I almost mistook the stallion behind the desk as a brute for a good five seconds, before realizing that the stallion behind it was just over armored and muscled. Like the other rangers, he bore the colors similar to what construction crews of ponies would wear before the war as painted on his armor. Unlike the robes that Elder Cola had worn, Elder Sarsaparilla was dressed as if he was about to walk into a war zone. Fully armed and armored, the only thing he was missing was his helmet, which was off for reasons that were more clearly presented than a lot of things I had faced in the past.

His face was once a bright yellow and well toned muscled mass that would of made him quite the looker in his youth, his hair having aged to a steel, almost pepper grey and an eye that could stare holes through metal with its almost eternally angry stare. That was where the pony ended, as the lower jaw and right side of his face had been replaced with metal, scars reaching out far and wide from where the injury had once been across his face, and the metal that had replaced it ugly and terrifying. It was as if half of his skull had been shattered by something and he just refused to die. The first few breathes he took in were loud, noisy, and haunting in nature. Before he began to speak, looking up from his various reports and paperwork, "Sentinel Storm Blade, I see the rumors haven't done you justice as of late."

"Elder Sarsaparilla." Cait nodded, "As metal as ever, I see."

For a second there was a slight hesitation in the room as caits comment went unawnsered, before the elder's booming and echoing laugh filled it, "Well said, Ecait. Though it seems you have brought me such a prize this time."

My heart went cold, as the gaze swapped between Cait and the elder. Cait after a moment, asked, not understanding, "What?"

"You're not the only one who listens to the Radio Sentinel." The Elder replied, his eyes scanning over me and Grey, before pausing on the later, recognition sparking between the two, "Rumors of the Sentinel, Lovebug, and Mysterious Stranger traveling together." he added, "One's that are well founded it seems. I never thought in my long days that You had survived, Iron."

Grey sneered, his eyes filled with a hatred that radiated off him, so strange for my usually collected mentor, "Nor did I think you lived after the injuries we traded with each other, Bulldozer."

It clicked, Bulldozer was the one who ripped Grey's wings off and his leg. The safety of my guns clicked off, before the other rangers in the room made it abundantly clear that if I fired, we'd be a pile of ash in a crater with the clicking of their own, and the warming up of no less than three gatling lasers. Elder Sarsaparilla, or Bulldozer, chuckled, "Go ahead and shoot, insect. Seal your fate with blood and ashes, I'd rather enjoy watching your kind burn if it wasn't for prior arrangements. His grin was sickening as I was forced to back down, "Besides, there is a rather pretty penny on both of your heads. From a stable no less."

Cait remained silent, ominously from the helmet he wore, I could not tell much about what he was feeling, but his helmet was staring directly at the elder still. My heart, having already gone cold in surprise and worry had now frozen in a sea of panic, the scientists were coming. Coming to take me back to that horrible place. Punishment for fleeing out of the stable and endangering several lives of the security was death. Death by fighting in the arena or worse, becoming a new subject for the latest batches of experiments that they could conduct.

Grey was silent, his eyes shut for a moment, as he wiped off the dirt, his small ploy having failed. Slowly he started to walk towards Bulldozer. Who's assured grin never faltered. Two Rangers started towards him.

Bang! Bang!

Both armored heads exploded, and the room whirled into life as Grey continued to march forward, the sudden grin wiped off the elders face, as he aimed his rocket launcher towards my mentor, I dropped to the floor, dodging the first layer of gatling lasers as they started to life.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Grey dodged them, his hooves moving faster than I ever seen them as he crossed the room, almost flying through the air in a lunge, as another trio of shots destroyed the heads of the two rangers with Gatling lasers and a scribe behind the elder who had drawn a plasma pistol from their robes.

The Elder reached underneath his desk for something, but my mind calculated it would be too late to draw anything, what he did instead to catch Grey in his intercept path wasn't to draw a gun, however.

He threw the desk at Grey. Catching the old pegasus in the face with about a hundred pounds of old metal and wood and knocking him out of the air. My rifle whirled to life as Cait slowly came into action, too stunned with what had just happened, "What are we doing!?" he yelled at no one in particular, "We're supposed to be on the same side!"

