join up with one of the roaming groups out there without putting Swirly Star or Strawberry Feather at any greater risk.

But apparently, for some reason, they did care about me, and they had even brought me gifts and shown concern for my well being to show it.

I reached out and picked up the two cards.

One of the cards was blank, being nothing more than a piece of folded paper, the other was bought somewhere and had a picture of a sad pony completely wrapped up in castings and bandages, the text on the front said 'Get well!'.

I opened it, the message inside said,

'Hello Sweet Heavens! Hope you get better soon! Love, Swirly Star, Strawberry Feather, Blizzard Candy, Manie Manie, Brook Cotton'

All the signatures save for Brook Cottons and Swirly Star's were different, Blizzard Candy had a rough and hasty manner, Strawberry Feather had a very small, basic and tidy style, Manie Manie had a plain, quick style and Swirly Star's signature was a very elegant and graceful script, the kind that looks really good but is almost unreadable by how stylish it is.

I noticed, that Cloud Tumble hadn't left his signature, and of course, that Brook hadn't written his on his own.

I felt a bit heavy and concerned about Brook, was he recovering alright? Had he recovered?

How was he doing? How had he been doing during the time I was out?

I sighed and opened the second card.

To my surprise this one said 'Keep it together soldier' and it was signed by both Major Red Starlight and Conrad Wrench, two ponies that I had just met and held no relation to whatsoever.

"Red and Conrad were here?" I asked Manie.

"Yep."

"Why? I thought they were your friends."

"We hardly even spoke."

"I guess they may have come by out of concern for me... but still, they came, and they wished you well."

"That's nice..."

I grabbed the package, I weighted it, it felt pretty light.

It wasn't marked, it was just signed with my name.

"Who is this from?"

"No idea."

"What about the wine? And the flowers?"

"The wine is from Cloud Tumble, I mentioned your drinking accident back at Helsinghoof and he thought it would be an appropriate gift for some reason."

So he did care about me.

Strange, I was under the impression that we weren't on good terms, I guess that shows how... socially aware of my companions I really am.

"The flowers are from Lace Lizard and Jim."

"Lace picked them herself, Jim presented them, 'said Lace was busy with something else."

"They were here too?"

Practically everyone we had spoken to had stopped by apparently, it was weird, what had I done to deserve such concern?

"Yeah, they were here too."

"I brought everyone for breakfast the next morning, after the... outburst happened. I told everyone what happened and the two became deeply concerned about you."

"Or well, at Lace was at least, I couldn't really read Jim, he seemed a bit pale and distant."

"He has been through a lot from what Lace Told us... It's understandable that he would be like that from time to time."

"Yeah..."

I sighed again, looking down at the package held in my lap.

"Something wrong?" Manie asked.

"I just feel a bit guilty, that's all."

"About what?"

"About Brook and Bonnie..."

"Why? It's not like it's your fault that they got injured."

"But it kinda is."

"No, Sweet Heavens, it isn't. That doesn't make any sense."

"You couldn't have known that Applejack would have reacted like that, and it wasn't your fault that Brook was shot, those are two things that couldn't have been avoided, they just happened, alright?"

But they could have been avoided.

If Brook hadn't pulled the wagon he wouldn't have gotten stuck in the harness, and he would have been able to take cover.

If we hadn't gone to see Dispatch, Bonnie would never have broken his spine, and I wouldn't be here, in this hospital.

But in a way she was right, I couldn't have predicted that either of those things would have happened, I wish I could have, but I couldn't. And now Brook had a broken leg and Bonnie would never walk again.

"Now common, open the package." she prompted me impatiently.

Hmm?

Oh, right, the package.

I ripped the paper, but then I stopped.

"What's the rush?"

"I thought you didn't know who it came from."

"I don't. I am just curious to know what is in it, it's been here since yesterday morning."

Speaking of morning, what time was it right now?

"What time is it, Manie?"

She looked around the room, trying to find a clock, but there was none.

She shrugged.

"Heck if I know."

"Could you please go find out?"

"But the package..."

"The package is not going anywhere."

"Please Manie."

She frowned.

"Fine. I'll be right back."

She left the room and shut the door behind her.

I was left alone, alone in peace and quiet.

I sighed deeply and leaned back in my bed.

Man, I felt exhausted, and I had been out for two days, I've had two long days of sleeping and I still felt tired.

That nightmare of mine hadn't exactly helped either, but at least it had been just that, a nightmare, a bad dream.

It wasn't like they had all really died.

At least... not yet...

Who knows what we might encounter on our suicidal journey?

Sometimes you have these dreams of something happening and then, several days later, something plays out exactly like it had done in the dream, as if the entire scene you were going through that very moment was nothing but a distant familiar memory that you just "know".

I thought back a bit.

Come to think of it, I've had one such precognitive dream save my life once.

I was sure of it.

It had happened when I was in the mainland, working in CP.

Me and my squad had been tasked with apprehending a gang of dangerous armed rebels who were hiding out in an abandoned office.

At some point I had gotten up to two doors down a long hallway, I didn't know what I would expect to find behind the doors and I didn't have any backup, so I had been forced to clear the rooms on my own.

In a dream I had had just days before the mission I had dreamt that I was running down a very long hallway and that something had been after me, and then I had come up to two doors, just like those in the mission, without thinking I had kicked open the door to the right and ran inside, only to be gunned down by something, shadowy shapes, ghosts, whatever the fuck it had been.

So I had picked the left door, and when I had come inside I had been met by a cement half wall dividing the two rooms, in the other room were three ponies armed with pistols aiming at the right door.

They were caught by surprise, and in the cover of my wall I had been able to gun them down without effort.

It was weird.

If I had chosen the right door, I would have died then and there.

But a dream I had made me chose the left door, which ended up saving my life.

Huh.

I wonder if this means that my nightmare could happen in the future?

Or maybe I was just overthinking this whole thing?

I looked down at the package again.

"Hmm..."

Yeah.

Yeah, I WAS overthinking this.

I was letting my own paranoia and fear get the better of me.

It was just a dream.

Just a dream.

Manie came back, her sudden appearance startled me and broke my chain of thought.

She was holding a cup in one hoof, it was steaming.

She closed the door and returned by my side.

"Sorry for being gone so long, I went to get a cup of coffee while I was out."

Long?

It had barely been a minute.

"...but the machine wouldn't work, and it ate my change without giving me the coffee and I had to call somepony to help me out and well..."

So it hadn't been a minute.

Did I really think that slowly? Shit.

"Eh, it's alright." I calmed her.

"Want some?" she asked me, holding out the cup before me.

"Uh, what kind of coffee do you drink?"

"Black."

Terrible.

"Thanks... but I think I'll pass."

"Don't like coffee?" she asked.

"Not a big fan of black coffee, that's all."

"Heh, suit yourself." she drew back her cup and neared it to her lips.

She took one deep sip of the steamy hot liquid. "Hmmmm..."

I shook my head.

Yeah, you do that Manie, drink that watery black piss you call coffee.

I directed my attention to the small package I still held, it was time to stop pondering on what it could be and actually open it.

I ripped off the paper, revealing a small cardboard box.

The box was filled with dry hay.

"Hay? That's it?" Manie wondered.

"Hang on, I think there is something in there."

I dug around in the hay and found something.

It was a tiny statuette made of stone.

I brought it out to get a better look at it.

It was a small model of two ponies standing on a circular base of authentic looking, but fake, plastic grass.

It was a mare and a stallion, and they were smiling and standing close to each other, almost leaned in, like a couple.

The models were nice and proportionate, but I can't say that the painting had been done very well.

The mare was completely black, and the stallion was a mismatch blur of all kinds of colors which made the model look really crude.

I guess that it was the thought that counted, it looked hoof made, so I appreciated that somepony had tried to craft something for me, even if it wasn't the best craft I had ever seen.

Still, the more I looked at it the more I couldn't help but feel that there was something oddly familiar about it.

Something that I couldn't really figure out, some detail that I knew was there but kept missing...

"Holy hell." Manie said, placing her empty cup on the night stand.

"That's US!"

Wait what?

I looked at it again, this time much more critical and carefully.

It took me a moment to realize that it really WAS us.

The mare wore a large stetson hat, she was black and had deep red-purple eyes, quite obviously Manie.

The stallion's mismatch of colors were actually different features of various ponies, it was my scramble suit, it was ME!

The longer I looked at the model and the more details I found, this wasn't crude, this was a work of art, all craftsponyship was of the highest quality, the sculptor had had an amazing attention and eye for detail.

I now understood who had made the statuette.

It was Lace Lizard.

"Lace Lizard made this." I said softly, still admiring the work.

"Lace?"

"Yeah." I handed Manie the statuette, she immediately began going through every inch of it the same way I had.

"It's amazing." she said in awe.

"It is."

"We should go thank her, make it up to her somehow."

Manie looked up to me.

"Huh? 'We?'"

"She didn't make this for me, she made it for us."

"For us? Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe she misunderstood our relation."

"We didn't exactly specify that we weren- eherm, I mean, aren't together."

Manie smiled and blushed of a light red, the light blush over her little smile made her look really cute, it was when she was like this that I liked her the most, when she was at her cutest.

