Remnants of a Dying World

by Dusk-Spark

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Sad, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Original Character
Length: 34426

A band of ponies travel across a ruined Equestria. The journey ahead will be dangerous beyond belief; if they're going to survive...they're gonna need to work together.

[PENDING REWRITE]

A desolate wasteland, it used to be called Equestria. That was before the Event which changed everything. There are many stories within the new world, but we'll only focus on these two.
Just a day ago; Nox was a wingless pegasus, testing out a prototype device that could give him back the ability to fly. He leaped from the Galloping Gorge hoping his cousin's designs wouldn't kill him, instead he was blinded by a flash of light and ended up crashing into a snowbank. He was definitely nowhere near the Galloping Gorge anymore.
Aurora was a unicorn survivor from beyond the frozen north. In this desolate world, she had just one pony she loved, lost but not forgotten. Alone, she traveled the lands following their cold trail to find that pony who left her behind so long ago. Even she's not sure what she'll do when she finds them. But it's the most important thing to her, and she won't let anyone get in the way.
And finally, "who are you?" You might ask. I...well...you'll find out sooner or later. All you need to know, is that I'm the one telling the story here. A story of the last remnants of pony kind, at the end of this dying world.
[Insert theme song here]

Update schedule:
Weekly, usually on a Tuesday

Published 2013-11-05 22:50:03 UTC
Last updated 2014-02-11 22:41:35 UTC

Ch. 1: "What it's like to fall."

“Do you know what it’s like for a pegasus to fall?
The first thing they tell is 'don't panic' but that's easier said than done when you're hurtling towards the ground. Time tends to slow down when you're in a situation like that; several seconds could feel like several minutes and all you can do is helplessly wait for it to happen.
You start remembering the past, trying to find something that you could've done to change things. It's pointless though, you're already free falling for who knows how long and then...you hear the crack...”

Galloping Gorge. Three simple ponies from Vanhoover took the first train that morning and spent nearly two hours hiking up to the highest cliff. The blue pony stared down from the cliff, his mind couldn’t stop thinking about how high up he was. What if this didn’t work? What if he’s not so lucky this time? What if he loses more than his wings? What if he does survive, but left the oven on and then when they get back home the house’ll be burned down?! No, no, no, no! This was definitely not gonna work. He was gonna turn back around to Granite and Shard, tell them this was a bad idea, get on the train to Vanhoover with the two other ponies, go home, but would probably get some donuts on the way back and then-

His cowardly thoughts were interrupted when he felt a hoof bump against his side. “Are you alright? You‘re not chickening out are you?” The brown Earth pony asked.

‘YES! FOR CELESTIA’S SAKE, THIS IS SUICIDAL! GET ME OUT OF HERE! I WANNA GO BACK HOME!’
...Is what he wanted to say, but instead he said; “Who? Me? No, of course not. I‘m just…admiring the…height…of the Galloping Gorge.” He kicked a pebble off the edge, straining his ear to hear the eventual noise.
….
Several seconds passed and he heard nothing.

“Noctilucent. You ARE afraid aren’t you?” The earth pony stifled a laugh.

So easy for him to laugh, he’s not the one who has to jump off the cliff and hope he doesn’t became a pony shaped SPLAT on the ground below. Speaking of which, he still hasn’t heard the pebble hit the ground. Would he have been able to hear it anyways? They're really high up so-
Oh wait, Granite had asked him a question, “I already said I wasn’t.”

“You should be fine.” A green eyed unicorn spoke up from nearby, checking up on the device strapped to Nox’s back. “Granite spent months building the glider, researching featherless flight, and finding a suitable location to test the prototype. I calculate an…83% chances of success.”

83% she said. 83%…not 90%, not 95%…but 83%…wasn’t that like a B- mark or something? This was crazy. Clearly, some all knowing creator did not want him to fly. That’s why his wings were smashed up in that freak accident so many years ago, “Yeah…” Nox wasn’t at all happy with the odds.
Couldn’t they have tried somewhere safer? Somewhere where if he fell he'd just get some bruises instead of a place where he'd probably be dead before he hit the ground? Maybe somewhere like...the bouncy house at Shard's filly sister's birthday next week?

“And, if anything goes wrong.” Her horn glowed a faint gold color, “I’ll catch you.” She tried to smile, to reassure him that everything was gonna be okay. But Shard hardly ever changed that deadpan expression of hers, so her smile came off forced. That did not inspire a lot of confidence in the blue pegasus. It was so unnerving that he just wanted her to STOP smiling.

While it was true, Shard could definitely save him (she was really good at telekinesis afterall). Shard's magic had a maximum range, furthermore would she even be able to catch him while he’s plummeting to his doom before he fell outside her range?! “I’m not scared or anything but, maybe we shouldn’t do this? I mean, it’s not SO bad living as a ground walker. I‘ve completely forgotten my wings were…well…like this…” It was a half lie, he couldn’t go a single week without someone staring at the stubs that used to be his wings. Always reminding him of that freak accident. Always a reminder of that flash of light, the unfamiliar sounds, feeling like nature's chew toy…
'Don't think about it.'

“Nox. It WILL work. Just trust me, I tested it myself. Besdies, when have I ever steered you wrong?” Granite guilty grin betrayed his inspiring words.

Nox stared at his cousin with a raised brow. Oh did he have a list of reasons...
“When we were colts, you got me to eat tomato juice thinking it was apple juice, I threw up for like 20 minutes. You spent all of nightmare night jumping out of random places, trying to give me a heart attack. You tripped me when we were running away from a prank that YOU initiated. You took me on a double date once but neglected to tell me that my date was a literal pig.” There was a whole bunch of other reasons, but if Nox had to list them all then the three ponies would be up on this cliff all day and possibly until the end of time.
...Why were they friends again?

At the mention of a date, Shard shot an odd look that Nox couldn't quite decipher, at Granite. “A double date?”

“I-In my defense, she never mentioned that it would be her pet and she was a little screwy.” He cleared his throat and hit the device with his hoof. The glider sprung open, nearly knocking Granite and Shard off their hooves. “Note to self, step back the next time you turn it on.” He said under his breath.

Shard stood up and dusted herself off, she took one look at her wind measuring device. “The wind is starting to pick up. If you plan on doing this, it has to be soon.”

Granite took one look at the weary Nox and said, “Look, when this works. Imagine the devices I can build for disabled ponies? We‘re doing a good thing here. And besides…What would Rainbow Dash do?”

“…” Rainbow Dash. A childhood hero of his, mostly because they were both blue and pegasi. Even as he reached adulthood, the phrase: "What would Rainbow Dash do?" would continue to be something of an inspiration to him. And what would Rainbow Dash do if she were here in Nox's position? “…” The answer was obvious. He lowered the goggles on his head and steadied himself.
It’s been so long since he last felt the rush of the wind, would he even remember HOW to fly? Yes, he'd been drilled on it the moment he entered school. All pegasi were, but this was a different form of flying after all.
“I can do this.” He said to himself, trying to wash away his doubts. “I can do this.” He said again, as if saying it enough times will steady his nerves. He looked to Granite and nodded, this was going to happen. Then he looked to Shard and waited for her signal.

“Nox, there’s something I have to tell you.” Granite started.

Before Granite could finish what he was saying, “It’s time, go! Go!” Shard cut through their conversation, pointing a hoof to the edge of the cliff.

As if Shard’s voice was the sound of the starting whistle, Nox broke out into a run towards the edge of the cliff.

“I actually never tested this before!” Granite called to Nox after he’d already jumped off the cliff.

“WHAT?!” Too late to stop, he was already over the edge and plummeting!
‘Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!’ He wasn’t flying! Panic started to set in. ‘Steady yourself, Nox!’ Funny. He still remembered his old flying lessons. ‘Keep steady. Don't fight against the sky, let the wind do most of the work…’
. . . . . .
No splat? No pain? Is this what dying was like?
He opened one eye and saw…the ground below him passing by. This was…flying. He was flying. HE WAS FLYING AGAIN! He could barely contain his joy! He turned his head to see Granite doing a victory dance of some kind and Shard…just sitting there, her horn still glowing faintly.
Nox waved to the two of them as he glided along the strong winds. He didn’t realize how much he’d missed this feeling. For once in his life, he felt like everything was gonna go back to the way it was before the accident. Granite was working on a design that would fit over Nox’s wings based on the bat-like wing structure of the Nightkin. He’d be able to return to Cloudsdale, live like a pegasus again, maybe become a symbol to other ponies who were…like him. He couldn’t help but smile at the future's glow over the horizon.
He could almost hear the horns of victory around him.

. . . . . .

His smile started to fade when he realized: That sound wasn't in his head.

The sounds brought back memories from years long past, to that time.
No. No. It couldn't be happening again. Must be a mistake, it had to be! He tried pleading with the mental image of Celestia, surely this was all in his head?!
No such luck. There was no mistaking the sounds and bright flashes around him.
He made a hard right, trying to turn back. Maybe he'd make it to the ground this time, maybe he'd be safe?
It was already too late. The bright flash of light blinded him.

He remembered the old flight instructor from school. A portly, orange pegasus stallion with a thick beard. Nox had thought he was half goat at one point, didn't help that he was called the goatee.
His voice boomed out over the crowd of young ponies, "Alright you little chicks, pop quiz! You find yourself free falling out of control, what do you do?!"

Nox's hoof shot up immediately! He was so eager to please back then.

"Yes, little blue, you have the cloud."

Nox cleared his throat. He'd read enough Rainbow Dash interviews to recite them all by heart, he could totally do this. "W-Well..." Stage fright was starting to take over.
'Just pretend to be Rainbow Dash. Be, Rainbow Dash.'
Nox hesitantly reached atop his head, pulling the goggles down over his eyes. Get into character.
"Th-the first rule of surviving a free-fall is: Don't panic."

He felt himself losing control, hurdling through who knows where, dozens of hundreds of unfamiliar sounds around him. Absolute
chaos.

Nox's eyes drifted to a group of older pegasi flying overhead, some had stopped to observe the class. His eyes widened when he saw...her.
"Th-th-the second rule is: Regain your focus, understand the situation, and come up with a landing strategy."

The feeling of his body being tugged in multiple directions. Open his eyes, and he sees the giant metal monstrosity. He swerves to avoid it, and the next one. And then more. Flashes of light and an unknown force knock him around. Where was he now?

She'd finally landed, staring at Nox with interested eyes. A confident smile on her face.

It was really difficult to not melt there, he was so close to his idol!
He coughed and continued, "The th-third rule is: Don't dive straight down, find a steady glide and start your descent at a sloped angle. Try to get your wings to act as a wind barrier, the purpose here is to slow down to a safe fall, not to um...do a sonic rainboom." He nearly giggled that last line.

One of those flashes boomed too close. Can't maintain control. Freefall. Can't pull up. Which way was up? Crash imminent.

"And the last rule, squirt?" Rainbow Dash had stepped before the crowd of pegasi, staring down at Nox with interest.

"Th-th-th-the last rule, the rule is: Keep a steady descent until your hooves touch the ground, try not to trip. Then do a victory lap because you just landed like a Wonderbolt!" He finished the speech and looked up expectantly to Rainbow Dash.

"..."

What kind of expression was she making? He couldn't tell, he was just too mesmerized by her rainbow colored mane, shining against the sun's brilliant lights.
He felt a hoof pat his head.

"Nice work, kid. And um, try not to get too excited next time." She said over a snicker.

"?" Nox hadn't realized his wings were fluttering, lifting him off the ground. Oh that was embarrassing, but it was worth it! Rainbow Dash just complimented him. Were his cheeks flushed? They felt like they were.

"Well then," Goatee cleared his throat, "very nice answer, Noctilucent. But, there's a difference between theory and practice. So it's time for some flying exercises." He blew his whistle, "In the air, ponies, lets go!"

It's funny how much you remember when you have to put what you've been taught to practice...

The sickening crack resounded throughout the air...

Ch. 2: "Cold."

“I wanna tell you something about friendship.
You don't always get to choose where you'll find a friend. Or even who your friends will be.
In fact, friendship can form in even the most unlikely of places.
And in a world like this, having a friend will help you through the dark days.”

He awoke to the blistering sting of the wind, but this wasn’t like the gentle breeze of Vanhoover, or even the strong winds of the Galloping Gorge. This was a freezing, abusive wind against his cheeks. He couldn’t quite process what had happened, what he saw defied everything he knew about reality. Part of him thought the scenery before him must’ve been a joke or he’d hit his head on something and this was some kind of delusion formed out of a concussion? Because how could the landscape have been covered in snow when it was bright and sunny just a few seconds ago! If it was a joke, then it was a very good one because the snowbank he crashed into sure felt real enough.
‘What happened?’ Despite being disoriented, he tried to piece together what he remembered. One minute, he was soaring in the air with the proto-wings, there was chaos, and now he was here. In a frozen wasteland; snow as far as the eye could see with the cold wind and falling snow against his body. He was smack dab in the middle of a blizzard!
“Hello! Is anyone out there?! Granite, Shard?! HELLO!” His desperate cries were drowned out by the roar of the blizzard. This was hopeless, even if someone were out here, they’d never find him. “First thing’s first. Shelter, I need to get out of this storm.”
He tried to get up from the snowbank but was having some difficulties. One of the proto-wing’s was caught on something inside the snowbank. No matter how hard he pulled, it would not come loose. “Crap…”

He knew what he had to do but, somehow he felt that Granite wouldn’t forgive him for it. “…Oh to heck with it, Granite’s gonna be pissed but I think he’d prefer me alive and well instead of a frozen ponysicle.” Now the questions on his mind were: ‘How do I get this thing off? Why didn’t Granite put some kind of easy release button on this thing?’ If he were a unicorn, this would probably be a lot easier. “Ah the heck with it.” He pulled with all his might, feeling himself slowly move out of the bank. Then with a resounding tear, the wing ripped off and he ended up tumbling down the snowbank and landed back first on the cold, snowy ground. “Owww.”
The back of his head ached and, then he saw something bright and shiny on the bottom of the harness (where his tummy was). “Hm?” Kind of looked like a big red button. Ignoring what various stories have told him about pressing big red buttons; he went ahead and held it down for a few seconds until…

Click

The latches on the harness released and he was easily able to slide out of the destroyed proto-wing. “…Was it really that hard to tell me about the release button?” He sighed, making a mental note to scold Granite for that later. “At least that’s one problem down.” He sneezed, the shivering and his runny nose were clear indicators that he needed to get out of this storm (if that wasn't obvious enough). But where would he go? He couldn’t see anything in the blizzard. “No sense in just standing around, gotta pick a direction.” He stood up on his hind legs, held out his forelegs to the winds and…then started to spin.
That’s right, he was gonna decide on a life and death decision depending on the direction he landed when he couldn’t stand anymore…

How long had he been walking now? 10 minutes? 30? An hour? More? It was kind of hard to keep track of time, he did know that he was freezing his blue flank off and that if he didn’t find some source of heat soon then he’d probably die from hypothermia, and he'll probably die in an embarrassing position. “D-D-Dear Mother Faust: If you can hear me up there in the cosmos…please…please save me from this blizzard and I’ll volunteer for charity work once in a while!” The wind seemed to blow stronger, “Okay fine, as often as I can! I promise! Pinkie Pie promise!” He still couldn’t believe how fast that phrase caught on, "Or if that's too much to ask, can you at least let me die in a dignified position!" While begging to an unseen entity, his foreleg touched something that definitely wasn’t snow. It felt, solid…was the only way he could describe it. He looked down and saw something partially concealed by snow; curiosity taking over, he hastily wiped away the snow so he could see what it was: It was a rusty metal sign, buried by snow and a bearing message worn away by time which read:

Blizzard Shelter nearby.
Go East =>
23 meters
Look for the Cave.

There was more writing, but most of it was so badly worn away by the elements, he'd need to be a unicorn in order to restore the message. Still, it was the good news he’d hoped to hear. At least, he hoped it was good news. No telling if this was the original spot the sign had been. Regardless, it was a chance and the alternative was blindly stumble around in the middle of a blizzard and most likely freeze to death. Any pony with half a brain would take the safer option. And so he headed East…or at least, he hoped it was East…
'Watch over me, Mother Faust.'

Luck (and perhaps divine intervention from an alicorn long past from this world) had been on Nox’s side that day, for he did indeed find a cave to take shelter in from the blizzard. Once inside and out of the blizzard’s constant abuse, he shook off the snow coating his blue fur. He wished he could see his poofy fur right about now, at least his optimism was still intact…unlike the proto-wings.
He turned his attention to the deep, dark, dank cave he just entered, hoping it was the right cave and that the end of it wouldn’t be some kind of…evil bear monster or something.
“Hello?” He called out, “If you’re a crazy axe murderer or an evil bear monster, you should know that I‘m a uni-alicorn! A really powerful alicorn trained in 27 different pony martial arts! I‘ve beaten 300 creatures, and you‘ll be #301 if you try to kill me!” His voiced echoed off the walls, but he didn’t hear anything back. “…Guess it’s safe?” Or the crazy axe murderer may now be aware of his presence, and was lying in wait to jump out and lop his head off.
He closed his eyes, “Dear mother Faust, you’ve been good to me so far…please let me pass through safely.” Funny how he almost never called upon the Princesses or the Holy Mother until right now. Cautiously, he journeyed deeper into the cave.

Along the way he saw writing on the wall, or at least someone's attempt at writing. They were scrawled with such poor penponyship that he could barely understand it. There were a few pictures too, but none of it made any sense to him: How could he possibly understand a picture of something with four legs but a whole bunch of lines jutting out from its body along, with what looked like a knife pointing to a circle in the middle of the four-legged thingy. What did any of that even mean? He was so engrossed in the meaning of the drawing that he smacked muzzle first into a wall. Not just any wall though; the wall looked artificial, made of metal and with the words:

“Blizzard Shelter #039”

Written in bright green (what he assumed was) ink. Hard to believe he missed that, he definitely didn’t miss the drawing below it. That same four-legged creature but there was an arrow above it pointing to the door…

It was nearly pitch black in the shelter, he could barely see more than two hoofs in front of his face. “Light switch, light switch.” He felt around the wall and…ah. He touched a switch of some sort and flipped it. There was a click, and then nothing. “What?” He flipped the switch a few more times. Nope, power was completely out. “Guess I used up all my luck getting out of that blizzard.”

“Hello?”

The sudden voice that cut through the darkness startled him slightly. It sounded like a female voice but there was something…off about it. It was a voice he could only describe as mechanical. For several seconds he heard nothing, had he just imagined the voice?

“Hello?” There it was again, “Is someone there?”

“Y-Yeah? Where are you? I can‘t see you.” Technically he couldn't see anything.

“This one is here.”

That was a really helpful sentence, wasn’t it? Nox sighed, “Just keep talking, I’ll find you by following your voice.”

“Understood.”

“I have a few questions.” He pressed his tail against the wall while cautiously trotting towards the voice. “Where am I?”

“A shelter designed with the intent of saving ponies from blizzards.” The monotone response came immediately.

“Well that was obvious.” Plus it was old news to him, “Okay new question then: Who are you?”

“This one is…this one had several names, but this one's memories have been...damaged. It does not currently have one.”

“Several names huh?” The more Nox spoke to her, the more he started to notice her odd speech pattern coupled in with her strange voice. A thought started to wiggle its way to the surface: “You’re not a pony, are you?”

“No. This one is not a pony.”

“Then what are-” The splashing sound beneath his hooves interrupted him, it was pitch black to see but it felt wet and a little sticky, almost like he'd stepped in gum and water...well, more like mud. He could almost swear he felt something moving in whatever he stepped in. 'Gross, did I step on a bug?'.

“Hello? Are you still there?”

The voice was closer this time, “Y-Yeah. As I was saying, what are you exactly?”

“This one is a personal assistant to ponies or any other sentient.”

“That’s your job, I meant what are you?”

“This one does not understand. It is just…a personal assistant. That is all the data this one has concerning its existence.”

The voice was very close now, but he still couldn’t see it. And then daylight hit his brain, “You wouldn’t by any chance happen to have a flashlight, would you?”

