I opened my eyes; my head was throbbing, and I had the taste of copper on my mouth. My vision was fuzzy, I clenched my eyes shut and tried moving my body only to feel pain flare everywhere. There was this loud ringing in my ear, and I couldn’t hear anything else. I opened my eyes and a black blob was over me. I tried rubbing my eyes, but my hooves clanked against something covering my face. Right, I was wearing my armor, where was I and why am I in armor? I shook my head and my vision began clearing up. The black blob took shape to an expressionless helmet staring me down. I let my head drop to the side, and before me were burning bodies. I could not make out their features, but they lay maybe ten feet from me. My heart picked up and I looked back to the helmet staring at me. The helmet in question opened to reveal the concerned face of Lemon.

“Valiant!” Her voice broke through, and all at once my senses were flooded with stimulation. I opened my helmet and gasped out. I looked down to my body, my armor had just finished closing a breach on it. My stomach was killing me! I could also hear the crack of an anti-machine rifle going off in the distance. I looked right to find Rose crouched down behind cover, and then peeking out firing the rifle attached to her side. Trapper was fumbling with a munition’s cartridge. He was desperately trying to load the rifle attached to his side, but he was shaking and sweating profusely. I groaned, rolled to my belly and pushed myself up to my haunches.

The first thing I registered was we were right outside the target building. To be more precise we had taken position into one of the raised concrete platforms. I looked back where we came from, everything coming back to me now. My plan to have Flag provide sniper support had worked, sort-off, the pain in my stomach? Jagged metal having been picked out by my medical unit before administering a potion. The flaming bodies? I looked up to the rooftop, smoke blew out to the air. The artillery munitions had been detonated by Flag, the Zebra’s on top were cooked in the explosion, while the ones against the sandbags got flung down to the ground. As for me? Zebra mine, several in fact having been cloaked by some magic, I stepped on one and it blew me the fuck up! Without my armor I’d have been blown to bits. I almost chuckled, for a second there, they’d have brought me back to 29 in a jar full of my bits. That was morbid, but I think it was the only thing keeping me from curling up and sucking on my hoof. That had been too close, and far too stupid of me to not consider mines.

“Lemon!” I closed my helmet, she was still there, just looking at me! “I’m fine, return fire!” I stood up far too quickly and I fell forward on my face. Smooth Valiant, very smooth.

“But,” Lemon raised a hoof and I batted it away, though not maliciously.

“No time, I’m fine come on!” This time, with some difficulty I got to my hooves and stepped up on the sandbag cover. The metal shudders once keeping us out were open. Several Zebras were shooting at us from more sandbags set up in the lobby. Two barricades were set up near the doors, and one massive one against a round receptionist desk in the middle of the lobby.

I whirred my minigun to life and fired at the sandbags! Before my minigun fired, the Zebras quickly pulled out shields from behind the cover and closed ranks on each other. My bullets were reflected in all directions forcing my own team to duck behind the sandbags. I instantly stopped firing. So, I targeted them with my missile launcher and fired two missiles. The Zebras dropped their shields and ran back to the receptionist desk. The missiles exploded and destroyed their sandbag barricade.

“With me Lemon!” I hopped down and fired a stream of bullets at the second barricade. I made sure to shoot just above their cover, keeping their heads down.

“Testudo! Testudo!” The receptionist Zebras jumped over their cover. I strafed my minigun at them. Each shot destroying the lobby utterly. Chairs were ripped apart, the tiled floor burst into dust and ceramic splinters. The Zebras raised their shields in a phalanx, four across and five ranks deep. The bullets deflected, and one hit me square in the chest. I stopped firing, the impact knocked the wind out of me. Lemon quickly stood in front of me. she fired her grenade launcher arching her shots over the shields. The four ranks of zebras raised their shields above their heads. The grenades bounced off, they exploded against the ceiling and the tiled floor. Okay, that was new! I stepped from behind Lemon and looked at this new formation. They were practically a walking tank, in a perfect rectangle formation with shields at the front and shields above them.

I guess testudo was Zebra for make a freaking tank! I ran left to attack their exposed flank. The Zebras simply spread the ranks and let their side ranks drop their shield. Then they scooted beneath their adjacent comrades thus covering their exposed flanks. Then the side shields parted, and rifle barrels stuck out like bristling spines on a porcupine. “Shit!” I ran to their sandbag cover by the door, as I did their shots impacted the side of my armor sending painful tremors across my body. I jumped and brought down some of the sandbags with me. I barely made it over the barrier the pain zapping my strength. I looked to Lemon running at me, bullets whizzing past her before she dove on top of me. Okay this wasn’t good, we untangled ourselves and peeked over our cover.

The ‘testudo’ lifted in unison, and the Zebras pushed forward in cadence. “hooh! Hooh!” each shout had them stomp closer. I couldn’t help but be amazed, even when faced against superior firepower, these bastards were amazing at adapting to our tactics. The front ranks parted, and I ducked as bullets whizzed by.

Damn it think, think! How can I break them up, I need a plan fast!

“Valiant we need to fall back!” Lemon shouted at me and shook my frame. No, my father trusted me to get this done! He trusted me to get those reinforcements here! Then I remembered, back outside the Princess Shield. Strider jumped over them, I could do the same, get into their formation. But then, this wasn’t two lines of Zebras. This was a formation, they could easily outnumber me and shoot those damn enchanted bullets. Unless…well this won’t be pretty. In fact, I hope my armor doesn’t fail me now.

“Lemon the moment they break apart kill them, don’t hesitate!” I reached into my saddle bag and grabbed a missile.

Lemon’s eyes widen, “Wait Valiant!” I jumped over the sandbags before Lemon could stop me. the testudo stopped moving, dropped down and spread at the front again. Their fire tore into me, each bullet sending a tremor that overlapped with the next. The run wasn’t even ten feet, yet it felt like a mile as each shot drained me of my strength. I wanted to just lie down and die then and there. But I remembered Strider, even bleeding to death in the snow, he never gave up!

It should have been me

“aaahhh!!” I roared and jumped over the testudo. I grabbed the missile with both my hooves, tip facing down. The zebras spread themselves apart, but too little too late. I landed in the middle of their formation and slammed the missile tip into the ground. The missile exploded, and I was flung backwards. The explosion tore my armor up, I felt the fires of the explosion lick my skin! The zebras were flung apart, some only saved by putting down their shields seconds before I landed.

[WARNING CRITICAL CONDITION]

I didn’t need my armor to tell me that. My ears were ringing again, this time the sound so piercing I wondered if my ears were bleeding. Rose slid into my field of vision, her eyes glowed green as her horn lit up. Her mouth formed words, but I couldn’t make them out. She looked to her side, her mouth formed more words I couldn’t make out. Darkness was starting to creep on the edge of my vision. Rose looked back to me, tapped the side of my helmet and it opened. How did she know where the emergency open was? I clenched my eyes shut. Something invisible forced my throat open, then a potion floated over me and poured down my gullet. The same invisible force seemed to force my trachea from contracting and make me choke. She floated a syringe briefly before she injected me with it. After a few seconds, the pain faded into a dull throb, guess it was Med-X, it felt rather nice. The ringing cleared up and I could hear again.

“Stupid idiot! Stop moving, Lemon hold him down!” Rose’s shout made me wince, ugh, I miss when I couldn’t hear. Lemon plopped out next to me and grabbed my forehooves. Two more potions were forced down my throat, and bandages were wrapped around my torso through the armor breach. The potions, along with my medical unit seemed to be doing a hell of a job.

“Is everypony okay? Did we win?” I wish I could get up, but Lemon and Rose were adamant about holding me down.

“For now, Flag is on his way, but we need to secure the area. I need you to stay put, I’m going to keep watch on the stairs.” Lemon stood and left my field of vision. I closed my helmet and brought up a status report.

[TISSUE DAMAGE REPAIR 94%]

[ARMOR INTEGRITY 79%]

[WEAPON SYSTEMS UNDAMAGED]

[PREDICTED COMBAT EFFICIENCY 98%]

I could work with that, I rolled to my side and got back on my hooves. Rose glared at me, but thankfully didn’t protest. Instead she got on her hooves and walked up to Lemon. With a moment to breathe, I gave the area a once over. The lobby was destroyed, the tiled floor a mess of black scorch marks and broken tiles. The Zebra corpses were strewn about in a bloody mess. The Zebras I had attacked earlier were torn apart. The one’s that put their shield up at the last moment were mopped up easily. All and all? A lucky as all hell gamble. Not that my friends would agree with me anytime soon. I looked back to the entrance, Flag was running to our location. Trapper was peeking over the remaining sandbag barrier his gun trained ahead.

