Chapter 12-2: Unstable Radius

Whitepony stood before us like a vision from the past.

A great stone monolith, it rose from the ground as a giant concrete cube, with hard edges and corners. It must have been a hundred metres high and wide, standing there seemingly untouched by balefire bombs.

Either that or it just shrugged the attack off. A record keeping facility probably was built to last.

From where we were standing, a few hundred yards away, the sole visible entrance looked positively tiny in comparison to the building’s bulk. A single set of glass double doors provided a way inside, though nothing could be seen in the shadows beyond the glass.

Were it not for the barren land around Whitepony, you might have been mistaken for thinking that the bombs hadn’t dropped yet, so solid and unblemished was the imposing facility. Also, though two Ministries were apparently using it during the war, the outer walls bore no insignia from any organisation.

“Friendly.”

“Well put, Boss Colt.”

“Ooh, ‘Boss Colt’? I like that.”

“Aaand now Schwarzwald knows about the nickname. Thank you, Naiara. Thank you, thank you so much.”

His sarcasm was ignored through a grinning salute. “Happy to be of service, Boss Colt.”

“Hate. You. All.”

“What’d I do?” I asked, incredulous.

“Spoke to her in line at Lethbridle.”

“…Touché.”

“Dahlings.” Schwarzwald interjected, showing that she evidently DID have a limit to her patience and good cheer. “Though this back-and-forth is very entertaining to watch, should we not proceed? Perhaps knock on the door?”

“Do not worry, Schwarzwald, Bosco and Naiara are good friends.” Undertow paused in her attempt to assure the older mare. “Though she may kick him at some point.”

Silence greeted her remark. Schwarzwald sported a raised eyebrow, and an approving smile.

Bosco and Naiara, on the other hoof, were staring open-mouthed. “Did… did Undertow just make another joke?”

“Well I’ll be damned, she did at that.”

“I’m so proud!”

“I know, me too!”

“ENOUGH!” I’d reached my limit too. “Can we just go?”

“Schwarz’s right.” Bosco reassumed his ‘Boss Colt’ persona. “Let’s go.”

We crossed the rest of the grounds without incident, and formed up at the double doors. “Somepony check if it’s locked.”

A quick pull, then push, on the doors confirmed that it was. Undeterred, Bosco brought out his wicked knife, jammed it into the gap between the two doors, then rammed his hoof down on top of it. With a momentary thunk, the lock broke.

As Naiara opened the door to check inside, Schwarzwald was tsk-tsking at the brute force solution. “You will ruin the blade if you do that. I advise finding a whetstone when you have a moment.”

As he was sheathing his knife, Bosco replied in a whisper. “I’ll keep that in mind, now pipe down. We don’t want to give ourselves away too soon.” With that, he slipped in after Naiara, followed by the rest of us.

Inside, we found a silent reception area. The only features on the room were a receptionist’s desk, and a few dilapidated chairs placed around a grimy table covered with magazines whose covers had faded to near blank. There was a terminal on the desk, which we crowded around.

Experimentally tapping a few keys, Bosco relayed what information came up. “Nothing much to work with really; two hundred year old visitor’s list, a notice telling everypony to head for the nearest Stable… must’ve been sent when the bombs dropped, and lastly… uh oh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Automated security’s been activated.”

We all tensed up. “What kind of security?”

Bosco shook his head. “Doesn’t say, just that they triggered it before evacuating. I guess they didn’t want any spies or anything snooping around while they were away.”

“That was two centuries ago.” Undertow was looking towards the other exits. “Surely the security must have lost power by now?”

“Not necessarily, dahling, it depends on what kind of security they employed here.”

Grimacing, Bosco agreed. “She’s right. I once came across a few security robots in another old building, and their lasers worked just fine. The Ministry of Tech built their guards to last. We’ll have to be careful.”

He gave us all a stern look. “…And quiet too.”

Surprisingly, even Schwarzwald obeyed the order. Keeping close, we moved past the desk and into a hallway beyond. “Keep an eye out for a map or something. Anything to get us out of here sooner.” The whispered command had Undertow and I looking here, there, and everywhere, while the others just moved their eyes.

Rounding a corner, we came up on a set of heavy doors, this time with three sturdy bolts slid across. Bosco’s knife wouldn’t get us through here. Half a minute of searching yielded no alternative way in. Instead, we carried on past the doors, turning left at the next bend presented us with a window wall to look into the room we couldn’t access.

