The sound of tapping keys echoed in the empty room as Misty continued to explore the terminal. A few desks down, the naked ghoul stallion, his tongue hanging out of the corner of his mouth in concentration, continued his task of attaching powered armor to the now stripped metal power armor harness rear end.

“Wow” Misty breathed “I can see why they did not want Fluttershy to know what they were doing”.

“Hmmm?” Tidbit looked up from his work with a querying look on his leathery face.

Misty looked up, the green light from the monochrome screen casting a sickly glow to her eyes and her light blue highlights in her mane. “You should hear some of these entries I found”

Misty’s eyes went back to the terminal as she pressed play. A scratchy male voice came out of the terminals speakers.
“Research Log 125.24. Recently the equestrian intelligence supplied us with a large sealed canister that had been smuggled out from behind Zebra lines. We were advised to place it in our highest quarantine labs before opening the seals. The lab unicorns maintained HAZMAT level 1 during its transfer and opening in the sealed room. We are treating it as a biological agent. Chemical specialist Night Bloom and one of the robobrains have been tasked with opening it.” The voice stopped.

“Sounds ominous” Tidbits rasped after he spat out a wiring harness.

Misty nodded “It gets worse” she said. Green text flashed on the screen as she pressed play on the next entry. The male voice returned, this time panting and panicky

“What the hell was that? As soon as the robobrain opened the canister, pink mist came out and started to flood the room. It slammed the lid closed again, as programed, but it was too late for Night Bloom. That pink stuff, it just, oh uh, Research log 126.59, I guess, But Night Bloom, as soon as the mist touch her, she screamed. Oh, Celestia above, the screams, then the robobrain screamed. Those things can’t feel anything, but it screamed. The screams came thought that isolation speakers. My ears bled with the screeching. I smashed the speaker with my hoof as my brain felt like it was going to explode. Night Blooms fur and flesh seemed to have melted into his medical scrubs. But his face, when he slammed against the glass, the flesh melted off half his face. I see the grinning skull when I close my eyes. We flushed the room out with magically purified water, and recovered his body.”

“Pink mist, that sounds familiar, something I heard a long time ago.” Tidbit adjusted a plate of armor on the frame. The voice from the terminal started again.

“I fucking cannot believe it! The Director wants more tests on that pink shit. Well this time I didn’t risk one of my ponies. We went and got one of those strange things they have down in the basement. We locked it in the isolation chamber with dumb bot this time, and cut off all communication to the room. The bot opened the cylinder and some of the pink gas escaped, just like before. Then when it slammed the lid shut again, it just started to rust and fall apart. But that…thing, it just stood there. The pink gas oozing around it, and though those weird holes in its hooves, but it didn’t move. It just stood there and looked right at the one-way glass, like it was looking at us. We flooded the room and got rid of the gas. One of our security guards then entered and put a bullet in its skull. We will dissect it and see what the pink gas did to it.”

The recording finished.

Tidbit spat a tool out of his mouth as he looked over the now complete power armor. “Well I’m done” he proclaimed as he kicked the scraps of leather aside.

Misty looked up from the screen at the ghoul. “Didn’t you hear that recording?” her voice wavering.

“Yes, I did, and it sounded horrible, but it happened hundreds of years ago so it won’t affect us” His rough voice steady.

A burst of static came from the terminal, followed by the same male voice from before, this time weakly, and shrouded with static “What have we done? We dissected the creature. It seemed to be unaffected by the pink gas. So, we got hold of the big one, the tall one, and dragged it into the room. Three bots held it down while a fourth one opened the container and poured some of the fluids into its mouth. The pink mist poured out of its mouth while it gagged, spitting some of it on the robot’s shell. The pink mist quickly ate though the metal of the robots, and they collapsed, twitching, to the ground. The tall black creature heaved itself back onto its hooves. It then started smashing itself against the walls. We watched as its hard-black shell would crash with each impact. Huge buboes formed around its back and cheeks, splitting into black tentacles. It smashed its bulk against the one-way glass, and we booked it. The emergency doors shut before we all got out. The hissing, the screaming, oh Goddess Celestia, I will never sleep again without hearing that.”

