Author Notes: Its been a long time since I last updated my story and I deeply apologies for the long wait. So my faithful readers, please enjoy this chapter and please comment, I would love your feedback.

Fallout Equestria
Broken Steel

Chapter 20: Luna Gardens

“Is this it, this is supposed to be the MAS facility we’ve been sent to for a rescue mission?” Zyon asked as we all stood looking at what could only be described as a run down shack in the middle of nowhere.

Shortly after we returned to Stable twenty four after our visit with Zeta we were approached by McNamare as we entered the atrium. As the elder approached us a group of scribes took the signal jammer from Zyon after they told him they were to keep it secure. McNamare was for a moment taken aback as she saw me sporting fresh scars all over my face and neck. Her slightly surprised and wide eyes asked the unspoken question. “What the hell happened to you?”

“We got attacked by a pack of wretches” I said with a sigh.

She nodded her head with understanding before she spoke up. “I’m glad you returned now as you did. About two hours ago we received a distress signal over the Steel Ranger emergency channel. The Ranger calling the distress said they had been sent to some MAS facility to the west of here in what used to be the Great Plains. He had said they were under attack by an unknown enemy and were being forced deeper into the facility and that their weapons were proving largely ineffective. Before we lost contact he almost begged for help with the level of desperation we could hear in his voice. I don’t have any available squads I can spare at this moment to send on a rescue mission but now that you’ve returned. Can you go to the facility and assist in anyway you can?”

I looked at Zyon who shrugged as he didn’t care.

“Certainly ma’am”

“Thank you, grab something to eat and I’ll have the details sent to you before you leave” She said before she turned and walked back towards the room being used as the Overmare’s Office.

“You do realise there is a giant robot on the loose” Zyon said with a roll of his eyes.

“I know, but until we have an army on our side we can’t really go against it. It’ll be suicide” I countered.

Later we met up with the rest of our friends and I took a moment to see my daughter who was peacefully fast asleep. Seeing her sleeping was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. While we were in the canteen getting something to eat my cybernisation was revealed and Zyon did his best to explain while keeping things to a minimum. I even told them about my break down on the roof and Motor Runner gave me a knowing look. As he gave that look my eyes trailed down to his own cybernetic leg and I couldn’t help but wonder how he felt inside to be made part machine. I know he mentioned something along those lines when we confronted him in the Hangar but deep down, he must have felt just as I did. Something else we share together.

Just as we were finishing our meals one of the scribes delivered a print out from a computer that had the details of the new mission and its exact location thanks to the transmission being traced. Because we were being sent to rescue Steel Rangers we needed something capable of transporting ponies, something bigger than the bandit we once used. Thankfully with the addition of some ex-Enclave ponies the Applejack Rangers now had a Vertibuck we could use. Sky Fire opted to join us again as the injuries that were of a more critical condition had been taken care of and the current medical team could handle things and Rainstorm was still willing to look after Blueberry Muffin. I swear when this is all over I’ll spoil her for missing out on her early days.

So we restocked on supplies, boarded the Vertibuck and took off for the MAS facility. Sky Fire and Wirbelwind pulled the heavy armoured Enclave vehicle at a quick pace. It took us about twenty minutes of this high speed flight to make it to our destination. I guess we all had our own ideas to what the facility was going to be but none of us expected to find what we did.

I looked at my now unarmoured cybernetic foreleg as my pipbuck popped out. I had the section of armour that had been added to my suit removed as the armour against the cybernetic foreleg grinded something horrible as I walked.

“Um, yes, this is the place alright. The co-ordinates point to this exact spot”

“So, where’s the MAS facility?”

“Good question” Sky Fire said as she approached.

CD bobbed near my head as he stared ahead at the run down shack. He may also be as puzzled as we were. Suddenly he beeped and turned to me just as a voice burst from his speakers.

“Paladin Longshot, do you read?” Asked the voice of a mare.

“I read, go ahead” I replied instinctively, that old training never goes away.

“You best get out of sight now, the K-01 is heading right for you” She shrieked. I didn’t have to ask who she was and to know about the Krogoth as it was obvious she was a Ranger or Scribe back at twenty four.

“Shit, where?”

“It’s heading due west, approaching your position; it’ll be on you in ten minutes”

I quickly turned to East and sure enough on the horizon was the silhouette of the giant machine.

“Oh shit!”

I quickly spun around to our two pegasi. “You two, take the Vertibuck to a safe distance and keep out of sight, we’ll need that for extraction once we retrieve the Rangers”

They nodded, rehitched themselves to the vehicle and took off.

“The rest of us get inside”

I opened the door with my magic and left Motor Runner, Zyon and CD in before I followed suit and closed the door.

“Well this is cosy” Zyon remarked as we had entered into a huge one room shack. One corner acted as a kitchen, the centre had a dining table, the back wall in the middle had a brick fireplace with some candles on it and the right side of the room was the living room and bedroom. The whole place was covered in a thick layer of dust that covered almost everything and no sign of an MAS facility.

“This is bullshit” Zyon moaned as we had run into a dead end.

“The Krogoth may have already seen us with its scanners but even if it hasn’t it’ll just demolish this place by treading on it” Motor Runner said as he approached a window on the right side wall. In the minute or two it took for us all to get inside the machine had closed the gap considerably.

“The direction marker is pointing right here” I said as I approached the table in the middle of the room. Hmm, the table has a line going down the middle of it. I looked up from the table and looked around. “There has to be something here, the co-ordinates came from the transmission so it has to be here”

We all began to look around to find something, anything that could help us out. Motor Runner approached the brick fireplace and began to examine it while I was interested in the table with the line dividing it. I placed my hooves on it and tried to push but found it surprisingly fixed the floor somehow. “The hell?”

“Hey, one of these candle sticks has been recently disturbed” He said as he looked to a candle stick on the far right of the fireplace.

“Yeah, so what?” Zyon asked looking under a lampshade.

Motor Runner didn’t answer, he lifted his cybernetic hoof and his small manipulator arms extended from the sole of his hoof to grasp the stick. As the little robotic claws gripped the stick the ground began to shudder. With ever second that ticked by the shudders grew stronger and dust and fragile parts of the old run down shack began to fall. Motor Runner pulled the stick towards him. The base was fixed to the fireplace but on a hinge and as he pulled there was a click and the ground began to rumble with a metallic groan.

“What the hell?”

The table began to split and move apart. I quickly jumped to one side to avoid having to do the splits as the floor opened up. After a good minute there was a gaping huge hole in the middle of the room with an elevator platform now sitting in the middle of the hole. A section of the floor then extended towards the platform which bore the logo of Stable-Tec in the centre.

“I take it we take the elevator down to the facility” I said as I hurriedly climbed onto the platform and was quickly followed by my two friends and the little robot as the ground shudders were beginning to feel like an earthquake. I looked around the platform for a second to find a switch or button and found a red button in one corner of the platform and pressed it with my cybernetic hoof. The platform shuddered vertically before it began to slowly descend into the earth via a deep concrete shaft filled with red lights all the way down.

“C’mon, c’mon” Zyon moaned while he looked up just in time to see the elevator doors close to conceal the shaft. Just as the doors closed there was an almighty crash from above. One of the Krogoth’s legs must have torn through the building. Just as we all thought we just dodged a bullet there was another mighty crash as one of the machine’s hooves slammed down onto the shaft cover. The weight of the machine’s hoof overwhelmed the door structure and one of the doors gave way and fell into the shaft and began to fall down towards us, banging and crashing off of the shaft walls as it hurtled towards us.

“Oh cock”

I spread and braced my legs as I threw my magic up to the falling sheet of metal. I felt my magic grab the heavy steel and I then tried to move the falling metal to one side. I gritted my teeth with the strain.

“Argh, c’mon, MOVE” I screamed up at it.

I could feel sweat forming on my forehead as I concentrated on my magic. The magical aura around my horn grew brighter as I poured all my magic into my telekinetic spell. The broken hatch bounced off the wall with a loud bang and while it was in mid air I was able to pull the door to the opposite side of the shaft. I gasped when it hit the wall and my magic gave out and I collapsed to my knees panting heavily.

“That’s fucking heavy” I panted just as the door slammed into the elevator platform opposite us.

The platform lurched, tilting down on the side the hatch door slammed into and sent us all flying into the air before we all crashed back down onto the lopsided platform. There was a violent shudder as the platform seemed to catch on something and it stopped.

“Oh that can’t be good” Zyon moaned as he picked himself up.

I sat up and looked at the door sitting on the platform. Thankfully it was leaning back against the wall of the shaft and appeared to have settled. At least it wasn’t going to fall on us.

“I fear the Krogoth will want to examine this” Motor Runner said as he looked up to the top of the shaft. I followed his gaze and saw that the shaft was blocked by a giant metal hoof.

“We got nowhere to hide down here”

Just then the elevator shuddered violently.

“What was that?”

Zyon stepped over to the edge of the platform and looked down.

“We are about fifty feet from the bottom and it looks like the motors are still trying to pull us down and…” He was cut off as there was a metallic boom and the platform suddenly fell back level as it dropped a few feet. “…it’s about to fail” he finished lamely.

The sudden movement caused the broken hatch cover to move and it was starting to fall over. There was another loud bang and the elevator suddenly began to free fall. We all went airborne as the platform fell from below us, including the hatch cover which thankfully got wedged by two of its corners into the concrete shaft walls. We fell for only a few seconds and then slammed into the platform just as it met the ground with a dusty bang. We all let out cries of pain from slamming into the solid steel platform.

