“There are things known and things unknown. In between are the doors.”

I hated this place. The halls, for as bright as they seemed to be, filled me with more fear than Pai’s orchard had. It was too clean, too quiet for it to have even seemed to exist in our wasteland. It hadn’t helped that the reputation of orchards like this meant that we were never safe here, and with that AI, Tempest, we were never alone.

“So!” Tasteless decided to break the relative silence of our wandering. Our hooves clacked on the spotless floors and echoed down the halls of what felt like the whole damn facility. “Abandoned facility that nopony has been in for a century and a half, crazy AI running the place, and that evil douchbag running around on the other side..” She rolled her neck with a few soft pops before looking at me. “Kinda boring so far if you ask me.”

“Boring is good.” Skyline remarked in a way that to me, sounded like She’d had an experience like Predious and I had. “Trust me on that.”

“For being all secretive, this place doesn’t have nearly as much tech as I’d thought it would is all.” Tasteless shrugged and cast a glance to Sky, “I like these kinds of facilities, because they normally have the good tech-y stuff in them,” She let a devilish grin crawls across her muzzle, and let out a sigh like she was remembering a long lost love. “You know, the kinda shit that blows up if you knock it around too hard.”

“You know, the rangers want this facility intact,” Gauge muttered as she nudged against Tasteless. All she got in return was a huff and a short shake of her head. “Awww, come on. At least don’t blow anything up on purpose.” She waited until Tasteless turned her gaze before giving her the widest, saddest eyes she could. I’d seen some buttering up before, and tried it once or twice myself, but never had it been that cheezy.

“Fine,” Tasteless sighed, “I’ll try to avoid shooting anything that looks expensive and boring.” She nudged back into Gauge with a smile, “But if it’s something shiny and has a caution label, all bets are off.”

“Probably the best deal you’ll get.” Predious spoke up before pulling my attention towards an upcoming door. “Haven’t seen a door on this side for a while, my bet is it’s a fairly large room. Might be worth seeing if it gets us close to the other side of this arm.”

“I’ll check ahead.” Sky called out as she floated over my head with just enough spare room that her hooves brushed at my mane.

“I’ve got armor, I’ll check too!” Shadow called out from the rear of our little group. Knowing how close Sky got, both Pred and I moved aside. He gave me a quick smile as he flapped his wings and zipped after her. The rest of us came to a stop, waiting for an all clear before going headlong into a new room.

In our quick moment of rest, I looked back down the way we’d come. The bright hallway seemed to stretch on forever behind us. Most of the doors in this place were open, but the rooms contained little more than archanotech computers and terminals that did who the hell knows what. Mostly, I was surprised that the Sentry bots we’d fought were the only ones here.

“Storm?” Skyline called from the next room, “You might want to see this.”

Predious and I both started up at the door and peeked our heads in. The room beyond the hall was quite large, and stacked with almost a dozen, widely sized wooden crates. It wouldn’t have been an oddity though just for that, of course. The odd thing was that each crate had writing on it, and not the kind of writing we’d normally see here in Equestria.

“Is that zebra writing?” Predious perked up and pushed his way past me into the room. “I’m a little rusty, but I might be able to decipher a bit of it.” Funny. The second he was needed to do any sort of work, he’d outright avoid it. Now somepony mentions something cryptic, he’s on it like glue. Sounds about right.

I turned and nodded for the others to follow, and in short order, we’d all piled around Predious. The crate he’d chosen to look at was just about pony height, and just over pony in length. The only marking that I even recognized on it was a large burning H. I’d seen it before, on old pre-war clippings about a city named Hoofington.

“Ah, I see.” Predious muttered with a low grumble. He lifted a hoof and scraped at his chin in thought, giving a soft nod. Then he just sat there, stark silent for nearly a minute.

“Well,” The Major blurted out, “What is it?”