“One moment…”

Without warning, a bright beam shined over Nox’s left eye. “Ah!” He raised his hoof to block out the light! "Too bright!" After a quick apology, the light dimmed.
He was expecting to see someone, but all he saw was a saddlebag. Not just any saddlebag; it looked so much different from the normal saddlebags. It wasn’t made from the usual material that saddlebags were made from, in fact this one looked incredibly high-tech. He didn’t have a word to describe it, even if he did he couldn’t even begin to-

“Hello?” The metallic voice came from the saddlebag.

That definitely surprised him. She wasn’t a pony, she wasn’t even a she. “Um…hi?” He addressed the saddlebag, this was definitely one of the weirdest things he‘s ever done in his life. Well, actually that wasn't true, there was one incident that involved cake, an hourglass, and-

“Are you here to take this one from this place?”

“What?”

“This unit has been down here for a very long time. It would very much like to leave.”

“Oh! Um, well, no, that‘s not why I‘m here but…since you‘re the only one here with a light, I guess you can tag along with me for now.”

“That is acceptable.” He wasn’t sure if it was happy to hear that.

“I wanna ask you something.” He had been wanting to ask it for quite some time now, but wasn’t sure if he should bother her while she worked on fixing the power. Of course, her method of fixing the power involved what looked like wires from the saddlebag messing around with a glowing arcade machine of some sort. He really didn‘t have a word for that, but she called it a: “Main Computer” Whatever that meant.

“Yes?”

“Exactly how long have you been down here in the dark?”

“…Many of this one’s previous functions have ceased due to various circumstances. This one can not give an accurate response.”

“Can you take a wild guess?”

“Guess? This unit…knew a pony once who used that word a lot.” She replied, but the way she said that…was that sorrow? Nox was never a great judge of character, and the saddlebag’s metallic voice didn’t make that any easier. “If this unit had to guess then…it can only mention that it has been here for several months.”

If he had been drinking something, he would’ve done a comic spit-take right then and there. “Several months?!” She’s been alone in the dark for several months?! How was she not driven insane?! He remembered that Shard could barely stand being in a crowded room for more than 30 minutes! “I’m…sorry.” The air became heavy between the two partners. Or maybe it was just his imagination, but he definitely needed to change the subject; “Are you almost done?”

The saddlebag then went on for about a minute explaining exactly what she was doing, which lost Nox somewhere around: “Several hundred character combinations to gain access to the administrative account, which would give her the admin right to reboot the shelter‘s main systems and then determine whether the problem with the power is a hardware issue or a conflict in the software‘s code.”

“Uh…right.” Nox feigned understanding. The saddlebag could've been explaining the meaning of life by barking like a dog and he’d have an easier time understanding that than all that techno-babble.

There was a loud whirring sound in the walls and the lights started flipping on one by one. Illuminating the shelter at last!

And oh dear, the shelter was in such a poor state, it looked like someone had decided order and neatness were too mainstream and made it their sole purpose to mess up the shelter to their heart's content. There were rows of knocked over shelves which must’ve held food and water a long time ago. Now, all he saw were empty, rusted cans and discarded water bottles (the contents of which had taken on a dirty brown/yellow color) strewn across the floor. Sleeping bags and books were thrown haphazardly everywhere, and he seemed to notice traces of an old fire in the corner of the room he was in. He could only guess what they used for kindling. However, none of that was particularly strange. No, the strangest thing in the room would be what he'd stepped in earlier: He saw a black puddle of some sort, it wasn’t water but it was definitely liquid-like, it didn't look clean at all. It almost reminded him of mud or sludge. Some of the black, sludge-like substance was still stuck on his hooves. “What is this stuff?” He asked the saddlebag.

“Dangerous.” She answered in a low voice which startled Nox since it was so different from her usual soft-spoken tone, “This unit‘s memories have been…damaged. It does not have any reliable data on the foreign substance. However, this unit‘s programming dictates that the substance is dangerous to ponies.”

“So it’s your instincts?”

“That is…one definition.”

“I see…” He seemed remarkably calm about having a completely unknown, dangerous liquid coating his hooves and not wanting to come off, “This stuff isn’t poisonous right? Like, I‘m not gonna just keel over if it never comes off, right?”

“This unit has no data on the effects of the substance. However, this unit would suggest immediate removal, as this one is not equipped with medical capabilities.”

“Right!” Nox didn’t need to be told twice as he quickly trotted towards one of the walls and started scraping the black substance off his hooves. He wanted to ask the saddlebag another question, mainly concerning where exactly he was…but it was no longer necessary. He knew where he was. Because on the wall was a worn down plaque with a message carved into it:

“Princess Mi Amore Cadenza the 3rd, welcomes you to Blizzard Shelter #039.
Please use the main computer to alert the central hub, who will dispatch guards to escort you to the Crystal Empire.
Warning: It not recommended to use the tunnels without an escort. For your own safety, please wait here. If for some reason the main computer is not functioning, please activate the repair-bots and they will get to work. If they can not fix it then-”

The rest was just a bunch of what-if scenarios, but it told Nox what he needed to hear. “The Crystal Empire?” He was in the Crystal Empire? How? This didn’t happen the last time he encountered that indescribable phenomenon. The last time he crashed and…well…yeah. His wing stubs clung tightly to his body at the mere memory. Regardless of the past, it seemed as though the 2nd phenomenon had sent him to the other side of Equestria.

“Hello? Hello?” The saddlebag had been trying to get his attention for some time now.

“Huh? What?” He responded while still trying to process how this happened.

“This one has been trying to warn you. We are not alone.”

Ch. 3: "Dead inside"

“There was a time, a long time ago. When the world was brighter, and ponies could live safely. Happily.
But you and I both know, we don't live in that kind of world anymore.
We know the dangers out here.
I can see it in your eyes, you've seen them. Encountered them. You know what they are.
I wish, there was something I could do take that pain away from you. But I can't...I'm so sorry.”

“We’re not alone? What like, the royal guards are making their rounds?” The message did mention royal guards periodically coming to check for survivors.

“As this one has stated previously; there has been no other pony down here while this one has been trapped.” That one sentence cut down any hope he had of being rescued.

‘No guards in months? What’s up with that?’ Was there something going on in the crystal empire that prevented them from sending ponies down? Or maybe it was an issue with this particular shelter? It DID look like it could use some T.L.C. One problem at a time, Nox. He returned his attention to the saddlebag, “What if it’s someone else coming in from the storm?”

“They would have come through the front gate. The noises originated from the tunnels below.”

“Tunnels below…” The words trailed off as he looked to the connecting hallway from the main room, the connecting hallway led to an iron door. “Th-That doesn’t mean they’re not another pony taking shelter from the storm. The sign did say not to venture into the tunnels but I’ve known plenty of hardheaded ponies.”

“That is…possible.” She didn't sound at all convince. To be honest, Nox wasn't sure if he believed himself either. It was just something his optimism was telling him.

“Well then…” The fact of the matter was; Nox couldn’t stay in the blizzard shelter forever. Any food or water that had been there had long since spoiled or was taken by somepony. And according to the saddlebag, no royal guards had come here for months; not to mention going back outside was out of the question. “We’ll wait for a bit, until I figure out a plan. I don‘t think it‘s wise to go venturing down into the tunnels. How do you know there‘s someone else down there?”

“…” She was silent for several minutes.

“Hello? Are you alright? Did you break or something?"

“No. This one was…trying to give a satisfactory answer.”

“Oh I see…and what’d you come up with?”

“One of this unit’s…previous users outfitted this frame with several adjustments. One of which, allowed this unit to function as a radar.”

“A what?”

“This unit is able to in order to which would allow the user to and find .”

“Um…what?” Was she hearing those voice overs? Didn't seem like it. “Uh, never mind.” Nox made a mental note to search for someone in the Crystal Empire who could fix her. Her…her…now that he thought about it, he never asked her name; “What should I call you for a name?”

“This one has already-”

“Yeah yeah, I know, but I can’t keep calling you saddlebag so…I’m thinking that I should call you something else.”

“…” Silence. Did that mean she agreed or-whatever. Nox had to think of a name now.

“Let’s see…you’re a saddlebag, but calling you saddle or bag seems insulting. I don’t wanna call you Sad, either. Ooh, I know. I‘ll call you…Sally, or Sal.” It wasn’t a pony name, not at all. But that fit, since the saddlebag wasn’t a pony, either.

“That is…acceptable.” There was some beeping noises coming from inside the saddlebags for several seconds. “This one is now registered as Sally.”

“Alright then. So, Sally…do you know where they are? The thing down here, that is.”

“This one can not detect their exact location. If you were to get closer then perhaps…”

“So the closer we are, the easier it’ll be to find them? Then all I’d have to do is sneak by them. Sounds easy enough!” Optimism strikes again! “Alright, lets go then.”

“Wait.” She said quickly, before Nox had taken his first step, “You will need something to defend yourself.”

“I do?” He guessed whatever was beyond the door was pretty dangerous then. “Like what?” He wasn’t exactly a fighter after all. He didn‘t know any pony martial arts, heck the closest thing to a fight he‘s ever been in was back in Cloudsdale when he was accused of stealing someone‘s lunch (turns out that the colt had forgotten his lunch at home).

“…”

“Sally?” He was starting to not like when she went silent like that. It made him think that something inside her broke. Well, more broken then she already was. Definitely need to go see if anyone can fix her.

“2 meters to your left, underneath that shelf will be a helpful item.”

“A helpful item?” He carefully cleared away the bottles and empty food boxes to see- “What the?!” He nearly froze, because he saw a severed gryphon talon! “Wait…” No it wasn’t, that was impossible. It looked like gryphon talons, but made of metal and with a weird slot at the top. “Is this the item?”

“Place your hoof in the plug-zone.”

“The what?”

“That…slot…at the top.”

“Oh.” He placed his hoof into the slot, which fit strangely well. And now he looked like a pony with a gryphon’s talon. “Now what?”

The wire extended out of Sally’s bag, it inserted itself into a hole on the side of the talon. Suddenly the talon whirred to life.

“Oh was that-OH SWEET CELESTIA!” The talons had tightened around his hoof and stabbed into his foreleg! It hurt so bad, and the pain traveled up his leg and through his body. “What the hay, Sally?!” He shook out his hoof and noticed the talons were now moving. “…” He was struck dumb because they seemed to move based on his own will. “How…the-” No words. He had no words to accurately describe the sensation in his foreleg. It was like having an entirely new limb.

“This is called “Talons” or “Dragon Claws.” They were designed years ago as a means to operate more complex machinery. They also had several combat applications.”

“Uh…right.” Nox was still trying to get used to controlling the damn thing. “This one looks a bit old though.” Judging from the rust on the metal and how stiff it moved.

“It is of a much older design. More recent models were…less painful.”

‘Were?’ Well, at least Nox had something to defend himself with. “So how am I supposed to defend myself with-you’re doing it again aren’t you?”

“Directly behind you, there is something under those sheets.”

“Okay.” He lifted up the sheets, and found a rusted metal pipe, which looked like it had seen quite a bit of use; if the way it was bent in multiple directions were any indication. He used the talons to pick it up, and then drop it a few times. This was gonna take some getting used to. “I guess this’ll do?” He didn’t want to sound unappreciative but he would’ve preferred maybe a spear, or a sword…or even a shield. And then, something caught his eye. Something shiny was peeking out from the blanket, the light from the ceiling reflected off the metal. With his curiosity abuzz, he dug out a knife with multiple chips along the blade. It had obviously seen some use (and not for cutting up food), but the way it shined made it seem…like this had been someone’s precious treasure. He couldn’t imagine what kind of sociopath would value a knife but-

“That knife…” Sally somber voice broke Nox’s thoughts.

“Hm? You’ve seen this before?”

“…Yes…” There’s that sorrowful voice again. “We should go.” Sally said abruptly before Nox could question her about it.

It’s a good thing Nox had Sally with him, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to see anything down in the tunnels. Calling the tunnel pitch black would’ve been an understatement. He couldn’t deny that he was scared, trotting along very slowly and keep his eyes peeled for anything that looked even remotely dangerous. Every little sound made him jumpy, especially the ones that were close. “Sally, do you know where we’re going?”

“This one uploaded a map when it first came here, however…the tunnels interior seems to have been altered from records.”

Nox could see why, there was a lot of collapsed tunnels and newly opened holes in the ground, walls, and even the ceiling. All of which, were definitely not made by ponies (not naturally anyways). “Well, we’re bound to find an exit eventually if we use the tail rule.”

“The…tail rule?”

“Yeah! One time while visiting Canterlot, my cousin Granite and our friend Shard took a tour of the castle gardens. There’s a large maze in there which we got lost in. Luckily Shard, she remembered the tour guide explaining the tail rule. It‘s where you put your tail on one of the walls and follow it, eventually you‘ll find an exit. Assuming the walls are connected.”

“There is a margin for error in that logic if the maze is-”

“Yeah I know, but it’s a very reliable method!” Nox cut her off sharply, he really didn’t want her to bring his mood down. His optimism was already at their limits when he saw the state of the cave.

“…Your friend, Granite. Why did you two not know of this rule?” This was probably her way of trying to change the subject.

Nox responded by laughing nervously, “Well…at the time we were preoccupied with coming up with contests to see who was the better pony so...." He trailed off, not wanting to finish that line of dialogue, lest Sally think Nox was an idiot. “So, about that knife!” Nox immediately changed the subject, “You mentioned previous users before me. Did the knife happen to belong to one of them?”

“…” Sally went silent, except for a whirring sound from inside the saddlebag.

“Sally?”

A click and whirr sound came first, then Sally spoke: “Is that knife important to you?”

At first, Nox thought she was talking to him. He was just about to answer until a whole new voice spoke out instead; “What this ol‘ thing? Well, it ain‘t all that good in a fight but…it belonged to someone ah used to know.” It was a low, gravelly male voice, with a semi-thick accent that was reminiscent of an Appleoosan accent.

“May this one ask where are they now?”

“…Died. A long time ago. They saved my life but, ah couldn‘t save them. It may sound a might bit illogical to ya, but ah like to think that their spirit is watchin‘ over me. This here knife‘s been savin‘ my life for…well…a long time.”

There was a 2nd clicking sound, “That…is all this one knows.”

“That was a recording.” Nox realized, “So the knife did belong to someone you knew?”

“This one…is not sure.”

“Not sure?”

“As this one has stated previously, many of this unit’s functions have been damaged. As such, much of its data is no longer accessible. When this unit detected the knife, a…this unit has no word for it, surfaced in its programming. And this unit felt…remorse.”

“So, you were sad when you saw it but…you don’t know why?”

“Correct.”

“Maybe someone locked up your memories or something? Shard, the friend I was telling you about before, told me how some ponies can lock away memories that they don’t want to remember anymore. Maybe something like that happened to you?”

“That is…possible. However, this unit is unable to repair itself at the present time. Perhaps we should focus on-”

“Hang on, can you shine your light at that wall?” Nox pointed a hoof to the wall in front of them.

Sally obeyed, the beam of light drifting upwards. Illuminating a set of letters with an arrow below them.

“Central Hub.”

The arrow was pointing down one of the intact tunnels. If Nox had wings, they would be fluttering with unbridled joy right now! “Ha! Tail rule never fails!” Nox started galloping down the tunnel, Sally was saying something but he wasn’t listening.
‘Yes! Alright, first I’m gonna have to apologize for going down to the tunnels, even though it was advised not to. Next, I’m gonna explain the situation carefully, comply with all the routine security stuff and then request to go home. Granite and Shard must be worried sick about me! Ah, what am I gonna tell Granite about the proto-wings?
Ah whatever, probably be too thrilled to see me to even care that I destroyed the prototype. Come to think of it, whatever happened to my goggles? Crap, must’ve lost it in the snow. I’ll never be able to find them now, dammit…those were limited edition Wonderbolt replicas!’
Down the tunnel he saw a vaguely pony shaped shadow sitting against the wall. ‘Oh that must be a sentry, I guess I should just call out to him and explain the-’ Nox suddenly felt a sharp sting on his hindquarters; which spread through his body, causing his legs to twitch, falter, trip, and then crash onto the cold ground. “Owww.”

“USER!” Sally was speaking in a much louder (but still somehow calm) tone. This was the 2nd time Sally had struggled to get Nox’s attention. Although she hadn’t…uh…whatever she did to him, last time.

“What is it, Sally?!” Nox could barely contain the annoyance in his voice. He looked to the stationary sentry, and said:
“Excuse me, sir! I’m sorry I came down here without permission but, could you perhaps-”

"User! Threat detected!” Sally said in a much more urgent tone. She shined the flashlight onto the sentry.

“…What?” Whatever that thing was, it was not a pony. Sure, its body looked like a pony.

But where its neck and head was supposed to be, all he saw was long, black tendrils waving about. In fact, instead of fur or a mane and tail. All he saw was that same black sludge-like substance. The black substance…like what he saw back in the shelter. Its body oozed out the stuff like sweat, leaving a black pool wherever it stood.
It stared at Nox, and then SCREECHED threateningly at him!

He tried to back away, but it just stepped closer. “That’s not a pony. Definitely not a pony. What is that thing?” He’d never seen anything even remotely like it.
‘Move. Run.’
He tried to tell his body, but it refused to obey him. He just stared into the sludge the monster was covered in.

“User! You must defend yourself! User!” Sally called out to Nox in vain, who had started babbling incomprehensibly.

Nox suddenly felt a jolt run through his body, that seemed to bring him out of it just long enough to frantically shriek; “SALLY! WEAPONWEAPONWEAPON!” He reached frantically to the saddlebag with his teeth, and brought the rusty metal pipe into his talon.
He pointed it at the monster, “A-A-Alright, whatever you are. Just stay right where you are! I don’t wanna have to hurt you!” Honestly, he didn’t want IT to hurt HIM instead. Which was much more likely.

It paused for a moment, as if considering Nox’s words. It almost seemed like it would comply. Until one of the black tendrils stretched out and struck Nox in the chest. All it took was just a second of Nox lowering his guard.

The force of the sucker punch was enough to knock him on his side. He dry heaved, struggling to breathe.

“User, roll!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Nox rolled to the left. Just narrowly missing a mass of tendrils smashing down on where he had once lain. Had he been just a moment slower then he would’ve been...

The monster's shriek brought Nox back to reality once again. Sally had turned up the power on the flashlight, aggravating the monster enough that it must’ve stung. Or maybe it just didn’t like light, having been down in the pitch black darkness for who knew how long!

“User, destroy the core!”

“The what?!” He had no idea what that meant.

Sally’s beam of light revealed a bright, glowing red sphere on its chest. It had been covered up by the black sludge, but he could clearly see it now that the creature’s tendrils were wildly flinging around.

Without another word, Nox picked up the rusty metal pipe in his teeth and charged the monster without a care! A few times, the tendrils had nearly hit him but he persevered until he was close to it. He stabbed the pipe into the creature…but he had just narrowly missed the core. The metal pipe instead imbedding itself into the monsters right leg.
All that seemed to do was piss it off as it now turned its full attention to Nox. Its tendrils wrapped around Nox’s stomach, lifted and slammed him on the ground and against the wall. He loudly cried out in pain before it tossed him aside. ‘Come on…move…move…’ He tried to tell himself. Too much pain. Couldn’t move.

“User, get up! User, get up!” Sally’s voice sounded much more frantic now.

“Sally…help…” He pleaded with her in a low, weak voice. Without warning, the knife shot out but it just barely missed the monster’s core. And then it did something strange; It froze. It just stared at the knife that had fallen harmlessly in front of it.
He knew a chance when he saw it. A sudden rush of energy awoke in him, and he charged the monster once again. The monster was far too distracted to notice Nox rearing up on his hind legs. He struck it hard over the head, knocking the monster to the ground with a loud THUD!
Not over yet. With the monster on the ground, Nox picked up the knife and dove at the monster before it could use its tendrils to retaliate. He plunged the knife deep into the core, and kept stabbing as the bright red liquid from the core dripped along the knife’s edge.

“User! User!” Sally called out, “The task is done! User, calm down! User!”

There was that jolt along Nox’s back leg again, “Will you stop that!” Nox shouted at her!

“This unit is…sorry. But, the task is done. The threat has been eliminated.” She said a low, cautious voice as she shined the flashlight onto the melting monster.

