Orchid entered the room to discover multiple water devices (A bunch of Spa's) that she had no idea about. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she went into the room and stripped down. She needed a bath anyway, wanting to remove the dried blood from her mane. "This isn't like any bath that I've been in." As she got inside of the strangely larger bath, she felt the surprisingly warm water instantly remove the stress from her body. Not only did this feel amazing, but she noticed a button on a control panel. She wondered why such a strange bath would have a button, yet alone no bubbles. To operate bubbles for spa, please press button. Bubbles will be activated for a period of five minutes before entering a cool down period of fifteen minutes. Orchid was taken by surprise. “So this is a spa... I wonder what happens if I press the button then?” Just as she pressed the button, she was overcome in absolute ecstasy as the bubbles began to appear. She had never felt anything so amazing in her life. She leaned backwards and decided to take in the moment. "Oh Celestia! This is amazing!"
(Long post incoming!) "So wait, how are you still alive? After all this time?" The mare had Snow had learned was named Homage asked her, as a second mare trotted behind them, her face seemingly in a constant state of blush from being behind two mares who had their flanks exposed(Snow's was due to her adoption of the business suit she had found in the MAD facility, it was a simple suit with a white undershirt, no tie, and a unique Mark Co logo on it, the usual blue background white.), especially that of who Snow quickly deduced was her lover, she had yet to caught the mare's name yet, but for some reason...she felt a certain...weight to this mare, as if she was destined to do much more than Homage had brushed aside quickly as a "toaster repairpony", which in itself was laughable. "I was Equestria's brightest mind aside from Twilight Sparkle of that time, and from what I can recall, I wished for a solution better than the stables. A solution that meant that ponies could literally sleep through the apocylpse while the land healed. Put it simply; cryogenic frozen animation." Snow said, "I think I was the first successful run of CFA, and the only side effects I've had is the memory loss, which has been proven VERY restorable." Snow looked around, "You know, I knew the original DJ-Pon3..." She said, "Had a mane quite like yours actually, I find it appropriate." Snow winked at Homage, the moment she had seen the cutie mark, the connection in her mind had not been far, "You should really put something on before blindly answering the door." Snow continued, "Buut..." She gazed back at the cute little mare following them, "I can understand the distraction~" she teased. The squeak from the following mare was just barely audible as her face flooded with blush. "I can only imagine the things going through my little pervert's head~" Homage replied, instantly taking the opportunity to tease her lover. "Gah! I just can't catch a break can I!" The mare exclaimed in exasperation. Homage feel back and whispered something into the mare's ears, and the effect was immediate and obvious, mainly her legs suddenly giving out. Snow chuckled, "Sensitive one I see..." She mused before looking to Homage seriously, "Now, there is something serious I gotta tell you about. The ghosts of my past, namely, my weapons I designed. I know that neither of you have ever found a Mark Co weapon, and that's probably for the best.." She said slowly before continuing, "Homage, I know you probably know about the Commandos.," the slight nod confirmed it, "Well, guess what. Seems like a descendant of mine has formed a group based on my sister's Commandos from the war. Only these commandos....Well, you probably know they are mercenaries, but they have also shown me that they are....Tech hoarders...and not just any tech, MY tech. Tech meant to overwhelm any Zebra force, even on their home turf. And now...They have the most powerful weapon in the wasteland short a megaspell." both mares were at attention, they had been preoccupied themselves to notice the massive robot that brought Snow to Tenpony and threatened Red Eye's seige camp, "Well that's just perfect." Homage's lover complained, "First, Red Eye gets a megaspell that's now threatening this tower, now we got some Talon-Steel Ranger combo army with their own superweapon?" "And armed to the teeth with the only non-magical tech capable of surpassing arcano-tech in superiority. Armed with weapons that can kill and/or paralyze without even leaving a mark." Snow added. A pregnant pause fell over the room, "Is there...any worse tech that you developed that they could get ahold of?" Homage asked quietly. "No." Snow said, before adding, "Not unless they either get ahold of my PIN or somehow hack into Mark Co's High-Security Database. Which, to put it bluntly, is unhackable in any convient timescale, that being over 5 years, if you had a supercomputer dedicated to the explicit purpose of hacking the database." That drew a sigh of relief, "But they still have Equestria's Messanger, which we can't risk destroying. It could do so much good for the Wasteland..." Homage nodded slowly, "Thanks for the tip Snow, the Wastes could always use a heads up, and after the Commando attack on New Appleloosa several years back...well, let's just say a constant news request is updates on Commandos." "Oh, I do have a good bit of news, the majority of the Commando troops are out for the count for the next couple weeks due to burns from the Everfree." Another relieved sigh. Then Snow looked at the mare she had not gotten to know, "So...who are you?" "I'm Littlepip."
