“Clock is ticking, Twilight! Clock! Is! TICKING!”
"时间不等人，暮光之城！时钟！伊丝！滴答作响!"
Sanguine grabbed the bleeding Charity by her mane and leapt out through the hole in the wall. I looked over at the struggling Glory and shouted over the din, “Lacunae! Get those off her!” Five words. Five little words. Then I was off, racing through the rainy night towards the bridge as fast as my cyberpony legs would carry me. I didn’t slow, even as he did ahead of me; he turned to face me, but I didn’t let him get one word out before I tackled him away from the prone filly. Smashing and kicking with my metallic limbs, I drove him back.
桑吉尼抓住那个流血的查瑞蒂的鬃毛，从墙上的洞里跳了出来。我看着奋力挣扎的晨辉，在喧嚣中大声喊道:"缺陷！把那些东西从她身上拿开!"五个字。五个字。然后我就出发了，在雨夜以我的赛博马腿最快的速度向桥冲去。我没有慢下来，即使他在我前面;他转过身来面对我，但是我没有让他说出一个字，直到我把他从俯卧的小母马身边抱开。我用我金属般的肢体猛烈地撞击和踢打，把他赶了回去。
Pink vapor erupted from his mouth, but I knew that trick now. I held my breath and leaned my head away; it burned. Burned like nothing I’d ever felt before. But I couldn’t worry about that as I kept focusing on moving him back and away from his hostage. Glory landed and immediately put a healing potion to the filly’s lips.
粉红色的水蒸气从他的嘴里喷出来，但是我现在知道这个把戏了。我屏住呼吸，把头靠向一边;它燃烧着。我从未感受过的灼烧感。但是我不能担心这个，因为我一直把注意力集中在把他从人质身边移开。晨辉降临了，立刻给小姑娘的嘴唇注射了一剂治疗药水。
“You fool! Give me the program!” he screamed in maddened fury.
"你这个傻瓜！把程序给我!"他愤怒地尖叫着。
“Only thing you get… is… mercy!” I shouted as I gave him one final applebuck that sent him flying across the word painted on the bridge. There was a red glow from the wall, then a blinding flash, and Sanguine was reduced to so much ash and washed into the river. “And you don’t even deserve that, you undead fuck.”
"你唯一能得到的......就是......仁慈!"我喊道，我给了他最后一只苹果鹿，它飞过了桥上画的单词。墙上发出一道红光，接着一道眩目的闪光，桑吉纳被冲成了这么多的灰烬，冲进了河里。"你根本不配，你这个不死的混蛋。"
I limped back to where Glory was getting Charity to her hooves. “Took you long enough,” the filly said, still a bit weakly. “I should be chargin’ you a hero fine for taking so long.”
我一瘸一拐地回到晨辉正在给她做慈善的地方。"你花的时间够长了,"小姑娘说，仍然有点虚弱。"我应该向你收英雄罚款，因为你花了这么长时间。"
“I… I came as fast as I could!”
"我.....。.我已经尽快赶来了!"
“Yeah, yeah… sorry, not buying it. Five hundred caps.”
"是的，是的......对不起，我不相信。500顶帽子。"
“Oh, come on!” I whined. Glory smiled and we trotted back towards Chapel together.
"哦，得了吧!"我抱怨道。晨辉微笑着，我们一起小跑回教堂。
~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~
Yeah… why hadn’t I done that?
是啊...我为什么没这么做？
I lay on my back on Marigold’s bed, staring at the stars painted on her roof as I held the Rarity figurine to my chest. Right this second, Sanguine was doing whatever nefarious thing he’d been planning. Some horrible monster in the Hoof had woken up, and it was apparently my fault. Priest was rotting. Scotch was way more traumatized than she showed. P-21 was in shock. Glory was trying to hold us all together like a great big dysfunctional surrogate family. Even Rampage was hurt badly by the loss of Priest.
我仰面躺在玛丽戈尔德的床上，盯着画在她屋顶上的星星，把那个稀世小雕像放在胸前。此时此刻，桑吉恩正在做他计划的任何邪恶的事情。霍夫号里有个可怕的怪物醒了过来，这显然是我的错。普里斯特正在腐烂。苏格兰人的精神创伤比她表现出来的要严重得多。P-21受到了惊吓。晨辉试图把我们团结在一起，就像一个庞大的、功能失调的代理家庭。甚至连狂暴也因为失去牧师而受到严重伤害。
What does it mean when the sanest one of us is the alicorn who’s the depository for Celestia-knows-how-many-ponies’ unhappy memories?
当我们当中最理智的一个是塞莱斯蒂娅知道多少小马的不愉快记忆的存放处的阿里康时，这意味着什么？
I knew I shouldn’t do this. I knew that I should be talking with my friends… or working towards something… or… something… but not this. I couldn’t help myself. I closed my eyes and sighed.
我就知道我不该这么做。我知道我应该和我的朋友们交谈...或者朝着某个方向努力...或者...某个方向...但不是这个。我情不自禁。我闭上眼睛，叹了口气。
I’d failed.
我失败了。
That in itself wasn’t anything new. In fact, I was quite the expert at screw ups, fuck ups, and various associated mistakes. But something about what had happened on that bridge bothered me in ways that failing to get out of hoofcuffs didn’t. It was sticking with me, and I couldn’t just shake it off. I lay there, knowing what I needed to do. It was just me having to get off this mattress and do it.
这本身并不是什么新鲜事。事实上，我是搞砸事情、搞砸事情以及各种相关错误的专家。但是在那座桥上发生的一些事情让我很困扰，因为我无法挣脱马蹄的枷锁。它一直缠着我，我无法摆脱它。我躺在那里，知道我需要做什么。只有我不得不离开这个床垫去做这件事。
But I couldn’t.
但我做不到。
I needed to chase down Sanguine. I needed to be there for P-21 and Rampage. I needed to make sure Scotch was okay. I needed to take some of the weight off Glory’s shoulders. I was drowning in all the things I needed to do. And all I did was shift on to my side and curl up. I wanted the Dealer to appear and say whatever I needed to hear to get moving again.
我得去追桑吉尼。我需要在那里参加P-21和狂暴行动。我得确保苏格兰威士忌没问题。我需要从晨辉的肩上卸下一些负担。我被所有我需要做的事情淹没了。我所做的就是侧身蜷缩起来。我希望经销商出现，并说任何我需要听到的东西，以便继续前进。
I had to get moving again. Because, as I lay there, I felt my mind sinking into
我必须再次行动起来。因为，当我躺在那里的时候，我感到我的思想陷入了
memories. Scoodle torn in two… why hadn’t I listened to her? Why hadn’t I been more cautious? Going into the tunnels and ignoring the risk… why didn’t we try and go around? Wait for Lacunae to fly or teleport us across? Convince Rivets… stop the Overmare...
记忆。史酷德被撕成两半......为什么我没有听她的？为什么我没有更加谨慎？进入隧道，无视风险...为什么我们不试着绕过去？等待空隙飞过或者传送我们过去？说服铆钉...停止Overmare..。
Failure was my special talent, and I was doing it right now.
失败是我的特殊才能，我现在就在做。
“Blackjack?” Glory said in her tiny voice. Brittle. I slowly lifted my head and saw her with a plate of blackened food. “I made you something… in case you were hungry.” She trotted over slowly and put the charred Sugar Apple Bombs and Sparkle-Cola RAD cakes on the mattress beside me. I suspected that the four forks were part of the meal. I closed my eyes and lay my head back down.
"黑杰克?"晨辉用她细小的声音说。布里特尔。我慢慢地抬起头，看见她端着一盘发黑的食物。"我给你做了点东西...以防你饿了。"她慢慢地跑过来，把烧焦的糖苹果炸弹和闪亮可乐RAD蛋糕放在我旁边的床垫上。我怀疑这四把叉子是这顿饭的一部分。我闭上眼睛，低下头。
“I’m sorry,” Glory said softly behind me. “If I hadn’t broken my rifle… you can’t really snipe with a gatling weapon… and he had the gun to her head…” She finally went silent. “If I’d jumped when P-21 did… gone left instead of right… I wouldn’t have gotten pinned. It’s my fault.”
"对不起,"晨辉在我身后轻声说。"如果我没有弄坏我的步枪......你不可能真的用加特林机关枪狙击......而他用枪指着她的头......"她终于安静下来。"如果我在P-21的时候跳伞......从左边而不是右边......我就不会被钉住了。这是我的错。"
Don’t let her do this. Don’t let her hurt herself. Hug her. Hold her. Tell her it was your fault. Try to make her laugh. Do something other than lie here! Move your ass and do something. Anything! But I couldn’t. Sanguine had won. I’d lost. I might have saved Charity, but somehow I’d lost what I’d been fighting for. Somehow, it’d torn all the guts from me and left me hollow.
别让她这么做。别让她伤到自己。拥抱她。抓住她。告诉她是你的错。试着逗她笑。除了躺在这里，做点别的吧！动动你的屁股，做点什么。什么都行！但我做不到。桑吉尼赢了。我输了。我本可以拯救Charity，但不知怎么的，我失去了我一直为之奋斗的东西。不知怎么的，它把我的内脏都撕碎了，让我感到空虚。
“I’m sorry…” she repeated, then trotted from the room. I clenched my eyes shut. I knew I wouldn’t sleep. I couldn’t use my horn to get away into a memory orb. Every second, Sanguine was getting farther and farther away and I was just lying here! Move, you worthless piece of shit! People need you. People believe in you! Do it!
"对不起......"她重复了一遍，然后小跑着离开了房间。我紧闭双眼。我知道我睡不着。我不能用我的号角逃进记忆之球。每过一秒钟，桑吉尼就离我越来越远，而我就躺在这儿！走开，你这个没用的废物！人们需要你。人们相信你！动手吧！
I moved. I carefully pushed the plate into the garbage bin beside the bed and then curled back up. I looked at the Rarity figurine. She seemed to understand wallowing in... whatever ponies wallowed in. She had wanted a different life; had things been different, would she have wed Vanity? Become a mother? Been known for her fashion rather than for being a Ministry Mare? But she had done what she had to do. She’d toughed it out. I closed my eyes again, pressing my face into my pillow.
我搬家了。我小心翼翼地把盘子推进床边的垃圾桶里，然后蜷缩起身子。我看着那个稀世小雕像。她似乎理解沉迷于...任何沉迷于的小马。她想要一种不同的生活;如果事情不一样，她会嫁给瓦妮特吗？成为一个母亲？是因为她的时尚而不是作为一个牧师的母马？但是她做了她必须做的事情。她挺过来了。我再次闭上眼睛，把脸贴在枕头上。
What was I doing? Moping in my room. I wanted P-21 and Rampage to come in here and kick my ass. Get me off this bed. Get me moving again. Something.
我在做什么？在我的房间里闷闷不乐。我希望P-21和狂暴来这里踢我的屁股。让我离开这张床。让我再次动起来。一些东西。
And then, as if reading my mind, I heard a soft knock, followed by, “Blackjack?” Rampage’s voice. I didn’t even take a look at her.
然后，我听到一声轻轻的敲门声，接着是"黑杰克?"狂暴的声音。我连看都没看她一眼。
Things I should be doing right now: not lying here. Helping my friends. Hunting down that murderous son of a bitch. Something! Every second I lay here, he was getting farther away… making new monsters… about to flee to Red Eye… something. Get me up, Rampage. Get me drunk. Something. Anything!
我现在应该做的事情:不要躺在这里。帮助朋友。追捕那个杀人不眨眼的混蛋。什么东西！我躺在这里的每一秒钟，他都在离我越来越远......制造新的怪物......准备逃往红眼......什么的。拉我起来，狂暴。把我灌醉。一些东西。什么都行！
Instead, she stood there for the longest time, and then she closed the door again. I guess there were some things Rampage couldn’t do after all. I curled up till my nose touched my hind knees. I felt like I had at Star Point, only not capable of blowing my brains out any longer. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to get off this bed and go do what I had to do.
相反，她在那里站了很长时间，然后又关上了门。我想有些事情是横冲直撞无法做到的。我蜷起身子，直到鼻子碰到后膝。我觉得自己就像在星点，只是再也不能把自己的脑袋打开花了。我不想死。我什么都不想做。我只想离开这张床，去做我必须做的事。
The Hoofington rain was pouring on the roof again. I was warm and dry, thanks to this gift from Priest. And here I was, moping and letting his killer get away. I thought of Dusty dying in my hooves and how disgusted she would have been.
胡芬顿的雨又打在屋顶上了。我感到温暖和干燥，感谢这个礼物从牧师。我闷闷不乐，眼睁睁看着凶手逃走。我想到达斯蒂在我的蹄子里奄奄一息，她会感到多么厌恶。
What is wrong with me, I thought as I clenched my eyes shut. Get up! Move your legs, you fucking loser! You fucking reject! You couldn’t save Scoodle! You couldn’t save 99! You can’t save anypony lying in bed, you dumbass! Move! Move! Go! Do what you have to do! Do it!
我闭上眼睛想，我到底怎么了。起来！动动你的腿，你他妈的失败者！你他妈的废物！你救不了史酷德！你救不了99个！你不能救躺在床上的小马，你这个笨蛋！快走！快走！走！做你必须做的事！动手吧！
Instead, I started to cry.
相反，我开始哭泣。
It’d been too much. Too much too fast… Not just my arrival back in the Hoof… but in Tenpony. And before that… on the boat… and then when I was trying to stop a war because I only had a few weeks to live. And the tunnel… P-21’s suicide attempt… Star Point… For the last month, I’d been hit again and again, but no matter how horrible it was, I’d always felt like I was keeping on my hooves.
这太过分了。太多太快...不只是我回到霍夫...而是在Tenpony。在那之前......在船上......然后当我试图阻止一场战争，因为我只有几个星期的生命。还有隧道......P-21的自杀企图......星点......在过去的一个月里，我一次又一次地被击中，但不管那有多么可怕，我总是觉得我在保持我的蹄子。
Of all the things I’d been through… this was what broke me? A bed?
在我经历过的所有事情中......这就是让我崩溃的原因？一张床？
Then the door opened a third time, and I felt his eyes on me. I knew they were hard and scornful. Hateful, even. I’d killed his first lover and now lay here crying when I should be going after the pony who’d killed his second. Do whatever you have to do, P-21. Anything. Yell at me. Hit me. Shoot me.
然后门又打开了第三次，我感觉到他的眼睛盯着我。我知道他们是冷酷无情的。甚至可以说是可恶的。我杀了他的第一个情人，现在躺在这里哭，而我应该去追杀杀了他第二个情人的小马。尽你所能P-21。什么都行。对我大喊大叫。打我。开枪啊。
“Blackjack… we’re going after Sanguine in the morning,” he said in a voice infinitely softer than I deserved.
"黑杰克......我们明天早上去追桑吉纳,"他说话的声音比我应得的声音轻得多。
I just sniffled like a loser. “I’m sorry. I keep thinking about what I should have done.”
我只是像个失败者一样抽泣。"对不起。我一直在想我应该做些什么。"
I wanted him to hurt me. I knew the perfect line: ‘Gee, Blackjack, I keep thinking about what you should have done too. Maybe… I dunno… not gotten the pony I loved killed? Again. That might have been a good idea.’ Perfect zinger right now.
我想让他伤害我。我知道一句完美的台词:哎呀，黑杰克，我一直在想你也应该做些什么。也许...我不知道...不会让我爱的小马被杀掉？再来一次。这可能是个好主意现在真是妙语连珠啊。
“We all are,” was what he actually said. He sat on the edge of the bed. Maybe he’d shove me off and beat me while he was at it. I hated myself so much that I’d beat myself if I could figure out how to move. Instead, he simply rested his hoof on my shoulder. “You don’t have to come with us.”
"我们都是,"他实际上是这么说的。他坐在床沿上。也许他会把我推开，趁他还在的时候打我。我非常恨我自己，如果我知道如何移动，我会打败我自己。相反，他只是把他的蹄子放在我的肩膀上。"你不必跟我们走。"
I froze, my eyes opening to stare at the wall. What?
我愣住了，眼睛睁得大大的盯着墙。什么？
“Scotch has your Delta’s PipBuck tag. Lacunae’s going over to the manor to soak up enough radiation to teleport us to Zenith Bridge to try and cut him off, and as soon as we get there, she’s going to find Stronghoof while Rampage rounds up whatever Reapers she can. We’ll get it back.” He patted my shoulder. “Rest. We’ll be back in no time.”
"苏格兰威士忌有达美航空的PipBuck标签。Lacunae要去庄园吸收足够的辐射把我们传送到ZenithBridge试图切断他的联系，我们一到那里，她就会找到Stronghoof同时狂暴收割者搜寻她能找到的所有收割者。我们会把它找回来的。"他拍了拍我的肩膀。"休息吧。我们很快就会回来。"
I shook under his hoof; I didn’t think I could tighten up any further. “I’m sorry, P-21.” Come on, P-21. ‘I’m sorry too. Sorry you’re a failure. Sorry I didn’t realize how weak you are. Sorry I never appreciated what a fuckup you are. Sorry you keep killing ponies I care about.’ Come on, P-21! Say it.
我在他的蹄下颤抖着，我想我再也勒不紧了。"对不起，P-21。"快点，P-21。""我也很抱歉。很遗憾你是个失败者。对不起，我没有意识到你有多软弱。对不起，我从来不知道你是个混蛋。抱歉你总是杀我在乎的小马快点，P-21！说出来。
“Don’t worry about it,” he said as he patted my shoulder again. “Rest up. We can take care of one ghoul.”
"别担心,"他边说边又拍了拍我的肩膀。"好好休息。我们可以照顾一个食尸鬼。"
Rest? Hadn’t that been what Tenpony had been for? Or was that just an opportunity for me to make a jackass of myself? Talk to him! Speak, Blackjack! Tell him to drag you along. Tell him to beat you with a stick. Get out of that bed!
休息？这难道不是Tenpony一直以来的目的吗？或者这只是我让自己出丑的一个机会？跟他谈谈！说话，黑杰克！叫他拉你一起去。告诉他用棍子打你。从床上起来！
Instead, I closed my eyes. “Sure.” Damn it, P-21. You promised…
相反，我闭上了眼睛。"当然。"该死的P-21。你答应过..。
He left, closing the door behind him. Maybe he was right. Maybe without me charging in all the time, they’d be better off. Zodiac had given her organs to the wrong pony. My mental paralysis fed my hate and my hate fed my paralysis. I had to move. I had to act… but I’d just get them killed. Hurt.
他走了，关上了身后的门。也许他是对的。也许没有我一直充电，他们会过得更好。十二宫把她的器官给错了人。我的精神麻痹滋养了我的仇恨，我的仇恨滋养了我的麻痹。我不得不搬家。我不得不采取行动......但我只会害死他们。受伤。
Because I was a fuckup.
因为我是个混蛋。
A failure.
失败。
* * *
* * *
I had no idea how long I lay there. I had no clock; my eyes were empty, familiar E.F.S. and annoying alert boxes alike gone. Scotch had tried to wire Marmalade’s PipBuck into my leg, but it’d produced some sort of feedback that felt like a drill was going through my skull. Glory could make better use of it anyway. But, eventually, all my hating and loathing was boiling down to one simple, fundamental truth:
我不知道我在那儿躺了多久。我没有时钟，我的眼睛空空如也，熟悉的e.f.s和恼人的报警盒都不见了。苏格兰威士忌曾试图把Marmalade的PipBuck接到我的腿上，但它产生了某种反馈，感觉就像一个钻子穿过我的头盖骨。无论如何，晨辉可以更好地利用它。但是，最终，我所有的憎恨和厌恶都归结为一个简单的基本事实:
I had to go pee.
我要去尿尿。
And that caused me to lift my head and slowly step off the bed and drove me… one step after the next… downstairs. The living room was empty save for Scotch and the strange dragon filly Precious curled up on the couch together. The dragon hybrid opened her purple slit-pupiled eyes and looked at me with cool detachment. I looked back a moment, and then she shrugged and lowered her head again.
于是我抬起头，慢慢地走下床，开车送我......一步接着一步......下楼。客厅里空荡荡的，只有苏格兰威士忌，还有一条奇怪的龙，小姑娘普莱舍丝蜷缩在沙发上。这只龙的混血儿睁开了她那双紫色裂缝状的眼睛，冷静而超脱地看着我。我回头看了一会儿，然后她耸了耸肩，又低下了头。
I stepped out into the drizzly, wet night and trotted away to do my business. The cold air was sharp on my skin, and I had to admit that I found the chill refreshing. It didn’t do much to get my mind off my problem, but as I looked up at the clouds over the city, their bottoms lit in that sickly green glow, I felt some of the weight on my mind shift. I didn’t feel any better, but at least for the moment I’d beaten myself up so much that I’d worn myself out.
我走出门外，走进下着毛毛雨的夜晚，小跑着去做我的事情。寒冷的空气刺骨地刺痛着我的皮肤，我不得不承认，我发现寒冷的空气使我神清气爽。它并没有让我的注意力从我的问题上移开，但是当我抬头看着城市上空的云，它们的底部在那令人作呕的绿色光芒中闪耀，我感到一些压在我心头的重量在转移。我并没有感觉好多少，但至少在那一刻，我把自己打得筋疲力尽。
Stepping back inside a moment later, I looked at the strange unicorn filly. She looked back at me. “Can’t sleep either?” I whispered, glancing at Scotch. The hybrid gave a little shrug. “Don’t talk much?” She resumed staring at me. I couldn’t help myself as I gave a little half smile and said, “Got some zebra in you?” That got me a sullen, half-lidded look. A little tongue of green flame was snorted in my direction. “Right. Good talk.” She lowered her head back down next to Scotch’s.
过了一会儿，我回到屋里，看着那只奇怪的独角兽小母马。她回头看着我。"也睡不着吗?"我低声说，瞥了一眼苏格兰威士忌。混合动力车耸了耸肩。"不多说话?"她继续盯着我看。我忍不住微微一笑，说:"你有斑马吗?"这让我看起来闷闷不乐，眼皮很紧。一个小小的绿色火舌向我喷来。"对。谈话很愉快。"她低下头，靠近苏格兰威士忌。
I trotted back up to the room. There was the mattress. It seemed to be pulling me towards it. Lie down, give up, give in... and I wanted to. I’d failed Dusty, Priest, and myself by letting Sanguine get away. Why hadn’t I tried to drag P-21 along?
我小跑着回到房间。还有床垫。它似乎在把我拉向它。躺下，放弃，放弃......我想。我放走了桑吉，让达斯蒂、普里斯特和我自己都失望了。为什么我没有试着拖着P-21一起走？
Why hadn’t I simply gone back for my bags? Said something to get him to take the gun off Sonata? The questions kept piling up and piling up; they made me want to scream. I looked at the mirror in the corner. At myself.
为什么我不干脆回去拿我的行李呢？说了什么让他把枪从索纳塔身上拿下来？这些问题堆积如山，让我想尖叫。我看着角落里的镜子。对我自己。
I felt such an absolute loathing just then. Not of myself, oddly enough, but of my cutie mark. An ace and a queen. What did that mean? That I was three cards short of a winning hand? That I was better off with card tricks? Was that my special talent? I should have a cutie mark of a dead pony… no… a dead filly torn in two. That would sum me up perfectly. ...Actually, no, this worked: even my cutie mark was a complete failure. I didn’t deserve it. It was all wrong for me and I hated it.
就在那时，我感到非常厌恶。说来也奇怪，不是为我自己，而是为我可爱的标志。A和q。那是什么意思？我还差三张牌就赢了？我最好还是玩纸牌魔术？那是我的特殊才能吗？我应该有一个死小马的可爱标记...不...一个死小母马被撕成两半。这就是我最好的总结。...事实上，不，这招奏效了:即使是我的可爱目标也是一个彻底的失败。这不是我应得的。这一切对我来说都是错误的，我讨厌这样。
There was a soft thump in the corner, making me jump a little. I looked at Octavia’s contrabass for the longest time; I supposed that, when I’d shut the door, it’d shifted and thumped against the wall. I walked towards it with hesitant steps and gently plucked the strings. I could almost imagine my heart, or whatever lump of machinery I now possessed in place of a heart, twanging in response. Another string. And another. I wasn’t really playing anything as I looked at the gleaming wires. Slowly, I stood it upright and reached over with my hoof to pick up the black-haired bow, still holding it as I had when I was all pony. I rested my cheek upon the knob of wood at the top for one moment, then started to play.
