I watched warily as she set up five individual turrets, well aware of what her machines had done in the past. She had included us in her settings for the targeting parameters, as well as had tested those parameters before enabling the weapon systems, but I had my own doubts. Machines had been my bane in the past, and I still remembered both the ponytrons, and the infamous suit that she had tampered with unsuccessfully in the Big Grin.

Of the ones she could scrap together was mostly laser oriented turrets that used the bunkers power system in order to charge and fire shots rapidly without reloading. Which meant that they couldn't be moved from fixed spots on the ceiling and walls but it was better than nothing. Sombra in the meantime had scrouged up two beds for us, saying that he himself didn't need sleep, as well as set up more physical barricades to keep a horde of Ghouls from rushing in but forcing them instead to channel one by one at a halted pace. It wouldn't however stop fliers, which was another great feature to keep ponies out.

Though I was worried about the snow hounds ability to dig. There was very little that could be done short of trying to make a cloud house, where we'd be visible to the entire city, that sort of attention was more of a death wish than this underground facility, though Sombra being around meant that we would have at least some warning if they came this way.

Alongside this, the military facility was mostly offline, the main generators had long since lost any sort of charge that could be used and the emergency generator was what was powering the turrets. Of the systems that could also be powered up was a mostly intact station that showed a very general layout of the Crystal Empire in a series of black and green lines, which then fixed itself to show the current ruins automatically after the first few minutes. A few presses of buttons and it began to glow with a hue of different colors and gave different indicators for height showing massive amounts of small colored dots alongside three massive ones. Curious, I asked Pumpkin, "What do these mean?" and pointed to the three main sources."

"Seems from what I'm getting here..." Pumpkin hummed as she read over it, after a minute or so she spoke back up, "That these are readings for magical energy currently in the city. The center one..." she gestured to the middle spot, where the greatest concentration of rainbow colors were, "Is where the megaspells hit, and still has a massive amount of magical radiation... congealed in it...?" She shrugged, "As for these other ones, it seems if I'm reading it correctly, that there is a massive more uniform source in the fallen tower of a castle about midway in. Which would make it..."

"The Throne Room." Sombra interjected, "A very dangerous place, many things enter it, and don't come out."

"Pumpkin nodded and gave a short glare to Sombra for interrupting her, "Yes. And as for the third source, its odd. If I'm reading this correctly it is underground." She tabbed through a few buttons and showed the underground map of the Empire, which displayed it more clearly, "It seems the third one can be reached.... through the sewers into a series of underground... rooms..." she paused as she tried figuring out a few controls, "It seems it is not that far away from here, at most a half hour's trot."

"Could it be the Crystal Heart?" I asked, and Sombra nodded.

"A piece of it, my assumption that it is fragmented into at least two pieces. One inside the tower, one in these sewers and if there is a third piece..." he gestured to the crater, "There, in the center of that massive reading of ambient magic."

"I'll add the locations to your pipbuck." Pumpkin quipped, messing with the terminal, "This hunk of junk is barely functional as is, and if we're going after these, we're going to need to be prepared for the emergency generator to fail anyway. This is several hundred year old technology that hasn't seen a day of maintenance until we showed up. Thank Celestia any of it still works."

"Well let's get a goodnight rest and set out for it in the morning then." I reasonably added, "It's been a long day, and we need it after traveling all the way here camping out in the snow." Pumpkin nodded in agreement and Sombra snorted, setting himself up on the central table to keep watch for the night.

My Night was thankfully dreamless in sleep, after adjusting myself to the old mattress underneath my sleeping bag, I found a peaceful nights rest. In the morning we ate, and headed out, leaving the turrets to guard our camping supplies and bringing with us only what we needed to fight and a few tools, bags, and enough food for two meals or so away from our base of operations. Traveling lighter meant we could cover more ground and fight without being burdened, and allowed us enough access to fly well inside the underground cavern of the sewers.

The sewer ways faintly reeked of what they were once used for long ago, but the near two hundred years of age and the failing of the crystal heart had left most of it frozen as ice or long since degraded into a dirt like appearance. Occasionally there was holes in the sewer, holes dug by snow hounds and cracks that shown barely bright, snow clinging as a substitute for its ceiling. We had to detour about twenty minutes into our walk in the maze like sewers as one such opening had allowed snow to flood and cover the way past, and we didn't have the patience or skill to dig through the snow without knowing how stable it was. A distant screech of some unholy monster accompanied by other screeching meant we weren't alone down here. Occasional howls, of either wind or snow hounds also accompanied us throughout the sewers, but all was clear of other life it seemed, aside from the occasional skeleton of one form or another.