Nox was still breathing heavily, his whole body shook. The knife slipping from his grip and echoing the clang throughout the tunnel as it hit the ground.

“User. Are you…damaged?”

“N-No. I…I‘m fine.” He lied, he was NOT fine. He’d never hurt anyone or anything before. And he just murdered the crap out of this…whatever it was. Not to mention his body ached from being thrown around like a ragdoll. It was only through sheer dumb luck that his neck hadn't snapped or something. He sighed, “I…I had to do it. Right?”

“Yes. You would have ceased to function if you did not.”

“Yeah, yeah. That…that was for survival. I didn’t have a choice.” He choked out. He pulled the rusty metal pipe out of the monster’s leg, but it was useless now. It had melted to a point where all he had was a piece barely bigger than the knife. His body felt much more tired now, the adrenaline was wearing off now. He definitely needed a few minutes to collect himself, no way he was gonna face the royal guards looking the way he did now.

“Perhaps, we should rest?” Sally appeared to detect Nox’s weariness.

“Yeah.” Nox limped over to the opposite wall and set himself down carefully. “I could really use some food right now…” Or a bottle or two of hard apple cider. While sighing, something caught his eye where the monster had been sitting before it noticed Nox and Sally.
“Sally, can you shine the light over there?” he gripped the knife close, just in case the battle wasn't over yet.

The light from Sally’s flashlight showed a strange rectangular metal device, untouched by the black sludge of the monster. “That is…a recorder. If it‘s not too much trouble: can this one request that you-”

Sally didn’t need to say anymore, Nox moved his aching body towards the device and dragged it closer to him. “What now?”

“Those buttons on the front; do you see the one which resembles two arrows pointing to the left?”

“Yeah.”

“Press it, please.”

Nox obeyed, using the talon to hit the button. There was a whirring sound in the machine and then a sudden click. “Now what?”

“Do you see the button resembling a big arrow pointing right?”

“Yeah.” Nox guessed she wanted him to press that as well.

The device coughed violently all of a sudden, for several seconds all he heard was loud, violent, painful coughing and dry heaving, followed by quick, then slow breaths.
The voice in the machine spoke; “Haha…guess my number’s up.” It was that same low, gravelly voice from Sally’s previous recording. “Dunno who ends up findin’ this thing, but ah really hope ya made it out alive. Ah…ah was infected a while back. Now, I wanna tell ya‘ll somethin‘. Think of it as…my last words.” The voice coughed violently, “Come on, ol’ stallion. Ya still got some fight left in ya. Listen, to whoever finds this. I‘m assuming, that I didn‘t survive the change. When them things infected me, ah knew what I had to do. I had to off myself, that‘s why I came down here. Ah left my partner up top, didn‘t want her to see me like that…”

Nox looked to the monster he’d just killed. That thing was a pony before, that thing was a pony! But wait, it had come to off itself, so what happened?

“I been wondering for a while now, now that Ah’m at the end. What if I don’t change? What if Ah‘m immune?” He coughed violently once again, this time it took much longer to recover. “Ah know, it’s far fetched. And I’m being real selfish, if I ended up hurtin’ anyone ya know…I…there are no words to express how sorry I am.” The voice cracked, was he crying now? “But, I…I…I…I don’t wanna die! I don‘t wanna just end it all because I MIGHT change! No, no, no. Then what was the point of everything I‘ve done up till now! It ain‘t right! IT AIN‘T RIGHT! Ah survived for years, I…I…” There was silence, some coughing and then the voice spoke again, “So…hate me if ya want. Blame me all ya want. I know, that I was weak. So, I‘mma put my life, and the well-bein’ of any pony I come across in the future in the hooves of fate. My name is Wild Flare. And I am so sorry…I‘m so, so sorry!”
click.

Ch. 4: "Ghosts of the past."

“Have you ever seen pictures from before? Back before Equestria, this land, turned into hell? Come with me, we‘re in a library. Maybe we‘ll be able to find something if we look hard enough. It‘s important to remember what we once were, and how life was so long ago.
Don't look at me like that, I'll continue the story while we look.”

As one would’ve expected, the central hub had long since been abandoned and (quite thoroughly) looted. It became very clear to Nox, that something terrible had happened but he wasn’t quite sure what that was. Whatever it was, it was enough to make every pony who worked here abandon their station and run somewhere.

In a room full of “Computers” the pair found the only working model (all the others had either been smashed in or had several important components missing). He left Sally on a chair while she plugged herself in, there was a bunch of whirring sounds which worried Nox quite a bit until Sally’s voice spoke up through the facility. She was “integrated into the system now.” At that point Nox just tuned out and went off to explore the building, he'd never understand all that technobabble.

With each step throughout the dirty gray building, he couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of detachment from the rooms. So many strange devices that he couldn't even begin to understand, if it weren't for the occasional dirty photo of a pony, he'd almost think this place belonged to an entirely different species.
‘When did the crystal empire get this kind of technology?’ It was true that he had never been to the Crystal Empire before, and his knowledge was only based on books and word-of-mouth. But no one had ever mentioned anything of this nature. Well, the better question was probably: “What happened here?” He'd seen ghost towns with a bigger population. At least ghost towns had rats or other such critters.

He walked into (what he assumed) was someone’s office. Although now it barely resembled an office, anything of value had long since been taken or smashed up. There were framed, cracked photos on the floor which caught his eye, they were depicting the facility as someplace cleaner, livelier. Much happier than the dark and gloomy place it was now.
One photo in particular seemed much more...treasured, for lack of a better word, than the rest. It was a photo of a red and pink mare wearing a uniform that was undoubtedly military armor, but only vaguely resembled the crystal pony's normal armor sets. Maybe that was just what the scouts wore? He noticed that the mare was wearing a saddle with a strange cylindrical device attached to it. It kind of resembled a cannon, but much thinner and with an entirely different design. He wasn't sure what to call it.

“Sally.” Nox called to, what seemed like thin air.

There was that whirr of machinery, his eyes drifted to a device that sort of resembled a camera where the noise was coming from. “Do you require assistance, user?”

Nox should probably tell her what his actual name is at some point. Or did he already? “Do you know anything about what happened here?”

“…No. There are no records contained in this particular system. This one apologizes.”

"That's alright." He sighed, "You can go back to...whatever it is you're doing."

"Understood."

Disappointed, Nox trotted over to the desk. He thought that maybe someone would’ve left a journal or something (he couldn’t imagine it was all that useful). Maybe they kept a journal on the computer? How would he even turn it on? He looked around the strange, square box for something that resembled a switch or a button.

. . . . .

Giving up on that, he just starting randomly poking the thing. No luck. ‘Come to think of it, would it even work?’ Probably not, so he settled for digging through the contents of the desk. “Hm?” There was something odd about the empty compartment. When he opened it, he definitely heard something move inside, but there was nothing in the other compartments. “Ah.” He remembered a contraption that Granite built in the early days. If it was anything like that then he knew what that noise was.
Now all he needed to do was remember exactly how it worked. Maybe there was a switch or a specific way to open it to reveal...

. . . .

“Yeah, screw that.” He used the talons to grab the drawer, and then violently pull it right out! That was probably not the right way to make it work, and he most likely broke it. There was a loud clattering noise that reverberated for several seconds, but he found what he was looking for: It was a small, red book. Tucked away in the corner of the secret compartment between the two drawers. “Alright then.” He grabbed it and set it down on the table, he pulled the chair up closer to get comfortable. Nothing else he could do while he waited for Sally to do…whatever she was doing.

Entry #1

“My last journal filled up at my old job, so this is my new one maybe I should just use the computer for my journalistic needs? It's getting really expensive to keep buying these. I’m still not sure if being posted here is a demotion or a promotion yet? The pay is a little better but I have to live here now in the middle of buttf**k nowhere. Even worse, if I wanna go back to the Capital it’s like an hour drive (assuming its not snowed to hell). At least I hear that they‘re trying to come up with an underground tram system. But it‘s a long ways away.”

Entry #12

“Ya know, the ponies here are really nice. I thought I wouldn‘t fit in but they‘ve been really trying to make me feel like part of the family. It‘s kind of nice. At my old job, it was always: "Pumpkin Party do this!" "Pumpkin I need you debug the system!" "Pumpkin there‘s a bunch of popups on my screen! Pumpkin, get off your lazy ass and fix the system (that they broke because of some stupid reason)!" "PUMPKIN, THE MACHINES ARE MALFUNCTIONING!"
. . . . .
I‘m really glad I'm working here now. Everyone seems pretty competent. I've made friends with one of the scout mares, her name's Rosie Blue. At my old job, none of the mares even looked at me, Rosie seems to go out of her way to make me feel like one of the crew, I've never seen such harmony between the brawn and brains departments before. Usually it's the opposite.”

Entry #87

“Ya know, I’ve been thinking about asking out Rosie lately. We‘ve been working together for years. But would she really go for me? I‘m just the cleanup pony, and she‘s a tough fighter mare. I can‘t imagine that I‘d be the kind of guy she‘d normally go for. Maybe I should just give up? I don't wanna make things awkward between us if it doesn't work out.
Reminder: We're all going out for a party in the capital tomorrow.”

Entry #106

“I saw some of the blizzard survivors today. They looked really messed up, even moreso than usual. The scouts try and save everyone they can, but out here we all know there’s more than just the cold to worry about (I don't envy the scouts one bit). Still, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the kind of monster they’re describing. I can‘t help but feel like I‘ve heard that description before. Other than that, I tried talking to Rosie a bit more. Yeah I know, I said I would give up, but what if it‘s meant to be?
Reminder: Debug the system, someone was browsing where they shouldn't be while they're in the work place and ended up with a nasty virus.”

Entry #168

“It figures that I would just get up the courage to ask Rosie out on date (after months of hanging out together, so this would've been a real date-date not just a friendly get together) and she gets pulled for rescue duty. Maybe it’s not meant to be after all? Oh, before I forget, I found something matching the descriptions of what those ponies a few weeks back saw out there in the snow. Yeah, the descriptions were eerily similar to a missing gryphon case a few years back, over in the gryphon homeland. It was debunked as a stupid conspiracy theory (don't ponies have better things to do with their time). But…is it possible that maybe that was true after all? It's not the only report either, a lot of these stories are on the net. There's a whole website devoted to it. Are they all just trolls or...could some of them be true? Well, I better wrap up here. I think I need to pull maintenance duties on one of the cameras in the tunnels. Might as well download some of the official looking stories and read them on my downtime.”

Entry #169

“Okay, this is gonna sound crazy as all hell. But while me and some other ponies went to fix one of the cameras down in the Sector E tunnels, I could‘ve SWORN I saw SOMETHING down there. At first I thought it was just a rock or something but I don‘t think rocks can move that fast! No one believes me, and to be honest; I don‘t believe me either. Probably just tired, this whole Rosie lovesick thing has been messing with my head. That and I‘ve been spending way too much time on the internet looking up those incident reports. Still, I haven‘t found any solid proof and there‘s nothing to suggest that it‘s anything more than stupid pranksters. Right? Do I really wanna dive any further into this?”

Entry #175

“It’s been a few days now, no one’s heard anything from Rosie’s group. I’ve practically been glued to the camera feeds, and haven’t seen any hide or hair of her. This sucks. As soon as she comes back, I don't care what my negative brain says, I'm telling her how I feel! I might never get the chance again.”

Entry #186

“Thought I saw a pony shape in the shadow of one of the cameras. I used a favor with the boss to have a squad accompany me down to the tunnels. I know it's supposed to be safe and there hasn't been a single wild animal that made its way down there in years, but something in my gut tells me I really shouldn't be going down there alone (AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE I'M KIND OF AFRAID OF THE DARK!). I went to the spot but couldn't find any tracks or the pony shaped shadow, but we did find something weird though. It looked a bit like oil or tar or something like that? Don‘t really know how to describe the crap, I‘m a fix-it guy not a tarologist(?). All I know is that it took me a while to get the stuff off my hooves.
...This is gonna sound crazy, but I could swear the damn stuff was moving. For safe measures, I burned the stuff. Leaving it alone is how a lot of horror movies start.”

Entry #262

“It’s been over a year now, we’ve pretty much given up hope on find Rosie’s group. Everyone‘s already moving on with the funeral processions, but I haven‘t quite given up yet. I could probably lose my job but I need to be the one to find her, I need to tell her how I feel. I don‘t think I‘ll be able to let it go until I find some kind of closure. So, I‘m gonna hack into the system and make a copy of Rosie’s last orders onto my PA, then I‘m gonna go down to the tunnels and follow the path. The trail‘s most likely gone cold but…I need to know that I TRIED. I‘m not entirely sure why I‘m writing my plans down, maybe it‘s a backup plan. In case I don‘t come back and need someone to come find me instead. I miss Rosie, I didn‘t realize how much I‘d miss her until she was gone. I'm such an idiot.”

Entry #263

“I didn’t think this journal would still be here after all this time. I don‘t remember how long I was gone for, a year? Two? Five? Well, I don‘t know. I went looking for Rosie, and the trail lead me to. It‘s funny, I can‘t remember. I don‘t really remember a lot of things, actually. It’s kind of like, one big blur or something. Everyone‘s gone now, bad things happened. A disaster. Not just here, everywhere. What happened to Equestria? Dammit. Why did everything turn out this way?
...Ya know. If there's some divine presence looking out for us, and if by some completely unlikely scenario that it's Rosie reading this journal. Then I guess I can say it, in case I never get the chance.
Rosie Blue. I -I love you. I miss you. And I‘m sorry I couldn‘t save you.
I have to go now. I don‘t think I‘ll be able to write in this journal anymore.
Goodbye.”

“What. The. Hell?” Nox flipped through the journal again, there had to be more! “What the hell’s going on? What disaster?" The book was just a bunch of empty pages after that last entry. “Come on, there has to be something.” He kept looking but he knew it was pointless, the pony known as Pumpkin Party had long since stopped writing in their journal, not to mention most of it was unreadable.
“Dammit!” Nox slammed the journal down angrily! “…” After several seconds, he sighed in defeat. That was no way to treat the last remnants of a pony long gone, Shard would probably kill him right then if she were to see his actions.

"That’s very unsightly behavior, Noctilucent."

He mimicked her voice in his head. With a weary sigh, he bent under the desk to pick it up.
While trying to pick up the book with the talon (still having a bit of trouble with it), he heard the sounds of hooves trotting along the marble floor. ‘Huh?’ He heard the hooves step into the office, for a few seconds all was silent until he heard the opening and closing of cabinets, as if the owner was looking for something. He peeked under the desk to see a coat of deep purple legs, and a dirty blue cloth wrapped around the right foreleg.
What were they were looking for? The better question would be: why was Nox hiding? This was someone who could probably tell him what was going on!
He rose up from the desk and found himself muzzle to muzzle with a purple unicorn. She had several noticeable scars but the thing that drew his eyes were her heterochromatic eyes.
‘Orange and green.’ It seemed as though the two ponies were equally confused by the other’s presence, momentarily frozen as their muzzles touched. It was Nox who broke the silence; “Um-”

Immediately, the purple unicorn’s horn flashed a deep magenta!

Nox felt a telekinetic shove push him against the wall, "Oof!" He yelped, against the ringing in his head, he heard the sound of hoofsteps hastily getting away. “Wait!” He called after her as he struggled to his hooves. “Sally!” Nox called.

“User? Are you damaged?”

“N-No! I’m fine!” Just a bit sore. The monster from below hurt worse- ‘DON’T THINK ABOUT IT!’ He needed to stay focused on the task at hand. “That unicorn, do you know where she is? Can you lead me to her?”

“…Yes. That is within this unit’s capabilities.” Instantly, the lights took on a green shade. Not every light though, just in the direction the purple unicorn had gone.

Nox galloped as fast as his legs could take him, it’s a really good thing he was a pegasus, they were built for speed on and off the ground! He had to catch her, she was the only pony he’d seen so far (well the only one that wasn't a-, nope don't think about it)! She must know something! She HAD to! The lights led Nox up a few flights of stairs and then he crashed through a half-open door where he was greeted by the sudden abuse of the freezing cold wind and snow, in addition he felt ice beneath his hooves and ended up sliding to the edge of the building. Colliding with the metal cross-hatched barrier. “Ow.” When did he become the universe's bucking bag?
As he slowly got up, his brain started to make sense of the facility’s surrounding. “What?” He expected a snowy wasteland, and he was right. But there was more…giant, broken down machines and metal structures were strewn across the land like some foal had dumped the contents of their toy box across the playground. They were all mostly covered in snow but some were so big that the snow had only covered half of it. He couldn’t make heads or tails out of the machines he was seeing, when did the Crystal Empire get machines like those? You’d think someone would have mentioned how advanced the crystal empire was.

Mwirrr Kli-Klik

He recognized the first sound as the spark of unicorn magic, but he'd never heard the second sound before, he turned around and saw the purple unicorn, shivering in the cold wind by the door. She was using her magic to hold up a strange metal object and pointing it threateningly at him. “Uh…what is that?” He asked, gesturing to the object which he assumed was some kind of weapon. But nothing like he’d ever seen before, it looked a little like the saddle cannon from Rosie Blue's picture, but significantly smaller and not attached to a saddle. If it was a weapon, he had no idea how it worked. Way too small to hold a cannon ball.

The mare looked agitated, she opened her mouth to speak: “ *** *** ** ******! ”

“What?” Maybe it was the wind or something, but he didn’t understand a word she was saying!

She just got angrier as she said louder and more urgently: “ *** *** ** ******! ”

Nope, no way he was gonna understand what she wanted or who she was, he took several steps forward, “Look, I really don’t understand what you’re trying to-”

BANG

That loud sound cut through the roar of the blizzard, there was a smoking hole by his hoof. And now he realized that was an incredibly dangerous weapon, “ARE YOU TYRING TO KILL ME?!” He shouted.

“ ****. GR-OUN!” She seemed to struggle with that last word.

Still, he almost understood that last part! “Okay, okay! See look!” He slowly laid down on the ground, feeling that cold sting of the ice on his belly. But it beat getting hurt by that weapon. “There. All better?”

She seemed to relax a bit as she slowly advanced on him, she was circling him like a predator and then stopped when she saw the talon. Nox could see her gaze linger on the device strapped to his hoof. She gestured to it with her weapon, “ ***! ”

And they were back to this game again, “What?”

She impatiently tapped the talon with her hoof and then said much louder, “ ***! ”

“Are you…trying to tell me to take it off?”

She pressed the end of the weapon against his head and repeated her word, much angrier this time!

“Okay, okay! Just gimme a minute!” Nox wasn’t entirely sure how it came off anyways so he just felt around the talon with his free hoof looking for a switch or something!

She repeated her phrase, her impatience growing!

“I’m trying, I don’t know how this damn things works!”

And then she repeated again, but with a few more words Nox didn’t understand. He could make out little snippets that sounded like threats though.

“If you’ll just give me a second to concentrate, I can-”

And then more threats!

Nox was just getting more and more pissed off! "Just be quiet and then I can-"

“User! Do you require assistance?!”

Sally’s sudden voice was enough to distract the purple unicorn just long enough for Nox to leap at the weapon cloaked in the unicorn’s telekinetic grip. The talon grabbed the opposite end piece sticking out below the device and tried to wrench it out of the unicorn’s grasp! Nox knew firsthand that a unicorn’s telekinetic powers could get ridiculously strong, and this unicorn had previously demonstrated the ability to knock his flank off the ground. But Nox had caught her by surprise, so the weapon flew out of her telekinetic grip and slid on the ice to the other end of the roof (He had been trying to grab it but, as already been established, he didn't have full control over the talons). He didn’t want to give her time to ready a spell, so he lunged at her!
However, she was much quicker than she appeared. She had fluidly slipped away from Nox’s range but ended up sliding and slipping on some ice, landing near the door.
Rather than try and fight her, Nox remembered that he didn't want to fight her, just get the weapon away. With that in mind, Nox made a beeline towards the weapon on the other end of the roof.
He slid on the ice and picked it up with the talon. He pointed it at the unicorn…’s empty space, because she was gone. The door to the facility closed right behind her.

“?” Nox carefully strolled up to the door, then he tried pushing door but it wouldn’t budge. “SHE LOCKED ME OUT HERE?!”
It was at that moment, that Nox realized that the purple unicorn mare's heart was colder than his now freezing flank.