角落里传来一声轻轻的撞击声，使我有点跳了起来。我盯着奥克塔维亚的低音吉他看了很长时间，我猜想，当我关上门的时候，它会移动，重重地撞在墙上。我犹豫不决地朝它走去，轻轻地拨动琴弦。我几乎可以想象，我的心，或者我现在拥有的任何一个机器，代替了一颗心，作为回应，发出颤抖的声音。另一根绳子。再来一杯。当我看着那些闪闪发光的电线时，我并没有真的在玩什么游戏。慢慢地，我把它竖直站起来，伸出我的蹄子去捡起那只黑头发的蝴蝶结，仍然像我还是小马时那样拿着它。我把脸颊贴在顶端的木头把手上一会儿，然后开始玩了起来。
I didn’t have a particular song in mind, just letting the deep notes rise and fall however seemed natural at the time. It was sad music, but that seemed appropriate. I imagined that Octavia had always been a serious pony. Fussy. Like Velvet Remedy and P-21 combined. I imagined her practicing just like this; had she loved it? Hated it? No… I smiled a little to myself. She might have hated making music into a career, but she'd never hated the music itself.
我脑子里没有什么特别的歌，只是让那些深沉的音符在当时看起来很自然。那是悲伤的音乐，但似乎很合适。我想象着奥克塔维亚一直是一匹严肃的小马。大惊小怪。比如VelvetRemedy公司和P-21公司的合并。我想象她就是这样练习的，她喜欢吗？讨厌它？不......我对自己微笑了一下。她可能讨厌把音乐作为职业，但她从来不讨厌音乐本身。
Closing my eyes, I could imagine myself on a stage in front of thousands. Sometimes alone, where every note was criticized and analyzed. Sometimes with others, where the whole became so much more vital than the individual. I thought that Octavia would have preferred playing alongside others; I remembered how rich and how beautiful the instrument had sounded with Lacunae, Medley, and… Priest.
闭上眼睛，我可以想象自己站在成千上万人面前的舞台上。有时是单独的，每一个音符都被批评和分析。有时在别人身上，整体变得比个人更加重要。我原以为奥克塔维亚会更喜欢和其他人一起演奏;我想起了这件乐器在拉库奈、梅德利和......普里斯特的伴奏下听起来是多么丰富多彩、多么美妙。
For a moment, I stopped and just held the contrabass as if it were all that kept me upright. Right now, it probably was. The smooth wood was warm against my
有那么一会儿，我停了下来，只是拿着那条低音提琴，好像它是唯一能让我保持直立的东西。现在，可能是的。光滑的木头在我的衬托下显得很温暖
cheek. I hurt so damn much. I’d done worse than failed… I’d lost. But the cost of winning would have been two lives, not one. Couldn’t I take solace in that? Shouldn’t I? I felt an overwhelming urge then and there to put the instrument away forever. Give it to the Crusaders, who could appreciate it. Not me. Not now. Not ever…
脸颊。我伤得太重了。我做过比失败更糟糕的事...我输了。但是获胜的代价是两条生命，而不是一条。难道我不能从中得到安慰吗？我不应该吗？我当时就感到一种强烈的冲动，想要永远把那个仪器收起来。把它交给十字军战士，他们会欣赏的。不是我。现在不行。永远不会..。
My hoof must have slipped, because the contrabass gave another sour thrum as my hoof brushed it. I sniffed and, stilling a little, I straightened and lifted the bow once more. Again I played, and I imagined Octavia playing later in her life, after her peace concert ruined her career. I imagined her playing to smaller and smaller audiences. Dingier and plainer theatres. Then, one day, she was alone in her tiny apartment above Mixers.
我的蹄子一定是滑了一下，因为那条低音鲈鱼在我的蹄子碰到它的时候又发出了一声尖叫。我吸了一口气，停了一会儿，直起身子，再次举起船头。我又开始演奏了，我想象着奥克塔维亚在她后来的生活中演奏，在她的和平音乐会毁了她的事业之后。我想象着她为越来越少的观众演奏。丁格尔和普通剧院。后来，有一天，她独自一人住在米克瑟斯楼上的小公寓里。
Had she looked at herself then, seen her own cutie mark and felt the same sense of failure? So much work, time, and suffering, now all for nothing? I suspected she had. I suspected that she’d looked at her musical cutie mark and felt the same disgust I did. Had she raged? Had she wept? Or did she simply, silently, quit inside? Like me?
那时她是否看着自己，看着自己的可爱标记，感受着同样的失败感？这么多的工作，时间和苦难，现在却一无所获？我怀疑她有。我怀疑她看到自己音乐上的可爱标记时和我一样感到厌恶。她生气了吗？她哭了吗？或者她只是简单地，默默地，放弃了内心？像我一样？
I wondered if that was when Rarity had found her. Lost and alone and at her worst, Octavia had probably been thankful for any help that could be extended to her. I imagined her leaving with Rarity and, when she returned, struggling to make her music work. Hoofing it back and forth from Flank to the manor in the rain, taking the bus wagon whenever she could. Not giving up. Because as long as she was playing, there was hope. She was still Octavia.
我不知道这是不是雷诺发现她的时候。迷失，孤独，在她最糟糕的时候，奥克塔维亚可能已经感谢任何可以提供给她的帮助。我想象着她和稀少一起离开，当她回来的时候，努力让她的音乐起作用。她冒着雨在庄园里来来回回地走着，只要有可能就乘坐公共汽车。不要放弃。因为只要她还在玩，就有希望。她还是奥克塔维亚。
In those final minutes in her apartment in Flank, with radiation poisoning her, what had she played? I tried to imagine it, and my hoof moved accordingly. Regret came off the strings. Frustration marred the notes. But finally… finally… peace. Even as her body sickened and failed… peace. And then she’d neatly put her instrument away, sealed it up, lain down, and died. The last note seemed to echo forever in my heart long after my ears stopped hearing it.
在她公寓的最后几分钟里，辐射毒害了她，她玩了什么？我试着去想象它，于是我的蹄子也跟着动了起来。后悔来自琴弦。沮丧破坏了这些笔记。但是最终...最终...和平。即使她的身体已经病入膏肓......平静。然后她干净利落地把她的乐器收起来，密封起来，躺下，然后死去。最后一个音符似乎永远回响在我的心里，即使我的耳朵不再听到它。
“It’s not time to give up,” I whispered, not sure where the words were coming from as I rested my cheek on the strings. “You’ve come so far, and you have so much farther to go.” I stared at my reflection, at my cutie mark. “Priest wouldn’t want you like this. He knew you shouldn’t be here, alone, hating yourself. You know what you need to do… so… get off your rump and do it,” I said to my own reflection as I held the contrabass in my hooves.
"现在不是放弃的时候,"我低声说，不知道这些话是从哪里来的，我把脸贴在琴弦上。"你已经走了这么远，还有这么远的路要走。"我盯着我的倒影，盯着我可爱的印记。"牧师不会希望你这样的。他知道你不应该独自一人在这里憎恨自己。你知道你需要做什么......所以......离开你的臀部去做吧,"我对我自己的倒影说，同时用我的蹄子举着低音提琴。
The question was… how? I set the instrument in the corner and sighed. I wanted to just grab a bag of gems, climb up on the bed again, and munch on them till I didn’t feel anything anymore. I was a little snacky... then, as I started to suckle on a cinnamony ruby, I wondered if Spike liked rubies as well.
问题是...怎么做到的？我把乐器放在角落里，叹了口气。我只想抓起一包宝石，爬上床，咀嚼它们，直到我不再有任何感觉。我有点吃零食了......然后，当我开始吮吸肉桂红宝石时，我怀疑斯派克是否也喜欢红宝石。
I spat out the gooey, half-dissolved gem and stared at it a moment. Then I looked back over my shoulder at the door. What if… no, it was stupid. It wouldn’t help… wouldn’t work… but…
我吐出那颗粘稠的、半溶化的宝石，盯着它看了一会儿。然后我回头看了看门口。如果...不，这很愚蠢。没用的...没用的...但是..。
I trotted back downstairs, my bag of gems tossed over my shoulder. Carefully, I fished out an amethyst and extended the purple gem towards Precious. She looked at it skeptically, her horn glowed, and the purple filly floated it to her. She looked confused. I hoped this would work. I lifted my half-ingested ruby and popped it into my mouth. For a moment, she looked at me like I were crazy, then put the purple gem in her mouth. At once her eyes popped wide in shock.
我小跑着回到楼下，肩上挎着一包珠宝。我小心翼翼地掏出一块紫水晶，把紫宝石伸向普莱舍丝。她怀疑地看着它，她的角闪闪发光，紫色的小母马把它漂浮到她面前。她看起来很困惑。我希望这能奏效。我把吞了一半的红宝石拿起来塞进嘴里。有那么一会儿，她看着我，好像我疯了一样，然后把那块紫色宝石放进了她的嘴里。她的眼睛立刻因为震惊而睁得大大的。
Apparently, giving fillies mildly addictive substances was really effective! In another life, I must have been a Dash dealer or something. Two more gems later and she followed me back up into my room. “So… Precious… can we talk?” She gave me that confused and slightly guarded look. “I mean, can you talk? You seem to be understanding me so…”
显然，给小雌马稍微上瘾的药物确实有效！在另一个生活中，我一定是一个Dash毒贩或什么的。两个宝石之后，她跟着我回到了我的房间。"那么......普莉希丝......我们能谈谈吗?"她给了我一个困惑的，略带戒备的眼神。"我是说，你会说话吗？你似乎很理解我......"
She swallowed the emerald she’d been chewing on, then replied in a surprisingly soft voice. “Yes. I talk.”
她吞下了她一直在咀嚼的绿宝石，然后用一种令人惊讶的柔和声音回答。"是的。我会说话。"
“So… how’d Sanguine turn you into… this?” I asked as I gestured to her. She drew back, frowning. I raised my hooves. “Not that there’s anything wrong with you. I’m just wondering how it happened.” That mollified her enough that she relaxed.
"那么......桑吉恩是怎么把你变成......这样的?"我一边向她打手势一边问道。她向后退了退，皱着眉头。我抬起我的蹄子。"不是说你有什么问题。我只是想知道这是怎么发生的。"这足以使她平静下来，使她放松下来。
“Born sick. Bad bones. Doc made me part dragon to make me better. Ponies thought I was a freak. I am. Got in a fight. Doc put me to sleep.” She looked to the window. “Woke up… told me I had to help him… said no... he said he’d make me normal pony again.”
"生来就有病。坏骨头。医生让我变成半条龙让我好起来。小马认为我是个怪胎。是的。打了一架。医生让我睡着了。"她向窗户望去。"醒来后......告诉我必须帮助他......说不......他说他会让我再次成为普通的小马。"
“Well… that was nice of him,” I said, but she looked sour once again. “Saving you, I mean…”
"嗯......他人真好,"我说，但是她看起来又变得酸溜溜的了。"救你，我是说......"
“The pretty yellow pony lady talked him into it. I guess ponies and dragons don’t mix.” She looked at her spade-tipped tail. “When I got into fights with some
"那位漂亮的黄色小马女士说服了他。我想小马和龙是不能混在一起的。"她看着自己铲尖的尾巴。"当我和一些人打架的时候
ponies that teased me, I got put to sleep with the others.”
那些取笑我的小马，把我和其他马一起哄睡着了。"
“How’d you get to Chapel? Did you walk or fly or…”
"你是怎么到教堂的？你是走路还是坐飞机还是......"
“We went through tunnels. Bad scary tunnels. When we got outside, we met those kitty birds.” Tunnels. Crap. “We were walking a long time, though. Had to hide lots.” If my friends planned on tracking my PipBuck, then it would mean going back underground. Nothing good came from going underground in this place. Knowing Sanguine, he’d be setting up all sorts of traps and nasty things.
"我们穿过隧道。可怕的地道。当我们走到外面的时候，我们看到了那些小鸟。"隧道。该死。"不过，我们走了很长时间。不得不隐藏很多东西。"如果我的朋友们计划追踪我的PipBuck，那就意味着要回到地下。在这个地方转入地下没什么好处。据我对桑吉的了解，他会设下各种各样的陷阱和险恶的东西。
Theoretically, I knew where Hippocratic Research was from the tag the professor had given me. Between Zenith Bridge and Toll on the east side of the river. Realistically, there were several square miles it could be in, and who knew what we’d face in that bombed out and blasted ruin? If Sanguine was taking tunnels, then they wouldn’t be able to cut him off at the bridge. It could take another day of searching to find more Reapers or Rangers… “Precious, do you have a lot of memories of the building and stuff?” She scowled, but nodded. I felt a little surge of triumph! If this worked, then when Sanguine got back home, we’d be waiting for him!
从理论上讲，我知道希波克拉底研究所在哪里，这是教授给我的标签。在ZenithBridge和托尔河东岸之间。实际上，那里可能有几平方英里的面积，谁知道我们会在那被炸毁的废墟中面对什么呢？如果桑吉尼走的是隧道，那么他们就不可能在桥上截住他。要找到更多的收割者或者流浪者可能还需要一天的时间......"珍爱，你对这座建筑有很多回忆吗?"她皱起眉头，但还是点了点头。我感到一丝胜利的喜悦！如果成功了，那么当桑吉纳回家的时候，我们就等着他了！
“Yes, some.” Clearly not happy memories. “I was normally kept in my room. I wanted to go around outside, but Mister Sanguine told me I wasn’t allowed to go ‘cause the trees were bad.”
"是的，有一些。"显然不是快乐的回忆。"我通常被关在我的房间里。我想到外面走走，但是桑吉尼先生告诉我，他们不允许我去，因为那里的树很糟糕
“The trees were bad?” I echoed with a frown. “How so?”
"那些树坏了吗?"我皱着眉头回应。"为什么?"
“They try and eat you.” She gave a shrug, then blew a little tongue of green flame. “Can I have another?” she asked as she pointed at my stash of gems. I pushed the bag at her, and she picked out another amethyst.
"他们试图吃掉你。"她耸了耸肩，然后喷出一点绿色的火焰。"我能再来一杯吗?"她指着我藏的宝石问道。我把袋子推向她，她又拿出一块紫水晶。
“So the trees are bad. Anything else?” I wanted to take notes.
"所以这些树是坏的。还有别的事吗?"我想做笔记。
“Monsters,” she said simply.
"怪物,"她简单地说。
“Erm… what kind of monsters?” Given what I’d seen so far, that really didn’t narrow things down.
"嗯...什么样的怪物?"考虑到目前为止我所看到的，这并没有真正缩小范围。
“Just monsters. The bad kind all over the place. Bugs. Plants. Doggies,” she said simply, as if I were stupid for thinking there were any other kinds. “There’s also
"只有怪物。坏的那种到处都是。虫子。植物。"狗狗,"她简单地说，好像我愚蠢地认为还有其他种类的狗。"还有一个问题
the fatties… they look like ponies, but they’re all big and dumb. Lots of fatties working for the Doc. Cora always likes killing them. She’s creepy.” I’d noticed. The filly rubbed her chin again before adding absently, “And there’s the poison stuff.”
那些胖子...他们看起来像小马，但是他们都又大又笨。很多胖子为医生工作。柯拉总是喜欢杀人。她让人毛骨悚然。"我注意到了。小母马又擦了擦下巴，心不在焉地补充道:"还有毒药。"
“Poison?”
"毒药?"
“Well, there’re two kinds.” One wasn’t enough? “One is all rainbow goopiness… doesn’t do much to ponies like me and Cora, though. Sometimes the fatties get in it and it makes ‘em even weirder. Those red ponies once fell in some and got all mutated up. Doc put ‘em down with his poison breath. That’s this nasty pink gas… There’s clouds of it way down in the bottom. Only Doc goes down there.” She smirked, her pointed teeth glittering. “Doc said I wasn’t supposed to wander around, but I did anyway. Broke a bunch o’ stuff, too.” She gave a little shrug. It seemed to be the filly’s default gesture.
"嗯，有两种。"一个还不够吗？"一个是彩虹色的......不过对我和柯拉这样的小马没什么用。有时候肥胖的人会进去，这让他们变得更加怪异。那些红色的小马曾经掉进一些里面，然后都变异了。医生用他有毒的呼吸把他们放倒了。那是令人讨厌的粉红色气体...在底部有云层。只有医生才会去那里。"她得意地笑着，尖尖的牙齿闪闪发光。"医生说我不应该到处乱跑，但我还是去了。还弄坏了一堆东西。"她微微耸了耸肩。这似乎是小母马的默认动作。
I actually laughed a little at that. Then I thought a little more about what Psychoshy had said. “Hey, Precious? Psychoshy said that there was something bad after Sanguine… and he said that I’d woken something in the Core.”
事实上，我还为此笑了一下。然后我又想了想"心理害羞"说过的话。"嘿，宝贝？心理害羞说桑吉尼之后有不好的事情发生......他说我在核心区醒来了。"
“Oh… well, yeah, he was screaming about that. I dunno what started it. I was asleep then. But I guess when some big ship blew up… well, he went crazy. He said that if some program thingy was blowed up, then nothing would stop some bad thing in the city from coming out and eating everypony or something. I didn’t really pay attention, though. A whole lotta ponies wanted to hurt him.”
"哦......好吧，是的，他为此大喊大叫。我不知道是什么引起的。那时我在睡觉。但是我猜当一些大船爆炸的时候......嗯，他疯了。他说，如果有什么节目什么的被炸掉了，那么没有什么能阻止这个城市的一些坏东西出来，吃掉每一匹小马或者其他什么东西。不过，我真的没有注意。很多小马都想伤害他。"
I wonder why. “Did he ever say anything about why he wanted the program?”
我想知道为什么。"他有没有说过他为什么想要这个项目?"
“Just that he needed it to fix things. I dunno what, though… nothing I broke, I think.” I frowned… that sounded a lot different from what I’d heard before: making monsters and using the Wasteland as his own personal laboratory. Or selling Chimera to Red Eye.
"他只是需要用它来解决问题。我不知道是什么，不过......我想我没摔坏什么东西。"我皱起了眉头......这听起来和我以前听到的很不一样:制造怪物，把荒原当作他自己的实验室。或者把奇美拉卖给红眼。
I took a stab in the dark. “Did he mention a pony named Goldenblood or any special secret project?”
我在黑暗中摸索了一下。"他有没有提到一匹名叫金血的小马，或者什么特殊的秘密计划?"
“Oh yeah! He called him every name I knew and a whole lot of other really bad things. He was going on and on about that Goldie pony screwin’ everything up ‘cause of something he did. Said it was gonna kill us all.” She looked out the window again towards the city. “Dunno how bad it is. Good strong fart would
"哦，是的！他叫他所有我知道的名字，还有一大堆其他很糟糕的事情。他不停地说那匹戈尔迪矮种马把一切都搞砸了，因为他做了一些事情。说它会杀了我们所有人"她再次望向窗外的城市。"不知道有多糟糕。好强的屁会
kill most of this place.”
杀掉这里的大部分人"
I nodded and sat there. I was still feeling that lethargy, but now that I was moving, it began to fall behind. I’d blown a hand, but I wasn’t busted yet. Almost… but not quite yet. I was ready to ante up once again. “Thanks for talking to me, Precious.”
我点点头，坐在那里。我仍然觉得昏昏欲睡，但是现在我开始行动了，它开始落后了。我打爆了一只手，但是我还没被抓到。差不多......但还没到那个地步。我准备再次付款。"谢谢你跟我说话，普莉希丝。"
“Sure,” Precious murmured. “You sure you’re not going to do anything?”
"当然,"普莉希丝低声说。"你确定你什么都不做吗?"
“Mhmmm…” I said with a nod, then walked her back downstairs. Scotch Tape blinked owlishly at our arrival.
"嗯......"我点了点头，然后送她回到楼下。我们到达时，透明胶带眨了眨眼睛。
“Oh, you were talking to Blackjack,” she said softly as she rubbed her eyes with her hoof. “Hey… Blackjack? Do you have any more of those mint candies? They were really good.”
"哦，你是在和Blackjack说话,"她一边用蹄子揉着眼睛一边轻声说。"嘿...黑杰克？你还有薄荷糖吗？他们真的很棒。"
“Ah… no. Sorry Scotch. Afraid we’d have to go back to Tenpony to get some more. Or you can try and take Rampage’s,” I suggested with a smile. She didn’t return it.
"啊......不。对不起，苏格兰威士忌。恐怕我们得回Tenpony再去弄些来。或者你可以试着接受狂暴,"我微笑着建议道。她没有还。
“I was just hoping… if I took it… maybe P-21’d talk to me,” she said. “They made me feel like... I knew… like… just what to say. Now I just feel like one big lump of stupid.”
"我只是希望......如果我接受了......也许P-21能和我谈谈,"她说。"他们让我觉得......我知道......就像......该说什么。现在我觉得自己就是个大傻瓜。"
I sighed and sat beside her. “You’re not allowed to think of yourself as a big lump of stupid till you get somepony who doesn’t deserve it killed, okay young lady?” I asked in mock sternness. She still wasn’t smiling, and I shook. A part of me… a big part… wanted to just curl back up on that bed. I was just going to screw her up even more. I mean, I’d given her drugs to try and win… and sure, it’d worked, but now she was paying the price for luring Precious away from Sanguine. Paying the price for my mistake.
我叹了口气，坐在她旁边。"你不能把自己想成一个大傻瓜，除非你得到一匹不该被杀死的小马，好吗，年轻的女士?"我假装严厉地问。她仍然没有笑，我颤抖着。我的一部分...很大一部分...只想蜷缩在那张床上。我只会把她搞得更糟。我的意思是，我给了她毒品，试图赢得......当然，这是有效的，但是现在她正在为引诱普莉希丝远离桑吉尼付出代价。为我的错误付出代价。
I felt it; it was almost like gravity pulling me down, but it was all inside my brain. And it would be so easy just to give in and let it sweep me away. But Scotch was here, and she needed help. I could give her that. “Come here, Scotch,” I said as I pulled her into a hug and patted her mane. Precious just looked on silently, wistfully. I lifted Scotch’s chin and looked into her green eyes. “It’s not you, okay? It’s not. It’s not that you’re not smart enough or nice enough.”
我感觉到了，就像是地心引力把我往下拉，但这一切都发生在我的大脑里。我很容易就屈服了，让它把我带走。但是苏格兰威士忌在这里，她需要帮助。我可以给她这个。"过来，苏格兰威士忌,"我一边说，一边拉着她拥抱，拍着她的鬃毛。普莱舍丝只是默默地、渴望地看着。我抬起苏格兰人的下巴，看着她绿色的眼睛。"不是你的问题，好吗？并非如此。这并不是说你不够聪明或不够好。"
“But I don’t understand why he won’t talk to me about it. About Momma. About anything!” She sniffed as she looked away.
"但是我不明白他为什么不和我谈这件事。关于妈妈。关于任何事情!"她一边嗅着，一边把目光移开。
“Listen,” I murmured softly. “When a pony gets hurt really badly… it changes them. The flesh and blood heal… but some things we experience stay with us. And we stay hurt. It makes us angry… and scared. Makes us hate ourselves for being weak. You remember what happened on the boat?”
"听着,"我低声说。"当一匹小马受到严重伤害时......它会改变它们。肉体和血液会痊愈......但是我们经历的一些事情会一直伴随着我们。我们会一直受到伤害。它让我们愤怒......和害怕。让我们憎恨自己的软弱。你还记得船上发生的事吗?"
She cringed. “I… I heard what they were doing. I wanted to help but you told me to hide and you were screaming and… and… they nailed you to the floor!” She looked anguished. “You were doing all that to… to save me. To keep them from doing that. I heard the noise and what they called you and you screaming. And then they were beating you and all I could do was cry… I was useless.”
她畏缩了。"我.....。.我听到他们在做什么。我想帮忙，但是你让我躲起来，而你却在尖叫......而且......他们把你钉在地上!"她看起来很痛苦。"你所做的一切都是为了......救我。阻止他们这么做。我听到了噪音，他们叫你什么，你在尖叫。然后他们就开始打你，我只能哭......我一无是处。"
“No, Scotch. No,” I said as I held her in my hooves. “You weren’t useless. You kept me going. As long as you were okay, what they did to me didn’t really matter. It hurt… hurt a damned lot... and I think it’ll always hurt. But so long as you were okay, I was able to take it. If something… anything… had happened to you, then I wouldn’t have been able to go on.” I brushed her mane gently. “You’re the one I saved, Scotch.”
