The Ministry of Science building made Chesterfield Manor look like child's play. There were two huge astronomy towers reaching high into the sky on either side of the complex, a grand entrance too opulent for even a king, and a massive console at the heart of the building that created a spherical hologram of the entire world. However, what was most impressive about the A.M.S building, was the fact that the entire structure was suspended in the air by anti-gravity generators attached to the bottom of a great landmass that supported the weight of the building, a massive rock that looked like a mountain flipped upside-down.

"Wow..." Spike could only gawk at the immense building as they walked through the halls. He turned towards Twilight to see if she was enthralled, but she seemed to stare at the ground in silence. It was obvious something was wrong. "Hey, Twilight... are you alright? You've been acting weird all day."

"No I-... Yeah, I'm fine Spike," Twilight lied; knowing full-well what Gek would do if she didn't. "I'm just having a weird day is all..."

"Alright then..." Spike replied uneasily.

"Man, how dense is this guy?" Gek chuckled as he wrapped his arm around Twilight and pointed at Spike. "I mean, he's getting suspicious... but geez! Does he really trust you that much?"

Twilight said nothing and looked away as if Gek didn't even exist. She assumed ignoring Gek would just make him go away, but he kept rambling on; not acknowledging Twilight's attempts at disregarding his presence.

"Also, why are you called The Princess of Friendship? I mean, that's probably the worst title I've ever heard!" Gek went on; starting to irritate Twilight. She couldn't say anything, however, as she would look like a lunatic, then Gek would force her to make up an asinine explanation as to why she acted that way. "Celestia's the princess of the sun, Luna has control over the moon and dreams, Cadence has control over love, and you have control over friendship? Wow. If you ask me, I think you're getting the short straw."

"We're almost there," Evelyn pointed down the long hallway. "My laboratory is just ahead."

Evelyn opened the door on her right and ushered Butch, Spike and Twilight inside. Although it may have looked generic and similar on the outside, the interior was vastly different. The room was mostly cyan and grey with a certain metallic shine unlike the rest of the building's marble design, and every nook and cranny was filled with curiosities. At one end of the room, there was an entire library with a shelf of books and jars filled with numbered specimens. Based on the complete lack of disorder in the room, it was obvious that Evelyn might have had some issues with OCD. In fact, the amount of cleanliness even flummoxed Spike, who was so confident in his own organizational skills when it came to stacking Twilight's books. Near the entrance, was a section dedicated to chemistry. Flasks, jars, and bottles were filled with various substances- all labelled by chemical equations, which looked like gibberish to Spike.

The most impressive area in Evelyn's lab was the weapons testing section- the largest chunk of the laboratory. There were armaments galore; laser rifles, plasma tech, anti-gravity gauntlets, stealth visors, and more. And like every other item in the lab, they were all either hung up on the wall or placed on shelves and catalogued.

"What the heck is this?" Spike analyzed one of the guns on a rack. It was a large handheld cannon of some sorts, and near the end of the gun (possibly where the contraption fired from) was a satellite dish- or rather- a small satellite no bigger than his hand. Spike tried to pick it up, but his hands were batted away by Butch, who seemed slightly annoyed by Spike's curiosity.

"That there's a Magnetic-Compression Ray. That'll scrunch ya into a tiny ball before you can even say 'ouch'." The gritty soldier informed Spike. "Also, Evelyn hates it when you move her shit, so don't try anything funny."

Spike nodded and moved over to where Twilight was. She was receiving a grand tour of the laboratory from an extremely excited Evelyn, who raced around the room as if she were a colt in a toy store. She picked up another gun off the wall. "Oh! Over here, we have a plasma rifle! This will melt almost anything!"

Twilight was a little overwhelmed by all of the gadgets and gizmos in the lab. Sure, she knew a thing or two about math and engineering, but the kind of toys Evelyn surrounded herself with were on a completely different level. Evelyn was also a curious pony to understand. She often would behave contained and disconnected, but once she found something intriguing, she would spring to life like a jack-in-the-box. Twilight had a feeling she held back her emotions quite often, and Twilight knew it well, as it was an issue she suffered from before she moved to Ponyville.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Evelyn raised her hand and pointed upwards in a "matter-of-fact" fashion. "I have a gun I've been testing that is perfect for you, Spike!"

