> Our Legacy, Their Story.
>  by MerlosTheMad
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Strange Circumstances
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	




Luna snapped awake. Something felt strange. 


She looked around her room, searching for something. The tall armoire against the wall glistened around its gilding in the sunlight, which was normal.

The drapes, bed curtains and bed covers were a somber midnight blue, slightly cast in shadow, which was also normal. 

The glittering chandelier, rows of books, writing desk, dresser drawers, tea table, numerous chests, balcony windows, stand mirror and punching bag all stood idle and as they had been before she had fallen asleep. Everything, it seemed, was normal.

Luna rolled out of bed. It was still daylight out; so why, she wondered, had she awoken? She hadn't awoken for the recent insurrection, much to her embarrassment, so why had she stirred from her slumber now? Had it been a nightmare? Tsk, that seems highly unlikely, she thought.

Though drowsy, Luna felt something.

A knock sounded at Princess Luna's door. Who could that be at this ungodly hour? She grumbled, she had already been awake however, so she wasn't angry per se.

Princess Luna responded to the knock while donning her regalia. "YES WHO IS-?" She coughed, having nearly burst into the traditional Royal Canterlot tone. Abandoning the old habits was slow going for her. "I mean, yes who is it? Tia?"

A muffled voice came through the door. Even unopened she knew as they spoke that it was not her sister. "Your Highness! Princess Celestia beckons you to make haste; she awaits you at the royal observatory!" 

Luna blinked and a frown creased her face. 

The observatory?

The odd feeling was forgotten.

***

I'm an astronomer for pities sake, I'm not built of very sturdy stuff. Professor Lense wrung his hooves over one another nervously as his thoughts sought, and failed to calm himself down. The Princess had been peering through the royal telescope the last several minutes, after rushing in with a full squad of guardsponies and scaring him half way to an early grave. Keep it together Brass Lense, she's obviously not here to arrest you. Oh, I knew sea otter fights were a bad hobby to start-

The nervous stallion's eyes darted to a guard in worry as he coughed. I'm too old for scares like this. Surprising as all this was, that also paled next to how odd it was for him. He had to wonder, why does she even have need of Canterlot's largest telescope during the day time?

Without looking from the astronomical tool, the princess spoke suddenly and sternly. "Professor Lense." 

"Oh! Uhm, yes my lady Princess?" Well that was eloquent; I am no good with formalities! Professor Lense had never seen her act this deadly serious. Point in fact, Celestia’s eyes were stern and cold as she turned to face him; the old stallion froze under their scrutiny and gulped audibly. 

Without responding to his obvious nervousness she looked away from him once again and back to the massive telescope. "...Just Princess will do my little pony." She replied in a taciturn voice. "Please, tell me what you see." 

Hesitantly, he shuffled over to the viewer of the scope and peered through. It takes a moment before it focuses, and when it does, his jaw drops out of pure disbelief. What is that!?

"Well?" Celestia prompts the old stallion.

"I... I don't know my Princess, it's... it's a moon I believe, during the day. Has Princess Luna turned o-?"

Princess Celestia answered him swiftly. "No, this is not my sister's doing. It is something far worse, judging from what I've already gathered..." She sighed, and inhaled deeply before staring up at the sky towards the barely visible celestial outline of a foreign sphere, hanging in her dear Equestrian sky. The sight barely peeked through the roof's opening.

After a moment, Celestia spoke once more. "And that, is no moon." She stated dramatically.

......

Professor Lense shifted his eyes uneasily at the guards, then back to her. For some reason he couldn't quite put his hoof on things, but it had felt like that statement was building up to something... But the Princess just stood there, watching the orb... So, he prepared to say something. "Princess, I-"

Instead, the door burst open suddenly, admitting an out of breath Princess Luna to the room.

"Actually sister, I'm afraid it is a moon."










The unicorn's eyes shot open. She couldn't move. There were lights, so many lights all around. She tried squinting against them to see where she was, but still could not make out the surroundings. After a moment, she realized there was oddly no pain in keeping her eyes open against the brightness.

They took in the white light, bright as a sun and from a dozen separate sources with ease. Am I...dead? Could this be the afterlife? I've always pondered what that might be, exactly.  It was, after all, one of life's great mysteries. Even Celestia had admitted to not knowing to her, once. The mare couldn't remember, but that thought about death in and of itself did not seem normal to her at all. Why am I considering that I could be dead? The last thing I remember is...is... She tried to scrunch her face while thinking, and it felt incredibly stiff and uncomfortable, adding onto the mystery. 

The feeling that a lot of time had passed since she was last awake, was also unmistakable, even to her dazed mind. 

Focusing, the immobile pony concentrated on recent events, trying to remember back to just before she'd been awake. She thought of Ponyville, what she'd had for breakfast last...her friends and family. While trying to remember something, anything, she tested her limbs, they remained in front of her and restrained despite her best efforts. In fact, her body was actually lying on its back—the realization of that had taken a moment. As she was, she unable to do much of anything—her head couldn't even move.

"My, oh my!" Her ears managed to twitch towards the voice, this was also the first response she had gotten out of her body.

"It's awake, Georges, take a look at this, the specimen's awake." The lights dimmed significantly as the voice spoke. 

The restrained pony blinked, and looked up into the face of the strangest thing she had ever seen. Its eyes were not of any creature she was familiar with, they were smooth and unmoving, without any pupils. In addition, it had strange ridges and ribbed tubes running all along its head. Its mouth...? Well it had no mouth, it spoke without moving anything.

Another creature entered her field of vision... This one wore a thin cloth mask and its eyes were normal, like a pony's, although they were very small she thought.

"Hm, get the TS5-serum, would you?" It seemed to tap what passed for its chin in thought.

Serum?  The mare considered what it had said blearily. Making out the room was now possible, and she took in her surroundings. They were entirely foreign to her.

The second creature walked back out of sight then. 

The pony inhaled deeply, nervousness building. Her throat felt ragged and sore, but she tried to speak to them. I'm going to get to the bottom of this, now!

"Who are you?" Her voice was little more than a croak, but she pressed on. "Where am Iiiiii-iiieee!" The words became a waning shriek. The attempt at communication was immediately forestalled by some horrible pain. Her body went rigid and jumped, interrupting her entirely. She felt her muscles cramp and her body stiffen even more, despite being held down as she was by the restraints. Torturous agony coursed through her body just after she had felt a sharp pinch and a shock in her right side. 

"What was tha-AAH?!" The pain returned, just as unrelenting.

"Hurry up with that, Georges, it's talking... I don't approve of that. Now, now little creature, just relax. You'll be fine in just a moment, we're putting you back to sleep is all." Its voice was sickeningly mocking in tone. The creature made settling motions with its...claws she guessed. It didn't matter, these things had obviously foal-napped her and meant anything but kindness towards her. She had to escape. Concentrating, she pulled on her magic and weaved a spell. 

Trapped. I'm trapped. Gotta free myself!

"Georges, bring my super sized cattle prod over here would you? Its doing that thing we were warned about, and I don't like it... Gah!" The man took account of what he'd just seen. A bright, colorful flash and then his subject had disappeared into thin air. He had somehow just witnessed the impossible.

"Dammit, it's gone! It's just gone! Where could it have gone!? Georges!" It slammed the metal table, which, in turn caused a clatter from various surrounding tools.

He heard a grunt behind himself. Georges was pointing to the specimen lying sprawled on the ground in front of him. "Ah, I see—good work, now hurry and stab it repeatedly with that needle. I don't want our employers to get upset over a scratch or something... A deal like this spoiled by a naughty experiment wouldn't be kosher."

The mare had managed to teleport a short distance across the room and out of her restraints successfully, but she hadn't gotten far. In addition, despite freeing herself, she still couldn't move her body. Gotta run...! Uhm. Why can't I move my legs!? She looked at herself, panicking, and tried with all her might to gallop to the open doorway. It was to no avail—her whole body was entirely unresponsive, except her head, which she at least seemed able to move freely, if groggily.

I gotta— Oh, that is a big needle... The unicorn was too confused and shaken to change her expression over the approaching creature, armed with what was without a doubt a frighteningly large syringe. Without waiting, she readied her magic in response to its approach.

It worked just how she wanted it to. Both creatures lifted up into the air, then started shouting incomprehensibly. Well, one of them started shouting, anyway. 

Becoming increasingly irate, the pony answered in kind, her emotions building from the fear, confusion, and vertigo of waking up foal-napped.

"Be! Quiet!" the mare shouted. She tried stomping a hoof for punctuation, but her leg refused even a twitch.

The smaller of the two strange creatures ceased its protest, but continued to struggle against her magic, albeit without results. 

She continued once she'd gotten their full attention. "I don't know who either of you are, or even what either of you are, or what's going on, but I want some explanations! Right now!" She gave a snort for emphasis in order to get her seriousness across.

The smaller of the two stopped flailing, finally, and crossed its arms. "How about this, Miss Specimen; ow- was that necessary?" 

She had knocked the thing’s metal head against the wall, not appreciating the way it talked to her.

"My name... Is Twilight. Twilight. Sparkle." Twilight spoke calmly, though with some difficulty. The creature stared back at her a moment, then let out a raucous stream of laughter. She could feel her eye begin to twitch; in the back of her mind though, past the frustration, she was getting a little worried, and maybe even scared.

"Oh, well, isn't that just the most adorable name. I would expect that of an adorable little creature like you, though... Twilight... Now look, I'll be completely and totally honest with you, since you seem sooo, so, so smart." It took off its head, chuckling. 

No... Twilight realized it was a helmet. It looked the same as the bigger strange creature, actually, except that it had a red colored mane, where the other had no mane hair at all. Its skin looked very... stretched. Overall, the mystery creature was a tad scary looking, more so from the lack of a fur coat and the creased smile which it wore.

"Security has been called automatically and quite frankly this is all very embarrassing for me, but this will only turn out very badly, and very painfully for you. Especially, if you do not let us down to administer something that will simply help you rest." He wagged a finger at her tauntingly.

How did I get here? What is going on? Twilight's mind raced for answers, even more so after the creature's threats and attempt at deal brokering. Her attention was only half on him speaking. She was in danger, she knew that now. Escape was her only option, but how would she? She couldn't move, so she needed time... Think, Twilight, think. Something glinted in the bright lights that caught her eye. That glint formed into an idea and one of the things the creature had threatened her with.

"You mean... this something?" She grinned up at them, lifting the syringe in her magic. If it was an anesthetic, then this may buy her the time she needed in order to think.

The creature’s eyes bulged at what she levitated past his eyes. It was a very large, viciously pointed needle, filled to the end with a strange liquid.

"Georges! Why did you— OW! Why you! Da—" 

Twilight glowered as the positively callous monster exploded into a fit of what she guessed were expletives. She got the distinct feeling they were far more serious and base in their nature then those she was familiar with, too. He never once used anything savory like horse apples. The other one said nothing as its partner slowly fell unconscious.

"Well, how about you, going to give me the explanation I asked for, big guy?" Twilight asked the question calmly. Her other captor didn't respond, however. Or perhaps it was a he, Twilight guessed. The other one had sounded male and looked very similar to this one. "Look, I need answers, please... I don't know where I am or..." She sighed, it was unlikely to give her help; it just stared at her. Still, she didn't take any chances and administered what had put the other one to sleep. It stared at the needle, eyes wide, and then looked back at her with...

It looked happy of all things. Its face had not changed much, but it or he or whatever, was obviously contented.

How odd. Twilight let her aura of telekinesis fade from them, and took stock of her present situation. It was hard to see a little bit, her vision spotted with blurry spots. She blinked repeatedly and tried to rub her eyes before realizing she couldn't—obviously with her body still immobile it wouldn't be that easy. Whatever was causing her paralysis felt a bit strange, rather than nothing at all, as she would have expected. That, she decided, was either a good sign or a very bad one. 

Inspecting herself and whatever might be the cause of her body's problem, gave her pause.

"What in the name of Equestria?" Twilight squinted at herself, perplexed.

Around her forelegs and running up to her front was a strange gray covering, it was metal she observed. Looking back, it seemed to continue. Thick protrusions at odd spots dotted the apparently plate-mail armor that encased most of her body. Legs, body, back... Why had they dressed her up like this? She should be able to at least move a little. 

Still, even after concentrating for several minutes her limbs failed to respond.

She decided that perhaps she was under the effects of something they'd given her. Despite all her wiggling and stretching, she couldn't even get her tail to move. The realization that she couldn't feel her tail, either, crept up on her, and she craned her head around. 

Phew... Twilight found her tail was still there, although they must have given her a haircut. It was a great deal shorter now, and her mane as well. Oooh, whatever or whoever is responsible for all this is going to get it now. She was already considering revenge when something dawned on her.

Oh, oh no they'd said security, meaning guards. Twilight's eyes widened from the revelation.

Her mind raced again to think of something she could do. She could teleport away, but that was really no good means of getting around in unfamiliar territory. Even if she could do it more than a couple dozen or so times without strain, she was entirely immobile! 

With some effort, Twilight took a calming breath and looked around the room. 

She could see stands of what looked like more of the armor stuck to her legs. Tools and instruments of a dubious and threatening nature, which made her uneasy just to look at them, dotted the walls. She focused her magic and picked herself up off the ground, using her telekinesis to see more. 

Twilight grunted, noting that with the armor she had become a great deal heavier. She moved about the room, which was small despite its tall ceiling. Not far away was a wide doorway, where there was a larger adjoining room. There wasn't much to it all besides that, just some strange lights and the stranger glass screens that covered much of the walls.

It's all too strange! Twilight set herself down and began to pace, thinking about what her options were.

"Nonononono-no! Oh what should I do? I don't understand any of this... Last I knew I was in the library, wasn't I? Who are these things? Where am I? Okay Twilight, just keep calm, breath... There has to be an explanation for this, first thing I need to do is... Wait, what the hay?" She looked down at herself, and nearly stumbled in surprise. "I can walk now!"

She was indeed walking, or at the moment, standing. 

Once Twilight had noticed that much, she also noted how heavy her limbs and back felt. Of course the strange armor... she thought tiredly. Heaviness not withstanding, her limbs also felt weak and unresponsive. 

As Twilight struggled to lift one hoof to her face, a queasy feeling rose in her stomach. She froze as it began to build faster. 

"Oh, Celestia... What is— Uh oh." Twilight held a hoof to her mouth as the feeling got worse in mere seconds. ”What's been done to me?" She cut off and retched across the floor. 

Darkness followed, and she felt herself collapse on the floor.





Twilight Sparkle awoke slowly, and in spurts. She didn't know she was even awake, at first, nor did it feel like much time had passed. 

A groan escaped her. "What— What happened?" 

It took a moment, but her memory returned as her thoughts started moving, fueled by the awful taste in her mouth and the strange surroundings she found herself in. The room was the same as before.

Twilight stared around herself, then panicked and jumped to her hooves. After that, she settled back down, finding that the two creatures still lay asleep. She sighed, deciding she needed a plan, in addition to figuring things out.

"Think... Think. What would Celestia do if— Huh, that's..." Twilight had held a hoof to her muzzle in thought, only to stop and stare at it. "That's... not right." After noticing some odd inconsistencies with her strange body covering, she began looking at it. The metal seemed to simply lay over her, and although she didn't feel any different, it should surely be stifling. But what had caught her eye was the lack of any visible open segmentation. She'd never seen armor so complete. With how thin the covering appeared, her fur should have been visible through the joints.

"This is too much, it's too much..." Twilight held her hooves to her head in defeat, feeling a horn splitting headache come on from the stress.

She gasped as her right hoof bounced off something metallic. It wasn't the force of her blow that had surprised her, but rather the contact of it on her scalp. Her skull had clinked. 

Gingerly, Twilight raised her hoof back to her brow and felt around the crown of her head and down her back. Do I have a helmet on? The metal went on to join the rest, but seemed to be one single piece. 

At the same time, Twilight glanced back at the two unconscious bodies, returning to the thought she remembered having before her impromptu nap. Why put me in strange armor?

"There's gotta be a clue around here." Deciding to find out, she began looking around the rooms for a journal, books, information or anything that could clue her in. She was beginning to regret knocking those two out, leaving her alone. As a bit of insurance, she tied them up hastily—using their own clothes—and resumed her search. She was surprised to be panting by the end of that. Surely her little magic use couldn't be the cause; it must be the stress draining her, she decided.

Twilight continued her search for an hour, or what she guessed must have been close to an hour, she had developed a very good sense of time due to her aptitude for scheduling. So long as she didn't get distracted anyways... 

Which was usually where Spike would come in. 

Oooh, I hope Spike's okay... She searched on.

Nothing! Not so much as a note pad or single solitary inkwell anywhere. She harrumphed in frustration and glanced to her side. She... noticed something strange on one of the glass panels encircling one corner of the room. Certain letters and characters caught her attention. Augmentation 43: surgery successful. That didn't sound very reassuring or helpful, but it was a start. She looked around at the other panes of glass now curious knowing that they held information. Most of the screens were just completely alien and filled with charts and graphs and random computations which held no immediate meaning to even her.

Twilight's eyes fell on one screen at least that was unmistakably familiar. It was a clock, or at least it said that it was. It read Digital Clock across its top. 

What could “digital” possibly mean? It's odd, their language is almost identical to Equestrian and yet...

The numbers displayed 13:01. That struck her as strange too; there was no 13th hour...

Something else caught her eye when she'd blinked, and looked closer at the screen. She could see her reflection, only it wasn't her reflection. She blinked again, catching this time that only her left eye did as she'd commanded. Astounded she stepped back and closed her eyes, yep couldn't see a thing. 

Twilight looked back at the screen and frowned at the difficulty of making anything out. She spotted a mirror on a counter top then levitated it towards her. 

She gasped and let loose the mirror of her magic grip. It shattered on the floor. Twilight stared into space blankly, her mind reeling. 

She thought of the threat of impending security once more while she stood stunned, she'd forgotten about the creature's threat. But she quickly forgot it again—her thoughts were simply retracing themselves out of sheer shock. She thought of everything that had happened, trying to make sense of it and on top of it all, this...

Picking up a larger piece of the broken mirror, she looked again at her reflection.

Twilight's face was a bloody mess—part of her coat had been shaved bare to the skin over her right brow, and was covered in what looked to be incisions repaired with sloppy stitch work. This made a grisly sight, but that wasn't even the most disturbing part. Metal rivets were imbedded into her face. Encircling it they held down... She gulped—some kind of glass lens rimmed in metal over her eye. It hadn't been a helmet.

Twilight felt dizzy from the sight, the mirror began to blur in her vision and her head swam. She fell unconscious again, and the room was left silent for a long time. Her body collapsed with dull, metal thud to the floor. 

While asleep she dreamed. 











Elsewhere, several miles away...the man known as Karlisle walked slowly through the stark tiled corridors, panel lights beamed at him from above giving the hallways a relaxing office like atmosphere. The target was on the move, as expected it was randomly tearing through subsection after laboratory seeking either sanctuary or escape. Cases and events such as this were not unheard of, but were hardly common. As an Enforcer he dealt with such things swiftly and without fail, his only directive was to uphold and protect his law, and subsequently his people. His comm relay blipped twice, red, for critically urgent mission oriented. He held up his left wrist to his face already knowing from the same integrated system that it was his partnered Enforcer Cynthia, she was new to her position but a veteran he supposed by some standards. 

They all had an unspoken pecking order in the administration. As Enforcers go, her place was near the bottom. Furthermore she was his subordinate, Karlisle had been an Enforcer a much longer time; his record was also perfect. Hers did not reciprocate such perfection. Besides she was merely 135 years old. 

"Report."

"Karl, the target moves toward your position through the fourth sub-tier of level D, Block 141. It's an unused reserve relaxation section, residential, the Block schematics sho-"

"Mission. Imperative. Details." He didn't have time for superfluous information about a sub-tier's fore given prerogative or intended purpose, only mission critical data concerning terrain. It was her worst trait as he saw it, getting hung up as young people do on silly nuances or frivolous details. It was even worse than her idiotic blood lust.

Cynthia blinked but didn't hesitate to respond, she knew his wrath at being made to wait. 

"None sir, the sub-tier is a room that's abandoned and contains only level 1 haz-mat and level 2 power grid ratings. Furthermore it's cut off from all standard points of entry. The target has boxed itself in." A wicked grin had grown on her face with each word. Expression of emotion during standard protocol; how immature. But such was her chosen way.

"Understood, proceed then to..." Karlisle had been watching the surveillance but the target was exceptionally wily, staying out of sight, remaining hidden, destroying any power circuitry and cameras as it went often. All to mislead them, its misguided trek through the infrastructure was proving destructive. "Here, Lobby 3c. We'll set our capture point here."

"Yes sir." Cynthia acknowledged, her pace had blasted into a dead sprint, the hallways blurring through the comm now that she had her destination to reach. He too had begun to move through the halls at a steady 78 kph.

"Utilize tactical deception Cynthia, standard protocol nothing else, set up the detainment perimeter upon arrival."

"Yes sir." He lowered the comm. 

The target was an escaped prototype from the public contribution and bio-cyber kinetics ward, meaning it could have been a battle unit for some such purpose given time, no telling really. The staff representative however had called for its destruction and a performance evaluation should it resist... It must be defective beyond being worth intact recovery in some way.

He moved through the sub-tier's hatch which gave way to marble floor and a wide entry hall, an empty fountain made of the white-hued stone centered the expansive room. 

They had been informed the subject possessed some impressive experimental electronics. Judging by its actions thus far it could certainly access nearby terminals and security. If the subject had patched itself into the areas surveillance itself then it knew Karlisle was here now. Anticipated and expected. 

The room was encircled on the second level by a landing 18 meters from the floor level and contained two semi circle stairways leading up. A small staff desk centered at the back wall made the room appear larger, and a massive glass chandelier added a feeling of sophistication to the over elaborately decorated space.

Karlisle slowly took in his surroundings, it was always better to do so with your own perceptions then those of schematics. Cynthia arrived behind him, the ornate portcullis closing behind her, but the locking mechanisms remaining green, signifying they were left unlocked by the two Enforcers.

"Begin." he stated without turning around. She would perform the grunt work, he was almost an overseer for such operations being the senior agent; which he took pride in. 

Cynthia knew as well that he was a fail safe... She nodded obediently and began hurriedly planting the devices, known as Aegis-51 detainment pods, around nooks inside potted plants and at the edges of the room, the fist sized devices would activate on proximity or by their command, and disable the target... Painfully, she grinned in her contemplation.

It was a routine task for her, the escape of a subject didn't happen often so to speak but in their pursuits of cybernetic perfection and military advancement the scientists were given all the free reign over their experimentations that they asked for. Such was what the over-minds of science and other various bureaucrats determined was the most efficient. 

Cynthia agreed to a point, with Enforcers like her that were nearly flawless in their re-subjugation and capture of specimen it was obvious they could afford to be so passionate in their tests. 

'But could they really not risk a few vessel-borne fail safes, or better containment?' She grudgingly mused as she set the last pod.

Not for the first time she thought if she suggested better security standards such things would happen less. Cynthia knew better though then to ever pretend her input would be heard without punishment however. Besides... she enjoyed this. 

Cynthia grinned again at a thought. That Mechgineer, Skrikes, he probably let his specimen go himself just to let it run amok. She wouldn't put it past the insane man to risk his own execution just for a thrill. 

"Execution complete, beginning tactical deception protocol, security level delta." She stated nonchalantly and began to...





Just stand there.

Max, or he thought that was his name anyway, stared at the slender woman and dark skinned man waiting 4 rooms from him. They were the first people he'd run into thus far. Max couldn't remember much but he knew that these people were here for him. He considered making his way back to the bulkhead which he'd used to breach the area. 

But... he'd learned once now that backtracking was a terrible idea. His right arm fingered the blast wound in his left. No blood poured from his skin however—there was only synthetic material and plastic there. Still, it hurt; why did it hurt?

He'd only just begun his escape—internally he knew he'd avoided capture for two hours. His body... If it even was his anymore, he didn't even know THAT, had all kinds of loopy gizmos in it.

They told him things, like the temperature, details about the areas he went through, they scrolled placidly across his vision.

Security levels were something he'd become painfully familiar with after he was first forced to tear through several passageways and the walls between then to get to where he was now. He had no clue where here even was... 

The last thing he'd remembered was going to sleep... after his academy graduation... His family had held a reunion just for him, it hadn't been anything breathtaking but it was a happy memory. Why couldn't he remember anything after that? Was there anything to remember? He felt like there was. 

All he knew was that he had to escape, these people meant him harm he... could feel it. What had been done to him? Besides his arm he wasn't in any pain... Twice now though he'd encountered strange machines, like the ones that took the trash or cleaned streets, except they had... well weapons. But he'd only ever seen those in history class, or in holo-vids and data games. These caused real destruction though; they were what he now had.

The first had been when he had awoke, he hadn't known what he'd done at the time, but he had...destroyed the machine almost without thinking. The second had been after he left that room, it had tried to shoot him as he retraced his path for an easier route, and was the reason his arm was so burned now. He discovered that time that he possessed great strength, and still other devices of his own.

"Well, that's the way out..." Max had been following a utility map to escape, looking for weak points and structural faults by sight as he went. But he saw now that this place only had two exits; the door that these people had come through... and the way he'd come. Outside that was solid bulkhead or rock.

Max stood at the door, the data in his head showing the two people just standing in the next room, perhaps they were just there by happenstance? No, he'd seen the woman do something and they looked dangerous; but unarmed...

He took several deep breaths and made his way towards that room. He didn't know where he was going exactly, just that he had to get home... To his family.

Karlisle leaned nonchalantly against the wall on the walkway above floor level inspecting his fingernails, they weren't really fingernails but they looked it. Suddenly a door opened and heated plasma seared through the air, several feet in front of him. He looked up and gave the man before him a wide eyed look of terror. 

"Whoa! Whoa son calm down look I'm a friend, there's been a huge misunderstanding alright, let us explain."

"EXPLAIN WHAT! That I've been abducted! Shot! Experimented on!? Don't move or I swear I'll.... I'll end you." Max had never been a violent person even when he was younger, he hated fights. But he knew right from wrong and everything was wrong wrong...

"You're wrong, kid, you'd volunteered for this." Karlisle stood slightly hunched, his gaze not leaving the man even for a second. "Look you weren't supposed to wake up when you did and you have some memory loss, come with us and we'll explain everything."

Max stood his right arm still raised at the man. It was hard to explain how he used the thing he had shot he just knew how and it had been his best means of getting around until now. He shook, becoming more unsure than anything, he couldn't just kill the guy... If what he said was true. How would he live with himself after? He lowered the device, and half expected an attack right then and there. They didn't feel right though.

He cast a guarded look to the woman on the lower floor; she stood with her arms crossed staring up at him. She had a half surprised look on her face, was it genuine?

"There, all good see." The man's hands were still spread wide to his sides, empty. A relaxed smile had ebbed onto his face slowly when Max had stopped. "Let's go downstairs now huh? We'll explain everything."

"Not until I know exactly what's going on, why I'm like this now, and where my family is." Max stared at the man with burning conviction. 

"You'd graduated from Lunar Academy, and were selected for a kind of super soldier program, and well you woke up after the last augmentation... You don't seem to remember anything based from your actions as you destroyed two security mecha trying to detain you and ripped through several sections of our facility."

All the while Karlisle had paced down the stairs while motioning the man to follow, this routine was getting old for him but it was protocol for coherent specimen. 

"I..." Max didn't know how to respond, his left arm hung limply at his side and he began following the man. It made sense, kind of, he hadn't known of anything this advanced but he did know the government had a great many secrets kept from public eye.

Humanity still had its enemies on occasion from what he knew, even in this era of peace...

"I have a bad feeling about this, I don't trust you." Max re-raised his arm to the man and woman both of which were more or less still in front of him. 

"I want to see my family, now, I have an information up-link... in me, tell me how to call them." Max stood waiting.

Karlisle sighed inwardly, this man was insufferable... He could feel the tension in his subordinate; she wanted to rip him apart. She would not however; it was clear this man would fall for their ploy. He also knew this aggravated her to no end as well. "Yeah, that isn't a problem," He motioned to the door. "But we can't get a call out here; we're hundreds of meters below the surface we'll have to use a dedicated up-link... Come on son throw us a bone here." He watched the young man relax with every word.

"Okay..." Max kept his apparent weapon ready though. "You lead the way though."

Karlisle smiled, it was empty of course merely protocol used to put specimen at ease. He didn't smile anymore otherwise. "Certainly, follow us please." Cynthia turned and exited the room, Karlisle behind her, of course leaving their backs exposed was foolish, but the specimen had already demonstrated its unwillingness to harm; which disappointed him immensely, as he'd wished to see what improvements may have been made on the old plasma technology... He honestly hadn't seen its like in such a small unit in centuries. 

Upon exiting the lobby the dodgy detainment devices unused and apparently unneeded Karlisle watched as the specimen walked into the hallway after him, he half expected it to attack and attempt a second get away. It did not though and Karlisle proceeded to put it more at ease, in accordance of course with protocol. 

"It's fortunate we found you again when we di-". 

"I saw hundreds of them; people with... these things coming out..." Max gestured to a conduit running the length of his arm.

"More soldiers and volunteers Max," Karlisle used its name after reading it from the specimen's digital dossier. 

"That is my name?"

"Sure is, and look if it comforts you, you won't be put back under; we'll bring you up to speed on everything once we've reached the lab." Karl said everything he needed to put the man off guard.

Cynthia smirked as the two walked passed her and turned down the hall, 'Max' enraptured by Karlisle's explanations. She half thought to miss, stir up some fun. But that would never fly. 

"Okay, but where is this pla-" Max never finished his sentence. He plummeted to the ground all of his strength leaving his body, his vision went dark, his body felt heavy and stocky mysteriously, and he screamed without making a sound. 

Cynthia had stayed at the door, and fired a kinetic rod through the specimen's spine, centering on its power control. Being located behind his spine like that must have caused a great deal of pain. It was just below and between his lungs. Max groped emptily at the ground and air with a hand.

Karlisle turned and regarded the thing on the floor. He pitied such stupidity. He knelt down to the specimen and did a quick scan, all its cybernetic motor functions had been suspended without power, and it was as a result of the extent of its modifications also temporarily blind. It was helpless. He wondered if it could still hear. Karlisle realized it had started yelling.

"-lp! Ah merciful regulation, hello!? What's going on!!?? Please anyone! Dammit, I knew it I just knew something wa- GAAAAH!"

Karlisle lifted his boot from the subject's now pulverized, pulpy leg. Interesting, it could still feel, some of its nervous system had been left natural... He knelt beside it again.

"You know nothing... and I tell you this only for my own satisfaction, you are a fool, a blind, young, naive, ignorant fool. Quite literally now as well. Funny that you made it so far on your own, 5 square miles in fact of maintenance shaft and utility corridor but once we caught up to you, you fell for our very first ploy. But that's why protocol exists, so that we without fail can detain with ease, you pitiful things."

"I prefer having more fun detaining them though..." Cynthia smirked at Karlisle.

"We adhere to protocol to show we're above our peers and prove our flawlessness; imperfection is something we seek to eliminate, in all things, my dear associate." Karlisle had begun walking down the corridor leaving, Cynthia followed behind him rolling her eyes.

"Wa-wait! What about me? You're leaving?" The man's head twitched up slightly from the ground. The visor covering its eyes was dark, a transparent blind fold in appearance.

"Yes, your heart will stop soon, a unit has been sent to retrieve the body. Ciao..." The pair left him then, Max heard their footsteps echo down the hall, painfully he felt his eyesight return to him, it was dark here. The dark brown skinned, bald man and mysterious pale slick haired woman left through a small hatch, and he was alone.

He tried to roll over, strangely he couldn't feel any pain anymore, his leg was numb and the rest of his body felt like it had junk all over inside of it. He hadn't noticed that feeling before. He felt sick. Leaning against the wall he wondered if what the man said was true, he didn't feel like he was dying.


		
> Dream Delve and the Buttoning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Rainbow!"

"What!?"

"Put that down, it's very unstable and delicate!"

"Pft, fffine."

"I mean it hasn't even been tested yet... Haven't you ever been told that you never want to be the first one to test a viscous material?"

Rainbow Dash gave me a condescending stare and rolled her eyes.

"Well excuuuse me Ms. Smartypants, last I checked you'd invited me down here to your musty old basement, aaand you hadn't told me why! So sorry I got bored from waiting."

"Rainbow it's been two minutes, literally. Two. Minutes. Could you please hold your... your..."

"Hooves?"

"No I... don't think the saying goes like that, weird... Anyway it's not musty or a basement it's my laboratory! Also, Smartypants is my-"

"Twilight come on, I'm dyiiiing here!"

"Alright, alright but it's not getting any more exciting so just sit still here, yes like that, and don't move."

"Uggh, what are all these things for?"

The sound of the front door thudding could just be heard from upstairs.

"They're magic sensors; I'm doing research on the levels of magic emitted by pegasi and earth ponies!"

Rainbow rolled her eyes at me again.

"Twi, pegasi and earth po-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there. I know you know that we all perform magic to some degree, I've shared that before. Likewise, the three races emit magic, which I can study. Pegasi and earth pony magic especially, whether it be the pegasi's skill with the weather or th-"

"Twilight! Twilight!" It was Spike.

"Spike? What is it?"

"It's Applejack, she, well I'll let her tell yo-"

The door shoved open behind him, interrupting his sentence.

"Twi' come quick you gotta see this!"

"What is it!? What's going on?"

"Sugar cube, you gotta see it to believe it, just hurry!"

"Hey, what about me!?" Rainbow was still held by the hoof restraints, why did I even have those?

"Err, Spike, get Rainbow! Lead the way, Applejack."

"Huzza- wha-...?"

The door is still open to the library, it's night out and the sun has set. We come outside and Applejack stops to stare up at the sky, around us other homes are open, some ponies staring up at the sky like her. I follow their gazes, and gasp loudly at what my own eyes see hanging in the sky. 

Besides our moon is another, smaller moon. It looks so stra-...

I gasp and my head shoots up. 





Twilight stared around the room dumbly, and slowly registered where she was. Her ears drooped slowly as it dawned on her. I'm getting sick of waking up in this place... She felt like she had been unconscious longer than the first time. Looking around the room revealed no immediately obvious changes, and so she unstably pushed herself up off the cold floor of the laboratory. 

Only, she wasn't able to stand up.

"Hrrrng!!! What the?" Twilight gave her body a look of shock; her legs felt as heavy to her as a cart full of books. Why can't I lift myself? My legs look fine... certainly not normal anymore, but the same as before I'd passed out, at least. I'm not restrained or anything like that... She tried moving them again and they ground across the floor slowly; the slight movement made a rather unpleasant screech, but they still responded, sort of.

Twilight grunted in frustration at once again being as immobile as when she first awoke, if for clearly different reasons. She smacked her lips as well, noticing something else. Thirsty. Celestia, I need a drink, and not the kind Berry sells... She was incredibly thirsty, actually. Just how long had I been out? Looking at the time revealed it to be... 17:19. 

Twilight scowled. Okay that clock is ridiculous, a 17th hour? She frowned back at her hooves, her thoughts raced as to what she could do. Let's see, the first thing to do should be the first I should figure out. Now, how had I been able to walk before? The only related occurrence to my mobility earlier had been... 

Twilight tested the idea that sparked idly, then came to her in full. The purple aura indicative of her magic being used enveloped her flanks and body as it had before and she floated upwards. She held the simple unicorn ability for a minute, then released the telekinesis like spell; her legs easily caught her as though nothing had been wrong.

Twilight's eyes went wide at this development. "Ah hah!" she exclaimed, then cringed; her everything hurt. "Oh... That's not nice at all..." Sharp pains and needle like sensations filled her body and its surface slowly, it wasn't unbearable, but neither was it pleasant. Worst amongst these, her throat hurt. The discovery, whatever it meant, could wait.

The painful jolts were pushed aside by Twilight, she quickly moved onto her next series of problems rather than dwelling on the circumstances. Her mind raced once again, she had a mountain of issues that needed worked, and figured out.

Twilight began to slowly search the surroundings as she thought things over, but no where in this bizarre building had she found anything familiar or reassuring in the least. For starters, everything was much too big; sized for those creatures she assumed. Her head only came up to the edge of most counter tops she found. 

A kitchen was easily identified by its telltale icebox and appliances, though they and it were unlike any she had ever seen. But then, the entire home was odd. It had a sterile feel to it actually, and none of the doors had knobs or handles and refused to open for her. But the majority of the house was connected by simple curved doorways, so regardless of the locked passages she could navigate the building well enough. 

Twilight sighed and glanced down at the glass of water she'd fetched that sat before her; it was probably her 20th one. Strangely she hadn't felt like she'd drunk too much yet, but she stopped after it felt uncomfortable to her mind to drink twenty glasses of water... She shut her eyes, brow furrowed in anger. 

She hadn't given up hope her other eye was simply beneath that glass lens on her head, so she still thought 'eyes'.

The chair she sat in was comfortable, a strange felted and rubbery cushion made up its surface, the rest metal. It was rather tall though and like everything else unsettling. She glanced at the two creatures again; they still hadn't woken up even after she'd moved them to where she could keep watch over them in the kitchen.

They were her only source of information. She'd settled down after a while, earlier she had remembered the one with the funny helmet threaten her with security, guards ponies would have been disastrous... Or is it guard monsters? She consider darkly. It didn't matter she concluded, as they never came; it must have been a bluff she supposed.

Honestly, not a single book anywhere in the entire place...house? Laboratory, she decided. It didn't much feel like a home. How does he keep notes?

The laboratory may have had beds and a bathroom and other normal things one would find in a house. But it still didn't feel at all like a home. Twilight hoped those two would awaken soon, she needed answers. In fact, all they did was bring up more questions, such as how they functioned. The strange machinery itself yielded nothing that she could discern as useful.

Not for a lack of my trying though... Twilight munched on a salad she'd found in an odd, bendable bowl in the refrigerator. It wasn't made of metal or clay, whatever it was it wasn't anything she'd seen before. After removing its top it revealed writing on the inside, 'Do your part! Please recycle!'. 

Did it mean don't throw away the dish itself? Twilight'd shaken her head in trying to figure that out as well. From what she could figure, it was a prepackaged food; like wrapped candy or glass bottled pop. 

Yes answers are in short supply indeed... Twilight had poured over everything in those other rooms—there were a lot to look at in the building—trying to figure something out. They were almost all filled with strange machinery—inventions and projects she'd guessed—of a strange nature; others with menacing pieces, of a dubious one.

A great number of the non-stationary ones had looked like weapons... A frown grew on Twilight's face at the very thought of it. I'm not a fan of violence by any means, but tools used expressly for the purpose of hurting others, maybe even for killing? Such things are the epitome of wrongness. I can't even fathom how black the hearts of these creatures are if they possess such things... She knew fighting itself was just wrong and disharmonious, defending those you cared for notwithstanding. It did have to be done sometimes, after all. But peaceful solutions were best. Even Rainbow Dash and her volatile personality knows that. There was almost always a better solution than such a last resort as fighting.

Not that it always stopped that pegasus. Twilight managed a weak giggle at the thought of her friend, but her thoughts stayed on the sights in this place. There had been so many weapons in there... Just the thought of what she'd seen made her feel uneasy again.

There wasn't much else that had disturbed her further about the two creatures, making the place was remarkably boring as a whole. The presence of meat, in the fridge is disconcerting, though. Almost as much as my discovery that nothing in this place RUNS ON MAGIC! NOT to mention the lack of even a single, WINDOW! Twilight's thoughts burst with frustration at recalling the discovery, she huffed and shook her head to clear it. She couldn't feel Magic or any shred of Equestria nearby. True, this place was probably shielded if it were still her home, but she doubted it if they used no magic inside the place, either. 

Twilight had begun pacing in a circle around the small table in the kitchen while simultaneously trying to make sense of everything. She again considered merely teleporting outside to see where she was... 

I suppose I'm afraid of what I might find out. What if I'm not even in Equestria anymore? Where could a place like this even exist? Who even were these aliens? As she mulled the thoughts over, Twilight left her pacing room, carrying the two sleeping bodies behind her as she went. It had been clear it wouldn't be wise to leave them alone, not to mention she wasn't sure they they were capable of.

Tiredly, Twilight checked the clock in the lab again; it was her only link to any sanity at this point despite the fact the way it told time was beyond strange. It read 18:03; apparently it simply went to twenty four instead of recounting the second twelve hours of a day. She'd cleaned her mess earlier so the room would be bearable to explore, too. Vomit wasn't the nicest decoration no matter the room or what it looked like...

The unicorn dropped the two creatures she had in tow unceremoniously, hoping it would wake them. Annoyingly, they still didn't stir.

Just what was in that syringe...? Never mind, they can stay asleep forever after what they've done for all I care.

Twilight poked at the room again, the glass containers lining the walls she couldn't open. Though, one had been large enough that she had teleported inside to inspect its contents. The devices inside included several long tubes and bulky containers of metal squares. Each was a smaller container filled with small, glowing vials. Each vile was similarly filled with a liquid. It was all very peculiar and interesting to look at, but they yielded no answers or purpose. 

Twilight had begun to pace around the room, frustration building steadily within her. I could at least read and research—fruitless or not—at a library, but here, I'm was helpless! Nothing makes any sense! Maybe if... No, that wouldn't help. I suppose I could?...No...rrrRRR! Shutting her eyes, she let out an infuriated growl and stomped the ground with all her pent up anger with both hooves, shaking the room.

CRRRNNK!

Around her the shelves vibrated, and a piercing metal sound ricocheted through the air. Twilight tried to cover her ears and let out a yelp. It wasn't just out of surprise; that had hurt her ears, too. As quickly as it had come though, it stopped, and she slowly lowered her forelegs from her head to look around the room. Her gaze stopped first at the floor, which had two deep indents pressed into it. Hoof shapes centered at the deep impressions. She gazed wonderingly at her legs, which seemed unscathed. 

"What the hay?" Okay, so they have given me super strength... But why? Twilight asked herself. That, she couldn't answer. The thought of the noise waking them up made her glanced behind herself at the two creatures. Sure enough, they were still asleep. She briefly frowned at them, then began inspecting some of the debris she'd apparently knocked to the ground from the tables. 

Ahead of her, something caught her eye on one screen, the image it showed had changed. Before, it had held strange fish floating on it along with bubbles. The sea floor had disappeared though, and now revealed strange lettering that read 'Search Engine'.

Twilight frowned, again, at the odd screen. It wasn't immediately helpful but she thought on it for a moment, it wasn't like any of the others in the room. No bizarre charts and unending statistics or measurements in systems she'd never seen before. She stared at the instrument she'd encountered at nearly every screen. It had several hard metallic and plastic buttons. It was the same as before with the other panels. Pressing them there had only begun placing equestrian characters at random on the charts, or produced a screech from the speakers at one side of the room.

It was bizarre; so much seemed so similar, and yet so alien and otherworldly. The speakers weren't unlike the ones that had begun being produced throughout Equestria utilizing sound stones and magic. But nowhere in this entire place could she detect or find a trace of its use. All of this ran off some other element; the lights, the refrigerator, everything. 

She sighed, and turned back to the screen. 'Search engine'... She illuminated the button filled instrument with her horn again, her hooves had been far too large to easily press the small buttons; they'd been made for the creatures and their strange digits. 

Slowly but steadily she began... pressing... buttoning? No, that wasn't a word. She began pressing the buttons in succession spelling out the word she'd thought of. She hadn't been sure what to look for but she formed an idea where to start.

e...q...u...e...s..t..r..i..a...

Twilight waited.

The glass panel did not change though.

Twilight yelled at it as a last resort. "Go!" It remained defiantly the same. "Activate! On! Uggh, hayseeds..." She frowned at the glass and started grinding her teeth. Is this really what replaced books for these creatures?! Her gaze drifted to one button that was far larger than the rest and read 'enter'. As in enter the information? Her shoulders shrugged as she poked it with one hoof.

The glass panel changed and information scrolled across the screen; little foot notes and topics most having to do with something familiar to her stretched down the small panel. The pictures that appeared also surprised her.

At the top were several images of what seemed like large circular... 

Is that what Equestria looks like? Twilight was awestruck. They were pictures of planets, no, just of one planet, hers. Equestria. Well Equestria was a country not the entire planet but...

"It's beautiful." It was no starry sky, but Twilight had never imagined she'd ever see the land she'd been born upon from such a height. She wondered, could you say "such a height" after one had entered the space outside of your world? Twilight felt like a new foal back in magic kindergarten, she realized there was so much that she knew about magic, its ins and outs and little nuances... But there was much, much more about the world itself even simple things she hadn't looked into or learned... yet.

Twilight had always loved stars, she had been fascinated to learn they were mostly in fact, distant suns beyond even Princess Celestia's control all those years ago. She frowned trying to move forward in her search, trying different buttons she was unable to do anymore but reenter characters into the 'search box'.

"Oh that's something!" Her voice felt immensely better by now. 

Furthermore, she'd tried an arrow looking character not of the Equestrian alphabet, it probably wasn't a character just a button with a different purpose she guessed. It made the screen go down, and another above it made it go back up, on the side a bar moved through a blank channel. She held the button and the screen sped past her eyes as the bar accelerated blindingly fast to the bottom of the... What is this called, a page? It wasn't a book but it was kind of like a really big page.

There was so much. Still scanning with her eyes, through it none of the blurbs and topics were big enough to be of any real help. 

Twilight studied the apparatus and buttons again. There was a strange pad different from the rest of the metal which made up the small desk, and the 'button board' which she had decided to call it. She studied the pad a moment longer and tried directing magic towards it, much to her surprise something happened on the screen. A small purple arrow had appeared on the panel. She poked again at the pad and again the arrow shifted across the screen. She frowned, mostly the arrow just jittered and rotated on the panel, it didn't seem to move with any discernible order or sense. Twilight stopped channeling her magic and sighed.

Behind her the two sat, backs to each other as they had been. She angrily approached them.

"WAKE UP!" Her brow was creased; she glared at them shifting her stare from one to the other looking for signs of response.

"Wake up right now, you two owe me an explanation for Celestia's sake!" Her glare turned into a frown after a minute of waiting.

"At least explain this stupid machine to me..." Twilight sighed again after another minute of waiting, her frown turning to a look of sad and loneliness. The mare went back to the screen. Maybe Celestia would find her and explain everything? Everyone had to be looking for her.

I miss my friends...  Twilight thought solemnly. She decided also to keep at it with the machine, however. A hoof reached out and tried pressing the pad, to her surprise the purple arrow moved easily with her direction.

She let out a gasp and smiled. 

"Progress!" Twilight rounded on the two unmoving shapes. "Stay like that, I can figure this out on my own."

The next several hours progressed slowly, Twilight read and read and clicked and clicked. She had familiarized herself with a few other elements of the button board and the, err, hoof pad. The pad had two buttons, both of which had a few different uses. 

