Fallout Equestria
Broken Steel

Chapter 17: Back Again

Buckingham City was nothing but a blasted burning wreck. Most of Central Buckingham was flat to the ground as the buildings had either collapsed or have been blown up from the missile strikes. The outlaying areas around from the centre of the city were badly damaged and collapsed and the suburbs were littered with debris from the impacts. The destroyed city was now deadly quiet, not a single sound could be heard apart from the soft rumble and groans of falling and crumbling debris of the ruins and the soft hum of the electrical and magical systems of the machine standing in the centre of the devastation.

The Krogoth stood slowly turning its head as it viewed the annihilation it brought upon the city of raiders. The fires that still raged from the strikes glinted and reflected from pools and splatters of blood littering the rubble and the parts of the bodies of the Krogoth’s latest victims. Through the glare of the fires and the haze of the smoke the machine looked out from the city and with its enhanced visual systems it saw the figure of something that resembled itself. The Krogoth tilted its head as it focused its visual sensors on the figure. Its vision became a wash with images of design specs for Generation 2 Steel Ranger Power Armour.

The machine began to walk towards the figure. The machine stood on the remains of buildings, crushing them beneath its massive hooves as it trudged its way through the rubble. As it walked it began to receive information about the Steel Rangers and remembered the things Motor Runner had said about the Rangers, about how they turned from helping and defending ponies to being hoarders of pre-war technology and murders. It saddened the Krogoth slightly to know that a force for good in Equestria had turned to being petty thieves, doing anything they wanted to acquire the technology of the past. Such ponies were a bad thing for Equestria and so the machine labelled them as a threat, especially with the armour and weapons available to them.

The lone figure was standing outside a small concrete structure that the Krogoth identified as a pre-war bomb shelter. New specifications appeared in the Krogoth’s EFS detailing that the shelter was designed to survive being hit by bombs ranging from five hundred to seven hundred and fifty pounds. Such bombs would be pretty devastating and the Krogoth’s missiles had payloads of fifteen hundred to two thousand pounds. The shelter’s reinforced concrete would also make its machinegun ammunition worthless and the disc grenades wouldn’t leave a scratch. Krogoth took another look at the specs, finding that it was riddled with steel reinforcing bars to strength the concrete and despite her missiles packing higher explosive yields than it was designed to survive against the steel would likely keep the structure together long enough for the Rangers inside to get into the lower and more secure rooms. This bunker would make using its conventional weapons pointless but the concrete and steel wouldn’t protect the inhabitants against the extreme levels of power behind its railguns.

“Cowardly Custard report” Buzzed the voice of the lead Paladin into the helmet speakers of the Steel Ranger standing outside the bunker. He was the only one still outside after the machine looked their way earlier before it continued exterminating the raiders unlucky enough to have survived the initial attack. The others had gone back inside their bunker.

He sighed at the use of his nickname. “Ugh, it’s heading this way” Custard replied taking an instinctive step back.

“Get back in here, we don’t know if it’ll be hostile towards us considering it looks like one of us, but we best stay out of its way for the time being”

“Roger that sir” Custard replied with relief as he quickly turned around and walked inside the bunker and booted the thick steel door closed.

The Krogoth had been aiming its machinegun at the lone Ranger standing outside when he walked back into the cover of the bunker causing the machine to loose its target lock. The Krogoth knew that the rest of the squad was inside but now it needed a way to get to them. As the machine stomped its way closer it was unaware that it was being watched from far away.

Flying at a leisurely pace towards what’s left of Buckingham is a large black triangular vessel that appeared to be supported in the air by four large storm clouds. The object is a Pegasus Enclave warship known as a Raptor. In size it’s roughly the size of a medium sized destroyer but for a ship that flies its still pretty big. It is armed with several large plasma cannons mounted on the bottom and the top surfaces of the craft running along both sides.

“Commander, that city we were to investigate appears to have been destroyed” Spoke a Pegasus mare dressed in a grey officer’s suit and wearing a black hat bearing the Enclave’s insignia above the brim at the front. She was the Intelligence Officer of the Raptor.

“Destroyed? But didn’t the intelligence officer from Thunderhead Aegis report the city to be intact and in the middle of a war between the two raider factions within the city not six hours?” Asked the captain of the Raptor with annoyance at the possible mistake made by the Aegis’s Intelligence crew.

“Yes sir, other Raptors have reported the city being intact around the same time”

“Then what could have…”

“Sorry to interrupt sir, I’m picking up a large energy signature coming from just outside the city limits” Interrupted another mare dressed in the same fashion.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know sir, the computers have identified the signature to a Spark Reactor but the power levels I’m detecting don’t make any sense”

“What do you mean Lieutenant?” The captain asked as he gave the mare his full attention.

“The signature is mobile and the readings I’m getting are on par with a Stable-Tec reactor built for a stable”

The captain looked up towards the windows of the bridge looking out to the horizon where the city was supposed to be. “Do we have a visual of the target?”

“Affirmative sir” Called a pegasus stallion sitting at a bank of monitors showing several areas of the destroyed city and one of them had been focused on the moving machine.

“Punch it up onto the main screen” Ordered the captain as he stepped back to view the largest screen that was being suspended in the middle of the bridge from the ceiling. It flashed to life to reveal what could only be described as a new form of Steel Ranger.

“Is this a joke?” The captain asked, believing it to be a Ranger at first glance.

“No sir, the signature is coming from…” There was a pause as the mare double checked the signature’s location “…That”

“Sir, we are at twenty percent zoom, that thing is massive”

The captain blinked in surprise. At twenty percent zoom they were still a couple of miles out but to see the machine so clearly, it had to be huge. “How big is it?”

“Err; judging from the lampposts and dead trees in the area of the road and the remains of some out laying structures... it’s around…” He trailed off as he looked back and forth from the image to be sure his calculations were correct.

“Well?” The captain asked starting to get irritated and impatient.

“Its…its roughly ten stories tall including that huge sail like mane it has”

The captain wasn’t expecting that, that thing was gigantic, bigger than anything besides the Raptors and Thunderheads that he’s ever seen. The ponies of the ground were not supposed to have anything of such a size in their current state of affairs and the Enclave never mentioned of such a thing, this could be a danger to their plans. That thing should not exist but it was right there on the screen.

“That’s impossible; the ground walkers shouldn’t have been able to build anything like that”

The screen flickered as it focused on the machine’s head and highlighted the name printed onto its cheek along with the cutiemark that was under the last few letters.

“Captain, I don’t think anyone built that after the war, it bares the mark of the ministry mare called Applejack and she was the head of the Ministry of Wartime Technology”

The captain grumbled to himself for a moment about the Thunderhead crews not getting all the facts about the ground dwellers straight as they obviously missed some important things, like the giant robot. He sat in his chair as he began to examine the machine as it walked. He identified that it had a machinegun, missile pods and a turret on its back but the huge pontoons the missile pods appeared to be sitting on, he couldn’t figure them out. As he tried to think of what those could be he then realised something as he looked at the missile pods.

