Deep inside the stark white base, fillies and colts huddled together under the watchful eyes of several Cye troopers spaced evenly along the walls. Every foal was afraid to move lest the androids decide they were a threat and hurt them. For the most part, the metal troopers seemed to want nothing to do with the young ponies and left them alone, although they seemed to be silently watching each pony. Other than that, the robotic soldiers seemingly ignored their charges.

The room itself was brightly lit and the same stark white as the rest of the building. There was no furniture to speak of, the foals were forced to stand or sit on the floor, and there seemed to be no doors or windows. A few concealed vents brought in fresh air to keep the young ones cool and breathing, but that was the only comfort allowed the ponies in their prison.

As the minutes turned into hours, the young ponies began to whisper amongst themselves about their new situation. One group of three young fillies in particular was excitedly whispering about how they could stage an escape and maybe get their Cutie Marks in the process. The whispers started to get louder as each tried to talk over the others to get her idea heard first, and an argument was threatening to break out.

“Ah’m tellin’ ya, we should jus’ try to find the door!” Applebloom nearly yelled at a purple-maned, orange pegasus blank-flank, “There’s gotta be one, ‘cause we came through it!”

“That’s dumb!” Scootaloo growled back, “We should follow the air to a vent and just crawl out! That’s how the spies do it in the stories!”

“That ain’t gonna work! They ain’t gonna let us crawl through a vent! Besides, there’s gonna be some big fan that kin make us int’ Cutie Mark Crusader salad!”

“We should find a vent!”

“No, a door!”

“Vent!”

“Door!”

“Stop it!” yelled a squeaky voice. The arguing fillies turned to the final member of their group, a white unicorn with a light pink and purple mane, to see her pouting angrily at them. She looked between them before continuing a voice that cracked into a high squeak as she spoke, “We can’t find the door OR a vent,” She pointed towards their robotic guardians, “they’ll stop us before we could touch anything.”

“But Sweetie Belle!” whined the orange pegasus, “If we could get out and find Rainbow Dash she’d help us rescue all the other fillies and colts!”

“An’ if that don’ work,” added the earth filly excitedly, “Ah know ma big sister’s gonna be lookin’ for us. We could find ‘er an’ lead ‘er here!”

“We don’t even know where here is!” insisted the unicorn, “We’d just get ourselves hurt! Besides,” her voice dropped and became fearful, and her eyes brimmed, “we don’t even know if anypony is coming. We could be trapped here forever!”

“We gon’ be here foreber?” asked a small, distraught voice from near the arguing trio. Applebloom turned her head to see a tiny, gray pegasus filly staring at them with wide, tear-filled eyes. Before they could say a word, the little pony burst out in heartbreaking sobs, “I dun wan’ be here! I wan’ go home! I wan’ my momma!”

“Now look whatcha did!” cried the earth filly as she hugged the little one close, “Looky here, wha’s yer name?”

“Z-Zepper.” sobbed the pegasus foal.

“Zephyr, don’ ya worry none ‘bout what Sweetie Belle was saying, she don’ know what’s goin’ on an’ she’s scared cause a’ that.” The young apple-farmer gave her new charge a quick, loving squeeze, “We’re gonna get outta here, don’t you worry ‘bout it. My sister Applejack don’ let me stay out past supper time for nuthin’, so she’ll be here soon.”

“W-wiwl Jazer be here too? An’ Twixie?”

“Sure they will, you’ll see.” Applebloom squeezed the cerulean-eyed pegasus warmly and ruffled her brown mane, “Don’ ya worry one li’l bit. We’re gonna be outta here ‘for ya know it!”

“Pwomise?” sniffled the tiny filly.

“Crusader Contract,” A cream-colored hoof rose into the air as its owner spoke solemnly, “If’n Ah’m lying, let me never find my Cutie Mark and live the rest a my natural born days as a Blank Flank.”

Scootaloo stumbled over her words as she rushed to agree, “Y-yeah! We ain’t gonna let nothing happen to ya, or anypony else!” Her voice strengthened and gained passion while her chest inflated proudly, “We’re gonna bust outta here, rescue everypony, and maybe even get our Cutie Marks!”

“So what are we gonna do?” asked Sweetie Belle, “We still can’t just do whatever we want.” She pointed with a hoof to one of their guards, “Or did you forget about them?”

“Good question.” grumbled the tiny athlete, “The spies in the books always had a distraction or something to get rid of the guards. What we need is…” She cast her lavender eyes about, an idea slowly forming in her young mind. She tapped the shoulder of a nearby forest-green earth colt, who had until now been staring depressed at a wall, and whispered, “Hey Nail, wanna get outta here?”

The green pony glared at her warily, and whispered back in a voice dripping suspicion, “What didja have in mind?”

“Get as many of the other fillies and colts to distract the guards while we sneak outta here.” explained an excited pegasus, “We’re gonna try to find somepony to help us.”

His suspicion quickly turned to fury, and he had trouble keeping his voice low, “Why can’t I be the one to get outta here?!”

“Because we’re smaller than ya.” Applebloom broke in with a matter-of-fact tone, “An’ Ah know yer louder then a’ drum thrown down the stairs, which ain’t gonna work if’n ya gotta crawl through the vents.”

Nail’s anger suddenly boiled over and he shouted, “I’m not…!”

A lifeless, cold, metallic voice cut off the young colt, “Subjects will remain quiet.” The yelling colt’s mouth snapped shut as they all looked around to see where the voice had come from.

One of the Cye guards seemed to be staring at them, its metal face unreadable. Other than slightly turning its head, it had stayed motionless and did not seem to be ready to do more than issue a warning. Still, all whispered conversations stopped as the foals stared wide eyed at their captors. When it was sure its order had been followed, the drone turned it head forward once more and continued ignoring the young ponies.

Once more the room was utterly silent as the foals watched their captors for further signs of being watched in return. And once more, the troopers seemed to completely ignore them. The young ponies sat quietly as they waited for somepony to make the first move. As the minutes slowly passed, one young, pink filly sporting a tiara holding back her lavender and white mane managed to work up the courage to approach one of her guardians with a pout on her upper-crust lips.

