Right, have you had your fun? Good, because if you don’t mind I think I’ll take over from here. Sound alright to you? If it doesn’t, then go smeg yourself.

The moment I landed I found myself engulfed in non-sound. Either the scraping of steel had come to an abrupt halt, or the extremely short drop had somehow been enough to completely blot out the noise. Rather odd, if you ask me.

There was another hole in the opposite wall, and through it I saw...

Twilight?

It is Twilight! And... she’s wearing my dragon leather jacket. It looks good on her, too – chances are she got Rarity to make a couple of adjustments so that it would fit properly, but I don’t mind. Plus, she’s got a gun now, and by the looks of things she’s pretty good with it. Can’t blame her for doing a little training while I was gone: I’ve been running through them like a bullet through cheese, but I’ve got to admit they’re rather tough.

And not just the Combine. The gash that headcrab tore in my muzzle hasn’t been mended properly – my guess is faulty nanites. The pain is really rather distracting.

Twilight darted out of sight before I could get her attention, but even if I’d shouted she wouldn’t have heard me, because there’s a train rocketing past. Seeing no other way I jumped down out of the hole and ended up underneath the tracks, which thankfully were clear of trains and thus lowered my risk of hearing damage.

What? Trains are loud!

“Hold it there!”

Okay, Twi. Not gonna move.

“Hex?”

“No,” I commented, “it’s your other coltfriend from another dimension.”

When I looked around Twilight had jumped down from the tracks, and she pulled me into a tight, heart-warming hug before planting a small kiss on my cheek.

“Thank Celestia you’re alright,” she said with a smile. “I was worried the antlions would kill you, but knowing you I guess I didn’t really have anything to worry about.”

“A little more warning about this place would have been convenient,” I said, and looked up above, “but I don’t think you’d have had the time.”

Above the trains, the ceiling was so high I couldn’t even see it: it was lost to a strange light which shone down upon the mass of metal pony-sized pod-like things which were moved about by arms made of wax (nah, just kidding, they were metal) and ran along metal rails to smeg knows where.

“The Doctor’s up there somewhere,” said Twilight. “Looks like it’ll take some work to get him out. Let’s move.”

“Good idea.”

We walked together in silence until we reached a security gate, which Twilight opened with a quick zap of her magic, and we got into a freight elevator which started climbing upwards at the press of a button.

“I’m afraid I’m flying blind here,” Twilight said as we were winched upwards.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Every now and then a demon dog gets captured,” she explained, “and it provides a little reconnaissance for us, but what we do know so far is all bad.”

“Well, I hardly expected them to throw us a party,” I quipped, “especially since that’s Pinkie’s job.”

Twilight’s so pretty when she smiles. Have I mentioned that?

“By the way,” I said, “I notice you’ve adopted my jacket. What did Spike have to say on the matter?”

“He was a little upset that I wanted to wear the skin of another dragon,” said Twilight, “but I think anypony would have problems with somepony wearing their skin.”

“Technically it wasn’t anything like him,” I told her. “See, Aetherian dragons have much sleeker bodies than the ones in this dimension, because while dragons here seem to have evolved to be as intimidating as possible, Aetherian ones were designed by the gods specifically for fighting, so they were built a little more like birds, and they had feathers instead of scales which made them much more lightweight-”

I was effectively silenced by the purple hoof which was suddenly placed upon my mouth, which was followed by Twilight saying “And Rainbow Dash calls me an egghead.”

Stupid me could only smile in response.

“Here we go,” she said, and drew her gun as the lift ground to a halt.

The moment it stopped the gunfire started. We had found ourselves in a corridor and it was filled with Combine foot soldiers that started shooting the moment we stepped out of the lift. Twilight and I returned fire as we ran down the corridor, until we reached another door, which was quickly opened and closed behind us.

“Quite a rush, isn’t it?” I said between panting.

“You’re telling me!” Twilight replied. “I knew this kind of thing was dangerous, but I didn’t know it could be so exhilarating too!”

“Come on,” I said, and approached a nearby control panel. “We’ve got a Time Lord to find.”

I was going to start on the panel, but Twilight pushed me aside and got to work on it herself, which seemed to make sense since she’s had seventeen years to get to know the buttons and stuff. She tapped out a sequence, her concentration indicated by the tongue between her teeth, and before long images of ponies started flashing up on the screen.

They were all unconscious.

“Oh my gosh,” said Twilight, studying a smaller screen set into the panel itself. “These poor ponies... Did you know that the Combine is experimenting on them?”

“Sadly, yes,” I confessed. “I mean, they did it in dimension 33, so what’s to stop them doing it in dimension 36 as well?”