Mechanical clanking broke the silence after the recording, making Misty jump. The final metal plate wrapped around the ghoul’s hind legs and tail, fully encasing Tidbit like a mobile metal tomb. The helmet rotated on a hinge on the back of the neck and lowered itself to place covering his head, the only sign of a pony in the suit, was his eye and a patch of leathery skin, though the hole blasted into the side of the helmet.

“Sounds scary, but I am guessing it is very very dead.” Tidbit snorted, his voice sounding mechanical and amplified.

Misty looked up from the screen, the green glow clashing with her blue fur. “Why?”

Tidbit shrugged, the metal moving with his body “Well that was recorded, what, over two hundred years ago, so unless it’s a ghoul, a dragon, or immortal, its dead. And if it was a dragon, I am sure they would have said, and I think only the princesses were immortal, though I’m not sure now, after all this time, they must be dead.”

Misty gasped at the casual blasphemy from the undead stallion’s mouth, but remembering Serenity she kept her silence.

Metal shod hooves ground against the floor. “Let’s get going” Tidbit turned towards the door, “We were supposed to be down stairs”
Picking up her weapon in her telekinetic field, Misty moved from the desk and followed the mechanically assisted behemoth towards the door.

Dim sickly green light illuminated black rough dripping walls of a large room. Dangling from the cave like ceiling a single green cocoon rocked and convulsed as if something inside was trying to claw its way out. A large carapaced figure watched, a look of mild entertainment twisting her features. Around it, smaller black figures milled around, dozens of blue eyes weakly glowing, the faint light flashing on ivory fangs. At the feet of the tall changeling the crumpled raider armored body of another changeling twitched. Turning away from the cocoon, the tall changeling looked down at the twitching changing.

“You are a strange one” Tentacles writhed as the tall changeling spoke. “I cannot feel you in the hive, yet here you are.” She looked up and mused to herself “Perhaps you are not one of mine, but are a spy from another hive?”

The clad changeling said nothing, but slowly started to get back on its feet.

“Oh look, it’s awake” The tall changeling sneered.

“We are Hero” The changeling said simply.

The tall changeling laughed haughtily. “Well well, it has an independent spirit.” Then chuckling cruelly, the feminine voice deep and resonant in its buzzing “Well then, for if you are you, call me Miasma”

Hero’s face betrayed nothing as she looked up at the grinning face of Miasma. Tendrils of pink fog flowed slowly from Miasmas holes and drifted lazily across the refuse strewn ground. Soft clanking echoed off the walls as Hero sad down, the metal plates in her leather armor moving and clinking together. She looked around and took in the sight of dozens of other changelings all watching her. Turning her head back she looked past Miasma and at the green translucent cocoon. A familiar bat winged pony rested fitfully upside down, her body twitching violently with her eyes closed. A snarl had pulled the batpony’s lips back from her fangs, snapping fitfully at nothing.

Hero flicked her featureless blue eyes up to the eyes of Miasma “Bad food.”

Miasma flicked her dragon like red eyes at the cocoon. “Yes” she mused “That one is full of hate and loathing, but, after we ‘Tenderize’ her, she will be good meat for my drones.

Hero shook her head. “No”

Miasma flicked an ear, somewhat amused and annoyed at having a mere changeling drone say no to her.

“She is Hero’s bad food” Hero snarled.

Stepping forward though the drifting tendrils of pink mist, Miasma lowered her head down level with Hero’s. “Possessive? Interesting, seems a drone’s mind can develop.” Miasmas horn glowed a sickly pinkish green. “Until it’s taken away again.” The magic from Miasmas horn arced over to the smaller horn of Hero.

Hero screamed.

Tidbit poked his armored head around the corner, his exposed eye narrow as he watched a rusty brain bot trundling its way down a hallway. Behind him, Misty waited with a rifle floating in her blue magic beside her. Six inch grooves had been worn into the tile covered floor from the centuries of the bots relentless and unending patrol. The bot followed trundling tracks squealed and crunched over well-worn grooves in the ground, showing the centuries of the bots relentless patrolling. As the grooves around the room armored robot turned a corner and disappeared down another hallway the treads grinding against the raw concrete. Keeping silent, the pair slipped from the cover of their cover corner, and followed the worn grooves.

