I stood there speechless, staring at the note I was holding with my telekinesis. Before I could process its contents I was quickly collected by another of the guards who brought us here. I stuffed the note in my bags without thinking, which made me look like a fool when I tried to explain it to Grim. My mouth was going a million miles a second and none of it was coherent. Grim was looking at me worryingly and expectantly at the same time.

“Whoa Sparks, calm down. Take a deep breath. Now what did you find in the room?”

I did as he said and took several greedy breaths of air to try and relax. As I was getting ready to tell him the guard shoved his hoof in my mouth.

“Save it. The Director is waiting for you behind this door.” The guard turned around putting his back to the door we were in front of.

“I-I guess we should go in.” I slowly opened the door and took a few cautious steps inside. The room was dimly lit, illuminated only by a weak ceiling light and the collection of terminals on the far wall. There was a raised dais taking up half of the room and up on it was an ornate desk and the back of a large chair. Just in front of the dais was a glass display case on a pedestal containing a small figurine of a purple unicorn. I saw that the cutie mark was the same as the one of the statue in the main hall, the statue of Twilight Sparkle. The little statuette itself was situated on its own little pedestal with an engraving in it ‘Be Smart’. What was most interesting about it was that despite the fact it was clearly centuries old it was in pristine condition. The glass around it was stained and scratched and the pedestal the case was on was cracked and worn with time. I found myself reaching out to it but I was stopped by a sudden voice.

“Now now, we mustn’t touch what isn’t ours.” The chair that was previously facing away from us started spinning around, holding a middle-aged dark blue stallion with an even darker blue mane, rectangular eyeglasses and a very clean lab coat. “To what do I owe the pleasure of-?”

He stopped mid-sentence and gave me a very intense look-over.

“That armor. Where did you get it?” His tone went from strict to almost menacing.

I shied away from the sudden shift in attitude and responded as clearly as I could.

“It was g-given to me before I left my home Director…?”

“Cobalt. So you are from Stable 63?”

“Y-yes sir. We’re here to-”

“Quiet I’m not through asking questions. When did you leave your home?”

“A week ago? I think.” I was having trouble thinking straight. Interrogation was new to me…at least this kind.

“Hmm…I see. Now, why are you here?”

I looked over at Grim who only smiled supportively and nodded towards the Director, urging me to continue.

“We were sent here by Elder Lions to see what you knew about Paladin Sureshot.”

Cobalt scoffed dismissively. “You mean that idiotic buffoon from the Steel Rangers? Yes he was here and no he isn’t here anymore. I don’t know what you could want with him. The Steel Rangers are a relic of the past, hoarding technology for themselves in the name of keeping it out of the hooves of those they see as ‘unworthy’.”

“Why was he here?”

“Why else? He looking for leads to fuel the technological obsession of his order.”

Grim stepped forward and spoke for the first time since we came in. “You said he isn’t here anymore. That means he found what he was looking for and I’ll bet you didn’t let him have it for free.”

He almost sounded like he was accusing him of something.

Cobalt squinted his eyes and his demeanor turned threatening. “My affairs are my own Griffin. I suggest you watch your tone.” The sound of a gun being loaded came from somewhere above us in the shadows.

Grim scowled, clearly upset by what was said but he backed away and shut up for now.

I swallowed nervously at the exchange. I didn’t know the extent of Director Cobalt’s power but the way he held himself told me he wasn’t to be trifled with. Which made asking my next question all the more difficult.

“Could you direct us to where he went?”

Cobalt scoffed again. “I suppose, although I don’t think you can do anything…” Cobalt drifted off, the look on his face was one of satisfaction, as if he just connected some dots in his head. “Actually yes. Do you have a map?”

“Not exactly.” I said, holding up my PipBuck leg.

“Ah, PipBuck, of course.” He stepped down from his chair and came down to us. “Lend me your leg and I’ll input the coordinates of where the ‘Paladin’ went.”

It was clear Cobalt had a strong dislike of the Steel Rangers but whatever his quarrel, it made no difference to me.

Grim came and stood next to me, still holding his sour expression. “I suppose this won’t come free either?”

Cobalt glared at him and growled through his teeth before taking a deep breath to compose himself. His expression relaxed and he smiled condescendingly. “Naturally. I trust you both have seen the ship anchored in the bay?”

Grim and I nodded.

“Good. I’d like you to investigate it. Rumors about it have piqued my curiosity.”

“Ok…how are we supposed to get there?” Grim asked.

Cobalt looked at Grim like he was stupid. “You have wings. Use them.”

“I don’t mean me assh- I meant for my friend here.”

“Commandeer a boat. Swim. I don’t care. I’m not going to complete your task for you. Figure it out yourselves. Come back when you have something for me…and I just may have something for your efforts.” Cobalt smirked devilishly before returning to his chair to spin away from us. “You may take your leave now.”

I nodded to him even though he couldn’t see me. “Thank you Director.”