I looked through the window at the innumerable metal pods. They all contained ponies? I guess this place still was a prison, but Twilight was right: it has got a lot worse.

“There he is!”

The sequence of images had halted on the slumbering face of the Doctor.

“I’ll bring him in,” said Twilight. “Won’t take a second.”

She tapped a few more buttons and one of the metal pods slid along a rail until it was right in front of the window. Two more metal arms reached down and pulled it open, revealing the Doctor strapped to some kind of board thingy. He was licking his lips with a curious expression on his face.

“Hmm,” he said, “completely restrained, woke up in some place I don’t recognise; taste of nerve gas on my lips... must be a Tuesday.”

“Doctor!” Twilight cried joyfully. “Are you alright?”

“Twilight?” He looked from one of us to the other. “Hex? What’re you two doing here?”

“What the smeg do you think we’re doing here?” I asked. “We’re here to bust you out!”

“No!” shouted the Doctor. “Listen, you two have to get out of here. Don’t worry about me, just save yourselves!”

“We’re not leaving you, Doctor,” Twilight insisted. “I think Hex and I can recalibrate the Combine’s teleporter.”

“But where will you go?”

“Sweet Apple Basement seems to be our best bet,” I suggested, “seeing as New TARDIS... I don’t want to know what happened to New TARDIS, ‘coz it probably wasn’t very nice.”

“Good idea, Hex,” said Twilight. “I spoke to Applejack, and she says she’s got hers fixed and probably working. If it’s not, then... well, this situation couldn’t get any worse than it already is.”

“It’s not worth the risk,” said the Doctor. “I’m not going to lose yet another companion; they keep dropping off like flies. Get out of Nova Discord while you’ve still got all your hooves.”

“We’re not leaving you,” Twilight replied, “and that’s final.”

“But we can’t leave without Rarity either,” the Doctor told her.

“Don’t worry, Doctor,” said Twilight, “we’re going to find her. For the moment, I’m going to send you to the room with the Combine teleporter.” She placed a hoof on the glass and added “I’m not going to say goodbye: we’ll meet you there.”

“You’d better,” said the Doctor. “I’m not letting you die on my watch.”

With that, the pod closed again and was lifted back onto the rails, where it quickly slid out of sight. Twilight let out a sigh and watched as it left.

“We’ll have to move on,” she said. “If you go on ahead and clear the path, I’ll patch into your suit’s radio and guide you through.”

“My suit has a radio?” First I’ve heard of it.

“Yes, of course,” said Twilight. “I should know. I installed it. That entire suit is actually copied from some blueprints I found in your shop. I added the radio in case the wearer needed to communicate.”

She built the entire thing from scratch. Wow.

“I underestimated you,” I told her, “you’re even smarter than I thought.”

Twilight smiled and blushed adorably.

“I’d be happy to clear the path,” I said, “so long as you know what you’re doing: I don’t want to take a wrong turn and find myself in Trottingham.”

“Celestia forbid that should happen,” said Twilight, and she let me out through another door.

I headed through a small service corridor and found myself back in a cellblock.

“What do you know, it worked,” Twilight’s voice said through a small speaker situated on my collar. “Can you hear me?”

“Can you hear me?” I asked her.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” said Twilight. “I’ll open all the gates as you go along; keep an eye out for Rarity and I’ll get the Doctor through the prison as far as I can. I’ll meet up with you later.”

As I made my way through the prison, I suddenly became aware of a strange clopping noise. I looked around a bit, but couldn’t find the source.

And then I realised: it was my own hooves hitting the floor.

“Are you hearing this?” I asked Twilight.

“Hearing what?”

“Exactly. It’s so quite in this place. I know all the fighting’s probably going on with the antlions in a different part of the prison, but still, it’s pretty eerie.”

“I wish I could say the same about this place,” Twilight replied. “You think the silence is eerie, but the noise up here is even stranger. It’s only the sounds of the Combine cells on the rails as they’re taken... I don’t know where they’re taken, and quite frankly, I don’t want to know.”

“Don’t blame you,” I told her. “Whatever it is, it can’t be pleasant.”

I stopped, having come to a closed gate. I couldn’t see anypony behind it, and I still hadn’t heard anything apart from the clopping of my hooves in the tiled ground.

“Hang on,” said Twilight, “I’ll get that gate open for you.”

Sure enough, I barely had to wait five seconds before the bars slid aside and allowed me into the next corridor.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” I asked.

“What is?”

“A lifetime’s worth of studying has led to you sitting in a security room opening gates for some daft bloke with a crowbar.”

I heard Twilight snickering on the other end, and couldn’t help but smile to myself.

