(Edited with corrections made, I urge readers who have already read this to read again as a scene I originally intended to have in this but forgot with the original submission has now been added)

Fallout Equestria
Broken Steel

Chapter 21: Walking Devastation

I look at myself in the mirror and no longer see the albino unicorn I used to be. What I see now is a battle hardened cyborg with scars littering my face and neck. I have changed a lot since that day sixteen years ago when I lost my family and everything I ever knew to the wasteland when Motor Runner’s raiders destroyed my home. I lost a lot of myself during my time in the Steel Rangers, loosing most of my sense of right and wrong to the greed that drove the Rangers to seek out pre-war technology no matter the cost to others. My eyes burn as I think back on my life, I look at myself in the mirror and see those blood red and green eyes with the purple flames emitting from my eyes. Another sign of how much I’ve changed…

I take a deep breath as I grit my teeth.

…And how much I’ve grown to HATE this world and everything in it. My eyes narrow as I feel the hatred rising in my heart. I hate how everyday is a struggle to survive. I hate how everypony out in the wastes are evil murdering and slaving twats. I hate how everything is dead and dying. I hated how the sky was always clouded over and mostly raining. I hate how most ponies take you for a ride, swindle you out of something you need or simply rob you when you’re not looking. I hate how I’ve had my peaceful life taken away to be thrown into this hell. Yes, I have so much hate in me, so much so I turn into this.

I learned about Dark Magic when I was a filly back in the Stable’s School room. I know why I take the dark shift. At first when I felt the change and saw myself with these eyes I was scared that I was turning into a monster. But as time went on I realised I wasn’t turning into a monster, I already was one. The things I’ve done to raiders when I’ve encountered them, those aren’t something a normal mare would do to anyone even her own worst enemy. When I did those things… I enjoyed it. I could be considered as no better than them for that. The one that sticks in my mind the most was when I was eighteen. I dreamt of that encounter a few months ago back in Tenpony. I remember how I fought a raider leader and beat him. Defeating him wasn’t enough, I had to destroy him, I broke his legs, left him in complete agony and then, I shoved a grenade in his mouth and pulled the pin out when I was at a safe distance and watched. I watched how his eyes fill with absolute fear. I revelled in that feeling, I smiled darkly as I focused on his eyes and then my smile widened as I watched his head explode in a shower of gore. Dark Magic has affected me, it made me a monster. But I am trying to change that thought, right?

I close my eyes and take several long deep calming breaths before opening my eyes again. I see my natural bright red eyes again and sigh with relief. I raise my right organic forehoof and gently rubbed at my cheek where three scars start. I was lucky the regeneration talisman that Zeta put in my leg fixed my eye but it left behind the claw marks that ripped it out with these scars that now run from my cheek up across my eye lids and to the top of my head. Oh, yea, another thing I HATE, those bloody little fuckers called Wretches. I’m glad my baby is just a week old as I’d scare the living daylights out of an innocent foal with how scarred I am now. Yeah, three deep scars on both sides of my face, three going across my eye on the right and on the left three more scars that stretch from my cheek up to my ear. I also have two sets of three scars on my neck where the little shits dug their clawed feet into my neck to hang on to me. I almost look like I had a bad date with a hellhound.

I have to do something about the darkness inside me. I have a child now and I can’t loose myself to the darkness when I get angry around her. I don’t want to hurt her and I really do not want to scare her, scaring her is the last thing I'd want to do. This world is bad enough without me scaring my child. I want her to have a good life. She is now the reason why I’m fighting to stop K-01 ACM KROGOTH. I can’t let her grow in a state of constant fear with that thing roaming free and destroying everything it considers a threat to Equestria. I also have to fight because I, along with Motor Runner, know more about it than anypony else in all of Equestria.

I sigh and raise my left leg. I groan seeing the steel appendage in the mirror and cringe at seeing how my flesh and metal leg have melded together at the join. Another reason why I see myself as a monster. I twist my leg and the panel hiding my pipbuck sinks into the metal limb and slides back to reveal the pipbuck screen as it rises to fill the gap. The screen flicks over to my status screen where I am able to see the time and day. It has been a week since our little excursion to Stable 22. It has been a week of us getting used to what’s happened and changed.

It has been difficult for Zyon to cope from the effects of the Killing Joke. I’m glad it didn’t do something really bad to him…her, ugh I’m still tripping up over that. I’m surprised I haven’t got a bruise all over my face with how many times I’ve facehooved this past week by forgetting that change. Zyon’s change has been pretty comical to some of us actually, including Sky Fire, as with her new marehood, something Zyon had no knowledge about with how it feels and everything, it’s been funny to watch her as she sits on something cold or something that would tickle her there. She would bolt up right with a screech and gasp as if a stallion just slapped her ass. That has happened as well by the way which was fucking awesome to watch as she beat the shit out of the offending knob. She has adjusted well thankfully after some getting used to. Sky Fire has been a real rock for her to as she’s helped Zyon to deal with all the new feelings and sensations she was getting from her female body. There are times I see that Zyon wishes to be a stallion again. I overheard a conversation when Zyon had broken down into tears; she’s more emotional now as well, which she had talked to Sky Fire about what they were to do for when they wanted a foal of their own. Zyon had said that she knew of a zebra potion that would give the drinker a penis but because of the magic involved with Killing Joke it meant that it wouldn’t work on her.

I have been spending more time with Motor Runner since our return. It was mainly because we were both needed to help with monitoring the Krogoth as it moved. I can’t deny it to myself anymore; I am in love with him. I can’t stop thinking about him when everything is peaceful and when I’m near or around him my stomach feels like it’s got a radroach in it scurrying around. I want to tell him how I feel but this is all new to me. Love has been something I’ve not dealt with before. You might think I’m crazy that I hadn’t fancied anyone from the Rangers while I lived with them but I didn’t. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before. Maybe after the Krogoth has been dealt with I can tell him how I feel, that way there won’t be anything for us to worry about, I hope.

My ear swivels to the door to my quarters as someone knocks on the steel.

“Yes?” I call as I turn around to face the door after a quick check to see if my eyes were normal still.

The door grinds open to reveal the pony that my heart has gone to.

“Good morning Appletart” He said with a soft smile.

I return the smile. “Morning Motor Runner” I replied with a goofy smile stretching my features.

“Intelligence has requested our presence; they said the Krogoth has stopped”

My smile fades and I put on a serious expression to mirror his as he said the name of the machine we are working to stop.

I nod in acknowledgement and get up. I stretch my three organic legs until they pop. Sitting still for a while really does your knees in, not to mention your backside. That reminds me of when we used to have class assemblies back in 88, sitting still for like fifteen minutes to half an hour always gave me pins and needles in my ass and hind legs that were so bad it brought tears to me eyes. After my stretch I begin to follow Motor Runner. My eyes drifting up to his rear as he walked ahead. While my eyes were fixed on his toned rump I failed to notice a support beam in my path and I walked straight into it mid stride. I cried out in surprise and pain as my chest takes the full impact of the steel beam while I slump to the floor. Damn that hurt, ugh, it always hurts ten times more when you’re not expecting it. Stupid sexy Motor Runner.

“Are you alright?” Motor Runner said as he extended his cybernetic hoof to me.

I reach up with my own and I grip his hoof with mine using the magnet. He smiles softly, making me blush as he helps me onto my hooves. I smile softly while still holding hooves. Oh Celestia my cheeks are on fire.

“You can let go now” He said, a blush of his own creeping through his dark purple fur.

“Oh, heh, um, sorry” I said with embarrassment and tried to pull me hoof away. Only to find out it wouldn’t budge. Again, my magnet decides to mess with me but this time I can’t feel mad or annoyed about it. I’m stuck to the pony I love. SQUEE!

Motor Runner sighs and shakes his head as he realises what’s happened. “After we see what Intelligence has for us I am going to see if I can do something about that magnet of yours” He said, his blush darkening a little more.

Everypony walking by began to look at us as we tried to pull our hooves apart. Oh Celestia this is so embarrassing. My face felt like it was on fire with how much I was now blushing with embarrassment; in fact I think my whole body is blushing. We stepped to the side to an alcove of a doorway to get out of the way of the other ponies as they walked by and to get out of sight.

“This magnet has been nothing but trouble” I groan with annoyance as I began to pull just as Motor Runner started to pull as well. Half the time sheer force seemed to work.

I began to feel a burning pain around the join of my leg, as if it was being pulled apart. I heard a grunt from Motor Runner which told me he too was feeling like his leg was being pulled from him. I was about to stop when all of a sudden both our legs did an involuntary jerk. My leg pulled me up while Motor Runner’s pull him down and we suddenly found our lips meeting as a result. Our eyes went wide with the situation we found ourselves in. I couldn’t believe what has just happened but quite frankly I couldn’t give a shit. I have dreamt of this moment let me tell you, and I couldn’t help myself as I closed me eyes. I leant forward, applying more pressure to his lips and tilted my head slightly as I pressed forward with the kiss. To my surprise and delight Motor Runner pressed forward too. I let out a soft moan as we began to kiss deeply. I parted my lips and gently licked my tongue against his lips. Motor Runner opened his mouth slightly to allow my tongue entrance but before I could he slipped his own out and gently slid it into my own mouth. I moan softly into the kiss as our tongues lick and wrap around each other. His tongue felt like silk and tasted strangely of plums, well he is purple after all, hehe oh Celestia I must be as red as a tomato right now. As we kiss I lift my left leg to hold the back of his head, holding him close. I could feel the passion coming from him as he kissed me. I have been kissed before but never have I felt a kiss this good, the way our lips press together, the way his tongue feels and tastes as well with how it explores my mouth and gently caresses around inside.

We must have been together like this for at least ten minutes before we finally pulled apart, both supporting blushes so bright the alcove was alight. As we pulled away I was smiling dumbly while he gave a genuine happy smile.

“That was wonderful” I coo softly as I took a step back and sat down.

He smiles warmly and gently raises his left leg and strokes my cheek with his hoof as he looks down to me. His eyes were filled with a fire I’ve only ever seen in old romance flicks and recently with Zyon and Sky Fire.

“Appletart, this past week, I’ve grown to like you more than just a friend” He said honestly, looking me straight in the eye.

If I could blush any brighter I would have. “Um, heh, err, you, um, you know I, um, have always been, um, in love with you right” I’m so dumb, I couldn’t think of anything better to say, my mind just blanked.

He smiled warmly and leant down and nuzzled my cheek. I let out a soft giggle and melt at his touch.

“HEY SLACKERS, WE’RE WAITING ON YA OVER IN SCIENCE ROOM 3, MOVE IT WILL YA!” Sky Fire screeched before she zoomed off again.

