Mjölna’s horn provided much needed light in the darkness, not that Sideralis needed it. His vision switched over to infravision at first, and then slipped into the ultraviolet spectrum. The tunnels were alive with hidden horrors. Sideralis could see odd footprints, smears upon the walls and ceiling, all manner of evidence of all things disgusting became visible. Something had gone in or had exited out of this tunnel not long ago—Sideralis couldn’t tell the difference.

Ahead, in the darkness, something squelched. The tattered remains of Sideralis’ ears perked. A flashing indicator in his vision informed him that his targeting system was functioning with an estimated eighty nine percent accuracy.

The tunnel was just wide enough for two narrow wagons and the walls arched in a smooth curve to form a ceiling overhead. Sideralis could see lights; electric lights, but they were not functioning at the present time. He wondered how the town generated power. He was curious about many of the aspects of life here, but he knew that he would have no answers.

As he continued down the dark passage, he thought about some of the things that the Spirit of Harmony told him, such as there were always at least two alicorns when the world enters into a new era or age. The last such transition was when Celestia and Luna had faced off against Discord, an enemy that could potentially leave the world in a state of wreck and ruin. Discord had broken the sun and the moon. Discord had broken the weather. Discord had left the planet in quite a mess. And just when things were bleakest, two alicorns rose to face him. Two alicorns rose to challenge him. Armed with the Elements of Harmony, two alicorns restored order and put an end to Discord’s disorder.

The Spirit of Harmony had been helpful and there had been no more bullshit. Much had been explained to Sideralis. Now, Queen Mariposa appeared to be the new threat to the world, the herald of a coming new age, an epoch, the old way expiring and a new era rising like the sun does to greet the morning.

And, just as before, there were two alicorns to deal with the problem. Except for one little niggling detail that bothered Sideralis. Twilight Sparkle was not a true alicorn. She had been born a unicorn and had been made an alicorn through Celestia’s most powerful magic. The Spirit of Harmony had said nothing about this, but Sideralis suspected that there were… issues.

The entire world was being threatened, just as it had been over a thousand years ago. Another thousand or so years before that, the world had been threatened by some terrible foe named Grogar the Necromancer. Two alicorns had arose to defeat him, but who they were seemed lost to time. They had vanished, disappeared, and their names were now long forgotten.

Sideralis stopped, sensing something. He felt faint vibrations in his hooves, but he couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t see anything, yet somehow, he knew something was coming. Something was approaching them in the darkness. He came to a halt but did not power up his weapons. He had to conserve energy and decided to wait and see what it was before committing to a wasteful energy expenditure. The digesters could be fired right away and would only need a small amount of time before more digestive goop was available.

Ratchet hovered near Sideralis’ head, peering ahead into the darkness, his odd insectoid eyes flashing in the light of Mjölna’s horn. A low moan was heard in the darkness ahead, a sound that made Mjölna react.

“Infected,” Mjölna spat. She puffed on her stogie and wisps of smoke rose from out of a hole in her neck. “Spike, when we have eyes on them, I want you to burn them down.”

“Got it,” Spike replied. The dragon began to stoke his internal fires and a smokey sulfur smell filled the passage. Spike pushed ahead, standing next to Sideralis, and he tried to see into the darkness that existed beyond the light from Mjölna’s horn.

“Sid, save your weapons. Do not fire,” Mjölna commanded.

Hearing Mjölna’s command, Sideralis stepped backwards so Spike would have more room to work. “Understood.” There was another wheezing moan and Sideralis turned to look at Ratchet. “I’m sorry you are about to witness this.”

Hovering, Ratchet bobbed in the air. “I’ve always wanted more than just being a repair and maintenance drone… but I was hatched small and I was too little to be a combat drone… but I wished that I was one of the big warrior drones.”

“A changeling has no choice on how they’re born,” Mjölna said in a low voice, “but, they do have a choice on how brave they are. Stay the course, little one.”

Hearing Mjölna’s inspirational words, Ratchet’s wings buzzed a little louder and his tiny, sliver-like horn glowed with a faint green light. He flew with a protective sense of purpose around Sideralis’ head.

There was movement ahead and Spike spewed fire. Flames crackled in the tunnel, smoke and fire bloomed all around them like deadly suffocating roses. The stench of burning meat and hair filled the air. There was a keening cry as the group of infected burst into flames and burned to death. Tentacles rose up out of the flames and flailed around, trying to find another host before they succumbed to the purging inferno.

Sideralis watched it all and felt a glowing ember of rage burn hotter deep within his barrel. Somepony would be made to answer for this. He would make them answer. That was his function, his purpose. That was what alicorns did. He glanced at Mjölna and saw the rage upon her face. For her loyalty, for her efforts, Sideralis knew that she would be at his side when those responsible for this were made to pay. He was going to make certain of it.

“Mjölna…”

“Yes?” The stogie chomping mare looked up at Sideralis.

“You are my hammer… my gavel… with you, I shall judge the guilty.”

Mjölna smiled. “You charmer you… you always know just what to say to make a mare feel good.” Puffing on her cigar, the cybernetic mare turned to look at the burning bodies as smoke trickled from the holes in her neck. “What do you think we’ll find in here, Sideralis?”

“Infection. Disease. And maybe, in the center of it all… hope.”

The tunnel they were in was at the base of the hill, which made it one of the longest. The foursome passed through several intersections, mindful of a possible ambush, pushing deeper into the darkness. The sunlight of the opening was long since lost to them, there was no light that reached this far in.