"I guess we didn't..." she said slowly, sounding almost as if she was disappointed.

"But should we?"

...

"Manie?"

She stared at me with big dreamy eyes.

"Yes, Sweetie?" she answered affectionately in a delicate voice.

I didn't know what to say, all I could do was stare back.

I wasn't sure how to deal with this, mixed feelings began brewing inside of me.

Was it appropriate? Should I answer her? Is this too soon? Is it the right thing? What about Cloud Tumble?

A number of questions whirred around my head, I tried to put some logic and sense behind my decision, but there was none, this was a choice I had to make based on emotion, my attraction and affection to Manie, to that beautiful mare before me...

The stare continued for what felt like hours, neither of us knew what to make of this, where we wanted to go, or why, we were both to afraid and uncertain to make the first move, to make a decision.

Then, just like that, it happened.

A spark of certainty lit inside of her, and she stood up and gently leaned over me, wrapping her forelegs around me and tenderly kissing me on the lips.

At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to resist it.

I just stared at her closed eyes as her tongue slowly tried to search its way inside my mouth, but then I just embraced it, I hugged her and returned the kiss.

We shared a long and passionate kiss before very slowly bringing it to an end, our tongues and mouths slowly drifted apart, we paused, just inches away, giving each other a long nervous glare. 'What now?' we were asking ourselves.

She was shivering slightly, I felt her hot breathing on my nuzzle, her eyes stared deeply into mine...

I wanted her, I longed for her, she was mine, she was-

The door opened, Manie quickly backed away as the doctor from before stepped in, ruining our moment.

He saw the two of us giving odd looks, trying to hide what we had been doing, but Manie was blushing still and I was completely puzzled over my stirred feelings and thoughts.

"Oh, uh, sorry, did I interrupt something?"

Manie cleared her throat.

"Uhm, no, not at all. Go right ahead doc."

"Right..." he looked down at a clipboard he was holding as he walked up to my side.

"I have good news, Captain Tombs."

"What kind of good news?"

"Th-" he gave me a puzzled look, "The... good... kind...? Eh, I don't know."

"What I do know is that the last of the tests have come back, you have fully recovered."

"You may stay for another 24 hours if you wish, but after that you must leave, as we need the extra bedding,"

"I apologize for this, but we get frequent waves of wounded from the border and it is important that we clear out patients as soon as possible, I hope you understand."

"Of course, of course..."

"I was actually going to ask if I could leave now, there is no sense in staying any longer and there is some... business I must attend to."

"Bussine- uh oh, okay, never mind, I understand."

What?

No, wait, FUCK!

I didn't mean to emphasize 'business'!

"But uh, if you are leaving now then it is best if I give you this." he reached down into his coat pocket and pulled out a huge red and white pill shaped capsule and gave it to me.

It was massive, it was just barely smaller than the package Lace Lizard had given me, there is no way anypony could possibly swallow that whole.

"What's this..."

"Painkiller."

"Painkiller... this big?"

“Well we don’t really usually hand them out to patients to swallow whole. The nurses usually split them open and mix the powder with the food. But seeing as you are leaving us you’ll may want to take one of these with you.”

“Um... thanks.”

“Remember, you may feel a bit doozy and numb when eating the powder, these are common effects that will wear off over time. If you begin feeling itchy or if a sticky glue like substance begins to form in your ears then you are to report to the nearest medical professional immediately.”

"W-what!?"

“I am just messing with you." the doctor laughed.

"..."

"But seriously, be careful, that’s strong shit.”

"I will."

"Okay then, I'll write you out of here, you may leave whenever, I hope you don't mind finding your own way out, but I have other patients to attend to."

"No problem."

"Good. Now you two have a good day now, alright?" he winked at us and left the room.

We both stared at each other again, but the moment was gone, the passion and longing wasn't there anymore.

But at least we knew where we had each other, it was only a matter of finding the right time and the right mood now...

"Applejack?" she suggested.

"Applejack, then Brook, Bonnie and Lace Lizard."

"Sounds good."

I got out of bed, my legs felt stale, but it wasn't a problem, the sensation would pass.

"Take the box and lead the way."

Manie did as I asked, I grabbed the bottle of fruit wine and we left the room.

She led me down the sickly green corridors of the Sun Valley military hospital, the doors were all shut and the corridors all looked the same to me.

Occasionally we would pass a doctor or a nurse who was too busy to stop and chat, not that we had anything to discuss.

In a few moments we reached a spacious steel elevator, we called it up to our floor and were met by Nurse Needles and Private Snowball.

Snowball was bedridden and looked particularly grouchy.

His bandaged stump was crimson with dried blood which hadn’t been there the last time I saw him.

“Oh look. It’s your friends, Snowball.” the nurse said, almost mockingly.

“Snowball, what happened?” I asked.

“I’ll tell you what happened,” Nurse Needles said, “The damn fool ignored my instructions and fell on his stump again. He hurt himself pretty badly, by the way he tore up his leg he sure as heck isn’t going to get a prosthetic replacement anytime soon.”

“Ain’t that right Snowballs?”

Snow... balls?

I couldn't help but smirk.

“Fuck you.” Snowball muttered to the nurse.

“Friendly as always. Gonna be a long recovery for him and I have the fine ‘honor’ of being assigned to this glass pony until he is all set to leave.” she didn’t seem very happy about it.

“Which floor are you heading to?”

“Ground floor.” Manie said.

"Ah, excellent, that's where we are going."

"Uh... say, Nurse Needles, you wouldn't happen to know in which room Sergeant Crunch Opal is in, would you?"

"You don't know?" I asked Manie.

"I went to his old room yesterday and he wasn't there anymore, figured they moved him."

"Crunch Opal? The handsome stallion with the buzz cut?”

“Yyyeah...”

"Oh absolutely. He's over in room 26, 2nd floor."

"Thanks."

“Send him my regards, will you?”

“We can try. Poor guy hasn’t woken up yet.”

“Sorry to hear...” Needles reached for the panel and pressed the button for the ground floor.

“What happened to him?”

“Ahh... do you know about what happened with Dispatch recently?”

“Who doesn’t?”

“Well. The three of us were WITH Dispatch at the time of her... mental breakdown...”

Manie was hiding details, the nurse pony didn't have to know everything.

“Oh my... what happened?”

I glanced at the digital board showing which floor the elevator was at, it was a slow ride, we were just over halfway there.

“It’s complicated. Not enough time right now.”

“Oh. Well, maybe some other time then.”

“Or tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” she wondered.

“We were planning on having breakfast at Jim’s Breakfast Corner tomorrow morning. You are welcome to join us if you want.”

We were?

Ah, the others, maybe they had all planned on getting together for breakfast.

Nurse Needles shuddered.

“Breakfast Corner? Isn’t that where they serve ash and burn the juice?”

“The two of us sorted it out. Jim serves good food now. Perfectly cooked.”

“Well... ok, in that case, sure I guess I'll come.”

“We are staying in the tall concrete building by the inner gate, just ask for us and somepony should point you in the right direction.”

“Alright then.”

“So... how come they call you Needles?” I asked.

“BECAUSE SHE STINGS LIKE A BITCH!” Snowball exclaimed in an upset manner.

Nurse Needles laughed.

“Snowballs here got it right, more or less."

"Got my name from how I handle needles. I got the shakes you see," she held up a hoof, showing us how it shook.

"Post traumatic stress from my time on the frontier. Can’t handle a needle without beginning to shake. It’s a long story.”

We reached ground floor.

“Sounds serious.”

“Yeah well, you don’t really need to be all that precise with a needle anyway... that's the good thing about our anatomy. Major arteries everywhere heh heh heh.”

What a morbid mare.

“Right... right... we best be going now then. We’ll see you in the morning.”

We left the hospital, it was still morning, but the military compound was bustling with engineers, technicians, pilots, soldiers and officers, all crossing the open area before the hospital and going places.

It was sunny and clear outside, but the temperature was slightly chilly.

This was fine by me, fresh air was just what I needed, I felt immediately better as soon as we came out.

The tower was right across from the hospital, but it's entrance was on the other side.

“She seems... alright.” Manie said as we began crossing the open area to go around.

"Not really." I muttered.

"That's not very nice."

"Snowball sure doesn't think so."

"Snowball is just upset about his leg."

"Maybe..."

Manie stopped me.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, of course I am."

"Why?"

"You don't seem to be all there."

"I am just a bit tired, that's all."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, really, I'm okay."

"If you say so."

"What do we do with the things? Do we take them with us or should we drop them off first?"

It was kinda bothersome to carry these around like this, it's not like we had pockets or anything and I wasn't wearing my satchels and coat right now, so I didn't have anywhere to store the bottle.

Come to think of it, where were my satchels anyway? I had completely forgotten to ask about it back at the hospital.

"Where are my satchels?" I asked her.

"Oh, I took those back to your room when you were out."

"I figured you wouldn't want to have them laying about considering what you have in them."

Good girl.

What I had been carrying around wasn't exactly legal, if the doctor had found out about the drugs he would probably have been asking questions about them, and I didn't feel very inclined to discuss where I had obtained them or how I used them.

"You did the right thing."

