My Little Combine: Resistance is Magic

by Your Friendly Neighbor

Rating: mature
Tags: Crossover, Dark, Adventure
Length: 17698

Freepony

You are a normal pony designated to City 9 for what ever reason. Combine are heavy in this area, it's the place where most riots occur. Resistance graffiti line the brick walls and Lambdas mark secret entrances that have long be blocked off. City 9 was the site of a great battle. Now, Combine forces line the streets armed with the best weaponry available.

You've grown sick of being pushed around. Time is now. Join the Freemane Resistance. Escape the city, or die trying.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-11 03:02:27 UTC

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Wake Up"Don't drink the water, they put something in it to make your forget."

You wake up to the sound of your alarm clock. It's 7AM, time to go to work at your dead-end job. There's no freedom anymore anyway. You're either forced to work or you get thrown in the underground with the zombies. You just happen to work for the war-effort. Making weapon parts is what you do.

Bzzz. Click! Bzzz. Click!

You wield the handles to the base, that's all you do.

Bzzz. Click! Bzzz. Click!

The machines run all day, all night. Some unfortunate ponies that have been convicted of resistance work in 20 hour shifts and have to consume energy drinks just to do their job.

Bzzz. Click! Bzzz. Click!

Luckily, you just work 14 hours. No pay, just the right to live in your apartment and get food. Sure, the work force could be prevented with all these machines running around, but the Combines don't want it to be done by machine. They want the parts to be made by ponies' hooves. It's a form of control. They need to keep us in line, they need to keep us exhausted. If we miss a day of work that hasn't been excused, we are automatically convicted of 'resistance' and will be escorted by force to work each day.

The loud, low-pitched whistle sounds, time for lunch. You walk down the halls to the cafeteria to retrieve your food. Walking down to the cafeteria, you see a Combine guard guarding the gates like he normally does. All you need to do is act casual and walk past him. When you get near him, he knocks a can over onto the floor and laughs. "Pick up that can"

You hesitate for a minute and just shake your head a firm (and a bit stupid.) 'No'. He lifts his stun-stick and preps it for a whack to your face. "Pick up that can." he says again.

You do as he asks, fearful of another beating like last time. You can stand the pain when they get one hit. When it's multiple hits, you just quit. He just laughs and moves off to the side. Heartless. You got up to the counter grab your food at the line from the machine. You sit down, across from another pony at a table. The room is quiet as usual. The mare sitting in front of you notices your can of water. "Don't drink the water." she whispers in a hurried tone.

"Huh?" You reply, confused of this mare's sudden outburst

"Th-they put something in it... To make you forget."

"What are you-"

"I don't even remember how I got here... What tram did I get on? I don't know. All I know is the city. Damn this city."

You push your water to the side, you're not drinking the water for a few days. If what she said was really true, then the local gov are trying to flush out any thoughts about resistance with something as simple as water. Surely this can't be true, many people have been drinking this stuff for years, and they end up joining the Resistance. Still, what if it's true?

You shun the thought from your mind and eat your lunch as normal in the quiet and dimly lit room. Only the sounds of eating or the occasional cough are heard. Slight radio chatter can be heard in the distance behind the doors. The doors burst open and three combines are forcibly escorting a stallion at gunpoint.

"NO! NO! I'M NOT WITH THEM! THEY JUST SO HAPPENED TO BE THERE! NO! PLEASE NO! GODDESSES! HELP ME!" The stallion yells as he's being hauled away.

"Shut up!" The deep, metallic voice of the Combine security officer says. One Combine whacks the pony on the back with his stun-stick about five times to get him to submit, sending shivers of flashbacks into your mind.

One day, you were walking your way to the cafeteria when you accidentally bumped into an officer. He readied his stun-stick and started to beat you. The pain was unimaginable. Each blow sent electric shivers down your spine and blanked your vision out. After a good beating, he walked away with a dark laughter.

Seeing this unfold in front of you, it's horrifying. You can't just let this poor stallion take a beating for something as silly as a gathering. You have to do something! A mental image plays out in front of you. You grab your tray and walk over to where the beating is taking place. You try to look casual as you walk by, looking as if you're putting your finished food in the garbage can. You take a new form of action and prep up your tray to get ready to bash the Combine armed with a gun in the head first.

WHAM!

You bash the security officer in the head, you can hear the satisfying sound of metal on plastic. You can see the helmet dent as the officer falls to the ground. You're not allowed to use any magic, but you push your luck and grab the tray with the bit of magic you know: telekinesis. Combining it with the force of your mouth, you bash the advancing officer in the face plate. You can see light sparks fly and the tray beginning to shatter. You toss the tray to the side and grab the gun swiftly. You quickly find out how to work the thing and jam the nozzle of the gun in the eye of the last Combine forcibly, shattering it.

BLAM-BLAM!!

He falls with a thud as you let off a few rounds into his head.

"C'mon! Let's go!" you say. You grab a wrist-work telekinetic generator from the Combine officer and slap it on the wrist of the earth pony. It allows any pony to use basic telekinetic spells if one puts their mind to it. You've seen some being shipped off somewhere when you were at work.

"Thank you!" says the stallion, "Come with me, though, I know the quickest way to the roofs. There we can make our escape." The roofs? He picks up a stun-stick off the ground in his teeth and beckons you to follow. You don't know what your fit-of-rage has gotten you into, but there is no way to stopping it now. You're on a one-way ticket to joining the Freemane Resistance.

********

You're dashing for your life, through an apartment complex. Your hooves hit against the cobble stone pathways of a backyard area. Combine chatter fills the air, sounding as if they are coming right behind you. You are galloping for the rooftops. You follow close behind your new companion and have your gun loaded for any contact. "In here!" says the stallion, he kicks a door in and continues to dash down a hallway.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" you say, uncertain about this course of action.

"Yeah! Notice these lambdas? They tell you that you're nearing a escape route!"

"I thought they were old graffiti from before all this!"

"Nope, they always have a reason."

The two of you continue your dash up the flights of stairs. You are on the second floor hallway of the complex; you see a door down the hall burst open, a Combine Office room! "Over here!" Your friend quickly bucks the door next to you and heads through the apartment room. Your adrenaline is pumping into your blood at full speed. You feel like you could buck one of these Combines in the head and knock it clean off! You look back as you are running through the room and see an officer running behind you. You pull up your gun and aim it at the evil enforcer.

BLAM!

You hit his front-leg, slowing him down. You don't stop to finish him off, you couldn't risk that. You follow tightly behind your 'tour guide' and bring up your stun-stick up for close quarters combat. You make it back out into the hall and up onto another flight of stairs. "THE COMBINE ARE COMING!" your friend shouts.

You two bash through another door into the apartment halls and slam the door shut. You are on the 4th floor at least and nearing to top of the structure.

"Hey! Over here!" another voice shouts. This one is friendly. You see a pony down the hall beckoning the two of you to cut through that apartment. You meet up to the mare and she beckons you further to go inside.

"Quick, before they know you're up here!" she says

You step inside the small apartment. You notice a small group of people gathered around. A lambda spray is on the wall, symbolizing that this is a supposed 'escape route'. "We need to get though quick," the mare says, "The Combine know we're here. If we cut through here, we can get to the attic and we are in the clear."

You follow the mare through the apartment room and out another door into the hall. You follow her down the hall to another door that leads to what you think might be the attic. The door is labeled 'Staff Only'.

"Okay, this is as far as I go, I need to make sure the Combine don't bust our defence. Just go out the window and go along to the left. Drop down to the ally and crawl through the small crawlspace. You should meet up with some other resistance members. May Celestia guide you." She runs back to the apartment room and leaves you in front of the attic door. Let's hope you made the right choice.

You open the door and walk up the creaky flight of steps. You find the attic. It's cramped, with a low ceiling and tons of boxes.  A small lambda is painted on the floor and next to it is a few rounds for your new pistol. You look out the window and see a few Combine on the street below armed with hoofguns. This isn't going to be easy.

You stick one hoof out the window and notice that all hoofing is good. You can easily gallop along the side if you pay attention. You step out of the window and brace yourself for hell. You gallop along the rooftop and the Combine below start to fire upon you. Shit! You continue to dash for all life. The sounds of hoof-on-metal echo throughout the world around you. Gun shots fling past you and you swear that your tail just got hit. You try desperately to gain control of your breath and your heart begins to thunder inside you chest. You can see the end of the roof and a Lambda on the beginning of the other roof. There is an arrow pointing forward. It suggest only one thing to do: jump.

You dash with all your strength and prepare your self for the jump. You jump over the large gap and hold your breath; wind blows through your mane. You hear the sounds of your hooves hit the metal roofing and you let out a sigh of relief. You don't stop, you continue your mad-dash. Good news, the firing has stopped. A few yards ahead, you can see another lambda pointing down into an alleyway, this must be the point where the crawlspace is located. You stop at the edge and get ready to hop down.

Thud!

Your hooves hit the ground. You think for a moment. You can't believe what you just did, running from gunfire like a criminal. No, you're not a criminal. You look around your new surroundings. The alleyway is dark, surrounded by two brick walls on either side. The sounds of Combine radio chatter fill the air. You stand around for a moment to catch your breath. A new sound rings throughout the city: A Strider. You've heard rumors about them, but never heard them before. It sounds like an animal of sorts.

You spot the second lambda marking the crawl space. This one is smaller and blends in with the wall behind. Should I go? Without a second thought, you get down on your stomach and push your way through the cramped crawlspace. You are on your way to join the resistance. Who knows what lies on the other side of this crawlspace? What if it's a trap? No, it couldn't be.

"Hey, look! Another member!" says a friendly enough sounding voice.

"Well, would you look at that." says another, "Here, take my hoof, kid."

