The screech of metal on metal made Tarnish’s teeth tingle in weird ways and the muscles that moved his ears had crazy, painful spasms. For now, the door seemed to be holding, but for how long? There was a thump and a bang as something rammed into the door from the other side, but the door, being made of metal and several inches thick, wasn’t budging.

Ignoring the frantic pounding and scratching at the door for a moment, Tarnish turned to have a better look at his surroundings. This was a room filled with pipes. It was hot and steamy in here, and there was about a half a foot of bathwater-hot water on the floor that felt wonderful as it soaked into his muddy, sore hooves. In the back of the room was a stone shelf, empty, and all along one side of the wall were big round wheels that opened and closed valves in the pipes, some of which were leaking.

Overhead, there was a hatch in the ceiling, round, and made of some strange metal that didn’t rust. The ladder or the means to reach it either didn’t exist or was long gone. In the back of the room, there was another door, somewhat ajar, and this is where the water drained out. This was a utility closet of sorts, it had to be. A place to store tools and regulate water flow.

“Something is coming from beyond the other door,” Rainbow Dash said in an almost panting, panicked whine whose shrill sound make ears perk. “We’ve got company!”

His hooves splashed in the water as he turned around and Tarnish tried to ignore the pounding on the door behind him. The automatons might still be a threat, but not right at this moment. If Rainbow said something was coming, something was coming. How she could hear anything was beyond Tarnish’s reasoning abilities.

“Shut the door!” Daring Do barked, and Rainbow ran over to do it.

After a few hard shoves, Rainbow shook her head and Tarnish’s heart sank when he realised that the door was stuck. Vinyl was still comatose and nothing seemed to rouse her. He was about to drop dead from the worst exhaustion he had ever known. Even running through the ashlands, he hadn’t felt this drained.

A curious, probing tentacle came through the door, seemed to sense Rainbow, and made a swipe for her. With a cry, she lept aside and then landed with a splash, only to have the tentacle make another attempt to slap her. Again she lept and this time, the bloated brown tentacle passed inches from her rump, but did graze her saddlebags, which sizzled and smoked from the tentacle’s noxious touch.

Something awful was trying to squeeze through the narrow gap of the open door, but it was far too big. Daring Do pulled Rainbow Dash back, but the room was too small and the tentacle too long. Seeing something orange and shiny on the stone shelf, Tarnish picked it up, not knowing what it was, and hoped that it would make a suitable makeshift weapon.

It was both heavy and light, in a weird way, and after holding it for but a second, Tarnish realised it was a monkey wrench made of centaur steel. Why was it called a monkey wrench? He had no idea. Why a monkey needed a yard long wrench made out of centaur steel was beyond his comprehension.

“NO!” Tarnish hollered as he charged with his shield and his new monkey wrench raised. He slapped the tentacle aside, shoved forwards, and brought the wrench down upon the monster wedged in the crack. There was a gross, wet splat, and again he bellowed, “NO!” Lifting the wrench high over head, he brought it down a second time, this time with all of the rage he could muster.

Something vital inside of the monster gave way and its toothy maw now sagged. As it retreated, with his wrench, he struck the tentacle, smashing it between the door and weapon of radical blunt force trauma. A few more hard smacks severed the tentacle, and it fell to the floor, writhing and wriggling.

Tarnish followed the monster, wiggling through the door, which smoked from the monster’s slimy residue and sounded like butter in a hot skillet. Hair burned away from his flesh, but he failed to notice. “NO!” Raising the wrench high over his head yet again, he bore down upon the retreating monster with the intent of finishing it off. A second tentacle came into play and he was forced to bat it aside with his wrench. His combat experience made him raise his shield, bringing it to bear without even thinking about it, and he readied his wrench for another bash attack.

“NO!”

The wrench came down, right smack in the middle of the monster’s bulbous, flabby body, and it burst like a lanced boil. The flailing tentacle he blocked with his shield, but the long, slender tip grazed his neck, leaving behind a patch of blistered flesh that was left hairless. For good measure, Tarnish slammed his wrench into the quivering pile of goo on the floor in front of him, and then stood there, his sides heaving, holding his wrench and shield.

