I felt a wave of force and heat hit me. I opened my eyes to see that the device holding all of our weapons had exploded in a ball of fire. I quickly seized our weapons from the air and floated them back to us. One of Chestnuts guards had recovered before we could and had his gun raised to fire but before he could, a curved knife hooked up under his jaw, the tip protruding from the top of his skull.

“Looks like I made it just in time.” Azura ripped her knife from the guard’s skull and fired her pistol at the other guards who were now taking cover now that we were armed.

“NO! Kill them! Kill them now!” Chestnut yelled from behind the burning husk of the machine. Chestnut pulled out a magical energy pistol and began firing at us. I ducked just in time to dodge a pink blast of energy that melted a hole through the door behind us. It was time. I stood to my full height and charged a spell. I conjured a shield around myself and ran through the guards firing line, Chestnut was mine. He saw me coming and turned to run and I followed. Soon the gunfire became like background noise as I chased Chestnut deeper into Eclipse. Every time I’d round a corner we’d have a brief exchange of bullets and magic. I kept up the chase, following him down hall after hall until we came to a large circular room with an elevator in the center. The elevator was on its way up, probably carrying that ghoul Pegasus from before. Regardless Chestnut wouldn’t be getting on it until it came back which would give me all the time I would need.

“Remember when you said breaking me was worse than killing me? Making me live with my own failures only let me focus my rage and who do you think I focused it on?”

“You forget just who the fuck you’re dealing with Sparks.”

“No, I haven't you murderer.”

Chestnut raised his weapon again and fired a volley of deadly energy at me. I rolled out of the way and came to rest behind an old wooden crate, not the best cover but cover nonetheless.

“Have you already forgotten Sparks? This is YOUR fault. Don’t give me that shit about taking everything from you when it was you who took everything from me!”

Two flaming holes appeared in the aged wood of my cover, forcing me to stand and move. Three more blasts whizzed past me, one just barely singeing my tail.

“Like hell I did!” I shouted, diving behind a drum of something. “I put a stop to your sick games when I burned down that stadium.”

“I had nothing to do with those races!”

“You didn’t have anything to do with stopping them either so don’t act like you aren’t guilty!” I took the time to reload my pistol and telekinetically draw hearts promise.

“It’s you who should feel guilty! You got my son killed that day Sparks! Took a bullet from one of your coat wearing vigilantes and where are they now? Oh yeah, I burned their home like you did mine!”

I could hear the faintest sound of Chestnut’s gun firing as well as feel the metal of the drum I was behind become warmer. I made to dash to more cover when I heard the sound of fabric rustling just behind me. I turned to look as the zebra mare who ambushed us on the way into Moletown appeared from the air and landed a hard hit across my face. I hit the floor hard but managed the strength to keep rolling, dodging two more shots from Chestnut.

“Excellent timing Axela, I trust you want to kill him yourself?

Axela barred her teeth and held a hoof to the eyepatch she now wore over her eye. “You should have heeded my warning.” She said softly as she jumped into the air and flew towards me. She landed atop me and began pummeling me with her hooves. Each hit rattled my brain and split my lip against my teeth. I could barely muster a defense, occasionally blocking a hit but she had straddled me so well that I was unable to roll or push her off. Every time I tried to muster a spell the next hit would disrupt my focus, causing it to fizzle out. Chestnut stayed where he was, holstered his weapon and watched in delight as Axela got revenge for her eye. Suddenly Axela let out a shrill cry of pain and her assault on me stopped. She got off of me and struggled a moment to wrench a familiar curved knife from her back. Azura was hovering in the air behind Axela with a smug grin on her face.

“Shall we even the odds?” She said, drawing her pistol and firing in Axela’s direction. Axela dodged to the side and put up her hood, vanishing from sight once again. Which left me and Chestnut staring each other down once again.

“You just don’t know when to give up do you?” Chestnut growled, pulling out his magic pistol.