Surprisingly, the locked door led to a walkway, only a couple of meters below the ceiling. The room itself was much larger than I had thought, as it descended down past the ground floor. It housed a few rows of massive computers, with two other levels of walkway suspended above them.

“It is a server room. The information we need may be closer than I thought.”

We all shushed her, but the damage had been done. From out of a side passage came a hulking mound of metal. The robot was not very pretty, but looked solid and durable. Even before compartments began opening to reveal weapons, it looked like it meant business.

“HALT!” The tinny voice crackled as it emerged through speakers. “Identify yourselves!”

I heard a rustle behind me, catching Naiara pulling her cloak further around her, as she surreptitiously moved to the back of the group. Right, she’s a zebra. Of course she doesn’t wanna be seen by the robot.

Reaching back to drag Schwarzwald forward, Bosco tried to keep his voice strong as he replied. “I am inspector Upper Crust, along with my wife, inspector Jet Set,” he pointedly did NOT look at his ‘wife’ during all this. “And these are our inspection staff. Our inspection is already late, and we do not appreciate the delay.”

“What the hell is he doing?” I had to agree with the growled question. What was Bosco doing? Who was Upper Crust, or Jet Set?

“Verifying…” The bulky robot went silent, as it communicated with the rest of its network.

We all held our breath.

Then the robot’s guns came out. “Verification failed! Inspectors Upper Crust and Jet Set are unicorns. You are not unicorns!”

There was a half second pause. “…Fuck.”

Clicking as its lenses readjusted, the robot was giving us all a thorough eyeballing. “Scanning intruders for identity.”

“What now?” I hissed.

“Um…” His gambit having failed, Bosco was temporarily at a loss as to how to proceed.

Schwarzwald wasn’t. She opened up with her battle saddle, striking the robot again and again in the head and chest. Its eyes shattered under the barrage, but it only fell back a few steps, instead of being destroyed.

It was evidently still connected to the network, as alarms began sounding and flashing everywhere. “ALERT! INTRUDERS ON SITE! VISION IMPAIRED! REQUESTING ASSISTANCE!”

Turning from the continuing roar of Schwarzwald’s battle saddle, now joined by Bosco’s pistol as they tried to put the automaton down, Undertow, Naiara, and I kept a look out for the other trouble.

It wasn’t far away. Through the windows, we could see other identical robots mobilising, gliding around and between the servers as they rushed to our location. “Company’s coming guys, a lot of it!”

“Snow, Naiara, find us a way out! Undertow, help us out here!”

There was no way we were gonna question that order. Her horn glowing, and with water surging around her, Undertow jumped into the fight, as the robot was readying its own weapons to counterattack.

Naiara dashed along the glass wall to the next intersection, looking each way with a lightning-quick hide-and-peek, while I watched the way we’d come. Satisfied, she called back. “THIS WAY’S CLEAR! COME ON!”

I made to follow, but one of the windows exploded into the hallway, making me duck back before the flying shards cut me to ribbons. Looking back into the server room, I saw another robot standing on the upper walkway.

It saw us too. More than we wanted it to see. “NON-PONY LIFESIGN DETECTED! TAINT INFECTION DETECTED! LETHAL FORCE AUTHORISED!” Bigger guns emerged from yet more hidden compartments, opening up on me almost immediately.

Helpless, I threw up my hooves as a pointless shield. The shockwave from the grenade explosions blew me onto my back, but sounded strangely muffled.

I opened my eyes to see a shield of water had intercepted the blast. Undertow was standing behind me, her horn glowing. “We shall deal with this one, Lady Snow, assist Schwarzwald in stopping the other one.”

Looking back, the first robot was struggling. It was still upright, but its weapons looked to be in bad shape. Schwarzwald was firing round after round into its metal skull, but still couldn’t deal a fatal blow. Still, it was only a threat if it got close, which seemed unlikely.

Nodding to Undertow, I traded places with her and Bosco, who took over in battling this new, fully armed threat.

A quick glance down the hall showed Naiara turning and running, as another robot rolled past the T-junction after her.

“Guys, they’re after Naiara, she’s a zebra!”

“Snowflake! Your assistance!” Schwarzwald was yelling, as the robot still hadn’t gone down.

Cursing, I turned and focused on my newest spell, the slippery trail that I’d used on Naiara back at Soft Swell Lake. My horn blazed, and suddenly the robot looked far less sturdy, as its wheels spun in a vain attempt to find traction. Overbalanced, it toppled over completely as Schwarzwald opportunistically shoulderbarged into it. As the bot hit the ground, the mercenary mare was on it, jamming her heavy rifle into its destroyed eye-socket, pulverising its processor with a point-blank burst.