So, Twilight had picked up what she needed to in order to learn, which was at first not much. Again she'd been met with alien charts and statistics at most turns, the topics and headers fascinated her when they made sense, but she still didn't understand the purpose of knowing such arbitrary things about Equestria. Oxygen levels and atmospheric makeup, core density and mineral content of the surface and sub surfaces.  

It became clear from the Geo studies she'd first found randomly that her home had been thoroughly surveyed. 

The creatures had an interest in it; were they looking for something? She had searched on for some clue about what they could have been searching for but nothing obvious came up. 

She'd found little else about Equestria aside from a very brief study like summary of the planets fauna and animals. It had little to say other than that they were 'Galactic standard creatures'; whatever that meant.

Twilight cracked her neck which made a painful crunchy sound, she sat on her haunches and stared back up at the screen frowning, it was well out of sitting reach.

"Why do these things have to be so tall?" She kept her frown on for a moment, resting.

Afterwards she searched for a chair to sit on; her neck had begun to hurt from craning it up to look at the glass search panel for so long. She trotted to the kitchen; briefly pausing to study the unconscious shapes of the two bipedal creatures. 

Next she would find out what they were, and what they wanted with her. She hoped the panel would hold what she sought. Whatever type of magic or energy these creatures used was impressive, and undetectable to her horn. Twilight cast the telekinesis spell which was second nature to her on the comfy kitchen chair and brought it back.

Settling into the comfortable seat and now somewhat eye level with the machine she searched for what they could be from her new throne of knowledge. She had no idea what they were so she started with what might tell where the creatures might come from.

...o...u...r...w...o...r...l...d...

She hoped using 'our' would work. Twilight stared at the image of the large blue and white planet. "Earth..." So they weren't native to her world. She hoped they were still on her world as well, but she doubted it now.

What had that been in my dream...?

Odd the image had others beside it of different colors. Which one was 'Earth' exactly?

Twilight back tracked from this “earth” and searched for indigenous species. She then found them, Humans.





Twilight finished retching into the toilet and leaned to the side gasping for breath. 

This is becoming a really gross habit around here for me...

She hovered over the porcelain bowl still in shock at what she'd read, what she'd seen.

At first her searching had begun to look like the most fascinating study subject she'd ever had the honor of stumbling upon, ancient Pegasi and Griffin cultures didn't even hold a candle to the sheer amount of diversity the Human race possessed in both their history and society.

It hadn't taken Twilight long to stumble upon a few dark facts about them however.

Humans could be beyond cruel; they were simply horrible, evil in some ways. Twilight had found all sorts of fascinating facts about them, but they quickly turned to facts of horror. Wars, genocide, and selfishness, littered all throughout their history and by every civilization and country, of which they had so many.

She wiped her muzzle off with some toilet paper and walked back to the kitchen for a glass of water. 

Something referred to as 'World War III' had pushed her nausea over the edge just a moment before. She wasn't thirsty but she needed a drink after all that. The pictures she'd found of those exploits had left her in shock, and her stomach seized control from there. 

In some ways that hadn't been the worst of what she'd found though. After stumbling upon a timeline she'd found that the better majority of their history was very much lacking in wars fought amongst one another. What had brought this change, to make them so much more docile towards each other?

They're... they're thieves, they go from world to world taking whatever they want... No... only three things.

She stopped to look at her prisoners walking past the room with the 'search engine'. 

"Water, minerals or resources; including living creatures." Twilight breathed out in horror.

Her shudder and look of disgust lasted until she reached the kitchen. It was time she got some sleep, her eyes were bagged and her thoughts were getting clouded. 

My eye had better still be there. She thought dejectedly, considering sleep more seriously.

What if they wake up while I'm sleeping though?

She sighed "I gotta risk it; I need to sleep eventually..."

Twilight had yet to formulate a plan; she'd taken stock of her situation several times to try as well.

Okay so I've been hideously experimented upon and turned into some kind of metal monstrosity, I have no idea where I am, and I'm trapped in this... Place! Where ever it is. Perfect!

Twilight found a bed she presumed wasn't used by the other two, it seemed cleaner in addition to still being made. She was more uncomfortable here than ever after learning what she had about them. She laid her head down staring at the doorway. She thought about home and her friends, she hoped she'd see them again, she hoped those two didn't wake up; she hoped that everything would be okay. In the back of her mind as she drifted to sleep she knew she was alone, and nothing would happen unless she MADE it happen.

Something was there.

Something chased her throughout her nightmares. She fled it at every turn; it felt familiar, but dangerous. It twisted and writhed behind her always searching. It felt angry, angrier than anything Twilight had ever before felt. She fled and ran and tore away from the miasma tirelessly.









Twilight awoke with a gasp crying. Her skull felt like it was splitting open over her right eye. It was unbearable. She clutched a hoof to it and crawled out of the bed. The sheets were drenched with sweat; her night had been full of nightmares. 

How long have I been asleep? Ooo ow, owow. Her brain refused to let her figure it out.

She went to the humans' bathroom and looked into the huge mirror above the sink. She'd avoided looking at herself too much; it had been clear after doing so just how extensive what they'd done to her really was. It probably wasn't just armor she had concluded after a spell of denial because... She could FEEL everything she'd realized, through the metal. 

Not to mention her efforts to remove it had done nothing but caused her pain...

She didn't know how that was possible but it was. Could she be normal again after this? It made her angry, she'd never been so angry; this pain was certainly doing its share contributing too.

The area around her glass covered eye was the same, rivets and plating coming out from under her very skin at the bridge of her snout and extending around the side of her head to join the rest of her freakish changes. 

"Even if I get out of here... What will everypony think of me? I'll become an outcast." She shook her head, which was a mistake as her head reignited in agony. 

She couldn't think like that. No matter what her friends would believe in her and remain just that: her friends. She looked for and found some medicine for headaches; she hoped that it wouldn't be poisonous for ponies. The research she'd done the night before had revealed that humans were similar at least in biological make up. 

"If I were here on better terms this would be the opportunity of a life time. Honestly, a race so advanced, so intelligent, so amazing; and they use it all for things like war and destruction... and worse." She downed the pills and drank water from the faucet, her hooves clicked with a metallic ring against the tiled floor when she dropped.  

Even dragons were not so greedy, Diamond Dogs and Gryphons paled in terms of violence and hatred. 

!

A panicked thought crossed her mind.

Oh please still be there please still be there! Twilight rounded the lab's corner and sighed in relief.

The two humans were still there, slumped and back to back. 

The distraught and on edge unicorn smiled, but furrowed her brow. 

"How long will you two be out? Honestly you've been asleep a long time." It had been at least a day by this point. She glanced at the digital clock that had practically become her friend, it read 09:57. 

It had been what? Three in the morning when I'd finally tired out enough to sleep? So it's almost been a full day since waking up to my foal napping.

Nervously she approached and studied them close up for the first time since tying them up. Her eyes shot wide, slowly she backed away.

They weren't breathing. 

Twilight started to hyper-ventilate. 







"No... nonono. Oh what in the name of Celestia have I done?" Twilight felt a pinching in her throat and her eyes were watering uncontrollably.

She re-approached the two limp shapes, prodded them with a hoof, listened again and checked for a pulse. There wasn't anything to be found from either.

"WhathaveIdone!?" she shrieked. 

She felt tears stream down for the first time since waking up here. All the stress and depression came crashing in on her. 

It had been an accident, the two humans; the two 'men' had been going to use that needle on her. 

Twilight's thoughts raced.

They were going to kill me? But why? It makes no sense. Ihadonlybeentryingtoprotectmyself! It wasn't my fault... I needed to get away and keep them from following! I had only done what I had to; I didn't know what was in that needle! Oh goodness I administered a drug I had no familiarity with! What would Celestia do to me for this? Is there any justifying killing...? She stopped her panicking short; that last thought lingered with Twilight.

I need to get out of here.

"I can never face my friends now, can I? Not after doing this. I could be a misshapen beast of shadows like Nightmare Moon as long as I was me underneath it all and my friends wouldn't care; but a killer?" Her voice had escalated in pitch and desperation as she went on.

Twilight paced through the house and again tried to open the doors that surrounded the entirety of the lab, her thoughts echoing through her head unhindered. The doors had a hoof pad much like the panel, but this one had numbers and an enter like the button board. It needed a password to be opened, whatever that password might be she had no idea. 

Twilight growled in frustration, she couldn't stay here! 

PAFF

She opened her eyes expecting, hoping to see a warm Equestrian sun looking down on her. It was instead a concrete floored and metal walled hallway, stark and filled with metal pipes and dim magic-less lights.

Twilight breathed in and out, she had to calm down. She had to think... She'd killed them, the humans... Nothing could change that. But she was still alive, and in danger. Others might be too. Leaving now would do no good anyway she had no idea where she was!

"I hope everypony else is alright." The floor received a dejected look from Twilight. She stopped at a thought considering time travel.

No, it never worked to begin with...

She settled her thoughts and continued pondering about ideas, escape methods and what she could do.

I can't just run out there blindly and without answers here. At least I have the search engine inside.

She considered what would happen if she found more humans; it was in her best interests to avoid them at all costs she decided. She knew they couldn't be all evil, she'd read of some great things they'd done for good as well. But she couldn't risk it.

For now she needed more information before setting out on her own. She had no idea how much time she had to look either, what if those two had friends or were missed? For starters, Twilight decided to discover where she was, and if she were even still on Equestria.

PAFF 

She was again inside the Laboratory. She inhaled solemnly then climbed up to sit back in her chair at the panel.

"Okay let’s... well, let’s just ask." She buttoned 'Where am I'.

What she saw next, she hadn't expected. Another planet blipped onto the screen, except... It wasn't... Well it looked odd to her. 

Encircling it was clearly buildings, but made entirely of metal. The picture slowly rotated showing off the planet's entirety. It was covered in glass domes, strange holes and what appeared to be several massive doors. But if this was a planet those had to be... several hundred miles long. 

Twilight gulped, it wasn't a planet. 'This must be what I'd read about, the humans' big spaceship which they used to… to move their entire civilization from Earth?'

Twilight had never before so much as imagined anything so extraordinary.

It clicked and the information she'd read the night before suddenly made perfect sense to her. She'd read about the humans’ exploits and been so engrossed in those that she'd overlooked the how. This was it. She wasn't on her planet, Equestria. She wasn't even on *a* planet.

"This is their moon. Oh Celestia, their entire moon takes them to other worlds just to..."

She held a hoof to her mouth in shock. 

"I-I have no idea how to get home" she squeaked out. 

Twilight sat stunned as she was for several hours, her dark suspicion confirmed. She flitted between staring at the panel unable to look for more hints and pacing the confines of her prison.

Eventually she'd found a corner and lay simply her hooves tucked under her facing the wall. She didn't want to be reminded of where she was, her situation, and least of all what she'd done to those humans. None of what was happening. 

What can I do? Twilight regrouped her senses, slowly. Sitting idly forever was a luxury the unicorn knew she couldn't afford.

But this is worse than anything I've ever had to overcome... I've always had my friends. I've always had their support, their love, their companionship, their presence. She tried picturing them; her friends' strength was something she needed more than ever.


"Heya Sugar cube, how's it goin'?" Applejack smirked at her, but even such a slight smile radiated a confidence and strength from the farmer that anypony could find reassurance in it.

"Oh Twilight, you simply must relax darling; you look dreadful when you’re so stressed." Rarity's concerned face and tone spoke volumes of the mare's depth of character which would always be there for another no matter the plight.

"Heya egghead, how about you lay down the books and join us?" Rainbow Dash's surface and heart always clashed, but her image came last when the chips were down. She could always be depended upon.

"Oh, Twilight, it's so good to see you out and about." Fluttershy always had others’ interests in mind; her consideration for them was boundless.

"Twilight!" Pinkie Pie smiled at her; her face the picture of innocence and glee. At times it seemed nothing could phase Pinkie. That itself could always hold up her friends alone.


"SNAP OUT OF IT!"


Twilight blinked mouth agape. Her friends weren't here, but they were still there for her.







Twilight couldn't say what forced her to seek out more information. She knew she didn't want to know anything more about the horrid creatures known as mankind. But numbly she pressed on, more and more she felt as though she were in a race against time. Her fears aside her feelings were right, and what's more she knew that her friends could be in dire trouble too, everypony could be, and she was free. Free to fight back however and in whatever way she could. 

Twilight stood at the precipice of discovery, she took to her throne and buttoned like she was sure nopony had buttoned before. She had her priority. Find. Her. Friends.





She didn't have to look long, at first she found nothing. Words like Equestrian, pony and other obvious searches came up empty except for some similar extinct Earthling races of mammals. She tried searching for “specimen” however, what the human had called her; and this... This opened a can of worms on the information panel.

The bar on the right hand side of the screen stretched forever it seemed, races she couldn't have imagined in her wildest dreams of every shape and walk of life ran down the screen. Twilight couldn't believe her eyes. She scanned over a few, some were intelligent it stated, some possessed amazing abilities, some were noted to be useful sources of material... Others were stated to be excellent for experimentation. 

Twilight didn't read too far into the profiles, they disgusted her for the most part simply from the way the humans spoke of them. How could they be so cruel? She discovered quickly after a thought that they were all linked to one archive in particular, and were dated. The search was instead done according to date, and looked to the end of the vast library of races and creatures.

Immediately, she recognized several races familiar to her. She noticed why she hadn't found Equestrian ponies right away; they had had an odd label after their name which made little sense. Manticore. Buffalo. Dragon... Pony. 

She clicked on the profile that held the unmistakable likeness of an Equestrian Pony. Like the other 'profiles' it gave they all contained vast amounts of information about their species, habitat, traits and what's more, specimen taken. 

Twenty Three. 

Twilight sighed and looked at the floor, then massaged her head.

Twenty two other innocent ponies are here, aside from me; somewhere in this place.

Twilight shut her eyes and let it sink in. Had she been alone maybe she could have escaped somehow stealthily. No... even if she were here alone she needed to rescue any other prisoners surely. She couldn't leave any living creature to such torturous fates. 

Oh what in Celestia am I supposed to... No, Twilight you can do this.

She breathed in deep, SHE WAS TWILIGHT SPARKLE! Celestia's most faithful student! She'd freed a goddess, defeated the living embodiment of chaos, defended and then rescued two nations! And that was only to name a few exploits! 

Twilight steeled herself, and began to study with renewed vigor like she'd never studied before! Her focus was unparalleled, hoof cramp after hoof cramp she read on, studying with efficiency far longer than any lesser student could ever dream to. Days bled into a week. 





Grooooan

bonk

bonk

thud

clank

Twilight looked up from her cranial assault on the desk. Her thoughts hurt. A week of staring at that screen had taken a toll on her. 

She'd found schematics and floor plans, she'd delved into the humans' research, and she scoured every scrap of information for the ultimate test. She had to be ready, information may not be so easily found after she left, and this was all she had. 

Twilight had pondered why it was so readily available here. She'd decided at the start the humans she'd woken up to may have been important, which made haste all the more crucial. They had access to vast information after all or at least as far as she could determine. It seemed, after all, that what she found should be secret she thought. 

Her eyes drooped and she stifled another yawn, she only stopped to eat, sleep and recharge as she'd come to call it. She had looked into the changes that had been committed upon her body without permission. They were robotic and cybernetic in nature, methods of engineering. To what purpose she still didn't know. Her magic seemed to make it all work to some degree, in addition to food and water. Those ideas were just theory though, based off scientific process carried out by her throughout the week.

Trying to answer questions about the experiments and changes that had been conducted on her with the other panels after learning more had proven fruitless, they now all asked for access codes or passwords.

Still, she'd learned more then she felt she'd ever learned before in her life in such a short time. But she needed more and she continued. 

Her ear twitched. She recalled briefly on the third day when she'd come to realize her cutie mark had been engulfed, or worse; replaced by this horrid metal. That had been a bad day.

She sighed regrettably. 'Of all the things they could take...' Twilight stopped there with that thought train. She didn't want to consider all of what they could take.

She spared a thought for them though, coping with the two... bodies had not been easy. She'd moved them to a closet, in the room farthest from the search engine. It was all she felt she could do really.

Celestia and Luna forgive me. She sighed at the heavy thoughts. 

Twilight went through her mental checklist again to see if she'd missed any of her daily objectives. She'd taken to mentally tasking herself with what she thought important periodically. She'd planned an escape route, sort of... She'd located where the ponies were held, vaguely... She had also determined where exactly the moon ship was in relation to Equestria! On the other side of the *galaxy* it was a part of, apparently.

Twilight groaned in frustration and slammed the desk again with her head. It didn't even hurt a little.

The text the panel gave up to her studious eye was unending, and her quest was slowed drastically from having to define every other term or strange word she read. Without paper though, she had no real way to keep the information straight... only her memory.

"Dr. Helsreich?" 

PAFF!

Twilight gritted her teeth and hung from a light fixture in the lab. Below her she could hear them now, a faint clanking sound getting closer. When had someone come in? Her time was up! Wait, something she hadn't thought about; maybe she could take this human hostage with her telekinesis. She might actually- her train of thought cut off.

Below her a huge multi-legged thing clinked and swayed its way into the room below her. Twilight gaped at the huge intruder from her vantage point... on the ceiling.

"Hello doctor, where are you? It's been chaos this week you know? If you got out more anyway you would. You're in a lot of trouble not sending a report by the way... Not to mention ignoring your summons for an explanation!"

It was human, or at least the head was, the rest was machine. It... Or she Twilight guessed, had four legs, a torso the size of a small book case and massive arms with claws like a dragon’s at the end of each limb. That rules out capture she decided. She had too much at stake to risk a fight already.

"Is he not home? They said the kook never leaves. Why couldn't this be an easy retrieval I don't have time to go hunting some old crack pot! He should have a bio drone around here somewhere, where is it?"

Twilight weighed her options, she had thought long and hard what to do when the time to escape came. As the machine... lady left earshot she reacted on instinct, prior planning and trusting to luck. 

PAFF!

A bag she'd readied earlier disappeared from the lab.

PAFF!

And then she did.

Teleported she now floated before the door using her telekinesis, she didn't want to risk a sound. The door, it was still open! This saved her the trouble of a risky teleport into the unknown through the wall, one she'd been ready to make again too. She silently thanked Celestia for her luck.

Exhaling outside the door she didn't look back, it was the same hallway, stark, damp and big. The lights were dim as well and provided almost no light, the floor was concrete. This, all together, made it feel like a sewer.

Twilight wished the schematics and level descriptions she'd scanned had been more detailed. All she really knew to do was to get lower to a place called the Gene Ward where supposedly several sharing her specimen number were. It was roughly twelve miles away.

Not a welcomed prospect going that far, but I have to, for everyone. Twilight started down the corridor towards something that had been on the floor plan she'd memorized, called an elevator.

"Well aren't you just the most precious looking thing?" She stopped mid trot, Twilight's eye bulged at the voice which came from directly, above her.
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> The Maze and Minotaur
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	



Twilight stared up at the twin to the machine...human mare from before. The pony's encyclopedic memory fought to recall something in response to that. The humans had another descriptor for their females... Woman? Women? It wasn't prevalent to the moment anyway. Regardless, to Twilight they were identical in every way, except for the face. She had to cut her thoughts short though, the human seemed to be waiting for Twilight to do something. And she was just hanging there from the ceiling above the misplaced librarian. The claws ending on the human's metal limbs hooked in and held onto the metal beams.

"I don't think I'll ever get over just how cute you things are." She almost crooned, and her head tilted at Twilight, regarding her with a thin smile. 

The stunned unicorn slowly backed away from underneath the metal human, her gaze locked with Twilight's own. Without warning, the giant let loose her fierce appendage's grip of the ceiling, and created a loud crash of metal on metal as she landed.

Twilight shook with fear and surprise, along with the rest of the hallway. Her teeth chattered from the vibrations sent through the entire area after the alien assailant hit the ground. She leered forward at the unicorn, leaning on thick arms to bring herself down to eye level.

She hummed and seemed to inspect her. "It seems as though the good Dr. wasn't going to disappoint after a-" The other voice called out from the lab, interrupting its critique.

"Orulla!? Orulla, what was that, did your fat arse fall again?" The other one from before had cut her twin's speech off.

Rocketing upright the intimidating figure in front of Twilight whirled to face the doorway. "Oh, you're one to talk you cynical bitch, you scarf food like it was your job, if it weren't for inter-control I have NO doubts you'd be bi-" 

"Orulla, I swear to God if you finish that sentence." 

"You'll what? And oh, here we go with this religion nonsense again, are you still on about that?" The two seemed like they wished to come to blows from what Twilight could tell. 

"I told you, Markov's unproven theories state-!"

"Just shut it, everything you say is complete tripe! ...Besides can't you see you're scaring my little friend? I just looked down and there it was, walking out of the Doctor's home."

The other machine human poked out of the doorway and stared at Twilight.

"OooOoh so it's one of those horse things after all... Those were expensive. Funny that they'd trust a psycho like Hels with one. Well, modded out though isn't she? Guess we're getting our money's worth." The human's laugh was an unsettling pitch of giddy. 

The other one—Orulla she'd been called—looked back and forth between her and Twilight.

"Seems so, I scanned military grade power fluctuations way over safe levels though. That shouldn't be possible, not to mention it wasn't in the contract..." She paused to hum in thought again. "So, you think it's a she?" 

The other human scratched her head deftly with its clawed limb. "Well, if it's a boy I feel sorry for that shade of fur it has..." 

"I suppose but-"

Twilight tuned them out and started weighing her options. For starters, these humans sounded unfriendly, even towards each other, as well as scary. The one named Orulla had even frightened her on purpose. Frdpite that, she supposed she would try and get some information, at least. If worst came to worst, a hasty teleport was always an option.

From the way they talked about her, Twilight got the impression she was being regarded like property or an animal—as her research had suggested humans might. She didn't like the implications of either of those thoughts. It made sense that they were she supposed, having been an experiment to that other man—Dr. Helsreich they'd called him.

Twilight waited for a pause in their argument, and made... well second contact. She hoped these humans turned out to be reasonable in some respect at least.

"-o important anyway?"

"Uhm, excuse me." Both of their heads snapped to her, catching her off guard. Twilight drew in a breath and continued.

"Hello, I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I'm lost..." Twilight grasped for something to say... Should she act like everything was fine or come clean and ask blatantly for help or information?

"But could I perhaps get a hoof in gaining my bearings? I'm trying to find a 'gene-ward' to look for my friends and..." she face hoofed mentally, she probably shouldn't ask that directly. "Well I'm-"

"Wooow..." Orulla cut her off. "They really do talk, and English too, it never ceases to amaze me when that happens."

The other waved a clawed limb at her. Ppphhbttt "Don't tell me you believe that stupid rumor. Having precedent or not in other sentient aliens, this is a horse we're talking about. It must be a modification I mean look at her, oh! You are a her aren't you?"

Twilight blinked trying to keep up with the two and their conversation. "Uh y-"

"WAIT! Don’t answer yet! Orulla, 500 credits it's a her!" The machine's arm jabbed an imposing claw at her cohort.

"Jasmine I'm not betting money with you." Orulla stated flatly.

"Aw! Well never mind then..." They cued Twilight by looking at her again.

She pawed the ground nervously causing her to wilt under their scrutiny. "Uhm, yes I'm a her... Look I'm really kind of in a hurry here. Are you two going to help me?" Twilight began to arrive at the conclusion that holding out hope for a better reception had been a mistake.

"Hah I knew it!" The chaotic woman grinned with glee metal hands clasped, then let the face she'd sprung into fade slowly. She continued to pause and Twilight twitched at the change of atmosphere. 

"Hm... help huh?" 'Jasmine' returned to Twilight sullenly.

The look they passed between each other was cool; the humans seemed to speak just by looking at each other. It made Twilight all the more uneasy.

"Well I've had the pleasure of it before Jasmine if you'd like you may." Twilight raised a fearful eyebrow, what did that mean?

"Hm... No I don't really think I'd care for it, likely as not the way things have been going lately I'll get another chance to play along anyway right? Haha." Orulla laughed too, it was more of a cackle though really. 

Twilight was getting scared as they continued to ignore her and laugh. Should she run, now?

"We-well, if you're not going to help I'll just be on m- EEP!" Twilight ducked as an enormous metal arm shot through the air above her head, she'd hit the deck just in time to avoid it. Orulla cast a wicked grin down at her. "Fight back sweetie and I'll go easy on ya I promise, give us some fun won't you?" Twilight's breathing had never accelerated into sheer panic so fast in her life before. 

"500 credits I catch her first!" The first human lunged at Twilight from the door. 

"I already said- Hey! Wa-watch it!" The two crowded the hallway—large as it was—with the show of noncooperation between them.

Twilight seized the brief moment spawned by them and pushed herself off the ground. She used her opening to buck and kicked out behind her at the second attacker then ran. Behind her shouts from a tangled mess of machine echoed out. She thought she'd felt something crunch, her legs felt fine though.

Horse apples! Why had I thought to try and act reasonably with them? They'd practically screamed "I'm crazy!" from the start! They were acting worse than Discord! Not to mention more confusing... That was really saying something. Twilight rounded a corner; behind her she could hear her pursuers giving chase. 

I have to get away and start finding the other ponies that are held here, but first... I need... something...

"GAH!" Twilight flinched as she ran. Something had hit her rump! Twice! She glanced back; the humans giving chase were at least a hundred yards behind her, but somehow... they were shooting something at her. It was too far to see how or what. Still, in spite of this, she could hear little pings all around her now.

Okay time to add some more turns... I don't want to find out what it is they're trying to do. She took corner after corner instead of straight hallways. Behind her she could hear them shouting.

Twilight didn't notice right away, but she felt her breathing wasn't labored at all now that she'd calmed down. She knew she wasn't much of a runner; she should be sweating and panting like no tomorrow given the level of adrenaline she felt in her veins.

I hope this all can be reversed better stamina or no. Okay focus Twilight. Escape, then whimsies. Escape... ahah! There was a small vent at the side of a large cylinder like room to her left. It seemed to be an intersection. 

Twilight glanced up as she ran through it towards the far vent, and up and up and UP...

She couldn't see the ceiling it went for miles above her, the tube kept stretching upwards, halls and doors everywhere along its sides, and it went on forever. Above her thousands of shapes flitted across her vision. She almost stopped gaping up at it.

The sound of echoing clangs from behind her kept her moving though, and she carefully used her magic to wrench the grating free. She didn't want to leave a trace of where she went if she could. Twilight tossed her bag in and dove after it, then replaced the metal covering. She began to crawl through the tight space, sighing relief. At the very least they wouldn't be able to follow her now.

Somewhere behind her she could hear an angry voice growl "...You owe me 500 blood fuming credits."







Twilight crawled for what might have been an hour, at times the vent felt like a hundred degrees too hot; then, in an instant it was cool again. THAT was disturbing enough on its own. Several times she tried to teleport out at random points without losing her bearings too much. Twice she thought she changed levels in doing so, but too many of her attempts to teleport simply didn't work. The framework of all this metal around her was too close in with too few places to go. At least three times she had ended up inside an enclosed space with no exits.

She was getting tired of only her own magic for a light source.

"AAARG! I hate this place! IhateitIhateit! This is a thousand times worse than a hedge maze... It's all... it's so frustrating. RRRGG! I knew I should have looked closer at those areas parallel to the hallways."

She let out a sigh. "Keep it together Twilight, you can do this." Twilight fumed on and off throughout the metal tunnel system. Whatever their purpose was she wasn't sure, they seemed deserted and unnecessarily cramped. 

Perhaps there were smaller creatures she'd yet to encounter that frequented them? She pushed the thought away and briefly in the cool purple light from her horn inspected her rump to see if it had escaped unscathed. The metal that now made up her rear didn't seem to have a scratch despite the pain she'd felt during her getaway.

Satisfied, Twilight yawned her jaw cracking. "Ow..." Part of her metal... skin, she shuddered at the thought as it still unnerved her to think of it as such, hurt her cheek when she'd yawned like that. 

She was tired, it had been a long time since her last sleep before she had left the lab and been interrupted from her studying. Twilight shut her eyes there in the little metal tunnel, after some rest she'd continue...








Rushing air. A torrent of it all around her, she could feel her cheek flapping comically from the pressure. What had she awoken to!?

Panicked Twilight tried to get her bearings and hold onto the tunnel at the same time. Her own metal hooves crumpled the thin metal of the vent as she held the walls in a death grip.

"What's going on!?" Her voice was drowned out by the sound of rushing air. She tried to wait for it to stop but after a minute it was unbearable.

PAFF!

"Phew, glad that's over." It had worked; she'd managed to teleport away to another area. She hoped she hadn't gotten too much farther off course. Twilight felt she'd done well keeping her direction from memory.

The stranger in an even stranger place looked around herself, brushing her uncut forelock out of her eyes.

Her mouth dropped at what she saw. Huge machines, all the size of... small dragons surrounded her and extended down what could only be described as a cavernous grand hallway. She edged towards a wall and hunched down trying to make herself smaller. They all looked dangerous to her, maybe even staring at her with their small beady eyes. 

None of them moved though, she glanced around her, everything was quiet.

"What are these things...?" They weren't like the human machines or humans in machines or whatever those humans that had tried to hurt her had been. Nor were they like her. She saw wheels at their bases, perhaps they were vehicles of some kind? Could the wings mean that they flew?

"Impossible they're entirely made of metal, there's no way such a thing could generate enough lift to become airborne!" Twilight gasped and ducked behind a crate as she realized she'd begun pacing around the bizarre contraption. 

Darnit Twilight focus, intricacies and applications of advanced mechanics in coordination with basic physics are hardly a priority right now.

She moved through the rows of machines deciding not to stop, she couldn't guess how long she'd slept for a moment ago back in that tunnel but she didn't think it had been for long... 

Twilight looked around for something that would catch her memory from the floor plans she'd studied; she needed to regain her bearings.

"Bingo." She thanked the Princesses for such timely luck, or perhaps she thought to herself, I should thank Pinkie Pie?

It wasn't a familiar sign or section marker as she'd hoped; no, it was better. On the wall was a map. She trotted up to the wall it hung off. Better yet it was paper! Oh glorious paper! Twilight couldn't help but let out a squeal and rap her hooves against each other. She stopped though when they let out that ghastly metal ringing so unnatural to her, it almost spoiled her mood.

Still, she'd never been so happy to see the fibrous tree wrought substance in all her days of studying.

The massive thing floated off the wall in a purple aura and began to fold up in on itself and in it was tucked into her bag. 

Twilight shot glances around the huge room then trotted back to a corner with some boxes. She gathered the larger ones around her and sat sighing relief. Unfolding the map she inspected her treasure.

Now if only I had a quill and some ink I could take notes on the back of this... Twilight thought to herself placated.

The map was of a strange area she'd only come across once, it hadn't had anything to do with where her friends were so she'd only glanced over it. From what she'd read it was for launching or unloading or something alien like that. The floor did somewhat resemble a Pegasus runway, perhaps they really were airships?

The map told her that she was on a higher level now, the paper claimed it was a part of Block: London

How had that happened? She shook her head. That was another thing, these "Blocks" as she'd continually discovered at the lab seemed to have no sense to their location or names. They were all randomly placed about within the moon as far as she'd found. That just made things more confusing...

If the map was correct she'd almost gone in the entirely wrong direction towards the human's surface.

Still she knew where she was now and which direction to go, the gene-ward was simply deeper into the moon if she remembered correctly, she needed to go down. Four blocks down as well she thought.

Okay so I have to go to this... level 3 D and then cross over to-

She paused. Twilight could hear a rumbling nearby, it sounded distinctly metal, a sound she was coming to very much take dislike to. She instinctively shut her eyes (eye) and whimpered.

Ohpleasedontbemeanpleasedontbemean. She poked her head over the box.

Oh sugar, mistake. A grating voice that didn't sound... well, real, blared at her.

"Intruder, halt and identify yourself immediately you have entered a restricted area and are under lawful order t-"

Twilight didn't wait this time for it finish, she jammed the map into her bag roughly and galloped down the hall dodging under and around the small legs and wheels of the strange airships. That thing had been as big as Orulla and... whatever the other one was named put together! 

Ooooh sweet Celestia, why can't I get a breeeak? Twilight began panting out of sheer panic, she didn't think she'd have trouble outrunning the automaton. There's no WAY that had been a human! It had been huge, perhaps the size of a manticore. 

A loud noise crackled from behind her and erupted in a clap of thunder. It reminded her of Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom. 

Air rushed around her, Twilight blinked from a flash of bright white that blotted her vision. She managed to clear her sight before she had to screech to a halt.

"Huh?" In front of her was now a molten dripping wreck of metal. 'But- How!?' She turned around in horror at the machine giving chase to her. It rode on massive wheels wrapped in metal resembling an assembly line towards Twilight. It was going faster than it had any right to. 

In a voice bare of emotion it blared at her. "-lack of cooperation you will be terminated. Terminated. Terminated." 

Twilight had only a split second; she saw light and energy begin to billow out from a strange tube on the machine's arm, pointed right at her. It looked like the devices from the lab.

The unicorn shut her eye, and erected a thick purple shield in front of herself. The magic wrought shield formed just in time. As a result, Twilight felt the most intense horn splitting ache since she'd miscast her first teleport spell. Her head spun and she was thrown to the ground from the weight and pressure of the spell shield shattering. Motes of lavender light and magic spun away and poofed out of existence around her, lightly sprinkling the ground around the pony escapee. 

Twilight couldn't even feel her legs at all while she tried to stand and recover from the attack. At first she thought something horrible had happened to her. Quickly though she regained her bearings and was faced again with her assailant. The machine had stopped, and seemed to just watch her, a strange ocular sphere swinging back and forth over her form, she tried to get up and run, but only managed to stand, stumble, and fall a couple steps onto her side. 

Again, light and energy crackled from the machine and that strange tube. Again, Twilight tried to run, this time managing to sit up and lean on her forelegs. Again, she attempted to form another shield, panic nearly causing her to lose concentration. The accomplished unicorn magician was however able to maintain concentration on her goal. 

Still, the spell failed. Twilight gasped out her held breath. "No! Come onnn..."

Gritting her teeth she cast her panicked gaze around, she was trapped with her back to the hot molten airship. The librarian's front legs trembled under her as she turned to again look in the direction of the machine. This time she was readying her teleport spell. 

She concentrated desperately on weaving the spell, glowing twinkles and violet aura orbiting her horn.

It... fizzled out as well. She sweated from the strain and tried again.

Nothing. Her magic had been over taxed from the effort she'd exerted and she knew it. Twilight couldn't cast either spell! 

She was doomed.

The machine had rolled closer clearing the last bit of distance between them and stopped short of her by mere hoof lengths. It pointed it's unbelievably destructive weapon down at her, all the while eliciting its mantra.

"Terminated, Terminated."

Twilight tried to keep her eye fixed on the machine but couldn't. She was so miserably frightened her legs had even stopped shaking. Twilight shut her eye unable to keep looking, she had to think! Think! She could dodge out of the way? Or run, or... But she couldn't move! Oh Celestia, and she had not even seconds before...!

"Terminated."







Click
vvvvrr

PHOOM

Energy whipped around and engulfed the Unicorn.

Twilight stood frozen for what felt like an eternity. A tremor ran through the ground and air surrounding her. She'd thought it had been the end. But she could feel sweat trickle down her legs and brow, the cold brought her back enough to open her eyes. 

"eEEP!... huh?" She slowly slid her foreleg down from where it was shielding her face.

The machine still stood there, its weapon of mass destruction still leveled down at her merely hooves away from her body. Behind it though, the machine had... a gaping hole in its chest revealing all kinds of metal pieces and sparks of lightning. Above that... its head was gone.

"What?" Twilight asked. She looked all around her, who had rescued her?

There was the melted airship; its metal skin already had cooled to its former shade of gray. There was the deadly machine, but there was nopony else.

"...Hello?" 

Vrrrrrr

A strange hum vibrated behind Twilight.

Her tail went rigid at the strange mechanical noise, in response she whipped around to face it. Nothing. 

She scratched her brow with a hoof confused. The same noise hummed again at her jostling motion.

Again Twilight turns around to catch it in the act! Nothing.

"AUGH! Show yourself!" Looking all around and growing more suspicious, Twilight begins to slowly look behind her. Oh if this was Trixie she'd be getting a piece of her... mind...

Twilight was stunned to say the least. She hadn't really been expecting the prideful pony antagonist herself but neither had she expected this. She let out a gasp, but furrowed her brow immediately and began walking again to a new safe haven.

"No, you know what? I refuse to continually be scared, surprised, caught off guard and confused by every little thing I come across. Enough is enough." 

Behind her sat what had elicited the gasp from her. Two strange articulated and jointed appendages which seemingly sprouted from her back like a pair of Pegasus wings, except inverted. Both of them looked to her somewhat like smaller versions of what the machine had had. They bobbed along with her hurried canter and she tried to ignore them. It produced a strange feeling as their weight shifted with her stride.

Grrrr, why can't all this metal junk just, Leave! Me! Alone! She clenched her eye shut. 

SNAP

It opened again at hearing the noise and she inspected her flanks. As she'd thought she had felt, the contraptions were once again seamless on her back.

At least they listen I guess. Twilight rolled her eye and sighed to herself exhaustedly. 

Armed with her new map of the 'Block: London' which she found herself within; Twilight left the gargantuan warehouse like hallway and re-entered another vent. She crawled and walked for maybe an hour, her light flickered dimly. Maintaining even the simple spell was proving to be difficult. Her breath became labored soon and her head swam.

"I... need... to rest, phew." Twilight was still panting but not from physical exertion. If running had not exhausted her before why did her magic? Why couldn't it all have helped her resist fatigue from spell casting too? In a way it made sense; the humans didn't use magic after all. The unicorn let out a yawn.

She hadn't been awake long but she desperately needed a break. She trudged onward through the small metal tunnel, every now and then it boomed from her weight shifting the thin floor or ceiling. Eventually she found an adjoining concrete room. Twilight laid down to rest in the chamber adjoining her hidden highway, a large fan slowly circling overhead. 

Sleep overtook her quickly now that she'd stopped.





Hungry.

Twilight was starved when she awoke. Yawning she unbuckled the improvised saddlebag and brought out some bread, fruit and vegetables. Some of it was familiar some, alien, but she guessed that was to be expected. There hadn't been much she could bring; the container had its limits. Twilight suspected it was maybe enough for a week, a bit longer were she careful with it.

But once I find other ponies... this won't be enough for more than a day. I'll have to figure something out before then or soon after.

She wouldn't let herself think if, she WAS going to find her fellow ponies. 

Twilight held the strange apple and turned it with a hoof absently, she'd been hesitant to try it back at the lab, but curiosity had gotten the best of her. For starters, it was blue. It also was crisper and harder than an apple should be she noted after tasting it. Besides that though it was normal, pale white inside, juicy sweet flavor, small brown stem poking out the top, and seeds.

They were, in fact, nowhere near as good as Sweet Apple Acres’ apples though. Just the thought of apples from Sweet Apple Acres nearly made her hungry again. Instead what it did succeed in doing was creating a pang of home sickness she did not easily push away.

Sighing dejectedly, Twilight tossed the apple core in a far corner of the small metal and concrete room. Afterwards she nosed the flap of the impromptu saddle bag open once again, fetching out a piece of bread which she bent in half over some lettuce. She absently munched on her dessert wishing that she had someone else to keep her company besides her regretful thoughts.

So far everything, at least as far as she could tell, has wanted her dead. But why, what reason was there to kill her. These creatures, these humans weren't looking for a meal like a hungry Hydra or Timber Wolf. What affront was she to them.

Twilight had only been thirsty once since awakening, she couldn't explain that. She had still drank since then of course but only brought a small thermos she'd found. Twilight had decided to save it as long as she could. It simplified things at least despite adding more worry to her thoughts about her present condition and her body.

The unicorn unfolded the now very crumpled map of the area before her once more. If her educated guess was correct she was already in the right section of the Block, section D. Thankfully the Blocks had been alphabetized and were strangely like most everything else, written in Equestrian. 

How in the name of Celestia do they know and use our language and alphabet. Maybe the humans adapted it after they arrived?

Twilight had so many questions about that which the panel had not answered, and she couldn't remember a thing to do with them from before finding herself here either.

Anyway,  

If she teleported or found a way to move down inside this block she could get to level 3, it had what looked like the only passage between this block and the next. It was a stairway or some kind of vertical shaft, she wasn't entirely sure, the map called it a "lift". That must be something like the elevators she'd looked at. It made sense. The lift led through the next 3 blocks beneath this one towards her goal as she recalled the areas lay out from memory. 

Perhaps it's something like that vertical tunnel I'd passed running from the lab? She pondered the possibilities as she finished her meal.

The only trouble was the map didn't have these small tunnels, her accidentally-found safe method of travel on it at all, just the hallways and rooms that, she had no doubt, were frequented by the aliens. Twilight sighed and flipped what was left of her mane. She didn't mind it short, it meant not having to deal with bed head yet, but the change still irked at her. It was irritating though that they hadn't cut her forelock whatsoever, leaving it dangling in her face most of the time.

"I just gotta get to the bottom level then for now, the only question is should I risk getting lost again in here? Or risk traveling the halls and actually know where I'm going..." Twilight tapped her hoof to her chin thoughtfully.

Twilight decided to risk the more public routes, she may not have time to navigate the metal maze again. 

She repacked her map folding it carefully this time. 

Twilight poked her head around the corner, looked left, and right tentatively down the long stretches of miniaturized corridor. Hesitantly she set out once again, leaving her temporary bedroom behind her. "Ok Twilight... You can do this, just keep your wits about you and if any more terrifying aliens or crazy contraptions show up... you can do this Twilight." Despite her pep talk she gulped.

It only took a little searching to find what she was looking for, the mare easily spotted a light poking through a grate. She hoped it did indeed lead to the hallway she sought after, and that her educated guessing was successful. Sure enough, upon peeking through the metal bars she found a hallway below her.

This should be it! Grinning, Twilight set about leaving the cramped space. Purple light encircled the metal cover and flickered, a dull pain poked through her horn and she almost slipped, he grip faltering. But she was able to pop out the metal grate out, then pull it into her hiding place before dropping it.

Nrrrg, oh sweet Celestia that hurt, I... Oh, yes this is it...

Twilight thought about levitating down to the floor but it wasn't far, she didn't want to risk passing out from her own weight. She remembered with a huff that all this metal made her unbelievably heavy for a pony. Surely her body had to weigh at least as much as Big Macintosh now.

I suppose I have an excuse to not diet anytime soon then... Heck, if Rarity's here and suffered my fate she might thank them for that.

The metal floor thunked as she fell to meet it. 

Twilight dropped to the floor and she giggled at her thoughts, they were welcome given the general drudgery and depression that seemed to overtake most of this week’s events. She looked around though to make sure no one had heard either her landing or the laughter. Satisfied she started to canter down the hallway.

No, there wouldn't be a force in Equestria that could save these creatures if they messed with Rarity or a hair on her head... From me or her.

Glancing around as she jogged Twilight found what she wanted, on the hallway wall read Level 1: Section D. She was where she thought she should be at least, now if she could just find some stairs and get to Level 3 then she'd be good... 

At least that far.

This hall was lined with doors, they weren't very far apart either. She walked down their length into an intersection and took a new hall without pausing. The crossroad certainly wasn't a place to linger. 

Strange devices lining the ceiling turned to regard her on occasion, she had the nagging feeling that she was being watched when they did. But they made no action against her...

Twilight paused somewhere away from the devices in a hallway at least three from where she started and took out her map, her telekinesis still coming with a great deal more strain on her part than is usual. The feeling threw Twilight off her focus, she was always very careful with her spell casting even during her occasional risky experiment. She wasn't used to having difficulty with casting any spell.

"Ah, stairs... stairs..." She looked while massaging her head.

The map had nothing to mark the routes it showed except the letters and level number. She wasn't sure which hallway she was in... Twilight recalled an old trick though, in which in a maze if you continually turned right or left eventually you would find the end.

Thank goodness for that first trial with Discord or I wouldn't have looked into simpler means of figuring out mazes. That Mysteries of Mazes for Beginners Vol. 1 was useful after all. If I just stay in section D and keep looking I'll find these stairs eventually.

Twilight refolded her map, grinning to herself.

There was a rumble in the distance.

Twilight snapped her head in that direction; she could hear and feel the air ringing around her. Her ears twitched at the high pitched sensation.

"That can't be good." She put away the map more hurriedly and carefully continued wondering what that had been, and how far away...

Well, this isn't exactly a huge area so hopefully I can find the stairs before whatever that was finds me...

thumpthump, Thump, THUMP

There were loud hoof steps coming from down the hallway, whatever it was it sounded fast and huge.

Oh, of course. Me and my big thoughts. Her face quickly emulated her thoughts and she became wide eyed immediately.

Twilight began prancing in place looking for somewhere to go, she spotted a door further down the hall rimmed with red and gold paint. But that wasn't the interesting part, there was a pipe lodged in the strange metal door keeping it from being shut all the way.

The noises were getting closer, and Twilight didn't want to risk a teleport spell which she knew she couldn't pull off at the moment. Dashing to the door she hurriedly looked over the panel. It wasn't red, which she'd assumed meant locked back in the lab.

Here goes nothing.

She stood up on her hind legs and rested her front hooves against the wall for balance. Next, she tapped the part of the small panel that looked to share the purpose of the enter buttons from the lab doors.

The door groaned a little and elicited a strange hiss, then clunked once it came to rest inside the wall. 

Psssch, clunk

Twilight gaped a moment at the bizarre spectacle. Amazing, even things as simple as their doors continue to prove fascinating. With the door now opened the pipe had fallen to the floor with a clatter. 

Twilight again noticed the oncoming hoof steps and dashed into the doorway grabbing the pipe to allow it to shut fully. She quickly reared up to the panel to close it, hoping the same button and panel would be on this side. The door closed with the same hiss and metal thump as before.

Psssched, clunk

"Pheeeew..." Outside she thought she heard whoever had been running pass by the door. 

"I'm glad that's over with... Oh." The room was small, it contained only a chair and a strange metal box; it looked somewhat like the humans strange magic-less refrigerators. Aside from that however was several dozen of the glass panels like those from Dr. Helsreich's lab, except much larger. 

Twilight jumps into the chair in a blur.

"Oh what luck! I-IIIEEEEEEE!"

The chair skidded from her momentum and bent and wobbled under Twilight's weight. It began to spin and sent her crashing into the far wall in a heap.

"Auuugh... wha-?" Twilight gasped, then relaxed realizing she wasn't hurt or in danger. Her eyes locked on a series of small wheels she'd missed on the bottom of the chair.

Why in Celestia's name would the chair have wheels? These humans are going to make it really difficult to stay unsurprised until I get out of here. She clamped her eyes shut ready to receive whatever bruise she might have obtained. None revealed itself. That didn't surprise her now that she thought about it.

"Okay... let's not use you for now." Twilight instead reared up and leaned on the metal counter, the entire thing was a giant button board!

This room wasn't anything like the one at the lab. Twilight's head spun as she tried to get a grasp on what she was looking at exactly... She looked at the panels again, many of them slowly moved across what looked like the hallways she'd been in.

