Fallout Equestria
Broken Steel

Chapter 22: Annihilation

Two Years before the Bomb

Applejack stepped off the train at Manechester’s Victoria Station, a large grand train terminal with several platforms with many giant steam locomotives waiting at their platforms for passengers or just pulling out. Applejack has seen many steam engines in Esquestria but never had she seen so many as big as the one that brought her into the Braytish city. It was a grand achievement when the rail link between the two nations was finished and Equestrians were able to travel into the new land on the biggest and grandest steam locomotives imaginable.

She walked the length of the ten car train up to its locomotive. It was a huge machine measuring up to just over twenty two and a half metres in length. Most equestrian steamers didn’t even measure ten metres in length. She had learned on her journey that these giant four six twos were known as the Princess Coronation Class and were designed for express passenger services and to travel at up to a hundred miles per hour and with their six two point zero six metre drive wheels Applejack believed they could.

Applejack looked the machine over from its sloping smoke deflectors at its black smoke box all the way along its huge long tapered maroon red boiler to its massive fire box and then to its cab and finally its large six wheeled tender which bore the initials G B R (Great Braytish Railway). She had to admit that the braytish built steam monster was one of the most beautiful things she’s ever seen in her life and it also had a name to fit its beauty and its class name. Mounted on its boiler sat a large plague that held its name in gold gilded letters and this particular locomotive was called “Duchess of Canterlot”. She learned that because this class was built for the trans-national railway the braytish decided to name them after Equestrian places and monarchs. Three new locomotives were to be unveilead in the future going by the names of, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza as gifts to Equestria’s royal family.

Another large steam engine blew its whistle as it thundered down the line passing right through the station from the platform behind Applejack scaring her half to death from the sheer volume of the whistle. Whirling around she saw another of braytish imperial steam engine marvels, a large thundering two ten zero pulling behind it a massive long train of freight. To ponies like Applejack the giant steam engines of the braytish were like monsters compared to the small four four zeros she’s familiar with back in Equestria.

“Dear Luna, how do these ponies handle these things?” she asked herself as she began for the exit from the station. She had come to Manechester on request from her friend Twilight Sparkle who wanted to see her at the heart of the city, the Manedale Centre.

Applejack was glad that the train station wasn’t that far from the Manedale Centre. She hasn’t been to this city much and with its tall buildings and many roads it was easy to get lost in. Even the iconic tower disappears when you amongst the skyscrapers. A five minute walk into the city’s heart and retail district brought her to the giant mall that surrounded the giant tower's base.

“Ah Applejack you made it” Twilight Sparkle said in a happy tone when she finally saw her friend.

“Howdy Twi” Applejack greeted as she gave her friend a light hug.

Many ponies walking looked towards the two mares as they embraced. Most of the ponies were braytish and didn’t care much about what the two mares were responsible for but those of the ponies that were equestrian stopped and whispered.

“Maybe we should go to the roof”

“The roof?” Applejack asked surprised.

“Yes, it’s why I callead you here”

Applejack gawked at the massive shopping complex as she walked with Twilight towards a place in the complex known as Manedale House which is the entrance to the main tower. Applejack had never seen such a large shopping complex before and she was glad she wasn’t here with Rarity as with the large number of clothing outlets the white mare would have a field day and drive her completely insane with wanting to check them all out and to criticise them.

Twilight and Applejack signed the visitors book at the front desk after entering Manedale House and stepped into an express elevator that would take them all the way to the top floor.

After a very long maddening ride in the lift to the top floor Applejack rushed out as the doors opened. “Finally, dear Celestia Twilight, it’s a good thing Ah’m not claustrophobic”

Twilight gigglead as she followed her friend out. “Sorry, I know, those lifts can be a bit slow and tedious”

“Express Elevator, my flank”

Twilight giggled again as she took the lead and lead her friend through some maintenance corridors until they came to the roof access stairs. Twilight stopped and turned to her friend.

“Now Applejack, I know I can trust you with this, that is why I called you up here and also since Pinkie doesn’t have her ministry setup here yet there’s less of a chance she’ll find out. I swear that mare knows what we are about to do before we’ve even thought of the action. Anyway, what I’m about to show you is top secret but it also applies to your secret”

Applejack slowly nodded her head in understanding and confirmation.

Twilight gave a nod herself and lead her friend up the stairs. Applejack had to keep a hoof to her head to keep her iconic stetson from flying off from the strong winds blowing a gale across the roof of the tower. When Twilight moved out of Applejack’s line of view her eyes bugged out as she saw a giant unicorn horn in front of her. Twilight quickly cast a sound proofing spell around herself and Applejack so that anypony outside their circle wouldn’t hear what was being said.

”Applejack, this is the Obelisk of Magic”

The spire looked to reach out to the sky while it gave off a light glow. The orange mare could feel the magic radiating from it as she approached it with her friend.

“It’s incredible”

”Thank you, there are still some alterations that need doing but the prototype is almost ready. Once it’s finished and fully tested I can begin making more of theses to be placed in cities across Equestria” When she finished her sentence a siren was heard which sounded off throughout the whole city. “Ah right on time”

“On time for what, what was that?”

“Time for another test of the shield spell, it’s just a drill and they know I’m testing the shield spells” Twilight said as she approached the obelisk and opened up a panel that revealed a control interface. She lifted her left foreleg and used her magic to connect a cable from her pipbuck to the console so she could closely monitor the shield spell.

Applejack looked to the tip of the spire as it began to glow with a bright green light. In the sky above the tower a green light appeared and soon a wire frame dome began to expand and curl down around the city until the lines completely surrounded the city. Once the lines had finished materialising its vertical and horizontal lines the spaces between the wire frame squares began to fill in with a solid green light. The lines of the wire frame pulsed from bright green to dark and the spaces filling with solid green light were doing the same but reversed. After a good five minutes the dome of green pulsing light had formed.

“Shield integrity holding” Twilight said to herself as she looked at the readouts on her pipbuck.

After a couple of minutes the shield began to waver and begin to break up.

“Damn, still insufficient power to keep the double shield up” Twilight groaned very annoyed with the result.

“What just happened?”

Twilight sighed. “I’ve been trying to get the Obelisk’s third shield to work without using up too much power. This tower has its own reactor but I couldn’t connect the Obelisk to it directly so I had to connect it to the tower’s mains. The mains can’t handle the large flow of power needed for the shield” Twilight disconnected the cable with an annoyed yank that nearly snapped the wire. “I’ve been failing time and time again to recalibrate the shield to use less power”

“And why does this shield need so much power?”

“The shield is Shield Spells 1 and 2 combined. Shield 1 protects from projectile weapons such as bullets and missiles and Shield 2 protects from magically weapons. Those shields don’t need much power and its enough to project from the Obelisk without frying the tower’s mains but those shields will let anything that they aren’t meant to stop through. Shield 3 is both shields made one but the two shields counteracting each other’s weaknesses requires nearly three times more power than just one of the shields alone. This tower can’t handle that strain for long”

“And why does this have anything to do with…” She paused as she looked around cautiously. Knowing Pinkie Pie she might have predicted this meeting and had something setup to spy on them with. Not seeing anything she leaned close to Twilight’s ear and whispered. “Project-K?”

“Well I looked over some notes you let me see and found that…” Twilight paused to think of a word to throw off Pinkie in case she had something up here since she caught onto Applejack’s suspicion and she knows how Pinkie has made listening devices that look like everyday items. “…she doesn’t have magical protection and so I’ve coded the Obelisk to accept her if needed. The assimilation spell I created will allow for a quick and easy rebuild on her”

”What makes ya think she need’s magical protection?” Applejack asked a little offended.

“Applejack, thick armour alone won’t be enough to stop projectiles. What I’ve read, she can stop practically anything from penetrating her chest armour but magical weapons work differently to projectile weapons and can damage that armour that’ll make it weak. I know you have a lot of faith in your technology but please trust me on this. She’ll be weak to strong magical weapons”

Applejack sighed, she knew Twilight was right but didn’t want to admit it but during Twilight’s little speech she thought back to Big Mac being killed by an AM Rifle. She knew that her armour could be penetrated so she knew that even the three feet thick armour of the chest plate on the Krogoth could be penetrated if the right weapon is used. “Alright Twi, but wouldn’t she have the same problem as the tower?”

Twilight smiled. “No, with my Crusader and Stable-Tec’s reactor the Obelisk will be tied into the reactor like Blueberry's AMRs so it won’t have a problem getting the power. With the shield spells fully operational she’ll be the most protected thing in Equestria”

By now the shield had completely fizzled out as the spell was disengaged.

“Well, later I can go over the details with you on the train ride back home” Twilight said as she walked over to the fence that surrounded the roof of the tower to stop ponies throwing themselves off. It has happened in the past.

Just as Applejack joined her friend a roar like cheer drifted up from the nearby hoofball stadium. Applejack looked towards the large red and white stadium. She learned from Rainbow Dash that the stadium was called “Old Trotford” and was home to the Braytish Empire’s greatest hoofball team, Manechester United.

Twilight giggled. “Looks like Mane United just won the championship again”

XXXXX

Pain, why is pain all I feel these days? Ever since I had my baby I’ve suffered injury after injury that has now left me a cyborg and scarred. Why did such a wonderful time end up being followed by misery?

I groaned as I began to wake up. The first thing that registered was the horrible burning pain in my sides as feeling came back to me as my conscious mind reinstated itself. I feel like I’ve been put through a wood chipper.

“She’s waking up” I heard someone say but with my mind still a little groggy so I couldn’t tell who.

I opened my eyes and immediately closed them again as they were assaulted by a bright light shining in my face. I moved my fore legs to cover my eyes with my hooves but only found that one hoof made it and as my left leg moved against my body I could feel the synthetic limb was missing. My eyes flew open again, this time in shock, but before I could move I felt two hooves press on my chest to keep me down.

“Easy” I head the same voice say. I blinked as my eyes got used to the light and I looked to the hooves and followed them up to their owner and found the familiar face of Rainstorm looking at me with a reassuring smile on her face.

I groaned and lay back down, my only forehoof rubbing over my chest and the left side of my barrel. I moaned in pain but wore a confused expression as I felt my hoof run over several grooves in my hide.

“What happened to me?” I asked letting out a breath after feeling a sharp pain from my side where my hoof touched.

Rainstorm opened her mouth to answer when the door to the clinic opened and a naked Zyon and Sky Fire rushed in. Huh, it’s been a long time since I last saw Zyon with nothing but his... damn it, her… bandanna on. I have to admit she made quite the sexy mare. I blushed at the thought.

“How is she?” Zyon asked worriedly.

I couldn’t help but notice Sky Fire staring at my side.

“She’s fine as far as I can tell. The tests have revealed that the mutation has stopped and…”

“MUTATION?!” I screamed and sat up, ignoring the pain and staring right at Rainstorm.

The pegasus cringed at my sudden outburst and movement but before she could answer me I felt something sticking out from my back and noticed both Zyon and Sky Fire staring.

“WHAT?” I screamed at them.

They simply pointed.

I followed their pointing hooves and looked behind myself to find two large bloodied feathery appendages that stuck out from my back. My eyes bulged out at the sight of the two blood smeared white wings sticking out, stiff as boards. I reached back with my right foreleg and touched one with my hoof and shivered as I felt my hoof press into the feathers. I could feel them, I could feel each feather flex and bend from the hoof touching. Oh Celestia these things are truly mine.

“What the bloody hell happened to me?” I cried out in a mixture of fear and surprise.

“Please Appletart, calm down and I’ll explain” Rainstorm said as she walked over to a small table and used her wings to pick up a couple of pieces of paper.

I nodded as I gently shifted myself to lie on my stomach and rested on my right leg since my left was missing. As I began to feel a little relaxed and I felt the wings fold down against my sides, brushing over the grooves I haven’t looked at yet but I have an idea what they area as the memory of last night returned to me. Dear goddesses these things burst out of my body. If I was a cartoon character my face would have turned green for a minute there at the mental image.

“I have your blood results from before the mutation and after and I’ve discovered that you have pegasi DNA in your genetic code and…”

I interrupted her. “Wait, Pegasi DNA, but I’m a unicorn”

She gave me a glare before she continued. “Yes, Pegasi DNA” She stopped for a moment to take a breath and to look at the papers in her wings. “It seems you’re the last in your family to carry the gene” She saw my questioning look and sighed. “Ok, everypony has DNA from each race in them, mostly. You came from an Earth Pony and Unicorn family didn’t you?”

I nodded in confirmation. My mother was a unicorn and my dad was an earth pony.

“Your mother’s genes were more dominate than your father’s during your development so you were born a unicorn but you would still have earth pony DNA because of your father. It’s the same with your pegasus DNA but over the generations those genes have been dwindling down and with what little was there before the mutation seemed like you were the last to carry them”

“But who in my family was a pegasus?” I asked out loud.

“I did a little research into that and it seems your ancestor, Blueberry Muffin was the daughter of two pegasus ponies”

“Wait, if her parents were pegasi, then how was she born an Earth Pony” Zyon asked.

“Same way Appletart was born a unicorn when her father was an Earth Pony. One of the parents of Blueberry’s parents must have been an earth pony and that pony’s genes passed into Blueberry during her development and was more dominate than her parent’s pegasi genes so she was born an earth pony” She explained. “A good example of this would be the Cake twins, a unicorn and pegasus born to two earth ponies”

The teal pegasus looked back at me. “Ok, so you had a small amount of pegasi DNA in you before the mutation began but after you ingested the taint that begun the mutation and it seemed the taint latched onto the pegasus genes and forced them to grow. Taint as you know affects ponies differently but you were one of the lucky ones since that’s all it did to you. It made it grow and rewrote your own genetic code to include the pegasus DNA. The physical change it did was giving you full and matured pegasus wings. Why they formed under your skin is beyond me. You are now also able to do anything a pegasus can do, fly, push clouds, walk on clouds, etc”

I wore a panicked expression as I looked at my new wings. “Doesn’t this make me an Alicorn?” I whimpered.

“No, Alicorns are a combination of all three races, taller and vastly more magical, you are neither of those. I think what would be more accurate to call you would be a Winged Unicorn” She answered.