The two of us stood over it, panting slightly, making sure it was down this time, when the chest section opened up, and a beeping commenced.

Wide-eyed, Schwarzwald wheeled round and grabbed me. “Time to go!” She dragged me further down the hallway, all but throwing me around the next corner.

I managed to get my head back, shouting out a quick “LOOK OUT!” to the others, before the robot exploded.

Having caught the tail end of my warning, Undertow’s water shield was already wrapping around her and Bosco, but there was a terrible crash as they, and the shield, were propelled through the window by the blast, falling down into the server room.

“UNDERTOW! BOSCO!” I tried to run to reach them, but Schwarzwald grabbed me.

“They are fine, Snowflake, but we have to get away for now!”

I fought in her grasp, desperate to reach the two. “NO! We have to save them! They might be hurt! LET ME GO!” I kicked and twisted in her grasp in my haste to aid our friends.

I had almost gotten free, but then I saw that the robot, who Undertow and Bosco had been trading fire with, was rolling towards the locked double doors, which led into our corridor. A heavy scrape of metal on metal showed that the door was no longer locked. The robot would be here in seconds.

Again, Schwarzwald seized me around the shoulders, and dragged at me. “See? It is after us now! Let us go, and we will find the others when we are safe?”

“But what if they’re hurt?”

“Then they are hurt!” She snapped. “We cannot get to them, and will only die ourselves if we try! What good would that do anypony?”

That stopped me cold, being reminiscent of Undertow’s words. I couldn’t help anyone by putting myself into needless danger. “Y-Yeah, alright.” I stopped struggling, and turned to face the direction she was dragging me. When I started running with her, she let go and we began to sprint, just barely evading a hail of bullets from the arriving robot.

Juking and jinking, we did everything we could to get away from the robot, now joined by friends, but whichever way we went, we couldn’t find a time to double back and reach the others. Eventually, we were cornered near a stairwell, with our only option being to go up.

I hated myself, and her, as we climbed. This is taking us too far away from the others! Undertow and Bosco might be trapped in that room with dozens of them! And who knows what’s happened to Naiara. I hope she’s okay.

Bursting into an office full of cubicles, we searched around for a safe place. Jumping ahead, I caught sight of two bots just as they saw me.

“Snowflake, get down!” Crushed by the sudden weight, my breath left me as bullets, and now lasers, whizzed by overhead, with Schwarzwald holding me down, until the shooting stopped. After scrambling into the cover of one of the cubicles, she leaned around and took a few shots with her battle saddle’s rifles, the harsh collision of bullets and armour sounding hollow and pained.

Sneering in frustration, she triggered the reload of her weapons. “I am losing too many bullets for too little damage! Do you have any ideas?”

I did have one thought. It had worked on Peanut…

“I’ll freeze their legs, then we’ll make a run for it. Can you keep them busy?”

“Not for long, dahling.”

“Okay, I’ll be quick.” I didn’t really have much of a choice. If this didn’t work, Schwarzwald’s ammo wouldn’t last, and then we’d be in too much trouble to help anyone.

Gathering herself, Schwarzwald darted across into another cubicle, a trail of laser fire chasing her, before leaping up and over into a third partition.

With their attention temporarily on the older pony, I found a bullet hole to look through, catching sight of one of the robots with its back turned. I couldn’t see its leg from where I was, but I could see the steady fire of the cannon in its arm.

That’ll have to do. My horn glowed, as my attention centred on the pumping weapon.

After a few seconds, the fire rate began to rapidly diminish, until eventually all that was happening was an unhealthy, lethargic clicking. Confused, the robot looked at its limb, but I kept the magic on, watching as the gun turned white, with frost forming along its length.

Suddenly the mechanical sentry wheeled around on me, swinging the rigid limb. Shrieking, I ducked out of the way, and the swing caught the cubicle wall.

The limb violently exploded as it struck, scattering bits of frozen metal and circuitry everywhere. While the bot was distracted, I jumped over the cubicle wall and darted down the gap.

I nearly choked as a hoof shot out from a corner partition, snagging me around the throat and ripping me off my hooves. As I was dumped on the floor, Schwarzwald was trying to reload, check the enemies’ position, and talk to me. “I saw that, Snowflake. Do it again.”

I just wheezed.

“No time for that now, just freeze the robots. Get their chests, or their heads. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Ack, you didn’t have to grab me so roughly?” I rubbed my tender neck.

