> Fallout Equestria: Blowtorch & Corkscrew
>  by Lightning Sprint
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Introduction
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction

War. War never changes. The opposing sides may change but the concept of war remains the same. The magical land of Equestria is no stranger to War, the war between zebras and ponies raged on for a long and painful period of time, so much so that alliances needed to be formed. Even Queen Chrysalis and her changeling army set aside their past feuds with ponykind and joined up with the Equestrian armies. These alliances indeed helped to turn the tide of the war and gave the Equestrian armies more of a foothold in the conflict. Battles raged and the war drew on for longer and longer, neither side showing any signs of slowing down no matter how the battles were going.

That's when the megaspells fell and the land was consumed, destroyed by balefire and left as a husk by the horrors of the conflict. 

However, in varying locations across Equestria, Ponyville and Manehattan for example, the ministries orchestrated the creation of the Stables. Each Stable with its own job and its own way of running things systematically. One by one these Stables were created, many of them placed in similar locations to one another but each one was its own unique society.

Stable 54 was no exception. Each pony inside had their respective position, whether that was enforcing the law as security, keeping the Stable running in maintenance or the all important position of Overmare. Everyone within the Stable was entrusted to do their job right and to do it effectively. The inhabitants of Stable 54 were versatile in their fields and could even chip in for one another in different positions. The more positions that you were able to competently cover, the higher you were in the Overmare's good books. Ensuring that the Stable operated smoothly was everyone's top priority, for if even one job isn't complete then everything could fall out of place.

The situation regarding workers wasn't as dire as workers were allowed to have long times of breaks as well as more off days where working wasn't needed. However, when numbers in the stable began to drop, they needed to tighten up and ensure that each member of the Stable did their part and was knowledgeable in their main field of work as well as with others. It was important for all Stable residents to find a partner once at the right age and produce more young to add to the Stable's headcount. The decision was not forced on them but was highly recommended.

Each job in the Stable that anyone would have assigned to them would be encouraged to their children to take up. That way, parents could eventually leave the work to their children and let them aid the Stable in working at full capacity. This system has worked like clockwork and there have not been many disagreements on said system although the odd comment would be muttered between coworkers every now and then but the overall atmosphere around the Stable was a positive one. 

This atmosphere translated to how the ponies act around one another. Friendships are a welcomed sight and relationships and couples have blossomed as a result. This was normal in 54 as everyone got on with everyone and ensured that any issues or altercations were resolved quickly. Things were usually dealt with well in advance of anything serious but once in a blue moon, the Overmare would be contacted and would make her way to see to the matter personally. The Overmare was harsh but fair and above all she was respected. Her interactions with the inhabitants of the Stable were brief and straight to the point, but her words were what each individual needed to hear and all Overmares who followed after her adopted the same approach. Nobody in Stable 54 ever went against the Overmare as punishment for doing so was usually something long and tedious, such as mopping the floors or cleaning up the cafeteria with the janitorial workers. By doing this, it was made clear to the entire stable that rules were meant to be followed and instructions carried out at all times.

The first Overmare of Stable 54 set out specific rules for everyone in the Stable, that they must follow. These rules were passed on to her higher ups, who would then display them for the rest of the Stable.

Rule 1: All workers must complete their scheduled jobs for the day before finishing their shift. 

Rule 2: The section leaders must be reported to with any concerns before the Overmare can be contacted. 

Rule 3: The Stable door must remain sealed unless there are appropriate circumstances.

Rule 4: All workers must complete all training before they commence work in the Stable.

Rule 5: The Overmare's word is Final.

Failure to follow these 5 rules is subject to more intense punishments, such as being placed into confinement for a day and in turn needing someone to cover for them in their position of work. As a result, residents stuck to the rules and ensured to always work how they were required to by the Overmare's Laws.

Each area of the Stable have their own goals to reach and tasks to have completed under the watch of the Overmare and it is imperative that they meet them.

Down in the lower regions of the Stable, past the cafeteria and security stations. Below the medical wing and past the personal quarters, the maintenance halls and reactor chambers are located. The work day would usually begin with the blare of an alarm clock. With four walls surrounding a bed, the sleeping stallion laying upon it would soon have his slumber disturbed and his work day would begin. 

This is Gearshift's way of life and is all he knows. The earth pony would always ensure to set the alarm at the correct time so that he could be up and awake well before his work day would begin so that he would have ample time to get himself washed, dressed and readily equipped for any busy day of work and whatever would be thrown at him.

What could go wrong?


Fallout Equestria: Blowtorch and Corkscrew

> Chapter 1: Call to Action
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In room 5 of the maintenance level personal quarters, all was quiet. However, it wouldn't last long as the sound of a blaring alarm clock broke the silence. A groan of slight annoyance followed as Gearshift opened his eyes, picking his head up from the pillow it had rested on for the duration of the previous night's sleep. Dragging himself out from underneath the bedsheets, he pulled himself to his hooves on the metallic floor of the room and promptly made the bed, ensuring to make everything smooth and presentable. After doing so, he turned and switched off the alarm and the clock fell as silent as the room had been before it began to ring. With an exhale, Gearshift turned to look at himself in the mirror. 

"Looking good Gear, looking real good." he said aloud, chuckling softly as he ran a hoof through his deep brown mane. "Maintenance's finest." 

Glancing below the mirror, Gearshift saw and picked up a small brush. The strap on the back of the brush allowed him to slip his hoof in and brush his mane with ease. After a couple of minutes of brushing and adjusting, he was almost ready. All that remained was his stable barding, which was in the spot he always kept it - Hung up in the wardrobe opposite his bed. Pulling open the door with a soft tug, the door squeaking quietly as it opened, Gearshift reached in and pulled out the hangar inside along with the uniform it held up. The dark blue Stable barding, accompanied with yellow markings and writing as well as the recognisable yellow number 54 on the back and on the collar, a similar shade of yellow to Gearshift's fur, was given to all Stable residents when they were young and they would be given a new set once they had grown out of their old set.

"Yellow really pops on here, huh?" Gearshift muttered to himself as he pulled the barding over his head, putting his front legs through the sleeve holes. Popping his head out through the neck hole and adjusting his collar, he took one more look at himself in the mirror and smiled at his reflection. With everything in order, he walked towards the door to his room. The door quietly hissed and slid open, moving upwards into the frame, allowing him to exit and coming back down again behind him once he had passed through it. It was time to head to work.

The walk was a quiet one, nopony being down in maintenance apart from those who worked down there, although Gearshift's attention was fully on his PipBuck as he gazed upon the small illuminated screen on the device. Checking  the various panels as he walked, he found himself distracted and had to instinctively put out his hoof to stop himself from walking into the wall at the far end of the hallway. Turning, he moved down the PipBuck out of his line of sight and looked in the direction of the Maintenance office, where any other maintenance workers, if any were awake, would be to be distributed in order to work their shifts. Continuing walking, he headed towards the office where his ears twitched at the sound of voices inside. Two male voices. 

Stepping towards the open door, Gearshift raised a hoof and knocked, getting the attention of the two stallions inside.

"Gearshift!" The first stallion, a baige coated earth pony with a dark brown mane, said with a smile as they made eye contact.

"We were just talking about you." The second, a silver coated unicorn with a black mane and tail, said with an equally pleasant smile.

"Oh really?" Gearshift asked the unicorn. "Dad been telling you the maintenance stories of old?"

The baige stallion chuckled and pulled Gearshift in close. "Nothing wrong with a good story, is there?"

"Not at all, mister Tool Box sir." The unicorn answered, only getting a sigh and then a chuckle from Gearshift in response.

"You see? Steel Tip appreciates my tales." Tool Box said with a wide and proud grin.

Gearshift smirked at his father with a shake of his head, another chuckle slithering out through his lips and out into the air. Looking around the office he found a box of ear pieces and picked one of them up, plugging the wire end into his PipBuck and placing the ear piece in his ear.

"So what's our jobs today? Reactor work? Leaking floors? Repairs?" Gearshift asked, still adjusting the ear piece as he spoke.

"The two of us will be working down here." Tool Box answered, gesturing to himself and to Steel Tip. "You're going to be up in security today." 

The answer made Gearshift stop what he was doing and turn to face his father, a look of bemusement on his face. He pulled out the ear piece to double check if he heard the answer correctly. 

"Security?" He asked. "How come I'm going up there?"

"One of their regulars is feeling under the weather so they need someone to cover for her." Tool Box informed.

"Let me guess, Candy Cane not feel like working again today?" Gearshift asked in a snarky tone of voice. 

"Not the case this time. It's actually Buttercream who's not feeling too great." Steel Tip answered, leaving Gearshift surprised once again.

"Buttercream? Wow, she's never had a sick day. Not that I can remember at least." Gearshift said.

"Well now she is, so they need someone to cover for her. With the fact that there are three of us down here, we can spare a pair of hooves to help them out." Tool Box said.

"Alright, I'll head up there now. Make sure to radio if you need me back down here." Gearshift said, before his gaze fell on Steel Tip and a smug look revealed itself. "That means remember to turn the radio on, kay bud?" 

"Very funny, smartass." Steel Tip said, playfully punching Gearshift in the shoulder, the two chuckling softly.

"We'll be sure to let you know if anything happens or we need you back down here." Tool Box said.

With a nod of his head, Gearshift said his goodbyes and got on his way, heading back out through the open office door and back out into the hallway. His next destination was the security office, where he would get his instructions on what his cover shift would entail. Exiting the office and turning left, he continued down the corridor towards the stairwell at the far end. Glancing back towards the maintenance office, a smile crept onto his face once again as he briefly allowed his thoughts to take over. He always enjoyed the early morning chats with the other workers as it got him into the right frame of mind which allowed him to work with very little distractions or lapses in concentration. Remembering back to his first day in maintenance, starting on the same day as Steel Tip, he got the hang of tightening screws and adjusting panels quite easily and very quickly became one of the more reliable members of the team the older he got. His train of thought was interrupted as a sign above the door to the stairwell came into his line of sight:


Stairwell


Please use stairwell with care. Running may cause injuries.


The writing on the sign was accompanied by two small silhouetted images of ponies, both of earth ponies, one in the pose of walking with a green check mark beside it and the other of the earth pony in full gallop, accompanied by a red cross beside it. Ascending the stairs, his hooves getting a small clank on each of the metal stairs, Gearshift started to think of the last time he had worked security. 

"I wonder if Candy will be there anyway." He wondered out loud, turning at the half way point of the stairs in their zigzag style. 

Security was the only other position that Gearshift had worked in his time in the stable. He had only had to do it for covering as maintenance was his main place of work, his duo of cogs for a cutiemark a testament to that. He was capable of working the position and had been able to cover many areas of the Stable, much to his enjoyment.

Getting to the top of the staircase, another  hallway presented itself. Gearshift turned right and continued on, coming across many more ponies on this floor who had begun their own mornings and were heading to work stations. A few of them acknowledged him with either a wave or a "hello" of some variety, to which Gearshift happily reciprocated. The smile had returned to his face as he continued down the hall and showed no sign of going anywhere. It didn't take him long to get to the security office after passing into the next hallway and approaching a black metallic door, bringing up his hoof to knock on it. A few brief moments of silence followed before the door was pulled open to reveal a unicorn mare in security barding, her white fur and stripey red and white mane a contrast to the dark blue fabric of her uniform.

"Gearshift!" The mare said with a welcoming and relieved smile. "Thank the Overmare you're here."

"Hey Candy, I came as quick as I could." Gearshift responded before she wrapped her hooves around him in a grateful hug. "Take me out to dinner first, doll." he added with a Manehattan style accent.

Candy Cane stepped back and kept her smile, letting out a soft giggle. "Come on in, I'll get you filled in."

As she turned and walked into the office, Gearshift followed after her and closed the door behind him. The security office was larger than the office down in maintenance and for good reason. On the wall opposite the door were 9 screens, each one showing a different area of the Stable thanks to a camera's video feed.

Camera 1 was monitoring the entrance hallway to the Stable and the main door, where a pair of earth pony guards were stood talking with one another.

Camera 2 was panning through the cafeteria area where many of the residents were getting their breakfast and chatting amongst themselves.

Camera 3 was monitoring the hallway that lead to the office Gearshift had been standing in moments ago.

Camera 4 was filming at the top of the main stairwell at the far side of that hallway, looking down at it as residents went to and from their jobs.

Camera 5's view stretched across the maintenance hallway, a brief glimpse of the office visible in the corner of the screen which became more visible when the camera panned.

Camera 6 was watching the personal quarters entrance, the occasional sleepy eyed pony walked out to start their day of working or walked in after a long night shift.

Camera 7 was locked in position. The Overmare's corridor. The camera was on the ceiling above the hallway that lead to the Overmare's office. The corridor was quiet, barely any life to it but at the end of it, in her office, she was there. 

Camera 8 was in the storage area in the lower levels. The supplies that aided in keeping the residents alive; food, water and clothing were all visible. 

Camera 9, displayed on the final and largest screen, was watching the reactor room of the Stable. Two large contraptions connected to one other by pipes, cables and a small vat along the side of both of them. Hunched over beside the left reactor, Gearshift could make out the shape of his father working away and keeping everything in shape. 

"Working hard isn't he?" Candy Cane asked, looking over her shoulder at Gearshift with a smile.

"He never stops. I don't think I've ever seen him take a day off." Gearshift answered, a soft smile on his face.

"I see where you get it from." Candy muttered. "Anyway, let's get to it. We've already got the rest of the security out doing their rounds. Your route will be to go through the garden and up to the cafeteria and back round the main stairwell once again then back here."

With an affirmative nod, Gearshift stepped towards a silver locker resting against the wall. Putting in the code 7-9-5-1-6, he pulled open the locker up. Inside was a black retractable baton along with a black protective vest that went over his stable barding. As he put on the vest on, Candy Cane illuminated her horn, a light blue aura surrounding it. The baton floated out of the locker and gently tapped the top of Gearshift's head, making him turn to look at her.

"You're under arrest, sir." she said, smirking at him.

"I'm innocent officer." Gearshift said. 

"That's what they all say, now get going." Candy said, spinning the baton and giving Gearshift a quick slap on the rump with it, which in turn made him whinny in surprise.

"Gimme that!" Gearshift said, swiping the baton out of Candy's grip with his hoof and clipping it to his belt. 

"Whilst your on your rounds, could you see if Fresh is in the garden? I've not seen him on the cameras for a little bit and he's probably gotten talking with Tulip again."

"You got it." Gearshift nodded his head. 

"Have a good shift." Candy said before turning back to catch him as he stepped out of the door. "Hey! Thanks for helping us out today." 

"Don't mention it, CC." Gearshift said with a smile before heading off down the hallway in the direction of the main stairwell.

The walk over towards the garden was brief. A walk down the hallway before walking up a floor and to the far end of the following hallway brought him to a sign pointing him in the right direction. Taking the directions, he walked around the corner to a large green set of double doors. Putting a hoof on the right door, he pushed on it and the door gradually moved open. Stepping through, he looked around at the various growing fruits, vegetables and plant life. The garden was more of an indoor greenhouse, accompanied with heat lamps and a sprinkler system to ensure all the produce  was properly kept and looked after. Walking past the vegetable section, he briefly examined them and licked his lips as he walked by.

"Don't even think about it." A voice said from close by, getting his attention.

Looking in the direction of the voice, he soon found its owner. A purple coated unicorn mare with a light pink mane trotted over. The two of them locked eyes and smiled at one another. 

"Lavender Blossom? Didn't expect to see you down here." Gearshift said, looking at the plants near to the mare as she walked by them.

"So my job as a florist and gardener flew over your head did it?" Lavender Blossom asked. 

"Not at all, just surprised to see you away from Snowball for more than thirty seconds." Gearshift said. 

"She's working in the cafeteria, mister I can work multiple jobs." Lavender said with a gentle shove, which earned her one in return.

"You seen Fresh Canvas anywhere? He's apparently got caught up chatting with Tulip again."

A simple point of a hoof from Lavender Blossom directed Gearshift's attention to the other end of the room and gave him his answer. Sitting on the floor beside the flowerbeds was the unicorn that Gearshift had been looking for, who wasn't currently sitting alone. 

"Fresh Canvas, stop right where you are and reach for the sky." Gearshift said, putting on his security voice as he walked over.

"I'm sorry sir, I was just leaving!" The stallion exclaimed, bolting upright from his conversation and putting his front hooves in the air. 

"Now turn around, slowly." Gearshift said, keeping the voice of an officer.

Fresh Canvas slowly turned around and made eye contact with Gearshift. If his coat wasn't already red, his blush would've been more visible. 

"Gear! Don't freak me out like that!" He exclaimed, putting down his hooves and scowling at the stallion across from him. 

"Candy told me to come and find you, she said you'd be in here chatting with Tulip again. You weren't flirting just now were you?" Gearshift said with a cheeky grin. 

"Mind your own business, nosey." 

"I'm just curious, that's all." 

"Don't hate me cause you ain't me." 

The two of them stood their in silence before chuckling and bringing up a hoof for a hoofbump.

"U-Um. Excuse me?" A mare's voice came from behind Fresh Canvas, making the two stallions turn to look in her direction as Lavender Blossom walked over to join them. The mare stood up and smiled apologetically at the group, dusting off her cream coat as she did so and running a hoof through the fringe of her white mane, the tips a light pink which matched her eyes. 

"Sorry to disturb you, Tulip, just coming to grab Fresh here to continue his rounds." Gearshift said.

"No no, I kept him from going. I was enjoying our talk ever so much and lost track of time. I'm really sorry." Tulip responded, bowing her head in apology.

"You don't have to apologise." Fresh Canvas said, placing a hoof on her shoulder. His attention soon turned to Gearshift and the look on his face showed he knew what was coming next. 

"Time for us to head out, bud." Gearshift said.

With a nod of his head, Fresh Canvas turned to face him. "Alright, let's go."

The stallions said their goodbyes and made their way back towards the doors to the garden, Fresh Canvas and Tulip waving to one another until the former was out of sight and the two stallions were back in the hallway once again.

"So? How long you both been a thing?" Gearshift teased.

"Oh shut up, we're not a thing!" Fresh exclaimed as the two walked.

Their next stop on their rounds was the Cafeteria. They continued walking down the hallway and in the direction of the cafeteria. Their conversation went from talking about Tulip to the garden and then onto the topic of the Stable itself. Their friendship was an interesting one as they had met before during their classes but they didn't begin talking to one another until both had gotten their cutiemarks and started to get into the working life of the Stable. They had worked on security before together on multiple occasions and once had to deal with a situation between some youngster who were bickering with one another but that was all. Gearshift usually thought back to this moment whenever on shift with Fresh as it was the moment that made their friendship grow into what it was now. 

Approaching another stairwell, the two of them headed up in the direction of the Cafeteria. Simultaneously, the sounds of voices could be heard getting louder the higher up the stairs they got. Upon reaching the top, the voices increased in volume even more so. Down the hallway ahead of them, several ponies were going in and out of the entrance to the cafeteria although more were coming out than were going in. The two security stallions walked towards the entrance, stopping just before it and looking in. Long tables lined the room, with multiple chatting ponies sitting at each one. At the far end of the room, a line was formed which ponies waiting to get some food and on the other side of the counter a stallion was taking orders from the first pony in line.

"Think Snowball is back there?" Gearshift asked.

"What's it to ya?" Fresh Canvas asked, nudging him. 

"I'm just curious." Gearshift answered. 

"Oh yeah? Not funny the other way is it?" 

"Touché."

Fresh Canvas lead the way into the cafeteria before Gearshift followed, the pair looking around as they walked. Gearshift turned his attention back towards the counter and caught a glimpse of a white coated earth pony mare who was helping out.

"Snowball?" He asked aloud before waving a hoof. "Hey Snow!" 

Snowball poked her head up and looked in his direction. "Gear!" She said with a smile, waving to him.

"I'll catch up with you later." Gearshift said, gesturing to the security vest he had on. "On duty."

Snowball nodded her head and waved to him once more before getting back to work.

Gearshift turned away back towards Fresh Canvas, who was chatting with a couple of colts and fillies who were all to happy to meet the security stallions. Walking over to join them, he smiled at the group and adopted a relaxed but composed attitude.


◇◇◇◇◇


After a short while of staying in the cafeteria, it was time to move on. Gearshift walked to Fresh Canvas, nudging him softly and nodding in the direction of the main entrance.

"Time to go?" Fresh Canvas asked. 

"Yeah, come on." Gearshift nodded, nudging him.

Gearshift lead the way back out into the hallway, turning in the direction of the stairwell they came from earlier. Travelling back down the stairwell, the two engaged in small talk once more, bantering with one another before coming  through the next hallway and to the main central stairwell. Gearshift glanced up at the camera and gave a brief salute, assuming that Candy Cane had been watching through the cameras. Looking back over his shoulder towards Fresh Canvas, about to ask a question when a sharp crackle of static assaulted his ears, making him flinch. The earpiece connected to his PipBuck sprung to life and a voice came through on the other side. 

"Gearshift. Are you there? This is Candy Cane. Are you close to the office?" She asked. 

"Yeah, I'm here. We're a short walk away, just coming down the stairwell now." Gearshift answered.

"Alright, could you get to the office quickly please?"

"On the way. Out." 

Gearshift and Fresh Canvas shared a nod before picking up the pace with their walk to get to the security office. If something was being radioed about then it had to be important. Scenarios began to race through Gearshift's mind of what could be going on.  Someone in trouble? A fight need breaking up? The Overmare is coming? What could it be? The thoughts continued to plague his mind, his head beginning to spin from all the possible outcomes, some much so that he didn't even register the fact Fresh Canvas was trying to get his attention. 

"H-Huh? What?" he asked, shaking his head to regain his composure. 

"I said are you feeling alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." Fresh Canvas repeated.

"Oh, y-yeah. I'm fine, Fresh. You have any ideas what it could be we're needed for?" Gearshift deflected. 

Fresh Canvas only shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me, but I'm sure we'll find out when we get there."

The answers would not take long to come as soon enough they arrived back at the security office and stepped inside. Candy Cane was moving between screens, checking the cameras.

"What's going on?" Fresh Canvas asked, looking at the frantically moving mare. 

"Camera 9 isn't responding and I'm getting nothing from maintenance!" Candy Cane exclaimed, her eyes meeting Gearshift's.

The words rang in Gearshift's head like a blaring alarm, the world briefly going still. Worry and concern washed over his face and the feeling of unease dropped to his stomach, giving him a nauseous sensation. Images of his father in the reactor room with all sorts of gruesome details flooded his mind; blown to pieces, trapped in the reactor room with a fire raging, crushed by the metallic structure. Each one equally as horrific. The more he thought about it, the sicker he felt. 

"We've gotta get down there." Gearshift said.

"What are we waiting for?" Fresh Canvas asked, turning towards the door. 

"Fresh. Gear." Candy Cane said, both stallions turning to look at her. "Be careful down there."

"We will." Gearshift said, Fresh Canvas nodding in agreement.

"Keep me posted!" Candy called to them as they left. 

"Will do!" Fresh called back.

As they bolted from the room, Gearshift broke into a gallop down the hallway, leaving Fresh Canvas a few feet behind before he could react. 

"Hey! Gearshift, wait up!" Fresh called as he rushed off. 

Gearshift didn't hear him, too focused on getting to maintenance and more importantly his father. He reached the end up the hall and rushed down the stairs, jumping from half way down and landing in a roll to cushion the impact. His baton clattered against the ground but remained attached to his belt as he scrambled to his hooves and got back to galloping through the maintenance corridors. Turning the corner, Gearshift saw the doors that lead to the reactor staircase. He was almost there. Continuing on as fast as his legs would carry him, he crashed through the door and hit the wall before running down the stairs and to the reactor room. On the other side of the door, at the bottom of the stairs, was a very stressed out looking Steel Tip, who was trying to get the main doors to the reactor room open. 

"Steel! What's going on?!" Gearshift exclaimed. 

Steel Tip turned to look at him, panic covering his face. "Gearshift! It's the reactor, there's something wrong with it!"

"Something wrong with it? What are you talking about?!" Gearshift asked in confusion. 

"I don't know but your dad's in there with some of the other technicians and the doors won't open!" Steel Tip answered. 

The words hit Gearshift like a freight train.  He immediately turned to the door and got to work in helping Steel Tip pull on the door, pulling like his life depended on it. He wouldn't lose his father to this, he just couldn't. As the two continued to pull on the doors, something changed. The lights in the room all changed to an ominous shade of red, which only increased Gearshift's level of panic.

"Why won't this damn door open?!" Gearshift growled, pulling harder, threatening to pull the door off its hinges if he had to. 

"You won't get it open pulling it like that." A mare's voice said from the staircase Gearshift had just ran down. 

Turning to look at who had spoken, Gearshift went wide eyed at the sight of her. The Overmare. She was standing at the entrance to the small hallway they were standing in with a half concerned half disapproving look on her face, Fresh Canvas standing behind her and peeking into the hallway. 

"O-Overmare?" Gearshift asked before saluting her, Steel Tip doing the same.

"The reactor room has become hazardous and the Stable has initiated the lockdown protocols." The Overmare answered, looking at the two stallions and then noticing the earpiece in Gearshift's ear.

"What do we do, ma'am?" Gearshift asked. 

"Your radio, use it to get in contact with those inside."

"Oh yeah, that's right. Of course ma'am." With a nod, he placed a hoof on the earpiece. "Dad? Dad, can you hear me?!" 

Static crackled back in response. 

"Dad? Dad!" Gearshift called out again.

"Gear-*crackle*. The reactor needs *crackle* fusion core." Tool Box's voice came through. 

"A fusion core? Where am I supposed to find one of those?" Gearshift asked, looking at Steel Tip who shrugged, equally as confused. 

The Overmare's ears perked up upon hearing the question. "A fusion core? The only place to find one of those is TRL." 

"TRL?" Gearshift asked. 

"Trottingham Research Laboratories." The Overmare answered, moving a strand of her cyan mane out of her face.

"Wait.... Laboratories? You mean outside?!" Steel Tip exclaimed.

The Overmare nodded her head solemnly.

As Steel Tip and the Overmare got to talking with one another, Gearshift's radio crackled to life in a burst of static. 

"Gearshift- *crackle* I can stabilise- *crackle* for now. But I need *crackle* core!" Tool Box called. 

"Don't worry dad! I'll get that core!" Gearshift exclaimed. "I promise!"

"Ge-*crackle*... I lo*crackle*ve you, son." Tool Box said.

"I love you too, Dad." Gearshift replied, his voice wavering slightly.

The Overmare took a step towards Gearshift, placing a hoof on his shoulder. Gearshift looked at her, their eyes meeting and then both nodding.

"Overmare.... I request permission to exit the Stable. For the safety of my fellow ponies and for the future of Stable 54." Gearshift said, composing himself.

"Like hell you're doing this alone!" Steel Tip chimed in, stepping forward.

"Steel's right. We're in this together." Fresh Canvas said.

"Steel, Fresh, I can't ask you to do this." Gearshift declined, looking between them both as Fresh Canvas walked over. 

"Who knows what's out there?! We would need a small team before we even thought about going outside." Steel Tip protested.

"The three of us aren't good enough?" Fresh Canvas asked. 

"We'd be good enough with more of us." Steel Tip answered.

"He does make a valid argument." The Overmare said, Gearshift looking back towards her.

A century of silence stretched between the four, only stopping when Gearshift's eyes met the Overmare's once again. 

"What are your orders, ma'am?" He asked.

"The three of you will assemble a team and venture beyond the threshold of the Stable, towards the Trottingham Research Laboratories and retrieve a fusion core in order to repair the Stable reactor." The Overmare instructed. 

Gearshift, Steel Tip and Fresh Canvas stepped to attention and saluted her, receiving a salute of their own. 

"We won't let you down, ma'am." Gearshift said. 

"You can count on it." Steel Tip added.

"We will succeed." Fresh Canvas said.

"Do you know who you will select?" The Overmare asked.

The three stallions looked at one another, smirks growing on their faces. 

"We know a few." Steel Tip said. 


◇◇◇◇◇


"Outside?!" Tulip exclaimed, almost dropping her gardening tools.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Lavender Blossom asked.

"This is not a joke. The Overmare has given us specific orders to leave the Stable and go to Trottingham Research Laboratories to gather a fusion core for the reactor. Dad said he can stabilise the reactor for now but we have to find that core." Gearshift answered, gesturing in the direction of the garden's entrance and in turn the hallway he was in earlier. "I trust you guys with this and wouldn't be coming to you if I didn't want you with us."

"Th-This is big." Tulip said, trying to process what they were being told. 

"Is it just the three of us?" Lavender Blossom asked, to which Gearshift shook his head. 

"Steel and Fresh are grabbing a couple more of us who we believe are the right choice." he answered. 

Tulip looked more comfortable with hearing this, a gentle sigh of relief escaping her. 

Lavender Blossom looked down at the floor in thought, pacing back and forth for a few moments. 

Gearshift looked between the two mares, thoughts of his own flowing through his head. I hope everyone agrees to it. The situation and hoof needed everyone to be on board, time of the essence.

"Can I count on you, ladies?" he asked. 

A deafening silence followed as the two mares looked at one another, as if talking psychically. Gearshift held in a breath as they pondered the question, however, it didn't take them long to come to an answer. 

"We're in." Lavender Blossom said. 

"Oh thank the Overmare." Gearshift exhaled, almost doubling over.

Tulip softly giggled and nodded her head. "You came to us, it's only right that we help you."

"Okay, the sooner we get going the better. Make sure to take only the bare essentials with you." Gearshift explained, turning towards the door. 

"Where should we meet up once we're ready?" Lavender Blossom asked. 