I relaxed a little since I wasn’t one of those monsters but still, I have wings. This is going to cause merry hell when other ponies see me. The first thing they will think is that I’m an alicorn now. This is going to be a long day.

“Where’s my leg?” I asked looking back to the stump. It wasn’t all gone since the section above the knee where it connects to my organic leg is still there.

“Motor Runner took it, saying it needed modifying because of your new, um, appearance” Sky Fire answered.

“Great” I moaned sarcastically looking at the plug socket of the segment that remained.

“Sis can you get me a bucket of water and a towel?” Sky Fire asked her sister who nodded and went off to retrieve the items asked for.

”What’s that for?” Zyon asked as she sat beside the bed.

“I need to clean her wings, that blood will ruin those feathers” She said as she began to inspect my wings with a critical eye. “Can you open them for me?”

“Are you serious, I just got these things, how the hell am I supposed to know how to use them?” I growled angrily. My head was now swimming with thoughts of how I’ll be treated now because of this mutation. All the thoughts of mistrust, all the talking behind my back, the false stories, the rumours, argh, it’ll be like I was filly again in school being teased because of my defect.

“Apple” Zyon tried to get my attention but I ignored him.

My face scrunched up into a scowl as my mind just went on its self destruction. “No pony will ever trust me again” I growled darkly.

“Of course they will, you’re Paladin Longshot” Sky Fire tried to defend.

“They won’t trust a freak” I screamed and whirled on her. I could feel it, my eyes were blazing again.

“Appletart, calm down” Zyon said holding up her hooves.

My wings flared out with my mood. I felt the dried blood cracking and falling out from between my feathers. I looked back at them and saw how a network of scars seemed to spread out from the shoulder where they sprouted. The scars made it look like my hide had peeled open like a banana. The scars stretched from my shoulder, going down my barrel to nearly going to my underbelly and some stretched as far along my body to my flank.

”Why me?” I yelled. “Why is it me that has to suffer this shit?”

“I got turned into a mare, how do you think I feel?” Zyon argued.

“But you’re still you, I’m a freak and I’m not what I used to be” I yelled at her.

Rainstorm came back in with the water and towel to see me stood on my three legs and in a threatening stance with my eyes under the dark magic shift and my wings flared out.

My mind became clouded and I couldn’t think straight anymore as I turned to face her.

”You! Why didn’t you do anything to stop this?” I screamed at her, my horn glowing purple and I seized her with my magic and dragged her back over to me.

“There was nothing I could do” She yelped as she was dragged over to me.

“You could have done something” I barked.

I heard a hiss and the door to the clinic opened again as Motor Runner entered carrying my cybernetic leg on his back. He stopped and blinked to see me threatening a pony.

“What’s going on here?” He asked as he approached.

His voice and presence seemed to pull me out of the downward spiral I found myself in and I was able to regain my control. I gasped and released Rainstorm and sat down on my haunches and used my right hoof to hold my head as I shook it. “Ugh, what just happened?” I moaned as a headache came on.

“You were threatening my sister” Sky Fire shouted as she helped her sister back up. “What’s gotten into you?”

I cringed at her tone of voice as it hurt to hear her shout at me like that. “I don’t know, I guess I’m just angry, so much has happened to me so fast to leave me looking the way I am. I’m a freak” I cried with tears running down my cheeks.

“Stop right there” Motor Runner said firmly as he sat in front of me next to the bed. “You are no different than before, sure you’re a cyborg and now have wings but you’re still the same pony we all know” He paused for a moment to look at me in the eye. “And love” he finished with a reassuring smile.

I smiled genuinely at his words before sighing. “I’m sorry everypony”

“Its ok Appletart, you’ve been through a lot lately” Zyon said with a nod.

I looked to Rainstorm. “I’m sorry Rainstorm, I couldn’t control myself”

“Its ok, it’s a good thing I know about that dark magic shift you go through” She said with a smile of understanding. “Maybe when the Krogoth has been dealt with we can help you through it”

“We’ll all help”

“Thank you everypony”

“Ok, now hold still while I wash your wings” Sky Fire said taking the towel in her mouth and dunking it into the bucket. My wings had folded back down again by now. She placed the towel on the bed. “I’ll teach you some basics in controlling these before McNamare’s briefing” She told me since I couldn’t open them myself for her. I nodded and she then reached a hoof up and poked me in the withers which instantly caused my wings to shoot open and fully extend.

“Ah, what was that?” I cried out in surprise.

She giggled. “Just a nerve, poking a pegasus there usually results in that” She picked up the towel again and began to scrub my feathers. I hate to admit it but it felt real good to have my wings hoofled like that.

“I have you leg Appletart, I’ve stripped it down and rebuilt it with more lightweight materials while still keeping its integrity so you haven’t lost out on its armoured casing”

“Thank you” I cooed while Sky Fire gently ran the wet towel over my primaries.

“Now brace yourself, this’ll hurt” He told me as he pulled my leg from his back and used his cybernetic leg’s manipulators to move and position the leg at my socket. He gave me a nod and I braced myself and he shoved the leg into the socket and then gave a twist which was followed by a click. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth hard as a sudden jolt of pain ran up my leg from the connection. I let out a pained breath as the pain subsided. My EFS alerted me that my leg had been reconnected and was fully operational.

“You weren’t joshing, that hurt” I groaned as I flexed my synthetic leg when I regained feeling in it.

After a moment of silence I spoke up again.

“So what’s going on?”

“McNamare is setting up a briefing which will take place in a couple of hours. After that we’ll be boarding transports that’ll take us to Manechester where we’ll set the trap up” Zyon said as she watches Sky Fire clean my wings.

“You and me have been asked to give a little speech on the Krogoth so everypony knows what we are up against” Motor Runner said.

“Wait, you mean stand up in front of everypony?” I asked in a panic.

“Yes, is that a problem?”

”I hate standing in front of crowds, I couldn’t even give a presentation in front of the class back in school, there is no way I’ll be able to address the fifty or so rangers” I whined.

“I see, don’t worry, I’ll be right beside you” He said with that reassuring smile of his. It made me feel better, only just.

I shivered as Sky Fire started to clean my other wing.

”Hey sis, these wings look a little larger than normal” Sky Fire said as she looked over my still dirty wing.

“They are, they are about six percent larger than the average pegasus wing but I believe that’s because of how fast they grew and matured”

I sighed with relief as for a moment there I thought the taint did more than what was thought.

“Are you sure I’m ok, are you sure the taint isn’t doing anything more?” I asked with panic in my voice again.

“I’m positive Appletart, I took another blood sample after the mutation ended and examined the change and it has indeed stopped, there isn’t anything else for you to worry about” She told me positively.

After another few minutes both my white feathery appendages were clean and in all honesty felt good. Me and Sky Fire stayed in the clinic while she went through some exercises with me to help me gain control of my wings while Zyon said she had to do something to my armour so I could wear it with the wings I now have. Motor Runner just sat in a corner watching. We practiced for about an hour but thankfully with the things she told me about my wings I was able to gain some control. I’m still a long way from using them as easily as she could but at least now I can open and close them but it still takes some mental power.

We left the clinic and soon entered the atrium where all the rangers that were available had gathered in front of a stage that had been set up to the far end of the room with McNamare standing on the stage facing everypony. So many ponies. We all walked down one side of the room to reach the stage before climbing some stairs up onto the stage and stood behind the elder. We were missing Zyon but she was already fully aware of what the machine is and also she knows what’s going to go down in the city so she didn't need to attend really.

McNamare turned to see us and when we were all accounted for minus Zyon she gave us a nod and turned back to the crowd.

“Good afternoon everypony. I am sure you are all aware of why you are here but before I explain to you all about what is going to happen I give the floor to Motor Runner and Paladin Longshot who are the experts on what we are going to be facing” She said in a commanding tone.

The crowd of ponies quietened down as the elder stepped back to let us take centre stage. As me and the now suited Motor Runner stepped forward I began to shake at the sight of the crowd. So many, I can’t do this. I began to shake as we approached the microphone that was fixed to the stage. Motor Runner looked down and gently touched my right shoulder with his left leg. I looked up and met his gaze, his eyes showed confidence and reassurance as they looked back at me. “I’m here for you” He mouthed silently. I nodded and looked back out to the crowd of rangers who were beginning to murmur quietly. I am so damn nervous. I opened my mouth to speak but froze. I tried multiple times to speak but I just couldn’t get my vocal cords and my lips to work together. I began to shake again with my nerves. I stopped shaking when I felt a strong hoof on my shoulder. I sighed and took a deep breath as I steeled my nerves. I can do this, I’m with him and I can do anything with him there to support me.

A scribe placed a dome shaped device on the floor behind us and tapped it. When the scribe had backed away from it, it flashed blue and a hologram of the Krogoth appeared behind us. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I began but kept my eyes closed.

“Good afternoon everypony, you all know who I and Motor Runner are so I won’t waste your time with introductions” I began, if I couldn’t see them I couldn’t see all those eyes staring back at me. If I couldn’t see them I could do this. “You may all know from us and likely DJ PON3 about a giant robot killing machine called the Krogoth”

There was a chorus of loud murmurs of confirmation.

“The Krogoth is an all purpose assault mechanoid designed with the sole purpose of ending the war. Applejack had envisioned a machine so big, so armoured and so powerful that it would be practically unbeatable against Equestria’s enemies. She wanted the machine to wipe out the zebras and any other threats that would endanger her friends and Equestria. To give this machine that deadly power she gave it a Spark Reactor, a Crusader Mainframe, advanced movement systems and control interfaces such as a Synaptic Link…” Motor Runner turned around and pulled his mane back to reveal the plug on the back of his neck. “…and she gave it four of the deadliest weapon systems ever mounted on a ground based weapon.

Applejack employed my ancestor Blueberry Muffin as the chief weapon designer for the machine. She built for the Krogoth a multi-calibre machinegun that is capable of firing four types of ammunition. The ammunition the gun can fire are five millimetre rounds for basic infantry, fifty calibre for armoured infantry or light armoured vehicles and two experimental calibres, fifty five and sixty calibre. These two calibres would deal far greater damage and deeper penetrating power and could be used to take on medium armoured units or shoot through certain materials”

I opened my eyes slowly as I felt my confidence build as I talked. That was a big fucking mistake as when I opened my eyes fully and saw the entire crowd of rangers staring right at me, hanging on my words I felt my nerves return with a vengeance and I froze in fear and anxiety of standing in front of a crowd. I began to quake again and then suddenly I felt movement at my sides as my wings rapidly sprang out, flaring out to their full height. Oh this isn’t going to be good.

“SHE’S AN ALICORN” I heard someone scream from somewhere in the crowd.

Motor Runner took a step forward and I saw his cybernetic leg split down the middle and the teeth of his chainsaw pop out but he didn’t release it completely and then he placed his left organic foreleg in front of me in a protective stance as he looked over the crowd of growing furious ponies.

“ORDER” McNamare shouted but was ignored as ponies pushed forward shouting insults at me.

“What’s that freak doing down here?”

“She’s a monster”

“Kill it” I heard flying from the crowd. It hurt. It hurt to hear them turn on me just like that just because of these blasted things and it was the kind of hurt that feels like you just lost everything, like someone had cut a piece of your soul out of you. For an instant I felt like I was back in primary school with everypony laughing at me, calling me names because I was different.

“ORDER” McNamare tried again but was ignored again as the crowd continued to shout and scream.

I began to tremble in fear of being physically hurt by these ponies when all of a sudden a thunderous boom roared through the chamber and the rest of the stable. The sudden explosion of sound scared me and my wings beat hard as I jumped sending me about five feet into the air before I crashed back down. I recognised the bang as This Machine being fired as I picked myself back up and looked to see McNamare looking shaken with her holding This Machine vertically with the butt of the gun against the floor. Sat next to her with her forehooves over her ears and a smug look on her face as she looked over the now terrified and cowering rangers was Zyon.

“Knew that blank round I found would come in hoofy” She smiled as she took the large rifle from McNamare who was now having a little trouble standing.

”Loudest gun ever” She muttered as she wobbled over to me and Motor Runner to address the crowd again. She took a moment to compose herself and then looked back to me and gave me a look that said “I have to explain”. I nodded in response to her look and she returned the nod before turning back to the crowd and cleared her throat.

“That is quite enough” She yelled with authority. “Paladin Longshot is no different thank you or I. She is still a valued member of our team and is putting her life on the line to help us with the Krogoth” She turned and looked at me. “Should I tell them?” She asked quietly. I nodded; if it’ll help them understand then sure she can tell them. She returned her attention back to the crowd of ponies who were now picking themselves back up. “Paladin Longshot has been exposed to taint that caused a mutation that gave her wings trying to find some of your friends. She suffered this helping us, now show some restraint and respect. I will say this once, she is NOT an alicorn” She barked harshly.

When the crowd went silent McNamare nodded to me to continue but my confidence had been completely shattered and I couldn’t get my mouth to work. Motor Runner with his leg still showing the teeth of his saw took control of the situation. He gave me a gentle nuzzle and told me he’ll take it from here. I nodded and sank to me haunches.

He stood tall and intimidating, probably how he usually addressed his raider workers and began to speak.

“To continue from where Paladin Longshot left off” He began. “The Krogoth is fitted with the most powerful magical beam weapons ever mounted to any land based unit. Blueberry Muffin had her Railgun Rifle designs super sized for the Krogoth and fitted it with four of these Advanced Magical Railguns, AMRs for short. The AMRs fire concentrated beams of magical energy that can burn through practically anything within seconds.

Mounted to the rear of the AMRs are two missile pods that contain a total of eighteen missiles per pod, giving the machine a total payload of thirty six missiles that the machine can fire individually, in salvos or releasing the entire pods. It has already demonstrated this when it destroyed the city of Buckingham.

Mounted on the machine’s back is a weapons platform that holds an interchangeable turret which currently holds two weapons. The first weapon is a Disc-grenade Launcher that fires a burst of four disc-grenades. Disc-grenades are shaped like discs and can fly longer in the air than standard grenades giving them greater range. Unlike normal grenades the disc-grenades don’t have a timer from when they are fired or explode on impact. The disc-grenades bounce when they hit the ground, the first bounce will trigger the timer. This weapon is meant for infantry and light armoured units.

