Fallout Equestria: Blue Destiny

by MagnetBolt

Chapter 54 - Little Miss Can't Be Wrong

Grouse peeked around the hallway corner and waved back at us, moving his hoof through some kind of complicated pattern before motioning sharply three times. Jet Stream looked at Masher, tapped his shoulder, and pointed ahead. Masher nodded once and got behind Grouse, tapping his flank three times. Grouse nodded once slowly.

I looked at Cube. She shrugged. I had the feeling she didn’t really know what was going on either.

The three soldiers moved at the same time, taking to the air and keeping in each other’s draft shadow. It was like ballet, Grouse taking the lead and laying down covering fire with Masher taking kill shots by popping out left and right around him and Jet Stream finishing off the wounded as they passed them, making sure not to leave any enemies behind them and still keeping up with the others even as they wove through the air in tight formation.

The zombies wandering the hallways turned the moment they spotted them and got cut down a second later before the slow undead had a chance to really react.

“They’re pretty good,” Cube admitted, as we trailed after them down the hallway. They were moving a lot faster than we were and doing a great job of clearing the way. “If they work together, they’re almost as good as I am on my own.”

“That’s high praise,” I said. I looked at the corpses as we passed them. All of them were old, dead for long enough to start to mummify.

“Yeah,” Cube agreed, nodding.

The three circled back and landed, checking their equipment. They started whispering to each other.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“We’re not at the lab yet and we’re already running out of batteries,” Jet Stream said. “We were carrying equipment for a security detail, not a raid.”

“Will your batteries work in their guns?” I asked Cube.

“Yeah, but…” She scrunched her nose. “I’m sort of… also running low.”

“Great,” I said. “Just great.”

“We’re professionals,” Jet Stream assured me. “Masher, Grouse, fix bayonets.”

“You ponies work on that, I’ll take point,” I said. I walked ahead of them, not bothering with the stealth or hoof signals they’d been using. If we were going hoof-to-hoof it wasn’t really going to matter if we caught the zombies by surprise. They didn’t get scared or hesitate.

I looked down the hallway at a dozen undead that turned to hiss at me, eyes glowing green along with the hole bored in their skulls. I had no idea what kind of ritual the necromancers did, but I sure hoped that part was post-mortem.

“You coming?” I asked the zombies. “I don’t have all… day…”

A bigger shape stomped out of the shadows, shoving the thin, wasted zombies aside as it advanced, a Steel Ranger dragging a long cleaver whose edge shimmered with evil intent. Maybe literally.

“I really don’t want to do this, big guy,” I said, readying myself and flicking my blade out. “If I thought you were actually aware of what you were doing I’d probably try and talk you down, but I doubt that’s gonna work and I’m just talking to myself to stay cool.”

It lowered its head and charged at me, raising the sword and trampling the zombies between us, the lesser undead not even aware enough to get out of the way.

I brought up my knife to block. I could do this. I’d killed a few of them before, and the one outside with the grenade launcher had to have been more dangerous, even if that sword was bad news. It was big and slow and as inevitable as an avalanche. Sparks flew from where our blades met and for exactly one second I thought I was okay.

Then I got pushed back half an inch, and everything started to slip at the same time. A sliver of metal scraped away from my blade as the Steel Ranger’s sword slid, biting through whatever my knife was actually made from.

The edge slid free, and the sword sliced across my left shoulder, opening a deep cut. I yelled something that wasn’t exactly a curse or even words at all and jumped back, avoiding a follow-up swing that would have taken my head off.

“Ow,” I groaned. The cut hurt. A lot. It was like one of those really bad papercuts where no matter what you do, it just keeps reminding you that you’ve been cut like you’re being wounded freshly over and over again and the memory won’t fade. I touched it and winced. It felt raw.

“Watch out!” Cube shouted. I felt it coming before she even said anything, throwing myself aside and into the wall as that big sword came down in another big swing, burying the edge into the floor. “Just keep dodging!”