“You’re hardly a ‘daft bloke’ as you so bluntly put it,” she replied. “You’re the smartest guy I’ve ever met. And also the bravest, the nicest, and possibly... the most handsome.”

Oh smeg, Twilight, I can hear your blush.

“You think I’m handsome?” I want to be sure.

“Well, yeah!” said Twilight. “Not only that, but you’re the only colt I’ve actually formed a strong relationship with. Before I met you the only guys I really knew were Spike and...”

She trailed off. It was almost as if she was trying to avoid saying what was on her mind.

“...and my brother,” she eventually finished. “Shining Armor, my BBBFF.”

“BBBFF?”

“Big Brother Best Friend Forever,” Twilight explained. “I haven’t seen him since before the invasion, so I assumed that he- he-”

“Died?”

“Something like that.”

We shared a moment of respectful silence, until I reached another gate. I heard it bleep, and it should have opened, but something stopped it.

“Horseapples, it’s jammed,” Twilight swore. “It’s okay. Head back to that office; you should have passed an office on your way through.”

So I about turned and indeed, there was a small guard room, complete with filing cabinets, a desk, a chair and a monitor hanging from the ceiling which showed Twilight’s face.

“There should be an air vent behind those filing cabinets,” she told me.

“Gotcha,” I said, and threw the cabinets out of the way with a short burst of telekinesis before tearing away the vent cover and climbing inside.

“Speaking of missing ponies,” wow, can you hear my voice echoing? Hello! “I met everypony on my way here, except for a noticeable couple.”

“What do you mean?”

“The ponies I met along the way included Fluttershy and Pinkie, and I know Rarity’s still here and AJ’s in City 17; you’re here, obviously, and Lightning Strike’s spying for us in the CP, but what about Rainbow Dash? And Soarin’? I kinda thought I’d have encountered them by now.”

Twilight sighed as I exited the vent.

“The only way you would have met Rainbow and Soarin’ is if you’d come here via Canterlot,” she explained, “because that’s where they went a couple of months ago. They said they’d made a discovery which could change the course of the war, but they wouldn’t tell anypony what it was. I think the Doctor knew, though, because he got a little upset about it.”

“Why was that?”

“I wish I knew. They haven’t made contact in weeks, and everypony’s beginning to suspect the worst. I think they were looking for something, something important, but like I said: they wouldn’t tell anypony what it was or why they wanted it so badly.”

Odd. It’s not like Dash to not let her friends in on something. Even more unlike her to leave her son behind, but then again he’s practically a grown stallion now and seems to be able to take care of himself.

“But then again,” Twilight continued, “considering everything that happened to them, I’m hardly surprised they wanted to get away. Oh, and be careful on the next stretch. I’m picking up a lot of soldiers ahead, so you might want to get your guns ready.”

True to her word, I was attacked by a band of soldiers who came worrying close to hitting me in the head. By the light of the flares they’d lit, and also the light of my glowing horn as I levitated my weaponry, I managed to take them all out.

“A little more warning would have helped,” I complained.

“Sorry,” said Twilight.

“So, I continued, “about what happened to Soarin’ and Dash...”

“They went to Canterlot to join up with the rest of the Wonderbolts,” Twilight explained, “because they hoped they’d have the advantage of strength in numbers. I’m not sure what happened, but I do know that Soarin’s the only Wonderbolt left alive, and he’s not even a Wonderbolt anymore.”

“Ouch.”

“’Ouch’ doesn’t quite cover it. When we rescued them, Soarin’ had just lost an eye to a Combine energy ball. I had to construct a bionic prosthesis so that he’d be able to shoot properly again. And... and there was an incident... a few years ago; I think Lightning was about five at the time...”

“What happened?”

“They were kidnapped by Commabies.”

I paused in the middle of a corridor. In the distance I heard a brief volley of gunfire, and then silence reigned once more.

“What’re Commabies?” I asked out of curiosity: I’d never heard of them before, not even in dimension 33.

“It’s the term we use for Combine wannabes,” said Twilight. “They’re ponies – horrible ponies – who think that if they’re evil and sadistic enough; the Combine will leave them alone. Soarin’ and Dash... they were held for about a month, and they... they were tortured, and abused, and they wouldn’t speak to anypony except Lightning for weeks once we had them back. They... they were almost dead when we finally found them.”

I saw another office, with the purple unicorn’s face on a screen in the corner, and she was wiping her eyes.

“If I were with you right now I’d give you a hug,” I told her, “because it’s pretty obvious you need it.”

“Thanks,” she said with a smile. “I know you would. You’re that kind of pony, aren’t you?”

I shrugged and said “I guess I am.”

“I’ll start working on this next gate for you,” she said, and pretty soon I was able to continue.

