Bold: The Ranger and The Robot

After a few minutes of diving through dirt and stone, MERDA arrived at a small cave lit by a luminous dark red crystal protruding from the side of the wall.. It landed elegantly onto the rocky floor, Strongbolt, on the other hand, smashed face first into it. MERDA continued to gallop through the cave system into a variety of larger caverns also lit by dark red crystals. Strongbolt was dizzy, but he followed MERDA closely until they arrived at a hollow area filled with electronic equipment and a large pod in the center connected to the equipment and nearby crystals. MERDA leaped into the pod and the doors shut. It was at that moment that Strongbolt realized he had not thought his plan through. A timer that displayed the number sixty flickered into life on the pod, it began counting down.

"One hour." Strongbolt said. "Okay, one hour. Got to think, got to think." He turned to the monitors and equipment attached onto the pod. "Maybe..." He grabbed the nearest cable and tried pulling it out of the pod, he had no luck.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." Said a strange voice with a familiar tone. "On second thought, go ahead, do it." Strongbolt looked around helplessly.

"Who's there?" He called. His eyes focused on two small crystals in the dark, the crystals flickered and came closer. Strongbolt realized they were not crystals, they were eyes.

"Did you miss me, Strongbolt?" The Corruption hissed.

"You." Strongbolt said. "I thought we took care of you in the Everfree Forest."

The Corruption laughed. "Well, I did say you hadn't seen the last of me."

"Told you so, Shiera." Strongbolt muttered.

"Where is Shiera, anyway? Abandoned you?" The Corruption snickered.

Strongbolt laughed, he knew the Corruption's weakness was bravery. "You think you scare me now? You're no different to the last time we met. What makes you think you have a chance this time?"

"Au contraire, last time we met I had little power, and I'd just woken up. Don't you remember, Strongbolt Stonewing? I feed off of fear, and there are a lot of scared ponies up there." He gestured towards the cave roof. Damn, Strongbolt thought, I don't think its bluffing.

"So, you followed us?" Strongbolt tried to change the subject.

"Well, I tend to hold my grudges. Remind me to get those Princesses and that other unicorn back some day too."

"Princesses? Other unicorn?" Strongbolt inquired.

"Oh, you don't know? Poor little Strongbolt..."

Know what? Strongbolt thought, The Corruption must be trying to mess with my head. "So, you built this robot. Tell me, what exactly does MERDA 3 stand for?"

"I don't know." The Corruption admitted.

"What do you mean? I thought you built this."

"Well, you thought wrong. I just stumbled across it while following you and fed it a little dark magic, I have no idea where it came from. It built most of what you see around you. I just sat back and watched."

"So you use it to terrorize the citizens of Appleloosa? Then feed off of their fear?"

"Well, aren't you just a smart little cookie. Anyway, I've had enough questions. I had a feeling you would be a problem, I guess my suspicions were correct." The Corruption began circling Strongbolt, Strongbolt maintained eye contact at all times. Dust began to fall from the ceiling. Strongbolt glanced up.

"What was that?" The Corruption asked.

"What was what?" Strongbolt said innocently. He glanced up again, a crack was forming in the ceiling.

"That. What you just did then."

"What? I don't know what you're talking about."

"You keep glancing up at the ceiling, like this." The Corruption glanced towards the ceiling and saw the crack. "Oh, you clever-" Suddenly Braeburn fell through the ceiling followed by Shiera, they landed on the pod and knocked it over. The countdown stopped. Shiera spotted the Corruption and jumped to her hooves. Braeburn got up slowly, then noticed the dark shadowy stallion.

"Ah!" He yelled. "What on earth is that?"

"Well, well, well. You finally plucked up the courage to show your face around here?" The Corruption imitated his western accent.

"I should have known this would have something to do with you." Shiera said spitefully. "Those red eyes, no wonder."

"Yes, we've been through all this already. You should have been here five minutes ago." The Corruption rolled its eyes. "Not that it matters now." It pointed to the overturned pod. "You've disturbed MERDA's slumber. It won't be happy about that."

"Could somepony fill me in here?" Braeburn asked.

"Long story short," Strongbolt said, "Braeburn meet the Corruption, Corruption meet Braeburn. This... um, thing, attacked us a while back and now he's out for revenge or something along those lines."

"And it built MERDA?" Braeburn continued.

The Corruption put its head in its hoof. "No, we've just been through this."

"I'll explain more later-" Strongbolt began saying. The pod burst open, and a half broken robot tumbled out. It stumbled to its hooves. Half of its face and plating was missing, open circuits hung loosely from its body parts and its tail was missing. Its eyes flickered and spun.

"E-E-E-E-R-R-R-R-O-O-O-O-R-R-R-R." It screamed. "Massive, extreme damage. Must return to- Repair station offline. Ignoring all protocols. 01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000."

The Corruption laughed. "You've really done it now." MERDA jumped onto the pod and up through the tunnel that Braeburn and Shiera came from. The Corruption floated onto the pod and turned back to the group of startled ponies. "Ta-ta for now, little ponies." It looked up and rose into the tunnel and out of sight.

"Okay," Strongbolt said, "I did not know it could do that."

A few minutes past, Strongbolt paced up and down across the cavern: he was in deep thought. Braeburn watched him while Shiera examined the equipment.

"Ahem." Braeburn coughed. Strongbolt stopped and stared at him. "I don't mean to interrupt your thinking, but we could really use a way outta here. If MERDA and that thing, The Corruption, are up there... well, I don't think the Sheriff can handle it on his own, or with his deputies for that matter." Strongbolt just stared at him for a moment, he looked back up the tunnel.

"Aha!" Shiera shouted suddenly. "Apparently, if we follow this tunnel to the left," she gestured to a dimly lit, narrow tunnel in the corner of the room, "we should end up near an old mine shaft."

"How'd you know that?" Braeburn questioned.

"This... um, thing, shows a map of the nearby caves. It looks like we might be able to get out, but we'll have to take the railroad that leads to the surface."

"Sounds like a plane, lead the way." Strongbolt said. Shiera picked up one of the pieces of equipment with her mouth and trotted to the mouth of the tunnel. Braeburn and Strongbolt stayed close and together they wandered into the darkness. Every so often they passed another luminous red crystal.

"So," Braeburn broke the silence, "what do you think these are?"

"Not too sure." Strongbolt admitted. "But whatever they are, MERDA uses them to power itself." They arrived in a more structured cave, wooden boards and arches held the ceiling in place. on the right were two mine carts attached onto a rail.

"So, how exactly do we get these things working?" Braeburn asked.

"I think I've read about these types of mines before, they used a powerful element called 'Benevolentium' to power their machines, it was, a sort of alternative to magic."

"And do we have any benevo- whatever?"

"Well, hopefully there is still some left over around here somewhere." Shiera said, and walked towards the mine carts. She picked up a tiny, glowing, orange pebble. "Here we are, this should get us to the surface." She inserted it into a slot at the back of the mine cart and its wheels spun to life. "Quickly, get in!" Strongbolt hopped in the back and Braeburn jumped in after.

"So, you sure about this?" Braeburn inquired.

"Nope." Shiera confessed, and then there was darkness and a sudden drop.