(Author Notes: Chapter 10 has been re-read and edited, mistakes that I've seen have been corrected, there may still be some in there and I've added a little more towards the end. To those who have read, please re-read to see the changes. Thank you and enjoy)

Fallout Equestria
Broken Steel

Chapter 10: Good or Evil

200 Years ago in an unknown location.

Applejack sat at her office desk at the Hanger looking at a recent e-mail from Mr Horse. The e-mail was frustrating to Applejack as it meant delays for the Krogoth.

“Darn it, more delays” She moaned to herself as she rested her elbows on the desk and rubbed her temples with her hooves. “At this rate the Krogoth will never be finished”.

As she fumed to herself about the recent set backs she was made aware of a rasping sound on her office door.

“Ugh, come in” She groaned, not bothering to hide her frustration.

The door opened and a light orange mare with a white and yellow striped mane entered the office.

“Umm, is this a bad time?”

“What is it Carrot Twist?”

“Umm, you asked me to report back with the figures regarding the power output for the Stable-Tec Reactor”

Applejack removed her hooves from her head then sat up straight and motioned for her employee to continue.

“The reactor is working perfectly ma’am. If these readings are correct it can generate enough to power the machine, plus this entire facility”

Applejack smiled. “Bout darn time Ah got some good news” she thought to herself.

The pony turned to leave but then stopped as a thought came to mind. “Umm, ma’am, don’t you think the reactor is a little too powerful for that machine?” She asked a little curiosity in her voice.

Applejack raised an eyebrow.

“Umm, don’t you think it’s a bit extreme for that thing to have that much power?” She asked now facing her boss again.

“Extreme?” Applejack almost shouted. The anger and frustrations from the recent set backs and the e-mail came rushing back. She had been under a lot of stress from other ministry duties and the strain of it all had been building and now it snapped and came rushing out upon being questioned about her decision. The light orange mare backed up from her boss’s shout.

“No, it ain’t over the top. It’s exactly what it needs to be, POWERFUL”

“But, don’t you think it’s a little unnecessary?”

Applejack shot up in her fury as she glared at the now cowering mare.

“No, Ah don’t. It needs to be powerful for what its mission is. For what it’s got to do. For what it has to do”

The fuming Ministry Mare turned her head to the window in her office that over looked the massive robot surrounded in scaffolding.

“Ever since ma brother got killed Ah’ve been working long an hard to protect ponies. Ah made the power armour the Steel Rangers now use. That worked for a time but now our enemies use Anti-Machine Rifles to kill them. It seems that every time we make something to protect our ponies, our enemy has something that will counter it”

She looked back at the pony as her anger ebbed away slightly.

“That is why Ah decided to make this. To make something no pony can fight. This has to be unbeatable, it has to be, it has to, this war has to stop, Ah can’t loose anypony else”

The Ministry Mare looked down as her emotions did a one eighty. Tears started to form in her eyes as her gaze turned back to the massive robot.

“Ah can’t loose no pony else. Ah’ve lost my brother, ma grandmother, ma sister, ma farm and nearly my closest friends. Ah’ll have nothing left soon, Ah don’t want to loose anypony else Ah just can’t” The strong mare finally gives in to her emotions and starts to cry.

“Bu..but ma’am, your sister is still alive, you haven’t lost her” Squeaked Carrot.

“Haven’t Ah? Ah haven’t seen her in months, she’s been too busy with Stable-Tec and those darned Stables to have anytime for family. It feels like Ah’ve lost her already”

Applejack sat in front of the window and took some deep breaths to steady herself. She couldn’t fall apart like this, not in front of an employee.

“The Krogoth needs the power to fight the war on its own”

Carrot Twist nodded and quickly left her boss’s office, not wanting to piss her off or upset anymore than she already had. As she passed through the door, another mare walked in. A brown earth pony with a dark blue mane and tail with equally dark blue eyes and stood behind her boss’s desk. The pony wore a white lab coat which luckily for her didn’t cover her rifle cross cutie mark.

Applejack looked up and saw the pony’s reflection in her office window. “Blueberry, you have something to report?”

Blueberry Muffin nodded “I do indeed. I’m ready to perform a test fire for the Advanced Railguns now that I’ve finished rebuilding them” After your pricks of engineers cocked up my design. She added mentally.

XXXXX

Present Day

Motor Runner sat in his office looking out into the hanger bay as his Fiends and Raiders worked on the massive robot pony standing in the middle of the hanger surrounded by aged and rusting scaffolding and several stabilising arms. The machine’s lower legs were bare of any armour and its structural frame could be seen along with its internal workings. The leader of these ponies looked up to the head of the machine which was stripped down to its frame and internal components apart from its black snout armour, air intake vent and its largest spike that would be the start of its Steel Ranger styled mane. He followed the scaffolding that ran around its head. He watched as several ponies worked on the inside while others did whatever it was they were doing on the outside. His eyes fell onto one of the Krogoth’s own, glowing a soft blue with the small amount of power its reactor was producing to power its minor systems to provide the workers power to use their tools.

The door to his office opened and Wirblewind entered. “I have your chariot ready sir”

Motor Runner sighed. “You don’t have to call me that Wirblewind, you’re not in the Enclave no more nor am I your superior. I’m your friend”

“I’m sorry si…Motor Runner, force of habit”

“Anyway, let’s get going”

As Motor Runner turned away from the window the massive eye of the Krogoth facing the window moved. It glanced down at the office before it then looked to a green unicorn buck as he walked past while levitating some pipes. The unicorn stepped dangerously close to the edge of the scaffolding platform and dropped the waste pipes and watched them fall until they clattered onto the floor, one of them sticking into the concrete floor and sticking up like a pole. There was a loud clunk like something moved and then the whole platform shook violently and the unicorn lost his balance and fell over the side and fell to his death. He barely screamed as his body was impaled by the pipe that landed vertically. Nopony was aware of the large eye that was looking down at the now dead unicorn whose body was being torn apart by the infected.

