“In the Capital Wasteland. Seek a place called Dunwich. Within is an obelisk, itself a wicked thing.”

Annihilation.

Two hundred years ago, the world of Equestria had been obliterated by war and balefire. What remained after the years of bloodshed and hatred was a desolite husk of what the world had once been, a grim shadow of pony kind. But despite everything, the remnants of ponies emerged from below the crumbling and radioactive surface to once again reclaimed the ruin of Equestria. Settlements had been built, gangs, tribes and communities had been formed, even a form of economy had found its way back into the new world. In many ways it was beautiful; the endurance of civilization, assuming you could look past all the death, violence and misery.

But the Glowing Sea was nothing like that. The bombed, radioactive wastes of the glowing sea held no life, no signs of civilization, and no hope of ever returning to the ways of the old world. It was a peeling scab on the surface of the planet, a festering wound that would never truly heal. Its annihilation was total and absolute.

Dunes upon barren dunes of ash and cracked rock stretched out before me as far as the eye could see. The few trees that littered the desolite expanse were little more than charred and shriveled corpses with gnarled, skeletal branches. We passed the remains of an old pre war house, nothing but the crooked and unhinged front door remained. What did remain however, were skeletons.

There were hundreds of skeletons scattered across the glowing sea, many of them half buried in the radioactive ground. A few corpses still remained standing, the speed in which the balefire had descended down upon them leaving an almost statue-like remains of a pony, preserving their final seconds forever. They seemed to have died running, their faces twisted into an eternal scream.

It was death on a scale grander than any other. Complete annihilation.

Off in the distance, I could see the looming monolith like tower of the Ministry of Arcane Science. The towers smooth, black walls towered far above us even from this distance, making me feel small and insignificant before it. The thick green atmosphere gave the whole structure an even more sinister and imposing look. It felt… wrong… Like a sickening thing that wasn’t quite of our world.

We had hit the Glowing Sea like a wall. One minute we had been walking through the empty outskirts of the Hollow Shades, the sky no different than it usually was. Then, as if at the flip of a switch, the air turned thick and grim, clouding our view and obscuring most everything around us. The dead ground gave way to charred rocks and ash mixed with the occasional glowing pool of radiation and almost immediately my pipbuck began click click clicking as it warned me of lethal levels of rads in the air. Even with rad-x pumping through me and a hazmat suit tightly fitted over my body, I feared the radiation would melt me into a puddle on the spot.

Brisk and Pyre had returned from Stable 44 the night before with far more supplies than I had been expecting. Aside from Pyre’s now repaired power armour and a large stash of radaway and rad-x as we had planned, they had come carrying four bright yellow hazmat suits. The sight of them gave me a few moments of relief before realizing it meant I would have to cross the Glowing Sea without any real protective barding.

We had also gotten some ammo from the Stable as well, each one of us getting ten more shots for our guns respectively. It would have been nice to get more, but after the Hollow Shades Massacre, it was all Stable 44 was able to spare. I didn’t want to take too much ammo from them anyway, the last thing I wanted was for them to be unprepared if Red Eye decided to send more slavers to secure the location again.

My thoughts turned to the slaver forces of Fillydelphia as we moved along the uneven and rocky ground of the Glowing Sea. Even they had seemed confused by Red Eye’s decision to take the Hollow Shades. The settlement was simply too far out from any location of interest to be of any real tactical value to him. I had no doubt in my mind that Red Eye was less interested in the Hollow Shades, but rather who he might encounter in the desolation around it.

Red Eye was interested in getting his hooves on the A.A.S.S. Or at least somepony working with him did. If Kamari had it, then Red Eye would be coming here to get it. And I wasn’t going to let him do that.

Shade walked a few steps behind me, her head held low as she stumbled over the rough terrain in her baggy hazmat suit.

The doctors had released her from the hospital early in the morning, saying they needed more space for the more injured patients. Shade had healed enough that she was able to move with relative ease, though I could tell from her slow shaky limp that she was still in a fair amount of pain after the fight. She hadn’t complained once though, she probably didn’t feel like she deserved healing anyway after what she had done to our Stable.

Upon release, Shade had immediately requested to accompany us to the Ministry of Arcane Science hub. I had been sceptical to let her join at first, having no real interest in seeing her any more than I had to, but Brisk had convinced me that it was best to let her tag along. At the very least I could let her try to atone for what she had done. Not that I ever thought she would be able to.

The rest of my friends walked in front of me, their weapons drawn as they moved through the radioactive haze. The strong light on Pyre’s helmet illuminated most of the area before us, cutting through the thick green cloud like a knife.

Much like Shade, Pyre had remained almost completely silent as we walked. Even through her heavy armour, I could see her slumped back and defeated look. Whomever this Viscera was had really gotten under her skin. The large claw marks that raced down her face as a constant reminder of their fight no doubt added to emotional baggage she was clearly trying to suppress.

I trotted up to her and gave her a small tap on the shoulder to alert her of my presence in the gloomy fog. To my suprise, she jumped slightly. I don’t think I had ever seen Pyre Blaze so jumpy.

“Hey, you doing alright?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low enough that the rest of our party didn’t hear. I could see my Hellhounds ear twitch at my voice, but I wasn’t overly concerned about it over hearing. “You haven’t seemed yourself lately.”

Glancing away from me, Pyre looked out at the dunes of ash around us. “I’m fine. Just a little shaken. I’ll be able to fight,” she grunted, her voice betraying the embarrassment she must have felt from jumping at my touch.

I raised my eyebrow at her, before realising she wouldn’t be able to see it through the tinted dome of my hazmat suit. “I’m not worried about if you can fight, I’m making sure you’re okay,” I said flatly, trying to comfort her slightly with… whatever it was she was going through.

Pyre scoffed, not bothering herself to look back at me. “I’m in this group ‘cause I can fight Amber, don't try to pretend like I’m one of your friends. I said I can fight, so I’ll be fine.”

“We are friends,” I interjected, slightly taken aback by her statement. “I thought we had established that already?”

All I got was a small snort in return. Pyre glanced over at Brisk and Xayah as they bickered back and forth. “We aren’t friends like you three are friends. I’m here because I need you and you need me. Mutual benefit,” she started walking ahead faster, leaving me behind a little.

I quickened my pace to try and stay beside her. “But what about what we said back in Stable 25?”

Pyre simply snorted again and tried to push forwards. “That was then, this is now. I’ve been trying to run from my past, but Viscera made it very clear that I’m not escaping it anytime soon. So until then, I’m just here because y’all are of use to me,” She glanced back at Brisk and Xayah, I could see her gaze hold on Brisk for a few seconds longer. “Besides, the rest of your little troop aren’t as accepting as you have been.”

She finally managed to walk at a pace fast enough that I ended up tripping to try and keep pace. I fell and landed flat on my face. I groaned as I pulled myself up and brushed the ash of the hazmat suit. It was stuffy enough in this suit as it was, I didn’t need to go adding to the discomfort.

I felt Shade rush up to me and help brush off the ash. “You okay?” She uttered, trying to help me as best she could. I pushed her back slightly, probably a little harder than I should have.

“I’m fine, it’s just ash.”

Turning away from her, I focused on my Pipbuck that had been clamped tightly over the outside of my hazmat suit. I shuffled through my different audio files until I came across the one I wanted. It had been a while since I listened to one of SIlver Ace’s recordings and I was anxious to find out more about this Utopia program he kept mentioning. Not to mention how it might be connected to the A.A.S.S.

For a second, the recording held little more than static. Slowly, I began to make out the slow, quiet breaths of what sounded like an elder pony. “I don’t know where to start…” The sad voice of Silver Ace spoke. His voice was low and reflective. He sounded a lot older than he had in the other recordings. He sighed and I could hear him shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “...Maud Pie died earlier today. She was helping the Ministry of Image with some gem studies in creating stealth technology here in Manehattan. Apparently some zebra sympathisers caught wind of it and got word to the zebras. Pinkie’s... well, Pinkie’s furious…”

I could hear him sigh again. There was a long pause as he tried to figure out exactly what to say next. “The MOM is cracking down on ponies even more than they used to. I don’t think half of the ponies their accusing are even sympathisers. This war is causing us too much… there’s so much damn hatred,” He stopped again, his breath catching slightly. I could tell he was crying. “I was so certain I could stop all of this… the war… make everything okay between ponies and zebras… Fuck… Why did it have to come to this… This hadn’t been the plan... I just wish there was another way…”

The recording cut out, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I didn’t know who this Maud Pie was, but she must have been close to Pinkie somehow. I had heard horror stories of what the Ministry of Moral had done back during the war, that must have only made it so much worse.

No new news about that Utopia thing though…

I reached down to play another recording when my eyes landed on my Hellhound up ahead. They had frozen in place and were crouched down into a battle position. I checked my EFS, trying to spot whatever it was my Hellhound sensed. Nothing.

Of course they were no red bar on my EFS, this was the Hollow Shades. Monsters were tougher and EFS was useless.

Everypony else seemed to notice my Hellhound and I’s stance. They quickly silenced themselves and started looking around, waiting for something to emerge from the thick fog. Shade, being the least experienced of all of us, cowered behind me with her pistol drawn and swiveling around in her magic frantically as she tried to see whatever was coming.

“Amber, what do you see?” Xayah asked, her sniper swinging around to face a direction that no one else was facing yet. Clearly they assumed I had spotted it myself.

“No clue,” I grunted, turning to face my Hellhound. “Find it,” I ordered, keeping Boneless up and ready.

Slowly, the Hellhound pushed forwards, his nose sniffing the air every few seconds as it tried to pinpoint whatever it was. Then it froze, it’s eyes locked on something in the distance. I turned to see what it was and froze myself.

Something huge was coming towards us, its size comparable to that of the monsters we had fought below the surface. A large cloud of ash and dust was being kicked up into the air around it, making it nearly impossible to make out. Its huge scaled and serpent-like body was so wide and tall I could have mistaken it for a large hill had it not been darting towards us with terrifying speed. Through the green haze, I could see a massive maw the size of a small house filled with swirling, jagged fangs.

Smaller creatures were slowly rising from the ash around it as it advanced, their twisted and rotting forms somewhat resembling that of a pony. The smaller ghoul-like creatures that rushed forwards didn’t seem to have normal pony heads however. Instead, a large gaping mouth reminiscent of the large creature snapped and oozed from the stump of their necks.

I could see Pyre take a few horrified steps back. “Holy fucking shit!” She cried, her flamers whirring to life. “Run! Run fucking now!” she spun on the spot and began galloping as fast as she could from the creature and towards the looming black spire ahead of us.

Not waiting for a second longer, the rest of us jumped into action, spinning on our hooves and rushing after her. I heard Brisk fire two shots behind us at the onslaught of creatures, but they seemed to take the bullets like they were nothing and kept charging.

“What the hell is that thing!” Brisk screamed as he raced ahead of me next to Pyre.

“A fucking tatzelwurm!” She screamed back between heavy breaths. “I thought they were a fucking myth!”

The huge tatzelwurm was gaining on us. With each step we took it seemed to only grow larger and larger. I could feel the ground vibrating under its slithering movements. From around us, more pony-like creatures were crawling from the ashes. Their rotting bodies stripped of their once beautiful coat and missing bits of flesh to reveal the strange warped green bone underneath.

I gulped as I saw one of the skeletons we had been passing start to writhe and pull itself from the ground. I had been told Kamari might be meddling with necromancy, now I had my confirmation.

There was an ear piercing shriek from behind us and the deafening sound of the earth being ripped apart. I glanced behind me with just enough time to spot the huge form of the tatzelwurm dive below the surface.

Shit! This thing could burrow!

One of the zombie-like ponies slammed into me, knocking me from my hooves and sending me sprawling across the charred rocks. The sudden horrifying realization that if their attacks ripped my hazmat suit I would die of radiation poisoning in seconds flashed through my mind. I scrambled back to my hooves and leapt to the side as another zombie lurched at me, doing my best to evade any and all attacks.

This wasn’t a fight we could win, we simply had to run!

I swung Boneless through the air and shoved it’s three barrels down the zombies throat. One shot of buckshot obliterated its maw like head, sending bits of glowing viscera flying everywhere. Almost instantly, I saw the thick radioactive air surge through the zombie’s wound and pull it’s head back together. Not even Crank’s impressive regeneration could match up to this.

I pushed off from the ground and darted towards my friends as a horde of zombies clawed their way from the surface and charged me. I felt one of their large mouths clamp tightly around my back hoof, making me stumble again.

Before their sharp fangs could rip at my hazmat suit, Pyre Blaze leapt over me and crushed the creature flat with her powerful hooves. Her flamers blasted out behind me, setting my pursuers alight with flame.

I managed to pull myself away from the still squirming zombies grasp as it began pulling itself back together around Pyre’s hoof.

Pyre looked down too late as the zombie completely reformed, her hoof still embedded in it’s head. The creature's teeth sank into her leg, bending the armour and sending jagged pieces of metal crushing into Pyre’s hoof. By some miracle, the armour itself didn’t seem to get any holes in it.

Brisk pulled up next to us, his baseball bat clamped tight in his mouth as he swung it down and once again burst open the zombies head. Pyre pulled her hoof back the second it was free, using her free hoof to push us away as two more zombie things lashed at us with their gnarled hooves.

“Come! We must flee!” I heard Xayah yelled from ahead of us, her voice missing the normal enchanting rhythm and replaced by a pressing fear. “We are almost at the-”

The rest of her sentence was drowned out as the huge tatzelwurm broke the surface before her, cutting off our path to the Ministry of Arcane Science hub. A massive cloud of ash and rock billowed out around the tatzelwurm as it loomed over us, still keeping my vision of it obscured.

Xayah yelped with fear as the shockwave of the huge monster sent her stumbling backwards. She landed hard and skidded across the ground to a stop next to me.

The six of us cowered together, our backsides pushed up against each other as more and more creatures began crawling from the ground and closing in on us. The massive tatzelwurm began slithering forwards, its huge scaly body seeming to radiate clouds of radiation towards us as it drew closer.