White bones of a long dead pony lay in the middle of the hallway, holes in its skull showing its death was not a natural one. Treads from the relentlessly patrolling brain bot had pulverized it’s though the body of the skeleton, grinding the splintered bone into a fine white powder, and dragged it along the treads grooves. A key card hung lay on the ground, its lanyard still draped around the vertebra of the pony’s neck.
“Take it” Tidbit whispered though his hermit, gesturing meaningfully at the plastic card at their hooves.

Misty slung her rife over her back and magically levitated the ID, dust and bone gently billowing off its surface. She turned it over in the blue haze until she saw the photograph. A light pink mare with sparkling blue eyes and a candy-striped mane smiled back at her. She read the information on the card ‘Candy Apple, age 19, Intern, Cutie mark Toffee covered apple, Security clearance low.’

“It’s a kid, they had kids working here” Misty hissed.

“I doubt that they would just let any kid here, since this is a top-secret facility” Tidbit growled softly. “She probably came from some important family.”

He had a look at the card “Yep, an Apple, so that would mean that the Ministry of Wartime Technologies was involved here.”
Misty blinked incomprehensibly at the broken helmeted ghoul.

He sighed “Another long story, far to long for now”

“SURRENDER ZEBRA SCUM!”

Unthinkingly the pairs legs scurried and slipped on the tiles before gripping and crashing them through a plate glass wall into an opulently furnished conference room. Plush cushions covered with a fine layer of dust surrounded a dense wooden table, glasses and water pitchers still standing ready for a meeting that never happened. The wooden table splintered as the heavy body of Tidbit slammed into it, the glasses shattering against the wall. “Surrender Zebra scum” the robot repeated as it shuddered to a halt. Grinding gears tried to turn the torso to face into the shattered wall. “ERROR ERROR” the metallic voice screeched. The brain case with its ocular sensor turned to the ponies as they pushed the table over as cover. The robot’s treads tried to climb the groove in the floor, but could only slide against the sides.
*BLAM* Tidbits battle armor’s gun roared once, the round smashing into the brain case of the robot. Shards of the protective glass sprayed out from a large hole, the life sustaining fluids gushing out. Misty’s own rifle barked and the brain splattered against the other side of the bowl. The robot’s motors whined then went still.

Silence filled the air, broken only by the breathing of the unicorn. The ghoul’s armor clicked as he slowly moved towards the broken and dead bot. He poked at it with his metal shod hoof. Nothing happened. Quickly he searched the remains and found a rusted door which yielded to several heavy blows of his powered forehoof. The door crunched then sprang open as the battered latch broke. Tidbit flinched back, then looked inside. His visible eye narrowed and a ‘Heh’ emerged from his vocoder. Grunting he pulled out a box from the cavity, a belt of ammunition leading from the box to the insides of the robot. He looked over at Misty “Uh, if you could?”

Misty trooped over and wrapped the belt in her magic then yanked. The old leather fractured under the stress. A few bullets fell out from the broken loops as the belt finally gave way.

Tidbit lowered the box to the ground and peered closely at the bullets. “Look, these are magicly enhanced.” He said. Misty saw a small crystal on the tip of each projectile.

“What do they do?”

Tidbit shrugged, “I guess we will find out.”

Misty levitated the box and loaded it into Tidbits battle armor storage, a small ping in Tidbits ear, and his armors spell matrix analyzed and sorted the new addition.

The pair looked at each other, then with a nod from Misty, they made their way out of the shattered room and down the hallway towards the doors they hoped were stairs.

A black figure crawled over the rough roof of the cave to where a green cocoon hung. It patted at the hardened slime, then crawled over if to where a thin area showed the occupant. Inside, a grey figure still dressed in its armored barding slept fitfully. Wings fluttering against its side, its limbs twitching as if dreaming, sharp fangs biting at dreamland enemies. Under the cocoon a lone bowler hat lay in the dirt. Blue eyes and sharp fangs glinted in the dim light from the dozens of other changelings that surrounded the cocoon as they watched with rapt attention as their fellow light up its horn. Green tendrils wrapped the changelings horn then entered the cocoon.

“SQEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!” The changelings voice reverberated around the cave as it threw up its head screaming. The green tendrils of changeling magic surged black out of the cocoon. The changeling reached its head back further as its legs started to bend behind it in agony. The carapace around the neck cracked loudly and the changeling fell to the ground, blood pouring out of its mouth and into the dirt. The shattered limbs quivered once, then lay still as the light from its blue eyes faded.

“Poison” one changeling muttered. “Poison, Poison, Poison” the word was picked up by another, then another until the room was filled with the chanting changelings.

The chanting reached an earsplitting crescendo then stopped. In the silence the changelings stared for a moment before in groups of two or three started to leave. Under the cocoon and beside a battered bowler hat the carcass of the dead changeling flared as green flame raced across it, leaving nothing but ash.

The cocoon twitched violently and a bead of goo ran down the surface, and dripped onto the ground.

“YOU WILL SUBMIT” the tall figure roared as she poured more magical lightning from her horn to the prone Hero. Green arcs flowed over Hero’s body as she screamed. The barrage stopped. Panting and bleeding from her mouth and ears, Hero raised her head. Her voice cracked “We... are… Hero.”

Miasma sneered, “YOU will tell me EVERYTHING”

Hero screeched as the painful barrage battered her body once more. Her eyes leaked tears as the magic bent her body in unnatural positions, then suddenly she fell quiet and limp.

Miasma’s magic faded as she looked down at the smoking figure laying pathetically at her feet. Her head cocked as she caught a stray thought that entered the hive mind. She grinned cruelly.

There are two more, the corrupted queen injected into the hivemind, find them.
The hive buzzed as the command filled their minds, and a series of drones took flight into the darkness.

Inside the cocoon the slight twitching of the figure it entombed suddenly convulsed violently. Grey eyelids snapped, orange eyes rolling. The figure heaved itself in its green prison of fluids its legs and wings spamming and its fanged maw heaving, breathing in the goop in shuddering fluid filled gasps.

Metal claws punched out though the tough cocoon shell, ripping larger as the inner fluids began gushing out onto the floor. The bottom ripped out dropping all its contents into a wet mess on the floor. Rising out of the goop a soggy figure slowly rose, shuddering, to all four limbs. Suddenly it dropped its head down as its body heaved, green fluid spewing out of its mouth as its lungs purged themselves. The soaking furred creature threw back its head and loudly gasped as air filled its lungs. Orange eyes with slit pupils opened and a fanged snarl curled grey lips. Leathery wings flared out in full batpony glory as dripping fluids pooled on the ground. Emjay was an angry pony, and nothing, nothing at all was going to stop her. She picked the wet hat off the ground, and flipped it onto her head. Her hooves clopped loudly as she strode out of the cavern, coupled with a metallic clicking as the hoof blades tapped on the ground.

“What’s that?” Misty spun around in the hallway, her eyes following a scampering figure rushing from them. Her hooves clattered as she chased after it. Tidbits visible eye rolled as he gave a sigh and cantered off behind the galloping unicorn. Hooves slipping on the floor as she rounded a corner, she bounced off the wall, legs flailing till they caught traction. In the distance a candy cane tail flashed before disappearing around another corner.

“Hey! Stop!” Misty yelled as she charged. Hero rounded the corner behind her. “It’s another pony! We have to catch up!” she yelled to the ghoul before galloping off again.

Hooves slammed hard on the floor as the pair chased after the figure ahead of them. It dashed though a broken door into the darkness beyond. Misty ran headlong into the darkness just as an armored hoof knocked her left ankle making her trip and stumble into an untidy heap on the ground. She looked up angrily at the looming metal clad stallion. “What the Tartarus are you…”

“I thought you had military style training” Tidbits voice grated. “Rule one. Do not run into dark places. That’s how you stay alive.”

Misty picked herself up off the ground, not looking at the ghoul. “I-I-I know that, I was just…” her voice faltered as she tried to think of a way out of her embarrassment, “testing you?” she asked hopefully. “Besides since when have you had military training?” she retorted.

