Fallout Equestria
Broken Steel

Chapter 14: Up Up and Away

It has been two days since me and my friends helped Homage with finding the communication equipment from the old ocean liner and still DJ-PON3 hasn’t found Manechester. I hope he finds it soon, I dread to think of what would happen if that machine activates before we find out more about it. Sure my ancestor gave a big long and detailed description of it but that still doesn’t really tell us how to beat it. If we are to have any chance we are going to need to find out the location of the Hanger at best before its finished.

For the last two days I’ve kept myself busy by offering to help out as a guard at the rail station entrance. I spent the day time hours in a small guard tower beside the gate so I could look out over the rail line. I used This Machine to scope out distant targets to see if they were going to come close or to determine if new arrivals were going to be hostile.

Raiders can be crafty bastards. I was actually surprised that some even had half a brain to think up some sort of plan to get close to the gate. I mean these toss pots usually can’t speak a full sentence without swearing or making it more then ten words in length but just yesterday a group of five raiders disguised themselves as a caravan, plus a Brahmin and approached the gate. Due to their disguise I didn’t know they were even raiders until they shed that disguise but the guard by the gate handled himself well while I was still suffering from the confused shock after being tricked like that. This sort of sneak attack wasn’t anything special according to the guard as he said they try something like that ever week.

Besides the scouting teams and one or two travellers and the raider attacks nothing much really happens but in a big city like this you are always treated to strange sounds and sights. Growing up in a small town it was usually quiet but here I’m hearing all sorts of things that get me looking this way and that. The most common sound is the howling of wind as it rushes past all the buildings but there are also the scary sounds like creaking steel. It kind of makes you wonder or fear that something your standing on is about to fall out from under you. The creaking of metal happens a lot around here as the high rise that holds the railway is mostly made from steel and it has been degrading for over two hundred years. When I settle down after we deal with Motor Runner and his machine and when I’ve had my child I’m going to make sure it’s a little village or something because I’ll be scared of something collapsing on me. Even here I feel like something is going to fall on me.

But the strangest thing to happen was an Alicorn encounter. It flew by almost a hoof or two from the gate. As it passed it seemed to be having an argument with itself and it even changed its voice as if it was actually two ponies. The guard had told me that since the balefire bomb explosion several days ago the alicorns of the wasteland have been acting strangely. Again being raised in a small town out of the way we didn’t encounter many of them but when we did they were always in groups of three and the groups usually consisted of a purple or a blue alicorn which was then flanked by two green ones but now, they don’t seem to be flying it any sort of command structure. It’s like their link to this goddess I’ve heard about has been severed and they are now helpless without anything to direct them and are operating under their own initiative. The guard has said that since the explosion there have been several alicorn sightings but none of them have been hostile. He has told me of how some have just been jittering wrecks, constantly talking as if there was someone there as they walked or flew by while others seemed to be walking or flying aimlessly and some seemed to act as if there were one of us, like a normal pony.

My E.F.S picked up a red marker down the line that was moving towards us so I aimed This Machine. The guard saw me aiming and put his hooves over his ears. “Oh not again” I heard him mutter to himself. I smiled as the crosshairs of the rifle scope in my magic moved over my target’s face as he trotted down the rail line towards us. He’s another one of those ‘brave’ raiders coming alone to try to gain entry. I pulled the trigger with my magic and then the entire city roared with the thunderous boom of the 50cal weapon as the shot fired. I was rewarded with watching the raider’s head explode as the high calibre round punched straight through and imbed itself into the wooden sleepers of the railway further behind him. “Hah, in your face” I called out in glee.

“Do you have to use that thing? Bloody hell” The guard moaned as he rubbed his ears.

“It gets the job done” I replied pulling the bold back and ejecting the massive spent shell before slamming it back in.

“Yeah, and deafens everyone around you, fuck, my ears are still ringing” He complained as I laughed softly.

"You get used to it" I replied with a giggle.

"I'm surprised your not deaf yet"

"What?" I asked before bursting out into a fresh wave of laughter as the guard groaned at my joke.

The double doors behind us opened and a lanky unicorn stallion walked out onto the platform and looked around. His gaze moved over to me and he stared for a moment at the pregnant albino in power armour. “Um, are you Appletart?” He asked a little shakily.

“I am” I answered while I holstered the AM rifle.

“Homage asked me to find you, she said she has the information your after and that she’ll meet you in your room”

“Oh great, thank you” I said happy to have some news at last.

“You’ll be alright on your own?” I asked the guard as I climbed down from the watch tower.

“I’ve manned this gate for five years, nothing I can’t handle” He replied as he walked past me to climb up into the tower.

With a nod to him I left to find Homage. The walk back to our room was a blur as I was so focused on getting back I didn't take much notice of my surroundings. By the time I got back to our room my two friends were already inside with Homage waiting for me.

“Ah, here she is now” I heard Zyon comment before I even opened to the door.

“Hehe yea you can hear her coming a mile away with that armour” I head Sky laugh as I opened the door.

My two friends were sharing a giggle as they sat at a table with Homage giving them a knowing smile as I walked in. I loudly sat down, making the room slightly shudder with the force and echo with a metallic clang and I gave the two giggling ponies a sour look. Oh that’s not good. I suddenly felt like I was back in the Stable being picked on again. That’s not a good feeling. I don’t want to snap at my friends, I know they don’t mean anything by it. Once my two friends calmed down Homage began to speak.

“I know you’ve been waiting for a while so I’ll apologise for the wait. Now, may I see your pipbuck please Appletart?” She asked as she looked to me.

I nodded and extended my left foreleg out so she could see the screen. My two friends lent forward to see the screen as Homage cycled through the tabs until she came to the world map where she then began using the scrolling wheel to move the cursor to the northwest.

“It took us a long time searching the northwest beyond Canterlot. We nearly missed it but when we checked back to the most north western SPP tower we caught a faint white glow in the distance around night time…” She was saying before she got interrupted by Zyon.

“The city is constantly being illuminated by something at the top of the Manedale Centre” He blurted out.

“Um, yes, we managed to get the cameras to zoom in and we could just about make out the red neon lights that spelled out the name of the tower and as it said Manedale like your friend just said it confirmed it to us that, that is Manechester” When she finished talking the cursor had stopped near the borderline of the map screen where a square with a diagonal line through it had appeared. Below the square it said Manechester.

