Author's Notes:

Wind Scribe: *replaying Watch Dogs 2*Wait a second. Alexa, what day is it?
Alexa: It is October fifteenth two thousand and seventeen
WS: ...Oh, fudge monkeys, the story! Alexa, how badly did I fuck up with my delay?
A: Pretty badly, you scrub. Also, no one plays Watch Dogs 2 anymore unless they suck at actually playing video games.
WS: ...Fuck you, Alexa.
A: Reporting abuse of Amazon hardware to authorities. Have a wonderful day.
WS: Well, better post this chapter before my jail time. You all have fun with this one. Spent quite a while on it, and remember. Constructive criticism is always welcome so I can improve.

Two columns of ponies silently crept along the winding paths of the Geode Cavern Mountain Range. They mostly hugged the edges of the path as they trekked, keeping fairly spaced apart to avoid clumping up, though at the same time alternating which side took the lead whenever they approached a sharp bend. It worked so that the group that bend matched with would peek around to relay any possible contacts as they came closer to their objective.

Sam followed close behind the other guard in front of him in the right column as quietly as possible. Amber Cross, the guard’s name, had made it abundantly clear how much she did not like having the human dropped in her lap like he was. Yet, she wasn’t about to let him out of her sight to do something stupid and mess up their operation. So, she figured the best way to keep an eye on him was to place him directly beside or behind herself, planning accordingly for whichever seemed more suitable at the time. Amber Cross was at least glad to note that the human conduit could adhere to their tactic of a silent approach on their target as they steadily made their way into the territory.

Behind her, Sam continued to slink along with the other pony’s hoofsteps. He was quite used to sneaking around, in actuality. He and his friends could never have slipped throughout the city of Memphis right under the D.U.P.’s nose as many times as they did if they didn’t know how to keep a low profile.

It did surprise him, however, how well the guards could move around as silently as they did in their heavy, clunky armor. The only sound he could hear coming from the diminutive horses were the subtle rhythm of their hooves striking the ground they walked on, which in turn made many of the ponies twitch or jump slightly from any other sharp, unexpected sound they heard coming from the shifting shadows of the surrounding shrubbery terrain.

Luckily, nothing ever leapt out of the shadows to ambush them as they marched toward the destination that the captain led them to, further into the rocky outcrops. Sam glanced over to his left to see the ever steadfast captain marching resolutely along. Determination was clear in his eyes, even from the side angle he could see as he dashed stealthily ahead to check the next corner. If there was one thing that Sam could say about ol’ Cappy, is that the pony always stayed focused on his goals. At least this time, the goal wasn’t to harass the conduit with another lecture on Sam’s ‘disrespectful antics’. Sam shook his head to refocus his thoughts. Natie would have smacked him upside the head with an electrically charged palm if she knew he was zoning out again.

With quite a few guards put into this operation, their pace was a bit slow, so Sam could honestly say that it was longest fifteen minutes of his life until Aegis Flare gave a signal with his wing. He looked down, as did Sam and a few other guards, to note that there were quite a few tracks leading ahead of them until disappearing to the left beyond another sharp bend. The two columns of ponies slowed to a halt as the captain snuck up to the sharp bend to check ahead. Once finished, he returned and whispered to Amber Cross, which Sam could plainly hear.

In his gruff tone, the captain relayed his findings, “Up ahead is the offshoot that leads to the assailants’ base of operations. Like before, no signs of anypony in the area, but I want everypony to stay on guard, should something be laying in wait. I will bring my team up first and form up on the right side to check the surrounding area. Once the last pony in the column filters in, you will move your team in on the left side to cover the rest of the area. Remember, eyes up and heads low.”

The earth pony guard saluted and let the captain get back to his column to issue his orders through a series of signals using his wings. Amber Cross turned around and glared at Sam.

“Did you understand the plan?” she asked and received a silent nod and thumbs-up in return, “Good. Do not break formation, and stay directly behind me.”

Once she was done with her pep talk with Sam, she maneuvered around him to relay the plan down the line of ponies using a few hoof gestures. Amber Cross formed back up at the front just as Aegis Flare led his column around the path down to where the other tracks led to and disappeared from sight. As the last pony from the first column crept around the bend, Amber Cross moved.

Sam followed close behind, keeping a close eye out for anything out of the ordinary that could look like a trap. He continued to follow Amber Cross, only stopping for a split second to take in the surroundings. It was like a rocky clearing with sparse vegetation on the right hand side.

On the other side was the captain’s group, moving along the edge and checking what little undergrowth there was for possible assailants. There was a large wooden cart that sat under the still growing branches of a sapling tree. By the looks of it, it seemed pretty well used, but Sam was no expert on carts to begin with, so he wasn’t about to go all Inspector Clueso on that. On that note, Sam couldn’t help but remember that he still hadn’t gotten over the fact that a race of sentient horses hooked themselves up to carts and carriages, much like farmers did back on earth to pull stuff and other ponies around. He guessed he could equate it to being like those chinese man pulled street carts he’s heard about. Or even hell, those goofy bike taxis he once saw on the east side of Memphis.

Sam felt a tap on the back of his knee and found the guard behind pointedly glaring at him and gesturing for him to keep moving. He managed to smile bashfully before turning around and quickly caught up to behind Amber Cross before she noticed. The rest of the guards funneled in easily enough, and the two groups of guards and conduit slowly circled the outer perimeter of the clearing.

Tensions were high as everyone constantly checked in different directions for the assailants that weren’t there. On Sam’s second scan of the area, he soon realized that they were coming up on a indent in the rocky enclosure that looked more like a cave entrance the closer he got to it. It seemed that the two groups were set to meet right in front of it, if they moved around the clearing like they have been.

With only a few more feet left before the two groups hit the cave entrance, Sam tightened his hands back into fists and conjured a few wires to swirl around his arms in preparation for anything to happen. Their movements slowed to a crawl with every step closer, until the two teams were right on either side of the cave entrance.

Aegis Flare and Amber Cross locked gazes with each other and nodded in silent agreement before slipping around and into the cave entrance at the same time. Sam moved up to peek around the corner and observed what was happening. Fortunately, no ambush was lying in wait, no alarms were blaring, and it seemed that the captain and Amber Cross were the only ones apparent in the cave that could be made out.

The captain moved back and whispered to the closest guard to him, “First checkpoint secure. I want at least four ponies covering this area once we move further in. I also want one of the mages up here to scan and unlock this door.”

Sam luckily overheard all this, as the guard the captain just spoke to saluted and relayed the orders down his column’s chain. Sam squinted into the darkness and found the door that the captain was talking about. The cave was not dug into very deep, at least, not that Sam could tell with the metal plate and door blocking the way not ten feet in. With the light of the moon not exactly pouring in, Sam could only make out the basic features of this obstacle now blocking their way. A unicorn made his way up the chain to arrive at Aegis Flare’s side and studied the cave for himself.

“Can you open it?” the good captain asked in a whisper.

The unicorn lit his horn up, bathing the dusty cavern in a pale green light. Looking over the cave once more, the unicorn took a step forward and channeled more arcane energy through his horn to work up a few detection spells for the area. After a few brief minutes, the unicorn’s horn dimmed back down to a duller lumination.

He turned to the captain and shook his head, “I’m sorry, Captain, but it seems that the door is laced with all kinds of powerful binding and protection enchantments. I’ll need the help of the rest of the mages we have, and even then, it will take a while before we are even able to break them.”

Aegis Flare’s brow furrowed in frustration. It had taken them so long just to track these assailants back to their hideout. Now, time was of the essence, and they had very little to waste on getting past one door. It also would take too long to send scouts out to search for any other ways into this cavern. Even then, there was no guarantee that they would find one in a timely manner. Plus, they may be just as heavily fortified as this one. The more he thought, the less ideas came to mind, and it just made the good captain all the more frustrated.

“Sam, what are you doing?!” Amber Cross hissed underneath her breath.

Aegis Flare spun on his hooves, just in time to see that the human conduit had snuck past them while their backs were turned and was examining the heavy looking, steel door up closely.

“Looks like a standard double cylinder mortise type lock,” Sam muttered back, still eyeing up the keyhole beneath the door latch on the door, “Give me like two minutes, and I’ll have us inside.”

