Loud pops could be heard down the halls, followed by the screams and shouting of ponies. I had no doubt that other Sparkle-Lurkers had managed to get into the station and were attacking ponies. Though their weapons were crude, they would be effective enough on a civilian population.

This was not to say that they could not defend themselves, between the robots and security, they should be safe enough. What had me worried was the armor the Sparkle-Lurkers were using, and their natural invisibility to magical sensors. The Armor was both primitive, and extremely impressive. The outer layer was made from that of the regular lurkers, of which were hard to penetrate on a living lurker. It also had a second layer of what was likely hardened Rad-Boar hide, both glued and tied together.

Looking at the damage I had done to the Sparkle-Lurker, it became quite clear that I had killed it due to using the right weapon, and luck. My bullet had penetrated a thin spot on its helmet, and the blast had knocked it off. I was sure if I had gone for center mass, even the AP shredder rounds would fail to be effective, due to their chitin acting as a third layer of armor.

Looking over at Mayall, I was about to ask a question that I knew the answer to. Why was Berenices here. Simple, she was here for her. So now I had a better question to ask. “Mayall, what do you know about your sister’s troops?”

She slowly walked over to me, cringing at the dead Sparkle-Lurker. “Her hunters, unlike mother’s guards, they don’t use pony weapon’s. Or anything made by ponies. They do manage to provide food for the nest, sometimes plants they gathered, or meat they killed.” She rubbed her chin. “They are quite aggressive, like using weapons that look like the claws of the big feathery beast, and spears.”

So no automatic weapons, silver linings and all that. With little trouble I took off an armoire peace from the lurker’s leg, I tried it on, finding it a little too small on me. “Shame, could use the protection.” At this point, I felt it was safe to guess that all the sparkle-lurkers were smaller than ponies, not that it made them any less dangerous.

Sorrow came trotting over, her eyes red and puffy. “Your… you’re not planning on fighting those things, are you?”

I shook my head. “Not if we can avoid it. But as long as Mayall is with us, Berenices is going to hunt us down.” I hoofed the armor piece over to Mayall. “Are you going to be okay, Sorrow?”

She sighed. “I’ll... be fine. I just need another minute or two. It’s just that Tungso was a loving mare, liked to just sit and watch the fish for hours. She was like a sanity break here in the republic, still brainwashed like the rest, but had other interests than just playing the good citizen.” I placed my hoof on her shoulder, not knowing what to say. Everything that popped into my head felt like the wrong answer, and anything I could say would likely not help. Sorrow just rested her head on my hoof for a moment, taking a step back not long after. “Thanks.”

Looking back to Mayall, she had attached the armor piece to her hoof. Trotting over to her, I raised an eyebrow. “You sure that’s wise?”

She nodded. “Sister’s unlikely to stop. Even if I give myself to her, her hunters are already here, already hunting. If I get in a fight, this armor will help.”

“So you're suggesting what, we make her go away?”

Mayall shook her head. “We make her chase me elsewhere. The surface. Up there she is likely to do less damage.”

Sorrow joined us. “You sure we can’t just put her out of our misery.” I rolled my eyes, and Mayall looked unsure. “Sorry, just a little upset. Here, I know a few ways up to the surface from this station, If you can locate your sister, I’ll guide you to the nearest exit.”

I trotted over to the dead Lurker, and began detaching the armor. “So where do you think your sister would be Mayall?”

She trotted over to the window, placing her hoof on the glass. “Likely the biome, I saw that one of the rooms connects out into the water, she and the others could have gotten in from there. It would also make a good place for defense from ponies, and would have an easy way out.”

Sorrow nodded. “Makes sense if your kind can travel underwater. I remember reading about old equestria being worried about such an attack, the log book talked about a submarine that patrolled the waters here to prevent that from happening.” She looked out the window, and smiled. “Also, the biome still has an old research sub, don’t think it can go far, but a simple trip to the surface? That it should be able to do.”

I loudly cleared out my throat. “Not to be the buzz kill here, but I don’t think running right into Berenices hooves is the best idea. Just having some of her hunters see us leaving should send a message.”

Myall shook her head. “Sister is unlikely to be lead away unless personally involved. She will likely stay here and send a hunter pack after us. We need her to be leading the hunt, then rest of the hunters will follow her.”

Damn, so no easy way out. “Why would she even stay?”

“Directing the hunt.” She said flatly. “Like with mother, she would not be able to do as she likes and keep the hunters under her control. So unless directly provoked, she will hold her position until the hunt is over.”

I took two more of the pills Sorrow gave me, being next to the window like this was not doing my mental state any good. “Okay, I get it. To get them to go away, we need personally piss of your sister, and then quickly escape, after that the rest of the Sparkle-Lurkers should follow her lead. So one more question, why can’t we just leave, you know evacuate the station?”

Sorrow spoke up. “I’d be inclined to agree, and let the security forces take care of this. But, this attack will put the republic on high alert, cutting the power automatically locks the doors, and I’m itching for some revenge.”

I face hoofed. “Fan-fucking-tastic. And I have to stick around for a pickup. What about you Mayall, you don’t have to stick around here?”

“No I don’t. But Berenices can’t be allowed to do this.” She shook her head. “She will make ponies know and hate us. She want’s ponies to fear and hate us. It’s wrong, she’s wrong.”

I think I understood what this was about. “You know, if it weren’t for her, Sweet might have gotten to keep her eyes.” I looked at the two of them, and nodded. “First let’s get this armor on you, can’t have you getting hurt before we get to your sister.”

With Sorrow and I attaching the armor, it didn’t take long for Mayall to look, well, impressive. The Lurker armor looked primal, and intimidating, but with her long fin like mane hanging off on the side, she gave it a bit of a noble feel.

Opening up my gun case, I pulled out Lelantos, putting it together, I left the extended barrel off and attached the bayonet. Six steel bolts went inside easily enough, and the rifle hummed to life as I supplied it with magic so it would began compressing the air inside it. Due to the short corridors, I left the scope off, choosing to just use the iron sights.

Mayall, and Sorrow both got their own guns as well. Mayall getting the digger gun, with plenty of ammo. Sorrow on the other hoof got the mouth fired flamethrower I had, it only having one tank of fuel left.

The dark station, only illuminated by red emergency lights felt ominous to me. It was like the station was rapidly decaying, time finally catching up to it. As we trotted along, staying as a close group, the sounds of fighting echoed through the halls. Mostly in short bursts of shouting and gunfire, but nothing ever too prolonged. This made us keep our pace slow, so to not attract unwanted attention.

“Locked” Sorrow stated, as she stood in front of a door blocking our path. “Were going to have to go through the market to get to the biome.”

“No way to force it open, I’ve done it plenty of times before.” I stated.

Sorrow just shook her head. “The blast doors here are made to hold water back; the locking mechanism is pressurized. To get pass it right now, you would need to cut it open.”

“Wouldn’t the market have the same problem?” Mayall chimed in with a good question. “I mean, most of the blast doors are shut now.”