“Hold on!” Masher cried out. He flew forward with his rifle at the ready, getting into stab range for his bayonet. The Steel Ranger tore the sword free, and the blade caught the rifle halfway down its length. Blue light erupted from the rift, and the gun exploded in his hooves, throwing Masher back towards Grouse and Jet Stream.

“Don’t get near it!” I yelled. The Steel Ranger took a heavy step towards the fallen soldier. It made the classic fatal mistake of looking away from me. I jumped at it and slashed, cutting through one of the thick tubes of the rotting ventilator. Black bile spilled out, and it made a deep roar like whalesong.

The monster turned on me, and I blocked on instinct. There was a sound like a bell, and the sword bit through, slicing through my knife and into my right forehoof, the metal deflecting it just enough that it only cut me deeply and didn’t actually slice my hoof off.

It still hurt worse than when I’d been shot in the guts. I fell back, stumbling on three legs and holding my wounded hoof to my chest. He’d cut right through the metal, just scything through it. I could see things through the cut that I really didn’t want to see and I didn’t have time to dwell on it.

The knight came at me again and in the rush of adrenaline and pain, everything slowed to a crawl, my nerves burning cold and the pain pushed a little bit away until I only felt the echo. I stepped in, jamming the broken blade of my knife through his hoof. Tendons severed, and he dropped the cursed sword.

I caught it in midair before it had a chance to touch the ground. I spun, and it went right through him without meeting any resistance.

Time resumed, and the Steel Ranger fell apart, cut from one shoulder through the other side of his chest. A shuddering feeling ran up my hooves where I held the sword, pain and pleasure mixed together as one, like biting a juicy, tart fruit.
I gasped, stumbling and using the cursed sword to catch myself, driving the tip into the ground and leaning on it.

“The ones with swords,” I panted, exhausted and in pain. “Are really dangerous. These swords will cut through anything.”

“You’re bleeding,” Cube said, sounding worried. “Grouse--”

“Finish with Masher first,” I said. “Is he okay?”

“I’m not dead yet,” Masher groaned. “Just burned.”

“I’ve only got one potion,” Grouse mumbled. He looked from me to Masher. I waved to him, and he nodded thankfully and gave it to his teammate, the burns across Masher’s coat starting to heal. Blood kept dripping from my wounds, the two deep cuts aching. It wasn’t as bad as before, though. Killing the Steel Ranger had helped, a little. At least with morale.

Cube walked up to me slowly. I looked at her, and she actually seemed… worried. She glanced past me for a moment and shot a stray zombie that hadn’t gotten completely mulched in the clash of steel before focusing on me again.

“That looks like it hurts,” she said quietly.

“Yeah,” I said. “You got any bandages?” I asked.

“No. And I think you need stitches.”

“Or a few healing potions. I’ve got some, but they’re in my armor back in Winterhoof,” I groaned and looked at my shoulder. The bleeding was starting to ebb, but it was a nasty-looking wound. “Keep your eyes open for a first aid kit. Or some wonderglue. That stuff’s great for cuts.”

“What about that?” She nodded to my forehoof. “I don’t know how to repair an augmentation like this.”

“It’ll heal,” I said. I was actually pretty sure about that. After all, I’d grown new bones. Fixing a cut should be no problem.

“Good,” Cube said. She looked away. “I wasn’t worried or anything, but I don’t want you holding us back.”

I laughed. “I’ll try not to slow you down.”

I was still holding onto the sword. It was hard to let it go. It felt like the only thing holding me up. With the tip driven into the floor, I felt it before I saw it. Heavy, sure steps.

“Get back,” I warned Cube, pushing her gently towards Jet Stream and the others.

The third Steel Ranger stepped around the corners. This one didn’t wear a helmet, leaving the fleshless bone of his skull exposed. Runes were carved right into the bone, around that hole of a third eye in his forehead. He held up his sword and, as if remembering some tiny fraction of the discipline he had in life, pointed it at me like he wanted a duel.

“Oh yeah?” I asked. I felt feverish and shaky from a combination of blood loss and the crash from using my implants to push myself beyond my limits. My knife was broken. I didn’t have a chance.

