Nightwatch: The Elements of Destruction

by SFaccountant

Truth

Nightwatch – The Elements of Destruction
By SFaccountant

Chapter 5
Truth

---

???

Neuron Dialect sat on the curb, staring up at the massive buildings of Ferrous Dominus.

Towers stretched into the gloomy, soot-stained sky, the lumens from track lighting and windows glinting dimly through the smog. Great banners of black fluttered in the breeze, each painted with a grinning silver skull helm that was itself streaked with oily tears. Metal hulks bristling with weaponry idled in the streets, their engines leaking more fumes into the air.

Neuron kept staring, her ears twitching at the various small sounds of the city. Suspensions creaking, servos whirring, transformers crackling, capacitors humming. She heard the strain of a gear assembly as a door opened and the gentle beeping of its access cogitator. But there was one thing ponderously, conspicuously absent.

There were no voices in Ferrous Dominus tonight. No footsteps from thousands of humanoid legs; ungainly, poorly-balanced things that tromped about with far too much noise, in her opinion. Neuron assumed it was because their legs had to support twice as much weight, relatively, as ponies. They were a cacophony when present, and the fortress felt positively eerie with their absence.

“Absolutely disgraceful.”

Neuron’s ears pivoted sharply, and then she leaned her head over to check the source of the voice.

“This is the mighty 38th Company? The place where you’ve made your new home? The Princess of the Night lairs in this… filth?”

Banshee trudged up next to Neuron and walked into the streets, her eyes shifting back and forth with disgust. Her tail whipped back and forth in agitation, and her wings shuddered. Even so, the bone-white markings on her cheeks curved upward in a wide smile.

“Banshee,” Neuron mumbled, her cybernetic eyes glowing slightly.

The mare was just as she remembered her long ago, before the incident. Her coat was thick and her body lean with muscle. Her mane was long but not well cared-for, and her baleful red eyes glared from within slits of dull yellow. The bat pony was larger than her, almost as big as Dusk Blade. Her wings were actually slightly larger and better muscled, adapted to hunting prey in the forests and jungles rather than the cramped confines of the caverns.

“How many others, Neuro?” Banshee asked, turning to circle around the other mare. “How many others of us have given themselves over to this madness?” Her legs were tensed, like a jungle cat preparing to pounce.

“I don’t know. A few thousand, maybe.” Neuron replied without really thinking about it.

“Thousands? Thousands of thestrals?”

“Ponies. There are many bat ponies here, but most are other races.”

Banshee bristled, walking a circuit around Neuron. “At least the Nightmare had a place of prominence for our people. A legacy. A PROMISE,” she spat, “but sure enough, now you’ve betrayed her, too. And given yourself over to… THIS? This cauldron of metal and ash?”

Banshee was behind Neuron now, but she didn’t bother turning around. “Yes,” she said simply. “The Nightmare is gone. It failed. Chaos is here. It triumphed. It was not a hard decision.”

Neuron Dialect could feel the agitation and anger of the other pony. Banshee radiated hatred in some strange, primordial way that she found far more uncomfortable than the scathing words or loathsome glare. Not that she could particularly blame Banshee for hating her.

“Chaos. A bunch of monsters and psychopaths,” Banshee growled, coming full circle and sitting in front of Neuron Dialect.

“Nothing we’re not used to,” Neuron shrugged.

“Don’t play dumb, Neuro. You’re not good at it,” Banshee snarled. “Chaos is different. These aliens are pillagers, murderers, slavers… They see you and the other ponies as pawns or experiments. Dumb, naïve animals to be used and expended.”

“That’s fair. I don’t think much more of them,” Neuron admitted, turning to look at the manufactorum block down the street. “You’re right, though. They are different. More dangerous. More destructive. It’s why we need them.”

“Need them?! You need THIS?!” Banshee demanded, spreading her wings to gesture at the surroundings. There was a cut growing over her left eye as she spoke; a long, mostly vertical cleave in the flesh that slowly deepened.

“We need this, yes. We need Chaos. Their weapons. Their machines. Their soldiers. Their faith. Their strength,” Neuron replied, suddenly standing taller. Her eyes glowered, the lambent micro-arrays shifting open wider. “You always had a problem with that, Banshee. You were never willing to make sacrifices for power. You couldn’t do what needed to be done, for the sake of our future.” Neuron’s lip ever-so-slightly curled into a smirk. “And now you’re dead. And I’m not.”

Banshee’s own lips parted, revealing rows of sharp, curved teeth. “You greasy little coward,” she spat. Blood was seeping from the wound on her eye now, dribbling crimson tears that ran down her cheek. “You lied, cheated, stole, and made others shed blood for you. And you dare stand before me and call that SACRIFICE?”

“I’m not sure what exact confessions I owe a dead friend,” Neuron admitted, “so I’ll stick with my answer. Anyway, I feel like this is off-topic. Weren’t you here to talk about the humans?”

A brief alarm rang out over the lifeless city. Large vents on the ground, ring-fenced by hazard chevrons, hissed and slid open. Then they belched clouds of searing-hot gases into the air, venting the massive reactor that worked below the city.

Banshee shuddered. “Look at this place, Neuro! They poison the air! They poison the ground! They poison souls and minds! They harvest our planet carelessly and kill or enslave all who get in their way! They even pollute the flows of magic with their evil!” The wound over her eye was complete now: a brutal, ragged hole that drooled a constant flow of blood down her neck and leg. “Every day war and corruption spreads further and harmony sinks deeper into its shadow. Chaos will strip this world of its treasures, drown its inhabitants in blood, and then discard its wasted husk when they’re done.”

“Probably, yes. That’s why I’m on their side,” Neuron said simply. “They can’t be stopped, and they’re the only things keeping the Orks at bay. What do you want from us? To throw away their power and weapons so that we can die pure and self-righteously?”

“You, of all ponies, don’t need their tools to fight,” Banshee retorted hotly. “Even after taking so much power for yourself, still you bow to whatever tyrant offers you a treat.”

“There are worse tyrants than the Iron Warriors,” Neuron replied flatly, “and the treats are quite nice.” Her wing tip curled around the Chaos Star amulet hanging against her chest.

Suddenly Banshee was looming above her, the other mare’s body nearly black as her wings encircled Neuron and blocked out the light. A dozen other deep wounds had appeared over her body like the one on her eye, giving her the appearance of a walking corpse. None of the others were so severe, but Neuron felt thick droplets rain against her chest as the thestral’s maw opened just millimeters from her nose.

“THIS WORLD WILL NOT SUFFER YOU FOR MUCH LONGER, BETRAYER,” Banshee snarled, her remaining eye wild while her body seemed to darken against the lights of the city around them. “CHAOS WILL BE PURGED, AND YOU WILL NOT BE SPARED.”

“Bold words for a corpse,” Neuron replied calmly, lifting a wing to flick away some blood dribbling down her cheek.

Banshee’s jaws yawned open, lunging forward for Neuron’s throat.

---

Badlands
Ork outpost (ERROR: Designation null)
Geolocation redacted

“What in the name of the cursed device happened here?” Gear Works asked, tepidly walking through the Ork outpost.

“What do you mean ‘what happened?’ We killed all the Orks here. That was the plan, remember?” Gloom Fang replied, following on one side of the Dark Acolyte.

“Yes, obviously, but…” Gears hesitated, looking around at the heaps of green-skinned corpses.

“But nothing,” Nacht interrupted, flying over the stallions. “We went through a lot of trouble to drag your metal butt here in one piece, so stop yelping and start doing your tech thing.”

“Hey! Would you guys knock it off?” Dusk Blade growled, causing the other thestrals to flinch. “He’ll do his job. You do yours and set up a perimeter.”

The Lunar Lieutenant craned his neck around and upward. Zariyah Backfire and her Strider were standing behind the camp’s palisade, the walker’s head peeking over the wall. Penumbra was laying on top of the battlesuit, looking bored.

“Backfire, Shard, I want you to run a wide patrol circuit around the outpost and watch for any hostiles. At least a mile out from the palisade. Gretchin that might have snuck away, troops that were out late, convoys coming to trade, whatever. Intercept them if you can, warn us if you can’t.”

“Da, Lieutenant,” Zariyah said.

Penumbra raised her head to complain, but then lurched to the side as the walker underneath her swung sharply around. Icebreaker turned away from the camp and started trotting away down the road carved into the dirt by hundreds of overlapping vehicle tracks. The Moon Mage fumed, visibly upset at the order, but made no attempt to resist as she was carried away.

Dusk turned back to Gear Works. “Gears, how long do you figure it will take to find the machinery we need?”

“It’s over there,” the Dark Acolyte said, his servo arm pointing at the garage. “The Mek appears to be using the cogitator innards for a power conduit switchboard. Which doesn’t work, but that rarely stops them.”

The bat ponies looked surprised, and then Dusk furrowed his brow. “Is it usable in that state?”

“Orks usually neglect cleaning or reformatting the parts they’ve stolen. But I will manage regardless.” He walked toward the blood-stained shack, his spike-tipped tail slowly whipping back and forth behind him.

Dusk Blade looked quite impressed and satisfied as the tech-cultist departed, but Nacht frowned. “How does he know where it was? The garage is all the way across the camp.”

“What? You think he’s lying?” Dusk snorted, quirking an eyebrow.

“Well… maybe not. But how?” the mare demanded.