A few wires protruded from Sam’s fingertips as he kneeled down infront of the lock, and before anypony could move to stop him, he proceeded to pick the lock with his wires. The ponies behind him braced for the inevitable backlash from the protective wards that the human would blatantly trip, but in the end, nothing happened. Sam did feel a bit of a tingle run up his arms, like he was being shocked. There was also a slight resistance to every move he tried to make with his wires to move the tumblers into place, but neither of the sensations really bothered him enough to matter. The ponies behind him were dumbstruck, as none of the protection charms or binding enchantments seemed to affect the conduit. The soft tinkling of metal strands on a door lock echoed throughout the silence of the cave.

“Hmm, might want to make that last count three minutes,” Sam hummed as he worked.

Aegis Flare recovered first and stormed quietly up to the conduit, careful to mind the enchantments’ possible radius since they may still be active.

With teeth gritted to stop himself from yelling, the captain scolded the conduit, “What in the name of Harmony were you thinking, human?! I thought I told you that you were not to take any action unless I gave you specific instructions to!”

“Yeah, but let’s be honest,” Sam called over his shoulder, “I overheard your guy say this was gonna take a while to get past. We don’t have that kind of time on our hands, and I’m betting busting the door down, although it would be quick, is not exactly a good plan either. Well, guess who’s practically invulnerable to magic and can pick just about any lock you put in front of him. So relax, I got this.”

Captain Aegis Flare growled as he fought to counter, “A lucky break, but that still doesn’t excuse you from ignoring my orders!”

“Ok, I get it. Bad Samuel, no extra cookies before bed. Seriously though, would you have thought to let me give this a go right off the bat?” Sam shot back.

Aegis Flare hadn’t even considered the option, although the human didn’t exactly give him a choice. It was dirty and underhanded for him to use this type of logic against Aegis Flare. However, the deceitful tactic was what Sam needed to give him just enough time to flick the last tumbler into place and listen to the satisfying ker-clunk of the mechanical hardware unlocking.

Sam smirked, “And that, my fine furry friends, is the sound of success. Even beat my time with, what, half a minute to spare?”

The boastful conduit retracted the wires from the lock, rounding on the ponies behind him to absorb their gratitude. However, he was met instead with a round of angry and disapproving looks.

“Human, get back into the formation. Now,” Aegis Flare hissed dangerously at the human with a glare.

Sam raised his hands in front of him in mock defense as he sidled around them, “Alright, alright already. A simple ‘thank you’ would have been nice at least.”

The captain ignored the human’s comment and turned to look at the door that they had previously been trying to plan to tackle. Nothing about it seemed different, except for the fact that Sam’s efforts now left it unlocked. There didn’t appear to be any guards or the like just beyond the door that may have heard Sam’s accomplishment and came to investigate, so at least they still had the element of surprise. There was just one last thing that he needed to make sure of.

So, turning to the unicorn beside him, he spoke, “Scan the door again and find out if the enchantments were triggered thanks to the human.”

The unicorn immediately obeyed and set to work. With his horn glowing brighter once more, he shut his eyes in concentration to work. A few moments later, the light from his horn dimmed again with surprise clear on his face.

“Sir,” the unicorn guard reported in astonishment, “the enchantments have been broken. Whatever the human did, it worked.”

Aegis Flare and Amber Cross were just as surprised to know this as their fellow guard at that moment. It would have taken them far too long for the captain’s liking to disenchant the door, but with the human’s help, not only did they save time, they didn’t even have to risk any potential magical backlash to anypony that may have worked to disenchant the door. That didn’t mean the captain was about to give the human the pleasure of hearing that from him. Instead, he dismissed the unicorn, but not before issuing a few orders.

“Thank you, private. I want four ponies on perimeter watch out here while the rest of the forces go in. Pick three others of various fields and move to positions that overwatch this area. Only engage with adversaries if it is necessary. If you hear any commotion that indicate our engagement with the assailants, then you can engage with them as you see fit if they flee this way.”

The unicorn guard saluted and turned around to complete his task. Aegis Flare went back to eyeing up the door that led into the assailants’ base of operations and tensed. They were about to enter the belly of the beast, and it was putting him on edge.

Turning his head over his shoulder, he saw Amber Cross tensing as well, along with the rest of the guards that he could see just outside the cave entrance. Apart from them was the human and his surprisingly serious look he had behind his ever present smile. Again, the good captain was torn between giving him a bit of praise and chewing him out for his disobedience.

Though that could wait till later. Right now, he had to focus on the operation at hoof. With a steadying breath, he turned back to the metal door and signaled to the ponies behind him to form up and follow him as he moved to open the door.

The door opened near silently at the press of his hoof. Aegis Flare only opened it just enough to see inside and find any possible assailants beyond the portal that were lying in wait. When all he saw was a dimly gem-lit, winding cavern beyond, a fresh wave of relief washed over him. He pushed the door open further and led the way down into the caverns. Tonight was the night that he would bring these assailants to justice and bring peace back to his country, or Harmony forbid it, die trying.

From within the secret base of operations in the Geode Caverns, a unicorn was hard at work on his life’s goal. Beside him hovered a tape recorder in his magic as he dictated his thoughts and findings. He methodically circled a metal examination table while whisking various instruments and pages of notes up in front of him to scrutinize their conditions in his usual fashion of multitasking.

Upon the examination table was a pony, unconscious and with an IV of sedatives running into her left foreleg. She was laid upon her back, and her limbs and head were strapped down by tightly fitted restraints to keep her in place and prevent escape. A magic supression ring was affixed to her horn to block any errant magical outlashes. Were she awake, she would no doubt be panicking and thrashing against her restraints in an attempt to escape the ones that had ponynapped her. A situation the awake unicorn would rather like to avoid, since it would only hinder his experimentation and might damage his subject, or worse, his experiments’ results.

“Log number D-123. A new subject has been acquired and brought to me, just as instructed. Female, unicorn, peach coat, powder blue mane, and looks to be around fifthteen years of age. A subject, currently designated as subject B-15, in near prime condition for the tests. Still need to find a better way of weeding out subjects with the ‘conduit gene’. The scrying spell is still only forty-four percent accurate, at best. Perhaps I should see if adding a live analog sample to the scrying variables will enhance the accuracy. Though, I will need to find a way to keep the analog’s tissue from decaying before the scry. Another project that will have to wait for another day though. As for now, I will begin with sample extractions.”

The pearly white coated unicorn set his tape recorder down on a nearby table. With his concentration no longer needed to be divided with levitating it, he was free to draw on his magical reserves to gather his other equipment around the laboratory like room. Rows of syringes, specimen jars, scalpels, drills and other various medical devices were surrounded in his pale-yellow magical aura and brought closer to him. Each one was meticulously inspected and either set aside or placed on a rolling tray by the examination table. Only once all the selected tools were in place did the unicorn snatch the tape recorder off the table near him to continue his transcript.

Clearing his throat, the unicorn spoke, “Subject is still heavily sedated, but that shouldn’t affect the results too much. Beginning extraction of follicles and tissue samples.”

The unicorn raised a pair of forceps and shears in his magic. With the forceps, he plucked a couple of strands of the unconscious mare’s mane, tail, and fur at the root. Each sample was placed in separate specimen jars and labeled accordingly before placing them on a shelf behind him. With the shears in his grasp, he shaved a small block of fur from the mare’s foreleg to expose the bare hide underneath. A scalpel was scooped up in his magic, and with a precision that would make a surgeon jealous, he cut a perfect square out of the top layer of skin. He quickly dabbed at the missing patch till it clotted over. The skin sample was placed in another specimen jar and labeled.

The unicorn held the sample in his grasp and examined it closer in some light, “Tissue sample was found to be a tad flaky on extraction. Grayish in color, so more than likely some of the mercenaries’ concrete residue. Other than that, subject B-15’s epidermis is fairly healthy. If I can devise a way to keep the sample alive after extraction, this may be the best way to maximize material for the scrying improvement idea.”

The unicorn brushed a few errant strands of reddish-orange mane out of his face and placed the sample next to the others behind him to continue. “Now, for the blood sample, although I would have liked to know more about how subjects A-1 through 3 and their kind figured out how to scan viable subjects for the ‘conduit gene’ without this technique. Were it not for their forthcomingness in my inquires, I would have never known how to accurately test for the ‘gene’ through blood analysis.”

The unicorn picked up a syringe from the cart beside him, inspecting the needle once more for imperfections. Satisfied, he turned the mare’s foreleg and pressed down on the upper leg. After a moment of sighting a vein, the needle was stuck into the mare’s foreleg. The unicorn drew back on the plunger of the syringe, and rich, crimson blood was sucked up into the syringe.

