The group departed, Corey leading the way for one last stop through the girder maze.

"Ulgh," Dash groaned, "So what are we doing now?"

"Mandeville strip-searched everyone as they came in," Corey answered. "The past week I've been poking around for anything useful. I managed to find where they took everything. Good thing is the security is pretty non-existent. These girders must be a serious flaw in his system, because he never figured on anyone stealing this stuff back."

"Oh, glorious!" Rarity said, "Now I won't have to replace that saddlebag."

"This isn't a baggage claim, Park Avenue. It's shopping."

Rarity giggled girlishly "Darling, if you're trying to curb my enthusiasm, you're using exactly the wrong words.

"Also, my name is Rarity, not 'Park Avenue,' though I do admire her couture, you flatterer."

"So Rarity, know anything about the CID drones?"

"Isn't 'CID drone' redundant?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, probably.”

"Well," Rarity said awkwardly, "I know they have three legs, a black face—"

"CID drones are hive-minded killers with the ears of a dog and the eyes of a hawk. And they see with more than just typical light. They can pick up body heat like a rattlesnake.

“And it would be really bad if they caught us in a little narrow space like this.”

Rarity’s ears drooped. “I see your point.”

Corey laughed as he rapped a knuckle against the side of the girder. “I’m just making a point though. This is a dead-zone for CID patrols, so we’re okay here.

“Seriously though, CID are kinda’ badass. And it's worse when there's more than one.”

"Well, yeah," Rainbow said, derisively.

"No, you don't get it," Corey told her. "CID all think with the same brain. They're not a bunch of little robots, they're one robot in a lot of tiny pieces. If one of them spots you, they've all spotted you."

"Well can't ya' get the drop on 'em?" Applejack asked.

Corey laughed humorlessly. “Sure, for the split second it takes for it to react when you pop out suddenly from behind a tree. But you'll never fully distract CID from targets in a firefight, and when they patrol they all keep watch in different directions. You can pull some of them off a target if they think you're a big enough threat, but the others won't lose their focus for a second. They're fast, they're decisive, and they can find patterns in enemy movement real damn fast. You can shake them sometimes by moving randomly, but get caught in a pattern and you've had it."

"So how do you fight them?" Twilight said, exasperated.

"First rule. Never get caught in the open. Find cover. Something tough that a bullet won't pass through. Second: have a way out. CID will march forward and surround targets that are dug-in behind cover. If things go bad, you can't let them surround you or you're dead. Always have a quick escape, somewhere to retreat to that they can't see."

"And third?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Third," Corey continued, "Don't let them see you in the first place. If you can avoid fighting these damn things, do it. And if you do have to fight, use a mirror or something to see them. Don't risk them popping your head off when you take a peek. These things don't hesitate.

"Hold it." Corey eyed another panel in the girder. "We're here."

"Whoa, hold up!" Rainbow whispered. "You said there was no security. How did you know that?"

"I told you, I checked this place before."

"When we were back in that room," Dash said, "CAIRO knew we were there before he brought that camera in."

"Hey, that's a good point!" Twilight frowned in concentration. "And both times I used a lot of magic, CAIRO was able to tell right away!"

"I don't know anything about your magic and whatever, but the good thing is the security here is hard-line. All the cables for the sensors pass through these girders, and I can patch into those to see what's being recorded. Trust me, this place is clean."

" 'Trust you?' " Rainbow asked. "Trust you, just like that? I don't trust any of you crazy chimp-things with your crazy chimp-weapons!"

"Rainbow!" Applejack cried reproachfully.

"What?" Rainbow demanded. "You saying you trust him? This guy's got three of those gun things strapped to him!"

"Yeah," Corey said, "The G36 carbine is my primary, and the little USP Match is my side-arm. Having backup weapons is standard procedure for us.

"The AA12," he continued, clasping the boxy gun with the tire-like attachment, "was the Corporal's. But he got hit by the CID on our way through."

"I'm sorry," Twilight said softly.

"Thanks. We'd only been together for that operation, so I didn't know him very well. Anyway, I took the AA12 with me in case things got really bad. I don't need to tell you that they did."

"How many times must Trixie remind you that Mister Webber saved all of our lives?" Trixie said at last.

"And he's managed to sneak about all this time without getting caught," Rarity added.

Rainbow turned to the unicorn "Rarity, what are you, the head of his fan-club?"

"I'm sure I've no idea what you're talking about.”

" 'Oh!' " Rainbow cried, imitating Rarity's accent, " 'My hero! What a strong chivalrous soldier! Oh he says just the right things to charm a girl! I don't care that he might have doomed Equestria forever—' "

"Now see here, Rainbow Dash!" Rarity simmered, her ivory cheeks burning red even in the soft glow of unicorn magic. "I am just showing a little appreciation given Corey happened to save my life, and bowing to the fact that among us, he is the most qualified at skirting the horrors of this dreadful place."

"Oh yeah?" Rainbow grinned. "I don't see you fawning over Trixie every chance you get."

"I—" Rarity stammered, her face now furiously red. "It—It's not even his fault we're in this mess! He was only following orders! Doing his royal duty. He never asked to do it."

"Uh... actually." Corey himself grew a little flushed from the conversation. "There's nothing 'royal' about my position. The United States is a democracy: it has a president. No king or queen."

"What about a princess?" Pinkie Pie asked with intrigue.

"If there's no king or queen," Corey said irritably, "why the hell would there be a princess?"

"Well, Equestria doesn't have a king or queen," Pinkie explained, "but we still have Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."

"Wait, how does that work? If you're a leader, I'm pretty sure you're a queen."

"According to Celestia," Twilight said, "a queen is somepony who rules on her own, unless she's wed to somepony else. Celestia and Luna rule together, so they insisted on being called 'Princess'."

"Sounds like a cop-out, but I guess that works. Anyway... I was chosen specifically to be on the team that took down Mandeville. I was offered the job, and I accepted it."

Applejack stared. "Y'mean to tell me, that you knew exactly what you were doin'?"

"No, I was asked if I wanted to get back at Mandeville. I said yes, so they filled me in."

" 'Get back at Mandeville?' " Twilight repeated. "For what? Why did they ask you?"

Corey didn't answer for a moment, instead reaching into his pocket and pulling out a sleek, flat device with a glass screen embedded into it. He pressed a button, making the screen light up before he slid his finger over the screen, which reacted to his actions. Finally, he gave a sad smile as he turned the screen towards them.

It showed an image of Corey with a female human a bit shorter than himself, smiling and hugging in front of a tall fountain. There was a grand plaza behind them with a tall neon-lit building with the words 'Edwards Theaters' over it. Corey was wearing casual clothes in this image, far removed from the Corey in front of them. The female had short brown hair, freckles and pale blue eyes.

"Her name was Renee. Her parents sent her to Paris as a graduation gift when she finished college. She died in an explosion, when the terrorists hit that day."

"Oh Corey," Fluttershy said, hooves over her mouth as her eyes shimmered.

"I'm so sorry!" Rarity cried. "I— I suppose, she was your very special somepony?"

"No, nothing like that. Just old friends."

"They knew, didn't they?" Twilight asked. "The ones who asked you to kill Mandeville?"

"Yes," Corey answered. "They figured I might be especially motivated to finish the job, if I had a personal stake in seeing him taken down."

Twilight stared into Corey's eyes, seeing something in them that was at once unwanted and familiar.

"Killing Mandeville won't make it hurt any less Corey," Twilight said.

Corey sighed. "None of that matters anymore. What matters is what's happening now. I have a responsibility to the people of this world now. I swear I'm going to do whatever I can to make things right.

"Twilight, you said your name was?"

She nodded.

"Twilight, I promise I'll only do what's necessary. And... Dash?"

"Yes," Rainbow said, still stone-faced.

"You don't trust me.” It wasn't a question. "I don't blame you. You don't have to stick with me, but if you want to follow, you're welcome to."

Rainbow Dash groaned. "I'll go along with this for now. But if you do anything to get my friends hurt, I'll throw you off a cliff."

"Fair enough," Corey muttered, smirking. "Let's go shopping,"

Corey opened the girder into another tile-arm maze, but a small one. The structure was small enough that they saw the facility outside, after the floor tiles ended. Corey stared upward as they moved, searching the cracks between tiles.

"Here we go," he said, hitting the button on one of the arms, which lowered in response.

"A few of us will need to stay here in case the tile—"

Rainbow nudged Corey forward. "Yeah yeah, we figured that out before. Pinkie n' I will keep watch here."

"Aww!" Pinkie whined. "But my stuff is in there too!"

"Actually," Fluttershy whispered, "I can stay with you Rainbow Dash. I don't really want to go back in one of those rooms anyway."

Corey stepped into the room. It was, in essentials, a living room sized space with a single bank of lockers on the far wall. "Alright. These take a little force to open, but they're not locked. Anything you can find, anything useful, take it if you can carry it."

Twilight did a double-take before leering at him. "Wait a minute, I thought we were just getting our stuff back, not stealing other ponies belongings!"

"You only ever found this place because I showed you where it was. I kinda' doubt your fellow prisoners will find this place themselves, so it's no good to them. Waste not, want not."