"Meet by the Stable door, once we're all there then we can head out." Gearshift answered. 

All in agreement, Gearshift went on his way. He headed to his room, passing by other ponies who were completely unaware of what was going on in the reactor room. Making sure they succeeded was Gearshift's main priority but for now he had to gather the essentials. Stepping through the door to his room, which slid closed behind him, Gearshift walked over to his bed and reached down below it, pulling out a set of grey saddlebags. Dusting them off with a hoof, uncovering the number 54 on one of the pouches, he placed the bags on the bed and went to work grabbing what he needed.

Water

Extra set of stable barding

Small box of carrots

Screwdriver

"That should be everything." Gearshift said to himself as he pulled on the saddlebags, adjusting the strap and pulling it tight against his sides, making sure not to get it caught against his stable barding and the baton still attached to his belt. Stepping out of the doorway, he headed in the direction of the entrance to the Stable. Ascending the main staircase, he headed back the way he'd come in the direction of the cafeteria. Coming up the next staircase and passing the cafeteria, Gearshift glanced inside and scanned the room. There weren't as many ponies there as there were earlier as many were now working. Continuing on down the hallway, Gearshift checked his PipBuck and went over everything he had to make sure he was all set. The quiet hum of the Stable lights kept him company in the hallway until the sound of hoofsteps trotting up behind him gradually got louder.

"Hey Gearshift!" A voice called, making him look over his shoulder. Upon doing so, he was greeted with the face of someone he'd spoken to earlier that day. 

"Hey Snow." Gearshift said. "All prepped?"

"Sure am." Snowball answered with a nod.  "Fresh filled me in about everything. Are we really going outside the Stable?"

"We are. We have to. The Overmare herself has entrusted us with this mission and I'm not going to be the one to let her down." Gearshift said. 

"We won't let her down, Gearshift." Snowball said, smiling at him. 

The two continued on their walk, eyes forward and set on their destination. In the distance, the entrance chamber was just visible and Gearshift could just make out the shapes of a group of ponies standing together. Upping their walking speed to a trot, it didn't take them too long to join up with the others in the entrance chamber, the others all looking at them with their own bags packed. They were ready.

"Is this everyone?" Candy Cane asked, looking at the group. 

"This should be it." Gearshift answered, looking at the group. Each of them was chosen to take part in this mission and he was pleased with his decision. 

Fresh Canvas
Steel Tip 
Candy Cane 
Snowball
Lavender Blossom 
Tulip
And Gearshift himself.

"Are you all prepared?" The Overmare's voice said from behind the group. Turning to look, the Overmare would be standing there with two earth pony guards, one on either side of her. 

"Yes ma'am." Gearshift said with a salute, the rest of the group following suit.

"I'm putting my faith in the seven of you, for the sake of our home. I wish you all good health and good luck." The Overmare said, turning to the stallion to her right. "Captain, please open the Stable door." 

"Yes ma'am." The stallion said, stepping over to the control panel and pressing a couple of buttons before pulling a small black switch. 

A hiss of steam came from the large steel door as an amber light began to flash and a soft siren began playing, making the group turn towards the door. The group shook themselves off, limbering up for whatever would lie beyond the door. The mechanism of the door was pulled out from the wall and slotted into the hole in the door, gripping on tightly. The large steel door was pulled, rolling to the side and the darkness on the other side of the door hitting the group like a battering ram. The wall of darkness only slightly illuminated by the lights of the inside of Stable 54.

"Ready guys?" Lavender Blossom asked, looking down the line. 

All eyes fell on Gearshift, in the middle of the group. He just stood and stared into the darkness, both in wonder and with determination. The goal was simple: Get to TRL, find the fusion core, return it to the Stable and insert it into the reactor. 

"Let's go." Gearshift said, taking the first step out of the Stable. The metal felt cold under his hoof, the coldest it had in his entire time of being within the Stable.

One by one, each member of the group took their own steps through the threshold of the large entry way. 

Gearshift's hoof set down on stone, making him stop in his tracks. He shuffled his hoof around, taking in the texture and taking a moment to get himself adjusted to the feeling, then glancing around at the others who were doing the same thing. Focusing back on himself, he continued to walk further and further away from the light of the Stable as his surroundings got dimmer and dimmer. Keeping his eyes straight ahead, he saw an opening, the shape and structure of their surroundings became clear. A cave. Gearshift kept walking, the feint sounds of hooves clipping along the stone floor informing him the others were doing the same. His focus was broken when a hissing sound came from behind them, making Gearshift look back. The last time he would look back at his home until they would return. He saw the Overmare, standing in the entryway to the Stable and saluting them. He hadn't even noticed how far they'd already walked as he could only see her mouth moving but couldn't hear the words. Saluting back in her direction, for a few moments, he waited until she lowered her hoof before lowering his own. As they both did so, the large steel door that kept the ponies of Stable 54 from the outside world slowly rolled closed, an audible *kachunk* coming from it. Looking forward once again, he caught the shape of one of the group passing him on his left side. The seven of them had each other and would need each other for whatever awaited them in the Wasteland of their once powerful nation. Approaching the opening, Gearshift took a breath to steady himself, contemplating everything that led to this and what would happen from this moment on.

"I won't fail you, Dad."
> Chapter 2: Outside
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Outside. Leaving the Stable wasn't something Gearshift had ever processed in his wildest dreams before. But here he was, standing in the entrance of the cave where his home was, the Stable in the distance behind him. His body tingled with a mix of excitement and uncertainty, sending a shudder up his spine and resulting in a less than ideal sound coming from him. The shudder got a chuckle from someone to his left and upon turning he saw Steel Tip looking back at him. 

"Everything okay, Gear?" Steel Tip asked. 

"Yeah, I'm okay, just getting the jitters out." Gearshift answered. 

"Is that what that sound was?" Candy Cane asked from the other side of him. 

"This..... this is what our home is now." Gearshift said, the reality of their surroundings hitting him all at once. 

As the rest of the group got to the opening, they all took in their first look of what Equestria now was.

The dimly lit sky was the first factor that presented itself. Dark clouds covered the sky, enhancing the dark hues of the ground below. The ground itself was equally as dark, dead trees and plants scattered the ground in various areas around the landscape. A soft breeze blew through, everyone's manes blowing gently as a result. The Equestrian Wasteland was the complete opposite of the safety and comfort of Stable 54, with the dark and dismal outdoors replacing the metallic walls and long corridors. The calming words of the Overmare's morning announcements were no more in the outside world. 

Gearshift looked around at the immediate area around the cave entrance the group were standing in, taking in a lungfull of the outside air. The air felt different as it caressed his nostrils, it felt sharper and more intense compared to the filtered air in the Stable. Lifting up his foreleg, he checked the glowing green screen of his PipBuck, the green glow illuminating his face and getting the attention of the group. Forming a small huddle around him, they all looked at the screen and the map that was displayed. 

"Going off the PipBuck map, we need to head in this direction." Gearshift said, pointing east, the compass labels on the map backing up his words. All taking a moment to compose themselves, each of them nodding when ready, Gearshift took the first few steps out of the cave and out into the Equestrian Wasteland. His hooves felt heavy as boulders, each step taking an age. After five or six steps, he turned to look back at the group.

The six of them were close behind him, each taking in their new surroundings in their own way, whether it was looking up at the darkened sky or staring at the rough ground beneath their hooves.

Gearshift's eyes were focused on his PipBuck, following the map on the screen in the direction of the Trottingham Research Laboratories. His eyes were so focused that he would occasionally stumble over cracks in the ground and rocks on top of it. Continuing to watch the map, leading the group for a good few minutes, something caught his eye, a symbol on the screen of his PipBuck. The symbol showed that of a town, the symbol had a label beneath with the name of the town displayed.

Trottingham

The town was located between the group and the laboratories on the far side. The town itself was still a good walk away but the determination would see them through in the long run.

As he picked up his gaze from the screen of his PipBuck and took in the surrounding area, it all looked just like the stories he'd been told. Even if those stories were only told to scare little colts and fillies into doing as they were told or eating their vegetables. The one thing that wasn't mentioned in said stories, however, was how bland it all was. Hopeless was the word that stuck out the most. The memories of those stories passed through his mind as he walked, glancing around at his surroundings and then at the others. 

"We just have to pass through Trottingham itself and TRL is on the other side." Gearshift said, pointing ahead of them in the direction they were heading. The group all followed his hoof, looking into the distance. 

"How far away is the town, anyway?" Steel Tip asked, peering at Gearshift's PipBuck.

"It says here it will be at least an hour." Gearshift answered. "So we better get a move on." 

"An hour?!" Lavender Blossom exclaimed.

"Gear's right. We need to get moving." Fresh Canvas said, looking at him with a nod. 

With very little further complaining, the group continued their walk through the Wasteland. The breeze picked up slightly, blowing through the group, causing a shiver from a couple of them. Besides that, the weather didn't cause any more issues for them. 


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As time passed by and their journey continued, the town of Trottingham gradually appeared on the horizon, much to Gearshift's relief. The town was exactly where the map said it was, but there was something else. A yellow blinking dot on the PipBuck's Eyes Forward Sparkle had made itself present a short way ahead of them. 

"Hey, you guys see that?" he asked, stopping in his tracks and looking at his map more intensely, causing the others to stop and look at their own PipBucks. The blinking dot, sure enough, was present on all of their screens. 

"What is that?" Tulip asked, uncertain about the blinking light.

"Keep your eyes open, we don't know what is out here. If anyone sees anything let us know." Gearshift said, picking his head up once again. 

The group would continue walking, all looking around for whatever the source of the yellow dot could be. The dot would gradually get closer to them the further that they walked and eventually would be near enough beside them. Briefly stopping, the group looked around. The search of the area didn't take them long as the source soon revealed to be a living creature itself with a whimper of pain. 

A mare's whimper of pain.

Turning in the direction of the whimpering, the group caught sight of a unicorn mare laying against a thick, but dead, tree holding onto her leg. She had a rather nasty looking gash on her leg, accompanied with the fact that she only had a small saddlebag with her. Her feint blue fur was muddied and dishevelled and her yellow mane looked all out of sorts.

"Hey, she looks hurt." Snowball said, pointing towards her.

"We should help her." Tulip added, the two beginning to walk towards the injured mare. 

Gearshift watched as they walked towards her, briefly checking his things to see if he had any medical supplies. His gaze quickly came back up to the mare, who saw the duo approaching and shook her head, then flicked to the surrounding mounds of dirt and large rocks that were close to the tree - that were big enough for someone to hide behind. His eyes went wide and he quickly bolted forward towards Tulip and Snowball, trying to stop them from reaching the mare.

"Snow! Tulip! Wai-!" Gearshift called out before the figure of a pony stepped out from behind the tree. As the pony moved into Gearshift's line of sight, their features became visual. A unicorn stallion with a muscular build stood before them, his dirty brown coat covered by a black jacket shrewdly cobbled together by some bits and pieces of fabric. It only took a few seconds for Gearshift to note the details but the main one was impossible to miss, in his magical grasp was a nasty looking shotgun. With one rack of the weapon, Tulip and Snowball froze in place, almost colliding with one another as they tried to back away. 

"Ah ah ah. I don't think so." The stallion said, aiming the muzzle of the weapon at the two of them. 

"No!" Fresh Canvas yelled, seeing the two mares in danger. He was about to rush in to help the pair but the click of a pistol on the back of his neck soon put an end to that. He froze in place, not able to see who was behind him. 

Quickly turning to face him, Gearshift saw the pistol's owner. A dark green earth pony mare, holding the pistol between her teeth. But this pair were not the only ones to brandish a weapon as another three ponies stepped out from their respective hiding spots, although Gearshift could only see two of them. 

"Move n' you're dead, y'hear?" A mare said from behind him with a sadistic giggle as the blade of a machete came around the back of him in a red magical glow, the tip of which gently pressed on the side of his neck, a small cut forming and a few drops of blood rolling out, making him wince in pain.

The two ponies he could see were two stallions ahead of him, an earth pony and a unicorn, the unicorn pointing a shotgun at Lavender Blossom and Candy Cane whilst the earth pony held his pistol up at Steel Tip.

"Now what do we have here?" The muscular unicorn said with a grin on his gritty looking face, his yellowed teeth visible for the whole group to see.

"Looks like fresh meat to me!" The machete wielding mare said, laughing maniacally before a glare from the stallion shut her up.

"As I was sayin', you folks wandered into the wrong patch o' land. Now what say y'all just empty out your bags and then we'll be on our way." The stallion continued. 

"Come on, Crush, can't we just kill 'em and take their stuff?" The mare asked. "I'm itching to gut somethin!"

"I'd like to keep my insides on the inside of that's alright with you." Gearshift commented. 

"Well then, if you just tell your posse here to drop their things we won't have a problem we?" The other stallion levitating a shotgun said, taking a step closer to Lavender Blossom and Candy Cane with a sadistic grin. 

"Yeah, drop em!" The mare repeated.

"Chamber! Switch Blade!" Crush suddenly snapped, addressing the stallion and mare respectively. "I swear for the love of all that is holy in this forsaken Wasteland, if you two don't stop cutting in when I'm talking I will gut you fuckers along with em! Do you understand me?!" he boomed, almost making the pair drop their weapons in shock from being yelled at, his charismatic farmland accent vanishing to a commanding voice of power and authority. 

The pair both nodded their heads as the Stable Ponies all looked at one another. 

Composing himself, Crush placed a hoof on the injured mare, his yellow grin returning. The mare herself winced as he touched her, her leg looking worse by the second. It didn't help matters when he placed said hoof on her injured leg and pressed down on it, making her let out a yelp of pain. 

"Clock's ticking." Crush said, pressing down again. 

The mare cried out in pain once more and Gearshift held up a hoof. 

"Stop. Stop!" He exclaimed, Crush taking his leg off her as a result. 

"Chop chop. Empty your things or her leg comes off with a swing of that there machete." Crush said, gesturing Switch Blade to move over to him. The unicorn moved out from behind Gearshift, running her hoof along his neck to get the blood off him. This allowed Gearshift to finally get a good look at the mare who had held him at knife point for the past few minutes. Her coat was a dark and more soot and dust covered shade of red than the glow enveloping the machete and her mane and tail with the same shade of dark brown as the ground they were standing on. 

"Like what you see?" She asked, her eye twitching not helping her case. 

"Why of course, you look ravishing." Gearshift said, about as sarcastic one could be without flat out saying no. 

"I'm getting Impatient." Crush said, glaring at the group and waving his shotgun around with intention to use it. 

The group all looked towards Gearshift, who nodded his head and slowly pulled off his saddlebags, the rest of the group slowly began to do the same. Weapons remained trained on them as they reach took off their bags. 

Once they were on the ground, Crush stepped forward to look at their bags. 

"Open them. I want to see what new toys I'm going to have." he said with a chuckle. One by one the group went down the line, opening up their bags to show what they had. Whether it was canned food, water or spare clothing, it was all on show for Crush and his lackies to split between them. 

"This is all we have." Gearshift said, looking at their bags.

"It's the truth. Please just don't hurt us." Candy Cane said, trembling in fear, Gearshift putting his hoof on her to try to calm her. 

"I'm not gonna hurt y'all, little lady, you gave me what I wanted so there won't be no consequences." Crush said, lowering his weapon. As Crush moved his way down the lines of bags, he began to pull out things from each bag that he found important enough to keep for himself, only leaving scraps or things he didn't have room to carry. That was until he got to Snowball's bag at the end of the line. His eyes fell on the bandages and medical supplies as well as the small amount of food too. A hungry look in his eyes formed and he used his hoof to scoop them out. One could almost see a look of joy brewing, whatever twisted and deranged view of joy that was was a different matter. That all changed with a yelp, followed by the sound of a body hitting the ground with a thud.

All attention turned to the pair behind Crush, Switch Blade and the injured mare, looking on in shock and disbelief. Switch Blade was on the ground, the machete jammed in her neck and her blood splattered onto the injured mare's muzzle. 

"You BITCH!" Crush yelled, sweeping up his shotgun and bringing it up towards her eye level. 

Without a moment's hesitation, Gearshift rushed forward and jumped onto Crush's back, wrapping his forelegs around his neck. Before the other weapon wielding ponies could react, they were also descended upon. 

Fresh Canvas dropped low, sweeping the earth pony mare's legs out from under her, knocking her onto her back. 

Steel Tip lunged forward and tackled the earth pony stallion before he could react, the two scrambling on the ground. 

Chamber turned, seeing his own group quickly being overpowered. He froze in shock for long enough to give Lavender Blossom and Candy Cane a chance to get in close and knock him backwards, causing his magic to falter and him dropping the shotgun. 

Gearshift tightly squeezed his hooves against Crush's neck, trying to choke him out as quickly as possible. The muscular stallion used his magic to spin the shotgun in an attempt to blow the earth pony away but Gearshift's back legs swung around to connect with the weapon and kick it away from his head just as the trigger was pulled and it fired. The shot cracked through the air, missing him by inches and leaving a sharp and uncomfortable ringing sound in Gearshift's ears, dazing him momentarily. This gave Crush a chance to throw Gearshift over his shoulder and onto the ground, as much as Gearshift tried to hold onto him. His back slammed into the stone ground and had Gearshift's adrenaline not kicked in, he wouldn't have seen the butt of the shotgun coming down. He rolled sideways and quickly pulled himself up to his hooves, rushing at Crush once again. 

Crush attempted to rack the shotgun and chamber in another shell but Gearshift got to him before the shell was fully chambered, giving him a punch to the jaw for his troubles. His physique didn't stop him from feeling pain and he visibly winced. Gearshift reached back onto his belt, pulling out his security baton and gave an almighty swing. The baton connected with Crush's jaw and the sound of his jaw bone crunching followed, followed itself by a yell of pain. Crush clutched his jaw and his magic faded, the shotgun clattering to the ground. Swing after swing of the baton followed, each connecting and doing more damage than the one that proceeded it.

Eventually, Crush hit the ground, writhing in pain from his now broken jaw. Gearshift's eyes then met his discarded weapon. Dropping his baton to the floor, he picked up the shotgun whilst balancing it between his teeth and a hoof. Turning back around towards Crush, who was still writhing on the ground, Gearshift managed to place his hoof on the slide of the shotgun and pull it back, but the weapon did not rack. A pink glow would then enveloped the shotgun and pull it away from Gearshift and before he could react it was racked, aimed and then fired, chunks of Crush's head went everywhere, blood and small chunks of brain hitting Gearshift and making him stagger back in surprise and fall onto his side. The ringing came back once more, making him clutch his temples in discomfort as she he tried to shake away the sound. The ringing was so severe for his senses that he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the ground a few yards in front of him and gradually blacked out, his surroundings going dark.


◇◇◇◇◇


Eventually coming to, Gearshift slowly opened his eyes. His vision took a few moments to adjust as he slowly sat up, only to have a pair of hooves softly take hold of him. 

"Hey, hey, hey. Not so quickly now." Candy Cane said from his right side. As her eyes met Gearshift's, he could only see the color of her coat as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings and the mare sitting in front of him. 

"What happened? I-Is everyone okay?" Gearshift asked, his body still trying to stand up even though his brain didn't want to go anywhere. 

"Everyone is fine, you don't need to worry." Candy Cane answered, keeping him seated to give him time to recover. Gently turning his head to the left, as his vision finally cleared up, he saw the group sitting next to the tree. Snowball and Tulip were helping out the mare with her leg, bandaging it up and fixing it up with the medical supplies in Snowball's bag. 

Turning his head slightly, he saw Steel Tip walking over to him as Lavender Blossom and Fresh Canvas went through the now dead ponies' things to gather what they could. 

"How's he doing?" Steel Tip asked.

"He should be okay." Candy Cane nodded, gently tapping Gearshift's shoulder in reassurance. 

"We should get moving soon. We don't want to get caught out by another group like those guys."

"You're right. I'll help Gearshift up and grab our things then we can get going. Is Primrose ready to go?"

"Who?" Gearshift chimed in, looking between the pair. 

Candy Cane pointed towards the injured mare, who they had helped, revealing that was her name. 

"Primrose, that's her name. Whilst you were having a nap she introduced herself to us." she said.

Finally being strong enough to get up, his body and brain in unison, Gearshift got to his hooves and walked over to Primrose as her makeshift medical appointment was finished up. 

"How are you feeling, miss Primrose?" Gearshift asked, as he approached her.

"I'm doing much better now, thanks to all of you." Primrose answered, looking at him. "If you hadn't sprung into action when you had I'd be meeting my maker right about now."

"We couldn't just sit there and let him kill you." Gearshift said, looking at her wrapped up leg. 

"I can't thank you all enough for what you did for me."

"You would have done the same for any of us." Snowball said, packing the medical supplies back into her bag. 

"Are you well enough to walk?" Steel Tip asked, observing the way her leg was bandaged and amended.

"I should be able to, I just think a good amount of sleep and letting it heal naturally will be for the best." Primrose answered, slowly pulling herself to her hooves, with Tulip's aid. With a gentle smile, she looked amongst the group as Lavender Blossom and Fresh Canvas finished up their scavenging and joined up with them again. They had managed to gather up both shotguns with 8 shots between them as well as the two pistols with a few bullets inside. The machete wasn't going anywhere, still lodged in Switch Blade's neck and wedged there with both gore and bone keeping it in place. They had all been carrying bottle caps, which Fresh Canvas had decided to keep hold of just in case. Grabbing their bags, the group set out, focusing their attention on Trottingham and in turn TRL.


◇◇◇◇◇


Half an hour or so had passed by as the group walked towards the distant town, watching as it gradually got closer to them, the bodies of the raider ponies getting further away. They filled Gearshift in on what had happen whilst he was out cold and how they dealt with the raiders. The supplies that they were carrying would provide more firepower to the group and aid in keeping more lethal travellers at bay should the need arise. Although the journey was pretty straight forward as they headed for Trottingham, the outskirts of the town eventually becoming visible. 

The town looked as though it was walled off from the rest of the Wasteland, with one way in in the shape of an entryway. The group continued on towards the entrance, gradually taking in the material of the outside walls. It looked as though they were made of slabs of sheet metal and recycled aluminum. Approaching the entryway, they paused before going in unsure what to do upon going inside. 

Their hesitation got them a few looks of concern and interest from several of the ponies standing near the entryway. It didn't take them long to be coaxed in, Gearshift taking the lead and stepping into the town. Looking around, he noticed the homes within the town. Small houses made out of similar materials of the outer walls as well as older materials that had somehow survived for all this time. The inhabitants of which went about their days, walking around the town as well as trading, buying and selling goods and various stalls in the immediate vicinity.

A small smile began to make its way onto Gearshift's face as he walked, the group following on behind him. His eyes continued to scan the surroundings before something caught his eye, no, someone. The creature a short way ahead of him did not look like any pony he had seen back home in Stable 54, the all black furless exterior, bent horn and jagged looking ears. The creature's dark purple non-reflective eyes seemed enticing in a way, Gearshift only then noticing the fangs pertruding from the creature's mouth. His eyes then fell on the insect like wings, different from any pegasus he'd seen in his books in the stable. His dumbfounded look was clearly much more obvious than he realised as when the creature turned towards him she couldn't help but giggle, seeing him standing there looking at her. 

"Gear, what's up? You look like you've seen a ghost." Steel Tip asked, waving a hoof in front of his face. Turning his head to follow his line of sight, he also saw the creature and shared the same expression on his face. 

One by one, the others all looked towards her as she began to make her way over towards them. 

"Is there something I can help you with?" She asked, looking amongst the group. Her voice seemed... different in some way that Gearshift couldn't quite put his hoof on. Shaking himself out of his daze, he cleared his throat and straightened up. 

"Uh, yes ma'am. I'm sorry for staring, it's just that I've never seen a creature like you before." Gearshift answered. 

"You're not from around here are you?" She asked, looking amongst the group and taking note of their matching blue and yellow attire.

"No ma'am. No we're not." Gearshift answered with a shake of his head.

"That shows in your reaction. Definitely never seen a changeling before, have you?" 

"A change- what now?" Fresh Canvas asked, giving her a up and down look with his eyes. 

"A changeling." She repeated. "But please, where are my manners? I'm Enigma." 

"A pleasure to meet you, miss Enigma. I'm Gearshift." Gearshift introduced before gesturing to his friends. "This is Fresh Canvas, Steel Tip, Candy Cane, Snowball, Lavender Blossom, Tulip and Primrose."

"It's lovely to meet you all." Enigma responded, keeping the pleasant smile on her face. "Well now that you're here, I should probably take you to see miss Morningstar." 

"Miss Morningstar?" Gearshift asked.

"She's like our town's mayor, for lack of a better term." Enigma explained. "Come on." 

As Enigma began walking, the Stable Ponies all looked at one another as if unsure what action to take.

"What do we do?" Tulip asked, looking between the group, sharing the same uncertain look on her face as Snowball had.

"She might know how to get to the laboratories." Candy Cane said.

"If she doesn't, maybe this Morningstar will." Lavender Blossom said. 

"Don't dawdle now." Enigma called to them.

"Coming." Gearshift called back, looking back at the others as they all began to follow her through the streets of the town. As they walked, he took in more of their surroundings. In turn, he noticed more of the same creatures as Enigma, the changelings, talking with ponies and visiting different shops and stalls.

"Looks like she's not the only one." Fresh Canvas said as they eventually caught up to Enigma. 

Enigma led them further into the centre of town. Passing through the main square, the group were surrounded by even more buildings, shops and stalls than the area near the entryway. Turning through the square, Enigma pointed towards a larger building at the end of the street. It was one of the only buildings made out of stone that they had seen whilst walking, although it looked older than any other building that they'd seen. Making their way towards it, the size of the building became apparent the closer that they got to it. 

"I guess size really does matter." Lavender Blossom said, looking up at the building. 

"Size isn't everything." Fresh Canvas said. 

"Suuuure it isn't." Lavender Blossom said.

"Now now, let's keep it above the belt." Gearshift smirked. "Unless you two need some time alone." He teased, getting multiple jabs in his side in the process. As their small talk subsided, they arrived at the large building. 

"Here we are, Horseshoe Hall." Enigma said, looking at the main doors to the building. "In here is where we'll meet miss Morningstar." With a nod of the head from the group, Enigma pushed opened the door and stepped inside. Gearshift held open the door for the group as they all came through, joining them in the main entrance of the building. 

The interior of the building looked slightly worse for wear compared to the outside of the building but there were still a good amount of ponies and changelings on the inside going in and out of multiple rooms. Each individual that passed by cast a glance at the group but upon seeing Enigma with them went on their way with whatever business they had to get to. 

"Enigma." A voice said from nearby, getting the group's attention. Walking towards them was a grey coated unicorn mare with a curly dark brown mane and tail with a set of surprisingly well kept glasses. 

"Ah, Role Call." Enigma said with a smile.

"Who are your new friends?" Role Call asked, adjusting her glasses. 

"They're new in town and I'm bringing them to see miss Morningstar." Enigma answered

"I see." Role Call said, looking amongst the group. Taking in each of their appearances one by one, she nodded in approval. Stepping away from the group and looking back at Enigma, the two mares shared a smile before Role Call turned and lead the group down the hall to a room at the end of it. After knocking on the door and a short pause, a voice came from inside.

"Yes?" The voice asked. 

"Miss Morningstar. It's Role Call." Role Call responded.

"I'm here too!" Enigma called. 

"Come on in ladies." Morningstar said.

Pushing open the door, Role Call let the others all go in first before following them in and closing the door behind them.

Inside the room, a mare was sitting behind a desk. She had dark green fur with a black mane and tail with a few blonde streaks. This was Morningstar. 

"I see we have a couple of guests. Nice to meet y'all." Morningstar said, her accent making Gearshift think back to Crush's accent and the similarities between them.

"Nice to meet you too ma'am." Snowball said.

Getting introductions out of the way, Morningstar looked between the group with a smile.

"So, what brings you to Trottingham?" she asked. 

"We're trying to get to Trottingham Research Laboratories ma'am." Gearshift answered promptly. "We've been tasked to locate and retrieve a power core to keep our Stable operational."

"I was wonderin why y'all were wearing the same outfits." 

"That's right, ma'am, residents of Stable 54."

"I understand. Well I'll do what I can to help you out in your mission. But I do have to say, I've not heard of anyone heading out there for a long time now." 

"E-Excuse me ma'am, if I could just interject, are there any medical areas or infirmaries you may have?" Snowball asked. "Primrose has a bad looking leg injury, I've done what I can to bandage her up but without proper medical potions and healing medicines, I fear her leg may not heal properly."

Hearing her words, Morningstar cast her eyes down towards Primrose's bandaged leg.

"I see. Role Call." Morningstar addressed.

"Yes ma'am?" Role Call answered. 

"Take miss Primrose here to Suture Seam. See what he can do about her leg."

"Of course ma'am." 

"Enigma." Morningstar then turned her attention. 

"Yes ma'am?" Enigma said.

"Go and find Deputy Butch, he knows the area towards the labs better than almost anyone here." Morningstar instructed. 

"Got it." Enigma nodded.

With that, Role Call, Enigma and Primrose made their way out of the room, leaving Morningstar and the Stable Ponies in the room together. 

"Now then, before you all get on your way I advise you listen to what Butch has to say. Once Enigma brings him back you can discuss the details but until then I have a favor to ask of you." Morningstar said.

"What can we do for you ma'am?" Gearshift asked.

Walking over to the group, Morningstar smiled at them once again. "I'd like to hear about your Stable situation. Plus I would like you to help out Butch with a job he has been taking on by himself for a while. It shouldn't take too long but it would mean a great deal to both him and myself if he got the help."