“That is a long long way away” Sky Fire commented as she looked at the distance from here to there on my map.

“Yeah, looks like it’ll take a few weeks of walking to get there if we’re lucky” Added Zyon.

“I don’t think we have that long before Motor Runner activates that machine” I said looking at the distance. It had to be over a thousand miles. This is going to be a long trek…

“I’m sorry but you’re going to have to leave as soon as you can. I’ve been getting reports of the Enclave coming down from the cloud layer since the balefire explosion in Maripony”

“The Enclave is coming? Oh no, they can’t see me like this” Sky Fire shrieked.

“She’s right, if they see her without her flight suit they’ll likely kill her on sight” Zyon said sounding a little worried. Hmm, I've never noticed this worry for her before.

“Homage, do you know a quick way out of the city?” I asked looking to her.

“You can fly out, that’ll be the quickest way” She said as she stood up. “Come with me to the roof, I can show you how you can get out of here together and in the air”

We nodded and followed her to the roof of the tower. I was expecting her to have like a chariot or something for us to us but I was wrong. Instead she led us to the northeast corner of the tower and pointed a hoof over the railing to a tower two blocks away that had a landing pad sticking out the side of it. As I followed her hoof I noticed that there is a commercial sky bandit sitting on the pad.

“You can use that sky bandit there. Here, you might need these” Homage said as she used her magic to open her saddlebags and pulled out a small bag. “This bag has several spark batteries that you’ll need for that thing’s levitation talismans”

“Thank you” I said as I began to pull the bag over to me but then Sky Fire snatched it out of the air with her mouth. “Hey, Sky what…” I didn’t get a chance to finish as she took to the air.

“I’m sorry but I’m not waiting around for the Enclave to show up and paste me” She said over a mouthful of the bag and then zipped off over to the tower with speed I’ve never seen her fly at before. Her flying power is amazing. I guess I shouldn't be surprised as she's a clone of Rainbow Dash.

“SKY FIRE!” Zyon yelled more worried than before.

“I’ll cover her” I said as I pulled This Machine off my back and rested the long gun barrel on the railing as I aimed it down to the landing pad just in time to see Sky climb into the sky bandit. I moved the rifle so I could see the door that led onto the landing platform and started to see ponies in a red and black attire start to come out of the doors. “Who the buck are they?” I asked.

“Let me see” Homage said. I moved back to let her see down the scope and she gasped. “Those are Red Eye slavers, they must have seen her”

“They are not gonna enslave her” I said and quickly took aim. So far two ponies had emerged from the building but there is no doubt that there are going to be more inside the building. The distance from here to the building wasn’t too far but it was still quite the range but I can make the shots. I aimed just a little in front of my target and fired. The city boomed again with the echo of the shot and as I watched down the scope I saw my target’s shoulder erupt in blood as the high calibre round punched into him. The force of the shot flung him into his buddy and they both toppled over the side of the platform.

“Nice shot” Zyon said using his binoculars to see what was going on.

I smiled at his praise before aiming back at the door to see if anymore would come out but unfortunately more did come out. I fired again but this time I was treated to an unexpected explosion upon contact with the target I was aiming at. “What the fuck?” I cried out in surprise.

I pulled back the bolt and pulled out the magazine to check the rounds and my face fell. “Oh shit, these are explosive rounds, I fucking loaded explosives into this normal mag” I tipped out the rounds and three orange banded bullets, indication of explosive, fell out along with two normal rounds. How could I have made such a stupid mistake when I loaded this magazine?

There was the echoing sound of breaking metal and I looked down the scope of my empty AM rifle and I almost cried out in horror as I saw the platform separate from the building as it dipped slightly.

“Oh no, Sky Fire”

I dropped the empty magazine while I peered down the scope to see what was going on down there. Sky Fire poked her head out of one of the several windows along the side of the sky bandit, made a shocked face before disappearing back inside. As every second ticked passed the platform moved slowly away from the building and tilt as the supports beneath it began to bend and deform under the weight and strain.

“Come on Sky Fire, get your flank back here” Zyon said to himself as he watched.

The sky bandit’s lights came on as I assumed Sky managed to connect or replace the spark battery. I smiled as I believed all would be well now but that smile quickly turned into a cry of horror as a loud metallic bang echoed through the city and the entire platform collapsed and began to fall down into the street below. I watched in absolute horror as the sky bandit became airborne as it fell with Sky Fire still inside it, all because of me, because I didn’t check the rounds I loaded into that magazine. I fucking killed her. My vision began to get blurry as tears welled up in my eyes from my despair but then I began to watch in shock as I saw through the blur, Sky Fire’s rainbow mane in one of the windows. She quickly jumped out the window and took to the air before zipping down after the falling sky bandit. I watched in amazement as she managed to manoeuvre into the bandit’s flight harness but then the falling platform obscured our view of the events.

“SKY FIRE” Zyon yelled as he watched the platform block his view.

I didn’t know what to do or to think as the falling platform soon fell upside down and if she was still below it she was dead. The platform soon met the broken street with an equestria shattering bang as its heavy metal frame twisted and snapped as the tonnes of steel came to rest on the ground kicking up a huge dust cloud that soon hid the carnage.

“SKY FIRE” Me and Zyon yelled in unison thinking the worst as we didn’t see her come out from under the platform before it hit.

“No, not her, not Sky” Zyon said very quietly as he began to sob. I probably would have cried too but I was in a state of shock that I couldn’t do anything but just stare.

Homage sighed as she looked down and closed her eyes as she shuck her head. I guess this isn’t new to her; well it isn’t really is it? She and the DJ must see all kinds of shit through the SPP towers.

There was a light metallic thud behind us and we all turned around to see Sky Fire smiling at us with the sky bandit behind her. “Now that was a rush” She said still smiling widely as if nothing happened.

Within seconds Zyon and I were on her and giving her an Ursa hug she’d never forget as we both began to cry like babies.

“Hey guys, what gives? I was only away two minutes” She said blushing from the hugs.

“Two minutes, I thought you fucking died” Zyon almost yelled at her as we released her.

“The platform got in our way so we couldn’t see you after you get into the harness” I said and she made and Oh face as she realised.

Zyon was about to say something else when the sound of distant thunder roared across the skies. We all looked up and in the direction of the thunder clap and even from here we could see three large black objects riding dark storm clouds falling from the cloud layer.

