The mines were dark.
Crown and King stumbling on the uneven floors. Her horn was alight and providing them with at least some sight. The air was heavy and stale. Sounds of the ongoing battle were coming from just behind them, screams of soldiers were cut short, weapons were firing and steel was clashing against steel. The cacophony was overwhelming in the claustrophobic mine.
“X, where is the goddam X,” Crown muttered, patting down each wall with his free arm. “Common, common.”
Twilight was thrashing in his grip. “Let me go! We have to go back!”
The shin guards of her armor were bent inwards where a bullet went straight through. She felt no pain, only hot blood flowing from her fetlock.
Dawn was in her hooves, the chain sword roaring loudly.
“H-Here!” King managed to say through pain.
The janissaries peppered his upper torso; he noticed so much. Light machine gun, guessing purely from the caliber and volume of fire. They left his flak vest in tatters, the metal inserts shattered by about ten rounds hitting around his sternum.
That was bad. Very bad.
“I'm… just gonna sit here for a moment.”
“King! No, no, no! Get up!”
He nearly fell to the ground, Crown catching him at the last second. The builder now had the weight of both Twilight and the other, much heavier, human on his back, the effort making him groan with every step. He silently thanked his habit of morning jogging for keeping him in shape.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
He would be even more grateful if King had the same decency.
More gunshots and screaming came from outside the mine. Occasional ricochets followed, flying into the stony tunnels. They had to move, and fast.
Then Twilight saw it too, a nearly crumbling and cracked wall, marked with a X. It must have been newly dug. She did not recognize that part of the mine.
Dawn struck it, the blade sawing through stone as Twilight held it in her levitation; the strain making her teeth rattle. She had nearly no magic left, as if it was being drained away again by some force.
The already cracked wall gave way, revealing a crude pathway carved into the mountain.
Terrible smell assaulted her nostrils, reminiscent of the few times she caught on fire. Scent not unlike burned hair and rotting fruit.
She noticed the walls of the tunnel were covered in shallow markings all over them, from floor to cealing - they were everywhere. What meaning could they have? Who made this?
“Oh…” came the realization as she gagged.
The purple like shone on the rough flooring, covered in sad bundles of what at first glance looked like old clothing.
“I think I will vomit,” she said.
The walls were not covered in writing.
The walls were covered in scratches.
Corpses littered the floor. Torn apart, shredded, and burned.
“The missing wave,” Crown stated, taken aback, color vanishing from his face.
Explosives, she reasoned, the pirates must have tried to tunnel around the colony defenses and then they blew themself up, buried under the mountain and left to die.
Sun knew about this, Sun Glory knew about them.
More shots from outside, tearing and ripping off metal under immense pressure. Dawn bellowing, the chain blade spinning faster and faster in the unicorn's telekinetic grasp.
She tried to wiggle out of Crown's grip, but he held her tight.
Sun Glory was staying outside, buying time. They couldn't just leave. She had to go back for him!
Twilight felt her mind begin to shatter, a psychic screeching inside her skull.
Gripping her heart, crushing and twisting. Like someone took a knife made of ice to it and started cutting it into pieces. Emotion so strong coming from Dawn. Loss. A part of her dying. Friend, brother, protector, a connection getting severed.
Gone as the leaves in the wind. She had to get to him! It was her purpose, the reason for her existence. Protect the wielder, it echoed in her being, down to her core.
Crown didn't let Twilight go, trekking over corpses under his feet with King over his shoulders and the pony mare under his arm, screaming and sobbing. Crown knew he couldn't afford to slip once. He was sure he wouldn't be able to get back up. He held onto his unconscious friend and the howling mare.
It was like a lightning struck inside the mine. The entire structure shook, and Twilight’s body fell limp. Stones fell around them as the explosion destroyed the entrance and collapsed most of the mines behind them. A veritable thunder of tons and tons of stone changing positions violently. It made his ears pop. A trickle of blood came from them.
The light vanished. Pitch black darkness falling around him, abandoned in the hall filled with the dead…
The shots stopped, so did the screaming and the rumbling of the mountain. Dawn abruptly stopped. Silence became so thick it was maddening.
For Crown, this was the most terrifying moment of his life.
It took all of his willpower to not run madly out of there, the mortal terror slowly creeping up his spine. Leave them here, whispered a treacherous voice, save yourself. You don't need to die in this place, but he held tight onto the bodies burdening and slowing him down.
It would be for nothing. He would find only death if he would sprint into the abyss without care.