“Ex-cuse me,” she griped, her voice a grating whine, “But I have to go to the bathroom, like, now!”

“Subject must remain here.” the Cye soldier responded in its unfeeling, mechanical voice with nary a glance in her direction.

“Uh, do you, like, know who I am?” the whiny pony continued, “My daddy’s Filthy Rich, and he owns most of Ponyville, so you better watch out! He’ll be very angry that you mistreated his daughter.”

The robot completely ignored the threat. Diamond Tiara stomped her hoof in frustration, her voice slipping into an even more grating whine, “Look mister, I gotta go! You can’t keep us in here without a potty!”

“She’s right!” a colt’s voice called out, followed by several more foals agreeing more loudly than the last. Cries of concurrence rose into a loud din; the metallic soldiers around the room looked agitated as they repeatedly ordered for silence and had their orders met with even more resistance. Slowly, the fillies’ and colts’ resistance grew into a near uprising as they clamored for everything from bathroom breaks, to food, to toys.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked to each other with smirks of pleasure. They had their distraction. Under cover of the riotous conditions the impetuous ponies began searching for one of the hidden vents. Scootaloo seemed to have toned everything out, her undersized wings stretched out to feel out the individual air currents wafting around the room. Even for a flightless pegasus, the knowledge of air currents was instinctual and she had soon zeroed in a spot near the floor in one of the corners of the room.

After quickly gathering the other two fillies and the younger pony they had taken under their wing, the four searched for a way to get into the vent itself. It was hard to see with the whiteness of the room making their eyes slip past it, but it was there. The rest of the foals were now making an unholy racket, more than loud enough to mask anything the four in the corner did.

Applebloom used the noise to turn and give the vent a few solid kicks, crumpling the thin metal under her strong hooves to reveal a low, tight space that they could just squeeze into if they stayed on their bellies. Scootaloo crawled in first, followed by Zephyr, then Sweetie Belle. The young apple farmer gave a quick glance around to look for witnesses before crawling in behind her friends. She prayed that the broken vent would be ignored until they were well away from their prison.

Inside the vent shaft was dark and tight. Every few feet there was a vent to let the refreshing air into the sealed building, and these provided the only light for the ponies to see. Condensation collected on the metal walls and made everything slippery and uncomfortably cold and wet for the young children with their bellies pressed into the bottom of the vent shaft. The orange pegasus at the fore moved along the duct carefully; one stretched out before her to warn of any sudden offshoots leading down and the other feeling along the walls for any new directions as she crawled through the darkness.

Despite being extremely uncomfortable, Scootaloo had to admit she was enjoying herself. It was just like the spy books she read for school, only now it was real. At the first turn off to the right, the young pegasus pony turned down it, hope and pride swelling inside her. They had been gone for several minutes and still hadn’t gotten caught. Every second that ticked by made her feel even more hopeful.

As she crawled through the metal duct, her hoof suddenly found empty air as the floor fell away below her in a steep slope. The water-slicked metal acted as a slide, sending the young pegasus and her friends tumbling loudly down the shaft. The lead filly could not tell how far they would fall before hitting the bottom, but all her attempts to stop or even slow down were fouled by the slippery walls of the duct.

Thankfully, the ride only lasted a few moments. At the bottom of the slide, however, was a wall that the ponies crashed into with a thunderous boom that echoed down the ventilation system and surely alerted every bad guy in the whole building where they had hidden. Scootaloo was pressed into the wall by her friends behind and atop her, a hoof digging into her ribs and a somepony’s body laid across her back.

Groans filtered through the air from the fillies at the base of the slide as they tried to untangle themselves from one another. The orange pegasus glanced around to see that the vent shaft split in two and went off to her left and right. Frustration furrowed her brow when she realized just how loud the fall had been, and that even if everypony was okay they would get caught if they did not start moving.

One of the fillies on top of her shifted, and Scootaloo was finally able to move. After making sure her friends were okay, she started to ask which way they should go when the sound of footsteps accompanied by the loud crashing of metal reverberated down the ventilation system. The sounds seemed to stop right next to where they were huddled, and they started to slide back away from what could only be the enemy. So suddenly all four of them jumped, a vent grate fell away, a hand reached into the vent shaft to beckon them towards the open grate, and a calm, friendly male voice said, “Come outta there little ponies, my friends are trigger happy and I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Realizing their stint as spies was at an end, the young pegasus crawled over to the hand without saying a word. To her surprise, instead of yanking her out of her hiding place roughly, another hand joined the first and gripped her tightly but gently under the forelegs, lifting her out and setting her on the white, brightly lit floor. The remaining three fillies were given the same gentle but firm treatment while she inspected the ones who had captured her and her friends.

There were three of them. The first two were basic Cye troopers, each carrying large rifles vaguely pointed towards the foals. The last member of the team was a human, more than likely in his late thirties with graying brown hair, and a smile that matched his warm, friendly tone. The pistol at his hip and the robotic leg made the young athlete wary however. Something about his eyes seemed off, and it took the filly a moment to realize that his bright green eyes had to be fakes that were trying to look real. But he could obviously see, as he looked right into her eyes and let his smile grow a bit wider.

“You four have caused no end of trouble. Nice try on breaking open the vent, but some green colt got stuck trying to follow you and tipped us off.” His smile was still warm, and he sounded like he would start laughing at any time, “Besides, we took a head count as you came in. We woulda caught you sooner or later. Now let’s get you four back with the rest of the group.”

One of the metal troopers turned its face to the young ones and said simply in its deadpan voice, “State your designation.”

Before anypony could say a word, the human glared at his robotic companion, “Oh shut up, they’re kids. You’re just gonna scare them.” He looked back to the children and smiled, “What my friend was trying to say is, what are your names? Mine’s Cameron,” he bent down and ruffled Zephyr’s mane, “Let’s start with you, what’s your name cutie?”

“I…” the tiny pony started, only to have her mouth covered by an orange hoof and be pulled away from the human’s grasp.