Twilight glowered. "Fine, but only stuff that's going to help us."

Eyes wandered to Rarity, who had already magicked a locker open and was privately modeling a scarf and sun hat she had found, checking herself in a hand-mirror. Upon realizing the attention, she stopped.

"What? What if it gets cold, or we run into a wandering celebrity—"

"Unless its camouflage to hide your viciously obvious colors from the Spotter drones," Corey said, "put it back."

Rarity moaned a stream of complaints, but did as he said all the same.

Meanwhile, Twilight focused her magic, drawing Trixie's attention. "Aren't you afraid a spell will bring Mandeville's drones?"

"It's a low-power spell," Twilight explained, "The 'missing-sock-spell' some ponies call it."

With a 'pop,' Twilight's horn let out a twinkling orb of magenta light which trailed to one of the drawers. The drawer shot open, and a saddlebag with Twilight's cutie-mark on it rose from amongst the bric-a-brac inside.

"Like a charm," Twilight sang proudly, searching and reorganizing the bag's contents.

"Oh there ya' are!" Applejack cried with her softest smile, scooping her prized stetson from yet another locker and placing it back in it's place atop her head.

"That mean ol' machine didn't hurt you now, did it?"

Corey watched on with a bemused expression on his face before shaking his head and continuing his search.

"Ooh!" Pinkie cried, as something in one of the lockers blasted confetti into her face while making a sound like a party favor. "Found my bag!"

Trixie exclaimed in revulsion upon opening one of the lockers. "This food has been here much too long for a civilized pony."

"Hip flask..." Corey muttered offhand as he sifted through another locker. He unscrewed the top of the flask and gave it a sniff. "Alcohol. Good disinfectant if there's an injury. And painkiller."

"I found some matches!" Applejack said.

"First-Aid kit!" Twilight reported.

"Damn good.”

"Superb!" Trixie exclaimed, pulling a starry jeweled cape and pointy magician's cap from the locker and putting them on with a flourish. "The Great and Powerful Trixie, a slave no longer! Master of her own destiny, and perhaps, the destiny of all Equestria!"

"I swear Trixie," Twilight muttered darkly, "I'm doing all in my power to be civil with you after all that's happened. But if you slip back into your old habits, I'm shoving that pointy hat right up your nose!"

Trixie recoiled, eyes searching the room, as if to find the softest wall in case Twilight attacked again.

"And you know I can do it, too," she hissed, before returning to the lockers.

"Aha!" Rarity cried in delight, holding up two-dozen clear and shiny hollow discs. "I found our shoes!"

"You were wearing glass shoes?" Corey asked.

"Diamond, dear.”

"Diamond?! Where in the Hell did you get shoes made of diamond?"

"Well, I made them actually," she said proudly.

"You're a jeweler?"

"Oh hardly darling. I'm a seamstress, but gems factor into my designs rather frequently."

"You can say that again!" Rainbow called from outside, forcing a frown to slither onto Rarity's face.

"How do you afford making footwear out of precious stones?" Corey asked

"Oh Corey," Rarity giggled, "you make it sound as though diamonds are rare!"

"As-as though—" Corey stammered, his left eyelid twitching.

Corey went silent as the mares put on the fancy footwear, until Twilight waved at him for his attention.

"So Corey, I don't suppose you know where Mandeville's building ended up, do you?"

"What, like, in your Equestria?" Corey said, prompting a nod from Twilight. "No. Best I figured is we're underground."

"Well we entered through the west wall, through the side of a mountain," Twilight continued, "so I figure that's our best chance of getting out of here."

"Mmm," Corey murmured in agreement. "So we need our bearings. I've got a—"

"Compass spell?" Twilight’s horn glowed. "No problem!"

With a flash, an arrow of light pointed in towards the bank of lockers.

Corey watched it, pulling a physical compass from one of his pockets and checking it himself. "Yep. Magnetic north.

"So we're headed that way," Corey told them, pointing to the left.

"Well alright then!" Applejack said. "Come on, y'all, let's hop to it!"

"Actually." Corey sighed. “It might not be so simple."

"Aw... Ponyfeathers!" Applejack exclaimed, eyeing the gap before them.

They had traveled as far west through the safe girders as they could, but reached a dead-end and emerged on top of a structure, facing a hundred-yard gap to the next cluster of buildings near the outer wall. In between was a thoroughfare of moving girders and tiles rushing to and fro in an ordered frenzy.

"This is as far as the safe stuff goes," Corey told them. "Otherwise we've gotta head down, and that's gonna be a long slog with a harder climb back up.

"If you magical ponies have any bright ideas, I'm all-ears."

"Fluttershy and I can take everypony one by one," Rainbow offered, hovering in anticipation.

"I'd rather not. We're going to be seriously visible if we have to play 'Frogger' for that long. I'd rather we made it all together."

Fluttershy turned to speak. "Twilight, you're good at winking-out: maybe you can wink us all to the other side?"

"Ulgh!" Rainbow Dash winced. "Fluttershy, nopony calls it 'winking-out' anymore. It's teleporting! No offense, but that's so old-fashioned it's tragically lame."

"Wait a minute," Corey’s brows knit. "she can fucking teleport?"

"It's a spell Princess Celestia taught me growing up. But I've never done it with a group this size though. That much magic would tell Mandeville we were here right away.

"And can I ask you something?" She turned, frowning at Corey.

"Sure.”

"What is that? Those words you and Mandeville use whenever you're frustrated? The two of you speak perfect Equish most of the time, except for the 'some-buddies' and the 'any-ones' and those odd bits of gibberish when something upsets you."

"You mean curse-words?"

"Y'mean yer' tryin' to put a curse on somethin'?" Applejack asked with lost eyes.

Corey shook his head. "You ponies really know nothing about profanity?" he said to unanimous head-shakes. "They're inherently 'bad' words in the English language. We say them to emphasize things. For instance, you can tell someone is more serious if instead of saying 'what' they say 'what the fuck.' "

"Huh," Twilight vocalized thoughtfully. "What does it mean though? 'Fuck?' "

"It's..." Corey tapped his foot awkwardly. "A really vulgar word for 'fornicate.' "

"Oh..." Twilight’s face turned blank as her cheeks reddened in seconds.

"And—" Rarity began, similarly red. "And you thought that, in any language, was something to say in front of ladies?!"

"It's not usually taken that literally. It's more like when you say 'shoot.' It's pure exclamation."

Suddenly, Corey cried in surprise as his own hand glowed pale blue before he slapped himself in the face.

Rarity harrumphed, turning her back on him. "How is that for an exclamation? This is nothing like the dashing soldier we met earlier."

"Y'know," Corey said, rubbing his cheek with the same hand that hurt him, "you unicorns are pretty handy with that telekinetic stuff. Why don't you just float everyone over?"

Rarity scoffed. "Unicorns have a bit of magic, dear, but precious few ponies can levitate something as large as another pony without significant effort. I'm aware Twilight can do such things—"

Trixie clucked her tongue at Rarity. "You forget, dear. Trixie is not so untalented herself."

"Yes, we know," Twilight finally groaned. "But besides, with all those things whizzing by, moving everypony accurately is going to be difficult from over here."

"Well why don'tcha do like Corey said?" Pinkie suggested. "Move everypony!"

"That would just make it worse!"

"Nuh-uh!" Pinkie sang "Not if you float over with them!"

"What are you gettin' at, Pink?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, why can't a unicorn float herself?"

"Pff!" Rainbow exclaimed before laughing heartily. "A unicorn? Fly? Pinkie Pie, you crack me up."

"Pinkie," Twilight said, "I can understand using magic on your hair, or another part of your own body, but the whole thing?"

"Why not? I've seen Pumpkin do it before when I was foalsitting. That and phase through solid matter. Boy, does foalproofing ever get tough when that happens."

"Well, I suppose it's not totally unheard of. But newborn unicorns are all instinct: they don't really think about it, they just sorta' do it."

"Well, then stop thinking about it, Thinking-McThinkerbrain! Just do it!"

"Or barring that," Corey muttered, "sprinkle some pixie-dust..."

"Oh sure Pinkie!" Twilight sang in mockery, her horn lighting up as her entire body glowed magenta while her eyes closed. "I'm just gonna up and fly today! Yep! Whoosh! And off I go into the wild blue yonder!"

"Um... Twilight?" Rarity said, staring.

"Hay, maybe after I float on over to the other side I can take us all to Cloudsdale! Maybe I'll be the first unicorn ever to win the 'Best Young Flyer Competition!' "

"But Twilight—!" Pinkie cried.

"No 'buts' Pinkie. We're just going to have to find some other way, because there is no chance in a thousand years that this unicorn is leaving the ground under her own power."

"Twilight?" Applejack asked.

"Oh, for pony's sake!" Twilight yelled. "What is it?"

"You best not be looking down, sugarcube."

"Huh?" Twilight finally opened her eyes. "What are you talking ab— WAH!"

Twilight's hooves paddled pointlessly in midair as she hovered a good ten feet above them.

"I, wha...? How'm I...?" Twilight squeaked as her body jerked up and down. "This is impossible!"

"Just think of yourself like one of your books!" Pinkie cried, bouncing on the tips of her hooves.