“I wouldn’t be here otherwise.” I said, also drawing my weapons. I flung hearts promise at him while simultaneously sending a shield spell through the link. The knife became a white sphere and hit Chestnut in the side, staggering him slightly. While he was off balance I fired a few rounds at him, one catching him in the flank. The shot caused his hind leg to buckle under him and he fell to the floor. I brought hearts promise back to me and broke into a full gallop to close the distance between us. I reared back and was about to drive my front hooves into his head when Axela tackled me away from him. She got one more hit in on me before Azura flew in and tackled her off of me, dragging her into the air where they began grappling each other. I couldn’t focus on their battle as Chestnut had recovered enough to fire another beam of energy into my chest, burning away a chunk of my armor. I enveloped myself in a shield just in time to absorb two more shots that would have turned more than my armor into slag. All the while the steel pillar of the elevator in the center of the room had stopped ascending and starting coming back. If Chestnut got to it when it returned he would disappear all over again. I couldn’t let him get there. It had to end here. I projected my shield into a wall in front of me and began rushing Chestnut. He couldn’t bring my shield down in time as it smashed into him and pushed him down to the floor. I dropped the shield and kicked him in the face, forcing him to lose hold of his weapon. While he was vulnerable I wrapped his body in a field of magic and threw him into the crates dotting the floor. Every collision brought a satisfying yell of pain from Chestnut as I prepared to float him to the roof and drop him. Just as I started moving him upward I heard the sound of something metallic landing behind me. I turned to investigate only for my eyes to widen as I recognized what laid before me. A grenade. I dropped Chestnut and conjured a shield around myself. At this proximity my shield took all the force it was able and shattered. What remained was enough to knock the wind out of me and throw me to the floor, dazed and hurt but alive. Across the room I could see Azura and Axela going at it. Neither of them had any weapons per se but Azura’s talons were allowing her to keep up against the hoof-to-hoof specialist. I decided to intervene and called for Azura’s attention. She used her superior strength to throw the zebra back for some space as she looked in my direction.

“CATCH!” I yelled, telekinetically flinging hearts promise in her direction. She caught it in her claw and brought it around just in time to catch Axela across her chest, cutting deep into her flesh. She cried out in pain yet she didn’t back down. She dropped low and leaned forward away from Azura. Then her hind legs exploded out from under her, hitting Azura right on the underside of her beak, knocking her in the air where she recovered. Before I could help any further a plank of wood collided with the back of my head. I whipped my head around and blasted a beam of kinetic energy at my attacker. I missed Chestnut but was lucky enough to hit the board he held in his mouth, reducing it to splinters. Chestnut used the cloud of sawdust and wood to rush me, grabbing my head between his hooves using his body weight to slam it into the floor. The dots floating in my vision and the ringing in my ears dazed me for a second before I resorted to a tried and true attack. I shook my head free and threw it upwards for a head-butt. I was too far below to hit him in the face but that wasn’t my target. My horn went just far enough to pierce into his chest and draw blood. He recoiled off of me, holding a hoof to the hole in his chest.

“I underestimated you…” He growled. “Looks like you have what it takes after all.”

“Nothing in this world…can stop me from killing you.” We were both panting heavily, each of us carrying wounds from the fight. The elevator platform had now come back far enough that we could see it descending from the ceiling. Chestnut and I both did a double take at the elevator before we mustered all of our remaining energy to be the first to get to it. We made half the distance to the elevator when Azura and Alexa’s fight crossed our path. Chestnut, being the one in the lead, held out a leg and clipped Azura’s legs causing her to flip from the air and crash to the floor. Thankfully I was following fairly close to him so when I passed the pair I evened the odds for her this time. As I neared, I held out my leg and hit Axela in the throat. I used my weight to throw her to the floor while I tucked into a roll and was back to my chase all in one motion. The elevator was halfway to the floor now and Chestnut was giving everything he had to get there. I struggled to line up a shot with my pistol while I ran but soon I had my shot and fired. *Click*

Out. I was out of bullets. I slipped into SATS to try and think of something I could do but found nothing. Azura had my knife and even if I could hit him with a lightning bolt I didn’t think it would have enough power to stop him. Then my eyes lingered on the pistol floating beside me in the periphery of my vision. I had what I needed. I came out from SATS and whipped the gun with the last of my magical potency at the back of his head. It hit with a metallic thud, dropping Chestnut just in front of the elevator. In a flash I was standing over him, kicking him in the gut over and over again, his grunts of pain like music to my ears. My hooves found his throat where I applied enough pressure to choke but not enough to strangle. It was there, with the elevator ten feet above us that I noticed an indentation for the elevator to slot into. I pushed Chestnut so that his head was hanging over the edge of the hollow. As he opened his eyes he recognized the situation he was in and started thrashing to try and escape me.

