"So what are we going to do now Flare?" Stardust asks me after we leave the Thorn.
"Well, Pon-3 asked for a favor. May as well do it now." I respond.
"And what did mom ask you?" Twilight asks me.
"Apparently, there is a Protostable that was for the original Pon-3 out here. Rumor has it that there are records in it that haven't been heard since before the war."
"Well, where is it?"
"It's a bit north-west of New Pegasus. Near a cliff." I reply.
"We still have a bit of sunlight. Maybe we can get there before the fall of night."
"Only if we hurry Shiara."
We all head out at a fast paced gallop, well, flight in my case. After a few minutes, Twilight thinks to me, 'Slow down hotshot." in a joking tone. I look back and notice that they are all a good 50 feet behind me. Seeing the opportunity, I decide to show off. I climb through the air, a trail of fire and heated air behind me. I do some loops, dives, and even manage to create my flaming tornado. When they pass under me, I fly back over them, but at their pace.
"Any more fancy tricks of yours you'd like to show off?" Stardust asks me sarcastically.
"Yeah, but they are a lot more fancy."
"Well then. Hay, will you look at that." Twilight says, looking in the direction of New Pegasus. I look over in that direction and see the beginnings of a pure white tower, where the massive elevator connecting New Pegasus to the ground was.
"I guess Pon-3 was right, they really are building an SPP tower out here."
"Good thing too, since the elevator went out as soon as Mr. Stable was disconnected." Twilight responds.
"Well, this is the place." I say, having arrived where my Pip-Buck told me to go.
"Not much of anything, just a cliff." Twilight observes.
"Well, the Protostable is supposed to be out here." I reply.
"Well, looks like it ain't." Stardust comments.
"Let's look around. I'll turn on Pon-3 for the time."
"GOOOOOOOD EVENING MIDDLE GROUND! This is DJ Pon-3 here bringing you the latest news and all the hits. Let's get to the news. It seems that Red-wing Lucy got her hunter, and an old friend by the sounds of things. And remember the reports of doppelgangers, turns out that they were the Changelings of today. Our favorite pegasus managed to kill one, so they can die. It also seems that the NCR is managing to get the Dam to work again, and they are getting more power than they used to. Lastly is that an investigative group from New Equestria has been spotted near the Flutterpeak Mountains. I guess that rumor about them thinking they found the resting place of Rainbow Dash is true. That's all the news for the moment, so enjoy some beats. This one is a rendition of a song that I sang with Pinkie Pie way back when, sung by every-ponies favorite post-war singer, Velvet Remedy!"
Suddenly, the cliff begins to open as the music begins to play. A few moments later, a steel wall with an image of a music note is revealed.
"This must be it." I comment.
"Well, let's go." Stardust says.
I trot up to a terminal on the side of the door and hit some buttons, opening the stable. The stable door slides to the side, revealing one of the Protostable of Parties. Inside, it was dark, and smelled of alcohol. I walk in and naturally, light up the room, revealing skeletons of ponies, all of who appeared to be facing the door.
"What do you think happened?" I ask.
"Who knows, but whatever it was, some of the skeletons look as though part of them was blasted away." Twilight suggests.
"Link us." I order to her.
'Done.'
'OK team, any we are looking for anything that could be used to store music records. Twilight, you go with Stardust and take the left. Shiara, you're with me. Twilight, how good are your at picking locks?'
'Well, I can use my magic to map out the lock, but the precision stuff, not the best at.'
'In that case, just teleport the safes to the atrium. We will all meet up there in 2 hours.' They all nod to me in understanding. I head out of the entrance room, into a hallway, and turn right. Shiara, of course, close behind me. If it weren't for my fire, we would have been entirely in the dark. Fortunately however, I am practically made of fire, giving ample lighting.
'Oh yeah. Everyone, try to find some sort of weapon that Stardust can use in close quarters without killing us all.'
'Roger.' Twilight thinks in response.