And it was here in the darkness that they heard a faint snuffle-snort sound. All of them froze, every ear strained, and every eye peered around, trying to see what was coming. Ahead, something thumped. Something heavy. Something clattered upon the cobblestones of the tunnel floor.

That something was now approaching—Sideralis could see a sickening, disturbing, nauseating shade of green bioluminescence ahead. Something about the colour radiated sickness. And it was moving fast, far too fast.

Spike dropped into a crouch but couldn’t breathe with Sideralis being in the literal field of fire. Sideralis fired off his digester cannons, both of them, at the coming mob. One shot hit, the other missed. One of the glowing green creatures dropped down and began dissolving. The errant blob of digestive goo began to melt the cobblestones.

“Minotaurs!” Mjölna shouted, feeling some panic when she saw flashing steel.

A second later, the remaining minotaurs slammed into the group. Mjölna kept her focus, raised her front hoof, and began firing off point blank pulses into her assailant. These weren't regular minotaurs. Mjölna’s pulse blasts did nothing but bounce off of a glittering, glimmering shield that seemed to be emitted from their glowing horns. Mjölna, quick to adapt, began firing rivets instead. Gaping holes appeared in the minotaur’s flesh, but it showed no signs of slowing down.

Indeed, as Mjölna watched, the wounds began closing up, the regeneration was slow, but observable. Cursing, Mjölna switched over to her torch and began firing off controlled bursts while trying to avoid the war hammer that the minotaur was trying to whack her with.

Meanwhile, Sideralis faced his own minotaur, a creature larger and bulkier than he was by far. Sideralis slammed it into the wall, trying to stun it, but the minotaur didn’t seem to be bothered at all by the impact. Sideralis felt a massive hand wrap around his neck and start squeezing. This didn’t bother Sideralis too much, he was well defended against most chokeholds.

A second later, Sideralis’ head was smashed into the wall. Something in his ears beeped and he saw warnings flash across his vision. Again, his head crashed into the wall with titanic, terrific force. More warnings. He struggled and kicked, trying to squirm free, and his head was once again bashed into the wall, shattering bricks. He went blind on the left side and in his right eye he saw warnings that his left optic assembly had been shattered and the protective layers around his brain were going to fail.

Just as Sideralis’ head was about to be smashed into the wall for a fourth time, Spike, who was already fighting a minotaur of his own, wrapped his tail around the minotaur fighting Sideralis and jerked it away. Spike’s claws bit deep, slashing open the minotaur he held in one hand, but the creature started to heal almost right away.

The flesh warped mutants were tough…

The minotaur fighting Mjölna clipped her in the skull with his warhammer, causing a ringing sound like a bell to fill the tunnels. Angry, infuriated by being bashed on the skull with a hammer, Mjölna reared up on her hind legs and using her telekinesis projector, she ripped the massive warhammer from the minotaur’s hands.

Now, Mjölna had a hammer… and everything looked a lot like nails.

A low reverberating cry filled the tunnels and Ratchet let out a worried moan as he buzzed around, trying to stay out of harm’s way. Sideralis, recovering from having his head smashed into the wall three times, fired up the spine batons on his weapon pods. He turned his body as much as he could, trying to get a better angle, and he was worried about how bad his targeting system was damaged. He fired upon the minotaur that Spike had in a headlock with his tail.

The spines ripped through the creature and dribbled acid. The wounds did not heal right away. The minotaur bellowed, a furious cry, and Mjölna, armed with a hammer, let out a warcry in response. Almost in a berserk fury, Mjölna, who had the massive hammer gripped in her fetlocks, brought it down upon the head of the minotaur fighting her.

There was a wet splat as the minotaur’s head exploded. The hammer didn’t stop, but kept going, slamming down deep into the minotaur’s torso, and its right arm was torn away. Mjölna was an earth pony with legendary strength even before her transformation into the C/Equine that she was now. She hit the minotaur with avalanche force, her hammer and thunderbolt cutie mark glowing with eldritch fire.

Screaming, Mjölna lifted the hammer over head once more and with a furious shout, she brought it down for a second time on the minotaur’s mutilated remains, which were still twitching, still regenerating. There was an explosive splat as the minotaur’s left arm was turned into jelly.

In the distance, there was a gurgling sound and the tunnel was filled with an ominous purple glow. Sideralis, who had turned his body around, bucked the stuffing out of the minotaur held in a headlock by Spike’s tail, striking with enough force to tear open the flesh warped mutant’s stomach. Sickly looking entrails mixed with wriggling tentacles started to spill out, but were slurped back in.

After a sharp inhale, Spike breathed on the minotaur he was holding, worried that he might ignite his companions. He let out a small huff of fire and the minotaur ignited. Much to Spike’s relief, there was no explosion as he had feared there would be.

Desperate times called for desperate measures…

It was Mjölna that saw the incoming eyeball abomination. She let out a scream of warning, but there wasn’t much room to maneuver in the tight confines of the tunnel. The incoming purple pulse bathed everything in a sickly violet light. Spike, who still had some flame stoked up in his throat, spat out a fine focused stream of fire out of his puckered lips at the eyeball abomination, hoping to hit it before it got any closer.

Ratchet, tiny little Ratchet, in the panic and the stress of the moment, surrounded Sideralis in a green glow and then heaved with all of the magical might that he could muster, hoping to pull the cybernetic alicorn out of the way of the incoming spell, as Sideralis was still recovering from doing his best Applejack impression.

There was a dreadful flash of purple light…

Author's Notes:

Hmm, now would be a great time for a hiatus!