Tara subtly summoned her new powers as she scowled arrogantly at Doctor Turner, pointedly ignoring Horrigan's threat. "I see you've betrayed us yet again. Using Equestrian magic on Horrigan? You are truly insane."

"D-doctor Strong?!" Turner gasped. "You… you're…"

"SHE'S DEAD!" Horrigan lunged forward with surprising agility, drawing his arm back for a punch.

It was exactly what Tara had expected. Before Horrigan had covered half of the distance between them she raised her arms and a searing bolt of magical power slammed into him, blasting him off his feet. Taking a chance while he was down for a second, Tara called back over her shoulder, "Get those four to the war room! I'll join you once I've dealt with this."

Becky tried to shout a rebuttal, but Tara waved a hand and a flash of dark magic sealed the corridor, rapidly solidifying into a wall of black crystal. Turning back to her opponent, Tara saw that Doctor Turner had made himself scarce while her attention was elsewhere. Unfortunately, hunting the traitor would have to wait as Horrigan was already back on his feet.

"SO, YOU HAVE SOME TRICKS." Horrigan let out a low laugh. "THIS IS ALMOST A FAIR FIGHT."

"Almost." Tara raised her hands again and unleashed another potent magical blast.

Horrigan crossed his arms protectively in front of his face. When the bolt struck, instead of knocking him back again, the ravening energy broke against him like waves against the shore. Tara watched in horror as her magical attack was slowly absorbed by Horrigan's armor, shining green spirals tracing their way up his arms as the energy was consumed.

The two combatants stared in amazement at the symbols adorning Horrigan's arms, then they locked eyes.

"Oh, shi-" Tara barely had time to summon a sparkling shield around herself before Horrigan flung his arms out towards her and an emerald inferno erupted from his fists. Gritting her teeth, Tara pushed back with her shield, holding off his onslaught until the flames finally died away.

Horrigan huffed a laugh. "LOOKS LIKE THIS NEW ARMOR HAS SOME TRICKS, TOO." He made to break into a run again, but Tara used her magic to grip one of his feet and yank it aside just as he tried to take a step, sending him crashing to the floor again.

Another quick magical beam to the head made Horrigan surge back to his feet with a snarl and lunge forward, only to be greeted with a pillar of black crystal that rose from the floor and smacked him in the face. He shattered the pillar with a swipe of his forearm, but another three appeared at once, two smashing into each knee while the third struck him in the lower back, right where his spine met his cybernetics.

The floor rang as Horrigan's legs buckled and he sank to his knees. Taking advantage while he was down, Tara quickly created an interlocking latticework of more crystals around him, locking him in place. With Horrigan pinned, she reached out with her magic and gripped his helmet, twisting and pulling at the same time. His skull still wasn't fully regenerated, so without his helmet Horrigan's brain would be exposed and vulnerable.

As she continued to work at ripping off the helmet, Tara slowly noticed that Horrigan seemed oddly unconcerned about his predicament. Her blood ran cold as he looked up at her, then shattered the crystals holding him down with a casual shrug and smoothly got to his feet. The evil light pouring from Horrigan's joints refracted through the crystal shards cascading from his body, sending a dizzying array of colors sparkling off the walls. "YOU'RE STARTING TO GET ANNOYING."

Calmly ignoring the magic still trying to remove his helmet, Horrigan stomped over to the mangled door with a dead Deathclaw stuck under it, ripped the door from its frame, then hurled it directly at Tara.

Tara barely managed to swat the door aside with her magic. A heartbeat later she caught a thrown chunk of crystal. "You're going to have to-whoa!" Horrigan used the opportunity while she was distracted to close in on Tara, forcing her to stop floating and drop to the floor in order to avoid his wild punch. Caught off-guard, she desperately summoned a shield around herself just as he lashed out with another punch.

The punch landed with the force of a freight train. There was a colossal boom, and Tara felt a second impact as the punch slammed her right through the wall. What felt like dozens more impacts followed, each one sending a shockwave through her whole body, until finally her shield shattered and she was left sailing through the air unprotected. Tara hit the ground with a grunt and rolled, careening across the floor until she eventually ran out of momentum.

Agony coursed through Tara's body. The shield had done its job well, but maintaining it against such a powerful blow had been almost more than she could handle, even with the power of three Geodes to call upon. Her head was ringing so much she could barely tell which direction was up.

