I pulled the Marauder up to the Garage slowly, letting out a long sigh as it rumbled inside. As the engine shut off, I thought to myself that as much as I wanted to stay here and rest a few days, we needed to restock and get moving as fast as we could. 42 was on the move again and I needed to stay focused. I couldn't help but frown as I imagined Harmony's body still sitting in the Red Lantern. "I'm sorry I couldn't bury you." I said softly, opening the car door and stepping out. Sky flew into the open garage hugging me tightly with a smile on her face.

"Did..." I tried to speak, cutting myself off as I watched a heavily bandaged Carlotta swoop in behind her, landing with a wince and a smile of her own.

"You should know it takes a lot more than a small army to bring down a griffin like me." She closed her eyes and proudly puffed up her wounded chest. I broke off from Sky and wrapped my hooves around the gruff flier, feeling her tense and whine as I pressed into her. She pushed me off, trying to force her expression back into her 'stone cold killer' look. "Ripcord is upstairs, but he's in pretty bad shape, Sky will be heading out soon to get the Doc from Tenpony."

"I'm glad you're alright. As much as you hate to admit it, you're family to us. And being family means I get to worry about you." I said as I smiled softly. "It's just..." I stopped and sniffed at the air, I could smell smoke coming from upstairs. I nearly jumped off the ground as I turned and bolted, almost tripping on my mattress as my hooves slid around the Marauder. "FIRE!" I yelled as I clambered up the stairs to the kitchen door.

I unlatched it and watched in horror as a wave of black and brown guns poured down onto me. One of the rifles smacked painfully against my regrown hoof, knocking me off balance. I slid down to the garage floor, sprawling out as the gunvalanch poured over me, wincing as the pile came to a stop, the guns jabbing me uncomfortably all over as I started to hyperventilate.

"Cool your jets, Backlash." I could hear Carlotta's muffled voice through the guns. "Brass is just cooking, that's why EVERYTHING SMELLS BURNT!" She yelled up through the doorway as I heard the crash of a pot against the stove.

"Fuck off, Carlotta!" Brass's voice sung out from the kitchen with an air of sarcasm.

I reached my hoof up through the mass of service rifles, hoping that somepony would help me up. I felt a hoof hook around mine and lift me effortlessly, pulling me out and up into the air. I looked up to see that Isaac stood on the Marauder's hood, lifting me with the grip of barely a single hoof.

"Wow." Carlotta remarked as she walked up to the cyber-zebra. "The hell did your folks feed you when you were a foal? Steel shavings and containers of buck?" Fuck, now he was going to tell her he was a robot. I don't want too many ponies to know what he really is, I want to keep potential freak outs to a minimum. The fact is that Isaac is real enough to fool everypony so far, why risk an incident?

"Actually, I am..." He nervously shifted his weight, the rusty car hood slightly groaning as he swayed.

"He's a cyber-pony...zebra....cyber-zebra. He doesn't like to tell people cause they might freak out. So please don't freak out?" I cut him off with a nervous grin, feeling a small sense of relief as he seemed to understand what I was trying to do. Carlotta shrugged and limped her way past me up the stairs as Sky narrowed her eyes, seeing through my lie as if it were as clear as glass. "Look, I'll explain later." I said slowly, watching her relax mildly. My stomach growled loudly as I was lowered next to the pile of rifles. "Maybe after I get something to eat?"

Sky gave me a heavy sigh and rolled her eyes and floated slowly up the semi-gun-covered stairway. Longbow opened the car door and walked over slowly to me as Isaac lowered me onto the floor.

"Backlash, I was wondering if we could talk." She said slowly before looking up to Isaac with a light blush. "Alone?" Isaac smiled and nodded, leaping off the hood to the stairwell, swiftly maneuvering himself up into the kitchen. Longbow turned and slowly headed out of the garage as I followed.

"Is everything alright?" I said slowly, hoping she wasn't going to say that she was just caught up in the moment this morning. I liked her more than I have liked any mare ever, but now that she had showed me she felt the same, I was scared to death that she'd end up like Harmony... or Sprocket. I felt a sharp jab in my chest as I remembered the stallion's warm smile.

"No..." She said sadly, a large amount of regret in her voice. "I have a confession to make." She kicked a rock, watching as it skipped across the muddy street. The pain in my chest grew greater, making it hard to stand. I knew it! She was going to tell me she didn't feel the same!

"I already know what you're going to say." I said as I plopped down into the cold mud. "Honestly, I don't know what I had expected." I jabbed my hoof sadly into the wet ground, drawing a small frowning face.

"H... how did you know?" She sounded genuinely surprised before she slouched and hung her head low. "I guess I really screwed up, huh?" Her regret lingered in the air as my heart strained.

"No, I understand that I made things awkward this morning and that you got swept up in everything." I smiled and looked over to her, lifting her chin with my hoof. "Besides, you're a young and beautiful steel ranger. How could you fall in love with somepony like a wasteland merchant?"

Longbow let out a soft gasp and smiled up at me, her teary eyes filling with happiness. "What are you talking about?" She put a hoof on my foreleg, pushing it away from her chin as she leaned in and kissed my cheek. "I do want to be with you."

I blinked a few times in confusion. "You... do?" My mind flooded itself with a dozen different emotions at once as I replayed her words over and over again before happiness won out. "You do!" I jumped up and wrapped my hooves around her, ignoring the pain in my body as I hung off her armor and embraced her tightly. She patted me on the back and laughed as we sat there awkwardly in the street. I heard her stomach growl through her armor as we both froze.

"How about we talk after getting something to eat. You know, before we both collapse of starvation?" She smiled brightly up at me as I hopped off her, a slight twitch in her blushing cheeks meant that the something she originally wanted to talk about was still bothering her greatly. We turned and headed back for the garage as Skyline swooped down through it.

"You sold our shop?" She said as she put her forehooves on my chest, landing in front of me in the mud softly. She eyed over Longbow, watching her intently while she walked up the stairs, only turning back to me once she was out of sight. "We'll get to the shop in a minute, but first of all, really... Her?" Skyline said as she tapped her hoof in the mud and stuck her muzzle in my face, narrowing her eyes. "What if she's a spy for the steel rangers? What if she's just using you so the rangers can just waltz in and take all our stuff?"

"How did you...?" I began to say before I facehooved myself, leaving a muddy splotch on my face (that had made me want to do it again, but it was probably not the best idea to get more muddy). "Isaac said something, didn't he. I have got to tell that robot he can't just say whatever is on his..." Sky stuffed her muddy hoof in my muzzle, shutting me up momentarily before I pushed it away and spit the wet gunk from my mouth.

"He's a ROBOT? Like, full-on robot, robot!?" Sky raised her head in aggravation and grunted. "Dear Celestia, Backlash! Why did you bring him here?! Is he even safe to be around?" As I finally got the muddy taste out of my mouth, she smacked me on the head, making me bite my tongue painfully. "Over the last few weeks you've been attracting every dangerous scumbag the wasteland has to offer! Not to mention you're making deals with half of them, it's like you've become an entirely different pony!" As she bombarded me with her ranting, I could feel my anger building deep inside me. So I did the only thing I shouldn't have. I snapped.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" I shouted as stomped my forehooves hard into the mud, sending a large spray up to splatter onto the surprised pegasi and myself. "Half of those 'scumbags' you're talking about include Brass and Carlotta, and last time I checked, you didn't even get to know her before jumping into a relationship!" I watched as my words cut deep, Sky shrinking down as my volume only escalated, but I was just getting started. "Not to mention, I had a hard enough time living with myself after I got Sprocket killed. Hell, I JUST stopped having the nightmares about that night a few months ago! Oh, but now, now 42 comes and FUCKS MY LIFE UP! And once again, it's all been my fault! Everypony she has killed? Their blood is on MY hooves."

"I didn't mean..." Sky said softly as her gaze dropped to the ground. I wasn't going to stop now. I needed to get everything out, and she needed to hear it.

"Just the last FOUR days have been the toughest. The crippling nightmares, getting harmony killed, 42 taking over the pool, we still don't know where pallet is, but NO. I'm apparently not allowed to have a single CELESTIA DAMNED moment of happiness. But why should I!?"

"I'M SORRY!" Sky cried out as she dropped down into the mud, crying softly as I stood over her.

"Backlash, stop it. You've made your point." Longbow called from inside the garage, trotting over towards us as Brass, Carlotta, and Isaac's heads were all poking around the wall of the stairway. I growled and looked as her sad eyes flashed fear for a brief moment. The pain in my chest returned with a vengeance and nearly knocked the wind out of me. I gasped and stiffened up, loosing control of my body as I fell into the mud. My vision grew hazy as I struggled to breathe, the sound of the world around me muffling as I slipped into the painless, silent darkness.

My body rocked and bobbed against the small waves of the ocean around me. I opened my eyes to take in the night sky, feeling numb as I looked over the thousand shining lights hanging far above. I wondered if anypony out there knew just how cruel the stars could be. My mind shuffled through my memories, bringing up the last memory I had of viewing them.