“Axela! Axela help me!” He cried, hoping that the zebra would come to his rescue but she never came.

“Here comes your elevator Chestnut, just like you wanted.” I hissed, a wicked smile forming on my face.

“Let go of me! Let me go now!” He cried, thrashing against my hold.

“I knew somepony who begged you for her life once. She wasn’t involved in the slightest but you still killed her to torture me. I hate you. What makes you think there’s any chance you live through this?” The elevator was inches away from his face and his fear magnified as death was upon him.

“Axela!” He cried one last time. From my left I saw Azura begin to approach me, my bloody knife in her claw.

“I think she’s dead.” She said with a mirthless smile. Chestnuts eyes bugged out of his head as the elevator made contact. Then the screams came. The elevator kept moving like he wasn’t there, shearing through flesh and bone with unabated motion. Then, at the end as it came to rest, a loud crack signaled the crushing of his skull. As the blood burbled out from the neck stump of Chestnut I could feel my smile begin to fade. Then, all at once as if he was all that kept me going, my vision began to blur as darkness encroached in.

“Sparks? You alright?” Someone asked. The last thing I saw was the floor rising up to meet me as all disappeared into the black.

I woke up in a rather comfortable bed and for a few moments I couldn’t find the strength to open my eyes. I began to writhe, rousing whoever was in the room with me as I felt something push on my chest.

“Easy, easy Sparks. You’re safe.”

I recognized the voice of Azura and I calmed myself. “W-what happened?”

“You passed out after you killed that pony. Your body was running on adrenaline and not much else. Once the fight was finished your body gave out. You…you were in pretty rough shape…” She let that last part linger and a feeling of fear and realization awakened in me.

“H-how long…” I whispered.

“What?”

“How long was I out?”

“I don’t know how to tell you this but…you were unconscious for two days.”

Two days?! How hard did I push myself? But more importantly I feared for my family’s safety. I didn’t know how much patience Mr. Coal possessed but I hoped that if he had waited forty years so far that two more days wouldn’t bother him. It was all I could do to keep myself from forcing myself out of bed and I could feel I was in no shape to go anywhere fast. The surge of adrenaline gave me the strength to open my eyes and gaze upon Azura. She smiled slightly when our eyes met and I could see how she had fared in the fight. Her left talon was wrapped in a sling hanging from her shoulder. She also carried a great many bruises and a few bandages here and there.

“I’ve got to find-” I tried to throw my legs off the bed but was silenced when the floor met me halfway. Azura rushed over to me, laying her good claw on my head.

“Don’t push yourself Sparks, you’re in no condition to go anywhere yet.”

I ignored her words and slowly got to my hooves, taking one step on shaky legs before my strength gave way once again. That time I just laid there, panting as if I had just been galloping around the stadium again. I slowly came to accept my limits and Azura helped me back into bed. There was a long silence between us, neither one of us knowing what to say. But my thoughts soon moved away from her and a thought came to mind.

“Did the others make it?” I asked with trepidation. I had abandoned them. I put my revenge on Chestnut above their lives. I closed my eyes as I prepared for the answer. I didn’t know how many more ghosts I could live with.

“They made it through okay. A little roughed up sure but alive. Better shape than you at least.”

I smiled and let out a small laugh at the implication. Did I really look that bad? My smile made its way to Azura’s face as we shared a quick laugh at my expense.

“Where am I right now?” I asked, looking at my unfamiliar surroundings.

“We’re in the medical wing of the complex.”

So we were still in Eclipse. “Were there others?”

“Don’t worry your silver head about them, we had plenty of time to clear the place while you were out. We even found the incinerator to dump the corpses. There were a lot.”