Ch. 5: "Traditions."

"Hey, look at this. They're photos, of a holiday from our past. It's...It was called: "Hearth's Warming."
It was a time to celebrate unity amongst the many pony races. A time where...a time where you could trust ponies.
A time for family, for friendship, and...love. It's funny how some things can still survive against the test of time."

"Achoo!" The blue pegasus sneezed loudly. He was still shivering from being left out in the cold, 'I thought,I was going to freeze to death out there.' It was a good thing Sally unlocked the door to the roof when she did (he wasn't sure how she did it, but it involved technobabble). 'Heh, imagine that: A wingless pegasus, trapped on a roof, in the middle of a blizzard. Freezing to death!' The irony of it was more painful than his little scuffle with the purple unicorn. 'Speaking of that mare...'
Nox stood up from the couch and looked up to the camera in the corner of the room. "Hey, Sally. Where'd she go?"

"One moment. . . . . . She is on the floor below us. She is resting beneath a desk in the security office."

"Anything I should be worried about?"

"She attempted to procure a replacement for her previous weapon, but was unsuccessful."

Nox eyed the metal hoof-sized cannon with concern, "What'd you call this thing again?"

"That is a pistol. More specifically, it is a Blacksmith .32 pistol. Designed to work in conjunction with the gryphon claw or unicorn magic. There are not many guns left in the world, the odds of finding ammo for it are slim in this environment."

"So every shot needs to count..." Nox was given a very brief description on how it worked a while ago, but he was in no mood to test the quite loud device. Not to mention he just fixed up this lounge to look almost habitable, and really didn't want any MORE holes in the wall.
Luckily, it hadn't taken all that long to clean up; like everywhere else, anything that wasn't nailed down/useful had been left behind. All it really needed was a good dusting. And by dusting, that meant knocking all the dust on the floor and then just sweeping off to the side with his tail (someone else's problem). It's funny, other ponies said he'd start to look like a mare if he didn't cut his tail short, well who's laughing now?!
...They are. Probably. Because they don't have to be here. The rumbling of his tummy made Nox's desires quite clear. "Hey Sally, is that fridge safe?"

Nox stared curiously at the plate of cake that he'd put on the table, "Sally, are you sure this stuff is safe to eat?" It HAD been stuck in a fridge for years, just because it looked like it was just made didn't mean that it wasn't home to all kinds of nasties. The more he thought about it, the quieter his growling stomach became.

"This one can confirm, with a 99% accuracy rating."

"A magically augmented refrigerator safe, huh?" Nox was still trying to come to grips with the arcano-engineering advancements of the Crystal Empire. It was a fridge that was basically a time capsule, for food...at least, that's what he got out of Sally's technobabble. Besides, he wasn't willing to wrap his head around unicorn magic. Such things were beyond the wingless blue pegasus. "Well..." He picked up a fork and pointed it at the cake, "Might as well chow down." He, very slowly inched the fork towards the cake. With everything that's happened so far, he expected the cake to stand at attention and try to rip his spine out from his-
A LOUD VOICE SUDDENLY BROKE THE TENSION! STARTLING NOX ENOUGH FOR HIM TO DASH BEHIND THE COUCH!
"Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!" He repeatedly apologized to the voice...which he realized was someone singing. He cautiously poked his head up from behind the velvet couch (and half expected to lose his ear or something). Instead of an angry monster, he saw a transparent little pony dancing on the table. Nox stared at it curiously, "Sally. What is that?"

"It is a Virtual Intelligence, user. It has also been commonly referred to as a Virtual Program. It is similar to this one's programming but its functions are much simpler, it has little to no capacity for true sentience."

"Um, what?" Before Sally could explain, Nox just held up a hoof, "Nevermind. Is it dangerous?"

"I am not dangerous!" It suddenly spoke up, in a much more cheerful tone than Sally's usual monotone, mechanical voice. "I am VA-381. Welcome, guest. To our annual bzzt-2nd Hearth's Warming celebr-a-a-a-ation." The VP was acting very, odd. Then again, his only point of reference was Sally, but he didn't need to be an egghead scientist to know that 381 was damaged.

"Uh-huh. Wait, Hearth's Warming?" It wasn't anywhere near Hearth's Warming. "How broken is this thing?"

"VA-381 is wo-o-o-orking just-just-just fine, guest." It was skipping a lot more often now, "It is so wonderful to have gue-e-ests after so long."

"How long has it been?" Something in the back of Nox's head tried, in vain to stop him from asking the question. Why was he afraid to hear the answer?

"It has been bzzzzzt." Figures. Now that he thought of it, Sally had the same problem. Was it just a coincidence? "Dear guest, we should gather the other guests if they want to be here for the party."

"...Party? Guests?" Yeah, this thing was nuttier than squirrel poop. "Sally, how do I turn it off?"

"Hold please." Within seconds, the transparent little pony flickered away.

"Guess that takes care of tha-"

Suddenly the music started to play again! "Welcome to our a-a-a-a...rth warming eve party!"

"This unit apologizes, this one attempted to find the process ID and delete it. However, VA-381 appears to be deeply routed into the system. This one could attempt to isolate and-"

"Just forget it." The transparent little pony seemed harmless enough. "And it is Hearth's Warming..." At least according to this, "I'm sorry for trying to get rid of you." He got down to the transparent pony's level. "Just a little stressed out."

"...." It froze before speaking again, "I understand, guest. What would you have me do to...bring your mood back up?" It seemed eager to please.

"Hm...you could start by picking a better song."

"Un-n-n-derstood." The crazy upbeat song from before was now replaced with something a lot more, quiet yet cheerful. Soothing, was a good way to describe it.

Nox relaxed against the couch as the music calmed his nerves, and the food filled his tummy. "Hearth's Warming huh?" A memory of blue feathers took over his gaze, as he remembered a Hearth's Warming eve from long ago; back in Cloudsdale where the Wonderbolts were performing their routine. Nox, like many pegasi had assembled in the cloud stadium to watch them perform their aerial acrobatics. It was on that day that he first saw the blue mare soar across the sky, a tail of rainbow following after her. He remembered being awestruck by how easy she made flying look, it made him feel like...he could do things like that too, if he tried hard enough. Maybe someday, he could be a Wonderbolt? Or at least a really good flier. And then, years after he'd seen the blue, rainbow-maned mare, he'd gotten his cutie mark and then... 'No, no, no. Don't think about. Don't think about it.'
He needed to get his mind off things, "Sally, where's that unicorn, now?"

"....She is still in the security offices. She appears to be attempting to open a can of non-perishable food. It appears to be empty. She looks...disappointed."

"...." Nox suddenly had an insanely stupid idea, it was most likely the holiday atmosphere, or that monster from down below hit him harder than he thought- 'Don't think about it!' Nox cleared his throat, realizing that what he was about to say would probably get him killed. "Sally, can you guide her here?" Yep, his brain needed some serious repairs.

The mare cautiously peered into the room, scanning the contents thoroughly. She had no weapon, so a monster jumping out at her would probably get her. No threats detected, it seemed safe and she could smell the sweet aroma of food coming from inside. Her eyes locked onto the fridge in the corner of the room, by the counters. Her growling stomach was all the excuse she needed. She took one step into the room...
WHEN SUDDENLY THE LOUD MUSIC PLAYED!
Instinctively, her horn glowed as she wrapped herself in a protective bubble. She expected a writhing mass of teeth and claws, instead all she saw was a little, dancing pony on the table across the room (which also had some cake).

"I thought I said, no music!" Nox spoke up from behind the couch. He'd been planning to talk to her from the safety of the space behind the couch, but apparently VA-381 had misheard him when he said: 'Just use the soft music to get her attention, I don't wanna startle her and have her blow up half the room.' Because this had the opposite effect.

"**** ** **** ?!" That weird language again. Her gesturing to the room, the food, and whatever VA-381 was; hopefully conveyed what it was she was trying to ask.

Nox sighed in defeat, "Okay, let's try something else."
Nox stepped out from behind the couch. As expected, the mare tensed up, awaiting an attack or maybe she expected Nox to use the gun against her? Instead he, very slowly, picked up a plate of cake with his teeth. Then, ever so slowly, he stepped towards the mare. He lowered the plate of cake directly in front of her shield and then stepped back to the cake. When looking at her confused face, Nox looked to the piece of cake back on the desk, took the fork and ate a piece of it. "See, it's safe."

She looked to the cake, then back to Nox. Then back to the cake, and back to Nox again. She opened up a small hole in her a barrier to bring the piece of cake in. She sniffed it, smelled nice. She took one, very ladylike bite off the edge.
. . . . . . . .
And then a much bigger bite. She ate that cake as if she hadn't eaten anything in a while, which was technically true. She hadn't been able to eat anything that didn't taste awful in quite some time. And then the plate was empty, and she was sad that it was all gone.

"Ahem." Nox cleared his throat, gesturing to the much larger pieces of cake that still remained. "It's a bit too big for me to finish, care to join?"

"..." she understood none of that, but she got the gist. She carefully eyed her surroundings, Nox hadn't done anything YET. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to. Ah to hell with caution, she was hungry! She lowered her barrier and then immediately dashed up to the cake, taking a plate and just digging in.

Nox mouthed the words: "N-O-X. Nox." And then pointed to himself with his hoof.

"...N-Ox?" She said with some difficulty.

"Good!" Nox gave her another piece of cake. He'd originally tried to tell her that his name was Noctilucent, but she had difficulty with that, so Nox would do. He then gestured to Sally's saddlebag.

"S-S-Sally?"

"Yep!" He then gestured to her.

"....?" They'd been at this for about 20 minutes now, the language barrier was nearly unbearable.

"Okay then." He pointed to himself, "Nox" then to her, "...?"

"...." She tilted her head in confusion, and then her ears perked up. Was she finally getting it? She pointed to herself and said with a straight face, "Mate?"

Nox sighed in defeat, "No, no, not in this situation."

"...Aurora?" She pointed to herself again.

"Wait, what?" Nox suddenly looked up.

She pointed to Nox, "Nox." and then to Sally, "Sally." Then to herself, "Aurora."

Nox pointed to her, "So your name is Aurora?"

"?" Her ears folded down on her head, unable to understand what he was saying.

"Nevermind." He gave her another piece of cake, which she happily dug into. He then turned to Sally and asked; "So, this is a rather...odd Hearth's Warming day."

"This one...does not understand."

"Well, I expected to spend this day with friends and family, and yet here I'm with you, a pony who tried to shoot me, and...whatever VA-381 is."

"VA-381 is a-" Was all he said before his audio cut out, and he flickered out of existence. But he'll be back, he always did.

"So, what should we do in the morning?"

"This one found records about an underground tram, tomorrow we should take it to the Crystal Empire. There, you may find other ponies."

"Good. Good." He then turned to Aurora, "Aurora." He got her her attention, using modern Equestrian was ineffective. So he tried some form of sign language. "Do you. Want to come. With us?"

"...." She gestured to the cake, " *****? "

Nox sighed in defeat and just passed the whole thing to her (whatever was left of it at least). "Try again tomorrow."

Was there a name for this place? There were lines of code and various objects scattered around Sally's AI. "Camera feed, sector 3A, west wing." A window popped up, revealing a dirty empty hallway.

"Excuse me." A voice broke her concentration. It was VA-381's small form off in the distance, "Rogue program, you do not have clearance to be in this sy-y-y-ystem."

"....." Sally looked at VA-381 with scorn, and then without a word, waved her hoof. VA-381's programming flickered and then vanished. She thought it was done with, but he reformed. Although, this time he paid her no mind. Sally watched VA-381 cautiously, it was so odd that a simple Virtual Program was giving her a hard time. Normally, she'd just shut it down but it seemed VA-381 had made copies of itself. Each one she shut down, another one just took its place. Maybe she should try to find the master program and shut it down at the source?
When the user resumes functionality in a few hours, Sally will alert him to VA-381's strange behavior.

Author's Note

Bleh, I don't really like this chapter much. Sorry folks, my brains been a little overworked lately. I'll try and do better in the next few chapters.
Speaking of which, Happy Holidays everyone.

Ch. 6: "Error."

"Don't underestimate what a terrible thing loneliness is. It can do...awful things to a pony's mind."

The cool air against his face. The wind beneath his wings. Looking down at the landscape in a way that only a select few could. Memories of Rainbow Dash. Of the Wonderbolts. Pretending to be the ideal you strive to be. This was the feeling of flying. Nox had only felt it for such a brief time.
Then he remembered a bright flash, the ear splitting siren's wail, and then...something big was rushing straight at him. Panic, instinctual movement. So much chaos, didn't even know which way was up or down. And then...the death spiral.

Crack!

Nox woke up just before he'd hit the ground. Panting as if he'd just ran a mile, and drenched in cold sweat. "A drink." He needed something to drink. While still dazed and disoriented, he moved to stand up but felt something cold and mettalic against his hooves. He looked down to see that he had a pair of metal gryphon claws attached his hooves. "Wh-Oh...right." It was all coming back to him now. He wasn't in the warm room that was his home in Vanhoover; he was in the cold, rundown employee lounge of the Crystal Empire central hub for lost travelers.
He tried to turn the knob on the sink, instead of clean water...there was a creaking noise, and then dirty brown sludge. The look of which, made him think he'd probably keel over and DIE before quenching his thirst. "Figures..." Maybe there was a water bottle in the secret fridge?
'Why would a lounge need a secret fridge anyways?'

After some...rather interesting feats of dexterity, he did manage to open the water bottle (which of course, needed a unicorn's finer manipulation to open...good thing he had a gryphon claw). While chugging down the ice cold liquid, he glanced over to the purple mare resting in a bubble by the couch. Paranoid that Nox would try to hurt her in or sleep? Or just a natural part of life in this place? He couldn't be sure.
He noticed a sheet of parchment sticking out between Aurora's resting hooves. The part of his brain that told him, "I like being alive" was curiously absent as he tried to get a better angle so he could properly see it (he wouldn't DARE risk trying to break the bubble). "That...kind of looks like-"

SUDDENLY THERE WAS VERY LOUD HEARTH WARMING EVE MUSIC ASSAULTING HIS EARS!

Nox folded his ears against his head as he backed away, "Sally! Sally! Shut it off, SHUT IT OFF!" It took some time, but eventually the room quieted down.

The loud noise had rudely woken Aurora from her slumber, her telekinetic grip grabbed the couch, table, and several objects around her. Having lifted them in the air (a few of them now lay broken). She did not look calm at all.

Nox very carefully approached her, "Aurora! Aurora, it's okay! It's okay! Just...just calm down alright? It's all over now...everything's fine now."

Aurora's panic stricken face started to slowly soften at Nox's words; as her breathing normalized, she put the remaining objects back down. " * ** ****. " Aurora looked off to one side, her horn glowed as a little transparent pony appeared in front of her. Was she...trying to use charades? Well either way, it was obvious that she was saying: "I am fine."

One of these days, they'd have to find some way to communicate with each other than-
His thoughts were interrupted when VA-381's hologram appeared on the (now ruined) table. "Good evening, guests! And w-w-w-elcome to our bzzztnd annual Hearth Warming Eve party!"

"Yesterday was Hearth Warming Eve." Nox corrected, then again...he was probably wrong about that as well.

"...." If it could understand him, it didn't show it. Just repeated the same lines several times, each one getting more and more broken.

Nox had had enough of this, "Sally, can you mute him?"

"Understood."

"......." His mouth was moving, but no words were coming out.

"Okay then, now..." Nox turned his attention back to the confused Aurora. Charades. "Sally, I need some help."

"Yes, user?"

"Can you try and illustrate what I'm saying?"

"...This one...will try."

"Okay. I want to ask her if she wants to come with us to the Crystal Empire. Can you communicate that?"

"...." Two holographic ponies appeared in the air between them standing on opposite ends. They looked a bit like Nox and Aurora, the Nox hologram pointed to an image of the crystal empire. It started walking towards it, then looked back to the Aurora hologram. It pointed at her and then the empire. The scene ended with the two ponies walking together to the crystal empire.

"...." Aurora tilted her head, trying to make sense of the images. Whether she understood or not would have to wait for later.

THE HEARTH WARMING MUSIC WAS BACK AGAIN! Luckily, it didn't last long this time.

"Okay, Sally, what's going on? I thought you muted him."

"..." Nothing but silence.

"Sally?"

"Welcome guests, to our annual-"

"I'VE HEARD THIS ALREADY!" Nox stomped his hoof on the ground, "Alright, ya know what let's just go." He trotted towards the door, looking back to the confused Aurora and motioning his head to the doorway.

"G-g-g-guests! Welcome-welcome-welcome-w-w-welcome to the p-p-p-party! Please present your invitations to the nearest official."

"Invitations?" That was a new one. "We...don't have any?" Why was he still talking to it?

A light from one of the nearby cameras scanned him. "You do not appear to have an invitation. Identification unknown. Scanning..scanning...scanning..." All the cameras were now showering the two of them in various lights. Lights that Aurora seemed to be very uncomfortable with.
"Extrapolation: Intruder alert. Switching to security sub-routine. Deploying s-s-s-security personnelllllll......B-B-B-Beginning H-H-H-Hearth Warming Eve decorations."

"Oh...that can't be good." He bumped flanks with Aurora, "Alright, double time. We gotta go, like now!" He said while he urgently gathered up his belongings in Sally's saddlebag.

"?" Aurora just stood there, a confused look on her face.

Nox face hoofed, "Now is not the time for...go! Go! Run!" Nox stepped into the dirty chrome hallway and then saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Down the hall were a pair of large...machines. Their bottom halves were essentially two sets of treads and their upper halves vaguely reminded him of the body structure of a minotaur with a dome shaped head. It's body was completely metallic and covered in...festive decorations. The alternating red and green lights from (where he assumed) was their eyes turned in his direction.

"Intruder! Decorating material! Intruder! Decorating material! Apprehend! Fabulous!"

"Oh crap. We have to go, now! Aurora! Let's. Go. Go!" Nox pointed down the hallway as the purple mare shoved past him, leaving him behind. "Oh sure, that you understand."

"In here!" Nox and Aurora ducked into a nearby room, listening in as the treads outside the door got further away. "Phew." Nox sighed in relief, thinking the worst part was over. "Just need some light." He felt around the wall with his tail. This was familiar to him. "Light, light. Need some light."

As if on cue, Aurora's horn started to glow a faint purple light.

"Thanks for that Aurora." Is what Nox WOULD HAVE said if he wasn't stunned for silence at the sight around him: "Oh...sweet Celestia..." he said in a hushed tone. The room they'd ducked into had been redecorated with the dead bodies of ponies who'd come through here. Most were just bones now...most of them. They'd all been used for...holiday decorations. It was just a sick sight to behold. While Nox dry heaved in the corner; Aurora seemed remarkably fine. As if sights like these were just common place.

"User. User!" Sally's voice came up on the intercom.

"Sally!" Nox was relieved to hear her monotone, mechanical voice. "What is going on with 381?"

"It is...experiencing errors in its programming."

"Yeah, I can tell!" Nox almost shouted that line while gesturing to the skeletal pony decorations adorning the walls and...that pile over there was being used as a TREE! With bells and lights hanging on it. Nox didn't want to look at it anymore, he just wanted to get out of the room. "Calm down, calm down..." He tried to tell himself, shutting his eyes and thinking of what Rainbow Dash would do.
. . . .
And then doing the exact opposite of that, because he couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag, let alone big, metal robot bad guys.
"We need to get outta here."

"It is unwise to go outside. VA-381 has deployed the security-bots to the entrances. In addition to that, the blizzard outside has only gotten worse."

"Perfect. And we're definitely not going back down into the tunnels. What other options do we have?"

"User, an underground tram has previously been mentioned. There is a 65.79% chance that it will still be there."

"An underground tram? Yeah...that might work. Wait. Do you know how to operate it? CAN you operate it?"

"...That should be within this one's capabilities. However, this one would request that you keep the previous vessel safe as this one will need to download into it. Otherwise...this one will be unable to escape from the facility's main systems."

"Okay so, get the underground tram. Take the saddlebag to a..."

"....There is a working computer down there, in the operator's office. Bring the vessel there, and this one will take care of the rest."