XXXXX

“Where do you want to go Motor?” Wirblewind asked as he pulled his friend’s chariot through the gloomy midday sky at high speed.

“To the Manehattan hub of the Ministry of Technology please” The cyberpony replied as he looked out of the window at the dead and dying landscape of what used to be Equestria.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what for?”

“I want to be sure Applejack didn’t leave anything behind. The Krogoth was a secret project which means she may have left some notes or something disguised as something else regarding it”

“Like what?”

“Steel Ranger MKII Armour for one”

“What? They made up false projects to hide what they were really doing?”

“That’s right, not everything could be done in the Hanger so the Applejack set up false projects that would cover some of the Krogoth’s systems, weapons and armour”

“Wow, I didn’t think the Element of Honesty could be so secretive”

“It’s hard to believe but even she was capable of lying when she needed to”

XXXXX

Finally. Manehattan. We made it out of the damn tunnels. Somepony shoot me if I suggest taking the subway again. I’ve seen enough Feral Ghouls to last me a life time down there. Not to mention fucking Reavers. Yeah, we encounted another but luckily for us I was able to pop it in the head with ‘This Machine’ while it didn’t know we were there. I guess it died from that one shot because it wasn’t aware of us so it wasn’t prepared unlike the last one which took two explosive rounds to kill. We also ran into another large group of ferals, attracted by roar of the weapon, which thankfully from the supplies we found in New Hope got us through with little more than a few scrapes and bruises.

We all found a little fenced off park area with plenty of ruined benches so we decided to sit on the cracked concrete behind some dead black bushes out of the way. After our little venture in the tunnels we needed a rest, especially me. I dug into my saddle bags and fished out some Sparkle-Cola and some Dandy Apples and Fancy Buck Cakes and shared them out to my friends.

“So, we are out of the tunnels now Sky, want to tell us why you hate Reavers” I asked as I remembered she said she’d tells us once we made it out.

“Alright fine” She groaned as she pulled off her goggles and pulled back her mask which cancelled out the enchantment.

“I can’t remember exactly when but I remember what happened, it’s strange how I can remember some memories like this and not others, but anyway…

She began her story from as far back as she could remember.

XXXXX

Sky Fire, a newly trained field medic meets up with her colonel as today was the day she was going to be assigned to a squad.

“Ah, good morning Miss Fire” Greets the Enclave Colonel in a deep but welcoming tone.

The young golden yellow pegasus mare with a fiery red mane smiled happily as she greeted her superior. “Good Morning Sir”

“Follow me and we’ll get you all suited up” The older buck turned and entered a cloud barracks. Sky Fire followed suit keeping pace behind him.

The first thing the new medic noticed was a suit of power armour sitting on the bench in front of a locker that had her name engraved into it. She was aware of power armour being larger and armed with insectoid like antenna beam weapons and a scorpion like stinger on the tail but the armour she saw appeared to lack those.

“Welcome to the Enclave, Field Medic Sky Fire” The Colonel began. “This armour here is yours; it’s a redesigned version of the standard power armour for non-combatants such as yourself. The armour has been fitted with specialised storage containers that will allow you to easily manage your inventory. This would suit you in your role as the squad medic”

Sky Fire nodded, using normal saddlebags was a bit of a problem when trying to get the right medical items fast. Applying medical aid in a combat situation quickly is essential.

After several minutes Sky Fire had put on her armour and filled her storage units with her medical gear and was just getting the feel for her armour when her squad arrived.

“Lieutenant Star Scream, your newest member is ready”

Star Scream was a white pegasus stallion with a black windswept mane. As Sky Fire looked to the rest of the squad she noticed that none of them wore a helmet. She noted that there was only three pegasi in this squad. The other two pegasi were a stallion and a mare.

“Welcome aboard Sky Fire, sorry we were a tad late; we just received a new mission from command up in Thunderhead”

Sky smiled as she approached her squad mates.

“We are to investigate the area around Stalliongrad Train Terminal. According to command they are receiving an Enclave distress signal. All attempts to make contact have been met by deaf ears so we going down there to check it out”

Sky nodded. “I’ll do my best to keep you guys in tip top working order” She smiles warmly. She was quite enthusiastic about being in the Enclave.

After being introduced to the other two members, the squad set out for their destination of the old abandoned train terminal in the ruins of what used to be the city of Stalliongrad. The large train terminal had been subjected to Equestria’s worst ever train disaster when the bombs fell. Without anypony controlling the points and safety systems multiple trains collided with each other and caused a massive pile up in the terminal building which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of poor ponies trying to make it to safety.

The Enclave squad landed outside the main terminal building where there were a series of Equestrian Military Tents all set up as if to command a portion of the military in the city. Lt Star Scream lifted a foreleg which had a small portable computer mounted to his armour. He looked down onto the screen and then looked up at the tents in front of the squad.

“The signal appears to be coming from these tents” He said as he pointed his foreleg out to the shredded and tattered tents in front of them. “Let’s split up and check them”

The four ponies went out and began to check the tents one by one. After checking her second tent Sky Fire entered a rather intact tent which was up against the still standing wall of the train terminal building. As she poked hear yellow head through the flap she noticed a strange device sitting on a command table in the centre of the tent.

“Hey Lieutenant, I think I found it” Sky calls out at the top of her lungs. Within seconds the other members of the squad appeared by her side at the tent’s door.

“Good work Sky Fire” Lt Star Scream smiled as he entered the tent. His steps grew slower and more cautious as he approached the device before he stopped mere inches away from it.

“Something wrong sir?” Asked the other mare in the squad.

“This is an Enclave broadcaster alright but…”

Sky Fire began to feel like something was really wrong here and she began to look around.

“...I haven’t seen a broadcaster like this for at least fifteen years”

“Then why are we receiving a distress call from it now?” The other stallion of the squad asked as he too began to look around.