After what could have possibly been the single greatest feeling in her life, Orchid got out of the spa and put a towel around her flank and mane. Once she was dressed, the unicorn went across the tower to travel to her hotel room, Room 171. The room itself was pre-war luxury, leaving the impression that Orchid was temporarily living as a princess. Her half dry mane still dripped water, but not enough to cause another pony to slip. With Snow still at her meeting, Orchid took the time to gather her weaponry and supplies, fixing up any faults that her weaponry could contain while checking the price of her equipment. With the chaos in the city, she felt uneasy that Red Eye has a megaspell targeted at the city, and that she could be vaporised at a moment’s notice. Despite this grim thought, she dismissed it and levitated a novel to her, levitating it across the room before dropping on her lap. (I’ve completed my re imagining of Crimson and the Federation and so forth. I feel like I could include references to them in this RP, but there is not much point. I had a great idea for the next RP we do however. Thinking about an updated redo of 'The Great War' RP we did, the pre-war one and our first RP together. What do ya think ?)
(Hm...okay :3) Snow spent the next half hour chatting with Homage and Littlepip, getting to know the both of them, telling the two all she could about Mark Co and the dangers her leftover technology posed, and even got drawn into helping Littlepip think through some big plan of hers, she didn't catch much, just that it involved the balefire megaspell that Red Eye's forces had and using it against some unknown (well, unknown to Snow), monster. Snow eventually said goodbye to the two nice mares, now feeling confident that she had just been in the presence of a pony determined to make the Wasteland change for the better, and that inspired her. She would have to redeem herself, she had to play her own role in this, to make up for all the terrible things she did pre-sleep in the name of progress. she eventually found the room that Orchid had gotten then, opening the door to see her companion's mane done up in a towel and curled up on a couch, reading. "you know.,. you look kinda cute right now, out of all that armor and all." Snow blurted, and instantly covered her mouth with a hoof, Oh Celestia, why did I say that?! she thought to herself
Orchid noticed Snow walk into the room, only to see the white mare on the other side of the room covering her mouth and raised an eyebrow. "What's the matter? Swallowed a parasprite...about to barf....never mind." the mare joked. Orchid put her book down, which was actually an old copy of Sword Mares, a pre-war comic book for fouls. Even through she looked mature, she was always a child at heart deep down inside. With her never having a real childhood, she kept whatever toys she could find in Fillydelphia, regardless of age demographic or gender. As a foul, she pretended that a rattler was actually a magic wand alongside other ideas out of her imagination, and that a plastic sword for boys was an enchanted sword to use against 'The Evil Witch'. This fascination was one of the reasons she never really grew up, even through she was well into her 20's. "Hope your meeting went well." Orchid replied before having a sly smile across her face. "See anything interesting during the talks?"
"Well, I didn't get a chance to see anything, but I did have a nice chat with mister DJ-Pon3, which honestly didn't lead to much beyond me learning more about the factions of the Wasteland and also about this one mare who's heroics he's been following that he likes to call "the Stable Dweller" and "Bringer of Light", and I got to tell him more about my tech, the danger it posed, and that the Commandos are in Manehatten and have the Equestria's Messanger." Snow said, quickly recovering from her earlier embarrassment as she noticed Orchid pull up a copy of Sword Mares, a sight that drew a slight chuckle from her before continuing, "It also seems like our "friend", the Soldier, is as good as he protrayed himself. The good DJ told me about how he attacked New Appleloosa about 7 years back with the goal of wiping out the town and keeping its water talisman. And his little fight with Red Eye isn't much beyond almost a game continuing from when the Soldier made a raid on Fillydelphia to ensure Red Eye would never get into the Mark Co Manufacturing Facilities there." Snow let out a breath, "Also apparently his toaster's been on the fritz." She added jokingly, in secret reference to Littlepip, "Anyways, how about for you? Been up to anything interesting?"
"Well..." Orchid began. "I finally discovered what a 'Spa' is, and it's one of the most amazing things I've ever felt. Other than that, I got ourselves a room then went to sell some supplies, which actually sold like wildfire to the customers. Other than that, nothing particularly interesting about what I've done. You were busy discussing ways about saving the wasteland, I was busy soaking myself with....whatever those bubbles were."
Snow chuckled and sat next to Orchid, "You got the better end of the deal, trust me." Snow told her, "The DJ's a bit on the weird side." She was lying through her teeth of course, but she had to maintain that DJ-Pon3 was exactly who she presented herself as to the Wasteland, "But then again, not much came from it." Snow shrugged, "I guess our next move should just be to try to figure out what's all going on in the Wasteland, because the little voice in my head says something big is in the works, especially after what the DJ told me."
Orchid paused for a moment before she decided to speak up. She was clearly annoyed, but she knew what could be going down. "It's Red Eye....isn't it." Orchid then got out of her chair and levitated her revolvers to her, loading several rounds of ammo into the chambers. Her happy mood turned into frustration, she wanted to put the tyrant into the ground. If something big was going to go down in the wasteland, it was very likely that it was because of him.
