> Ignis
>  by Blue Blaze {COMET}
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Entry
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It's almost time. Are you ready?"

I growled as I tied my leather bracers into place on my wrists. The palms of my hands tingled with pain against the light pressure my thin leather gloves pressed on my skin. The calluses underneath my fingers itched with a burning sensation that I just couldn't shake off. Burning my hands practicing fire spells without a wand was not a good idea before doing a mission. In fact, I was starting to believe it was not a good idea period. Manipulating objects was becoming a pain in the rear, and I didn't have telekinetic skills to help me out like most other magic casters do.

I lifted my head and turned to face the pony addressing me. He was four feet tall and the tips of his green ears only came up to the bottom of my chest. He build was stalky and lean, the strength of his Earth Pony roots showing clearly through the moonlight through the window. A sky blue glowing gem hung from his neck, sparkling softly with arcane power. His Topaz eyes glowered at me, the light in the night sky reflecting off of his irises. He wore a frown on his face, but I knew he wasn't mad in any meaning of the word. Sawdust may have been a tough pony, but under that grass green exterior he knew who his allies were.

I took a step forward, and my heavy biking boot rang out against the metal plating that kept the walkway we were on stable. The grating below me shook, making it clear that humans may not have been on the mind of the construction workers when they made the silo. I had been hanging out around the area waiting for the signal from the other squadron.  All of us were. To be honest, I was nervous out of my wit, and the only way I thought I could ignore it was by staring needlessly at the expanse below me. I wasn’t worried about any of the staff of the building catching me though, as we had locked the entrances to the nearby rooms so that no one would come wandering in curiously. We also checked to make sure that nobody was lingering in the halls in this section of the complex. Locking the doors may have drawn suspicion to us, as these rooms are not important at all, but it didn’t matter too much anyways. The attention of the staff would soon be grabbed Alpha squad, the other battalion that was here with us in this mission.

We were well above 500 feet off the ground in a secluded passageway within Arcane Energy Silo #4 right in the GENEROSITY district. We could have targeted any Silo we wished and the end result would be more or less the same, but we chose this one because of the poor economy they have here. I couldn't imagine the New-Age Government sharing funds with the different districts, and our squad was told that they only had guns here, which is vastly outclassed by the laser rifles that the Blueblood soldiers carry around with them. I was glad however, because blocking bullets with magic is a hell of a lot easier than blocking directed rays of searing light.

The walkway I was on had a forty foot drop to a level with a concrete floor and branching doorways that had doors stained from age. The walls to my right were highlighted from the glow of the green tinted windows to my right. I could see little bits and pieces of litter on the ground from all the way up here. It was a grand statement to the lack of janitors and upkeep care they had to this place. The Government wanted as few ponies – and people – as possible to know of this place, so it made sense that their staff was a bit lacking in the cleaning department.

Steel pipes above us had steam slip between the aged gaps in some of their older, less secure brethren. I could see the condensation thickly lathered onto the surface of the metal all along the pipeline, some of it dripping down as a clear, glassy liquid. The entire place smelled musty, like light mildew that would form on a damp towel forgotten in a backpack. The Silo had an outdated venting system I knew for sure, and I briefly wondered what kind of mosses and fungi were possibly growing in the darkest, deepest corners of this place.

The light from the night sky outside through the windows helped calm my nerves a little. Through the glass was a startling view of New Canterlot itself. Tall buildings covered in glass stretched to the top of the heavens, donning their titles as 'skyscraper' well. Many of the skyscrapers kept reign as lords of the atmosphere, so much so that there were only tiny gaps to see in-between them to get a glance at the night sky behind them. This planet is constantly in a night-like state, with the stars always out and the sun always missing. Most of the time you can't see the stars if you're in district with heavy light pollution. Some of the buildings are so tall that if you look up you can only see them blocking the view of the sky. But once you can see the night sky, oh man, it is one of the most beautiful things you will ever see. Tiny specks of white, blue and red are scattered across a painting of swirling dark blues and purples, sparkling galaxies dragged across the space like an artist would a canvas. Each and every single star you will see in the sky, I guarantee, will twinkle back at you as you stare at it. Shooting comets fly by every so often, whether it is in a blaze of crimson glory or a flash of calm aquamarine.

But the only reason that I could see many of the stars of outer space in the place was because the Arcane Silos are highly elevated buildings, stretching all the way from ground level to a mile straight in the sky. These gigantic factories fuel most of the electronic workings that function within the city. Because of all machines, computer systems and databases that needed to be upkeep and managed, the Silos were key locations to keep them up and running. Without the energy from them, many of the workings in the city would simply shut off. Tons and tons of data, stored in massive servers and P.E.G.A. Cloud Systems would be lost forever, and the industrial factories that kept product lines going would halt abruptly, causing million and millions of damage in bits. But this also means that most of the Silos have top-of-the-line security, with fully functioning SOL-TEC laser turrets, guards of all three races dressed in bullet-proof, laser-proof and mostly magic-proof armour and a force field surrounding the building by all sides five kilometres away from the actual entrances. The only way we got in was by carefully placed teleport mechanics that was planted inside the building by some of our spies. It practically took years of research, development and planning to find a way to infiltrate the building and set it ablaze, but it was well worth it. We were in, and ready to strike.

Beneath the skyscrapers of downtown were several other buildings coloured black and white, letting the various neon lights in the city decide their flavour for them. Rays of light also came from street level, and I could imagine all of the ponies walking, talking and traveling down there, not aware of the band of rebels in one of their Silos. There were tiny little specks floating between the behemoth buildings, I were certain they were JET-rides, blocky metal vehicles that could achieve the power of flight from a complex combination of chemicals, electricity and magic energies.

Before the buildings matched the horizon in the distance I could barely make out the HONESTY district and the bright orange flashes that came from them. I knew that the Valoran were trying their best to create the best distraction they could, I just hoped that they didn't hurt anyone innocent in the process. I didn't agree with their method of bombing the District Affairs Centre building, but the higher ups didn't care of my opinion. They thought it would be a great target that would cause enough chaos to send the elite of the Blueblood military running their way. I agreed. I also pointed out that any civilians that were caught in the crossfire would be caught in the blasts. Asshole extreme and Second Commander Fireflight shot me down, hard. He dismissed me from the meeting room and had no other say in the situation. I tried to explain to the superior of my division, Second Commander Sparks, why it was such a bad idea, and she said she understood, but there was a majority vote on the plan and unless we could get the First Commander to revoke the vote (which was not a good idea at all) that's how the dice was going to roll.

Within the walls of the GENEROSITY district beneath us, I could see the fading colours of the buildings that made up most of the favela. Bland browns, beiges and greys covered most of the surfaces, and the grim and mud that was splattered on most of the buildings help set the tone of the neighbourhoods. The houses of the district were tiny, one-floored huts made of stone and wooden planks. If you ever visit there, you might be tempted to travel by rooftop, because it is allowed and supported by the New-Age Government, but you also really wouldn't want to give the robbers and thieves there a clear shot. From up here, I couldn't make out anything smaller than a house from this height, but the faces of the poor families that lived there (if you could call staying in a dump like this 'living') stuck out in my mind. Our squad had to sneak through the dark streets like rats in a maze, but it didn't mean that we didn't see anyone along the way. I could see the image of a hungry brown colt run through a street with a limb and a brown paper bag of something clutched between his rotting teeth, his right eye black and watering. It made me sick thinking about it.

But that's where I'm here. That's why I'm fighting for the Valoran, fighting for a better, pure future for New Canterlot. The corruption and power of the New-Age Government set here is terrifying in its own right. They constantly punish the poor and unfortunate by blocking bills of rights that would improve the situation, introducing laws that make the situation worse and keeping the so-called 'Royal Senate' within a tight circle of individuals, so that no one would even be considered to enter if they didn't have a close relationship with one of the current members. They needed to be put down as fast as possible, because not only are they sapping the resources on the planet that holds one of the only remaining pony colonies left, but their slowly eliminating the population that they deem 'unworthy' for evolution. The lower class are left behind, and the higher class are allowed to move forward.

It absolutely disgusts me. Those rotten, pig-headed individuals trot all along the place as if it was their own, as if their marry little band of villains own the place by themselves, and that the public didn't exist there at all. They valued so little of citizens that they didn't even want them to exist at all. But that's why rebellion groups like the Party Patriot, the Lunar Rebellion and the Valoran fight, that's why we fight against the New-Age Government with strength and bravado, and that's especially why we stand as one in order to bring the city into decades of prosperity, peace and equal rights.

… Or, at least, that's the plan so far. I mean, we've barely planned out anything major so far. Actually taking out the New-Age Government will happen much, much later.

"I'm ready as I'll ever be." I reply to Sawdust. I finish tightening the straps on my bracers and feel on the outside of my brown leather coat to make sure my wand is in its place. The lump I felt against my chest proved my theory. The bottoms of my coat fell down to the top of my ankles and wrapped wide around my legs, its long sleeves making my arms feel protected against the outside elements. My maroon long-sleeved shirt kept most of my body head from escaping just nicely. I grabbed a belt that was wrapped over the bottom of my shirt around my waist, just to see if it was still secure. Then, I glanced over my baggy brown slacks, which also had two small belts strapped to the bottom of my pant legs. I've had my fair share of problems with dangerous critters slipping into the bottoms of my clothing, so I implemented an efficient way of keeping things I do not want to be in my underpants out of my underpants.

I felt a drop of water fall onto the rim of my black Stetson hat. I reached up and creased the rim, feeling the dampness of how much water had touched it. I found the old thing in a market a few years back and really, really liked it. There was something satisfying about the shape and size of it, how the edge was sharp and the darkness of the fabric blended in to the background yet highlighted itself behind the harsh lights of the city. It's such a simple hat, but it has so many gestures to it. You tilt it down, it hides your eyes, your intensions. You tilt it up, and suddenly you're open and friendly to anyone who approaches you. You tilt your head down with it in a neutral position and your enemies know that you mean business, that you're going in and not holding anything back. Wearing it makes me feel like a badass.

I flexed my fingers and held them away from me, checking the energy ring on my left hand for any damage and lost potential energy. The aged piece of jewellery glowed with a soft yellow light from its circular jewel in the centre, sending the message that it was alright and ready to go. I reached to my chest and peeked down my shirt. Sure enough, the ice crystal that hung around my neck was still there, dormant until I needed to call up its energy. It's not a sharp crystal or anything, so it's not gonna stab me under my clothes. I need it for anti-heat spells, because I have immense trouble casting those ones without it. The principles for an anti-heat spell is to remove energy from the affected area, draining its head and cooling it down immensely in the process, but I can't seem to do it. I'm all about applying energy to an area, not taking it away. It's hard for me to visualize it and translate the picture into real life, that's why I need the crystal. It helps me take away heat from anywhere I want it to, even if I can't see the area losing heat in my head. The lack of ice spell skill is probably due to my affinity for fire magic. Like I said, good at applying energy, not draining it.

Absent-mindedly I scratched my sharp chin, the stubble on my skin brushing lightly against my fingertips. I knew it might have looked a bit gangly to the average pony, but I swear to the Stars, you try shaving with just a dagger and half a cup of water! It's very difficult to pull off! I didn't have the money to buy a proper shaver, nor would I know where to get one in the first place! There are too few Human specialized stores out there that aren't selling things that Humans don't need at all and don't have a pony owner. Granted, I could have probably whipped up a spell or a potion or something to help the hair fall off of my face, but there are way too many ways that it could go horribly wrong halfway through the process. Bald did not look good on me at all.