Shiara and I continue through the darkened stable, looking into rooms every so often, finding the occasional skeleton and a lot of empty bottles. At the end of the hallway was another split path. I headed right again and after a minute of walking, find a door that has Security on the sign above it. I open the door and see 10 security bots, and jump back out. Shiara sees my look of fright and pokes her head in.
'They are all deactivated. They won't turn anyone from living to dead.'
'Thanks Shiara.' I reply before heading back into the room. I trot up to one of the bots and investigate it. I find a hatch in the back and open it, finding a control panel. I hack into it, almost locking it down completely. I am able to make it friendly and then turn it back on.
"Hello sir. What can I help you with?" The robot asks.
"Tell me what last happened at this Stable." I order it.
"We received information that one of the inhabitants of this Stable was working for the zebras. Security conducted an investigation and found…Records not found."
"What was this purpose of this Stable?"
"The inhabitants of this Stable were directed by Stable-Tec to…Records not found. The inhabitants of this Stable instead researched sonic amplification technologies and weaponization technologies. They also spent a greater majority of their time partaking in recreational activities."
"Thank you."
"My pleasure sir. Have a nice day." The robot replies before wandering back through the door to security and wandering through the Stable. Shiara and I stay behind and I investigate the room. I find a safe and start cracking. I insert my grapples into the lock and see what I can do. After a few minutes and almost cracking my grapple tips, the lock clicks. Inside I find some old sparkle packs, healing potions, pre-war coins, and some sort of device that I have never seen before. The Pip-Buck doesn't recognize it either which is strange. I decide to put it in my pack just in case. I find some more safes and they only have coins and caps, not complaining. I head back out and go through the other side of the hallway. After a few minutes and more doors, I open one of the doors to find a mass of terminals.
'Found the computer mainframe.' I think to the group before linking into it. A menu pops up with the option:
Access Archives
I of course, access it and a sub-menu pops up.
Access Sonic Research Files
Access Recordings
Access History Files
I start by accessing the History Files. There are 10 files that I can access. Three of the catch my eye, that and the other seven were in the New Equestrian History class in New Cloudsdale. The first one that I pick is on the history of Protostables.
A Brief History of Stables: Vol. 8: Protostables., By Hearth Stone.
As I mentioned in my previous books, Stables are underground shelters, created by Stable-Tec during the great war, to protect pony-kind from any kind of disaster that could befall us. Stables can be found mainly in the country of Equestria, but there are some that are found outside of Equestrian borders. The Stables found outside of Equestrian borders are found either in the Middle Ground or the Sea-Pony Ocean. The most interesting ones are located in the Middle Ground. They are called Protostables, and are the most advanced stables ever built. Unlike normal Stables, Protostables don't have the cog doors that Stables and Submarine Stables have. The doors are instead based on the cutie marks of prominent ponies from the pre-war time period. Protostables also didn't have to undergo the same social experiments as the Equestrian Stables. They instead were dedicated to research and development of sciences using resources found during the war. They are also more secure, being locked from the outside with passwords. Caution must be taken when dealing with Proto
'Flare, we found a HUGE safe in the atrium, which seems to be a party room. Anyways, the safe is larger than an Alicorn so... can you come open it?'
'No problem. I'm just at the data center now and will be there soon. Just let me download some files.'
'OK, the atrium shouldn't be to hard to find. The music in here is very loud.'
'Got it.'
"Shiara, you go meet up with them. I'll be along shortly." I tell her. She nods to me and trots off, leaving me by myself with the terminals. A few minutes later, the downloads are done so I set out to find the atrium. The Stable is still pretty dark but thanks to my fire, I can see everything around me. I can see the skeletons of ponies, some with bottles near their hooves. As I go further through the Stable, I can hear music coming from further inside. A minute later, I can feels bass through the floor. I recognize the music playing as one of the Tavi and Scratch numbers Pon-3 played on the radio. A few minutes later, I see a door that had a sign above it that had been painted over. It now read "PARTY CENTRAL!" I trot through it and the music nearly deafens me.