"Hey!" Dash shouted. "That's not fair! She's already great at magic, now she can fly?!"

"I'm a book!" Twilight muttered to herself. "I'm a book, being set down on the coffee table... Book... Coffee table..."

Steadily, Twilight lowered herself down, all eyes on her until at last, the glow vanished, and she fell in a heap onto the metal roof.

"Oh Twilight!" Fluttershy said excitedly. "For your first flight, that was really wonderful!"

"Thanks, but..." Twilight said, picking herself up. "I just don't understand! If it were as simple as that then how am I the first unicorn I've ever heard of to do it?"

"Well aside from Trixie," Rarity said while the blue unicorn behind her glowered in silence, "how many unicorns have you heard of whose unique talent is magic?"

"Princess Celestia did tell y'all you had more talent than anypony she'd ever seen," Applejack added. "Hay, you even represent the Element of Magic. That has to count for somethin'!"

"This is just...! Argh!" Twilight growled. "Do I even need to say how useful this would've been in the past?! Climbing up to that dragon, getting away from that hydra, and every other unnecessary risk we took in the name of gravity?"

"Personally, I don't care," Corey said, to the sour glares of many of them. "What I do care about is whether this means we can cross here now."

"I think I'll need to practice this a little before trying something like that. If I slip up somehow, somepony could seriously get hurt, or worse."

"Take the time you need to do this right then. But I can't pretend we're not on a time limit."

"Alright then," Twilight muttered to herself, once more glowing magenta. "Don't think it, just do it... Take the book off of the shelf..."

And like a balloon, Twilight was off again. "Oh, this is so weird!"

Most of them continued to watch except for Trixie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Corey. Corey was taking this opportunity to check his weapons, pulling back slides and switches, checking for problems with a professional eye. Rainbow's face was screwed-up in concentration as she limbered up, while Trixie turned her back on the entire affair with a huff.

A huff not unnoticed by Applejack. "Bit jealous, huh?" Applejack asked wryly.

"What? Here to rub more shame and failure in Trixie's face? You already know the answer to your question."

"I 'aint here to rub nothin' in nopony's face," Applejack said gently. "But it doesn't sound like the thing that put you and everypony else in this here position has left."

Trixie glared at her, but didn't answer.

"You've shown your heart's in the right place, if it took a spell or two to get there," Applejack continued. "You made to do right what yeh' did wrong. But you still don't feel much different about Twilight now, do ya'?"

"How can I?" Trixie asked, watching Twilight as she hovered in a circle, before lifting a giggling Pinkie Pie into the air as well. "She cast a shadow over everything I've ever done. I spent years developing unrivaled skill. And in a single night, I go from being the best, the Great and Powerful Trixie... to second-rate."

"Well that's just silly, 'aint it?" Applejack chuckled, receiving a glare from Trixie.

"Silly?" Rainbow said, butting-in. "What's silly about wanting to be the best? I did, and I totally am."

"Hold up there, Heather. Never said there was anything wrong with wantin' to be 'the best.' But findin' out you're not and throwing a bit huffy fit over it is just silly.

"I mean shucks, Sweet Apple Acres prides itself on bein' the best in the business, but we 'aint the only apple farmers in Equestria. Havin' competition keeps us all motivated-like. An' if it turns out there's somepony out there doin' it better than we do, well hay, it gives us somethin' to shoot for. Shows us we can still be better than we are."

Rainbow Dash gave a soft smile. "Yeah. If I hadn’t had the Wonderbolts to look up to, I never would've worked so hard on my flying."

"So, you're saying..." Trixie frowned thoughtfully. "Sparkle didn't rob me of my purpose... She gave me a challenge, so I could improve?"

"Now yer' gettin' it. And I know it hurts to have your pride hit like that, but it deflated that big head of yours a mite bit. Knowin' a little humility never hurt nopony."

"But what can I do now? None of the ponies in the towns I go to want me there. And after everything I've done, I'm just going to be jailed or banished anyway."

"I won't lie," Applejack sighed, "your part in all this makes you part responsible for what happened to our friend Spike. But on the flipside, nopony might've found this place out in time to reach Canterlot. And I reckon without us knowin' what we know, Corey included, Equestria might never have stood an apple's chances under a hoof.

"Still might not anyway, but it's better than a smack in the nose with a rusty horseshoe."

"And I gotta be glad you saved our necks back there," Rainbow added. "I'm still kinda' shifty-eyed with this Corey guy, but if you convinced him to help us outta this mess, you're on your way to 'okay' in my book."

"Plus, Princess Celestia knows us, and we can vouch for ya'," Applejack said. "There'll still be some consequences, if I know the Princess at all, but she'll be fair with ya'."

"Do you really think so?"

"Celestia's actually pretty cool," Rainbow said. "She's nothing like a lot of those stuffy Canterlot types."

"Okay, I think I've got the hang of this!" Twilight called, Fluttershy and Pinkie orbiting her as she floated. "Check it out, we're a helium atom!"

" 'Cause we're floating?" Pinkie asked, caught in the midst of an unstoppable fit of chuckles as Twilight set them all down.

"Helium atoms have—" Twilight started before shaking her head. "Nevermind. I've gotta tell ya' Rainbow, is that what us ponies have been missing all this time? It's a hoot!"

"Ha! Don't start comparing like you've got a pair a' these babies," Rainbow told her, wings flapping proudly. "You might be able to float like a parade balloon, but you'll never outpace a Pegasus."

"As long as she can ferry us over," Corey said, "I couldn't care less about egos right now. So how are we doing this?"

"I'll take Pinkie Pie and Rarity like before," Rainbow said.

"I'll get Corey and Trixie," Twilight said, "that way Trixie can get Applejack and Fluttershy.

"You can handle that, right?" she asked Trixie, who glared.

"Yes, Trixie can 'handle' carrying two ponies.”

"Alright then, positions next to your carrier everypony!" Twilight said.

They lined up eight abroad, facing the expanse before them.

"Alright carriers, pick up your ponies!" she ordered, bathing Trixie and Corey in her magenta glow as they rose from the floor. Beside Trixie, Applejack and Fluttershy rose in their own violet glow.

"Ready?" Twilight asked, glancing around and seeing nods all around, save —predictably— for Fluttershy. "Go!"

Twilight finally wrapped herself in magenta and rose into the air alongside her friends. Corey took a single look down as they passed over the ledge and turned his eyes to the ceiling, muttering to himself. Rainbow Dash flapped easily past a few moving girders as Twilight focused on maneuvering steadily through.

Applejack eagerly watched as terra-firma crept ever closer. "Halfway there!"

"Uh huh!" Meanwhile, Corey’s eyes were fixed upon the ceiling far above them, his forehead drenched with sweat.

And then a buzzing sound met their ears, and CAIRO's voice spoke behind them. "Prisoners and intruders.”

As the mares and human turned, they saw one of the hovering four-rotor machines that had captured Rainbow Dash before.

"Shit, Spotter!" Corey cried, grabbing his AA12 and swinging it in the drone's direction. His finger pulled on the pump mechanism below the barrel, and a fiery 'pak' sound penetrated the air as a flash erupted from the end of the barrel.

The Spotter, however, was unharmed. "Please lower your weapons and lie on the nearest viable surface with your forelimbs behind your back," the Spotter ordered, pointing its barrel at them in turn.

"The Hell...?" Corey muttered, as a string of glowing metal pellets floated listlessly out of the gun. "Twilight, your damn magic is holding my bullets!"

"I'm sorry!" Twilight moaned, still moving the group to the roof in front of them. All at once the glow surrounding Corey vanished.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"Oh my gosh! Corey, I'm sorry!" Twilight cried, grabbing hold of him again and bringing him back to their level as he continued yelling his head off.

"Are you kidding me?! Are you fucking kidding me?!"

"Corey dear, are you alright?!" Rarity asked, standing beside Pinkie Pie on the roof.

It took a few seconds for Twilight to realize why two of her friends had already landed, and to answer the question of where Rainbo—

"Yargh!" Rainbow cried, slamming hooves-first into the Spotter drone from above it, which had been busy tracking Corey because of his sudden and dramatic fall. Plastic warped and crumpled as Rainbow and her diamond shoes smashed the little scout into the metallic rooftop. Its bent barrel jerked around feebly as a lone rotor spun, making it spin pathetically in place on the floor.

Rainbow turned her back to the thing and gave it a swift kick off the ledge with a single hind leg. "That's for the needle, poser!" she called after the drone, whose crashing and clattering softly echoed back to them as Twilight brought the others to the roof at last.

"Nice going there, Rainbow!" Applejack said, beaming.

Corey took a moment to kiss the ground upon reaching it before shakily getting to his feet and looking to Rainbow Dash. "Quick thinking there Dash. You don't mess around."

"I do everything quick, ape-boy.”

"Need Trixie remind you foals," Trixie interjected, "we've just been discovered?"

"She's right," Twilight said firmly. "We need to get moving, now! Corey, does any of this look familiar to you?"

"Yes, this is just...” He glanced around to get his bearings. “South of one of his main hangars. It leads right outside, if it's not completely buried."

"What's a hangar?" Twilight asked.