“I don’t know.” Predious responded flatly. “I don’t know that dialect.” I joined along with nearly everypony else as we all groaned out our disappointment. We’re on a freaking timetable here, we can’t take dramatic pauses for shit that doesn’t explain anything!

“Well, what’s zebra writing doing on a bunch of crates in an orchard?” I tried to offer an alternative to this. I don’t know why they would have them, but if it’s in a place like this, it has to be important.

“That is a good question.” Predious nodded at me with a smirk. It might have just been me, but I think he was proud of me for asking a question like that.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” Tasteless barely got out as she pushed past Pred and I. She spun on her hooves and gave the container a swift buck in the side. The century old crate shook violently and showered us all with dust. However, we were rewarded with one entire side of the crate clattering onto the floor. “It’s a known fact that physical violence is the same in every language.”

“Woah.” Gauge gasped liked she’d just seen the Goddesses. From where she stood, she was the first to see whatever was inside.

The rest of us shifted over to see for ourselves, giving our own various and confused gasps and murmurs. I’d never seen anything like it. As best as I could describe it, it looked like a housecat. Well, as much as if a housecat had six legs, was made of metal, and had two machetes sticking out from it’s muzzle.

“Oh, now that makes sense.” Predious bounced his gaze between the odd mechanization and the writing on the front of the crate. “It’s a late model Razor Cat from the Hoofington battlefront. No wonder this thing was labeled all wrong, it’s because it’s not written by our zebras, rather it was captured from the zebra lines.”

“The fuck is a Razor Cat?” Tasteless scoffed, seeming unimpressed by the weapon. However, Gauge was practically squirming her way into the crate to get a look at it.

“In short,” Predious sighed, “it’s an extinct predator from the zebra lands. Known for it’s four razor sharp, horizontal fangs and it’s extreme sprint speed.” As he talked, Predious reminded me of some of the scientists from when I was a filly. They droned on and on about whatever it was, and it just made them sound bored. “Stories say that Razor cats used its incredible speed to catch fleeing prey so it could disembowel them with their fangs. It was one of the most dangerous beasts they knew of, so of course, they hunted the species to extinction.”

“Then they built these and stuck them in the fighting.” The major winced as he picked up without missing a beat. “They would run them through the trenches.” He shook his head with a horrified tone in his voice. “Like your friend says, the outcome in those tight quarters wasn’t pretty.”

“So, what’s it doing here?” Shadow hesitantly asked.

“For the scientists to learn about it, of course!” Predious smiled and waved his hoof across all the crates. “I’m betting this is a reverse engineering lab.” He trotted forward toward the machine and looked it over. “Normally, all that would ever get sent back to places like this were scattered parts and badly damaged hulks. It would be rare to have a complete model like this captured.”

“That is correct.” Tempest’s voice boomed through the room. “This model was acquired via an equestrian zebra spy saving it from destruction.”

“All you’re going to do while we’re here is follow us around and make boring comments?” Tasteless walked up and kicked at the crate again.

“I have been observing each of you, and I have made a deduction based on a number of factors.” Being analyzed by the AI running this place? That can only end in disaster. “I’ve surmised that you, Project Harmony, are the head of this group. Based on the files that I acquired from Pai, I also have come to the conclusion that you are, as they say, a ‘gambling mare’. Would you like to play a game?”

“Oh, oh! I know this reference!” Gauge blurted out, nearly pronking out of the box on her hooves. “Let’s play global megaspell warfare!” She leaned over against Tasteless and tried to sound impressive once again. “Mare Games. I must have watched that vid a hundred times back in the base rec center.”

“Sounds like a predictable movie, seeing as we’re living the result.” Tasteless didn’t seem to care for Gauge’s bragging, which made me wonder why she’d been trying so hard recently.

A sharp hiss emit from the doors to this room, ripping my attention from the two. The heavy steel slabs slammed shut without any warning, trapping us all inside.