Gearshift glanced at the group, having brief second thoughts about it. However, understanding that they were being helped out, it was the right thing to do and help out Morningstar in return. Nodding his head, they all nodded in response. Looking back at Morningstar, Gearshift matched her smile. 

"Where do we start?"
> Chapter 3: You Scratch My Back, I Scratch Yours
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Having filled Morningstar in on the current state of Stable 54, the Stable Ponies exited Horseshoe Hall to wait outside for Enigma to return with Deputy Butch. The residents of Trottingham were still going about their business, going to and from stalls and homes.

The wait for Enigma to return did not take too long. Gearshift looked down the street and caught sight of her walking towards them. As she got to the group, she gave them a pleasant wave.

"I'm back!" She said with a smile, getting waves from the group in response. 

"Good to see you again." Snowball said, although noticing she was alone. The rest of the group had also noticed and shared equally confused expressions. 

"Miss Enigma? Weren't you meant to be coming back with Deputy Butch." Gearshift asked. 

"I did, he's behind me." Enigma said. 

Looking past her, the group saw the stallion in question. He had a muscular build with piercing red eyes, the same fangs, horn and ears as Enigma and many other changelings in the town. Atop his head was a black cowboy hat, matching the shade of his body, which was in turn draped by a sheriff's coat. Gearshift's eyes scanned the stallion, slowly panning down to a holster on his side which contained a lethal looking pistol. 

"You always have to follow behind me instead of walking alongside me?" Enigma asked. 

"Don't try to make something out of it." Butch said, looking at her then turning his attention to the ponies standing in front of him.

"Stallion of the hour." Gearshift said, smiling at him. 

"Stable Ponies, meet Deputy Butch. Deputy Butch, meet the Stable Ponies." Enigma introduced.

"Ladies, gents." Butch said, tipping his hat to the group. The group gave various nods and waves in response.

"A pleasure to meet you sir." Snowball said.

"Pleasure's all mine m'lady." Butch responded. "So I hear that- hold on." Turning his head downwards, he seemed to be looking for something.

"Is something wrong?" Lavender Blossom asked, to which Enigma sighed.

"You really need to put him on that leash." Enigma said. 

"He hates being leashed." Butch responded before turning around fully, giving the group view of his tail. The tail in question was unlike Enigma's, as Butch sported a scorpion tail, a tail which was currently relaxed and low to the ground. 

The group all looked at it with varying expressions. Gearshift was amazed the the physique of the scorpion tail, scanning how it looked and the potential damage that it could do. A high pitched whistle made his ears twitch and caused him to look straight ahead once again. A whistle which was followed by silence, which was then followed by a bark that made the group all look in the direction Butch was looking. Scampering towards them was a grey furred dog, closing the distance to them very quickly. Upon getting to them, the dog slid to a stop beside Butch and sat down with a wagging tail.

"Smoke! I told you to keep up." Butch said,  petting the dog, along with giving some scratches behind the ears, much to Smoke's enjoyment. 

"Awwwww." Candy Cane said, looking at the happy canine.

Soon enough, Butch turned his attention to the group. 

"So Enigma tells me that you're all looking for some help." he said, getting nods from the group. "Well I'll be willing to help you all out but first, I need something from all of you."

"What do you need from us?" Gearshift asked.

"I need some assistance in fortifying the walls on the east side of town, we had a incident with a few raiders a short while ago and they did a number on the wall trying to brute force their way in." Butch explained. 

"Was anyone hurt?" Snowball asked. 

"Sadly, we lost a couple folks in the attack. They didn't even see it coming." Butch revealed, removing his hat in a gesture of respect for the fallen.

"We're so sorry for your loss." Candy Cane said. 

"This is why I need your assistance, so that something like that doesn't happen again." Butch said. 

"Lead the way." Gearshift said. 

Butch did just that, turning and leading the group towards the east entryway into Trottingham. It was a short walk that the group spent mostly in silence. Butch tipped his hat to some of the residents as the group passed by, Enigma waving every now and then and Smoke happily barking and wagging his tail. Butch had a positive and hopeful smile with each pony or changeling alike that he greeted, but Gearshift noticed the look he had when the residents weren't looking. It was one that seemed troubled, conflicted to an extent. Keeping his eyes straight ahead, Butch continued to lead the way, eventually leading them to the east entrance and it was as rough looking as they could've imagined it was. They all approached, taking in various areas of and the varying levels of damage that had been done. 

Parts of the walls had chunks missing as well as some of them being riddled with bullet holes. Large scorch marks adorned the pathway leading into town, belonging to some sort of weapon of some kind that could cause some damage, given the evidence and size of the marks on the ground. 

"W-What made those?" Tulip asked, shuddering at the thought.

"Something that I've never seen before in all my years." Butch answered, turning to face the group, his statement getting their attention back on him once more. 

"It was one of those raiders." A voice said from close by, making the group turn their heads. 

Crouching down by one of the holes in the wall was another changeling stallion, working on moving some metal plating over the wall and hammering it into place, his back and lower neck were bandaged up. The bandages were as white Snowball's coat, showing their freshness. Turning to face the group, his dark purple eyes scanning them, several glances were cast between him and Enigma, who herself had her eyes on the stallion. The bandages on his back wrapped around and covered most of his chest, looking to have been precisely wrapped around certain areas. 

"What are you doing out here?" Butch asked him. 

"You're supposed to be resting!" Enigma exclaimed. 

Standing up, the stallion's eyes moved to his fellow changelings. "I'm fine. I'm doing what I can to help." he said. His physique wasn't as buff or as large as Butch but he did look in good shape, besides the bandages. Enigma rolled her eyes with a shake of her head. 

"I assume you know one another?" Steel Tip asked, gesturing his hoof between the three of them. 

"Unfortunately." Enigma muttered under her breath before speaking up. "Yes, yes we do."

Butch checked the stallion over, mainly examining his back and neck. "Suture Seam told you two weeks minimum." 

"You know me, Butch. I hate sitting around." The stallion responded.

"Stable Ponies, this is my brother, Sentry." Enigma introduced.

"Charmed." Sentry nodded.

After exchanging pleasantries, the group all looked back towards the piece of the wall Sentry had been fixing. 

"How long have you been here, Sentry?" Butch asked. 

"Half hour." Sentry answered, a little too quickly. 

"You liar." Enigma chimed in. 

"Sorry to cut in here on your reunion but you were talking about those lowlifes that attacked." Fresh Canvas said, looking between the changelings. "Also, Deputy, you said it was something you'd never seen before but if it was raiders then this must have been the first time you've been attacked before, right?"

"Not exactly. We've had attacks before but not ones to cause the kind of damage that you see here." Butch said, shaking his head. 

"It's what they brought with them." Sentry said, pointing at the scorch marks. "One of them, big ugly looking bastard, had metal cylinders strapped to his back. But he was holding some kind of tube at the front that..... shot fire at us. What the hell kind of creation shoots fire on command?!"

Gearshift's eyes went wide, as did the rest of the group's. Shoots fire? Is that even possible? The description made no sense. The concept was alien to him as it had never been presented in any of the textbooks back in Stable 54. He turned to look at the group, shrugging his shoulders to which they all looked equally as confused. 

"Did you take him out?" Gearshift asked. 

"We almost got the jump on him but he fled with the others we didn't manage to get." Sentry answered. 

"If Enigma didn't come and grab us it could've been much worse than it was." Butch said. 

"I could've held out longer." Sentry said, sounding annoyed with himself. 

"You're lucky we got there when we did. If we would've been even a moment later we could've lost even more." Enigma scolded.

"Look, things played out in the way that they did but we need to rebuild. It's what they would've wanted." Butch said, stopping the two before an argument could materialise.

"The sooner that we get to work in helping you to repair the damage, I'm sure we'd be willing to listen to everything that transpired." Lavender Blossom said.

"Right, if you would all like to grab any tools from those crates then we can get to work." Butch told them, pointing towards two black crates that were sitting on the ground a couple of feet from where Sentry was initially situated. One by one, the Stable Ponies walked over and grabbed themselves a tool; whether it be a hammer, screwdriver or something in between. Metallic clangs and shifting metals followed as replacement panels and additional protections were fitted, amending the damages caused. Butch and Sentry directed the group, pointing to where new metallic panels should be placed and secured, making sure to meticulously monitor each one as it was screwed or hammered into place. With each repair on the east entrance, the aura around the group became more positive and a greater amount of relief began to make its way through them all.


◇◇◇◇◇


The minutes went by and eventually an hour had passed, the final few panels and defenses being put into place. Stepping back to look at the completed job, Gearshift examined their work with Butch joining him, standing beside him. 

"Looking good?" Gearshift asked. 

"It does. This way into town should be much harder to break through." Butch answered with a nod that was half confident and half hopeful. 

"That is if ugly fire cannon buck doesn't come back." Sentry commented. 

"I'll just introduce him to Full House." Butch said. 

"Who?" Gearshift asked. 

Pulling his coat to the side, he presented the holster on his side once again and levitated out the pistol inside it. 

"Couple shots from this baby and he won't know what hit him." Butch said, showing off the weapon. 

"That looks like it could do some serious damage." Steel Tip said, walking over to get a closer look. 

"You better believe it does!" Butch said proudly, twirling Full House in his magic before slotting it back into the holster once again, then casting his eyes back towards the repaired wall. One by one the rest of the group would come over to look at the work they had done over the past hour. It was something that they'd all pitched in to help with and the feeling of accomplishment was plentiful among them.

It was a victory, a small victory but a victory all the same, the first feeling of accomplishment Gearshift had felt since leaving Stable 54. The moment was a pleasant one for him but it appeared only fleetingly. His mind cast back to those in the stable and a sense of urgency washed over him, the same one that he experienced when standing in the entryway of the Stable, in front of the giant steel door. 

"The walls are looking much better than when we got here." Gearshift said, then cleared his throat and donned a more serious expression. "With that being said, we've held up our side of the deal. Miss Morningstar said that you know more about areas leading towards TRL better than anyone else. You said that you'd help us and we're in desperate need of that help, our Stable and more importantly the ponies inside are counting on us."

All eyes turned towards them and a stretch of silence followed. Butch's gaze narrowed on Gearshift as he gave the stallion a once over. 

"So, this mission of yours. What exactly is it that you're after?" he asked, all eyes moving onto Gearshift. 

"We're heading to Trottingham Research Laboratories in order to acquire a fusion core so that we can keep our stable functioning." Gearshift explained, his gaze turning down towards the floor and his voice softening. "We don't know how long they have, so we need to move as quickly as possible."

Butch brought up a hoof, tapping his chin. "Alright, I'll need to grab a couple things from the office and then we'll be able to head out."

"Understood." Gearshift said a nod.

Nodding back, Butch turned his attention to the changeling siblings. "Enigma, Sentry, you two watch over town whilst I'm away. If anything happens, go straight to Morningstar and tell her."

"But-" Sentry tried to protest.

"Sentry, you're barely in a condition to walk from one end of town to the other, let alone leave to and venture towards those labs." Butch put a hoof on his shoulder. "We'll be back before you know it."

With a sigh and a scuff of his hoof on the ground, Sentry nodded. "Fine."

"I'll make sure he goes home and rests." Enigma said with a salute to Butch. 

"Thank you." Butch said, tipping his hat once again. 

With the plan established, Enigma and Sentry went on their way with a wave to the group, taking Smoke along with them. Waving back, Butch led the others in the direction of the Trottingham Sheriff's Office. The office was located on the opposite side of the square to Horseshoe Hall, mostly wooden in structure with swinging saloon style doors at the front. The building was around half the size of Horseshoe Hall although equally as important, Butch would preach those words to anyone who disagreed. Leading the group over to the building, Butch pushed one of the doors, holding it open as he turned back to look at them.

"Wait right here, I just need to grab a couple things." Butch told them, turning and then heading inside. He was true to his word, coming out with only a couple of things; some extra magazines for Full House, along with a compass. 

"Shall we?" Gearshift asked. 

"We shall." Butch nodded, pulling the doors closed behind him. Stepping down from the doors, looking at the compass in his hoof, he turned south and began walking. 

"Next stop, TRL!" Steel Tip exclaimed as the group followed after Butch. 

"54 is counting on us. We can't fail them." Gearshift said. 

"Don't worry. We won't." Candy Cane said, a reassuring smile on her face, which did its job of calming Gearshift for the moment. 


◇◇◇◇◇


The walk that followed was one that Gearshift spent in silence, all that was on his mind was the labs and what lie within. Their mission was straightforward and with a guide it would be just that little bit easier for them. We're almost there, dad. We'll be back home soon. He hadn't been paying much attention to the others, only hearing portions of their conversation when a break in his train of thought occurred. 

"....I mean who names their kid Crush anyway?" Lavender Blossom asked, making Gearshift pick his head up. 

"It's not exactly the most common name, huh?" Candy Cane said.

"He was pretty scary." Snowball said.

"Don't worry Snow, he's not an issue anymore." Lavender reassured her.

As the eight of them continued walking, Gearshift panned his eyes down at his PipBuck once again to check the map. Trottingham was gradually getting further and further away behind them but there was no sign of any buildings or structures ahead of them of note, especially not any laboratories.

"How do you know about this route?" he asked, looking at Butch. The question made Butch almost stop upon hearing it.

"This route was used by myself, miss Morningstar and a few others as we tried to get supplies for the town. We just happened to stumble upon the labs a while back by chance. It was like striking gold but... then the security systems activated when we got too close. Only myself and miss Morningstar made it back to town." Butch answered with a soft sigh, looking towards the ground. "We agreed not to take any more residents out there and leave the labs be. That was until today."

"Thank you for agreeing to bring us, we can't imagine how hard this must be." Snowball said, giving a respectful bow of her head to him. 

"I'm glad to help you. Your mission is extremely important and I won't stand in the way of that." Butch said.

Gearshift smiled gratefully at the Deputy, increasingly more and more glad to have him travelling with them. 

"We're glad to have you here." he said, taking one more glance at his PipBuck before lowering his leg once again. Looking ahead once more, Butch raised his own hoof and pointed ahead of the group.

"Over that hill straight ahead of us on the far side of it, lays Trottingham Research Laboratories." he said. 

Gearshift followed his hoof, as did the others, and saw the hill in question. It was a good distance away from them and raised up a decent height above the ground. The group wasted no time in heading out once more, keeping close to one another and keeping their eyes open as they went. The ground felt different under Gearshift's hooves compared to the ground of Trottingham, feeling fresher in comparison. It's flatter nature made it evident that no creatures had come this way in a while, unlike the ground inside Trottingham which everyone living there had been walking on. His gaze turned downards as he walked, looking at the ground beneath his hooves, visually taking it in. His thoughts began to wander, going back to the Stable and everyone in it. 

Eventually, the hill was close enough that the ground beneath his hooves began to incline and the walk up the hill commenced. The gradual ascent up the hill went by quicker than expected, Gearshift's determination taking the steepness of the hill out of the equation. Looking up to the sky, the dull and dreary clouds looking back, a feeling of uncertainty briefly washed over him and then dispersed just as quickly, the thoughts continued to come and go in spurts as they continued up the hill before eventually reaching the top. Once they had all reached the top, Gearshift took in the view, looking across the immediate Wasteland vicinity, seeing Trottingham in the distance behind them. The quiet surroundings was almost beautiful.

"There it is." Butch said, catching Gearshift's attention and making him look ahead.

Ahead of them, down the other side of the hill, was a large building. It's exterior was metallic and white in colour, although several patches had turned a shade of gray and in the time it had been there. The building was at least three to four stories high, although the width of the building made it look larger than it was. Several catwalks and walkways stretched around the sides of the exterior,  connecting entryways and outdoor stairwells. Upon closer inspection, Gearshift noticed what was Butch's cause for not returning to the area. A pair of large metallic doors sat at the front and centre of the building but on the wall above the doors and embedded into the walls above the walkways were several automated machines, each machine in question boasting a pair of machine gun barrels pointed outward in most directions. This was Trottingham Research Laboratories and it's deadly security system.

"They're going to be an issue." Gearshift commented, his eyes fixed on the wall mounted turrets. 

"..." Butch didn't respond, his eyes wide and staring towards them.

"Deputy?" Snowball asked, nudging him gently. It seemed to do something as Butch wavered slightly but shook himself out of his daze. 

"H-Huh? Yes. We're going to need to be extra vigilant. I've seen first hoof what these things can do and believe you me in ain't a pretty sight." he said. 

"Do you think there's any way to shut them down?" Candy Cane asked. "We don't exactly have a lot of firepower here." She added, gesturing to the few weapons that the group were carrying. 

"We'd have to get close enough to even consider trying to shut them down." Butch said. 

"That is if we can." Fresh Canvas said.

"We can take cover around the outer perimeter and avoid any gunfire that may come our way." Butch said, pointing a hoof to the immediate vicinity outside of the laboratory building. There were low brick walls, some of which had broken over time as well as large rocks that could be hidden behind. There were also a few of the lower walls closer towards the central entryway, which would also allow for cover. 

"Hopefully it won't have to come to that." Gearshift said.

Once all in agreement, weapons at the ready, the group headed down the hill slowly with Butch leading the way. Gearshift kept his eyes focused on each of the turrets in turn. They were moving in a scanning pattern for now, thankfully, but seeing how many of them were there cast an image into his head about what could have warranted the need for them. An attack? Safety precautions? It was built with them? Each question only brought up more follow up questions instead of any answers. As the last of the group reached the bottom, TRL took on a new visage, looking even larger at ground level. The outer walkways looked even higher up in the building's sides and the turrets looked increasingly more lethal from this position. Coming in from the front, the main door turrets were the main concern. There were four in total, all in their sweeping motion whilst scanning the area. Gearshift paid attention to the motion in order to determine the best approach. 1....2....3....1....2....3.... His breathing slowed as he analysed the turrets. The closer the group got, the more developed his plan became. Taking cover behind one of the low walls, Gearshift peeked over and got more look at them. 1....2....3....1....2....3....

"Gear?" Steel Tip asked, seeing him looking at them. 

Gearshift turned to look at him. "Hm?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Take a look at the turrets." He said, Steel Tip doing so before the others did the same. "The way they rotate, it's almost like a pattern or a timer." The turrets' movements confirmed his theory. 

"We need to move in the open window so that we're not torn apart." Fresh Canvas said. 

"We have to get to the door and get inside." Butch said, looking towards them. Several looks were exchanged between the group.

"Do all of us have to go together?" Gearshift asked, which got several looks of surprise from the others. 

"What?!" Candy Cane and Lavender Blossom exclaimed. 

"Gearshift, what are you saying?" Steel Tip asked.

"Think about it. If those turrets are in a pattern, it would only take one of us to get  to the door and then open it up before the others can make their way over." Gearshift explained. 

"What would you do upon getting over to the door?" Butch asked. 

This made Gearshift begin to reconsider, looking back towards the main doors once again in search of anything he may of missed out. Scanning over the doors once again, he watched the turrets as they moved once more. His eyes then moved to just beside the left door where a square object was mounted onto the wall, a small rectangular object connected to the bottom of it. A keyboard.

"That looks like a terminal." Gearshift said, leaning slightly closer to look. 

"A terminal?" Candy Cane asked, following his eyeline towards it. Upon seeing where he was looking, she looked him square in the eyes. 

"CC?" Gearshift asked.

"I'll go." Candy Cane said. "Terminals are my thing anyways." 

"Since when?"

"Since I spent everyday sitting in front of cameras as well as fixing up screens when they went dead."

"Fair enough. But I'll go with you."

"Gearshift-"

"I'm not debating it."

The sudden response caught Candy Cane by surprise and she stood looking at him in silence for a few moments. 

"Fine." she said. 

"Butch, if anything happens whilst we're heading there, you'll have to give us cover." Gearshift said.

Levitating out Full House, Butch nodded his head. "You got it."

Gearshift looked at the rest of the group, as well as the weapons that they had. "Counting on you guys too." he said. Each of the nodded their heads too.

"No need to worry." Steel Tip said, levitating one of the pistols.

Looking back towards the doors, Gearshift and Candy Cane got ready to move. Shuffling to the edge of the wall, Gearshift leaned out and looked towards the doors. 

"Okay, let's do this." he said. Watching as the turrets rotated away from them, Gearshift stood up. "Now."

Candy Cane was right behind him as he came out from behind the wall and ran towards the doors. The two of them slid into cover behind one of the low walls nearby as the turrets swept back in their direction. The others watched from their position as the pair advanced. Poking his head out slowly, Gearshift looked for the next piece of cover. Ahead of them was another section of wall that jutted out closer to the building. Gesturing for Candy Cane to get ready, Gearshift looked back towards the scanning turrets, only standing up after they had passed by. Springing over the wall, Gearshift took the lead into the next group of bounds. As Candy Cane followed after him, Gearshift looked back at her momentarily, long enough to see her eyes widen. Looking forward once again, the barrels were aiming right at them.

"Gearshift!" Candy Cane exclaimed as her horn illuminated. Gearshift felt his weight shift as he was dragged back. The two of them went backwards over the wall they had just come over and the turrets opened fire, missing them by inches. The bullets pounded against the wall, small pieces falling away thanks to the force of each bullet impacting against it. 

Gearshift covered his head, making sure to keep Candy Cane close enough to keep her protected too as the hailfire of bullets continued raining down on them. A second sound entered his ears, more gunfire. Whilst keeping his head down, he looked back towards the others. The crack of Full House now had a visual partner as Gearshift watched the pistol fire off two rounds before being retracted back behind cover. The rain of bullets soon rattled against the section of the wall where Full House was being fired from. He watched in a stunned silence as the turrets continued to fire with the occasional crack of Full House following it. 

"Get moving!!" Steel Tip called out, adding fire from his own pistol towards the turrets before ducking back behind the wall as some of the turrets turned their attention on him. 

"Gearshift! GO!" Butch exclaimed. 

It wasn't until Candy Cane physically grabbed hold of him that he snapped out of his stunned state. 

"Gearshift!" She said, holding onto his face and looking into his eyes. "We need to move!"

"R-Right, yeah. Come on." Gearshift nodded and shook himself off. 

With the turrets being occupied, Candy Cane led the way with Gearshift following on. The need to be discreet was irrelevant, leaving the pair free to run straight for the doors and the terminal. Keeping their run wide, they remained out of range of the turrets in case they swung around at them again. For now, they were still firing at the rest of the group. The wall was holding on for now and the group were continuing to fire back when they had the chance, keeping the attention on them for even longer. Eventually, Gearshift got to the side of the building, his own body slamming into it. The wall felt cold against his side, the metallic structure as solid as he expected it to be. His attention then turned to Candy Cane, who came up just behind him.

"Here comes the fun part." she said, shuffling past him. 

The terminal laid before them, very similar to the ones within their stable home. Candy Cane wiped the screen with her hoof in order to get a clearer look at it. Looking over the keyboard, she gave a few of the keys some taps. As fate would have it, the screen booted up with a feint green glow. As she got to work on the terminal, Gearshift looked around in case any other turrets or openings became visible from where they were. There was nothing present for now and Gearshift was getting agitated as the turrets continued to fire. They were very loud this close up, the amount of rounds held within them contributing greatly to that. 

"CC, any luck yet?!" Gearshift asked, having to raise his voice in order to be heard. A metallic buzz answered him, coming from the terminal. 

"Gearshift!" Candy Cane snapped, looking back at him. "That's one of my tries gone!"

"Your tries?" 

"You only get a few tries for a terminal or it locks you out and if it locks you out you're unable to access it. In turn, we won't be able to get in if I get locked out of here!"

"Oh. I'm sorry, go on."

Gearshift moved back, allowing Candy Cane the space she needed. As much as the back and forth cracks and barrages of gunfire were prelific, she was very much in the zone and was searching for the correct password in order to access the terminal.

*BUZZ*

"Shit." Candy Cane muttered under her breath.

"CC? Any time now." Gearshift said. 

"Gearshift, I mean this in the nicest way but shut up and let me think!" Candy Cane turned to him for a moment before looking back at the terminal. As she got back into her focused mindset, Gearshift looked back towards the others. His eyes widened upon seeing that there weren't firing back anymore, the turrets however were keeping up the relentless assault on the wall that they were sheltering behind. The wall was starting to break apart and little by little the group were becoming more and more exposed to the turret fire. But then, they stopped firing. The rounds stopped flying, leaving the barrels of each turrets smoking and reddened from the high amount and velocity of rounds that had been fired over the last few minutes.

"I got it! Turrets disabled!" Candy Cane exclaimed. 

"Yes!" Gearshift cheered, wrapping his hooves around her in a hug. "You did it!"

After taking a moment to gather themselves and catch their breaths, the others made their way over to Gearshift and Candy Cane, the later of which was going through the terminal systems.

"Thank goodness you managed to shut them off." Tulip said, thankfully.

"You guys kept them busy for us." Candy Cane said.

"Good thing you shut it off when you did, we would've been in one heck of a pinch." Butch said, wiping sweat from his forehead. 

"In hindsight, a password of 'Invention' was something I should've figured out on my first attempt. You know, considering it's a laboratory." Candy Cane said, rubbing the back of her neck. 

A few more clicks and taps from the keyboard followed as Candy Cane continued to work her way through the systems. Gearshift looked over at the screen as she moved through them one at a time eventually a screen displayed itself:


Trottingham Research Laboratories Outer Terminal


•Turret Controls


•Hallway Camera Settings


•Entryway Controls


"Entryway Controls! Get us inside, CC." Gearshift said, almost knocking her over in his enthusiasm. She looked back at him with a small eye roll and then turned back towards the terminal screen. As she moved down the options and selected the third option, a small buzz came from the screen as the screen changed. Once the new screen appeared, new options appeared along with it. 


Entryway Controls


•Open Main Entrance


•Retract Turrets


•Backup Entryway Systems


•Return


"Backup entryway? What's that?" Steel Tip asked, looking at the others and getting equal looks of confusion in return.

"Check it out." Gearshift said, nudging Candy Cane. Selecting the option, the same buzz would return as the screen displayed a message:


Access Denied: Only Dr. Bunsen Burner is allowed access to this entryway. 


"Guess we're not getting any secret passages." Lavender Blossom said.

Returning back to the previous screen, Candy Cane selected the option labeled:


•Open Main Entrance


Another message displayed on the screen:


Open Main Entrance


Confirm?


Y / N


With one last button and the screen turning off, a green light brightly flashed above the doors. Gearshift took a step back and turned to face the doors, the others all doing the same. Candy Cane was the last to look towards the doors, standing beside Gearshift. The flashing over the green light continued, illuminating the group. After a few moments of flashing, the two metallic doors were slowly pulled in opposite directions, a quiet steamy hiss emanating from them as the distance between them gradually increased. Looking through the widening gap, Gearshift panned his eyes downwards at the floor. The green flashing light above the door was one of a pair, the other on the inside of the entryway. The doors finished their opening cycle, an audible *klunk* coming out of the mechanisms in the walls the doors slid into. Then there was only silence.

"Well, time to get moving." Gearshift said, looking at the others. Each of them seemed a mixture of nervous and ready to go, contrasting emotions prominent. He then turned to look at Butch, who was in turn looking at the deactivated turrets.

"I hadn't imagined that I'd be back ever again." Butch said, keeping his eyes on the turrets as he spoke. 

"Well thanks to you we've already come this far." Snowball said, smiling at him. 

"Snow's right, you've done so much for us in just getting us here." Gearshift added, placing a hoof on Butch's shoulder, the two sharing a look and a following smile. 

"I still have more to do." Butch said, everyone looking at him. "I did help get you here but the inside of these labs are uncharted territory and we have no idea what could be inside." He added, gesturing inside. His response got smiles from the group, who all were in subconscious agreement. 

"You better be right alongside us as we head through this place then, huh?" Fresh Canvas said, giving Butch a soft jab in the shoulder. 

With a nod of his head, Butch looked back into the dimly illuminated corridor. Gearshift matched his gaze, looking ahead into the unknown. Taking a step forward, Gearshift breached the threshold of Trottingham Research Laboratories for the first time. The rest of the group each took their own first steps inside, moving as cautiously as they did when leaving Stable 54 and entering the Equestrian Wasteland for the very first time. After stepping through the entryway, Gearshift noticed the same square shape on the the wall on this side as that had been on the wall on the outside. Another terminal. He had to squint his eyes in order to clearly make out the shape. Moving into the corridor, his hoofsteps clicking along the floor, Gearshift brought up his foreleg and used his nose to click on his PipBuck light. The green glow of his PipBuck was soon joined by the lights of each PipBuck that was present on a Stable Pony, Butch keeping close in order to be able to see where he was going. Casting his eyes, and raising his forleg upwards, Gearshift noticed the lights hanging from the ceiling. Turning back towards the others, Gearshift held the light up to his face so that they could see him. 

"Alright, stick together, it doesn't look like any of the power is-" he began. However, he was swiftly interrupted by one of the lights loudly blinking to life at the far end of the hallway and remaining lit as the next light closest to them flickered on. One by one, each light from the ceiling came on until the one above them flashed to life, momentarily forcing them to shield their eyes from the brightness. 

"Agh, you were saying?" Steel Tip asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Scratch that, the power is fine." Gearshift said, rubbing his own eyes before switching off his PipBuck light. Once his eyes had adjusted to the new light, he turned to the others once again as they shook themselves off. Once they were all set, they began to walk down the now lit up hallway. One thought was in Gearshift's mind. The core we need is here. Now all we have to do is find it.

As they continued down the hallway, the gentle hum of the lights above them, the main doors hissed once again and slowly but surely closed with the same *klunk* as when they opened up, separating them all from the Wasteland.
> Chapter 4: Trottingham Research Laboratories - Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seeing the doors close, the mood amongst the group shifted. Several glances amongst one another and then towards the door followed. The atmosphere in the hall grew cold as each of them tried to process what had just occurred. 