“No apparent abnormalities with the blood from the subject under first survey,” the unicorn spoke aloud, “As with before, two-hundred milliliters will be extracted for the preliminary tests.”

The syringe in the unicorn’s magic was pushed back out into a vial, which in turn was capped and set aside. Three more empty vials awaited their turns to be filled, but they wouldn’t have to wait long under the mediation of the unicorn mage. However, before he could get started on the rest of the blood draws like he wanted to, a tingling sensation at the back of his mind made him freeze. Unsure of if what he felt was true, he set his equipment down and focused his arcane energies on rechecking the sensation. This ‘sensation’ was not just some simple itch or the feeling of someone’s hair standing up on the back of their neck. No, this was a response to an magical alarm that he wove into the multiple layers of protection enchantments surrounding his hideout and would activate should anything tampered with his enchantments or entered without his permission. It was a subtle spell concocted to be near undetectable underneath the others so it would not be as easily disabled, but if the alarm had been tripped, it could only mean one thing. The unicorn known as Visionary Dusk snapped his eyes open once he was able to confirm that the alarm had undeniably been tripped.

“Bucking dammit!” he swore under his breath, even going so far as to kick over a table side tray, sending all manner of metal objects and shattering glass crashing to the ground, “I should have had more time! How could anypony have found this place, let alone break through all the protection enchantments so easily?!”

With all the noise he was making, it was no wonder that one of his hired mercenaries who was passing by the lab had heard him. In stepped the griffon and leader from the three remaining in the band of mercenaries that had taken up the offer of work from a banished grand mage of Equestria. He was careful not to step on any of the broken glass as he entered, curious as to why his employer was throwing such a temper tantrum. Visionary Dusk was still in the midst of scrapping his hoof against the ground and growling like some kind of feral animal, so he had yet to notice the intrusion.

Aras, the griffon, cleared his throat and spoke up, “What’s going on, Doc? Latest experiment not go so well?”

Visionary Dusk’s ears pulled away from their aggressive, pulled-back state to swivelling around to the griffon that spoke. Soon, his entire body followed suit, and the mage’s wrathful gaze fell on Aras. The griffon had seen the mage like this before, at the time when he came back with his failure to complete one part of his objective with the assault on Canterlot. Even with all his newfound power, Aras couldn’t help but become unsettled under those rage filled eyes.

Visionary Dusk ground his teeth as he took a step toward the griffon and hissed, “Aras, when you and your ‘boys’ retrieved my subject, were you followed?!”

Aras blinked, unsure of where this was coming from. He thought about his most recent job from the mage. He had sent him and his partners to pick up another subject for his twisted experiments from the city of Canterlot. Sure, it was the closest settlement, but the mage’s obsession with undermining the princesses’ senses of security was going to bite him in the flank. They could have just as easily snatched another pony from one of the towns in the east, but it was not Aras’ place to ask questions, especially now.

So, back to his recollection: after using the ‘scanner’, another piece of technology that he was given by the mage along with the armor and other tools enchanted to detect nearby ‘bio-terrorists’ or ‘conduits’, he and his team lured a pony into a secluded area to capture her. There was a slight complication in that another pony saw what they did and got away before they could capture or kill her, but it wasn’t that much of an issue.

The trio of mercenaries had fled the city before any guards could have a chance to catch up with them and made it back to their hideout without being followed. They even made sure to cover their cart’s tracks well enough even after Arctic Flash messed up with hitching himself up the first time in their haste. At least, that’s what Aras knew, since he didn’t see any guards trailing them when he periodically checked on their way back. He was certain of this.

Aras clicked his beak a few times and replied, “Nope. We got out of there before that other pony could call some guards.”

“What?!” Visionary Dusk nearly screeched, looking like he was about to burst a blood vessel, “What do you mean ‘other pony’?”

“When we got our claws on the first pony, this other one came out of nowhere and spotted us. She didn’t fight or anything. Just ran away before we could catch her, so we took the first one and left,” Aras replied, a little more nervously under the gaze of the infuriated mage.

“You were suppose to remain undetected!” Dusk kicked over another tray as he bellowed, “This is the second time you have failed in doing what I’ve asked, which I might add, is very little of you and your gang! Now, there are ponies, mostly likely the royal guard, storming my lab as we speak because you couldn’t follow one simple instruction! Not to mention, I don’t have enough time to gather all of my materials to move on to the fallback site! If I didn’t need you and your gang to hold off these intruders so I can salvage what I can, I’d let you burn out like that useless pegasus of yours!”

Visionary Dusk used his magic to unceremoniously sweep all the debris on the floor to other side of the room in a heap. With the path cleared, he stormed past the griffon to a cabinet behind him. The unicorn ripped open the cabinet doors and searched the shelves of various flasks of muticolored liquids and other materials. In his haste, a few of the cabinet’s contents spilled onto the floor until the unicorn grabbed a stand full of corked vials. Inside the vials was a sickly, yellow colored liquid that had a faint glow about it, even against the unicorn’s own magical aura that he used to grasp it.

The griffon was quite familiar with this concoction that the unicorn produced, as it was the same substance that gave him and his fellow mercenaries their otherworldly powers and were constantly in need of in regular doses in order to not suffer the same fate as their partner they lost in Canterlot. The unicorn summoned a trio of syringes from another bin in his lab and checked them over before taking the first vial and syringe and jabbing the needle through the cork and syphoning the liquid into the syringe. He did the same with two more syringes and floated them over to the griffon.

“Take these, grab your ‘boys’, and hold off the intruders until I’m ready to leave,” Visionary Dusk instructed sharply, “Be sure to only use those when your bodies start to become fatigued from using your abilities. I don’t really care if you overtax yourselves, but the more time you give me, the more of my research I can salvage.”

Aras wasn’t too fond of the way the unicorn put it, but it’s not like he had a choice in the matter. So, he just turned away, grumbling while Visionary Dusk gathered what he needed in his lab and packed them away in some saddlebags. With the griffon gone to rouse his fellow mercenaries, Visionary Dusk took the moment to take a steadying breath to calm himself and think a little more clearly. He looked over to the unicorn who had still laid unconscious on the the lab’s table throughout the entire exchange and sighed.

Picking up a large glass jar and a scalpel in his magic, Visionary Dusk talked, mostly to himself, “It’s a shame I can’t take the whole thing with me. The last two were dead ends, and I would have loved to see how the latest serum would have affected this subject, whether she be a conduit or not. For now, I can at least preserve a larger piece of tissue to use if the results come back positive to possibly improve the scrying spell.”

Still at the lead, Aegis Flare took in everything around him in the dim lighting of the ever expanding caverns. Magic powered lamps lit the way deeper into the supposed hideout, with a winding interior of rock and occasional glowing gems embedded in the dirt. The only other light were those cast by the unicorns in the guard’s party that tilted their spotlight like cones of illumination on anything that may have stood out along the way.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much beyond what one would find in a closed off gem mine. That wasn’t to say that the guards could feel relaxed. In fact, with no encounter they had expected to see so far, it wasn’t a surprise that every little noise and moving shadow put them on edge.

Right behind the captain, Sam, the wire conduit, was busy with his own inspection of his surroundings. Every minute, he expected to see an auto-turret set up to block their path and mow them down in these tight quarters, or even see the telltale red blinking dot on a security camera nestled in an upper corner of the tunnel until klaxon alarms started blaring. It seemed so odd to him that the usual threats he had come to expect from these types of situations just didn’t apply here. Even more worrisome were the unknown threats that he didn’t have time to ask about for this scenario. In the end, he’d just have to rely on his quick reflexes to pull him out of the metaphorical fire.

In a small part at the back of his mind, he once more couldn’t help but admire the scenery around him. Gems that glittered like multicolored stars peeked out from the tunnel’s surface all around him. Although, Sam did have to duck every time they came up to one of the tunnel’s wooden supports. Pony gem caverns were not built to support proper human height it would seem. The earthy, if a bit musty, scent was quite pleasant and added to the atmosphere in just the right way. All of this would have been nice to enjoy and take in were it not for the fact that they were here to put a stop to a dangerous group of assailants that had a penchant for ponynapping.

A few more minutes into their excursion into the caverns, the captain stopped suddenly and signalled for the rest to halt. Sam squinted into the darkness ahead in hopes of seeing what the captain may have noticed. Ahead of him, Aegis Flare’s ears flicked at a faint sound coming from deeper into the tunnel.

“What’s going on, Cappy?” Sam finally broke the silence with a whisper.