“Stealing my files is a low blow, Tempest.” My pipbuck crackled to life “What do you want?” Pai’s voice was more commanding than normal.

“Just a friendly wager to keep things interesting.” She responded slowly. I don’t know what it was about her voice, but she spoke like a mare in a brothel, slowly trying to wind us into following wherever she’d lead us. “Each of the major research sections has a major projects room such as this one. Five in total before you reach the control room in fact,” She gave a short pause to breathe, which was an odd thing for something that didn’t breath. “It’s also the same number of you who have trespassed into this orchard without clearance.”

“There’s six of us.” Predious annoyingly pointed out. I gave him my best glare to imply that we probably shouldn’t piss this AI off.

“Incorrect. Project Harmony was created for the orchards and therefore has clearance. Miss Skyline has family related M.o.M. clearance. There are five ponies outside these two without the right to be here.” This wasn’t news to me, as her brother had been related to the ministry mare. It only made sense that when he died, his clearance went to her. “Getting back to the wager, here is what I propose. In each room, I’ll give you a challenge. If you happen to beat it, I’ll unlock the doors and let you move on ahead to the next one. One specific task or adversary, one victory, for one reward.”

“Where I come from,” Shadow imposed from the back of us, “Deals work for the benefit of both parties. What do you get out of it?”

“Oh, just a little fun is all.” Her tone changed to one of arrogance, and it generally pissed me off. I wasn’t sure if it had been on purpose, but I wanted more than anything to beat this bitch at her own game. “Tell you what, I’ll even sweeten the pot. If, one of the trespassing five happens to die in the challenge, You’ll win automaticly and get to move on.” She gave a low and eager kackle. “So, what’ll it be, project harmony? Will you take my challenge?”

“Don’t do it.” Predious muttered as the only voice of reason in the room. When I gazed at the others, they only looked to me for an answer. Why wouldn’t I? I was supposedly the one in charge. “Storm, I know you, you’re smarter than this. It isn’t worth the risk.”

“It might be.” Pai chimed in as she did. “If these challenges are just a single task, this may give you the edge to get to the control room quickly.” Which was a good point. If she was making the same deal with Fillius, we could use every time advantage we could get. “Besides, there’s seven of you.” I knew what she’d say next, and it only made me shiver. “How hard could it be?”

“How can we trust her?” The major brought up. “She seems quite content to kill us all so far, so how can we trust anything she says?”

“Because, I’ve seen her coding. She’s incapable of telling any pony a lie.” Pai, as always, gave a good counterpoint.

“Pai is right.” I had to go with this. “I accept your terms.” We’d come so far for the chance to get there first.

It was worth the risk.

“Mmmmm.” There was such succulence in the tone that Tempest gave. If the state I found Pai in was any indication, being locked away didn’t seem to be too healthy for these AP’s. “Well then, let’s get started.”

My decision must have come as quite a shock to everypony, because the air practically vibrated with their disbelief. No, wait. The air actually was vibrating, and a agonizing whine was steadily growing louder.

A piercing blast of steam shot from the side of the large robotic predator. It was accompanied with a whirring, grinding noise that slowly pulsed faster and faster until it became a dizzying thrum. With a shudder, the pistons that moved the legs actuated, and the beast stepped out from it’s crate. Only when it had cleared it, did it’s eyes light up and turn to face me.

“The challenge,” Tempest’s voice came through the mouth of the robot, “...is to beat unit 00113.”

“Let me take this one.” Sky stepped up and stretched her wings out. The two gauss rifles at her side let out their own whines as she put the bit in her mouth and powered them on. “Ah cun finish tish kick.” She tried to mutter through her bit, but it was hard to understand her.

The machine turned and looked at her. “Is your memory so limited that you do not remember the terms?” Tempest reveled in the absurdity of the situation. “I dictate the challenges, and that includes who participates.” She turned the robotic monstrosity around to face me. With a jutting thrust, she pointed the metal front paw to me, but after only a moment, she turned it away. The huge arm was now pointed square at Predious. “I challenge him.”