"Looks like there's no going back now." Fresh Canvas said. 

"Then we push on. Our home is counting on us." Gearshift said, looking at him. 

Looking down the now illuminated hallway ahead of them, thoughts began rolling through Gearshift's head. Butch had said it himself that from this point on, not even he knew what to expect. It has to be here. It just has to be. The image of Stable 54 in disarray attached itself to his mind like a vice. Everypony struggling to carry on going, with no power and then the eventual meltdown of the reactor. The mental image then switched to Tool Box, alone in the reactor room as it all went wrong. Quickly shaking his head, he looked at the others as Butch was now standing beside him. 

"Everythin' alright?" Butch asked, putting a hoof on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm okay. The sooner we find the fusion core and get out of here the better." Gearshift answered. 

With that, the group began walking down the hallway, whilst keeping mindful of their surroundings. Upon reaching the end, they followed the hallway around and to the left, the ceiling lights flickering on just as the previous ones had done. The hallways were eerily quiet, the only sounds coming from the humming of the lights and the sound of the group's hoofsteps against the floor. The walls either side of them were dark grey in color, having dulled over the years with no one entering or exiting. At the far end of the hallway on the wall, a sign marking out the various locations of the floor they were currently on sat. Approaching the sign, the group each took in its features.


<Stairwell.


<Stage 1 Labs.


>Cafeteria.


>Maintenance & Repairs.



"There. The labs, that's where we need to start." Gearshift said, pointing at the sign. 

The rest of the group followed his hoof to the labelled area he was pointing at before he turned and lead off down the hall. The others followed after him, almost jogging to keep up as Gearshift had already set off without any hesitation or consideration to move at a moderate pace.  Come on, come on, come on. Gearshift was scanning the entire hallway with his eyes, from the floors, to the walls and up at the ceiling for some indication of where the labs would be on this floor. He could just about hear the others muttering behind him as he walked but remained zoned in on his objective. Coming around the next corner, he noticed something at the far end of the following hallway. A set of double doors. Above them was an illuminated sign, which flickered occasionally. Gearshift had to narrow his eyes in order to make out what the sign said:


Level 1 Labs


"There it is!" Gearshift exclaimed, looking back towards the others before breaking into a gallop down the hall. 

"Gearshift, slow down!" Candy Cane called to him, huffing in annoyance when he didn't listen. 

Gearshift continued running, the double doors getting closer. He could clearly make out what the sign said now the closer he got to it. The first part of the sign which he'd noticed before, 'Level 1 Labs', was only the first part of the sign. Below the first part of the sign was a smaller set of words:


Level 1 Clearance Required.


Seeing this, Gearshift's gallop slowed abruptly to a trot and eventually he stopped still all together. The rest of the group eventually caught up with him, coming to a stop beside him. 

"Level 1 clearance?" Fresh Canvas asked. "How do we get that?" 

"It seems we're going to need a keycard of some kind." Butch spoke up, pointing a hoof at the doors in front of them. The spot where the deputy was pointing was in the middle of the two doors. Sitting there was a keypad with a slot below it for a keycard to be slotted into. Above the keys was a small screen, a gentle blue light emitting from it. The message 'Insert keycard: Level 1 Clearance required' displayed.

"There has to be one around here somewhere." Gearshift said, looking around them. Upon looking back down the hall, he noticed a few side doors which he'd had missed during his gallop. There were six in total, three on each side. "What about in there?"

"They could work." Lavender Blossom said with a nod.

Turning back to face the way they came, the group looked towards the doors. Each of them looked to be offices that lead in the direction of the lab. 

"Wait a minute. Didn't that sign earlier say there was a maintenance section?" Steel Tip asked. "Surely there would be keycards down there, right? That's where our reserves were kept in the stable. Maybe it's the same here."

"It can't hurt to look." Candy Cane said. 

"Wait, are you suggesting we split up?" Tulip asked, not really sounding too fond of the idea. Snowball shared her expression of uncertainty. 

Gearshift looked at the two of them. "We're on a time crunch. This might be the best way to get into that lab and see what is inside." He said in a soft and calming tone. "The two of you don't need to worry. Steel and I will check out maintenance and meet back here with you guys after we've scoped the place out."

The two mares looked at one another before looking past him at Steel Tip, who gave a reassuring smile.

"You're right." Tulip said. 

"Yeah. We'll look around here." Snowball nodded her head. 

Gearshift smiled at the two of them, then turned to look at Steel Tip. "Ready to go?" 

"Ready." Steel Tip nodded.

"You guys are going to need help if there are terminals down there." Candy Cane said, looking at the duo.

The two stallions looked at one another before looking back at her and smiling.

"Let's get going then." Gearshift said to her. His attention then turned to the remainder of the group. "Alright, if any of you find anything or something happens go to Butch." 

Butch seemed taken aback at the statement but nodded his head, accepting the responsibility. The rest of the group nodded in agreement. 

"We'll be back before you know it." Steel Tip said.

Giving a wave of a hoof, Gearshift, Steel Tip and Candy Cane galloped back down the hall the way they came and disappeared back around the corner. 

"Alright, let's get to work." Butch said to the rest of the group. 


◇◇◇◇◇


Running past the sign they had stopped at earlier, Gearshift lead the way to the end of the hallway and around the corner. With Steel Tip and Candy Cane running with him, Gearshift kept his eyes directly ahead, looking for any possible signs of where they needed to go. As they ran, a sign hanging from the ceiling came into view, which was followed by two branching paths.


^Cafeteria.


<Maintenance & Repairs.


With a quick glance and a change of pace, the trio took a quick left turn and headed down the small hallway which lead to a staircase. The staircase headed down, metal stairs adorning it with red banister railings either side. At the bottom of the stairs was a dimly lit hall they could only make out the beginnings of. Stopping at the top of the stairs, Gearshift looked down towards the bottom and then at the others.

"Okay, let's keep our eyes open down here. No telling what could be here." He said, Steel Tip and Candy Cane nodding in response. The two unicorns levitated their weapons into a raised position whilst Gearshift took his baton from his belt and held it in his hoof via the strap. Ready to move, Gearshift led the trio down the stairs, taking each step at a time, a quiet creak coming from each step. Upon reaching the bottom of the staircase, another ceiling light flickered to life and illuminated the hall. As the lights lit up the hall, a picture presented itself. Nobody had been down here in a while but whoever was had left in a hurry, evident by the strewn about tools and equipment left on the grey and cracked flooring. 

"You think they'll be anything down here?" Steel Tip asked. 

"There has to be. We need to get into the lab and search inside." Gearshift said.

Beginning down the hall, Gearshift noticed two doors on the left side. The closer of the two doors was darker in color and had scratched off writing on the front. On the right side, almost at the end of the hall, was a side area which anyone working in maintenance would recognise. Various tools and equipment, such as power tools and manual tools. A left turn at the end of the hall was shrouded in darkness but was occasionally illuminated by a flickering light, the light in question quietly humming with each flicker.

"This place could use some TLC." Candy Cane said as they walked down the hall. 

Focusing on the first door, Gearshift stepped towards it. "Alright, let's start in here." He looked at the sign.


Mai..na..ce..


Res....oms...


Raising up his free hoof, Gearshift took hold of the doorknob and held up his baton hoof at the ready. Trying the handle, the door gave a satisfying click and opened. More ceiling lights sprung to life, illuminating the room before them. Stalls lined both sides of the room with sinks at the far side for hoof washing. In the centre of the room was another wall, separating the two sides of the restroom. On the wall were two images, the left sided image was a faded blue colored picture of a stallion and on the right was an image of a mare, pink in color with the paint slightly cracked. On the mare side of the room, the light above the sinks flickered on and off in a steady pattern. On the stallion side, one of the stall doors had been ripped off its hinges and was laying on the ground. 

"Restrooms." Gearshift said, referring back to the scratched door sign, Steel Tip glancing back at it as they walked in. 

The restrooms were eerily quiet, the only sounds coming from their hoofsteps on the tiled floor. Gearshift glanced around, walking into the stallion side and gently pushed opened each stall door, having to lean back from some of them. 

"Would it kill anyone to flush?" He asked aloud.

"Not a fan?" Steel Tip smirked. 

"Shit stench isn't exactly my favorite fragrance." Gearshift retorted, getting a giggle from Candy Cane in return.

Upon getting to the end, he inspected the sinks, finding nothing of use. With that, he turned around and walked back towards the entrance. Candy Cane, having been checking out the mare side, was equally unsuccessful in finding anything that would help them. The trio regrouped by the restroom entrance then made their way back into the hallway before heading further down towards the second door. Stepping up to said door with weapons raised once more, Gearshift tried the doorknob but nothing happened. There was no movement in the door apart from a short jerk when Gearshift gave the doorknob a tug.

"Locked?" Candy Cane asked. 

"Locked." Gearshift answered. 

"We've got to get in there, there could be something we need in here." Candy Cane said. "Anyone got any bobby pins?"

"I got this." Steel Tip said. Illuminating his horn, a small metallic box levitated out from his saddlebag. Taking off the lid, a hooffull of bobby pins revealed themselves, 8 pins in total. Levitating out the pin, he got to work on getting the door open. As he did so, Gearshift and Candy Cane looked down either direction of the hall and kept an eye out for anyone that would be coming in their direction.

*SNAP*

"Shit." Steel Tip exhaled. 

"What was that sound?" Candy Cane asked. 

"Bobby pin snapped." Steel Tip answered, levitating out another pin to have another crack at the lock. 

As he worked on the lock, Gearshift looked in Candy Cane's direction. Opening his mouth, he was about to say something to her when the sound of the door look clicking caught their attention. Looking at Steel Tip, Gearshift smirked. 

"You get it?" Gearshift asked. 

"Obviously." Steel Tip said, standing up straight. Placing the lid back on the pin pot and placing it back into his bag, he placed his hoof on the doorknob and pushed open the door to reveal a storage room. "Well that's anticlimactic."

The room was only small in size and was dimly lit, resulting in the usage of PipBuck lights to see what was inside. The room was narrow, also seeming quite baron. Empty metal boxes and bare shelves lined the floor and walls. The scent of open paint cans lingered in the air, hanging over the trio as they shuffled into the room one by one.

"Not holding out much hope for this." Candy Cane said. 

The look in the maintenance room did not last long, Gearshift the last to exit the room before closing the door behind him. Sharing brief glances, the three continued on towards the end of the hall, approaching the side area on the right side of the hall. The side area had significantly more equipment than the previous room. Taking a side each, they scanned around in search of a potential keycard. Rummaging around his section, Gearshift emptied out cases and boxes with multiple bolts and screws tumbling out onto the floor as he searched.  Come on, come on, come on! The more he continued to search, the less positive his outcome became. Looking over his shoulder at Steel Tip, Gearshift glanced at the small mess of equipment around him. There wasn't anything of note scatterdd around, which was beginning to frustrate the unicorn stallion. Turning to the other side, he watched as Candy Cane pulled out a small container from within a brown box. Pulling off the lid, she searched through it before letting out a huff.

"I've got nothing over here." She said.

"Me neither." Gearshift said. 

"Nada." Steel Tip said. 

Moving out of the side area, their attention turned to the flickering light around the corner. Gearshift turned the corner and looked straight ahead, the flickering light providing brief flashes ahead of him. As Steel Tip and Candy Cane joined him, he looked at what lied ahead. Ahead of the trio was a short passageway with a door at the end, which was slightly ajar. Above the door was a sign in feint red writing:


Repairs


"Alright. Let's go." Gearshift said, walking towards the door. Placing a hoof on it, he pushed the door. To his surprise, the door didn't open any further. Attaching his baton back onto his belt, Gearshift placed his other front hoof on the door and began to push harder. The door creaked slightly and slowly slid further open,  prompting Steel Tip to put down his weapon and walk over to help Gearshift with the door. Pushing together, the door slid again before giving a hefty shunt and then stopping. The opening that presented itself was one that the three of them were able to squeeze through to get into the room. Once the last of them was in, they took in their surroundings - that of which they could see. Only part of the room was illuminated by another flickering light on the far right side of the repair room. Gearshift turned his PipBuck light back on, the others doing the same. Holding up the light, the darkness became illuminated, showing the remainder of the room. A door on the far left wall lead somewhere else whereas ahead of them was a work station. The station in question was draped with multiple blueprints along with writing equipment. The rest of the room, however, was in a state of disarray. Tools and paperwork were scattered about the floor and looked to have been dented and torn respectively. Gearshift walked over to the work station, looking at the blueprints and observed them. The designs were faded but he could make out some of them. Sprinkler system, some kind of garbage chute, ....whatever this is. Gearshift wasn't sure what the blueprints would still be doing on the table if there wasn't anypony there to start working on them. 

"Hey Gear?" Candy Cane's voice caught his attention. 

"Yeah?" He asked, turning to look at her. 

"Think you could help me move this? I think there's something behind it." 

Walking over, he saw what she was referring to. A metal shelving unit was propped up against the wall, as if to cover whatever was behind it from being seen. Taking hold of one side, Gearshift glanced at Candy Cane as she did the same. 

"Ready?" Gearshift asked. 

"On 3." Candy Cane responded. "1.....2.....3!" 

Tilting the shelving unit in Gearshift's direction, Gearshift stepped back to soften the decent of the unit from the wall instead of dropping it. Placing it down on the ground, he finally got a look at what Candy Cane had seen. 

"A terminal? Why would someone want to hide a terminal?" Gearshift asked, stepping towards it.

"Beats me. I'll check it out." Candy Cane said, moving to the terminal and booting it up.

Turning back around Gearshift noticed Steel Tip trying to get the door out of the room open. The unicorn looked through the glass sections of the door into the room on the other side but had no fortune in finding anything. 

"Pitch black in there." Steel Tip said. 

"No luck in getting it open?" Gearshift asked, to which Steel Tip shook his head.

"There's no lock on this one either." Steel Tip added. 

The two looked at the door once again, looking for anything that would help them to get the door open but there was nothing visible to assist them in doing so, frustrating the two. The frustration was short lived as a short "hmph." from Candy Cane made them both turn around to look at her. 

"Something wrong, CC?" Gearshift asked. 

"There's files on this terminal... but they're encrypted." Candy Cane answered.

"Does everything in this place have some sort of password?" Steel Tip asked with an eye roll.

"Wouldn't surprise me." Candy Cane said as she worked to find the correct password.

Gearshift and Steel Tip shared a look at one another before looking back at Candy Cane as she worked. 

"Screwdriver?" *BZZT* "Damn." Candy Cane groaned, her first attempt unsuccessful. Two to go. The two stallions remained silent as she worked, not wanting to disturb her as she kept trying. Hearing her muttering to herself as she looked at the words on the screen, they shared another glance.

"Let's see here. Construction?" Candy Cane asked, submitting her second attempt. *BZZT* "Oh come on!" She exclaimed in annoyance. 

"I assume that wasn't it either." Steel Tip said, getting a glare in return. "Shutting up."

Gearshift smirked, looking at him, before his attention then turned to Candy Cane.

"Hey, don't worry CC, just take a breath and slow down." He told her. His words seemed to do the trick as she took a few deep breaths and turned back to the terminal with a more composed expression on her face. 

A few seconds passed, which felt like an eternity, before Candy Cane selected her final allotted password. 

"Please work, please work, please work." She quietly pleaded, holding her hooves together.

There was a short pause as the three ponies stared at the screen, waiting for something to happen. Eventually, a message displayed itself on the screen.


ACCESS GRANTED


"Yes!" Candy Cane said happily, throwing her hooves in the air. 

"See? I knew you could do it." Gearshift said. 

"What was the password?" Steel Tip asked. 

"Restoration." Candy Cane answered, smiling happily. "Now, let's check this baby out."

Moving closer to her, the stallions were able to see the screens as Candy Cane moved through them. 


•Data Files•


•Audio Files•


•Generator Room Entryway•


"Generator room?" Gearshift asked. 

"I'm guessing that's where that doorway leads." Steel Tip said, glancing in the direction of the door. 

"What about the files?" Gearshift then asked, looking back at the screen. 

"Well, let's have a look." Candy Cane said, moving into that section. In doing so, more options displayed themselves.


•Generator Room Personnel•


•Staff Irritations•


•Aid Required•


•All Systems Nominal•


Looking at the four options, the trio then looked at one another. A silent agreement was made between them and Candy Cane selected the top option. 


•Generator Room Personnel•


Chief Repairs Officer Stone Wall


Repairs Crew Member Live Wire


Repairs Crew Member Spark Plug


Repairs Crew Trainee Solder Iron


"Four members of this repair crew and none of them are anywhere to be seen?" Gearshift asked, looking around and back towards the door. 

"Nopony was exactly rushing to give us a warm welcome." Steel Tip commented.

Moving back to the menu screen, Candy Cane selected the second file.


•Staff Irritations•


 This is the fifth time that one of those labcoats has waltzed down here to make a request for another piece of equipment to be fixed up or have us running pointless jobs just so they can live it up on the upper floors. If you want something done so badly, why can't you just do it yourselves? All I ask is that you at least wait until we're not busy before you come ask us to unlock a door for you. If you don't start sorting your act out soon, you're gonna have all of maintenance and repairs on your asses, understand?
- Chief Repairs Officer Stone Wall


"Complainer much?" Steel Tip asked, making Gearshift smirk.

"Wonderful. Just someone bitching about coworkers." Candy Cane groaned as she moved onto the next file. 


•Aid Required•


In need of some assistance down here, after looking through the generator room, we've noticed a large crack in the wall that is open to the outside. That's not all though, Live Wire took some readings over the far side of the generator and she discovered traces of radiation. We're going to need the decontamination team to come and give this a look. The sooner they get down here the better as we've got work to get down and I want to have a save environment for all of us to work in.
-Chief Repairs Officer Stone Wall


"There's radiation down here?!" Gearshift asked in surprise. 

"Hold on, hold on, there's another entry here." Candy Cane said, moving to the final file. 


•All Systems Nominal•


Radiation issue has been sorted. All systems nominal, we shall continue as planned. 
- S. Wall


Upon reading this, Candy Cane turned to look at Gearshift and Steel Tip with a confused look on her face. The two of them looked at one another and then back at her. 

"What is it?" Gearshift asked.

"Something about that message doesn't seem right." Candy Cane answered. "He went from writing paragraphs to doing two lines."

"Think something caused him to change his tone?" Gearshift asked.

"Possibly." Steel Tip said. 

Moving onto the previous screen, Candy Cane navigated to the audio files section and a few files revealed themselves, 3 in total. Selecting the first file, words came up on the screen as the audio played out.


Audio Log 070 - Chief Repairs Officer Stone Wall
"Repairs Log 070 - Looking through our equipment list, it seems we're missing a few things. I wonder where they might've trotted off to. I'm sure the labcoats upstairs won't know anything about it at all. Nooooo, not a chance they'll have seen our gear that we need to DO OUR JOB!" 


The sarcasm was practically oozing out of the terminal, each of the group picking up on it. Stone Wall's voice was rough and strong but underneath that loud exterior, was a heart. A heart that wanted a stable and harmonious working environment for his repairs team and the others in the maintenance section. 

"I wonder what happened for mister Stone Wall to be so agitated with the scientists." Candy Cane said, looking at the stallions, who both shrugged in response. 

"I'm not sure, but whatever it was it doesn't sound like it was good." Gearshift said.


Audio Log 071 - Chief Repairs Officer Stone Wall
"Repairs Log 071 - Seems like the noise we've been making got some of the labcoats to take notice. They even gave some of the equipment back. Some is better than none, right? Sooner or later they're going to take us seriously, even if I have to march upstairs and give em an earfull myself. Snobby bastards won't know what hit em if it comes to that."


Hearing this file, the three looked at one another once again. 

"He really isn't fond of the scientists is he?" Steel Tip asked, to which the others shook their heads. 

Upon looking back at the screen once again, Candy Cane played the final audio file. 


Audio Log 072 - Repairs Crew Member Spark Plug
"Repairs Log 072 - There's been a lot going on down here over the last couple of days. Multiple scientists have been coming down to address concerns we'd had but none of them seemed happy about the concerns we had. They ended up taking the boss up with them to talk to him in private which he was not fond of. Although, when he came back he said that one of their higher ups would be coming down to finally sort everything out. To be honest, it took them long enough." The young mare's voice was calm and relaxed.


Following the culmination of the file, Candy Cane moved back through the menus and landed on the initial screen to open the entryway. 

"Well, let's get this thing open and see what's on the other side." She said. Gearshift and Steel Tip both nodded, checking their things and getting ready to move on. With one tap of a button, a metallic mechanism in the door unlocked and a feint green light came on above the door. 

Turning to face the entryway, Gearshift stepped towards the door and placed his hoof on it, waiting for the others to come up behind him. 

"Ready?" He asked, looking at the two of them. 

"Let's go." Steel Tip said, levitating his shotgun. 

Candy Cane levitated her pistol, nodding her head. "Ready."

Gearshift pushed open the door and moved through, the others right behind him with their weapons at the ready. The room itself was shrouded in darkness, leaving them with practically no way of seeing anything in front of them. 

"Let there be light." Gearshift said, holding up his PipBuck light and looking at the others as they did the same. 

The light of their PipBucks illuminated the immediate area ahead of them, showing a portion of the room. As they stepped into the room, Gearshift raised his hoof higher up. This in turn lit up more of what was ahead of them. A large glass panel began to come into Gearshift's line of sight. 

"Glass?" He asked, stepping closer. 

As Steel Tip and Candy Cane joined him, coming up beside him, the combined light of their PipBucks showed the true extent of the glass. The glass stretched out across the majority of the wall. On the other side of the glass was the shape of a large contraption that was only just distinguishable.

"That must be the generator." Steel Tip said. 

"Well it seems to be doing its job.... mostly." Candy Cane said.

"Let's just keep looking for a keycard then we can get out of here." Gearshift said. 

"Yeah, this place is creeping me out enough already." Candy Cane said. 

Upon turning to look around the room, something made their ears perk up. 

*KLIK*.......*KLIK* *KLIK*.......*KLIK*

"What's that?" Candy Cane asked, her voice shaking.

Looking around the immediate area once again, they saw nothing. That was until Gearshift glanced at his PipBuck. Pulling it closer to his head, the clicking grew louder. 

"That's not good." He said. 

"What?" Steel Tip asked.

"Radiation."

The answer got a gasp out of Candy Cane, who looked over her shoulder at the door they came in through. 

Gearshift elevated his hoof once more and held it out in front of him, turning his attention back to the glass. Although, to the left side of the glass, something caught Gearshift's eye. A metallic entryway door, no different than the one they came through, lay bolted shut. This door also required a keycard. The clicking of radiation on Gearshift's PipBuck got slightly faster as he approached the door, even more so when he placed his hoof on it. This caused him to take a few steps backwards as a result, the clicking gradually slowing down once again as he did so. 

"Looks like that problem wasn't taken care of, huh?" Steel Tip said.

"Nope." Gearshift said with a shake of his head. 

"But why would they say that the radiation had been dealt with?" Candy Cane asked. 

"I'm not sure, but we have to find this keycard and get back to the others." Gearshift said. 

Turning away from the door, Gearshift stepped towards the other side of the room. However, he didn't get far as his hoof came into contact with something which caused him to stumble and almost fall. Regaining his composure, he raised his PipBuck light to see what he had tripped over. His eyes widened at the sight before him. Ahead of him was the leg of a pony, said leg attached to the rest of the pony. A motionless pony. This pony wasn't alone, three others were lined up beside them with each of them laying in the same position face down. Looking at them all, Gearshift crouched down and placed a hoof on them to check for a pulse, unable to feel one in any of them. 

Steel Tip came over and crouched beside one of the other bodies. Rolling over the body, he managed to get a look at their face. The pony was a unicorn mare with a faint yellow mane, only just able to be made out by the light. Her coat color was a shade of blue he couldn't quite make out. Although the main factor he took note of was the bullet hole in the middle of her forehead.

"Well, looks like this is what killed her." He said, looking at the others. 

Looking at the body he was beside, Gearshift turned it over to examine them. The body was that of an earth pony stallion, his coat brown in color. 

"He's got one too." Gearshift said, gesturing to the matching bullet hole in the same location in his forehead. 

Upon examining the other bodies, another unicorn mare and a younger earth pony stallion respectively, the latter of the two only around his early teens at a glance, they would also find matching bullet holes.

"They all have one." Steel Tip said.

"Something doesn't seem right here." Gearshift said. 

"You mean besides the fact there are four bodies in here?" Candy Cane asked. 

"I mean that each of these bullet holes are in the exact same place on each of them. These four weren't randomly shot, this was an execution." Gearshift clarified. 

There was a pause and stretch of silence between the group, glances being exchanged between them. Gearshift thought about the files they'd read and listened to earlier on before turning his attention to the bodies once again. Moving over to the body of the brown coated stallion, he turned the stallion onto his back. Gesturing the others to do the same, the other bodies were then turned over onto their backs as well. Moving the PipBuck lights down, the attire of the ponies was now visible - Engineering Overalls. Adorning the overalls were multiple pockets, some zipped and others free hanging. Getting an idea, he reached into the largest pocket he saw. A large chest pocket in the centre of the brown stallion's overalls. Rummaging his hoof around within the pocket, he came up empty and thus moved on to the next pocket. His ears twitched slightly, hearing Candy Cane and Steel Tip as they followed his lead but he remained focused. Moving from pocket to pocket, Gearshift became gradually more irritated at not finding anything. However, relief struck him when in the second to last pocket something brushed against his hoof. Quickly grasping the object, he pulled it towards him and out of the pocket, getting it caught up the zip a couple of times before it finally came out. In his haste to pull the object out, he pulled slightly to hard and unintentionally tossed it away from himself. The object landed with a small clatter, the sound making all three ponies look in its direction and making Candy Cane raise her pistol as a reflex.

"What was that?" she asked. 

"I found something in one of the pockets." Gearshift answered. 

"So you threw it?" Steel Tip asked, smirking.

Gearshift rolled his eyes hard enough to almost knock them loose from his head before shuffling over towards the object and sliding it back over so the three of them were able to see it. Looking at the object on the ground, the PipBuck light allowed them to fully see it. 

"A keycard!" Candy Cane exclaimed. 

The small plastic card looked back at the trio, adorned with an image of the brown earth pony stallion on the left side of the card. To the right of the card were his details. 


Stone Wall
Chief Repairs Officer
Repairs/Maintenance
Level 2 Clearance


Below the details was a string of numbers that took up the entire bottom of the card. The feeling of relief returned to Gearshift, resulting in a small smile forming on his face. It would then quickly drop as quick as it had arrived. 

"Wait. If this is Stone Wall, then does that mean...?" Gearshift trailed off, looking at the other bodies. 

Steel Tip and Candy Cane checked the remaining pockets on the respective bodies they'd been checking moments earlier, eventually pulling out matching cards from the two unicorn mares. Gearshift checked over the younger earth pony stallion but failed to find a card in any of his pockets.

"Repairs Crew Member Spark Plug. Level 1 clearance." Steel Tip read out. 

"Repairs Crew Member Live Wire. Level 1 clearance." Candy Cane read.

Glancing at the two of them as they read, Gearshift then looked towards the remaining body without a card to accompany it. 

"That must be Solder Iron, the trainee." he said softly.

"He's just a kid." Candy Cane said.

Gearshift and Steel Tip looked at one another before looking back at the body of the young buck.

Standing back up, Steel Tip looked at Gearshift once more and placed a hoof on his shoulder. 

"Come on, we need to get back to the others." He said, his tone of voice soft but composed simultaneously.

Gearshift looked at him before turning to look at Candy Cane, who nodded her head before standing up. Taking one last look at the bodies, Gearshift bowed his head in a moment of respect for the four lives lost. After doing so, he pulled himself to his hooves and turned to the others. 

"Let's go."


◇◇◇◇◇


Galloping back up the stairs and down the hallway, the trio could hear the feint sound of voices the closer and closer they got to the area they'd left the others in. Coming around the corner, Gearshift almost crashed into Fresh Canvas as he came out of one of the rooms. Quickly stopping himself, he stumbled slightly but didn't fall into him.

"Gear!" Fresh said upon turning to look at him. "You're back!" His words made the others look in their direction, Tulip and Lavender Blossom in the hall and the others poking their heads out from the rooms they were in.

"Good to see you all again." Butch said, walking over to them. "I hope y'all have had better luck than we have."

"As a matter of fact we have." Candy Cane said, levitating the keycard she had into view, Steel Tip doing the same.

Gearshift held up his with his teeth before sliding it back into his pocket. 

"You found three of those?!" Lavender Blossom asked in surprise.

"We did but..... we found them on bodies." Gearshift informed them, the information getting a few concerned looks from the group. 

"You didn't harm anyone in order to get those did you?" Butch asked, slightly narrowing his eyes.

"No." Gearshift answered, shaking his head. "They were dead when we found them. But that's not all."

"It isn't?" Tulip asked.

"Each of them had a matching bullet hole in the centre of their foreheads." Steel Tip said. 

"Matching bullet holes?" Butch asked. 

"We're not wanting to confirm anything yet but it looked a lot like an execution. They were laying face down when we came into the room." Gearshift answered. Briefly glancing at his PipBuck, he checked the readings. "There were also traces of radiation on the inside of a generator room."

"Radiation?!" The group exclaimed. 

"Not a heavy amount but it is there." He clarified. 

The group would all look at one another before Butch spoke up. 

"All things considered, we do need to keep moving if we want to find your core." He said. 

Nodding in agreement, the group turned towards the Level 1 Labs door once again. Walking towards the door, Candy Cane levitated up her card. Being the closest to the door, she inserted her keycard into the slot on the underside of the keypad, a small chime playing as it was inserted. On the screen, the previously displayed message had now changed, now displaying a new one. 


