A sharp crack sounded in the air as I shot a lightning bolt at the first Hell Diver I saw. It hit him directly in the back, stunning him out of the air where he fell to the concrete with a bone breaking crunch. Unfortunately lightning is not discreet and our position was given away immediately, several Hell Divers turning to look in our direction. Sunny and I would have a hell of a time combatting all these fliers but Azura was quick to kick off the ground and plunge her knife into the spine of a hapless Hell Dive caught unaware. Now that our window of surprise was gone the bullets started flying. Sunny broke away from me and galloped into the remains of a nearby building, no doubt hoping to get to the roof where she could fight better. The coming dark made it difficult to pick my targets, the Talons silhouettes were beginning to blend with the Hell Diver’s. Aurora and I kept moving, darting between cover and taking potshots at griffins in the air. Once one of them realized their advantage, I heard something that I had been dreading since I put a gun in her hooves.

“Get the girl!” The smarter than average griffin, dove from the air and tried to pluck Aurora off the ground.

“NO!” I dove in his path and rather than leave me to try again I found that I was the one who had been taken airborne.

“DAD!” I heard Aurora cry as I was lifted off in her place.

“This’ll work too.” He flew me up over the roofs of the block and dropped me. Once I was free of his grasp I went into SATS and queued up as many shots as I could on his head. Once the spell took control of my aim the first two shots missed before the third blew out the back of his skull and he fell with me. I looked to see the ground approaching fast and threw up a bubble shield around myself and pumped as much magic as I could into it. I closed my eyes and braced myself. The concrete rose to meet me as my shield hit it and absorbed as much kinetic energy as it was able before shattering and leaving me with the rest. I collided with the asphalt hard enough to knock the wind out of me and send me rolling across the street. I tried to stand up but was met with pain in my front right leg when I put any weight on it. I rushed as fast as I could to where Aurora and I had been when I heard a shrill scream. I turned a corner and saw her being taken by another griffin.

“Aurora!” I tried in vain to grab her with my magic but the griffin was moving too fast. No…No! I wasn’t going to lose her! I broke into a gallop, ignoring the pain in my leg and lungs as I chased after them.

The dark shape of the void pony flashed in my mind, extending a hoof to me. I didn’t know if I was crazy or if there really was some kind of monster trying to get inside my head but in that moment I didn’t care. I mentally grabbed the entity’s hoof and felt a powerful surge of energy flow through me. I heard a barrage of unintelligible whispers on the edge of my hearing as I lashed out with my magic. Unlike before my spell found its target and wrenched the griffins head violently to one side with enough force to rip it from his shoulders and send it plummeting to the ground in a fountain of blood. His body went limp and Aurora screamed as she too began to fall, spurring me into more action. I ignored the battle around me, all of my focus was on the white blur that was my daughter as she hurdled toward the ground. I felt a bullet embed itself into my shoulder but with the power the void pony had given me I didn’t feel any pain. I reached out again with my enhanced magic and grabbed Aurora out of the air, slowing her descent enough that I caught her safely on my back. I could feel her trembling and her hooves tighten around my neck, afraid to let me go.

“We need to get you somewhere safe!” I turned tail and kicked off towards the building Sunny had run into. However it would never be that easy as another griffin landed in my path with his guns trained on me. Without wasting a second I fired a concussive blast of magic at him and was surprised to see that it blew a softball sized hole right through his chest. The griffin was dead before he hit the ground. Ignoring the body I just kept heading towards Sunny, leaping over the corpse as I went. There was only one street in between me and Sunny left but as I neared the door, another Hell Diver dropped to intercept me. Only this one had done so stealthily. He dropped out of the sky hitting me square in the middle of my back, knocking me to the ground and Aurora into the street. He was quick to grab Aurora and hold her against him, a pistol to the side of her head.

“I don’t know who the fuck you are but call off the attack now or the little one dies.”

The scene before me brought back a very vivid memory, the same scene played before me with Winter in the same position as Aurora. Only this time I wasn’t tied to a chair, this time I wasn’t weak. I stood up and looked him dead in the eye.

“You don’t want to do that. Put her down now and maybe I’ll let you live.” The intensity of my glare threatened to set his feathers aflame.

“You’re in no position to make demands, now call off th-” His sentence was cut off by the sound of tearing flesh as I used my empowered magic to rip his gun arm out of its socket, flinging it across the street. He looked to where his arm once was and screamed in realization as well as pain. He immediately tried to retreat into the air but with another flare of my magic both his wings were ripped from his body, sending him face first into the street. He whimpered in terror as I slowly walked up to him, my horn wreathed in magical energy. He scrambled to find anything, reaching behind his back with his remaining arm to draw another firearm. Before he could even point it at me another tug of magic freed his other arm from his body. It wouldn’t take long for him to bleed out in this state, hell I was surprised he was still conscious.

“I warned you.” I moved to finish him off when the thundering sound of my own heartbeat made me recoil in anguish. All the pain I should have been feeling returned all at once, staggering me to the ground.

The dark visage of the void pony smiled cruelly as the power he had given me left my body, leaving me wounded and exhausted in the middle of the street. Regardless I was going to finish what I started. I hauled myself up to my hooves and withdrew Hearts Promise, slowly limping to the crippled griffin with intent to kill…painfully. As I came to stand over him his eyes were quickly losing their spark and he looked up at me with a dreadful expression. Before my blade fell Aurora scampered to my side and put a quiet bullet through the side of his head.