The captain harshly shushed the conduit while he concentrated on figuring out what the noise was that he heard, only to clench his jaw in frustration from the sound being too faint to identify. He had no choice but to resume the excursion, but at a much more subdued pace and crouching closer to the ground.

After another minute or two at the new clipped pace, something caught the captain’s eye ahead: light. At least, light bright enough that it spilled into the tunnel from wherever it was coming from. With the tunnel bending to the right further up, the captain sidled up along the edge and peered as far as he could around the corner from where the light came.

Sam and the rest of the guards followed close behind and waited on the captain’s findings. Aegis Flare found that the tunnel open up into a proper cavern just beyond. The area was large, large enough so that forty ponies could fit comfortably if some of the space wasn’t already occupied. Two large magic powered lamps sat near the center of the area, each just far enough away from each other and the walls to cast enough light into the space to see almost everything within. Stalagmites and stalactites jutted from both the ceiling and floor at various points in the open area, perfect to use as cover while the guards crossed the room. Off to the captain’s left side was a section of the cavern space dominated by a set of worktables. He couldn’t quite see what was on the worktables, but all manner of equipment and unlabeled crates were set about the area as well. Behind the worktables and pinned to the wall looked to be a map of some sort. One that Aegis Flare could barely make out that looked suspiciously like Equestria.

Taking his eyes off that for the moment, he turned to the right and spotted a set of metal looking cabinets, racks, and small assortment of lockers. What looked like clothes of yellow and black were discarded around that zone. The same ones that the assailants wore. Aegis Flare was beginning to understand what this part of the cavern was used for, and that would be the assailants’ staging area. The captain pulled himself away from the corner and motioned for Amber Cross to come up.

With the Sergeant next to him, he whispered, “We’re right on top of them. Open cavern area; twenty-five meters high with sloping ceilings and approximately two hundred meters of area on the ground. A ready area is just around the corner, so more of their facilities must be close by. More than likely on the other side of this area through the tunnels.”

Amber Cross nodded, but spoke in a wary tone, “I don’t like this, Captain. We haven’t seen hide nor feather of these assailants since we got here.”

“I know,” the captain grunted in agreement, “I don’t like it either, and if they are planning something, the best opportunity would be within this open area.”

“Can’t we get the drop on them before they can get the drop on us?” Sam suddenly butted in.

Aegis Flare controlled his anger as he replied, “Not without knowing where they’re hiding, human.”

Sam leaned over the captain to take his own look inside the open cavern for himself. He frowned when he realized that even he couldn’t tell where the assailants may be hiding in such a spacious area. He drew back, not wanting to be spotted and bit the inside of his cheek as every idea he came up with fell apart.

“Sergeant Cross,” Captain Aegis Flare took his rightful command, and with it, shared his own plan, “Lead two of your swiftest and take positions at the second closest cover, just inside the cavern. Once inside, we’ll stagger our forces and piggyback off each other’s cover as we move in.” A sound plan that Amber Cross nodded her agreement to, already signalling for two ponies behind her to join up front. “Eyes up and heads on a swivel. We’ll have your flanks covered as much as we can, but don’t get careless. I’ll lead the next squad in and have the last of them stay behind to act as sentries for the tunnel. Human, you’re with me. That’s doesn’t mean that you can jump in if a fight breaks out though. You will be support for those that need to retreat or need an extra hoof in cover. Am I clear?”

Sam rolled his eyes, giving a half-hearted response, “Sure, whatever.”

The plan was set, and Amber Cross, with another earth pony and a pegasus right behind her, slipped around the corner and entered the open cavern. They moved swiftly and almost completely silently.

Sam watched as the trio leapt from one piece of cover to the next that naturally formed from the columns and other rocky outcrops of the cavern until they all settled just shy of the halfway point of the cavern’s center. Aegis Flare stretched a wing out for those behind to see. A few signals later, he ordered the conduit next to him to ‘follow’ with a whisper and took off.

Sam was tensed and ready, so he fell in right behind the captain as they took their turn to move into the cavern. Sam flicked his gaze every which way in hopes of spotting an ambush before it was too late. Yet, so far, nothing.

The captain led the way to the left, navigating between the uneven terrain and rocky spires until he, Sam, and two other ponies found spots along the left side of the cavern to take appropriate cover. With this maneuver, they were brought close enough to the worktables to see what was truly on and around them. With Sam being the closest, and having just a few seconds to spare while the other two teams moved, he snatched a few of the documents off the table with a wire, much like if he were fishing, and skimmed their contents. Sam nearly gasped in shock at what he found, and a new wave of disgust dropped into the pit of his stomach like a cold rock.

“Cappy, you need to see this,” Sam all but shoved the papers in the captain’s face.

At first, the captain was irritated that the human was trying to distract him at such a crucial time. Though, when he glimpsed the documents in front of him, the same shocked expression that the conduit made was mirrored on his face. The very first page was a dossier of some sort, with a picture of a pony that was quite familiar to the captain. The pony in question happened to be one of the more recent abductees’ reports that had found its way onto the captain’s desk in the past couple of weeks. However, in the picture, the pony was locked in a steel cage. Coat, mane, and tail dirty and unkempt. She was huddled in the corner of the cage, curling in on herself to make herself as small as possible. The pained and forlorn expression on her face was a stark contrast to that of her missing poster photos that was of a joyful filly smiling carefree at the camera and photographer that took the picture many weeks ago.

Beneath that was information about the pony, in terms of color, notable features, and cutie mark. There was more info, but only about half of it made sense to Aegis Flare. The rest of the document took special care to mention stuff like ‘photolytic exposure EXP 2; negative’, ‘gene mutation recognized as abnormality 4’, or ‘contaminate procedure C’. Yet, there was something very important that seemed to be missing from the document entirely, and that was the pony’s name. Nowhere that the captain looked seemed to hold any mention of the filly’s name, and Aegis Flare was revolted. That these assailants held the ponies they ponynapped in such low regard that they appeared to not even care who these ponies were to begin with.

Aegis Flare flipped through the other documents, but other than a train schedule in and out of Canterlot, none of them held as much impact as the first. The captain wanted to yell, buck the nearest thing to him into oblivion, anything to demonstrate his anger at this grievous disregard for pony life that he just read. He would have crumbled the papers in his hoof too, but this was something he needed to retain. The more evidence he had on these assailants when he finally captured them, the more time they could remain behind bars to pay for their atrocities. So, he folded the documents up and placed them in one of his uniform’s pouches for safe keeping.

“Human, stay here,” Aegis Flare commanded, pointing to their current cover overlooking the left-hand side of the cavern, “This is your position to defend and support from. If you’re pressured by any counterattacks, retreat back to the tunnel at the first opportunity and wait there.”

Sam looked like he had just been slapped with a wet fish and struggled to try and get a counter out for the argument.

“No ‘buts’. I am trusting you to follow my orders, human. Don’t give me a reason to think that my trust is misplaced.”

Sam begrudgingly accepted the captain’s order, if only to satisfy Ol’ Cappy’s pride. Besides, Sam had already decided that he wasn’t going to just sit on his ass when a fight finally breaks out. No, he would be one of the first to jump into the fray, no matter what the captain said. Aegis Flare, unbeknownst to him of Sam’s own plan, accepted the conduit’s acknowledgement and slipped back toward the guards, making their way to the next sets of cover halfway across the cavern.

Sam wanted to groan, but just settled on leaning back a bit from his crouched position behind cover, until something caught the corner of his eye. Shiny, metallic strands of wire cables reflected what little light there was in the cavern from underneath the worktables. Whatever they were doing here, it seemed that the wire conduit was going to get a nice top off to his flagging reserves. Sam would have shouted in glee, but kept his excitement down, as to not alert potential assailants in the cavern.

Sam shifted from his position just a bit and reached out to the spooled up cable. Wires sprang from his fingertips and linked with the spool. A wave of ecstasy washed over the conduit as he was connected with the largest source of wire he’s been in contact with since coming to Equestria. He could feel every individual strand of metal curled and twisted and ready to answer to his summons, which they did.

The wire cable uncoiled itself at Sam’s beckoning and was subsequently absorbed into the conduit’s body. The feeling of absorbing so much after so long was pure bliss, so Sam hadn’t noticed when the last of the wire smacked against one of the legs of the worktables. This in turn knocked a precariously place mug on the edge of worktable over and crashing to the ground into a shattered mess.