Grim was more than happy to leave and I was equally eager to get moving again and reunite with Sunny.

“So now do you believe about ponies on that boat?” I asked trying to lighten the mood. Grim glared at me for a moment, still holding the expression from before, then he sighed and relaxed.

“I don’t know Sparks. That guy Cobalt.” He practically hissed his name. “Just really rubbed me the wrong way, I wouldn’t trust him if I were you.”

I could understand where he was coming from, treating us so dismissively and acting like…wait a second…trust! That thought reminded me of the note I found in the room we stayed in. Was whoever left it trying to warn me about the Director? Or something else? I sped up my pace even more eager than before to get the group back together and explain what’s going on.

“C’mon Grim I have something to tell you guys, let’s go get Sunny.”

None of the guards gave us the time of day as we hurriedly made our way outside through the gate, collected our things as we went and headed across the street to where Sunny said she’d be. We walked through the door and did a quick scan of the room. I checked my EFS and saw Sunny’s marker but since nopony was in sight she must have been on the next floor up. After a trot up some stairs we found where Sunny had spent the night. She was situated in the left corner siting in an old and cracked leather chair. In the opposite corner was a small stockpile of supplies but the most interesting thing in the room was the mounted sniper rifle in the window facing the College.

Sunny lifted her head as we walked inside and looked at the rifle.

“Somepony was watching…very recently.” She pointed at the rifle then looked at me expectantly. “Go on, take a look.”

I looked through the scope, unsure of what she wanted me to see but it couldn’t hurt right? What I saw made my insides sink. Looking to where the gun was pointed, I saw that the rifle was situated right at the window to the room where Grim and I had stayed. I backed away from the gun slowly and looked at Sunny. Hoping she had some kind of answer for me.

“I think somepony has taken an interest in you.”

I was almost certain that whoever had been watching from here was the same one who left the note.

“That’s…distressing. Now seems a good a time as any, Sparks you said you had something to tell us?” Grim cocked an eyebrow in my direction.

I took a second to get the note out of my saddlebags and threw it on the floor face up.

“I don’t know if this is as shocking now but I found this in our room this morning before or meeting with the Director.”

Grim and Sunny took a moment to inspect the piece of paper.

Sunny did a double-take of the room. “Well whoever it was, they didn’t come back to this room.”

“I don’t think we should be afraid, if they wanted to kill us they could have considering how close they were.” Grim said, rubbing his beak ponderingly.

“In that case we should get out of here. Did you find anything useful while you were in there?” Sunny asked pointing out the window at the College.

“Yeah he gave us the coordinates to where the Paladin went so that’s our next stop.”

“That’s great. Where are we heading?”

I went to the map function on my PipBuck to see where we were going.

“Looks like we’re heading south east from here and…into the ruins.”

Grim looked back and forth between us. “Is…is that bad?”

Sunny stood up from her chair. “So long as we play it cool and keep quiet we should be able to get in and out without too much trouble.”

Sunny didn’t miss a beat and made a hasty exit down the stairs. Grim tightened the straps on his bags and followed after her.

I took one last look around the room at the small amount of supplies left lying around and considered taking some. Then I thought about whoever it was who had been here. If the one who left the note and the one who stayed here were one and the same then taking from them would be wrong. If they meant harm towards me then maybe but at worst all I could say for sure is that they were trying to warn me. Of what exactly I wasn’t sure, perhaps it was a cautionary warning?

“Sparks!? You coming?” Sunny called from below the window outside.

I left my thoughts as they were and dashed down to join my friends. We weren’t walking for long before Sunny got curious. “So…Sparks, what was the cost for the Paladin’s location?”

I shrugged, equally curious about that. “I don’t know that there was one. The Director asked us to investigate the ship out in the bay but was very non-committal about it. Like he doesn’t care either way if we do what he asked.”

“That’s really suspicious.”

“What? Do you think he has an ulterior motive or something?”

Grim flapped his wings irritably. “He just might. You saw how he acted in there. The way he backpedaled into helping us without any hesitation. I agree with Sunny.”

I couldn’t fault his way of thinking. He did give off a devious vibe but that didn’t exactly make him a bad pony. Regardless of the Director’s intention, we had what we needed and nothing was going to get in my way.

The sun was just nearly passing its peak in the sky behind the clouds as we made it into the ruins. All around us was ancient debris and wreckage. The buildings around us were in various states of destruction with some having fully collapsed and others suffering only broken windows and slight scorch marks. The latter observation brought a question to my mind.

“Hey Sunny? It doesn’t look like the city was hit directly by a balefire bomb. So where did it hit?”

“Most ponies think it hit the ocean just a bit north of the city. The absence of severe radiation lends to that theory.”