From below the ground came the sound of scratching claws as the bodies of zombie Hellhounds began pulling themselves to the surface. Their pale yellow eyes seemed to burn into us as they joined with the rest of the oncoming horde.

I was very quickly understanding better than ever why Azar had said that even going through the caves of the Hallow Shades was a safer way to get to the dark spire.

The first Hellhound lashed out at us, it’s claws extended to rip us apart. Xayah shot it through the chest with a precise shot from her sniper, but it did little more than stagger the raging beast as it continued closing in.

Bullets and violence were useless here. This lesson, I had learned before.

I rolled to the side as a zombie rushed me. My baton swung up and crushed its skull, sending it into a short spasm as it pulled itself back together again and continued its assault.

I could hear the almost pathetic sounding cracks of Shades pistol as she fired shot after shot towards the advancing tatzelwurm. Even my Hellhounds mighty roars sounded more like whimpers amongst the howling of the undead army.

The tatzelwurm opened its huge mouth and screamed, the noise forcing the rest of us to cover our ears. I could feel a trail of blood leaking from my eardrums and running down my face. Several long fleshy tendrils shot out of the tatzelwurm’s mouth like bullets. The slimy tongues lashed out and wrapped around our hooves as it began slowly pulling us all towards its huge maw. I struggled against it’s tight restricting grip, but nothing seemed to faze the huge creature.

We were surrounded and had no way of fighting off such unkillable adversaries. It almost seemed like a cruel joke, for me to have come so far, only to die in perhaps the most desolate part of the wasteland, where no pony would ever even find my body. Assuming I even had a body left after the radiation ate away at me.

I could feel Xayah shivering behind me as countless creatures began descending towards her. Another tendril shot out and wrapped around her throat, choking the air from her lungs. I tried to reach out and help her, but the oozing tongues that held me pulled me back. There was nothing we could do! We were going to die!

Then everything froze. If not for the occasional twitch of one of the vial ghouls I would have assumed they had quite literally been turned to stone. Even the huge tatzelwurm seemed to pause, its gaping maw only inches away from swallowing all of us whole.

Then it realised us and darted away. We all dropped to the ground panting as the horde of zombie creatures turned and began crawling back into the ground which they had come from.

“Their leaving?” Shade gasped from beside me, slowly trying to pull herself back up. “Why?”

Pyre managed to get herself back to her hooves before the rest of us, her eyes darting around at the now seemingly empty wastes from behind her visor. “They’re running away…” Her whole body seemed to tense as she realized what that entailed. “We need to move, now!”

As we pulled ourselves up, a massive roar echoed from around us from all sides. A chill passed through me. Whatever that was, it was huge.

Some dark form was rising from the haze in the distance. Even from here, it seemed to tower over everything. I could make out the silhouette of huge bulging limbs and massive building sized spines that raced down it’s gigantic form. Two monstrous wings slowly unfolded themselves from its side.

I stared in horror as the growing shadow against the horizon began to take a horrifyingly familiar shape. I had seen it once before, in the first memory orb I had ever viewed… A dragon!

I was so frozen with fear I forgot to run. I just stood there, staring up at the massive form that towered above us. We were in the Hollow Shades, I knew that wouldn’t just be any dragon. This one would have been mutated by years upon years of slumbering in one of the most radioactive places in the whole wasteland. And we had just woken it up.

It took Brisk slapping me across the face to pull me from my terrified trance. His slaps were not nearly as strong as Xayah’s, but they did the job. My head snapped to the side to look at him, even through the tinted dome of the hazmat suit I could see his fear.

“Run!” He yelled, giving my flank a strong push and forcing me to rush towards the looming monolith. Now out of the trance, I didn’t hesitate to comply.

I could hear the booming steps of the dragon as if thundered after us, each step it took shaking the ground and threatening to knock me over. The monster roared again, the sound disorienting me and making me stagger slightly before I got my bearings and continued running. Then the thundering steps from behind us stopped and were replaced with the heavy sound of flapping.

Fwap! Fwap! Fwap! Fwap!

I turned back slightly to see the mighty dragon take to the air, each flap of its massive wings disrupting the thick layer of ash that had settled upon the dunes of the Glowing Sea and sending them into the air like a massive sand storm.

It was gaining on us! Fast!

Did I ever mention how much I hated enemies that could fly? It's so unfair! Why can’t I be a pegasus or something!?

“It’s coming! To the Tower! Hurry!” I heard Pyre’s desperate commands as we neared the massive spire.

Up close, the tower seemed even more wrong and alien. I couldn’t quite seem to place my hoof on it, but something about it just felt incorrect, like a poorly drawn picture of a pony with all the wrong proportions. Just being close to it made me want to curl up and hide. It was almost scarier than that dragon.

Pyre reached the black tower first. She charged towards a large set of metal doors in the towers base and began slamming her hooves against them to get them open. The doors didn’t budge.

“Amber, the terminal!” Brisk screamed as he reached the doors as well and turned to face the soaring dragon. He pointed towards a locked terminal that lay next to the large doors. He raised his pistol and aimed at the dragon, as if his tiny weapon could actually do something against a creature of that size.

I pulled up next to the terminal and began typing. Immediately I groaned. Fifteen figures! The password was fifteen fucking figures! There was no way I could hack that quickly!

The dragon was getting closer, the booming flap of its wings was beginning to drown out all other noise as it closed in. I was beginning to make out more of its horrifying visage as it grew closer. I had been right, it was no ordinary dragon.

Where once shining green scales had once been were now a myriad of festering scabs and blisters. Hundreds of smaller mouths gnawed aimlessly at the air from the few places that the oozing scabs had been pulled away to reveal rotting skin, dotting the flesh like zits. Its huge, pony sized eyes were pale and lacked pupils and its mouth was filled with rows upon rows of massive sharp fangs. It’s tale alone was the size of the tatzelwurm!

A sickening horror passed over me as I realized its tale wasn’t simply as big as a tatzelwurm, it was a tatzelwurm! The end of the spiked tale opened and closed as the tatzelwurm’s mouth helplessly lashed out at anything that it could get close to.

I hate the Hollow Shades! Only it could create horrors like that fucking thing!

I turned back to the terminal, trying to bypass the lock with my shaking hooves. I only had three chances, I could do this! hopefully!

Pyre sent a large steam of flame towards the dragon. Her flamers had an exceptionally far reach for a flamer, but they still didn’t have the same range of a normal gun and definitely didn’t have the range to hit the flying dragon above us. But Pyre didn’t seem to be caring much if she hit it or not, she just kept a stream of fire towards it as she zigzagged back and forth, slowly moving away from us.

“Pyre, what are you doing!” I heard Xayah call out. She jumped to the side as the Dragon swooped down and racked towards her with its claws. The claws missed by meer inches, digging massive grooves in the ground as it’s attack carried through. The dragon's claws lashed against the wall of the MAS hub, causing a shower of blue sparks to erupt around me. To my surprise, the wall itself remained unharmed, not even slightly scratched by the huge dragon.

“Distracting!” Pyre called back breathlessly, rushing up and managing to blast the dragon with a bit of fire before darting away as the dragon lurched at her. “Keep it away from Amber! We need to get that door open!”

The rest of our party seemed to understand and agree with her train of thought and immediately went into action, trying to draw the dragons attention toward any direction that wasn’t me. I wanted to protest and help them fight, but I knew far too well that if I didn’t get this door open we were all as good as dead. Still, it didn’t feel right to have all my friends risking their lives for me.

I took a risk and clicked on a potential password. I wanted to scream with frustration when it informed me I had gotten the password incorrect.

Okay… this is fine… only two chances left, I could still do this.

The dragon dropped straight down from the sky and crashed against the ground. The whole ground seemed to shake as it landed, making me lose my hoofing and fall flat on my rump. The dragons roared, its fang filled maw dropping widening. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a burning glow slowly building from within the dragon's throat.

I heard a quick scream of fear from somewhere behind me before my whole world was submerged in flames. Fire flared around me in every direction, nearly blinding me as the flames filled my vision and caught the tips of my tail aflame. I could feel the immense heat scorch my back and cause blisters to rise on my pink hide. Thankfully, the dragon didn’t seem to be directing it’s mighty blast in my direction, the flames washing over me only seeming to be the edges of the huge jet of fire that licked out at my writhing form.

I batted my tail with a hoof, trying desperately to put out the fire before it completely burned my tail off.

As the flames died down, I saw the stumbling form of Pyre as she struggled to pull herself from the ground. She had managed to avoid the attack, but just barely. Her metal armour steamed and glowed a dull hot red. I had no doubt that the searing metal was burning her from the inside. Had it been any other pony, they probably would have been dead. But Pyre was stronger, she had grown to not feel the burn of flame. Yet even she was screaming.

The dragon lurched around, its huge tatzelwurm tail sweeping across the ground and knocking more ash into the air. I ducked down as the tatzelwurm swung over me, crashing into the walls of the tower. Once again, a shower of blue sparks burst from where the dragon hit the smooth black walls, sending burning blue embers down upon me. I rolled to the side to avoid them burning through my hazmat suit.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

Brisk’s pistol cracked off three shots into the dragon's head. Two of the bullets ricochet off of its tough natural armour, the third embedded itself right in the creatures eye. Instead of reacting in pain like any normal creature should, the dragon simply turned to glare down at Brisk, its pale eye slowly pulling itself together.

“Hehe… Amber! You almost got that door?” Brisk asked timidly as he met the dragon's gaze straight on. The dragon lunged at him before I had a chance to answer, not that my answer was of any use at the moment.

Brisk rushed to the side as the dragon lashed its huge claws at him, tearing out large chunks of the earth as it did.

I turned back to the terminal. Two attempts left, fifteen letters… I took a deep breath and went back to work. I could hear the screaming of my friends as they tried to keep the dragons' attention away from me. I couldn’t let them down… not now.

I dropped down as the huge beast tail swung over top of me again. My hoof slipped and I accidently hit a random password on the terminal. The terminal beeped.

>Access Granted

Huh… well would you look at that… I quickly checked what password I had hit. Twilightsparkle. Figures, should have guessed that one right away.

A massive stomp from the dragon behind me reminded me I didn’t have time to dally. I quickly advanced through the terminal.

>Welcome, Twilight Sparkle

>All Systems Operational

>Override Emergency Gate

[Confirm]

I clicked confirm as fast as I could. The large door abruptly burst open with a speed and fluidity that no post apocalyptic door should have been able to have.

I turned back to everypony else for a brief second. “The door is open, Everypony in!” I yelled, before turning and darting through the door myself. Behind me, I could hear my friends start diving for the door themselves, their hoofsteps drowned out by the thundering noise of the dragon as it gave chase.

My Hellhound scrambled into the building after me first, followed closely behind by the rest of my friends, Pyre Blaze taking up the rear. I thought I saw something smaller dart past the doorway and scuttle under a table, but there was so much going on, I didn’t have time to check.

The room within was a large circular chamber with three large doors against the far wall. A small platform rest next to the door and the floor was covered in boxy desks, each equipped with a dull grey chair and terminal.

“What! How did you get in!” I heard the rhythmic voice of a zebra call out. Looking up, I saw three zebras standing guard inside, their curved blades raised for a fight.

The zebra’s eyes widened as they spotted the huge shape rushing after us. Their jaws went slack as they took in the gigantic dragon. “Dragon!” One of them yelled, rushing for the emergency door controls on an elevated platform to the left of the door.

I felt the build up of heat on the back of my neck as the dragon prepared for a second blast of fire. Even before it left the creatures mouth, the heat was intense.

“Get to the sides!” I screamed at my friends as I pushed myself up against the wall as much as I could. My comment wasn’t necessary, they had already begun to move away from the door as fast as they could.

The dragon let loose another jet of smoldering flames. The fire pushed through the doors, setting the three zebras ablaze long before they could reach the emergency door controls. I pushed myself up tighter against the wall as the flames licked at my hooves. As the flames subsided, only three charred skeletons lay where the three zebra’s had once been.

“Get to the door controls!” I shouted, pointing to the elevated platform on the far side of the room from me. Xayah, who was closest to it, quickly began rushing towards the platform.

The mutated dragon's head burst through the open doors. It’s body couldn’t fit all the way though, but it’s head and serpentine neck seemed to have no trouble. It’s pale eyes scanned over the room looking for us.

It’s gaze landed on me. I felt a shiver race down my spine as its eyes locked with mine. It began moving its head towards me, even without the rest of its body giving it height, the massive beast towered above me.

Brisk and Shade shot off a few shots from their guns, but the dragon all but ignored it as it readied itself for an attack. It maw opened wide and it lunged it’s head down towards me, intent on swallowing me whole.

The door abruptly slammed shut on its neck, jerking the dragons head away from me and crashing against the wall. The powerful doors pushed against its armoured neck, slowly crushing it. The dragon roared with pain as the door tightened, a burning light once again forming in the back of its throat.

“Everypony down!” I screamed, lunging under the closest desk I could. I could see Brisk and Pyre do the same. I wasn’t able to see what happened to Shade, Xayah or my Hellhound. I hoped they found cover.

Seconds after I pulled myself completely under the desk, the Dragon let out another breath of flame. It’s head thrashed around the room, trying to dislodge itself from the large mechanical doors grip. Its thrashing motion sent the stream of fire spewing everywhere, blackening the walls and completely melting many off the desks. I could feel my skin boiling as the fire momentarily passed over the desk I cowered under.

There was a final mighty crash, and the large doors completely slammed shut, severing the dragons head from it’s body outside completely. The roaring fire went out immediately, only the lingering flames that burned away at the few wooden objects in the room remaining. Blood splattered against the walls and spilled from the severed stump of the dragon's neck.

Even decapitated the head squirmed back and forth, trying to snap at us. Finally, after a few seconds of thrashing and shrieking, the massive dragon went still and died.

I glanced up at the platform to see Xayah slowly pull herself out from behind the emergency door control. Thank the goddesses she had closed that door in time or I would have been dragon food. Xayah gave me a nervous smile as she caught my eye and waved.