“We went over this. His senses are different from ours,” Dusk said, his tone fairly smug as he lifted a hoof and patted Nacht on her head. “Anyway, you guys really need to stop picking on him and start trusting him,” Dusk said, his expression turning serious again. “Not only is he very good at his job, but he’s obviously not out here trying to serve his own sketchy secret agenda,” he lowered his voice substantially, “which is more than I can say for any of us.”

“But, we’ve got to get rid of him soon, right? By sending him back, at least?” Gloom frowned. “He can’t see what we’re here to accomplish. He’s not one of us.”

“No, he’s not,” Dusk agreed, although there was a distinct twist of distaste in the admission. “But you let me worry about that. I’m handling the plans here, remember?”

“We trust you, Lieutenant,” Nacht said, nodding eagerly, “it’s just hard to work with someone outside our little circle AND the Lunar Guard.”

“We’ve been part of the 38th Company for the better part of the year, Nacht,” Dusk retorted, “and we were with Canterlot long before that. We work with outsiders all the time!”

“That was mostly for appearances, though,” Gloom mumbled. “… Right?”

“Was it? Did you really fake years of training and mostly-honest service to Canterlot holding out hope that you could throw it all away some day for a chance at rebellion? Are you really gonna put your dumb cult ahead of all the ponies you fought and bled for in that time?” Dusk asked scornfully.

“Uh… didn’t you do that too?” Nacht asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“I made mistakes too, yeah. But my service wasn’t fake. Not then, and certainly not now.” He glared from pony to pony, even stopping to throw a look toward Neuron’s hiding spot. “You guys are going to have to accept that you’re part of something bigger now. Bigger than yourselves, bigger than Equestria, and MUCH bigger than the Nightmare. And it has nothing to do with the powers we got.”

Gloom Fang and Nacht looked away, their ears pinned back. The admission stung, badly. But neither of them had a retort.

“Our destiny was a lie. There is no Eternal Night and there never will be. We’re out here to mop up the last of the Moon Mages’ failures and bury their embarrassing legacy. Understand?”

“Yes, Lieutenant,” Nacht mumbled.

“I… No, I don’t buy it,” Gloom Fang replied after a pause. “We didn’t come all this way just to abandon the Lunar Ascendance. It isn’t over just because some aliens showed up and made a mess of things. We have these powers for a reason.”

“Yes, Gloomy. The reason is because we found some cursed fruit and ate it,” the Lieutenant snapped. “The Moon Mages lied to us. Hay, they probably lied to themselves, too. Just generation after generation of gullible foals clinging to stories of world domination, and those of us lucky enough to be around at the time of the prophecy got to see it all crumble pointlessly. Twice!”

Gloom’s ears pinned back and he lowered his head sullenly.

Neuron Dialect suddenly appeared behind Dusk, her bionic eyes gleaming red within her hood. “Do you think we’re better off this way?”

“I…” Dusk Blade hesitated, glancing at her to try to gauge her intentions. Useless, of course. “I do, yeah,” he admitted. “Plunging the country into war and usurping the throne for our own benefit sounded all right back when all of this started, but…” he trailed off, his brow furrowing.

“But…?” more than one soldier asked at once.

“… Let’s just say I’m not completely confident that Nightmare Moon could have navigated a full-scale Ork Waaagh as carefully as the current crop of Princesses,” Dusk said evenly. “Now hush, Gears is coming back.”

Gear Works trotted back across the bloodstained yard, a metal coil strung with loose wires clenched carefully in the grasp of his servo arm. He slowed slightly when all the thestrals turned to stare at him expectantly. Glancing from one to the other, he took a deep breath – eliciting a rather grotesque noise from his mask hosing – and then sat down right in front of Dusk Blade.

“Well?” the Lieutenant asked, sounding slightly worried. “Did you find the data?”

“Affirmative. I’m still perplexed by what role the memory coil was to serve in the Ork machinery, but we recovered it before it suffered significant mag decay or damage from clumsy Gretchen,” Gear Works explained. Dusk perked up. “I have extracted the data and matched it to the relevant geo-coordinates. As it so happens – although I doubt you’re surprised – there are a system of extensive caverns deep under the surface.”

Dusk’s expression went from pleased to jubilant. The other bat ponies likewise seemed happy at the news. Gloom Fang laughed victoriously, and Nacht began clapping her hooves together in delight.

“The seismic pylon was designed to identify ore loads, and incidentally there’s substantial mining opportunities down there,” Gears continued, “however, around the deposits are a labyrinthine network of tunnels and large caverns. Many of them are oxygenated and contain aquifers. The pylon sensoria is not equipped to sense life-forms, but given those conditions I would be surprised if there were NOT a viable ecosystem underground here.”

“We found it! We really found it!” Dusk laughed, stamping a hoof into the ground with a wide grin. “Fantastic! Show me the maps! Then we can move on to the next phase!”

Gear Works braced himself. “I have several questions first, Lieutenant.”

“We don’t really have time,” Dusk replied breezily. “It’s going to be morning soon and we’ve got to get on the trail of the drilling rig ASAP.”

“I’m afraid the delay is necessary,” Gears retorted. “First, I would like to know what the objective of this mission is. If you’d prefer, however, we may start with why Corporal Fang seems to have four eyes.”

The thestrals recoiled in surprise. Nacht, Neuron, and Gloom all recovered very quickly, and they shared a brief, malicious glance before they turned their glares on the Dark Acolyte.

“Gears, knock it off,” Dusk said, his voice firmer than before. “We’ve got to keep this mission on track. That means some things have to remain a secret, including whatever you think is going on with Gloomy’s eyes.”

“Negative, Lieutenant,” Gear Works said. “If you do not answer my questions, then I will not display the extracted and contextualized data for you.”

Dusk Blade seemed completely stunned at this declaration, but Gloom Fang trotted forward with a purposeful sneer. “When did someone install a SPINE on you, metal head?”

“Perhaps it was reinforced when you twisted it back into alignment, Corporal,” Gears shrugged. “Shall you abide by my terms?”

“Nah, I have a better idea.” Gloom Fang lifted a hoof, holding the blade on his leg up in front of Gear’s respirator tubing. “You give us what we want, and I won’t cut out your mask tube and use it to hang you.”

Gears winced. “Once again, I decline, Corporal. Will you answer my questions now?”

“You think I’m bluffing?!” Gloom snorted, steam blasting from his nostrils.

“I don’t know. I do know that your ability to make use of the memory coil without me is null, which is why I waited until now to make this demand.”

“This is amazing. Really. Just incredible,” Nacht chuckled, skulking around Gears in a circle while Gloom held his hoofblade in place. “What do you even care about our objective? Do you demand answers from the Iron Warriors when they won’t indulge you? You’re really pushing your luck!”

“I care about the objective now that I know there is an ostensibly unknown third party hunting us for pursuing it,” Gear Works replied. “I do not believe this is a mission to assist the Dark Mechanicus. In fact, I doubt it is a legitimate objective at all. If I am risking death and mutilation for the sake of a different agenda, I wish to know what it is.”

“You’re risking much more death and mutilation by making these demands,” Neuron noted dryly.

“I am aware, yes. Do you accept my terms?”

Gloom Fang scowled. “I’m gonna start slicing your throat cables. You let me know when you’re ready to talk, freak.” He pressed a hoof against Gear’s shoulder and reared back his other foreleg.

“Gloomy, stop.” Dusk’s command was loud and firm, and Gloom Fang froze in place.

The Lieutenant stared hard at Gear Works. The Dark Acolyte was surrounded by his soldiers, any one of which could surely end him with little effort. The cyborg was as fearless as Dusk had ever seen him, however. There was no quiver in his voice or desperation in the optic lights on his bionic face (which could be highly expressive, he’d noted). He really wished Gear Works hadn’t chosen THIS matter to take a courageous stand on, but it was, undeniably, a real act of bravery despite his leverage.

“Gears, listen: Don’t do this. I don’t think you want to know everything that’s going on behind our work here,” Dusk advised. “You need to trust me.”

“You’ve been lying to me constantly since you arranged this deployment,” Gears retorted, “and the deployment itself was also a lie, or you surely would have refuted that point when I speculated. I can certainly believe I’ll regret the burden of this knowledge, but I’m certain I’ll regret proceeding without it.”

“Can I start with the throat-cutting now? I’m pretty sure he can survive without ALL these cables,” Gloom Fang asked.

“Gloomy, back off,” Dusk ordered, his command cold and firm. “That goes for the rest of you, too. We need the map. He’s got us.”

“Oh, come on! Is there REALLY no one else that can do it?!” Nacht bristled. “Neuro can read stuff that we can’t even see with her robot eyes, right? Can’t SHE read the map?”

Neuron Dialect’s ears pinned back. “No, it doesn’t work like that,” she said curtly. “The Lieutenant is correct.”

“Fine. Have it your way, Gears,” Dusk said grimly, “We’re here on a mission for Princess Luna. We have to find some kind of magic knick-knack that she lost before her banishment. Created during a supposed appearance of the Orks long bef-”

“You’re lying again,” Gears said dryly.

The accusation seemed to hit Dusk like a sucker punch, and he recoiled in surprise. “What? No I’m not!”

“Yes you are. I can tell,” Gears maintained.

“How?!” the bat-winged stallion demanded.

“Experience. You’re always very quick and decisive with your false answers. They’re delivered with the utmost confidence and zero forethought. You’re never as comfortable telling the truth.”

Dusk stared at the cyborg pony, jaw slack. The other bat ponies around him bristled, their expressions getting increasingly agitated. Gloom started muttering under his breath and scraping his hoofblades together, making a show of sharpening the edges.