At least I wouldn’t be dying of radiation poisoning anytime soon, for whatever that was worth. As we carefully made our way through the abandoned streets I started to notice that signs of life were beginning to show. On sides of some buildings were crude paintings of names or symbols to denote somepony’s territory. Also plastered along the walls in almost equal number were old propaganda posters. There was one of an upside down pony tied to a wooden pole dangling over a fire, behind the pony were zebras cloaked in shadows and dressed in tribal garb with deep red eyes. The text below the image read ‘Negotiating with Savages. Join the Equestrian Forces Today.’ Down in the bottom left corner was a small cluster of three diamonds. The company responsible for the poster perhaps? The poster by itself was a little disturbing. I never met a zebra but I didn’t think they were the savage demons the poster would have you believe but Equestria was at war then. I suppose it was easier to justify ones reasoning’s if you viewed the enemy as monsters rather than who they really were. With posters like this casually plastered on billboards, the sides of buildings and across most cities I’m sure it was hard to imagine that Equestria was ever a peaceful kingdom. As we crossed through the shadow of a piece of destroyed overpass my PipBuck made a notification noise. When I checked to see what happened I saw that I had come into range of a new radio broadcast. The frequency was labeled ‘Lone Wolf Radio’.

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Sunny asked looking over my shoulder at the screen.

“Found a radio frequency. You guys ever hear of the Lone Wolf Radio?”

“Can’t say that I have.”

“Huh…Grim?”

“I’ve only been in the Baltimare area for around a week…maybe? …so no.”

“Alright then. You guys lead the way and I’ll do my best to follow, I’m going to check it out.”

Sunny and Grim nodded and took point in front of me. I put in my ear-bloom and tuned to the frequency. All I heard was silence with the occasional sound of things being moved or something like that. Whoever was running the equipment had left dead air broadcasting out. Or maybe it’s been that way since the bombs fell or some creature accidentally turned it on. I made a mental note to check it again sometime. I did hear something on the other side so perhaps they just had nothing to say at the moment. I took the ear-bloom out of my ear and sighed as I remembered the hole in it. Sunny and Grim were stood still in front of me looking at a particularly garishly colored building. It was a primarily brown building with green and pink accents around the windows and roof. On the sign beside the entrance dominating the whole left side of the wall read ‘Wild Zebra: The Gentlecolt’s Paradise.’ I didn’t know what to make of it.

“Are we going in?” I asked, curious as to why they were so enraptured.

“Maybe. Aren’t you even the slightest bit curious?” Grim turned around to face us.

“Not really.” Sunny looked as if she couldn’t care less.

As for me, as much as I may hate to admit it, I was curious. Probably wasn’t a good trait to have but nothing ventured nothing gained right? I made up my mind and approached the doors. Sunny and Grim silently followed my lead as we pushed the doors open. The inside was just as garish as the outside. The carpets, at least the parts that hadn’t rotted away, were a thick pink shag all across the floor. There were three platforms for where the showmares would come out and dance or whatever for the patrons. The ones to the left and right were small isolated circular ones with poles coming out from the centers with enough space to support one pony each. The one straight ahead was almost three times as large and had a walkway attached to it that led back behind where a thick curtain separated the dancer’s area from the main floor. The main stage could have supported five dancers at once easily. Behind the platform to the right along the wall was a bar that was probably the first thing raided by survivors. Most hauntingly of all, there was a pony skeleton mid-dance fused to one of the poles on the main stage. All around all three stages were the skeletons of the ponies who were here when the end came. A number of chairs had fallen over and some had been trampled to splinters by scavengers along with a few of the skeletons.

“I guess split up? If you find anything interesting shout.” I didn’t know what we were looking for or even if we’d find anything. I hopped up on the main stage, careful not to touch the bones on the pole. I followed the walkway behind the curtain to what I thought was a dressing room. In essence it still was but it looked like the dressing room also doubled as a prison. On either side of the dressing room were small sized cages with only wooden benches in them to act as beds. I thought that what I saw on the stage would be the most disturbing thing to see but I was wrong. Almost all the cages were occupied with the remains of those inside. Not everypony died immediately after the bomb hit if the legs sticking through the bars were any indication. One had worn its hooves down to nothing trying to dig its way out anywhere it could. Another left an image in my mind of how truly hopeless the wasteland was as the skeleton was huddled in the back of the cell with its skull cracked open and a black stain on the back wall. Whether they wanted to escape radiation sickness or hunger they chose to end their lives on their own terms in the only way they could. At first I thought this place was merely a place of fun but now I thought there was something more sinister behind it. I silently prayed for the souls here that were left to die as I made my way out into the back area. The back area reminded me of the stable with how tightly packed a few of the rooms were and the layout was military. Just what kind of place was this? From somewhere inside I heard Sunny Call out. “I found a weapons closet but I can’t get it open!”

I was getting ready to call back when Grim beat me to it.

“Okay I’m coming to help! Where are you!?”

