Tears ran down Misty’s soft blue muzzle as she held the cold corpse of her mother in her front legs. Her mind filled with her mother’s voice - encouraging her, loving her, sharing with her. A memory of her mother presenting her first pistol, and taking her to the range to teach her how to shoot it for her fifth birthday, the day that her mother and the Commandant Overmare presented her with her first uniform and pipbuck when she came of age, and that proud yet worried smile when Misty was selected, only a few days ago, to go outside with a recon team to see how safe it was. So many memories. Looking down at the lifeless body, Misty felt that her mother now seemed so small. ‘Nothing,’ Misty thought, ‘will ever be right again.’

A wailing keen jerked her out of her memories, and she looked up, annoyed that her solitude was disturbed. Slowly she stood and covered her mother’s body with one of the blankets that were strewn around the room. Her sorrow became tempered with thoughts of revenge. She would find out who would dare do this to her─who would take her mother from her─and she would make them pay. The keening sound repeated as she turned to the door, and, sparing one last look at the mare who had given her so much, when out to find what the sound was.

Hero’s voice cracked as she howled her grief at the colt’s passing ─ a young pony she had never met seen before, yet whose death had opened psychological wounds from an old pain that she could not quite remember. If changelings could cry her face would have been streaming with tears. Teeth bared in yet another howl, her ears perked up as she heard a sound. This one a deeper sound, reverberating off the metallic walls. Hero fell silent. Her ears swivelled around, trying to find out where the troubling sound came from. Then a wave of sadness hit her as she heard the sound of hooves on the concrete flooring.

Misty came around the corner of the passageway, and saw the changeling laying with the young ponies. She nodded softly at Hero as the changeling got to her feet.

“There’s nothing here for us.” Misty’s voice cracked with emotion, “We should get out of here.”

Hero saw that the camo-clad mare was wearing her saddle packs, so she went and nosed her own onto her back. The contents clicked and rattled softly. The sound seemed to be mournful in the air. As they turned to make their way out, Hero’s ears perked again. The deep, low sound filled the air once more ─ a sound that seemed to be angry... or hungry. A roar of pain and hatred.

Misty’s eyes widened at the sound, and she came to a sudden halt. Her ears flattened against her skull, and a shiver ran down her body. Her horn lit up as she drew her pistol out of her saddle bag. She peeked carefully around the corner, and, seeing nothing, gestured for Hero to follow. Hero, not understanding the hoof gesture, remained still until Misty turned to her and hissed “Come on.”

Hero followed the blue mare around the corner, the lights flickering erratically, shadows dancing around corners and dark spaces. The debris seemed to grow more frightening as the pair’s heightened awareness played havoc with their minds. The roaring sound reverberating off the walls again, giving no sense of where it originated.

They continued carefully through the corridors, past the atrium, heading to the tunnel to the exit. As they passed some of the machinery that used to open and close the thick, metal, blast proof door, a huge shadow filled the gaping hole in it. The shadow roared as it stepped into the faint light of the doors’ room. The stench of rotten flesh was palpable as the pair took in the horror that presented itself.

A hideous, near skeletal bovine face with a single rheumy eye rolling in its socket. The right side of its grotesque skull was missing, exposing decayed and corrupted brain tissue, and from the left side, melted into its tattered ear was a plastic plug, with bare wires dangling uselessly. The huge body bulged with putrefied muscles and shredded skin. Grey fur hung in listless patches as the huge bulk of the feral ghoul Minotaur lumbered towards the terrified pair.

Misty’s pistol barked twice and the pair watched as shattered flesh and bone exploded from the nightmare before them. It did not seem to notice the impacts, and continued its slow advance.
“Um...” Misty turned to Hero, “Run.” The pair turned tail and took off back into the gloom of the death strewn bunker.