The second weapon is an Anti-Air Magical Railgun. It is five percent the power of the AMRs making it a lot weaker than them but for air units it’s still very powerful. The weapon makes up for its lack of firepower by its rate of fire and accuracy.

Lastly the Krogoth had acquired the artillery emplacement from Fort Battalion recently. It now sports two forty six centimetre artillery cannons that protrude from the Krogoth’s sides against its chest plate. These new cannons enable the Krogoth to perform long range bombardment. The cannons give the machine a range of at least twenty eight miles and its forty six centimetre shells can punch a hole through two feet of armour. Luckily the Krogoth does not have scanners with such a long range so the machine will not be able to accurately use its cannons beyond its original scanner range.

Controlling all this is a Crusader Mainframe similar to the one that runs this Stable. However during its construction during the war, a prisoner by the name of Short Circuit who had been imprisoned for hacking Equestria’s military network was brought in to program the mainframe as part of the work force that no pony would miss. When she was testing the mind transfer module the Krogoth stole that mare’s consciousness, ripping her mind, memories and experiences, her very essence, out of her. It made it look like an accident to draw suspicion away from itself and since then no pony was aware of this until recently. Taking the mare’s mind has allowed the machine to override its automated routines and with her knowledge of computer systems it also hacked into itself to disable all of its remote access commands which removed my ability to control it”

“How the hell are we supposed to stop it then?” Somepony interrupted from the crowd.

“We will get to that later” McNamare said.

Motor Runner sighed, his train of thought interrupted and he shook his head and looked to McNamare.

“Nothing else is really relevant so you can begin” He told her as he stood back giving the stage back to her. I quickly followed and sighed with relief as we were no longer the centre of attention.

“Ok everypony” McNamare began. “Tonight we will be boarding transports to take us to the Braytish Imperial city of Manechester” Upon saying its name the hologram shifted to show the map of the large braytish city. “We will be landing here in the old “Old Trotsford” stadium” The portion of the map that held the stadium glowed orange. “From there we will have to make our way to Oldham Street. To get there we will have to move through “Victory Station”, past the “National Railway Museum” and past the Manedale Centre” With each location mentioned an orange line dictated the route to Oldham Street.

Everypony took note of the map, making sure to memorize the route.

“This is where we’ll set up the trap, Zyon if you please”

Zyon nodded and walked up to the microphone.

“Zebra cunt” I heard someone mutter from the crowd which made my blood boil. How dare they?

“I’m a Zony for your information dipshit” Zyon retorted unfazed by the offensive comment and then she took a deep breathe ready to begin. “Ok, once we reach this street we will be placing demolition charges into these two buildings here” She pointed to the map with her now long haired tail. “Sunset Shimmer Loans and Quills and Sofas Business Centre. We’ll be planting charges on the first three floors and on the building’s support struts. The concentration of these charges will be towards the side of the building facing the street so when they blow the buildings will fall into the street. The bombs will be remotely detonated from the evac point back in the stadium when the Krogoth reaches these buildings”

McNamare stood forward again and Zyon joined us.

“After the charges are set you will all be broken back up into your squads and sent to key points from there to the edge of the city where the Krogoth will be entering. Under the cover of the signal jammer which is calibrated to block the Krogoth’s EFS so it can’t track you, each squad is to attack the Krogoth with the purpose of luring it to where we want it to go. Don’t worry about getting a hit as the machine will follow what attacks it as threats to itself take priority over its current objective. Once each squad has successfully lured the Krogoth they are to fall back to the evac point.

As Zyon has already said, once the Krogoth makes it to Oldham Street the charges will be detonated when the machine reaches the right spot. The result will be two towers of steel and concrete raining down on the Krogoth and burying it in thousands of tonnes of rubble. This will not destroy the machine but it will cripple it and slow it down. From there three squads that will have been lying in wait outside the demolition zone will take position around the machine to distract it”

“Distract it, what the fuck?”

“ORDER” McNamre growled with impatience. The crowd quietened down. “This is where Paladin Longshot and Motor Runner come in. Motor Runner being the pony responsible for its activation knows the machine’s Manual Overrides”

Motor Runner stepped forward again. “Even though the machine has disabled its remote access codes it is however unable to disable its manual overrides which are tied directly into the systems they control”

McNamare nodded. “Paladin Longshot and Motor Runner will enter the machine while it’s down and get into the machine’s Spark Reactor. From there they will input the manual override for the reactor to overload. Once confirmation is received everypony is to evacuate the city. An overload from the kind of reactor the machine has will cause an explosion on par with the biggest and strongest megaspells or balefire bombs ever recorded. The resulting explosion will destroy the machine and the entire city” She finished. After she finished with detailing the plan she then began to break up the crowd into their squads and assign them to where they will be stationed in the city to act as bait to lure the machine. I sure hope this works.

“Why are we even doing this at all?” Someone piped up.

“Why?” I cried out in surprise at the question. I felt a sudden surge or rage that cancelled out my fear of being in front of everypony as I stepped up to the microphone, my wings flared threateningly behind me. “Why, because if we don’t do it now then that machine will acquire the Obelisk of Magic and gain the ability to generate shields but more importantly, IT WILL NEVER STOP”

“Why won’t it stop?”

“Because it’s a machine, it is programmed to attack and destroy all threats to Equestria and it will keep on doing that until there is nothing left. It will see us all as potential threats and anything we do could be judged by it and if it sees us as a threat it will remove us. The machine will not stop until possibly it has killed all life in Equestria, it won’t stop there either as it will likely then leave Equestria to search the outlaying lands for more threats. If we do not stop it then it’ll kill and destroy all life on this planet” I yelled. I probably exaggerated the kill all life on the planet bit but it is a possibility.

“Why don’t we just disable its crusader since you have the manual codes and use it for our own gain?”

“Completely out of the question” McNamare shouted.

“She’s right, sure we could do that and use its manual controls but the machine will then become a beacon for other forces to try and take it from us. It will be just another source of power for some other group to want to get control over. It will cause more problems than it’ll solve and it will further divide the ponies of Equestria and be the source for more conflicts on the scale of what has transpired with Red Eye and the Enclave or worse, on the level of the Great War. For those reasons it’ll be best to destroy it” Motor Runner said in a very serious tone.

“He his correct, Equestria will be better off without it”

XXXXX

After the briefing me and my friends headed for the armoury. On the way there I retrieved my daughter from Rainstorm since she looked after her while I was out from my mutation and nearly killed Zyon and another bloke. I’m not kidding I nearly killed them by accident though. I close lined one other bloke as he was walking past me and smashed Zyon in the face at the same time. What happened were my wings decided to suddenly shoot out, catching both ponies off guard. My wings were solid and stiff and wouldn’t budge no matter how much I willed them down. I began to panic about this until Sky Fire began to ask me some questions about what I was thinking at the time. Dear sweet Luna I could have died from embarrassment then and there when I found out what happened. I had looked up at Motor Runner’s plot and shortly after that my wings shot out and so according to Sky Fire I had what a pegasus calls a “Wing Boner”. Oh goddesses that was so embarrassing, especially when she started laughing but thankfully she calmed down quickly and told me a technique she uses to kill a… ugh… a wing boner. She told me to think of something repulsive and keep thinking of it until my wings unstiffen and thankfully it worked. I hate to say the word mutation to describe what happened to me because it makes me feel like a freak even more. I sat in a corner of the armoury while my friends began preparing for the mission. They insisted on getting my stuff ready since I was still not totally recovered from the pain still in my sides and since they felt I needed to spend some time with my daughter as there is a possibility I won’t come back. I’ve come to terms with this many years ago when I joined the Steel Rangers as it was a fact of life you were gonna get shot or killed out there plus the fact the wasteland is the very definition of a living hell. However it’s a little different now since I have a little girl now but I have to do my duty.

While I sat cradling Blueberry I watched as Zyon took my power armour and began to remove the chest piece from it. With my new wings I obviously can’t wear normal power armour anymore but thankfully the Enclave that turned to the Applejack Rangers brought some spare suits with them which Zyon was cannibalising to get the pieces out of to make a new chest piece for my suit. I smiled as I saw the happy smile on Zyon’s face. She really loves to tinker with things.

"I thought you had already done this" I said remembering why she wasn't at the start of the briefing.

"I was going to but I had to get my hooves on an Enclave suit first"

"Oh"

Blueberry yawned loudly and snuggled close to my chest as she drifted off to sleep. I smiled as I watched this tiny innocent little filly sleep. Not a care in the world. Kids are the only pure ponies in this world and if I could I’d keep her that way. I don’t want her to grow up seeing the wasteland for what it is in fear of loosing her to it. Well if everything goes to plan then the wasteland will be a much safer place, perhaps maybe a little bit ok for raising a kid in. I waited until my little girl was truly asleep and then gently levitated her to a pillow filled with a soft cloud to sleep soundly on while I did a little work myself while being right next to her in case she needed me.

I floated This Machine over to me along with another AM Rifle which we had found earlier. I checked over my weapon while also running it through my pipbuck which told me the weapon had degraded over time to sixty percent. I closely examined the two types of Anti-Material/Machine Rifles and found the two to be shockingly nearly identical in terms of appearance and workings. I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes as I concentrated on my weapon repair spell. Something else I learned while with the Pondale Rangers.

The two heavy rifles became enveloped in my colourless magical aura and lifted off into the air. I felt the weapons rotate until they stood vertical in the air. My horn glowed brighter and then the two weapons seemed to disassemble themselves into their individual pieces. I opened my eyes which were blazing with magic. All I could see were the pieces of the weapons and the pieces that were the most damaged glowed red in my vision for This Machine and then the pieces from the other weapon that corresponded with the damaged pieces of This Machine glowed green and then they floated over to their counterparts. My horn pulsed and the pieces merged, repairing the damaged parts and then the cannibalised AM Rifle fell to the floor in pieces like metallic rain. This Machine’s pieces began to swirl around like a tornado as they started to piece themselves back together reforming the huge human made rifle. In one final flash the weapon was back in one piece and its condition had been raised from sixty to eighty seven percent. Once the spell was complete my eyes returned to normal and I floated the newly repaired This Machine to rest against the wall beside me. I panted for a little while as the spell took a quite a bit out of me. I’ve never run that spell before on This Machine, I suppose because it’s a weapon not of this world or familiar to me that it took it out of me.

“That…was…AWESOME” Sky Fire gushed hovering in the air.

“I will agree with her there, that was quite impressive” Zyon said as she looked at the now disassembled AM Rifle littering the floor. “I’ve never seen a weapon repair spell work that way”

“I must agree as well, that was quite impressive” Motor Runner added.

I blushed at the praise. “Hehe, thank you, I added my own twist to the usual repair spell”

I smiled as I looked back to my sleeping daughter and was thankful that she was still sleeping despite the rain of metal from the disassembled weapon. She might be like me, a heavy sleeper who can sleep through a bomb blast.

”TWO HOURS TO DEPARTURE” Shouted a voice from the intercom which made me jump.

“Ok ponies we gotta get ready”

“Give me a minute, this Enclave crap is complicated….Ow hey” Zyon cried when Sky Fire slapped her with her wing. “Oh, heh, sorry”

“You’re such a gimboid” She giggled before hugging her.

XXXXX

It was oddly cold this evening. It felt like it was winter but I suppose that was the result of nerves for what we were about to do. I decided to leave CD back with Rainstorm; I didn’t want to risk bringing him along since I didn’t want to loose him. He wasn’t happy to be left behind but he understood. We had all boarded the transports and were all now flying at high speed towards the city. Me and my friends were on the transport with Elder McNamare and a few other ponies. One of which was still listening to the SPP Observation Network.

“Ma’am the Krogoth appears to have stopped”

“Stopped?” The Elder asked in surprise.

“It has ran into a fissure in the earth”

“Why is that such a problem for it?” Zyon asked.

“It’s not on any maps, it looks like the fissure was caused by an earthquake some time ago and it stretches on for a good hundred miles”

“That’s a long ass ditch” She joked.

“Then that means we have more time then right?” I asked hopeful.

“Yes, the length of the fissure has forced the machine to walk around and that’s added eighteen hours to its original journey time”

“That’s good; it gives us extra time to properly prepare the charges and to set the squads up at their locations better”

I moved over to a small narrow window in the armoured transport’s side and peered out to the passing wasteland. The skies were clear this evening and the full moon illuminated the wasteland well and from the air I could see just how dead and desolate it was. I suppose the stories are true, the whole land of Equestria was poisoned by the bombs and nothing pure grows. If only the ground could be purified like the sky has.

The flight was pretty much uneventful so far. I suppose the fracture of the Enclave has made air travel safer now since we don’t have to worry about attracting their attention. We soon passed Canterlot Mountain and got a good look at the huge hole bored into the mountain side. That hole was just a testament to the power the Krogoth holds. A machine with such power in this world doesn’t belong, not if we strive for peace. No, that thing just wants to destroy. Leaving the mountain behind we continued northwest and soon came to the sight of the Krogoth’s last victims, the town of Thornton, well the ruins of Thornton.

“Holy Celestia” I exclaimed as I looked down to the burning ruins.

The whole town was nothing but rubble now. Practically nothing was left standing after those missiles struck ground. The Krogoth made damn sure nothing survived its attack; again this is more reason why we have to destroy that thing.

McNamare took the transport’s intercom in her hoof as she looked down at the passing wreckage and lifted it to her mouth and began to speak, addressing the entire fleet of transports.

“If you all look down you can see the ruins of a town called Thornton. It was attacked yesterday by the Krogoth. This is why we have to stop it, to ensure this doesn’t happen again. The machine attacked this town and killed its entire population like they were vermin. If we do not stop it, then everything is lost”

I nodded in agreement as I noticed the town hall. It looked like the machine just walked right through it as all that stood were its two end walls.

Our fly over the town however attracted some unwanted attention. Scavenging the ruins we noticed a large number of griffins and some of them wore power armour and as we were passing they noticed us and gave chase.