“Luckily for us, no.” Sorrow said with confidence “The market used to be two different show rooms, with a blast door separating them. But a long time ago the rooms were combined to make the market. even if the door to the market is locked, we should be able to bypass it.”

The sound of metallic hooves hitting the concrete floor could be heard coming our way, they were frantic and fast. A half dressed and panicked pony rushed into view, skidding to a stop right before she nearly collided with us. “Oh thank the republic, your armed. We need help, the foals need help!” she had a nasty gash on her side, which had ripped some of her clothes off, and stained her belly red.

“Where at?” I responded, my Orthrus training kicking in.

“In Block C, we managed to seal the foals in the classroom, but I don’t know how long it will keep that maniac out.”

I placed my hoof on the mare’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, we'll go save them, you just get yourself somewhere safe.” Looking back at the other two, they nodded back at me. “Sorrow lead us to block C”

We had reached Block C fairly quickly, Sorrow leading the way. Greeting us was the dead body of a mare, her throat was slashed, and she had bled to death on the floor. A trail of blood splatter, and bloody hoof prints told me that she had managed to get way after having had been dealt the fatal blow. Another trail of bloody hoof prints continued past her, likely from the other mare who had told us about the emergency.

From what Sorrow had told us, the blocks were simple residential zones for the more equal ponies in the station. So they were less cramped, and held a more important position in the station. It was hard to tell how nice the block was due to it being dark… and splattered with blood.

There were a few other dead bodies lying on the floor, some of the ponies having been gutted, others looked like they had their skulls crushed in. The blood practically coated the floor, leaving few place to walk without stepping in it. I placed my rifle at the ready, the telekinesis from Minerva allowing me to talk with it out and ready to fire. “Now where are you?” I whispered. Checking my E.F.S. there were a bunch of green markers ahead of me. A few by themselves in the different rooms, and one group all bunched together, probably the foals. Not surprisingly I couldn’t see the lurker on the E.F.S. So I had to keep my ears up, and eyes open.

A loud bang came from around the corner, were the foals probably were. It sounded like some pony was kicking a door, the bangs being low and loud. Taking a glance around the corner, I saw our target, one armored Sparkle-Lurker. The hunter was bucking at the door, it having had cracked open, and the hunter getting it a little more open with each kick. Not the best way to open a door, but that was not stopping the lurker.

“Found it, I’ll take it out quietly, then we can move one.” I whispered to the others. Taking Lelantos into my hooves, and getting into a prone position, I carefully aimed at the lurker. It was moving around quite a bit, so I had to make the shot count. The situation was probably similar to shooting at a Rad-Boar, the damned beasts had thick slanted skulls, so scoring a headshot sometimes only pissed them off. One shot, one kill.

“Vibraphone.” Mayall whispered to me.

“Not now.” I whispered back.

“It’s just you might want to look down the other hall.” She whispered. “Soon.”

Taking the shot, the steel bolt flew through the air, and nailed the Sparkle Lurker in the side of the head. Releasing a breath, I was holding, I sat up and looked at the others. “So what is it.” Mayall lifted up a hoof, and pointed down another hall. Looking I spotted another Lurker, making eye contact with it. “Fuck!” the lurker charged, and I fired a bolt at it.

The sparkle-lurker hunter strafed side to side as it charged at me, my first shot missing, and my second just deflecting off its armor. I got a third shot off onto the lurker as it barreled into me. Rolling with the hit, I slid through a puddle of blood before getting back onto my hooves. Looking around Mayall and Sorrow had gotten out of the way in time to not get hit as well. My attacker, had also gotten back on their hooves, having had slipped on the blood as well. Aiming my rifle, I quickly fired another shot, missing its head, and sticking the bolt into its shoulder.

The bolt didn’t even slow the Lurker down as it charged at me again. This time I braced myself, with my rifle low and outstretched like spear. When the lurker made another jump at me, I lifted my rifle up, the blade catching onto the Lurkers underbelly, and lifting the lurker over me. As quickly as I could, I fired the two remaining shots into the lurkers belly, and let it drop behind me.

Rolling over, I was now covered in blood, making me shiver in disgust. To my shock, the lurker I had been fighting was also getting up, two metal spikes poking out the back of its armor. I had unfortunately missed any vital spot on the lurker. Prepared to use my revolver again, we both locked eyes for a moment. I was sure the Lurker was sizing me up, trying to gage my next move.

Staring at the Lurker, the air around its face seemed to wobbled before a loud ringing hit my ear, making me feel like my head was in a vice, and my vision blurred. Losing my balance, I struggled to keep myself from falling over for a second, Mayall caching me first. “The fuck was that” I shouted.

“A Sonic screech, we can do that.” Mayall informed me. “The hunter did it so that we could not follow.”

“What do you mean follow.” My vision came back into focus, and I could see that the Lurker was no longer here. “Fuck, the hunter got away.”

“Just be glad that it didn’t go for a third attack.” Sorrow added. “I’m going to check up on the Foals, you stay there, don’t want you two scaring the poor dears more than they already have been.

The first thing I did was reload, and repower my rifle, the second was to go to a water fountain, and wash some of the blood of my face. Sadly the water was far from good enough to wash the blood off. Taking a look around, though hard to see, I could see that some of the doors to the rooms had been opened, the two lurkers likely going door to door, killing the ponies inside.

Stepping inside one of the rooms, it was no different from what I had stayed at the night before. The living room had plenty of the posters framed up on the walls, there was even the smaller collector posters framed up on the walls. On a dining table was another frame standing up, taking a closer look at it, it was a family photo, a mirage pony mare and a stallion, with a colt between them. Pushing myself away from the photo, I totted over to the sink, where I could dip my head under. The cool water washed the blood away, it all draining down into the sink, into the red just stopped coming from my head.

Trotting out of the room, Sorrow was waiting for me. “Good news, the foals are safe, bad news, I can’t get them out. We will have to send a member of security to go and finish the job.”

I nodded and turned to leave, stepping over a dead mare, who looked a lot like the mare from the family photo. “Let’s drive these fuckers out of the station.”

We arrived at the doors to the market without running into any other sparkle-lurkers, but the dead were starting to pile up. The civilian population was entirely unprepared for this, and so many found themselves slaughtered before they understood the situation.

The sounds of combat could be heard coming from the market, mainly shouting and the twangy sound for the magical energy muskets going off. Also coming from the market was the smell of smoke and burnt flesh, which was never a good sign.

So when I entered the market, I did it alone, having the other two hang back to wait for me to signal them over. First taking some cover, I scanned the situation from a safe position. The security forces had taken up defensible positions behind hastily made barricades, backed up by ponytrons and sprite bots. The lurkers look to be holding their position, two of them firing their zip guns at the security forces. Wondering why security did not just rush them, the answer came charging out of the doorway to the biome, a regular lurker, the kind seen along the beaches on all the islands. It was armored, even covering its face, and with blades attached to its claws. The monster charged at the security forces, brushing off the beams of energy, with its claws held high. An unfortunate security pony who was closest to the monster, managed to fire their rifle at it, the beam avoided the armor, but simply bounced off the chitin. Within a short few seconds the pony was eviscerated by the reinforced sand lurker.