As she yelled me and Motor Runner bolted up right in surprise, shock and embarrassment from the interruption but at least we know how we feel now.

“Yes, we better go, we are late” Motor Runner said standing up and readjusting his suit.

“Hehe, yes, we should” I giggle softly as I stand up and only then did I realise that we were not stuck anymore. “Well, what do you know, we’re free” I giggle again as we began to walk together towards Science Room 3.

XXXXX

“There you are, where in tartarus have you been?” Zyon yelled. Her high pitched voice grated at my ears and making me cringe. Damn, her new voice really hurts your ears when she shouts, especially when it cracks.

“We, ugh, um, got distracted” I said blushing as we made our way to the command table. The table’s surface glowed as it displayed files and folders. These tables were often used during the war to command the war effort while showing maps and strategic data to the field commanders.

“They were snogging in a doorway” Sky Fire deadpanned clearly annoyed by our lateness.

I blushed brightly and sunk down as everyone looked at us. As I lowered myself behind the table I looked up to see Motor Runner just standing there as stoic as ever. I swear he barely ever reacts to anything said about him.

There was a cough from the other end of the table that caught our attention and I stood back up. Elder McNamare looked to each of the ponies in the room. Me, Motor Runner, Zyon, Sky Fire, her sister and several other ponies I didn’t recognise.

“Right, now that I have all of your attention, let’s get back to the situation at hoof” She turned her head to a scribe and nodded. The scribe pressed some buttons with her hooves on the table’s control panel and a holographic map appeared on the table’s screen. The map showed the area around Canterlot Mountain. The scribe groaned before smacking the table’s controls which then beeped and the map became three dimensional.

“Heh, if it don’t work, smack it, always works” Zyon giggled. The scribe just scowled at her.

“Alright everypony, the Krogoth has been standing there for the last half an hour” McNamare said as she pointed to the now 3D image of the Krogoth standing at the foot of the mountain, its head angled down, looking at the rubble of what was once the grand capital of Equestria. “We believe it has been examining the rubble of Canterlot since its head has periodically moved up to where the city once stood and back to the rubble, we can’t figure out why it’s doing this though”

Motor Runner leaned forward and narrowed his eyes slightly as if to be in deep thought.

“Hmm, wasn’t the headquarters for the Equestrian Military located within Canterlot?” He asked while watching the Krogoth angle its head to be looking at about half way up the mountain side.

“Yes it was, why?”

“I think the Krogoth might be seeing if there is any form of military command still in place. It was designed to fight in a war and it must recognise command figures to take orders from”

“If that’s the case, why did it refuse to follow you?” Zyon asked.

“I am not a registered military official so the machine could ignore me if it wanted to since it also has a mind of its own. If it didn’t have a mind in its Crusader then I most likely would have been able to control it”

“The machine is wasting its time then, there isn’t anyone alive today that could still give the machine orders from Equestria's military”

“There could be, some ponies were ghoulified but with the machines state of mind it might see them as a threat anyway”

“This thing is insane” A Scribe scoffed.

“Don’t we know it” I said under my breath.

“Um guys” Zyon said pointing at the hologram.

Our attention was pulled back to the hologram as the machine angled up its AMRs , easier to call them AMRs rather than Advanced Magical Railguns, so it was aiming at the midway point of the mountain.

“The hell is it doing?” I asked as four balls of energy began to form at the ends of the railguns.

Motor Runner’s eyes widened as he uttered two words. “Combination Beam”

“What?”

“It’s the attack it unleashed to escape the Hangar”

The four balls of energy merged to form two large balls at the end of the weapons as it then aimed the two AMRs so that the beams would cross.

“This has to be wrong” A scribe shrieked from a terminal on the opposite side of the room.

“What’s wrong Sound Mind?”

“These power readings we are getting from the SPP Tower we are using to get this transmission are saying that the machine is putting out more power than both the goddesses put together”

“Its true, the spark reactor that was fitted into that machine was one of those meant for a stable, the kind strong enough to power a small city”

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING DOING WITH ONE OF THOSE?” Shouted the scribe.

I answered that question. “Applejack wanted that thing to posses more power than anything so it could outgun anything that could rival it plus she didn’t know how much power it would actually need to function”

A siren rung out from the terminal. “SYSTEM ERROR” And with that the program monitoring the power reading failed.

A bright light brought our attention back to the hologram to see that the machine fired its railguns and the two large beams that were angled to cross had struck each other in front of the machine and began to build into a huge ball of energy.

“I bore witness to this; the level of power being released was so great that it began to interfere with my cybernetic leg despite its magical shielding” He sighed. “The result was a beam that burned through a megaspell blast door in seconds”

“Shit…” Several ponies said at once around the room.

There was then a bright flash from the hologram as a beam larger than the two feeding the ball short forth and struck the mountain side, boring a hole into the mountain.

“Holy shit”

The beam lasted for about a minute before it stopped and the machine visible slumped down to its fore knees. I suppose if it was a living breathing pony that action would suggest it lost a great deal of energy and became tired.

“That is a weakness, using such power drains the machine of a vast amount of its power leaving it vulnerable for a brief period of time” Motor Runner said as the machine then seemed to stop moving altogether.

“I can’t tell what power level it has right now since that stunt it pulled killed the sensor”

“Well, it put a hole in the mountain” Zyon pointed out. It certainly did, there was now a clear tunnel into the caverns inside the mountain.

XXXXX

The small diamond shaped device floated up the mountain until it hovered at the glowing molten rock entrance to the tunnel it had carved into the mountain. The light bee pulsed as a wireframe pony formed around it which then solidified to show the form of Short Circuit with a capital K on her forehead. The hologram’s hooves touched the floor and looked around, examining her hoofty work.

“There has to be something here I can use, otherwise I’m wasting my time” She spoke to herself and looked up into the dark tunnel. She closed her eyes as if in concentration and a pair of wings materialised on her back. They appeared first in wireframe before solidifying with a pulsing green light and then changed to show the feathers and changed colour until it matched that of her dark blue coat. Short Circuit-K looked back at her newly formed wings and flexed them. Once satisfied she looked back up the tunnel and pushed off with her hooves and started to fly up the tunnel at a fast pace.

The tunnel began to narrow as she flew deeper and deeper until she came to the end of the tunnel which at that point was so small it was barely large enough for her hologram to fit through. She flew through the hole and into a large carven filled with purple crystalline formations. Many of the crystals had been broken or cut back to make room as in several areas around the cavern were work stations with terminals, map boards, command tables and everything else for a military command outpost.

The cavern was dark but was dully illuminated by the crystals as the hologram looked around the cavern as she hovered. Her gaze stopped as she looked down towards the centre of the command post where a large round holographic command table stood, though dark as it was without power.

The hologram fluttered her wings as she descended down to the large round table until she soundlessly landed. Her electronic vision was picking up the skeletons of dead soldiers and other ponies that died in the command headquarters, each identification tag she saw confirmed what she had suspected. She looked at the console of the command table and placed her holographic hoof onto the panel before pushing her hoof into the device. There was an electronic groan as the old systems began to power up. The hologram flickered every so often as she channelled some of her energy into the command table to give it power. Before long the old piece of technology was back online, only just. While keeping her hoof in the device she extended herself into the circuitry and began to take over its core program, effectively taking it over.

The hologram swivelled her head around as an echo of a crystal crashing down onto the cavern floor alerted her to not being alone in the cavern. She looked down at the command table as its surface began to glow with a red light as she was close to having full access. “Stupid ponies and their encryptions” She groaned to herself in Short Circuit’s voice as she was growing impatient now that there was something else in here with her.

A high pitched shriek caught her attention and she turned her head in the direction the sound seemed to come from. Her eyes glowed slightly as she toggled into night vision to see into the darkness surrounding her but didn’t see anything. Another crystal clattered to the floor and she threw her head around to face the direction she heard it but again saw nothing. The hologram tilted her head slightly as she then added a sound detection system to her vision; however when she looked to where another crystal fell, her vision was awash with ripples as they pinpointed sources of sound. The echoes were being registered and blinding her.

She closed her eyes and shook her head as she removed the sound detection and cleared her vision. While her eyes were closed she was alerted that the encryptions had been removed and the system now belonged to her. She smiled as she was now able to do what she wanted but before she could access the information stored in the old system her hologram exploded when something smashed into her. The thing went straight through her ghost like body but it also caught the only physical thing that made up the hologram and sent it flying. The light bee clattered and bounced off the floor before it floated back up and reformed its hologram again.

“What hit me?” She asked herself as she scanned the area. Her gaze fell on something leathery as it struggled on the floor after its crash landing. Suddenly the creature shot up into the cavern with an ear splitting shriek. Before the creature went out of sight she was able to get a good look at it.

“Warning, mutated life form detected…” There was a pause as the machine’s automated systems scanned through its databases until it found a likely resemblance. “Vampire Bat mutation, designation, Bloodwing”

There was another loud shriek from behind the hologram. Expecting what was about to happen she moved her light bee to be inside her head and then the large mutant bat crashed through her body and painfully impacted the floor and caught itself on a large jagged crystal protruding from the floor. The Bloodwing screamed in pain as its left wing was torn from its leg all the way up to where its wing bone joins it body. The creature scrabbled up onto its small legs and the clawed portion of its long wings before it turned to look at its prey with glowing hungry red eyes.

Something inside the Krogoth’s mind caused the hologram to tremble slightly as she looked into those blood red eyes. This unknown feeling caused her to lock her legs as they trembled and the creature seemed to respond to this and jumped at her. She let out a squeak and at the last second jumped out of the way, her simulated breathing was hard and fast.

“What is wrong with me, why couldn’t I move until the last second and why do I feel like wanting to run from it?” She asked herself as she calmed down while the creature smashed its head against a crystal and slumped to the floor. She decided in the time she now had to examine herself, wanting to find out what the feeling was and why it affected her. She didn’t find a fault with her programming to cause the unusual sensation and she realised it was then tied into the mind she had acquired all those years ago. As she delved into the mind of Short Circuit she discovered that the mare had a paralysing fear of bats. “Her fear somehow got through my mental blocks, I must rethink the repulsion fields” she said to herself just as the mutation crashed through her again. The sudden appearance of the thing at her hooves made her jump and scream, again reacting to the fear gripping her.

Using her wings she quickly jumped away from the struggling creature and perched on a large crystal sticking up high into the cavern. “Enough of this” She groans in annoyance and closed her eyes as she materialised a unicorn horn onto her forehead.