As we were approaching within two hundred meters of the heart, things began to get clear that we weren't alone. The first hint was a very familiar layer of Balefrost lining the walls and ceilings. Then we began to come across the cocoons of frost containing ghouls. Seeing my face as well as Pumpkin, Somba turned his gaze from us to the frozen ghouls in sleep, "Worried they're going to wake up?" he asked quietly.

We both nodded with great vigor and speed in perfect sync. I was ready to nope out and find another way around, but Sombra looked from me to a certain weapon I had on my waist, "Then we have two options, cut the spring before it is sprung. Or move slowly and try to not set it off." he said.

Easier said than done, I drew Cloak from her sheath and readied myself in case they awoke and carefully moved forward again with Sombra and Pumpkin at a far slower speed down the tunnel. Occasionally a dim eye would open sleepily from inside the crystal cocoons, and we would pause, waiting with abated breathe as the eye slowly looked around from its dim confinement and close again. Returning to a slumber that I could only wonder, if Ghouls dreamed of irradiated sheep. The indicator on my pipbuck eventually said we were getting really close when the next sign of trouble appeared.

It was unnoticeable at first, like a distant ringing of noise like air rushing past ones ear. The noise itself was pleasant at first, non-invasive and indistinct from the background, and I knew not when it had appeared within my sense of hearing. Only as we drew within thirty feet of a chamber door did it make itself far more noticeable. It was unified, a source of humming as if from dozens of worn and torn dusty throats, occasionally broken up with additional noises, indistinct and muffled. Twitching my ears I followed the noise to the door, a crystal slab of which had been covered in grime, ice, muck, and char. The sound of of a distant instrument joined in,dark and powerful. A powerful ringing that was unnatural produced by the sounds.

Openning the door revealed a hallway down, and we followed it downwards, through icy dim blue light of balefrost, the music got louder, before we arrived in a larger tunnel before a set of grand doors, cracked icy walls and roof lined the room, as well as numerous small holes, moving close to one I could feel air rushing out of it, as well as sound, as though it was an end for a massive organ. As each note rang out, Sombra began to wince and grimace.

"Not a fan of pianos?" Pumpkin asked snidely, dropping the hushed tone in favor of a louder one to be heard over the music.

"It's a pipe organ, actually." Somba replied bitterly, "And not particularly this one... It... Is burning through my reserves at a rapid pace..." He shook his head as he raised a hoof to clench his head, "This infernal music... must be enchanted."

"Oh the tyrant can't stand a little bit of sewer music?" Pumpkin teased, switching out rounds of her grenade launcher by hoof, "Why don't you file a complaint?"

"Very funny. Do you not feel it sapping your magic as well?" Sombra grimaced, as the music rose and fell.

"A bit tired, but assumed that was from the cold." Pumpkin retorted, before looking curiously to her wings, "Hold on a second..."

She tried to flap them, and generate lift to fly, but to no avail. "Well buck me in the flank and call me an orange Nightmare moon." Pumpkin swore, "How is this possible?"

"I know not." Sombra spoke slowly, "But until it stops, I'm afraid I shall have to back off... I'm in no shape to be drained dry."

My gaze drew towards Sombra, the aged stallion looked pained, and as I tried to activate my own magic, I couldn't feel anything doing such a thing, my horn lit with a shadowy tendril stretching from it, and my wings buzzed enough to take off, "Don't feel it, but I'll take both your words for it."

"What are you deaf to it or something?" Pumpkin looked a bit more annoyed.

I gave it some thought, "No, I still hear it... Maybe whatever it is, it doesn't affect changelings?" I shrugged, "Or something else specific that I have that you both don't?"

Pumpkin snored as I turned to her and added, "Remember we don't need to get the piece of the Crystal Heart right here and now, if things take a turn for the worse, and we can't win, we should try and take out whatever is causing this music to even some playing fields for later, when we know what we are fighting."

"Feral ghouls and creepy music-folk, shouldn't be too much of a hassle for me." Pumpkin snorted, "Magic or no magic."

"That's the spirit." Sombra muttered, "I shall be waiting in the room before this one... I get the feeling once the door is opened, it will be intolerably loud."

With that he dissolved into a shadowy cloud and rushed away back down the path we had came. It must of been quite irksome for him, to be rushing away with such haste, let alone what his body must of been like currently. I wondered what it was like to be a shadowy-smokey-cloud-pony for a few moments before shrugging and turning my attention back towards the door. Pumpkin was already ahead of me, bracing against it to try and push it open, and I joined her, together we slowly moved the heavy crystal door to stop blocking our way towards progress and the noise became clearer, less muffled, a clear voice among the choir and piano, as though it was beginning a new sermon, but to what I had to wonder, the voice was even rougher than any other ghoul I had heard, its voice like sandpaper thrown through a blender after being set aflame.

"I can see them in your eyes my children!" The voice proclaimed, powerful yet rougher than any heard before, "The voices always mock us, the unseen hooves and claws hat caused us to tumble into the blue light of radiation."