You look up to find a stallion wearing Freemane Resistance gear. He has a lambda band around his shoulder, representing his resistance. You take his hoof and he helps you out of your cramped chamber. "Thanks." you say, not knowing what else to add.

"No problem, kid, always looking to help a mare or stallion in need. I'm Bullbuck and this, here, is Stompers." the stallion says.

"Where are we exactly?" you asked. Surely a place like this was in an abandoned structure.

"We are in an old factory. This is the ground floor, in one of the large supply closets. We are close to the sewage system so we can lead any ponies on the road to freedom. The sewers take you through the city and out. Just follow the lambdas. Here, take this gun and follow me."

He hands you a sub-machine gun and beckons you to follow. He leads you through a door and down a hall to a staircase. At the bottom is a metal door that's labeled 'Worker's Only!' in big letters.

"Okay, just go though here. If you follow the lambdas, you should be fine. Goddesses be with you on your path, kid." He walks off to the supply closet. You walk down the metal staircase and open the door, the smell of raw sewage greets your nose. Sick! You walk down the sewer large pipes. Graffiti litter the walls, saying things like "Freemane!", "Turn down the Combine!" and some other profanity. You can hear the light sounds of Combine traffic from upstairs. You load up your newly acquired gun and get ready for a new life.

You see a lambda marking your path and telling you to go right. You head down the sewage pipes. All is silent. You splash in the water and walk over to the left. You see some supply boxes left behind by some previous escapists. Inside you find a few more clips for your SMG and Pistol. You also find an attachable flashlight which mounts on your shoulder. You are all set, it seems, to continue on the road (or tunnel) to freedom.

May the Princess Sisters guide you.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Raw Sewage"Give them hell, boys."

Darkness.

The sewer system is dark. Sounds of dripping water echo through the tunnel, giving you a chilling feeling. Only the light of your shoulder-mounted flashlight illuminates your path. You've been walking for about ten minutes, and all light from the outside is gone. You occasional pass by a light on the ground, but most are busted. Your hooves are deep in some sewer water, it makes you sick if you think about it long enough.

You HAD to bash that officer in the head. You HAD to do what was right for once.

The sounds of the water beneath your hooves splosh and splash as you walk along the system of tunnels. A few rats are seen crawling the wall and bouncing in the water, causing you to recoil from fright. Damn rats. The tunnel stretches back far, and you haven't seen any lambdas for a while. There wasn't any other turns for at least a good five minutes. Follow the lambdas and you should be fine. You come up to an intersection going both left and right, a lambda is pointing left; you follow it, ignoring the other direction completely. Don't stray off course, it will only make life harder. As you continue down the tunnels, you hear light metallic voices in the distance.

Fuck me, Combines.

You see a flashlight shining off one of the walls in front of you. You ready up your gun, and hide yourself in the darkness. You can hear the heavy splashes of water nearing your location. You shut off your flashlight as quick as you can and you get prepared for a firefight.

"Sector 302... bleep... secure. Resistance... SKSKSKSS! terminated." a deep robotic voice echos off the walls of the tunnel.

There goes my chances for a safe arrival

You look around the wet wall that you are hiding behind and catch a glimpse of the Combine officer. He is armed with an sub-machine gun and is dressed in a standard Overwatch uniform. Soldiers, here? These ponies have more combat experience, you should watch yourself when you engage them. You feel your heart beat beginning to rise as you can hear the soldiers getting closer. By estimate, you can hear about 4, a standard squad if your knowledge is right.

You make sure your gun isn't jammed and levitate it slowly around the wall. It buckles from your nervousness under your field of magic. If you can catch them by surprise, you might be able to take a few down. You start counting the seconds in your head, you feel a time-slowing effect. You look around the wall and see that the four Combines are close together, an very close to the corner. It's now or never. You count down:

Three...

Two...

One...

B-B-B-B-B-BLAM

The sounds echo off the walls and your ears let off sharp rings. You can only hear the slight sounds of Combine radio chatter. You look around the corner for a third time and find that the soldiers are dead, or heavily wounded.

"Sector 302...bleeep... not secure..." one of the dying Combines say. You walk over to the dying foe and put your gun to it's head. You let off a few rounds to finish him off. No mercy for these evil ponies.

You continue to walk down the long tunnel. You flip on your flashlight and reload your gun. You can see off to the side of the tunnel a small lambda with an arrow under it, pointing to a small room. You walk through the busted-down door to find three dead Freemane Resistance members. They have been freshly killed not to long ago. There is a busted ham-radio in one corner of the room and a few medtanks in a saddle bag. You take the saddlebag and any ammo from the guns that you have. You have another look around and find a cabinet. Inside is a Resistance uniform, jackpot!

After slipping it on, you step back out into the main tunnel system of the sewer. You now look like a Freemane Resistance soldier. Inside the pockets, you find a small grenade and a few more magazines for your pistol and SMG. You are starting to have the best of luck with your adventure. You continue to walk down the dark sewer tunnels once more.

In the distance, you hear something horrifying. Low moans fill the air, followed by what sounds like small bugs. You pull up your gun and do a quick search behind you. You continue to walk, the moans of what seem like pain grow loader. You hear a high pitched squeak and you see a small rodent fly past you. Another look at the thing and you see that it's not a rat; it's something way worse.

A headcrab.

You burst into action and whip out your stun-stick with your telekinetic magic. With a sharp growl, the headcrab leaps for your face. You ready your stun-stick just in time to whack the beast out of the air like a baseball. The satisfying sound of meat on wall echos throughout the tunnel. The monstrous foe gets back up and gets ready for another leap. It appears it's leg is badly injured.

It leaps up again and you whip the stun-stick in it's gaping mouth a second time. The headcrab sparks with electric pulses as it flies down into the water. You've slain the zombie-parasite. Another voice echos in the tunnel. You hear heavy thudding of hoofsteps splashing through the sewer water. A zombie in clear view starts making it's way towards you. It's covered in blood, it's chest ripped open, revealing it's bones and a nice display of it's internal organs. On it's head lays a headcrab parasite. Time to put this monster to rest.

You aim your pistol towards the zombie's head and pull the trigger.

BLAM-BLAM! BLAM-BLAM!

Each shot penetrates the headcrab on the head of the zombie, you can hear a small squeak of pain erupting from the parasite. The zombie still scoots it's way over to you. It seems barely wounded from the attack. You pull out your stun-stick for the second time and rush over to the zombie in a full dash. You bash the zombie in the head, adding the momentum of your gallop and the force of your magic, it knocks the headcrab clean off. Both the zombie and the headcrab fall into the water, dead.

You stop for a minute and perk up your ears to listen for anymore sounds. Nothing. You reload your pistol and holster your stun-stick. You've noticed that your are really good at this shooting thing, you got four shots to it's head and none missed. You continue your walk down the tunnels and you see a door on the right with a large lambda painted on it. You got to open it, but you find that it's jammed. You knock on the door with your free hoof and a voice replies.

"What's the password?" it says.

You think for a minute. No one mentioned a password. You decide to guess the best choice.

"Resist."

"Good answer." The door swings open to reveal a stallion clad in some light armor. "Welcome to Escape Route 9!"  he says in an ecstatic tone.

You step inside and the door is closed behind you as the stallion re-locks the door. The room is just a small maintenance room with a generator off the the side. A ladder leads up to a small catwalk in one of the corners where you can make out a bed and a few boxes. A lambda is painted on the wall. Another look at the symbol and you find that it is an image of a Combine Soldier getting beaten by the bottom part of a crowbar. Clever display.

"Welcome, again! This is you one-way stop to the surface. It's safe, I assure you." says the stallion, "If you go up that ladder, it will lead you to a small trapdoor that will take you to the basement of an old restaurant. Beware of Combine, I've been hearing reports on mah' trusty ham-radio of a few squads being dispatched to this location."

"Thanks." you reply.

"No problem. Now hurry on; I'm expecting a small group of escapists coming this way in a few hours."

You climb up the ladder and open the trapdoor at the top. You find yourself in a dimly lit basement with a few cracked windows near the ceiling. You can hear the sounds of many hoofsteps from outside; the squads that the stallion below was talking about. You slowly inch your way up the stairs to the main part of the building.

The restaurant is dimly lit and the walls are lined with different forms of graffiti, both old and new. Shadows of the passing soldier squadrons are seen glowing through the barricaded windows of the building. The air is thick with dust from years of slow decay. Chairs and tables are flipped over onto their sides and some are burnt in half. You have to wait out the Combine squads. You try to walk around the counter, but bump into it, knocking over a glass.

"Shhh!" whispers a light voice, "Stay down! We are waiting for the right time of attack."

You get down close to the ground and crawl your way to where the voice came from. You find the young, light-blue mare that shushed you. Behind her is a few more Resistance members armed with weapons. There are four in total (counting you).

"There is tons of Combines out there," she says in a hurried whisper, "When I give the go, we move back and set off the small explosives to break the window barricades. We move down from there. Got the explosives set, Pipebomb?"

"Eeyup, all set to blow at a flip of a switch." the stallion that is named Pipebomb speaks with a light chuckle in his voice.

"Good. New guy, what's your name?" the mare says to you.

"It's... uh... Sparks." you reply.

"Okay, Sparks, I'm Lil' Light , but you will call me Commander. Got it?

"Alright, Commander."

"Okay, good. Welcome to my squad, Sparks. This here is Pipebomb and Smoke."

"Sup." says Pipebomb

"Howdy." Smoke greets.

"Now that we had our little meeting, lets kick some combine ass! Okay boys! Give those metal tin-cans hell!" Lil' Light says, trying to hold in her excitement.

The four of you quickly back away from the window as Pipebomb flips a switch.

