Title: Boundless (14) Author: BoundlessAnon Pastebin link: http://pastebin.com/KY86qiGg First Edit: Saturday 4th of February 2017 09:31:06 PM CDT Last Edit: Saturday 4th of February 2017 09:31:06 PM CDT The sun is setting outside, slowly casting the break room into ever darker shades. Boundless carries on, her voice softening. "Most mutants are sterile, of course. It's a testament to the Goddess' grasp of science that she could even produce mares at all. Her final years were dedicated to making us complete; finding a way that permitted her children to breed like any other race, so that we could secure a future for the Unity without needing to transform others. Together, we searched for an answer; we experimented. Decades of effort, dozens of lives, were poured into gathering every scrap of arcane science that could be found in the ruins of Equestria."   You sense a 'but' coming. Didn't she mention before that the Unity had been broken? The Goddess can't have taken that well.   Boundless hesitates, picking her words carefully. "...The Goddess, um, made mistakes in her choice of allies. Almost a year ago, before the skies were opened, she enlisted the help of others to seek magic and knowledge in places that the Unity couldn't reach. They turned on her, with overwhelming force. With her death, our Unity was shattered and we became individuals once again. She never knew that our efforts had at last produced a success."   Two successes, you start to remind her, only to be cut off by another bout of coughing. Boundless sniffs and gives you a little hug. "Yes, hon. Yes." She draws you closer, snuggling you against her chest. You're not sure if getting hugged by a giant mutant is going to do your radsickness any good, but hey, just one can't hurt. "That's why we're here, in seclusion. There are still many that would hunt us as monsters. Many of our sisters, in fear and submission, even allied with the ones that killed our Goddess. We can't afford to take risks."   Like hiring you? She gives you a little shake and rolls her eyes. "Maybe Auri's right, and I'm just too trusting sometimes. But after what you've done for us already, I don't think so. Not this time." She lets you down gently and winks, ruffling your mane. "Rest now, hon. Save your strength. Let's see how you feel in the morning."   ---   When you wake up, you don't exactly feel better. But you're not worse off, either. You've still got your hair and you're not a ghoul, so that's a win, and you got a blanket at some point during the night. Boundless helps you take a drink of water every so often, but most of the morning is spent wallowing in intestinal misery, punctuated by the occasional bout of vomiting. Auriga eventually wakes up as well, and insists on sitting up and testing her wing despite Boundless' insistence that she rest until she's fully healed.   "Sister, please. As broody as you may be, I am not a foal. There is no need to be fussy; you know I have survived worse than this."   Boundless rests her hooves on Auriga's shoulders. "I know. I also know that unless you're planning to go sit on the reactor and risk overloading yourself, injuries like that are going to take days to heal completely. Just rest for today at least, for goodness' sake."   Auriga shakes her head. "I cannot sit idle, Sister. Someone must stand guard. Besides, you should be the last person to lecture others on overloading themselves."   Boundless chuckles, releasing the purple mare and sitting back. "Was that *humor*? You're delirious, Auri." She sighs softly. "I suppose I can't stop you; just stay safe, please? Come straight back if anything happens."   Auriga rises to her hooves and nods, moving stiffly but with all her former poise and purpose. Her wing won't do her much good, but her horn lights for a moment as she tests her magic. It's weak, but working. She turns to you, looking down her nose imperiously. "Your help is appreciated, little pony. It seems that my sister's trust in you may have been warranted. Hopefully your recovery will not strain our resources too much." You mumble something that you hope passes for a polite response. From Auriga, you suspect that's the closest thing to a heartfelt thanks that you're likely to get. As she makes to leave, your position sprawled on the floor really throws into focus just how tall these alicorns are. Their horns fall an inch or two short of scraping the ceiling. Even injured, you imagine that Auriga could put up one hell of a fight if she were pushed to it. Barring the purple mare running into any more turret ambushes, at least you're relatively safe for now.   Corona comes back a few hours later, with a bag of assorted goods slung over her back. Much to your relief, it contains a couple more packets of RadAway; almost as good, she somehow managed to scrounge up some actual vegetables. Big improvement from the two hundred year old canned crap that's probably as likely to give you dysentery as nourish you. You write it off as something to look forward to; you won't be eating much solid food for a while, at least until your system's done flushing the rads out so that you can start to get better. That is, if Boundless doesn't devour it all first. Can't exactly blame her for wanting to eat everything in sight, radioactive or not.   Corona spends some time with you as well, still just as hyperactive as before. Apparently she kept herself from going stir-crazy in that lab office by reading the papers she'd looted over and over again. When you ask if she thinks it was all worth it, she grins and spreads her forelegs wide. "Yep! That lab was a subsidiary of the Ministry of Arcane Technology. They were studying ways to make magical waste useful - some of their work even went all the way to Maripony, where Twilight Sparkle herself worked! Basically they were feeding the waste through a series of arcanothermal conductors under extreme pressure and then introducing-" She carries on for a good ten minutes, with you nodding and 'mhmm'ing whenever she manages to stop and take a breath. Apparently she committed a good amount of the notes to memory.   "Ooh! I forgot to say thanks for the help back there! That was really tense what with the turret and the locked doors and the radiation and everything. Auri says thanks too, she's just bad at it and-"   Boundless shushes her. "Corona, please. He needs rest."   The blue mare huffs grumpily, folding her hooves. "Will he be leaving when he's better? We're paying him too, right?"   Boundless gives you a sideways glance. "Of course. As for staying... well, that's up to him, isn't it?"   Did she just wink at you? Corona goes on, oblivious, but you can tell that Boundless is hinting at something. She's been sitting awfully close all afternoon; you figured that she was just being all protective, but come to think of it, even now you can practically smell her.   Yeah, you could probably be persuaded to stick around for a while...