“G-Gears, I, uh…” Dusk hesitated, glancing at the other thestrals. They all met his eyes, each one of them conveying an unmistakable message: the price wasn’t worth it. The tech-cultist had gone too far.

“I… we…” Dusk’s eyes twitched, and then his shoulders slumped. “Okay, look: ONE secret for the map? How is that? Just let me get off with telling you the full mission objective, all right?”

“Negative. I will, however, guarantee that I will not submit your story back to command immediately. This is potentially a serious breach of protocol, but I understand you are in a difficult position,” Gears offered.

“You don’t need to know how many eyes I have,” Gloom growled.

“Ah, so you do have extras. The pict-capture was a tad blurry, so I wasn’t positive.”

“DANG IT, GLOOMY!” Dusk shouted as the other stallion winced. He planted a hoof against his face, his thoughts racing. There were surely ways out of this bargain. He didn’t really imagine Gear Works would be able to resist the pain of a sadistic thestral slowly taking him apart. And now that the physical memory coil was in front of him, it wasn’t TOTALLY out of the question to try to talk some other Techpriest or servant into mapping a bunch of data that would mean almost nothing to them. Certainly they had more options now than they did when Zariyah had announced Gear Works was dead.

And yet…

“… All right,” he finally said, defeated. “I’ll… I’ll do it. I’ll tell you the truth. All of it.”

Gears didn’t look SURPRISED, exactly, but there was definite skepticism in his expression as Dusk Blade gulped. True to the cyborg’s earlier assertion, telling this story was going to be much harder than making up a convenient fib. The Lieutenant gestured with a wing, and the other bat ponies reluctantly backed away from Gear Works and took positions behind him on either side, as if they were getting ready to cut off an escape.

“Okay, well, here goes… This all starts with the Nightmare…”

---

Badlands
Patrol route (ERROR: data not found)

“Ugh, the sun is coming up already,” Penumbra Shard grumbled, her expression souring even further as the first hints of color started peeking over the rocky horizon. “Shadow take that self-important ninny and her accursed light.”

“The thestrals, they said your magic is weaker in daylight, yes?” asked Zariyah Backfire, shouting from within the Strider to the unicorn riding atop it. “That is not a weakness any other unicorn shares, is it?”

“Don’t go repeating any more stray rumors you overheard from our bat-winged friends,” Penumbra said icily. “The chirocorn was quite enough, wasn’t it?”

“Aye, she was. Have it your way, Miss Shard.”

The Strider’s feet generated a heavy, rhythmic thump as it trotted between the sparse, dry trees of the wastes. This area had clearly not been heavily wooded before, but had been further decimated as the Orks took the largest and healthiest trees for their own use. Shattered stumps were everywhere, along with the occasional rash of bullet holes from where an excited Shoota Boy had opened fire for one reason or another.

It was as bleak a scene as any other in this region, although Zariyah much preferred it to the heaps of greenskin corpses back at the outpost.

“We’re going to have to bed down for the day soon… I wonder if the Lieutenant has private sleeping arrangements,” Penumbra mused to herself, her eyes narrowing.

Zariyah really tried to keep from responding given the unicorn’s mood, but she couldn’t help herself. “Is strange that a mare like yourself has such a fixation on a pony like him.”

“Such as myself? A pony like him? What is THAT supposed to mean?” Penumbra demanded.

“It means you are a very attractive mare and he is a very rude stallion who is not subtle about his dislike for you.”

Penumbra’s ire subsided immediately. “Oh. Of course. Yes, I suppose that’s true.” She coughed into a hoof. “I’m not much more inclined to discuss my love life than my arcane shortcomings, however.”

“Ah, that-”

“But since you brought it up, it is VERY difficult to find good stallions in Ferrous Dominus! As I’m sure you’re aware, being a mare yourself. But it’s even harder if you’re a Moon Mage!” Penumbra complained, settling in for a full-length rant. “Believe me, I’ve tried seducing the odd pony guard and that adorable mutant colt running the Cabal, but the blasted humans are VERY strict about who is and isn’t let into the bowels of Nightwatch. Staying out myself isn’t an option, either; nothing kills the mood like having a Servitor cut open the bedroom door and demand I return to my designated escort.”

Within the battlesuit, Zariyah grinned to herself. She wasn’t especially happy to be stuck with the dark sorceress this time around, but at least she had better gossip than Gear Works did. To say nothing of the additional protection if she should run into an Ork patrol again.

“So that means my only real options are bat ponies, since they’re the only ones that can easily visit. And let me tell you Miss Backfire, the dating situation in the Lunar Guard is DIRE. The stallions aren’t the highest quality to begin with, but the mares are cutthroat! I once had a Sergeant try to poison my rations because I got flirty with a soldier she had her eye on. Another one threatened to blow up my library! And the Bloodborne are even WORSE, if you can believe it!”

“I cannot believe it! Why?” the pilot asked eagerly.

“Their clan doesn’t have romantic partnerships like modern equines, or even herds like in some backwards places in the East. Their stallions are kept as breeding studs and pleasure slaves! Can you believe it?! A squad of mares will make up weird, often lewd contests for the males to prove themselves, and then snap up the winners to pass around and use like some kind of toy!” She paused to wipe a string of drool from her mouth. “Needless to say, their integration into Ferrous Dominus alongside more civilized ponies has been troublesome. A few of the stallions seem quite interested in their concept of romance, but enough of them don’t that fights break out between the Bloodborne warriors and their crushes all the time! Some of the fanatics don’t accept that a stallion should have the right to deny them affection. And when they think a mare is in the way instead they have all these RITUALS to decide who gets the stallion!”

“Scandalous,” Zariyah agreed, “but about Lieutenant Blade, you-”

“Right! So the Lieutenant is the only single stallion that visits me occasionally, because we have a bit of a history. Sadly that history doesn’t involve any raunchy fun times, because when we met I was still married.”

“Ah, so you have had a mate of your own before! Divorced or widowed?” Zariyah asked.

“First one, then the other. A story for another time. So I’m much closer to Dagger Squad than the rest of the Lunar Guard, and I know Dusk Blade remains eligible and lonely because his current crush can’t stand him.”

“Current crush? Do you know who it is?!”

“Oh do give me SOME credit! I’m not going to spill a friend’s romantic secrets just for idle-it’sTwilightSparkle.”

“HA! Amazing!” Zariyah stopped moving entirely, lest her Strider walk into a rock outcropping or trip over a stump while she wasn’t paying attention. “What about the other stallion? Gloom Fang? Is not your type?”

“Well, no, he’s not. But that’s mostly because he’s gay,” Penumbra tittered.

“Really? I did not get that, how do you say… read on him.”

“Yes, it’s not very obvious. Gloomy is something of a clueless thug, honestly, but whenever he-”

Penumbra’s ears perked and swiveled at a noise in the sky, and she snapped her head up. The not-too-distant thumping of engine rotors was coming from above, and she cursed her distraction that she hadn’t been alerted earlier. Ork aircraft, like everything else about the accursed aliens, were anything but subtle.

“Deffcoptas!” Penumbra Shard hissed, spotting the small attack gunships in the sky. There were three of them headed in a bearing that ran almost parallel to their own path, but headed toward the captured outpost. “I thought some of those spaces in the camp looked like aerial platforms! These ones are probably coming back from a patrol or something!”

The Moon Mage was about to announce their options to react to this new threat when Icebreaker turned its head. The Strider tracked the nearest Deffcopter for barely a second, and then a lascannon fired with a hollow, understated scream. The bright red lance of pure energy sliced the aerial war machine almost in half, sending a good chunk of vehicle and pilot falling straight down while the rest quickly entered a downward spiral, smoke billowing from behind.

“… Wh-What? What did you…?” Penumbra asked nervously as the other two aircraft turned sharply.

“Ha! Got him! Tartarus take you, greenskin!” Zariyah cheered before Icebreaker suddenly accelerated, racing through the dry, leafless trees. “I need a moment to recharge before I can take down the next one.”

“What are you doing?!” Penumbra shrieked, lowering herself to keep a better grip on the Strider’s top. “They hadn’t spotted us! They were going to pass right by!”

“Yes, and then attack the others!” Zariyah shouted as her battlesuit picked up speed. “We are under orders to intercept any hostiles heading for outpost!”

“Or warn them! We’re allowed to warn them too!” the unicorn protested.

Machine gun fire started cutting across the wastes, pitching small bursts of dust across the ground. Ammo casings showered from the rotary attack craft, glinting in the early morning sunlight while the bark of gunfire filled the air. The Strider cut left, passing behind a huge stone crag that shielded it much better than the trees.

“All right, cannon is almost ready! I just need some distance and can take another shot!” Zariyah announced.

“What do you mean?! You have distance! They’re at least a hundred feet above us!” Penumbra shouted back.

“My apologies Lady Shard, but Icebreaker’s neck cannot bend enough to aim directly up!”

“What? Are you serious?!”

“Da. So I ask that you bring them down, or at least give me some space.”

“WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”

The rumbling of aircraft rotors got louder as the Deffcoptas cleared the rocks that were shielding the striders from view, and then a loud hiss announced an incoming rokkit volley. Icebreaker cut to one side again, nearly throwing Penumbra off its back in order to avoid the main cluster of explosives and keep the tall rocks in the way. Explosions started tearing apart the ground alongside the bullet impacts, leaving scorched craters behind the fleeing Strider. Among the booming noises behind her Penumbra definitely heard the sound of hot shrapnel scraping against the walker’s armor, and her anxiety about this engagement climbed steadily higher.

