(Note: sorry I've been on hiatus for an entire year. I've been struggling with depression. I'm excited to present the next two chapters! Author's notes will be reduced to footnotes from here on out!)

Chapter 11 DJ Has Us Falling in Love Again

It was cold outside, much colder than the metal hull of an ancient navy ship made you think. Capper was a few paces behind me, muttering to himself. Presumably to this Chess character, but it only made him look like a crazy person. I suppose if you were a robot then you could get viruses and glitches, but the whole thing left me with so many questions and made me a little pissed off.

I only had time to fumigate over it all, thinking on how he'd never told me he was a synth, acting like the Institute legends were only myths. Well if he was one, then it was entirely possible the Institute existed too. Then there was his brother. He'd neglected to mention that tidbit to me, and it upset me because I loved him. You were supposed to tell those you cared about everything, right?

My biggest concern was Chess. I had seen him kiss the other cat in the simulator. Though I couldn't see or hear him now, it still felt like he was there. A looming presence, threatening me and standing in the way of what I wanted. But that was one of my biggest frustrations. What did I really want? Capper and I didn't exactly click.

My thoughts were interrupted when Capper made a shushing sound and said, "Chess heard something."

"Can you stop talking about Chess?" I said angrily.

"Whatchya'all need is a chill pill. Don't you see it on your Pip-Buck or whatever?" Capper was glancing about, looking ready for action.

It did tell me [CAUTION] but it hadn't been a big concern of mine. Caution meant it was looking for us but hadn't found us. As long as we went into Stealth Mode and kept quiet we'd be fine. But Capper just kept rambling on and on to his new imaginary friend and that's what got us in trouble.

Whatever it was was in the woods and it had a loud, high pitched screech. "Buck," I said under my breath, drawing a laser pistol. We were not well equipped to deal with the creatures on this island, but I thought, they had a tough outer shell that we needed to break through in order to damage them, and lasers were good at disintegrating things. I don't know.

[DANGER]

It jumped out at us and I immediately started shooting it. Red lasers bounced off its leathery skin, showing that I was wrong in my previous assumption. Capper yelled and rose his paws. Blue energy shot from them and it left burn marks on the creature's skin. It was wounded but still able to fight.

"Come on!" I yelled, grabbing his paw and pulling him around it. We began to flee. "How do you keep doing that?"

"I don't know. I've never done anything like that before, dog." Capper glanced back at the frog like beast that was chasing us now. "But that thing seriously needs to chill out. I ain't about that." He made a finger gun and shot more blue lightning at it. "Pow, pow," he laughed.

"This isn't funny. Now shut up, we're almost there." I could see the staircase leading up the side of the mountain complex that was Arcadia.

The facility's automated defense system kicked in, spraying defog at the monster and a weapons system lifting up out of the hull. The monster screeched while we clambered inside, pulling the door shut behind us.

Our faces inches apart, we breathed. I could feel his breath on my cheeks, his warmth and his paws on my arms. I closed my eyes and sighed then pulled away from him. "Wai—" he choked but Achilles came running to us.

"That was quite an entrance!" he said as he sprinted.

Joosh was right behind him, "I barely got the defenses up in time."

"You mean they're not automated?" I asked.

"We don't exactly have the right equipment at a research facility for that, now do we?" said Chaser in her dull tones.

"Did you do it?" asked Achilles. "Did you get the memory spheres?"

"Yes." said Capper flatly. "You have some explaining to do."

Pre-War: 12 Years Before The Megaspells

"If we take a vertiherd from the Ministry, we'll make it in time to save her." Nexus was shouting as we ran to the garage. He had scrambled to find the keys to his car and was basically dragging me along with him.

"Are you crazy? Not only are you proposing stealing government property but you're also asking me to help you save a zebra. We'd be traitors to the country." I was saying it, but my hooves took me to the passenger side door and I opened it and hopped in.

"You know Zecora didn't mean for any of this to happen. She is one of many and she doesn't represent her people. Listen, maybe she is a zebra, but what we're about to find in Opportunity will set the path straight for Stable Tech once and for all, but we can't do it without her." Nexus had the engine started and the garage door was barely open before he was peeling out of here.