"Place they store and launch aircraft fro—"

"Prisoners and intruders," three additional Spotters said as they closed-in on the group from behind.

"Run for it!" Pinkie cried.

Adrian Mandeville watched the ponies and soldier on his monitor. They were fleeing over the rooftop, far closer to escape than he had expected them to go. Too close.

The soldier, some spec-ops kid, had an old auto-shotgun firing at his Spotters. A few of them went offline in the process, their cameras showing him blackness.

What was more, Trixie was there! Survived, somehow. This might all end quite well for him.

"CAIRO," he said, not taking his eyes off the screen, "why are the drones behaving as though they'll be taking more than one prisoner?"

"Simpler to terminate the others while assuming surrender positions," CAIRO answered.

"Well they're not doing that, obviously!" Mandeville shouted. "Subdue Sparkle and Trixie. As for the rest, take them out!"

"If I might suggest something..." CAIRO began.

The outer wall stretched before the eight, across a field of vents and pipes. To their right another structure towered, built in a hexagonal shape, pieced together traditionally without tiles.

Corey's gun had blasted two of the three Spotters out of the air, but the third one had taken to literally flying circles high about them, taking shots in front of them rather than at them. Too high for the AA12's pellets to reliably reach.

"I know a thing or two about rustling critters," Applejack panted, "and this thing is trying to corral us!"

"Bringing us into a kill-zone," Corey panted as he ran, very nearly tripping as he watched the drone circle like a vulture. "Mandeville's got something waiting for us."

"Do you think he knows where we're going?" Rarity asked, easily keeping pace with him.

"Doesn't matter," Corey said, "this way is all I've got. We'll be Swiss-cheese before we find another wa—”

With a great series of clunking noises, sets of tiles in the walls of nearby structures dismounted from their positions and began moving in force towards them along the girders. With great purpose, the lifelike walls swarmed in both from above, to their right and behind them.

Applejack whipped her head towards Corey. “Mandeville’s swinging the gate shut, pard’ner! Whatever we do, it better be quick-like!”

"There!" Corey cried, turning to a brightly-lit doorway in the side of the hexagonal building. "Twilight, can you jump us in there?"

"Yes! Everypony ready?"

"Just be prepared to fight or hide as soon as we're there!" Corey said. "Alright... do it!"

Twilight's horn glowed as her face screwed-up in concentration. With a great grunt, the group vanished from sight.

They burst into existence in the hallway of the hexagonal building. Twilight gasped as she tried to catch her breath again. The others whirled around in search of an attacker.

Rainbow left the defensive stance she had taken. "Nothing yet."

"So this is a hangar?" Pinkie asked, "I don't see anything hanging."

"No, this is it. And the runway should be just around that bend."

He walked forward to the corner and poked his head around it. As though he'd been electrocuted, he leapt away as a deafening sound of gunfire filled the air and echoed through the cavernous structure. Sparks flew from parts of the wall as bullets struck, peppering it with dents.

"Wh— what in the world is that?" Fluttershy asked.

"An ambush. CID, around a dozen of them."

"What do we do?" Pinkie asked.

"Can't ya' use one a' them little balls you used when ya' rescued us?"

"They're spaced too far apart," Corey said, "and they can move fast when they've got the room. And they definitely have it here."

Rarity frowned a moment as her lip pouted in concentration. "So what you need, is to keep them close for a moment?"

"You have a plan?" Twilight asked.

"Better, Twilight dear." Rarity opened her bag and extracted a salmon-colored spool and her hand-mirror. "I have upholstery-grade thread!"

"I don't suppose you'd rather use my rope?" Applejack offered skeptically, pulling a lasso from her own bag.

"No no," Rarity said, threading a needle and unspooling the thread, "this requires a more delicate touch."

"You sure you can handle this with a mirror?" Corey asked, smirking.

"Darling," she laughed, "you've really no idea who you're talking to."

And with a flourish, she angled the mirror around the corner, and sent her needle and thread to do their work.

A few of the CID followed the progress of the needle, the others watching the corner unflinchingly. The needle set about, winding through delicate sections in their joints, around limbs, and the gaps in the CID's white armor. One CID began firing at the mirror as they recognized the danger, and quickly found its gun wrapped-up tight and tied to its head, preventing it from aiming properly. A few of the CID worked with their hands to grab and break the thread, but were promptly trussed-up as Rarity scolded them with a 'tut-tut'.

Finally, the thread spun around the entire group, pulling them together in a mess of flailing mechanical limbs.

The thread snapped purposefully as Rarity turned to Corey, batting her eyelashes. "I do believe that's your cue," she said, offering the mirror.

Corey let out a bark of laughter as he took it, and pressed a button on one of his EMP grenades. Taking careful aim with the mirror, he tossed it at the pile of war machines.

A familiar flash and sizzling sound announced the death of the CID, as they walked at last into the hangar proper.

It was a long hall lined with dozens of flying machines of various design. Gargantuan in scale, it appeared to go on forever. Twilight recognized the machines she'd seen in the tour video that had destroyed a tank. Others were bulkier, and a few others had space for humans to sit.

At the east-end of the hangar was a great steel bulkhead, but the west-end looked to be a true —if massive— door. It was, however, barely visible from this distance.

"That's a bit of a walk," Applejack said apprehensively.

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Maybe for you. If it were just me, I’d be out of this place by now.”

“Hark!” Twilight feined listening closely for a sound. “Is that all that loyalty you’re so famous for I’m hearing, Rainbow?”

“Hey, I’d never leave you guys hangin’, but waiting up for everypony is hard when you’re me. And that’s before Corey!”

She glared at his feet. “Seriously guy, how does something with legs that long move like a slug?”

“Humans are long-distance runners. We’re about endurance, not speed.

"Either way, it's a good thing we're not walking," Corey said, jogging to a nook in the wall, where several large, wheeled objects sat in silence. Corey motioned to one of the largest: box-shaped, yet sleek. Nearly fifty feet long and ten feet tall, large enough to host twice their number.

"What is it?" Pinkie asked. "And why does it have angry eyes?"

"Those are headlights. They just kinda' look like eyes. Mandeville Arms used to be run with a large human staff, so when it all went fully automated, there ended up being a lot of leftover stuff. These shuttles took people across the runway in a loop. They're drones too, but they have manual driving for emergencies."

"What's to stop Mandeville from stopping this thing then?" Twilight said.

Corey responded by taking his USP Match and obliterating an antenna seated atop the shuttle in a shower of plastic shards and sparks. "No more link. And a bonus..."

He plugged a few more shots suddenly into the side-panels and windows, which dented and cracked, but held all the same. "This being an armed hangar, he made these things bulletproof. Hell, even the tires he uses have some kind of anti-flat system on top of Kevlar."

“Who?” Fluttershy asked.

"So we'll be safe in this thing?" Trixie asked.

Corey shrugged. "Well, no guarantees, but—"

They turned as the high-pitched whine of mechanical limbs built in force along the clatter of irregular footsteps on metal.

"Everypony in!" Applejack cried, ushering them into a door in the side of the shuttle. Corey stepped in last, closing the door and stepping into a seat in the left with a wheel in front of it.

The inside was hollow, just a hallway with seats lining the windows. Thankfully for the ponies, the seats were large enough to sit on without resorting to Corey's method, with his legs hanging down as he tested some sort of pads on levers where his feet were.

"Emergency manual." He noted a yellow and black button near the wheel. "Yes and yes."

He pressed the button, and the great vehicle rumbled to life beneath them.

"Girls, get ready to fight," he told them, "because this is it."

"Alright!" Twilight said, a glint in her eyes. "Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, keep a lookout for any immediate dangers."

"On it!" Rainbow cried with a salute.

"Pinkie Pie, you're on distraction detail," Twilight continued. "The fewer CID firing at us the better, so whatever you've got to get their attention, there's an emergency escape hatch in the roof to send it from."

"You betcha'!" Pinkie cried, pulling a string of firecrackers from her bag.

"Applejack and Rarity. There's a hatch leading to the underside too. Whatever you can work with the ropes and fabric from here to slow the CID down buys us time."

"Trixie." Twilight turned to the ex-magician, "You're with me. Any spell that comes to mind, anything to protect us or stop them."

"Trixie will do her best!"

"Okay, this is gonna be rough!" Corey said as he pressed the pad down with his foot and the shuttle screeched out of its space, turning towards the hangar door, and sea of CID closing in on all directions.

"Holy tamale, there's hundreds of them!" Pinkie cried.

"Mandeville's not kiddin' around anymore!" Rainbow said.

The CID began firing, and the noise of the impacts was great and terrifying. The glass, however, barely received anything.

Rainbow took notice of this. "Hold it! They're aiming low. I think they're trying to take this thing out, not us!"

Twilight turned to the soldier. "Corey! Does this thing have any kinds of weak-points?"

"It's electric, so no gas tank to combust. I'm guessing they're aiming for the tires! Tough as they are, it's just rubber filled with air. They get punctured, we stop moving."

“Like you could tell!” Rainbow said. “Why are we moving so slow?! I could run faster than this!”

“This thing has a top speed of thirty miles-per-hour, it wasn’t built to be out on the highway. But if you want to hoof it, be my guest!”