“Dirty talk can wait, dahling, and I’ll let you return the favour when we find a bed, but for now I need you to focus.” Slipping a hoofheld mirror out of a pocket, she angled it to see down the straight path between cubicles. “There, look in the mirror. Can you see it?”

It was getting close. “I see it. Hold the mirror steady.”

I imagined my spell bouncing off the mirror and heading straight towards the robot’s chest which, thankfully, did start to ice up. It took longer than the gun had, however, so I only managed to finish when the bot rolled over the mirror, crushing it, and turned into the cubicle.

We were trapped, but trapped animals fight the hardest.

With an inarticulate yell, Schwarzwald swung her hoof into, and through, the frozen chest armour of the mechanical beast, up to her shoulder, and withdrew a blinking power pack. It toppled over, the lights dimming before it hit the ground.

“Do you see its one-armed friend, dahling?” She was juggling the battery, testing the heft, acting for all the world like she hadn’t just punched out a robot’s heart.

“I… uh…” I stuck my head out, thankful that the remaining enemy no longer had a projectile weapon, and scanned the room. It was a mess, with office supplies, and bits of metal and plaster and wood strewn everywhere. At the other end of the walkway, the remaining bot caught sight of me, and motored towards us. “End of the path, coming this way.”

“Heh, perfect.” Grinning like a demon, Schwarzwald stepped out of the cubicle, facing down the straight course, wound back, and let fly with the power core. Arcing through the air, the robot raised its arm to shoot the core out of the air.

The arm it raised didn’t have a gun anymore.

Schwarzwald did. I realised her plan just before she fired. Panicking, I grabbed her tail in my teeth and yanked just as she fired, pulling her back into the cubicle before the explosion reached us.

The flames still licked around all the barricades, setting us both briefly on fire before we could stamp or snuff out the embers.

Nothing remained of the robot, who’d caught the explosion full in the face, except miniscule chunks of bubbling armour. The room near the explosion was bowed out, a spherical curve present in all surfaces.

After confirming that there were no other robots in the vicinity, we relaxed a little. “Where to next, Snowflake? This is fun.”

The alarms chose this moment to cease, making me forget about my indignant answer. An artificial voice sounded out of the loudspeakers. “VISUAL CONFIRMATION OF INTRUDERS LOST! COMMENCE ROOM BY ROOM SWEEP! ALL SENTRIES MOBILISE!”