A loud crash brought Tara's attention around. Focusing through the pain and disorientation, she clambered slowly to her feet. Looking around, her eyes widened as she realized she was in the maintenance section; Horrigan's punch had knocked her halfway across the facility.

Another crash made Tara look up at the ragged hole in the wall she had been smashed through. She could sense the magic that flowed through Horrigan coming closer; he was smashing through the intervening walls in order to hunt her down and finish what he had started. Cold fear filled Tara. Despite the incredible power she now wielded, it wasn't enough to even scratch that monster.

Tara sucked in a deep breath and looked around to get her bearings. She may not be able to kill Horrigan, but she might have a chance at getting him off her back long enough for her to escape. Remembering the layout of the section and hoping that the lockdown wasn't going to affect her plan, Tara staggered off through the corridors as quickly as she could.

The crashes got louder as Tara stumbled along. She could sense Horrigan getting closer, inexorable as death itself. Just as she reached the corner of the corridor, she heard the wall behind her explode into bits.

"THERE YOU ARE." A terrified whimper escaped Tara's lips as she ducked around the corner. "YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME." Fear lent her speed and she hurried down the next corridor while Horrigan's heavy footfalls thudded loudly after her. She stumbled at the end of the corridor and turned around just in time to see Horrigan stomp around the corner.

Horrigan laughed darkly and rolled his shoulders. "GIVE IT UP, MUTIE. YOU'RE STRONG, I'LL GIVE YOU THAT, BUT YOU'RE STILL A PATHETIC BUG COMPARED TO ME."

Tara forced an arrogant grin onto her face and summoned as much magic as she could, allowing a nimbus of dark energy to flicker around her hands. "Big words, coming from a mutated tin can shit-stain like you."

A furious growl rumbled out from Horrigan's helmet, rising in volume until it became an inarticulate howl of rage that shook the very walls as he launched himself forward. At the very last instant before impact, with the floor warping under his thunderous charge, Tara used her gathered magic to teleport behind him.

Bereft of his target, Horrigan only realized that he had been tricked when he barged through the doors of the cargo elevator shaft. His momentum carried him across the shaft and his sheer mass dented the far wall when he crashed into it. He hung suspended by the deformation of the steel wall and, for a brief moment, Tara feared that he would be able to climb back out. But, with a screech of tortured metal, Horrigan slipped and fell down the shaft. His enraged roars filled the air until he finally landed with a colossal boom.

Silence reigned in the aftermath of Horrigan's fall.

Slowly, Tara raised a middle finger down the elevator shaft. "A violent temper, but not very bright. It seems the old records were right about you. Brains over brawn, dickhead."

"THIS ISN'T OVER, MUTIE!" Tara scrabbled back from the shaft as Horrigan's voice echoed out of it, clutching at her pounding heart. "WHEN I FIND YOU, I'M GOING TO RIP YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!"

Deciding that waiting around to be dismembered by a mutant cyborg wasn't high on her to-do list, Tara turned and hurried back towards the walls she had been smashed through, dredging up just enough magic to allow herself to float again. She had to get back to the Rainbooms before that monster found her again.

Adam watched in shock as the wall of black crystal sealed the corridor.

"No! Damn you, Tara!" Becky banged a fist against the crystal angrily. "Shit!"

The others watched her uneasily as the sounds of battle wafted through the magical barricade. "Er… what should we do now?" Rarity asked slowly.

Becky thumped the crystal one last time, then swore under her breath and turned to face the group. "We'll wait for Tara in the war room. Twilight? How are you doing?"

"I…" Twilight let out a pained groan, but managed to lift her head up to look at the doctor. "It hurts, but I think I can manage."

Adam was about to offer her his jacket to cover her effectively naked torso when a sudden tremor rippled through the floor. "What the hell was that?"

"Nothing we can do anything about," Becky said bitterly. "Come on, let's get moving."

With a shrug, Adam and Applejack shifted Twilight slightly so she was settled more comfortably between them, then set off after the doctor. Rarity gave them an awkward look as she walked alongside. "Shouldn't we at least cover you up, darling?"

