-What is it about people that make us so susceptible to the quirks of trust? Why is it that most days are filled with laughter between friends when the natural state of every person, of every mind, is to find the flaws and threats that exist in the fabric of our daily lives? To seek out these flaws that haunt us and crush their source- that is how we started our evolution. We grew from trepidation and the efforts of infinite precautions to form a consciousness and society stable enough to grow such that our worries were no longer solely external to the herd- not found in weather, or beast, or any form of nature, but from each other. And yet our new society forced us to trust the very source of our demise with the promise of living another day.

I spent way too much time yesterday reading that book and trying to remember if I had seen any of the plants drawn there on my trip outside but it they all looked the same to me. That was not to say I wasted all night reading. Each section that felt as though it was easy enough to pick through was marked tediously. In an effort to stay away from my room I purposefully (read: accidently) slept in the library until noon which was never a good thing. Waking wasn’t very nice either. I had sneezed and dawned to a page of my notes stuck to my face with the writing heavily smudged. It seemed the book hadn’t been opened in nearly fifty years and had the dust to show for it.

“Ah yes you are awake!” A grin was hard to make out in the harsh light but my eyes learned to focus soon enough. I peeled the paper off with a shudder. A mildly gitty guard stood walked up from around the corner.

“Yea… can I go get breakfast or something… I think I over did it.”

“Oh certainly I simply wished to tell you that Turnip came by and said the party was going to be at the school in oh about 20 minutes.” He was polite but again... different from the other guards that I had seen.

“Why didn’t you wake me!” I scrambled to get up and fell over in my chair with a squeak.

“Well in all honesty it took me quite some time just to discover your location, you didn’t leave that many clues in your room.“ Well that's an interesting surprise. I looked down and did my best to suppress the rising shit eating grin.

“Oh yea sure that makes sense now would you help me up already!”

We jingled out of the library. The several dozen kilos of shiny golden armor will do that. After apologizing to the librarian who frankly probably slept here herself, I bolted towards my room only to stop a few steps from the door.

I was… hesitant, not because I was scared, just worried I supposed which stopped me from immediately opening the door. Inside was still a mess but the armor was all gone as was Lemoncake. I would have preferred a goodbye but I suppose I did bolt after all. On the night stand was a yellow note with a room number a time schedule for the next few weeks as well as a very cute but off putting combination of X’s and O’s. He didn’t think we were actually dating did he? It would be nice if he were a go to stress reliever but I didn’t really imagine doing much more than sleeping with him. That… might not go over so well. Regardless, I was still looking forwards to several more Lemon loving sessions and who could blame me!

First came Turnip’s party however and the mission and THEN I could worry about boning.

I switched into whatever clean clothes I could fine and bolted down the hall with ten minutes to spare.

“Junnnnnyyyyy!”

Crudddddddd. I thought as a familiar pair of voices shouted in my direction. This was a combined school after all. The pair from hell descended on me as if my very coat was made of candy but this time, they had back up. My entire daycare group recognized me which led to some confused looks from the guards who backed away slowly. Yea now they decide to stop protecting me.

“Ow ow ow. Lake, Cake, it is great to see you and all but I have a party to be at really soon and all so right after that we can all play for a bit k?” So much tugging…

“NO WE WANA PLAY Nooooowwwwwwww!” Just shoot me already please.

“Children children! Don’t cling to her!” Rose Meadow shouted much to my dismay as it only seemed to embolden whatever forces glued them to me.

“June, won’t you play wit us?” Lake spoke softly with puppy dog eyes that were almost ALMOST impossible to resist.

“Look-“ I managed to free a hoof and gently stroke his mane. “June would love to play, she really would, but right now she has to go meet with her brother, ok?”

He let go with a pout. “Ok…” which heralded an era of sweet freedom as the others soon let out an assortment of disappointed noises. I gave them a quick pat on the head before taking the opportunity and rushing through the next pair of revolving doors while waving goodbye.

The common room, used for meals and small events with the school was decked out in streamers and balloons. On the other side mother, father and a dozen foals snapped their heads around in anticipation before realizing it was only me.

“Celestia Torbernite! You scared the heck out of us!” Dad said with a smile.

“Well maybe yall should be more prepared then and hire a lookout-“

“We were waiting for you!” mother chimed in.

“Yea and here I am so give me one of those silly hats, turn out the lights and let's do this thing.”

“Very well then, dear?” Mother pointed to the neatly stacked party hats over in the corner. A few minutes later we had our backs to the couches and sat quiet as could and with party favors at the ready.

“And so I told him, pft no way he was going to be the chaplain, if anything he was going to be a cook just like his dad.” The door swung open and someone hit the lights.

“Surprise!” We all shouted before pelting him in strands of colors. Turnip stumbled back in shock as I rushed to give him a giant hug.