"Well, I'd say that it's best if we go back and leave the stuff at my room, no sense carrying it around and it would be kinda rude to show up with the fruit wine like this."

I'm sure Applejack wouldn't really mind, but still, it wasn't nice to bring alcohol unless you were planning on giving it away or sharing it, and I would much rather share it with my companions than with Applejack, who nearly killed me.

"Okay then."

We diverted towards our building which was much closer than the tower entrance.

We didn't really say anything on our way there and up to our rooms, the soldiers on guard there let us in without problems, recognizing Manie as one of the guests.

I opened the door to my room, it was unlocked, we hadn't been given any keys and the doors were only lockable from the inside.

My gear was really no safer in my room than it had been in the hospital, there wasn't much to stop some sneak thief from going inside and stealing my stuff.

Then of course, the only ponies who knew about it were me, Manie and our companions, so I wasn't very concerned.

My room was tidy and clean, this was the first time I had actually set hoof inside of it, I had slept with Manie during our first night at Sun Valley so my bed had been left untouched.

My coat and satchel were both thrown on a chair, I went up to it and searched my satchels, everything was there, nothing had been taken during the time I was out. Good.

I added the fruit wine to my inventory and then turned towards Manie, she was sitting on my bed admiring the statuette of us while she waited for me.

There was just the two of us in here, the door was closed, nopony knew that we were here.

We were alone.

What now?

Do I try something or is this too soon?

I slowly went up to her and sat down next to her.

"Are you done?" she wondered.

"Yep."

She stood up.

"Great, let's go then."

"Or we could... you know... stay... here for a while?" I said slowly.

She seemed really unsure.

"Uh... stay here?"

"Yeah." I gently grabbed hold of her and pulled her towards me, so that we were facing each other.

"We could pick off where we left off..."

She leaned her head forward, resting her forehead against mine, her hat grazes my ears and she sighs.

"I... don't know Sweet..."

I pressed my muzzle against hers.

"Is this not what you wanted, love?"

"It is..." she gave me a light kiss on the nose.

"But it feels like it's too soon... I think we should try and take it slowly."

"But we are in the frontier, we don't have much time." I said impatiently.

"Don't say that... we'll make it, we will survive."

"..."

She knew that I wasn't satisfied with the answer, she held up a hoof and caressed my cheek.

"Soon, Sweet Heavens."

"Soon?"

"Soon. When I am ready."

She was waiting for me to let go for her.

I respected her decision, the promise of 'soon' was okay with me, it soothed my desire for her, at least, for now.

I let go of her, she took a few steps back.

"I hope you understand..." she said softly.

I did understand.

Maybe this was going a bit too quickly, we had only just begun our relationship, there was no need to rush it.

"I do..." I assured her.

"It's just that so much has happened and there wont be many opportunities like this for us in the future. Sun Valley Hills might be the last safe place we go by where we can be for ourselves..."

"I know..."

"But you'll just have to wait for the right time."

"What time is better than this?"

Manie giggled and gave me a little look.

"Sweet Heavens..."

"I know, I know. I'll respect your wishes."

She smiled at me.

"Common, lets go see Applejack."

We left the room and the building and made our way towards the tower entrance.

I noticed that there was an awful lot of activity going on, more than before, soldiers were rushing left and right, technicians and engineers towed large ammunition boxes and crates of explosives around.

Could it be possible that their big operation to clear out the night creatures in the area around Checkpoint Berry 2 was taking place today? Or was this something else?

I didn't feel like it was the case to stop someone and ask, I probably wouldn't have received an answer anyway, I wasn't involved.

So we just went inside.

The ponies on guard recognized Manie immediately, her infamy and recent actions had made her known around the compound, they knew that Manie had some sort of close standing to Applejack, their dispatcher, and so they let us in without asking questions.

Once we reached the floor hosting the Sun Valley laboratories and Applejack's room I immediately saw that security had increased significantly since the last time I was here.

Where there had been automated turrets hidden on the ceiling were now soldiers standing on guard, virtually all the doors now had at least one soldier guarding it, wielding some type of stun gun in addition to their rifles.

Engineers were working on various panels all along the corridors, though I wasn't sure what they were doing, I wasn't very technically inclined, I was a police officer, a soldier, not an engineer.

We came across the albino mare from the last time we were here, she was in a rush somewhere, but I stopped her anyway.

"Yes? What is it? I really can't stop to talk right now." she said in an annoyed manner.

"Oh, it's you."

"Whats going on? What's with all the tinkering?" I asked her.

"That is none of your business, officer."

"It's Applejack isn't it." Manie determined.

"You are removing all automated systems and installing overrides to prevent her from taking control of your labs again, aren't you?"

The albino mare gave her an irritated glare.

"...something like that, yes."

"Applejack said she didn't want you to try anything funny."

"No, Applejack said she didn't want us to modify her systems. We are just taking the necessary precautions to protect the labs. Some of us have critical work here, and we can not afford some rampant AI to ruin it all in a fit of prissy anger."

"She is not an AI, and it wasn't 'prissy anger'." Manie argued.

"You were going to wipe her memories, everything she knew about her past."

"Well whatever!"

"Are we done here? I really need to get going."

"Fine, go. We are done talking to you."

"Great." the albino mare scurried off.

We continued down the corridors, on our way I peeked into the room where we had seen the minotaur commander fight the Infantry soldiers, he wasn't there anymore, the room was empty, all that was left were the cracks left by the fight and the holes where the bolts had been placed.

The door leading to Applejack's room had been heavily fortified, two advanced looking barricades had been put up, they appeared to be large metal frames made of the same black steel that much of the Overwatch tech used enclosing large slabs of dark green glass which seemed to shift and warp under my eyes.

Mounted on the barricades were large guns, similar but smaller than the one I had seen mounted on the nose of that gunship Conrad had shown us.

There were six soldiers guarding the entrance, of which one was of a clearly higher rank than the rest, wearing armor with yellow details instead of blue or red.

As we approached the soldier with yellow armor stopped us.

"*Halt! Who goes there!*"

Manie interrupted me as I was about to speak.

"Manie Manie and Captain Tombs of CP. Applejack wanted to speak to us?"

"*Ah, right, Manie.*" the soldier sighed in disgruntlement.

"*You may go inside.*"

"Thank you."

We were let inside, the door was shut and sealed behind us.

To my surprise Dispatch, or Applejack, wasn't in here.

Instead, sitting in one of the armchairs was an orange earth pony mare with a blonde mane and tail tied up in ponytails.

She wore a brown stetson hat, which looked identical to the one Manie wore, just that it was of a different color.

The mare appeared to be watching something on the large main screen (which had been replaced), it was the video of the purple earth pony teacher telling her students about the dangers of robots, the audio had been turned off.

"Where is Applejack?" I whispered to Manie.

"That's her." she whispered back.

"She looks different. Where is that cable she was connected to?" I looked up at the ceiling, the rail and the cable had both been removed.

"She had her model changed to look more like she did in her youth."

"{Ya know,}" the mare suddenly said, being aware of our presence, "{Ah've looked over this video almost a hundred times now, and there is one thing ah find really ironic about it.}"

We got closer to her.

"And what would that be?" Manie asked.

"{Back when ah was... still alive, an living in the old Ponyville, there was this mare who was teaching in the town schoolhouse that looked exactly like the mare teaching in that class.}"

"{Same age, same mane, same coat, same eyes, same smile, mannerisms and voice, she is identical to her in every way. She used 'ta be my lil sises teacher. Her name was Cheerilee.}"

"{An you know what? She was dead when ah died, and this video dates after ah was turned into what ah am.}"

"{So she is in fact, a robot teaching ponies about the dangers of robots. She is fake, a mirror copy of the past.}"

Really?

That was pretty ironic.

"{An I looked it up, out of curiosity. 'turns out there is a mare named just Cheerilee working in Ponyville West Elementary.}"

"That's sick."

"{Sick? Ah think it's funny.}"

"Why would it be funny?"

"{Because it is just the kind of thing the Equestria of today would do.}"

"{Cheerilee was a good teacher, actually no, she was a great teacher. She won awards for her teaching methods, she became the principal of Ponyville Elementary when it expanded, she had a mayor hoof in making the Equestrian educational system what it is today.}"

"{Yeah... she was a great mare, and an ideal of what a teacher should strive to be... ah think it makes sense that they would try an bring her back.}"

"{It's just ironic that they would have her robot reincarnation teaching this.}"

We didn't say anything.

I wasn't sure what to say honestly, I didn't know Cheerilee, but I could imagine how eerie it must have been to recognize her like this after she died.

It didn't sound entirely right of Applejack to consider this 'funny', but maybe she found it funny because of how absurd and odd it was.

We picked our seats, Manie sat down just next to Applejack.

And now I noticed another really strange detail.

The two mares looked almost identical, save for a few details.

They were of the exact same frame, they wore the same type of hat, had the same amount of eyelashes, same style of forelock. They also shared similar eyes and facial features.

Even their ages appeared to be the same, or similar at least.

The more obvious differences were their manes, tails, cutiemarks and colors, where Manie let hers fall free while Applejack had hers tied up in ponytails using red bands.

Applejack's eyes were green, she also had three white freckles on either side of her face.