Except I was still leaning on that cursed sword. I pulled it out of the ground, and it was heavy and light in my hooves at the same time, a massive weight being pulled into the gravity of combat.

“Chamomile, we should--” Cube started, but I didn’t hear whatever she was suggesting, because I threw myself at the armored pony with a primal roar. Our swords crossed, the fossilized iron ringing, a beautiful song piercing the air. I felt energized, and instead of being pushed back by the armored pony, we both held our ground.

It felt good. Sure, I was in pain, but it wasn’t from some soldier just doing his job. It wasn’t from some stupid mistake. I was fighting something that deserved to die, something that probably wanted to be put to rest. I was doing the right thing! I was going to save ponies for a change instead of just bumbling around and making more problems!

I roared and broke the blade lock, shoving the thing’s sword to the side. It was strong, but it was slow and clumsy and stupid! I was more worthy than it was, and I would prove it!

I smacked it in the face with the broad side of the sword. Bone broke, and rotting teeth fell from its hanging jaw. This was too easy now that I had a worthwhile weapon. I laughed with joy before stabbing it through its chest and slicing upwards, cutting right through that armor like it wasn’t even there. It might as well have been wearing an iron coffin for all the good it was doing it.

The sword ripped free, black bile spraying over me, and the Ranger collapsed. I had a brief moment of quiet with my heart pounding in my chest before the screeching started. Zombies poured out into the hallway, stumbling and running towards us on thin, dry limbs. It was just what I needed, something fun to take my mind off the cutting ache.

I slashed, and a zombie’s head came off, flying into the air. I was moving before it landed.

I slashed, and two more fell in half, reaching toward me before I stomped their skulls in.

I slashed, and kept on slashing, and the walls were painted with clotted blood that stank like a thousand years of rot.

I slashed, and somepony screamed in terror. A bolt of light hit me between the eyes, and I lost my grip on the sword, the edge slamming into the wall.

The black and red haze around my vision faded, and I stumbled back. My body felt like it was going to fall apart. The stinging dot of heat on my forehead brought me back to the surface of a sea I didn’t even know I was drowning in.

Cube was on the ground, backed up against the wall, looking afraid and holding a pistol in her magic.

“You shot me,” I said dumbly.

“Y-you were…” she panted. “You were laughing and you wouldn’t let go of the sword and then you…”

The sword was buried in the wall less than a hoof-width over her head. If I hadn’t lost my grip on it, it would have gone into her neck.

“I didn’t…” I swallowed, feeling sick. “I--”

“You weren’t kidding when you said these swords were cursed,” Cube said. She kept the gun pointed at me. “Are you… better?”

I nodded. “I think so. Nopony… nopony touch the swords,” I said.

“Let me wrap those cuts up,” Grouse said, cautiously approaching me. He looked at my forehead where I’d been shot. “We’ll, uh. We’ll get that one, too.”

“Thanks.”

---

“Please prepare for decontamination,” a voice said, the old recording scratchy and warped. I sat down on the steel floor and wiped a mix of sweat and rotten blood from my forehead. Soft mist poured into the small, sealed airlock from wall-mounted vents.

“The secure lab should be right ahead,” Cube said. Her horn sparked for a moment. “The teleport warding that dying pony told us about is still up.”

“That’s good, right?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Cube said. “It probably means less trouble ahead.”

“Not no trouble,” Masher said. He used his wings to clear some of the mist and pointed to the floor. “Look at these scratches. These are fresh.”

“They’re smart enough to get through an airlock?” Jet Stream asked.

“That means they’ll probably have a necromancer with them,” I groaned. “I fought one that was smart enough to use the voice of a pony who’d already died to trick me into letting it out of a place it’d gotten trapped in.”

Jet Stream nodded. “Right. That makes sense. None of the zombies could crew that Raptor we saw. Even the Steel Rangers were…” he hesitated.

“Smarter, but just killing machines,” Cube said. “A lot like this one.” She tapped my chest. “Ours is better though.”

“And prettier,” I reminded her.

“If it makes you feel that much better to be called pretty compared to a walking corpse, go for it,” Cube shrugged.