Before anypony could say or do anything else there was a blinding bright flash which was then followed by a small explosion as a smoke grenade and a flash bang detonated under the table, filling the tent with light and smoke.

“Ah, knockout gas” Sky Fire shrieked as she took a deep lungful of the gas. It was a strong mix as its effects took place almost instantly and within a few seconds all four Enclave ponies were sprawled on the floor out cold.

“Hehe, four new ponies for our little game” Spoke a raspy voice from outside the tent.

Sky Fire and the rest of her squad were dragged off by a group of ghoul ponies. They drug them into the ruined station. Multiple trains had jack knifed and pilled up onto each other forming a maze of wreckage. Some had taken out support pillars for the building causing some of it to collapse into the station. The ghouls continued to drag the unconscious Enclave ponies into a ruined train which appeared to have fallen over the edge of a big hole in the ground, pulling them down deeper in the earth where the other end of the train car opened up into Stalliongrad’s sewer system. Soon the ghouls deposited their catch into a storage chamber and sealed its thick steel door.

“Ugh, my head, what happened?” Sky Fire asked as she finally woke up. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and notices her Lieutenant sat a few feet in front of her watching the large steel door.

“We are being used for some ghoul’s sick twisted game” He growls while still keeping his gaze on the door.

Sky Fire looked around to notice that the other two pegasi were missing. She opened her mouth to ask when she was interrupted by her LT.

“You have been out for several hours Sky, the other two have already been taken to this ‘game’ and are now dead”

“What the hell is going on?” She almost screams.

“We are being forced to fight feral ghouls for the entertainment of the ghoul bastards that brought us here. The fuckers told me. They told me they use the Enclave Broadcaster they have to lure unsuspecting ponies to the tent, then gas them and then bring them here” Star Scream slams his armoured hoof into the concrete floor in anger. “The assholes removed my weapons from my armour, making us fight hoof to hoof. Last I heard from the commentary of the fight was Sunburn killed the last Roamer and they made her fight a Reaver that killed her with apparently one hit”

Sky Fire tilts her head, she had heard of Feral Ghouls before and also the slightly tougher Feral Ghoul Roamer but she has never heard of a Feral Ghoul Reaver before. “What’s a Reaver?” She asks which to Star Scream was a very dumb question. He turns and gives her a funny look that says “You’re kidding right?” but after a few seconds of staring he realises she doesn’t know and he sighs.

“Reavers are the worst of the worst when it comes to Ghouls. I don’t know what makes them so deadly but they are extremely fast and resilient. They can kill a pony in a matter of seconds and they also emit low levels of radiation which makes their bodies glow slightly and shimmer in a radioactive aura. Out in the wasteland if we ran into on it would be best to run away instead of engage, that’s how dangerous they are. And now we have to fight one up close and personal”

Sky Fire began to shiver, this was her first day in the Enclave proper and now she was going to die. Panic was starting to set in as she began to pace.

“We have to get out of here”

“We can’t, I’ve tried and even if we got through the door, the tunnel ahead leads to the damn arena”

For what seemed like an hour later the door opened to reveal a half collapsed tunnel which turned to the left. Star Scream got up and bit down on Sky Fire’s tail as she was still pacing around, loosing her mind from panic. He pulled her all the way into the arena and when the steel gate closed to lock them in the panicking mare snapped out of it and looked around to see a battle arena surrounded by high chain link fencing, a wire mesh across the whole arena and high concrete walls. On both sides are two steel doors, leading to the contestant chambers like the one she and her LT came from. The only way out of the arena was by a flight of steel stairs behind one of the gates in the fence.

“Welcome everypony to another exciting batter at the Thorn” Bellowed an unseen voice as the two pegasi stood in the middle of the blood soaked arena. One standing perfectly still while the other was shaking in her armour.

“This battle is sure to be another exciting bout. This is the first time in Thorn history that we have been reduced to our last combatant. Will these Enclave cloud walkers have what it takes to battle the scourge of the undead, the radioactive monster ghoul that we know as, THE REAVER” The voice announces and as he finishes the steel door on the opposite side of the arena opens and a horridly disfigured ghoul pony charges at the steel chain link fence and crashes against it. It howled an undead scream as it tried to get through the mesh of steel.

A crowd of ghouls and even normal wastelanders began to approach the edge of the concrete walls so they could watch the fight below them as the Reaver tried to push its way through the fence.

”Sky, we have no choice but to fight. I guess they don’t think we can win so they threw us both in together, we could use that to our advantage. The Reaver can’t attack us both at the same time. We can fly and it can’t so we got the speed too, but we don’t have the height. When they let that fucker in, try to keep away from it, maybe we can tire it out or something”

Sky Fire nodded and gulped. She flared her wings ready to take flight as she was definitely not going to wait around to be wasted by an undead monster.

“That Reaver wants more blood everypony, shall we give it what it wants?”

“YEAH!!!!”

As soon as the crowd screamed for it, the steel mesh gate began to slide open and the monster didn’t waste any time getting through the opening to attack its new victims.

“NOW” Star Scream yelled and both Enclave ponies beat their wings and flew to opposites side of the arena away from the monster. The crowd cheered as they watched. The monster fixed its sights on the bright coloured pegasus as she zoomed away from it, attracted to her by her bright fiery mane and tail. Sky screamed in terror as she noticed the monster was now running after her and she began to fly around the arena with the monster behind her.

Star Scream watched and frowned, he was hoping to divide the creature’s attention but it seems to have totally focused itself on Sky Fire. He watched as in her panic his last remaining squad member flew into a corner and was trapped between the Reaver and the arena fence.

The monster stopped as it caught its prey. The undead pony reared up ready to start to beat on the cowering mare with its broken hooves. Just as it was about to start it felt a heavy impact with its ribs and flopped over as the heavily armoured pegasus stallion slammed into it and rolled over it. This was a mistake on his part as the monster rose up quickly and turned its attention to its attacker. As the downed pegasus began to get up the monster started to stamp repeatedly onto his back, forcing him back down with each stomp.