BOOM!

The barricades on the windows crumbled, leaving a nice sized hole in the wall for shooting out of. You prop yourself behind a table and find that a squad of Combine soldiers are coming your way. You levitate your sub-machine gun up next to you and open fire on the soldiers. One stray bullet finds it's way into the visor of a Combine's helmet. You injury all but the one closest to you.

You bend down behind cover to reload as Smoke pulls out a 44. magnum next to you and finishes off a Combine. Pipebomb laughs as he pulls out a grenade and tosses it towards a group of Combine.

"SHIT!-"

BOOM!

A shotgun wielding soldier bursts through the door of the restaurant with a few blasts from his gun, and tosses in a few grenades. Luckily, they weren't near you. They explode and create holes in floor, revealing the concrete roof of the basement below .The Combine soldier armed with a shotgun runs in gun-ready and starts to fire in your direction. Bullets hit the table, causing holes to punch through it. You let out a clip of SMG rounds into the soldier's torso, knocking him down; dead.

  Combine radio chatter fills the air as another squad rushes over to the restaurant.

"Fall back to the counter!" Lil' Light yells.

You, Smoke, Pipebomb and Lil' Light fall back to the counter as a group of Combine start vaulting into the room from the windows. You dig out a grenade in your pocket, arm it, and toss it to the advancing soldiers. Boom! Around 3 dead. The battle starts to heat up as you slowly inch you way forward. You had to have killed at least two more soldiers before you reached up to an overturned table for cover.

Bullets fly past you as a Combine fires upon you're cover spot with an SMG. The sound can only be described as tons of flies zooming past you at super sonic speeds. Smoke quickly takes him out with a well placed shot to the face plate with his .44 magnum. You look in the distance and notice the Shotgun dropped by a Combine shotgunner. You levitate the beastly weapon over to you. Nice! You find that it has three unused shells inside it, enough to kill at least two soldiers. You prop it up on your cover spot and fire at a Combine behind a turned over table. The table shatters into bits and the Combine takes full blow of his bullet. You break out a smile from satisfaction.

"They just keep on coming!" you shout.

"Just keep firing! They'll pull back!" Pipebomb yells.

The bullets keep flying for around 10 minutes. Soon, the firing stops. All goes quiet. Combine bodies scatter the ground and unused guns lay by their side. The occasional Combine radio bleeps off and slight radio chatter is heard. Dust and smoke are stirred up and float together from the battle. The building creaks and pops, sounding like it's about to collapse. "Damn" you say, breaking the silence.

"Great work, team, another victory." compliments Lil' Light.

"Hoorah!" yells Smoke, "That was quiet the firefight back there."

"So. What's next?" you question.

"Well," begins Pipebomb, "Commander says that we will head to the train station. We are in Combine Territory now, so getting there wont be that hard. We will have to fight out way there, but once we make it, we can ride a train all the way to freedom."

"Eeyup" acknowledges the commander, "But it wont be easy. There's going to be tons of Combines, they probably think we are a team of around 10 Resistance members because we took out that big squad. But if we keep alert, we can get through this.

"Well," you say with tons of confidence in your voice, "Lets do this shit!"

"Way ahead of you."

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Blind"Don't be afraid of the dark, Sparks."

Darkness.

Night begins to roll in. The area around you is slowly fading away. You and your new-found friends are off to the Combine train station. The sounds of Combine tech echo in the cityscape, making you feel extremely uneasy. You look up at the City 9 Citadel, the only building that you truly hate. It's been lighting up more than usual at night for the past few days. You can see the tall skyscraper light up with thousands of lights as it moves to let out what appear to be Combine drop-ships.

"Does the Citadel always light up like this?" you ask.

"No. It just started lighting up like that a few days ago. They say the 'Freemane' is causing the Combine hell. Impossible if you ask me. One pony can't do that." Smoke answers.

The Freemane. You've heard about him before. He's the type of stallion that would have tall tales told about. What is known about him is that he used to be a scientist at Magic Mesa before all this stuff went down. He now fights the Combine while wearing a HEV [Hazardous Environment] Suit. Most think that it's all just a story to boost morale, but you think otherwise. What would it be like to meet a hero? You may never know. You have other plans at the moment, though.

The streets that your group are walking are near pitch black by now. This looks like a place where an ambush would happen. The windows on the surrounding buildings are either broken or don't exist anymore. Cars are turned over and Combine walls are everywhere, scaring the cityscape. You see what looks like a small outpost off in the distance. It glows with an artificial light source in the pitch black night.

"That," begins Little Light as she points toward it, "Is a Combine outpost. If we get in there, we can have a quick way through to the other side of the wall. It will be tough, group, but we can do this."

"Right! Hoorah!" Pipebomb yells with confidence.

You feel extremely uneasy about this as you near the structure. You are practically blind and have no way to shine light without turning on your flashlight and alerting trouble. Perhaps it will be a stealth mission? How ever it will go, it has to be done. Your team moves slowly to the outpost, sticking to the dark shadows near some run-down shops. Soon, you four make it to the metal wall. You grab your pistol from your bag and decide to use it instead of loud firepower. All is silent, except for a Combine's heavy hoofsteps on the solid structure and the never ending sounds of the tower far away.

How will we get in there? It's locked up tight!

"Okay, team," whispers the commander, "We will have to find a way around this wall. There is always a building that leads to the other side of a Combine wall. We just need to find it. Sparks, you scout out the area; look for a building that might lead to the other side. Try over there first, at that open building."

Great...

You nod you head in agreement. You hug the wall tightly as you edge your way to the other side of the street. You start to sweat from the heat of both the walls and pure nervousness. The sounds of hooves hitting the structure isn't helping with your paranoia. A broken door leads to a dark hallway. It's eerie, and you're mind is at self conflict on whether or not to go in or just release all your ammo in the air to alert the enemy. You creep your way inside. It's completely pitch black. You want to turn on your light, but you can't risk turning it on, no matter how scared you are. The halls have an eerie light-blue dimness to them, much like the outpost's lights. This must be an old apartment complex, because there are doors with numbers labeling them on either side of the hall. You continue down the halls and find a large, metal door blocking your path. Damn!

You go back outside and flash your light quickly a few times, signaling your friends. They meet up to you at the door.

"How are we going to get through here?!" says Little Light as she nears the door.

"We blow it up!" suggests Piepbomb with a laugh. "If we make lots of noise, we can get them to open the big door."

"But that will blow our cover, and alert the entire damn Citadel. We can't risk that."

"There's most likely an alarm control switch at the outpost. If we shut it off, they might think that it was a false alarm."

"It's the only thing we can do. Let's do it!"

Pipebomb lays a few grenades at the door and stands back. He arms another grenade and tosses it at the pile.

BOOM!

The door creaks with the sounds of the surrounding walls giving way. The door falls off its hinges in a fury of fire and concrete. On the other side, you can see a few walls and a soldier. Alarms quickly ring out as the sounds of Combine hoofsteps echo though the night. So much for stealth.  You quickly pull out you SMG from your worn out saddlebag and make sure it's fully loaded. Smoke, Pipebomb, and Little Light pull out their weapons of choice. Combine hoofsteps get louder as one steps though the now broken door. Boom! Pipebomb blasts the pony at near point-blank, causing the soldier to fly back a bit.

You quickly flip on your flashlight and stick your head out the open door. You see a soldier staring back, with a gun pointing straight at you. He shoots a few rounds toward you and, a bullet hits the corner of the wall. Shit! That was too close. You cower behind the wall as quick as you can. You scout out a comfortable piece of cover and prepare yourself to dash at it. You spot a barrier not to far from your hiding spot. You  jump out from behind the wall and dash as fast as your legs can carry you toward a solid concrete barrier a few yards away. Bullets fly past you, stressing you out further, as you dive the rest of the way to the cover spot. The world seems to go in slow motion, but it turns out that you made it unharmed.

You stick your head out of cover and spot the Combine that was shooting at you. Behind the mask, you bet he looks mad as hell. You get behind cover before the metallic pony notices you're out of cover, and quickly levitate your gun up to shooting position. You let off a few rounds. Each sound of the gun echos through the night, mixing with the sounds of both dying radio chatter, and the outpost's alarm system. You peak back out to see that the Combine is staggering from the blow to his leg from one of your stray bullets. You take advantage and lets off a few rounds into his head. You hit him with advanced accuracy, he was like a sitting duck.

You team move behind your barrier to aid you, and more Combine arrive out of the outpost from one of the rooms. Bullets start to fly as the Combine run and gun at your cover spot. Smoke tries to take out a few with his magnum, but is unlucky and just injures a few from the sounds of it. The ongoing battle grows extremely intense. You hear the clicks and beeps of a grenade being tossed by one of the soldiers. You cover your ears just in case and surprisingly, the grenade explodes right in front of the very concrete barrier you use for protection. Bits of concrete fly everywhere, but luckily, no one is extremely hurt and the barrier remains intact.

Another grenade is tossed by a Combine soldier. It lands right next to you an beeps, waiting to explode and kill you on the spot. Pipebomb yells something, but you can't understand it from all the noise. You grab the grenade as quick as you can and toss it back at the Combine that tossed it to you. Boom! You hear a soldier yell in pain and it's radio is cut off. You think you got him. You rise out of your cover spot to begin firing your SMG wildly.

B-B-B-BOOM!

You let out a spray of bullets at the group of Combines. The light of your gun illuminates the night and empty shells littler themselves at your hooves. Your barrage of gunfire only lightly harms the soldiers. You let out another unsatisfied spray before retreating behind cover once more. You don't know if you hit one or not. Radio chatter fills the air as Smoke lets out hell with his magnum beside you. Lil' Light uses her sidearm to blast a few soldiers. Pipebomb uses his shotgun effectively at a long range, knocking back a few Combine. You peak around the corner of the barrier and see a few soldiers fall.

