Trapped in the labyrinthine bowels of an ancient castle, surrounded by mutated monsters that would love to add us to the nearest pile of bones and excrement, the threat of an army of mercenaries waiting outside... and all I could do was pout at the tall, pretty mare looming over me...

"This isn't fair..."

Periwinkle blinked her dreamy golden eyes and looked down at me as I stuck my head in another doorway, her horn brushed the ceilings down the warren of passages deep below Castle Equinox, cocking her head and smiling. "What? The radiation was very strong back there, this is normal Fast. I don't understand the problem."

I glanced over the rotting crates and smashed remains in another storage room, most stamped with either marks for the Equestrian Army or Navy, plus a few here and there bearing the sigils of the Ministries, the M.A.S. the most common I had seen so far. Turning back to the big filly following me, I grumbled and stood up as straight as I could, glaring at her neck.

"We were both in there dammit... I don't care if you got taller so long as you still fit down the halls and aren't gonna go crazy or anything, but we both should have... I'm STILL short!!"

Raising my voice wasn't the best idea and I stuffed a hoof in it in annoyance, nearly gagging on the goop coating the both of us that masked our scent from the nest of miretanks infesting the castle. It was a silly thing to get hung up on really, but a nice distraction from our situation and it did really annoy me.

Alicorns absorbed radiation, healing and getting stronger the more they took in, I could do that just fine. Apparently I did not get the side effect however, Peri had sucked up enough leakage from the reactor I presumed was malfunctioning somewhere in here with us to have gotten an inch or two taller than normal. I noticed this small difference because we did not stay the same relative size... she got bigger, I stayed short...

At least she seemed to be enjoying our outing so far, cantering down the echoing stone halls and leaning down to nuzzle at me happily. "So? That is how you are, Fast is short. I like you that way. Why are you unhappy?"

I checked my pip-buck's auto mapping function again trying to make sense of the maze we were in and find a way up. Thankfully this area wasn't swarming with more miretanks for some reason, Peri was able to save her energy to make us invisible when we needed it while we explored in relative safety. It was very confusing down here however, filled with cobwebs and dusty bones. Giving me plenty of time to grouse over the trivial and try to ignore how poorly things had gone so far.

"I'm supposed to be like you guys now, it's not fair that doesn't happen to me too. I don't know what all Moondancer did to her potion, but she could have left that part alone. I was looking forward to being as tall as Jade sometime as a surprise... at least regular pony height for a little while... I think she did it to intentionally mess with me."

Peri shrugged and kept right on my tail down the long hall, the walls grew rougher this way and torches held by creepy stone hooves sprang to life at our approach, very old magic... still working. "Maybe you need more? When we take this place over, you can sit down there until it works! Or maybe sister Jade can tell you why, I don't know, medical stuff is hard... why I didn't want to join her Followers to begin with. Though maybe I should have? It's fine Fast, I look forward to when we are done here and can finally..."

"HA! Hahaha... er... y-yeah... I know Peri. Let's umm... focus on the task at hoof for now, s-sooner we get done the sooner you get what you want. This part of the castle looks really old, maybe we're going the wrong way..."

My attempted derailment of her thoughts was true, the further we went down this latest passage we had turned down, the older it looked. It was cold too... a strange, creepy chill that kept getting worse the further we went, but was strangely pulling me forward. We needed to get up to the surface and the castle above as soon as possible, open the gates and let our backup in, but I had to check this out.

The real Shrouded Stallion was supposed to be sealed away deep under the castle, maybe this was where? Probably not the best idea to mess with a raging spirit of vengeance and fury that goddess Celestia had to imprison herself, but my obsession was tugging at me, I had to see...

So far these lower levels weren't too bad. By the ruined leavings and salvage down here, I could only guess the castle had been used in the war effort by several Ministries and the military. It was an imposing fortress on the sea, a good place to repel zebra invaders during the war. The absence of the mutated turtle monsters that swarmed below was a little worrisome, not that I missed them, but what would keep them away?

A sturdy iron gate barred the way forward and I sat in front of it, staring at the ancient barrier curiously. Thick, heavy chains crossed it and big, old locks held them tight, surprisingly intact hunks of iron and brass that kept the way forward closed. The keyhole was clear and oddly shaped, and a circle was etched in the still gleaming brass plate, surrounded by ornate stars. More old magic, I doubted even Val could pick this lock.

The gate and stone arch it was set in was very interesting too, a carved bust of an angry looking stallion was at the peak of the brick archway, glaring down at anypony approaching it in silent warning with gleaming rubies for eyes. The gate itself had engravings and filigreed metalwork, the profile of a horned head with wings flared behind it, similar to an emblem of the goddesses, but more masculine and angular, with that same cruder version of the Shrouded Stallion's logo from the comics in gold...

The corridor up to this point and beyond was choked with cobwebs, obscuring whatever lay beyond the barrier in my way that called to my curiosity. Was he down there still? Right down that hall?

"This place is scary Fast, don't like it... can we go? Back to our mission?" Peri called me back from the hypnotic run of my thoughts, the odd blue alicorn was almost never bothered by anything, it was strange and almost funny seeing a powerful alicorn that towered over me, scrunching up behind me and looking around like a scared filly.

"S-Sorry Peri, just wish we could get back there... maybe we can find a key somewhere and..."

My hopeful reply dried up in my mouth at the chittering, clicking noises approaching from the darkness beyond the gate, E.F.S. started lighting up with red dashes, 1, 3, 7, 12? 20?! Peri shivered behind me while I gaped at the empty, shifting blackness... wait... was the floor moving? Were the shadows coming alive and reaching for us!? Was the real Shroud rising from his prison to drag me in with him for daring to take up his mantle?!?!

This place and my friend's fear were getting to me, I froze and felt my heart pounding in my chest at the approaching carpet of blackness with gleaming red spots. If it were just two red spots of burning eyes from some shadowy wraith, I would have remained frozen and died, the sea of red specks wasn't right though and I snapped out of my terror driven hallucination, really seeing what was coming at us. Spiders?

Big, fat spiders... like... cat sized spiders... Way too big, way too many legs too, and long fangs dripping with venom, so that's where all the webs in here came from... I turned to run and shoved Peri ahead, the frightened filly needed no encouragement, charging off with a clatter of hooves and floating her sniper rifle up over her shoulder, firing on the run and splattering a pair of the chittering horrors.

The chattering horde squeezed right through the bars of the gate and gave chase, twisted but nimble things crawling up the walls and gaining on us. I pulled my silenced 10mm pistol and Best Served while we ran, joining Peri in shooting any that got too close. One of the little monsters sprang from the ceiling and landed on my back, a wet spot spread on my coat as it tried to sink its fangs in, then I felt a pinch on the wing that reflexively sprang up to try to dislodge the thing. My new limb knocked it loose and I sent my starmetal knife out to slash it, cutting the nasty thing in half and catching a glimpse of the misshapen red star twisting across its abdomen.

We took turns aiming back as we ran to blast or slice our pursuers, making blind turns and getting coated in more webs, knocking the attacking spiders from each other's backs when they leapt and bit. One plopped down from above to land on Peri's hat and she shook her head frantically, making it hard to grab the little bastard in my magic and fling it away while another pair sprang down to my flanks.

Getting over her fear, Peri's blue shield bloomed to life behind us, unable to wrap around both of us running in a perfect circle, she made a wall of a barrier to slow them down. The blue glow joined the morbid magical torch holders that kept lighting up in a row following our course, pushing back the dark and giving passing views of damp chambers filled with more boxes and junk. My steps faltered on making the next skidding turn, faced with a dead end and trying to come to a stop.

My hindleg caught on a dip in the uneven stone floor as I slammed right into Peri's cushioned rump reaching the wall before I did. A soft click nearly lost among all the similar noises from the mutated star spiders came from back there, suddenly the world was spinning rapidly and we fell into a tangle of legs and wings dizzily.