Hero’s wings buzzed frantically as she ran behind the galloping mare, past the strewn bodies and trashed possessions of the former inhabitants. Misty’s eyes darted left and right in fear as she made her way back into the atrium and up a flight of stairs. The bellowing of the ghoul followed them menacingly, making Hero’s blood run cold. Misty turned into an open door with Hero following close behind. Gasping for breath, Misty pushed the door closed behind them, then, with Hero’s confused help, pushed a large table in front of the door. With their safety assured for now, Hero and Misty bunkered down behind the overturned table, and waited.

The ghouls heavy hoof steps resounded on the concrete floor as it made its way up the stairs. With it came the clattering of lighter hooves and the rattling bleating of other dead throats. Misty gulped and peeked up though a reinforced window, and saw the minotaur surrounded by undead goats, their own flesh hanging from their bones, and in each left ear wires hung and swung lazily.

Hero chirped at Misty as she ducked down “Shush” she quietly commanded the changeling. Peeking over the window sill once more she watched as the minotaur and its escort looked through the windows of each room they passed.

Misty ducked back down, and checked her weapon. Hero removed her own weapon from her saddlebag and copied Misty’s actions, seeing that it was loaded, and kept it out. Two mouthguns held by blue and green levitation fields floated near their owners, as one shivered in fear and the other one watched her with confusion.

Darkness fell as the Minotaur stood at the window, his rancid breath fogging the glass as his eye took in the devastation inside, searching for the pair huddled up against the door. Misty held her breath, waiting for the door to be forced open trapping her and her friend in the room with the monster. One of the ghoul goats bleated plaintively and the giant undead creature grunted, then moved on. Neither of the ponies dared to move.

Long agonising minutes passed into hours as the pair waited till the sound of the Minotaur and his minions had moved to a different area of the underground complex. Misty raised her head slowly up, her weapon trained ahead of her and she carefully looked around.
Ducking back down again she gestured for Hero to follow her as they made their way deeper into the office space they were hiding in.
“Overmare’s office” she whispered to the changeling,

Hero chirped softly in reply, not knowing or even caring to know what an ‘Overmare’ was. Misty led them into an annex in the office where filing cabinets were laying strewn around, papers covering the floor. Another corpse, this one, a purple earth pony wearing a camouflaged shirt with gold braiding was slumped against the far wall. Misty seemed to ignore it, as she made her way around the room. Hero trotted over to the body and sniffed it.
“Fresh!” she called out to Misty. “Food?” she then asked, as if offering the first bite.

Misty pulled her head out from the insides of a trashed cupboard, turned and saw as the changelings jaws opened wide, preparing to take a huge chunk of flesh.

“WAIT!”

Hero paused, her maw wide and her fang gleaming in the low light. The silence that fell was suddenly broken by the gurgle of a hungry carapace covered stomach. Misty walked over to where Hero was standing and looked down at the body. Her trained medical eye noticed very slight movement in the chest. “She’s alive?”

Hero’s jaw clicked shut with a look of disappointment, but she watched as her companion knelt down and light up her horn. There was a faint glow around the damaged pony and a rattled breath drawn in. The purple pony opened one eye slowly but not seem to focus on anything.

“Who’s there” the purple pony’s voice sounded dry and raspy

“Private La-moon, Commandant Overmare” Mistys own voice betrayed some of her own frayed emotions “Please Ma’am, what happened here”

The Overmare’s eye closed again and she sighed. “they just burned through the vault door. Unusual uniforms, like “ The purple pony coughed roughly, and her face grimaced in pain “ like armour.”
Another bout of rough coughing shook the frame of the Overmare. “You must leave” she rasped, red frothy bubbles forming at the corner of her lips

"Not without you Ma'am" Misty's magic enveloped the mortally injured officer

"STANDFAST” the voice of the officer had an edge of steel. "You will .." the mares voice cracked back into weakness ".. obey my orders. Get out of here, leave me, see if you can find any survi..." The Overmare’s voice faded, her eyes closed and her body went limp.