You notice that a staircase leading up to the outpost wall looks clear. You take all your luck, and dash your way up the small flight of stairs and onto the wall. Blasting a clip of ammo into a Combine on the wall, you take him completely by surprise. You look where he was standing, and notice that he was it was by a small control panel, a switch. You flip it, thinking it will open the big door, but find that it shuts off the blasting alarm system. You can hear a few heavy hoofsteps rushing up the stairs. You ready your SMG and, without thinking, release hell upon two unlucky Combine.

You find cover on the wall and aid your friends in taking down the last four Combine. Your height advantage makes headshots easy. You take them on with ease, only using a clip to take them all down. Outpost secure. You rush down the stairs and check the rooms around the outpost to make sure none are left.

You find a few bits of ammo and some more med-tanks. You sit at a chair and notice a slight pain in your front-left leg. You pull up your sleeve and find that you have been shot. As the effects of adrenaline wear off from your body, pain starts to set in deeper. It's agonizing, like being stabbed and having the wound set on fire. You might been dazed by the slow loss of blood, but you think you can see your bone! You quickly take out a med-tank and stab the needle into the side of your bloody wound. You see the bloody hole in your leg start to close up and heal from the magical elixir.

Relief.

*****

"Okay, according to this map:" Little Light says, "If we go down that ponyhole, we can get to the train station easily. We will have to fight more Combine, but we will have less a chance to encounter Striders or some other type of major obstacle."

"Right," replies Smoke, "We can get into the Combine's underground bases, and probably rob us an armory or two."

"It should only take us about 5 hours on hoof to get through all these halls and fight through the Combine. There is a barracks on the path, so suspect tons of soldiers."

The underground bases of the Combine. You've heard many stories about them: Some incredibly shocking, evil, and twisted. Ponies say that they use the underground to transform poor captives into Combine soldiers, completely screwing up their mind until they are weak and able to be controlled. Other stories say that they turn them into bio-machines, having their disembodied brains work for the Combine force. Each story gets even more creepy and twisted as it gets passed down. You don't like to think about it.

You look at the ponyhole leading down to the first levels of the Combine underground. It's dark, thinking about it sends shivers down your spine.

What if we get captured? What if we become one of 'them'?

No, that can't happen. We are good shots. We can take down a large force of Combine with ease. We will make it to that train station. Nothing, not even a giant wave of soldiers, is going to stop us. We will gain our freedom today. You make you're way down the ponyhole's ladder. Your hooves touch the bottom of the cold, steel floor and the feeling of it sends shivers of fear through your entire body.

You and your rag-tag squad make your way down the downward sloping hall. It's a bland area surrounding you, just wall made of both metal and concert. The air gets thicker and more hot as you descend down the hallway. It ends at a door. Lil' Light pulls out a key card that she had found on a dead soldier, and to her luck, it works. The door swings open, revealing a large, factory-like chamber. The air is filled with sounds of machinery and magic combined. Suspended over a large pit is a giant glowing orb of light that seems to be giving power to the entire facility. Small conveyor belts are seen in the distance and seem to be carrying supplies to what looks like a train. This is the train station?

"This looks like a secret train station of some sort; for things like cargo." Little Light says.

City-scanner sprites fly around the room and seem to be doing simple supervision of the area. If everypony can keep quiet, you and the others can sneak onto one of those cargo trains. A city-scanner breaks off of the herd of sprites begins to fly in your direction. Dammit! Did it see anyone? The city-scanner starts to flash red and alarms start to sound as it nears your location.

"Fuck! They've found us!" yells Smoke as he gets out his magnum and shoots the sprite down.

Hoofsteps echo through the large chamber as a large group of Combine come around a corner from both the right and left.

The only thing going through your head is: You're screwed!

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Separation"The Combine do some weird stuff down there.

Gunfire.

You think fast as you pull out your SMG and start spraying bullets at the on-coming squadron of soldiers. Ricocheting bullets echo through the large factory-like facility. The surrounding area is lit ablaze with blueish gunfire.  They are using a type of weapon you know to well, you used to make them back at the factory. AR2s, the standard issue for Overwatch Soldiers. They are extremely devastating in combat and can kill in a short burst. If you can get your hooves on that gun, you'll be kick ass!

You quit your mini-daydreaming and return to the heat of the battle. Bullets fly past your head as you try to find a decent form of cover. You let our out a few random burst of bullets from your gun and fail to hit anything. Filled with the heat of adrenaline, you jump out of cover and fire full-auto at a few soldiers. Your stupid action only gets you an agonizing pain in your side. You got hit with a stray AR2 bullet, burning through your skin and setting a small fire in your side. A blazing pain shoots through your entire body and causes you to collapse on the ground. Your vision starts to fade and everything is a blurry red. The last thing you remember is the shouts of the battle and being dragged off somewhere.

You black out soon after.

*****

You wake up to find your self stuck in a chair, strapped in tight. Looking around, you find yourself in a dimmed room. Blood stains the floor beneath your hooves. Sounds of metallic voices greet your ears. You've been captured. An assortment of odd robotic tool dangle in front of your face. Two thoughts penetrates your mind: they're going to turn you into a Combine, or force you into slavery! You look around the room and see a single Combine, computers, tools on a table, and a metal door. You look down again, and see your hooves strapped tight to a chair. You need to find a way to escape, but how?

Magic! They must of thought you would be knocked out for a bit longer because you can channel your magic successfully. You're extremely lucky! Sadly, the magic field you're trying to generate is not strong enough to manipulate anything, except for a small pair of scissors. It will have to do, all you need to do is cut your self free and dispose of the Combine in the room. You try to generate a field around the scissors. The magic field floats around the small, metal tool but fails to move it an inch. You're took exhausted to use any form of magic. You try to do it a second time, sweat builds up from exertion; you fail to move them again.

The third time's a charm, you succeed to move the scissors without alarming the soldier in the room. You slowly levitate the crude looking tool up near the soldier's head, and use all your strength to violently push the pair of scissors through the back of the Combine's head. He falls with a heavy and satisfying thud. Your magic is way stronger than you thought! You focus on the robotic device in front of you and soon enough, unplug the circuit, shutting the menacing device off. You levitate up a saw from the arsenal of tools on the table and cut your self free from the chair. Searching around the dim room finds you some ammo for the AR2 rifle. Not the best find, but Lady Luck is grinning onto you today!

Now, to plan your escape. You try for the metal door, but find that it's locked. Damn, looks like that way's a dead end. You look around the room and find an air vent in the corner of the room, close to the ground. Next to it, on a table, you find a well placed crowbar. You grab it and take a few hefty whacks at the air vent till it breaks off. Satisfied with your work, you make your way inside the air vent. It's dark, cramped, and extremely uncomfortable. Your movement creates loud echos and dents the brittle metal. You're not sure where you're going, all you're looking for is an exit. You make a left at an intersection and you are greeted with another vent opening.

Peering through the cracks, you find it's another room like the one you were in. A Combine is to your left, and to your right is a light-blue pony in a chair: Little Light! You have to save her somehow. The only thing you can think of is bursting through the vent and using brute force on the soldier. You don't see anything around that can give you a more stealthy approach. You use your new-found tool to quietly bash off the screws holding the vent in place. The Combine is none the wiser. You creep up closer to the Combine, laying on your stomach as you crawl. You raise up your crowbar, shining with your magic, and bash the metallic foe in the head. He falls with a thud.

You get up from the ground and aid Little Light in getting unstrapped from the chair. You find that she's still knocked out from the battle. With a quick shake, you wake her up. "Huh! What!? Oh, it's you Sparks." She says.

"Yeah. I escaped successfully. We got to get moving, do you know where Smoke and Pipebomb would be held?" you ask.

"No.. I don't" she says with a quiver in her voice, "They're dead. The soldiers that fought us killed them right in front of me right before I got knocked out."

"Oh... I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It wasn't your fault. They were good men, like family to me. But we can't mourn their death, we got to get moving." She gets up from the chair and stretches out a bit.

You and her, alone in this damn underground, unarmed. Without a gun in your hooves, (or, field of magic) you feel naked. You need to rob an armory. You snatch a key card off the Combine you killed and use it to open the metal doors in one part of the room. You find that you are in a prison-like hallway, Doors leading down the left and on the right, an intersection. You make it down to the intersection and find that on the left path, a small armory, and on the right, a giant door. You and Lil' Light head down to the armory and see if the key card you got works. Luckily, the door opens. Unfortunately, you find two soldiers guarding the armory.

Bullets fly past your head, super heated AR2 rounds. You recoil to the side and allow a Combine to make his way to you. You swiftly use your magically levitated crowbar to bash your foe to all hell. One. Two. Three hits, sparks fly everywhere. You toss the crowbar at the next Combine, causing him to drop his weapon as he dodges. You rush up and grab a free AR2 and bash the confused soldier in the head a few time. Another down. Alarms ring through the entire complex. You've been found out! Looking down the hall to the big door, you see it flashing red and slowly starting to open. A few soldiers come through, about five. You toss an AR to your friend and get ready for a fire fight.

The fight lasts for a good 2 minutes, the AR2 is a monster on the battlefield if used right. Five Combine down. Millions to go. You and Lil' Light might just make it out of this hellish underground alive. You and her need to make it to an open cargo train. The two of you walk through the big, metal doors and into what looks like the main facility, only deeper. You see a giant pit, but no orb. You look up a bit and find that you are deeper underground. The orb is still floating and giving power to this hellish facility. Trains are seen loading cargo up above a few stories. If you can make it up to that level, you and Lil' Light can stowaway on a train.