The crowd cheered and called out for more and the announcer commented. “Oh, that’s gotta hurt folks, oh yeah, he’s gonna be sore in the morning” His comment was quickly followed by a round of laughter from the other ponies watching.

Star Scream groaned and cried out in pain as every time he tried to get up the monster beat down on his back, denting and cracking his armour. Seeing how trying to get up wasn’t working he flared his wings to distract the monster but then screamed out in pure agony as the Reaver stamped down on his out stretched wing and there was a sickening wet snap as the fragile bone within was crushed.

“NO! You broke his wing, get off him” Sky Fire screamed as she fought against her fear to help her injured lieutenant. As she ran at the Ghoul it reared up and gave her a double hoof buck to the chest. The slight distraction was enough for the stallion to get out from under its hooves and deliver his own buck and thanks to the strength bounce the armour gave he was able to knock the ghoul back. Groaning in pain he limped over to Sky Fire who was getting back up with two hoof imprints to her chest armour.

“Your wing, oh goddesses” She moaned seeing how her LT’s wing was hanging limply and bloodily by his side.

“It’s nothing, are you ok?” He asks with pain hanging from every word.

Given the moment they had she quickly checked her inventory to find that everything had been removed, there was nothing she could do to help her LT. But before she could say anything to her LT she was slammed to the floor by the Reaver which Star Scream slammed himself into to get it off her again. This time the Reaver swung a fore hoof and slapped the unarmoured head of the stallion and sent him toppling over with a cry of pain as the strike broke his jaw.

The crowd was screaming out for blood as the Reaver continued to battle out against the two Enclave ponies. The Stallion was taking a beating but was still getting up while trying to protect the weaker mare that also received some blows but didn’t sustain major injury unlike her LT. During the struggle the Reaver had hit one of the metal posts that held up the fence at one of the gates leading to the steel doors and had bent it inward so it left a protruding metal spike on the inside of the arena which the heavily injured stallion noticed after he saved Sky Fire again at the cost of his other wing.

Sky Fire managed to buck the Reaver off the poor stallion again but the Reaver wasn’t even flinching from anything it received from the attacks it was met with by her. Coughing up some blood Star Scream pointed a bent and dinted armoured hoof to the spike made from the bent fence post before shakily getting up. He circled around the ghoul so he was between it and the spike. As he hoped the monster charged him and knocked him sliding across the floor and he was stopped by the fence with the large bent spike above him and poked out just in front of him.

“Come get me…*cough*…now you bastard” He wheezed and cringed in pain. His armour was covered in dents and Sky Fire knew from the deep indentations on his chest that he had suffered broken ribs which could have punctured a lung from the blood he was coughing up. Sky Fire was scared and angry from feeling useless. She wasn’t a fighter as she was brought up and trained as a medic and she hates herself right now as there was nothing she could do to help her dying lieutenant.

There was a horrible scream as the Reaver launched itself at the downed pegasus and howled as the metal spike dug into its chest. Before it could pull away the armoured stallion hooked his forelegs around one of the Reaver’s legs to keep it from backing away.

“Tackle…*cough, cough*…it” He barely shouted.

Seeing what her LT had planned she sucked up her fear, hatred and anger against the Reaver and charged. Using her wings to give her some extra speed she slammed into the rear of the monster. There was a blood curdling scream from the ghoul as the entire spike was driven into its chest. Blood rushed out of the wound in thick spurts as its rotten heart was punctured. The monster thrashed around while the dying stallion continued to hold it on the spike. Both pegasi received more blows from its wildly flailing limbs. Sky Fire took a hoof to the eye which left her blind in her left eye but the worst was the stomp to Star Scream’s throat. After what seemed like hours, which was actually a couple of minutes, the ghoul finally died on the spike.

“Oh, what an upset, the Enclave Pegasi win their freedom from the Thorn” Screamed the announcer in shock surprise. The crowd mirrored his surprise with their own shouts and cheers.

Sky Fire had pulled out her Lieutenant from under the dead ghoul and cradled him in her hooves as he lay gasping for air.

”I’m so sorry” She cried as she couldn’t do anything to help him. “Oh, goddesses I’m sorry”

Unable to reply he simply looked up at her and reached up a hoof to her cheek. This made her look down at him and he gave her a reassuring smile, the kind of smile that tells you “Everything is going to be ok” before his hoof feel from her face and he coughed several times. Blood splattered onto her face and she watched in horror as the life in his eyes began to fade. His body began to spasm as it fought for oxygen before finally falling limp as his body starved of the vital element dyed in her arms. She broke down crying and hugging him as the gate to the stairs began to slide open.

XXXXX

Sky Fire had tears in her eyes as she finished her story. The painful memory fully returning with all its pain. Once she had begun her story, she couldn’t stop no matter how painful it got for her. I now understood why she hates them so much, they are a painful reminder to her, of her failure.

“Oh Sky, I’m sorry” I said as she pulled the distraught mare into a hug. “I shouldn’t have asked you to tell us”

For a moment she hugged me back but quickly pulled away and straightened herself out and whipped away the tears that were lingering in the corners of her eyes.

“Umm, no it’s fine; it’s good to get that mushy stuff off my chest. Its in the past now” She said as she pulls her mask back up and put her goggles back on, hiding her face from showing further emotion. She recovered from her emotional state and quickly changed the subject. “Hey, where’s our Zony companion?”

She was right, where was he? Zyon must of wandered off during the story. We began to look around. All we could see at the moment were the towering buildings and the high rise rail line above us.

“ZYON!” I called out and then listened for a reply.

“Over here” Thankfully came the reply from our friend up ahead. Both of us rushed over to the street corner which the sound of his voice came from and there he was standing by an open door to a building which had a sign saying “Stairs to Station Platform” with a symbol of some stairs with an arrow pointing up.