Left blind in the gnawing abyss. Alone, with only Twilight's shallow breaths and King's gasps for company, he continued over the ash and grime, slowly progressing further and further, hoping to find an exit to the outside world.
It welt like hours, how long were these tunnels? Was he walking in circles? Were the tunnels endless?
Just focus on the breathing. Breathing. Yours, theirs. Remember to breathe.
Bones breaking like dry twigs under his feet. The tunnel felt like it was stretching to infinity. No end. Just darkness and the scent of rot and ash.
Stumbling into the dark, hand finding a jagged wall of uneven stone and the sharp pillars of stalactites and stalagmites. A cavern, not man made hallways.
Wind! He felt wind on his face! A light! Shining at the end of that dark, freedom!
Dashing madly out, caution forgotten in the bound of momentary lunacy. Out, out of the corpse filled tomb. Away from the all-encompassing abyss. Into the star strewn night, the moonlit sky. Free!
Stirring under his arm, Twilight was awakening. King was still breathing, albeit with difficulty.
He made it; he managed to get them out.
Shivering, on the verge of collapse, hunted by the pitch black dark. He did it, he succeeded.
They escaped alive.
At least the three of them.
The sunrise couldn't come too early.
Red light washing over the sharp rocks, the harsh desert wind was picking up tumbleweeds and sending them rolling through the gorge, around the numerous wreckage - rusted cars, shopping carts and other remnants of those ancient and past.
The light of consciousness and reality hit one small purple pony, opening her eye, the other covered with a wool eye patch with crossbones on it.
This was the second time Twilight awoke in the hurriedly made camp outside the cave, but hardly the second time she hoped it all had been a dream. Her sleep has been interrupted and uneasy since. Filled with images of the last few days, the escape from the mines and the last moments of Sun Glory.
The whole vision was so clear. Appearing in her mind like ships out of morning mists. She was watching from his perspective, hearing his thoughts as if they were hers.
Then came the end.
Stabbed in the heart, one final defiance, spitting in the face of fate.
It could not be true. Dream. This time, it had to be a dream.
The lie was comforting, however false. She had nothing else.
Crown sat on a rock nearby, his eyes red and puffy, with clean trails around his face, where the dirt and dust of the battle were washed away. Keeping watch for their enemies, who could be just beyond the corner.
He was forced to take shelter just outside the horrible place that was the cave. There was no way he could come back in there, not again. And with the wounds of his companions and the amount of dead bodies in there, infections would become a certainty if they were to hide in there.
Traveling any distance with them was also out of the question. Twilights might say she could walk on her injured leg now, but that didn't make the wound any less dangerous and her wincing whenever she used the injured leg any less real.
And King…
King wasn't going to make it. Not out here, under a makeshift tent outside in the open.
The small fire itself was a giant gamble. Without proper protection from the elements, they would surely freeze in the night, but if they were to be discovered, well, Crown didn't fancy the odds. He had to be eternally thankful for the tarp he found outside - the thing was almost invisible with how well it blended into the background and he would surely miss it if it wasn’t thoroughly stained.
It smelled of chemfuel, but it was what allowed him to make the vital shade giving “tents”.
Twilight carefully hobbled to him, her front leg held close to her chest in a sling made out of his shirt - he already torn it for bandages, anyway.
She pulled him into a hug.
He stiffened in her embrace for a second, then gave in. His ragged breath betrayed the sobs he didn't allow himself to have.
The pony heart ached for him. She may have lost friends, people she knew for a month. He lost his brother. Not to mention having to carry them out on his own.
They stayed like that for a while.
"Better?" she asked.
"No, but thank you anyway."
"No signs of them, then?"
She knew the answer. His sorry state was proof enough. But the small hope in her heart didn't let her give up.
Not yet.
“No. Nothing.”
King moaned in pain behind them.
“We need to get help, some proper medicine, fast,” the words came out of her mouth, throat threatening to seize. She knew what it meant.
“We need to get back to Going South.”
The scene could look almost comical to any outside viewer.
Crown pulled a makeshift stretcher made from sticks and the repurposed tarp, while Twilight was perched on his shoulders, watching for threats. The silent chain sword was by her side.
They were sure that no one remained in the colony anymore, Crown was observing Going South for hours, trying to find any sign of activity, discovering none. Even entering stealthily and scouting ahead , just to be sure.
The broken fortress stood before them. The bodies of the slain imperials lay scattered in the kill box and the gorge, mangled beyond recognition by their death acidifiers. Leaving only a husk of molten metal and flesh.