“No more elevators” Zyon moaned as he picked himself up.

“I second that” I added.

We picked ourselves up and looked around. We were now at the bottom of the shaft and looking around there was only one tunnel leading out of the elevator. On the wall beside the entrance to the tunnel was a direction arrow but the rust and grime that caked it left whatever the sign said illegible.

“Everypony alright?” I asked with a groan as I stood up on my hooves.

“Yeah, just dandy” Scoffed Zyon.

“I’m ok, thank you” Motor Runner said as he stood tall on his long legs. Damn he’s handsome.

I felt a weight settle on my head and looked up to see CD sitting in my hair. “Glad you’re ok little guy” I said with a smile. CD replied with a soft beep.

I opened my mouth to say something else when the entire shaft shook with a violent shudder.

“What was that?” Zyon asked as he looked around.

My gaze turned skyward when the sound of grinding metal and concrete reached my ears. As I looked up past the hatch cover jammed into the shaft I could see the Krogoth’s massive hoof wiggling.

“The Krogoth is trying to pull its hoof free”

Suddenly there was another violent tremor as the Krogoth put all its strength into its hind leg and yanked its hoof free. The force of the hoof being removed shattered the concrete walls in which it had been stuck in and the broken portions of the shaft began to tumble down the shaft towards us.

“Oh shit”

Large pieces of steel and concrete bashed and bounced off the shaft as they fell towards us, making an horrific symphony of breaking concrete and grinding metal and then the sound of steel being violently battered as the falling debris dislodged the hatch cover.

“MOVE” I screamed as I used my magic to secure CD on my head as we all took off down the dark tunnel.

We made it about ten feet down the tunnel when the debris slammed into the elevator floor. Dust blew down the tunnel which obscured our limited vision more and made us start to cough as the dust filled our breaths. It took a minute of running and letting the dust settle before we could breathe again. I came to a stop as the tunnel opened up into a large room which was bitch black and none of us could see more than a hoot into the dark. Despite the dark there was a single green light that was coming from the wall and a wall mounted terminal.

Motor Runner approached the terminal and using his manipulators in his hoof he accessed the terminal.

“Restoring power” He said and soon a hum began to fill the air as the old lights began to turn on. They slowly grew brighter and brighter until the room was bathed in a dull yellowish light and revealed to us the most bizarre scene I reckon any of us have ever seen before.

“The fuck is this?” Zyon asked raising and eyebrow at what was in front of us.

In front of us were plants. Healthy and exotic plants, plants I’ve seen in the old history and nature books from my stable. Plants that once grew in the old world, plants that shouldn’t be here and further more, plants growing out of the stable door that was being held half open by three huge thick vines or tree trunks. Looking around I saw patches of dirt with more plants growing out of them and then my eyes fell on a sign that was filthy with grime that read in big white letters.

“Welcome to Stable 22”

My eyes however lingered on the spray paint that was on the sign; half of it was just nonsense but the graffiti that was in red spray paint however got ALL of our attention, especially the one in bigger letters that read.

“Stay out, the plants KILL!!!”

One thing was clear though.

“This is no MAS Facility, this is a goddess forsaken Stable-Tec Experiment Stable”

“No shit, just what the fuck were they doing here and why are there so many plants?” Zyon asked.

“I don’t know but…” I looked at my EFS compass and saw the direction marker for our objective to be pointing at the half open door. “…We have to go in there to find those Rangers”

“What if we find them, how the hell are we suppose to get out of here huh, the elevator is fucked?”

“I don’t know, perhaps there is another way out of this Stable”

Zyon opened his mouth to argue back but was interrupted by Motor Runner as he took the lead with his chainsaw sticking out of his leg.

“We have no choice but to see if there is another way and some Stables had been made with alternative entrances and exits in case of emergencies”

“Ugh, fine”

I walked up to lead us since my EFS was telling me where to go but Motor Runner stopped me from passing him by gently holding out his leg to stop my advance.

“I would feel better if you stayed behind me while in here” He said in a soft but forceful tone.

I nodded to him and decided to not question him as we made our way to the half open door. I realised that if we ran into anything we’ll be subjected to close quarters combat and a melee or short range weapon would be the best type of weapon to use so I found my shotgun in my storage unit and pulled it out and held it in my magic to hover just next to my head. I heard the sound of Zyon’s sword coming out of its sheath as he held it ready in his mouth.

We entered the Stable and were immediately struck with how grimy it was and with how the plants were growing out of the walls, floors, ceiling and anything with a hole in it. The entrance layout was just the same as most stables and had a single door at the back of the room that led to the Stable proper. We approached the door and Motor Runner pressed the door control and it slid open with a metallic hiss.

The corridor stretched on for about twenty feet before it ended with a door directly in front of us, an alcove to our right with a Sparkle-Cola machine sitting in it and a set of stairs to our left that led down deeper into the stable. The door in front of us was another elevator.

“An elevator…, looks to have been jury rigged by the looks of the control panel” Motor Runner observed. He pressed the button to call the lift and we heard the motor as it started to pull the lift back up. There was then a horrible metal grinding noise before a loud bang. The bang was immediately followed by the sound of something heavy falling and scraping against metal before a violent boom shook the walls and floor around us. You don’t have to be a genius to know what just happened. There was then a soft ding and the doors opened to reveal and empty elevator shaft with steel cables that looked to have too much slack in them.

“Fuck elevators” I spat while remembering what happened on the other one.

“Yeah, I ain’t going down no more elevators man” Zyon added.

I looked at the walls and saw that there was map of the Stable which thankfully was still readable. It appeared that the Stable was divided by five levels. The first of which we were on if you can count the entrance and the hallway here a floor.

The map shown:
Main Level: Entrance Hall
Sub Level 1: Oxygen Recycling
Sub Level 2: Food Production
Sub Level 3: Common Areas
Sub Level 4: Pest Control

I used my tail like a brush to clear some of the grime off the map and began to examine it when Zyon and Motor Runner leaned in to see the map.

“Ok so we have four levels to go through to find the Rangers” I said while looking over the floor plans.

“Hmm, we may also have a way out of this place too” Motor Runner said as he used one of his manipulators to point at two spots on the map, one on Sub Level 1 and one on Sub Level 3. “These look like doors on the outside walls of the stable so I would assume these doors lead to a cave system”

Zyon nodded. “I recognise those from the map of my Stable. We had a door that opened to the sewer system beneath Manechester. So if these doors lead into caves then we might have a way out to the surface”

“Ok, the first door is on the next level down so we might as well check it out first to be sure before we search for the Rangers. No good finding them first without having a way out”

My friends uttered their agreements as we then began to descend the stairs. The stairs turned around and went down a little more until we came to a door at the bottom the stairs. Two mounds of dirt had built up in the corners next to the door frame with ferns growing out of them. This place is getting creepier and creepier by the second.

I hit the door control with my magic and the rusty door slid open with some effort and the first thing we got hit by was the freshness of the air. This wasn’t the dead stale air of the wasteland, this was pure clean oxygen rich air, most likely the closest atmospheric condition of pre-war Equestria we’ll likely ever experience.

“Oh wow, smell that air” Zyon said as we entered the Oxygen Recycling floor.

“I don’t think I’ve ever breathed air so clean”

When we stepped out from the door and we had entered a short hallway. In front of us we could see more stairs heading down, to our right the door to the elevator and to our left another short corridor. We walked down the corridor to the door at the end. Motor Runner pressed the door control and the door slid open and we stepped in. We appeared to have walked into a large lab room. There were three huge thick trees or vines or whatever they are coming out of the floor and up into the ventilation ducks above. There were lots of plants poking out of the walls and the patches of dirt that littered the floor. The room was square in shape and in the middle of each wall was a door and all three of them were open. From where we stood we could see into the hallways outside the doors and they seemed to be free of plants.

“From the map there is a corridor that runs around this lab with multiple rooms. Where we want to go is to our left. There is a corridor that will branch around to another large room and the door is there” Motor Runner said as he began to walk towards the left most door.

The hallway was indeed thankfully free of plants but the rooms that connected to this corridor were full to the brim. The way these rooms were packed with the plants it looked like these rooms were the oxygen farms to produce the oxygen. But that still begs the question, why is this stable so full of plants? It can’t all be for oxygen, wait, how are these plants even thriving in here, plants need sunlight and water, there’s barely any sunlight since the sunlight emulating lighting is down to a minimum through lack of maintenance. How have these plants managed to survive down here for so long?

It took us about five minutes to walk the length of the hallway to the other large lab room with our destination in it. The door was open so we walked in to find the lab to be mostly filled with computers but like the first room we entered it had plants and stuff growing out of holes and patches of dirt. As we looked around we saw the door on the far wall facing the door we entered in.

“You were right, that is an external door” I said as I approached the thick steel door.

Zyon stood in the middle of the room looking around while Motor Runner approached the terminal on the wall beside the door. I looked over the thick steel door and I couldn’t find any manual handles or anything to open it by hoof. I looked up to Motor Runner as he booted the terminal up.

“Ah… well this has gotten more difficult” He said with a frown as he looked away from the terminal.

“What is it?” Zyon asked before I could.

“The door is electronically sealed and requires a card key to open, a key we don’t have”

“Cock” I moaned while I stomped my cybernetic hoof with annoyance.

“Where the hell are we supposed to find a card key in this stable?” Zyon asked. “It could be anywhere”

I sighed. “He’s right” I looked back to the door and noticed that the direction marker was pointing at the door which meant one thing. “Oh for Luna’s sake, the Rangers we are here to rescue are outside”

“What?”