"Slow down, Backlash!" Sprocket had called up happily. The grey coated earth pony was trotting after me as we wound our way towards one of the ominous white spires. I had made sure to always camp beside this particular one on my journeys to and from Hoofington. It was at this same one where the old man had made me make my promise of secrecy. "What could possibly be over here?"

I smiled and flopped myself loudly against the building, motioning for him to join me. "Come here, I want you to see something amazing." I had said with such naivety, oblivious to the true power that the stars held. Sprocket shyly pressed up into my side, looking at me tenderly with his bright blue eyes, his black mane blew softly in the breeze. I had loved the feeling of having him at my side ever since we had met six months prior, there was nopony out there that I had ever loved like him.

"What am I supposed to..." He had trailed off as he followed my eyes up, peering through the small ring around the cloud layer. "...Wow..." he remarked in awe as we viewed the night sky together. "How did you...?"

I had cut him off suddenly. "The old man brought me here when I was younger, made me promise to never tell anypony." I had said with pride at the time. "But you aren't just anypony, you are the most amazing stallion in the world, Sprocket." I couldn't see how foolish I was being back then.

"It's... beautiful...." He had said with such disbelief, I turned my gaze to him as he wore the happiest look of his life. I saw a small glimmer in his eye, looking back up as a shooting star streaked across the dark void, making him gasp and giggle lightly as he pressed against me and relaxed. "I love you, Backlash." I kissed his muzzle softly, making him blush brightly through his coat.

I blinked as I felt myself floating again, the memory drifting back into the recesses of my mind. I looked up onto the moon as it hung there silently above me. "What do you want from me?" I asked as I started to sink, dropping below the waves like I had done before. I reached my hoof out as I dropped to the depths, hoping that I might be saved, but only felt numb as the darkness was the only thing to take hold of me.

I gasped and choked, being thrust roughly back into consciousness. I rolled off my mattress as my lungs cried out, trying to reorient myself. "Oh Celestia it hurts." I groaned, my whole body shaking while I tried to get to my hooves.

"Oh no you don't!" Brass said as he pushed me back onto the soft bedding. "Dr. Fitz said you shouldn't strain yourself." He put his power armored hoof on my side and pinned me to the mattress as I flailed my hooves uselessly, only spiking the pain.

"Why not?" I asked before there was a sharp line of pain down my neck, making me stop moving momentarily. My chest burned with every breath, my muscles ached with every move. "What happened?"

"Well Dr. Fitz is trying to figure that out, but his guess was taint poisoning." He said as he lifted his power armored hoof up lightly. I turned slowly and looked up at the ghoul stallion, noting that his skin had cracked in several new places and that he had several clumps of his mane missing. I smiled as I realized that the only thing he wasn't losing, was the hope in his eyes. "Honestly, I'm surprised you aren't worse off from the last couple weeks." He returned the smile with his own.

"Backlash!" An armorless Longbow called out from the stairwell, cantering down and nearly diving onto me as I looked over to her. My body let out a thick burst of pain before dulling slightly, allowing me to feel her warmth as she pressed against me, making the image of Sprocket and me that night pop into my mind. She smiled and took a step back as I ran my hoof through her mane.

"Remind me never to take you to one of the spires." I said with a light laugh, wincing as my chest filled with another quick burst of pain.

She looked at me puzzled. "What spire?" She glanced over to Brass, trying to draw an answer from him. "What is he talking about?"

"Don't look at me, I think he's had brain damage from before I met him." He said playfully, giving a chuckle as Longbow smacked his armor and rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, Backlash, Skyline and the doc should be back soon."

I thought to myself a moment as I looked around the room, spotting that it was still daylight outside. "Doc Fitz was already here and left? He really does work fast."

Longbow cringed and looked over to Brass, who had the same expression. "You've been out since yesterday afternoon."

I tensed up at her words, sending myself into S.A.T.S. by accident (I really have to not do that so often). Fuck! I lost an entire day to my stupid fucking body. Well Celestia be damned if I lose any more time to it, seeing as 42 won't give me any breaks. I canceled the spell and let out a sigh as time slid back to normal.

"I want you two to gather the things we need for the facility." I said as I flopped painfully onto my side.

Brass shook his head slowly. "You need..."

I cut him off. "We need to stay ahead of 42. For me to do that, I need to do the job for Strawberry Sorbet." I looked over to Longbow as she gave me a frown.

"Nopony is going anywhere." Carlotta said sternly as she strode in unbandaged, a plethora of fresh scars adorning her body. "I am tired of that bitch showing up wherever we are without warning, we need a plan if we are going to keep ahead of her."

"I agree." Brass chimed in. "What the hell are we even looking for, Backlash? Forty Two wants to create an army of clones, but how?"

I groaned and flopped my head on my mattress. "Brass, Carlotta, you remember the cave below the Reference Pointe?" They traded looks and nodded their heads. "There was a pond down there before the war. That's what she's after."

"She's after a pool of water?" The gruff griffin snorted.

"Obviously if she needed just any water she would have had the army by now..." Longbow said as she put a hoof to her chin in thought.

"The Legend of the Mirror Pool." Brass said with a smirk. "I remember reading about it back in the steel rangers Twilight archives..."

"Brass... If it didn't hurt so much to move, I would smack you SO damn hard right now." I stated flatly. "Why didn't you mention it earlier!?"

"If you would have let me finish, I could have told you that she said that an army was completely impossible. The pond's inherent magic is spread out evenly between every clone, thus degrading the quality of each copy's personality by a certain fraction every time a new one is created." He stated proudly.

"Hey, egghead. Mind explaining it so us simple folk can understand it?" Carlotta said as she rapped her claws on the floor.

"He means that the more clones she made, the dumber they were." Longbow explained with a puzzled look. "Why would 42 want an army of dumb clones, with the numbers she would need to fight a war, they wouldn't even be smart enough to speak, let alone do anything past just standing around."

"Her notes indicated that if she could find a way to pump a constant stream of magic through the pool, she would be able to amplify the output to a nearly unlimited amount of intelligent copies."

"Well, that's an easy fix. All you would need is something like an arcano-tech reactor..." I slowly stopped talking as the Gears in my head crunched everything together. "That's why she needed the Three Kings out of the way! Certain arcane reactors use advanced magic exchangers that take taint's magical output in order to amplify a simple spark generation spell! Taking over The Pool was always part of her plan!"

"Then we just gave her enough taint to keep the pond at near infinite copies, didn't we?" Carlotta said with a sigh. "If the magic water wasn't in the cavern, then where is it?" I was about to recite the riddle that pinkie gave me in the dream, but Brass interrupted me with his own answer.

"Twilight's notes didn't say anything about where it was located in the first place, but seeing as O.I.A. scrubbed every important detail of the program files before logging them, I'm not surprised there wasn't mention of them moving it." Brass said with a shrug.

"Wait, go back a second." I said as the gears crunched half a thought into my head. "The O.I.A. was supposed to send files between the Ministries, right? Like, with a server?"

Brass nodded eagerly. "Yes, their servers are how we could access the files in the first place back at alpha base, but to get access to the an unmodified file of that secrecy, you would need to have Twilight Sparkle's personal 16 character password AND be able to access it from inside a secured, high clearance facility."

"A LOT like the facility we need to get into outside Filly?" I said with a smile. Oh, I do love how things work out sometimes!

"What about the password?" Brass said with a tone of worry.

"I was once told I had an amazing talent for cracking locks." Longbow said. "It's why they made me the squad scout as an acolyte. Never met a door or terminal I couldn't open... well, other than one of those pink shields at least." She gave a heavy sigh before continuing. "But I traded my stealth and my ability to unlock, for the rank of paladin and a suit of power armor."

"Forgive me for eavesdropping, but I do not believe your skill would be sufficient enough." The light tone of Isaac came from the top of the stairs. "Even with a terminal spell matrix dedicated to working at the code, I estimate it would take roughly one hundred and ninety thousand years before you would find the correct entry." He said with a smile. "If you had some sort of super computer, like the proposed Crusader mainframe, you might be able to crack it in under an hour."

"Wow, strong AND a number cruncher. Don't see that everyday." Carlotta said with genuine amazement in her voice.

"While I do not know about number crunching." He said as he hoofed the brown pouch of gems up to his muzzle before slurping up an emerald, biting down and cracking it loudly in half before swallowing it. "I did have a job rock crushing once." He turned back towards the kitchen, stopping as his ears perked up. "The doctor has returned." I canted my head slightly in confusion before there was a loud thump on the roof as the skycar touched down.

"Ok, less impressed; more freaked out. Zebras." Carlotta said as she turned back to me with a whisper. "Where the hell did you even find him? Creepytown?"

"Minefield, actually." Longbow replied quickly.

"You know what, I don't even want to know." Carlotta slapped her talons against her forehead and grumbled. "I'm going to go make out with my marefriend or something."

"What I said still stands, get your things, we wont be staying long." I called over as she walked up the stairs.

"Are you sure you want to go? The rest of us..." Longbow started to say.