“We don’t have time for this, C’mon!” Aurora pulled me by the tail back towards Sunny. As we ran I realized I had lost my gun when I fell from the sky earlier. Besides my knife, Aurora was my only protection as of now. Aurora took point in front and did a damn good job covering me, even if I could see she was skirting the edge of panic. Next came a new fact about the Hell Divers, they did indeed have non-flying ponies in among their ranks. The mare emerged from the shadows of an adjacent alley and tackled me to the ground. The sharp pain in my leg and the bullet in my shoulder ensured that I buckled with little resistance under her attack, crying in pain as I fell. Though I was not helpless. The knife she held in her magic plunged towards my throat but I was able to bring up my PipBuck leg and deflect it. Aurora heard me fall to the ground and turned to see the mare on top of me with a look of distress and determination. However the mare atop me noticed Aurora turn around and made to intercept her but a desperate punch from me connected with her muzzle and refocused her attention on me. I tried to pull the knife from her magical grasp with my own as well as try and hold her away from me with what was left of my strength. In the end she was beginning to beat me out, the knife inching closer to my throat but that was when Aurora made it to my side and fired her pistol into the mare. After the first shot connected with the mares flank, Aurora closed her eyes and fired three more times, two hitting her in the body and the last taking out a chunk of her neck. I didn’t check to see if she was dead, getting to my hooves and continuing towards Sunny.

“You did good Aurora.” I wheezed, limping my way across the threshold of the building Sunny darted into before. Aurora backed into the building, gun at the ready until I shut it and secured us for the moment.

She was shaking slightly like she was before but her breathing was far steadier. Aurora dropped the gun from her mouth and took several slow, calming breaths.

“I…killed those ponies.” She whispered, looking at her gun on the floor with a strange expression.

“You gonna be ok Aurora?” I placed a hoof on her back and winced as I pulled the bullet out of my shoulder with magic.

“I think so…I…did what I had to.” She picked up her pistol and offered it to me. “Until we find yours.” I could tell that she wasn’t just trying to avoid killing again because there would be no avoiding it after this. Unfortunately I couldn’t take it.

“No, you keep it. You’ll need it more than I will.” I motioned her towards the stairs and began ascending up them when Aurora called out from behind me.

“Are we not going to talk about what happened? With your magic I mean.”

I froze in place, dreading to talk about what I did out there. I had hoped that whatever happened to me would have gone unnoticed.

Aurora noticed my apprehension but continued pushing it anyway. “Your aura…it was wrong. It wasn’t yours.” She stated, something that I had failed to notice myself. What had I opened myself up to? “It was pink and wispy. It wasn’t like any magic I have ever seen.”

“There was a lot happening out there Aurora…you were probably just seeing things.” I tried to dismiss the conversation and only made it up one more step when I felt Aurora tug on my tail.

“I know what I saw dad. What’s going on?” I couldn’t face her otherwise she’d see right through me. Thankfully the sounds of battle reminded me that we still had the Hell Divers to deal with.

“We’ll have to save this debate for another time Aurora. C’mon we need to keep moving.” This time I continued up the steps until there were no more in front of me, leading me to the exit to the roof. Aurora reluctantly followed me, what she saw weighing on her mind and my well-being. As I pushed open the door I saw that Sunny was grappling with a female griffin, just barely holding her talons away from where they could do some serious damage. I took one step forward and felt Aurora zip between my legs, pistol in her mouth where she proceeded to put two bullets into the griffin before I heard the sound of an empty clip. Aurora’s shots weakened the griffin enough for Sunny to win the grapple, allowing her the chance to throw the griffin down to the roof and execute her with a blast from her battle saddle.

“Good shooting Aurora.” Sunny complimented as she turned to see us. Before anything else could be said several bullets hit the roof next to us causing us to scatter. I looked up to see another griffin strafing through the air, raining hot lead down on us. I entered SATS and queued up a lightning bolt on our attacker but canceled it when I saw a smaller shadow coming up slowly from behind. As I exited SATS and time returned to its proper speed, Azura speared the other griffin in the back, using her momentum to ram her curved knife into their spine. She hooked a claw around his neck and stabbed him again and again until he dropped from the sky and hit the ground lifelessly.

“That’s right you better run!” She yelled at someone I couldn’t see. I turned around and with my EFS saw that however many of them were left were retreating. A few other griffins in the same dark green combat armor that Grim was wearing flew up beside her and fired their weapons in the direction of the fleeing Hell Divers. I breathed a sigh of relief as it seemed we had won the battle. I limped over to Sunny and sat down beside her, happy for the chance to take a quick breather.

“How are we looking in the way of medicine?” I glanced down the wound in my shoulder and the blood that was beginning to cake to my fur. Sunny reached into her bags and pulled out a roll of non-magical bandages.

“Make it count.” She said, holding the roll out to me.

“Fuck.” I cursed under my breath, taking a moment to wrap the affected area. Azura fluttered down to the roof next to us and wiped some blood off her claws.

“How’d you guys do? Can’t have been easy with most of the fight happening in the air.”

“I still got a few.” Sunny said nonchalantly as she could.

“Shouldn’t be surprised, you’re one mean mare Sunny. What about you two?” Azura looked at Aurora. “You get any? Did your dad?”

Aurora’s eyes darted between me and Azura, likely debating if she was going to say anything about the power I used. “…I got two.”

“Nice!” Azura exclaimed, clearly impressed.

“Fan out! Secure these buildings and let’s see what was so damn alluring about this place!” A rough, older voice called out from above us. I looked up in time to see several shadows of griffins scattering and heading into the other nearby buildings. What remained above us were two shadows that were slowly descending to join us.

“I hear we have you to thank for this victory.” The griffin in front of me was a bit larger in stature than me but otherwise looked like an older, more scarred Grim. Same grey fur, same black feathers, other than his bulk the only discernible difference between the two was the eyepatch and…metal wing?