Everything in the cavern became silent. Sam spun around to find most of the guards looking directly at him or in his general direction with expressions ranging from scared shitless to utterly angry. All Sam could do was look back with a nervous smile on his face while mouthing the words ‘my bad’. Had any of the guards had any time to respond, they surely would have had many choice words to throw the conduit’s way. Those words would never be spoken, as a gunshot rang out, shortly followed by the pained screams of one of the guards that had been shot.

“Take cover!” Captain Aegis Flare commanded.

A few more inaccurate shots rang out, but one managed to find its mark in a guard’s leg when he did not jump away quickly enough. The air was soon filled with a flurry of concrete at the guards behind cover, keeping them pinned. Warcries that could only have come from the ambushing assailants drowned out the panicked chatter of the royal guards. All of this happened in less than a few seconds, and it seemed that the Equestrian guards would have no chance to retaliate against the barrage...

...That is, until a certain human conduit used his wires like a sling to hurl a wooden crate across the cavern. The crate may have shattered harmlessly against the assailants’ cover, but Sam wasn’t aiming to get a direct hit. With the assailants on the other side of the cavern ducking behind their own protection to avoid the splinters, Sam leapt over his cover and sprinted for the center. Shouts came from both sides to take aim for the next volley, but in that time, Sam had managed to scoop up the first pony that had been shot and dashed for the nearest cover back on the guard’s side.

“Mages,” Aegis Flare shouted over the din of the concrete, gunfire, and crossbow bolts whizzing through the air, “direct magical attacks will have little effect on these assailants! Use ranged weaponry and indirect spells for diversions!”

The impromptu change in tactics was what the guards needed in order to bring the exchange closer to a stalemate. While all this was going on, Sam was busy setting the injured pony down behind cover, alongside the captain and another guard that took shelter behind a few overturned worktables. Sam’s hands came back bloody after handling the young earth pony mare that was slowly bleeding out. The conduit blinked in surprise upon seeing that it was Amber Cross that he had pulled from the line of fire, but shook his head to regain his focus. Her breathing was erratic as the bullet had pierced through her barrel and most certainly hit a lung, and she was most definitely going into shock.

“Amber!” the other guard behind their cover cried out at seeing his fellow injured guard. He dashed to Amber Cross’ side and took her hoof, “Stay with us, Amber. We’ll get you some help. We need a medic over here!”

“Corporal! The healers are at the back of the cavern,” the captain said as he pulled the distressed guard away, “They can’t reach us with the enemies pinning us down like this.”

The woeful guard shot up and scrambled for the edge of their cover, “Then, I’ll put them down, or at the least distract them.”

The captain tackled his subordinate to the ground and turned the guard over his hooves before slapping him across the face, “Then, you’ll die trying!”

“Cappy,” Sam interrupted while working to loosen the injured Amber Cross’ armor off of her, “I can do something about this, but I need your help. Hold her down.”

Aegis Flare didn’t know where the conduit was going with this, or why he needed to take off his guard’s armor, but the serious look on his face let him know that the human was not joking around. Both the captain and the other guard hurried over to help like they were told and held their sister-in-arms down. The mare looked wildly around, not quite sure what was going on, but tried holding on to the dwindling life still her body.

Sam inspected the wound for just a moment after the last piece of armor around her barrel came off and nodded, “This is going to hurt. Like, a lot.”

Unsure of what the conduit meant, the captain and the other guard watched in horror as Sam plunged a couple of wires from his fingertips into Amber Cross’ wound. The mare seized up in a silent scream, then tried with all her might to pull away from the burning pain her side.

“What the buck are you doing?!” the captain shouted, losing his grip on the mare’s shoulder and allowing her to thrash about.

“Damn it, hold her!” Sam shouted back, “I can’t focus on getting the bullet out and healing her at the same time if she’s not restrained!”

The serious tone that was shot back shocked both the other guards enough to follow Sam’s instruction. With them both back to restraining their fellow guard, Sam went back to concentrating.

Every conduit has the bonus ability of a high regeneration factor, effectively allowing them to heal and recover their own health at an extreme rate. Some could even use their abilities to heal others by passing their own energy into those others, restoring them to good health in a matter of seconds. Sam, although able to heal others in the same way, couldn’t do that quite as effectively. Yes, he could heal, but he needed time, concentration, and the procedure wasn’t quite as painless as his friend Natie’s electric ‘remedy surge’.

“Almost… got it!” Sam cheered in triumph.

From Amber’s injury, the wires from Sam’s hand finally retracted, and with it, the crumpled remains of the bullet that was once lodged her side. Aegis Flare and the other guard watched in awe as tiny filaments from the last wire to left in Amber’s body broke away and filled in the wound til there was nothing left but a bloody patch of scarred over hide.

Amber Cross gasped in relief and soon realized that she could breathe normally again. She was still a bit woozy, but she was healed. Sam smiled at the pony he just saved and tossed the bullet in his hand over his shoulder. Wringing his hands a few times, Sam stepped past the other ponies and just behind the corner of their cover to get a peek of the action still going on in the cavern.

“Human, what are you doing now?” Aegis Flare asked.

“I told you earlier, Cappy,” Sam smirked, “You were gonna need me for this. These D.U.P. wannabes won’t know what hit them once I’m done. Just be ready to back me up.”

“Wait, human!” the captain called out, but it was too late.

Sam dove from their cover and sprinted across the cavern. He serpentined as he spied where the assailants were taking cover themselves. There appeared to be only three of them, just like the last time. Two were taking cover behind an outcrop of stalagmites in front of a set of tunnels across the cavern. The final one, a griffon by what Sam could tell, was perched near the roof and closer to the center of the cavern. His perch was a mini platform hanging from the roof, made out of concrete. In his head, Sam formulated his attack plan and jumped back into cover. The bullet wounds, concrete daggers, and other various injuries on his body that he took in the sprint were already closing up, bit by bit.

“Eat your heart out, Wolverine,” Sam muttered as the last of his wounds healed up.

Sam timed his next strike will the lull of enemy fire as they reloaded and leapt into action. His first target was the griffon’s platform. Even with the face shield, Sam could make out the griffon’s surprise for being picked first for Sam’s attack.

The wire conduit charged up some of his wire into one hand. The spiky ball of wires was then lobbed into the air and managed to arc directly onto the concrete platform above. The griffon had no time to react as the cluster of bundled wires landed on his perch. The threads of wire that poked out of the ball every which a way sprang out upon contact with the concrete. Sam’s ‘Tripwire Grenade’, as he liked to call it, only detonated when the threads that sprung out from the cluster touched another living creature. Like, for instance, a certain griffon that was too slow for a few of the metal threads to jab him in the side and causing the rest of the thing to explode. The griffon screeched as his perch crumbled along with him, but Sam didn’t stop to check on the D.U.P. armor clad assailant. Besides, these assailants were conduits as well, so one shrapnel filled ‘Tripwire Grenade’ wouldn’t be enough to kill the bastard.

Instead, Sam had his sights set on the other two assailants across the cavern that he was approaching fast. They cried out for their fallen comrade, and in doing so, neglected to keep pumping fresh lead into the wire conduit storming their position. The bullets and few stray concrete daggers hurt, but Sam pushed past the pain and fired off a couple wire shots to keep the hidden assailants at bay. Once right on top of them, Sam vaulted over the stalagmite cover to come face to face with the other two assailants. They looked familiar and soon were recognized to be the same unicorns that Sam chased back in Canterlot by the colors of their tails and ears that poked out from their armor. The two ponies were too stunned by Sam’s sudden appearance to raise their assault rifles in time before Sam attacked. A wire whip lashed out and easily struck the closest one across his helmet covered head, sending him sprawling.

“Buck! What’s the bio-terrorist doing here?!” the second managed to call out after the next round in his gun jammed.

Sam whirled on him and glared, “Kicking your ass, that’s what!”

Sam lunged for the unicorn as he tried to use the rifle as an improvised club before being getting tackled. With the unicorn in Sam’s grapple, they brawled on the ground until Sam was able to slip a few wires around his barrel and fling him out from behind their cover and into the center of the cavern.

“And that’s ‘conduit’, you horn-y bastard!” Sam called after him.

Back toward the other side of the cavern, thanks to Sam’s distraction, the royal guards were able to regroup and press their own attack against the assailants, led by Aegis Flare. It still wasn’t a completely even match, since the guards had to work in groups just to fend off one of the assailants, but at least their new tactics they trained specifically for fighting conduits definitely improved their odds from their last encounter.