Tarnish realised he wasn’t done… no… he was still filled with rage, terrible rage, and there were three very bad dogs scratching at the door. Nasty, bad dogs that needed to know their place. Holding his wrench aloft in his telekinesis, Tarnish turned about, stepped over some wiggling, jiggling tentacles, and made his way to the door.

“NO!”

With dull, glassy eyes, Tarnish seemed to stare through the three bodies of the junked mechanoids on the ground before him. His berserker fury had passed and now, now he just felt dead inside. Blood trickled from his leg where he had been bitten, but he couldn’t feel it yet. The pain was sure to come, but later. His rage had robbed him of reason and ripping open the door had put his friends at risk. Vinyl was still strapped to his back and he hoped that she was unharmed.

“Heya, Big Guy… deep breaths… how about you come over here with me and calm down a bit?” Rainbow Dash stood in the doorway, inviting him to come inside with reassuring waves of her muddy, sodden hoof. “Come on, come with me… we need to close this door again. Let Daring and I patch you up, you’re bleeding pretty bad.”

As the adrenaline did wicked things to his body, his knees began to wobble and Tarnish realised that he was in danger of falling over. Casting a furious glance down at the fallen mechanoids, he backed away, just daring them to twitch or make some sort of move. It took all of his willpower to remain upright and he realised that he couldn’t actually remember fighting the automatons. The bodies were there, broken, shattered, smashed, but he couldn’t remember anything about the actual fight.

“Get inside this room right now, ya big doofus! I don’t care if you’ve had a total mental disconnect! At least you’ve stopped shouting “NO!” at the top of your lungs over and over. Now get inside this room, right now, this instant!”

Shaking his head to clear away the cobwebs, Tarnish obeyed.

Somehow, Daring Do had cleared away the nasty tentacles without hurting herself. Vinyl, still comatose, was laid out on the stone shelf where Tarnish had found his new wrench, a weapon that he felt suited him. Naked, stripped of his gear, he sat in the shallow water and let the filth that crusted his body soak away.

A temporary bandage was secured around his leg and he had eaten one of the fruits he had stashed in his saddlebags. He hoped the ghastly wound would heal, otherwise, he would have to stitch it himself. There was nothing left inside of him and he didn’t think he could continue any longer without some much needed rest. At least it was quiet now, and they were almost secure.

“That was a gulguthra.” Daring Do’s voice was the very essence of exhaustion. “I’ve never seen one, I’ve only ever read about them in books. I have no idea what it was doing here, but it’s presence means that it had a food source. We’ll have to be careful.”

“You know, I don’t care if I get hollered at, that was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen.” Rainbow too was soaking her backside in the shallow water and she kept making the most blissful faces of relief. “Tarnish was just like one of those medieval unicorns that you read about and he kept shouting “NO!” over and over while he smashed those mechanoids into scrap. Nopony is ever gonna believe me when I tell this story.” Sighing, she drooped with disappointment. “I don’t think anypony is gonna believe any of my stories about this place.”

In silence, Tarnish thought about all of the things that he had to be angry about, or tried to do so, but his mind felt too dead and dull to think about much of anything. He had no magic left at the moment, his horn was sparking, and his hearing kept going in and out, as if he was listening to stuff while underwater. Blood thundered in his ears and pounded through his neck.

With a whine, Tarnish yawned.

“Tarnish, get some sleep—”

“No.”

“Don’t you dare tell me no!” Daring snapped, losing her temper. “I just heard you shout the word “NO!” at least a hundred times or more while you went to town on those automatons. I can’t have you dead on your hooves, Tarnish! Now go lay down and get some sleep!”

“Fine.” Tarnish huffed out his reply while rolling his eyes and then with a turn of his head, he looked over at Vinyl, who was on her side with her head resting on a rolled up coat.

“I’ll be fine for a little longer.” Now, Daring’s voice was much softer and maybe even a little apologetic. “After you’ve slept for a while, Rainbow and I will get some sleep and you can watch over us. Let Flamingo recharge for as long as possible. We need to recover from this state of severe depletion that we are all suffering from. I’ll have food for you when you wake up. Now get some sleep, you scary, hairy brute!”

Nodding, Tarnish yawned out his reply, “Yeah, okay, whatever…”

Author's Notes:

No means no, yo.