When I woke up with Nexus in my bed cuddling me, I jolted. I felt like I had made a mistake, but I didn't feel any regret. It was a strange feeling. I wished it was Capper holding me, but I was also glad it was Nexus. Something had to be wrong with me. I glanced over at Nexus and tried not to wake him up. I was scared I had when he started to move but he only rolled over to face the wall. I went to put on my vest when there was a chime from the door intercom.
I was hopping on three legs as I pulled my vest over my head and said, "Yes, who is it?"
"It's me, Capper," came Capper's voice. "I thought about it some, and decided I'm not upset about it as much as I was yesterday." I looked over to Nexus lying in the bed and my heart skipped a beat. I couldn't open the door or I knew Capper would never get over it.
"Okay, I'm…in the middle of something, can we talk about it later?"
"Why not talk about it now?" Capper asked and it was a valid point.
"Shit…" I let go of the intercom button and wondered if Nexus could fit under the bed. I had to come up with some excuse to get Capper to go away. "I just woke up, I'd like a moment to myself."
"Right, right." Capper said and the intercom went silent.
I poked at Nexus and he moaned. How could I forget, he wasn't a morning pony. This was going to be complicated. I went to open the door when the com buzzed again, "I've seen you naked, not sure what the problem is."
"I got really drunk last night, I'm kind of hungover!" I actually wasn't, surprisingly but why wouldn't he just leave?
"Okay! I'm heading to the cafeteria to get breakfast."
I hoped he really was gone, because I had to open the door if I wanted to leave. I pressed the button and thankfully Capper was already gone. I hoped Nexus would get up soon, I didn't want anypony to see him leave my room. I decided to go find Capper, whatever he had to say would be pretty crucial to whatever came next in our relationship. I still really cared about him. I wondered if he'd ever considered polyamory…Probably shouldn't bring up that idea in the conversation, at least not just yet. I'd table it.
"Boing, boing, boing," came Pumpkin Spice's voice behind me. "Oh, hey Blitz! You know, I wish we didn't have to take all the decorations down so soon, but Flight Control wants me to. By the by, have you seen Nexus? Buck and Ashe Erza are looking for him."
My voice cracked, "Nope!"
"Why do I get the feeling that nope is a yep?" she eyed me as we walked and I shrugged at her.
"I don't know, why do you?"
"Hey, I'm not making a joke mister, I can be serious sometimes!"
"I wasn't saying you were making a joke." I pursed my lips.
"You weren't? Oh well! I guess I'll just have to find Nexus on my own. See ya later!"
I turned the corner as she hopped away and I was at the doors to the cafeteria. They were open and I could see Capper a ways off, seated at the table and eating with Salem and Combat. I wondered if now would even be a good time to talk but it was all up to Capper. I approached his table and said, "Hey, Cap."
"Hey Blitz," he nodded to me and Combat got up to leave.
"I don't wanna be here if it's going to get awkward." he said.
"It's only awkward if you make it awkward, but I feel you." Capper nodded to him and he and Salem left.
"So what did you want to talk about?" I asked him.
"I think I can still be your tomfriend and accept that you have a place in your heart for Nexus, if you can accept I have a place in my heart for Cheshire." Capper just laid it all down, not skipping a beat.
"I am actually kind of glad you say that. I was afraid you would be against the idea, so I wasn't gonna bring it up, but I was wondering how you'd feel about a polyamourous relationship. Sounds like there aren't many qualms?"
"There are a few, but we'll all just have to work it out. I can't ask Cheshire just yet because he hasn't been fully downloaded into his new body, so he's not awake yet. I'm guessing you still need to talk to Nexus about how he feels too?"
"That's right." I nodded.
"So it's settled then?"
"I hope so. I still really care about you Capper."
"I care about you too, baby, that's why I hope this can all work out."
"Me too."