Tidbit snorted. “I may have been a humble carpenter when the bombs fell but I did serve my nation before.”

The cracked lens of Tidbit’s helmet light flared as he turned it on. The spear of light pierced the darkness illuminating shelving and boxes of files.

“Have you got your eyes forward sparkle on?” Tidbit asked.

“Um… Yes?” Misty cursed herself for forgetting something so simple. Instantly data streamed along the bottom of her eyesight. “Don’t you have something similar in your helmet?”

Tidbit shook his head “No. the display unit is too badly damaged.” He sighed, “At least the servos work in the armor, and the spell matrix is working, so I might have something like VATs in one eye but that’s about it”

Misty nodded sagely, as if she understood what he was talking about before paying attention to her. A green blip on her compass showed something alive directly ahead, one that was not a threat. “Ok, this way” she said stepping in front of the ghoul, keeping within the beam of light from his helmet. The sound of hooves clopping reverberated from unseen walls as they crept slowly forward. Illumination showed a door at the back of the long room. “In there” Misty whispered softly. She lifted one hoof and gingerly pushed. Rusted hinges creaked as the door opened slowly. Tidbits light cut though the dark as his head entered illuminating old toilets, scattered plungers and a teddy bear sitting on a bench wearing a top hat and glasses. Light whimpering came out of a dark corner. Tidbits swung his lamp over to where a pony could be seen curled up in a corner peeking up at them with terror filled eyes. Misty gently moved towards the pony. “It’s ok, we’re not going to hurt you” she murmured soothingly “You are safe.”

“No more monsters?” the pony whispered fearfully. Blue eyes looked up from a dirty pink face. Its ragged candy cane striped mane hung limply from its head.

“The robots?” Misty whispered back “We will protect you from them” she smiled encouragingly. In the back of her mind, she could feel something trying to get her attention.

“Please, help me” the pony piteously whimpered. Misty drew up to it, and lowered herself down as it wrapped its hoofs around one of hers. As Misty’s hoof wrapped tightly the niggle in the back of her mind started screaming for attention. Her eyes widened as she looked down at the pathetic pony, then she swung her head around to her saddle bag, and telekinetically removed the ID card they had found with the crushed bones. She looked at the photo, then at the figure hugging at her legs. “C-candy Apple?”

“Please help me” She heard the voice again, but the pony’s lips didn’t move. “Please help me” the voice was behind her “Please help me, please help me please help me”. A chorus of the same voice, over and over, running over each other. Misty looked back at the door and gasped.

A dozen faces stared back at her, each one the same as the photo. “Help me, help me helpmehelpme” the voices overlapped into a brain numbing drone. Tidbits helmet light flashed over the walls as he swung around following the voices till it lit up the faces of the crowd of Candy Apples. “The fuck” he muttered to himself. His armor clicked as ammo changed in his mounted weapons.

Misty started to pull her leg back only for the pony on the ground to tighten its grip. “Help me” it said again, this time its lips pulling back into a snarl. Green fire raced over its body as Misty’s Eyes Forward Sparkle flashed its marker from green to red. The changeling lunged up and sank its fangs deep into Misty’s throat. Green flares filled the room, revealing a dozen more changelings where the Candy Apples once stood. Tidbit groaned as three of the changelings slammed onto his neck trying to pin him to the ground as a fourth one leaped to his helmet and snarling shammed its muzzle into the opening snapping at the flesh of his face. The ghoul slammed his body against the wall crushing one of the changelings in a viscous wet crack. The body of the changeling slumped to the ground its carapace shattered and broken around its body while blood flowed freely. The fallen changeling was joined by the one attacking the stallions face when he slammed his head to the floor crushing its back before another pair leaped into the air and landed hard on him. The servo of his armor strained against the sudden weight. A blue wall of magic slammed against Tidbit and the changelings, pushing them out the door into an untidy heap “Go” rasped the unicorn “Find Hero”. The door slammed shut trapping the blue unicorn and the changeling on its throat inside.