“Holy shit, that thing has missile pods the size of a three story building”

Suddenly an alarm sounded. The sudden scream of sirens scared the captain half to death as the Lieutenant cried out in alarm.

“Massive energy spike detected”

Just as she finished the machine on the main screen tilted the pontoon facing them down slightly and a ball of blue energy began to form.

“Oh goddesses, the energy levels are going off the charts, they are quickly reaching…stratch that they have passed Luna Tier and are reaching Celestia Tier….argh” She shrieked at the end as her monitoring equipment blew up.

The captain grabbed his broadcaster in his wing and held it in front of his face as he started to scream down it.

“All pegasi to battle stations, I repeat all pegasi to battle stations”

Immediately the entire ship was a hive of activity as every pegasus rushed to their assigned posts.

“All port batteries charge up and wait for my order to open fire”

Out the speaker of his broadcaster the captain heard the affirmatives of the gun crews as they began to ready the weapons. Outside the huge plasma cannons rotated to the machine’s direction and began to charge their energy for the salvo.

The captain knew from this turn of events that this machine was a threat to his ship and his crew. The massive levels of energy that had been detected proved it had the power to destroy the ship if it attacked and the captain wanted to strike the machine first while it was occupied. He watched on the monitor as the ball of energy grew to become extremely bright which must mean it was at its peek of energy build up. He brought his broadcaster to his mouth again and gave the order.

“FIRE!!!”

There was a roar of plasma blasts as the port side cannons opened fire, sending a salvo of eight large bolts of plasma energy at the large machine.

The Krogoth had its attention focused on the bomb shelter when its EFS alerted it to several high energy discharges to its left. The machine raised its head and turned to look in the direction of the alert and saw several large bolts of green energy approaching it fast. The Krogoth identified the energy to be plasma and that three of the eight shots counted were on target to strike the Krogoth. The machine found itself in a situation that if it moved it would put itself into the path of another bolt so the best thing it could do was to take the first salvo.

The first plasma bolt slammed into the Krogoth’s railgun pontoon directly on top of the pivot point. The magical plasma affected a large portion of the armour which glowed and began to fizzle before it started to slowly run, distorting and deforming as it melted over the pivot point and then solidified again, fusing the railgun in position aiming down. The second shot barely missed the rear left missile pod and slammed into the base of the segmented tail causing the same damage, thus fusing the base of the tail to the gigantic metal rump and sealing its rear ammo hatch shut.

The conscious mind the Krogoth stole made the machine feel a sense of fear as it saw where the next shot was going to strike. It was on target with the charged energy of the railgun and at this stage of the firing sequence the robot wouldn’t be able to stop the charge. It could only fire it to remove the charge but before it could do that the bolt of plasma struck the ball of highly condensed magic. The plasma bolt was absorbed into the charged energy and suddenly the Krogoth’s EFS was filling up with danger warnings of railgun containment failure. Under the armoured muzzle of the railguns are the focusing lenses and when the railgun charges for high powered shots, small robotic arms extend with blue diamonds attached to the end, its unknown what type of magic the railguns use but these blue diamonds are the only things that can interact with the energy and keep it contained but since the plasma energy has been combined to the charged railgun the diamonds can no longer contain the power.

There was a brilliant flash, as if Celestia’s sun had just exploded below the clouds. Seconds later the ponies of the Raptor were treated to a thunderous explosion. At first there were cheers of victory but as the light faded and the smoke cleared the cheers turned to gasps of shock and confusion. The Krogoth still stood and it had its eyes focused on the Raptor. It’s left eye appeared to have a large chunk of armour lodged into it.

“Catastrophic system failure in railguns two and four…”
“Left railgun pivot system jammed…”
“Railguns two and four offline…”
“Minor damage to armour…”
“Critical damage to left eye…”
“Left eye visual units offline…”

Damage reports filled the Krogoth’s EFS but besides the top few nothing else was really a problem. The Krogoth’s remaining eye took in the new threat a few miles away, a large black triangular vessel floating on four black storm clouds. The mind brought a memory to the Krogoth’s attention, the vessel reminded Short Circuit’s memory of an old Star Mares movie as the ship looked like a Star Destroyer.

The machine turned around, forgetting the Rangers as it now had a much bigger threat to deal with. As it began to walk towards its attacker the machine’s half destroyed railgun began to glow with a soft pink as its repair systems kicked in.

“Divert repair priorities to left eye” The Krogoth commanded its repair system. The soft pink glow faded from the railgun and began to glow much brighter over the damaged eye.

The pegasi of the Raptor were shocked and surprised that the large machine suffered only minor damage from the three hits it took. Sure the machine lost half of the pontoon but that wasn’t from their shot. What did hit didn’t put a hole in its armour. This machine was beyond anything they were prepared for.

“Focus your fire on the head and fire again” The captain ordered.

Another salvo of plasma fire shot forth from the Raptor’s main guns. The large balls of green energy were hurtling towards the giant robot at alarming speeds. The Krogoth was aware that plasma was the slowest moving energy weapon type but it was also the most powerful besides its railguns. The machine was able to determine that five of the eight shots were on target for its head but not wanting to give its enemy the chance to hit it again the Krogoth armed eight of its replenished missiles and fired them from the right missile pod. A stream of eight missiles flew forwards, each one programmed to intercept a plasma bolt each.

“What?” The captain said in disbelief as he watched on the monitors around his station. Four screens showed him a different point of view from the Raptor’s outside cameras. Each one showing how the machine retaliated by launching its own attack or so he thought. He was even more surprised to see that each missile then collided with the plasma bolts and exploded.

“Keep firing” He ordered.

Another salvo launched from the plasma cannons and again they were intercepted by the missiles from the Krogoth. Each salvo fired was met the same way until the Krogoth realised it wouldn’t be in striking range before it ran out of missiles so the machine decided to try a different approach while also allowing the missile pods to reload.

One of the many reasons behind the Krogoth taking the consciousness of the mare that helped program its Crusader was so it could also engage its synapse control modules for the functions that governed the movement systems in its legs to help the machine move as freely as a pony could whilst connected by the Synaptic Link. As the next salvo drew near the Krogoth engaged its synaptic control functions and sprang to its right in a dodge and then began to gallop towards the Raptor. This sudden burst of agility and flexibility had the jaws of the entire Enclave and any on lookers who saw it on the floor in total shock.

The plasma bolts all missed their target as the giant robot jumped to the side to avoid the shots. The bolts all smashed into the dead ground and made a large puddle of glowing green goo where the machine was only moments ago.

“What just happened?” Asked a rather confused pegasus watching from his station.

“KEEP FIRING” The captain commanded, his voice taking an edge of desperation as the giant machine drew closer and closer.

Each time the plasma cannons fired the Krogoth jumped either to the left or the right to avoid the shots. After avoiding several more salvos the shots were beginning to become sporadic as the gun crews grew desperate and the salvos lost their synchronicity. The loss of the timed and aimed shots allowed the Krogoth to begin weaving its way through the bolts as it came within a few hundred feet of its attacker.