After a moment we weren't covered by creepy crawlies and I pulled myself free of Peri's long, blond tail, struggling back up and blinking around in confusion. The spiders were gone? No... Eyes Forward Sparkle said they were in front of us now... I turned back to try to make sense of it and saw a new corridor stretching away towards a twisting set of stairs, past a four way intersection of hallways. Huh?

"Spiders... I hate spiders..." Peri moaned as she straighted up and peered around for more of the attacking monsters, but their marks were spreading out and passing out of range again, hopefully not crawling through the walls to find us again... "Where did they go?"

"I... I think we found a secret passageway Peri... got lucky. Guess that's one reason there's no miretanks down that way, n-need to tell the Minutemares they send to clean this place out to bring flamethrowers... kill it with fire. Sorry about that, let's go, least we found a way up huh?"

Periwinkle took her tan Minutemare hat off and slapped the webs off, shaking her head and swatting at her long mane with her hooves to get them out of there and whining at the double punctures marring her silky coat here and there, sitting with a thump and looking as woozy as I felt from my own bites. She paused on spotting at my drooping left wing and gave a concerned look at the bites I was checking on myself, poking at me anxiously. "They bit you too, are you hurt?"

Giving the numb limb an experimental flap, I felt that pins and needles feeling of a sleeping leg and checked my health status screen. The cartoon pony displayed now stayed an alicorn anyway, showing every body part it could on a pony and blinking a warning over the injured wing and other wounds. "Star Spider Poison - Unknown Variant" flashed on the screen for a few minutes, eventually fading as feeling returned to the wing at my continued flexing.

"F-Fine Peri, no problem, you ok? P-Probably wouldn't have been if we were... er... normal, but looks like all the new resistance to alcohol applies to poisons too. Thanks, let's get outta here, go find some nice monster turtles instead..." I tried a shaky smile and gently picked a few more webs from her mane and tail, floating her hat back up and nodding to the stairs.

Peri huffed and readjusted her headgear, trotting along with me with relief. "Better than spiders... I don't like spiders."

Given that if I was still normal or if several of the nasty things had gotten a good bite I'd probably be spider chow right now, I had to agree. Paralyzed then swarmed and eaten, wrapped in a coccoon of webs and sucked dry, maybe made a nursery for baby spiders to hatch and eat their way out of... I shivered at the thought, the villagers of Eclipse never got into the depths of the castle, so they hadn't known about this particular danger. I hoped there weren't many more surprises like that ahead, but wasn't holding my breath.

"Disrespectful army grunts and Ministries... defiling the Princess' autumn retreat in the name of 'wartime necessity' bah! I've served as head scullery maid ever since her highness Luna returned to us and they stuff me in a corner with all the troops crammed in here! Need my little room upstairs for big, important wartime business... Not to mention all the alterations they've made, M.A.S. taking over the dungeons and locking them up, M.W.T. putting their ugly mortars and anti aircraft guns on the parapets!

All complaining about the keys too, 1000 years those locks have served this place well and they want to stick their new-fangled electronic locks all over the place, as if they could remove magical locks put in place by the princesses themselves! Ha! I keep telling them they'll get used to it, I get around just fine, heaven forbid they have to stop and talk to a pony here and there to go where they want!

At least the Professor is nice enough about it, proper old buck knows basic manners at least, just forgets them half the time. Princess Luna enjoys that dottering loon though, I do too but I could do without his disruptions in my domain. Playing around in the ...forbidden room... Even the princess hasn't messed with that place, her sister Celestia did what she had to, better he's left to rest.

Says he's nearly out of my mane at least, and brought cupcakes as an apology even! Hiding those from the girls, another perk to having at least a crescent moon key, let's see them eat these!"

"May I try that Fast? I want to hear too." Peri watched me eject the holotape from my pip-buck with interest, pointing to her own new arcano-tech accessory hopefully.

"Sure Peri, need me to show you how or you got it? It's pretty simple, there just like that, you can use the earbloom too so it's not playing out loud. Glad you like the gift, meant to give it to you back in Goodneighbor like Magnolia but... things happened."

I helped Periwinkle load the small storage device into her pip-buck and access it, watching her smile and cock her head to listen to the message sitting down here all this time. A huge chamber filled with moldy mattresses on simple metal bunkbed frames, broken wooden hooflockers in front of each, vertical lockers lining one wall, a barracks of some kind. It made a good place to catch our breath and let the Radstar Spider venom run its course, I was grateful both of us had alicorn biology on our side, that could have been soooo much worse.

Peri lovingly tapped at the screen on her leg and beamed, she had been quite excited (for her) when I clamped the pip-buck there before coming in and a quick study at using some of the features, like she was already familiar with it on an subconscious level. "I like it, it's as nice as my hat, thank you Fast. Now I can hear sister Magnolia on the radio when I want. Though I wish the map worked better."

I had to agree with her there, the maze of corridors under the castle was just too complex to easily make sense of. The small bed I found the holotape by was much older and of better quality than the rows of moldy bunk beds, a wooden bed tucked in the corner with a night table holding the message.

Dusty bones occupied the bed, while Peri listened to the long dead mare in her ear, I tugged at the glint of sliver around her bony neck, trying not to disturb her but determined to get the strange silver key at the end of the chain I pulled loose. Kind of a thin, oddly shaped barrel, a few ornate teeth and a crescent moon grip, the points facing the same direction as the teeth. It was ornate and delicate, untouched by the years and radiating a glow of magic. Best I just kept this with me...

I got up after claiming my prize and nodded back to Peri still listening behind me, walking back out to the corridor and continuing our search. A few twists and turns brought us to another collapsed dead end... We had made it up a couple floors now, moving carefully and invisibly past what miretanks we ran into and trying to avoid or dispatch the chittering Radstar Spiders when they came crawling out of the stonework, the little bastards could still track us even with Peri's invisibility spell.

Fortunately the two enemies seemed to have staked out territory and divided the castle, I wondered who ate who... maybe both? It would be a steady, self contained diet for the monsters infesting this place, its own little ecosystem...

Our trip so far had been frustrating and time consuming, repeatedly backtracking and retracing our steps. The lower levels were confusing enough when this place was new and in perfect condition. Now years of rot, ruin and mutant monsters had taken their toll. The only thing the pip-buck map was really clear on was a big central shaft going ever up to the surface, I was guessing it was made and used by the Miretank Queen.

Whatever the case, it had smashed and collapsed corridors and rooms all over the place, adding to the labyrinth feel to the gloomy halls that was well established by the creepy decor, secret passages and traps, along with the overall Pony of Shadows vibe. As if that wasn't enough, the imposing iron gates barring the way to where I was sure the Shrouded Stallion must be buried weren't the only locked barrier down here.

In our searching we had come across a few doors that had those fancy ancient locks too, all had a circle engraved on the brass plate, but enough exploration revealed some of them had a sliver of crescent moon etched in the circle, others had a half moon bisecting the circle instead and I was guessing more we hadn't found may have a 3/4 moon marked off. Ancient Equestrian security, different keys, different security levels. If that held true, it meant the lock blocking the Shroud's hallway was the highest level, an empty circle of a full moon.

All interesting and distracting, but a 200 year old mystery we didn't have time for that was just helping to hold us back. We needed to get up and open the castle gates, I was hoping most of the action took place on the actual castle levels above the surface too; the throne room, library, Luna's chambers... Between the collapses, the locks and the maze of corridors though, we had not made much progress. At least I now had a key to try...

Retracing our hoofsteps yet again wasn't hard and I knew where to try first, sticking to the miretank occupied areas invisibly that we had explored already. After a quick trot back I pushed open a heavy set of double doors marked with the same crescent moon as the silver key. A rusty creak sounded out after it clicked home smoothly and I pushed them open, flinching at the noise and all the movement on E.F.S..

Sure enough, several miretanks milled around the cavernous room beyond, the kitchens? It sure looked like it, huge stone ovens now cold and bare lined one wall, shattered cabinets and counters filled the center of the room, smashed for materials to make more muddy miretank nests filled with slimy green eggs. One clutch was filling a huge cauldron tipped on its side in the corner and corroded copper pans jangled at the miretank claws skittering over them.