"Oh, those- those are the stairs!" In one of the panels the view panned across her goal.  She could see the stairs, and marked clearly near them was a sign numbering the level one and moving on to two.

"Now where is that..." Twilight investigated her surroundings closer trying to figure it out.

There was a hiss and clunk from the door's telltale opening and then closing again.

"I'm going to need the map for this." Twilight opened her pack and reached-.

"What the fracking hell?" Twilight's ears shot up and turned about in a practically 180 degree mid air jump. Behind her was another human.

Oh no! Oh no this is bad!

"Uhm, hello I'm uhm..." Twilight should have considered how to make a peaceful meeting with a human better, if that was even possible... This human in question seemed dumb founded though; he, it had sounded like a stallion, was holding a small white box and a cup of something steamy. Around his girth of which there was quite a bit, was a slung tubed weapon that looked all too familiar.

"Well I-I... come in peace?"

"Hands up! Or...whatever. Don't move an inch." The human hastily but gingerly tried to set down the possessions he held. Twilight began to back up creating space between them, already trying to think of a way to escape. I could try to run past him, or attempt to cast a teleport spell...

"Gaah! Dangit-" The slope of the button board slipped his drink and box onto the floor. He seemed to have trouble deciding which of the two, her or them, was more important. Twilight jumped forward thinking to take this chance to get away... But stopped, she'd had a better idea. She acted quickly, the human was already grasping for his strange weapon.

Twilight grunted from the strain of casting even this simple spell, but she managed it. Her horn was engulfed in violet energy and a ray shot forth at the man producing a scream from him, he fell backwards tripping over himself in the process.

"AAAAAAAaaaaaaaahh?" He was now covered in a massive mustache trailing from his face and laying across his body.

"What the hell?" Twilight smiled and continued on, taking advantage of the distraction caused by the spell. She grabbed the weapon from the human with her magic and flung it to the side of the room with a burst of telekinesis. He tried scrabbling after it but couldn't manage more than a bit of flailing around his new facial hair. 

"Now just hold still, I don't want to hurt you but I really don't have time to deal with you, come on now be good." Lifting the man up with her telekinesis was difficult, he wasn't light. Twilight had lifted far heavier before but the backlash from earlier wasn't abating, causing her head to thump in protest. 

Quickly, she looped the black strands of hair around his limbs; she'd seen Applejack do it a thousand times how hard could it be? 

Not too hard as it turned out, she soon had the man effectively tied up and restrained, arms and legs held behind him. After some of what sounded like very very profane language to Twilight. It really was interesting that they did not share all of Equestria's vocabulary... She approached him. 

He'd stopped yelling and just looked aghast at his predicament, he flinched as Twilight approached him. Why would he be afraid? Surely mustaches aren't scary to humans. Oooh maybe humans cannot grow them, yep that would give the man a fright alright...

She guessed she'd find out later if there was time. Twilight spoke first, at least now maybe she could get some good answers. 

"That wasn't so bad was it? I don't mean you any harm; just answer my questions, please." Strangely, the human visibly relaxed at this. A little common courtesy and manners go a long way!

He looked up and down at her.

"Heh, so you do talk, weird." Harry was confused and startled to say the least, he hadn't expected or thought the rumor about English speaking aliens was true. He'd heard of it happening before, but it seemed like a stupid notion to him personally. 

Yes he recognized the small horse now. It was one of the inhabitants that was on all the news channels and auction sites from the last world they had harvested at, tricky business that had been he recalled. Harry expected he'd see them on the sports channels eventually too. Meh, he didn't really follow it too closely. Harry didn't have nearly enough money for little stuff like that to concern him. 

In this predicament, money is going to be the least of my problems... Frellit, and he could have made a mint returning this thing too no doubt. The funny looking horse alien was glaring at him.

"Yes I can talk, and so can you, so talk. What is going on!?" Twilight couldn't keep the frustration out of her voice, she had a headache and then there was everything that she'd been put through... The man would be on the receiving end of all her frustration. She realized that in her outburst her question had been rather vague.

Harry took stock of what to say... He knew what he could and couldn't say. He'd just landed this job too, but he wasn't necessarily an idiot. So he just acted casually spoke frankly and decided to try and play it cool and according to regulation. He doubted he could pull off confident tied up with his own mustache anyway... 

How the heck had it done that? He'd have scratched his head were he able over that one.

"I'm going to be up front about this, horse, I'm not allowed to tell you anything. So I'm not going to tell you anything, but every security mech and drone for a dozen sections knows you're here and are likely barreling down the hallway as we speak. Untie me, and I'll make sure you aren't huRRRGG-! mmmff!" 

Twilight sighed as she gagged the human with his own ‘stache. She remembered Dr. Helsreich all too well trying to say the same thing to her, so she didn't believe him. "Now look I've been shot at, experimented on and kidnapped against my will. I want some answers and you're going to give them to me, now or later." She heard the man make a muffled noise; she realized irritably that she or he was laughing at her. What the hay is so darn funny about me to these horrible creatures? 

A flicker from one of the panels catches Twilight's attention.
	
	
> The Danger Zone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	



Twilight watched the panel she had detected movement from studiously. She was sure she'd seen something. Indeed, moments later two enormous looking machines ran across the slowly panning glass screen. It even shook from their passage.

Maybe the human wasn't lying...? The spark of worry hung in Twilight as she began considering her options and what to do.

Another screen next to the one depicting the machines was panning, as it faced the mouth of a hallway... Twilight's mouth dropped to hang open in disbelief.

A pony! Somepony else and they're escaping! She didn't recognize them though. Twilight wasn't sure if the pang she felt was sad that her friends might not be here, or glad they could yet still be safe. 

The Equestrian galloping across the screen had armor or...changes similar to her own too, maybe fewer though.

Still, it was another pony. After a second, Twilight's widened stare in disbelief that she'd found an ally relaxed and she still let out a celebratory cheer. "Hah, what luck!" She grinned at the sight of them galloping full sprint through the hall and out of sight. Twilight had only caught that the stranger had a long dark mane, uncut unlike her own, and that it had obviously been a mare.

She's probably in deep trouble... Twilight started to hop off of the counter from watching the screens, when more movement caught her eye.

As if to emphasize the thought from a moment before, a human ran down the same hall, it must be chasing the pony. It held one of the weapons that these humans used so much, though it was very small. Still, there was no telling how much damage it could do. Twilight groaned in frustration, she didn't know where this was in relation to her at all. She back tracked over her plans, helping this mare was obviously something that couldn't wait. But where can we go from here after I rescue her, and just where exactly is she? I need to amend my escape plan and form a course of action, pronto. While looking around the room Twilight spotted the human staring at her. Of course! He should know.

The unicorn pulled down the gag on the human's mouth with her hooves. "Where is that." Twilight jabbed her free hoof at the panel that had shown the fellow pony.

The pudgy creature raised an eyebrow at her, then looked down and regarded his girth. "You should really just surrender and give yourse-"

"WHERE!" Twilight didn't hear it over her outburst, but she felt those metal appendages snap out. She hadn't meant to do that... Her eyes shut in irritation and she stifled a groan, then reset her glare at the human, hoping it hadn't lost its intended effect. Unnervingly, the human's eyes were actually very wide with fear. 

They flickered back to the screens, panic engulfing his chubby face.

"Junction of section C and D!" Twilight snorted derisively, eyes still focused on him. Intimidation wasn't expressly...right, as she saw it. But she didn't have the time to negotiate. "Two lefts and a right out the door, it's a big square intersction you can't miss it!" His eyes were glued shut and he was leaning to create distance from her.

Twilight twirled away from him, opened the strange door, and raced out into the open. She couldn't dawdle about scaring the man, she had a fellow Equestrian to save, and no time to lose.







I spot another perpendicular set of halls and dash to the left. My hooves skid wantonly across the metal floor and I slam into the wall causing me to scrape my side and kick hurriedly back into a frenzied gallop.

"PLEASE, JUST LEAVE ME BE!" What is following me? I have no idea who or what it is. I've never seen its like before. I certainly hadn't waited to ask it after it found me and tried to put me back into a cage.

Ffsssch!

Another projectile... I can tell that it barely misses this time. The feeling it made as it whizzed past my ear was unmistakable, laid back as they were. Why is it trying to hurt me? To catch me!? What did I do to deserve this? I've never done anything wrong! I'm a good pony! Not able to help it, I choked back a sob.

How is something that runs on just two legs SO! Celestia! cursed! fast!?

Ffsssch-zip! 

Gah! I feel a pinch tighten in my neck momentarily. I continue galloping, unsure if I'd even felt anything at first. But then the hall began to spin in front of my eyes.

Have I tripped?... Oh! Heh, I have indeed, that's funny... Why was I running again?

I struggle to stand again, and shake my head fiercely. The fear from moments ago still blaring from the fading recesses of my mind. 

No! I begin limping, trying to continue to make my way down the corridor, knowing that it's still right behind me. Have to... Have to run... escape, why... why won't my hooves work...?

Thud

The escaped pony's vision was blurred beyond recognition to her now.

Only then, in her present sedated state of mind did she realize what could have happened. A voice was talking to her now, she realized. But as her world darkened and she felt her mind shut down, in the back of her head she only had a single thought.

Mother, Father... I'm sorry- I...





"Mtheeer... mtherrrr..." The little pony gurgled foam and drool onto the floor in front of the woman.

Pant "You Pant have caused me an absurd amount of trouble for- for Pant You had better turn out to be worth every penny, or I swear to Super Nintendo, I'm turning you into glue and cat food."

The woman was short, perhaps five foot three inches. She wore a short lab coat and jeans. 

Leaned over to catch her breath she regarded her escaped subject with curiosity. She almost hadn't noticed the slightly bent bars on its cage and by proxy, the missing inhabitants. Astounded, the woman had found her little ponies hiding behind a box nearby. 

They shouldn't have woken up for weeks on their own without interference... Damned cheap synapse freeze... She knelt down next to the equine to get a closer look of her property. Roughly, she grabbed at the pony's dark mane and held its face up to her own, glaring at its stupefied expression. Caught off guard or not, you can't give me the slip so easily, I've got my life savings invested in you and your little sister you cunt... 

The thought brought the out of breath human back to the present. She had to get this under control, if word got out that she'd let something escape, and something organic at that, well... Caroline didn't want to consider the consequences, fines, jail time...she had no intention of giving up her life.

Carol held up her wrist and yelled at it without abandon. "Where the hell are you unit 4!? Where's Sour Apple?"

Her earpiece crackled with a sonorous robot voice, she'd made it herself.

"Mam! Target :SOURAPPLE: is moving through section B, and appears to be running laps through out the Block, we're attempting to corner or trap it at the earliest that we can out maneuver it."

Caroline chewed her thumb nervously whilst staring at the pony before her. She hadn't had time to power up a suit, and never believed in much self modification. That last at least, was entirely unnecessary as she saw it. But, it would be useful right now. Never mind that she had to get this out of sight and fast, then deal with the security archives no doubt in her section... I'm too under equipped for this much catastrophe.

The woman glowered at the ocular recording device whirring quietly above her. Five hundred years of research hadn't prepared her for this avalanche of incongruous circumstances. 

"Alright just...give me a guess about what hallway you think it will head for roughly, I'll be right there. Send unit 7 to my position to recover Sym-pony, we have to end this quick." The earpiece blipped affirmative from her mechanized servant.

Hm, is that pun actually catchy or stupid? Oh never mind.

Caroline cursed herself for having left all her other mecha and servants in pieces or at the cleaners or rented out...she was far too short handed to deal with this. Lowering the admittedly bargain bin quality tranquilizer gun, she set to reloading it then left down the-...

...

"Purple?"

Caroline blinked. "You're not mine." She said questioningly.

"No, and it's lavender by the way." Caroline's shock only lasted another split second as the woman's head bounced to the side, then fell unconscious.

"Or light mulberry whichever you prefer..." Twilight dashed over to the stranger to make sure she was alright, then waited to make sure that the human was well and truly out. It hadn't been the pony's intention to hurt her... But, knocking her out was the only way to handle the situation as she saw it. Mustache magic is harder then telekinesis, and in her state it would not have been wise to test her limits.

I may need to make a quick get away soon after all and she had that weapon... Right the pony- Oh no!

Twilight moved to the unconscious looking equine laying on the ground. I'm too late! The human had... Her thoughts trailed off as they became progressively more dark. I don't know if I can handle more death, please be alive!

Slowly, Twilight pulled the familiar syringe from the light charcoal coated pony's neck. It was smaller than the one Helsreich had tried to use on her, but its effect was obvious. Breathing, she was still alive, Twilight looked around frantically and tried to lift the Pony with her magic. 

Have to get back to the Hrrng! Oh sweet Celestia, she's as heavy as I am, Hrng! back to that panel room. Twilight decided it was a might too busy out here to just make a break for it. At least in there, it was secluded. 

Twilight's thoughts clung to her unconscious friend as she struggled onward. The dart and the images of what she had done to those humans before her get away haunted her as well... She shook her head. Focus Twilight, atonement and redemption later. I gotta make sure she stays alive right now. Although, Twilight wasn't sure what she could do if it was a poison.

Her friend, okay well not friend, she didn't know her but she did look familiar... The point is, she's alive, that's all that matters.

Twilight's brow beaded with sweat, it was a quarter of a mile back to the room, at least. Her telekinesis was giving out, she recognized the signs of magic overuse. "Horse feathers, this isn't...hm." She set the pony down on her back, bracing herself in case her guess was incorrect. Hopefully, it would be an easier method of transportation for her patient.

And right Twilight was, the mystery mare's weight barely effected her. She could hardly believe it, but then nothing seemed beyond belief any longer really. This is fortunate! This'll allow me to keep from exhausting my magic. Her mouth curved into a small smirk as she allowed herself the victory.

Twilight began a three legged run down the hall, her other foreleg holding the earth pony in a pseudo fire mare's carry. Her legs made heavy thudding noises down the hall, soon she came upon the door which the telltale pipe was again wedged into. It was only a hunch, but she had supposed that this door would not open without the instrument keeping it from closing completely. Or why else would it have been there earlier? Her eyebrow quirked while she looked at and approached it, slowly to a canter. Perhaps it's just a defective human door.

Hurriedly, Twilight pressed the enter button opening her temporary base of operations, the human growled at her from its corner and she kicked the pipe from the door frame. Twilight tsked and re-gagged him. She'd forgotten to redo the gag on him as she'd left, it wasn't like her to skip steps on her mental check lists certainly. Not even panic or hurrying caused her to do that. Often anyways.

Laying down the mare, Twilight took note of her body better, it seemed in quite the state. Random patches of fur missing, haphazard stitching and scarring as well as the same metal skin covering a great deal of her body. She didn't seem hurt anywhere though. Her cutie mark was visible though, Twilight noted gratefully. Unlike her own, one of the mystery pony's had escaped desecration on her left flank. 

Nearby, the human growled again angrily and tried to talk.

"Hush, we have a patient." Twilight made shooing motions at the human with one hoof without looking up.

It was a music note, a light purple treble clef she thought, to be exact. The pony must be a musician.

"Patience? Oh my, that's a prrtty name... grggle" A dribble of foam leaked from the mare's mouth, and began pooling on the metal floor.

Twilight gasped at her slurred speech. She realized with another start one of her eyes was cracked open, but rolled up into her head. "Just stay calm! I'm here to help, Oh Celestia. Are you okay? Are you in any pain?" She cradled the mare's head as she tried to reach her, holding it up.

"Celestia...? What's that old withered tart gotto...snrck Crepes..." The Mare's head rolled in Twilight's forelegs to one side.

Twilight almost succumbed again to panic, but the mare WAS still breathing. She hoped this meant it must have been a sedative that the human had hit this pony with. Hopefully that also meant it would wear off soon with some time... 

They needed to move, Twilight thought back to her mental list... She'd found the stairs on the glass panel things, so now... Right, I need to figure out where those are exactly on my map. She looked over to the human, it would be quicker to get it out of him, no doubt, than to look over the map and guess; at least she hoped it would.

Twilight laid the mumbling and incapacitated stranger to the ground gently and approached the human, he was glaring at her fiercely... She undid the gag on him again while clearing her throat.

"Ready for another que-" SPHHT Twilight cringed back. Did he just-? He SPAT on me?!

Twilight took on a look of shock at the wet glob that dripped down the front of her coat...well the metal of her front... Still, she felt tears well up in her eyes. It was odd, but somehow the gesture touched a nerve very deeply and struck her feelings and heart.

The human hates me?  

Twilight clenched her teeth and fought back the tears that threatened to leak out.

"I-I'm going to ask again, and I suggest you be more polite. Ready for another question?" She set him with as staunch a look as she could muster. The man was wiping his chin on his shoulder. 

"You'll have to kill me first, freak." He stared solemnly at the floor. Twilight's jaw merely dropped, completely caught of guard by the words.

Kill-? Twilight wasn't sure of what to do now. Why is he so uncooperable now? Well he wasn't behaving exactly to begin with, but now he's just, just... She re-gagged him, it had to be a him. A mare would never act so cruelly. It was hard to tell so far though, every one of them had been completely clothed, she realized. 

The grey mare was waving her four hooves nonchalantly in the air above her, apparently oblivious to the heated exchange between the two races nearby. She started making an 'oooo' sound, her eyes glued to her own limbs. 

Twilight wasn't enjoying the prospects of a successful get away at this rate... Pulling out her map she set to trying to identifying which hall that staircase was in-.

rummbbble

She looked up and stared at the door incredulously. That deep rumble, like a collapse or explosion was much like the one from earlier, she realized. A light ringing was in the air too, just like before. What had that been?

"With as much as things explode around here it's amazing that there's anything left of your civilization." Twilight called back towards the human, then looked up at the screen and looked for any distinguishing markings she could relate to the map. Which room she was in wasn't clear to her, so she didn't have a reference point to start from. That was the big problem, knowing where exactly she even was.

"Hah! You're a funny looking guy. You are a guy right...?" Twilight looked behind her upon hearing the mare's voice again. Her mouth dropped open at the sight of the grey pony. 

The stranger was... caressing the human's head and massaging his cheeks... Her head was tilted up lovingly, staring at him. The man was trying to scoot further away, irritation or perhaps fear on his face. He only succeeded in falling over.

"Oh miss, you shouldn't go near him he's very dangerous!" Twilight immediately lept over and tried to pull the earth pony away.

"You know, I'm no filly fooler, I mean there was this one time...but we were drunk so that doeshn't count... Anyway, I won't hold it against you if you're a lady like myself." Where this energy came from, Twilight had no idea, but despite the mare's apparent wooziness her grip was like iron. Twilight only succeeded in pulling the pair across the floor a ways while trying to dislodge her.

"Miss, please! You need to recover, could you stay in the corner and not stay so close to the...the dangerous criminal?" The human sounded like it muffled agreement. Shouldn't a sedation perhaps, oh I don't know, sedate? Whatever this was seemed more like a drug or her misguided want it need it spell... Hopefully all this clarity, albeit horribly distorted, signified a swift recovery.

"Look you," she glared at Twilight from where she lay sprawled over the floor and human, catching the purple mare off guard. "Find. your. own. And you can't talk to me like that. I am the first chair cellist of...of Canterlot's Royal Symphony, and dare I say it, am a sophisticated, upper class...lady pony." Her hoof wavered as it attempted to point in Twilight's direction, and failed. She ended her tirade with her head drooping back passed the man's arm. After a moment of not moving, stirring or relinquishing her grip of the human, Twilight huffed and let her be.

"Why me, why in the name of Celestia's sun did it have to be me." Twilight thought she might now recognize where she'd seen the pony before, but it wasn't what dominated her thoughts at the moment. She looked around the panels and through a couple of the screens not depicting hallways. Without the human to help, she had two options to pick from. The first was to figure out where this room was in relation to the stairs, and simply get to them from here, then continue to the "lift" or elevator. Or whatever it was called. It was on level three, which wasn't much further down the stairs.

Or, she could head out and simply hope to locate the stairs that would lead to the next level and get to the lift that way. After she did that and got to the mysterious thing, Twilight hoped it was a straight shot down through the next few blocks, just as the schematics in the laboratory had said...

From there I can only pray to Luna and Celestia that I can find more of the abducted ponies in that gene ward place...

"You put your left hoof in, you take your left hoof oooout... Heheeeee" Grey Coat rolled on the floor, her head tucked between her hind legs, singing and giggling noisily, which broke Twilight's concentration.

"Grr," Twilight sighed fiercely, she didn't know she you could do that. "Honestly, you rival Pinkie for weirdness right now..."

Twilight decided hesitantly to wait out the... whatever it was, the drug, here. 

She looked around the room trying to fill her time. As she thought of what she could do besides go over plans, honestly her head felt ready to cave in. The grey pony stood and walked unsteadily to the corner.

Twilight watched her go curious, she had her eyes locked on the chair she realized. Shaking her head Twilight's gaze fell on the human's dropped box near the desk where it had landed earlier. Curious she opened it, the human starting mumbling at this. 

Oh! Delicious! She now munched on a donut with green icing and sprinkles. The humans had donuts, it was another of the most profound cultural similarities. Although she supposed if they had bread and had a similar diet which they did minus meat, it wasn't that far fetched...

A loud squeaking noise caught her attention, looking over she saw Fruityloops, spinning in the wheeled chair. Twilight couldn't do much but stare, she wondered to herself if she should stop her, lest she get hurt...

Twilight instead laid her head down. 

This is almost as bad as being alone...

She looked back up at the panels now and again keeping watch and snacking on the baked good.

"Oh good heavens, oh no!" The mystery pony's head looked up and stopped her whirling sojourn abruptly.

Twilight turned from the panels and the food, startled.

"What, what is it!?"

"I... I...." She stared intently at the floor.

"Yes?" Twilight prodded.

What could be wrong? Was she better? Other than the human glaring at her and trying to scream around his gag at her eating his donuts and sipping on his coffee nothing had changed in the room.

"Am a lemon... But I should be Banana." Twilight's face couldn't have been more put out and flat if she tried.

"Or is it an apple? Am I an apple? Apple... strange I don't like apples much either." Twilight face hoofed and stared back at the panels, she decided she had to, at least the one that she'd deduced showed the hall outside the room. In case someone came she would have more time to try and cast a successful teleport spell. She wasn't sure if she was up to it yet... How long is it going to take them to find us? Will they find us here?

Casting after a back surge like that is like running with twisted hooves... She shuddered at the thought.

Fruitloopy continued despite the lack of her audience.

"Oh, there's the apple. I was wondering where she'd gotten off to. So I'm really not the apple! Hooray!" The earth pony was pointing up from where she laid on her back again in front of the human at the panels opposite Twilight's side of the small room. Twilight followed her gesture lazily.

"Look the sooner you snap out of this the sooner we can find... APPLEBLOOM!" 







It had been Apple Bloom, Twilight jumped from panel to panel to find her again, she had to! Something grabbed her leg...

"Hey, hey, gimme a'ride, hey." Twilight glared down at her.

"Look, I don't have time fo-" A red mane flickered in her peripheral vision, there! 

Ohmyword, where is that? It was close where ever it was, most of the panels she couldn't identify but that one had been near to where she found that human and... Fruitloopy here.

Behind her there was something chasing her, it was one of those machines she'd first seen on the panels earlier.

And likely whatever it was that had been running around and scared me in here too thinking about it... Twilight needed another plan and fast. She had to rescue Apple Bloom too.

Twilight approached the door and took a deep breath, she knew she couldn't wait. She stood up and opened the door, the pipe hovering behind her. She glanced at the mare, who was sitting on her haunches watching her leave with a glazed looked in her eyes.

"Please stay here and... I'll be back soon okay?" Twilight hit the button to shut the door wedging the pipe in the seam.

The grey pony spoke up as it closed. "Why has my music stopped."


	


"Hellooooo... Anypony? Help please, I cant feel my... anything, or see." She'd woken up just moments ago. Where ever she was now she wasn't sure. She was blind and could not move. 

I hope the girls are okay.

The last Fluttershy remembered she had been organized with Twilight at the Golden Oaks Library. There had been a meeting at the town hall about the strange object in the sky. It had looked something like a moon. Fluttershy thought back to after, they had all gone with Twilight to the library... and Princess Celestia had sent a message to them. She urgently asked they go to Canterlot to meet with her.

After that at the library... At the library. 

There had been a strange machine that came from the sky that had attacked them.

I don't remember anything after that. Fluttershy whimpered having retraced her memories, where was she?

"I'm scared..."

Pant. pant.

"Who's there!?" Her voice was strained and panicked.

"Whoarf."

"...huh?" Fluttershy thought that sounded like a dog. A big one too.

The dog started sniffing her cheek, and its whiskers tickled her.

Fluttershy flinched and giggled, straining her head away from the sensation. "Quit it boy, that's rude, you haven't introduced yourself yet."

"rff, BARK." The dog started growling.

"Ooh, I see, well I'll be sure to let them know." Steel had said that his owners called him Biscuit, but that that wasn't the name he'd chosen for himself. Fluttershy thought that strange, usually animals weren't so particular about names.

"I don't suppose you could tell me where I am or what's going on could you?" The dog named Steel let out a low whine and moved away from her. She could hear it shake its head, sending some drool spraying around the room.

"Well... in that case, any chance I cou- Wha- Wait, come back!" His nails could be heard leaving the room, and Fluttershy alone. Clicking, they echoed down the hallway. "Please don't leave me by myself..."

Fluttershy shivered in the cold.









Twilight had torn out of the room as soon as the door closed. She hadn't given what the grey earth pony had said much thought. Likely her patient's dementia acting up.

"Have to find Apple Bloom, ooh where was that next turn!" She skidded across the metal floor searching frantically, her ears twitched to pick up any sound that they could. "They have to still be here!" 

Twilight came to a dead end, there wasn't anywhere else to go down this hall. A door opened next to her.

"Meep!" A machine came out, she was too caught off guard to react. 

"AAH!" It began sweeping and mopping the floor outside the door starting at the corner and worked its way towards her.

'oh... thank goodness.' Twilight spun around and began to try another route. ' Darnit they couldn't have gotten too far away!'

After a minute or two of frantic galloping and back tracking she came upon the human again, only it... or she Twilight had assumed, wasn't alone. At the end of the hall in the intersection was another of those strange bipedal machines. It was kneeling besides her. Awkwardly it then picked her up.

"Darnit, okay so not this way... Probably."  She instead turned again, heading in a new direction.

'If I don't find them soon I could run into more humans or...' She gulped. 'Some of those dangerous machines. I gotta hurry.'





Determinedly he tried to roll up onto his knees, but only succeeded in flopping to face the room on his side. 

There are two of them now. Great.

Harry resigned himself to being eaten or made an alien mind slave, that was if he didn't just get prison time for getting captured like this. That's the last time I spring for donuts and jam my station door open for ease of access... He set about trying to think of ways to talk his way out of this. Maybe they'd just leave and he could act like none of this happened.

"Ooh, pancakes, I do so love a good plate of pancakes." 

The strange horse that acted as though it were cracked out or drunk was nosing through his donuts now. He tried screaming at it through the mustache that muffled his voice and managed to get its attention. Take my freedom but not my sugared treats damn you!

"Hm? What..." Well that seemed to work, the horse thing was just staring at him now. It seemed to have forgotten about his food.

What's this one's deal anyway...

The horse squinted at him and leaned forward. "What... aaaAAAAAAAH AAAAAAAH!" Its eyes bulged, and its mouth flew open, screaming. It scooted on its rear end into the corner kicking its legs. 

Harry's own eyes widened in fear. Huh!? Oohno Ohno, that's not good. Harry heard a sound similar to a familiar click he'd heard the purple horse make, and thought he saw blades shoot out from the grey horse's back.





Ten more minutes of wandering passed by for Twilight. "Apple Bloooooom!" Five minutes ago she had begun yelling as loud as she could, even with the knowledge that it wasn't safe. But her friend's only little sister's life, was in danger.

Twilight tried galloping down another hallway into a new section, this one was labeled with a big, blood red A. She'd been careful to note where she was turning and where, luckily this floor was linear and alphabetized. It wouldn't be a surprise to her at all if smoke didn't start coming out of her ears from all the cramming, panicking, thinking and learning on the go which she was doing.

This area would loop back to Z, she didn't have time to look through the entire Block for her. She could be getting hurt right now!

At least there haven't been more humans or machines, where are they all... Twilight couldn't help but wonder why this place was so abandoned.

Thunderous hoof steps echoed towards her from in the distance stretching down the halls to her ears.

"APPLE BLOOM? APPLE BLOOM COME TO THE SOUND OF MY VOICE!" Twilight sped off towards the noise.

"Apple Bloom!" The stomping got louder, it couldn't be far away now. She hoped it was Apple Bloom that she was running towards...

Come on, please answer...

"TWIIIILIIIIGHT aaaAAHAAAH, HELP!" Twilight let out a choked gasp, it had felt like she'd been holding it for weeks. She ran around the corner.

"Appl-"

WHUMP

Apple Bloom collided with Twilight. 

"Oh my gosh, Apple Bloom are you okay?" Twilight thought she must be seeing stars after that, but instead was immediately embraced in a rib powdering hug.

"TWILIGHTTWILIGHTTWILIGHTTwiliiiight!" She was alright at least, as far as Twilight could tell. Her sobbing was in full swing already, the older mare tried to calm the little apple family filly down.

"Shh, it's okay, it's fine, I'm here Apple Bloom." The hoof steps came into full ear shot and the machine thing which had chased the filly came around the corner of the hall full stride, and running towards them. Twilight's eyes glared daggers down the hall way at the machine. It was charging them without abandon, Twilight let Apple Bloom loose of her hug.

"Come on Apple Bloom, no time, we gotta go!" The filly staggered and looked back as Twilight pulled her on.

"We gotta run, come on!" Together, they began galloping, Twilight leading the way with Apple Bloom astride her.

"Bu' Twi! It don't ever stop! I've been runnin' fer days it feels like, but that thing just keeps comin'! I ain't never run like this before, neither!" She was still choking back sobs, but she'd regathered her strength and pace quickly. Twilight had to get her away. "Ah, is my sister with you?" Her voice cracked from emotion.

Twilight frowned, she had no idea where AJ even was yet, unless she was in the Ward. I'll explain things and tell Apple Bloom later, there isn't time right now. "I know Apple Bloom, but we're going to get away, I promise! We gotta keep going!" 

The machine had gained a lot of ground on them, Twilight tested her magic, a teleport might be their only hope. Shift into the security room, and hope it lost track of them... 

They sped towards section D and the impromptu closet base.

"Twi! What're we gonna do!?" Apple Bloom kept looking back at the monstrosity. 

Twilight's head lanced with pain from her wound as she tried to focus, she didn't answer Apple Bloom, she had to focus. 

Stopping to open the door would mean it would catch them, and even if they made it into the room it could follow them. Then she would have to teleport anyway... I have to do this now. She thought, resolutely.

I have to do this, for Apple Bloom, for Fruit-loopy, and my friends and the other ponies! I can't get caught yet. They were fast approaching the room. Violet and purple magical energies ebbed from her horn and leaked into the atmosphere. She panted from the effort.

Have to do this... have to... More, she needed just a bit more power, she could feel the lay lines coming together as she cast out for the location she wanted to go to. Just a bit closer. There was the door.

Apple Bloom was looking at her, her eyes were so full of fear and tears. 





Thud

"Tw-Twilight...?" Apple Bloom glanced back, her sisters friend had collapsed and was no longer running beside her. "No! TWI! You gotta get up! Please, come on we gotta run Twi we gotta!"

The machine bore down on her before she could even react as Apple Bloom desperately tried to drag Twilight up and to her feet.

"TWILIIIIGHT! Twi'! He-Heelp!" Apple Bloom felt her voice giving out from shock and fear. Her belly felt tight, she realized the metal thing was gripping her harshly and holding her off the ground.

"T-Twi...!" She couldn't breath.

Twilight lifted her head and stared at the floor in a daze...

She shook herself. 'What happened?' She shook her head again, it seared with a now all too familiar pain.

"No! NO! HORSE MANURE, APPLE BLOOM HOLD ON!" Twilight realized she'd failed the spell. She had almost knocked herself out on top off it. Her head was a river of agony, but she got back to her hooves and ran after the machine, it was now jogging back down the hall.

She thought she heard another voice behind her but barely registered it. She caught up to the machine, it wasn't moving as quick now for whatever reason, Twilight didn't care. Without thinking she tried to grab its foot with a blast of telekinesis, instead she got a feeling like her horn was trying to burrow backwards into her skull.

"Darnit!" She felt her own tears welling up as she chased after the machine, Twilight was only a dozen hoof lengths from it, not that it cared apparently. The machine mustn't be that smart then, she thought, perhaps I was not attacked simply because the human had not told it to. Still, she was practically helpless without her magic against something that big, guided or no. Hold on Apple Bloom, gah but what can I do!?

Apple Bloom cried out to her hysterically. "Twilight! J-just go! Save yourself...!" 

Twilight squinted at the automaton's back seething.

Correction, more like how am I going to do it. Twilight got ready to try her plan. She breathed in and galloped in front of the machine. Fiercely she squared herself on the floor punching her hooves into the metal to get a foundation, then bucked forcefully back into the foal napper's waist with all of the strength which she could muster. Twilight knew she was absurdly stronger now, this had to work, it had to be enough to at least cripple it.

KRRNK

The machine stopped in its tracks and took the full brunt of the blow. It flew back and skidded, metal screeched through the hall loudly as it fought to stop itself. Twilight gasped as it splayed out its legs though, catching itself gracefully with one thick arm. The metal plating between its legs was caved in, two hoof shapes clear to Twilight's eye in its body. It held onto Apple Bloom tightly as well to the unicorn's astonishment. 

That could have knocked out a Minotaur... How-? Twilight's thoughts were interrupted. The machine shifted Apple Bloom under its arm and stood up straight again. It began to move forward, the thing had a limp now at least she noted.

Flame gouted from the machines right arm.

Twilight cried out and she jumped backwards in response, the flames licked her muzzle.

"TWI'!" Apple Bloom's scream was muted under the roar of the human weapon.

The distance between them was barely not cleared by the roaring fire. Twilight blinked disbelievingly at the machine, it let loose another burst of seething red flame towards her. Twilight shrieked in fear. She had to gallop away to keep from being roasted alive.

This is insane! This is unbelievable! This... isn't fair! She needed to try something else and fast. If only I had the Elements and my friends!

Twilight reached the other end of the hall. A grim realization dawned on her.

I... could try using the human weapons... She tried to think of something else, anything. Not just because she was averse to utilizing the abominable weapons, but because she DIDN'T know how to use them.

Flame trailed after her, coming closer, threatening to roast her alive, and steal Apple Bloom away. That.... cruel... metal, manifestation of hate!

I gotta get angry, that worked once. Twilight started thinking heated thoughts directed at the machine as she slowly backed up in retreat.

 I hope this works. It has to.

The machine limped closer towards her arm raised, Twilight's rump hit the wall behind her. 

Come on, come on, come on, you cursed evil wicked twisted rusty amalgam of JUNK! She felt panic welling up inside of her as nothing continued to happen.

"LUNA BE DAMNED, WORK!"

CLANK VrrrrRR

Twilight glanced back, there they were. 

She heard a roar come from her front. Rolling she dodged to her left, the strange arms bent to accommodate the action, they helped her flip back upright completing the acrobatics on their own. It felt strange, but natural. Her mind still raced in surprise from her own smooth evasion though. Adrenaline surged through her, she'd never felt like this in her life.

Where she had been standing was now a ruby red and charred black section of metal. 

She backed away down the hall. They hadn't simply fired this time. Last time they'd just worked! The machine turned after her, Apple Bloom in tow, she was struggling and kicking and whimpering. Twilight thought she looked like she was in pain.

"COME ON! Horse apples why won't you work!" Click!

Twilight gasped, her right eye's vision was bloodshot. Suddenly it had become a dark red. Strange white lines overlapped her vision and laid out over the machine's head and chest.

'This is new... but still not helping!!'

"Shoot!" She continued back pedaling and more fire chased her. Nothing continued to happen.

"FIRE DARNIT!" zreeeeee... 'Well, that sounds familiar.' eeEEET!

PHOOM! She watched as a blue and white beam, a foreleg thick lanced out from behind her left shoulder. Her mane played across her face from the vacuum it created and her jaw dropped. It slammed into the machine's head. 
No, it went through it. The ceiling behind it too. A great gash ran across the ceiling.

Twilight stood stunned, and Apple Bloom's stare was stuck to Twilight. She looked up slowly to her captor, then did a double take at the foalnapper's new lack of a head.

"Twilight...? That was amazin'! When did you learn that spell!?" Apple Bloom's grin at her was enormous and practically split the little filly's face.

Twilight simply let out a breath and sat stiffly. She couldn't believe it was over that easily now. Her eye stayed tinted for whatever reason from the human's interfering with her body, which was very disorientating for the mare.

Still, Twilight managed to chuckle. "Heh, it's uh, well not a spell Apple Bloom... I'll- I'll explain la- Oh careful!"

The machine had started to lean now, unbalanced, then pitched forward onto its front. Apple Bloom let out a yelp as the thing teered and fell with a clang onto the metal ground.

zreeeet! Twilight scarcely had time to register the noise before the familiar sound of her human weapon discharging filled the hallway once again. The shot sang out into the air, Twilight thought she heard a scream.

Laying on the ground in front of the machine sprawled out, was Apple Bloom.

"APPLE BLOOM! Apple Bloom speak to me! Are you ok?" Twilight's thoughts spun. Why had it shot again, should I have looked elsewhere because of these weird lines? Her eye was still tinted red, the crosshair in her eyesight blinking yellow. Why in Celestia's name is this happening!?

The filly glanced up at Twilight and smiled weakly, then stared backwards.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry, I didn't mean to use that one!" These things are nothing but trouble. 

...But they did just rescued Apple Bloom.

"I'm fine Twi, you just caught me off guard is all... You got muh tail pretty good tho'." Indeed she had, the filly's bouncy round tail now ended in charred and blackened hairs that made the air stink.

snap

They'd gone away, the odd weapon tubes. 

Twilight finally heaved a relieved sigh. So that's over now, thank goodness... They seemed to her to be intricately tied into her emotions somehow. She wasn't very knowledgeable about machines, definitely not the likes of what the human's used, but that concept altogether seemed immensely short sighted of them, not to mention stupid.

Apple Bloom jumped into Twilight, catching her off guard in the midst of her thoughts. The filly was sobbing again, she'd been through so much, Twilight thought. The mare's fore hooves tightened around her, carefully though, she wasn't sure of her body just yet. Apple Bloom also lacked the metal frame she now possessed, Twilight had noticed that right away. She wondered briefly what the filly thought of how she looked.

"We gotta go Apple Bloom, there's no telling if there are more." She stroked her mane and she hugged back tightly. "I have a safe place we can rest."

sniff "O-okay, Twi'" She stared up bravely at her. Twilight was impressed with the filly's resolve. Together they cantered through the halls and turned the corner, the piped room was there waiting. "Is Apple Jack... here Twi?"

"... I haven't found her yet Apple Bloom, but if she's here, we will. I promise."

Apple Bloom's gaze fell dejectedly to the floor. "I hope we don't, I hope she's back home safe, Twi'..."

Twilight turned to smile at the filly. Once the door had been reached she reared up against the panel on the wall to open it.

"OH MUH GOSH! Twi'! We can't stop yet! My friend is out there still, she's in trouble too!"

The pipe clattered as it fell to the ground.

"Apple Bloom! Oh thank Luna's stars, you're okay." Apple Bloom looked from Twilight to the new voice, a familiar grey earth pony stood in the middle of a strange room filled with glass windows.

"OCTAVIA!" Apple Bloom jumped into the room and embraced her. "I thought you were a gone'r!" 

Octavia's light laugh tinkled. It sounded odd and out of place surrounded by these dull walls Apple Bloom thought.

Like a pig dressed up in somepony's Sunday best! Apple Bloom decided not to make the comparison though. She didn't know Octavia all too well yet, but she'd figured her for an uptight sort that might not appreciate the joke.

"No I.... I'm not sure what happened actually. I think Ms. Sparkle here saved me." Octavia let Apple Bloom down and regarded her with a smile. Twilight took in the room's reunion beaming after shutting the door. 

"Oh! You know my name?" The librarian thought she recognized the musician but she hadn't expected it to be mutual.

"Of course, you're Princess Celestia's student. Most should recognize you I would hazard after all of your exploits. I'm amazed you aren't a bigger celebrity in the papers and the mainstream really. Ah, where are my manners, I am Octavia Philiharmonica, Fi-" 

"First Chair Cellist of the Royal Canterlot Symphony." Twilight gave a small grin.

"Oh, why yes, I'm surprised you recognized me Ms. Sparkle." Octavia's eyes widened and she held a hoof to her chest in mock shock. She wavered a tad, quickly replanting her hoof, she must still be 'under the influence' Twilight thought.

"Oh, well I didn't recognize so much as, you see... you told me. Uhm, I'll explain later." Twilight gave a nervous laugh, that would be a funny story session. Apple Bloom had gasped at the sight of the human, and had walked over to it during the two's interim. Twilight caught her new shift in attention.

"You shouldn't go near him Apple Bloom, he's not very nice... and might be dangerous" Twilight warned, Apple Bloom glanced back, but resumed staring at the human.

"What do you want with us." The human of course didn't answer her, she noticed the strange gag now. It squinted it's tiny eyes at her.

"Well, then it's certainly my pleasure to make your acquaintance personally Ms. Sparkle. I'm sorry it couldn't be under better circumstances. Also thank you for rescuing me by the way, that was you yes?" Twilight saw something different about the grey mare... Her back seemed to protrude out behind her. Were those knives?

"Likewise Octavia! And yes I rescued you, it certainly wasn't this guy here after all." Octavia and Twilight giggled together, it felt good to laugh with other ponies again... For Twilight it had seemed like forever. 

"I... what are they Ms. Sparkle? Do you know?" Octavia spoke apprehensively, which was understandable.

"Oh- By the way, please call me Twilight." Octavia smiled.

"Of course, Twilight."

Twilight paused, Apple Bloom was poking the human's strange nose.

She sighed tiredly, a lot had happened, again, in such a short amount of time too she realized. Again. 

Augh.

It was time for a quick explanation though, rest would come soon, they had to move on. Now that Octavia seemed better they should at least try.

"I... have learned a lot, but I don't know how we got here. They're called humans and... well it's complicated, Apple Bloom come here away from him." The filly turned around sticking her tongue out at the human. "I'll explain everything I know, but quickly as we might not have much time. Tell me when you're up to walking because we need to leave soon Octavia."
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Open Doors
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	



The golden corona gleamed as brightly and brilliantly as a sun. For hundreds of thousands of miles, even in the depth of space, its magnificence could be fully beheld by any onlooker. It was a pity he thought, that there were so few to be had. As well as far too infrequently.

The raw physically manifested energy that rippled and cast itself to and fro in waves surrounding the mobile world fortress was simply breath taking to him. Even after seeing it a thousand times over again through the years. The screen entirely obscured Elysium's surface from view, its opaqueness not quite enough to allow someone to see inside.

Suraci pulled his gaze away from the uppermost computer panel and re-busied himself with the final vector checks for their approach. The human flag ship, the Red Willow was a shadowed spec sailing slowly closer towards the golden ball hanging there amidst the distant stars and nothing else. The lean man never got tired of watching his home approach from the distance while returning from a mission. Muscled arms held only by a thinly armored short sleeve uniform folded over one another, after the rest of his duties had been expediently completed. Behind him the bridge and the rest of the ship's crew and machines waited or chatted idly as they returned home-.

"Hey!"

! 

THUMP

"GAH! Wha- Smorgas? What the hell?" Startled, Suraci had banged both of his knees in the cramped space he called his work station. His friend of several decades smiled and tried to ruffle his hair, but was fended off with one arm cocked and the other blocking. 

"Haha sorry, didn't mean to hurt or startle yah hot shot. If you weren't so damned tall you wouldn't have to worry about that while sitting there though." Smorgas grinned while leaning over the tall back of the pilot's crash chair just enough to make eye contact.

Suraci turned back around and tried to look busy. "Ah huh, I keep telling you I've always been this tall and I always will be. I'm not vain enough to change things randomly, unlike some people I know."

"Ooouch, this mean you don't want drinks then when we get back, eh tough guy? Marl owes us still or did you forget?" The two men had a bet going with the young communications officer from the secondary bridge. She wouldn't be happy about losing. 

Suraci had forgotten that he'd agreed earlier to that wager. It concerned whether or not that the planet they had nicknamed Rocktopia, would have anything the human race would find useful. The several dozen Ore and Mineral liners, followed closely by even more Freight and Cargo ships that were trailing behind them—surrounded by their fleet—was all the answer anyone would need as to how that agreement had gone. 

Grinning from striking the big lug's nerve, Suraci reclined with his arms behind his head to look at the nine screens which served as his eyes aboard the bulky Red Willow he crewed. He watched as the defense screen to humanity's world began to shimmer and fade as the carrier made her final approach. The gates of Elysium opening wide to receive her children upon their return.

"I'm still game bro, never say no to a free drink after all." Suraci answered Smorgas, who clapped him on the shoulder. 

"That's the party animal we all know and love, I'll see if I can't rustle some of the other jerks together too actually, it's been a while since we've had a real get together with all the lads and lasses, huh?" The star pilot nodded absently to him while watching the moon's glowing surface fade from sight, the ship floating calmly into one of the massive docking bays. 

"Yah." Suraci answered, while placidly taking in the sight before him. This never gets old. The weapons operator peered around the side of the crash chair at him with an eye brow cocked. 

"You okay man?" He tried to poke at the skinnier man's face with an invasive finger before getting swatted away. "Usually you won't shut up about the shit you want to do when we get back after a month out here. Something wrong?"

Suraci realized what he meant. Why he was acting spaced out escaped him though, he had just been caught up in looking at Elysium, he guessed. "Not sure man, just felt like I should focus on the sights, I guess." He glanced around the interior of the bridge, everyone else had already strapped in for docking. Jackson, another pilot and navigator was motioning to Suraci frantically and trying not to make a sound while doing so. Suraci cracked his knuckles and coughed turning back to his view panels coolly, getting the hint.

"So what exactly did you have in mind this weekend if we get everyone. Dance clubs, catch a concert, the Colosseum or maybe we could all get wasted and go Suit Fighting?" The pilot tried to keep his face straight so as not to spoil the coming prank.

Taken aback from Suraci's storm of suggestions and casual change of demeanor, Smorgas grinned, deciding his friend was fine. Big baby probably just got sucked in by the calming effect that space has on whimps. The suggestions were good ones though. Sports were always the big guy's favorite thing, and watching with a group was a hundred times better. His face split into a bigger grin at the thought of a party including mech suits and alcohol, or watching the games with everyone.