“So, what? The rest of us just, stand back and watch?” Tasteless huffed and unslung her shotgun. “Cause I didn’t come all this way to just watch.” She popped a joint on her neck and presented her best shit-eating grin.

I’d be lying if I said that the thought of Predious fighting that thing worried the hell out of me. I’d been through so much with him now, and he’d stuck by me through it as best as he could. He’d proved useful in a few fights so far, but even so, he’s only one stallion. The thought that he, my first real friend, could die right here and now? It made me rethink my whole ‘risk assessment’.

I felt his hoof come down on my shoulder. “Storm, I can do this.” His calmly reassuring voice did little to stall the increasing panic building up in me. I trusted him, more than almost everypony here, but even I had my limits to believe it.

“I will need the rest of you to stand in the decontamination safety square.” Tempest spoke and used the robot to direct us to the most open section of the room. On the floor, was a black and yellow striped hollow cube that sat against the wall. While big enough to fit us all, and even with Pai’s word, I didn’t trust Tempest. After a moment of nopony moving, she cleared her throat. “I would like to remind you, that a failure to do so would be a breach of our agreement. If you wish to back out, I can activate the units in the other boxes and promptly dispose of you all.”

“A deal is a deal.” Predious snapped at her. I could hear the jitters he had in his voice, but even with those, he turned around and offered me a soft smile. “Go. Either way, you must get to the control room, with or without me.”

“I know I don’t have to tell you…” I sighed, wholeheartedly regretting my decision. I’ve fucked up a lot in my life, and much more so recently. “But, be careful.”

As the rest of us shuffled slowly toward the old metal box, I looked over at Skyline. I could see the hatred for this place plastered across her face. She had been the only one of us to have gone through this before, and she lost her brother to it. Between Pallet and him, I couldn’t help but also question my decision to bring her along. I had the horrible feeling that the longer we stayed here, the greater chance that she wasn’t going to leave here alive.

Once we’d all gotten ourselves situated in the box, it began to hum. A purplish opaque magical field flickered along the boundaries of the box, trapping us inside. As soon as it had, the machine started to walk backwards away from Predious.

“The containment field is there to keep any stray objects from injuring you.” Tempest chimed over the intercom system again. “And, to keep you from interfering.”

The robot came to a stop near the far wall from Predious. With another sharp hiss, several jets of steam shot from underneath the robot, and it lowered itself into a semi-crouched position. From here, the whole form of it looked like it was built to be fast and sharp.

“Are you not going to arm yourself?” Tempest gave a forced laugh, speaking with as much enthusiasm that you’d think she’d already won.

“If you would allow me a moment to prepare.” Predious snorted in contempt. His horn shimmered under his magic, and the flap on his saddlebags opened. Slowly, the large grey minigun he carried slipped out of his bags. I’d really hoped that he’d bought a lot of ammo for it back in Tenpony.

“That bag, I’ve never seen one before.” The major pushed against me lightly as he got as close to the magical energy field as possible. “I’d heard about them, but they were so expensive back in the day. Where in Equestria did he find one?”

“Well,” Tasteless sighed and hooked her hoof around the Major’s neck. “You see, over a century ago, most ponies in equestria just magically stopped using them.” The sarcasm bled from her words, and we all groaned as she relished in being a bitch.

Luckily, Sky stepped in with her first non-gloom and doom remark. “Early traders found warehouses full of them. They’re everywhere in the wastes now.”

The fun little back and forth had been enough of a distraction that we’d almost missed Pred’s gun spinning up. The floor quaked under our hooves, and the heavy clang of metal on concrete rang throughout the room. The fight was on.

Pred’s gun spat a line of fire straight at the charging beast. For as big and as heavy as it was, the machine was quite agile. The roar of his gun beat out the rending metal as it sheared off chunk after chunk of the beast. It shifted it’s charge around him, as the shots paused. At first I’d thought it was trying to flank him, but the machine tipped as it turned and slammed against the floor.

