To be precise, the mechanical spider had been based around a tarantula so it alongside being extremely tall it was also extremely long and wide. It was armed, too, I could see a collection of gatling lasers and rocket launchers around its crushing fangs, and along its back and underside was a line of turrets that looked like they would be far more at home on a fleet of tanks or anti aircraft cloud ships. The spider itself was an angry red color with a separation line running through its mid section where angry black clouds sparking with electricity could be seen slowly roiling and rolling inside its rear metal shell.

"I can see you're shocked beyond word you little roach." Bull Frown spoke from an intercom, smug, "Say hello to one of the few remaining mobile fortresses left to the world, the one and only M.M.W.F., Comet!"

"Mobile Mechanized Walker Fortress, Center of Mobile energy Technology." Trixie elaborated, kicking her saddle back into an armed state, "One of the mega structured vehicles that were abandoned during the war due to immense energy cost to have it both move, and fire its weapons."

"Correct, droid, and unlike the rest of my forces, this thing is fully capable of taking the two of you down itself."

"Highly improbable, it takes a crew of twelve to steer it and additional forces to operate all its guns."

There was a sigh, from the intercom, "You get the point. Comet, crush them into dust!"

The mechanized spider started to move, its guns hissing and spinning into motion, and I started to run, while Trixie herself started going the other way a few seconds after I started to run. Laser rain drilled into the spot we had been moments before, and started to chase after the more prominet threat, Trixie, trying to catch up to the mare with a relentless stream of green and red plasma and lasers. Slowly the spider began to move to follow after the robot mare, and I yelled, bracing myself as it was occupied, firing my clip of gatling laser ammunition into one of its turrets, using S.A.T.S. to deliver a third of the massive clip into a turret and emptying the rest of it myself, while the turret itself slowly turned to face me.

I leapt to the side, dodging out of the way as a bolt of energy fired from the turret and narrowly avoiding giving me a fate worst then the brutes outside. All 200 laser rounds had connected to the massive target, but the anti-infantry gun itself didn't do squat to the heavy armor but make it glow slightly. Then came the whistling screams of Trixies Fireworks.

One after the other, heavy energy explosives collided with the face of the machine fortress, each shot adding onto the next. But the spider machine didn't stop. It was trying to break Trixie down with its turrets while her own massive gun traded blows. I counted the shots, and the blue mare only stopped firing once she had lost all but half a dozen of her rounds, having managed to drive a molten hole into the spiders mouth, and disable the rain of laser fire that it had been spewing. But it was far from over.

Suddenly its front two legs scythed forward, and caught the light blue mare, trapping the robotic mare between the two massive legs of metal. I gasped, concerned for the seemingly invincible mare, but she was well and truly stuck Her launchers was getting crushed, and she needed help. Help I was going to provide. My pack reloaded, and began to fire again, emptying another clip to distract the giant spider, I was aiming for its cameras, which were all over it while I ran for her, drawing my new knife and cutting through the reinforced metal slowly with a telekinetic grip while peppering whatever view port I could see with laser fire.

Trixie was freed right before each turret turned and fired at us, we fled, but ended up caught in the blowback explosions, sending me sprawling across the ground, ears ringing. Trixie rushing up beside me to help me up, "Commander!" she shouted, I barely registered it.

I tried to say something, but she cut me off, "Commander, please proceed without me, I am unsure that you'd be of much more use here, but the blast radius will be... huge." she said, and pushed me, "Please run commander and end the torment that happened here."

"What about you?" I asked, worried, shaking my head.

"I'll be fine, Aria." Trixie intoned, as the spider turned towards us again, we were running again, "My objective was the safety of Equestria, and by extension that is your safety. Hurry before it opens fire again."

I started to veer off towards the iron doors on the other end of the facility, but I paused, looking to her, the machine I had known for only a short time, I could feel it. Her frustration, anger, sorrow, concern, it was no longer faint, "Trixie... to answer your question from earlier... Yes, you do have a soul. I can feel it."

She paused, mid sprint as well, to look at me, her eyes searching and surprised, before resuming, "Thank you Commander.... And I know... Please don't look back. And know that this will not be the last time we meet."

I nodded, and ran, while Trixie shouted a challenge at the spider, calling it out, an leaping upon one of its legs, claws burying itself in metal and starting to climb it. I ran to the door...

The VIP had gotten out of range, her black chitin and light red, almost pink hair fleeing into the hallway beyond. The collective of programs was able to focus better now. Her systems indicated that the estimated blast radius would be clear. As her metal limbs climbed, an effort taken up by dozens of programs as the rest fought over their actions. Prime directive was the preservation of Equestrian life, but another was for self preservation. Though seeing the state of the changeling mare and her actions had left an impact on her programming. One that was far too noticeable, was that she reminded Trixies' numerous programs of her maker, Dr. Cherwood.