"That's more like it, dude we should go all the frack out on thi-" 

THOOM

The ship shuddered from the forward docking clamps catching the massive vessel, as well as the port and starboard rail holsters which had simultaneously reached out to grasp the flanks of the Red Willow MKIII Carrier.

Suraci unbuckled his harness and got up from his station deftly, stepping over his comrade. "Cool, cool bro, you hammer out the details, I'll be in touch." 

From the ground, the collapsed man looked like he'd fallen down a flight of stairs. Surrounding Smorgas, the entire crew of the Willow's bridge laughed over the flag ship's Commander shouting. Who tried to figure out what was so moon blasted funny. 

Suraci casually strode out of the room, eager to get back to his home.




	




There was a loud bang of a door which startled Fluttershy awake.

"Wha-? Hello?" She could hear shuffling and muttering.

"CrapCrapCrapCrap this is no good." The sound of metal being thrown about and objects being knocked over was predominant in the room that had always been so quiet. Fluttershy craned her head towards the noise despite being unable to see.

"Bark!" That was the dog from earlier again! Fluttershy tried to get his attention as she recalled his name.

"Excuse me, Mr. Steel, what's going on? Who is that?" The cacophony continued and she heard Steel pad his way over to her.

"Rrrrff, grwl..." The dog seemed to be confused as well judging by his tone.

"What do you mean something's wrong? Is someone hurt?" The twinge of irony about her predicament and worrying for others didn't escape Fluttershy, but it wasn't something she would ever think twice about asking.

"BARK! Brk, rrf." Oh well I guess that would have to do the-.

"Biscuit shut up, I need to concentrate. Darn it I don't have time, don't have time..." Fluttershy concentrated on getting the new voices attention, averse though she was to anything of the sort. She couldn't wait around forever though.

"Uhm, excuse me, sir...? Hello..." She was met with silence. She heard footsteps approach her.

"Hello-?" She pulled her ears back over her head and scrunched down as best she could.

"How in the hell are you awake? Whatever never mind this makes things easier. Blast where was that... Ahah." The voice moved away again.

"Sir? I believe there's been a mistake, uhm I'm Fluttershy by the way... Nice to make your acquaintance. But I don't mean to be rude or anything uhm, that is to say I don't belong here. You see I'm from Ponyville and... and..." The footsteps approached her again amidst the muttering.

"What? I'm sorry I didn't catch a word of that. Alright pay attention we don't have much time alright so listen closely and we might just make it out of here alive." Fluttershy felt something strange holding her by the base of the neck and something else clenching the back of it.

"Ah! What do you mean, and what are you doing? Who are you? Steel what's going on..." She darted her eyes around straining to see through the black that swallowed her world.

"Steel?" The male voice said questioningly.

"Brk" What exactly did Steel mean by that? Fluttershy couldn't guess.

There was a pause from the disembodied pony, or whatever it was.

"Am I to understand you can talk to Biscuit? Hah, that's a trip. Well I'm Oliver, I'm a mechgineer, freelance. I doubt that means anything to you... Uhm, look don't take this personally but I bought you in order to make some money alright? Thing is" Something shocked her right foreleg and it kicked! She couldn't feel it before but now she could move it, though it felt immensely heavy. She let out a yelp from the sudden sensation. "Gah sorry I'm rushing this we don't have time. Something's gone wrong and we're in danger. I'm not equipped to handle this either and we're... sort of... trapped. And we're probably going to die." 

Another shock and she felt her left kick in response. Some weak tears welled up in answer to the pain. 'What did he mean die? What was going on?!' Fluttershy tried to speak but she found herself breathless from whatever he was doing.

"So here's the deal, you help me, and I'll help you alright? I'm not above gratitude certainly and right now my life's at stake, and my daughter's. You and the other one are all I've got right now." Two more shocks and Fluttershy felt her back legs go stiff, but she could feel them now. 

"Whoa easy, you'll kick me in the face flailing like that. Hold still I need to make some adjustments."

Fluttershy struggled to get a word into this one sided conversation. 'Other one? Gratitude? Who even was this Oliver.' She grunted, her legs felt heavier then if she'd been carrying an Ursa Major on her back.

"Dammit I should have listened to Charlie, this bio science stuff is flippin' tricky..." The restrained pegasus tried to concentrate on breathing.

"Ha-HAH..." The pain built from a distant dull sensation to a roar in her extremities.

"Almost there." There was a loud click, then a snap. Suddenly the pain was gone. "Sorry I had to do that while you were awake, didn't have time to use the synapse freezing doohickey on you to put you back under. Not sure how you woke up from it in the first place... Anyway, I mean it when I say that our lives are in danger right now. All hell's broken loose and- Oh salisbury, sorry forgot your eyes one second."

"What is going on!?" Fluttershy blinked from the grey that spotted her vision now, and a large brown and pink blur resolved into a bipedal shape standing in front of her. She looked around at the rest of her surroundings which were slowly coming into view. Steel stood beside his master staring up at her with a glazed look in his eyes. Oliver stood staring intently at her, his face was streaked with... blood.

"Havn't you been listening? You, kidnapped, us about to die. You help me I free you, capiche!?" He was near shouting when he finished. "We got a deal?"

Fluttershy gulped, this didn't sound like something she should agree to, but she did want to get away from here.

"Yes, I mean... Maybe, I don't know what's going on at all. What are you and where am I?" She realized she had a massive restraint around her middle, she reached a fore hoof behind her head feeling something odd there. There was something in her neck!? There was metal on her hoof? She looked from her limb to the strange creature and back. She had been ki- foal napped!? "What did you do to me?!"

The creature rolled its eyes and let out an exasperated noise. "I understand, you're disoriented. Fine, and look I'll answer every single question you have after we get out of here. Okay, but we can't stay here." He circled around behind her and the vertical table she was suspended from. There was another loud clunk, Fluttershy felt a weight removed from her neck. Another clunk and then she flopped to the ground, her belly restraint undone. 

"Ooof! Ow..." She lay on the ground, her legs didn't want to move.

"Alright come on le- What's wrong?" The creature stared down at her and started poking at her with those weird... claws on his arms. Ah, fingers. Those were fingers she recognized. And hands, like a monkey's. Fluttershy tried to cringe away from him.

"I'mnotsureIcantmove... Canyoupleasegivemesomespace..." She tried to crawl into her mane, sprawled on the floor as she was. She heard Steel whine.

There was a loud boom not far away.

The man stood up and looked in disbelief out the doorway. "NO! NO, dangit, NO! Aaaah... Okay..." He looked back at Fluttershy.

"What was that? What did you say?" The man's panicked voice wasn't helping her in her effort to speak in the least. 

Another human poked its head into the room, it had a very long mane. 

The first human spoke loudly again "Hello!? Pony what did you sa-? Ah cripes, forgot the cold fusion core."

Fluttershy raised her head back up at the stranger's leaving, her eyes met those of the other staring at her from the doorway. It was a girl, Fluttershy thought, the girl was hiding behind her hair in the same manner that she herself was. The pony could just make out tears on her cheeks.

"There." The first human said aloud, punctuated by a loud clunking noise.

A cold sensation, like being dipped into a frozen lake, enveloped Fluttershy. "AAAh-!" She jumped to her hooves, and was immediately reminded of the metal that also enshrouded her body. As she landed her body clanked heavily on the metal ground beneath her. Her legs now moved freely at least, despite the very unsettling and strange circumstances. She looked behind herself and stretched her wings a little. They felt really stiff, but at least they were normal, unlike the rest of her...

"That should do, you've got power now.  Come on follow me." Another loud boom sounded, then began thumping in rapid succession nearby. The creature grabbed the...arm of his daughter and drug her into the hall, Steel following them both.

"What are you? What's going on?" Fluttershy tried asking, hesitantly following after them into the hallway. She cast a wary look to where the sound was coming from, it was traveling from the opposite direction they went. "What is that? What do you mean get killed!?" Her thoughts caught up with her as she tried to ask for an explanation that made sense.

"I mean that there are monsters out there that could kill us! I don't know where from, now stop asking questions, and I already told you I was a mechgineer!" The man grabbed things from clutter laying about the hallway, a bag here and a tool there. 

Fluttershy stumbled after him, her legs felt clumsy and unstable. "Oh okay..." She cringed back behind her mane from the thing's out burst, he still hadn't answered one of her questions though. Not really, anyway. "But I meant, WHAT are you. Species I mean. Sorry for yelling..."

He turned around wide eyed. "You call that yelling? Nevermind, I see, right, I'm called a human. You're also on our planet by the way." He turned as he strode down the corridor and into a doorway, then peered back out. "Hurry up get in here, we don't have ti-."

There was a huge crash and a sound like a wave that was two hundred feet tall slamming relentlessly against a cliff side. It as deafening, and nearly drowned out the human's words. "MOVE IT!" 

Fluttershy looked behind herself and time seemed to slow down. The world moved at a crawl. There was something there now, it faced towards her, unmoving. Her eyes continued to watch the thing, until finally its terrifying appearance sparked a word in her mind. "Muh-muh-monster." She stammered out. 

A couple of its legs twitched slowly as it took two, frightening steps towards her. The room was silent, until its maw opened and screamed at her. Suddenly, multiple legs were slicing into the hallway itself and rushing towards the yellow mare, carrying the vicious creature with them.

"WARF!" Something grabbed her tail.

There was the unmistakable slamming of a large metal object.

"Are you stupid? Dammit, Josephine wait here please." Fluttershy snapped out of her daze. She was in a big chamber now, the door was shut. "Please tell me that you can fight or something."

Oliver was addressing her she realized. Steel was staring at her dully with her tail in his mouth.

Fluttershy stared out into space. W-what is going on? She felt sick to her stomach. Her canine acquaintance stared at her with his head tilted, whining softly. 

Nearby, the human was fiddling with what looked like a suit of armor bigger than a minotaur. He cast flickering glances at her occasionally, as if waiting for something from her.

Fluttershy blinked and recalled the question, then answered half in a daze. "Fi-fight? Oh no, fighting is...wrong. I could never hurt any living creature." She began to stare at the ground, only half paying attention to her own words. This is just so... A fingered limb approached her face, breaking her out of her broken thoughts. It touched her, gently cupping her muzzle. The palm felt warm against her coat. The mare realized it was really cold in there.

"Terrific of all the weeks, I should have just done the sever right away. But no I put it off until the end of everything decides to show its ugly. DAMN. FACE!" The human slammed a pipe against a metal beam and slumped to the floor. He sat there and sighed. "Whom I kidding, we're doomed." 

The banging on the door began echoing into the large room. 

The smaller human held Fluttershy's face up to look into her own eyes. She was very pretty, whatever she was. This human. She was very pretty.

"Hi there, I'm Fluttershy." The human tilted her head to the side at the canary yellow pony. That got a giggle out of her, she was a match to Steel right now.

"What are you laughing about." She looked over at the guy who'd said his name was Oliver, her captor she concluded. He was glowering at her. "You're about to be viciously torn apart you know?" His face started wrenching up, she sensed that he was fighting to not break down.

Fluttershy blinked. He really meant that. That monster, what was it. She stood up and looked at the big metal door several strides behind her. It was caving in in several places and she became fully aware of the noise and pounding being wrought from the other side by that same beast. 

The animal caretaker snapped herself upright.

"What can we do?" She kept her eyes locked to the door.

"Hah! Nothing, your sister here isn't close to being ready to even be activated, and you apparently are a pacifist. We're unarmed, we're trapped and so we're doomed, thanks. Thanks a ton for that by the way you've been a real friggin' help." He lowered his head back into his palms. Fluttershy's angry side, a part of her which rarely ever showed its face to the world, flared up though. She rounded on him turning about ferociously.

"You mister do NOT get to talk that way. You have apparently foal napped me, and another? You've been nothing but RUDE, evasive and what's more you've hurt me several times and apparently had intentions of using me to get... MONEY!? Whatever that means, you sir do not get to give up. You have an obligation right now, and not just to me but to your DAUGHTER!" Her nose was pressed into the man's face, hard.

There was a woof from Steel.

"And Steel, DO I make myself clear?" Oliver stared wide eyed at her as she pulled back slightly. Disbelief clear as day likely stained his face he thought, his mouth was hanging wide open. The bending reinforced door to his workshop nearly forgotten in the presence of the enormous glaring eyes that seemed to command his very emotions. He couldn't look away, as much as he wanted to. He felt fear still, but it was a different kind. He tried talking, just what was this little pony, really.

"Ye-yes." She visually relaxed at his assent and stopped whatever it was she had been doing. Thank the moon for that, he'd never felt so tensed under something's... someone's scrutiny before.

"So, what can we do?" The alien horse was watching the door again. 

He struggled to think, he'd exhausted every option already and there wasn't anything in here he could use. Not with the time that they had. Oliver sighed again and stood up, the little pony obviously not comprehending their fate.

"What's your name." The yellow and pink maned creature turned to look at him. "I wasn't paying attention earlier alright, what's your name."

"Fluttershy..." She flinched back a bit under her mane. 

Oliver paced over to his daughter and pulled Josephine further from the door. 

"Nice to meet you Fluttershy, and I'm sorry not that it counts for shit I'm sure." He stopped to stand behind the support frame holding up the large mech chassis of his other project with his daughter clutched to himself. He wondered if he should... Try to make their passing easier. 

A spiked limb rent through the door creating a small puncture. The man wished he had thicker doors now. 

"I'm out of ideas though... This is a dead end for us." He looked around the room dejectedly. There were various tools, a plasma cutter, rivet guns, but nothing he could imagine would stop the thing trying to get inside. He reached for one thinking to use it for another purpose...

Where did those things come from? Some jerk smuggling life forms on board no doubt. He started loading cartridges in to the chamber of the tool.

Fluttershy looked away from the human and audibly squeaked in a crouch as another hole in the door formed from the monster's assault. She was hoping Oliver had had another way out. But she was already steeling herself to try her best. Something tickled at the back of her head about the monster...

"You said I had a sister here Mr. Oliver... I don't have a sister though, did you mean another pony?" She peaked around at him while trying to keep the door in view. 

"I guess you wouldn't recognize her huh," He gestured next to him. "this is her. But she's not near enough done to activa-"

Fluttershy's gasp interrupted him. "Tha-th-that? Is a-?" She looked down at her own metal limbs in shock.

"Yah, another one of you." He shrugged. "Bit more extensive changes I'll admit. Like I said, money." He patted the big metal things arm absently. "We humans have a sort of entertainment industry that's big on fighting, I was going to try and compete. Ironic I'd be designing a couple of bad ass designs for my alien entries only to get killed before I could fini-"

The hoof that collided with his face knocked him to the floor and loosed his grip of the girl. 

"Wha tha hall! Hyu hid meh?!" He blinked up at the hovering yellow pegasus, a swollen cheek already puffing up and blood joining the dried stream from his head. The girl gasped and knelt beside her father.

It wasn't like the young pegasus to ever hurt someone, she hadn't meant to slap him quite that hard either... "I'm sorry, but you deserved that and you know it mister." She glared down at him, trying to hide her regret about doing that. It wasn't lost on her either that she'd gone against what she had just said to the human. But sometimes like Rainbow Dash had taught her over the years there was a time to stick up for yourself...

She grunted landing back on the floor, her wings had barely held her aloft. 

Metal screeched loudly behind her.

The wall and door itself which had held back the monster screamed protest into the room. Fluttershy turned back around as the door was wrenched from its thick hinges to slam open. She readied her stare, readied the best defense she had against unruly beasts to protect them. Steel stood beside her she realized, he was such a good, loyal dog for that. 

The creature burst into the room and stopped moving immediately to face their direction, it seemed to regard them patiently. Perhaps because they were so close.

Fluttershy realized what had tickled her mind in horror. 

It had no eyes.









Octavia listened, enraptured by Twilight's claims. However, she quickly had to ask Ms. Spar- Twilight, to stop after she'd only just begun, her head still hurt a bit and felt stuffed with hay. During this break she'd caught her and Apple Bloom staring at her back. It was unnerving, others asking about what had changed with her. She waved them off explaining she was in fact fine. For the most part anyway, this whole debacle had her far past her edge.

Twilight had asked a couple questions concerning her scars and what the human woman Twilight had called it, had done to her. Again though Octavia assured her she felt adequately fine. 

She hadn't had to deal with awakening to her strange surroundings on her own though thankfully. Apple Bloom had been there with her in that cage. That hadn't been an... easy experience to deal with nonetheless.

Apple Bloom told Twilight about their own escapade while Octavia rested, it was far shorter then what Twilight had shared already of her own though. Even after Octavia and Apple Bloom had awoken they hadn't escaped even that one room for a couple of days. Octavia had been afraid they'd starve at one point, strangely however they had never grown past mildly hungry and thirsty.

The filly told her about how eventually she'd bucked the cage and shattered the door, that earned a grinning nod from the cellist pony, she'd been ready to sit there and wait for help, but Apple Bloom had taken action.

It paid off well too, I must say. Octavia stayed seated in the corner resting her eyes, trying to settle her head.

"She'd looked so surprised and we were just as scared, Octavia tried reasonin' with 'er but she just tried to... well she went and fetched that strange hunk o' metal that shot out stuff after promisin' to come back with answers and we ran. We got separated though by those other big meanies and runnin' so fast."

Twilight continued to listen as Apple Bloom wrapped up their story.

"And then bam Twilight! I bumped into you." Apple Bloom smirked and took another drink from Twilight's thermos.

"Hm, and there had been nopony else with you two?" Apple Bloom stirred a hoof absently.

"There had not been, no. It was just us Twilight." Octavia moved to sit beside Apple Bloom and gave her a comforting smile. "I feel in tip top shape now, by the way." She felt better at least, her strange extra limbs had decided to rehide themselves as well making her feel infinitely more comfortable.

"I'm really glad to hear that Octavia, you had me pretty worried for a moment there. I'll admit to being more confused while you were out of it though." Twilight gave her a sheepish grin.

Octavia raised an eye brow. "Confused?" 

"I will uhm, fill you in on that later, it's not important."

Twilight coughed loudly, and quickly continued on about the humans as they were called. Apple Bloom and Octavia sat listening intently. They had a bizarre name for starters, they'd decided. 

Apparently they were all in the space outside of Equestria as well!? The humans had traversed it riding on their very own moon. That had earned immense gasps from both her AND the filly she'd met just the other day. 

Twilight claimed they traveled so through the space by some means of teleportation as well. 

They're able to move the entire thing? The musician pony could only stare incredulously at the notion.

Octavia had always found unicorn magic fascinating even if she didn't pay much attention to it. This seemed impossible though. 

Twilight went on to say she wasn't sure why they'd been taken, she'd managed to read a lot about humans but not much of the why. 

They traveled and took from others apparently as they went. But an explanation hadn't been found by the Princess's student other than using those planets unscrupulously as a means of simple survival. Obviously water and food were used to simply live Octavia thought. Not that it made them or their methods justifiable by any means. 

So why twenty three ponies? Why all the others Twilight mentioned? Just to be experimented on? 

Octavia wondered how anything could subjugate others without regard in such a way, and to what end?

Twilight had no ideas either, although she'd guessed it might even just simply be for scientific discovery... Though she had no evidence. That was a disconcerting thought, Octavia decided.

"I tried asking this human some things but... he's been less then helpful, I don't think he's willing to share." They all spared the detained creature a glance.

She went on a bit longer, about her plans and memorizing a great deal of information. She concluded with a sigh.

"That's all I really think is important right now, we really should get moving." Twilight began packing her things up.

"So, wut's the plan Twi, to get out of here I mean?" Apple Bloom sat with her forelegs tucked under her, a donut resting before her on the white box.

"I..." Twilight didn't want to admit that she really didn't have a plan outside of finding the others yet.

"We'll find the other ponies, and then we'll think of a way to get home Apple Bloom, somehow."

Octavia nodded somberly. 'So that's how it is then.' When she'd first woken up she would have never imagined their predicament was so dire.

"We should leave soon, I'm sure we've stirred up enough of a ruckus that we're not safe staying here. Let's move out and go from there, hopefully we'll find another good hiding spot. Are you both able? Octavia?"

Apple Bloom and Octavia looked worried, and tired. They glanced at each other and saw that worry, but smiled.

"Sure thing Twilight, let's find the others!" Apple Bloom hopped to her hooves. "I'll keep going until we're back in Granny Smith's kitchen if I gotta!"

"Likewise, I shan't rest until everyone is once again safe Twilight, and I'm feeling much better now. We should make haste I agree." Octavia nodded and stood tossing her mane over her back, radiating a sense of stoicism.

Twilight jostled her bag onto her back and grinned at them both. 

"Alright, let's go then, we're heading to a-" She paused and glanced at the human. "I'll explain on the way." Octavia followed her glance.

"Are we leaving... him?" She pawed the ground, a nervous habit Octavia had.

"Yes," Twilight eyed the weapon still in the corner it had dropped, them raised a hoof over it and smashed it entirely. "let's go."







Pinkie Pie paced hurriedly up and down the rock terrace, fifteen paces, turn around pace back twelve. Maybe seventeen go back turn around then twenty one. She felt like she was going to explode, she couldn't stand waiting.

"But they told me to wait, I need to wait." She had to wait. Pinkie Pie partied though waiting just didn't sync with her, or her name! 

They don't call me the pink waiting pony! I'm the pink party pony! Who ever heard of a patient Pinky Pie? Oh, now patient worked- No! I can't sit still for this, tempting alliterative titles or nooo-OT!

She sat her rump on the cold floor and sighed glumly, her mane hung limply at her side. It had been a long time since that had happened last she realized. She missed her friends dearly, but what could she do?

The Doctor had just told her to wait though, and wait. It had been a week at least though since she woke up, well a few days anyway. She pushed a strange moon rock idly with her hoof. Even if waiting here for a reason unclear to her was unbearable, the boredom that came with it made it sting all the worse.

She heard crying echo from down the length of moon cave.

Oh no! She's woken up again! Pinkie zoomed back down the rough excuse for a tunnel.

She cradled the filly, leaning over the makeshift bedding the Doctor had brought. Her raspy breathing made Pinkie tear up as well, but she kept her voice firm for the filly's sake.

"It'll be alright Sweetie Bell, we'll be alright, Pinkie's here dear."









Twilight peaked around the corner, then motioned her companions forward. They moved slowly, diligently, and with care. It was true they had not seen anypony yet and the area had still been completely deserted after they'd left the room with the panels. But Twilight wouldn't believe it would stay that way for long after all the commotion they had stirred up. 

So they crept where they felt it necessary, and sprinted through open areas. They took the stairs downwards to the third one. Their hooves rang out loudly on the thin metal stairs which caused Twilight to cringe with every loud noise they created in the otherwise calm atmosphere. They went on longer than Twilight had thought they would.

"Twilight, are you alright?" Octavia had seen her worried look.

"Yes, I just want to hurry I guess." They slowly exited the stairwell. The large red THREE of the floor they'd made their way to apparent just above the landing on the cold concrete wall. There was a door at the bottom and the stairs which ended here.

It was metal but had a long bar spanning its width, which was a modest size by human standards Twilight guessed. Really the only thing worth noting was its lack of the technology other frames had all seemed to possess thus far. 

Hesitantly Twilight pushed against the bar, and it gave with a clunk opening outwards. She peeked into the cavernous beyond. The hallway was massive she could see and well lit. It was much like the one she'd encountered earlier she noted, remembering her last run in with that first big machine and the flying contraptions in that hall. But this hallway was bare.

The Equestrian's librarian leadership poked her head out and looked both ways, up and down the interior area's length. It looked empty, placed sporadically were other smaller halls that branched off the larger and a few other doors. She motioned her party out not spotting much of anything really, except their goal in the distance. They started to make their way to the lift.

Octavia quietly shut the door behind them and followed Twilight closely keeping Apple Bloom between them. 

"Is that it Twilight? The passage we're to take?" The unicorns eyes seemed to try and be everywhere at once to the cellist. 

"Yes, I'm not sure how but it would seem it's actually a machine that moves vertically over a long distance. I'm guessing through the use of counter weights, pulleys and likely some of the human's fascinating technology a-." Apple Bloom wore a very scrunched up face likely from trying to effectively follow Twilight as she continued to go on about the human's engineering. Octavia immediately regretted having started her on this tangent, which seemed very much to her like a habit Twilight must possess.

They had to walk for several minutes, it had seemed closer but now the ponies could tell it was actually just a very big door.  What was so wrong with stairs they needed to invent a strange mechanical alternative? Twilight had to admit the prospect fascinated her. Maybe she would try out some things dealing with advanced mechanics and engineering when she got home to Equestria.

They came to the door which was much like any of the others in appearance lining the halls. Except that it was decidedly bigger than any Twilight had seen thus far. The massive portal commanded the entire center of a circular room and stretched to meet the ceiling of the chamber.

The room itself was a big circle that had other hallways identical in size to the one they had walked down and perpendicular in orientation. They all stretched off into the distance. The lift must be behind the door on the large cylinder structure centering the room.

Twilight looked up at the wall of iron and gulped, she glanced over at Apple Bloom and Octavia. They wore expressions of awe from the sheer size of the doorway and scope of the room. The filly quirked her head at Twilight breaking her stare with the now apparent obstacle.

"How d' we open it?" Twilight hadn't considered that.

She looked back at the door and held a hoof to her chin in thought.

"I do not see one of those panels you mentioned earlier, Twilight." Octavia was slowly walking across the breadth of the doors inspecting it.

"I don't either, I'm not sure I assumed it would be easy open." This could be a problem, she might have to try alternative magical means of travel if this did not pan out, and quickly she hoped. They were very exposed here.

Apple Bloom watched as the two adult mares looked around the door, to her it seemed like it was just that, a door. It didn't have a knob though, or anything else that could be used to open it. How in tarnation did anyone expect to open it then?

Twilight ceased inspecting the wall, looking for a panel or something that might open and instead questioningly watched Apple Bloom. She was standing, fore hooves resting up against the door.

"...Apple Bloom?" Octavia looked up from critiquing the wall of metal as well.

The crusader raised her fore hoof and started pounding on the door.

"Apple Bloom! Some one could hear that!" The mares both looked around panicked, and Octavia galloped over to stop her.

"That's the idea tho- Hey!" Octavia pulled her down.

"We need to practice caution and quiet." The filly gave them both a sullen look. 

Just then a small circular plate matching others in the great structure popped open. It happened quick enough that Twilight did a double take unsure it hadn't always been open. A small little metal head popped out and swung side to side regarding them each. 

It chattered a few random noises at Octavia.

"Ah, uhm... what?" It didn't seem satisfied with the musicians confusion though, and turned to Twilight, emitting more noises.

"Twi', what is that thing? Twilight?" Twilight was staring at it squinting.

Apple Bloom held her hooves up to her ears, a screeching noise filled the air around her, it was horrible and grating. Twilight clamped her mouth shut after it ceased, she had been the origin of the sound. 

"Luna's stars Twilight, are you okay? What was that!?" Octavia ran over again but this time to Twilight, and rested a hoof on the lavender unicorn's shoulder. 

"I- I, I dunno? I'm fine though really I just..." A great groaning and the sound of screeching metal started and built in intensity. "Just fine." The little mechanical head zipped back into the door.

A loud boom of metal echoed from the walls. They turned together and all stared wide eyed as the great doors began to screech open. "By Starswirl's beard, can you imagine how many barges you'd need to move that? A dragon wouldn't be able to do it." Twilight gaped openly.

Octavia merely nodded, staring upwards. Apple Bloom jumped up piping in her claim to victory joyously.

"See? We jus' had to knock! No other way to open a door you can't unlock, and this is a stranger's home! Sorta..."

Twilight kept staring at the architectural wonder, but smiled. That was Apple family good common sense for you. She wondered to herself what that noise she'd made had been. That seemed to have been what opened the door, like a password but... well undecipherable, it had just been a random noise. The doors slammed with a quaking shudder and stood still, only halfway open. 

"Why would it open for us though? I'm not sure I like this Twilight. Nor do I trust such... convenience." The grey mare's eyes squinted as she scrutinized the large interior.

"Aw comon' Tavi, can't yah maybe jus' think we're having a stroke of luck?" Apple Bloom started into the lift, their destination. Twilight held out a hoof and stopped her.

"I don't think it was luck Apple Bloom, that noise I made had something to do with this. I also don't know why it did exactly, but it must have." They all exchanged glances and examined the lift together. It was a metal mesh cage, enormous in width, the walls outside that, concrete. The floor was thick plain metal and nothing odd. At least considering where they were and all.

"That don't look much like stairs or something that can take us down Twi." Apple Bloom's head was cocked sideways as she spoke. "Whelp only one way to find out!" She straightened and bounced forward in one smooth motion. Octavia snatched the remnants of filly's tail in her mouth.

"Let me go first Apple Bloom, Octavia was right before," The cellist nodded her assent, and held back on the filly's crisped tail fur earning a pouty face from the little pony. "this could be a trap or something." 

Twilight trotted into the lift, pausing briefly at its precipice, then stepping boldly onto its studded metal floor. It smelled strongly of chemicals in the steel and rock shaft. She looked up and around, it stretched as she'd expect upwards some distance, the end just barely in sight. The entire thing seemed to be guided on massive rollers held in place by metal guide beams. 

"Amazing!" Twilight couldn't help but gawk.

"Erhm, Equestria to Twilight, come in Twilight?" Twilight jumped and looked back at Octavia, who had an eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Oh! Uhm yes, it seems safe, please come in." She grinned goofily, it wasn't her fault something this big and amazing was unprecedented in Equestrian architecture and engineering! "Now we just need to find a way to make it move, this seems like it will do the trick."

There was a yellow and black striped panel, with a small rotating yellow light atop it at one side of the metal platform. It had row upon row of numbered buttons and two small glass like screens. 

Oooh, this could be tricky. Twilight wasn't sure exactly what any of it meant, the buttons were numbered, which might be where the floors or whatever they were referred to as. However she didn't recall she realized, which number the gene-ward or its block had been. It was several away too, not that she even knew which she was on in the first place. 

Twilight only knew how many it was away. 

She was sitting on her haunches, eyes clenched shut in thought, well eye.

"Twilight? Is everything quite alright? Is there something wrong?" Twilight glanced up at her fellow ponies looking on her with concern. "Is your... uhm, eye bothering you?" She shook her head no.

"No, it's alright really, I'm sorry I don't want you to worry, I just have realized I don't know how to use this thing either. I could guess but... I only have a clue as to how many floors we have to go but not which exactly." Apple Bloom and Octavia joined her by the strange console.

"Hm..." Octavia regarded the panel standing on her hind legs. Twilight thought she did that a bit too easily. Apple Bloom hopped up and down trying to get a look.

Slowly the cellist pony reached out a hoof and pressed the bottom right most button, with the lowest number. Immediately the door's began grinding shut, and the rollers began to descend the platform.

"Octavia?" Twilight took her turn this time at raising an eyebrow. "That can't be the right floor, the gene-ward is somewhere... in the middle."

She nodded rapidly at her statement. "Yes indeed, but you know it's just three floors down yes?" Twilight confirmed it, that should be correct unless she'd mismemorized its location. "Well I think this big red one is a stop of some sort, so lets just hit it when we reach that floor shall we?"

"Oh, Oh! Brilliant Octavia, that should work I do think you're correct." They shared in a congratulatory exchange and waited until the floor they sought rumbled towards floor level. 

Apple Bloom gasped and began flailing her hoof in the air."Twilight! Twi! ohmuhgoodness Twi!"

"Yes? What is it?" She couldn't guess at all what had gotten the filly so excited all of a sudden.

"Please let me press the button? Oh please?" The two mares laughed and helped Apple Bloom reach the big red button. 

Oh to be young. Octavia had never had much of a youth, but being around Apple Bloom certainly made her feel as though she were still a filly filled with all that energy.

The massive button depressed, the lift grinded to a halt just level with the new set of overly massive doors. 

Twilight wondered calmly a disturbing thought dawning on her.  Why did they need to be so big?

"Well, it worked fi-" Blaring sirens and bright red strobes erupted around them. Darkness came and went and Twilight heard the other two shouting and yelling in confusion. Her own gaze shot around the room. Water began streaming out of the surroundings and smothered them.

Twilight tried to reach out for them, Apple Bloom had darted in the panic that ensued, Twilight and Octavia shared fearful looks as they vainly tried to call for her over the din. The liquid streamed from the walls in rivers and mists so thick that after a just moment they couldn't see anything. Twilight tried to yell again and caught a mouthful of the foam, it had an acrid taste to it. This couldn't be water she realized.

The foam and bubbles were the size of her and building up everywhere. 

Suddenly after several hectic moments, bright light streamed into the lift, the doors had begun opening. 

"Head to the openi- gak guys!" Twilight shouted for the two earth ponies to get out but she wasn't sure if they'd heard her as she herself couldn't hear a response over the rush of the alien substance. She'd already lost track of Octavia.

Twilight pulled out of the lift and skidded as her hooves met smooth tile. She slowed to a stop and hurriedly began brushing the stuff off her face to see. Looking up she saw that two large machines flanked her. The suddenness of it catching her completely off guard. 

They rolled passed her, towards the lift. She watched as they stopped at the open doors, and the sirens and liquid stream ceased. Behind her emerged a drenched Octavia from the lift, carrying a still more drenched filly on her back both very much resembling a wet cat.

"Are you two okay?" Twilight stood up and approached them, Octavia helped the filly down. Apple Bloom was shivering and staring around wide eyed everywhere.

"Ye-ye-I'm fine Twi'." She and Octavia shook the remainder of the substance out of their coats. "Wut was all that about?"

"I'm also unhurt." Octavia was wringing our her mane and scrubbing at her face to get what was left of the offending stuff away from her eyes..

Twilight was watching the two cart sized machines carefully, they seemed to be watching the transport shaft. On their backs were large containers of another liquid. 

"I think they might be a kind of bucket brigade, for fires." It made sense she decided. "Let's hurry though, I don't want to stay and see if anyone else shows up."

The room was similar in size to the one several levels up back in Block:London. They were in another Block now she knew. Here the room was a semi circle intersection rather than a cavern like room built around the lift itself. The largest difference however was the different feng shui of the room. It felt and looked to the group much like a hospital would. Desks lined the tall wall which sat beside doors labeled with plaques.

The chamber extended outwards into varying hallways lining the curved wall.

Twilight and Octavia noticed the disarray the ground seemed to be in now. Random articles and even items and crates seemed to litter the massive entry room at random. Papers lay strewn around the floor near the desk against the wall opposite the massive doorway. 

The lights in the branching halls were all a sickly yellow and dimmed just like the room they stood in, which added to the dismal feel of the stark surroundings. Trusting to Twilight's sense of direction they reached the wall and trotted while casting wary glances around them into one hallway. Behind them, the lift shut its doors with a foreboding groan.

"Not sure I like this place Twilight." The youngest of the three stayed securely alongside her older counterparts. 

Octavia nodded to the filly's concern. She was becoming very anxious from the atmosphere, never before had she had to rely on someone else like this either which added to her unease

Her life had always been quite the calm experience. True she'd dealt with trying situations in the past, but never had she been forced to place confidence in somepony else. She glanced at the lavender mare's back. 

If there's anyone I can trust though certainly it is Celestia's very own protege.

After leaving the entry room the white tile continued on going inside the hall. The earth ponies followed Twilight Sparkle down the length of the one she'd chosen for several minutes in the dim yellow light. The entire area had an unsettling sort of feeling to it, Octavia could only compare it to a dentist's office from the sense of hesitant elation it gave her. 

Other than the occasional tall box, a peculiar thing with a window, some buttons and something inside of it, the hall was empty.

The two followed Twilight to one door, marked on the side with a random collection of numbers which Twilight squinted at momentarily before nodding to herself. They all jumped when the door opened unbidden for them, seemingly on its own. 

"Oh, well that's certainly much easier. I was worried we would have to puzzle out yet another way to open a simple door. This is it Twilight, yes?" Octavia eyed the darkness inside worriedly as she quipped. "Also, is it just me or is that just a bit too dark?"

Twilight nodded agreement. "This is definitely the place, Octavia... At least I'm fairly certain this is where we need to go, anyway. The address matches. I don't know about the lighting. I'm not sure what to expect after all." The grey Earth Pony raised her eyebrow uncomfortably at her honesty. 

Apple Bloom, however, stepped into the hallway, and illumination erupted into being along the entire length of it causing the three to jump. The filly gave them both a sheepish grin and Octavia frowned at her, but then sighed trying to resist a smile.

Twilight, already looking past Apple Bloom, gasped at what lay before them. Her companions quickly looked up and followed suit. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> What do we do now?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	



Humans were in a golden age. Everyone enjoyed the freedoms of choice and the pursuit of happiness. Not only that but it was a perpetual golden age. Anyone could under take whatever education they wished, live any life they wished. Across the surface of their lunar paradise were terraformed havens and bastions each carefully maintained to produce the desired weather and entice the sincerest of emotions. The domes and structures covered their home of Elysium in it's entirety.

Advanced hover cars and public transports zoomed their occupants across the surface and through parts of the world's under belly. All of them busy with their daily rituals. Some rushed to jobs from homes and others went to enjoy themselves at the ever ongoing metropolis' celebrations. Life though for humanity was for better or for worse at it's core, as it has always been. 

There were helpful people, there were rude jerks that hung around public outlets and there were overly cheerful law enforcement officials distributing the occasional ticket in the name of public safety. 

Everyone still had to make a living and while not everyone pursued the one they wished, they could enjoy their free time mostly unmolested. The only difference now was that the life which their living supported could in theory never end, if they so wished it. Over the course of humanity's journey from their home of origin they had continued to push the envelope of science, out of necessity. 

Technology had it's limits, as did people. But death was no longer one of them. 

Difficult circumstances, dangerous cosmic environments and a struggling population of refugees had demanded nothing less. 

The journey had been a dark one, but once the answer to their prayers had been discovered things had taken a turn for the better for all of mankind, finally. 

It had many names. Generally called the warp manifold, known in history as Carson's High Fidelity Matter Transporter, religiously praised as the gateway to Heaven, or to some simply... hope. With the power to traverse the cosmos in a matter of minutes by bending localized space to meet a far away place, humanity could seek it's destiny unmolested by even the rigors of the universe. Choosing where and when to go their civilization now thrived. Earth was but a distant historical footnote. 

Still, with the universe so close to humanity's finger tips, life was not without it's dangers.









The trio of Equestrians looked around the brightly lit room not sure what to say or think or even do.

Inside the newly opened area lay row after row of great glass cylinders. The containers went three high to the ceiling and each was nearly three times the height of your average pony such as Twilight. 

Each capsule also contained a generous amount of a blueish liquid filling it to the brim. As well as an equine form. They all held a little Pony within.

The three misplaced ponyvillians stayed standing next to the doorway unmoving. After a minute had passed before anypony moved the door shut quietly behind them. The first to make any movement was Octavia, who turned Apple Bloom suddenly away from the sight. It wasn't quite at all what she had been expecting. 

Apple Bloom squawked at the startling loss of control of her head in the mare's hooves and tried to fend her off. Twilight kept looking at the room's contents, and walked further into the stifling interior.

This can't be right, what is this? Who are these ponies? What's wro- Twilight's thoughts continued as she surveyed what laid before her. 

Surely the others should be here, have I gotten the room number wrong? What even are these. Or is it who are they? This doesn't seem like something that should be possible, what could explain these containers and other apparatus and what are they for? She shook her head only just realizing that Octavia was following and talking to her, and that she herself had begun walking down the corridor. Her questions echoed her own thoughts it seemed.

"-Twilight! What is all this? I don't understand." Octavia was trying to hold a foreleg over a drug along Apple Bloom's eyes, the filly was likewise trying to get the older mare to loose her of the oppressive grip, insisting she was fine.

"Nrg, Tavi I'm a big girl and I ain't scared lemme go!" With a pop she escaped the cellist's grasp, who then merely looked worriedly down at her young friend.

Twilight had turned to gaze back at a cylinder in front of them locking her solitary eye with it. She sat down on her haunches and tried to get a grasp of what they had found. Inside the containers were what she supposed were... Equine fetuses, not entirely developed. In some of the containers they almost looked Apple Bloom's age though, with fur and developed features. She grimaced and fought down some wooziness. 

"Twi'? Who are they?" The filly plodded over to sit beside the librarian pony and gave the capsule which Twilight was staring at an uneasy glance. "Why do they look so... so... Horse apples I don't even know. What's going on Twi' I thought the others were here, this can't be them. Can it?" The filly looked back to Twilight then the cylinder again, a look of shock patterning her face.

Octavia had stepped away, she looked around the room then back at Twilight, who was in a trance it seemed. She decided to search a little and make sure it was safe at least. In truth Octavia just didn't want to think about what was all around her right that instant.

The room was expansive it seemed but entirely filled with the tube like things completely taking up the space except for the walkway in the middle. There could easily be a hundred of these containers or more. The back wall was several hundred strides away from the door they had entered through. She paced down the corridor until she came halfway to the end. Another door led elsewhere at the end of the path she could see, but otherwise the room appeared empty.

She peaked woefully at the disturbing sights from the corners of her eyes. She stopped and gasped, she felt the strange appendages on her back twitching. She sat down hard on the ground hurriedly and looked at her back. Strings be damned! The eerie triple jointed arms had loosed themselves from their unseen home in her back. What's the deal with these things! She looked wide eyed back at her two companions to see if they'd noticed her. They had not. "Okay Octavia, just focus. Calm down and breath.' There was a quiet click that made her jump from her newly begun trance.

Looking backwards over her shoulder she reinspected her flank. "Oh, well... That was easier than I thought it would be." Her new invasive limbs had retreated. She sighed relief and started walking again. They must react to my emotions. Celestia send I never run into my old conductor... As she walked back she accidentally looked up at the capsules and shuddered again, she got a reign on her emotions though to prevent another visitation of her unwanted limbs. 

Just what are these humans up to, and how did they... No, I don't want to think about it. We should just move on from this place. Octavia wondered though, could she abandon children? Is that really what these even were? Some of them looked like young fillies, but others looked... She caught snippets of Apple Bloom talking to Twilight which thankfully distracted her from her thoughts. 

"Twilight snap outta it, come on who are these ponies?" Apple Bloom spoke matter of factually to the lavender unicorn and poked her in the metal plate that made up her chest with a single bleached olive colored hoof. The startled unicorn looked down at the filly just realizing she was standing there in front of her.

"I'm sorry, what Apple Bloom? I was miles away..." She ran a hoof through her mane's forelock brushing it back a little.

The filly sat down hard and slouched somewhat giving Twilight yet another worried look with her head canted to the side. Octavia clopped closer from their side.

"We're alone in here Twilight, the room ends in another door. More importantly though what should we do now. I'm not sure about you but I expected cages or someone to rescue," Octavia gestured around to the wall of glass. "not this." Her voice may have sounded a little more sullen than she'd meant it to, Octavia could feel herself getting tired and frustrated.

Twilight followed the gesture wearily. "I'm sorry you two, I can't get my head around it. I thought for sure... What I read on that compact library device had clearly stated that twenty three of us had been taken. It didn't say where though, now that I think about it.... But I learned from another search that specimen were kept in this gene-ward place. In this block." Twilight paused briefly to hold a hoof up in thought. She sighed after a moment relenting to cluelessness. "I don't understand any of this though."

Octavia sat back and folded her fore hooves over each other. Looking back the way they'd come in she spoke again. "From the sound of it they could be anywhere then. I'm not sure what or who these are but I get the feeling they aren't... Well you know." She sighed unable, or maybe unwilling to find the words.

"Native Equestrians? I guess... but I don't understand why though." Twilight studied the floor still in thought. Apple Bloom was tapping on one of the glass walls. 

Octavia nodded to the statement and spared the filly a content look. "Should we check the other rooms then perhaps? There were quite the number of them, maybe you just remembered something wrong and they're still here, somewhere. Right Twilight?" 

Apple Bloom turned around and piped up.

"Yah! They could still be here this place is huge after all Twi'! Buck up we ain't outta options ye-" The filly paused long enough to yawn loudly. "Yet! Ehheh." 

Twilight smirked at the two's chipper optimistic change of tone.

"We mustn't despair Twilight, staying here with these..." Octavia yawned in response to Apple Bloom. She pardoned herself and muttered about the action being contagious from the filly. "-disturbing tubes isn't helping us any in the least."

Twilight nodded but paused before speaking. She cocked an eyebrow at her companions. "Octavia, Apple Bloom, how long have you both been awake?" The two earth ponies looked at each other then back at Twilight. The farm filly answered first. 

"We'd been talkin' for a while when we were discover'd Twilight. But, I mean we can't have been awake more than ten hours or so, let's look around some." Octavia smiled as she spoke then rested a hoof on her shoulder realizing what Twilight was getting at. She spoke over to the other mare and nodded.

"Actually, I think we should find a place to rest a while. We don't want to push ourselves especially with Apple Bloom in our care." The filly gave her an incredulous look.

Twilight grinned and slowly got up. That settled that then. "That's probably a good idea Octavia, let's see if we can find a better spot though at the very least." She tried to avoid looking again at any of the surroundings. Behind her Apple Bloom batted away the other earth pony's hoof from her.

She muttered irritably while following after their group's leader. "Ah ain't no foal Octavia I know when I'm fine or not fine..." 

Twilight barely heard the cellist chide back. "I'm only trying to help and look out for you."

The door opened again for Twilight and she reentered the hall with the two of them slightly behind her. The corridor's strange yellow glow was still there and still just as unwelcoming.

"So which direction should we take?" Octavia looked up and down the foreign hallway. Luckily Twilight had spotted something earlier, but it had been just a curiosity at the time.

"There was a lounge back in this direction, if that means what I think it would at say, Ponyville Hospital it should have a couch or something. Maybe even food." The two ponies commented the prospect, even Octavia with a hoity- "Oh that sounds splendid."

Twilight was glad they seemed to have put their discovery from that room out of mind, for the group's unicorn she couldn't help but dwell on their now unfortunate prospects or what they were to even do next.











Tossing and turning. That kinda seemed like all her life was these days... 

No, in fact it was far worse. 

Her friends were gone, her joy had left her and with them both her life was therefore lost altogether. To the pegasus mare it seemed as though she were trapped under a cavalcade of oppressive feelings and circumstances.

Unable to find sleep she simply remained laying as she was, hooves tucked under her head. She'd been trying to end the day for what would soon be two hours. It instead felt to her as it had every night before this one for far too long. It instead felt as though an eternity rather than two hours had passed since she lay down, as it always did. She focused her thoughts on rest and put out of her head where her friends could be or how they had been taken away from her.

"This isn't working..." She pushed herself off the bedding and looked around the confines of her prison. It may as well be a prison. She thought somberly. I'm helpless and trapped. I'm unable to help them. I don't even know where they are.

Rainbow Dash lazily slid off the side of the strange bed, her thoughts weighing her energy down. She walked to the window and stopped to stare up at the starry sky for the hundredth time since they had been taken from her. Since they had all been taken from her.