The bloodwing climbed out of a pile of rocks it found itself buried in after it failed again to seize the pony it has been trying to devour. The creature was confused as to why it seemed to just pass through the pony even though it can see it and when it has been on target. The creature screamed with hungry anger as it turned around to find the pony but was unable to see it. It screeched as it looked around until a light alerted it to something high above.

The recovering reactor of the Krogoth was transmitting a portion of its energy to the hologram as it was charging up one of its default holographic self defence systems. A ball of energy was growing at the tip of the holographic horn as the power built up. The creature attempted to strike but found itself unable to fly with the tear in its left wing. It screeched loudly in annoyance.

“To the abyss of Tartarus you abomination of nature” The hologram shouted as she shot pink coloured lightening from her horn at the creature. Without its ability to fly the creature wasn’t fast enough to avoid the string of lightening. She watched as the arcing lines of the lightening spell travelled all over the struggling creature and she listened to how it screamed in its agony as its body started to burn.

The hologram burned the creature for several minutes as it slowly burned to death under the spell. Suddenly the hologram flickered and so did the spell.

“Warning, light bee overload… Warning light bee overload” Came an automated warning.

Too much energy was passing through the small device to power the spell. It wasn’t designed to use spells like that for long periods of time. The hologram continued its attack for another minute to be sure the mutation was dead but when it stopped its spell the light bee shut itself down and fell from the high crystal.

“Warning, system critical… Warning, system critical”

The small light bee continued to fall as its damaged systems began to recover. Being so small it reached its terminal velocity quickly.

“System rebooting”

It took several long moments for the light bee to regain enough functionality to restart its levitation system and managed to stop its fall as it came within inches of hitting the solid rock floor of the cavern. The sputtering magical device hovered for several more minutes while its recovering systems managed to piece themselves back together enough for it to reform its hologram which was now grainy and flickering periodically.

“System functionality at forty percent”

“Ugh, note to self, improve light bee power regulators”

The flickering hologram approached the command table again which was now sporting a deep gash into one side since the Bloodwing had crashed into it in one of its attempts at killing the Krogoth’s hologram. She scowled at the gash.

“That better not have damaged the memory drives”

She lifted a leg to take a step but suddenly sank into the floor as the light bee’s levitation function failed.

“I overtaxed the light bee” She groaned in annoyance as she diverted some of the light bee’s remaining functionality to its levitation system.

“Levitation now at fifty five percent”

“Better hold out”

She rolled her eyes as she stepped up to the table and pushed her hoof back into the console and reconnected herself with its system. Her eyes glowed green with text scrolling up in a constant data stream as she began to search its memory banks.

“Thirty percent corruption…”

She continued to search through the millions of files still intact on the memory banks. She was looking through all the data on all the ponies that were registered in the Equestrian Military and this included the Ministry Mares. She smiled as she found the personal data on Ministry Mare Applejack, her creator.

“Last known location… Confirmed to have entered Stable 2”

“Good, now…”

“Braytish Imperial city of Manechester… Location… Outside Equestrian border, five hundred miles north, northwest of current location”

“Target… Obelisk of Magic… Location… Manedale Centre at the top of the Manedale Tower”

She closed her eyes and when she opened them again she her eyes were normal again and she removed her hoof from the console now that she had acquired the information she sought. She was already sure of the location of the Obelisk as Motor Runner had told her about it but seeing it on the system was just confirmation. She turned around and began for the hole in the cavern to the tunnel her AMRs bore into the mountain.

“I will have to pay a visit to Stable 2 after I acquire the Obelisk, I’m sure my creator may have left something behind for me”

She devolved back into the light bee and zipped off as fast as her damaged systems would allow back to the awaiting behemoth of her mechanical body. When she left the mountain side she noticed a mob of young zebras poking at the giant metallic hooves of the Krogoth.

“Zebras, enemy of Equestria…”

She returned the light bee back to its docking station and regained functionality to its body. The loud groans emitting from its body caused the group of zebras to back off suddenly as the machine’s body shifted to focus on the zebras.

“Targets acquired”

The large gattling gun turned and aimed down as its many barrels started to spin at high speed.

XXXXX

We watched in horror as the machine cut down the group of young zebras. The machine didn’t care who its targets were. If they were a threat then it just took them out, not even foals are spared.

“Those poor young zebras” One of the scribes watching the hologram said as she put a hoof over her mouth in shock.

“That is one of the reasons why we need to kill that thing” I said while thinking of my own daughter.

“I agree” McNamare said as she shook her head in disapproval to what the machine had done.

The hologram of the large machine turned away from the mountain and began to move again.

“Now where’s it going?” Sky Fire asked.

Motor Runner lifted his cybernetic leg and a panel opened to reveal a screen. He tapped at it as he began to use whatever it was he had in his leg.

I looked down at the compass on the table as it rotated following the Krogoth’s direction. The machine rounded the mountain and started to walk in a straight line once it cleared the mountain.

“Its heading north, northwest” I said out loud.

Motor Runner looked up and set his leg back down. He had a worried look in his eyes as he watched the machine walk.

“What’s wrong?” I asked in concern.

“It’s heading for Manechester and it is going to acquire the Obelisk of Magic”

“Oh fuck” Zyon groaned.

“If it gets that then we will have no chance to defeat it”

“Um, excuse me but what is the Obelisk of Magic and how do you know that’s what its going to do?” McNamare said.

“Yeah, good question” I said looking back to Motor Runner.

“I have remote access to some of the monitoring equipment back in the Hangar, I just checked to see if any of them was still receiving telemetry from the Krogoth and it turns out that one of the terminals is still picking up data from it. It turns out the Krogoth has decided to do what I told it before its activation” He paused to take a breath before he continued. “The Obelisk of Magic is an experimental defence spire. It was developed by Twilight Sparkle and was designed to protect a city by creating powerful shield spells and to shoot down unfriendly missiles with a beam weapon programmed into it. The Obelisk is and artificial magic generator as it is full of all the known magical gems. It can be programmed with additional spells so for when the war ended it could continue to serve the city”

“Ok, that’s bad and what did you tell it?”

Motor Runner sighed. “I told it that it didn’t have any magical protection and that when it was finished I was going to take it to Manechester to acquire the Obelisk to remove that weakness by getting the Krogoth to assimilate it”

“Oh this is just brilliant” Zyon whined.

“We have no choice now but to attack the machine. We cannot permit it obtain the Obelisk” McNamare said while slamming a hoof on the table. She turned to Sound Mind. “Bring up the map of Manechester” She told the mare. Sound Mind nodded and began to press buttons on the command table’s console. The hologram of the Krogoth faded away until the table was showing folders and files. One folder opened to show map files and then one of them glowed before they all disappeared and the table flashed and the map of Manechester appeared.

“Braytish Imperial city of Manechester” was displayed at the top of the map.

“What’s the Braytish Empire?” Asked one of the scribes taking not of first two words in the title.

“The Braytish Empire was an ally to Equestria long before the war. The Braytish were originally Earth Ponies from the northern seas from a group of islands called the “Braytish Isles”. They were known for their ingenuity, especially their steam technology. Equestrians discovered Manechester being constructed close to their border and when Princess Celestia appeared before them she met with their royal family and later formed an alliance” I answered for the scribe.

“And how do you know all this?”

“Because I’m Braytish” I said matter-of-factly.

“Ah yes, Blueberry Muffin was Braytish” Motor Runner said.

“That’s right, she raised her kids in Stable 88 to be Braytish and it was passed down since”

“That’s a fascinating history lesson but can we get back to the matter at hoof please” McNamare said tapping the now 3D hologram of the city.

“Oh sorry”

“Ok, where is the Obelisk?”

“It is on top of the Manedale Centre, it’s the tower right in the very centre of the city” Zyon said pointing to the tower that stood higher than the rest.

Sound Mind pressed a button that made the tower glow.

“Hmm, how long before the Krogoth reaches the city?” I asked while looking at the streets leading up to the tower.

“Hmm, at its present speed and course it should arrive at the city in the next three days”

“That will not be enough time to gathered everypony for an assault on the machine. We have at best fifty ponies available right now that can prepare for an attack and move out within time to intercept the machine before it reaches the city” McNamare said dejectedly.

“We could still do it with that many” I said as I leant on the table to look over some of the buildings and into the streets.

“You have a plan?”

“I’m making this up as I go along” I said honestly as I noticed a very narrow street between a bunch of tall office blocks. “Hmm, Motor Runner, can the machine fit in Oldham Street?”

Motor Runner followed my gaze to the street. “Hmm, it could but the street is too narrow for the machine to be able to turn around”

I looked at the buildings on either side and then smiled. “I have an idea”

“We’re all ears” McNamare said showing interest.

“We can’t win with firepower alone, but we can with using our brains. These buildings are tall…” I began while pointing to the buildings in question. “…and must weigh several thousands of tonnes each. We rig these two buildings here to explode and collapse as the machine is about to pass. The rubble from the collapsing buildings will fill the street as well as bury the Krogoth and should trap it”

“Huh, that’s a good idea” Zyon said.

“With it trapped we could then find our way inside and trigger its reactor to overload and then we scarper”

“How would we get the Krogoth to go into that street, it’s away from where it’ll arrive” Sky Fire asked.

“The machine will attack anything that threatens it. If we place ponies at the right positions in the city we can draw its attention. The Krogoth will follow what attacks it until it’s destroyed. One pony attacks the machine then runs and hides, when it gets to the spot we need it to turn another pony strikes and hides; we repeat this until we get the machine to where we want it”

“What about its EFS, it’ll see where they go”

“It won’t” Zyon said with a grin. “Me and Apple brought a signal jammer back when we visited Zeta, it’s been calibrated to block EFS signals. It will have to rely on sight and sound to track them. Yes, this could work”

“Indeed, we can arrive at the city before it does and get into position and be ready for its arrival, lure it to the street then blow the buildings and trap it in the rubble. Good idea Appletart”

“Thank you ma’am”

“It’ll take us around a day to gather all the ponies we have available and to prep the transports that our pegasus members brought with them. We could be at the city a full day before it arrives, that’ll give us plenty of time to get ready” McNamare said.

“Wait, if the jammer blocks EFS signals, how are we gonna escape the city before the machine blows and takes everything with it?” Sky Fire asked in concern.

“After its been lured into the trap the ponies not needed to keep it distracted, since it won’t let us get inside without a fight, can head back to the transports and once we get inside the ponies distracting it can also retreat”

“And what about us?” Zyon asked.

“Wirblewind can fly us out; he is a very fast and skilled flyer”

“HEY!” Sky Fire cried out.