When Nexus finally woke up we all met in a round conference room. He had a cup of coffee in his magical grasp and there were some cups of coffee sitting on the table. We all had our own morning routines. I didn't need any coffee but it didn't hurt so I still had a cup.
"So I take it you all didn't come to the Institute for nothing. What brings you?" Nexus asked us.
"We were hoping you'd be able to help us in our mission to save Broncston from anarchy like we did in Bittsberg." said Ashe Erza.
"How can I help with that."
"For one thing, it would be nice to know how to change synths corrupted by the ashlings back to our side," said Buck.
Nexus narrowed his eyes in confusion, "What do you mean they're corrupted?"
"He means that the ashlings have used some sort of evil magic on them to force them to do their bidding. They no longer operate under normal parameters." I said, hoping I could explain it in a way Nexus could understand.
"Wait, let me get this straight. The synths base programming changes?" Nexus stared straight at me.
"That is right!" Ashe Erza said. "Is there any way to reset them to factory settings so to speak?"
"It should be simple, I'd just have to make a device that reboots the more basic models, but for models like the Leaders or Courser Magistrates…that would take some pretty heavy magic that I don't currently have." Nexus was pacing now, pacing as he thought. It always helped him come up with a solution. "If we reset their memories…but that would require a good understanding of memory sphere technology…probably a batch of clean memory spheres…" he looked up from his ramblings and stopped pacing. "I have a solution but it's going to take some time. Can you guys help me with one thing?"
"What is it?" asked Buck.
"I need unused memory spheres in order to do what I think can be done…there's a factory that produces them in the Back Bray."
"Then we will get what you seek, anything that can help."
Everypony began to file out of the room, now that it was agreed upon what we were going to do next. But I still had one thing to talk to Nexus about. I stopped him before he left, "I have something to talk to you about, in private."
"No problem!" he hung back and we waited till everyone was out of the room and the door was closed.
"Nexus, I can't leave Capper." I laid it out plain and simple.
"You mean, in regards to what happened between us?"
"Yes…but here's the thing. I care deeply about you too, I always have just never realized it until I came face to face with you again after so long."
"So what are you saying?" I could tell Nexus was confused.
"If you can be okay with it, Capper has agreed to try a polyamorous relationship. He'll let me date you at the same time as long as he's allowed to date Cheshire, which I've agreed to." I gulped, "What do you think?"
"I think…that should be fine. I obviously don't want to come between you and Capper. I'm also trying to navigate my feelings. I still have a strong anger towards you that I'm trying to sate."
"Okay, as long as you know where I stand."
"I do." he opened the door and I pecked him on the lips, smiling at him, "I hope things can work."
"Isn't that what we all hope?" he chuckled before walking away.
"I've calibrated the teleporter to accept you guys coming from any Minute Hoof settlement. As soon as you get to a settlement you just have to make a few changes to the gate spells and you'll be all set." Nexus told us. We were in the teleporter room and he was setting it up to make sure that nopony that he didn't want coming through the teleporter would be able to. Only me, OJ and our large group of friends could use it now, besides the Courser Magistrates of course.
"I am curious," OJ said, "Why do you send Courser Magistrates and no other synths?"
"They're not the only synths we send out, they're just the ones we send out the most," Nexus said. "I do so because I want to test their functionality out in the wasteland. They're supposed to be my little army, to protect and serve ponykind, but it seems everything went awry the more complicated they became."
"I don't think they follow Institute order anymore," said Ashe Erza. "They go by their own rules now."
"Well it still seems they have a hierarchy structure put in place, which is one rule I know I programmed in."
"It's strange that you made a real pony into a Magistrate." said OJ.
"Actually, those are the only ponies that can be made into Magistrates. Their magic is so complicated it requires the true essence of an actually pony to create it. They're one step below an alicorn synthetic."
"I still can't believe alicorns are synths." said Capper, "Even after all this time being awake myself."
"Are you guys all set?" asked Nexus, making some last minute adjustments to the computer.