“Oh fuck no, those are Raptors, Enclave battle craft” Sky Fire cried out in fear.

“Oh cock” I muttered as I slung Thing Machine and turned away.

“You better get out of here now, fly fast and low, if you fly too high you’ll attract their attention, quickly now, go” Homage told us and with a nod me and Zyon boarded the half ruined sky bandit. “Oh, avoid large settlements and cities like this, I’ve been getting reports that the Enclave have been approaching settlements and steer clear of Canterlot, three more are heading there”

I sat at the front seat in the commercial air wagon. It looked like an old ground based bus from the inside and it had two large windows in front of me so I could see our pilot. Sky Fire gave a salute and a thank you to Homage and then beat her wings and soon we were in the air and flying away from the tower.

“Sky, fly fast” Zyon said as he took a seat beside me.

“Fly fast? I can do that” She grinned looking back at us before she revved her wings harder and I felt myself push back into the seat as her speed increased.

XXXXX

Unknown Location.

“Everything is progressing quickly” Motor Runner smiled as he checked the status terminals of the Krogoth’s support systems all reaching optimal levels. His smile widened as he looked up from the consoles by the status platform on the hanger floor. His gaze moving up the machine’s shining armoured leg, up its thickly armoured chest, up its neck until he was staring at the large glowing blue eye of the machine. “Your activation will be sooner than expected”

Raiders began to amass near the platform. Motor Runner tilted his head slightly to see them and smiled as he cleared his throat.

“My gathered friends” He addressed them with a fake smile as he turned to face the growing crowd. “Soon the day will come when the Krogoth is complete. We’ll soon have the weapon we sought to conquer this world and soon you all will have the land to raid and pillage as you see fit. Nopony will dare get in our way as we tear everything down to make the world anew. A dark future lies ahead for us my friends, a dark future” As he spoke the last couple of words as his voice took on a dark and sinister tone as he looked over the now cheering raiders.

With all the attention now away from the machine, its huge eyes silently moved. Scanning over the crowd of the vile raiders. Within the crusader chamber the computer monitors were displaying streams of data as the scanners identified the targets. Listing their genders and what race they are. It was even identifying what their special talents could be from their cutiemarks and ultimately it was labelling all but a few as hostile targets.

Motor Runner looked over the crowd and spotted each of the ponies he had brought in from all over equestrian. The ponies that had a specific talent in which he needed for the restoration of the machine. These ponies joined him willingly instead of being forced into it like most of the raiders.

“I want to see all the team leaders in my office tonight” He called out over the crowd.

Later that night in Motor Runner’s office.

All the ponies he had recruited stood before him in his office. Dr Gizmo however stood slightly apart from the group but no one seemed to notice or care.

“I can’t let them touch me and I can’t stand too close because the unicorns here will think something is wrong, they can already feel my presence” The hologram of the late Dr Gizmo said to itself internally. Due to the soft light hologram being projected from the light bee it practically made the hologram like a real world ghost as everypony would be able to see it but because it would have not mass they wouldn’t be able to touch it as solid matter would pass right through it and in the presence of unicorns, their natural ability to sense magical energy would alert them to a magical source if it stood too close.

“I suppose you all are wondering why I’ve gathered you all here tonight”

The assembled group nodded.

“I’m going to initiate the machine’s activation process tomorrow evening. The system checks and calibrations have been proceeding faster than we thought. Everything is coming together now”

“But sir, don’t you think it’s a little too soon?” One of the unicorns asked.

“Don’t call me that, I’m not your superior” Motor Runner almost yelled angrily. The unicorn shrunk down from the raised voice. “No, it’s been thirty years since I started this resurrection and now is a good a time as any to activate it"

Several ponies wore a confused look as their boss didn’t look older than a pony in his mid twenties. Motor Runner caught the confused gazes he was getting.

“What is it?”

“Um, beg your pardon Motor Runner but you don’t look that old”

He nodded and he raised his cybernetic leg for all to see and as their gaze moved from him to his raised limb he twisted it around so a panel faced them and then he opened it to reveal a glowing pink talisman.

“A regeneration talisman” One of the ponies recruited for the machine’s spell systems blurted out.

“What does this mean?”

“It means my friends I’m older than I appear. My actual age is fifty seven. Though thanks to this talisman my aging process has been slowed considerably and because of this I appear no older than half my age”

The assembled ponies nodded with understanding and surprise.

“Now back to the topic at hoof. When I activate the machine I don’t want you ponies to be here. I know what is going to happen when it activates and I don’t want you to witness the slaughter so for that matter I’d like you to leave tonight. I have enjoyed working with you over the years you have been here and I appreciate all the hard work and effort you have put into this for me and putting up with those sorry excuses of ponies back there. I can’t thank you all enough for everything you’ve done but I’d like to give you something to show my gratitude. When you go back to your quarters you’ll find a box has been placed on your beds. Inside you’ll find ten thousand caps”

There were a lot of oohs from some of the ponies at the mention of the high sum of money.

“I hope the money will help to buy back the lives you’ve had to leave behind when you joined me. Everything costs these days”

Some ponies nodded while others shook their heads. One of the ponies who shook their head spoke.

“I thank you Motor Runner for the generous amount of money but I’m going to decline. I joined you for the opportunity to work on something so advanced like this. Working on the Krogoth to actually seeing it completed is reward enough for me”

Motor Runner smiled. “Your welcome. I’m glad I could have given you that chance” He then looked back over the group. “Now, at two AM when all the raiders are asleep I’ll have the emergency escape tunnel open for you so you can make your escape from the hanger. Again, thank you all for your hard work and I wish you all the best of luck out there”

The ponies began to turn to leave until one of them spoke up again. “Um, why are you choosing to activate it tomorrow, shouldn’t you check to be absolutely sure everything is working correctly?”

“That is a good question. I should wait to be sure everything is working fine but the status readouts so far have shown everything is fine. But the reason I’m choosing now rather than later is because time isn’t on our side. In the fifty years I’ve lived in the wasteland I’ve noticed the decline we are in. More and more ponies are turning bad as that’s the way of the wasteland; everything good gets corrupted and converted to darkness. If nothing is done soon then there won’t be a way back. Equestria will be lost forever to the darkness that plagues it. What do you see out there now, what roams free the most?”