“Uhhhh thanks?” He said while I squeezed the life from his bones Eh poor choice of words. Soon enough I set him down and everyone started giving their congratulations to his 15th birthday. Mother and father patted him on his head a few times while I trotted alongside.

“You had better be thankful twerp, I have to go soon so I can’t give you the ceremonial grape flavored dunking that you deserve!” Turnip looked up from the guests towards me with a sad look. “H-hey… I’ll be back by morning, then we can do some fun things tomorrow right?”

He simply nodded and walked towards some of his friends that were standing on desks in a very unsafe way as a few parents scolded them.

“… do you all think he will be mad? I didn’t even have enough time to get him of a present.” I said to Oak.

“I doubt it. He was very thankful for the picture after all.”

“Ah yea… that, can we not talk about that?” I smiled sheepishly.

“I just think you have already done enough. That is why he wants to be with you so bad. He really is starting to look up to you.” Father pointed out before downing some juice.

“Pft it is easy being such a great role model and all. Of course he wants to hang out!”

“Watch it there hothead.” Mother said jokingly as the festivities began with pin the tail on the pony.

I was ready. I might have been nervous for the first trip outside, scared even, but not today! Even though the last mission was more of a tutorial thing anyway and this was the first ‘real deal’ and we had to go into (assumedly) hostile territory. Plus the fact that it warranted a council member’s oversight while we walked the dead halls of an old civilization… Ok this was going to be terrifying but I didn’t care this time!

The party had gone off without a hitch and I didn’t screw up getting to the changing rooms on time. Yep, things were looking up.

“Look sharp Torbernite.” Stonesaddle said bumping into me lightly.

“Uh yes sir.” I nodded and shook my head. It would be so much better if I didn’t get lost up there so often. The lights were blaring and the stable doors once again rolled away to reveal the dark interior of the cave ahead of us. One instant and then all the good feelings of the day were washed away- it was an effort to keep my head held high.

I twisted around and waved at some of the onlookers, namely my parents with Turnip between them and a particularly sweet looking colt in armor. He was at attention but I knew what he was thinking. 12:30 pm tomorrow. I smiled as I got back in line.

The closing of the stable door was just as ominous the second time as the bright lights died before us and we took it upon ourselves to illuminate the cave. I nimbly weaved past the dusty bones and headed topside behind Brushfire and StoneSaddle. When we emerged he let out a resounding whistle.

“So this is what it is like huh? I could get used to it.”

“Yea tell that to the bugs.” Oxide mentioned while she took up a familiar position to look over the orange landscape. A few minutes later she called out, “All clear sir.”

“Good to hear, that means we can get there even quicker!” It was funny the way Stonesaddle countered the very strict image he was supposed to represent. He was head of the M.W.T. after all but out here it was like he was a light hearted adventure seeking foal. Ok maybe not a foal, probably more inquisitive, like a cat or something.

Oxide signaled Topaz and Jaguar to take point. I brought up the rear with Nimbus at my side. He hadn’t spoken since the goodbyes. I hadn’t either but it was unsettling from someone usually so full of suggestions.

We made for the crest of the ridge which would provide an adequate overview of the landscape and hopefully reveal an easy path to the road to the base wow this was getting complicated. Sure enough, the top of the hill showed the stagnant decaying base. I could feel a warm dry breeze coming from the instillation and the ocean beyond which we really had yet to see. I had a feeling the sea looked beautiful this time of year.

The sun was fading to a memory at this point and we had to turn on our head lamps to prevent from tripping. There were trees flanking on either side of the path. The bark was dark and slightly de-saturated like everything from the dirt to the grass around here. It was perturbing and everyone could feel it. Dripping from the branches were curly strands of Spanish moss.

“So were you actually planning on getting some herbs or did you miss out on that part?” Stonesaddle said walking next to me. I had dazed off again looking at the night sky.

“Uh sorry sir.” I levitated out my book from last night and without breaking stride brought it up to reading height. “We should be in an area where we can gather a few of the more tropical things listed here.” I flipped to where one of my bookmarks was.

Blackwater blossom- This blossom grows at the end of narrow green stalks and grows quickly to pony height. When boiled and then turned into a paste it can be used as a pain reliever. The buds form along the stem just below the flower are highly toxic causing muscle spasms for several hours but can be brewed into an alcoholic beverage common in the southern zebra lands where the plant grows. Relatively common around sources of freshwater.

I really had to question how people learned these things. I stopped for a moment to look around. There were a few ponds that looked promising but I didn’t want to get covered in the green algae that covered the surface. Next…

Tinsel root- The roots of this plant emerge during the night time and are porous like a sponge. The roots are always found as long tubes in pods of three. Not to be mistaken for the Tinsel Pony Trap, this smaller variant collects pollen and any small insects that wander towards it due to its stench it off puts. This herb is highly useful as a clotting agent when the sap is applied to a wound. The roots can be ground into a powder to form cooling potions as found in section 5.