“We should go.”

~~~~~~

We glided from room to room, as stealthily as we could, sometimes just barely managing to avoid patrols of searching sentinels.

Soon enough, my companion had regained her cheerful demeanour. “You know, dahling, I find myself somewhat disappointed.”

“Disappointed?” I didn’t try to hide my sarcasm. Somehow Schwarzwald’s warped worldview wasn’t really what I cared about at present.

“Indeed.” Apparently she was gonna go on regardless. “Amber sends me to fight mere machines? Disappointing. Steel and wires are not nearly so interesting as blood and bones.”

“Then why are you still here?”

“Besides not currently having a choice? Because Amber will soon provide me with something more interesting, I am sure.”

Mostly I responded for a distraction from worrying about Undertow, Bosco, and Naiara. Finding out some more about the Bernstein Conclave was a distant second. “What makes you say that?”

“Not many can provide the results she seeks.” Her tone turned wistful, though still quiet to avoid alerting guards. “I remember a story she told me of one of my predecessors. She meant it as a warning, I’m sure, though I would kill her long before she could repeat the practice on me.”

“Meant what as a warning?”

“Well, my predecessor, I forget the name, took on many jobs for Amber; Assassination, bounty hunting, secret messages, carrying special cargo, all sorts. Apparently, the mercenary developed something of an ego over this, believing himself to be too valuable to lose, and soon forgot to show respect.”

“…You don’t act respectful to her.”

She gave me a disbelieving, shocked look. “Why, Snowflake, of course I do! Amber has accomplished much for a filly of her age, mere years older than yourself. No, I don’t act disrespectfully to her, I am merely friendly. It would be wise to learn the difference. The idiot I replaced never learned.”

That’s an interesting way of looking at it. “What happened?”

“After her patience ran out, Amber played to his ego, hiring him to attack a small gang of slavers, of which there was no possibility for him to succeed. Obviously, he did not think as she did, and declared himself her go-to pony for every job.”

I could already see where this was going.

“Amber then bought him back from the slavers, after they had broken his spirit, though his skills were mostly intact. Then… she made him keep to his word.”

“His word?”

“He claimed to be her go-to pony for every job. Amber made this truth. No matter the job, mind-numbingly mundane or suicidally dangerous, she sent him first, and as he was a slave now, it cost her nothing. Soon enough the cost she’d paid to acquire him had been repaid many times over, and still she sent him on every job. Eventually, he was killed trying to subdue a beast, past the northern mountains.”

“Past the mountains?”

“Indeed. Amber does not accept defeat easily either, whether personally or through her subordinates. I do not doubt she will ask me to find this creature at some point. The Molar Bear, and Tarantubaas? Merely a warm up.”

I eyed her warily. “And you’ll go?”

She shrugged. “Most likely. Amber pays well, and it does intrigue, does it not? A monster strong and strange enough to be sought so dearly? A fun challenge, and a good way to prove my superiority over that enslaved fool.”

Talk of slaves made me think of Plottawa, and I felt a pang of sympathy for the nameless idiot. Still, Schwarzwald’s words hammered home her earlier warning. Amber was good with words, both hers and those of others. I would have to watch what I say, and make sure that my friendliness wasn’t mistaken for disrespect.

I already have enough powerful ponies for enemies.

“Not to mention,” Schwarzwald cut in. “Amber could not make me a slave, I already have a mistress in waiting, no?” She waggled her eyebrows at me, prompting me to roll my eyes in response.

Then I caught myself. This wasn’t the time for her nonsense, Undertow and the others were still in danger. Amber was irrelevant at this point. “We should hurry and find the others.”

“If we move too fast, we will bring the robots down on our heads again.”

“I know, but…” I didn’t care. Undertow, Bosco and Naiara were in danger. The thought made me sick, and so I picked up my pace, trying to outpace my worry.

“Snowflake, slow down.” There was an edge in her voice that was very different than usual. Thoroughly annoyed, I turned, waiting for her to make her point.

She didn’t say anything though, just casually ambled up until we were level again.

“What is wrong with you? The others could be in trouble, and you’re taking it easy!”

Oh how I wanted to rip that stupid smile off her face. “I have more stories if you wish to pass the time.”

Livid, I tensed up. “I don’t want to ‘pass the time’, I want to find my friends and help them against killer robots!”

She cocked her head to the side. “You seem tense, Snowflake, do you not want to relax first, to make sure that you are ready?”

“No, I don’t wanna relax! Let’s go already!” What the fuck was her problem?

“Are you sure? I could help you relax.”

I slapped her, as hard as I could. This was really not the time.

Almost instantly, pain exploded across my face, and I slammed into the wall behind me. Before I could fall, Schwarzwald was on me, with her front leg under my chin.

“How?” That was all she said.

“How what?” I gargled back, glaring at her.

“How will you help them?” Her words, and her eyes, were cold. The only time I remembered her being this vicious was in the bar, when the drunk stallion tried to show off to his marefriend.

“I’ll… find them…”

“Then what? How exactly will you fight?”

A glare was my only response, not having a concrete answer. She nodded knowingly. “Exactly. You saw how durable these machines are, yes? How many bullets are needed before they drop? You don’t have a gun, and your magic won’t be enough. What then?”

“P… punch… like you!”

In response, she held up her hoof, the one she’d buried in the robot’s sternum.

It was gashed, and bloody. Clearly she was in pain, but was hiding it. “I am much stronger than you, Snowflake, and yet I can only do this once. How many sentries do you think there are?”

My glare began to soften. Though I still loathed her at that moment, she was starting to make sense, even cutting through my worry.

She kept up her cold stare. “I am strong, dahling, but unlike my predecessor, I am not fool enough to call myself invincible. This is not a battle any one of us can win. We must work together. Effectively. Charging in, like the fighter that you’re clearly NOT, will get you and your little sister killed.”

Her foreleg across my throat had slackened enough for me to speak. “I… how can I help them?”

She lowered the limb, that she’d been choking me with, completely. “First, we shall calmly find our friends. Then, your magic will be used to create opportunities for the others to finish our enemies. You’re no killer, not yet, so you haven’t developed the necessary spells.” Her cocky smile returned. “Wait a little while longer, and then you may join the fun.”

My nausea returned at the thought. Robots are one thing, but she can’t seriously expect me to sit there and think up ways to kill people. Not a chance.

Bzzt! “Schwarzwald, you there?”

Taken by surprise, we looked at each other for a moment, thinking that the robots were talking to us over the intercom.

Bzzt! “Come on, pick up already.”

In a very familiar voice.

In puzzled amusement, Schwarzwald fished the Bernstein communicator she’d received out of a pocket. “Breeze? Is that you, dahling?”