“Trapper get my father on the line, I need to check up on his status.” I pointed my hoof at him while I made my way to Lemon. She was keeping watch on two sets of stairs on opposite sides of the wall. There were two signs hanging above the stairs, the left read; ‘City 6 Security Commission conference Area.” The right one read, ‘Building Security.’ Great, where was the communications room here? We might need to split up on this one. I heard Flags hooves before I saw him, they clanked against the battered tile floor until he stopped next to me.

“What I miss?” He opened his helmet and gave me a smirk.

“Valiant being an ass,” Rose turned and gave me a reproachful glare. I get it, I made everypony worry! But we got the Zebras that’s what matters! Jeez Rose was starting to sound like my mother.

“Had to improvise, nopony is happy about that.” I opened my helmet and gave Flag a sheepish grin.

“Clearly, what the hell happened to you, you got Zebra bits all over you, and your armor is singed.” Flag raised a brow while he looked me over.

“I uh, I detonated a missile with my hooves.” I avoided Flags gaze, I know it was stupid, but I was kind of pressed for time.

“Jeez kid, next time just tell me, and I’ll shoot you myself, less painful.” Flag rolled his eyes and walked up to Rose. Everypony was a critic.

“Valiant I can’t get through to Captain Heavy Arms.” Trapper walked to me. He sat on his haunches and messed with a receiver on his hoof.

“Yes and, so it shall remain!” the speaker system transmitted a heavily accented voice. The metal shudders closed behind us and plunged the room into darkness.

“What’s going on?” I turned my headlamp on, I looked to Trapper and watched him fumble to place the receiver back in its place.

“It’s okay Trapper, were going to be okay.” I put my hoof on his shoulder and he visibly relaxed.

The voice returned, this time with a rich laugh, and I hated to admit it, but it was a good laugh. “Fools, from here you cannot escape! Your lives have been forfeited, and I will be the ones who collects your souls. For pony kind such as you. I shall offer your souls to the Stars above! Ahahaha.” After another of his great laughs, a synthetic voice spoke up.

[SECURITY BREACH DETECTED]

[THREAT ASSESSMENT IN PROGRESS…]

[ASSESSMENT COMPLETE: THREAT LEVEL OMEGA]

[FULL SECURITY MEASURES ACTIVATED]

[SECURITY ROBOTS DEPLOYED ON KILL MODE]

Oh crap, now were stuck in here with killer robots on the loose. Well, at the very least I think the laughing Zebra might call for reinforcements if we destroy his robots. I blinked once, then twice, or… I could hack into security and take back the Robots. just like that, I would have a force to fight off the reinforcements until my father could relieve me. “Okay everypony, change of plans, before we deploy the chaff grenades were going to get these robots on our side.”

“What? How?” Trapper’s voice was right next to me. I admit I almost jumped out of my skin spooked. This stallion was surprisingly quiet for a pony hauling around communication equipment.

“I hack into the security mainframe, that’s how.” I patted Trappers back, or rather the radio on his back.

“You can do that?” Trapper looked at me, his eyes wide like dinner plates and an open mouth smile. It reminded me of how I looked at Strider when we were colts.

“Trust me, Valiant hasn’t met a terminal he couldn’t hack” Flag called out. Well the only problem now was getting around in the dark, we had our lamps, but I don’t think Rose and Trapper packed night vision or anything like that.

[EMERGENCY LIGHTING ACTIVATED]

The synthetic voice answered our call, from where the wall and floor met, panels opened and turned on bright lights. With that taken cared of, we formed up Rangers at the front soldiers at our rear and went up the right stairs. The stairs led to a large hallway, each wall had doors with metal shudders covering the entrances. We walked down the hall slowly, I kept my eyes on my E.F.S looking for threats. We arrived at a hallway intersection. The hallway we were on went ahead to the armory, the right went to the temporary holding cells, and the left went to Security Operations. I peeked around the corner and immediately pulled back. A spray of energy beams lit up the hallway. A Sentinel Robot armed with a magical energy Gatling gun. Great, these things were tough, they had three legs with tires on them, and armed with three types of weapons. It had a magical energy Gatling gun on its chest, and two shock batons on its arms. Its head had six glowing sensors with a menacing red glare to them. Well great, with that energy weapon, it would only take a few seconds of concentrated fire before it melted through our armor. Or cooked me inside my armor, either way I suppose.

“Still feeling stupid kid?” Flag looked to me and opened his helmet. He had a smirk that quickly made everypony uneasy. At this point, after almost killing myself, I was up for about anything.

“Make it quick, that thing is going to be on us soon.” I peeked around the corner again, only to have it fire more deadly beams at me. I ducked back into cover, but one beam hit the side of my helmet. It suddenly got hot, like super-hot inside my helmet. Though I didn’t feel any pain, man that stuff rose put in me was good!

“Make yourself a target, I’m gonna rip it apart with the machine rifle.” Flags plan was insane. But like I said, up for anything at this point.

“Yeah, how about no.” Lemon ran out before any of us could stop her. She ran at the Sentry Bot her machinegun firing nonstop. Her shots pierced the robot’s armor, but it wasn’t enough to kill it. It fired its colorful rays of death. Flag popped from cover, he crouched low and aimed his rifle. The beams of death hit Lemon square in the chest, each bolt of energy super heating the armor until it burned bright red. Lemon let out a painful yell but kept firing. Flag’s rifle let out an ear popping crack. The sentry bot’s chest exploded, its bits of machinery exploding out behind it.

“Lemon are you okay?” I ran to her, she dropped to her haunches. She opened her helmet and gave me a pained grin. “Yeah, just got cooked a little, I’m just glad the armor held up.”

Rose came up and looked Lemon over with her diagnostic spell. “Yeah, you’re good, minus whatever head injury made you go out like that!” Rose glared at Lemon.

“Sorry, these two idiots will get themselves killed if I don’t step up too.” Lemon stood back up, and we resumed our search. The hall eventually led us to some stairs, a Sentry bot and two sprite bots blocked our path. The Sentry bot fired its energy beams at us, we broke apart and fired back. Trapper, shaken but determined destroyed one of the sprite bots with two shots. The bullets ripped through the lightly armored robot. Sparks fizzled out and it dropped on the ground. Flag fired his machine rifle, he ripped apart the Sentry bot, its machinery exploded out its back with a shower of sparks. Rose finished of the Last Sprite Bot, her shot had probably ignited the spark pack, because it popped like a balloon.

The second floor didn’t fare better, every hall we turned down to had Sentry bots and Sprite bots. They fired their energy weapons at us. Lemon, Flag, and I just grit our teeth through it all. Each time their energy beams super-heated our armor, we prayed it would hold. We were forced to stop, letting our armor cool off before advancing. A bad idea, we stopped in what looked like a sitting area set up mid hallway. The sitting area was by the front windows, though the shudders blocked our view outside. when we thought to catch our breath, a swarm of Sprite bots flew at us from the far end of the hall. They rounded a corner, a swarm of twenty or so. I revved my minigun and sprayed the clustered-up robots. They fired their energy beams in rapid succession, the beams heated my armor in various spots.

“My turn!” Lemon pushed me back, she got before me and fired her machinegun and grenade launcher. The hall was filled with explosions. She didn’t stop firing until the beams of light stop coming.

“That was too close.” I sat on my haunches, the plate over my shoulder had melted. I looked down, my skin blistered, and my coat burned off. I felt tears leak down my cheeks, the Med-X was wearing off. The healing potion slowly did its job fixing the damage, leaving my fair skin back to normal. We briefly collected the scrap metal from the Sprite bots. We needed the metal at this point, we kept chewing through our scrap from constant fighting. Well to be honest I needed it more, I had been exploded twice, and had my armor melted. With the added scrap metal, my armor was back to being mostly impenetrable. We moved down the hall, made a right, and went up another flight of stairs. More robots awaited us, and it just became part for the chorus, go up a new floor, fight increasing numbers of robots. With the occasional assurance of death from laughing Zebra over the speakers.