Rainbow turned to stare at the carnage outside.

“I’m good.”

"Okay, I'll form a force-field around the shuttle,” Twilight said. It's not going to do much against an anti-magic enchantment, but it's better than nothing!"

With a slight effort, a magenta bubble expanded around the shuttle. Immediately, the sounds of impact reduced by half as flecks of metal appeared on the bubble before clattering to the floor.

"Christ, that helps! I thought you said it wouldn't do much?" Corey said, as he swerved to avoid a parked flying machine, surprising a CID, which was run-down and smashed by the shuttle. The bubble, however, didn't miss the flying machine, which was shoved violently out of the way and into a wall. "I'm guessing these aircraft didn't get that anti-magic stuff either!"

"Mandeville must not have had the time to enchant everything yet!" Rarity said. "We only did so much in a day, after all!"

"He must be sending a lot of the unprotected units as cannon-fodder," Corey suggested, as another CID failed to escape in time, this time being flung away by the force-field itself.

"Ha!" Twilight grinned. "Trixie, let's sweep these CID off their hooves! You take the left side, I've got the right! Applejack, Rarity: you take the spares!"

And with that, the two unicorns lit their horns as a wash of purple and magenta flowed from the sides of the shuttle like luminescent wings. Nearly half the CID or other objects caught in it were dragged to the floor, tumbling and scraping against the steel. The sound forced Corey to risk a peek at the spectacle, at which his pupils contracted.

“Jesus... Remind me not to fuck with you unicorns.”

Twilight turned red, her focus wavering a moment. “What does... that, have to do with anything?!”

Corey glanced at her “Huh?”

And then it hit him.

“Oh god, that’s not what I meant! Exclamation, remember?! Exclama—”

“WALL!” Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash shrieked, prompting Corey to whip his head back around. The shuttle had managed to drift left, into a nook in the side of the wall, towards a metal wall.

Shouting incoherently, Corey turned the wheel wildly right, but overcorrected and ended up off course, causing the shuttle’s occupants to stumble into the left side of the vehicle, and the vehicle itself to tumble lift off onto its right wheels. The party screamed as Corey tried in vain to turn the steering wheel back.

“I’ve got this!” Dash said, righting herself and launching into the left side of the cabin, beating her powerful wings as the shuttle nearly did donuts on the runway.

The CID barely reacted to the spectacle, other than to fire shots into the exposed undercarriage. The sounds of bullets on the floor seemed to complete the chaotic scene.

Finally, with a great grunt, Rainbow tilted the shuttle enough that Corey could correct the wheel, allowing the left wheels to smack into the ground once more, the frame creaking in protest.

“New rule!” she said, panting. “No more chatter from the pilot!”

“Agreed...” the group at large moaned as they got back into position dizzily.

Corey drove through a line of parked aircraft, the shuttle now facing north. Sideways from their destination.

“Damn, looks like we’re taking the scenic route.”

The shuttle turned again, the shield blasting away some aircraft while Corey weaved between others, making for their exit as the CID regrouped. Before long, they were back on a straight-shot for the hangar doors.

Meanwhile, Rarity opened the lower hatch as Applejack fed her lasso beneath the undercarriage. Rarity took control of the rope, and more of her thread, stretching it taught out the sides of the shuttle. The closest CID to survive Twilight and Trixie's magical onslaught were promptly knocked down.

"Those CID sure can't jump rope!" Applejack noted, eyeing the mechanical carnage with satisfaction.

"But they sure love fireworks!" Pinkie cried, using the matches they found to set off volley after volley of brightly colored missiles out the roof and into the crowd of CID, some of which watched on uncertainly.

"Oh, over there!" Fluttershy pointed, barely peeking over the bottom of the window. "No, there! And over there! They just keep coming!"

"Ooh, ooh!" Rainbow exclaimed, poking Corey in the shoulder. "Three O'clock, big group, smash 'em Cor'!"

The group swayed as the shuttle swerved, and a great clattering met their ears as Rainbow hollered in laughing approval.

"That's what happens when you mess with Eques... tria!" she cried, receiving a frown from Pinkie Pie as she readied a firework as wide as her own hoof.

"Yeeshy-weeshy, that was a little forced.”

"Oh whatever!" Rainbow said, her face reddening. "Point is, we rock—!"

Rarity screamed as something in the hatch leading underneath the shuttle seized one of her rear hooves and started pulling her down.

"I'm comin' Rar'!" Applejack cried, leaping to grab her by the forelegs. As she pulled Rarity to safety, they saw a heap of metal, ceramics and sparks drag itself up from beneath the shuttle and point the muzzle of its gun directly at Applejack's forehead.

"No!" Rarity screeched, heaving her body to the left and forcing the mangled CID to miss as it fired a shot.

The shot wasn't for naught, however.

"Argh!" Applejack screamed as a crimson splash coated the windows and seats behind her.

"Applejack!" the ponies cried, as Rarity and the CID hoisted themselves into the shuttle.

The CID was scraped and scratched to the point that very few surfaces still gleamed. It stepped awkwardly with one whole leg, one leg broken-off at the joint, and one leg ripped from its hip-socket. It took aim once more, at Corey this time, who held his USP Match readily. He didn't fire however, as the CID stood between him and several of the ponies.

"You're scrap!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she tackled the machine, grabbing its weaponized arm and wrestling to keep it away from the others. This proved difficult, as however fearless her actions, Rainbow Dash was still fighting a machine, hoof to steely hand.

The CID was only barely held back by the Pegasus, and had one free arm to grab Rainbow Dash by the throat. She spluttered as her face turned red, and the pitiless machine pressed further, intent upon crushing the bones in her very neck.

"ENOUGH!" Fluttershy shouted, tears and fury in her eyes as she kicked the robot with shocking force in its own exposed neck.

Be it by a failure of its nervous system or sheer surprise, the machine released Dash's neck. She fell to the ground, coughing and hacking.

"You will NEVER!" Fluttershy screeched, smashing its shoulder assembly with another kick, the gun dangling uselessly.

"EVER!" A blow that shattered its black visor, revealing circuitry and an insect-like array of cameras for eyes.

"Touch my friends AGAIN!" The hit splintered much of the CID's ceramic chest-plate, sending it wobbling backwards towards the hatch.

"EVER!" Fluttershy bellowed, one last buck to the head sending it back into the hole, where it was crushed further between the undercarriage and the runway.

"Way to go Fluttershy!" Pinkie cried, finally tossing her long-lit firework through the roof in celebration. Seconds later, the screeches, whistles and bangs of the improvised explosive rang through the air. The rear windows flooded with the incredibly bright flashes strobing like an epileptic's nightmare.

Applejack!" Rarity called, looking the injured mare over. "Darling, you're hurt!"

"It— It does sting like a Manticore," Applejack responded, wincing as the sticky red fluid ran down her neck and pooled onto the floor.

"Where's she hit?" Corey asked.

"My ear," Applejack said. "I don't mean to complain, but dag-gummit, this really hurts!"

Indeed, a ragged hole in her left ears had been torn through by the CID's bullet.

"I've got that first-aid kit in my bag, but I'm a little preoccupied!" Twilight offered, expanding her magical reach farther as the CID changed tactics and were firing at range to stay beyond her reach.

Rarity trotted over to Twilight and dug through her bag for the kit. Once she'd located the tin container, she busied herself with some gauze and prepared to wrap the injury.

"It looks a lot worse than it is," Corey assured them, seeing the concern dripping from Pinkie and Fluttershy's faces.

The blood spatter from the gunshot had indeed made Applejack a ghastly sight. Blood dripped down her face and neck, but it had also splashed into her blond hair and onto the underside of her treasured hat.

"Rarity," Applejack said, managing a smile rather than a grimace, "I reckon you saved my life."

Rarity smiled back. "You saved mine first."

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash laughed, coughing. "And then Fluttershy here saved my neck, pretty literally."

"Okay, the sentiment is nice," Corey said, "but let's not forget we're driving a damned bus through a war zone, okay?"

"Oh, what was that?" Rainbow asked falsely. " 'Thank you Rainbow Dash, for jumping the rampaging death-machine and saving you from certain doom?' Well thanks, solider-boy! Great to know you appreciate it!"

"You want pleases and thank-yous?" Corey asked. "Go back to Kindergarten. Right now, this is a unit, and people in a unit watch each other's backs. You did what was expected of you, nothing more. You want a medal? Because that stuff comes after the bullets stop flying."

"What I want," Rainbow rasped, pausing to cough again, "is a little gratitude, you big jerk!"

"Fine. Thank you Dash, for doing your job. Forgive me if that sounds totally asinine—"

Corey swerved the shuttle violently as one of Rainbow's front hooves struck him in the side of the head. "You little blue bitch!" Corey cried.

"You try anything like that with me again and you're going home with a fucking limp, I swear to god!"

"You talk all big. How's about you and me, one on one, none of your weapons, and we'll see what you humans are made of in a fair fight?!"

"Wouldn't exactly be fair, you'd win hands-down," Corey said, regaining his focus on the runway.

"Well I— Huh?" Rainbow murmured as she realized what he'd said.

"Behind us!" Fluttershy shrieked suddenly. "Behind us!"