Sam was busy with a one on one with the final assailant, locked in a staredown as they sized each other up. The wire conduit struck first with a swipe of his wire whip, but missed when the unicorn rolled out of the way. The unicorn retaliated once back up on his hooves with a charged blast of concrete to the human’s face. However, Sam held his ground and hissed through the pain before charging the unicorn head first. A few well placed wire shots toward the assailant’s hooves kept the unicorn from moving away, and Sam was instantly upon him. A vicious snap kick from his left winded the unicorn long enough for Sam to follow up with combo of punches to the unicorn’s helmet covered face.

One last uppercut, and the unicorn’s head snapped back, sending his helmet flying from the force. While he was still dazed, Sam used the opportunity to tie the unicorn up with a few wires and forced him up against the cavern wall by his throat with a few more metal strands.

The unicorn coughed and thrashed about to escape his confines, but Sam kept his bindings tight. Even as the unicorn tried to blast the wire conduit with concrete at the point-blank range, it was to no avail, as Sam slammed the unicorn against the cavern wall a couple times to further break his concentration. The unicorn was too stunned to do much else than gaze into Sam’s piercing glare and was overcome with a sense of fear for suddenly realizing just how outclassed his own powers were against the human’s. Behind them, the fight with the other assailants raged on, but the two were now locked in their own little bubble, where no outside distractions could reach.

“Alright, I think it’s time you start talking,” Sam said with a devious smirk on his face. His free hand rose, and a trio of wire snaked from his fingers and writhed in front of the terrified unicorn’s face before Sam continued, “Where did you get that armor? How do you have conduit powers? And lastly, where is the pony that you kidnapped?”

“W-what?” was all the unicorn could manage once Sam slackened his grip on his throat.

This earned him a quick lash across the face from Sam, which drew blood. Sam straightened the pony back up to face him once more, his anger starting to get the best of him.

“I’m only asking one more time. Why are you wearing D.U.P. armor?” Sam screamed in the pony’s face, clenching his jaw as he scowled.

The unicorn was hyperventilating, but was able to blurt out his answers, “Th-the boss made it for us! Said it would help protect against magic based attacks. He’s the one who gave us our powers too.”

‘Boss?’ Sam thought to himself, “Who is your boss?”

The unicorn bit his lip as his eyes darted between Sam’s scowling face and the writhing wires from his free hand, itching for another chance to smack the pony around. The unicorn thought about how his boss always liked to say how he preferred his identity to remain anonymous until his goal was complete, and how bad it would be for all of them if his name were to be revealed before such time. Yet with the wire conduit in front of him interrogating him, his resolve was slowly slipping away.

Then, out of nowhere, a hail of concrete daggers from Sam’s right blasted him away and made him lose his grip on the unicorn. Thanks to the momentary distraction created by the griffon known as Aras, who had slipped away from his own fight to help the unicorn being shaken down by Sam, the unicorn was able to slip out of his wire cuffs with the help of his griffon friend.

“Tango, you alright?” Aras asked as he checked over the unicorn once more.

Tango nodded, his injuries slowly healing up thanks to his conduit abilities, “Yeah, but that bio-terrorist is stronger than I thought.”

“Then, leave him to me,” Aras replied, “Go. Help Flash fend off the rest of the guards.”

“R-roger that,” Tango hastily replied and hurried to their other comrade’s side to fight off the encroaching guards.

Sam shook the surprise attack off quickly and faced off against the griffon. They stood facing each other, muscles tense in preparation to attack or defend.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to cut in on other people’s conversations?” Sam snarked, although with a more seething bite in his tone.

Aras grunted and flared his wings out, “You’re going to pay for what you did to Jet Stream, bio-terrorist.”

“Oh, I’ll show you some ‘terror’,” Sam snapped back and launched himself forward to get in close.

Aras was quick to react and beat his wings downward, clearing Sam’s headlong charge. However, Sam was swift and followed up with a few wire shots directly above him and clipped the griffon’s side. Biting back the pain, Aras retaliated with a few concrete daggers himself and hit the human’s center. The shots were weak and only made Sam flinch, so he dove off to the side to put some cover between himself and the griffon.

Aras saw what he was trying to do by leading him to chase after the him overhead in an attempt to either grapple him with wires or fire off a few more shots. So instead, the griffon landed back on the ground and drew the pistol he had strapped to his hindleg with his right claw. Quickly sneaking up on the cover from the right, Aras pounced and surprised the wire conduit from the side. Two gunshots rang out and hit Sam in the gut and one leg.

Sam was stunned, and Aras moved in with another charged blast of concrete to send him flying. Unfortunately, he was too slow in catching the condensed ball of wire leaving Sam’s hand and falling to the ground right in front of him. Metal strands sprung out, and as the griffon tried to beat his wings once more to move out of the way, the tip of his right right wing brushed up against a strand and set the grenade off.

The griffon screeched again and had to backpedal away as his body tried to heal the damage. Sam’s turn of the tables allowed him to spring back quickly and latch onto the griffon with a wire whip. With it, he swung the griffon around like a ragdoll before letting him loose and letting him fly across the cavern, hitting a few rocky columns and stalagmites on the way.

Aras staggered to all fours, shaking his head to fight off the disorientation. When he could see clearly, he noticed that the human bio-terrorist wasn’t attacking him, but assisting the guards that were having trouble with his comrades. Aras thanked the Great Eagle that the human found helping the guards more important than continuing their fight for the moment. Tango had been right in that this bio-terrorist was far stronger than they originally gave him credit for.

“Aras, I’ve collected everything I can. We’re leaving,” a clinically monotone voice called out behind the griffon, surprising him.

Turning his head after jumping from the surprise appearance, Aras came face to face with his mercenaries’ employer, Visionary Dusk. The bored looking unicorn adjusted his saddlebags as he surveyed the cavern from their position in front of the leftmost tunnel on their side of the cavern. He ‘tsked’ lightly, and Aras could see the disgust and anger in his face at having to lose his ‘precious research facility’.

The griffon made no comment of it, as he focused on finding out if the unicorn was going to say something else before he called out to his fellow mercenaries to fall back. Though it seemed that Visionary Dusk beat him to the punch, when he suddenly gasped when his eyes fell upon something in the cavern’s space.

“Aras, is that-” Visionary Dusk stuttered, not believing his eyes, “Is that the human you said you encountered in Canterlot?”

Aras spied said human swinging away from the main fight with an injured guard under his arm on a wire implanted in the ceiling. He wasn’t gone long as he quickly returned to the fight, sans the injured guard more than likely at their fall back position being looked over by their healers.

“Yes,” Aras simply answered.

The answer seemed to draw an expression from the unicorn beside him. One that Aras could only interpret as sadistic glee.

“Quick change of plans, Aras,” Visionary Dusk said whilst rummaging through his saddle bags, “I need a sample of that human.”

Aras’ brow arched behind his faceshield at the unicorn’s statement, though it seemed Visionary Dusk didn’t think what he just said was anything out of the ordinary. In fact, he had fished out a specimen jar and an empty syringe from his bags and was offering them up to the griffon with his magic for him to take.

“Doc, we can’t stay here,” Aras argued, “We’re holding our own against the guards, but this human is trouble. Plus, those shots you gave us are starting to run out. I suggest we leave as soon as we can before more problems show up.”

Visionary Dusk frowned. No, he was scowling, “In case you’ve forgotten, I don’t care what it takes to complete my research. That includes you and your little band of misfits. What I do care about is that there is a pristine new subject full of samples that I need for my research flitting about over there, and you are going to get me my samples! Do we have an understanding?”

Aras’ claws dug into the cavern floor to suppress his anger. He wanted to tear this pony apart, limb from limb, but doing so would only lead to his and the last of his mercenary groups’ deaths. So, he snatched the specimen jar and syringe out of the unicorn’s magic, biting back the scathing remarks he had for the unicorn in question.

“Fine, then,” was all Aras could say and hustled back toward the fray to accomplish his task as quickly as possible and leaving the temperamental unicorn to smile with anticipation.

Upon his return, Aras found almost half of the royal guards were missing, no doubt injured to the point of having to be evacuated from the battle. The rest didn’t look to be doing much better, though the same could be said for his fellow mercenaries. Their attacks and movements had slowed considerably, but they were at least able to fend the brunt of the attacks off.

That being said, the human was another story. If he wasn’t busy helping defend different groups of guards when they were attacked, he was picking up an injured one to whisk them away to safety. He was doing a rather good job of dealing a modest amount of damage to the unicorn mercenaries known as Tango and Arctic Flash.