Sawdust nodded. "Ok. Alpha squad is reaching their destination very soon. We need to get into position."

He turned away and started walking down the catwalk. I followed him to a door that led into a wide hallway with some solid stone ground on it. The ceiling was low here and I could barely stand up straight without having the top of my Stetson skimming the concrete above me. The walls were close enough to prevent group of more than three ponies passing through without getting squished from personal space. There were small pipes running along the corners of the ceiling, pumping and directing the currents that lie beneath them. Lights tainted with a light green gave light to the passageway, highlighting everything in a nasty radiated hue. Entering, I saw Whirlwind smoking a cigarette while leaning on the left wall, waiting for his next orders. The smell of nicotine softly floated down the hall and I tried not to make a face. He was a light-blue Pegasus with a short-cut yellow mane and a tornado for a cutie mark that was sent with us in our squad, and was our only flyer here. His job was to engage airborne enemies and take them out, because even with our guns, lasers and spells to combat them with, they would still have unmatched agility and could attack at angles we couldn't. He had a calm, collective demeanour to him his eyes closed as he held the cigarette between his lips. I didn’t know much about him, and hadn’t met him until I was assigned the role of specialist in our squad.

Sawdust motioned to Whirlwind. Whirlwind nodded and spit the cigarette onto the floor, stomping it before starting to follow the both of us through the passage. I let the flyer pass me and trailed at the back of the pack, making the conscious choice to stay there from a nervous habit of obeying the pecking order this world has. I'll be honest with you. The Humans in this city have little to no influence behind them because we're so few. You would only be able to count about 100 humans in each district. Compare that to the two billion ponies residing in the districts and, well, you can do the math. This also means that we get shunned quite a bit, racism be dammed. We get shit in terms of available jobs, landlords don't like two-legged tenants and the little amount of health care here does not cover non-equine individuals. Some stores don't even take any Human business. They don't want anything to do with it. It ticks me off, but in the end there are more important things to worry about then the species hierarchy.

The hall split into two. We took a right and kept heading right through. At the end of the passage was a large room with dim, old lights hanging above us from a ceiling about 15 feet high. The room was an average size, considering there was nothing in it except a custodian closet to the side and a large metal door sealed shut at the other side of the space. I glanced to my left. Gizmo and Ironheart were deep in some kind of conversion about the state of the Valoran and how it's progressing through its campaign. Gizmo is a cute little mare with an orange coat, a blond mane that hung long over her sides, a pair of goggles strapped below her horn and a cutie mark of a wrench over a computer. Ironheart was the other Earth Pony in the group, a strong, willed mare that I learned is as tough as nails and as strong as an enraged bull. She had her signature red pendant around her neck, and her mane was done in a short little ponytail. I've angered this red-eyed, red-coated and red-haired horse so many times that I've gained a reflexive motion to block my groin. But I simply can't help myself. It's too fun to tease her.

And to my right, writing in a journal with her telekinesis was Libra, a fancy librarian with a brown coat that owned a local library all the way in the LAUGHTER district. Her hazel eyes kept focused on her page through her old glasses while her left ear twitched once. She was sitting beside all of the saddlebags that contained the supplies we needed for this mission. There was no point in wearing them if we were resting. Libra was also a part of the Valoran of course, but ponies around the area didn’t know that. All they saw was a pleasant little mare re-shelving books and giving them out to the public as one of the last means of learning in the city. Only the wealthy really get to send their children to decent schools, so one of the only ways left of teaching yourself is by reading a good book. Since Libra owns a library, she is a very important pony, so much so that the Blueblood military have noticed her and on several occasions have tried to take down her establishment. For some reason or another, she has avoided every single incident that they’ve tried to pin on her and she has managed to keep her business for five years running.

She noticed me staring and stopped her writing, looking up to meet my eyes. “Is there something I can help you with?” she asked.

“We’re leaving in a minute or two.” I notified her. She nodded and put her journal in a set of saddlebags that were beside her.

I looked behind my shoulder. Saw dust had talked to Gizmo and Ironheart and they were walking towards the pile of saddlebags. Whirlwind had already grabbed his and was starting to attach it to his sides with the help of his wings. I approached the supplies and leaned over to grab my own leather messenger bag that sat at the very back in the corner of the room. It was smaller than a backpack, but fit nicely over my shoulder and was big enough to carry the essentials but small enough that I kept my mobility and wouldn’t be weighed down by it. To tell you the truth, the saddlebags were smaller than usual too (except for Gizmo’s; that filly felt the need to carry as many mechanical tools as possible) because of the speed we would need to progress through the Silo. There was no sense in carrying huge hunkering bags if we were against the clock, which we would be once we got on the road.

Gizmo’s pack floated past me in a sparkle of lemon yellow. I backed up to a wall close to where the hall connected to the room and lifted my bag over my head and onto my shoulder. Then, I opened the bag, took a belt out that was inside and looped it though the messenger bag and some custom made belt hoops I put into my coat. I did this so that the bag wouldn’t flop around everywhere when I needed to run, as well as keep my leather coat attached to my back whenever a blast of wind would blast in my direction. I looked up as saw that everyone had pretty much gotten their bags set up too.

Sawdust grabbed a strange looking stone that glowed softly in aquamarine and placed it in front of the ground in front of him. It was a flat, circular object that had a spiral etched into the face of the rock. Magical energies seeped out of the artifact’s carvings, displaying the precision and care that went into enchanting such an object. It was a Radiostone, a stone that allowed us to communicate with whoever had the twin stone that was made at the same time as this one. Every Radiostone is unique, so you can’t intercept the sound signature, nor could you copy the magical imprint it has to try and tap in. The only catch is that you can’t make more than two, so if you have more than two groups needing to talk to each other, you’re out of luck.

Sawdust took the gem pendant into his hoof and closed his eyes. I could see an aura of green magic swirl from the gem and into the Radiostone. Then, the Radiostone began to glow brighter and a flow of clear background sound flew from the device.

“Alpha team, this is Sigma team, come in Alpha team.” Sawdust called through the stone.

“This is Alpha team, we hear you loud and clear.” Holly’s voice responded from the other side. Holly was the few other humans in the Valoran, and was also the head of Alpha team’s operations. She was a damn clever girl that could easily keep a level head under the toughest situation, making her the perfect person to do the job as squad leader. Still, a pang of worry creeped from the back of my mind because of what Alpha team’s objectives were.

“We’re in position. Just waiting for you guys to get things started” Sawdust said. Gizmo positioned herself beside the large metal door, fiddling around with her PDA that was connected to the door’s controls.

“Roger that. We’re just about to get going,” Holly replied. “ETA thirty seconds.”

“Affirmative. Over and out.” Sawdust finished, stopping the stream of magic from his gem and putting the Radiostone back into his saddlebags.

“Alright team, this is it,” he told us, addressing everyone. We crowded around him and gave our undivided attention. “This is where we make things happen. Remember, our objective is to plant a bomb into the primary power line inside the Main Reactor Chamber. Valour, you have the bomb, right?”

I patted my messenger bag, feeling for the C4 behind it. It was square-like and made up most of the space in the satchel. I nodded and gave a thumbs up with a smirk.

"Good. Now then," He took a large parchment and rolled it open onto the floor, holding the sides straight so the paper wouldn't roll up on him. "Just as a reminder, I'm going to go over the map one more time. We're going to try to move through the westernmost passages until we get here," He pointed to a corner on the out edge of the map. "Where we'll turn inward and start heading for the Chamber." He pointed to a large, round chamber in the middle.

He looked at everyone to see if they had any comments. We didn't. Then, a huge explosion rang out in the distance, shaking the ground beneath us a bit. We all craned out head up and watched bits and pieces of concrete and dust fall from the ceiling. That was Alpha team's doing. Their job was to distract the main security force and hold out on a few floors on top of us until we got the job done. Hopefully, with enough luck we wouldn't meet any guards on the way to the centre chamber and that we won't engage in any scuffles. Our orders were to wait five minutes after Alpha team started to give the guards some time to navigate their way to where the other squad was located. This is where we decided to wait.

"Halfway through this hall, we're going to have to enter this lab. In a picture perfect situation, all the scientists will have been evacuated by that point and the room will be empty, but be prepared to engage in combat. They won't pose a threat, but we can't let them warn the guards of our presence. Once we get to the target, Valour will plant the bomb and we'll escape through the maintenance tunnels here. Then, we'll blow up this wall to the Western Cooling Room here. From there it's just as simple as sliding down the vents to ground level then entering the sewer systems outside and getting picked up by our convoy below."

I did not like the prospect of having to fit myself into tiny tunnels filled with pony poop, but I had already agreed to it when I was assigned to the operation. I was also skeptical about the whole falling-down-the-vents-in-a-vertical-drop thing, but Captain Valiance, who had been assigned to brief us on our mission, had re-assured me that according to the schismatic that they had managed to obtain it would be a safe journey down because of how the vents angle themselves slowly to a horizontal position. All I would have to do is make sure that I didn't go down head first and I was guaranteed to survive.

Still wasn't buying that one.

"Of course, I'll be leading in the front of the pack. Libra, you're to follow next behind me, then Gizmo, then Whirlwind, then Ironheart, then Valour. Speaking of which, Valour," he asked, addressing me. "I know that you'll have trouble of keeping up, but you need to really sprint. I'll try and slow down for everyone so that your lungs don't burn out. I just hope that your cardio is up to stuff."

Everyone else in the group gave some form of giggle or smirk, and I was left kneeling down giving Sawdust a 'not amused' look. The satisfaction on his face was disgusting, but morally fulfilling. At least I could trust him to keep his head up whilst in the mess of all of this.

"Any questions?" Sawdust asked. We had none of course; this was all explained to us in our mission briefing. "Ok. We leave in three minutes. Get in to position and wait for my go."

All of us agreed and set off behind the door. Gizmo once again stood behind the access controls, but was not putting anything into her PDA with Whirlwind behind her. Ironheart stood on the other side and had Libra leaning against the wall, biding her time. Sawdust stood with me at the centre of the room, facing the doorway. He was beside me, ready to channel both his Earth Pony and amulet magic to protect me while I kneeled down in a stable position. Taking a breath, I reached into my coat pocket and grabbed my wand.

If there's one object that I own that I value more than anything else, it's my wand. This thing has saved me more times than I can count. I found it during a very desperate moment on my 21th birthday. When I saw it, it called out to me, asking me to unlock its power, and when I grabbed it I felt like I could tackle anything that life could throw at me. I loved my wand. A few years after the battle, I learned that my wand was actually a Harmonis: An artifact that chooses a specific person to wield it and bonds its powers to the user's soul, unlocking much potential. Finding a Harmonis is very rare, especially for a human. Most ponies have never heard of a human with a Harmonis before, and yet here I was, living proof that it was possible. The 12-inch piece of wood was perfectly straight and smoothed out after some elbow grease from yours truly. It trailed off to a round point at the end and was almost unbreakable after the wards and enchantments I had one of my friends do for me. I made a specific pocked for it in my coat and made sure to wear it with me always wherever I go, because my wand would come with it. The wand helped my focus my energies to a point, because I gotta be frank, humans are not good at magic at all. All of our arcane juices come out of their hands, and because Human hands are so wide the magic spreads out in a vast area, making most spells inaccurate and draining. But with my wand, I'm able to make my spells much more effective my focusing my willpower to the tip of and then release it as I wish. It functions exactly like a Unicorn's horn would, which is normally why Unicorns completely destroy humans in a Morus Arcuno - a magical duel. With my wand, I could actually defend myself against another Unicorn's attack, and do much, much more.