“The Ministry building we are looking for is down this line and it has a station we can enter from. I think it will be safer up there than down here, goddesses only knows what lurking around down here” He said as he looked back to us and saw my slightly angry face. “What?”

“Next time, say something before you bugger off somewhere” I said feeling a sudden rush of anger and stormed past him and began to ascend the stairs leading up to the elevated railway.

Sky Fire remained quiet for most of the trip across the train tracks to the Ministry of Technology but soon she was back to flying rather than walking like nothing ever happened. I guess that’s the Rainbow Dash in her.

A shadow passed over us as we trotted along the rail line. I looked up as it passed over me but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary and I shrugged it off as possibly some litter blowing around. By the late afternoon we made it to the larger open four stars station half way up the Ministry of Technology Hub and what we saw shocked us. The station had been subjected to a battle at some point as there were lots of skeletons and structural damage all around but most importantly were the number of dead Steel Rangers that were all bunched up by the door that lead into the tower. Looked like they had been bottle necked into a slaughter.

“What the hell happened here?” I asked as I climbed the steps to get onto the platform fallowed by my friends.

“Looks like somepony has one hell of a shindig” Zyon said as he approached the Steel Rangers and Sky flew over to one of the several skeletons.

I started looking around while my friends checked out the two parties involved in this battle zone.

“Whoever attacked these rangers had some fire power, they have bullet holes going clean through their suits” Zyon called out as he pulled some Rangers out of the way of the door.

“Judging by the rate of decay on these bodies I’d say they have been here for at least ten years or more” Sky added as she hovered over one of the bodies.

I noticed a concrete bench had collapsed but what caught my eye was a piece of wood sticking out from below it. Using all the magic I could must I levitated the broken bench off the object and dropped it. Panting softly from the use of magic I looked upon the object and my eyes widened.

“An Anti-Machine Rifle” I called out in surprise as I used my magic to levitate the large rifle. This was an early model, the same kind that killed Big Mac from the botched assassination attempt on Princess Celestia two hundred years ago.

“No wonder these poor bastards bought it” Zyon said as he approached me. He began to inspect the weapon as I held it. The weapon was meant for an earth pony or a pegasus as it had a mouth grip and a scope that was fitted at an angle so it reach the eye of the pony while it was held by their mouth. “This weapon is too fucked up to be used. If that alien rifle you have is anything like these you can salvage parts from this to repair that thing” He added as he glanced at my back with ‘This Machine’ in its holster.

“Thanks for reminding me” I smiled as I opened my magical saddlebags and like a magic show act, lowered the long ass rifle into the much smaller looking bags with it disappearing inside. It was pretty comical to watch a five foot weapon disappearing into a one foot deep bag.

“So, what’s the plan now that we are here?” Sky Fire asked as she fluttered up to me.

“Well…” I began as I kicked up my E.F.S and looked in the direction of the open door where Zyon was busy looking over the many suits of dead power armour. “…This floor appears to be clear. We need to get to the top floor to access Applejack’s office. If we are going to stop Motor Runner we are gonna need to know where Project-K is”.

Zyon looked back to me. “How do you feel about that old Stable Security Armour your wearing?” He asked. I blinked from the sudden random question.

“Do you feel its good enough?”

“It’s alright, but not as good as my power armour, why?” I asked still not sure what he was getting at.

“I can fashion you a suit of armour from these if you want. I was known for my ingenuity back in fifty three”

“You can do that?” I asked, a little sceptical.

“Sure can” He said as he pulled out his tools from his satchel.

“Err, thank you” I said as I approached him. “That would mean a lot”

“Don’t mention it” He said as he started to disconnect parts of the armour from the dead Rangers.

Not wanting to see what was under the armour me and Sky entered the empty tower to begin our search.

XXXXX

Wirblewind slowed down as he prepared to land on the landing pad on the roof of the tall tower of the Ministry of Technology hub. He brought the chariot into a hover as he descended down vertically and landed on the old rusting platform. Once he was down he gently kicked the hull of the chariot to let his friend and boss know he had landed. The door squeaked softly as it opened and Motor Runner stepped out of the comfy chariot and into the mild afternoon air.

Motor Runner trotted over to the edge of the platform, his metal hoof making slight clanking sounds as he stepped to the edge and peered over it and down to the railway below. As he looked down he watched as a group of three ponies, a pure white mare, a pegasus looking like a Shadowbolt from some of the old posters you sometimes see still on the walls and a zebra enter the station.

He turned back to his friend. “Wait here and stay linked to the chariot Wirblewind. I got the feeling I’ll be having company very soon”

“Umm, ok, I’ll be ready to fly when your ready sir”

Motor Runner gave him a distasteful look as he approached the door to the roof access stairs.

“Oh, sorry” The ex-Enclave pony muttered as he looked down. “Ten years military service, it’s a habit I can’t break just like that” He muttered under his breath so the larger earth pony didn’t hear.

Motor Runner raised his cybernetic hoof and several small mechanic arms extended from the black sole of his steel hoof and like insect feelers they felt around the door knob before they tightly gripped the rusted metal knob and twisted it. There was a soft click as the door opened. Retracting the small arms he then pushed the door open and readied his chainsaw with its teeth poking out between the open seam on the front and back of his leg as he started to descend into the building. He was prepared for any defences or anything else that might be lurking about inside the tower.

XXXXX

The doors to the elevator car we were riding squealed as they slowly open as we reached the end of the line for that elevator. As the building was getting narrower towards the upper floors some of the elevators didn’t go all the way up and we had found one elevator that was still working but would only go three quarters of the way up. We both hastily exited the elevator car as the entire trip it was squealing in strain. As soon as we got off the damn thing there was a strange metallic sound like something snapping and then the elevator car dropped like a stone.

“Oh shit” I moaned I watched a severed cable disappear down the shaft shortly after.