"More set than you can imagine!" Pumpkin Spice was bouncing up and down in place.
"What she said," Combat stated.
"Good, then I'll see you guys real soon?"
"Of course," Ashe Erza inclined her head before we all stepped through the teleporter and out into Sanctuary. The only pony who didn't come with us was Riggs, he wanted to stay with his son.
Press was first to greet us, "Pone, y'all been gone for a little while. Did you make it to the Institute?"
"Yes we did," I said.
"What's it like?" asked Press.
"It was somethin' alright!" Pumpkin bounced on by.
"It was really really fancy," OJ said.
I said, "It was shiny, if anything."
"Sounds like you guys had a time." Press backed up as we all came through the fast travel gate.
"Oh, we most certainly did," Ashe Erza correlated.
"Anything new on the agenda?"
"What can you tell us of the memory sphere factory?" Buck asked and I followed them to the greenhouse. Time to formulate a new plan.
"I can tell you the Back Bray is crawling with ashlings and darklings. It won't be easy getting in once you're there," said Press.
"I'm sure nothing in the wasteland is easy," Ashe intoned.
"That's very true." Press said and he looked over the map on the makeshift warroom's table. "Here's Good Neigh-Boar, if you go just north of that you'll hit the factory you're looking for." He showed us on the map, pointing it out with his hoof.
"Simple enough." Ashe Erza nodded.
"I hope you guys know what you're doing." Press was worried for us.
"We know exactly what we're doing," Cherry said firmly.
It was time to get a move on, and we all stepped through the fast travel gate for Good Neigh-Boar. Whoever was setting up these gates had been busy. It was a good thing, and we were all glad to see the Minute Hooves maintaining control over Broncston. It was too bad we hadn't yet stopped the ashlings. I wondered where Circle of Ash and Ritual of the Moon were now. I suppose there would be time to think on that later.
We promptly left Good Neigh-Boar and made our way north for the memory sphere factory. It loomed over us when we approached and I could see beyond the walls were darklings, ashlings and Circle of Ash synthetics waiting for us. The fence crackled with electricity so this place must run on its own generator.
"We all need to be careful here," said Ashe Erza, "I don't want anypony getting hurt."
"None of us want that," said Buck.
"We'll be fine!" OJ yipped.
We went in guns blazing, it was Combat's idea. Sometimes the quickest way inside was to just push head on. I agreed with that. I aimed my revolver at the first ashling I saw and blew his brains out. Next came a couple synthetics. They had their weird Institute energy weapons. I threw up a magical barrier just in time but I was still pushed back. I bumped into a car and growled as I enhanced my bullets magically and fired on the two synths pushing me back.
"Get the buck away from me!" I yelled. They went down in a spray of crackling electricity. These must've been floor models because that had been easy.
Then the darklings that waited for us in front of the doors. We used our collective magical energies and a beam of light shot from all of us. The darklings were toast. "There's nothing we can't do if we work together!" yelled the Colonel.
"Keep pushing!" yelled Buck as more darklings appeared, swirling up in front of us and trying to absorb our magic. At first it looked like they would succeed, but then they all began to go up in smoke, swirling energy that was lost to the void. They were gone and the doors were busted down.
"Good work everypony!" called the Colonel and we followed her and the Guardian inside.
"According to my map the main supply of unused memory spheres would be kept behind the factory floors, in a storage locker." I said, scrolling through my EFS maps. I blinked and it went away.
"We'll split up and grab as much as we can then meet back in the parking lot." said Buck. "OJ, Wonder, Pumpkin Spice, with me."
"Combat, Cherry, Salem, this way," Ashe Erza motioned for them.
Felia Heart and Joyride followed me, Capper and Cheshire. Cheshire floated through the air in front of us, taking point. Capper and I walked side by side, he held a pistol in his grip, pointed up as we walked through the dark halls. I had practiced using levitation magic and held the revolver in my magical grip.