Her cutiemark appeared to be three red apples, makes sense I guess with her name being 'Applejack' and all.

Still, all in all they kinda looked like color switched versions of each other, it was strange.

"Sweet Heavens?" Manie broke my observations.

"Is something wrong?"

"Uh... no, nothing." I sat down.

"I was just... surprised at how alike the two of you look."

The two mares looked at each other and began analyzing each other carefully.

Then they both perplexingly looked at me.

"We do?"

"Yeah. You even have the same hats and everything."

The two mares took their hats off and compared models and size.

They really were identical. Just different colors.

They looked at each other again in surprise.

"{Huh. Ah think he's right, we do kinda look alike.}"

"Well that's... awkward." Manie muttered.

"Don't worry about it. It's not that big of a deal."

"Alright then, so what did you want to talk to us about, Applejack?"

"{Actually, ah wanted 'ta talk with you.}"

"Me?"

"{Yeah.}"

"Okay, I'm listening."

"{Ah wanted to apologize for what I did...}"

"{Ah didn't mean 't knock you unconscious like that... Ah'm sorry.}"

What a joke.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be amused or angered that she was trying to play of her almost killing me by apologizing to me.

But I knew that it had been an accident, and I was a very forgiving pony, and considering the circumstances it would probably be best if I was calm about this.

"You are sorry?"

"You nearly killed me."

"{Yeah...}"

"You'll have to do better than that."

"{What... can ah do? What could ah do 'ta make it up for you?}"

Damn good question.

What COULD she do?

What did I want at the moment?

I wanted a lot of things, like going home to Equestria.

But I knew that it wasn't an option here.

So what could I ask of her that would help me with my mission then?

I thought about it for a while, the two mares waited for me patiently.

Then I had an idea, I knew exactly what I needed right now.

I needed an Overwatch APC.

"I want an APC."

Applejack's eyes narrowed, Manie was stunned.

"{An... an APC?}"

"Yes, an APC. An Armored Personnel Carrier."

"Why would you want an APC?" Manie asked me.

"{Yeah... why?}"

"We are heading for the frontier border, and we are doing this on hoof." i began explaining.

"On the way we will meet night creatures and bandits alike, in fact, we have already have some really bad run ins with both."

"Brook was wounded and an entire outpost of trained soldiers were wiped out. The only ponies with any kind of combat experience in my group are me and Cloud Tumble and with just the two of us we don't stand any chance against either."

I paused to let this sink in with both of them.

"And so I want an APC to help... facilitate the journey to the border."

Both mares remained silent, Manie looked to Applejack for her response, Applejack was thinking.

For a machine it sure took her long to come up with a response.

"{Lemme get this straight. You want me to requisition an Overwatch APC, a valuable piece of equipment that is desperately needed elsewhere... so that you can travel safely to the border?}"

"Yes."

"{And there is absolutely nothing else you want aside from that?}"

"Depends. Can you cancel my mission and send me home to Equestria?"

"{No...}"

Of course she couldn't. But it was worth a try.

"Then no. Nothing."

"{Ah see...}"

Applejack pondered even further on my request.

"{Ah would feel pretty bad if ah didn't at least consider it...}"

"{Okay. Ah guess ah'll see what ah can do.}"

Nice, that was easier than I thought.

"{But ah must warn you. Ah can't guarantee that Overwatch command will agree to it. Ah have power, even more so now after what happened a couple o days ago, but ah can't do magic tricks, ah can't guarantee that they will give you that APC.}"

"I understand."

Applejack sighed.

It was a gesture that didn't really work well with her.

She didn't breathe, she probably didn't even have lungs.

"{Ah guess we're even now.}"

I laughed.

"Oh Applejack, I would have forgiven you anyway, it's just that we really need that APC, or at least some form of secure transport from place to place and I was really hoping you could help us out here, especially after the great risk Manie took in defending you."

"H-hey!" Manie protested.

"Manie, seriously, it could have ended really badly if it didn't turn out as well as it did. You could have been put under arrest, or worse, killed."

"Applejack is very lucky to have had you defending her, and you are very lucky that Applejack solved it the way she did. She could have left you to Overwatch."

"{Ah would never do that! Ah would never betray my friends!}"

"Manie Manie is your friend?"

Applejack became puzzled and confused.

"{Uh, no... ah mean yes?}"

"{Actually yes, she is my friend, she saved me! Ah believe that makes her a friend, and friends take care of each other!}"

Unfortunately for me, this had often proven not to be the case.

During my experience as a priest and an officer of Civil Protection I had offered guidance and saved ponies countless times, I had helped many ponies pull themselves out of their misery either by kind words or forcibly, by arresting them when they were at their lowest point in life only to have them shrug me off.

My most recent example would be Rainbow Sea, whom I saved from a gang of rapist thugs only to have him betray me later on.

And despite all my work, my service to the ponies of Equestria and to Civil Protection I had ended up here, on the frontier, sent on a suicidal mission for who knows what purpose.

But I understood her reasoning, it was right of her to consider Manie a friendly face.

I nodded in agreement.

"So they do."

"But still, I don't think this is too much to ask for."

"{Don't worry about it, ah said ah'd try and see what ah could do about it, and ah will stay true to mah word.}"

"{But ah want to know. Does this mean that you forgive me? If ah try and get you that APC?}"

"I forgive you Applejack, even if you can't get us that APC."

"I understand that you were under a lot of pressure at the time and that you weren't thinking entirely straight, so I can't really blame you for reacting the way you did, even if you did nearly kill me and Bonnie."

"{Thank you for being so understanding about it.}"

"Don't mention it."

"What will you do now though? What happened while I was out?"

"{A lot of things have been happening.}"

"{Ah have also been talking to Overwatch command about a great many things, and while they don't really trust me now that they don't have me shackled and controlled (in case you didn't notice, they are rewiring everything just outside to prevent me from taking control of anything in their precious labs) I've been trying to convince them that ah can, and will do, better now than I did before.}"

"{Overwatch troops report an increase in effectiveness when talking to me, they seem to like me more now than before, they genuinely trust me now that I have more freedom and control over myself.}"

"{Then ah have also been meddling in non military matters, those of a more civic nature, such as worker morale, the bandit problem and, of course, farming, 'specially the apple orchards.}"

"Farming?"

"{Ah've been a farmer all my life, ah grew up on an apple orchard and ah lived bucking apples and tending to the orchards. If there is anything ah know well, it's apple farming. So yes, ah been giving the ponies of the frontier advice on how to tend to their orchards, the Apple way.}" Applejack smiled.

"That's nice, it could help in getting Overwatch command to really trust you."

"{That's what ah been thinking. But even if they don't trust me ah will still have helped the workers of the frontier.}"

"{Ah really care about the ponies here, ah am a major power, a strong influence, ah have the power to do good and to help mah fellow ponies, so that is what ah will do.}"

"{In a way, the ponies of the frontier are my subjects, my ponies, and it saddens me to see them suffer in hardship.}"

So in a way she was taking them under her wing, so to speak.

She was making the progress on the frontier her business despite her role and purpose as a military construct in charge of assisting Overwatch secure the frontier from hostile forces and keeping the peace.

It seemed like a just cause and she did have the necessary tools to do it.

Question was, how would Overwatch command, and other officials from Equestria view her actions?

Would they feel threatened over her growing influence and view her attempts to influence the frontier as an attempt to take control?

Would they see Applejack as a valuable ally, or as a calculating machine bent on controlling the frontier with trickery and false intentions?

"It is a noble gesture. Let's just hope that leaders of Overwatch and Equestria think the same."

"{Ah am trying to tell them that ah wish them no harm and that ah want only the best for the ponies of the frontier. Ah have even been letting them loosen my control over their military systems to show for it...}"

"But wait, what will you do if they attempt to take control over you in the future?" Manie wondered.

"If you lose control of their systems, there will be nothing stopping them from controlling you, you will be left defenseless!"

"{Ah understand your concern, and it is something ah've been thinking about a lot. But ah accept it as a necessary risk.}"

"{Ah trust that the good in them, what little there now may be, will make them do the right decision when the time comes.}"

"That is a lot to be hoping for, let's just hope that you are right about this, you could lose everything!"

Applejack turned gloom, I thought she knew just as well as we did that her reasoning was based more on the hope that there was still some good left in ponykind rather than actual knowledge, we all knew that it could turn out either way, and that it was very unlikely that it would have a positive outcome.

"{Ah know... But if this is what it takes to gain their trust, then it is a risk ah am prepared to take.}"

"And if they don't budge? If you lose everything, your freedom, your memories, and fall under their enslavement again?"

"{Then... ah don't know.}" Applejack seemed uncertain, she paused for a moment, trying to formulate some type of response.

"{Then ah guess it will all be lost to me, if there is no good left in them and if they would really come to that, then ah don't want anything to do with them.}"

"{Maybe ah could figure out a way to... end myself and-}"

"Stop. Don't say that. Don't ever say that, Applejack."

"{Why? It might just come to that, ah got nothing to live for except for helping the ponies of the frontier to a better life.}"

"You still have... your sister."