After about an hour of fighting robots we made it to our destination. Well, sort off, Security Operations was blocked off by a shudder. We were on the wrong side of said shutter, the room we arrived in was a hangout area for security. There were marble columns on each side of the room, in rows of three they split the room into three sections. Left, middle, and right, each section had sofas placed between the columns. Some Sparkle-Cola machines lined the left and right walls, and the center was dominated by a huge circular desk. “Fools!” the voice over the speakers came again, he forwent the laugh, maybe he was getting nervous? “Now you face your end, trapped right where I want you, ahahaha!” he gave us his trademark laugh and shut off communications.

The walls on either side had secret hatches open, from them, swarms of Sprite bots floated out. “Shit take cover!” we were forced to scramble. I dove inside the central desk, Trapper up right behind me. Flag and Rose ducked behind a column, and immediately fired their weapons at the sprite bots. Lemon backed herself to a column, her machinegun destroying the floating bots left and right.

“Shit, to our rear!” Flag’s warning had me peek out from my cover, from the way we came several Sentry bots rolled to our location. Great now we were trapped! Flag nodded to Rose, and he turned on the Sentry bots. Before one could even fire its magical energy shots, he tore through it with his machine rifle. The Sentry bots fell one after the other, sometimes the shots went through two at a time. But they kept coming in droves, pushing through the debris of their fallen comrades they opened fire on us. I was forced to duck for cover, but then I felt my back heat up! The Sprite bots floated over our cover and fired down on us. I Revved my minigun and shot them out of the air!

“Ahhh, get it off, get it off!” Trapper shouted, I looked to see his radio burst into flames from an energy shot. Trapper was bucking and trying to undue the straps keeping him attached to the flaming radio. I stepped up to him, held him with one hoof and tore the flaming radio from his back with the other! I tossed the remains out of our cover and resumed firing on the swarming Sprite bots.

“There’s too many!” Lemon started firing her grenade launcher into the air, the grenades exploded on impact destroying swarms of bots.

“Machine rifle is out!” Flag roared over the chaos, his machinegun kicked to life firing on the Sentry bots. I hopped out and aimed my missile launcher. I fired four missiles and they destroyed five Sentry bots before they could exit the hallway and swarm us. I focused my minigun and fired on the hallway. My gun tore through the Sentry bots, but it only slowed them down. They fired their energy guns and pelted me with colorful beams. I was forced back into cover right away.

“Good, now suffer at the hands of your deadliest creation!” the voice briefly returned to taunt us. Then, a high pitch metal sound made my ears try to burry themselves into my head. I peeked back at the Operations Center door. The shudders opened, and out rolled a monster of a robot. In equestrian green, with a golden sun on its side was an Ultra-Sentry bot. It had four thick armor-plated legs with tank threads. Its body was an oval shape with a low profile, sleek to better have armor piercing rounds ricochet off it. A single optical sensor stuck from its head. At each side two Prismatic Magical energy cannons pointed straight at me.

“Trapper run!” I pushed Trapper out of the round desk through a side opening. I dove out just in time to see two rainbow colored beams turn the desk into dust. “Ultra-Sentinel, everypony look out!” I turned back on the robot and fired my minigun immediately. The bullets barely dented its armor, even after concentrating my fire.

“Shit this is bad!” Lemon cursed, holy crap this is bad Lemon just cursed! I never heard her curse! She had been firing her grenade launcher keeping the Sentry bots bogged down in our rear. Now she turned her explosive weapon on the Ultra-Sentry bot. The bot in question wheeled forward, its cannon charging and pointing at Flag and Rose. Lemons grenades exploded on the robot’s body, it did little more than scratch the paint and create a smoke screen around it.

“Flag lookout!” Flag turned, saw the Robot and immediately threw himself over Rose. The prismatic cannons fired dispersing the smoke around the robot. The beams melted right through the column Flag and Rose took cover behind.

“Aaggghhh!!” Flag screamed, the entire top of his armor was melted off his body. His back smoked as his exposed flesh blistered and bled. My heart clenched, they were sitting ducks, I fired my minigun at the robot and ran in front of it.

“Over here asshole!” I concentrated and tried to hit its sensor. The robot simply brought its legs closer to its body and made itself taller. I couldn’t even see its sensor anymore; my bullets impacted its frontal armor harmlessly. Its cannons turned on me, they glowed charging for another attack. I looked back behind me, the Sentry bots from the hallway were stuck behind the wreckage of other robots. An idea formed right then and there. Well here’s hoping third times isn’t the charm! “That’s right asshole, come and get me!” I ran back to the sentry bots. They stopped moving debris the moment they noticed me and opened fire. I zigged and zag, counting in my head the seconds before the next energy shot. Some beams passed me, but most were threatening to melt my armor, I could feel a painful burn around my forelegs and chest. I looked back and my eyes widen, I dove away at the last second. The deadly energy beams passed me and struck the conga line of Sentry bots trying to pass. In mere seconds, the robots lit up in bright colors before being turned to ash.

I scrambled to my hooves, I had the count, ten seconds, here’s hoping it worked! Once I was back on all fours, I ran at the robot. Lemon, Trapper and Rose all lit it up, their weapons were a mere nuisance against armor that thick. I fired two missiles, they impacted the robot and forced it to take a step back. Its cannons charged up, I dove right under it with two seconds to spare. The cannon fired into the ground melting through to the next floor. I slid beneath the robot and came out the other end. This is it! I loaded my missile launcher and fired a full six missile barrage. The robot was too slow to respond, each missile struck true into a massive explosion. The robot staggered forward, its armor dented, and it even let out a few sparks, if this kept going, maybe we could take it down. But at this rate it would kill at least one of us.

“Come on, shoot me, do it!” I raged at the robot, the massive bot turned around and charged its weapons. I yelled, stomped, did anything that would keep its attention on me. I counted the ten seconds off, each second made my legs jittery, one mistake and I was a goner. The beam cannons fired, I dove away, and the shudder behind me was blasted. The colorful light melted two perfect pony size holes. “Everypony fire! Keep it occupied!” I didn’t wait for a response. I had to trust them to keep that thing occupied and not die. I jumped through the breach and searched the room for the Zebra in charge. Nothing, I stepped forward, my minigun scanning the room.

“Fool!” I turned to a rifle barrel inches from my face. The shot hit me square in the forehead. A pain I could not describe spread across my head. I put up a hoof as the Zebra fired another burst. If I hadn’t put my hoof up, I was sure he would have killed me. I revved my minigun, but the Zebra in its hind legs strafed around me! as he did he fired his shots sending terrible tremors of pain across my body. Shit, I can’t take much more of this, my insides are on fire! He stopped shooting to reload, I revved my minigun and got ready to turn him to Zebra mulch.

“Fire if you dare,” The Zebra put himself right between me and the mainframe. My shots would just tear him up and destroy the mainframe. That clever son of a bitch! He loaded the rifle and fired, I put my hoof before my face and charged him. He strafed around me, I gritted my teeth, revved my minigun and span counter his strafing maneuver. I fired my minigun passing right through the Zebra attacker.

“Aagh!” the moment his pained scream reached my ears I stopped. I looked up and found him torn in half, his rifle just a few inches from his hooves. I hated to admit it, but he was one determined bastard. He reached for the rifle, I walked up to him and kicked it away.

“F-fool,” he really liked that word, I aimed my minigun at him, one burst and this would be done. “Strength,” he coughed up blood on the ground, the rise and fall of his chest became slower. “duty,” he choked on more blood before coughing it out. “honor…” the Zebra stopped moving. I couldn’t look away, his lifeless eyes stared at nothing. I closed my eyes and turned around, my friends were in trouble I couldn’t break now. I went up to the mainframe, my eyes searched the control panel and I found where I could jack my module in. I jacked in and hacked the terminal.

[PASSWORD: CEASAR]

[ACCESS GRANTED]

[REPROGRAM SECURITY?]

[Y/N]

[Y]

[REPROGRAMING IN PROGRESS…]

[PROGRAMMING COMPLETE]

[SECURITY LOCKDOWN TERMINATED]

I let out a sigh, the shudder opened behind me and I turned to look for my friends. I heard clearly the battle while I stopped the laughing Zebra. The room was a mess, well a bigger mess then when I jumped through the breach. Four more columns were gone, several pony size holes were added to the walls. Sitting on the corner, my friends crowded around Flag. His helmet was off, and his head cradled by Rose. I felt like my heart stopped in place. Flags back was still expose, his armor slowly coming together. The bandages on his back were soaking red. His face twitched every so often, and now that I noticed he was sweating.

“Leave him, it’s not right, leave him.” Flag’s incoherently muttered.