"I'm a mare of action darn it...!" She yelled to no one. "Looking up longingly at stars isn't what I'm good for. Moping about doing nothing isn't my style..." Her head drooped low enough to touch the floor and her legs sagged where she stood. The rainbow mane that was so suited to flowing and whipping behind her in the wind instead swept forward over her face. All the regret had made her mind a mess of unease. Sleep would be impossible tonight she decided. 

Rainbow leaned back and sat on her floor, then tilted her head up slowly to watch the stars. For the rest of the night she watched them all as they shined dimly in the sky. She wished with all her heart, that she would find them, or they would find her. She wished to see them again.

Morning began to creep over the horizon before she stopped. 











She paced back and forth across the floor, enjoying the lack of noise. She'd come to hate the racket her molested hooves made on other different and solid surfaces. 

The carpet itself was rather thick and a deep clean blue. It was the first truly comfortable bit of interior decorating or furniture she had come across on this place. She wondered to herself if there was any beauty to be had on this moon world... Even the bed from the laboratory had been unsettling. 

Twilight stopped her pacing to hold a cup briefly, then took another drink of water before starting her rounds again. The soft surface was almost therapeutic for her. The ice cold liquid tasted sweet as well and she felt it helped calm her nerves. She still wasn't positive on just what she had to consume or how much now. She had not yet discovered a limit for her appetite or thirst. 

Again she resumed her planning, they'd come to a cross roads the unicorn mare had realized. The three of them were in unknown dangerous territory, with no way of knowing when or where the humans could show up. Despite the abandoned appearance of the place they had managed to get to, for which she was grateful. The ever present why haunted her.

Furthermore looking further into this structure could take weeks. She wasn't sure of it's size but if the endless hallways that seemed to be the standard for every single place she found in this bizarre world were any indication...

Apple Bloom... Celestia knows she could never forgive herself if anything happened to the little filly crusader. The painful thought that if she was here her two friends could also be was an ever nagging reminder of just how rotten this misadventure was. Twilight continued to pace endlessly upon the room's cushioned floor.

She glanced at the 'digital' clock which lay on the counter top of the kitchenette. This one was a great deal bigger than the one in lab. What she couldn't figure out, was that it had a great many buttons as well. What were those for? She had wondered right away. Everything the humans had made seemed to be covered in buttons, buttons and more buttons. She thought if she never saw another button ever again she could live out the rest of her days in peace...

Amongst other things that is... She re observed the machine briefly and it's panel. A few of the buttons were even stranger than the others. They had things like popcorn and meat on them. If the device made food that was impressive indeed, but after it roared alight once and woke her two companions earlier she had decided not to experiment with it again. 

At the moment the device read the time as 19:41. Twilight couldn't be sure, but if she had escaped the lab late at  night.... It must have been close to the human's 22:00... Then it could possibly be the second day of her sojourn to the gene ward, depending on how long she'd been sleeping in those tiny metal tunnels. After getting in the fight with that first machine she'd wondered once or twice if her horn would ever recover from that overloaded shield.

She wanted to test her magic, but decided to wait until later. More rest for her tired magical periphery couldn't hurt.

She ceased her staring at the dim lighted clock which had transformed from a glance and looked at her two pony companions. Smiling she couldn't help but be eternally thankful she'd found them when she had. Octavia snored loudly from where she lay on the big cushy human furniture, a package of crackers they had found in the cupboards spilled slightly over the cushion in front of her.  Laid over her was a small blanket that had adorned the back of the couch when they'd entered the room. Also under the blanket and cradled against the back of the sofa, resting her head on the cellist's forelegs was... Nopony? 

"Apple Bloom?" The filly was gone.

"Yes Twi'?" The unicorn nearly jumped out of her own fur coat. 

Breathing a couple heavy breathes she calmed down and faced her night time assailant. "Oh, never mind it was nothing. Sorry if I woke you up, I was just thinking out loud my little pony." Twilight laid on the carpet and tucked her legs in under herself now considering some rest of her own. One of them should stay awake but the room did seem secure. After a moment she added to her intended soothing words. "Can't sleep?"

Apple Bloom looked aside from the unicorn, her expressions stayed flat. She was considering what to respond with. "Was just wondering is all Twilight. About home, what everyone else must be doin'."

The librarian began to reassure her but was cut off. "What happens if we're stuck here Twi', how are we even going to get home?"

"We will Apple Bloom, if I have to make a spell so strong it cracks reality then I will, and we will get home. But whatever we have to do, we're getting home." She pulled the filly in close for a hug, but she didn't return it. Instead she ran a hoof over one of Twilight's metal forelegs.

"Did-... Does it hurt Twilight? What they done?" Apple Bloom looked up at her older friend regretfully. She reached up and traced along the side of the glass and metal covering part of the older mare's face. "I hate them..."

Even with all her lessons of tolerance and love Twilight was hard pressed to find the right words.

"No Apple Bloom, it doesn't hurt. For that I'm grateful as well. We shouldn't dwell on our past though, nor should we harbor... hate. What's done is done. We should look to brighter days, and to do that," She sighed on the inside, she couldn't blame the filly for feeling this way. "we have to keep a calm peace of mind, and never let hardships make us bitter. Even towards those who wrong us. In the end kindness and understanding will always be stronger." What else could somepony say to hate? Twilight asked herself even as she spoke, did she even want to discourage the filly's emotions towards the humans....Did she herself hate them? 

Twilight caught the filly's young hoof and held it with her own eliciting a squeeze. She smiled in hopes to reassure her and seed sincerity into her words... Do I hate them even knowing they aren't all... bad?

"Come on, let's go join Octavia," As though to emphasize her name the cellist snorted a response mid snore. "we need to keep our strength up to find the others quickly after all my little pony." 

"Yah... okay Twi'. You're right I s'pose." She bent to nuzzle the girl's mane lightly, then led Apple Bloom over to their friend.

The two of them settled in on the opposite end of the sofa from the musician, Apple Bloom nestled between Twilight and the back. Soon the filly sighed and was fast asleep once again.

Twilight was awake a while yet, features calm in the dimly lit human room. Slowly she too drifted asleep.











ATCHOO

She sneezed for what seemed like the dozenth time in the last ten minutes and rubbed fiercely at her muzzle with a hoof to rid herself of the itchy feeling.

"Would you please try and stop that, you could give us away to the wrong set of ears sneezing that loud." A chestnut stallion chastised her, peaking over his shoulder to look.

"I'm sorry! It's dusty in here.... and it makes my nose itchy." She wrinkled her face trying to rid herself of the feeling. Sitting on her rump in the corner she'd hoped to avoid some of the stray particles floating in the old store room's air. But alas everywhere in the space was permeated with the invasive dust which plagued the poor light grey mare. "It's not as though I'm not trying..." Her head drooped slightly in defeat.

He gave her a somber frown. "I know you are Derpy, I'm sorry for being rude. I don't mean to be so... short with you. It's just the state of things getting to me is all." The stallion looked back at the door where the others they were expecting were supposed to enter. "Humans just seem to have this innate ability to put me on edge no matter what the circumstances is all. It's always been quite the bother."

"It doesn't help any that they're late either, I've got the heeby jeebies." She shuddered and looked around the stark room and it's filing cabinets again, then checked to see if their air vent was still open. She knew it would be but she still checked neurotically every few minutes. "You're sure of this, Doctor? We can trust these... people?"

He spared her a doubtful smirk he'd meant to be reassuring. "Yes Derpy, I think we can trust them. Humans are capable of great works and good things after all, even these ones I'm sure. They just... Fall victim to very deeply engrained demons. To their credit I will say that from my experience they for the most part aren't actively as bad as most races. I have met some nasty ones let me tell you..." Derpy rolled her eyes as he started another one of his trade marked recollections. She steered him away from it skillfully before he could get started by leaning forward and tilting her head at him. Then she finished with a cough and a raised eyebrow. Somehow that always got him back on track.

"Doctor..." He looked at her with a start.

"Oh right." His gaze drifted from her back to the door and away from her, slowly. "Anyway, as I was saying humans just... Well, most are simply apathetic or selfish. Not because they don't care either I believe, given the right circumstances most of them will jump to the aid of others. Quite the contrary humans more than anything give in to fear, not hatred or malice, and they let that rule their lives." Derpy did her best to show she paid close attention to him. At the moment it wasn't a problem with him looking away, for which she was grateful. She just always felt bad when she couldn't meet his eyes. "However, there are those that would surprise even the Princesses in terms of valor, Derpy. I've seen it." He turned again to look at her, the pegasus pony managed to straighten her gaze briefly and looked at him doubtfully from under her blonde mane.

"I hope you're right Docto-" The door was rapped three times, their as of yet unintroduced friends had arrived cutting her off. 











Nightmares found her here, the dark shape which had hunted her so relentlessly was there and did so once again. At first Twilight didn't recognize it's presence but soon it hunted her once more, screaming her name. The miasma sought to envelope her, to yell at her, to seize her soul. She could feel it's very being on her back, stifling her breath.

Twilight began trying to reason with it, calling back for it to stop. It refused to relent though, it even seemed to double it's efforts to catch her from her shouts. Whatever it was in her dream, Twilight was terrified by the sheer insanity of it's cries and dark body. The frantic unicorn mare couldn't even begin to imagine what it was. She just wanted to be home, she just want to be safe.

A voice called out to Twilight through the darkness. It was so far, but she reach for it because she had to get away and at any cost.











The two humans crept along quickly through the corridor. They were lightly armed and armored so as to remain sneaky and move as fast as they could. The leader spoke back to her subordinate.

"Are you sure that this is the right way?" She didn't trust the man that had been placed under her for this mission very much, or as she saw it, a frivolous chore. Compared to her own his view of how things worked seemed to be more than a little black and white. To her everyone could be suspect of anything.

He tilted his and gave his best really? look that he could under a helmet. "I'm sure of it, trust me. The last door opened down here was this way..." After another minute of silently creeping down the hall and trying to keep their awares, they arrived at their destination. He pointed to the door and nodded minimizing their noise. The leader opened a small case and laid it down, the interior of the room came alive on it's screen after she poked at the keys for a moment.

The man looked through the window of the door, the lights were still on inside. "Oh, that makes sense they came here because this is... Huh why didn't they tell us that before we left?" 

The leader shrugged from where she was crouched. She could see on the screen that the room's contents were juvenile clones of the pony things, Equestrians, whatever they were called.

"Hmph, they must not have thought it had been important. I wouldn't put it past them. I also can't... see that getting overlooked though it's not unreasonable. Surely they're not this unprofessional." He watched her cycle through the cameras inside as she ranted.

He offered a question hoping to change the subject from his upper leadership. "So are they inside still?"

"No doesn't look like it, frell. We don't have time to look around this entire place either. Tell ops we've come up empty we're leaving." She closed the device and got up from the tiled floor. Her partner looked up and down the hallway pensively though an idea storming and brewing in his head.

"Come on Clare lets look around first, we haven't seen anyone or anything yet. Besides, I think if it was dangerous here we would have run into something by now." She raised the visor of her helmet to look at the older man. Her eyes were a striking green complimented by a stern gaze and framed by soft cheeks. Her hair was matted under the helmet and a pale, almost sun bleached blonde. It was cut close to her jawline just falling beneath it.

"One hour, that's all... I'm only even considering this because of how important it is we find them." The leader named Clare stared without emotion at him as she strode past and lowered her battle visor again. For her the HUD inside her helmet flickered back to life.

He sighed and followed after her closely. 'Out of all the folks they could've sent why'd they pick the hard case acting like she's got a vendetta and a fight to pick with the whole world?'

She hefted her custom laser rifle, it looked like a simple standard model. But a friend had made this for her based off the common military issue LG MK7. All that meant was that it used stock parts but the gadgetry inside gave whatever she shot a little more of a whollop than the traditional lunar guard infantry rifle. 

They walked tactically back down the hallway, at first the subordinate thought they were heading back towards the very small maintenance shaft they'd used to access the locked down block. But after a couple rooms she stopped and checked it quickly with the system hacker she had. He pulled security with his semi automatic TOR industries rifle. It was slow, and inaccurate at long ranges past 200 meters. But anything that got hit with it wasn't getting back up, it was his baby.

Still, he hoped he wouldn't have to use it. The programmer turned activist had never had to hurt anything before.











Twilight was being shaken, she was also on the floor now somehow. The voice was still there, calling her name. It wasn't actually far away from her though, she realized. They were actually just whispering and quite harshly to her. Twilight rubbed an eye, her only eye really, with a metal tipped hoof gingerly trying to make out what was said.

"aaAH! What!? Who-?" She replied startled, before two other sets of hooves clamped over her mouth hurriedly.

"Be quiet Twi'." Apple Bloom spoke alongside Octavia's "Do you want it to hear you?" Twilight shook her head no and they released their grip on her. 

Hear what though?

Twilight got up and looked at the time on the small counter bound white box thing the room possessed. It said that it was two in the morning.

She whispered to Octavia who was looking out the window of the door to their haven. 

"Octavia? What's going on, is somepony there?" The cellist looked back and fell to all fours again before rushing back to them. 

"Not some somepony Twilight, someone! Apple Bloom woke up to a scraping, and said she heard voices outside. She woke me up and I caught sight of two of them outside." Octavia's hushed yell faded to a normal whisper after it became apparent how silly it sounded.

"Oh, I see... We should avoid them then. Okay just let me think a moment girls..." Twilight paused to think about what to do. Octavia looked back to the window past her dark mane and re approached it, to keep watch.

We could play it safe and just leave, but where would we go next? I just wish that once we could find some... one that was helpful, or Celestia forbid it actually nice! Okay this line of thought isn't helping. Hm, we shouldn't stay here though this place must not be abandoned after all. What I should find then is more information... After waiting for minutes that felt like hours Apple Bloom interrupted the silence.

"The three of us could still look 'round if there's only the two of them Twi'." Apple Bloom's face told the mare exactly what the filly was thinking. That they would abandon the chance of finding the other ponies.

Twilight decided that rested they should now look for another information screen. She didn't know where to go from here, except for some other scarcely related ideas for escape that would come later.

"We...may Apple Bloom, just trust me though no matter what okay? We won't leave anyone I promise. Octavia is it clear right now?" The cellist pony turned around and nodded. Twilight ceased whispering finally. 

"Okay, here's the plan you two. We're going to keep looking, but carefully. I'm going to keep an eye out for one of the small tunnels I used to reach you both as well, we'll take those if we find one. They probably don't know we're here so we have that to our advantage." Apple Bloom sighed relief at that. "But we're also looking for another information screen, that device I told you both about earlier. If we find the others great... But we need to figure things out again, that means studying." Apple Bloom groaned at that...

Twilight smiled at the filly. "Heh, I'll be doing the research Apple Bloom, if we get the chance. You both will just need to help me keep anything important straight in my head and watch my back. The last time I used one I... almost felt like I'd studied too much." Octavia heard Apple Bloom gasp and saw her give the librarian an incredulous stare. 

What was odd about that? Twilight had begun packing some extra food that had been in the room when they arrived. 

"Anyway..." Twilight paused. Her plan was basically to hope they found something she realized. It was not a very good plan. 

How long can I keep us going... If we don't find anything. Or what if we're the only ones left. She pushed the defeatist thoughts out of her head.

"Anyway let's go, if we can put some distance between us and those people we should be able to search easier, so lets go to the lift again and start from another wing of this place." Octavia and Apple Bloom nodded and the three made to leave.

"Thought they was called hue-mins Twi'?" 

"They are Apple Bloom, people would be a generic plural form of their... Uhm, Octavia?" The cellist looked at Twilight's prompt.

"Yes Twilight? What is it?" The unicorn raised an eyebrow at her recently acquired friend and smirked pointing at what she was carrying. Draped over the musician was the blanket from the couch.

"What!? It's cold out there, can't a girl afford herself some creature comfort in these uncivilized times?" Apple Bloom and Twilight were both trying desperately hard to suppress there laughter from Octavia's choice of words.

"I think you need to meet a friend of my sometime Octavia, you two would get along really well." Twilight grinned from Apple Bloom back to Octavia.

"She sounds jus' like Rarity, Twilight." The farm filly again broke into giggles and rolled over once on the carpet to try to stem their flow. The musician took the outburst from the two with poise and pomp however. She wouldn't give in to their jostling. 

Besides they seem to think it's funny, I can't say my sophisticated Canterlot mask has ever made someone... laugh before, but when in Roam. She couldn't help but join in with her two friends. 

There was a noise outside that abruptly cut the two mares short as they heard it. Their ears immediately swiveling to where it came from, above them. Sshhh They both shushed the filly at the same time and watched the ceiling, serious looks on both their faces. Apple Bloom cut her laughter short and watched them, stopping before she asked what was wrong after catching their movements.

Luna's stars we got careless, darnit, have we been heard? Octavia slowly back up while pushing Apple Bloom along towards the door.










The bulky man held an ice pack to the top of his head and grumbled as he was stopped by yet ANOTHER red light. 

"It could be the end of time itself and I swear red lights will never stop being irritating." He said to no one but himself irritably. The stop light flashed green and he zoomed out through the wide intersection, from there he turned onto the Flyway that would take him up and away from the military zone his unit's ship was docked at and out to his own residence zone. 'Come on grandpa get out of the damn way.'

He drove quickly with only half of his mind on the road. After a thought he flipped open his cell phone, using the voice option on it didn't really ever cross his mind when he used it. Twenty four messages on digits and four on voice, Smorgas grimaced. That was unusually low for his social life considering he'd been gone for a month. He flashed a look of vexation across his face raising both eyebrows, then held the phone to his ear to listen to the messages.

"Smoooorgas Happy Birthday! This is your mother dear, I just wanted to let you know tha-" The offensive measures bridge officer grunted and skipped over the offending message. He played the next.

"Oh and I left her some of yo-" Skipped again. 

'The day I get some peace of mind from that woman is the day I opt to have my body donated to science. She'd probably still try to write to my corpse.' He grinned at his own joke and played the third message. 

"Smorgas my main man... err, soldierrr, listen buddy about that money I owe you... While you go-" It seemed he had his first order of business before going out to party with the crew this weekend. He'd wring that weasel Jeremy's neck as soon as he got settled back into his routine at home. He did have two weeks shore leave to enjoy so no rush... But twelve thousand credits was no laughing matter to the seasoned soldier, which equated to two months pay.

Hell would freeze over before he left someone off the hook with that kind of a debt.

He eased the icepack off his skull and fingered the healing split in his scalp. The crack he'd taken to the head had been pretty bad. The rest of his friends hadn't noticed he'd been knocked out right away apparently. The bridge commander had smacked him awake himself. It'd be a while before he heard the end of that at work... 

The goose egg that still adorned his head was receding at least, his inter control was making fast work of healing the concussion, welt and split in the skin. 

"Not fast enough though..." After placing the icepack back between his head and the headrest of his seat he picked his phone up again to look back at the screen. He jerked the steering wheel to the right to move into the slow lane and pass another cruiser in the fast one.

"LEARN TO DRIVE cripes, friggin' neanderthals." He looked at the phone again.

Last message... Smorgas clicked the phone's final message for him and tiredly then held it up to his ear. 

"Honey, it's your mother again. Now before you hang up I just want to say this is important." Smorgas hesitantly eased his thumb off of the cancel on his phone. "There's been some trouble with the Block sweety, I'm going to be busy for a while alright? So don't worry about me if I can't get back to you or talk there's just some big wig business that mommy is dealing with alright? Love you, enjoy your time back and stay safe! Oh and I hope you like your birthday present too, you worry me so much staying by yourself all the time. Honestly you should just ask out that nice Jackson girl from your work she seemed so lovely and smart. Oh! And stay away from that Darrick boy he's only tro-" Smorgas sighed as he laid the phone on his passenger seat.

I'm eighty two years old mom, give it a rest... He laughed to himself, which grew into a raucous stream as his cruiser turned off into his exit from the Flyway.
	
	
	
	
	
> Why'd it have to be bugs
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


	


For the space of a few seconds, the only sound in the room amounted to a lone canine's guttural rumbling. The precariously still air seemed to reverberate with the solitary noise. 

Fluttershy also thought she could hear her knees shaking though; complimenting the low growl. Hesitantly, she started to try and back up away from the foe that was facing her and present company.

Everything that came next happened in a blur for Fluttershy. She heard a cry from somewhere in the room as the beast soundlessly jumped through the air, clearing the space which separated them mouth first. 

Steel leaped towards the creature in return. The large dog snarled fiercely and bit into one boney scythe like appendage. He crunched into it with all his might. Seeking a blood bite, his adrenaline ran wild in defense of his family. Briefly, he had felt his head whip back. 

"Srtch!" 

The mysterious monster's attack and Steel's counter had begun a symphony of crashing metal objects in the open but cluttered space. The bug like assailant threw the guard dog against a nearby shelf in response to the attack. Steel yelped and landed hard, the shelf itself actually knocked over backwards from the force of it. 

Fluttershy had barely moved from her spot and clung to it like a lifeline while standing stock still. Watching the escalating fight terror struck.

The creature's many legs danced and skittered as it closed in on it's challenger. He happened to already be back on his paws. Steel frothed at the mouth and snarled defiance. The creature screeched and stabbed one claw at the brown furred dog. Steel dodged the strike, and made for the door. The attack missed and the clawed leg buried itself deep into the wall. The bug's arm had gashed the metal becoming lodged within. With it's prey getting away it cried out an ear wrenching howl and tore it's limb free scattering debris and hunks of metal. The creature followed after Steel back out of the room, the noise of the chase died to an echo in moments. 

The young pegasus finally found her voice and cried after the two.

"Stop it! Both of you sto- Get back here! Oh dear... Oh no." Suddenly and without warning she felt something grab her mane and tug which produced a yelp from her.

"What are you doing? Come on let's go!" It was the scraggly head of brown hair belonging to the human, Oliver. "We gotta take this chance... Even if... Just come on." His daughter cowered behind him staring across the man at Fluttershy.

She managed to gasp out a response despite her state of shock, confusion and panic. Not to mention her total and complete distrust for the human at this point. She resisted his pull. "You mean we should just leave him? After he- But Steel! He's in danger!" 

"Yeah, and so are we, he's just a dog alright, we gotta escape while we can." Oliver picked his bag back up and paused over a large cylinder thing on his way to the door. Fluttershy moved deftly in front of him in a hover, wings straining.

"That just a dog is out there right now sacrificing himse-" Oliver cut her off.

"I really don't care horse! I really don't! He's a pet," He said the word with no small amount of consternation. "not a person, or even sentient like you. Yeah he's a great pet that I've had a long time and I'll miss him... But I gotta look after myself alright, and quite fuming frankly we likely won't get out of here anyway so I'll worry about making him a nice little pyre after I'm safe okay?" Fluttershy had cringed back and landed at his outburst back towards her. Her wings lilted as she set back down. She swallowed and flared them back out. She could feel tears well up in her eyes from his heartlessness.

Mr. Oliver's not worth it Fluttershy, he's... Oh steel. Fluttershy ceased thinking to herself and looked up at the man, then over to the door he stood just inside of now.

"You coming?" Oliver had stopped at the door to look at her. A mixture of fury and impatience painted his strange face.

Fluttershy walked up to him and glared back at that face, her hooves clicked on the alien floor. His small eyes squinted back at her in confusion. The mare took a deep breath as she composed herself. She wasn't the kind of pony to pick a fight or think of insults, but right now with lives at stake... She wasn't herself. 

"May Celestia save you, Mr. Oliver. Because your heart's as cold and uncaring as it is small." The human felt himself wilt under her look again, a stare that could chill water to freezing. Calmly she strode out the door leaving him standing there with Josephine. He stammered after a moment trying to yell back, or anything. Only to find he could not. As quickly as she'd spoken she was off though and down the hall.

"He-Hey! Where are you going!?" The pony had made for the front door and was gone.


	


Fluttershy had stopped to look left and right out the door, she heard a horrifying racket of screeches and barking one way and chased after it. She still wasn't sure what she would do, surely it would respond to her in someway. 'I just have to not freeze again.'

The noises were getting distant and she tried to run faster. Immediately her legs seemed to leap into a sprint. She found herself looking down at them in awe, she was hardly the athlete like Dashie or Aj. They were making a strange whizzing noise though she noticed. Just quiet enough she almost missed it.

'How am I running so fast covered in this obstructive armor.' She looked up as she'd almost run into her quarry and skidded, or rather slid to a stop.

"Oh... no oh no..." The Ponyville caretaker saw her friend. Yes her friend and the monster...  Held in it's toothed beak like maw was Steel.

Time sped up again, but this time unlike before it was in her own favor. The offending beast was blindsided by Fluttershy's flying buck into the side of it's... What passed for it's face. Steel's body flew away from it's jowls and slid in a red streak across the metal floor from the two combatants.

'It doesn't have eyes, but maybe it can still see me. It WILL hear me.' Fluttershy squared up against the monster before it recovered and hopped into the air. She latched onto it's face with her fore hooves to press her own muzzle against it. The monstrosity continuously snapped it's mouth in response to the pony's unwelcome intrusion.

There was a crunching noise.

"You do NOT I repeat, do NOT. EAT. MY. FRIENDS." Fluttershy's grasp shook inadvertently it's head violently as she yelled, which to her surprise was a little too easy. It was three or four times her size but that didn't stop her at all. The monster began tossing it's head and elicited a high pitched squeal instead of ceasing it's movement to listen as she'd hoped. The pegasus unheeded by the creature released her grip in surprise and flew back several strides. She landed hard from the momentum and her legs protesting the force of it. Her flying was taking a lot of effort as well.

The monster continued to toss it's head and started to claw at it's face even after she was gone from it. 

Fluttershy steadied herself and glanced down at steel, she'd been flung just next to him. His coat was a mess of blood and torn skin. She sniffled, but without hesitating for anything else she pulled the big square faced dog over her back. He was only a bit bigger then her. 

Oh my, he's actually very light. Fluttershy tried to run down the hall as fast as she could trot. She didn't want to hurt him more. She was unsure if her passenger were even breathing. She kept expecting to run out of breath, especially after a screech from behind her caused her to try and move even faster. The pegasus pony didn't tire though. Only a stone's throw further down the hall and with no other turns to take it was clear that it was gaining on her from the noise. Fluttershy just couldn't run fast enough even disregarding Steel's condition to get away. She was panting from panic as she laid him back down. She rounded back on the cart sized chaser as quick as she could. 

I have to lead it away. Fluttershy realized. She struggled and took off, buzzing as best she could over it. "He-Hey! Up here! You big bully!" She kicked hard and pushed off of its head as her body soared over it, gaining more speed and momentum, as well as it's attention. To her surprise, the bug instead pitched forward and landed hard. The pegasus looked back, and paused briefly after setting back down onto the metal floor with a thud. 

The monster's carapace crackled as it struggled back up to its six legs quickly, then spun to face her. Menacingly, it stood back upon it's rear limbs and emitted a low whining hiss that grew into a shriek.

"Srtch, KRTCHGGR-EEEEEEEE" The creature slammed forward onto its clawed legs and tore across the metal of the hall after its prey. Blood and ichor flew visibly from its mouth.

"Eep." Fluttershy's eyes widened in fear, but she didn't hesitate. Hurriedly, the pony kicked off the floor and galloped in the opposite direction. It worked! Her hooves almost slipped on the slick metal as she broke into a flapping and scrabbling dead sprint. Maybe too well... She looked behind herself, fear rising even further in the pit of her stomach. "I'm very sorry you're angry!" Calling back to the monster didn't seem to quell its anger any. I shouldn't have taken the stern approach with it. "You really should calm down Mr. Bug!... Please?"

"SCREEEEE-" Her chaser answered back.

It might not have work...but maybe I should have tried the kindness approach after all... Fluttershy continued to run, all the while thinking of what to do. 

He won't listen at all. Fluttershy knew what had to be done, rare as it was with feral animals that were dangerous. She resigned herself to try carrying out the task. She had to get over to Steel again.

"Oliver?"

"DON'T STOP, JUST RUN!" The mare realized she had stopped. She jumped forward again into her prior speed, a clawed leg shot into the floor behind her. Fluttershy thought she felt her tail tugged on. Frightened she sped past and hid behind the human.

He was in a strange machine. A huge, strange machine. It looked like a mess of iron ladders and pipes that framed and circled his legs and body. He ran... Well, it was more of a quick walk actually. Lumbering was perhaps the best way to put it. Oliver did that slowly continuing away from her and straight at the unrelenting Tartarus spawned creature.

"Mr. Oliver he won't listen to me-! M- Oliver? What are you doing?!" He didn't answer her.

What's he doing? She started to chase back after him. As if answering her thoughts he raised one large... Arm of the thing that surrounded him and moved like it was an imitation of life or a puppet. He brought it down in a sharp jerking motion. The creature had stopped it's struggle to free itself from the ground to scream up at it's new adversary. Just before it's cry was cut off by the human's attack. The machine struck hard on the creatures face driving it down to meet the floor along with it's body.

"SCCRREEEEEEEEEeee-" Flutteryshy watched as the brute flailed desperately, it's head hissing and letting out objectionable cracking noises. She watched it's face and part of it's body slowly cave in on itself. Fluid and insides gushed.

Before she could form another question or thought in her head, just like that it ceased moving. Oliver was panting from where he stood over it.

'The poor thing must have suffered immensely...' Slowly Fluttershy approached him from behind and flew up to get a look at the insect like beast, and the human. "Are... Are you okay Mr. Oliver?"

"My heart's not that cold. Just so you know." He looked at her sullenly. "Yeah I'm fine." 

The machine that framed his body moved again slowly and stiffly. He straightened and stood over her, before he had been twice her height. Standing in the machine he was almost twice that again. "Are you okay?" He asked her back. She nodded slowly. Her mind reeling just a bit from everything that had happened catching up to her. Any moment she knew she would fall apart from... 

Steel! Fluttershy gasped. "We have to help Steel!" She half ran half glided back towards where her other savior lay without another word.

"Hey! NO! Dammit." The man used one oil and lubricant coated hand to run over his face, then grimaced at it.'I can't follow her in this slow thing.' He grunted and released himself from the strap harness.  

I should just leave, I gotta get back to Joe... Dammit. The taciturn mechgineer jumped out of his crate mover and followed after the winged pony at a run. 


	


Fluttershy slowly approached the big dog's form. Hesitantly she lowered herself down before him, his breath came in the form of ragged wheezing. She stared at the kind creature who had fought so bravely and was treated so poorly. Strong, she would be strong for him in his last moments and not shed a tear. 'Is he awake? Could he hear me?' Fluttershy saw his eyes open but staring. The sound of hoof steps tugged her attention from her friend.

"The bug... got him I see. Poor ol' man." The human regarded the canine with what Fluttershy thought might truly be sincere regret. Something in his eyes spoke volumes of sadness to her. Placidly he lowered himself as well but remained standing on the bent part of his legs beside her. 'Or is that how he sits?' He produced something out of his bag. She was mourning already and sad, but she watched what he did with detached curiosity. 

"I take it you're not leaving him." Oliver looked at her pausing in what he was doing.

She was taken aback by the statement. "N-no... It wouldn't be right, and you should know that. I wish I could help him but I don't think there's anything I can do." Oliver gave her a grim look and shook a strange metal can which rattled.

"You're carrying him then, he's still alive after all so there's a good chance he'll make it if we can get to help." Fluttershy gasped as the can began to hiss and spray a strange blobby goop over Steel. He didn't react to the substance, so it must not have been painful she hoped. Oliver finished and stood again. "That should stem the blood loss, though I don't know that he has much left." He glanced around him at the grisly scene. "We can't wait around any longer Buttershy, and my daughter's likely beside herself with worry."

"My n-... Ahem, my name is Fluttershy." The canary yellow pony hesitated as the human helped her heft the dog up. "Thank you, though...for coming back, I mean."









The only noise Twilight could hear now was her own somewhat labored breathing. The air felt like sludge. 

beep

She flickered her eye to the clock box atop the counter in response to the noise. Time had passed, only a minute. It wouldn't be wise to continue to sit and wait here, she decided.

"Octavia..." She whispered from the side of her mouth. Twilight did not turn her gaze from the ceiling that had all caught their attention. "Open the door, and slowly walk out. I'll be right behind you."

Octavia still wore a worried expression, the noise had been sudden and patterned, like the heavy falling of hoof steps. A lot of them. She tries to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat only to find it too dry to do so. Standing on her hind legs Octavia reaches for the button on the wall. The door opens with the hiss and roll of metal on metal that the human architecture seemed to always give.

Twilight turns slowly and nudges Apple Bloom with her head towards the door, and out into the hallway. 

Behind them their grey friend follows with out lowering herself to her other two hooves. She repeats her button pressing action outside. A breath of relief can be heard from Apple Bloom by the other two.

"Well I-" Apple Bloom cut short under the simultaneous pursed lips of her older companions, both holding a fore hoof to their muzzles to demand quiet. Assuming a cringing posture the filly gave an uncertain glance back to the door from under her forelock. Twilight gestured for them both to follow her.

The two mares trotted down the hall, Twilight cringed every time her or Octavia's metal hooves struck the floor, this caused a lot of cringing. Apple Bloom's own hooves weren't much quieter. A short distance away they stopped and Twilight spoke to them. "Alright I don't know what that was but we don't want to find out okay girls? I think... We'll stick to the plan though, since we don't know if it was even dangerous." 

Octavia drew her brow down and gave another uneasy glance in the direction of the lounge. She'd forgotten her blanket...

Twilight continued her brief speech to the two earth ponies. "But, we will go to another area of this place, just to be safe. We still need to find another information screen..." She turned to continue down the hall and waited. Not far from them down it's length was the big half dome structure of the lift room. 

Octavia and Apple Bloom shared a quick glance at each other, neither wanted to say anything or cause any noise. After a moment Apple Bloom shrugged and walked after Twilight. The lavender mare gave her a smile and they started out down the hallway. After a moment Twilight slowed when she didn't hear another set of hooves behind them.

"...Octavia?" She was standing where she had been with her eyes clamped shut, her muzzle was moving quickly without making a noise. "Hey what's wro-?" Twilight Sparkle had lifted a hoof to hurry back to her, but was stopped. Apple Bloom gave a slow shake of her head, then calmly walked over to her older friend.

"-is worse then losing my job and prestigebutIdon'tdeservethis why does everything even'want'to'kill'me I can't bare thissuspensenot anothe-" The mare gasped quietly and let out a shuddering whimper.

Slowly Apple Bloom made her way around to her side and stood on her hind legs to reach Octavia's neck. "We can make it Tavi, you'll be safe. We just gotta keep on goin'. Me and Twilight both need yah, alright?" She hugged her for all she was worth.

Octavia looked down out of the corner of her eyes at the filly comforting her. 'Heh, and I'm trying to protect her... What a fool you are Octavia.' A smile escaped to her face, and like that her thoughts were once again on her new friends. Not the fear of the unknown.

"I'm sorry little one, I didn't mean to have... such a break down, or a lapse in bravery." Falling back to the floor Apple Bloom smirked back at her.

"It's 'kay Tavi, we can't all be brave like me!... And I ain't little neither." A winning ear to ear grin caused Twilight and Octavia to smile at one another, then laugh. Though they both Sshhhed each other immediately afterwards. Together the two followed the one and they made it back to the room with the dome ceiling unhindered. Twilight cast her scrupulous gaze around at the other hallways. 

"Well Twi', where to." The two earth ponies also looked, though they didn't know where or what exactly they were searching for other than a screen. Twilight cantered towards an entrance but stopped at one of the desks parallel to the wall. She carefully scrutinized a chair that lay on it's side next to the desk, then satisfied used her magic to flip it over upright.

"Oww..." The unicorn flinched a little and held a hoof to her head. Her friends hurried over to her.

"Twilight? What's wrong?" Spoke the musician.

"Twi'? Did you get a headache from dehurdation?" Twilight gave Apple Bloom an incredulous look, but smirked. 

"No I'm... I'm fine you two. Or I will be, it's just... I experienced some magic backlash before I ran into you." Octavia gasped and the filly passed a confused eye brow raise between them both. "Also the word is dehydration Apple Bloom..."

"Twilight you shouldn't be using magic then surely you know that. Why, I had an acquaintance that would stay out until all hours of the night partying, well not partying it was her job but I digress. She'd become unable to even use her equipment and tried to force herself to keep going daily. The poor mare ended up in the hospital twice that way." She paused and bent her neck to stare up at the unicorn's horn, as though she expected it to just fall off Twilight thought. "That's as I'm sure you know, no where near as dangerous as backlash."

Twilight smirked again before hopping up into the chair she'd confirmed to lack those confounded wheels. "I know Octavia and thanks for the concern. I don't think the damage is permanent though I'm... very powerful for a unicorn. Avoiding casting any magic is hard is all, it's like breathing for me. Holding my breath certainly isn't my forte either." Octavia mumbled her assent to the magician's confidence hesitantly. Twilight chuckled in response. It became a frown as she tried the hoof pad, the screen produced an irritated tsk from her almost immediately.

"This one's like most of the others from the lab..." Octavia stood up on her hind legs to get a better look at what she meant. Sparkle noticed and pointed at the screen for her to see. "Security password requested. Meaning it won't let me do anything unless I give it the right one." 

"Well how hard could that be Twilight? Let's give it a guess!" The filly was pushing another chair over with her head after failing to hop high enough to see what the adults were doing.

"That... would be harder then you think Apple Bloom, have a look." Twilight gestured the button board to the now screen level filly who leaned on the desk with her fore legs. She took in the ghastly sight that was the human button board and she crooned a wondering sound of awe.

"Oooo..." Octavia merely grimaced at he sight of it. "What do all the weird symbols mean Twi'?"

Both mares looked up and turned together to face Apple Bloom, who wilted a bit under the stare. "...What? Was it somethin' I said?"

Twilight pointed at the board with a hoof. "You can't read these characters Apple Bloom?" The filly straightened a bit and shook her head no. "Octavia, you can make them out though?" The older mare nodded a yes.

"It looks like standard Equestrian to me. Although I don't recognize all of the buttons... At least a third of these are alien. I... Well I didn't know what to think really. They speak our language so I assumed..." The mare's ideas floundered as she realized the incredulity of the thought. "But they aren't from Equestria, the humans couldn't possibly share our language could they?"

Twilight shook her head no. "Even civilizations that grew up nearby Equestria or in other lands had vastly different cultures and in some cases scripture and language... I thought that this similarity was strange before but, I assumed it was some sort of magical field in effect like the embassy halls at Canterlot. I have never felt anything of the sort though." Octavia glanced back at the board. Several buttons looked very out of place amongst the Equestrian alphabet. Aside from those that merely bore the abbreviations of what she assumed were words such as 'control' whatever that was meant for, or the simple math functions. 

There were others such as the arrows that gave no clue to their purpose. Many more letters were missing though she realized suddenly, there were in fact three not on the board at all.

"Well it all looks like a bunch of gibberish to me. I mean they look like letters, just... not. I dunno, so our goal is tuh find one that don't require a password?" Twilight nodded and hopped out of the seat to the floor. 

"Yes, check the other five panels in here-" The chair gave a groan from getting to relax after supporting her weight. Twilight blushed a little. "Ahem, then we'll explore this next hallway. Look for the words 'search' and 'engine' Octavia." Octavia grinned at the mare's plight but nodded. After that she frowned at the chair, realizing that she likely shared the same weight problem now. 

'At least it's in function and not form...' They spent the next few minutes confirming that none of the screens here would help them, two would not even light up for the trio. They reconvened and set out. 

"Twi' I've been meaning to ask, what sorta magic are these machine things usin'?" The three walked down the hall, Twilight occasionally pausing at doors to peak in or open them in the case of those that weren't glass.

Twilight pushed open one of the few doors that did not seem to open on it's own. It was just a closet. 

"Well, remember how I said they moved without using magic? I'd read that they use electricity, or rather, lightning itself to power their technology. They don't use magic at all for lighting, kitchen appliances... Nothing." Octavia's eye brows shot up at hearing that, and Apple Bloom gaped.

"Wow, really? So like, they got a bunch of pegasus together and used uhm to make their big walking...things go?" Twilight shuddered and looked back at the filly with a pained glance, such a though hadn't even occurred to her.

"I certainly hope not Apple Bloom," Another thick metal door, it opened normally. This room seemed full of lab materials and clear walled shelving. In the corner though was another screen bathing the light in a cool blue. "that's... a disturbing thought I hadn't even considered." She didn't want to say more thinking ahead about the train of thought. It was very rare for Twilight Sparkle to want to withhold information. 'Let's hope that that isn't why they abducted us...' She glanced back at Octavia, and then at her own metal encased foreleg. She licked her lips her mind still riding the disturbing thought train. Twilight reached up to the hoof pad of their latest find an opened the door. 'Although I seriously doubt that's the only reason if so.' She thought solemnly.







Clare pressed the keypad on her comm case and opened another door in the forever stretching hallway. Her rifle immediately came up as she walked in and swept the room. Her subordinate followed her slowly, his stance was far more relaxed than her own. She sighed and lowered her weapon and motioned him back out the door.

"You can talk you know, you don't have to-" She grabbed the man and slammed him back against the door. It's reinforced plate glass cracked from the forceful pressure.

"Yes I do. Not another word. Stay silent from here on out. Or do you want to get killed...?" She released him and grabbed her case. Then continued her exploration of the hall, leaving him to tenderly massage the spot where her crushing grip had held him. Hesitantly the programmer quickened his step and caught up with her. The man realized with a start she hadn't specified what would kill him if he didn't keep quiet.




	




Fluttershy carried Steel, Oliver helped hold him steady over her. The hesitant mechgineer looked over his handy work as they made the short trip back to his cargo frame. 'That sealant gel is doing better than I thought it would... I think his fur is helping it to remain adhered to the wounds.' He shrugged and looked back at Fluttershy. She wouldn't say anything else to him, he had tried asking her why she cared so much. 

'I mean, I love Steel, he's been in the family for what... eight hundred years. He's practically my god father, dumb animal or not...'

"Ah." His daughter was hugging her knees besides the lifter.

"Josephine, JOSEPHINE! I told you to wait in that container until you heard my voice or another person, do you understand me? huh!?" An eep elicited from Fluttershy at his sudden dash away from her. He ran up and held his daughter close. "You listen to what I say from now on, everything." Holding her out at arms length he drilled the words into her with his voice.

'He's not being very understanding.' Fluttershy could tell from the little filly's tear stricken expression she'd been scared, terrified even. She liked this human male less and less every time he spoke.

"Lay him down here Fluttershy." She realized with a start he was facing her and pointing at the ground just in front of his machine. The girl looked worriedly at Steel and like she wanted to say something. Though her mouth moved she didn't say anything. He however climbed up a small step and stood in the ghastly thing. 

It stiffly stood up to it's scary full height again. 

Fluttershy laid Steel down as she was told, her eyes locked on the machine. Despite thinking that he had her interests in mind... sort've, she felt like prey before a predator. 'He rescued me though, or was he rescuing Steel?' She realized she didn't even understand the human a little, he wasn't like a pony at all.

Shakily the thing bent slightly at the waist and curled it's human like digits into a sort of cup. He picked up steel.

"Joe I want you to listen carefully to daddy alright, everything's going to be fine... Muttershy we need to make it to an access lift, get out of here and some where safe." He paused and waited for her to nod. He looked at Fluttershy next. "Please take care of my daughter while your with us. Come on."

"My name is Fluttershy..." The yellow pegasus huffed. She slouched watching the metal encased human go. After a moment she looked at the other smaller human. Her eyes met her own and had been looking at her already.

The pony and human girl broke eye contact immediately. Slowly from under a lock of hair they peered at one another sideways.  The stomping machine was already moving along though. They gasped together and began following after him quickly. 









Octavia and Apple Bloom sat bored behind Twilight. It had become painfully apparent after the screen they'd found turned out to be one that would suit the unicorn mare's needs that they were in for a wait. Apple Bloom had been rolling a stray beaker to amuse herself, or keep her idle hooves busy at the very least. But after it had rolled out of reach under a large machine she'd lost even that. She sat very bored behind Twilight.

Chink. chink. click.

"Tavi?" The dark stone grey mare gazed up from the floor at her name being called to look at the caller. She moved further behind the tall shelf case she'd been sitting alongside in response as well. Her voice quavering a little she answered the filly. 

"I-it's funny Apple Bloom. I've never been called Tavi by anyone before except one old friend. I never mentioned the name to you but you managed to come up with it as well." She laughed nervously.

The filly looked at her confused and scratched her head with one hoof. "You okay? I mean uhm." She paused unable to come up with what the right question might be.

"Er, yes Apple Bloom, I'm fine" Octavia lowered her head on instinct from an unbidden twinge of nervousness.

Apple Bloom paced around the corner despite the other pony's attempt at hiding. The filly's eyes fell on the components behind her older friend's back. The bladed limbs waggled with Octavia's shaky attempts at hiding them. "Yah sure yer okay?"

Octavia sighed, her attempt at discretion now a failure. "You needn't worry little one. It's silly I know to feel embarrassed about... these things. Maybe it is anyway. I am just practicing, being stuck with them I may as well. I am a practical pony after all." She gave the filly a weak smile after attempting to sound confident. Twilight's attention had been gained from their conversation and she glanced at her friends between switching 'pages'.

"I'm not that little Tavi." The younger pony walked closer to Octavia. Possibly to get a better look. 

Octavia scooted back and held a hoof up to her chest. "Aah, you d- shouldn't come too close Apple Bloom." 

The arms pulled further away from her back and crossed in front of her with sudden bang of metal. Both of them tried to back away in shocked silence and a scurry of hooves. They of course followed Octavia until she backed up into the far wall. "Tavi!"

A shuddering breath escaped her after a moment. "I-I'm alright. I think, that they're just as skittish as I am." She tried to laugh, but it came out a squeak instead. Octavia cleared her throat and closed her eyes. 

Slowly they untangled themselves from in front of her and crept back to re conceal their metal blades within her back.

Apple Bloom had started to get Twilight but stopped short and watched amazed. "Wow Octavia, That's impressive." She grinned and tried to seem reassuring to the other earth pony.

"Hardly my dear, I'll take you to a properly conducted Canterlot Orchestral concert when we're free of here. That I promise will be impressive." Octavia managed a smile and stood up shakily. 'Boasting about my musical talent seems to help a great deal with my nerves.' 





Twilight had been about to hop down and see what those two were being so boisterous about. But... Something had caught her eye instead. The mare had already found a few things that she thought may help, a couple from wild guesses made on her part while searching. A few other finds were simply from the different 'home page' that the panel had started on and had been there to begin with. This machine was different in some ways from the last. Rather than working like... An encyclopedia she thought, it was almost like an entire library or workshop. It offered multiple functions besides just searching. It had different areas... Elsewhere inside the machine.

'That or this one's just easier to use. I couldn't make that last one do anything but search words." Still, Twilight had to resign herself to only what she had time for, she couldn't properly explore her new playground as she wished to. 'So, what have I managed to find. There's this news page that seems to bulletin stuff in human society. Gladiator Fighter Friday? Not sure what that is. Why does the word gladiator ring a bell... A state of emergency declared? That's not good, no idea about what that is either it doesn't say.' Reading on it stated that several of the 'Blocks' had been temporarily shut down with no cause given. She reread one part, one spot was described as a 'party central. 