“No, don’t tell him your name Zephyr! He’s not a friend!” Scootaloo cried as she glared at the human still smiling at them. Realization slowly dawned on her, and her fur took on a crimson tone as the skin beneath it colored with shame, “Oops…”

Without warning, one of the android soldiers plucked Zephyr from the group and marched off with her in his arms, making Cameron’s face flush with anger as he yelled after it, “Hey! Be gentle you metallic half-wit! She’s just a baby!” The human heaved a sigh as he took a knee in front of the remaining three and gave them another warm smile, though this one seemed strained, and asked, “What about you, what’s your names?”

“Why?” Applebloom asked fearfully, “So’s ya kin take us off somewhere?”

“That girl was, special.” explained graying man, “Top wanted her for some reason, but you three aren’t going to…”

A metal hand shoved him out of the way, and another dead voice droned, “Step aside.”

The Cye soldier began to bring its rifle to bear on the young ponies, only to find the middle-aged man standing between it and them with a scowl on his face, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“The small organics are intruders. They must be eliminated, step aside.” the robot explained.

“Like hell!” shouted the angry human, “You’re going to stand down! I’ve let a lot slide, but you’re not gonna start killing kids in front of me! It’s bad enough that I know it’s happening!”

“Move, or be removed by force.” When Cameron refused to budge, the metal trooper grabbed his shoulder and tossed the human behind itself while it brought its weapon up to the three ponies once more.

Three shots rang out in rapid succession, making the young fillies scream in terror from the noise echoing down the stark white halls as the robotic soldier fell to the ground, twitching and sparking from the trio of holes grouped in the center of its back. Standing over the deactivated trooper with his pistol smoking in his hand was Cameron, his face set in a fearful, worried scowl. As the last echoes faded, the ponies looked up at their savior with wide eyes on the verge of tears.

He gave the unmoving android a kick and muttered to himself, “Dammit, that was stupid! Now they’re gonna think you’re a traitor, way to go Cameron.” He holstered his pistol with a sigh and looked to the ponies, his voice managing to be cheery despite the violence as he said, “Let’s get you three back with the rest of your friends, maybe I can salvage this mess.”

Sweetie Belle stepped forward and looked up at the human. Her face became set in a pout that she had seen Rarity use to turn stallions into butter, and her voice was once more breaking into a squeak, “Can’t you just let us go?”

The man stared at her, a short laugh rising in his throat despite his best efforts to contain it, “Women, no matter the age or the species they’re gonna try and work ya over. I don’t think so, little lady.” He gestured to the scrapped Cye lying on the ground in front of him, “I’m already gonna be in enough trouble, I just didn’t want to see you girls get hurt.”

“But,” Scootaloo begged, “you could help us leave then go to the other humans in town!”

“Look pony, the thing is that I am a traitor to the human race!” Cameron suddenly yelled, “If I go there, I’m going to spend the rest of my life in prison at best!” Seeing the looks of terror on the young ponies’ faces, he took several deep breaths and added, “Besides, I doubt we would get very far.”

“But we could…” Applebloom started, only to catch a glare from the human.

“No, you’re going back, and that’s that.”

Applebloom looked to each of her friends, a wily grin forming on her face that slowly spread to the other two, who nodded at an unspoken question. The young fillies looked to the human, who had suddenly began to get worried, as the red-maned pony yelled, “Yer gonna hafta catch us first!”

With her challenge delivered, the Cutie Mark Crusaders made wild dash past the human, hoping to make a break down the hall and find their way out of the complex. Their escape plan was short lived. A foot slammed down on a red tail, while a pair of hands snagged another two tails and pulled all three to a sudden stop so that they fell to their bellies onto the cold, metal floor. The three ponies looked up to their captor, who was wearing a smug grin as he said, “I don’t think so.”

“Ugh,” Scootaloo groaned, her stomach sore from having slammed to the floor, “I don’t think we’re gonna make very good spies.”

Cye troopers stood, rank after silent rank, before the rescue party. Dmitri worked furiously in his cybernetic world to unlock the rigged door while the remaining members of the party trained their weapons on their foes. The androids had yet to fire a single round; had they been human, one might assume they were confident their prey was securely caught in a trap. Without the guiding emotion of pride, there was no telling what they were planning.

Jaze glared at the robotic nuisances from behind his submachine gun, his mind racing to find a way out this trap. Nothing seemed to be in their favor; the Cye had filled the hall in front of them and blocked off all the doors that may have led to safety, and the door behind them was looking more and more impassible by the second. With no cover, a firefight would be over before it began. His heart was racing, and everything slowed to a crawl as he tried to get at least some of them out alive.

The door to the rear slide open, and for a second the group felt its spirits lift, only to have them sink lower than ever as it slammed back shut. Sands gave a low, growling curse as he set back to work on the errant program. The scarred Colonel threw a glance to the younger soldier before returning his nervous glare to the androids.

A commotion stirred through the Cye line, and a surprisingly ancient woman dressed in old-style gray combat armor pushed through to the front of the ranks. Her long, white hair was neatly contained in a tight bun, while her gray eyes regarded the rescuers with contempt. Despite her age, her eyes looked clear and she seemed as fit as any other soldier. A cold, heartless voice emanated from her lips, “I’ve been asked by the Commander to bring you all in for questioning, most of you alive would be preferable. Please lay down your weapons and put your hands behind your heads.”

Shelby leered at the elder woman, her voice dripping disdain, “Why don’t you go crawl back into your coffin lady? We don’t do requests.”

“Young lady, you would do well to keep your silence in presence of your betters.” The younger woman’s face flushed in anger, but before she could say anything the white-haired lady fixed her glare on Jaze, “Order your ‘soldiers’ to lay down their weapons or you will be shot.”

The silver-eyed man had to force himself not to look behind him at his kneeling friend, and tried to buy the young man time. “What makes you think we’re so worried about getting shot? I think we’ve got this well under control.”

“And what makes you say that, Colonel? What makes you think you can possibly come out of this alive?”

Applejack’s chest puffed out as she said, “We got too many folks countin’ on us t’ get their fillies an’ colts home to back down here.”