“He’s hurt bad, I gave him every potion I got. He…he’s not going to make it.” Rose’s words fell on me like a ton of bricks. No, no, no, I can’t lose Flag.

“There has to be a way… something I can use.” I had to save him, I can’t fail Flag. Damn it what can I use?

“I don’t know… I can’t possibly think of anything.” A tear escaped Rose, it landed on Flag’s cheek.

His eyes opened, Unfocused, Flag raised a hoof towards me. “Heavy Arms.”

“Flag!” I knelt before him.

“Heavy Arms, your son… he’s coming.” Flag waved his hoof around.

I took his hoof, “I’m here, it’s me Flag, Valiant!”

“Heavy Arms, leave him, he shouldn’t be here. She’ll be devastated.” He pulled on my hoof, without thought his armor pulled me nearly on top of him. “She doesn’t deserve this,” Flag’s words faded, and he closed his eyes again. He kept muttering something to himself, but it was far too low for me to pick out.

I need to think, come on Valiant, there has to be something I can do!

I closed my eyes and tried to think of something. Find a radio and call for emergency evac? No, we knew the risks coming here. We weren’t getting reinforced or relieved until at least one building was taken. Set the security systems to fight off the Zebras, and then run Flag back to camp for better care? I looked at him, Rose’s horn glowed as she removed his bandages to change the bloodied strips. I paled when I saw bone peeking from the flesh, his spine was exposed in several places. Oh Celestia, what do I do? Wait, our secondary objective, Meadowbrook pharmaceuticals. The Orb we found and Shimmering Sun, something about project Hydra.

“Rose what do you know about Hydra?” I looked to her, my eyes desperate.

“I, I heard it’s a miracle potion, it could regrow limbs, reconstruct missing organs. But We don’t have any of it. Nopony does.” Rose tighten her hold on Flag and stroked his head gently.

“I know where I might find some. If nothing else, it makes more sense now.” I looked to Lemon, she opened her helmet and gave me a nod.

“My mission, the one from the council I talked to you about. I was tasked with retaking Meadowbrook from the Zebras. The council wants the Hydra formula, or even a sample. Having a working formula that can bring soldiers back to a hundred percent? That could turn things to our favor in a big way.” Yeah, not only could I find medical supplies for the Army, but also a game changer.

“Alright, I’ll head to the armory, I need to restock my missile supply.” I looked to Lemon. “Lemon hold down the fort for me,” Lemon stomped her hoof before I could continue.

“No! you can’t go out alone Valiant!” She glared at me, but I didn’t have time for this.

“Lemon, with Flag out you’re the only other one here with Power Armor, I need you here.” I hoped she saw reason, otherwise I’d have to pull rank on her. Which at this point she might ignore.

“At least take Rose or Trapper.” She pointed at the two, Trapper looked slightly terrified at the idea, but after he took a deep breath, he steeled himself and gave me a firm nod.

“No, I need Trapper here, he needs to find a working Radio and get an update on the attack. Rose needs to watch after Flag. Now please Lemon, we don’t have time to argue.” I stared her down and channeled my father into my very stare. She relented and gave me a grim looking nod, I gave her a confident smile and made for the Armory before I left.

The armory was spacious, several small arms and rifles lined racks on the wall and center. There were even magical energy rifles! I would tell Trapper and Rose to come down here for them when I exited. I found the Heavy Ordinance behind a locked cage. The door had a numerical keypad, lucky for me it also had a place to jack in. I made swift work of the door and stocked up on missiles bringing my count back up to 24. I restocked my minigun as well bringing me up to 5000 rounds. With everything in place, I turned ready to leave. Well until something caught my eye, there, on the farthest corner of the room was something covered with a tarp. I opened my helmet, drawn by immense curiosity I pulled the tarp off with my teeth.

A combat robot, a familiar model at that, a Mister Handy model, or rather a Mister Gutsy model. Painted in Equestrian green with Celestia’s sun emblazoned on it. Written in white, the robot’s designation was painted on the opposite side of Celestia’s sun, RL-3. Well, I had to admit I wasn’t expecting a robot, but at the same time it gave me an idea. I used my module to jack into the robot, after opening its maintenance hatch atop the spherical frame.

[ROBRONCO ROBOTICS INC]

[BOOT UP COMBAT SUBROUTINE?]

[Y/N]

[Y]

[BOOTING UP COMBAT SUBROUTINE]

I stepped back, the robot hummed to life, its three optical sensors glowed a menacing red. They searched the room before locking unto me. The robot floated up, it had the standard Mister Handy manipulator claw, a flame thrower and compact magical plasma caster. Now that was going to come in handy.

“Unit, RL-3 activated, commander?” The robots synthesize the voice of a gruff drill sergeant.

“Commander Valiant Knight.” I gave him the verbal entry.

“Mission?” RL-3 moved its manipulator up into a salute.

“Were going to war,” I couldn’t help the smirk that came over me.

“Acknowledge, ready to wipe the striped menace for that Lady with the shining Flank!” RL-3 rotated its arms bringing up its Plasma caster.

“Good, but I think I need to call you something better than that model number,” I raised a hoof to my chin thinking of a better name.

“Factory default unit name is RL-3. It is recommended sir, that it remain so, a short name makes for quicker orders!” RL-3’s optical sensors moved closer to me.

“Right, so something easy to say then, okay I got it.” I raised a hoof to the air, “I’ll call you Steelhooves, the greatest Ranger of all.” I gave RL-3, excuse me, Steelhooves a salute.

“Hmm, new designation acceptable, I’m ready to head out sir!” Steelhooves gave me a salute and waited for me. I exited the armory and returned to my friends, they had moved Flag to a couch, though Rose remained with him, cradling his head gently in her hooves. I hated to think this, but she looked guilty. Flag had saved her from being vaporized, but the fact it might cost him his life was weighing on her.

“Everypony, so you don’t have to worry, I got a little company. Meet Steelhooves, he’s going to accompany me on my mission to Meadowbrook.” I gestured to my new robot companion, he floated up next to me and saluted.

“I’m here to do two things, kill Zebra scum and chew bubblegum, and I don’t have a mouth, so I’m eager to do the other!” Steelhooves span his arms and brought his plasma caster to bare.

“Well at least you won’t be alone. Please, protect Valiant.” Lemon smiled to Steelhooves.

“Affirmative, I will lay my circuits on the line for my commander, that is the duty of every patriotic robot!” Steelhooves pounded his chassis for emphasis.

“Alright, thank you Steelhooves, and I’m glad Valiant gave you that name, it belonged to a hero.” Lemon gave me an encouraging smile. Before I left, Lemon gave me some of her extra medical potions to restock my medical unit. On my way out, I pointed to the Ultra-Sentry bot.

“Hey, get that thing working, and have it guard the entrance alright?” I gave Lemon a final hug and left them. When I exited the Security building, the metal shudders closed behind me. Good, better safe than sorry. With resolve in my heart, I jogged my way down the empty streets of City 6. The streets were as quiet as a graveyard, the sound of Steelhoove’s propulsion unit was the only sound for miles. Though I contemplated talking to the robot, I doubted we could hold and actual conversation.

My quest took me north of the designated battlefield, I took a Highway, though exposed it also made for the fastest pass through the city. I arrived at my destination within two hours. Meadowbrook laid at the corner of an intersection. The building towered above the others surrounding it. I estimated it at twenty stories if not higher. The building was as most others, concrete gray and with clear windows. Though as I squinted my eyes, I could make out noticeable damage to the exterior. On the southern side of the building facing towards me, I could see several broken windows. I sat on my haunches, pulled out my binoculars and got a better look. The lower floors were empty, at least where I could see the halls lined by windows. The upper floors where another matter entirely. I saw several destroyed combat robots in the halls, from Sentry bots, Sprite bots, and even pony robots, skeletal in frame they are freaking creepy to look at. I tucked my binoculars away and closed my helmet, well that was as good a reconnaissance as I would get.

I made my way down the highway, heading east. All along I had eyes on Meadowbrook, when I reached the exit I could see the western face. Flashes on the upper floors caught my attention. I stopped, took out my binoculars and had a look. Zebras, from my perch I could see maybe five of them? Though they weren’t Zebra regulars. The five I could see were combatting three Sentry bots. They had a black body glove, even their tails were covered in it. What I could only describe as light armor pieces were attached around their chest, and legs. I could make out sword hilts sticking out of their cloaks, and their heads were closed in a full helmet. The helmets, to be honest reminded me of the Pegasus power armor helmets. Insectoid like eye pieces with rebreathers on the mouth. Honestly, if it wasn’t for their red cloaks I wouldn’t have picked them out as Zebras.