--Keycard Inserted--
Initializing...



--Welcome [LIVE WIRE]--
Please input keycard number code. 
*****


Looking at the number at the bottom of the card, Candy typed it out onto the keypad. The numbers weren't as many compared to Stone Wall's card, but they did match up with the required amount. Upon typing in the code, she stepped back from the keypad and a second chime played. 


ACCESS GRANTED


The doors slid open, revealing the labs to the group. Seconds later, the lights flickered to life. One by one, the group entered the labs and got their first look at the work stations that scientists would've worked at day to day. Across said stations laid multiple forms of equipments such as beakers and test tubes, multiple sets of each at each work station. In the far corner of the room was a lab coat room, a couple of coats visible from where they were standing.

"Alright, let's fan out and check this place out. There's got to be something around here that we can use to find our way to get the core." Gearshift told them.

The group then split off into various sections of the room, looking through drawers, cupboards and desks in order to find anything that might be useful to them.

Gearshift walked over to the lab coat room on the far side, stepping through the open door and moving to each coat individually. Looking in each pocket, similar to how he did with the repair crew ponies, he checked for forms of identification or anything usable. Even a piece of scrap paper could help at this point. Gearshift eventually got to the far side of the coat room, stepping past the final pair of coats before pushing open a door on the far side, another light flickering to life and allowing Gearshift to look around. The room he currently found himself in was a storage room, thus, not very helpful. A quick scan of the room left Gearshift empty hoofed, the only items inside of notes being a wrench, a small box of pins and screws and a sweeping broom. Fanfuckingtastic. Upon coming back out of the lab coat room, he looked across the room as the group had gathered on the other side of the room. None of them had any positive looks on their faces, Gearshift sharing their looks as he walked to them.

"This place is practically empty." Lavender Blossom groaned. 

"Evidently they'd cleared this place out." Butch said, looking amongst the group and at the drawers they'd been looking through. 

"Well, this is only the bottom floor, I'm sure there will be more useful things further up." Snowball said optimistically, to which the others acknowledged with nods and small smiles. 

"Optimism like that will see us through." Butch said. "Come on, the sooner we get moving to the upper floors the more likely we are to find things."

Turning in the direction of the open door, the group made their way back out into the hallway. Collectively agreeing on a new course of action, the group headed in the direction they hadn't travelled thus far - towards the stairwell.


◇◇◇◇◇


Having moved through the near silent hallways, the humming of the ceiling lights the only form of noise, the Stable Ponies and Deputy came to the bottom of the level 1 stairwell. Looking up the stairs, the top of which disappeared into a black abyss of darkness, some of the group looked at one another. However, Gearshift was looking straight into the dark. 

"Looks like we're going into that. Keep close and keep your eyes open." He told the others, switching the light of his PipBuck back on once again. Glancing at Butch, the two nodded at one another as the latter remained alongside Gearshift. Once all PipBuck lights were on, Gearshift began walking up the metallic stairs, the group's hooves clanking against them as they ascended. Gearshift, Butch and Steel Tip were up front with Candy Cane, Tulip and Snowball behind them and Lavender Blossom bringing up the rear with Fresh Canvas, the two of them looking over their shoulders occasionally as they walked.

The temperature seemed to decrease as they ascended the staircase. Tilting his gaze upwards, Gearshift noticed a sign marked 'Level 2', thanks to the feint glow of the edge of the group's light source. The staircase proved to be longer than expected as the group had spent at least a minute climbing it, although, they did get to the top of it soon enough. Upon reaching the top, they were greeted by the sight of another hallway, but this one was different. The only thing visible was another sign at the far end of the corridor, illuminated by the only working light.

"Let's get a move on, we can check the sign for where to-" Butch began. He didn't get the sentence all the way out however as the bulb in the ceiling light above the sign burst. No, not burst, was deliberately taken out. 

Taking a few steps forward, Gearshift tried to get a look at anything he could make out.... which wasn't much. Looking down at his PipBuck momentarily, the targeting spell only showed the others standing behind him. That was until he picked his head up and a figure darted across the hall half way down ahead of him, promptly making his heart jump up out of his chest and lodge itself in his throat. 

"What the fuck was that?" He whispered, taking a step back towards the others. His entire coat hairs stood up on ends, his brain spinning wildly as he had to genuinely question himself if he had just seen something or his brain was making him out to be an idiot and playing tricks on him. 

"What was what?" Tulip asked, peeking out from behind Butch and looking down the hallway past Gearshift. 

She was soon answered when two more figures bolted across the hall.... and this time they were closer. All of the group had seen them that time, some of them staggering back in surprise, Snowball nearly staggered into Lavender Blossom upon seeing them. What followed was silence. Cold, haunting silence. Gearshift's eyes remained focused on the doorway he'd seen the two figures dart into, so focused that when Full House was raised up and levitated into his peripheral vision, he flinched. The others that were armed raised their own weapons and aimed down the hallway, ready for whatever came next. Moving a hoof to his belt, Gearshift felt around for his baton. He kept his eyes forward, narrowing them at the doorway. Raising a hoof to step forward once again, Gearshift inhaled through his nose in anticipation for something to make a sound or move through his limited field of vision. But nothing came as he had prepared for. 

Cautiously turning his head, his eyes met Steel Tip's momentarily. A loud bang swiftly followed and a bullet flew between them both, embedding in the wall behind them.
> Chapter 5: Trottingham Research Laboratories - Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Panic. Fucking. Stations.

The hallway soon became a shooting gallery as the armed members of the group fired back in the direction the bullet came from, whilst the others dropped down to the ground. Gearshift looked up at the others, watching them fire. His attention then turned in the direction of the hallway ahead of them. As the rounds flew in both directions, Gearshift turned towards the rooms ahead of them and then looked back up at the others engaged in the firefight.

"We have to move forward!" He exclaimed, trying to be heard over the top of the weapon fire.

"But how? They could be anywhere!" Steel Tip asked as he fired at one of the figures when they poked their head out of cover. 

"Look at the rooms! They're ducking in and out of them, we need to do the same!" Gearshift answered.

Looking back down the hallway once more, Gearshift saw more figures darting into the hallway. One of which ran straight at them, promptly being put down with a well placed headshot from Full House. Crawling forward on his stomach, Gearshift made his way towards the closest room to him, occasionally looking back towards the others. He was briefly struck by surprise upon seeing Snowball and Tulip crawling behind him but gave a small smile to the both of them. Approaching the closest doorway, Gearshift quickly pulled himself to his hooves. Pulling up his baton once again, he took a few breaths and turned around the doorway and darted into the room. His decision to do so promptly came back at him with a reality check as two of the figures he'd seen earlier were standing directly in front of him. With them being closer than he expected, he managed to get a good look at them both. 

"Ah!" One of them, a unicorn stallion, jumped in surprise. The second, a unicorn mare, quickly levitated a pistol, which Gearshift quickly deduced to be a revolver, out of a holster on her flank. Gearshift moved on her first.

Swinging his baton at the levitated weapon, he was able to knock it upwards as the mare fired. Turning the weapon on her, he aimed his next swing at her head but she was able to avoid it with a well time duck before turning the pistol back towards him again. Shifting his body position, when the revolver was fired again, the round made contact with his stable security vest. Although the vest slowed the round, it didn't stop it completely as he definitely felt the burning sensation of the round as the tip pressed against his chest, making him wince. Swinging the baton again with a yell, he made contact with the mare's chin, knocking her onto her back. Stepping forward to bring down the baton on her once again, his attempt was halted when the stallion grabbed him from behind. 

"You experiments should know your place!" The stallion growled, tossing Gearshift to the ground. 

Experiments?

Gearshift hit the ground, the pain in his chest burning that little bit more intensely. Looking up at the stallion, Gearshift quickly rolled sideways to avoid a pair of hooves coming down on his head. 

"You disturbed our work! We won't tolerate such insolence!" The stallion continued, glaring at Gearshift with a crazed look in his eyes. 

Hearing his words, Gearshift only now took notice of the lab coat he was wearing. Taking a quick glance at the mare on the ground, who was slowly shaking off her hit, he noticed she wore one too. His thought process was soon interrupted when a kick to the face knocked him into a brief daze. Shaking himself off quickly, he looked at the stallion once again as he wound up another harsh kick,  although Gearshift was able to get out of the way of it. Quickly scrambling to his hooves, Gearshift got face to face with the stallion. With his baton at the ready, he kept his gaze focused as the PipBuck light illuminated them. Lunging forward, the two stallions went for one another. Gearshift brought up his baton, swinging for the stallion's legs in order to knock him down, which earned him another kick as a result. Staggering back from the kick, Gearshift quickly became on the defensive as the stallion rushed at him. Using the baton to defend himself from strikes, he swung a few times to get in hits of his own. His ears twitched at the sound of the gunfire in the hallway momentarily as he backed up to size up another attacking option. The decision to do so proved to be beneficial as his eyes shifted to the shape of the mare back on her hooves once again. Instinctively back pedalling, Gearshift only just avoided a shot from the mare's revolver as it hit the floor where he had been standing. As he looked towards her, the stallion disappeared back into the darkness of the room as the light of Gearshift's PipBuck only reached so far. 

Taking cover behind a table that had been turned over, Gearshift momentarily caught his breath before two shots were fired. One passed clean through the table beside him but the second hit him in the shoulder, making him yell out in pain. Turning his head, he watched as the mare hurdled the table and turned the revolver towards him. Quickly thinking, he flicked the strap of the baton off of his hoof and brought up both hooves, pain bursting through his shoulder. Grabbing the mare's back legs as she cleared the table, he pulled down with all his might. The mare's agile initial motion completely folded, as did she, tumbling over the table and landing in a heap, dropping her revolver on the ground. 

Moving on pure reflexes and adrenaline, he lunged at her as she picked her head up and connected a hit with her jaw. She let out a pained exclamation as her head snapped backwards from the force of Gearshift's hit. Adding another, he knocked her down to the ground once more. With his attention focused on her, he was promptly taken by surprise when he was body checked from his left side by the unicorn stallion, getting knocked to the ground. His shoulder burned in pain and his chest jerked, adding more pain to his system. Wincing once more, he got up to his hooves and swiped up his baton. Having looked away for a second, the stallion took his opportunity and rounded on him, levitating something out of his lab coat pocket. Two somethings. Gearshift pulled his head backwards just in the nick of time as to not lose an eye as a scalpel was thrusted in the direction of his face, slicing only his cheek in the process thanks to his quick movements.

"Kill him! Kill him already just kill him!" The mare exclaimed in a crazed fashion. 

Gladly

Staying low and moving fast, Gearshift bolted at the stallion with his baton raised. As the second scalpel came at him, he slid underneath it and swung the baton, hitting the stallion at the side of his kneecaps and making his front legs buckle as a result. Coming back around, Gearshift swung once more and the baton connected with the stallion's jaw with a hefty whack. Dropping to the ground, the stallion was dazed from the hit. Quickly trying to shake himself off, he didn't see the baton come down on his jaw not once but twice, causing him to writhe in agony. Gearshift looked down at the stallion on the ground with a scowl before turning around and looking in the direction of the mare.... then took a round in the same shoulder. 

"AGH!! What is it with you and my fucking shoulder?!" Gearshift growled. 

Looking at her, his shoulder bleeding, he gritted his teeth. The mare had her revolver raised and pointed at him. 

"Now, you're going to put that stick on the ground and die like a good little guinea pig." The mare said with a psychotic giggle.

Gearshift took a couple of steps forward before seeing the revolver move closer to him, making him stop in his tracks. His brain quickly raced in order to find a way out. Eventually, something came to him and a smirk slowly curled onto his face.

"What are you grinning at?" The mare asked. 

"Oh nothing. I just remembered to keep count." Gearshift told her. 

The mare went wide eyed in horror and used her magic to pull the trigger of the revolver. *click*...*click**click* Gasping, the mare pulled back the pistol and checked the cylinder. The empty cylinder. She quickly started levitating fresh bullets into the cylinder as Gearshift quickly closed the distance. 

Gearshift got to the mare and swung the baton, connecting it with her jaw similar to how he did with her counterpart. She let out a pained yell and hit the ground, spitting out some blood. It appeared as though she'd bitten her tongue during the fall. Gearshift looked down at her, watching as she physically shook in pain. Glancing down at the revolver, Gearshift leaned down and picked it up via the mouth piece. Flicking his head to the side, the cylinder slid out to reveal four bullets inside. Huh, quick reload. Reinserting the cylinder, his attention turned back towards the two scientists. Stepping towards the stallion first, who was still writhing on the ground with his shattered jaw.

"Yu mthrfker. I'll kll yu!" He growled, looking up at Gearshift. 

Gearshift narrowed his eyes, looking down at him. "I doubt that." Turning slowly, Gearshift looked over at the mare. 

"AUURRRGHH!!" The stallion yelled, lunging up from the ground in an attempt to knock Gearshift to the ground. Quickly spinning back to look at him, Gearshift jumped backwards, fired two shots and the stallion dropped to the ground motionless, a bullet hole in his chest and head. 

Gearshift then turned back towards the mare and slowly walked over. Looking down at her, he saw an expression of pain and fear. 

"I'm sorry." He said, aiming the revolver and firing.


◇◇◇◇◇


The firefight in the hallway was slowly dying down as when Gearshift came out of the side room he'd been in, there were two bodies of scientists directly ahead of him. Full House, along with a shotgun and two pistols, cracked as the group had moved up ahead of him down the hall, evident by their PipBuck lights. Gearshift moved down the hall to join them as they fought off the remaining few scientists.

Their room darting tactic was quickly being found out, leaving them with only a straight fight through the hall. The Stable Ponies and Deputy quickly descended upon the scientists and took them out, Gearshift taking out the last one with another shot from his new revolver. Having scavenged extra bullets from the scientist mare, he had enough to last him, as long as he was cautious of how many shots he was firing. After making it to the end of the hallway and scanning the immediate area for any more surprises, they took a moment to catch their breaths. Having got there, their PipBuck lights were able to illuminate the sign on the wall that they had seen when they had arrived on this floor.


<Level 2 Labs.
<Outer Catwalks.
>Level 2 Stairwell.
>Level 2 Offices.


"What's the call?" Fresh Canvas asked.

"We hit the labs first, see if we can find anything." Gearshift answered, turning to look at the others. Nobody questioned his answer, the group promptly turning and heading in that direction. 

Turning into the next hallway, the illumination got no better as the lights remained out of commission. Gearshift kept his eyes firmly fixed on anything ahead of them. He was only able to see slightly ahead of the range of his PipBuck light, making anything beyond that unknown. His gaze had remained so focused that he didn't notice when Steel Tip nudged him as they walked, only taking notice when the nudge became a jab into his side.

"Hey, you alright?" Steel Tip asked, upon seeing Gearshift turn to look at him. 

"Wha- Huh? Y-Yeah, I'm fine." Gearshift answered, sliding the revolver back into his newly acquired holster. 

"You sure about that?" Steel Tip asked. 

"Steel, what are you getting at?" Gearshift asked.

"I'm just checking on you, making sure you don't freak out on me." Steel Tip answered. 

"Well, having to shoot two crazed scientists kinda has me running on adrenaline at the moment so ask me again in about an hour." Gearshift said.

"If everything calms down by then." Steel Tip muttered under his breath. 

A clang down the hallway made the group brace up, all weapons pointed in that direction. The darkness and lack of noise was making each and every sound that was heard sound like a potential threat. After a few seconds and silence, it would be Butch that moved first. The rest of the group stayed close and moved with him. The hallways seemed to go on for a short while longer than on the previous floor but eventually they turned the corner onto the Level 2 Labs hallway. The bottom of a sign was visible from where they were standing as it hung from the ceiling. Panning the light up, they got a full look at it. 


^Outer Catwalks.
>Level 2 Labs


Looking straight ahead, there was a single door at the far end of the hall they were standing in, the feint glimpse of outside confirming that. A side corridor branched off, taking them in the direction of the lab. One by one, looks were exchanged and weapons were loaded at the ready. Gearshift loaded his revolver before looking at the rest of the group. 

"Let's move." He said, getting nods from the others. 

Turning the corner, Gearshift stopped in his tracks, his eyes going wide. Looking at the floor, he noticed streaks of black markings on the ground. Moving his light to get a better look, his breath caught and held itself. Two bodies lay on the streaks, unmoving. They both looked as if they had passed around the same time, the streaks leading from behind them to where they were currently laying. Neither of them were wearing any lab coats or maintenance wear. Averting his eyes momentarily, more light arrived as the others shone their own lights on the two bodies and further illuminated them. However, when Gearshift looked back at the group, they were all looking straight ahead with looks of shock on their face, even Butch looked unnerved at whatever it was they were collectively seeing. Turning his attention back towards where they were looking, his expression soon matched that of his friends. 

The doors to the labs ahead of them, identical to the doors on the floor below, was a grim sight to behold. A light above the doors illuminated them and the section of the corridor ahead of them clearly. The bottom half of the double doors was coated in blood stains and streaks, some flicking up the side of the wall. The doors themselves were slightly wedged open, the upper half of a pony visible to the group laying face down. Another pony was laying in a heap against one of the doors, just as motionless as the two Gearshift had looked at moments earlier. Something above the doors caught his attention, however. Canting his eyes upwards, Gearshift saw a single word lining the wall above the doors in large jagged writing. It was written in the same substance coating the doors themselves.


FAILURE


"W-What i-is this place?" Tulip stammered fearfully. 

Nobody answered. The wave of fear and uncertainty was unanimous. The silence stretched on for eons as they stared at the entrance. Eventually, Gearshift collected himself and turned to look at the group. 

"Okay.. I know this doesn't look good but if any of you don't want to come in, then that's okay." He told them. 

"It.... it would be better if we stayed together." Snowball said, putting on a brave face, glancing at Lavender Blossom for reassurance. 

"Snow's right, especially as not all of us are carrying a weapon." Lavender Blossom nodded in agreement.

"As long as we're all in agreement." Candy Cane said. 

One by one, each of them gave an affirmative nod. Once in agreement, Gearshift took the first step towards the doors. Each step wavered, feeling heavy as he approached. Looking upon the word above the door, he felt himself trembling. He saw the light around him, knowing the others were following him. Each body he came to and passed by had some sort of deep gash or scar that looked fatal, the body in a heap actually had several of them. Sucking in a lung full of air and putting on a brave face, Gearshift glanced down at the pony propping the door open. With the light illuminating them, he was able to see clearly. A silver coated mare with a white and yellow mane and tail. Checking her over, he found a large gash across her back, accompanied by a bullet hole in her side. Underneath her was a large, dried, patch of blood. The mare was cold to touch and Gearshift had only briefly placed a hoof on her in order to see her injuries. Glancing at the doors she was wedged between, he moved to the side of her in order to begin pushing the door. 

"Once this door is free, you guys move through, got it?" He said. 

"Right." Steel Tip answered on behalf of the group.

Gearshift began pushing the door with all he had, gritting his teeth as the strain made his own injuries burn once again. 

Watching him push, the others got ready to move. However, before they did, Fresh Canvas stepped forward and helped Gearshift in pushing the door. 

"Ready?" Fresh asked. "On 3. 1....2....3!"

The two stallions pushed the door hard, a metallic grinding sound growing in volume as the door began to slowly slide open. Continuing their efforts, Gearshift felt the mare's body move off of the door, only then turning to look at the others. 

"Come on, inside!" He told them. 

Butch was the first to move, quickly moving through the now open space. Steel Tip was next and then the others piled in one by one. Fresh Canvas was next to move, checking with Gearshift before letting go of the door and moving inside. Gearshift was the last one through, quickly letting go of the door and moving into the room. The door made an audible *Klunk* as he let go and moved into the room, the mechanism of the door managing to hold it in place and keep the door open. Turning his attention back to the room, his jaw hit the ground in shock. Having been pushing the door with Fresh Canvas, he'd been preoccupied enough to not notice a few of the lights turn on in the room, motion sensored. But what they revealed left the group utterly horrified. On every wall was the same single worded message of 'Failure', scrawled out in red. Panning his eyes down, his gaze landed on four operating tables. Each table was adorned with a pony on it, three stallions and a mare, all accompanied with a bloodied tray holding surgical equipment such as scalpels, scissors and a set of injecting needles. The ponies themselves were just as dead as the ones outside, slits carved into their body so deep that even at a glance one could see their inner layers of skin. So much so that on one of the stallions, he had been cut open entirely, his internal systems out on display. The smell in the air did not help matters any further, decaying flesh and internal organs the dominant scent passing through the airwaves. This proved to be too much for some of the group as Lavender Blossom tried and failed to stop her self from vomiting on the ground, Tulip and Fresh Canvas managing to successfully stop themselves although the latter did have to practically swallow his to keep it down. 

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! What in the everloving goddessforsaken hell is all this?!" Candy Cane exclaimed before gagging.

"This is.... this is...." Snowball struggled to find the words. 

"We need to get out of here." Steel Tip muttered.

Gearshift did not know where to look, the walls had the blood writing, the tables and the bodies were directly in his eyeline, the floor was grimy and bloodstained and behind him were the bodies he'd come past to get in. His head began spinning as the scent assaulted his nostrils, his stomach beginning to churn as a result. Upon looking back up from the floor, he turned to look at the others. Lavender Blossom was still throwing up and Candy Cane had now joined her, the others were all standing in abject horror but Butch was moving forward. 

"Butch?" Gearshift asked, getting no answer in return. "Hey!"

Butch turned to look at him and their gazes met. Butch's eyes held multiple emotions, not giving him a need to provide an audible answer. Gearshift could see what he was thinking by just one look alone. The look was a troubled one and lasted the entirety of the time they spent looking at one another which stretched on for a good few moments, the two then giving a shared nod of understanding towards the other. 

"Look for anything useful." Butch said, clearing his throat with a quiet sniffle. "I don't wanna be here longer than any of you do." 

Gearshift watched as Butch stepped passed the closest table to him, making the choice not to look at the body laying on it. Following his lead, he stepped around the table and followed Butch towards the other side of the room, making sure not to touch anything that had once been alive. Looking back towards the others momentarily, he watched as Fresh Canvas was talking with Tulip and Snowball, who were both not taking their surroundings too well, their fearful looks confirming his suspicion. Candy Cane and Lavender Blossom had finally finished vomiting in the corner and composed themselves. Turning back to look at Butch, he moved closer to where the two of them wouldn't be heard by the others. 

"How are you so calm right now?" Gearshift asked quietly. 

"What?" Butch asked, stopping mid search through a cabinet and looking at him.

"Everything in this room and all the.... scents... and you're moving forward like its nothing." Gearshift clarified.

"You said it yourself, we're on a time crunch." Butch said. "Plus, I.... I'm trying not to think about it." 

The response caught Gearshift by surprise for a moment as he sat in silence. The moment of silence lasted an eternity before he glanced at the cabinet he was looking through. 

"Find anything useful?" He asked. 

"Nothing, just this rusty blade. But that's about it." Butch answered. 

"There has to be something of help around here."

"If so we need to find it. Quick."

"The sooner we find it the better."

Butch nodded his head in response. 

As the two talked, the rest of the group had finally begun their own process of searching the room. Fresh Canvas was doing more of the searching closer to the bodies whilst the mares were searching the drawers, desks and other cabinets that were placed around the edges of the room. Their searches were mostly in silence with the occasional cough or shudder from the sights and smells. Steel Tip had made his way over towards where Gearshift and Butch were located before passing them and moving towards the far side of the room. A short way ahead of him was another doorway, similar to the one they had passed through to come into the lab, although this one was entirely closed and surprisingly well maintained compared to the bloodsmeared door they'd walked through earlier. 

"Another doorway over here." He said, getting the attention of the others. 

One by one they made their way over to him and looked upon the door, then at one another.

"There's no key card reader for this one." Candy Cane noticed, pointing with a hoof. 

Moving their gazes to follow her hoof, her observation proved true as in the centre of the door where a keycard reader would usually sit, there was not a reader anywhere to be seen.

Stepping towards the door, Butch rested a hoof against it and gave a small push. The door made an audible groan, only moving slightly.

"Need a hoof?" Steel Tip asked. 

"If you wouldn't mind." Butch answered. 

Steel Tip walked over, being followed by Gearshift, the three then began pushing against it. The door's groan got louder and louder before eventually pushing open all the way with a much more relative ease. 

Once the door was fully opened up, more motion lights came on. These lights came to life much slower than the ones in the room behind them, although once illuminated showed a similar but an equally awful sight. The same writing of 'FAILURE' adorned each wall once again. In the centre of the room were more tables that were home to multiple bodies. However, unlike the ponies in the room before, these bodies were that of changelings. Butch went wide eyed at the sight.

"B-Butch?" Snowball spoke up, looking at his reaction. 

The deputy didn't say a word, only staring at the bodies before him. His gaze was focused on them and only them, until a hoof on his shoulder made him flinch slightly. His eyes darted between each one of the bodies as his legs began to tremble slightly. 

"Butch." Gearshift said, stepping forward to stand the other side of him. 

Briefly snapping out of his daze, he slowly turned to look at him, the look of shock still etched on his face. 

"We're right here, take a breath, take a minute if you need it." Gearshift reassured. 

Butch paused, taking in his words before giving a small nod of his head, Gearshift giving him a nod back. 

"Guys, take a look around, see if we've got anything." Gearshift told them, placing a hoof on Butch's shoulder. 

As the group began a quick search of the room, Gearshift and Snowball stayed with Butch, in close proximity of the doorway. The two would each reassure him and talk with him in an attempt to keep him calm. It was working until Butch's gaze fell on one of the bodies in particular. He took his first steps further into the room and approached the table, his eyes focused on the body. Gearshift and Snowball followed him to the table, the latter wincing at the sight as she got closer. The trio gazed upon the body of a deceased changeling male, his abdomen having been sliced. There were brown colored markings along his upper chest and the base of his neck. 

Gearshift and Snowball shared a look before touring their attention towards Butch, who was still looking at the body.

"Just so y'all both know, I will find who did this." Butch finally spoke.

"Do you-... Did you know him?" Snowball asked softly.

"Copper." Butch answered, getting a brief puzzled look from the pair. "His name was Copper. He was part of the group that myself and miss Morningstar were a part of when we were last here.... and he was a good friend of mine."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Snowball responded.

Gearshift looked at the two of them before then looking back at the body of Copper.

"Me too, if you need a moment we'll understand." He said. 

Butch looked at him and gave a small nod. "Much appreciated."

Giving a nod of his own, Gearshift softly smiled at Butch and then turned to look at   Snowball. Gesturing with his head, he stepped away from Butch and moved around the table. Snowball joined him around the other side and the two shared a glance back towards Butch, who was looking at the body, his front hooves now up on the table. He was quietly muttering something that they couldn't quite work out. 

"Come on, let's give him some time." Gearshift said, walking towards the others, Snowball quickly moving in order to keep up with him. 

The group searched around the room as they had done before, checking each and every spot in search of anything useful. However, the only thing of any usage were a few small diagrams that showed the anatomy of ponies and changelings respectively.

"Diagrams?" Fresh Canvas asked, looking at them. "Why would they need these?"

"For whatever the hell they were doing here by the looks of it." Steel Tip answered.

Pushing the diagrams into his bag, Fresh turned back towards the others.

The ponies came together upon concluding their search, taking one last glance around the room. Only having the diagrams to show for their searches, the need to move on arose quickly. We're not getting anywhere with this! Turning back towards the doorway, and in turn the tables where Butch was still standing, Gearshift began crossing the room. His movement soon ceased however as the lights in the room turned a piercing blood red. The sudden change in light made everyone's eyes turn upwards to the ceiling.

"What do you think you are doing in my lab?!" A stallion's voice echoed out from the top of the room.

The group looked towards the voice, finding the source. In the top corner of the room was a speaker.

"Someone else is here." Gearshift muttered under his breath. 

"You are contaminating my work with your filthy outside germs!" The voice growled. 

"Your work? You mean you're responsible for this?" Butch asked, stepping around the table and moving closer to the speaker.

"Oh wonderful, a changeling capable of pointing out the obvious." The voice said in mock fascination.

"You ignorant bastard." Butch growled.

"Such primitive language." The voice retorted.

"I'll show you primitive." Butch said quietly. 

The voice went quiet for a moment, leaving them in silence. The silence didn't last too long as when the voice returned.

"You experiments should know your place."

With that, Butch promptly turned and walked back through the door, then the other room and finally back into the hallway. 

"Butch, hold up!" Gearshift called after him before the others quickly followed.

Getting back into the hallway, the entirety of their surroundings had been illuminated in the same red light. 

"So the lights do work." Butch muttered.

"A backup system maybe?" Gearshift asked. 

"Maybe." Butch answered. 

Once the others grouped up, they headed back down the hall in the direction they had come before, only getting a few steps before the voice on the speaker came back once again. 

"Skulking around my glorious laboratories, routing around in my workshops. I WON'T HAVE IT!!" 

The calm demeanor briefly rocketed into a near psychotic yell, making the group exchange glances. Seconds later, a panel in the ceiling at the end of the hall raised into a slot embedded within the ceiling itself. Out swung a dual barreled turret, similar to the ones outside that had kept them pinned behind the low wall, opening fire on them. The group quickly split in two and scrambled behind the corridor walls for cover. The rounds from the turret rattled against the walls the group were hiding behind, barely giving any time for any of them to return fire. 

"Now what?!" Steel Tip asked, having to raise his voice over the sound of the flying rounds. 

Gearshift looked back over his shoulder towards the lab entrance they had just exited from, just able to make out one of the bodies. "I've got an idea. But you might not like it." 