Grey was pinned bodily underneath the desk, the only things showing that was free from the far wall being the edge of his face and his rear legs. Bulldozer charged forward, coming at Grey like a runaway wagon as the peagsus lifted his artifical leg, the underside pointed at the ranger. The retort of shrapnel hitting the rangers chest being the first retort of two as he compensated for the misfire and fired the second round of shrapnel into Bulldozers face.

He didn't pause, or halt, or fall, or skid, but rather kept going, ramming through the desk and shattering it as he shoved grey bodily through the corner of where the wall and floor met, "At long last!" Bulldozers voice echoed throughout the room as more rangers flooded into the room, "We can finally settle things for good this time. Capture the Changeling! I'll deal with this Pegasus myself!"

"Pegasus?" Cait said quietly, still disoriented.'

I didn't have time to tell Cait anything, my voice was gone in shock as I leveled Ambush and the shotgun that I had acquired so long ago at the nearest ranger. Slugs going off and bouncing harmlessly of the metal armor, Ambush had a better effect, but short of a direct shot into the visor, I'd expend all the ammunition I had before I got through half of them. Scrapyard, however, burst into action. The wolf was experienced in the art of fighting, and knew the rangers it had grown with inside and out, The large wolf lunged ontop of the ranger that was closest to him, and all but ripped his helmet off before mauling his face with claws and fang as though it was as simple as kicking it off.

They opened fire on Scrap, and the wolfs yelp of pain as a laser grazed scraps shoulder was what finally broke Cait out of his state of shock. With a yell for the princesses forgiveness, his gatling laser activated and began to tear through the ranks of his kin as his sword lifted up and began their work, a starmetal sword proving far stronger than the hardened power armor of the rangers.

As for me, nessecity drove the need for innovation, as my horn whirled to life, a tendril of solid shadow whirled one of the newer instruments of war I had acquired, around. The Kusari gawa being thrown blade first into the armor and lashing out in sporadic and haphazard patterns, cutting and nicking metal plates as Ambush went to work. Down below, Grey's personal revolver, lucky rang out again and again alongside his legs shotgun as he fought a losing battle against his rival. The room was cleared, but not for long. I grabbed the nearest energy weapon, a plasma pistol, in my mouth and grabbed Scrapyard.

"More incoming! Cait said through shakey breathes before looking at me.

I pulled Scrapyard with me as I descended, wings buzzing furiously as we quickly descended and I let go of Scrap before bursting into motion back into the air. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Cait jumping out of the same hole I had went out of, and landed on an unfortunate scribe who died instantly as almost two hundred pounds of metal and pony landed on him. Speed was my greatest asset in the air, and I made sure to use it, The chain of the kusarigawa wrapped around my tail and I flicked it, in a hasty moment of improvisation catching and choking a scribe who had tried shooting at Grey with another of the high tech pistols. I weaved and dodged, as the battle between Grey and Bulldozer continued in full.

Grey was ontop of a conveyor belt, that was still in motion with raw ores and other rocks slowly progressing towards a furnace. In front of him Bulldozer was smiling, that dreadful, cold smile.

"How's the wife, Rusty?" The much larger stallion asked, a cruel touch to his voice as he provoked Grey.

Grey growled, "Six feet under, which I cant say to you considering you're going to Burn." His gun retorted again having been reloaded between when I had last saw him and now.

The ranger swayed out of the way and the bullet bounced off a shoulder pad. Still smiling, "Tell her hello for me in Tartarus, Iron."

His rocket launcher fired, and Grey leapt from the belt, onto a lower one, barely avoiding moving jugs of metal as the results of the previous conveyer belt moved molten iron and rock through to the next station, which was no longer stationed as rangers scurried to and fro trying to put an end to the four of us. Bulldozer crouched and leapt as the conveyor belt he was on collapsed, but instead of going at Grey he caught me and threw me in mid air at him, spiraling out of control.

Grey Jumped and caught me, but the force of two bodies colliding sent us both down to the floor as the ranger skidded down a wall and landed in a jog that turned into a full on sprint towards us. Now I knew why they called him Bulldozer. Groaning we were getting up but it'd be too late.