“Please shoot them back,” Zariyah requested as the Strider bounded over the rocks like a frantic gazelle.

“With WHAT?!” the Moon Mage screamed.

“I do not know your personal spell inventory, but I was hoping for something like a lightning bolt, or maybe homing arrow?” the pilot replied.

Penumbra spat a profanity in a dead language that implied serious shortcomings in Zariyah’s ancestry, and then looked up at the pursuing aircraft. The Deffcopta armed with rokkits was coming around again for another strafing run. It and its wingmate weaved back and forth in the sky through their path of pursuit, laying out an almost constant stream of gunfire behind the scout walker rather than waiting for a decent angle. She was broadly glad for the lack of discipline, but not for the first time she wondered how Orks managed to find and carry so much ammunition in the first place.

The telltale hiss and whistle of rokkits briefly overcame the rattle of shootas, and four missiles streaked down at the running battlesuit. One spiraled away immediately, not even mounted correctly to fire in the direction of the pilot’s crosshairs. Penumbra’s horn flashed, and her magic reached out to the other three. Sparks of bright turquoise wrapped around each of the explosives, clinging to the warhead and wrapping around the projectiles’ bodies.

The magic did absolutely nothing, and while two of the rokkits missed anyway, one of them streaked into the Strider’s side and detonated. The walker was thrown off its footing, and Penumbra was hurled into the air. She struck the ground and rolled painfully, bouncing and skidding across the hard-packed dirt. The Strider’s spill was less spectacular, tilting over onto one side and sliding but a few feet until it came to rest. Smoke was seeping from the black scorch mark on its side, but the rokkit hadn’t breached the hull, striking at too narrow an angle against the side plating.

The Deffcoptas zipped by overhead, passing their prey and then starting a wide turn to double back for another strafe. Icebreaker remained still for several seconds, and then suddenly lifted its head from the dirt. “Got you!” the pilot exulted as one crossed her field of fire.

Another lasblast sliced through the sky, cutting through the upper fuselage of the scrap-built aircraft. Fire and oily smoke belched from the breach, and the Deffcopta promptly lurched wildly toward its wingmate, either out of panic or as a direct consequence of the damage. Then the machine detonated, blowing itself apart in the air. Its rotor was launched upward in a graceful arc, still spinning with fire trailing from the blade tips, and then sawed straight into the last Deffcopta’s exposed cockpit. The pilot was sliced apart in an instant, and a smoldering blade wedged itself into the main controls.

“Yes! Did you see that?!” Zariyah laughed as the last gunship started a lazy and fatal descent. “Two birds with one stone! Ha! They never teach you that one in scout training!”

“Oh, did you do something useful? Sorry, I must have missed it while I was prying pebbles out of my teeth,” Penumbra snapped. She was sitting on the ground nearby, running a magic construct shaped like a comb through her mane.

Zariyah’s Strider shifted up into a sitting position. “Why yes, I did do something useful. Why didn’t you? Are all your spells short range or something?” she asked, the Strider’s head turning to face the unicorn.

“It’s the thrice-damned light, okay?” Penumbra seethed, glaring in the direction of the slowly rising sun. “I don’t especially like to talk about it, but the Lieutenant wasn’t making things up this time. My magic is weaker during the day. MUCH weaker.”

“So, what exactly does that mean? Your range decreases? Magic force reduced? You have fewer… ‘magic points’ to spend? What?”

Penumbra stood up and trudged toward the Strider, looking sullen and somewhat defeated. “A solid majority of my magic doesn’t work in sunlight at all. Several spells will only work at night, regardless of whether I’m in sunlight or not. And a few especially troublesome ones only work in moonlight instead.” She jumped onto the side of the Strider and grunted as she climbed back on top.

“That seems… odd. I do not understand how you came to use these arts when they have such a severe shortcoming.” Zariyah opined while she slowly stood up again.

“Like most of my personal stories, it’s long, complicated, and secret,” the Moon Mage sniffed. “You can simply think of it as one of the many compromises that come with great power. Princess Celestia has to steward the sun and Princess Twilight has to serve as Princess Celestia’s errand mare. Warsmith Solon can’t win fights. Your battlesuit can only aim at things in a limited scope of vision in front of you. And so on.”

“Hmm. I suppose you have a point, but your case feels different, somehow,” the pilot mused. “But if you wish to leave it at that, I suppose it is enough that I know you can only shoot things at night.”

“I do, thank you,” Penumbra said glumly.

The Strider turned around just as the last Deffcopta hit the ground behind it. Zariyah took a moment to scan the surroundings for anything that might have witnessed the confrontation, taking extra care to search the skies for additional aerial support or laggards that were on their way. The Strider cycled through its vision modes, filtering the landscape in thermal bloom, electro-aural, and rad-sight. The coast was clear.

“So,” the pilot began.

“And Gloomy isn’t one of the FUN gays, either,” Penumbra said, launching right back into the conversation. “He doesn’t have any friends outside of his unit. I’m not sure he really has any friends IN his unit either, to be honest. The closest would be the Lieutenant, but that relationship is more like a lost puppy following the only pony who pities it enough to pay attention to it. As for the mares…”

---

Badlands
Ork outpost (ERROR: Designation null)
Geolocation redacted

“… So then the Elements of Destruction were sealed away, far underground. The Moon Mages hid most traces of them that they could. As time went on and new generations grew up in the caverns, far away from Equestrian civilization, the Moon Mages would visit and teach the colts and fillies about the Nightmare and its promise of Eternal Night once it was free of its imprisonment. They spread their cult throughout the tribes so that we viewed Nightmare Moon as our savior. The pony who would deliver terrible justice to those who banished us…”

Dusk Blade sighed, his ears pinned to the sides of his head. “It’s called Lunar Ascendance. It’s… less popular now, given the whole… well… purification thing and most of us joining Equestria proper. But it was pretty much a central pillar of thestral society for centuries.”

Gear Works listened intently, his ear twitching occasionally. Nacht and Gloom Fang sat behind him, glaring silently. Neuron Dialect was nowhere to be seen, but he was quite certain that she was still within rifle range, at least.

“The Elements of Destruction… unfathomable that such a weapon existed for so long without anypony knowing,” Gears mumbled. He was still somewhat skeptical, but Dusk Blade wasn’t showing any of his usual signs of dishonesty. “For that matter, why ARE they totally unknown? Nightmare Moon escaped her prison as foretold. Her domination of Equestria was imminent. Shouldn’t there have been some kind of climactic battle between the Elements of Destruction and the Elements of Harmony?”

“That was the plan,” Dusk admitted miserably. “Sort of. I mean, nopony actually knew anything about Twilight Sparkle or the rest of them or how exactly this was going to go when Nightmare Moon got free, but it was assumed we’d have to deal with the Harmony Elements eventually, and the Elements of Destruction were to be her champions in the various conflicts and purges that would be necessary to keep control.” He grimaced. “Things didn’t quite go like that, obviously.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for one thing, the Moon Mages screwed up. Hard to believe, I know,” Dusk grumbled, “but they weren’t the only ones who were unprepared. After a thousand years the thestral tribes were a mess. We’d splintered and spread all over the place, and belief in the cult wasn’t as widespread or absolute. It took them way longer than they expected to get their ranks together and find us, their chosen Elements. They figured they had plenty of time, even after the Nightmare reached Equestria. They… didn’t.”

A growl came from Gloom Fang, but he didn’t interrupt as Dusk continued. “By the time we were ready to begin the journey to find the Elements of Destruction, before we ever even saw them, Twilight Sparkle had defeated Nightmare Moon and purified her. The Nightmare had never even learned we existed. The Moon Mages were caught completely off-guard as the their plans crumbled under the light of the rising sun, once again free of the Nightmare’s influence. An entire army of dark magi and bloodthirsty thestrals, all defeated before they fought a single battle.”

Gear’s ear twitched. “That explains the origin of the Elements and the reason they were never seen in open conflict before. But you said this happened before you possessed the Elements. Did you go on to acquire them anyway?”

“C’mon, that’s enough!” Nacht suddenly shouted, stepping in front of the cyborg. “Lieutenant, he doesn’t need to know more than this! You can’t seriously intend to spill EVERYTHING to him!”

“Come off it Nacht, what I’ve told him so far doesn’t explain anything,” Dusk retorted. “Why would he give up the data for that much?”

“We don’t owe him answers! It’s none of his business!” the night-black mare insisted.

“I made it his business when I tricked Princess Luna into forcing him to deploy with us,” Dusk snapped back. “He didn’t want to have to deal with any of this! He probably still doesn’t! But he came very close to dying on this mission already – TWICE – and he deserves to know why!”

Nacht sniffed angrily and turned away. Gear Works said nothing, staring straight at Dusk Blade through his array of optic lights.

“So. The purification was… confusing. For a lot of ponies,” Dusk began again with a sigh. “Nightmare Moon was no more, and Princess Luna was with us again. There’s a whole lot that went on during this time in thestral history, but the short version is that most bat ponies became loyal Equestrian citizens and gave up on the Cult of Lunar Ascendance. There were some who didn’t, but they… WE, I mean… didn’t really have many options except to blend in with the others and hope that something happened that could lead to the revival of the Nightmare, or some sort of other dark power.”

“Huh. And I assume you found it? Was it King Sombra? Discord?” Gear Works asked.