“My EFS is pointing me to the door, they are out there”

“How did they get passed this door?” Zyon asked with confusion.

“There is another door two floors down, perhaps that door isn’t security locked like this one” Motor Runner suggested.

“Alright, so our next course of action is to get down to Sub Level 3: Commons Areas”

“No, the other door may be on Sub Level 3 but the only way to access that door is from Sub Level 4. We will have to go down to the bottom to go back up to reach the door” Motor Runner corrected.

“Ok, hmm hey, isn’t the Overmare’s Office on Sub Level 3?”

“Yes it is, why?” Zyon asked.

“Well, knowing our luck something will be keeping us from getting to that other door and if that’s the case we might as well also check the Overmare’s Office, if the Overmare’s terminal is still working maybe we can find a remote access link to open the door from there”

“Good idea, alright, let's go”

We back tracked to the stairs going down and found that at the bottom was another door. I’m beginning to wonder why these stairs have doors at the bottom of each flight. This door was like the last one from the stairs above with plants growing out of mounds of dirt in the corners but also there were plants hanging out of the ventilation duct above the door. Motor Runner pressed the door control and the door opened.

The hallway was like the one above but since we came down from the opposite side the hall stretched out to our right rather than left. This floor seemed to be more over grown as there were plants poking out of the ceiling and just down the corridor where it splits into at a T junction we could see a large mound of dirt with plants growing out of it forming like a hedge in the corridor leading away to the left of the hall. There was also one other difference from the floor above, whispering. We could all hear a whispering, but none of us could tell what was being said or what was making it or where it was coming from.

“Everypony can hear that right?” Zyon asked as we stepped out onto Sub Level 2: Food Production.

“Yeah” I confirmed.

“Oh good so it’s not just me”

“Hey guys, should we explore this level?”

“I don’t know, we don’t know how long those Rangers will last against whatever they were attacked by”

“I know but, what if the Overmare’s terminal doesn’t work, we would still need to find the card key if the other door is locked too. Who knows, we might find the key here and besides my EFS is showing its clear, no hostile targets”

“Hmm, good point”

“Let’s hurry as well, we don’t want to waste too much time” Zyon added as we began to walk down the corridor.

“I’ll take CD and take the left hallway” I said as we made it to the junction.

“We’ll take the right side” Motor Runner said while Zyon just shrugged.

“Ok, we’ll meet back up here in ten minutes”

“Alright”

CD beeped in an affirmative manner as he began to flutter down the hall ahead of me.

“Hey wait for me” I laughed as I began down the corridor. I took one step and went flat on my face with a painful shriek as my chin collided with the concrete floor. Fuck that hurt.

Motor Runner and Zyon came back to the junction after hearing my heavy fall.

“Are you alright?” Motor Runner asked as I picked myself up on the other side of the dirt mound. Zyon was trying his hardest not to snicker.

I moved my jaw from side to side to work out the kinks after landing on it before I looked back up to the tall purple stallion. “Hmm, yeah I’m good” I moaned.

I looked back down to the thick mound of dirt and plants. I didn’t even bother to look at the plants to see if there was anything that could trip me up or anything as I just expected to walk through it with no problem. I guess I was wrong. “Stupid plants” I thought out loud but as soon as I uttered those words the plants began to move as if something inside them was disturbed. We all froze when a low toned growl came from the plants and then something green began to rise up out of the plants. A back with large leaves sticking up from it pushed up on four legs before a neck and a head with a mane that looked to be made from a spider plant rose up. It turned its head to look at me.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?” I screamed as I moved my shotgun in front of me and took aim on the grass pony thing.

It opened its eyes and I could see nothing but empty black holes in its head where its eyes should have been and then it opened its mouth as it began to roar. Where teeth were suppose to be this thing had hundreds of large thorns as its teeth filling its jaws. I wasted no time and shoved my shotgun into its mouth and pulled the trigger. The buckshot ripped its head to pieces as the buckshot tore through the vegetation. The strange creature buckled and fell to the floor in a heap with the top half of its head destroyed.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?” I repeated just as loudly as the first time.

“I don’t have a clue” Zyon said as he approached it.

“Neither do I, all I can say is that it looks like a pony made out of plants” Motor Runner added.

“You don’t suppose these are what they were doing down here do you?” I asked.

“I couldn’t say”

Zyon opened his mouth to say something when the supposed dead creature began to move again.

“Ah shit, kill it, kill it” I shrieked and jumped back away from it.

Zyon began to swing his sword and began to chop the veg pony into little bitty pieces.

“Sliced and Diced” He remarked once he was done.

Motor Runner looked down at Zyon and gave him an unamused look as he spoke. “Overkill much?” He shook his head and took a breath before continuing to talk.

“Alright this has gotten more dangerous than we first thought. I suppose this unknown enemy that was mentioned might have been these plant things” Motor Runner said as he looked down at the bits of veg pony.

“Yeah it could be. The damn thing didn’t appear on my EFS” I then just had a thought. “Shit, Celestia only knows how many of these things are hiding in the plants”

“We need to proceed with extreme caution”

“Yeah, hmm, if we avoid the thickest clusters of plants we should be fine. This thing only showed itself after I tripped over it”

“Alright, let’s meet back up here in five”

I am officially creeped out now in this place. The constant whispering and now plant ponies, ugh, what next? I shuddered at the thought. CD was fluttering close to me as we continued down the corridor. It looked like another junction was coming up and it would also branch to the right if I kept following it. Hmm must curl around to the main room on this floor like the one above. I stopped at the junction, thankfully with no plants in it and looked left down the hall heading away. I lifted my cybernetic leg to view my pipbuck map. The hall would end with a room after turning right. There is also another room half way down before the bend. I can check these two rooms before taking the other path to follow it around to the main room.

We came to the door of the first room on this path. I turned to CD who was bobbing up and down beside me.

“Are your scanners picking up anything?” I asked him.

CD shook himself while uttering a single low beep which told me he was saying negative.

I used my magic on the door control and the metal door slid open to reveal a huge practically empty room. The room had three large tanks or vats in the middle taking up most of the space. There were plants in here but not as many as outside. From what I can see so far there isn’t enough plants to hide one of those plant pony things. I walked in and began to walk around the vats. The walls were pretty much bare of anything but there was some lab equipment fixed to the wall here and there. I turned a corner after the third vat and saw an open door to a small room at the back of the large room I was in and just after the door I could see a large grouping of plants. I stared at the mass of vegetation, as if trying to see through the leaves and then I saw something. Sticking out of the plants by just an inch I could see something that looked like a green hoof. Not wanting to take my chances with it being nothing I pointed my lever-action shotgun at the mass of plants and fired. My shot echoed throughout the room and down the corridors outside and it was followed by an angry growl as whatever I hit was just disturbed.

“Oh cock and bollocks” I moaned as another, LARGER veg pony came up out of the plants.

CD blared out some rock music and started to fire blue bolts of energy at the beast in rapid succession. The beasty hissed and growled as the energy shots were burning its floral hide. Getting over my shock of the beasty revealing itself I slipped into SATS and toggled up three shots, one for its head and two for its body. After selecting the targets and exiting the spell, time resumed and I unloaded three shots guided by the spell into the beast, the first tore into its chest, opening up several small wounds, the second struck its head and tore away half of the right side of its head and I swear I saw a green brain fall out of the wound and the last hit its chest again and seemed to cause the veg beast to explode as its chest disintegrated. An icon appeared on my HUD telling me I scored a critical hit with the last shot. Nice. I watched as its forelegs fell away from it along with its head since its chest was nothing but shreds. It collapsed to the floor and I watched it for a good minute to be sure it was dead before I resumed my search.

The little room in the back was empty save for a desk with a terminal which was brown from grime but surprisingly the screen was flickering so it was still working. Normally I would take a look to see if it had any intel but since I was in a hurry I left it alone. The desk was pretty bare too but there was one thing that was on the desk with the terminal. A jar sat on the corner with a pink coloured liquid in it. I picked it up with my magic and my pipbuck beeped and then my EFS displayed what I was looking at. It said that the jar I was holding contained a “Food Additive”. Not being a smart mare I didn’t know what the hell that was supposed to mean so I decided to leave it. I turned around and at a brisk pace left the room and headed for the last room on this path.

The door to the room was already open and again this was another large but empty room. This room however had about four tables with terminals on them and that was about it. There were two windows on the back wall looking out into a cavern with plant boxes below them with just soil in them and no plants. In fact this whole room was thankfully plant free.

Suddenly while I was looking around the empty room to see if there was anything at all I heard the sound of Motor Runner’s chainsaw revving up and the scream of something that wasn’t a pony. I decided to abandon the search for the key in this area since it was bare and empty I turned tail and began to gallop down the corridor. My heavily armoured hooves making loud echoing bangs as they struck the concrete floor. When I came to the junction I turned left, slipping on the grimy floor a little at the hard turn and bashing my armoured flank into the wall. I followed the hall around and it did lead into the main room on this floor and just as I entered the large lab I saw Motor Runner pulling his chainsaw leg from the abdomen of another of the veg things.

“Are you guys alright?” I asked as I approached them.

“We are ok” Motor Runner said as he retracted his chainsaw.

“We ran into two more of those grass ponies on our search but no key”

“Yeah, I ran into one as well but found nothing”

“We heard”

“C’mon, lets hurry up and find a way into the caverns, this place is creeping the hell out of me” I whined as I began to lead my friends towards the stairs.