"{Mah sister? Applebloom?}"

"{She is dying Manie, she is in a coma, a coma that she might never wake up from, ah will never get to speak to her again.}"

"She didn't want you to die, Applejack. She put you in this machine because she didn't want to let you go, and when Overwatch took control of you she programmed a means to set yourself free. The hard apple cider..."

"{The cider...}" Applejack repeated, almost whispering the word.

Her expression twisted and turned into deep sadness, it was hard to tell if she was struggling to contain a downpour of tears, or if she didn't have tears at all.

"{Ah brewed that batch of cider myself after Big Mac died... ah couldn't contain the tears... there was just me and Applebloom left at the farm... and after she went off to work on Stable-Tec with her friends... it was just me...}"

"Applebloom cares about you Applejack."

"{Didn't you listen? It 'don't matter if she cares about me, she's dying!}"

"She wouldn't want you to kill yourself, she did what she did to you because she didn't want to let you go, she couldn't bear to lose you."

"If you kill yourself you'll be disrespectful to your sister, is that really what you want?"

Applejack remained silent, she stared at a nonspecific area on the coffee table for a while.

"{No.}" she said eventually.

"{Ah guess not.}"

"So don't do it Applejack, hang in there, be strong."

"Even if this doesn't turn out the way you... the way we want it, you'll still have us. And I promise you, that we'll do whatever we can to help you if things go south, we'll... we'll spread the word, try and get ponies to support you. We'll try and fix things."

"But you need to hang in there."

Manie wrapped a leg around Applejack who leaned against her.

"Can you do that? For us, and for Applebloom?"

"{Yeah...}" Applejack smiled, "{I can. I will.}"

Applejack hugged Manie, she hugged her back.

"{Thank you Manie, for everything.}"

"Don't mention it, we are here for you."

"Right Sweet Heavens?" Manie gave me a hard look over Applejack's shoulder, she signaled for me to say something supportive, this was my cue.

But what would I tell her?

I wasn't all that sure we'd be able to keep up on our promise, I was barely convinced that we'd make it back alive and now we were going to help convince a bunch of ponies to stand up against Overwatch command and help Applejack?

I don't know honestly, it feels like we would be betraying Applejack if we made promises we wouldn't be able to keep.

But Applejack needed us right now, she needed our support and compassion, she needed to fell like she had somepony to live for, some purpose to live on.

"That's right." I chimed, "We are here for you Applejack."

"While we are in a tough spot ourselves, I too promise to do what we can to help you..."

"...so stay with us..." Manie said, pulling back from her hug.

"...and don't do anything you will regret." I added.

Manie gave me a blank stare.

It was as if her expression was telling me 'What the hell are you doing! That isn't helping!'.

Except that it did help, Applejack smiled brightly at the two of us, she was happy to have somepony care for her.

"{Thank you... both of you.}"

We spent the moment like this, smiling.

But then it began to become kinda awkward, we had said what we could and had showed our support to the best of our abilities (this was hardly something we were good at, it wasn't something we did every day) and now we didn't really know what else to say or how to change the subject without making it sound cold.

It was the kind of silence you don't want in a conversation

Luckily, Applejack was the one to break the silence.

"{So... uhm... ah need to... go outside and get some air.}"

"Go outside?"

"{Yeah, ah need some fresh air. Helps me think.}"

Applejack did neither, she didn't breathe and she didn't 'think' in the conventional sense, her 'brain' was in the form of a machine and was definitely not affected by fresh air.

Clearly she just wanted to find an excuse to get out of here.

"I see..."

I stood up.

"Let's go then, I could go for some air."

Manie didn't question her friend's desire and just got up, we all left the room.

"{Howdy boys, how's it going?}" Applejack greeted the soldiers outside, they stood at the ready for her.

"*Dispa- ... Applejack, ma'am.*"

"{No need for formalities, it's just me.}"

"*Uh...*"

"{Ah am goin' outside to get some air, alright?}"

"*Ma'am... you do know that you are not allowed to wander outside the compound, right?*"

"{Say's who?}"

"*Says command...*"

"{And?}"

"*And I am not going to stop you.*"

The soldiers moved out of the way.

"*But please, do be careful, you weren't... err... built for outdoor environments.*"

"{Don't worry 'bout it, ah am not going out to hike in the wild or buck apples, ah am just going for a walk, with mah friends.}" she smiled at the soldier who cocked his head and looked at her as if she was about to go outside to do just that.

She certainly had the appearance of an apple farmer, apple cutiemark and all.

"*Riiiight... well, I wont be keeping you, enjoy your walk, miss.*"

"{Thanks. Enjoy your guard duty.}" she said beginning to go down the corridor.

But then she realized that she may have sounded sarcastic and immediately turned around to explain herself.

"{Uh, I... sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I meant-}"

The soldier chuckled.

"*It's okay, just go.*"

She just nodded at him and continued on out with us.

But before we had made it to the elevator we were stopped by the same albino mare from before, she blocked our path.

"Dispatch! Where are you going?" she wondered.

"{Outside. To get air.}"

"You can't leave the labs Dispatch."

Applejack became visibly annoyed.

"{Stop calling me that, my name is Applejack.}"

"You can't leave." the mare repeated.

"{Ah am going outside and you are not stopping me.}"

"Don't make this hard on you Dispatch, you know you can't leave the labs, we have been over this."

Applejack's expression twisted into that of hysteria, like she had just heard something completely shocking and couldn't believe what the technician had said.

"{Don't make this hard on ME?! Ha!}"

"Back away and go back to your room."

"{Ah am going outside.}" Applejack tried to move past the mare, but she placed herself in her way, Applejack's strength and mass made the mare bump a few steps back.

Her white face was turning into a rose pale red, she was starting to look rather nervous, perhaps realizing that she didn't have the strength to stand against Applejack or do anything about this.

"{Move.}" Applejack growled.

The technician mare seemed like she was about to cower and back away but then she gathered courage and straightened herself, standing before Applejack and staring her deep in her eyes with her own blood red icy stare.

"No."

The two mares stared angrily at each other for a long while, I wasn't sure if I should interrupt them or just stay out of it, I was honestly afraid of being kicked by Applejack again.

It looked as if they were about to break into a fight and they damn near did if it wasn't for the soldier passing by us.

The same stallion who had been on guard outside of Applejack's room.

"*What's going on over here?*" he wondered placing himself between the two mares.

"Dispatch wants to leave the building!" the albino mare complained.

"{And she is stopping me.}"

"YOU CAN'T LEAVE THE BUILDING!!"

"*Why not?*" the soldier asked.

"What do you mean 'why not'!? She is Overwatch property! What if she is damaged, or destroyed!"

Oooo, ouch!

Applejack didn't seem to take kindly to that.

"{Property!? Ah am no one's property! Ah own myself!}"

"YOU BELONG TO US, YOU ARE IN OUR DATAB-"

"*Ladies! Ladies! Calm the fuck down!*" the soldier interrupted impatiently.

"*Applejack,*" the soldier turned to our friend, "*She is right to show concern, if you get injured out there your programing may suffer disastrous errors, you have got to remember that part of you is in your body now that you are no longer connected to the mainframe, you are not invincible, in fact, you are more vulnerable now than ever. This is a design choice that you yourself agreed to make for the freedom to move about the facility...*"

The albino mare seemed triumphant and was about to open her mouth when the soldier turned to her.

"*And you! Doctor Ravendent! Wipe that smug grin off your face! While I agree that we need to show concern for APPLEJACK'S safety you should know better than to call her OUR property! She is not a fucking toy, she is the mind of a pony encased in a machine, she used to be one of the heroines of Equestria, a wielder of the elements! So you better show some fucking respect for her in the future or you'll have us 'stupid grunts' to deal with!*"

Doctor Ravendent's eyes went wide.

"*Oh! That's right! I've heard how you talk smack about us during lunch breaks! I figured an egg head like you know better than to talk shit about the ponies IN CHARGE OF ALL THE SECURITY CAMERAS but nooo, you just keep yapping on anyway!*"

The soldier pinned her back to the wall and placed both his forehooves on either side of her to block her from getting away.

"*I am letting Applejack outside on my authority as a LIEUTENANT of Overwatch, she is responsible for herself and for her own safety, and I trust that she wont get herself in any trouble.*"

"*If you have any objections go take them up with my commanding officer, Colonel Blackhorn. BUT, you should know before you go talk to him that he hates your scientist guts, he hates every single one of you, and he KNOWS that YOU have been talking behind our backs.*"

"*Now get the fuck out of here and go back to your fucking labs WHERE YOU BELONG!!*" he roared.

He dropped back and Doctor Ravendent cowered away like a lab rat with her tail tucked in between her legs.

The three of us didn't say anything, we were completely speechless over how aggressively the lieutenant had defended Applejack.

He quickly turned to Applejack as soon as he lost sight of the fleeing technician.

"*I am terribly sorry about that miss, I lost myself, I just saw how she was giving you trouble and I was just infuriated over what an arrogant pest she has been and...*" he sighed and bowed his head shamefully.

"{It's... it's okay. Thank you, lieutenant Hedge.}"

The lieutenant looked up in surprise.

"*Y-you know my name?*"

Applejack didn't say anything, the answer seemed pretty obvious.

"*Oh... right... stupid question...*"

"What happens now?" Manie asked, we all looked at her.