I quickly checked my pipbuck. To my surprise, there didn’t appear to be any radiation inside of the MAS tower. Pyre must have noticed the same thing because she was quickly pulling herself out of her still steaming power armour.

I gasped as I saw the wreck her body was in. Pyre’s fiery coat had always sported a large collection of scars and burn marks, but now it was a complete wreck. The large claw marks from Viscera still throbbed a deep red across her side, back and face and most of her hide had been burned off by the dragons attacks.

I quickly rushed over to her and passed her a healing potion. She took it in her mouth without complaint and chugged the contents. Her coat and blistering wounds patched over a little, but the damage was still pretty bad. I passed her another one, but she just pushed it away.

“You only got five of those things left, save them for something really important,” She said, pulling herself to her hooves and looking over her steaming armour. “Shit, I just fixed this armour…”

Brisk trotted up, still limping on his leg. He seemed to have been unharmed by the dragon like most of us. “Is the armour still usable?” He asked, surveying the hunk of metal on the ground.

Pyre poked at her armour with a hoof. Had I been the one to touch it, I probably would have recoiled at the searing heat. Pyre however, kept her hoof on it for a few seconds, allowing herself to take in exactly how hot the metal really was. “The armour is usable, sure. But it’s too hot to wear, even for me,” she grunted as she pulled her hoof away. “And we don’t really have any water to dump on it and cool it off, so fuck me I guess.”

“I still have all that Wild Pegasus whisky in my saddlebag,” Brisk said, pulling out two bottles. I could see a few more still inside the bags. “Might make your armour a bit sticky, but might cool it down some.”

Pyre just grinned at him. “Ha, like my armour hasn’t been sticky with worse,” She joked, taking a bottle herself and dumping it on the armour herself.

“Like what?” I asked absentmindedly, puzzling over her statement, my thoughts still not fully all together after the whole dragon attack.

Pyre just gave me an amused look. “I’ll let you figure that one out Amber.”

I raised an eyebrow as I rolled it around in my head. I could feel my ears warm up and a blush cross my face as the answer finally managed to get through my thick skull. “O-oh…”

Pyre just smirked and poured another bottle of wild pegasus onto the armour. “Yeah, Oh.”

Shade hauled herself up from under a half collapsed desk and shakily looked over at the severed dragon head before turning her gaze to us. Her eyes widened in fear as she saw a bottle of her favorite whisky get dumped onto the steaming suit of armour.

“We had Wild Pegasus this whole time and none of you told me!” She gawked, watching in horror as the third to last bottle was unceremoniously dumped out.

Brisk scoffed and looked over the armour for a second. Deciding that the armour had cooled down enough, he shoved the last two bottles back into his saddlebag. “They weren’t for you.”

Xayah hopped down from the platform and joined us as Pyre slowly crawled back into her power armour. The metal still seemed hot to the touch, but nothing that Pyre wasn’t accustomed to already.

We quickly stripped out of our hazmat suits and pulled our normal barding back on. It felt good to be out of that stuffy thing.

“We should get going, no doubt our entrance has gotten us a fair amount of notice,” Xayah said, glancing around the large room. Her eyes landed on the three big doors on the far wall.

Brisk nodded, taking a few steps towards the doors. “I second that, you got a plan sis?” he glanced over at me. He had asked about my plan, but I could tell from his eyes he was also making sure I was still okay with the whole sibling thing.

I gave him a small smile before straightening up and approaching the three doors myself. “I don’t have a plan so much as an objective. Find and kill Kamari, then get the A.A.S.S. back if we can.”

“Any idea where Kamari might be? I mean this place is huge,” Pyre asked, looking over the three doors. “Do we split up to cover more ground or what?”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t split up, who knows what's in here. Besides, one of the few things we do know is that both Crank and Azar are somewhere in this building as well. It’s probably best to not run into either of them alone.”

They all quickly agreed to that. The idea of fighting either of those powerhouses was terrifying in it of itself, let alone fighting them by yourself.

I turned to the center door and activated the terminal beside it. Locked, but not nearly as hard as the one outside had been. I unlocked the terminal in a matter of seconds and the large metal doors slid open.

The hallway beyond felt like an unnatural version of the caves below the Hollow Shades. The circular black tunnel distended downwards into the earth at an alarming rate. A strange feeling seemed to be emanating from it, making me want to run and hide.

We pushed forwards into the cavern like hallway. Every few paces a doorway beside us would automatically open up, making us jump. Through the doors we could see the large office spaces filled with rows upon rows of desks and terminals.

As I looked over the nearly pristine desks, the wrongness of the MAS tower suddenly hit me. The reason it always looked so wrong suddenly made a whole lot of sense.

“It’s in perfect condition…” I gasped, as my eyes left the office area and returned to the long, dark hallway. Where any other structure in the wasteland would be crumbling and riddled with large holes, all the walls inside and outside of the MAS tower were still perfectly intact. Even the desks and chairs that lined the rooms were still in perfect condition.

Brisk glanced up at me. “What do you mean?”

“This tower was hit point blank with multiple Balefire Bombs… how can it still be in such good condition?” I said, wording my thoughts into a more coherent and understandable sentence.

“I saw the dragon's claws deflect off of the walls outside,” Pyre added, walking slowly behind us. “That thing should have been able to tear right through those walls like a Hellhound with dirt.”

“So what are we dealing with? Indestructible walls?” I asked, trying to wrap the mystery around my head.

Pyre simply shrugged. “Beats me, but probably not. The Balefire bomb would have still knocked over all the furniture. This shits magic or something.”

Of course it was. Because my life had to be difficult in every possible way.

Up ahead, I could see the shape of a large door at the end of the hall. Like the last door, it was locked with a simple terminal that I managed to hack at record speed. The doors squeaked open and revealed the large room beyond.

The large chamber was filled with exactly what I would have expected. Rows upon rows of terminal topped desks ran in perfect lines across the floor. Large blackboards covered the diagrams and equations so complex even I had trouble understanding them had been installed onto most of the walls and a large, multi screen monitor that had long since gone dead hung from the ceiling. At the far end of the room was a large set of double oak doors that lead into a room beyond and off to the right was the entrance to what appeared to be another long hallway.

“Looks like the main office area,” Shade said, walking amongst the desks and looking over the terminals. She glanced over at the large oak doors at the far end. “And I’d guess that's the ministry mares office.”

“Twilight Sparkle,” I added, not really knowing how much that fact actually contributed to the topic at hoof. Shade simply nodded in response.

Brisk waltzed up to the large doors and looked over the lock. “I can probably get into here if you want?” He stated, looking over to me for confirmation. He then proceeded to pick at the lock without waiting for my response. “Though it might take a second… Holy shit this lock is tough.”

“Make sure nopony sneaks up on us,” I ordered my Hellhound, pointing it towards the doorway we had just come through. I didn’t know how many zebras Kamari had working for him here. We hadn’t seen any others than the three at the front door, but if what Crank had told me was true, then he had a whole army hiding in here somewhere.

I thought for a second before slowly following my Hellhound to the door. I coughed slightly to catch its attention, but it didn’t seem to react. “So uh… I was just wondering… do you have a name?” I asked the Hellhound awkwardly. It stood there like a statue, ignoring my question. I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. “Heh… right…” This felt weird, I didn’t even know how intelligent this thing was, not to mention it was kinda being mind controlled at the moment. Not really something I could have a conversation with. Not knowing how to proceed, I decided to cut right to the point. “Look, uh… Hellhound. I’m sorry I had to drag you all the way out here and stuff. Once Kamari is dead, I’ll let you go, I promise.”

The Hellhound remained silent and unmoving, but to my surprise, I saw the muscles in the back of its neck relax a little. So it could understand me, at least somewhat. That shouldn’t have been a surprise, it had been following my orders.

Whatever had motivated it to speak in the cistern below the Hollow Shades had past. It would remain silent now.

I patted it awkwardly on one of its big clawed arms and turned back to the room. Not knowing what to do while Brisk picked at the lock, I walked along the rows of desks with Xayah slowly trotting beside me.

“Why do you think this place is still so intact?” My zebra friend asked, looking at the many terminals cautiously. “I have never seen anything like this in the wasteland before. Granted I did not do very much traveling before we met.”

I shrugged. “No idea. It just seems wrong.”

Xayah glanced nervously back at the Hellhound. “I am glad you are deciding to free that thing, but how do you plan to do that without it attacking you?”

I gave her yet another shrug. “I haven’t the slightest idea.”

Eventually, I picked a terminal at random and stopped in front of it. I clicked it on and scrolled through the different files. There were a few logs that had been saved to it, all of which had been named very creatively log #1, log #2, and so on.

I clicked the first log and let it open up

<BIOENGINEERING TERMINAL 8A>

>Log #1

>So a buddy of mine told me to keep note of all the stuff I need to do to help me remember everything. Kept saying that I have shit memory or something. Told me to write everything I need to do down so I won’t forget it. Shit, I think I said that already- point is, I’m taking his advice so, yeah… just bear with me, okay.

>Anyway, Twilight has us working around the clock on that strange Impelled Metamorphosis Potion stuff they’ve been shipping in from the Hippocratic Research Building. That stuff gives me the creeps. I can’t tell if the label on it is supposed to be a cruel joke or not, cause if it isn’t then nopony should be meddling with that shit. I mean, ‘Don’t touch, Breath or Stare at’? Are you kidding! I don’t want to go anywhere near the stuff. Not to mention the nasty side effects that it has. Just the other day, I heard somepony fell into a vat of it, apparently they currently have tentacles growing out of their eye sockets and an extra seven mouths. I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard for having somehow managed to survive the ordeal.

>In any case, the big purple unicorn herself has us making sure every vat of that I.M.P. shit is perfect before we ship it off to Maripony. We’ve been ordered to dump all flawed batches of I.M.P. into the cave system below the Shades where it won’t hurt any pony. I just hope that that’s far enough away. That stuff is weird and I sure as hell don't want tentacles growing out of my eyes.

>I’ll update this on any other advancements in the I.M.P. production.

I read over it again to make sure I had read everything right. Tentacles and extra mouths? Sounded offley familiar. My best guess was that this Impelled Metamorphosis Potion they had been dumping in the caves had been the cause of the strange mutated creatures we had seen. No doubt the balefire radiation had only enhanced it, but that at least explained why these things were so different here from everywhere else in the wasteland.

Curious, I clicked open the next log and started reading its contents.

<BIOENGINEERING TERMINAL 8A>

>Log #2

>That I.M.P. is causing more deaths around here than the MAS is willing to admit! Daisy accidentally looked too long at one of those rainbow vats yesterday and she blew up! I’m not even fucking with you! They were serious when they said don’t stare at it! Then I found out this morning that the Ministry of Image was here and that there never was a record of a Daisy Wallflower in the MAS! They’re just fucking erasing us to cover their own tracks! Daisy was a good mare, and the fact that they can just pretend she didn’t exist is terrible!

>Fuck, I don’t even know how to take all this- it all just seems so crazy. Like some bullshit dystopian novel I read back in grade school.

>Weird conspiracies aside, the I.M.P. seems to be coming along pretty good. We’ve been getting positive responses out in Maripony, so I guess we must be doing something right. Not that they bother to tell us out here what the shit’s actually for, that's apparently some big ministry secret or something. Doesn’t matter. We all get the day off tomorrow, apparently Twilight is meeting with some important guests or something that she doesn’t want us to see. I don’t know who the hell it is, but I ain’t complaining about getting the day off. They should drop by more often.

That didn’t tell me as much as I would have liked. Of course, the fact that the Ministry of Image was covering up for accidents that happened was rather disturbing, though not really of any value to me.

I was about to read another log when a small clatter sounded from down the hall we had been yet to enter. My head shot up and looked towards the door. There didn’t seem to be anything there… but that didn’t mean nothing was. I glanced down at my EFS. I spotted one lone green bar.

I raised Boneless and slowly pulled myself towards the door.

“Amber? What is it?” Xayah asked from beside me, crouching down a little and letting her hoof hover over the gem on her stealth cloak. “See something?”

I narrowed my eyes at the doorway. “I don’t know… I’m seeing movement on my EFS. It’s not hostile,” I took another step closer to the door.

“Need some company?” Xayah whispered, pulling out her own sniper.

I waited for a second, my eyes still locked on the doorway. Then, from down the hall I saw it. A small filly was staring at me, half its face and body obscured behind a wall. The darkness of the hallway masked most of its colours in shadows, but I could still make out the fillies mane… my mane. The image of a red screwdriver rest on the fillies flank. Even from here, the symbol seemed to be calling to me. A thin, mischievous smile was etched across the small fillies face. A second later and it was gone, darting behind the doorway and into one of the rooms down the hall.

I shook my head. “You stay here. I’m going to go check it out?”

Xayah looked up at me nervously. “Are you sure? I find it unwise to split up in this place.”

I just shook my head again and moved into the hallway. “I’ll be fine. Just be ready in case something goes wrong,” I said.

I pushed down the hall, each step seeming to echo around me. I hated this place, it felt sick. I could sense movement in the far room, but I couldn’t seem to hear or see anything.

I slowly pushed the door open with the tip of my shotgun. The door swung inwards with a creak, revealing the room beyond. I gulped as I took the small, dusty room within. It was an abandoned nursery. Wooden blocks and stuffed animals lay scattered across the floor as if the fillies and colts that had once played with them had simply disappeared and left them behind. Three baby blue cribs sat in a half circle in the middle of the room, the center crib slowly rocked back and forth as if being rocked by a ghost.

I took a shaky breath. “Hello? Anypony in here?” I knew they were. A single green bar was still present on my EFS. “It’s okay, you can come out,” I tried to sound soothing and calm, but the whole ordeal had me a little too nervous to fully hide the terrified squeak in my voice.

From behind one of the cribs, I saw a pair of large pale eyes peeking over the rail and staring at me. Its large amber pupils seemed to glow slightly in the dark like a cat. I tried to get a better look at it, but all I could make out were those amber eyes and slightly curly pink mane streaked with blue.