'I CAN BARELY HEAR MYSELF THINK!' I think to the group.
'YOU'RE TELLING ME!' Twilight thinks back.
'WHERE IS THE VOLUME CONTROL IN HERE?'
'NO CLUE!' answers.
I fly over to the DJ stand and find the fallen skeleton of DJ, that even has a pair of sunglasses over its eye holes. I hook my Pip-Buck into the stand and look over the command prompt that comes up. I find the one that goes over the volume setting, and set the volume to mute. The room fall silent, and I can finally hear myself think.
"That safe I was telling you about is right behind you." Twilight tells me. I look behind me and see a huge safe, nearly twice as tall as I am.
"Let's do this thing." I say before I begin to examine the safe. The locking system is certainly pre-war, but at par with safes made today. "Can't be cracked through magic, but is pickable. It's going to be difficult."
"Well, good luck." Stardust tells me.
I turn back to face the lock, and insert my grapples. I tense one of my grapples, making it thinner, and relax the other, making it thicker. I move the thin one further in the lock, the hook of it nudging the tumblers. I leave the thicker hook at the entrance to the key-hole, keeping one tumbler in place. I nudge one of the further back tumblers, knocking it up in place. I bring it back to the next tumbler, knock it up, but it falls back down. A shock flows through my grapple, into me, making me jump. I shake it off and try again, with success. I move back again, and knock up another tumbler with success. I do the same thing again, and again, and again on the last one. I pull out the thin grapple, and turn the lock. The safe opens with a satisfying click. I nudge the safe door open and inside, must have been this Stables most impressive creations ever.
"What the hell is that?" Stardust asks, her mouth agape.
"It, my friend, is a mech suit." I reply. Inside the safe was a version of power armor that was twice as large as a normal pony. It was missing a head piece, but it has jets, and a massive battle saddle of what kind I have never seen. On one side was a much larger version of my rifle, and on the other, was some kind of weapon that I had never seen before.
"Twilight, can you..."
"Already on it." She answers my unfinished question, levitating the suit out of the safe. Now that the safe is in better light, mainly mine, I can see the rest of it. The unique weapon extends to be as long as the suit. The suit itself is colored black, with blue and green accents along the back and legs. It also has spikes at the joints, and the tail of the suit is surprisingly not there. On the front right leg, above the knee, is a gap in the armor, that has wires and other circuits surrounding it on the inside.
"Damn. This thing is easily more powerful and high tech than even some of the stuff coming out of New Equestria today." I comment.
"How does it work?" Stardust asks.
"Hell if I know, but it looks as though it has a Pip-Buck interface. Let me hook in." I answer before connecting to what appeared to be a Pip-Buck link. The suit immediately comes to life, the green and blue coloring glowing, both weapons glowing along power and magic conduits, green for the rifle and blue for the other weapon. The back splits open along the middle.
"Looks like a place for a pony to fit in, just deep enough to be snug. Also looks like its freezing up on the inside. Is it malfunctioning?" Stardust asks.
"I think that the suit is adjusting, for me maybe? Makes sense that it would super cool the insides so I don't melt it. I'm getting in." I say, disconnecting my Pip-Buck from the suit, dropping my weapons and armor, flying up to the opening, and falling in. It is very snug, especially with my wings folded at my side. My body instantly begins to heat it up, but is cooled by the suit itself. The suit connects completely to my Pip-Buck and a few new things appear in my vision. The E.F.S. is still at the top of my sight, but below it is a new gauge, and I have no idea what it means. Another gauge appears above my ammo count. It has a shield next to it so I presume that it is suit integrity. Lastly is an altimeter.
"Flare, I know why there is no tail." Twilight says. "It's because your tail is hanging out."