Dr. Fitz cut her off as he stepped down the stairs slowly, wearing a small frown on his muzzle. "I hope you're not planning on going anywhere for a while Backlash. I confirmed that you have a taint derived abnormality. There seems to be a high concentration of the substance in your bloodstream and it is slowly deteriorating your circulatory system."

"So... can't you fix it?" I looked up to him with my best sad, pleading look.

He grunted and face hoofed. "You can't just fix taint poisoning. Theoretically, it needs to be purged, but I've only seen a few scattered research papers on just the base concepts. Hell, Backlash! I don't think anypony had that kind of equipment before the bombs fell. I'm sorry, but there isn't anything I can do past trying transfusions, even then you'll still run the risk of mutation."

The gears in my head threw one last idea at me before they whined and locked up from overuse. "Well then. I guess that's just one more thing to look for on the server." I painfully turned myself over, instantly regretting the action. "Doc, just give me a Med-X for the pain. I'll go find you your miracle machine and be back in time for dinner tomorrow."

"You can't be serious! The more you stress your body, the faster the taint deteriorates your organs. You need to stay home and keep from overexerting yourself." Doc said sternly with a huff and a stamp of his hoof.

"Look. I just went through this conversation. I'm going WITH or WITHOUT the Med-X, and I would just rather not be suffering in pain." I said as I struggled to my hooves, locking my joints as stood so I wouldn't fall over. I don't think I would make it another 20 minutes without any painkiller, I've never felt so much pain in my life. Well, maybe when the Hydra reformed my hoof, but this was a DAMN close second.

"I can't give you any regardless, you already HAVE all my medical supplies, remember?" He said as he exuded annoyance. "With all the gangs on the lookout for any merchant they can get their hooves on, I don't have any way to restock." He stood defiantly as Isaac trotted down the stairs behind him. "So with no way to help ponies at the clinic, I'm free to stand here and make sure you re...co...ver..." Dr. Fitz wobbled for a moment as Isaac pressed a hoof against his neck, the light blue unicorn collapsing onto the floor in a heap.

Brass, Longbow and I just let our jaws hang in the air as Isaac looked over Dr. Fitz's body slowly. The four of us just staring down silently before a loud snoring noise came from the physician's muzzle.

"How did you do that?" Longbow asked slowly.

"It is a pressure point at the base of the neck that when held, starves the brain of oxygen and renders a pony unconscious." Isaac stated rather Matter-O-Factly. "I still remember a few things from my time in med school." He froze and stared at the floor for a moment. "I...went to med school? I remember going to med school! Huzzah!" He beamed a smile and bounded up the stairs as Sky and Carlotta were heading down. The two fliers stopping for a moment as they watched Dr. Fitz snoring on the floor.

"The hell did you do to him!?" Sky said as she flew down and checked him over quickly.

"So he's an extremely strong, rock crushing, mathematical genius, medical expert?" Brass said in amazement. "Who on top of all this, is an amnesiac?"

Carlotta went wide eyed. "Wait, the freak show up there did this?" She looked over her shoulder towards the kitchen, letting out a shudder. "Fucking zebras..."

I played back Carlotta's voice in my head, listening as I pulled varying levels of emotion out of it. Lots of pain and fear, mixed in with regret and rage. After our adventure to the facility I'd have to ask her about why zebras made her so uncomfortable, but right now, we needed to actually get going on said adventure.

"Sky, I need you to give me a Med-X." I called out as my limbs screamed at me.

"But Dr. Fitz said..." She started to respond before Brass cut her off.

"Said that as long as he doesn't strain himself too much, he's good to go." His voice wavered as he told the lie, but I don't think that Sky would have picked up on that. His nervous smile on the other hoof, was a dead giveaway.

"Really..." She said angrily, glaring at the young ghoul.

"Yes!" Longbow jumped in enthusiastically. "He said that right before he mentioned wanting to sleep, so Isaac helped him out!" Wow, longbow lied to cover for me? I did not see that coming.

"Alright then, if you say so." Skyline sighed loudly toward the ceiling as she hovered lightly over to me. "Somepony going to fill me in on if we even have a plan?" She hoofed out a small syringe from her saddlebags, biting down on it and driving it into my shoulder.

"For once..." I said smartly as the pain drained out of my body. "we actually have one."

Over the next hour, we went about organizing our things and doing our best to prepare for the journey to come. I was busy scarfing down my second bowl of the stew Brass had cooked up the previous day. Say what you want about ponies eating meat, the stuff was damned tasty! Isaac had wanted something to do to help out around the garage, so I gave him the task of figuring out just how much of what weaponry we had managed to aquire from the farm. He was busily jumping from crate to crate by the Marauder, going through the impressive collection.

Dr. Fitz was over at Skyline's bed in the corner, doing what he could for Ripcord. My old friend had apparently given the remnants at The Pool enough hell that even Carlotta said she was impressed. Shortly after she drug him back here, he collapsed, having to be put into an induced coma until he was stable enough to work on. I'm not worried though, he's a tough son of a bitch, I know he'll pull through. Brass came up to me with a cautiously enthusiastic look as I licked the inside of my bowl clean. I knew that particular look of his well, and I was dreading the dumb question he was about to ask.

"So... Isaac found a couple of boxes that had miniguns in them." He shuffled his hoof on the floor as he spoke. "And I was wondering..."

Carlotta poked her head out from the bathroom as Sky turned on the shower. "You already have one, why would you want two?"

"Well, I'm no good with that long anti-machine rifle." He looked down with a note of sadness. "I can at least hit things with the minigun."

"On average, you should get just as many hits with the minigun as misses!" She squawked out before Sky pushed her out of the doorframe.

"Remember Backlash, miniguns are expensive. We could get a good pile of caps for one in such good condition." She said as she shut the door, not even giving me a chance to respond.

I looked down as Brass gave me his best pleading face. How was I supposed to say no to him! He's helped me out more than any sane pony would have and at this point, he's earned it. "Oh alright." I waved my hoof at him. "Go on, happy Hearth's Warming Eve or something."

"But Hearth's Warming Eve isn't for another three months!" He said as he rubbed his chin, going wide-eyed as he realized the implications of correcting me.

"OH, is it?" I spouted sarcastically. "Well then, looks like you'll just have to wait until then to get your new gun." I gave him a sly smile, watching as he gasped and took off into the garage, nearly smashing into Isaac as the he was walking up.

"I have inventoried your arms cache." He spoke with a proud smile.

Wow, even with his 'gift', I expected him to take at least another hour on it. It would have taken Sky and I all day to figure it all out, not to mention pricing everything would take even longer. I bit down on my bowl and walked over to the sink, spitting it into the basin. "So what have I got?"

"68 standard pattern IF-16 assault rifles, 32 IF-45a1 model pistols, Six Avenger pattern miniguns, and three M.O.M. custom variant AD-4 rocket launchers." I was startled as Longbow dropped her coffee cup onto the floor, the ceramic mug shattering as she stood slack-jawed. Isaac continued without missing a beat. "7,500 rounds of .223 standard, 2,500 rounds of .223 hollow point, 500 rounds of .223 Armor piercing, 6,000 rounds of .45 full metal jacket, 17,000 rounds of 5mm standard, 6,000 rounds of 5mm armor piercing, 31 custom M.O.M. 84 mm pink rockets, 62 standard-issue fragmentation grenades, 16 anti-tank mines, and 28 standard-issue combat knives."

"That's an entire platoon's worth of weaponry!" Longbow finally managed to blare out. "Where the hell did you find so much stuff?"

My brain tried to catch up, pounding against the dampening of the Med-X as it tried to tell me to stop thinking and rest. I barely stopped myself from jumping about like a Foal who just earned his cutie mark as I remembered the next step needing to be done. "Isaac... if I got one hundred caps for each gun, one cap per two bullets, twenty five caps per rocket, ten caps per grenade, fifteen caps per mine, and thirty for each knife, how much would I have?"

Isaac frowned for a moment and drifted his gaze to the ceiling. "That would be thirty three thousand one hundred and twenty five caps total."

I sat down hard on the floor, rubbing my fore hooves together with a wide grin. "Oh, Strawberry Sorbet has NO IDEA what she's gotten herself into." I laughed to myself before I heard Longbow clear her throat.

"You can't be serious, you'd bankrupt the base!" She protested and glared at me. "Besides, the deal was for anything you found INSIDE the facility."

I rolled my eyes and smirked at her. "Look, it's either I sell these to her, or I sell them to anypony else willing to buy. Anypony else would be paying me at least twice as much as she's agreed to pay. Who would you rather trust with them?"

"That's exactly the point!" She stomped her hoof lightly and pouted. "If you truly believed that it would be safer with the rangers, you would at least lower the price." She blushed and batted her eyelashes at me. "Even just by a little bit?"

I knew that I was already giving Strawberry Sorbet an extremely good deal at this price, and that Longbow was probably just looking out for her home, but I can't just lower the price because she asks me to! I glanced at her as she pouted and sighed, there is only so much a stallion can do when a mare as amazing as her asks. "Only for you, Longbow. I guess I could go down to twenty five thousand for the whole lot." She gasped and lept over to me, planting a kiss on my lips that I so desperately wanted to feel. (Damned Med-X, you did your job and ruined my attempt to enjoy any sort of love life at the same time!)