"不，苏格兰威士忌。"不,"我一边说，一边用蹄子把她抱起来。"你不是一无是处。你让我坚持下去。只要你没事，他们对我做了什么并不重要。它伤害了...伤害了该死的很多...而且我认为它会一直伤害。但只要你没事我就能接受。如果你出了什么事......什么事......那么我就不能继续下去了。"我轻轻地抚摸着她的鬃毛。"你是我救的那个人，苏格兰人。"
“Twice,” she murmured. Then she looked over at P-21’s room. “So… he was once hurt like you were?”
"两次,"她喃喃地说。然后她看了看P-21的房间。"这么说......他也曾像你一样受过伤?"
“Something like that,” I said softly. “But where I was only hurt for an hour or so, he was hurt his entire life. It’s hard. That hurt doesn’t go away. He has to carry it wherever he goes. But he wants to talk to you, Scotch Tape. I know he does.
"差不多吧,"我轻声说。"但是当我只受到一个小时左右的伤害时，他却受到了终身的伤害。这很难。那种痛苦不会消失。无论走到哪里，他都得带着它。但他想和你谈谈，透明胶带。我知道。
He’s just scared… and that makes him angry. It’s easier to push everypony away and bottle up what he feels inside. It’s not you, Scotch. It just isn’t.”
他只是害怕...这让他很生气。把每匹马都推开，把他内心的感受封闭起来，这样会更容易些。不是你的问题，苏格兰人。但事实并非如此。"
“I guess…” she said, still not convinced. “Are you sure you don’t have more of those Mint-al thingies though?” She flushed at my look, then stammered, “For him! Not me… though… I really liked them.”
"我想......"她说，仍然没有被说服。"你确定你没有更多的薄荷味的东西吗?"看到我的目光，她脸红了，然后结结巴巴地说:"为了他！不是我......不过......我真的很喜欢他们。"
“Like I said. You want more? Get them from Rampage,” I said, and I just hoped that the Reaper had the sense not to give her any!
"就像我说的。你还想要吗？让他们远离暴怒,"我说，我只是希望死神有意识不要给她任何东西！
“Awww… okay…” She nodded and started back towards the couch, but I cleared my throat. She looked back at me, and I nodded to the front door. She looked from me to the door, then blushed bright red, nodded, and trotted out.
"啊......好吧......"她点点头，转身朝沙发走去，但我清了清嗓子。她回头看了看我，我朝前门点了点头。她把目光从我身上移到门口，然后脸红了，点点头，小跑出去。
I turned and walked quietly to the door to P-21’s room, knocking with a hoof before I pushed it open. I knew he’d be awake; after what had happened to Priest, who could sleep? He lay on his bed with Priest’s sketches spread out before him. At the sight of me, he gave a look of surprise followed by the smallest of smiles. “Hey, you’re back.” I was surprised to see Rampage with him; but then, she’d loved Priest too.
我转过身，静静地走到P-21房间的门口，敲了敲门，然后才把门推开。我知道他会醒过来的;在牧师发生了那样的事情之后，谁还能睡得着呢？他躺在床上，面前摊开了牧师的素描。看到我，他惊奇地看了我一眼，然后露出一丝微笑。"嘿，你回来了。"看到他横冲直撞，我感到很惊讶;不过，她也很喜欢牧师。
“I went somewhere?” I said as I trotted towards him.
"我去了什么地方?"我边说边向他小跑过去。
“For a while, you were back on that mattress right after Scoodle died,” he murmured softly. “Less shit and vomit and radiation poisoning… but still back there, all the same.”
"有那么一会儿，斯库德死后，你又回到了床垫上,"他轻声说。"大便、呕吐物和辐射中毒减少了......但还是回到了那里，一切都一样。"
“Yeah. Had to go pee,” I murmured.
"是的。"我要去小便,"我低声说。
“I thought you wet the bed,” Rampage teased with a little smirk. It didn’t reach her eyes. Her cutie mark was that strange amorphous roiling blob.
"我还以为你尿床了呢,"狂暴带着一丝嘲笑开玩笑。它没有到达她的眼睛。她的可爱标记是奇怪的无形的滚动斑点。
“These days I don’t even want to imagine what comes out my rear end. Think it might be somewhere between magical waste and flamer fuel,” I said as I glanced back at my rump. Then I saw the concern in his eyes and sighed. “It’s been a crazy month, hasn’t it? Who knew life outside the stable would be like this?”
"这些天，我甚至不想去想象从我屁股里出来的是什么。我想它可能是介于魔法浪费和火焰燃料之间的某个地方,"我回头看着自己的臀部说。然后我看到了他眼中的关切，叹了口气。"这是一个疯狂的月份，不是吗？谁能想到马厩外的生活会是这样呢?"
“Sometimes it doesn’t really seem so different,” he replied.
"有时候看起来并没有那么不同,"他回答说。
“You should have been here thirty years or so back. You think it’s a mess now? Imagine every block being held by a different gang or tribe. You couldn’t piss without somepony blowing your flank off,” Rampage replied. “No Finders. No Reapers. No Eggheads. Just ponies killing ponies for a few more blocks to scavenge.”
""你应该在这里住三十年左右。你觉得现在一团糟吗？想象一下，每个街区都被不同的帮派或部落占领。你撒尿的时候不可能没有一匹小马把你的肋骨打断,"狂暴回答。"找不到。没有收割者。没有书呆子。只是几匹小马在几个街区之外猎杀小马以寻找食物。"
“It must have been a trick to start Chapel in the middle of all that,” I murmured softly. “Just the two of you.”
"这一定是一个诡计，开始教堂在所有的中间,"我低声说。"就你们两个。"
“Originally it was just Priest, this scrawny little black unicorn looking to avoid being pressed into the Halfhearts. He was actually trying to fix that ratty church up; it seemed crazy to me. Why build in a wasteland where everything was dead and falling apart? The world was pain and blood and hatred, yet there he was trying to help me. I didn't get it... couldn't understand it. I thought, when he brought me home to Star House, that he was going to just fuck my ass like every
"最初只是普里斯特，这只骨瘦如柴的黑色独角兽想要避免被塞进哈夫哈特的心脏里。他实际上是想修复那座破旧的教堂，在我看来，这简直是疯了。为什么要在一个一切都已经死亡和分崩离析的荒原上建造房屋呢？这个世界充满了痛苦、鲜血和仇恨，而他却在那里试图帮助我。我不明白...不能理解。我想，当他把我带回星空之家的时候，他会像其他人一样干我的屁股
other stallion. But he wanted to help. He really did. Like Scalpel and Bonesaw, the wandering miracle doctors.” She sighed and shook her head. “I fell in love with him, and he was young enough and good enough to think he was in love with me. Had to get him drunk our first time, though. It was nice for a few months... but he was faking it. And so was I. But by then I was pregnant.” She sighed and gave me a sad, regretful smile. “I wouldn't recommend it, personally. Threw a whole world of awkward into an already weird thing.”
另一匹种马。但是他想帮忙。他真的这么做了。就像手术刀和骨头一样，四处漂泊的奇迹医生。"她叹了口气，摇了摇头。"我爱上了他，他那么年轻，那么优秀，足以让我相信他爱上了我。不过我们第一次把他灌醉了。有几个月感觉不错......但他是装出来的。我也是。但那时我已经怀孕了。"她叹了口气，给了我一个伤心悔恨的微笑。"就我个人而言，我不建议这么做。把整个世界的尴尬扔进了一个已经很奇怪的东西里。"
“And then what happened?” P-21 asked in quiet, polite tones. I winced, but she simply smiled; maybe a little sadder.
"然后发生了什么?"P-21用安静礼貌的语调问道。我皱了皱眉，但她只是笑了笑，也许有点悲伤。
“When we realized that it wasn't working out, I thought of leaving, but… even if I hadn't been pregnant, we already had a dozen fillies and colts living in the post office. Pilgrims came to off themselves at the bridge, and they’d give Priest their caps and supplies. He’d give them a friendly ear. Halfhearts tried to take the town, but I convinced them not to. I think it was Priest they respected, though. They really go for the whole stoic thing.” She nudged P-21. “They’d love you.”
"当我们意识到这样不行的时候，我想过离开，但是......即使我没有怀孕，我们已经有十几匹小雌马和小马住在邮局里了。朝圣者们来到桥边，把帽子和补给品交给普利斯特。他会友好地倾听他们的意见。哈夫哈特试图占领这个城镇，但我说服他们不要这么做。不过我觉得他们尊敬的是牧师。他们真的很喜欢斯多葛主义。"她轻推了一下P-21。"他们会喜欢你的。"
He flushed and looked away. “I just… wish we could have been more.”
他脸红了，转过头去。"我只是......希望我们能更进一步。"
I sighed softly. “I’m sorry about Priest. I thought when I trotted in that I’d see Sanguine and just… blam. Or that I’d get the ghoul talking and jump him… or insult his mother and get him to shoot me instead. Or something.” I closed my eyes. “I just kept seeing him blowing Sonata’s brains out… Charity dying… him hiding behind Priest so I couldn’t get a good shot. And then Vermilion was there threatening to blow everypony up.” I shivered, continuing, “I was so certain that he was going to kill her. I was positive that, any second, I’d see her die. That the price to beat him was her death.”
我轻轻地叹了口气。"牧师的事我很遗憾。我以为当我小跑进去的时候，我会看到血红色，然后就...砰。或者我会让食尸鬼说话，然后扑向他......或者侮辱他的母亲，让他朝我开枪。或者别的什么。"我闭上了眼睛。"我一直看到他把索纳塔的脑袋轰出来......慈善机构垂死......他躲在普里斯特后面，所以我拍不到好照片。然后弗米利安就威胁说要把所有人都炸死。"我颤抖着，继续说道,"我是如此确信他会杀了她。我很确定，随时都有可能看到她死去。打败他的代价就是她的死。"
“I think Priest saw it too,” P-21 said quietly. “He knew that, if he didn’t act, somepony would die, and so he had to stop him. It was the kind of thing he’d do…”
"我想牧师也看到了,"P-21平静地说。"他知道，如果他不采取行动，一些小马就会死，所以他必须阻止他。这是他会做的事......"
I patted his shoulder. “Sorry I fell apart like that.”
我拍了拍他的肩膀。"对不起，我那样崩溃了。"
“Why did you?” Rampage asked softly. “You’ve been through more in a month than… anypony, I think. Was it Priest dying? Losing EC-1101? What I did?” That got a look from P-21.
"你为什么要这么做?"狂暴轻声问道。"我想，你一个月经历的事情比任何事情都多。是牧师快死了吗？失去EC-1101？我做了什么?"这是P-21的表情。
“Ugh. You want me to be introspective?” I groaned, but they kept looking at me,
"呃。你想让我自省?"我呻吟着，但他们一直看着我,
expecting an answer. I looked away, to the drawings that Priest had made. Why did he have the cutie mark he did and not a pencil or sketch or something? Was it because his talent was believing in Celestia? In acting as kind and understanding as she had been? “I don’t know. It was like… like suddenly, all I could think about was that I’d screwed up. That I’d blown everything. And I felt like I was absolutely the worst pony for trying to help anypony.” I shook my head. “It was Scoodle and 99 all over again.”
期待一个答案。我把目光移开，看着普里斯特画的画。为什么他身上有个可爱的印记而没有铅笔或素描什么的？是因为他相信塞莱斯蒂亚的天赋吗？表现得像她一样善良和善解人意？"我不知道。就像...就像突然间，我能想到的就是我搞砸了。我把一切都搞砸了。我觉得自己绝对是帮助任何小马的最差劲的人。"我摇了摇头。"这简直就是史酷德和99的翻版。"
“It’s just a setback,” Rampage said with a smirk and a shrug. “The important thing is that we keep going. Right?”
"这只是一个挫折,"兰皮笑着耸了耸肩说。"重要的是，我们要继续前进。对吧?"
“Right,” I said. Then I looked at P-21 and smiled. “By the way… when are you going to talk to Scotch Tape about… everything?”
"对,"我说。然后我看了看P-21，笑了。"顺便问一下......你打算什么时候和ScotchTape谈......所有的事情?"
He sighed, his smile sliding away. “Eventually. Not right now. Not with everything. But soon.”
他叹了口气，笑容消失了。"最终。现在不行。不是所有的事情。但很快。"
“She’s kinda already figured it out. She’s a smart kid like that,” I said with a smile. “Gets it from her parents.”
"她似乎已经想明白了。她是那样一个聪明的孩子,"我笑着说。"从她父母那里遗传的。"
“Ughhh…” He looked at me with his grumpy frown. “Parent. I hate that word.”
"呃......"他皱着眉头看着我。「家长。我讨厌这个词。"
“Why?” Rampage asked in amusement.
"为什么?"狂暴带着好笑的问道。
He looked at his hooves. “Because, back in 99, we weren’t allowed to be parents. I was told I impregnated twenty-nine mares in ten years, but I was never told which ones. Sometimes I’d be walking to an assignment and pass by a filly or see a new colt brought in and wonder… is that mine? Did I help make that? We were never ‘daddies’ or ‘fathers’ or anything like that. We never got to be part of our children’s lives... We were…”
他看着自己的蹄子。"因为在99年的时候，我们不被允许做父母。有人告诉我，我在十年内让二十九匹母马受孕，但从来没人告诉我是哪一匹。有时候，我走在去执行任务的路上，路过一匹小母马，或者看到一匹新的小马驹被牵进来，我不禁想知道......那是我的吗？是我帮忙做的吗？我们从来不是'爸爸'或者'爸爸'或者类似的东西。我们从未成为我们孩子生活的一部分......我们......"
“Studs?” Rampage suggested with a grin.
"螺栓?"狂暴露出了笑容。
“I hate you, you know that?” he muttered.
"我恨你，你知道吗?"他喃喃自语。
“No you don’t,” she replied. “You don’t like that I don’t take what happened to you as seriously as you do.” I covered my snicker behind a hoof, and she thumped my head with her own. “And don’t you think you’re off the hook, either. I swear, the three of you…”
"不，你不知道,"她回答。"你不喜欢我不像你那样认真对待发生在你身上的事。"我用蹄子挡住我的窃笑，她用自己的蹄子猛击我的头。"难道你不认为你也脱身了吗。我发誓，你们三个......"
“We’re from Stable 99,” he said with a little shrug.
"我们来自Stable99,"他耸了耸肩说。
I sighed and I looked at him. “You know what I think? I think that you’re just like me.” He leaned away from me looking vaguely insulted and suspicious. “I think that you’ve got something no stallion in 99 had: a chance at knowing your own children. And you are terrified of fucking it up. And as one expert on fuck ups to another… you are fucking it up. She’s a smart girl. She knows you’re her father, and she wants you in her life. But a few more months… maybe even a few more weeks of you ignoring it… and she won’t want you anymore.”
我叹了口气，看着他。"你知道我是怎么想的吗？我觉得你和我一样。"他斜靠着我，看上去有点受到侮辱和怀疑。"我认为你拥有99年的种马所没有的东西:了解自己孩子的机会。你害怕把事情搞砸。作为一个搞砸事情的专家，你把事情搞砸了。她是个聪明的女孩。她知道你是她的父亲，她希望你进入她的生活。但是再过几个月......也许再过几个星期你就会无视它......她就不再需要你了。"
He looked at his hooves, ears drooping. Rampage sighed sympathetically and patted his shoulder. “Not easy, either way.”
他看着自己的蹄子，耳朵耷拉着。狂暴同情地叹了口气，拍了拍肩膀。"不管怎样，这都不容易。"
I stood and shook myself. “Anyway… I have a mare I need to apologize to. Think it over, P-21. And if you want my advice… and I can understand if you don’t, but… don’t wait.”
我站起来，抖了抖身子。"不管怎样......我有一匹母马需要向它道歉。好好想想吧，P-21。如果你需要我的建议......如果你不需要，我也能理解，但是......别等了。"
I left them to talk and trotted back upstairs. Nopony was getting any sleep tonight. I knocked on Glory’s door. She opened it almost at once, her eyes wide and fearful. She mirrored my apologetic smile. “I hope my playing didn’t wake you up.”
我离开他们谈话，小跑回到楼上。小马驹今晚没有睡觉。我敲了晨辉的门。她几乎立刻睁开眼睛，眼睛睁得大大的，充满了恐惧。她模仿了我歉意的微笑。"我希望我的演奏没有吵醒你。"
“No… not at all,” she murmured softly.
"不......一点也不,"她轻声地说。
“May I come in?” I asked, hoping my sheepish smile overcame the immense awkwardness I was feeling. She stepped back from the door, and I stepped in. I was guessing that this had been Tarot’s bedroom once upon a time; there were still quite a few boxes of old toys and the like.
"我可以进来吗?"我问道，希望我羞怯的微笑能克服我巨大的尴尬感。她从门后退了几步，我走了进去。我猜想这里曾经是塔罗的卧室，里面还有好几箱旧玩具之类的东西。
“Are you feeling better?” she asked as she led me over and we sat on her bed. She looked at me curiously, cocking her head. “You look a little better.”
"你感觉好点了吗?"她带我过去，我们坐在她的床上。她好奇地看着我，低着头。"你看起来好多了。"
“Yes.” I looked at her a moment. “Kinda…” Another moment, and then I sighed and looked away. “Not really… but I’m moving again. And as long as I’m moving, there’s hope. So, kinda better…”
"是的。"我看了她一会儿。"差不多......"又过了一会儿，我叹了口气，转过头去。"还没有......不过我又要搬家了。只要我继续前进，就有希望。所以，更好一点......"
“You’re sure?” She stroked my cheek in concern. “Really really sure?”
"你确定?"她关切地抚摸着我的脸颊。"真的真的确定吗?"
I nodded. “Yup.”
我点点头。"是的。"
“Good. Then I don’t feel quite so bad for this,” she said as she looked me in the eyes with a loving smile, pulled back a little, and hit me so hard upside the head that I went flopping clear off the other side of the bed. “What in Equestria were you thinking? Giving highly addictive mind-altering chemicals to a filly like that? You know, there was a time when I thought that Med-X was bad. And I squirmed… squirmed… at administering a dose of Hydra. Now it’s chems chems chems! And I actually sat by and let you! What in Equestria was I thinking? I’d be stripped of any medical license for the rest of my life if anypony back in Thunderhead found out!”
"很好。这样我就不会觉得这么糟糕了,"她带着充满爱意的微笑看着我的眼睛说，稍微后退了一点，重重地打在我的头上，我从床的另一边一下子跳了下去。"你在Equestria想什么呢？给这样一匹小母马服用高度上瘾的改变大脑的化学物质？你知道吗，我曾经认为Med-X很糟糕。我扭动着...扭动着...注射了一剂水螅。现在是化妆品化妆品！事实上，我坐在一旁，让你！我在Equestria想什么呢？如果在Thunderhead的小马被发现的话，我会被剥夺行医执照一辈子!"
I blinked up at her and couldn’t help laughing as she looked down at me. “And now I’m hitting you! And you’re laughing!” She looked down at me sternly. “No more chems unless the pony at least has his or her cutie mark! I mean it!”
我向她眨了眨眼睛，当她低头看我时，我忍不住笑了起来。"现在我要打你了！而你却在笑!"她严厉地低头看着我。"除非小马至少有一个可爱的印记，否则不会再有化妆品了！我是认真的!"
I reached up and pulled her off the bed and onto me for some snugglage. I knew that what she wanted was the right thing to do, but a nasty little part of me muttered in the back of my mind, insisting that giving Scotch the PTM was also the right thing to do. And no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t quite shut it up.
我伸手把她从床上拉下来，抱着我。我知道她想要的是正确的事情，但我内心深处有一个讨厌的部分在嘀咕，坚持认为给苏格兰威士忌PTM也是正确的事情。不管我怎么努力，我还是不能让它闭嘴。
* * *
* * *
Contrary to what some might expect, we didn’t engage in lecherous activities. Neither of our hearts was in it. We lay together, cuddling, till she nodded off. Since my body didn’t really have to sleep, I got the primer and went through the magic exercises. They talked about imagining your magic as a breath pushing against a leaf; I was at least not a complete failure at that one. Then as your magic like a mouth closing on something to move it. I had to admit, even this old book with its cute little pictures and bold print was better than weeks of listening to Textbook drone on about simply ‘doing it right’. I’d never thought of magic as something I could do. It was always something somepony else could do better.
与一些人的预期相反，我们并没有参与好色的活动。我们都不在乎。我们躺在一起，依偎在一起，直到她打瞌睡。因为我的身体不需要真正的睡眠，所以我拿到了入门书并且进行了一些神奇的练习。他们谈到想象你的魔法就像一口气推动一片叶子;至少我在那方面不是一个彻底的失败。然后就像你的魔法一样，嘴巴紧紧地咬住什么东西来移动它。我不得不承认，即使是这本有着可爱的小图片和醒目印刷字体的旧书，也比几周来听教科书上关于"做对了"的喋喋不休要好。我从来没有想过魔法是我能做的事情。总有其他人可以做得更好。
By the time morning arrived, I was able to turn the pages of the book consistently… half the time. Hey, it was still progress.
早上到来的时候，我已经能够一直翻书了......一半的时间。嘿，这还是个进步。
Glory was quite happy to discover that Precious was every bit as appreciative of her cooking as I was. Only Glory would be considerate and determined enough to smash up an emerald and mix it into an omelet. I wondered where she’d gotten the eggs for it, then decided against asking her. Rampage chipped a tooth and promptly went back to her raw bloatsprite; an acquired taste, to be sure.
晨辉很高兴地发现，普莱舍丝对她的厨艺和我一样感激。只有晨辉才会考虑周到，下定决心打碎一块祖母绿，把它混进煎蛋卷里。我想知道她从哪儿弄来的鸡蛋，然后决定不问她。狂暴的暴怒咬掉了一颗牙齿，然后迅速地回到她那未经加工的浮肿雪碧身边，这当然是后天养成的嗜好。
P-21 and Scotch Tape were playing the look, look away game. One would look. See the other. Both would look away. It was all I could do not to scream… but, considering how I’d been last night, I supposed that I was the last person to have a right to criticize anypony needing time and space to themselves. Still, both of them got put on washing the dishes; quite a chore after Glory’s cooking. Maybe that’d help P-21 overcome his reticence.
P-21和ScotchTape正在玩"看，看别处"的游戏。有人会看。看另一个。两个人都会把目光移开。但是，考虑到我昨晚的表现，我想我是最没有权利批评任何需要时间和空间属于自己的人。尽管如此，他们两个还是被派去洗盘子，这是晨辉做饭后的一件苦差事。也许这能帮助P-21战胜他的沉默寡言。
Talking with Precious, it was clear that she didn’t know where she should go, only that returning to Sanguine with us was last on her list of interests. “You know, Precious… I can’t say for sure, but I know that the Crusaders could certainly use your fwoosh around here.” The purple dragon filly blinked at me in confusion, and I looked over at Scotch. “And I think that you should stay too, Scotch. Just so nothing goes wrong.”
和普莱舍丝谈话后，很明显她不知道自己应该去哪里，只知道和我们一起回桑吉纳是她最后一个兴趣爱好。"你知道，普莉希丝......我不能肯定地说，但我知道十字军可以肯定地使用你的fwoosh在这附近。"紫色的龙姑娘困惑地眨着眼睛看着我，我看着苏格兰威士忌。"我想你也应该留下来，苏格兰人。这样才不会出什么差错。"
“You want me to leave?” she gasped, her bowl of Sugar Apple Bombs forgotten as she stood on her seat.
"你要我走吗?"她倒吸了一口气，站在座位上，忘记了那碗糖苹果炸弹。
“No, I think it’ll be better for Precious and Charity if you stick around and help out,” I tried to say as reasonably and casually as possible. I looked over at Glory and P-21 for help.
"不，我认为如果你留下来帮忙，对《珍爱》和《慈善》来说会更好,"我试着尽可能理智而随意地说。我看了看晨辉和P-21，寻求帮助。
Of course, Rampage didn’t help any as she gave a bloatsprite-flavored belch and said, “Eh, let her come if she wants. She’s a tough kid.”
当然，狂暴并没有起到任何作用，她打了一个带有浮肿雪碧味道的嗝，说道:"呃，如果她想来就让她来吧。"。她是个坚强的孩子。"
Glory smiled at Scotch. “Don’t you want to try see if you can make that toilet idea of yours work?” I blinked at the two of them in surprise. “It’ll be a big improvement for the town over… using the ditch beside the road.” She actually shuddered! Huh? What was wrong with the ditch? I mean, I loved plumbing as much as the next mare but… wait… suddenly, that thought led to the question of how Thunderhead handled its sewage. Now I was shuddering… I’d never look at the rain the same way again.