We had a real gem here. The Eclipse Complex was ours. I guess that meant we had stopped whatever Chestnut had been planning…if he had been planning anything at all. The only loose end was that pegasus ghoul. Chestnut had called him Crush and he said something about research subjects. Was he a scientist? Who was he and what was he doing? Either way any thoughts like that had to be curbed for the moment seeing as I couldn’t even walk without smacking my face on the floor.

“Why didn’t we leave? Why keep me here?” Surely taking me to a doctor back in Moletown would have been a better option.

“Oh Gunny is apparently a medical pony. She took care of you better than some clinics will. As for why we stayed well…We couldn’t get the elevator to take us anywhere. The one by the train not the one where we fought.”

Speaking of that I was curious about how her side of things went. “Did you kill that zebra?”

“Yeah. After lending me your knife and knocking her down for me I got her other eye. She was relatively harmless after that but I wasn’t about to leave someone like that to suffer, so I put one through her forehead. Speaking of which…” She reached behind her back and withdrew hearts promise. “Interesting knife you have…what kind of bone is it?”

“It’s…it’s a unicorn horn.”

“Oh that’s…unique.”

“You can say that again. Hey Azura…can I ask you something?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Why did you come back?”

Her feathers were momentarily ruffled as if she wasn’t expecting the question. “I…I changed my mind. I wanted to be mad at you, mad for using me. The more I thought about it though, the more I thought about what I would do in your position. I know that you did it with the best intentions and because of that I changed my mind. I would do anything for my family and you were just trying to do the same yet I turned my back on you. It would be a stain on my honor to leave you behind like that.”

I wasn’t worth such words. Whether my intentions were good or not I HAD used her. The others too for that matter. On purpose. But I supposed I should just be thankful that they stayed by my side in the end. There’s a good chance I’d be dead otherwise. I reached out a hoof and grabbed ahold of her good claw. “Thank you.”

Her feathers ruffled again and I smiled at the sight. Even though it had only been a few minutes since I woke I was beginning to feel incredibly tired. Azura must have noticed as she turned and made for the door.

“I’ll come back with Gunny to see how you’re doing later okay?”

“I'd like that.” I said, rolling over and pulling the blanket over me.

“Do you feel like you thought you would?”

I opened my eyes to a familiar darkness, a certain mustachioed unicorn standing before me.

“Why do you keep bothering me Fancy Pants? Of all the ponies to haunt me you make the least sense, get out of my head.”

“I’m afraid that you’d have to do something incredibly dangerous to be rid of me now. You joined us the day you channeled magic through the knife.”

As if the world was listening a phantom version of hearts promise appeared before us.

“What does that mean?”

“You haven’t learned yet? Well…perhaps the answers you seek yet lie before you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You saw my memories Sparks…You tell me.” With that his visage disintegrated and the dust was picked up by an invisible breeze. Why were the dreams different when he was there? Something had escaped my notice, he said the knife was the source…there was more to it than I knew.

I was unaware of how much time had passed in the waking world but I was soon to find out as the darkness slowly melted away to reveal the world outside.

This time I was roused awake by my would-be doctor, Gunny. Her orange mane hung loosely over her face as she looked me over.

“Mornin’ Doc.” I said in a raspy, tired voice. She locked eyes with me for a moment and gave a soft smile.

“Good you’re awake.”

“I’m glad you’re okay. Sorry about leaving you before.”

“Heh you’re the one injured in bed and you’re glad I’M ok. You and Basalt would have gotten along.” Her expression took a sad turn as she recalled the name. She took in a deep breath and composed herself. “Anyway about before. After you took off we killed the rest of the guards pretty easily, however the noise drew more ponies so we weren’t able to follow you. Luckily for you Azura flew after you like mad and found you. If she hadn’t you might have died. What could have possessed you to push yourself so hard?” She changed the bandages around my leg and gave me some kind of pill that I swallowed without question.

“Well…The pony I chased after…His name was Salted Chestnut. My friends and I killed his boss and burned down the stadium that was their base of operations.”

“The Stadium…Red Asphalt was his boss yeah? So what Pon3 said on the radio was true. About you I mean.”

“Yeah, though sometimes I wish he hadn’t said anything. Anyway, in retaliation for what happened, he rallied a lot of raider clans and destroyed my friend’s home. Killing most of the Regulators.”