“’Sides,” Vincent added, catching on to his friend’s plan, “It just ain’t my style to give up when the fight looks so fun.”

The older woman sighed, and turned to the troopers behind her, “Let me get out of the way, then kill them all. Do not let even one escape.”

“Affirmative.” a cybernetic soldier droned. The gray-eyed woman forced herself between the Cye warriors, trying to move as quickly as she could through them as she could weave between them. It was only a matter of seconds before the hall was filled with flying lead, and the rescuers were slaughtered before they could fight back.

An idea struck like lightning, and Jaze looked to the still cursing man near the key panel and asked, “Dmitri, you can hold that door open, just not make it stay open right?”

“Yeah, but what does that…?!” the cyborg Marine started, only to be cut off.

“Just hold it open for a second, then yank yourself from that computer!” The Colonel flexed his left hand and felt his stomach flutter with anticipation. This would either work beautifully, or get him killed.

As the door slid open and into the wall, Jaze reached out and locked his robotic hand around the frame where the door had disappeared. Sands yanked the small cord from the back of his neck, grimacing in pain as it came free, and looked to his commander as the door slammed against the robotic limb, the metal grasp keeping the door held firmly open. The black haired man gave a slight smirk, the strain obvious in his face, while he motioned the group towards the now-open door.

Everyone piled through the door, and the older lady’s voice echoed over the metal troopers filling the hall, “What are you waiting for? Shoot them! Do not let them get away!”

“Too late Granny!” laughed Shelby manically, “C’mon Jaze, let’s go.”

When the scarred man just smiled and shook his head, Vincent added in a low voice, “Jaze, the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Someone has to keep these guys here, and I just figured it should be me.” His robotic hand released from the door housing, and the door seemed to slowly begin its journey across the portal. Before it could complete its long trip, Sands and Applejack dove back through the portal. With a thud, it finally slid home, locking three of the rescue team on the wrong side.

“Jaze!” Trixie screamed as she pounded on the now sealed portal. Sounds of gunfire came through the door, and a large hand fell on the azure mare’s shoulder. Her purple eyes followed the arm all the way to Vincent’s face, and saw the blank look in the large soldier’s eyes. Her own eyes filled with tears, and her mouth fumbled her words, “N-no, h-he, they, t-they c-cannot be…”

“I don’t know how they could survive.” Shelby said dispassionately over the gunfire, “But if anyone could find a way outta that mess, it would be Jaze.”

“We should find a way to get back over there and help!” Twilight nearly yelled in a panic, staring wide-eyed at the door.

“We have something very important to do,” the large man whispered, “Or did you forget about the kids?”

“But, he’s right there!” Trixie nearly screamed while she pounded on the door, her tears now making tracks down her face, “We cannot just leave him, or Applejack, or Dmitri! What if it were you?!”

“I’d hope that the rest of the team would try and finish the mission, so at least I died for something.” Vin replied calmly.

“It is almost like you do not care!” cried the sobbing unicorn, “I thought that Jaze was your friend!”

The hand on her shoulder tightened painfully and ire flashed in the big man’s eyes, “Of course he is, but he also knew what he was doing. But I won’t squander what he did just because I want to change it; he’d kill me!”

Trixie took a deep breath, trying to calm herself before she flew into hate. She looked past the human and down the hall they had gained to see that it ended in a single pair of doors. As much as she wanted to hate the human and think him heartless, his pain was evident in his eyes. The same went for his mate, and even Twilight looked determined as opposed to heartbroken. No matter how badly she wanted it, she could not turn away from the foals that needed her help.

Her lungs slowly emptied, and she tried to keep her voice level, “Then let us go, I do not want to be here anymore.” The four remaining members of the rescue party set off down the blank, white hall towards the doors at the end of the hall with heavy hearts, each trying to ignore the soft sniffles coming from the back of the group.

Everything ached, and Dash could feel the bones in her wings grinding painfully. She must have been in this madman’s care for her whole life to feel as horrible as she did. No matter what she tried she could not make her entire body stop screaming at her. She suddenly realized that her mouth was hanging open, drawing in huge gulps of air. Her eyes were tightly shut against the pain and bright light still aimed at her face, but her ears worked well enough to pick out the sound of voices.

There were two; one seemingly angry with the other, both male. Her ears flicked around to find the source of the disturbance, and slowly she began to make out more of their conversation. They were definitely arguing, but it did not make sense to her at first.

“This wasn’t part of the deal!” an angry, unrecognized voice hissed, “You said you wouldn’t hurt anypony!”

“We had to alter the deal,” Rainbow’s captor replied almost sweetly, “and would you like to alter it further and join your friend?”

A long pause, “She’s no friend of mine. But you’re not going to hurt the foals right?”

“Of course not, they are an important part of the bright future we are going to build.” Dash could hear the sneer in the interrogator’s voice, “But the older ponies will have to be cleared away with the rest of the trash.”

The other, unknown voice sounded unsure, “So long as the young ones aren’t hurt. They don’t deserve that.”

“As fun as our talk has been,” Victor said dismissively, “I think it is time for you to leave.” His hated voice turned hopeful, “Unless you want to see the fruits of your labor?”

“N-no,” the second voice replied quickly, obviously sickened by the thought, “I need to go, I have, stuff.”

“Yes, go. Leave me to my work.”

Dash heard footsteps making their way towards her, and she did her best to act like she had not heard the exchange. A slight touch on her sore ribs made her jerk in her bonds, which in turn cause every other wound to flare up hotly and sear her mind with pain. Teeth clamped around her lower lip, she refused to allow herself to scream or even give the evil creature above her the satisfaction of hearing her gasp. But every muscle clenched, and she nearly gave into the desire to scream.

“It seems, Miss Dash, that we have run out of time to play.” Kanan stated calmly, “Your friends seem to be very close, and so I must put an end to this game.”

The sounds of clinking instruments met her ears once more, and the cyan mare’s breath quickened. She needed more time; there was no way she could take another session so soon. Already she could feel a blackness eating at her, something that offered freedom from her pain. But if she took the easy road out, she could imagine the looks on her friends’ faces. So with a deep sigh she steeled herself and whispered, “Then I guess that means I win, don’t it?”