Or it was before the familiar form of Scrapyard rammed into him, growling biting and howling. half a dozen new wounds tainting the grey wolf's fur red and black but the wolf was enraged. Scrapyards metal armor was smoking and broken, but the wolf had long since left its normal sense of preservation for a primal instinct of battle as the mass of grey and yellow rolled into another of the metal working machines. There was a brief grunt of surprise before Scrapyard yelped. Thrown bodily away with a new protrusion in his body...

A long curved blade in his gut.

"Scrapyard!" Two voices yelled, one my own, the other, Cait's.

The wolf whined, not getting up from its form as Bulldozer stood up, his front covered in the red of Scrapyards blood and some of his own, a new bite mark on his muzzle, "Damn dog." he muttered, aiming a gatling laser at us again. A wordless augmented scream of Rage was caught in the middle of my hearing as I slipped into S.A.T.S. Targetting every single shot of the spell targeting matrix onto his head and firing Ambush. Four rounds being launched, but only one finding its marked in the metal portion of his head before a star metal blade tore into his armor. With a roar of surprise and pain the larger ranger flinched, lasers once targetted at me and Grey arcing upwards as the blade and bullet struck him, Cait was soon in sight with the blade as he withdrew and stabbed again with the blade, his helmet having been destroyed in the chaos at some point, and even worse for wear than Scrap had been.

The ranger started up his gun against Cait but then Grey had rejoined the brawl, pistol exploding into life and into the armor where Cait had cut into, bloody chunks launching out of Bulldozer. Still he didn't fall. Smashing aside Cait with a hoof and whirling the gatling laser, still firing at Grey, who couldn't manage to dodge all the lasers but was able to get himself back into cover before an injury too serious to live with had occured. I had rushed to scrapyard, drawing open my saddle bag as I inspected the wound. It was serious, but luckily the blade was still in, otherwise I suspected that Scrapyard's guts would be everywhere from the throw. Quickly I took stock of the wounds and drew out several healing supplies, sparing no expense and bracing a healing potion to the wolfs mouth with a shadow tendril as my mouth moved around the hilt of the blade, a second potion ready for the injury itself. Rangers still took potshots at the rest of us, but a majority of the rangers were calling for reinforcements and the rest were too busy with supporting their celestia damned elder.

"Sorry Scrap." I whispered between my teeth, before I yanked the blade out, causing another whimper of pain from the wolf. Quickly I went to work, applying both potions and stitching up the injury before wrapping it in a bandage. Scrapyard slowly began to move again but I held him down as the potions did their work, briefly considering and then giving Scrapyard a dose of Med-x, a pain reducer as flesh began to reknit itself together and the wolf got up. He was still limping and out of the fight, but he was alive.

My eyes went from Scrap to the battle Grey had been taking shots and killing more rangers, but had a number of injuries from the blunt force trauma of being rammed through a wall and floor, something that I had experienced once and knew the feeling of. Alongside this he had multiple burns and a grim line of determination as Cait focused on bringing down the owner of the knife I had just pulled out of Scrapyard, but it was clear it was a losing battle between Cait and Bulldozer. For every stroke he got into Bulldozer's armor, the giant stallion would deliver a crushing blow and launch Cait backward several meters with a new dent in his armor. Grey was attempting to shoot him but was locked down under heavy fire of no less than five different rangers. Ambush and I went to work.

New magazine loaded, aim, fire. One ranger scribe, down with a hole in his throat, gurgling with wide eyed terror and grabbing at the injury as if he could somehow remove the injury.

Aim, fire. A gatling laser exploded, its magical ammunition acting as a catalyst for a larger explosion that engulfed a ranger. Leaving naught but ash in its wake, what a waste of resources.

Aim, fire. Ambush shot a crucial support of the already damaged conveyer belt. causing the hanging contraption to finally fall completely free and crush two more rangers, leaving them pinned underneath the rubble as more rocks fell upon them.

Aim, fire. A larger vat of molten iron fell, crashing and colliding into multiple other machines in a rock slide of metal both solid and liquid. Coming down and crushing a new wave of reinforcements as it entered the fray, causing more panic among the masses.