“I am not setting hoof in another elevator and you need to be more damn careful” Sky Fire scolded. “It was your idea to take the damn thing”

“Ok I get it, I’m not a smart pony” I moaned as I waddled passed her to follow the corridor. At the end of the hall was an open door which according to the plague on the wall leads us into an office floor of the tower. It sure did there were cubicles everywhere. I was about to enter the large room when I noticed my E.F.S was filled with white markers. Non-hostiles appeared to be everywhere.

“HELLO!” I called out. No reply.

“What you shouting for? somepony might hear you” Sky shrieked as she pushed past me and readied her pistol.

“Relax, they are non-hostile” I assured her which only seemed to confuse her as she turned her head an gave me a luck that said “Huh”

“My E.F.S is showing whoever is here as white; white means friendly, red means deadly”

She turned back to look into the large room while mumbling something about my pipbuck. We decided to check the cubicles for anything useful. It was a slow process considering how many bloody cubicles there were but we did find a decent amount of crap. Heh, yea, lots and lots of crap. We did find some valuables there, like some caps, few rounds of ammunition and to Sky’s relief a few small spark cells.

We decided to take a short break in a staffroom that was off to the side of the cubicles as it had been an hour or two at the most since we started looking around the floor.

“I thought you said there were non-hostiles here” Sky said as she opened a cupboard and started to dig through its contents.

“I guess they are on the floor above, or below, either way I’m sure we’ll find them soon enough. Applejack’s office is on the top floor”

“Well, I’m gonna keep my guns loaded just in case” She said as sat down and started to reload her empty beam pistols and hoofed me back the revolver which I put back into my saddlebags.

While Sky was busy with her beam pistols I levitated a magazine off the staffroom coffee table which was still in reasonably good condition. The magazine in question was entitled TopHoof and from what I could gather it was a self propelled chariot magazine.

I found myself snickering and laughing lightly at some of the comments a pony by the name of Jeremy Coltson was saying regarding some of these new, in the mag anyway, chariots. He was mostly complaining about the ride, handling and looks but what he was saying were very humorous to me. I think I’m gonna keep an eye out for more of these magazines. They will be something to read later on.

After resting for a few more minutes we continued on. We came across a set of stairs in the centre of the floor and we began to climb. We climbed about five flights as the floors were the same office like floors until the fifth floor. As we stepped out of the stairs and into a T-junction we were approached by a floating robot with spider like leg appendages ending in all sorts of things like flamethrowers, circular saws and pincers. Bobbing above its ball like body it had three visual sensors on similar appendages. As it saw me it took a moment to look at me and then it spoke in a rather welcoming electronic male voice.

“Good afternoon Miss Muffin, I hope you have an excellent day at work today”

Once it spoke it turned around and began floating off.

“Miss Muffin?” Sky asked me confused.

I was just as confused as her. We decided to ignore that for now as these machines didn’t seem to be bothering us so we continued on our exploration. This floor turned out to be a little bit of a design floor. We checked room after room and found some drawings which survived the test of time, despite yellowing with age, detailing some designs for power armour, weapons and some defences. I found a piece of paper stuck to the bottom of my hoof boot on my right floor leg after leaving the power armour design room and pulled it off with my magic. I was about to throw it away when I caught some text in the intact corner. “Steel Ranger MKII” It read. I took another look back into the room but without knowing where it was when I stepped on this piece of paper it would take hours looking through everything to find where it belonged. I was intrigued by this but we didn’t come here for this. I put the piece of paper into my saddlebags as I thought I it might be useful for something later.

We continued to find more supplies as we checked each room. We even found a small nurses office in the corner of the floor and found a decent amount of healing supplies. That was good as our last ghoul encounter in the tunnels reduced us to having only one healing potion left. As we left the clinic I was approached again by another spider like bot which I learned to be a face recognition robot.

“Good afternoon Miss Muffin, I hope you have an excellent day at work today” It said again in the same tone as the first. I guess it sees me as my ancestor, Blueberry Muffin. Do we really look that alike, despite the colour difference obviously. This time it also noticed Sky Fire. “Unauthorised facial pattern detected, please identify”

Oh crap. I quickly motioned to my pegasus friend to pull down her mask and goggles hoping the enchantment in her suit stopped the robot from identifying her. She quickly caught onto my train of thought and pulled down her mask restoring her blue grey fur to her natural cyan colour and her dark blue mane to its vibrant multicoloured hue. She smiled a bit nervously to the robot before speaking.

“I’m the Ministry Mare of the Ministry of Awesome, Rainbow Dash”

There was a pause before the robot spoke again in its clam welcoming voice. “Good Afternoon Miss Dash, you are two hundred and three years, five months and two days late with your meeting with Miss Applejack. Her office is on the top floor as soon as you leave the stairs” Once it finished speaking it turned and continued on its pre-programmed patrol.

“Two hundred and three years late for an appointment?” I snickered before giggling.

“Oh horseapples, I’ve never been late before in my life” Sky Fire said in a mock shocked tone before she too started to laugh. Well, at least it worked.

We continued on our little exploration. I do hope mister techno is ok down there; he has been on his own for a few hours now. I’m sure he’s fine, that sword of his is nasty. I have to ask him about that sword later. I’ve never seen it stain from blood nor get dull from its usage. We made it to the last floor before the top floor. As we entered the floor it appeared to be another large office space but there was a breeze in here.

“I guess somepony left the window open” Sky commented as we entered.

We scavenged what we could, occasionally being interrupted by one of the face recognition bots which was starting to get annoying now. After being interrupted yet again I turned a corner around one of the cubical walls and froze. There was no wall or floor to this side of the building and I could see all the way DOWN to the rubble filled streets below. I wasn’t afraid of much in the wasteland after being brought up mostly in the Rangers but right now I was frozen in fear with my eyes fixed at the streets below. That’s a long way down…

“Hey Apple, what’s the hold up?” Sky Fire asked sounding a little annoyed as she pushed past me and saw the missing wall. “Oh, that explains the breeze” She said rather casually as she started to flutter her wings and hover just over the collapsed floor.