I put my binoculars away and double timed it to Meadowbrook. Great, now I had to deal with Zebras. I stopped a block away from Meadowbrook. There was a wagon outside, parked over the curb with Zebra regulars guarding the entrance to Meadowbrook. I picked out seven contacts on my E.F.S, they were scattered about, three by the front doors, four by the wagon. From my cover, a nearby coffee shop east of Meadowbrook, I prepared for combat. “Stay at my side Steelhooves, when you’re in range turn the bastards to goop, sound good?”

“Better wiped than striped!” Steelhooves sounded eager, the red optical sensors seemed to brighten at the prospect. I gave him a stiff nod, and I ran out in a full sprint, first things first, I targeted the wagon and fired two missiles. The missiles swirled around each other, their vapor trails creating a spiral.

“Hostilis!” One of the Zebras shouted far too late near the wagon. The missiles impacted the wagon and exploded in a glorious ball of fire. Out of the four nearby Zebras only one ran fast enough to escape death. The other three were torn to shreds by fire and shrapnel, three down, four to go! Steelhooves, with surprising speed flew past me and fired his plasma caster. The one Zebra that escaped the wagon’s blast, received a direct hit to his flank. He screamed, his entire body burst into green before melting into green smoking goop. Celestia, that was horrifying, I saw his flesh disintegrate into paste before his skeleton followed him.

Murderer

I shook my head, slid to a stop and revved my minigun. This wasn’t the time to lose my mind! I fired at the Zebras near the entrance. They ran into Meadowbrook, my shots just barely missing kicking up dust and concrete instead. Steelhooves quickly floated into the building. The zebras took up position behind a desk, they fired bullets impacting Steelhooves chassis. It only seemed to piss off the robot, “try this on for size you Zebra scum!” hHe fired his plasma caster. The magical plasma burned clean through the wooden cover. The Zebra behind didn’t even get the luck of being turned to goop. The plasma burned through him, lighting him in green flames. With their cover being so flimsy, I fired my minigun through it. The Zebras were splattered against the wall and floor into a gory mess.

“Area clear, good work!” Steelhooves floated back to my side.

“Thanks, you did good too, but let’s keep our guard up.” I looked at the lobby, with the Zebras taken cared off we could take stock. The desk had once stood at the center of a simple room. There were two halls at either side of the desk. The backwall had ‘Meadowbrook Medical Research Headquarters,’ and had the company logo, a weird beaked mask with markings on it. There had also been a terminal on the desk, but the plasma caster destroyed it when Steelhooves melted that Zebra. Ugh, I think I would be seeing that in my dreams, as if I didn’t have enough horrible visions in there. Disintegrating somepony with magical energy was almost clean, you just glowed and poof, pile of ash. The plasma burned you and just deconstructed you into goop. I couldn’t possibly imagine the pain it caused. I shook my head, no time to dwell on it. I saw there was an emergency door near the left hall.

I walked up to it, adjacent to the stair was a map of the building. Each few floors seemed dedicated to a single department. How about that, I was close, twenty-one floors, all first twenty divided into three levels. Level-one, made up of the first five floors, was Magical Surgery Research, Level-two was Cellular reconstruction Research, and Level-three was Hydra Potion Research Division. Damn, a whole division dedicated to Hydra. Well, lets hope the Zebras didn’t get to it before me. I carefully opened the door, behind emergency stairs. With nothing on my E.F.S or sight, I made my way upstairs. It took a few minutes, but I made it to Floor-16.

First thing I did, was open the door slowly and peek out. The hall ahead was blasted to shit, spent casings, scorch marks and robot scrap everywhere. Steelhooves hummed closer and poked one of his sensors through the gap, it swiveled left, then right. “It’s clear to move sir,” he waved his pincer at the gap. I exited, carefully, my weapons trained ahead. I walked slowly through the floor, peeking into offices searching for an intact terminal. When I reached the end of the hall, I could see out north. The city stretched before me, and I could faintly hear the echoes of the battle’s being fought. I made a left and stopped dead on my tracks. There was a colossal bit of the building collapsed to the ground below! It was as if somepony had clumsily stuck a knife into the side of the building. Then cut out a piece and pulled it out, somehow without collapsing the rest of the structure. I could see into several floors below and two up ahead. Holy shit, what did this? I turned quickly and headed back to the emergency stairs.

I went up two more floors, so dumbfounded by the damage to the building I neglected to stop at the door. I entered carelessly, a stupid mistake. A few feet ahead at the end of the hall I spotted one of the Zebras. He had a rifle slung across his back, his red cloak wrapped around his lithe frame. We seem to stare one another down for what felt like an eternity. “Ready to die for your country you Zebra bastard?” Steelhooves brought us out of our staring contest. He fired his plasma caster, the Zebra rolled to the side, he got back on his hooves, pulled the hood over his head and disappeared before my very eyes. Fuck me, stealth cloak, just what I needed. I had read about Zebra infiltrators, masters at stealth and assassination. Not to mention very familiar with pony tech and language. Elder Steelhooves himself had documented his encounters with them into our mainframe. Now, 200 years later, I had to face them.

“Okay Steelhooves, we got stealth capable Zebras, keep your sensors peeled for anything, like shimmering light or distortions around the air.” The cloaks weren’t perfect, they didn’t hide body heat, or sound. They also worked better the less one moved. Armed with this knowledge, I ran down the corridor, turned where the Zebra disappeared and started my search. I followed the battered hallways to a resting area. I was close to the northern face of the place, I knew that because the room was gutted clean by the collapse. I could see up to the last two floors and the ones below. The room was generic, white walls and turned over tables. Steelhooves floated ahead of me to the other end, he opened and ransacked some cupboards. I wasn’t sure why, was he expecting to find the Zebra there? I turned around to leave, but from thin air a gun muzzle materialized out of the ether. It was aimed right at my eye. I ducked left, the bullet ricocheted off my helmet’s cheek. I revved up my minigun and fired. The Zebra flipped over me! My shots broke apart the wall behind him.

“Sir, I can’t get a clear shot!” Steelhooves aimed his plasma caster in our direction. I fired as I turned, to cut down the Zebra like I did the laughing one, He crouched low and delivered an upper cut to my minigun. My shots went wild shooting up the wall and ceiling. He drew the sword on his back, it was short with a slim blade meant for stabbing. He drove it straight for my heart. I moved, and the sword pierced the armor on my shoulder. The blade turned a burning hot red, and it melted through the armor plates and into my flesh.

Aaaahhh!” I kicked out, but he ducked right avoiding my strike and the line of sight of my missile launcher. I was getting real sick of this close quarters bullshit. With gritted teeth and held back tears I kicked with both my hind legs. I felt them connect and he was flung back through the wall. I turned to finish him off, my minigun revved up, he stood up and threw something into the room. I fired, and he rolled away at the last second, I saw him pass by the open door pulling his cloak over his head.

“Grenade!” Steelhoove’s voice made me look down, shit. It exploded into a bright flash, with a thunderous bang. My ears rang, and my vision was shot to hell. I could only see the picture of the floor and the grenade burned into my retinas. It took me about a minute to regain my senses. A potion injection made quick work on the shoulder wound. The incision on my armor was also closed fairly fast.

“Come on!” I ran down the hall, every other hall I passed seemed empty. Though of course I shouldn’t trust my eyes completely. I returned to the emergency staircase and went up another floor. I kicked down the door, fuck stealth, I was pissed and in a hurry. I trained my missile launcher and minigun. I walked into the hall ahead, with Steelhooves right behind me. “Steelhooves, if one of them gets near me, use that flame thrower to cook them, my armor will protect me.”

“Yes sir, I love the smell of cooked Zebra in the morning!” He rotated his arms to bring up the flame thrower. I turned down a few more hallways and entered a lab. It had machines separated into stations, as well as several beakers and other instruments I didn’t recognize. I trailed the room, my weapon trained and ready, my eyes focusing on the slightest disturbance. [Sharp Eyed] There, I pointed my hoof at the right side of the room. I could just see the light above a table shimmer. Steelhooves rotated his arms, he brought his plasma caster and fired. The Zebra reappeared back into existence as he flipped over the shot! God damn the flexible bastard. Then four more appeared at the far left of the room and fired their rifles. Their bullets impacted my armor and sent familiar tremors over my body. I dove behind cover and Steelhooves floated the opposite way, his caster firing as he moved. He got one of the Zebras, they screamed in agony and turned to green goop. I popped out from my cover, a metal table with beakers on it, thick enough to stop rifle rounds. With my minigun pre-revved I fired on them. They scattered, flipping gracefully in the air.