Taking out my wand, I lifted my right arm up and pointed at the door, mixing around the arcane energies in me to get ready for a quick spell just in case someone is waiting on the other side of the door.

We stayed in position for three minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. There was no clock to keep track of time, no watch to check how many seconds were left. It was just us and Sawdust, who I assumed kept time in his head. My heart was ready to burst from my chest, my head getting a bit woozy from the excitement leaping from my stomach. I have seen death, and have dealt it with my own two hands, but going back into the open flames never gets easier for me.

After a decade or two, Sawdust shouted "Open!" and Gizmo tapped something on her PDA, which caused the metal monster to slide open with a hiss of air. I tensed my finger muscles, getting ready to cast while I quietly put my left hand on top of my Stetson. The door opened to reveal nothing on the other side except a dimly lit hallway.

"Go, go, go!" Sawdust ordered and began sprinting towards the hall first. Libra shot out from behind Ironheart and followed right after her, then Gizmo hastily shoved her PDA back into her saddlebags as she followed suit. Whirlwind fluttered his wings and ran right after her, then Ironheart went and I leaped out of my low stance and began my pace.

Following them was not the best experience. For one, despite what Sawdust actually said, they still ran pretty fast and I found myself having to do a little less than a straight run to keep up with them. I had a fear in my throat that they would ditch me as easily as an Earth Pony bakes bread, but I didn't want to say anything. We needed to complete this mission as fast as possible and I decided that no matter what pace they set for me I could keep up with it.

As the halls passed around me, I could barely keep up with the details. There were pipes constantly on top of us, following the pathways the engineers of the Silo had set way back when. Our foot/hoofsteps were loud and echoed throughout the place, but I kept that doubt to the back of my head, because as long as a guard didn't spot us, I thought we were good. Sawdust turned periodically in no specific manner or pattern. Left. Right. Right. Left. Right. I just kept following Ironheart and made certain that I was at least in range to grab her tail if I didn't have enough breath to shout for her attention.

A minute or two passed and we reached another huge, looming steel door. Gizmo trotted up to the front and started hacking the controls while I kept an eye at our backs. If someone had caught us now we would really be screwed. After a few seconds electrical sounds came from the speakers of Gizmo's PDA and the door slid open. Inside the room was dark, save for the tiny illuminated lights from the computer buttons. Sawdust made a hoof gesture which I can only describe that it told us he was taking point. Without any hesitation, he walked in first. Then, Libra followed, her horn lighting up a light spell to follow around her. After, Gizmo entered, then Ironheart, then I.

The lights in the room were shut off. It was hard to see objects and details in the room. Then, the door slammed shut behind me. My heart leaped into my chest and I turned around slowly, trying to keep in self-control. I couldn't see the door in front of my face, only darkness.

"Hang on, I've got it…"

I heard Gizmo tap on her device a few times and then the room filled with light. I had to shield my eyes for a few seconds as they got used to the sudden change to the darker, less powerful hallway light bulbs.

The room was a standard computer laboratory, if not a bit outdated. Large supercomputers sat against the wall, humming softly that created a comforting white noise. The ceiling above was much higher and was at least ten feet tall. Fans turned in circles at the top of the room, creating a soft draft that failed to combat against the unaltered heat emitted by the machines around us. There were glass walls sitting in a formal fashion in the centre of the room. Leaning against every one was a desk that held a personal computer. On several of the desks were masses of paper that were seemingly scattered messily on the metal surface. Some of the coffee cups they had read things such as 'Computer Wizard', 'S.M.R.T' and 'Steamin' Hawt Coffee'. Clever.

The floor turned from stone to blue carpet and I found my step less flat and more buoyant. We all started approaching the exit at the other side of the room slowly and with caution. Just because we got into the room doesn't mean that there weren't any traps waiting for us in there, nor was there a clear sign that we were the only ones in the room. I crept towards the corner of one of the glass cubicles, keeping my eyes on the vents on the walls of the room and the spaces beneath the desks. After a few moments, we all jogged to the door. Gizmo was already there, fiddling with her PDA, a frown on her face.

The squad took our same positions as before, my wand hand trained at the door. Gizmo tapped her screen a couple of times before muttering something under her breath. One of my eyebrows rose. She has never taken this long before.

"What's wrong?" Sawdust inquired, not leaving his position.

"Gah, nothing's wrong," she simply responded, still tapping on her PDA. "It's just that this door has an outdated security system. It's different from the rest of the doors. Give me a minute and I'll open it."

Sawdust nodded. My mouth twitched.

A minute went by. And then two. And then three. Time was ticking, and we didn't have much left. I don't know what she was doing, I'm not very technologically capable, but this was her job. She was literally here to hack us into the core of the building, and if she couldn't do it we were in deep trouble. None of us here possess the talent to do what she can. Computers are literally her special talent. But I found my patience wavering.

"Gizmo, are you certain you can open it?" Sawdust asked again, leaning over slightly to see what exactly was going on her PDA.

"I–" she started before frowning and looking at her PDA. "I'm not certain, sir."

I stood up, having made up my mind. "Request to execute 'Plan B', sir."

Gizmo peered up at me. Sawdust turned around, gave me a steady look and nodded. "Go do it."

I wanted to grin. This would be fun. Reaching into my pants pocket, I grabbed out a small card. It was a business card for the artifact store I run in the LOYALTY district. The tiny thing had my logo on it, followed by my address and the words 'Ancients Arts: The Artifact Shop'. I held it out in front of me and flipped it around, showing everyone what it was, just for effect. Then, I approached the door and placed the narrower side of the card in the crack that split the door in two. Putting the tip of my wand on top of the card, I muttered "Ignis." under my breath and channeled energy through my arm. The crack began to glow a dark orange and I put pressure into the card, sliding it in slowly but surely. A few sparks flew out from my spell and landed onto my hat. I knew it wouldn't set it on fire, I enchanted it myself. After a few seconds, the card slid halfway in and I ended my spell, pulling the thin piece of hard paper back out.

To my right, I could feel Libra's eyes staring at me with a bit of curiosity and wariness. "What are you doing?" she inquired. I was a bit confused. I thought everyone in the squad knew what plan B was. Apparently she didn't get briefed on it. I saw Ironheart lean into her ear and whisper into it. Somehow, beneath her brown coat, I saw Libra pale.

"Are you crazy?" she demanded to know. Ironheart started pulling her back as everybody backed off a safe distance away.

"Just watch." I answered. Putting the half-burnt card back into my pocket and my wand back into my coat, I reached around my torso to grab my messenger bag. On the side of it hung a purple miniature silk bag. I untied it off of my bag's belt and opened up the top. Then I tilted the bag and allowed the white powder inside to pour into the open palm of my right hand. From there, I stood on the tips of my toes, leaned my elbow against the door and used my hand to funnel the powder into the hole that I just created in the door.

In the corner of my sight I saw Libra blink, eyes wide. "Is… Is that Parasprite Dust?"

"Yep." I simply responded, pouring more Dust into my hand and tilting it so it fed into the door. After three scoops, I figured that it was enough and shoved the bag into my coat pocket and took a few steps back.

"Ironheart, could you cover me as I open the door?" I asked.

She nodded. "Sure."

She took a position beside my legs, getting ready with her own amulet just in case something came shooting out from the other side. I took my wand back out, aimed it at the crack and with a bit of willpower announced "Alacritas!" A bolt of lightning shot from my wand, striking directly in the centre of the hole. A bright flash came from it and the inside exploded with a large boom, shaking the hallway a bit. My comrades had their hooves over their ears. After I was done shielding my eyes with my arm, I looked to see if it had worked. The door was still standing there, as if nothing had happened at all. My jaw dropped. I could feel the stares bore down on my back, the pressure of my team weighing down on me. That was not supposed to happen! It was supposed to work! What the hell?

Then, the controls beside the door flashed green with a ping and the passage to the hall was opened. Once again, there was nothing on the other side. I felt a grin growing on my face.

"A good magician always has a bag of tricks up his sleeve. Am I good or am I good?"

I heard Ironheart groan at my magician crack.

"Yeah, that was totally what you expected," Libra dryly noted. "I still think you're crazy."

"Enough banter. Sigma Team, move out!" Sawdust ordered. He started into a sprint once again, and we all got into order. Before Gizmo left, I could see the thoughts and emotion churning beyond her expression. Her poker face was too good, and I couldn't tell what she was thinking, whether it was contempt for herself for failing to do her job or for me for completing it for her before she had the chance to open it. I heard that ponies don't react too well when they fail their cutie mark, and that they practically live to play out their talents. It's one of their major joys in life, doing something that they're good at, filling them with purpose and meaning. I couldn't sympathize with Gizmo, but I tried.

We started racing down the passageways once again, this time at a pace that I could actually manage. I felt better that we were on the move again to the objective. More grungy, aging walls and pipes passed me as we took more turns the passageway. After a certain amount of time, my stomach began to feel a bit queasy. Then, a chilling draft flew over my shoulder, causing a shiver down my spine. Something around us made me uneasy all of the sudden, and I didn't know what. It doesn't happen too often, but I swear I can foresee future. It's like a sixth sense of some sorts. Of course, it comes in small amounts and I don't get visions or anything, but sometimes randomly for no reason at all I get rushes of emotions, whether it be happy, sad or scared. Then, later, an event occurs to me that creates the exact same emotion. I kid you not, it's not a coincidence, it's instinct, and sometimes I have to force myself to slow down and listen to my instinct, because most of the time it's right. I had a premonition of something to come, a warning that something bad's going to happen.

Sawdust turned to the right ahead of me. We all followed one my one, me keeping a best of a pace as I could. Immediately to our left was another corridor, and as we passed by I saw three guards looking down the hall, all with enchanted, dark green coats wearing metal armour and helmets with visors tinted black. I could see the magical gems installed into the chest pieces of their suits and assault rifles floating in front of them. I was a bit glad that they had bullet-firing guns instead of laser-firing ones. Intel was right about their aged equipment. Time seemed to slow down as I met the eyes with one. I couldn’t tell the colour of her eyes then and there, but realization seemed to pass by her after seeing a lanky human run by one of her hallways. Still in slow motion, her mouth started moving to call out to her teammates to tell them of the danger in front of us. My eyes widened and the pace of time went back to normal.

“Move! Move! We’ve been spotted!” I shouted, speeding up my running.

Gizmo looked over her shoulder for a second at me. “What?”

I heard heavy hoofsteps behind me. “Stop right there!” someone called out.

I turned my head to see the guards trailing us. They had just turned the corner and raised their rifles to take aim down their sights’.

“Repello!” I shouted, holding out my wand behind me and releasing a bolt of energy through my arm. The air around between us and them because distorted for a split second, and then returned back to normal. They started firing, the gunshots ringing out and breaking my eardrums in the very narrow passage of the hallway. Tiny copper bullets got caught in a heavy magnetic net that I sent out, protecting us from any kind of harm they could send. The look of shock on their faces was admittedly satisfying to watch as they realized their guns weren’t working. After a moment or two, the bullets suspended in mid-air fell down to the ground in a clatter. Then, one charged forward, putting her speed on once again. The others followed. I realized with a sinking feeling that they figured out that the net wasn’t mobile, and that once they passed it their bullets wouldn’t be caught.