“There goes the last chance for law the Baltimare Wastes had.” She shined a little light in both my eyes then urged me to continue.

“After that, once the rest of the raiders were under his command, he targeted Black Town. After the fight his goons caught me and brought me to him. He…he had gotten to my family first and…and…”

“Stop. You don’t have to tell me.” She said, placing a hoof on mine in sincerity. She lost a loved one here too. She knew what I had felt, what I was feeling. I muscled through the heartache and forced the memory to surface, I needed to say it.

“He…had my pregnant marefriend by the throat. He wanted to break me by forcing me to watch her execution…he left me tied to a chair to contemplate my failures and he got away. I chased him for some time but I had a filly to take care of so I called off the chase. I was content to live my life with my daughter until a friend gave me the chance to find him again. Now he’s dead and Winter is avenged.”

“You don’t have to apologize then. I’d have chased after him too if I were in your place. I’d have liked to see his death…I know it wasn’t him but it’s because of him Basalt’s dead…”

I saw that look in her eyes again and I gave it my all just to sit up. She looked surprised as I carefully got out of the bed. Her look intensified as I pulled her into a hug.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered. “It’s because of me that any of this happened. All this death is my fault. I…my failure killed Winter…my failure killed Basalt. It’s all my fault.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if that apology awoke some kind of resentment towards me from her but what I said was the truth. I could have let Sunny kill Chestnut when we cornered him at Requari. I made the decision to let him go, to give him a chance. Everything after that is as much my fault as it was his. He had wanted me to learn a lesson and now I had, even if it wasn’t the one he intended.

“I forgive you.” Gunny whispered back, tightening her hold on me. That was not the reaction I was expecting. I was prepared for her to hate me. Were I in her place I’d probably hate me. Why didn’t she hate me!? She was a stronger pony than me. Seems I met many ponies stronger than me. She may have forgiven me but I didn’t know if I was ready to forgive myself…not yet.

“Am I interrupting something?” Azura said from the doorway, a curious look on her face. Gunny let me go and looked in her direction.

“Not at all. Just letting it go.” She looked back to me and nodded. She made her way past Azura and disappeared into the halls.

“What was that all about?” Azura asked, walking up to me. I wiped the tears from my eyes and did a poor job of putting on a poker face.

“I told her how all of this was my fault. How Gumball and Basalt’s deaths are because of me. A-and…she forgave me. Why?”

“Because you’re a good pony Sparks and she could see that.”

That was something I had been debating for some time. Was I a good pony? I didn’t feel like it, for all the good I did there was always an equal or greater evil as a result. If I stopped trying to be a good pony then bad things would stop happening to the ponies around me. But that would be tantamount to giving up and if I gave up now then all those deaths would have been for nothing. Even if I never felt like it, deep down I knew that I did everything I could to be the pony I wanted to be. I leaned back on the bed and sighed.

“I don’t deserve it. He became who he was because of me, he was my problem. Even if I put a stop to him that shouldn’t absolve me of what I allowed him to do. I wouldn’t forgive me…”

Azura stood there, unsure of how to respond. And she shouldn’t have to, I knew how Gunny was able to forgive me, I just wished she didn’t. Now that I could stand and move without becoming dizzy it was time to look for the other half of the reason I came here. I wiggled back into my armor and made sure my bags were where they were supposed to be and slowly walked out the door with Azura following. If my PipBuck was accurate then I should’ve been able to find my way back to the offices. Eventually we came to the room where we had found Chestnut originally, the scrapped heap of that strange device still lying where Azura left it. As we crossed the room, knocking bits of machinery out of our way, a familiar feathered head popped up from behind the bulk of it.

“Hey good to see you up and about Sparks, I knew you were a survivor.”

“Grizela…find anything interesting while I was out?”

“Not really. I wish we didn’t have to destroy this thing cuz the papers I found make it sound like it was a prototype. Nopony around has the know-how to put it back together but I’m tryin’ to learn what I can diggin’ through the scraps.”

“Do you really think that’s worth your time?”

“The less people that try and kill each other in my bar is always a good thing. They’d have a much harder time if they didn’t have weapons dontcha think?”