“What the hell is that thing? Why can’t we hit it?” The captain screamed in total disbelief at what he was witnessing.

The machine jumped to the right as the ship fired another set of plasma bolts. As the Krogoth landed its EFS gave an audible warning.

“Advanced knee joint and locomotor structural integrity at fifty percent”

Despite the warning the machine jumped again before landing behind the vessel and robbed it of its eight gun advantage. Now behind the airship only the rear two cannons were able to target the machine. The Krogoth disengaged its synapse control modules and spread its damaged legs as it raised its right railgun pontoon to aim at the large ship in front of it and began to charge up.

“It’s behind us!”

“Hard to starboard!”

The large ship began to slowly turn as the machine’s weapon continued to charge.

“The energy levels are rising fast, oh dear; it’s already passing Luna Tier”

“Someone get on the horn to Thunderhead Aegis, we need reinforcements ASAP” The captain screamed.

As the power rose in the railgun the Krogoth detected two locks from the rear plasma cannons and then two plasma bolts were streaming towards the Krogoth, one of these bolts was on target to hit the growing ball of energy. Not wanting a repeat of what happened to its left railguns the machine engaged its synapse system again to move its neck and head to its right to block the plasma bolts. The one on target for the railgun slammed into the Krogoth’s cheek, its cheek sizzled as it glowed green before it began to run as the armour of the affected area turned to goo, destroying its name and the cutiemark printed on the armour. The second shot slammed into the Krogoth’s huge fin like mane. As the mane was purely cosmetic it was only made from a light metal alloy which didn’t provide any armour protection and so a huge hole appeared in the mane as a large portion of it turned to goo and ran down onto its head before solidifying again.

The Krogoth raised its head back up as it gave the ship its best attempt at a glare with its still functioning right eye as its railgun reached a full charge. With the charge the machine side stepped a few metres to be left behind it again before it planted its hooves firmly into the ground as it fired its railgun.

“I can’t get through to the Aegis; there is too much magical interference coming from that thing now that its so close”

“Oh shit, incoming” One of the pegasi shouted as the machine launched its full charged railgun.

The beam slammed into the underside of the ship directly under the centre main thruster. Within seconds the high powered magical beam burned through the armoured hull and began to burn its way through the interior of the ship. As the inside of the ship wasn’t as armoured as the hull the beam cut through the vessel like a hot knife through butty. As the Raptor was still turning the beam was cutting a wide arc on the inside as the beam ploughed its way towards the top of the ship.

The Raptor was sounding many alarms at this stage as the pegasi in the affected areas either fled or tried to contain the fires that sprung up. Enclave pegasi in the ships upper hangar watched as the floor began to grow red as if superheated until a large beam of blue energy burst out and shot up and out of the open hangar doors and out into the night sky above.

“Sir I can’t even begin to list off what has been damaged from this but what I will tell you is that the beam has damaged a large number of cables and power lines and the port aft cloud emitter is now malfunctioning and the centre thruster is offline”

“Fuck! That means we’ll develop a list and our speed has been halved. We’re a sitting duck”

“Sir, that thing, its just standing there… wait, the glow from between its armour has dulled, it looks like it’s powered down”

“Shut down all non-essential systems and divert all remaining power to the port and starboard thrusters and let’s get the hell out of here”

The jets roared with greater power as the engines started to do the work of the now dead centre thruster. The ship began to move as fast as the smaller thrusters could propel the vessel as it started to lean to port as the cloud emitter was loosing its grasp of the cloud.

“Oh no, the glow to the thing’s eyes have returned, its regaining its power”

The captain shook his head, no matter what they did they would never get away from this thing in time and with the ship as crippled as it is there is now only one thing that can be done. The captain picked his broadcaster up again.

“Attention everypony, we have been ill prepared for what we have had to deal with and as a result the ship is lost. I now give the order to abandon ship, I repeat, abandon ship. Everypony is to head back to the Aegis” He paused for a brief moment before yelling. “THAT’S AN ORDER”

The Krogoth’s visual units came back online as the reactor had replenished enough energy for them the machine noticed a steady stream of pegasi leaving the stricken vessel.

“Lieutenant, before you go, I want you to transfer all control functions to my chair’s console”

“Sir?”

“You all won’t be out of that thing's range in time and it may likely pursue us. I’m going to distract it so you can get to the safety of the Aegis”

The lieutenant nodded as he pressed several buttons. “There, you have full control, good luck sir”

“You too”

With that the bridge crew abandoned ship. The captain sat in his chair and using his hooves and wings he started to turn the vessel to port to bring the ship back around to head back to the Krogoth.

The machine regained its power, just in time to see that the ship had turned and was now heading back towards it. The Krogoth tilted its head slightly as if confused by the sudden change but then fired off a salvo of four missiles since the ship was still a threat.

“That’s right you big bastard, focus on me” The captain said to himself as watched the four missiles launch from the machine’s right missile pod. Using his wings he pressed on a cloud terminal to aim and fire the forward guns in attempt to shoot down the missiles. One of the missiles was hit causing it to explode, the explosive shockwave knocked another missile off course forcing it to slam into the ground but the other two made it through the plasma fire.

One missile slamed into the bow of the ship, the explosion tore away its nose cone while the second slammed into the port bow cloud emitter. The explosion totally dispersed the cloud and ship lurched to port as if it was going to roll over, the port aft emitter still clinging to some cloud was all that stopped the ship from totally going over.

“Let’s see how well you survive being rammed”

The Krogoth began to charge again for a railgun shot as the crippled ship continued to move towards it, its speed dropping as its over worked thrusters were pushing the ship on two and a bit clouds. As the railgun charge reached Luna Tier the Krogoth became aware that the ship was heading straight for it in a collision course. At Luna Tier the Krogoth would still have enough power to manoeuvre out of the way before the ship would hit and so it fired the weaker railgun blast.

The beam even at Luna Tier was still very powerful and by luck the beam entered the ship through the hole in its nose and began to burn its way straight through the ship, cutting its way towards the bridge.

The captain sighed and closed his eyes as he knew this was it. He prayed to Celestia that his crew would make it to safety. As he finished his silent prayer the floor of the bridge exploded with the intense magical beam as it burst forth and consumed the captain before blowing out the back of the bridge.

The Krogoth watched as a bright light began to shine out from the holes it had put into the ship. The beam had breached the ship’s reactor. The light continued to grow brighter and brighter until finally there was a huge explosion that tore the ship to pieces. A huge portion of the vessel, making up at least a quarter of the whole Raptor crashed down and slid to a stop mere feet from the giant machine's hooves.

The Krogoth looked down at the wreckage before it as it burned with magical fire.

“Threat analyse…”
“Target destroyed”
“Threat level zero”

“Redirecting repair function from left eye to full system”
“Damage report…”
“Railguns 2 and 4 destroyed…”
“Armour compromised in multiple locations…”
“Cosmetic mane destroyed…”
“Leg locomotors and knee joints, structural integrity down to forty percent”

The Krogoth looked down at the wreckage as minor damages were being listed in its EFS.

