June's pipbuck was hanging by a cable, attached to the terminal for the door into residential. It was covered in her blood, making me at least glad that she was not alive when they mutilated her leg to get to it. My only guess was that Thorn had used it to open the door, and left it for her troops to use. After using the pipbuck to open the door myself, I hoofed Junes pipbuck into my saddle bag. It would not have felt right to leave it there. In my upper vision, the icon for June's pipbuck 3100 poped up for a short time before fading.

Residential was quiet, but I saw no signs of any fighting, so I hurried to the atrium. My hoof steps seemed to echo loudly, as though I was being mocked with every noise. Thorn troops would hear me coming long before I would see them on my E.F.S. But I ran harder, thinking I could outrun an echo.

Sliding to a stop at the atrium door, I hit the button to open the door. I didn't even wait for the door to finish opening, rolling under the door and into the atrium. My chest pounding, lungs burning, and all four legs refusing to stay still.

"LIFEBEAT! WE NEED DOCTOR LIFEBEAT NOW!"

The atrium still had most of the decorations from the party earlier. But the room was eerily quiet, no music or foals at play. There were a few ponies sitting on one of the benches; Candy Pop, Cloud Bank, and Emerald Fields. In the middle of the room Prancer Dancer was sweeping up confetti, was being the main word, as she dropped her broom when I shouted.

"Slowtrot!" Prancer Dancer rushing over to me. "What happened?... your covered in blood!"

"Yes, that's not important. It's Under Brush, she needs Lifebeat right now. She's going to die if Lifebeat doesn't get to her in time!" My head moved around frankly, hoping I would see him. "Were is he!"

Prancer took a step back. "What happened Slowtrot?"

"it's..ahh..umm.." I took a deep breath. "shes been shot, real bad, the healing potions can do only so much." I lifted my pipbuck to her, it still had the information from the medical scan. "It's on here. Look."

My leg was pulled away from Prancer with magic. "let me look at that." Candy Pop looked intensely at the pipbuck screen. "WHAT! WHAT THE FUCK!" She looked up at me, looking scared. "She has twenty four bullet wounds, and a severed leg and hoof!"

Cloud Bank, and Emerald Field had also joined in. I didn't have time to explain everything, every second was a second I could not loose. "Just get Lifebeat now, take him to the stable door, third floor."

Prancer Dancer nodded, "Candy Pop, you go on ahead, I'll get Lifebeat." she was off, her paniced running was far more skilled then mine was. Candy Pop looked frantily around befor taking a deep breath and galoping off.

"That's wrong, they said they were holding every pony for questioning. They wouldn't do that." Emerald Field was had a worried look, almost panicked. "Is June okay? Shes okay right?"

My heart sank, and my mouth became like a desert as I spoke. "Iron Buck, pul... pull out June's pipbuck." The pipbuck floated out of my saddle bag, it still cover in blood. "Sorry, I'm sorry, there was nothing I could do." Emerald Fields took a few step back before fainting. Cloud Bank just sat down, staring blankly at the pipbuck. I could see it, they had not just lost their boss, they had lost a friend.

I tried to give the pipbuck to Cloud Bank, but he just shook his head, pushing it back to me, so I put it back into my bag.

That was it, I delivered the message. The ponies that could help Under Brush were off to save her life. Laying down on the ground to catch my breath, the full extent of how hard I pushed myself finally cough up with me. My lungs hurtl hurt every time I breath, my body was sour all over, and even though the bullet hole was closed, some of the pain was still there.

After a few minuses Emerald woken up. Taking a quick look at me, she turned her head away. "She said everything will be fine, that they had Stable-Tec's approve to be here. She even gave candy to the fouls before asking for them to be sent to their rooms. They were only here for Healing Herbs, every pony else would not be involved pased being asked a few questions."

"Your talking about Thorn right, the Admiral?" She nodded. "Thorn was the one who killed June." She winched. "June told her to leave the stable, that Thorn didn't have any authority here. So Thorn shot her."

"And then she lied about being let in by June." Cloud Bank growled as he spoke.

Emerald fields got up onto her hooves. "Right. We can't let her get away with this. The stable needs to be warned, and organized. We also need a plan to capture the admiral. You said the stable was sealed right Slowtrot?" I nodded. "There's a possibility that they could open the door from the other side, we need a plan for that to."

Cloud Bank flew up the the round window that overlooked the atrium. "The best place to start is the overmares office. The com system there is contented to every part of the stable."

I had another message to deliver, so we were off to the overmares office. Like what Under Brush had said, we have the home advantage, and we were going to use it.