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" She said as she smiled and looked into my eyes.

"Well, the original estimate was for everything, but seeing as I've given one of the miniguns to Brass, and we'll be taking a few other things with us, we need to stock up on ammo and everything probably isn't in perfect condition. It puts everything near there anyway!" I said, reassuring myself.

Longbow huffed and glared at me again, obviously annoyed. "So she's not really getting a lower price, just less stuff."

"Well jeeze, when you put it that way..." I rubbed the back of my head with a hoof. "Yes?" I cringed as I said it. Quick Backlash, run! Get out of there! "I think I'm going to go fix up the Skycar a bit. We'll talk more later?"

"Just remember, it's a long ride to Fillydelphia." She leaned in with a frown. "A verylong ride."

I got up and walked to the stairs leading to the roof. "Great, I can't wait." I said nervously as I climbed up and out, shutting the makeshift door behind me. I spun around to get to work, stopping just as I bumped my muzzle into a sprite bot. "Watcher?" The bot bobbed silently before emitting a low chirping noise, my Pipbuck responding with it's own set of low tones. I lifted the pink device up, viewing as a small window popped up on it.

"Wait, PINK?" I went wide eyed and watched as the bot slowly tilted up and down. "Are you the one taking over Watcher's sprite bot network?" Another set of chirps and tones came out, followed by another message on the Pipbuck.

"What? No, don't do that. He's not hurting anypony by doing it. At least I don't think he is... is he? No, how could he?" I said with a wave of my hoof. "Besides, don't you need 42's authorization, seeing as she is the current head of the ministry?" I waited and watched as more chirps gave way to another message.

"I see..." I rubbed my hoof on my chin. "So, why are you out here on my roof?" The sprite bot sent out a long line of chirps, beeps, low tones, and pops over it's speaker. I looked down to the Pipbuck to see a new small window pop up.

I sighed and hoofed the cursor over the Y and hit the accept button, watching as a bar appeared on the screen momentarily. The Sprite bot let out one last set of chirps before a spark shot out of it's side, the metallic sphere jerking to the side as a small fire flared out of its upper cooling exhaust port. The ball whined and dropped to the ground with a thunk, rolling amongst the rubble on the roof. I looked down at my Pipbuck as a digital smiling face flashed on the screen, words starting to scroll under it's mouth as it moved like it was talking.

"Wait, you're completely in my Pipbuck now!?" I said as I waved my hoof about, watching as the face went googly eyed for a moment.

I racked my mind for what she was talking about. "We haven't come across any..." I thought back over the last few weeks, stopping at minefield. "Nuh-uh, you can't have Isaac. Request denied." The computerized face gave me a small frown. "But I promise I'll add finding you a system to the already enormous list of 'shit I have to do'." PINK smiled again.

The fuck was P.I.N.K. talking about? "What the hell is the East Orchard?"

Well that was simple, maybe P.I.N.K. knows some things Brass couldn't figure out. "Do you know what was on level five of the facility?"

"Damn, well, thanks anyway." I said with a sigh, looking at the beat up skycar before me, glancing over the wide array of dents, scratches, and holes it had accumulated in out travels. "I need to get started on fixing this thing, do you need... anything while you are in there?" I don't know why I was asking a program if she needed anything, I was just at a loss for what to do at all. Why is it that nothing this weird ever happened in my life before I stumbled into that damned bunker?

I shrugged off the absurdness of computers having tea and cake. Walking over to get started on patching up our ride, "Alrighty, let's make you respectable again!"

The Med-X was wearing off as the harsh wind cut through the cabin of the skycar. Carlotta was pulling us silently through the night towards Fillydelphia. Now that I had the Marauder back at home, the reasons we took the skycar were two fold. One, I didn't want the car stolen again, and two, we needed all the time we could get to stay ahead of 42. That meant that another road trip was out of the question.

We had only been in the air for a half an hour and were already a good quarter of the way there. Though, the sound of thunder around us threatened to make us set down sooner than later. I sat across from Brass, who was busy admiring the new gun hooked onto his suit. He had told me that because we were going to face a lot of robots, he had loaded up with only armor piercing rounds in the new gun. It made sense, but I couldn't help but cringe for how many caps it was going to cost me. Longbow sat next to me and looked over the anti-machine rifle Brass had given up, choosing to swap out her left sniper rifle for it.

"So..." I said quickly to either of them. "Do you guys get to choose?" They both looked up at me with confusion written all over their faces. My brain kicked me out of silence as I realized that they weren't psychic and that context might help. "Do you get to choose what guns are on the sides of the suit? Or do you just get whatever the last owner had?"

"Oh, well, there's a funny story behind all of it." Longbow said as she held a hoof to her chest. "It all started when Applejack relieved the first of the steel..."

"Short answer?" Brass cut in, making Longbow fall silent. "The suit comes with guns on it and we can choose if we want to replace them or not. Most choose not to out of respect of the former Ranger and only change if they can't use the weaponry well at all."

Longbow glared as her eye twitched in annoyance. "This is why the elders don't let you into meetings anymore." Her magic lifted her mane up, tucking it back as she dropped her helmet over her head, the suit sealing with a light squeak. "It's like you are always in a hurry. Why must you simplify everything?"

"That's odd." He grinned evilly over at her as he levitated his black helmet up, the suit sealing it on with a hiss. "You didn't complain when that style of information saved your flank."

"Alright you two." I put a hoof on Longbow's armor. "Do I need to send you to opposite ends of the car?" I jumped to my hooves as a bolt of lightning lit up the sky, the rumble of the thunder shook the entire car. I could feel the burning in my chest returning, hoping that we could at least make it to the outskirts before the painkiller wore off completely.

Longbow shrugged and leaned towards Brass. "Hey, if Backblast hadn't tried to buck down the door and had just let me pick it like I was supposed to, we wouldn't have had all those damn robots on us in the first place!" Brass stiffened up at the mention of the paladin who's armor he wore. Longbow must have noticed it as well, because the next question she asked, turned out to be a very poor one. "Whatever happened to that lazy S.O.B.?"

"He died." Brass said coldly, his words resonated out of his speaker errieily. "It was my fault, and it is his suit I wear." The young ghoul sat motionless as only silence filled the air, the emotionless, empty eyes of his helmet just blankly gazed over at Longbow.

"Brass, I'm sorry." She spoke slowly, the words barely coming through the speaker in her helmet.

I moved to comfort Brass when a bolt of lightning blinded me momentarily, the skycar jerked down and to the side as the boom trailed off. I scrambled to grab ahold of something as the entire pod dove towards the ground. I found nothing in the silver tube to hold onto, slowly floating about as we were now in freefall. Longbow and Brass were having just about as much luck as I was, but had managed to at least grab a hold of each other.

"CARLOTTA?! SKY!?" I called out towards the broken front window, surprised when another bolt of lightning flashed, revealing only an empty flight harness. "OH FUCK!" Pain flooded my chest as my heart raced, what little dulling the Med-X was doing was muted as panic took over. I let out a loud scream, praying for Celestia to somehow save us.

The side hatch flew open as Skyline dove inside, kicking off the opposite end to buck Brass and Longbow out of the falling pod. She adjusted herself quickly and lept over to me, holding her hoof out as the cold wind blasted through the car. "Don't let go!" Sky said as she gripped my hoof and pushed off again from the falling cart, straining to draw me up with her through the doorway.

I looked up into the darkness as two purple flashes blipped amongst the backdrop of storm clouds, a flash of light next to me drawing my vision towards the large purple alicorn who was now flying with us. Skyline let me go as I watched the world around me brighten, the blinding light lasting only for a moment before I flopped roughly against the muddy ground. I groaned and looked up as I caught a glimpse of the falling skycar for a brief moment before it slammed into the ground, exploding in a brilliant display of rainbow colors that lit up the night. I rolled myself over with a groan and looked over the tall form standing next to me.

"THE GREAT AND POWERFUL GODDESS HAS SAVED YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS." Her voice boomed in my mind, adding to the splitting headache that was setting in. "NOW YOU MUST HOLD UP TO THE AGREEMENT YOU MADE BEFORE!"

"Thank you for that." I got to my hooves and looked around, spotting Longbow and Brass doing the same a ways away as a pair of purple alicorns stood next to them. I was relieved as saw Sky sitting next to an unconscious Carlotta just behind them. My body shivered and threatened to give out from the pain flooding back over my body. "What do you want?" I let out a deep sigh and clenched my teeth as the storm raged on above. Fuck, why did I have to hurt so much.

"THE GREAT AND POWERFUL GODDESS CANNOT SEARCH FOR THE BOOK IN HOOFINGTON. A SOUR SONG IS FOILING OUR ATTEMPTS AT ENTERING THE CITY." The alicorn stomped her hoof in the mud. As I wrapped my mind around her words, I could tell she was frustrated on a level I couldn't even begin to imagine. "YOU MUST SEARCH FOR US!"

