So now I was staring down the multiple barrels of one of her two chain-guns while the other was focused on the door. She asked the same question again her armor bearing the same paint marks as the sentry bots from the last facility we had met in, albeit it was worn. As it began to spin, I found my voice, "P-please don't shoot me ma'am."

"Then start talking."

I might of been tough, but not eat a hundred rounds of lead at point blank with no chance to dodge tough. So I told her, "Here on a request of some ponies to stop the rogue AI ma'am! Didn't know you were here as well ma'am!"

I was glad that whatever glaring she was giving me was hidden behind her visor, "And your friend who blew the last place up?"

"Around ma'am, tried to make myself a target of your robots so my friends could get away and continue downward to shut it down and investigate the rumored monster pony that came here ma'am..."

Her barrel stopped rotating in my face, though she didn't relax, "Lead me there. I have business of my own down there. Flee, and I shoot you in the back, and trust me, these guns aren't just for show."

She took her hoof off of me and I rolled onto my hooves to stand up. Her gaze began alternating between the door and me, before settling with having both myself and the door in front of her, the later of which was getting more and more dented as the cabinet in front of it barely held it from breaking open entirely as little metal hooves powered into the door like a crew of foals using sledgehammers.

"Well which way?" She demanded as her guns began spinning again, preparing to fire as the cabinet began to inch towards us from the force of the robots as the doors lock broke under the bombardment. I checked my pipbuck map, a mess of information but it still labeled the doors that went to the other floors. However the hallways were a mess of lines, guess it couldn't separate the map into levels. I mean, how logical and useful would that be? Ironically, all the other floors were on the other side of the building, and the only way out of here was through the robot swarm. I sighed, "We have to fight through that swarm of robots, all the doors downwards are on the other side of the facility."

"Great." the power-armored pegasus muttered, "Two chainguns and Bughead versus my traitorous bots, an defense system of turrets, and Celestia knows what else."

"At least you're power armored." I muttered, "And the name is Aria by the way..."

"Didn't ask you Bughead, now get ready, they're about to breech the door."

I sighed and readied my guns, seriously wishing I still had Ambush. Even if it wasn't long range that guns bullets were able to pierce through a normal sentry bot with ease. Instead I had a rifle meant for hunting small game and a shotgun. Both of which had been damaged quite a bit from the hail of bullets that I had taken. The back of my armor was in similar condition and I made note not to let any more of them flank me less their barrages of small arms fire get through my armor and begin piercing my chitin rather than leaving deep bruises that no doubt I'd feel later. But right now I would have to save my magic in case a real injury came up instead of a simple discomforting soreness in my butt from the bullet beating it had received earlier.

All hell broke loose by the time I reached for my bit. Like a wave the medical cabinet was pushed aside as dozens of orange and black painted robots flooded through the breach in the door and shoved it out of the way. Gunfire filled the air as the Nightmare Nighter's chain guns began chewing through ammunition and shredding the first wave, my own guns firing off into the mass as well as they charged. I moved to the side for a better angle and to stay out of the way of the incoming fire from both directions as the swarm slowly but surely began to outnumber the bullets in the air and approach the two of us, trading off gunfire that pinged off the power armored ponies armor. Stupid, cheater armor. At least I wasn't fighting that for now.

The little foal sized robots kept pouring in, and I kicked my battle saddle into reloading after I fired the last two shots in my two mounted guns into the mass of quickly approaching robots. Then the ratling of the pegasus's chainguns stopped, I didn't even get the chance to look as she charged past me and rammed through the first few ranks of small robots without hesitation. It was apparent from the large bullet wedged off course of its feed that her gun had jammed, and I laid down supporting fire as she tore the mob of robots apart one by one, her power hooves sparking and crushing each head it came into contact with. A whirlwind of power armor hooves and death. But without the chain guns in action, her melee assault was proving ineffective as more robots flooded in, and some of the non engaged began repairing the already broken broken.

I bit down again, unloading my clips into those particular robots as I focused my magic on the jammed chaingun. It was hard to move something so small that was moving so erratically and I had to stop momentarily to engage a pair of robots in hoof to hoof combat before I was overwhelmed. Another began trying to pepper me with a sub machine gun but I covered myself with the corpse of another bot as a makeshift shield before finally getting that dang bullet back into its feed.