"Oh, really?" Spike was getting excited as he watched Evelyn grab yet another weapon and hand it to him. It was a pistol, and it was designed like a flintlock, only... it seemed to have some parts on it that were a little out of place. "What is this?"

"Well, I was inspired by your friend Gin's armaments, and I figured I would create a gun like hers!" Again, Evelyn's change of character caught Spike and Twilight off-guard. "Look, look! It functions like a flintlock, but it has another function too! If you flip this switch on like so... you can fire concentrated magic out of it!"

"Woah!" Spike uttered excitedly as he pointed it around. Evelyn began to panic as she watched him point it at the window, and she snatched it out of his hand; fearing he would blow something up.

"However, it is a prototype... so I wouldn't recommend firing it right this second!" Evelyn explained as she hung it back up on the rack.

"Oh..." Spike said, a little disappointed that Evelyn made a weapon for him that he couldn't use. Granted, he wasn't to keen on wielding a gun anyways.

Twilight saw a smile form on Butch's face. He was overjoyed to see Evelyn beaming like a foal again, and it brought back memories of when she was a filly, full of wonder and imagination. She had been through so much in her life, living through that horrible war, her parents dying when she was at the young age of seven after Aquarius Mansion was fire-bombed, and her enrolment in a strict boarding school not long after the funeral. It was hard for her to find happiness, but when happiness found her, she was almost like a foal again.

"Butch, why are you looking at me like that?" Evelyn raised an eyebrow at him as she watched the smile disappear from his face.

"Nothin', darlin'..." Butch shook his head and tried concealing his grin, but it was certainly hard to contain. "It's just-."

"We should focus on what we're here for." Evelyn cut him off as she waltzed over to the chemistry section of her laboratory. "I have the autopsy reports here, let me just-."

"Dr. Aquarius! Dr. Aquarius!" A voice shouted as it drew closer to her door. It was another scientist in a lab coat. "Dr. Aquarius, the teleporters have been shut down by somepony, and radio communications have been knocked out!"

"What?! How is that possible?!" Evelyn said with a stunned expression. "Who in this world has the technological capabilities to do such a thing?"

"We have no idea, Doctor. Everything was just shut down in a blink of the eye!" The scientist panicked as he ran down the hall, and red light began to flash overhead in every room and corridor of the building.

*RED ALERT, RED ALERT. ALL SECURITY FORCES ASSEMBLE. THE A.M.S IS UNDER SIEGE.*

"What now?" Butch exclaimed as he looked out a nearby window. There were more than two dozen strange looking robots that were jumping off nearby skyscrapers onto the grounds of the A.M.S. One of them was advancing towards the same window he was looking out of. "Aw, shit! Everypony, cover your ears!"

Butch drew his revolver and blew the skeleton's head right off; breaking the glass, and alerting the rest of them. Evelyn grabbed the Magnetic-Compression Ray off the wall and assembled her suit. "Accelerator Suit!"

A black liquid began to encase her body and harden into armor, and when she held the gun, it absorbed the weapon and assimilated it into its own mass, turning her armor-encased hand into a magnetic cannon. There was no time to be in awe, and Spike's fists ignited with burning intensity.

"We've got to defend the A.M.S! They must be after our weapons!" Evelyn shouted as she raced out into the hall, gesturing to the others. "Come on! We can't let them get into the basement!"

Spike and the others followed Evelyn down the wide corridor and into the main entrance. The armored security guards were trying desperately to fend off the assault; firing at the horde of machines with laser rifles and shotguns. However, every time a skeleton was shot down, it got up seconds later- still thirsty for blood. The security guards ordered civilian scientists inside, and they set up a barricade soon after. They were holding them back for a while, but it wasn't long before a security guard got too confident and tried pushing back a nearby robot. It grabbed his arm and dragged him into the mob of skeletons, his screams demoralizing the other guards.

Butch and the others ran downstairs and aided the guards. Evelyn fired at one of the beasts with her ray, and it collapsed into a condensed ball of metal and gore as the beam made contact with its chest. Spike melted one of the creatures with a blast of fire emitted from his gaping maw, and he destroyed another with an explosive fireball. There was certainly far more than two dozen now, and they were beginning to overpower the small security force by sheer numerical superiority.