Tidbit scrambled to his feet deliberately trying to crush the spines and skulls of any changelings under him. He rammed his body against the door the metal hoods of his armor slipping on the blood-soaked floor. “Just Go!” Misty’s voice was muffled and strained. Tidbit blanched as a loud gunshot rand out from behind the door.

“MISTY!” screamed the undead stallion. He turned his back to the door and prepared his motor enhanced legs to deliver an almighty buck. A snarling changeling jumpedfrom the pile of corpses and landed on his face distracting him. He sipped on some of the blood as the creature snarled and gibbered as it eyeballed his one exposed eye. The fractured face plates and bulging eye of the changeling horrified Tidbit as its flapping jaw splattered its body fluids into the helmets opening. Tidbit reared himself up and slammed his head against the nearest wall the critically injured changeling joined its fellows in internal sleep. More green flares of light flashed over the armor as Tidbit watched the corpses of the changelings burst into waves of flame consumed by their own magic until they were nothing more than dust.
“Halt Zebra Scum!” a metallic voice reverberated off the walls. Tidbit gave a last look at the now silent and badly dented door then reluctantly galloped away from the voice of cybernetically enhanced mechanical death.

A slave is silent when she needs to be. A slave moves quickly when she needs to. A slave will kill her opponent when she needs to. A batpony former slave takes those lessons to heart when she is no longer needing to them in the ring or around her owners. To her own advantage. Three drops of blood fell to the dusty ground soon followed by a soft sigh and a back armored body joins the blood. Pooling more from a gaping wound in the armored neck joints. Metal claws melted into a furry hoof gently placed itself on the neck of the dead changeling while a nearly inaudible chirp bounced from the darkened walls. A flutter of leather wings betrayed the batpony as she left the ground and seventy glided down a bitch black tunnel. A small part of her marveled and how the data from her pickbuck’s eyes forward sparkle merged with the information of her echo location showing her more information and a greater picture of her surroundings than she had ever had before. The rest of her wished only to find her she handted to had friend and kill as many of the bugs a she could. Her hatred bubbled into a rolling rage while the pain of her hoof that was still blending and melding around the metal blades of the combat claws set her heart racing. Each step on her clawed hoof had been sending sent pain shooting though her leg and into her body. With her now in flight she could feel blessed relief. Pain was never a stranger for her though however but loathed to admit it any time when some of her pain was released she felt better. Her leathery wings canted slightly as she glided through an open door ever mindful of the red dot in the compass in her vision. She would not admit to it but she was also glad that her “friend” had insisted on her wearing the pipbuck.

But now her friend was gone. The other two ponies that was always around her friend was missing as well. But she wasn’t worried about them. Her friend was missing and Emjay was going to find her. And if she had to fly though a rainstorm of blood she would do it. And part of her prayed to the dark goddess that would be the case.

A shaft of dim light pierced the blackness of the hallway down before her. Emjay landed gently on the ground and folded up her wings with the slightest flutter. Bringing her dark body low to the ground she crawled forwarded to the slightly opened door. Her orange eyes glittered as she sneaked a look into the brightly lit room. Inside she could see a table battered and grimy from years of neglect, but resting on it was a pair of saddle bags. Hers and Hero’s. A changeling snuffled as it nosed its way through one of Hero’s bags. Emjay’s eyes followed a plastic wrapped package of green fall from the bag onto the table. The contents spilling out in a heady sweet smelling pile of plant material. The changeling gave a curious chirp and sniffed at one of the buds. It never saw the silver blades before they stabbed though a neck joint though its throat. It gurgled once as blood sprayed out all over the packs and the desk before it fell lifeless to the ground.

Emjay’s tongue licked at the blood on the blades cleaning them as she looked down at the dead changeling. She stepped back as the familiar flame raced over the corpse turning it into dust. Sneezing as the dust filled the air she reached the table. Reverently she scooped the drug back into the plastic bag and lifted it in her mouth. She flipped open her own saddle bag and prepared to drop the bag into its depths. Then stopped. She looked at her saddle bags then at Hero’s she mulled over it for a while. Knowing that if she kept it herself she would smoke it all very fast but if she put it back into Tidbits bag well even though Hero would control it Emjay would enjoy it for longer but that meant giving up control. When Hero had packed it Emjay had hated that she didn’t have that control over her own drug but now that she had that choice she kept looking at both sets of bags. Hero’s or her own. Can she take control and possibly waste it, or does she give up that control and trust her friend..