Twilight was glad she didn't eat anything. She was sure that she would evacuate any food right there, on top of Crown, who would not be too happy about that. It was enough she puked on one of the brothers.
The three of them passed the hole in the fortification, revealing the state of the colony.
“They didn't burn it all down…” Crown said, amazed.
The buildings were still standing proud, bullet holes in the walls, broken doors, yes, but not ruined. Maybe left as a tombstone to the enemies that came so close to defeating the might of the empire?
The true reason they discovered soon after.
There were simply not enough raiders left.
The mine was utterly destroyed. Buried and gone, leaving only blood stained sand, bodies and fallen rocks, the avalanche decimating the remainders of the imperial unit.
Twilight stared at the mountain of rubble, recalling her dream over and over in her head.
Sun Glory was no more.
The burial was a quick and quiet ordeal. Without a body, the only things placed in the grave were the tattered pieces of his pink apron and hat, recovered by Crown from the place of his last stand and eventual resting place.
She made the epitaph, written in old eguish, copying the inscription of his signature weapon.
Pro eis quos diligimus, com gloria morimur.
For those we cherish, we die in glory.
The next few days were spent hopelessly watching King waste away.
Twilight sat on her haunches next to him, deep in thought, Crown pacing outside
The laboratory was remade into a hospital. The few imperials that escaped not noticed the building or didn't want to bother with the door, already getting more loot that they were able to carry elsewhere in the colony and its clean and sterile environment made it ideal for their purposes.
For the first time, she had the time to think about what happened, to contemplate on what to do next.
Lilith and Knight were alive. She knew it. Captured in the hands of the enemy. But alive.
King had to survive, he had to.
She wanted to scream, to cry, but she had to keep strong. For him, for them, for herself.
Picking up a wet rag in her magic, she wrapped it with the one on the dry one of King's forehead. The human hasn't regained full consciousness since he collapsed in the mines. Sweating profusely, despite the cool temperature of the room, his fever was not going down.
Her own wound healed, at least as much as it could in the circumstances. She felt brief pangs of pain whenever she stepped on her right front leg and noticed a small limp whenever she tried to walk.
Dawn was by her side the whole time, the weapon deadly silent, but she still felt the magical aura of the blade when she touched it.
Crown entered the lab, shoulders sagged, palm of his hand resting on a gun on his hip, now always present.
“How is he?” he asked.
Twilight could only sigh. “Not better. I think the wound got infected…”
Crown knew that much, but the news still sour taste in his mouth.
“I found their tracks. Took some wounded and dragged two other people with them. Bound.”
Relief washed over the pony. Twilight suspected that the two missing residents were kidnapped, but having it confirmed that they were at least alive took a weight from her chest.
Crown sat down next to King, holding his hand and whispering a quick prayer. “Go to sleep, Twilight. I will watch over him tonight.”
“You sure? I'm not that tired.”
She absolutely was. Twilight never felt so exhausted in her whole life, but the prospect of sleep invited her night terrors.
Not all of her dreams were bad, though. Sometimes she would get lucky and dream of bizarre and nonsensical things. Of swirls of different colors, mostly white and cold, later changing to green and yellow.
And a voice of a woman, calling her. She couldn't make out what she was saying, but the tone sounded relaxing, calming and oddly familiar.
In those dreams, she felt like she was floating, watching an ocean of colors, at peace.
“Yes, I’m sure Twilight.”
She hesitated for a second. She didn't want to leave him to brood alone, but she was too exhausted to argue.
“Okay,” she decided in the end.
Her bedroom was unchanged, minding the repaired doors and broken dresser. The bedsheets were clean, her fur washed and groomed, the heavy armor left next to her bed.
Now alone, she curled into a fetal position, crying softly.
Why? Why her? Why her friends? Did some sick creature really enjoy her suffering? Was that all that was to it?
The calendar, she saw the cursed calendar. The next wave was coming in four weeks. Twice the amount it normally took for a new wave to arrive. Was that their wave reward?
Tribal raiders were next, the largest number of enemies yet.
Technically, they won the last wave; she supposed. Alive, able to continue. Just send more! Kill more! Die more!
She took the life of another. She tended to a friend as he bled on her from grievous injuries. Dug a grave for a somepony she knew, found out that two others were dragged to a life of slavery.
Her brows furrowed, the weight of Dawn in her hoof, every groove and line of gold filigree on the white blade glistening in the cheap electric light.
Sun Glory gave it -no- her, as a final gift.