“How did you meet the Doctor?” I asked.

“I got kidnapped by the worst kind of Commabies,” said Twilight.

“What’re the worst kind?”

“The smart ones. They put me in some kind of simulation and left me to wander around the Everfree Forest in the hopes that something would kill me, and it was only disabled by the TARDIS’ artron energy. But Spike was the one who found him first. He was trying to escape from the Commabies and accidentally picked the TARDIS as a hiding place.”

“Makes sense,” I commented. “What was the simulation like? Was it bad?”

“Not really,” said Twilight, “it was just... weird. I don’t really want to talk about it right now.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “I’m just glad I can talk to you again. It feels good.”

“Feels good for me too,” said Twilight, and I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was smiling.

I’m glad she found the Doctor, although I wish she could have picked somepony a little less dangerous. People who get involved with that particular Time Lord tend to wind up not dead, but changed. Hardened. It’s unintentional, but he takes ordinary people and turns them into soldiers.

And it’s reassuring to know that he tries to avoid getting romantically involved with companions.

I stopped in my tracks, having once more come to a closed gate.

“Give me a moment and I’ll get to work on this one,” said Twilight, and sure enough it wasn’t long before I was on the move again.

“You’re approaching another control room,” I was informed, “and it looks like this one’s still occupied, so watch yourself.”

“Hey, this is me we’re talkin’ here,” I joked.

Sure enough, I came to a control station, complete with staircases leading off both sides to a shielded corridor below and guards at the control panels and stuff. They weren’t too hard to take out, and I harvested their ammunition once they were done with.

“Uh oh,” said Twilight. “Check this out.”

One of the screens flashed up a display of soldiers, all holding guns, presumably galloping in my direction.

“Let me guess,” I said, “they’re risking a frontal assault?”

“You guessed correctly, I’m afraid,” said Twilight. “Tell me, are there any turrets nearby?”

I looked around, and indeed there were a pair of unmoving turrets stashed away in their electromagnetically protected closets. I could tell they were switched off, because they weren’t trying to turn me into Swiss cheese.

“I can reprogram them remotely to attack the Combine rather than you or me,” Twilight continued as I disabled the fields and got the turrets out, “so I suggest setting them up to protect yourself, but I can’t deactivate the shields in the corridor from here so I’ll have to catch up with you.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said as I set up the first turret on the left stairwell.

“I’m picking up a lot of incoming soldiers,” said Twilight, “so you’ll have to hold the fort ‘til I get there.”

“Just make it quick,” I said, “I’ve been awake for about 36 hours and I’m starting to get a bit drowsy.”

“I know how you feel,” said Twilight. “Believe me.”

Once the turrets were both set up I took up a position at a broken window with my SMG at the ready. This was my tactic: stay undercover and shoot at the Combine smeggers as they come through.

When they first entered, the turrets made short work of them, but I made sure they had some backup. Then I noticed the soldiers had dropped their guns, which I knew would still have ammunition in them. I didn’t have a lot left, so I ran down with the intention of pulling the guns toward me with my magic, but they wouldn’t stop coming.

Do you know how easy it is to reload a gun when you’re under fire? Let me tell you this: it isn’t. It is NOT easy at all. Somehow I managed it, but I don’t know how.

I guessed that Twilight was already on the move, since I hadn’t heard from her since this standoff began. Shooting as I ran, I made my way back up the stairs to the control room, but one of the soldiers knocked down a turret and almost got in with me.

It was a tough job setting it up again, especially while I was still under fire and running low on ammo. I held the crowbar between my teeth and used it to deflect most of the bullets that came close to my head, and telekinetically lifted the turret back to its feet, but then a whistling siren signalled that the other one had been knocked down as well, so I had to repeat the action.

And just as I was wondering how many of these smegheads there were, they stopped. Quite suddenly. And I was standing in the middle of the control room when the vent overhead opened and Twilight fell right on top of me.

“Oh my gosh,” she apologised as we untangled ourselves, “I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I said as I got to my hooves, “I’m alright. How about you?”

“I’m fine,” said Twilight. “Sorry I took so long.” She approached a panel and started tapping buttons, scrolling through security cameras.

“Let’s see if we can find Rarity,” she said. “It looks like this station will give me better access than the last one.”

She scanned through several before settling on one which showed the face of a familiar white unicorn, and she was looking into an unseen screen with a face of concern and worry.

“There she is!” Twilight cried excitedly, and then became suspicious and said “Wait a minute...” as an unwelcome voice finished its sentence.

“...from your area.”

“I am not calling for that purpose,” said Rarity, “I am calling because you promised you were not going to harm the Doctor.”