Like a wounded creature, the machine tried to get back up. One of it’s forward legs had been completely shot off, and the middle leg on the other side sparked when it tried to stand on it. For a zebra machine, it may have been agile, but it wasn’t at all durable.

“You seem to have wildly overestimated your toy’s capabilities.” Predious taunted in the arrogant way he tended to. Even though he held the upper hoof, I wasn’t sure that taunting Tempest was the best course of action. Though, he had earned my respect for having done well so far.

The beast let out a grinding screech as it torqued and pushed itself up. There was a quick snap as the two ‘injured’ limbs twisted in place. A deafening clap accompanied them shooting off to each side of the beast, leaving gaps in it’s sides where they were once mounted. The robot did what I could best describe as a wiggle, before stiffening it’s curling tail. Then, with another hiss it was rock steady, and quickly lowered itself to strike again.

Even without the extra limbs, it was deceptively fast. The quick recovery and drive to action had caught Predious off guard. The old ghoul dropped down, and twisted his gun towards his foe. The gun was slow this time to spin up, spitting it’s rounds just over the beast as it curled around.

Either through luck, or Tempest’s own arrogance, the machine’s namesake blades swung wide of Predious as it ducked past him. Instead, the machine turned away from him and used it’s whip-like metal tail. Predious cried out as it swept him off the floor and through the air. The wet and meaty thump of him hitting the wall behind him made everypony in the cage cringe.

The magic around his gun faded as Predious groaned on the floor. For only a split second, his illusion spell faltered, and I could see the black blood that came from the back of his head. His heavy and wet sounding wheezes bored out a bigger pit in my stomach than I’d even thought possible to have. The bot gave another hiss and stopped. Slowly, it stood back up to it’s normal height and paced around Predious.

“Oh, it simply is amazing, isn’t it?” Tempest’s voice boomed through the speakers once again. “Adaptive programming. The robot has full control over it’s own parts, sheding it’s unneeded or damaged components to keep itself combat effective.” The bot looked like a cat circling it’s prey, just waiting for the right moment to pounce and finish it off.

I hoped and prayed to the goddesses that Pred had something left to use. Some strategy that could help him once again turn the tables.

“It is... amazing,” Pred’s wheezing laugh sent shivers down my spine. I glanced back over to his gun, waiting for it to move, but it stayed where it laid. “But,” he spat, “It has the same problem as every other machine.”

“And what’s that?” Tempest gave her own, haughty laugh.

“It needs power.” Predious grunted before his horn flashed. There was a shower of sparks from the inside of the machine that poured through the open leg holes. The heavy metal of the beast shuddered and collapsed, shooting blasts of steam from nearly every port it had. From the hole where it’s leg had once been, floated out a small cylinder with a copper top. With a flick of his magic, it bounced on the floor and rolled towards us.

Tempest grunted over the speakers. Several short alarms sounded through the room and the heavy doors leading out to the hallways started to grind open. The forcefield around the box dissipated as well, though, the same couldn’t be said about my fears for what lay ahead. As soon as they had dropped completely, I took off for Pred.

“Pred, how can I help?” I gasped as I slid up next to him. Carefully, I hooked my hoof around him and helped him sit up further. The illusion that hid his ghoul form was fine, but even it couldn’t hide the blood that dripped off onto my hoof.

“You can start by whispering to me, maybe.” He groaned and waved a hoof at me. “Don’t worry, I’ve had worse. I’ll be fine in an hour or so.”

“That was a hell of a hit you took!” Gauge stammered as she nearly yelled the obvious to us. Predious cringed more than the rest of us, but Gauge did catch it. This time, she lowered her voice. “How aren’t you dead with injuries like that?”