The voice was like a lash, cracking for attention as the choir quieted, leaving just the organ, sounding far more peaceful, "Come closer, my children, don't turn my light away, For I see them, your crushing pains!"

The church organ began to pickup pace slowly again, "And no matter what you say, my light shines the way, to a new era free of mockery, I see you everyday, dear children. And you all always seem to grieve. For you to long for lost ones, dead ones, and forgotten ones. I ask you, will you turn towards my light?"

As we crept forward, a dim light began to appear in the shadow, as we entered what looked like a massive chamber of what had once been a central processing plant for waste. Since its primary purpose was removed, the place had been redecorated with toxic waste barrels for magical radiation, and everywhere in sight were feral ghouls gathering around a pillar of stone as a glowing form was rested at its center.

It was moving, and it was large, larger than a pony, but not a brute. I drew Ambushes Sight upon the creature, a Snow hound, turned to a glowing ghoul. How horrifying this was to think about, as it spoke again, to the sea of feral balefrost ghouls below him, "So why refuse my light? Is THIS what you are afraid of?" he gestured as he played the church organ, a collection of rusty metal held together by a rock that was unnaturally black, "For I tell you my intentions, are impure and shady not. But born of pure affections. So please accept my light, and the help I offer too."

I studied the pipe organ, finding that the center, where most would keep a sheet of music was a peculiar stone, almost shaped like a jagged teardrop, had the top been sheered away into a jagged line along one side as well. It glowed and pulsed as the ghoul played it. It must of been the shard of the Crystal Heart that we were looking for. A distant howling made me worry, as I noted a few ghouled up snow hounds were among the midst of the feral ponies, who were baying in agreement with the music.

"Do you not see the demons that we need to crush? The smooth furred ones above, who trample upon our city?" The glowing ghoul asked the crowd, "Together, we can crush them, convert them, through the glow, we can prosper, and grow. Be immortal..." The glowing ghoul let out a resounding laugh, as the ferals watched him blankly, staring, as I realized, not at him, but the fragment of the Crystal Heart.

His honeyed words fell upon deaf ears, but still he commanded them, but we were not the only ones being observant, as he called out, "Many block out the road to salvation my children, look not upon thee, but upon thy demons behind thee, and tear them from this world!"

As one the horde of ghouls turned around, their eyes igniting in an angry blue haze as they all let out a simultaneous hiss, frost collecting from their released breathe, before it was promptly interrupted by a loud bang. Suddenly a quarter of them were on fire!, the source, Pumpkin's grenade launcher, who proudly proclaimed, "Got more where that came from Glowy son of a bitch."

Well she wasn't wrong to call him that. The ghouls began to rush forward and I flew into the air, laying down surpressive fire upon the masses with the shotgun side of my battlesaddle while swinging Cloak at the few airborne members of the swarm of ghouls, aiming more to maim than outright kill.

Pumpkin on the most part was delighting on setting them on fire... at least until the still flaming ghouls nearly set her aflame as well. Turns out when one is driven feral, they don't give a damn to being set on fire, only getting some fresh meat. Some fires were also going out from the sheer amount of balefrost that the ghouls were releasing with each breathe as well, to be in the middle of that horde would be a death sentence.

Pumpkin began running around the room while I thinned some numbers, heading towards the glowing ghoul of a snowhound, getting closer I could see he was wearing armored robes of black and dirty brown that had been hastily thrown together with the parts of an old power-wagon. His face was a mess of fur falling out, glowing rotted flesh, and a nose that was caved in. As I was about to enter arms reach however, he moved quickly, far faster than anticipated, and punched me out of midair.

a painful gutshot followed by a burst of radiation, propelled me back across the room, hitting and landing on a pipe hanging from the ceiling. Pumpkins retort set another set of ghouls aflame, but then the second wave came. Gunfire joined the horde of ghouls, as other ghoulified snow-hounds joined in, still fully aware and angry. Makeshift rifles and pistols nicked Pumpkin in three or four places, causing her to slow, and panic. I could see her load the wrong type of round, but was powerless to stop it as it fired off a second later, a massive boom scattering the crowds of ghouls.

The roof didn't particularly like that either, and as if it was giving a long winded sigh, the world seemed to pause, as feral ghouls slowly recovered and the fully aware dogs jaw dropped. Mine would of too if I wasn't busy crawling away rapidly from the approaching disaster. The roof began to collapse, silently at first, then with a loud woosh as stone, sewage, and ice began to rain down from the levels above, I rushed to an archway, as did many others rush to theirs, but Pumpkin disappeared, having reached the original entrance before the ceiling collapsed the entrance of that path. Another large chunk of stone hit the piano, shattering its connections to the walls and floor as it toppled shattered, strewing unnaturally black stone about and releasing its occupant the shard of the Crystal heart away.