I gulped and tried again. “Who- er… what are you? You’ve been following me for quite a while now, haven't you?” This was what? The third time I had spotted this tiny version of myself. I took a step forward, only for it to take a timid step back. I tried talking to it again. “Why do you look like me? Or a younger me anyway?”

The filly me’s mouth opened slightly as if preparing to say something. It hesitated for a second, its devious grin slowly shifting to a slightly more nervous expression.

“HA! Got it!” I heard Brisk yell from back down the hallway. I jumped a little at his outburst and turned to look out the door. I realized my mistake too late and spun back only to find the filly me gone. Once again, it had vanished before I had a chance to find out who or what it was.

“What the fuck is going on…” I muttered to myself as I left the room and slowly walked back out to join my friends.

True to what Brisk had said, the large double doors now lay open, letting us enter the large office on the other side. The room could only be described as organised chaos. Books upon books lay in organised heaps on the floor and the walls were lined with towering wooden bookshelves that had been categorized in such a complex and intricate manner that it actually became harder to find what you were looking for. A book covered desk sat in the center of the room with a flickering terminal on it. On the far wall was a large painting of the Ministry mare herself, Twilight Sparkle.

I had never taken Twilight to be the kind of pony to hang a large picture of herself on her office wall. Granted I only knew her from vague quotes and references in old pre war textbooks. That aside, the painting was gorgeous. The painting was of Twilight standing in an almost heroic pose with the magnificent site of Canterlot castle in the back, five books floating around her in her sparkling magic and the image of a six pointed star had been emblazoned on the golden sky behind her.

Brisk groaned the second he saw the room and the endless piles of books that were scattered around the area. “Are you kidding me! I spent all that work picking that lock, and Twilight was a fucking egghead!”

I grinned at him. “I think you should read more bro, maybe you could get some more brain cells in that big empty head of yours,” I joked, picking up the first book I could find and looking it over. I was in book heaven right now, and I was loving it.

Brisk just gave me a smug smirk and chuckled a little. “I’m perfectly happy with my two brain cells as it is thank you!” He stuck his tongue out at me playfully.

“Well it doesn’t look like Kamari is here, or that there is a passage here that might take us to him,” Pyre grunted, picking a book up herself and flipping through a couple pages. Deciding she had no interest in the book, she shot a small burst of fire from her flamers and turned the old book to ash. My heart cried a little at the sight.

“So what do we do? Try a different hallway and hope for the best?” Shade asked, peering into the room from the main office area. “We probably shouldn’t linger in any place for too long.”

My eyes locked on the terminal on Twilight's large desk. “Give me a second, maybe we can find some answers in that teminal there,” I turned back and addressed all my friends more directly. “Look around and see if you can find a layout of the building. There’s probably one lying around somewhere.”

Brisk gave me a quick salute and began rummaging through everything with Xayah. I turned back to face the terminal and turned it on. To my surprise, it was unlocked. The first log caught my eye and I clicked on it.

<TWILIGHT SPARKLES TERMINAL 42A>

>Log #1 Painting

>Rarity just came by and dropped off this painting for me. Not my usual choice in decor, but I appreciate the thought. It’s been so long since all of us have been together, soI ’m not going to complain when I get the chance to catch up. I believe she gave a painting to Rainbow and Applejack as well. I think she’s trying to keep us all connected through all of this, I really hope she can.

>I’ll be honest, I don’t really know what to do with it. Most of my offices don’t really have room for a painting this large and I don’t know if I really want a big portrait of myself hanging above my desk, despite its intentions. I’ll probably leave it here in the Hollow Shades. I don’t come out here very often, but I simply can’t just get rid of a gift with so much heart in it.

>At the very least I can use it to cover that ugly back exit Princess Luna insisted I have. I understand what she was thinking, and I don’t disagree with her, but did the architect really need to have it built a few feet off the ground? It looks ridiculous.

Finishing the log, I quickly moved onto the next one, deciding that the information about the painting really wasn’t all that interesting or important to me at the moment. I spotted a file that read, ‘Important guest - war delegations’. Sounded interesting enough.

<TWILIGHT SPARKLES TERMINAL 42A>

>Log #6 Important guest - war delegations

>They have agreed to have a private meeting with me tomorrow! If this all works out, then we might finally be able to get that edge over the zebras. Just imagine what we can accomplish if we combine the magic we have been researching here with that of the [REDACTED]! And if we get the Ministry of Image involved, we might be able to make better infiltration methods than even the zebras currently have!

>I think I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Nothing has been agreed to yet, and our alliance is still completely hypothetical. I have ordered everypony in the MAS that is uninvolved in the delegations to remain home tomorrow. While I have no doubt that [REDACTED] and her [REDACTED] will have no issue meeting me without drawing too much attention to themselves, I really want to make sure that this goes off without a hitch. The last few delegations have not really gone over too well.

>Silver Ace will be accompanying me to this delegation. He is very eager to hear the outcome, and I have no doubt that he wants to have [REDACTED] involved with [REDACTED]. I guess only tomorrow will tell what will happen for sure.

I stared at the terminal in frustration. If these ponies that Twilight was meeting with had only been mentioned once, I might not have minded. But this was the third fucking time somepony had mentioned them and I still had no idea who they were. The fact that their names had been straight up redacted from the terminal was almost insulting.

With a groan, I flipped to the next log titled, ‘B.S.S.G.’ With any luck, I’d get something more interesting out of this log than the last two.

<TWILIGHT SPARKLES TERMINAL 42A>

>Log #7 B.S.S.G.

>Applejack has finally finished having the MWT instal the B.S.S.G. or Ballistics Surface Shield Generator into the MAS tower here in the Hollow Shades. The MWT initially created it to install into those Steel Ranger suits to create an indestructible suit of power armour. Applejack is taking making those armours very seriously since Big Mac- Unfortunately, while it does help to keep the armour protected, it seems to be doing very little to help the ponies within, and it is currently far too bulky to be properly installed into a combat based suit of armour. Not to mention too expensive. Pureblood doesn’t seem to be very interested in investing in it...

>Thankfully, it seems perfect for structures. On the few tests we've done, structures installed with these can withstand practically anything. I don’t plan on testing out a full on Balefire bomb on the building, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it held. With any luck, it should make Zebra’s getting their hands on I.M.P. samples or sabotaging our operations out here a lot harder.

>The way the B.S.S.G. work’s is fairly simple. Once activated, it will make a scan of the structure and project a powerful magical field around the whole thing. The walls and floors are no less destructible than they were before, but a thin two way shield will have been snuggly fitted around the structure to give it that appearance. It really is a magical and technological marvel. Applejack should be really proud of this, even if it doesn't have quite the functionality that she wanted.

So that was it. The reason the building seemed to be well preserved was because it was. This B.S.S.G. had created some sort of magical force field that had protected the MAS tower, even to this day. It was truly amazing what ponies are able to create if given the chance. I suppose that only made the war more tragic.

With my hope renewed that the terminal might actually contain some interesting information, I turned my attention to the last log on the terminal, simply skipping over all of the others. The log was titled, ‘Luna Prime’. Without hesitating, I opened it up.

<TWILIGHT SPARKLES TERMINAL 42A>

>Log #59 Luna Prime

>[REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED].

>[REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED].

I stared at the file for a second, lazily reading over the repeated word. I would read a few lines of it before I would lose my spot and gave up trying to read it all together. Finally I just sighed. “Well that was anticlimactic.”

My Hellhound gave a loud growl from where it was standing guard outside the room, alerting us to the quick clopping of multiple hooves powering down the hallway towards us. Before we had time to properly react, the Hellhounds growl turned to a booming roar. There was the sudden swish of a blade and the roaring went silent.

We all turned to face the doorway. A large, round object covered in thick, glossy black fur tubbled through the door and stopped at my hooves. I stared down at it in horror, making out the glazed over eyes staring up at me from my Hellound’s now severed head.

A pang of guilt shot through me. It had died my slave. I had kept saying I would free it, and I never did. I closed my eyes for a second, taking a deep breath to calm myself.

“I’ll do right by you somehow,” I whispered to myself, my voice so quiet I doubted that anypony else could hear me. I took a quick second to mourn for the Hellhound before opening my eyes and taking in the intruders.

My eyes met Azar’s powerful gaze. The strange dark grey and violet zebra stood in the large doorway to the main office, one of the curved zebra scimitars held in his hoof. He stood proudly, one striped hoof placed firmly on the limp and headless corpse of my Hellhound.

Five zebra’s flanked him. Two were equipped with similar curved blades, while the other three held large zebra sniper rifles up and aimed at us. They all had zebra stealth cloaks draped over them.

I stared the zebra down for a few seconds, taking him in. He was here, alive and well. Which meant he had done the impossible. Azar had defeated Crank in combat. The idea seemed almost laughable, yet was so very terrifying.

Not for the first time, I realized how dangerous this mysterious Azar really was.

Azar’s violet eyes shifted to look at Shade who had taken to cowering behind me. He gave the dark purple pony a twisted grin. “I see you all made it across the Glowing Sea. You all impress me so,” Azar said calmly, his voice as headstrong and authoritative as always. “To think I thought of you all as little more than pawns in Kamari’s game, I was clearly mistaken.”

I took a step forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with the rest of my friends. I knew we didn’t stand a chance fighting this zebra, so I figured the best course of action was to talk my way out of the situation. “We aren’t here for you Azar. We’re just after Kamari.”

Azar just cocked his head at me in slight confusion. “And you expect me to simply step aside? I think not. You ponies will not be leaving this tower alive.”

Multiple turrets popped out from the ceiling and walls, their barrels swiveling down to aim at all of us. I gulped as I took in the sudden extra firepower that was pointed towards us. I counted fifteen turrets in total.

I heard the heavy hoofsteps of Pyre as she marched forwards. For once, she seemed to be wanting to back me up on getting out of this in a more diplomatic fashion. “Oh come now, I think Kamari will be very interested in seeing us. You’d hate to need to be the zebra that told him you killed us.”

The attempt was foalish and clearly played on the hopes that Azar was less intelligent than he really was. Instead he simply gave us all a wide grin. “Oh Kamari can see you fine,” He raised his head to look up at the huge monitor that hung from the ceiling. “Everything working on your end Kamari?”

There was a sudden buzz of static and a foul, grating laughter filled the room. The sound bounced off the tall, metal walls, making the laugh echo around us as if it were coming from every direction. “Oh, I am seeing everything perfectly Azar,” A voice boomed out over the speakers. The voice was gravelly and deep, filled with a sick sounding gargle that dramatically contrasted its rhythmic tone.

The monitor flickered to life above us, at first showing little more than static before it began to faze into a real picture. A zebra glared down at us through the screen, his emerald eyes landed on me, making me freeze.

I let out a heavy breath and whispered in a fearful tone. “Kamari…”

Kamari wasn’t just any zebra, he was a zebra ghoul. But more than that, he was a glowing zebra ghoul. Where once he might have had a dazzling white coat, it had been stripped away and burned, now resembling black rotting flesh and scabs. His stripes, which to Xayah’s dismay were strange swirls and glyphs that resembled orbital paths of planets more than actual stripes, now glowed a vile, baleful green. His scarred and wrinkled face was marked with glowing claw like spirals criss crossing into horrific images.

And his eyes… They were the worst part. They were old and seemed to be filled with dark knowledge I could never hope to truly understand. Strong, powerful, intimidating; I found myself shivering just looking into them. But they seemed sad and tired too, like a pony that had seen and done far more horrors than any sane pony should be able to bear. Dark bags had formed below his baleful green eyes, but I couldn’t tell if it was from fatigue or simply a permanent part of his dark rotting flesh.

I could sense Xayah trembling behind me as she stared up at the horrifying monstrosity that at one point had been a zebra. “Power of the stars on their side,” She breathed, rephrasing what we had heard one of the zebras say back in Stable 25. I could hear the tremor of fear in her voice.

“So you are the ponies that have been such a thorn in my side,” Kamari spoke, his voice sending more shivers racing down my spine. He seemed almost bored with our presence, if not a little amused. “It is good to finally meet you.”

“Where are you!” I snarled, trying my best to hide my fear. Even while not in the room with him, he was terrifying.

Kamari chuckled, clearly amused by my obvious surprise and fear. “Irrelevant. You will never reach me.”

I could feel my ever growing rage brewing inside of me, trying to push itself to the surface. This was the monster responsible for the death of Stable 25! All my pain and strife had been because of him! And yet, for some reason, I couldn’t seem to let that rage take me as it usually did. Kamari’s sudden presence had shaken me, kept me off kilter.

“I’m going to kill you!” I growled up at him, trying my best to sound intimidating. What came out was little more than a sad squeak.

Kamari just stared down at me for a second, almost surprised by my statement. Then he laughed. His cold laughter shot through me like a bullet, shredding me of any confidence I might have been holding. “You are most amusing Amber Aura,” The glowing zebra ghoul chuckled, pulling himself back together. “But you are far too naive. This conversation is over. Azar, deal with them.”

The screen shut off, once again reverting to a moment of buzzing static before going dark altogether. My heart sank as the screen shut off. I could feel my anger finally push through. “You get back here! We aren't finished with you yet!” I screamed, waving my hoof frantically at the large monitor above us, as if hoping it would come back on line. “Kamari! Get back here!”

Azar chuckled at me from across the room as he watched my antics. He stepped over the slumped body of the Hellhound and began approaching me at an alarming rate. “Kamari is correct, you ponies are most entertaining. Unfortunately, this is where we must end this.”

I swirled around and glared at the strange purple zebra. “You bring him back! You bring him back right now or I swear...!” I shouted, raising Boneless and leveling it with Azar’s head.

Azar just gave my triple barrel shotgun a lazy look and kept advancing. “I fear that shall not happen,” He turned to look at the five zebras that were flanking him, his voice hardening. “Kill them!”

Before I could react, Brisk and Pyre rushed past me and slammed the large doors to Twilight’s office. I could hear the sound of automatic fire as the turrets in the room beyond opened fire upon the door. Hole were blasted through the sturdy oak wood as their bullets tore into the surface. Seconds after, the door shook as the zebra’s began ramming themselves against it, trying to knock it down.