We came to a hallway that had been devastated by carnage and it made me wonder what had happened here. Then we came across the bodies, raiders who had been slain by the Circle of Ash in order to claim this place. I wondered what they wanted with memory orbs then I though, if we could use them to uncorrupt a synth then it was entirely possible the Circle of Ash was using them to corrupt their synths. It would certainly be easier than convincing a good pony to use evil magic like the moonstone. I did have to wonder how Priscilla came to use the moonstone and hoped she could be saved.
We came to the factory floor and I held up a hoof to indicate we should all halt. Cheshire circled back and perched on Capper's shoulder. It was interesting that he still had the same powers, even though he now had his own physical body. Just how life essence worked I supposed.
There were two ashlings ahead of us and they were speaking in hushed tones. I couldn't hear what they were saying. They both held a staff in their magical grips and they were getting closer and closer to each other, performing some sort of ritual. "Hey!" I shouted, interrupting them. They turned to us.
"Oh dear, looks like we've got some wayward ponies." said one, a mare.
"And a couple of kitty cats." said the other, a stallion.
"Big mistake!" called the mare and pointed her staff directly at us.
"Time to shatter their world. Fulminating Darkness!" the staffs touched and an orb of pure dark energy began to form.
I heard Joy yell behind me, "Exceeded form!" and saw Felia floating in her magic drift out to the factory floor. Joy formed white orbs of magic in his fists, floating in front of us ready to battle. That's when something that looked like a dragon formed in the middle of the room, made of pure dark magic.
"Shit," I said.
"We can do this," said Capper.
"Good optimism," I nodded to him. "I love you."
"I love you too."
Then we were at it. The Cheshire cat used his magic to enhance both Capper and I and we sent waves of mana at the dark dragon. It roared and the magic was sent back at us. "Okay," yelled Capper as we dodged it, flying in two opposite directions, "Maybe it's immune to magic."
"Let's see how it likes guns," I lifted my revolver and shot at the dragon.
"We may yet need a vorpal sword to defeat this jabberwocky," said Cheshire.
Joy yelled down to us, "Hey! It's emanating from the staffs! We need to separate them!"
"That'll be a task," I said as I saw the two ashlings guarding the staffs. "Capper, you and Cheshire distract the ashlings, I'll keep the dragon off of Joy and Joy," I looked up at him and he looked back at me, "get those staffs!"
I kept the dragon busy while the others went off on their ways. I knew my magic was ineffective but at least I'd keep him busy while Capper and Cheshire attacked the ashlings and Joy went for the staffs. The dragon breathed my magic back at me, and I just narrowly avoided being bombarded with a megatude of fire spells. By Faust! I went into a roll and was on the opposite side of the factory floor. I was near a conveyor belt and I hopped on top. The dragon chased me down.
I ran down the way and the dragon chased me onto the belt. Then I activated it, putting it in reverse and waiting until the very last second to jump off. The dragon was sucked into the belt and it screeched in pain. It spun round and round the belt loop until it was finally spit out and he crashed into the wall. I whooped, just having beat the dragon's ass. It looked like it wasn't getting up and Joy grabbed one staff and hurled it across the room. The dragon slowly faded into nothing. Then the five of us cornered the two powerless ashlings.
"We surrender!" yelled the mare, backing away.
"I give up!" the stallion was visibly sweating. The two of them ran for it.
"Time to get those memory orbs." I called to the group and we went toward the storage lockers. The door was unlocked thankfully. Ashe Erza and her group were inside.
"Why hello slow pokes," she said, pausing in her task of shovelling a bunch of orbs into a saddle bag.
"Slow pokes? We just slayed a dragon and sent two ashlings packing!" Joy was exasperated.
"I only kid. We just got done defeating an ashling ourselves." Ashe Erza nodded towards her group.
"Tell me about it." I rolled my eyes.
"Okay! I shall!"
"Oh no I didn't mean—!"