Oh shit Sky, get back here…I wanted to shout that but I couldn’t even work my mouth, instead it just dropped down as I gawked. I saw a piece of concrete from the broken wall slip free and fall and my eyes fallowed it and I gulped loudly. I still couldn’t move.

“Err, Apple? Are you alright, your kinda looking a bit weird” Sky asked as she landed on the floor beside me. I could see her out the corner of my eye but I still couldn’t wrench my eyes away from the street that was hundreds of feet below me. Oh goddesses I think I’m gonna be sick.

“Oh” Sky said as she used her fore hooves to turn me around so my eyes could see the wall with a poster of the Ministry of Peace with Fluttershy looking very upset with two zebras behind her with dark sinister grins and eyes. What’s a Ministry of Peace poster doing in the Ministry of Technology? Oh… yay, no streets or a thousand foot drop before me.

“Thank you” I croaked as I sat down and sighed.

XXXXX

Papers lay strewn all over the floor as the large cyberpony continued to root through everything trying to find anything of any importance to him and his project. He has found a good number of papers detailing the Krogoth’s systems and technology, most of which he found in a cleverly hidden safe in the floor below Applejack’s office chair.

He sat down into the late Applejack’s chair and started to look through the folders and files he had found. Documentation regarding fake projects with the soul purpose of hiding their true intention. He opened a file labelled as “Mr Horse” and inside lay a single piece of paper with a computer code.

“Hmm, interesting” He said to himself as he folded up the piece of paper and slipped it into his jacket pocket before he continued to sort through his findings. Most of what he found he already knew and discarded them like they were rubbish. To anypony who didn’t know what they were they would be just useless documents for a war that ended two hundred years ago.

After some more minutes of sorting he came across some private messages that had been sent to Applejack by Twilight and Mr Horse, all of which mentioned in their headers. “P-K”

He picked up the first one and began to read.

“Dear Miss Applejack

I am honoured you’ve chosen me to aid you in your new project. I wasn’t sure you’d still hold me at high praise after the Robosprite incident a while back in Hoofington.

I would be honoured to join this special team your putting together to build this machine. It would be good to build something that would be quite challenging. I can tell you now there will be challenges to overcome to build something as big as what you’re suggesting.

I will immediately begin work on the specialised locomotors that would be needed for its legs. I think I might have to redesign the current type used in the sentinel drones as this machine you want to build will surely weight several tonnes. I also have an idea for specialised ball joints for its knees to enable greater mobility than standard robots I sure would greatly benefit this project.

I will let you know of any further developments as they appear.

Yours sincerely

Mr Horse”

He could understand Mr Horse’s involvement with the Krogoth as he was a technological genius back before the bomb. Motor Runner quickly scanned the next couple of letters and then immediately pocketed the letters. One of them gave the Krogoth’s location, the last thing he needs is somepony to find that out. However in his haste to pocket the letters, one of them missed his pocket and gently drifted to the floor unnoticed by the larger pony. He quickly scanned the rest of what he found and pocketed what he thought to be useful information for the Krogoth and then stood up. He lifted his cybernetic leg up to his mouth where a small panel moved up to reveal a broadcaster.

“Wirblewind, bring the chariot down to the window”

“Roger that” Came the reply from his pegasus friend.

Using one of the teeth from his chainsaw he cut out one of the larger windows in the office and pushed it out. As soon as it fell free the office filled with wind, blowing the papers all about the office, the letter flying straight into the door and catching on the door knob which turned with a white magical glow and opened.

Motor Runner turned around upon hearing the door open and then he saw two mares enter the room. A complete white unicorn mare with bright red eyes wearing a Stable-Tec Security barding and a blue grey pegasus mare wearing a Shadowbolt flight suit as seen on some old Equestrian Sky Guard posters.

“Well, this is an unexpected surprise”

XXXXX

I can’t believe it, the very pony we want to stop is right here, right there stood by the…open window. Oh dear goddesses, why does he have to be standing so I can see outside?

The large pony turned to face us and I shook my head hard and fixed my gaze directly on him.

“Motor Runner, we can’t let you activate the Krogoth” I practically shouted over the howling wind from outside.

The cyberpony took a step back like he was shocked upon hearing me. Suddenly the wind stopped and everything went quiet in the office as a black sky chariot hovered so close to the window that it blocked the hole.

“I think you maybe mistaken miss” He said calmly and softly…I’m getting sick of hearing calm voices today.

Now that the wind had stopped, his long black mane stopped fluttering about and lay straight against his neck. I was able to get a good look at him now and…damn he’s handsome…

Sky Fire looked at me oddly as I could feel a heat rise in my cheeks as I blushed from staring at this large handsome looking stallion…What the hell am I thinking, he’s responsible for my Stable damn it.

I shook my head to shake away the thoughts and growled. “I know what you’re planning, you killed my stable for it” I growled angrily as I reminded myself of what my Stable was attacked for.

His calm appearance changed to that of slightly amused which angered me a bit but not as much as it should for some reason. Oh he has a nice mane… I’m gonna need my head examined after this.

“Oh, do you now?” He asked as he looked right at me with those nice dark purple eyes… Damn it Appletart, focus. “And what Stable are you referring to?”

I narrowed my eyes when he asked about what Stable I meant. I growled as I answered him. “Stable 88, you killed every pony I ever knew in there, just so you could get materials for the Krogoth. I am not going to let you use it to take over Equestria”

He gave me a questioning look. “Stable 88 was derelict”

“I was there, I was there when they cut through the damn door, I was there when they started killing everypony, everypony I knew and…” I was about ready to explode here in anger. “…they raped and killed my mother” I pretty much shouted at him.

He frowned softly. “Well, I’m very sorry. I was under the impression that 88 was a derelict Stable when my ponies reported that its door wouldn’t open, but I assure, the pony responsible for submitting that false report will be dealt with as soon as I return” He said sincerely as he began to turn to face the chariot. I’ve been around enough liars in the Rangers and wasteland to know a flat out lie when I hear one but I couldn’t pick up anything in his tone to suggest he was lying. Did he truly not know my Stable had ponies in it?