I left them to figure it out as I continued on into the back. Eventually I found the main office with only a desk with a terminal and big painting on the back wall inside. Naturally I investigated the terminal first to see that somepony must have tried to liberate its secrets at least once before as the screen had received a heavy punch which left the screen cracked. I sat there for almost ten minutes trying to get in that thing, having to back out and retry several times. What could have been in here that warranted such security? My patience paid off as eventually I found the correct password. Inside were documents detailing the club and its goals. The first one I looked at was titled ‘Break the Scum’.

-Operative Silk Touch.

The hatred of the zebras must have been at an all-time high when the POWs were delivered here. Even if we were at war forcing them into sex work as an impromptu form of interrogation went a little too far in my eyes. The next one was from whoever owned the club.

That only confirmed what I thought. As far as POWs go this had to be one of the worst punishments. I almost left the terminal and the room in disgust when I saw a third command in the list that said ‘Release Lock’. I activated it in the hopes that it was for the weapons locker I heard Sunny talking about but I had no hopes that we’d be so lucky. I made my way back past the cages to see that their doors were loosely hanging open. After all these years somepony finally freed them and it had been me. Too late to help as always. I tried to put them out of my mind and returned to the first open room to see Grim and Sunny had an assortment of weapons in their claws and hooves respectively.

“Strange that a place like this would have such an armory.” Grim said aloud as he set his load down on a nearby table.

“It was for the ministry operatives who were here.” I answered robotically. “Zebra mare POWs were brought here and forced into sex work as a form of torture.”

Grim nodded a little bit of pity obvious on his face.

“Guess that explains the name. Ponies can be cruel.”

Neither Sunny nor I could object to that. There was evidence all around us that pointed to that fact. We started picking through what Sunny and Grim had laid out on the tables when the front door was violently kicked in. Three stallions, two earth ponies and a unicorn, barged in pointing their guns at us.

“Hooves in the air! If I see anypony go for their weapons it’ll be the last thing they do!” The unicorn bellowed into the room. “You! Unicorn! If I see any magical aura around your horn I’ll blow it off. Understand!”

I nodded as fast as I could more than happy to comply. Sunny was showing signs of fear but not because of the stallions. The look in her eyes told me she was terrified that she’d become Downpour.

“Sunny, calm down, we’re going to be ok.” I tried to soothe her mind.

“Shut up punk!” The unicorn shouted again. “Remove her battle saddle and you, bind the griffin’s wings.”

Both earth ponies hurried to do as they were told, all the while keeping their guns drawn on us. As the one with steel bindings approached Grim, Grim reared back and screeched loudly, jumping forward and hooking his claws under the stallions chin. His cries were muffled by choking sounds as blood bubbled out of his mouth. The other two stallion opened fire on Grim but he used the body of the stallion he hooked as a shield. The other two stallions now had to pick their shots carefully lest they hit their friend. Unfortunately Grim was noticeably larger than the pony he was holding and several bullets were grazing him or finding homes in his flesh. Sunny didn’t think twice as two shots from her guns put the other two down. Everything settled down very quickly except for the stallion still writhing on Grim’s claws.

“You got what you deserve monster.” Grim whispered fiercely. Grim took his right claw and ripped it sharply downward, vertically slitting the stallion’s throat. Grim dropped him and watched as the desperate gurgling got quieter until it disappeared completely. Grim didn’t give either of us a chance to say anything.

“Slavers. The only thing in the wasteland viler than raiders.” I felt the same way after what I saw the day I left the stable. For the second time in my life I was happy to see somepony dead. We left most of what had just transpired in silence. I was a little shocked that I was building an immunity to seeing ponies killed in front of me. I wondered what Winter would think of me now. We looted what we could from the slavers which included about 5 bomb collars which we took mostly so nopony else would find them. After we rifled through all the items we found Sunny had convinced me to add to my arsenal which is how I ended up with a shotgun strapped to my back. Luckily I didn’t need a battle saddle to use it, magic does have it uses after all.

“That could have gone very differently. Good work Grim.” Sunny nodded her head in thanks.

“Don’t mention it.”

“Why do you hate them so much?” I asked. Nopony of good heart really needed a reason to hate them but his reaction seemed like it was beyond hatred.

“My mother was a slave. There was a high demand for griffin slaves where I grew up. Now there are no slaving operations in Whinnyapolis.”

“I wish could do that. Even knowing what they are I still freeze up.” My ears fell back against my head as I remembered my shame.

“You’re from a stable Sparks. No one raised in that kind of environment expects life to be this way. Sunny and I? We grew up out here, we learned what we had to do to survive. You have to unlearn how you were taught to live in the stable to do so out here. But raiders and slavers? They’re not ponies, not anymore so think of them like monsters and you will find it easier to put them down.”

“It’s not that simple, nopony is one hundred percent beyond redemption.” I had to believe that, it wasn’t their fault, it was the result of the world that was left for them by the war. Wasn’t it?

Sunny scoffed. “Were you in the same cage with me? Have you noticed a raider’s cutie mark lately?”