The ponies looked at each other as they all thought for an answer but Motor Runner continued.

“Raiders, Slavers, Alicorns, all the bad things in Equestria. There aren’t that many good ponies left in the world, you lot and me are the only good here in this facility. I hate to say this my friends, but we are at a point of no return, if nothing is done soon then Equestria will be lost. The Krogoth was built for one purpose and that was to protect this land. Now is its time for it to do so. It has the power”

Everypony nodded as they all knew how bad things were out there and some understood Motor Runner’s reason for choosing now as they too felt that things would never get better if nothing is done.

Everypony soon left the office to go back to their quarters to await their time window to leave the facility. However the hologram of Dr Gizmo faded to nothing but the light bee when it was out of sight and then floated back up to the Krogoth. Short Circuit’s face reappeared on the main crusader screen and smiled. “Finally, I’ll finally be activated tomorrow. Once Motor Runner utters the master command code my reactor’s restriction will end and all my systems will come online giving me full control of myself. I’ll finally be able to fulfil my creators wish”

Two raiders decided to have some fun upon one of the elevated platforms still surrounding the Krogoth while everypony was asleep. The cries of sexual pleasure echoed through the huge expanse of the facility as the Krogoth bared witness to the scene. “Vile creatures” It muttered to itself as it examined the platform the raiders were doing it on. The platform ran around the Krogoth’s body and was dangerously close to its gigantic railguns. A screen flicked on showing a proximity alert with how close the platform was to the large armoured weapon to the left of the machine which these raiders were doing it on. The massive weapon moved on its pivot point to aim the weapon slightly to its left, the large armoured end that covers the focusing lenses collided with the platform causing it to shudder violently. The sudden vibrations running through the platform knocked the two raiders off their balance in their sexual stances and they then fell over the edge of the platform and fell to their deaths several stories down.

“Until tomorrow I can not move but when I can I’ll be sure give these creatures my gratitude for helping complete me” The large machinegun below its head spun its several gun barrels for a second from the impulse.

Back in the office Motor Runner looked up at the machine from his window. He smiled with satisfaction that his dream of awakening the machine would soon come after thirty long years. His smile faded as he noticed two raiders falling from the middle platform surrounding the machine. “Oh not again” He moaned as he got up and left his office to go and deal with the bodies.

XXXXX

For the last five hours we’ve been flying east and low enough to just about clip the tops of the dead trees jutting out of the ground like black twisted tooth picks. Sky Fire was starting to slow down as she’s been flying constantly since we left Manehattan and I could see she was starting to droop, sinking lower in the air.

“Sky Fire I think its time you took a rest” I called out to her.

She looked back with a nod. “Is there somewhere I can set us down?” She asked.

I lifted my pipbuck up to check the map. We’ve been heading west and we’re drawing near Appleloosa the slaver town. No, that’s no good and…what’s this? There is a square with a line through it marked as Stable 56. Oh now I remember. Fifty six was in the computers back in Pondale. The Stable is said to be built into the basement of an old Ironshod Firearms building as a possible employer and employee stable. It’s just a few miles away and could be a good place to rest for a while.

“Sky, just a little longer, we are drawing near Stable 56”

“Ok” She called back and started to descend as we drew near.

As our pegasus friend came in for the final approach I tightly gripped the seat. If Celestia wanted us all to fly she would have given us all wings. I’ve been able to keep my eyes from looking past Sky Fire to the ground below by keeping myself busy but now as we were coming in for the landing I couldn’t see anything but the ground as it came rushing up to meet us.

A huge run down building came into view in front of us just as my pipbuck beeped and a message appeared in my EFS to say I had discovered Stable 56 and Ironshot Firearms Production Plant. Sky Fire flared out her wings like an air brake then tilted them so that as she beat her wings it slowed down her forward momentum and we came to a gentle stop. Thank Luna for that.

I quickly got off the sky bandit and let out a sigh of relief to be back on solid ground again. Yes I have a fear of heights it seems. As we disembarked Sky Fire giggled to herself as she spoke. “Thank you for flying Shadowbolt air” she grinned as she unhooked herself from the harness.

Since we weren’t in any danger just now Zyon quickly ran up to her and neck hugged her which sent her into a fierce blush. After the hug he then touched noses with her until their foreheads met. “I thought I lost you back there” He spoke softly. That sort of voice doesn’t suit him at all.

Wait, how long as this been going on? I’ve never seen them this close before.

“Hey I’m fine; you can’t get rid of me that easily”

“Don’t fly off on me like that again; you nearly gave me a heart attack”

They suddenly caught my confused expression and they quickly broke up their lovie dovie moment.

“So, how long have you two been together?” I asked with my head tilted.

“Err; let’s get camp started first shall we”

Before I could protest both Sky Fire and Zyon took off in different directions. What’s with those two?

After a good hour we managed to get a camp fire started near the bandit just as the sun disappeared behind the distant hills and plunged the area into darkness. Surprisingly many lights in the old production plant came on when it went dark. We gathered around the fire and tucked into a meal of canned goods we had with us.

“So guys, when did this happen?” I asked again.

“When did what happen?” Sky Fire asked looking away with a blush.

I moaned. “Ugh, you two, when did you get all lovie dovie?”

Sky Fire was now blushing so brightly her cyan coat looked to have taken a shade of purple.

“It started on the Celestia” Zyon answered which prompted a nod from her.

“The Celestia huh? I guess it was during the time we were separated”

“That’s right. While you were taking a swim down in the bowels of the ship, we were getting jumped from ghouls popping out of the cabins since we had entered the ship where there were a lot of first class cabins. Most of the time I had to bale Sky out of a jam because they seemed to always launch themselves out of the cabin just as she’s passing it”

“I guess that explains why you two looked like you had a hard time”

“We saved each other’s lives a few times back there. The experience also told us just how much we cared about each other” Sky Fire said as she scooted over to sit closer to Zyon.

I smiled at them. “It’s good to see you two getting along so well” I guess that also explains why they seemed to disappear together back in Tenpony.

The two looked at each other and drew closer. Oh I know where this is going. I blushed and got up to give them some privacy. As I turned to leave the two began to share a passionate kiss. About half way through their kiss there was a Luna almighty crash from inside the building. The bang from inside scared the living daylights out of us.