His laugh was mirthless, and his voice cruel, “So it would seem, but now the gloves are off.”

Jaze glared at the pair as they stepped back through the door. Applejack wore a determined grimace, while Dmitri looked like he was ready to be sick. They looked to the Colonel with wide eyes, seemingly asking how they were going to get out of this mess, but before anyone could say a word movement caught their eyes. The Cye troopers readied their weapons and fired, rounds buzzing the air as the sound of gunfire filled the hall. On instinct, Jaze’s left hand rose; an aura of magic surrounded his hand and a bluish-silver shield appeared in front of the trio. Some bullets pinged off the slightly curved surface while others simply shattered, but none managed to penetrate the magical barrier.

When he had called up a shield before, the strain had taken nearly everything he had. It was a fight just to keep it in place. Now, it seemed easy, natural even. He silently thanked Trixie for all the hours she had spent with him, teaching him magic and helping him to build up his strength. The immediate threat held off for the moment, he once more turned his attention to the suddenly pale pair watching his shield nervously with a scowl firmly on his face.

“What the hell are you two doing?” he hissed over the din.

“W-we couldn’t jus’ leave ya alone t’ fight these guys.” Applejack answered shakily, “But Ah guess Ah didn’t think this un through.”

“Me neither,” Dmitri added, “but we’re here, so what’s the plan? You do have a plan right?”

Jaze’s voice was low, and tight with anticipation, “The plan? The plan is to kill them all.”

“Works for me,” the young pilot exclaimed, “but with all due respect, how’re we gonna do that?”

The silver-eyed man hefted his submachine gun with his right hand, “You take the left side. We can see through the shield, so we can almost aim. We’ll just work this like a riot shield and push them back.”

The Colonel’s shield moved over so there was a space to the left of him, while the right edge of the magical barrier shifted closer to his body. Sands stood next to the black-haired human and nodded, readying his weapon and checking the magazine. After a curt nod of his own, the pair of humans put their guns to either side of the shield and opened fire into the androids. The robots fell one by one as their prey began fighting back; every pass of the small automatic guns knocked at least one trooper down permanently.

Recoil from the high fire rate made Jaze’s aim dance in spite of his best efforts to steady his arm. He was forced to fire much shorter bursts than usual to compensate. The bullet hose clicked on an empty chamber, and now the Colonel was presented with another problem. His forefinger jabbed the magazine release just above the trigger as he tried to fish a new one from the pouches around his waist. Frustrated, he finally spared the magic to envelope the magazine and slam it into the receiver. With a satisfied grunt, he telekinetically yanked the charging lever back and readied the compact weapon once more.

With the first lines of Cye lying on the ground, the trio slowly started forward into their foe. They passed into the rows of fallen robots, and Applejack’s senses were buzzing with adrenaline. She felt frustrated that she could not help; every instinct screamed at her to find some way to be useful. But there was nothing she could do, or so she thought. As they passed a knot of fallen robots, one with a non-working leg jumped from the pile in an attempt to break the human’s shield.

Without thought her sword cleared its sheath and cleaved the metal trooper’s head from it shoulders in one swift movement. It slumped to the ground, and the farmpony found what she was needed for. Her broadsword stayed raised as they moved through the trashed robots, and any movement was met with either a sharp blade or a strong hoof. The orange mare glared at the clumps of metal limbs and bodies piled together and silently dared any of them to make a move.

The fight was surprisingly short as the hall was not as full of troopers as the trio had thought. Jaze let the shield fizzle out as his hand fell. Every sense hummed with a high from the fight. Though he hated to admit it to himself, the fight had felt good despite its briefness. The young Colonel tried to convince himself that it was just knowing that he had spared his friends, but he knew better. The fight, knowing he had bested his foe with everything at his disposal, was why he felt so right, helping the ones he loved was a bonus.

He brought his false hand back up to stare at the metal limb, admiring just how far he had come in such a short time. Barely even a month ago he could not lift a sheet of paper, now he could hold a shield nearly indefinitely. He offered Trixie another silent thanks before reaching into an ammo pouch at his waist for to replace the nearly empty magazine in his weapon.

Each pouch turned up empty. The dark-haired man let out a low curse; he had lost track of his ammo during the fight. He pressed the release button to check exactly how many rounds he had left. A further curse escaped his lips when he discovered he only had a triplet of shots left, and he growled, “I’m nearly spent, how much ammo do you have Dmitri?”

“Not enough,” the younger man mumbled before adding in a clear voice, “I’ve got two full mags, plus a half in my gun. Need one?”

“Dammit,” Jaze let out a sigh, “no, you keep them. I’ll figure something out, and if nothing else,” He lifted Sairugi out of its sheath and gave a brief grin, “I’ve got this if nothing else, I’ll be fine.”

“Hold on,” Sands reached down and plucked his sidearm from his belt holster as well as a few sticks of ammunition, “Take this. Only got a few mags, but at least you’ll have something better to shoot off than your mouth. You really didn’t think this whole ‘hero’ thing through did you?” He gave a brief smile, no more than a flash of teeth, “Sir.”

The silver-eyed soldier’s smile was just a brief, “I guess I didn’t, good thing I am not a hero then. But we’d better get moving.” After checking the load and clicking on the safety, he stuck the pistol under his ammo belt and dropped the magazines into a pouch, slinging his submachine gun across his back for safe keeping. As armed and ready as he could be, he looked to the other two and nodded, “Let’s go.”

“Alrigh’, now what’re we gonna do?” Applejack interjected as she surveyed the carnage, “Ah mean, should we go after everypony?”

“I honestly didn’t expect to beat them all.” Jaze whispered in reply, scratching the back of his neck self-consciously, “I’d hoped just to make it to a door and run like hell.”

Sands stared at his commander, a blank look on his face. A laugh slowly worked its way from the young pilot’s stomach to bubble forth in great gouts of amusement. His eyes welled up as he doubled over in mirth, his hands clutching his stomach. The relief of being alive added to his amusement until it was nearly impossible to control. After several moments of laughter the young man was able to gasp, “I guess, you’re human after all!”

