"What the hell is this thing?" He asked as they all walked to the elevator.

"It's bad news, that's what it is!" Norton said.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Santos asked. "The scientists called it the "Nexus". They thought these bigger specimens acted as conduits for the Machine's control signal, broadcasting it to smaller forms."

Sweetiebelle looked nervously at it, even she would have trouble fighting one of those. That is of course... If she got a piece of it first.

Before they all got in the elevator, she jumped out and ran to it.

"Little anomaly!" Santos said. "What are you doing?"

"Just give me a second, this could help us." She said over the comm.

With a crack, she snapped a piece off and put it into her inventory. She took off the bottoms off her suit's boots, as requested earlier in Ponyville at another time, and used her Stalker claws to climb up.

The other were waiting for her at the top, Norton and Santos looking at her in slight nervousness.

"As I was about to ask." Isaac said. "This helps us how?"

"Because, I think they found the Machine by tracking the signal upstream, through nerve clusters in the creature!"

"Well wait, we need to get inside that thing?" Isaac asked in disbelief.

"Yes! This is such a wonderful opportunity!"

"Trust me," Applebloom said. "There ain't nothin' good bout' goin' in someponies stomach."

"Hey! I saved all of you twice because I did that!" Sweetiebelle defended herself.

"What's she talking about?" Norton asked.

"How she saved us from Tiedmann and Necromorph's twice by eating us. You remember that Ellie?" Isaac asked.

"How could I forget?" She replied over the comm. "It was all slimy and I couldn't even stand up. Not to mention, I never figured out where the stomach acid was to drop you in it."

"You still remember that?" He asked. "All I have are painful memories of Scootaloo chasing Stalkers, using me to beat them to death, and being upstaged by Applebloom and Scootaloo flinging me around some more."

"Really? And you let her?"

"Hey, she has literal, supernatural strength. What was I supposed to do?"

"Shoot her." Norton rolled his eyes.

He jumped back when Applebloom shot as his feet. He raised his Pulse rifle at her, she hit it away before knocking him to the ground with a well placed buck between the legs. She lowered the barrel of her own rifle at his face, narrowing her eyes.

"Ah can kill a Tripod, a horde of Necro's... Even an army," she hissed. "And if ya want to keep walkin' with both of your legs, you'll keep ya trap shut for now on, got it?"

He merely gave a snort before nodding.

"Heh, you just got your ass handed to you by a filly." Isaac smirked. "Even I could stand a longer chance against her."

Applebloom raised an eyebrow at him before pouncing.

He turned and grabbed her by the midsection. Holding her up with her fore-legs pinned against her sides, she struggled to get free.

"See, you've just got to know what-shit! Put me down Scootaloo!"

She smirked as she hoof-bumped Applebloom.

"Whatever you say Isaac." She said playfully.

She loosened her grip on him and he fell on his back. Groaning from his head hitting the pads in his helmet to hard, he shook a fist at them before laughing.

"You know, I've kind of missed that." He said. "But, back on subject, we have to go inside that... Nexus? How the hell do we do that? It's frozen solid."

"The scientists used heat exchanges. Let me try and to ignite them." Santos said.

Santos fiddled with a few knobs and the pipes blew shot out some steam. She frowned when they did nothing.

"No, no good." She said frowning.

"There's probably a furnace on the roof. if I can find it, I can get it running again." Isaac said.

"Isaac, be careful up there, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah dont-"

Norton was interrupted by the sound of a Pulse rifle being reloaded. He saw Applebloom leaning against the doorway, looking at him with a brow raised from the corner of her eye. She shook her head and put a hoof to her lips.

He shut up immediately.

Just as the the engineer's we're about to leave, Applebloom and Babs Seed stood next to the doorway, smirking with their hooves out.

"Damn, I was hoping you would have forgotten." Isaac said going into his inventory. "Just take it and let us never speak of this again."

He threw Applebloom the credits, Scootaloo handed hers to Babs and Sweetiebelle merely gave a crimson eyed glare towards Norton. He flinched back a the sight but quickly shooed her away with his rifle.

"Too easy." Applebloom laughed as she punched her cousin in the shoulder playfully.

They all went down the walkway again, Isaac mumbling to himself and Scootaloo with a frown. The other three smiled, giggling to themselves.

They all traveled past the pipes and to the second door, once the door opened, they all got in and waited for it to stop spinning.

The room they entered was littered with loose pipes, canisters, papers and a few cups with old coffee. A few dirty lights shown through the darkness, casting a sickly yellow light over them as they passed and went into the elevator.

As it went up, the air became colder again. A shrill wind was heard and as the elevator stopped and lifted the rails, they got a good look at the top of the building.

It was covered in snow, mounds of it on the sides. A hole riddled walkway was up above, tracing that, they saw it go into the small building.

"Come on," Isaac groaned. "Let's see how much shit were going to have to fight."

"Ah'm sure nothin' bad will happen." Applebloom said, waving a dismissive hoof.