"Anything is better than nothing, spit it out." Steel Tip said. 

"That turret is blocking the way we're trying to get and in turn the only way we can go is back that way and onto those outer catwalks." Gearshift answered.

"What does that have to do with us not liking this idea?" Butch asked. 

"Look, just cover me, okay, and get ready to levitate when I tell you." Gearshift told them.

Asking no more questions, the plan was set into motion. Gearshift briefly peeked out from behind cover, having to quickly pull his head back when the turret fired on him once again. Looking back at the group and nodding, he took multiple short breaths before moving. Bolting out from behind cover, he raced for the side corridor they had just come out of. His ears twitched as three weapons fired. He heard Full House, a shotgun and a pistol all fire at once before a fourth weapon joined in. The turret open fire at him first, one of the rounds slashing across his back hoof and momentarily making him stumble. However, the turret promptly turned to fire at the three weapons it was being hit by, a couple of holes being made in the turret's metal casing.

Sliding around the corner, Gearshift checked his hoof to see the extent of the wound. Just a scratch. Quickly moving on, his attention turned towards the bodies laying on the ground close by to him. Shuffling around, he repositioned and moved to the body of the mare laying in the doorway. Keeping his eyes firmly on the body, he dragged her back towards where the other bodies were. Looking back across towards the rest of the group, the turret still firing, Gearshift picked up the body. Pain rushed through his body once again, causing him to struggle slightly in lifting it. 

"Now!" He exclaimed. 

Tossing the body across the hallway, it was caught halfway in a magical hold. 

"This better work!" Steel Tip exclaimed, his horn enveloped in its glowing aura. 

Noting the movement, the barrels of the turret swung in the direction of the levitating body and opened fire. Bloody holes and chunks increased in number as the turret continued to fire.

"Go! Come on!" Gearshift called over. 

Butch was the first to move, bolting out from cover and rushing over to Gearshift, sliding in behind cover. The rest of the group paused momentarily before Fresh Canvas moved next. Grabbing Tulip's hoof, he pulled her out from their spot and the two raced over to the waiting pair. Once they arrived, Gearshift looked back in the direction of the others who still had to run.

"I have an idea." Butch said. "More cover for them." 

Gearshift, Fresh Canvas and Tulip turned to look at him as he spoke. Butch preceded to wrap his scorpion like tail around one of the other bodies on the ground. Looking over at the others, he waved a hoof. 

"Hey! This one too!" He exclaimed before slinging the body across the hallway in a similar fashion as Gearshift had moments earlier. This time the glow that enveloped the body was one belonging to Candy Cane.

"Snow, Lavender, go!" Candy Cane exclaimed.

Lavender Blossom wasted no time in moving, although Snowball needed some coaxing in order to move her hooves, said coaxing involving a reassuring smile from Lavender. The two rushed across towards the group, leaving Candy Cane and Steel Tip on the other side. 

"One of you go, I'll take over as you come by!" Lavender Blossom called out to them.

With a nod of his head, Steel Tip silently volunteered to be the last to cross. Nodding in return, Candy Cane got ready to go. Sharing a glance with Lavender Blossom, Candy Cane burst into her run across the hall, the light of her horn fading and Lavender's beginning to glow. The body that she had been levitating dropped a couple of inches before Lavender Blossom caught it in her magic, Candy Cane having to duck her head down to avoid any rounds that were fired at that level by the turret, one round missing her head by millimetres and slamming into the door at the far end of the hallway that led outside. Once she was across, only Steel Tip was left. 

"Come on, Steel!" Gearshift called over to him. 

Steel Tip didn't need much more encouragement than that. Racing across the gap, his own magic released and dropped the mare's body as he passed by.  Once he passed by the second body, he leapt into a full dive in order to reach the others faster. Upon reaching them, Lavender Blossom released her own magical hold. The two bodies clattered to the ground with a squelchy thud, riddled with holes and physical chunks of flesh missing from the intensity and fire rate that the turret was providing. Once the bodies had dropped, the turret ceased its firing.

The hallway was soon as deathly silent as it had been before the firing began, the only sounds being heavy panting as the group caught their collective breath.

"Well that was step one." Gearshift commented, getting a few side eye glances in response. 

"We have to get through that door if we have any chance of surviving this." Butch said, pointing at the door leading back outside. 

"But how do we.... know it will....even open?" Tulip asked, still catching her breath. 

A brief stretch of silence followed.

"We'll just have to charge it open." Gearshift said. "......Any objections?" 

Another stretch of silence. 

"Well alright then. Only a couple of us need to go, the rest of us can draw fire from the turret whilst we get the door open."

"I'll go for the door." Fresh Canvas volunteered, getting a concerned look from Tulip in the process.

"I'll go too." Lavender Blossom spoke up, getting the same concerned look from Snowball.

"Alright, we'll give you both as much cover as possible, get that door open." Butch told the pair.

Gearshift checked his ammo count, sliding the cylinder back into the revolver. I can't waste this ammo, who knows when I'll find more. I guess the ten bullets I have will have to do. Shuffling over to let Fresh Canvas move past him, Gearshift took the revolver into his teeth once again. 

"Be careful." He said with his mouth full.

"Let's do it." Lavender Blossom said, Fresh Canvas nodding in agreement. 

"Yeah." He said. 

The two burst out from their cover and raced down the hallway towards the far door. The ceiling turret barrels raised up to aim at the pair, preparing to fire at them. It didn't get the chance to however as two rounds from Full House slammed into the casing, getting its attention. The turret spooled and the rain of bullets commenced once more. Gearshift and Butch took turns firing at the turret before having to reload, Steel Tip and Candy Cane taking their places to fire at the turret and draw its attention away from Lavender Blossom and Fresh Canvas. The stream of bullets was just as bellowing as it had been the first time, the rounds smashing into the wall in an attempt to find their targets, taking chunks out of the wall in the process. The more concentrated the firing was, the louder it became, Gearshift's ears beginning to ring as a result. The ringing sensation ontop of his multiple bullet wounds, made his head spin momentarily. He could hear the muffled sound of the others talking, although he was unable to make out what was being said by any of them until he was physically grabbed, making him look up. 

"Gear! Hey, look at me!" Candy Cane exclaimed, shaking him gently. "You good?" 

"Y-Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." Gearshift replied, nodding his head.

"Alright, then get ready." She told him.

"Ready for wha-"

"AAAGH!!!" A yell rang out, making Gearshift quickly dart his head in its direction, only moving quick enough to see Steel Tip drop on his back beside him, dropping his shotgun and holding his face. "MY EYE!!" 

The sudden sight of him hitting the ground almost made Gearshift's legs give out from under him. 

"Steel!" Candy Cane exclaimed. 

"Fuck! AAAGH!!" Steel Tip cried out in agony. 

Snowball was the first to act, moving to his side as his whole body shook in pain. 

"Let me see. Let me see." She said, taking hold of his hoof and gently moving it aside.

"H-How bad is it? Agh. Fuck." Steel Tip gritted through clenched teeth as Snowball checked him over.

The snow white earth pony was moving like someone else entirely. Gearshift watched as she quickly dug through her bag and pulled out some bandages. The normally shy and nervous side of her had completely melted away as each of her movements were clear and concise.

"Alright, I'm going to need to lift your head to get this on and over your eye, okay? It's only a temporary bandage until we're out of here but once we're safe I can give you a proper check." Snowball explained. 

"You- You didn't answer my question." Steel Tip gritted.

"Part of the wall came off and by the looks of it slashed across your face and in turn your eye, happy? Happy." She promptly answered before turning to look at Gearshift. "Gearshift, I need you to help me with this, you'll need to lift his head up so that I can wrap this bandage around his eye." 

Gearshift was standing in a shocked silence, looking between the two of them. 

Move!

"Gearshift, please!"

Move your legs, Gear!

"Gearshift!!"

Move your fucking legs, you idiot!

He still didn't respond. That was until he heard Steel Tip.

"Gear, you better move your ass or so help me goddesses! We don't have all day!" He yelled. 

Finally his legs kicked into gear and Gearshift shook himself off and quickly moved to Steel Tip's side. 

"R-Right. Right. What do you need?" He asked, quickly trying to compose himself.

"Take hold of his head and gently lift it up off of the floor so I can properly wrap up his eye and make sure that it's secure." Snowball instructed, getting her bandages prepared. Even Tulip had moved over in order to help with bandage prep as well as keeping Steel Tip as calm as possible considering the situation. 

"Yeah. Yeah, understood, got it." Gearshift answered. Moving around to get a better hold on his head, he got a full look at Steel Tip's eye. His eye itself was half open and occasionally twitching, the eyelid bleeding from the slash and the blood running down his cheek. The white of his eye had also turned a faint shade of red thanks to the bleeding. Dear goddesses. Once again composing himself, Gearshift gently lifted up Steel Tip's head, getting winces and whimpers of pain as he did so.

"Sorry, sorry I'm sorry." Gearshift apologised.

Moving forward, Snowball started the process of wrapping up Steel Tip's eye. 

"Dammit! I'm out of shots!" Candy Cane exclaimed, putting her pistol away and getting back behind cover, leaving Butch their only form of cover from the turret.

Gearshift continued to hold onto Steel Tip's head as Snowball wrapped up his eye, only moving his hooves when instructed to do so.

"Is he okay?!" Butch called to them whilst firing.

"We'll get him outside and then we'll know for sure but for now it looks okay." Tulip answered before looking back at the injured unicorn. "Can you walk?"

"My legs are fine, just get me up and I'll be alright." Steel Tip groaned in response. 

"Damn, I wish I had some morphine." Snowball said as she finished up the bandages. "That's all I can do for now."

"Let's get moving." Steel Tip groaned, trying to move by himself before Gearshift helped him up. He stumbled slightly as he quickly attempted to get accustomed to his new type of vision. 

Butch ducked back behind cover, reloading Full House. Upon looking at Steel Tip his jaw clenched.

The turret's relenting fire continued pounding against the wall, getting closer and closer to breaking the entirety of their cover away before suddenly stopping, dropping the room back into a brief silence. Gearshift's ears then twitched upon the sound of a mechanism clunking and shifting being heard, followed by the rattling of bullets being fed into something.

"Finally." Butch said. "It's reloading." No sooner had the words left his mouth, the sound of metal coming loose and banging into more metal came from the other direction.

"It's open!!!" Fresh Canvas' voice cried out.

"Perfect timin', let's get along stable dwellers!" Butch called out.

Taking the opportunity, Butch moved first with Candy Cane and Tulip right behind him. Snowball and Gearshift followed after with Steel Tip in between them, Gearshift grabbing Steel Tip's shotgun for him before they moved. Coming around the corner, Gearshift looked straight ahead, seeing the doorway open with Fresh Canvas and Lavender Blossom waiting for them. 

"Come on, come on, let's go!" Lavender Blossom said as they approached, waving them through. Her face, along with Fresh Canvas' soon changed upon seeing Steel Tip run by with his eye bandaged up. Those looks couldn't last long however as a whirring sound followed, getting everyone's attention. The reloading sequence in the turret had completed and it's barrels were warming up again.

"Close the door!" Butch exclaimed, Lavender and Fresh quickly obliging and pushing the door shut with much more relative ease than it took to get it open. Fresh Canvas jumped back from the door on pure instinct, although Lavender Blossom failed to do the same. As a burst a bullets ripped through the door where she was standing, she was only spared from becoming purple swiss cheese when a tail wrapped around her midsection and dragged her out of the pathway of the bullets - A scorpion tail.

"NO NO NO NO NO! I WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS FAILURE! I WILL NOT TOLERATE EXPERIMENTS THAT DO NOT KNOW THEIR PLACE!!" The voice on the speaker came back once again, although muffled as it was coming from inside the building, showing the speaker system was only on the inside of the building.

The silence returned, only followed by a gentle wind blowing through the air. For the first time since they'd arrived at the laboratories, the group were able to properly breathe. It was then Gearshift took note of their surroundings, only then noticing the wind blowing through his mane and coat. Now being on the outer catwalks, he noted how much darker it had gotten. The clouded sky was not pitch black although the decrease in light levels was entirely noticeable. His attention was grasped upon hearing Snowball talking to Lavender Blossom and Steel Tip as she gave his eye another check. 

"How badly is it hurting?" Snowball asked. 

"Where abouts on the chart is 'stinging and burning?' Cause that's about it." Steel Tip answered, wincing as the bandage came off and a new one was placed on. 

"It's all that I'll really be able to do. I'm not sure if there's anything back in town that would help us." Snowball said before glancing at Butch, the others doing so too.

"Suture Seam will be able to check you guys over when we're back. I'm sorry there's nothing immediate but it is all I can suggest." Butch told them.

With a gentle sigh, Snowball looked at the rest of the group. "Is anyone else hurt?"

Nobody said anything.

"Are we sure?" Snowball asked, looking around.

"Wait. I took a scratch from one of those turret rounds." Gearshift said, lifting his leg and turning to show the mark. His other injuries were causing him pain too but he only mentioned the manageable one for now. We're burning enough time as it is. 

Without another word, Snowball moved over to him and wrapped some of the bandage around his hoof. There was less bandage used for his leg than for Steel Tips eye and Gearshift gave a gentle smile of appreciation.

"How's that?" Snowball asked. 

"Good, thanks." Gearshift answered.

"If anything hurts or feels funny, make sure you let me or Tulip know and we'll help you out." Snowball added. "That goes for all of you.... y-y'know, c-cause we all need to be our strongest and if we're not then we won't be able to-" she was cut off when Lavender Blossom placed a hoof on her shoulder.

There she is.

Seeing Snowball revert back to the Snowball they all knew gave Gearshift an almost warm sensation throughout his body.  

"Thank you, Snowball. Honestly, if you didn't act when you did I could've lost my eye, or bled out, or lost my eye and then bled out. But seriously, thank you." Steel Tip spoke up. 

"Don't mention it. If I can keep my friends safe then you better believe I'll do it." Snowball said.

"You really stepped up, Snow." Lavender Blossom said proudly before turning back to face the others. "So, where to now?" 

"Up." Butch was the first to answer, getting everyone to look his way once again. Pointing his tail ahead of them, he directed their attention to a set of metal stairs that moved up the side of the building in the direction of the next floor. Walking over to check them out, his eyes turned downwards too. "They also lead down to the ground as well. Looks like a good way out if things get rough." 

The rest of the group came over to join him by the stairs. 

"Make sure we're being careful from now on. Even more so than we have been." Candy Cane said. "We're down a gun now as my pistol is out of ammo."

"I'm low too, only four shots left." Gearshift added. 

"I can spare some rounds for you." Butch said, receiving a grateful nod in relief.

Steel Tip was trying to check his shotgun, although it proved difficult with only having one currently uncovered eye. 

"I got.... six shells." He informed.

"Alright, let's get a move on." Gearshift said, stepping forward and leading the way up the stairs to the next level. 



◇◇◇◇◇


Upon arriving at the third floor, a feeling of unease passed over Gearshift, making him shudder. The lights were all on when they came into the main hallway, illuminating the entire corridor. The red had also disappeared, the usual white light returning. A faint scuttling was heard somewhere down the hall. Gearshift couldn't tell whether it was something alive or something moving through the pipes. Shoving the thought into the back of his mind, he pressed on. Looking around, everything was surprisingly.... clean. There were no patches of dirt, rust or blood anywhere to be seen. 

"Anyone else getting a feeling that something is off?" Fresh Canvas asked, beating Gearshift into asking the same question.

"Yeah. This place looks like it was just freshly scrubbed." Candy Cane answered. 

"Let's keep moving, there has to be something useful in here." Butch spoke up. 

"You won't find anything here." The voice spoke again, sounding quite irritated, making the group stop and Butch roll his eyes so hard they almost fell out of his head. 

"This guy again." He muttered. 

"Do remember, you are in my work place. I have been delayed from working for too long!" The voice continued. "This would all be solved if you would leave my presence... or drop dead where you stand. Whichever hurts more." 

"We have a job to do, so we're not going anywhere!" Gearshift spoke up, stepping forward. 

"A job to do? Oh really now? Well please do tell, I'm all ears." The voice said.

"Show your face and I just might." Gearshift retorted.

"Now that would be too easy, wouldn't it? How about you come and find me in my office and I'm sure that we can..... help each other out." The last part of his sentence was in a sinister almost whisper level volume, followed by an even more unsettling chuckle.

"Enough of this joking around, let's find this guy and get what we came for." Steel Tip growled.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Steel Tip and Butch were the first to start moving once more, the others quickly moving after them. Gearshift's eyes scanned the group once again, he wasn't sure how much time had passed, a couple of hours at least given the change in light outside, but that wasn't what he focused on. His eyes fell on the two stallions ahead of him. Steel Tip's eye being bandaged up and Butch being dead set on finding the voice made his mind begin to wander.  What's gonna happen when we find this guy? Do we shoot first? Try talking this out? No no, there's literally bodies in this place. He then turned to look at Candy Cane beside him, thinking back to how she reacted to seeing the bodies in the lab.  Guess neither of our stomachs agree with the Wasteland, huh? He then briefly glanced behind him to look at the remaining four. Remembering how, moments ago, Snowball had done a complete 180 and leapt into action to help out Steel Tip and instructed him on how to help, but now she was back to her timid self and was keeping close to Lavender Blossom as she always did. Fresh Canvas and Tulip on the other hand were both looking at the ground as they walked. He could only imagine what it was they were thinking about. There were plenty of options. 

"You think that buck on the speaker knows where any fusion cores are?" Gearshift asked aloud optimistically. 

"Gear, that lunatic isn't in any condition to help us. Even if he was, I'm not trusting a word he says. On top of that, he's tried to kill us. Fuck him." Steel Tip said sharply, clearly not in the mood for negotiations.

"R-Right, yeah." Gearshift responded.

Moving into the next section of the halls, another sign presented itself to the group.


<Executive Offices
>Stairs


The sign proved to be much smaller than the ones in previous floors as there were only two directional labels. The sign itself looked brand new, as if only just replaced, although there were remnants of an old sign having been there, old markings in the wall behind the new sign the most telling feature. 

"Executive Offices it is." Butch said, promptly turning in that direction. "Let's get a move on."

Turning as a group, they headed in the direction of the offices in question. The walk itself was a short one as upon turning the next corner, the entirety of the hallway changed. The cold metal that had been under their hooves had turned into a smoother material. The walls that had been adorned by the same metal transitioned seamlessly into walls made out of smoothed off wood. The sudden change made Gearshift double take and look back the way they had just come, seeing the cold metal interior they were in seconds earlier. The new interior ahead of them looked equally as clean and refurbished as the rest of the floor had, causing some of the group to slow their pace to take it all in. At the far end of the new look passage was a glass entryway with a door in the centre. The lights illuminating them allowed them to see through and have a glimpse on the far side. Narrowing his eyes, Gearshift was just able to make out one of the offices.

"The sooner we clear this out, we can get what we came for and get out of here. Starting to really dislike this place." Steel Tip said. 

"Starting to?" Fresh Canvas asked in mock surprise, getting a glare in response.

"Look, just keep your eyes open and look out for anything useful." Gearshift spoke up, diffusing the situation.

Moving over towards the door, which was also glass like the entryway, it was pushed open with ease. As the group passed through the door one by one, Lavender Blossom the last to come through, they each examined their surroundings. Every office was able to be seen. There were six offices, split into three on either side with a seventh and final office standing at the far end of the hall. The interiors of the offices on either side of them were completely visible, thanks to the glass walls each of them had, allowing them to look inside. Each office was equipped with the same set of supplies. Desk, Drawers, Shredder, Writing tools, Chair with wheels.

"Okay, let's check these offices out. Could be some useful info in here." Candy Cane said. 

"Let's keep this quiet too, we don't know what could be around here." Gearshift said, lowering his voice as the others each set off to their respective office. 

As they headed off to search, Gearshift's eyes focused on the lone office opposite him. The main door at the far end of the hallway. Taking slow steps towards the door, each one echoed in his head. His vision gradually became more tunneled the longer he took to approach the door, the others eventually fading from his view as his only target was the door. His ears still picked up the sounds of drawers being opened and desks being quietly shifted to see what lay inside. Keeping his eyes locked on the door however, the top of the smooth brown door caught his attention as a single light protruded from the wall above it, spotlighting on the door itself. In doing so, a golden plaque on the door made itself known. When close enough to it, Gearshift could clearly make out what it said:


Dr. Bunsen Burner


Trottingham Research Laboratories Head Scientist and Head Researcher


Seeing the name, his mind cast back to when the group had arrived at TRL. More importantly, the terminal outside that he and Candy Cane had rushed to in order to shut down the outer defences. A clear picture of the terminal screen filled his mind.


Access Denied: Only Dr. Bunsen Burner is allowed access to this entryway.


"Bunsen Burner." Gearshift said quietly.

"Something wrong?" Candy Cane's voice said from behind him, making him look over his shoulder. Seeing her standing there, he stepped to the side to reveal the plaque.

"Remember the terminal from outside when you checked the entryway? It said only Dr. Bunsen Burner was able to use it." Gearshift said. 

"Yeah.... yeah I remember, why?" Candy Cane asked.

"I'm beginning to suspect that's who has been talking to us... that and trying to take us out of the Wasteland population count."

"It could be. I guess we'll have to find out."

As the two talked with one another, a third voice joined the conversation, through the door. Although they weren't being spoke to directly, they could definitely hear someone talking.

".... you make this sound as though I do no work on my end." The voice, a stallion's voice, said.

"You hear that?" Gearshift whispered, to which Candy Cane nodded in response before the voice returned.

"I know that, Commander, but you forget that you have provided our glorious place of work with no security measures at all. None living at least."

"Commander?" Candy Cane whispered, to which Gearshift shrugged.

Looking over his shoulder, Gearshift watched as the others came out of their offices in turn. Raising a hoof to his lips for them to be quiet, he waved them over.

"You would doubt this laboratory's integrity? How dare you madam?! I assure you that we will provide you with what you need and there is no chance of failure." The voice spat.

The eight looked at one another silently, shrugs and head shakes being exchanged.

"You and your precious company will just have to wait. I have my own problems... no.... no no no that is not what I am referring to. There are a group of guinea pigs scampering about my halls that need to be dealt with in a most efficient and... bloody fashion." The voice continued on before laughing maniacally. "So you may pass along your orders to your subordinates and I will have what you require by day's end. As I have stated, you need not worry. Operation Synchronize will remain on schedule and-..." 

The voice suddenly cut itself off before beginning to chuckle sinisterly.

"It appears as though my guinea pigs have found their way to the prize. I will bid you adieu, Commander. Move and Strike as One."

The sound of a radio cutting out and being placed down followed, then being followed itself by the sound of metal sliding off of a desk and hooves moving around slowly and methodically. Gearshift was listening carefully as he tried to decipher what the sound could possibly entail, although before he could, Butch's tail wrapped around his and Candy Cane's midsections and yanked them backwards as the entirety of the door exploded into many small wooden chunks. 

"It's time to EXPERIMENT!" The stallion responsible exclaimed, his eyes red, bloodshot and filled with the urge to kill.
> Chapter 6: A Doctor's Work is Never Done
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The wooden shards clattered to the ground as the group were pushed back from the explosion's force. The first thing that any of them were able to notice upon looking up was the barrel of a weapon. Gearshift shook himself off and was one of the first to get back to his hooves. Reaching for his revolver, Gearshift brought it up via the teeth grip and aimed, although his opponent was one step ahead of him and fired his weapon at him once more. The shot came out of the weapon in a short and confined spread, only missing Gearshift's head by mere inches thanks to him quickly ducking, the others in turn ducking into cover. 

"Experimentation is the most thrilling of pastimes, is it not?!" The stallion exclaimed with a grin, staring directly at Gearshift. It was only then, in that brief window, that Gearshift got a good look at him. 

The stallion's grey coat was messy and ruffled, as was his mane, scruffy and faded. Purple in the front, his slightly crooked horn poking through, accompanied by a contrasting blue in the back. His tail was a half and half of natural black and a matching blue to that in his mane. Those bloodshot red eyes bore holes into Gearshift. A pair of glasses, with a chipped and broken lens, the only shield from that twisted gaze. 

"So the doctor really is in the house." Gearshift said, his teeth still locked around the grip.

"Where else would I be?!" Bunsen Burner snapped back. "A doctor's work is never done! Now my glorious experiments, which of you want to DIE FIRST?!" 

"We ain't your damn experiments!" Butch snapped, bringing up Full House.

"Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you." Bunsen Burner said, glancing his way, maintaining the crazed expression on his face. No sooner had the words left his mouth, that the sound of metal shifting followed. The sound the group had unfortunately become accustomed to whilst moving through the halls of TRL. Behind the group, from the entrance where they came in, a pair of twin barrels slid out from behind the far wall, aiming straight towards the offices they were currently in.

"I'm getting really sick of the sight of those things." Steel Tip gritted.

Gearshift looked over his shoulder, seeing the barrels aimed at them. Swearing under his breath, he turned back towards Bursen Burner, only to briefly flinch upon seeing the doctor's weapon aimed right at his face. Finally getting a look at the weapon, having no other choice to as it was currently a metre from his face, Gearshift took mental notes. The weapon was a shotgun, much like the one Steel Tip had been using. Although, shells were placed into a drum magazine instead of being fed into the weapon individually. 

"Now, I could take your jaw clean off from here. Buuuuut, I'm feeling charitable currently. So if you tell me why you're here, I might just let you keep that handsome face of yours." Bunsen Burner said. "I'm not a very patient buck, so I expect an answer." 

Gearshift's eyes flicked either side to his friends that were in his peripheral vision. Only able to make out two of them, Butch and Candy Cane, his glance met theirs in turn. Whilst Butch's look was one of suppressed anger, Candy Cane's was one of concern.  What do I do? What do I say?!

"Three... Two... ONE!" Bunsen Burner counted down, racking the the slide on the shotgun with his magic. 

"Fusion cores!" Gearshift blurted out. 

A tense silence stretched throughout the room, clutching the eight by the throats and denying them any further speech. That's when the chuckling began, before bursting into a hysterical laughter. 

"Allow me to collect my thoughts and comprehend your words. You mean to tell me, that not only have you broken into my laboratory, disturbed my work and slaughtered all of my staff but you did it for something as menial and insignificant to me as FUCKING FUSION CORES!!" Bunsen Burner's voice turned for a calm exclamation to a burst of shock and anger. Following his exclamation, he physically jammed the end of the barrel into Gearshift muzzle, causing him to wince from the impact.

"Don't-!" Candy Cane called out, jumping up from behind the desk she'd been taking cover behind. However, she was cut off when a spread from Bunsen Burner's shotgun tore through the wheeled chair next to her, physically launching it off the floor and slamming it into the wall where it broke into several bullet riddled chunks. Candy Cane jumped in shock and quickly ducked back behind the desk. 

"CC!" Gearshift exclaimed, turning towards her before the barrel hit him again, this time in the chest. 

"The next one of you that moves will be responsible for your friend taking a permanent snooze!" Bunsen Burner exclaimed, his eye behind the cracked lens of his glasses twitching.

Gearshift's chest burned once more, making him physically stumble, bringing a hoof to his chest to attempt to disperse the pain. "Sonuva-"

"Now, guinea pig number one." Bunsen Burner began, referring to Gearshift. "Why are you searching for fusion cores?"

"In order to help our stable and those living in it." Gearshift answered, looking the doctor square in the eyes.

"Your stable? Oh yes yes yes of course. It all makes perfect sense, with your matching attire." Bunsen Burner responded, eyeballing each of the ponies in turn. His eyes then fell on Butch. "And you? What do you bring to their project, hm?"

Butch just glared daggers at him. 

"Not much of a talker, I see."

"What are you planning to get out of us just standing here?" Gearshift asked.

"Where is this stable, hm?" Bunsen Burner asked, getting right up in Gearshift's face with insane childlike fascination.

"Not happening." Gearshift answered, sharing Butch's glare.

The two looked at one another, barely moving, one waiting for the other to crack first. In the end, the doctor pulled back first. 

"Very well, you keep your secrets. But I have my own needs too. Each of you has played a part in disrupting my glorious research and I cannot allow failure in my presence." Bunsen Burner said, glancing at each of the others in the group before his eyes locked onto Gearshift once again.

Before Gearshift could say anything, a magical grip enveloped him and spun him around to face the others. Those with weapons braced up, raising them to aim at the doctor directly, only for Gearshift to shake his head. Feeling the barrel once again hit him, he noted the distinct feeling of it pressed to the back of his head. 

"Now, we're going to move into my office for a little chat. If even one of you so much as takes a step towards this room, my glorious baby will reduce you all to a bloody mess on the ground. So I would advice you do not disturb us... I don't want to have to replace the lovely flooring." Bunsen Burner informed, resulting in worried looks returning on the faces of most of the group. Grabbing Gearshift with a hoof, he slowly backed into the office whilst keeping his weapon pressed to Gearshift's head to deter the group from making any advances on him.

As they both moved into the office, crossing the threshold of where the door had been, Gearshift watched in surprise as the shards of the door levitated back up from the ground and then reformed, slotting back into the doorframe and separating them from the others. 

"Gearshift!" Candy Cane exclaimed as the door reformed.

"What? How did you-?" Gearshift asked.

"Restoration spells, dear stable dweller." Bunsen Burner answered with a chuckle.

"Restoration?" Gearshift asked before being turned back around to face the doctor and in turn the rest of the room. The first thing his eyes fell on was the smooth wooden desk at the back of the room and beyond that was a wide glass window that took up the entire back wall. Looking in the direction of the window, Gearshift could only just make out the darkness of outside. It had gotten even darker since they were last outside. His attention shifted around the room, taking in each and every detail. Like the rest of this floor, the office seemed clean and untouched as if it had been freshly scrubbed. 