"I mean, she IS going to try and get back to you for what you did, right?"

"*It will be fine. I wasn't joking about the colonel, he does hate the technicians and scientists of Sun Valley. Nothing's gonna happen.*"

"*So, uh, I better get back to my post, go on outside, but be careful.*"

"{You already said that when ah left the room.}"

"*Right. Right. So, yeah... Applejack, ma'am.*" he saluted and went back the way we came from.

Applejack looked after him until he rounded the corner.

"{Ah like him.}", she smiled and continued down the corridor, towards the elevators ahead.

The ride down was quick and silent.

We found ourselves outside in the fresh air we so seriously wanted.

I for one enjoyed the air, I had never really thought about it and had always taken fresh air as something for granted, just go outside on patrol, take the mask off for five minutes and that's it.

But that changes entirely when you get knocked out for several days and get stuck in some hospital smelling of medicine and stale death.

Applejack didn't look so happy however, she sighed, she didn't even breathe.

"What's wrong Applejack?" Manie asked her, either she hadn't made the logical leap regarding her not breathing or she was asking out of some other concern.

"{Ah can't breathe...}"

"You... w- do we need to call a paramedic?" Manie quickly scanned around us looking for somepony resembling a doctor.

"{No, no.}"

"She is not chocking Manie, she doesn't need air."

"What? What do you mean 'she doesn't need air'?"

"{Ah don't have lungs Manie.}"

"Wait what?"

What the hell!

Was she intentionally playing dense or had she seriously forgotten that Applejack was a robot?

"Manie, common, seriously?"

"Hey don't look at me like that! I figured she had lungs the way she has been sighing and wanting to go out for air!"

"She just wanted to go outside, if you were trapped in a room attached to a cable to your neck you'd want to go outside too."

"{Yep, he pretty much nailed it alright.}"

"Alright shesh, why didn't you guys just say so?"

"Honestly I thought you knew, it wasn't all that hard to figure out."

Manie gave me a cold stare.

We left the inner compound and wandered around for a bit, there wasn't much to see or do in Sun Valley Hills at this stage of development so we eventually settled for just having a seat on a newly placed bench we came across, it was covered in plastic, which Applejack thought was odd considering that it never rained in Sun Valley Hills ("Because its always sunny in Sun Valley!").

The two mares sat on one end of the bench while I sat on the other, they chatted for a while about a bit of everything, mostly about how Manie and I ended up here, how things looked in Equestria and so forth, I wasn't really in the mood to talk about my mission so I was pretty quiet and detached from their conversation most of the time.

After a while they noticed that I seemed to be a little left out of their little circle and their chatter gradually died down into an awkward silence.

During the silence Applejack soon returned to her gloomy state of mind.

"{You know... one of the things ah miss the most about being... well... alive... is having to eat.}"

"But you can still eat, can't you?" I asked.

"{Yeah... but it's just not the same... ah mean... ah can eat and all, feel the taste of a good apple pie, but ah don't feel... filled up by it, if ah'm explaining myself...}"

"Yeah."

"{Eating apple fritters ain't quite the same thing if ya don't need to eat them...}"

"I know what you mean..."

I felt sorry for her.

I assumed it must have been like eating with a stomach flu, food just goes through you, a good spicy steak may taste good but it's not really as appealing when it goes right through you.

Still, the taste of that steak would still be nice, and even if it didn't sit well you would still enjoy eating it.

And that reminds me...

"Um, Applejack..."

"{Yeah?}"

"You wouldn't happen to be... interested in having some bacon with us, would you?"

"{Bacon?}"

Ah, damn, she doesn't sound all too excited about that, maybe it was a bad time to bring it up.

"Yeah... There is this place here in Sun Valley where they make great bacon-"

"It's true, I am not much of a meat eating pony myself, but Jim's bacon is amazing." Manie chimed in.

"...and... well, I was wondering if you'd like to try some with us? If you want too that is..."

"{Hmm...}"

"I know you just said that it 'wasn't the same thing', but it could still be nice trying at least once."

"{Okay, sure.}"

"Ah, nice. Want to go there now or...?"

Applejack shrugged.

"{Now is as good as time as any for me, so sure.}"

Right, so it was...

"Alright, lets go then."

We got up and went off to Jim's & Lace's Breakfast Corner.

I was felt starving after spending all that time unconscious over at the hospital and was happy to see the secluded little corner shop down the street.

But when we got up to the store it was closed, we saw nopony inside, a large crudely painted sign was hung up just inside the door which said “Closed down permanently”, but it didn’t say why.

I intended to find out.

I testingly pushed the door, expecting it to be locked, only to find out that it wasn’t.

The doorbell ringed as we swung the door open.

The place was deserted, Lace Lizard wasn’t at her usual place behind the cash register.

“Hello?” I called out, “Is anypony here?”

No response.

“Lace? Jim?”

“{They could be out, maybe we should come back later?}” Applejack suggested.

I ignored her and went behind the counter and checked the kitchen, nothing.

It was in a sparkling clean condition and the dishes were all washed, it didn’t look like it had been used today.

I went towards the stairs leading up to their little home.

“{We shouldn’t intrude on somepony else’s property like this, ‘Heavens.}”

“I know, but we got along nicely with Jim and Lace, I just want to check if they are at home, we’ll leave right away if they aren’t.” I replied.

There was nopony upstairs, all the doors save for one, the one leading to Jim’s bedroom, were wide open.

I went up and opened it, to check if Jim was sick in bed only to find that the bed wasn’t there anymore, in it’s place were large scorch marks covering the floor and part of the ceiling.

What had happened in here?

I went over to Lace Lizard’s bedroom, as I went inside I saw Lace out in the backyard painting a mural on the back of the Sun Valley perimeter wall which confined their backyard, she was sitting on a small wooden stool.

I couldn’t quite make out what it was but it seemed to involve a lot of red and orange, part of it appeared to be flames and fires.

“There’s Lace.” I said, pointing Applejack to the young filly outdoors.

“Maybe she could tell us what is going on?” Manie Manie said.

“Let’s go talk to her then.”

We went outside and back around the house into the backyard, Lace didn’t turn around to greet us as we approached, she seemed deeply concentrated on the mural she was painting.

The mural appeared to decript multiple pony skeletons being burnt into ash by a wall of flames over a black background, the skeletons were crudely painted, but appeared to be screaming or in pain.

I began to feel concerned for the little filly.

“…Lace?” I placed a hoof on her shoulder, she violently shrugged it off.

“Don’t. Touch. Me.” She hissed.

“Is everything alright?”  

“No.”

She finished painting the ribs of a skeleton.

“Jim’s dead.”

Jim was dead? Gods…

“What happened?”

Lace Lizard stopped painting, she sunk her head and let her right foreleg hang loosely by her side.

“He killed himself. Suicide.”

“But… why?”

“You tell me.” She jumped off the stool and dropped the paintbrush in the bucket of white paint she had been using, and then she walked away.

We followed her into the store and upstairs into Jim’s room.

There was a desk we hadn’t put much mind too in the room, on the desk was a small black book, a diary of sorts, Lace opened it and flipped pages until the last entry.

“Jim’s diary.” She said plainly and wandered off into her room.

May 28th 1984

Today two strange ponies came to our shop, a pitch black, red eyed mare with glowing white magical outlines (her coat and mane were black to the point that no shadows were cast on her) and a stallion whose very shape and color seemed to shift, I just figured they were magic or zebra cursed or something so I served them as regular customers, I am not the one to judge ponies by the color of their coat.

They introduced themselves as Manie Manie (the mare) and Sweet Heavens, they didn’t strike me as familiar but I am sure I’ve heard the former somewhere before, I just can’t remember where.

They claimed to have just woken up (and this was all late in the afternoon) and that they had been looking for a place that still served breakfast, I had my ideas about it, they were probably a couple who had a “very late night”, I hinted at it but the mare was very touchy about it and insisted that they had come simply for breakfast because they overslept and that was it.

I don’t remember exactly what they asked for, but I know that the stallion wanted bacon, I cooked up their meals like I usually do, golden crisp and well-made and just as usual the food ended up burnt when served.

The mare hid her dismay very poorly (I share your sentiment Manie, I’ve been trying to figure it out for years!) but the stallion didn’t seem to mind the burnt bacon at all, in fact, he even asked for seconds, nopony ever asks for seconds.

They became suspicious of my cooking, as a test of some kind they had me float up a glass of burnt juice with my horn and the glass itself melted into slag.

They asked to see the kitchen and after a short experiment determined that the reason all my food ends up being burnt up is because of my horn, which appears to be defective, heating up anything it envelops, going as far as melting it.

After that they left and Lace went outside to play in the backyard, I went to clean up the pool of molten glass behind the counter.

I knelt down (having to do it by hoof) and saw the molten face of Trinity in the slur of gray slag.

Her face. It haunts me, every day.

The next and final entry was unmarked, but judging by how long it had been since I was last here and from what I had pieced together it must have been written either yesterday or the day before that.