"Fluttershy, we're running away!" Rainbow reminded her. "There's a lot of stuff behind us."

"No!" Fluttershy cried, shaking her head frantically. "Look!"

The group turned and voiced their displeasure as they saw exactly what Fluttershy was talking about. Barely airborne, but closing fast, Twilight recognized the aircraft from the tour video as it hovered ever closer.

"Oh, fuck me!" Corey shouted, watching the craft approach in the rear-view mirror. "He's bringing the SHADEs into this!"

"SHADEs?" Twilight asked, not tearing her eyes from the thing.

"Supersonic High-Altitude Drone Eradicator. I hope your shield can take a savage beating Twilight, because these things are Armageddon on wings!"

As if to demonstrate his point, the SHADE made a whirring sound atop the thrumming. Seconds later, a hail of bright bullets erupted from two cannon barrels mounted under its nose with a deafening buzzing sound.

The group ducked and screamed at the thunderous force, which vibrated the very air around them. Twilight's force field shuddered and rippled chaotically as it deflected what appeared to be hundreds of rounds. After several seconds of nonstop firing, the SHADE ended its onslaught, hovering after them curiously before hanging back. Moments later, a double-barrel rotating turret popped out of the underside of its nose and took several carefully measured shots with no more effect than the cannons.

"Jesus," Corey muttered, shaking his head as he started to sweat.

"Another hit like that and my force field is gonna shatter!" Twilight said, getting to her feet.

"Trixie will handle the other machines!" the caped unicorn told her. "You work on that."

"What's it doing?" Rainbow asked, tilting her head. "It should be all over us, what is it waiting for?"

"Oh crap!" Corey exclaimed, sitting up straight as his eyes widened. "It's getting into range for a missile lock! Hey, Pinkie!"

"Yeah?"

"If you've got bottle rockets or anything that makes sparks headed away from us, now would be a good time! They're not quite flares, but you work with what you've got!"

"I'm on it, Mister Webber sir!" Pinkie said, saluting with her chest puffed out before grabbing a wooden rack of little rockets out of her bag. She leapt up with her legs splitting to land her back hooves on top of two seats across the shuttle walkway, reached up and set the rack out the top hatch and onto the roof of the shuttle. She struck a match with her mouth and lit the fuses in a fluid motion.

Two square compartments beneath the SHADE's wings lit up as two meteoric flares of light roared towards them riding columns of smoke.

"Ah Christ!" Corey yelled.

"Brace for impact, y'all!" Applejack ordered, grabbing one of Pinkie's hooves and making her yelp as she fell from the seats to the floor.

The missiles were within a hundred feet of them when Pinkie's improvised countermeasures whizzed off in a fit of sparks and shrill whistles. The two missiles reacted like attack dogs with strips of bacon thrown past them. One chased after a bottle rocket, just missing them and plowing full-tilt into the ceiling on the north side of the hangar with a blast of air and fire that might have leveled any building in Ponyville. The other turned-tail completely, forcing the SHADE to weave sideways with surprising grace to avoid its own projectile. The rogue explosive struck the bulkhead at the end of the hangar they'd just left, creating the sense that the wall itself was made of fire.

"Holy horseapples!" Twilight said, voice shaking, her eyes pinpoints. "If that'd hit us, w-we'd be a smudge on the floor!"

"What even just happened?!" Rainbow demanded, her jaw slack, and one eye halfway wincing shut. "Why did that work?"

"Those missiles use an infrared guidance system," Corey answered. "They see heat and hone-in on it. We use flares to confuse the guidance system, make it chase the flares instead of us. I guess fireworks work too."

"It's back!" Pinkie shrieked, as the SHADE lined itself up for another volley. "And I'm out of firecrackers!"

Applejack’s brows met in the middle. "Corey, we need to hide!"

"Hide where?!" Corey shouted, his right hand outstretched as he grit his teeth. "This whole damn thing is a straightaway!"

"Then make this thing go faster!" Rainbow ordered, jumping in.

"It doesn't matter!" Corey said. "We've still gotta open one of those huge-ass blast-doors when we get there! Either we take this thing out, or it takes us out!"

"Oh no!" Twilight moaned, as the second pair of missiles finally screeched towards them.

"Do something Twilight!" Pinkie shouted.

"Okay, okay!" Twilight said, her breathing ragged as her horn lit up once again.

Twilight's expression went blank as the projectiles stopped in midair, their fiery trail looking more like a blowtorch with them immobilized. "Is this a joke?" Twilight asked, a frown deepening as it slid onto her face. "Is he that desperate to stop us now?"

Twilight spat a breath out as the missiles sped backwards, against their own thrust, and right back at the craft that sent them. The SHADE turned and moved in full reverse, trying to evade the Twilight guidance system. But in a cramped space filled with obstacles, the SHADE became pressed against the ceiling as the missiles caught up and detonated.

The flaming wreckage of the SHADE fell after the initial explosions, upon which another blast expanded from the fuselage as the rest of its ordnance ignited. The resulting blast filled the ceiling of the hangar with smoke, and a raging fire danced across the runway behind them.

"Yeah, yeah yeah!" Rainbow cried, pumping one of her forehooves up and down victoriously. "Woo! 'Returned to sender!' "

She and the others yelped however, as the shuttle violently bounced twice over something in the road, and a series of great popping noises shot through the vehicle.

"What the hay was that?" Applejack asked, her eyes wide.

Corey groaned as the shuttle came to a stop, though he managed to turn it so the door-side faced the great hangar doors, leaving them less exposed. "The right-side tires blew," he said, halfway chewing his bottom lip. "I guess the CID managed to chip at them after all. We just ran over part of the inner blast-door."

"Inner door?" Trixie asked, still keeping the CID at bay.

"Yeah." He pointed to the left wall a hundred feet away. "There's an override switch over there that'll close us off from the rest of the hangar. The outer door opens in sections, so the inner door is one solid piece to protect the hangar from attack. Any chance you can reach it?"

"Naturally!" Trixie exclaimed, her horn glowing again. This time however, her eyes narrowed deeper and deeper until she turned to him. "I can't feel it! It's been enchanted!"

"Let me try," Twilight said, her own horn pulsating with power while Trixie seethed.

"Oh no, she's right!"

"Well of course!" Trixie spat, face screwed up in a grimace. "I'm not an incompetent!"

"So of all the things he practically let us have," Twilight said, not indicating she'd even heard Trixie, "he switches out the door controls to strand us at the last minute?"

"That's a long damn walk," Corey muttered. "Even if you made it over there somehow, whoever goes isn't getting that lucky twice."

"I could tie thread around the handle and pull," Rarity offered.

"But the panel's closed," Rainbow Dash sighed. "That is the panel right?"

Corey nodded as Twilight made another suggestion. "Well, I could make some cover with all those machine parts scattered around."

"That's a thought. You'll need to stick with the transports though. The CID will just target the missiles on the attack craft and turn them into explosives. And you saw the mess those make."

"Shoot!" Twilight exclaimed, only seeing a handful of transports, but enveloping them in magic and lining them along the path all the same.

Applejack’s tone was flat. "It 'aint enough. There's still way too much open space."

"What about..." Trixie strained, as the door to the roof of the shuttle wrenched itself off with a violet glow. "This? You said the parts of this carriage were immune to their weapons, did you not?"

"I did, but I don't know how far any of us will get, even if we play 'Captain America' with a bulletproof panel."

"No worries guys and gals!" Pinkie skipped towards the door. "I've got this!"

"Pinkie, no!" Rarity gasped, grabbing her poofy tail with her magic and trying to drag her away from the door.

"But I can do it!" Pinkie whined, her expression darkening as she struggled.

"Kid," Corey said, "I have to be frank with you—"

"Can't you be Corey with me?" Pinkie asked.

Corey only responded by pumping ferocity into his tone. "This is not a fucking game! Look Pinkie, you've got guts, but you're just going to get yourself hurt."

"Aww!" Pinkie sighed, her expression softening into a small smile. "You care about me! You're sweet! But I can still do this in two shakes of a peppermint cane."

"Pinkie, what makes you think you can do this?" Twilight asked her, stone-faced.

"What makes you think I can't?" Pinkie asked with a pout, before placing her forehooves on Twilight's shoulders. "You've gotta trust me on this Twilight. I can make it!"

"I—" Twilight croaked, feeling her eyes dampen as she hugged her friend. "I know you can. Please, just please come back. We love you Pinkie."

The others murmured their agreement, not taking their eyes off the fuchsia mare.

"Oh, you're gonna make me all blurry!" Pinkie said, pouting and smiling simultaneously as she stepped out the door, grabbing the door hatch and holding it like a shield.

"Hey, Pinkie," Corey started.

"Hmm?" Pinkie mumbled.

"You're annoying, but you're cute. Just thought I'd say that."

"Uh," Pinkie hummed, "Okay! Thanks, bye!"

And with that, she shot out the door. She poised herself at the edge of the shuttle, bobbing back and forth as she prepared.

"I'm not watching this," Corey muttered, turning his back as the other mares pressed themselves up against the glass.