'Maybe similar to Las Pegasus? Likely a humans idea of partying is killing and torturing and...' It probably wasn't that at all she hoped. Twilight had seen a few pictures of human celebrations that had looked normal enough. She shuddered from the idea though.

'A party central being closed would have Pinkie in a fit too if we were here on good terms, if we could ever be here on good terms anyway.' Still, Twilight couldn't help but smile at the thought of Pinkie's parties. The brief lapse in knowing where she actually was caused by the happy memory made returning to the here and now all the harder for Twilight. She grudgingly set the simpler times aside and continued to read. 

Twilight's other thought had been to beseech or attempt to reach the human's ruler. For that a basic understanding of their system of government would at least be in order. In truth she had two options as she saw it for the long term... At least two that included her. The first being to use her magic, maybe she could research a spell from scratch. With enough time, effort... Hopefully some help from any other unicorns that could be here with her. She might be able to.

The other was the humans, they could traverse the stars. Maybe she could find a way to convince them to take her and her friends home. She didn't really know how that would be possible. But it was worth looking into. Researching such a spell as the one she had thought up could take years. Would take years, and even with her ability... Probably be impossible.

Thunk

She had dropped her head onto the button board once. Quickly Twilight looked up to see if Octavia and Apple Bloom had noticed. 'Wait where are they?'





"Apple Bloom? What are you looking at?" The filly had walked up beside her. She stared at an open glass case sitting against the wall that Octavia had backed into during her moment of unease. Inside and what held the girl's attention was a large glowing black box and several of what Octavia recognized immediately as speakers.

"Not sure, it looks pretty though." She was staring at a series of glowing blue buttons that encompassed it's front. Before Octavia realized it Apple Bloom had begun raising a hoof up to them.

"Ah Apple Blo-" A button was pressed. "om..." Octavia grabbed what remained of the filly's tail in her teeth and dragged her back. 

"Hey! Tavi What in the hay are you doing?" The filly craned her neck about and gave the older mare glaring at her a likewise seething look.

Ptoo!

"Apple Bloom, we're not to touch anything that might be even remotely dangerous. Especially if we don't know what it is. Honestl-" A sound had begun leaking from the speakers, slowly at first and gently. It rose now though in strength and grandeur. The two ponies turned and watched the strange machine. It made no motion on it's own, except for some strange dancing colored bars that seemed in step almost with the haunting melody that now ebbed across their being.

"Shucks, it sounds pretty too." Octavia nodded her jaw slack.

"Pretty doesn't even begin to describe it... What is this beautiful ethereal majestically amazing and furthermore ingenious sound? Why the princesses themselves would weep to hear such beautiful music." A hoof tapped Octavia on the shoulder.

"Uh, Octavia?" 

'Why that's Twilight's voice, maybe she's finished.' The grey mare spared a glance behind her. "Mmm, hmyes?" Octavia was enraptured by the sea pony's call of the box...

"I'm not really an expert in the fields of social trends and inter-relational studies. Least of all those concerning inanimate objects... But I feel like that box might well be having it's personal space violated right this moment." She gave her a goofy grin and Octavia heard Apple Bloom laughing uncontrollably behind her.

"Oh? Oh." She looked down at her fore legs. Then she noticed her back... things as well. They were wrapped up a bit. Namely around the speaker set up and the box, her own face was pressed against one as well in fact to better hear the music. "It's quite lovely isn't it." She returned the lavender mares grin and felt her cheeks heat up with embarrassment. Her grin was shame filled true but she returned it nonetheless what with her dignity already being dashed against a valley floor.

Twilight Sparkle chuckled. "Haha, yeah a bit too lovely if you ask me..." A wary thought occurred to her. 

"Maybe too loud as well." The younger mare frowned. "I think you should turn it off Octavia. There's no telling if the humans or any of their dangerous machines can hear it through the door or something." Apple Bloom hopped over and pressed the large button now wedged half under Octavia's cheek. Pushed once again by the filly's fore hoof, the gentle sound's echo faded from the room.

"It had almost sounded like singing..." Octavia lamented to the air. 'Surely nothing could have a voice that beautiful...'







The pair continued to traverse the halls tactically through the yellow glow of the dark halls. Covertly they stopped to check rooms in search of their quarry. Finally after having quickly searched four and a half of the six hallways as well as most of their rooms the tall woman who led their party stopped their movement.

Her fist fell and was lowered back down to cradle her weapon. She motioned her partner back the way they had come with a jerk of her head. She began back towards the entrance of the hall where they could then make their way to the maintenance side tunnel. Circling around him the woman again took point for their return journey. Inside the confines of his helmet the woman's associate grunted his disappointment and began to follow suit.

...

He stopped walking. The subordinate had thought he'd heard something. Not loud or harsh like footsteps, but something just out of hearing distance that had risen and faded quickly. He turned at the sound of his partner fast approaching his side her booted footfalls echoing on the metal flooring. He flinched back as Clare raised her fist again but this time ready to land it on his face. Throwing one hand up he tried to charade why he'd stopped.

"Just speak, what is it." The man stopped his mild flailing and straightened.

"I heard something chief, I'm not sure what but it was further down the hall. Maybe just a few doors?" The woman looked down the hall to where he pointed.

"No, we've spent to much time here I'm calling it." His leader started to turn away from him. The man opened his mouth to protest but cut himself short, knowing that wouldn't end well for him at this point.

Hhhsssss

Together the two brought their rifles to bare. 

"What was that!?" He scanned the HUD of his helmet for any useful information but nothing revealed itself to him.

Sshhh

Clare tapped his shoulder. "That. Was our que to leave."

A door beside them smashed into pieces, chunks of metal and glass pelted them. The two soldiers jumped from the path of the debris, and the thing responsible.

"GAau!" Yellow light brightened in intensity through out the hallway in flashes. Hard hitting gun fire rang out as the human's weapons were unloaded in rapid succession at their attacker.

"HOLY- Wow, what? WHAT? HELL YEAH, dang. I'M CONFUSED. Dang" He was now in a kneeling position, his weapon still trained on the smoking husk. Clare also still had her weapon aimed at the things smoldering body. They stared at it in disbelief. "WHAT IS THAT!?"

"srtch. SCREEEE-" Several more shots rang out into the hall from the TOR industries rifle. The carcass sizzled from the heat of the assault and slumped down to the floor.

"Crapping cake rolls, this is what they said to look out for? A little more warning would've been great guys, I mea-!" The man was cut off mid word by his superior. 

"Shut up dammit," His leader's eyes were locked on her comm case, which lay shattered and crushed under one of the creatures elongated clawed leg. 'That had been too close.' It's head and body were a scorched mess of blast wounds, one of it's legs twitched slightly. "I didn't think we'd find anything seriously dangerous like this down here, this doesn't even look like something that's under regulation to exist here." She kicked the twitching leg with one angry boot. 

"Hey whoa, never touch the body of an alien chief. That's how you get kill in horror... movies... I'll shut up now." 

Clare shouldered her weapon. "Let's go I don't want to find out if there's anything else running around down here ready to surprise us. Droids and security are one thing, aliens that are on the loose is another."

She was already moving down the hall at a quick pace.

"Not to mention giant mysterious bug aliens, those are the worst ki-." In the distance they heard another noise. "Crap."

screeee

"Is that what I think it-?"

"SHUT UP ALREADY AND RUN!" Clare had burst into a full sprint, with no hesitation the man followed suit and trailed after her. Their gear shook from the rapid movement and their armor impacted the ground with a metallic ring.

The programmer glanced behind him.

'That's a lot of bugs.' He 'hated' bugs. "CHIEF WE GOT A PROBLEM, HE HAD A LOT OF FRIENDS!"

She didn't answer him, even to try and keep him quiet. There was no point now if those things chasing them knew they were here. She heard weapons fire behind her, she looked back long enough to see the fool trying to run and gun. He was just wasting his cartridges shooting from the hip like that. He wasn't a soldier though, just a volunteer that she had been saddled with for this mission. 

"CHIEF THEY'RE GAINING ON US, Oh Hell. WHAT ARE THEY!" She wasn't about to continually repeat herself to the man.

They reached the lobby, faster than she'd hoped to which was good. Her subordinate ran past her and towards the other hallway which led to their escape route. He was calling back to her to hurry. Clare grimaced, the man's grousing under duress was annoying. She dropped two grenades by the mouth of the hallway's exit, maybe it would block the entrance up, hopefully it would slow these big bug looking... bugs down.







Twilight and Octavia nearly jumped into each others arms. A thunderous boom followed by the slow crash of collapsing architecture rumbled and distorted the air around them. Bottles fell and several glass items shattered on the ground causing them all to cry out. The room settled after a moment. The three Equestrians cast scared looks at one another, Twilight spoke first.

"Okay time to go." Apple Bloom and Octavia had run to the door as soon as she'd spoken. The two wanted nothing more than to leave and leave quickly. The filly danced on her hooves impatiently. 

Twilight followed behind them, pausing only to look mournfully at the information device for a moment.

"Come on Twi'! Octavia please open the door nowwww" The younger pony cried out distraught. 

The door opened with it's normal hiss. The filly began to run for the opening but stopped cold.

ssssrtch

She stared at the huge shadow standing in the yellow light of the hallway beyond. It started to move and Apple Bloom saw teeth. All at once Octavia cried out, the filly screamed and Twilight confused from what was happening frantically asked what was wrong.

"EEECLOSECLOSE CLOSE IT!" The little pony flew backwards over the floor to end up in Twilight's embrace. The door's hiss was drowned out by the cries from all three of the ponies. The heavy human door managed to make it part way through it's journey before a scythe ended leg shot into it's path, stopping it. 

The monster's gaping mouth opened wide for Apple Bloom to see straight down. A howling scream came from the creatures to match the trio's own. 

SHNK

Bang BANGBANGBANG

Twilight blinked, the door had managed to close in a rush. Heavy impacts rained upon it from outside.

She looked down at the monsters leg which now lay unmoving and gushing liquid on the floor. Octavia stood panting and breathing quickly over it. The musician looked up at Twilight and Apple Bloom, her eyes were terror stricken and wide. 

"Ah-ah-aaa-are, you," She gulped air and tried again. "Are you ok?" Behind her back were the four wicked blades, bent at the joints to hover over her head in a threatening formation. Octavia sniffed back tears.

BANGBANG

The futuristic door caved inward sharply and two more legs shot through to grip the edges and frame.

"OCTAVIA GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR!" Twilight yelled at her friend, then focused on her horn and the mental image of the lift, she had to teleport them there. She hoped it was still safe... Apple Bloom clutched onto her foreleg. Pain shot up the unicorn's horn from the spell she was now attempting to cast but she maintained her focu-.

Light flashed from out in the hallway. For a moment Twilight thought her spell had gone awry. She realized that the noise had also stopped. Octavia was clutched now to her other fore leg she realized as well. Twilight let her spell fade hesitantly, 'What just happened? For that matter what in the name of Celestia's light was that.'

The filly shook like a flimsy tree in the wind. "Twi'? I'm scared. Wha-wha-what was-" Octavia cut Apple Bloom off with another entirely random and unsolicited high pitched scream.

"Octavia calm down!" Twilight stuck her with a stern glare and met the earth pony mare's eyes. Satisfied she wouldn't break into hysterics again she looked at Apple Bloom. "I don't know Apple Bloom but we're not waiting to find out." She focused on her magic again, but this time her telekinesis, grasping the door tightly with her horn's grip she focused on getting it open for an escape.

"Hello!?" She gave the door a wrench and it twisted sharply, but stopped right after hearing the question. 

'Was that somepony's voice?' She dared to answer it on instinct.

"Uhm, hello...?" Twilight would have face hoofed had they not both been held tightly to the ground by her companions.

"Holy hot sauce, Clare there's someone in here?" Someone he had said. Twilight knew that meant they were humans. Her magic faded from the door's frame. She could see a shape now looking into the room through a hole. "Hey stand back we'll get you guys out of there in a jiff- What?" Twilight thought she heard someone else outside, but couldn't make out what was being said. "Of course they're peopl-? Uhm. Oh."

There was silence for a moment. "Twilight, we should go. Now." She met Octavia's eyes again, they were still wide with panic, though far more sedated than before. They were no less scared however. 

"I- I agree, but that's the only door..." She regretted letting her spell fade now. Grunting she focused a third time on her magic to get them away. "I'm not sure if I can..." Twilight felt her aura building.

"Please try Twilight." Apple Bloom's doe eyes pleaded with her.

The thick metal door was being hit ferociously again. A voice cried out over the repeated strikes. "Look just stay calm alright we're here to help you a-!" 

The blockade finally gave in to the abuse and crashed into the room in front of the ponies. Twilight gasped as her magic left her in a painful rush through her horn. She'd been so close. 'I shouldn't have tried to go so far, I should've...'

In the doorway stood an imposing figure bathed in the yellow light. It stepped into the room menacingly, it's weapon was lowered towards them. Twilight knew that was all the bizarre alien artifact it held could possibly be. Octavia screamed again and released Twilight's hoof.



	



As they'd traversed farther towards... Fluttershy didn't even know what. Sanctuary she guessed. They had come across, bodies. A lot of them. Mangled and bloody and chewed. There wasn't much left of any but the stains on the strange metal floors. But she still stopped hoping to find somepony alive. Somepony left to rescue. She'd been crying on and off for ten minutes. Beside her though the girl, she didn't shed a one. How, or why? Did Humans not feel sadness about death...

Fluttershy spoke to her, she had to speak to somepony or she would cry again. "So, you didn't introduce yourself properly before little one." Fluttershy managed a sweet smile for the human filly. She barely came to stand above her head. 'How old would that make her?' She wondered. "It's okay, you don't have to be scared of me... I bet I look really scary right now." She frowned down at her plated chest briefly.

"Please, you look scary? If you looked any cuter Horse, what ever is chasing us would die from heart attacks I'm sure." 

The man had called back over his machine's shoulder. The great thing stomped awkwardly down the hall with the two of them still following behind closely. It made Fluttershy uneasy just being near it... Joe seemed to be fine though now that they were out of danger. She even returned Fluttershy's weak smiles with ginormous grins.

"Oh, I would never attack their heart Mr. Oliver! That wou-" She cut off after he burst out laughing. 'What was so funny?' Her face became angry. "And my name. is. Fluttershy." 

"That's another thing what kind of a name is that? It doesn't sound like a name at all, it sounds like a couple of descriptive traits. Is it your culture to name your children after things they're good at?"

The pony was taken aback by the multi faceted verbal attack. "M-my culture? Traits? Oh... I think you'd have to talk to Twilight about our culture Mr. Oliver, I'm not-" He burst out laughing. again. "What is so funny!?" She dove under her mane and peeked at the girl. Fluttershy hadn't meant to raise her voice or scare anyone.

The human calmed down. "Ahee heh, I'm sorry. I'm being rude aren't I? Your name's, they just kill me hah. I apologize! I'm trying to deal with the crippling stress that's coming with fleeing for our very lives right now." The man huffed from where he led their party.

"...It's ok, I understand. I'm scared to." The human peeked over his shoulder at her, but said nothing. The little human however poked Fluttershy and shook her head while grinning and pointing at herself. "Oh, but you're not scared?" She shook her head up and down rapidly. "I should have thought so, you're so very brave for getting through all this, it's a pleasure to meet you by the way Joe... Josephine? Josephine." 

Fluttershy finished confidently smiling. The girl looked at the back of her father uncertainly, he must have noticed the silence. Looking back he saw her look and understood exactly what she wanted.

"She can't speak Fluttershy." 

"Wha-what?" She couldn't talk?

"I said she can't speak. She was born with several... defects, you know health problems. Among them she's mute. It's somewhat common here actually, they can be fixed easily but... It costs money." Fluttershy looked from the man back to the girl. She was looking at the ground hiding under her mane. "I've never really had much of that, always been poor and living out of debt's reach by a thread. My family just never could climb out of our hole like so many others. You and the other one were a god send. Not that I'm a religious type."

"Oh dear. I wish I cou-... Other one?" He peered over his shoulder again hesitantly. 

"...Yah, you remember the-" She cut him off from finishing.

"OH MY GOSH. How did I forge- We have to go back." No sooner had she made her demand than he had spoke simply.

"No."

"Bu-"

"I said no, we escaped. Are escaping. We can't go back not with the chance of more of those things catching us. I got my loader from the garage after you and Steel valiantly distracted that bug, which almost killed Steel. He might still not live. You wanna risk me next? Or my daughter? Even yourself?" Fluttershy began turning around to go back. She wondered who was stuck in the armor, and she was ashamed she'd forgotten even distracted by everything that had happe-...

"Wait! WAIT for ONCE please and listen." He had stopped to face her. The pegasus hesitated and saw fear in Joe's eyes again. "Your friend, will be safe. Okay? Perfectly safe, she's protected and in stasis. She'll be there just fine when this gets cleared up I promise you. Let the police and the government fix whatever is happening first." Fluttershy looked sadly back the way they had come, to her friend. To another pony trapped and alone... Could she trust this creature that had enslaved her? 'Can I trust him to keep his word at all?' She looked back up at him with big tired eyes.

"oh-okay... I believe you, Oliver." Fluttershy would never forgive herself for this, she'd make it up to the pony somehow. She would, if it took the rest of her life she would. She took one last look back and turned around to continue walking.

Oliver was staring wide eyed back down the hallway, as was Joe. The winged pony realized what she'd see. Wheeling about she saw them. Many of them.

Creatures all looking in their direction.









"No come back! Wait! CLARE! They ran!" The woman shoved him out of the way as she made her way into the room behind him.

"Well then CATCH THEM!" He watched her sight lock onto the pair running to the back of the room and gave chase. The smaller one was... floating. And surrounded by a pinkish scintillating blob of sparkly only the maker knows what.

He shook his head bobbing on his feet and growled in frustration. He ran the way the other horse alien had gone as quick as he could. Skidding he looked down the aisle and found his quarry. 'Well that was quick.' The man started to run up to her but stopped. The little thing was trying to back into a wall and looking everywhere at once so frantically it hadn't seen him yet. 'I gotta calm it down.' 

Slowly he crept forward, he even put his rifle down stupid as that was... He still had his side arm though. Time was a better friend than his gun right now as he saw it. 'Had taken a storm of rounds to drop that thing back there anyway...' The pony noticed him and froze. It was breathing so quick he could see the chest rise and fall like a wind sock. He slowed his movement and spread his arms wide to try and not look threatening.

"Easy, hey I'm not going to hurt you, I'm a friend, okay? My name is Mo-" The man froze mid sentence, then slowly fell forward.

A rush of expletives fell out of his mouth next.





Octavia took her opportunity immediately and chased after Twilight and Apple Bloom.  Twilight had bucked the thing in it's waist, it had done the trick despite it's fearsome appearance. 

"HURRY TAVI! It's right behind you!" Cried out a floating Apple Bloom. The musician pony turned refugee didn't stop to look.





"MOOK!" What the friggin frell what are you doing get up let's go!" The man was shuddering in a heap on the floor. "Hey dammit listen to me, you alright?" She laid a hand on his shoulder quickly and laughed when her HUD displayed what had happened to his armor.

"B-B-Balls. Clare, jus' go. I need a minute here." Still laughing the normally stone hard soldier took off after the aliens she'd been sent to meet. This wasn't going nearly as easy as she had thought it would. The challenge was welcome though, she was having fun now. 'Frell, they went back that way....'





The three tore down the hallway towards their goal, the big lift that had brought them here to false hope and no results. Behind them was the metal echoing from the body of the human that was giving them chase. Twilight had let Apple Bloom down onto her own back where she clung tightly to her neck and Octavia's mane whipped wildly behind her as they ran. The human was yelling at them, but none of them dared to stop. 

"Come back!" and "Don't go that way! It's dangerous!" Twilight could just make out what was being said behind them over her own breathing and her companions' hoof falls.

They galloped into the lobby and continued straight for the big door. It was closed, of course. "AAAAUUUGH" Twilight tossed the levitated Apple Bloom to the floor where she skidded to a stop after sliding several strides. Her eyes widened even further if that was possible from the maneuver. The purple unicorn continued to slam into the behemoth metal door which stretched up to the ceiling and pounded for all she was worth.

"OPEN UP! COME ONNnnnnn!" She pleaded with the thing. Octavia stood behind her with the filly between them both.

"Twilight it's getting closer... Also there's-" The little machine eye popped out and stared at her.

'Oh no how had this worked last time. Oh please work please.' She stared at it and it merely stared back. 'GAH! Should I just use my magic?'

"Please open up! Please!" The eye warbled at Twilight in response. Behind her Apple Bloom was pleading the librarian's name.





Clare slowed down to a steady walk as she approached the three, she slung her weapon slowly. That was the closest she'd go towards looking friendly. Behind her she could hear the distant scrabbling of something behind the rubble she'd created. Her acquaintances hadn't made their way through it yet then. She'd been worried about that. 'Just remember, they're scared. Not to mention practically children.'

"Uhm, hi." Clare sucked at dealing with children. Hated them too really... 'What are they doing? Are they trying to access the primary Block lift?' 

Blades sprung into view upon the charcoal colored horse's back. "Stay back! I'm- I'm warning you." It declared to her shakily. Clare stopped, but also lifted a hand up to her helmet, and released the visor's clamps. She looked at the ponies with her own eyes. The purple and grey armored one with the horn had initiated the access scanner on the door now. 

"I'm here on behalf of your others. I can take you to them, I mean you know harm and I understand why you don't trust me." They were all watching her now. The horned one's eyes widened in surprised and what sounded strangely like white noise blared out of her mouth. Covering it quickly it stopped. A loud boom echoed from the wall as the door unlocked. 'An Audio key code!? How-'

"scrtch-screee!"

Krsh-CRASH

"SCREEEE!"

Clare swung around in surprise at the screaming howls. The door started opening behind her as well! "No wait!" 

The barricade she'd made had crumbled, the mystery monsters were crawling into the chamber. She had no choice but to forestall talking and open fire. Her modified Lunar Guard MK7 rifle burned and incinerated carapace wherever it struck melting deep into the hellish things. The beam of her laser weapon was invisible to the naked eye, but it's devastating effects were not. Bug like atrocities glowed bright orange and caught fire briefly as she hurled death across the wide room. Aiming for just above their mouths seemed to work, a dozen continuous beams dropped two and clogged their breach before they made it out of the space they had made. 

BOOM

More rubble tumbled off the ceiling and spider web thin cracks ran further up the domed interior. Clare hadn't seen her subordinate throw his own explosives to halt their charge without her visor and HUD.

"Ponies?!" That sounded idiotic, but that's what Clare had been told to call them. They were standing in the elevator, the door luckily remained open.





"Twi'..." Twilight didn't know what was wrong! Beside her Octavia held the filly tight against her with her legs. The unicorn had pressed every button on the panel, but it didn't work! Nothing worked! Even the weird spinning yellow light wasn't on!

"It'll be okay Apple Bloom... I'll protect you." Octavia was shaking. Her legs felt no different or weak. She thought they would have.  But still they trembled under her firm control.

Twilight turned to face them, stark panic clear on her face. "I just don't know what's-!"

"Ponies!?" The human was facing them again and entering the elevator. 'This is it, we're doomed.' Twilight held a hoof up to her face in a vain attempt to protect it. She'd watched the human somehow obliterate those monsters with that device, she'd couldn't-

"Stop acting like fools. Or are you all not actually thinking creatures as I've been informed?" She paused but then continued before Twilight could say anything. "I said I'm not here to smegging hurt you and I meant it. We need to escape or we're all dead. Now."  Octavia stared at the human blankly. Twilight and Apple Bloom's heads picked up and stared like wise at the human mare. 'Or woman, as it was.' Twilight thought.

"Ho-how can we trust yo-" The musician stuttered.

"You cannot... But it's me or take these monsters as an alternative. I promise I'm far friendlier from what I've seen. I'm not staying long so you better pick and quick." Behind her Mook was shouting something.

Apple Bloom spoke quietly to Twilight. "What the hay's she sayin'??"





He'd taken to a prone position. Mook was terrible at a distance with his TOR rifle in the best of times he knew. Slowly the concrete and metal re bar peeled open to a forest of spindly legs and claws reaching through once again. He began blasting semi auto death wildly into the hole. Every twenty shots or so a power cartridge ejected, and he would slam in another. After two, he ceased fire and yelled back to Clare.

"THEY'RE STILL COMING!" He wanted to look back, they wouldn't leave with out him would they? Nah, she wouldn't... 





"Twilight I don't like this, can't we get away by some other means?" Octavia looked around the cavernous vertical shaft, for a ladder, anything she didn't care!

"I-..." Twilight didn't know what to do.

"I have another way out, just trust me please." Clare tried to soften her face... A little... She didn't think it worked. She tried closing more distance but they backed further away in response.





"Let's trust her Twilight." The musician and librarian looked at the speaker, Apple Bloom. Both wore expressions beyond worry. They looked back at the human, her face was cold and stern. Her demeanor and tone were even colder. 

"But... Apple Bloom you don't even know-" Twilight was cut off.

"I trust her Twi', her eyes are... I trust them."

The unicorn looked back at the face the human wore. 'It's a... A bit like Luna's.' Twilight thought. She took a step forward, and then another. Until she was standing right before the human woman. Their eyes met and poured into one another, each sizing their opponent up without breaking contact. "We'll go with you..." She answered finally.

"Follow me." And that was it, their guide turned and jogged out of the lift. Her partner was still using his loud and brightly flashing weapon on the wall he faced. Twilight wore a defeated expression, was she delivering them into the hands of the enemy? Regrettably she motioned her companions forward after her.

Twilight gasped and screamed all at once. "LOOK OUT!"





Clare lowered her visor and stepped into the massive room, she opened her mouth to yell at Mook to get up, they were making a break for it.

Sheeeeknt

splrtch

Extreme pain became her world.




> Ominous Ongoings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


	


Josephine reached up to hold onto her father's pants leg. "Fluttershy take Joe and run as fast as you can." 

The monsters hadn't moved yet. "At the end of this hall is a public elevator, it'll take us out of this Block." 

"El-elevator? What's that?" The pegasus couldn't tear her gaze from the crowd that sized them up.

"What? Aurg just take Joe, get to the big door down that way, she'll know what to do." Something was set onto Fluttershy's back from behind her, it was the human filly. 

"ssssccrrEEEEEE" The outcry came from a dozen maws screaming down the long hall at the humans and pony.

"Just go STRAIGHT as fast as you can and RUN!" Together the human and pony turned, then galloped and jogged respectively at the best speed they each were capable of. The race for their lives begun. 

Fluttershy could feel Josephine's arms wrapped tightly around her neck and the filly's muzzle buried against her disorderly pink mane. After a moment of sprinting she wrapped her wings tightly around the filly to help her hang on. She was unaware of her surroundings except for the feel of her metal encased hooves striking the floor and the human that held onto her so desperately. Soon, Fluttershy could see an end to the hall, which must have been what the stallion leading them had meant when he'd said elemtraitor.

The stomping that Mr. Oliver's machine suit made became more distant quickly. 

With the father of her passenger falling farther behind quickly she slowed down and looked back worried. Joe was crying loudly into her ear.





Left foot then the right, left then right, then let the momentum carry you farther, you can make it.

Oliver glanced down again at Steel, bouncing in his lifter's metal grasp. The dog's inter control cell would do everything it could to keep him alive but under the circumstances it probably had it's work cut out for it. Fluttershy had taken off like a bolt, he could see how jauntily the legs he'd made for her shifted as she did. It had been a good job though, he'd focused on them the most while working. The wicked screams followed him alongside the actual creatures' frenzied rush down the hall. 

I'm not gonna make it like this. He looked down at Steel. I could use... The thought trailed off, Oliver didn't know why, but he put the unhatched idea out of consideration immediately. I'll get as much distance as I can. His loader's wide metal shoulders swayed from the half run he'd forced it into. After that I'll blow the loader up. Without the things fusion coolant it would breach in minutes he thought. But he didn't have minutes...

Oliver unhooked his right arm from the chicken legged mech's control gauntlet, and reached into the bag he had slung over him. 

"SCREEEE-" His chasers chorused ear piercingly.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" He glared over his shoulder to answer back heatedly. 

The plasma cutter's handle came into his grasp. Oliver leaned forward to reach his goal. He was also trying not to get himself pinched on any of the machine's shifting pneumatics while doing so. Bending his arm back behind himself he activated the machinist's tool and sliced the exposed coolant line cleanly. Warning controls beeped at him. 

I am officially the craziest man alive. He tried to fit the cutter back into his bag but missed. The commercial grade mecha stomped over it producing a high pitched buzz and a pop.

"Frell." He looked forward, the horse alien... Fluttershy had stopped and was looking back.

"HEY DON'T STO-" The ceiling buckled and caved downwards in front of him. Thin metal plating collapsed and an insect the size of a fridge landed not a dozen meters from Oliver. Pissed off, if Oliver was anymore pissed off then he would explode. 

"I have had it, with these mother fuming BUGS!" He did not slow his loader down. "In my mother. frelling. HOME!" He pitched forward onto the beaked monster as it took notice of him. It reared up and screeched in futility as the ugly brown thing was pushed into the floor by the loader's blocky metal frame. Oliver had twisted the mecha on one reversed leg and thrown it backwards onto the hostile alien. His whole body shook as the heavy machine landed, a loud crunch reached his ears.

Steel lay on top of Oliver where he'd fallen out of the loader's grasp. The man hurriedly rolled over off the bug onto the cargo mech's arms and legs. Gingerly he held the dog in one arm and stood the suit up again, it shook heavily as he did so protesting the abuse in the only way it could... 

"Mr. Oliver!" His breath came heavily and sweat rolled down his brow as the pony's voice reached him. His suit was starting to heat him up past what his own inter control could cool him from. He looked back down the hall and picked up his jaunty mechanical sprint again. He found breath enough to shout back.

"KEEP! Huu, going! Don't stop!" 


	


Fluttershy's wings had to be wrapped even tighter around the little girl on her back. At seeing her father falter she'd tried to hop off, probably to run to him. "Hush now, everything will be okay." Fluttershy had been doing her best to keep the sobbing girl calm. She began running again to the door which was close now. They were only a few moments of striding away. 

The pony skidded in a stream of sparks as she stopped before the door. Fluttershy let the girl down off her back and watched her sadly before following her eyes down the hall. She had tearfully searched  for her father far behind them, then looked at the pink maned alien that had carried her shuddering. 

"No! You mustn't!" Fluttershy skidded around in front of her, Josephine had made as if to run towards her father again. "He's coming! But... You need to be brave for him Josil- Josh- er Joe." She took a deep breath and shook her maned head from side to side. Human names were odd, being name after Olives made sense but what did Joe mean? It made her think of donuts strangely. "He can't... Do what he needs to or run if you're there in danger too." Fluttershy looked back at the metal shape slowly getting bigger as it lumbered towards them. The sounds of it's body crashing against the floor and those behind it all clambering down the hall towards them reached her ears as a wave of chaos. 

Joe held one of her digits in her mouth and chewed nervously. "Oh my, doesn't that hurt?" Fluttershy looked up from the girl's gesture frowning. "Joe, your daddy said that you can open this..." She looked back at the wall, in fact it did indeed look like nothing more than a wall to her now that she scrutinized it without distraction. "Uhm, this elementer..." Josephine gave her a funny look then turned to the big shiny metal wall.

Fluttershy followed her curious, the little filly pulled an object out of a pocket on her strange clothing's pants. She thought briefly about how badly those must chafe... The flat piece of plastic found itself a home in a slot below some glowing buttons next to the wall.

HISSS

Fluttershy gasped and dived behind the girl. 

The pink barricade in front of Fluttershy's eyes was parted slowly by a tan and pinkish hand and a smile.

"S-sorry... It startled me a little Joe..." The shiny grey wall had opened up to a sizable room filled with chairs, alien objects and other platforms. The pony glanced over from the filly's curious look into the big room and back at her. Joe, the little girl was once again staring down the hall towards her father... 

"Wait here little one." Fluttershy stretched out her wings.

Joe looked back only for a rush of air to blow past her. The wind whipped human threw up her arms to cover her face and hurriedly pulled her own long brown hair back out of her eyes. Fluttershy had taken flight and exploded down the hall.







Oliver leaned out of his mech as much as he could, it was scorching hot behind him. "Come on you piece of mother humping garbage. Just a bit further!" A pastel blur was coming towards him. 'Dammit.' The cries of other monsters were all too close to him now he realized. He'd peeked getting back on his feet. The monsters seemed to be stopping to fight one another as often as they were sprinting to catch him. He counted it as good karma for saving his pet dog. 'Is that callous of me to think so?'

"Mr. Oliver, the elotraitor! Uhm, eleav- the door's open!" The flittering creature came to a halt in front of him and flew backwards gracefully. "You need to hurry they're right behind you!"

"I KNOW! I know trust me I'm aware!" He cursed under his breath, he still wouldn't make it though. 

"Flittershy can you take Steel!? I've got a plan bu-" He was interrupted by the yellow pony.

"MR. OLIVER!" She'd flown closer to the ground where he couldn't see her past Steel.

"What?! What is it!?" The elevator was getting closer. '30 meters maybe?' He was so close

"You're stomach!" She flew back up into his sight with a desperate look painting her big eyes. "It's bleeding! Worse it's... You're torn open." The moon blasted pony was crying over him mid flight. He looked down where her eyes led, he hadn't noticed it at all with all the adrenaline that was pumping through him. 

On the left side of his lower chest was a shredded jump suit and missing chunk of himself.

"It's nothing, forget me alright I'm fine! Just take Steel!" They were fast approaching the elevator, he couldn't try doing this running anymore. There was no time to explain either. He skidded the machine to a stop and threw Steel at the avian horse. "Catch him!"

"Eep!" He turned too quick to see how well that went. He sighed, they were way too close... He wasn't sure how he felt about that, he'd wanted to just run on foot and let the loader deal with them. But in the split second he had before they caught up to him he knew that his harness wouldn't even be undone before they got him. 'This mech was way to rigid to ever stand a chance of getting away.' He had saved his dog though and he could still get away.

Oliver found himself wishing he had gotten one of his mecha prototypes working and here with him. 'Then this would be a fair fight.' The man made do though. 

A massive bug shaped form bore down on him and his suits pneumatics shot the heavy arms out to hold it at bay. He wanted to scream at the thing but his voice gave out, the creature flailed around the metal arms to try and stab at him. Oliver continuously backed the mecha up further down the hall while trying to maintain his balance. Thick mechanical fingers dug into the bug's side and head and he pulled the suits gauntlets together. Green and grey goo gushed out and sheening carapace shattered. 

Pushing it away the bug fell back from his grip onto another hissing creature. The things stopped suddenly, then they began attacking their fallen comrade. 'Oh thank you merciful Microsoft.' The mech thunked loudly and stopped suddenly. 'Aw, what now!!' He looked back. 

Shocked Oliver realized that he'd backed up against the transport elevators doorway. He could hear Fluttershy calling out to him just barely, it was too loud now to make out anything at all though. He unhooked the strap harness and jumped out of the suit as fast as he could to make his get away. 

Oliver felt a strange pain, he cursed and looked down. He was stuck, he didn't jump out. Pinning him to the loader suit was a severed leg, running straight through his hip. He grabbed the thing immediately with both arms and pulled as hard as he could. It didn't give. He laughed frantically. "Come on not like this! Not like friggin' this!" He couldn't even hear himself over the noise in the hall. Oliver looked up at the monsters. 'Not much time.'

The desperate man reached into a control gauntlet and tried to reach the alien's severed leg that held him fast to the suit. Woefully, it was too far inside the mecha's radius of reach to grab. 

"FLUTTERSHY!"



	



The pony couldn't stand the loudness of all the screeching and clawing. Mr. Oliver had thrown Steel at her. It had been hard for her to make sure that he wouldn't get hurt worse in their fall to the ground. But Fluttershy thought she had been able to manage it. The increasingly frightened mare hadn't wanted to leave Mr. Oliver but she did. Steel was safe now as a result, Joe hugged him tightly in the strange room that would somehow protect them. The two both watched as the girl's father fought fiercely while backing toward them slowly. 

Eventually, his big machine slammed into the doorway causing Fluttershy to scream louder. She had been screaming the entire time she realized, but she couldn't hear herself. The horde of creatures came closer and closer. She couldn't see them though, Oliver's machine stood in the way. 'Why aren't the creatures coming? Why isn't Oliver coming?' The pony feared the worst and tried to squeeze out. Her ears were plastered back against her head to keep all the noise out.

Fluttershy gaped, the creatures had stopped to fight amongst themselves. Mr. Oliver was doing something strange with his suits arms, his face was deathly pale. Fluttershy thought she saw him screaming too. She tried to yell back up to him but it was drowned out easily by the racket. 

Then, the mechanized mare saw what held him there, saw the thick spike crammed into his side.. His eyes met hers for the briefest of moments.

Fluttershy flew up and grabbed at the alien claw that was embedded in him. Her hooves worked to find a stable platform and her wings strained and protested the weight of holding her up. It felt like it might budge...

The cold metal floor flew up to meet the side of Fluttershy's face. She looked up at the human glaring down at her, his eyes were sad though. His mouth forming an alien word she couldn't put meaning to. She thought she heard go. She stood to try again and flittered back up. I'm. Not. Leaving him! A claw entered her peripheral sight and some force slammed into her from behind. Everything slowed down again for the pony in that moment.

Wind rushed past, Fluttershy felt a harsh and powerful grip on her back and around her wings. She felt herself soaring through the air. In a rush the noise was cut off, all she could hear now was a frantic half wheeze, half cry from nearby. The cry of a young girl.







Oliver shoved the bug back and kicked out with the loader's leg. He then shifted the mech's weight onto that same leg right over the creature's head that he'd pushed away. It crunched loudly. More of them immediately moved past their fallen comrade. Hooked and clawed limbs angled against the human. Completely surrounding him, the monstrous things swarmed now, they ripped into the loader and tore it apart. They tore Oliver apart. The man grinned and yelled into the frenzy all around him. It produced no discernible noise even to his own ears in the din. But the words took on the mouthed form of I love you.

The blaze and rush of kinetic force from the overloaded fusion engine engulfed the entire floor for a hundred meters.











"Aaand this one is Beta Lyrae, again one of the closer stars to our origin solar system." A slightly wrinkled human spread her hand over in an arcing gesture across the 'holographic display' of a stunning orange sun rimmed in a pretty magenta. Lyra would have never thought that stars were actually suns! She suppressed another glee filled fit over the recurring thought and looked again at the sun's glowing red corona. "And she has... Five planets in her system."

Lyra's ears worked forward and back as she listened to the human intently. She had been telling her all about several interesting things throughout the day, humans, their lifestyles, their technology, and her favorite so far, their food! Some of it anyway... She didn't mind that they liked meat. It was just another aspect of life as Lyra saw it.

At the moment, her attention was rapt on the human showing her some constellations and other things. The human's had one named after her! Or well, not her exactly... But the fact that they had a word that used the same sounds for her name made it just as good!

The woman, as they were called amongst humans, was named Tabitha Chartreuse, translated of course. It was so weird watching their mouths move and different sounds coming out, or rather a widget in her skin told her brain to hear them differently as it had been explained to her! It worked like magic, certainly.

Anyway, Tabitha was definitely a name as weird as they came. The chartreuse part though, that was only a little out of the ordinary. I think there was a pony named Chartreuse that had sat next to Meadow Mane at Celestia's school in one of my classes... The woman was apparently the leader or some such of some organization called the 'Foreign Species Rights and Liberties Alliance'. So Lyra guessed she herself being an Equestrian and all was in fact one of the aliens that they protected. Aliens! Beings from other worlds! It was exciting. 

And so far they were doing a good job in her book! They'd been passing her around between different people in this weird windowless building for a few days now, just teaching her and telling her stuff! It was all quite fascinating, but... She had been distraught when they explained the whole situation to her. It had been a pretty rough truth to accept, at first she hadn't believed them. But it had been pretty hair brained and so far everything they had shown her proved it all to be true.

She'd been abducted, illegally and by other people. Lyra knew they could well be lying, Maybe these were actually the ones who had done the deed? she sighed retracing the thoughts in the midst of the astronomy lesson. Hoping for a way home she'd asked about where they were exactly, and how long it would take to get home or how she could. Lyra hadn't enjoyed the answers... Though seeing her home planet in 'Three Dee' had been cool. Not to mention her sun.

That all had led her to this, listening to Tabitha about her own world and others they had been to. Still, Lyra had the circumstances surrounding her abduction to consider, no matter her present company friend or foe. Equestria had been attacked and the humans had fled. There was a lot she still wanted to ask, even after all of what they'd told her- Gah this coffee is the greatest thing I've ever had!

Slrrrp!

"Hey has anyone seen my triple espresso mocha frappe?" A very big human with tussled black hair poked his head into the room.

Lyra took another sip of the strange coffee like drink she had found. What did he just ask about? Anyway, this is the best coffee ever! Oh, and that's caramel I taste! Humans have some great drinks... Oh Celestia is this good. It made her whole body tingle too. Her eyes met the mans and she smiled from her drink and waved a hoof up at him. Strangely, he didn't return the gesture, just sighed and left.

Huh, and they've all been so friendly so far too! A moment later, another human, also male, popped his head in. She was getting good at identifying between the two genders they had! Some of the other guests were a little difficult, not to mention the other aliens that had more than one gender... THAT was weird.

"Aaah, hello Lyyyra. I see that you're all nice and settled in, enjoying a hot beverage no less. Perhaps you'd also not mind answering a few questions I have? There's a veggie pizza in it for you if yo-" The mint green pony had already begun smiling and nodding when Tabitha cut him off sharply. 

"Denice get the hell out, there'll be time to... interrogate the poor girl as I'm sure you will do so, later, she should relax and acclimate." 

"Aw come on she's doing great, just look at her! The picture of happiness." The older looking human held up a finger at him then drew down on the man with a glowering look. "Alright I get it geez..." He stooped and started to leave the room.

"I don't mind! What questions were they?" Lyra looked back and forth between the two and almost dropped her coffee when he lept back into the room and slid a chair out from nearby to sit in. He did the maneuver with such grace with those hands that humans had. Forget aliens, THOSE were fascinating. Oh crud, the humans been talking to me. She snapped her attention away from the guy's limbs and up to his face.

"-ean think about it Lyra! We've encountered insect like life on several worlds, almost always bacteria and simple plant species on anything remotely life bearing even REPTILE life on thirty three occasions! But mammalian!? MAMMALS! Mammal-like? Sure! But Mammals through and through? No." The strange human panted his hands raised up to the ceiling spread wide. In all honestly Lyra was more engaged by those still, rather than his peculiar speech about how she shouldn't exist.

"It's just... Never could anyone have guessed it, it's unprecedented, it's fascinating, it's absolutely positively out of this world or the realm of conceivability!  The odds were determined to be simply astronomical! A trillion in one! Hell, a googolplex in one it might as well ahAAH-!!" Tabitha had the poor man's ear in one hand and was leading him to the doorway. Lyra smiled and waved a hoof good bye.

"Sorry, maybe another time Denice!" The door shut soundly behind him.

"I'm sorry about that Ms. Lyra, they're all just really excited. Still nothing compared to when we encountered the first intelligent alien species several millennia ago though, now that's unforgettable. Uhm, where were we?" The wrinkly faced human smiled at her through a pair of tired eyes. Lyra had wondered about that, humans seemed to live forever if they wanted. Wanted. That had confused her, just that statement. Almost as much as the explanation of it. Human society was a complicated affair... Nothing like the agrarian life Equestria enjoyed or the mutual happiness that the Sisters spread. No, here it was all structure and rules and run entirely by... money. It was rather jarring trying to accept such a world.

"Lyra? You okay dear? You look like you're deep in thought again." Even weirder was the fact that they could just change how they looked and had all this cooky technology but no magic at all and- "Lyraaaaa, moon base alpha to Lyraaa, come in?"

"Hm? Oh! Sorry I was thinking." She gave the nice woman a huge grin, then frowned down at her hoof which was shaking like crazy all of a sudden. "Whoa, uuuhm, what's wrong with my leg?"

Tabitha smirked down at her esteemed guest and asked. "That would be the espresso you managed to acquire from Bonaparte kicking in dear, did you have caffeine back on Equestria by chance?" Then after a hesitant pause on her part and a nod from Lyra she asked also... "And uhm, how susceptible to caffeine would you say you are then?"









The young family watched the Lunar News channel 121 intently, there had been a huge commotion that morning as a state of emergency had been declared and then canceled again without reason. The young father looked over from his work desk again to the large screen of the small home's family room. His wife and son are sitting on the couch also watching.

"-the Technology Guild from Block India has released a statement that they are now under contract to look into what could have caused such the systems malfunction on such a wide scale." The news anchor paused, obviously reading an off screen script, before shuffling her stack of papers and continuing. "Next, join us after this brief commercial break when we'll go live to Jake with Sports News and Shamus Brown on the details concerning tomorrows jump via Hope to humanities next destination in the Epsilon Arteus system! Where astronomers speculate the possibility of a water world! So hurry back for Jake on site at the Cosmos Colosseum, where the officials say that despite the interruptions and mass transport failures they will stick to schedule and be holding the ne-" His wife switched the channel and got up to make her way back to him. His son grabbed the remote and changed it again to one of his cartoons.

He went back to looking over his friends messages on a community web site he frequented, everyone was already speculating about what it could be instead of a false alarm. He didn't buy into it. The most popular theory was that the planet they now orbited had launched an attack on them, or even gotten onto Elysium itself. He knew for a fact after having been to the desolate rock world as a foreman for his deep core mining company that it had been barren, without even the slightest hint of an atmosphere even. Let alone life. But skepticism was practically second nature to humans he knew. 

"Well that was frightening, for a moment I thought maybe they had dumped us into another war." His wife said sarcastically, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and leaned over him. He put a hand over hers.

"It wouldn't have mattered if they did, we can only hope they can handle the mud they'll eventually get us stuck in. Other than that everything they don't want us to know always just gets covered up regardless." He clicked on a news tab and scanned through the report. Apparently access to the night clubs and other establishments were shut down in Block Moscow, that had the party demographic in an uproar. He'd never understood how someone could live hundreds of years just screwing off. But then he barely met ends meet and had a family. Perhaps he should give the lifestyle the benefit of the doubt.

His wife ignored his sarcasm. "You really believe all those extremist claims about the government? Please don't tell me you've started talking to any of them." She turned his chair slightly to look him in the eyes. He knew his wife was concerned, an insurrection or attack on Elysium had never happened in their life times.

"What? No of course not, but it's a government honey keeping secrets from their populace is practically part of their definition. Now I don't think they're doing any of this crazy nonsense you usually hear like warring with aliens or destroying whole worlds. I got out there often enough to know that's not true. Humanities found a hand full of intelligent races besides our own and we've been peaceful with all of them. The dangerous ones we encounter we leave far behind us."