"Alright, alright. So, underground tram, operator's office, saddlebag, download you into the bag, get on the tram, get the hay outta here. Simple enough. Alright let's go." He was about to open the door and leave the horrible place behind but...stopped. "Wait, wait. VA-381 is going to be a huge problem. How're we going to deal with him?"

"This one has been locked out of many of the facility's functions however..."

Sally stood before the mountain of security and firewalls before her. Somewhere inside there, was VA-381's central programming.
"This unit's programming far exceeds that of a Virtual Intelligence."

The second the two ponies stepped out of the room, they saw a security robot rushing at them brandishing a pair of holiday lights. And then it was swiftly crushed when an emergency sealing door fell on top of it. "Okay, we can do this."

Author's Note

Almost missed the deadline on this one. Sorry bout that, for some reason my usual browser didn't want to load FimFiction, so I tried some other stuff. Hopefully it'll fix itself later.
Annnyways, sorry about the quality of this one. Writer's block hit me pretty bad. I didn't mean to end it there, I just...completely blanked at the last few sentences. And that is unacceptable, so I will TRY to finish this arc before the next upload date, no promises though.
Other than that...behold...last piece of work for the year. Happy New Year folks.

Ch. 7: "Escape."

"It's getting a little late. Tell you what, let's finish this last part of the story and then we'll find shelter and food.
Okay? Good, now where was I...? Ah yes, when we left that awful place.
There's something I wanna tell you. I don't know what you've had to do to survive but...I hope the bad things you'll have to do never become something you just...don't think about anymore."

Freedom was just a final door away. After a long game of follow the leader (except the penalty was a rather gruesome end), the only thing standing in the way of the two ponies getting into the tram station was a single security robot.
It was just standing there, singing a holiday song that was horribly off key. They couldn't sneak by it; it was standing in a single hallway, and neither of them were masters of stealth.
They certainly couldn't fight it. As established previously, Nox wasn't a fighter, and he didn't know if the mini-can...gun could punch through the metal plating. Not to mention the much bigger multi-cannon thingy on the robot's arms looked rather...terrifying.
They'd tried to lure it away using the ol' throw a rock across the hall, wait for them to investigate, and then sneak by..
....
In their defense, who would've thought that it could shoot the rock while it was mid-air?
There were no systems Sally could access to give them an edge either. If it weren't for the busted light overhead, the robot might've spotted them.

"We need a plan, do you-" Nox turned around, but found the space occupying the purple mare mysteriously empty. "Where did she-" Is what he started saying until he saw an open grate, high up on the wall. 'How did she even get up there without making a sound?'
Nox was so impressed at Aurora's feat of stealth, that he didn't even notice that the saddlebag felt slightly lighter than usual.

The hum of Aurora's magic went unnoticed, thankfully. With slow and careful precision, she undid the screws on the metal grate using the fine manipulation and strength of her telekinetic grip, just enough so that she could lift it open to slide the gun beneath it.
Now, all she needed to do was just get the gun in the right position, then she wouldn't need to worry about its thick armor plating or its terrifying gun.
The dome shaped head protected its brain from small arms fire, unless you aimed specifically for the optics. But she couldn't make a shot like that, not before it would notice the gun. In short, there was no way the gun's bullets could penetrate the robot's armor.
But, everything has an Achilles Heel, this robot was no different. There was one weakness though: The armpits had little to no armor plating, probably to help the arms move freely or maybe someone hadn't quite finished fixing up this robot? Therefore, if she could angle the shot just right; it could just take it down in one shot.
Just slide in between the arms. A bit higher, take aim and...squeeze the trigger.
BANG
It was louder than she thought, but it did the job, watching as the robot convulsed, sparks shooting out of the spaces between plates, its eyes blowing out and then...it stopped moving altogether. She crawled out of the grate to inspect the (what she hoped) dead robot.

"Dammit!" That sound was way too loud, it was probably gonna bring a whole bunch of them. Nox made a mad dash for the door, already hearing the sounds of movement coming from down the hall. He jumped over the robot and dove through the tram station doors.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go!" Nox called to Aurora, urgency clear in his voice.

"..." Aurora wasn't listening at all, she was doing...something with the cannon arm using her magic.

"Intruder-r-r-r-rs-p-p-PARTY GUESTS!" Another robot was making its way down the hall to them. Getting closer to Aurora. It probably would've grabbed her had the dead robot's guns not gone off and blew the other robot's head clean off.

A twisted smile appeared on the purple mare's face. Aurora had this covered, but for how long? Well, by the end of this there's gonna be a lot of dead robots. That was certain.

"Okay, Sally! What do I do now?" Nox said while breaking down the door to the operator's office.

"Plug the vessel into the terminal." The light from the ceiling illuminated the terminal Nox had to use.

"Got it!" Nox used his teeth to pull out the saddlebag's input wire, "port, port, port." He said with the wire in his mouth, that's what Sally called it at least. "This thing?" Nox plugged the wire into something that had a similar shaped hole to the wire's end piece.

"Transfer will complete shortly, do you have any further orders?"

The sound of gunfire from both sides were starting to worry him now, the sound of crashing metal was getting much closer. "Can you help Aurora? Close a door on the robots like before or take control of something? I don't know!"

"The tram station hallway has several security barriers this one could use. It will buy us some time if that is-"

"Yes! Do that!" Nox said, urgency starting to turn into panic.

"Understood."

Click, click, click. The gun was jammed, because of course her luck would run out at that exact moment. One of the robots she'd heavily damaged was still alive and it was coming right at her. Metal barricades were closing from the ceiling, and she took that as her cue to flee. That robot would probably be trapped inside with the two ponies unless she found a way to slow it down.

"Party guests! W-W-Wait!" It spoke with a heavily mechanical voice, the accent and manner of speaking seemed familiar.

...A rather risky idea came to her. But she needed to fix the gun jam first.
It was coming, it was getting closer.
Just a few more seconds. C,mon hurry up!
It was just a few inches away from grabbing her.
BANG BANG BANG she unloaded the rest of the gun's ammo into the robot, ripping its upper half from its lower, as the robot's upper half slid off, making a rather unpleasant noise as it scrapped along the ground.

It crawled toward Aurora, but it was useless now.

She stepped behind the final barricade about to crash down and held the robot's body in place with her telekinetic magic.

"Error, error, error. Can not move. D-D-D-Don't want...to die." The falling barrier did the rest of the work for her. The head just...popped right off and rolled off to one side.

The trams certainly were a lot more...hi-tech than what Nox was used to. Then again, was that really surprising anymore? Nox worried about how long it would take for the tram to be ready and how long it'd take for the other robots to break through the barriers?
While communicating with the Tram's systems; Sally tried to explain something about how she wrote a program that would delete VA-381's ability to copy itself, or something like that. It was technobabble and Nox's eyes just glazed over around the phrase:

"Unless he downloaded himself into a vessel and cut himself off from the main system before the program could take effect."

When he asked what would happen to the robots back there, Sally grew silent before explaining:

"Normally, they would be shut down to preserve power cells. However. without VA-381 to direct them, they will continue trying to carrying out their last orders until their power cells eventually die. Under normal circumstances, one would just replace the power cells, but this world...doesn't have any. Estimated time until their power cells drain? 6 hours, 39 minutes, and 52 seconds."

There was a small twinge of sadness over their fate, but it's probably better than they deserve.
"What happened to him? VA-381, I mean? Why would he just..." murder all those ponies back in that room. It made him sick just thinking about it.

"User, you are thinking of VA-381 as a sentient pony. It was not a pony, it was a virtual intelligence. It's actions are nothing but the result of conflicts in the code."

"You don't think...he seemed a bit lonely?"

"...We do not get lonely, user. Especially not a device who was incapable of true sentience."

'That's wrong. Weren't you lonely? Being down there so long.' Nox didn't want to say that last part. It'd just be a back and forth, besides Sally needed to focus on getting the tram up and running.
Nox wandered over to Aurora, who was busy with looting the operator's office for anything useful.

Her eyes lit up with joy when she found a saddlebag tucked underneath the desk. Emptying the contents and started sifting through the contents of the bag, putting the stuff into two different piles. She was almost like a foal in a toy store, as if she'd found some strange treasure.
Interestingly enough, one of the items had been a squirt flower.
It squirted dirty water at her, which she didn't take too kindly too and promptly vaporized it.

'Come to think of it, where was she keeping her stuff?'
"So, that was...an adventure." His attempt at small talk was useless as Aurora didn't even pay him a second glance, too busy dusting off a tattered cloak to pay much attention to anything. Nox was about to try again when he noticed a frame photo on the wall.
Just like the photo back in Pumpkin Party's office, this one looked to have been carefully treasured. But, unlike the one in Pumpkin Party's office; this photo was of multiple ponies lined up together. There was the red and pink mare wearing the same uniform as several other ponies, she was wrapping her hoof around one of the orange stallions and ruffling his mane with her other hoof.
"Hm...wonder whatever happened to all of them?" Pumpkin Party's last journal entry didn't paint a pretty picture.

"...." Aurora had come up from behind Nox, staring strangely at the photo.

"....Do you want it?" He held the picture out to her with his tail, "Go on. Take it. Take." He tried to illustrate with hooves.

"...." She wrapped it in a telekinetic glow and placed it in her (newly acquired) saddlebag. "...." She nodded to Nox as she put up her hood, maybe to hide her face?

The sound of the tram coming to life cut through the awkward silence.

The tram wasn't big at all. They were about 1/4th the size of a single train car used on the Equestrian rail lines, still...it wasn't cramped and it had a nice view of...an empty cavern. He imagined that, had they been in better times, it probably would have been used to transport goods and personnel.
Now, Nox had plenty of time to think of a plan. "Okay, once we get to the capital, we should probably look for a guard or anypony who could tell us what the hay is going on around here. Barring that, then we go straight to princess Cadence herself and if that doesn't work...then...we can probably just find one of the trains and use that."
Nox's plan needed a lot of work, but it was a start, certainly better than just wandering around aimlessly at least. Though, it probably wouldn't be as easy as he thought.
'Was anything ever that easy?' He glanced over to Aurora, sitting in the corner with her hood over her head. What was he gonna do about her? He had asked her to come with them...kind of, but how long would she stay with them? Would they part when they reached the capital or-

Nox's thoughts were interrupted as something cold, heavy, and metallic dropped from the ceiling. Disoriented. He felt something stab into his cheeks, he felt it draw blood but he couldn't see anything. Just hear the whirring of machinery and feel the cold embrace of metal against his face and the pain running through his body. Panic. On instincts, he ran but was too slow to realize he had nowhere to run. He ended up banging his head into the wall.

"Not. Alone! Don't. Leave. Me. Alone. Anymore!"

It sounded like VA-381, but...fractured, scared. He felt someone ram into him, knocking the wind out of him. He tried to get up, but something strong was holding him down. The hum of magic mixed in with the desperate, repeated metallic cries and something pulling.
He could breathe again, and his vision was coming back to see...the domed head of a security robot (with metal, bug like legs flailing about) being lifted up by Aurora's magic. Nox couldn't even say anything as Aurora pressed her gun beneath the opening underneath the domed head.

"Don-" BANG

The bang of the gun drowned out VA-381's final words, putting a swift end to VA-381's torment. Nox just watched as Aurora took the useless domed head, opened the window and then tossed VA-381 out of the tram and then...she just went right back to her corner of the tram, as if the whole thing had just been a minor inconvenience.
She didn't even bat an eyelash while the whole thing was going down.

Author's Note

I don't normally do this for...several reasons.
Recently, Pounce, a fellow brony suffered a pretty bad stroke.
This video explains it better than I ever could:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaaEkAcIcq8

If you wanna help, you can donate here:
http://pouncivalgaming.com/
Spreading the word is also perfectly acceptable or finding a way to let him know that you hope things work out for the best.

Ch. 8: "Memorabilia."

I was already starting to feel the chill from the night's cold embrace. It was nothing when compared to the frozen north or the crystal empire, but it was still chilly even with the hood on the cloak drawn up. "Keep up...please. We'll be able to rest soon." I called to the little filly trailing behind me.

The cold was having a greater effect on her. Unlike my cloak, hers was full of holes and patches. I wonder if I can repair it? Fixing things aren't really what I'm good at, after all.

I slowed my pace to trot alongside her, draping the side of my cloak over her as a particularly strong wind came through. I shivered at the abuse, but luckily the filly was unhindered. "We're here." I said in as warm a tone as I could muster (again, not one of my strong points) all while pushing open the gate beneath a badly worn sign with a large apple on the front:
"Sweet Apple Acres" was carved into the wood.

It hadn't fared much better than the rest of the property. Sweet Apple Acres had seen better days, I wonder how long until they eventually abandoned it? The fields of sweet apple acres had been unattended for ages and one might think that apple trees were growing all over? Red deliciousness just a short trot away? Well...they would be wrong. Most of them had either been destroyed or...poisoned. The ones that were safe were too far spread out, and were still at risk of infection from...other elements.
Upon entering the main house, I got to work securing the property: Making sure the locks were set and the windows properly barred. Checking to see if anyone had come through, or maybe waiting to ambush us-
. . . . .
I'm just being paranoid again.
Then again...I didn't survive this long by taking chances. And I wasn't gonna be some plague monster's dinner because I didn't think that it would be hiding BEHIND THE OLD, DUSTY COUCH!
.....Just because there wasn't a monster behind there, didn't mean there never would be. Safety first.

The little filly was staring with her big eyes at the interior, it was probably her fast time seeing so many strange things all in the same place...and not broken or without it being clutched by a dead body. She seemed to be focusing intently on a green and blue, patchy scarf draped over a bronze coat rack in the corner of the main room. She touched the fabric and shrunk back at the touch, as if the scarf had burned her hoof. Considering who the scarf belonged to, that wasn't too far off base.

"You're very curious, aren't you?" The memories were already coming back to me as I gazed at the striped green and blue pattern, "That scarf...used to belong to a pretty interesting pony. Do you wanna hear about it?"

The filly nodded vigorously, a small smile forming on her face.

"Okay. But we'll have to walk and talk, I still need to secure the perimeter and I'll make you something to drink. Have you ever tried apple juice?" The little filly's smile, filled with wonder, brought a little bit of joy to my cold and weary heart. If I were to say why, well...that would skipping ahead. I wanted to take it slow as I impart my memories onto this little unicorn filly.

"The ride to the capital was...uneventful. The purple mare had spent that time staring at her gun, opening up a compartment every once in a while to check on something. I wonder...if anything could've prepared us...for Nox, what he was about to see?"

The double doors opened up, letting in the cold winds, snow, and the light in equal measure. Nox shielded his eyes and really wished he had brought something to keep himself warm. He expected to see the crystalline architecture that the crystal empire was known for. Maybe finally finding someone who could explain what was going on.
Instead, the thing that greeted him was the sight of a fallen spire at the heart of the crystal empire. The once lost empire...were just some old ruins.

Author's Note

And this marks the beginning of arc 2.

Ch. 9: "Without batting an eyelash."

"Here, drink this. It'll warm you up a bit. Now where was I?
Ah yes. The owner of that scarf. He was...strange, to say the least. Back before Equestria descended into madness, you'd meet friends in all kinds of places. Sometimes they'd be someone you do business with, or a school mate, oh I'm sorry...you don't know what school is. Well...the point is, friendship has a way of running into you when you least suspect it.
Wait, didn't I say something similar to this a while ago?"

The arctic air brushed roughly against his coat, it was weaker than it was out in the frozen lands but...it was still really cold (as if that needed to be said). "Sally, you alright?"

"This one has no errors to report, user. However, your body temperature is dropping at an alarming rate. This one advises shelter or an article of clothing to defend against the winds."

As for Aurora; she was walking close by, if trailing behind a bit. She kept her gun close, pointing it at anything that even remotely looked like it could move.

"We shouldn't have left the tram." Nox realized that now, but there was nothing any of them could do about it now. Unless they wanted to make the trek back. They weren't in the citadel yet, still on the outskirts but the road was taking them much closer to the...giant, crystalline walls surrounding the whole citadel. "I...don't remember those from the pictures." He knew one Crystal Pony back in Vanhoover, called herself Quartz (ended up nicknaming her Quirky). Most of his knowledge of the crystal empire came from her and the pictures from her home. But he didn't quite remember the GIANT WALL SEPARATING THE CITADEL FROM THE OUTSIDE!
"That's gonna be a problem." They'd seen it back at the tram, but they hadn't realized how big it was until-

"WELCOME TO THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE!" The sudden sing-songy, overly cheerful voice of a mare made Nox shriek like a filly, jump, and land on Aurora's back (who was surprisingly strong enough to hold him up, up until she bucked him off).
The thing that had nearly given Nox a heart attack was a time-worn sign which was three times his size, by the road. A holographic mare in crystal empire garb was pacing around inside the sign. "Hold still please." A green light shined on them from the top of the sign, washing over them several times before disappearing. "You are cleared of any infections, my name is Aiya. How may I assist you?"

"Uh...okay..." He was having flashbacks of VA-381 now, which he tried not to think about. "Um, can you help us find shelter?"

"....Yes!" A 3-Dimensional map of the crystal empire laid itself out before the two ponies. "The green dot is you." It showed them loitering outside the empire, "follow the road up to the crystal wall, I have alerted the gate personnel of your impending arrival. Please follow their instructions and enjoy your stay in the crystal empire! Remember, if you have encountered anything pertaining to the plague; please contact the nearest officer for assistance. Thank you, and have a lovely day." And that was the last they heard of Aiya (though Nox had a feeling that she'd be back).

Nox should've been happy, he was finally gonna get some answers. Was gonna get on the train back home, everything should've been fine. Why wasn't he happy though? "Oh well...that was easy?" Nox said to empty air, because Aurora had already walked ahead of him. "Hey wait up!" He called after her.

To say that the wall was much bigger up close would have been one heck of an understatement. "I wonder how they managed it?" Maybe they had a unicorn help them or something? Or maybe they used their own magic? Crystal Pony abilities were still largely unknown, after all. "So, she said go to the gate..." His voice trailed off when he saw the crystal gates...torn off the wall and tossed aside in the snow. In its place was a makeshift gate of metal garbage and broken down machines which Nox couldn't even begin to comprehend (they looked big enough to fit a fully grown stallion though). "She said there would be ponies here to come greet us." But there were no ponies.

Aurora looked as though she could care less; she was much busier pawing at the ground curiously and routinely opening and closing a compartment on her gun. "...."

"HELLO?" Nox shouted out. "ANYONE INSI-" Suddenly he felt something smash into his side, he tried to fight back but he was pinned in a way that restricted his movement!

"*** *** ******!!!" Aurora angrily shouted at him in the gibberish that she thought was a language.

"What?! What did I do?" Before he could protest anymore; Aurora's hoof was shoved over his mouth while pointing her other hoof to a...rather law paw print on the ground. Ohhhh, Nox understood now. 'Okay, quiet voices. Got it.' Nox frantically nodded until Aurora finally let him up. He shook off the snow clinging to his coat and mane, feeling just a little bit colder after that whole thing. "Well, I don't think anyone's coming out." There was no way they were getting through the blockade, so that only left them with one other option. "Let's see if there's another-Aurora?"

"?" Aurora's head snapped back to Nox. She'd been staring intently at something above the wall, when Nox tried to see what it was...all he saw were gray clouds.

"Is something wrong?"

"...?" She tilted her head off to one side, looking at Nox as though he'd asked her to list every element on the periodic table (which even he didn't know).

"Nevermind, um...Sally, a little help?"

"Of course, user."

With Sally's help, Nox illustrated to Aurora that the three of them should check around the wall to maybe find another entrance.

"..." After several seconds of pacing back and forth, and looking in various directions. Aurora nodded cautiously, pushing Nox to go forward with her forehoof.