I looked back again and had enough time to react to another turn. I weaved right, almost slamming into the wall from my forward momentum. There was another door in front of us. Gizmo shouted something and the door opened with a hiss of steam. On the other side was a huge chamber filled with glass cylinders that contained a translucent blue liquid in them. They were huge, pillars that reached to the top of the ceiling dozens of feet above us. Wires and pipes ran from the bottom of them, connecting them to one another and leading to blinking computers set up at the walls of the room. The lights of the room caused everything to be a sudden shade of ocean colours and made things a little bit harder to examine with detail. I noticed that there were catwalks above us. That couldn’t be good.

We kept running. I could hear more guards chasing us from behind, more than the three I saw previously. We were really in for it now. Dodging around the cylinders, I tried to keep up with my squad as they slowly started to outpace me. They had too much mobility for this kind of thing. As I reached farther and farther into the room, railings appeared to my right that led to a lower floor with more supercomputers scattered around the place. I also saw Ironheart a few meters in front of me and I began to call out to Ironheart for her to slow down when I felt something slam into my left shoulder hard. I let out a yelp as I fell over the ledge back first and I got a good look at my attacker. It was a Pegasus guard, whom which I guessed flew from the catwalks.

“Valour!” I heard her shout as she turned around. I lost sight of her immediately, falling down to the floor six feet below me. I landed with a huff, my back spreading the pain to the rest of my body as I tried my best to keep the back of my head hit the floor. I lost my Stetson when I got hit and saw it sail off somewhere in the corner of my eye. The Pegasus guard was on top of me, his teeth gritted and his weight bearing down on my chest. He reeled back with both hooves ready to strike at my face. I punched him with my left before he could then shove him off my chest. Quickly rolling sideways to my feet, I barely had time to react to the guard charging into my stomach. I dodged to the left, but he managed to smack my right hand. My wand flew to the ground while my wrist tingled in light pain. I lightly waved my fingers in the air, sipping the air to try and dispel the unpleasant stinging. The guard turned around and tried another charge. This time, I met him head on with a right hook and pain shot through my knuckles as he fell on top of me. Punching him while he had a helmet on was probably not a good idea, but I was aiming for the one spot that was not protected: His muzzle. I think I hit it, because he was dazed when we both fell to the floor again.

Taking the one opportunity I might have, I flipped the two of us so that I was on top of him this time. Then, I trapped his forehooves underneath my two knees, held out the palms of my hands close together towards him and started focusing on my willpower. With some effort, I yelled “Ignis!” and fire shot from the bottom of my palms. He screamed at the top of his lungs as fire rushed over his face, splashing harmlessly against me. I know I said that I burned my hands from practicing the magic, but your own magic shouldn’t harm you unless you make mistakes, which I did. I closed my eyes as the last of the heat was expelled from my being, partially because the light was too bright and partially because I couldn’t watch me slowly burn a pony’s face off.

I inhaled deeply, which was a very bad idea. The nauseating stench of burnt fur went straight into my nostrils. I gag, holding in my stomach as I got off of the unmoving form as quickly as I could. Then, I turned, found my wand on the floor and picked it up, looking towards the upper level to see if any other guards followed me. They didn’t which I thought to be odd until I realized that they didn’t see me get tackled to the lower level and probably were too focused on the others to realize that I was missing. Looking around, I saw my Stetson sitting onto of a terminal, followed by a set of stairs back op a few feet behind it. Just then, I heard a loud shout followed by and explosion in the distance that shook my balance and sent sparks flying from some of the nearby computers. My heart in my throat, I sprinted around the maze of technology, grabbed my hat with ease and raced up the stairs.

At the top was a cleared area void of any glass cylinders except for a few that had been broken from the blast of the explosion. I took a quick look down to see the blue liquid at my feet, sparkling with a certain magical aura to them. I briefly wondered what it was before my head returned upright and I spotted my squad mates engaged in battle.

Ironheart was fighting off two guards equipped in her magical steel armour. That’s what was special about Ironheart; she could summon a custom set of armour she made herself from her pendant when she was in a tight situation. The thing was about her armour was that it like guard armour, only better. It reflected bullets, lasers and most of the effects of magic, so she was basically invincible. One thing that I did hear her say was that it was not immune to extreme instances of force being applied over a large area, but she was in no threat of getting squished anytime soon, so I didn’t have to worry about her. Above me I could see Whirlwind fighting in an air battle with three other Pegasi and winning against them. Then, another explosion rang out to my right. I flinched and looked to see that Libra had used her amazing magical prowess to send five guards into a supercomputer, causing it to explode upon contact. Gizmo was hiding behind her, her eyes wide behind her goggles as she witness the sheer amount of power exerted by the bookworm.

Libra may have been a librarian, but I’d be damned to say that she wasn’t better at magic than I was. Her ability to manipulated pure, unaltered arcane energies is second to none. Her shields were much better than mine, her telekinesis could lift up several tons of weight and she could freaking teleport, and not just teleport with herself, but could actually take others with her. That takes a butt load of skill! Teleportation is one of the toughest spells to pull off, so much so that it could actually kill the individuals involved in the spell. I wouldn’t even dare try and cast it myself.

A mare guard suddenly landed beside me in a heap of broken bones sticking out of her body and bruises. My eyes widened. Calling it gruesome would be an understatement. I gazed in the direction she was through and found Sawdust looking at me channeling his Earth Pony aura into his hooves, turning them brown.

“Valour! We gotta go!” he shouted at me as another guard rushed him from his side. Without missing a beat he grabbed the hoof of his opponent, threw him over his shoulder and dropped his elbow on the mare’s muzzle, breaking it instantly and knocking her out.

I heard a multitude of heavy hoofsteps to my left. Sure enough there were one, two squads of guards coming at us from between the cylinders, all with focus and intent in their expressions. Thinking quickly, I grabbed the ice crystal that hung on my neck with my left arm, took a good solid stand and held out my wand arm towards one of the cylinders.

“Blizardis!” I commanded, as a chilling breeze swept through the room. The gem I held grew brighter as frost began forming on the rim of my Stetson and my breath formed in front of me. A blast of white particles shot from the tip of my wand, connecting to the cylinder and forming ice on it. I directed the blast to spread in-between two cylinders, then the next two. I heard a shout of annoyance from the other side as my twelve-foot wall of ice was complete. I turned my head to see Whirlwind throw his last remaining guard onto one of the guards Ironheart was pummelling. They looked at each other and nodded.

“Group up, Sigma!” Sawdust shouted from his position. We all rushed towards him, then headed towards an exit at one side of the room. Scrambling into the hallway, we all turned around to check where the squads of guards of were. They cleared around the ice and were heading straight for us.

“Gizmo! Get ready to close the door! Valour, I need you to shoot fire at the liquid on the floor!” Sawdust ordered.

I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I trusted Sawdust to make the right decisions as the leader of this squad. Lifting up my wand once again, I put some willpower into my thoughts and felt my arcane energy rush to the base of the wood.

“Orbum Ignis!” I shouted, releasing the power inside of me. A bright burning fireball erupted from the tip and shot right passed the guards. They stared back at it in confusion, then several of them screamed at the top of their lungs once they saw where it was headed.

“Close it now!” Sawdust shouted. Gizmo fiddled with her PDA that was held in her hoof and the doors closed. I could hear a sucking sound from the other side, as if the air was escaping, and then I was sent to a ground by a rumble that rattle me inside out. I heard something ignite and we all fell down. Ironheart squealed as the hallway literally shook with a vicious intensity. A large amount of heat was emitted from the door and the crack that kept it closed glowed a fiery orange. After a few seconds, the shaking stopped. I slowly got to my feet, getting my bearings again and taking deep, deliberate breaths.

“Sawdust, how did you know that that stuff would set on fire?” I asked him, leaning against the wall while holding my Stetson atop my head.

He gave me a small smirk, a rare occurrence. “Seraphi went over the maps of the core heavily with me. She told me how some of the rooms contain liquid magic, and that we should steer clear of those places. Heh, we really didn’t have much choice.”

I gave out a huff of breath. He met with Soul Dew? Damn, I knew that this was an important mission, but I never expected one of the Second Commanders to actually guide through Sawdust on what to do face to face, much less talk to him. Most of my interaction with the upper ring were through a collection of written message guided through a clique of clerks and attendants, The higher-ups in the  Valoran have a lot of responsibilities, and most of the time the last thing they need to do is talk to small squads that haven't gone through a mission yet. I was even more surprised that Sawdust referenced her in that manner. Not too many ponies know her by that name. Heck, I wasn't even supposed to know. I learned it by accident.

My eyes went back to the door. That crazy bastard. He led us the wrong way we planned and instead we went straight into a potential death trap! Most professional practitioners of alchemy know that liquid magic is not only unstable, but also highly flammable, and that room was full of it! I guess that’s why the guards weren’t firing their guns; they didn’t want to go completely suicidal.

“I’m actually surprised that the room didn’t blow up after we created two explosions and destroyed some of the pods they were placed in,” he muddled over while absentmindedly checking the map. “I’m also surprised that the metal door held. Guess I didn’t give this place enough credit.”

I couldn’t help but smile. That was one dangerous gamble. I had no idea that was liquid magic. I have never seen liquid magic before! I mean, I’ve dabbed my hands in the art of potion making before, but never have I actually have had to use liquid magic before, and now that I know what it exactly can to, I’m glad I didn’t. I’m not the cleanest practitioner in alchemy, and I probably would have dropped a vial or two of the stuff while handling all the ingredients. That would have been a disaster.

The rest of my group got up, dusted themselves off and otherwise got a hold of their surroundings. Ironheart unequipped her armour, Whirlwind preened a few stray feathers and Gizmo wiped grim and dust off her goggles. I checked my surroundings, and realized with a little bit of fright that I had no idea where we were now. Sure, I saw the maps and memorized the route we planned to go, but I think that Sawdust actually got lost halfway through navigating the maze of tunnels. I was certain that we shouldn't have gone through an alchemy chamber, unless the layout of the map has changed since the Valoran got a copy and they added it sometime after.

“Valour,” Libra began behind me. I turned to face her. Her coat appeared to be a bit scrupled as she straightened her glasses. “Why do you shout when you cast spells? You do know that magical words don't exist, don’t you?”

I gave a wide, playful grin. “Yeah, I know.”

> The Dead Zone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of the journey to the Core was fairly simple. Turns out that our little detour through daring and adventure had actually brought us closer to our objective that our original plan did. It certainly wasn't worth it, but at least something good had come up from all that fighting. We kept our pace steady throughout the rest of the tunnels, our line up exactly the same as it was before with Sawdust leading the front of the pack. The squad actually took it slower this time and I found myself not racing to keep up with them like before, which I was very grateful for. We didn't meet too much resistance as we navigated, but when we did they were easier to take out then that scramble of a fight we had back in the Liquid Magic Lab. Libra and Sawdust do a much better job taking out groups of guards than I could ever do. The rest of us covered their flanks from getting flanked while they displayed their awesome combat prowess. We never got ambushed from the back ever again, but I made sure to keep a careful eye on the neighboring passages we were passing. The whole lighter pace overall gave me a moment to relax myself and preserve my magical energies just in case we have another big battle.

We eventually reached the center of the Silo. From what I could remember from the mission briefing and the map provided, there was a large ring hallway around the Core with six different entrances to approach the Core from. Beyond those entrances was a humongous, empty chamber with a ceiling that had six bridges leading to the main room in the center of the space. Then, in the center room was the Main Reactor Chamber, which should have several large lines of wires traveling up and down the building. My job was to the set the bomb onto the wires and get out of there as fast as possible.