“I will bring them back,” she whispered to the sword. “I'm not letting anyone hurt my friends.
“I promise.”
“He is not going to make it.”
The lab became a somber place, King’s skin paler and paler, eyes empty and glassy, mulling for himself at times. The feverish human was going to die unless they did anything.
Three days since they came back to the empty colony, and his condition only kept worsening. The time they spent hiding in the desert cost him dearly. The wound was festering and swollen; the lab began to smell with the putrid smell of disease.
Twilight held Kings in place, as Crown changed the bandages around his friend's rib cage.
“If only those bastards didn't steal the serum.”
Rage and fury in the builder's voice.
Every moment spent here meant the enemies were gutting further away. The imperials who to took their friends Celestia know where, never to be seen again.
A dilemma, a choice the pony knew they would have to make soon.
Stay here, hope that King will overcome the infection.
Or leave him and chase the enemies.
Crown sighed, defeated. Slumping to the floor on the verge of breaking down. His brother was out there, he allowed him to be taken away. If only he built the walls better. Stronger. What were all of his fortifications for in the end? Useless. Just like the one who built them.
Hooves around his body, another hug. “We are going to save them,” Twilight said with conviction.
There was a third option.
Their healer mech serum may have been stolen, but there was another way to keep King alive. Getting there would be a challenge, considering its guardians…
He looked at his friend, his skin sickly and bluish, droplets of sweat pouring from his brows.
Crown doubted he would survive the night.
Twilight was watching him, the purple eye boring into his souls, the glimmer of hope in it.
“I may have an idea.”
They had to try.
The cliff loomed over them, the midday sun above them, the blistering heat and fear making them sweat.
Twilight and Crown, side by side. The mare fully armored in the plasteel plate, spear at the ready, while Crown only had his vest and a duster, Kings revolver in hands, arguably much worse weapon than his Lee Enfield, which he lost somewhere in the cave and he refused to go back for it.
Twilight didn't blame him.
Outstretching from the cliff face was a polished armored steel wall. Part of the construction was replaced by newer plates welded shut. Drawing near the ancient wall, a sense of foreboding overcomes her. She wasn't sure why, but felt like this dusty structure may contain great dangers, even greater than those Crown already warned her about.
The ancient shrine.
Twilight took a few deep breaths to steady herself.
The colonist opened it before, peeking inside for just long enough to see what was inside, then sealing it shut just in the nick of time to escape the guardians of that ancient and dangerous place.
Mechanoids.
They didn't know how many of them were in that room, how strong or even if they were active.
Twilight touched her eye patch and gulped.
Her ear against the wall, listening for any activity.
Nothing. Silent as a grave.
“Hear anything?” whispered Crown, welding torch set up next to the seal.
“No,” came her nervous answer. They had to do it, but it didn't make her any less anxious, her last battle with the mechanical beings, won at a significant cost, too fresh a scar to reopen for the pony. But it was the best option for keeping King alive and finding the captured colonists.
“Okay, I'll cover you from here. Get ready.”
Crown looked and sounded just as nervous as her, eyes darting around and the gun ready at a second notice.
Twilight let her horn. The chain sword was still a dead weight. Her spear would have to do. Going into a battle stance, she gave a nod to Crown.
The torch made quick work of the welds, the heavy plate falling.
Just grab it and teleport out, she told herself. Nothing hard.
The sun's rays reached the edges of the ancient danger. Her human companion shuddering at the sight of the pitch black room. The removed seal kicked off dust, making her couch and sneeze, Crown nearly pulling the trigger of his weapon at the sudden sound.
Something at the periphery of her senses. Movement, quick and deft — there!
Twilight froze in place, her horn light only revealing more dust covered floor.
Nothing.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
The room was mostly barren, more and more of it shown as she made her way deeper. Urns, trash, broken crates, pillars beautifully carved from stone.
The question of the previous inhabitants reared its ugly mug yet again. Crown even called it a shrine, but to what? Sadly, she had a more important mission right now.
Focus Twilight. Focus. Life is on the line, research can wait for now.
Gaze darting from corner to corner, the empty confines filling her with dread.
Crown said that they had seen it here before, so where was it? And where were the metallic guardians of this place? The very reason why they had to seal it back up the last time the colonist ventured here?
She found a steel coffin, unlike any she ever saw before, not that she saw that many of them. But this one screamed unusual.
Gray, without any real decorations, only pieces of electronics, with a thick layer of dust on its lid.