“Ah good, you are there. Listen, I don’t really know what’s going on, but Naiara says to tell you that she’s fine, but can’t come find you guys right now. What’s she mean? And who’s ‘you guys’?” There was an ease to Breeze’s voice, even through the device, that I hadn’t heard in a while. Our last few meetings had always made her angry. I didn’t mind right now, I was just glad that Naiara was okay, even if she couldn’t meet up with us yet, whatever that meant.

Calm down, Snow, she’s probably just dodging patrols, like us. If she can use the transmitter, then I’m sure she’s okay.

“Well, I’m at Whitepony with the others, but we got separated after a fight with some sentry bots. Snowflake and I…”

“Snowflake’s there?!”

“Yes! Would you like to say hello?”

“No, I don’t wanna say hello! I’m just telling you that Naiara’s okay, like she asked. If you want anything else, then you call me. In private. Got it?”

“Very well, dahling, and thank you for telling us about dear Naiara.”

“Yeah, thanks Breeze, really.” No matter what she thought of me, or what I thought of her, she’d helped us out right now, and that deserved thanks.

They weren’t welcome though. She just “Tch”’d, and the signal cut out.

Grinning widely, Schwarzwald turned to me. “You see, Snowflake? Your friend remained calm, and got a message to us to ease your fears. Now we can concentrate on finding the others.”

I still wasn’t happy with Breeze’s attitude, or Schwarz’s really, but I had to admit she’d made her point. “…Alright, but since Breeze called us, can we use the communicator to contact…”

Bzzt! “Schwarzwald, pick up.”

“…Bosco!”

The smile was now a full on smirk. She gracefully raised the device to her lips. “Hello, dahling. How are you?”

You smug mare. “Is he okay? Ask him about Undertow!” I pressed at her to find out.

“We’re okay. We got away from the robots for now, junked a few too.”

“You continue to impress, dahling.”

“Yeah, whatever, I- OW! I didn’t find the- OW DAMMIT! Find the- FUCK OFF UNDERTOW!” There was a brief sound of a scuffle, before a new voice was yelling down the line.

“LADY SNOW, ARE YOU THERE?”

All thoughts of ponies and their bad attitudes vanished. I jumped for the communicator, but Schwarzwald turned away from my grabbing hooves, continuing to speak. “She’s here, Undertow-dahling. What do you need?”

“Let me speak to Lady Snow!”

I made another dive for the gadget. “Give it to me!”

Another dodge. “I’m afraid that she’s busy at present, would you like to leave a message!”

“I can hear her!” Undertow wailed through the channel. My heart was breaking.

“Dammit, Schwarzwald, if you don’t give me the communicator right now…”

“What?” She replied sharply, but still smiling. “What will you do? Remember to remain calm.”

Oh, you absolute- I almost made another blind grab, but forced myself to stop, even though I could hear sniffles coming from the speaker. Fuck! I can’t do anything too drastic, it might hurt her, or bring the robots running. What else can I do to get her to give it to me? What does she want? Well, besides…

…

Ah, damn it.

Hating the entire situation, I stomped over to her. Schwarzwald made no move to stop me, or dodge, even as I reached a hoof up.

Grabbing her battle saddle, I yanked down, bringing her face close to mine.

Then I kissed her full on the lips.

Even with all her scars, the flesh was far softer then I imagined, and more supple. I felt one scar with my upper lip, and was idly tempted to trace it with my tongue, but stopped myself before it sent the wrong message.

Thankfully, that surprised her enough for me to reach up, while her lips were busy, and knock the communicator out of her upstretched hoof.

I caught it before it hit the floor. “Undertow? Undertow, answer me!”

The sniffling halted. “L-Lady Snow!”

Overjoyed, I laughed into the mic, hearing her respond in kind. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“I am glad you’re okay too, Lady Snow, and Schwarzwald as well. Bosco is fine too, although…”

Alarm bells sounded in my head. What had happened to Bosco? Was there something in here that was affecting him? “What’s wrong with Bosco?”

Pregnant silence flowed down the channel or a few moments.

“Undertow!” I repeated, firmer this time. “What happened to Bosco?”

It was the colt himself who answered, an angry voice in the background. “She fucking bit me again, that’s what happened!”

“Undertow!”

“I am so sorry, Lady Snow! I wanted to hear your voice, and he had the communicator… and what he was talking about wasn’t important, and…”

“Unimportant?” Bosco interrupted again. “This is what we’re here for, idiot!”

He found it? “Undertow, we’ll talk about this when we meet up, I promise. For now, don’t bite anybody again, and put Bosco back on the line.”

“But…”

“Now, Undertow.” I had to be firm with her, this sort of behaviour wasn’t nice, and I didn’t want it becoming a habit.

“…Yes, Lady Snow.” She sounded utterly dejected.

There was another movement, and then Bosco’s gentle, but unmistakenly male, voice came back on the line. “I’m here, Snow.”

“Alright. Good to hear you’re okay, Boss Colt. I’m putting Schwarzwald on again. Tell her what you’ve got.”

“Okay.”

Turning to the mare, who was watching me strangely, I held out the gadget. “See if Bosco’s got what you need.”

She began to reach for the device, but I quickly whipped it back, hardening my stare, but keeping my words calm. “Don’t you ever, ever try to get in between me and her again. Understand?”

The stern admonishment revived her smirk. She also ran a hoof over her lips, before licking it seductively. “Yes, Mistress.”

Rolling my eyes, and sighing tiredly, I tossed the communicator to her carelessly, and she scrambled to catch it. “Snowflake! That is not yours, be careful!”

“Whatever.” I turned away from her, and privately revelled in my joy at finding out that my friends were okay. I still kept on ear on the conversation between Schwarz and Bosco though.

“Well, that first server room we found was a bust, it was all information on places I’d never even heard of: Caledonia, Dise, Wintertrot, and so on. Nothing on Lethbridle. So we got out of there before more bots showed up. Spent a while trying to find a map, or anything that could help. Caught a break when Undertow found something.”

“Which was?”

“The servers here are water-cooled. Undertow found the pipes with her horn, and we followed them all the way to the next lot of servers.”

Well done, Undertow! That’s great work.

“Very impressive, dahling. Both of you. And you found the Lethbridle data?”

“We did.” I imagined the colt nodding at that, even though neither of them could see the other. “Did just what you said. Plugged the communicator in, and let it do the rest. Dunno what info you were after, but it thinks it’s got it.”

“Very good, dahling! How shall we meet up, so that you can transfer it to me?”

Pride, and a little arrogance, carried along the airwaves. “That’s taken care of, too. While I was waiting on the device to finish getting the files, Undertow actually DID find a map of the building. Seems like this place mostly restocked through aircraft, so the top floor is just one giant warehouse. On top of that, there’s an external fire escape we can use to get back down, should let us avoid the robots. I say we all head up, and meet up at the top.”

“That sounds perfect, dahling. Naiara contacted us, through Breeze, just before you. We will inform her of our plans.”

“Great, we’ll see you then. Oh, and tell Snow to hurry, Undertow’s sulking.”

A static-y, and pouty, “Am not!” was heard just as the transmission cut out.

Stashing the Bernstein device away, Schwarzwald turned back to me. “So there we have it, Snowflake. Shall we go?”

I’m not mentioning what I did if you’re not. “Sure. So where are those stairs?”