The effect was immediate, with chain guns still spinning and its feed fixed, everything in front of the mare immediately regretted engaging the armored pegasus. And soon after so did everything to the left and right of her as well. I had to actually fly over her in order not to get mowed down by the swarm of bullets as she span around drilling new holes in the heads of the filly bots who were tall enough for her to not have to bother adjusting her aim to destroy.

My fore hooves landed on one of the surviving bots, before crippling it with a shotgun blast at point blank and pinning it down. The little robot began screaming at us in various wartime sentiments about Zebras and how they were evil. Having nothing better to hear from it I finished it off with a stomp of my reinforced scouting armored hoof before examining the damage it did to the two of us. Or, well me, the pegasus didn't even have a dent on her armor let alone an injury. I ,however, had suffer multiple small bullet rounds that were beginning to become crippling as my adrenaline high wore off, and I worked quickly to yank out the small rounds before patching myself up with a medical aura from my horn. Bruises might of been okay, but bleeding profusely from half a dozen holes in my left fore hoof that were not supposed to be there wasn't alright to leave untended.

The armored pegasus grumbled something before speaking up, "Get moving. I want to get out of here before anything else goes wrong."

Without a choice, I merely nodded and obliged, leading her with my pipbucks ever useful map down several turret filled hallways of which quickly became full of scrap metal under the twin guns of the orange clad pony. The next level down however was barren of security, or if it had any, they didn't activate. That, and the lights were out. Moving on we began to find remains of where Cait's sword and Scrapyards claws had gone to work. We turned down another hallway as my map added a way point towards the mission objective. Just how did it do that? I made note to ask someone who knew how pipbucks work, maybe a pipbuck technician or something on how the hay did it know not only the name of locations and where everything was before I did. I rose a hoof up in the universal gesture of stop before extending my senses for any sign of where Cait, Scrapyard, or the other guest. Agitation leaked off the power armored mare like a faucet, and I momentarily took a small amount of it to replenish some of my missing stock while I observed my surroundings.

Cait and Scrapyard were two bundles of emotions ranging from glee, wrath, and surprise and as they shifted I assumed they were fighting more of the bots, considering the lack of another emotional presence around them. I checked my map and confirmed they were only a few hallways away actually, but there was no sign of another presence, the first guest that had infiltrated wasn't anywhere around the other floor or the rooms nearby. But then again, I hadn't searched the AI's room. I extended my senses forward, and yep. There it was, a bundle of uncontained rage that wasn't moving. Wait... Wasn't moving?

"AI is ahead... As well as something else..." I warned the pegasus behind me, and she rolled her head and replied snarkily, "Haven't met a thing yet that could break this armor."

Oh boy, was she in for a surprise, "Still, be careful." I warned her anyway, as we proceeded forward.

So my theory about Maul being here was correct. However, the sight of him hanging limp in his power armor while his combat tentacles were hanging him from the ceiling of a wide room was certainly a surprise. So was the large Sentinel bot that dwarfed all of us combined. I've heard about these before, weren't they called... Ultra Sentinels? Several of the filly sized robots were working on it, the large visor that composed its eye slowly sweeping the room before locking onto us, it boomed its voice, loud enough to cause my ears to flick down lest I become deafened, "YOU WILL GO NO FURTHER. P3NAC3 DEMANDS YOU TO LEAVE OR BE DELETED."

"Ya?" the peagsus behind me countered, "You and what army?"

The Ultra sentinel merely raised an arm, at the end was a cannon which had a hole large enough to fit an entire pony, and I whimpered. This was bad, really really bad. Not only that, but Maul, still limp. began to move towards us, his tendrils cameras glowing green... Wait green? His cameras were red the last I remembered. I didn't have time to dwell on it as the Ultra Sentinel fired, a beam of what looked like a rainbow leaping towards the Nightmare Nighter who nimbly took to the air while I back pedaled out of the range of Maul's Tentacle as it came down after my head. The ground where the rainbow hit exploded leaving a crater larger than any grenade I've seen as I began to avoid each death sentence of a claw as he continually lunged at me, his body still not moving as the tentacles did all the work.

"Maul!" I shouted, dodging another tentacle by taking to the air, "Stop, it's me! Aria!"

If Maul remembered, he didn't show it, the tentacles were still lunging, barely missing me as my agility was keeping him barely out of range. Geesh those things were long. The bot proclaimed loudly, "HE HAS BEEN HIJACKED BY THE MIGHT OF P3NAC3! NOTHING WILL STOP HIS RAMPAGE BUT OUR MASTER HIMSELF."