It had handles on its side, strangely for the pony, the handles were bent inwards, as if to assist with getting out of the coffin, not carrying it around. Maybe it wasn't made with human physiology in mind?
She cleaned a bit of dust on the lid, under its black glass, with writing, translating from unreadable squiggles into words in front of her eye.
Status: Active
Inhabitant: Male
Health: Stable
Name: Unknown
What?
It wasn't a coffin! Lilith told her about these, the cryptosleep casket. Which meant that there was a person trapped inside! She only needed to open it. There had to be some mechanism.
Something rustled behind her, Crown watching from his place outside, providing cover. At least, that was his plan.
“Twilight?”
A place next to the casket, devoid of any dirt and soot. Clean, as if something big lay there for a long time and then moved, leaving a spot oddly devoid of dirt.
The mare shivered, the feeling of being watched creeped its way to her mind.
“Ya alright there?”
He could see her silhouette, the light she made. But why was she stopping? Just grab it and get out of there!
The inert blade on her side, just for a second, made a noise as the chain spun.
Get down.
Twilight jumped to the ground, dust and debris went flying, a blade went just above her head, cutting into the cryptosleep casket. Twilight retaliated in a blink, her spear stabbing upwards at the scyther; the tip burying itself in its armored torso.
The mech let out a screech, its razor sharp plasteel blades attacking once more, striking at the unicorn mare on the ground before the murder machine.
Twilight barrel rolled, the attack missing her by inches.
“Crown! Help!”
Crown aimed the enemy in his sight. With a finger on the trigger, the human hesitated.
At this angle, he risked hitting Twilight. He would have to enter the ancient structure.
But he couldn't.
His chest heaved, he felt like his blood turned to ice. He couldn't take the step forward, he could not. His breathing became faster, his own heartbeat deafening.
Twilight struggled to get up under the onslaught of the mechanoid attacks. She kicked the mech with her hind legs, to little effect. One of the artificial creature blades hit her square in the chest, the articulated plates of her cuirass deflecting it to the side, but the impact left her gasping for air.
Crown watched with horror, still frozen in place, weapon useless in his terrified state, eyes small as pinpricks.
The dark was there, waiting for him. It wanted to end him.
A spear of blue, coated in lavender aura, went through the scyther's head, destroying it.
The spear clattered on the floor, Twilight simply slumping back down again, trying to catch her breath.
Her hooves touched something.
A crevice under the cryptosleep casket, a tube of red pills.
That was it, the medicine for King, who would yet live.
Luciferium.
Crown was avoiding her gaze, head held low, while she gave the luciferium to her bedridden friend
The effects were immediate on King, the miracle drug staving off the infection at ridiculous speed.
It all came at a terrible price. The mechanites in the concoction would save his life, but he would become dependent on it for the rest of his life.
And if they ever ran out…
“He should be cured. I-I probably should get ready for the journey…” Crown trailed off, unable to even look at the pony.
“Why haven't you helped me?” Twilight wanted to say, but kept it to herself. For now at least, only nodding instead.
The wounded human turned and groaned, but color was already returning to his face. It wouldn't take long and the luciferium would destroy any signs of his injuries.
Without another word, she left for home, her own preparation yet to be made.
Tomorrow, they will begin the chase, hunting for the squad of imperials who dared to take their friends.
That night, she slept cuddled in her chain sword, awaiting her dreams.
Whatever they may be.
Twilight stood by a never ending expanse. A sea of white dotted with pulsing golden lines, like the veins of some Promethean titan.
The pony made a few tentative steps; the gold reacting to her movements, shining more brightly around her. Welcoming her, putting her at ease. Calming whale song coming from the distance.
Out of the mist appeared a large spectral figure, floating gracefully above the surface of that place. Solemn yet dignified expression on her long muzzle, sadness settled in the deep purple eyes. Fur white as the first snow, hooves clad in gold and a sun mark on her flank.
Twilight couldn't help but let out a yelp of joy.
The Princess found her!
The alicorn landed in front of her, giant wings like holding her, pulling her into a tight hug.
Twilight's mind went blank, overwhelmed.
Memories of tea parties, lectures in the sunlit halls and libraries of the Canterlot castle, the warm smile Celestia always gave her.
She sunk into the feathers and the silky fur, finally feeling safe at least - until Celestia spoke.
“Hello Twilight Sparkle.”
The voice didn't sound like her beloved princess. It sounded broken in places, like if the words were taken out of context and rehashed.
“We Have Met Before,” continued the doppelgänger.
“My Name Is Dawn.”