"That's our train!" you say.

"Are you sure?" replies Little Light, "Do you think we can make it in time?"

"I'm sure if we can find a lift, we can make it just in ti-"

"I think I spot one over there!" Little Light cuts you off and points to a group of Combines across the facility (About 8) in front of a lift system leading directly to the cargo loader. They must know that we are trying to escape through the train system. This is the only lift you can spot, and it's your only chance to grab a ride on that train. You will have to fight your way to it.

You take position well afar from the lift and the eight Combine Overwatch Soldiers. They appear to be carrying AR2 rifles and they are wearing white armor. You've only seen Combine in uniforms like those once, and that was during the battle for the city up-top. They are probably the elite warriors. Some Resistance members say that they carry anti-gravity orbs that shoot from the AR2 and disintegrate living beings in mere seconds.

You levitate your new AR2 rifle to shooting position and hold your breath to steady your field of magic. You are planing to let out a few pot-shots on those soldiers before they see you coming. The AR2 rifle is accurate for the first few rounds, always hitting the target your aiming at; but the more you fire, the worse the recoil.

You let of a few rounds from the AR2 rifle, penetrating through the armor of one soldier, and injuring him slightly in the chest. You continue to use short, controlled bursts until the soldiers catch on and find where you're hiding. You took out 2 soldiers and injured another badly. These Combine aren't that smart, are they? The small battle between two resistance members and the five begins quickly and ends just the same. You blew through all your ammo and had to resort to brute force with your crowbar near the end of the battle. What a rush!

Alarms blast through the facility once more. It's now or never. You and Lil' Light step into the lift and quickly press the button. The lift door shuts, protecting you from all forms of abuse. What you see on the other side of the extra-strengthened glass is about 10 Elite Combine and 15 regulars making their way to your position; you made it just in time. You need to get on that train fast before it leaves.

You and Little Light board the train in one of the cargo carts with an assortment of arms and armor locked up tight in Combine crates. The first stop for this train is unknown, but it's got to be out of this city. "We better be on the lookout for trouble when we stop." Says the former commander, "They probably have already alerted any security for the first stop."

"Right... Let's hope we can make it through." you say. You're really unsure about your survival.

"I know we can."

*****

The dark train car is only lit up by a small red light in one part of the room. The only sounds heard is the clanking and squealing of tons of metal and the train moving along the track. What seems like hours, you become stiff from sitting in one spot. You have no clue of what time it is or if it's even night or day; all you know is that you are going to a small town a few miles away from City 9. (Thanks to the notice board inside the train.) The small town is called T5, you guess that it means Town 5, but you're not really sure. It used to be called Ponyville before the war, but now it's just a Combine storage ground.

You sit in the same spot, your eyes are becoming heavy. You're beginning to become drowsy. Your head begins to slump over, and you lay onto you side. You slowly close your eyes, breathing slowly. You soon drift to sleep.

You wake up. The clinking an clanging of metal has stopped, the train must have reached it's destination. You look around to find that Little Light is no where to be found. The red light in the train glows with an almost blinding tone as you start to hear the doors beginning to unlatch and open. You try to whisper for the light-blue mare, but all that comes out is hot air. The door slowly starts to slide open, revealing a blinding white light. It felt like staring into the sun.

You feel an urge to walk forward. The light hurting your eyes. You inch your way closer to the edge of the train where the light begins. You're not even thinking about covering your eyes as you step into the light. The next thing you know, you're falling into a deep blue abyss. You find that the train is dangling above an ocean from a broken bridge, and you are now falling closer and closer to the blue hell that awaits. You splash into the water.

"Wake up, Sparks!" a faint voice disturbs your slumber. You open your eyes and sit up. You find that you have broken into a heavy sweat, and you are soaked in it. You look to your left and find Little Light with her hoof on your side and a worried look on her face. "You looked like you were having a rough nightmare. Are you alright? My, you sure are sweaty."

"Yeah," you say, still drowsy from being awoken, "I'm alright. It was just a bad dream is all." You notice the sound of the clanking train has stopped and there is no longer the vibration of the train as it moves along it's tracks. "Did we stop?"

"Yeah, about ten minutes ago, I think." She pauses for a moment and perks up her ears to listen to the silence. You start to hear the faint sounds of machinery outside as your hearing starts to readjust to the world. "That's something new. I think this cart is getting propped open soon. Better hide while we can."

You and Little Light hide behind one of the many Combine crates in the cart, the one furthest from the door. The sounds of creaking and squealing metal grow louder as the doors to the train start to slide open. A metal claw comes through the newly open door to grab a piece of cargo at random. It picks up a crate and brings it outside for storage. "Looks like we can't hide for long. We will have to get moving soon." says Little Light, with a slight bit of worry in her voice. You nod your head in agreement.

The metal claw pushes into the cart a second time, again grabbing a crate at random. Is it controlled or is it ran by robotics? It pulls out another three crates, each crate pull nearing the one that you're hiding behind. "Get ready to run." Little Light says. You're heart is pounding with suspense and a bit of adrenaline as you can hear the claw nearing your only protection from being found. The crate you're behind shakes and wobbles as it is slowly lifted and pulled out of the cart.

"Run" Little Light whispers heavily.

You don't need to be told twice.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - Battle at T5"They do some crazy shit over at Ponyville, now-a-days."

Running.

You haul ass over to a wall before anyone (hopefully not) spots you. You feel a shock of pure fear and nervousness. You are actually in a Combine base now. Who the hell knows what might be hidden here. You look around and see crates galore. Towering high, like tall metal buildings. Probably containing tons of weapons, armor, and spare parts to expand the Combine army. Judging by the size of the crates, you estimate them to be about 10x10 feet. A giant crane lifts up a few boxes using what looks like magnetism and telekinetic magic combined. From your right side, Lil' Light points over to a small shack that looks abandoned except for some pre-war materials.

You and Little Light both rush over to and inside the shed as quickly as you can. You breathlessly close the door and sit on your flank in a corner of the shed. The room is dimly lit, and a few cracks in the walls and ceiling of the structure show beams of sunlight fighting to get through the small imperfections. What a rush of excitement you felt when you rushed over to the shed. You could have gotten caught, but that possibility made you stronger. You're heart is beating inside your chest like a race pony at a full gallop. Your breaths are unsteady as you try to regain control of your body. But for some odd reason, you love the feeling.

After around five minutes, you peak outside the shed and look toward an old road. You see a massive group of soldiers, an APC, and a giant tripod beast that must be a Strider make their way along the road. You've never seen a Strider before. It looks like something that would be in a fright story that Resistance members would tell around a fire. It stands tall as it walks with it's three legs that are lined with long, thick hairs. It stumbles and whines as it walks like it's some type of machine. Odd strands of some material hang from it's underside. A giant cannon rests on the front of it's body, ready to strike at any point in time. It's body is cased in a type of armor you have never seen before.

The APC rolls along side the Combine Elite Soldiers with it's heavy armor, giant tires, and menacing turret mounted on top. The soldiers are clad in white armor that you presume is very hard to cut through. It's helmet is not like the others you have seen: It's like a cyclops, with a red eye in the center of the helmet. They carry AR2 Rifles that look heavily modified from where you are standing. Why such a large group? You wouldn't know.

You cower inside the shed to avoid being spotted. The sounds of the Strider's heavy steps echo through the complex. You turn to Little Light and see that she is laying down, sleeping lightly. Her short purple mane falls across her eyes. Her chest slowly rises and falls as she breaths lightly. Her light blue coat lays innocently against the harsh surroundings of the shed and her uniform. You shake your head to regain your train of thought. Are you getting feelings for the mare? You discard the thought as quickly as it came and focus on your surroundings. Best to let her sleep.

You stand guard at the door, AR2 Rifle at the ready. There seems to be little activity in this area, except for the machinery. There's nothing inside this shed that would be useful, so there's little reason to why a Combine would want to go in here. This complex must be controlled from underground. Twenty minutes pass, still nothing that could be a threat. Twenty minutes stretch to an hour, still nothing but the sounds of machinery and the unloading of cargo from the Razor train that you got here from.

You see that the shed door has a wood-holder, so you can slide a piece of wood in and be able to barricade yourself inside. You decide to deal with barricading when the sun goes down. You don't want to be found out too quickly. Come to think of it, wasn't there supposed to be a group to search the train for the you a Lil' Light? They are probably still searching the train and will give up after dark. You peak outside the shed and see that it is growing dark. You shut the door and place a few pieces of metal pipeline on the door's wood-holder to make sure it is closed up tight. Nothing is getting through unless they use a lot of force.

You make yourself comfortable in one of the corners of the shed. For the first time, you wouldn't mind to be back in City 9. In you room, in your decent bed. But this will have to do. The corner is well away from the door, so any Combine that think about looking inside wont find you unless they break their way inside. You slowly close your eyes and drift off to sleep without hesitation.

*****

You wake up the next day, the small beams of light greet your eyes as if they are trying to wake you up. You feel a bit sore from where you were sleeping, but other than that: You feel well rested. With a quick yawn, you turn over onto your side, and find Little Light snuggled up close to you, asleep. She must have move here in the middle of the night. You get up onto your hooves and stretch out. The satisfying sounds of your tired joints popping greet your ears.

You walk to the shed door, remove the iron poles from the wood-holder, and do a quick peek outside. Nothing appears to have changed. Machinery is still working, loading and unloading cargo onto a train. That's about it. Where's all the troops, the Combine, the defense? Besides the robotic, self-controlled A.I of the claw machines, you and Little Light are the only life on the surface it seems. All seems silent, until a faint explosion meets your ears. Then, in the distance, you can make out the wails of Striders being destroyed. Burst of heavy gunfire sound faintly in the distance as well. What the hell is going on?