“Well, you see…” Predious muttered and motioned for me to help him back up to his hooves. “When the machine jettisoned it’s parts, it created an opening for me to work my magic into.” His ragged breathing was horrible to listen too, but if he didn’t think he needed more help, I wasn’t going to push it on him. “It wasn’t hard from there to find what I’d certainly hoped was it’s main power source.”

“First of all, that’s not what I asked.” Gauge shook her head in confusion. “Secondly, you guessed?” She facehoofed, accidentally using her cyberhoof to give her horn a loud tap. She quickly shook off the knock to her own head and continued. “You could have pulled anything out. What made you so sure it was the power core?”

“Just like a heart, it’s the most protected part of any animal.” He gave a rasping laugh. “I just had to find something big and in the middle of it.”

“You may have passed this challenge, but the next one awaits.” Tempest huffed at us, beckoning our attention once again to the wall mounted speakers. “Collect your companion and get moving.” Then her tone took a very… interesting turn. “Oh, how remarkably convenient.” The mirth she emit chilled me to the bone. “It looks like your next challenge will be against one of the other group. How interesting this will be.”

Knowing it was one of two ponies, the thought of being matched up against Fillius filled me with dread. Even worse, if she didn’t match me against him, but somepony inexperienced like Gauge. On the reverse side, could I really justify one of ours killing Stratos to get ahead? The only reason he’s still doing anything for Fillius was to save his daughter. Could I really take away her father just for an easy win?

The thought of something earlier slipped into my mind. They weren’t the only two I had to worry about down here. Fillius had mentioned that one of our own was coming for us, and I had no clues as to who it was or when they’d strike. Had he gotten into the heads of one of us, or has he got another Steel Ranger under his control? Either case, from the way it sounded in the dream, I didn’t have much time to figure it out.

“Storm, I want to talk to you for a moment.” Predious sighed out and leaned forward. The way that he looked when he said that struck me in a way that chilled me to the bone.

“I too, would like a word.” The Major stepped forward past the others.

“Okay, fine.” I grumbled and looked up to Sky. “Can you take the others out to the hall? We’ll just be a moment.”

“Don’t take too long.” She nodded and rubbed at her weary eyes. “The quicker we finish this, the better.” Which was something I wholeheartedly agreed with. Everypony but Predious and the Major headed out the door to the next hallway, while Skyline took up the rear of them. She gave me a worried look before she disappeared through the doorway.

Between nearly getting Predious killed, and Tempest’s ever watching eyes, I was really starting to understand Skyline’s warnings. Both Orchards I’d been in may at one point have been places of greatness, but now, they were hives of death and sorrow.

In the pregnant pause in the room around us, I swore the only thing I could hear, was my heart as it beat to the tempo of my nervousness.

The Major did me a favor, and ripped my attention to him. “Look, I know you aren't MoM.”

“What?” That caught me by surprise. Sure, we’d lied through our teeth to get here, but we couldn’t have been that transparent.

“Frankly, I don't care where you're from. For a long time, we thought we were the last of ponykind.” He’d just shrugged off my question and continued. “Now that I know there are others out there, I have the hope to go home. All of us who’ve been trapped here have that hope.” Slowly, he turned to look me dead in the eyes. “But what you did by making that deal back there? I won't stand for it. I don't know where you come from, or who you think you are, but these ponies? They follow you for a reason. Don't you for one moment assume that means you can just auction off their lives like it's nothing. I don't know how things work anymore on the outside, but where I come from? A pony's life is their own. They get to decide what it’s worth, no pony elses gets a say otherwise.” he prodded his hoof sharply at my chest. “Got that?”

“Yes.” My voice didn’t reach more than a whisper, but it’s all I could say. I get it, I’d fucked up again. My deal might have screwed us over, but it also was the only realistic chance that we had of getting out of here. Skyline was right, somepony was going to die down here, and that was the realistic way of looking at it.