So she was just looking for the sake of the Rusty Talon. I chuckled at loyalty she showed to her business and the simple idea she had for such an interesting piece of pre-war tech.

“Well I hope you find something, I’m going to have a longer look at the terminals in the offices.”

“You know you didn’t strike me as an egghead when I met ya.”

“Well somepony smarter than me once said ‘knowledge is power’ so I think it’s worth a look.”

Azura and I pushed the doors to the hallway that led to the offices. Once we made it back to the rows of terminals, I looked to the signs hanging from the roof and started going through terminals in what I hoped was the right section.

“I know I said thank you already Azura but I want you to know how grateful I am that you came back.”

She came over to the terminal I was working at and placed her good claw on my shoulder. “You still have a family to go back to. I don’t think I’d have been able to sleep at night if I turned my back on you and we left them in the hooves of Mr. Coal.”

Speaking of Mr. Coal, that’s what I was currently looking for. If this place was an old Equestrian government melting pot then hopefully there’d be a reference or record of a stable being built nearby. After another hour of terminal hopping I found something relating to what sounded like a stable. It was a piece of interoffice mail between two co-workers the entry read.

I followed the mail as it was sent back and forth until one of the correspondent’s had an answer to the questions brought up in the first bit I saw.

That was the last bit I found that had to do with stables, at least on the network these division’s terminals were on. That gave me an idea, hopefully the holotape that was mentioned was still where it was and she never got to it. I looked up from the terminal, wondering where the executive offices were.

“Azura? While I was recovering you guys scouted the rest of the facility right?”

“Yeah but there were plenty of doors we couldn’t get through.”

“Can you take me to the executive offices? Were the doors to it locked?” I asked, jumping up from my chair, getting closer to her than I meant to. The importance of that holotape, if it was still there, was so great that I couldn’t control my feelings. Azura smiled nervously and took a step back.

“S-sure and yes but what makes you think you can get the doors open?”

I floated the card from my bags and showed it to her. “Administrator access.”

“O-oh…well follow me then.”

Azura led me out through an exit to the offices I didn’t notice before. We walked down a plain corridor and ascended a small flight of stairs to what looked like a security checkpoint. Fortunately it gave us little trouble as it required a security pony to run it. We walked past the checkpoint until we stopped in front of a large metal door, a card reader on either side of it.

“Ok don’t fail me now.” I whispered as I slid the card into it. After a few seconds I was rewarded with the sound of a mechanical hiss as the middle of the door split and the two halves retracted into the walls. Now I was certain the holotape was still in there somewhere. I don’t know how that pony thought they were going to sneak in here but it was very unlikely they succeeded, provided she even attempted at all. Once inside, I carefully inspected the room looking for nameplates or anything that might tell me where the holotape might be. After several minutes of searching we came to the last office in the line and my heart sank. Shimmering in front of the door labeled ‘Administrator’ was something I’d seen before, a bypass shield. Nowhere in sight was a card reader or control terminal, meaning that they were probably on the inside. I supposed that if you wanted to protect an area a bypass shield made the most sense. It probably only allowed the administrator themself in. Azura walked up behind me and whistled.

“Don’t see that every day.” She said to herself. I on the other hoof was very upset. I kicked the wall in frustration which only made my leg hurt as I let out a growl of anger. It was almost like chasing Chestnut all over again. Just when I thought I had a plan and it was in my reach does the wasteland turn around and kick me in the teeth leaving me where I started.

“You alright? What were you lookin’ for?” Azura asked, taken aback by my outburst.

“The fucking holotape that could have told me where the stable was is in there. Why can’t it ever be easy? What else can it take from me at this point?” I turned my attention to the shield. “You hear me you motherfucker!? What else could you want!?” I lashed out at the shield as if I was striking the wasteland itself. But my hooves didn’t hit the shield. Instead the force of my kick pushed me right through the shield and onto the floor, muzzle first.

“AAHHhh FUCK!” I yelled, slamming a hoof on the floor. I slowly brought myself to a sitting position, holding a hoof to my nose to slow the blood.

“Well…maybe that should be the first thing I try next time.” I said to myself. What are the chances that the only two bypass shields I’ve encountered allowed me to pass?