"Ohhhhhhhh...!" Pinkie larked, taking one more bob before tossing her hatch-shield in front of her, which spun on its rounded corner like a coin before she cart-wheeled after it. Shots fired everywhere as she came out of the cart-wheel behind the spinning hatch and went into a trot, appearing and vanishing from the CID's view so she looked like a thaumatrope animation.

"Hey you silly CIDs, in your silly CID-y city! Where everything is cold and dark and nothing's very pretty!
"I know you're just machines, but hope you like this little ditty... about you silly CIDs, in your silly CID-y city!"

Corey had turned around to watch, and was surveying the scene blankly as the little mare found the halfway point and some of the cover Twilight had provided.

"Have I gone nuts, or is she really—"

"Eeyup," Applejack answered, similarly transfixed.

"On the spot, in the middle of a warz—"

"Yah huh," Rarity chirped.

There was a moment of silence as they watched a few CID closing in to surround her and force her from cover.

"Be honest. I'm in Hell, aren't I?"

Mandeville watched the scene before him with dwindling patience as the little pink pony carelessly trekked through no-man's-land without as much as a scratch.

"CAIRO, what the Hell is going on with the CID's targeting system?"

"All units are operating correctly," CAIRO reported.

"Then explain to me how this shit is happening!" Mandeville shouted, waving a hand at the monitor.

"CID targeting system has failed to anticipate current target's movements correctly. Target movement is... random."

Mandeville glared up at the ceiling in silence.

"Oh Mandeville, Mandeville, I think we've had our fill!" Pinkie sang, sidestepping a CID by slipping between its legs. The CID buckled as it's legs were torn apart by its fellows' bullets. Pinkie continued her steady trot, spinning her little shield atop her nose like a seal with a ball.

"All these pale fluorescent lights have made us rather ill," she continued, before grabbing the shield in her mouth and swinging it low in front of her body. She appeared not to notice as rounds ricocheted off the shield, and another CID behind her took one right in the visor as she tossed it high into the air.

"Doc Pinkie says you're loopy, but she won't send you a bill!" She versed, as a CID towered before her, aiming between her eyes before the shield dropped on its head with a sound like a gong, smashing its head and neck into its torso like a turtle.

"I'll go halfway and say this though: you're not run of the mill!" she leapt upon the CID to retrieve her shield, the dead robot being riddled with holes in the process. She caught it mid-jump and kicked off the CID, climbing onto the shield as she fell and slid across the runway like it were a pan sledge. She passed through a line of CID which fired as she passed between them, most of the hapless machines falling over as their fellows shot them by accident.

The way clear, Pinkie bounced and danced erratically as she began the chorus again, rounds whizzing past her but never meeting their mark. "Hey you silly CIDs, in your silly CID-y city! Where everything is cold and dark and nothing's very pretty!"

She opened the panel with the switch, only to find no switch inside at all. It had been removed. A CID with its gun-arm shot off grabbed for her with its steel hand from behind, but she had already ducked into her bag for something, and the machine grasped thin air. The CID found itself shot to pieces by its fellows as they similarly missed their opportunity, its arm shot-off below the joint.

"I know you're just machines, but hope you liked this little ditty..." The arm landed in Pinkie's bag, and she gasped to see it, grabbing it in her mouth and mumbling "Hey! F'anks!

Pinkie then jammed the end of the arm into the spot where the switch should be. "About you silly CIDs, in your silly CID-y city!" she finished, pulling the arm down, making the panel spark as a great rumbling noise signaled the massive inner door beginning to close. Two solid walls of steel rolled to meet in the center, one rising from the floor, the other lowering from the ceiling.

Mission accomplished, Pinkie Pie gaily cantered over to the shuttle as the massive door continued closing. Only now had Pinkie noticed all the sounds of gunfire near the shuttle, which was being circled by three CID. Only one CID —on the roof of the shuttle, gazing inside the hatch— had a direct line of sight with her. Now with a definite target, the CID aimed for Pinkie.

Almost immediately, the same CID appeared to change its mind and aim back at the hatch. The CID's head then exploded, a cloud of electronic shrapnel bursting into the air like a steel and silicon geyser.

In sudden desperation, a CID facing the side made to storm the shuttle-door directly. But no sooner had the door's segments begun to slide open than they were blasted off their hinges —the CID sent tumbling with it— by a pair of orange hooves. Following this, a length of rope gripped in a crystal-blue glow soared out and detained the CID before it had a chance to recover.

Only the CID at the front of the shuttle remained, and it resorted to firing at a single spot in the glass which became whiter and more dented by the moment. On an unrelated note, the glass higher up from this turned red-hot and molten as a laser-like beam struck the CID in the chest, which too melted through before the robot went lock-stiff and fell onto its back.

This done, the shuttle's occupants filed out, Applejack emerging first and giving the struggling CID Rarity tied-up a swift kick.

"That's for my ear!" she told it, tilting her hat forward with a hoof.

"Now really dear," Rarity chuckled, "haven't you considered that this may be a fabulous opportunity to start wearing an earring?"

"Nope.”

"I'm only saying, when life hoofs you lemons, make lemon meringue pie."

"Pinkie!" Twilight cried, racing over with Fluttershy to hug the mare with a bright smile. "You're okay! And you were amazing!"

"Well, which is it?" Pinkie asked, a single ear flopped backwards. "Am I 'okay' or am I 'amazing?' "

"Oh Pinkie Pie," Fluttershy said with a smile, "don't ever change."

"Oh hey!" Rainbow Dash cried, gliding over to the tied CID and glaring into its visor. "And if you're watching this Mandeville, I wanna' tell ya' that if this is the best you've got, Equestria's gonna serve you your own flank!"

"And let me tell you!" Mandeville's voice retorted from the CID, even making Rainbow jump. "You haven't seen anything I'm capable of, and it won't matter how long your capitol has to prepare, nor what information you provide them. The reign of your gods is coming to an abrupt and absolute end."

A thrumming and whirring sound began, sounding far off, only to steeply intensify as a SHADE strafed its way through the closing doors. Its little turret popped out from inside its nose and faced their direction, with Twilight having only a moment to shield them from the storm of bullets. Not waiting for things to escalate, Twilight reached out with her magic and seized the entire craft in her magenta grasp. With a grunt, she hurled the SHADE against the north wall where it exploded, engulfing half the space in flames as the inner doors finally sealed with a deep, resounding echo.

Corey, G36 Carbine in hand, promptly blasted the still-living CID as he turned to Pinkie and the southern series of outer doors. "Kid, I don't know what the fuck all that was," he said, scratching Pinkie behind her ears and tousling her mane, "but you did good."

"Excuse me," Trixie piped-up, "but I'm rather anxious to finally leave this horrible place. Mister Webber, would you know how—?"

"You're right, we need to get moving before that fire turns our escape into a back-draft. No worries though: it's just a button."

Indeed, a relatively short jog found them the south corner of the hangar and the door outside the facility. The door was broken up into several small doors, each with a series of gears as large as the ponies were mounted into a nook. The runway ramped up to the doors, and the nook for the gears and controls was built into this ramp. Corey needed only to press a single green button for the section in front of them to begin its ascent into the ceiling.

"It'll take CAIRO a bit to close this. The override is designed for emergency exits, and with a fire on the runway he's gonna have to disable his safeties to make this sucker close agai—"

The entire group fell silent as the door raised enough for them to see what was beyond it. For a moment, they assumed it was night, but Luna's signature purple skies were nowhere in sight. Instead, Rarity lit her horn to cast the wall of dirt in front of them into harsh relief.

"No," Trixie croaked. "No, no no no no no!"

"I can't believe this..." Applejack said, "We were so close!"

"No no no NO!" Trixie cried, a wave of her magic slamming into the mound of earth.

The group scuttled backwards as the dirt cascaded down in front of them.

"Ulgh!" Rarity groaned, stepping away from the soil. "You know, somehow I knew dirt would be my undoing one day: I don't need to wallow in it as well!"

Suddenly, the nearby gears started working as the door slowly closed again.

"Oh no," Twilight shouted defiantly, searching her bag, "not after all we did for this stupid door!"

Twilight pulled a gleaming ruby from her saddlebag: the same ruby Rarity had given her only yesterday. She wedged the gem into the gears, which groaned angrily, but held.

"Ruby is the hardest stuff there is next to diamond and dragon teeth," she explained. "Stuck or not, I'm not letting them corner us that easily."

"I won't be trapped in here another minute!" Trixie declared to the dirt. "I'm going to be free! Do you understand Trixie?! FREE!"

Another arcane blast brought even more dirt down, and Rarity made to open her mouth once more, but she found herself suddenly blinded by an astonishing blue light.

"Trixie...!" Twilight gasped, staring at the shred of luminance that made the artificial light of the hangar seem more lifeless and muted even than before.

Twilight stepped beside Trixie, flashing her a genuine smile as her horn too glowed.

"One...!" Twilight counted. "Two...! Three!"

And with that, the unicorn pair shoved the wall of dirt. The dirt cracked loudly and parted as the light became brighter, until at last the entire solid chunk of earth fell loudly and dustily onto the hill outside, smashing into a powdery brown pile. Sunlight poured in, the brilliant blue late-afternoon sky making the hangar seem all the darker as their eyes adjusted.