“What’s she doing?” I asked.

“I-I wish I knew,” said Twilight. “No, she... she can’t be...”

“The soldiers were a little overzealous, I must confess,” said Trixie from out of sight, “but he was simply far too precious a prize to turn down, especially with the absence of Hex.”

“How the smeg does she know who I am?” I asked.

“You would have captured Hex had you simply been patient,” Rarity pointed out.

“Well, my employers and I had our doubts as to whether or not you could produce as to this matter, taking into account the issues of equine loyalty,” said Trixie.

“Great and Powerful Trixie,” Rarity said with a small sigh, “as I have quite plainly stated before, you must allow the Doctor to come around on his own terms; you cannot simply-”

“I have conducted far more research into the Doctor’s past than you have, Rarity,” Trixie replied, with Twilight clearly growing more horrified with every passing syllable, “and I fear that your closeted feelings for him may have blinded you to your mission directive.”

“Feelings?!” Rarity exclaimed. “This has absolutely nothing to do with feelings! It is simply a fact that when the Doctor starts to believe-”

“This is not open to debate, Rarity.”

“Trixie, please...”

“I must apologise, Rarity, but I have matters of greater concern than this issue. Farewell.”

Twilight switched off the monitor, unable to watch any more, and I was glad she did because I don’t think I could have watched much more either.

“DAMN HER!” shouted Twilight, and punched the wall in fury. “I can NOT believe this! How could she do that? I thought she was my friend!” And in a far more resigned voice she added “Braeburn’s going to be heartbroken...”

“So much for the Element of Generosity,” I commented. “Seems like she forgot about that somewhere along the line.”

“You’re telling me,” said Twilight, and sighed so deeply that I wondered if she might need a hug. “Hex, we really have to hurry now. You go on ahead: I’ll disrupt the next levels of security and catch up to you when I get the chance.”

I didn’t wait another second before galloping down the stairs and along the next corridor.

I can’t believe Rarity would do such a thing! I mean, she’s supposed to be one of the Elements of Harmony. Her five best friends, not to mention her little sister and apparently her coltfriend, are all members of the Resistance. How could she have just shoved us – shoved EVERYHING – aside like that? The very thought of it makes me sick to the core.

Doesn’t she care about us anymore? It just- it raises so many questions, like this one: if she lied about her loyalty to the Resistance, what else did she lie about? Did... did she lie about being friends with Twilight and the others from the get-go?

Was everything – her care for her family, her crush and now apparently her relationship with Braeburn, the future she had been battling for and the past she had been fighting to preserve – just a conjured ruse to conceal the fact that deep down she was as loyal and caring as a cardboard box?

How... How could she?

“Hex, stop!”

At Twilight’s command, I ground to a halt in the middle of a cell block section with more turrets in closets to one side.

“Get those turrets set up right now! I’m picking up a buckload of soldiers heading in your direction and they don’t seem to be in the mood for talking!”

“Gotcha!”

So I set up the turrets with pretty much the same arrangement I had before, and made use of some nearby nanites, which again failed to mend the gash on my muzzle (possibly because it had already started to heal). Seriously, this thing was really beginning to distract me.

It was another five minutes of fighting, bullets and bloodshed before Twilight finally caught up with me again, and this time her beautiful purple eyes were tinted with the cold glint of murder.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine,” Twilight lied. “I’m not going to leave you again. Let’s just do what we have to do and get the buck out of here.”

Her language almost stunned me – I’ve never heard Twilight swear before – but you can probably guess that it was completely understandable. She had been wronged. One of her best friends and closest companions during my seventeen year absence had stabbed her in the back, and she seemed more than willing to return the favour. If necessary, I would help her.

After a short distance, we found ourselves in a service tunnel, and were halfway through when the lights went out.

“Oh smeg,” I swore.

Per my expectations, Combine soldiers poured from everywhere. The only illumination came from the flares rolling across the floor and the faint glow from my and Twilight’s horns. It was so dim that I could barely see. I used the obvious eyes of the soldiers to guide my bullets straight into their foreheads, and somehow me and Twilight emerged alive and relatively unharmed.

“You okay?” I asked.

“A couple of bullets hit the jacket, so I might have a bruise or two,” Twilight reported, “but otherwise I’m alright.”

“Good,” I said. “Let’s move: we’ve got a traitor to catch.”

It wasn’t long before we came to another security room, and Twilight used her magic to hack into the system.

“Alright, Rarity,” she said quietly, “Where are you?”

She flicked through several cameras, until it came to one showing Rarity standing looking at a screen with an expression of worry.

“Ha! There she is!” I exclaimed in dark joy.