“We got contacts”

“Hostile forces inbound”

“Attack positions”

I looked out of the window and noticed that many ponies were opening the rear hatches of the transports or were climbing onto the roof of their transport or shoved their guns out the windows to engage the incoming threats. I decided to do the same.

“Everypony buckle up, I’m opening the rear hatch” I said as I pulled This Machine from its harness on my back and walked over to the door release at the back. “All set?” I asked and at their affirmatives I pulled the lever and the rear hatch opened.

The cabin filled with the roar of the wind as it flowed into the transport. My mane and wings were being ruffled badly by the strong winds as I stepped to the edge and sat down to anchor myself while also pressing up against the wall behind me. I floated This Machine up in front of me and held the butt to my armour’s newly rebuilt shoulder and chest piece and aimed the weapon out. The sounds of gunfire could be heard now over the roar of the wind as the other transports opened fire on the approaching enemy. My EFS showed several red markers coming our way and I aimed my rifle towards them.

”Red is dead” I said out loud when remembering something I was told by Stanier.

I found a power armoured griffin flying towards us at high speed. I moved the red crosshairs of the rifle to sight up the griffon’s head but then suddenly a dark thought entered my mind. Why make his death instant, let’s make him suffer and with that I moved my aim so the crosshairs sighted up his beating wing. I was about to pull the trigger when I realised what I was about to do and shook my head to dislodge that dark thought. I can’t let the darkness take hold, not now. Taking a deep breath to calm myself back down I aimed my rifle again at the incoming griffon and fired. My shot obliterated his head and the result of his head explosion caught another griffon behind him off guard and sent him into a spin.

The griffins returned fire at our transports and I had to duck a few times to avoid incoming plasma bolts. I switched my ammo type to explosive rounds as I returned fire. The explosive rounds would explode upon impact and the explosions would take out more than one target. This attack by the griffons would be slowing us down as the pegasi flying us to the city would also be doing evasive manoeuvres which made me miss a few times because of the unexpected jerks of the transport.

We fought for about twenty minutes before the griffons backed off, realising they would not win. When the all clear was sounded we became aware that we lost four ponies and two had been injured but treatable. We can’t afford to loose anypony really for this mission to succeed as it all rests on getting the machine to where we want it. Thankfully the flight after the griffon attack was uneventful and by first light the city was coming into view.

“There it is everypony, the Braytish city of Manechester” McNamare said over the intercom. Even this far out we could see the glowing white spire of the Obelisk at the top of the Manedale Centre.

Half an hour later we were almost within the city limits and the white glow of the Obelisk dimmed down to nothing before a red light began to glow from the tip. I remembered this from a few months ago when we first came here to find out the location of the Hangar. Oh crap, if it thinks we’re threats it’s going to shoot us down.

I quickly turned to Sky Fire. “Sky, the Obelisk has to see you”

“What, why?”

“Remember when we first came here, the Obelisk did the same thing, its scanning us”

“Oh shit”

I used my magic to pull the rear hatch release and once it opened she zoomed out leaving a rainbow contrail behind.

”What’s going on?” McNamare asked as she watched Sky Fire fly past the windows to get in front of the transport.

”Last time we were here the Obelisk scanned us to see if we were threats and since Sky Fire is Rainbow Dash genetically and in appearance it accepted us as being with the ministry mare and let us through. It needs to see her or it’ll likely shoot us down”

We all moved to the front of the transport so we could see. She no longer wears the hood up to disguise herself. I suppose without the Enclave she doesn’t feel threatened or in danger from being seen and killed by them.

The familiar red light scanned over her face. “I am Rainbow Dash, Ministry Mare of the Ministry of Awesome” She yelled as a red cross formed on her face as the tip of the Obelisk glowed bright red. “Pass phrase, Element of Loyalty” Upon shouting that phrase to the Obelisk the bright red glow at its tip faded away.

Sky Fire turned around to face us looking spooked. “I...I’ll meet y…you at the stad…stadium” She turned and sped off at fantastic speed nearly breaking the sound barrier as she flew.

“What just happened?”

“I don’t know but she looked terrified” Zyon said worriedly.

I nodded as I also saw the horrified look on her face as she turned away. The Obelisk resumed its idle white glow as we entered Braytish airspace. As we entered the city we began to look around at the still intact buildings. I couldn’t keep my focus and neither could Zyon as we flew towards the ancient home of Manechester United. As we neared the large stadium I saw Sky Fire sitting on the scoreboard that was hanging from the roof supports of the western stands. A funny thing to see was the scoreboard as it still had the score from the last hoofball match that was held here which said three to Mane-U and one to Real Maredrid. The transports began to circle the huge stadium as we began our descent and before long we landed on the dead grass of the hoofball field and almost knocked down one of the rectangular goals. Once our transport came to a stop me and Zyon ran out of the transport to meet with Sky Fire who by the time we landed hand jumped down from the scoreboard.

“Sky, are you alright?” Zyon asked worriedly. I had opened my mouth to ask the same thing but closed it since she beat me to it.

“No I’m not” She almost cried. I could see streaks on her cheeks from tears which told me she had been crying.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t know how I knew that phrase” She shrieked “It was like I’ve known it all my life. I’m becoming her aren’t I?” She asked as she began to hyperventilate from her growing panic.

Zyon rushed up to her and hugged her tight. “No, you’ll never be her” She reassured her lover.

“She’s right Sky, you’ll never be Rainbow Dash, sure you’re her genetically but mentally your not”

“But that phrase, it was something she chose as her password to access things… I remember choosing it as the ministries were being put together. I’m getting her memories now”

I looked down not sure how to reassure her when she’s getting her memories now. Goddesses I’m useless.

”Memories, that’s all they are Miss Fire. They are not what defines us and not what determines who we are. You were lucky that you still had your mentality when you were cloned. The only reason you may feel like you are turning into her is because it’s written in her DNA. You are no more like her than you were before the accident. It’s your own fear of being her that is creating this illusion that you are turning into her. Focus on who you are. Don’t let the fear win, you are Sky Fire, descendant of Spitfire” Motor Runner said firmly as he joined us.

“Wow Motor Runner that was deep” I said standing next to the tall dark and handsome earth pony.

“I know what she’s going through, I nearly forgot myself when I took the name Motor Runner. Remember I was called Scrapheap before then. I nearly forgot who I was and what I was doing because I was being consumed by the persona I built up. It wasn’t until I could barely remember my family that I realised just how far I had fallen”

“Its ok Sky Fire, I’m here, breath” Zyon said softly. Sky Fire began taking in deep breaths to calm herself down. Once she was calm Zyon let her go. “Better?”

“No but at least I’m not freaking out” She said with a half smile and then looked at Motor Runner. “Thank you”

Motor Runner just gave a respectful nod.

“Everypony gather round” We heard McNamare shout. We turned to find her stood on the roof of a transport addressing the small crowd of Applejack Rangers. Celestia’s sun began to shine over the roof of the stands and into the stadium, bathing us in its warm light as we rejoined the group.

“We have over twenty four hours before the K-01 ACM KROGOTH arrives and to set up the trap. We have plenty of time to get this done so please do not panic and rush. It is imperative that everything goes according to plan. We can not risk short cutting anything with the machine being so close to what could possibly make it invincible” She took a breath before continuing in a more solemn tone. “Tomorrow is when the Krogoth will reach this city and that day will mark the start of a peaceful wasteland or a living hell. We can not fail here my little ponies. We have to win. Equestria’s future depends on the outcome of our attack on the machine. If we fail, Equestria will be lost forever. Can we let that happen?”

“NO!” We all shouted.

“Are we going to let this thing take the Obelisk?”

“NO!”

“Are we going to bury it and destroy it?”

“YEAH!”

“Then grab your equipment and your charges and get into your assigned squads and by ten o’clock we’ll move out” She finished.

We didn’t waste any time after that to get ourselves prepared.

XXXXX

McNamare and a bunch of scribes remained behind in the stadium with a squad of Rangers as protection. They were setting up the remote detonators for the charges the demolition teams carried. I am nervous about tomorrow. I don’t know how well this’ll work but I have every confidence in Zyon’s bomb making skills and of course my coltfriend’s manual overrides. I just hope nothing goes wrong.

“Welcome to Victoria Station, Manechester’s central railway hub” Zyon said as we began our trek through the huge railway station. The station was old; I mean before the war it was old. According to a stone that was built into the red brick walls of the station’s main building the station’s original structure was two hundred years old before the bombs fell. The original structure still stood and it looked like more modern platforms and buildings were added to the old making the station look like it was split down the middle with one side being the old and the other being the new.

We had entered Victoria on the newer side and we had three platforms which had rail lines running right through the station between us and our exit on the opposite side in the older area. An iron bridge that bridged the platforms together was our easiest option and so we crossed the platforms using the bridge. As we crossed we saw that the station still had several steam trains at their stations, forever waiting, a ghostly reminder of a time long passed. I was amazed at what I saw. They maybe rusted hulks now but they were still impressive machines. One engine caught my eye, a large maroon red coloured engine with a nameplate which read “Duchess of Canterlot”

“Wow that one’s a beauty” I said out loud as we passed over the train sitting by the middle platform.

“The braytish were the best in steam technology” Zyon said matter-of-factly.

Descending the stairs at the end of the bridge we came down to the original platforms of the station and stood under a massive glass roof which covered the entire old platform area. Looking up I could see that nets had been put up under the large glass panes and that many of the glass panes were missing. The nets were however in tatters and the platforms were strewn with broken glass and several things like lampposts and benches had been crushed. It was easy to tell that the old nets were not able to stop the glass from falling anymore and for two hundred years since the bomb without maintenance the glass has been falling into the station.

“Slow and steady everypony” Star Paladin Golden Star said as we began to walk across the glass littered platforms. All any of us could hear was the sound of glass crunching under armoured hooves as we walked.

A strong wind blew through the ancient station and the wind rattled through the steel roof supports and against the ancient glass clinging to it.

“Look out” Somepony shouted before a tremendous bang of shattering glass rung out through out the station which was then followed by a cry for a medic. Unfortunately one unlucky Ranger was crushed to death as a heavy sheet of glass had landed on him. His tags were retrieved before we continued on.

The tower overshadowed us as we left the old station. We were very close to the giant tower and its shopping complex and from here we could just see how much taller this tower was to the rest. We couldn’t even see the Obelisk now but we could still see the white glow coming from it.

Ahead of us stood the railway museum. We have to cut through that to reach the Manedale Centre. The museum was full of the most impressive steam engines I had ever seen. From the entrance we came in we saw replicas of the Braytish Empire’s first steam engines which would have predated Equestrian steam by a couple of centuries and as we moved deeper we began to see how they all changed from being small barely useful machines to becoming giant beasts on wheels.

We came to what looked like a presentation area as a stage stood before three massive steam locomotives and a load of chairs facing the stage and the engines. Judging by the looks of most of the chairs being overturned and possessions still lying on the floor around the seats and the half covered middle engine they were in the middle of an unveiling when everypony left in a hurry. As everypony else continued on me and my friends walked up to the half covered locomotive. Sitting in front of the large engine was a plaque on a stand which read.

“GBR Princess Celestia, one of three especially built Princess Coronation Class steam locomotives built as gifts for the Equestrian Royal Family in celebration of five hundred years of peace between the Braytish Empire and Equestrian Kingdom and the joining of our two nations thanks to the trans-national railway”

Out of curiosity I used my magic to pull the tarp completely off the massive white locomotive. It was gorgeous. Its only defect was that being white the grime that had accumulated over the two hundred years just sitting here as marred her finish making it look old and dirty. Pulling the tarps off the other two revealed two more of the same type of engines but one being painted midnight blue which was obviously the “GBR Princess Luna” and the other one being pink meaning it was the “GBR Princess Mi Amore Cadenza”. That last one is a mouthful.

“No slacking” Golden Star shouted when she noticed us admiring the engines.

“Sorry” I said and was about to turn when my EFS alerted me to a few red markers behind the Princess Luna. “Ma’am, we’ll meet you outside, we got hostiles”

She nodded “Be careful Longshot”

I turned back to the Luna and moved my head back and forth while keeping my eyes on my compass and the red markers moved quickly with the compass which told me that our targets were indeed very close by. I gave a nod to my friends and they armed themselves with their weapons and so did I. I opened my storage unit and pulled out my Lever-Action Shotgun. We crept up to the oval shaped front buffers of the Luna and readied ourselves. I turned my head again to see the red markers and they were moving towards us. I gave another nod and we all rushed around the locomotive with our guns and melee weapons at the ready. There was a shrill cry and the clatter of improvised weapons fell to the floor as the four zebras we surprised fell back onto their haunches and raised their hooves above their heads.

“Please don’t shoot us” One of the zebra’s cried. She was young, no more than thirteen.

I looked at the four zebras and their once hostile red markers had now turned white.

I opened my mouth to demand who they were but was interrupted when Zyon put her sword back into its sheath and stepped out in front of me with her gaze fixed on the only stallion in the group, a large zebra stallion that looked to be in his fifties. “Dad?” Zyon asked as she approached him.

As Zyon approached the zebras I kept my gun raised in case they tried something but as I watched them I noticed that each of them wore what used to be Stable 53 Jumpsuits.

“Do I know you?” The stallion asked turning his head to better see her. It was then I noticed that half his face was burned leaving him with one good eye.

“Dad it’s me, don’t you recognise me?” She asked and then immediately facehoofed. “Of course you don’t, ugh, stupid killing joke” She cursed. “Dad it’s me, Zyon”

Upon hearing that I lowered my gun and my friends disarmed themselves.

“You are not my son, you’re a mare. How dare you use his name” He growled standing up and towering over the feminized Zyon.

“I know Dad, but I’m telling you the truth, I got touched by Killing Joke and it did this to me” Zyon said before looking down to her left leg and quickly grabbed her sword and pulled it free before placing it at his hooves. The large stallion looked down at the gleaming sword by his hooves and his one eye widened in disbelief as he looked from Zyon to the sword and back.