"Yeah, that's not going to happen. I don't know what song you're talking about, but with all my recent injuries, if I walked into a patch of enervation, I'd be dead in a minute!" I have seen some pretty fucked up things in my travels, but hoofington enervation was one of the worst. The invisible fields of magical energy were randomly scattered about that section of the wasteland, and with one wrong step, you would basically melt from the inside out.

It was probably a bad idea, but something else was bugging the hell out of me. "Wait, what happened to the powerfull half of the great and powerful? Can't you just magic your way through it? You said it was a song, couldn't you just wear earplugs or something?"

"SILENCE! THE GODDESS WILL NOT TOLERATE YOUR FOALISH TAUNTING!" I felt myself float off the ground slowly as her horn glowed, my chest crying out as I felt an immense pressure building up inside it. I screamed and kicked wildly as the pain became unbearable, listening as the Goddess laughed inside my head. "NOW THAT YOU MIGHT LISTEN. THE GREAT AND POWERFUL GODDESS HAS RECONSIDERED YOUR DESTINATION DUE TO YOUR FRAILTY, WE HAVE DECIDED TO SEND YOU TO CANTERLOT INSTEAD."

I panted heavily as the pain in my chest subsided slightly as her horn dimmed slightly. "We... Can't..." I tried to say between gasps, watching her horn glow, making the pain return. I spoke faster "Pink Snow... Too Dangerous..." Her magic faltered and died, dropping me back into the mud with a splat.

"YOU THINK THE GODDESS IS A FOAL!" She yelled in my head as I coughed and writhed in the mud. "JUST BECAUSE WE CANNOT BREACH THE PINK CLOUD DOES NOT MEAN YOU MAY LIE TO US."

"Have you ever... been there in... Winter?!" I reached my foreleg up to cover the fit of coughing I was having. I looked down as I pulled my hoof away, cringing as I saw crimson droplets of blood on the Pipbuck's screen. This day was just getting better and better. "Pink water... is bad enough... at hoof deep. Pink snow piles... two ponies high... makes it impossible. You need... to wait for spring."

Another burst of thunder cut through the sky, the goddess taking a moment to think about it as I finally calmed my heart enough to get back to my hooves. I couldn't keep this up much longer, but I need to keep a straight face. You can do this Backlash. "THE GODDESS IS UNWILLING TO WAIT SO LONG FOR THE BLACK BOOK. AN ALTERNATIVE MUST BE FOUND."

I got my breathing under control, trying to think of what to say. "There is no alternative! The black book was only listed in those places!" There was a beep from my Pipbuck that got my attention, the smiling face of PINK was scrolling text across the screen. "Hold on one moment."

"What are you talking about?" I did my best to use my fetlock to wipe the blood drops off the screen as I sat down, nervously eyeing up at the Goddess as she stood quite imposingly.

"What about the Luna tier clearance requirements from earlier!?" I nearly shouted into my foreleg. I glanced up to the purple alicorn, her expression was one of suspicious curiosity.

"THE GODDESS DEMANDS TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE SPEAKING WITH!" Her voice interrupted my thoughts.

I waved my hoof at her in annoyance. "All you need to know is it's a friend. She might have a way to uncover the redacted locations."

"TELL THE GODDESS WHERE THIS 'FRIEND' IS AND YOU MAY GO FREE!" her voice had more than a hint of malevolence in it. If I could point out anything going for me recently, it was that at least I was lucky the Goddess couldn't bluff worth two bits against me.

"No." I used my sternest voice as I stared up at the imposing pony before me. The thunder cracked again as a string of lightning lit up the sky. The Goddess growled her disapproval in my mind as she levitated me off the ground again. "Really? Are you really going to try this?"

"SILENCE, FOAL! DO NOT PRETEND TO KNOW THE PLANS OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL GODDESS!" Her voice was hesitant, meaning that if I played my cards right, I could use her to help us.

"If you hurt me, I could die, and you'll never get the book." I smiled as she held me. "You don't threaten ponies very often, do you?"

The alicorn smiled and shifted her yellow, slit eyes back towards Brass. The alicorn next to him levitated him up slowly as he flailed his hooves. "TELL US OR WE WILL KILL YOUR FRIEND QUITE PAINFULLY!"

"Your interrogation technique is flawed." I commented rather flatly. "Look, you hurt my friends, I'll never tell. Then you'd have to hurt me, I might die, and you'll never get the book." I stared the large monster straight in her burning yellow eyes. "You only have one option. You must come with us to the facility." I knew she would just kill us if we found the other locations, hell, she might kill us if we DIDN'T get them. This at least gave me time to think of another plan.

"You wish us to..." The alicorn stiffened up in shock, shaking off the surprise after a moment. "THEN THE GREAT AND POWERFUL GODDESS SHALL ACCOMPANY YOU!" She gave off the slightest smirk. "WHAT SAY YOU TO THAT?"

"Sounds more than fine to me!" I said as I hung in her levitation. "Just one thing. Seeing as our only mode of transportation just exploded, you're teleportation is the only thing to get us there quickly. You want the book? Then you need to get my friends and I to the Fillydelphia outskirts, we're looking for an underground facility."

"THIS IS AGREEABLE, BUT SHOULD YOU ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE, THE GODDESS WILL DESTROY YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS WITHOUT HESITATION." The alicorn's horn flashed suddenly, enveloping me in the blinding light before fading to reveal the brim of a small crater. I could see the darkened outline for the old industrial city on the horizon. My Pipbuck started to click quickly, forcing me to turn and gallop for the outskirts of the toxic landmark.

"REALLY?" I yelled over my shoulder as the clicking slowed down, but not stopping completely. "Are you that set on getting me killed?" I trotted past a set of purple alicorns as they walked towards the radiation. I headed for my friends who were huddled together in the mud twenty feet or so away. "A little warning next time would be nice!"

My mane suddenly felt incredibly itchy as I walked forward, a blue alicorn shimmering into view out of nowhere in front of me. I walked right into her as she looked down at me. "THE GODDESS IMPLORES YOU TO ATTEMPT TELEPORTATION OF THIS NATURE OVER SUCH DISTANCES WITHOUT ERROR" She smirked as I looked up at her. "ONLY THE GREAT AND POWERFUL GODDESS IS CAPABLE OF SUCH ASTOUNDING FEATS!"

I shrugged off her arrogance as I stepped around the blue abomination, walking up as Skyline pushed a hydra into Carlotta's chest. The gruff griffin's eyes shot open as the regenerative capabilities of the serum went to work on what I could only assume where multiple internal injuries. To her credit, she didn't scream as she thrashed about in the mud.

"It's ok, you're ok." Sky said softly as she ran her hoof along Carlotta's neck.

"Sky, what happened up there?" I winced as the pain in my body flared, my heart strained to keep me standing up now that the adrenaline was wearing off.

"Lightning." Carlotta said as she lightly pushed Sky back, getting up slowly. "I told you that not much can take me down, but no one is tougher than the power of a thunderstorm." She canted her head as I winced again. "The real question is: are you alright? You don't look so good."

"I'm fine, I just need another Med-X is all." I waved my hoof in dismissal, my Pipbuck chirping to get my attention. I looked down to read it as my vision blurred slightly and the pain flared again.

"No, it's fine. I know I have taint poisoning." I frowned down at the smiling face on the pink device.

"Backlash..." Sky said as she pushed my hoof down. "Who are you talking to?"

"THE GODDESS GROWS TIRED OF WAITING. YOU WILL NOW ENTER THE FACILITY." I was really getting tired of her yelling in my head.

My chest felt like it was exploding as my temper flared again. "Does the great and powerful goddess know where the facility is? Because If you do, then please, enlighten me!" I turned as walked back towards the crater, my eyes drifted to the blue alicorn's impatient gaze. "I am so SICK and TIRED of your FUCKING..." I glanced down into the center of the crater, stopping in my tracks as I realized it wasn't so much a crater, as much as it was the inclined surface of a collapsed underground structure. A four foot wide hole sat in the middle where the purple alicorns were soaking up the radiation at. Why didn't I notice it there before?

I screamed as I felt the goddess's magic envelope me and twisted at my insides as she lifted me off the ground. "YOU ARE LUCKY THE GODDESS IS IN A FORGIVING MOOD, INSOLENT FOAL." She tilted her head forward and flung me down into the irradiated depression. I dug my hooves into the muddy soil that coated the top of the concrete base under me, sliding to a halt as I hung over a jagged hole to the dark interior. The incessant clacking of my Pipbuck was warning me that the facility was flooded with ultra-high levels of radiation.

"Backlash!" I heard Longbow yell as she came galloping towards me over the rim. The mud gave way under my hooves as I slid back, today just wasn't my day. I reached for her as I fell, a bright red hoof hooked around mine tightly as Skyline caught me, straining to hold me just long enough for Longbow to hook her armored hoof through my vest. They drug me back up and away from the hole as the blue alicorn faded from the edge of the pit without another word. My mane was still going crazy as my mind quickly linked the two events together. I knew the goddess was still there, just watching silently as Sky forced a packet of RadAway into my muzzle.