“First day out in the wasteland and I have already sustained an army’s worth of damage from a single unknown airship. If I am to succeed out in this time period I’m going to need to gather more information on the current technological elements and the factions that operate in Equestria, like getting full details on this Grand Pegasus Enclave that this ship belonged to” The Krogoth said to itself as the repair systems used the spells built into them to use scrap or other material to repair the damage.

Fragments of the destroyed Raptor started to float up from the wreckage. Strips of metal began to wrap around the legs before being absorbed and their elements used to repair the damage caused in the legs and knees. The partially melted armour plating and cosmetic mane liquefied again but reformed on the damage areas before solidifying again and regaining their colour. Finally the half destroyed railgun began to reform as fragments of the Raptor began to meld and form together to rebuild the railgun. All the internal systems were being rebuilt by the ships circuitry and wires. The railgun’s armoured shell by the hull and the focusing lenses by the glass from diodes, windows and other things that contained it. Within two hours the Krogoth was fully restored.

Once fully restored the Krogoth looked side to side and saw the lights of a possible town in the distance to its right and it began to walk towards the lights.

“I may be able to acquire some much needed information from that settlement in the distance. I will keep out of sight of the town so I can lie down and engage my hologram. After that I can pose as a normal pony using my hologram to gather information without rousing suspicion”

In the distance the Krogoth could see a long death woodland not far from the town, an ideal place to hide its mechanical body while it’s out as a hologram. The machine began for the woodland.

XXXXX

We had been flying for a couple of hours now and it is totally pitch black outside. Two hundred years ago the night would have been brighter with the stars and the moon plus the evening lights of the cities and towns that would be in the surrounding area but as it is right now there was absolutely nath all, well apart from one or two lights that still seem to work. That’s another thing that has impressed and surprised me. Two hundred years and yet there are still working lights and things without anypony keeping them maintained. We only knew where we were going thanks to my EFS. I suggested we take the same route we took leaving Manehattan as Trottingham is to the west of the old city.

“Ugh, guys, to quote Appletart, I’m knackered” Sky Fire panted in exhaustion.

“Just a little more Sky, we are almost back at the Ironshod facility”

“Oh wonderful” Zyon moaned.

Motor Runner was sitting across from me but for most of the flight he had been silent and staring out of the window next to him. He must have a lot on his mind considering something he had worked on for the last thirty years has just turned its back on him, used him in fact.

“I see the red corner lights of the Ironshod warehouse” Sky Fire said. “Bringing her in for a landing” As she finished the chariot started to descend.

I leaned over slightly towards Motor Runner and spoke to him quietly. “Are you alright?” I asked with concern seeping into my voice.

He turned his head to look at me, his expression was emotionless but I could feel the anger in his voice as he spoke in his usual calm manner. “No, I am not alright at the moment Appletart. I feel used and betrayed”

I nodded in understanding. “I know how you feel” I said honestly as I remembered the numerous times back in eighty eight where young fillies and colts would pretend to be my friend to get something they wanted from me and as soon as they got it they turned against me.

After a few short minutes Sky Fire touched down in the parking lot outside the building’s reception. We all disembarked from the chariot and helped our tired pegasus friend out of the harness.

“Alright, that’s it, I’m fucked” She panted as she could barely stay on her hooves.

“Your not going anywhere for now Sky, you need to rest” I said as Zyon moved to support his marefriend. I looked at the building again. “We are going to be here for a little while so we might as well have another look around”

“Oh no, your staying here with me” Sky Fire said sounding as serious as she could despite being knackered.

“Why?” I asked, a tad disappointed that I’m being told to stay behind.

“If you run into any trouble you’ll be unfocused and distracted. Your baby’s activeness are becoming so frequent you could pop at any moment”

My ears flattened against my head and my left eye twitched as I got a nasty mental image of my water breaking in the middle of a fight against a drone. Oh that won’t be pleasant, oh not one bit.

“I guess your right, but we could use this time to find some supplies at least” I tried to argue.

“I can snoop around and see if I can find anything” Zyon said.

“I can accompany him, better to be with someone than on your own in a place like this”

I nodded, this place still had some robots in it and Zyon was out of his blue gooey stuff.

“I don’t think so” Zyon retorted, obvious he didn’t trust him yet. Huh, do I trust him? I fancy him I know that, oh, there go my cheeks again; I hope nopony noticed and he did tell the truth. I guess I do trust him.

“He’s right thought Zyon, it would be best if he went with you”

Zyon opened his mouth as if about to argue but he stopped when he looked at Sky Fire, she was giving him the best puppy dog eye expression I’ve ever seen. Oh that’s priceless.

He sighed in defeat. “Uhh, alright fine”

“Hmm, CD, go with them please” I said looking back to the small bot who had be sitting on my back. He fluttered his wings and made a deep affirmative beep before hovering over to Zyon.

“Oh wait; can you connect your visual and audio systems to my pipbuck?” I asked the head sized bot. It bobbed and beeped. “I take that as a yes” I said holding my leg up for him. He aimed his laser weapon at it and an arc of arcane energy burst from his weapon and hit my pipbuck. My EFS alerted me to having just acquired “Combat model Duraframe Sprite-bot surveillance”

“Thanks” I smiled to him, although I was a little scared at what he did as I wasn’t expecting such a thing from him then.

Motor Runner, Zyon and CD turned and headed for the building as I helped Sky Fire into the chariot. Once inside I closed the door with my magic and helped my friend onto the luxurious seats to rest. Sky Fire lay down on one of the wide seats while I sat on the other. I lifted my pipbuck and turned to the data tab and found the added function. After selecting it with my magic I could see and hear what CD could. They had just left the reception desk and had entered a corridor which appeared to lead to offices.

I began to notice red markers on my compass which would have put whatever threats they were in front of my friends in the building but I couldn’t see them and then I realised that they were not in there but out here. I looked up and out of the window in the direction of the group of red markers I could see. Sky Fire lifted her head as she noticed me. I narrowed my eyes as I used my magic to release This Machine from its harness and pulled it up and stuck the huge long barrel out the window and then I peered down the scope.

“What is it Apple?”

“Target practice” I said as I put on a dark grin.

“Oh no”

I could see a group of five raiders heading towards us in the gloom of the night. I used my magic to keep the weapon in place as I then released its magazine. I had learned to multitask with my magic in the Rangers so while I kept my weapon up I divided my magic so I could pull out a fresh magazine from my storage unit and levitated out eight more massive bullets.

“Ohh, nice” I said in joy as I noticed that one of the 50cal rounds had an M engraved into the brass shell.

“What is it?”

“A Match round”

Sky Fire visibly cringed, I guess she knows that a 50cal Match round is the most powerful variant.

“You are going on the top” I said grinning as I loaded the magazine with normal rounds plus the Match round at the top and slammed it back into the rifle before pushing the bolt back in.