"That is correct." Bunsen Burner answered, walking around the room whilst keeping his weapon aimed at Gearshift. "Do you know just how difficult and tedious my studies are? Restoration magic took me some time to learn, I can assure you. HOWEVER, it opened the door too many glorious opportunities to complete my work. Allow me to show you."

Watching his movements carefully, Gearshift kept his eyes locked on him as he stepped towards a bookshelf on the left side of the room. Reaching up with a hoof, her jerked one of the books out in a sharp motion. Upon doing so, the bookshelf itself seemed to split cleanly in half. The two halves of the bookshelf then slowly slid apart from one another to reveal a hidden room on the other side. Looking through the glass door that had been revealed, Gearshift could make out more scientific equipment on a table in the centre of the room. 

"A hidden room?" he asked,  turning his attention to Bunsen Burner.

"Correct." Bunsen Burner chuckled. "Take a look for yourself, you'll see what glorious accomplishments I have made." 

"And if I don't want to?" Gearshift asked. 

"You have no real say in the matter, now do you?" Bunsen Burner said, gesturing to the shotgun he was still levitating.

With no other options available, Gearshift walked towards the glass door and pushed it open, moving through it and into the room. Getting a better look at the table from this side of the door, he took note of the equipment that was laying on it - most of it being of the surgical variety. On the walls either side of him were diagrams of pony and changeling anatomy, similar to the one that Fresh Canvas had put into his bag earlier, whilst beneath each diagram was an image of one of the test subjects from downstairs. Stepping closer to the diagrams and images, he noted the angle of them and in turn which area of the body they were aimed at. In the far back corner of the room was a small desk which had a clipboard placed on it, getting Gearshift's attention. Walking over to it, he glanced to at the words that had been written down.


Subjects



Subject 1:
Species: Pony
Race: Unicorn
Gender: M
Focal Point of Experiment: Pain Tolerance
Most Tolerant Body Part: Left hind leg. 



Subject 2:
Species: Pony
Race: Earth Pony
Gender: F
Focal Point of Experiment: Pain Tolerance
Most Tolerant Body Part: Rump & haunches.



Subject 3:
Species: Changeling
Race: Winged
Gender: M
Focal Point of Experiment: Pain Tolerance
Most Tolerant Body Part: Entire upper body.


Gearshift's eyes only scanned the first three noted down before slowly turning to glare at Bunsen Burner, who himself was observing the images on the other side of the room.

"Pain tolerance? You tortured them?!" He exclaimed, gritting his teeth.

"Someone had to get their hooves dirty for this research. Better to have someone else laying on the table whilst I work instead of being on the table myself." Bunsen Burner snapped back, his eye twitching once again. 

"So you dragged them in from outside? Is that it?" Gearshift asked, still processing the fact the two were having a somewhat regular conversation, all things considered.

"Not the first batch. They volunteered, hoping to aid the future of science in favor of the ministries. They flocked to my door in their initial hundreds." Bunsen Burner chuckled. 

"The ministries?" Gearshift asked in surprise, briefly recalling the name from pre-war Equestrian history classes back in 54. Briefly glancing around the room once more, his gaze fell on the opposite side of the room and another table, similar in size to the centre table. Slowly stepping towards it, the details of the table became more apparent. Sets of drawers were positioned on the front of the table, whilst ontop of it was an empty black box that would've held science equipment, which Gearshift deduced to be the equipment on the centre table he noticed when he walked in. Pulling open some of the drawers, all that were revealed were pieces of scrap paper. Upon pulling open the bottom drawer however, a purple file revealed itself. Looking it over, his eyes fell on the title.  Ministry of Arcane Science.

"But of course, countless numbers wanted to help the ministries in order to keep them running." Bunsen Burner answered.

"So having dead workers in your labs counts as keeping the ministries running, does it? Lining them up at their posts as if it were an execution?!" Gearshift snapped, whipping around to look at the doctor with another hateful glare. 

For the first time since their conversation began, Bunsen Burner paused to think. "Dead workers?" He asked before it came to him. "Oh, yes, you mean those troublesome engineers down in maintenance? They had to be made an example of. But I will admit, Chief Stone Wall made the cutest faces with his empty threats."

"One of them was just a kid. A trainee!" Gearshift growled. 

"They were a disturbance and a hindrance. Typical maintenance, you can never find the help these days, can you?"  Bunsen Burner responded with a psychotic chuckle. 

Gearshift burned internally at the doctor's words, the mention of maintenance striking at a personal level for him. His own eye physically twitched at the comment, accompanied by him scuffing his hoof on the ground in frustration.

"Bastard." he hissed.  

"Language! We're in the workplace!" Bunsen Burner snapped, narrowing his eyes at him.

Keeping his temper under control, Gearshift stared daggers through the doctor. "What does any of this have to do with the fusion cores? What does any of their deaths have to do with you possessing what I- what we need to keep our stable alive?" He asked, his patience beginning to dwindle.

"As I was saying, before you so rudely interrupted me." Bunsen Burner chastised with a shaky eye roll. "These cores were produced by the Ministry of Arcane Science. I can assure you this is quite relevant to your plight." 

"What exactly are you getting at?" Gearshift asked, narrowing his eyes in the doctor's direction. 

"That's just it my dear stable dweller. I propose a compromise." Bunsen Burner said with a chuckle. "I will give you these... cores... that you require. But you must do something for me first."

"What makes you think I'm going to do anything you ask me to?" Gearshift asked. 

The doctor's eye twitched rapidly. "You are the ones that murdered all of my staff! I could easily return the favor with your group! Do not test my patience!" He snapped.

The thought only made Gearshift brace up, his breath catching and staying held up for a few moments. He felt his legs begin to shake, threatening to buckle underneath him. His eyes fell to the ground in a concentrated stare, the thought running through his head over and over again. However, it didn't last long as the sound of Bunsen Burner approaching made him pick his head up to look at him once again. Looking him in the eyes, Gearshift gritted his teeth in defeat. 

"What..... what do you want us to do?" Gearshift asked. 

"Oh, I'm so glad that you asked. An old business partner of mine has recently come back onto the radar. However, he is using my blueprints in order to develop certain.... assets for a project." Bunsen Burner explained.

"Do these assets have a name?" Gearshift asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"If you must know, our project was known as the dual pincer project." The doctor answered. 

Dual pincer?

Gearshift pondered what the project could possibly entail, staring into space momentarily. His attention was then sharply brought back to reality when a jab connected with his chest once again, making him quietly wheeze. Looking forward, he noted the shotgun was the cause once again. 

"Well then, stable dweller. Do we have a deal?" Bunsen Burner asked him, sporting that sinister grin once again. 

"How am I supposed to know you'll keep your word?" Gearshift asked, a serious expression returning to his face. 

"I could kill you all right now and keep the cores for myself." Bunsen Burner coldly answered. A stretch of silence followed as the two stared daggers at one another. For the first time since they had spoken, the doctor's crazed expression had completely dissolved into a cold and serious one of someone who would follow through on his word if his hand was forced. "However, to put it into a more... cooperative tone, you desire these cores and I want my research back. Let us help each other out.

Gearshift didn't answer right away, only looking straight at the doctor. Bunsen Burner would've made an excellent poker player as his face gave away no clues as to what he was thinking, although having the shotgun at the ready was contributing to the rapidly decreasing number of options that Gearshift had to select from. 

"Fine. You have a deal." Gearshift said, turning towards the door and getting a chuckle out of Bunsen Burner in the process.

"Oh, before you go, you might want to know where you're needing to go." Bunsen Burner added. 

Gearshift turned around to face him, jolting back in surprise upon seeing Bunsen Burner was now right in his face, that same grin sported once more. 

"Trottingham Air Base. That is where you will go. Upon getting there, you will search for a stallion by the name of Dr. Forceps. Upon finding him you will retrieve those blueprints of mine and return them here. I don't care how you get them, just bring back my precious prints. But if you fail.... well you'll more than likely die so these cores won't be going anywhere, will they?" Bunsen Burner said at an eerily quiet level, although each word rang clear in Gearshift's head. 

Having said what he needed to, Bunsen Burner leaned away from Gearshift, only to stop mid step and cast his eyes down at Gearshift's PipBuck. This in turn, resulted in Gearshift looking down at it. 

"I'll get your prints, then I'll come back. You better make sure that those cores are prepared for us when we return." Gearshift said, his voice wavering as he tried to keep a determined look on his face.

"I'll be waiting for you. But be warned, if you take those blueprints and you do not return them, I will come for you. That, I can guarantee you." Bunsen Burner said, turning and stepping back towards the far end of the room to look out of the long window once more, gazing up at the darkness of the clouded sky. "Now run along.... and try not to die on your way out."

Confirming their conversation was over, a small ping came from Gearshift's PipBuck. Picking his leg up to look at it, the map had been displayed on the screen with a new location:


Trottingham REAF Air Base


With a new sense of determination, Gearshift placed his hoof onto the restored door and pushed into open. As the door came open, however, his eyes widened at both the sight and sound of the turret at the far end of the hall beginning to warm up. Quickly launching himself into a dive, he threw himself into the closest office to him as the turret sent a burst of rounds directly at where he had been standing. The round smashed into the window of the office, not far from where Bunsen Burner was stood. As the window was given several new holes and matching cracks along its surface, Bunsen Burner's laugh began to echo through the hallway. Despite currently taking cover, whilst having dove right into Candy Cane and almost landing on her, Gearshift could hear the laughter as clear as day before the door was magically pulled closed.

"Gearshift!" Candy Cane exclaimed in surprise as he collided with her and the two quickly scrambled to their hooves. 

The bullets were continuing to fire in their direction, rattling against the back wall and keeping the two of them pinned in the office. Gearshift quickly leaned down to grab his revolver from its holster in order to fire back. 

"Back to the regular huh?" Steel Tip called out over the top of the turret fire. 

"Yes, Steel, very helpful." Gearshift said.

"What do we do now?" Fresh Canvas asked. 

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking." Gearshift said. "This is different from earlier, now we're trying to move towards the turret instead of across and away from it." he added, muttering to himself. As he thought up a strategy, the crack of Full House met his ears once more, followed by two shots from a shotgun. As a result the turret shifted its focus to fire towards those who had fired upon it, Gearshift cast his gaze around the office, hoping for something to be of use.

"Anything?" Candy Cane asked, looking at him with concern.

"There's nothing here we can use. What good is a shredder or a chair with wheels.... gonna.... be?" He answered, his brain continuing to work as he scanned the room and took note of the items present. "Chair with wheels... that's it!" 

With the office they were in thankfully having two chairs within it, the one Bunsen Burner had obliterated with his shotgun and the one Gearshift was currently looking at, an idea had manifested itself.

"What's it?" Candy Cane asked.

"We push the chairs across the hall then run when the coast is clear." He explained.

"That's really risky." 

"We don't have any other options right now, CC."

Gearshift saw the decision being pondered across her face as she thought about what to do for a few brief moments. His attention briefly turned across the hall to Butch as he reloaded Full House before Candy Cane's voice caught his attention. 

"Let's do it." She said.

Nodding his head, Gearshift turned back in Butch's direction once again, the deputy meeting his gaze.

"Butch! Get back from the door!" Gearshift called across to him.

"What?" Butch asked. 

"Trust me. Once we move, follow our lead!" Gearshift responded.

Looking amongst the two of them, Butch nodded his head. "Right."

Moving back from the door, the turret still doing its best to take out each of the group, Gearshift moved the wheeled chair into position at the edge of the doorway. Taking one last glance at Candy Cane and nodding, he gave the chair a hefty shove and sent it out into the hallway. The chair spun slightly as it wheeled out into the hallway, making it around three quarters of the way across before the turret swung around and began to unload on the chair. The bullets slammed into the chair with such force that it physically pinned the chair to the door of Bunsen Burner's office. 

"Now!" Gearshift said, grabbing Candy Cane by her hoof and pulling her out of the door. Quickly slipping out of the door and hugging the wall, they moved up to the next office and scrambled inside as the turret ceased fire on the chair. Upon reaching the next office, Gearshift dropped to the ground momentarily in order to catch his breath before glancing at Candy Cane, who was also trying to catch her breath.

"Are you both alright?" A voice asked, making Gearshift turn his head, seeing Lavender Blossom standing there and looking both shocked and amazed they'd both made it there.

"Yeah... just give... us a sec." Gearshift panted before slowly rising to his hooves. As he turned to Candy Cane in order to help her back to her hooves, he couldn't help but softly smile at her.

"You sure know how to make a mare work, huh?" She asked him, catching him by surprise and resulting in him blushing softly. 

Their brief conversation was interrupted by the firing of the turret once again, the trio jolting in surprise together. Gearshift quickly spun around, looking back into the hallway once again. The sound of his heart thundered in his ears and in his chest but he did his best to ignore them as he gazed upon the spinning barrel of the turret. To his relief, it was currently obliterating another chair as Butch slid into the office opposite from them, joining  a pretty stunned looking Tulip. He watched as they spoke to one another but couldn't make out what they were saying. Soon enough, the two concluded their conversation before looking across towards them. 

"Now what?" Lavender Blossom asked. 

"Slide that chair over." Candy Cane answered, gesturing towards it with her hoof, to which Lavender Blossom promptly obliged. 

Once the chair was to them, Gearshift moved it into position. Locking eyes with Butch once again, Gearshift gave a nod before he pushed the chair out into the hall. Catching the movement, the turret would swing around and unload into the chair, giving them opportunity to move further up the corridor and reach the next office. 

"GO!" Gearshift yelled over the turret fire.

Candy Cane was the first one out and moved up towards the next office, with Lavender Blossom right behind her and Gearshift bringing up the rear. The turret barely missed Gearshift as it rounded on him. After the chair had been riddled with holes and forcefully torn apart, Gearshift slid into the office at the last possible second before the bullets whizzed by. Picking his head up, he watched as Lavender Blossom and Snowball gave one another a soft hug, happy that the other was alright. Turning his gaze back across to the other side of the room, he watched Butch get ready to move up once again. He then moved his eyes upwards towards the turret as the barrels steamed from it's rapid rate of fire. The thundering in his chest returned to his ears as he stared at it, panting at a steady rate. He, along with the rest of the group he was with, jolted as the turret opened fire on Butch's pushed chair once more. The deputy quickly moved up to the next office, followed by Tulip, reuniting with Fresh Canvas and Steel Tip, who were together.

With the group split in half, the only thing left was to pass the turret ahead of them. The turret in question had just finished decimating the wheeled chair and now sat motionless, waiting for its next target. They were all behind cover for now, with no harm coming to them. Moving closer to the edge of the office entrance, Gearshift peaked his head out, painfully slowly, in order to check what the turret was doing. 

"It's just sitting there." He said, looking at the others in his office before looking across at the other half of the group.

"What do we do now? There's only one way out." Fresh Canvas asked, but no answer came straight away.

"Well, we gotta think of something, we can't just sit here." Steel Tip said.

Gearshift tilted his head down towards the ground in thought. Casting his mind towards the times they'd dealt with the turrets before, he went over the ways they'd beaten them. 

Flank round and disable them? No, we have no room for that. Using a... body for protection? No. There aren't here we'd be able to use. Waiting for it to reload? Possibly... Come on Gear, think, think.

A hoof on his shoulder got his attention, making him wince slightly before turning his head to look at who it was. The hoof belonged to Candy Cane, who was giving him a gentle smile. Something in her eyes resonated within Gearshift, making him smile back as a result. Then, from the depths of his brain, an idea sprang into existence.

"I know that look." Candy Cane said.

"Think of the turrets, every time we've seen them they've only ever moved side to side, right?" Gearshift asked.

"Yeah? Meaning?" 

"If my hunch is right, that turret wouldn't aim straight down." 

"Straight down?" Lavender Blossom asked. 

"What's going on over there?!" Steel Tip called. 

Hearing his voice, Gearshift turned to look towards him. "I've got a plan! It's risky but it just might work." 

There was a short stretch of silence before anyone said anything.

"The last idea worked so it's worth a shot. What is it?" Butch said. 

"The turrets have only moved side to side when we've been looking at them. Plus, they always prioritise returning fire to something that does damage to them. So, I'm thinking if we can get underneath the turret, it won't be a threat. Although we'll need to cover each other." Gearshift explained. 

"Underneath it?!" Steel Tip and Fresh Canvas exclaimed at the same time. 

"It's positioned the the centre of the wall, if we can get under it, with the barrels that size it would be useless for it to move to aim at the floor!" Gearshift added, another stretch of silence following.

As they pondered the idea, Gearshift's eyes darted to each of them. He hated having to put them in a situation like this but with only a narrow space to work with, other options were few and far between.

"I'm in." Tulip was the first to say, getting a look from everyone. "Steel Tip's right, we can't just sit here."

Fresh Canvas smirked as she spoke, Steel Tip nodding his head. 

"If Tulip's in, then I'm in." Fresh Canvas said.

"Let's make this work." Butch said. 

Looking back at the three mares behind him, Gearshift internally sighed with relief as Candy Cane, Lavender Blossom and Snowball all nodded their heads. His attention then turned back towards the others and then Steel Tip.

"These risky ideas are gonna come back to bite us at some point. But I'm in." He said. 

With everyone in agreement, Gearshift peeked out at the turret once again. Taking into account its position and also the width of the hallway that lead to it, his brain conjured up a plan of approach.

"Alright, you guys rush and we'll cover you." He said, looking at the four of them. "With Full House and Steel's shotgun, you'll be able to cover us when we move up."

"Where will we go once we're at the turret?" Butch asked. 

"Make a break down the right corridor and head back for the door that we came in through on this floor. Head back outside and go down the stairs. We'll go left and head for the stairs that lead down to the second floor. We'll regroup back outside and then we can head back towards town." Gearshift answered. 

"You wanna tell us about what happened in that office before we go anywhere?" Steel Tip brought up, every set of eyes training on Gearshift as a result. 

The longest stretch of silence yet followed suit. It was a question that Gearshift knew was coming but still hearing it being asked caught him by surprise. 

"I'll tell you once we meet back up again, I promise." Gearshift answered before looking at them all once again. When his eyes met Steel Tip's, they locked onto one another. The gaze Gearshift saw reflected towards him was one with a mix of judgement but also understanding.

"Okay. Let's go." Steel Tip said as his group got themselves ready to move.

"Lavender? You still got your pistol?" Gearshift asked her. 

"Yeah." Lavender Blossom answered, showing it to him. "It hasn't been used much though."

"Perfect, get ready cause we're going to need to cover these guys with everything we have." Gearshift told her.

"Make sure you guys stay low on your way!" Candy Cane called over to the others, who all gave her a look of affirmation.

"Be safe you guys." Snowball said. 

"You too." Tulip responded.

With a final check, Butch was the first to step out from the office. Dropping low too the ground, he moved into the turret's line of sight, the others  following right behind him. The barrels began to spin up once again, about to rain down on them before two rounds slammed into it. 

"GO!" Gearshift exclaimed as the turret swung sideways towards him and opened fire. He quickly pulled himself back into cover, the glass entryway into the offices hallway smashing to pieces milliseconds after being hit by the turret. 

Lavender Blossom shuffled backwards and got into a better position within their space, firing her own pistol at the turret. Addressing the new threat, the turret adjusted and unloaded in her direction. She had to drop low to the ground to fire again so that her head wasn't taken clean off. Gearshift alternated with her once again, firing on the turret to keep the others covered. So far it was working. He glanced their way momentarily, looking how far up the hall they had gotten. It was just below half way, but the adjustments of the turret was clearly making a couple of them hesitate when moving forward. The turret continued its firing on its targets, aiming to tear apart the entire office they were hiding in if it had to. Gearshift and Lavender Blossom continued to alternate in firing, although  Gearshift was more conserving of his ammo count, taking less shots but more accurate ones, each one slamming into the turret. The sound of the turret's relentless firing battered their location in response, momentarily halting them from returning fire. Gearshift's ears rang from the sound, almost becoming too much to bare. Although, through all of it, he caught the sound of someone yelling.

"Gear! Gear! Gearshift!!" The voice faintly called, almost drowned out by the sheer volume of rounds being fired. 

As Lavender Blossom fired once again, Gearshift dropped low and slowly moved his head out in order to see who it was he'd heard. He soon got his answer, looking towards Steel Tip, who had a hoof by his mouth and was cupping it in order to shout. Then the pieces in his brain clicked, seeing where Steel Tip was currently sat. He, along with the other three, were hugging the wall tightly whilst being sat directly under the turret. Gearshift's eyes went wide in both surprise and joy that they'd made it there. Quickly pulling back his head, he turned to look at the others. 

"They made it!" He exclaimed. The mares all sighed with relief. 

"Now it's our turn." Snowball said. 

"Let's go." Candy Cane added.

Looking back out towards them once again, Gearshift gestured sideways with his head. "Go! Draw its attention when you're in cover!" He called out, hoping he'd heard it. 

Thankfully, he'd been heard as he watch Steel Tip turn to the others to speak before they all ran down the corridor Gearshift had instructed them too. Sitting patiently, whilst keeping out of the way of the turret's continuous barrage, he watched as the quartet moved out of his line of sight. 

"Gear?" Candy Cane asked.

"Wait for it.... wait for it...." Gearshift said. 

The loud crack of Full House burst into the air, ripping clean through the noise generated by the turret. Moving his head out once again, he watched as the turret barrels swung ninety degrees before returning fire. 

"Now!" Gearshift exclaimed, scrambling to his hooves.

He was the first one out of the door with the others following right behind him, as close as possible. The relenting wave of turret fire increased in volume, getting louder and louder the closer they got. Keeping low to the ground as the rest of the group had before them, Gearshift swerved around the corner, passing directly beside the turret. Looking up towards it, he got a good look at the scrapes and bullet inflicted holes present on its outer shell. His entire body felt the vibrations from being this close as the turret continued to fire. Soon enough, he looked back in the direction he was heading and darted towards the closest turning in the corridor. Quickly ducking behind it, watching as the mares behind him did the same, his gaze moved down to the other end of the hall. For a brief moment, his eyes met that of Butch's before the deputy disappeared out of sight down his respective hallway. This, in turn, left the turret nothing to fire at, although that didn't stop it. It remained pointing in the direction it had been firing instead of returning to the position it was deployed in and eventually ceased fire, much to Gearshift's surprise. 

Gearshift could feel his heart thundering away in his chest once again, as well as hearing it in his ears. His heavy panting made him wince, thanks to his existing injuries, but for now they were out of the turret's line of sight and now had the remaining floors to cover. Resting his back against the wall in a seated position, the sound of the turret decreasing slightly, he glanced down at his hooves and watched as they shook. With the adrenaline still pumping through his body, he turned to look at Candy Cane, Snowball and Lavender Blossom, the three of them all returning his glance. He opened his mouth to speak but a soft shake of the head from each of them stopped him in his tracks. 

"Let's keep moving." Lavender Blossom said, moving to continue on down the next hallway.

Snowball moved to join her as Candy Cane motioned to do the same, then turned to look back at Gearshift. Gearshift's eyes met hers, his own trembling from the adrenaline. His heart was still thundering in his chest and his breaths were short and sharp, until Candy Cane raised a hoof. 

In a split second moment, the pain of his breathing and the sound of his heart vanished as he looked at her, holding her hoof out for him. He sat there and looked at her hoof for a few seconds before taking hold of it, then being pulled into a standing position. His legs shaking nearly threatened to drop him to his haunches but he maintained his composure and remained stood upright.

"Now let's get a move on." Candy Cane said as she, Snowball and Lavender Blossom began to walk. 

With a nod of his head, Gearshift moved after them, quickening his pace to catch up and walk alongside them.


◇◇◇◇◇


The hallways were familiar yet different, Gearshift noting the turnings as they walked. All was calm for the moment, his breathing having gradually begun to slow with the intent of returning to its usual rate. His eyes moved between the others one at a time before his mind began to wander to the others. He'd hoped they were alright and that none of them were injured or had run into anymore trouble as they went. As long as they get back outside they'll be fine. He thought of Steel Tip and his eye, or whatever was left of it under that bandage. He hadn't seen the injury itself when it happened and only got a brief look when helping Snowball, leaving anything on the cards as to how bad the injury was. That same thought dispersed upon remembering Steel Tip wasn't alone, which filled him with relief as Tulip, Fresh Canvas and Butch were all there for him in case anything did happen. His thought process continued for several minutes, leaving him silently following on behind the mares before he eventually walked into the back of Lavender Blossom, only then snapping out of his thought provoked daze.

"H-Huh? Oh, sorry LB." He apologised, which was quickly waved away. 

Ahead of them were two branching corridors, both of which look almost identical. However, at the far end of one of them was another small sign hanging from the ceiling. Gearshift narrowed his eyes in an attempt to read the sign but was unable to do so. Raising a hoof to begin walking, he stepped out from behind the group in order to check out the sign. 

"Wait he-." He began. 

"I'll come too. Who knows what could happen if you go alone?" Lavender Blossom spoke up. Gearshift nodded in response without much hesitation.

We can't be too careful here.

The two turned to move down the hall before being stopped once again. 

"Wait a minute." Snowball said, getting everyone's attention. "We just split ourselves in half to get here. Are we sure doing it again is a good idea?"

Multiple looks were exchanged between the other three, a silent but collectively agreed answer in their minds. 

"She does have a point." Candy Cane eventually said, Gearshift and Lavender Blossom nodding in agreement. 

"I didn't mean to speak out of turn, I just thought that we're stronger together a-and I don't want any of us to get hurt when splitting up if we can do things together." Snowball added, rubbing her foreleg in slight embarrassment.

"Snow, you spoke your mind. That's all we could ask of you." Gearshift reassured, his eyes meeting hers, to which she nodded back.

With that, the four made their way, turning left, down the hall together in the direction of the sign. As they walked, Candy Cane would occasionally check over her shoulder and check behind them for any unwanted surprises that could be lurking. Thankfully, none were present. The walk went by rather quickly and they reached the sign in practically no time at all. Upon reaching it, they all turned their gazes upwards in order to read it. The sign itself looked as though it had been renovated and rejuvenated, much like the rest of this floor, silver plating the majority of the material used unlike the plastic and wooden combination on the lower floors. 


Stairwell>


Proceed with care


With one last look over their shoulder in the direction they had just come, they turned the corner and headed in the direction of the stairwell. 

The next couple of hallways that followed all had a matching feature that seemed almost alien in comparison to the ones they had walked previously - flickering lights. Watching the lights flicker gave Gearshift a flashback to the lower floors, especially floor 2 and when the scientists attacked them. Glancing at his revolver, the memory became more vivid, the face of the mare he'd shot with her own gun the prominent image looping through his brain. Picking his head back up to look straight ahead, he started to walk, along with the others, through each hall. A feeling of unease gradually built up in size in the pit of his stomach, forcing him to do his best in order to keep it contained. 

"I hope the others are okay." Candy Cane spoke up from beside him, making him turn to look at her.

"Me too. Hopefully they got out alright." Lavender Blossom agreed.

"They're strong and capable, I'm sure that they're holding their own." Gearshift said confidently.

"Yeah!" Snowball said.

Her exclamation got a smile from each of the group as they turned the final corner before making it to the top of the stairwell. Standing together at the top, they all looked down into darkness once more, similar to how the floor had been when they were last there. Turning on his PipBuck light, Gearshift took a step forward onto the first metal step, a cold sensation enveloping his hoof. Glancing back towards the others, he gave them all a reassuring nod, receiving one from each of them in return. Watching as they turned on their own lights, Gearshift smiled to himself then turned back to the stairs. Taking a few more steps down, he prepared himself for the darkness of floor 2 once again, however, the stairwell wouldn't give him the chance as upon reaching a step slightly further down, his hoof did not land on anything and the momentum carried him forward. Letting out a yelp in surprise, he dropped forward into nothingness, tightly shutting his eyes. 

"Gearshift!" The mares exclaimed in unison. 

Gearshift heard their voices before a sudden jolt made him force his eyes open. He had stopped falling. Looking down into a void of darkness, his heart began beating faster in his chest. The fact he was unable to see what he had fallen into was terrifying and frantically waving his hooves around didn't help matters. 

"Stop moving around!" Candy Cane's voice called out to him from above, making him turn his head and look up. 

Standing on the stairs he'd fallen from were Candy Cane and Lavender Blossom, their horns illuminated and a strained look on both of their faces. It was only when his gaze shifted that he saw their combined magical auras surrounding his tail, gripping it tightly. They caught me. No sooner had he looked up at them, he began moving in their direction. With their combined efforts, Gearshift was moving out of the dark chasm he'd wandered into and back up to where they were standing. Keeping his eyes on them the entire time, the edge of the stairwell got closer and closer before he was soon enough able to touch it. Feeling two hooves take hold of him, he turned his head to the side and was greeted by Snowball, helping him back over the edge to solid ground. Pulling himself back from the drop, Gearshift took a few moments in order to catch his breath. 

"What happened....to the stairs?" He stammered, looking straight ahead at where he'd just been pulled from. 

"I'm not sure." Snowball said. 

"They just disappear." Lavender Blossom added.

"Are you okay, Gearshift?" Candy Cane then asked, turning to him. 

"Yeah. Yeah I'm good, a little shaken but I'm good." Gearshift answered.

Looking towards the stairwell once more, Gearshift slowly dragged himself up to his hooves once again, then shuffled back over towards the edge. Being joined by the others, their eyes trained on the ground, each of them raised their lights in order to see where they were going. Upon reaching the edge, Gearshift stopped, looking back towards the others. 

"Anything?" Candy Cane asked.