I cannot go on like this anymore

My squad, the fire, it haunts me in my sleep

I can’t take it anymore, the guilt, those molten faces

Every night I dream about my fire boiling the flesh off my their bones, I dream of their screams of agony as their eyes explode and the metal of their armor boils and runs over their faces, every night it’s the same dreams, the same horrors and every night I wake up cold sweating and out of breath.

But tonight was different.

Tonight it wasn’t by flamethrower fire that I killed my friends and comrades.

No, tonight I dreamt that my own horn set the fires.

I dreamt that Trinity lay wounded in the forest, she had been badly wounded in the neck and was bleeding profoundly, instinctively I ran up to her and floated out a bandage with my horn, as I wrapped her neck with it, it suddenly began to glow of a hot red, it caught fire and burned and she began to scream in pain as it slowly scorched her coat and wound,  I tried to get it off with my horn but it only made it worse, then I tried to get it off with my hooves but it was too hot, it melted my horseshoes by the touch.

Fire shouldn't burn that hot, steel doesn't melt that easily!

But the bandage didn’t burn out or fall apart, it kept burning and burning.

I watched as her neck was slowly consumed to the bone by the fire and then spread to her head, I sat there paralyzed next to her being forced to watch my lover slowly burn and melt, until only her charred blackened bones remained.

It was horrifying and gut-wrenching, but the worst part wasn’t seeing my lover die so painfully, no, it had been seeing my horn do it.

I tried to HELP HER.

I killed her with a BURNING BANDAGE.

That is FUCKED UP.

I have had enough, I have had it with these nightmare.

It is time to end this living hell once and for all.

I have managed to siphon some fuel for my flamethrower (a constant reminder of the MURDER I committed), I will try not to burn the house down.

Lizzie, if you are reading this.

I am sorry.

This isn't your fault, you have nothing to do with this, this is my nightmare, my choice.

You have been like a daughter to me, I wish things could have gone differently, that we met under another circumstance, that I didn’t have to burn my own friends to death and suffer for it.

Take care of the shop now that I am gone.

I love you,

Jim

Gods...

Jim killed himself because of us.

We indirectly made him snap by bringing up his horn problem...

Thinking back, maybe he had known about his defective horn all along, but had repressed the issue to ease the painful memories.

And then we had come and dug them back up...

"...we couldn't have known..." Manie said softly, she was pale, she had probably come to the same realization as me.

We couldn't have known, but it was still on our hooves, Jim was dead because of us.

Lace Lizard had been left without anypony to care for her.

Lace.

"Lace, where is Lace?" I asked alarmingly.

We rushed out of Jim's room and found her immediately, she was sitting on her bed hunched forward.

The expression on her face was unreadable, it was completely blank, she was staring at a nonspecific point somewhere on the wall opposite to her bed.

"Lace?" Manie called to her.

She got no response, the young filly just sat there.

Manie slowly went up to her and sat down besides her, she wrapped a foreleg around her and pulling her to her, the filly leans her head on Manie's shoulder.

"Lacie..." she said softly.

The filly couldn't keep her passive guard up any longer and broke down in tears, she began sobbing, a few heavy tears which she had clearly kept in for more than a filly of her age should have had ran down her cheeks.

"Shh shh shh, Lacie..." Manie whispered to her, patting her shoulder and pressing the filly even harder against her, "It'll be okay... we are here for you..." she comforted.

This only made the filly cry harder, she buried herself in Manie's chest and hugged her tightly, Manie embraced her and Lace began wailing in pain.

All me and Applejack could do was stand there and share her pain.

We took Lace Lizard with us after we left Breakfast Corner.

We all agreed that we couldn't just leave her there all alone after what had happened, she needed us while we were still in Sun Valley Hills, what we'd do with her after we had to move on was something we had to discuss later.

The rest of the day was rather quiet, Applejack stuck around with us to look over Lace (and possibly because she didn't want to go back to her boring sterile room in the labs) and I was reunited with our group.

Together me and Manie explained what had happened and what the situations with Lace Lizard and Applejack were, they all showed deep concern and support for both of them.

When the evening fell we retreated to a local restaurant, a quiet little rustic place situated some ways in between the central Overwatch compound and the western wall, it was neat, but had the distinct appearance of just having been opened, everything in there looked brand new.

Over a some vegetable soup and apple fritters we talked broadly about various things, mostly about Lace Lizard, Jim and Applejack, but also Overwatch, the night creatures and the frontier in general.

Swirly Star practically took Lace Lizard in as her own, much like she had done with Strawberry Feather.

Cloud Tumble and Blizzard Candy were more concerned with Applejack, and discussed at large the various possible scenarios that could play out should the worst happen and what they could potentially do if she was shackled again.

The idea of 'spreading the word' and letting ponies and soldiers across the frontier know about Applejack was brought up several times, we were pretty convinced that the ponies of the frontier would be understanding and that the soldiers appreciated Applejack as she was now and that they would surely help convince Overwatch Command or whoever was really in charge of Applejack to let release her again.

Our evening meal ended when Lace Lizard fell asleep by the table, it had been an eventful day for her, she deserved her rest, so we decided to call it a night.

As we left the restaurant Applejack grabbed hold of my shoulder.

"{Hey...}"

"Yeah?" I wondered what she wanted.

"{Sergeant Crunch Opal... How is... how is he doing?}" she asked me.

I turned to her, the others stopped.

Ugh, I was hoping she wouldn't bring Bonnie up, we hadn't mentioned him at all for the entire day.

What was I supposed to tell her?

'Welp you broke Bonnie's spine and he will never walk again'?

Shit, here comes Manie.

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

"{Ah was just asking how Sergeant Crunch Opal was doing, haven't heard anything about him since... you know.}"

"Oh, Bonnie is-" I gave Manie an interrupting jab. "Hey!"

"What she was saying is that we don't really know how Bonnie is doing."

"What? Yes we d-" I jabbed her again.

"No we don't Manie, we never went to see him."

She gave me a questioning look, she must have caught on to what I was trying to do.

"You're right." she said, "We didn't see him. We don't know."

"{Oh...}"

It was for the best I thought, we shouldn't be guilt tripping her with the bad news.

The two of us turned to move on.

"{Wait!}" she called.

...she wouldn't let go, would she?

We slowly turned around.

"{...can we go see him?}"

The two of us looked at each other and then at Applejack.

"...now?" I asked, trying to avoid it all.

"{Yeah.}"

"Can it wait until tomorrow?"

"{Please Heavens... I need to know.}"

Of course she did.

I sighed and turned to the group.

"You guys go on ahead, we'll go by the hospital to check up on Bonnie."

"Alright. See you tomorrow." Blizzard Candy said.

We separated and went our own ways.

Somewhere halfway between the little restaurant and the compound Applejack stopped me again.

"{Hey... thank you.}" she said.

For taking her to Bonnie I guessed.

"You might not like what you hear..."

"{You know?}"

I looked away, it was grim.

"Yeah... we know...."

We got to the hospital in a few.

It was late and quiet, most of the compound personnel had gone back to their barracks and mess halls, we only met a few disgruntled guards and nurses on our way up to the second floor of the hospital.

The lights were dimmed and it was deathly quiet, the second floor seemed almost deserted.

We rounded a few corners and found Bonnie's room.

“There it is, room 26.” Manie said.

We went inside.

Nopony was attending room 26, Bonnie was all alone in his bed. Unconscious, or at least sleeping.

He seemed absolutely miserable laying there, what few parts of his body that weren't covered in bandages and castings were covered in discolored bruises of varying size who were clearly visible from under his fur.

Somepony had left a small transparent bag of sour and salty candies along with a ‘Get Well!’ card of an unhappy pink stallion wrapped completely in bandages and castings plastered with a number of stickers.

His medical chart was laying on the nightstand next to him, I knew we weren’t supposed to snoop around other ponies medical records, patient-doctor privacy and all... but I grabbed it anyway and took a peek at the contents.

There were various charts and graphs describing various values of things I had absolutely no idea what they were doing. There was one thing that I did understand, and that was the black and white picture of an x-ray scan of Bonnies broken spine.

It was horrible.

It had split in multiple segments, his three broken ribs were also visible.

Two of them were downright snapped off in the middle while the third had bent into a deformation I didn’t even know bones were capable of.

It was... bad. Really bad.

Applejack tapped my shoulder.

"{Can ah see?}" she asked.

I gave her the medical chart, it only took her a quick glance to become visibly hurt over the damage she had caused.

"{O-oh no... a-ah... b-br... he'll never walk again... will he...}"

"I'm sorry Applejack..."

"{W-what have ah done...!}"

Bonnie coughed and tried moving his forelegs, he was waking up!

"...hey, who goes there!" he groggily called out.

"Bonnie, its us. Tombs and Manie." I calmed.

"Tombs! Boy am I glad to hear your voice..." he looked in my direction, his eyes seemed to be struggling to focus.

"Are you alright?" he asked me, blinking.

"I should be asking you that."

He chuckled.

"Why, whats wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

He tensed up, realizing that there was nothing funny about this.

"Is there something wrong with me? I cant see so good... and they have been keeping me all jacked up and spaced out when I've been conscious... Damn docs keep avoiding my questions." he gave up trying to focus on me and just leaned his head back again.

The three of us looked at each other, what do we do?

"Tombs? You still there?"

"I'm here Bonnie."