Jaze merely shrugged, “What did you expect? I just wanted to give everyone else a chance to get away before bugging out. I’m not insane you know.”

Applejack could not help letting out a snort of laughter before adding, “If’n we hurry, we could prolly catch up with everypony ‘fore they git too far.”

Dmitri managed to halt his laughing fits, though chuckles still burst forth every now and then, and knelt in front of the key panel once more. He quickly hacked back into the opening program and let the Colonel grab hold of the door to hold it open before slowly withdrawing from the computerized world. On the other side of the portal they found a hall terminating in a lift. A quick jog brought them to the sliding double doors, where the younger man jammed the button with his thumb. The trio anxiously awaited the arrival of the lift, fully aware they could be set upon at any moment by another contingent of Cye soldiers.

Vincent forced his way past the ponderously slow elevator doors into the hallway beyond; sweeping the passage with his gun to make sure it was clear before waving the others out behind him. Twilight and Shelby took positions to his left and right and just behind him while Trixie stepped between the other three, her eyes to the ground and full of tears.

The azure mare was barely aware of her surroundings as her mind was still focused on Jaze’s face as the door had closed between them. He had looked angry as Sands and Applejack joined him, and he would have only been so angry if he had thought they would not make it through the fight. Her heart leapt to her throat at the thought of the human perishing, not to mention her other friends. A ball of ice had formed in her stomach and she wanted nothing more than to lay and cry. But she wouldn’t let herself give up, she couldn’t. It would be poor testament to their memory if she let their sacrifice be in vain.

Deep violet pools finally rose from the floor to find the large man staring down at her with a concerned look in his eyes. A hand fell on her shoulder, and she twisted her head to the right to see the human woman giving a wan smile. Their silent pity only made the showmare feel worse and made it harder for her to bite back bitter tears of remorse. She was on the verge of saying something hateful to the two, before Vincent whispered, “It’ll be alright, you’ll see. Jaze is pretty tough to kill, and I bet the other two are too. They’ll get outta this mess just fine.”

“How could you possibly know that?” Trixie asked sarcastically.

Shelby gave a brief wink, “Our Colonel isn’t the type to let down someone he loves.”

Despite the gnawing worrying in her gut, the unicorn couldn’t help but blush at the insinuation. Twilight, oblivious to her friend’s embarrassment, but a fore leg around her blue neck in a tight hug and whispered into the distraught pony’s ear, “Come on, we have a lot of ponies counting on us, then we can go find Applejack, Jaze, and Dmitri.”

A note of hope crept back into the despairing unicorn’s voice, “You promise we can find them?”

“Did you really think we’d leave a friend in this mell of a hess?” the woman laughed loudly, “He’d have our hides for sure when he found his way out.”

The lift doors slid shut behind the quartet, and they could hear it rise back towards the floor above. Someone had to have called it. Vincent glared at the doors for a moment before turning to the rest of the rescue party and speaking in a low, calm voice, “Something is coming, and as much as I want to believe otherwise I have to think it is a bad thing. We need to move, which way do you think we should go?”

“Couldn’t we split up and go both ways?” Twilight threw out quickly.

Vincent shook his head, “Too risky, we’d be in a real pickle if we get caught. We need to stick together.”

Trixie glanced down each hall to see that both ended in a ninety degree turn, “I say we go left.”

“Not that it matters, but why left?” Shelby asked with a confused scowl on her face.

“I just have a good feeling about going left.”

“Left it is then, but we need to move now. Double time!” Vincent ordered before setting off in a jog down the left, the rest of the group hot on his heels. They reached the end of the hall, nearly threw themselves to the left and kept running.

The hall they now found themselves in branched off in multitudes of directions and sectioned of small rooms that looked like nothing more than storage. Despair settled once more on the azure magician as she realized just how large the base was, and she feared never being able to find her way out, let alone the missing foals. She hoped that, wherever he was, Jaze was having better luck than them.

The elevator arrived with a ding, and its doors slid open to beckon the trio standing guard over the hall into its perceived safety. Jaze waved the others in before stepping in and slapping the down button. His mind was set on regrouping with his friends, they could figure out a strategy from there. The other two stared at him as the lift descended, eyes wide and slightly worried. He could feel their anxiousness washing over him, and he had to admit that he shared their feelings. They had no idea what would be at the bottom of the lift; for all they knew they were walking into another ambush.

The Colonel drew his pistol and clicked off the safety as the elevator started slowing to a stop. Sands readied his own weapon and took up position next to the doors across from Jaze, nodding. As the doors slid open, the pair of humans wheeled out to the left and right, scanning the hall with weapons ready.

The empty hall was both a relief and worrisome for the dark-hair assassin. His pistol sank towards the ground as his left hand rose to the comm unit in his ear. He had hoped to raise the rest of the rescue party, but triggering the communicator only gave a loud, grating screech and a burst of static. It took every ounce of willpower the silver-eyed soldier had not to rip the comm from his ear, but he couldn’t hold back a wince of pain.

“Ya alrigh’?” Applejack asked when she noticed his grimace.

“We’ve got no comms.” Jaze replied simply with a worried frown.

The same worry reflected on Dmitri’s face, “Since when? What happened?”

“If I knew, I’d fix it.” The Colonel let out a long, exasperated sigh, “Okay, we’re cut off with no comms and low ammo. But we still have a mission, so no dallying.”

“Just another day at the office, huh Jaze?” the young pilot commented with a broad grin.

“I guess so.” Jaze grunted; his eyes passing between both directions the hall took. There was no way of knowing where the rest of the team had gone, and guessing wrong could be catastrophic. Several minutes passed, and still the Colonel couldn’t make himself pick a direction.

Applejack scuffed the floor with a hoof in frustration at the silence, “Where are they? They couldn’ta jus’ disappeared!”

“I wish I knew.” came the curt reply, and frustration crept into the human’s voice in spite of his best efforts to conceal it. “Come on, left or right?” he whispered to himself, “Left, right, left, right…” Each word was punctuated by his silver eyes flashing between the directions while the fingers of his left hand drummed out a steady rhythm on the hilt of the sword at his waist. “Come on, give me a hint.”