~~~~~~

As planned, we relayed the plan to Naiara through Breeze. She was fine with it, though she did think she was somewhere underground, and therefore might take a little longer to arrive.

We got quite lucky with the patrols, only twice did we meet more robots, first we came across a pair, which were dispatched without trouble, through a combo of ice and bullets.

The second confrontation was more dangerous. We were only a few floors from the top, when a hidden door, scant metres away, opened up, revealing a slimmer version of the sentinels that we’d been facing so far. It was far faster, and much harder to hit, with either magic or weaponry.

Finally we’d been forced to have Schwarzwald offer herself up for the robot to come in close, deploying several small blades. Fighting through the cuts, Schwarz had grabbed it long enough for me to cover its head with ice, which she crushed with her remaining good hoof.

The fight had left her tired, and bloody. I’d stopped us long enough to apply healing bandages. It’d also been long enough for her to annoy the hell out of me, by cooing over the ministrations of her ‘mistress’.

Finally, we were at the doors to the top floor warehouse.

Wordlessly, we took up station at each side of the door. Schwarzwald held up a hoof, telling me to wait, while she eased the door open a crack.

The sound of something heavy striking the door just on the other side synched up perfectly with her startled yell, and wild leap backwards.

Landing in an undignified pile, she seemed unharmed, so I took the opportunity to look through the gap while she got herself up.

On the other side of the door was the busted remains of a sentry bot.

Who did that?

“I heard something at the door.”

“Maybe it is Lady Snow?”

YES!!!

Wrenching the door open as far as I could, I kicked the scrap out of the way, and dashed into the room. “Undertow!”

Standing on a walkway with Bosco, and with a blissful smile spreading across her face, was the water-wielding unicorn. “Lady Snow!”