晨辉对苏格兰威士忌笑了。"难道你不想试试看，看看你那个上厕所的主意能不能奏效吗?"我惊讶地眨了眨眼睛看着他们两个。"利用公路旁边的沟渠，对这个小镇来说是一个很大的改进。"她真的发抖了！什么？那条沟怎么了？我的意思是，我和下一个母马一样热爱水管工程，但是......等等......突然之间，这个想法引出了一个问题，那就是Thunderhead是如何处理它的污水的。现在我在颤抖......我再也不会用同样的方式看雨了。
“Sure… after I get my cutie mark!” Scotch said very matter-of-factly. “Face it, nopony wants a toilet cutie mark. I mean the only thing worse would be like a pile of poop cutie mark. That’s about it.”
"当然......等我拿到我的可爱标记!"苏格兰人说得很实际。"面对现实吧，没有小马会喜欢马桶上的小可爱标记。我的意思是，唯一比这更糟糕的事情就是一堆可爱的大便印记。仅此而已。"
“I think any cutie mark is fine, as long as it’s yours,” Glory said quietly as she glanced back at her flank and the scarred patch where once she’d sported a sunrise. Then she sighed and pushed on. “In any case, Precious has told us about the numerous threats around and under Hippocratic Research.” Scotch had
"我觉得任何一个可爱的标记都很好，只要是你的就行,"格洛里平静地说，她回头看了看自己的侧腹和曾经看日出的疤痕。然后她叹了口气，继续前进。"无论如何，普莱舍丝已经告诉我们希波克拉底研究中心周围和下面的许多威胁。"苏格兰威士忌
confirmed that my PipBuck tag was still north of us.
证实了我的PipBuck标签还在我们北边。
“Monsters. Poison. Long as none of them are machinery, I’m fine,” Scotch said dismissively as she pinched the bowl in her hooves and lifted it to her lips to slurp down the sugary sludge left at the bottom. When she finished, she smirked at me with a milky mustache. The source of the milk was another thing I’d decided I might not want to know. “In fact… Precious actually gave me an idea of how to take care of it. Both the rainbow stuff and the pink stuff can get washed out with rain.”
"怪物。毒药。只要它们都不是机器，我就没事,"苏格兰人轻蔑地说，一边用蹄子捏着碗，把它举到嘴边，吮吸着杯底残留的含糖污泥。当她说完，她带着乳白色的胡子向我傻笑。牛奶的来源是另一件我决定不想知道的事情。"事实上......普莱舍丝给了我一个关于如何照顾它的建议。彩虹色和粉红色都会被雨水冲刷掉。"
“That’s a trick underground,” Rampage murmured. “Not a lot of rain clouds down there.”
"那是地下的诡计,"狂暴低声说。"那里没有多少雨云。"
“No, but if it’s anything like a stable, it’ll have fire prevention systems. If you set those off, then it’ll wash the rainbow junk down the drain and clear the pink junk out of the air,” Scotch said with a smug grin. “You know how to do that?”
"没有，但是如果它是一个马厩的话，它就会有防火系统。如果你引爆了那些炸弹，那么它就会把彩虹垃圾冲进下水道，把空气中的粉红垃圾清除掉,"苏格兰人自鸣得意地笑着说。"你知道怎么做吗?"
“Provided they work and you can get to the control system, I’d test purge the whole system,” Glory replied coolly.
"如果他们工作，你可以到达控制系统，我将测试清除整个系统,"晨辉冷静地回答。
“Oh yeah? And if the controls don’t work? What then?” Scotch asked with a challenging frown.
"哦，是吗？如果控制不起作用呢？然后呢?"苏格兰威士忌皱着眉头问道。
“Use incendiary rounds to set them off one by one or zone by zone,” Glory retorted.
"用燃烧弹一个一个地或者一个区域地引爆它们,"晨辉反驳道。
“And if they’ve been manually shut off?”
"如果是手动关闭的呢?"
“Look for big red valves, naturally. Standard colorization for fire systems.”
"当然，要寻找大的红瓣膜。消防系统的标准着色。"
“And if they’re corroded shut?”
"如果它们被腐蚀了怎么办?"
“Oil, a wrench, and a good hard knock,” Glory countered without missing a beat. “Can you tell me how to set up an IV drip system into the subclavian vein?”
"油、一把扳手和一记重击,"格洛里毫不犹豫地反击。"你能告诉我如何在锁骨下静脉安装静脉点滴系统吗?"
The filly blinked. “That’s not plumbing!”
小母马眨了眨眼睛。"那不是水管!"
“Pipes are pipes, in a stable or in the body.”
管子就是管子，不管是在马厩里还是在马体里
Scotch was silent a moment, pursing her lips, and then said grudgingly, “Yeah,
苏格兰人沉默了一会儿，抿着嘴唇，勉强地说:"是的,
well… you’re still boring.”
好吧...你还是很无聊"
“Just because I’ve--“
"仅仅因为我--"
Scotch folded her forelegs on the table. “Nope. Boring! Putting me to sleep.” She started to snore loudly.
苏格兰人把她的前腿叠在桌子上。"没有。无聊！让我睡着了。"她开始大声打鼾。
“Look, Scotch, I’m not saying--”
"听着，苏格兰威士忌，我不是说——"
“Bor… snnnnrrrgg… ing… Skrrrrrkkk…”
"无聊......无聊......"
“Blackjack! She’s from your stable. Tell her I’m not boring,” Glory whined as she batted her eyes at me.
"黑杰克！她来自你的马厩。告诉她我不无聊,"晨辉一边冲我眨眼睛，一边呜咽道。
I put my hooves around the gray pegasus’s waist and tugged her close. “Honestly, considering what’s happened to me so far… I’m glad you’re on the calm and rational side of things.” I pressed my lips to hers, and she made a delightful little murr in the back of her throat.
我用蹄子搂住灰色的飞马的腰，把它拉近。"老实说，考虑到迄今为止发生在我身上的事情......我很高兴你在事情的冷静和理性的一面。"我把我的嘴唇贴在她的嘴唇上，她的喉咙里发出一阵愉快的低语。
“Ewww!” Precious wrinkled her nose in disgust, then looked at Scotch, who blinked at her in confusion. “Aren’t you grossed out?”
"呃!"普莱舍丝厌恶地皱起了鼻子，然后看着苏格兰人，苏格兰人困惑地眨着眼睛。"你不觉得恶心吗?"
“Huh? What’s gross about that? I always saw mares kissing mares back in the stable.” She crossed her hooves. “Now kissin’ stallions… that’s gross.”
"啊？这有什么恶心的？我总是看到母马在马厩里亲吻母马。"她交叉着蹄子。"亲吻种马......真恶心。"
“Oh, it isn’t so bad,” P-21 murmured idly. Then he blinked and looked at Rampage grinning ear to ear at him. “No… no no…” She pounced at him kissing wildly, and he barely leapt onto the table and off the other side in time. Rampage made the whole table bounce as she dove beneath it and chased after him. He dove to his bag and dug out a magic grenade. “Back! Back I say…” He waved it at her.
"哦，没那么糟糕,"P-21懒洋洋地低声说。然后他眨了眨眼睛，看着暴跳如雷地对着他咧着嘴笑。"不......不......"她抓住他疯狂地接吻，他勉强跳上桌子，及时从另一边跳了下去。当她俯冲到桌子下面去追他的时候，暴跳如雷，整张桌子都弹了起来。他钻到包里，掏出一枚魔法手榴弹。"回去！我回答说......"他朝她挥了挥手。
“Shouldn’t we all be really alarmed by this?” Glory asked with a concerned little frown.
"我们难道不应该对此感到担忧吗?"晨辉忧心忡忡地皱着眉头问道。
“Bor… ing…” Scotch sang out. But the two fillies took cover under the table all the same.
"无聊......"苏格兰人大声喊道。但是那两个小姑娘还是躲到了桌子底下。
“I swear to Celestia, if you try and kiss me, I will give you a second childhood! Or fifth… or whatever childhood you’re on!” he said as he kept the grenade
"我向天堂发誓，如果你试图吻我，我会给你第二个童年！或者第五次......或者你的童年是什么样子!"他一边说一边留着手榴弹
outthrust in a hoof. But, more than anything, he was smiling. Maybe it was a little manic… maybe his eyes looked a touch sad… but he was smiling.
蹄内突出。但是，最重要的是，他在微笑。也许有点狂躁...也许他的眼睛看起来有点悲伤...但他在微笑。
Rampage rubbed her chin. “Probably be worth it…” She leaned towards him, kissing the air, and he pressed the grenade to her lips.
狂暴的暴怒摩擦着她的下巴。"也许值得......"她靠近他，吻着空气，他把手榴弹压在她的嘴唇上。
Then the door opened and Lacunae walked in. Her purple eyes widened at the mess on the table, the girls peeking out from under it, Glory and I cuddling, and Rampage kissing the green-banded apple. She nearly glowed with power… strike that… she was glowing with power. I heard the clicking going off on the PipBucks on both Glory and Scotch’s hooves. “Am I interrupting?” Her purple magic surrounded the grenade, plucked it from P-21’s hooves, and gently put it back into his saddlebag.
然后门开了，拉库奈走了进来。她紫色的眼睛睁得大大的，看着桌子上乱糟糟的东西，女孩们从桌子下面偷看，晨辉和我依偎在一起，狂暴的吻着绿色的苹果。她几乎因为力量而发光......打击那个......她因为力量而发光。我听到晨辉和苏格兰人的蹄子上的皮波克的咔嗒声。"我打扰到你们了吗?"她的紫色魔法包围了手榴弹，从P-21的蹄子上扯下来，轻轻地把它放回他的鞍囊。
“Yes, and it’s probably a good thing you are,” I replied.
"是的，这可能是件好事,"我回答。
She looked right at me and smiled, her voice speaking softly in my mind. “I knew you only needed a little time and you’d be back. You never lose.”
她直直地看着我，微笑着，她的声音在我的脑海里轻轻地说着。"我知道你只需要一点时间就会回来的。你永远不会输。"
“I did this time. Look, I talked with Precious, and Sanguine is using the tunnels to travel.” Then I looked at the little dragon filly and smiled. “But Precious here has been all over Hippocratic Research. So if you take a peek inside her noggin, we can teleport straight there! We might show up before he has a chance to do anything bad!”
"这次我做到了。听着，我和普莉希丝谈过了，桑吉尼正在利用地道旅行。"然后我看着那条小龙，笑了。"但是普莱舍斯已经遍布希波克拉底研究院。所以如果你看一眼她的脑袋里面，我们可以直接传送到那里！我们可能在他有机会做坏事之前就出现了!"
“You want her to do what?” Precious said as she jumped to her hooves, a plume of green flame flashing out of her mouth. “Forget it! I don’t want anypony poking around in my head. That’s what the doctors did after I got in fights!”
"你想让她做什么?"普莱舍丝一边说，一边跳上马蹄，嘴里闪出一缕绿色的火焰。"算了吧！我不希望任何小马在我脑子里乱窜。我打架后医生就是这么做的!"
Lacunae looked at me and I felt a stab of irritation. “Precious, we really need this--“
空隙看着我，我感到一阵刺痛。"宝贝，我们真的需要这个--"
“Don’t care,” the filly said. “That’s what the nurses did! Kept messing with my head to make me happy and feel better. Tried to make me think everypony was my friend. Well, they’re not. And you’re not either!”
"我不在乎,"小母马说。"护士们就是这么做的！不停地扰乱我的思绪，让我快乐，让我感觉更好。试图让我认为每匹小马都是我的朋友。但是，他们不是。你也不是!"
“Look!” I smacked the table with my hoof. “You were working for our enemy, but we took you in. I even shared some gems with you. All I’m asking for is enough memories of that place so that Lacunae can teleport us there. We don’t care about what happened to you two hundred years ago!”
"看!"我用蹄子敲了敲桌子。"你为我们的敌人工作，但我们收留了你。我甚至和你分享了一些宝石。我只想要足够的关于那个地方的记忆，这样拉库尼就可以把我们传送到那里。我们不在乎两百年前发生在你身上的事!"
A strange silence filled the room, and I suddenly became aware that everypony was staring… at me. “Blackjack…” Glory said in soft concern. “It matters to her.”
一阵奇怪的寂静充满了整个房间，我突然意识到每一匹小马都在盯着我。"黑杰克......"格洛里温和地说。"这对她很重要。"
A part of me wanted to scream. This was what we had to do to win! I knew that Sanguine was probably rigging as many traps and perils as he could in the tunnels. Maybe if we gave her some Moon Dust or something we could make her tractable enough that she’d cooperate. I really didn’t want to have to pin her down while Lacunae dug around in her head for... what we…
我有点想尖叫。这就是我们赢得比赛所必须做的！我知道桑吉尼可能在隧道里设下尽可能多的陷阱和危险。也许如果我们给她一些月光粉或者别的什么，我们可以让她变得足够温顺，这样她就会合作了。我真的不想在Lacunae在她脑子里挖东挖西的时候把她压住...我们..。
What the fuck was wrong with me? Seriously… what the fuck?
我他妈到底怎么了？说真的...他妈的怎么回事？
I had to close my eyes. What part of my brain contemplated pinning a filly down or drugging her and forcing her to give up memories… traumatize her to get what I wanted? Was any wrong permissible so long as, in the end, I won? If that were true, then there wasn’t a difference between me and Deus or Sanguine, now was there? He’d taken fillies hostage… killed Priest! Was all that okay simply because he wanted to win? Should I have taken Psychoshy hostage? Killed her just to beat him?
我不得不闭上眼睛。我大脑的哪个部分在盘算着把一匹小母马按在地上或者给她下药，强迫她放弃记忆......让她为了得到我想要的而受到精神创伤？只要最后我赢了，有什么错误是允许的吗？如果这是真的，那么我和天王或三吉尼之间就没有什么区别了，不是吗？他把小母马当作人质......杀了神父！仅仅因为他想赢，这一切都没问题吗？我是不是应该把精神病人当作人质？杀了她就为了打他？
But Sanguine had won… and I’d lost. It was like a splinter in my mind. I needed to win so badly… to make all those deaths matter. To make everything I’d sacrificed matter. If I couldn’t…
但是桑吉尼赢了，而我输了。它就像是我脑海中的一根刺。我非常需要赢得比赛...让所有的死亡都变得重要。为了让我牺牲的一切变得重要。如果我不能..。
“Precious, I’m sorry I said that,” I said softly. “We want to stop Sanguine and get back what he took from me. I was hoping we could teleport straight there and be waiting for him. I shouldn’t have tried to use you like that.”
"宝贝，对不起我说了那些话,"我轻声说。"我们要阻止桑吉纳，拿回他从我这里拿走的东西。我希望我们可以直接传送到那里等他。我不该那样利用你。"
The purple dragon hybrid glared at me hard. Clearly, I wasn’t going to be on her ‘Friends’ list any time soon.
紫龙杂种狠狠地瞪着我。显然，我短期内不会出现在她的朋友名单上。
“Precious… can you give us a memory that will put us close?” Scotch Tape asked. Precious gave the concerned filly the same steely stare for a moment, then softened and dropped her gaze.
"宝贝......你能给我们一段回忆，让我们更亲密吗?"透明胶带问道。普莱舍丝用同样冷酷的目光凝视了关心她的小姑娘一会儿，然后变得温柔起来，垂下了目光。
“I remember a park. I wouldn’t mind remembering that place,” she said softly as she looked up at the large alicorn. “Can you just look at that one memory? I don’t want people to see… see anything else.” Lacunae gave a gracious nod, and together they trotted outside.
"我记得有一个公园。我不介意回忆起那个地方,"她抬头看着那个大角果，轻声说道。"你就不能看看那段记忆吗？我不希望人们看到......看到其他任何东西。"拉库奈亲切地点了点头，他们一起小跑出去。
“What was that all about?” P-21 asked me. “‘I don’t care’? Since when do you not care?” Rampage seemed equally shocked. Glory simply looked concerned. “You cared about Psychoshy, for Luna’s sake! How could you care about her and not what’s happened to Precious?”
"这是怎么回事?"P-21问我。"'我不在乎'？你什么时候开始不在乎了?"狂暴似乎同样震惊。晨辉只是看起来很关心。"看在卢娜的份上，你在乎的是心理害羞！你怎么能关心她而不关心普莉希丝的事呢?"
I closed my eyes. “I want to beat Sanguine. Pay him back for all the shit he’s done.” I needed to win! Didn’t they understand that?
我闭上了眼睛。"我要打败桑吉尼。为他所做的一切付出代价。"我需要赢！难道他们不明白吗？
“Well, not much point in beating him if you turn into him,” Rampage muttered as she trotted away to her room. “I better go get into my armor. I can just tell it’s gonna be another shitty day in Hoofington.”
"好吧，如果你变成他那样，打他也没什么意义,"狂暴女孩一边小跑一边喃喃自语，回到自己的房间。"我最好穿上我的盔甲。我看得出来，Hoofington今天又会是糟糕透顶的一天。"
“Blackjack, Priest wouldn’t want you to hurt Precious just to get Sanguine.
"Blackjack，Priest不会让你为了得到Sanguine而伤害Precious。
Please… try to keep it together,” P-21 said as he returned to his room as well.
请......尽量保持冷静,"P-21回到自己的房间时说。
Keep it together, he says. Wasn’t he supposed to be the angry one? The one who wanted revenge? I shook my head. I didn’t want to mess with foals and the like. I just wanted to win.
保持冷静，他说。他不是应该很生气吗？那个想复仇的人？我摇了摇头。我不想和小马驹之类的混在一起。我只是想赢。
* * *
* * *
Once Lacunae had the memory of the park, I’d introduced Precious to the Crusaders. The interview consisted of the question ‘got any folks or anypony else you can stay with?’ After that, Charity suggested that Precious help out cleaning up some of the mess from the fight. We didn’t really need any more supplies yet, but I bought a Sparkle-Cola anyway. Charity looked at me a moment, rubbing her chin. “Twenty percent, I think...”
一旦空隙有了公园的记忆，我就把普莱舍丝介绍给十字军战士。采访包括这样一个问题:"有没有人或者其他人可以和你住在一起?"在那之后，Charity建议Precious帮忙收拾打斗留下的烂摊子。我们实际上还不需要更多的供应品，但我还是买了一瓶可口可乐。慈善看了我一会儿，揉着下巴。"百分之二十，我想......"
“A twenty percent discount?” I grinned in response. I should have saved Charity’s life ages ago!
"20%的折扣?"我咧嘴笑着回答。我早就该救Charity的命了！
She smirked as I took a drink. “Naw. Twenty percent Chapel reconstruction tax.
当我喝酒时，她得意地笑了。"没有。20%的教堂重建税。
Twenty-four caps. Pay up!” she said as she held out a hoof.
24顶帽子。付钱!"她边说边伸出一只蹄子。
Every single cap would be hers someday. Every… single… cap…
每一顶帽子总有一天都会是她的。每个...单个...帽子..。
* * *
* * *
A flash later, we were back on the north end of the Hoof in the middle of a rusted and smashed playground. I was glad there weren’t a lot of little pony skeletons
过了一会儿，我们又回到了霍夫桥的北端，那里是一个锈迹斑斑、破败不堪的操场。我很高兴没有那么多小马的骨架
lying around; I guessed everypony here had cleared out at the sirens. The park was little more than a dead square of trees and benches overlooked by a large billboard of Pinkie Pie. ‘Come on, everypony! Smile! Smile! Smile!’ read the caption beneath her huge grinning head. Her eyes seemed to add ‘or else’.
我猜这里的每匹小马都被警笛声吓跑了。这个公园不过是一片死寂的树木和长凳，从一块巨大的小指派广告牌上可以俯瞰到它们。"来吧，小马们！微笑！微笑！微笑在她笑容可掬的大脑袋下面写着。她的眼睛似乎在加上"否则"。
Looking north, I could see the bow of the Celestia pointed out of the water. It was still smoldering; I had to wonder what was left to burn days later. The Applejack was nowhere to be seen; had it returned to Trottingham? The naval base still smoked as well. I borrowed P-21’s binoculars and I looked more closely; sure enough, there were scavengers picking through the remains of the base. Worse, I spotted two groups with those black and green tower banners.
往北看，我可以看到天堂的弓指向水面。它还在冒烟，我不得不想知道几天后还剩下什么可以燃烧。到处都找不到苹果白兰地，它回到Trottingham了吗？海军基地也还在冒烟。我借了P-21的双筒望远镜，更仔细地看了看;果然，有拾荒者在基地的残骸中觅食。更糟糕的是，我发现了两组人，他们手里拿着黑色和绿色的塔旗。
Something I’d have to nip in the bud later. Looking west, I could see a thick tangle of dead, gnarled trees. Briars and brambles snaked between the hard, cracked branches. I didn’t have an E.F.S. -- I wanted Glory and Scotch to have the advantages the PipBuck offered, even ignoring the feedback from trying to wire another PipBuck into me -- but I knew that, if I still had one, these woods would be one nasty mess of red bars. Something inside the forest let out a screech. I could make out, on the other side of the trees, the distant, and intact, roof of a single large building. It had a far more classical look than the rest of the Hoof, with a central peak that rose far above the treeline. It had to be three stories at least. From the way the trees burst through the thick, rusty bars surrounding the property, I suspected that the woods had been one of the few places to grow despite the radiation.
有些事情我必须在以后把它扼杀在萌芽中。向西望去，我可以看到一片密密麻麻的枯死的多节的树木。荆棘和荆棘蜿蜒在坚硬而断裂的树枝之间。我没有e.f.s----我希望Glory和Scotch拥有PipBuck的优势，甚至忽略了试图将另一个PipBuck接入我的反馈----但是我知道，如果我还有一个e.f.s，这些树林就会变成一团糟的红色栅栏。森林里有什么东西发出刺耳的声音。我可以辨认出，在树的另一边，远处一幢大楼的屋顶完好无损。它看起来比霍夫的其他部分更加古典，中央的山峰远远高出树木线。至少有三层楼高。从树木冲破房子周围厚厚的锈迹斑斑的栅栏的方式来看，我怀疑尽管有辐射，树林是少数几个可以生长的地方之一。
“Right! So, Lacunae flies us over onto the roof! Good plan!” I said as I clapped my hooves together.
"对！所以，Lacunae带我们飞到屋顶上！好计划!"我一边说，一边拍着我的蹄子。
“Not so fast,” Glory said as she peered at the sky. “We’re a lot higher up than usual. I don’t think Lacunae should fly anywhere.” I looked at her flatly, and she pointed up at the sky. Nothing… clouds… She tapped my binoculars, and I had a second look. Through them I could see a black, tapering spike. She pointed out a second… and a third. “I really don’t think we should take the risk.”
"没那么快,"晨辉说，她凝视着天空。"我们的职位比平时高得多。我认为空隙不应该飞到任何地方。"我直截了当地看着她，她指着天空。什么也没有......乌云......她敲了敲我的望远镜，我又看了一眼。透过它们，我可以看到一个黑色的、尖细的穗状物。她指出了第二个......和第三个。"我真的不认为我们应该冒这个险。"
I sighed. “Okay. So, then, Lacunae teleports us all onto the roof.”
我叹了口气。"好吧。于是，拉库奈把我们传送到屋顶上。"
“That is a possibility,” Lacunae said, and I wanted to give a little cheer. “However, it will utterly exhaust my magical reserves. We won’t be able to teleport out if something goes wrong.”
"这是一个可能性,"Lacunae说，我想给予一点点欢呼。"然而，这将完全耗尽我的魔法储备。如果出了什么差错，我们就不能瞬移出去了。"
Urrrgh… “Maybe a tunnel?” They all looked at me like I was crazy. We’d have to go underground anyway… ugh, but they were right. There wasn’t anything good to be gained from going underground unless we absolutely had to. “Okay… Scotch, on my back. Rampage, up front. P-21, watch our backs. Lacunae on the left and Glory on the right. Let’s try to get through this without anypony dying.”
呃..."也许是一条隧道?"他们都看着我，好像我疯了一样。无论如何我们都得转入地下......呃，但他们是对的。除非万不得已，否则从地下活动中得不到任何好处。"好吧......苏格兰威士忌，在我背上。横冲直撞，冲锋陷阵。P-21小心后面。左边是空隙，右边是晨辉。让我们设法度过这个难关，不要让任何人死去。"
“Yeah, that’d be a good thing,” the olive filly said with a pleased smile.
"是啊，那是件好事,"橄榄小母马笑着说。
I looked up over my shoulder at her. “Seriously, Scotch. I know you really want to come with us, and I know you want to show how tough you are, but I can still have Lacunae poof you back to Star House.”