"She probably doesn't even know she's important, right?" I looked at him from my peripheral as I watched the road. It was nearing twilight and the sun was setting. How the sisters could still go about their daily duties in the midst of all this I had no idea.

"What we'll do now will shape the future of Equestria. Stable Tech will see us as heroes."

"I'm sure they will," I glanced every which way out the windows, but there were no other cars on the road.

"You forgot, didn't you? About Opportunity? What we left there?"

"How could I forget?" I finally looked at him. He was smiling at me.

We pulled up to the guardrail between us and the warehouse hiding Pinkie Pie's baker's dozen fleet of vertiherds. The warehouse was labelled 13, and I saw workers like ants going to and fro on the platform far below. Spotlights lit up the area but up here we were still cloaked in shadow.

"What's your plan, hotshot? They're not gonna let us waltz in there and fly out with one of Pinkie's birds."

He lowered a set of binoculars he had with him. "There's a gap in their workforce between warehouse 12 and 14. If we sneak in from the alley between 13 and 14 we can get to the underground bunker through the tunnels inside 12."

I gave him a crazy look, "How do you know all that?"

"BECAUSE PINKIE PIE IS ALWAYS WATCHING" shrieked a familiar voice. On the video screen in the center dash beside the steering wheel was Pinkie Pie's face. She was smiling. "Zecora was once Fluttershy's best friend other than Dash. You think I wouldn't want to keep her alive? Twilight might not trust her anymore, but I'm not the only pony in the Ministry that thinks it's not all her fault."

Nexus burst out laughing. "We can be heroes without the government's permission! What? You really thought I was crazy enough to steal from Pinkie Pie?"

"I'm the only one crazy enough to steal from me, and not even I'm that crazy!" yelled Pinkie Pie over the comm.

"What you said makes no sense, but I'll take your word for it." I nodded to her.

"Look, nopony would approve of what we're doing tonight, but I do so we have to keep this a secret." said Pinkie. "You Pinkie swear?"

"Cross my heart and hope to fly," said Nexus.

"Stick a cupcake in my eye," I ended the promise.

"Good, now get your bootays down there soldiers because Zecora doesn't have much time!" with that the screen flicked out.

"Congrats, you just got told to get your booty down there by the Minister of Morale." laughed Nexus as he hopped out of the car.

Present Time: 207 Years After the Incident of Stable 14

"You have some explaining to do." He was pissed. You could see it in the look in his eyes. You did not wanna mess with Capper at this instance kuz he looked about ready to strangle his own brother. Either that or castrate him and feed it to him.

Achilles held his paws up in surrender, "Look, I'm sure I deleted my memories because they were bad but let's be reasonable about this. Let me watch them and remember, and then we can all make up our minds together."

"Cap," I put my hoof on his shoulder, "It doesn't matter anyway. The Children of Arcana hate us and the program was already downloaded into their servers. We have the only means to stop them but we have to convince Achilles first. And we can't do that until he has his memories back."

"Fine. How about I help him with that and you go talk to Mist Haze. Go clear up with her that she's not really a synth." He said to me, still snarling.

I set my bag down with the stones and all the memories. "Sounds like a plan. Here's what you'll need."

"I'll take you to Mist, she's been waiting for you," said Chaser.

"What did you find out?" asked the mare as soon as the security chief was gone. She was twirling a hoof through her mane anxiously.

"Well," I bit my lip, "Achilles is exactly what you thought he was. But Capper is gonna see about convincing him to change his mind."

"After deleting all those memories, it wouldn't be hard, you change without the things that made you who you are." she nodded like speaking some deep philosophy.

"Yeah, but that's not all." I seized a breath, knowing this was going to be hard for her.

"What's not all?" now she looked the least bit suspicious.

"You're not a synth." there it was, like a fat dumpling on Thankscloven. "Achilles only brought you here to get at his brother." I looked down at my hooves.

"What, no! That can't be true!" she shook her head, taking a step back.