Several of the softshelled variety, paler green and squishy looking, not as much of a threat as even the normal types, of which there were a few too. What was worrisome was the spiky horror sitting the middle of the room atop the lumpy hill of mud and junk, bigger than the others, the dark, heavy shell covered in wicked spikes.

The trio of clawed digits on its spiked forelegs had twisted and fused together into one huge, gleaming dark foreclaw waving in our direction at the opened door, dark and very sharp looking... Thick ridges and spines lined the opening in the shell around the tiny head and the stubby tail was significantly longer than the normal miretanks, slapping back and forth with a sharp claw at the tip. A Razorclaw by Mint Twist's and Captain Salty's detailed descriptions.

It was fast too... way too fast, the vicious monster zipped across the cluttered floor right at us, unable to see or smell either of us at the moment, but a consummate killer acting on instinct. The doors opened, it attacked, simple as that.

That long black claw shot out in an arc across the doorway, I would run, but kitchens... big, royal kitchens meant big royal banquets, banquets held in a big royal dining room, which would be up in the main castle... there had to be a way up here. With it charging right at us, that tiny head was an easy target, even with the additional ridges and spines protecting it.

S.A.T.S. and the Terrible Shotgun worked in concert, hammering several slugs at the small target and dropping it to a skidding heap at my hooves. I whispered back to Peri and gave an unsteady flap to clear the obstacle as I reappeared, flying into the large, open kitchen and pulling out Vengeance, attracting the rest of the miretanks in the room to me and taking advantage of the high ceilings to keep out of their range.

I could make out the silenced 'pfft' of Peri's sniper rifle from the doorway, blasting the brains out of one after another while I kept them occupied chasing me. So far at least only the Hunters could spit acid as a ranged attack, my flanks still stung after figuring that one out... I was grateful for all the rads down here for healing it and my torn ear, I had cautiously checked that once it stopped itching so much and I did have an ear still, so not bad so far.

One of the softshells had more reach than I expected and slashed a hindleg, but was instantly put down by Peri reappearing at the doorway. She trotted over with a look of mild concern to check on it, her ears flicking around at the noises above and around us, they heard all that gunfire of course, but the maze of stone passages made tracking it down difficult.

"I like the targeting thing too Fast, if the mother let us have weapons and armor as well as these pip-bucks, I would have been much better at my job." Peri smiled and nodded smartly after inspecting my wound, just a scratch really so nothing to get worked up over, we made a good team.

"Your job assassinating for her right? You ever... feel bad about that Peri? Or remember anything from before? You always seem kinda mellow, any interesting stories? When we were back in Trinity Tower and Goodneighbor, where there was unity and all, I couldn't help getting flashes out of your head, but they all seemed sad..."

Her normally passive face clouded a bit and she gave a shaky whinny, "I don't like thinking about before. It was bad. I came from a bad place, it hurt, bad ponies making me work, red eyes everywhere... Not like yours though, I like yours, these were bad, mean... watching from the walls, waving from flags, bad... I don't feel bad doing what the mother wanted though, I followed orders, she was our mother, she knew best."

"Ah... So, you like following orders? Is that why you joined the Minutemares? You seem to really like it."

Peri scratched her mane and shrugged, "Sort of, Umbra gives orders too though so it's not just that... I like the Minutemares because they're nice, they let me use guns and taught me to shoot. I get to choose who to take orders from with them, they tell me what to do and I do it because I want to. I'm proud I get to do this mission for them, help others and repay them. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, sorry... just realized I oughta try to find out more about you before we... er... i-it's an old fashioned thing. In the old world, ponies got to know each other really well before... I've just been thinking of all this as a really weird date ok, I like you, we're friends, I should ask. Didn't mean to make you remember bad stuff, sorry. I like who you are now though, just like Jade or Val, the past doesn't matter."

The blue alicorn tilted her head curiously as she followed behind me, helping lift the heavier rubble aside and stomp on miretank eggs while I searched for a way up. A series of dumbwaiters would probably lead up, maybe one even went up to Luna's chambers to deliver royal midnight snacks! But I'd have to squeeze my way in, there was no way Peri could follow if they were even clear.

After a moments thought, she blinked and asked her own question. "Ah... I should do the same then? Courtship is strange, this would be easier with unity, then I could just know all about you and you about me. Hmm... I know, you had two parents didn't you? A mother and a father? Tell me about fathers again, what was yours like?"

A box of Fancy Buck snack cakes! Wow, still untouched hiding inside a more modern stove tossed on its side in the corner, have to save those for Glitter. I kept looking around and considered her question, Peri was still letting the whole concept of dads sink in apparently. The eccentric alicorn often reminded me of one of dad's favorite sayings, her mill ground slow but exceedingly fine.

"Well... He was a doctor, like Jade, worked in the Stable medical ward, healed sick ponies, all that. Before we hid underground... a teacher? I'm pretty sure anyway, teaching medicine, but a teacher. I think his family came from Manehatten, he met mom when she was on leave from Neighvarro and they started dating, after she retired cause she was pregnant with me, they moved here to get away from the war, be near her family."

"Your mother stopped fighting because she became pregnant? She did not return once you were born?" Peri blinked an interruption, hanging on one of alicorn's strongest points of fixation thanks to their mother.

"Well yeah, delicate condition and all, then she wanted to stay after I was born to take care of me. Newborns need a lot of attention Peri, even in war it was against the rules for pregnant mares to fight too, she could have a desk job or retire and my mom wasn't a desk job kind of pony... If you do become er... a-an expectant mother, you won't keep fighting right? Take it easy for the baby?"

Peri looked up to the rattling chains barely holding on to a swinging bit of racks to hold the cookware scattered all over, looking back and nodding. "I had not considered that yet. I guess I'll have to... Maybe I'll go to Sanctuary, help train Minutemares there like they did for me! Go on, tell me more about your father-pony, it's interesting."

"Umm, ok... He was really smart, soft spoken so kinda the opposite of mom in a lot of ways. I guess they complimented each other, opposites attract and all. He was no repair-pony, but he could fix things around the house, where I first learned and got to like it. We built models and toys together, he took me on trips to boring educational places, but fun places too like bowling and stuff. You're right, unity would make this a lot easier, it's hard to just sum up a pony with words. This making any sense?"

She smiled and nodded silently, humming in thought and processing it. Trying to get the concept of dads through to her was surprisingly difficult, the alicorns had their mother the great and powerful Goddess, and that was it, no dads involved, just one stop shopping. Like most of them, Peri had merely viewed me as a means to an end, a way to reproduce. In their eyes I should just do my duty and move on.

Explaining it didn't work that way for me had been a battle, but I hoped if I could get it through to Peri, the others might get the idea. It wasn't that I didn't want to help them, my body at least definitely wanted to help them, all of them... repeatedly... But the brain was still mostly in charge and I had old world values, they wanted me to be a dad, with all of them...

A massive cast iron cauldron bigger than me had rolled to the corner and blocked an arched stone passage from view, stairs! Aha! I knew there had to be a way up, I enveloped the whole thing in the blue glow of my telekinesis and tugged, joined by Peri's blue-green field of magic and lifting the whole thing away to reveal the exit to the dining room I hoped for.

It was a wide, winding stairwell going up several floors, plenty of room for several ponies to pass by going up and down, ferrying dishes up to the guests, piping hot from the kitchens unless I missed my guess. Peri cloaked us both and whispered behind me as we climbed, stepping over brittle pony bones and miretank muck.

"He sounds like you. Except for the healing, sister Jade says you can't do that. But you fight good, maybe you got that from your mother? If so then you got parts of both parents mixed up together to make something new, like we did when the mother changed us! I wonder what a foal made from the two of us will be like?" At least she wasn't totally fixated on mating anymore, just getting her to think beyond that was a victory. I really wanted her and all her sisters to understand what they were asking of me, her question still made me gulp nervously.