That didn't make any sense, how could an AI hijack a ponies body? It was a machine for Cait's sake! I dodged past the pegasus as she sent a hail of rounds into the ultra sentinel whos rounded head wasn't scratched by the bombardment. It did however have an antenna sticking out, just like the rangers armored helmets, and every other suit of power armor, ponytron, and turret here had one of those. Meaning it was wireless, or controled else where.

Time to test a theory, "Destroy the combat inhibitor!" I shouted at the mare, who was having difficulties dodging as the giant lumbering tank of steel fired rainbow explosives at her like a revolver, six rounds followed by a momentary reloading process as one of the smaller robots kept repairing the massive robot with scrap components.

"A BIT BUSY." The armored pegasus shouted, matching the robot for volume and I had to dive back into the narrow hallway as Maul surrounded my other escape routes. Oh buck me, it was luring me into a tight enclosed area and I turned back, flying backwards as I shot off my varmint rifle and shotgun, aiming at Maul's own small antenna that was visible just below behind his ear as the four massive metal tendrils dragged him through the hallway after me. Sadly, most of my rounds missed, and S.A.T.S. was able to target body parts, not every little thing.

The bullets I had did little to no damage against the power armored metal, just like when we last fought and I had misjudged the distance of the hallway as I began to turn and ended up side first in the hallway with a fast approaching ticket to bodily dismemberment heading right at me. I scrabbled to take off again as he slammed into the spot my chest had been only a moment ago and flew down the hallway towards Cait, there was no way I was doing this alone. Turning a corner I saw Cait and from the monster hot on my heels his jaw dropped. "RUN!" I shouted at him and he vanished into a side room. Seconds later I passed him, why wasn't he running?! I kept flying down the corridor, trying to make distance between me and the withering mass of angry tentacles coming after me.

The monster was just about to pass Cait as well when a familiar blade of cackling energy cracked out of the wall a few feet away from the room he had entered. Maul came crashing down as the blade sliced cleanly through a tentacle at its joint, causing the machine to wither and thrash as it found itself missing half its extended length, this drew an additional roar of pain from Maul himself, and I flinched as the remaining three Tentacles immediately let go of their grips on the molted grey walls and crashed through the wall for the one responsible for their loss.

"Cait!" I shouted, as I rejoined the brawl, Scrapyard having also been behind the wall began wrestling and biting at one of the Tentacles as Cait fended off the other two with his sword. I fired off a shot, missing the antenna by an inch as I flew forward. A tendril found its grip on Cait's sword and yanked it from him as I neared. I bit down on my trigger and fired as the sword came at me, no time to dodge and I prayed to Celestia and Luna that it hit and shut my eyes bracing for the impact of the sword.

Ting.

Nothing...? There was a tiny prick near my neck... I opened my eyes, and noted that I finally hit that damn Antenna, and thanked the princesses flanks that my theory had held true. Maul was no longer limp in the grasp of his Tendrils. Now they were slowly withdrawing, leaving a confused Cait and a very pissed off Scrapyard. The sword dropped as the Tentacle holding Cait's blade let go of it and slowly patted me on the head before withdrawing to a more sane length. I was also very aware that my hat was gone, when did it fall off? Could of sworn it was on my head a second ago...

Maul looked to me, "How did you..." he looked to the severed part of the antenna that had been shot off, "Oh..."

Cait grabbed his sword, and I held a hoof up, stopping him. Scrapyard growled again.

"Cait, this is Maul. Maul, Cait. Maul, the rogue artificial intelligence here hijacked your power armor through the wireless system..." Without a signal however, it hadn't been able to maintain control.

That answered the question as well to how six power armored ponies were unable to stop this thing. They would of fallen prone and become easy targets for the turret fire if they had been hacked. Cait actually looked appalled by this, "You mean to tell me that thing can hack an encrypted spell matrix?"

"It seems so, also saw the other guest shes busy fighting the-" I was interrupted by another loud boom as the ultra sentinel blasted at its target again, "-ultra sentinel..."

I saw Cait grin, oh no. "Party time Web?"

I began to shake my head rapidly in a negative response but Cait had already bolted off, his sword sparking again, "CAIT!" I shouted, and we hurriedly chased after him, Maul following along in an easy grate, taking a step for every two of mine.