“It doesn’t take much to scare me these days but these grass ponies and this constant whispering is seriously starting to creep me out as well” Zyon added in a shaky tone.

“I would have to agree. I’ve been all over Equestria in my long life, seen and heard things that would make a Steel Ranger shake in his armour but never have I been in a place like this. This fills the criteria of being one of the scariest places in the wasteland”

Wow, even Motor Runner the bullet proof stallion gets scared.

I looked back and gave them my best reassuring smile as I could before again falling flat on my face. This time because of that damn fucking magnet in my synthetic hoof.

“OH FOR THE LOVE OF FUCKING CELESTIA, YOU STUPID FUCKING MAGNET” I screamed in rage as I pulled myself up and began to pull on my cybernetic leg to force the magical magnet off the ground. I grit my teeth as I pulled with all my might. “LET GO” And it did. I swear it waits for me to be a full strain before it releases. Unprepared for the sudden release I ended up loosing my balance and fell backwards and crashed into somepony. Motor Runner gently caught me in his forelegs and held me up so I didn’t crash on my back.

I blushed as I looked up at him. He looked down at me with sympathy in his deep purple eyes which just made me blush harder.

“Are you alright?” He asked with concern.

“Yes, thank you” I said with a goofy smile. He returned my smile and set me back on my hooves, my face as red as a tomato as we continued on. Motor Runner took the lead again as we descended the stairs to reach Sub Level 3.

The door opened and the first thing we saw as we stepped out on the Sub Level 3: Common Areas was that the stairs to Sub Level 4 were blocked by filling cabinets and tables all packed in tightly to form a blockade. There wasn’t a way that we were going to be able to shift it.

“You just had to jinx didn’t you” Zyon moaned. “You just had to say it didn’t you”

I let out an embarrassed chuckle as I looked back to see him also do a facehoof. He’s right though. I did say knowing our luck something would block our path.

“Well, our next course of action then is to reach the Overmare’s Office and see if we can open the door from there” Motor Runner said as he looked down the corridor which ended with an open door and we could see the atrium of the stable beyond and from the greenish haze we could see, the atrium must be like a jungle.

I nodded to him as he took the lead again and we began to make our way towards the atrium. We stepped out into the large open area of the atrium’s upper level. I looked around and saw how plants were growing up through the middle where there three massive trunks or stalks growing up into the ceiling. Well now we know where those huge things were coming from in the upper floors. I approached the railing and looked down to the lower level of the atrium to where the stalks were growing out of. There were three huge flower beds set out in the middle of the atrium with benches around them. Seeing those benches told me that this stable must have been a nice place once with ponies sitting and admiring what used to be beautiful flowers. Oh hello, I see a clinic down there.

“Hey guys there is a clinic down there”

“At least we’ll be able pick up some medical supplies then”

“Overmare’s Office is straight ahead” Motor Runner said moving a head.

Me and Zyon left the railing and began to follow. On the wall to our right a door sat wide open leading into a short corridor and on the wall next to the doorframe was a sign that told us that toilets for mares and stallions were down there and speaking of which.

“Oh hold up, I need to use the little filly’s room” I said as I headed down the corridor and turned right into the toilets for mares. I picked a stall at random and opened the door and then screamed and jumped back. Why, why the fuck did the stall I pick have to have one of those things in it?

“APPLETART” I heard both Zyon and Motor Runner shout as they heard me scream.

The plant pony pounced on me. It knocked me off my hooves and sent me crashing through the stall door behind me and onto my back. The creature stood on me, holding me down and opened its mouth as it prepared to take a bite out of me. As it started to come down to try for my throat I shoved my cybernetic hoof into its mouth and stopped it from biting me. Luckily my cybernetic leg’s outer skin was made from armour plate so its thorn teeth wouldn’t cause any damage.

“Get the fuck off of me” I screamed at it. I felt the surge of energy in my eyes as they changed with my rage. Zyon and Motor Runner burst into the lavatory as I screamed at it again with my teeth gritted. “GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME” I punctuated the last word with my grappling claw coming out. The blades chopped the veg pony’s head into three and they peeled back like a banana skin as I shoved my hoof against it as I also attempted to shove the monster off me.

“Appletart, are you alright?” Zyon asked as the creature toppled over.

“Do I look fucking alright?” I yelled at him, my anger fuelling my outburst. He took a step back as my eyes flashed. There was the sound of shuffling in front of me and I turned my hateful gaze down at the grass pony as its split head started to piece itself back together as it attempted to stand again. “Get the fuck out” I yelled again at Zyon as I then turned to face the creature. “I’m not done with you” I raised my cybernetic leg with the claws still extended and shoved it into its chest, piercing the blades deep into its body and then I extended them, slicing the creatures chest into three. As the creature fell again into three pieces I kicked the pieces away from each other to stop it from piecing itself back together again. I growled looking down at the pieces and then noticed Zyon and Motor Runner still standing in the doorway looking concerned.

“I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT” I yelled as my eyes flashed with energy and I used my magic to hit the door control, causing the door to slam shut in front of them. “Can’t a girl get to do her business in peace?”

I entered a stall that was empty, thankfully and did my thing. While I was alone I was able to calm down, I felt the hatred and anger slip away and the surge in energy in my eyes and horn dissipated returning me to normal and allowing me to think clearly again. Oh Luna not again. I sighed to myself for slipping again.

A few minutes later I had relieved myself and rejoined my friends.

“I’m sorry guys” I said feeling awful for slamming the door shut in their faces and yelling at them with the venom of my hate and rage filling my words.

“Appletart, you really need to get some help, Celestia only knows what your hate and anger will drive you to do in that Dark shift” Zyon said in concern.

“I know I know” I agreed.

“I pretty much understand your pain and I’ll do what I can to help you through it. I’ve had to deal with it myself” Motor Runner offered.

“Thank you, after this is over I’m all yours for that”

I followed my friends as we entered a corridor on the back right wall of the atrium’s upper level as it would take us to the Overmare’s Office. There were several mounds of dirt with some little plants but nothing thankfully that could hide one of those damn creatures. The Overmare’s Office door was wide open and so we entered. In the middle of the room was the Overmare’s desk but it was surrounded by a large mound of soil with lots of plants growing out of it. We approached the mound with caution but thankfully there wasn’t a plant pony in it. Thank Celestia for that. The main Overmare’s Terminal which was on the wall behind the desk was dead but on a table next to the circular window over looking the atrium was another terminal which thankfully was still working.

I approached the table and sat down while I used my magic to wake the computer up from being in standby. The screen flashed and luckily it was already open, no need to hack it, yay. The terminal had three options to open doors but none of them was to open the door we needed, bollocks, and one of the options was to view an audio file marked as “Stable-Tec Directive”

“Anything?” Zyon asked.

“No, just options to open doors for the Living Quarters, Mainframe and a Storage Locker”

“Open the door to the Living Quarters, if the key is anywhere it would likely be in the living quarters of the pony who held it”

“Good idea, opening door now” I said and selected the option.

From the circular window in the office we all could see a door in the bottom right on the lower level of the atrium (our left from entering and our right from the direction we faced in the office) slide open.

“Well that answers the question I was about to ask” Zyon said with a chuckle to himself.

“Let’s see what this directive is” I said, curious to know what the hell was going on down here.

I selected the audio file and it began to play.

“Golden Harvest, this is the Director of Stable-Tech, Scootaloo. I am glad you accepted my offer to be Stable 22’s Overmare. I knew you were the right pony for job. The war is taking a turn for the worst and I, along with my co-directors have made the decision to outfit some Stables with experiments to find out why everything went bad and to find a way for us to continue living in the event everything does go to shit.

This stable, your stable has been fitted with research labs and most of Equestria’s top minds in vegetation sciences have been enlisted to your team. In the event the world is laid to waste we would need a way for our plants to grow in the blasted world after the apocalypse. This is your mission. You and your team are to research how plants grow and to find a way so plants can grow in any environment, be it in total darkness, lack of water, no sun, anything so that plants can still thrive. We hope that you make Project Luna Gardens a success. Good luck”

The audio message ended. It was short but down to the point.

“So, Project Luna Gardens huh”

“I guess they did it, I mean these plants have thrived without anyone caring for them” I said looking at the huge stalks pushing up into the ceiling.

“I’ve heard of Project Luna Gardens before” Motor Runner said placing his organic forehoof to his chin in thought.

“You have?”

“Hmm, yes, I visited an MAS Hub in the past and I remember seeing some of Twilight Sparkle’s notes and one of them talked about something called Luna Gardens. It was basically a rant about how she was deceived and that the project was just an excuse for the scientists to create some sort biological weapon”

“Biological weapon?” I asked in surprise.

“Yes, hmm, if I remember correctly Twilight was one of the ponies involved with the original project as it would need magical assistance and she also seemed to have a great interest in the project for some reason. Anyway, she said she stumbled on plans for making some sort of weapon using the data from the project, not wanting the project to be a weapon she informed the other Ministry Mares and Princess Luna and the project was shutdown”

“Something tells me that this weapon was used down here” I said thinking about those grass ponies.

“It is possible, but there was never a clear description from her as to what this weapon was supposed be or do”

“C’mon, let’s get a move on” I said standing back up.

“How do we get down there?” Zyon asked.

“That door on the far wall next to the diner, it will take us down to the bottom level of the atrium” Motor Runner said while pointing a hoof.

