Walking down the freeway was a bit of a bad idea. Nothing has bothered us yet, but being here is bringing back memories that I'd rather forget. Driving to that fateful battle, driving to Sine's place, seeing all of the stores that I once visited, all haunting my mind. I can see a few utility bots roaming the streets. Some are beginning to clean up the city, while others are running old tasks, like trying to buy groceries or trying to find children that have been dead for three thousand years.

"What do you think made that line of destruction?" Fluttershy asks as she stares out at the line of leveled buildings leading to the P.C.H.

"Well... I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that's where most of the fighting took place."

"With everything the Terridisian's had, how did they manage to win?" Storm asks, getting Twilight to smack him up side the head and whisper something into his ear.

"They had numbers. You'll see the bones later." I say as I pause and look out around the city. Why don't I see any of the high grade military bots?

"What're ya looking fer Miles?" Applejack asks as the group begins to walk past me.

"Next exit we're getting off this freeway." I say as I continue to walk down the road.

"Why?"

"We're being watched."

.................................................................................................................................................................................................

"We need.... to find..... CEL-EST-IA." Regina says as she grabs my face and yanks it back and forth. "Got it?!"

"Right... go... get... Miles..."

"NO!" She yells as she lets go of my face and rubs her eyes. "AH... look, just follow me, alright."

"Lead on." I say, getting an irritated look from Regina before we walk off together. I don't really get why she doesn't get why I need to find Miles so badly. My loins feel as if there're on fire right now, and the only remedy is some hot lovin from Miles. Hmm... I wonder if he's into hot tubs... if not then maybe just jump him when he's in the shower. That would save me the trouble of having to take his clothes off. Why does he have to wear those all of the time. All they do is cover his sexy body... where did Regina go? I look around to find myself alone in a random hallway. I could of sworn she was right next to me... oh well. Now I can leave and...

"Ah hahahahaaa..."

"You... you're that griffin everypony is looking for." I say as a grey griffin walks out from one of the rooms. He's not armed and seems oblivious to the fight going on around us. I create my weapons and run in front of him, putting his back against the wall. "Why are you attacking Equestria? What are you planning? Where..."

"Do you want to know that or do you want to know where Miles is?" He asks calmly.

"Miles... he's in Ponyville. Now tell me..."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I am. Why would he..."

"Maybe he left to get away from you..."

"That's a lie! Miles would never leave to get away from me! He and I are..."

"If you two are in love, then why didn't he sleep with you when you were last with him?"

"He... because... I..." I stumble as I try to think of the answer, but fail. Why did he fight me? I thought he loved me. "That doesn't matter right now. You are coming with me..."

"No. You are coming with me so we to have a little chat with my master, to discuss your... little love problem."

"I... no! That's between me and Miles! I trust him to have a good reason for waiting... there has to be a reason..."

"Maybe he doesn't love you..."

"SHUT UP!" I yell as I pin him against the wall with my magic and put my blade against his throat.

"Go ahead, do it. But tell me this first, why would he leave you and go back to the metal city?"

"Metal city... you mean Topaz Falls?"

"Yup, he went there with seven other ponies, most of them female." I drop him and take a few steps back. No... he would never cheat on me... he said he loved me...

"You're.... you're lying..."

"Face it, he played you. He wanted something else and couldn't get it so he settled for you." I back up until I walk into the wall, shaking my head as I start to tear up. He's lying... I know he is... " If I were to put money on it, I'd say he wanted Celestia, but after she said..."

"STOP! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" I yell as I put my hooves over my ears. I know he's lying... he has to be... Miles loves me, he said so...

"Think about it. They have a past together. Celestia bans you from seeing him, but she's able to see him whenever she wants. He's always active in the day time. He fights being with you. I bet he fought being with you because he was busy rutting Celestia..."

"SILENCE!" I yell as I send a blast of energy at him, sending him flying into the wall, making him drop to the ground.

"Yell all you want..." he says as he gets back up, "but that doesn't change the fact that he left you to go back home, with no intentions of coming back."

"How do you know this?! What proof do you have of this?" I ask as my tears start to fall.

"Don't believe me? Try to scry him. You'll find it impossible to do. Same for the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. I'll even wait here. Go ahead, if you can scry him then he loves you, if not , then he played you." I look over to a mirror in the hallway and glance between it and Steelwing. I walk over to it and take a deep breath. Come on Miles, prove him wrong. I charge my horn and set the spell on the mirror. When I finish setting the spell the mirror suddenly turns fuzzy and then dark black. No... nononono this can't be right. I try and set the spell again only to get the same results. I begin to set the spell for the bearers, only to get the same results.

"No... this isn't right. Miles... Miles said..."

"What, that he loved you? He's human, and you're... well you're the freak of the night, aren't you?" I close my eyes and shake my head as I try to hold back my tears.

"He... he said he liked my night sky...*sniff* he said he liked the moon..."