"Longbow, Brass mentioned you have been here before, was the radiation this bad last time?" She turned and dug through her saddlebags as Carlotta and Brass walked up next to her.

"Yes, but our suits were designed to shield us from most of it. However, without one, It's going to be pretty bad in there for the first three levels." She trotted over to the edge as her horn glowed faintly, a steel cable snaked it's way over the edge. "I know you don't trust them, but we need one of the alicorns to lower us down one by one."

Sky bit her lower lip as she hoofed out a bottle of RadSafe, her expression was one of great concern as she looked inside it. "We have a small problem. There's only four doses between the three of us who need it."

"Last time I checked, having extra was a good thing." Carlotta stated with a bored tone.

"With this kind of saturation, each one of us needs two doses, and I'm not even sure if it will help if the radiation gets much worse than it already is." She held four tablets to me in her hoof. She must have know I would object, because she waited until I went to speak before forcing her hoof into my muzzle. I reflexively swallowed and coughed hard as Carlotta sat back on her haunches, her talon outstretched.

"I know you want me to take them. I'd just rather you not force them down my throat." She said, grabbing the remaining pills tightly.

Sky looked at me with a smile. "See, Carlotta doesn't need..." The meaty thump of Carlotta's talons shocked me as Sky was hit hard in the waist. She gasped from the strike, allowing Carlotta to toss the pills into her mouth, clamping her muzzle shut until Sky swallowed.

"Sorry hun, but I'm a lot tougher than you. I can take it." She said calmly, a note of relief in her voice before stepping forward and dropping into the hole. A purple flash announced the arrival of our alicorn ride, the steel cable coiling up as the goddess wrapped it around herself. Longbow wrapped the other end around me snuggly, pulling the cable taught a few times before nodding to me.

I crouched down as my joints shook, scooting myself slowly towards the dark hole. I began muttering to myself under my breath to try to keep my mind distracted from the fact I was going to be dangling over a pit that kept bringing my nightmares into the front of my mind. "Come out to Filly, restart a server, it'll be easy." Once I was freely swinging under the concrete roof, the dim red emergency lighting showed me that the floor was only about fifteen feet down. I watched as Carlotta stood and sipped on a Radaway, Sky floated over and pushed me gently on to a small pile of rubble. I looked down to the floor where I would have gone, viewing another few foot wide hole leading down to the next level. "Now I know what a fisherpony's bait feels like."

Sky chuckled lightly at my poor attempt at humor as I wondered what we had in store for us. I activated the Pipbuck's light function and turned down the volume on the speaker, noting that it other than us, it was dead silent. I reached back to remove the cable, casting light around the ruined remains of what was once a small room. The walls had crumbled away, opening my view to what looked to me a mess hall in one direction and an operations center in the other. The other two sides of the room opened into hallways that looked to contain dorms.

I made the mistake of hopping down the rubble, my legs giving out under me as my whole body was wracked with pain. I whined and panted on the floor as Sky swooped over, digging through her saddlebags again.

"I know you lied about Dr. Fitz allowing you to come." She hoofed out a Med-X syringe and bit down on it, slamming it into my neck as I tried my best not to squirm. The painkiller worked quickly as she pushed it in, a warm numbness allowing me to think clearly again. "Backlash, I know I can't stop you, but you need to give your body a break."

I let out a sigh as I felt my strength return, pulling myself to my hooves slowly. "I know, but every time I try I can't help but think that 42 is still out there searching. If I stop now, I don't know if I'd have the strength to get up again." She frowned slightly, her eyes were filled with sorrow. Dr. Fitz had told her how bad off I really was, and her look told me that it was a lot worse that thought. I forced my best smile and looked over as Brass was slowly lowered in.

"I'll be fine, let's just focus on the job for now, maybe keep an eye out for an infirmary." I walked slowly toward one of the dorm hallways as her frown widened. "Or maybe a light switch, this dark is really going to hamper our searching." I turned the corner and looked down the wide corridor, noting that a small trail of dried blood lead into one of the rooms at the end of the hallway. "You and Carlotta should check the other hallway for anything useful."

I trotted along the line of blood curiously, keeping an eye on my E.F.S. as I looked around. The hallway walls were motted slabs of a dirty brown, an assortment of faded and cracked posters hung from the wall. They were of the usual Ministry "do your best for the war effort" posters that were somehow supposed to inspire a pony to do better. I looked at the large set of sliding doors that led into the dorm at the end of the hall, a set of bloody hoofprints were stamped across it. I reached out to touch it, interrupted by the heavy hoofsteps of power armor behind me.

"Need some help with that, Backlash?" Brass's speaker boomed as he trotted over. "There should be a maintenance closet inside here where the main power junction for the level is. If we can flip it on, we might be able to get some lights and doors on."

"Yeah, but how do we get these open?" I sat and crossed my hooves.

"If the ministry of technology made these doors are anything like the ones at alpha base..." He tweaked his helmeted head around oddly before there was a soft clank behind the door. "There, it might be a bit stiff from not being maintained since the war, but try it now."

I leaned forward and wedged my hoof in between the doors, finding the right side gave way under my force, sliding back with a loud screech. I grunted and put my weight into it, sliding the heavy slab back into the wall, glancing at Brass as it wouldn't go any further. "How did you do that?" I asked, panting softly.

"There is an emergency release lever near the hydraulic pistons." He said joyfully. "Just a little tug and anypony can slide it open!"

"Well that's convenient." I swung my foreleg about, letting the Pipbuck light the room. I stopped as a metallic glint came from inside the maintenance closet, the vague outline of a pony came from the melted remains of what I was sure had once been a set of power armor. "That's weird." I trotted into the room, heading towards the closet as another set of heavy hoofsteps echoed through the hall.

"What is it, Backlash?" Brass said as he stepped in slowly.

"There are no other remains down here that I can see, which I assume is because they have all worn away over time, but these don't look more than a couple of years old." I said as I leaned down and looked over the light yellow hide of a stallion, his wispy white mane wavered under my breathe.

"That's because he only died a year and a half ago." Longbow's voice came from the doorway. "Star Paladin Lemon Meringue opted to stay behind in order to give us the time to escape. I went and waited for him at the rendezvous point for days, but I gave up hope after a week had passed." There was more than just great sorrow in her words. She respected this pony, the emotions she felt were normally reserved for close family members... or lovers.

She came in slowly, kneeling down next to me as I could hear her softly crying through her helmet. I know she couldn't feel it, but I put my hoof around her shoulder, trying to comfort her. "Celestia and Luna..." She spoke slowly through her pain. "Please guide the soul of Lemon, so that he may find peace in the meadows of the afterlife."

The large breaker panel on the wall clicked noisily as Brass magicly flipped the switches without any effect. "The junction must be off one level down as well, or the main reactor is in safe mode." I rubbed my hoof along Longbow's armor as Brass let out a sigh. "Looks like we will just have to continue in the dark."

"Longbow, we need to get moving." I said softly as she sat in reverence. "We'll come back for him, I promise." Yeah, just like I promised to bury Harmony. How can I keep making these promises, knowing full well I won't be able to keep them?

She gave a small nod as she stood up, following Brass as he headed out to the hallway. As I turned to follow, a small glint inside Lemon's suit caught my eye. I looked closer to see that it was his suit's repair talisman, and it was still intact. "Sorry, but she needs it more than you do now." I reached my hoof next to his ribcage and yanked the talisman free, sliding his body off a dirty audiolog and a small, rectangular, yellow piece of plastic. I picked them both up and slid them into my bags, noticing lines of text appear in my E.F.S.

"We need to get moving, Backlash!" Sky's voice resonated down the hallway. I slipped through the busted door and trotted back towards the center, watching as a single red bar blipped in front of me. I stopped and watched as the bar slowly traveled left along the compass before popping off it, disappearing again. Well, at least I know something is down here with us, I'll have to keep a lookout. I turned the corner to see our blue alicorn stalker had reappeared, she had the cable wrapped around herself, snaking it around my body with her magic.

"Alright, lets get this over with." I sighed as she levitated me over the hole to the next floor, slowly dropping me in. I looked around under me as I the emergency lighting and my Pipbuck gave me a good view of the second level, noticing that the floor had buckled and dipped inward, the air here felt hotter than above. "Sky, the radiation down here must be a lot worse, how is our RadAway supply?"

"Not good, Carlotta as been drinking non-stop and I only have two more. If you're alright with it, I'm going to do a quick fly through and look for an infirmary on this level." Her voice came through the darkness with a slight echo.

"No, we aren't alone down here." I felt uneasy as my hooves touched down on the cracked surface, hoping that it didn't buckle from my weight. "I'll look around on my own. you and the others stay up there!" I reached back to pull the cable off, feeling as it tightened around me slightly. "Are you really that paranoid? How would I run away, Goddess? Where do you suppose I would go?"