"If we end up dead, can I kill him?" Maul asked plainly and I nodded. We'd be dead anyway, though I'd probably strangle him myself in the after life as well if that came to pass.

"Who in the name of all that is nightmarey are you!?" an angry orange pegasus was yelling at Cait when we came in, the ultra Sentinel was rotating in place, firing at both Cait and the Nightmare Nighter. Scrapyard and Maul charged past me as I stopped to watch and then sighed, taking to the air to join the fight.

Cait grinned psychotically as he neared the giant robot, "I am in the name of all that is nightmarey am Sentinel Stormblade!" He leaped, grappling onto the robots upper track and stabbing into it with his sword.

The bot jerked to a stop as the small sword broke its left track at a joint and it slipped free. It began to swipe at Cait, but he took the massive arm like a ladder, running up its side before jumping onto its arm. It leveled the cannon mounted on its other arm to fire at Cait but he used that as an excuse to move onto a higher level and from there leaped onto its domed head.

Maul lashed out with two of his tentacles, grabbing the creature by the arms and pulling with the support of his remaining arm as it tried to lash out at Cait and dismount him. It's damaged track became more so when the orange pegasus began firing down on the remaining track while Scrapyard dismantled the remaining filly bots that were trying to repair the already crippled track. That left me however with nothing to do. At least until Cait tried chopping the Antenna off but only succeeded in cutting it halfway before the robot jerked and knocked him off, and leaving the sword stuck in the Antenna. Needless to say, aware of our intentions the bot berserked.

It fired its cannons knocking Maul deep into a concrete wall and freeing its arms as the explosion shook the room. I barely managed to catch Cait in time before he hit the floor, but the fight wasn't done yet, "Aria, finish it!" he yelled at me over the explosions, pointing at his sword still lodged in the ultra sentinels antenna.

I nodded and dropped him off near the ground allowing him to land with a heavy thud before flying over to the opposite side of the room from the massive sentinel. I was going to need all the room I could to build up momentum, and with how my bandaged hoof was, I was going to need my rear legs as well. The sentinel however took notice as I began to build up speed and slowly but steadily began to raise its arm level with me and charge yet another rainbow blast from its gun arm. Letting out a final threat, "YOU WILL BE DELETED."

I ignored the warning, building up and it fired, but I had already seen that coming and veered around the blast as it shot past me and over it. I felt my pipbuck tic from magical radiation as the blast continued for a second and I brought my rear hooves up in front of me as a pony tornado and crashed into the jammed blade.

The force of colliding with the blade in the reinforced antenna was enough to nearly dislocate my legs. My hooves certainly screamed at me as they cracked under the impact, but the sword did go through and with a anticlimatic pause the Antenna slowly toppled.

"CONNECTION SEVERED. GOING INTO STANDBY." was the Ultra Sentinels last words as it powered off, no longer connected to the rogue AI.

One medical glow and getting my bags back from Cait later, and the Nightmare Nighter was trying to claim the Ultra Sentinel that was clearly Steel Ranger property. Cait argued that she didn't either the tools or pony power in order to fix it, and that she wouldn't have the access codes to get it out of the underground room and she reluctantly gave up.

Eventually I managed to treat all of the parties various injuries and we all gathered together to confront the AI that had started this mess. Together, we marched on.

Footnote: Level up: New Perk: Black Baroness: You've spent enough time dodging enemies in the air to become well adjusted to aerial combat, as a result you gain an extra 20% to your movement speed and the ability to perform tighter turns in the air. Just keep on going fast! Perhaps someday you'll out race a speeding bullet.

Note Added: Ultra Sentinels: These behemoths of robots are one of the hardest things to kill in infantry combat. They usually support massively over powered weapons that can kill a tank in one hit, let alone a pony. They come in all shapes in sizes though the one you've met seems to be shaped similarly to that of a minotaur with tread legs. Now where in the name of Equestria did Steel Rangers find this thing, let alone get it working again. Where ever it was, those poor rangers are going to need to repair it... Again.

Note Added: Cait's sword: How in the hay was this thing able to cut through reinforced steel? I think Cait has some awnsering to do about the origins of this sword, as well as his rank.Go ask him about it Aria.

Just where did Cait find this sword? What has Grey been doing during all of this? Who is this AI and why did it go rampant? Who the heck is this orange pegasus in jury rigged power armor? Maybe you'll find out next time on FoE: ACP! As always, you can ask Aria or her companions questions or leave them comments on her ask blog found here!