"Let's be honest, how could he like something he's never seen before?" He says as he start to walk around me. "How could he fall in love with a species different then himself, or one as messed up as you for that matter? How long has it been since you've lost your power? Several years now, right? He's been lying to you from the minute he's met you, and you've fallen for every one of them. Even better, you've gone and put you're entire country in jeopardy..."

"Ho-how did I do that?" He gives a small chuckle before he jumps onto my back and puts me in a choke hold. I twist and jump around as I try to get him off, but the more I fight... the more I start.... to feel... sleepy...

.................................................................................................................................................................................................

We've been walking for a couple hours now, I never really noticed how long these roads were. Then again, we were going almost a hundred forty kilometers a hour in our cars back then. We stopped in the middle of the street for a lunch break, putting down a large blue blanket for everyone to lay down and rest. I figure that for now here is the best spot for a break. The bots below haven't noticed us yet and if one of the Aquila's or the high grade ones comes by, we'll see it. The girls offered Storm and me food, but we both refused. Saying we weren't hungry and for them to go ahead to eat without us. We only have a few rations, so we need to make them last. We can go without for now.

"Hey Miles, why don't any of the buildings here have roofs?" Twilight asks as she looks around. "All of the roofs are flat, why don't they point up like ours?"

"It's to help conserve space and for future building. If we wanted to add to any one of them, all we need to do is stack another story on top."

"Is there a reason they don't have any color? All this grey is simply dulling my eyes." Rarity says as she digs into her bag and pulls out some dark tinted glasses.

"Visual appeal wasn't in our list of concerns. It was more about durability and space." I say as I circle around and look out towards the P.C.H. We're only a quarter of the way there. At this rate we won't get there until dark hours. I start to turn around but stop when I hear something in the distance. Everyone goes silent as the sound of metal screeching against metal roars through the air.

"M-Miles, what was that?" pinkie asks as I flare my hands.

"Get to cover somewhere and make your way to the P.C.H." I say as I take a few steps forward and take a readied stance.

"Whats going on Miles?" Storm asks. I look back and pull my rifle off of my back and toss it to Rarity, who catches it with her magic.

"I'm going to be a little preoccupied, try and help keep everyone safe alright. Point the barrel at whatever's trying to harm you and pull the trigger, got it?"

"Oh...uh... I'll do my best, but what about you?" Rarity asks as she looks over the gun. Before I could answer the ground down the road explodes outward as a high grade military bot jumps through the ground and lands a kilometer away from us. It's the one from before with the buzz saw arm. It begins to spin its saw as it charges it's center eye for an energy blast, so I wave my arms around as I start to send chunks of the road at the bot. Each chunk that hits makes it stagger back, but fails to do any real damage.

"GET OFF THE ROAD!" I yell as it fires its laser in front of me, making a large explosion. I jump back from the fire and send a beam of soul fire through the smoke. When I don't hear anything right away I bring my arms up and make my dome force field. Not a second later the massive buzz saw slams into the side of my force field. I hold the shield up as the lines on my arms begins to grow. "GET GOING! GO ON WITHOUT ME, I'LL MEET YOU THERE!" I yell as the bot walks up to me and slams its right foot onto my shield, making my lines burst forward.

"But..."

"NOW!" I wait until Twilight teleports them all away before I drop my shield and roll to the side, dodging the foot with only a few centimeters to spare. I grab the bot with my magic and toss it down the road, making it land on its back a few meters away. It immediately swings its saw around, making me dive to the side to avoid it. The bot and I get up at the same time, the bots chest opening up to reveal two rows of missiles. Shit, eight homing missiles. I burn through my boots as I flare my heels and leap as high as possible into the air. Below me I can see the smoke trails of two of the missiles heading straight for me. I whip around and send a slash of energy at the missiles, making them explode. I lift up a bit from the concussion wave before I start to drop back down. I flip around so I'm facing downward as I kick the air behind me, propelling me down at high speed. The bot looks up and fires two more missiles at me as it readies its center laser. I push my right hand at the bot and fire a beam of soul fire at it as it fires its beam at me....

We suddenly appear on the roof of a building, everypony looking scared and confused. Now is the time to step up. I look around and see we're a lot closer to the tall building, but still a few miles away.

"We need to keep moving." I say as I look over the edge of the building. "How far do you think you could teleport us Twilight?"

"I don't think I could do that again... that one nearly drained me of all my energy." Twilight says with a light pant. I look back to her and see she's sitting down and sweating lightly from the spell. It must of taken a lot out of her.

"Okay, Rarity, do you know that spell?"

"Sorry but I don't." Buck. Well, onto the next idea.

"Alright, we'll just have to hoof it there then..."

"What about Miles?" Rainbow Dash asks.

"He said for us to move on without him. He can handle that.... thing. He's stronger then you think..."

BOOM

We all look back to see a black puff of smoke in the air over where we used to be.

KRA-BOOM

A second explosion suddenly appears below the first one, easily twice the size of the first one.