Now that he thought of it, Aurora always seemed to hang back a bit. Why was that? Well, if he had to guess it was probably because she didn't fully trust him. Maybe she thought that if she were to turn her back on him, Nox would immediately stab her, take her stuff and then run off.
"Hm..." Come to think of it, why hadn't she already done that to him? She'd already tried to rob and murder him for the talons, what's stopping her now?
'No, no. Don't think like that Nox. We're both ponies, in the same boat, plus I saved her life. Why would she try to kill-' And then his mind flashed back to when she pulled the trigger on VA-381. '...She didn't even bat an eyelash. Was it because he was a machine or...had I misjudged her character so badly?'
That would have to wait as he felt Aurora's teeth bite into his tail. "AGH! What?!" He unintentionally shouted in shock, which earned him another tackle from Aurora. Before he could protest, she pointed ahead of them. It looked as though she was pointing at a simple rock...
....
A rock that moved up and down. Yeah that was breathing...
...
A breathing rock, that dripped with that same sludge like material as the monster from the tunnels.
....
Yeah that wasn't a rock at all.

Aurora drew an illustration in the snow: it was two circles to represent them, a line representing the wall, and a bigger circle to represent the monster. She traced a path back the way they came, away from the monster entirely. That was her plan at least, and Nox could not agree more. With her gun still locked onto the monster, she slowly crawled away.

Nox followed suit, this was almost like when he used to play Hide and Seek back in Cloudsdale. Except for the cosmic monstrosity several meters away that would murder the crap out of them if they were-

"WELCOME TO THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE!"

Oh sweet Celestia. Of all the worst things that could happen, a fallen sign still functioning and giving away their position is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!

Immediately, Aurora's shield went up. Right before the monster would've been on Nox, the shield had cut clean through its claw. Nox averted his gaze from the still wiggling claw. The monster that was frantically scratching at Aurora's shield vaguely resembled a Diamond Dog's build and posture, but its features were much closer to that of a timberwolf (well, a timberwolf covered in sludge). The dome shield would keep them safe for now, but the two ponies needed to figure something out. The glint of the gun's barrel caught his eye; Aurora had dropped it, having had to put her focus on maintaining the barrier instead. Nox scooped it up out of the snow and took aim at the sludge wolf.

"User, destroy the core!

Is what he remembered Sally telling him before. It wasn't exactly difficult to find the RED GLOWING WEAK POINT! It was right on the forehead, glowing and pulsing. He took aim...

That screech rang in his ears again.

His forelegs shook. Stop shaking.' He tried to tell himself. The way its screeching made him feel was starting to come back to him. 'C,mon Nox, be a brave pony...'

She just pulled the trigger without batting an eyelash.

Would he end up like that too? 'I'm not a murderer, this is survival. Its us or them. I am not a bad pony...'

The shield faltered for just a second. Too weak, the claw broke through and scratched Aurora across the face. The violent impact knocked her off her hooves and into a snowbank.

The sludgewolf turned its attention to Nox, reared onto its back legs and then-

BANG

It stood motionless for a few seconds as the bullet pierced through its core, and then it toppled over with a loud thud. The gun fell from Nox's shaking hooves.

....

Several seconds of him just standing over the corpse passed by uninterrupted. He slapped himself with his foreleg and rushed over to Aurora's side, "Aurora!"

"..." She groaned as she felt the scratches on her cheek and muzzle.

"I-It's not so bad." He lied.

If she had understood him, she didn't seem to care. Her horn sparked to life as she got to doing...something to the wound. Words failed to describe exactly what she was doing, but she seemed to be letting out a lot more blood from the wound.

Nox didn't even want to stay and watch, he trotted back over to the gun. Cautiously moving around the dead body of the sludge wolf. The gun had fallen closer than he thought; he reached out to it slowly, occasionally glancing back at the dead monster. A bit closer. Closer...he snatched the gun out of the snow, pausing to search for signs of movement from the monster.
....
Nope, it was dead alright.

After passing the gun back to Aurora, the two ponies took a moment to breathe.
And a moment was all they had, because the sounds of howls drifting along the winds reached their ears; it was like someone had dunked ice water down their backs. Out of the corner of his eye, Nox saw TWO more monsters climbing over the snowy hill. Time to run is what he thought, but they were being flanked by four more back the way they came. "Ow!" Something hit Nox from above, he looked up to see one of the monsters scaling over the crystal wall.
"This is not good." Those things were too fast and too strong for Nox to handle with just a knife, how many could Aurora kill before they would finally overpower her? 'If only I could fly.' Desperation was starting to set in, "Sally! Ideas!"

"....This one advises retreat."

"Well that's obvious, do you have any better ideas?!"

"...This one apologizes, at present time your only option is to flee, however...odds of survival are 16.7%."

"Dammit!" Was this really where it would end? Unless fate intervened, this certainly looked like the end of the road. Funny how fate has a way of working out.

"Hey, you two." A hushed voice called to them nearby, "Over here." The voice was coming from...a rock. Well, not so much a rock but something underneath the rock. "Hurry up, I can't keep this hatch open forever!"

Nox's choices were...stay here and deal with the sludge wolves or...go with a complete stranger down in a dark tunnel and hope he's not a psychopath. "...Aurora!" Nox bumped her flank, "Let's go!"

They could still hear the clawing outside the hatch, "Are you worried? Don't be. That hatch has survived worse things, eventually the monsters'll get bored and leave. But we'll be long gone on the off chance they do make it through." Their savior said to calm their nerves, which was dimmed by his monotone, deadpan "I really wish I was somewhere other than here" manner of speaking. He was a pale green unicorn, a bit smaller than Nox but they were probably the same age, his horn's glow created a very interesting contrast off his jet black mane, what really caught Nox's eyes though...was the scarf around his neck, its rather bright colors really clashed with the unicorns muted tones. The only light source were the horns of Aurora and their new friend.

"Thanks for the help." Nox said, letting out a breath he didn't realize that he'd been holding in. If he ever had to go through that again in his life, it'd be way too soon.

"You're lucky you were so close to the hatch, and that I happened to be outside the barricade when you were shouting like an idiot."

Nox let the idiot comment slide, 'If he was there, why didn't he open the gates?' Was what Nox was thinking, it would've saved them some trouble. "So, where are we going, exactly?" Nox couldn't help but notice Aurora hanging back again, 'She really doesn't trust anyone.'

"Back to the settlement, its the only safe place from the plague monsters."

"Plague what now?"

"...Have you been living under a rock? Never mind. Plague monsters is what we call those...things."

"The sludge wolves?"

"So you call them sludge wolves?"

This was getting them nowhere, "Plague monsters. Well, I'm really glad you showed up when you did...I did not wanna be a pony snack. Speaking of which, what's your name anyways? I'm Nox, this is Aurora, and this is Sally."

He nodded in response, "...Break, is what they call me. Or B." He took a deep breath as he lead them through the dark, dank tunnels. They didn't look natural at all, not like from the shelter to the central hub though, this one looked...well...for lack of a better word, amateurish. All Nox hoped was that it didn't topple and crush them to death. With the way fate loves to screw them over, that was very likely.
"Now listen," Break began, his tone dropping to a lower pitch as he spoke, "Before we let you in, some ponies will have to personally inspect you for contamination."

"What?"

"...Wow, you really have been under a rock this whole time." He muttered under his breath. "To make sure you're not going to turn and kill us all, it's standard procedure. Nothing to worry about. I already know you're clean."

"How do you know?"

He chuckled softly, "Its simple deduction." He took a deep breath...
"You're rather clean, well built, and free of any major scars, this suggests that you've been in a very safe place all this time with other ponies.
You have a habit of keeping your severed wings close to your body, which suggest you're self conscious about the injury, this suggests a past trauma.
In addition, based on the discoloration near the cut-off point and the closer to the shoulder joint: there was something covering it until recently.
There's a bit of sludge residue on your hooves and clinging to your coat, but they haven't festered which suggests that you weren't infected, plus you don't have any of the psychological or physiological signs of infection or you're a really good liar, and I'm willing to bet you couldn't lie your way out of a bucket.
Not to mention if you were infected, Aiya would've been blaring alarms for an hour or two." He spoke rather quickly and with a gleam in his eyes.

"...I...wh...you..." Nox couldn't tell if he was impressed or creeped out.

He then turned his jet-black tail to Aurora, "as for your friend..." He took another deep breath, there he goes again...
"She keeps herself in the back, which suggests she's had bad experiences with ponies before.
She doesn't fully trust us, so she'll be the most troublesome mainly due to a communication barrier and the way she carries herself like a fighter, if she wanted to she could probably kill the both of us in a matter of seconds before we had time to draw weapons.
Her lack of a response means she either can't hear me or she doesn't understand the words either of us say.
Her foreleg has been bandaged up with a dirty blue rag, but she doesn't seem to have any problems walking so its unlikely that its an injury and more likely to have sentimental value or she could be hiding a plague scar, but there's no festering wound on that leg and I can't detect the scent of rot on her.
I would ask you about the rag, but you probably don't know as its very clear that you two only met recently, probably less than a day ago judging by the differences in how you carry yourselves and your hygiene.
While she is scratched up quite a bit, there's no signs of infection; and I watched how she fixed herself up which means she is aware of the contamination danger and has purged herself beforehand so its unlikely that she'd be a contamination risk.
Unlikely but not completely out of the question." He finally breathed a sigh and turned back around, "Just follow our instructions and then you can leave if you want."

Nox only briefly glimpsed Break's smug smile, "...How...did you know all that stuff?" Nox could barely follow any of that.

"Like I said, simple deduction."

Ch. 10: "Gamble"

"Tell me something; what do you think is better? Continuing to eat from the same apple, knowing that the tree will run out soon and then you'll starve? Or going across the meadow to another apple tree that may or may not be there, and you'll most likely starve on the journey?
Yeah. It's a tough question to answer.
Basically, would you want to risk everything for a small sliver of hope at a better life?"

Break took a deep breath, "Lets go over this one more time," Break's voice dropped dangerously, "you will be inspected for contamination. If you're clean, then you'll be free to leave or stay. If you're contaminated, then you'll have to leave. Do you understand, we don't want any trouble."

"Yeah, I heard you the first time." This was the second time Break had mentioned how this was gonna go down.

"Oh, that's not for you. You seem like a perfectly reasonable pony. Her on the other hand," He gestured to Aurora, "I get the feeling that she'll go completely bucking apeshit berserk, unless she knows exactly whats going to happen. And even that is uncertain."

"Oh..." So Nox was supposed to play translator to...a pony who did not speak his language and could only understand vague gestures and charades.
"..."
Yeah, there was no way that could ever go wrong, he found himself mentally rolling his eyes. Regardless, with the help of Sally and her holographic projector, he had managed (or really hoped at least) to get the general idea across. Of course he won't be able to truly relax until he's safely back on the train home and not standing, horrified in the corner as Aurora does violent things.

'Dear holy mother Faust, please let things go smoothly. I don't want to be thrown in jail as an accessory to murder.' The omnipotent being (which may or may not have existed) he had prayed to in the blizzard had (possibly) helped him find shelter. Maybe she was still listening (if she existed)?

When that giant iron door opened up, he had expected to see some crystal ponies in royal guard armor guarding a secret, royal base. He expected a pony to pat him on the back for making it to safety, to tell him what was going on, and then to put him on the train to Vanhoover where he would never speak of this again.
Instead, the giant iron doors open up to reveal a room, a little bit bigger than a holding cell, with that same artificial look as the tunnels. In addition to that, he got two dirty unicorns to shine light at him while an earth pony had (what they called) a saddle-gun pointed at him. He saw what Aurora's small, pistol could do...what could that, much larger gun do to him?

Speaking of Aurora, she was strangely calm about the whole thing. Maybe Nox's words actually got through to her...or maybe she realized that fighting 4 ponies at the same time (one of which had a very large gun aimed at her), probably wasn't the smartest idea.

"They're clean. I think." Said one of the unicorns, Nox would remember this unicorn because he was missing an ear.

"Of course they are." Said Break in a rather tiresome tone, "Where's Marigold?"

"She's..." The one-eared unicorn cast a cautious glance over to Nox and Aurora, "She's...where she usually is."

"Good." Break looked to Aurora, "...." He stared at her, sighed and then looked over to Nox, "Good news; you're free to go. Bad news; you're also on your own. Just go through one of the tunnels and you'll eventually find-"

"Hold up." Nox stepped forward, but the three ponies stood between the wingless pegasus and the scarfed unicorn, "Alright look. I've been really patient this whole time. I fell out of the sky, I nearly froze to death in the middle of a bucking blizzard, I've been stumbling around in the dark for hours, A MONSTER TRIED TO TEAR OFF MY HEAD AND WEAR IT AS A HAT, I get to the main outpost only to find that its been ABANDONED, SHE tries to kill and rob me, a crazy uhhh," what was that thing called again?

"Virtual intelligence, user." Sally spoke up.

"YES, A VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE WENT INSANE AND SENT A BUILDING FULL OF ROBOTS AFTER US! We got out to find that the Crystal Empire has...I don't know, been taken over or something! And then we nearly got eaten by rabid sludge wolves!"

"Sludge wolves?" The earth pony said under his breath.

"All I want, is to get some bucking answers! What. Is. Going. On?! Why are things trying to KILL me all of a sudden?! And I want to go HOME!" Nox's shout echoed throughout the tunnels, he just stood there breathing heavily. He very rarely lost his temper, always tried to stay optimistic and upbeat (it was really the only way he could stave off depression from not having wings anymore).

"..." For a while everyone just stood totally still. Nox, was starting to feel a little embarrassed about his outburst. Even Aurora was taken aback by the sudden shouting.

"..." Break sighed as he started to pace back and forth, muttering to himself, "...!" He froze, and then turned on his hooves to face Nox, "Alright. I'll help you." He then addressed the earth pony, "Go get the other two, tell them to meet up at Marigold's clinic."

"Got it."

"Scar, go...check on Southern tunnel."

"On it." The one eared pony galloped past the group.

"Nine, stick with me."

The...settlement was a lot smaller than Nox had expected (at this point, he shouldn't be surprised). The settlement took root in a cavern, deep below the ground. Houses had been carved out from rocks or made rather poorly. It was much more like a shanty town than anything else, and yet it was so empty. Nox could see how many of the houses had been neglected. Some of them didn't even have occupants, just boarded up doors and windows.

A red Earth Pony mare crossed his path with her head hung low to the ground, she was going down one of the paths leading to a lower cavern, illuminated by lanterns affixed to the walls. He lingered there, watching as the mare slowly trotted out of sight.

"Graveyard." Break answered Nox's unasked question. His voice held...no emotion whatsoever, as if things like that had become common place. Just a natural part of life, for him. What kind of things had he seen?

"...W-"

"There used to be more ponies who lived here. I don't wanna talk about it, don't ask anyone else either. It's...not a pretty subject."

As Break and Aurora trotted out of sight, all Nox could do was stare at the mare. She'd noticed his gaze on her back and turned around to meet it.

Every single bone in Nox's body was telling him to go up to her, pat her on the back and try to cheer her up with his stupid sense of humor or something, yeah he was more of the straight stallion in the comedy duo but come on! He can still make ponies laugh!
.....It wouldn't have mattered if he performed the greatest comedy routine the world had ever seen, there was nothing that was gonna make that mare so much as crack a smile. That look in the mare's eyes. He'll never forget that stare. That dead, empty stare devoid of all light. That mare...she had nothing left in her, she was just an empty husk going through the motions until she would stop moving. How did Nox know? Simple. Because he used to have the same look as that pegasus. Yeah. Nox realized that the mare wasn't an earth pony at all. She was...just like him.

Marigold's clinic was...a bit nicer compared to the rest of the town. It was a house carved into the side of the wall (Celestia knew how anyone managed that). The outside looked rather small but from the open window, he could tell it was bigger on the inside. The hardest part about the whole thing was convincing Aurora that her and Nox needed to be separated, because Marigold wanted to take a look at Aurora. Meanwhile, Nox would be meet with the council of three. Which, coincidentally, Break was a part of.

One might expect the four of them to be meeting in a fancy room, with maybe a round table and hooded cloaks, or candles or whatever. Instead, they were (quite literally) meeting up in the basement (just add a silly wizard hat and it would feel like last Summer). The basement was largely empty save for some sheets blocking the other rooms, and a single square table.

Nox caught the eyes of two ponies, one cloaked pegasus mare with a yellow coat and a crimson mane, and one cloaked earth pony mare with a violet coat and a navy blue mane.

"Did you two really have to bring the cloak?"

"It is tradition." The two seemed a lot older than Break, the earth pony mare in particular seemed to be the eldest of the three, "So...who's that and is this why you called us out here? I was in the middle of something important."

"No you weren't, you were eating a carrot. You've still got some crumbs on your mouth, Twelve." The pegasus pony, Twelve, unconsciously wiped her mouth clean.

The earth pony mare laughed softly, "Break, how important is this?" Her tone became low, with no hint that she had been chuckling just a few seconds ago.

"...Very, Lira." Break took a seat at the table, "...I've said this before, but we can't stay here anymore."

"This place has kept us safe for years!" Twelve immediately responded.

"And it's tapped dry. Our wellsprings are being contaminated, we've only got a few more left. If those go, then this game of survival is over."

"There's also the matter of the plague monsters. I think there's a danger of a breach as big as...well...we all remember that time." The earth pony mare suddenly spoke up, "However...leaving is still dangerous. You've never been outside of Haven, so you don't know what it's like out there. I do. Break, you're a dreamer. You think that there's somewhere safe out there but there aren't any. Everywhere we go, it'll be the same. On the other hoof, if we stay here then we will die slowly."

"Twelve, Lira. You two have known me for a while, you know that I wouldn't do something unless I had a plan. And I do have one." Break said while levitating a worn down map of the crystal empire that he pulled from a box in the corner of the room, "The spire. In the sublevels, there's a bunch of secret, classified stuff. Some of it may still be working,"

"Or it could be full of plague monsters." Twelve interjected.

"How did you find this out?" Lira raised a very good point.

"On my last run, I managed to find a journal clutched in the hooves of some pony. He mentioned a secret, underground settlement for royals and important ponies. It's supposed to last hundreds of years."

"Aaaand, what?" Twelve wasn't seeing the whole point of this.

"Well, if it's better than ours than it's an upgrade and maybe they'll be some info on other settlements like it."

"So...let me get this straight. You want us to go to the spire, which is filled to the brim with plague monsters. And then you want to somehow make it to these sub-levels, move everyone from here to there and then hope that it has information on other settlement locations?" Twelve said this very slowly, "That's...a lot of unknowns."

"I agree. It is quite risky and we just have the word of a long dead pony that there even IS a settlement beneath the spire."

"Not only that, getting there is practically suicide. I may be the only pegasus with working wings, but there's no way you're convincing me to go out there."

"Don't have to." He telekinetically shoved Nox forward, "Because we can use him."

"Him?" Twelve looked over to his bandaged up wings, "What's so great about him?"

"A few things actually. First of all, he's survived against plague monsters and machines before, that means he's either very lucky or one heck of a survivor. Secondly, he and his companions are not part of our group, we lose nothing by sending them out there instead. Finally, look at him."

"...?"

"You can tell, can't you? The way he walks, the way he moves...he's from a completely different environment. Somewhere...safe. That could mean that there ARE safe places out there."

The two mares looked to each other. For a while, everyone was silent until Lira stood up and said; "Very well."

"Alright, I've had enough." His patience was finally at an end, "I want answers. Now. No more running around, no more little snippets of information that just raise more questions. Tell me what's going on! Where. Is. Princess Cadence? Why hasn't Celestia or Luna intervened? What about the Elements of Harmony?"

"..." The three ponies exchanged confused looks, as if Nox had just started speaking an entirely different language.

"Well? I'm not helping with anything until I get some answers!"

Lira looked Nox straight in the eye and said without missing a beat: "Who's Celestia?"

Ch. 11: "A house of cards"

"Are you still awake? You must be tired, right?
Tell you what, after this...we'll go to sleep. Okay? Don't force yourself to stay awake, I'll be here when you wake up and I'll make sure nothing happens to you. Promise.
This next part of the story is where we started to understand each other just a bit more, and yet there were still so many unanswered questions piling up."

A tall, strong, purple coated mare. Protecting me from the horrors.

A shining mane of sapphire, so soft and well cared for, despite the circumstances.

Violet, loving, caring eyes. Kindness, wisdom and strength behind those eyes, and yet...a great sadness I could never understand.

And then...fear, pain, she's in pain. I must help her! No, no, no, don't send me away! Please don't send me away!

Pain, it hurts so much. Can't remember...forgetting...who...why?
Her face. Remember her face.