“Oh”

We left the office and crossed the bridge in the centre of the upper level to get to the other side. On this side of the atrium’s upper level were three rooms; to our right is a bar, in front of us a recreation room with two pool tables in it and to our left a diner. We took a glance in each of them but they were just a mess with nothing important in them at all. We did find some caps and a couple bottles of Sunset Sarsaparilla which I pocketed as they had zero rad warnings. We left the upper level and took the stairs through the door down to the bottom level of the atrium and exited through the door under the one we came in by.

“Wow”

The centre of the atrium had three large squares that would have once housed beautiful flower beds, now they housed the giant trunks of trees or stalks, oh forget it I just don’t have a bloody clue what they are, sitting in them and all three were now over flowing with plants and bushes and spreading out across the floor.

“Keep your distance guys, I bet there are more of those things in there” I said and moved away from the overgrowth.

CD however had other ideas as he fluttered out over the plants.

“CD, what the hell are you doing?”

CD stopped over a thick patch of greenery and started to fire his blue energy bolts into the plants as he blared his music out.

“He’s fucking mad” Zyon remarked as we watched the spectacle

CD’s efforts were rewarded as a low growl emitted from the plants and one of those pony plant things stood up. CD continued to fire at it as he hovered up out of its reach. Surprisingly the monster didn’t seem to know how to jump as it tried to swipe at him with one of its forehooves. While CD was out of reach he continued to fire on the creature while we just watched dumbfounded by his sudden change. Eventually the monster burst into flames before dissolving into a pile of glowing blue ashes. After the monster died he fluttered back over to us.

“What was that all about?” I asked surprised.

He made a two tone beep that sounded like “I don’t know” to me.

I shook my head and sighed as we began to walk again. The amount of plants near the door meant we would have to circle around past the clinic to reach the door to the living quarters and the floor towards the wall with the Overmare’s Office window on, on the upper lever was mostly clear of plants so we could walk around hopefully without disturbing anymore of those things.

As we neared the back wall we saw a trail of red on the floor that looked like something had been dragged. I lowered my head to get a better look before shooting it back up.

“That’s blood” I shrieked.

“Fresh too by the looks of it” Zyon said taking a sniff. That was gross. “Can’t be more than a couple of hours old”

I looked up to the door to which the trail led to. On the wall beside the door sat a grimy sign that said “General Store”. I trotted up to the door and then looked back at my friends. They both readied their weapons in preparation for anything that could be behind the door. My EFS was clear but in this Stable that didn’t mean shit. I gave the door a tentative knock and listened for a moment. Nothing. I looked at my friends again and Zyon nodded slowly and I then pressed the door control with my magic and the steel door slid open to reveal where the trail of blood led too. Slumped against the wall facing the door was the body of a Steel Ranger with her helmet on the floor and her head hung down against her armoured chest. Two large green spikes protruded from her side, the spikes look like over sized thorns.

I looked around the from the door and found that the store was pretty much empty save for a counter with a till and a couple of metal shelves with just a couple of items on them but other than that it was clear. I walked in followed closely by my friends. I approached the dead mare and sighed with a frown. This brought back memories. Memories of finding dead comrades on missions I took with the Pondale Rangers. Memories of loss I’d rather forget. I shook my head to dislodge the memories as I reached out to her neck to retrieve her holotags. Just as my hoof reached her neck her head shot up and she looked at me, dead lifeless eyes stared at me as she opened her mouth to release an undead moan. Zombies and ghouls I can deal with but this was no ghoul. What struck me about her was that through her cream fur I could see deep green veins crisscrossing the right side of her face that was hidden by her mane before her head came up and on her neck I could see that patches of her hide had turned green.

“Holy shit” I screamed as I jumped back.

“She’s alive?”

“No, its worse, she’s one of those plant things” I yelped as the turned mare started to shift to get on her hooves.

“I bet this is what that biological weapon does to you, it turns you into one of those fucking things” Zyon said as he lifted his sword ready to strike.

The dead mare let out a hungry scream and lunged for me. Why is it always me? I was quick to rear up on my hind legs and kicked out with my forelegs, my cybernetic hoof smashed into her jaw and I heard and felt the bones of her jaw break. She fell back away from me and turned around to face me again, her jaw hanging down loosely. Eww. While the mare was distracted Zyon swung his sword and chopped off her head. Her head fell to the floor and rolled away. Her holotags fell to the floor while her body remained standing as her power armour locked up tight.

I levitated her holotags up and looked at them. “Rest in peace Upper Crust the third” I said looking to where her head had rolled off to.

“What the hell happened to her?”

“My guess is that she was infected by whatever made those plant ponies, did you see her veins?”

“Plausible, I suppose Luna Garden’s original data may have been supplied as well”

“Alright, I’m officially creeped out now” I said as I put the holotags into my armour’s storage unit.

“Let’s find that damn code and let’s get the hell out of here” Zyon said as we moved out of the room.

After we left the room CD fluttered off again, blared out his rock music and started firing at another plant pony in the thick plant cover.

“Oh for Celestia’s sake” I muttered as the veg pony stood up and started to swipe for CD. It was comical seeing it trying to swipe at the spritebot but we didn’t have time for this. I sighed as I walked up to the pony thing while it had its back turned to us and pushed my shotgun to the back of its head and blew its head off. “Enough with the veg ponies” I moaned as the creature fell to the floor. Zyon was quick to dice the thing up since the first one which I blew the head off started moving again shortly after.

“CD, please don’t do that again”

The little machine let out an embarrassed beep.

I opened the breach at the back of my lever-action shotgun and began to levitate shells of twenty gauge buckshot into the weapon as we walked around the end plant box. After placing five shells into the breach I closed the weapon and cocked the lever before holding the shotgun my side again. We came to the clinic and I opened the door. The clinic was thankfully free of dead ponies and veg monsters.

“Let’s make it quick” I said as we entered. The clinic had several tables and recovery beds lining the walls. Some of the beds were heavily stained and had black skeletons on them. Me and Zyon began to look through the filing cabinets, medical cabinets and the medical kits that lined the wall to the left as we entered. Motor Runner accessed the computer that sat on the doctor’s desk.

“Now this is interesting” He said as he read what was on the screen.

“What is it?”

“It looks like the residents here began to suffer from an illness before turning” He said as he read on.

“Huh”

“Ok, the doctor was approached by one of the scientists complaining of a cough he has had for a while. The doctor examined him and didn’t find anything medically wrong with him but gave him some antibiotics in an attempt to elevate his symptoms. A few weeks later the scientist returns with an even worse cough and now complaining of lack of breath. Again the doctor couldn’t find anything medically wrong with him and prescribed some other medicine that would help with someone with those symptoms. The scientist returns days later with his condition even worse. The doctor was getting very worried with how nothing he gave him was working and to find out what was going on he asked the scientist if he could x-ray his chest. The scientist agreed and when the results came back the doctor found what looked like a cancerous growth in one of the scientist’s lungs. He gave the scientist the last of the medication that should have helped him but it didn’t. A couple of weeks later the scientist died in the clinic. The doctor performed and autopsy to finally understand what had killed this scientist and was surprised to find his lungs full of a fungus. What was strange however was that the fungus appeared to be thriving even though the host was dead. He patched the scientist up ready for cremation. While he was working at his terminal while waiting for the burial team to take him away the corpse of the scientist sat up and then attacked the doctor. It took the burial team and two guards to pull the scientist off him before they burned him where he stood”

“Dude, that’s pretty messed up right there”

“A fungus in the lungs?”

“Whatever these scientists were doing involved something, perhaps modified spores for better pollination. These spores may have had an untold effect on the scientists and they were none the wiser to what was happening. Until everypony became plant ponies”

“This place is seriously messed up”

“Ok, lets just get that key and leave” I said now wishing I was wearing a helmet, at least they had air filtration on them.

We left the clinic with a few more healing potions and some medication and began again for the door to the living quarters. CD began to flutter over to some plants again.

“Get your ass back here CD” I yelled like a mother would to her child when it wanders off.

The robot let out a beep before slowly flying back to us.

“I swear I’ll ground you”

“You sound like a mother already” Zyon snickered.

“Shut it” I giggled as we approached the door to the living quarters. Looking through the door we could see a corridor that stretched out for about thirty feet before a flight of stairs going up. I raised my cybernetic leg to check the local map. My pipbuck displaced the hallway and the stairs. I followed it on screen to the top of the stairs were the hallway continues but does a one eighty turn and then continues down the opposite direction but my scanner picked up something the map we looked at on the Main Level didn’t have. A cave in. After the first set of doors I could see the hallway just ends with a rough curve filling the space where it was suppose to keep on going. If the key isn’t in the six rooms open to us, we are well and truly and royally screwed.

“Ok guys, we have six rooms to check, the rest are blocked off by what looks like a cave in. Pray to Celestia the key is in one of these rooms”

“Fuck, this just gets better and better”

“If it isn’t, I could try to cut through the door with my chainsaw” Motor Runner suggested.

“Why didn’t you try that earlier?”

“Because I didn’t want to waste valuable time in case I couldn’t”

“Enough bickering, you’re like a pair of old biddies” I moaned and started into the corridor.

We came to the first door and I pressed the button to open it. The door slid open and I was shocked to see the entire room filled with plants and I could count three of those veg things in there lying amongst the plants. My heart ached with sorrow when I saw the small one, it was a child one and it was lying next to an overgrown baby carriage. Even children were turned by these. Oh goddesses.

“Zyon, have any explosives on you?” I asked.

“Yeah why?”