The door was strong, but it couldn’t hold somepony as powerful as Azar for long.

I turned back to my friends, ducking slightly as one of the turrets shot a bullet through the door and whizzing over my head. “Anypony got a plan!” I shouted over the gunfire and ramming. All I saw were scared expressions in return.

“Come on out Amber! You are only stalling the inevitable!” Azar chuckled from beyond the door. There was a loud thump as he rammed himself into the door. The door shuddered, almost being knocked from its hinges from his force.

I pushed my shoulders up against the door, trying to keep it from collapsing in. A bullet burst through the wood next to my head making me jump.

With my back against the door, I was able to fully take in the room. There was no escape save for the way we came in! We were trapped.

Then my eyes landed on the large portrait of Twilight Sparkle at the back of the room. What had she said in her terminal? That she would use it to cover a back exit?

“The painting! Move the painting!” I shouted over the din.

Xayah made it to the painting first and pushed it aside. Sure enough, the doors to a small elevator escape lay beyond it a few feet off the ground, just as Twilight’s terminal had suggested it would be.

“Everypony in! Now!” Pyre roared, hoping up into the elevator.

I grimaced as I managed to push a chair up against the door to help barricade it. “Just so you know, I have the worst track record when it comes to not having elevators collapse when I’m on them!” I said, only half joking.

I pulled a trembling Shade of the ground and pushed her into the elevator. She gave a small squeak of fear as I lifted her up, but didn’t complain.

“What floor!?” Pyre asked hastily, her voice cutting through the banging of the door and boom of automatic gunfire. Her eyes scanned the large collection of buttons beside the door. “Shit this place has a lot of floors…”

“Don’t care, just get us out of here!” I screamed back, once again ducking as another bullet burst through the hard wood of the door. I was far enough away from the door that those bullets couldn’t hit me, but I ducked anyway.

“Top floor it is then!” Pyre shouted back, pushing the topmost button with a hoof. At once, the elevator began moving upwards. I was surprised to find it’s movement fluid and not janky like the last two elevators I had been in.

Was this how elevators were supposed to move?

The doors to Twilights office burst open. Azar strode in, his eyes staring at us from across the room. At once, his violet stripes began to glow a dark purple. To my surprise, a black magical aura wrapped around the elevator. The elevator jerked, and then dropped a bit as Azar’s oddly powerful magic held it in place.

Azar could do magic! Who the fuck was this zebra!

Sparks burst from the side of the elevator as Azar’s dark magic ripped the elevator from it’s tracks. Shade fell into me as the elevator jerked and slanted slightly.

Xayah raised her sniper and fired off two shots into Azar’s chest. The mighty zebra took a small step back from the impact, but seemed generally unfazed.

The other three zebra’s were beginning to close in on us now, their long curved blades held tight in their mouths as they galloped forwards. The first one managed to rush all the way across the room and leap towards the elevator before I managed to take a swing at them with my baton. The sparking rod cracked against their head, staggering them, but not dropping them.

“Anypony have a plan!?” Pyre called out, her flamers blasting to life as the other zebra’s neared. She spun around and gave a heavy buck to one of the zebras as they leapt into the elevator, the attack sending the zebra flying back out of the elevator. “Because I feel like right now would be a really good time for a plan!”

I did have a plan, but I didn’t like it. I pulled out my Balefire Egg Launcher and heaved it up to rest on my shoulder. “Damn, I was hoping to use this on Kamari…” I grunted, staggering slightly from the heavy weight of the weapon.

“Well we can’t kill Kamari if we don’t get to him!” Pyre pointed out, hoping to the side to avoid a blast from one of the zebra’s snipers. “So now might be a good time to use it!”

Brisk threw his front hooves up in the air frantically. “Wait!” I glanced over at him to see what the problem was. He gave me a smug grin. “Can I fire it sis? Pleasepleasepleaseplease!”

I shrugged and passed the massive weapon over to him. He grinned maniacally as he hoised the huge gun over his own shoulder.

Azar’s eyes opened. They no longer held pupils, but rather glowed with a dark violet light. Then they revered back to normal as he spotted the huge Balefire Egg launcher that was aimed right at him. Fear flickered across his face for a second as he took in the huge gun. He opened his mouth to say something, but Brisk didn’t give him time.

“Say hello to my little friend!” Brisk yelled joyously. He pulled the trigger on the Balefire Egg Launcher and fired off it’s final shot. The force of the blast sent Brisk flying back and off his hooves where he crashed into the back wall of the elevator with a thunk. But the balefire egg still shot true.

Azar’s stripes dropped their strange glow as he began backpedaling, trying to move away from the incoming attack. He got far enough back to avoid being hit directly, but not far enough to evade it altogether.

The balefire egg exploded, green fire erupted throughout the room and blinded us. The ear deafening boom of the blast exploded through the room, drowning out all other noise. The five zebra’s assailing us were blown apart, their limbs violently ripped from their bodies or bursting into paste. I could see Azar on the far side of the room, his face twisted in pain and his stripes glowing as his magic began regrowing his now obliterated legs.

Now torn from the elevator tracks and no longer held aloft in Azar’s magic, the elevator dropped. The movement was sudden, making it feel like my stomach was pushed up into my mouth. The sides of the elevator skidded against the walls of the shaft, sparks shooting over us from every direction.

I hate elevators...

We were dropping down fast, so fast that I found myself flattened to the roof of the elevator. Fear shot through me as we plumbited. If we hit the ground at this speed, we would die!

I reached out with my magic, trying to slow our descent with my telekinesis. I felt the elevator lose a bit of momentum, but we were still going really fast. Lights were flashing past me, making it hard to keep my focus on maintaining my magic. Shade’s horn beside me started glowing, as she caught onto what I was doing and tried to add her magic to mine. The elevator slowed a little more…

I screamed in both pain and determination as I put everything I had into holding the spell. My horn throbbed and pain shot through my whole body. Then we hit the ground floor and everything went dark.

I wasn’t in my body, or any body for that matter. I floated a few feet in the air, once again a simple observer of the scene to unfold. Around me was a heavy darkness that settled around the room like a thick blanket. Through the shadows though, I could see the faint image of towering metal walls that rose up around me on all sides.

A thin beam of golden light flashed down from the ceiling, illuminating a large platform in the center of the room. I tried to look through the gloom to see what was creating the light, but it was still too dark to see anything above me.

Changing my gaze to look at the platform, I found myself looking down at four metallic figures standing in an unorganised clump. The large metal figure at the head of the group caught my attention the most.

It had only been about a day since I had seen him in the flesh… or at least, as much flesh as he still had, yet it felt almost alien to see him once again as the horrifying cyber alicorn. Having those strange visions of his past had made me almost forget how fearsome he truly was.

Crank stood at the head of the group of cyber ponies, his body now comprised mainly of metal and machines. His large blade like wings were neatly folded up against his side and his eyes once more glowed a deep red.

I had thought I was through seeing strange glimpses of Crank’s past. Apparently not.

“Is Diesel dead?” A vial nasally voice echoed down from above us. I had heard this voice before when I had gone through Inferno’s memories. It sounded familiar though, even beyond that fact. I couldn’t place my hoof on it.

Steel Blade took a step forward, his head low as he bowed to whomever was above us. “He is my lord. We made sure of it,” The other cyber ponies just groaned at his words.

“Good,” The voice soothed. “I will not allow traitors of our great cause to simply walk free. Now, I have another task for you all...”

Crank pushed Steel Blade back behind him with a wing and took a step forward, his front hooves resting on the edge of the platform. “If you will, I’d like to talk with you alone for a moment,” Crank grunted, his voice steady.

Inferno sneered from behind him. “Oh, you got something you don’t want us to hear?” The insane cyber pony cackled, his flamers shooting off a small burst of flame. “Wouldn’t happen to be about that cute little mare of your’s, would it? Not like she’d love you with what you’ve become. Perhaps if we run into her I’ll…”

Inferno never finished his sentence. Crank’s tail lashed out and ripped out his throat, turning whatever Inferno was going to say into a sickening gargle. Crank was on top of him in a second, his tesla cannons charging and his face meer inches from Inferno’s.

“Mention her again, and I will kill you!” Crank growled down at Inferno, his burning red eyes piercing into the cyber pony below him like a knife.

The large gash on Inferno’s neck pulled itself back together, once more giving him the ability to speak. Inferno laughed, trying to pull himself up from under Crank. Crank simply held him down, not giving him the satisfaction of standing. “Kill me then, see if I care. We both know I like the pain!”

“Enough!” The voice from above bellowed, making the four cyber ponies temporarily freeze.

Steel Blade bowed low again, keeping his eyes low. “Of course my lord. Your wish is my command.”

Tripwire slapped Steel Blade across the back of the head, making the bowing cyber pony stumble slightly. “Oh can it with your preaching,” he growled, his voice low enough to not make too loud of a noise.

“I will speak with you,” The voice agreed at last, it's high and nasally tone sounding slightly more exasperated than before. “The rest of you are dismissed.”

Inferno gave Crank a final scowl, before pulling himself up and marching out of the room with Tripwire and Steel Blade. Crank watched them leave, his eyes never once leaving them as they stalked towards the door. As soon as the door closed he returned his gaze to whomever was above us.

“You need to let me see her,” Crank demanded, stomping his hoof on the ground and making the whole chamber shake. “I have done everything you asked without question for the last four years. I deserve to see her again.”

A sick, snooty laugh echoed through the chamber. “That was not the deal Crank,” The voice mocked. “The deal was that in exchange for her freedom, you were to work for me. I decide when you have paid off that debt in full. Until then, you will do as I decree!”

Crank’s eyes glowed brighter for a second and his massive tesla cannons began to crackle with deadly energy. For a second I thought he was actually going to attack. Then he paused, the slow rumbling sound of his tesla cannons charging up dying.

“Let me do this,” Crank insisted, his voice taking on a slightly more civil tone. “Let me find her and I’ll never ask you for anything again. Please, just this once…” he was begging now.

There was silence from the voice for a moment as it pondered what to do. Finally it responded, its voice low and threatening. “You have three days. I expect you to return or there will be consequences.”

With that, the world swirled away into darkness.

I woke up to the feeling of somepony shaking me awake. I slowly let my eyes flutter open to take in the dark and gloomy room around me.

Half of the elevator lay in a ruined wreck off to one side of the room, the other half lay on the far side of a thick metal wall that had been completely reduced to rubble. Much of the ceiling had caved in, making it impossible to tell how big the room had once been. A long dark tunnel lay to my left, I had no idea where it led.

The only light in the room was a slow and seemingly patternless blinking light in the smashed elevator and the dull green glow of Shade’s pipbuck beside me.

I sat up and looked over to Shade who looked relieved to see that I wasn’t dead. She was bleeding a little from a small gash on her head and she was covered in a couple of bruises, but she seemed relatively okay. “Oh thank the goddesses, you stopped breathing and I thought… I thought…” Shade had to stop herself and catch her breath.

“I’m fine,” I groaned, pulling myself up to my hooves. I staggered slightly as all the blood rushed to my head and made me dizzy. Shade rushed to my side to help support me, but I quickly pushed her away. I didn’t want her help.

I quickly looked around the room, trying to make sure I hadn’t missed anything important. I had, or rather, the room was missing something important. “Where is everypony?” I asked, fear trickling into my voice. I spotted Brisk’s saddlebags half covered in rubble. I rushed over and picked it up.

Goddesses, please don’t be dead.

“We’re okay! But we are a little stuck over here,” I heard the muffled sound of Brisk’s voice from the other side of the collapsed wall. “At least, Pyre and I are.”

I quickly rushed up to the pile of rubble and tried to move it aside to get to my friends. The mound of heavy rock and metal between us refused to budge. “Are you two alright?” I called back.

I heard Pyre Blaze give a loud, pained groan. “A little dinged up, but alive. How are things on your side?”

I glanced back at Shade. “We should be okay, just a few cuts and bruises. Any idea what happened to Xayah? Is she okay?”

“I don’t know,” Brisk spoke up, his voice filled with worry. “We haven’t seen her,”

I image of Xayah crushed and suffecating below all the rubble flashed through my mind. Fear flared through me and I immediately began desperately trying to dig through the rubble. I managed to do little more than move a couple of the smaller rocks aside.

“Xayah! Xayah!” I cried out desperately. My fear was slowly giving way to panic. I couldn’t lose her, I just couldn’t!

I heard a small muffled cough from somewhere to the right of me. “I’m- I’m alive…” Xayah’s voice croaked out. She sounded weak and far away. I felt my whole body go weak with relief. “I- I think my hoof is broken.”

My relief dissipated. “Okay, don’t worry, we’re coming for you. I’ll get you out of here,” I insisted, hoping to comfort my injured friend somehow. I turned back to where Brisk and Pyre were trapped behind the wall. “Can you guys find a way out of there?”

I heard a bit of mumbling as Brisk and Pyre exchanged a few words with each other. “There’s a tunnel in here, but we don’t know where it leads,” I heard the muffled voice of Brisk say. “Neither of our EFS’ are detecting anything, but I guess that doesn’t mean much in the Hollow Shades.”

I gulped, it didn’t. And we weren’t just in the caves below the Hollow Shades anymore, we were in the Glowing Sea. There was bound to be some awful shit down here.

“Just try and do the best you can. See if we can meet up with each other,” I ordered, trying to keep the tremors out of my voice. “Shade and I will do the same. We can do this.”

“You sure? I think we already went over how bad of an idea it is to split up in this place,” Pyre said gruffly. I could hear her trying to break apart the wall of rubble between us, to little effect.

“Do we have any other choice?” I retorted back, already knowing the answer. Pyre remained silent.

“Alright, we’ll meet up with you,” Brisk affirmed, I could hear him and Pyre start moving away. His hoofsteps paused. “Oh and Amber?”

“Yeah?”

I heard Brisk take a deep breath. “Just… Stay safe sis, okay? We haven’t come all this way for nothing, remember that. No matter what Kamari says.”