The cable stayed taught as I stood there for a few moments, letting out a deep sigh. "Fine, I'll just stand here and see if I can absorb more radiation than you can." I looked down at my Pipbuck, noting the radiation gauge was in the upper yellow end. "I'll give you a hint, I can't. Let me go, we don't have time for this."

The cable unwound around me slowly before snaking it's way back above, the Goddess accepting my logic for now. I let the gears turn in my head slowly, trying to think about how I was going to deal with her. Considering the defences down here almost took out an entire squad of power armored paladins, there might be something big enough to take her down. Then again, if it could take her down, the rest of us stood no chance of succeeding. Just have to focus on the task at hoof I guess. "Now... infirmary... infirmary..."

I looked around as I stood at the meeting point of three hallways. The light from my Pipbuck as I swung it around brightened the pink reflective tape that outlined a small yellow sign with a butterfly embossed on it. An arrow pointing into a door at the end of the hallway meant that I needed to head there first.

"Well, that was easy." I took a step forward, freezing as the lone red bar reappeared in the room I was heading toward. I trotted as quietly as I could down the hallway, noticing that the steel doors had been propped open by an old locker, the rusty metal looking like it could give out at any moment. I carefully walked up next to it, poking my head around the corner to see if I could catch a glimpse of the hostile in the room.

My eyes centered on the tube of a missile launcher pointed directly at my face, the rusty form of a sentinel stood on its wheels while I peered up at it in fear. I locked up, not able to run like I probably should have, only able to pray that my end came quickly and painlessly. There was nothing. No bang, no flash, no earth-shattering kaboom. The sentinel just sat there motionlessly as I stared at it, suddenly realizing that it was rusted solid. The red bar in my vision moved left as a rad roach skittered away into the ventilation system to disappear.

"Fucking thing scared me half to death." I smiled softly to myself.

"What did?" Sky's voice came out of nowhere from behind me. I won't lie, I screamed like a little filly and took off like a bat out of hell. I don't really know what my plan was past running, but whatever it was, it failed when I galloped across the cracked floor, a loud creaking coming from it as I ran towards the hallway across from it. The weak floor gave way and created a hole to the third level, while at the same time catching my back left hoof to trip me. My face slammed into the smooth ground as I slid a few feet and flopped over.

"FOR LUNA'S SAKE! DON'T DO THAT!" I growled out as I rolled back onto my hooves and rubbed my nose softly. I looked down to see that it was bleeding, feeling as the crimson liquid felt hot on my skin, feeling it's warmth even with the Med-X dulling everything. We needed to hurry, even with RadSafe, this probably wasn't the healthiest place for us to be.

"There are a couple of medkits in here." She shouted as she went inside. "A couple of health potions, a couple of packets of Rad Away... AH-HA! RadSafe!" She zipped through the doorway and banked up through the hole. I dusted myself off and readjusted my flak vest as I looked to the doorway next to me. A small green light flickered dimly through it, drawing me towards it. With Carlotta's radiation problem fixed for now, I didn't need to feel guilty about sating my curiosity. (even though I had just stated the need to keep going, curiosity can be a hell of a motivator.)

I strained myself to force the doors open, groaning as I wiggled myself into the small room. Several banks of dead computers lined the walls, one of the lower monitors on the furthest set was still functioning. I swung my Pipbuck around to see that the rest of the room contained several drafting tables, a few with sets of blueprints still on them. I looked them over as I headed for the working terminal, seeing that they were mostly unintelligible techno-babble that went way over my head, but there were a few that caught my eye.

The first was an odd battle saddle weapon with the project title of 'Shredder'. It was a set of schematics for a party-cannon sized tube that contained ten separate shotgun barrels, listed as its concept was Anti Zebra Horde Weapon. It had a note tacked on it that listed the project as having moved onto the prototype stage. The more I looked over the design, the more I really wanted that gun. The party cannon wasn't going to last forever, and something like that could be REALLY useful. Unfortunately, it didn't list where the prototype was being built at, dashing my hopes to ever get my hooves on it.

The second schematic was for a new type of energy weapon labeled 'Spark Cannon'. I couldn't understand it really, but it supposedly channeled all the energy from a spark battery and discharged it as an incredibly destructive single beam. Another note was stapled over it, dictating that the device was too unstable in its current configuration and was heading back to R&D.

The last schematic was to good to be true, showing me a module that could be bolted to any auto-doc to upgrade it, allowing it to wipe away Arcano-Flux poisoning. (To those ponies not from the hoofington area, Flux and Taint are more or less the same thing, so I had every hope that it would work on it as well) I flipped through the numerous papers stapled to the design, reading as there were more and more requests to develop the device and numerous inquiries on how it worked, stopping only to fully read the last note. It was a memo stating that the device 'was an April foals day joke', that 'the spells required to purge Flux poisoning were decades from being developed' and that they were surprised at how many ponies fell for it.

How could somepony think that Flux poisoning was a joke? Taint and Flux were two of the most persistent and troublesome substances in the wasteland! I growled and went to rip the schematic in half, stopping to look at it for a moment. I sighed and put the three schematics in my saddlebags before heading over to the terminal. Fantastic, it looks like the Doc was right. Well, no time to feel sad for myself. Given enough time, 42 is going to find that mirror pond, and when she does, I want to be waiting there to kill her.

I grumbled as I found another of the rectangular key cards like the yellow one, only this one was red. I hoofed it into my saddlebag and watched as the notification came up in my E.F.S. like last time. I shrugged and hit the return key to bring up the command prompt, listening as there was a small click under the keyboard. I leaned down and looked under the tray the computer was on just in time to see a Pulse grenade go off next to my face with a loud bang. I blinked as the flash of it lingered in my vision, stumbling over onto the floor with a thud.

"Ok, reminder to self: inspect things for traps before touching them." I rubbed at my eyes with my hooves, happy to see the dimly lit room return to its usual light levels. I stared at a section of the wall, three power cables ran up along it to the next level. There was a section, maybe a foot across, that had been severed and removed, explaining why there was no power on the floor above. I got up and trotted over to it, looking it over slowly. If I had the time I could probably fix it, but as the heavy hoofsteps of approaching power armor reminded me, we needed to get going.

I rolled my eyes as Brass easily slid the doors open, allowing me to slip out. "Come on, Longbow said the next level has only mild radiation saturation." He said as he trotted along next to me. "Find anything neat in there?"

"The power cables had been cut. Other than that, just a bunch of random schematics for things that will most likely remain a mystery forever " I said with a frown.

While Longbow had informed me that the lift down to level three was working, as I looked at the control panel that Lemon apparently sabotaged, I wondered just how someone who was dying could do so much damage with so little time. What was left of the arcane control board was shattered into tiny shards while the wiring had corroded into nothingness or been violently stripped.

"I don't say this ever, but I think this panel is out of my league." I dropped the electronic scraps and face hoofed. "I'm sorry, but it looks like we are going down the hole."

"Are you serious?" Sky said with a tone of bemusement. "You've finally met your mechanical match?"

"Well, I COULD fix it if you wanted. Although I thought you'd would want to leave before next week." I smirked and turned back to the elevator. "My mistake, I'll get working on it right away!"

"THE GODDESS DOES NOT HAVE THE PATIENCE FOR YOUR JOKING!" Her voice resonated in my mind. "WE WILL LOWER YOU DOWN FORCEFULLY IF NECESSARY!" She snaked the cable down the hallway and wrapped it tightly around me, dragging me towards the hole. I didn't even struggle as my hooves slid across the floor, feeling weightless for only a moment before grunting as they touched the solid floor below, I looked around to make sure there were no cracks or holes under me to the next level.

The cable rose back through the hole before Carlotta and Sky dipped down through it. I was looking at an odd piece of equipment in the corner of the room, walking over to it, I looked it over closely. A set of six copper tubes were arranged in what looked like minigun fashion, but had the refocusing crystal of an energy weapon placed like a cone at the end surrounded by spell amplifiers. A set of silver rings ran between a set of electromagnets in the center, drawing spell power from several large cables that were hooked into a ceiling junction. It's spell control boards were highly intricate, red wiring linked them together, a single black wire ran to a box with a stealth buck inside it.

"Backlash, how's the radiation down here?" Sky called over to me, breaking me from my curiosity. "You know, on your Pipbuck?"

I looked down at it and turned the volume on the geiger counter up, listening as it made a soft crackling every few seconds. "I wouldn't stay down here overnight, but it seems safe enough."

"Finally!" Carletta blurted out. "Radaway tastes like shit! They should have designed it to have some sort of fucking flavor to it."

"Uh, they did. It's supposed to be orange." I said slowly, looking over to her with a small frown. "At least, that's what it tastes like to me."

A look of genuine shook spread over Carlotta's face as Sky chuckled. "Are you serious? It tastes nothing like that!" She crossed her talons as she sat down. "Fucking ponies and their weird fucking tastes. They should have made it meat flavored, at least then it would been slightly enjoyable."

