A torrent of flame bathed the creature as it swung down from the air.

It hit her in the side of the head, cutting the pale flesh. She growled as the blood trickled out from the closing wound, dropping as it trailed down onto the floor, burning through the metal. She charged it and they went down the shaft. Steam hitting them as they fell, stinging her face as it hit her over and over.

They finally landed down onto a table, breaking it and denting the floor.

It pushed her off as it got up, much to its annoyance; she had brought out her tentacles.

It rushed forward faster than any man or woman. She was faster as she hit it on the side and slammed it into a wall. It got up again before charging her, this time it dodged the swipe and landed a blow across her side.

More blood, falling feathers and much more anger.

She gave a slow hiss, as the parts where her eyes were turned a pitch black.

Her wings retracted; the feathers falling off, next her membrane dissolved letting more blood flow freely and finally the bones straightened out and retracted into her side in sickening snaps and cracks. In their place came two bony tentacles, each armed with spikes on the sides. But what was on her head, gave her the real advantage, was the black horn, shinning with a red spiral in the edges.

The two armored tentacles shot out and smashed together on the side of the Necromorph.

In response its head, feet and hands fell off and started to move around.

Her horn started to glow a dark red, almost black before a rune started to form around her. It glowed a dull blue before lighting up to a light purple, it changed to orange and then yellow before settling on black mixed with red.

Small points started to rise from the edges.

They parts jumped to attack her but were stopped in mid jump as she held them down.

The points grew into pillars, each lined with jagged obsidian thorns, each with blood running through the cracks. It grew until an arch was formed where the empty space in-between started to glow.

A small flame, black as the night with grey swirling in it; the flame itself were as cold and hot as the frozen north and Celestia's sun.

It grew in size before it all turned black, soon moans and horrible, blood curdling shrieks filled the air until no other noise could be heard.

That's when the black tendrils reached out. They grabbed the small body arts and quickly brought them in. After doing so, the pillars collapsed in on themselves and were also sucked in.

"Enjoy Tartarus..." She hissed with enough malice to melt the ice and boil the venom in her words.

Above the shaft.

"Is... is she going to be alright?" Isaac asked, worried and amazed.

"Yeah. She's as tough as nails." Applebloom said. "And as fierce as ma'h brother when Applejack or Twa'light tries and takes his smarty pants doll."

Isaac gave her a strange look of utter bewilderment.

"The same horse that dragged all of that stuff by hopping to see his girl and he has a doll?" Isaac questioned in his own mind.

Ponyville.

"You still have that thing?" Twilight asked.

All eyes were on Mac whose calm demeanor portrayed nothing but shock and embarrassment.

"Eenope!" He said before galloping off.

"He does." Applejack said. "It's under his bed."

"Aww... dammit. My head feels like I was just... just..." Alex groaned getting up.

His calm features turned to one of anger.

"Celestia! What the hell!?" He yelled.

She merely smiled at him.

"You are so sleeping on the royal couch for a week." He growled. "Now, what did I miss?" He asked.

"Nothing much, Isaac getting a date, them running from exploding babies and Scoot's kicking one of those tall Necromorph's flank!" Rainbow said.

"Wait..." He scratched his goatee in thought. "Isaac's got a date?"

Titan station.

"Should I go down?" Isaac suggested.

"No, that won't be necessary..." Scootaloo's voice rang out through the hall and their minds.

A flash, flashed behind them. They all turned and gasped.

Scootaloo was standing there, two massive, bone plated tentacles coming out from where her side would be. And the horn jutting from her fore-head.

"Scootaloo! What happened?" Applebloom asked.

"I sent that thing to Tartarus. Literally." She said changing back, but only as a unicorn filly, all her tentacles still out.

"Scootaloo! Language!" Sweetiebelle scolded. "Wait... why do you have a horn?" She asked confused.

"Oh... yeah, that. We'll my parents can do the same. We can choose to be earth ponies, unicorns or pegasai. My dad can turn into an alicorn though if he concentrates hard enough." She shrugged. "It runs in the family."

"Wow... that means there's six alicorns in Equestria." Sweetiebelle said in awe.

"Yeah, big deal. I think we should get going before more of those things find their way here." Isaac said as he went forward.

They shrugged before entering the elevator, Scootaloo had to retract her tentacles for space issues.