"Are you sure we shouldn't go after him?" Fluttershy asks.

"Well... as much as I want to go after him, I have my orders. If we get there and he's not there then we'll go after him..."

"But what if we're too late?" Rainbow Dash asks. "We can't just abandon him like this. It's not right."

"What exactly could we do to help?"

"Well.... we could..."

"I don't know if you noticed, but those things were pure metal. The best we have against those things are the guns Miles gave us and Rarity's and Twilight's magic. If Miles says he can handle it then we have to trust him to take care of it."

"But..."

"Now lets get going before one of those things come looking for us." I say as I head to the roof access door and kick it open. I wait for everypony to walk in before I close the door after me and walk down the stairs. There are some bright red lights throughout the stairway, one per floor. We start making our way down the stairs, everypony keeping silent as we go.

"Storm..." Twilight says as she walks beside me. "You need to apologies to Rainbow Dash. You really hurt her feelings back there."

"How did I do that?"

"She's the element of loyalty Storm. Having her leave Miles behind like that is... just... can you please just have a word with her."

"*sigh* alright, I'll have a word with her."

"Thank you Storm." She says before she gives me a kiss on the cheek. I take another deep breath before I trot down to Rainbow and walk beside her.

"So... sorry about being firm with you back there."

"Its alright, I just don't like leaving Miles alone like that. What if he needs our help?"

"Trust me, I'm worried too. But I know what Miles is capable of, so trust me when I say he can handle this."

"But, what about us? What if we run into one of those things?"

"Well... then we'll all have to work together to deal with it, won't we?" She gives me a small smile before we continues down the stairs. After a few more floors we find one of the doors opened, so we make our way through. I think we're in an apartment complex... or maybe an office? We're in a long grey hallway that's filled with black doors that are numbered off. Some of the lights that are hanging from above are on, but most of them are broken, leaving the hall poorly lit. I take the lead as we begin to walk down the hall. I stop when I hear something from inside of one of the rooms, making everypony else bump into me.

"What is it Storm?" Applejack asks as I rear up and draw my sword.

"I heard something in here." I say as I walk in front of the door, 3245...

"Shouldn't we leave then? Maybe if we don't disturb it, it will leave us alone." Fluttershy says as she cowers behind Applejack. When I hear some more rustling I kick the door in and run inside to investigate. I find two metal men fighting each other, one's light red with an arm missing while the other one is silver with a golden X on it's chest. The two of them are fighting hand to hand right now, but it seems really intense. The red one would twist around and try to grab at the others neck, only to be thrown across the room. The silver one lunges across the room as it spins around and kicks the head off of the red one, making it drop to the ground as smoke comes out of its neck. The silver one stands up and approaches us, looking down at us with those bright yellow eyes. The head is featureless while the body seems to be made of metallic ropes covered with metal plates. I raise my sword to it and wait for it to strike.

"Oh, hello there. Please let me introduce myself, I am E861Z9, designation Easy. May I have your autograph?" It says to me in a metallic voice, devoid of any emotion.

"What?"

"Processing..." It says as thin red lights shoot from it's eyes and sweep the room. "Guest of Miles Eremita, welcome to Topaz Falls, may I have your autograph?"

"Uh... no." I say as I lower my sword. "How do you know we're here with Miles?"

"I searched the core for any records on your being here and found your group under his name, welcome. I would offer snacks and refreshments but it seems that the stores have been out of supplies for the past two thousand nine hundred ninety nine years."

"Right..."

"May I please have you names to add to the core?"

"Whats the core?" Twilight asks as she walks up beside me.

"The core is the center of all information being kept within the city, please state your names and designations."

"O..K.. Storm Cloud... uh... designation Storm...

"I am Twilight Sparkle, but I go by Twilight."

"Rainbow Dash, just call me Rainbow."

"Rarity, miss Rarity."

"HI, I'm Pinkie Pie, but you can call me....uh... queen mcpartier five thousand!" She says as she bounces up and down. Pinkie... you are so random.

"Howdy, I'm Applejack, jus call me AJ."

"Uh..... I'm... Fluttershy." She says timidly from the back of the room.

"Greetings, Storm, Twilight, Rainbow, Miss Rarity, Queen Mcpartier Five thousand, AJ, and Fluttershy, guest of Miles Eremita, how may I help you?" I look back to everypony for answers, but only get more confused looks from them.

"Uh... we're suppose to meet Miles at the P.C.H...."

"Then allow me to escort you there, please follow me to the subway." He says as he walks out the door and heads down the hall.

"So... should we follow after him?" In ask everypony.

"I don't see why not, he seems friendly enough." Twilight says as she and the others walk out after him. I shrug and follow after her, taking another flight of stairs down. I don't entirely trust this... bot, but what's the worst that could happen?

Next Chapter: Chapter 81 Losing The Fight Estimated time remaining: 69 Hours, 24 Minutes