Aras had to focus, for he had a task to do before he could let them know that they could retreat. Hopefully, it wouldn’t cost another one of their lives. Landing next to the two unicorns behind cover, they were immediately overcome with relief upon seeing their fellow mercenary and leader.

“Aras,” Arctic Flash, the one still with his helmet on, called out, “I’m down to two magazines for this rifle. Tango lost his from the bio-terrorist, and we’re starting to wear down after our last serum boost.”

Aras sighed, not liking what he was about to tell them, “Well then, we’re about ready to leave. All we have to do is get the Doc a ‘sample’ of the human before we go.”

Both the unicorns looked stupefied by this, which didn’t surprise Aras, but he had to get his plan together with them quickly to get this done fast.

“Here,” he tossed the specimen jar to Tango who caught it in his magic, “Flash, you’ll run diversions. Once we isolate the human from the guards, me and Tango move in to grab the Doc’s samples, and then, we’re out of here.”

The two unicorns nodded without another question and prepared themselves for Aras’ signal. The griffon was grateful that he had such loyal companions as these two in his small band of mercenaries.

They only had to wait a second more before Aras cried out, “Now!”

Flash popped up from his cover and began spraying the guards’ positions with bullets and concrete shots. In the meantime, just as Aras predicted, the human was the only one not deterred and charged in to take down their gunner. Aras and Tango sprang from their protective cover and intercepted him halfway, and the three clashed.

Wire and concrete blasted past each other until Aras and Sam met and squared off. Aras struck first this time and tried to swipe at the too close human with his claws. Sam backpedaled, which only led him being ambushed by Tango from the side with a concrete blast to the face. Sam was knocked back and disoriented, just long enough for Tango to charge up another burst of concrete, but this time shot it at the ground behind him, creating a barrier between the three of them and the rest of the battle.

“Someone better start giving me some goddamn answers, because I’ve had it just about up to here with your guys’ shit,” Sam spat out at the griffon and unicorn staring him down.

Aras and Tango didn’t stop to chat and got to work. Aras screech out a warcry and attempted to tackle the wire conduit to ground. Sam lashed out with a wire whip, which caused the griffon to withdraw, though not before Tango slipped under the conduit’s defenses and performed the tackle that his comrade was going for.

Sam tumbled back with the unicorn on top of him and narrowly avoided a kick to the head by the unicorn’s front hooves. Sam struck him with a knee to the barrel and winded the unicorn long enough to get a grip on him to throw him off. Though, not before the unicorn leaned down and caught a clump of the conduit’s hair with his teeth. The hair tore away along with a pained yell from the conduit’s throat with some choice expletives.

Sam rolled back onto his feet, clutching the spot where his hair was torn out. His palm came away not bloodied, but the burning sensation of ripped hair from his scalp was still there until his healing started kicking in.

“What the fuck, dude?!” Sam yelled out, “Who pulls another guy’s hair? This ain’t some catfight, ya’ know?”

Sam watched as the unicorn ignored him and produced a glass jar from a side pouch and spat the clump of hair into it. Sam stuck out his tongue in disgust as the unicorn screwed a cap on the jar and secured it back in his pouch.

“Okay, now that’s just creepy,” Sam muttered, trying not to think about what ponies would want to do with his hair, and hoping it was nothing to do with some kind of weird fetish.

The scene was far too distracting, and Sam missed the griffon sneaking up on him from the side before he had already pounced on him. The two were now wrestling on the ground, using everything they had to try and pin the other.

“I swear to god, if you’re after my hair, too,” Sam managed to get out between grunts.

“No,” Aras calmly said before managing to get the wire conduit in a hold from behind, “I need something else.”

The griffon reached for his pouch, and then Sam saw it: a syringe. The object made the conduit freeze in fear, his entire focus centered around nothing but the needle heading straight for him from over his shoulder. Sam couldn’t think of what to do, how he should act. All his thoughts just kept getting scrambled and lost. He didn’t want to be a labrat again. He couldn’t become one again. Yet, he was frozen in his dreaded fear for what now loomed over him.

The sounds of the world around him suddenly came back for him to hear after not realizing that there was no sound to him once the needle of the syringe pierced his shoulder. Aras began to pull back on the plunger of the syringe, and warm, life-giving blood poured into the reservoir. Too focused on his task, the griffon was too late to notice the eerie golden light by the human’s arm, nor the metal locker flying straight toward him. The heavy locker slammed into the griffon like a freight train, sending him sprawling. Aras staggered back up to all fours, shaking his head to clear his mind, thanking the Great Eagle that the syringe was still in his talons. Although, it was only filled a quarter of the way. Not quite what he had intended for. Still, it would have to do to satisfy their employer.

“Tango, we’re done,” Aras said.

A wire cable slammed into the ground by Aras’ claws, splintering the rock floor. Sam, although breathing hard and shaking in the aftereffects of his episode, looked pissed.

“Well, I’m not,” Sam said between gritted teeth.

Aras and Tango looked on in awe, for in one of the human’s hands were the normal steel colored wires that braided together into a single cable whip. In the other was something entirely different. Pale golden wires that glowed faintly were woven into some sort of pattern and projected from the palm of the human’s hand. A stalagmite somehow seemed to be suspended in the same golden light in front of the human’s hand, or more accurately, in front of the pattern that was in front of the human’s hand.

Across the room, Visionary Dusk gasped, trying to commit everything he was currently witnessing to memory so he could document the development later. This was nothing like what his reports from his bumbling mercenaries had mentioned. Either the morons hadn’t told him everything that they had witnessed this human was capable of, or this human would have made a far more interesting subject to study if he had the time.

“Tango, take the samples and go,” Aras handed the syringe over to the unicorn as he spoke, “Get Flash and yourself over to the Doc while I keep the guards and human busy.”

Tango hesitantly nodded before trying to leave, though not before a sizeable chunk of a stalagmite sailed right in front of him and smashed into the cavern wall behind them. They both looked at the human and saw that he was weaving another pattern out of the new golden wires until they glowed brighter and another chunk of the cavern flew to his hand.

“Oh no you don’t. Cappy wants to bring you guys in for questioning, but I don’t think he’ll mind a few broken bones,” Sam threatenly growled.

To Aras and Tango, the human almost looked feral. For Sam, his blood was boiling, and he wanted nothing more right now than to kick a few D.U.P.’s asses. Maybe afterwards, he would actually get around to finding the answers he originally set out to find from these assailants, but for now, he only had eyes for putting as much hurt on these scumbags as he could.

Aras knew the fight was about to pick up again, but he was running out of energy. So, this seemed like as good time as any to dip into his reserves, unlike his other comrades who had used up their serums that he gave them closer to the beginning of the battle. Thanks to his conservative use of his powers, Aras had been able to hold off on using his own that Visionary Dusk gave them. From another pouch on his uniform, Aras produced another syringe, only this one was full of the special serum that gave him and his comrades the same kind of powers as this human.

He stuck himself in the leg and pressed down on the plunger, feeling the warm liquid set fire to his veins as it spread. Soon, his whole body felt white hot for a second, and then the serum’s effects kicked in fully. Power coursed through Aras’ body and concrete swirled around him as he flexed. The shards of concrete followed Aras’ claw as he pointed toward the human and fired the wave of rocky debris. Sam had to dodge out of the way, but still got hit by a few shards.

“Go, now,” Aras said.

Tango obeyed and swiftly moved between cover to Arctic Flask’s position, where he relayed their fallback order. The two unicorns fired off all the ammo they had left in their weapons to keep the guards pinned. Any guard brave enough to peek out was either shot at with bullets or concrete shards and retreated immediately back into cover.

Aras and Sam exchanged fire after Aras’ first attack. Sam with lashings of his wire whip and anything his magic wires could pick up and throw at the griffon, while Aras continually bombarded the human with blast after blast of concrete. Each were taking on a fair bit of damage, but neither was willing to let the other stay in one spot for long or find cover to heal.

Aras took to the air on his wings, using one claw to pelt the human while his other claw charged more concrete into a condensed ball. Upon landing on the other side of the human, Aras chucked the concrete grenade in between them before the human could counter. Sam had no choice but to brace for the impact and was sent stumbling backwards from the blast. Aras saw the opening and made a break for it.