As the smoke cleared, I paused with baited breathe, almost all the feral ghouls had been caught, and promptly crushed from the room collapse, but there was still at least twenty of the ghoulified hounds remaining, including the glowing one and now I was alone against the horde. Their leader let out an angry howl followed by a rough preaching scream of, "Curse you smooth-furs, I shall take my revenge upon the surface one way or another!"

I had one chance to remove the leader, and hopefully disperse the other ghouls, I lined Ambush up and took a shot, dwindling away another round of ammunition, but it was not enough. The shot tore a hole into the hounds side, but it only seemed to annoy him and tell all the rest where I was. In panic, I fled behind an old rusted machine, that might of worked for purifying sewage at some point, as a scattering of bullets, buckshot, and the glowing ghouls own plasma pistol chased my tail and began hammering upon the cover I had chosen.

Every detail was horrid before in the darkness, but the ghouls brought to light with horribly disfigured bodies that somehow still managed to function, shots rang off ineffectively, as I was more busy trying to avoid getting shot to aim accurately. One or two fell as a shot landed above their chest, or crippled another in the leg, but there was far too many, and the glowing ghoul had another trick up his sleeve.

He exploded in magical radiation, bringing forth a wave of nauseous fumes that was stopped initally by my wall of cover, but it wasn't a burst to harm me, it was meant to heal the other ghouls around him. As I watched in horror as several of the crippled half buried feral ghouls around the edge of the collapsed roof began moving again, and the injuries upon the wounded feral hounds began to heal, he laughed, "This is the end of you Smooth Fur!" before letting out a jagged howl of victory.

In panic, I activated S.A.T.S. to slow the world down enough to think what I could possibly do. There was the collapsed roof, which had a beam of light from the surface, but I'd be mown down by gunfire if I tried that. Nor could I stay in cover, the mixture of plasma rounds and regular gunfire was tearing it to shreds, and it wouldn't be long now before it was reduced to molten slag, and myself becoming a bloodied corpse shortly after. I could try to snipe down the leader, and hope they became disorganized enough to flee, but it was more than likely that they wouldn't care long enough to kill me.

But it was the only option I had, as time resumed I pulled out some of the molotov grenades that I had acquired from Pumpkin earlier, and the spent S.A.T.S. rang off, five bullets fired and four finding their mark in the glowing ones face before I began to hurl the bottles, as fast as I could light them with magic. The bullets that found their marks, barely slowed it down, as the glowing ones victory howl turned into a pained staggered one. I took a shot to a barrage of buckshot and gunfire as the glowing one clutched its face, and I dived for another piece of cover, getting clipped in the wing and crashing behind the obstacle rather than landing. They were rushing me now, and I shut my eyes, grabbing Cloak and preparing for the onslaught.

Then there was a howl. Pure and primal as well as both majestic and familiar. Followed by an angered roar of another familiar voice. Mainly one that had beaten the living buck out of me before, and my eyes widened, "No..."

A grey blur raced across the crumbling blue ice, as a long slender form leaped and crashed into the closest ghoulified hound, teeth, claws, and wire wrapped tail tearing into the ghoul as if he was wet tissue paper. It was Scrapyard, and he was angry. Far angrier than I'd ever seen him, as he tore the throat out of the ghoul and pounced on another that was turning to face him.

But he was not alone, as three more found themselves grabbed and hurled by long metal tentacles. An ice covered and furious Maul skewered ghouls left and right acting as a one stallion army as he charged into battle under a hail of gunfire. Powered armor more than tolerating the hail of bullets and buckshot as if it was just a noisy rainstorm.

I sat there slack-jawed for a moment, my brain unable to process what had just happened. Before shaking myself and resuming fire upon the glowing ghoul before he could attempt to use the plasma pistol that he had on him or let out another radioactive burst.

Both Maul and Scrapyard slaughtered them while I kept the Glowing one off his balance, and the fight was over when yet another had arrived. Billowing black smoke stretched through the rubble, and I took it as both a sign that Pumpkin was safe, and Sombra had arrived, the combined forces of a sniper, a furious battle-wolf, a power armored mutant of a stallion, and the former tyrant of the Crystal Empire made it more than one sided, and the few surviving ghoul snow hounds fled by diving into the walls and floors where they were and digging with haste into the ground. Morale completely shattered, as one of their fellow hounds were hurled against their leader, killing him with its chest spike to his face. Courtesy of Maul.

I flipped the safeties of my guns back on and chugged a healing potion to get rid of my injuries, the potion a slush, as I took in the ichor covered Scrapyard and the icy-also-ichor covered Maul. Giving a simple sentence as to try and justify what had just occured, "What."

Xp Footnote: 60% Until level up.

Next Chapter: Chapter 54: Scrapyard Shenanigans Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 13 Minutes