Another security pony near the one who had died, had obviously lost their nerve as the pony began scooting backwards, trying and failing to get up and run. The sand lurker turned to the panicked pony, this time slowly moving to its prey.

Luckily that lined up the large lurker for me to take a shot at its face. A scope would have been nice this time around, but I had no time to run over to Mayall to get it. So I entered S.A.T.S. putting two actions into shooting at the sand lurker, my chance to hit was not the best, but far from being bad. Accepting the action, my body got into firing position, and pulled the trigger. The bolt sored through the air, and at the Lurker. My quick action paid off, and the bolt slid past the armored face mask, and plunged itself into the lurkers soft face. Time returned to normal, and I watched as the lurker reared back in plain, my shot doing some real damage this time.

The Sand lurker was finished off by a ponytron armed with welding tool that shot out bolts of electricity. Jumping out of my safe zone, I rushed over to the panicked security pony, and dragged her back under cover. “I’m Chime Catbell, with the M.o.A. and I’m here to help.”

The security pony looked up at me for a moment, she looking a bit bewildered by what had just happened. “Te…Tenor Cleft, equality inspector. Th… thanks for th… the help. I th… thought I was going to die.” The mare’s eyes were watering, probably ready to cry in fear and relief.

I waved over my two companions to join us, they quickly rushing over to the cover. Tenor saw Mayall, and opened her mouth, making a whimpering cry before I blocked it with my leg. “She’s with us, so don’t panic.” I held my leg in her mouth until she gave me a look and nodded. Lowering my leg, I made sure to talk to the mare calmly. “Can you tell me the situation?”

Tenor nodded. “Th…there was a report of a situation in th…the biome, so th…the security chief and about half of security went to investigate. Th..they never came back. So we came to investigate, but when we got here, Lurkers rushed the market, being led by some armored ponies. We managed to hold them off, but th…there are less th…then half of us now th…then when th…this started.”

Talk about not being prepared for this, the Sparkle-Lurkers had managed to cripple security here far too quickly. Something that would have never happened if Orthrus was here. “That bad… Here I have a job for you, can you run?” Tenor nodded again. “Good, I need you to go to C block, it got attacked by two lurkers, lots dead, but still plenty of survivors. Help them get to a safer part of the station, can you do this?”

“I… I can do th…that.” With that, I pushed her away, and she ran off out of the market.

Some of the other security ponies looked down at us from a more defendable position, looking worried. Waving, I shouted up at them. “Were going to make a push to the Biome, cut the monsters off at the source. There's more of the monsters in the station, if you don’t follow me, then go hunt them down.”

One of the security ponies pulled out of sight for a moment, probably to talk with another pony. Popping their head back out, the pony had a less than confident look on their face. “We can’t spare anypony here, there’s just not enough of us.”

“Another one incoming! No two more!” One of the security ponies shouted. Two sand lurkers scuttled in and were met by energy blasts from the security team. They managed to kill one with enough shots to the shell to disintegrate it, but the other managed to resist the blasts and rush at me. With how it ran with its head low, and claws up over its face, getting a shot at it's soft spot was not possible, so I had to get a little risky. Waiting for the sand lurker to get in close, I entered S.A.T.S. and waited for it to pull back its claws for an attack. With its face exposed, I selected it, and entered for the attack. Before it could bring its claws down onto me, I got two shots into its face, and the sand lurker collapsed. This was why everypony hated fighting sand lurkers. Their hard shells, and the way they ran often forced you to fight up close just to get a shot at a weak spot.

Looking back up at the security ponies in the nicer position, they still didn’t look confident. I could only guess it was because their chain of command had been severed so suddenly. “Hey, which of you is in charge?” I called out to them.

The security ponies looked around nervously. “We… we all are… we're all equal here.”

Fucking great, so no pony was in charge, talk about a breakdown in command. “Is there anypony of authority I can talk to?”

For a moment the security pony pulled out to talk with another security pony before popping back out. “Theirs the mayor, Thavil, she went to restore power with a few of us before the sand lurker attacked. Who are you anyways.”

“Chime Catbell, I’m with the M.o.A.” I called back to them, though it didn’t seem to put them at ease. We could rush the biome, but without the support of the security team, I doubted we would make it far without getting overrun. So getting the mayor was likely the best way to convince these ponies to fight with me. I turned my gaze to Sorrow. “Let’s go get the Mayor.”

The changeling nodded. “I’ll lead the way.”

We entered the less seen backrooms of the station. Unlike the public areas, everything here was far more dark, dirty, and rusted. The constant hum of the machinery, and the whooshing of water through pipes was loud here, and I could even feel the vibration through my metal legs. Ponytrons were far more common here too, providing round the clock maintenance for the plumbing and electronics, stomping past us in the narrow hallways. It all just reminded me how unnatural this all was, how we had to spend so much time just keeping everything from collapsing in on us. If it weren’t for our ability to charge all the old tech and keep it running, it’s hard not to imagine that most stations like this wouldn’t simply become uninhabitable.

Along the way we found the engineer's break room. Looking in we saw a mare sitting at a table, sadly her face was smashed in, blood dripping off the metal table. She likely didn’t see what killed her coming, and had died quickly. Not wanting to see any more, we moved on, the generator room not much further.

“So much needless violence.” Mayall spoke up. “I don’t understand why my sister is doing this if she just wanted me.”

“Clearly she’s sees this as an opportunity to just kill ponies.” Sorrow commented.

Mayall sighed. “I don’t know; this is just too extreme. My sister loathed the idea of ponies knowing of our existence.”

“Maybe she is getting rid of potential witnesses.” I added.

“That might be it.” Sorrow agreed. “A bit savage, but the stations are so easily cut off from each other, that it’s possible to do it.”

“So, this is my fault?” Mayall, asked, sounding depressed.

I shook my head. “No, it’s your sister's fault for being such a cunt. She also sounds like the kind of pony… lurker, that has been waiting to do something like this. She is probably just using you as an excuse. I’ve known ponies like that, just waiting for someone to get out of line just so that they can legally beat the shit out of them. I’ve even know one pony who joined Orthrus so that they could have the opportunity to legally kill another pony.” I stopped for a moment to give Mayall a hug. “It’s not your fault for what others do, remember that. All you really can do is just be a better pony… or a better lurker.”

I let go of the hug, Mayall letting a tear go. Strange, somehow I was surprised that it was a normal tear, I thought it would glow. “Thanks, I think we should continue, I have a bad feeling about what’s ahead.” I nodded in agreement, and continued through the backroom’s.

Reaching the generator room, unsurprisingly it was dark. Mayall, Sorrow, and I turned on our pipbuck lamps, providing us with a small amount of light. What we saw didn’t surprise us, which was sad. Dead ponies were scattered about on the floor, the blood pooling around them. From the look of where the bodies were, they were taken by surprise, some of the security ponies with energy muskets still charged and ready to fire. Among the bodies was what was probably the mayor, the mare had on a nice gray suit, now stained with blood.