“Oh this is going to be fun”

“Uh, Apple, your eyes”

I guess she noticed it this time. I could feel it too. Dark Magic. Ponies who feel a certain level of hate and anger or other dark feelings take on a visual change. They begin to emit a flame of purple magic from the edge of their eyes, the whites of their eyes turn green and the colour of their eyes turn red with slit like pupils. If they are a unicorn their magical aura turns purple with black spots bubbling out from the horn. I have experienced this change many times before, it doesn’t bother me anymore, in fact, I enjoy the feeling it brings when I’m exterminating Raiders.

“Oh no” Sky Fire moaned as she laid her head down and put her hooves over her ears and closed her eyes tight.

I took aim, bracing the butt of the gun against my armoured shoulder as I brought the crosshairs of the scope onto the lead raider. A large muscular stallion dressed in a full suit of leather armour, reinforced by the look of things. Because of the darkness I couldn’t make out any colours of the raiders but I couldn’t care less, they had to die.

I smirked darkly as I sighted up his chest. “Here’s a bad case of heartburn for ya” I said as I pulled the trigger.

The entire chariot rocked from the recoil and if the glass in the chariot hadn’t been treated for the war it would have shattered. I managed to keep the weapon as level as I could from the recoil and the rocking of the chariot and I saw the leader’s chest explode, his body being forced back and his forelegs seemed to pop free of his body as it was forced away.

“Oh, haha yea, eat that bitch” I cried in happy excitement.

“Can that thing be any louder?” I heard Sky Fire whine as I sighted up the next raider. The group was now staring in shocked surprise as their leader was mutilated by the powerful shot.

The red crosshairs of the human made weapon crossed over onto the head of a raider who had the side of his head to me. I smiled as I aimed the rifle so the shot would go through his ear.

“Let’s see if you have a brain” I said as I pulled the trigger. The chariot rocked again by the powerful blast, this time as it rocked I didn’t see if the shot hit. As I got my aim back I saw the raider on the floor without the back half of his head or his eyes. “Ohh that must have hurt”

The raiders were now aware they were being shot at and from where as the three remaining raiders had begun to run towards us. I quickly took aim at the closest cockhead and fired. My shot tore through the knee of one of his forelegs and took out the hind hoof behind it. He screamed as his legs fell apart on him and he feel onto his side and slid to a stop whining in agony.

With two to go I aimed again at the one who was closest. This raider, a mare by the sleeker body shape was trying to run wide to get out of range. Unlucky for her there is a reason why I was called Longshot. I took my time to get a steady aim as the mare tried to get to the far side of the chariot. I managed to sight up her flank and fired. The shot slammed into her thigh and tore off her hind leg and she fell over and disappeared. She must have fallen into a ditch or something, either way she’ll bleed out in time.

The raider mare’s antics had allowed the last one to reach the chariot and as I looked to follow my EFS the door flung open to reveal a rather pissed raider.

“Alright you fucking whore, I’m gonna paint the walls of this thing with your insides” He barked at me.

I just smiled at him as he looked at me which seemed to confuse him and this gave me the perfect opportunity to smash him in the face with the golden rimmed edge of the butt of the AM rifle. He howled in pain as a couple of teeth flew out of his mouth while he toppled over backwards clutching his face.

“Your broke my nose you bitch” He wailed.

When the raider removed his hooves from his face to glare at me, he found that he had the huge golden muzzle of This Machine just a millimetre from his face. The look of pure fear in his eyes was perfect as he stared down the barrel.

I looked down past the gun at him. His fear stricken eyes looked at me, pleading even. I narrowed my eyes and as they glowed brighter with the darkness in my heart.

I grinned as I began to slowly pull the trigger, savouring his expression of absolute dread.

“Apple, wait!!!” Sky Fire shrieked but it was too late.

Time seemed to slow down as I could hear the ding of the hammer striking the bullet which was then followed by the bright muzzle flash with jets of flame rushing out the holes on either side of the muzzle. That was followed by the deafening boom as the raider’s head disintegrated into a mist of red.

“There, I painted the floor with your brains” I spat at the dead raider before pulling the gun back in and closed the door again.

I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves. I could feel the dark energy fading and then leaving. I felt the magical flame extinguish from around my eyes. When I opened my eyes I caught my reflection in the window opposite where I was sitting and my eyes were back to normal.

“Appletart, you really have a problem and you need to do something about it. This hatred will kill you and most likely kill your foal” Sky Fire said as she looked at me with concern.

She is right you know, I do have a problem and it will get me killed if nothing is done one of these days, but that can wait until the danger of the giant killing machine is dealt with.

Sky Fire yawned loudly. “Oh Celestia I’m pooped, I’m gonna catch some Zs, good night”

“Good night Sky” I said with a soft smile as my tired friend laid her head on her forehooves.

As my friend went to sleep I went back to watching the screen on my pipbuck to see how Zyon and Motor Runner were getting along.

XXXXX

Zyon and Motor Runner reached to the top of the stairs to the second floor with CD trailing behind so he could keep them both within visual range for his master to be able to see them both.

“We are practically blind in here without Apple’s EFS” Zyon complained as he stopped to look up the corridors that jointed at the stairs.

The zony paused for a moment as a thought entered his mind. He turned to the sprite-bot as it hovered behind him.

“Appletart, can you hear me?”

“I can Zyon, what’s up?” Appletart’s voice came from CD’s speakers a little distorted.

“Can you guide us with your local map?”

“Erm, CD can you patch my path finder to your sensors?”

The little robot gave an affirmative beep.

“Ah there we go; it looks like this corridor does a full circuit of this floor with multiple offices and other rooms along its path. There are more stairs on the far side but if the map read out is right, they appear to have collapsed”

“If the stairs are blocked on the far end I assume getting into the warehouse and weapons manufacturing plant from here would be impossible” Motor Runner said as he looked back at CD.

The bot bobbed in a nod to give the answer.

“Well we have already found some shit to sell for later and some much needed food and medicine that should last for a little while, anything else would be a bonus” Zyon added as he started to walk up the corridor to the left the of the stairs.

About a third of the way up the rubble strewn hallway a door burst off its hinges as a sentry drone forced its way out of an office it had been locked in by the collapsed ceiling.

“Aww crap” Zyon said as he quickly pulled his sword from its sheath.

“That drone has a gattling laser” Motor Runner said as he opened his cybernetic leg to allow his chainsaw to deploy.

“Zebra intruders detected. Extermination protocols initiated” The robot buzzed as it started to strife the hall with laser fire. Zyon began to flip and dive to avoid the fire while Motor Runner didn’t move. The laser beams seemed to fizzle out to nothing as they drew close to the large pony, his Star Metal hide using its magic nullifying properties to protect him.

The drone kept its attention on Motor Runner as he was the bigger target and seemed to be more of a threat. While the robot was busy Zyon snuck under the laser fire to reach the machine. Detecting that a threat was now right next to it the drone started to turn. Thinking fast Zyon jumped onto the back of the drone and found the panel hiding its combat inhibitor. Using his sword the zony pried open the panel and then he used his tail to yank out the small device.