"Mind telling me whats going on?" he tried looking at me again, he was blinking and trying to squint his eyes.

"Well..."

"Whoa, wait wait, who is that orange guy? ...mare."

"This is..."

"{Ah'm Applejack...}" Applejack introduced herself.

"{But-}"

"Applejack, eh? Hey isn't Applejack like, a hero or something?" he tried to focus on Applejack by squinting his eyes.

"Yeah... yeah she is, that's Applejack alright. Heroine of old. I must be dreaming again. Goddess, I better not be in a coma..."

"You... you aren't dreaming Bonnie, this is really Applejack..."

"Uhuh, sure she is." he grinned.

"I am pretty sure she's dead. Ponies don't live that long."

"{Please listen...}" Applejack said, her voice seemed shaky.

"{Ah am Applejack... but you probably know me better as... uhm... D-dispatch...}"

"You sure as fuck aren't. Dispatch looks nothing like you."

"A lot of things happened after we were knocked out Bonnie..." I explained.

"This is Dispatch. The cider she drank when we were talking with her made her change into Applejack..."

"What?"

"Its a long story, we'll fill you in later... just know, that this is Dispatch..."

Bonnie froze and stared blankly at Applejack, she tried to force a smile but couldn't quite manage.

"Y-you- fuck fuck! Get away from me! STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" he yelled.

He helplessly tried to move and flail around.

"Bonnie! Bonnie! Calm down!" I tried to hold him in place so that he wouldn't end up injuring himself.

"SHE TRIED TO KILL ME! SHE TRIED TO KILL YOU!"

"She didn't mean to! It was an accident!"

"SHE SLAMMED ME INTO A WALL!"

"It wasn't her fault! Please! Bonnie! Calm down! She is not dangerous! She is not gonna hurt you!"

He calmed down a bit.

"Then... then why is she here!?"

"{Ah... ah came to apologize...}"

"You... what?"

"{Ah am so sorry, ah didn't mean to... ah wasn't thinking clearly and ah...}"

"Is she seriously trying to apologize!?"

"Yes Bonnie. She is."

"She nearly killed me!"

"Please Bonnie, she really didn't mean it, she regrets it, she really does."

He looked to Applejack.

"Do you REALLY mean it?"

"{Y-yes... can you forgive me?}"

He stared at her.

For a long few minutes it was just him staring at her, thinking.

"Okay. I forgive you. I guess."

"{Thank you...}"

He shook his head and sighed.

Then he froze.

"I... I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my rear legs." he concentrated on trying to move his body, all he could do was move his forelegs and upper body. "T-tombs!? Whats wrong with me!?"

"I... eh... you..."

"Tombs!"

"You... you broke your spine..."

I took the chart from Applejack and gave it to Bonnie, he checked through it quickly.

"Is that my fucking spine!?"

"Yeah..."

He grimaced in horror.

"Its fucking shattered!"

"Bonnie, take it easy."

"They are gonna fix this right!? They are gonna fix my spine Tombs, aren't they!?"

'His spine is broken, there are various cybernetic replacements, the technology exists.'

'But they are incredibly expensive and with the sergeants pay check...'

...

"I'm sorry Bonnie..."

"No! No! They ARE going to fix this! They can't just leave me like this!"

"The doc said that they could... cybernetic replacements... but... that they are very expensive and with the pay you get..."

"No! That's not right! I signed my life to Overwatch! They fucking OWE me!" he was terrified.

He slowly looked to Applejack. "You."

"You did this to me. You broke my spine. This is your fault!"

"Bonnie, don't-"

"This is NOT okay, this is NOT fucking okay!" he threw the medical chart at Applejack, she narrowly avoided being hit in the head with it. "Get out, GET THE FUCK OUT!" he yelled at her.

"Bonnie please-"

"I TAKE IT BACK, I DON'T FORGIVE YOU FOR FUCKING MY LIFE UP, GET OUT, GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"

Applejack got upset, she was on the brink of crying, or at least something akin to it.

"{But-}"

"NO, I DON'T CARE, GO AWAY! FUCK OFF!" he kept yelling.

Applejack couldn't take any more verbal abuse, she took the gist and stormed off.

Manie sighed. "I'll... I'll go talk to her." she cast Bonnie a cold glare before heading off to find Applejack.

The two of us were left alone.

Bonnie was furious and absolutely torn up over this, he was shaking, sobbing even.

"Was... was that really necessary?" I asked in Applejack's defense. "She wasn't in control, what she did wasn't her fault..."

"I don't care, I don't care! I-I'll never walk again!" he cried.

"She made sure of that!"

Goddess, what am I supposed to say?

His spine is broken, he wont walk again unless he gets a replacement, and as it's been made clear, he wont be getting that anytime soon...

I feel so bad, there isn't anything encouraging that I CAN say, I can't even be a good friend and tell him that I'll be here for him and that I'll help him work it out, I wont be staying in Sun Valley for much longer after all.

"Bonnie... I'm... I'm sorry, I really wish there was something I could to to help..."

He looked away.

"There isn't. Please... please go... I want to be left alone for a bit..."

"Are you sure...? I can stay if you'd like."

"Just go."

"Okay...", I went up to the door. "...call me if you need anything, alright?"

He didn't respond.

I'll leave him alone then...

I shut the door and found myself back in the corridor, I wondered where Manie could have gone off.

I made my way back to the elevator and took it down to the ground level, then I stepped out into the courtyard.

It was pitch black outside, a nip of cold was in the air.

There were no benches, nothing to sit down on, so I just sat down and leaned against a wall by the hospital entrance to wait for Manie, I was sure she'd catch up with me or at least pass by the hospital entrance in a bit.

But I waited and waited and Manie didn't show up.

From time to time a medical pony or soldier would leave or go into the hospital, ponies who changed shifts I guessed.

After what I thought could have been half an hour I decided to just forget about it and go back to my room.

When I came back I found Manie sitting on a couch in the little waiting room connecting our rooms.

She was paging through some magazine about flowering, her expression suggested that she wasn't really doing it out of interest as much as out of boredom.

Once she noticed me she put the magazine down and got up.

"Where have you been? I've been waiting for ages!"

I was a little surprised.

"Me? You've been waiting for me?"

"Yeah, of course."

"That's... hmm... truth be told, I was actually waiting for you too."

"Where?"

"Just outside the hospital. I thought you'd come looking for me."

"Oh.", she looked a little embarrassed. "Sorry."

"It's fine. Guess we're both kinda new to this." I smiled at her, she relaxed a little.

"So how did your talk with Applejack go?"

"She'll be fine... I caught up with her in her room and she feels really sorry about Bonnie... she really wants to make it up to him, so she says that she is going to try and see if she can request a spine replacement for him."

"Oh, that's... that's great!"

That'd be fantastic!

It probably wouldn't even things out between the two, but at least it'd help undo the damage she did.

"The thing is," she continued, "Is that she wasn't so sure she'd manage."

"What do you mean?"

"She said that she couldn't really ask for anything whenever she liked. She was very clear on there being serious mistrust between her and the Overwatch commanders and that they probably wouldn't just bend to her requests and needs."

"She said that getting the APC, a valuable military resource out here would be hard, and that it'd be unlikely that they would ever agree on getting Bonnie that spine replacement. She gave me this whole argument about how cybernetic replacements were this top of the line stuff that cost an extraordinary amount of bits to make and how they would have to fly in doctors from the mainland to peform the surgery here..."

"Then why not fly Bonnie back to the mainland?"

"When Bonnie is discharged and sent back home he'll be out of the responsibility of Overwatch and their jurisdiction. He'll be a crippled pony, abandoned by society. The least she could do was extend the amount of time that he'd be allowed to stay in the Sun Valley hospital before he is sent off."

"I see."

I thought about this for a moment.

"Well... the APC isn't that big of a deal for me... I'm sure we'll manage without it, somehow... It's Bonnie that I'm really concerned about."

"Yeah... me too."

She sighed and sat back down.

I went up and sat down next to her.

"You know... we forgot to go see Brook..." I said, a little ashamed.

"The others went to see him earlier today." she said, completely calm and unfazed.

"They did?"

"Mmhmm. Brook is stable and is recovering well. But for some reason he hasn't returned to consciousness."

"...why not? He hasn't taken any head injuries... I understand if he passed out to shock and pain, but he should have woken up by now... it's been tw- three days, right?"

"I think so."

"Shit... we should really check up on him."

Manie leaned her head against my shoulder and yawned.

"We can do that tomorrow..."

I guess we could... I was feeling pretty tired myself...

"...tired?"

"Very."

"Wanna get some sleep?"

She looked at me.

"Will you be joining me?"

I shrugged.

"I guess, if you'd like to."

"I would."

I went up to her and offered her a hoof.

"Lets go then."

She accepted it and the two of us went into her room.

There wasn't much to be said, the two of us simply tucked into bed.

It felt nice getting in under the covers with her, it had been chilly outside and I was feeling a bit worn out.

For being such a short day it had been quite eventful, there was much to think about...

She scooted in close to me, I could feel her back pressed against me...

I laid a leg around her and settled in.

So nice... so warm...

I soon fell asleep, face buried in her soft mane...