“Shake your head son, your eyes are stuck.” He noticed my staring and got my attention.

“Sparks.” Grim said, taking a few steps forward to stand between us. “This is my father, Steelwing Talonrend.”

“And before you ask, yes that was my name before I lost my wing.” He stretched out the appendage in question. “Anyway, thanks for the intel. This victory means that we’ve wiped out the last of the holdouts.”

“It was my…obligation.” I spoke the truth of what my involvement in this conflict was.

“Call it whatever you want, all that matters is that you’ve made an ally of me and my Talons. Now, my boy here says they were here guarding a ministry facility.”

“What interest do you have in the facility?”

“Honestly? I don’t but I have a feeling that you do. Besides, nothing would add insult to injury more than kicking Dusk Diver’s goon’s asses AND swiping whatever she wanted here out from under her.”

“So Dusk Diver IS their leader.” I mused out loud.

“Indeed. Imagine my embarrassment when a fucking pony convinced almost half of my company to abandon me.”

“Wait a second.” Sunny stepped up and joined in the conversation. “This whole conflict is a Talon civil war?”

“Yes and now I think I know what leverage she used to spirit them away.”

“You mean the ministry facility?” I asked, though I supposed it did make sense.

“Right. We griffins are… an avaricious race. We as a company hadn’t had any big scores or jobs for some time. I can see how some would be convinced to join up with her with the promise of ministry treasure, the traitorous fucks.”

“That’s why we brought the whole company.” Grim too joined in. “Once I learned what they were after here, I saw the opportunity to bring them back into our fold…well not the ones here.”

I was slightly unnerved to learn that the griffins I had killed here were once brothers in arms to Grim and his father. Though if they weren’t too bothered about killing them then why should I?

“Well if you think whatever’s in this facility is what convinced them to abandon you, then let’s go get it.” I turned and began to limp back down the stairs when I was stopped by a claw on my shoulder.

“Wait a second Sparks.” Grim reached behind his back and brought out my pistol. “Can’t waltz into a ministry facility unarmed.”

“Thanks.” I took it in my magic and slipped it back into its holster. With the area secured it didn’t take long to find the theatre the facility was supposedly underneath, though my limp didn’t help speed matters along either. Once we walked through the open doors to the inside we got an eye for what this place used to be. Besides the few skeletons that I just expected to see in almost every ruin, I was surprised to see how much color the inside retained. The walls of the lobby were covered in fine red velvet wallpaper with designs embroidered into it in barely flaking gold leaf. Two doors stood on either side of the center desk, as well as two other doors that went to the left and right into adjacent rooms filled with the rotten clumps of old coats and scarfs with a few still stubbornly clinging to rusty coat hangers. Moving past the lobby and into the stage area itself presented us with much of the same colors. Immediately to the right and left of the stage area were spiral stairs that presumably led to the big half circle above us that was the second story balcony. Somepony let out an impressed whistle as they scanned the room. Like the room before, the walls were covered in velvet wallpaper that had eschewed the color scheme of the lobby and went for royal purple with gold embroidery instead. The seats of the ground floor were decorated with the same theme of gold with red cushions, several of which still held their long dead occupants. The stage was almost as wide as the whole room, still maintaining its presence long after its death. Above the stage hung a heavy red velvet curtain, half of which had fallen and draped over the stage where it had been rotting for Luna knows how many years.

“This place held up surprisingly well.” Azura commented.

“Well if there was a ministry facility built here then wouldn’t it make sense for the cover to be built just as well?” Grim pointed out, making a decent case for himself. “Not to mention how much money probably moved through here.” Again, he had a good point.

“I’m going to head backstage. If I was a betting pony I’d say that is where we’ll find our way into the facility.” I trotted down the aisle as cautiously as I could, careful not to hurt my leg any further. Compared to the lobby and stage, the backstage area was an absolute mess. Props for all kinds of productions were strewn about the floor haphazardly as if a tornado had blown through. In addition to the lack of the latter room’s décor and dark lighting, THIS is what I expected the whole theatre to look like.

“So…what exactly are we looking for?” Azura asked, looking about the room aimlessly.

“Beats me. I’ve never been in a ministry hub before.” Once those words left my mouth I came to the realization that we had never been in a ministry hub before. There could be anything waiting for us in there. Other Equestrian government facilities we’d been in had things like Sentinels and magical energy turrets. I wasn’t looking forward to what might be guarding our path.

Once we had made our way to the dressing rooms our path forward was clear. The biggest dressing room had one of its wall panels removed which led to a hidden elevator. We all piled on and hit the button to take us down, a pace that was unbearably slow. Now that Steelwing was in our midst I couldn’t help but voice a question that had yet to be addressed.

“Steelwing, when I met Grim he said that you had banished and disowned him. What made you take him back?”

Steelwing scoffed dismissively and gave me a look that told me to leave it alone. “Because he asked. Matters of the family should stay as such. You’ve done good by me boy but you ain’t family.”

Grim’s expression mirrored his father’s albeit reluctantly. I supposed the answer didn’t matter since it was clear that they had reconciled in some fashion, though I was not one to be denied for long. Soon after, the putrid smell of death permeated our senses. The elevator dinged and the doors opened to reveal a hallway that was piled with zebra bodies in all ranges of decay. Some looked like they may have been killed as recently as yesterday. Richter had said they were using the zebra to bait out the facility’s defenses. We all filed out of the elevator and I noticed something that made the corpses more unsettling, where was all the blood?

“These zebra…they were killed by magical energy weapons.” Grim said, examining one of the fresher bodies.