The robot now without its combat inhibitor turned into a bucking bronco as it went into a frenzy.

“Fuck, bad idea” Zyon moaned as he clung onto the back of the robot for dear life.

Motor Runner calmly walked up to the rotating and rocking robot. He raised his chainsaw and as it revved up he jabbed it into its chest. The hellhound claw teeth easily cut through the armour of the drone and also ripped apart its power cell. The robot sputtered and sparked before it died and slumped as it lost all power.

“Thank you” Zyon moaned as he slid off the back of the robot and unceremoniously fell onto his rump. He was swaying from side to side even sat down and his eyes were rolling around. “Ugh, never again” He moaned standing back up and tried to walk. He swayed unsteadily on his hooves like he has had one too many pints.

“I hope he don’t get stopped by the cops, they don’t like it when your rat assed” Appletart laughed through CD’s speaker.

A ghost of a smile crept its way onto Motor Runner’s muzzle at the remark made by the albino. It was refreshing to hear jokes of a friendly nature for a change. He has had to listen and put up with the nasty and hurtful remarks of raiders as a Reaper for the last few decades.

While lost in thought the cyberpony didn’t notice when the unsteady zony walked head first into the wall as the corridor turned ninety degrees.

“Ow, damn, who put that wall there?”

“Maybe you should take five minutes to recollect yourself” Motor Runner said as he stood over him. The zony visibly shrunk under his gaze as he looked up at the towering pony whose head was just barely an inch from the ceiling.

“Yes sir” The zony said as he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes as he took a minute to regain his senses.

While his companion sat down to take a breather Motor Runner turned to the hovering sprite-bot at head level with him.

“CD was it?” He asked the robot. The near eye looking machine beeped in a single confirmation tone.

Motor Runner nodded. “Can your sensors detect other threats on this floor since we don’t have Appletart’s EFS?”

CD began to slowly turn as he scanned the entire floor with his sensors for more threats. After going back and forth a few times he turned back to Motor Runner and beeped three times in and a deep tone and leaving a pause between each beep to let him know he had detected three hostile targets on the floor.

“Thank you”

CD released a high pitched beep which could have sounded appreciative.

Motor Runner turned to face Zyon and opened his mouth to speak when CD began to blare out rock music. Motor Runner turned around in shock surprise at the sudden blast of noise coming from the little robot but before he could ask what was happening another sentry drone rolled out from around the far corner. Moving quickly the reaper gripped Zyon with both fore hooves and pulled him into cover behind the corner wall that they had stopped at and used his well groomed long tail to pull the sprite-bot in.

“That one is armed with a standard five millimetre gattling gun and a missile launcher but it seems the launcher is non-functional” Appletart said through CD’s speakers.

“I ain’t going to jump onto the back of that one, you can fuck that” Zyon said standing back up now feeling much better. “What are you doing?” He asked Motor Runner as he turned to face the large earth pony only to see him taking off his suit with practiced delicacy.

“Not going to risk my suit being ruined while I take care of this” He said now standing without his suit. Zyon cringed as he saw the horrific join between his cybernetic leg and the remains of his organic. That timber wolf really did a number on his leg. It reminded both the zony and Appletart of the old Terminator flicks from their stable’s video entertainment archives.

“Whoa wait…”

“Do not worry about me Zyon, my skin can take the bullets” Motor Runner said as he stepped out into view of the drone.

“Unauthorised personnel detected… Intruder alert… Lethal forced authorised”

Motor Runner began to walk towards the robot, taking long confident strides.

“He’s mad” Zyon remarked as he peered out from the corner with CD sat on his head so he could let Appletart see.

The drone sighted up the large earth pony and began to open fire. The corridor was filled with the sound of rapid fire and the sound the metal colliding with metal and raining down to the rubble strewn floor. Zyon watched in amazement as he could see the squashed bullets falling from Motor Runner as he closed the gap between them.

“He truly is bulletproof”

The gattling gunfire stopped as the drone ran dry. It started to move backwards as its programming demanded it return to its recharging station for recharging and resupplying. With a flick of his shoulder the chainsaw was extended in the blink of an eye and revved up. Motor Runner swung his leg in two quick but precise swings. There was barely a sound made as the cutting teeth of the chainsaw sliced cleanly through his target. When the robot stopped from the damage it took Zyon watched as the robot broke up into three pieces.

“I hate to admit this but that was cool” Zyon said as the large pony began to put his suit back on.

“I may be bullet proof to a degree, but like wearing combat armour, taking a hit hurts a lot” Motor Runner replied as he finished putting his suit on with an edge of discomfort in his voice.

The two ponies and robot continued to explore the second floor and thanks to CD’s warning system, blasting out rock music, when a threat was close they were able to dispatch the last two robots which were thankfully just ponytrons.

“Apple, looks like we’ve found a security station” Zyon said as he looked up to the ceiling where a sign hung from some rusty chains with the word “Security” on it.

“Perhaps we can find some gifts for the Applejack Rangers in there; they are still Steel Rangers afterall”

“Hah yeah, a present is always a good way to get one someone’s good side”

He pushed open the door and immediately dove back as gun fire filled the doorway he was just standing in.

“I thought you said there were only the three robots CD” Zyon cried in fright from almost getting shot.

The little bot fell to one side slightly as it gave a deep apologetic beep.

Getting his breathing under control Zyon poked his head out from the door frame and looked into the security office. He could see a few desks with a couple of blown terminals on them and one wall was filled with rusty old filling cabinets but set into the wall behind the ceiling mounted turrets that had fired upon him is a large vault door.

“We got Stable-Tec security turrets on the ceiling, umm, they look like mark fives” Zyon said as he examined the defences.

“I can take care of those” Motor Runner said as he was about to undress from his suit again.

“Hey hang on, can’t let you have all the fun. I got this”

Motor Runner raised and eyebrow inquiringly.

“The Mark V security turret has an exposed targeting sensor mounted below the weapon. I take out the sensor on one of the turrets. It goes into a frenzy and starts to fire everywhere. The other turret will see the one in a frenzy as a threat and will most likely take each other out” He then sighed. “Though it would be much simpler to deactivate them if the terminal wasn’t on the wall behind them”

Motor Runner sat down as he patiently waited. Zyon flipped open the pouch of his satchel and began to rummage through what he had. He couldn’t remember if he still had the revolver that Appletart had let him have earlier in their travels. He was intending to use it to shoot out the sensor. As he rummaged he came across a familiar apple shaped object.

“Oh, this’ll work” He said as he pulled out a frag grenade.

“Let’s just hope you don’t bring the roof down”

Zyon rolled his eyes as he held the apple shaped explosive in his hooves and yanked the pin out of the stem with his teeth. He quickly then chucked the grenade into the room. He had quickly aimed his throw so the grenade would bounce off the ceiling and land hopefully on the deck below the turrets. As luck would have it the grenade bounced off the ceiling, landed on the desk and rolled before falling off and into something metal. Zyon presumed it had landed in a rubbish bin. The wait for the grenade to detonate was agonisingly slow and Zyon for a moment thought the frag-grenade was a dud until there was an explosion in the security office. The explosion was followed by two smaller detonations and the splintering of wood as the desk the grenade rolled off was blown apart.