"I'm sorry."

"Then, there's only one thing we can do!" she set her wrench down and looked me firmly in the eyes.

"Just one?" I rose a brow.

"Well, I'm sure there's always a next step but—Oh, let's just get on with it!" she waved a hoof at me as she ran off suddenly. I should follow her.

My lips were on his, the rain trickled off our backs. My hoof was in his turquoise mane, brushing it back so I could reach his face. He had just finished telling me one of his many horror stories. He needed me to lean on and I was here for him, like I always would be.

Our tongues met like singing a song, and I knew he could hear mine. His hooves were caressing my back and when we pulled apart, our eyes met. There were tears forming in his, but I was too hardened to show my emotions. I had built walls up around myself, I had to be his rock. He was my pebble.

His bangs fell in his face and I laughed, "You know I wouldn't let anypony hurt you right?" I asked as I moved his hair from his mismatched eyes. I loved staring into those eyes.

"Of course not. Things just get all prickly sometimes."

"Prickly?" I sat up straighter, trying to wrap my head around that one.

"Yeah! Like a pear!" Little OJ was nodding, excited he'd gotten my attention.

"A prickly pear." my whole body wiggled in amusement. Orange Juice always had quite the imagination.

"A prickly pear," OJ blushed as he fell on top of me.

Capper Dapperpaws

"What are you doing?" Blitzfire waltzed in like he was on a mission but he stopped in his tracks one hoof in front of the other when he saw me setting down one of the orange colored memory spheres.

"Why, I thought this was another one of those doohickies." I lifted a paw like a showroom catgirl, but ol' Blitzy here wasn't buying it.

"Those are personal!" Blitz snatched his bag and attempted to zip it up when quite a few more of OJ's memory orbs rolled from the bag.

"Now, who let the cat outta the bag," I put a paw over my short muzzle, pretending I was shocked.

"Oh real funny wise guy." Blitz rolled his eyes as he began scooping up the merchandise.

"I was only snoopin' kuz I noticed you got your tail all ruffled over Chess here," I bladed my paws to indicate where I could see he was standing. He waved at me and smiled.

"Chess isn't real."

"Excuse me, don't use that word." I rose a paw and waggled a no, no, no finger at him. "It's 'ain't'." I explained.

"Okay," Blitz plopped the bag down as Mist came in all shrimpy behind him from around the big metal pillar and glass panels of the computer lab. "I see how it is," Blitz got in my face, not exactly tall enough to reach, he stretched.

"Do ya now?"

"Ladies, ladies, please," Achilles stepped into the room, carefully coming down the steps from the platform. "I just wanna know if you got the memories?"

I slowly turned to meet him like I was a butler, "Why yes, sir, but you know what else we got? A war on our paws." I rolled my arms over each other and leaned toward Blitz, "As well as hooves mind you."

"Drop the act, Capper." Achilles hissed. "It's disgusting."

"I tell you what else is disgusting," Blitz spat and looked away.

"Okay, everypony," Mist rose a hoof, trying to cool down the tension.

Achilles took the memory sphere's that Blitz had retrieved from the Children of Arcana base. It had better be all worth it for what the two of us had to go through or I swear by the sisters I would personally declaw my hermano myself. Luckily I still had that option as he had disappeared during the entire conflict with the Storm King and strangely reappeared right after Sia's concert. *Ahem*! I mean Songbird Serenade.

My brother stood by the computers eating an apple, and I heard a distinct stomach growl coming from my coltfriend. "Um…where did you get that?" asked Blitz, clearing his throat. Right, where do we get a lot of things?

"What, this?" Achilles took a bite of the apple.

Smoothly, I swiped it from him and tossed it to Blitz, who did not catch it. "Play it cool, hermano, eating at a time like this."

"I…don't think I want it now." Blitz swallowed. I facepalmed. I was being awkward because I had made it awkward. Coming to this island was not my best deal.