“Is it just for show?” Azura asked, walking up to the shield and poking it with a claw. “Nope it’s real.”

I stood back up, wiping my bloody hoof on my armor. “Give me a second, I should be able to bring it down.” I walked to the door and it automatically opened as I neared. The inside of the room looked equal parts lounge as well as office. There was a fine wooden desk in the corner with a terminal on it in front of a large window. Through the window was a view of the elevator shaft, presumably so the administrator could see who was coming and going. On the other side of the room was a well lined bookshelf with a white L shaped couch with a coffee table in front of it. On the table were scattered, cracked and ageing magazines. I spared a glance at one of the covers and saw a tan colored earth pony in a stretcher amid a devastated landscape. Tuning what I saw out for the moment I wandered over to the desk and sat in the lovely red velvet chair behind the desk. Considering the level of security in this area it came as no surprise that the terminal had no protection. As soon as I touched anything a small window opened with a bit of text reading ‘Welcome Mr. Silver-Mane.’ Then it vanished, leaving the rest of its contents at my disposal. Finding and powering down the bypass shield was easy enough, allowing Azura to walk in and take in the luxury of the room.

“The more we explore the more I realize that the real treasure is the complex itself. This place was so untouched by the war.” She mused, walking around the room. I barely heard her as I continued to pour through the terminals information. The first thing I noticed after the shield controls were the security protocols and commands for the complex. They had been left on standby. When they evacuated this place they must have really been in a hurry. I plugged my PipBuck into the terminal and reactivated the security, replacing the administrators ID with my PipBuck’s ID tag. Now the Eclipse complex was mine. Azura started flipping through some of the books on the shelf as I continued to alter or change the security commands. I discovered many automated defenses like turrets and the like as well as a small army of robots, unpowered in hollows built into the walls at regular intervals. It would take too long to do reprogram them manually like I did at the Bloomberg Space Center so I had to find another solution. After a few moments of data mining I had what I needed to get the robots under my control. I took a deep breath as I selected the command that brought every robot online at once. I could hear the faint grinding of metal as all the hidden doors in the complex opened at the same time. Before any of the robots could stumble across any of my allies, I quickly pulled the microphone attached to the terminal to my muzzle and held down the button that would broadcast my words through all the loudspeakers.

“Command override. Authorization code Silver-Mane, Sparkling. Access core programming. Reset targeting parameters.” The command forced them to return to their charging pods or docks and after all the changing I did to the security protocols the reset would link their built-in EFS to my PipBuck’s, essentially replacing their targeting systems with how the EFS of my PipBuck would detect life forms. Or at least that was what I hoped would happen. Without thinking I could have killed the ponies who helped me storm this place. Thank the Goddesses above that after a few intense seconds I heard no gunfire or anything indicating that the reset had failed. I let out a calmed sigh as the brief seconds of realization and rashness of my decision became relief.

“What was that?” Azura asked, looking a little nervous as she approached the desk.

“I just took control of this facility.” I said, leaning back in the chair and pulling the drawers of the desk open. I pushed aside useless old papers and other odds and ends, looking for the holotape I hoped beyond hope was still there.

“What do you plan to do with this place?”

“I…I don’t know yet.” I was just taking things as they came at that point. Now that Chestnut was dead the only thing on my mind was getting my family back and that meant finding the stable. Granting myself administrator status within the facility simply removed any barriers between me and what I was looking for. After an amount of digging I found a large envelope that held a square shape inside. I snatched it in my magic and eagerly dumped its contents onto the desk. An instructional note along with a holotape spilled out, to which I picked up the note and began reading.

So the stable had been built in the underground because the pony in charge here allowed it. From the sound of it though, it seems he was unaware of its true nature. The fact that the note and holotape were still in the envelope proved that fact. I would be the first pony to hear the contents of the tape. Hopefully somewhere inside there would be a clue to its location and a means of entering. I carefully inserted the holotape into the tape player.