As the metal spider loomed her processors started to push the limitations of its bodily movement, hurrying towards the gaping hole in the giant machine that had declared itself their enemy. Her cannon, the firework launcher was bent; and unable to fire but not useless. It would have one last purpose alongside herself.

Blam! A turret had decided to fire upon her, missing her by mere inches due to the awkward angling of the shot. A design flaw of prototype machines like herself was that some bugs appeared in even the seemingly most well designed systems. She progressed, metal claws almost at melting capacity as she pressed the flaw to its advantage, creating a row of molten dots up the leg and into the crater of the fortresses front. Now thing were getting difficult. On board she could detect several brutes alongside the piloting lobotomites that were clustered together. Too many to handle by standard operating parameter.

She had already known this, however. As she climbed through the slowly cooling molten metal and plasma. Her safety mode toggling off. This would kill several, to save one, and potentially end her current shell. But she wasn't going to die, not completely anyway. After all...

Self destruct mode activated.

She had a promise to keep. She reviewed her footage of the tall thin changeling mare, and smiled. The smile that stayed as she was consumed in a brilliant flash of white.

I was running down the metal hallway beyond when I felt it. A massive explosion, that I could hear, deafeningly as the ground beneath me and the walls shook. Ceiling lights shook and portions of ceiling cracked and fell revealing metal pipework above that similarly fractured. After about ten seconds the noise rumbling started to lessen until it was just a background growl, and I listened on in silence, turning my head back the way I came. Did she just?

Instinctively, I stretched my senses outward where I came from and found.... nothing. She had killed herself to save me... I started to cry, forcing myself forward for her sake. Before the shock of her actions could set in. There would be time to mourn her later, right now I was still in the middle of enemy territory. The few months of military discipline from Grey kicking me back into motion as slowly a cold fury warmed itself up. My walking turning into a trot, and from a trot into a full on gallop. Bursting into the antechamber and killing the few remaining guards, small dog sized robotic spiders, with laser fire before shoving open the main door to the center of operations of Bull Frown.

His room reminded me of the one that the think tank had been in when I had met; although it was a lot more focused into just two sciences rather than six work spaces dedicated to various arts. The left side was purely dedicated to robotics, completely converted into what looked like a graveyard of robot parts. On the opposite side, it was a chemistry set complete with dozens of different herbs and methods of brewing and changing them. Standing between the two was Bull Frown, and he was... not a pony.

He was a Minotaur, but that wasn't just it, he was positively huge. From what I could see he was a ghoul that had undergone the brute making process, and it positively fit him to a T. Everything about his size screamed giant, not just his upper body, and from his uncovered face, I could see yet another terrifying prospect. He was glowing, a rare type of ghoul that was created when a ghoul spent a large amount of time in radiation. To top it all off he was dressed in customized power armor that had been built, by the looks of its bulk, to put pure strength into his already humongous arms. He smiled a ghastly, disgustingly smug and cracked grin at me, "Hello Cockroach it is I, Bull Frown, head researcher of robotics in Doc Smiles army. This is where your havoc in the Big Grin ends."

"What... have you done to yourself?" I asked, a bit shell shocked by his appearance.

His grin only grew wider, as did his disturbing appearance increase, "The brute process was originally built to improve Minotaur physical processes and the effects grew more dramatic when a subject injected with massive amounts of radiation took a dose. I, however, took several dozen doses after being hit with a balefire bomb to the face and refused to die so easily."

I resisted the urge to groan and I searched for an advantage to be had while he talked some more, "What you see before you is the completed research of the ultimate super soldier projects, and with it I have transcended the physical bounds of mortality and become the ultimate life form!"

Ultimate life form, huh? Roggar commented, Awfully smug for an over sized zombie.

I was starting to creep to one of the sidewalls of the dome like room, as he was slowly walking towards me, aside from the large metal box that adorned the back of each of his shoulders, he was practically unarmed in his power armor. To buy myself some time, I asked him, "Why did you take my brain?"

He laughed, "To draw the cockroach out of hiding in the ruins in order to prevent it from aiding the scientists as they want. That and it has been over a hundred years since I have had a changeling, let alone one of your type."

One of my type? He must be referring to the fact that I was tank grown instead of birthed. "Well it seems that your plans had end up backfiring on you." I told him, "Because I was forced to help them in order to get to you."

"A problem that I'll soon correct." Bull frown told me, and he charged forward. Meanwhile I climbed backwards, up the wall. while peppering him with laser fire.

They left angry glowing dents in his armor, momentarily giving him the appearance of being covered in angry red polka dots.He reached up for me and I scrambled further up, to get out of his melee range, peppering him with laser fire until he opened his shoulder pads.

Fwoom!