Waiting for Achilles to go through the memory files was like watching paint dry. Unfortunately for a cat, who liked to scratch anything and everything, you had to keep painting over it. I was still waiting for a reaction to his entire scheme he'd decided to bury away like a dog. Nothing, no shock, no pain. My bro was a cold hearted marauder, coming here and setting up shop on a battleground. He knew exactly what he was doing, what he had done, and I would take a wager he was happy about it right about—

"So, this is unsettling." Achilles set down the last memory sphere.

"I'd say so," said Mist, moving toward him between Blitz and I. "How many ponies here are actually synths?" she asked.

"Everypony but you," Achilles sighed. He was taking this in stride, but I was enthralled to see he looked deeply upset about it as well.

"Looks like somepony was just a wild goose in all this," I pointed out. "You just wanted to get us here to further your plans. Now the Children have everything they need."

Achilles put a paw on my shoulder, "Listen, I deleted my memories not because I wanted my plan to fall perfectly into place without giving it away, but because I was guilty." He sighed, "They would have found all this on their own anyway, Blitz isn't the only buck that can withstand that much radiation."

"Who can?" asked Mist. Achilles gave her a look that said it all. "Oh." she blinked. "You mean, you brought me here as a plan A and plan B?"

"That's some hustlin' sweetheart," I made finger guns at her and Achilles laughed.

"Now you're my plan C," Achilles focused on her. "You can bring the Mother of Magic Idol back, tricking them into thinking you're on their side after finding out I lied to you about being a synth."

"Then, I deactivate their programs using the idol and the whole island is safe!" Mist nodded.

"Remind you of anypony from Cloudsdale who isn't awesome?" I dragged my paw down my face and dead stared at my brother.

"Unfortunately Mist Haze, the program only works one way." Achilles bit his lip. Pointy teeth, our families best and cutest quality.

"Wait, she'd die!" Blitz snapped. "How are you going to send her in there knowing using the idol would activate their reverse defoggers?"

"Two reasons," Achilles held up a paw to tick off on his paw beans. "She's a radstag, it takes more radiation than even a ghoul to knock her down. Second, I had Joosh implant a program that overloads the mainframe."

"Causing it to destroy only the naval vessel instead of the whole island." came Joosh's voice over the intercom. "By my calculations, as a radstag, she has about 12 minutes and 42 seconds to get out of the 1 mile radius of the blast. Given that it would be megaspell expulsion followed by heavy arcana burst. It'll kill everypony who isn't her."

Achilles tilted his head and made eye contact with the scientist, "Are you enjoying yourself, shrink? Explaining every detail that doesn't make a difference? Also, interrupting me?"

"You know, I'm so glad I chose to join you and not Tiger back on the mainland." Joosh stuck his tongue out and released the intercom button.

"Tiger…" Achilles breathed. Then blinked. "Mist, we have to put you into Blitzfire's Arcana gear. Let's get!" he clapped his paws and shooed her from the room, taking her to get fitted.

"Can we chat?" I sat down and swivelled to face my coltfriend.

"About…?"

I sighed. Heavily. I don't do that, it wasn't in my nature to display…whatever that was. "Listen, he's still here you know."

"Who?" Blitzy wasn't even looking at me.

"That's right, whoooo?" Chess was right in my ear. He had been silent this whole time, but he knew I couldn't resist his charm. He was like me in too many ways.

"Chess, it's Chess and you know who I'm talking about."

Finally he looked at me. "I want to be mad at you, but I can't because we all have our crushes. I still have a place in my heart for Orange Juice and you know that now." I don't think I'd ever seen tears welling up in his eyes like that before.

"I could…I dunno. Delete him…?"

"What? Noo, I'm not all there but I don't want to be not not all there!" Chess placed himself right next to Blitz, giving me Puss in Boots eyes.

"I get it, I really do, but you can't just delete things from yourself. Achilles learned that the hard way." Blitz lifted a hoof in the most adorable way, possibly without even realizing it. "I'm still trying to learn it if I'm being honest."

"But if he's getting in the way…" my voice trailed off. My heart was thunder, and Chess was the lightning in a bottle that I had swiped from the market place long before war with zebras was even a concept.