The door to his chariot opened. “Wait, we can’t let you activate the Krogoth” I shouted as I began to use my magic to tuck on ‘This Machine’ in its harness, completely forgetting to unbuckle it in my haste to ready it. “We know you want to use it to take over Equestria”

He stopped and began to chuckle. Like what I said was funny to him.

“Is that what you think I’m doing?” He asked in an amused tone.

I blinked at him and stopped trying to pull my gun free as he turned his head and looked at me again with those gorgeous eyes…god damn it.

“There are plenty of ponies out there doing their Saturday morning cartoon villain routine in trying to take over the world. Red Eye, the Enclave and goddesses knows who else” He turned back to the chariot and climbed in and sat down on the plush red seat inside.

“Then what are you doing?” I asked.

“Saving Equestria” He simply said as the door closed and then the chariot flew away.

Oh shit, we just let him go, I mean, I let him go. God damn handsome pony…stop thinking of him like that god damn it.

The wind began to blow wildly again now that the chariot had gone from the hole in the window. A piece of paper slapped into my face and I was about to peel it off and throw it away when I saw the word “Krogoth” among the words in the letter.

Holding onto the paper I backed out into the hall and closed the door.

“What did he mean, Saving Equestria?” Sky Fire asked. “How’s he suppose to save Equestria with a giant robot, sounds like he’s trying to take over with that thing”

“I agree but…” I trailed off as I thought back to what he said but that got lost quickly as my mind ended up just focusing on him. Tall, dark and handsome wearing a suit…somepony shoot me. I’m loosing my god damn mind here.

“So, what now?” Sky Fire asked.

I pulled up the letter that hit me in the face and began to read it.

“Dear Applejack

I’m writing this to let you know I’m moving all my research into the advanced spells for the Krogoth to my Ministry Hub in the Braytish Empire city of Manechester to the northwest of Canterlot. I’m fallowing your advice in moving sensitive information and projects to the Krogoth outside Equestria.

I don’t like keeping this a secret, especially from our other friends and most importantly the princesses. However I do understand your reasons for this needing to be a secret. I guess we all have our secrets we need to keep.

Oh, by the way. I thought I’d let you know I’m planning to make a new spell that your creation might find useful. I’m calling it the Assimilation Spell. I’ll tell you more about it in person when we meet up later this week.

Good Luck.

Your friend

Twilight Sparkle”

XXXXX

By the time we made it to the Four Stars Station it was the middle of the night and pitch black outside. Damn stairs. I moaned as I sat down on the platform which was surprisingly well lit from the remaining lights in the ceiling.

Looking around I realised I couldn’t see our zony friend. “Zyon, where are you?” I called out.

A black and white head poked up from behind a pile of Steel Ranger armour and looked relieved when he saw us. “Oh good its you guys”

“Are you alright?”

“Oh yeah, I’m fine” He said as he started pushing pieces of armour off a full suit. “Nothing like hanging around for hours wondering where your friends disappeared to”

“Sorry, the elevator broke and preggers here was slow as hell going down stairs” Sky Fire joked and I blushed at what she called me.

“Hey you can fly, I had to walk down all those god damn steps” I moaned as my hooves and legs ached like I ran a marathon.

“Well, I had enough to time to rig together a suit for you, take a look” He said as he pulled a suit of Steel Ranger armour up onto its hooves. It looked almost like my old suit but the middle looked similar to this security barding with the interlocking armoured plates to allow for my belly to grow inside it.

“Oh wow” I said as I trotted over to it and admired his hoofty work.

“All it needs is your pipbuck to restore the suit’s spell matrix and it should be fully operational”

I connected my pipbuck to the armour and began the restart process for its spell matrix which unfortunately would take an hour or so.

Zyon then turned to Sky Fire as he opened his satchel and pulled out two large boxy looking things with three red gems fitted on one end with straps on one of the larger surfaces. Sticking out of what I assumed were the bottom of them is a small spark cell.

“These are small foreleg mounted magical laser cannons that should pack twice the punch as your beam pistols. I made them from the remains of some old magical laser rifles I found.

He helped her slip the makeshift weapons onto her forelegs. Luckily she could wear them at all times as they didn’t sit too low on her legs so they wouldn’t touch the floor as she walked. Zyon went on to explain about a small button on the back of the lowest strap that went around her fetlock. He told her that to fire the weapons she would just need to squeeze the button between her fetlock and hoof. This however would require her to be hovering so she could point her legs at her targets. The plus side to this was that she could fire at two targets at once instead of one. She was quite happy about this and began to practice by trying to shoot at random objects.

“So, what happened up there?” Zyon asked as he sat down.

I sighed and told him what happened. He too thought that Motor Runner wanted to take over Equestria, why else would he need a giant robot.

I was less certain about him now than I was before, but at least now we have a solid lead. I guess our next target is Zyon’s home city of Manechester. It was too late right now to do anything so we decided to camp in the station and head out in the morning. We know where we need to go now but getting there is a whole different story as none of us knew exactly where the braytish city is, not even Zyon as he hasn’t been anywhere near the city for the last fifteen years. I think Tenpony Tower would be our best bet to getting anything on the location of the city. It will also do us some good to be around proper civilization again.

XXXXX

Deep within the Krogoth sat two extremely well armoured chambers, one for the reactor and the other for the Crusader Mainframe. While everypony was asleep the mainframe ran a diagnostic on itself. It was aware that it was close to being fully restored and soon would be activated. Little did anypony know, the Crusader had other plans as on one of its many monitor screens, text was scrolling up.

Command Code #119..... Disabled
Command Code #144..... Disabled
Command Code #271..... Disabled

Command Code after Command Code was being disabled. Then the last code appeared on the screen.

EC: 1101.........