"T-That's the big question I guess, parents make kids and hope the best of them gets mixed up into something better, try to teach and help them, make things better for the kids than they were for them. If we do... and it works, I'd be interested to see too Peri, kinda why I don't want to just do what you mares want and leave you to it, they'd be part of me too, get it? Maybe they won't have my temper with how calm you are, if it's a filly I bet they'll be really pretty like you. I hope they just get smarts from me and not some of my quirks along with it... Anything you hope for?"

Her answer came back immediately for once, strong and sure without any hesitation. "I hope they are born and healthy. To have a foal of my own... do as the mother wished, make sure my kind doesn't disappear. But I'm glad it's you that will be the... father-pony, you have good traits and are nice, I like you more than my hat."

Puzzling over Peri's rating system for everything revolving around her hat, we made our way up the last crumbling steps to another heavy wooden door, pushing it open as quietly as possible and peeking out into the gloom beyond. Oh thank you Luna! The dining hall, a long marble table stretched all the way down the huge chamber, unbowed and unbroken after the centuries.

Kind of nasty covered in miretank gunk and eggs, and surrounded by a dozen of the shelled monsters, but the mostly unbroken, dirty stained glass windows stretching up to the ceiling far overhead, showed glimpses of the moonlit courtyard outside through the gaps, we were up on the surface!

A shadow crossed the dim light filtering in and I gaped following it, the motion matching a red dash on E.F.S. and rattling the remaining glass. My view was dirty and mostly obstructed, but the two story tall, spiky, spiny, massive creature passing by out there and darkening the room could only be one thing...

"The Queen..."

"Fucking really!?!" I hissed at the giant wooden doors looming overhead and the etched brass plate of the old fashioned magical lock, a circle bisected with a vertical line... A half moon door and I only had a crescent moon key...

I had hoped things would get easier on the surface, just find a big enough empty window or a hole in the wall if nothing else. Instead Castle Equinox and its mutated inhabitants seemed determined to frustrate me at every turn. The ancient castle couldn't self repair like the living buildings I had read the M.O.P. was fond of, but plenty of powerful, Princess-tier magic protected the place even now. Between that, the current residents and the sturdy, earth pony construction, we had been repeatedly stymied trying to get where we wanted.

Even the biggest stained glass or picture windows still had jagged shards of thick glass filling them and heavy iron bars narrowing down the gaps to the point even I'd have a hard time squeezing through. We had cautiously passed a couple gaping holes in the dark brick or empty windows big enough to use, but each was festooned with miretank building sludge. Those that hadn't been sealed by the cement like muck were heavily guarded, even invisible we couldn't slip past them and I had no interest in getting them riled up with that behemoth outside.

Locked doors and collapsed passages did the rest, I gave the doors one more angry shove and turned back, slipping my way out of the miretank infested chamber to the hall leading in a rough circle around the courtyard outside. We passed the echoing ballroom and I took another careful look, more ruined bunks strewn about the wide open space, smashed and made into framework for more miretank construction. From what I could puzzle out of what was left, I was guessing more barracks, maybe a makeshift hospital after the end, now just a big miretank nest with a pair of Hunters I'd just as soon avoid.

A little twisting, turning backtracking brought us to the wide hallway leading back to the main entrance we had already tried. The tattered red carpet was moldy and squishy, all the rusting suits of armor to either side were creepy too, but it was at least mostly unoccupied. The mutated turtles seemed to like making nests and warrens in side chambers, leaving high traffic areas alone and only patrolling occasionally.

I tugged Peri after me and huddled near one of the most intact suits of ancient plate armor to whisper up to her invisible ears, looking across the hall to the mud spattered fire escape map barely hanging to the wall among all the rotten tapestries. "This sucks but I think we're gonna have to go up Peri. We need to find a way over to the gatehouse somehow and they're all blocked from down here, what we really need is a better key... The grand staircase in the foyer is pretty choked with crap, but I think we can fly up and..."

"Ssssh!" Peri shushed me and I felt a lot of warm, transparent alicorn shove me behind the suit of armor and curl around me, so lost in thought looking over the nice and simple map on the wall I didn't pay any attention to the clicking of a patrol passing by.

Watching one of the vicious miretank hunters leading half a dozen heavily armored normal miretanks down the halls right in front of us made me nervous. If fighting broke out here... who knew how many would come charging in from all around us, but the queen outside would almost certainly hear it.

Finally they were gone and the soft pressure holding me still went away, leaving me to wiggle my way out from behind the decorative armor as Peri whispered back. "You think we have to go up to come back down? This place is confusing Fast, I don't like it..."

"Yeah me either Peri... I don't see any other way to..." I replied and tugged my invisible trenchcoat free of the spiked plating meant to cover the wearers tail, looking back nervously at the shift in the metal suit that gave a click. If I ended up sending this whole pile of junk clattering down to the stone floors I may as well just scream 'Hey! Here we are! Come and get it!'

Instead of rusting steel plates scattering everywhere, the tail covering moved smoothly down and the wall behind me slid up in a shower of dust, unfortunate as I had been leaning against it to pull free and was sent tumbling back to hard stone stairs behind me. Another secret passage? How many did this place have!? Somepony reeeeally liked secret doors and hidden tunnels...

"Oh, another one... you're good at finding those Fast, you said you wanted to go up and here we go." Peri spoke over me as I struggled back up, looking over my shoulder at the narrow stairs spiraling up into the dark, lots of cobwebs obscuring what little view there was.

"R-Right... totally meant to do that... C'mon, keep an eye out for silver keys Peri, if we keep going west maybe we'll find a way down to the gatehouse."

Once we were up a few steps the secret door slid shut behind us again, at least we didn't have to worry about company from that way. The miretanks obviously hadn't found a way in here. The webs made me nervously check E.F.S. every few steps for more of the Radstar Spiders, but nothing so far.

The switch to open the dark brick wall at the top was easy to find from this side, no reason to hide it inside the hidden passage itself. The wall slid aside and revealed a tattered curtain of rotting cloth flapping in the gust of air, giving something else to peek around invisibly and check where we wound up now.

It looked like a small study, well... small by royal castle standards, still a fairly big room and it looked perfectly preserved. A cold fireplace with what had been a lovely portrait of Luna hung above it was straight across from our entrance, framed by bookshelves stretching to the ceiling that held ruined, rotting books and scrolls. Lots more moldy paintings lined the walls, the eyes of long gone noble ponies seemed to follow us as we cautiously walked in and returned to view.

The focus of my relieved interest was the ornate mahogany desk at the center of the room. The flickering green glow of a terminal illuminated the pile of bones in the cracked leather chair behind it, gleaming off the silver key on a chain around the corpse's neck... Jackpot! I trotted out and around the pile of crates stacked in front of the tapestry hiding our entrance, Peri squeezing past the obstacle and looking around with interest, turning to the boxes while I grabbed my prize.

A half moon key... Strange though, the silver half circle at the end had a crescent moon line too, a little prodding at the strange key showed why, it was like a puzzle key... A bit of gentle tugging with my magic separated it into two distinct keys, a crescent moon key like I had, and another that fitted together with it, filling in the missing gap to make it a half moon and adding a new, ornate tooth to the end, clever ancient craftsponyship.

I left Periwinkle to quietly open the crates that had her interest and patched into the glowing terminal, shoving the skeleton in rotting green rags aside to crack the security and see what I could see. Maybe I'd get really lucky and there'd be a way to open the gate from here... Ugh, of course not, the top level of the terminal just displayed a simple set of options, log records from the military pony in charge here and a command to open a safe I didn't see anywhere. Hoping for helpful hints or clues, I pulled up the logs and started reading quickly.

Captain Long Bomb's Log-

Entry #1310

Cushy assignment here in the Princess' own castle, but awful boring and out of the action. I know Trotson is an ideal infiltration point for the striped menace, an invasion by Atoli from the sea is a real threat if the zebras get desperate enough, but that's really unlikely. Supervising the installation of the big guns as ordered though, if the Caesar is dumb enough to order an open attack his navy will get blown outta the water.