The two ponies and robot waited for a couple of minutes to allow the dust and smoke to settle and clear before Motor Runner looked around the edge of the fractured doorframe.

“Good throw Zyon both turrets are out of commission”

“Yeah, good throw” Appletart’s voice crackled from CD’s speaker.

Zyon smiled with pride as he and Motor Runner stepped into the now totalled office. The two turrets had both gone up and the only undamaged thing in the room now was the giant vault door set into the back wall.

“Oh crabapples” Zyon groaned as he saw the terminal next to the door had been destroyed too. “Well, I guess we can’t see what’s inside it now”

Motor Runner wore a smug grin for a moment as he stepped forward. “Not unless you have a can opener”

“You can cut through that?”

“Hmm, it’s a second generation, high security, magically sealed Lockheart Utilities vault safe” Motor Runner said as he stood before the large door and deployed his chainsaw.

“I take you encountered one of these before”

“In fifty years you get to see a lot of the old world and the things left behind” He replied as he revved his chainsaw and pushed it into the door. The teeth easily cut through the metal but they continued to sink into it until his hoof pressed into the door. “Hmm, this door is thicker than I anticipated”

“So what, you can’t get through?”

“I can, but just not with my leg in its current setting”

“Current setting?” Zyon repeated as he watched the larger pony.

Motor Runner stepped back, leaving a clear deep hole in the door from his first attempt. He looked down at his leg as he gave it a slight twitch. The twitch was followed by a series of clicks and pops as the two leg halves that concealed the chainsaw pushed out more to the sides and then started to rotate. The halves did a full one hundred and eighty degrees and closed around his upper leg to leave the chainsaw completely exposed. The chainsaw sat in a thin but sturdy frame with wheels and cogs to keep it inline and so it would move smoothly. The frame was arranged in a way that it could extend or compress which allowed it to hide inside his leg and come out at will.

“Alright, let’s try this again” He said as he pushed the saw back into the hole he had started. The saw cut deeper and deeper until he could feel the teeth cutting through the other side. He then began to slowly cut through the thick reinforced steel door.

“Can’t you move any faster?” Zyon impatiently said sitting down where one of the desks had been.

“If I cut any faster I run the risk of damaging the chainsaw and having it jam or burn out. With it completely exposed it’s a lot more fragile with its lighter frame”

“Oh”

Motor Runner carefully cut through the door until he had managed to cut a hole that would be big enough for himself to pass through which would also be more than enough for the zony. He stood back and retracted his chainsaw which was glowing red hot as it was sealed back inside his leg.

“Stand back” He commanded as he stood on his hind legs and stood with his fore hooves on the cut door. There was a metallic clunk as his cybernetic hoof appeared to have a strong magnet and then with a heavy grunt Motor Runner started to pull. Zyon put his hooves onto his ears to block out the sound of the teeth grating metallic grinding as the larger cyberpony pulled with all his strength. Appletart marvelled at his strength as she watched him through CD heave the three foot thick, possible two tonnes, steel door piece from the hole he had cut.

Once Motor Runner deposited the cut door piece the two ponies entered the vault. CD followed but as he came to the hole his wings clipped the edge of the hole in the door and he fell to the floor with a thud.

“Are you alright CD?” Zyon asked as he turned around to see the small bot on the floor.

The sprite-bot beeped and fluttered his wings again to get back into the air.

“Alright, I guess you just have to wait here for now”

The vault was full of weapons, many of which were untested prototypes and one of these caught Zyon’s eye.

“Appletart, you’re gonna love this” He said as he carefully picked up the large scoped weapon.

He walked on his hind legs as he carried the weapon to the open door so CD could see it.

“That’s…that’s Blueberry’s Railgun Rifle prototype” She almost cried out in excited glee.

The weapon looked like a Gauss Rifle but the rings surrounded the long gun barrel had a faint blue glow coming from them and the end of the barrel was tipped with a focusing lens.

“Can you bring that back with you please?”

“Sure, there are also some other prototypes in here, half of them look like plasma weapons”

The two ponies gathered up the prototypes and a few of the stored projectile weapons akin to security. Motor Runner found a large carrying case in a locker and put the gathered weapons into it and then heaved it onto his back. Before leaving he put the cut out of the vault door back to make sure no one else could get the weapons that had been left behind.

XXXXX

Sky Fire was now fast asleep and snoring badly. The sound was like a windigo on a harsh winter’s evening. It was like one of the scariest sounds I’ve ever heard. It was so bad that I decided to sit outside the chariot to wait for my three friends.

The door to the reception opened and they emerged. I smile happy to see them as they began to trot towards me. CD was perched on Zyon’s back while Motor Runner carried a large sack with several gun barrels sticking out the end.

“Did you find some food and medicine?” I asked as Zyon sat down before me just as CD took to the air again before settling down on my head.

“Yeah we found plenty of preserved food and some medical supplies”

Motor Runner opened the boot of the chariot and began to put the weapons that had been gathered inside. He left one weapon out which was my ancestor’s prototype.

“Present for you” Zyon said as he then put the weapon beside me.

“Oh wow” I said as I took the weapon in my magic and began to examine it with a crucial eye.

“How’s Sky?” Zyon asked.

“Oh she’s fine, she’s sleeping like a rock” I said as I nodded to the chariot’s door. “I wouldn’t go in there if I was you, there’s a reason I’m out here”

“Huh?”

“Let’s just say, when you sleep together, you better be a heavy sleeper or have some heavy duty earplugs”

He wore a confused look as he then opened the door. He immediately closed the door again and back peddled away a few steps as he got the full blast of her monstrous snoring.

“Holy Celestia” He cried in shock. I just burst out laughing at his reaction.

I noticed Motor Runner sitting nearby and he had an amused smile on his face as he watched Zyon.

After calming down I raised the prototype Railgun and peered down the scope and noticed something in the distance coming towards us in the dark. I narrowed my eye as I watched it as it begun to run and it was heading for Zyon.

“Zyon watch out” I cried as the beast jumped for him.

Zyon quickly looked behind him and saw the beast and he rolled forward to avoid it. The little monster landed into the light of the chariot to reveal itself as being a familiar looking monkey dog looking thing.

“Oh no not these things again” Zyon whined as he pulled out his sword.

“How did that get out of New Hope?” Motor Runner asked as he stood up.

“I thought you sealed the entrance with that bomb you made” I said putting down the rifle and bringing out my lever-action shotgun.

“I did” He replied as he turned to face the little monster. "They must have found another way out"

The little monster looked up at us and opened its mouth full of razor sharp teeth and let loose a horrific high pitched roar. I used this moment to jump into SATS and toggled up three shots to the creatures head. As I came out of the spell and time returned to normal I let lose three shots in quick succession and the final shot was enough to tear away its face with the buckshot.