“Hey I thought I heard gunshots outside, what’s going-” A lone griffin came out of a room two doors down the hallway and froze when he saw us. We all went for our guns and once he realized how outnumbered he was he threw his weapon away. “I surrender.”

Everypony but Steelwing and Grim put away their guns, the two of them approaching the lone griffin.

“Is it too late to join back up with the Talons?” He asked, genuine hope in his voice.

“Sure, all you traitors are welcome back into my fold if you think you can handle it.” Steelwing said, lowering his weapon.

“R-really?”

“Of course, it would grant me a bit of peace to see you as a Talon again.”

“T-thank you Steelwing, I can’t believe-”

“Posthumously.” Steelwing put a bullet through his head just as he realized what was about to happen, his expression frozen in shock. “That way you die with some honor.” Steelwing coldly turned away from the griffin he executed and gave us all a challenging look. Though he wasn’t going to get an objection from any of us. Everypony split up and we began checking through the various rooms in the hallway. The one I walked into seemed to serve as a reliquary of old books. Adorning the walls were faded motivational posters promising that they were working for the betterment of Equestria. Unlike a regular library, the books weren’t organized in any kind of obvious system, one half of the books were placed on bookshelves along the left wall and the others were casually thrown into large bins labeled ‘Edited’ on the other side of the room. I was curious the books were being edited for and decided to investigate them first. Just as I levitated one out, I heard something from the hall that made me pause.

“You’ve been awfully quiet Aurora, is something wrong?” I heard Sunny ask. An uncomfortable amount of silence lingered in the air before Aurora answered.

“Just…coming to terms with things.” Her word choice was pretty clever. Most would likely assume she was talking about the battle she was just in but I knew the hidden meaning. I had let something…something evil into my mind and I think she knew it, albeit not entirely. I really had no desire or intent to explain myself on the matter. I had no choice but to accept the power that was offered me. My body was still weak and I wouldn’t be back to my full strength for some time. The image of the mare who captured us flashed behind my eyes and how powerless I had been before her. The thought caused me to flinch and my spell to implode. I dropped the book I had been holding where it hit the floor with a thud. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Azura had poked her head in through the doorway.

“You okay Sparks?” She looked concerned, taking a slow step into the room with me.

“Yeah…yeah I’m okay.” I lied. “Just lost my concentration for a second.” Suddenly I was out of breath and I found it hard to try and pick up the book. I kept trying for several seconds before I cried out in frustration and kicked it across the floor. I knew what I needed but I refused to admit it, at least out loud. Azura approached me and put her claws on my shoulders, pushing me to sit down for a second.

“Sparks, take a break for a second. Here.” She reached into her pack and brought out a bottle of water and a can of sliced apples. She held them out to me and I took longer than I wanted to take them from her.

“Thank you Azura…I’m sorry I dragged you into this.” I drank long, greedy gulps of the water, ignoring the warning clicks from my Geiger counter.

“What do you mean?” She asked, wiping a bit of water from my mouth. I was so dejected in that moment that I failed to notice the gesture.

“That I roped you into my life. I made my problems yours and stole you away from your home. It’s my fault that we were captured by those slavers, it’s my fault that you suffered…” I lost my voice for a moment and Azura looked away from me, evaluating what I had said.

“Don’t be.” She said, returning her attention to me.

“W-what?” I looked up at her confused.

“This is the most exciting my life has been in years. Besides it’s not like you forced me to do anything. I’ve stayed with you guys all this time because I wanted to, because I’m your friend.”

I was at a loss for words. I relaxed a bit more because of them though. I chuckled quietly and was about to thank her for comforting me when she softly pressed her beak against my lips and kissed me. Now I was really speechless. When she noticed my surprised reaction she backed off and gained a nervous expression.

“Oh…I…I wasn’t supposed to do that was I?” Without waiting for a response, she hurriedly dashed out of the room in embarrassment. I…I didn’t know how to feel about what had happened. I remembered when I first saw Azura and what I thought about her then. Yet I hadn’t, for even a moment, considered finding a new special somepony. In her or anyone. Upon further reflection I couldn’t remember ever talking to her about why I was seeking Chestnut or even if I mentioned Winter at all. She didn’t know what Chestnut had taken from me. All she knew was what happened between us when I’d first asked for her help. Now I knew how she viewed our relationship, why she stayed as long as she did. She saw something in me and I did nothing to convince her that I didn’t see the same thing in her. Suddenly my interest in the books in this room was overshadowed by these new thoughts I had to sort out. I sat by myself for a minute or so before deciding that returning my attention to the books was exactly the distraction I needed. I imagined Azura would also need time to sort out her own thoughts and chasing after her now would probably only make things worse.

I picked up a new book from the bin with my hooves and opened it to see that all its pages were blank. I flipped it over and saw that the cover read Daring Do and the Zebra’s Lament with a depiction of a khaki-colored mare and a zebra stallion with glasses hanging from a rope on the edge of a cliff with more sinister looking zebra leering down at them. This was an adventure novel according to the blurb above the title though the author’s name and all the contents inside were just gone. An inspection of a few more books in the bin revealed that they were all blank. I was under the impression that the Ministry of Image was tasked with maintaining the best face of the Ministries and Equestria as a whole during the war. What were they doing with these books? With nothing else of interest in that room I wandered out into the hall to see what everypony else had found. Aurora and Sunny were doing the same as me, wandering the hall and investigating what others had discovered. I joined them in peeking into the room adjacent from mine to see Grim losing his patience in front of a terminal.

“Want I should take a crack at it?” I asked from the doorway.

“Let him do it.” Sunny said, stifling a chuckle. “I got five caps says he can’t do it.”