Hell of a lot more likely they're slipping ashore in those underwater boats of theirs and sending spies in, all those drugs are getting in somehow already... but that's for the pinks to figure out. Really just think they sent me here to get me out of the way awhile, wartime stress disorder... Thinking you were dead on the battlefield, then suddenly being fine again and fighting a bunch of stripes that should also be dead tends to mess with you. Asked one too many questions about that M.O.P. craziness I guess... Oh well, nice enough assignment.

Entry #1428

Got this place up to snuff and running like a well oiled machine this year. Not that that's saying much, pretty far from the front here, mostly dealing with shipping in and out, managing her highness' castle as a military hub, vacation duty with all the retirees and eggheads in the Trotson area.

M.A.S. rep came with proper orders to take over the dungeons, way above my clearance and pay grade so no interest in whatever it is they're storing down there, awful lot of it though. Been up in the castle too, studying ancient magic, cataloging the library before letting the M.O.I. have at it, improving magical defenses and so forth.

Those civilians from the local school are an odd bunch, friendly enough though. Most of the troops like em and that pegasus Professor is a hoot, helps lighten the mood which helps a lot. Those holotape arcade cabinets he brought made him some loyal friends for life with some very bored troops, the old coot is a hell of a gamer too.

Really do have too many ponies suffering actual wartime stress disorder here, rotated away from the fighting to clear their heads, ponies weren't meant to see and do the things we've.... Nice to see civilians that get that and give a shit anyway.

Wasn't sure what to do with his package for Luna though. Locked it up for now, said it wasn't anything critical, just for fun. Doc Mobius is a little kooky so it could be a muffin powered automatic mane and tail styler for all I know. Tucked away for now and sending word up the chain, if they want me to ship it to her highness then off it goes, till then it's waiting for her next visit whatever it is.

Entry #1540

Orders from on high, red alert even here in the boonies of the Commonwealth, be on the lookout for zebra subs using advanced cloaking fetishes... How the fuck am I supposed to look out for an invisible submarine!? E.M.S. Dreadnought on its way at least, let the navy worry about zebra ships. Everypony's tense, waiting for the sword over our heads to fall. All the weirdness doesn't help either, scratching noises in the walls and down near the dungeons, can hardly let my troops out for leave either without one of them finding trouble somewhere.

Entry #1545

They did it!! Crazy fucking stripes blew it all up! Balefire missile launches detected off the coast, up near Neighlem of course... coddled those traitor zebra assholes and this is what we get in return! Mortars zeroed in and blasted the bastards to confetti, but not before they got several shots off. Radio was full of craziness before it went out, reports they unleashed a freaking Tsunami that's tearing up the coast and every ship sent after it, lost contact with the Dreadnought and the raptors are pulling back, Cloudsdale went down and they just... this can't be happening!

Locking the castle down, the center has to hold dammit, trying to coordinate comms through our own equipment and get some kind of order, not looking good though. Manehatten, Phillydelphia, Cloudsdale, C-Canterlot... Trotson's gotten it light so far, have to hold on, for Equestria...

No more entries... I blinked at the dusty skeleton and gave it a shaky salute, Capt. Long Bomb tried his best with the world literally ending around him. He had been right, ponies weren't meant to do the things we had done, the wasteland that was left was the end result of ignoring our better natures, the culmination of everything that had gone wrong.

I clicked the command to open the safe wherever it was and detached my pip-buck, looking up over the fireplace at the portrait of Goddess Luna swinging open along with the heavy steel door of the safe behind it. Peri looked up from her interested looting of boxes of ammo and military rations, watching me approach the gleaming arcano-tech object revealed reverently.

I floated it down to get a better look, a beautiful, lovingly crafted magical energy weapon, some kind of plasma caster? It looked sort of like one, it had a shorter barrel etched with moons and stars, ending in an arch to focus the shot, not wickedly hooked metal but a crescent of blue diamond curling in on itself, a crescent moon.

The body of the heavy M.E.W. was actually pretty light, gleaming dark blue casing, festooned with more blue diamond talismans and pearl inlays, a round, shielded chamber of polished steel and silver at the heart of the device, etched with a curving line to make it a crescent moon as well, the dark section textured and burnished to make the bright sliver stand out more.

A harness of supple black leather that still smelled of polish with silver fittings dangled from it and additional parts for the bit and a holotape still sat in the safe. Once I had it in my hooves my pip-buck identified it as 'Blue Moon', assigning an astronomical value to the weapon and confirming it was in perfect condition.

Mobius made this... One of the heads of the Institute, the one I had only heard vague mention of before, even the other heads didn't like him from what I gathered, or were scared of him. A weapon made for the princess, waiting in this hidden safe all this time, perfectly preserved.

Taking advantage of the lucky find, I sat down and struggled my way into the harness, relying on Peri to help tighten the straps down to fit a less 'Princessly' frame. Val kept bitching at me to expand my repertoire and have a heavier weapon to fall back on, considering the giant monster outside, I admitted she was right and used our safe haven to equip it.

Very light for a heavy weapon battlesaddle, that was nice... It wasn't throwing my balance off that much and the main housing was built to conform to a winged side, not that my wings were very cooperative tucking in as they should, but after forcing the right to do so I was relieved to see the M.E.W. didn't get in the way, the short barrel positioned the jeweled crescent vertically, just ahead of my chest without being too bothersome.

Thankfully it only had a mouth operated bit as a backup, this was designed for an alicorn, my magic could control it a lot easier than trying to figure out regular battlesaddle control mechanisms for earth ponies and pegasi. My pip-buck even interfaced with the new weapon, when I thought about trying it out several components expanded at the sides and the barrel extended, twisting the jeweled crescent horizontally, crackling with pale blue light across the blue diamond focal point. A secondary targeting reticule appeared in my vision and stayed steady, only moving when I shifted my body and the barrel of the weapon itself.

From the new readouts I noted that I only had a few Micro Fusion Spark Cells rolling around in the bottom of my inventory, though a glance at Peri's finds came up with several more from a dusty green ammo box. I scooped them up gratefully and willed the big gun to stand down, watching the etched barrel collapse as it stopped humming and crackling with power, the main housing at my side clicking back down to a more compact bundle, I could work with this thing. Hopefully this would come in useful, at least it would shut Val's complaints down for awhile.

With the key I wanted and a bonus to boot, I nodded to the thick wooden door out and Peri cloaked us both, leaving the silver key I floated out visible so I could fit it in the lock marked with a half moon. It swung open onto a long hall lined in musty blue carpets and tapestries falling to shreds on the walls, more magical torches held in creepy stone hooves lit up and followed our progress.

We could try going back and opening one of the main doors to the courtyard now, but we still had a little time before Val's deadline, safely exploring the place invisibly couldn't hurt and there might be more treasures up here.

At the very least, there were some clear windows to look out of here on the second floor, not cemented shut with muck or guarded. The glimpses I got of the courtyard didn't make me feel great about our odds though, it was crawling with miretanks, all varieties we had seen so far. All serving the gargantuan queen lumbering around the wide hole in the center of the open area, the top of the long vertical shaft she had burrowed up from the sea that lit the courtyard in a green glow, the reactor had to be down there, she nested right on top of it...

"That... is a very big turtle..." Peri whispered beside me as I fluttered away from the broken glass and back to the hall, nervously nodding and realizing she couldn't see the gesture.

"Y-Yeah... That thing's gonna be a problem alright. Not a very good view of the gatehouse from here, let's move down a bit."

A walkway atop the base castle walls wound around the courtyard, going into turrets at the corners that led to different sections and towers, several rusting suits of power armor stood as silent, dead sentinels still holding their posts. The southern tower had a gaping hole in it, piles of fallen black brick and mud built up around it that the Queen must shelter in since she was too large to go down the gaping pit.