“Having this airlock here is a real bottleneck,” Grouse said. “We’re probably not going to be looking at many targets past here.”

“The cleanrooms are going to be tightly controlled,” Cube said. “Lots of locked doors. If it’s like other labs I’ve been in, they aren’t going to be super sturdy, but it’s going to slow them down.”

The mist stopped, and a wave of purple magic washed over us, the dirt and caked-on filth and blood vanishing in its wake, leaving only a soft lavender scent.

“Oh, that’s nice,” I said, looking down at my hooves.

“Typical overengineered pre-war stuff,” Cube scoffed. “Let’s go.” She pulled the hatch release, and we piled through the airlock. The hallway beyond was stark white, and if it wasn’t for a spray of fresh crimson going around the next corner, I could almost believe everything was normal.

Jet Stream went ahead, taking the corner at a wide angle. He motioned for us to follow. Something in my injured foreleg caught, and I stumbled for a second. Grouse caught me and I saw the silent question.

I held up a hoof and nodded quickly, trying to indicate that I was okay. It was almost true. I could feel the cuts pulling every time I moved, like they were alive in some way and just wanted to tear wide open.

We stepped over the fallen body of a pony in a lab coat and I tried not to look too closely at it. I needed to focus on ponies that could still be helped. The next crumpled forms were rotting and thin. Somepony had fought back.

Up ahead, I saw a heavy security door. The lock was broken, twisted and ripped apart to leave black, rusting streaks on the metal. It looked like just that part of the lock had aged centuries in seconds.

“Can you feel that?” Cube whispered.

I nodded. There was a pressure in the air, cold and sick. I’d felt it before, but it was stronger now than ever before.

“Necromancy,” I whispered back. “If they’ve got a leader, he’s right up ahead.”

I tapped Jet Stream on the shoulder. He nodded and we retreated back a few steps.

“We need a plan before we run in,” Jet Stream said. “We’ve almost gotten killed when we acted like damn amateurs.”

“If there’s a leader, we should go after the chain of command,” Masher said. “Use the good ol’ Jet Stream Attack and take him down in one go. I’ll take the rifle and be the lead, Grouse and you follow up in my wake with pistols.”

“You’re injured,” Grouse said. “You’re not in shape to take the lead.”

Masher started to protest. Grouse held up a hoof.

“And it’s my damn rifle. You got yours exploded in your face, remember? I’m lead.”

Jet Stream nodded. “Okay. Cube, Masher’s going to need--”

“Yeah, yeah,” Cube sighed. She gave him one of her pistols. “Make sure to clean it off before you give it back.”

Masher took the gun. “Don’t worry, kid. I won’t give you cooties.”

Cube scrunched up her snout. “I’m not a kid!”

“Of course you aren’t, Warrant Officer,” I teased.

“Just for that, you don’t get a gun, Chamomile,” Cube said. “I was going to lend you one, but now I won’t.”

“That’s… probably for the best anyway,” I admitted. “I can’t hit the broad side of a barn from the inside.”

“You two follow us in,” Jet Stream said. “Cube, you can cover a wide area. Try to take down any stragglers. Chamomile, you get the door. We’ll start halfway down the hallway and go through at speed.”

I nodded. It was a good plan. If it went as well as the rest of the day, we’d all be dead in five minutes. I quietly flew over to the door, grabbing the handle and looking back. The soldiers took to the air and stormed towards the door. I yanked the door open as they approached, and Grouse fired a burst of beam fire into the room beyond, flying through the tight gap in tight formation. Cube ran in after them, and I trailed last.

The lab was a big open space, broken up into four stations that were each equipped with a tangle of equipment hanging overhead like a mechanical octopus reaching down towards the stark white workbenches, the edge outlined in bright safety-aware colors like yellow and orange and splattered with dripping red.

We’d gotten there just in time. A floating form outlined in green light that distorted the air like a heat haze around it was tearing one of the metal arms free from a workstation, and a half-dozen living ponies were on the far side of the room, trying to push back a small horde of hissing, biting undead with janitorial supplies and hand tools.