Longbow dropped through the hole slowly, levitating her helmet off with a hiss as she moved away from the radiation. "That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard." I went back to looking over the odd machine. It didn't make sense to me, with this configuration of components, my best guess was it was supposed to be some sort of spell amplifier, and the attached stealth buck was probably the spell it was supposed to amplify. My head started to pound through the Med-X as I tried to figure things out that were way too complex for even the pre-war ponies working here.

"Well nopony asked you, steel cheeks." Carlotta said as she hovered up and drifted towards the open door to the rest of the floor. She poked her head around the corner and looked about as Brass was slowly lowered in. She sighed and sat against the wall next to the door. "How much further until we find this stupid terminal?"

"Well, the server should be on the fifth floor." Brass said as he removed his helmet as well. His eyes glowed softly in the darkness, the radiation he had soaked up had made him slightly bigger than he was before, supercharging his ghoul...ness. "Ah, here we go!" Brass strode up to the open junction box on the wall, coating all the breaker switches in his magic.

"BRASS, WAIT!" Longbow called in vain as he flipped all the switches on. There was a high pitched whine as the lights flickered on and the door next to Carlotta slammed shut. The odd device I was standing next to made a whining noise and glowed brightly before it shot a wire thin blue beam across the room. We all instinctively covered our ears with our hooves as the Goddess let out a blood curdling scream of agony, her voice clawed into my mind sharply.

I yelled and smashed blindly at the device with my hooves, watching it shut down when my hoof snapped the stealth buck inside the connection port. "What the hell was that!" I yelled as the ringing in my ears subsided.

"Um...hello?" A voice called from across the room. I swung my gaze to look, but knew what I saw wasn't possible. Standing under the hole was the shimmering outline of our alicorn escort, but for lack of better words, she looked like a ghost. The expression she wore was not that of the Goddess, but one of a pony with great confusion and fear. "Where am I? What's going on?" The rest of my compatriots stood motionless as they stared at the odd sight before them.

"Who are you? WHAT are you?" I managed to spit out. The ghost looked over itself slowly, growing panicked when she saw she was not solid, then again when she saw her wings.

"I don't know what's going on. Why am I like this?" She shook in fear and shrank to the ground. "Why am I a monster?"

"As I would have said before Brass turned the power back on, when we came down here before, they were doing some odd experiments with invisibility spells. As far as we could tell, this machine was supposed to combine the invisibility spell of a stealth buck with the molecular reorganization magic that the old crystal ponies were subjected to inside their city." Longbow said as she walked around the translucent alicorn. "The invisibility spell she was using must have had a resonant frequency and caused a cascading feedback loop of inversed arcane energies. Fascinating."

Carlotta spoke up before I had the chance, her voice strained to convey the amount of frustration she had. "Please, for the love of Celestia, can somepony just speak simply for once!"

"I don't know what's going on, I just want to go home." The alicorn ghost said softly, the sorrow in her voice was unbelievable, I don't think the goddess was there at all anymore.

"Hey hey, don't worry." Sky said softly as she floated over. "What is your name?"

"I'm Willow Wisp, who are you ponies?" She spoke sadly.

"Well, I'm Skyline, that's my brother Backlash, and these are our friends." She spoke with a soft smile. "You said you wanted to go home, where is that?"

"I live in ponyville, or used to, I guess. Where am I?" She said slowly. the mention of ponyville bored deep into my mind, feeling as if they had drilled into my heart, letting the regret and faces of each of it's twenty eight murdered citizens sink deeper into me. I sat down hard and let my gaze drop to the floor, thinking about how Pallet was probably feeling more scared and alone than Willow Wisp seemingly felt.

Carlotta jumped into the air and sped over to me, grabbing my head in her talons and painfully twisted it towards the wall behind me. My compass showed six red bars that were slowly moving around toward us. "Fuck. We've got company!" I cried out as the door Carlotta had been near opened up, the silver form of a ponitron stepped into it, the red glow of it's glass brain case was all I saw before it started firing at us.

The roar of Carlotta's battle saddle helped me tense up and slip into S.A.T.S., time slowing to a crawl as usual. I thought to open the inventory menu, watching as the interface flickered and died, being replaced by the simple form of a featureless, bright white pony. The form before me had no eyes, no mane, no tail, looking like a simple dress mannequin as it walked around.

The sound came from every direction at once. I knew the digitized voice that the odd pony was using well. It was the voice of both my largest ally, and my greatest enemy. Was I looking at... P.I.N.K.?

The blank looking pony seemed to walk around the floor in front of me, appearing to walk up to the hostile ponitron and look it over curiously. I wondered what she was doing, I mean, why was she keeping me from fighting?

Ok, this was just plain weird. Actually, it really wasn't. After the last two weeks, I'm not sure that the standard definition of weird still applied to anything in my life anymore. Regardless, having some computer being able to read your thoughts was kind of unsettling.

Ok, I guess she had a point. P.I.N.K. wasn't just some spell matrix inside a terminal, she was a lot more than that. She was a highly intelligent, self aware system that knew how to take over the spritebot network and how to mess with my S.A.T.S while I was in it.

Wait, could P.I.N.K. even be flattered? I hope she didn't take it the wrong way.

Damnit, P.I.N.K., those are supposed to be private thoughts. I mean I do REALLY like Longbow, and it is true that she is quite beautiful, I just can't help but focus on her... mare... features. Oh Celestia, why the hell did this have to be so embarrassing?

Since when was she trying to get my attention? My Pipbuck would have told me... except for I turned the volume down. Yeah, that was my bad.

The white form of P.I.N.K. fuzzed away before time started to crawl back towards it's normal pace, getting about halfway before slowing and freezing still again. P.I.N.K. appeared in the lower corner of my vision, peering up from the floor below me.

Why would the medical subroutines need working on? Were they still not functioning correctly?

Well, whatever. I'll just file the medical subroutines under 'ask longbow if she could take a look at it later'. I trust that P.I.N.K. could probably fix it, I just wanted a second opinion on how bad the coding is.

Time jumped forward again, the ponitron's torso slowly ripped in half with a shower of sparks as Carlotta's rounds punched into a vital component. Brass threw his helmet on and galloped towards the door, throwing his shoulder into the smoldering hulk to push it out of the doorway. He turned as his twin miniguns spun up, letting out a short burst of rounds that were punctuated by another small pop and fizzle from down the hallway.

"Come on, we have to..." He was cut off when a rocket slammed into the doorway, exploding with a deafening crack that knocked me off my hooves. I regained my senses after only a moment and looked out the door, spotting brass on the floor as his body and armor patched itself up. "Oh, you want to do this the hard way? Then we'll do this THE HARD WAY!" Brass's helmet boomed out as he got up. Longbow galloped to the door as the twin miniguns on Brass's side purred, sending streams of fire down the hallway.

"Backlash, stay with Willow Wisp." Sky said as Carlotta and her headed for the door, closing it behind them. I listened through the walls as gunfire permeated the hallways, cursing myself for not being able to help. My ear perked as I heard Carlotta screamed out, following with an expletive before her battle saddle fired until it was empty.

"What's going on? What do you want from me?" Willow asked softly from the floor. I reached over to try to comfort her, pulling my hoof back as it went through her body freely. Her eyes went wide before tears started to stream from them. "WHY DID YOU MAKE ME A MONSTER!?" She cried out as she got to her hooves, running past me straight for the wall. I tried to call out, but stopped myself as she passed right through it, disappearing to the other side completely.

So there I sat. Alone and useless inside the enclosed room as my friends did the heavy lifting outside.

"Why don't you go after her Backlash? Oh yeah, cause then you'd get shot." I muttered to myself, wishing I had brought something I could use to actually fight with. "Well, at least we only have two more levels after this one..."

------------

LEVEL UP!

+7 Speech

+8 Repair

New Quest Perk: Stubborn Diplomat - Even in the face of overwhelming odds, you keep your cool and can talk your way out of even the tensest situations. Extra dialogue options are available when speaking to a faction you have a negative standing with.

New Perk: Inspiring martyr - Your friends and you are neigh inseparable, fighting just that much harder to win when you've been injured. Your allies gain a small bonus to damage and critical hit chance when you are under less then half health and/or under the effects of three or more negative status effects.

Author's Notes:

Endless props to Kkat for writing Fallout Equestria. Many Huzzahs to Somber for the continued writing of the epic Hoofington expansion. Buckets of feels to Mimezinga for killing me with the amazing story of Puppeh. My eternal thanks to No-One for keeping the thought of Hired kicking my ass for not writing, clear in my head. Many cheers to Stonershy for Double Tap and Rita's wacky and entertaining adventures. A shout out to John Colt, who's own story had been drawing me in. Go read Gaia Prevails, it's damn good, nuff said.

Thanks to Bad Pun for the work he does in helping me demolish the writing blocks that seem to crop up, as well as the fantastic job he does of proof reading my work.

A set of thanks to all the Ponies on the Fallout Equestria IRC chat. Thanks for being so friendly and a generally awesome group to hang out with. You all rock!

And lastly, thanks to you, the reader. Without your mind, these are just words on a screen. Don't ever stop being awesome.