The most I could see of the squat, stone structure to the side of the solid drawbridge barring entry to Castle Equinox, was a muck covered door at the bottom, along with a smashed Vertibuck on the roof. The nose buried in the crumbling stone, the open side of the vehicle had a mounted minigun drooping to the ground, maybe I could wriggle my way through that door and into the gatehouse? There had to be controls inside, but getting to them was another question.

There wasn't a lot of signs of Miretanks or Radstar Spiders up on the interior second floor at least, a few piles of muck and bones, but no hordes of miretanks patrolling around and no webs draped over everything. We crept down the halls together cautiously, so far no miretanks had meant something worse... We passed several opulent bedrooms converted into offices or quarters for the military here, stopping at an intersection with fluttering blue banners depicting a stylized Luna and the moon at her horn.

I focused on the most likely looking door and opened my mouth to speak, the first quiet syllables drowned out by a blast of screeching noise that flattened both our ears and knocked me back, the larger Peri stumbling a few steps with me, wincing towards the source of the green rings of magically amplified sound that lit my medical system up with warnings.

The sound finally stopped and I felt like I could open my eyes without them popping from my skull. The... thing... I saw charging at us that launched the attack was a nightmare. Out of instinct I activated S.A.T.S. to get a better look and try to cope with the surprise attack, it knew where we were even invisible... Something a bit like a miretank hunter, but not... Bigger for one, and not even the remnants of a shell really, the dark plates across its back and limbs looked like they grew right from the leathery green hide in segmented armor.

All six limbs were equally sized, long, agile hindlegs matching the forelegs in almost every respect, except for the longer claws tipping three dexterous digits, dripping in green slime that sizzled when it touched the tattered carpet. It had spines all over, a ridge running straight down its head, shorter ones continuing down the spine and a tail longer than the Razorclaws even, ending in a wicked barb dripping more acidic poison.

The blast of noise had come from its slobbering, sharp beak, a long forked tongue flapping from the side as it ran on all six legs towards us at a frightening speed. Those webbed fin-like things must be ears? Maybe it heard us? A king... this had to be what Captain Salty and Mint Twist told me about, a Miretank King... my pip-buck's targeting spell just confirmed it. The upper floor was so empty because this was its lair, and we walked right in...

S.A.T.S. was giving very low odds to hit anything too, I went with the best odds, half a dozen slugs from the Terrible Shotgun to center body mass, accepting the sequence and trying to ignore my own contribution to the sound giving us away as Peri's invisibility faded away. We were going to attract a lot of attention, but we couldn't hide from this monster, with luck we could put it down and slip off again...

Apparently I had exhausted all of my luck finding secret passages and fancy weapons... a single slug hit its mark, the rest chewed up the stone floors and blasted a rusting suit of armor to pieces as the nimble thing juked and jived out of the way in a blur. Even the shot that did hit only made it stumble a moment to my horror, the pale plates across its broad chest absorbed the impact with barely a scratch.

Peri's sniper rifle fired repeatedly as well, two of her well aimed shots managing to hit miretank flesh, burying in the King's shoulder and left front hindleg in a dribble of greenish blood. Then the thing screeched and leapt at her, the bigger target that had actually hurt it. It soared through the air ahead of the flicker from her horn trying to bring up her shield, grabbing the big mare with its four hindlegs and slashing out with those dripping claws, snapping its maw at her frightened golden eyes.

"Be Strong!" cried out along with the darker part of myself in a roar and I shot forward at it, tackling it with Best Served in my mouth and slashing wildly at the thing, digging long grooves down its spiny back and getting its attention away from the bleeding Periwinkle. It released its deathgrip on her and rolled across the floor with me on its back, trying to dislodge the crazed, smaller opponent that was actively hurting it a little. I got the idea the Miretank King was used to being top dog around here... getting hurt was not in his plans.

Vengeance sprang up in my magic and floated right by his head, the hammer clicking back just as it rolled to the wall and smashed me against it, those sharp spines digging into my chest and drawing blood, I really hoped they weren't poisoned too. My gleaming revolver fell to the floor with a clatter as my magic imploded, getting slammed into the wall again was too much to maintain my grip, let alone that long tail lashing up and wrapping around my throat.

With one muscular tug the king's tail pulled me loose and flung me down the hall, I flapped desperately and pulled out of the fall, hovering above as it turned and hissed. Before it could move again, Peri's sniper rifle blasted a good sized hole through its neck and it skittered away, running right up the wall in a zig zagging course away from the alicorn Minutemare's shots, while I snatched Vengeance back up.

"Fuck it Peri! Run! This way!!" I yelped and flew down the westward hall, away from this horror and towards the gatehouse. E.F.S. was filling with red and a terrible roar shook the castle around us from the outside, the Queen knew we were here now too, fantastic!

She didn't need convincing, stumbling after me with blood pouring down her sides from the series of punctures the King left. She drank one of Jade's radiation tinted healing potions at a run as we barreled towards the broken wooden door ahead, cold sea air was blowing in, oh thank you Luna for small favors, the outside! This was quickly becoming a fiasco, we just needed to reach the skies and get the hell out of here, try again some other way...

Peri barreled ahead of me and smashed the remains of the door to splinters, dashing out into the night air and the stone walkways atop the castle walls. I hit the doorway just behind her, floating out several mines, dropping them all at the pinch point and spreading my wings to escape. I heard several detonations just behind us and didn't dare look back at the angry screech still gaining on us, flapping up to get out of range and noticing Peri diving towards the gate, still focused on our mission over survival. No!

I spun to follow and we were both brought up short by the looming shadow of the Queen, raising her massive claws to block our path and rearing back. It looked more like a normal miretank than anything else, the thick, spiky shell bloated and topheavy, lined with glowing green patterns at the segmented cracks. Ugly tree trunk hindlegs flopping along to propel it forward and a tiny head with angry, beady eyes.

It gave a deafening screech and sucked in, its beaked maw opening wide as I lunged and Peri and tried to get out from between the King and the Queen. We barely avoided the absolute torrent of acid spewing from her mouth, the spray washing over my hindlegs and Peri's exposed flank I couldn't cover sizzled and burned, too many feathers on my left were scorched and I lurched in the air towards the snapping horde in the courtyard below, shit!

Peri shoved me away and up, shaking her head and dropping into a speedy, expert dive as she brought up her glowing blue shield, shouting over to me while her sniper rifle uselessly pinged against the Queen's shell as she distracted it. "The gate Fast! Go! You may not die! Too important! I will keep it busy!"

I hated this plan, trying to protect my friend and she was still focused on me being too valuable to die, the only male alicorn versus just one more female. But this female was mine! My friend! Dammit, she had already dodged away and I caught sight of the King skittering across and over the walls behind me, keeping pace and looking for a way to tackle me from the air or blast me with that noise he kept roaring out, forcing me to climb over a near miss of green rings of sound.

Abandoning caution I turned and faced it, unloading a wide spread blast of lightning that sent me pinwheeling backwards through the air. Thankfully it jittered in place at the damage and was a little reluctant to follow without cover, the gate... Peri would stop if I could open the gate and get help.

I spun in the air and tucked my wings to dive towards the rusting hulk of the Vertibuck hanging over the drawbridge. The door was totally sealed shut by the Queen's multitude of egg filled muck piles, no way in even if we had the right key, but the smashed war vehicle's wide open side doors led down into the dark of the gatehouse.

Pulling out Thump-Thump and wildly firing 40mm grenades as I flew onward, I tried to make myself as small as possible and plunged towards the makeshift entrance, thumping against the minigun and landing on the partly closed door on the other side. The red dash of the King was easy to keep track of as fast as it moved, closing in fast...

I wrapped the Vertibuck's heavy weapon in my magic and the long barrel lifted back up, spinning up to speed and filling the rusty vehicle with shell casing as it started firing, tearing into the multitude of miretanks swarming below and bouncing off the Queen's shell, barely a nuisance that didn't distract it from chasing the bright blue ball of Peri's shield looping around it. The tongue of fire the weapon was spewing out made the King back off at least, giving me a second to buck at the barrier under my hooves and break into the gatehouse.