Twilight input another few codes into the system, and the door to Rarity’s room slid closed and locked itself, much the posh pony’s alarm. She tried to reopen it, but to no avail.

“Got you now!” Twilight yelled triumphantly. “Well, come on Hex. Don’t want to keep her waiting, do we?”

“Heaven forbid that should happen,” I said as we made our way through to the next room, and Twilight sealed the door behind us with a comment of “No turning back now.”

It wasn’t long before we found the locked entrance to Rarity’s room, and there was a window next to the door through which we could see the worried white unicorn desperately searching for an alternative exit. Twilight reached up and with a small, almost evil smile, tapped on the window and caught the traitor’s attention.

“Oh, thank goodness,” said Rarity when she notice us, “Somepony’s here!” Her face fell when she realised who it was.

“Twilight?” she asked. “And... Hex? How in Equestria did you get here?”

“It’s over, Rarity,” said a determined Twilight. “We know all about you and Trixie, and we know that you’ve been a spy for the Combine the entire time.”

“What?” Rarity tried to play the confusion card. “What’re you talking about?”

Behind us I heard the crackle of a Combine walkie-talkie, signalling that there were soldiers not far behind.

“Horseapples,” Twilight swore. “Move back Rarity, we’re coming in.”

She opened the door and we both stepped through, and I wondered for a brief moment if Twilight was going to punch Rarity in the face, because she certainly looked that way.

“Now, Twilight,” said Rarity, and I could tell she was starting to get frightened, “I know this may look bad, but you have to believe that I was only working with everypony’s best interests at heart-”

“Shut the buck up and be glad you’re still useful to us,” Twilight growled. “We’re going to reconfigure the teleporter and get out of here before you stab us in the back any more than you already have.”

“See?” said Rarity desperately. “We’re both working for the same goal! I have already-”

“You have stolen the Doctor’s technology and passed it to the Combine on a silver platter!”

“It was my work as well, if you would remember correctly! And I had to prove to Trixie that the Doctor would be the most valuable member of any research effort going forward from this location.”

“You know,” I said to Rarity as Twilight hacked the system again to find the Doctor, “perhaps it would be best if you kept your sorry little excuses to yourself for the time being and just, you know, didn’t say anything at all.”

She gave me a look of surprise, shame and emotional pain, effectively silenced for the time being. And just then, the Doctor’s face (once more unconscious) flashed up on the monitor before Twilight.

“Look Hex, here he is,” she said. “I’m gonna bring him in.”

“You found the Doctor?” asked Rarity.

“No thanks to you,” I said back to her. “Just set it to send us to Sweet Apple Basement and let’s make a move.”

“But we don’t have access to that particular room!” she pointed out.

Twilight gave her an “Are you kidding me?” look, and opened the door with a short burst of magic. She then drew her gun, and forced Rarity to lead us through to a room which had a teleporter in it. It bore a close resemblance to the ones in Sweet Apple Basement and New TARDIS, but it looked a lot more high-tech and futuristic.

“Oh my gosh,” said Twilight. “And when were you planning on telling everypony about this?”

“I was not working on it until quite recently,” said Rarity, “although I had a rough idea of what I could expect.”

“I bet you did,” Twilight said as a prison pod entered on a rail. “It almost looks as though it’s waiting for us.”

“Well, this particular machine takes quite a while to, in laypony’s terms, warm up,” Rarity explained. “It also has a rather long rise time, and the recharging period is almost ridiculous.”

“So you got it warmed up for us!” said Twilight in a very indicative tone. “Just in time, too.”

The prison pod was pulled open and the Doctor was looking out once more.

“Doctor, down here,” said Twilight. “Sorry we took so long.”

“That’s okay,” said the Doctor. “Wouldn’t be the worst rescue I’ve ever had. And I see you set Rarity free too!”

“Not exactly,” I muttered.

“Doctor, I am so glad to see you safe,” said Rarity, and was about to gush some more when Twilight quite flatly said “Rarity. The coordinates.”

There was a large BANG at the door on the other side of the room from where we had come in, but it was sealed and hopefully the guards wouldn’t be able to get in until we were done. Made me jump, though.

“So this is the Combine’s teleporter, is it?” asked the Doctor as he slid along the rail into the machine. “I’ve seen bigger.”

That’s what she said. Bazinga!

“Get a move on, Rarity!” Twilight commanded. She then turned to another control panel and said “Applejack!”

“Howdy, Twi!” said the voice of Applejack from the panel (I could only hear what was going on, because I was investigating the doors). “Nice to know you’re still livin’. Where’re y’all callin’ from?”

“We’re in Nova Discord, and we’re testing the Combine teleporter for the first time,” said Twilight. “Are you ready for us?”