Hello, this is Vice-President Scootaloo of Stable-Tec. Given the short amount of time we had during construction it was hard to find a purpose for this Stable. Thankfully we came up with something. The prime directive of this Stable is the preservation of the brightest minds Equestria has to offer. To this effect we have installed top of the line cryo-stasis pods to preserve the ponies inside. There they will wait until the toxicity sensors indicate that it is safe to go outside. We will provide a small staff of scientists and technicians to ensure the pods keep running at 100% efficiency over the years before they go into stasis as well. Should times become so dire that we need to use the Stable then Equestria will have the greatest minds of the time ready to help rebuild. Stable 50’s access code is CMC-SSM-7319.

I was about to lose my temper when there was no clue to its location when a familiar soft pinging from my PipBuck added a map marker. I opened my map and smiled, not too far from where the main elevator led was the entrance to Stable 50. Now I had enough to go on and return to Mr. Coal.

“H-hey Sparks? You should come take a look at this.” Azura sounded as if she had just seen a ghost. I stood up from the desk and joined her standing over the coffee table. She was pointing a talon to the magazine I noticed earlier. I picked it up in my magic and gave it a closer look. As I saw the tan colored earth pony in the stretcher again I noticed something familiar about him. Then I saw the name of the article and I understood Azura’s shock. ‘Only pony to survive Cataclysm, Flint Coal speaks about experience’ I almost dropped the magazine in surprise. When I saw that Mr. Coal was a ghoul I never even considered that he lived through the war. The magazine however didn’t contain anything all that enlightening about the experience and then I remembered where I was. I went back to the administrator’s terminal and started looking if there was anything about the Cataclysm or Mr. Coal…or Flint Coal as we learned was his name. A few moments later I found enough to answer most of my questions. The first thing I found was a report on the event that would be remembered as the Cataclysm.

After months of tension between the Changeling insurgency and the Equestrian military, the insurgency, with aid from Zebra infiltrators, finally managed to force Equestria to withdraw. Much of the Changeling population resisted the annexation of the Badlands but Equestria’s need for coal forced our hooves. Since the trade agreement was made official we had been fighting a war on two sides, the Zebra invading from the sea and the domestic acts of sabotage from the Insurgency. We never thought things would escalate as they did. In an attack that was carefully crafted and executed, Changeling spies and Zebra infiltrators managed to sneak in to many installations across the Badlands. At 09:00 that morning, Megaspells all across the nation were detonated in their underground launching silos, splitting the earth, cracking and twisting the landscape, and obliterating the coal within. Massive earthquakes followed that swallowed the Ministry of Morale hub and Dustwall base. Much of the onsite personnel are still missing and many are presumed dead after twenty-four hours of ground zero megaspell detonation exposure. How desperate they must have been to commit such an atrocity. The war threatened their supply of food and so they acted to put a stop to it…at too high a cost. Queen Chrysalis was killed when the land opened and swallowed entire cities. As far as we know, no other Queens or Changelings capable of breeding survived which would make the lucky Changelings who weren’t in the Badlands the last of their kind. We knew war was capable of annihilating us all…but to actually see it with a nation that wanted nothing to do with it…We trapped them between our armies in a war they wanted no part of. We forced them to act. We should learn this lesson well of the consequences war brings. Luna forgive us for what we’ve done.

- General Hoofridge

The next bit of relevant information was a simple statement made by Flint Coal regarding his experience. He was found near the Equestrian border of the Badlands in a near-death condition. After being treated at the nearest hospital Flint Coal refused to talk about what he had seen and what had become of survivors he claimed were still trapped inside. He was to be kept in intensive care until a time that he could return to field operations and hopefully give them more information regarding the incident. Other mentions of Flint Coal said that after his recovery he was used as a rallying cry of Equestria’s survival against all odds. The General in the report I’d read wanted them to learn from the experience but in the end it was used as pro war propaganda and a call to arms against the Zebra. Now I was even more curious why he was after whatever was in that Stable. I had plenty of information to bring back to Mr. Coal now, only this time the scales would be tipped in my favor.

Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk: Resilient Horn. – You possess an exceptional reserve of magical energy compared to most. Even if you lack the energy at the end of your turn you may expend the rest of your action points and cast a spell anyway.

Next Chapter: Chapter Seventeen: From Ashes Estimated time remaining: 21 Hours, 10 Minutes