Adam blushed, trying hard not to think about the fact that he was currently holding the first topless woman he had ever seen. Despite the circumstances, his mouth suddenly felt very dry. Twilight just huffed in pain and embarrassment. "It's… fine… just move," she hissed.

The five of them moved on in silence as Becky led them through the winding corridors, then up a short flight of stairs and into a large round room at the top. Inside was a raised platform bearing a circular metal desk. Atop that platform, turning to stare at the group as they entered, was Colonel Autumn. "What the hell are all of you doing in here!" he snapped.

Becky just threw him a glare, then turned to the others. "Get Twilight up here and lean her against the map so I can check her wounds."

"You'll do no such thing!" Colonel Autumn growled. "This is a restricted area! Get them out of-" He quickly shut his mouth as Becky ripped her laser pistol out of its holster and aimed it at his face.

"I'd stay quiet if I were you," Becky said flatly. She gestured to his waist. "Your sidearm, drop it."

The Colonel scowled, but did as he was told. As soon as he had dropped his own pistol and kicked it away, Adam and Applejack helped Twilight up onto the platform and leaned her against the desk. Focusing on the desk rather than the semi-naked girl next to him, Adam realized that it was actually a holographic map detailing what appeared to be troop positions.

"I'm going to have to ask you to look somewhere else, boy," Colonel Autumn said curtly. "And as for you, Doctor Shoichet, I hope you understand that what you are doing right now is treason."

"What I'm doing is trying to fix what you and President Eden fucked," Becky retorted, then nodded to Adam. "Hey, take my gun. Do not let him move."

"Gladly." Adam carefully took the pistol, keeping it trained on the Colonel. After what had happened with his father, it took a supreme effort of will not to pull the trigger immediately.

The moment Becky's gun was handed over she turned her attention to Twilight. She couldn't hold back a grimace when she inspected the crystals encasing Twilight's wounds. "Okay, uh, good news and bad news. Good news; you're not bleeding. Bad news; I haven't got a fucking clue what to do about this. Tara said it'll keep you going long enough to get you somewhere safe, so I guess we're just going to have to trust her."

Twilight just nodded in response. Given that there was little else she could do, Becky shrugged off her lab coat and gave it to Twilight, helping her to get it on.

Colonel Autumn watched the proceedings with a curious frown. "What exactly is going on here?"

"You're shutting your mouth and doing as you're told, that's what," Adam said firmly.

"It's fine, he should know about this." Becky took a deep breath and turned to face the Colonel, who waited expectantly. "Doctor Turner smuggled Equestrian magic into the base, I assume on the President's orders. As literally anyone other than them could have predicted, the magic has broken loose. That's what's causing the power outage in the base. As if that's not enough, Tara and I just discovered that Project Scouring is still active. Again, on the President's orders."

"What?!" Colonel Autumn paled in the face of Becky's half-truth. "How do you know all of this?"

"I hacked the President's personal files, that's how we learned about Project Scouring," Becky told him, protecting Tara with another half-truth.

"I see. And, I suppose you think that I had something to do with it?" Colonel Autumn asked.

Becky shook her head. "Actually, I don't. I heard how much you argued against that Project."

"Then why in God's name is there a gun pointed at my head?!" Colonel Autumn snarled.

"Well I'm pointing it because you killed my father," Adam said bluntly.

"Your father killed himself, boy," Colonel Autumn replied in an icy tone. "If he had just handed over control of the purifier as ordered he would have been permitted to stay on board as an advisor. Instead, he chose to throw his life away in a spiteful attempt to deny the Enclave our rightful-"

The Colonel's rant ended in an agonized yell as Adam shot him in the arm. "Keep jabbering and the next one will be in your face.

"You tell him, Sugarcube," Applejack put in.

Becky raised an eyebrow and gave Autumn a cold look. "I'm having a gun pointed at your head because we knew that the first thing you'd do when we told you about Project Scouring was start planning a military coup. I am not going to let that happen. We'll deal with President Eden, and then we'll have Congress elect a replacement, like the democracy that we're supposed to be."

If looks could kill, the Colonel's glare would have put Becky in a coffin. With Adam still pointing the gun at him, however, he wisely chose to stay silent.