Ashe Erza
Present Time, 20 minutes ago.
We split off from the main group, heading straight ahead. We came to a section of offices where we could hear somepony talking. We stopped, and waited. "Chamberlin, please shut up about the Magistrate!" came a high pitched stallion's voice. "I know you accomplished a great feat in forcing her hand, but I just don't care to hear it one more time."
"One more thime you sssay?" lisped another stallion.
"No! Oh Faust shut up."
"Don't thell me to shuth up, Media."
"How about both of you shut up!" I yelled as my group ambushed them. I had a spear in my hooves, pointed right at the one called Media. Media had snakes for a mane instead of a normal mane and the snakes all hissed at me.
"Oh Faust, now this!" Media rolled his eyes and ducked, and when he came back up he grabbed my spear and did a side roll, yanking it from my hooves. Then the spear was pointed at me.
"How dare you!" I yelled, and requipping, the spear disappeared, replaced by two short swords with curved blades. I also had on warrior's garb instead of armor. "Don't fool with me!"
"I call upon ancient spirits, darklings rise!" Chamberlin was floating in the air and his eyes were glowing white. The room filled with a terrible hissing sound.
"Snakes!" Cherry yelled and jumped back.
"The fucking darklings are snakes!" Combat snapped and stomped on one. It disappeared in a cloud of pitch black smoke.
Salem was hissing and his eyes were glowing orange with fire magic. He had fists raised and he called, "Don't cross a black cat, it's bad luck you know." then he tossed the fireballs and a few snakes were burned up.
"How could you!" Media snapped, his snakes all baring their fangs. "They aren't just any snakes. Chamberlin, now!" he looked up to the floating pony.
"I call on the Basilisk!" that's when the snakes began to writh and form into each other, connecting and forming through the shadows in the room. It didn't help that Salem had flickering flames on his paws. The snakes formed up and now were one giant snake.
"For crying out loud!" Cherry jumped back.
"What? Afraid of snakes?" I asked and requipped once again. I was now holding a lance and wearing green leaf shaped metal plating skirts and leopard print colored armor. My Jungle Princess Gear.
"Maybe just a little."
"Not to worry," I lunged forward and jabbed the spear deep in the heart of the giant snake. It squirmed under my point but it did not die.
"Somepony get that floating guy!" Salem called, tossing some fireballs at Chamberlin. However, Media raised a hoof and a magical shield appeared to protect Chamberlin. "I stand corrected, somepony get the snake maned guy."
"You stand in the way of me and my memory spheres. I will not have this!" I requipped again and this time I was a ninja, throwing magically enhanced ninja stars and throwing daggers at my disposal. The shield was ripped to shreds and Media was pushed back. Salem held the Basilisk at bay while I barraged Media and Chamberlin. The Basilisk slowly dropped into piles of many snakes again and they were much easier to take care of. Media and Chamberlin each rose a hoof in surrender, a white flag appearing in Chamberlin's hoof, he waved it.
"Good! Then we understand each other. Go! Before I kill you both!" they ran off.
Ravager Blitzfire
Present Time
"Sounds like you guys had it covered."
"That we did," Ashe Erza was beaming, proud of herself.
We were done with our task of collecting memory orbs, and we met the Guardian and his group back at the front doors.
"How fares you?" asked Erza.
"We had to deal with a few darklings, but nothing too big. We found a room with some interesting stuff written on one of the terminals, we assume by raiders who once owned this building before the ashlings. Then we found a second storage locker with many unused memory spheres so all in all, everything went well." Buck informed us.
"That is good. I killed a snake today." Erza said proudly.
"That's…good." Buck chuckled lightly.
"I kinda wanna listen to DJ Pon3 on our way back to Good Neigh-Boar!" OJ said as we walked out the door.
"Go ahead," said Buck with a smile.
"Yay!" OJ turned on his Pip-Buck radio. DJ Pon3 triumphantly blasted and we were all happy.