Whenever we ran into raiders their cutie marks were the least of my worries. Thinking back to it though when I had free walk of the stadium I saw ponies with very gruesome cutie marks, like one with a barbed whip or another with a bloody kitchen knife.

“Gotta wonder what kind of life they had to live to earn marks like that.” In a world like this were cutie marks like that really that surprising?

“That’s my point Sparks, they didn’t earn them. Do you really think ponies naturally get cutie marks like that? That somepony’s special talent is butchering other ponies? They don’t. It’s what they became after they change.”

“She’s right. The Wasteland can take you, break you and eventually control you. You must fight it with everything you’ve got, or else it will take you.”

My heart started to beat fast in my ears as they continued. They were really starting to scare me. Sunny kept going.

“There are ponies like you or me who will spend our lives surviving and fighting the Wasteland and there are others who couldn’t fight anymore or just gave up. They are lost to it. Make no mistake Sparks, if you face anypony like that do not hesitate and end them, you’d be doing them a favor.”

Both of them faced forward and continued on. Leaving me behind them to think about the lesson they just imparted on me.

The sun was starting to set low behind the clouds as we made it to the mark on my compass. What was unusual about the building in front of us was that there was no map marker added to my map when we arrived. How did that make sense? It marked things like the stadium or the post war, pony made Crater but not this place? Technology had its limits I supposed.

“Let’s not waste any time and find the Paladin.” I said, walking in through the broken down door. The inside was pretty much what you’d expect from a building that survived the end of the world. Bits of debris here the occasional skeleton there but unlike other buildings I’d been in, I felt like I was being watched. The place was too quiet. What in the world was the Paladin looking for here? The entrance hall was fairly tall supported by two stone columns with a reception desk situated close to the middle of the floor flanked by a staircase leading to the next floor.

“I got a bad feeling about this.” I said, my ears falling back against my head.

Grim’s wings twitched. “This place feels…wrong.”

And as if on cue a robot on treads with a vaguely pony shaped chassis and two claw tipped arms rolled around the corner.

“Please submit your employee identification.” It spoke with a robotic, almost childlike female voice. On the robots head was a glass dome of some kind filled with a bubbling fluid that held a brain. “Please submit your employee identification. You have ten seconds to comply.”

“Umm guys? What do we do?” I started to panic.

“Ten.”

“Let’s just junk this thing and keep moving.” Sunny said.

“Nine.”

“No! We can’t do that!” Grim started.

“Eight.”

“If we do.”

“Seven”

“It’ll alert any other defenses still active.”

“Six.”

“What if there are no more defenses?”

“Five.”

“Then nothing.”

“Four.”

“Then let’s just kill it.”

“Three.”

“Do you really want to take that risk!?”

“Two.”

“We’re out of options! Decide now!” I screamed.

“One.”

We all flinched as the countdown ended but nothing happened.

“Employee identification not found. Please wait while I contact the head of security.”

Sunny giggled softly. “See, you made a big fuss over nothin’ Grim.” She slowly aimed her guns at the robots head and shattered its brain case. Sending bits of brain and glass skittering across the floor. We were then assaulted by the wail of a security alarm.

Grim’s feathers were visibly ruffled. “SEE! I told you so!”

The number of hostile blips that sprang up on my EFS were too many to count.

“We don’t have time to argue! We have to go NOW!” I shouted over the alarm as two turrets descended from the ceiling. There must have been something of incredible value in this facility because unlike every other turret I’d come across these ones were firing lasers. The stone column I had jumped behind for cover was slowly turning to slag as the turrets kept shooting at where their tracking system said I was. I quickly leaned out of cover and zipped into the goddess-send that was SATS and fired off three shots with my pistol. The first two shots ricocheted off its metal frame but the third found a sweet spot and jammed the guns gears. It could still fire but it was effectively locked into one position. Grim must have noticed and flew up close to the ceiling, drawing the other turrets fire. Sunny stepped out of her cover and did what she could to destroy it. Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of maneuvering room for Grim as a beam of pink energy burned through his left wing. He shrieked loudly and crashed into the reception desk, flipping and landing on the other side of it. Both Sunny and I focused our shots and disabled the troublesome turret. Sunny and I rushed over to Grim’s crash site and were relieved to see he was ok.

“Ahh Fuck!” He hissed, letting his wing hang limp. “That might be a problem. Let’s see if we can find a security override or something.” He was up and ready within seconds. I didn’t need any more coercion after a glance at my compass showed as wave of red getting closer to the entrance hall. As we ran down a random hallway I saw that a number of hostile marks were disappearing off my EFS. Maybe some of the other robots were too old and fell apart? Questions for later. I had to hit the deck hard to dodge a blue energy blast that was fired down the middle of the hallway.