She grimaced and stood upright folding her arms. "So you don't think this is anything then? Just a bug in the system like the TV said?"

The young father glanced over at his son whose back was to them. "I'm sure everything is just fine love."











Running for days through the endless hallways had exhausted her. She'd guessed they were hallways anyway, they were too orderly and too sophisticated in appearance to be a cave or something else naturally forming. But they were immense. For at least two days she had also been fighting at random almost without a break and without respite. Several encounters had been close calls too, especially at the beginning before she'd taken these things and these creatures seriously. 

Panting Kaira looked around a corner of the immense passage.  She needed to find a refuge, or better yet a way out. But she'd almost given up hope of finding that. She had come to the conclusion that these hallways went on forever! There was no end no sir, in every direction through every door she ripped open and after every room was more hallway. Big hallway, small hallway, metal hallway or gem cursed stone hallway it didn't matter in the slightest.

Taking off into another run with hopes of finding a hiding spot somewhere in the fore front of her mind Kaira thought of home, not for the first time. Of how much she missed the open skies and even her family as distant and uncaring as they were to her. Her wings flexed on her back as the burn that covered the more sensitive limbs reminded her of how dangerous the things that chased her were. 'They're just everywhere there's simply no escaping them at all!' 

Worriedly the young escapee looked about. Twice now she'd caught herself worrying about that and they'd popped out of no where almost as a result. 'Just don't think that it can't get any worse Kaira...' She laughed nervously to herself and looked down another smaller hallway branching off the big one she was in.

Kaira's tongue licked her mouth absently, there was blood still covering it despite her effort to try and wipe it off. She didn't like it drying there on her. Exhaling deeply she fell back onto her front legs from peering around the corner carefully and caught her breath from her earlier sprint. She walked down the new hall's length. She'd find an open door... these doors were beyond strange, and rest as soon as she could. And next...

"I really don't know what to do at all." She looked dejectedly at the floor, her claws clicking quietly on it's metal surface.

"Halt intruder, stand and be identified!" Her head jerked up, Kaira didn't wait to tell the thing no. It was a Diamond Dog shaped thing with alien like features and made of metal. But a lot bigger, almost as big as her. Just like all the others. Those that hadn't actually been bigger...

She just attacked, twice she'd attempted reasoning with the creepy machines but they didn't listen to a word she said. The one time she had in fact listened to one's request to not move and wait for the 'proper authorities' to arrive some weird pink skinned creatures had come and tried to electrocute her! They'd been decent eating at least. Still she wasn't having any of that again. She would escape and on her own. Kaira had lived her entire life on her own.

Inhaling deeply she blew a gout of flame at the device and barreled into it from behind the stream of heat and smoke, roaring defiance.











Apple Bloom watched in horror at the events that unfolded around herself, helpless. The strange alien booms and noises from outside coupled with Twilight's confusion and everything else were simply too much. She clung to Octavia's foreleg for protection, showing when she was scared wasn't really common for her. Maybe not as much as Scootaloo nothing seemed to scare her, but it wasn't Apple Bloom's way either. Everything that was happening now however terrified her. 

When a huge shadow fell from the ceiling outside of the chamber to snap up the... person that had promised to save them, that was the last straw for herself. It was so close to her, and the human's startled screams froze her heart. Apple Bloom likewise cried out for some kind of help, for some way to escape it all. She screamed for her sister, for Big Macintosh.

She screamed for her mother.

Her eyes had jammed shut, opening them again just showed exactly where those screams were coming from right up until they suddenly cut off. She didn't dare look again. Purple light filled the filly's vision behind her eyelids. She felt strange. Wearily the red maned pony reopened her eyes and tried to look around.

"Octavia!? Octavia what's goin' on!" She couldn't make sense of her surroundings, nearby she heard Twilight panting.

"Just hold on girls-!" That had been Twilight, her voice sounded strained.

"I don't know Apple Bloom!" Looking up at the grey mare's like wise hysterical face did nothing to calm Apple Bloom or answer her questions. "I really don't! Twilight what's happening!?" Octavia's voice was equally strained, but lined with panic as well.

"Gra-gravity spell, easier than! Nrrrrg, teleporting. Ah...." Twilight was clutching at her horn. "At least I thought it was, hogahd." Apple Bloom reached a hoof out across the expanse between them, she realized the blur of everything around her was actually the walls passing by at a high speed. She risked a glance down, which had somehow now become above herself she realized, and gulped. They were very high up from the platform they had only just been standing on, and still going!

"Twilight! I really think that's enough dear! Twilight! Twilight!?" The unicorn's head lulled, her solitary eye shutting slowly. Unanswered the earth pony holding onto Apple Bloom began to hyperventilate. "It's going to be fine Apple Bloom! I'll think of something!" She watched as Octavia tried to swim comically through the air towards Twilight and grabbed onto her with another fore leg. The filly looked beneath herself at a fast approaching floor, or uhm, ceiling. 







The group of ponies were fast approaching a grisly end as the two still conscious Equestrians saw it. Twilight was out cold. Panic crept into the remaining mare's mind and took a fast hold. Behind her she felt those hideous metal arms that now plagued her life snap out to show their ugly faces before she found her end by falling into the ceiling. 

Screaming alongside Apple Bloom they careened further away from whence they'd come. I have to do something! She gritted her teeth and thought hard about some way out of this. Her surroundings were hurling past her and her hooves were full, she couldn't possibly grab a hold of them under the circumstances she thought. 'Could I?' The walls were moving past them as quickly as if they were falling. Falling... Another idea came to her.

Octavia reached out with her... things on her back and gasped. They flung back behind her from the force of striking the closest wall pushing her further from it. She slowed down though. Her confused look became one of triumph, then horror all in the space of a couple seconds as she realized her attempt to stop them wasn't her own efforts, but Twilight's horn flickering out. The musician spared one last panicked look towards the floor ceiling which was slowly no longer rushing to meet them before she acted.

"AAAAAAAH!" Octavia lunged out with all her mental might with the unwelcome appendages. The group was slowly coming to a sedated float, but stopped suddenly from the strike. The cellist's attack on the concrete surface ended successfully with four bladed legs dug firmly into the wall. "AAAAAAAAAAH!" 

"OCTAVIA!" The pony stopped screaming instantly. She realized one of her passengers had been shouting up at her, shakily she looked down at Apple Bloom. "Finally, you okay? Or you just screaming like a fruit bat got caught in your mane for no reason again?" The filly spoke soberly up to her pilot.

"Yes, I-I mean never b-better, Apple Bloom. Oh dear..." She gazed in her shocked state at Twilight and Apple Bloom in her fore legs, then to the wall that held them fast in the air. She looked down and-.

"Apple Bloom please for Celestia's sake don't look down." The musician clutched her eyes shut from having done just that.

"Ah already did Tavi, we're so high up!" Apple Bloom's voice was the picture of excitement. 

'How can she go from hysterics and screaming to happy as a clam in the space of a minute!?' Octavia thought, incredulous at the very idea. "We-well what now then..." She gulped and opened her eyes slowly trying not to think about what was happening.

"Ah... dunno Tavi we got away I guess. I was kinda hoping you could walk us to safety or wake up Twilight..." Staring down at Apple Bloom to fix her with a confused stare was a mistake and Octavia shut her eyes again in a hurry to keep the thousand stride drop out of her thoughts. "Eeee! Augh, Walk? Really Apple Bloom!?" 

"Well ah'm not sure what else we can do!" The filly was quiet again long enough for Octavia to crack one eye back open and look at her. "Ah see something behind that metal over there, maybe that's a door or a way out of 'ere?" The mare's eye swiveled up to look at a grate like sheet of metal on the wall, just out of reach. "Think you could 'walk' us over to it?"

Octavia glared down at the filly, "I don't know why you think I can walk us any whereeeeEee." she made a hasty mental note to just not look at Apple Bloom anymore. Taking a deep breath she settled her stomach and thoughts once again. Octavia hadn't realized before she had such a strong fear of heights. She gulped thinking about what her pint sized partner had suggested though. After a moments respite the cellist opened her eyes again to look at what might be a promise of escape. "I-I..."

"You can do it Tavi, I believe in yah." Octavia caught herself from looking at her this time, instead smiling at the grate itself nervously. she felt a hoof come up and glance against her muzzle's coat though and she smiled, calming down. 

"I'll try Apple Bloom." The voice she used to reply to the filly though resolute, reflected anything but her actual emotions. Octavia was more accurately shaking in her long missing signature bow tie on the inside. Still, the cellist focused hard on her limbs and the wall, she concentrated in particular on just one. She had to get this right and not screw up, thankfully it was almost just like moving her own legs in a way. Tranquilly she... felt them after a fashion, and the resistance offered to them by objects. Pulling on one embedded limb it creaked out of the wall and came back forcefully. 

The filly in he grasp let out a scream as the other three legs bobbed them in the air from the action. "Sorry! Sorry." Chips and blocks of concrete and dust rained below them from the action.

Octavia focused again on the leg, this time she took a deep breath and hoped this worked, offering up a small prayer to Luna she exerted her will on the limb again. 'Here goes nothing....!' After a moment the freed leg twitched, then slammed into the wall re embedding itself far above the others. "Ah there, that wasn't so bad. Right Apple Bloom?" She grinned victory down at the filly, this time remembering to close her eyes.

"Uh... Tavi?" 

"Hm?" Octavia looked up at where a small Olive hoof pointed her gaze. "Oh." The cellist still had several strides left to take them.







After a great deal of strain and several false alarms as well as panicking in general. Octavia delivered them to the grate, she was also able to pry it off with one mechanical leg. Carefully she deposited the young filly cargo in the opening, then the unconscious unicorn whom accompanied them and finally herself. Immediately she scooted as far away from the opening as she possibly could. The bugs that had chased them, the humans and the height safely tucked away in her past.

"Thank Celestia that's over with, oh my good gracious gravy. Oh Luna thankyouthankyouThankYou!" She kissed the metal floor never having been so happy to be on it.

Apple Bloom giggled at her smiling, but frowned a little as she looked back at Twilight. "Hey Tavi, is Twi' gonna be alright?" The older mare looked up from her thanking of her general surroundings and trotted over to them. The tunnel was large enough for the three of them abreast and tall enough. Hesitantly she held a hoof against Twilight's forehead, just below her horn. Then listened to her breathing.

"I'm not a doctor Apple Bloo-... That is to say she seems like she'll be just fine. I think, she just needs some rest." The smile she gave the filly was meant to be a very reassuring one. Octavia wasn't a Unicorn, she couldn't be sure about her friend's condition. But as far as she knew what Twilight was doing was the equivalent of running on a broken leg, or tearing open an unhealed wound again and again. Maybe not quite that severe but... She looked down in worry with Apple Bloom at the famous Element of Magic all the same. 

"Come on dear, let's make some more distance between us and this place... just in case. We should see if we can't get Twilight comfortable somewhere too." The filly sighed and smiled weakly up at Octavia.

"Sounds like a plan Tavi," She gasped a little when the cellist pulled the other mare up and deposited her onto her back with her alien wrought arms. The sight had surprised her and she thought wonderingly... 'Wow.' Smiling the filly bobbed up and down. "Lead the way!"

Octavia smiled as she watched Apple Bloom bounce down the somewhat cramped tunnel in front of her. 'Wish I could feel that much energy after what just happened...' She thought, glancing behind herself wearily Octavia blew out her cheeks frustratedly and plodded forward after the filly. 'I wonder if those humans were really telling the truth.' 		

As if psychic her younger companion spoke.

"Octavia..." The mare looked up. 

"Yes Apple Bloom?" The filly's cheery demeanor had melted to match more closely with their circumstances. 'This is so terrible for her, being exposed to all this. I can't ima-'

"Did those humans die? D-did we just leave them back there?" The musician couldn't answer her right away, Octavia's mouth worked to try and find some reassurance or... anything to say. If only to spare the filly the those thoughts.

Light, why did she... This was far from the grey mare's forte, but she wore her best modicum of motherly emotion that she could and walked calmly up to Apple Bloom. She leaned down and nuzzled her head, the filly wasn't her daughter, she was barely more than an acquaintance. But it felt right, being that Octavia was all she had. "They were very strong Apple Bloom, far more so than us." Her look was one of regret, but she pressed on to reassure the young pony. "If anyone stood a chance of escaping down there it was them. Now come on, we have a ways to go yet."

Together, with Apple Bloom close to her grey coated guardian feeling a bit more calm, the two walked onwards carrying an unconscious and weary Twilight Sparkle.

.....


"Tavi?"

"Uhm, yes Apple Bloom?"

"It's really dark in here..."

The musician sighed. "Here, hold my hoof." She felt along the wall with one free metal arm to guide them, to where, she didn't know.

> Where the Buck am I?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	



Overhead, the sky dome of his rural home glistened and shimmered a pale blue. The artificial sunlight streamed down and warmed him through the glass of his cruiser's windows. They did a good job giving a somewhat authentic feel for an actual atmosphere. 

Most people would have no idea about what that was actually like anyway, but in the past Smorgas had often had the privilege of visiting a few Terran like worlds. The off duty officer swirled the steering wheel and jammed the throttle into reverse in one smooth motion. His cruiser came to a hard stop in his small driveway outside of the solitary building that was his home. The bachelor bungalow wasn't quite small. It was quaint, but he had spruced it up over the years adding in skylights and a pool in the back yard amongst other things when he could afford it. Most people saved their pennies for a lengthy retirement to break from it, but Smorgas had never felt like not working, and his gig was a pretty sweet one as he saw it. Why plan for stopping when he had no intention of doing so? He checked the clock on the dash and noticed the drive had taken him five minutes longer than usual. Smegging traffic! He thought.

He powered down the car and exited the vehicle, slamming the door for good measure. His neighbors dogs satisfactorily started howling up and barking a storm in response, damned things never shut up.

Man, I just want to sit on the couch, have a few drinks and watch the Gravball game. New Zealand was playing Mordor that day and that was a game he sure as hell didn't want to miss. Planning out the rest of his day as he fished his access pen out of his pockets was a simple matter after being away for an entire month. What will I drink first I wonder? Perhaps I'll crack open a bottle of schnapps and just take it easy... Smorgas was a rather down to earth man when it came to drinks publicly but little beknownst to any but his closest allies he was quite the connoisseur of finer liquors and spirits. It'd become a hobby after he'd discovered there was better stuff to be had than just cheap beer over and over again every weekend. Not that he wouldn't drink his weight in cheap beer if he had the chance. Inserting the thin metal cylinder into the passkey slot below his door bell unlocked the door and gained him entrance into his personal castle.

The portcullis receded into either side of either doorway and he stepped inside. The familiar smell of his home wafted out accompanied by the stale of being left unoccupied for several months from his recent tour off Elysium. Another scent reached his nostrils as he hit a switch and closed his door though. One he knew all too well, like an accomplished chef identifying the exact ingredients of a stew from a single whiff. 'Is that whiskey?' 

“What the frell!?” His living room was thoroughly ransacked. Smorgas walked slowly into the room, taking in the extensive damage. Every drawer was flung open with its contents lying in disarray on the floor. His 50 inch NanotecK 3hreeD screen had fallen out of its mount to lean against the wall. It now sat on the floor with a large crack in the display. He saw more damage throughout the house leading all the way into the kitchen and down the hall. Smorgas stared wordlessly around the immediate area at the unsolicited chaos and destruction that had become his living room. His eye twitched as he spotted one atrocity in particular.

There were liquor and beer bottles everywhere, a lot of them. All of them empty.

Smorgas was too angry to move, so he stood incredibly still in the middle of the room taking several deep breaths  instead. 

“I’m gone for one month,” He said aloud, deceptively calm. “ONE month! And some punk breaks in To MY HOME,” He was shouting now. “AND DESTROYS EVERYTHING I LOVE.” Furious, Smorgas picked up one of the empty beer bottles by his feet and chucked it at a wall. It smashed into a million tiny shards that only added to the squalid condition of the room.

Smorgas was breathing heavily again, after a few minutes of standing stock still smoldering he got a hold of himself. He started thinking rationally again albeit slowly. How the hell did someone break in and not set off the security? He had standard stuff, cameras and the like. Alarms to notify the authorities. He prayed that they had at least gotten some footage, because he would track down the sonuvabi-.

He paused picking up an armful of bottles and looked at his back door. It was a glass affair that slid giving a clear view of his pristine backyard and in ground pool. They were small of course but he'd been happy with them. That wasn't what caught his attention though. He drew one finger down a part of the cracked glass. It bore the efforts of someone trying to smash it. 'That definitely should've set off security, what the hell? First things first report the break in.'

Striding across the room into the kitchen the burly man reached for the headset he had hung up next to the fridge. "Sophie babe, call the local cops would you?" A sultry female's voice answered him from somewhere in the room.

"Yes master, dialing... Connection made."

The headset buzzed twice and a voice interrupted the third. "Hello Jersey Residence Zone police department please state your calls purpose."

"Yah, I have a break in that happened while I was gone to report. My home was destroyed while I was on tour this last cycle." He threw his gaze over the room again, the kitchen floor was littered with the fridge's contents and it seemed like nothing had gone untouched.... Strangely things above the floor counters seemed untouched. He idly opened his dish cupboard and confirmed that his nice authentic ceramic plates were still there. 

"Is the source location of this call the break in to be reported sir?" Smorgas confirmed the question impatiently. "One moment please," His foot tapped and his hand rapped his knuckles rapidly on the counter top while he awaited a response. "Sir there has been no report at all of a break in by your home's security system. Are you certain this is the case?"

The weapons Officer slammed his fist down on the nearest surface. "YES I'M DAMN CERTAIN IT'S THE CASE!  What you think my entire damn house imploded on its own!?"

"Sir please remain calm while we do our best to help you through this. Consider this your warning as well for belligerent behavior towards an officer of the law." His eye twitched again from the cop's cocky tone of voice. This guy obviously had no respect for the fact that Smorgas was staring at a two hundred year old bottle of SCOTCH shattered on his kitchen tile floor like it was garbage!

The cop continued unhindered by Smorgas' desperately withheld explosion of curses. "We'll need you to send in your security records to the station as well sir, afterwards we'll ascertain the nature of what occurred. If we determine there is reasonable suspicion of the alleged crime we will investigate further. Please also be aware that we are in no way responsible for the reacquisition of stolen items, lost property, or-" Smorgas hung up on the man growling.

The female voice from before oozed into the room unbidden. "The previous call to local law enforcement was ended abruptly, was this a mista-?"

"NO IT WASN'T A FRACKING MISTAKE." Smorgas kicked an over turned chair causing it to skid across the floor and into the living room where it struck his stained and garbage ridden couch.

"Holy shit I hate being patronized. Useless cops I cannot believe thi- and who the hell eats half a damn hot dog and leaves it on the smegging floor! Aw come ooon." The more he looked around his kitchen the more he was terrified to look at the rest of his home. All of his possessions gone or destroyed, what kind of sick sociopathic sadist would do something like this?

Aw man if it was Jeremy he's a dead man. Dead. Dead. DEAD. Smorgas dodged around bits of his home over to the house's data counsel. The screen was smashed. Great. So he couldn't watch the security videos right away. A noise came from down the hall and he turned his head in its direction. His expression didn't change. I just don't understand how anything could get in and out without setting off the ala-. Another noise louder than the first repeated itself from down his short hallway.

Oh, there is no way. There is no friggin' way. Son of a bi-, the damn burglar’s still here. He thought, as a vile grin plastered itself onto his face. Better yet, I bet this is some stupid friggin' hacker that thought he'd take full advantage of a free buffet and make himself at home. Smorgas was already considering how bad he'd hurt the bloke that had dared to intrude on his sanctuary of holy solitude.

Silently, he pulled the knife he wore on his belt from its sheathe, guns weren't legal outside of military bases. He crouched low and stepped further into the house making less noise than a mouse farting.

Another noise, he recognized it this time as a low moan, closer this time. That bastard drank all my babies, oh he's gonna pay. Yes he is isn't he Mr. knife, oh yah we're gonna make him pay. He wondered idly if he could find a place to hide a body. A weak whimper made its way out of the last door in his hallway...THE BATHROOM.

Still moving quietly the trained soldier crept up to and stood at the door, steadying his breath. Welcome to the beginning of the worst day of your life, buddy. Then, with all the force of a trained soldier, he kicked it in. It was dark and his hand shot instantly to the light switch.

Now Lieutenant Smorgas had been alive for eighty years, or eight decades and three years. He had spent most of that time in the military's defense forces. He had been subject to intensive training and had gotten the idea that as a soldier he could be killed at any moment from any number of situations drilled into his head. Explosive atmospheric decompression, radiation storms, alien incursion, insane cyborg or robot failure. Anything. And yet he excelled under the pressure, it never got to him. Thanks to his performance and strong will, he had become an Offensive measures bridge officer, a job that requires nerves of pure steel.

And after all that, he still was not prepared for what he saw in his bathroom. He could only stare slack-jawed at what lay before him. He heard a metal clang, which must have been the knife falling out of his hand and hitting the floor he thought distantly.

There was a small horse passed out in his bathtub. A small purple horse. 

Its head shot up at the sound of the heavy plastic door slamming inward and blinked its eyes into the light that now filled the room. It stared at him with a confused, semi-conscious look.

...What. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. 

The horse had its eyes half open and was breathing unsteadily.  Then it spoke. THE HORSE THING FRELLING SPOKE.

Smorgas stood there as the mutated looking thing spewed a high pitched bout of nonsensical blather. If it was possible he'd say it sounded like it was drunk or high. He was still trying to make sense of what was going on and failing utterly. He walked up to get a closer look at the thing, his disbelief betraying his better judgement. 'This has gotta be Suraci's idea of a joke or so-' He reached one hand out to poke the somewhat disabled appearing creature.

The horse gasped, then made a face Smorgas instantly recognized.

“Oh no, Don't you dare-!“ He managed to say, but it was far too late.

The little horse vomited, and it went everywhere.









Smorgas hadn't waited to get to his headset from kitchen, instead the pseudo digi-orchestral beat of Suraci's weird ring tone rang through his home as he hurriedly tried to reach his so called friend. With his arms free he stripped his shirt off himself and hurled into angrily into the laundry hamper. At least it would have landed in the hamper had it not been tipped over. The vomit covered shirt instead splatted against the wall noisily. 

"RRRaaaarg! Suraci pick the hell up!" 

"Whoa not so loud man. What's up?" His friend answered coolly from the other end. 'Oh he's good, playing innocent like he has no idea. He isn't getting out of this now though.'

"Don't friggin' play stupid with me man you're the only friend I have with a spare key to my damn place and what do I come home to damn find when I get here?" Smorgas finished pulling on the new muscle shirt and jabbing a sausage like finger towards his bathroom, as if his bridge partner could see him do so. "A GOD DAMNED PURPLE HORSE... Freaky mutant thing, dammit!" 

The purple perpetrator was looking up at him sadly from where it lay in the tub, two of its leg were hanging out as though it had been trying to climb out. 

Smorgas donned his best scowl and his eyebrows drew in in a rage. "Why a damned horse man? My whole house is trashed! ...I think it drank my boose too!" The other end of the line was pure unadulterated laughter that echoed through the hallway.

"Alright man, good one. Purple horse drank your boose, didn't think you were starting the party early dude... Look if you get a couple girls over there that can put up with your weird I'll still join you alright?" He broke back into a fit of laughter and Smorgas yelled with futility back at him to shut up. 

"Sure man I'll shut up, hey tell the horse I said hi alright man? Hah!" There was a quick click and the line cut out. Sophie's voice came over the speaker.

"The call is ended, maste-" Smorgas solidly punched the wall hard enough to cut off the machine's statement.

Glowering at the floor he tried to make sense of everything. Well, it looks like dumb arse isn't responsible then, probably. Smorgas had never known Suraci to not own up to a prank. He peeked around the corner at the thing that had now made its way out of the tub. It swayed a great deal but managed to remain standing with obvious difficulty. The purple creature made more of its sweet sounding noises that seemed to string together just like words and looked up at him with its head ducked.

"What the friggin' hell, how'd you get in here... and what are you." He looked at it with stark confusion, and maybe a little bit of worry. The soldier had no idea how it had gotten in the house or what it was... Seemed harmless though, unless you counted the state of his house which it was the obvious destroyer of. Smorgas' face turned into a sneer when it sat heavily back on its behind in the middle of his bathroom. As he continued to watch the thing he thought carefully about explanations. 

It has to just be some kind of novelty pet. Genetic engineering was a common enough thing he knew. Smorgas had seen lots of commercials advertising Mastiff sized Pomeranian dogs or a pink furred cat. Staring at the horse that breathed heavily in his bathroom, obviously from a hang over and probable lingering drunkenness, Smorgas paid close attention to its overly large eyes. They were easily its most disturbing features. But the all to human expressions it seemed to wear were a close second.

This thing's a regular Frankenstein's monster. Curiously, the animal held a hoof up to its head, then suddenly groaned in yet another all to human fashion. Smorgas' eyes climbed into his hairline. He gulped, the man could've sworn the thing had sounded like any of the girl's he took out with him on occasion just then.

"Whaaaat the f-" 

BLRRGGLE

"Aw come on! Knock that the hell off would you!" Smorgas threw an arm gesturing at the bathroom floor and the horse looked up at him in response. "I'm not cleaning that up so you better learn to real damn quick or...!" 

Oh damn, that's freaky. Smorgas cut off taking in the emotion on that horse's face. Like a person, it was looking at him in fear he realized. Yeah that was undeniably irrefutably fear of him expressed in its eyes and mouth. After a moment his face shifted from freaked out to a mixture of weirded out and amused. "Heh... Okay then." Frell it he didn't know what to think, worst prank ever. The purple animal wiped its dripping mouth after a moment and spit on the floor.

"No by all means continue to desecrate my house frell it yah know, I bet that don't taste good at all anyway huh." Smorgas threw up his hands and walked away from the door trying to figure out what to do next. He was starting to get pissed again remembering that this thing had probably drank all of his boose. Another thought occurred to him.

"Nah there's no way," He'd had an idea. Smorgas whirled around going back to the bathroom, the horse stumbled out of the doorway as he did so to land with a thud against the opposite wall. "Whoa, uh take it easy." Licking his lips he considered his thought again, and just how nuts it might be. 

Holding a hand under his chin in thought he watched it watch him. "Can you understand me?"

The creature stared up at him before looking around the hall back down its length and then into the bathroom again.

"I'll take that as a no..." Shaking his head the man huffed his idea shot down. "Alright, it's obviously some science experiment or new thing I haven't heard about before. Even if it can't understand me it's capable of thinking and... Opening beer cans and liquor bottles so it's gotta be intelligent still. That means it could be a lesser AI or-" Smorgas' thought train came to a screeching halt. It would be better to say someone dropped a mountain on the railroad tracks and every single passenger on board turned into a red bloody pulp from which no one stood a chance of surviving.

Couldn't understand him. Spoke a strange language. Big weird bug eyes. But most importantly, it was a little horse. That rang a bell.

"What the shit is an alien doing in my bath tub..." The intruder's eyes fluttered weakly, and it puked again this time on the hall rug. "WHAT THE SHI-" Smorgas yelled in frustration and his new guest passed out.











Three hours later he was still cleaning up, he'd scrubbed the floors, he'd scrubbed the tub. Smorgas had scrubbed the walls and even the furniture. Suffice it to say he was sick of scrubbing and had been starting about three hours ago. Bags of trash were piled up by his shattered back patio window and his home was beginning to look back in order.

The horse, which he had gained the sneaking suspicion was from a planet Elysium had abruptly left behind four manifold jumps ago, had been confirmed by a quick search to be just what he'd thought. An alien

"Great." His home mostly now in order, the big stuff at least, it would take days to fix, replace and clean everything he was sure. Why the hell had it rampaged my whole dang place anyway? He filed the thought away along with all of his others and his questions for it. Yes he was going to ask it questions, knowing that it wasn't a defective piece of commercialized gimmick got him to that conclusion quick. He was going to interrogate the little hell raiser. And It had better have some damn good answers too. Smorgas didn't know where it came from or why but he was sure as hell going to find out.

The soldier squared up against the critter that still laid flat on his dining space floor. It was an extension of the kitchen rather than its own room; he wasn't filthy rich, after all. Earlier the man had grabbed it by its front hooves and dragged it, purposefully through its own vomit, and into the open space where he could keep an eye on it while cleaning. It hadn't been heavy at all, maybe around a hundred and fifty pounds or a little bit more. "Sophie, did you get a good listen on this thing earlier?" The female voice for his house answered breathily. 

"Yes, it matches with sound records of expedition 542-" 

"Right great, is there a translator for it?" He was referring to the horse of course.

"No archived translation of requested sound file was found. A neural pattern reader will be required to-" He threw a hand up to his head and groaned. What he heard was just fantastic. If they'd encountered an alien race, why wouldn't the damn government work to translate the gibberish that the googly eyed freaks spoke? Were they hostile or something, and we just steered clear of the things? That would explain why he hadn't heard more about them and if he recalled correctly, why they'd left so quickly. He wondered briefly, How on Luna could something this...harmless looking, ever be a threat to us. That planet had been colonization compatible too, what made us leave it...?

Smorgas recalled waiting to know if the fleet would be going out, if he'd be ordered to board the Red Willow and escort ships for the usual mining or harvesting operations. It had been his rotation on board it those few months ago, but no call came and he ended up spending a lot of time at the pool hall on base with Suraci and Darrick. His pile of questions only got bigger the more he stared at the purple horse looking alien, breathing unsteadily on his kitchen floor. 

He knelt down beside it. The critter in question really was strange as hell looking he thought. On its vibrantly, almost painful to look at purple coat of hair was a weirdly dyed spot. It was a picture of grapes and a strawberry. And the weird gets weirder... Why would someone dye that on it? He mused. It was already strange enough that it appeared so much like a horse in form.  Even more bizarre its... mane, he remembered it was called, looked freakishly like human hair. Its tail had an equal amount of poof to it

Reaching out a single hand he stroked it with the back of his palm. Dang, He took a handful of the mane. This stuff is friggin soft. His mouth gaped. Forget not being coarse at all, it's almost like this stuff was conditioned. 

The thing's hoof twitched and moved up to its strangely shaped head. One big eye flew open and rested on Smorgas. Its mouth drew down into a terrified, open look. 

Smorgas was to caught by surprise to appropriately react. "Uh, hey." His own eyes were wide from its suddenly sober reactions. The distinct feeling that it was about to scre-

Huaah-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIHHHHHHHHHHHH

-am crossed the mans mind. Smorgas' hands flew up to his ears immediately. 

"Frell it you stupid thing shut u-!" A really solid hard object collided with his forehead, knocking him back on his rear. His sight spun and he glared up at the creature scrabbling over the top of his couch away from him.

I should've hog tied it. Regretting not restraining the deceptively calm and wasted creature Smorgas stood up in a rush to make sure it didn't break anything else. As if hearing his thoughts of worry the horse brandished a coffee mug in its hoof and hurled it at him from across the room. Snarling he dodged the object and it smashed against his already shattered window behind him. Another article of Smorgas' home, his cigar box; flew at him next. That he tried to catch. 'How the smegging hell is it even grabbing things!?'

The horse gasped as he snatched his (thank the stars) unopened box of cigars out of the air with a hand. The respite lasted only a moment though and it lifted a chair above its head with both of its front legs.

"KNOCK IT OFF!" Face twisted in anger, Smorgas did what he did in any fight. Flexed every muscle he had at his command and set the stupid punk trying to tussle with him with his most rage filled look possible.

It worked. His opponent cried out in fear and wobbled under the weight of the object before dropping it and falling back on its butt. It stared at him a moment in shock, but then it started crying. 

Aw what the hell. Smorgas frowned. It was a very feminine cry too. That struck home on some very powerful instincts and feelings Smorgas had about hurting women. Straightening, he held back, aghast at what was playing out in front of him. Hesitantly, he walked forward and tried to calm it down...her down, he supposed. Would aliens even have genders?

"Hey come on, I just didn't want you to peg me with any more of my stuff, alright? Just chill out." Smorgas tried to approach it and walked slowly around the couch. The horse continued crying and wailing then collapsed into its arms...or front legs, onto the ground. Man, those things look like freaky arms that end in flat colored stumps. He tried not to let his face portray any of his unsettled or freaked out thoughts. Only a calming demeanor, last thing he wanted was it breaking more of his stuff. Maybe I can get it locked in the garage...

Smorgas felt like a right monster the way it was reacting to him, he crouched lower to try and undo the intimidation damage from before. "Hey come on, shush up there's no need t-"

All at once the thing grinned up wickedly and spun around, facing away from him.

"Oh shi-!" Legs flew out from behind it and Smorgas dodged to one side, he caught part of the sudden sneak attack on his left shoulder. Unavoidably he crashed into his side table in the living room, crushing it. The little horse barreled down on him already, screaming in its deceptively sweet sounding voice which was now a snarling, guttural war cry. "OH YOU WANNA FIGHT! FINE, YOU GOT A DAMN FIGHT!" He answered back to it. While yelling, a hoof came down and socked him in his jaw before he got his guard up.

Throwing up his own legs, Smorgas pushed on its chest, hurling the horse away from him onto the couch. The alien's look of surprise as it flew backwards four feet in the air was priceless. He leaped up and threw a practiced flying kick after her. His opponent gasped from where it landed and dodged just enough for his boot to only clip her side. Even more unfortunately, the force of the kick knocked over the top heavy sofa and threw the man into a pile with the hostile alien menace on the other side.

All the while screams and shouts and curses were flung between the two as they beat against one another in a confusing tussle of limbs across the living room floor, into the kitchen and back again. Finally, Smorgas got the upper hand and put the thing into a head lock on his living room's carpet. 

"YEAH! I GOT YOU YOU LITTLE FREAKY FUR COVERED...THING!" He'd thought himself victorious too soon though and received two hoof blows to the head, one irritatingly hitting the tender wound from earlier that day. "GAAAAHH Damn you, you stupid who-!" The thing screamed back at him and struggled, flailing and throwing its body around. Recognizing the fight it still had in it, he locked its front legs down this time with his other arm, abandoning the half nelson. Just as quick he moved his legs around it and held its back ones in restraint with his own powerful lower limbs.

This director damned thing is frelling strong! Smorgas stared up at the ceiling a moment wonderingly at the thought. Still, getting tired would take a lot more than this for the man. He didn't need to catch his breath, but the horse held fast in his grip was panting heavily from the fight. Doesn't have inter control then, it could still have a neural interface tho- Smorgas would've face palmed if his arms were free. 

If it was an alien it had to have an I.D. to even be here. That meant a neural patch like Sophie had tried to tell him. Unless it's here illegally. Not gonna write that off just yet either... But there were no signs of a break in, and no one would dump something in his home randomly...

Smorgas groaned loudly and the creature stopped struggling abruptly in response, before gibbering more of its unrecognizable dialogue. His mind clicked as he reached the only other logical conclusion which he'd been slowly working toward this entire afternoon. The puzzle pieces fit together nicely now and he had finally arrived at his answer to where the alien had come from; while in the midst of his battle royal and the purple enemy locked in his grasp no less.

"Mother..." He spoke quietly out loud, contempt darkly shadowing his voice. The poofy maned enemy began screaming at him again between its panting breathes.





She gasped raggedly attempting to draw in another breath. The grip that encircled her neck was like iron. Berry Punch's eyes rolled as she looked for something, anything to help in escaping her captor's clutches.	

"CELESTIA BURN YOU Rrrg-!" Her teeth snapped. "LUNA BANISH YOU TO THE MO- RRRGG!" The volatile anger she felt grew as her thoughts and fears from waiting in this inescapable—if homely—prison came back to her. For three days Berry had been trapped, not knowing where she was or why. She could only play back through her last memories before awakening here... But now, she was just pissed. 

"AH!" Another voice entered the room and surprised her. Berry's eyes cast warily all around the room at the thought of her opponent getting back up. It was different from the pasty white faced thing's voice that held her, though. The language it spoke made absolutely no sense to her either, but that wasn't important right now. She strained her hind legs and wriggled, still trying to get free. It seemed distracted while talking to whoever else was now in the room. Berry tried to take advantage of that, but the thing held on stubbornly. Whatever this horrifying looking monster was, it was strong AND flexible. 

Oh Luna, I hope it's not carniv- Berry's mind locked up as she remembered clearly the strange red colored substances she'd found in the ice box. That couldn't have been meat... Could it? Panicking again, she forgot all about the voice and renewed her escape attempts.

"LET ME GO LETMEGOLETMEGO YOU BIG STUPID HAIRLESS FREEEEAK!" Berry shrieked her head off as images of her on a spit, being turned over a slow burning fire while flabby, fur-less monstrosities danced around it, played through her head.

Berry clenched her teeth, and her eyes shot open as she began being shaken furiously. Panting, she tried to look at the thing indignantly, craning her head back as much as she could in an attempt to see it; which wasn't much. "How dare you-! When I get free I'm bucking you SO hard where the sun don't shine you'll be walking with a limp the rest of your LIFE. YOUR CHILDREN WON'T BE ABLE TO PEE STRAIGHT YOU HEAR- MHHHMmm!" Something got shoved into her mouth roughly. She tried to look up at the creature again, fury burning in her eyes, then spat out the pillow and made to yell some more. 

Berry Punch closed her mouth as it raised another cloth article threateningly with its free arm in front of her. Her head momentarily free, she tossed it back instead of just staying quiet and felt it hit something hard. She heard a yelp from behind her, then a snarl and grinned at her success. Her neck was again clamped down upon by its thick arms. "Yeah that's right! Taste Equestrian willpower you big dumb ape!" It sort of looked like a monkey to the mare. A male as well, now that she thought about it judging by its- his thickness and build.

He spoke more of his gibberish at her from where he held her in a solid grip and yelled as well. 

Berry thought it had been directed at her and was ready to respond, when that other voice answered him... It oddly sounded female, despite the bizarre, harsh language it spoke. Where is the new speaker? The monster didn't seem to be speaking to anyone. 

Berry clenched her teeth again fear repainting her face. Maybe it's a ghost!? Then she frowned and her face flattened. No, now that's just stupid. Suddenly, the walls buzzed and she tossed her head around looking for the source. What the heck is that!? A giant bug? Oh Celestia this place is horriblllllle! 

Yet another voice entered the room. Now who!? This one sounded decidedly motherly in tone. Oh no, he's calling his family in from outside and they're all gonna cook and eat me! Berry Punch stared around the room terrified waiting for a knife wielding monkey lady to appear any moment to gut her. 

The creature spoke back to the voice calmly. 

Looking around, Berry still couldn't see anyone else. What the hay is going on here...

Abruptly, the creature behind her shouted loudly, eliciting certain alien sounding words and noises. The female voice, seemingly pouring out of the walls, took on an apologetic tone, but then snapped to a likewise aggressive one. 

Berry's captor sighed, and started patting her head. Her eyes rolled up to look at the bizarre, clawed thing stroking her mane unbidden. "Eeeeee." She cried out fearfully.

What the hay is it doooing! The hand—as she now recognized it—withdrew quickly and again without warning took up its place holding her head and neck still. Darnit that had been my chance! She grimaced into the strange room that had been her prison and began accepting her fate. She would be food, and there was nothing she could do. This place was truly her own personal Tartarus.

The biggest reason for that being, that she knew it was now devoid of any alcohol.





Smorgas had been staring into space absently without a view screen to see the person he was talking to...that person being his mother. He'd jerked himself aware at touching the thing's hair though, and pulled his hand back to where it could keep the horse from hitting his face again or worse.

"Mom, look, I understand alright? But I DON'T WANT IT! I don't care if you rescued it from a bunch of unscrupulous characters at the auction! I don't care if you think I'm lonely! I sure as hell DO NOT care that you think you're too busy to take of it on your own!" Smorgas was exasperated at actually finding out that his mom had used her key to leave a wild animal alien thing in his house.

"Now you look here mister, your mother went to a lot of trouble to get that poor dear out of harm's way! And that it is a she and an intelligent creature, so show some respect! Now, I'm sorry that the stasis didn't hold until you got back from your job, I can't explain that. But it's time that you started taking some responsibility in your personal life, not just your professional one you hear me! All you ever do is party and waste time!" The man growled, the pony as his mother had called it struggled again under his grip. 

"Mom... Listen to me, I don't want to get married. I don't want to have kids. I also understand that this is mostly just another one of your hair brained, last minute decisions gone wrong and you don't want to take care of your own damned PET! But NOTHING and I mean nothing is going to change my life, you got it!?" 

His mother gasped in response from his retort. "Wh- SMORGAS! How can you talk like that way about her, and to me!" The shouting match continued with no end in sight. "She's not a pet, she's a citizen and you're her lawful sponsor young man! Honestly, how can you insult her so much when she's right there and awake?" He grunted and felt his muscles tighten in fury.

"Like I've been trying to tell you, Cora, this thing hasn't been speaking friggin' standard! I don't know what it's speaking! Has it even got a neural patch?" Something croaked.

"Of course it does! I- They maybe didn't set the language when I picked her up on accident...? They were a little seedy... But still, you could very easily fix that, I left her paper work and everything else in plain sight on the kitchen table!" 

Right, the kitchen table that had been flipped over when I got smegging home. A low whine reached his ears and he looked down. "Oh shi- Sorry." The pony erupted out a breath of air and started sputtering. "Got distracted, my bad." It  yelled back up at him to answer his apology.

"Smorgas, look honey, I'm sorry again that she tore apart your house. I was simply hoping she could meet you first since-" He was readying another rebuttal already when the comm link became garbled for a moment.

"Mother?... Cora? You there?" He waited a moment longer the room eerily quiet. Except for the pony growling in his grasp.

"Smorgas baby I need to -o the--'s more tr----e it seems, okay? T--e care of -er and prom-se me you'll sta- safe! Lo-- --u!-" The strange static cut out and the comm line clicked, ending. Sophie's voice called out quietly soon after, confirming that the call was indeed over.

Smorgas held a hand up to his head tiredly and groaned. "What the hell man. Just what the smegging he- AAGAAAH!"

The pony's teeth chomped down fiercely onto his arm.





After Berry had bit his arm, a cold, metal object had been shoved up under her throat. Only frightened by the feeling for a moment, she'd started screaming at the monster again before it flashed the object in front of her. 

It was the cruelest looking kitchen knife that Berry had ever seen. It had a serrated series of metal teeth under the blade and a ridged back of triangles on the other side from that. She'd gulped and ceased moving after studying it. Eventually, after using more of its strange language and making several disturbing noises that might have been considered by it to be soothing, it let her go; slowly.

Berry sat still, watching it go. She had wanted to flee immediately once it was walking away, but there was no where to go or hide. This place must be its home after all. The thing waved its hand at her. He motioned her after himself and made a point of setting its weapon down on the kitchen's counter.  

Berry thought about attacking him again instantly, but...didn't. Instead, she merely quirked an eyebrow in confusion. The thing was standing on his two back legs in the most freakish fashion Berry could imagine and was glaring back at her, all while fiddling with some grey book-thing it had dug out of a small, brown metal-case.

"I've gotta get away..." Berry held a hoof to her muzzle as she thought deeply out loud. "He must leave again eventually and next time I won't be too drunk to miss my chance of escape." 

"Yeah, I definitely won't see that coming at all. You've sure outsmarted me." Berry's eyes shot wide at the other voice that had spoke clear as day Equestrian. Immediately looking up, she realized the source of the familiar language; the bizarre two legged creature.

"You can talk!? I mean- You speak Equestrian?"

"I'll be damned, that crazy gibberish you were spouting was a language," He looked half wonderingly, half annoyed down at the box thing. "I've got no clue what to do now." He began laughing a little madly. 

For a moment, Berry thought she had been forgotten entirely. "HEY, TAKE ME HOME RIGHT NOW! Or so help me I swear on Celestia's FLANK that I will stomp your teeth so far back into your sun burned skull that they'll need a telescope to find the zebra cursed things!" She breathed heavily and snorted, her tirade now over. When no response came, the mare inhaled to start up again.

Berry stopped when she noticed the human's expression focused on her. I've never seen anyone angry at me like that before, oh wow. She gulped, her resolve weakened. "I uhm, demand that-" The anger she saw on his face faded somewhat, as quickly as it had come, and he turned to open a pantry. 

"Freaking talking horse alien, man... I can't believe this." He grumbled out, the eyes of her flat faced foe were practically shut from how hard his face started squinting.

"HORSE!? Horse! I'm not a horse! I'm a pony, and don't you dare go insulting me whe-" The purple prisoner had started storming up to her captor, before the tall creature slammed its hand on the kitchen counter and grabbed for the knife again. Berry Punch froze where she stood.

"You drank all my boose." 

!

"Y-You foal napped me!"

"I FOAL NAPPED SHI- Foal napped? You mean like kidnapped?"

Berry gasped at his gall. "OH, SO NOW I'M A GOAT!? What gives you the right to insult me after all you've done!?" She didn't think less of the other species he'd named, this biped was just making her angry. "Well, you listen up and listen good you big stupid monkey, I've had it with being a prisoner and I want to go home. Now!" Berry snorted again and pawed the ground, the knife forgotten.

"You don't wanna try me right now, HORSE." He slammed the knife into a sheath at his waist with gusto. 

"Well you better give me some hay blessed answers then buddy. Or one of us isn't walking out of this room." Berry stamped in front of the exit for emphasis as to what she meant. "Just try me."

It held up its hands slowly and Berry watched its gesture, confused, but it was too far to do anything so-

Kccrack crack

Berry winced and flinched back from the biped, the noise causing her body to betray her. Were those its bones just now? Eeeew!

"I'll warn you again, HORSE. Keep your home wrecking mouth shut or you're gonna get exactly what you're askin' for. I won't be gentle either." He waited for a moment for her answer, but when she gave none he continued. Berry stood in her aggressive stance, just waiting. "Get this through your freakish head right away, because I won't repeat myself. I'm not going to tell you shit until you clean up the rest of the filth and mayhem you've caused in my home." 

Berry's eye twitched at every intended insult and demand. 

Just who does he think he is-!? No, Berry Punch don't play no games. She relaxed completely and stood up from her aggressive crouch. "So I just gotta clean my mess?" Berry strode away from blocking the exit and stepped lightly into what she presumed was the dining area.

The two legged creature relaxed as well. "Yeah, and then I'l-"

"Like... THIS" Berry bucked with all her might into one offending chair. Her hooves struck home and the strange material shattered from the blow and then more so as it struck the wall. The big thing that she'd been facing didn't waste a second to respond in kind.

"THAT'S SMEGGING IT." He charged her, then the fight was rejoined and hooves and fists flew.











The LRRPD held their ground at the choke point. A large series of stairs over looking the spacious halls of his subterranean home's entryway.

Block:Atlantis was overrun. Unprecedentedly a storm of every creature imaginable had apparently poured out of every lad under the Fourth Sanctuary. That wasn't the worst of it, in the midst of trying to get that debacle under control something else had reared its ugly, carapaced face at them. These sick things pressed against the moon region's stalwart quick response law enforcement that had been rallied to deal with it. Though the Block was his jurisdiction the Captain leading the men fighting knew this shouldn't be their affair. 