The doors opened and revealed a room with a steaming pit with a table supporting small crates on it hovering over it, a fragile glass window and a trail of blood leading to the door ahead.

As Isaac entered a large charred looking Slasher came from the side, he didn't see it but he certainly felt it when he got tossed to the other side of the room.

"Isaac!" The crusaders cried.

It charged him again, but as it brought its blades down he vanished in a flash of red light. It looked at where he was in confusion before turning back to the other targets.

All three of which were charging.

Applebloom slammed into its knees, effectively breaking one off. Scootaloo got its arms, tearing one off and Sweetiebelle had her blades out as she sunk them into its chest and tore it in half.

"AHHH!" Isaac yell rang out.

They all turned back to Isaac, who was still lying on the floor, yelling his lungs out.

"Isaac. It’s gone." Scootaloo poked him.

He lowered his arms from his face-plate as he looked around.

"I knew that." He said getting up. "I knew it all along. I was just being cautious."

"That would have gotten you your arms chopped off regardless." Sweetiebelle pointed out.

He cursed silently as they entered the next door.

And as soon as they entered the hallway. Nicole spoke up.

"Why would I choose the Ishimura over you? You said I'd regret passing up the chance, that the choice would haunt me forever. It was as if you wanted me to leave."

The voice vanished along with all the comfort of the survivors.

"Well... I'm getting used to it atleast." Isaac shrugged.

"It’s inconvenient." Sweetiebelle pouted.

"It’s just annoying." Applebloom said.

"Yeah, she is." Scootaloo agreed.

"That's woman for you, in my life atleast." Isaac said picking up the closest explosive canister. "Ready?"

They all gave a nod before going forward.

They ascended the ramp; Isaac looked around the corner and whipped his head back.

"There's a Guardian. Don't get close to them." He warned.

He jumped out from the corner and shot out the canister.

And only for it to go flying to the side and over the railing.

The Guardian saw him, yelled and shot out a small pod. It opened up and started to shoot small spikes at him as he ran back around the corner.

He looked down at the crusaders, who still had their hooves across their muzzles.

"Give me a break; it's been thirteen years since I did this. Ten in an asylum here and three floating in space." He complained.

"Never send a colt to do a mare’s job." Sweetiebelle groaned as she took out her Contact beam.

"I don't think that's going to kill it quick enough..." Isaac said.

"Why does it matter how fast we kill it?" She asked.

He pointed a single, trembling finger ahead. "Babies." He croaked.

The crusaders turned and saw the swarm of babies from earlier.

Sweetiebelle looked back at her Contact beam before an idea struck her. She took out a small cartridge and held it in her hoof.

"I wonder if it can take magic..." She thought as she looked at it.

"Sweetiebelle, whatever you’re going to do, make it quick!" Isaac yelled firing at the Crawlers.

Her horn started to spark and soon a steady stream of pale blue energy was filling the cartridge. No longer did it glow yellow, but now it glowed a bright white.

Her friends stared curiously. Isaac stared in uncertainty.

"Here goes nothing..." She sighed.

She spun around the corner, charged the shot. The gun glowed from every crack a brilliant white. When she fired she was sent back into the pile of scrap behind her. What the others saw shocked them.

Where the Guardian once was, there was now a large hole, a melted ring of white metal lining the ceiling and walkway. Essentially cutting their path in half, literally.

"Holy shit..." Isaac wavered off.

"Twilight said that magic is unpredictable. I see what she means now." sweetiebelle groaned as she sat up. "Wow, I did that?" She asked in amazement.

"We can celebrate later! Let's get out of here!" Isaac yelled as he began to run. "Oh shit... that's right." He stopped at the edge of the hole.

He felt a large tentacle wrap around his waist and then himself being thrown across to the lift.

Next Applebloom and then she started to go up when Sweetiebelle started to fire.

"Sweetiebelle, leave them! We need to go!" Scootaloo yelled over the gurgles of the Crawlers.

"I'll find my own way over; just let me make sure they won't follow." She said.

"Are you-" Scootaloo started.

"Go!" Sweetiebelle yelled.

She hesitantly went to the other side before looking back to see her friend.

Sweetiebelle shot bolt after bolt of energy from her Contact beam, each shot killing atleast two Crawlers.

She grunted in agitation before taking out another small cartridge and charged it with her magic. She didn't put as much but it still glowed from the gun's cracks.