My world had suddenly turned into one of airborne burning pain as I was knocked off the wall by a rocket from a silo of sixteen in one shoulder. Three others had also been fired and exploded around where the first had hit, but I was now crumpled on the floor behind Bull Frown instead of still on the wall. I forced myself up, expending precious magic to repair my damaged muscles and chitin. I opened fire, again, focusing on his rocket pod as he slowly turned around, and smirked. That smirk disappeared when I changed my aim to his face.

He covered his face with one of his power armored hands while he advanced, and I kept backing up. He was faster, and grabbed my energy weapon in mid fire, causing it to grind to a halt as he bent its barrel and reached towards me. Quickly I disengaged my Gatling Laser and backed off, drawing the only weapon that I had left that could reasonably hurt his reinforced metal with.

"Really, a knife on a chain? What do you plan to do with that, clean the gunk out from between my teeth?" he sneered. I threw the knife at him, but when he rose his arm to block, instead of bouncing off, the starmetal knife buzzed and sank into the steel gray metal, causing it to take a different hue around the entry point, a light blue tinge to the metal around it. He grunted in surprise as I yanked it out by the chain and dashed towards him. "Starmetal? Really?" He looked mad.

All the better for me, mad opponents, as Grey had taught me, made mistakes. I dashed around, knife in my telekinetic grip, chain in my mouth. launching the knife into his shoulder armor, I managed to score a deep penetrating stab into the damaged rocket pod, and then dodged the lumbering giant, scoring a few more nicks and cuts in his power armor, and disabling his right arm by severing the thick metal cord that ran on the underside of the giant metal gauntlet. Then he hit me, a surprisingly agile move from such a bulky opponent, I crashed through half a dozen alchemy beakers and collided into the opposite wall, and he turned and aimed at me. He tried to fire his rocket pods but was consumed in the explosion as the damaged pods malfunctioned and set each other off

The shock-wave destroyed what was left of the alchemy lab, and caused the mechanical graveyard to go all over the place. Scattering parts everywhere. Slowly I got up, but when the smoke cleared, he was still standing, and had already regenerated his wounds. He pried his now useless armor off and threw his gauntlet at me, and I barely avoided being crushed underneath the huge chunk of metal. This was joined by the rest of his power armor being thrown at me one piece after another. Like large metal boulders thrown from catapults I had to scramble in order to avoid them, but when I next was able to concentrate on Bull Frown again, he was wearing naught but a loincloth. Each of his rotting muscles on grotesque display to the point where it put the other brutes I had met to shame. He was positively aglow in radiation, and he looked completely demonic as a result of it.

Each one of his fingers were as thick as my leg, and his own leg could match my entire body in size. His head could chew me to pieces as he closed the distance between us again, and charged. I managed to escape between his arm and leg as he rammed the wall, but without a seconds hesitation he had turned and grabbed me, enveloping my entire body in his hand as he picked me up, and threw me. I screamed, unable to control my flight path without my wings, and crashed into a row of machines, gagging because the arm of a Mister Handy imprinted itself into my gut, and the shell of a ponytron cracking against my side. No, wait, that was my rib that cracked... Ow...

"You think you're so tough." the giant ghoul yelled at me, as he advanced, "A Cockroach challenging The Bull. Well guess what little lady, when you challenge the bull, you get the horns."

I barely got up and dived out of the way as his hands reached for me again. I cut at his arms, slash after slash; stab after stab. He was larger, and when it came down to turning and charging in a straight line he was superior in this, but I was more agile when it came to running in directions other than that. My ability to climb walls, acting as a cement to climbing the monster, and stabbing into him, but as I dodged and weave his injuries healed before my eyes. I was tiring, and he was not. Ten minutes we fought, and he gained the upperhand, grabbing me by the tail before crushing me back within his grip.

"Slippery little cockroach aren't you?" he grunted, fed up with me, and bringing before his face, "I will enjoy squeezing every last drop of blood out of you, bug."

As he squeezed my body protested in agony, and I squeaked, feeling the bones and chitin of my body begining to crack and break as he applied pound after pound of monstrous pressure on me like a mountain being dropped ontop of me, only from all sides but one. My mind searched for a solution, but came up with none that could harm him or free me in this state. All but one that is, the oldest and noblest of Changeling traditions.

"Do... you wanna hear a secret?" I grunted at him, and he rose an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Come here, I'll whisper it to you. My dying words that is..." My mind was focusing, and with the amount of pressure he was putting on me, it wasn't going to be difficult to force myself to do what I was about to do next.

"Fine, bug, you have earned that much." He grunted, leaning closer to me, my form still wrapped in his hand, "What is it?"

"We Changelings have a function that we don't normally use that much..."

"And...?" He asked, and he leaned slightly closer. There was no way this was going to work.