I let a small grin reach my face. “I won’t. That asshole is going to pay,” My grin faltered as I heard the two of them rushing off. I turned back to where Xayah was obscured behind the broken wall. “Xayah, are you still there?”

There was a small cough in response, followed by a timid whimper. “Yes, I am here.”

“Can you walk?” I asked, afraid of hearing the answer. “If you can, try and find someplace safe that we can find you. We are coming for you. I’m not leaving without you.”

I heard some shuffling on the far side of the wall. “I am not sure, but I will try. Thank you.”

I turned back to Shade, who was looking increasingly worried. “You’re coming with me. Come on,” I slung Brisk’s saddlebag over my back and started walking down the tunnel, praying it led me back to my friends somehow.

“A-Amber?” Shade whimpered, taking a few timid steps after me.

“What?” I half groaned half snarled at her, slowing my pace slightly so she could catch up with me. “What do you want?”

Shade bit her trembling lower lip for a second. “It’s just that… never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

I grunted and kept walking down the tunnel. Of all the ponies to be stuck with, I had to be stuck with this treacherous pony. I wanted to cry just thinking that thought. What had happened to our friendship? So much for friendship being magic I suppose.

The tunnel had started off as a long metal hallway, but very quickly that began to change. The smooth black metal gave way to jagged rocks and the only proof of ponies ever being down here were a collection of metal beams that held up some of the weaker parts of the roof. The occasional lantern lay against the wall. Although the flame inside them had long since gone out, I could still smell the scent of oil on them. They had been used recently.

“Looks like this place used to be a mine of some sort,” Shade remarked, trotting ahead of me a little to take a look at a broken down minecart in front of us. “What the fuck do you suppose the Ministry of Arcane Science needed a mine for? And why below their own hub?”

We let those questions hang above us in the air, neither of us having the answers to them. Turning the corner, we found a small room that had been dug into the side of the rock tunnel to make a small office. Spotting a terminal inside, I quickly ducked into it to investigate.

The room wasn’t very large, with just enough space to fit the two of us inside without any discomfort. The walls had been fitted with a cold metal lining, making the office feel a little less like a cave than it really was. The terminal I had spotted sat on a wooden desk at the back of the room next to a curled up skeleton.

I pulled myself into the chair behind the desk and clicked on the terminal. As I had expected, it was locked. “Give me a sec, I’m just going to hack this terminal,” I said, not bothering to look up at Shade as I began typing.

I clicked the first password option, only for the computer to tell me I had picked the wrong one. Before I had the chance to try again, the terminal clicked.

>Access Granted

I blinked, trying to figure out why it opened. I glanced up at Shade to find her meddling with the back of the terminal with a screwdriver. I let my mouth fall open a bit.

“H-how did you do that?” I asked in amazement, looking back and forth from the unlocked terminal to Shade. “You can’t just hack a terminal without hacking it! It's against the rules or something!”

Shade just gave me a sly, yet nervous look. “I was the head of maintenance for a reason kiddo. They don’t just let anypony overlook machinery that could get everypony killed,” She almost looked proud for a moment, before realizing she had quite literally gotten everypony killed. Her face dropped. “Sorry.”

I sighed, tired of being reminded about the tragedy of Stable 25. “Don’t mention it. I know,” I said softly, ignoring the tight knot that had formed in my stomach. “I’m sorry too,” I didn’t fully know what I was apologizing for, but it felt like the right thing to say.

Shade seemed to be a little comforted by that, though clearly a little taken aback as well.

I turned away from her and looked through the terminal. There were only a few entries, none of which really caught my eye. That is until I spotted one labeled ‘Luna Prime’. There it was again. Hopefully this time it wasn’t simply ‘redacted’.

I clicked the log open.

<Security Terminal 68C>

>Log #4 Luna Prime

>As I said in my last log, I don’t know what the fuck Twilight has us down here looking for. We’ve been spending a lot of resources digging, and nopony will even tell us why. The only thing we are told is to report something if we find something. I know, not very descriptive, right? But here’s where things get interesting. See there’s a rumor going around that Twilight is looking for something for this top secret project she’s working on called Luna prime. Fuck if I know what that is, but some ponies have been saying its some sort of mega spell. Spooky stuff…

>Course then we stumbled across that weird Cistern down in the caves. Nopony knows why it's there or even how it’s there, just that it is. Now Twilight’s got us digging in it and searching it inside and out for anything of interest, so my bits are on it being connected somehow.

>I don’t like it down here though. Things are weird, and I always feel like I’m being watched. Not to mention that theres this spooky as fuck carving on the monolith of a creepy pony made out of shadows. Gives me the willies.

>Twilight was nice enough to install a medical bay into the cavern though. Guess she’s worried something bad is gonna happen like when they found the place. Not that I’d want to be stuck in a hospital down here. I don’t even want to imagine trying to sleep the night in these spooky as fuck caves. Probably wouldn't be found in the morning.

So that explained what the ministry was doing down here… kinda. Okay, actually, that terminal told me less than nothing. I still had no idea what they were looking for. I skimmed through the rest of the terminal entries, but didn’t seem to find anything of interest.

“Shit, someponies coming,” Shade whispered to me, glancing out the doorway and into the tunnel outside.

My ears picked up as I heard the sound of rushing hoofsteps. “Our friends?” I asked hopefully. Please tell me they had found us.

Shade shook her head. “Zebras,” She hissed back.

Damn it. I quickly pulled Shade away from the door and behind the desk. Not two seconds later a group of zebras rushed past the room. They didn’t speak or make much noise, signs of true assassins.

I heard one of the zebras stop. There was the small clopping of hooves as they slowly strode into the room. I put my hoof over Shades mouth to keep her quiet.

I had no doubt I could take on this zebra, but I had no idea how many there were, and the last thing I wanted to do was alert more of our location.

After a few seconds, the zebra grunted and stalked out of the room, their hoofsteps getting quieter and quieter the further away they got. Once I was sure they were gone, I pulled myself out from behind the desk.

“We should get moving,” I said flatly, slinking over to the door and peering out. I didn’t see anything, nor did my EFS pick up on any movement. “The longer we stay here, the more likely we get caught.”

Shade quietly agreed and followed me out of the office as we continued down the tunnel. Up ahead, the mineshaft seemed to go on into the gloom with no signs of opening up into anything else.

After a few moments of walking, I felt Shade gently tap my flank with a hoof to get my attention. Before I could say anything, she put her hoof to her lips and shushed me. “I think we’re being followed,” She said in a hushed tone, her voice still very filled with fear.

I tensed up and glanced behind me. I saw nothing but the suffocating gloom that blocked out my view of the tunnel we had just walked through. “Did you see something?” I hissed back, my voice just as low. From my first encounter with him, I knew Azar could be sneaky.

Goddesses, please tell me Azar hadn’t found us already.

“I-I think I saw a small filly watching us from the shadows,” Shade whimpered back, her ears folding flat against her head.

I had no doubt she had seen that smaller version of me I kept running into. Up until now, I hadn't been sure if the filly had been real or if I had simply been hallucinating the whole thing. I didn’t know if I should be thankful I wasn’t insane or scared that that creepy foal was still following me.

I decided not to let Shade see any of my concern and simply grunted in response. “I know. She’s been following me for a few days now.”

Shade gulped as we continued walking forwards. I was now acutely aware of the small patter of hoofsteps far behind us as we began to move again. “Who is it?” Shade asked, not daring to raise her voice. “What does it want?”

I shrugged. “I wish I knew.”

We reached the end of the tunnel. It had been so dark that I hadn’t even seen the large chamber up ahead until we stepped out into it. What we saw made both of us gasp.

I had been in the cave system below the Hollow Shades before. Hell, I had even been within the strange cistern, but nothing I had seen yet could even come close to compare with the sight before us now.

We were in a massive cave, so large in fact that I was unable to see any off the walls. Even the floor lay hundreds of miles below us. Scaffolding had been built up through the massive cavern, creating small walkways and platforms that crossed over the huge casm. Tools and mining equipment lay in large crates along the catwalks and a few pickaxes lay on the ground where ponies had left them two hundred years ago. Like the cistern I had seen before, massive stone pillars that looked older than Equestria itself rose from the depths of the casm and formed into towering stone archways that supported the stalactite covered ceiling far above our heads.

In the center of the cavern, or at least what I assumed was the center as I couldn't see any off the walls, stood a massive black monolith. Strangely shaped rocks twisted up the sides of the monolith like writhing tentacles reaching from the deep and pony skulls had been embedded in its rough surface. Horrific images of creatures made out of stars and strange zebra glyphs ringed the monolith and at the very top was a huge carving off a pony seemingly made of shadows.

“What the fuck is that thing,” Shade squeaked, taking a terrified step away from the looming monolith. Even the air around it felt wrong, as if a thousand chanting voices were calling out from within.

It took me a second to realize I was so shocked by the cavern that my mouth was refusing to work. I took a deep breath and tried to steady my heart rate which seemed to be going at a few hundred miles a second. “I have no clue… but it’s just a rock, it can’t hurt us,” I tried to comfort her, but I didn’t even know if I believed my own words. The thing was simply so damn scary looking.

We pushed forwards, slowly making our way across the scaffolding. To my displeasure, I found that the catwalk seemed to be slowly taking us down into the darkness below us. I really didn’t want to find out what was down there.

I considered turning back and trying to find a different route, only to remember that there wasn’t one. This had been the only tunnel we could go down.

Then a thought hit me. I quickly turned back to Shade. “Those zebras that ran past us, you don’t suppose they’re going to come back once they reach the crashed elevator, do you?”

Shade’s eyes widened as she realized what I was saying. This was the only tunnel. Those zebra were coming back, and probably soon. “We need to get moving,” She insisted, quickening her pace. She didn’t need to tell me twice.

The catwalk ahead of us split into three directions. We glanced down each quickly, trying to gauge which one was the best option. Not seeing any difference between the three, we headed down to the left, hoping the zebra’s didn’t take it when they came back.

As we slowly moved down toward the bottom of the casm, we began to see a soft silver light slowly pulsating amongst the darkness of the cave. The lights felt slow and mournful. Just being close to it made me feel sad.

The closer we got to the light the easier I was able to make out what it was. It wasn’t a light at all, but hundreds of smaller light. Small silver balls of light bobbed up and down in the air around us, like large silver fireflies. They were both beautiful and terrifying.

“What are they?” Shade whispered, jumping back a little as one of the floating lights came close to her.

“They’re memory orbs, I think,” I said slowly, looking over one of them closer as we continued walking. “But I’ve never seen memory orbs like this.”

That wasn’t entirely true, and I knew it. The memories inside of Inferno's mind had looked just like this. But right now, the last thing I wanted to do was acknowledge the fact that the implications of that implied this whole place was alive. I don’t think my sanity could stand that.

Slowly, and without really thinking, I reached out towards one of the lights with my hoof. The glowing orb seemed to shutter and float away from me slightly, as if afraid of my touch. Then it seemed to decide otherwise and let my hoof place itself gently on it’s glowing surface.

Unlike most memory orbs, the world didn’t swirl away. There was no flash of blinding light or sudden flare of pain. I was simply inside the memory, as if I always had been.

I sat at the head of a table, my purple hooves crossed in front of me as I looked around at all those present. Most of the faces around me I could recognize. To my right sat a very tired and frazzled looking Rarity, a red pair of reading glasses rested on her muzzle as she read over a rather lengthy and boring looking document. To my left sat a less than happy looking Rainbow Dash, her hooves crossed grumply over her chest. The final pony I recognized was a slightly younger looking orange pegasus mare with a purple mane. I had seen her on Stable-Tec posters back in Stable 25. I couldn’t quite remember her name though, I always got the Stable-Tec leaders confused. Was she… Sweetie Belle? Yes, that must have been it.

The three other ponies that sat at the far end of the table I did not recognize. Two unicorn stallions sat on each side, seemingly acting as bodyguards to the green and orange mare that sat in the middle. She looked like she was a photographer of some kind, with a camera hanging around her neck.

Rarity looked up from the document, magically lifting her reading glasses off of her snout and placing them gently on the table. “Yes, this is a rather extensive and thorough confidentiality form darling, but when are you going to tell us what exactly it is for?” She asked. “I don’t appreciate being left in the dark, and I’m sure Rainbow feels the same.”

My host raised their hoof. “I’ll explain in a moment, we’re just waiting for a few more important guests,” That voice, so intelligent and well read with just a little bit of snark to it. Without having even heard her before, I knew I was looking through the eyes of the ministry mare Twilight Sparkle.

“Well yes of course, normally I would fully agree,” Rarity agreed, before holding up her own hoof, signifying there was a ‘but’ coming. “But, I don’t even know who this important guest is.”

“Well I do!” Rainbow Dash interrupted, flapping her wings and shooting up from her chair. “This important guest is slow! That’s what they are! I could have had this meeting five times already in the length it’s taking them to get here!”

Rarity just chuckled a little. “Well you know ponies with important schedules Rainbow. Always trying to fit more meetings into their allotted time.”

Rainbow Dash just rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t mean they aren’t slow. Seriously, I swear it took Luna longer to get back from the moon than it is for them to get here!”

“I’ll need to be more punctual then,” Princess Luna said calmly from the doorway as she walked in. She gave Rainbow Dash a small smile and seated herself next to Twilight.

Rainbow Dash’s mouth dropped open. She quickly shut it. “Wait, Princess Luna? You’re the important guest?”

Luna gave the rainbow coloured pegasus a small smirk. “I’m not the only one.”

Pureblood stalked into the room, his nose held so high above his head it almost looked ridiculous. The air in the room seemed to get a little more uncomfortable the second he entered. Pureblood paused as he passed Rarity. He gave a small humph sound. “Rarity…” His voice was as snooty and nasally as ever.

Rarity let out a loud Groan. “Pureblood, always a pleasure,” From her tone, I could tell this meeting was anything but a pleasure.

“Are we ready now?” Rainbow Dash pestered, her wings flapping restlessly at her sides as she looked over to Twilight. “Or are there any other surprises you would like to drop on us before we start?”

I felt Twilight open her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by a new voice from the doorway. “I’m sure there will be quite a few more surprises before this meeting is through.”