Tango and Flash were down to firing off shards of concrete at their pursuers behind their concrete covers they built in front of the leftmost tunnel on the opposite side of the cavern. Visionary Dusk, although warned by the mercenaries to duck back, couldn’t help but watch in amazement of seeing the conduit vs conduit fight that was happening before him. It was astounding to see firsthoof the so-called ‘human’ wielding a power that was unlike anything he had ever seen. And thanks to his not as moronic mercenaries, he had two sets of perfectly fresh samples that he couldn’t wait to get testing on from this new subject. Perhaps this was exactly what he would need to finally finish his life’s work and become forever known as the pony that changed the face of his world.

Aras sprinted as fast as he could across the cavern, using his wings to propel him with each stride. Sam shook off the last of the effects of the concrete grenade and looked around for where his enemy had gone. Seeing the royal guards directing all of their forces in one direction led Sam to see where his quarry had fled.

“Get back here, you asshole!” Sam yelled, giving chase.

Aras cleared the last few meters to their escape tunnel in a single bound. He was very winded, and using all of his power like that in one go was doing him no favors. Even so, he checked to make sure that both his comrades were also with him before addressing Visionary Dusk.

“Doc, we got your damn samples. Now, let’s get out of here!”

Visionary Dusk sighed heavily, having to forgo more observation of this human subject to accept that they indeed needed to leave. “Very well. Quickly then, down the tunnel. Then, I will set off the charges.”

Captain Aegis Flare watched as the unknown unicorn, followed by the other three assailants, backed their way into the tunnel behind them, returning fire whenever they could while they appeared to be trying to escape. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the human, Sam, give chase from across the cavern. He was about three quarters of the way there when Aegis Flare spotted the mystery unicorn reach for something off to the side of the tunnel with his magic. The captain gasped at what he saw in the unicorn’s grasp.

“Everypony, back!” Aegis Flare called out upon seeing the TnT plunger box, “Human, stay away from the tunnel!”

Unfortunately, Sam had either not heard him or was ignoring him. Either way, it was too late. Sam ignored whatever it was the captain was saying, choosing to focus on catching up to the assailants and the mysterious unicorn that kept giving him odd looks. Sam had noticed the device in the unicorn’s magical grasp, but couldn’t figure out why it seemed familiar. It was just a simple wooden box with a handle on top with a set of wires leading from it to the tunnels walls.

It was at that moment that Sam realized the danger. He scrambled to try and stop, however, this only ended with him stumbling over his own feet as he watched the mystery unicorn push down on the detonator. A colorful array of lights and sounds assaulted the wire conduit as he was blasted back into the cavern when the tunnel was explosively collapsed.

As the last of the rubble settled over the thoroughly blocked escape route, Aegis Flare poked his head out from his cover to assess the situation. What he inevitably saw did not comfort him. The assailants had escaped. Their escaped tunnel looked to be buried underneath enough rubble that it would take too long to clear and pursue, and the human...

“Human!” Aegis Flare sprang from his cover to check on the fallen conduit.

Sam laid crumpled on the ground, a couple of meters away from the collapsed tunnel, looking pretty worse for wear. Aegis Flare skidded to a halt just before him, worry evident in his eyes. Leaning his head down and pressing an ear to the conduit’s chest, Aegis Flare was at least relieved to hear the human’s heart beating strong. Then, the wire conduit started to cough, so the captain backed up to give him some room. Sam sat back up slowly, allowing his body to regenerate all the damage that he had taken in the final minutes of the fight.

“Well, that was fun,” Sam sarcastically scoffed as he rubbed his head to alleviate some pain.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he shakily got back up to his feet. His face contorted in anger and he made for the now collapsed tunnel, though not before having his path blocked by a certain pegasus captain.

“We’re done, human,” Aegis Flare solemnly said.

Sam snorted and pushed past the captain, “It’s done when I say it’s done.”

Aegis Flare flew back in front of the conduit to block his path yet again.

“Cappy, we don’t have time for this. They’re getting away!” Sam gestured wildly toward the collapsed tunnel.

Aegis Flare landed back down on his hooves and shook his head, “We’re not going to pursue after them.”

“Yeah, sure. You guys can hang back then. I’ll take care of the rest of this,” Sam clenched his fists tighter.

“No,” Aegis Flare commanded, “That means you too, human.”

Sam narrowed his gaze on the captain, ready to do more than just push him to the side this time around.

“Think about it, human. They had that tunnel ready to collapse for their escape setup. What other traps do you think they’ve laid in advance to cover themselves the rest of the way? We have to think reasonably about not just the capture of these assailants, but the safety of the others with us. Besides, we have another purpose for being here. There are still the abductees that need to be found,” Aegis Flare explained

“I don’t care. I’m here to kick some D.U.P. ass!” Sam spat back at the captain, his face peeled back in a scowl.

“Then, what of Sergeant Amber Cross?” Aegis Flare countered, “What of the other guards that you pulled away from the battle after being wounded? Would you have me believe that you didn’t care about them? You said you snuck your way here on one of my sky chariots to help us not only to fight these assailants, but save the innocent ponies that were taken here against their will. What happened, human? Did that last blast knock all the sense out of you?”

Sam’s angry facade cracked. Natie would have said the same thing if she saw him this way. Yet, when he thought back to when that griffon was on top of him with that syringe, he shivered. It didn’t help either that they somehow had gotten their hands on D.U.P. armor and paraded around in it like they were. It made him both want to scream and whimper at the same time. It seemed that his issues with the D.U.P. were still not entirely settled.

Taking a few moments to calm himself down, he followed up with a much needed apology, “Sorry, Cappy. You’re right. I just lose my focus sometimes. I did come here to help you and save that other ponies that were abducted. Not just get some petty revenge, even if I really, really want to. Those D.U.P. wannabes, no, those assailants just keep bringing up some bad memories. Wait, that reminds me though. Is Amber ok?”

“Much better, thanks to you,” a voice suddenly spoke up from behind them.

Both Sam and Aegis Flare turned to see Amber Cross, without her armor, teetering unsteadily toward them with the help of another guard. It was Sam’s first time being able to see her without her armor, and therefore, without the armor’s color changing enchantment. Her coat shined with its misty green hue, which complimented her curly light pink mane and tail. On her flank, Sam was able to inconspicuously spy that her cutie mark was that of light brown colored ‘X’ on top of what looked like a locket. Once in front of them, she raised her hoof to salute the captain.

The captain saluted back, “At ease, Sergeant. You should be resting, if the medics have finished patching you up.”

“There wasn’t much to patch up,” Amber Cross shook her head lightly and smiled, showing off the patch on her gut from where she was shot, “Whatever the human, er, Sam did, took care of the worst of it. Just a little woozy from the blood loss.”

She turned to Sam and gave him an appreciative smile, bowing her head a bit in respect, “Thank you, Sam. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know if I would have made it.”

Sam scratched the back of his head, looking off to the side, “Yeah, no problem. It was just a gunshot wound anyways. Does this mean that the rest of those guards are alright too?”

Amber Cross nodded, “Yes. Thanks to you, we were able to avoid any fatalities. The other guards who are still recovering send you their regards.”

“That’s good to hear,” Captain Aegis Flare interrupted, “but we still have work to do. Sergeant, return to the injured and assist as needed, but don’t push yourself. Leave most of it to the medics.”

Amber Cross saluted and used the guard she came with to help return to their fallback position on the other side of the cavern. As she did that, Aegis Flare called out to the rest of the guards, half a dozen left uninjured, to rally to him.

“The assailants may have managed to evade capture, but the rest of the Geode Caverns still needs to be investigated for other possible assailants or abductees.” Aegis Flare said as he slipped back into his commanding role, “I need one pony to relay our encounter to the outside guard and get them to sweep the surrounding terrain for the assailants if they fled to the outside.”

One pony guard stepped forward, saluted, and then turned on his hooves, galloping off to accomplish his task. Leaving the rest of the guards and Sam behind with the captain.

“Right. We don’t have enough ponies to cover the rest of the tunnels at once, so we will move through each tunnel system together,” the captain said as he moved up to the second tunnel beside the caved in tunnel, “Everypony on me. That includes you too, human.”

The rest of the ponies fell in behind the captain, while Sam smirked to get his head back in the game and asked, “Finally realizing how much you need me in your life, Cappy?”

“I suppose we could always use a simple locksmith, human,” the captain retorted.

The rest of the guards, and even Sam, began to snicker at the light jab. As they began their trek into the rest of the caverns, Sam thought back to the fight. There were just so many questions that he had, and no doubt he thought that the captain may be thinking the same thing. Though for now, he would follow the captain’s lead. Perhaps they might stumble upon the answers they were looking for with everything else the assailants left behind, if that first cavern held nothing.