You cautiously walk out of the shed after grabbing your AR2 Rifle and levitating it by your side. You start to walk into the direction of the battle taking place. After about five minutes of walking, the sounds of battle start to sound louder and clearer. You see a few Striders walking in the distance, getting hit by what appears to be rockets. Each hit causes them to jolt back and wail in pain. You can faintly make out a group of Combine Elite Soldiers following in behind an APC unit, spraying wildly at an enemy you can't see.

A few rockets collide with the APC, showering it in a ball of flame and knocking back a few elite soldiers. You move in closer from the right to get a good look at the attackers. You take cover behind the corner of a building and find that the attackers are something you wouldn't believe: Freemane Resistance. A small army's worth of them. You feel a light of hope in your day as you see that the Resistance is winning the battle. The whine of a Strider echos through the air as it collapses to the ground, nearly bringing a building down with it. What are you doing standing around this close to the battle? Should you go in? No, that's too much of a risk.

The Combine look as if they are taking a beating out there. But why this place? It's just a cargo station. I can see if they need the supplies. Unless this is a prison of some sort. You flea back to your shed to check up on Lil' Light. When you get there, you see something horrible. You see Lil' Light being hauled off into the main factory building by some robotic contraptions, trying to fight away from the things. You yell her name as you pull up your AR2 rifle in your field of magic hastily. The robots notice you standing and act by throwing up some try of force field around themselves. Your bullets do no effect on them as you spray wildly at them.

One lifts up an arm and shoots some sort of projectile at you. It speeds toward you, to quickly for you to act. It impacts into your stomach like a tranquilizer dart. It starts to spark and electrify you to your very soul. It feels like you have been set on fire. All seems hazy as you start to loose consciousness to the world around you. The last thing you see is the robots making off with the light blue mare, bringing her into the factory. You collapse to the ground and soon black out...

"Is he alive?" you hear a voice hazily say.

"Yeah.. I can feel his pulse." you hear another light voice talk.

"You all right, buddy? Hey, wake up." the female voice says. You feel a few slaps on your face, trying to wake you up. You regain consciousness to the world and find that you are laying in the middle of the complex in front of the shed. A sharp pain runs to your stomach, you remember that you got hit there with some type of electric device. "Here, let me get that for you. This might sting a bit."

You feel a hoof run over your stomach, gripping the device firmly. The pony pulls the thing out of your stomach, and the first thing on your mind is sharp pain. After about five minutes of trying to regain full consciousness, you get up on your hooves. You tiredly try to speak. "My.... My friend... shit.... these.... robots. They brought her in there!" you speak hastily. You point hopelessly to the factory. The two ponies nod in agreement.

"You've got to help me get my friend back!" you say.

"All right, we'll help you." says the mare. The stallion accompanying her nods his head.

"That's it? Just like that?"

"Yeah, we'll help anyone that has a problem with these damn Combine. We're not heartless!"

You lead them to where you saw the robots bring your friend in. You fin that the doorway is blocked by a force field of some sort. It glows with a light blue and lets off a low electrical hum when you touch it.  "Great! How the hell will we get in there!?" you say.

"I got this," says the stallion as he pulls out a C4 package out of his uniform. "All you need is a little 'Oomph!'." He sets it on the keypad next to the doorway and beckons you and the mare to stand back. He primes the package and stands back. The stallion sets off the explosion and a small fireball engulfs the doorway, you can see the force field wither away. Satisfied, you step into the factory building. After getting past the hallways, you find that this isn't a normal surface factory. It starts to go downward into a prison like area. A depressing aura lingers around the halls as you pass cell doors that are tightly closed. The place look deserted of any Combine forces. In the distance, you can hear a few sounds of what sounds to be those robots.

Coming around a corner is a menacing robot. The thing is on a uni-wheel set-up and carrying a weapon of some sort on its left side. It has a cyclops eye in the right side of it's head and a giant Combine symbol on it's chest. The thing looks like something out of a nightmare. It approaches closer and begins to speak in it's metallic preset voice. "Bzzt! Hostiles sighted.... Bleesskk! Engaging!"  The bot fires a laser beam in your direction. It barely misses you, and hits the wall behind you. You can feel the heat of the super heated material as it flies past you.

You levitate up your AR2 rifle and fire wildly at the bot. One of your stray bullets hit the thing straight in the eye, shutting down it's visual senses. You continue to fire upon it until it shuts down. The only sure way to get one of these bastards is to shoot out the eye, rending it useless. "Those are the Unidrones," says the mare, "the Combine's prison guards. Their lasers aren't that deadly, but they can kill if there's enough. Damn bastards normally come in groups if there's a threat to the system, so we'll have some company." With that said, you reload your AR2 rifle and get ready for some fire fights.

You're walking the halls of this underground Combine prison. The doors on the sides of the hall are tall, dark, and almost impossible to get through. The hallways are long, occasionally breaking off into a small armory or a control room for that block. There doesn't appear to be any dinning rooms for the prisoners or Combine guards, just endless hallways branching off to reveal more cells. "How are we going to find her?" you ask.

"Well, we break into the main control room, and find her from there. This isn't a very active prison, so finding her will be a snap once we get in there." the stallion answers. "The big problem is getting in there."

"Where is the main control room?"

"It's mostly at the lowest level of the complex, once we find the major armory, we'll be close to the main control room." Lowest level of the complex. Your worst fears are at the bottom of the Combine's complexes. Bio-machines, deadly traps, screams and wails of the tormented. It's like Hell, only living. None the less, you have to press forward for the light blue mare. You, the stallion, and the mare continue your decent into the depths of Hell. After about an hour of continuous walking through the dimly lit halls of the complex, you finally come across what you were looking for:The Main Control Room.

The big, metal door stands tall and wide, extending the halls around you to a large room. The keypad on the far right is a glowing bright red with a symbol of a holographic locked padlock on it. Damn, the complex must be on lock-down. "How are we going to get through?" you ask yet another question, making you look more like a small child than a hardened escapist.

"Well, we can't blast this one open, so we'll have to hack it. Luckily, I have my skills that I picked up. Just give me a minute, and I can get this door open." the mare says. She walks over to the keypad and begins to show her skills in cracking the keypad. She does it with finesse and silence so she can't be detected by the system. In about five minutes time, the door starts to open slowly. The metal squeals as the door opens, revealing a massive control room.

Off to the far left side of the room is some max-security cells. They include comfortable Combine-tech wall mounts to hang prisoners by. They are closed off by a force field. The rest of the room is void of any protection. A giant staircase leads up to a raised platform with tons of computers that you have never seen before. The room has a blue tint to it from all the electronics. The place looks safe enough to explore, but you're mostly interested in those cells. The stallion wonders off to explore the computer systems on the raised platform.

You walk over to the cells and check them out. To your surprise, you find that one is occupied. Even more surprise, it turns out to be your friend. She's knocked out, and hanging from the wall like a decoration, wrapped up in electric chains. The keypad is on the far left of the force field. You call over your keypad cracking friend, "Can you hack this?" you ask the mare.

"Yeah, but it's going to be tough. It might make some noise, so be ready for a fight." she says. She walks up to the keypad and begins to slice it. "I never saw this model before. Must be for some high security stuff. Uh oh.." Alarms sound as soon as she touch. The sounds of heavy machinery fill the control room. The stallion jumps up into combat-ready mode, levitating off a shotgun from his back, and getting into a fighting position. You put your rifle up, battle-ready. The sounding alarm echos throughout the room, and the machines creep closer to where you are. "I think they're in the vents," says the mare, "Keep your eyes peeled." It seems like forever until the first Unibot jumps down from the top of the control room.

It hits the floor with a heavy thud. It pulls up one of it's arms and fire a laser straight at you. You let out a curse and jump out of the way just in time to not get your face melted off by the super heated beam. You quickly levitate up your AR2 rifle and let off a few shots into it's face, knocking out it's sensory systems and rendering it blind. You continue to shoot the metal thing until it falls over. More Unibots jump down to join the battle; the stallion armed with the shotgun joins up with you. You see him sneak up behind one of the approaching bots and lets off a full blast of hell fire from his shotgun. Sparks and metal fly everywhere, and the bot lets off wails in electrical death.

One of the bots turn to the shotgunner and starts to spray fire from it's arm. It's got a damn flame thrower! You shoot at the monster's arm until it blows off. The bot then tries to ram the stallion until it gets stopped by the force of buckshot to the face-plate. A few bots are dispatched on the other side of the room where they have a range advantage. The fire their super heated laser beams in your direction, one nicks your tail and almost sets it ablaze.

The fight lasts for about a half an hour before the last bot is struck down by you and the stallion. "Aha! That's how the resistance does it!" bellows the stallion. The force field shut jail cell finally gives way to the mare's awesome computer cracking skills. The field of energy whines as it powers down and opens up the cell. Lil' Light still sleeps inside the cell, hung up by the glowing chains like a puppet. She looks tired and worn, like she's been through Hell and back. In a few minutes, you manage to get her free form her prison.

She opens her eyes slowly and looks up to you as she lays on the floor. A small smile breaks out on her face. She moves up and gives you a tight hug. You return the favor and continue to hug her for a minute or two. After you break the hug, you help her up onto her hooves. You don't know why you hugged her for so long, but none-the-less, you enjoyed it. "I hate to break up your touching reunion," the mare breaks in from outside the cell, "but this place might just blow sky-high."

Oh god.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - Resistant Retreat"Welcome to our haven!"

"Thanks to my friend, this place is going to blow in half an hour!" says the mare.

"Sorry. But these damn Combine took my brother's life! I had to get revenge!." Exclaims the stallion resistance member that approaches from the other side of the room.