“No offence to you… Rainbow Dash” He joked which made Zyon giggle and Sky Fire blush because of her outburst. “You maybe her clone but are far from having her skill yet, but I’m sure you can”

“Ok everypony, we have a basic idea as to what we can do, let’s plan this out in more detail and then we can put our plan into action”

The door opened and a Ranger we recognised as Star Paladin Rojas entered. “Sorry for the interruption ma’am but Alpha Squad has failed to check in and it’s been four hours since they were scheduled to return”

McNamare frowned. “Where was Alpha Squad dispatched to?”

Rojas sighed. “They were sent to the MAS chemical disposal plant in southern Trottingham”

“That’s only down the road” I said looking shocked.

“Before Alpha Squad went silent they had said they had discovered unusual amounts of traps in the area, tripwires, bear traps and the like. I fear they have fallen to a trap in the plant”

“Alright, Paladin Longshot I want you and your friends to go and retrieve them” McNamare ordered.

“Yes ma’am” I said getting up and turning for the door while motioning for my friends to follow.

“Hey, what about this?” Zyon exclaimed. “We don’t have the time”

“It’s only an hour down the road” I said with a sigh. “We won’t be too long”

“Upon arrival you have three hours to find Alpha Squad, once time is up, return to base with or without them or their holotags, clear”

“Yes ma’am”

Zyon sighed and stood up but was stopped by the Elder. “Not you Zyon, I need you to assist our demolition ponies in making charges to blow the buildings”

A grin spread on her face at that. “Ohh, I can do that”

I nodded with a giggle seeing her expression before I turned to Motor Runner and Sky Fire who had by now stepped up behind me. “Ok, we don’t have time to loose, lets go”

They nodded and we left Science Room 3 to get ready for our little excursion.

XXXXX

The Chemical Plant was a large complex. It would take more than three hours to search the whole building. The double doors to the reception of the building were wide open and the look of the doors told me that they had been blown in. They were bent and mangled where they would meet in the middle and one of them was hanging on one hinge. On the floor in front of the door was the remains of a tripwire which had been triggered.

“I’m gonna take a guess that Alpha trigged that” I said as we began to enter the old complex.

“Trip wire trap rigged to a grenade bouquet by the looks of things” Motor Runner said as he looked at the top of the door frame. I followed his gaze to see some string hanging from the lintel before stepping into the reception.

CD fluttered ahead of us and started to head for the door in front of us.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I called to him making him stop and turn around. He beeped several times in alternating tones. “No you stay with us” He seemed to wilt and fluttered back to me.

Sky Fire trotted up beside me, she was now wearing her sister’s cut down power armour with her Shadowbolt suit underneath but with the hood and mask sections removed. The power armour was repainted to match the colour and patterns of her flight suit. “How’s your armour fit?” I asked as we began to walk down a corridor.

“It’s a little stiff and hard to move but I suppose it’s my lack of using power armour, I haven’t worn a suit since…” She trailed off as she remembered when she last wore a set of armour. I nodded in acknowledgement as I knew what happened to her that day. She shook her head to rid herself of those bad memories. “Heh, its nothing I can’t grow into”

The corridor was wide and long. It looked like this corridor had a lot of traffic back in its day considering its width and that it led straight to one of the several storage warehouses. Suddenly a bright flash lit up the corridor from the shattered skylight above us and that was immediately followed by a loud thunderous boom which made me shriek in fright and Sky Fire shoot off the floor in fright as well.

“That scared the living daylights out of me” I cried out as the thunder passed. CD was bobbing up and down while beeping quietly which for some reason came off to me that he was laughing. He is definitely not a normal machine, I machine wouldn’t show such a personality but I suppose that’s one of the reasons I like him so much.

I looked up just as the rain started but I simply stared at the rolling clouds up above. Something about them seemed off.

“What’s wrong” Motor Runner asked as he stepped up beside me.

“Since when are storm clouds orange?” I asked in confusion.

“Orange?” He repeated as he looked up.

Sky Fire looked up too. “Well that’s new”

More flashes and thunder roared in the sky as yellow lightening arced to the ground. The thunder sounded more terrifying than any thunder I’ve ever hear before. It sounded like thunder mixed with a hydra roar but not only that but each time there is lightening it is followed by a dull thump in the distance that sounds like an explosion of sorts. The way the orange clouds were swirling told me the wind was pushing the storm over us. It’ll be fully upon us soon.

“I don’t think we’ll have three hours to find Alpha before that storm is on us” I said in concern.

My two friends and robot nodded and we continued on our way.

The corridor was beginning to get slippery with all the grime on the floor getting wet from the rain coming in through the skylight. I decided to not wear full leg armour today considering the summer temperatures were starting to make wearing the full suit really uncomfortable. This was no better feeling all the slimy gunk on my hooves. As we neared the doors to the first warehouse my hind hooves stepped into a rather thick mound of the gunk and both my hind hooves went from under me on the tiled floor. With a yelp I went straight on my ass with a loud thud. “Ow”

Sky Fire snorted loudly before she burst out into laughter. Yep, she has RD’s sense of humour.

Motor Runner extended his cybernetic hoof to me. “Are you alright?” He asked softly. I smiled and blushed softly as I took his hoof with my own cybernetic one and he helped me back onto my hooves.

“Yes, I’m ok, thank you” I said with a smile while my cheeks burned with a blush. However the moment was ruined when another terrifyingly loud boom of thunder tore through the complex and scaring us half to death. The corridor was starting to take on an orangey hue from the clouds moving over the complex.

We got out of the rain as the skylight ended to solid ceiling as we neared the doors. I shook myself dry which got some moans from Sky Fire who got some of the water from my mane flicked onto her. “Hehe, sorry”

She got me back though as she shook herself too. Her wings flared and sent even more droplets raining down all around. Motor Runner sighed as his suit got more wet. Me and Sky Fire shared a friendly laugh as we came to the double doors leading into the warehouse. I pushed open the doors with my magic and me and Sky Fire stepped in first but as we did a small canister dropped to the floor between us.

“What’s this?” I asked leaning down to get a better look at it. Over the rain a ticking sound could be heard and I realised that it was a timed explosive. Before I could react to it Motor Runner jumped in between us and quickly shoved us both out of the warehouse and shut the doors which also sent CD to the floor as one of the doors slammed into his face.

“MOTOR RUNNER!” I screamed as I got back to my hooves before a bright flash and a roaring sound emitted from the cracks in the door followed by tremendous wave of heat and flame.

Motor Runner must have realised before us that the canister was an incendiary device of sorts and sacrificed himself for us. In that moment I felt like my entire life had just fallen apart. My mind filled with images of the stallion I fell for burning to death on the other side of the doors. I didn’t know what to do as I stared at the doors in disbelief but, where’s the screaming of agonising pain?

My answer came when the doors opened and standing beyond the threshold was a tall gleaming metal pony. It stood like a statue of metal without a mane or tail. The surface of the metal seemed to shimmer like it was liquid. The statue’s eyes opened to reveal the deep purple eyes I know so well.

“Motor Runner?” I asked in utter disbelief as he was standing right there. “How?”

“Star Metal Hide, turns out I’m fire proof… to a degree” He said looking at his gleaming metal body.

“To a degree, you look like a fucking metal statue?” Sky cried out.

“The metal skin stops me from burning to death at the cost of my organic skin, fur and hair but like any other living creature, prolonged exposure to the heat will affect me and will eventually kill me if I don’t escape the heat in time” He explained as a dull pink glow enveloped his body and slowly the gleaming metal began to fade as a layer of skin began to regrow.

“Well, at least your regeneration talisman can give you back your flesh”

After calming down from the shock at seeing that he was still alive and when his skin and fur regrew I was quick to jump at him, rearing up to stand on my hind legs as I wrapped my forelegs around his neck and hugged him tightly.

“Don’t scare me like that again” I almost cried.

He raised his organic foreleg and squeezed me gently with it as he returned the hug. “I’m sorry but there wasn’t time to think of anything else to do to save you two”

CD let out an annoyed beep as he felt he was being left out.

I let Motor Runner go after a minute and blushed softly. Motor Runner smiled softly at me before his smile turned into a scowl as he turned back towards the open doors.

“Are you ok?” I asked feeling concerned from the scowl he shown.

“I’m fine, but my suit was destroyed”

“Big deal it’s just a suit” Sky Fire said as if it was nothing.

“Just a suit?” He repeated before turning to look at Sky Fire with for the first time I’ve seen, a really angry expression but what made it sound worse was that his voice was still calm. “That suit Miss Fire was a part of me, a part of my image, an image I’ve held for thirty years. Now tell me, how would you feel if a part of you was destroyed” He said narrowing his eyes slightly. He knew Sky Fire has suffered the same thing when her original body was destroyed but that’s a bit harsh.

Sky Fire looked down and away from him as shame fell over her features. “I’m sorry” She whispered. He snorted in frustration before turning around and headed into the warehouse. I approached Sky Fire and gently stroked her shoulder with a hoof in support.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I should have known better, that wasn’t like me at all” She said before frowning. “I’m turning more into her everyday”

There was a loud boom of thunder that quickly got us motoring after our tall friend. Damn that storm is getting worse. We caught up to the angry stallion as he was looking over the large storage vats that filled the warehouse. The whole of this warehouse was filled with these vats and some were even leaking the rainbow liquid in thick oozing rivulets that made my RAD counter click like crazy.

“We better hurry this along” I said and headed for the double doors at the other end of the warehouse before stopping and looking around. My EFS was now starting to blur and go fuzzy from some sort of magical interference. Wait, no, not just my EFS, I could feel a strong energy in the air and it was making my horn hurt.

“My EFS is useless, too much interference” I moaned in discomfort.

“Are you ok?” Sky Fire asked.

“I’m feeling a strong energy” I groaned as it felt like it was getting stronger and as it grew the more it felt familiar, wait, I’ve felt this before… “This isn’t good”

“What is it Appletart?”

“I think that storm, ugh, it’s made up of the energy from the Kodiak” I groaned as the pain in my horn was starting to give me a headache.

“That alien ship was being powered by magic?” Motor Runner asked as he looked up to the ceiling.

“I don’t know but the energy in that storm is the same” I groaned.

“What was it?”

“Ugh, um, I think the ship’s computer called the things making it, Ion Ractors, whatever those are”

“So when it exploded it released all that energy into the atmosphere?”

“I dunno, maybe”

“So we have an Ion Storm above us, this could be bad”

Suddenly there was a thud behind us and as we turned around to see what had made the noise we found that CD had fallen to the floor and he was not moving.

“CD!” I cried as I ran to him. I gently poked him with my hoof but he didn’t respond. I examined him for a minute and found that he was powered down. Why would he turn himself off in midair? I suppose my answer came when my EFS shut itself down. I think the storm is doing all this.