Remember her face.
Remember her face...

Remember!

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in as the spell pushed her out. Quite literally, the spell's backlash was so powerful it had knocked the pale golden mare off her hooves. She shakily stood up from where she'd fallen, brushing strands of her chestnut mane out of her eyes. "Well...that was new." Her patient; the purple mare seemed remarkably unfazed by the whole experience, "I've used the Mind Link spell in the past," her eyes briefly glimpsed the fallen, dusty, tattered book in the corner, "but...oh my, that was...certainly an unexpected side effect. Did you learn anything, dear?"

"...." Aurora understood some of that, but only vaguely. She shrugged her shoulders as her ears folded against her head.

Marigold sighed and tried to put on a smile, "But at least you're starting to understand a bit more. That's quite a bit better than you were before...when you tried to strangle me."

"....." That seemed to be the extent of what she could understand.

"Nevermind, dear." Marigold sighed once again, "It'll come back to you. Someday. At least we know why you can't speak...you can't remember much of ANYTHING. Your mind is like...it's fractured in so many places, and it's still trying to pick up the pieces. Whatever happened to you; I, unfortunately, can't undo it. I'm terrible sorry."

"...?" She barely understood that, of course, but she could tell through Marigold's body language that she was disappointed.

Marigold sighed wearily, "If only you could understand me, at least you're good company."

Aurora's eyes drifted around the room, aside from the rather old (yet well cared for) rifle hanging on the wall, the room was largely unimpressive. The first thing Aurora noticed was the section of the room partitioned off to the corner, visibility being blocked by a cardboard wall, the second thing she noticed were numerous pictures pinned to the wall (a fact that baffled Aurora as the walls were...well, made of rocks). She pointed to it and tried to ask what they were, but it probably came out as gibberish.

Marigold looked to the direction Aurora's hooves were going, "Oh, those? Well, you see we've lived here a long time. We used to have this, rather wonderful device called a camera but...we had to use it to bash a plague monster's skull open." She stood up from the circular wooden table to trot over to the wall, Aurora following behind like a ghost.

"You've met Break, he and I grew up together. Always a weird little colt, he was. He was never all that strong, or fast, but he's smart, possibly the smartest of us. Spent an awful long time reading books we'd find on the surface, he would get absolutely FURIOUS if anyone dared to suggest using them for kindling. I suppose it wasn't until he got his hooves on this one book called, oh dear what was it again? Um...something something criminology or body language, something of that nature. This reminds me of the time when..."

Marigold went off into her own world, but at this point Aurora had long since stopped understand. Her eyes were fixed firmly on one particular, old drawing. It was a drawing of a mass of black clouds taking ponies away.

"You have to go now, Aurora."

A memory, from her past. It hit her like a sack of bricks, she'd almost lost her footing, catching herself just before she'd hit the ground. She felt dizzy, when did the room start spinning? Marigold was saying something, telling her to lay down but at that point Aurora was too far gone to remember much else. Before everything went black, she saw the purple mare from her memories standing in the center of that mass of black clouds.

"What do you mean you've never heard of Princess Celestia? She's the one who raises the sun every day? What about Luna, raising the moon? Any of that ringing a bell?!" Nox stared at the ponies gathered at the table, but none of them seemed to have any idea what he was talking about. "Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor? They rule the Crystal Empire? What about the Elements of Harmony, do you know those?!" That confused gaze remained frozen on their face. Nox just wanted to face hoof, a lot. "Don't you ever ask what's up with that big glowing yellow orb in the sky? Or why it goes away after a few hours and is replaced by a shining silver, smaller orb with a whole bunch of shiny lights when it gets dark out?"

"....Are you...alright? Break, is your friend...crazy?"

"...No. I don't think he is but...for the first time in my life, I have no idea what he's referring to."

Nox was about to protest more until something finally hit him, 'When was the last time I saw the sun?' He'd certainly seen day and night, but it was always cloudy so he never saw-
.....
The clouds.
'Could it be possible that they've never seen the...' His thoughts trailed off as his mouth spoke on its own; "Have you ever seen the sun before?"

"..." The three ponies gathered round the table shook their heads in unison.

And then he had to ask one last question, "How long have you guys been down here?"

"...." The two ponies looked to the Lira, who then slowly lowered her hood to reveal all the wrinkles and scars adorning her once beautiful face, "I've been down here since I was a filly." She pointed over to a very old photo on the wall of a younger, smaller, scar-free Lira aiming a rifle off camera.

The gears in his head wouldn't stop turning, none of this made any sense to him. Well, that wasn't entirely true. In the back of his mind, there was a little pony putting forth an explanation for it. But he didn't want to believe, couldn't believe it, there must have been another explanation. Maybe these ponies were here before the Crystal empire fell? Maybe the Crystal empire always had these machines (Nox didn't keep up with much tech news, after all)? Maybe the plague monsters are a new addition?

Break put a hoof on Nox's shoulder, "It really pains me to say this, but I can't do this alone. I've got brains but find myself lacking in the brawn department. You can help me if you want, but I'm going even if you won't," he looked to Twelve when he said this, "because I refuse to stay put until something finally gets lucky and kills me." And with that, Break started walking up the stairs.

"...." Nox should've just let him go, it's what he wanted to do at first. Sure Break saved his life but that didn't mean he wanted to go out there and risk it again, since the Crystal Empire was a bust that meant that he had to get to Canterlot and inform Celestia about this. If she didn't already know, then he'd have to...he'd have to...out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Rainbow Dash looking down at him with a disapproving look. Mouthing the words; "What would Rainbow Dash do?"
...He was probably out of his mind, and not just because he was being scolded by an imaginary pony he's never met personally before, "Oh dammit!" He heard himself say under his breath.
"Break, wait!" He called after the unicorn, briefly glimpsing a smug smile, "That settlement under the spire...do you think it also has a secret train?"

About an hour passed as the three ponies prepared to venture out into the surface.

"Are you feeling alright, Aurora?" Nox was initially concerned when he came back to find Aurora passed out on the bed in the clinic.

"..." she nodded sheepishly, almost falling again until Nox put her back upright.

Nox and Break had discussed maybe leaving in a few days rather than the first thing tomorrow, but Break told him "We need to go before Lira and Twelve change their minds, or...kick you two out on the street."
And now, he was watching a back and forth match between Nox and Marigold.

"Absolutely not."

"Break, I'm stronger than you."

"No way, too dangerous and if something happens to you, we've got no doctor."

"And if something happens to you out there, then you have no doctor. These two can most definitely handle themselves, you on the other hoof? You get winded after 10 minutes of running."

"It's going to be packed with Plague monsters and-"

"Break. I'm going. Use your fancy body language powers and you can tell that there's no way in pony hell that you can talk me out of this. Aaaand if you don't let me go, then I will just go on my own."

"...You're impossible to reason with, and a brute, you know that?"

"And you're an insufferable know-it-all."

"So have you two always been a couple?" Nox spoke up, which earned him a death glare from the two ponies. "I'll just...be quiet now."

"Good. Now, put your weapons on the table."

"Sally, knife?"

"Of course, user."

The handle poked out from the bag, which Nox grabbed with his teeth and placed on the table.

Aurora put down her pistol, opening up the clip to reveal that it only had 12 bullets left.

Break's only weapon was a pistol, but rather than Aurora's rectangular top, this pistol more of a...barrel ship around one end, "Revolver." Either Break was reading Nox's mind or he's just that good.

Marigold floated the rifle hanging on the wall over to the table, along with a taped up box under the table. She opened the box to reveal a rather impressive collection of ammo and weapons.

'Why does a clinic have these?' Would've been Nox's first question, until he remembered that he was in this kind of place. He imagined that everyone had at least this many weapons.

"We found a supply truck, crashed into a ravine a few weeks ago, had a whole bunch of equipment." He did it again.
He reached into the box, "Including these." He pulled out 4 pairs of gryphon talons, they were much different from the one Nox had. For starters, their chrome casing made the things look...almost new, different from Nox's rather rough and old design.

Those talons didn't look like they'd break anytime soon, and unlike Nox's talons, the claw parts closed in on the main body so it looked more like hooves (no more accidentally getting it caught on something). "Hey, Sally how do I take these off?"

"....." She was oddly silent.

"Sally?" Now that Nox thought of it, she'd been strangely quiet for a while now.

"Oh, apologies, user. To take them off you have to first..."

"So the plan is simple." Break levitated out a hoof drawn map of the Crystal Empire off Marigold's wall, "the closest entry point to the spire is right here," he pointed a hoof to the library, "there's a store right across from the library where we'll come out of. We'll rush through the front door, take position on the roof, scout our surroundings."

"How do you propose to deal deal with the plague monsters blocking the spire?" Marigold asked while fitting the new talons onto her forehooves.

He could barely contain his smile, "Deception and misdirection." He pointed to certain buildings on the map marked X.

"Are you going to explain any of that to us...dumb ponies?"

"I am...as soon as I'm done soaking in the looks on your faces, how often do I get to leave ponies in suspense?" He took one long deep breath and then said in his usual monotone; "For the next part, I'll need some volunteers outside this merry band of misfits. But assuming that the plan goes off without a hitch, then we should be able to get into the spire with minimal difficulties."

"You make it sound so easy." Marigold responded sarcastically, while trying to decide between a knife or a hatchet (she went with the hatchet).

"It will be. As long as everyone understands their parts." One might think that he was looking at Aurora (who had been swooning over a rather large rifle), but he was actually looking at Nox.

He'd finally managed to get the talons off (depositing it in the saddlebag rather than throwing it away), and now was the part where he had to put on a new set. He'd briefly forgotten the kind of pain he felt when he put the first set on (there was now a scar on his foreleg where they'd stabbed into him). He expected the pain again...
Click
"OH SWEET CELESTIA, IT HURTS SO-" He paused, dumbfounded. Where was the pain? There was definitely something that stabbed into his foreleg when it clicked into place, but not nearly as much pain? Aaaand then he remembered Sally's explanation that later models didn't hurt as much...and now he just felt stupid. He'd only NOW realized that Break was staring at him with a bored expression.
"...I'm sorry what?" He hadn't been paying attention to anything that was going on. Whenever Sally talked about technobabble stuff, Nox's eyes would glaze over and he'd dream of being in a place where things weren't trying to kill him.

Break face hoofed and sighed, "Let's go over this again..."

The warm candle's glow was the only light source that remained in the room. The filly's soft breathing, rhythmic breathing were the only sounds I could hear as I covered her with a blanket. I covered her with a warm blanket, I prayed to a deity that I did not know, to watch over her dreams tonight. Keep her safe and happy in her world where no monsters can hurt her, while I keep her safe from the monsters in this world.
"....." I looked over to the scarf, nestled beneath the filly's head and sighed, "I never liked the next part of the story."

Ch. 12: "Protégé"

"Haaaa." I breathed into my hooves in a vain attempt to warm them up. The moment my breath's vapor disintegrated, I immediately picked up the rifle, aiming it into the expanse of trees; my ears perked up, listening very intently to each sound. I didn't like the moments when I wasn't holding a weapon, I felt vulnerable and exposed. It didn't help that the two of us were out in the open, me at the base of the single tree and her next to me, using her magic to try and pick one of the low hanging apples (there was no way I was gonna let her climb).
"Now be very careful, some of it is dripping and you don't want any of the sludge on you." I warned her, for these were no ordinary apples.

"..." She nodded as a quiet snap played in my ear, I'd almost missed it entirely.

"Good, now just put it in the bag." I lifted up the large sack, holding it open as the infected apple was dropped in with the rest. It was quite a load and the sludge was dripping out the bottom. "Alright, help me lift. One, two-"

Mwirrr

"I'll continue the story to pass the time.
So, we had our plan. We knew what we were supposed to, everything was supposed to go exactly as planned.
But there are some things you're never truly prepared for."

"I've gone over the plan several times now, it's short notice but I believe you four will manage." Break stood before a crowd of 4, hooded ponies. He'd been explaining his plan to them for a good 30 minutes now, even quizzing them (apparently paper and pens were not luxuries the shanty town ponies owned).
"Remember, I'm counting on you. If this plan succeeds, we'll all have a chance at a better life." He motioned to Nox, as if he was some kind of proof of this better life Break had been using as a motivator.

There was a rather hoarse cough coming from the pony on the far left, that followed shortly after. When he saw Break stepped forward, he put a hoof up and choked out a forced, "I'm fine!"

"..." Understandably, Break didn't look at all convinced. Even if Break wasn't...well, Break, that sickly pony would have a hard time convincing anyone that he was in any state to explore the surface. But what choice did Break have? These were the only ones who volunteered for this, understandably dangerous task. Time was not a luxury the ponies could afford either.
No, they'd have to make do with what they have. "Very well." He took a moment to survey the ponies. "Well what are you waiting for, a starting gun? Get going!" At his orders, the ponies went on their merry way.

Nox stood next to Break, "You think this'll really work?" They were out of ear shot now, so Nox felt that Break could tell him how he really felt about this whole plan.

"It's my plan, so I know it will work. The problem is..." He paused, staring down at the scars on his forelegs. A deep, mournful sigh escaped his mouth. "The pony element makes any plan subject to failure." He turned his back to Nox and started walking down the path. "What makes me intelligent is not only my book smarts, but how well I can adjust things on a moment's notice."
Break froze, he turned back to Nox. "On an unrelated note, you have a little ghost following you."

"Ghosts?!" This place had ghosts now?! As if sludge monsters and killer robots weren't enough, he had to deal with ghosts! He hated ghosts! Too many bad Nightmare Night memories!
He hesitated to turn around, at first. But when he did, he saw nothing there? 'An invisible ghost?' He thought.

"I'm not a ghost, I'm a zebra!" A small voice shot up, lower from the ground. A hooded filly waved up to Nox before stepped past him.

"Well, half a zebra." Break's dead-pan response came quickly. "Come on, Nox. We've got work to do." Break had only taken three steps before the filly blocked his path. "Kumi, I can't play games right now, I'm doing something important." He said impatiently.

"But I've been practice, Break. See, watch!" The filly, Kumi, galloped past Break. Standing in front of Nox, she stared into his eyes. It was uncomfortable for the blue pegasus, to say the least.
. . . . . .
The uncomfortable silence continued for several seconds until she suddenly exclaimed, "...He's not from around here!"

"Obviously." He dismissed her observation (and that was being generous, anyone could spot the difference in a heart beat).
"Do you actually have a reason for bothering me, or are you just bored again? No don't answer that." He looked her over for just five seconds before he uttered, "You're not going with us."

"OH COME ON!" She whined, galloping to keep up with Break. "I thought I was your protege? I've been doing everything you've asked for two years! I know things that other ponies don't, I can get to places that they can't! I know I'm ready!" She had some good points, actually.

"You're not ready yet, especially not for a mission this dangerous. You lack experience, book smarts are one thing but there's a difference between reading about something and actually experiencing it." Break scolded, using a rather low voice that Nox hadn't heard him use since, well...he warned them about the contamination check.

"How will I get that experience if you don't let me help?"

"Kumi, this is not the time."

"When will it be time? Don't you always say that there's a better life waiting for us all out there, but we have to go out and find it. But then why won't you let me-"

"I SAID NO!" Break's sudden outburst shocked even Nox. He took a few deep breaths and brushed his mane out of his eyes, "I said no, Kumi. That's my final answer. Just...go back and watch Marigold's clinic."

"But I-"

"Now. Kumi."

She didn't want to risk angering him again, so she just turned and trudged away with her head hung low.

Nox turned to Break and said in a low whisper, "Maybe that was a little harsh?"

"You think so?" No sense of sarcasm that time, was he genuinely asking? "I'm not a social pony. I can read them just fine, but I'm no good at interacting. Especially when emotions that override logic come into play." He sighed once again.
"Kumi, by the way."

"What?"

"Her name's Kumi, she's my protege. And before you ask, no. I didn't ask or want a protege, she was a just street urchin who attached herself to Marigold and I, a few years back. She's smart and picks up skills quickly, but she's impulsive and inexperienced. She'd be a liability on this mission, and I can't afford too many mistakes."

"...What happened to her parents?" It wasn't that Nox wasn't listening, it's just that Break didn't mention Kumi's parents.

"...Take a guess..." And there's the sarcasm again as he pointed to the path leading to the graveyard. "I'm glad she didn't see it though, I've seen what that kind of image does to foals. I don't want her to lose that sense of innocence. It's one of her good qualities, and lord knows we're starved for a little light in our time of endless night."

"...That was from; A Night To Remember by V.T. Sparkle." That was only one of Nox's favorite novels of all time. Shard owned a copy of the book, along with V.T. Sparkle's whole collection of works. Next to Rainbow Dash, V.T. Sparkle was probably the second pony that Nox looked up to the most. Those books were a bright spot in a...rather dark time in his life.
His wing stubs made an involuntary twitch.

"Didn't take you for a lover of literature." For the first time ever, Break sounded genuinely surprised. "Well then," Break stopped at the gate separating them from their path. "I pray that we find the key to a better future."

" Daring Do: The Trail of the Lost Princess by A.K. Yearling." Nox responded before Break opened the gate.

Nox peeked out from the crack of the hidden door. He was looking into a square room, empty shelves and web-covered barrels adorned the walls and much of the floor.
sniff sniff
"Ugh, it really stinks in here." It wasn't as bad as someone trying to murder his sense of smell, but it was certainly wasn't an endearing smell to him.

"Well you're not dead or shivering, so I'd wager a bet that it's safe up there."

Nox pushed open the door as he climbed into the abandoned storeroom. "Seems like it, hang on I'm gonna check the other door." He skulked to the opposite door, pressing himself against the wall, creeping up next to the closed door. He just barely nudged it open. Peering into the abandoned store, looking for anything that even vaguely looked like movement.
. . . . .
It looked and sounded clear. Didn't mean it was clear, luckily he knew someone special for that job: "Sally, movement?"

"...." Some beeps came from her body until she finally said; "No signs of movement, user. The store is abandoned."

Nox breathed out a sigh of relief before calling down to the others, "All clear." He smiled as he saw the others step out of the secret door in the floor. Before he could say anything more, the three ponies breached the next room, weapons pointed in all directions. He watched as they pressed their bodies against the windows and the main entrance, the rucksacks they were carrying didn't even slow them down.
"...." He just couldn't get over how much different they were from him.

"The library's across the street, we just need to make it there and we'll be in position." Break held the revolver in the talons (as opposed to holding it in his telekinetic grip). "Marigold, what do you see?"

Marigold was a lot closer to the main entrance, she was about to open the door to peek outside but hesitated. She looked up, seeing the bell above the door, and then used her telekinetic grip to rip the bell right off. Contained in her magic, no sound escaped as she set it carefully off to the side.
THEN, she opened the door, rifle first. "!" She quickly closed it and ducked down. She didn't even need to say anything. Her horn glowed, showing a depiction of a sludge wolf walking around. With an arrow pointing to its location.

'We're gonna have to deal with that, quietly.' Nox remembered the last sludge wolf they encountered. He was not in a hurry to do that again. At this point, he expected Break to come up with a plan.
Apparently, Marigold was waiting for the same thing, but all Break seemed to do was sit there and smirk.

He held up a hoof and pointed out to Aurora's...empty space by an open window.

'She's doing the ninja thing again.' Nox mentally sighed, deciding to walk behind the counter...only to see a pair of pony skeletons huddled together. Their uniforms were so dirty, covered in mold and torn to shreds, the golden letters adorning their aprons: Gem Bakery were so faded it was hard to tell if that's what it actually read. Had they suffered or had they gone quietly? Who were they? What were their names?

Their bodies were disgustingly adorning the room like...holiday decorations.

He tried not to think about what he saw back then. But, something told him that he would be seeing much worse sights until he finally made it home. 'All I wanted was to go home. How did things turn out like this?' Would the nightmare ever truly be over, would a fate like theirs happen to him? Maybe...maybe he should...

"Looks like she's all done, performed far better than I expected. Let's go."