“We need to search that room regardless of what’s in there. I know we can see three but with how thick the plants are in there, there could be more”

“Hmm, oh I have just the thing for a flash fire” He said with a smirk and stuck his head into his saddlebags before fishing out a tin can with a makeshift pin on it.

“What’s that?”

“A RAD-Grenade” He said with a smirk before pulling the pin and tossing it into the room before I could say anything. Seeing the homemade explosive fly into the room I hit the door control and closed the door. A few seconds later there was a loud pumth which was followed by a loud roaring of fire before going quiet. As it went silent three pops then followed. Giving what happened in there a few second to calm down I then hit the door control again. As the door slit open a plumb of smoke flowed out into the hallway and across my face making me hack and cough until it dissipated. The plants in the room had all be incinerated and the bodies of the veg ponies looked to have exploded but the rest of the room looked thankfully intact.

“What was that?”

“A homemade explosive made from a Sparkle-Cola RAD” He said smugly.

“Cool”

“You have got some good ingenuity skills” Motor Runner said with a respectful nod to the zony.

The room had two beds, a dress, a cabinet and a locker against the walls. We each choose one of the things to search and began to look through them. I choose the dresser and while putting my shotgun away I began to pull open the drawers and began to rummage. In the upper drawers I used my magic to pull out old clothing and throw them out behind me while I checked. In the lower draws I used my hooves to sift through the grimy old garments. Unfortunately nothing of any real value and more importantly, no key, cock.

I turned to my friends. “Anything?”

“Nothing” Motor Runner sighed.

“I found some condoms” Zyon said with a laugh.

I blushed when he said that but couldn’t help but laugh too.

“Save them for Sky Fire” I joked as I walked past him. I grinned as I saw him blush as he placed them into his saddlebags.

We stepped back out into the hallway and Motor Runner pressed the door control of the opposite door and we were surprised as the door opened to reveal a clean room. Well by clean I mean no dirt, no plants and no veg ponies. It was still grimy as fuck but free of the all the shit we’ve seen everywhere else. The room setup was the same as the last room and so we went to work and looked though the drawers and cabinets.

“Oh oh yea” Zyon chirped in glee as the pulled something out of the locker he was searching.

I turned around to see what he had found and my eyes widened in disbelief as he had found a flamethrower.

“Wow, these eggheads were packing some serious heat, literally” He laughed as he checked it out. “Oh wow, it’s a Spitfire Model XJ761 and with additional fuel tanks for double the capacity over the standard. Oh wow this is like thee best top of the range kind of prewar flamethrower”

“What the hell were the scientists doing with something like that?” I asked in shocked surprise.

“That’s a very good question”

“Who cares, I’m having this” Zyon said as he hefted the fuel tank onto his back and secured it with the straps so it wouldn’t fall off before he stopped. “Shit, I need a battlesaddle for this thing”

“Sorry but I didn’t find one when I searched the cabinet”

“Me neither”

“Fuck, just when I find something so cool I can’t use it, ugh fine” He pouted as he gave the weapon to me. “Can you carry it please, your storage units have that spell to make things small, I can’t carry this with the flamer nozzle hanging loose and I have nothing to secure it to”

“Sure” I said with sympathetic smile as I used my magic to take his flamer and as I brought it to one of my storage units it shrunk down to being a fraction of its original size before it disappeared down into my storage unit.

Zyon left the room first grumbling to himself about not being able to use his new toy. We arrived at the next room and Zyon pressed the door control and the door slid open. The door revealed another overgrown room but what were inside the room terrified me and Zyon.

“KILLING JOKE!!!”

“SHIT CLOSE IT, CLOSE IT” I screamed at him.

“I’M TRYING, I’M TRYING” He yelled as he slapped the door control to shut the door. Just as he hit the button the blue vines inside the room noticed us and two of them shot out at Zyon. Seeing them coming I instinctively dived back away from the door but Zyon wasn’t as lucky as he was right in front of the door when it opened. After I rolled back onto my hooves I watched in horror as the two vines collided with Zyon’s chest armour and pinned him against the opposite door.

“ZYON” I screamed just as the door closed and trapped the two vines.

Zyon was lifted off his hoofs and being held against the door as the two vines held him. Luckily the vines hadn’t found his flesh yet but one of the vines was inching up to his neck.

“Get your filthy vines off me” He growled and tried to reach for his sword that he had dropped as the vines pinned him. He couldn’t risk using his forelegs to knock the vines away as his lower forelegs were exposed.

I didn’t know what to do; he was helpless as he couldn’t reach his sword. I shook my head; he’s my friend and I have to try something. I used my magic to grab his sword and held it ready to strike. Motor Runner must have had the same idea as his chainsaw came out and revved. We both swung for the vines but we were too late. Just as we were about to make contact with the blue tentacle of a vine the one searching for flesh found his neck and wrapped around it, touching his skin and applying its magic to him. Saw and sword sliced the vines, releasing him and dropping him back down to his hooves. The cut Killing Joke vines wiggled and shrivelled up before turning brown and died. My fearful gaze moved to Zyon and his eyes were wide with panic as the vine around his neck disintegrated.

“Zyon” I said looking in horror as he began to glow. I felt so helpless as his glow intensified.

“I don’t want to die” He shrieked sounding so scared that it hurt inside. I felt like a failed my friend, no, not just him, Sky Fire too. Oh sweet Celestia what am I gonna say to her?

I had to shield my eyes as the glow grew so bright it was like he had turned into the sun itself. I then had to clamp my eyes shut to block out the blinding light before it suddenly vanished. I lowered my hoof and started to rapidly blink my eyes to get rid of the spots in my vision as I looked back to where Zyon had been against the door.

“WHAT’S IT DONE TO ME?” Zyon hysterically screamed in panic and in a much higher voice than I remembered. I internally breathed a sigh of relief that he was still alive.

I was expecting him to be turned into some grotesquely hideous monster or into something else completely, what I didn’t expect was that he had been turned into a stunningly sexy mare. When my vision had fully returned I just couldn’t help but gawk at this sexy mare that was once a male zony.

“What, what are you staring at, oh goddesses its horrible isn’t it?” Zyon shrieked in her new higher pitched silky voice. I caught Motor Runner in the corner of my eye wearing the same expression as me.

“No, nothing at all, you look good” I said before closing my mouth tight and looking wide eyed at anything but zyon.

“Bullshit”

“No seriously, you look good” Motor Runner said keeping a straight face.

“Get out of my way, there’s a mirror in the last room we checked” She said and quickly pushed past. As she pushed past I got a good look at her new body shape, from the strong body of a stallion to now having a body like that of Fleur De Lis. I couldn’t help but stare at her new curvy flanks swaying side to side as she walked on those long slender legs. If we were in a pitch black room my cheeks would be lighting it up like a beacon with how my blush burned my cheeks. Just to make matters worse the pants of her combat armour that were adjusted for the figure that had disappeared slipped and fell down her hind legs and revealed her new marehood. Holy shit.

Me and Motor Runner stayed rooted to the floor, not daring to move as Zyon disappeared into the clean living quarters we last checked. I mentally counted down in my head.

Three, two, one. I then placed my forehooves over my ears and as if on cue.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I heard Zyon scream in the most girliest way I’ve ever heard.

“A MARE, IT TURNED ME INTO A MARE” She screamed as we waited in the hall. As we waited we heard her muttering obscenities and grunts while we also heard her armour being readjusted.

Zyon emerged looking pissed, confused and scared all in one. I noticed now that her mane had doubled in length and as Zyon had it styled in a mohawk before her change it now drooped over to one side, half obscuring her vision in her right eye. Her tail had become long and smooth instead of that short bush it was before. She even had long thick eye lashes. Her armour had now been adjusted to fit her again and damn she looked good, really good. No, bad brain, she’s your friend and she loves Sky Fire. I had to mentally batter myself to rid myself of those thoughts.

She looked at us and grumbled. “Don’t say a word, let’s just find that key and let’s just leave, alright”

“Yes ma’am” I said and then immediately facehoofed, that was stupid.

Zyon gave me a dirty look.

“Sorry”

She bent down and picked up her sword again in her mouth and nodded to the door she had been held against.

I nodded with an apologetic smile as I then walked up to the door and pressed the door control. The door slid open to reveal a room with only a couple of plants in it but strangely enough the mattress of the bed in the room was covered in mushrooms. We entered the room and began to search. I chose a filling cabinet to look through while Motor Runner looked in the dresser and Zyon looked in a cabinet while still muttering obscenities.

I looked in the top three draws and found nothing which left the bottom draw. I was getting frustrated with our lack of success and it showed when I used my cybernetic hoof to pull the drawer out. I didn’t realise how strong I pulled until the drawer broke free of the cabinet and smacked into my chest.

“Oof, whoops” I said looking down at the ripped out drawer.

“Are you ok?” Motor Runner asked as he looked to me.

“Yeah I’m fine, just pulled a bit too hard” I assured. He nodded and when back to looking in the dresser. I began to sift through the old documents that lay in the dividers. As I flicked through something red caught my eye in one of the dividers. I used my magic to lift it out and squealed in joy as I looked upon the red card key.

“I found it, I found it” I squealed like a filly.

Zyon walked over and looked at the card closely.

“Oxygen Recycling Security Door Key” She read out loud. “Finally, now we can leave this hell hole”

“Too right” I agreed.

We quickly turned around and left Sub Level 3. We climbed the stairs all the way up to Sub Level 1 again and found our way to the external door. I gave the card to Motor Runner as he accessed the computer and began to go through the things needed to get the terminal to accept the card. As he did this I accessed my broadcaster.