The dented sliding door gave way with a screech and I fell into the dark gatehouse, keeping my magic on the trigger of the minigun and looking around frantically. Heavy chains leading in from the ceiling, following channels cut in the stone overhead and down to corroded pulleys, held taught by a heavy stone weight on the other side of a spoked wheel on the floor.

Ok, ponies turned the wheel, the gate went up and down... No time for that, the huge stone weight on the wall made the whole thing work, I sent Best Served out in a flash and severed the chains holding it up, sending the heavy weight down with a crash and filling the room with choking dust.

Alright, should be open, the minigun was still raining brass down on my head but couldn't have much left. I pulled out the pale blue flare gun the 'Hootnanny Hoof Cannon' and aimed it up past the mounted heavy weapon, firing off a round to the sky and only momentarily confused by the puff on confetti that sent the flare on its way... This was from the M.O.M. hub, Director Sandwich's weapon, the bright blast of fireworks and horns just confirmed it, a miniaturized party cannon...

Whatever, it did what I wanted, Val and the Minutemares should have seen that signal, the gate should be open, had to get back to Peri! I flapped and shot up through the Vertibuck, the minigun spinning dry as I passed. I caught a glimpse of Peri dodging gracefully around the gate before I was sent flying by green rings of a magical sonic attack.

The King had waited, perched right outside the Vertibuck spewing lead down on anything in its weaving path. Maybe they weren't completely mindless monsters, or it was just a really good predator. Either way, a wall of that painful magical noise knocked me from my course and sent me to slam into the rusting hulk of an anti aircraft cannon with a hollow bong and a sickening crack, a wave of agony running down my leg.

I winced my way up again on a broken hindleg, spotting the King abandoning where he had waited behind the Vertibuck to charge around the top of the walls at me. A woozy glimpse of Peri dodging around the lumbering Queen in front of the ...still closed gate!?! Dammit!!! The muck making all the nests and constructs up here held it closed despite all the slack in the chains sagging down from it! Peri was leading the Queen towards it, nimbly dodging jets of acid that hissed against the ancient wood.

That was all I got before the King was on me, pinning me against the leaning tower of ancient weaponry jutting from the castle walls, snapping and snarling, jerking its head away from the weakly floating Terrible Shotgun trying to blow its head off and end this.

A near miss forced it back enough for me to see Peri's flickering shield collapse under the massive claw swinging down at her, raking her side in a terrible wound but continuing on and smashing the frozen drawbridge free. She gave a triumphant cry as the drawbridge fell with an echoing crash, opening the way for Val and the Minutemares outside.

Her weary golden eyes fell on me with a smile, tossing her long mane and weakly adjusting her course towards me to deal with my attacker. Warm satisfaction on her face for completing her mission that was suddenly cut short, a claw the length of her own torso erupted from her chest and she hung limply at the end of the Queen's limb, blood pouring down to the hungry spawn below her.

The dark Shroud in my head joined my primal scream as the world slowed down, the light fading from Peri's eyes as the Queen swung her claw to fling her away and feed her progeny. A surge of strength and magic from the depths of whatever reserves I had visibly crackled around me in a field of lightning and I activated S.A.T.S. to freeze time.

Still alive... she was still alive, she had to be... we hadn't... she couldn't die! I WOULDN"T ALLOW IT!

Dash, I needed to move fast to save her, I needed Dash. What if it didn't work right either? Like alcohol? Same answer then, take more... Three doses should do it, every second counted, just needed every edge I could get. Ok, that left the snarling bastard keeping me pinned. We were chest to chest on our hindlegs, frozen in time dodging each other as he pressed his bulk against me and dug in with those rear claws. It knew to avoid my weapons, but it was practically on top of my new one without realizing it....

The targeting spell gave low odds on anything else, but selecting Blue Moon to the chest gave a 90% chance. Just one shot would take most of the spell charge, but if it got it off me it was worth it. Get rid of this asshole, get Peri...

Time resumed and the barrel of the strange M.E.W. clicked out, the blue diamond head crackled and built up a charge with a slow motion hum as all that Dash hit me at once and the world grew brighter, the euphoria of the drug battling with the steady beat of fear for my friend. I saw the King's beady little eyes drawn down to the bright blue glow and wrapped my forelegs around its spiny neck, you're not going anywhere...

Those dark, sunken eyes widened in the slow crawl of time moving forward, it tried to struggle away, then Blue Moon fired... A blinding, wide, flat beam of pale blue-white energy that scorched a hole right through its chest and out the other side before the monster dissolved into blue ash in my grip.

I was loose! My wings gave a strong flap and I was up, plowing through the cloud of sparkling ash. Spinning into a lightning tinged dive, I shot towards the huge limb with the impaled blue alicorn slowly swinging out to be tossed aside.

I was running on panic fueled instinct, making an actually graceful roll past the slowly moving spray of acid and sending Best Served up and back down like a guillotine, severing the entire claw piercing Peri and grabbing her in a surge of overglow from my horn. The glowing green pit... radiation... I had just enough medical knowledge drilled into me first by my own father I had just told Peri about, then by Jade, to know not to let that claw come loose until I could get her down there, she'd bleed out in a heartbeat without it holding her guts together.

My heart was hammering in my chest as we spun and dove, the overdose of Dash making me a jittery bundle of speed in a fearful powerdive, past the queen and straight down her nest, past ruined and collapsed corridors and tunnels, down, down, down... Down to the heart of the bright glow and storm of radiation, filling me with even power as I squinted against the glare, hugging Peri close to me and aiming at the wide open arcano-flux reactor at the bottom.

The severely damaged power supply was tilted out into the pit, large sections of the shielding ripped away by big claw marks to pour radiation out into the nest. The Queen had grown too big to follow at least, her screeching bulk filled the opening above trying to do so and blocked off her smaller children. I caught a few popping up from the walls and muck down here, but I was busy, they'd wait...

I gently set Peri down right in front of the storm of radiation, glancing at my rad meter and watching it hit the end of the dial at purple and jitter there, all of my wounds healing faster than my armor self repaired over it. Sending a prayer to Goddess Luna and Peri's mother, I gripped the long claw with my magic and yanked it out in a fan of gore, sending it flying out in a surge of magic to impale the closest miretank hunter making its slow motion way towards us.

Come on... come on... please... Peri took a weak breath and the ragged hole in her chest started slowly knitting back together... yes! Heal! Faster!! The Dash, incredible amount of power coursing through me and the dark rage at seeing her nearly die was coming together in a perfect storm in my head, only my concern for her holding me back. I looked up at the half dozen dashes on E.F.S. skittering towards us in annoyance as she moaned and took another weak breath, her organs regenerating to fill the wide hole as I watched.

I unleashed one surge of lightning after another, not even making a dent in my magic reserves and scorching anything that moved to a crisp, turning back to see her dull golden eyes fluttering and rolling my way weakly.

"M-Missi...on... gate... you... safe...." She sputtered and coughed up blood, but kept healing faster and faster as the Dash started wearing off.

"Quiet Peri, it's fine, you did it. Heal! Come on, you can't die! W-We still haven't done the whole mating thing right? You have to live so we can make a baby alicorn together, that's what you want, that's what you're getting! Just please don't die! I promise, we'll get out of here and do everything on your list! Anything you want! Just live!"

Her ribs started rebuilding before my eyes and she smiled weakly, "F-Fine... be fun... after mission... go, be ok now..."

I took another look around warily, making sure nothing moved down here. I didn't want to leave her, but muscle and fat were sealing over her ribs already, the ragged skin at the edges of the terrible wound inching its way back together. I heard gunfire and explosions above, the Minutemares had come in and joined the fight. The queen bitch that did this though... that one was mine...

Giving the recovering alicorn a tender kiss on the cheek, I nodded and pulled my hat down tight, letting the crackle of my surging lightning walking spell wash over me and spreading my wings. I crouched and tensed, then shot up the long shaft like a rocket, electricity trailing down the black contrail I left and my horn glowing, the Shroud's voice booming out as I shot out of the opening and into the open air above.