Aim, fire. A bullet wizzed into the crack between the two leg joints of Bulldozer's front leg, causing him to fall over to one side from the sudden loss of support from it. Cait took the advantage but was kicked back from the body by the good leg. I lined the scope up with Bulldozer's head.

Aim, fire. Click, went Ambush as the gun signaled that it was out of ammunition and needed to be reloaded, damn it.

I broke my trance to reload again, Scrapyard had gone off to assist in the only way he could, still recovering he could no longer rip apart steel rangers with impunity but he still found some sport in going after the scribes that tried to fight. A considerably easier target for the massive wolf. Grey was now firing again at Bulldozer, who was looking more like a ghoul at this point with the number of injuries he had. Not one shot having managed to make it to the flesh side of his head, and his armor all but a cheese grater with the number of heavy caliber bullets grey had fired into it and striped with the lines of where the sword had continually entered and exited. Mentally I asked myself if he really wasn't a brute at this point, considering he was taking wounds that a brute would balk at. Bulldozer, though, had enough of the resistance. Grabbing Cait's blade by the mouth of all things he yanked it out of the unicorns magical grip and threw it across the factory before kicking Cait in the face by twisting around and giving him a solid buck with his rear hooves.

The ranger crumpled to the ground, several meters away, I rushed to him next, my bag and several healing potions in tow.

That left Grey, as Bulldozer charged towards his covered position. Grey leapt out of the way at the last second and peppered more rounds into the back of the ranger, "Stay still damn you! You we're annoying enough with your wings you meddlesome fly!" The ranger shouted his rage fueling his slowly failing body. Having already lost more than enough blood for two ponies to die.

Grey grunted without a response, and kept weaving in and out of the machinery to lure the hulking bloodied stallion into a goose chase, but he set his eyes upon an easier target. I knew I was in trouble as I was in the middle of adminstering first aide to Cait when A rough mouth clamped onto my horn and yanked. Pulling me backwards, shrieking in pain as my horn was roughly tugged about by the jerk.

Briefly through my pain I heard Grey yell no, and felt the lips of my capturer tilt upwards in a feral smile as he bit harder, eliciting another squeak of pain from me. Grey came out, his pistol Lucky smoking from how much it had fired, "Let her go, you bastard."

"I don't think I will. Bulldozer said between his clenched teeth, "I want to watch you suffer while I murder another of your friends." The pistol was aimed at his face, and he went on again, "You're really going to fire that at my head when I have her horn in my mouth? Do you want her to become a cripple like you? I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you? Two cripples wandering the wastelands with each other for company. He bit again and I screamed, the pain a hundred times worse than being shot by a gun. I nearly blacked out, but I could see his gun wavering, slowly starting to lower. "There we go, surrender now and I'll make your death quick Grey."

"Don't listen to him!" I said with strength that surprised even myself, only to squeak again, as the bite resumed its tight grip and dug into it.

My mind hastily searched for something it could do, from the side grip he had on my horn I could see several holes in his armor, including where a chunk had fallen off from his underside... His underside... My tail flicked the knife still tangled within it upwards.

The girly shriek of pain was satisfying to my ears as I collasped forward, and with a clear shot at long last, Lucky made its final retort of the day and off went the rest of Bulldozer's flesh on his head. Blackness consumed my vision, and when I came too, Grey was dragging me over his shoulder through the hallway, a weary Cait limping beside us, trotting backward, still firing at the various rangers that were flooding in from the front entrance. "Get out the back, I'll hold them off as long as I can, get clear of the facility." Cait told Grey, as I slowly came to, too distant to speak.

"What about yourself boy?" Grey asked, for once a gleam of begrudging respect in his eyes at the ranger.

"I'll stay behind, and operate this," He nodded to the balefire egg launcher attached to his side, having yet to be fired, "With the collective blast It'll take out this whole damned corrupted chapter."

"And yourself." Grey commented, pointing out the one flaw in that strategy.

"I know." Cait said, without another word, reloading his laser again, "Do me a favor and keep Aria and Scrap safe, okay? Tell her that I went off hunting the remains of the chapter or something, I don't want to see her upset."

"Tell her that yourself." Grey glared at him, "The one decent ranger out of the entire lot of you and hes going to die? Buck that."