“Ready and waitin’,” said Applejack.

“Good,” said Twilight as I made my way back. “We’re going to send the Doctor through first; he’s in position for-”

A siren scythed through the air, overriding any other noise and incapacitating me and Twilight. Rarity, however, took the opportunity to press a button and jump into the teleporter. When the siren finally ended, the electromagnetic guard rails had already closed.

“Rarity, stop!” I shouted.

“What do you think you’re doing?” asked Twilight.

“I am sorry, Twilight, believe me,” said Rarity, “but this is the only way.”

“Only way to WHAT?” Twilight demanded. She tried to catch Rarity, but jumped back as the shield zapped her with electricity. “What in Equestria are you doing?”

The Doctor had been watching the unfolding events with growing shock, and finally found his voice as the platform started to rise:

“Rarity, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but stop. Right now, do you hear me?”

“Doctor!” yelled Twilight, and finally...

ZAP.

“Applejack!” I shouted into the control panel when the world had stopped spinning and the ringing had left my ears. “Applejack, you have to stop them!”

“Stop who?” asked AJ. “What in the hay is goin’ on in there?”

“Oh no,” said Twilight, looking at a screen. “What coordinates are these? Where did Rarity take him?” She rubbed her face in exasperation, and I put what I hoped was a comforting hoof around her shoulders.

There was another massive BANG from the sealed doors.

“Smegging hell,” I swore, “don’t these guys ever give up?”

“Cover me, Hex,” said Twilight. “I think I saw some turrets on the way in. Set them up to defend us, this is gonna take a while!”

I ran back to where we had come in, and indeed there were several turrets stashed neatly away, so I got them out and set them up near the doors, and stood guard in case they were tipped over.

Not even the two instances of the control room and the corridor were this hectic, because not only did I have to stay alive but I had to defend Twilight as well (not that she really needed it, from what I’d seen). I don’t think I’ve ever fired so many bullets in such a short space of time.

I was really worried my HEV suit would run out of charge, and I’d start taking some real damage, because this thing was taking absolutely ages. After five full minutes of battling I heard Twilight shout “It’s about half done! It’s taking forever!”

“You’re telling me!” I shouted back.

A high pitched bleeping signalled that one of the turrets had been knocked over, and I hurriedly set it back up again and shot the smegger who’d knocked it over and was trying to shoot Twilight. When I fired my SMG again, all I got was the telltale click of an empty gun, so I switched to the Combine pulse rifle and found it a lot more heavy duty than the sub-machine gun, which almost paled in comparison.

Trouble is, an SMG can hold 50 bullets with spare ammunition of up to 250, but the pulse rifle can only hold 30 with a total of 90 in spares. That’s the only room the HEV suit will allow, I’m afraid. Luckily the soldiers mostly had pulse rifles with the occasional shotgun, so I didn’t run out of ammunition for them.

“Why is this taking so long?” I yelled over the sound of the gunfire.

“I don’t know!” Twilight replied. “I’ve never worked with this kind of technology before, but I think it’s three quarters done at least!”

“Well, good! I don’t know if I can hold these smeggers back much longer!”

I’m starting to get really exhausted now. I’m levitating two guns and firing them at the same time – not just that, but I’m deflecting bullets with my crowbar and resetting the turrets, and I’m beginning to understand all the time Dash spent napping.

“How’re you holding up?” Twilight asked.

“I’m about to fall asleep where I stand!” I shouted.

“You can sleep later!” said Twilight, “but you can come back, because the teleporter’s just about ready!”

And sure enough, as I re-entered the teleporter room, the platform touched down and the guard rails withdrew.

“Thank Celestia it’s done,” said Twilight, “now let’s get the buck out of here!”

So we leapt into the teleporter and the rails closed behind us, and as the platform started to rise the doors were completely blown off and ponies I didn’t recognise entered the room. Rather than black, they were clothed in white with a single large red eye, and carried pulse rifles which they fired at us as we ascended. One of them fired an energy ball which rebounded from wall to wall and almost hit us, but missed and smashed into the ceiling instead.

“I really hope this works!” Twilight yelled.

“So do I!” I bellowed.

She wrapped her hooves around me, and I would probably have choked were it not for the armour, and I clutched her as close as possible for comfort.

And as we screamed, eyes screwed shut, the world went white.

The whiteness eventually faded, and we found ourselves back in the teleporter in Sweet Apple Basement.

“We did it!” Twilight cried, and I noticed something... different about her. “I can’t believe we did it!”

“Wait,” I said. “What’s with your mane?”

I pointed at the stripes of sparkling silver, which now sat alongside the bands of pink and purple. It was quite pretty really. Twilight eyed it with adorable confusion, and turned to look at her tail, which also sported a stripe of silver.