"Interesting." I reply. "Now let's see how this works." I move my front leg up and bend it back, and the entire suit leg does the same. The stranger thing is that my actual leg didn't bend at any of the joints. I walk around, and the suit moves for me, banging against the ground with each step. "Seems that it takes over my neural control and changes it to control the suit itself. Twilight, punch the suit." I tell her. She does and I feel it as though she punched my back leg.
"Did you feel that?" She asks.
"Eeyup. Hey, could you take the pyre-magic canisters and hook them to the side with the rifle. I saw a slot that should fit at least one."
"No prob." She replies. When she does, the ammo bar in my neural interface shows a second ammo type available.
"Thanks. Hey Shiara. is there anything more in the safe?"
"Yes indeed, something else inside. These must be the music records that they tried to hide." She answers in her rhyming voice, holding up a box of music records in her hooves.
"I guess now we can get on out of here." I say.
"I still can't believe you made it out here with that suit, let alone that you are going to keep wearing it." Stardust says to me, trying not to laugh.
"Yeah, well neither can I. And I am going to wear this thing for as long as I like. I needed new armor anyways, may as well use Protostable armor. Could you tell Pon-3 that we have the records please."
"Yeah sure. I'll also tell her that you grabbed a souvenir." She replies before wandering to the side.
"Thank you. I wonder if she knows what this other weapon is." I say, talking about the glowing blue gun.
"Try firing it off at something." Twilight suggests.
"Yeah, but what?"
"How about you fight something in the Thorn." Stardust suggests, getting back from informing the good DJ.
"Yeah, maybe in the morning. It's pretty late out here as it is." I reply. "You three get some sleep. I'll keep watch."
"Suit yourself." Twilight says with a wry smile on her face.
"Very punny egghead." I reply.
"Shaddup." She says before chucking a can of food at me. I extend my grapples to catch it, or I would have if they weren't inside the suit. Turns out, the suit has industrial chain link grapples instead, and I catch the can in one of the hooks. Using the other one, I punch a hole in the top and swallow the contents, heating them up and I eat them. I lay down in the suit as the girls go to sleep around me, since I generate the heat of a fire. While they are sleeping, I read through the other downloads that I got from the Protostable, informing me a lot about sonic sciences and how power suits work.
"My turn to stand guard hothead. You need to sleep to." Twilight says to me after she wakes up around midnight.
"Thanks." I whisper back, and fall asleep.
When I wake up, the sun is already up, and the girls are all getting ready.
"Ready to see what this bad boy can do?" I ask.
"Why not, then we can compare it to Sparky." Stardust answers back.
"Actually, I was thinking one quick fight in the thorn, and then heading back to New Pegasus to give Pon-3 the records.
"Welcome back Flare." Red-wing Lucy says to me as I trot up next to her. "How did you manage to get in here with that massive suit on?"
"Twilight teleported me."
"Well then. Can I offer you a fight?"
"Give me a Hell Hound, would you kindly."
"My pleasure."
I jump down to the arena, the ground still cracked from my fight with the mutant Changeling. My landing cracks the floor even more. A few moments later, the fence on the other side of the arena lifts up to reveal a Hell Hound, which charges straight at me at breakneck speeds.
"LET'S SEE WHAT THIS THING CAN DO!" I shout, rearing up on both hind legs, slamming them down directly in front of the Hell Hound, causing it to fly back. I slip in to S.A.T.S. and target the beast with the mysterious gun. Letting the system do it's thing, I fire the gun. and what happened next, was totally awesome.
*WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB*
A solid beam of blue energy shoots out of the gun, wavering like sound coming out of it. The beam rips straight through the Hell Hound, leaving only its feet where the rest of it was.
"HELLS YEAH!"
Level Up-Lv. 19.
Perk Added - Honey, Wheres my super suit?
You have learned how to operate a Mech Suit. You can effectively operate any power armor without penalties.
Stat Update:
Magic Weapons- 100%, Science- 90%, Lock-picking- 75%, Melee- 60%.