After getting into the overmares office, the plan was to use the intercom to contact Healing Herbs and warn her about Thorn. But like with security, we could not get through to Labs D. Our next option was to get in contact with a member of the senor staff, and have one of them become the acting overmare until we can regain contact with Healing Herbs. But It didn't take us long to find out that all the members of the senor staff were in Labs D with Healing Herbs. So the stable was without leadership as it was under threat by the navy.

Cloud Bank filled me in to why this was a big problem for the stable, as the senor staff's had the codes to opening and closing the stable on their pipbuck's. Security may be able to close the door, but the navy could still hack into the door controls and open it. But if a member of the senor staff stepped in, they would be able to lock out the other side from the door controls, insuring that the the navy would not be able to get in.

Emerald Fields took charge of the situation, and after her announcement The Intercom nearly became clogged with researcher wanting to know what was going on. She was able to get some order among them, but there was a few researcher who argumentative at the least.

"We If we can at least get one of them back up here, then we don't have to worry about the Navy getting back in right."

Cloud Bank nodded. "We also need one of them to open the door if they fails to get in, and further locks down the door. Without their code, it's a bad situation."

"Well this is Stable-Tec, you guys have to have a way around this problem."

Could Bank sighed. "Give us time maybe. But if they open that door, it's not going to matter."

"So... why don't we go get them." Cloud Bank raised an eyebrow at my suggestion. "Can't we just send some ponies down to Lab's D?"

He froze for a a few seconds. "It's... It can't be that simple."

I had to think for a few seconds on that. Thorn was a known threat, but they didn't know about Phobetor. "It's not, were going to need some of the security to go down with guns."

He shook his head "Send them off to battle, I don't like it."

Another thought crossed my mind. "If they go down their, what happens if the senor staff is all dead, then what do we do?"

Emerald tapped at her desk, getting out attention. "Then grab their pipbucks, if you can at least get their pipbucks up here, I sould be able to get the code out of them. It's just going to be faster if we get one of them up here unharmed. Also I found a less violent solution to subduing the soldiers, Labs C has told me about a Knockout gas they had developed. If we send some down to Labs D, then we sould be able to get the staff out of their without resorting to violence."

"Sounds like an idea. Then we have a plan, I'll head down to Labs C and pick up the gas."

Cloud Bank jumped in front of me. "Wait, your not doing anything like that! We got security for just this kind of reason!"

Now I sighed. "And most of them are dead. Anyways, do you think they are going to just believe Emerald. I'm betting that they think this is a prank, I'd think it was a prank if I didn't see it myself." Cloud Bank backed up. "If I do down there looking the way I do, then they might be a lot less willing to argue."

Emerald Field cleared her throat. "Also were going to need Junes Pipbuck to open the elevator door. With the Stable in lockdown, only senor staff can move between floors. June may not have been part of the senor staff, but her pipbuck is what theirs are bast off of, so the doors will at least open up for it." That was it then, even if they could get every pony organized, some pony still needed to go down there and open a door.

"Dammit..." Cloud Bank rummaged thru his pockets, pulling out two devises. "Here, take thees, an Ear Bloom and a Broadcaster. This way we can stay in contact when you go down to Labs C." He got out of my way. "I can't believe you I'm agreeing with you. Now go before I change my mind"

"testing testing, can you hear me Slowtrot?" Cloud Bank's came through mostly clear in my left ear.

"I can, and your right, The elevators offline." I had pressed the button over ten times, and not even a beep.

"Thought so, I bet they hacked the elevator to keep it locked. Then you have to take the stairs, ether go left or right, we have two sets of stare that can take you down to labs A. The stairs will only take you between two labs, but they keep the stairs close together. So getting to Labs C sould not take long."

"What about Labs D?"

"Don't know why, but it's elevator only. But don't worry about that, Just get down to Labs C."

Galloping down the hallway to my left, I eventually found the stairs. The door to them were locked, but with Junes Pipbuck, it didn't take long to open.

The lights in the stairwell were dim, and the air even more stale. It was also so quiet the I could hear my heart beat every time I stopped. 'So your going to fight, I don't think that's a good idea, Just sticking to the plan they made sould work.' fantastic, the murder pony in my head was back.

"I need to stop her."

[i']You know that she will just kill you, and as former part of her, and now a part of you, I don't much like that idea. Though gassing her dose sound like a solid plan, but I'm betting on her killing you in the end.'

"Then what sould I do then?" taking advise from the murder pony only made me feel stupid.

