Morning

Alex had already left for school and Luna sat at the table with a cup of tea. Another cup sat opposite which had been just made. Luna pointed her hoof to the seat. I sat down opposite her.

"So. May I ask what that was about last night?" Luna stirred a spoon in her cup and then placed it on the table. She then looked up at me, awaiting an answer. I looked down at my hands.

"I...I do not know. I think my human instincts went into overdrive," I quietly mumbled. Luna raised an eyebrow at me. "I was scared, angry and confused. My trigger finger spoke first".

"I hope you are not going through with your plan of reactivating the foundry". Luna gave me a cold stare. Her eyes going from warm and motherly to cold.

"I think that was me blurting out nonsense, another thing I tend to do when I am scared," I reassured. "You and Alex need me to be there with you and I can't let myself dance with death. In short, no. I am not re-opening that damned place". Luna gave a sigh of relief.

"You had me terrified for a moment. I have invited Twilight Sparkle to come round here to talk to you". I looked at her in confusion.

"Twilight? Why Twilight?" I asked.

"Isn't she your best friend?"

"Oh. Yeah. Speak of the devil," I said. Pointing at the door where Twilight's mane was only visible from the small windows on the door. I stood up and twisted the lock, unlocking the door. I opened it and saw Twilight standing there. She had her custom rifle, the Star Shooter, on her back. Twilight always took it with her, guess it's either a precaution or to show ponies that she can wield a rifle. Either way I had no idea why she took it with her, she just did. Another one of life's mysteries. I came into full view of her, she beamed at me and I replied with a forced smile. I invited her in, she looked at me in concern.

"So Lucas. Princess Luna tells me you are having some problems?" She asked. I slowly nodded. "Would you like to share them?" Twilight smiled. I nodded again. I walked across the room and went out into the porch. I leaned on my usual place on the wooden bar. I looked out into the garden. A cool breeze soon arrive. I filled my lungs with the fresh air.

"Another war is coming, I can feel. I can see it," I said. My head began to ache.

"What? You mean that the infection is making a second attack. We must alert the princess at once!" Twilight began to run but I called her back.

"This is something that not even the most powerful pony can fight. We have to act big, and soon," I switched on my PAD. "Luckily I have a few contacts that could help me".

"Lucas! Do not do it. Luna needs you by her side. So does Alex!"

"If you love something, you need to let it go. I learnt that ages ago on Earth". Suddenly a pod landed on the ground. I waved goodbye. "Until next time Twilight Sparkle. Tell Luna and Alex I'm going on vacation for a few days"

"Lucas if you do not come down here I will-" Luna shouted, but was quickly cut off by the sound of pods noisy engines blasting off. Leaving a cloud of dust. Twilight put her hoof on Luna's shoulders.

"If Lucas truly loves you and Alex. He will come back". Luna looked at me and smiled.

"Thank you Twilight Sparkle. I am sorry to drag you into this," Luna said. "If you could leave me be to my own thoughts I would appreciate it".

"Of course," Twilight walked out of the garden and back into the town.

"Lucas, this better be another one of your plans," Luna muttered.

"Trust me Luna. I have to do this," I whispered to myself. My head began to resonate with pain.

"So weak, so fun to play with," A voice said in my head. It's voice was dark and malicious.

"Who the hell are you?"

"The reason you fight. I am the Master Mind, thing is, you are correct. A war looms on the horizon!"

"Why are you telling me this?" The Master Mind's laugh filled my head.

"I like a challenge. All these years I have gained strength. Now it's my turn to win!"

"Over my dead body!"

"Oh we will see that I am sure of that!" The beast laughed. "It was good having this small chat, I must leave now. Things to plan and all that stuff". My headache soon faded. I began to feel sick. This is bad, catastrophic even. I need to call a few friends.

I flew to Canterlot mountains and landed on a small platform. I got out of the pod and met the cold winds that roamed the mountains.  I peered through the clouds, trying to orientate myself. Soon I found a beaten path and followed it. I was lead down the mountains and soon approached it. The Old Canterlot Mine, or in my eyes. The Foundry. I walked up to an old brick wall and pressed a loose brick in. Soon a keypad projected near the door. I pressed in the key code and was met by red lights. I tired again, same result. Once more, there we go. The keypad went green and retracted. The door burst to life and began to slide up. The sound of old, barely oiled gears creaked throughout the mountains. Soon the door stopped. Leaving the empty caverns ahead. I flicked an old rusted switch, the caves were suddenly brilliant with light. I walked further until I met another door on my right. I waved my hand over another projector, another keypad. I typed in the code and the door sparked. The door jolted up but soon stopped halfway. I walked inside. Here it is, where it all started. The workshop.