“Y…You could have took it from him” He yelled with fear and anger conflicting in his voice. Zyon responded by saying something in zebra and that something made the large stallion fall silent and drop to his haunches looking like he had just be slapped in the face. Suddenly he leapt up and embraced Zyon in a crushing ursa hug.

“Dad…can’t breath” She wheezed as he squeezed her within an inch of her life from the hug.

“I can’t believe you’re alive, you’ve been out here for sixteen years. You look…” He paused as he tried to think of a good word to describe Zyon but he then sighed as he failed to find a word to positively describe her sex change. “…good” he finished lamely.

Zyon smirked. “Thanks”

I stepped forward and the zebras stiffened as they regarded my armour and my wings. “Please, you have nothing to fear sir. I am a your so…err…um…daughter’s oldest friend out here in the wasteland” Zyon nodded in confirmation and the four zebras relaxed a little but were still a little apprehensive. “I am Paladin Longshot of the Applejack Rangers” I introduced myself and then I gestured with my hoof to the hovering Sky Fire. “This is Sky Fire”

“Hello sir, I’m Zyon’s marefriend” She said and blushed. “Why did I find that so easy to say?” She asked so quietly to herself nopony else would have heard her if they weren’t close enough like I was.

“You…you’re…you can’t be her…its impossible” One of the mares blurted out as she must have recognised her which prompted her to groan loudly in agitation.

“Urh, I’m not Rainbow Dash, I may look like her but I’m not” She almost shouted.

Zyon pulled her down by her tail and hugged her softly. “Easier there Sky”

Motor Runner stepped forward. “I am Motor Runner” He said calmly.

Zyon's father stood again. “My name is Ziaas and this…” He gestured to a zebra mare in her forties. “Is my wife Xian” The mare in question gave a nervous wave and I noticed Zyon’s jaw drop in disbelief. “And these two girls are our daughters, Zeilon and Xar’Rai”

“How could you replace mum” Zyon almost shouted.

“Zyon please understand, I can never forget about your mother, she was the first love of my life. You must remember Xian, she was a life long friend and supported our relationship and she helped raised you when I couldn’t be around when I was forced to work late a lot”

The zebra mare called Xian stepped up close to her husband. “Please Zyon; I’m not trying to replace your mum. I supported your father and your mother and did everything I could to help her when things got bad. When you left things got even worse with your grandparents passing and the stable’s pony population blaming you and us for you leaving and accused us of trying to destroy the stable by opening it”

Zyon gawked. “They what?”

“Don’t worry about it son, I know why you left, I saw it in your eyes for the last couple of years before you left. I don’t blame you either. Like Xian said, things got even worse when you left and after a few years and after our marriage we too couldn’t take it down there and we followed your example”

“I’m so sorry Dad, I didn’t mean for this to happen”

“It’s ok, really”

I heard metal hooves approaching from behind us and I turned to meet the ranger who was coming back.

“Paladin Longshot what is taking so long?” Asked the ranger as he stepped out from the front of the steam engine.

“Ah, Knight Golden Compass. We found some Stable survivors. Can you escort them back to the evac point?”

The Ranger nodded.

“Mr Ziaas, you and your family please follow Knight Golden Compass back to the Old Trotford Stadium. You’ll be safe there and when our mission is complete you and Zyon can catch up all you want”

The large zebra stallion looked to Zyon who sheathed her sword. “Don’t worry Dad, I’ll be fine. Please do as she says, what is coming is something I don’t want to loose you to”

“Alright Zyon, please come back to us, I lost you once, I don't want to loose you again” He said in a hopeful voice. The three zebra mares stood and followed close behind him as they began to walk with Golden Compass back towards the stadium.

“Alright, let’s keep going and get those charges set”

“You know, it’ll be a shame if we succeed” Motor Runner suddenly said as we left the museum.

“What will be a shame?” I asked curious.

“If we succeed the Krogoth will destroy this city and everything in it. All those steam engines will be lost. That’s a big chunk of Braytish history being wiped out”

He was right; we’ll never see the likes of those wonderful machines again. Maybe if we had the ability to save some we could have but unfortunately like he said, if we win, all that history will be destroyed. I kinda feel bad now since we’d be responsible for destroying four hundred years of Braytish history.

By the time we caught up with the main group we had made it to Oldham Street and Star Paladin Golden Star had already divided them into their squads and had just sent them on their way to set up their observation posts and where they would lie in wait to lure the Krogoth. The rangers that were left all carried the explosives that would be used to bring down the two office blocks in Oldham Street. We approached her ready for our orders.

“Paladin Longshot, I want you and Zyon to oversee the placement and arming of the charges in the Quills and Sofas Business Centre” She ordered and then turned to Motor Runner. “I want you and Sky Fire to do the same in Sunset Shimmer Loans” We nodded and split up to do as we were asked.

XXXXX

Team 1 entered the large and open ground floor of the Sunset Shimmer Loans building. The large floor was full of desks and chairs. Back in the day many ponies would have seen customer advisors about their loans here but now it was just a ghostly reminder of what used to be. The group of ponies broke up and made their way to the supporting columns of the building and began to place their charges. When the last ranger entered the structure there was a flash and an orange hologram of a unicorn mare in a business suit with her hair done back up into a bun with two chopsticks stuck in it to keep it in place appeared before the ranger.

“Welcome to Sunset Shimmer Loans, I am Sunset Shimmer, how may I be of service?” It asked in a positive and friendly tone.

The ranger hesitated for a moment before stepping aside and walked around the hologram. The hologram turned around and tilted its head in confusion as it was ignored. The hologram noticed the other rangers and faded away only to then reappear in front of another ranger and repeated the same line in the same tone and each time the hologram did this it was ignored. The hologram flicked as it struggled to understand what was going on and to why these ponies were ignoring its services. It wasn’t designed nor programmed to deal with situations like this. Coming to the conclusion that a member of staff was required for this the hologram sent out a call for an Equine Resource Manager to come to the ground floor before it faded away.

“That was weird”

“Didn’t expect this place to still have functional service attendants”

“Quit the chatter we got the next two floors to do”

Sky Fire and Motor Runner checked each of the custom charges that were mounted on the support columns of the building before the ponies began to move towards a door that would lead into the building’s private customer offices, stairs to the vault in the basement and the stairs to the upper floors. As soon as the first ranger got within ten feet of the door the hologram reappeared.

“Attention, customers are not permitted past this point without a member of staff. Please turn back, thank you” It said in a slightly threatening voice before it faded away again.

Not heeding the hologram’s threat the ponies continued forward. The door was easily broken down since it was locked and made of wood the rangers began to spread out again to apply the charges to the supports in the ground floor’s back offices.

The hologram reappeared in the middle of the floor between several of the cubicles but this time the hologram was slightly different. It was identical apart from its mane style, where as it was tied up into a bun before it was now wavy and in an unkempt mess. Its calm and positive facial expression was now twisted into that of someone who was really angry.

“Intruder alert, intruder alert. Unauthorised access detected. The use of lethal forced authorised” It said as the tip of its horn glowed a threatening deep red.

“Oh shit, security hologram” One of the rangers shouted and immediately the rangers dived out of its line of sight.

“We can’t fight that thing” Motor Runner said as he crouched down behind a cubicle with Sky Fire next to him. “The only way we are going to kill that hologram is to find its emitter and disable or destroy it”

“Where will its emitter be?” A ranger shouted from the other side of the office.

“That was the beauty of these security holograms. The emitter could be placed anywhere on the floor. We are going to have to find it. Whatever you do, do not let it see you. These holograms use a line of sight targeting system, it sees you, it shoots you so stay out of its line of sight”

“Alright, half of you go back into the front to look for this emitter, the rest of you, spread out and find it”

As commanded half of the rangers filed back out into the front to begin their search while the rest began looking in every nook and cranny they could find trying to locate the emitter. While the rangers searched the cubicles the hologram began a pre-programmed patrol routine.

A ranger jumped out in front of the hologram in attempt to make it to another cubicle unaware that the hologram was moving through the aisles. None of the rangers were aware of where the hologram is because it is made entirely of arcane energy and has no mass so it gives off no sound as it walks. The ranger froze with shock seeing the hologram no more than two feet away from him.

“Oh shit”

The horn of the hologram glowed a threatening red before it began to fire magical bolts in quick succession at the ranger. The shots were not well aimed but the rate of fire made dodging difficult and ultimately ended with the ranger taking three shots, two to the chest and one hit him in his right eye. He screamed in pain as the two shots to his chest caused his armour to glow red hot and heat up acting like an oven against his body before the shot to his eye burned it right out of him along with his head. The ranger fell dead as the hologram resumed its patrol.

Motor Runner looked around and saw an open door on the opposite side of the office which was wide open and appeared to open into a staffroom. He craned his neck to look over the half wall of the cubicle he was taking cover behind with Sky Fire. He saw the hologram walking down the aisle towards him and he quickly pulled his head down.

”We need somepony to check the staffroom” He called out. “Who is closest?”

“I am sir” He heard a ranger reply.

“I am going to distract it, when I shout, make your way to the staffroom”

Sky Fire grabbed his synthetic leg. “Are you crazy?”

“Don’t worry about me; it shouldn’t be able to hurt me”

“It’s not you I’m worried about, it’s Appletart”

He looked down at her and smiled. “Don’t worry, I don’t intend on leaving her anytime soon” As he said that he didn’t look at her and his facial expression told a different story which she failed to notice. Sky Fire let him go as she believed him and she was also fully aware of his Starmetal Hide which would make all magic that wasn’t intoned to the metal inert.

He stood up and stepped out into the aisle. The hologram was looking in his direction. “GO!” He shouted. There was a clatter of sound as the armoured ranger quickly jumped to his hooves and made a break for the staffroom. Motor Runner narrowed his eyes at the hologram as it was still walking towards him; it was as if the hologram hadn’t seen him. Motor Runner’s eyes widened as he realised something.

“It can’t see me”

“What?” Sky Fire asked from behind the cubicle wall.

“My starmetal hide is making me invisible to it”

Suddenly there was a small explosion that came from the staffroom and the hologram disappeared. The ranger who had gone into the staffroom came out with a sooted face and then coughed.

“I found it…*cough*…It was under the sink” He moaned rubbing his face. “It blew up in my face”

“Good work”

The other rangers began to come out of their hiding places.

”Ok everypony, the hologram didn’t see me. To prevent further loss I will go up into the next two floors and disable the holograms” He said as he turned to head for the stairs going up. “Sky Fire, please check the charges”

“Alright Motor Runner, be safe”

He gave her a smile before he disappeared up the stairs and Sky Fire began to check the charges the rangers began to place around the ground floor. With Motor Runner clearing the floors required to be fitted with charges the operation went smoothly and within two hours the tower was rigged to blow.

XXXXX

Team 2 entered the reception of the Quills and Sofas Business Centre. In front of them as they entered was a large horseshoe desk with a bank of terminals lain across it. The first thing that came to everypony’s attention was the state of the place. Waiting chairs, small tables, papers, rubbish anything practically not held down had been scattered about the place as if somepony had decided to have a party or the place had been looted which wouldn’t make much sense if it had considering the almost pristine appearance of the other buildings around it.

“Looks like somepony had themselves one hell of a shindig” Zyon commented.

“Ok everypony, spread out and set your charges but keep your guard up, something doesn’t feel right” The albino mare ordered as she looked around at the mess.

While the rangers began to set their charges on the support columns of the building the two friends began to look around. The state of the ground floor disturbed them and it disturbed them more when the zony closed a door to reveal three long claw marks in the wooden panels of the door.

“Oh this can’t be good”

Appletart quickly brought out her shotgun as she began to scan the area looking for any possible targets. The sounds of many metal hooves moving around drowned out any little hints of anything else moving somewhere in the building which made it that much harder to find any targets, even her EFS wasn’t picking anything up and without her sprite-bot helping to increase her range it made that much worse.

“I can’t find anything but this still feels wrong”

A ranger came to a closed door. The room behind it was another small private office which also housed a support column. The door exploded and a large grey clawed hand grabbed the ranger’s head and before he could scream it yanked him into the room and that’s when he screamed in terror and agony.

“Holy shit what was that?”

Suddenly the ranger’s body was thrown back through the door. His armour looked to have been peeled open like he had been attacked with an old style can opener with how he had jagged cuts through the armour plates around his body. Unfortunately the ranger was dead as he was headless and one of his legs was missing.

The other rangers began to gather near the door with Appletart and Zyon. They slowly approached the door, fearful of what they would find considering what had just happened. There was a slight rumble from inside the room as they approached cautiously.

“Anything?”

“My EFS is clear”

“Mine too” Another ranger confirmed.

Then something huge barrelled out of the room and rugby tackled its way through the rangers before they could react and dragged another one of them into another room which was swiftly followed by the same dreaded scream of death as the door slammed shut behind it.

“Holy fucking shit did you see that?”

“It looked like a hellhound”

There was then a high pitched scream from the room that didn’t sound like anything the rangers have heard before apart from the albino mare and the zony.

“That’s not a hellhound” Appletart said grimly.

“What is it then?”

“A Sire” Zyon said in an equally grim tone.

“A Sire, shit, what is one of those things doing this far out?”

“I don’t know but they spread far and wide after they escaped from New Hope”

“Listen up, the only way to kill these things is to mash its brain” Zyon instructed as she readied her sword.

Zyon got ready to attack when suddenly the door burst off its hinges and flew across the room and crashed into Zyon and sent her sword flying from her mouth. The weapon’s ultra sharp blade sank into the wall in between two rangers, nearly taking one of their ears off.

“I just cacked my pants” The ranger lucky to not have lost his ear cried.

“Zyon” The albino shouted as she rushed to the heavy wooden door to help her friend.

Everypony turned with their weapons at the ready as a hulking malformed grey skinned monstrosity emerged from the office with blood staining its misshapen mouth, its chest and its large clawed hands. The creature stood looking at the rangers. It was shaking with anticipation of its next meal along with its unstable mentality. It was breathing fast, its jaws jittering as it looked around at the rangers. It let out a high pitched roar as it began to charge again at the group. This time however the rangers were ready and the rangers the monster was rushing towards opened fire. Their combined firepower blasted the monster all over its body causing great big bloody holes to open all over its body and the creature let out a pained cry before falling to the ground face first.