"How could I get in the way of anything? I could be right in front of you and you could still walk through me." Chess looked like a dying kitten.

"There's something else you could try," Joosh said over the com.

"Shut up Joosh!" Blitz snapped. He was on the verge of a Titanic of emotions. I got it, better than I had in awhile.

I practically lunged like a wild animal to kiss him. He didn't stop me. He was receptive but cold, but nothing in me would let me stop. I needed him to understand. I hadn't felt this guilty since Tempest kidnapped me and forced me to lead her right to the Mane 6. I suppose my guilt turned into passion because I was wrestling him onto the floor, where he began to feel me up. His hooves were in my petticoat and my paws were all over him.

"Are we really doing this?" Blitz huffed. "In front of Joosh?"

"He'll come around," I smirked. "Besides, if you could only see who was standing watch right now." Like bright red lipstick, Chess had no boundaries when it came to where he got off. Us cats for ya!

"Oh bet he's hot right now."

"I wouldn't say voyeurism is my middle name, but when it comes to being invisible I have a knack for keeping track!" Chess was pleased with himself as he stroked it. That made me even more aroused. Two creatures watching me do my coltfriend. Perhaps I was an exhibitionist.

"Fuck yes," Blitz muttered as I played with him. He was like a toy and I knew all the right buttons. I think I was gettin' my charm back because we weren't foolin' around. Wink, wink.

I grinded against him, loving the sounds of his pleasure. "Don't we…have better things…to be doing…right now?" he breathed as he bit my neck.

"No, I would say not," as I popped my member in right up to just that.

"Faust!" Blitz gasped. He was sweaty, but so was I. A little sweat and tears never killed nopony baby.

"Right here guys? Right here?" Achilles was just returning with a cowering Mist behind him.

"Mama used to bathe us together, bro, and this tickles your funny bone?" I snickered at him, twitching my whiskers just as I finished off in Blitz and he neighed loudly beneath me. My belly covered up his loads.

I popped out and helped him up. "No time to clean up, I'll have Joosh mop later I guess." Achilles waved his hand in dismissal.

I pulled my pants up, fumbling with the buckle while Blitz looked flushed at me. "Can't believe you didn't even stop."

"No use in stopping halfway through just because you're caught, doesn't make it any less embarrassing." I winked.

"I suppose that makes sense," Mist acknowledged as she carefully made her way around the spot Blitz and I had been fucking.

"You know, I would love to pick that shrink's brain on his previous fancy of not deleting me." Chess wandered off into the control room, where I'm sure he'd make a leap of faith into a fruitful interaction with beings outside my mind.

Ravager Blitzfire

"So let's get this one hundred percent straight," I twirled my hoof in midair to roll around the idea in my head that I was supposed to waste ammo on pretending to and missing shots at Mist as she ran towards the navy ship. "You want me to shoot like I don't know how to hold a gun? Kuz I'll show you holding a gun." I was precariously flashing my revolver.

Achilles rubbed the back of one paw, "Well, I can see not liking the idea, but you would be well reimbursed if this all goes through as planned."

"We'll reimbursed? As in there's no contingency plan, my brother?" Capper had been smiling this whole time and I wondered if he was about to start laughing.

"How much is it then?" I asked, straight to business.

"You don't want to do this for the good of Cumber?" Achilles looked appalled. Right.

I rolled my eyes, "I'll do it for the good of Cumber as long as it does some good for my pockets as well."

"That's the way to swindle, amigo." Capper licked the tip of his paw and did a Tss sound.

"I've missed you," I gushed. Everypony else besides Capper stuck their tongues out.

"We can tell, Mr. and Mrs. Sex in the Observatory." Achilles wiped his paws together, brushing off invisible filth. This guy, I tell you, gets a lot of eye rolls. "I'll give you 500 caps, each."

I felt the megaspells go off in my head, mind blown at the steep price. "You're kidding."

"I'll tell y'all one thing about the Dapperpaws and affiliates family," stated Capper with a paw bean raised, "we don't tend to kid."

"Riiiight," I rolled my eyes.