"Well, thanks to your 'revenge', you just dug four more graves in the ground!"

Little Light joins in on the conversation, "Let's not waste any time bickering! Let's get a move on!" Everyone nods their heads in agreement and begin to run out of the facility. Alarms sound as the facility starts going into 'meltdown' mode. There's a red tint caused from all the red alarm lights going off at once. Luckily, there's no Combine in this place at the moment, so getting out will be easy.

The adrenaline is pumping in your veins and your heart races. You're scared for your life as you bolt through the hallways of the Combine prison. Mental images of Combine chasing you with stun batons run wildly through your thoughts. Fear is the only emotion that you hate. You do not want to die today. Your breaths are uneven and the sounds of the alarms aren't making you feel any better. You need to keep moving. Don't stop.

Just. Don't. Stop.

*****

You finally make it to the outside of the facility. You're out of breath and your heart rate is out of control. The effects of adrenaline have worn off, so you're weak and not able to stand. A booming voice echos through the air. "HIT THE DECK!" You, and everyone else throws their bodies down to a prone position. Your belly collides with the ground, almost knocking the breath out of you. A window shattering boom pierces your ears.

Your ears let out a sharp ringing sound. You loose all forms of hearing. The stallion that rigged the place to go boom stands up and yells something. Most likely a whoop of excitement from his victory. The mare stands up an starts to talk to the stallion. It looks like their arguing. The ringing starts to fade and sounds slowly flushes through your ears. "--If you hadn't rigged the place to meltdown, maybe your hoof wouldn't be injured now would it!" yells the mare. "You nearly had us killed, Clyde! This revenge thing is going to far."

"I'm SO sorry, Meadow." exclaims the stallion named Clyde, "Sometimes hate gets the better of me."

"I didn't need you to destroy this place! I'm fully capable of getting out of a place quickly without your 'explosive' pushes!" the mare named Meadow says.

"Can you two please just shut up? Look," says Little Light, "we have our own problems to deal with. If you can help up, please stop auguring and do so."

"Okay! Let's just get this over with." Meadow says in a annoyed tone. "What do you want us to help you two with?"

"First, I would like you to take me to what ever Resistance camp that you've came from. We both need a nice place to stay and you are going to lead us to safety. Got it?"

"How do I know you're not a spy? For the Combine?"

"We just helped you destroy the underground of this facility! Do you think spies would do that?"

"You've got a point." Meadow starts walking due north, "C'mon, lets get going then. I'll lead you two to our Resistance outpost."

"Good." replies Little Light as she begins to follow the mare. You follow in behind her.

*****

"So," begins your temporary leader, "how long have you've been escapees?"

"I've been out for a week --my friend here-- a day." replies Little Light, "It's all been moving so quickly. Why?"

"Just curious." Meadow pauses for a moment, "The base is not to far from that facility. We should be there in about an hour." The surrounding area is heavily forested. Birds are singing in the trees and a few forest creatures wander around. You can hear the sounds of running water nearby, and the thought of fresh water makes your mouth go dry. The trees around you tower high into the sky and are a fresh color of green. The air is fresh and void of all the city fumes and the Combine's harsh machinery. For the first moment since you've left the city, you can finally feel safe and rested.

The grass beneath your hooves crackles as you walk. It seems like a dream. The terrain is steep, but easy to traverse. "We're nearing the river, we can stop for a drink." say Meadow, breaking into your peaceful trance. You can see the river up ahead with it's clear, fresh water. It runs to the west (you're heading north) and goes down a steep hill where it starts to get faster and more dangerous. The water is shallow and you step in it to wash your hooves off and get a drink of some fresh water. The water is very refreshing and clears your thoughts.

"Okay." begins Clyde, "If I remember correctly, we should be nearing the base in about twenty minutes."

"Good, because I'm tired." says Meadow.

Twenty minutes of walking later, you, Little Light, Clyde, and Meadow make it to where the base's main wall is. It's tall and can't be scaled up by use of ropes or climbing mechanisms. The base is perched up on a cliff from what you can see, so it has some natural protection from the east. The base is fair in size and should be bigger underground. Clyde walks his way up to the gates and knocks on it twice. It opens slowly, revealing a few soldiers on guard duty with guys at ready. They allow you and the rest of the group clearance into the base.

The inside of the base has a small mountainside service station in the center, no doubt the main building, a few cabins to the far left for sleeping in, a mess hall, and a storage shack. The place looks like it could hold up if it was attack by Combine. Soldiers man the walls armed with sub-machine guns, and ponies are ready to fight at a minute notice. Clyde and Meadow lead you over to the main building, maybe to meet the commander of the base. The building is constructed from wood and was maybe used to dispatch groups of ponies to look for others that have gotten lost in the surrounding woods, now it's used for other purposes. You, Little Light, Clyde, and Meadow walk into the building and confront the one in charge.

"Sir. These two request to stay at our base. We found them over at the Combine facility to the south. They need a place to stay for a while, sir." reports Clyde.

The commander takes a look at the two of you. "You do know we are low on female personal rooms at the moment, Private? We got room for the stallion, but what about the mare?" he says.

"Maybe you can bend the rules a bit and let them stay in the same cabin, sir!"

"Do you know what could happen if I let that rule slide?"

Little Light speaks before Clyde gets the chance, "Please Sir. We got no where else to go and we need a place to stay."

The commander ponders the thought for a good minute or so, and looks at you then at Little Light. "Okay. I guess I could bend the rule just this once. But don't do anything, understand?"

"Yes sir!" replies Little Light. You only nod your head in agreement.

"Good." he pauses for a moment. "Private Clyde, show these two to the cabin number 402."

"Right away, sir!" Clyde replies. He gestures you and Little Light to follow him to your temporary home. When you step out of the building through the back way, you can see the cabin that the commander was talking about. It's medium in size, looks like it can house about 4 ponies if needed, and is constructed of wood. The numbers 402 are crudely etched into a piece of metal that hangs on the door. One of the windows in the front is cracked, but other than that, the structure is in livable condition. It sits next to the mess hall, closer than any of the other cabins.

You and Little Light walk inside the cabin. The wood squeaks and moans as you walk across it. The room is already furnished with two beds, a dresser, a table, and a few chairs. Dust floats in the air and the room is dimly lit from the outside windows. There doesn't appear to be any artificial light source in the cabin, just the dirty windows to give off any light. "Okay guys." Clyde's booming voice catches you off guard and causes you to jump a little, "Remember what the commander said: no funny business."

"Don't worry, you can trust us." Little Light said with a smile on her face. Clyde walks out of the cabin and shuts the door behind him. You lay on one of the beds. You are extremely exhausted. You slowly close your heavy eyes and drift off to sleep.

*****

You wake up in the middle of the night at the sound of a loud crash and a few voices. You get up quickly and head outside to scope out the scene. You see a number of Resistance members armed with rocket launchers in the courtyard of the base. They are looking up at the sky for something. You approach one and ask what's going on. "A Combine gunship found us out! We are trying to take it down before it obliterates us all." he says in a worried tone.

Where's Little Light?

You start walking around the base in search of a rocket launcher and your friend. How come she didn't wake you when this started? You thoughts get interrupted by a sharp whine of machinery. Coming over head, you can see a gunship and two Combine dropships. That gunship must have been part of a scouting mission. You run back to the cabin and search in your bag for your Sub-machine gun. You pull it out, load it, and get ready to kill some Combine.

You rush outside of your cabin to find that a dropship full of soldiers has landed. Resistance members fire a few rockets at it, but to no surprise, the vehicle is well protected by a magical force field. The hatch on the ship opens and a few Combine rush out guns blazing. A few more dropships come over the walls and land, letting out more Combine to join the battle. Most of the Combine carry deadly AR2 Rifles, spraying them in all directions and causing hell.

You spray your SMG in the direction of a few Combine. One of your stray bullets fly through the air and penetrates one unlucky Combine in their visor. Blood spurts out of the wound as he falls to the ground, dead. You see the gunship that disappeared fly over the wall, taking out a few Resistance that were perched up on the walls and obliterating their corpses to nothing more than ash piles. The very sight makes your stomach turn flips inside. You recoil a bit in fear of the gunship. A few Resistance members fire their rockets at the thing, but they are shot down once they get close to it.

You spot something that could change the battle, a stray rocket launcher from a fallen Resistance soldier. You rush over to it at a full gallop and throw down your SMG. You then levitate the monstrous weapon onto your shoulder and take aim at the gunship. You fire the rocket at the gunship, and you quickly find that you can maneuver the rocket while it is in flight with the launcher's laser sights. (Almost blowing yourself up in the process.) You circle the rocket around the gunship so it can't shoot it down. You manage to get one of the rockets to slip past it's defenses and get a hit on it. The explosion is mixed with sparks from both the rocket and the gunship.

You take aim for a second time and fire the rocket. All seems to move in slow motion as the rocket flies out of the launcher, then ignites and propels forward. You guide it around the gunship and try to get past it's menacing weapons. You fail to get through to it, your rocket is shot down in almost an instant. Your luck begins to turn bad when you find that you are out of rockets to launch at the beast. The ships turns towards you and locks on. You hold tight to the launcher and cower into one of the cabins. The gunship fires at you before you have the chance to escape and you get thrown forward by the force of an explosion caused by some oil drums being lit ablaze. Your ears let out a ring and all hearing ceases to exsist. You collide with the ground and your breath is knocked out of your body. You try to gasp for air but can't seem to get any. You can only close your eyes and pray for your life.