Everypony turned to look at the new earth pony Stallion that had entered the room. The stallion looked old and tired, dark bags having formed under his pale, grey eyes. He had a dull silver coat with a mane that was almost exactly the same colour, if not a little darker. A saddlebag had been slung over his back and I could see a large collection of old looking books resting inside. His cutie mark was a single black spade.

Both Rainbow Dash and Rarity stood up immediately, their reaction a mix of Shock and protest.

“What is he doing here!” Rarity shouted, pointing a white hoof at the stallion accusingly. “I demand he be removed from this meeting immediately.”

“Girls,” Twilight said calmly, trying to catch their attention, but neither of the ponies seemed to hear her.

“I haven’t forgotten what you did with those mega spells!” Rainbow Dash growled, her eyes glaring at the pony with disdain.

“Girls!” Twilight tried again, her voice much louder than last time. Both Rarity and Rainbow Dash stopped and looked back at her. Twilight straightened up in her seat a little and took a deep breath, placing her hoof against her chest before breathing out slowly. “Silver Ace is the one that called this meeting.”

Both Rarity and Rainbowdash’s faces were priceless.

So this pony here was the Silver Ace I had heard so much about? Not what I had expected, but I knew looks could be deceiving. Something about him rubbed me the wrong way though. I let my eyes land on his head. He was an earth pony… but I thought I had heard somewhere that he was a magic expert.

Silver Ace cleared his throat and slowly walked into the room, sitting closer to where the three ponies I didn’t recognize sat. “Yes, thank you Twilight,” He looked around at everypony present. “Has everypony signed the confidentiality form?”

Rarity huffed. “I was just about to, but now I’m not so sure if I should.”

Twilight placed a hoof over Rarity’s. “Please Rarity, this is important. And we can’t let you in unless you sign.”

Rarity sighed and looked down at the form in front of her. “Alright, but only for you Twilight,” She leveltated up a pen and started signing her name on the numerous pages.

“Where’s Applejack and Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash asked as Rarity flipped a page over and began signing the next. “I thought they were supposed to be here too?”

“Yes, and Fluttershy?” Rarity asked, only half paying attention as she continuously scribbled down her name.

“Pinkie… er… Pinkie wasn’t invited,” Twilight said, her gaze dropping to the table. “I didn’t want to see her after-”

“Pinkie refused to show up,” Silver Ace corrected, his cold gaze distant. “I invited her, and she refused.”

Twilight shot Silver Ace a glare. He ignored her disapproving eyes and continued looking through the large stack of books he had brought in.

“Applejack and Fluttershy did not need to attend,” Luna said, cutting off the awkwardness before it could fester. “They are both already informed on everything that is transpiring.”

“And what exactly is transpiring?” Rarity asked, finishing off the forms and placing them in a neat pile in front of her. “What could possibly be this important?”

“Before we begin, I just want to restate what is already said on the forms you just signed,” Silver Ace soothed, his silver hoof gesturing to the large stack of papers. “Nothing said in this room is to leave this room under any circumstances. Nopony can know… and the last thing we want is OIA involvement.”

There was a round of nods as everypony around the table agreed, though I could see the discomfort on Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s faces. Satisfied with the response, Silver Ace gestured for Twilight to take the lead.

“Thank you SIlver Ace,” Twilight said, standing up before the gathering of ponies. She cleared her throat and took a moment to console herself. “As most of you know, I have been reaching out to the other kingdoms around Equestria. Unfortunately, most of my attempts were met with little success. What most of you do not know, is that I have managed to make contact with another kingdom and have managed to form a temporary alliance with them.”

“That’s wonderful news darling!” Rarity exclaimed, resting her hoof on the table. “Which kingdom?”

Twilight exchanaged a knowing glance with Luna. Slowly, Twilight turned to face the three ponies at the end of the table that I didn’t recognize. They had managed to stay almost silent so far, I had almost begun to forget they were even there. “When you’re ready,” Twilight said to the green and orange mare in the middle.

The mare gave Twilight a devious smirk. “We’re always ready,” She cooed. Had I my normal body, I would have shivered at her voice. The voice had a strange echo to it. It clearly wasn’t pony.

Both Rarity and Rainbow froze as the voice reached their ears. They recognized it.

Three columns of magical green fire surged up from around the three ponies hooves, completely obscuring them from my view. When the flames subsided, the three things that stood in their place looked like something from a nightmare.

The two creatures that had once been unicorn stallions had sprouted thin insectoid wings and hard beetle like shells. Their now solid blue eyes lacked pupils and two large fangs hung from their mouth.

The mare in the center however had turned into something much, much worse. She stood high above everypony on gnarled, spider-like legs. Her green eyes gleamed out at everypony from below a head of greasy, blue, matted hair. A jagged horn protruded from her brow and a pair of tattered insect wings fluttered at her side.

Everypony with the exception of Twilight, Luna and Silver Ace were on their hooves in an instant. “Changelings!” Pureblood shrieked, his mane and tail practically standing right on end. “Somepony call the guards! They have infiltrated us!”

“Luna! We must get you to safety!” Rarity cried out, jumping in front of the laid back princess of the night as if expecting to take a bullet for her.

“You’re gonna learn you’re messing with the wrong ponies!” Rainbow Dash yelled down threateningly as she readied herself for attack.

The large Changeling just sat back in her chair and looked around at all the chaos with a sick sense of amusement.

“Everypony! Calm down! Please!” Twilight’s voice cut over the sound of panic. Everypony took a second to breathe, trying their best to assess the situation better. “Please sit back down. Chrysalis and her changelings are here with my permission and Luna’s blessing.”

Everypony who had stood up did as they were told, but didn’t seem overly pleased about it.

“Twilight? What is the meaning of this?” Rarity asked, her voice filled with worry. “I mean, these are changelings we’re talking about! Surely you remember what happened at your brother and Cadence's wedding?”

Twilight gave a quick nod. “I know Equestria and the Changeling empire haven't exactly seen eye to eye in the past, but Chrysalis has agreed to sign a temporary treaty with Equestria. She plans to help us with the war effort.”

“And how do we know she won’t betray us?!” Rainbow Dash pushed in a brash tone, casting the three changelings a suspicious glance. “I mean, they aren’t exactly the element of honesty Twi.”

Chrysalis’ grin widened. “Because Right now you need us. Equestria is far behind the zebras technology and skill set in infiltration. We can fix that,” The changeling queen said smugly. “And with recent events, I doubt you will ever be able to catch up without our help? How is Maud by the way?” The last line was directed at Rarity.

“You all can’t be serious!” Pureblood exclaimed, pushing himself back up and pointing a hoof at Chrysalis. “Changelings have been enemies with Equestria for even longer than the zebras! They aren’t even ponies!”

“I can assure you Pureblood, that I have thought this all through and deemed it best for Equestria,” Princess Luna said, hoping to calm the snooty unicorn down slightly. He remained silent at her words, but didn’t seem all to comfurted.

“And what do you hope to get out of all this!” Rainbow Dash spat at the three changelings, her wings rustling against her side anxiously.

Chrysalis looked almost offended as she put a hole filled hoof to her chest in mocking offence. “Why can't I simply want to help out my neighbors? I’m hurt you would think I’m doing this for myself!” her echoey voice dripped with sarcasm and malice. She dropped her hoof back to her side. “If you really must know, I want Equestria to win. Zebra’s have created an effective way to unveil our disguises, and with the dragons now having joined their side…”

“Dragon’s tend to lack love towards other creatures,” Twilight Explained, picking up where Chrysalis had ommonusly trailed off. “A dragon run Equestria is an Equestria that Changelings simply cannot live in.”

Chrysalis gave a crooked grin. “Perciscely.”

“Regardless of your opinion on the alliance, there are more important things to discuss,” Silver Ace said, returning the attention in the room back to him. “Chrysalis and her changelings have agreed to help us on a project we have been working on.”

“Which is?” Rarity pushed, not enjoying Silver Ace’s dramatic pause.

Silver Ace gave a sly grin. “Twilight, Luna, Pureblood and I have been working on it in secret for quite some time now. It is possible that you all have heard vague rumours of it over the past few months. I believe it is time to let you all in in full,” he took another pause, adjusting one of the books he had laid out in front of him. “It is called The Institute of Arcane Technology… Though we simply call it The Institute. Think of it almost as a seventh ministry. A combination of all the ministries best works combined into one massive facility. Already we have been able to develop stealth technology that far exceeds the capabilities of the normal zebra stealth cloak.”

“And with our assistance, I can assure you winning the stealth race will not be a problem,” Chrysalis added, her voice low and hushed, as if letting everypony in on a big secret. I suppose in a way she was.

“But why keep this ‘Institute’ so secret?” Rarity inquired, cocking her head to the side slightly. “As it seems to thrive on collaboration, would it not be better to open it up to more minds?”

“The Institute must remain completely confidential. We are both in the planning stages and development stages of some of the most powerful and war altering advancements in science and technology in pony history. The zebra’s have already been known to steal some of the most secure secrets from the ministries as it is, if they were to get their hooves on what we have in the Institute…” He let that linger in the air for a bit.

“It is also best if the general public is left unaware,” Luna stated. “If ponies knew about a secret government facility below the city creating weapons and spyware on the scale we are, there would be panic. The last thing we need is for the zebra’s to take advantage of a mass panic in Manehattan.”

“How advanced exactly are we talking?” Rainbow Dash puzzled, raising her eyebrows a little. “Like mega spell level weapons?” her eyes widened. “Bigger than megaspell level weapons!”

“The Institute isn’t just making weapons. While there are weapons in development, that is far from the Institutes only or even main focus. But you know just as well as I that the public will jump to that conclusion, just as you just did,” Silver Ace said plainly, a bit of hurt behind his tone. “As for how advanced… Well… Scootaloo? Would you like to take it from here?”

Darn, it wasn’t Sweetie Belle… I should have known Sweetie Belle was the yellow and red one.

Everyone turned to face Scootaloo, whom until this point had been yet to say anything.The orange and purple pegasus stood up slowly and looked around at everypony. “The Institute has been fitted with my latest model of Crusader Mainframe. The updated model should possess five hundred times the power as the initial three. The mainframe should be capable of anything you need it for.”

“A Crusader mainframe?” Rarity gasped. “Why, I thought there were only three ever made. Were they not too expensive for production?”

“Money won’t be a problem,” Pureblood soothed from across the table, his gaze still locked on the changelings on the other side of the room. As if to prove his point, he pulled out a bit and fiddled around with it in his hoof. “The Institute has my complete and full support. Whatever is being done will be properly funded for and covered up by the best lawyers Equestria has to offer.”

“Your lawyers won't need to worry their little pony heads,” Chrysalis soothed at him. “I’ll keep everything nice and quiet.”

“What is the mainframe being used for right now?” Rainbow Dash asked, finally looking away from a very smug looking Chrysalis and towards Silver Ace.

Silver Ace exchanged a look between Pureblood and Scootaloo. “I’m afraid that is confidential, but rest assured that the Mainframe is still very much capable of running all of your projects as well.”

Chrysalis stood up from her chair. At full height, I was able to see just how tall she really was compared to everypony else in the room. “I think these introductions have gone on for long enough,” She said, her once sarcastic and calm tone now slightly annoyed and rushed. She clearly wanted to switch topics, that much was obvious. “I say it's time we get into the real business...”

I was unexpectedly thrown from Twilights memories and back into my own body. Just like going into the memory, there had been no warning or strange nauseating feeling of the world swirling out from under me. I was simply just back.

“That was… interesting…” I muttered to myself, trying to once again adjust to the dark surroundings. Had the cave always been this dark? It was horrifying.

“Amber we need to go,” I heard Shade whisper fearfully from beside me as she heard my voice. I looked over to see her crouching low behind me as she looked up at the entrance we had come through far above us.

Following her gaze, I saw the source of her fear. Twenty or so zebra we quickly making their way back down the catwalks towards us. They were moving quickly, though not rushing, so I assumed they hadn’t spotted us yet.

I nodded quickly, ushering Shade along as we continued moving. Our attempts to stay low and quiet were slowing us down somewhat, allowing the zebras to cover more ground than us. They were gaining on us quickly, and to my displeasure, I saw them turn at the fork in the same direction we had gone.

“Damn it.”

Moving forwards with only the dim, pulsing lights of the many floating memories, we descended farther and father into the massive cistern.

Who the hell even needs a cistern this big? I mean really? I thought to myself. Even after having descended this deep, I couldn’t see the bottom. I glanced back at the huge sinister monolith that seemed to be staring down at us pitifully. Just looking at it made my whole body feel cold. There was more going on below the depth than simply collecting water. This place was evil somehow. Something terrible had happened here.

With my head turned to look back at the vile totem, I wasn’t able to see where I was going. My hoof bumped into a metal bucket that had been left on the catwalk. I stumbled slightly, but managed to catch myself on the rail before I could fall. The bucket however, fell. It clanged loudly against the side of the scaffolding as it toppled over and rolled off the edge of the catwalk, clanking against another below us as if fell into the gloom.

We both froze and glanced up at the zebras. They were all staring at us, their yellow eyes glinting in the darkness.

“Think they see us?”

“There they are!” one of the zebras called out in a loud, yet monotone voice.

I slapped my hoof across my face. “Yup, they see us…”

We turned tail and started booking it as fast as we could across the catwalks. I heard the cracking sound of the zebra’s pulling out their snipers and firing down on us from above, their snipers resting on the rail of the scaffolding to steady their aim.

Zebra’s wielding long curved scimitars came charging down towards us, many hopping over the railings and jumping down to lower catwalks to get to us with surprising agility.

I whirled around, my baton swinging out and colliding with one of the curved blades mid air as one of the zebras neared. The two melee weapons clashed, making both of us stagger backwards slightly. I managed to regain my balance first, swinging my baton again and bringing it down hard on the zebras leg. The limb snapped at the joint making the zebra scream out in pain and fall backwards onto their rump.