The swirl of red and green on E.F.S. paused and all eyes looked up at the crackling black alicorn against the light of the waning moon, even the miretanks and their queen focused on me, giving the attacking Minutemares a momentary advantage as they took heart in the raging beast on their side.

I caught a glimpse of my Princess hovering above the castle gate, a symbol for the attacking Minutemares pouring in under her as much as I was. Her blue eyes widened in concern looking up at me, the mare I loved.. I tore my gaze away reluctantly and let the dark Shroud in my head loose, I needed him right now, not her. I wanted revenge and blood.

The Queen shot a jet of acid up as I dove right at her, spinning in an awkward barrel roll and charging Blue Moon, forced to reload after just one shot that had used up half a dozen MFC rounds. I righted myself under the spraying fan of droplets and unloaded with the powerful M.E.W., paying the bitch back by burning a large hole straight through her shoulder. A little disappointing as I was aiming to fry her head off, but at least I hit her and took satisfaction in the angry wound, let her suffer first...

One huge foreleg missing a middle claw swung down and swatted me from the sky, sending me tumbling to slam into the brick walls of the courtyard above the battle below. She was unable to follow up with the string of explosions going off around her flabby hindlegs. Val's angry squawk from a nearby parapet heartened me and I peeled myself off the cracked, pony-shaped impact crater, growling and thumping to my hooves among all the Minutemares and miretanks below.

With my lightning walking charged with this much power, I was an electric blur, zipping through the furious battle, slicing limbs free, blowing snapping beaked heads off with the Terrible Shotgun, sending bolts of lighting ahead of me to clear a path back to the Queen roaring at the invaders. I kept seeing Peri's smiling face filled with shocked pain, that claw piercing her.. the light in her eyes fading... I was going to kill the Queen, no matter what, I was killing that thing right now!

I spotted Zed leaping in and out of the melee around me more than once, crushing the dense shelled creatures with his bare hooves. Glimpses of leathery wings zipping past overhead and the suppressed blast of Witchy's anti-materiel rifle too. As soon as I was close again I jumped and soared back up, the monstrous turtle ignoring her other attackers in favor of the annoying black blur that had killed her king and caused so much pain, good...

As powerful as Blue Moon was, it took too long to charge and reload, plus I couldn't even properly hit a target that big right in front of me. I switched to my shotgun and Thump-Thump, sending more 40mm grenades out among all the missiles and other explosives lobbed her way, crippling her hindlegs so she couldn't move around easily and focusing on those swinging claws. If I had to take the bitch down one piece at a time, that's what I'd do.

Dodging past another swing of her claws, I plastered myself against the top of her shell sent Best Served down to rip into her shielded neck, cackling madly at the spray of green gore coating me. "DIE! DIE! DIE! YOU UGLY BITCH! DIE!!!"

The Queen screeched and bucked wildly under me, sending me back to the air to dodge around her, swinging around her back and unloading a drum of shotgun shells at that slobbering beak. Another bolt of lightning scorched her pale, glowing chest before she swatted me from the air again into a clump of her swarm of servants.

A Miretank Hunter leapt over the bodies of three Softshell Miretanks blasted to pieces by the crash of Vengeance, swinging out with its poison coated claws, trying to stop the vicious creature that kept hurting its Queen. I darted around it in an electric flicker with Best Served in my mouth, taking its head in return for a long gash that started healing again immediately, my jittering rad meter still not moving from the purple end of the rainbow dial. A powerful jump sent me back to the air once I was past it, if I had to keep throwing myself at the monstrous bitch over and over again, it was worth it as long as she went down.

She was getting as annoyed with me as I was with her, leaving her children to deal with the herd of Minutemares working together to push them back and focusing on the black alicorn coming at her again. Another jet of acid sent me down and to the right, winding up right in line with her swinging claw that smashed me to the ground and pinned me there. The Queen's dribbling maw dripped acid to the ground near my head as she sucked in again, Blue Moon charging under her grip and Best Served hacking a trench through her limb one swing at a time.

A bolt of lightning made it dodge back, scorching its chest and face while it swung its free claw at the Minutemares pestering it. We felt the same way, nothing else was important, just us two... one of us was going to die. The wide beam of Blue Moon seared right through the claws holding me down, burning a smoking hole in her foreleg over me, but not taking the end of the limb off entirely, it still had me by sheer bulk.

A blazing blue ball of alicorn shield erupted from the glowing green pit, a double sized Periwinkle scowled down with glowing yellow eyes, her blonde mane and tail waving behind her in a sparkling cloud as she shot forward. Bulldozing directly into the massive Queen and slamming her into the nearest wall.

The Queen roared and shoved back, her long limbs and bulk hugging the crackling blue shell pinning her in place, nearly able to cover the large sphere of defensive magic and spewing more acid over it, but unable to do a thing to the super charged alicorn shouting in her own booming goddess voice. "NOW FAST! I'LL HOLD IT!"

Alright you stupid magical energy cannon, nice stationary target... this was practically hitting the broadside of a barn. I planted my hooves to root myself and activated S.A.T.S., the open beak reared back to shoot out more acid was frozen in the best possible position, away from Peri's shield on the inhale but the targeting spell still only gave 50/50 odds... heads or tails with Peri so close... I hated magical energy weapons...

I did have a way to cheat the odds though... Kellogg's S.A.T.S. overcharge mod, the little crystal added to my pip-buck was fully charged again after using the targeting system so much. I wondered briefly what would happen using it on the already powerful cannon at my side, images of vaporizing the titantic Queen into a mountain of sparkling ash dancing in my burning eyes as I ran through the additional menus.

I accepted and the slow but powerful weapon clicked out and charged, enveloped in a bright glow of magic charged up over time by the Institute made mod. The wide beam of moonlight colored death erupted out in a blinding flash of a guaranteed hit. The bright blast streaming from the crackling blue diamond crescent incinerated the monster's head, scorched off that drooling beak before it could spit anymore poison, melted those beady black eyes, then right out the top of its skull and out into the night sky, up and up and up before finally fading away, leaving an ashy stub smoking in its place when it cut off.

Peri's shield dropped and she flew away from the corpse, letting it fall with a rumbling crash that drew the attention of every remaining miretank. A pitiful, shared cry rose up from the nest of monsters and a lot of the fight went out of them, several trying to skitter away back into the castle or down the pit. Most were chased and put down by advancing Minutemares, moving up to establish a forward position in the courtyard.

Blue Moon collapsed back in on itself and the Terrible Shotgun floating by my head barked out at a nearby softshell, blowing a hole in the squishy shell and dropping it as things started calming down and I panted in place, still itching for more to kill, turtles to explode, leathery necks to cut... blood, destruction, retribution...

Two blue alicorns drifted down and snapped me out of it, Jade anxiously landing and rushing forward to embrace me while her magic probed for any injury. Finding nothing with my radiation meter still dancing madly at the purple 'fatal' range, filling me with energy and regenerating any damage. She was joined by the heavy thump of an oversized but living Peri, giving a sleepy, lidded look down at her sister and me, smiling happily and showing that pale pink blush again.

"Fast! Are you alright? What happened! I thought you meant to open the gates without fighting these creatures yourself! One of you could have been killed!" Jade cried and glanced around the battlefield for injuries, torn on spotting a few that needed her help against me jittering and panting in place.

"Y-Yeah.. one of us almost was hon, r-really, really glad to see you both. You Ok Peri? You scared me..."

The big mare looming over us blinked and raised a hoof to her shimmery blonde mane, looking up and giving an annoyed snort, brushing the tattered remnants of her tan Minutemare coat off her broad chest. "I'm fine. I lost my hat..."

New Perk Added!----------------------------

Blaster Master-----
----Learning to be a little more flexible is tough, but S.A.T.S. helps make up for your lack of experience with magical weaponry! From boxy M.E.W. pistols to Magical Gatling Weapons and Plasma Casters, S.A.T.S. spell charge costs for all Magical Energy Weapons are reduced by 20%.