//------------------------------//
// 3: A New Hunt 
// Story: The Nether Wars 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

	It was just an hour after Copper arrived in the Hive when a train rolled into the station of Manehatten, opening to reveal an armored mare and three companions. Most ponies ignored the fact that Northern, wearing her green armor, her armorless sisters, and Copper had returned to the city that their new enemy was bent on destroying. They could easily slip into the inner workings of the city, seeing how most of the ponies around them were more interested in the flames and the destruction of one of the generators Copper had built. They would be wondering if it was an error in the mechanics, but none of them were ready to say that there was another threat to their fair city.

According to Copper the stallion they were looking for was a unicorn, had a dark blue coat, a silvery colored mane, and seemed to have an attitude that gave him the appearance of being destructive.

To their surprise Sunset Shimmer followed them on the train, not making her presence known to the group of four until the train was at a stop and they were already walking down the street. Northern would have guessed that she was trying to get away from her friend Tonto, who she assumed was trying his hardest to court the unicorn mare in his own way. She felt sorry for the stallion, seeing how Sunset wasn't returning the feelings that he was trying to tell her about, but at the moment they needed to be prepared for anything. Besides, she was fairly sure that Cadence was going to ship them together when she finally got the chance, seeing how she kept missing due to all the dangerous activities going on.

"So, we're looking for a stallion who calls himself Nexus," Harvest said, tipping her hat to a group of ponies as they walked by them, "All we know about him is that he wants to taunt Copper by destroying her stuff and wants to see Equestria burn for almost no apparent reason. Seeing how he managed to find one of her, what do you call them, generators?"

"Yes Harvest, they're called generators," Copper answered, her robotic eyes scanning the ponies around them for a match to the stallion she had seen through the Netherillium shard, "and I have absolutely no idea how he could have found one of them to begin with. They aren't locked inside a building with a sign outside that says there's a generator inside, because that would have beckoned my enemies to mess with them a long time ago. I built the majority of them in the basements of buildings that were given to me, meaning the majority of them are underground."

"Couldn't he have just asked the ponies that run the city where one or two of them are?" Sunset asked, smiling at a stallion who happened to be staring at her, "I mean, if he knew exactly who gave you the buildings then he could have simply asked where the building was without mentioning the generator he figured was in it."

"In order for him to uncover who gave me the buildings he, well, would have had to be present when they gave me the building deed and the key," Copper replied, "Now, when I was given the deed and keys to each of the buildings I met with the pony who was giving it to me and a witness of their choice. This witness recorded the transaction for the purpose of telling where my property was so they didn't accidentally sell it to somepony later on. Those records would be in the main hall, the central building that had once been right in the same area until the decided to build it on the other side of the city, away from the train station.

It is possible that Nexus knew of the transactions between me and several of the ponies throughout the city, knowing that the exchange would be recorded and stored away until it was needed. If we follow this train of thought then that means he would have had to break into the new main hall, bypass all the workers, and somehow access the record vault before being noticed. It is almost impossible for him to have gotten past all the ponies working there and, at the same time, to open the ten digit number vault door I installed as soon as I was told the place was being made. Only the Mayor of Manehatten and I know the exact sequence of numbers necessary to open the door, which means he could not have opened the vault door at all."

"Still," Northern said, feeling that they were still missing a vital piece to their broken puzzle, "if it will help clear things up then we might as well check the main hall and be sure Nexus didn't break in. Maybe we'll find something that will aid us in finding his hideout or where he likes to visit."

~The Manehatten Town Hall, ten minutes later~

"Ah, Miss Copper Sprocket, so good of you to visit us again," a stallion, one with a brown coat and glasses, said as the group arrived outside the tall building, "I was wondering if you were going to come by and make a check on your security system you installed a few months ago, but seeing how one of your buildings went up in flames I knew you'd arrive eventually. Most of the reporters are saying that one of your, shall I say, 'experiments' malfunctioned and simple blew up, taking the entire place with it, but I know you better than that. We can discuss the prices for building a replacement building, but first we must move onto the matter you have brought with you today."

"I need to check the record vault for signs of tampering," Copper replied, hoping that they could get this over with as quickly as possible, "Look Mayor, I don't have time to argue with you or tell you some pathetic sob story to get you on my side, so I'll tell you what I can at the moment; somepony managed to find one of my generators and set it off. We're only here to check if he managed to get past the vault door, which I keep telling them is unlikely, and if he did then what did he take with him."

The Mayor's eyes widened for a second before returning to normal, beckoning them to follow him into the building and passing quite the number of workers along the way. The more they walked the more Copper saw an increase to the amount of ponies that were gathered in the entire building, more than there had been last time she was there. The iron clad vault door stood in the back of the main room, standing still as if nothing had happened to it since she had last entered the incomplete building.

"We've had some problems with thieves for the last couple of weeks," the Mayor said, the group turning around as he hoofed in the ten numbers that were required to open the vault door, "They've broken several of the windows, tossed and wrecked several of the desks, and even tried cutting their way through the vault door itself. As far as we can tell there isn't anything missing, seeing how your systems have kept all them away or locked up as soon as they tampered with something."

The vault door opened before them and Copper immediately entered the records, her eyes scanning all the sections until she found the one with her records. Without wasting a moment she wondered down the aisle, her hoof hovering over every single folder and binder that had her name or a mention of her work. She knew the Mayor would have been keeping tabs on what she was doing, but the amount of research on all her inventions was startling. She knew Nexus must have been watching her from the Netherillium shard, which could very well mean that all of this data in front of her was his own notes.

Though she noticed that there was only one folder that was sticking out of the row it was in, hanging off at an angle and bringing her attention to it.

"Hello here," Copper said, pulling the folder out and reading the circled name, "Hmm, 'Point Maximus'...That area's supposed to be shut down and locked up with my best security measures."

She knew the area well, it was one of the last places given to her and she had, rather quickly, set up a small lab before deciding the place didn't feel right and had promptly locked it up tight. Her equipment that had been left behind was several phases behind what she was currently using, but was it possible that Nexus was hiding there? She had performed one, dark and completely immoral experiment in that area and was regretting it already. She had tampered with the nether in her early experiments and wondered if Nexus was linked to what was down there.

"So," Northern asked, eying the amount of paperwork the area had, "Did Nexus bypass the locks or could it be something else?"

"I have the feeling that he tricked his way into the vault," Copper replied, "A simple magical disguise and a uniform could have allowed him to pass off as a employee of some building that wanted to enter the vault and deposit something. He could have overcome the Mayor, entered the vault, found whatever he was looking for, and leave the vault before anypony knew what was wrong. But if that happened then the Mayor would have known something had happened and would have reported it to me so I could prepare my generators. Something doesn't feel quite right with this anymore."

That something, she decided, had to be involved with Point Maximus. After four long years she was returning to the old lab and what she had done was going to come to light at long last. And she knew that Nexus was going to pay for the destruction he had already caused to her and to the city.