"We've gotta get these assholes outside!" Butch ordered everypony as he drove his metal fist through another robot's skull, splattering its brains across the floor. "We can't bust out anythin' flashy until we get em' into open-space! Twilight! You've got some tricks up your sleeve, don't ya?! Do ya think you can push these things back?!"

"I'll try!" Twilight said as she began to levitate her body into the air. She charged up a spell and uttered a magical phrase.

A magic wall formed outside the entranceway, and it started to bulldoze the robots, sending them flying into nearby concrete statues and flower beds outside. As the spell subsided, Butch jumped over the barricade in a gung-ho fashion and charged the beasts with his shotgun. "Guards, stay back! We'll handle this!"

"Yes, sir!" A majority of the security guards responded.

Spike rocketed himself towards a robot and smashed its head apart with a blazing punch, and Twilight vaporized another one with a blast of magic. Even in the intensity of the fight, Butch had an ever-gritty expression on his face. Spike could tell just by looking at him, that he wasn't a stranger to fighting multiple opponents at once. The way he danced around shooting and punching through his enemies was smooth, but terrifying as well. He would pivot on the spot and smash a robot's skull into his knee, then he'd turn and blow another apart with a blast from his cannon-like shotgun. It didn't seem like Butch enjoyed fighting to Spike- rather- Butch kept a calm demeanour, even when facing numerous opponents. It was as if he treated the situation as a normal occurrence- the daily grind. And that baffled Spike greatly. Perhaps being a soldier, Butch got used to such action.

"Spike!" Twilight interrupted Spike's ongoing battle as a skeleton jumped on her back and bit down hard on her right wing, attempting to cripple her. It took Spike a few seconds to realize that the skeletons were only going for Twilight.

"Twilight!" Spike blew apart the robot biting down on her with a fireball to the head but more were piling on top of Twilight. She may have been an alicorn, but she was no match for the robots' overwhelming numbers. In the struggle, one of the skeletons knocked Twilight on the head, rendering her unconscious. Then another one of the skeletons grabbed her and jumped off the hovering landmass onto a nearby building. "Butch, Evelyn! Help me! They're trying to take her!"

"Aw, hell! We can't get to ya! There's too many!" Butch hollered at Spike as he tossed a skeleton off his back. "Get after her! We'll deal with these guys by ourselves!"

Spike took a deep breath, then jumped off the A.M.S building. He was airborne for a few moments, and just before he hit the approaching roof of the skyscraper, he set his hands and feet ablaze and directed them at the building, softening his landing using the propulsion of the flames. He pursued the skeleton holding Twilight down into the streets of Eisen, dodging billboards, airships passing by, and other skeletons trying to slow him down.

"Twilight!" Spike called out to her desperately as he knocked robots off his back who were trying to stop his advance.

Spike finally had enough and propelled himself using his flames. He sped away from his attackers, but the kidnapper was still far ahead, so he used all his magic power trying to gain speed. However, the kidnapper responded to Spike's advance with a burst of incredible speed; bouncing off the roofs of buildings and water towers to try and pick up the pace. Although Spike had the speed advantage, he had a rough time trying to dodge oncoming obstacles. Eventually, Spike lost almost all of his magic power, and he crashed into a water tower on top of another building; falling down onto a roof. But he didn't quit there. He couldn't just let that bucket-of-bolts run off with his best friend.

Spike used all his physical strength to jump from roof to roof; trying frantically to catch up with the mechanised monster. As he started to gain on the creature, he prepared what was left of his magic for one last push. Once the skeleton was within range, he jumped and created a fiery emerald explosion with his hands to push himself ahead.

However, just as he was about to grab Twilight, Spike noticed some kind of portal-like ring form in front of the creature and his alicorn friend. It was a ring made up of a single steel chain, and in the center was a swirling purple vortex that spun like a galaxy. As the skeleton's hand made contact with the dark hole, it vanished, along with Twilight.

"Twilight..." Spike's eyes widened as he realized what had just happened, and he fell down into an alleyway; slamming his head against a wall, and plummeting into an open dumpster below. His eyes fluttered for a few seconds before going dark. "Twi-..."

Author's Notes:

Sorry about the cliffhanger! I just couldn't resist! As always, I hope you enjoyed! Leave a like and a comment if you did! See you in the next chapter!