There were no words, just the cautious steps of all but the two unicorns into the fresh Everfree air.

"We made it," Twilight said, stepping into the doorway. "We really made it!"

"Yes." Trixie’s eyes brimmed with tears as the cool breeze danced across her face.

Twilight turned to face her. "Trixie?"

The blue unicorn backed away past the nook and gears quickly as Twilight advanced. She winced, preparing for anything, only to find Twilight's hoof pointed to her in offering. After staring a second more, she took it, Twilight shaking her hoof slowly.

"Thank you. You could have left us all here, gone with Corey. It probably would've been easy too. But you came back.

"Nothing will ever bring Spike back, but..." Twilight sniffed. "I know you would, if you could. What I'm saying is... Trixie... I forgive y—"

A great, brittle crunching noise broke the spell of sunlight as they heard the scratched ruby fracture and turn to powder in the teeth of the gears. The two gasped as the door began closing in earnest, bolting for the exit.

Trixie, however, felt something snag her by the neck, and she was flung onto her back. She felt a rippling movement beneath her as she turned to see her starry cape had been caught in the teeth of the gears, and was quickly drawing her toward their meshing point. She stood up in panic, trying to rip the cape off. She stood herself up in hopes that the extra pressure would snap the cloth around her neck, but she found the surface she'd stood her back-right leg upon was moving. Too late, she realized her mistake as a blinding, sickening pain shot from her leg up her spine and into her frantic brain.

Twilight Sparkle turned upon hearing Trixie scream in an agony that made every hair on her body stand at attention. The door had stopped moving, but for a reason that filled her eyes with terror.

"Trixie!" Twilight shouted, leaping to assist the trapped magician. Trixie was lying on her side, hyperventilating as her teary eyes shrank to pinpricks. It didn't take long to find the source of Trixie's pain: her entire back-right hoof up to the first joint had been caught in the teeth of the gears. A wave of nausea crashed over Twilight as she imagined Trixie's position. Her hoof was almost certainly crushed flat, and the red, metallic-smelling fluid seeping from the nearly flush metal agreed with this idea.

"Twilight!" she moaned. "He-elp me, pleaaaaase help me-he! It huuuuurts! It hurts so mu-huuuuch!"

"I'm going to get you out!" Twilight shouted, shaking from nose to tail. "I promise Trixie, I'm getting you out of he—!"

"What the hay is goin' on?!" Applejack demanded, as Corey and Rainbow Dash ran in after her.

"Yeah!" Rainbow shouted. "We heard somepony scre— Oh my gosh!"

In moments the others realized the source of Trixie's pain and were transfixed.

"AAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHH!" Trixie screamed, as the gears turned another tooth's worth, taking her calf this time with a sickening crunching sound. Twilight stared in a moment of shock, a part of her mind thinking how appropriate it was that a gear's meshing bits were called 'teeth...' because it felt very much like some savage metal beast was slowly trying to eat her alive.

Shaking herself from her morbid reverie, Twilight shook Trixie by the shoulders as she realized the mare had laid her head down and was swooning, unfocused eyes working to meet hers.

"Trixie?! Trixie, you've got to stay with me!"

"Can't..." Trixie murmured. "Can't feel my hoof... it's gone..."

"She's losing a lot of blood," Corey said, stone-faced but taking deep, shuddering breaths through flared nostrils. He dug through his pack, avoiding the sight of Trixie's torment altogether. "We need to get her loose and the limb cauterized. There better be somewhere we can take her close-by, or else she's gonna die of septic shock."

In moments, the initial shock passed and Trixie became cognizant again. "Twili-hight!" she sobbed. "I do-hon't wanna die! Please, I don't wanna di-hie!"

Twilight didn't waste another second, her horn glowing as magenta enveloped the gear. "I'm not going to let you die!" she said firmly, putting everything she dared into turning the gear back.

The gear groaned and turned, but never enough to free Trixie. Eventually Twilight stopped and stared at the gear.

"It's not budging! It's got some kind of directional lock or something!"

"Oh-ho Celestia, save me-he!" Trixie wailed, groaning and wincing in constant pain.

"Shit!" Corey cried, finally digging out the hip flask he found earlier and gently tilting Trixie's head back. "Trixie, you need to drink this. It'll help the pain."

"No no, save it!" Twilight said. "We'll need it to clean the wounds! I know a numbing spell that should do something," She closed her eyes and pointed her horn at the small of Trixie's back. A glow spread from it, down the lines of Trixie's nervous system to the tips of her back hooves.

Immediately, Trixie's breathing slowed and her expression of mortal anguish diminished to mere wincing.

"Hey!" Rainbow cried, tapping the control panel beside the gears. "Can't we do something with this?!"

"Right!" Corey agreed, stepping over and hitting a number of buttons in rapid sequence. "Come on, you son of a bitch!" he shouted, slamming his fist against the override button.

"We're sorry," CAIRO's voice said through the panel, "but manual control has been disabled at this terminal. If you believe this is a mist—"

"FUCK YOU!" Corey screamed over the recording, slamming a boot into the panel as hard as he could before pacing in a tight circle, one hand rubbing his forehead roughly as he breathed heavily.

"Honey, I'm sorry!" Applejack told Trixie. "I'm terrible sorry, but we've gotta take the leg while we can!

"Twilight, you think that beam a' yours can—?"

"I don't know but... Wait! I— I've got an idea!" Twilight shouted, clutching one of Trixie's forelegs tightly. "I'll just teleport you out!"

"Of course!" Rainbow gasped.

Twilight's horn glowed once more as she attempted the jump. But as she glowed, she felt it was taking needless effort to attempt. Giving a wincing glance, she gasped to see the huge, doubtlessly heavy gears were glowing along with them.

"Wha—" Trixie managed. "What's wrong?"

"It's not taking just you!" Twilight answered. "Your leg is pressed too strongly into the gears, so they're coming with us!"

"Please! Please try... I don't wanna die like this! Twilight, I'm so scared!"

"I'll try, I'll try as hard as I can!" Twilight promised through a sob as her horn glowed again.

She had never brought so much mass in a jump. Bringing along their entire group had worn her down, but this was solid steel. She groaned and pushed her hardest, plumbing every depth of her magic that she knew. A pressure built in her skull, aching fit to burst. After straining so much she began to shout, her magic failed all at once, rebounding on her and knocking her unconscious like an arcane aneurysm. She collapsed next to Trixie on the gears, groaning.

"Twilight!" Applejack and Rainbow Dash cried.

Trixie moaned to see the most powerful of unicorns she knew fail before her. She lost control of her breathing as terror took her, while she realized what it all meant for her.

"No choice anymore!" Corey said, pulling a steely knife from his belt. Trixie saw it and winced as he approached, but her eyes shot open as the gears finally got moving again. This time Trixie moaned as her right thigh was drawn in, the pain not as terrible with Twilight's spell, but still present.

Corey put his knife away and pushed back against the gear as hard as he could, soon joined by the other two conscious ponies. Even the combined force couldn't stop the gear as Trixie was drawn in up to her hip, her left leg unable to avoid the gears any longer, splayed horizontally in an unnatural split.

"No!" Corey shrieked, banging his fist against the lifeless metal cog. "God damnit!"

"That does it!" Rainbow shouted, before seizing Trixie around the waist and pulling. Trixie moaned in response, before Applejack batted Rainbow's hooves away and struggled with the Pegasus.

"Dash, it's too late!" Applejack said. "We can't... fix somethin' like that! You tear her outta' there and shes gonna bleed to death before we're out the door!"

"We hafta' do something!" Rainbow shouted back, her face screwed up inscrutably, tears welling in her eyes. "I... I don't know what to do..."

"Go!" Trixie moaned. "Take Twilight and GO!"

Rainbow paused and sobbed openly as she complied, helping Applejack hoist Twilight's stirring body onto her back.

The gears began moving again, and Trixie's face gave the impression that her cheeks were going to explode. "Uhk! Ooooh! Uuuuulgh!"

Finally, she screamed and convulsed as her left leg vanished between the gears, and with an appalling crunching noise, so did Trixie's pelvis.

Twilight awoke slowly as Applejack folded her ears against the piteous sound.

"Applejack...?" Twilight murmured. "What's going...?"

At once, her eyes burst open, and she turned to look back. "Trixie!" Twilight cried, falling off of Applejack, who stopped to hold her back, as did Rainbow Dash.

"No, let me go! We can still save her! WE CAN STILL SAVE HER! TRIXIE!"

Corey stood on his knees in front of the poor, doomed mare, helpless as the echoes of Twilight's despair filled the background. One, helpless to save. The other, helpless to do the saving. Slowly, Trixie was dying.

"I'm sorry Trixie. I'm so sorry..."

"Please..." Trixie murmured, one of her hooves stroking his belt and holster as her breath heaved raggedly. "Make it stop..."

Corey nodded, reaching to his hip for the one right tool.

"Close your eyes," Corey said, wrapping an arm around Trixie's neck and embracing her gently. He removed her spangled hat, and held her head in the crook of his neck as he stroked her. "And dream."

Trixie only felt something cool and firm press against the side of her head, and heard a sob in her ear, before the world and everything in it abruptly went black.