"Can't see anything. It's almost like they never finished this staircase or something." Gearshift answered, his brain then sparking to life. "Unless..."

Raising his light once again, but this time angling it out in front of him, he looked in the direction of the bottom of the stairwell. Watching his actions, the others moved forwards and raised their own lights again. 

Narrowing his eyes, Gearshift looked for any sign of where they could go from their position and soon enough his reward came. On the far side of the incomplete stairwell were a few metal steps, identical to the ones they were currently standing on. Pointing his hoof across the gap, the destination presented itself to the others. 

"But...that's too far to reach." Snowball said.

"It wouldn't be if we jumped it." Lavender Blossom spoke up, everyone turning to look her way. "If we get a running start from the top, we'll be able do it."

"Jump it?!" Snowball asked in surprise. 

"Hey, Snow, we'll be alright. Just think of it as a little hop, skip and a jump." Lavender Blossom reassured, gently placing a hoof on her. 

"Lavender's right, you can do this Snow." Candy Cane added.

".... Right." Snowball nodded.

Repositioning themselves into an order, it was decided that Lavender Blossom would go first, at her request however, as she would show Snowball how it was done. With the staircase being wide enough to get two of them side by side, light was shone from the PipBucks both at the edge they were standing on and the edge at the other side, which was faintly visible thanks to their lights. Lavender Blossom slowly backed up to the top of the stairwell, taking several deep breaths in preparation whilst the others cleared the way. 

"You got this, LB." Gearshift encouraged.

Gaining a focused and determined look on her face, Lavender Blossom scuffed her hoof against the metallic flooring. With one final intake of breath, she bolted into a full speed gallop. Passing by the others, they watched as she sprung off the edge and launched herself across the gap. As she cleared the gap, her light got further away before a loud crash followed, then only silence. Stretching on for an eternity, her light eventually came back to the far edge, illuminating the remainder of the stairwell's bottom. 

"I'm good!" She called to them, getting a sigh of relief from each of them, the biggest from Snowball.

With Lavender Blossom across, it was time for the others to make their own way across the gap. The trio shared some glances before Snowball shakily raised a hoof. 

"I'll... I'll go next." She volunteered.

"Are you sure, Snow?" Candy Cane asked.

"Yeah, if you need more time, one of us can go next." Gearshift added. 

"No. I'll have to cross sooner or later, the sooner I get into it the sooner it's done." Snowball said with a shake of her head. 

Sharing a glance, followed by a nod, Gearshift and Candy Cane were both in agreement. 

"Alright, you're up Snow." Gearshift said.

Moving to give her space, Gearshift took some breaths of his own.  You got this Snow. Goddesses, you can do this. Once set and in position, all attention turned to Snowball as she backed up towards the top of the stairwell as Lavender Blossom had done before her. Snowball nervously looked back into the darkness, the only illumination coming from the PipBucks of her friends. With one last lungfull of air and a nervous gulp, her gallop began. Racing towards the edge of the stairwell, she leapt into the air and towards Lavender Blossom. A yelp of surprise followed a few moments later as the two mares collided with one another.

"You guys okay?!" Gearshift called out to them, seeing the lights of their PipBucks moving around.

"Y-Yeah. We're okay!" Snowball called back.

Leaving on Candy Cane and Gearshift himself left to jump, the two of them got themselves ready. Stabilising themselves and backing up to the top of the stairwell, they gave each other one last look before stepping up. 

"Try and keep up." Candy Cane said as she began her gallop towards the edge. 

Gearshift was in hot pursuit of the unicorn, but gave her enough space so she wouldn't buck him in the face when she jumped. His heart was thumping as he ran, his eyes darting to the floor in order to watch where he was stepping. The edge quickly got closer and closer, his hooves running out of space to step, until Candy Cane leapt off. Leaving Gearshift momentarily by himself, he took multiple short and sharp breathes before leaping across the gap. Whilst keeping his gaze focused ahead of him, he saw the green lights getting closer before the ground reintroduced itself. Slamming into the remainder of the stairwell, his momentum carried him further forward, resulting in him sliding into the far wall and landing in a heap. Laying there for a few seconds, he slowly picked his head up and shook himself off, being helped to his hooves by Lavender Blossom. The adrenaline was still pumping throughout his body as he stood up, resulting in his legs shaking.

"Alright, is everyone okay? Any injuries?" Snowball asked, looking amongst the group.

"All good." Lavender Blossom answered. 

"I'm alright." Candy Cane said.

"Same here." Gearshift added.

With a relieved nod from Snowball, the quartet turned towards the remainder of the hallway. The hall was still bathed in darkness, like it had been when they were last on this floor. Their first steps were cautious and calculated, slowly beginning down the hallway, in hopes of finding their way out once again. The PipBuck lights were the only things allowing them to see, for the pitch black room was just as unsettling as it had been the first time they passed through.

Gearshift let out a small shudder as he walked, a feeling of unease crawling through his skin like an insect. The feeling remained as they travelled the halls of floor 2. That was, until they turned into the next section of hallways, coming to a branching path, one path straight ahead and a second branching off to the left. Turning to face the rest of the group, Gearshift opened his mouth to speak.

"Do you think it's safe down here now?" Snowball asked. 

The question initially caught Gearshift by surprise but he promptly adjusted himself. 

"No need to worry, Snow. I know it's dark but we'll-"

"It's not the darkness I'm talking about." Snowball cut him off.

Looking back down the hall once more, he soon understood what she meant. Ducking for cover, dodging in and out of rooms, the relenting amount of bullets flying through the halls. Turning back to face them, Snowball in particular, he then stepped towards them.

"I understand, Snow. We need to keep our eyes peeled for anything that might happen. But, no matter what, we'll get out of this place." Gearshift reassured. His eyes then moved to Lavender Blossom. "Keep your pistol ready, LB."

"Right." Lavender Blossom nodded. 

Nodding back, Gearshift then turned to Candy Cane. The two of them didn't say a work but it was clear from their expressions that they were think the same thing.

With the issue addressed, Gearshift slowly turned back to face ahead of them and continued down the hall. The silence returned as quickly as it had dissipated, the only sounds coming from hoofsteps on the ground. As they walked, the branch got closer, but that wasn't everything that Gearshift noticed. The light of the PipBucks covered a short portion ahead of him, illuminating the shape of something attached to the ceiling. It was metallic and rounded on this side, a form of casing covering it. Gearshift's eyes widened in realisation and he quickly dropped down onto the cold metallic flooring.

"Down!" He whispered sharply, the others wasting no time in joining him in the ground.

"What is it?" Candy Cane whispered back in response.

"The sphere above us. Remember what floor we're on." Gearshift answered, pointing up at it.

Seeing the reactions on their illuminated faces, he could tell what they were thinking about. The memory played back through his mind, making his heart begin to beat faster once again, the visage of the same spherical mounted object having descended from the ceiling to unleash a hailfire of bullets on them.

"Do you think it can see us in the dark?" Snowball asked cautiously.

"I'm not sure, but I can assume none of us want to stick around to figure out." Gearshift answered, his assumption confirmed as they ask shook their heads.

Shifting his gaze ahead of them once more, he began to move. Crawling forward inch by inch, more of the hallway ahead of them would come into view, all thanks to the illumination. With the branch directly to his side, Gearshift altered his path and turned in that direction. Shuffling along the floor into the next hallway, Gearshift checked over his shoulder and took a momentary glance at the others. Each of them seemed focused on themselves, resulting in Gearshift turning to look ahead of him once more. The turret on the the ceiling became more distant at a painfully slow pace but it was indeed getting further away.

"Which way do we go from here?" Snowball's voice emerged over the sound of their shuffling.

"If I remember this floor correctly, that turret is pointing in the direction of the lab where we found the bodies." Gearshift answered. "Following that, there should be a turn up ahead here."

His hunch would once again prove to be correct as the light from their PipBucks illuminated the turn in the corridor. Getting a hold of the wall and pulling himself around the corner, Gearshift held out a hoof to pull each of the mare's around one by one. Once each of them were around the corner, they all took a moment to collectively take a breath.

"Everyone alright?" Candy Cane asked, looking down the group. 

"All good." Lavender Blossom answered first. 

"Yeah." Snowball followed up. 

Gearshift turned to look at the three of them, seeing each of them giving him a look in return.  "Ready to go."

With a nod of affirmation, Candy Cane was the first one to move off. The others weren't too far behind as they traversed the halls in the effort to return back to the floor below and in turn the exit. The further the group looked, the more familiar their surroundings became. As much as pitch black surroundings could look but that was besides the point. As they turned the next corner and proceeded down the connecting hallway, a sight the group would all remember met their eyes. The side of a sign placed against the wall was illuminated by their light, being illuminated further when Gearshift raised his hoof towards it.


<Level 2 Labs.
<Outer Catwalks.
>Level 2 Stairwell.
>Level 2 Offices.


A shared expression of relief passed over the group, followed by glances at one another. 

"The sign we saw before the lights went out!" Lavender Blossom exclaimed. "So then that means-" her words seemed to suddenly stop. 

The others turned to look at the unicorn, their eyes focused on her, only to see her looking straight down at the floor. All joining her in doing so, the body of a labcoat wearing scientist pony came into view, only being visible thanks to their light. 

"That means we're going the right way alright." Candy Cane commented.

Tilting the light further ahead of them, more bodies of scientists were revealed, each of them with a matching bullet hole somewhere on their body.

"Alright, grab anything that might be useful off of these guys, then we need to get moving." Gearshift said, breaking the silence that had followed. 

Without a word of questioning, they all got moving. Gearshift moved to the closest body to him, the body of a stallion leaning against the wall. Beginning to rummage through the stallion's pockets, Gearshift didn't find anything of use. Shuffling his body to the side, the stallion quietly fell sideways into a laying position on the floor. However in doing so, a weapon revealed itself. It was a pistol just like the ones that Lavender Blossom and Candy Cane had been using. Turning to look at who was closest to him, his eyes landed on Snowball. He was slightly taken aback at her being the closest to him, but there she was. She was routing through the coat of a mare who was laying face up on the ground. 

"Find anything?" He asked her, getting her attention.

"Nothing so far." She answered, turning to face him. Her eyes then moved to the pistol that he was currently leaning over. "I see you found something though."

Looking at the weapon, he nodded his head, although his expression changed soon after. 

"I did, the only thing is that it's a different type than mine." 

"Oh, I see." 

"It's still useful though." 

Checking the body of the stallion once more, Gearshift noticed a holster that was very similar to his own. Steadily removing the holster, he gave it a small dust off with his hoof and then held it out towards Snowball, making her double take at his actions. 

"What are you doing?" She asked, making the others turn around to look. 

"You're gonna need a weapon too, Snow." Gearshift answered, moving the holster closer to her. 

"Me? A weapon? You can't be serious." Snowball said in disbelief.

"I am." Gearshift responded, looking straight at her.

"But...but... I don't know the first thing about weapons." Snowball stammered.

Gearshift quietly sighed, turning to look at Candy Cane and Lavender Blossom, his eyes lingering on both of them evenly. He then turned back to look at Snowball. 

"You point the business end at whatever you want to stop trying to hurt you." Candy Cane spoke up, making it brief.

"I don't know.... it wouldn't feel right me having it." Snowball said.

"Snowball, none of us will force you to take it if you don't want to. Right?" Lavender Blossom said, looking at Candy Cane and then Gearshift in turn. "If you want I can carry it for you until you make a decision."

A few moments of silence followed as Snowball pondered the proposal. Her eyes flitted between the weapon, the holster and then each of her friends one by one, ending on Lavender Blossom.

"Please Lavender. If you could hold onto it, that would be much appreciated." Snowball answered with a nod of her head, to which Lavender Blossom accepted without question. 

Gearshift turned towards her, handing over the extra pistol and the holster. Lavender Blossom gratefully took them and levitated them to her side, putting on the holster and slotting in the pistol. 

"Now that that's out of the way, let's get a move on. The others will no doubt be waiting for us." Candy Cane spoke up.

Swiftly collecting the last remaining supplies from the scientists nearby, the quartet set out through the remainder of the hallway, proceeding down to the far end towards the staircase they came up when they first arrived on the second floor. The bullet hole in the far wall was still present, Gearshift thinking back on the sound it made upon zipping past him when the scientists ambushed them. 

"Good thing they were a lousy shot, huh?" Lavender Blossom commented, the rest of the group stopping momentarily to look at the hole.

"It's not the word I'd use." Gearshift responded, his gaze fixated on it. The others all turned to look his way. 

"Then... what word would you have used?" Snowball asked him. 

Gearshift didn't answer straight away but eventually looked at each of them in turn before looking back at the hole again. 

"Unlucky." He finally said, the looks from the others turning into ones of concern. 


◇◇◇◇◇


Passing back down the stairs onto the first floor, the pace of the group had risen. The motion lights flickered to life as the trotted through the halls. Moving with greater haste, the quarter tore through the next few hallways, having broken into a gallop and heading for the main door. Passing by the open door of the first floor lab, Gearshift briefly glanced in its direction and then turning his attention to to the others running with him. Shortly after, they swung the corner and kept running. At the far end of the hallway sat the main doorway to TRL that they had come through when they first arrived. As the quartet rushed over to it and in turn the terminal on the wall, that Gearshift had completely missed on the way in, Candy Cane moved over in order to get the door opening sequence underway. Their wait didn't last long as a confirmation chime sounded from the terminal and the sequence began. The metallic hiss soon followed as the doors slid in opposite directions, locking into the wall mechanisms once again.

"Open sesame!" Candy Cane exclaimed as they all made their way outside. 

As soon as the doors were fully open, the four of them rushed back outside into the darkened wasteland. Once they had all passed through the doorway, the doors slid closed once again with an identical hiss. Looking over his shoulder at the doors, as they closed, Gearshift caught his breath once again. 

"Not going to miss this place." He muttered under his breath. His attention swiftly turned back to the others as they collected themselves. "Everyone okay?"

The mares all nodded in confirmation. A relieved sigh escaped Gearshift before he began to look around once again. The wasteland was much darker than it had been when they arrived, so much so that the glowing of the PipBuck screens was the only thing able to assist in actually seeing the rest of the group. 

"How long were we in there?" Candy Cane asked, looking up at the darkened clouds and equally dark sky that enveloped them. 

"I'm not sure, but the good thing is that we're out of there." Snowball spoke up.

"At least it's not pitch black yet. We should be able to find our way back." Lavender Blossom said. 

Moving further away from the building, the group took a seat at one of the low walls that were scattered around the laboratory's vicinity. As small talk ensued, there was one question that was burning in each of their minds and although nobody said it or even thought about saying it, it was at the focal point of their thoughts. 

Where are the others?

The longer they waited, the more worry and concern crept its way into their minds. Gearshift positioned himself at the edge of the wall, looking back in the direction of TRL and the immediate areas around it. The darkness wasn't helping, forcing him to have to squint or quickly dart his head if he saw something move, or at least thought he saw something move. They should be here. He gently bit his lip, struggling to keep himself still in his seated position, resulting in him standing up and continuing to look towards the lab. Where are they?! His paranoia was growing and growing at a consistent rate. One by one the others had joined him in standing up and looking in the same direction. Minutes passed, feeling like a lifetime, each new one that passed adding more and more paranoia into the already rapidly growing amount. That was until something caught his eye. Narrowing his eyes once again, they fixated on something at the back corner of the lab, a glowing something, although he couldn't quite make out what from this current angle. 

"Look!" Snowball exclaimed, pointing her hoof in that direction. 

With everyone following the sightline and exactly where her hoof was pointing, the paranoia immediately evaporated as Fresh Canvas and Tulip stepped around the corner. The glowing that Gearshift had seen was coming from their PipBuck lights, illuminating the two of then along with Butch and Steel Tip who were following just behind them. 

"There they are!" Lavender Blossom exclaimed. 

"Over here! Hey!" Candy Cane then called out, waving her PipBuck leg in the air, the light now elevated. 

Following her lead, the others raised their own PipBucks into the air and began calling out to them also. It seemed to do the trick as Butch looked in their direction.  Gearshift watched as Butch got the attention of the others and then pointed towards where he and the others were currently waving from. A smile brandished itself on Gearshift's face as he watched them start galloping over, covering the distance between them in double quick time. It wasn't long before they met with each other and embraces were shared, glad that the others were all safe and they were once again reunited. 

"We were so worried about you guys." Snowball said as she wrapped her hooves around Tulip in a tight hug. 

"You weren't out here so we started to fear the worst." Gearshift said, looking between each of them. 

"Apologies for worrying you. We had to make a stop on the way out." Butch said, placing a hoof on his chest as he spoke. 

"A stop? How come?" Candy Cane asked. 

"One of those turrets." Fresh Canvas answered. "It wasn't there before but when we made a break for the door it came out of nowhere."

"Are any of you guys hurt?" Gearshift asked, an expression of concern on his face. 

"Just a couple of scrapes but I had to give Steel Tip a new bandage. He'd started to bleed again." Tulip spoke up, gesturing to the freshly wrapped bandage around the silver unicorn's eye. 

"Causing problems huh Steel?" Gearshift asked, trying to keep things light. 

"I will buck you in the chest." Steel Tip playfully threatened. 

"Good luck aiming, one eye." Gearshift jabbed back. 

"Whatever that crazy son of a bitch told you will depend how hard I kick you." Steel Tip retorted.

The smirk immediately dropped from Gearshift's face as everyone turned to look at him, going silent as they awaited a reply. Gearshift's breath caught momentarily as his eyes flickered to each of the group in turn. 

"Shouldn't we wait until we've gotten back to town?" Gearshift asked.  

"You did give us your word that you would explain everything." Butch spoke up.

Gearshift recoiled slightly as Butch spoke, knowing that he was right. How are they going to take this?

"Gear, we can't help out with whatever it is that you've been told if you don't tell us what is going on." Candy Cane encouraged, placing a hoof on him. 

Looking around each of the group, their eyes boring holes into his flesh, Gearshift had no choice but to relent. Taking a step back to get each of them into his field of vision, he let out a breath to compose himself. 

"We talked for some time and.... he, firstly, admitted to being behind the dead workers in the lower levels that CC, Steel and I found." Gearshift began, Candy Cane and Steel Tip looking at one another for a few moments. "He also has the core that we're after, but he has come up with a compromise, as if for us to earn our prize." 

"That compromise being?" Steel Tip huffed dismissively.

"The compromise is that we must retrieve some plans from an old colleague of his and bring them back here." Gearshift answered. 

"So we're basically being errand ponies?" Fresh Canvas asked. 

"Fuck. That." Steel Tip huffed. 

"Is this some kind of joke?" Lavender Blossom asked in disbelief. 

"Hey this isn't just-" Gearshift tried to defend. 

"This is unbelievable, we're going to let our stable down and have it potentially suffer an entire meltdown because we have to run errands for some fucking lunatic scientist who got his homework stolen?!" Steel Tip snapped coldly. 

"But this might be the only way to actually save our stable from actually having the meltdown." Gearshift reasoned.

"Surely there is another method to this. We can't just blindly follow instructions and just hope that he keeps his word. That's ridiculous." Steel Tip said, looking at the others. 

"Do you have any other suggestions?" Butch asked, facing the unicorn. 

An uncomfortable silence followed as all eyes then turned in the direction of Steel Tip. Nobody said anything but it was as if Gearshift could hear what was being said in his mind. His gaze shifted between each of them one by one, seeing a different expression on each of them, from Steel Tip's defensive look to cautious acceptance from Fresh Canvas to indecisiveness from Tulip. Gearshift opened his mouth to speak but no words came out as he was not sure what to say to diffuse the situation. The silence was eventually broken, but not by him. 

"So where do we need to go?" Steel Tip conceded.

Gearshift turned to look at him, a surprised expression on his face. "Steel?"

"Don't make me ask twice, Gear." Steel Tip sighed. 

"Well, we need to travel to Trottingham Air Base. Once we get there we need to find someone by the name of Doctor Forceps and retrieve plans for something that he called.... Dual Pincer." Gearshift continued. 

"Dual Pincer? What the hell is that?" Lavender Blossom asked.

"I'm not sure, he didn't say." Gearshift answered. "All he said was that he didn't care how we got the plans but that we got them and brought them back."

"W-What would happen if we didn't manage to get them?" Snowball asked, politely raising a hoof as to not interrupt.

Gearshift fell silent from that and although he said nothing, the implications from him doing so were enough of an answer. Snowball placed her hoof back down slowly, then looked at the others, who had all gotten the hint. 

"It won't come to that, so don't worry." Candy Cane spoke up, aiming to keep the morale up. 

"Where exactly is this base? Did the doctor tell you?" Tulip asked. 

Gearshift raised his PipBuck, using his nose to press the 'MAP' button. "He linked the location onto my PipBuck. It's on the other side of Trottingham."

"That's no problem, we can swing by again and grab some more supplies before we head out." Butch said. 

"Let's just be quick about it." Steel Tip said. 

"I'm with Steel. The quicker we get this core, the quicker we can all go home." Gearshift nodded. "As long as we're all in agreement on this."

The group pondered the new situation that they found themselves in. All taking a collective glance back towards the laboratories they had just emerged, knowing they would be returning. Gearshift's mind began to race once more, casting back to the conversation he had had with Bunsen Burner and traversing each floor of the labs, only to come out with a new mission that had to be completed. First getting through TRL, now this? 54, you've got to hold out that little bit longer. Still looking up at the gradually rusting building, Gearshift's gaze firmed, the mission was set and he knew what needed to be done. After a few more moments of pondering, his eyeline lowered back to the group once again, who were now all looking to him for their next course of action. 

"Any final words of encouragement?" Fresh Canvas requested, half in jest.

"If there aren't anymore objections?" Gearshift asked in response, to which nobody said anything, not even Steel Tip argued his point. "Right, then let's get a move on."


◇◇◇◇◇


The walk back towards Trottingham was at a quicker pace than the journey towards TRL had been, a brisk trot instead of a cautious walk. Gearshift lead the way back and had his focus dead ahead of them, only occasionally glancing down at his PipBuck in order to check the distance as to how far away they were. His focus was so tunneled that he didn't notice he was being spoken to until the third time his name was said. 

"Gear!" Candy Cane's voice broke through from beside him. 

"Huh? What? Oh, sorry CC, what's up?" Gearshift asked in response.

"Was there anything else that Bunsen Burner told you? Any other details?" Candy Cane asked.

"Not really, he only mentioned about what he needed from us and about his work. Creepy bastard." Gearshift answered. 

"What about the things he said before he attacked us? Move and Strike as One? Operation Synchronize? All of that has to mean something right?" Candy Cane continued, bringing up a valid point. 

Gearshift had almost forgot about that, having nearly had his head taken off by Bunsen Burner's shotgun, but the conversation they had overheard sprung itself back into the forefront of his mind. Who is this Commander? What's Operation Synchronize? What does it all mean?

Breaking his train of thought, he glanced back in her direction. "I'm not sure. But our Stable is what is important right now. Once we get to that air base and talk with this other doctor, we'll get those plans and then bring them back to TRL. Then we can deal with Bunsen Burner and get that core back to 54." 

"I hope everyone back home can stay strong until we get back." Candy Cane said hopefully.

"I hope my father can keep everything afloat until then." Gearshift added.

Candy Cane gave a nod of agreement as their conversation concluded, the two going back to their own thoughts. 

It then dawned on Gearshift that his thought process had been all over the place the entire time they had been out in the Wasteland. He had lost concept of time as it had been relatively dark when the seven stable dwellers exited their metallically sealed home and the sky above them was currently a darker shade of black than it was then. On top of that, his mind then flashed back to his father. All this time Gearshift had commented on Stable 54 as a whole and not specifically on his own father who had been sealed in the reactor room and has been there since before Gearshift had even left the stable's confines. Dad. Please be okay.... please.

The journey went by relatively quickly as the group crossed over the top of the large hill that from the other side had hidden TRL from view, now doing it in reverse to Trottingham. With conversations going on behind him faintly, Gearshift continued to lose himself in his own thoughts. Everything they had heard and experienced over the last few hours was replaying itself in his head like a movie, each choice, confrontation and hair raising moment on playback in his mind.

"Does that light always shine this bright at night?" Tulip's voice sounded from behind him, snapping him out of his train of thought and making him, as well as the others, turn to face her. The group all came to a standstill as they looked at her, giving her a chance to elaborate on her question. 

"What light?" Fresh Canvas asked her with a tilt of his head. 

Raising a hoof, Tulip pointed ahead of the group. "That one."

Every pair of eyes turned in the direction that she was pointing in and they all saw what she was looking at. Trottingham, in the distance, with light glowing from it. The light was not the same as one would find within a home however, this light had an orange-yellow hue to it. They all stared in silence for a few moments, trying to piece together what it was that they were seeing. Then it clicked.

"Oh no." Butch was the first to speak. "Oh no no no no no." 

"Butch?" Gearshift asked. "What's-" 

Before he could even finish his sentence, Butch took off into a gallop, racing back towards Trottingham. 

"Fire Buck!" Butch exclaimed as he ran. 

It took a second or two for the others to acknowledge what he meant, Gearshift's eyes widening when it came to him. 

"The buck that was shooting fire at Sentry. The one he'd talked about!" He exclaimed.

Without a moment of hesitation, he rushed off. Galloping as fast as he could, he aimed to catch up with Butch. The others had paused for a few moments before darting off right after them, moving as fast as their legs would carry them. All other thoughts disappeared from Gearshift's mind as they ran. Trottingham needed them and needed them now. Gearshift locked his eyes onto the galloping changeling ahead of him and glowing light of the town off in the distance. All he could think about was helping the town and making sure no more lives were lost. His adrenaline levels were rapidly climbing by the second, only increasing further the closer they got to the town. An hour walk had soon shortened to a gallop that took a third of that time, the homes and buildings getting closer and closer into view. Then the sound followed. The sound of screaming and panic had followed as they rapidly approached the way into town that they had walked out of when originally setting off for the labs. The sounds became much more vibrant as Gearshift breached the threshold of the town, more sounds and sights entering the mix, the sound of gunfire among them. 

The first thing Gearshift got a good look at was the source of the light that they had seen from their original position. Flames. A good few of them. Immediately looking around, Gearshift reached down and took the grip of his revolver in his teeth. With Butch nowhere to be seen and the others catching up with him, he needed to take action and quickly. Making a break for the nearest piece of cover, the wall of a building, Gearshift slid across the ground to get behind it. Poking his head out, all he could see were ponies and changelings alike running in multiple directions. Some were engaging in firefights, firing their weapons in the direction of their enemies. It wasn't until Gearshift stepped out further that he saw who they were firing at, looking towards the far end of the street to make them out. Down the other end of the street, he caught sight of a large group of disgruntled, scruffy looking raiders pouring into the town through the northern passage. Some were chasing after the inhabitants, equipped with gnarly looking melee weapons, whilst some were returning fire to the citizens who had taken up weapons in order to fight back. 

"Help me move this!" A voice called out within earshot, getting Gearshift's attention. Looking in that direction, his eyes landed on Enigma. She, along with another changeling mare were attempting to lift a section of debris that had fallen and was currently crushing the leg of an earth pony stallion. Quickly checking the coast was clear, Gearshift moved out from behind cover, slid his revolver back into its holster and quickly rushed over to their position. 

"Enigma!" he called as he ran over, the changeling mare turning to look at him. 

"Gearshift!" Enigma exclaimed in a surprised but greatly relieved tone. "When did you get back?"

"Just now." Gearshift answered.

"Well you chose the perfect time to drop in." Enigma responded before turning her attention back to the trapped stallion. "Okay, lift on three. One... two... three!"

Quickly grabbing hold of the debris, Gearshift helped in lifting it up. Together the three of them managed to lift the debris enough to give the stallion enough room to slide his leg out from underneath. The leg itself didn't look in the best of shape but thankfully the stallion was able to stand up. 

"Are you okay?" Gearshift asked the stallion, who gave a pained nod. 

"I'll be alright, thank you." He said. 

"Nyx, get him to Suture Seam, see what he can do for him." Enigma told the other mare.

"Got it. Come on let's go." Nyx said, taking hold of the stallion in order to help him with walking on his damaged leg, keeping pressure off of it. 

Watching the two of them slowly move on, Gearshift gave a soft sigh of relief, glad to have helped him. 

"Where are your friends?" Enigma asked, seeing Gearshift was by himself. 

"I'm not sure, they were right behind me and I was following Butch but it looks like we got separated in all the commotion." Gearshift answered. 

"Alright, looks like it's just us for now then." Enigma said, levitating a rifle off of her back. Chambering the lever on the underside, she gave Gearshift a nod. 

Gearshift drew his revolver once more and nodded in response before the two moved forwards down the street. They didn't get far however as just ahead of them, at a crossroads, was an ongoing gunfight between raiders and Trottingham citizens, the latter of which were clumped together and currently losing, as well as having a casualty with an earth pony mare laying face down on the ground and not moving. Gearshift and Enigma continued their approach, aiming to help out the citizens that were currently fighting. Raising up his revolver to take a shot at the firing raiders, Enigma doing the same with her rifle, the area not far ahead of them was blasted with a wave of heat that forced them to stop dead in their tracks then promptly backpedal. Gearshift had clamped his eyes shut when the heat erupted in front of them, but upon opening them, he was met with a grizzly sight. Turning his attention to the group of citizens they had seen moments prior, his eyes widened in horror as their charred bodies dropped to the ground, flesh having melted off and in one poor stallion's case half his face having been melted off. Before Gearshift could utter another word, the perpetrator stepped around the corner. Twin cylinders on his back, a tube connected to them that stretched around from the back, coming around to the front to point at his unfortunate targets and a black mask shielding his own face from the devastating force his weapon would bring. 

This was Flame Buck.

Holy shit.