“What are you doing?” Zyon asked, damn that silky feminine voice sounds so sexy.

“Going to see if I can hail the Rangers, hopefully they are still alive”

She nodded in understanding.

I tuned the broadcaster to the emergency channel. Hopefully being in the Stable we might have a strong enough signal to reach them.

“This is Paladin Longshot of the Applejack Rangers calling Steel Ranger squad in caverns outside Stable 22, do you read?”

I listened to the static that followed. I frowned as I couldn’t hear anything. I hope they are still alive. Finally there was a burst of static which was followed by a strong male voice.

“Thank the goddesses, I read you Paladin Longshot, this is Star Paladin Rojas of the Steel Rangers. We nearly gave up hope anyone would come”

“What’s your situation?” I asked as I heard a hiss and the external door swung open.

“We are trapped in an alcove about a hundred feet from the tunnel leading to the external doors. I have lost three Rangers and I have one who is gravely injured, I don’t think she will last much longer. Me and my other three squad members are almost out of ammunition” There was a bang that echoed through the tunnels to the open door. “We are being held back by Giant Mantises. They aren’t as bad as the Spore Carriers but there is so many of them we can’t move”

“What the smeg is a Spore Carrier?” I asked as I turned to Zyon and Motor Runner.

“I think he means those grass pony things” Zyon suggested. Motor Runner nodded in agreement.

“Hold tight Star Paladin Rojas, help is on the way”

“Thank Celestia” He said before I turned the broadcaster off.

“Alright guys let’s move” I said as I brought my shotgun back out.

I lead the way and followed my EFS’s direction marker which directed me to our destination. As we neared the stricken Rangers we began to see lots of bullet cases and bodies of the biggest damn bugs I’ve ever seen before. I’ve seen huge bugs before but never have I seen bugs this fucking big. Those front legs look to have claws like razors.

We rounded a corner and we saw two dead headless giant mantises and a Steel Ranger who had been cut in half by the bugs.

“Dude that’s messed up” Zyon complained, her voice reaching a new high with her disgust.

I checked the body and found that the holotags were gone which told me that this Ranger’s teammates must have taken them.

“Let’s pick up the pace” I said and began to move at a quick trot.

We came to a fork in the tunnel and immediately had several large guns shoved in our faces.

Zyon let out a girly yelp which made her blush brightly at hearing her own scream. Its gonna take her a while to get used to her new self.

“Woah easy, I’m Paladin Longshot, these are my friends and we are here to help you” I said quickly.

The largest of the Rangers lowered his guns, two fuck off huge miniguns, and motioned with a forehoof to his Rangers to do the same.

“I am Star Paladin Rojas, I’m glad to see you” He said sounding relieved until CD fluttered out from behind us.

“Shit a Spritebot” One of the other Rangers yelled and raised his gun.

I quickly got in the line of fire. “He’s mine, he’s with me, he’s safe” I shouted.

“Put it down Trigger” Rojas said as he turned to the Ranger who had responded to CD.

There was a soft moan from behind Rojas and he quickly turned around and moved to a smaller Ranger who was laying against the wall of the tunnel with two large mantis forelegs sticking out of her side.

“It’s alright Diamond, helps arrived and we’re getting you out of here” Rojas assured.

“Star Paladin, may I talk to you for a second please” I asked with a sorry frown on my face when I saw the poor pink mare that looked extremely weak.

Star Paladin Rojas nodded, removed his helmet to reveal a white stallion with a golden mane and deep blue eyes but he had some nasty looking scars over his face showing that he was battle hardened and a veteran of plenty of conflicts. He let out a sigh as he walked up to me. I nodded to him as I walked around the corner with him.

“We can’t go the way we came” I regretfully informed him.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“The elevator that brought us down to the entrance is not an option anymore”

“What, what happened?” He asked sounding shocked.

“I suppose you heard of the Krogoth” I said looking at him with a dead serious face.

He replied with a nod.

“When we arrived here the machine wasn’t that far away. We were informed that it was coming towards us. We were halfway down the elevator when it tore through the house above the shaft and one of his hooves slammed into the cover hatch and it collapsed. One of the hatch doors fell in and took out the elevator but when the machine pulled its hoof free it caused a cave in so the shaft is blocked”

“Damn it, Diamond is going to die if we don’t get her out pf here now” He said sorrowfully.

“Can’t healing potions help, we have plenty” I said hoping to help.

He shook his head. “Those mantis legs are barbed, she’ll die before healing potions can take effect with the damage pulling those things out will do to her”

I looked down. “I’m sorry”

“STAR PALADIN” One of his Rangers screamed.

We rushed back to the group only to look in horror as the young pink mare seemed to deflate and lie still. Her chest stopped moving before her body had a little spasm before going still for good.

“NO, oh please Celestia no” Rojas cried. “Diamond NO!!”

I closed my eyes and let out a defeated sigh, we were too late to help one of them. We spent too much time in that stable and it cost the life of one of the ponies we came to help. “I’m sorry Rojas, I’m sorry it took us so long”

The large white stallion took a deep breath to recompose himself and reached up to the dead mare’s face and closed her lifeless eyes before he then took her holotags.

“Diamond Crust was a good soldier, she may have just passed her training last month but she proved herself down here today. Let’s remember her as the strong willed mare she was” He said in his strong voice. He then turned to the three remaining Rangers. “Ok Ranges listen up. Help has arrived, giving us more muscle but our way out has been blocked after their arrival so we need to find an alternative route”

He turned to a Ranger who had a twin rifle battlesaddle.

“Knight Golden Compass, didn’t you say these tunnels connect with an old silver mine?”

The addressed Ranger stepped forward. “Yes sir, the mine will take us to the surface but getting to the mine we will need to pass the Queen’s chamber”

“Queen’s Chamber?” Female Zyon asked.

“Down the tunnel behind you is a large chamber with a Mantis Queen in it, she’s dropping eggs by the ton and we keep getting small groups of mantises attacking us. We don’t have the ammunition to kill the Queen and fight off her mantises, that is why we held up here” Compass explained.

“Explosives?” I asked.

Star Paladin Rojas shook his head. “We lost our heavy weapons specialist to the Spore Carriers on Sub Level 4” He explained.

“Zyon, I think your last RAD-Grenade will come in useful and I think This Machine would work well too”

Rojas raised an eyebrow at the mention of my human made rifle.

I smiled as I used my magic to unstrap my unique AM Rifle off of my back and levitated it out before me.

“That’s a big ass rifle” Trigger commented as I pulled the bolt back and removed the 50cal mag before pushing in a fresh one with an orange band around it to mark it out as explosive.

“Me and Zyon will kill the Queen” I said boldly.

Rojas nodded with a smile. “Ok, everypony else, covering fire, lets give these two mares our hooves” He yelled. The three Rangers nodded and called out their affirmatives and readied their guns while Zyon groaned at being called a mare. I had to bite my lip to stifle a giggle.

We all got ready to move out. I approached Rojas.

“Sir, we found one of your Rangers on Sub Level 3, she still had her tags” I said and levitated out the holotags.

He took them with a grateful smile. “Thank you, we couldn’t risk retrieving them with all the Carriers that were there. Thank you for retrieving them”

“Your welcome sir” I smiled. “Now let’s get the hell out of here”

He nodded. “Let’s move out” He yelled.

Me and Zyon followed behind Rojas and his remaining Rangers with Motor Runner and CD walked ahead of us. We entered a huge chamber and there had to be dozens of mantises swarming around but what caught my eye was the mass in the middle. The mantis queen had to be like the size of a two story building with an egg sack that pulsated and rippled and was about the size of a warehouse.

“Holy shit” I cried out, not expecting that.

“Give’em hell Rangers” Rojas yelled and the chamber was flooded with the sound of gunfire from high speed automatic of the miniguns to the semi-automatic of the rifles. Motor Runner’s chainsaw revved and CD’s energy weapon started firing bolt after bolt in rapid succession. I crouched down and steadied This Machine as I took aim at the huge insect. I sighted up her head and fired. The monstrosity screeched out in pain as half its head exploded from the 50cal explosive shell I put into it.

The scream of pain from their queen attracted all of the fucking mantises. Dozens of them started to group in front of the queen in an attempt to protect her and started to move in on use. The Rangers and CD began to spray their fire in all directions there were bugs, taking down as many as they could. Zyon held the grenade ready but frowned as she stood on her hind legs.

“I won’t be able to throw the grenade close enough from here, I’m too far away” She whines.

“When I empty this mag into that bitch you throw the grenade, I’ll use my magic to carry it the rest of the way” I said keeping my aim.

“Alright”

I aimed at other areas of the mantic queen to cause as much damage as possible. It had moved its huge forelegs up to block its face from another shell so I had to take other targets. Each shot deafened me as the boom of the rifle filled the air along with the explosions and the shrieks of pain from the queen as gaping holes erupted in her exoskeleton.

“I’M OUT” Shouted one of the rangers as her weapons went dry.

Motor Runner stepped in front of the now defenceless Ranger and began to cut down mantises that got close. I decided to not bother with aimed shots as we were running out of time. I emptied the rest of the mag as quickly as I could pull the bolt back and push it back in. The mantis queen was heavily injured with all the gaping holes but she would survive if we didn’t finish her now.

“NOW ZYON, THROW IT” I yelled over the ringing in my ears.