"No, I am most certainly not kidding. You want to shut down their operation and that's what it's worth to me." said Achilles.

"I'll do it." I nodded my agreement.

"Good."

Pre-War: 12 Years Before The Megaspells

"To get in, you're going to need to distract my guards," said Pinkie on our communications crystals, little gems you stuck in your ear and ran on minispells. "I'll be watching every hoofstep of the way, yep yep you know I will."

I looked to Nexus who had snuck over to the guard shed positioned at the top of the hill. He had a small, flat, circular device that he clicked a button on and rolled out into the middle of the street. In about 5 seconds, like a grenade, a siren went off. It was being output from the device and it sounded like a wailing prison siren. According to the pink mare, this alarm mine was made as a party gag and never rolled off the shelves. Well, it came in handy now.

We exchanged glances from opposite sides of the road, he ducked under the window of the shed and I leaning up against a dying tree. A pony came out of the shed, looking down at the device. "What the?" he clicked it and Nexus ran up behind him and clocked him over the back of the head. He was wearing Stable Tech Security grade horseshoes, thick stuff, and the guard was not only knocked out cold but bleeding out like he'd been shot.

"We're not here to kill anypony!" I hissed.

He brayed, "Don't worry, I wasn't going to leave him like that. I'm wearing these things in preparation for the Everfree Forest, not to kill Pinkie's guards. She'd dismember me in my sleep!"

"Tartarus straight!" she screeched, not quite making sense.

Nexus rubbed a healing salve over the back of the pony's neck, something he'd learned to make from Zecora. The blood clotted and stopped flowing. "He'll awaken with no memory of what happened."

"Now to sneak into the warehouse."

"There are, count em, four guards circling the perimeter. I believe if I'm not mistaken, a valve in the shed that will release a sleeping agent in designated areas around the warehouse. It won't get em all so you're in for a fight with whoever's left."

"Why do you have sleeping gas around your hangars?" I asked her, tapping the crystal to make sure I heard her right.

"Insurance! I see if I'm betrayed and I see when I'm infiltrated."

"The only logical approach to security," Nexus smiled and nodded to me.

"I'm surrounded by cuckoos."

"And don't you forget it!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

After the button was pushed we had about a minute to get down the hill and into the compound. There were two guards left standing. Nexus and I rushed down their like two soldiers in the heat of battle. I suppose this was a battle of our own. A lot had happened in the time since his sister had died, and we'd lost many more friends since then. We could never have seen this war coming, we didn't know what death was truly like. He was hardened to it, I saw that in him. I didn't know quite for sure if I really liked that, but hey, it got the job done.

He swung the gate open and we ran inside. There was more security in here, pacing, unaware to their fallen comrades inside. The other two were making their way in to alert the others. I saw them trying to run inside, opening their muzzles to shout. I lunged on one, Nexus the other, a team the two of us. We had chloroform, shutting them down before they could ruin the operation.

"Now how are we going to take them out?" I pointed up to the walkways. "No killing makes this a lot harder."

"And we can't just hop in a vertiherd and expect them to stand idly by." Nexus was rubbing his chin.

"Let me in, let me in…not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin." Pinkie's voice sounded a lot closer than just on our comms.

A shadow swiped its way across the pedway and I heard the first soldier grunt before collapsing in a split second. The other turned to and lifted his rifle, looking to and fro. "And this one's juuuust right." the guard was down and Pinkie was standing proud above him.

"Thanks for the help!" Nexus saluted.

"How'd you get here, weren't you in Canterlot?"

"I am!" she giggled. I gave Nexus a look, of course, that's what they want you to think.

Nexus flipped the switches, activating the engines as Pinkie slipped into the restraints of a seat behind us. The blades began to whir and Pinkie pressed a big red button, "We are cleared for take off!" the hangar bay opened from the top like a giant maw.

"You ready?" Nexus turned to me.

"Never been more so in my life."

(Footnote: So I am posting a couple chapters I had written but must've forgotten to post. So chapter 12 is coming right up guys!)

Brohoof! /)