I pulled down a heavy switch. It resisted, trying to retain its position. Finally it gave, causing an array of sparks. A low pitch whirring sound was heard through the room. Small hatches opened throughout the floor where mechanical arms of all sizes groaned awake. A set of screens soon blinked. I adjusted them slightly, wobbling cables back into their ports, blowing dust out of them. Soon the screens returned to their former glory. Now for the final thing on my list. I looked at one of the screens and saw the reactor status. Few reactors had flooded, causing the facility to be drained of it's life force. I stretched out my fingers and typed in the manual clean up code. Soon dusty robots burst through containment pods, rushing quickly to work. I saw the bots contain the water and taking old parts and repairing the ancient reactors. Soon the entire facility was restored, I rolled back to my desk on my chair. I took out a key from my necklace and put it inside it's respective hole. I turned it and a voice quickly met it.

"Power Levels: 46%. Core Integrity: Stable. Main Core: On-line.  Auxiliary Core: Overheated. Connection Servers: On-line. Overriding control from unknown device named: 'Police Command'. All devices connected. Booting the Digital Engineering Life-form. Boot Successful. Powering Up". Soon another voice spoke.

"Booted Digital Engineering Life-form. Activating Personality Core. Last Command: Sentinel AI Update V5.342223. Initialised." That voice was the sound my faithful AI. DEL.

"So DEL, you awake yet?" I asked. A yawn was soon heard.

"Sir! You are back! According to my scout-bot report it has been 7 years. How are you?"

"You know, the usual. Moved in a small house, lived my life, got a kid".

"That's nice. Wait a child!" DEL exclaimed.

"Yup, name's Alex Dawn," I stretched out on my chair. "Anyway that isn't the worse thing we got on our hooves so far. The infected forces are returning and well...we need to get the Sentinels back up".

"Sir if I recommend Project Sol's deployment?"

"Of course. Project Sol!" I stood up and looked around. "Where is it?"

"Launch pad sir, fuel is at 67% and should be deployed ETA 2 days."

"Good, fuel the rocket and tell me when it is done".

"Yes sir".

I walked around the workshop and saw the launch pad light up. A large rocket stood up, pointing towards the top of the mountain. Inside was my greatest invention yet. Project Sol. It was neatly packed inside the nose cone of the rocket and all that was required was it be charged. I think we have a chance of fighting the infection off once and for all. This time the good guys will win and there will be no stalemate. I then walked outside and went into the Mycology labs. Here I followed the philosophy of know your enemy. I learnt a recipe for a repellent of the fungus and I saw vials of the chemical loaded for mass production. I pulled down another switch, causing the producer to spark to life. Soon vials were coming out by the second. I set it to be produced in vats and would load up decontamination chambers with them, as well as sprinkler systems if the fungus was detected. I already worked on the system and needed the vats of chemicals to make it work. Now I have that, this place is truly safe. After attaching the vats to the system I began to repair the old rusted machines. Restoring them, updating the AI systems and most importantly, oiling the bloody gates!

After a few hours of a good ol' spit shine. The place was decent, not as it was before but decent.

"OK DEL, fuel up the rocket!" I ordered. I can't wait. Victory is in my grasp.

"Yes sir, we have enough fuel for the rocket and is being loaded now".

"I am going to put on my work armour".

"Sir, one question. How does that anti-fungus work?"

"OK, I guess I haven't updated that in your files," I mumbled to myself. "The anti-fungus works by causing the mycelium to retract by overfeeding it. The fungus then bursts prematurely which means no spores are released. I can't just deploy this all over Equestria though because it also harms other plant life." I walked into the equipment chamber and my hand began to ache.

Red fungus began to burst from my hand. I felt something crawling up my arm and reaching my head. Cysts began to form on my face. Hands turned to claws. I took the form of a primal beast. I took the form of the Master Mind. I stretched out my arms and yawned.

"Honey I'm home!" I laughed. I flexed out my claws. "Oh how I have missed the mortal plane". I walked out soon an alarm blared. A liquid began to burst from sprinklers overhead. My head began to burn. "What the? Oh Lucas you smart cookie," I looked at my hand which began to revert back to human form. "Overfeeding so I don't explode and encrypting your memories using spells so I can't remember. No matter I can just, wait." I stopped in realisation. "He will know I am him! This is bad!" I ran towards the door but I was too late as my legs gave way and I began to revert back to human form. "Fine you want play dirty! I will oblige!" I stabbed myself with the single claw I had left in my head, injecting the fungus in myself. It began to collect on my head and soon sunk in.

I woke up and rubbed my head, I felt like I had been hit with a truck! Wait is this what I think it is? I rubbed my fingers and raised it to the light. It was a green liquid. The anti-fungus. Wait. Why did the anti-fungus deploy? Does that mean...