The sexy female zony flung the grenade with all her might. At the height of its arc I reached out with my magic and carried it the rest of the way to the queen. I floated the grenade with speed as I didn’t know how long the fuse would last and shoved the grenade into on of the gaping wounds in her side thanks to my explosive rounds.

“Get ready to burn bitch” Zyon said with a smirk just as the grenade went off. The queen roared in agony as her entire body went up in flames.

I quickly put down This Machine and pulled out my shotgun again as the mantises got closer.

“I’M OUT” Shouted Star Paladin Rojas. That’s not good, two Rangers out of ammo and still dozens of mantises left.

Zyon quickly whipped out her sword and joined Motor Runner in cutting down the bugs as I unloaded shell after shell into the bugs. I looked to my right where Trigger was firing his rifles, well rifle, one of them had run dry. I saw a mantis rearing up and raised its large forelegs for a strike that Trigger had failed to see. I aimed at the mantis as it prepared to strike and pulled the trigger. Instead of my weapon firing I heard and empty click. Oh shit.

“TRIGGER” I screamed. The pony looked at me but then quickly looked to where I was looking and the mantis pounced before the Ranger could react the two forelegs of the bug pierced his armour through his chest.

“TRIGGER NO” I screamed as I ran to him while shoving in as many shells as I could before getting close to the bug. I shoved the shotgun into its face and blew its head off but again I was too late as Trigger fell dead against the floor with the two forelegs stuck in his chest.

I didn’t have time to berate myself as more bugs approached. I quickly reloaded and fired on them until finally all of the bugs were dead. One of the four Rangers dead and all of them had ran out of ammunition as the last one still firing ran dry when the last fell.

“I’m sorry Trigger” I said as I removed his helmet. He was a handsome young light brown stallion with a black mane. I sighed as I removed his tags and walked back over to Rojas as he discarded his miniguns. “I’m sorry sir”

“Its ok Longshot, he died doing his duty. You tried, that’s all I can ask” He said with a sad reassuring smile to me as he took the fallen Ranger’s tags.

We took a moment to mourn the loose of Trigger before we started to move again.

“Which way Compass?” Rojas asked.

“This way sir” She said leading the way. Motor Runner trotted close as protection as we began to head up a tunnel that soon opened up into a large supported tunnel. Wooden support beams and rails for mining carts filled the shaft and we began to follow it up.

It took us a good ten minutes of following the winding tunnel to the surface as well as dodging a mantis or two but finally the evening light began to filter in through a mesh door at the end of the tunnel.

“We made it” I said with relief as we approached the door.

I stepped forward and put my hoof on the door knob for the mesh gate and suddenly the entire tunnel shook violently from a heavy impact from outside.

“What the hell was that?” Rojas asked as he looked around as trails of dust fell from the tunnel ceiling.

I ripped the door open and stepped out. The tunnel continued on for a minute before opening up to the outside world. I looked out into the world as the Rangers and my friends came up behind me and then a giant metal hoof slammed into the floor just in front of the mine entrance.

“Holy shit get back” I yelled and helped to get everypony back into the tunnel.

“What the hell is that?”

“The Krogoth” I yelled with fear gripping my voice.

“What the hell is it still doing here?” Zyon asked.

“I dunno, it must have gotten curious from getting its hoof stuck in the elevator shaft”

“Damn, ok everypony, we’ll have to sit tight until it leaves”

I lifted my pipbuck and switched to the broadcaster.

“What are you doing?” Zyon asked with CD sitting on her head.

“I'm going to call Sky Fire and Wirblewind to let them know we are ok and that we found… most of the Rangers”

“You do that and that machine will know we are hear” Motor Runner said sitting down beside me.

“Shit”

“Send the droid” Compass said as she watched CD sitting on Zyon’s head.

“Huh, CD, no I’m not risking him to that thing, he’s my friend”

“Your friends with a machine” She paused. “You’re crazy, it’s a machine and it’s expendable”

I gritted my teeth as anger surged in my heart. “He’s my friend and I will not risk him” I repeated in a dark tone.

Compass was about to retort when Jogas stood up. “That’s enough Compass, stand down”

She looked to her commanding officer and shrunk down. “Yes sir”

The tunnel shuddered violently again as the Krogoth began to move again.

“Is it leaving?”

I looked out the mesh door and watched as the machine began to head away but then something else came into view. In the fading light of the evening I could just about see a forest and moving out in the distance I could see something else moving, something large. I levitated out This Machine again and peered down the scope to the other object I could see.

“What is it?” Rojas asked as he came up behind me.

“It’s a bloody hydra” I replied in surprise.

The Krogoth was heading towards it and the monster was approaching the machine.

“Oh this isn’t going to be pretty” I muttered seeing the machine arming its weapons.

“What’s going on?”

“The hydra is going to attack the Krogoth”

“Oh this is going to be good” Zyon grinned. I think she expected the hydra to win. I highly doubt it.

The Krogoth stopped and spread its large legs as two extremely loud booms roared out into the night. The blasts were enough to shake the ground.

“What the hell was that?”

“It just fired its two forty six centimetre artillery guns” I answered still watching. Two explosions erupted behind the monster and it just started to run towards the machine.

The Krogoth responded with the increased speed of the creature by firing two of its missiles. The missiles streaked in the air towards the monster. It seemed oblivious to the incoming threat until one of the missiles struck the ground just in front of it. The creature slammed on the breaks before tripping over its fat feet and tumbled down. All four of its heads slammed into the floor, narrowly missing the second missile which just flew over the monster and struck the ground behind it.

The monster looked to have knocked itself out as it seemed to not be moving. The Krogoth began to cautiously approach the monster until it was stood nearly on top of it. The machine looked down at the creature, examining it.

“What’s it doing?” Zyon asked as she watched using her binoculars.

“I don’t know, examining it maybe?”

Suddenly the monster threw its four heads up with amazing speed, striking the Krogoth in the chest and head causing the massive robot to stumble backwards in surprise as the hydra stood back up and roared with all four heads.

“Wow, that was unexpected”

“Yeah”

The Krogoth turned back to face the monster just in time to see it lunge for it. The machine must have engaged its synapse controls as it jumped back away from the monster with surprising agility and distanced itself from the monster. It spread its legs again and a bright blue light began to form in one of its railgun pontoons.

“Star Paladin Rojas, you might want to see this” I said as the light grew brighter.

“What’s going on?” He asked as he stood next to me.

“The Krogoth is using its ultimate weapon” I said as I lifted my rifle so he could peer down the scope at it. “The Advanced Magical Railgun”

Just as I finished a huge beam of energy shot forth from the pontoon and struck the hydra in the chest. Within seconds the bright blue beam of energy burned its way through the creature and shot out through its back. The beam stopped as the monster began to fall. It left a huge hole clear through the monster as it fell down dead.

“Dear sweet Luna” He muttered as I placed my rifle back into its harness.

I looked up at him with a serious expression as the machine began to walk towards the forest.

“We need all the help we can get to destroy that thing”

“We planned on joining the Applejack Rangers if we returned as the Steel Rangers that sent us to the Stable had sent us on a suicide mission; they expected us to die down there”

I nodded.

“You and your friends saved us back there. Helping you and the Applejack Rangers in taking that thing down is the least we can do”

I smiled and nodded respectfully. “Thank you sir, your help will be greatly appreciated”

We waited for at least half an hour to be sure the machine was gone as we saw it enter the forest.

“I think it’s gone now”

I nodded and lifted my pipbuck and accessed the broadcaster and tuned it to the frequency used for Wirblewind.

“Wirblewind, do you read?” I called.

“Paladin Longshot, hey…”

“Oh my gosh Appletart, where the FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN? I’ve been worried sick up here” I heard Sky Fire scream.

“Sorry Sky, the Krogoth happened”

“I fucking know that, I saw the damn thing destroy the house you went in. I thought it crushed you all until I saw that gaping hole”

“Listen Sky, we are at a mine entrance…” I paused to quickly look at my world map to see exactly where we were. “We are exactly a mile away from the facility due south, come and pick us up please, we have rescued the Rangers”

“You have? Excellent, we are on our way”

“We’ll be there in a couple of minutes” Wirblewind said before ending the transmission.

“Well Rangers, we all going home” I said with a smile.

“Thank you for everything Paladin Longshot” Rojas said with a grateful smile as the sound of wings beating began to reach our ears.

Minutes later the vertibuck landed and Sky Fire immediately ran to use and crashed into Zyon and gave her a bone crushing hug.

“Oh thank goodness you are alright” She screamed.

“I’m glad to see you too” She replied with a happy tone but Sky Fire then threw herself off the turned zony.

“Zyon, your voice, what, what happened?” She asked.

Zyon gingerly stepped into the moonlight and revealed her new feminine figure. Sky Fire stared dumbly at her.

I stepped forward. “We encountered some Killing Joke down there and it touched him and turned him into a mare”

Sky Fire hugged Zyon again just as tightly as before. “Oh Zyon” She said in a teary fashion.

“It’s still me Sky, I maybe a mare now but I’m still me inside”

Sky Fire looked into her deep blue eyes and nodded. “Yes you are, oh, I don’t care that you’re a mare now, your still the zony I fell in love with”

They both shared a teary smile before they met in a passionate kiss.

I smiled warmly at the scene; I noticed that Motor Runner was sat next to me and gently leaned against him. He looked down at me from the contact but smiled gently down at me and I returned the smile as I rested my head against his strong leg.

We stayed like that for a good few minutes, giving the two love birds a chance to enjoy the moment of their reunion before we boarded the vertibuck and begsn to fly back towards Trottingham and to Stable 24.