Checking the body, the pony had little on her other than her suit. I decided to go straight to what would tell me what I needed to know, and pulled out her E.C.S. pass card, and placed it into Minerva. My pipleg quickly read the information and displayed it for me. Arghul was her name, mayor of Fishery Station, and she had an equality score of 852, still didn’t understand what made a good score, but if she was mayor, that had to be one.

“Found the mayor, looks like this was a bust.” I called out. Mayall and Sorrow were standing at the window to the generator, the sparkle-lurker looking in, as the changeling just stood at the side. I trotted over to them to see what they found, careful to not step on the bodies. “What did you find?”

“Nothing you want to see.” Sorrow said as she avoided eye contact.

Stepping over to Mayall, I looked through the window, and recoiled. Through the faint red light, I could see that countless mirage ponies were strapped in harnesses, lying on shelves as though they were nothing more than parts of a machine. No, that’s exactly what they were, each one with cables coming out of their neck, snakeing onto the floor, becoming on large cable that plugging into the generator. “That’s a...”

“A slave generator, yes it is.” Sorrow stated. “What do you think the republic does with all their undesirables? Criminals, the lame, political opponents, and anypony thought to be a capitalist. If they can’t be reformed, or put to work in the ‘fun’ camps, they end up like this.”

“But why this? Nopony should be treated like a power cell.” It was disgusting, a pony simply reduced to just a piece of a machine.

“What are you talking about?” Mayall spoke up, sounding worried. “What happened to these ponies?”

Sorrow took a deep breath, and sighed, before answering. “Early on when the mirage ponies started to become more common, after it was discovered that they could produce magical energy, there were other ponies who abused that ability. At first it was a practice that started out as simply using mirage ponies as backup power for tools, lights, and charging spark batteries. But it didn’t take long before it devolved into a horrific punishment.”

Stepping over to the window, Sorrow placed her hoof on the thick glass and continued. “The Slave Generator is simply a steam engine that can be powered by the magical energy of a mirage pony with the help of a few heating talismans. It takes a few mirage ponies to get the water boiling, but once the engine starts moving, for each addition mirage pony providing power, the efficiency of the engine greatly increases. But there is one flaw to this setup, the slave generator needs a constant source of power, so unless you have mirage ponies taking shifts, the engine will slow down as the water cools. That is, unless you chain them to the generator, and force them to produce magical energy. And so, some stations started taking mirage pony slaves, mostly criminals at first, but it didn’t take long for stations to start foal napping mirage ponies for their slave generator.”

“Orthrus found the practice abhorrent, and made it their policy to shut down any slave generator in use, and punish the ponies running them.” I added. “I though the practice had died out, why would the republic bring it back?”

“Because it’s for the greater good, you know, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Sorrow said with a disappointed tone.

I shook my head. “If Orthrus found out about this, there may be a war.”

Sorrow then laughed. “Sadly, I doubt that Orthrus would ever admit that this existed here.”

My eyebrow cocked up at her. “What are you talking about?”

She sighed. “This slave generator existed here long before the republic took over. That’s right, this slave generator was once owned, and used by your proud Orthrus. Hypocrisy at its finest, don’t you think?”

I felt sick to my stomach, to know that something like this still existed, and seeing it, it was sickening. “Yeah, I have a few ponies to talk to when I get home.” I know that after the shit I’m going through, getting in contact with a member of the council should be possible. Turning my gaze back to the window. “Mayall, let’s get them out of there.”

“That’s too late for them.” Mayall spoke as she peeled herself off the window. “They’re all dead.”

“What!” Looking closer, I saw what she was talking about. It was faint, but there it was, each of the ponies had a line of blood coming from their neck. Looks like each one of them had been bled out, as though they were strapped down for slaughter. Following the trail from their neck, and down to the floor, I could see a solid red. So many ponies had been killed that it made one big pool of dark red. My stomach recoiled at the sight, and my breakfast came back up to be spilt on the floor, leaving a bile taste in my mouth. “Fucking why? Why all the killing, what is Berenices trying to prove? They posed no threat to them at all!”

Mayall gave me a worried look. “I don’t think she’s going to stop, not unless we drive her away.”

I wiped my mouth, the smell of what I had eaten was now less than appealing. “Yeah, let’s stop messing around and go straight to the bitch.” I took one of the dead security ponies magical energy muskets, and with the one I already had, attached them to a battle saddle. Slipping the battle saddle on, I made sure the straps were on tight, luckily both muskets had the stock cut short, so I just had to push my saddlebags back to my flank to get them out of the way.

We left the generator room, the smell of death thick in the air. Our blood covered hooves leaving a trail behind us, mixing with the grime of the backrooms.

The station had fallen eerily quiet on our way back to the market. I could only guess that the ponies who had avoided getting attacked were now in hiding, the rest dead. This was far too efficient to just be a spur of the moment attack, I had a strong feeling that Berenices had this planned out. From the infiltration, to the assault with the sand-lurkers, I had my doubts that she would even diverge from her move, even if we slapped her in the face.

The three of us trotted through the dark hallway, I couldn’t help but feel that we were being watched. With my EFS being useless at detecting the Sparkle-Lurkers, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they were stalking us. The sight of a dead pony as we trotted past it was just another reminder of the danger we were in, and the sooner we stopped this madness the better.

As we entered the market, cautiously at first, we were greeted by a charging sand-lurker. Entering S.A.T.S. I used both of my fully charged magical energy muskets to shoot at the lurker. Giving me the twang sound in stereo as the two bolts of energy blasted right into the large sand-lurker, turning one of its legs into dust. The beast tumbled to the ground, struggling to get back up. Pulling my air rifle off my back, I put a bolt into its face, killing it.

Carefully going from cover to cover, we made it under one of the defense points of the security team. “You okay up there?” I shouted.

There was a pause for a few seconds, and a coldness in the air. “We fine, not dead yet.” The voice was a bit off, like some stallion was trying to sound like a mare, but failing to sound even like a pony.

I looked at the others, and they both gave me a worried glance back. Looking back up at the defensive nest, I focused my magical charge, letting it flow to my guns. “You’re not a sparkle-lurker are you?”

“We… they prefer Sparkle-lurk, no need to add the -er- at the end” the not a security pony stated at us.

Sighing, I looked back at Mayall. “Is this true?”

She shrugged. “Some do. Mother wanted us to be called the space cadets. I suggested that we should be called the elegant inheritors of the deep. One wanted us to be all called cola-kin, I think my sister killed the lurk for that idea.”

“No remind me.” The not a security pony called out. “Slick Shell never stopped whining, on how different he was, on how nopony understood him. Berenices put him out of our misery.”

“Ok, enough stupidity!” Sorrow yelled. “You up there, come down before we shoot you down!”

The sound of hooves rapidly moving around came from above us, and the head of a sparkle-lurker poked out. “No shoot, I surrender.” The lurker tumbled out of the defensive nest, and scrambled before us. “I here, kindly no shoot.”