The first one we spotted jumped on the table above me, sword in hoof, he swung for my head. I ducked only just hearing his sword scrape the top of my armored crest. I turned my missile launcher up but thought better of it. I couldn’t risk destroying anything that might get me closer to the Hydra Potion. Instead I put my hooves against the table and flipped it with my great strength. Even as I flipped the table, he flipped over me and slashed down. “Aaaggh!” I felt his sword cut down my back, my armor melting along the way. I fell on my side, he raised his sword for a finishing strike.

“Not today Zebra scum!” Steelhooves fired his plasma caster. The Zebra was thrown off to the side. He screamed briefly before his goop plopped on the ground. Another potion took care of the scarred flesh on my back. When I got back to my hooves, a Zebra shot me right in the head. I went back down clutching my head. My nose started to bleed, and I could taste copper in my mouth, I felt darkness creep at the edge of my vision. Steelhooves flew to my direction, and I struggled to stay conscious, and tried to get up. I revved my minigun and…nothing. They were gone, I narrowed my eyes. Attacking from behind seemed their favorite strategy. I took a few steps forward. Suddenly I kicked back, I connected with a Zebra. He reappeared as he slammed onto the wall behind me. He was stunned, scrambling to get on his hooves. I fired right into his head bursting it into mush. Two down, three more to go. Something clattered by my hooves, not this time! I crushed the grenade beneath my hoof.

The Zebras reappeared to my immediate right, “Steelhooves!” I shouted and promptly collapsed on the ground with hooves over my head. Steelhooves rotated his arms and let out a curtain of fire. The Zebras rushed through it, their cloaks and armor on fire. No screams, instead, one jumped and kicked Steelhooves hard enough to send him flying against the wall. The other two threw their burning cloaks over me. I stood up and batted one out of the way. The other fell on me. Before I could shake it off, I felt something searing hot enter through my lower left side. I kicked out and the blade was pulled out before it reached my lungs and heart. I also heard the body hit the wall. I fired blindly ahead. I heard a scream followed by metal being torn into by bullets.

“Friendly fire!” Steelhooves synthetic voice screamed. Shit! I pulled the cloak off, a sword was swinging right at my face, I ducked and pushed forward slamming my body against the Zebra. We landed a few feet from Steelhooves, pinned beneath my body the Zebra squirmed. I raised my hoof, my hacking module poked out where my armored hoof met my foreleg. I drove the relatively pointy module right through the zebra’s neck. I stood up, his comrade jumped on top of me and drove his sword into my back. I gritted my teeth, and with adrenaline dulling the pain I jumped up! The strength of my armor had us crash into the ceiling. The Zebra was left embedded in it. I landed back down next to the Zebra, clutching at his neck as he choked on his own blood. One last to go, I smirked and turned to find the final Zebra, he ducked beneath me, and drove his sword almost halfway through my stomach. “AAghhh!” While I fell, I watched, almost in slow motion, as a plasma blast hit the Zebra square in the head. He didn’t even get to scream as he was turned to goo head first. He splattered on his choking comrade, who after a few more seconds stopped writhing all together. The sword stopped searing my insides, but it needed to come out, I put my hoof against the guard, and pushed it out. “Aahhh!” I screamed as the sword finally was out of me. I rolled to my back, and I hissed with tightly closed eyes.

“Sir -zzzt- Zebras eli-zzz-ted, voice -zzzt- module d-zzzt-ed, fighting efficiency at -zzzt- at -zzzt- percent. Several internal sytems. Systems, systems -zzzt- repair.” Steelhoove’s status report made me cringe. I felt bad for shooting him in my panicked state. I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the Zebra who stabbed me in the back. He was embedded on the wall, two broken pipes sticking through his chest. I looked to my left, hearing Steelhooves float on close to me. I stayed on the ground for a few minutes, letting two extra strength potions bring me back to a hundred percent. I got up and gave Steelhooves a one over. He wasn’t that badly damaged, when I got back to the Security Center I could patch him up with the parts of the robots we scrapped.

“Alright, turn off voice module, I’ll connect you to my helmets systems, just need to jack in and, oh hold on.” I wiped the module on one of the Zebra corpses, then I opened Steelhoove’s maintenance hatch and connected him directly to my helmet display system. “There, now most robots have back up systems in case primary ones are damaged. Reroute all combat subroutines through the back up systems.”

[AFFIRMATIVE, READY TO MOVE ON YOUR MARK SIR!]

I nodded to Steelhooves and got to searching the lab. Aside from papers with formulas I couldn’t being to comprehend, all I found were some stashed regular potions. I left the lab, gave the floor one more cursory search and went up to Floor-20. Nothing, I swept the entire floor, god damn it, there must be something here! I can’t fail Flag, if the Zebras were here, then they still wanted something! I found an office, it belonged to one Doctor Manners, and it had the only working terminal on this floor. I quickly jacked and hacked my way into it.

[ENTER PASSWORD: MIRACLE]

[ACCESS GRANTED]

[WELCOME DOCTOR MANNERS]

I found multiple data entries, they appeared corrupted. As I scrolled down every corrupted file fueled my growing sense of desperation. At last I found three files still available, I sighed opened the first one and read through it.

Entry 98: It’s done, years of research and resources put into this project, and it is finally over. The Ministry of Peace is shutting down our division. I suppose it was to be expected, a decade of research and millions of bits poured into Project Hydra, and all we had was a faulty product to show for it. It’s sad, most of the ponies here are almost like family to me. We celebrated and cried for every achievement and setback. Now, most of us are being sent to different departments. Not just in the Empire, but also back to Equestria. We will keep in touch, but I will dearly miss everypony who worked diligently on this project. As of now, at 0800 hours, Project Hydra will be disbanded, and its staff reassigned to other projects. These final entries will dictate a final progress report and closing statements for the project. -Doctor Manners.

Entry 99: Hydra was an ambitious project, to put it simply, we were fundamentally working on gene therapy. To manipulate our bodies natural healing process and enhance it a hundred-fold. We were born with the unique ability to have our injuries heal over time. Our bodies run their own type of self-repair, and your everyday potions tap into that innate healing for extraordinary results. Open wounds close in a matter of seconds, cuts, bruises, even the sealing of internal arteries to stop internal bleeding. Potions are a powerful tool, but, they are limited. Though they can accelerate the natural process of bone repair. It is still a long and time-consuming effort towards healing a broken bone. There is also the issue of foreign bodies, the likes of shrapnel or bullets, that are not removed through the healing process. This is where Hydra comes in, to not just accelerate, but facilitate the natural healing process with magic. To brew a potion, so strong, it set bones back into place, and forced foreign bodies from the patient. After ten years of research, I have come to realize, ambitious doesn’t begin to explain how hard this project has been. Results will be posted in the final entry. -Doctor Manners

Entry 100: We began testing our formula on things like, pigs, cows, and to my mounting shame…Zebra POW’s. These Zebras were on their death beds, but all the same, I felt shame using them for my research. I understood the urgency, I understood the implications as well. If we succeeded these subjects would be saved. But failure could just make their deaths needlessly painful. Our first batch killed the pigs, we removed a kidney, the potion restored its kidney…then just kept making kidneys. The pig was bloated when we opened it, dug out at least ten kidneys. So, after introducing a limiter of sorts, being a genetic code to terminate the specific healing process. We administered it on a Zebra, this well young Zebra, for the Zebra couldn’t be older than eighteen. He was cut in half, I didn’t ask or was even told what cut him in half. We had him rigged to a life support unit, with tubes replacing eighty percent of bodily functions. The brain was still active sending commands, but it was anything but life. The young man was practically a vegetable, only subtle communication through hoof signals did he make it clear to us. Kill me, kill me, kill me, we doubled our efforts to get a new prototype to working order. We administered the second potion to miraculous results. The entire lower body was reconstructed, even returned consciousness to the Zebra. Rather than dispatching the Zebra back to the camps, we kept him around for observation. We thought, this was it, we did it. But after two months under surveillance. We found several cancerous growths on the subjects’ vital organs.