I had to hope Jet Stream would be able to deal with the zebra necromancer because I didn’t have time to help. I took to the air and flew for the mass of zombies, crashing into them from behind and taking the stinking corpses to the ground. I very, very quickly learned that they were much more dangerous when I didn’t have armor plating between my flesh and their fangs.

“Ow! Buck!” I yelled. I shook my back left leg, trying to dislodge one of them biting into my cutie mark.

I still got a great view of everything that happened on the other side of the room. Bolts from the rifle slamming into an energy field around the necromancer. Grouse pulling away at the last moment, Jet Stream and Masher attacking from the sides to no effect, the shots just fizzling into the air like they were scattering against clouds of glittering dust.

Rotting fangs piercing my skin brought my attention back very sharply to the matter at hoof. I kicked a zombie in the face, shattering bone and knocking it down.

“Cube, I could use fire support!” I yelled.

“He’s taking the Pliers! We have to stop him first!” she shouted back, taking shots at the floating robed horror, all of them deflecting and scattering into the lab equipment, starting a small fire. The metal arm the zebra was tugging on finally snapped. The undead tore it loose, wires dangling from the magical tool.

I grabbed another one of the undead and threw him into the wall, finally getting the zombie trying to nibble the flowers from my cutie mark off my flank.

“Nothing’s working!” Grouse shouted. The soldiers were circling him, trying to take shots from other angles. The glow around the zebra brightened, and there was a massive rush of air and fire. The back wall of the lab exploded, concrete turning liquid and plastic burning. The concussion knocked me flat on my back, spinning me completely around. The undead, even less coordinated than I was, went flying.

I could see the radioactive corpse of the Raptor hovering outside, the hull glowing with waves of etched runes.

The zebra looked down at us with three baleful eyes and flew out through the debris, the ceiling collapsing after it and cutting off any pursuit.

“No!” Cube yelled.

“It must have activated some kind of targeting talisman,” Jet Stream said, coughing and picking himself off the ground. “It brought down fire support right on top of itself. Crazy mule.”

“Maybe it doesn’t seem as crazy if you’re already dead,” Masher groaned. “Everypony okay?”

“No,” Grouse said shortly. He lifted one wing, but the other hung limply at his side. “Wing’s broke,” he said through gritted teeth.

“You saved us!” one of the scientists said, a cute unicorn mare with her mane cut like she’d used a ruler and laser level to get all the edges perfectly straight. She adjusted her glasses. “I’m the head of Telethaumatics, Doctor Synod. I wasn’t sure our distress call went through!”

“It didn’t,” Cube said. “We came here for the Dimension Pliers.”

Synod frowned. “You and that bunch of ghouls. I don’t know the details, but we saw an anti-euclidean inversion event on the monitors. We thought we had a cascade event in the TeleBuck prototype, but it was coming from outside. It must have been some kind of massive displacement event.”

“I have no idea what she’s saying,” I whispered.

“She means the equipment picked up that giant rift the ship came out of,” Cube translated.

“There were other, smaller events, as well,” Synod added.

“They were using a teleportation array to deploy troops,” Cube said. “It’s how all these idiots got here.” She kicked one of the zombies that was still moving. It groaned as if in agony. Maybe it was, or maybe it just remembered what pain had been like when it was alive.

“That explains it,” Synod muttered.

“Can you detect those, uh… the whatever events. Can you detect them at range?” I asked.

“If needed. It’s a bit like using a microscope as a telescope but--”

“We need to figure out where they went,” I said. “If you can give us anything, even a direction, that could mean saving a lot of lives.”

Synod hesitated. “Okay. Lens! Hue! You two start getting all the undamaged equipment together! We’re going to evacuate!” She sighed. “I’ll start working on the detector. As a personal note… were there any survivors? I had… family working in another area.”

I swallowed and pulled out the ID we’d taken from the dying mare near the entrance. “I have some bad news about that.”

---

“I told you!” Synod yelled over the roar of the Vertibuck engines. She pointed out of the open door at the roiling air over the college. She held up the screen attached to several boxes and an antenna shaped like a giant spindly feather which I was holding out in the air rushing past us, pointing it at the aurora.