“I’ll pay you ten caps if you let Sparks do it.” Grim slumped forward onto the desk, his weary tone showing his defeat.

“Deal.” Sunny smiled.

“Thank you.” Grim leapt out of the chair like it was on fire.

“Now pay up.” Sunny bumped him with her hoof.

“What? I thought we were joking.” Grim acted like he was losing something precious, which considering his background as a Talon he may as well have been.

“Caps are no laughing matter.” Aurora jumped in, eager to take part in Grim’s ribbing. “Now that we know you weren’t taking it seriously, fork over the fifteen caps.”

“Fifteen!?” Grim, Sunny and Aurora continued to bicker back and forth playfully on the matter as I turned my focus to the terminal. I got through its security far faster than I thought I would, especially considering how bad Grim had made it sound. Though I guess I did have a pretty good advantage over him attached to my leg. Once I was in, I learned that this terminal belonged to a MoI researcher named Amethyst Sky. None of her logs told me anything about the books but there was still useful information to be found. There was one that had some clues as to what kind of project Rarity was working on here and if Fancy Pants was to be believed, I think I had a decent idea as to what it was.

I still don’t quite understand the purpose of the spell we’ve created. According to Minister Rarity it was based on a spell she discovered that acts like a mirror. Whoever looks into it will see a reflection of their real self, their soul for lack of better words. Since then, with information she has shared with me and a few other select researchers, we have altered it in several ways. First we’ve changed the restriction of its casting, it’s no longer confined to altering mirrors or creating new ones, now it can be cast as an invisible rune on a surface. Also instead of showing somepony their soul’s reflection it now takes an imprint of those who trigger it. Sort of like recording a copy of somepony’s very being and thanks to a new magical practice called ‘spell hanging’ we have successfully been able to capture multiple soul imprints on a single rune, theoretically indefinitely until the caster releases the spell. Hopefully this breakthrough proves satisfactory for whatever Rarity needs it for. Especially considering the rumors that her last project here was supposedly a failure. Although the original nature of the spell we were given makes one wonder where Rarity learned this spell to begin with. Regardless, even though I’m not sure what she plans to do with this spell, I’m proud to have developed and worked on such intricate and new magics. Maybe I can lobby for that position at Maripony after all.

- Amethyst Sky

Rarity had the researchers here work on…a soul catcher? Even if it was designed to just take imprints from its targets it still sounded…wrong, malevolent even. Though she only took these steps to make up for something she failed to do here. Maybe there was more going on here than Fancy Pants knew…or maybe he knew exactly what was going on here.

“Anyone find anything worth betraying me for yet?” Steelwing asked nopony in particular. After a moment of no answers he sighed in frustration and pointed to the next hallway.

“Let’s move on then.” He ordered, not waiting to see if anypony followed him, like he just expected us to fall in line. Though as the leader of a company of Talons I guess it made sense, though I still didn’t appreciate it.

The next hallway over was littered with scattered piles and wispy streaks of pink ash. The air grew heavy as the all-encompassing ash inevitably worked into our lungs. At the end of the hallway junction we finally saw what had killed the majority of the zebra here. Mounted on the walls and ceiling were several rows of magical energy turrets. They immediately turned their attention to us and began firing an absolute wall of pink lasers in our direction. We ducked back out of the mouth of the hallway as lasers whizzed by our heads, slagging bits of metal off the walls. Once we had completely broken line of sight they stopped firing, returning to their idle positions.

“That’s what they were using the zebra for?” Grim held out a claw as if he were displaying the obstacle. Before I could get a look at it something occurred to me and I can’t believe I didn’t put it together sooner. All the ash on the floors, in the air and in our…lungs. Goddesses. I retched and quickly tried to bring up a hoof to cover my mouth but I was too slow, sloppily vomiting into the hoof pressed against my mouth. The pressure of my hoof forced vomit to spew out of both sides of my mouth and I collapsed to the floor, careful to not land in my own filth.

“Keep it together for fucks sake.” I heard Steelwing mumble. I sucked in a mouthful of air and lumbered to my hooves.

“In case the situation escapes you.” I started softly, wiping the spittle from my chin. “We’ve been breathing dead people!”

“I noticed thanks. Are all you folk from south of the swamp so delicate?” Steelwing asked no one in particular.

“Keep talking down to me Steelwing and I’ll show you how delicate you are.” I said squaring up to the larger griffin.

“That’s enough Sparks.” I heard Grim say. Clutched in his claw was a hankie which he held out to me.

Steelwing took one step towards me but was blocked from going any further by Sunny. “Back off.” Was all she said but I could hear the veiled threat behind her words.

“Fine.” The old griffin relented.

Once the commotion had settled, Grim brought our attention back to the turrets. “These turrets will never stop; they’re equipped with sparkle-breeders.”

“They have what?” I asked, my knowledge of magical energy weapons severely lacking.

“It means that after firing they recharge, they have virtually unlimited ammunition.”

Who knows how many zebras they would have killed before they realized that, perhaps they never would have. I peeked my head back into the hall and tried to get a better look. In the few seconds I was able to look, I noticed a few more details before lasers hit the wall where my head had been. At least two of the turrets had been destroyed by gunfire and there were piles of pink ash everywhere.

“So what’s our plan?” I asked, hopeful that Grim might have an idea giving his knowledge of their functionality.

“How long do you think a shield would hold up?” Sunny asked, pointing at my horn.

“Let’s find out.” I created a shield shaped like a pane of glass and floated it out into the hallway. Nothing.