我抬头看着她。"说真的，苏格兰威士忌。我知道你真的很想跟我们一起走，我也知道你想表现出你的坚强，但我还是可以把你送回星宫。"
She sat up. “I solemnly swear that I will do everything in my power to not die.” She crossed her chest with her hoof before dropping the serious look and smiling again.
她坐了起来。"我庄严宣誓，我将尽我所能不死。"她用蹄子把胸前交叉，然后露出严肃的表情，再次微笑起来。
I sighed, muttering, “Better not. You do and you’re grounded.” After Dusty and Priest, I didn’t want to think of anything happening to her.
我叹了口气，喃喃自语,"最好不要。如果你这么做了，你就被禁足了。"在达斯蒂和牧师之后，我不想去想她发生了什么事。
“Don’t worry. I’m tough, just like Security!” she said with a grin as she looked down at me, “Now, let’s get going!” she said brightly. Great... now I was a role model!
"别担心。我很坚强，就像保安一样!"她低头看着我，咧嘴笑着说:"现在，我们走吧!"她明快地说。太好了...现在我成了一个榜样！
Glory checked to see P-21 talking about something with Rampage before she looked at me with a smile. “She wants to prove herself to him. You know that’s why she’s here,” she said, keeping her voice down. Scotch pointedly ignored both of us after that.
晨辉检查了一下，看到P-21正在谈论一些关于暴怒的事情，然后她微笑着看着我。"她想向他证明自己。你知道这就是她来这儿的原因,"她说，压低了声音。从那以后，苏格兰人刻意忽略了我们两个人。
“I know, Glory. I just don’t want her ending up a corpse in the process.” One day I’d grow enough of a spine to tell her ‘no’ despite her big, tear-filled green eyes.
"我知道，晨辉。我只是不想让她在这个过程中变成一具尸体。"有一天，尽管她有一双充满泪水的大眼睛，我还是会有足够的勇气对她说"不"。
We found the front gate. The trees had bent and twisted the metal bars as they’d grown around them, and the road had been reduced to a single crumbled asphalt track. A large concrete slab stood beside it, a thick thorny root splitting it right down the middle. ‘Hippocratic Research: Bringing new discoveries effectively, efficiently, and ethically to you.’ At the bottom: ‘M.W.T. Subsidiary.’ On a hunch, I stomped down the weeds and brambles at the base. There, stamped in letters almost obliterated by the passage of time, were the words ‘O.I.A. Affiliate’.
我们找到了前门。树木在它们周围生长时，弯曲扭曲了金属条，道路已经变成了一条破碎的柏油路。它旁边立着一块巨大的混凝土板，一根长满荆棘的粗根正好把它从中间劈开。希波克拉底研究:有效、高效、符合道德的新发现底部:m.w.t.子公司凭着直觉，我踩平了基地的杂草和荆棘。在那里，随着时间的流逝，几乎被抹去的字母印上了"o.i.a.附属机构"的字样。
Yeah. This place looked right up Goldenblood’s alley.
是的。这地方正好可以看到金血王的巷子。
“Come on,” I murmured as we moved into the dead trees. The forest appeared to cover only a square mile or so… not that far to walk to the center, right? As we slowly walked along the trail, the normal Hoofington gloom was cut down to a hazy twilight. In the distance there were crunches and pops and a strange growl. “How much is red, Scotch?”
"来吧,"当我们走进枯死的树木时，我低声说。森林看起来只覆盖了一平方英里左右...走到中心并不是很远，对吧？我们沿着小路慢慢走着，原本的胡芬顿昏暗变成了朦胧的暮色。远处传来嘎吱嘎吱的响声和奇怪的咆哮声。"红酒多少钱，苏格兰威士忌?"
“Everything…” she murmured softly. “Everything’s red.” And from the slow tick of radiation, unhealthy too.
"一切......"她低声说。"一切都是红色的。"从缓慢的辐射来看，也是不健康的。
The trees cut right across the road. The branches didn’t just intertwine; they looked as if they had stabbed right through one another; splitting the trunks and branches of their neighbors. Any gap between them was occupied by the twisted brambles that corkscrewed their way into the trunks. I heard a wooden groan and saw something move in the distance. “These trees are dead, right?” I asked as I looked at the leafless branches. From the way they curled up, it looked almost as if they were ready to stab us.
树木正好横过马路。树枝并不仅仅纠缠在一起，它们看起来就像是刺穿了彼此，劈开了它们邻居的树干和树枝。他们之间的任何空隙都被扭曲的荆棘所占据，这些荆棘用螺丝拧进树干里。我听到一声木制的呻吟，看到远处有东西在移动。"这些树都死了，对吧?"我看着光秃秃的树枝问道。从它们蜷缩的样子来看，它们似乎准备要刺伤我们。
“Well, they appear… I mean… they…” Glory stammered as she stared at one trunk. “I think so.”
"嗯，他们出现了......我的意思是......他们......"晨辉盯着一只箱子结结巴巴地说。"我想是的。"
“Well, if they’re wood, then they burn,” P-21 said. He pulled out an apple with a red band, tugged out the stem, and tossed it into the trees blocking our path. There was a loud ‘fwoosh’ as a ten foot patch of tree burst into flame. The wood popped and crackled… and smoldered… smoked… and not much else. The smoke blew back in our faces, the gray cloud stinging my throat fiercely. The woods around us crackled even more loudly.
"好吧，如果它们是木头，那么它们就会燃烧,"P-21说。他拿出一个带红圈的苹果，拔出苹果梗，扔到挡住我们路的树上。当一片十英尺长的树木燃烧起来的时候，发出一声巨大的嗖嗖声。木头砰的一声爆开，噼啪作响......闷烧着......冒着烟......没有别的了。烟又吹回我们的脸上，灰色的云猛烈地刺痛我的喉咙。我们周围的树林劈啪作响得更厉害了。
Then I saw one of the thick branches above me slowly turn. It pointed its jagged tip right at P-21. “Look out!” I shouted as the entire branch stabbed down, and only my warning and his agile hooves kept him from getting speared. Another chorus of creaks erupted as the trees stabbed hoof-thick branches at us. Lacunae was able to deflect one with her shield and teleport a few feet out of the path of another. Glory leapt in time to avoid being skewered by one shooting in from the side, landing neatly on the still-quivering branch. Scotch held on for dear life as I made like a zebra and reared on my back legs, barely deflecting one branch with my forelegs. Rampage’s armor rang like a bell as she was knocked off her hooves by an impact.
然后我看到我头顶上一根粗大的树枝慢慢地转动。它把锯齿状的尖端正对着P-21。"小心!"我大声喊道，整个树枝都被刺倒了，只有我的警告和它灵活的蹄子使它免于被刺中。当树木刺向我们的蹄子粗的树枝时，又响起了一阵吱吱嘎嘎的响声。空隙能够用她的盾牌偏转其中一个，并传送到离另一个路径几英尺远的地方。晨辉及时地跳了起来，避免了侧面的一次射击，精巧地落在了仍在颤抖的树枝上。苏格兰威士忌紧紧握住我的手，我像斑马一样用后腿直立，前腿几乎没有碰到一根树枝。狂暴的盔甲响得像个铃铛，她的蹄子被撞掉了。
As abruptly as it started, the attack stopped. We were frozen with a dozen branches all around us. Touching them didn’t provoke any kind of response, thank goodness. We looked at one another. “Right. No trying to burn the nice not-dead trees.” If you could even call these things trees…
攻击突然停止了，就像开始时一样。我们被冻住了，周围有十几根树枝。感谢上帝，触摸它们并没有引起任何反应。我们面面相觑。"对。不要试图烧掉那些好看的还没死的树。"如果你能把这些东西叫做树的话..。
Since we couldn’t follow the road, we had to squeeze through gaps between the splintered trunks. More than once, Lacunae had to teleport through. Twice, Rampage had to hook her hoofclaws into the hard, waxy bark and force a gap wide enough to pass through. The trees had other peculiarities, strange cysts and growths that put out a sickly green and yellow light. I’d accidentally brushed against one, and it had popped, spurting a foul fluid that smoked on contact with my foreleg and blackened the enamel.
由于我们不能沿着这条路走，我们不得不从裂开的树干之间的缝隙挤过去。拉库奈不止一次地被传送过来。有两次，狂暴不得不用蹄爪钩住坚硬如蜡的树皮，并强迫一个足够宽的缝隙通过。这些树还有其他的特点，奇怪的囊肿和生长，发出一种病态的绿色和黄色的光。我不小心碰到了一个，它爆裂了，喷出了一种恶臭的液体，一接触到我的前腿就冒烟，烧黑了珐琅质。
Wow… out of all the sucky places in the Hoof, I think we’d found the suckiest.
哇...在霍夫所有糟糕的地方中，我想我们找到了最糟糕的地方。
From the depths of the woods came a long, low howl that made my mane crawl.
从树林深处传来一声低沉的长啸，让我的鬃毛直直往下爬。
There were also rusted metal drums all over the place; most had split open long ago, but more than a few were still oozing rainbow-colored gunk. We tried to avoid any tree that had the rainbow gunk on it; it seemed to create even larger and more bizarre versions of the strange leafless plants. One actually appeared to have slices of cake hanging from the ends of its limbs. From the number of waxy and warped bones lying at the base of the tree, I suspected that the cake was a lie.
到处都是生锈的金属桶，大部分很早以前就裂开了，但还有不少仍然渗出彩虹色的泥浆。我们尽量避开任何上面有彩虹粘性物质的树木;它似乎创造了更大更奇怪的无叶植物。其中一只的四肢末端似乎还挂着几片蛋糕。从树底下那些蜡质的扭曲的骨头数量来看，我怀疑那块蛋糕是假的。
“How’d they even get this far?” P-21 murmured in confusion.
"他们是怎么走到这一步的?"P-21在混乱中喃喃自语。
“I... don’t know,” I said just as quietly. We looked at each other and at the creaking forest around us, the creepiness jumping up another notch. Nopony wanted to speculate very much on how they’d gotten just far enough to die.
"我.....。."不知道,"我同样平静地说。我们互相看着对方，看着周围吱吱作响的森林，心中的恐惧又上升了一个等级。Nopony非常想推测他们是如何刚刚走到足以死亡的地步。
We reached a track of sorts, running back along a retaining wall that, while buckled, still provided chunks of concrete above the leafless brambles. Suddenly, there was a crackle overhead, and I stared in shock as a lumpy, rainbow-colored apple appeared on the end of a branch overhead. More crackles and flashes signaled the appearance of dozens more above us.
我们来到一条小路，沿着挡土墙往回跑，挡土墙虽然弯曲了，但还是在光秃秃的荆棘上方提供了大块的混凝土。突然，头顶上传来一声爆裂声，我震惊地盯着头顶树枝末端出现的一个结块的彩虹色苹果。更多的爆裂声和闪光标志着我们上方出现了更多的人。
“Oh… this can’t be good,” I murmured as I watched the rainbows start to squirm and glow brightly. “Shit… look out!” I yelled, then started running as the first apple fell towards me. It hit the ground with an explosive flash and sprayed stinging bits of seed at us. Lacunae’s shield spell blocked four detonations, but
"哦......这可不妙,"我喃喃地说，看着彩虹开始蠕动，发出明亮的光芒。"该死...小心!"当第一个苹果朝我落下的时候，我大喊，然后开始跑。它以爆炸性的闪光击中地面，并向我们喷洒了一些带刺的种子。裂隙的护盾咒语阻止了四次爆炸，但是
collapsed as three more exploded simultaneously. She screamed as two more exploded along her spine, tearing her flesh and singeing her wings and tail. Rampage, her armor blackened, leapt upon the alicorn’s back and started to swipe at the falling apples. Any injuries the detonations gave her started to heal almost immediately, allowing Lacunae to recover enough to restore her shield.
同时发生了三起爆炸。当另外两个炸弹沿着她的脊椎爆炸时，她尖叫起来，撕裂了她的肉体，烧焦了她的翅膀和尾巴。狂暴，她的盔甲变黑了，跳到了橡果的背上，开始猛击掉落的苹果。爆炸给她造成的任何伤害几乎立即开始愈合，让裂隙恢复到足以恢复她的护盾。
Then, as abruptly as they appeared, the exploding apples vanished. Once more the trees resumed their slow groaning and popping noises. I stared as I saw one trunk split in two by the branch of a larger tree, the smaller tree being torn apart.
然后，苹果突然出现，爆炸的苹果消失了。树木又恢复了它们缓慢的呻吟和爆裂的声音。我凝视着，看到一根树干被一棵大树的树枝劈成了两半，而那棵小树则被撕成了两半。
I really hated this place. We let Lacunae heal herself and then tend to us... and suddenly Glory screamed. A gray wooden shoot was growing out of her foreleg! Scotch wasted no time, jumping off me and racing to where it was sprouting. She bit down, set her forelegs, and pulled as hard as she could. There was a horrible wet noise as the bloody seed was ripped out. As she spat it aside, I watched in sick horror as another waxy tree began to grow before our eyes in the dirt beside us. P-21 and Scotch also had pieces of apple seed shrapnel that had to be dug out even as they started to sprout. Lacunae had the easiest time; though she’d been hit by more seeds than any of us, none of them were sprouting. Maybe it was the radiation... or just more of her freaky alicorn cheating powers.
我真的讨厌这个地方。我们让空隙治愈她自己，然后照顾我们......突然晨辉尖叫起来。一根灰色的木头枝条从她的前腿长出来了！苏格兰威士忌没有浪费时间，从我身上跳下来，奔向它萌芽的地方。她咬了一口，放下前腿，然后用尽全力拉。当血淋淋的种子被扯出来的时候，传来一阵可怕的湿声。当她把它吐到一边时，我惊恐地看着另一棵蜡树开始在我们眼前生长，就在我们旁边的泥土里。P-21和苏格兰威士忌还有苹果籽弹片，即使在它们开始发芽时也必须挖出来。空隙处的日子最好过;尽管她比我们任何人受到的种子都多，但没有一粒种子发芽。也许是因为辐射...或者只是因为她那怪异的橡子欺骗能力。
“What kind of apples appear from nowhere and then blow up?” Scotch asked after yanking the last sprout from her flank.
"什么样的苹果不知从哪里冒出来，然后就爆炸了?"苏格兰威士忌把最后一根嫩芽从她肚子里拔出来后问道。
“Hoofington apples,” I muttered as I glared at the tangled mess of wood and tree.
"胡芬顿苹果,"我凝视着纠结在一起的树木，喃喃自语。
After healing the gouges left by ripping out the seeds, we set off again. If it hadn’t been for Scotch pointing out north and Glory’s sharp eyes spotting the steeple of the building through the gloom, I’d have had no idea where we were heading. We passed several rusted wagons that made Scotch Tape cringe, and even I balked at the sight of the twisted, rusted metal and grotesque plant life growing amid the toxic sludge. The splintered trunks resembled gaping maws... and for all I knew, they were mouths!
在治愈了种子留下的沟槽之后，我们再次出发了。要不是苏格兰威士忌指向北方，要不是晨辉锐利的眼睛在黑暗中注视着建筑物的尖顶，我根本不知道我们要去哪里。我们经过了几辆生锈的马车，这些马车让ScotchTape感到畏缩，甚至连我都不敢看到那些扭曲、生锈的金属和奇形怪状的植物生长在有毒的污泥中。断裂的树干看起来像是裂开的乳房......据我所知，它们是嘴！
“There’s too much red. Everywhere I look is red!” Glory whimpered as she looked around.
"红色太多了。到处都是红色!"晨辉看着四周，呜咽着。
“Don’t focus on the red bars. Keep your eyes open for anything else,” I murmured as I kicked an ugly log with my rear hoof.
"不要把注意力集中在红条上。"睁大你的眼睛，注意别的事情,"我一边低声说，一边用后蹄踢了一根丑陋的木头。
The log’s eyes opened and it lunged, biting my ass hard and driving splintered fangs deep into my haunch. It snarled like some sort of maddened canine. It was a good thing that my hide was tougher than the usual mare’s -- otherwise it probably would have torn my flank clean off. Another of the things tore itself off a gnarled tree and leaped at Glory, while a third sprang from a thicket at P-21.
原木的眼睛睁开了，它扑了过来，狠狠地咬着我的屁股，把裂开的尖牙深深地扎进了我的屁股。它像发狂的狗一样咆哮着。这是一件好事，我的皮比通常的母马坚韧-否则它可能会撕裂我的侧翼干净。另一个东西从一棵粗糙的树上跳了下来，跳向了晨辉，而第三个东西从灌木丛中跳出来，跳向了P-21。
Glory turned, pointed her gun unerringly at the plunging log, and unloaded a stream of energy that transformed the entire beast into a flaming torch. It slammed into the gray pegasus, but she kicked it away before it could do more than singe her barding. Then there was a loud crack as four tree limbs speared out at once and crushed the flaming wolf log into pieces.
格洛里转过身，准确无误地用枪指着深陷的圆木，释放出一股能量，把整个野兽变成了一支燃烧的火炬。它猛地撞上了那匹灰色的飞马，但是在它还没来得及烧焦她的身体之前，她就把它踢走了。接着传来一声巨响，四条树枝同时伸出来，把火狼的木头压成了碎片。
As smoothly as if he still wore his PipBuck, P-21 brought Persuasion up in his jaws and fired a clean forty millimeter grenade right into the gaping maw of the one bearing down on him. As it slammed into him, he rolled smoothly onto his back and kicked it over and away. The wooden creature scrambled up, and then the grenade exploded and blew the snarling head into so many toothpicks.
P-21一如既往地平稳地戴着他的皮伯克手榴弹，把《劝导》放在他的嘴里，一颗干净利落的四十毫米手榴弹射进了向他逼近的那颗手榴弹张开的胃里。当它撞上他的时候，他平稳地翻了个身，把它踢了又踢。那木头生物爬了起来，然后手榴弹爆炸了，把那个咆哮的脑袋炸成了许多牙签。
One burst half-buried from the ground and sunk its fangs into Lacunae’s belly, tearing a jagged wound. Alicorns could bleed just like anypony else, and they could scream, too. As the wolf-log readied a second bite, Rampage launched herself underneath the purple alicorn and grabbed the beast. Its jagged edges tore at her striped hide, but she simply kept bending until the log split in two.
一个突然爆裂，半埋在地下，它的尖牙刺进了拉库尼的腹部，撕裂出一个锯齿状的伤口。海牛会像其他小马一样流血，它们也会尖叫。当狼木准备再咬一口时，狂暴跳到紫色橡子下面抓住了这只野兽。它锯齿状的边撕裂了她的条纹隐藏，但她只是继续弯曲，直到木头裂成两半。
As for me, I was a bit in a predicament, as the one attached to my ass was doing everything it could to tear said area off and was about to accomplish exactly that. I drew Vigilance, but with the monster almost directly behind me, I couldn’t draw a bead on it. I spat Vigilance into the air. “Scotch!” I yelled, and the perceptive girl spotted the weapon and caught it in her hooves. She aimed right at my butt, and I shouted, “S.A.T.S.!”
至于我，我有一点困境，因为一个连接到我的屁股是尽一切可能撕下说的领域，正要完成这一点。我提请警惕，但与怪物几乎正好在我身后，我不能在它的珠子。我朝空气中吐了口唾沫。"威士忌!"我喊道，敏锐的女孩发现了武器，用蹄子抓住了它。她瞄准我的屁股，我喊道,"s.a.t.s!"
She snorted and sent three bullets into its head, blowing it into pulpy pieces of wood.
她哼了一声，向它的头部开了三枪，把它打成了一堆木头。
Lacunae groaned as she fell over, giving us a really good look at the grievous bite to her gut. Glory raced to her, and P-21 fished out a healing potion. “Hold still! Let me get your insides… inside.”
她倒在地上呻吟着，让我们好好看了一眼她肚子上被严重咬伤的样子。晨辉冲向她，P-21拿出了一种治疗药剂。"别动！让我把你的内脏......塞进去。"
“And if you hold still,” Scotch chuckled, “I’ll get the splinters out of your butt!” She bit the largest and tugged it free; I winced, closing my eyes as it was yanked
"如果你不动,"苏格兰人咯咯地笑着说,"我就把你屁股里的碎片弄出来!"她咬了最大的那只，然后把它拽了出来;我皱了皱眉，当它被拽的时候，我闭上了眼睛
out and spat aside. “Funny, I would have expected Glory to be the one with a stick up her--“
吐在一边。"有趣的是，我本以为晨辉会是那个拿着棍子的人——"
“Just pull them out please, Scotch,” I groaned. I’d have to wait to regenerate, like Rampage. More healing potions for the rest of my friends.
"把它们拿出来吧，苏格兰威士忌,"我呻吟着。我必须等待再生，就像狂暴一样。给我其他的朋友更多的治疗药水。
* * *
* * *
“We’re going in circles,” Rampage declared. It’d been more than an hour, and we’d been bombed once more, nearly speared when I tried incendiary bullets, and suffered two more attacks by the timber wolves. We’d encountered other weirdness too, like a tree with drooping branches that cried rainbow gunk. And a was it a pine tree? -- covered in steel pins! One tree looked perfectly fine and leafy but made P-21 violently ill when we approached. Another had watched us with dozens of eyes that looked oddly just like P-21’s... weird. Glory came across an apple tree, but at her approach the luscious red apples revealed themselves to be red chitinous monsters that scuttled after us, snapping pincers. Then there were some thorny branches that barely scratched Scotch… but once she started bleeding, she didn’t stop! The filly’s blood had soaked my pack before Lacunae could administer healing spells.
"我们在兜圈子,"狂暴宣称。一个多小时过去了，我们又被轰炸了一次，我试图用燃烧弹时几乎被刺穿，又遭到了森林狼的两次袭击。我们也遇到过其他奇怪的事情，比如一棵树的树枝耷拉下来，看起来像彩虹。是一棵松树吗？——全身都是钢钉！其中一棵树看起来非常好，叶子茂盛，但是当我们靠近时P-21就病得很厉害。另一个人用几十只眼睛看着我们，看上去很奇怪，就像P-21的......奇怪。格洛里遇到了一棵苹果树，但是当她走近的时候，那些甜美的红苹果就像是红色的壳状怪物，它们在我们身后快速地跑来跑去，咬着我们的钳子。然后是一些多刺的树枝，几乎没有刮伤苏格兰威士忌......但是一旦她开始流血，她没有停止！在陷阱施放治疗咒语之前，小母马的血已经浸透了我的背包。
I might have hated the Hoof in general, but I really loathed this place.
总的来说，我可能讨厌霍夫，但我真的讨厌这个地方。
Rampage was pointing at some spatters of blood in the dirt. “Unless we’re not the only dumb ponies in this place, we’ve been here before.”
暴跳如雷的人正指着脏兮兮的血迹。"除非我们不是这里唯一的蠢马，否则我们以前就来过这里。"
“We can’t! We’ve been going north pretty consistently…” Glory said as she looked over at the spire. “But there was that time we had to double back. And then we went southeast for a time and… have we been here before?”
"我们不能！我们一直都在往北走......"晨辉看着塔尖说道。"但有一次我们不得不原路返回。然后我们向东南走了一段时间，然后......我们以前来过这里吗?"
“We have,” P-21 confirmed gravely. He picked up one of my shotgun hulls in his mouth and passed it to me. “Twelve gauge explosive. That’s what you’ve been using on those wolf things, right?”
"是的,"P-21严肃地确认道。他嘴里叼起我的猎枪壳，递给我。"十二口径炸药。这就是你用来对付那些狼的东西的，对吧?"
It was. They didn’t have any vitals, per se. You just had to blast them apart. I looked around, spotted the remains of one timber wolf, and scowled. “I remember this place. But there was a gap to the north!” I said as I pointed at the solid barrier. “It was the thorny one that got Scotch scratched up!”
是的。他们没有任何生命迹象。你只需要把他们炸开。我环顾四周，发现了一只大灰狼的残骸，皱起了眉头。"我记得这个地方。但是在北边有一个缺口!"我一边说，一边指着坚实的屏障。"就是把苏格兰威士忌刮花了的那个多刺的!"
“It appears that this maze is cheating,” Lacunae observed softly. The alicorn was
"看起来这个迷宫是在作弊,"Lacunae轻声观察道。阿利克松是
clearly exhausted; being the largest, she’d received more attacks than any of the rest of us. “The trees are moving to keep us trapped.”
显然是精疲力竭，作为最大的，她受到的攻击比我们其他人都多。"树木在移动，把我们困住了。"
“Are you telling me these things are intelligent?” Rampage asked as she pointed a hoof at the trunks.