Reverently Misty lowered her head as a tear ran down her muzzle. Then giving herself a shake she stop straight at attention, saluted her former commanding officer, briskly about faced, and marched towards the watching changeling.

"Come on, we are leaving"

Hero blinked slowly then followed the blue coated camo clothed unicorn.

As the pair went through the door into the main office, the corpse shuddered then opened one eye. "Damn it all" she croaked to itself, then slowly shuffled back to where she was when she was first found. Reaching a hoof into the innards of the cabinet she continued rewiring a few computer boards, slotting them out of their place, and into new computer slots.
When she had finished a single red LED started blinking slowly in the depths of the dark cable draped confines. The commandant sighed in relief, then laid her head down "You have twenty minutes, I hope you make it, private" she whispered to no one.

Misty peeked through the overmare’s office windows to see if the zombie minotaur and its undead companions were still there. She then looked at her pipbuck and noticed that there were no red blips indicating unfriendly beings shown on the small screen. Misty's horn glowed as she started to levitate the barricade from the door. Hero watched, then with her tongue sticking out of her mouth she copied Misty's example. The horn of the changeling glowed green and a green aura surrounded one of the chairs that had been shoved against the door. the chair lifted wobbly then shot across the room, crashing noisily against the wall. They both stood still and stared at the chair as it fell to the floor clattering.

"Uh.. You just stay there and I will do this" Misty whispered raspily then returned to her work while Hero remained still while impassively watching her. The door now freed from the barricade of office furniture opened silently inwards, and Misty, with her weapon in her magic field peeked out.

"OK lets go" she whispered and silently moved out the door. Hero remained still. A few seconds later Misty stuck her head back through the door and whispered, "Come on!" Her head disappeared again. Chittering quietly the black clad changeling followed her.

The clattering of hooves on concrete rang through the air as the unicorn and changeling charged down a refuse strewn hallway, fleeing from the sound of a zombie minotaur's roar.
Bleating followed the roar, as the undead goats join their master.
Misty leapt over the explosively dismembered corpse of a security pony and turned down one of the corridors she knew led to the entrance as her companion followed close behind, part running and part buzzing her wings and flying to keep up. Misty briefly turned her head back to check on Hero "Stay close!" she yelled.

Heros legs pumped harder and the buzz of her wings became louder as she caught up with the military unicorn. Ahead they saw the door leading to the entrance chamber of the vault, and the vault door. Gasping, Misty sprinted through the doorway, passed the machinery that controlled the heavy but now useless cog shaped blast door towards the burned opening that they had only a few hours before entered by. Heros wings folded back and together the pair galloped through the opening into the dark natural cavern that had hidden the entrance.

Sunlight made the cavern entrance look blazing white as the pair blasted out of the gloom. Misty skidded to a halt and started gasping for breath. Her head was low as her breath blew up puffs of red dust from the canyon floor. Hero came in beside her, and panted. the soft pink of her tongue in contrast to the black shell covered jaw.

"Staying dangerous" Hero's echoing voice sounded strained and tired. Misty looked up and nodded exhaustedly.

A faint crackling sound started up, then started to get louder and more shrill. Misty looked at her Pipbuck.

"Oh Goddess Celestia above…” Misty’s eyes shrunk, "The reactor.. Its overloading"
Misty took off once more down the canyon as fast as her exhausted body could carry her.
Now free of the confines of the vault ceiling, Hero's wings buzzed as she launched herself off the ground and chased after Misty. Her own pipbuck also squealing an alert to the rising radiation.

Hero followed the growing dust cloud from the hooves of the fleeing Misty, then swooped down. Grabbing the heavily laden Misty from above, and ignoring the indignant and scared scream from the unicorn mare, she poured all her energy into her aching wings, lifted them both up, straining, towards the canyon lip and as far from the now irradiated and slowly melting vault as she could.