“I hope when this is over we can still be friends.” Another robot called in its filly’s voice as it extended its arms and started firing more pink lasers down the hall. I dove into the first doorway I saw which landed me in some kind of break room occupied by only some cabinets and a long conference table. I could hear fighting out in the hallway in the form of bullets ricocheting of the robots chassis. “I’m sorry but my programming requires that I keep trying to kill you, so please don’t take this personally.”

I stuck my head out into the hall and tried to grab the robot with my magic. I struggled to get it off the floor as a laser blast hit the door frame in front of me peppering my face with burning splinters. In the end I was only able to turn it sideways in the hall. I took a deep breath and stuck my head out the door again, channeling magic into my horn and firing a lightning bolt at the robot. The robot didn’t seem to take any damage but its arms stopped firing and started flailing around.

“Neural connection compromised. Weapons not responding. Initiating reset.”

“Kill it now!” Grim called.

The combined gunfire of all three of us shattered its braincase and destroyed the brain.

“Robobrains aren’t the most dangerous robot but you don’t want to get hit by that psionic blast.” Grim said, kicking the treads of the dead robobrain as he called it.

The alarm blaring was a reminder that we were still in danger and we took off down the hallway. Somewhere in the distance an explosion rocked the building. Where did that come from? I thought as we rounded a corner and were stopped by two spritebots. For a moment I was relived.

“Watcher? What are you doing here?”

The spritebot responded by shooting me in the shoulder with its small laser gun. My fur was burned away and my flesh underneath burned and cracked. I recoiled in pain and instinctively grabbed it in my magic and slammed it against the wall, hard enough to embed it there. Grim then used his gun and riddled the other spritebot with lead and it exploded into scrap.

“Not every spritebot is Watcher you know.” Grim said, almost smiling as he did.

I sucked in a breath through closed teeth and looked at the wound. Small trickles of blood leaked out through the hard cracks of burned skin.

“Lesson learned.” I muttered, trying my best to ignore the stinging pain.

The fur around my shoulder was starting to get matted with blood and the stinging might have been the most intense I ever felt. Those magical energy weapons were no joke. We didn’t haven’t have time to stop and bandage me up with the alarm still active and Luna knows how many more robots after us. We rounded a third corner, following a power line to a nearby room. I didn’t have time to scope it out fully as I found my target, a computer terminal.

“Cover me guys I’m gonna see about shutting down security.” I saw them both take positions on either side of the door to the room as I set to work making the terminal’s secrets mine. This terminal wasn’t locked by any passwords and had a limited array of commands. There was no override command anywhere but I could flag other areas of the building as priority for the security measures. I hit the command and directed the bulk of the robots to the main lab, away from us. Now the only problem was to find the actual security terminal to shut off the alarm and put the robots in shutdown. To the south on my EFS I could see all the red markers clump into one location and oddly enough I still saw some disappearing, followed by another far off explosion. Something about that didn’t feel right. What was happening over there? We needed to hurry and find the Paladin. We were suddenly stopped by the sound of something metal rolling along the floor. A bulky, heavily armored robot with a large torso rolled out of a double door at the end of the hallway. It had a small head almost set into its torso, two arms facing towards us and three legs that ended in metal mecanum wheels.

“Targets acquired. Engaging.” This one’s voice was deeper, masculine and much more robotic. It pointed one of its arms in our direction and fired a missile at us. There was nowhere we could go in the cramped hallway. I closed my eyes and prepared for the end. I heard the sound of the explosion impacting on something just front of me. I opened my eyes to see a white shield of magic blocking the hallway just in front of us. The force of the explosion cracked the shield and with it whatever focus had conjured it as it shattered into nothing. D-did I do that? I was going to have to figure out how to do that on purpose when we were out of here. The big robot merely switched to it other arm as it started spinning rapidly, spitting out a hail of bullets. The only thing we had in our favor is that so long as we were moving and dodging the robot couldn’t pick a single target to focus on. I zigged and zagged across the hallway trying to stay alive as bullets whizzed over my head or hit my armor. This machine was a force to be reckoned with. Its tri-wheeled legs allowed it to move in any direction and its torso could rotate independently of it legs and keep shooting.

“We need more room!” Sunny shouted over the combat, disengaging and galloping as fast as she could the way we came. Grim and I followed her as quickly as we could as another missile hit the wall just behind us followed by more bullets. I was pumped full of adrenaline as I could feel bullets just barely miss my legs and one or two did hit my flank but I was so scared that they didn’t faze me enough to slow me down. At our speeds it didn’t take long for us to make it back to the entrance hall. As soon as we crossed the threshold of the room the locked turret detected us and started uselessly firing again.

“That’s it! We need to lure the robot into the turrets path!” I said frantically. And as if on cue the large metal monstrosity barreled in the room after us, exploding into a shower of lead.

“Sparks! Think you could do the shield again!? If we’re gonna lure it we’re gonna need to clump together!” Grim asked with a look of desperation on his face.

“I don’t know! I didn’t even know I could do it!”