'Fist off, call me Fragment. Murder pony dose sound like an awesome name, but only if I was a wrestler. Second, we can always have some pony else do it. Or better yet, get the teleportation spell from Labs B. all we need to do is get some coordinates far from the stable, the power for the spell, and poof were free.'

The door at the end of the stairwell was in reach. "Or we can just gas Thorn, and stay safe here."

'True, but you forgot about that Nightmare bitch. I doubt this stable is anywhere near safe.'

I didn't forget about Phobetor, she was what had me the most worried. I opened the door to Lab's A, doing my best to ignore ignoring Fragment.

Taking a quick look around, there were a few ponies standing around in an open room. I yelled at them to get to some where safe, of which I think all the blood on me was enough to get them running.

I pressed on the broadcaster. "Cloud bank, looks like we have a few ponies who are still out and about."

"Don't worry about that, Emerald is taking care of it. She's relaying the information to all the research leaders she can contact get in contact with. Just focuses on getting to labs C, open the door for the ponies there, and return here."

"right, moving on." turning off the broadcaster, I entered the second Stairwell that connected Labs A to Labs B.

"Okay, before I start thinking that I am going crazy, how are you even talking to me Fragment?"

'Go ask a pony that knows shit about souls. But if I were to guess, and this is more you guessing. It's probably have to do with the memory's from the pipbuck. There is more then just what you have seen, enough that I know that the memory's are not yours, but mine. Also with Thorn being nearby, that might also be whats bringing me to the surface.'

"that, that sound like it makes seance."

'To you it dose, and that's because your talking to yourself, I'm probably more you then her now. So my explanation is more just you rationalizing what's going on.'

Fragment was starting to realy irritate me.

'Well, be irritated all you want, but If you're realy doing this, then you're going to need some guns.'

The door to Labs B was in sight. I had to agree with her on that, I'll need a gun if I'm going anywhere near Thorn. Their was no way I was not going down there, I had at least an idea what might be waiting for us.

Musket Ball opened the door after the fifth time I pressed buzzer. "Y'all better have a good reason for being a nuisance." He looked at me a bit confused. "I that ya were good as gone?"

Tanking a deep breath, my heart pounded, and my body was shaking a little. "Mister Musket Ball, I need to borrow a gun from you."

He huffed. "what cha going to do with it, shoot somepony?"

"Only id I can't avoid it." I was going to say more, but I healed my tong.

"Kid, bringing a gun makes it far harder to avoid a fight, more'so if the others have guns as well."

I sighed, I realy didn't have time for this. so I showed him Junes pipbuck, I had cleaned off the blood in the overmares offices, but it still had the same effect. "They already killed June, most of the security, and Under Brush may never walk again. The fight has already started."

Musket took a step back. "Damn Zebras, let me get my rifle."

"It's not the Zebras... It's the Equestrian navy."

He froze in place.

"They branded us all as traitors working for the Zebras. It's a lie, but if Thorn kills everyone then she can make it the truth."

"And how do ya know diss?" Musket raised an eyebrow.

I took a few slow breaths, I had to make the explanation quick. If I said anything about the pipbuck 2600 being Thorn's, or her being an assassin, it would take more time to explain then I had to wast. "The navy ponies said it a few times in security. I think they just want to claim the stable, and call themselves heroes for doing it."

"And they killed June for this." I nodded. "so you have a plan?" I nodded again.

"Under Brush was able to seal off the stable, but the admiral has gone down to Labs D. If I can get some knockout gas into the ventilation, then we sould be able to capture her."

"I see, I remember hearing from Easy Fix about how easy it is to gas a stable." he turned around and trotted deeper into the room. "take what you used before, no use learning how to use a new gun right now." he pulled out to metal boxes from under a table, and some belts.

Musket Ball offered to put on a battle saddle on me, but didn't push when I refused. He instead strapped a holster onto me, one for the battle rifle, and another for the .45 auto pistol. The pipbuck called them the Stable-Tec Battle Rifle, and the Stable-Tec .45 pistol. I was also given six clips of .308, and three magazeens of .44, with enough ammo to refill them. It all felt odd to me.

I didn't stick around after I was given the guns and ammo. But I did ask him to look out for the security ponies if they need guns and ammo as well.

The stairwell from Labs B to Labs C seemed to be even darker then the last stairwell.

'You do know that unless you catch them off guard, Thorns troops are going to kill you faster then you can pull a trigger.'

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Fragment. So you have other memory of Thorn?"