With a bestial snarl, she made her choice. Slowly but rough she thrust the baggy into Hero’s back and closed it. Her anger at making that choice would spell certain painful doom for the next enemy she would get her hooves on but she also knew in the back of her mind that quiet voice she hardly ever listed too that she had made the right choice. Hero was HER friend and she sort of kind of trusted that black shelled fanged winged bugpony. She repacked their food weapons ammo and supplies back into the bags until they were bulging like they were after the Romish camp. Ducking her head, she put the first of the bags on her withers then the second. Years of fighting in the pens and being mounted for others entertainment had strengthened the batpony so she could carry the heavy load with little effort. The second bag did interfere with her wings so she would not be able to fly but she knew keeping Hero’s stuff (and the weed hidden inside) was important. She crept to the door again, peeked through the gap, making sure it was clear she slipped into the darkness.

Her hooves clip clopped quietly on the dirty floor, small sparks of light glinting off the hoof claws, and a faint green glow from the dimmed screen of the pipbuck softly illuminating the ground before her. Emjay licked her fangs as she thought of the death she would be inflicting on whomever crossed her path first. Her heart beat hard in excitement and fury. Fuzzy ears twitched as she heard something moving behind her. The batpony spun around and crouched low, waiting for her prey to come closer. A click of sonic sight later and she leapt at the hulking figure that was striding towards her. Too late her brain registered what her echolocation was telling her and she smashed face first into steel. She fell on her rump in a daze while glowing eye of metal monster turned its attention to her.

“Emjay what are you…” the gravelly voice when silent as the battle raged batpony jumped onto the masked face and tried to sink her fangs into the metal muzzle. Tidbit forcefully shook his head dislodging the batpony so she fell to a heap on the floor. He could see the rage in her eyes as she picked herself up and prepared to leap back onto him. Thinking quickly, he yelled “Emjay! Stop! Hero needs help!” The name Hero bloomed in her rage addled mind and she stopped. Tidbit sighed in relief. He had not seen Hero in the augmented vision of his suit and had guessed that the batpony and the changeling had been separated.

“Where is she?” Emjay hissed at the ghoul. The fire in her belly still burned but the want to find her friend overcome her need to kill somepony.

“I don’t know….” Tidbit was cut off by the batpony leaping onto his back her wings flapping and her teeth grating against the armor. He shrugged the batpony off again. He pressed a hoof down on the batpony’s back and held her down as she squirmed. “BUT” he growled “we will find her”. Quietly he added “I won’t lose another one.”

Sensitive batpony ears swiveled at the last statement. Rationality made the batpony finally lay still not presenting as she had been beaten and trained too but flat on her belly. She turned her head slowly and looked one of her bright orange eyes up at the steel monster. “Where is the blue one?” she asked. Tidbit lifted his hoof of the batpony and stood rigid the gravelly voice lost all emotion. “Gone”.
Emjay got back onto all four legs and looked up at Tidbit. She shook herself and flicked her ratty tail. “Huh” was all she said. She turned and started down the dark hall. Tidbit shot her a look then followed.

Miasma looked down at the crumpled blue unicorn that her changelings had brought before her. Blood matted the fur from deep cuts and gouges in the unicorn’s throat and barrel. A cruel smile etched the tall Changeling Queens face.
“It’s still alive, what do you think we should do to it?” Miasma asked.
Beside her a small changeling with a broken fang, wearing black armored barding looked at the wounded unicorn dispassionately.
“Feed”

Author's Note

I am not the best pleased with this chapter.. or the art work, but I do need to get on with the story. So much more to write. I think when I am reviewing each chapter to make an ebook out of this I may edit it more. This one was really hard to write, I could see it in my mind but didnt seem to be able to put it into words. It was also very claustrophobic to write. But here it is.