“Why is it here?” Jet Stream asked, barely having to raise his voice to be heard. The stallion’s voice just carried even with everything going on. “We didn’t see anything like that when we were here a few hours ago!”

“It has to be that bucking triangle!” I shouted. “It’s made of evil and darkness!”

“There’s a cursed artifact we’re trying to contain and neutralize,” Cube explained calmly. “It’s why we needed the Pliers! I don’t know how, but it’s connected to those stupid zombies!”

“I see!” Synod lowered the screen. “I’ll do whatever I can to help, but we don’t have another set of Dimension Pliers! I don’t know where we’d even get one!”

“We’ll have to figure it out later!” I pointed up at the green lightning in the sky. “If the same thing happens here that did at the lab, there are hundreds of ponies that might get eaten by the undead!”

“I’m bringing us in for a landing!” the pilot reported. “Hang on, we’re getting a lot of wind!”

I didn’t need him to tell us a storm was brewing. He set us down on the landing pad and I hopped down, helping Cube out. She didn’t even refuse help this time. I gave the antenna back to Synod.

“We’re going to get the injured to a hospital!” Jet Stream yelled. “I’m going to come back with enough fire support to deal with an army!”

“We’ll try to hold out until then!” I shouted back.

“If the Dean is going to listen to reason we’ll evacuate everypony out of the school and into town,” Cube added.

“Wait, take this before you go!” Synod called out, tossing me a box about as big as two packs of playing cards. “It’s one of our prototype TeleBucks!”

I nodded thanks and waved to them as they took off, the VertiBuck pitching and fighting against the wind with the heavy load of survivors and equipment it was carrying.

“I should have asked her how to use this,” I said, watching it leave. “You want an untested experimental teleportation device with no instructions?” I offered it to Cube.

“No thanks,” she said. “I can teleport on my own, and there are easier ways to get yourself killed.”

“I’ll just save it for a rainy day,” I said, putting it away. Carefully. In case it was dangerous to touch. “Let’s go grab our stuff. We’re going to need the big guns.”

---

I ran in the door and slammed it behind me, trying to catch my breath.

“Chamomile?” Destiny asked, floating up from the papers covering half the floor in magic and math and mathemagic. “Are you okay? You look even more pale than usual.”

“College’s haunted,” I said, my voice strained. I took a deep, calming breath and trotted over to the rest of the armor, starting to put it on. I winced when I put the forged red pauldron over my injured left shoulder. It hadn’t stopped bleeding. I’d changed the bandages twice already.

“What?” Destiny asked, confused. The confusion didn’t stop her from helping with the armor pieces, floating them into place and adjusting things with telekinesis.

“College’s haunted,” I repeated. I checked DRACO’s ammunition. Still almost full. I might hate Polar Orbit for the things he did, but he had bottomless supplies and right now I was thankful he’d let me tap into them. “You haven’t left this room much, have you?”

“No, I’ve been working on the hyperspace geometry of the Pyramid. I think if we rotate it properly we can push it right out of our three-dimensional space, like getting a couch through a doorway by getting all the angles right.”

“And we’d need the Dimension Pliers to do that?”

“Yes? Why? How did you get hurt? What happened at the lab?”

“Lab was haunted too,” I said. “Undead everywhere. I think they knew we were coming.”

“That’s impossible,” Destiny said. “Unless…”

“Unless?”

“Unless… they’ve got a way of communicating with whatever is on the other side of the dimensional breach…”

“We’ll figure it out later. We’ve got a situation here.” I tapped my head, and the haunted helmet settled down over my head. The armor’s weight vanished as everything came online, and I felt a little less vulnerable.

“Fill me in,” Destiny said.

“It’ll be easier to show you,” I said. I opened the door. A thin, terrifying form stood there in front of me, too tall, too slender, faceless and dark like a shadow come to life.

Destiny squeaked. DRACO fired on its own, and a bullet went right through the shape, and the wall beyond, leaving a hole like it had fired through mist. The shape shimmered, not really stepping aside but flowing, reforming whole and unharmed a few paces away.