'It's mostly a mess, but yes, some. The memory's that are clear to me are the ones that you have seen. The rest are faded and blurry, but I can peace them together enough to be not you. But it's strange...'

"what is?"

'The more I clearly remember the memory, the more I fade myself. Have you gained any new memory from the pipbuck?'

"No, I only have the two."

'Have you been on a boat before'

"No, well not no. One time as a filly I was pickpocketing rich... wait that's not right."

'thought so, that was the last memory I reconstructed. Now it's yours.'

"And you said that you fade every time you remember something clearly."

'Yes, I can only guess that I'm being absorbed by you. Fragments of memory and souls rejoining in a new body.'

"Well stop it, I may like to get closer to a mare, but not in that way, and not with Thorn."

Fragment gigged, it was creep as it was in my head. 'I got no control over it, I will remember and be absorbed. Just cross your hooves that none of the memory's involve sex, though it be fun to see you squirm.'

Well I was done talking to fragment about any of this, and bolted the rest of the way down the stairs.

Waiting for me were the techs and that security ponies down in Labs C. Emerald Fields had pulled through, and gotten the ponies organized.

"Umm, Hi...." right, almost forgot I was no action pony. "I Have the pipbuck you need."

They whispered among themselves, looking worryed and confused. One of the security ponies stepped forward. "Looks like she wasn't lying. Unless that's dried jam that you have all over you, and toy guns strap to ya."

"No not jam, it's blood. And Musket let me borrow the guns. I'm going down with you to help." I looked over to one of the techs who had a metal box next to her. "Is that the knockout gas?"

The tech looked at the box, and back at me. "Ye...yes, we just need to install it in the air purification in Labs D, and turn it on. After a minute or two, every pony in Labs D will be asleep."

The security pony snorted "After that, we can work on capturing the invading ponies, and remove them from the stable."

I pulled out the pipbuck from my bag, and gave to one of the tech's. Taking it, the tech totted off don the hall to the elevator. The job I was originally sent down here for was done, now the rest was personal to me.

From what I could see, Labs C was quite different from the other two labs. Everything was clean and white, and most of the rooms I could see were filled with test tubes, a rainbow of color under glass for experiments unknown to me. It was like the old science fiction movies had come to life down here. I wondered what kind of experiments were going on down here. But with the mission at hoof, I didn't ask them.

Not long after the tech plugged the pipbuck into a terminal connected to the elevator, the doors opened. A strong wind came from the door, surprising me and a few others, but we all quickly regained our composer.

"So, I was wondering, how are we going to get down?"

A harness was tossed near my hooves. "By rope, just put that on and we will descend down."

Four security ponies, two tech ponies, and the gas were all outfitted with the harness. I also quicly put on the harness as well, but had to get some help. When every pony was ready, two ropes were hooked onto the inside of the elevator shaft, and thrown down into it.

"Slowtrot, can you let Emerald Fields know that were sending the gas to Labs D."

Noddin, I turned away and pressed the button on the broadcaster. "Could Bank, Their about to head down to Labs D, with the gas."

Static filled my left ear. "Good, now get back up here, we might need..."

I turned off the broadcaster and waited for a few seconds. "Got it, I'll let you know if anything changes down there." Turning back to the others, they nodded to themselves and turned their attention to the elevator shaft.

Each one clipped a devise to the harness, it was a rope that connected to the harness with a metal part dangling at the end. Two of the security ponies clipped the metal end to the rope in the shaft, jumping into the shaft soon after. With a *click* a unicorn had attached one to me as well. "This is a magical rappelling tool. we have it already set to descend at the same speed as every pony else, you just need to attach it to the rope, and jump."

I looked at the rappelling tool, it seemed simple enough. "thanks."

The others had just attached the box with the gas to both of the ropes, and pushed it off. The other two sucrity ponies were nowere to be seen, so I guessed that they were already in the shaft. The two techs were next to jump into the shaft, though they seemed far more hesitant to do it.

I looked over into the shaft, both above and below I saw a dark pit. *Click* the unicorn attached the rappelling tool to one of the ropes, I looked back at her and nodded. She lifted Junes pipbuck in her magic, placing it back into my saddlebag, I gave her a smile. Sitting at the edge of the shaft, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

I came this far, and I wanted to go back. I wanted to crawl into a bed and pretend to sleep. I wanted this to be a bad dream.

Sliding off the edge, the rappelling tool stomped me from falling. instead I slowly descended into the darkness.

When the elevator doors closed, It felt like I was smothered in darkness. But unlike with Phobetor, it was warm, and the air seemed to pulse.