The lurker looked a bit like Turnip, but more scratched up, and a small fin on its head painted white. He, like the other lurkers before, had chitin armor on, though this one had seen some combat, scorched with energy bolt marks on its side. Specks of blood dotted the lurkers armor, and on a belt were some rusted knives. The lurker also had a long pipe rifle, which looked like it had a revolver system to it, and a crude bayonet hanging off the end of the barrel.

Clearing my throat, I made sure my voice sounded strong and in command. “You will take us to Berenices!”

“Of course!” the lurker said with a smile. “That’s our plan.”

It took me a moment to process what he had just said. “Shit!” Quickly looking around, Sparkle-Lurkers came out of their hiding spots, armed with zip-guns, old fire axes, pipes turned into maces, and lots of spears.

The Lurker pointed his rifle at me. “Doubt you kill all us. Do as we say, and Berenices will decide what to do with you. Don’t, we kill you. Clear.” His tone was far too jovial for what he was telling me, which only made me more worried about our situation. The lurker then turned his attention to Mayall. “So happy to see the runaway princess safe, though concerned to see you with our armor. You killed for it. Disappointing.”

Mayall glared at the lurker. “And what of thee hunters, this slaughter, how does it keepeth the nest safe, keepeth the workers fed? doth thee seek war with the ponies?”

“You want answer from me?” with a grin, he lifted his head back, and brought it down onto Mayall. The head-butt was enough to make Mayall fall back on her own legs, and as she got back up, a line of blue blood came out of her noise. “Save questions for future queen, or we give more answers.”

As we were herded to the biome, I saw a few more lurkers trot into the market from where we entered. One lurker carried another on their back, a significant amount of blue staining their armor, and the lurker on his back had to thin metal spikes sticking out of their armor, looking quite painful. The rest of the lurkers were stained with red blood, mainly around their hooves, and many were dragging loot.

Going through the passageway to the biome only made me feel worse, the only thing I could do was look down and keep walking. Stripped of our gear, the fucking lurkers had also taken the pills I was using to keep calm, and they were starting to wear off. Luckily I still had Lunar Eclipse, so if it became too much, I could just shoot myself to put me out of my own misery. It also didn’t help that my shitty right front leg was starting to squeak, making me glad I had Minerva back, as if I had the squeaking in stereo, I’d have shot myself by now.

Entering the biome, we were greeted by more lurkers, the miniature forest, a very wet floor, and our pipbucks giving us a tick every few seconds. Sorrow looked quite distressed at this point, but with the prodding of the lurkers, she couldn’t stop and say anything without getting hurt. They continued to push us, taking us to what I could only guess was a meeting room.

Sitting at the end of an oval shaped table was Berenices, looking far more menacing than she had before. She had on the same armor as the rest of the lurkers here, but unlike the others her armor had a tattered red shawl, probably held in place by the pony skull on her shoulder. Sitting on the table next to her was what was likely her helmet, the same as the others, but painted red around the sides, and a fake red fin on the top.

The table had other things on it that made me concerned. Maps were a big thing that worried me, as it looked like she had maps to the valley island metro system, as well as a few stations, including fishery. Other things were explosives, most of wartime vintage, but there were a few metro made fire bombs, and two pipe bombs. There was also a bunch of piplegs, all of which had been ripped apart leaving mostly the pipbuck part.

Berenices pulled out a book, and opened it up before glancing at us, looking more annoyed than anything. The book was red with four bold words on it, “The Art of War” which didn’t surprise me that she was reading a book about war. I could only hope it was a picture book. “It’s good to see you again sister mine.”

Mayall curtsied. “I’m sorry I cannot say the same, sister.”

She flipped through a page of the book. “Do you know how much trouble you caused by leaving like that, leaving a door to the nest open for vile ponies to find, sister mine. Were you trying to get the nest killed, sister mine?”

Mayall’s proud demeanor seemed to slowly crumble under her sister’s words. “I maketh no excuses, but that does not explain why you’re here.”

“I’m here because you are here, sister mine!” Berenices voice was loud and angry. “Gallivanting with ponies like nothing would go wrong, sister mine.” With a growl she looked in my direction. “And this pony, I recognize that face. I should have known that you’d go running into the hooves of one that trespassed onto our land. I should have told mother to take her eyes as well. No, I should have told her to take all of their eyes.”

Mayall glared back at her sister. “How does such violence solve anything?”

“It reminds them that they are not wanted, that there are consequences for trampling on our land!” Berenices snarled back.

“So, then what consequences will you face?” Sorrow spoke up. “This is not your territory Lurker, do you think this will go unpunished?”

Berenices body posture relaxed as she turned her attention to sorrow. “And you are?”

She smiled. “You can call me Sorrow, a representative of my kin.” As she spoke, a silvery flames engulfed her in a wave of magic, revealing the pony disguise she had before. “And this station is our territory, of which you're trampling on.” The silver flames engulfed her once more, her form now that of a Sparkle-Lurker. “Of which we are not pleased with.”

The book slipped from Berenices hooves, falling flat on the table. “Amazing.” Berenices shook her head, and picked up her book. “Not like ponies are you. Maybe we could come to an agreement. We are only here because ponies. What is your… kin, called.

“Changelings, that is what we’re called.” Sorrow responded. “And if were to come to an agreement, we first must ask you to leave this place. The republic may have been caught off guard, but their retaliation will be swift and brutal. Last we need is the republic capturing your kind, and gaining a new weapon.”

Berenices chuckled. “Doubt that is a problem. No, no problem at all.” She flipped through another page. “But rest assured that you will be spared, for now. If your kin, and mine can come to an agreement, you shall remain unharmed.” Her eyes scanned over us, stopping on me. “But you, no guarantee.”

“What do you mean no problem?” I asked calmly, trying to not tip my hoof on how panicked I felt. “If the republic floods this tunnel with their soldiers, there’s no way you can win”

“Noted, an army of ponies in this station.” She said notionally, flipping through another page of the book. “Have you read the chapter about fire, most fascinating.”

“Don’t you care; your hunters will die.” I felt more irritated now, Berenices was too smug to not be mocking me, not unless she had a trick up her sleeves. “What are you planning?”

She smiled. “I do so love this book. Taught me to play to my strengths, and strike at my enemy’s weaknesses.” Berenices closed the book and gently put it on the table. “Know yourself and your enemy, you needn’t fear the results of a hundred battles. Is one of my favorite quotes.”

“I don’t know the quote, but I know the concept.” I still didn’t know what she was getting at, but I was getting a really bad feeling about this. “What are you getting at?”

She clapped her hooves, and two lurkers placed an empty glass, and an opened bottle of sparkle-cola-rad in front of her. The bottle of cola gave off a red glow that made me feel uneasy. “You see, we lurks have a few advantages, and disadvantages to you ponies.” She pounded her own chest. “One is that we're are hard to hurt, so by adding more armor to ourselves, we become harder to kill. Another is that your magical instruments can’t seem to see us, allowing us to move about the shadows unhindered. Because of that, all my hunters are trained to be silent, quick, and hard to see.” She picked up the bottle and slowly poured it into the glass. “Also we can stay underwater for hours, where ponies can only stay for a few fleeting minutes.” She glanced at me, her gaze was devious and wicked.