Having picked herself up, Schwarzwald trotted in after me. “Bosco, are you here? Do you have it?”

“Right here.” He confirmed from the walkway. “And there’s a fire door up here. We can get out!”

“Excellent, dahling. I cannot wait to get to safety. Such stories I have for you both.”

“No you don’t.” I quickly corrected, before turning back to the pair on the catwalk. “How do we get up to you?”

“Far side of the room. Over there. You see it?”

“Yeah, we’ll be right there, just stay put.”

Beaming, the colt turned to Undertow, who was still swimming in happy, innocent joy. “Undertow, get the fire door. I’ll watch the entrance in case any more robots show, or Naiara.”

I was trotting swiftly towards the stairwell as I called back. “She’s on her way, but she was pretty far down when you called. I don’t think the bots’ll give her much trouble though, she’s pretty sneaky.”

All in all, I felt that Boss Colt could be quite proud of how this went. We’d been split up for a few hours, but had still gotten the data, probably, and had a safe way out. All we needed now was for Naiara to get here, and we were in the clear.

With a clunk, the fire door opened.

And everything went wrong.

“AAAAH!”

Three pairs of eyes whipped towards the source of the scream, none more so than mine. “UNDERTOW!”

Surging in from the outside, gold smog was swarming around her. Her thrashing resistance seemed to have no effect, as the shining fog just bubbled and flowed around, over, and under her. “LADY SNOW! HELP ME!”

“I’M COMING!” Sprinting to the stairs, I took them three at a time.

The fog wasn’t satisfied with just Undertow though. Bosco had gone charging in, firing wildly with his pistol, as Schwarzwald opened up from the lower level with her own artillery, but neither had had any noticeable effect. The bullets went into the fog, and then out the other side, but all the while the cloud kept its hold on Undertow.

Slashing wildly with his knife, Bosco too was overwhelmed as he tried to reach her. He disappeared within the fog almost immediately, as it boiled around him as effortlessly as it had Undertow. “SNOW! SCHWARZWALD! HELP!”

“Let them go!”

An aquamarine glow burst forth from within the cloud, and it blew apart just long enough to reveal that Undertow’s water shield, forcefully thrown up around herself and Bosco. No sound came from within the shield, so her anguished pleading seemed silent, a stark contrast to the petrified expression she wore while unblinkingly watching my mad dash to reach her.

The cloud was battering at the shield from all sides, probing for a weak point. Whatever it was, Undertow distracted it long enough for me to get in close, and I mindlessly poured ice magic into the cloud, trying to force it away from the trapped ponies.

Great frozen chunks of gold fell to the catwalk’s grating, but were just as quickly swallowed back up into the main body. A writhing gold tentacle formed, and shot towards me violently.

If not for Naiara’s timely intervention, grabbing me and dragging us both over the edge of the catwalk, to crash down through a box below, I’d have been gored. Naiara’s side had been slashed, though I couldn’t tell how deeply.

“Schwarzwald, watch her!” I bolted again for the stairs, four at a time the second time around, and powered up my magic again. Whatever you are, I can hurt you! “GIVE THEM BACK!” I could beat back whatever it chose to throw at me.

Only… it didn’t.

Scooping up the water bubble, like an egg in a spoon, the fog began to pull back towards the fire door, tentacles stabbing at the already rattling catwalk, ruining it and tripping me up, while taking the helpless captives with it.

“Nonononono! COME BACK!” My horn’s glow vanished as I stumbled, all but the most base thoughts leaving my head.

Catch them. Save her. Kill fog.

All three of those thoughts went completely unrealised. The fog vanished through the door mere milliseconds before I could reach it, and I nearly toppled over the fire escape’s railing as I desperately threw myself onto it, stretching my hoof out to the trapped ponies, now vanishing into the night sky, as they soundlessly cried back at me.

“UNDERTOWWWWWW!!!!!!!!”

~~~~~~

No level gain.

~~~~~~

Author's Notes:

As always, a big thank you to KKat, Y1, Auramane, Cascadejackal (he did the original cover art, which is still on the Fallout Equestria wiki), Void Heart (he did the new cover art), Shunketsunoponi and you, the readers. Please read and comment, and pass the word along if you like the story. Finally, because I find it a really funny coincidence to have another fic with a Stable 61 that’s set in Equestrian Canada, go read Fallout Equestria: Pure Hearts.

That’s all for now, folks. Please keep reading, commenting, and spreading the word on Old Souls. I really appreciate your feedback.