Both pipbucks had gone quiet by the time that Hero landed. Misty, who as a unicorn had never been off the ground, and mercifully passed out in fear, collapsed into an untidy heap on the ground. Hero landed heavily after deposing her load, then felt her knees buckle under her. Breathing heavily she watched as her companions eyes opened. The dazed and confused unicorn felt solid ground under her, and lifted her head up. "you.... me.... ground.. fly" Misty's voice cracked as she tried to articulate shambled thoughts.

Hero nodded "We fly, you not die. Be bad food anyway".

As the world came more into focus and her brain processed what had happened before she had lost consciousness, Misty just nodded. Then her brain picked up on Hero's words. "Bad food? You would eat me?"

Hero's lips curled up "Bad food, not good for eating. Friend, not food"

Tiredly Misty chuckled a bit. she turned one sardonic eye towards the ever blank face of the changeling "Yup I think we qualify as friends"

Hero could feel Misty's affection radiate from her, so she quietly and softly absorbed some of it into herself.

Two figures made their way across the barren wastes, a unicorn of blue wearing a camouflaged shirt and a saddle pack of a medic, while a black changeling wearing a tan and ripped shirt with blue insignia on its sleeves and her own scavenged pack that had seen far better days. Unseen far above them a purple dot circled, then disappeared in a flash of blue-white light. The flash caught the attention of the changeling, who looked up, but seeing nothing, forgot about it and continuing followed her companion.

Misty paused and looked at her pipbuck screen once more "Thirty more miles and we reach Saint Gallop" she muttered, "I hope some of us made it".

Hero heard her muttering and mentally shrugged. She had no idea what a ‘Saint Gallop’ was, and quite frankly she didn't care, but she was quite happy to follow the lead of her friend. The pair entered passed by the shattered remains of a farm house, the walls collapsing in on themselves as the old wooden support beams had long since rotted away. Blades of brown grasses swayed gently in a gentle warm breeze that also caressed the relaxed ears of the medical pony.

Eyelids drooped in relaxation, Misty savoured the quietness of the moment, her mind drifting in the haze of the remains of an adrenaline crash. Hero plodded several yards behind her, also feeling the effects of adrenaline withdrawal, her own eyes heavy and her shoulders low.

The sudden impact sent the changeling sprawling on her side. The featureless blue eyes were now wide with fear as she saw a helmeted figure looming above her. Hero squealed shrilly as the figure above slammed a heavy metal covered hoof on the changelings forelimb. With a sickening crack the carapace shattered from the intense impact. At that moment nanowires from the pipbuck wormed through the cracks in the shell like covering of the forelimb and embedded themselves into the exposed flesh wrapping themselves around raw nerves. The frightened changeling squeal redoubled into shrieks of unadulterated burning agony.

The masked figure looked down on the writhing creature under its hoof "Be still Monster, this will be fast!" it snarled in a deep menacing metallic sounding voice. It brought up another metal clad fore hoof up and aimed for the skull.

Misty turned around at the sound of her changeling friend piercing screams, Seeing the armored figure towering above the shrieking Hero, Misty’s horn starting glowing in a haze of blue magics as her feet pounded towards the attacker.

There was a flash and a pop, and a beam of dark purple concussive force struck the attacker in the helmet, one of the eyepieces shattering into shards of glass and metal, the armor clad figure tossed violently across the ground, bouncing on unyielding rocks and hardened dirt until it rolled to a stop in an untidy heap of battered flesh and steel.

The glow around Misty’s horn faded, unused, as she skidded to a sudden stop. The battle medic’s jaw dropped in amazement as before her she took in the form of the tall deeply dark purple pony, huge wings spread wide in a display of undying dominance and long spiral horn shimmering with dark magics. A green and blue striped scarf slung around its sinuous neck, and lithe legs firmly planted on the ground.

Heros screams were unanswered as Misty stared at the creature before her...

Author's Note

There may be some minor editing issues. but I wanted to get this up as soon as I could for you all to enjoy. so .. Enjoy..
(eding issues will be fixed, and if you see anything drasticly wrong please message me and let me know)