Moving forward as a whole, we approached one of the entrances to the chamber and checked the hall to see if any guards were still posted here. There were a few, but we took them out silently and threw them down the nearby vent shafts. From there, we all stood beside the southernmost entrance while Libra when with Gizmo to plant miniature cameras all around the ring hallway so she could monitor every single angle possible. The door to the chamber was huge, by the way. It stood at least as tall as a house and had to be at least 3-feet thick. A zig-zag line traveling down the center marked where the two pieces of steel parted, and the door frame was wide and menacing. It was pretty darn epic. The Engineers must have had a blast building this place.

The door was set into a plain, metal wall that reflected green off its surface. Bright light bulbs hung above out heads 25 feet up at the ceiling in the dozens and the line of pipes that were in the tunnels stopped short of the ring hall. Unlike the rest of the Silo, this part of the facility actually looked like its upkeep was handled nicely. The floor turned from grey concrete to a shiny sheen of steel, waxed and clean like it was a piece of china. The door controls beside the entrance were more elaborate than any controls we'd seen before and covered more wall space, but it was still a mind-boggler to see such tiny buttons dictate the movements of such a gigantic object.

After a few minutes, Libra and Gizmo came back from their scouting and gave their report. Apparently there were two guards posted at every single entrance and they had to take all of them out one by one. Well, 'they' meaning Libra, because Gizmo isn't a great fighter. She's an engineer, and solves practical problems rather than pony problems.

"Ok team, this is it," Sawdust stated as we all gathered into a circle. "These are the doors before the core. Like we planned, three of us are going to split up and go access the core. Ignis, you're going of course, but I also want Ironheart and Whirlwind to go with you. That should give you enough ponypower to handle more guards inside, if you encounter more."

"I think I can handle a few guards by myself, if needed boss." I mentioned, my head dipping down to meet with the height of my teammates.

Sawdust gave me a level look. Ironheart snorted. Then, the others giggled at my expense. A smirk grew onto my face too.

"That's good. Libra, Gizmo and I will stay out here and keep watch. Be fast, because if more guards come than we can handle I can't guarantee that you will get complete cover from getting flanked."

I nodded. "I understand."

"Good. I know you're going in blind, and that ain't a good thing, no doubt about it. But since we've got no intel on the actual core itself, you're all going to have to learn the layout as you go. Keep your guard up for the usual stuff: Traps, cameras, turrets and Silo personnel. I'm going to give you 22 minutes to plant the bomb and return here. After that, we're going in to look for you."

My mouth twitched. I didn't agree with his last idea.

Sawdust was already reading my thoughts. He knew me too well. "We're not leaving anyone behind, you got that? We're all in this together. Once a squad mate, always a squad mate."

"Yes sir." I responded.

He nodded, but gave me a dead serious look. 

"Don't go dyin' on me now." I imagined him say.

You can count on me, boss.

"Ok, everybody into positions!" Sawdust shouted.

We all ran around until we got into breaching position again. This time, Libra and Whirlwind were not at the door, but instead were looking down the halls to our sides, making sure no one unfortunate stumbled into us. Sawdust got the passage behind me and I had Ironheart by my side to block any incoming attacks from the other side. Our leader then motioned with his right hoof and Gizmo opened the door, her horn glowing orange. There was a huge blast of hot steam that slammed into my face and threatened to blow my Stetson off the top of my head. I squinted, keeping my wand level with the door while condensation formed on my fingertips. I briefly wondered if it was actually condensation from water or if it was some other liquid sprayed onto us that would knock us out in a few minutes. I was being too paranoid. Instead of stressing about unlikely variables, I stared as the massive doors opened to reveal a second set of doors beneath. A light above the doorframe turned green, pinged and the second door split in two and opened as well. There was nothing on the other side.

Sawdust gestured his head towards the new opening, and I nodded. I got up, keeping my eyes on the prize and stepped forward into the parted doors slowly. Ironheart was strafing right against my thigh with her eyes to my right, which was standard cover procedure for human-pony protection pairs. During Valoran training, I had to focus to keep my huge feet away from her ankles and accidentally kicking her fetlocks from underneath her, but now I didn't even have to think about it. Stepping in, I immediately turned my attention to my right while Ironheart kept behind me and checked left of the walkway. It was clear. There was nopony waiting for us on the other side. I turned and looked behind the big doors to where Sawdust and the others were standing. I gave a thumb up and he nodded. I could see Whirlwind examining the place thoroughly with serious, squinted eyes two steps behind us. The twin metal plates of the door closed shut and sealed themselves with another hiss of steam. When I brought my attention back to the path ahead I finally got to get a good look at the inner chamber. My jaw dropped.

We were in a massive chamber, and I mean MASSIVE. That is the best way I can describe it. We were in a humongous, ginormous circle of a chamber with a 500 meter high ceiling and walls that stretched for at least half a kilometer. I glanced down and saw that we were standing on a 20 foot wide strip of turquois metal  that led right to the center chamber, which had to be at least a quarter of a mile away in front of us. There were four other greenish-blue bridges that were sticking out of the other four entrances we could see, with the fifth one hiding behind the walls in the center of the chamber. The bridges all ran parallel with the hexagon shape of the room, keeping a symmetrical style and connecting with the Reactor Room that was so far away from us. Both the ceiling and the walls were coloured a sharp bronze shade with not one spot of white showing through the paint. Did I mention that this place was huge? Sure, I could see the very opposite side of the room, but it was so far away that I could barely make out any details in the surface. Here, when I searched to my immediate left and saw the wall right next to us I could see dozens and dozens of pipes running along the height of the room, twisting and turning and interlocking with one another. And the system of tubes went on forever! It traveled all the way up through the ceiling, leading to multiple places unknown to us above our location. When I traced them downward, well, they passed beneath the bridge we were standing on.

Curious, I jogged up to the side of the bridge and leaned against the railing, looking down. There was darkness. Simply, darkness. Ominous and foreboding, the space beneath the bridge was non-existent. There was nothing there. Zero. Nada. Zilch. The darkness went on forever and ever with no signs of stopping. There was no visible floor from where I was standing. I reflexively brought my left hand to my Stetson, my stomach doing flips. It was hard to believe that there was nothing there. Everything has an ending. Every path ends at a cliff. Every pipe ends at the sewers. Every life ends at death. The drop… The drop seemed to have no ending. There was something predominantly evil about it, something that made my skin crawl and the tip top of my spine shiver with fright. I didn’t even want to think about the objects that were thrown off of this ledge, much less the construction ponies that may have fallen down while making this place. What’s worse is that I could feel a lot of dark energy in there. Anti-magic, a very dangerous substance enveloped the entirety of the world below me. Anti-magic acts much like radiation does, as it can exist in some areas and disappear in others, but it’s not created by waves of energy, it’s either created by corrupted and crossed lengths of arcane power or by an unstable source of magical energy. I’m guessing the latter is causing the anti-magic. Because we’re so close to the core, a highly important source of power for the district, I think it’s safe to say that all that power has to come at a price. Now I know why the Arcane Silos were built so high; they have to in order to contain all that extra anti-magic that’s emitted. 

It’s so dangerous here! Also like radiation, you can get sick from exposure to anti-magic. It knocks you out cold because it scrambles the natural magicks in your system. The problem with that is the chaos that it causes in your body can also affect your organs. Your stomach will start contracting to small and expanding to squash your other innards. Your heart will stop beating in rhythm and will grab a tempo of its own. Your brain will stop functioning. Anti-magic is lethal, and standing in it for more than ten seconds will spell out death for you. If anyone or anything falls down this pit, they are done for. It doesn’t even matter if the fall kills them, because the anti-magic will. Not even Pegasi can avoid the threat of the drop, because if they fly too low the anti-magic will stop their natural Pegasi magic and disable their wings. Nothing can prevent the death below. It’s a total dead zone down there.

“Is something the matter?” Ironheart asked me. I turned around to see her concerned, crimson face, reading my nervousness like an open hoof of cards. Whirlwind was flying beside her with his attention towards our destination, but he still hung back to hear the conversation.

I struggled to find the right words. Of course they wouldn’t feel the anti-magic below us; they’re not casters! Oh sure, Earth ponies and Pegasus ponies have their own kind of inert magical abilities, but nothing near the likes of unicorns and human wizards. Ironheart and Whirlwind have no kind of device to feel the anti-magic with! Heck, I probably can only feel it because of my wand, otherwise my magical ability would have been too weak to detect anything! I bet they could feel a teeny tiny bit of the anti-magic aura, but not enough to concern them, and since they haven’t experienced anything like it before, they would probably just mark it off as a light headache or something. I’ve already felt the effects of anti-magic before. It was not fun.

“You can’t see the floor from up here,” I explained. “I know it seems unlikely, but try your best to stay on the bridge.”

“Of course we will,” Ironheart reassured me. “What makes you think that we would try anything like that?”

“You’re right,” I said, looking back down the abyss. “I’m making no sense at all. Never mind.”

“We need to get going.” Whirlwind interjected, flying in front of Ironheart.

I turned my head towards him. He was right. “Ok, let’s go.”

As so we walked. Or, rather, it started out as walked but then quickly translated into a light jog across the bridge. I had to remind myself how far the distance was between us and the core and realized that we didn’t have much time until Sawdust and the others came in looking for us. That wouldn’t be good for our cover. Never the less, my pulse tapped its tempo lightly against my temples while my footsteps rang out in correlation with Ironheart’s heavy hoofsteps and Whirlwind’s wing flaps. I found it a little bit strange that we hadn’t seen anyone near the core so far. I understood that the Silo heavily relied on mechanical security and defence to defend most of the complex, seeing as the building was far too large to be covered by standard personnel, but you would think that there would be more ponies the closer you got to the core than not. But then again, I bet that the anti-magic would have some unhealthy effects to guards who hang around here too often. It may be below in the darkness, but the radiation of the stuff could still probably reach up to the surface of the bridge. I didn’t think that we were in much danger of anti-magic corruption because we should only be here for no longer than 20 minutes. It would take hours and hours of standing on the bridge until we would feel the effect of the anti-magic.

At the entrance of the chamber, it felt like it would take forever to get to the other side. But the next time I blinked, we were at the doors of the core. We all stopped and looked up at it. The door was about 15 feet high and appeared to swing instead of slide, what with the rusty hinges latched to the outside surface of the core and all that. A large pipe wheel was placed on center, keeping the door closed shut. There were brown and dark yellow stains splattered all over the front of the metal entrance. I wondered if it was from some clumsy guard’s spilt coffee, oxidization or if the material was tainted from being so close to the anti-magic for so many years. That made me think for a bit. The silos had to be a few hundred years old, at least dating back to when New Canterlot was made! It had to power entire districts, so it must have been one of the first things made in the city. There were six Silos in all, one in each of the six districts. Well, except for downtown, but that didn’t technically count as a district and was built up over the years of occupying such a populated city. What’s powering these things? I know that the power for the city has to come somewhere, and it’s not like New Canterlot was built over a large encompassing river or something, so what was the energy that went through the core? Was it magical? Was it electrical? Was it heat, maybe? I know that whatever it is, it’s draining the planet of its power fast, but still, that could be anything.

I cautiously looked at it and raised my right arm to point forward, extending my magical senses towards it. The dead zone below us may have dulled my perception a little bit, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t check the door for any booby traps. It’s difficult to detect any physical traps with my senses, but if there was a ward placed over the entrance I would be able to find it right away. Not like there would be one, but I always had to double check even though we already got through the brunt of the security. There didn’t appear to be anything wrong with the door, and I couldn’t find any devices attached to either side of the wall, so I approached the giant metal slap and knocked my fist on the surface. It was definitely solid alright and made a dull clang with each hit. 

“Is it clear?” Ironheart asked behind me.