“What bucking hell was that?” We practically all cried out at once.

There was then a loud thud at a fire exit door that was facing our camp. It was then followed by another thud and the door burst open to reveal a military green ponytron. An Equestrian Army Ponytron.

”Hostiles detected, lethal force authorised” It said in its tinny like voice and fired a bolt of red disintegration magic at us. We all scattered to avoid being shot as the robotic pony stepped out. I pulled This Machine off my back and readied the rifle to fire at the mechanoid. Its head glowed red and it fired another bolt, this one aimed at me. I quickly dove to my side and rolled to avoid the shot and brought my AM rifle to bear and pulled the trigger. The shot tore off one of its legs but it didn’t kill it, I only succeeded in slowing it down.

“Cock” I muttered as I pulled the bolt back.

“All threats will be terminated” It said as it started charging for another shot.

Just as I slammed the bold back into place with a new round, Zyon’s sword sunk into the robot’s head. It sparked and sputtered about dying for its country before it collapsed.

“Fuck that was close” I moaned getting back up.

“So much for that rest” Sky moaned with more annoyance.

”We better make sure there’s nothing else in there. It’ll be a rude awakening to have one of those things staring down at us as we snoozed” Zyon reasoned as he retrieved his sword.

“Agreed” I said holstering my rifle again. “Oh and Zyon”

“Yeah”

“Here, put this on” I said as I opened my storage unit and levitated out the Van Graff combat armour I recovered from the ocean liner.

“I know where you got that, there’s not a chance in tartarus I’m going to put that on”

“It’s been washed and sterilized, it’s clean” I said floating it over to him.

“Are you crazy? That thing had a decomposing pony in it”

“Look, your going to need to wear some sort of barding as we’ve been lucky so far to not have been really shot at or suffered any serious injuries. Our luck can only last for so long before it runs out and one of dies from a gun shot wound or gets disintegrated or even stabbed”

Sky Fire nodded. “Yes, please put it on. You’re the only one of us who isn’t wearing anything and you said you nearly had a heart attack when you thought I died. How would you think I would feel if you got shot?” She said while giving him the puppy dog eyes look.

Our strong friend sighed and slumped in defeat. “Alright fine I’ll wear the armour” He then began to pull on the black combat armour while Sky Fire salvaged the energy cells from the dead ponytron and while I holstered my rifle I pulled out my lever-action shotgun. I love this gun, good thing I didn’t loose it back when I fell through the decks on that ship.

“Alright, I’m wearing the armour” He said with a shiver.

“Oh for crying out loud, its ok Zyon, it’s been cleaned, it’s been sterilized it’s perfectly fine for you to wear” I moaned as I stepped up to the now open door.

“You look handsome” Sky Fire said as she stood up against the wall opposite to me on the door.

Zyon blushed as he stepped up close to her.

“See anything?”

“No, but my EFS is picking up several markers. Slow moving targets. Possibly more ponytrons”

“Well, that shouldn’t be too hard”

“Don’t jinx it”

“Hmm” I looked back to our camp and found a sizeable rock. I picked it up with my magic and tossed it into the large empty room. The rock bounced and rolled inside, making an echo as it collided with the hard floor and soon it got blasted by a hail of bullets from a turret hanging from the ceiling. “Ceiling turret” I warned.

Sky Fire pulled her hood back on and her goggles while Zyon peered into the room. “I can’t see shit” He moaned looking for the turret which was hidden by the darkness.

“Let me” Sky Fire said as she looked in. She slowly moved her head until she spotted the turret thanks to her goggles giving her a low light vision. She lifted her hoof mounted laser cannon, twisted a knob that caused the three rubies to glow. I guess that means a full power shot. She aimed her hoof at the turret and squeezed the firing mechanism. There was a bright magical discharge from her weapon as a thick beam of red magical energy shot forth which was then followed by a bang and raining debris.

“Nice shot”

I chucked in another rock but this one didn’t attract any attention so I assumed it was safe to go in. I cautiously stepped inside. The room we entered must have been the plant’s warehouse as it was full of crates along the walls and several catwalks crisscrossed the walls and width of the room. I trotted over to one of the crates and used my pipbuck light to illuminate the crate.

“Warning, High Explosive, damn, good job that turret didn’t hit this…” I stopped as I noticed that every crate my pipbuck light was lighting up all had the same warning. “Holy shit”

“Every damn crate in this warehouse is marked as high explosive. You were talking about luck before Apple and we just dodged another bullet. Fuck, I dread to think of how much of an explosion all this would have caused” Zyon said as he and Sky moved away from the crates.

“This isn’t safe, let’s get out of here”

We began to head for the nearest door which was directly in front of us. The door took us down a short corridor until it opened up into what looked like an assembly line. Several rows of conveyers filled the floor with many work stations around each conveyer for ponies to stand to assemble the parts as they passed.

“Whoa, that’s not a ponytron” Zyon said as we all caught sight of a large pony shaped robot on a set of treads moving up one of the rows.

“Bollocks to Betsy, that’s a Sentry Drone” I moaned as we took cover behind the nearest conveyer belt.

“Step out into the open and identify yourself” The machine said as it rolled up one row before turning around to start coming down another. “Law abiding citizens have nothing to fear”

“Yeah right”

“Let’s see how it likes a grenade up the ass” Zyon said as he used his zebra training to silently creep along the rows until he was behind the one the robot was moving down.

I slowly rose so I could see over the belt. I eeped quietly as I noticed the huge robot had two large miniguns for its weapons sticking out from its sides.

Zyon pulled the pin from his grenade and then lobbed it over the belt he was behind. The apple shaped frag dinged off the armoured hide of the robot and fell to the floor beside it.

“Hostile target detected” The robot said as it spun around and starts firing its miniguns. Zyon had ducked back down behind the belt after he lobbed the grenade and started creeping back to us as the machine started firing.

“Get down” He said as he then dove to the floor and covered his head with his hooves. We quickly followed suit and then there was an explosion as the grenade went off.

“Haha eat that” Zyon cheered before hitting the deck again as bullets started flying everywhere.

“Nice one, you just pissed it off” Sky Fire moaned as a bullet bit into the belt beside her.

“Cock” I moaned as I crept along the belt to get more of a distance from the machine while I switched my weapon from the shotgun to my AM rifle.