My heart thumped, as though it knew the answer before it clicked in my mind. “No, you wouldn’t.” Her gaze didn’t falter. “You would wouldn’t you. You’re going to flood the station! Why?”

She chuckled again. “The one who strikes first wins. It’s as simple as that.” Taking a sip of the sparkle-cola-rad, I could see a grin on her face. “It’s why I’ve been studying this place for over a year, finding it’s weak points, and how to most efficiently drown the population without a full on fight happening. I’d call this operation a success, wouldn’t you pony?”

“That’s dreadful!” Mayall spoke up. “War is about armies, territory, and resources. But what you're condoning is murder, it’s genocide!”

Berenices didn’t show any remorse as she sighed. “War is about genocide, sister mine. Why do you think this world is so dead? The first to strike has the advantage of decimating their enemy before they can attack you. I choose to start and end a war within less than a day, far better than what the ponies chose to do with this world. Far better than they deserve.”

“You will fail.” Sorrow spoke up. “Do you know why you will fail?” Berenices eyes glanced over to the changeling, still calm and collective. “Because the ponies of Marewaii have survived worse. You are but one more mad-mare to add to the history books. Another tyrant who will die soon enough.”

“If you think so, that’s fine.” Berenices finished of her drink, and wiped her mouth. “But your history books will prove me right. The evil nature of ponies cannot be contained, they will lash out at the likes of you and I for simply not being like them. The old ponies did it to the mirage, and the mirage did it back to the old ponies. It’s in their nature, and so they must be put down.”

“That’s untrue! Ponies are not as evil as you think!” Mayall argued

But Berenices laughed at her statement. “Not as evil is still evil. Do you hear what you’re saying? You know it to be as true as I do, but you cling to the ponies ideas of romance, and chivalry. Simple excuses to justify doing evil.”

“And what you think what you're doing is not evil, committing murder on such a grand scale.” I shot back at her, more irritated than ever before. “What do you even think to accomplish with this?”

She just looked at me with disgust. “I do what I must to protect my nest, my kin. That is what I seek to accomplish. If ponies must drown, then I shall do it a hundred times until there is nopony able to threaten the nest.”

I don’t know why, but her statement to drown all ponies, it was insane, but also funny to me. Just a week ago it would have been a terrifying though, the possibility all too real. But now, it was an absurd thought, horrifying, but absurd. I couldn’t help but laugh at the idea.

“What’s so funny, pony.” Berenices didn’t seem to like how I saw the humor in her words. “Shut up!” She got up onto the table, trotting over and slapping me hard enough that I fell over onto my side. The pain, it hurt enough that that I smelt blood again. “Why you laugh at me! answer me pony?”

I got back up, wiping some blood from my nose. “Simple, there are far more ponies then there are on the island. Drown us all, you’d need to drown the world. But even then you’re not going to get us all. Not even close.” Berenices narrowed her gaze at me, squinting with anger. “You want to know why?”

The lurker snorted at me. “Tell me pony.”

“Because some days ago, I found out that the rest of the world still exists.” It was true, the forlorn hope of us ever leaving the island had been rekindled, and threats like the metro flooding no longer seemed like the end of the world. “Pegasi from a cloud city recently arrived on the islands, looking for a new home. They told us about Equestria, and how it still lives, how ponies have managed to survive the end of the world. And not just them, but there are the pirates too. Marauding and cruel, but diverse and terrifyingly hardy. If you flood the world, they will simply ride the waves.”

Berenices took a step back, looking worried, but then tilted her head up and laughed. “Lies, more lies from lying ponies.” Taking a step forward, she poked me in the chest. “What you talk is but a pipedream. Trying to pretend that you didn’t kill everything, didn’t poison the air, didn’t make the world want to kill you for what you have done.” She turned around and returned to her seat, signaling to the other lurkers. “Take them away, and execute the pony. Also burn their garbage, we need not the ponies cursed tools.”

We were escorted back to the forest area of the biomes, and into a clearing. The area was a pleasant little space with two benches next to each other, and a little low fountain. If it wasn’t for the glass ceiling that I did my best to not look up at, I’d say this place was pleasant. In the distance was another sand-lurker, it had a sparkle-lurker on its back, poking it with a stick. As far as I knew, taming the sand-lurkers was next to impossible, and farming them was more trouble than it was worth, so it was a mystery to me how they were even able to control the monsters.

“What do with the two captives?” one of the lurkers asked out loud, it’s head looking about to the other lurkers. I was starting to tell the little differences, this one being a bit taller than the others, and a more pronounced fin on its head, much like Mayall, so it was probably female.

“We not have place to put them, no strong rooms like nest.” The second lurker a little shorter, with a shorter fin that looked like it had been cut. I was going to guess that it was male.

The other Lurkers shrugged, none of them seemed to know what to do with us. It seemed that we had caught a break, and the group were currently confused to where to put Mayall, and Sorrow. Making eye contact with Sorrow, I lightly tapped my chest, and she gave a faint nod, and smiled.

“How about the sub bay?” Sorrow threw her voice, sounding like one of the other lurkers. The Lurkers all paused to look around, not knowing who just talked.

The female lurker scratched her chin. “Don’t know, big metal pony pod makes me uneasy.”

Sorrow smirked. “We could just shove all three in pod, like stupid canned pony food.” Her voice sounded a little different as she threw it.

The male lurker snickered. “I like that idea, then we can just drag them to base, far from other ponies.” He then kicked one of our saddle bags that another lurker had on. “We burn this; anypony has bomb fire?” They all looked at each other, and shook their head. The lurker looked irritated by the lack of firebombs. “If we not burn it, Berenices well throw a fit.”

“Just stash it with prisoners.” Sorrow was at it again. “One of us can go get bomb fire.”

All the lurkers looked at each other, and shrugged. The one female pony shook her head. “Not good idea, keep prisoners separate from pony stuff. Throw prisoners in pod, keep their stuff outside of pod.” The other lurkers nodded their heads in agreement.

“Wait!” the other male lurker shouted. “What about the pony?”

“In the pod.” Sorrow blurted out, do in her best to keep the lurkers fooled. But seeing how they were looking from one to each other, I doubt she could keep it up.

The lurker snorted. “No, Berenices said execute. I can do that.”

The female nodded. “I will help, two of you go get fire bomb, the rest take prisoners to the pod.”

Fuck, they wised up. I looked over at Sorrow and Mayall, giving them a nod. Unlike them, I was still armed, so it was best to have them go ahead of me. I’d be able to catch up with them soon, I just needed to wait for the lurkers numbers to thin out a bit.

Leading my two new friends away, the number of lurkers around me dropped to two, though I could see that there were a few more just in the area. If I were to guess, I had at least three Sparkle-Lurkers, a sand-lurker, to deal with, give or take two or three Sparkle-Lurkers I’m not seeing. Surprisingly enough, even with their red glow, they were hard to spot.

“Now we to end pony?” The female lurk spoke as she circled me.

“We could just bleed the pony out” The male lurk said, joining with the female as they trotted around me.