“That was a Wretch wasn’t it?” Motor Runner asked as he stepped up beside us.

I nodded in confirmation.

“Then that means there are more of them nearby” He said slowly looking around. “They hunt in packs”

“My EFS is clear, wait, oh no, I didn’t notice that one until I saw it”

“Stay alert”

Everything went deadly quiet as we all scanned the lines of dark trees and bushes facing us where I saw the first wretch. After a couple of minutes of looking we saw them, lots of them, all scurrying around as they weaved around getting closer.

“Here they come”

Zyon pulled out his sword and Motor Runner deployed his chainsaw as the little buggers got closers. I used my magic to reload the shotgun and began to fire. I heard some yelp in pain as I fired and this caused more of them to scatter a bit more.

“Those little shits are fast” I groaned trying to keep my aim on one as it ran from one side to the other.

Those that got close and through my gun fire got sliced up by either Zyon’s gleaming sword or Motor Runner’s deadly saw. The way he used his saw with such grace plus so he didn’t get any blood on his suit was something to admire.

Between us we managed to kill at least eight of them. I hate the fact that these things were invisible to my EFS. One of these could get the jump on us if we aren’t careful. I heard a gargling growl combing from behind me. I turned and looked up in time to see one of the little fucks jump from the top of the chariot down at me.

“Ah, shit” I cried as I turned around and fell on my back as the little monster drew close. The creature landed on my armoured chest and just before the monster could bite my face off I shoved the shotgun into it open mouth with my magic. My EFS told me I had just one shot left before I needed to reload but that was fine by me, just one shot was all I needed it. I pulled the trigger and closed my eyes. The shot was muffled by being inside the creature’s mouth but I felt the hot wet speckles of its blood splash onto my face. I blinked and opened my eyes to see the creature with a gaping hole in the back of its throat.

“Eat that you fucking pilock” I growled as it fell off me.

“Are you alright” Motor Runner asked as he held out his hoof to me.

I smiled and nodded as I took his hoof and he helped me up.

“Thank you” I thanked him with a little blush creeping onto my face.

“Your welcome”

We waited for several minutes while scanning the area for any more of them but it seemed to be clear now. Once we were satisfied that no more of those little fucks were out here we all headed back inside the chariot and locked the door.

Thankfully Sky Fire had stopped snoring as she had rolled over but since she hadn’t woke up through the commotion outside it brought a question to mind and that we didn't hear her from outside.

“Is this chariot sound proofed?”

“It is, but for what reason, only Rarity would know” Motor Runner replied as he sat on the rear seat.

Zyon climbed onto the seat and snuggled up with Sky Fire and gently nuzzled her as she slept. He smiled as he rested against. It was a heart warming sight.

I climbed onto the seat next to Motor Runner. He had lain down as I got onto the seat. It was a wonder that the seat was large enough to take him being as big as he is. I suppose Rarity had the chariot made to house Celestia if she was to travel with Rarity or something. I mentally kicked myself as I was still in my armour. I got off the seat and disengaged the armour locks to let me out. Once out I got back onto the seat.

“You can sleep with me if you’d like” Motor Runner said softly.

I blushed brightly. “Thank you” I said with a smile as I gently crawled up to him and lay down against his side.

He smiled softly as he put his head down on his fore hooves. “Good night”

“Good night” I replied as I laid my own head down on the seat while gently rubbing my belly as my foal started to wiggle about. Strangely enough the movement in my belly helped me off to sleep.

XXXXX

Sky Fire was feeling a lot better in the morning after her good night’s sleep. We decided not to tell her about the wretch attack as we didn’t want her to feel bad or anything for sleeping through it. After we had all woken up, me with a fiery blush as I woke up to find my head nestled on Motor Runner’s side. He had awoken before me but didn’t move as he didn’t want to disturb me, we had some breakfast thanks to the food he and Zyon found and after that we took to the air again heading for Trottingham.

We had flown for at least four hours by the time the ruins of the old town came into view. During the time in the air I felt uncomfortable in the stomach area and my baby was wiggling more than before but it didn’t feel like the kicking it usually did but I didn’t think much of it.

Motor Runner looked out the window as I got back into my armour.

“There it is, Trottingham”

Sky Fire must have heard him as she began to descend. It wasn’t long before we had landed on the ruined street. The late morning light from the sun behind the clouds cast the ruined town into a dull light making it seem much worse than it already is.

“Well, where is stable twenty four?” Zyon asked as he helped his marefriend out of the reins.

“I don’t have a marker to lead us since I haven’t been here before. The Pondale Rangers didn’t have twenty four listed on their system”

“Don’t worry, follow me” Motor Runner said as he hefted the weapons he and Zyon had found, minus the Railgun Rifle, onto his back and began down a road towards a bus stop.

I began to see white markers as we drew near the bus stop and saw an open ponyhole in the middle of the road with the ponyhole cover off to the side of it. On the cover it had the number twenty four on it. After seeing this, my EFS alerted me to finding stable twenty four.

“We’re here”

At that moment two power armoured ponies climbed out of the hole in the ground. Their armour had been modified from standard Steel Ranger armour. Only modification being the change in colour scheme as these now had red markings and Applejack’s cuitemark on their flanks.

“Who goes there?” One of the Applejack Rangers asked in a deep feminine voice as she pointed her gattling gun battlesaddle at each of us as she looked between us.

I stepped forward and found both rangers aiming their guns at me.

“I am Paladin Longshot of the deceased Pondale Ranger Chapter”

“Paladin Longshot… wait, you’re the deserter” The female said as she looked me over.

“You do realise you had been marked for death for deserting” She added.

“I had but I figured it wouldn’t matter here since you are all deserters too. Defecting to something else and all”

“Why are you here?”

“I’d like to see the elder; we have a major problem I need to discuss with him or her as it’ll soon be everyponies problem soon enough”

The ranger tilted her head and I could only assume she wore a sceptical look behind her helmet. “Like what?”

“A giant robot with the power to destroy anything and everything”

“She tells the truth” Motor Runner said stepping forward.

The other ranger who had been quiet had his head tilted as if he was listening to something and then quickly looked to his companion. “Enclave radio broadcasts near Buckingham are talking about a Raptor being shot down by something they are describing as a Giant Steel Ranger”

“That is exactly the thing we are here to talk to you about” I said.

The mare nodded and tilted her head and started to talk quietly. She must be talking to someone over a broadcaster. She nodded a couple of times before looking back up to us.

“Alright, follow me” She said as she and her friend descended into the hole.

The climb down into the underground sewer, which is what I was expecting, opened up into a clean but short tunnel that ended with a stable door which was wide open. We began to follow our escort through the door. As I began to move my stomach became incredibly even more uncomfortable, as if my armour was squeezing the life out of me. I then felt a sudden rush of liquid running down my legs and that meant that I either pissed myself or...

“MY WATER BROKE” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Author's Notes:

I have only just finished this chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it and thank you for waiting patiently for the release of this chapter.