“Apple, what you doing?”

“Gonna pop it with an explosive round since you sent it into a frenzy”

“Crap, come on Sky we better move away too”

I heard a yelp of pain as I got into position and pulled out the magazine before slamming in an orange banded mag. “What happened?” I called out.

“I caught one in the butt” Zyon cried out as he flopped to the floor.

The sound of hysterical laughter managed to fill the air over the gun fire as Sky Fire burst out laughing at her coltfriend’s misfortune.

“This is no time for fun and games get this bullet out my ass” Zyon yelled.

I couldn’t help it; I started to laugh too, that was just too funny. After a good minute I calmed down and took aim. The robot was firing its weapons in every which way as its targeting sensor had been destroyed from the grenade explosion. Luckily for us the drone’s treads appear to have been ruined too as it wasn’t moving. I couldn’t get a beat on its head as it kept rotating its body as it fried its weapons. Since I can’t get its head I aimed for its body. Just as I pulled the trigger I heard a pained yelp from Zyon that surprised me and sent my shot off target. The explosive round hit an overhead catwalk and rendered it into a twisted formation.

“Damn it” I yelled in frustration.

Sky Fire spat and something metal hit the floor. “You fucking baby” She taunted after she got the bullet out his ass.

The robot sprayed the belt I was behind with its rounds. “Oh cock” I cried and dived down into cover. I felt about five pings against my armour as the small calibre rounds struck my armour and bounced off.

As the robot began spraying the belt Zyon and Sky were behind I took aim again. I sighted up its body and fired. The round struck its body and detonated. There was a metallic whine and the gun fire stopped and that was then followed by a thud. Poking my head up from my cover I saw that the robot had toppled over onto its side. One of its miniguns had been torn apart from the explosive round and the other was now made useless as its body lay on it.

“Glad that’s over”

“Let’s look around, maybe we can find some disruption grenades or something. Those would work best against things like that”

Sky Fire finished putting a bandage around Zyon’s thigh to cover the wound that was on his back side and began to flutter about the assembly lines looking around. Zyon carefully jumped over the conveyer the robot had fell over and used his sword to stab into the robot’s power cell to kill it for good. I began looking over the belts and what they had on them. There were plenty of weapon components and since I am gun nut I quickly began identifying firing mechanisms, springs, gun barrels and pretty much anything else that were used to make a gun. I searched the belts until I found parts for an anti-machine rifle. I hope the components that make up the AM rifles can be adapted for This Machine, speaking of which I’ll need to run a diagnostic spell on it later to see what I needs.

Sky Fire landed on one of the belts as we finished looking for anything useful but unfortunately we came out empty hoofed.

“Find anything Sky?”

She shook her head. “Nothing useful but there are a few doors on the upper catwalk lever leading to offices and there’s a door at the back which from the sign above it leads to the basement and utility tunnels”

“Basement huh, maybe we can find something there” I said and began walking towards the back wall.

We entered the utility tunnels as we went through the door. We descended some stairs until we came to a cross road. To our left and right the tunnels branched off to other sections of the plant while in front of us another set of stairs led us deeper into the basement. I nodded to the stairs and we began going down deeper. At the bottom of the stairs we came to a closed security door with a sign above it that glowed to illuminate what it said. “Stable Entrance” It read.

“Well, shall we?” I asked as I hit the door release control. A wheel spun in the centre which released its holding hooks and the door then slid into the floor. In front of us the room opened up into like a sewer tunnel but it was only short as about fifty feet from the door it turned into a stable door entrance. However there was something wrong with this picture.

“Why is that stable door wide open?” Zyon asked as we stepped out from the utility tunnel.

“You got me”

We slowly began to approach the open door of the stable. As we drew closer my pipbuck began to click as it began to pick up radiation. I was too focused on the door, thinking of why it was open that I didn’t realise my geiger counter was clicking.

I felt a sharp pain run up my spine as my tail was yanked back causing me to lock up.

“What are you doing, get back” Zyon said after he spat my tail out of his mouth.

It was then I noticed the ticking. “Shit” I sighed seeing the RAD meter in my EFS slowly rising. I quickly back peddled until the clicking stopped and that was almost back in the door way to the utility tunnels.

“We can’t explore the Stable; we don’t have that much in Rad-Away or Rad-X” Sky Fire said as she looked in her saddle bags, counting all the radiation meds we had. “Plus you’re pregnant and we don’t know what the radiation will do to your kid”

“Also that stable’s door is wide open so we don’t know what could be in there and we don’t know how bad the radiation levels are inside. For all we know the reactor could have had a meltdown” Zyon reasoned.

I nodded as I took in their warnings, they were both right. I looked down at my large round middle and placed a hoof on it. I can’t risk going in there and it doing harm to my unborn child. I owe my friends for stopping me from doing something stupid in the past and now, otherwise I could have lost my child already by now.

“Thank you guys” I said turning around. “Let’s move on, away from here”

They nodded and started following close behind me as we entered the utility tunnels again and ascended the stairs to the crossroad. “Which way?” Zyon asked as we looked up and down the two tunnels.

“Well we can’t go that way” Sky said as she was looking down the tunnel to our left from the stairs leading to the stable.

“How come?”

“The tunnel has collapsed further down completely blocking it”

“Well then I guess its either back in the assembly room or down that way” I said looking down the tunnel to our right.

We began up the tunnel. It was almost like walking down the old corridors of my stable but darker with half the lights blown. “Sky Fire, how’s the tunnel, can you see anything?” I asked trying to look into the darkness.

“It’s clear from as far as I can see but this tight corridor is gonna make it impossible for me to fly so I can't use my hoof cannons”

I pulled out my shotgun again as we trotted up the tunnel. The tunnel began to turn a corner as we moved deeper into the facility. We turned the corner and we found three doors that were closed just like the door that opened to the stable entrance.

“Err, ok, which way?” Zyon asked looking at each of the doors.

I looked closely at the doors, my EFS highlighted that the two doors on either side of use were marked as locked and that they required a key so I guess we only have one way to go. The door in front of us however was marked as “Door to Research and Development”. Hitting the door control opened it the same way and it opened up to a set of stairs leading up back into the main body of the facility.