“Hopefully not dying’s a good motivator!” Sunny yelled as she jumped over me, taking my and Grim’s necks in her hooves as she held us together.

“Are you crazy!? You’re gonna get us killed!” I screamed, trying to wiggle my way out of her grasp. Even pumped full of adrenaline I could not match her strength. The robot rotated its torso to face us with its mounted guns.

“Target locked.” It cautioned. Sunny was slowly and carefully pulling us parallel to where the locked turrets blasts were landing.

“Get ready boys!” Her grip around my neck tightened and I felt like I was floating. The sinking feeling in my gut that this was the end was overpowering any level of concentration I had. The robot fired a missile at us, almost in slow-motion as my fear raddled brain kicked my flight response into overdrive. I entered SATS to try and buy as much time as possible to think. Even with the slowed perception of time I still couldn’t come up with anything to get us out of this. That was when something occurred to me, magic! It didn’t have to necessarily be a shield. I closed my eyes and returned to normal time as a lightning shot out of my horn. The crackling sound and slight smell of ozone told me that the spell had worked. I opened my eyes in time to see my bolt connect with the missile and cause it to explode. The force of the explosion knocked us all to the ground and peppered all of us with bits of hot metal shrapnel. I could feel my body being dragged as I pressed my hooves against my ears to try and calm the intense ringing in them. When I could focus again I saw that Sunny had pulled Grim and I behind one of the support pillars, pulling us out of the robots line of sight. The plan wasn’t a total failure as it still put the robot on the path we wanted. It slowly rolled towards us into the path of the turrets laser fire. The great thing about having all your defenses tied to one system was that the IFF program didn’t register friendly fire. The hulking machine was tanking several laser blasts, each one melting off more and more of its armor plating. And as if our fantasies had come true, one last laser shot hit the robot in its now exposed wiring, disintegrating the entire robot into a hefty pile of pink, slightly glowing ash.

“Ha ha! You crazy bitch we did it! Good shot Sparks.” Grim celebrated. He breathed a sigh of relief and fell back against one of the pillars, wincing slightly as he remembered his wing. “I thought we were done for, I’ve never seen a Sentinel in action before.”

“Hopefully that cleared the way a bit, everpony pick the shrapnel out and drink a potion, we’re not out of this yet.” Sunny ordered.

We did as directed but grim denied the potion.

“Potions don’t replace lost tissue, if I drink that, my wing won’t heal properly and I won’t be able to fly.”

“Then what are we going to do? Are you going to need surgery?” I had no idea of the complexity of a wing so maybe I wasn’t that far off. If so I was more than a little concerned. I wouldn’t know how to feel in his place, I couldn’t envision life without my horn so I imagine that feeling was equitable.

“I should be fine. Do we have any regular bandages? That’ll do me for now.”

“Pass me some bandages too.” I pointed to the nasty wound that spritebot’s laser did to my shoulder.

After wrapping his wing and my shoulder, we set off back down the hallway we ran from. Now that I could get a good look at it without worrying for my life, I saw that our brief encounter had done a number. Two gaping holes, one in the floor and one in the right wall, and small patches of fire blocked our path. Fortunately none of the battle damage was bad enough to block our path so we had a straight shot to the room the sentinel came from. With any luck that was the security room. And Luna fuck me with her horn if that wasn’t the case. That sentinel must have been their ace in the hole because there wasn’t any danger in the office itself.

“Good thing we didn’t go down the other hallway eh guys?” I joked.

“Just get that alarm off, I’m getting a headache.” Grim whined, rubbing his head dramatically. A standard password search later, I was in. The first thing on my list was the security override. After a little bit of digging I found it and switched off the alarm and the robot security force, or at least what was left of it. There were two other entries that jumped out at me. One was about whomever was in charge of the site giving a building-wide notice and the second was about the security chiefs concern about the robots. I looked at the latter.

Now that I wasn’t on the receiving end of a brainbots weapons I started to see the horror behind their existence. This journal practically confirmed that the brains used were pony brains or close equivalents. What was really disturbing was whether or not the brains used were volunteers or something more sinister. I did my best to put it out of my mind as I moved on the notice from the pony who used to run this joint.

-Project Lead P.C.

I was a little sad that the ponies here never got the party they were promised, especially if they were working to end the war but obviously they were too late. Paladin Sureshot must have been here for whatever he could salvage from the project. Whatever energy technology they developed here would be a huge advantage to the Steel Rangers autonomy or anypony’s for that matter. I transferred a copy of the buildings layout to my PipBuck and stood up from the terminal to join my friends back out in the hall.

“The Paladin is probably in the basement lab if I had to guess.” I said staring at the PipBuck map.

“Do you think he’s alive?” Grim asked.

I remembered the enemy blips I saw disappearing off my EFS before and the sudden realization dawned on me.

“I think he can handle himself, you saw how massive their armor is.” I felt like I was forgetting something important but I was too eager to find the Paladin.