“No. Chaos,” Dusk replied.

“… Huh?”

“The 38th Company. The Iron Warriors. Chaos, the corrupt power from the Warp that fuels their magic and sustains them,” Dusk explained. “That was the power. When those ships descended on our world we started having dreams. Terrible, wonderful dreams of bloodshed and conquest. The Moon Mages once again gathered together, collected their champions, and they declared that our deliverance had arrived. The dark forces of Chaos had come to spread their corruption and cull the weak of this world, and had already set its claws into Princess Luna to tempt her back onto the path of ultimate dominion. THIS TIME, they assured us, darkness would triumph over the hated light, Equestria would be scoured from this world, and we would take our rightful place among its new masters!” Dusk’s tone became increasingly bitter as his explanation went on, and he hung his head miserably.

“… And then what happened?” Gear Works asked, blinking his optic lights.

“And then that goofy purple twerp just canters into the evil doom factory and all of a sudden Chaos is on Equestria’s side!” Nacht shouted, scowling adorably.

“Stupid power of friendship,” Gloom grumbled.

Dusk pressed a hoof against his forehead, apparently humiliated. “Yeah, that’s pretty much it. We head out on this big quest to find the Elements and gain the power to prove ourselves to these Chaos people – who, by the way, the Moon Mages NEVER met and didn’t really know anything about! – and then when we get back with our cool new powers ready to unleash havoc OOPS it turns out Equestria is allies with the evil space people and OH YEAH there’s a horde of genocidal alien raiders coming that will kill everything they find just for a laugh! So you could say the Mages’ divinations were a bit off the mark.”

“Is this why you seem to have such contempt for Lady Shard despite her desperate attraction to you?” Gears asked.

“It’s not the ONLY reason, but I’d put it in the top ten, probably,” Dusk huffed. “Those useless creeps spend CENTURIES indoctrinating us bat ponies and hoarding magic and artifacts for themselves, preparing for a glorious revolution of the night, and then IMMEDIATELY fell flat when the time came! TWICE!!” He suddenly cleared his throat. “Don’t get me wrong, Gears; I’ve given up on the cult and dominion of Equestria thing. We’re all on the same side now and we’re better off that way. But it would have been nice to reach this point without a coven of fanatic sorcerers stringing us along and making sure we grew up in savage poverty.”

Gears glanced back and forth at the bat ponies around him. “There were six Elements, correct? But you didn’t get all of them?”

Dusk nodded. “We got four. The Element of Carnage was eaten ages ago by Queen Norn of the Bloodborne. I don’t know what happened to it beyond that. We’ve never been on terms with them where we could really talk about… you know… any of this. Even now, with them in the same army, I don’t know if the Bloodborne know or care about the Element or the cult or the Nightmare.” He shook his head. “We also couldn’t get the Element of Terror when we broke into the Vault of the Ancients the first time. Finding and capturing Terror is our objective out here.” He pressed a hoof to his chest. “I’m the Element of Shadow, by the way.”

“I’m guessing Miss Dialect is the Element of Deception, judging by the invisibility,” Gear Works volunteered.

“Yes. And I’m MALICE,” Gloom Fang growled, taking his mask off. His second set of eyes opened, glaring at the Dark Acolyte through irises of hot gold.

Gear Works stared for but a moment before he turned his head around toward Nacht. “And that would make you… the Element of… Pain?” he asked, sounding slightly baffled.

“Yeah,” Nacht replied without looking back at him.

“How does that manifest, precisely?” Gears asked.

“You wanna find out?” the mare asked, a sharp edge to her voice.

Gear Works flinched away, shaking his head.

“So that’s the story,” Dusk said grimly. “We need a map of the underground caverns to find the vault where the Elements are hidden away, and then we need the drill rig to get to it. That chirocorn is after the Element of Terror as well, and if she gets ahold of it, there’s no telling what will happen. She’s been slaughtering every Chaos soldier she finds, but there’s no way she can stand up to the Iron Warriors without it. I’m not completely sure how she would stand a chance WITH the Element either, but the purpose of this mission is so we never have to find out.”

Gear Works mulled that over for a few seconds. “Was there another bat pony? If the Element of Carnage was lost, then there should have been five of you to recover the rest, right?”

Dusk winced. “… Yeah. There was. It was… Banshee. She was supposed to be the Element of Terror.”

“Oh.” Gears blinked his optic lights. “And she… died?”

“She died,” Neuron interjected, startling Gears again as she reappeared behind him. “Retrieving the Elements was not a trivial quest. The enclave of Moon Mages that guarded them could send us to the vault, but not inside it. Centuries of dark magic radiating from the Elements had filled the caverns with powerful monsters and hazards that flooded our entry portal, which was the only way back out. Banshee and the Moon Mages that assisted us didn’t survive.”

“Is it possible then that the ambient magics revived her and turned her into a Chirocorn?” Gear Works asked. “That wouldn’t explain her animosity toward you, though…”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care,” Dusk spat. “But whatever that THING is, Banshee is dead. I’m sure of it. The chirocorn is an imposter or a magic clone or something like that.”

“So there you have it. You know the whole story,” Nacht said impatiently. “Are you satisfied? Can we have the fanging map now?”

Gear Works tilted his head back, thinking. Gloom and Nacht started growling at his hesitation, but the tech-cultist ignored them and turned back to Dusk Blade.

“What are you going to do with the Element of Terror when you find it? If it’s been sealed away successfully for almost a thousand years it’s unlikely it would be more secure stashed away in your dorm, isn’t it?”

“Oh COME ON!!” Nacht seethed. “You demanded the backstory and you got it! Why do we have to explain the plans that don’t involve you?!”

“Because you’re requisitioning Company assets in pursuit of a personal agenda and you’re part of a greater conspiracy to overthrow the Equestrian leadership,” Gear replied. “Obviously I have an interest in what, precisely, you intend to do with a magical weapon crafted to challenge Princess Celestia herself.”

“We’re not gonna attack Equestria, all right? We’re done with Eternal Night,” Gloom insisted.

“If the dark gods can abide an alliance with the light, so can we,” Neuron agreed. “The Cult of Lunar Ascendance has already been defeated, and our world now faces a much more serious threat than overlong days.”

Gear Works looked at each of the bat ponies as they spoke, and then he wordlessly returned to staring at Dusk Blade. Dusk stared back, grimacing. He didn’t have a real answer to this question yet, and coming up with a quick fib seemed pointless now.

“I… I don’t know,” Dusk admitted, slumping his shoulders.

“You’re going to all this trouble and risk to secure this artifact and you don’t know what you’re going to do with it?” Gears asked, tilting his head to the side. “Uncharacteristic of you, Lieutenant.”

“I’m still not sure it’s really possible to get to it, even if we do find the vault again. But… if we do get the Element of Terror, then… uh…”

Dusk trailed off, looking up at the sky. The sun was climbing up over the horizon, the first rays of Celestia’s sun casting a warm reddish hue over the distant mountains.

You don’t deserve HOPE.

The voice echoing in his memories startled him. Dusk wasn’t sure exactly when the dreams stopped plaguing his waking hours, much less why, but for whatever reason he now found himself recalling the glowering face of Lady Norn, spitting a final word of contempt before departing the scene of her ancient crime. It didn’t really make sense, but he felt deeply ashamed whenever those words ran through his thoughts. He couldn’t be held responsible for the mistakes and defeats of some 50 generations past, yet they hung on his heart just as surely as his own (far more willful) misdeeds did.

Did the Elements of Destruction represent hope? They were created as a tool of both liberation and subjugation, a power to free the Nightmare and then destroy her enemies. In a laughable irony they were never used for either, and instead became the personal weapons of a handful of troublesome rogues. They were mainly used against Orks these days, to the benefit of equinekind, but a hope? Nobody turned to the thestrals for salvation, not even themselves. Even in the defunct prophecy the Elements of Destruction were merely tools of conquest, not heroes. They were to merely assist the Nightmare and the cult in crafting a better, darker future, and now that dream too was nothing but a grim error.

No. The Element of Terror was a risk, not a hope. A burden. A veritable time bomb buried in the desert by corrupt and deluded fools. One that had already caused too much suffering, considering nopony had even consumed it.

“When we find it, you take it,” Dusk finally said.

Gear Works recoiled. All the other ponies also recoiled. “WHAT?!” several equines shouted at once. Even Neuron Dialect flinched back, her cybernetic eyes wide.

“Yeah. Hand it over to the Company, if you want. Or Equestria. Whatever you do with it, it’ll be in better hooves than mine,” Dusk admitted.

“You can’t be serious! Why should this dweeb get a weapon that was made for the Nightmare’s chosen warriors?!” Gloom Fang demanded.

“We’re not the Nightmare’s chosen warriors, Gloomy. We never were,” Dusk replied calmly. “The Element is a half-baked weapon built from magic we don’t understand for a war that never happened in service to a cause we don’t believe in anymore. That’s why Gears should get it.” His eyes narrowed. “I agreed to do this to close the book on this sorry chapter of our history, and that’s what we’re going to do. The fruit can burn up in a melta furnace or get replicated into a serum to make a race of pony super-soldiers. It doesn’t matter to me. Both would be a better outcome than us keeping it, and this way I won’t have to explain the stupid origin story again.”

“What about us?” Nacht asked, fuming.

“What about you? You remember the terms of this mission, right? I decide what happens to the Element of Terror. This is me deciding,” Dusk retorted.