Below me I could see the lights of pipbucks turn on. Illuminating the six ponies that had gone down before me. So I fiddled with mine until I found the pipbuck lamp function. Lighting up the area around me in a soft glow that only seems to extend two legs far.

There was a little chatter at first, but every pony quiet down after a security pony told them to. There may have been a possibility of the navy ponies hearing us if we got too loud.

With the dark surrounding me, and every pony talking in whispers, I half expected Phobetor appear to taunt me. But there was nothing, and I didn't like it. each creek, and shadow made me jump, and everything started to blur together as time went on.

There was no color.

The sound was a consent hum.

And the air pulsed.

"Mister Slowtrot, I see this is the fourth time you have been here this year, and the ninth time in the last four years."

Wait what?

"Are you currently still employed at any of these jobs we placed you at? We do have others that need work."

I was back in the job placement office, but I was still hanging from the rope. There was no color to the room, and the mare, who still did not look at me, seemed to have melted a bit. Looking down I could still see the other ponies. A hallucination, I was ready for Phobetor to attack, but this was just an odd way to do it.

"Mister Slowtrot, if your going to just sit there and not respond, I'll have to ask you to move on. We have other ponies in need of work."

I looked back at the office worker, to see that she had actually looked at me, and she had no eye. "creepy."

".krow fo deen ni seinop rehto evah eW .no evom ot uoy ksa ot evah ll'I ,dnopser ton dna ereht tis tsuj ot gniog ruoy fi ,tortwolS retsiM"

Her face started melting like wax, it falling upwards into the darkness above me. Green Flame erupted from her now exposed skull, turning the wight bone black. The walls behind her also caught fire, bathing everything around me in a sickly green glow. Crumbling, the walls gave way to the city of Applewood, also burning in green flames.

'I don't think this is a hallucination Slowtrot, not entirely!'

looking up I could see Fragment, now looking more like me, and far less like Thorn. "Then what is this?"

'If you don't know, then I don't know. But can you feel it in the air, it's electric, and pulsing. Maybe a lot of magic. We sould ask a unicorn.'

She dropped and landed on my back, there was no wait to her, but I almost yelped when she did it. Reaching out with her hoof, she swiped at the burning city. It all broke apart like wet paper in water.

'Just like that, strange?'

"Eeeeee!" the rope swayed, knocking me agents the wall. "GET THEM OUT, GET THEM OUT!"

"WHEAT GRAIN GET A HOLED OF YOURSELF!"

"OH CELESTIA I CAN FEEL THEM INSIDE OF ME!" I hit the wall again as the rope moved back and forth. "GET AWAY FROM ME, THEY WILL GET INTO YOU AS WELL!"

"WHEAT JUST CALM DOWN... WHEAT! WHEAT DAMMIT WHEAT."

I could here the distant sound of something hitting the bottom, echoing past me.

'What a way to go, at least it was fast. I think.' She pointed down at one of the tech's below me. 'You see what I see, or to be accurate, I see what you see. And I see a mare about to take a dive as well.'

Shit! "HAY, DON'T DO IT, SOME PONY STOP HER!" she fell, hitting the box, and was caught by one of the security pony below her.

"WE GOT HER! DAMN WHAT IN TARTARUS IS GOING ON HERE!"

'What indeed.'

Nopony answered him. The quiet darkness returned, almost like it was mocking us.

Whatever was making the hallucinations had fortunately stopped for the rest of the trip down. Sadly, Wheat Grains mangled corpse was what greeted us at the bottom. His back broken from falling onto a horizontal beam on the elevator, ripping his skin open, and forced some of his insides out of his mouth.

One of the techs threw up almost as soon as he saw the body. The other was out cold, she had hit her head on the box hard, and probably would not wake up anytime soon.

Two of the security ponies opened a door to get into the elevator, the light from the inside bathed the area around us, nearly blinding me. Dropping the rope through the door, the box went in first, the two security ponies soon vanished below, followed by the third security pony holding the unconscious tech. When the other tech was ready to move on, after ejecting everything from his stomach, he jumped below.

I pressed onto the broadcaster. "Cloud Bank, were at Labs D." Only wight noise filled my ear, I could hear some pony talking, but nothing to make out what they were saying. I turned off the broadcaster.

Looking down at the door below me, I knew it was already to late to turn back, but the option of taking the elevator up raged to the front of my mind. 'It's not a bad idea. It be hard for Thorn to clime her way back up. Make Labs D her tomb.'

"It's never that easy." I jumped down into the elevator, the rappelling tool keeping my descent slow and safe.