“Clear and clean as it’ll ever be.” I responded, grabbing hold of the wheel and pulling it counter-clockwise. It budged a little bit, groaning loudly as I forced it to move. After a few inches though, it halted and wouldn’t budge. I grunted and groaned, trying to get the damn thing to move while my comrades watched me struggle from behind. Damn it, this thing needs some oil!

I felt a tug on my leather coat. I already knew who it was. “No, don’t worry, I–hng, I got it. Just–nngh, just give me a few more seconds…”

She started tapping and poking one of my calves. “We don’t have time for this, goofoff. Get out of the way.”

I sighed, an admission of defeat and shuffled to the side with my head down. She didn’t even look at me, but I could feel the cold stare that Whirlwind was giving me when I backed up beside him. Ironheart stood up on her hind legs, pounded her front hooves together once and placed them on the wheel. With barely any effort at all, she turned the rest of the contraption with her brutish Earth Pony strength. I frowned as something clicked into place behind the door and the doorframe shuttered visibly. Ironheart began pulling and the 500-ton submitted to a proud linage of sheer iron muscle. The door was open before I knew it. Tiny lights inside were glowing in the dark, not bright enough to illuminate the entire room.

Ironheart moved from behind the door with a tiny smirk on her face. I tilted my hat downward while walking towards the newly opened entrance, holding in what grumbles I could.

“Figures that we would need to resort to classic, reliable Earth Pony power. It’s a good thing that I brought and supplied the big guns, don’t you think?” she boasted, trotting up beside me with her smug little face and light-as-air hoofsteps.

I grumbled something I didn’t even understand. She was enjoying herself way too much.

The three of us stepped over the foot-high doorframe and entered. Well, two of us really, because the one could already fly over the obstacle. It was too dark to see anything. I automatically felt the nearby wall for a light switch and was surprised when I actually found one and hip-height. I flipped it up and the ceiling shone brightness down on us, showing the room with a bright, fresh light source. My jaw didn’t drop exactly from what I saw, but I was definitely in awe at the sight before us.

In the direct center of the room was a gigantic, long and translucent pipe that has pure magical energy flowing through it. Multiple flashes of topaz, neon blue and bright green was channeling throughout the system with several other tinier pipes connect to the main one. They too had their own arcane trafficking system and the combined mass made own humongous fuel highway. This was untainted, untouched, virgin magic we’re talking about. The freshest stuff you can find. Pure magic is thick and heavy compared to what unicorns pump out of their horns. Their magic is diluted and thin because of what little pure magic their horns can produce at a time. A Unicorn’s horn is an organ that creates pure magic for the Unicorn to use. That’s another reason why Unicorns have so much more ability that humans, because they naturally create the substances needed for spellcasting, while humans have to train and condition their body over a period of months until their body finally starts creating their own source, and even then humans don’t create that much pure magic because they have no horns to store the liquid in. The Pure Magic ends up in their circulatory system, diluting in their blood and making spellcasting even harder to achieve. We can’t die from too much Pure Magic, but some wizards have found that they cannot actually produce enough without getting sick. So while tiny amounts of Pure Magic existed in within the shell of the magically inclined pony species, here were gallons and gallons of the stuff getting sucked up and down the tubes that fell before us. Pure magic doesn’t have a definite visual representation except that when you see it moving, it looks like a rainbow of colours flashing right before your eyes. Pure Magic that sits completely still has a silver tint in it and cannot allow light to pass through. I guess that answers my question. This is how the New-Age Government runs the entire city. They siphon Pure Magic from the planet and convert it into electricity and other arcane resources.

There was a two-foot gap where the floor ended around the pipes, but at the edge of the platform was a huge computer console. It was low to the ground so you could monitor the fluids traversing throughout the silo, but it stretched around the entire outer ring of the gap. It definitely looked as old as the city itself, with the metal painted a dark green and the keyboard being physical instead of touch-based. The monitors had a black background with green text in a square-ish font scrolling on the screen. There were no chairs around the computer, but they were perfectly at pony height so they could be easily operated by the top engineers of the workplace. Around the room were five other doors that connected to the five other walkways on the outside. They all had pipe wheels like ours did and had no consoles to electronically open them up. When I tilted my head down I realized that the floor was actually simply grating and you could see through forever. The pipes with the Pure magic extended for eternity into the darkness, but shockingly enough there was no dead zone beneath us. I couldn’t feel it anymore. It only existed in the pit outside the core.

“Wow.” Ironheart stated. I turned to see her gaze locked onto the cylinder of vibrant flashing lights near us. Whirlwind kept a careful eye on the controller console, a sour expression placed on his muzzle. I could only ponder if he knew about pure magic already, and the utmost harmony and destruction it could bring with it. I rotated my shoulders back to face our objective. I certainly brought enough C4 with me to explode the place and then some, but it didn’t look safe to try and lean over the gap to attach the bomb onto the pipes. Setting it on the computers would definitely do.

I strode forward, flipping the straps of my messenger bag up and undoing the belts that were drawn through my leather jacket. Whirlwind was already checking the outer rim of the ceiling, searching for cameras and other monitoring devices he could plug into and disable. Gizmo may have been the mechanic, but that didn’t me we had tools up our sleeves too to handle electronics. Ironheart was slowly making her way to the opposite side of the room, her head trained on the system of Pure Magic. As I was getting out the bomb, I took a quick glance at one of the terminals that the computers had. The screen had a bunch of technical mumbo-jumbo that I didn’t understand at all, but the very messages at the bottom had caught my eye. Unlike most of the text on the glass, the bottom sentences were in red.



!WARNING! Engine Track A overload! Please contact an administrator and technician for repair immediately! [ERROR 0A-67B: UNUSUAL CORE REACTION]
!WARNING! Main Core Battery Corrupted! Please contact an administrator and technician for repair immediately! [ERROR 0A-67B: UNUSUAL CORE REACTION]
!WARNING! Abnormal core reaction with unknown variable! Please contact an administrator and technician for repair immediately! [ERROR 0A-67B: UNUSUAL CORE REACTION]



I frowned. That couldn’t have been good. I mean, we were blowing this place to Tartarus anyways, so the condition of the pipes didn’t matter that much, but what caused the computer to create these warnings? I keep seeing the words “Unusual core reaction” and it just makes my spine shiver. What reacted with the core? If the core is the thing that’s pumping out the Pure Magic, that might make the Pure Magic not so pure anymore. Does that happen often? I definitely wished that we had a certain orange smarty pony in our squad to give us a better deduction of the situation.

I hefted up the paper bag of plastics in front of me and took a good long look at the front. The C4 was a rectangle of explosive power wrapped up comfortably in a brown paper space. It was about as wide as my torso and as thick as an Earth Pony’s back leg muscle. I certainly made sure that I brought enough ‘boom’ to level an entire Government building. The paper was thick enough to keep the C4 in where it needed to be so that it didn’t fall out of its packaging and exploding pre-emptively. There was a tiny electronic device attached to the bomb that had several red and yellow wires running to and from the dynamite. On the electronic was a small screen that was turned off with a red light, a red button and a number pad all sitting around each other on a ten-inch by 6-inch space. Using an explosive like this was simple enough to use, but only because I myself made the explosive. From scratch. Yes, Gizmo did help a bit, but only with the programming of the minicomputer to have a code lock mechanism so that only the person with the code could actually set the timer. The rest of it was all me. And I was the one with the bomb, and I was the one with the code.

I set the bomb on a flat surface on the computer that didn’t have a keyboard on it and pressed the red button on the detonator. It beeped once and the screen lit up to a bunch of xs where I had to input the right code. Get it right and the timer sets for 28 minutes. Get it wrong and it does nothing. I started putting the first four numbers in out of 12. Two-eight-nine-three. That was the year I was born. Then it was the address of my current residence. One-four-oh-nine. My index finger twitched and I thought that I punched in the numbers wrong. I felt as if I was seeing things. My nerves were getting to me, of course. The closer you get to the climax of the stage play, the more suspenseful the atmosphere gets. I re-checked the numbers in my head and then concluded that I got it right the first time through. Then, I finished the rest of the code and pressed the red button again. The button turned on to glow a resounding red and two quick beeps came from the device. From there, the bomb sounded off every second, but it was so quiet that you would have to lean your ear into the object to actually hear it.

“Bomb has been planted.” I muttered to myself as I lifted my hands off the charge.

“Is it set?” I heard Ironheart ask behind me. I turned around and saw her staring at me, fooling around with the crimson amulet around her neck.

I double-checked the box sitting on the computers. “Yep. Set and ticking. We have 28 minutes. Let’s get moving.”

She nodded. We both turned to the open door we entered through and Whirlwind decent from the ceiling. He took one glance behind me and knew why we were leaving. As I took the first step though, there was a rapid chorus of pings coming from the bomb. My face froze and I immediately turned around and rushed towards the bomb. When I checked it, it was functioning as normal and ticking down softly. But the beeping didn’t stop. When the bomb malfunctions, Gizmo told me that it would sound off three times in order to signal that it was broken, but after the seventh desperate beep, I realized in horror that the sounds weren’t coming from the bomb. I slowly rotate my head to the terminal beside the C4. On the black screen the text was rapidly scrolling downward. But it was all red text. The words moved so quick I could barely keep up to read what each line said.



!WARNING! Fatal Main Engine failure! Please contact the head technician and engineer immediately! [ERROR 0F-22A: CHANGE OF ELEMENT]
!WARNING! Main Engine Metal Gear failure! Please contact the head technician and engineer immediately! [ERROR 0F-22A: CHANGE OF ELEMENT]
!WARNING! Main Engine Track A malfunction! Please contact the head technician and engineer immediately! [ERROR 0F-22A: CHANGE OF ELEMENT]
!WARNING! Main Engine Track B malfunction! Please contact the head technician and engineer immediately! [ERROR 0F-22A: CHANGE OF ELEMENT]
!WARNING! Main Engine overheat! Please contact the head technician and engineer immediately! [ERROR 0F-22A: CHANGE OF ELEMENT]
CRITICAL ERROR: MG.PureBat ENCOUNTERED AN ERROR. THE THREAD WAS SHUTDOWN IN ORDER TO PREVENT FURTHER DAMAGE TO THE SYSTEM. 082-477S2
!WARNING! Main engine overload! Please contact the head technician and engineer immediately! [ERROR 0F-22A: CHANGE OF ELEMENT]
CRITICAL ERROR: MG.CtrlHrmny ENCOUNTERED AN ERROR. THE THREAD WAS SHUTDOWN IN ORDER TO PREVENT FURTHER DAMAGE TO THE SYSTEM. 082-477S2
CRITICAL ERROR: MG.Generosity (String MG.ConBat, MG.Console) ENCOUNTERED AN ERROR. THE THREAD WAS SHUTDOWN IN ORDER TO PREVENT FURTHER DAMAGE TO THE SYSTEM. 082-477S2



My heart leaped from my chest. The messages went on and on and the computer wouldn’t stop signaling the user. Then I realized that there was no one here that could handle this kind of problem. Whoever was on the staff team of the silo that managed the core was not here right now. I had to guess that the security team evacuated all the scientists and technicians once Holly started their assault on the left wing of the complex. They probably have no idea what’s going on right now, and even if they did I bet that they probably couldn’t get here on time to stop what was happening right now.