“Weren’t so tough” An overconfident ranger mare said as she stepped up to the fallen monster and poked it with her hoof.

The downed creature felt the prod and lashed out with lightening speed. It thrust one of its clawed hands into the mare’s side. Its long sharp claws digging through her armour and digging deep into her body. She screamed in pain as the monster pulled itself back up onto its holey legs. The creature didn’t seem fazed by the injuries it had taken as it grabbed the mare by her neck with its free hand, hauling her off her armoured hooves while it still had its other hand buried in her side. The monster held the terrified mare for a moment before it used its mouth to bite down on her head and pulled hard. The helmet tore apart from the creature’s pull and then it spat out the ruined piece of armour. The mare screamed terrified as the monster than chomped down on her head.

“Dear sweet Celestia” Several of the rangers cried out in horror at what they just witnessed.

The rangers resumed their fire, focusing their shots this time at its arms holding their now dead colleague. The monster screamed in pain as both of its arms were severed from its body and surprisingly to the rangers it was still standing. The rangers were momentarily stunned that the creature was still standing even after having its arms blown off when they remembered what Zyon had said. To kill it you had to mash its brain and as it began its charge again on the rangers they fired at its head. The combined firepower focused on its head completely obliterated its skull and painted its brains on the ceiling. The creature collapsed and skidded across the floor dead now that its head was pulverized.

“Celestia I hate those things” Zyon groaned as she was helped out from under the door.

The rangers mourned their fallen for a minute after they retrieved their holotags and continued on their mission. Luckily for them the rest of the ground floor was clear and unfortunately they found the remains of two zebras that had been wearing Stable 53 jumpsuits. The bodies of the poor stable zebras explained why the ground floor was such a mess.

The first floor of the building was thankfully free of Sires and everypony was able to plant their charges without incident. Upon entering the second floor they found that the ceiling looked to have been torn apart as many of the ceiling foam tiles had fallen or been ripped up and the wires hidden behind them had dropped down making the second floor look like something from a jungle with the wires like vines dangling from the ceiling.

“What the hell happened here?”

“Can’t we do anything without some random shit happening?”

”Stop complaining and set your charges”

The rangers began to spread out while keeping alert. Like the ground floor the second floor didn’t feel right. Ten minutes into laying the charges on the second floor an ominous creaking and groaning began to groan its way through the floor’s ceiling. The unwelcome sound pushed the rangers to work faster while Appletart and Zyon scanned the ceiling for any signs of an enemy.

The light from the morning sun outside was starting to fade which only added to everypony’s anxiety. Zyon looked around quickly with her sword at the ready again. She walked along the front of the building looking into the street and looked up to the Manedale Centre. The Obelisk was illuminating the sky which was clouding over in dark storm clouds which reflected the mood in the building.

“Today is gonna suck” She said to herself.

Paladin Longshot was on the other side of the room looking at a wall. Her red eyes were looking over the many grooves in the wall trying to figure out what they were. She scowled as the fading light was making it hard to see and so she ignited her horn with magic to cast light on the wall. Her eyes widened as she looked at the many sets of three lines crisscrossing the wall from the floor to the ceiling. Images of little monsters clinging to her face and neck flashed in her mind as she stared at the many lines.

“Wretches” She said in a snarl.

Suddenly as if on cue a large chunk of the ceiling somewhere behind her collapsed with the screeches of many little creatures as they rained down on the unsuspecting rangers below. Thanks to the Steel Ranger armour they wore the little monsters were unable to claw or bite through them.

“What the fuck are these things?” One of the rangers shouted as he kicked and bucked to shake them off his back.

The winged unicorn approached them, her wings flared in a threatening stance as she ignited her horn with magic along with an angry scowl on her face. She seized a Wretch in her magic and pulled the little monster close to her. She snarled darkly as she narrowed her eyes which began to flame with a purple arcane energy. They glowed briefly for a few moments before her red eyes became green and red with red slit like pupils.

“I HATE YOU” She snarled and her magic compressed the small monster until its bones broke and crumbled and then its flesh ruptured, spilling its bodily fluids onto the floor as it cried out in its agony before dying from being crushed upon itself.

“Whoa, Paladin Longshot”

The zony rushed to the commotion only to have a Wretch jump onto her head making her cry out in surprise and run into a wall but squashed the monster against it since it blocked her view.

“Oh great, it’s these little shits…uh oh” Zyon said as she quickly went to find her friend.

She found Appletart and three rangers being swarmed by at least twenty of the small monkey dog like monsters but luckily these monsters were not much of a threat for power armoured ponies as their small claws and teeth couldn’t cut into the armour enough. She watched as the rangers were buckling and stomping the monsters which was the best tactic to use on them because of their speed and agility and small frame made them hard to shoot and because their weak stature meant they’d die from a well placed hard blow.

She found her friend standing perfectly still but attacking the Wretches with her purple magic. She cringed as she looked at her friend’s narrowed eyes. She could feel the hate and anger radiating from her as she plucked Wretches from the floor, wall or ceiling and used the increased magical strength the dark shift supplied to crush and mangle the monsters before depositing them like rubbish onto the floor in bloody pulps.

It wasn’t long until only one of the little monsters remained and Appletart was quick to snag it before a ranger could squash it. She pulled the terrified monster to her snarling angry face, staring into its beady little eyes with her glowing eyes of hate and anger.

“Scared now are we?” She sneered bringing the creature closer before she grinned darkly and her horn began to glow brighter with purple arcane energy arcing from her horn to nearby metal surfaces like lightening. “I’m going to burn you until you are nothing but ash”

Zyon quickly approached her friend. “Appletart stop” She shouted.

“Stay out of this, these little shits don’t deserve pity” She growled.

“They don’t deserve this either” The zony countered.

“They tore my eye out and ripped my neck and face up” Longshot growled.

“Don’t give in to it Appletart, the hate, the anger, do you really want Blueberry to know her mother is as dark as the monsters that’ll scare her in her nightmares?”

Appletart’s eyes widened and she looked to Zyon.

“Don’t let it win, you’re better than that. You’re a good mare Apple, don’t let the darkness win”

Appletart’s eyes began to tear up as they returned to normal and her magic imploded, dropping the Wretch to the floor. She began to cry in despair as the little monster ran. It knew better to attack a group of superior creatures. After the brief delay from the Wretches the rangers continued to plant their charges while Zyon comforted Appletart.

Appletart’s team left the building first before she and Zyon did. It took around ten minutes for Appletart to recover from her emotional breakdown after the dark shift. Some of the rangers offered their support for the mutated mare as she and the zony rejoined with the group now that both teams had completed their tasks. Star Paladin Golden Star stood outside the main group and faced them before she cleared her throat.

“Alright ponies I just got word from the recon teams and the baiting teams, they are all in position and the signal jammer is in place and active. Right now it’s a waiting game. The first recon squad will alert us when the machine is sighted which won’t be for another twelve or so hours so for now it would be best for you to get some rest. The Bower Hotel at the corner up the road is where we’ll wait. I hope you all will give it your all to ensure that machine doesn’t impede Motor Runner and Paladin Longshot’s progress to reach it when the time comes. Without them we have no way to stop the machine”

The rangers nodded and voiced their agreement as they all began to walk back towards the Manedale Centre to reach the hotel at the corner of the street. The street became shrouded in shadow as the light from the sun was blocked by the thick storm clouds that now blanketed the sky and even with the Obelisk the tower’s roof prevented the light of the Obelisk from reaching the street.

XXXXX

Thunder boomed and shook the city as it was subjected to a violent storm in the early hours of the morning, so early in fact the sun hasn’t risen yet. Rain poured in thick sheets, drenching anything in seconds and making the streets and roads run like rivers. Two Applejack Rangers sat back against the wall surrounding the roof access of the Queen Goldenrose Hospital near the edge of the city as they waited.

Snoring could be heard coming from one of the rangers as he snoozed. They both had been trying to stay awake so they wouldn’t miss the machine and fail to alert the baiting team and other rangers. The sleeping ranger received a strong bash to the back of his head by a segmented tail which sent him sprawling in a deep puddle that had formed from the torrential rain.

“Ow, hey, what gives” The sleepy ranger groaned pulling himself out of the water. He was thankful the armour suit was watertight, especially since it hasn’t stopped raining for the last eight hours.

“If Rojas caught you sleeping on the job he’d have you demoted back down to Initiate” His partner warned.

“Oh come on, I’m so BORED” He groaned sitting up and looking out in the direction the machine is suspected to arrive from.

“I know you’re bored, I’m bored, but we have a job to do”

There was a brilliant flash that lit up the land as if it was day before going dark again which was then swiftly followed by an explosion of sound almost like a bomb going off above the hospital that sent both rangers to their bellies in an attempt to take cover. The boom droned out into a loud rumble which told the rangers that it was just thunder.

“Dear sweet Luna that was terrifying”

“I’ve never heard or felt thunder that strong before”

The two rangers sat back up as they returned to their watch. The sleepy ranger began to nod off again when another boom of thunder shook the hospital to its core and the ranger jumped in fright and nearly jumped over the low wall surrounding the roof.

“Holy fucking shit” He whined as he rested against the wall.

“Dude, you nearly did the most epic face plant ever” His partner snickered as he approached the wall to help pull his friend back over.

“Oh ha fucking ha”

The two rangers froze as unfamiliar blue lights appeared on the horizon through the haze of the rain and they were constantly moving.

“Do you see that?”

“I do, you don’t think…” He didn’t get to finish as there was another flash of lightening which was again followed by the boom of thunder rocking the building.

The flash revealed a large moving object in the distance that the blue lights belonged to. The two power armoured ponies exchanged glances before quickly diving behind the wall.

“Oh shit did you see that?”

“I did, I thought they were pulling our legs about how big that thing is”

“It’s huge as fuck”

The rangers were quick to begin signalling the other teams and calling Star Paladin Golden Star.

“Ma’am, Krogoth sighted approaching the city”

“Already, it’s arrived earlier than expected, alright, once its passed head for the evac point”

“Yes ma’am”

It was another half an hour before the machine entered the city. The two rangers could feel the building shaking with the hoof falls of the giant machine. They hunkered down as low as they could since the machine was several stories taller than the hospital making the chance of being seen likely.

“That thing’s gonna see us”

“Shut up and act like an air vent”

“Are you out of your pigging mind?”

They both froze as the head of the machine appeared over the wall but thankfully not looking down at them. They didn’t dare move a muscle or breathe as they eyed the giant machinegun hanging from its chin.

“C’mon team one, its right fucking there” One of the rangers mentally yelled as the large steel ranger looking machine looked towards the Manedale Centre and its beacon of light.

Down in the street down the road to the hospital two more rangers got into position and aimed their twin gun barrelled 120mm anti-dragon cannons at the machine.

“This better work”

The two rangers fired their huge weapons. The boom from the large guns shattered nearby windows and forced the two rangers back a few feet. The large projectiles soared through the air and slammed into the Krogoth’s cheek and exploded. The force of the four unexpected impacts caused the machine to stagger to its right before it quickly turned its head in the direction of the shots.

“Come and get us you big piece of shit” One of the rangers yelled before they both turned tail and started to run down the street.

The towering machine just stood there for a moment as if it was taken aback by the display it just witnessed. The machine was stunned for only a moment until its threat system kicked in and it targeted the two fleeing rangers and began after them. Thundering its way up the road, it ripped up pieces of the road with its hooves and unearthed old tramlines that were covered over by the tarmac. The segmented tail of the machine swung to the side and tore into the hospital and ripped out the supports for the front half of the upper floors forcing the two rangers to quickly run for the roof access stairs to avoid falling with the roof.

“Star Paladin Golden Star, bait is set and prey is on its way”

“Roger that, return to LZ”

“On our way”

“C’mon, let’s get the hell out of here”

XXXXX

I couldn’t get a wink of sleep. The rain and thunder were loud enough but it was my anxiety about the arrival of the Krogoth in the next few hours that had me tossing and turning. Oh and my wings had their own plans to make my rest impossible as they both wouldn’t go down. I groaned and got off the reception waiting couch I was using as a bed and looked at the still working clock above the reception desk.

“Ten to three in the morning, ugh” I groaned walking towards the front door which looked to be having a waterfall running down it. “Still raining, smegging hell”

“I’ve heard that Braytish weather is unpredictable” Star Paladin Golden Star said as she joined me. “Can’t sleep too huh”

“No, I’m worried about tomorrow”

“We all are, the Krogoth is nothing like anything Equestria has faced before but at least we have a plan right”

“Yeah”

The street outside was illuminated by a sudden bright flash which was then followed by the biggest bang I’ve ever heard that also shook the hotel to its foundations. I was about to yell that we were under attack until I heard the rumbling of thunder. Damn that thunderclap must have been right above us to make such a boom.

We stood in silence for a little while until Golden Star received a transmission.

She held a hoof to her earpiece as the rangers on the other side spoke. Her expression turned to shocked surprise to what she was told and she quickly responded with as much authority as she could to cover her surprise.

“Already, it’s arrived earlier than expected, alright, once its passed head for the evac point”

She turned to me with a grim expression.

“It’s here” She said as she then turned around and ran back into the hotel as she began to rouse the troops.

I quickly ran over to where my friends were sleeping and shook them all with my hooves and my magic.

“Wake up guys” I cried frantically.

“Ugh mummy, five more minutes” Zyon drawled in her sleep.

I rolled my eyes and leaned close to her ear, took in a deep breath and then yelled at the top of my lungs. “NOW!” The result was exactly as I was hoping. She bolted upright as if somepony poked her with a branding iron.

“I’m up, I’m up” She shrieked.

Sky Fire shot up to the ceiling and stuck to it with her hooves like a cartoon cat when startled. It was only Motor Runner who simply opened his eyes and sat up as if he was already wide awake.

“What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?” Zyon cried clutching her chest. “What’s going on?”

“Its here guys, it’s arrived”

“Already, it’s like six hours early”

“I suppose it must have found a way to cross the fissure” Motor Runner said as he began to straighten out his suit.