“The storm is affecting magical devices, my EFS has just shut itself down and I suspect the same for CD”

“Then it’s only a matter of time before our cybernetics and your armour suffer from it” Motor Runner said while he examined his leg.

I nodded in agreement as I remembered what happened to my armour after being caught in the explosion of the Kodiak. I had woken up to find both my pipbuck and armour had died from the energy blast.

The warehouse shuddered violently before a loud explosion rung through the building and then the sounds of falling debris filled the air. Looking up we could see smoke and fire along with the falling segments of the roof.

“Oh shit”

We quickly ran for the doors. Sky Fire took to the air and grabbed CD as we fled. Motor Runner turned his head to the side as he barged into the doors with great force, sending one of them completely off its hinges as we all ran into the corridor. Only seconds after escaping the warehouse did the rubble slam into the floor, kicking up a dust cloud that almost blinded us as it blasted down the hall. We could hear muffled explosions all around us. It sounded like the whole area was being bombarded. This Ion Storm has explosive lightening, that’s like the worst storm ever.

“He’s still not waking up” Sky Fire said shaking the sprite-bot.

“I don’t think he’ll come back online until the storm has passed” I said looking at my little friend worriedly. “Stick him on my back, I’ll carry him until we are out of here” I felt a weight on my back as she placed him on my back. I began to channel my magic into my horn to use my telekinesis but suddenly I felt a sharp pain run down my horn and through my head as if I was struck by lightening and my horn was the lightening rod. I cried out in pain and quickly placed my organic hoof to my forehead when I stopped my magic channelling.

“Apple, what’s wrong?” Motor Runner asked with concern creeping into his voice.

“Argh fuck, ugh that hurt, hmm, ohhh I think this storm is blocking my magic” I groaned while rubbing my forehead.

“Well, let’s hope this storm passes soon”

I nod as we began to move again.

XXXXX

Stable 24 was a hive of activity as ponies went about their jobs to ensure the plan to trap the Krogoth was being set into motion. Two of the science rooms were full of ponies working tirelessly to prepare the many charges needed for the two office buildings that would be demolished as the trap for the Krogoth.

Elder McNamare walked along the aisles of the tables as her ponies worked to make the chargers. She stopped as she came to the newly feminised zony as she worked with some ingredients, grinding them up into a bowl to make what looked like a sludge. She watched as Zyon dipped her hoof into the sludge and lifted it back up to her face to examine the substance. She sniffed it before touching it with the tip her tongue and cringed.

“Ugh, fuck that’s nasty” She groaned before flicking her hoof and sending the small drop of sludge from her hoof and flinging it to the floor several feet away from her. The sludge impacted with the ground and blew up but the explosion was only small, like that of a Hearth’s Warming Eve cracker but the unexpected bang right behind a scribe caused the unsuspecting pony to scream and jump up and cling to the ceiling in fright like a scared cat. Zyon snorted before she started to laugh uncontrollably. McNamare smiled seeing the spectacle as the unicorn who was frightened out of her skin levitated herself back to the floor scowling at Zyon.

“Damn it Zyon that’s the third time in half an hour” She growled.

“Haha, never gets old” She laughed before calming down.

McNamare turned around to find Rojas approaching. “Ah, Star Paladin, how may I help you?”

“There has been a development with K-01” He said stepping aside so his elder could pass.

“What’s happened?” She asked as she made her way to Science Room 3 where the command table was still monitoring the giant machine.

“It has changed its course and is heading towards a small town” He said as they stepped up to the table. The hologram on the table’s surface still showing the machine now showed it approaching the town in question.

“Celestia and Luna, help those ponies”

XXXXX

The town of Thornton in northern Equestria was just a small town out in the middle of nowhere. The town was only home to around a hundred ponies that were living day to day peacefully. Being so north and away from most other settlements the ponies had been able to get by with little trouble. The town found itself in an area that was luckily barely contaminated so they were able to grow crops that have sustained the ponies living there for many years since its founding. They had been also fortunate to not have been attacked very often by raiders and other things which have made the town seem pretty peaceful. That peace was shattered this day when the ground began to shudder periodically.

“Hey mayor, what’s going on?” Town’s ponies began to ask as they left their homes and began to converge on the town’s centre and town hall.

“Please remain calm everypony, I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation for what going on” A rather plump mare said standing behind a alter to address the crowd.

A pony dressed in an old Solar Guard uniform ran up to the group of ponies looking very worried. “Mayor, something big is approaching the town” He yelled while pointing a hoof down the road he came from. Everypony turned to look down the road; the long road was a direct line from the edge of town to the centre and out the other side. In the distance a large shape could be seen approaching the town.

Some of the town guard quickly grabbed their weapons and gathered to the entrance of town where the large machine was approaching. They couldn’t believe their eyes as the machine grew closer. The giant mechanoid stood taller than the town hall which was a five story tall building and it also appeared to be armed with some of the biggest weapons these ponies have ever seen before.

One of the guard ponies raised their rifle in fear of the imposing machine.

“Hold your fire” Commanded the guard in charge of the squad.

Before long the giant machine was standing mere feet from the town. Its head angled down to look at the line of guards blocking the street. Many of the guards were shaking in their armour and several of them had their guns aimed at the machine’s head.

“Krogoth?” The lead guard said to himself seeing its name printed on the sides of its head.

The Krogoth’s eyes scanned over each of the guards. It couldn’t identify any of them being bad enough to be considered a threat but there were more ponies in the town and the machine was going to determine if they were threats or not. It raised its head from the guards to regard the town but as it did its huge gattling gun was seen by the guards and one of the guards who was shaking so violently accidently pulled the trigger of his gun. He shrieked as he gun fired and shortly afterwards an audible ding was heard as the bullet struck the armour of the Krogoth. The huge head of the machine quickly shot back down to look at the pony who had fired and its gattling gun began to spin.

“Oh shit, open fire!” The lead guard screamed.

“Warning, multiple threats detected” An automated warning sounded in the Krogoth’s crusader chamber.

The guards were quickly dispatched by the high calibre rounds firing from the gattling gun. The rounds that missed the guards as it fired across them made large craters in the ruined tarmac. Screams and yells of terror rang out throughout the town as ponies began to panic and run for their lives. The rest of the town’s guards and any of the town’s ponies brave enough to stand against any threats to their peaceful town and their ponies grabbed their weapons and ran out into the streets to defend their home even as the massive machine began to trudge up the road.

“What the hell is that thing?”

”Oh my goddesses we are going to die”

“Oh Luna help us”

“Take cover and fire at will”

”Fire fire!”

Many voices rose up from the screaming crowds as they ran towards the town hall and into the town while the ponies willing to fight did what they could against the machine. The Krogoth’s eyes ran over the many ponies now becoming hostile targets. In less then five minutes one threat developed into becoming just over half of the town now raising their guns and firing on the giant machine as it destroyed the road under its hooves as it walked ahead.

Screams of pain were drowned out by the roar of the gattling gun now firing its highest calibre, 60cal. The huge powerful rounds blew away anything in its path. Huge chunks of ponies were obliterated and tore away from their bodies while pieces of cover, concrete, steel, wood, anything the guards or brave town’s ponies found for cover was destroyed.

As the machine stomped further up the road towards the town centre more ponies started to move through the streets to flank the machine to attack it form its sides. Detecting the threats moving in from its flanks the machine’s disc-grenade launcher began to quickly turn to fire its grenades in the directions of the threats. The machine aimed its missile pods up to fire a couple of missiles into the air to arc down to strike ground deeper into the town.

The last of the guards and willing to fight town’s ponies were gathered around the mass of civilians now quaking in their hooves as the machine approached. The Krogoth began firing into the crowd when the ponies with guns opened fire. The mayor, still standing behind the alter crouched down, hugging her legs to herself as she shivered in fear and cried as the bullets of the massive war machine tore through the crowd. The ground in front of the town hall became an ocean of blood as most of the town lay dead before the town hall, the place they hoped to be their sanctuary. The mayor whimpered and cried as the thuds of the Krogoth’s hooves grew closer until the thuds were replaced with wet squelching as it walked over the dead. The mayor dared to look up and saw its huge hoof dripping with blood move over the plump mare before slamming into the town hall. She watched as it huge hooves broke through the old building as it continued on. She watched as its weapons continued to fire and kill the remaining ponies as it continued through the town.

The town grew quiet as the machine left its area. The mayor shakily stood on her hooves and surveyed the damage. Most of the town and its population had been destroyed by the machine’s relentless attack. The once peaceful town became a graveyard. As silence filled the air, the moans and cries of pain from ponies who survived the attack began to crawl into the air, adding to the effect of pain and misery that had been inflicted. The fat mare turned back to the town hall that now only had its two end walls standing. She could see the machine in the distance walking away. Her eyes widened when she noticed smoke trails coming from the machine as she realised it wasn’t over.

The moans and cries of pain were soon drowned out by the whistle of missile flying through the sky heading for the town once again. The mayor resumed her foetal position by the alter and started to shiver in her dread as the missiles began to rain down onto the town. The explosions consumed the town. Every last living thing and structure were obliterated as the missiles struck ground in places to maximize the damage to ensure its targets were defeated. Miraculously the mayor survived, her position in the very centre of town was outside of lethal range of where the missiles struck, she dared not move for a long while in case the machine would come back for her. Several hours after the strikes she finally stood back up and observed the devastation around her. What greeted her was what could be described as the bowls of hell itself.

The Krogoth satisfied that the town that became a threat had been neutralised and resumed its journey to the Braytish city. It was disappointed really, the town at first shown to not pose a significant threat to itself or Equestria but then one guard foolishly takes a shot and then they all joined in. The giant machine shook its head in annoyance, because of that one guard’s foolish action the entire town then became a threat and had to be dealt with. Somewhere deep in its mind a dark blue mare was shouting how wrong the Krogoth was in what it did and that the guard wasn’t to blame but it ignored it.

XXXXX

An hour and a fucking half, that is how long I have been immobile for. That stupid fucking Ion Storm got so damn bad that it finally caused my armour to lock up and it gave me such a migraine that any simple movement sent thunderous pain down my spine and right through my skull. Whatever magical properties that energy had was very crippling to unicorns and magically powered devices like CD and my armour. Sky Fire's power armour didn't suffer much from the storm's effects since its pegasi power armour, that armour is heavily shielded from storms and also it was a cut down version. But at least now it has moved far enough away from the plant that I can move without feeling like I’m getting a taser to the face and now that I can move my body. Normally a matrix crash would require a few hours to restore but the storm’s effects seemed to only suppress it so once its influence faded my armour’s functionality returned.