“Good.” The Major nodded stiffly and turned to leave. He walked stiffly, reminding me of the soldiers I’d seen when I was just a filly. There were only soldiers though, not problem solvers like the scientists that worked just as hard everyday to win the war. I’m certain that even the Major couldn’t have offered any other solutions to this. The thought that my father would have known how best to have gone about this, both brought me comfort, but left me feeling hopelessly lost.

“Storm…” Predious half sighed and half groaned through his own pain.

“I get it.” I whined and sat down hard. “I should have listened to you.”

“No,” Predious put his hoof under my chin and turned my gaze toward him. “It was me. I was wrong.” He shook his head and gave a wheezing laugh. “Sure, I could have died, but I didn’t.”

“It shouldn’t have been my call.” I tried to offer back, but he moved his hoof up to my lips.

“The Major was right, these ponies follow you for a reason.” Predious grunted and stepped up beside me. “It’s because we trust you. Because we believe in you.” He pulled on me, successfully making me get back onto my hooves. I didn’t feel like going, but I knew we had too. “Finishing this task is something we all want. We’ve known the risks, and we know what the reward is if we succeed.”

“How can you say that?” I kept my head down as we headed for the door. How could I look the others in the eye?

“Because, if they didn’t agree with your decision, they would have spoken up.” He pulled himself closer to me and limped slightly as he pointed to the hallway. “The Major may not have made the same decision if it had been his call, but even he knows that you made the right choice.” That didn’t make any sense to me. “You’re a natural leader, Storm. It’s why, even now you question if your decision was really the right one to make.”

“I don’t want to lead.” Taking responsibilities like caring for the group, into my hooves was not a choice I’d made. It was simply something that needed to be done at the time. “What makes me any more qualified to lead than you? You probably know heaps more about strategy, or even how to keep a group together than even I do.”

He pulled back on me, drawing us to a halt.

“Being a leader isn’t about having the answers.” He gave me a genuine smile and rolled his eyes. “If that were the case, I can tell you that things would have ended up a lot differently.” He gave me a pat on the neck and nodded. “No, being a leader is about learning how to be a better pony. You need to make mistakes, and to make the call that everyone will hate you for. Above all, you’ll need to live with those decisions, knowing that you’ve done it all to benefit them.”

“Ugh. That makes no sense. How the hell am I supposed to lead when I’m not supposed to know what I’m doing?” I sighed as he started to move again. We passed through the door frame and into another glaringly bright hallway. The rest of the group was far ahead of us, standing at what had to have been the next ‘challenge’ room.

“That is for me to know, and you to figure out.” Pred chuckled lightly. “And I’m going to love watching you tear your mane out over how stupidly easy it is when you finally figure it out.” His chuckle grew into a deep bellied laugh that echoed through the empty hall. As much as I tried to fight it, a smile slowly stretched across my own muzzle.

“You’re a dick, you know that?” I giggled out with him, soon joining him with my own laughter.

Unfortunately, the closer we got to the others, the quicker our laughter dropped off. The large steel door to the next room lay before us. The only one in the group who had any semblance of emotion on their faces, was Shadow. Even he only offered the faint trace of a smile as he looked at me. Slowly though, he turned to face the door like the others. Without another word, Pred and I took a position in front of them. Tasteless stood at my side and shifted on her hooves uneasily.

“We just going to stand out here forever?” Tasteless muttered and gave the door a swift kick with her forehoof. “Open up already.”

“Just getting things ready.” Tempest came over a set of hidden speakers. “I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.”

A shrill grinding noise startled us. The door jostled for a second before it started to rise up into the wall. A blast of hot air met our hooves from under the door, and just the slight hint of decay swam into our nostrils. As the door rose up higher, my heart beat ever faster. Finally, as the door rose past our eyes, we learned just who Tempest had chosen to fight us. I for one, had never thought I’d ever have seen her half-charred form ever again.

I wanted to speak, but it was Skyline who found the word first.

“Pallet?”