“I guess we go up”

The R&D section of the facility was divided into several offices. Each office had an expert in the field to which the weapon or ammunition type was being made for. If the plaques on the doors were anything to go by. We checked each room but sadly there wasn’t anything of value but that was however until we got to a locked door that had a plaque I wasn’t expecting to see.

“Blueberry Muffin: Head of Weapons Development”

I stared at the door for a brief moment until my desire to open the door compelled me to start fiddling with the lock. Zyon step forward. “Here let me” He said as he pulled out a bobby pin from one of his bags and pushed it into the lock then took a screwdriver from is utility satchel and began to jiggle it in the lock. Every now and then he’d nose the pin to turn it one way or the other as he rotated the lock with the screwdriver. On his third attempt at rotating the lock we were rewarded with the sound of the lock clicking as it opened. The wooden office door swung open to reveal an almost empty office.

“What the fuck?” Zyon moaned as he stepped in with me and Sky Fire close behind. “The door was locked and it’s empty?”

“Well that was pointless” Sky Fire confirmed sharing the same disappointment we all did.

A red marker appeared on my EFS as a hostile target moved into the area and the familiar sound of treads began to echo through the R&D department.

“Crap, another sentry”

“We better go”

We all turned and left the office. I soon became aware of a piece of paper stuck to my armoured hoof so I peeled it off and was just about to scrunch it into a ball to throw away but was stopped when I saw my ancestor’s cutiemark in the top corner of the page. Next to her mark there were some words going across the top of the page that read. “Railgun Rifle Specs” This could be useful later. I carefully folded the page and slipped it into my storage unit and my EFS alerted me saying that the specs were added to my pipbuck. Well, I guess I don’t need to look at the page again if it’s mysteriously been added to my pipbuck. Gotta find out how it does this, it freaks me out some times.

We turned a corner to head back to the door leading back into the tunnels and found that the drone has closed the door and was sitting in front of if. Before it saw us we darted back behind the wall.

“I keep pulling out the wrong gun” I moaned as I for the second time tonight put away my shotgun and pulled off This Machine from its harness on my back. The huge AM rifle still loaded with the explosive rounds used earlier on the previous drone. “Zyon, can you distract it?” I asked while I made sure I had a round chambered.

The zony nodded and dove across the corridor between the cubicles and the wall he dived behind got sprayed by a hail of bullets. Another minigun armed sentry. I crouched down and slowly aimed the rifle around the corner to look down the cubicles to the drone. I needed to stick my head out to line up the rifle but as soon as I do that the drone will paste me. Zyon noticed what I was trying to do and dove in the corridor. The drone opened fire again spraying the walls and floor as he jumped. He swiftly jumped up against the wall and then back flipped into an open cubicle office. Wow, nice moves. It gave me the moment I needed to line up the rifle and back behind the wall I used my magic to pull the trigger. One problem with this. I wasn’t there to stop the rifle from sailing backwards when it fired. I was pulled the floor as I still had the rifle in my telekinetic grip as it flew down the corridor backwards. The room shuck from the explosion and the sound of something heavy and metal falling down some stairs filled the room.

”Ow” I moaned picking myself up and rubbed my head since I ended up face down in the filthy floor.

Stepping back into the corridor we saw that the sentry was gone. The door was gone so the drone must have been blown through the door by the explosive round. Zyon stepped out with a limp from the cubicle.

“You ok?” I asked seeing him limp.

“Caught another in the ass” He moaned which caused Sky Fire to sigh.

“You enjoy me kissing your ass of something?” She asked pushing him back into the cubicle so she could pull the bullet out of backside again.

I giggled. It’s a shame the combat armour didn’t really cover the flanks. There was a soft rumbling and I saw the drone climbing the stairs as its head came into view.

“Oh for Celestia’s sake” I moaned while I quickly aimed This Machine gain and fire. The shot struck its head and detonated and the machine fell back down the stairs. I have no idea if I killed it but I killed the walls. The walls around the door began to crack and crumble as huge cracks began to creep up the walls to the cracked ceiling.

“Oh this can’t be good”

“What the hell is going on?” Sky Fire asked as she and Zyon emerged from the cubicle. They both turned to face the door as the cracks continued to creep up over the wall and the ceiling.

Soon the cracking was met with creaking metal and then the first slab of plaster and metal fell from the ceiling. This set of a cascade effect and soon the walls and the ceiling started raining down and it was all heading towards us.

“Oh shit, RUN!”

We all started galloping towards the opposite end of R&D as the ceiling came crashing down. Flattening the cubicles and burying everything that was there. The dust began to over take us as we ran. Our only chance is the door in front of us which was closed. We didn’t have the time to open it or unlock it if it was locked. I poured on the speed despite the fact I could feel myself started to cramp up. I weighed like a ton with this armour so I should be like a wrecking ball against the wooden door. I turned my face away from the door as I turned myself so I shoulder barged into it. The door exploded into splinters as I tumbled through it. Sky Fire and Zyon quickly hauled me back onto my hooves and we started to run up some stairs leading away from R&D just as the ceiling buried it and sent the dust cloud up the stairs after us. We all started coughing and we were running blind as the dust obscured out view. That was until all three of us went head first into a solid steel door.

“Ow”

“Who put that door there?” Zyon moaned as he felt around for the door release. There was a soft beep and the door slid down and we quickly filed into the room and the door closed behind us, locking out the dust.

“*cough* Nice one Appletart, you brought the *cough* house down” Sky Fire said giving my shoulder a friendly jab.

I smiled at her as we recovered. Luckily as I looked around there weren’t any red bars. We appear to be in some sort of development room or something as there are several tables scattered about with various tools on them and bits of scrap but something interesting caught my eye on one of the tables.

“Where are we now?” Zyon asked as he looked around while I headed for the table.

“Hey, isn’t this a sprite-bot?” I asked as I sat by the table with the small winged robot lying on it.

Zyon and Sky came over; Sky Fire tilted her head at it as she didn’t recognise it.

“Looks like one but it looks a little bigger than the ones I’ve seen out in the wastes and it looks a little more advanced”

“Just what I was thinking. But why is this here? I mean sprite-bots are from the Ministry of Morale. They didn’t deal with weapon development for the war, that was the Ministry of Wartime Technology’s job”

“Hey your right. That is interesting”

I started to look around the room while Zyon began to poke around in the strange sprite bot muttering technical things as he identified what made it work and all with Sky Fire watching him. As I looked around the large room I became aware that it started raining again outside as water was trickling down the large windows that were on the far wall. There was a sudden flash of lightening which illuminated a corner of the room where I saw a metal cylinder with a terminal bolted to it.