“I think we should go right.” Dmitri spoke up from next to the young Colonel.

Applejack nodded, “Ah gotta agree with Dmitri. S’better then stayin’ here.”

The silver-eyed man threw one final glance down the left hall before heading down the other hall, “Let’s go with your plan, better than the nothing I’ve got.” He ran a hand through the black hair plastered to his brow in a vain attempt to shove it away, “Sands, you’re going first since you’ve got the SMG. I’ll take the rear, AJ I want you to stay between us and try not to get dead if shooting starts.”

The apple farmer grimaced, “Thanks for the confidence.”

“Hey, don’t be that way.” the young pilot joked, “At least you’re not going to be the first one into an ambush.”

Jaze cut off the farmer’s retort as she opened her mouth to fire back, his voice a mix of anxious expectation and confidence, “Enough chat, we’ve got kids to rescue.” Sands started walking down the right hand hall, and the Colonel lightly tapped the young mare’s shoulder as she turned to follow so he could whisper softly, “We’ve got to be getting close to where Applebloom is, I can feel it.”

She offered a brief, tight smile, “Thanks a heap; Ah know we’ll find ‘er, an’ the others.”

He gave an encouraging nod as she stepped away to fall behind Dmitri. Seeing the hope in the young mare’s eyes made Jaze’s own spirits soar. Despite every set back, she had never stopped believing they could make everything right. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing all the negative thoughts out with the stale air before moving after the others ahead of him.

The trio moved down the hall as quietly as the floor would allow and rounded the right hand turn at the end of the hall to watch in despair as new hallways opened up into a maze of corridors. Several rooms of multiple sizes were sectioned off by the passages, and a grimace settled on the scarred soldier’s face as he realized they would have to check each and everyone for both the remainder of the team, and for the missing ponies. A hushed conversation led the three to split up to search the halls as quickly as possible. Jaze took the first few halls, Applejack chose the next section, and Dmitri searched the last halls.

As the Colonel turned down the first hall and saw how many halls split off from this one, the reality of just how much ground they had to cover struck him. Every few feet the passageway split off to his right or left and sectioned off another room, and gave him another way to get lost. His hopes suddenly sank back to where they had been moments before. They were going to be in for a long search.

Vincent growled with frustration as they turned down yet another hall in the maze his group had found. It felt like they had been searching for days, not the mere two hours they had been at it. No one bothered looking in any of the rooms that had no one nearby, as they assumed anything of importance would be under heavy guard. But as they turned down what seemed like the thousandth passage in a never ending hell of blank, white walls he began to wonder if he had been mistaken.

As he came around another corner, a pair of Cye troopers began firing at him. Rounds impacted the armor of his chest, and he felt the air leave his lungs. The large soldier stepped back around the corner and leaned against the wall for a moment to catch his breath. Shelby rushed to his side with a hand on his shoulder only to get waved off for her troubles. The woman peeked around the corner, withdrawing her head as bullets whizzed past to slam into the wall behind her.

The large human grunted in anger as he stood to his full height. Hate for the machines that had the guts to shoot at him coursed through every fiber of his being. He felt like time had slowed, and everything looked more defined. As air filled his lungs again he gave Shelby’s arm a quick pat. She nodded, took a deep breath, and dashed across the opening to the far side; narrowly avoiding the hail of bullets flung at her. Vincent took her place at the near corner; he leaned as little of his body around corner as possible to fire a quick burst at the androids even as Shelby put her arm around the corner to do the same.

One of the troopers fell with a chest pockmarked by bullet-holes. Before it had even hit the ground, a tidal wave of Cye soldiers boiled out into the hall like metallic ants from a doorway just behind the original two. Vincent cursed as he withdrew around a corner to avoid the return fire from his foes. His heart skipped several beats as more rounds impacted the wall mere inches from his fiancée’s face, though she was able to pull away with little more than a pounding heart.

Twilight watched the two humans fighting for their lives with a frustrated grimace on her face. She had worked so hard to learn how to fight, but now she found herself unable to move. Her gun floated before her in a lavender field of magic, and her eyes flashed with determination as she stepped up next to the man at the corner.

“What can I do?” the lavender unicorn yelled over the gunfire.

Vincent glanced down before returning his attention to the metal foe around the corner. His voice was tight with anticipation as he hollered back, “Get over next to Shell, take a knee down next to her and start shooting.” He shot a quick look to the woman across from him and yelled, “I think we found something!”

“Yeah,” Shelby yelled back, “we found trouble. Same thing I always find with you.”

“Oh come on baby, that’s not fair!”

“But it’s the truth, and you know it!”

He gave a false pout, jovial despite the combat, “Aw, but I thought you liked the trouble?”

Her smile was as bright as kid’s on Hearth’s Warming morn, “Of course I do, but you have to admit you manage to find more than your fair share.”

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at the two human soldiers’ bickering. Her laughter ended, however, as she viewed the short distance she had to travel. Though it was barely longer than she was, the space was filled with tiny bits of flying death. Every part of her from her head to her gut told her crossing the hall would only get her hurt or worse. She tried to steel herself for that first step by bringing to mind all the young ponies that needed her, not to mention one of her best friends.

Thoughts of the cyan mare, hurt and alone with no one to comfort her, somewhere in this very building made the unicorn’s fury rise. But her anger was still not enough to overcome the feelings of doubt hammering at her mind. Her lips pulled back in a scowl of frustration; she tried to force her legs to move, but they remained staunchly in place despite the orders from her brain.

As she glared across short hall an idea struck her. Her horn glowed with a brighter lavender light, and a brief field of similarly colored magic enveloped her. A dazzling flash lit up the hall, and the unicorn disappeared from where she had been rooted only to reappear standing next to the human woman. Shelby jumped from the explosion of light and the loud pop that resounded next to her and looked down to see the young mage shaking off the dizzying effects of the teleportation. The dark-haired woman looked back across the hall to where the pony had stood before and saw a small patch of blackened floor.