"The last time you said that, I was nearly skewered by a Tripod in a church! Nothing good ever comes from anyone who says that."

She shrugged and as soon as he hoof touched the snowy metal, a growl was heard. Isaac slowly began to look down at Applebloom.

A Leaper climbed over the rail and began running at them. Isaac stepped up with his plasma blade, curved it up and swung as it leapt at him.

The crusaders and him were covered in a shower of blood, he got hit in the back of the head by Scootaloo and a swift punch in the knee from Applebloom.

Isaac limped over to the ladder and helped Applebloom and Babs Seed up, Scootaloo and Sweetiebelle climbing up with their tendrils.

Once they all were up, they struggled against the wind. Snow began to gather on their suits as they struggled against the unrelenting wind.

Two Wasters appear from over the edges, the engineer's stopped and raise their guns. Scootaloo grabbed them both by the wrists and hurled them over the edge. They all winced as they heard a echoing thud from below.

"That had to hurt." Isaac whistled. "Hey, I think I can see that Nexus from here."

They all looked and through the snow, they saw it facing them, the alien sun lighting it's back.

"Neat." Scootaloo said.

They went to the ladder on the side and climbed down. When they were on solid ground again, they began to search for the power core.

They dug through snow, checked in piles of scrap and even inside a vent. It wasn't there so they looked around, hoping to see it on a small ledge.

"Where do ya think it is?" Applebloom asked.

Isaac face-palmed as he looked out the window.

"We passed it on the way up." He said. "Look."

The four fillies got up onto the window seal and looked at the glowing blue light ahead. They all face-hooved, the small sounds of metal on metal echoed in the small room.

"I'll go get it," Isaac said. "Scootaloo, you stand guard outside with Sweetiebelle."

"What?" Sweetiebelle asked pouting with puppy dog eyes. "Why do we have to go out?"

"Because I'm going the farthest, and I need someone to cover me, you cant do that in here. And, we need to conserve ammo, you could shoot spikes and Scootaloo could..." He shrugged, unable to come up with anything. "She's just a good choice alright."

They nodded and slipped out the crack in the door as he climbed up the ladder.

Sweetiebelle had her eyes closed in concentration, listening for anything that wasn't Isaac or her friends.

Isaac quickly ran across the walkway, climbed down and pulled the power core out from the case.

As he was turning, a scratching noise was hear. He dropped the core and took out his Force gun, he put his finger on the alternate weapon's trigger and spun around on his heel.

He jumped away as the Waster was pinned against the wall, it's arms still flailing. He blew them off quickly and took the axes for himself.

"Thanks Sweetiebelle!" Isaac called out as he picked the core back up.

As he walked, he began to run when more Waster's and Leaper's began to climb up. He shot the core through the window before getting in-between Scootaloo and Sweetiebelle.

Inside, Applebloom put in the power core and winced as the lights turned back on.

"Ellie, the furnace is back on, but we have a few problem's outside." Applebloom said.

She didn't respond, Applebloom figuring the transmitter was broken. As she hit her helmet repeatedly, she didn't hear the Waster come in through the vent they had broken earlier.

Babs Seed pushed her out of the way as it brought it's axes down, she got cut across the face by it. She narrowed her eyes before aiming her rifle at it. She pulled the trigger and it stumbled back against the wall, snapping side-to-side as the bullets tore through it's suit and flesh.

It fell to the floor, hunched over with pieces of flesh hanging out of it's suit.

Applebloom looked back at her cousin, a smirk that quickly disappeared when a Slasher was coming from behind. It dropped from the ladder and raised it's blades into the air before swinging down.

Applebloom pushed her out of the way and made a muted gasp.

Her eyes were wide, her pupils mere dots in the whiteness. She reached down with her small hooves and tried to push the blade out from her belly. The slasher pulled out quickly before looking at Babs Seed.

Babs Seed was bawling, while shooting a glare filled with flaming brimstone at it.

She quickly took the axes from the Waster and cut it's arms off. It fell to the floor before taking a step.

Babs Seed rushed to her cousin and began crying, trying to stop the blood from coming out. Applebloom was paler, her usual yellow coat was now a light tan. She spit up some blood and gave a small, blood stained smile towards her cousin.

The last shot was made from outside and when Isaac turned around, he stopped and pried the doors open. Ignoring the cuts in his palms from the metal, he lifted her head up, she gave a small smile towards him but her eyes were filled with fear.

"Sweetiebelle dammit!" Isaac yelled. "Help her! Anyone help her now dammit!"

Babs Seed watched in fear as Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo lit their horns and she watched in fear as the flesh reformed.

Author's Notes:

Sorry about the late chapter, I've been a little under the weather. Stupid mucus... Well, except for in the stomach. There it makes sure the stomach doesn't digest itself and melt your other organs with the acid... On a less morbid thought, I'll be focusing on this a little more.

And here's the death experience I promised.