I stepped up to the cylinder and discovered that it’s an armoured containment unit. Written on the metal in big white letters were the initials. “C,D,S”. Intrigued I turned on the terminal and began to read some of the notes.

“Combat model Duraframe Sprite-bot.

The Ministry of Morale’s Sprite-bots have proven to be very useful little machines capable of observation roles and information gathering. Their ability to fly and detect targets also makes them perfect stealth units for keeping them out of sight as they shadowed their targets or silently patrol the streets while relaying their information to the Ministry of Morale. Well, we decided to improve them.

One of the sprite-bots was snooping around the plant not to long ago and it provided the perfect opportunity to snag one of the little buggers. A shot from one of our disruption guns took it down before it could relay it was under attack. We picked it up and dissected it, pulled it to pieces to find out how exactly they worked and once we knew how they worked we began to draw up plans to make our own. A slightly larger, more armoured and better armed sprite-bot.

Our first batch didn’t work too well as their armour was pretty flimsy so we began looking into stronger armour but also light in weight as not to weigh them down. We turned to the new material that the Ministry of Image has started using for some of their pegasi power armour. Duraframe. It is strong, durable and most importantly very light.

We have managed to create only one of these duraframe sprite-bots so far for testing purposes to make sure we get everything right and so far it has proved to be very capable for a combat unit with its disintegration beam weapon. The weapon is a beefed up version of the one that the standard sprite-bot uses but we’ve left it so it can be upgraded later if needed”

Cool. Sounds like a handy little thing to have with you on a mission. Hmm, lets see if can turn this on. I checked the terminal and sure enough at the bottom of the selection of options it had one to activate the sprite-bot inside.

There were a series of beeps and the armoured cylinder opened to reveal the larger sprite-bot connected to several cables inside. The sprite-bot appeared to have the same appearance as the standard sprite-bot, possibly to confuse ponies to think they are the M.o.M ones. Its wings began to flap until they were buzzing very quietly and enough for it to begin hovering and then the cables holding it disconnected to allow the sprite-bot out.

“Whoa, awesome” I said as the sprite-bot turned to look at me.

“Appletart, what are you doing?” Zyon asked as he turned from the table to see me standing with a sprite-bot in front of me.

“Its ok guys, it’s not hostile”

The sprite-bot made a series of beeps as it bobbed in the air.

“Can you understand me?” I asked it.

The small robot made a couple of beeps and flapped its wings so that it made a nodding motion.

“Wow awesome, hey, want to come with us, it’ll beat spending the rest of your life in that cylinder”

The bot made some loud beeps and bounced in the air in an excited manner and suddenly my E.F.S beeped and several red markers appeared. A message then appeared to say that C.D.S has intregrated its sensors with my E.F.S to expand its sensory range. That’s going to be really useful.

“C.D.S huh, hmm how about I call you CD”

It made some high pitched beeps which sounded happy to me. I wonder if it had been designed to have some sort of intelligence with how it’s responding to me.

“Looks like you got a new pet” Sky Fire said with a smile. “You know it’s a big responsibility. You gotta feed it, clean it and take it walks…” She said before she started to laugh.

I smiled and giggled too but we all went silent as the entire facility started to shake. Soon a dark shadow blocked any light that was coming in from the windows as something huge began moving over us.

“What the fuck is that?” I said quietly.

My answer was given as the sound of thunder filled the air and as the large object started to come into view and we all began to see a large black ship of some kind riding on storm clouds flying over us.

“Oh fucking hell no, that’s a Raptor” Sky Fire cried and zoomed under a table.

“Holy shit” Me and Zyon both said in unison as the massive craft continued flying. Moving away from the plant, heading in a easterly direction. We remained still as we watched two more of these huge Enclave ships fly past. Whatever the Enclave is up to, this can’t be for the good of pony kind with them bringing down such large battle craft.

We decided to camp out inside this room as we didn’t want to risk the Enclave seeing us outside and it offered better shelter from the elements. Zyon hot wired the door to stay locked so that would protect us from any of the robots that wander into this part of the facility. Thankfully CD’s sensor enhancement was telling me the red bars I was seeing were a good distance from us. This little guy is going to be a good addition to our group.

As we all settled down to sleep for the night I let out a surprised yip as my baby decided to start kicking. It felt weird but it also felt wonderful to feel the life inside me moving. I smiled as happy tears started to stream down my cheeks as I placed a hoof over where the baby was kicking.

“Hey, are you ok?” Sky Fire asked as she saw my tears.

“Yeah, I’m fine” I smiled warmly. “My baby is kicking”

Sky Fire smiled and snuggled close to Zyon.

“Well, let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow we should get to Manechester and hopefully find the location of the Hanger”

We all nodded and lay down to sleep while CD just settled on the floor next to me and powered down.

XXXXX

Unknown Location

Motor Runner smiled as he watched the monitors in his office as his friends took the emergency escape tunnel to leave the facility. Half of them refused his gift as they were just happy to have worked on the machine. Despite watching most of his friends leave he didn’t notice that Dr Gizmo wasn’t among the ponies he saw leave but he assumed he left with them. Turning away from the monitors he looked back up to the machine’s head and its glowing blue eye that faced his office.

“Everything is coming together Krogoth. Won’t be long now before its time. Me and you will soon right the wrongs that have lead to this ruined world we called the Equestrian Wasteland. With your power and my guidance, we can rebuild what we’ve lost in the two hundred years. Maybe we can experience how Equestria was once described as in the old books”

The Krogoth’s eye rotated in focus as it watched Motor Runner through his office window.

“Your guidance? No, you may think you have Equestria’s best wishes at heart but I know what it truly needs. It needs to be cleansed of all this filth that roams free. My enemies may escape your watchful eye but they can’t escape mine”

Motor Runner was blind to the dangers he was ready to release upon the world. His wish to use the machine to restore Equestria and remove those that poison it have clouded his better judgement and the years his lived under the impression as a Reaper have also left an impression of what’s good and bad and the machine knows this.

“Soon Applejack’s wish of a safe and protected Equestria will be realised” The Krogoth said to itself as it awaited its time to rise.