“They work like your PipBuck, they need a target to lock on to.” Steelwing pushed me towards the opening to the hallway. I looked back at the others and nodded. I jumped out into the hallway, keeping the shield between me and the turrets. The last time I put a shield between me and laser turrets things went pretty well. This was not that time. The first laser to hit my shield cracked it all the way through, the next two punctured holes through and hit me and the wall behind me. When the laser hit me, my concentration broke and the shield vanished, leaving me wide open in front of the turrets. I panicked and couldn’t make my hooves move the right direction, almost tripping over myself in the process. Just as I was about to be lit up by a multitude of lasers I was tackled to the floor, shoving me across the mouth of the hallway to the other side. When I opened my eyes to see who had saved me, my heart skipped a beat. Azura was laying on top of me, looking down with a slight blush.

“Uh…hey.”

“Hi…umm thanks.” We both had a difficult time looking each other in the eyes. Another few seconds of awkward silence passed before I got to the issue at hoof. “You can get off of me whenever you want.” Azura hopped off of me like I was on fire, fiddling with her claws and looking away from me.

“Sorry…” She half whispered.

“Don’t be.” I said, pointing to the smoking hole in the middle of my ballistic vest. “I…just need time to think about what happened. We’ll talk about it later, okay?”

Azura brightened up slightly at the prospect of talking about it. “Yeah. Okay.” She nodded, looking back at the others on the other side of the hallway opening. “Any other ideas guys?”

Without missing a beat, both Sunny and Aurora attempted to cross the opening to the hallway to join us and were almost instantly suppressed by a volley of lasers. They both looked annoyed and Aurora huffed, unable to hide it as well as Sunny.

“Maybe the security room is on that side?” Aurora offered. I looked around and nothing about this side indicated that the Hell Divers or zebra had made it pass the hallway.

“Maybe. Get comfortable guys, we’re going to look around on this side.”

“Don’t make us wait too long. There’ll be time to give each other a good seeing to once we’re done here.” Steelwing shouted louder than was probably publicly acceptable. I decided that saying anything back would be tantamount to pouring fuel on a fire so I turned my back on them and went to begin my search. I suspect sass might run in that family. After searching through several rooms it was starting to look like this area was the living quarters. The chances we had of finding some way to shut down the turrets were getting slimmer and slimmer.

“Azura.” I said, getting her attention.

“Huh? I mean…yeah?” She said, obviously interrupted her from her own thoughts.

“I need to tell you something.”

“No…it’s okay. You don’t have to force it; we can wait until later.”

“It’s not about that…well it sort of relates to why I acted like I did.” I stopped walking and spun around to face the anxious looking griffin. “I never told you why I wanted to kill Chestnut did I?”

“Well, no. I figured you’d tell me whenever you were ready and I was fine if you never did.”

I thought of the many ways I could approach this topic but opted to forgo any subtleties and go straight for the point.

“Chestnut killed my marefriend. In the attack that razed Blacktown. He killed her right in front of me, I couldn’t do anything but watch as he put a bullet through her head.” Azura was taken aback by what I said. Whether at herself for kissing me earlier or from the direct way I dropped this information on her I couldn’t tell. “Do you know the last thing she said was?”

Azura remained silent and shook her head ‘no’ urging me to continue.

“She said she was pregnant and he killed her anyway. Killed her and threw her body from the tallest building in Black Town. He took away everything I had fought and suffered for since I left my Stable.” I was hit by a sudden rush of grief. I had now spent more time in the Wasteland without her than I did when I was fighting to see her again. I felt tears well up in my eyes but I tried to blink them away and continue, my voice occasionally catching in my throat. “W-when I found her body…I barely had anything left to bury. He wouldn’t even let me have that!” My emotions bounced back and forth between grief and rage. The tears kept coming and I was getting louder, nearing a breakdown.

“I was supposed to be a better pony but what am I!? A fucking false champion fabricated by some asshole behind a radio and a prick behind a robot who made me think I could be better, that I could do something to make this goddessdamned wasteland a better place! I can’t be what this world needs. I couldn’t even protect the pony who meant everything to me…” My anger passed quickly, leaving me a quietly sobbing mess.

“Sparks…I had no idea.” Azura’s voice cracked as she struggled to contain her own tears. That was the worst I had felt since the day she died. Saying all of that out loud forced me to relive it all again and gave a finality to it. I wiped the tears from my eyes with a shaky sigh.

“Luna I’d kill for a drink right about now.” I forced a chuckle, doing my best to try and play off what I just unloaded on her. Without wasting a second Azura retrieved an old bottle of wild pegasus whiskey.

“I was saving this for after we…ya know…but I think we could put it to better use now.” She unscrewed the lid and passed me the bottle, insisting I take the first drink. I took the bottle in my hooves and tipped it back, sucking down three mouthfuls before the burning forced me to stop. I shuddered in glee as the rough liquid burned its way into my core, relieving me of some of the pain.

“Thank you Azura…for everything.” I passed the bottle back to her where she matched me drink for drink.

“Don’t thank me…I’m sorry I forced you to relive those memories.” The bottle came back to me.

Five drinks in now. “No…I needed to let it out…to actually say it to somepo- someone.” How strange that I kept my sorrows bottled up for so long and Azura was who I told them to. “For someone other than me to know how I feel.”

Azura matched me again and I could feel the alcohol start to do its thing. She fidgeted as if she was still uncomfortable and I could understand how she might be. “How did Aurora take it? The death of her mother.”

“Oh Aurora isn’t my daughter…well biologically speaking. Winter and I adopted her just before she was killed.” I took the bottle back and downed another few swigs. Azura matched me yet again and the bottle was already half empty.

“Well…you two seem close regardless.”