“This isn’t quite what we had in mind when you insisted that the Element’s fate be placed in your hooves,” Neuron said, her voice slightly more tense than normal.

“If you guys want to scrub the mission and go home, just say the word,” Dusk snorted. “You brought me out here because you convinced me that the chirocorn was too great a threat to trust that the vault would stay safe. If that’s not the case… well, there’s probably still time to do our recon circuit and link up with the rest of Dagger Squad.”

The other bat ponies fell silent at this, alternating between looking at each other and staring at the ground. None of them liked this turn of events, but none of them had an objection that the Lieutenant would consider legitimate, either. Gear Works himself hadn’t said anything, still surprised at the prospect of receiving such an artifact and concerned at how hostile the other thestrals were to the idea.

Gloom Fang suddenly shoved the Dark Acolyte with a wing. “So let’s hear it, then. What are YOU going to do with the Element of Terror if you get it?”

“I would submit it to the Dark Mechanicus, of course,” Gears replied without hesitation. “I do not have the technical experience to study it, the nerve to make use of it, or the means to safely contain it. The only alternative would be to destroy it outright.”

“… Well I guess it’s better than handing it over to Equestria,” Nacht grumbled.

“Morally speaking, no, it’s not. Princess Celestia and the Canterlot vaults would definitely be a better guardian of such power,” Gear Works retorted immediately, “but I am an agent of the Mechanicus, not Equestria, and my responsibilities are to serve and empower the cult of the cursed device. This is a weapon that could aid in bringing the Orks to heel, and no other institution is more capable in seeing to that end.” Then he took a step back. “In any case, you have fulfilled my terms, Lieutenant. The data is yours. Observe.”

Several of the optic lights changed size and color over the black visor that now made up Gear’s face, and then a large hololithic cube appeared in the air. It expanded and shifted shape, adding a few colors and sharpening to more clearly define the imagery within the wire-frame boundary. Small colored threads spread throughout the cube, representing tunnels carved through the underground. Some branched out, some wound back to their origin tunnels, some expanded into huge pits, and some terminated inexplicably. A scale on the bottom noted the distances being measured, with the bottom of the frame nearing twenty kilometers from the surface.

“That’s… a LOT of caverns,” Dusk mumbled.

The other thestrals rushed over to look over the display, excitedly searching the hololith for anything they recognized. Nacht’s expression soured rapidly, however, and Gloom Fang was soon giving Dusk a helpless, confused expression that he frequently used to plead for help. Neuron was as unreadable as ever, scanning the hololith silently with her eyes softly shifting focus in an out every few seconds.

“How are we supposed to find the Vault of the Ancients like this? Can’t you label it? Most maps have labels,” Nacht complained.

“… No, Miss Nacht, I cannot label the caverns,” Gears replied with tremendous patience. “We have not given any of the formations here names. Much less secret names created by old hidden cults that wished to prevent those places from being found.”

“Okay, well, can you scan for… uh… magic energy, then?” Gloom Fang asked.

“I am displaying scan data already taken, so no. Not that seismic pylons can detect psykant wavelengths anyway…”

Neuron Dialect said nothing, turning to look at Dusk Blade. Dusk grimaced, and then lifted a hoof up to the hololith.

“Okay, to start can you erase any sections of the cavern network that don’t have a breathable interior? Can the pylon determine that?” the Lunar Lieutenant asked.

“Affirmative. Applying designated atmospheric restrictions.”

Roughly half the tunnels disappeared, mostly near the bottom of the hololith cube. Dusk nodded approvingly, walking around the display to get a better look.

“All right, next is water. We know there were a lot of critters down there, so they need a water source. Try to remove any tunnels that don’t have any. Or are completely flooded with it.”

The lights of Gear’s optics shifted again. “Affirmative. Applying designated fluid restrictions.”

This time only a few small caverns near the surface and at the bottom vanished from the hololith. Dusk grimaced. There was still an enormous tangle of tunnels in the hololith, many of them disconnected from each other and the surface. Some extended very deep, even beyond the seismic pylon’s augur radius. He was confident that the Dead Barrows were in here somewhere, but the infamous and deadly maze wasn’t QUITE as distinctive as he’d hoped compared to all the other burrows and labyrinths under the region.

“Well… guano. This is a bit of a problem,” Dusk Blade mumbled. “Granted, not a dangerous obstacle this time, which is nice, but still. We have to find a way to narrow it down a little more than this.”

“Do you guys remember what it looked like? I just remember that there was a big cavern with some kind of lights, and then the vaults were set in it,” Nacht said.

“So we just need to find a big room with six little rooms around it, right?” Gloom replied. “One for each Element!”

“First off, only five Elements were sealed away, remember? Math!” Dusk retorted. “Secondly, there were other formations around the vault. We didn’t spend a lot of time exploring, though. I think there was a lake.”

“A lake? I don’t remember a lake,” Gloom mumbled, his ears flipping back.

“I remember a monster with tentacles and flippers that looked adapted to living in the water, so there probably was a lake,” Neuron answered.

“Adjusting search parameters,” Gear Works droned. “Here are the locations that have at least five adjacent antechambers and a substantial body of water.”

Several sections of the hololith lit up, marking the spots of interest. The thestrals all perked, and then rapidly grew disappointed while they counted the marks. Over a dozen locations were still visible, each of them frustratingly far from the others.

“Can you recall any other distinguishing features?” Neuron Dialect asked while she observed the cavern of interest nearest to her.

“Sure. Monsters and magic,” Gloom replied. “You said it can’t detect magic, but can it do monsters?”

“Negative,” Gears answered.

“I feel like these pylons should be able to detect underground creatures,” Nacht retorted. “Like, for safety reasons. What if you’re digging into an ore vein but hit a tatzylwurm nest?”

“I will forward your technical complaint to the Dark Magos upon our return. Do you have any additional search parameters? Or shall I designate surface coordinates for these locations?” Gears asked.

“I REALLY don’t like how uppity you’ve gotten just because you have a map,” Gloom growled.

“I don’t enjoy keeping a façade of glib irritation either, Corporal, but you’ve demonstrated how well you respond to polite requests and reason,” Gear Works retorted. “Awaiting additional input.”

“Just give me some time. I’m sure I can figure this out,” Dusk mumbled, eyes narrowing at the hololith.

Nacht and Gloom slumped onto their bellies, looking understandably frustrated. In addition to finding themselves fairly useless in this exercise, their pride still stung from seeing the Dark Acolyte stand up to them and get his way. Neuron was more circumspect, still studying the map and trying to find helpful details, but every once in a while she too would glance over at the cyborg through narrowed eyes.

The sun rose fully over the horizon, blanketing the Ork encampment with its glare. Soon after Neuron’s ears perked up, and she quickly lifted up into the air to get a better view. All the bat ponies gave her their immediate attention, waiting for a report.

“The Strider has returned with the Moon Mage,” she said simply before landing again.

“Good. I’m getting really hungry and we left all the rations in the walker,” Nacht said. “We should also find a spot to rest soon.”

“Find a spot? We’re not just gonna sleep here?” Gloom Fang asked. “We’ve got actual buildings here already.”

“This is an Ork outpost, Gloomy. Meaning Orks will probably come to check in on it sooner than later. Probably during the middle of the day, when they’re all awake and we’re asleep,” Dusk explained, not looking away from the hololith map. “I spotted a few decent places to rest on the way up. For now let’s focus on this.”

“I didn’t think there would be so many tunnels besides the one we wanted,” Gloom Fang complained, walking up to the hololith again and counting the various chambers. “How did the Moon Mages get down there to begin with? Or keep track of where the vault was?”

“We don’t know,” Dusk replied irritably. “Maybe those secrets perished with the unicorns that let us through the first time. Maybe they didn’t know either, but had some kind of special spell that resolved that for them. Or maybe Shard has known all along but doesn’t want to tell us because I won’t make out with her. Who cares?”

Dusk Blade pointed to a cavern near the bottom and shook his head. Gears promptly removed that system of tunnels from the map. “This is why you begged me to come along, remember? And why I dragged Gears into this. We can’t rely on the Moon Mages anymore. Hay, we could barely rely on them before. Even when their magic worked right we nearly died.”

“Except Banshee. She did die,” Gears interjected. The thestrals all started, as if surprised by the assertion, and then glared at him. “… Right?”

“Right,” Nacht snorted. “Try not to bring it up again.”

“I’m fairly certain I will, considering that the events of her demise are relevant to our current task and also that she’s hunting us,” Gears retorted.

“We hit her pretty hard back there. She got away at the end, but I don’t think she’ll be up for fighting again for at least a week,” Gloom reasoned.

“Unless she has magic healing powers or something,” Dusk grumbled, “you can ask her when she shows up next to kill us.”

Zariyah’s Strider walked through the main gate while the thestrals chatted among themselves, Penumbra lounging atop its back. Neuron noticed immediately that there was an impact mark on the side plating and a great deal more dirt smeared across the walker, but analyzed the damage in silence while waiting for a report. Dusk didn’t look up from the hololith, but he did lift a wing in greeting as the Strider approached.

“Backfire, report.”

“A small wing of Deffcoptas were advancing on the camp, Lieutenant. They have been, uh… they were… eliminated.” Although Zariyah’s voice started out strong, amplified by the Strider’s vox, she wavered noticeably in the second sentence.

“How close did they get? Neuro didn’t hear anything,” Dusk remarked, looking up at the walker.