“Now that’s a neat trick.” she remarked jokingly with a smile, “Now can you do the same thing to them,” she pointed a finger around the corner, “but send ‘em to, oh I don’t know, the moon or something?”

Twilight’s cheeks flushed at the praise, and her words came out more jumbled than she would have liked, “I’m n-not that g-good with magic. That w-would take a l-lot of power.”

“Come on kid,” Shelby laughed as she reached down to ruffle the young mare’s mane, “I’m just teasing ya. Still, guess this means we get to have more fun right?”

“I… guess?” The lavender unicorn looked up to the grinning woman with a worried look in her eyes. She had to assume the other had lost her mind, or she wouldn’t think of this mess as fun.

Twilight tossed her head to shake away the thoughts invading it and stepped around Shelby to press herself into the wall just before the corner. She could hear the rounds slamming into the walls and floor. It took her several seconds to be able to peek around the corner. Spent shell casings dropped from the submachine gun above her head as the woman holding it fired a steady stream of lead into the machines, and the young mare brought her own weapon up in a magical field and drew a bead on one of the lead machines.

Her magic closed around the weapon’s trigger and sent a quick burst into the android down the hall. The rounds tore into its chestplate and the Cye trooper fell to the deck, dead. A small bit of pride bloomed in the pony’s chest as she took careful aim at the next trooper in line and dropped it as well with another controlled burst. As with everything she did, her method was methodical and she tried to keep all the things she had been taught in mind.

“’Rule two,’” she quoted from her Corporal trainer almost silently, “’short, controlled bursts.’” The gun spat out the last few rounds to fell another of the metallic monsters, and she hit the magazine release and slapped a fresh one into the receiver before continuing her methodical assault.

For the duration of the fight, Trixie had sat well away from the pitched battle to watch. A feeling of uselessness flared inside the azure pony as she saw the three others fighting; although she her mind told her she could help she couldn’t make herself draw on her magic to do anything. Anytime she even thought of calling up her magic her mind locked up and wouldn’t let her call forth even the basic spells.

As she tried to find a way to help, a sound reached her ears from further up the hall. It had been nearly impossible to hear over the sounds of battle, but it managed to find her ears; it was the sound of breaking glass. Her eyes scanned the hall, but nothing stood out and the passageway quickly turned away in multitudes of directions. Her mind conjured up images of more of the androids making their way towards the group of soldiers and her heart began to race.

If somepony was out there and wished them harm, she couldn’t let it go. She scooted a little closer to the large human still fighting against the machines down the side passage and yelled, “Somepony is out there; I will go see who it is, and what their purpose is.”

Without even looking down Vincent called back, “If you think you need to, then go. God knows I don’t wanna get flanked; that’d be death here. Don’t get lost,” he paused, then added emphatically, “and don’t get dead! Jaze would tear my head from my shoulders!”

“I will try my best.” the azure pony replied as she readied herself for the short dash across the opening. The three other members of the group threw as much lead down the hall as they could to give Trixie the time she needed to skip across the opening and avoid getting a bullet for her troubles. Once across she trotted up the hall to find the source of the disturbance.

Vincent watched the mare move up the hall as quickly as she could while staying silent and a smile touched his lips. Despite being defenseless, the pony was willing to risk her life to help the rest of the team. Seeing such a selfless act rekindled his hope that they could make it through this; not just this fight, but the war in general.

A round hit the ground too close to his foot for comfort and jerked the soldier back to reality. The gun in his hands barked out a steady rhythm that he found almost comforting, a familiar sound that had never failed him throughout the many fights he’d seen. He dropped back behind the wall to reload and took a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow before he risked a quick peek around the corner. The Cye troopers had definitely been thinned, although there were still a few still on their feet.

The bullets pouring down the hall slowed from a river to a trickle, and Vincent’s face cracked into a broad, almost insane grin. Not even in their own base could his foes stop him and his friends. And as the last trooper fell, he stepped around the corner to inspect the door these metal soldiers had fought so hard to protect. It seemed as nondescript as any other door, but there had to be something important on the other side to warrant such a guard. As he neared the door with the other two following him it slid open and revealed the room the androids had worked to protect.

Inside the surprisingly large room along every wall were what looked like server clusters that stood about the height of a large man and nearly reached to the low ceiling. Each cluster was silver and slightly rounded at the edges with lights blinking at regular intervals along its front to indicate something that was lost on the large ex-farmboy. Taking this for some sort of data processing center, Vincent kept scanning the room for something more.

There, in the far right corner almost like it was trying to hide stood a different looking object. It was a darker gray than the surrounding computers, and it had dropped all pretense of being square to become a cylinder. It stood on three flared legs, and at the top it had a trio of long fins reaching up from the sides of the object. As the large man stepped closer to the object he could hear his comm buzzing with interference in his ear, the first noise it had made in hours.

“That must be why the comms aren’t working. It looks a lot like the jammers I was shown during training.” Twilight remarked thoughtfully as she inspected the strange object.

The large soldier glanced behind to see where the pony was standing in the door and gave her a quick nod, “You’re prolly right. Know how to disable this thing?”

A hand yanked him back, and Shelby’s gun lined up on the object. Her finger closed on the trigger and the weapon spat out a stream of lead into the jammer’s casing. It crackled loudly as electricity sparked along its surface and a wave of static washed over the group. When the static had passed, the comms in the groups’ ears gave a shrill screech followed by an earsplitting pop. Vincent looked to his fiancée and was given a broad grin and she answered his unasked question in a laughing voice, “There, it’s disabled.”

The ex-farmboy looked to his love with a glare, a glare offset by the small smile touching his lips, “You coulda just gotten us killed ya know.”

“Oh come on,” the young woman laughed, “you heard Twilight; it was just a harmless jammer. It wasn’t gonna blow up or anything.” She strutted past her love and bumped him playfully with her shoulder as she brushed by him, “Think you should try raising Jaze or someone now?”

“I dunno, maybe you’re right.” He put a finger to the unit in his ear and spoke clearly and loudly, “This is Vincent; Jaze can you hear me?” Only silence answered his question.