“She is the most important person in this world to me now. She was there for me when I couldn’t be there for myself. It’s because of her that I’m alive right now. After Winter died, I lost all hope and it was her who brought me back from the edge…by slapping the gun out of my mouth.” I let the declaration hang in the air for a bit, throwing back two more drinks before my body protested. We sat in silence for a moment or two the only sound in the hallway was the thundering of my heartbeat in my ears, the slight buzzing of the overhead lights and Azura missing my drink count by one.

“Well…I’m glad you didn’t kill yourself.” Azura tried her best to look sympathetic and I could tell she meant it but her slight swaying made it hard to accept without smiling.

“Yeah me…me too.” I shuffled a little closer to her. Azura reciprocated and now we were almost face to face. “Listen Azura…” I started, getting distracted by my own heartbeat and the lightheadedness setting in.

“Yeah?” She leaned forward a bit, almost bumping me in the muzzle.

“I still have my reshervations about this but…” My speech was becoming slurred and it stopped me from getting any further but I think my point was made.

“You don’t haf t’ say aanymore.” Azura slurred even more than I. “I under…stand…I know I can’t replace her.” Azura slumped forward falling into me where I caught her in my hooves. She giggled and slowly snuck a claw under my armor and rubbed my chest fur. “But I wanna try…it can beuh secret f’ ya want.” I can’t say for sure if it was because I was drunk or if it was something I wanted deep down but at the time it sounded good to me.

“Yeah?” I said, pressing my muzzle against her beak.

“Yeah~” She cupped my face with her claws, looking at me through half lidded eyes. This time when her beak touched my lips I didn’t shy away.

My memory after that is fuzzy at best, lemme just pick up where it became clearer. I rolled myself awake by falling out of the bed to see that we had retreated into one of the living quarters. According to my PipBuck two hours had passed and Azura was still sleeping in the bed. I felt terrible and my head was throbbing like it was going to explode. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what happened between us, especially with the lingering scent of…well sex and whiskey in the air. Though now that I was lucid, I can’t say I regretted it. I was right about letting all that pain out, telling someone gave what had happened a finality. A finality that opened the door to let me move on, to keep living my life unburdened by her death. I sat up and looked back at Azura’s sleeping form. Even though she probably got drunker than me given her smaller frame, she looked happy. I moved to wake her when I noticed something. In the other corner of the room was a simple chair with a faded white lab coat draped over it. It was pushed in under an equally simple desk with a working terminal on top of it. Rather than wake her now my curiosity got the better of me and I plopped myself into the chair and started typing. This particular terminal didn’t have any protections and getting in was easy as hitting a few keys. Once I was in, I discovered that the bulk of the entries were work schedules and other such management mail, nothing terribly helpful. Though close to the bottom was an entry that detailed new security procedures. Considering our current predicament, I would be a fool to ignore it.

Alright everypony, security has just finished installing the turrets in the main hallway leading to the nexus. They aren’t fully operational yet but they say they will be using similar technology to Stable-Tec’s PipBucks. Which means that they’ll be using a modified EFS system. Everypony on site will be given security badges to register yourselves as friendlies to their targeting system. Now I know this seems like overkill but as you know we have extremely top-secret information located and stored in the nexus. We can’t allow any of this data to fall into enemy hooves and ever since the stripes found allies in the changeling insurgency, facility infiltrations have gone up considerably. Once you have your badges, Do. Not. Lose. Them. There will be no replacements given and the turrets will not discriminate. So keep your badge close to heart. It could save your life.

-Dr. Dainty Lace.

It couldn’t be that easy, could it? I jumped out of the chair so fast that I knocked it to the floor with a clatter, jolting Azura awake in the process. Her claws immediately went to her head, cradling it in discomfort and looking at me with one eye through them.

“The hell are you doing? Keep it down would you…” She tried to roll back over and doze off but if I couldn’t sleep then she couldn’t. I got a trotting start and leaped on the bed hooves first, springing the sleepy little griffin into the air. She cried in distress as her wings shot out to right herself and keep her from eating the floor.

“Alright I’m awake! What is it?”

“I found a way past the turrets!” I pointed to the chair on the floor. Azura quizzically raised an eyebrow.

“You still drunk?”

“Yeah right, look who’s talkin’ featherweight.” I poked her in the belly with my hoof. “Look.” I levitated the lab coat off the chair and held it aloft in front of her. Just like the security memo on the terminal said, there was a security badge pinned to the collar of the lab coat, boasting level five clearance.

“A badge?” She asked, looking for clarification.

“The badge marks whoever has one as friendly to the turret’s EFS. I bet that somewhere past them is the area where I can shut them off.” I threw the coat over my back and made to head back to the others when Azura stopped me.

“Wait, can we just have a minute?” She still had a claw pressed to her head. “Do you have any water?”

I looked through my PipBuck’s inventory screen to see that I did indeed still have half a bottle of slightly irradiated water. “Here.” I levitated it over to her where she thankfully grabbed it out of the air.

“Thanks.” She drained half of what was left and pulled back with a thirsty gasp. “That’s much better.” She wiped a stray drop from her beak and fidgeted a little before scooting to the edge of the bed. “Are…are we okay with what happened here?” she instinctively wrapped her hind legs around each other. “I know I’m not her but…you felt really good and I don’t want-”

I inched forward as she spoke so that we were face to face. I silenced her with a hoof, speaking all that needed to be said through my eyes. It was a look of relief. Relief that the burden on my heart had been lessened, that it wasn’t squatting on my mind like a fat Brahmin. I pulled my hoof away and she came with it and we met in the middle in a tender kiss.

“C’mon bluebird, the others are waiting.” I nodded to the doorway with a smile. Azura beamed and eagerly hopped off the bed and out into the hallway, satisfied with my answer. Boy was I gonna have a hell of a time explaining this to everyone. We returned to where we left them, only to see Grim napping against the wall.