"That function is..." I spoke between gasps, my magic was already converting at rapid pace, my energy gained from his anger and the collected feelings of those I had encountered before flooding into my throat. My instincts screaming in unison with my mind with one word, survive.

He leaned closer, "That is...?"

I vomited of deluge of green goop into his face, covering his mouth, and part of his eyes, causing him to drop me in shock. I finished for emphasis, "Construction Goop!"

"Gak!" He yelled, muffled from the goop and started tearing at it, the green gel like substance rapidly beginning to harden. Wearily, and out of magic, I picked up my blade in my mouth, and began to force myself to trot, then run. I climbed him, cutting and hacking at his neck again, trying to desperately to severe his head, but he was prepared. He grabbed me again, and threw me again, causing me to lose the rest of my breathe for a few blinding aching moments. Those moments were all he needed to rip the goop off his face, letting it regrow in mere minutes. My goal had gone down from killing the brute, and into the more primal instinct. Survive.

He charged towards me, and I scrambled, but he punted me to the center of the room, my body hitting the ground and rolling once, twice, three times before coming to a halt in a long drag. Survive, screamed my body.

Everything was a haze now, I asked, why me.

Do you fear death? do you fear that dark abyss? Aria? I can offer you an escape. A chance to survive... But you must accept my offer.

I was slow to respond, the haze in my mind shouting once more the same word, Survive. Bull Frown charged towards me, sweeping me up in his hand and slamming me against the wall at the end of his charge. With all the pain already wracking my body I barely felt it. Once more my mind shouted, Survive.

Aria, please. Accept my offer and with it, the true form of your magic will be revealed. Beware though Aria, that nothing will be the same if you accept, and you will die here if you refuse.

I answered aloud, "I accept your offer, Roggar..." then I blacked out. With a fading consciousness, and a new chilling sensation mixing with a new burning one that was oddly comforting...

The Changeling had finally stopped moving and squirming, and had gone limp, I smirked, another useless bug down. Though she had put on the best fight he had been in for years. As he dropped her, he turned around and began to walk away to examine the damage to his room. A ton of valuable parts had been damaged in the fight, and he had underestimated his own enthusiasm with dealing with the mare. But in the end he was alive, and intact, and she was dea-

A shiver went down his spine. That wasn't possible, he was a necrotic ghoul of the most extreme sort, he was a glowing example of the finest of radiation that a ghoul could achieve. He burned with power, the very strength founded in his veins on magical radiation that as a result left him in a state of constant burning. He couldn't feel much else besides that, and yet he had felt a chill. The source of it, was behind him.

He turned around just in time to see a black spike stab into his neck. The mare he had killed, floating in the air, her cracked and bleeding chitin being covered in a darkness that surpassed the blackest of nights. Her horn was bursting in auras he had never seen before, like a shade coating that was expanding as he looked. Her eyes, were slits, which they had been already been, but now they were different, for one the white in her eyes had turned to a deep shade of blue, and the pupils had disappeared. The symptoms pointed to that of a unicorns magic surge, which was unpredictable in young foals, and in more powerful unicorns who lost control of themselves. But this, was different.

He staggered backwards, the spike digging deeper as more tendrils of shadowy substance dived at him, he rose his arms, but the effort was futile, as they drove straight into the bone, and started to yank his arms to the side, pinning him as it lifted him up into the air and began to pull. This, was impossible. He flexed, and was unable to budge it even an inch before three more spikes rammed into each arm, and several more into his chest. The lights in the room flickered, and then everything was darkness.

And screaming.

Xp Footnote: Level up!

Trait unlocked: Umbramancer: Your magic has changed fundamentally. You can no longer learn normal spells and all your current spells have been lost. Though the spells you’re now allowed to learn and create must be under the Umbra element. Perhaps there’s a book or teacher on this somewhere. The mastery of your magic depends on the rank of the Umbra Elemental Union perk section that has been unlocked in your perk selection for leveling up.

New Perk: Umbra Elemental Union (Rank One): You have started your bond with the element of Darkness. You are more used to low light conditions granting you 15% farther eyesight rather than the standard decrease of eyesight at night and your Umbramancy spells drains 25% less magic when maintained. However your body’s elemental tuning has made your body temperature and weight 5% lower and you are 20% weaker to sources of intense light and incur a 20% penalty to energy weapon resistance. These bonuses and penalties stack for each rank of this perk.

Skill note: Speech:70

Companions Lost: Trix-E, This companion no longer has a body in which to interact. Nor is it entirely known if she survived the encounter. Either way you won't be seeing her for a while, and the perk(s) regarding her has been lost.

Hey, guys. If you have any questions you'd like to ask Trix-E(or as we call her, Trixie) be sure to do so before the DLC ends next chapter or the chapter after it on Aria's Tumblr Blog.Which can be accessed here!