Suddenly, the grounds started shaking violently. I lost my footing fell to me knees while holding the bomb tight in my grip and trying to hug as close to the surface of the computer as I could. I heard Ironheart fall down behind me in a squeal of surprise. Only Whirlwind would not be affected as he was airborne, unless the vibrations in the air threw him off too. My suspicions were found correct when I heard the Pegasus slam into the wall to my left. I was deathly afraid of the bomb exploding early due to the shakiness of the room. The vibration could have way too easily knocked around the mechanical timer in the device. I grit my teeth and forced to keep my eyes open, aware and awake. The flow of Pure magic in the pipes seemed to accelerate to blinding speeds and I could hear the bolts that held the grating of the floor and place rattle, threatening to drop the ground on us in an instant.

“What’s happening?” Ironheart shouted.

“I don’t know!” I responded, keeping my position as best as I could. With every shake my fingers slipped off the package by an inch and every time I had to readjust I had to loosen my grip which made the bomb shake even more. My hands started sweating. If I held on to the paper outright then I might rip the packaging which would let the explosives out of the bag, and then we would be history. My knees were getting sore from banging against the cold hard steel flooring. I had to stabilize myself even further by grabbing the far edge of the computer console and trying my best to keep a grip on the smooth cornered surface. My jaw was clenched in concentration. We couldn’t move because if I left the bomb it might go off. I had no idea where the shaking was coming from. It seemed to emanate from the room itself. There was a deafening echo of a low tone coming from the depths below us, all creating from the quake we were experiencing. There seemed to be no end to it. Seconds passed and the shaking didn’t stop.

All in the while, the computer kept beeping and spitting out more error and critical failure messages.

If fate had her way at this rate, we wouldn’t need the bomb to destroy the core.

> Underline
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I held on for my life.

The bomb’s packaging was stuck to my sweaty fingertips, the moisture setting into the paper exterior. A quiet beeping sound ticked off from the explosive device at the rate of a slow heartbeat. The red light bulb near the top face numerical buttons blinked steadily once every two seconds and was so dim only under the veil of utter darkness someone would be able to see it. I hugged the C4 close to my chest as I tried to stabilize myself on the computer console I was leaning against, my knees shaking against the trebling steel grating beneath me. My other four fingers were hanging on to the cold metal edge of the computer’s large casing, the supercomputer freaking out in a flurry of red font error messages. I could hear the whole silo shaking, the foundations of the building crumbling underneath some incredible force, the core of the energy building we were in groaning in protest. I grit my teeth and breathed through my mouth while the computer’s endless symphony of tiny, rapid sound-offs increased my already speeding heart rate. My eyes kept glued to the computer monitor’s black background. Critical error. Critical error. The same error warning kept appearing, but no two messages were completely alike. The complex workings of pipes in front of me that stretched from ceiling to a hole in the floor seemed to pulse and bend under a sudden change of pressure. The highly unstable, dangerous, violate liquid magic that traveled within these enormous highways flowed even faster down the paths, pushed by something I couldn’t begin to wrap my head around.

Ironheart yelped as she was flung to the wall with a clang as the room rattled under an ugly wave of the quake. Whirlwind was having trouble stabilizing himself mid-air with all the vibrations in the air throwing off his instincts. I bet he could feel them, just didn’t understand what was going on and how to deal with it while airborne. I felt the grating underneath my knees threaten to break loose and let its payload fall to their doom into the black abyss of the dead zone beneath us, the toxic magic waves killing us before we would ever reach the bottom of the pit. I frantically scanned the edges of the room. There were six doors before us, one on each wall in the hexagon-shaped container, but we would never be able to get our hooves and feet beneath us to reach one of the exits before the floor gave out. I swallowed. There really wasn’t a spell I knew that could get us out of this situation. If Libra was here, she could teleport us out with her overpowered teleporting magic, but I had no idea how to cast teleport. I would probably end up only teleporting our top halves while our bottom halves flailed about in their original locations. I held my breath. That would not be a pretty end.

“We have to do something!” Ironheart shouted, getting to her hooves. The extra Earth Pony strength in her legs allowed her to stand up without the trouble my two legs were having. It didn’t help that she had twice the feet that I did to stabilize her balance.

I didn’t say anything. I had no idea what to do. Sawdust had the only Radiostone we had, so we couldn’t call for any backup. I briefly wondered how the rest of the squad was doing. Stars only know how much easier it would be to handle all the shaking underneath some solid concrete. Then again, with all this quaking it would be all too easy for one of these corridors to collapse on itself. I suddenly hoped that if anypony were to get out alive, it would be Sawdust and the others.

I tightened my grip on the edge of the console, shutting my eyes as if flinching for a blow to the face. Then, it all stopped.

All the shaking stopped.

Just like that. At the drop of a button.

I opened my eyes slowly. My vision was still shaking from all of the uncontrollable movement that I had done previously. I focused on the glass pipes that were strung in front of me, and the liquid magic had stopped rampantly gushing through the tunnels. The computer halted its cacophony of aged sound triggers, but the screen was still filled with red, blocky letters. The ambience of the core resumed and lightly hummed against the surfaces of the room, creating a somewhat soothing sensation despite all of the trial that happened moments ago. I let go of a breath that I didn’t realize I was holding and peered down at the bomb that was inches away from my face. It didn’t blow up yet, and the timer was still ticking down at a good rate. I began to wonder if the shaking stopped because the bomb had already blown up and I was just experiencing the period of death before I got sent to the afterlife. I checked behind me to see Ironheart still holding on to one of the bronze pipes against the wall, visibly shaken with deep, dark creases underneath her wide eyes. Whirlwind landed beside her putting a hoof over her shoulder but also examining around the room to make sure that he wasn’t simply seeing things. I swallowed, letting go of the package to push down on the metal computer case and get to my feet. I stumbled at the height of my stance but took a step back, shook my head and tried to get the room to stop spinning.

“What… happened?” Ironheart asked, finally letting go of the wall.

I didn’t look at her, instead trying to get my vision out of cross-eyed mode. “I don’t know. I guess the shaking stopped.”

She snorted. “Well thank you, captain obvious.”

I smirked. At least she was still in one piece enough to take pot shots at me.

“But the question is,” Whirlwind began, the back of his throat sounding scratchy. “What stopped the shaking?”

“And what caused it in the first place?” I muttered to myself. The silence in the room was almost deafening. Glances were exchanged and hooves were shuffled and suddenly I had a sinking feeling in my gut that was all too familiar. My sixth sense was going off like nuts and told me that more danger was coming, and fast. I looked up towards the ceiling, the harsh white lights baring down on us. We didn’t have much time, because from what I could tell, it was going to be a doozy. I mean, we needed to get out of the core and regroup with the rest of the squad anyways, but now there was a sense of urgency more than ever.

“We need to go.” I simply stated, taking long strides towards the door we entered through in the first place.

Ironheart read my face like a book and frowned. “Trouble with the bomb?”

“No, it’s not the bomb.” I said. I explained my sixth sense phenomena.  Whirlwind raised a skeptical eyebrow, but Iron still understood. She had already experienced my sixth sense before in a previous mission.

“How bad is it?” she asked.

“Oh, it’s bad.” I started turning the white painted wheel of the door as fast as I could. “Really, really bad.”

In the corner of my eye I could see Whirlwind look at Ironheart. She returned a concerned look and nodded. I finished turning the giant doorknob and pushed the six inch slab of metal open. My partners in crime weren’t too far behind me as I jogged out onto the open bridge. I stopped to examine the situation carefully before continuing. The bridge to my right was out, its platform ripped free from the arms that held it between the core and the rim. There was no sign of it below, only darkness in the never-ending hole below us. I was nervous as all Tartarus. The shaking in the building occurred for a reason, and I could only imagine what kind of force could make an entire energy silo quake from its roots to the very core itself. That kind of shaking was not a part of any plans the Valoran plotted out for us. Holly couldn’t have made an explosion big enough to actually rock the entire building. I’m actually surprised that it didn’t topple over onto the GENEROSITY district after that. But the fact is, something got it shaking and something stopped the shaking, and I did not want to hang out to find what did.

I got on the move again. I could hear my comrades’ hoofsteps behind me, then a flutter of wings as Whirlwind took to the air. I was at a pace a little bit higher than a jog, but the others could keep up with me easily. We had to get out of here. The sick feeling in my stomach kept getting deeper and deeper. There was no cover out in the open space on the bridge. It was wide, sure, but if there was something that jumped us from nowhere or if guards were to attack us from the other side at the rim of the core, the only thing between us would me the best barrier spell that I could conjure. As far as I could tell the door on the other side was closed shut still and hasn’t opened since we entered and Gizmo closed it on the other side, but I had no idea how they were faring. Sawdust’s warning echoed in my mind and I wondered how long we were in the core for. It couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes. I just hoped that I had set the bomb to a long enough time period for us to get out.

The heavy thumps of my footsteps rang out into the air, the sound passing through the bridge and making it clang from the other side. Each step I took only made me wearier to the point of paranoia. I checked behind my back, just in case something was chasing us and we didn’t know. I looked up. Maybe there was something hanging on the ceiling, waiting to drop down on us like a pack of Blood Spiders. Man, I hate those things. I hate spiders in general, and I would hate to get eaten by one just because I didn’t check up in the first place.

As soon as my right foot planted itself in its next step I slid to a halt, warning running of wildly in my head. I looked directly in front of me and my teammates stopped as well. There was nothing there, but something awful was telling me to watch out for that spot exactly.”

“Ignis, why are we –” Ironheart started saying. I didn’t give her a change to finish as I whipped out my wand and thrust it away from me.

“Alacritas!” I commanded. A lance of energy flowed through my arm and shot straight forward in the blink of an eye, the thread of lightning heading towards the nothingness before me. But just then, the sound of a large ripple of energy shot out and a dome appeared out of nowhere, its reflective surface shining against the light of the ceiling like a glass shield would. There was a miniature twister that swept through the area, occurring from the point where my magic was blocked. I held my Stetson in my left hand, my leather coat billowing from the gust. There was a wipe of white over the barrier and nine ponies appeared from the other side in three lines, all wearing Blueblood military equipment.

The back line was filled with unicorns that had red scanner goggles over their eyes. Their armour was a dark, harsh green that had light paneling along the flank and legs so that they could maneuver a bit easier than most soldiers. Their suits were enchanted in such a way that every single unicorn had a pearl white coat, horn and a mane that had strands switching between black and, you guessed it, more white. There were rectangular metal containers strapped to the armour where saddlebag would be placed on a normal citizen. My mind was scrambling trying to remember what Unicorn Elites would be carrying in those things. The second line consisted of four earth ponies, all in heavy armour with laser automatics holstered on their back. Their goggles were black and their fur a dark grey. I could see a gun muzzle on the wrist of each of their forehooves. That couldn’t be good. They were the heavy artillery in a sense, with the power to withhold many attack and shrug off magic like a swan would to water.

Standing in the front though, was a very familiar face. He was shielding his face from the wave of wind that appeared, but his wings fluttered in the breeze, wanting to get a taste of that rush of air. He wore light armour, like all the other Blueblood Pegasus Elites I’ve seen. However, his was a bit more customized. There was no padding around his hooves and an even bigger space void of protection around the base of his wings. A large holster for a knife was strapped onto his chest, the handle easily in reach for his teeth to grab at a moment’s notice without having to let his eyes off his target. His fur was jet black, his mane a combination of grey and gold, as were his eyes. When he put his hoof back down on the ground, his glare bore down on me like a pissed off Manticore that was out of patience and full on energy to kill.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. My jaw hung loose from the top of my mouth and I almost dropped my wand, the rod of wood sliding down my sweaty fingers until I clutched it at the last second.

“Ignis,” he stated. Taking a step forward. “I haven’t seen you in a while.