"你是在告诉我这些东西很聪明吗?"当她用蹄子指着树干时，狂暴问道。
“Perhaps in a feral, primitive sense. It would explain their cat and mouse antics,” Glory said as she glared at the twisted wood.
"也许是一种野性的、原始的感觉。这可以解释他们猫和老鼠的滑稽动作,"格洛里说，她怒视着扭曲的木头。
I sighed. It was a setback, but only a setback. As galling as it was, I wasn’t going to let it drag me down. Not back to the mattress. “Alright. Get us out of here, Lacunae. Maybe you and Glory can teleport up and disable the lightning rods or--”
我叹了口气。这是一次挫折，但仅仅是一次挫折。尽管这件事令人难堪，但我不会让它拖累我。不要回到床垫上。"好吧。带我们离开这里，Lacunae。也许你和晨辉可以传送过来，使避雷针失效，或者——"
There was a resounding creaking sound, and I got ready to blast again. All of a sudden, a dozen thick branches curled around two trunks. The trees sounded like they were screaming as the branches twisted against them and pulled the trunks wide with a resounding wooden crunch. Then another pair was ripped apart. And another. Another. A path, straight as an arrow, led directly towards the building. P-21 looked at the stunned Glory. “Pretty smart cat.”
有一个响亮的吱吱声，我准备再次爆炸。突然，一打粗大的树枝缠绕在两根树干上。树木的声音听起来就像是在尖叫，树枝扭曲着压在树身上，发出嘎吱嘎吱的响声，把树干拉宽。然后另一对被撕开了。再来一杯。另一个。一条像箭一样笔直的小路直接通向大楼。P-21看着目瞪口呆的晨辉。"非常聪明的猫。"
Scotch gulped. “Well… well I’m not afraid! So let’s go,” the filly said as she pointed down the path that had been opened. “Um… after you?” she asked Rampage.
苏格兰威士忌。"好吧......好吧，我不怕！"那么我们走吧,"小姑娘一边指着那条已经打开的小路一边说。"嗯...你先请?"她问道。
“Buc- buc- bukaw!” Rampage clucked as she trotted ahead.
"Buc-Buc-bukaw"她小跑着往前走，狂暴地咯咯叫着。
“Of course, you know this is a trap,” Glory asked, looking over at me as we walked along after the striped Reaper.
"当然，你知道这是一个陷阱,"晨辉问道，当我们跟着条纹收割机一起走时，他看着我。
“‘Course. It wouldn’t be Hoofington otherwise,” I answered, looking through the gaps between the trunks. I saw gray trees that seemed to bear apples and oranges and other fruits, but sprawled beneath them were more and more jumbled bones. It was another Silverstar Sporting Supplies… just a more vicious version.
"'当然。否则就不会是胡芬顿了,"我回答，看着树干之间的缝隙。我看见灰色的树木，好像结着苹果、桔子和其他水果，但是树下的骨头却越来越杂乱。这是另一个银星运动用品...只是一个更恶毒的版本。
The trees were closing the path behind us with the grinding creaks and groans of tortured wood. And then the foliage ended abruptly, the transition as sharp as if there were some invisible line. Spread out before us was a huge lawn of blue-green grass. It was covered with strange train-like engines and wagons, and heaps of barrels loomed like oozing encrustations, slowly dripping their
树木在我们身后的小路上发出吱吱嘎嘎的声音，树木在折磨我们的木头时发出呻吟声。然后，树叶突然停止了，过渡像有一条看不见的线一样锐利。展现在我们面前的是一大片蓝绿色的草坪。上面布满了奇形怪状的火车头和四轮马车，一堆堆的桶子像渗出来的外壳，慢慢地滴着水
congealed contents like colorful pus. Most bizarre of all were the statues. One showed three foals frolicking, another was a mare looking impressive, rearing with a flag clutched between her forehooves... There were dozens of them scattered across the strange grass. A few had tumbled over and others were covered in creeping blue vines, but most of them were just… there.
像五颜六色的脓一样凝结的东西。最奇怪的是那些雕像。其中一张是三只小马驹在嬉戏，另一张是一只母马，前蹄间抓着一面旗子站立着，给人留下深刻的印象......奇怪的草丛中散落着几十只小马驹。有几棵倒了下来，其他的爬满了蔓生的蓝色藤蔓，但是大部分还在那里。
Scotch leaped from my back onto Lacunae and stared at one of the strange engines. “It’s gonna eat me. It’s gonna gobble me up!” I had to admit, with its rusted grill and the two domed lamps beside the massive drum on the front, I half thought it was going to eat me!
苏格兰威士忌从我的背上跳到空隙上，盯着一个奇怪的引擎。"它会吃了我的。它会把我吃掉的!"我不得不承认，由于它生锈的烤架和前面巨大的鼓旁边的两个半球形灯，我差点以为它要吃了我！
“I’ll keep you safe, Scotch,” Lacunae promised softly, lifting her wings to shield the filly from the sight.
"我会保护你的安全，苏格兰人,"拉古娜轻声答应，扬起翅膀挡住那匹小母马的视线。
We started to walk between the vine-covered hulks, and then I saw the blue vines start to creep. My mane started to do the freakiest things as the plants rasped faintly against the hulls of the machines. I’d already seen trees rip a path in front of me, though, so… this shouldn’t have been that frightening, in comparison. Rampage scowled at the vines. “Huh… this can’t be…” Then her eyes popped wide. “No way! We’re nowhere near the Everfree Forest!”
我们开始在藤蔓覆盖的船体之间行走，然后我看到蓝色的藤蔓开始蠕动。当植物在机器外壳上发出微弱的响声时，我的鬃毛开始发出最诡异的声音。不过，我已经看到树木在我面前开辟了一条小路，所以......相比之下，这应该没那么可怕。横冲直撞的人怒视着葡萄藤。"嗯...这不可能..."然后她的眼睛睁得大大的。"不可能！我们离Everfree森林还远着呢!"
“Can’t be what?” I asked as I saw her pupils contract in terror.
"不可能什么?"我问，因为我看到她的学生在恐惧中收缩。
“Run!” she screamed, “Killing Joke!”
"快跑!"她尖叫着,"杀人笑话!"
As if waiting for just that, the ground around us exploded with snaking blue vines. They slithered out of every hole, seeming to make a horrible chuckling noise as they moved lightning quick. One popped up in front of me and tapped my nose. The vine made the creepiest hissing laugh as I felt a tingle run through me. And then, just as suddenly as they’d attacked, the vines pulled themselves back. I felt a strange wooziness running through my body.
仿佛就等着这一天的到来，我们周围的土地上长满了蜿蜒的蓝色藤蔓。它们从每个洞里爬出来，似乎一边闪电般地移动，一边发出可怕的咯咯的笑声。其中一个突然出现在我面前，轻轻地拍了拍我的鼻子。藤蔓发出令人毛骨悚然的嘶嘶声，我感到一阵刺痛贯穿全身。然后，就像它们突然袭击一样，藤蔓把自己拉了回来。我感到一种奇怪的眩晕感贯穿全身。
“What just happened?” Rampage asked, and I reached out a hoof to her to steady myself. And just like that, Rampage exploded. The striped mare blew apart in a cloud of shrapnel, her metal barding smashing into me and sending me flying into one of the tractors. Which exploded, showering us all with debris. A large chunk of rusty metal fell upon me and I heaved it away… only to have it explode as well. I staggered to the side, my body battered and my legs wobbling beneath me. I fell, and the ground beneath me exploded like a landmine. I finally just curled up into a ball, feeling battered and broken and terrified to take another
"刚才发生了什么?"狂暴问道，我伸出一只蹄子扶住她，让自己站稳。就这样，狂暴爆发了。那匹有条纹的母马被弹片炸得四分五裂，她的金属甲板撞到我身上，把我撞飞到一辆拖拉机上。它爆炸了，给我们所有人带来了大量的碎片。一大块生锈的金属掉到我身上，我把它扔了出去......结果它也爆炸了。我摇摇晃晃地走到一边，身体撞得粉碎，双腿在脚下颤抖。我摔倒了，脚下的地面像地雷一样爆炸了。最后，我只是蜷缩成一团，感到精疲力竭，心力交瘁，不敢再次尝试
step.
步骤。
Then a glow surrounded me and lifted me into the air. I looked weakly at Lacunae levitating me through the air towards the building. “I… hate… blowing up…” I moaned. But then I looked down; P-21 and Glory had grabbed the regenerating chunk of Rampage and were struggling to keep up as the slithering blue vines pursued them. P-21 now tossed incendiary apples every way he could to try and drive back patches of the noxious blue plant.
然后一道光环绕着我，把我举到空中。我有气无力地望着空隙，它把我从空中抛向那座建筑物。"我.....。.恨...爆炸..."我呻吟着。但是我低头一看，P-21和晨辉已经抓住了再生的大块狂暴，正挣扎着跟上蔓延的蓝色藤蔓追赶他们。P-21现在把燃烧苹果扔得到处都是，试图把有毒的蓝色植物赶回去。
The ground heaved beneath P-21, and he dropped the filly Rampage in a heap as Lacunae landed on the vine-free concrete steps. She set me down… and the stone exploded under my hooves! At least this time the blast was a little less energetic. I was gonna have to chow down on some serious scrap metal soon or start losing legs. Lacunae frowned in concern as she looked at me, then at our friends. She couldn’t set me down and get the others without the ground exploding underhoof, but she couldn’t manage me and pick them up at the same time either.
地面在P-21下隆起，当空隙落在没有藤蔓的混凝土台阶上时，他把那匹横冲直撞的小母马摔成了一堆。她把我放下来......石头在我的蹄下爆炸了！至少这次爆炸没那么有活力了。我不得不大快朵颐一些重要的废金属或者开始失去双腿。当她看着我，然后又看着我们的朋友时，拉库奈皱起了眉头，表示关切。她不可能把我放下来，然后把其他人拉上来，而不让地面爆炸，但她也不可能同时把我和他们拉上来。
Suddenly, Rampage screamed as the ground beneath her opened up into a deep pit of earth. Her hooves scrambled at the edge of the hole as it filled with wiggling blue vines and gnarled roots. It was as if the earth itself were creeping away under her hooves to dump her into the depths. P-21 reached in and bit her mane, hauling the thrashing, muddy filly back up over the edge.
突然，狂暴尖叫起来，她脚下的土地裂成了一个深深的土坑。她的蹄子爬到洞的边缘，洞里爬满了扭动的蓝色藤蔓和多节的树根。仿佛大地在她的蹄下悄悄溜走，要把她扔进深渊。P-21伸手进去，咬了咬鬃毛，拖着那浑身是泥的小母马翻了过去。
A blue vine darted towards the distracted stallion. Green beams sliced the vine into quivering lengths as Glory leapt in place behind him, covering him as he hauled Rampage out. Then I saw it. It was just a moment when she took her eyes off the vines to look at the pair. In that moment, the vines struck. They shot out and coiled around her. “No!” I screamed as a blue flash engulfed her body.
一株蓝色的藤蔓向那匹心烦意乱的种马猛冲过去。格瑞在他身后跳跃着，把他拖出来的时候，格林的光束把蔓藤切成了颤抖的长度。然后我看到了。就在这一瞬间，她把目光从藤蔓上移开，看着这一对。就在那一刻，藤蔓开始碰撞。它们飞出来，盘绕在她的周围。"不!"一道蓝色的闪光吞没了她的身体，我尖叫起来。
Then I blinked as I stared in shock. “Oh my…” Lacunae murmured in my mind. What the heck…
然后，当我震惊地盯着他时，我眨了眨眼。"哦，我的......"拉库尼在我的脑海里喃喃地说。搞什么..。
“Come on! Move!” Glory shouted as she strafed the vines with her gatling beam gun. But P-21 and Rampage gaped at her. “What are you staring at? Move!” Finally, the pair began to run towards us, leaving the vines hissing and rubbing together. Glory turned and shouted, “Aw yeah!” And then she froze. She touched her throat with a bright blue hoof, then turned to stare at a stunning rainbow-colored tail. Where once she’d had a brand, now she had a vivid rainbow
"来吧！快走!"当她用加特林机枪扫射藤蔓时，晨辉呼喊着。但是P-21和狂暴盯着她看。"你在看什么？快走!"最后，这一对开始向我们跑来，让藤蔓嘶嘶作响，摩擦在一起。晨辉转过身来，喊道:"啊，耶!"然后她僵住了。她用明亮的蓝色蹄子触摸着自己的喉咙，然后转过头来盯着一条漂亮的彩虹色尾巴。她曾经拥有一个品牌，现在她拥有一道鲜明的彩虹
lightning bolt and cloud on her flank.
闪电和云在她的侧翼。
The killing joke had turned her into Rainbow Dash.
这个杀人的笑话把她变成了彩虹冲刺。
“Ah… what? No… no no no… they turned me into a Dashite… a Dashite! Not a Dash!” she said in her higher, squeakier voice. “This is impossible. There must be some kind of mistake!” She sat down hard and wailed, “My life is ruined!”
"啊......什么？不...不不不...他们把我变成了一个大师...一个大师！一点也不!"她用更高更尖锐的声音说。"这不可能。一定是哪里弄错了!"她重重地坐了下来，嚎啕大哭,"我的生活被毁了!"
“Wasn’t it ruined already?” Rampage said as she stepped on to the concrete and winced, then said in relief, “Okay… no burying alive… good…”
"不是已经毁了吗?"狂暴女子一边走到水泥地上，一边皱着眉头说:"好吧，没有活埋......很好......"
“It’s better than blowing up,” I murmured weakly.
"这总比爆炸好,"我有气无力地低声说。
“You don’t understand! It would have been better if I’d blown up. You remember how some of the Tenpony ponies acted when they thought you were related to Twilight? Well multiply that by a thousand and that’s the Enclave’s reaction!” Glory began to pace back and forth. “Even if my family could somehow be okay with it… there’s no way Thunderhead would... I mean… I look just like her! The most infamous pegasus in history!”
"你不明白！如果我爆炸了会更好。你还记得当天波尼的一些小马认为你和《暮光之城》有关系时的反应吗？再乘以一千，这就是昂科雷的反应!"晨辉开始来来回回。"即使我的家人能够接受这一切......雷公也不可能......我的意思是......我看起来就像她！史上最臭名昭著的飞马!"
“Glory… calm down,” I said, taking a little step. There was another loud bang that left me sprawling and put a large crack in the concrete. “At least… you’re not… a walking bomb…”
"晨辉......冷静下来,"我说，迈了一小步。接着又是一声巨响，让我四肢伸展，混凝土上出现了一道大裂缝。"至少......你不是......一个移动炸弹......"
“Yeah. You actually look kinda cool like this,” Scotch said as she hopped off Lacunae’s back. “Not nearly so boring!” Rampage looked out at where she’d exploded and sighed. Lacunae flew over to retrieve the new filly’s saddlebags.
"是的。你这样看起来还挺酷的,"苏格兰人一边说，一边从拉古娜的背上跳了下来。"一点也不无聊!"狂暴看着外面她爆发的地方，叹了口气。空隙飞过去取回新来的小母马的鞍包。
Glory pressed her hooves to the sides of her head. “Oh my gosh, what if the change isn’t just physical? What if there’s some kind of mental contamination? I was slated for a fast track medical career! Rainbow Dash was an idiot!” She clenched her eyes closed. “Hydrogen. Helium. Lithium. Beryllium. Boron. Carbon. Oxygen… wait… no… I forgot nitrogen!” she gasped. “I forgot nitrogen!” She grabbed P-21 and shook him in panic. “How could I forget nitrogen? Any second now I’m going to be obsessed with racing and the Wonderbolts!” she cried as she hovered in the air.
晨辉的蹄子紧贴着头的两侧。"哦，天哪，如果这种变化不仅仅是身体上的呢？如果有某种精神污染怎么办？我被提名为一个快速通道医疗职业！彩虹·达什是个白痴!"她紧闭双眼。"氢气。氦。锂。铍。硼。碳。氧气...等等...不...我忘了氮气!"她倒抽了一口冷气。"我忘了氮气!"她抓住P-21，惊恐地摇晃他。"我怎么能忘记氮呢？现在我随时都可能被赛车和神奇闪电迷住!"她在空中盘旋的时候哭了。
“At least you’re flying again!” Scotch said with a grin. Lacunae returned with Rampage’s blasted bags; the little striped filly dug through them for a moment, pulled out Psychoshy’s power hooves, and started to strap them onto her little
"至少你又能飞了!"苏格兰人咧嘴笑着说。空隙带着狂暴的破袋子回来了;那只带着条纹的小母马在袋子里翻了一会儿，拉出了精神病害羞的力量蹄子，开始把它们绑在她的小东西上
legs.
腿。
“I’m flying?” She looked back over her shoulder at her restored wings. Sure, they were bright blue now, but they were also holding her aloft. She grinned. “I’m flying! Flying! Woohoo! So awesome!” she cheered in glee as she looped and whirled above the steps. Then, suddenly, she got a haunted look and landed. “No, Glory. You are an Egghead. Egg! Head! I mean… an intellectual!”
"我在飞?"她回头看了看自己复原的翅膀。当然，他们现在是明亮的蓝色，但他们也把她高高举起。她咧嘴一笑。"我在飞！飞啊！呜呼！太棒了!"当她在台阶上转圈旋转时，她高兴地欢呼起来。然后，突然，她得到了一个忧虑的眼神，并降落。"不，晨辉。你是个书呆子。鸡蛋！头！我的意思是...一个知识分子!"
“Relax. I think any pegasus would be glad to get her wings back,” I said as I walked gingerly, like I was treading on a bed of landmines, towards the door. Every third step resulted in a sharp detonation underhoof that knocked me about. Still, I couldn’t stop now. I just needed to get inside. Generally you could tell how important a place was by how trashed it looked. Hippocratic Research was one reinforced building. I couldn’t see a single broken pane of glass or missing tile off the roof. It might have looked like an old, classy-style building, but it clearly had to be built like a fortress.
"放松。我想任何一匹飞马都会很高兴收回它的翅膀,"我一边小心翼翼地走着，一边说，就像踩在地雷上一样，朝着门口走去。每走第三步都会引起剧烈的爆炸，把我撞得东倒西歪。不过，我现在还是停不下来。我只是想进去。一般来说，你可以通过一个地方的破败程度来判断它的重要性。希波克拉底研究所是一座加固建筑。我看不到一块破碎的玻璃，也看不到屋顶上缺少的瓦片。它可能看起来像一个古老的，优雅的风格的建筑，但它显然必须建成像一个堡垒。
There was no way I was going to open these doors. “P-21… I think we’re going to need your…” I started to say as I looked back and saw a blue vine snaking out of the crack split in the concrete slab and creeping towards Scotch Tape. “Look out!” I shouted, but all that did was make her look at me.
我没有办法打开这些门。"P-21......我想我们需要你的......"我回头一看，看到一根蓝色的藤蔓从混凝土板裂缝中蜿蜒而出，向透明胶带爬去。"小心!"我喊道，但那只是让她看着我。
The vine curled around her rear hoof.
藤蔓缠绕在她的后蹄上。
Scotch immediately shuddered, her eyes clenching shut as Glory severed the tendril with a precise blast of S.A.T.S.-assisted gatling fire. “Burns…” she whimpered, and then she fell over as a jet of yellow-green gas sprayed from her mouth. She started to thrash wildly, a horrible noise coming from her throat as she flopped and fell to her side. But worst of all was the smell. It was a smell I could smell in my sleep, and it came to me now in horrible freshness: the acrid stench of chlorine.
苏格兰人立刻颤抖起来，她的眼睛紧闭着，格洛里用sat辅助的格林机关枪准确地打断了卷须。"博恩斯......"她呜咽着说，然后一股黄绿色的气体从她的嘴里喷了出来，她摔倒了。她开始疯狂地抽打，一个可怕的声音从她的喉咙发出，她扑通一声倒在她的身边。但最糟糕的是气味。这是一种我在睡梦中都能闻到的气味，现在它以可怕的新鲜感扑面而来:氯气的刺鼻恶臭。
Rainbo-- Glory! Glory fanned her wings to blow the clouds back and landed next to her, pressing an ear to Scotch Tape’s chest. Her rose-colored eyes were wide in fear as more chlorine gas trickled from the filly’s lips. “Lacunae!” The purple alicorn touched Scotch’s side with her glowing horn as Glory scrambled for a healing potion… but then she dropped it. “No! We don’t need healing now. The joke is making the gas inside her lungs!” She grabbed Lacunae, “You’ve got BJ’s memories and stuff, right, and still a lot of radiation energy?” The alicorn
兰博----晨辉！格洛里扇动翅膀把云吹回去，落在她身边，耳朵贴在透明胶带的胸前。当更多的氯气从小母马的嘴里流出来时，她那玫瑰色的眼睛因为恐惧而睁得大大的。"空白!"紫色的角果用它发光的角触碰了苏格兰人的身体，晨辉想要一种治疗药剂......但是她把它弄掉了。"不！我们现在不需要治疗。笑话就是把气体放进她的肺里!"她抓住Lacunae,"你有BJ的记忆和东西，对吧，还有很多辐射能量?"独角兽
nodded warily. “Teleport us to the Fluttershy Medical Center! The surgical room! Now!”
小心翼翼地点点头。"把我们传送到Fluttershy医疗中心！手术室！现在!"
“Wait!” P-21 started.
"等等!"P-21开始工作。
“What--” Rampage began.
"什么——"狂暴开始了。
“Didn’t--” I started to say.
"没有——"我开始说。
“Now!” Glory shouted, grabbing Lacunae and shaking her.
"现在!"晨辉大声喊道，抓住空隙，摇晃着她。
There was a purple flash, and all three vanished. I sat down hard in shock. Then there was a bang under my backside and I leaped to my hooves, looking back at my blackened and frayed tail. P-21 also sat down with a shocked expression but without, fortunately, an explosion. I looked blown half to hell, he looked like he’d been smacked between the eyes with a plank, and the freshly re-foaled Rampage was trotting along on the power hooves, wearing the one saddlebag like a school knapsack.
有一道紫色的闪光，三个人都消失了。我震惊地重重地坐了下来。然后我的屁股下面发出一声巨响，我跳到我的蹄子上，回头看着我那黑乎乎、磨破了皮的尾巴。P-21也坐了下来，面带震惊的表情，但幸运的是没有发生爆炸。我看起来像是被炸得半死，他看起来像是被木板砸到了两眼之间，新生的横冲直撞骑在马蹄上小跑着，背着一个鞍囊，就像一个学校的背包。
“So… all in all, pretty good day in the Hoof, huh?” the striped filly said with a smirk.
"所以...总而言之，今天在霍夫过得不错吧?"条纹小母马傻笑着说。
* * *
* * *
“So… is this shit permanent?” I asked as I sat by while P-21 worked on the lock. I was absent-mindedly chewing on bloody pieces of shrapnel that I’d plucked from my hide.
"那么......这是永久性的吗?"当P-21在修锁时，我坐在旁边问道。我心不在焉地咀嚼着从兽皮中取出的带血的弹片。
“It’s Killing Joke. Who the fuck knows?” Rampage responded. “Normally it’s found around the Everfree Forest, but you hear rumors about it in other nasty tainted parts of Equestria. Usually fatal, always inconvenient.” She looked out at the rusty drums and trailers covered by the faintly snickering weed. “Who knows how there’s so much here?”
"这是杀人笑话。谁他妈知道呢?"狂暴回应道。"通常在Everfree森林附近都能找到它，但在Equestria其他污染严重的地区，你会听到关于它的传言。通常是致命的，总是不方便。"她看着外面生锈的鼓和拖车，上面覆盖着隐隐窃笑的大麻。"谁知道这里怎么会有这么多呢?"
In one fell swoop, we’d lost our medic, our teleportation escape plan, our magic support, and our moral support. All in all, I thought Glory getting turned into Rainbow Dash was pretty… weird. A little light. But given what it could have done… I supposed that it was far more preferable to… say… killing her outright. I guessed that there wasn’t much fun in just killing her outright.
在一次突袭中，我们失去了我们的医生，我们的心灵运输逃跑计划，我们的魔法支持，还有我们的精神支持。总而言之，我觉得把晨辉变成彩虹冲刺实在是...太奇怪了。一点点光。但是考虑到它本来可以做的事情......我认为最好是......比如说......直接杀了她。我猜想直接杀了她没什么意思。
The ninth bobby pin snapped in P-21’s hooves. “Oh, come on!” he shouted spitting his screwdriver to the ground. “What, did they put the most expensive lock in all of Equestria on this place?”