I jumped back as another shot from the snipers above nearly took out my head. Shit these zebra’s have good aim. I shouldn’t be surprised, Xayah was the best shot of my party after all.

I backed up and started running after Shade who was now a few feet ahead of me. I saw her duck as a few shots lanced over her head.

Two more zebras rushed up behind me, their blades drawn and aimed for the back of my neck. I ducked low, dodging the first swing and kicked out with my hind leg to knock one of the zebras down. They both quickly leapt over my attack with a speed and agility I didn’t possess.

Now up close to them, I could see that something about them wasn’t right. The whites of their eyes had been tinged a pale piss yellow and their coat seemed to stand on end as if electrically charged somehow. They had a strange glazed over expression, lacking the emotion and intelligence I had seen in most ponies.

I realized their expression wasn’t just blank, it was also the same as my Hellhound had once had. These zebra’s weren’t in control, but being controlled.

Kamari had some sort of magical mind control too… that was just great.

I didn’t have much time to think about it as the two zebra’s began swinging at me again. I rolled away from their attack, luckily avoiding another sniper shot at the same time and hoped back to my hooves. Boneless swiveled into the air and blasted the head off the first zebra. Their body slumped over, their ruined neck spilling gore.

I hoped back as the second zebra swung at me. I saw three more quickly approaching behind them. Shade pushed past me, her pistol firing two shots into my attacker. Only one shot landed, tearing apart the zebra’s left forehoof. The zebra recoiled from the attack, giving me time to steady myself and send an explosive buckshot into their face. The zebra’s head was quickly pulverized.

We quickly turned and kept running, not bothering to try fighting the zebra that quickly filled the space the last two had just occupied. One of the zebra snipers shot down at me, the bullet just barely missing my hoof. I lurched to the side as they fired again, this time with a better aimed shot.

The movement made me stumble, my left side skidding to the edge of the catwalk and slamming into the railing. The railing didn’t hold. Two hundred years of neglect and water damage had weakened the railing and it gave way like paper as I collided with it, sending me flying off the side of the catwalk.

Screaming, I frantically reached out and grabbed onto the edge with my hooves, my back legs dangling over the side precariously. Shade darted over, reaching down to help pull me back up.

One of the snipers shot Shade through one of her hind legs. With a yelp of pain, she dropped to the ground next to me, still trying with all her strength to pull me back up.

“Shit, shit, fuck! Come on!” She grunted between gritted teeth as she pulled against my hooves with all her might.

The zebra’s behind us were closing in, their blades glinting from the floating silver obs. We only had a few seconds before they reached us, though they seemed to be slowing as they took in our predicament.

Shade glanced down at something below me. “Drop!” She instructed, pushing herself up on her injured leg and quickly jumping over the side of the rail.

Seeing her movement, the zebra’s began rushing towards us faster. No time to question if she was crazy or not, I just had to act.

I let go of the catwalk and dropped down. The air rushed past me, my heart beating faster than ever as I was plunged into the darkness below. Then my body hit another catwalk that had been a few feet below me, just far enough down that I hadn’t been able to see it through the gloom. The air was pushed from my lungs as I collided with the catwalk.

“Come on!” Shade pushed, pulling me up and forcing me to keep running down the catwalk. Her run was slowed as she hobbled on her shot back hoof.

The zebras were quickly following behind us, many jumping over the edge of the upper catwalks to land on our level while others continued racing up above to cut us off. Now a little lower and obscured by the higher elevated scaffolding, the zebra snipers had to rush to a new position to get a good aim at us. We had bought ourself a bit of time, but not a lot.

“There’s a tunnel up ahead!” I shouted, pointing towards the end of the catwalk. We had gotten closer to the walls of the large cistern. I could see that the rough rock walls were filled with hundreds of smaller tunnels, some near the ground while others remained halfway up the rock surface. Many off the catwalks led into them, assumably leading into other parts of the mine.

A zebra jumped down from the catwalk above, landing in front of our path. I whipped Boneless out only for the zebra to knock it aside with a kick of their hoof. I dodged to the right as they swung at me with their scimitar, the curved blade slicing through the air and clattering against the metal catwalk. Shade whipped the zebra across the face with her gun, knocking them back a little.

The zebra stumbled, trying to regain their balance as their vision whirled from the sudden impact against their skull. I wrapped my amber magic around their hoof and tugged, sending them flying off the edge and freefalling into the darkness below. I didn’t hear them land.

“Fuck, how deep is this place…”

The sound of gunfire alerted us that the snipers had managed to get back into a position where they could shoot down at us again. Bullets rained down at us from all sides and blasted at the catwalk below our hooves, blowing holes to the vertigo inducing drop below.

“Now would be a good time to get to that tunnel!” Shade shouted, rushing forwards towards the end off the catwalk. I quickly started after her, my magic reaching out and picking up Boneless as I went. My hooves were starting to ache from all the running and I could slowly feel the exersion starting to sap away at my energy. We were so close to the tunnel now, only a few more feet and we would be there.

A zebra pulled a grenade from one of their saddlebags and threw it down towards us. The grenade bounced down and rolled across the catwalk to land by are hooves. I wrapped Shade in a field of magic and pulled her back just as the explosive went off.

Shrapnel burst towards us, the small, jagged chunks ripping open small cuts in our coat. The catwalk wobbled, the area in front of us leading to the tunnel collapsing inwards. Then the whole thing started to crumble. Scaffolding started breaking below us and pieces of the Catwalk began cracking and falling into the abysse.

“Go back! Go back!” I shouted, pushing Shade back as the part of the catwalk we had just been standing on started collapsing.

I saw the zebra’s that had been chasing after us quickly start climbing up to higher levels to escape the crumbling structure.

With all the strength I had, I magically threw Shade up to the level above us. Her front hooves clutched onto the rail as she slowly pulled herself up. She turned and reached out her arm, gesturing for me to jump up to her.

I shook my head, there was no way I was going to make that jump.

The catwalk broke off below my hooves. I hoped to the side, just barely avoiding falling into the darkness below and started running for all I was worth. With each second, the catwalk seemed to collapse faster, the breaking pieces of scaffolding seeming to fall away behind me more and more with each step.

The zebras above me continued firing down, their shots bouncing and ricocheting around me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Shade jump backwards to avoid the swinging curved blade of a zebra that had begun to assail her.

I jumped from the catwalk, my hooves outsteched and reaching for a small platform a few feet below me. The second my hooves left the catwalk, the whole structure collapsed, crumbling away into the depths and out of sight.

My chest struck the floor of the platform hard, knocking the air out of me. I quickly rolled over as a zebra tried to fire another shot at me. The bullet missed by a hair, thudding against the metal platform and ricocheting away mere inches from my eye.

I pulled myself up and glanced over to Shade. She was rushing down one of the catwalks above me towards another platform as three zebra’s gave chase. She fired behind her blindly, hoping to take out or at the very least slow her pursuers. The zebras were managing to evade her attacks with a great deal of ease. I started charging up the catwalks to help her, only for two of the snipers to begin shooting down at me, forcing me to duck and move away.

I had to get rid of those snipers, otherwise they were just going to pick us off.

I glanced up at the catwalk suspended by scaffolding far above me where a majority of the zebra snipers had located themselves to get a clear shot at most of the surrounding area. If only I could...

I was hit with a plan.

I ducked behind some scaffolding as they continued shooting down at me. Out of my line of sight, it was going to be a lot harder, but I wouldn’t be able to do it if they continued shooting at me like that. I reached out with my magic, trying to remember exactly what position the zebra’s had been in with the quick glance I had gotten of them.

Using magic on something you couldn’t see was hard. Really hard. But not impossible.

Hoping I had managed to grab what I needed in my telekinesis, I gave a quick tug with my magic. At once I heard a zebra shout and saw a saddlebag tumble off of the catwalk. I quickly wrapped it in my magic and brought it over to me.

I opened it up. Sitting inside were several grenades. Perfect.

Using my magic I pulled all the pins at once. I jumped out from cover, locked eyes with the sniper zebras and pictured all of the grenades up with them. The moment the zebras spotted me their snipers turned and fired. One of the shots lanced through my leg, dropping me to the ground in pain. But it was too late for them. Seconds before the grenades exploded there was a pop of amber light and I teleported all seven of them up onto the catwalk with them.

The catwalk above exploded. Bits of metal and broken pipes from the scaffolding rained down around me as the whole thing began to crumble and collapse into the abyss. Most of the zebras were ripped apart in the blast, but a couple managed to jump from the collapsing structure. I saw a few bodies of frantic zebras falling past me into the darkness, their hooves flailing as they tried to grasp onto something.

Two zebras landed on the catwalk in front of me. They started to pull themselves to their hooves, but I quickly grabbed both of their heads in my magic and rammed them together, knocking both of them over the side.

I saw a zebra on a catwalk above me fall to a shot from Shade’s pistol. She was keeping them at bay for the moment, but I could tell she wasn’t going to be able to hold them off for much longer.

Trying my best to ignore my aching legs, I rushed up a sloped part of the catwalks and headed towards Shade. Before I could reach her, a large part of the scaffolding I had just blown up collapsed into the catwalk behind me, making the whole structure lurch awkwardly to one side. I stumbled on my hooves, doing my best to keep from falling.

I could hear the creaking of the scaffolding as the base slowly began to break away. The whole catwalk tilted dangerously and slowly began toppling downwards.

“Shit!”

I pushed with my back legs to propel myself forwards and raced for the end of the ramp. The whole catwalk wobbled, making it impossible to get any good hoofing as I sped towards the end. I wasn’t going to make it! It was falling too fast.

I leapt from the catwalk and grabbed onto the scaffolding across from me as the catwalk completely collapsed. With a groan of pain I began pulling myself up the side of the scaffolding and towards the platform it suspended above me.

I heard Shade shout something, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was she said. I heard her gun fire off a few more rounds, but I couldn’t tell if any of them made their mark.

I pulled myself up onto the platform and began rushing down towards her. Five zebras had circled her, their blades raised to rip into her.

I screamed, drawing the zebras attention to me as I charged up and fired Boneless point blank into one of their faces. The zebra's head was blown from its body, blood and viscera splashing up against us and coating our coats in red.

The four remaining zebras spun around to face me, their scimitars swinging in my direction. I jumped back and evaded the first strike, only for another blade to cut deep into my side. I yelled in pain as a large gash was torn open in my side.

Blam! Blam!

Two shots from Shades pistol pierced a zebras leg, making them collapse and fall screaming from the platform. I lashed out with my baton, knocking a zebra back before they had a chance to swing at me again.

One of the zebras lunged at Shade, their hooves wrapping around her neck and trying to strangle her. I moved in to help her, only for the other zebra to charge into me. I felt the zebras hooves wrap around me as they tried to leap from the platform.

They were trying to throw us off by tackling us! Even if that meant they would die as well! Were they insane?! One glance at their pale yellow eyes reminded me they weren’t even in control, let alone thinking straight.

I bucked at the zebra, trying to make it release its grip on me. It’s grip held tight. It pushed against me again, sending me a little closer to the edge. I felt my back hoof slide over the edge and dangle over the pit.

My whole body lost its balance as my hoof went out from under me. I fell, my whole body going over the side of the platform, taking the zebra with me. My hooves lashed out grabbing onto the rusted scaffolding before I could plunge to my death.

The zebra grabbing onto me held tight to my neck, continually trying to drag me down. It batted at me with it’s striped hooves, each strike hitting with a sharp and painful precision.

I magically pulled out my baton and slammed it against the zebra's head. The zebra jerked back, its face bloodied from the attack. It’s hooves loosened and it fell from me, falling away into the darkness.

Blam!

A gunshot rang out above me, followed by the body of the last zebra slumping over and falling from the platform.

I saw Shades head peek out over the edge and look down at me, her face filled with relief as she saw I was still alive and hanging on. She had a large bruise on her neck where the zebra had been choking her.

“You still hanging in there?” she asked, reaching down a hoof to help pull me up.

I rolled my eyes and accepted her hoof, letting her haul me back up onto the platform. “Haha. very funny,” I grumbled, pulling two healing potions out of my saddlebag and passing one to her before drinking one myself. I could feel the magic in the potion start to take effect and patch up some of my wounds.

Shade just gave me a sly, nervous smile before drinking her own healing potion.

Then the platform shook. I bounded to my hooves and glanced down. One of the toppled catwalks had collapsed into the platform, breaking apart some of the scaffolding. The whole platform slanted, making our hooves slip out from under us.

“Get to safety first, joke around later,” I cried out as the scaffolding supporting the platform broke away completely. The platform began plummeting downwards, what little scaffolding that remained intact breaking away under the sudden force.

My head darted around, looking for another platform or Catwalk to jump to. We were moving too fast, I couldn’t see one.

“Hold on!” I shouted over the sound of rushing wind as we began practically freefalling towards the darkness below us. I saw Shade wrap her hooves tightly around the edge of the platform.

I couldn’t see the bottom, so I shut my eyes and guessed how far down it was. This was a jump in the dark. I knew if I got this wrong, we were dead. I gulped, I really hoped I was right.

I wrapped my hooves around Shade and let my magic envelope both of us. With all the force I had left, I pictured what I really hoped was the bottom of the cave and cast the spell.

We teleported. I had hoped we would teleport to the ground, but it turned out the cave was even deeper than I thought. We materialized in the middle of the air, still plummeting downwards at a sickening speed.

I heard the booming crash of the platform we had just been on smash into the ground. That meant we were close to the ground too, really damn close!

I could see the rocky ground below us. It was just a few feet away now. It seemed to reach up towards us, rising at an accelerating speed.

I tightened my grip on Shade and tried to cast the spell again, but I didn’t have enough strength left. Not for two ponies anyway. I could only teleport one of us, the other would have to fall.

I made a choice.

My horn flared and I immediately teleported Shade to safety.

Then I was falling alone. Down, down into the deep. Moments before I collided with the ground, my flailing body hit one of the floating silver orbs that filled the air and everything changed.

Author's Notes:

Darn... so I was really hoping to have this just be one chapter, but after writing it I realized it was simply too long for that.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Fallout: Equestrian belongs to Kkat.