You feel a bit of hope in the pain that you are in. Your hearing starts to fade back. Faint and fuzzy voices greet you ears. The voice is sweet and soft, but yet rushed and worried at the same time. You can feel yourself being lifted up by a set of hooves and half-dragged, half-carried to safety. You cannot see much, but you know that you are in safe hooves. You feel another set of hooves carrying you down into another part of the base. The temperature drops slightly, so you guess that you are being carried underground. You black out...

You soon awake laying on a soft mattress in a room under the base. Sounds of battle reign up above as the fight still carries on. Little Light stares at you with a worried look on her face and she quickly smiles when she notices you are waking up. Her expression changes to a more serious look as she begins to speak. "We have to get out of here, and the only way out is through the old Everfree Forest path I found down here."

Everfree Forest. You've heard about the place before. A place that used to be disconnected from Equestra before the Combine invaded. It took care of itself without the need of ponies or magic. The Resistance set up a headquarters there a while back, but some ponies say: "The Combine shell'd the place hard. No one smart would set a hoof in that place unless they want a quick death. The place is evil and tainted with filth." The very thought of what could be there turns your blood cold. "Are you sure it's safe?" you say. You're first words since you've gotten to this base hours ago. You've just gotten here, got attacked, and now you're going to a more life threatening place.

"Of course it will be safe. The worst we would run into would be some pissed off Combine. It's not like there's some evil curse on the place. It's just a forest. Now come on, get ready and come with me." Little Light says with a hint of confidence in her voice. You can pick up traces of fear in her tone, but you take no real notice. You find your saddle bags, put them on your back, and follow Little Light to where the Everfree Trail begins. The walk to the gates feels like it's taking forever.

You want it to, though.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 - Tainted Skies

"Don't go into the forest, children."

Walking.

Walking to a place to which brings fear into the hearts of even the bravest of ponies. Walking into the place thought to be the spawning grounds of demons themselves. The tunnel leading to the gloomy outside is dark and damp with years of ware. The cold stone walls holding secrets from before the war. You heart beat is steady, but your breaths are scattered and unfocused. Your mind racing with thoughts of what could go wrong while you're in this place. Unnerving sounds of battle continue up above; normal ponies are being slaughtered and incinerated in mere seconds, while you and your friend walk safely from below.

This whole war, this whole goddamned war. It seems pointless. Who's the one to blame? The one that surrendered  Equestria to those metal beasts: Dr. Dream. If you get your hooves on that bitch, she's going to be sorry. You shake your head a few times, trying to clear the rage-filling thoughts that cloud you from your current mission. "Okay," Little Light says, "We're here."

You and Little Light arrive at the gate, the only shield of protection from the evil place known as the Everfree Forest. It reaches near the top of the tunnel, and is locked with a simple padlock and some chain. A simple shot at point blank or a hefty whack with something should knock that right off. You look around the tunnel and spot a broken length of pipeline to your right. Hot steam shoots off in multiple directions; laying beside the pipeline is the broken piece. You pick it up with your magic and prep it for whacking. You count off in your head: Three... Two... One! You bash the padlock and it comes off with ease. You unwrap the chain with ease and open the gate.

The gate squeaks as it opens, apparently from not being opened for a long time. You and Little Light walk though the gate, getting closer to a hell-filled place. The tunnel ends. The ending is marked with vegetation that is starting to eat away at the dark stone walls of the tunnel. Thick trees tower above your head as you step out into the forest, blocking out the sun's rays of light dramatically. The tone of your surroundings sends a chill down your spine. You make sure you have a gun handy and that it is loaded

Nature makes it's frightful noises as you and Little Light walk in the Everfree Forest to find the Resistance stronghold. Birds chirp in the distance, but not helping in your overall calmness. The dark tone of the forest makes your mood go from content to complete sadness. The only happiness that seems to be in this sacred wood is your female companion, Little Light.

Walking in this place gives you bad thoughts. Zombies might be lurking at every turn. The weather is no better. Wet, humid, and hot. A perfect combination for sweat and misery. Your hooves collapse with the ground below you, crunching leaves and twigs as you walk through this forest. I guess if you get past all the bad things, it is actually kinda beautiful. It's got nice plants that give it a bright look. Violet glowing in the distance from the flowers that populate this dark and mysterious place. Yeah, not that bad. Just gotta focus on the positives.

You look around. The trees are thick in all directions, but you think you can make out a small hut in the distance. It's small, but looks like it could have been lived in. You tap Little Light on the shoulder with your forehoof and point her into the direction of the cabin. You and her both make your way to the cabin and find that it is in pretty good condition from what you can see. There some overgrowth in vegetation, but it's not destroying the actual building. You walk inside the structure. Inside is a bed, arrangement of worn books on shelves lined across the walls, some old masks, flowers, and other stuff that would be used in potion making. Stuff that you would see in a zebra's hut.

You and Little Light loiter around the hut, checking out the old prewar potion books and ingredients. This stuff is very interesting. Stuff to cure every known illness and heal every kind of wound, even a missing leg! Oh the things you could do if you had the know-how. Stuff like this fascinated you, even when you were just a small colt. Now all the memories of your past life are shrouded by lies, false hope, and hatred. The Combine. They were the ones to cause this hell. You will make them pay, one day...

You let out a heavy sigh and lay down the book you were holding in it's place. "Is something the matter?" Little Light says, catching you off guard. You turn around to see her staring at you with her deep, magenta eyes. They are almost hypnotic. You sigh a little and begin to speak.

"This whole war. I don't want to continue fighting in it. It's not helping anything, it seems. It's only taking more lives and destroying more cities than actually helping them. Dammit, it's those fucking Combine! They are the ones causing this. And that mare in charge? She's the cause of this too! The soul reason why Equestria fell so easily. We could have fought back, we could have stopped them..." You look away from the mare in front of you as you start to ramble things in your head.  Anger and fear mix together in you head; fear for your life, and the life of your friends, and anger at the ones that try to take it.

You look back up to find Little Light close to your face, bringing you into a warm and subtle kiss. Your fears and anger soon drain away, as you can now see your goal: being with her.

After your sissy little dramatic scene, you head out into the wood once more. Leaving the safety of the hut, you remember one thing: You got bigger things to do...

*****

"Are you sure we are going to right way?" you ask, unsure if you're lost or not. You and Little Light are back outside, walking in the dense and dank Everfree Forest. Crows yelp in the distance, completing the 'horror' setting.

"Yes. The stories said that it was at the heart of the forest. I'm sure we're heading the right way." replies Little Light, "Don't worry yourself." You are slightly fearful of the surroundings. Every twig snap, branch fall, and leaf crackle makes you jump a bit. Images of zombies deep in the forest still haunt you in the depths of your mind. With their split bellies, their bloody bodies, messed up coat, and the headcrab on top. The thought of anymore gore just makes your sick. You check to make sure your gun's at good reach.

Still walking in the dark wood. Your longing for some action right about now. Maybe a zombie encounter wouldn't be so bad. They are kinda stupid and we can kill them easily with our guns, right? The only thing interesting is the plants that you're finding. Pretty green flowers, glowing purple flowers, large blue ones, small red ones, all kinds of flowers. It's a herbalist's paradise in here. I bet stuff like this went for a lot of bits back before the war.

"It shouldn't take long, the base should be around here somewhere." says Little Light. You sure hope so, this humid and wet weather is making you sweat. You let out a sigh of boredom. Soon, you find that your hooves are stepping on some concrete rubble. You smile inside as you know that you're nearing the- base? Little Light lets out a gasp as she finds out her worst fears: The base is abandoned.

The field around the base is filled with odd canisters jarring out of the ground like gravestones. They scar the ground and give it a scary look. Smoke rises from small fires that still haven't went out. A few skeletons of ponies and some strange animals are laying on the ground, scattered and always remaining. You realize that this is your worst nightmare. The Combines did, in fact, shelled the place with headcrabs. But where are they? Surely there would be tons of zombies running a muck. "Ah damn," says Little Light, "Looks like the stories were true."

"What now?" you ask, almost regretting asking in the first place.

"Well, we just have to find survivors. The canisters look freshly opened, so there must be a few survivors." So you and Little Light head to the structure in the middle. Judging by Little Light's knowledge, she probably knows more about these types of buildings than you. A stench of death, decay, and burning rubble flows out from the dank building as Little Light opens the door. It's almost unbearable, making your eyes water up and your breath quicken.

A hole in the ceiling shows the night sky where a canister crashed down. Burning rubble still remains, as if trying to burn off the pain that was suffered here. Little Light strays from you, looking for a way down into the underground complex. There always seems to be an underground complex in these bases, as if it's a requirement. "Ah ha! Here we are.' Little Light says eagerly, breaking the thick silence. She starts to lift the hatch with both hooves. It creaks and groans in resistance, but eventually it comes up.

It reveals a long ladder extending down into the depths of the base. Either it's a really long drop, or there's no light down there. Either way, you flip on your shoulder light for good measure. Little Light happily goes down the ladder first, as if all fear is void from her bank of emotion. You, on the other hoof, are extremely terrified of things like this, and would rather shoot yourself then go into a dark and foreboding void where you could get violently ripped to shreds by some monstrous creature. But, it looks like you have to follow anyway. So you start to descend into Hell.

This should be fun.

Prologue

Prologue"Pick up that can."

Weeks after the Magic Mesa incident, the world was thrown into chaos. Combine forces leaked out of the dimensional rip and started what we called: "The 7-hour War". Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were put into a permanent stasis. When the Princess Sisters were put into stasis at the beginning of the war, we put Dr. Dream in charge. In the end, she surrendered Equestria to the Combine forces and became a traitor. She was later put as the head of the Combine force.

You are a normal unicorn pony apart of the brutal aftermath. Put into a city district know as simply: City 9. You are forced to live in constant fear of your life each and every day. This is your story.