In the time I was unable to move my friends continued the search for Alpha Squad. They searched warehouses two to five as well as the office block which I had to stop in while the storm prevented me from moving. They unfortunately didn’t find any traces of them apart from triggered traps and broken segments of power armour towards warehouse six, which is where we are now heading.

“How are you feeling?” Sky Fire asked as we approached the open doors to Warehouse Six.

“Better now that bloody storm has moved on” I moaned while I rubbed my forehead under my horn with my right forehoof.

CD beeped in confirmation but the storm was still close enough to keep him grounded with its interference.

Who would have thought aliens would be such a pain in the rump with the shit they come with. This has been the third time now that the alien ship had nearly killed me. First the explosion, second nearly being cooked to death as its forward section burned and just earlier with nearly being squashed by debris made to fall from the storms lightening. I’m having a bad day.

We stepped into the largest warehouse so far in this complex. This warehouse like the rest were stacked high with vats of chemicals and like in the other warehouses some of them were leaking their rainbow liquid. The ceiling was gone, looks like the whole roof had collapsed years ago which has let a lot of rain water in creating a small lake in the centre of the warehouse and the water swirled with the rainbow of taint.

“This room is hot” I said as my geiger counter started to tick like mad.

“It’s all the taint; this warehouse is leaking the shit more than the others”

“We can’t stay here too long”

“Yeah I-“ Sky Fire was cut off as an empty barrel was smashed from across the room and sent flying over our heads and hit the wall behind us next to the door. We all looked to where the barrel had come from and I just couldn’t make out what I was seeing. A huge mass of bulging flesh was pulsating and quivering on the far side of the room beside a vat of chemicals.

“In all that is holy, what the bloody hell is that?” I cried.

The mass seemed to react to my works and a huge swollen leg covered in blisters, I think, moved out from its side to grip the floor and push its bulk to turn so it could face us. The thing was grotesque; it was like a sponge left in water too long. There were patches of what looked like pink hair or fur all over its body and, oh dear sweet Celestia it was a pony. It has moved now so we could see it head on. We could see a pony head stuffed into the mass of flesh and boils and blisters, barely poking out from its bulging mass of what were either its shoulders or neck. Its right foreleg came into view and it was a lot smaller than its left and it was still encased in power armour but it looked like a fat pony tried to put on an outfit several sizes too small as between the joins in its armour the grotesque bulging and swollen flesh was poking out and straining the armour. That explains the bloodied shards we saw before entering the warehouse.

“Oh goddesses, that was a member of Alpha Squad” I cried while cringing as the blob like pony mutation tried to hobble towards us.

“What the hell happened to that pony?” Sky Fire cried out in disgust to what happened.

“Taint, it affects ponies in different ways, if your lucky it won’t affect you much but if you’re not lucky…” Motor Runner began.

“You end up like that” I finished while backing up slightly.

He nodded as he unsheathed his chainsaw.

”Help me” The monstrosity gurgled in a vaguely female voice. It was the most disturbing sound I ever heard. It was almost like a mare with a cold and a sore throat trying to give a sports report.

“We gotta help it… her… whatever” Sky Fire said flapping her wings to get into the air and raised her hoof mounted laser cannons.

“Only way to help her is to kill her” Motor Runner reasoned as he revved his chainsaw.

I felt useless here; the fading storm was still giving off enough interference to make my head feel like that ball being hammered around in a pinball machine whenever I tried to use my magic.

“Help me” The monster repeated as it pulled itself towards us a little more. Its body quivering as it jiggled and quaked. Oh that’s just gross. Suddenly its back began to bulged and spasm.

“Now what?”

It’s back exploded as two tentacles with snapping jaws burst from its back.

“Holy fucking shit!” Sky Fire shrieked as she flew to the side to avoid being splattered by blood that was flung from the creatures back when it burst.

I suddenly remembered the grappling claw in my foreleg and lifted it. I concentrated on just one of the sharp claws to come out and I was rewarded with the sound of grating metal as one of the sharp pieces of metal extended out.

“Help me” The creature gurgled as its newly formed tentacles curled down and shot out towards me and Motor Runner. I eeped and jumped to my left to avoid one of the tentacles as it came for me. Motor Runner did the same with the one going for him but he twisted in the air and revved his chainsaw and brought it down on the tentacle and severed the snapping jaws from the fleshy appendage. Thinking quickly I jumped onto the tentacle I avoided and put my weight down on it before it could withdraw its head. It began to wiggled and thrashed to try and knock me off. It probably would have if I wasn’t wearing armour that made me weight almost half a ton. I could feel myself loosing my hold on the tentacle as it wiggled and I quickly swung my cybernetic leg and sliced the claw through it. It jerked violently as my claw cut almost cleanly through. The jerk was enough to make me topple over and I quickly rolled back up onto my hooves as it pulled its injured tentacle back. The jaws of the one I cut hung limply as it was pulled back; at least I killed the head.

The monster trudged into the lake of tainted water as it tried to get closer. We readied ourselves to attack when its severed tentacles bulged at the injuries before bursting with a new head on each tentacle but not only that a third one erupted from its back.

“Not good, the taint is causing it to regenerate its injuries” Motor Runner stated as the tentacles went for each of us. “And causing further mutation”

“We got to kill it quick” I said as I jumped to the side to avoid a snapping two headed tentacle.

“How are we supposed to do that?” Sky Fire shouted as she zipped out of reach of the tentacle going for her as she blasted it and the blob with laser fire.

“Put an explosive 50 calibre round into its head” Motor Runner yelled as he jumped to avoid a tentacle.

“I can’t use my magic” I complained as I ducked to avoid a tentacle and swung my grapple claw up and chopped it in half.

“You don’t need your magic to fire a gun” Sky Fire shouted as she zoomed over the monstrosity and strafed it with laser fire. The laser blasts caused its hide to sizzle and burn but then it quickly healed. “Ugh, it’s regenerating too fast”

I looked around and saw the barrel that was sent flying near the door we came in by up against the wall. I could use the wall to brace myself and the barrel to keep the gun level. “Alright, I’ll need you to keep it distracted. I’ll yell when I’m ready” I yelled as I ran to the barrel to set myself up.

“Sure no problem, I can keep this up all day” Sky Fire gloated just before being swatted to the floor by a tentacle.

“Eyes on the enemy Sky Fire” Motor Runner sighed as he helped her up when the tentacle lifted off her.

“Gotcha” She moaned shakily getting back up from the slap she received.

I pushed on one side of the barrel to pull it onto one of its ends. Damn, this is a lot harder without my magic; I’ve gained a whole new respect for Earth Ponies. Once I made sure the barrel was secure I reared up onto my hind legs and leant against the barrel as I reached behind me and began to pull This Machine off my back and out of its harness. I groaned fiddling with the long barrel of the gun trying to jerk it loose. Yep, I can’t do shit without magic.

“Anytime now!” Sky Fire cried as she narrowly avoided a tentacle that was snapping at her ass. “Hey, down sally”

“Help me” The monster gurgled when a fourth tentacle burst from its back.

“Time is running out Appletart, that thing is still mutating”

I groaned as I finally managed to pull the weapon from its harness and as I finally felt its true weight for myself I couldn’t believe the human aliens were even able to carry this in those things they called hands. I hefted the weapon up and rested it on the barrel as I then leant back against the wall as I held the weapon with one hoof to aim it while on the barrel. I released the magazine then slipped into my storage unit and pulled out an orange banded magazine and slapped it home and pulled the bolt back and shoved it back in to chamber an explosive round. I put my eye to the scope and sighted up the monster’s head.

“Ok guys, I’m ready” I cried out pulling my head back a bit from the scope. They nodded and ran to the opposite side of the room from the creature. I put my claw to the trigger and pulled it with some effort. You need a lot of physical strength to pull that thing; damn those humans must have had strong fingers. The click of the hammer striking the bullet was followed by a thunderous boom and a blinding flash from the flared muzzle of the weapon as the high calibre explosive round left the barrel. What followed next was the weapon rearing up from the recoil and slapping me in the face. My nose burned with intense pain as I felt the cartilage and bone in my nose crumble from the force and weight of the metal weapon slamming into me and then the warm flow of my blood oozing out of my injured snout and the coppery taste of blood in my mouth.

“Oh ponyfeathers” I groaned in pain as I fell back onto my rump as the weapon clattered to the floor.

A strong explosion erupted from the monster’s head. If it made a sound upon being hit it was drowned out by the explosion that consumed its head. The four tentacles wiggled and twitched before they fell limp at its sides and the flames of the explosion passed over its body being carried by the wind blowing through the complex. As the smoke and flames faded away the whole head of the monster was gone leaving a smouldering hole. The creature’s body suddenly began to swell rapidly.

“Oh cock” I moaned as I shrunk down as the monster’s body looked like it was straining to contain its swelling bulk.

“What’s going on?” Sky Fire asked as she hovered over it.

“Sky Fire, Appletart, take cover, its going to blow” Motor Runner cried out in alarm as he dived behind a wall of vats.

“Oh shit” Sky Fire cried as she zoomed into the hallway we came from.

“Wait for me” I nasally groaned as I followed her into the hallway.

We slammed the doors shut and braced ourselves against them and waited. We didn’t have to wait too long as a meaty bang and a strong force slammed into the doors. We pushed the doors which squelched under the force as the doors pushed aside something thick and wet. What greeted us was one of the most disturbing scenes I think any of us have ever seen before. Most of the room and the vats had been redecorated in a deep shade of red and was pretty much dripping and dribbling everywhere. It looked like something from a horror film.

“That’s nasty”

“Oh bollocks, This Machine is covered in the shit” I groaned as I pulled the weapon out of the stinking muck. Thankfully my broken nose stopped me smelling the stuff, speaking of which I could just see the pink glow of the regeneration talisman around my nose. Oh damn that hurts. I could feel my bone and cartilage reforming as the talisman’s magic worked to fix my nose. I wish the talisman had pain relief. There was an audible crack as my nose snapped back together. “Ow”

“Are you ponies alright?” Motor Runner asked as he stepped out from his cover completely free of any of the gore.

“Ow, yeah, just fine” I groaned as I gently rubbed my newly regenerated nose with my organic hoof.

“Are you ok?” He asked in concern.

“Yeah I’m fine, just got hit in the face by my… eh… gun” I cringed seeing the weapon dripping in blood. I fiddled with getting it back into its harness while trying to not touch where it was coated in gore.

“How did you know that taint monster was gonna blow?” Sky Fire asked.