There was an impact on the bridge and I jumped to see four more ponies hop on from nowhere and surround us in a circle. They all bent low, ready to take flight again at a moment’s notice, or pounce at us with lighting speed and reflexes, bringing us down in a mere matter of moments. They had the lightest armour of them all, and their matching green wings and brown eyes made for an intimidating combination, especially if you knew what kind of position they were playing. All three types of elites were here outside the core just to deal with use three. I had no idea what happened to the outside defence Sawdust promised us, but whatever happened, I hope they got out alive. I was glad to know that we were so dearly loved.


“Underline?” I asked, my mind boggled. There were so many sudden variables that I had trouble keeping up with the situation.

“You know this guy?” Ironheart asked me from behind.

Underline smirked. “Yeah, he knows me. He knows me from a long, long time ago. How many years has it been since you left, since you ditched us? Four years? Five years? And now, when I finally find you, you’re playing on the opposite team?”

I felt Ironheart tap the back of my ankle with her back hoof. “What is he talking about, Ignis?”

My heart leaped up to my throat and my tongue tied into a knot.

“Oh?” He sounded, tilting his head slightly and lifting up a hoof. “They don’t know? You’re playing ball on their side and they don’t even know?”

I bared my teeth at him. “Shut up, Underline.”

He laughed, scoffed at my statement. “Wow, that is rich. That is truly, truly rich. Let me ask you a question, Ignis: How many lies did it take you to get through to the other side, huh? How many of them trust you, and how many of them are you going to let down when they learn who you truly are, huh?”

“I’m done with the Blueblood military, Underline!” I shouted, gripping my wand even tighter. “I’ve gotten past that already! The New-Age Government are scum and you know it!”

There was pain on his face, even though no blows had been traded yet. “But don’t you see? You’re on the wrong side! It doesn’t matter what the New-Age Government wants, you don’t want to get involved with these terrorists, do you? You don’t want to cause all the death and destruction that comes with the Valoran, do you? Have you seen what they are doing to the honesty district at the opposite side of the city? Do you really want to be a part of that? Is that really who you are, Ignis?”

“There’s a reason why I left in the first place, Underline. We weren’t doing any good for anypony. We just kept causing more chaos and mayhem and the cost peace, no, silence, was too high to actually be of any worth. We weren’t soldiers. We weren’t heroes, protecting the weak and helpless against the monsters that hunt in the dark. We were cowards, ponies who hid behind heavy armour and money so that they could protect their own dirty hide, ponies that barely lifted a hoof to protect anypony except themselves, ponies that shot down on the helpless because when they were frustrated that they couldn’t do their job, they took it out on an easy target. I didn’t want to be associated with that kind of junk. I wanted to fight back.”

“Do you know how many ponies miss you?” Underline asked, his tone almost begging. “Bright Light, Sliver and Bank Shot are all waiting for you back at base! We could be together again! The Omega squad, all as one, pounding down on those who dare risk the well-being of the city so that none may challenge us again! Remember who you are, Ignis, because there are others that still remember you!”

“You were a part of the Omega Squad?” Ironheat asked, incredulous. I didn’t blame her. The Omega squad was famous for being the most efficient, most disciplined, most deadly squad in the entire Blueblood military. They were the end all be all. If there was something that the New-Age Government wanted done, they would call upon the six that made up the Omega Squad and they made sure that the job was done with quick, cold precision. Countless assassination and assault operations had been made all under the credit of the Omega squad, all of which were successful. The body count racked up in the hundreds leaning towards the thousands by the time the Omega Squad was disbanded after their four-year long campaign. The Valoran were and up-and-coming rebel group at the time, barely pushing their fame to the levels of the Party Patriot and Lunar Rebellion, but even they feared the power that the Omega Squad could enact.

No one was safe from them. They got targets, they killed those targets. No questions were asked, no traces were left behind, and when everypony was asking where all of the mass genocides were coming from, instead of keeping their mouths shut the New-Age Government actually promoted the activity of the Omega Squad. They tried to convince ponies that they were doing good, that all the killing was actually a part of a large campaign by the Blueblood military to kill members and spies of the larger rebellion groups in New Canterlot. They supported the workings of the Omega Squad, but instead of feeling safe, the citizens of the city fell into a short age of fear and repression. No one was safe from the knife of the Omega Squad. The Blueblood military almost successfully destroyed the Valoran after a direct attack on their First Commander succeeded. The Valoran were left with no leader, and it was only by a miracle that they actually found a new one and was able to recover in short time after that.

That was when I left the Blueblood military. That was when I pulled off the blinds that were over my eyes and opened them to see the light. My redemption of all the terrible acts and deeds I did were at hand, and the first step was to quit the Blueblood military. Of course, the Blueblood military don’t allow ponies to leave before their term is up, but I ran. I ran away from my squad and the head base and I didn’t look back. Even when they sent several squads and machines after me, looking for me, hunting me down, I still didn’t look back. 

Because if I did I would have seen the faces of every single pony that I killed while on duty, and they would have been looking right back.

I held off a shiver. This wasn’t the time or place to be thinking about that. I led my team head first into a trap, and I was surprised that I wasn’t dead already. Underline could have killed me many times before this point. I guess he still felt sentimental about when I left. It had to be sudden. I didn’t tell anypony that I planned to leave, of course. Not even my squad mates, my closest friends at the time, would know about my true intentions. I bolted out of the place as fast as I could and left many wondering just how crazy I had become.

They didn’t see. They couldn’t see the blood-bathed faces of all the ponies that died by my own hand.

“But we’re still missing one, aren’t we?” I asked, talking about the old squad that Underline and I used to be in. “I mean, I haven’t heard that the Blueblood military has found a way to resurrect the dead, because I swear to the stars that Joybug has been dead ever since I left.”

It was his turn to become frustrated. “Don’t you dare talk to me about her! You don’t even know! You can’t even comprehend the pain I felt when I lost her, even after you left!”

I had aimed for a soft spot, and I hit right on target. Joybug was our medic, a cheerful and upbeat Pegasus pony with a blonde mane and a light blue coat that worked in the army because she wanted to help those in pain. She got placed into the Omega Squad after officials heard word of her outstanding work in the field. She didn’t want to work solely in a squad and instead wanted to help as many ponies as she could, but she really didn’t have a choice in the matter. Sad to say, she died during our last mission. Well, the last mission that I was involved in, anyways. I wasn’t a pretty sight, ditching one of my closest friends as we continued the mission. She bled out after getting gutted by a large magical spear, one that a Valoran commander had threw at us at the time. She took the shot for Underline, who was already in trouble when he got knocked out of the sky. The commander escaped and we had to give chase, but not looking back at her bleeding, dying form one my time to have its image engraved into my memory. I would never forget the sacrifice Joybug gave us that day, and neither would Underline.

I shook my head. “We all lost a little bit of ourselves that day, Underline. Bright Light lost her childlike demeanour, Bank Shot his cockiness, you your determination, and me…” I glanced to my right hand, which was holding my wand. “I lost my innocence.”

“Bull hockey!” Underline shouted, stomping the ground and huffing out of his nostrils. “It was a tough day for all of us, but that gave you no reason to just get up and quit like you did! What were you thinking? You had a nice, safe, warm place to live with a family that cared for you every single day. You had a good income of money, could buy anything that you wanted. You had everything that a pony in this city could dream for, and you gave it all up! Did you really think that the hole you left in our group would just get filled up by sand and dirt?”

I gulped, sweat matting my forehead and arms. It was true. I was nothing until the Blueblood military picked me up and let me work for them. I was just a sixteen-year-old nobody, living in an orphanage as the only human orphan in the entire building. No pony could would want a human being as their child. Humans are horrendous, dirty and filthy beings that walked on their two back legs with no balance and were skinny enough to be considered sickly. It was even worse that I had magical talent, for it was highly unnatural for a human to be seen with the abilities that I had. I was a freak, a monster of nature that should have never been born yet somehow survived by the skin of my teeth and found my way over to the orphanage. I was forever destined to be alone until the age of eighteen when the orphanage would finally have kicked me out to the streets of New Canterlot, with nothing to defend myself with except my broken will and sub-par magic skills. When I reached the age of thirteen and I heard that the Blueblood military were recruiting orphans that were of the age of sixteen, I couldn’t wait to sign up. I would get a free pass to freedom outside the building walls of my caretakers and I would be able to carve my own destiny as I saw fit. No one would handle my fate except me.

Back then, I did a lot of things that I’m not proud of. But at the same time, I was for once in my life happy about who I was. The Blueblood military thought it was a fantastic thing to get a human with magical abilities in their hooves. I was trained in the laws of Offensive Arcane Arts and how to handle guns and Blueblood class armour. I learned how to throw a fireball, how to hold a gun properly, how to summon a thunderbolt to strike at foes in an instant, how to aim down the sight properly, how to defend myself with a magical barrier. My magic skills were refined within the aspect of half a year, which was amazing in its own right and I was showered with praise, but the happiness I felt didn’t end there. Not only did I feel that I finally belonged somewhere and was useful to somepony, I met my first friends there. One by one, I befriended my fellow soldiers that I walked out to battle with on the many assaults across different planets in the seventh cosmos. I talked to them, laughed, grinned, traded tales of my experiences in the military and fought with them side my side. Eventually my superiors put my friend and I all together in one squad, but that made the experience even better. Now, I got to spend all the time I wanted with my friends, who would selflessly cover my back like I covered theirs. It was all of them plus I. It was the six of us who went through trial and tribulation to achieve success in and out of the battlefield. Whether it be in a siege mission or a highly organized assassination attempt, we were all in it together.

And that was why the Omega Squad was the most efficient squad in the history of the Blueblood military. Because together they made a family, a circle of six that no pony could break apart. No squad could understand the strength we put in ourselves together. All squad have some sort of connection one way or another, but we were special. We were like six peas in a pod, a hex of bright smiles around us in the darkness of the universe. We found magic. The magic of friendship.

But after one fateful day, I had a horrifying realization to me. We were using friendship for the wrong purpose.

I saw it on the day that I had my last mission with the Omega Squad. 

The day that I got my Harmonis, the tool that I use with all my power for the greater good. 

The day that Joybug died, and with it the rest of the team that made up the blunt of the Blueblood military.

I saw it reflected in the purple eyes of Valoran’s First Commander Twilight Dawn as I burned her to a smoldering pile of ash and singed flesh while her sister screamed out her name from the opposite side of the room, unable to help.

And after that day I vowed to make things right again.

“I’m done talking.” I stated, swinging up my wand arm and pointing it at Underline. “You’ve had your chance to spew all the bull hockey to need to get out, and I listened. But the fact is, I knew what I was leaving behind when I left. I knew what I was sacrificing, knew that I would never get to live in such great status, knew that I would never be able to face my friend with a straight face ever again. But I knew, and I made that choice, and I never looked back.”

His wide eyes were shaky and appeared to be losing their grip on the world. I took a step back and shrugged, which was such a disarming, uncaring gesture. “And you know what, Underline? I’m glad. I’m glad that I ditched the Blueblood military and all those star-forbidden soldiers and superiors that picked me up and shot me like I was their own personal shotgun. I’m glad that I lost the great home that I got and the left the ponies that cared about me. Because guess what? Now I am living, paying off my blood debt little by little, so I can free myself from the shackles of guilt one day while ponies like you are hiding behind their misery by smiting those below them. I am cleansing myself one step at a time, old friend, and I am enjoying every single moment of it.”

Underline bared his teeth, his face going far past postal. “Kill them! Fire at will!”

And all Tartarus broke loose.