“Hey! Grim!” I called out to rouse him from sleep. He jerked awaked with a startled expression.

“Fuckin’ took you long enough…did you find anything or are we stuck here?”

“Well...I found something.” I floated the lab coat over my shoulders to show it off.

“…How is your terrible fashion sense going to help us?” I don’t know why that stab angered me as much as it did maybe it was because how fashionable my mother had been when I was young but now was not the time to debate my…*ahem* impeccable style.

“Not the coat… but what’s on it.” I adjusted the coat to make sure that the badge was visible on my chest as I strolled out into the hallway opening. Even with what I knew I still flinched when I got eyes on the turrets. Yet they didn’t move. I was safe. “Not so terrible now, is it? Where are the others by the way?”

“They went back up top once…well ya know.”

“Oh…you don’t mean…?”

“I do and well…you two were not subtle.”

Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to explain after all. “This is a little awkward.”

“How did you think we felt? Anyway, I’ll go get everyone.”

“Alright, I’ll go look for a way to shut them down. You gonna be okay here for a bit Azura?”

She didn’t poke her head around the corner but I still heard her voice from her safe spot. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Hurry up though, it’ll just be me here with everyone else and you know they’re gonna ask questions.”

I chuckled at the idea of Sunny and Aurora grilling her about what they’d heard. “Understood, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

I trotted off down the hall to search for a security room or something to help me get everyone else past the turrets. There were an alarming number of hallways that split into diverging paths leading to the many different quarters this facility contained. Thankfully every other hallway had signs posted near the roof that were slowly pointing me to the security offices. Also in every other hallway were more rows of turrets mounted onto the walls and at several junctures, were mounted to the roof. This time alone gave me time to think about all that had just befallen me. From the mysterious power granted to me by the void pony in my head to the last two hours I spent with Azura. It was a lot to take in in the short span of one day. First, I could no longer pass off that thing I saw in my mind as a construct of it. The power it had gifted me was very real and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, something was compelling me to seek it out. Perhaps that was why I allowed myself a moment of respite with Azura, to counter the lingering fear that was pervading my psyche. No, that wasn’t fair to her. Even if that were the case, I did feel something. I just didn’t know if I was ready to open my heart to someone. If I was ready for the pain that inevitably came with it.

Before I could come up with any answers I found that I had made it to the security room. As with about eighty percent of rooms I encountered there was a still functioning terminal on a desk in the corner, as well as several others scattered about the room. Stable-Tec sure didn’t fuck around with the construction of their products. Without even thinking I bypassed the terminals protections and found the command to deactivate the turrets, intentionally leaving the other files alone. I think I wanted to hurry up and get away from Whinnyapolis, away from whatever entity was trying to get to me. Thank Luna that there was a map function on my PipBuck otherwise I’d have forgotten the way back for sure. Once I did make my way back I slowly approached the others and let them in on the good news.

“Alright everyone, the turrets are deactivated.” With a bit of hesitation everyone stepped out to join me and when no lasers flew at them they picked up their pace.

“So…you and Blue.” Sunny started, smiling like a gossipy schoolfilly.

“Can we not talk about this right now? I…am still sorting things out.” The last part came out as a whisper that only Sunny could hear.

“Sure.” As if she understood exactly what was going through my head, she left it alone and her expression returned to her reserved, neutral one. After that we surprisingly continued on in silence.

Many of the rooms we explored afterwards were of little note. A few trinkets here, couple caps there. Why did pre-war ponies collect caps anyway? We found nothing of particular value that would make one betray and murder their comrades. Hours passed as we searched the many hallways and rooms. Some of the larger hallways we discovered met at a single large round room. It was laid out in a way that reminded me of the genetic labs back in Stable 63, in the sense that the room was clearly split into three different fields of science. This was the room they would meet in and submit their findings and research to further whatever their mutual goal was. There could be something of value in this room, provided the research done here survived the war. Though before any of that could be explored my vision drifted to what was in the middle of the chamber. At the center of all these laboratory setups was a circular elevator shaft made of a dark, almost blue metal. It had a single door that possessed no obvious means of opening it. Everypony else fanned out to inspect the surrounding lab areas while I was drawn to the elevator. Now that I could examine it closer I saw that I was correct, in that there were no buttons, card readers or number pads to open it. Now that I was close, I noticed something that may be the way to access it. Off to one side of the elevator’s doors was a small cluster of three diamond shaped imprints. In one of the imprints was a slender, blue diamond shaped gem. I had seen this mark before, on a ministry poster in Baltimare. This was the Ministry of Image’s symbol and if I were a betting pony, I’d say it was Rarity’s cutie mark. Upon that realization I was overcome by several others. Cutter wanted to retrieve something that was stolen from him and in his own words, he described it as ‘a gemstone…it’s blue and diamond shaped’ exactly like the one still in its imprint. So Dusk Diver had one of these gems and I’m willing to bet Cutter did too. There had to be more to this than I knew. Dusk Diver and Cutter had to be connected in some way and I intended to find out how. I doubted Cutter expected that I’d see this panel. I had also just cleared the way for Dusk Diver if she returned to this place. So if she somehow got to him first or vice versa, I was going to make sure that neither of them could get inside. I took out some of my tools, popped the last gem out of the panel and shoved it in my bags.

“I think I know what everypony is after here.” I announced to the room, getting everyone’s attention. “We’re heading back to Mareiucci.”

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: Tough Hide (Rank two) – You have gained an additional +3 to your Damage threshold.

Next Chapter: Chapter Twenty-Two: Retribution Estimated time remaining: 17 Hours, 15 Minutes