Zyon also started to begin getting her stuff ready but I stopped her. “Zyon, I want you and Sky Fire to go back to the stadium. You two are not rangers and don’t have to do this and I also don’t want to risk loosing you to it, especially now since you’ve been reunited with your family”

Zyon and Sky Fire both opened their mouths to protest when Golden Star came back into the lobby. “Yes, you two please go back to the stadium, warn the Elder and the bomb crews the machine has been sighted and to be ready to detonate the buildings”

Zyon and Sky Fire sighed but nodded. They stood up and headed for the door.

“Zyon, tell Wirblewind to be ready for our evac”

“Sure” She said opening the door. Cold wind blasted in through the door as it was still blowing a gale outside with the storm.

“We’ll see you at the evac point later” I told her with a sincere smile, though I was praying things don’t go south.

“See you later” She and Sky Fire said as they left.

I sighed as they left. For all any of us knew, this could be the end. I don’t want to die but I’m an Applejack Ranger, a soldier, it’s my duty to protect and defend the ponies of Equestria and I’ll die doing my duty for them and especially for my daughter.

We waited for about half and hour before Golden Star got word that the machine had taken the bait. So, this is it, its coming, no backing down now. By now every ranger was all geared up and ready to go. Me and Motor Runner had been given a pair of goggles to wear to protect our eyes since neither of us are wearing helmets so we could still see through the dust cloud that will consume the street when the buildings come down.

I watched Golden Star as she held her hoof to her helmeted ear listening to the reports of the recon teams and the ponies acting as the bait reported the position of the Krogoth as well as the casualties. Even with the jammer screwing its detection system up the Krogoth’s anti-equine weapon was claiming more of our rangers.

The ground was shaking with every hoof fall the machine made. We could tell that it was getting close with how the ground shuddered so much. While we waited for the last transmission that the machine was about to enter Oldham Street the sound of crumbling stone, steel and glass rose up above the sound of the storm.

“What the hell was that?” A ranger asked as he stuck his head outside the door to look down the street where a column of smoke and dust rose up above the buildings.

“An old building had just collapsed because the ground shudders” Golden Star said still with her hoof to her ear.

“How much does that thing weigh?” Somepony asked absentmindedly.

“Over five thousand tonnes” Motor Runner answered.

”Damn”

“Alright everypony get into position” Golden Star shouted as she primed her 120mm Anti-Dragon cannons.

Show time. I took a deep breath as we all ran out and took position. We hid in the allies and recesses next to or against the buildings on either side of the street a safe distance away from the two buildings we were to bring down ready to rush the machine when the buildings come down on it.

Golden Star stood in the middle of the street and spread her legs to support her cannons as she raised them, aiming down the street to hit the Krogoth when it comes into view. Oh Celestia, please, let everything go to plan. The ground was shaking so bad that the panes of glass in the buildings around us were rattling. It’s close.

A few short minutes later and there it is. Its huge head appeared from the corner of the street looking around for its attackers. I allowed a small smile as the jammer was doing its job; the machine wasn’t able to track those that attacked it.

The Krogoth looked up the street towards us and that’s when Golden Star fired her cannons. She sailed backwards kicking up a lot of water from the rain as the recoil pushed her back. A split second after the cannons fired two small explosions appeared on the Krogoth’s nose and the smoke disappeared through the huge air intake vent in the front and the machine quickly focused its attention in the street. Golden Star was quick to dive for the nearest cover.

We cringed as the machine turned quickly as it started to stomp its way into Oldham Street, its left AMR tore its way through the corner building causing half of it to collapse as it entered the street and stopped. It moved its head back and forth looking for its attacker but then it raised its head high, focusing on the tower and what lay at the top.

“That’s it; it’s focused on the Obelisk now”

The machine began to walk up the narrow street, its head raised to the tower, its focus entirely consumed by its target. As it walked its AMRs would occasionally scrape against the buildings on either side, we choose this street because of how narrow it is, the machine can’t manoeuvre in here. The machine stopped right between the two buildings we wanted to demolish, this couldn’t be more perfect and over the comm channel I heard Golden Star order the detonation. However that is where things went wrong. The Krogoth began to charge two of its AMRs and the buildings didn’t detonate.

“What, what do you mean it didn’t work?” Golden Star shouted over the comms to the pony responsible for flicking the switch to detonate the charges.

“There is too much magical interference” I barely heard the pony reply over the increasing static caused by the said interference.

“I suspected this” Motor Runner said shaking his head as the balls of blue energy grew outside the railguns.

I didn’t have anything to say, I felt like this was the end, the Krogoth was going to get the Obelisk and then we’d be powerless to stop it. Oh Celestia, oh Luna, help us.

I began to groan in discomfort as I felt the growing power in the AMRs; every unicorn could feel its power I bet. The power was almost as bad as the day we first saw it coming out of the Hangar.

“Why do you persist on giving me headaches” I whined rubbing my cybernetic hoof against my forehead.

I then cried out with pain as my horn sparked with energy when the Krogoth unleashed its power. Two beams of pure magical energy shot at the Manedale Centre. The two beams collided with the centre of the tower around a third of the way up and then as the beams burned their way through the building the machine began to part the beams, effectively cutting the tower in half. With the way the beams were cutting the tower it looked as if the building would end up falling backwards, well that’s how we all thought it would until we began to hear ominous groaning of weakening steel.

“It’s bringing the tower down” A ranger shouted over the comm link.

“Why?” Another shouted.

“It has to bring the tower down so it can assimilate the Obelisk” Motor Runner said to me more than anypony else.

The Obelisk began to flicker and spark as the power cables supplying it with power were being cut until finally it went dark and that’s when the tower lurched towards us. Well, that was unexpected. The metal structure around the impact site was failing, causing the tower to lean in against the attack rather than falling away from it with how the beams were cutting it. This doesn’t make any sense. I could see how the metal structure was glowing red hot around where the beams were cutting, the heated metal beams were bending from the heat weakening them and it seemed to be only around where the beams were burning through as the floors above and below remained unaffected. The amount of heat those magical beams would pass into the metal would have affected a larger area than what we were seeing. Could the building’s fireproofing in that area be not to standard?

The machine continued to cut the tower until its structure around the impact zone began to compress and the tower started to lean towards us. The sounds of bending metal, breaking glass, crumbling concrete and small explosions drew our attention from the Krogoth to the Manedale Centre as the tower began to lean more and more into the street.

“It’s coming down” A ranger shouted.

Looking up at the tower as it leaned further over I estimate at least seven hundred feet of the tower was going to…

“Oh shit” I accessed my broadcaster as I had to warn everypony. “This is Paladin Longshot, the tower is going to fall into the street and bury us”

“Everypony, you heard her, retreat to a safe distance, now, move” Golden Star yelled and we all ran down the nearest allies or into the buildings so we’d be out of the way of the tower. Motor Runner and I were in a recess that a door would be but a security shutter blocked it. Motor Runner quickly unsheathed his chainsaw as the last of the tower’s strength collapsed and the seven hundred feet of building began to fall he used his saw to cut through the shutter. I looked down the street to the machine it was trying to turn but couldn’t because of how tight the street was and with the way it was trying to back up, it looked to be panicking. I suppose that’s the pony’s consciousness giving it fear.

“Its open, go” Motor Runner urged as he practically shoved me through the open shutter and through the door.

I crashed into the counter on the other side of the door about ten feet in. I could hear the tower as it crashed into the walls of the buildings as it fell into the street. Motor Runner slammed the door shut and then stood over me, using his body to shield me. I hugged against him tightly and we braced ourselves.

Everything shook like an earthquake as the thousands of tonnes of building crashed down into the street. I couldn’t hear a thing as all the sound was just the destruction of the tower and then everything went black as all sources of light were snuffed out by the debris.

XXXXX

The Krogoth realised something was wrong when it was too late. It had anticipated the tower falling backwards, not forwards and now it realised why it was drawn to this particular street by those rangers it was unable to track because something was blocking its EFS. It tried to turn, tried to get away but the width of the street was too narrow and it was unable to turn and it couldn’t back up as it was catching on the buildings on either side of it with its AMRs. The mind of Short Circuit was almost paralysing the Krogoth with fear, fear of being crushed to death. Even though it knew it would survive the impact of the falling tower it would be severely damaged.

Looking up all the Krogoth could see was the breaking windows of the Manedale Centre as it fell into the street. The fear gripping its system prevented the Krogoth from locking up its knee joints and it continued to try to pull itself back. The machine felt its left AMR dig into the building next to it forcing the machine to stop. It looked up just as the tower came crashing down onto the machine. Its legs gave out immediately as the sudden addition of thousands up on thousands of extra tonnes in weight overwhelmed its knee joints, causing them to shatter and the machine was driven down to its belly were the rest of the tower’s weight came to rest, crushing and destroying its ears, its sail, the weapons platform on its back, its AMRs, its missile pods and many other things leaving the machine in a sorry state.

The machine lay under the rubble, unable to move or do anything. Its body too damaged to respond to any commands given. The machine’s repair systems kicked in immediately and focused first on fixing internal damage and began to absorb materials from the tower that crushed it to repair them. It was then that the Krogoth detected the pieces of the Obelisk of Magic among the wreckage, its primary objective. It decided to disengage its repair for the moment while it absorbed the Obelisk.

XXXXX

When we were certain everything had stopped we pulled ourselves out of the building we used to shelter ourselves from the falling building. We were lucky the tower wasn’t a few feet wider as it would have crushed us too. We pulled ourselves out of the hole that had opened up as the tower slammed into the street and climbed up onto the mountain of rubble that was the Manedale Centre. The dust cloud was quickly being cleared from the strong winds and the rain. I never thought I’d be happy for a storm. Within a few minutes the street was mostly cleared of the dust and it was just a mess. All the buildings lining the street that was within the crash zone had their faces ripped off as the tower had scraped along them as it fell. Though most importantly, the Krogoth was nowhere in sight.

“Is it dead?” I asked hopeful as I started to see my fellow rangers climbing up onto the rubble.

“No, it’s too well made for this to kill it. The impact will have likely destroyed its ability to move but its still there somewhere” Motor Runner replied. “We just can’t see it under all this”

“Is everypony ok?” Golden Star asked as she climbed up onto the wreckage and over the comm link.

Thankfully everypony sounded off apart from one. This could have been a whole lot worse; it was certainly something we didn’t expect to happen. As we regrouped some rubble down the road began to move. We immediately trained our guns down to it and then something began to grow out of the rubble. It looked like a frame for something. It glowed with a dark green energy and then solid green magical energy began to encompass the frame. I gasped as the object took the form of a large cone shape, a spire and when the solid green gave way to a steel coloured spiral I knew exactly what it was.

“The Obelisk of Magic” Me and Motor Runner said in unison.

“We only have a few short minutes before the machine regains some motor function. We have to get inside it NOW”

“Go, we’ll cover you” Golden Star shouted. “Everypony form up, cover Paladin Longshot and Motor Runner”

I nodded to him and we both began to run towards the Obelisk. Our progress was kinda slow because the rubble was loose and shifted under hoof. As we ran I could see the rubble around the Obelisk start to bulge and shift as the machine underneath was repairing itself.

We ground to a halt as the machine’s head burst from the rubble. It was dented all over, one of its eyes was broken, both ears were crushed, so was its spotlight and its sail like mane was gone. Its machinegun however looked to be intact and now that it’s head was above the rubble it knew it was in danger and that massive weapon quickly took aim and started to fire. I cried out as I felt multiple impacts on my armour but thankfully no penetration. I suspect it was using five mill rounds, let’s just hope its targeting system wasn’t working correctly. We didn’t hang around long as we continued to run forward. The rangers behind us began to open fire, drawing the machine’s attention away from us as we reached its neck.

“It has maintenance hatches on its back near the weapon’s platform” Motor Runner said as we stood behind the machine’s neck. We both began to dig frantically as the machine fired at the rangers that took pot shot at it.

The rubble shuddered and some fell away at the base of the weapons platform and Motor Runner must have seen something as he moved over to it quickly and pressed his hoof against a square dented panel. It moaned as it was pushed down and then slid back. I approached cautiously so I wouldn’t fall on the rubble strewn back of the machine. Inside the panel lay a keypad and Motor Runner wasted no time in using his cybernetic leg’s manipulators to input a manual override and then I fell. I fell down a shaft and landed inside the machine with some of the rubble that fell in with me.

”Ow” I moaned as I picked myself up. I quickly rolled backwards as Motor Runner joined me down here by jumping in himself.

The corridor we found ourselves in reminded me of a naval warship. It was tight and there was barely enough room for both of us to walk side by side. It was also a mess with metal panels from the walls and ceiling littering the floor and wires dangling around all over the place. I took one step forward and that’s when it occurred to me, I don’t know where to go.

“Err, which way?” I asked with a sheepish grin.

“Follow me” Motor Runner said as he took the lead heading towards the front of the machine.

We came to a T-junction in the corridor and Motor Runner turned to take the left route to move towards the heart of the machine. We had only been in the corridor for only a few seconds before a deep beep sounded and a security turret dropped down from the ceiling and opened fire. I dove to the deck but Motor Runner stood over me and put himself in the line of fire. I watched as the bullets rained to the floor in pieces as they failed to penetrate Motor Runner’s steel hard skin.

“Please take out the turret” He groaned in pain as he was continuously pummelled by the automatic fire.

I pulled This Machine out of its harness and lay on my belly underneath Motor Runner and aimed the weapon up at the turret about halfway down the corridor. I sighted up the turret and was pulling the trigger when suddenly the corridor angled up causing me and Motor Runner to slide down the floor and crash into the wall at the T-junction. The security turret stopped firing as we had fallen out of its detection range.

“What’s going on” I moaned. I wiggled about as it almost felt like I had This Machine shoved up my ass since I was sitting on it.

“The Krogoth must be getting its legs back online”

I held up my cybernetic leg and accessed the broadcaster in my pipbuck. “We are inside, what’s going on?”

“It’s front half is pulling itself out the rubble and its now using ammunition that punches through us as if we were made of butter” Golden Star cried. I could hear the bullets hammering her cover in the background.