"There really is no other choice." Cait replied, a sad grin on his face, " We'll both be out of ammunition long before they run out of troops to throw at us, not that they will stop after we killed their Elder."

Grey sighed, "Fine. I'll keep her and your damn dog safe for as long as I live."

"Thanks, just what I needed to hear." Cait smiled, as Grey continued to drag me along.

"Go with them Scrapyard." I heard Cait say, and a whimper from Scrap, "Yes. I love you too, we'll see each other again soon enough. Watch the two of them for me, okay?"

A few seconds later Scrapyard entered my faded vision, bracing himself against me as well to help Grey carry me, I wanted to move, to do something, but my muscles refused to move. My vision was still swimming and I was on the urge of passing out again, just as we were about to exit hearing range I heard one last comment from Cait, "The one decent ranger, huh? Heh... quite a compliment from him..." before my body finally gave out and sank me back to the depths of unconsciousness.

When I awoke again, we were almost out of the back gate, a frozen tundra of white slowly growing stronger the farther away we were, Grey was taking pot shots at the few scribes who had remained at their post during the commotion, keeping them pinned long enough for Scrapyard to tear them to shreds. Slowly I began to move as well, lessening my load on my mentor as he continued to lead me away, "Cait..." I said, quietly, only Grey could hear me.

"Shh... Rest now, Aria.. We're almost out of this stars damned hell hole." Grey muttered in reply, his efforts redoubled as we cleared the gate, Scrapyard came racing as fast as he could out of the gateway as well, when it happened. It was like all the noise in the world had muted for just a split second, before a tremendous sound of roaring as an explosion came under way, The factory exploded in fire that reminded me of the flames that I made when I changed my form, only it wasn't the flames of a disguise, it was the flames of balefire, greedy and hungry that erupted in a tremendous mushroom cloud, green fire consuming all in its outward burst into the facility, metal and coal being consumed down into the mines as well as all across the facility. The force of the explosion alone knocking me and Grey up over heels and over a dozen meters as we were launched bodily from our slow crawl of a pace and into the ground beyond. Scrapyard fled in primal terror and I edged to black out again, my eyes flickering shut as a dozen black forms with orange shells and blue wings came down from the cloudy layer towards us. My eyes shut once more.

Xp Footnote: level up!

Skills Note: Speech: 85

New Perk: Commando: While using a rifle or similar weapon that is considered ‘two-hooved’. Your accuracy in S.A.T.S. is significantly increased.

Companion: Ranger Ecait Gear, Aka Sentinel Stormblade has died.

A dark figure watched upon his throne, two curved horns that eyed through the vision and memories of his newest apprentice well. The eyes, of which were the same as subtraction marks, only with two small spheres on either end of the line like pupils that glowed red in the surrounding darkness. Watching onward from the side, another figure, bearing one angry red horn in comparison the rest of his grey and black fur and mane, a stallion sat, "Shall I go master?" he asked.

The twin curved horns of the figure glistened in the light, as it coughed before answering, "No, not yet. I sense the presence of another nearby, one besides these tank born creations of stallions who don't know in the slightest what they're doing. Besides, they are still out of range of the nearest entrance to the surface world."

The once eager spirit of the late tyrant of the crystal empire sighed, and shrank back into the cowl of his darkness. He too was a rare breed, an Umbramancer who had spared no expense in trying to impress his master, but never was there an opportunity to play more than a glorified messenger stallion these days. So much that he could teach, and so much that he could do.

"I shall watch over her mind, for now." a third voice, a female, interjected, from the shadows, and the former tyrant hissed. He had not wanted this wretch to have joined them, but his master had insisted, upon some deal that he had made in the past, "Take your rest."

The old figure coughed again, "Thank you dear, just remember, not a word. I can't have all my cards shown just yet. If the whole world were to know what awaits in the frozen north, not just the heart, but so much more, we'd all be in trouble."

the former tyrant muttered to himself again as the two exchanged places, the sheer number of factions in this dark kingdom was staggering, and he longed for the day he could finally do something about it, but his eyes remained transfixed upon the magical screen that showed the perspective of the young mare before him. She was, after all, the ball that would set things in motion... If she survived.

Next Chapter: Chapter 38: Hive (re)Minder Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 40 Minutes