第九个发夹在P-21的蹄子上断了。"哦，得了吧!"他喊道，把螺丝刀往地上一扔。"什么，他们在这个地方安装了全Equestria最昂贵的锁?"
I scowled. “Stand back.”
我皱起了眉头。"退后。"
He sighed. “If I can’t pick it, I don’t see how you’re going to.”
他叹了口气。"如果我不能选择，我不知道你将如何选择。"
“Didn’t say I was going to pick it,” I said as I gave the door a shooty look, furrowing my brows as I backed away from the entrance.
"我可没说我要去捡,"我一边说着，一边向门口瞟了一眼，皱起眉头，退出了门口。
“Oh…” he muttered, his eyes getting wide as I charged the double doors. He jumped aside as I slammed into them. A moment later there was another throaty blast that nearly knocked me back out into the squirming blue vines. I lay there on my back, closing my eyes. Oh sweet Celestia, was I sore.
"哦......"他咕哝着，当我冲进双开门时，他的眼睛睁得大大的。当我猛地撞上他们时，他跳到一边。过了一会儿，又传来一阵沙哑的爆炸声，差点把我撞倒在蠕动的蓝色葡萄藤上。我躺在那里，闭上眼睛。哦，亲爱的塞莱斯蒂亚，我痛不欲生。
“Hey, nice job!” Rampage cheered.
"嘿，干得好!"狂暴欢呼。
P-21 didn’t look quite so enthusiastic, dragging me to safety before the vines had even more ‘fun’. “Well, if you ask me, that was cheating.” He gathered up his things and then looked back at me. “You coming?”
P-21看起来没有那么热情，把我拖到安全之前，葡萄藤还没有更多的"乐趣"。"好吧，如果你问我的话，那就是作弊。"他收拾好他的东西，然后回头看着我。"你来吗?"
“I just need a second. Collect my thoughts…” I groaned as I closed my eyes. Yup… there it was. Lying on top of my jumbled thoughts was the certainty that if there was a nexus for suckitude… it was Hoofington.
"我只需要一点时间。"收集我的思想......"我闭上眼睛，呻吟着。没错，就是这样。躺在我混乱的思绪之上的肯定是，如果说有一个笨蛋的联系的话，那就是胡芬顿。
* * *
* * *
The front doors, still mostly closed even with a charred hole where the lock was, creaked open at my push. We had no idea when Glory and Lacunae would return, no idea if Scotch would be okay. The blue stallion clearly looked concerned, glancing back repeatedly. Rampage’s power hooves made little click-clack noises on the tiles as she trotted along beside me. I had such a need for scrap metal to repair myself that I was raiding the garbage cans by the entrance for tin cans to chew on. I even tried gnawing on the lid, but the metal softening spell didn’t activate.
前门在我的推动下吱吱作响地打开了，尽管锁上有一个烧焦的洞，但大部分还是关着的。我们不知道晨辉和拉库尼什么时候回来，也不知道苏格兰威士忌好不好喝。那匹蓝色的种马显然很关心，反复回头看了一眼。当她在我旁边小跑时，狂暴的马蹄在瓷砖上发出咔嗒咔嗒的声音。我非常需要用废金属来修理自己，以至于我在入口处的垃圾桶里翻找锡罐来咀嚼。我甚至试图咬开盖子，但是金属软化咒语没有启动。
That left me slowly regenerating as I walked carefully inside. The detonations were becoming fewer and weaker now. I supposed the joke just wasn’t funny anymore, not since I’d used it to my advantage. Looking around the two story
当我小心翼翼地走进去的时候，这让我慢慢恢复了活力。爆炸现在越来越少，越来越弱。我想这个笑话已经不再有趣了，因为我已经把它当成了我的优势。环顾两个故事
foyer of the building, it was clear something nasty had happened here. There were bloodstains on the wall... but surprisingly little damage. Then again, maybe not so surprisingly, if the inside of this place was as hardened as the outside. In the center of the arched entry was a golden statue covered in cobwebs. Two unicorn stallions grinned out as they lifted an apple in seeming tribute. ‘Hippocratic Research’, read the plaque on the base. ‘A trusted friend in science!’
大楼的门厅，很明显这里发生了不好的事情。墙上有血迹...但令人惊讶的是几乎没有损坏。不过话又说回来，如果这个地方的内部和外部一样坚硬，也许就不那么令人惊讶了。在拱形入口的中央是一个覆盖着蜘蛛网的金色雕像。两匹独角兽种马咧嘴笑着，抬起一个苹果，看起来像是进贡品。"希波克拉底研究"，基座上的铭牌上写着。科学界值得信赖的朋友
I scowled at the pair, then trotted to the statue and rubbed away the grime at the base. It was a tiny stamp, but I could see the O.I.A. symbol at the bottom. I looked around at the dusty walls and scattered papers and junk and imagined I could smell Goldenblood in the musty reek in the air. No bodies, and lots of bloodstains... “Stay close. No E.F.S., but I just know that there’s something nasty in here.”
我皱了皱眉头，然后小跑到雕像跟前，擦去雕像底部的污垢。这是一个很小的邮票，但我可以看到在底部的o.i.a.标志。我环顾四周，看着满是灰尘的墙壁、散落的文件和垃圾，想象着我能在空气中闻到金色血液的味道。没有尸体，还有很多血迹..."靠近点。没有e.f.s.，但我知道这里有些不好的东西。"
Sanguine’s lair was probably somewhere underneath the building. I walked as silently as possible, wishing we had rags to make Rampage booties once again. From somewhere… above… behind… there came a snarl that echoed in the halls. “Ooooh, I hate it when I’m right,” I murmured as we moved towards an elevator. After mashing the buttons several times, we finally forced the doors open to reveal a half dozen bony ponies curled up in the corners. Somepony had scraped ‘Dear Celestia, let us out!’ in the wood paneling.
Sanguine的老巢可能就在楼下。我尽可能地默默地走着，希望我们有破布可以再做一次狂暴的靴子。从某个地方......上面......后面......传来一声咆哮，在大厅里回荡。"哦，我讨厌自己是对的,"我们走向电梯时，我低声说道。在按了几次按钮之后，我们终于强行打开门，看到六只骨瘦如柴的小马蜷缩在角落里。某个小马曾经说过:亲爱的天国，让我们出去吧在木镶板里。
The lights flickered to life, and a slurring music began to play. “…opportunity… ery community…” Then the speakers crackled once more and went silent. The snarl sounded again… along with a dry rattling noise. And was it just me, or did it sound a lot closer?
灯光摇曳生辉，伴着模糊不清的音乐响起。"......机会..........................................................................................................................................................................。咆哮声再次响起...伴随着干燥的咔嗒声。是只有我这么觉得，还是听起来更近了？
We moved into the offices with me nervously chewing my bit -- okay, whoa; had to be careful with that, or I’d be eating it! -- while keeping an eye out. Oh how I missed my PipBuck right now. EC-1101 aside, it was an advantage I really could have used. “Brings back memories, doesn’t it?” P-21 said softly as he tapped at the keyboard of a desk terminal. I blinked and glanced back at him as Rampage went through file cabinets for errant trash and potential valuables. “The Fluttershy clinic?”
我们搬进办公室的时候，我紧张地嚼着我的那部分----好吧，哇;必须小心那个，否则我会吃了它！——同时留心观察。我现在真想念我的PipBuck。撇开EC-1101不谈，这是我真正可以利用的一个优势。"勾起了我的回忆，不是吗?"P-21轻轻地敲着桌子终端的键盘说。我眨了眨眼睛，回头看了他一眼，看到他正在文件柜里翻找那些乱七八糟的垃圾和可能值钱的东西。"萤火虫诊所?"
I grunted my response. Why did he have to bring that up now? I frowned… had I just seen movement down the hall? No… just empty hallway. He tapped away and swallowed, “Let’s hope this turns out as well as that did.”
我咕哝着回答。为什么他现在要提起这件事？我皱起了眉头...难道我刚才看到大厅里有动静吗？没有...只有空荡荡的走廊。他轻轻地敲了敲，咽了口唾沫,"让我们希望这次的结果和那次一样好。"
I blinked in shock. “Well? I was strapped to a table with my guts hanging out and had to pull the plug on forty foals. If that was ‘well’, I’d hate to imagine lousy!” He gave a sheepish little smile as the terminal beeped, but he frowned when he looked back at it. “Garbage… garbage… garbage… no mention of anything, except… Twilight Sparkle visited a week before the bombs fell.”
我震惊地眨了眨眼睛。""怎么样？我被绑在一张桌子上，肚子露在外面，不得不拔掉四十匹小马驹的塞子。如果那是'好'的话，我真不愿去想象糟糕的情形!"当终端发出嘟嘟声的时候，他给了一个羞怯的微笑，但是当他回头看的时候，他皱起了眉头。"垃圾......垃圾......垃圾......没有提到任何东西，除了......紫悦在炸弹落下前一周来过这里。"
Really? I backed past the desk till I could see the terminal without losing sight of the door, and there was the date, just before the bombs fell.
真的吗？我退过办公桌，直到看到航站楼而没有看不见那扇门，就在炸弹落下之前，我看到了日期。
Internal Memo: 10-16-11: Twilight Sparkle’s visit> Thankfully, we got warning of the Ministry Mare’s ‘surprise’ inspection. Now I want all of us on our very tippy toppest best behavior while she’s here. Give her the tour, stretch things out, and hope to Luna that she runs out of time before she gets too nosy. If all else fails, have the show ready. F&F.
内部备忘录:10-16-11:紫悦的访问谢天谢地，我们收到了梅尔部突击检查的警告。现在我希望她在这里的时候，我们所有人都能表现得最好。带她参观一下，舒展一下身体，希望露娜没有时间多管闲事。如果所有这些都失败了，那就准备好演出吧。F&f.
I tapped a little further down. Apparently, Twilight’s inspection had not gone well. The memos were all about being swamped with returned and contaminated products.
我又轻轻地敲了一下。显然，《暮光之城》的审查进行得并不顺利。这些备忘录都是关于被退回的和受污染的产品淹没的。
Internal memo: 10-21-11: Storage> For Celestia’s sake, we have to do something with all these returns! I don’t care if you have to dump it down the drain, do something with all this extra flux before something bad happens. I don’t like how gidgy things have been. Who the hell is in charge of the O.I.A. now? They need to do something! F&F.
内部备忘录:10-21-11:为了塞勒斯蒂安的缘故，我们必须对所有这些回报做点什么！我不在乎你是否要把它倒进下水道，在坏事发生之前用这些额外的通量做点什么。我不喜欢事情变得那么古怪。现在究竟是谁在管理o.i.a.？他们需要做点什么！F&f.
And the last:
最后一点:
Internal memo: 10-23-11: Goodbye> Well, dust off your resumes, because you’re all fired effective tomorrow! That’s right. Let Applejack or whoever the hell is director now deal with this mess. My brother and I are off to sunny Porca Porca where the beaches are warm, the local swine friendly, and the extradition treaties nonexistent. So long, suckers! F&F.
内部备忘录:10-23-11:再见好了，掸去你们简历上的灰尘，因为你们明天就要被解雇了！没错。让苹果白兰地或者其他什么主管来处理这个烂摊子吧。我和哥哥要去阳光明媚的PorcaPorca，那里海滩温暖，对当地猪群友好，而且没有引渡条约。再见了，笨蛋们！F&f.
Funny… hope they had an early flight.
真有趣...希望他们有早班飞机。
We left the blood-spattered offices and carefully made our way into the first few labs. At least, I thought they were labs. After seeing Horizon Labs, I expected to see more in the way of terminals and equipment. In one room were a half dozen chalk boards covered with ‘________ X ________’ with every critter I could imagine written in the blanks. Most of the combinations were crossed out, but a
我们离开溅满鲜血的办公室，小心翼翼地走进最初的几个实验室。至少，我认为它们是实验室。在看过地平线实验室之后，我希望在终端和设备方面看到更多的东西。在一个房间里，有六个粉笔板，上面盖着"x"，上面写着我能想象得到的每一个生物。大部分的组合都被划掉了，但是
few were circled, like ‘Cake X Tree’ with ‘Genius!’ written next to it.
很少有被圈起来的，比如'CakexTree'和'Genius!'写在它旁边。
Okay. I guessed that that was a type of genius...
好吧。我猜那是一种天才..。
Carefully, we threaded our way into another lab with more chalkboards and one large bare gray tree in a reinforced box. As we passed by it, the rainbow apples appeared on the branches and fell against the box’s walls. Seeds ricocheted wildly inside. ‘Zapapple Bombs! Plant these around your property, and not only will you be safe from intruders, you can make your own Zapapple Jam! Problems: Uncontrollable and inconsistent appearances. Explosive Jelly. Solution: drop explosive PBnJ behind enemy lines! Profit!’
我们小心翼翼地走进另一个实验室，里面有更多的黑板，还有一棵巨大的灰色光秃秃的树，放在一个加固的盒子里。当我们经过时，彩虹苹果出现在树枝上，落在盒子的墙上。种子在里面疯狂地反弹。'Zapapple炸弹！种植这些周围您的财产，不仅将您安全的入侵者，您可以使您自己的Zapapple果酱！问题:无法控制和不一致的外表。爆炸性果冻。解决方案:在敌人后方投掷爆炸性PBnJ！利润
I shook my head and walked to the door, pushing it open and stepping into the hall.
我摇摇头，走向门口，推开门，走进大厅。
The only warning I had was the shimmer in front of me. My jaw tightened reflexively, guns blasting at the air and knocking back a creature that seemed like a strange fusion of dog and snake. It started to shimmer back into invisibility as it fell back, but I didn’t waste any time blasting it again, then again until it finally collapsed in a bloody heap and stopped blending in. I looked at the rattlesnake tail and four legs and once again wished for a time machine so I could smack whoever made such a thing!
我得到的唯一警告就是我面前的微光。我的下巴条件反射地绷紧了，枪口对着空气，把一个看起来像是蛇和狗的奇怪混合体的生物打了回来。它掉下来的时候开始闪闪发光，隐形了，但我没有浪费任何时间把它再次爆破，然后再次爆破，直到它最终倒成一堆血肉模糊的东西，不再混合在一起。我看着响尾蛇的尾巴和四条腿，再一次希望有一个时间机器，这样我就可以打击制造这样东西的人了！
Of course, I should have been keeping an eye out for more shimmers.
当然，我应该留意更多的闪光。
The snake-dog thing crashed into me from the side, nearly knocking me off my hooves as it sank its fangs through the leather armor and into the meat of my withers with a shriek. I really did not get how anypony was supposed to fight in a battle saddle as I thrashed to shove the shimmery abomination back. Rampage leapt atop it with an electric crackle, the power hooves discharging and scorching its shimmery scales. She bit into its ear to anchor herself as her hoof smashed against its skull again and again. Finally, it let me go, and I kicked it away enough to turn and blast it with two shotgun rounds.
蛇-狗的东西从侧面撞上我，几乎把我的蹄子撞掉，它的尖牙刺穿了我的皮甲，尖叫着刺进了我的马肩隆的肉里。我真的不明白为什么会有小马在战斗马鞍上战斗，因为我挣扎着把那个闪闪发光的讨厌东西推回去。随着电子爆裂声的响起，狂暴的暴跳如雷，动力马蹄放电，烧焦了它微微发亮的鳞片。当她的蹄子一次又一次地撞击它的头骨时，她咬进它的耳朵来固定自己。最后，它放开了我，我把它踢开，足以转过身来，用两发猎枪子弹打死了它。
“Ouch! Don’t shoot fillies!” Rampage protested as it went down from the buckshot.
"哎哟！不要打小母马!"狂暴在从铅弹中坠落时抗议道。
“You’re an immortal death filly! Don’t tell me you can’t take a little lead,” I laughed.
"你是一匹不朽的死亡小母马！不要告诉我你不能带头,"我笑着说。
Once more… I should have been keeping an eye out for shimmers.
再说一次...我应该留意一下闪光的东西。
The pair of us were slammed not by one but a whole pack of the hissing, snapping creatures. I went down, thrashing as I rolled onto my back, and kicked my metal legs as hard and as wildly as I could. Most of them tried to bite my legs, to little effect. Then one got clever and chomped down hard on my belly. I might not have been strictly biological anymore, but I did not want my guts, such as they were, ripped out and strewn all over the place! I heard Rampage scream and smelled blood.
我们两个不是被一群发出嘶嘶声的猛兽撞倒，而是被整群猛兽撞倒。我倒了下去，翻滚着躺在地上，用尽全力疯狂地踢着我的金属腿。它们大多数都想咬我的腿，但收效甚微。然后其中一只变聪明了，狠狠地咬住了我的肚子。我可能已经不再是严格意义上的生物了，但是我不希望我的内脏像它们那样被扯出来散落一地！我听到了狂暴的尖叫声，闻到了血腥味。
From the office behind me came a firm ‘Thump’.
从我身后的办公室传来一阵猛烈的"砰"声。
Did I mention that I was really tired of getting blown up today?
我有没有提到我今天真的厌倦了被炸飞？
The grenade’s shrapnel tore into the abominations swarming us, and the group milled back in pain and confusion. P-21 poked his head into the hall and fired a second grenade right into the mass of shimmery dog-snake things. The blast sent body parts flying, and those creatures still able to run did so. I hugged the jagged wound in my gut as I sat up, looking around and making sure there weren’t any more shimmers. “Rampage?” I asked as I looked where the filly had fallen.
手榴弹的碎片撕裂了挤满我们的可憎的东西，这群人痛苦而困惑地向后退去。P-21把头伸进大厅，又向闪闪发光的狗蛇怪物发射了第二枚手榴弹。爆炸炸飞了人体的各个部分，那些还能跑的生物就是这样做的。我坐了起来，环顾四周，确保没有更多的闪光，抱住了内脏上的锯齿状伤口。"横冲直撞?"我一边看着小母马，一边问道。
She sat up and then pointed to the mangled hole in her throat. “Thank goodness for regeneration, huh?” I said with a wince.
她坐了起来，然后指了指喉咙上那个血肉模糊的洞。"感谢上帝让我们重生，是吧?"我皱着眉头说。
When her throat closed, she croaked, “Still fucking hurts!”
当她合上喉咙的时候，她用嘶哑的声音说:"还是他妈的疼!"
We stood, Rampage helped herself to a high protein diet, I helped myself to a high iron diet of office scrap and a few gemstones, and P-21 kept an eye on the hall and pointedly ignored both of us. Just in case, he popped a grenade in the direction the abominations had fled.
我们站了起来，拉皮德吃了高蛋白食物，我吃了办公室废料和一些宝石，铁质食物很丰富，P-21一直盯着大厅，故意忽略了我们俩。为了以防万一，他朝着令人憎恶的东西逃走的方向扔了一颗手榴弹。
“Think Sanguine knows we’re here?” Rampage asked with a frown once we started moving again. It’d been half an hour, and there’d been no sign of anypony.
"桑吉知道我们在这儿吗?"一旦我们重新开始行动，狂暴皱着眉头问道。已经半个小时了，还没有任何小马的迹象。
“No idea,” I admitted. I really didn’t see Sanguine working in this place. Aside from those things patrolling the halls, none of the labs looked… well… lab-ish. We went into another room half filled with smashed open cages and a blackboard that read: ‘Dog X Rattlesnake. All the loyalty of a dog. All the viciousness of a snake. Pro: loyaltyishness. Con: Ugly as sin. Pro: Natural
"不知道,"我承认。我真的没有看到桑吉在这里工作。除了那些在大厅里巡逻的东西，没有一个实验室看起来......呃......像实验室一样。我们走进另一个房间，里面半满是砸烂的打开的笼子，还有一块黑板，上面写着:狗x响尾蛇。狗的忠诚。蛇的所有邪恶。赞成:忠诚。反对者:丑陋如罪。赞成:自然
camouflage makes ugliness moot. Con: Name?’ And beneath that was a list: ‘Sogs. Dakes. Hissypups. Nightstalkers.’ The last had been circled and ‘Genius!’ written beside it.
伪装让丑陋变得毫无意义。反对者:姓名下面是一个名单:Sogs。男名男子名。〔动〕青蛙属。夜行者最后一个被圈了起来，写着"天才!"旁边写着。
A little board next to the cages read ‘Feeding Duty’. There was a list of pony names, each one crossed out. The last one had ‘I fucking quit’ scrawled next to it. Smart pony.
笼子旁边的一块小木板上写着"喂养任务"。里面有一张小马名单，每个都被划掉了。最后一张旁边潦草地写着我他妈的不干了。聪明的小马。
“We need to find a working elevator or stairs down or something. I just know that if Chimera is here, it’s somewhere down below.” All the nasty projects had to be down below.
"我们需要找到一个能用的电梯或楼梯之类的东西。我只知道，如果奇美拉在这里，它就在下面的某个地方。"所有讨厌的工程都必须在下面进行。
We left the cages and found some stairs down. They led to a heavy, substantial steel door. No lock, and no matter how I jerked the handle or beat my hooves against it, it wouldn’t open. “Powered door. Probably need a passcard or something to open it,” P-21 said. I glared at the door a moment, then tried to bite it. Maybe I could gnaw my way through! After several seconds of scraping paint with my teeth I coughed and gave up.
我们离开了笼子，找到了楼下的楼梯。他们走向一扇沉重坚固的钢门。没有锁，不管我怎么猛拉把手或用蹄子敲它，它都打不开。"电动门。可能需要一张通行证或什么东西才能打开,"P-21说。我盯着门看了一会儿，然后试图咬住它。也许我可以咬出一条路来！用牙齿刷了几秒钟油漆后，我咳嗽了一下，然后放弃了。
“Okay. Passcard, then,” I muttered as I stared at the door.
"好吧。"那么，帕斯卡德,"我盯着门口喃喃自语。
That meant going back up. On the second floor we entered a large, long room half filled with machinery. ‘Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 9000’ had been written on one side, but the metal plaque had been scratched out and a sign reading ‘Super Speedy Flux Mixer 9000 X Turbo’ had been painted above it. There was a hopper on one end that was half filled with glittering gems and a keg marked ‘Biomagical Delux Flux’ on the far side.
那就意味着要回去。在二楼，我们进入了一个长长的大房间，里面装满了机器。超级快速苹果汁挤压9000'已经写在一面，但金属斑块已经刮掉和一个标志上面写着'超级快速通量混合器9000x涡轮'。一端有一个装满了一半闪闪发光的宝石的漏斗，另一端有一个标有"生物医学德勒克斯通量"的小桶。
As I dug out the gemstones with my hooves, Rampage fiddled with a projector on a small table in the middle of the other half of the room. Suddenly, the lens lit up and crackling music filled the room. A flickering square appeared on the wall, and two unicorn stallions trotted into view. If one hadn’t been sporting a mustache, I’d never have been able to tell them apart.
当我用蹄子把宝石挖出来的时候，房间另一半的中间有一张小桌子，上面放着一台投影仪。突然，镜头亮了起来，噼里啪啦的音乐充满了整个房间。一个摇曳的方块出现在墙上，两匹独角兽种马小跑进入视野。如果一个人没有留胡子，我永远也分不清他们。
“Well, how do you do? How do you do!” the smooth-lipped one said with a cheery grin. “I’m Flim!”
""你好吗？你好!"嘴唇光滑的那个笑容可掬地说。"我是菲利!"
“I’m Flam!” said the other.
"我是弗兰姆!"另一个说。
“And we’re the world famous Flim-Flam Brothers, welcoming you to
"我们是世界著名的flim-fram兄弟，欢迎你们来到
Hippocratic Research. A place where science is pursued effectively…”
HippocraticResearch.一个有效追求科学的地方......"
“Efficiently!” piped the twin.
"高效!"双胞胎吹笛子。
“And ethically,” they said in unison with a solemn nod of their heads.
"从道德上讲,"他们齐声说，郑重地点了点头。
Flim gestured to a cartoon drawing of the building. “I’m sure that you’re familiar with a great many of our products.”
菲利姆指了指那座建筑物的卡通图画。"我相信您对我们的许多产品都很熟悉。"
“What kind of world would we be living in without Sparkle-Cola?” Flam asked, pressing the back of his hoof to his eyes. A little note popped up in the bottom of the screen, barely caught by the pink pony in my head. ‘Not affiliated in any way shape or form with the Ministry of Arcane Science or its Employees. Any resemblance is strictly coincidence.’