When she fired she had a small amount of kick-back but still stumbled. When she looked up, she saw most of the wall where the Crawlers were, was now a solid chunk of ice. With one final shot, the ice broke, wall and all.

"Alright Scoot's! Can I get over?" She called to her friend.

In response she sent over a tentacle that wrapped around the fillies waist and gently brought her over.

"That was bad-ass." Isaac commented. "Not as bad-ass as when I fought the Hive Mind, but bad-ass nonetheless."

As they went up, Nicole started to speak again.

"And when you received my final transmission, you couldn't bear to watch the end, could you? You knew what happened yet, you went looking for me anyway. You knew deep down that all you would find was death."

The lift stopped halfway to the platform, halfway to the greeting blades of a Slasher and Exploder.

He raised his Plasma cutter up before cutting the arms off the Slasher and using his kinesis, shot a blade into the exploders sac.

"Well, there's the tram." Isaac said as the crusaders were already trotting to it. "Let's not keep them waiting."

They all entered the tram, only to find it out of order.

"Crap, we'll need to find some other way to get it moving. I think there's an energy pillar to the track over in the back room over there."

They all looked back and saw two Pregnant's making their way towards them. Applebloom charged them fearlessly as she pushed them over the railing.

"Take that! Ya mangy varmints!" She yelled shaking a small hoof.

Isaac smiled at her small gesture of defiance that quickly turned to nervousness when he realized she could take out an army given enough ammo.

They walked into the room with new found vigor as they searched the room for anything of use. Eventually coming up with nothing but a small disk that hid a moving head underneath.

He pressed the panel against the shaft and immediately he turned on his comm as a low rumble was heard.

"Okay Ellie, I found the transport, but there's a problem with the release mechanism."

"No surprise there." She answered back.

"Yeah. I'll let you know when it’s fixed."

He turned back to the crusaders.

"Well," Isaac said flinging the head away. "That was a bust."

"I wouldn't say that." Sweetiebelle said.

"Why?"

"Because we need to get the other two disks for this." She pointed to the small pillar.

He looked to the sides and saw two covers that hid another pillar each.

Sweetiebelle raised the one on the left and found another blue and grey disk. They pulled that out before letting it drop again and put it into the correct slot.

He turned to the one on the right and raised it. Unfortunately, a small group of the Swarm landed on Scootaloo who went into immediate hysterics.

"Get them off! Get them off!" She yelled as she ran into walls, stomping on them or just rolling around.

"Hold still!" Sweetiebelle yelled as she horn started to lite up.

At once the small Necromorph's lifted into the air before being crushed.

"Thanks..." Scootaloo breathed out, putting a hoof to her chest.

"Let's hope there aren't any more." Isaac groaned from being thrown into a wall by the small orange unicorn.

"Isaac get up, this ain't nap time!" Applebloom barked at him as she lifted the right one and froze it on stasis before taking the small middle part.

He groaned before getting up and putting the large disk in the bottom.

"Now what?" Sweetiebelle asked.

"Now, now we get the others." Isaac said walking back to the holo-panel.

"All right, I've released the Transport. Meet me at the landing."

"We'll be right there. Stross, come on. Come on!" Ellie yelled.

They all quickly ran back to the tram and got on. Isaac put in the commands for the destination and in seconds Nicole appeared again.

"Why did you come looking for me if you knew I was dead, Isaac? Did you think I would forgive you?"

Isaac's helmet unfolded and his face clearly showed anger.

"Get out of my head!" He yelled. "You’re not Nicole!"

She quietly walked up to him before screaming into his face and mind. "Who am I, Isaac!?"

Soon the shadows of two familiar figures were present. Isaac quickly let Stross and his new girlfriend, thanks to the crusaders.

"Hey you made it." Isaac greeted Ellie as she walked by.

"He's staring at me, Isaac. Through the... holes... in his head!" Stross say's shakily but quickly.

"Stross, listen to me. Listen to me!" Isaac yelled.

Stross immediately started to back away.

"Stop staring at me! Stop it!" He yelled as he retreated to a seat.

"Relax! Relax!" Isaac yelled.

"Isaac, we have to get out of here." Ellie said turning to him.

"Then let's go." He said.

And they were off.

The crusaders casting worried glances at Stross while he sputter erratically and Ellie looking back and forth along with Isaac.