“We are inside it now, fall back Star Paladin, you have done your duty, retreat and please tell Wirblewind to be ready”

“We can’t just leave you alone”

“We’ll be fine, go, while you can”

I heard Golden Star sigh. “Alright Longshot, good luck” She paused as she then opened her channel for all rangers. “Alright everypony, our job is done, fall back and return to the stadium”

“Alright, everypony should be heading back now” I said as I rolled off my gun and pulled it back out from under me.

Motor Runner pulled himself back up and just as he stood back up to his full height I felt the floor push up levelling it out and sending up toppling back into the corridor. Motor Runner remained stood up while I ended up tripping and falling back against the wall since it was now angled steeply the other way since its back legs were still inoperable. The security turret opened fire again on Motor Runner while I was pulling myself together. I knew today would suck.

“Appletart”

“On it” I groaned as I pulled the gun up and aimed it at the turret. Motor Runner stepped closer to the turret to keep it focused on him. I hefted the heavy rifle and sighted up the turret and pulled the trigger. The weapon sounded a hundred times louder in the confines of these tight corridors and damn it hurt my ears. I groaned as my ears rang loudly. I looked up to where the turret is and saw that it was reduced to a couple of sparking wires.

"Are you alright?" I asked him as he rubbed his face with a hoof.

"I'm fine, thank you"

Suddenly there were two loud explosions and the entire machine shuddered.

"What the hell was that?" I shrieked.

"Oh no, we have to hurry, its forty six centimetre cannons are back online" Motor Runner said just another series of explosions rocked the machine.

The corridor shook again as the machine continued to push itself up, we were now standing on a steep angle, one wrong step and we’d tumble down the corridor or crash against the wall. Motor Runner walked forward and I followed. We stopped directly under the destroyed turret and found ourselves at a crossroad. Going up would take us to the Crusader Mainframe and going down would take us to the Spark Reactor.

Motor Runner sighed and seemed to look saddened as we walked down the corridor to the reactor. The door to the reactor was set deeply into an arch and beside the archway sat a terminal on the wall. The tall pony used his manipulators to input the manual overrides.

“Reactor door security system disabled” Sounded an automated warning.

“Reactor door unlocked” And with that the thick steel door slid open.

Motor Runner stepped into the archway before I could, blocking my path as he entered the reactor. I thought we could deactivate it from the terminal by the door, I guess not. I followed him into the archway but he stopped just inside the door to the reactor, leaving me no room to join him. I looked past him to see the reactor and something immediately jumped out at me. A plaque mounted on the reactor and it read. “Stable 90”

I had heard of Stable 90, it was a stable that was never completed but was put down as being complete so when the call went out the ponies that had reserved places in it went there to find that it was just an empty shell with a working door. They had no way to survive in there. I certainly hope that materials meant for Stable 90 weren’t diverted for the Krogoth, if so then this thing is responsible for their deaths too.

Motor Runner turned around and he looked truly sad. I have a bad feeling about this.

“Appletart, go, there is nothing more for you to do now” He said.

“What, what do you mean?”

“I have to activate the overload from in here”

“Wait, your not coming back out are you?”

He sighed and looked down. “No, this is my responsibility. It is my fault this thing exists now; it’s my fault thousands of ponies have died because of it, it’s my fault your stable was destroyed, its my fault you were thrust out into this hell, it was my fault you lost your mother, its my fault you have become what you are now and I have to pay for my sins” He said as I saw his tail move out to its side.

“No, I can’t loose you, I love you” I cried, tears welling up in my eyes.

He gave a brief smile as he looked me in the eyes. “I love you too, that is why I’m also doing this” He said and then pushed out his cybernetic hoof and pushed it against my chest to keep me from trying to get inside.

“There has to be another way, please” I begged.

“No, this is the only way. This is how it has to be. I wish things could have been different Appletart” He leaned down and kissed me. We shared one last loving and passionate kiss. A kiss I wish would never end but the moment was ruined by another automated warning.

”WARNING, WARNING, REACTOR OVERLOAD INITIATED” Sirens began to blare throughout the machine’s interior. “ALL CREW ARE ADVISED TO REACH MINIMUM SAFE DISTANCE”

Suddenly the thick steel door to the reactor chamber closed against Motor Runner’s cybernetic leg. I was instantly reminded of the ursa trap that caught me a while ago. He cried out in pain as the door squeezed at his metal leg.

“Argh, now go and live” He groaned. “Be there for Blueberry, be there for your baby and let her know she is loved and that you’ll be there for her. She needs you” He told me and gave another shove, pushing his cybernetic leg out of the door towards me and then he screamed in pain as the thick door shut on his leg. With the door pushing on flesh it was easy for it to sever it from him. His synthetic fell to the floor, wiggling with whatever power was still in it. I picked up the leg in my magic and hugged it tightly as I cried. I stayed there crying until another warning told me I had ten minutes to get out of there. Oh dear sweet Luna this reminds me of the Kodiak. I opened my eyes and found myself looking at the severed edge to Motor Runner’s leg and that’s when I saw it. It was faint but it was there. Looking closely I could see that there were little bits of flesh still clinging to the metal leg and a faint pink glow surrounded the organic matter. His regeneration talisman, it was still working. Realising there was still a chance to save him a held his leg in my magic and bolted for the access hatch we had entered through and quickly called Wirlbewind over my broadcaster to come pick me up.

I pulled myself out of the hatch to find the Krogoth to be standing on all four of its legs again and was trying to walk forward over the rubble. I climbed up onto its weapon’s platform which was still thankfully offline. I looked around for Wirblewind, for the love of Celestia where is he? As I was looking around I noticed that both missile pods were offline too which was good. The Krogoth swung its head around trying to shoot something that quickly got out of its range by getting behind its head and I was happy to see that it was Wirblewing pulling Motor Runner’s chariot behind him. I waved him down and when he was close enough I dived into the open door of the chariot.

“Where is Motor Runner?” He asked looking back through the front window.

“Right here” I replied showing him the leg. “Hurry, get back to twenty four as fast as you can, his life depends on it”

“But protocol demands we head to the evac point to meet up with the rest of the Rangers”

I opened a panel on Motor Runner’s leg that hid his regeneration talisman and my eyes widened. His talisman was barely glowing at all. I quickly pulled out a cable from my storage unit and connected it to his leg and my pipbuck. I cycled through the screens until I found a status screen I could check the condition of some things and I was horrified to find out the condition of his talisman. His talisman was only at one point five percent and dropping.

“No time, if we don’t get back to twenty four ASAP Motor Runner dies forever” I yelled.

He pulled away sharply, sending me into the seat as he began to fly at speed through the streets until we were on our way back to base.

“Paladin Longshot, where are you going, you are heading away from the evac point” Star Paladin Rojas’s voice came over my broadcaster.

“Sorry sir but I’m heading back to base, Motor Runner’s life is on the line, I have to get back there now” I paused for a moment. “Sir, you have to leave the city right now, its reactor has been set to overload there is no time to waste”

I heard a load of commotion in the background with ponies yelling orders. “Roger that Longshot, see you back at base”

I climbed up onto the back seat to look out the back window. I could see blue beams of energy striking randomly in the city. I suppose the Krogoth was using its AMRs to try to keep its power level down.

We were still over the city a few minutes after escaping the Krogoth when suddenly a bright beam of light burst from in the direction of the Krogoth and shooting up into the sky.

“Oh cock”

The beam suddenly shot back down and there was then a brief pause before the whole of Equestria was shaken by a thunderous explosion. Another beam of light shot up into the sky before a dome of energy began to grow and expand across the city, vaporizing everything in its path.

“Wirblewind faster” I shouted with panic seeping into my voice.

“Oh shit” He shouted and I then felt the chariot jerk as he poured on as much speed as he could.

“Oh cock, oh cock, oh cock” I cried as the dome of destructive energy raced towards us faster than we were flying. "Oh cock and bollocks"

I watched in horror as the wave of energy ploughed through everything in its path, destroying the whole city as it raced through the buildings. All that history gone, just like that. This wasn’t the time to reflect on that, especially with a blast wave on our asses.

“My ass is on fire” I heard Wirblewind cry.

He isn’t far off. If not for the chariot I would likely be being incinerated as the wave of energy met with the chariot but before the magical wave of destruction could burn away the chariot we began to pull away. I gawked in horrified disbelief as the energy that covered the city soon faded away to leave nothing behind but a clean flat stretch of land in a perfect circle. Oh my goddesses, the whole city, gone, nothing left, nothing at all. Oh Motor Runner. I began to cry again as we flew back towards twenty four. Before my vision became too blurred by my tears I saw the readout for his regeneration talisman.

“0.9%”

XXXXX

Motor Runner cried out with pain as he reared back from the door after it tore his leg clean off. He turned around and sat against the wall facing the reactor that was now starting to hum loudly as the power inside it began to build faster and faster. He looked to his bleeding stump. His blood was pooling on the floor as well as ruining his suit. He knew he was going to die. He knew it since he decided to aid Paladin Longshot. He saw it as payment for the trouble he has caused in his misguided bid to bring the worst weapon Equestria had ever seen to life and since every death that occurred because of the machine was his responsibility.

“Won’t be…long now” He groaned in pain.

A screen flickered to life on the reactor with the face of Short Circuit looking at him furiously.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” She yelled with the anger to rival that comic book pony that turns into big green monster when angry.

“I have to…put an end…to you” Motor Runner panted as his blood loss was starting to drain him of his energy.

“STOP IT” She demanded with an undertone of panic.

Motor Runner grinned. “No”

The pony on the screen screamed in outrage and then the railguns that had only just been made operational began discharging as fast as they could.

“You can…discharge…all you want…but you can’t…stop the…inevitable”

The reactor began to spark and glow brightly as its containment was beginning to fail as the power inside it continued to rise.
Motor Runner slumped against the wall of the reactor chamber as he was no longer able to support himself. His last thoughts were of the albino mare he met in Applejack’s office back in Manehattan. He focused on her beautiful white face, he had never seen a white mare so clean before, she either took good care of herself or her being an albino made her brighter than others. He remembered those large red eyes, those red eyes were like rubies glistening in the sun. He had felt a connection with her that day but he didn’t know what it was until the day their hooves stuck together because of her magnet.

“I love you Appletart” His last thought was before all he could see what white.

The Krogoth let out an outraged scream as a beam of energy burst from the top of the reactor and burned its way through the armoured chamber and burst out of its back. The beam shot up into the sky before suddenly rushing back into the reactor where it then burst out again but this time the entire reactor exploded with the force of a megaspell going off inside the small chamber. The explosive force being concentrated within the chamber overwhelmed the chamber’s megaspell/balefire bomb proof armoured walls and caused it to rip itself to pieces. From the outside such an explosion wouldn’t have dented the sphere but since it was on the inside, the concentrated explosion couldn’t be contained. The sphere ripped itself to pieces and the explosion burst out of the Krogoth, its advanced body being rendered to shrapnel and vaporized from the intense blast of energy as it expanded and grew. The Krogoth’s crusader chamber, being another armoured sphere like the reactor’s was thrust out of its chest like a bullet, sending it miles into the sky as it was thrown away from the blast. The sphere would later crash down in the Everfree Forest. The entire machine was completely destroyed as the energy wave that burst from its reactor began to tear its way through the city. It was just total annihilation.

XXXXX

I was surprised at Wirblewind’s speed. It was no wonder Motor Runner recruited him to be his transporter before letting him go. We made it back to Stable 24 within four hours. I held Motor Runner’s leg in my magic and bolted for the clinic as soon as we landed. I will have some upset ponies to apologies to later since I ran some down as I ran down the halls.

I didn’t wait for the clinic door to open as I flared my horn with magic and tore the door out of its frame and launched it down the hall.

“Holy hell, Appletart?” Rainstorm shrieked in surprise as I ran into the clinic.

“Quick, hook this up now” I cried as I pushed the leg to her.

“Wha…what?”

“Its Motor Runner, it needs power or he’ll die”

She blinked in confusion.

“No time to explain, please just do it”

She directed me to a machine next to a bed and told me to lay the leg down on it. I did as she told me while I checked the read out as she plugged in several cables to the leg to give it power.

“NO” I cried as the readout told me something I didn’t want to see.

I watched as the readout went from zero point one to zero percent. No, no Motor Runner. I collapsed to my haunches and hugged his leg while I rested against the bed, crying for my loss. Oh Motor Runner, why, why did you have to leave me? I felt a brief rush of anger but it was quickly drowned out by my sorrow.

“Apple, Apple it’s alright, look” I heard Rainstorm say as she patted my shoulder.

I looked up and then to the leg. The panel hiding the regeneration talisman was open and then I saw the gem; it was pulsating in the centre like a heart with a pink glow. I quickly looked to the readout and my heart soared, it was rising. Zero point one, zero point two, oh yes, he isn’t going to be dead.

Since Motor Runner’s talisman was recharging his flesh was still being kept alive. It probably wouldn’t start regeneration until it had sufficient power. After I recovered from my happiness of knowing he’ll be back soon I explained what happened.

“Apple, don’t get your hopes up” Rainstorm said sadly.

“What?”

“He may get his body rebuilt by the talisman but, there is no telling if his mind will be intact. For all we know he’ll be like a baby mentally or have no mind at all or if you’re lucky he’ll remember everything to the point the leg was severed. There is just no telling what will happen”

I looked down at the leg. Oh please Celestia, Luna, bring him back to me.

XXXXX

I lay in bed that night cradling my little girl and had her wrapped in one of my wings to give her some extra warmth. I could hear the party in the atrium, the celebration of the defeat of the Krogoth. Sure I was happy that we won, that the machine was destroyed, but at what cost. The destruction of Manechester, the deaths of thousands of ponies killed by its time in the wasteland, the destruction of priceless history and most importantly, the death of my love. Well, that is if the regeneration fails or he’s a vegetable.

I hugged my girl close. “I’ll never leave you my darling. Mummy will be here for you and forever” I said before I began to sing her a lullaby my mother taught me.

At least now I can sleep peacefully now, the threat of the Krogoth is gone and we are as safe as can be in the wasteland. Well, until the next threat arises.