“They’re everywhere,” I said.

“How long were you gone?” Destiny asked. “I lose track of time when I’m working, but…”

The hallways were dark, like every light fixture was a spotlight that did little to push back the gloom. “It’s barely past noon,” I said. “Between the evil storm outside and the evil shadows in here, the sunlight has decided to take the day off.”
“We might be in over our heads,” Destiny said. “This is starting to seem like hero stuff.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan,” I said.

I could feel Destiny’s relief. “Thank goodness.”

---

“What do you mean he’s locked himself in with the triangle?!” I yelled.

“I didn’t call it a triangle, since that’s extremely inaccurate but--” Professor Ornate must have developed enough X-ray vision to see my expression through the helmet, because he managed to stop himself from rambling on. “Mister Decode has been acting strangely, and he, ah, locked himself inside the gym.”

I looked down at Cube. She looked up at me. She was carrying the bundle of teleport enhancers on her back, having grabbed them from her room while I was changing.

“Blow the door,” we agreed.

“DRACO, give me an explosive round,” I said.

“Fire in the hole!” Cube shouted.

The college staff around the gym doors looked at us and they were obviously very well educated because they immediately bolted out of the way. I fired, and the doors helpfully exploded out of the way, the shell blowing them apart in a satisfying way that just for a moment helped me feel like I was in charge of things.

I walked through the debris. Whispering came from all around me, right at that edge where you can almost make out what the words are saying. I ignored it. I could tell where it was coming from.

“You,” Cypher Decode spat.

He walked out of the shadows between me and that floating pyramid, the black lead-like surface of the polyhedron casting wide black shades from the few overhead lights that were still working, turning the gym into a patchwork of light and stark shadow. The gloom seemed to cling to Cypher, hugging around him. Just over a dozen jet-black forms almost like ponies but not quite right hovered in the air, hanging overhead like decorations that slowly turned to watch us with eyeless faces.

“Yeah, me,” I said. “Get out of the way.”

“I will not,” Decode said. “You’re a blind, scared little pony. You see the fires of creation and you’re afraid of the heat! I will use this power to ascend to my rightful place and snuff out the dangerous, subversive elements that can’t understand what makes the Enclave great, what makes me great!”

“Buck, you’re getting all poetic like some bad comic book villain,” I snorted. “You’re not important. I don’t care what you have to say. I don’t even know who the buck you are! You’re nopony! Just a bucking tiny little nopony getting in my way when lives are on the line!”

I leveled DRACO at him.

“Chamomile,” Destiny warned.

“Shoot him,” Cube whispered. Or-- no, she didn’t say that. She was on my left, and the voice came from the right. My imagination, or something else?

I wasn’t going to start listening to hallucinations. I turned the gun away from him.

“Cube, got any ideas?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “Synod and I talked on the way back. If we set these up--” she put down the transport enhancers she’d been carrying. “We can hack together a dimensional barrier. It’s just a stopgap measure, but it should at least get rid of all the bucking phantoms hanging around.”

Cube glared up at the hovering forms.

“That’s good enough,” I said. “It’ll give us time to find a permanent solution.”

“No!” Decode yelled. “I won’t let you!”

Cube laughed. “What are you going to do about it? Have the Dean put a mark on our permanent records? Chamomile, can you wrestle him out of here without killing him?”

“Sure,” I said.

Cube nodded and picked up one of the enhancers, opening a panel on the side of the crystal-tipped spear to adjust something on the inside.

I reached for Cypher. The shadows around him moved, surging forwards.

“I’ll show you what I can do,” Decode growled. “I’ll show you the kind of power I’ve always deserved to have!”

A chill ran down my spine. The shadows consumed Cypher, and he twisted and grew, roaring like an animal. The last few lights overhead went out, and the floor dropped out from under us, throwing us into an abyss.

Comments

[Reese]

"The third Steel Ranger stepped around the corners."
"The third Steel Ranger stepped around the corner."?

I continue to enjoy this story. :)