Snow shook her head, wrapping Orchid in a magical field and pulling her back, "No, now, I wasn't told exactly what is going down, and while yes, Red Eye does have his own part, it has more to do with an apparent surge in alicorn activity. That's all." Snow told Orchid, leaving out mentioning the Goddess. "Besides, attacking Red Eye's forces or Fillydelphia would be suicide." She said bluntly. She decided to trot over to the room radio, "In the meantime, let's just try to relax these next couple days?" She turned on the radio "-a! Bit of news! Now listen close kiddies, 'cause this is an interesting bit." DJ Pon3's voice filled the room, "Now, I would be willing to bet that the oldest pony any of you, who have been kind enough to be a friend to them, have known has been a ghoul. Now, here's the interesting part; I was just visited by a pony who was entirely not a ghoul, who had lived in the time of the War? Impossible, Pon3! Ain't nopony that old! You might say, but I'm telling you, she was. And she apparently owned that strange company I'm sure anypony who's done a bit of exploring might have come across tech from, or who those folks in the Commandos like to draw origins to. That's right, Miss Mark herself. But she unfortunately became the bearer of bad news after I told her what was what in post-apotyliptica. That's right, the Commandos are in Manehatten, all of them, and apparently now armed with some doomsday giant robot. And just when you thought Red Eye the balefire bomb weren't enough..,.In other news..."
“Well... I’ll be damned.” Orchid replied, levitating her weapons to the side as they returned back to where they came. “I can only imagine the response that this is going to bring across the wasteland. Could cause uproar, could cause surprise. Either way, it’s mealy the calm before the storm. Alicorn’s....Slavers...it’s connected somehow...I just can’t figure out how yet.” (Time-Skip a few days?)
(Sure) "The slavers...they're retreating!" A pony called out in the market of Tenpony. Snow gave Orchid an astonished look before following the flood of ponies towards the windows, noticing on the way the tail of a certain Pip, but deciding not to greet her. Snow turned her gaze to the window to see the river of torches flowing away from Tenpony, leaving a much smaller, but still significant, and permenant, seige force behind. "A tactical force reduction isn't a retreat.." Snow noted aloud, "If you ask me, it's because they are scared of the commandos and the giant death robot and would rather not have such a large force in danger..."
Orchid rushed towards the window the moment that Slavers were mentioned, watching with a wide smile on her face. The Slavers were now much shorter in number, short enough for Orchid to simply wipe out herself with relative ease. "And they have every right to be scared." Orchid replied back. "I wonder if they are returning to Fillydelphia. The last thing the wasteland needs is those soldiers to take another town hostage."
Snow pursed her lips, she couldn't tell Orchid exactly what she had been told of the plan Littlepip was making, but...maybe some generic details, "Maybe...Since he's trying to burn down the Everfree...maybe he's moving soldiers to occupy it now that he knows for certain that the Commandos are gone. But I don't suggest getting our hopes up to go down there and try to attack them, they likely have a weapon pointed at every possible exit even still, and probably alicorns. Plus, it is very likely that will just piss off Red Eye and drive him to use that balefire bomb." She said to Orchid.
“Your right...” Orchid replied, looking downwards at the bottom of the tower. “There are not complete idiots like Raiders; they know how to fight to some degree. I’m still cautious about the Alicorn’s that Red Eye has, then there is that damn balefire bomb. If he detonated that...” Orchid stopped herself, taking time to think about what she should say next. Or if the scenario in her head was going to be like the real thing. “Either way, bad news.” The light purple Unicorn replied. “Any particular course that we should take now ?”
"Well, there is one..." Snow started, she knew they had to get out of here tomorrow in order to start the plan she had in mind, "I'll just need to make a couple more arrangements first, like talk to Pon3 again. And also we need somewhere a bit more private for me to tell you more."
Orchid had a sly smile on her face. "Meet me downstairs when you're done. I know a place." Orchid got herself up from the couch, went downstairs, and went downstairs to the main lobby.
45 minutes later Snow trotted towards the meeting point with Orchid after a final session of planning with Homage and Littlepip, the plan was...ambitious to say the least, especially on Littlepip and her companions', who Snow had yet to see, part. But then again, Snow's part wasn't nondangerous either, namely "keeping the Commandos and Red Eye busy and making sure Mark Co tech gets in the right hooves" part. For now, that meant keeping Red Eye and the Commandos at war. Snow eventually found Orchid in the lobby, "Okay, my part's done. Where's this hidden place you had in mind?" [Meanwhile] The Soldier stared out at Washingcolt Bridge from the Fetlock side, one of the 3 intact bridges on and off Manehatten Island, and he knew one third of Red Eye's redeploying forces where coming this way, with the idea of taking Stable 29 and have a secure supply base in Manehatten; that couldn't happen for obvious reasons. The fifty combat-ready Commandos had hidden, entrenched positions in a semi-circle around the bridge big enough to where not a single soldier would be on the Manehatten Island. The Messanger stood silently in front of the bridge at the "key" to the ambush arc, concealed by it's invisibility spell, which could only work with it at rest. The first lead elements of the army began to cross the bridge...
"It's inside a small building, about a block away. It's been abandoned since the war, and the entire surrounding area around it is merely lifeless. That should be good enough." Orchid replied, before the two mares headed towards the location. Once there, Orchid made sure that nothing was around and that they were not being followed. Once the coast was clear, she nodded before turning around to face Snow. "Alright, nothing is alive around here. What did you want to tell me?"