"Yes, you want to play dirty. So I played my card!" A voice said in my head, it was similar to mine but much deeper and crackly. It was the Master Mind.

"What did you do!" I shouted into the air.

"I have just made me a part of you. I propose a deal. If you can find another host for me I will leave your body forever. Otherwise I will just stay here," The Master Mind laughed.

"You can only talk jackass!" Suddenly my hand slapped me.

"Encryptions can only get you so far".

"Fine, I will take your deal. I think I have a host in my head but I need to investigate him a bit. For now though," I took a syringe and filled it with the anti-fungus and stabbed myself in the arm. "That should see to your needs for a day".

"You seem content".

"I am happy but fucking furious at the same time. Happy because I have the choice to see who my enemy is. Furious, I'll give you three guesses!"

"So I'd like to see this host, best get comfy with my presence because you are going to be with me for a while". I smacked the side of my head he infected. "Ow. Arsehole!"

Quartz Chisel. Father of Marble Collage and Husband to Violet Brush. Now this is one pony that I probably fear the most. This pony has everything one could ask for. A good house, rich, family and a good job. Everypony likes this guy, he is always smiling and always tries to get on every-pony's good side. This guy is perfect, which is why I don't like him. Don't get me wrong his house parties are awesome but my gut tells me, don't go in the basement. Everypony has a flaw. His wife is so shy I'm surprised they got together and his son is a spoilt little shit. He is hosting a house party tonight to celebrate some business shit I don't care about. Might have to tell them don't eat the meat with the fava beans and the chianti.

"Don't blame you for not trusting this guy. Seems too nice and I hate nice," The Master Mind agreed. "This guy is perfect, so many contacts and influence." I took a blood sample from myself.

"This should give you the connection to possess him once it's in". I loaded it into a dart and picked up a dart gun. "Let's prepare for this then".

Quartz Chisel's Manor. 20:54

I lay prone down on the small hills that surrounding the manor. Inside the manor I saw several rich ponies talking with glasses of several types of drinks. Quartz was inside his bedroom with Violet Brush. I noticed some bruising on her head. Flaw number one detected. Abusive husband. I soon saw them bickering and Quartz soon lashed out with a slap. Sick fuck. He stormed out and closed the door and looked like he locked it. I have to get her out of there.

"Why? You will only get caught!" The Master Mind asked.

"Well if you knew tactics, you would of knew that you could easily interrogate her!"

"Oh. Good idea. Go ahead I'll be here watching". Lazy fuck. "I heard that". I got up and slid down the hill. I saw the manor was completely clean. No vines, well time for plan two. I got out a harpoon and fired it at the roof. I pulled on it a few times and no movement. I began to slide up getting in view of the bedroom. I saw Violet on her bed, crying. I knocked on the window and Violet looked up and saw me. She was shocked at first but opened the window.

"W...what do you want?" Violet sobbed.

"I saw it, may I come in?" I asked quietly. She nodded and I jumped in. "I have a few questions about Quartz". Violet sat back on her bed and looked up at me in despair.

"Go ahead, ask away".

"Why is he beating you?"

"He says it is to keep me in line". Violet soon walked up to me and looked at me with eyes full of hope. "Are you going to free me?"

"Yes, now that you said that. I need dirt on him".

"Oh, in that case. He worships this god that he said caused the Battle of Canterlot."

"Well well, a fan!" The Master Mind said. Shut up. "Make me".

"Let's go before he comes back" I whispered. I put her over my shoulder and abseiled down the rope. "Go. You are free now!"

"Thank you. Thank you! I will not forget this." Violet soon ran off towards the town.

"Violet?" A voice asked. There's my cue. I climbed up the rope once more. To find Quartz looking everywhere.

"Hello Quartz," I said, jumping through the window.

"Prince Lucas?" He said in shock, bowing to me.

"Get up you sick bastard!" I whispered in disgust. I closed the door and locked it. I pulled out my dart gun. "You abused Violet and you worship an enemy of the state. Do you know the punishment for treason?"

"How did you know about that?" He stammered.

"A little bird told me. Anyway I am feeling generous".

"Generous?"

"Yes. In this dart is my blood sample. Sadly I have been infected with the Master Mind's possession and, well I don't want it. So here you go," I fired the dart at him, causing him to go unconscious. "Enjoy, now get the fuck out of my body!"

"Will do, thanks for the host. Meet you on the battlefield". My head felt clear, now time to get out of here before I get charged with murder. This is for the best, one monster gets turned into another. At least I can now focus on battling the fungus instead of fighting myself. Wait a minute. If I was present when the commander talked to me. Who was the commander? Fuck a protégé! Oh well, I have DEL and enough anti-fungus to choke the whole of Equus.

Now then, to face something more scary than an army of Master Minds. Luna when she is angry.