“Bullets for the head.” She said with glee. “That would do it.”

The male huffed. “It’s too good for pony, I say we stomp pony.”

“And get dirty again, I just washed up.” The female bemoaned.

“There’s always the wild lurks.” The male said with a mocking tone.

As the female passed in front of me, she had a cruel smile on her lips. “Yes, it can pound pony dead, and eat pony. Like one spear for two fish.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, not at all. I watched as the male lurk ran off to where the sand lurker was, the female keeping a close eye on me. I could make my move now, with only one lurker watching over me, but that be too soon. The four other lurkers were still with my friends, so I had to stall for more time, enough to see that they were safe enough for me to cause some havoc.

Luckily for me, it seemed that the male lurk was having little luck getting the sand-lurker to come over here, and was now arguing with the Sparkle-Lurker on its back. Or at least that’s what it looked like, they were both raising their hooves at each other, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Looking back at the female lurker, she was looking a bit impatient. I figured I’d mess with her a bit before drawing my gun, and buy myself some more time. They were going to kill me, so at this point I didn’t feel bad about being a little cruel. “So you and that other lurker, are you to a thing?”

“Pony should not talk!” She spat at me.

I rolled my eyes. “But are you?”

The lurker actually broke eye contact with me. “Does it look that way?”

“Well you two have good chemistry, I wouldn’t be surprised if you two were a thing.” Mares like to feel loved, I know I did, so she had to have similar feelings at least. Or whatever abominations felt.

The female lurker lightly stomped at the grounds, splashing a little water around. “Well we have been hunting together for some time now.” Well I just learned something new, the Sparkle-Lurkers can blush, though it’s more that the red parts of their faces glow more.

I was now regretting that I went down this line of dialog, as I was going to have to shoot her soon. “Well then you should ask him, I’m sure you’d make a cute couple.” My eyes caught two lurkers coming from where my friends were sent, the two that had our stuff, my stuff. I could only guess they were the ones getting the firebombs to burn my stuff, which meant my opportunity was coming up.

The male lurker trotted over to us, with the sand-lurker slowly stomping behind him with the other Sparkle-Lurker riding it’s back. The sand lurker was partially armored with metal plates, and decorated with cloth and shells. “Got fool to agree to let his lurker execute pony.”

The Sparkle-Lurker on the sand-lurkers back petted the large beast. “Mi-Mi is a delicate girl, I only let her do this because she needs to eat. If she chips her chitin, I will chip yours.”

I was unsure what to say about that, the sand-lurker had a name, and was being cared for like it was a prized cat. If they weren’t going to execute me soon, I’d probably enjoy the spectacle more. If they hadn’t just committed mass murder, and planned on flooding the tunnel, I’d probably not have my stomach churning right now.

I watched as the female lurk trotted over the male, her face still glowing a little brighter. “So um. Chirp, Can I ask you question?”

The male lurk looked at the female lurk. “Yes, ask away.” It was kind of funny how much smaller the male lurker was, not a huge difference, but enough that it just didn’t look right. The female was about the size of a slightly short mare, so the male looked like a runt if he were a stallion.

The female lurker rubbed one of her back legs on the other. “So, was wondering, if you, and I. If you could ever see us as a, well partners?”

The male lurker stood there for a few seconds, probably processing the question. When he came thru, the lurk took a deep breath and sighed. “Sorry, I have mate. Soft Shell, from the nursery, she and I been together for some time.”

The female lurk took a step back, and turned around to look at me. Her face was far redder now, but not in that mare with a crush kind of way, and more of the mare who is going to crush a pony way. “Let’s kill pony.” Ya, now she wanted me dead, not because of some orders out of misguided fear, she was going to take her embarrassment fueled rage out on me, with a sand-lurker.

If I was trying to make peace, or weasel out of this fight, then it would be a catastrophic failure. Luckily all I was doing was stalling, and maybe, rustling a few feathers. As a rule, to fighting that is, is never fight mad, makes you easy to manipulate into mistakes. One mistake was that both male lurkers were now looking at the female a bit perplexed over the outburst. The second mistake was that when nothing had happened, the female turned to the others to angrily glare at them to kill me right now. This meant that the only eyes on me was the sand-lurker, the poor dumb beast wouldn’t understand what was coming.

Carefully and quietly I had Minerva take hold of my revolver, the gun sliding out of it hiding spot on my chest, and I took aim. Straight at the face of the over decorated sand-lurker. The other lurkers saw what I was going, but were too late to stop anything.

-Blam-

The bullet hit the sand-lurkers face, and the beast thrashed in pain, throwing its rider off. As the two other Sparkle-Lurkers pushed to intercept me, I entered S.A.T.S. both were close enough for clear head shots. They didn’t stand a chance. As time returned to normal, and the two lurkers fell to the ground with their heads hollowed out, I trotted to the third lurker.

The lurker slowly got to his hooves, only to find my gun poking into his eye. “Why?” was all he got out as I pulled the trigger.

“Like your leader said, this is war.” I said to the dead lurker. Checking Lunar Eclipse, I had one live round left, with twelve more under my clothes. Unloading the spent cartridges, I reloaded the revolver. I doubted I could get this lucky with normal .357, If I got stuck in a drawn out fight, I’d be dead as soon as I ran out of the bullets.

Not wanting to waste any time, I quickly made my way to wear my new friends were. As I got to the door, I could hear shouting from behind me, meaning that we had to work quickly, or we’d have for too many lurkers to deal with. Stepping through, I saw that my two friends were in the old research submarine, the thing just big enough to fit them comfortably, but probably a tight squeeze if I added myself. The two lurkers who were guarding them, were standing next to our stuff.

“Hey, your supposed to be de…” My revolver interrupted the lurker, the stabilizing levitation talisman in its handle made it so much easier to aim and shoot. The other lurker looked at his partner, and at me. Before I could get the crosshairs properly on him, the lurker dove for the water, and vanished into it. Cowardly or smart, that lurker had avoided his death.

Putting the revolver away, I quickly ran over to my friends, grabbing one of the saddle bags along the way. “Get that damned sub going, we have no time to waste!” I shouted as I threw the saddlebag into the sub.

“Were going to need more time then no time at all.” Sorrow bemoaned.

Skidding along the floor, I picked up the second saddle bag. “How much more time?”

“At least a few minutes, I should be able to figure out how to get this going by then.” She said with a nervous grin on her face.

Hopping onto the sub, Sorrow go a face full of saddle bag. “You suggested this plan without knowing how to pilot this thing!”

The sub hummed to life, all the lights inside began to blink. Mayall was at the controls, with a thick book opened on a stand. The lurker looked up at us and smiled. “Research book they gave me was real detailed. Included how to use their sub.” She flipped a few switches, and the sub jerked, trying to turn in the pool. “Ahh, I think we're still docked. Can’t go anywhere until it’s released.”