"如果没有可口可乐，我们将生活在一个怎样的世界?"弗拉姆问道，用蹄背顶着眼睛。屏幕底部突然出现了一张小纸条，几乎被我脑海中的小粉红色抓住了。与奥术科学部及其雇员没有任何形式的联系。任何相似之处都是绝对的巧合
“And how could we get though life without Wonderglue?” Flim asked as he held up a tube in his hooves.
"没有神奇胶水，我们的生活怎么过?"弗利一边问，一边用蹄子插着一根管子。
“Well, you need not wonder any longer, dear consumer, because these are just a few of the many products brought to you by the hardworking ponies at Hippocratic Research!” Flam said as the other pony shook hard to free himself from the bottle of glue. Then he looked out, smiled sheepishly, and stepped back as the mustached pony gestured to his side. “While dozens of our end user products like Abronco Detergent and Sugar Apple Bombs cereal are familiar to you, our most important product is a material you may not be very familiar with.”
"亲爱的消费者，你不必再怀疑了，因为这些只是希波克拉底研究所(HippocraticResearch)辛勤工作的小马们带给你的众多产品中的一小部分!"弗兰姆说，这时另一匹小马正用力摇晃着，想把自己从胶水瓶里挣脱出来。然后他向外看了看，羞怯地笑了笑，然后退后一步，那匹长胡子的小马指了指他的身边。"虽然我们的许多终端用户产品，如Abronco洗涤剂和SugarAppleBombs麦片对你来说很熟悉，但我们最重要的产品是一种你可能不太熟悉的材料。"
“Or maybe you are, in which case, what are you doing wasting time watching this?” Flim interjected as he reappeared beside his brother. “So, by now you’re probably wondering ‘What is this amazing mystery product that brings so much joy and wonder into my life?!’”
"或者你是，在这种情况下，你为什么要浪费时间看这个?"弗利重新出现在他哥哥身边时插嘴道。"所以，现在你可能在想,'这个给我的生活带来如此多欢乐和奇迹的神奇产品是什么！"'
“Flux!” they declared proudly as a smiling cartoon barrel filled to the brim with rainbow goo appeared between them.
"弗拉克斯!"他们骄傲地宣称，他们之间出现了一个装满彩虹粘液的微笑的卡通桶。
“Now, if you’re a clever pony, you’re asking yourself: ‘What is Flux and just what can it do?’” Flim said as he nodded his head.
"现在，如果你是一匹聪明的小马，你会问自己:'弗拉克斯是什么，它能做什么？"弗利边说边点头。
“And if you’re not asking that because you already know, then why aren’t you working for us?” asked Flam with a cheeky grin.
"如果你这么问是因为你已经知道了，那你为什么不为我们工作呢?"弗拉姆问道，脸上露出了一个无耻的笑容。
Flim put a pair of thick, nerdy glasses on. “Flux is the simple term for Bio-Arcano-Chemo Flux. You might also hear it referred to as ‘Biomagical Flux’ or ‘metacatalyst’, but those are just simple terms for the wonder substance of our time,” he said with a nod as the barrel was replaced with a tree. “What does it do? Why, what doesn’t it do?! You see, think of Flux as raw magical goo. You can use it to make all kinds of magical effects!”
弗利姆戴上一副厚厚的书呆子眼镜。"Flux是生物-奥秘-化学Flux的简单术语。你可能还会听到它被称为'生物化学通量'或'元催化剂'，但这些只是我们这个时代的奇迹物质的简单术语,"当木桶被一棵树取代时，他点了点头说。"它有什么用？为什么，它不能做什么?！你看，把弗莱克斯想象成未加工的神奇粘性物质。你可以用它来制造各种各样的魔法效果!"
The barrel moved on top of a machine. “Take an example of our good friends at Robronco. All you need is the proper equipment and some scrap metal…” Flam crowed. A heap of scrap metal moved into the machine. The smiling barrel dripped one rainbow colored drop into it. There was a flash, and a smiling toaster rolled out. “Amazing! Science!”
枪管在机器顶部移动。"以我们在Robronco的好朋友为例。你所需要的只是适当的设备和一些废金属......"弗拉姆说。一堆废金属进入了机器。微笑的桶里滴着一滴彩虹色的水珠。一道闪光，一个微笑的烤面包机滚了出来。"太神奇了！科学!"
I had to admit, I was impressed. P-21, not so much.
我不得不承认，我印象深刻。P-21就不一定了。
Flim appeared with a wide grin. “So, where does this magical mystery substance come from? Well, the exact mixture is a closely guarded secret.”
弗利咧着嘴笑着出现了。"那么，这种神秘的魔法物质从何而来呢？好吧，确切的混合物是一个严格保守的秘密。"
Flam frowned sternly. “Very closely guarded. We wouldn’t want any nasty stripes getting their hooves on it.” Then he suddenly grinned, “At least not for less than a bajillion bits!”
弗拉姆严厉地皱起了眉头。"戒备森严。我们不希望任何肮脏的条纹沾上它们的蹄子。"然后他突然咧嘴一笑,"至少不少于一百万比特!"
Then they said in unison, “Just kidding!”
然后他们异口同声地说:"开个玩笑!"
Flim pointed to a cartoon copy of the machine occupying the room. “Well, wonder no longer! Here at Hippocratic Research, we put science and technology to good use!” A stack of gemstones appeared over the hopper end and poured in. “With our own special blend of quality Equestrian gemstones…”
弗利姆指着一台占据房间的机器的卡通拷贝。""好吧，不再好奇了！我们希波克拉底研究所(HippocraticResearch)将科学和技术发挥到了极致!"一堆宝石出现在漏斗的一端，然后倒了进去。"配有我们自己的特殊混合品质马术宝石......"
Six bottles of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple poured into the middle as Flam went on, “And our own domestic rainbow colorant…”
六瓶红色、橙色、黄色、绿色、蓝色和紫色的酒倒在中间，弗拉姆继续说道,"还有我们自己的彩虹色......"
“And our own special patented super spell!” they proclaimed together, and shot cartoon lightning at the cartoon machinery from their horns. The machine began to flash and flicker, and suddenly a rainbow sludge poured out the far end and into a drum. “We create our one-of-a-kind, cannot be duplicated, manipulated, copied, or knocked off Flux!”
"还有我们特殊的专利超级咒语!"他们一起宣布，用喇叭向卡通机器发射卡通闪电。机器开始闪烁和摇曳，突然一道彩虹般的泥浆从远端倾倒出来，装进了一个鼓里。"我们创造了独一无二的东西，不能被复制，操纵，复制，或者敲掉通量!"
The image then showed the building and, leaving it, wagons being pulled by train tractors heaped with smiling barrels. “And where does it go when it’s done?
这张照片随后展示了这座建筑，离开时，火车拖拉机拉着的车厢上堆满了笑容可掬的木桶。"那么，当它完成的时候，它会去哪里呢？
Well, where doesn’t it go?! Flux is used in everything from abdominal braces to zippers and everything in between. Hundreds of products you use every day either were made from, with, or by Flux!” Flim said offscreen.
那么，哪里不是呢?！从腹部支架到拉链，以及介于两者之间的所有东西都使用了Flux。你每天使用的数百种产品要么是由Flux生产的，要么是由Flux生产的。"菲利姆在屏幕外说。
Flam then appeared looking sad. “Now, we want to caution you that something as super amazing, one-of-a-kind as Flux is not something you should play around with.”
弗拉姆看上去很伤心。"现在，我们想提醒你，像Flux这样超级神奇、独一无二的东西不是你应该玩的东西。"
Flim appeared next to him and gave a solemn nod. “Absolutely.” They vanished as Flim’s voice went on, “No doubt you’ve heard about some poor pony playing around with a barrel of unauthorized, tampered, or used Flux and suffering some horrible accident.” A smiling pony wearing a bow trotted along and inexplicably tripped and fell into an open frowning barrel. She popped back out, but a wing sprung from her left side and a cow’s horn sprouted out of the right side of her head. She looked like quite the sad pony.
弗利姆出现在他旁边，郑重地点了点头。"当然。"随着弗利姆的声音继续，他们消失了,"毫无疑问，你听说过一些可怜的小马在玩一个未经授权的、篡改的、或者使用了弗拉科斯的木桶，并遭受了一些可怕的事故。"一匹戴着蝴蝶结的微笑的小马小跑着，莫名其妙地绊倒了，掉进了一个皱着眉头的木桶里。她突然跳了出来，但一只翅膀从她的左边伸出来，一只牛角从她的头的右边长出来。她看起来就像一匹悲伤的小马。
“For which Hippocratic research denies any and all liability,” Flam muttered softly.
"希波克拉底的研究否认任何和所有的责任,"弗拉姆低声咕哝。
Flim continued, “We want to assure you that, used properly, Flux is a valuable… nay… an essential part of our modern world!”
弗利姆继续说,"我们想向你保证，如果使用得当，弗拉科斯是一个有价值的......不......是我们现代世界不可或缺的一部分!"
“So we wish to thank you for your interest in coming to tour Hippocratic Research,” Flam said with a grin. “Talk to your parents about taking one of our patented Nightstalkers home; at last, a pet you can count on to keep you safe from nasty stripe infiltrators! Bred and trained to attack any and all zebras at first sight.”
"所以我们希望感谢你们对参观希波克拉底研究所的兴趣,"弗拉姆笑着说。"告诉你的父母关于把我们的专利之一夜行者带回家，最后，一个宠物，你可以依靠，使你从讨厌的条纹侵入者安全！经过培育和训练，能够攻击任何斑马和所有的斑马。"
“Or perhaps you’re more interested in our scorposprites! If you have a sibling or neighborhood bully you want to get even with, then there’s nothing better!” Flam proclaimed.
"或者你对我们的星星更感兴趣！如果你有一个兄弟姐妹或邻居欺负你，你想报复，那么没有什么比这更好的了!"弗拉姆宣称。
“And if you’re looking for our legal department, they’re located on the fourth floor… office hours eleven fifty eight to eleven fifty nine, Griffin Standard Time!” Flim added with a wide grin.
"如果你要找我们的法律部门，他们在四楼......办公时间十一:58到11:59，格里芬标准时间!"弗利姆咧着嘴笑着补充道。
The pair then sang out, “So we’ve got opportunity in each and every community! He’s Flim! He’s Flam! We’re the world famous Flim-Flam Brothers!”
然后他们唱了起来,"所以我们在每个社区都有机会！他是Flim！他是弗兰姆！我们是世界闻名的飞利浦兄弟!"
Then the projector flickered and died. The three of us stared blankly at the wall
然后放映机忽明忽暗地熄火了。我们三个人茫然地盯着墙看
and I murmured softly, “Well, now I have a better idea why the world blew up like it did.”
我轻轻地喃喃自语,"好吧，现在我有了一个更好的想法，为什么世界会像它那样爆炸。"
* * *
* * *
“What harebrained idiot would think of taking a scorpion and putting wings on it?!” I yelled before yanking the bit in my jaw and sending up another cone of lead, shredding a buzzy, filmy wing and sending the insect scuttling along towards us, oozing green goo.
"哪个愚蠢的白痴会想到给蝎子插上翅膀?!"我大声喊道，然后猛拉我下巴上的牙齿，扔出另一个圆锥形的铅球，撕碎了一只嗡嗡作响、薄薄的翅膀，让那只昆虫飞快地向我们飞来，流出绿色的粘液。
“To be fair, it’s more like they gave a bloatsprite a stinger!” Rampage squealed as she pounced atop the maimed bug, her four power hooves flashing and splattering me with its sludge.
"说句公道话，这更像是他们给了一个肿瘤怪物一根刺!"当她扑向那只残废的虫子时，狂暴的叫喊着，她的四只马蹄闪烁着，用它的淤泥溅了我一身。
“I don’t care!” I yelled as more of the gray spherical bugs came flying out after us. Was there any end to the things? We’d found a lab with the walls and ceiling covered in their nests. One had stung P-21 right away, and now the rest were looking to finish the job. “It’s stupid… stupid… stupid!” I shouted, punctuating each ‘stupid’ with another blast of buckshot. I didn’t even have to aim; I just fired as quickly as I could down the hall and hoped enough shot hit.
"我不在乎!"当更多的灰色球形虫子飞出来跟着我们时，我大叫起来。这些事情有结束的时候吗？我们发现了一个实验室，墙壁和天花板都覆盖着它们的巢穴。其中一个马上就刺痛了P-21，现在其他人都想完成这项工作。"这真是愚蠢...愚蠢...愚蠢!"我大声喊道，用另一发铅弹击中每一个愚蠢的家伙。我甚至不需要瞄准;我只需要尽可能快地开枪，希望射中的子弹足够多。
“I’m more interested in if you have any of that antivenom Glory made…” P-21 said weakly. “Really really really interested.”
"我更感兴趣的是，你们是否有晨辉制造的抗蛇毒血清......"P-21虚弱地说。"真的，真的，真的感兴趣。"
I ripped off another half dozen shots as rapidly as I could, and Rampage squished the fallen bugs with the enthusiasm only a filly could muster. “Reload!” I bellowed, knowing the belt was almost spent. Rampage scrambled back, grabbed another belt of shotgun shells, and slammed it home. “One condition!”
我以最快的速度又开了六枪，狂暴骑士以一匹小母马才有的热情压扁了落下的虫子。"装弹!"我吼道，知道皮带快用完了。横冲直撞的人爬回来，抓起另一条猎枪弹壳的带子，砰地一声把它扔回家。"有一个条件!"
“Condition?” he said weakly. “I’m dying of poison and you’re giving me conditions?”
"条件?"他虚弱地说。"我中毒快死了，你还给我条件?"
“Loaded!” Rampage yelled, then immediately sprang back to squashing the scorposprites.
"上膛了!"狂暴大叫，然后立即跳回去压扁蝎子精。
I ripped out three more shots. “When we’re done… you’re going to Scotch… and you are going to tell her you’re her daddy. And you’re going to say nice things about her mom. And you’re going to hug her!” Another five swarmed out and I jerked the bit as rapidly as I could. The blasts shredded their flapping wings, and a few were pulped outright by the impacts.
我又开了三枪。"等我们谈完了......你要去喝苏格兰威士忌......你要告诉她你是她的爸爸。你要说她妈妈的好话。你要去拥抱她!"另外五个人蜂拥而出，我以最快的速度猛拉绳子。爆炸撕碎了它们拍动的翅膀，其中一些被撞击完全击碎。
“And if I say no?” he panted as I backed towards him.
"如果我说不呢?"当我向他退去的时候，他气喘吁吁地说。
“Then I’ll give it to you, but with a huge guilt trip attached,” I countered. One arched high above its fellows and plunged towards me, its stinger oozing venom as it drove the poisonous spur at my eye. I swung my foreleg and knocked the head-sized bug aside. Rampage pounced upon it and popped it under her power hooves.
"那么我就把它给你，但是带着巨大的负罪感,"我反驳道。其中一只高高地拱起身子，向我扑来，它的毒刺正驱赶着毒刺刺向我的眼睛喷出毒液。我挥动前腿，把那只头大的虫子撞到一边。狂暴的暴怒扑向它，用她的强有力的蹄子猛踩它。
He didn’t answer, and I looked back at him lying there unconscious. “Cheater…” I muttered. “Rampage! Antivenom!” She leapt on my back and dug through my saddlebags again for one of the vials of antivenom that Glory had mixed ages ago. She poured it into his mouth as I blasted at the swarm.
他没有回答，我回头看着躺在那里不省人事的他。"骗子......"我喃喃自语。"横冲直撞！抗蛇毒血清!"她跳到我的背上，又从我的鞍囊里翻出一小瓶晨辉很久以前混合的抗蛇毒血清。我向蜂群发射炮弹的时候，她把它倒进了他的嘴里。
He stirred as consciousness returned just as the last few bugs were blasted and stomped. I blew the smoke away from my shotgun and trotted to him, kneeling and helping him sit up. “You’ll do anything you can to get out of talking with her, won’t you?”
就在最后几只虫子被炸掉、被踩扁的时候，他的意识恢复了，他动了一下。我把散弹枪里的烟吹走，跪在他面前，扶他坐起来。"为了不和她说话，你愿意做任何事情，是吗?"
He looked at me, then dropped his gaze. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
他看着我，然后低下了目光。"我不想谈这个。"
“Oh no. That might have worked a month ago when I was fresh and new to the Wasteland, but now I am a grizzled Wasteland veteran and I will not wait for--”
"哦，不。一个月前，我刚来到荒原的时候，这可能是有效的，但现在我是一个头发花白的荒原老兵，我不会等待——"
There was a flash and I was knocked sprawling on my side, my head spinning. Rampage grinned down at me. “Whoopsie. Sorry. Thought I saw another scorposprite, but it was just a big swelled head.” She trotted over to P-21. “Of course, a grizzled veteran of the Wasteland would have seen that one coming.”
有一道闪光，我被击倒在我的侧面，我的头旋转。狂暴冲我咧嘴一笑。"哎呀。对不起。我以为我看到了另一个蝎子精，但那只是一个自负的大脑袋。"她小跑着走到P-21前。"当然，一个头发灰白的荒原老兵应该能预见到这一点。"
Once P-21 was back on his hooves and the building stopped spinning, we found a large office with two identical desks, an enormous portrait of one of the brothers behind each. A counter along the far wall held dozens of different products made by the brothers, including a tiny model of the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 9000. Two skeletons wearing fancy business suits lay huddled together surrounded by four suitcases. One had split open, spilling countless gold bits across the floor of the office.
一旦P-21回到他的蹄子和建设停止旋转，我们发现了一个大办公室，两个相同的桌子，一个巨大的肖像背后的兄弟之一。远处墙上的一个柜台上放着兄弟俩制作的几十种不同的产品，其中包括一个小型的超快苹果酒榨汁机9000。两具骷髅身着华丽的西装，被四只手提箱包围着，蜷缩在一起。其中一个裂开了，把无数的金块撒在了办公室的地板上。
I saw a pair of tickets clutched in one brother’s hooves and flipped them open. “Hoofington to Porca Porca… departure time, 2 PM.” I patted the skull sympathetically. “Should have gotten a morning flight.”
我看见一个兄弟的蹄子里夹着两张票，就把它们翻开了。"胡芬顿到波卡波卡...起飞时间，下午2点。"我同情地拍了拍头骨。"应该搭早班飞机的"
Rampage pointed at Flim’s desk as P-21 started to work on Flam’s terminal. “Hey, Blackjack. Isn’t that one of those figurine thingies you collect?” For an instant, I imagined I heard five little ponies in my head gasp in excitement… or maybe it was just me!
当P-21开始在弗拉姆的终端上工作时，狂暴指着弗拉姆的办公桌。"嘿，黑杰克。那不是你收集的那种小雕像吗?"有那么一瞬间，我想象着我听到了五匹小马在我的头上兴奋地喘气......或者也许只有我一个人！
I blinked and stared. There, smiling brightly at me, was the vivid purple figure of Twilight Sparkle. Slowly, I approached with a smile. Could it be? Was it possible? I carefully scooped it up in my hooves and hugged it to my chest. “At last! It’s Twi--” I frowned and pulled it away, looking down. A wide, cheesy grin met my eyes; her pupils were different sizes and pointed in opposite directions. ‘I’m an egghead,’ read the plaque. My eyes narrowed as I tapped the figurine’s head, making it wobble and bobble around wildly. It wasn’t a statuette, just a cheap plastic knockoff.
我眨了眨眼睛，盯着他。在那里，生动的紫色紫悦向我灿烂地微笑着。慢慢地，我微笑着走过去。有可能吗？这可能吗？我小心翼翼地把它塞进我的蹄子里，抱在胸前。"终于！是Twi——"我皱着眉头，把它拉开，低头看着。我的眼前浮现出一个咧嘴大笑的笑容;她的瞳孔大小不一，指向相反的方向。"我是个书呆子,"牌匾上写道。我的眼睛眯起来，轻轻地敲打着雕像的头，使它摇晃着，疯狂地晃来晃去。这不是小雕像，只是一个廉价的塑料仿制品。
With a sour grunt, I chucked it into the garbage bin.
我咕哝了一声，把它扔进了垃圾箱。
P-21 looked up from the terminal. “Well, bad news. Looks like they erased everything on their computers, filewise… but I also have some good news.” He tapped a button, and part of the wall opened up to reveal an elevator car. “What do you want to bet this elevator goes somewhere special?”
P-21从终点站抬起头来。"好吧，坏消息。看起来他们删除了电脑上的所有文件，但我也有一些好消息。"他按了一下按钮，墙的一部分打开了，露出了一部电梯轿厢。"我敢打赌，这部电梯一定是通往某个特别的地方的。"
I grinned. “I love smart ponies.” Then I frowned. “But you’re still going to talk to Scotch… I mean it.”
我咧嘴一笑。"我喜欢漂亮的小马。"然后我皱起了眉头。"但你还是要和苏格兰人说话......我是认真的。"
He sighed. “I know… I know. I’ve been trying not to think about it. About… about everything I might have missed if she’s dead. I’ve been a royal ass putting it off for so long.”
他叹了口气。"我知道......我知道。我一直试着不去想这件事。关于...关于如果她死了我可能会错过的一切。我一直都是个混蛋，一直在拖延时间。"
We trotted to the elevator. Rampage put a hoof down, and the car gave a soft groan. “Whoa… what corners did they cut installing this thing?” I had to admit; it looked like the elevator was definitely not built to the same code as the rest of the building.
我们小跑着走向电梯。狂暴的人踩住了马蹄，汽车发出轻轻的呻吟声。"哇......安装这东西到底省了多少钱?"我不得不承认，电梯看起来绝对不是按照建筑物其他部分的相同标准建造的。
I snorted and stepped in. Okay, it was a little wobbly, but I needed to go down and had no doubt it would take me where I needed to go. “It’s fine.”
我哼了一声，走了进去。好吧，它是有点摇晃，但我需要下去，毫无疑问，它会带我去我需要去的地方。"没关系。"
“I’m not sure it was even fine two centuries ago,” P-21 said sourly. He dug around in the desk and pulled out a yellow card. “Look. We can just walk back down to the door.”
"我不确定两个世纪前它是否还是好的,"P-21严肃地说。他在桌子里翻来翻去，掏出一张黄牌。"你看。我们可以直接走回门口。"
I rolled my eyes and started jumping. “Look! It’s fine! Just fine! Nothing’s happ--”
我翻了翻眼睛，开始跳起来。"你看！没关系！很好！一切都很顺利——"
With a roar, the floor exploded beneath me, tossing me into the ceiling... which also exploded! I plummeted down the dark elevator shaft, and with a shriek of twisted metal the elevator broke loose and plunged down after me.
随着一声吼叫，我下面的地板爆炸了，把我扔到天花板上......天花板也爆炸了！我沿着黑暗的电梯井垂直下落，伴随着扭曲的金属发出的尖叫声，电梯挣脱了束缚，在我身后坠落。
Ha... ha... ha...
哈...哈...哈..。
 
Footnote: Level 4 reached.
脚注:达到第4级。
New perk added: Hunter: In combat, you do 75% more critical damage against animals and mutated animals.
新额外能力补充:猎人:在战斗中，你对动物和变异动物造成75%以上的致命伤害。
 
Author's Notes:
作者笔记:
(Author’s note: As always, heaps of thanks to Kkat for creating FoE. I’d also like to thank Hinds, Bronode, and Snipehamster. Though they may occasionally drive me crazy, they work their tails off making this story as good as possible! Also, tons of thanks to ponies leaving feedback... though I have to admit some of the comments are just a little scary, better to have them then not. Lastly, thanks to everypony that helps out with donations at David13ushey@ gmail. com through paypal. without you this would have ended a while ago.) (Also, two special thanks: one to Rainbow Yoshi for helping me with some idea problems I had. The other to VozDeSuenos for pointing out the song to me. I thought I’d thanked him personally, but I hadn’t. Sorry, and thank you!)
(作者注:一如既往，非常感谢Kkat创造了地球之友。我还要感谢Hinds、Bronode和Snipehamster。虽然他们偶尔会让我发疯，但是他们努力工作，使这个故事尽可能好！还有，非常感谢小马留下的反馈......虽然我不得不承认有些评论有点吓人，但是有它们总比没有好。最后，感谢每一匹小马在David13ushey@gmail上的捐赠。通过贝宝。没有你，这一切早就结束了。)(还有两个特别的感谢:一个是彩虹耀西，感谢他帮我解决了我遇到的一些想法问题。另一封是给VozDeSuenos，感谢他为我指出了这首歌。我以为我会亲自感谢他，但我没有。对不起，谢谢!)