The potion, ultimately worked too well, the accelerated gene creation made for faulty cancerous cells. The young Zebra died in a month after diagnosis. By this time, Doctor Glimmer and her Husband Doctor Sunburst, had revealed their successful tissue cloning process. At half the cost to making a single potion? The Ministry of Peace shut us down immediately and made a joint contribution with the Ministry of Arcane Sciences to Glimmering Sun Genetics and Research. We had two more samples left, one used by one of our scientists. Their son returned from the front, mutilated and kept alive only life support. He administered the potion, despite knowing this could get him a life sentence in prison. The boy recovered but seeing as this pony was part of my department, I felt I needed to follow through. So, I asked the boy to stay with me for a prolonged period. I cannot explain it, but the boy never developed the cancerous growths. I watched him for months, ran several tests, but no negative effects were found. He was cured completely without malicious side effects. If I had the time, or the funds, I wish I could study this further. But after that stunt, Ministry of Morale stepped in, and blackmailed everypony involved into some new project. But that is for another entry, this is the last entry of Project Hydra, the final sample is now stored in the last floor in Mister Bling’s personal office. Doctor Manners singing off for one last time.

Holy shit, the potion healed you, or killed you. Great, sure, make me gamble with Flags life. This is the type of shit that just promises nightmares. Well, no use wasting time here, I left the office and went up the final floor. The final floor was just a long hallway, a red carpet lined the floor to a set of double doors at the other end. As I walked through with Steelhooves hovering behind me, I noticed several framed pictures on the walls. Staff photos, news paper cut outs depicting war propaganda and even a picture of Flutter Shy. At the end of the hall, next to the double doors was an interesting news article.

“Glimmering Sun Genetics opens it’s main Headquarters,” I looked at the picture provided, true enough, the building was erected three buildings north of Meadowbrook. I read the article further, “Doctors Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer have proudly presented their first patient to benefit from a brand-new heart transplant. This cloning of pony tissue has brought two Ministries together to fund further research and find a military application.” Huh, guess this was after that memory orb I saw. I was going to head through the double doors, but I noticed a plaque under the framed article.

“We must do better,” below the words was the signature of somepony I didn’t know. I guess Meadowbrook was threatened to go under by Glimmering Sun. I shook my head, no time to contemplate corporate rivalries. I entered the office and readied my weapons just in case. The office consisted of a huge desk at the far end of the room, as well as a desk smacked in the center with several chairs on each side. There was ceiling to floor windows making up the walls. While each corner had stone, kneeling stallions holding the ceiling up. I walked around the central conference table, Steelhooves hovered on the opposite side, he pulled out chairs and aimed his plasma caster below the tables. I arrived at the desk, the Meadowbrook logo at the front of it. On the desk were several papers, nice looking pens and a terminal. I pushed the expensive rolling chair away and jacked into the terminal.

[ENTER PASSWORD: PATRIOT]

Interesting choice of password.

[ACCESS GRANTED]

[WELCOME MISTER RIVERS]

[ACCESS PROJECT STRIPE WIPE?]

[Y/N]

I frowned, I skipped that command and found the option to bring up the safe. The right side of the desk opened, from the ground rose up a safe. There was a red light on the door indicating it was closed. I send the open command and the light turned green. I opened it up, and lo-and behold, the Hydra Potion was contained inside in a clear hard plastic container. The word Hydra was printed in black letters around the cylinder. I took the potion, stuffed it in my saddle bags and got ready to leave. But, there it was, still open, Mister Rivers terminal. Project Stripe Wipe, that had to be an anti-Zebra weapon… shit, hold on a little longer Flag. I need to see if I can find us and advantage in this war.

[Y]

[ACKNOWLEDGE]

[PLEASE STANDBY]

A low whirr of machinery made my ears twitch. A loud thud followed, coming from the conference table at the center of the room. The table slid at the middle, hell the floor itself opened to reveal metal stairs to a door below. I went down the stairs, and the door slid open the moment I got close, it was an elevator. “Wait here Steelhooves,” I looked back at him, he saluted and floated off towards the front door. The elevator door closed behind me and it instantly started descending. I was in there for almost ten minutes, but finally a black screen over the door read, Sub-Level lab. The doors parted open, I entered to a dark room. The clanking of my hooves told me I was on metal, I turned on my head lamp, it quickly illuminated a railing in front of me. I looked to my left and saw huge switch next to the elevator. I flipped the switch and the room slowly lit up.

My eyes widen, there was a lab here alright. It was divided into sections; the lab was on the left while the right side was walled off. The right side was divided into six rooms, three on each side bisected by a hall. The rooms were liked cages. Inside the cages were the grizzly remains of Zebras. Worst there also appeared to be Pony corpses. The bodies looked melted, the faces either fused into the cells, or worst frozen in pure agony. Despite this, that was not what had my eyes widen, and my heart gripped by sheer terror. Inside the lab, encased in a protective magical barrier, was barrels, six of them in total. The label alone would have sent lesser ponies, at least I like to think so, running from the room, racing to leave this place behind, and bury it under a freaking mountain. ‘Pink Gas.’

I saw a set of stairs leading to the lab, I swallowed my fear and made my way down the stairs. I found an office just next to the bottom of the stairs. I decided to check it out first, the inside was benign enough, desk at the back, a book shelf next to it, and a record player on the right. The record player was running, it just let out a dull humming sound. The needle long since destroyed the record spinning on the table. I walked to the record player and turned it off. Behind the desk was a slumped over unicorn. There was a gun resting on the desk, the slumped over pony was a unicorn. The side of his head was blown open, blood and brain matter decorating the floor. The pony wore a lab coat, and he had an ID card partly splattered in blood. Still, I could make out the name. Doctor Manner. Gently, I moved his corpse aside and accessed his terminal.

[ENTER PASSWORD: FINAL SOLUTION]

[ACCESS GRANTED]

[WELCOME DOCTOR MANNER]

[PLAYBACK LAST AUDIO RECORDING?]

[Y/N]

[Y]

There was a fizzle, then music of a saxophone wailing in sorrow. Then some shuffling and the sound of a chair rolling on the carpet. A pony cleared their throat, “this is it, I have ordered my staff to evacuate the building. The Zebra strike is eminent, Megaspell fire will rain down on the Empire, hell probably Equestria as well. Then it will be over, decades of Research into creating a decisive war winning weapon. Gone, it seems my career always led down to this, failure. Failure that cost us…cost me, my very soul.” The doctor cleared his throat, his voice hitched, and he forcefully repressed a guilt-ridden sob.

“How many did I kill? How many times did I order test subjects exposed to this…this, abomination of arcane science?” The doctor let out a bitter laugh. “I’m going to rot in the deepest pits of hell, and I don’t even have a working genocidal weapon to show for it. Hah, I guess I’ll be sharing a pit of fire with Ministry Mare Flutter Shy. Maybe she’ll be given the nicer pit, her intentions were at least pure. Me? I just wanted to finally show up Starlight and Sunburst. Since College, all I dedicated my life to was my research, and finally beating those two. Look where that got me, hah.” The doctor shuffled around his desk for something. There was the sound of a clip loaded into a gun, then the sound of the slide being pulled back.

“Well, I think this is the only way to make up for my sins. Though maybe I deserve worst, to get myself into a cell and suffer as they did.” The doctor laughed, “I’m such a coward, I can’t bring myself to that, to expose myself to such pain, even when I heard those Zebras and Ponies cry and beg for mercy, seeing them break their hooves against the glass as we gassed them. No, I’m a coward and a coward I’ll go. If anypony lives through this…. nightmare. If anypony has somehow gotten it in their head, no matter how much time has passed. Look at my corpse, sitting here in front of this desk. See the hole in my skull and the horrible recordings left behind. Every senseless death for a failed weapon. Faust bless whoever sees this, and rightfully shuts this place up and let it be forgotten to history. Let those twenty thousand barrels of pink gas waste away in the other chamber. Goodbye everypony, Faust bless Equestria, the Empire, and the Princesses. Faust, please forgive us all, for the terrible atrocities we have wrought to kill one another.”

The recording stopped, the suicide left out of the final message. Still, I didn’t care to see the horrors he said he left recorded here. No, I was worried about twenty thousand barrels of pink gas, just sitting beneath Meadowbrook. Wait, those bastards, those god damn bastards! That’s why they wanted Meadowbrook! For the Pink Gas. They just assumed I’d take the building, let them take the research here and the pink gas! They used me, I knew they were already using me, sure. But this? This was beyond sickening. Ponies experimented on for what? Among the records, there were subject files, the ponies had been labeled, Zebra sympathizers, and traitors. Tch, how convenient for them, they find Pony test subjects who don’t fit their political agenda. I could only imagine this was the Ministry of Morale that rounded up the poor Ponies. I snorted and clicked on a file had the projects mission statement. It was as bland and so-matter of fact, it almost sickened me how professional they were about experimenting on their fellow ponies.