Grim and Sunny both nodded, conceding whatever arguments they might have had. We made our way halfway around the building’s interior, down a set of stairs and into a kind of waiting room/lobby to the high tech security doors to the basement labs. The inside of the room was absolutely destroyed, like a gigantic explosion tore through it. Scattered all around were the wrecked bodies of a number of robots, including another sentinel. In the corner beside the lab doors was the source of the explosion. Paladin Sureshot. My legs became weak and I fell to my knees as my insides tightened up painfully. I remembered in my panic that I directed the robots here. I killed the Paladin.

“Looks like he self-destructed his armor to kill the robots.” Sunny said, hiding her expression under her hat.

I was on the verge of tears. Another pony was dead because of me and I could have prevented it. I knew something was wrong when we first got here. I should have known when the alarm didn’t trip until we got here. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! I slammed my hoof against the floor and cried out in anguish.

“Come on Sparks, nothing we can do for him now.” Grim said, trying to help me stand up.

I let him help me up and slowly made my way to Sureshot’s remains. His armor was in pieces all around the blast site and bunched up in the corner lay the burnt husk of the Paladin. Around his neck were charred dog tags which I carefully took off his corpse. I held them in the air in front of me in my magic and got a good look at them.

Sureshot
16785369
Blood Type B-
Steel Ranger - Paladin

I wouldn’t be able to bring him back but I could bring these back.

“Umm…should we check out the labs?” Grim fidgeted anxiously, trying to break the mold.

In my mind I thought that since the Paladin was dead that maybe the rest of the Rangers wouldn’t help me. So I blindly agreed with the proposal. After a minute of fiddling with a key-card reader to open the door, Sunny lost her patience and destroyed it which in turn opened the door. Vertically blocking our path to an elevator was a shimmering blue field of magic.

“Huh. I didn’t see anything about this on the security terminal.” I mumbled.

“It’s probably controlled from the other side, to keep unauthorized personnel out of the labs.”

Sunny scrunched her nose and closed her eyes. “So…what you’re telling me is…?”

Grim smirked softly. “Yep, I think it’s a bypass shield.” He very carefully reached out as if to push the shield. His claws stopped as they came into to contact with it which left him comically leaning on it.

“So what do you think is allowed to pass through it?” I asked as I went to lean on it as well. That is until I went right through and crashed into the floor face first.

“Sparks!” Sunny stepped forward to try and help me only to be stopped by the shield. She hit it once and huffed in anger. “Are you ok in there?”

I gritted my teeth and rubbed my muzzle gently. “Son of a whore! Grim I thought you said I wouldn’t be able to go through?”

“I said no such thing, I said it was a bypass shield and nothing more.” He shrugged, giving me a look of amusement. He looked past me at the elevator. “Hey go check out that terminal by the elevator, see if you can’t turn the shield off.”

I nodded and took a look at it. My hooves went right through it. What the hell? Why couldn’t I use it? I frowned and tried to use magic instead. Again I just couldn’t use it. “What the hell is this thing!?” I yelled as I kept whipping my hooves through it as if it were vapor.

“Is…is that a cloud terminal?” Grim asked incredulously. “I never thought I’d see one on the surface outside of ministry hubs.”

“Your curiosity is gonna have to be put on hold because I can’t work the damn thing.”

“A Pegasus could use it, or I could if I could get to it.”

“Well you can’t get through the shield so that’s the end of that.” I said angrily, stopping halfway through the shield. “Let’s just take the Paladin’s tags back to the Academy and…” I was interrupted by the sound of wind blowing. I turned back through the shield and looked to the elevator where the sound was coming from to see an intangible mass of black and blue aura in the vague shape of a pony coming out of the floor. I tried to take a step back but my body wouldn’t move. Grim and Sunny were both pounding on the shield to try and help me but were stuck on the other side. The pony specter lifted its head and pierced me with its glowing golden gaze. It jumped forward, stopping just in front of me as it opened its mouth and let out a hissing growl. I saw a glow reminiscent of a unicorns atop the ghost’s head which must have snapped me out of my paralysis as I made an immediate U-turn and bolted through the shield so fast that I knocked both of my friends to the floor. We grunted and groaned trying to untangle our mass of hooves and claws. I was down on the floor underneath Sunny looking at the shield. I saw the upside down face of the ghost phase through the shield then stop just outside it. It growled again before retreating back through the floor.

“What the fuck was that thing!?” Grim cried after untangling himself from us.

I looked at the shield for a good long moment before answering. “I think we should go back to the Academy now.”

Nopony had a reason to say no, so we left and none of us looked back.

Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk: Hit the Deck! – You react very quickly to the sound of an explosive coming your way. You only take 2/3 damage from ranged explosive weapons.

Next Chapter: Chapter Nine: Of What's to Come Estimated time remaining: 27 Hours, 58 Minutes