Break's sudden declaration brought Nox out of his dark thoughts. When he tried to remember it, all he felt was a weird sense of disconnection with how he had been acting. 'What was that?' Nox wasn't an optimist, it didn't make sense for him to consider...something like that. It's this place! It must've been, it's messing with his head. Doing weird things, the sooner he gets on that secret train, the sooner he can put this whole thing behind him.
Nox galloped out with the other ponies, stopping only to see Aurora wiping a bloody, sludge-covered knife off the ground as she stood over a dead sludge wolf. 'She's way too good at that.'

It's a good thing they brought cloaks, the biting chill of the wind was something Nox was glad he was missing. Didn't help that they were on the roof. Nox paced around impatiently while Marigold was Engaged in unicorn stuff with Aurora. Meanwhile, Break was holding out a pair of binoculars, looking around the empire.

Nox walked up to him, "So, we've been up here for nearly 30 minutes. Do you think-"

"There'll be there." Break cut him off sharply, "As much as I'd like to engage in idle chatter, I need to keep my eyes open. So, go bother Marigold, will you?" Still as rude as ever.

Nox sighed, 'Probably just stressed or something.' With nothing else to do, Nox trotted over to Marigold. Apparently done with the unicorn stuff.

"Hey there, dear." She greeted him, was that a bit of weariness in her voice or was Nox imagining it?

"Hey..." Nox's eyes locked onto Marigold's rifle.

He'd been staring, Marigold picked up on that. "Never seen a rifle before?"

"....er..." Honestly, he's never seen a gun until recently. "Not really." He had a pistol, a bit like Aurora's but a little smaller. Sally was still holding onto the knife and there was a sheathed machete attached to his back. A rather weak selection of weapons though.

"Hm...well then, would you care to learn how it works?" She offered up the rifle to him. "Alright then, first: Sit. Next up, puts your hooves here." Marigold used Nox's limp hooves to position, what she thought was a good rifle holding position.
"Then all you have to do is aim down the sights, line up the target. Squeeze the trigger and prepare for the recoil, good thing you have talons. This gun seemed to be made for gryphons and then modified for a pony build."

Wasn't all that different from using the pistol, "Wait, recoil?"

"Yeah, guns usually have a kick back when they're fired. That pistol you got won't give too big of a kick back, but this rifle's got a much bigger kick to it, for example-" Marigold's explanation would have to wait. There seemed to be, blue smoke coming from a building far off from them.
"Looks like we're gonna start up soon."

"What's the blue smoke mean again?"

"Well, you see we have a system in place. We don't have radios and the smoke doesn't produce a smell and it's relatively quiet. Usually, blue means clear. Green will be our ignition, once Break lights the green smoke their blue smoke will switch to green, one at a time within minutes of each other. When it turns yellow, that means the next pony in line has to create the distraction. It's a sign of danger. If Break puts out the yellow signal, then that means the plan is off."

That was their plan. They would guide the sludge monsters around the base of the spire away, giving them a much safer path in. It wasn't full proof, some of them might ignore the distraction or someone could get discovered before their turn is up. Still, it was the best plan they could come up with.

"There are two other smoke signal." Her voice dropped, "When something is red, that means they can't continue, need immediate back up or that they've accepted their fate. The last color, we never use, when the smoke is black that means-"

"What the hell?" Break's voice could barely contain his anger. Did something go wrong with the plan?
No, Nox could see the billowing blue smoke. Break put down his binoculars and trotted over to the rucksacks. He pulled out a yellow bar, but Marigold stopped him.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm calling off the plan."

While Break and Marigold argued, Nox took up Break's binoculars. Looking to the blue smoke signals, they all seemed fine except for one.
......
That was not one of the ponies Break had agreed to.

"Kumi is not supposed to be out here!" Break was trying so hard not to shout, and he was really struggling to grab the yellow flare out of Marigold's grasp. "Give me the bar, Marigold."

"Break, you were saying how important this is. And now you want to go home and quit because Kumi MIGHT get hurt?"

"Give me the bar, Marigold."

"You can't keep shutting her away forever, we're not gonna be around forever."

"The bar. Now."

"Break. You said this was our best chance, all you need is someone to light the smoke signals and-"

"The. Bar. Marigold."

"Guys." Nox tried to get their attention.

"Why can't you just trust her..."

"Guys." Nox tried again.

"She's too young, inexperienced, she's gonna get hurt and-"

"Guys!" Nox said, louder this time. He pointed out Kumi's smoke signal. "Isn't black smoke the bad one?"

The arguing stopped immediately, all eyes were on Nox now. Marigold stepped forward, her eyes widening. A look of pure terror plastered on her face as the color drained from her, "B-Break..." She squeaked out. "That's...black smoke."

"...I know..." Even Break had lost his dead-pan expression. For the first time since Nox met him, Break looked afraid. Afraid of what though? Well, they wouldn't have to wait too long...

The clouds seemed to be twisting and swirling over the black smoke. Something bad was happening, and Kumi was right in the middle of it. A red light shined through the clouds, illuminating Kumi's building.

"It's back. It's been years, but it's back..."

Ch. 13: "Ravage"

"Sludge monsters are one thing.
This...beast from the clouds, this...destroyer.
It was in a whole different category.
We'd never seen anything like it before, maybe some of us had heard stories about it.
But, none of us ever expected to see it."

There are some things, that you're never really prepared for. A pop quiz the moment you come back from 3-week stay at the hospital for a subject you've been failing at, when your marefriend brings you to a public place and says: "We need to talk," the sudden death of a close friend, relative, or colleague. To name a few, there are dozens if not hundreds of examples that one could list. So, you can only imagine the horror of a giant, disembodied eye breaking through the clouds to peer down at the ruins of the Crystal Empire.

It's pupil moved back and forth across the landscape, taking in the sights, absorbing the information. It's eyes briefly locked onto Nox and company.

'Why is it looking at us like that?' More specifically, why was it looking at Nox like that? "Agh!" His wing stubs felt like they were on fire. Why? In all his years, they'd never done that before. Was that giant eye the cause of it? No that was ridiculous, there must be another explanation that doesn't seem so insane.

"You win Break, let's call this off." Marigold passed off the yellow bar to Break, but he didn't take it. "Break?"

He stared, transfixed at the disembodied eye. "Kumi's in danger." Break said, pointing out how the black clouds surrounding the eye were forming tendrils, searching the building Kumi had taken residence in. "I need to help her."

"And just how are you going to help her?"

Break took the rifle from Marigold's hooves, "...The only way I can." He galloped to the edge of the building, knelt down and took aim at the building. "...."

"Break, you're not seriously considering-"

"I am."

"But, it's Kumi-"

"I know."

"...." Marigold was at a loss for words, she looked like she wanted to say something but, it was like the words were caught in her throat.

"Don't!" Nox grabbed the barrel and pushed it aside, "You're gonna shoot her? How is that gonna save her?!"

"This is saving her." At first, Nox thought it was just a horrible joke. But while Break rather liked the sarcasm, it was very clear from his tone and the serious look in his eyes that he was not joking.

"Then you have a poor definition of saving ponies! I thought she was your protege, aren't you like...her adoptive father or something?" Nox looked to Marigold for support, hoping that she, of all ponies in their merry little band, would understand why Nox was so against this. His heart sank when he saw her look away from the scene. "You too Marigold?" Nox looked to each of the two ponies. "You two aren't...you really are...you're going to..." He just couldn't bring himself to say it.

"She knew what she was getting into." Break said in a low voice, "I told her to stay out of it."

"She was just trying to help!" Nox stomped his hooves down in indignation, "and this is how you repay her?!"

"Nox..." Marigold started.

"No! This isn't right, aren't you the good guys? Didn't we go on this mission with the intent of saving ponies? No one said anything about gunning down a filly in cold blood!" Of course Nox was angry, why wouldn't he be? This was the kind of things that evil ponies did. The worst part of it, Nox could see why they were doing, but he just didn't like it. He wanted to believe that there must've been another way.

Break sighed wearily, "Then how would you save her?" Break lifted up the rifle, pointing it at Nox instead. "Let's see if you can see something that I can't?"

Maybe if the gun weren't in his face then he could think of something-

"No. You can't. If you had a plan you would've come up with it, but your eyes drifted to the sky, you're trying to recall something, trying to think of a plan based on something you saw previously. It won't work." Break turned the gun back to the building, "I've run through 49 different scenarios in my head during your whining, and I can tell you right now...there's only one way we're walking out of this, and it's about as likely as you turning into an all powerful unicorn."

"But...that's..."

"Nox, darling." Marigold stepped forward, putting a hoof on his shoulder, "Nopony wants to do this, it's what we have to do. It's more of a mercy than anything else, if we don't...then she'll suffer. Painfully. See look." She pointed out the red smoke billowing from the top of Kumi's building. "I told you what the red smoke means." She hid it well, but her voice cracked in that instant. What they had to do was hurting her, more than Nox could possibly understand.

"...." He hated this.

"I have her in my sights."

He hated not being to do anything, 'If I had my wings, I could fly over there.' The fire in his stubs had not yet receded, he bit his lip and turned away from the scene. He didn't want to see it, he felt that if he witnessed this then-
His eyes widened when he realized something was missing. "Where's Aurora?"

Indeed, Aurora had not been amongst them. In fact, she hadn't been there for a while.

The moment the black cloud had appeared, maybe even sometime before that, Aurora had slipped away. Had she gone to rescue Kumi? No of course not, she didn't even know who Kumi was. No. Her objective was the black cloud and the disembodied eye. It reminded her so much of something, but she didn't know what it was. Her fractured memories were screaming at her, they told her that the key to fixing her memory had something to do with that cloud.
She kicked open the door the roof of an apartment complex. It was bigger than the library, there's no way the eye would miss her. She looked at it, almost out of breath. As she stared into that giant disembodied eye peeking out through the cloud covers, something awoke her. A memory from her past, and that memory filled her with rage she'd never felt before. It poured into her, consuming her.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!" She screamed as loud as she could before taking out her gun and opening fire on the eye. It didn't even flinch as the bullets ricochet off the sclera.

But its attention did turn to her. Its pupil dilated when it gazed at her, then a mighty roar rocked the very foundations of the empire, the eye went absolutely berserk. Black tendrils of sludge seeped out of the sky and slammed down on the ruins, destroying everything and coating it in more sludge. All the while, that ear shattering roar pierced through the skies for miles and miles. It spared nothing, and no one as its destruction left the Crystal Empire in an even worse state, its crystal barriers and sturdy buildings stood no chance to withstand the might of black cloud's destructive power.

A blue pegasus colt stands at the edge of a cloud, gazing out into the beauty of the dawn's early light. But, he was not there to admire the scenery or anything of that sort. No, he was there because he had decided that it was time for him to fly. No more drills, no more light fluttering, no more practice runs where he'd just end up falling on his face. This was the real thing now.
He remembered the snickering of his classmates when he, who knew so much about the mechanics of flying, could barely lift himself in the air. It just wasn't fair, he wanted to fly more than anyone, he wanted to...he wanted to fly with the mare he looked up to. He wanted her to look at him, and praise him just like that day.
A strong wind blew through his mane, he sighed. "What would Rainbow Dash do?" Stupid question. He knew what she would do, the real question was; "What is Noctilucent going to do?"
. . . . . . . . . .
He took a deep sigh, and took several large steps back. 'Remember your training, remember what you studied for. You can do this, and then no one will call you names, no one will look down on you. Everything will turn around.'

"Nox."

He stretched out his wings. 'Stretch the wings, get a good gliding position.'

"Nox, wake up."

He pawed at the cloud, waiting. 'Get a good running start and then...'

"Nox, come on wake up!"

He broke into a run, the wind hugging his tiny body, a little pony in his head told him this was a bad idea but it was already too late. 'The most important thing is to look your fear in the eye, and kick it right in the face!'

"Nox, Nox!" Marigold's voice cut through his dream. Or rather, her hoof smacking him across the face brought him out of his dream.

"Agh! I'm up, I'm up!" He sat alert, "What's going on?!" It was dark, much darker than he'd expected. They weren't in the library anymore, well that wasn't entirely true. They were still technically in the library, just...not in the same place as before. He tried to recall everything, he must've taken a blow to the head when everything...he was starting to piece it together now. "The cloud monster it...went insane and, oh crap. Where's Break? Aurora? what happened to Kumi?"

Marigold opened her mouth to say something, but she seemed to be struggling to form words, her whole body was shaking. And sweating...in addition to that her breathing was shallow and pained as if she was struggling against some unseen weight...

"Marigold?" It was then that Nox realized that the glow from Marigold's horn was fading quickly, a blanket of magic extended above them. Keeping them from being crushed by a couple hundred pounds of rubble. "Okay, I get it now. Let's go."

"Can't." Marigold choked out.

"Why?" Nox had yet to notice why Marigold hadn't already dragged the two of them to safety.

"User." Sally spoke up, "The subject known as Marigold sustained an...extensive injury to the right foreleg."

"Injur-" Nox saw it now, how had he missed it before? His heart fell into his stomach as he gazed at the piece of metal impaling Marigold's leg. "Oh Celestia..." Nox couldn't even imagine the kind of pain Marigold must be feeling right now. There was, so much blood from the wound. "I...I don't know what to do here..."

"If you were the one injured...then...I could've fixed you up but...it's me that's injured so...heh. Not only that, well..." She motioned with her head to the rubble above their heads threatening to crush them. "I think you can make it out of here but...I probably can't."

"Don't talk like that." Nox was not about to lose someone, not to this place. He needed a plan, he needed a route to take, so he did the only thing he could think of. He looked to Sally for guidance, "Sally, we need a way out. Can you help?"

"This one will try."

"Great. See, Sally's gonna find us a way out in the meantime...what should I do?"

"Well, if we're gonna move then I'm gonna...need you to do some about that." She pointed to the metal piece, "I need you to lift up my leg and see if it's stuck to the ground or if it can move."

"O-Okay." Nox took his shaking hooves and gently lifted Marigold's hoof. He heard her wince from the pain and the rubble overhead shift. He froze, but he couldn't stop now. He needed to see what the status was.
. . . . . .
He touched the metal piece, it wiggled but it was definitely stuck in the ground. He could try lifting the leg up further to see if the metal piece might come out of the ground...or it could go down through what's left of the building. Either way, it wasn't worth it, if it would cause Marigold's concentration to falter anymore. "I think it's stuck to the ground."

"That's bad. If we don't have a way to cut it then..." Marigold's eyes drifted over to Sally, "Sally dear, can you perhaps lend your assistance?"

"This frame does have a laser cutter equipped. Is that acceptable?"

"Let's hope so, dear." She tried to sound upbeat and nonchalant about the whole thing, but her anguish was evident in her voice. Her head drooped and...she'd lost a bit of color.

Nox put Sally down next to Marigold's leg. He watched as Sally's 'arms went to work on cutting the metal piece. "Heh, ya know that probably would've been useful." There was so much that Nox didn't know about Sally, he really should try and figure all that stuff out one day.

"Oh, I can...imagine..." Her eyelids started to close, before they shot open, "Nox, darling, I need you to make sure I don't fall asleep. I might go into shock and if that happens, I might fall unconscious and if that happens..." She looked up to the rubble just eagerly waiting to crush the two ponies.

"Yeah...I got it." Nox needed to think of something, small talk...just...something. "Do you wanna hear stories about where I come from?" Nox's little stubs fluttered just a bit.

"That would be lovely." She answered in a tone barely above a whisper.

"Well...it all started back in a place called Cloudsdale..."

Author's Note

...I practically blanked on this chapter. Hm...next week's chapter probably won't be there on Tuesday, I'm gonna take some time to actually try to plot things out as opposed to "making stuff up as I go along."

Prologue: "And so our story begins..."

Creaaaaak

The old wooden floor creaked as I stepped into the old library. Of course, this place had long stopped being a library, it was just a relic from a forgotten age now. A time when ponies used to read books for fun…not to use them as kindling for their fires. But I wasn’t here to read books, I wasn’t much of a reader anyways. No, I was here for something else. Some pony has been wandering around town, leaving tracks all over the place, this is where the trail led me to. As I scan my surroundings, I notice something out of place amongst the dirty, rundown library inside a hollowed out tree; A canteen, discarded by the stairs leading up to the higher floor. Cautiously, I examine the canteen…
“Hm…” I shake it a few times and hear the sloshing of water inside. Odd. Why would somepony abandon a half-full canteen of water?
Upon closer inspection, I realize that the cap hadn’t been properly sealed up. Which could mean that somepony had closed it up in a hurry, looks like I'm not as stealthy as I thought. Or maybe this was discarded ages ago, could be irrelevant to my investigation. I unscrewed the cap and saw the shimmering liquid around the canteen’s neck, a faint stream glistened along the canteen’s side. Had somepony been drinking out of this recently? I touched it with my hoof and noticed it was still wet. And just like that, the pieces of the puzzle clicked in my head.
“Someone’s still here.” But where are they? Not on the ground floor of course, there’s nowhere the hide. My eyes lock onto the 2nd floor and I notice something small quickly dash out of sight.

The ancient stairs creak dangerously as I make my way to the next floor, I pray to Luna that the stairs don’t give out and I end up falling through…the tree. Like the first floor, the second floor had seen better days. I see nothing out of the ordinary; a shattered window, more book shelves, an incredibly large telescope (which collected dust), a brightly colored tail, a bed of tattered sheets, some more books and-
….
My eyes lock onto the brightly colored tail sticking out beneath the bed sheets. I take one step towards it.

Crack

“Crack?” Something broke under my hoof. I look down to see that I carelessly stepped onto a framed picture. Returning my attention to the tail under the bed, I notice that it quickly retreats inside the dirty sheets. “Wait!” I call out to the owner of the tail. “Don‘t go. You‘re the one who‘s been scavenging around town right?”

The stack of sheets don’t move an inch, but I know somepony's under those sheets.

“I’m not mad at you. I…I have some food. You must be hungry, right?” I reach into my saddlebag and pull out an apple with my teeth. Holding it by the stem I stare at the sheets and see no movement. “I‘n goin tuh come closer. Kay?” One hoof at a time, I very cautiously walk about halfway to the pile of sheets. Partly because I don’t want to seem aggressive and partly because I’m not sure how dangerous they are. This world taught me to never let your guard down, or you'll lose your wings.

“Never judge book by its cover, Nox.”

With the apple in place, I step back and wait patiently by the stairs for the pony to come out of the sheets.

. . . . . . . .

Several minutes passed and they’ve yet to come out. Part of me wonders if they’re still in there, maybe they found a way to escape and I’m just staring at an immobile pile of sheets like an idiot. My patience was wearing thin, so I contemplated just pulling the sheets off until I hear a cute little sneeze, confirming that they were still inside. This was getting me nowhere, I needed a new plan.
I look down at the photo I had cracked earlier. I gazed at a worn and faded picture of a purple coated mare reading to a couple younger foals. Even from a photo, I could tell the foals were hanging onto her every word and-
An idea hit me like a sack of bricks.
“Do you like stories?” I asked the pony in the sheets.

I see the sheets shift ever so subtly, good I have their attention.

“I know a really good one you might like. It‘s a story of friendship, and about how I came to be…here. Would you like to hear it?”

Through the gaps in sheets, I see a sapphire colored eye staring back at me.

“But, if you wanna hear it…you should probably come out of there. You‘ll be able to hear better and we can share food.”

The eye looks hesitant, understandable. This world made it hard to trust another pony, let alone a big pony like me. I really hoped I wasn’t going to regret this next action: I unhook my own saddle bag and let it fall carefully to the side.
“I promise, it’s completely safe. Please, come out of there?”

The eye sinks back into the sheets.

I sigh, thinking that I failed until I see a small hoof step out of the pile of sheets, followed by a silver coated filly wrapped in a black cloak. Even with her hood, I can see the horn on her head. Someone this young had been traveling…alone?

She very slowly made her way closer to me, staring down at the ground, stealing glances at me and then quickly returning to staring at the floor. I took a step forward to close the distance and she immediately fell to her knees, trying to make herself as small as possible.

“…” what kind of scars did you carry, little pony? I picked up the apple and dropped it in front of her.

She looks at it, then at me, then back at the apple before sniffing it. Stealing more glances at me, she takes a very small bite of the apple.
….
And then another bite. Looked at me again. Then took another bite...wow she was really hungry.

I sit next to her while she got to work consuming the apple. “Hello. Now…about that story…I think it‘s one you‘ll really like…”