Turns out they wanted to create a Pink Cloud variant, one that would target Zebras specifically. Use it to deploy on the Zebra Empire to kill the inhabitants and to spare infrastructure. A Megaspell meant to discriminate between stripes and none. What a sick joke, I wanted revenge, but seeing this, seeing how far this hatred went? I could feel doubts creep into my mind. How far would I go for that vengeance? I shook my head, no time, Flag is waiting. But first, I left the office and went pass the cells. I reached the door at the other end of the cells. The room was dark, so I turned a switch on the wall next to me and... Gone, the Pink gas all of it gone! This massive underground storage site didn’t have a single fucking barrel of the stuff. Oh no, fuck I needed to get out of here! I left the lab and returned to the office floor. Steelhooves waited patiently for me.

“Let’s go!” I yelled to him as I ran past. I took the emergency stairs by leaps. I exited Meadowbrook and ran back to Security Operations. I didn’t even count the time it took me to arrive. The shudders were still close, and it certainly didn’t look like another battle had taken place.

“Lemon, anypony open up!” I shouted through the radio, damn it I needed to report this to my father! The shudders opened, and I made my way inside. Steelhooves silently followed behind. I practically burst through to Operations. Flag was outside his armor, he laid sideways on a couch, Rose had recently just changed the bandages. He looked even worse than when I left.

“Valiant, did you find it?” Rose looked to me, hope filled her eyes, but I could see the underlying dread just beneath that hope.

“Here, give it to him. I dug out the potion from my bag, “Where’s Trapper?” I looked around, he and Lemon were gone.

“He’s with Lemon, inside the Operations Room.” Rose pointed her hoof in their direction. I ran past her, entering the room, Trapper was sitting by Lemon, she was looking at security monitors her helmet off.

“I’m here, I got Flag the potion, but I need to know, did you establish contact with my father?” I panted opening my helmet.

“Y-yes, we can reach him whenever you’re ready.” Trapper jumped slightly at my tone.

“Good, patch me through now!” I closed my helmet and ignored Lemon’s concerned stare.

“Star Pa-I mean Captain, please respond!” I gritted my teeth, my heart pounded against my chest uncontrollably.

“Sergeant, what’s this about abandoning your post?” My father’ anger shone through despite his neutral voice.

“Sir, I can explain later, but right now we have worst concerns!” I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath to calm myself down. “I went to Meadowbrook, to find a potion to heal Flag,” I forced my way through his automatic correction. I knew it was coming, “listen! Beneath Meadowbrook, there was research being conducted on Pink Cloud. They had twenty thousand barrels of the stuff in there! Sir when I went to check on the barrels, the were gone, all of them!” There was silence, then my father responded, composed but suspicious.

“Did you find Zebras at Meadowbrook?”

“Yes, some regulars outside the building, and five commandos inside. If they knew about the gas below, they were there for something else. But that’s not what matters.” I looked to Lemon, she had her hooves to her mouth. What was she looking at? I looked to the monitors, all the security feed was cut off. Over the feed, was a red banner, on that banner was a Pony, or maybe a Zebra skull. The skull was gold and had two swords bisecting it. The skull itself was in the talons of a golden eagle, while two equally golden olive branches flanked each side of the emblem. Below the message, written in Equestrian no less, read a message.

[THE IMMORTAL LEGION SENDS ITS REGARDS]

“Sir?” I barely got the word out and a loud blaring siren assaulted my ears. “Stay here, I’m going outside!” I ran out of the room and went to the stairs heading to the rooftop.

“What’s the status of the operation, did you take the objectives?” Shit, please tell me this isn’t what I think it is!

“Affirmative, we cleared out all targets, but the defense protocol activated itself!” I could hear the siren blare on my father’s side of things too. I tore through the roof door, and slid to a stop, the smoldering remains of the Zebras and their fortifications remained. The smoke had long since dissipated and I could see clearly. The ground started to shake, I spread my stance to keep from falling over. All around me, around the city, titanic walls rose from the ground, it took maybe eight minutes, but the walls enclosed all of City 6. The alarms died down, and the air was still. I could feel it, something was about to happen. The air was heavy with anticipation and I could feel myself jittering in place. Every part of me warned me to keep on guard. Across the way due south, I heard an explosion. However, to my mounting horror this huge explosion wasn’t fire, but a huge mushroom cloud of pink gas. Oh Celestia, that was in the direction of Bronco. I could hear the screams faintly echo, that camp held the 12^th and 8^th regiment. Wounded, crews, medics…officers. Oh shit, Colonel Starfire.

“Valiant!”

I turned around, Trapper was winded from running upstairs. He was utterly horrified, he looked about ready to have a heart attack. He closed his eyes, took a calming breath and spoke again, his resolve shaken but thankfully, still not broken. “The radio is blowing up, everypony is panicking! What do we do?”

Shit, shit, shit, shit!

“Sir, we just lost Bronco, do you copy?” My father’s line was silent for a moment. I instantly switched channels to see if he had moved on to the open frequency. That was a mistake, as my ears were flooded by every soldier within range, or with a radio talking over one another.

“Bronco is down!”

“I can’t reach Colonel Moore!”

“Colonel Starfire, this is squad five, respond, anypony respond!”

“Zebras! They’re moving north, what do we do, do we pursue!?”

“EVERYPONY STAND DOWN!” The booming voice of Colonel Starfire put the explosion I just heard to shame. “Switch to assigned frequencies now!” I switched, and I could hear the quiet murmur of hundreds of scared souls right about now.

“This is Colonel Starfire, Bronco base has been attacked and lost, this is a message to all personnel. I am issuing a full evacuation of City 6. All personnel move to higher ground and await Vertibuck Pickup.” The transmission cut. Another explosion echoed across the city. I turned north west, pink cloud, then another explosion due south east. One more and, ho shit the targets! The four corners…

“Father!” I shouted over the radio protocol be damned.

“Control yourself Valiant, I ordered everypony out the moment the wall started raising. Hold your position, I’m heading there now with everypony under my command.” He cut off the transmission and I sat on my haunches. A trap, they took City 6, had us funnel everypony into the center…. then this. I looked towards Bronco base, a pink cloud was rising, then it looked like a curtain, it spread east along the wall. I watched it stretch all the way across the city before me. My radio came to life as soon as it did.

“South of the city, a fucking wall of Pink Gas, it’s moving north and swallowing everything! Everypony move north now!” Colonel Starfire shouted over the radio. I stood up and ran back down, Trapper long gone from the rooftop. I returned to Operations to see Flag sitting on the ground holding his head.

“What the hell did I miss?” he rubbed is temple and looked to me. I would tell him about the possible cancer later, One issue at a time here.

“There’s a huge wall of Pink Gas headed this way, everypony get ready to move out!” I yelled at them, I don’t know why, I think I was just as scared as Trapper at this point.

“Fucking hell, seriously?” Flag looked to me flabbergasted, he shook his head and got into his armor. “Fuck it, I’ve woken up to worse, thanks for the potion kid, I never felt better,” Flag nodded and stood with Rose.

“Yeah, I’ll fill you in on the way, but right now everypony get ready. I’m gonna look at Steelhooves and then link up with my father.” I turned to Steelhooves, he followed me diligently everywhere it seemed. I shut him down and opened his maintenance panel.

“Who? Oh, screw it, I’ll save the questions for the road.” Flag closed his helmet and everypony gathered around. This was going to be a race against time.

Level Up: 8

Perks added: Robronco Certified: You can repair, retool and even scrap Robots for parts! Also lowers the carrying weight of disassembled robots in your saddle bag by 15.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the delay, but I was waiting for my new, and flashy cover art! I will be linking the creator as soon as he posts it in his gallery. This is the finish product! Please enjoy it fully my fellow Wasteland ponies! He worked very hard, artist name is L1nkoln. I hope this chapter is to your liking. As for anyone who follows me on Reddit or Google + I shall be posting the update soon! <3.

P.S This was a paid comission! Though if I ever reach the popularity to get fan art, well, that would make me a very happy writer :D!