'Where is the damned military?' The Captain of the small department had never seen or heard of anything like this during his long career but he knew this shouldn't be just his rodeo. They had their riot suits equipped and a steady barrage of gun fire from their lines streaked into the oncoming horde, but it hardly stemmed the attack they were faced with.

Teeth gnashed and roars sounded from the alien creatures that had somehow turned up out of no where, and decimated an entire section of the moon. They no longer had communication with anyone inside of the section of lunar infrastructure. Civilian or government affiliate alike. He knew that alien species were studied and research was conducted outside of public eye. Privately, commercially and scientifically, not every one knew, but he was aware of it. Atlantis had been a linch pin in the field of gene therapy in the science community for a long time. It lead to his home region being a prosperous community and one the government praised often.

But, he also knew that there were restrictions. Large numbers of specimen like this weren't permitted to be amassed or kept. Nor were creatures that could cause so much damage. It just wasn't permitted.

This can't just be the result of someone smuggling a pet past customs. He grimaced at the sight of more creatures flooding out of the hallways to join the crowd assaulting his men and women.

The shock troop suited man watched on as a large BULWARK-4 mech suit had its legs buckled from underneath it after being engulfed in the horde. His front line was collapsing from the pressure. They'd held onto this position for nearly half an hour but reinforcements had yet to show themselves.

"What's the damn status on back up!" He yelled into his helmet's communication link, all around him the crash of gunfire and the whizzing of laser blasts sounded off. His outfit wasn't suited for this.

Headquarters answered him, the man on the other end of the comm device sounded panicked. "Sir, reports are streaming in from everywhere across the secret news net and defense channels! Every lower level has been placed under lock down or they're being evacuated. The lines are jammed with emergency streams. We haven't been able to get any word here about reinforcements from our chairman or the Directo-!"

The Captain knelt behind one of the gatling positions and screamed back into the mic of his helmet.

"YOU GET A HOLD OF THAT BOARD OF SUITS AGAIN AND TELL THEM THAT WE CAN'T HOLD HERE! WE NEED MILITARY SUPPORT OR WE ARE GOING TO LOSE THIS POSITION, do I make myself clear!?" The operations officer stutteringly acknowledged him and the call ended.

"It's as if Pandora's box has been let wide opened." Gore sprayed into the air as he aimed over the barrier with the weapon he was allowed only under emergencies, and head shotted one of the charging carapaced creatures amongst the oncoming crowd. At least he thought it had been its head.











Smorgas wouldn't have thought it possible, but somehow his home had turned into an even bigger disaster area than before. Furniture was shattered, lighting was shattered, metal had shattered, and he didn't even think that was possible until seeing it himself. Still, he felt oddly satisfied with all of what had happened, as did Berry. It had been a good tussle.

Berry Punch sat beside him, massaging one badly bruised rear leg against the living room's plaster wall. They reclined quietly, surveying the damage. Wow, and I thought I'd created a mess before this guy had cleaned it all up. 

The human sat with one likewise bruised and bitten arm hung over his left knee, his other leg extended out. Lazily, he took another swig out of the seventy year aged bottle of whiskey. It wasn't his best stock, but it was the only thing Smorgas'd found amongst the ruins of his once proud collection that hadn't been broken or drunk already by his...guest. 

"You sure can throw a punch." The human held his jaw in those weird palmed things he had instead of hooves as he spoke to her. 

"I didn't throw any punch...?" Berry responded awkwardly, but thought the question through. "Is that slang in your language for hitting something?"  He nodded absently from where he was seated before taking another swig of his drink. 

"So," Berry coughed in the awkward air that was beginning to resettle. "What's your name then?" She had collapsed from exhaustion during the fight, much to her irritation. The human—as he'd named his own race—had the fighting stamina of ten ponies. Something that as an Earth pony—even a rather unfit one such as Berry—grudgingly acknowledged to herself after losing.

"Sandwich." The ponies head rotated to look incredulously at the weird-looking creature. 

"Your name's sandwich? Seriously?" His head snapped over to look at her face in shock and irritation.

"How did yo-? Grah, stupid multilingual translating piece of.... My name is not sandwich, I mean, it means sandwich, but in a dead language we don't use anymore... My folks claim to be-" He shook his head and stood up, clearly annoyed now about something. Berry watched him go, confused. Cautiously, she slid a careful hoof over towards the bottle that Sandwich had left behind. It wasn't careful enough though, the man snatched the bottle up and brought it with him. "Yeah, you've had your fair share. You don't get a drop, horse."

Berry glared up angrily at the tall creature. "My name's Berry Punch, not that you deserve to know." She could already feel their truce melting away again as tensions rose. 

"Punch? Like the drink? Huh, it suits you." Berry huffed and crossed her forelegs in front of her, unsure as to whether she could take that as an insult. The human stallion walked out of sight around the corner to his kitchen and came back a moment later. 

"My name is Smorgas." Berry raised an eyebrow at him.

"So why didn't you say so before, Sandwich." His eye twitched and Berry grinned, having struck the nerve she'd hoped was there. "Were you just so hungry you couldn't help yourself?" 

"Keep it up donkey punch see what it gets you." He smiled as if he'd said something exceedingly clever.

"What's with you and racism...?" The purple pony gave him a disgusted look and diverted her attention across the room again. 

Smorgas' voice took on an apologetic tone and he leaned against the wall again tiredly. "... Yeah I guess you wouldn't understand that one anyway. My bad, I don't mean to sound racist towards you or your fellow...uhm, horse species."

"Equines. we're called equines as a whole, pegasus ponies, unicorns and alicorns included." He grunted acknowledgement to her correction. After a minute, she spoke up again. "Try me." The human look over the top of his drink at her questioningly. "You said I wouldn't understand whatever that was a second ago, try me. I need to figure out what's going on, rather than just ask every obvious question there is to ask like... Where am I, Why am I here... What the hay is going on, maybe you can cover all that huh? Assuming you even plan to. As far as I can tell so far, you're either dumber than I first thought or as clueless as I am." 

The man tiredly stared at Berry from the corner of his eye as she went on. He didn't speak immediately, instead pausing and considering his words. Finally, he sighed and stared at the ceiling while extending his arm over to the pony beside him, the still half full bottle of whiskey clenched in his fist. "Here, you're gonna need this... Berry was it?" He glanced out the corner of his eye again to watch the hor- pony nod and take the bottle from his grasp. His face almost betrayed his surprise as he watched her do so effortlessly. How the blazes is she holding that without hands? She seemed to just have it there in the air beside her hoof. I'll ask about that later... 

"Alright, well, I'll start at the beginning of all this for you, as I figure it..." Smorgas rubbed one hand behind his clean shaven head, considering carefully how to start. Berry Punch rolled over to sit more comfortably on her hind quarters as decent, normal ponies do. She wasn't sure how the human found that other position comfortable at all. "So first off I just got up a moment ago to manually make you hear my name the right way. The thing letting us talk right now, so to speak, isn't exactly perfect. But, on to what you really want to know... You weeeere... what you said before, I guess, foal napped. Not by me though, but likely by other humans, then sold to whoever would pay enough money." 

Berry's mouth dropped open disbelievingly. 

"And you bought me!? Why!? Oh Celestia, you aren't going to...." Berry reclined in fear a little, instinct and her thought train causing her body to betray her, despite it probably being unlikely given recent circumstances. She gulped audibly nonetheless. "Eat me!?" The human named Smorgas blinked several times. The split second passed his bored demeanor inflated and he smiled at her, toothily as well, but in obvious amusement. A moment later he started laughing uncontrollably. "Stop laughing, that isn't funny!" She stamped a hoof. Angrily Berry took another drink from the bottle that she had set down beside her. Could've sworn there was more in this when he gave it to me...

His roar eventually simmered down to a chuckle. "Heh, sorry. No we don't eat, equines or whatever? I suppose we do eat meat though. So you better watch out!" He leaned over and snapped his teeth menacingly. Berry scowled at took a swipe at him with her hoof.

"You jusht try it buster! I'll break this bottle over your big dumb...moldy hay-filled flat face!"

"Psssch, better a flat face than a mug as ugly as yours, nice huge googly bug-eyes by the way."

"My eyes aren't big or-r, I'm not ugly!" 

Smorgas leaned further back from the poofy haired purple pony as she began to bawl and cry before him. "Yeah I'm not falling for that act twice, horse face." The man may be instinctively sympathetic towards her voice, but this was no lady, no matter what she sounded like. He wasn't gullible either. True to his suspicions her sob act broke immediately into her giggling wildly. "Mhmm I thought as much."

Berry's giggling took a one eighty and she looked up at him angrily. She practically spat at him through clenched teeth. "Oh cram it muscle melon. I've known stallions like you before. All brawn but veeery tiny brains." Smirking, Berry turned her nose up at him while swaying slightly, "Aaand!" She waved a hoof around for emphasis. "You still haven't answered all my questions! Sho hop. To it." She looked back down heatedly towards him frowning. They scowled at one another with a mutual hate that burned through the thick atmosphere of insults. 

Smorgas finally spoke up again after a moment. "Right, well that was most of it. You're on our world now, not whatever planet it was they took you from." He watched her face twitch and deepen into actual sadness as she listened. "And for whatever reason my mother was actually the one that bought you, I think she outbid someone that didn't strike her as a good person. She does weird stuff like that. It seems she dumped you on me as well. When aliens want to come aboard Elysium for whatever reason, they can be sponsored. So she set you up with that." Smorgas noticed her lip quivering. Berry was also trying to speak, her mouth opening and closing. "Come on knock that off... What are you trying to say?"

"B-but...! When can I go home?" Studying the wall meticulously for as long as possible seemed like the next best decision for Smorgas in his inebriated state as the all too human sounding pony hiccuped beside him. "Hey! HEY! Come on, tell me when can you get me home? You can't keep me here, that's slavery!" 

Gee I sure wish I hadn't been elected to baby sit, but no, that would demand that I have relatives that aren't friggin' nuts. Rolling onto the balls of his feet and standing again dizzily Smorgas walked up to his over turned recliner to right it. "You can't go home, where ever that was. It's too far away and except for a few flagships and privately owned freighters, only Elysium has a manifold powerful enough to reach your planet, I'm sure. This is your home now, at least until I can give you to someone else anyway..." He grumbled out lastly.  "But even after that Elysium is-" Without warning... A glass bottle sped through the air to crack him in the back of his head. Behind it, Berry stood, her eyes blazing. "GAH! Alright that's it." He rounded on the pony behind him.









"LET ME OUT!" Berry bucked the metal door again in the pitch black room. She hadn't been able to find a light switch, fireflies, candles or even a lantern anywhere in the darkness. "Please let me out! I'm sorry I hit you again I j-just..." The pony collapsed quietly and sat with only her thoughts for company. He didn't really mean that I can't go home ever did he? I... I have a life in Ponyville, family... I couldn't have been poached like some wild parasprite for being kept as a side show attraction.

Her hoof found something to knock about in the darkness, so she did just that with whatever it was. Isolated in the dark all Berry could do was think, and think and knock around this widget and think some more. I mean what about Pina, Oh Luna who'll take care of her she's still too young to be on her own... Carrot Top would do it I'm sure she's always been such a gem for me and little sis but... Freezing her thoughts the pony realized she was really crying for real this time, snot mixing with tears below her muzzle. 

I-I just want to go home... I can't believe this is happening to me. I WAS JUST THERE! I WAS JUST THERE IN PONYVILLE! Standing there, just shopping. How can thi- How can this have happened to me. My life? What's going to become of the family winery? What in the name of Tartarus is even going to become of me?... She still remembered seeing that strange wide shadow on the ground below her as if a cloud front had appeared out of nowhere. Upon looking it was instead being cast by some roaring metal box in the sky.

Berry Punch tried to blink away and fight back the tears, but their relentless assault on the ground continued as they streamed down her face unbidden. She hated crying, REALLY crying anyway. A promise had been made years ago to never cry again she recalled. And how long had I been able to keep that one up... A day? Hah, Celestia I am pathetic... At the very least these days she made a point not to do it so much, but it was hard sometimes. She thought for a moment about promising Pina or herself to get home one day, but after a moment she decided that would more likely doom the idea to failure... From what the human said it was already impossible. She remembered distinctly what he had spoken to her before the door had shut. 

"How far? Think of it this way, remember looking at your sun back where you were from? However far you were from that, times several hundred million. Good night."

Wiping the remaining tears from her drying eyes Berry sighed tiredly, she hadn't been awake long but she was exhausted. Rolling over onto her back she threw the small object somewhere in the room to be alone and heard it clang loudly. A moment afterwards a huge crash sounded off from the darkness. The tumbling racket in the room lasted several seconds. Slowly fewer objects seemed to fall and the room was again quiet. "Oops..."







Smorgas rolled over in his bed, it was currently stripped of all the sheets and covers. They hadn't been puked on thankfully but they had distinctly smelled like girl. Now, normally for the stout guy that was a blessing come rain or shine and frankly to be expected after a long weekend of partying or successful bar hopping. But after not being in the home for a month that meant one of two possibilities. Either a college or academy fraternity had broken into his house and borrowed his sleeping arrangement for one wild night the likes of which he'd never seen.

Or that damn horse had slept in my bed for however long it had been awake. He shuddered at the thought. Freezing something's synapses and putting it in stasis was supposed to be perfect, it was just his luck that his mother had bought from the one person cheap enough to not use the real deal. In the morning I need to clean my house... Again... I have a host of furniture to replace now too. Great. Most of the stuff wasn't that old either... Oh, and I gotta sell that horse to someon-  Smorgas held up on the thought and considered what the ho- what the pony had said. That it was slavery, he guessed it was. He'd never dealt with it personally, but if you had enough money you could get away with murder. That's just the way it is... You have to keep your nose clean and not piss off the wrong people on Elysium. He briefly considered the rights and anti-corruption groups that sprung up from time to time.

Poaching aliens or even bringing outside plants on board is illegal, unless you have enough money to buy the permits or bribe the right officials he guessed. Everything revolves around credits. Hell, I bet Berry Punch is worth a small fortune come to think of it. His eyes twitched as another thought occurred to him. "Just how much did you blow on the purple talking pony mom..."
> A Close Encounter Of The Human Kind
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Octavia!" Apple Bloom waited patiently by the bottom rung of the ladder. "Octavia hurry up!" The grey musician mare had asked her to remain there quietly, and so she did. "Octavia come on, yer big butt disappeared 'round tha' corner an hour ago, where are you!?" Her friend above her had climbed up carrying Twilight with some difficulty, they had had the choice of either back tracking or taking a vertical shaft to somewhere unknown. Given the periodic rushing of air that assaulted them it was an easy choice to push forward and seek a way out of their metal maze prison—as soon as possible. 

A harsh whisper came from up above. "Apple Bloom pleeease when I asked you to not make a sound, I meant it." Twilight was still unconscious and had to be carried. Using her strange metal arms with some bit of practiced grace, Octavia climbed back down the ladder. "And my flank is not big, not that I care about such things..." She used the arms in tandem with her own legs on the rungs of the ladder. The filly awaiting her return eagerly bounced as her turn had come to ride the Octavia express up the metal shaft. She was too short to safely reach between the wide spaces in the huge ladder.

"Hold on now." Octavia leaned down and Apple Bloom giddily hopped up onto her back.

"This is way better than a hay wagon trip!" Octavia smirked as the young passenger held onto her neck from behind herself. Slowly, the grey mare began ascending once again to rejoin their comatose librarian. Upon reaching the summit of the short journey, Twilight Sparkle came into view, she was lying in the glow of one of the few red lights in the passage. A small sigh escaped Apple Bloom. Ah really hope she's going to be alright... We need you Twi', wake up soon.

The current duo had been walking for a few hours as their companion involuntarily slept atop Octavia. They had been somewhat assured she would be fine though, Twilight seemed to have a tendency to snore randomly while asleep. 

"Should we try wakin' her up Tavi?" The Apple family filly stood over her older sister's friend worriedly and made to nudge her cheek with her muzzle. 

"We... Probably should let her sleep Apple Bloom, likely she'll have a horrid headache when she is awake, best spare her of that for as long as possible..." Frowning, the musician picked up her passenger to carry her again. Peering down the hall into the dark and periodic spots of red light brought back Octavia's feelings of worry. It's like walking into a doctor's office. You're never sure if you're in store for a shot or something unpleasant. 

"Alright... Well lead the way big si-" Already walking down the passage, Octavia almost missed the filly's slip. She probably would've paid it no mind as well had Apple Bloom not cut herself off. The grey earth pony quirked a smile in the black, but let it fall to a no doubt somber look before it took form. She knew it was just the product of the poor filly missing her sister and family. And there's no end to any of this in sight... On that thought, she considered just how much food they had left. It amounted to whatever Twilight still had in her bag from before they had met, and what had been scrounged from the lounge. So not much.

clnk clnk clnk

The musician flipped her mane over one side of her to the other and held a hoof back to stop Apple Bloom. Their last hoof falls' noise faded in the strange tunnels.  Casting her gaze behind them and forward again she tried to find the location of the noise she'd heard. What was that. 

"Tavi? What's wrong?" She looked behind them once again.

"I know that I just heard something Apple Bloom... Didn't you hear it?" The filly leaned up in the dim light and stretched out one ear listening intently to the closed space's air. After a moment she wore a defeated look and shrugged. 

"I dunno Tavi... Maybe yer hearin' things?" 

clnkclnkclnkclnkclnk

"I'm most certainly NOT hearing things!" Apple Bloom heard it now too, a light patter of clinks and buzzing was getting closer to them. She fearfully crouched and looked all around them for the source. "Run Apple Bloom! This way!" Not knowing where it was coming from Octavia shot forward in the tunnel, leading the filly. 

Red lights played across their faces and eyes as they galloped down the metal ways. The path dipped suddenly causing the Apple Bloom to trip forward onto her muzzle. "Mwmf! Ohw, hat was my toof..." Octavia scooped her up with one leg and set her down again, still running. She butted her rump with her head to get her going again.

"Keep moving Apple Bloom I still hear it! Whatever that noise is, it's definitely behind us now." 

Crrrnk!

A metal wall peeled open wide in front of them. Octavia cursed at herself. Sugar!!

The glow of a light just barely touched the new enemy, it had multiple legs and reared at them in a familiar manner. The difference however was that this creature looked as though it were made of iron. A single blue light was shining from it's front much like a solitary eye. In the front, Apple Bloom slid to a stop causing Octavia to nearly trip herself. 

She turned around immediately, pushing the filly along with her new direction...

"Come on Apple Bloom back this wa-" The pony cut herself short as she spotted more of the blue. Behind them the blue lights were drowning out the red of the halls in the distance. It had friends. 

A clatter of legs assaulted her ears from the first spidery machine that had appeared. On instinct Octavia bucked out behind her, she felt her legs make contact, probably with the noise rushing her. She heard Apple Bloom cry out from the surprise of the attack, but didn't waste time to look behind her. Casting one more glance back down the hall, Octavia saw a sea of only red now, no more blue. 

In a flurry of hooves she half carried, half threw Apple Bloom down the hall in front of her. The filly gasped loudly as she soared over the hunk of iron with Octavia, which had apparently been pulverized by her attack. "Runrunrunrun!" Her eyes were drawn in fear as she ran behind Apple Bloom to the dim light of what was chasing them. I am so very tired of constantly being on the run! Just eat me and get it over with!

"Octavia!" She snapped herself out of her self deprecating thoughts at the sound of the filly's voice. "Up ahead! Ah see light! Like sun light!"  Indeed there was a light, it looked glorious and warm—it was a very bright and normal light as well. Not any of the alien shades of yellow or orange that she had been plagued with the last several hours. The musician sped up her gallop and passed the filly. "Tavi!?" 

Skidding Octavia came to stop above the source of the white light, she reared up on her rear hooves, teeth clenched in desperate fear wrought determination. Then she slammed down with all her might. With disregard for her passenger she struck the metal grate that seperated her from a chance at escape solidly.

"AAH!" Octavia tumbled forward through the passage as the finned metal grate gave way, it had offered her almost no resistance. Thankfully, on sheer instinct one of her alien arms nabbed the edge before she fell. Her gaze hurriedly cast about her and she tried to get her bearings. Above the pony the sounds from the creatures or machines still rang in a symphony of bangs and clanks. She was high above the ground, perhaps forty strides, a long fall. Looking up at Apple Bloom, Octavia saw the filly on the verge of tears. 

"Tavi you alright!?" Octavia reached up to her with her hooves outstretched.

"Yes I'm fine Apple Bloom! Look I need you to be very brave and ju-" Before she could finish the filly hopped down from the ledge and neatly landed in her waiting grasp. She felt her lone arm holding her bounce under their weight, as she caught the young pony. "EEEEEEeeep!" Shaking, Octavia held tightly onto her new cargo, and looked everywhere at once to regain her bearings.

"Yeesh, Tavi calm down..." Apple Bloom muttered while watching the ground far below them warily. "Speaking of down..." She looked below herself at the incredible height which they hung from. Far beneath themselves, Apple Bloom saw a couple familiar shapes moving in the distance. 

The three ponies were in what looked like an alley way of some sort. It was brightly lit, but only in spurts. From around a corner however, there lay a mess of bright flashing lights. More noticeable was the unmistakable sound of a large crowd to mix with the racket from the vent, still chasing them. 

Octavia smoothed her features and coughed to make up for her outburst. Apple Bloom peered up at her, the noises becoming loud again. "What now?" The filly looked worriedly from her to the opening they clung to.

"We jump." Octavia saw red auras brighten the space above them, so before her courage or common sense could kick in, she swung herself towards the closest flat surface she could see. That was the wall as it so happened. Together, her and Apple Bloom clung to one another as they flew through the rushing air. 

Octavia's own eyes shut, blocking out the crazy action she'd just taken. For a change she held her breath instead of screaming, her chest felt tight regardless, but screaming just wasn't in her this time. The knowledge she carried both of her only friends in the world right then kept her from wanting to. She could feel her free metal limb dig into the stone of the wall that had been close at hoof. Her hind legs slammed down against the vertical surface too, and stuck there, despite carrying the combined weight of herself, Twilight, and to a far lesser degree Apple Bloom.

The stone wall didn't hold her though, she could feel her legs skidding down it's rough surface. All Octavia could manage was to hold on. The unmistakable feeling of falling slowing vibrated her body rhythmically. 

After a moment, she opened her eyes, she was panting. The frantic pony mare immediately looked up at the height she'd just scraped down the entire surface from. Next to that was the vent which she had jumped out of. The opening was a solid pitch black. They didn't follow us? Oh thank Celestia! A struggling form made herself known from her fore legs. 

"Tavi lemme go! Yer squishin' me!" There was an audible pop as the filly made her escape from the cellist's crushing grasp. "I think you bruised my leg..." Apple Bloom rubbed one of her shins gently, frowning. "That was fun though! Let's do i-" Octavia glared and held a hoof out, pointing at the filly.

"Apple Bloom just, do me this one favor please, and do not suggest ever doing something like that again." Octavia raised her front hooves to her temples and massaged them, on the verge of sobbing. Behind herself, she lowered Twilight gently to the ground. "Oh, what in the name of Celestia just... Ahaaha... Why can't we ever catch a break? Hm? Why?" She leaned against the wall and stared down at her appendages, not sure if she should be grateful for the extra legs that had saved them, or mad at them for just being there. She grimaced when her fourth leg—the one which she'd scraped down the wall with—failed to respond as the others did.

The filly beat her to scrutinizing it. "Think your thingy's broke Tavi, it's sparken worse than Sweetie Bell does when she tries to use magic." Octavia sighed and folded it behind herself into her back, out of sight and out of mind. "Not to sound like one of Pinkie's broken records or nothin' Tavi but... What now?" The filly tossed a tussled lock of an out of her eyes and looked up at the opening from which they'd made their leap of faith. "They don't seem tah be followin' us... Whatever they were."

Octavia frowned. "Just... Wait here Apple Bloom, I'll take a look around so we can get our bearings." Offering the little form of her friend's a smile, she quietly trotted a short distance away to peek around the corner. What she saw almost caused her to cry out in surprise. Barely, she'd managed to catch herself. Though she didn't think anything could have possibly heard her over all the noise that her ears were suddenly being beaten with.

To her immediate right was a dead end wall of studded metal, but to the left of the earth pony and the alley, was a city. But not like any she had ever seen. Crowds of humans walked, floated and rode in metal boxes that were also floating. Before her, lights flashed and sounds roared and whizzed. 

Octavia was suddenly aware that she was huddled as closely to the ground as she could possibly get, looking shakily from one sight to the next. Her claws—even the broken one—were scraping and digging at the odd, smooth stone ground around her. Gulping, she focused and drew them back in, those little things were a horrible nuisance to keep a reign on. 

They certainly had the right idea though... She thought frantically.  There were humans and machines and even other creatures she couldn't identify at all amidst the throng. The entire sight had the distinct feeling of a Manehatten rush hour or Las Pegasus crowd, but times a thousand. It had every aspect and demeanor of a slum to it, from steaming street grates to flickering lights indicative of fireflies or oil long left unattended. Again Octavia gulped. Just what have I led us into...  The unmistakable feeling of defeat and hopelessness crept into her. Unexpectedly, she actually felt a tear well up onto her face a little, just from the mere sight of all this. Shaking her head and mane furiously she focused. I cannot let feelings like this take a hold of me. 

Backing away slowly from the crowds down the street, she started to return to Apple Bloom. The mare cast a wary look over her frazzled black mane, before finally turning her back on the horrid clamoring of voices.....










Twilight could feel her eyes fluttering, distantly, she became more aware of noises going on around her. It was almost deafening, she dimly thought. Unsteadily, she tried to stand, even being unable to so much as see yet. After dealing with a few moments of her dream-like thoughts, it became clear she did not yet have control of her legs yet, or even her thoughts themselves entirely. They flickered in and out of being focused on her home, Apple Jack, Fluttershy or Pinkie... The unicorn attempted to concentrate on simply regaining full consciousness, she thought she may be passing in and out of an awakened state. Nearby she noticed Apple Bloom and Octavia were talking. Twilight couldn't make out what was being said.

Blessedly, she was able to crack open her eye to see. Disturbingly... Her other eye flickered like candlelight, as though a wind were constantly blowing over it in an attempt to keep it blown out. A low moan from her own voice reached her ears. Apple Bloom's and Octavia's joined it again after a moment, in a frantic tone. She saw a red maned blur through the haze before her. It was replaced after a second, this time it was a black maned blur. The voices were unmistakably her friends, but they sounded as though they were under water. 

They continued to speak to her. It kind of sounded to Twilight like they the two of them were asking her questions and comforting her. "I can't," Her mouth and throat were very dry, which made talking difficult. She tried working moisture into her mouth again. "I can't understand guys..." The two voices quieted. Twilight could only wait. She tried to move her head and whimpered. Twilight's head felt worse than before. At the moment, it was more akin to the time an anvil had mistakenly fallen on her. As well as a hay cart... And a piano. 

That was among Twilight's least favorite memories.

The shadows began to sharpen slowly, voices and noises became clearer too. They sounded like... Pinkie's party horns? She opened her eye fully to the dim white light. The shapes were her friends! Twilight realized for the first time the good news this meant, they had gotten away. Her anti-gravity spell had worked and the three of them had escaped. In her current state she'd forgotten entirely... About the humans who had died. That- It hadn't been my fault... I couldn't have... This time hadn't been like before. I'm not a mur- Twilight would have shaken her head to clear away the rogue thoughts, but her neck was a cramped mass of pain attached to an even larger concentration of agony.

A certain filly rescued her instead. "Twi'...? Can you understand us yet?" That was definitely Apple Bloom.

"Please Twilight, say something else, are you alright? What hurts? Do you need anything?" That frantic barrage of questions and worry could only be the mare she'd come to know as Octavia Philiharmonica. It was good she could think more clearly now. Twilight smiled weakly. Even that hurt. She tried again to talk though.

"Hey..." Her voice was little more than a croak but she continued. "How is everypony?" She heard gasps of relief from the two.

"We're fine Twilight, we're both fine." Twilight's strange human-mangled eye continued to flicker as she looked up at the two earth ponies before her. She could feel concrete beneath her side, and something soft under her head. 

"Yah, we're great Twi', are you gonna be okay though?" A crouching Apple Bloom scooted closer to make herself better known to the downed lavender librarian. 

Twilight's own hoof moved to gingerly touch her horn, it blazed to life with what was becoming an all to familiar feeling to the unicorn. Pain. "Ah-! Yeah... I'm alright, in a lot of pain and sore but... It'll pass, I just need to rest." Octavia nudged the filly aside a little.

"Give her some room Apple Bloom." The filly groaned in irritation and hopped to her hooves.

"Right away, Zecoraaaa." Twilight couldn't see from where she lay, but she thought she'd heard the distinct sound of a tongue being stuck out from Octavia. 

The grey pony raised an eye brow back at the retreating filly. "Who? Gah, Twilight is there anything I can get you? We left plenty of water in the thermos..." The other mare lowered herself into Twilight's view. Smiling weakly the earth pony drew the container out from their small bag.

"Yeah, water would be great, but give me a minute... I want to try and sit up right, after my horn stops hurting so much." Octavia sat back frowning sadly, before looking over at the filly standing beside what was obviously a massive dumpster. 

"Twilight we're in a city. A human city." The unicorn's eye opened again and looked up at the cellist in clear surprise. "I-I'm not sure exactly where we are, uhm well we're in an alley it seems, at the moment. Nopony has... No human has seen us yet. I think we're well hidden for the time being at least." She licked her lips nervously from the thought of being found.

Apple Bloom looked back at the other two ponies from where she had been peaking around the corner of the dumpster into the street. The filly had been curiously watching the opening of the dead end alley which they had chosen to stay in. The lights outside played a fascinating color show on the grey wall of the alley. "I see..." Answered Twilight hesitantly. "That's not so bad then- ow," Gingerly, she had tried to push herself up then raise her head. The headache had put a stop to the endeavor. I'll lay still a bit longer. She decided. "Okay well... Gee, I don't know, at least we got away." Twilight pushed aside her guilt over the humans again and tread onward, further into her thoughts. She thought back to what she'd read back there, trying to figure out if any of it was useful. "I think I know why that lift hadn't worked at least."

Octavia lowered one ear and turned the other down towards Twilight, interested. "Go on...?"

Twilight grimaced at not having understood this when it may have helped them. "I'd read in a human news article on that screen back there, like a news paper, that some of their lands have been 'locked down', as it were. Meaning they've had access to them restricted I'd guess. Not to mention they've been evacuated." 

Octavia's mouth closed slowly and she held a hoof up to her muzzle, realization of what it meant creeping in. Her eyes widened correspondingly. "Because of those monsters the lift was shut down... So they're being," The cellist gulped. "invaded? Oh Luna's stars, that's horrible!" 

Twilight nodded slightly from where she rested, still prone. Her other eye's flickering on and off, seemed like it was going to persist. What is causing that? She wondered. Her hooves and legs felt like sand bags she realized. With difficulty, she slid a hoof under herself again and she pushed carefully against the ground that supported her. Inch by inch her head rose without springing into pain, until finally she was upright. Breathing caused pressure in her skull, so she limited herself to shallow breaths through her mouth. 

"Are you going to be alright, do you want that drink Twilight?" Octavia asked concerned. The unicorn mare chuckled lightly to herself in answer, and regretted it after. Her head reminding her of it's condition again. 

"Twilight? What's funny?" She raised a hoof towards the slightly younger pony.

Twilight fended her off weakly though with a hoof of her own. "Yes, I'm fine Octavia... Thank you, I'll take that water though." The cellist proffered the drink towards her friend, lid off already. The librarian gulped down the warm liquid greedily.  "Ah, thanks... I was laughing because you almost rhymed again, by the way. Zecora, the zebra Apple Bloom mentioned, heh, she's a friend of ours from Ponyville. She's something else." Octavia smiled over at Twilight, who returned it from over the thermos she held in between her two metal hooves.

"I do hope to have the honor of meeting all of your friends soon enough Twilight." Wearing the best cheering up face she could Octavia grinned with some effort. "They must all be truly wonderful to have earned a friend such as yourself, Apple Bloom's told me all about some of her friends as well, and the Elements of Harmony themselves too."

Twilight let out a satisfied gasp from drinking, then managed another laugh over the memory of her friends. Despite how sad it was for her to not know if they were safe... The memories were warm to Twilight. Here in this alley it was a little cold, and very dank, so every little bit helped. "Yes, they really are the best anypony could ever hope to have. I miss them dearly..." She sighed. "I just can't stop thinking about them, of Rarity or Apple Jack, Fluttershy... Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie." The remorseful mare held a hoof up to her head wincing from getting overly boisterous. She caught Octavia shuddering. "Are you okay Octavia?"

"Hm? Oh yes just... Reminiscing over the memory of... Pinkie Pie..." The cellist mumbled harshly. She let out a misty-breathed exhale. "Twilight! I should bring up something, I lied earlier I suppose, and I need to confess." Twilight's ears perked up at this news. 

Octavia had lied? What could she have lied about?

"What do you mean?..." Twilight blanched—puzzled at the dramatic outburst her friend had just elicited.

"I... I am not Canterlot Symphony's First Chair Cellist!" The grey mare's head drooped, depressed and in defeat. "I... I-" She sniffed loudly, recollecting the painful memory. "After the grand galloping gala this last year, I, Octavia Philiharmonica, was cast out of the Orchestra. For initiating a request made by the mare you're friends with. Pinkie Pie." She huffed the name, before continuing with a raised eye brow and a sarcastic smirk. "Or as I call her, the 'Pink Plague' rather clever, hm?"

"Oh dear, did that really happen? I'm so sorry! I could speak with the Prince- ow." Twilight massaged her head again. 

The lamenting cellist switched smirk for concern at the librarian's pained look. "We really need to get you someplace where you can rest better Twilight... But, I meant all that as a joke," She gave a convincing and calm smile to Twilight who weakly looked up. "I found peace of mind in Ponyville since the incident, I've even spoken with Pinkie about it once. Though not by choice... Apparently she had a habit of throwing newcomers to your town a party no matter their opinion on the matter." Twilight took her turn to smirk back.

Yeah that's Pinkie alright.

Octavia sat back from Twilight who'd finished nursing her head finally. The librarian passed the depleted liquid container back to her carefully. "I'll hold back on the jokes though, I think your head could use the break from any sort of interference... Outside or in, so that also means no more spells Twilight! You could do some permanent damage not taking this seriously." The look of concern she gave again this time was filled to the brim with sincerity. Twilight nodding gingerly. Then looked over to the side in a lamenting fashion. Octavia not picking up on what she was thinking continued. "It's not so bad Twilight, you'll be good as new quick, if you'd only take a break from it. A unicorn of your caliber should only need a few days...? I mean you've been casting what, arch-mage level things from what I know, in your condition? I'm no expert but..." 

The cellist trailed off, Twilight had shook her head again scowling slightly. Octavia was about to ask what was wrong but her friend spoke first. "It's not that Octavia, there are... Extenuating circumstances preventing me from not using my magic. At least not using it some." She paused, unsure how to say it out loud now that she had to. It sounded like a bucket full of crab apples even to herself. The confused look the grey mare gave her bid Twilight to continue. "I- Well, I've been using my magic to move I guess." Octavia gasped.

"To mo- Twilight? You can't mean..." She peered down at the other mare's legs in shock. Twilight shifted them to sit sideways to Octavia trying to escape the scrutiny a little. "To move your own body!?"

"It's not as bad as it sounds... I don't know why, but other than my neck I need to channel magic every once and a while to keep moving. It's this metal I'm covered in. I- I have some dark suspicions about us Octavia, I think that we're more machine than pony no-" Twilight lowered her voice as she spoke, she didn't want to worry Apple Bloom about something that she didn't need to. She took a quick look over to the dumpster where... The filly wasn't. "Octavia!" The cellist jumped and looked up from staring at her own hoof confusedly. "Where's Apple Bloom!?" She whirled around to look right where she'd last seen her.

Her mouth drew down in fear and she charged to the end of the alley. Twilight called after her, but the unicorn's voice was unheeded.







Cautiously, the two peered out of the alleyway, despite their panic for Apple Bloom's safety they managed to keep from simply sprinting out to look for her. Again, Octavia was met with the glare and flashing of the strange lights, she recalled where she had seen such patterns before suddenly—Las Pegasus. This place was filthy and full of carrion by comparison though. The smell was certainly unreal, causing her nose to wrinkle unbidden. Beside her Twilight swayed and leaned against the wall with one hoof, breathing heavily.

"Twilight- You should stay here, I'll go and look for her." Immediately Twilight shook her head, then groaned in pain. The unicorn turned to lean her back against the concrete wall, and slid down onto her rump to sit. She looked up fiercely at Octavia though, who crouched worriedly in front of her.

"No, we both need to go, we can't risk splitting up. This is bad Octavia, really bad. If Apple Bloom's already been taken by somep-" 

They both were both startled when another sharp and clamoring voice peeled out. Right. Beside them.

It sounded a bit like Pinkie Pie. "OOH wow, oh my gosh. It is more of them, oh wow, I am like your biggest fans, EEEE! This is so cool, no one's gonna believe I met gladiators. Huh, I don't recognize you two actually, like what are your names?" The human stood frowning down at them, and frankly the two didn't know how to respond at all. Their mouths simply worked slowly trying to form words. "Well? I mean you guys do talk right?" Letting out a nervous laugh the obviously feminine human was now... buttoning as Twilight recognized it, like crazy on something glittery attached to her arm. Twilight's thoughts caught up with her finally and she realized what the human girl was saying. Were they . . . popular? "Wow, well still it's cool running into up and comers to. Like, have you got fights coming up or something? Oh my gosh are you two girls? Uhm . . . What are you doing back here actually?"

Octavia and Twilight turned to look at each other as one, they suddenly were aware of how close their faces were together. Entering a coughing fit Octavia stood up and looked away from Twilight, blushing fiercely. Twilight herself retched a little and leaned the other way. "Augh! N-no it isn't what you think! . . ." Twilight faltered a little remembering what... who she was talking to, although she didn't seem dangerous.

The girl smiled and flipped a long wall of sheening straight yellow hair back over her shoulder. "Ahuh, riiiight. Heh, well I'll leave you both alone then! Can't wait to see you out in the rings if you're combatants! I know it's totally butch of me to be into it, that but it's my boyfriend's fault I swear by it . . . Anywaaay taaah!" She winked and walked backwards smiling, before finally turning away and giggling even more.

"Twilight what just happened." Octavia stared after the skipping human distraught and very, very confused. 

"I can't say for sure . . ." She nervously looked over at the other mare. "But we need to go, we need to find Apple Bloom. That encounter just settled this for me." Resolutely, she stepped into the empty side street. She ignored the heaviness of her legs. Octavia for her part, thought she understood what the librarian was thinking, she hoped she was right as well. 

"Twilight . . . Luna as my witness this is crazy, what if they all just turn on us?" Her fears were running wild she knew, but that crowd was intimidating for the grey mare. The purple mare however, didn't answer her, the face she wore was stolid and determined. A human that was manning a stall in the building they came around raised an eyebrow at them, Twilight gave him a brief glance and nodded her head as she walked, her face unchanging. The human returned it smiling awkwardly, then shrugged and continued working on the machine that sat on the counter before himself. Octavia had opened her mouth to gasp at being seen by the human, before remembering just what they were doing. 

"See Octavia?" Twilight grinned back at her. "The human's society is familiar with and accepting of outside alien races and influence." The grey mare tried to return the confident smile, but all that ended up happening was her mouth falling open in awe of what lay before them. Slowly they walked towards the end of the street—Octavia with her head lowered and mane almost dragging along it. Twilight stared fiercely ahead, and looking slowly around the crowd for any sign of Apple Bloom amidst them. She knew that she should stand out immediately if she came into view, but the tall and numerous shapes of the humans were obscuring the other side of the street entirely. 

Octavia gulped quietly and followed Twilight to the street corner, where she stopped and began looking to and fro into the passersby. More than a few humans stopped to stare at them both before moving on, a couple waved cheerily. The stark contrast from these humans to those that they had encountered thus far was staggering to both their minds. Twilight tried to look confident and sure of herself though, despite the dull ache still in her head. Octavia half cowered behind the lavender mare, but kept looking for Apple Bloom. 

"Grr, It's hard to see anything with my eye distracting me like this..." Twilight tried to hold a hoof up to cover her glass plated eye. But that did nothing to help it's flickering. Octavia frowned at her friend.

"Is there something wrong with your eye Twi- Twilight! I see her! There!" She jutted a hoof out into the road pointing to it's far side.

Not far away at all on the opposite sidewalk was the short olive colored form and rounded red mane of Apple Bloom. The two sprinted across the busy street of people weaving between them deftly. Still, more than a few angry voices trailed after them both. "Apple Bloom, oh thank Celestia you're alright!" Twilight caught the filly up in tight embrace immediately. 

"What were you thinking Apple Bloom! What would have happened if we couldn't find you? Or someone that was looking for us had done so first? Thank Luna you're alright bu- Apple Bloom? Are you alright?" The filly's face was drained and pale, her eyes wide and afraid—desolate. Octavia called to her companion frightened. "Twilight?" The lavender mare held Apple Bloom out at a leg's reach and met the youth's gaze. The filly began tearing up before her very eyes. 

"Sweetie what's wrong? We're here now it's okay, you're safe." The filly's lip quivered and she struggled a breath into herself. Words tried and failed to form or leave her mouth. Octavia kept an eye on the crowd, they mostly seemed to ignore the three aliens though. "Please Apple Bloom tell me, what's the matter?" Twilight pressed on consolingly. 

"Tw-Twi, you g-gotta. . ." She stopped and sniffed loudly before wiping a hoof across her muzzle, inhaling. "Look at the p-poster. . . The screen, l-lookit that there screen." Casting her eyes away from Twilight, Apple Bloom settled them onto the paved ground. Twilight's worried stare quirked an eyebrow and with Octavia who had been listening, looked up to where the filly pointed. Both of their mouths dropped open. At first the screen was of a grisly human with a dangerous looking pole of metal attacking some creature. After a moment the screen flickered and changed what it depicted. The screen now showed a very familiar image to the both Twilight and Apple Bloom. It was of a red stallion with a tussled brown mane, and a large cloven apple for a cutie mark. However, it wasn't how Twilight remembered it, the mark was now instead painted across metal plating on his side. Memories ceased being of use there. 

It was Apple Macintosh though, or Big Mac.

The unfamiliarities about him were more numerous, among them was the rictous snarl adorning his face, as well as the other creature prone beneath him. Two large blades protruded from his fore legs and buried into it's chest. What was obviously blood splattered across the large glowing wall panel itself, periodically. Twilight heard Octavia vomit beside her. Several disgusted sounds came from behind them, but she ignored it. Queasiness for the lavender mare was withheld only by the sheer shock of what she was seeing before her. Twilight's expression became eerily relaxed after only a moment as she focused on reading the sign, absorbing every detail of it. 

THIS FURIOUS FRIDAY ONLY : COME TO THE COSMOS COLOSSEUM FOR THE BLOOD BATH OF THE DECADE-

There was more, but it wasn't anything specific—just random meaningless advertisements and boasts. Twilight's breath quickened in a rage and her mind's thoughts raced. Dots connected in her as Twilight again recalled the strange nonsensical articles from on the information screen. Gladiators . . . A Colosseum . . . Fighting . . . They were forcing their own and other aliens to fight. It was beyond barbaric, it was sickening. Again Twilight thought of Discord, even his mind wouldn't come up with something so vile. The screen changed again, this time to a human proudly standing over what looked like a large shattered machine. Octavia was nudging her side she realized distantly, eventually it stopped. Soon the image flickered again and it was back to the first that she had seen. It must just repeat she thought.

Twilight could no longer stand to watch the screen regardless. She made a disgusted sound and looked away to the ground. Apple Bloom was sitting beside her she realized and Octavia was trying her best to look as though she were just standing there waiting. "We're rescuing Big Macintosh girls." Stunned the both looked up at her sudden return to them. The olive filly managed a weak smile while opening her mouth to say something, but it fell again into a defeated expression with nothing said. She looked down at the sidewalk they stood upon instead her brow creased. 

Octavia took a tentative step towards Twilight and whispered just loud enough to be heard over the nearby crowd. "Twilight, are you sure we can? Your condition as well surely you don't thi-" Twilight's lips twitched to an unintended pout, but the rest of her face became the scowl she wanted. Beneath it she was fighting back tears, the pout was all that escaped of it. What she really wanted to do was fly into a hysteria and cackle madly, or talk to herself and pace. However, the student of Princess Celestia had learned from, and had been getting some . . . help for those urges, from the Alicorn. More than that, it wouldn't help their current situation, and it would frighten Octavia and terrify Apple Bloom. The scowl would have to do.

"We are rescuing him Octavia, I swear on the sun, moon and princesses themselves that we are." She lowered her voice to match Octavia's previous whisper. "The fight is this Friday, we can't wait. He could be killed Octavia, Big Mac isn't a fighter, not like . . . not like these humans." The grey mare's features drooped further and further as Twilight continued. "We have to rescue him. We will, and we'll all get to safety. Eventually we'll find all of the others to and then we'll find a way home." Twilight absorbed her own words and she could feel the reinforcing effect they had on herself that she saw in the other two ponies in front of her. She smiled at them, trying to give them warmth and strength. It seemed her own resolve was infectious after all—they met her gaze with a determined glint of their own in their faces.

"Ye-yeah, we'll show those stupid, smelly, no good humans who's boss!" She jumped and grinned up at the mares, even with tears still smudging her face's coat. They all, however, looked up in time to catch the raised eyebrow of one man walking just next to them on the sidewalk. Apple Bloom glanced around herself sheepishly, cringing from the stern looks that Octavia and Twilight set her with. "Oops, sorry . . ." 

Twilight sighed in time with her black maned friend. Looking around herself she thought again of their safety here in the open. The humans didn't seem to think they were anything out of the ordinary, but they were getting a lot of stares. Discretion was definitely still called for she decided. 

"Well, in any case let's head back to the alley, it's a point of reference and we need to get our bearings still. . . If we're really okay to be out here," She had raise her voice but decided to pause as one very noisy air... thing, slid through the air over their heads. Apple Bloom gazed at it wide eyed, the thing was close enough to whip their manes in it's under current. "ahem. Then we should be able to ask directions to this Cosmos Colosseum. . . We may even be able to sneak in pretending that we belong there." Octavia pinched her eyes shut as she looked back down from staring up at the stretching under ground city scape above them. 

"Please don't tell me that you're actually thinking about doing what I think you just suggested Twilight, please." Her face became pleading, and Apple Bloom's confused. The filly scratched her head, then stopped and grimaced at her filth caked hoof. 

"I am suggesting exactly that, Octavia. We're going to enter the Colosseum... as Gladiators."