The walker’s head was tilted to one side, very conspicuously looking past Dusk and Gears to the pair of bat ponies sitting behind them. Nacht quirked an eyebrow, looking up into the face of the Strider, and then glanced at Gloom Fang. Then her eyes widened and she jabbed the stallion with her wing.

“Hey! Put on your mask!” she hissed.

Gloom Fang started, looking somewhat sleepy. “What? What’s wrong with my-” all four of his eyes bulged as he suddenly realized what was wrong, and he quickly shoved his respirator mask up into place.

Dusk slapped a wing against his face and Penumbra groaned. From within her Strider, Zariyah briefly studied the other ponies, noting their reactions. Then she zoomed in on Gloom Fang again, who was trying to look calm and nonchalant and completely failing.

“Why does Corporal Fang have four eyes?” Zariyah asked, figuring it was best to cut to the heart of the matter.

“That’s classified,” Dusk said firmly.

“Oh, it is NOT,” Penumbra retorted. “If you don’t want to explain it, keep a better leash on your pet bloodsucker.”

“Bloodsucker?!” Zariyah asked, gasping. “Is that why he was so drenched in blood after attacking the Ork camp? He was feeding on them?!”

Dusk slapped his other wing over his face. “Could we NOT do this right now? Please?!”

“I really don’t get why everypony is all worked up about drinking blood. It’s fine!” Gloom said with a shrug. “Nacht and the Lieutenant eat live bugs! But you think I’m gross?!”

“Yes, Gloomy. Yes we do,” Nacht replied with a gagging expression.

“I believe the disgust is premised on the assumption that you would feed on pony blood as well were it convenient,” Gear Works interjected.

“NO. Everypony shut up. We’re not doing this,” Dusk snarled. “We have the map, the sun is up, and there are like a million Orks zipping around this region! We are not getting into another argument about who has the worst eating habits right now!” He pointed a wing up to the Strider. “Backfire, unload some rations and let’s get a move on. We need to find somewhere safer to rest.”

The Strider still stared across the yard at Gloom Fang, making no move to fulfill the orders. “… When I entered the camp before, many of the Orks were alive but unmoving, as if they had been frozen in time. Did you do this?”

“It was Shard,” Dusk replied immediately.

“He’s lying again,” Gear Works noted.

“GEARS!! COME ON!!”

“Okay, fine. Yeah, it was me.” Gloom Fang took his mask off again, and his lower eyes opened. “I can paralyze my enemies with a glare from the Eyes of Malice. You caught me. What of it?”

“Undead scum!” snarled Zariyah, just before a whining noise came from the lascannon capacitor.

“Wha-” was all Gloom managed before Dusk tackled him from the side, pinning him to the ground. A spear of hot red light lanced overhead, passing closely enough that the stallions felt their wings warm considerably from the surrounding air. The lasblast drew a deep, molten scar in the ground past the bat ponies before the capacitor emptied, and a gentle hum followed as it began the charging cycle again.

There was a moment of stunned disbelief as Gears, Nacht, and Penumbra stared with wide eyes, but Dusk immediately leapt upright, utterly furious.

“BACKFIRE!! GET THE HAY OUT OF THAT MACHINE BEFORE I TAKE IT APART!!” the Lieutenant snarled.

“He’s a vampony!” Zariyah retorted, stepping away to keep a good range while her weapon recharged.

“Wh-What?” Nacht asked dumbly, nervously shifting away from the stallions.

“An undead, blood-drinking abomination!” Zariyah helpfully elaborated. “I have heard tales of them in the old country, deceiving good moon-fearing ponies, feeding on the indigent, sneaking into homes, and massacring entire families in their beds! Their eyes can turn the blood to ice, and they kidnap young mares and colts to turn them into parasites like themselves! MONSTER!!”

Gloom Fang trembled in anger as he stood up, his four eyes narrowed to slits and glowing gently with eldritch light. “HEY!! That is a SERIOUSLY harmful ethnic stereotype! You take that back! I am NOT a vampony!!”

“You’re a bloodsucking monster that uses evil magic!” Zariyah retorted.

“Yeah, but not THAT kind!” Gloom shouted, flying up so that he could look into the sensor lenses on an even level. “My people have been hunted down for generations by paranoid, superstitious ponies blaming us for random predator attacks! Most of the time we had nothing to do with it!”

“Most of the time, huh?” Penumbra drawled.

“Your kind lie as easily as you fly, and with similar frequency,” Zariyah spat at the blood-drinking thestral.

“Also not the point!” Gloom shot back. “Ah, to hay with this!”

“Gloomy! Stop!” Dusk barked, to no avail.

His lower eyes gleamed, and then pulsed with bright, golden light. Penumbra snapped her head to the side and squeezed her eyes shut, and all the bat ponies likewise turned away sharply and closed their eyes even though he wasn’t looking at any of them. His lips curling into a grin, Gloom then flew closer to the Strider.

“All right, now we’ll just pry you out of-”

The Strider suddenly lurched forward, ramming its head into Gloom Fang. He was flung through the air, stunned, and then landed in a heap on the ground.

“Backfire, I am ORDERING you to hold fire! If you shoot at him again I WILL pull you out of there!” Dusk shouted. “Gloomy isn’t a vampony! This is a misunderstanding!”

A sniff came from the Strider pilot. “Techpriest!” she suddenly shouted.

“Yes?” Gear Works said somewhat nervously.

“He’s a Dark Acolyte,” Neuron noted from under the Strider, where she was trying to force open a maintenance hatch.

“You must be able to read the creature’s diagnostics, yes? Tell me, does the Corporal’s heart beat?” Zariyah asked.

“Affirmative. Whatever his feeding habits or other abilities, I can confirm that he is alive just as much as you are. There are no circulatory anomalies. Other than from the blunt trauma, that is.”

A frustrated growl came from the Strider, but then its head drooped. “I see. It seems I was mistaken.”

“MISTAKEN?! You tried to kill me!!” Gloom shouted, springing upright again.

“And you tried to paralyze me with your mutant power, or whatever is explanation for your eyes,” Zariyah huffed. “As far as I am concerned, we are even.”

“We are NOT even!” Gloom barked. “Also, why didn’t my paralyzing gaze work, anyway?!”

“Because she didn’t see your eyes when you used it, she saw a vid projection of your eyes transmitted from the Strider’s sensors,” Dusk explained, his tone miserable. He had already turned back to the hololith, giving up on anyone heeding his orders to de-escalate the conflict.

“Why wouldn’t it work through the screen? It should work through the screen! She’s still seeing the magic flash, right?” Gloom protested.

“What are you arguing with me for, idiot?! We all saw what happened! I’m not setting the rules for your stupid powers!” Dusk snapped back, baring his fangs while Gloom flinched back.

“Now that the previous matter has been resolved, we should make haste as the Lieutenant said,” Zariyah interjected, pausing to jab Icebreaker’s knee into the bat pony clinging to its belly. Neuron Dialect squealed briefly in pain, and then fell to the dirt with a thud. “I can unload rations if you wish, but it would be preferable to abandon this location first.”

“What are we waiting on, anyway? Is that a map of the Dead Barrows?” Penumbra asked, leaning over the side of the Strider to look.

“Affirmative. We are attempting to locate the mission objective,” Gear Works said.

“… And what is mission objective, again?” Zariyah asked suspiciously.

“At the moment, it’s finding a particular one of these dozen largely indistinguishable caverns,” Dusk grumbled. “Unfortunately, all the traits I can think of that set our target apart don’t show up on seismic pylon sensor captures. If we can’t figure this out we may have to drill into them one by one and check each personally.”

Penumbra tapped her chin thoughtfully. “What sort of things do ‘seismic pylons’ detect?” she asked.

“Primarily lithographic formations and fluid gaps, which are of primary import when drilling for resources to extract,” Gear Works explained.

“You mean rocks, right? It detects different kinds of rocks?” When Gears nodded, Penumbra smiled slightly. “Can you find an unknown alloy concentrated above a lake?”

“I knew there was a lake,” Dusk mumbled. “Exactly how much do you know about the Dead Barrows, Shard?”

“Nothing. Why would I know anything about that?” she asked with a smirk. “Well, cyborg?”

“There are numerous materials that defy clear classification, either because of difficulty with reflective deep resonance or because the molecular structure has no complete match,” Gear Works noted. “Can you identify a constituent metal of the alloy mixture?”

“Copper, zinc, a little lead I think, and jade,” Penumbra replied.

“Jade? You alloyed something with nephrite?” Gears asked while his optic lights pulsed.

“That’s the formula, yes. Black Orichalcum is a curious material,” Penumbra shrugged. “Does that help?”

“Registering parameters. Molecular analysis complete. Adjusting…”

The hololith flickered briefly into an indistinct cluster of pinpoint lights, and then reformed. All of the cube was blank now, save for one winding tunnel that sunk more than halfway down the height of the map before splitting off into a network of linked caverns. One such cavern was displayed with walls of highlighted mass around it, as if it was wrapped in a material that none of the others possessed.

“Paydirt,” Dusk said, his smile exposing his fangs. “Gears, log it and route it. Dagger Squad, we’re heading out to find some place to rest. Shard, get some rations out of the Strider for us so we can eat on the way. Backfire, if you feel like following orders again, once she’s done I want you to head along the Northwest road and check it for traps and patrols.”

“Of course, Lieutenant,” Zariyah said blandly while Penumbra opened the cargo hatch on Icebreaker’s rear paneling.

“Bon appétit!” Penumbra sang, levitating a ration tin to each of the bat ponies below. “Enjoy your awful nutrient sludge!”