“Yours too!” she said, and pointed at my forehead. I pulled my mane down, and sure enough I too had a bar of silver cutting through the mess of dark brown. Same in my tail, too.

“It must’ve been the radiation,” I theorised. “I’ve seen it several times before, but usually the hair is bleached white or light grey, not silver.”

“My guess is that it has something to do with our magic,” said Twilight. “If it were just an earth pony it probably would be just white, but as it is it’s... pretty.”

“Sparkle by name, sparkle by appearance, huh? Plus, you’re right: it is pretty. On you, that is.”

I love it when she blushes; it’s literally the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she said, and it was my turn to blush. She banged on the secret wall and shouted “Applejack, are you out there?”

The wall started to move, and Twilight backed away in the face of a shotgun barrel, which was followed by the rest of the shotgun, and then an orange earth pony with a headcrab sitting on top of her Stetson.

“Twilight!” she said, and pulled the purple pony into a hug. “Hex! How in tarnation did y’all get in here?”

“Through the teleporter just now,” I said. “Why, is something wrong?”

“Is something wrong?” asked Applejack. “Ah’d about given up hope of ever seein’ y’all again.”

“I think we could say the same,” said Twilight. “The teleporter must’ve exploded just as it sent us here.”

“Ah know that,” said Applejack. “Everypony felt it from here, but... but that was over a week ago!”

“WHAT?!” Twilight and I shouted in unison.

“What are you talking about?” asked Twilight. “Hex and I were just at Nova Discord.”

“Well, unless y’all were teleported really slowly,” said Applejack, “then Ah’m ‘fraid Ah ain’t got any idea what to make of this. Y’all should know that the blow y’all struck at Nova Discord was taken as a signal to start the uprisin’, and boy howdy was everypony ready fer it.”

“What about the Doctor, is there any news on him?” I asked, dreading what the answer might be.

“Ah’m ‘fraid that ain’t good news either,” said Applejack. “If what the demon dogs say is true, he’s a prisoner in the Citadel.”

“We have to get him out,” Twilight said with rock-hard determination.

“You may find the Lightning Strike’s bin leadin’ a force with that exact intention,” Applejack explained. “Also, another old friend made it back a couple of days ago.”

She led us out of the secret room through the main area, which was a lot more scuffed up than it had been when we were last here (Presley leapt down and scuttled away somewhere) and she opened the door which had led to the room where my HEV suit was kept. The new occupant at first appeared to be a mass of green and purple scales – that is, until it moved.

“Spike!” Twilight cried joyfully.

“Twilight!” shouted Spike, and swept her up in his claws in an incredibly tight and loving hug. “Hex! Thank Celestia, you’re alright!”

“Same to you,” I said. “How’re you doing, mate?”

“A lot better now that you guys are back,” said Spike. “I thought I was never going to see you again!”

“Not all doom an’ gloom, is it?” asked Applejack with a smile.

“Well,” I said, “considering the circumstances, I really wish we could share your optimism.”

At that moment, a screen on the wall lit up and showed the face of a desperate and slightly battered looking young pegasus.

“Auntie AJ, come in, are you there?” asked Lightning Strike.

“Right here, Lightnin’,” said Applejack to her ‘nephew’, “and you may wanna hear that I ain’t alone no more.”

“Why?” asked Lightning. “Who’s there?”

“Who else do you think it would be?” I asked as I stepped into his field of vision.

“Hex, is that you? Thank buck, you’re alive! I almost gave you and Aunt Twi up for dead. Listen: we’re setting up a staging area for the attack on the Citadel.”

“Okay,” said Twilight, working out what to do. “Listen Spike, I want you and Hex to go on ahead and buy me some time to get Applejack someplace safe.”

“What? No!” Spike almost yelled. “I’m not leaving you, Twilight!”

“It won’t be forever,” said Twilight, “I promise.”

Spike sighed.

“Okay,” he said. “So long as you also promise not to die, because I’m gonna hold you to that.”

“Sounds good,” said Lightning. “We need all the help we can get over here. Oh buck, INCOMING!” He ducked out of sight and the camera shook from an explosion, before popping up to say “Whatever you’re doing, make it quick!” and the screen went blank.

“Okay,” said Applejack, “Ah’ll go, but first Ah need to find Presley.”

“Oh dear,” said Twilight. “Hex, you and Spike to on ahead.”

“Okay,” said Spike.

“Got it,” I said, and as we were leaving I caught a snatch of Twilight and AJ’s conversation:

“You do know you could easily get another headcrab, right?”

“There’s only one Elvis.”