Applejack pinched the bridge of her nose and held a hand up. "Okay, can we just take a step back for a second, please? First of all, what the heck is Project Scouring, and what exactly is so evil about it? Second, how did Doc Tara go all Midnight Sparkle on us? And for that matter, what in the name of applesauce is that thing that she's fighting back there?!"

"Whatever it was, it was pumped full of Equestrian magic," Twilight supplied weakly.

"Also, what's a Midnight Sparkle?" Adam added.

Becky bit her lip and looked back at the door they came in through. Seeing her look, Applejack clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Tara's gonna be fine, and we aren’t going anywhere until she's back. Why don't you tell us what you know while we wait; try and take your mind off it."

Without any better ideas, Adam and the others listened intently as Becky explained almost everything; including Doctor Turner's discovery that radiation causes magic to replicate, Tara's usage of the Geodes to empower herself, and the apparent smuggling of magic and its use on Horrigan.

Rarity hummed thoughtfully. "So, this Horrigan fellow is some form of mutated super soldier?"

"I think so, but I don't really know any details," Becky replied. "All I've heard are old stories about him. Honestly, I thought he had died decades ago." She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. "If he's back and pumped full of Equestrian magic, there's no telling what he'll do. He's probably as much of a threat to the Enclave as he is to anything else."

Adam nodded. He still had the gun pointed at Colonel Autumn and was stubbornly refusing to admit that his arms were starting to get tired from it. "What about Midnight Sparkle?"

"She's an evil version of me," Twilight answered quietly. She rubbed her neck awkwardly as she explained, "Before I became friends with Applejack, Rarity, and the others, I created a device that accidentally siphoned off some of their magic. My principal at the time pressured me into using the stolen magic to win some silly competition and it turned me into a dark and twisted version of myself; obsessed with learning everything about magic and willing to destroy anything that got in my way. I almost ripped my world apart trying to get to Equestria." She looked bleakly up at her friends. "Now that Tara is using our Geodes, she must have turned into her own version of Midnight."

Adam struggled to suppress a shudder at the thought of having a monster that powerful coming up to greet them at any moment. Then again, she sure is taking her time getting up here. That Horrigan must be one hell of a beast to be able to keep her busy for so long.

"What about Project Scouring?" Applejack asked suddenly. "You've told us everything else, but you haven't said anything about what that Project actually is."

Becky winced and nodded. "Right, yeah. Sorry, I'm too used to keeping classified stuff secret. Project Scouring is an ol-"

"Don't you dare tell them about Project Scouring, Doctor. That's an order!" Colonel Autumn barked. "You're teetering on the brink of treason already, but if you tell them anything else I'll have no choice but to order your execution!"

"Will you please just shut up!" Twilight raised her hand and a black aura flashed into being around Colonel Autumn's forearms. She flicked her wrist, and the Colonel screamed in agony as both of his arms snapped loudly.

The others stared in horror as Colonel Autumn dropped to his knees, trying to cradle his mangled arms against his knees.

"Nicely done." Everyone looked around to see Tara float through the door, grinning from ear to ear. "You shouldn't use too much of the magic from those crystals, though. It's what's keeping you from bleeding to death."

"Wait a minute, those crystals in her back let her use magic?" Becky asked incredulously.

Tara nodded. "Indeed they do. Anyway, you were all asking about Project Scouring." She floated past the group and over to another door on the other side of the room. "Project Scouring was an old plan to release a modified strain of FEV into the atmosphere. The FEV was designed to kill anything that had mutated DNA, including any humans that weren't born in Vaults or the sealed facilities of the Enclave."

Stopping just before the door, Tara turned to face the group. "The plan failed, but President Eden decided to try again, this time altering the FEV so that it was waterborne rather than airborne. Congress voted to cancel the Project, as the number of unmutated humans has dropped to such low levels that releasing the new Scouring strain would put humanity at risk of extinction, not to mention the fact that it's just downright evil. Unfortunately, it seems that President Eden has been keeping the project going in secret."

"Project Purity." Adam's blood ran cold as he realized what the President's plan was. "He must want to use the purifier to spread the FEV directly to all of the settlements in the Capital Wasteland."

Tara nodded grimly. "My thoughts exactly. Come on." She turned back and used her magic to open the door. "We have a President to dispose of."

Midnight-Tara VS Horrigan, first round goes to Midnight, albeit barely!

Only two chapters left in Raven Rock...