“In my long life I’ve seen a lot of the stuff that this world had to offer. This thing was one of the volatile taint mutations. Taint affects ponies in different ways, some are mildly affected like myself and some are affected extremely like this one. I’ve witnessed a pony mutate rapidly like this one did and upon death its body continued to mutate until it exploded”

“Wow”

CD beeped from my back since he was still securely fastened between my storage units. I looked back as he beeped again. He wiggled as if trying to tell me something and then beeped in a tone that sounded like “Time”.

“Time? Wait” I lifted my cybernetic leg and opened my pipbuck to see the time. “Oh shit we have ten minutes before we have to head back”

“I suppose we might as well head back now. I think we can safely assume what happened to Alpha Squad” Motor Runner said as he gestured to a pile of red gore.

“Yeah we… oh fuck” I said while I facehooved.

“What?” Sky Fire asked as she hovered over me with her forelegs crossed.

“I blew its head up, I’ve likely gone and totalled the its holotag”

“We all bared witness to this, it’ll be ok”

I nodded in agreement as we began for the doors on the other side of the warehouse. The orangey hue from the storm was fading as it was moving further away. I cringed as I concentrated on my magic to open the door to test it. As I reached out to take hold of the door intense pain shot through my horn and through my skull just like before making me jerk back and cease my magical attempt to open the doors.

“Still bad?”

“Eeyup”

The double doors had a release bar mechanism which me and Sky Fire pushed on but the doors refused to open. We gave a harsh shove and heard the sound of chains jangle on the other side.

“Ugh, locked”

“We don’t have time for this” I groaned.

Motor Runner stepped up to the door and unsheathed his chainsaw and revved up the powerful saw. He shoved his cybernetic leg into the door and his saw effortlessly cut through the metal doors. He moved his leg to cut out a large enough hole for us to pass through.

“You’re a hoofty pony to have around” Sky Fire joked.

I giggled lightly as I pulled the door segment back to open it. “Alright let’s get out of here” I said and stepped through the door into the adjacent warehouse and stepped on a wire trap. It snapped as I looked down. “Cock”

“Apple look-“ Before Sky Fire could finish shouting her warning something huge and heavy slammed into my side. I screamed out in absolute agony as several of my ribs broke and cracked from the impact and it sent me flying off my hooves. I screamed as I crashed onto the floor and slid across it until I crashed into a vat and into a puddle of water. My mouth was wide open as I landed in the water and my mouth filled with the water and as it hit the back of my throat I reflexively swallowed the nasty liquid. I coughed and hacked as I sat up in the water, trying to get the horrid taste out of my mouth while also clutching at my chest as it burned in pain.

“Appletart, you ok?” Sky Fire asked as she flew in through the door.

“What hit me?” I groaned and coughed.

The sound of Motor Runner’s chainsaw echoed through the warehouse we just entered and then there was a heavy thud by the door. I moaned looking over to the door to see a huge steel girder with a couple of chains connected to it. Oh for the love of Celestia I can’t believe I was just hit by one of those basic swinging beam traps.

I moaned as my armour buffed itself out to remove the large dent on the left side of my chest to where the girder smashed into me as its repair function kicked in. I cried out in pain as I felt my ribs snapping back into place as the talisman did its job.

“Hey get out of that” Sky Fire shouted as she grabbed me by my cybernetic leg and violently pulled me out of the puddle with surprising force.

“Ow hey, what gives” I groaned standing back up onto my hooves and shook some of the water off my legs.

”That water is tainted” She yelled as she flapped her wings rapidly to blow the water off me.

“TAINTED?” I screamed as I started to hack trying to cough up the water I swallowed.

“Are you alright?”

“No, I swallowed a mouthful” I cried out in panic.

Sky Fire grabbed my cheeks and pulled me close to her as she started to examine me with a critical eye. After a minute of giving me a once over she let me go.

“I don’t see any signs of infection or mutation” She told me. “We better get back to 24, they have facilities that can examine you better than I can”

Motor Runner approached us. “Everything will be alright” He said putting a comforting hoof on my shoulder. I calmed slightly at his touch but my mind was still churning up nightmares of me mutating into a monster but nothing has happened…yet. We got up and headed for the exit.

XXXXX

Two wings of Remnant Enclave pegasi were flying through the darkening skies of the evening. They had been alerted to an attack on a town in the area and were ordered to investigate. As the six pegasi approached their EFS's alerted them to a target off in the distance.

"Sir, target due west of our position" The lead pegasus' wingpony said pointing towards the horizon.

"Alright ponies lets move" The lead pony shouted as she lead them towards the target.

The two wings flew towards their destination. As they flew over a hill that was obscuring their view and all six of them stopped suddenly in mid air to what was moving a head of them.

"It can't be"

"Fuck it is"

The target they had detected and followed turned out to be the K-01 ACM KROGOTH. The machine that destroyed Raptor Atlas. The Krogoth had pissed off the Enclave that day and many still loyal pegasi to the Enclave were itching to get back at the machine for the Atlas. The six pegasi armed their energy based battlesaddles observed the machine as it continued to walk. Suddenly the machine stepped down and its right fore hoof sunk into the ground bringing the machine down to its fore knees and it looked like it was struggling to pull its trapped hoof free.

"What just happened?"

"It stepped on top of a metro station look" One of the Remnants said as she pointed to a metro sign post near the machine.

"Let's not waste this opportunity ponies" The lead pegasus said as she armed her weapons. "It can't move and we have the advantage"

The two wings voiced their agreement and began to fly towards the machine with the intent of attacking and destroying it.

The Krogoth looked up as its EFS detected incoming hostile targets. It turned its head in the direction of the hostiles and
soon saw the six small airborne targets.

"Threat annalyse... Six power armoured pegasi armed with energy weaponry... threat level... MINOR"

The disc-grenade launcher on the machine's back packed itself up and sunk into its back before resurfacing as a completely new weapon. This turret possessed high angled twin gun barrels with blue diamond tips which indicated it was an energy weapon. So far in its time in the wasteland the machine hasn't had to use its AA Railgun and with the arrival of these new threats it was the best opportunity for the machine to test out its weapon.

The six Remnants broke up to fly around the machine to confuse its targetting systems with getting it to try and track all six of them at once. The Krogoth engaged its automatic targeting system which could only govern three of its five weapon systems as only three of them could aim and shoot at the enemy. The missile pods aimed high as a targeting solution was inputted to its missiles and it then fired a salvo of six missiles to fly for each of the pegasi while its AA Railgun swiftly rotated and started firing on one pegasus while its gatling gun only fired whenever it had a clear line of sight.

The missiles locked onto their targets and began to follow each pegasus as they flew around the machine. The ponies fired their energy weapons at the machine while dodging energy blasts from its AA Railgun and while keeping ahead of the missiles. After each second the missiles got closer and closer until they were so close they had to abandon their attempts at attacking the Krogoth to out running and trying to shoot down the missile following them.

"This is insane" One pegasus shouted as he flipped onto his back and started shooting at the missile behind him.

"LOOK OUT" One of his comrades shouted out in warning.

He flipped back over and flapped his wings frantically to bring himself to a stop as a blue beam of energy shot up in front of him from the AA Railgun. This was a mistake. The pegasus turned around only to receive the missile he was evading to crash into his chest before detonating and exploding. The explosion drowned out his cry and consumed his body leaving nothing behind.

"NO!"

Similar explosions soon followed as the remaining five pegasi shot down the missiles chasing them. Two of them began to zip around as they became the next targets for its gatling gun and AA Railgun. The Krogoth now had its head raised to enable its gatling gun to fire at the airborne targets instead of waiting for them to get into its line of fire. The three not under fire began to attack again. Their energy weapons struck the thick armour of the Krogoth causing it to sizzle and melt but the small weapons of the battlesaddles wasn't enough to put a hole in the strong armour. The longer they attacked the more certain it became that they didn't stand a chance.

"Ah fuck" The captain cried as she narrowly avoided a blue beam of death to the face. "This energy weapon is fucking fast and accurate, oh shit" She cried out again as she managed to pull her hind quarters up to avoid her lower body being vapourized.

Two of the pegasi not under attack attempted to attack the AA Railgun. The Krogoth detected the threats and its railgun responded in kind and targeted the closest of the two now heading in to attack the weapon. It rotated only slightly and aimed its two barrels at the pony quickly and fired. The speed in which it changed targets caught the attacking pegasus be surprise and he was unable to avoid the blue beam. Most of the pony's upper body including his head was engulfed in the beam of intense magical energy and soon a lifeless lower body dropped to the floor. The second pegasus quickly aborted her attack run as the weapon aimed and fired at her. A hastily performed barrel roll saved her from taking a shot to the ass.

With two down the captain of the two wings realised this was mistake. The Krogoth despite its inability to move with his right forehood stuck in the collapsed metro was still a very dangerous threat and six ponies were still nothing to the ten story machine. The captain watched in despair as a third pegasus was cut to ribbons as the machine lured her into the stream of hot lead coming from its gatling gun while firing at her with the AA Railgun.

"Everypony retreat" She screamed.

She and the last two pegasi turned around and began to fly away.

"Enemy attempting to retreat"

The right side missile pod turned after the fleeing ponies and unleashed a nine missile salvo. Three missiles targeted each fleeing pony. The pegasi was forced back towards the Krogoth as the missiles cut them off and began to pursue them. The three ponies scattered again as they tried to loose the missiles following them. One remnant flew down between the Krogoth's hind legs narrowly avoiding the segmented tail. The three missiles following the pegasus slammed into the Krogoth's heavily armoured backside and tail. The three strikes dented the armour and caused some severe damage to a portion of its tail but other than that the damage was minimal at best.

"Yeah, eat that" He cheered as he flew through the fore legs and right into the gatling gun. High calibre rounds punched through his armour and caused one of his wings to fall off as the high stream of bullets tore into him.

The Enclave Remnants were now down to two. The captain motioned to other pegasus away from her to fly at her. The pegasus caught on to what her captain was suggesting and followed her command and flew at her. At the last second the two pegasi shot upwards. The six missiles were slower to react and collided with each other. Those that didn't exploded with the ones that did from the blast that consumed them. The pressure wave that followed knocked the two pegasi out of the air. The captain crashed down on the ground while the other was still in the air trying to regain control of her flight. The captain picked herself up and winced in pain as she discovered her wing was broken. She looked up fearfully at the last pony and cried out as she watched two blue beams of energy burn through her body as she managed to regain control.

The grounded shuddered violently as an explosion ripped through it. The captain, the last hostile target to the Krogoth turned around to find that the machine just wrenched its hoof out of the collapsed metro and had it raised high above her.

"No, No, NOOO!!!" She screamed as the giant metal hoof came down on top of her, squashing her like a bug.