“Thanks,” Gloom Fang mumbled as he caught a tin with his wing. Nacht caught her own tin and enthusiastically bit a fang into the top, rotating the can to slice it open rather than using the tab. Icebreaker turned away from them and began trotting away down the road, leaving the thestrals and the Dark Acolyte behind. Dusk spoke closely to Gear Works, whispering and shielding their conversation with a wing.

“So, wait, I have a question,” Nacht suddenly said, looking over to Gloom Fang. “If you’re really not a vampony, does that mean that all the stories about all the horrible stuff vamponies did were actually just about blood-drinking thestrals and the stories got a little out of whack?”

Gloom groaned as he put his ration tin away, having eaten much more recently than the rest of the team. “No, Nacht. Vamponies are a real thing. But I’m not one of them. And I HATE when ponies make the accusation. Like we don’t face enough discrimination as it is!”

“It’s gotta be hard getting mistaken for some kind of monster,” Nacht said sympathetically. “I’ve heard ponies refer to your clan as vamponies, but I thought that was just some kind of slur, not a real accusation.”

Gloom Fang didn’t answer right away, his ears flipping down and his eyes darting to the side. “Well… uh… Yeah! It is a slur. Sometimes.”

“… Sometimes?”

“Look, I said I’m not a vampony! And I’m not!” Gloom huffed. “But it’s… not like the stereotype came out of nowhere. We’re a blood drinking, nocturnal race already hated by a lot of Equestrians, so it’s not a huge leap to make if you’re looking for immortality. Which I’m NOT!”

Nacht stared at the larger bat pony in silence for several seconds. “I have several additional questions.”

“Hey! Nacht! Gloomy! Get a move on!” Dusk barked, already in the air and hovering over the palisade. “And Gloomy, put your mask back on! I don’t want to make up another lame cover story when Gears is around to call me out on it!”

“Yes, Lieutenant!” the thestrals replied, scrambling after the other ponies.

Author's Note:

In retrospect it was a serious mistake to invest in a skill tree that doesn't work in the daytime and then just try to change the world to maximize your investment, but no one can claim the Moon Mages aren't ambitious.

In-chapter art is by Brdt-E. The above picture is by Scheadar.

Comments

[Bahamuttone]

“We went though a lot of trouble to drag your metal butt here in one piece, so stop yelping and start doing your tech thing.”

through

First, I would like to know what this object of this mission is.

Hm this here seems off...

[Yotz]

She paused to wipe a string of drool from her mouth

Yes.

[Mix-up]

Very interesting chapter, and glade to see that we get to see more of the Thestrals and the Moon Mages. From the sound of it it seems like there ware at one point more then three of them but were all killed thanks to that one mission, makes me wonder how many dangers there are in those tunnels, and if Princess Luna noticed their sharp decline of members, and what was their excuse for their absences in that mission. I wonder how close to the taint of chaos how they were affected by them, before the 38th arrived. I was surprised to that they thought they could join the 38th, not that I think that would have ever been accepted by them, and thought they could use them to take over Equestria. Where they plotting against the crown just before Twilight visited Ferrus Dominus or before the Tau invasion?
I wonder if Gloom's powers doesn't work with Great optic implants?

Was Dusk actually interested in Twilight, does he know that himself. or was he just trying to manipulate her, or planning to assassinate her at some point when it's no longer connivant for him? From what I have observed of Dusk he is a amoral high functioning sociopath where lying is as easy to breath for him, but he seemed to have been a believer at some point, but I am not sure if he even cares for his fellow thestreal or teammates so long that he has a body between him and the enemy , except maybe for Gears for some reason but he doesn't care enough for him to not try to control
here is around him. I wonder if he is self critical enough to be aware of that about himself. He seems to really dislike the Moon Mages and is ashamed at how his tribe are fracture and in perpetual state of poverty and ignorance. He seems to have abandoned hope in his own tribe, but still has some attachment to them. He doesn't really trust Luna competence and has expressed treasonous thoughts against Celestia. His one redeeming trait is that he is capable of managing relations tensions and relations between his teammates and the other factions like the 38th and it's subfactions

I am surprised that there are regular Equestrian, like Zaria who apparently worshipped the moon and were still loyal to the crown. I wonder what made them different from the rest of Equestria and what are their relations with the thestreals? From the sound of it they have evil old myths about them but seems semi-distinct from Thestreals.

[Yotz]

In retrospect it was a serious mistake to invest in a skill tree that doesn't work in the daytime and then just try to change the world to maximize your investment, but no one can claim the Moon Mages aren't ambitious.

Well, not a worst thing to accept in search for power, honestly.
To mind comes one Sabaoth Bhaalovich Odin, head of the Department of Technical Service of NITWiT, who had found a way to attain true omnipotence - with just one small catch: his newly obtained ultimate power can not be used to cause any harm to a living creature. Any living creature. Bacteria and viruses included. Which essentially prevented him to be able to use his power for anything at all, leading him to become the head of techsupport department instead - hey, Mechanicus connection!
So, not being able to properly use the power half of the daycycle is not that bad, in normal conditions - just switch to datasmithing time and sleep through the day.
Or, well, try to bring the Night Eternal, that is also an option, yes.

Less disconnectedly, I wonder now if there is/was an order of Sun Mages in this continuity, whomstd've spells would work only in daylight.
...Order of High Noon, with its members being referred to as noons-with-spells...

[Hey its that Pony]

Gears figuring out how to handle the belligerent batponies is pretty cool. I enjoy how often you can make characters grow.

I thought for sure that Gears might mention the possibility of Banshee getting the element of terror all those years ago and that this is what turned her into a chirocorn. In which case, this mission might be a trap laid by her in an effort to acquire the other elements of destruction so she would have enough power to destroy the Company. But that doesn't seem like the direction the story is going in.

As for the element of Carnage; I would assume that it's power is passed down through the bloodline. Which could be the same for the other elements of destruction in a theoretical future. It just seems like we're going to see them being used to shoot their big Nega(?) Rainbow Laser at something at some point, either in this story or in another.

Also, undead vamponies are real in this setting, eh? Sounds like a plot hook for a later story. Or just weird background window dressing.

EDIT: I just realized that this story isn't featured in the Age of Iron group. Any particular reason for that?

[Yotz]

11877044

Banshee and the Element of Terror

Well, given that Gears did not call out Dusk on lying when good Lieutenant stated several times with absolute certainty that she is dead, he has no particular reason to give that specific scenario more weight than any other possible explanation, methinks.
Possible option for inter-character discussion at some later point, when there will be no pressing matters like charting the course of further immediate actions, data analysis required to achieve that, or ork patrols closing in - we shall see a tad later.

geneline inheritance

That was my first thought on the matter upon reading description of Bloodborne Bearer eating the Element and changing under its influence, given Queen Elvira's Empyra's unusual appearance. Which brings some curious musings about the time this story's premise spent in the cooker and the roads it trotted to reach this point, given that our dear Queen made her entrance back during the prologue of Entrenchment, if I remember correctly - but I digress.
The possible future usage of hypothetical Tenebraser demands all of the Bearers leaving progeny. All of them - Banshee included. Which, given her uncertain status as an Undead/Spectral/Elemental Manifestation, may not be an option - not to mention the whole "Last Survivor of the Haunt" business.
Alternative, of course, would be a reconciliation of the original Dread Six - but that depends on, say, underlying context of Dusk Blade's certainty of Banshee's demise, or the exact reason leading him to kill her after the sudden yet inevitable betrayal back then.
Hypothetically, that is.
But then again - that all is considering she actually got the Element, and it - furthermore - somehow coded to/locked for a very specific set of characteristics like original Elements of Harmony, and can not be easely used by someone else - which probably is not the case on further musings, giving the scene depicted in the beginning of this story.

What is a pony? A miserable pile of friendship! But enough talk - have at you!

Alternatively, it can be a Chekhov's Scoop, hanging over the stage to fall on the head of particular character in proper moment.
You know how they say: "If there is a gun hanging on the wall in the first act, in the third act someone must get machete to the face".
We closed/close to the end of Act One, structurally speaking - so there's plenty of time for the hint on undead bloodsuckers being something more than old mare's tales and Zariyah's freshly revealed vivid animosity towards such beings to play some role in this story instead of being just a world-dressing/seed for possible future stories.
Also, possible hint on how exactly Banshee managed to get better after whatever exactly happened to her?
We shall see - all be revealed in due time, I presume.

[SFaccountant]

11877044
"EDIT: I just realized that this story isn't featured in the Age of Iron group. Any particular reason for that?"

Indeed there is!
I forgot.

[SFaccountant]

11876375
Got 'em. Thank you!

[Telos4]

Ah gloomy not bright enough to just claim "chaos mutation" for his second set of eyes, anyway nice to see gears figuring out when to run SPINE.EXE

[Yotz]

11879360

anyway nice to see gears figuring out when to run SPINE.EXE

He has it reinforced, you know. Mostly inorganic by this point, and capable of astonishing feats - like allowing for surviving usually fatal occasions involving sudden involuntary dislocation of one's head towards the approximate region of one's posteriour.

[Notrab M]

This story is so much fun. Thanks for writing it!
Also, can gears become the bearer of the fear element? PLEASE!!!!!! (makes use of the extreme puppy dog eyes technique)

[Blewfire]

Another great chapter. Glad to get the whole story on elements of chaos. Also glad to see Gear has grown a spine or had one surgically implanted. Still warming up to Dusk.