Taking a step back, I saw the docking clamp, it looking like a much smaller clamp used for the airship back at Orthris HQ. “I can do that, you to just get ready to go as soon as I’m in.” Hopping off the sub, I rushed over to where the clamp connected to the Biome facility, a terminal sat on a table next to it, so that had to be where the release was. The terminal was locked, needing a authorized ponies ID to get into it. Hoping that the republic actually gave their officials some real power, I popped the mayor's E.C.S. out of Minerva, and into the terminal. Like it was the golden ticket, the terminal unlocked. Quickly looking it over, the terminal had a shit ton of logs, but also the docking clamp release option.

The damned thing was loud, rust and lack of lubrication made it squeak and clunk. But we were good to go, and I’d be home free.

A loud pop signaled a pain in my cheek and the terminal blowing up on me. Luckily I had backed away from it, so I didn’t get a face full of glass and steel, but the explosion was enough to make me stumble. Placing a hoof on my now bleeding check, it was hard to tell how bad it was, but it really stung, and was oozing blood. Looking to see what did this, I saw the Lurker from the market standing in the doorway, his six shooter rifle trained on me.

“You stay right th…there pony.” His stuttering didn’t help make me not want to run, and the sight of the other lurkers behind him only urged me on to get moving. Pushing off the table, I bolted for the walkway to the sub, my metal hooves loudly clanking on the metal flooring. Another shot popped from stutters, and with a loud ping I lost my footing. Attempting to get up as fast as I can, I found that my right foreleg had gone limp, the plate covering the upper part had been blown off, and two steel cables had been snapped. The only silver lining was that the bullet had not gone all the way thru, the led ball rolling about in the leg. “Next shot kills you, pony!”

I had lost the precious time I needed to do this, and with how good stutters was with his rifle, I was a dead mare trotting. Gritting my teeth, I entered S.A.T.S. I selected Lunar Eclipse, and picked an odd option S.A.T.S. normally didn’t have, to throw my gun. I even picked a trajectory to which to throw it at, and luckily for me the accuracy was not bad for the distance. Exiting S.A.T.S. with a magical lock from Minerva, my revolver flew out of its hiding spot, over to and hitting the door to the sub, and falling in. “Find my Sister, she will know what to do!”

I saw Sorrow quickly jump up and grab hold of the hatch, shutting and sealing the sub just in time to prevent a lurker from blocking the hatch. I could see Mayall, she was hitting the glass and shouting something, though all I could hear was a soft thump. I just nodded my head at her, and turned to face Stutters with a grin. “I didn’t mo-“

A sharp left hook hit me in the jaw, sending me to the floor. I was at least glad I didn’t fall into the water, it only inches away from me. “You think they can get away, pony!” Stutters voice was a bit more feminine than I remember, and didn’t have the stutter. Getting up, I found myself face to face with Berenices, whom had her helmet on now. “We’ve seen it used, too slow to get away. For trying to take my sister mine away from me, you only manage to make me angry. Death, the will be too good for you, not a quick one that is.” She chuckled loudly, a fat grin on her face. “I read once in an old book about griffins, and a execution called the blood eagle. You see, it involves opening up the chest while the victim is still alive, and letting their lungs expand until it looks like a pair of bloody wing. Sounds painful, I hope you scream until your throat is raw.”

“How about you try it first, see which one of us can scream louder.” I spat back at her. Bravado aside, I was ready to piss myself. I had no doubt that she would actually do it, and make it slow.

Berenices sighed loudly. “A brave front for such a dead mare. I’ll have fun seeing how long that will last.”

“Wow, that sounds, well doubleplusungood.” An overly chipper voice came out of thin air. “You know what sounds better, a party, well a party with explosives!”

The whole facility shook, and the roof cracked, sending streams of water down all around us. Berenices took a few steps backwards, looking confused and panicked. “Who was that, the fuck just happened!?” Her eyes darted around, not seeing anything. “Show yourself coward!”

A giggle came from the side of me, sounding too happy for the situation. “Coward, that’s silly. All’s fair in the destruction of the republic's enemies.” A stream of water passed by me, it hitting, and revealing an invisible pony. The pony, a mare, had on a jet black wetsuit, that had boldly on the side the symbol of the M.o.A. She was silver in color, and her mane and tail was yellow, and made of braided electric wires. Her artificial eyes were a glowing red, of which she stared at Berenices with an intense Glare. “Be glad that my orders are to recover our new agent, or I’d be your unlife.”

She turned to face me, and smiled. “Hi, I’m Synthesis Harmony, newest reaver of the M.o.A. Glad to meet you.”

I looked back at the sub, seeing it bob underwater. With them out of danger, I turned my attention back to the reaver. “Yes, I was told to expect somepony. Though this is a bit of a bad situation.” The room was taking on water fast, and my heart felt like it pounded harder the higher it crept up my leg. “Could we get out of here?”

“Most certainly.” She was far too perky for the situation. It was a bit unnerving. “It will be just a moment.”

I saw Berenices scowled at us, and point her hoof. “Shoot, stab, I don’t’ care, but kill them now!” Stutters immediately had his rifle at the ready, and fired.

I hit the ground, my legs crumbling beneath me. “There we go, out of danger.” I got back up on my hooves, and looked around. We were no longer at the biome, but at the train station part of the station. With many ponies standing around, some looking torn up.

“What just happened?” I asked, as the other ponies gathered around us.

“Teleport!” Synthesis answered with a smile. “My specially is invisibility and teleportation.” She pulled back the wetsuit on her right leg, revealing a pipleg. “Oh shoot, were at the public tunnel, we should have been sent to the private military tunnel. Just a moment, I’m going to contact the other M.o.A. agents to come pick us up.”

Took me a few seconds to process what she was talking about, and soon I remembered something important. “We need to seal off the station, they’re going to flood it!”

“Wow, thats real ungood of them. Good thing we were going to lock down the station in the first place.” Yellow lights suddenly turned on and spun around, along with a loud and low buzzing noise turned on and off. Blast doors, one by one, closed and separated us from the rest of the station. When the last door closed, making a hiss and a clunk, the lights and buzzing stopped. Synthesis Looked over at me in the red light, and smiled. “There, the republic is all safe now.”

“But the ponies still inside?” It felt cruel to just abandoned them to that fate. “We can’t just leave them there?”

“It’s sad, that’s true.” She expression didn’t change from its look of joy. “But the needs of the republic outway the needs of the few. But we will see that their loss is avenged, I assure you that.” She patted me on the shoulder and trotted to the train tracks. “But more importantly, we need to get you to H.Q. and throw you a party. I’ve asked everypony to join.”

“Everypony, as in everypony in the M.o.A?” I felt a knot in my stomach.

“Oh yes.” She bounced. “After I got the report from Blaster Beam, I sent the invitations out to everyone. I even got a message to relay to you.” She tapped on her pipleg for a few seconds. “Here it is. It says; I’ll be waiting for you, Slayer.”

Yeah, I didn’t like this at all. “Do you know who it’s from?”

She nodded. “It’s from Reaver Theremin. Have you met him before?”

If there was any hope of getting out of this, I didn’t see it. “Yeah, we’ve met.”

Footnote:

Quest completed: They Came from the Deep!

New Quest: The Secret to True Equality