"All targets eliminated"

After a quick scan of the area to be absolutely sure it was clear the machine resumed its journey.

XXXXX

We had been walking back towards Stable 24 for last fifty minutes now and CD was happy to be able to fly again. I groaned as my back was itching up a storm and because of my armour I couldn’t reach it.

“Are you ok?” Sky Fire asked concerned as she trotted along beside me.

“I feel fine to be honest, except my back is itching like mad”

“Odd that the taint you consumed in that water hasn’t done anything to you”

”Like I said before, taint affects you in different ways, perhaps the taint will affect you in a similar fashion it did me” Motor Runner said with a reassuring tone.

I smiled softly at his words and tone. We continued our trek back to 24.

Motor Runner sighed softly as he looked down to Sky Fire. “Sky Fire, look, I’m sorry for my outburst back in the complex. I was wrong. Comparing the loss of your life to my suit was wrong and hurtful to you. It’s rare my anger gets the better of me like that. I am deeply sorry for what I said” He said sounding very sincere. That’s a trait most ponies in the wasteland lack these days.

Sky Fire smiled at his apology. “It’s ok really. It was wrong of me to joke about your suit like that since it did mean a lot to you. I feel like I’m becoming more like Rainbow Dash everyday”

Motor Runner smiled warmly nodded his head. "You will never truly be like her" He assured.

I smiled as the two accepted each other’s apology.

The suburb towards the stable was nothing but an empty ruin now with mostly just the lowest portion of the walls of the buildings that once stood here. If you didn’t know where to look you could easily miss the entrance to Stable 24 but thankfully there is now always a pair of Rangers on guard duty by the ponyhole. I smiled as we rounded a corner and the two Rangers came into view as we drew near. I moaned in discomfort as the itch now felt like my shoulders were on fire and they felt like they were grinding against inside of my suit. Oh, I think some of that wretched water got under my armour and is making my shoulders grind against the metal.

“Welcome back Paladin Longshot, Elder McNamare is waiting for you in Science Room 3” One of the guards said as we approached.

I smiled “Thank you sir”

He gave a nod and resumed his post.

We entered the stable and followed the corridors back to Science Room 3. Before we made it half to our destination Sky Fire stopped me as we were passing the clinic.

“You better get yourself checked out and then go to bed to rest” She told me in a motherly tone which sounded odd coming from her. “Don’t worry about what McNamare is going to say we’ll relay the information to you later”

I nodded. Yeah, best to make sure the taint I consumed hasn’t affected me. I waved my friends good bye as I opened the door and walked in. Rainstorm was tending to an injured Ranger as I entered.

”Now don’t put too much weight on that leg for a while” She told him as she wrapped his leg in a bandage.

“Thanks Rainstorm” He said as he lay back.

“Anytime… Oh, hello Appletart, what can I do for you?” She asked as she noticed me.

“I need a check up” I said worriedly.

“Certainly” She smiles as she began to turn from her last patient. “You can leave when you feel up to it” She said over her shoulder as she directed me behind a screen for privacy.

“Now, what seems to be the problem?” She asked sitting down before me.

“I got knocked into a puddle of water that was tainted and I ended up swallowing a mouthful” I explained.

“Taint, that is some horrible and unpredictable stuff” She frowned as she picked up stethoscope. “Can you disengage your armour please?”

I nodded as I used my magic to remove my armour. I sighed with relief as I felt armour lifting from my body and placed it all folded up to the side. I moaned softly as I stroked a hoof at my left side where the girder had hit me. Even though the damage has been healed it left a bruise and it still hurt.

“What happened to you?” She asked seeing the huge bruise on my side.

“Ow, a two ton steel girder smashed me in the side” I answered as I then reached up to stroke over my shoulders.

”A two ton steel beam?” She asked raising a brow. “That should have killed you…”

“Maybe if I wasn’t wearing power armour”

“Hmm, yes, probably. An impact of that force would have likely broken all your ribs and punctured your heart and lungs if you were wearing anything weaker than power armour” She said, giving me a mental image I wish I could forget. “Ok now hold still and stop itching”

I moaned having to leave my shoulders since I could finally scratch at them now and sat still as she began to examine me. She did everything of a standard examination and finally she took a blood sample. If I wasn't already an albino and so pale in colour, my colour would have paled even more at the sight of the damn needle. Even now as a grown mare I still hate needles and shots.

“You look and sound completely healthy although your shoulders look a little inflamed. I’ll know for sure if the taint you consumed has caused any anomalies in the morning with the results of your blood test” She said as she carried my blood sample off into the clinic’s lab.

Rainstorm returned with a smile as she carried something back with her. I smiled when I saw what was on her back.

“Wakey wakey little Blueberry, your mummy is here” She cooed softly to the little foal snuggled up on her back. She whined as she sat up and blinked her green eyes as she looked around but she smiled and reached out with her tiny little hooves towards me while Rainstorm made sure she wouldn’t fall off her back using her wings.

I used my magic to gently pick my little girl off her back and floated her over to my waiting forelegs and gently cradled her and nuzzled her lovingly. She is so adorable. She giggled as I nuzzled into her neck softly. That sound was like music to my ears. While I held her I could feel my worries melting away and I felt more relaxed.

“Oh, Appletart, here, rub some of this lotion on your shoulders before you go to bed tonight. Your shoulders are looking a little swollen and don’t scratch them” She told me as she hoofed over a tube of lotion.

“Thank you” I said with a smile as I gently placed my daughter on my back and used my magic to levitate my armour and the lotion. It felt good to use my magic without feeling like I’m being struck in the skull by lightening.

I divided my magic to also hold my daughter on my back as I began to leave. I can’t be too careful. As the door opened as I was about to leave I nearly walked straight into the feminized Zyon.

“There you are” She said with a smile and gently hugged me. That was something I wasn’t expecting from Zyon. She let go of me with a light blush. “Um, heh, just wanted to tell you that McNamare is going to address the whole stable on our plan of action to take down the Krogoth tomorrow morning”

“Ah, thank you Zyon” I said with a smile before I grimaced and rolled my shoulders as the itch felt like it got a little worse.

“Are you ok?”

“I’m ok, really” I said trying to give a sincere smile as I stepped out into the hall and began to head towards my quarters.

“Damn that’s a wicked bruise” She commented seeing the bruise that dominated most of the left side of my barrel.

“I’m sure Sky or Motor Runner told you what happened”

She nodded.

We walked together and I talked about what happened at the complex and here as we walked. I made sure to hide some of the gorier details about the mutation encounter. I also decided to not mention the taint exposure until I got my blood results although I suspect she already knows. Zyon then told me what had been going on here while we’ve been away. How she nearly got kicked off the bomb making team for pranking and how the Krogoth had destroyed an innocent town full of ponies. Once that machine is destroyed the wasteland will be a much safer place.

A surprisingly loud yawn came from my back as little Blueberry snuggled against my back between my shoulders which just made me squirm some more because of the itch.

“I better get her to bed” I said smiling as I looked back at her. “I’ll see you later”

“Ok Apple, sleep tight” The zony said as she pranced up the corridor. I blinked with a raised brow. She never pranced before even as a male. I wonder if that Killing Joke did more than change her sex. I shrugged as I came to my quarter’s door and instantly regretted it as it just made me want to itch. “Oh for the love of Celestia” I groaned as I open my door and stepped inside.

I dumped my armour into a heap in the middle of the living room floor and walked over to my bed and gently placed my little foal into her crib. I smiled warmly as I leaned down and nuzzled her affectionately. “Mummy loves you” I cooed as I then climbed into my bed and yawned. I quickly used some of the lotion Rainstorm gave me on my shoulders and felt a relaxing cooling effect on my shoulders which thankfully quelled the itch. I smiled satisfied and lay down to sleep as I then closed my eyes and soon drifted off to asleep.

XXXXX

My dreams were haunted by nasty visions of myself mutating and turning into a monster and going on a murderous rampage while screaming “Help me!” in a gurgling voice. I tossed and turned in bed as my dreams only got worse. I had been so worked up about the taint that my subconscious was torturing me with these horrible dreams. Soon the dreams grew so bad that I was dreaming of hurting my friends and the ponies I loved. When I came to dreaming about hurting Blueberry, that’s when I jerked awake from my fitful sleep. I shot up right panting and sweating buckets. This taint bollocks is driving me crazy.

Pain laced my sides suddenly. The pain was so strong it felt like my sides were on fire and that someone had put me through an industrial shredder. It was so sudden and painful that I couldn’t even let out a scream of pain as it just left me panting while clutching at my sides. My sides that now felt horribly swollen. My eyes opened in alarm as I quickly lit my horn and looked at either side of my barrel. They were bulging with something on either side that stretched almost to the lower part of my barrel and almost all the way to my tail. What in Equestria is happening to me?

The bulges in my sides gave a sudden and violent jerk as if reacting to my thoughts which sent tremendous pain running along my spine that had me sprawling out on my bed and screaming in agony. I clutched at my sides again. I could feel something under my skin and it was moving. I groaned deeply in discomfort as whatever was under my skin pushed at my hide again. I screamed again as I felt my skin starting to strain against whatever was pushing against it.

“Appletart, Appletart, are you alright?” I heard somepony shout from my door.

“Help me” I cried out as whatever was pushing at my sides gave another shove and I screamed again as this time I heard and felt my skin tearing. I could now feel blood oozing from the tears in my skin now soaking into my bed.

Blueberry woke up and started to cry. The sound of her crying broke my heart because it was my fault she was disturbed.

“Ohh, argh, sorry sweetie, mummy is sorry” I cried as I looked towards her.

I heard the door open and heard the sound of hooves stop at my bedroom door before another knock. “Appletart, are you ok?” I heard Zyon ask worriedly.

“No, get help” I cried as the door opened.

I screamed in agony as whatever was happening pushed at my sides again, causing the already tearing flesh to rip even more and I felt some of what was pushing out poke through the gaps. When I looked back at my sides I saw what looked to be blood soaked feathers poking out from the holes.

“Oh sweet Luna” I heard Zyon gasp.

I looked back to my friend with tears streaming down my face. “Help me please” I begged and then collapsed to my blood soaked bed as the things wanting out gave one last almighty push and my sides tore open and whatever was in me thrust themselves from my sides and I felt them rise up high over my back while also feeling an odd weight to my shoulders. I looked back at what had burst from my sides, seeing that they were connected to my shoulders and then the world went black as I fell into blissful unconsciousness.

Author's Notes:

If you are predicting Appletart becoming an alicorn from the last scene of this chapter let me now put your suspicions to rest.
No, Appletart is not becoming an Alicorn. I REPEAT SHE IS NOT BECOMING AN ALICORN.