The illustration exactly matched the grasses I was currently standing in, but we had already trampled most of the roots. I gathered what I could into my saddle bag while Stonesaddle watched and called for everyone to stop for a moment.

“Do we really have time for this?” Topaz griped. I couldn’t blame her, plants weren’t exactly the most interesting of things to study.

“I say we do, why not try and give her a hoof while we are at it? Nimbus? I had heard you were once interested in medical correct.”

“Yes sir, I don’t know how to identify many useful surface plants though.” He stated flatly.

“That’s a shame. Anything else of interest that you see Torbernite?” I flipped through the next few bookmarks while someone mumbled muffled curses in my direction.

“There are Starlilly leaves which are a powerful paralyzer and toxic in high quantities. Violet cotton curtains which are an ingredient in fire potions as well as a temporary magic steroid, but they can’t be transplanted very easily… Oh Flamingo ferns, which look like normal ferns but are a spice that contains caffeine and is a coffee additive.”

“Does it taste good?” Jaguar asked peeking over my shoulder at the book.

“How the heck would I know?” He shrugged and started rummaging through plants around us. I bought the book back up to my face and shook my head. Of course it would be the caffeinated herb he was interested.

“Whoa why is Zebra’s blood listed as an ingredient? That is fucked up.” Topaz had popped up over my other shoulder.

“Why don’t you bother to read? It clearly states that Zebra’s blood is an ingredient derived from the sap of a Purple Evergreen.” Brushfire said.

“Oh like that one? Why don’t we just get it then!” She thankfully left my personal space and walked up to the tree. “So…. How do you tap a tree.”

“I honestly have no idea.” Brushfire leaned in to turn the page and continue the section but I levitated the book out of reach.

“Do you mind?”

“Oh uh sorry Torbernite.” Gosh why was everyone suddenly interested in what I had to say?

“Having fun yet?” Stonesaddle sat down and swatted a fly.

“If only the whole trip was going to be as easy as this huh?” The rest of the squad with the exception of Nimbus were running around picking up plants indifferently. They had their flaws but I guess it wasn’t half bad being with them. Regardless, I was still the odd pony out. It was a few minutes more until it was decided we had enough harmless fun for one day.

We passed over a small dam that kept at bay a torrent of water. It must have been built to last during the war. There were maybe a few cracks in the side and that was it, rather impressive if you ask me. It was, however, stained black like everything seemed to be as we got down further into the thick of things. All things told it was surprising that there wasn't more concrete out here other than the oddly placed block or two.

“So a personal question for all of you. The story that Galeria figure told, do you believe it?” StoneSaddle looked to myself first.

“She was very thorough; I don’t see any reason not to believe it- Ignoring the religious bits of course.”

Topaz of all people sent me a dirty look. “Of course. The whole story about the prison break and mega spell line up with everything we knew beforehand. It makes sense that she would attribute it to the work of Celestia and Luna, though they were never brutal.”

“Nightmare Moon?” Nimbus said with a muffled voice while brushing aside some dense overhanging bamboo. The road was overtaken by the greenery more so the further we went along. At this point we were all within reaching distance as we hopped from stone to stone.

“That was not Luna. Luna is a goddess of peace, love, and intimacy; of gentle benevolent guidance.” Jaguar stated turning to look at him. “The darkness that resided in her at the time died with use of the elements of harmony.”

“Oh yea like I am going to believe she was just magically cured after a thousand years of imprisonment. My family has always hated Nightmare Moon for her efforts in the war.” Nimbus stated softly which only served to embolden the discussion.

“What you think just because you have more Roaman heritage than me you can say whatever you want to about the princesses? War is war. They did what they had to. Was it horrible? Of course, but they saw no other way to protect their subjects.”

“Why weren’t the Zebras their subjects then? They worshiped the celestial bodies.” I said.

“Not all Zebras worshiped the stars and sun. Individual tribes differed and hardly any recognized the princesses as legitimate avatars of their respective celestial bodies.” Brushfire contributed to this as well. Color me shocked.

“None of that matters though, because after all equestrian most likely lost the war. They were able to send one mega spell. Galceria said they saw more far overhead but who knows if they were intercepted. I mean look around us.” We stopped for a minute at Nimbus’s request. “This place has life. What we knew of the Roamans during the war, they had such an immense amount of mega spells- it is only logical that equestrian is a radioactive wasteland.” Oh that reminded me…

“Guys, the rad levels have nearly quadrupled since we came outside. We are still several Kilos away so from the looks of things it might not even be possible to enter if it gets worse.”

“But it isn’t dangerous?” Oxide asked.

“No, not yet-“

“Then who cares! If in something happens we will leave, simple as that right StoneSaddle?” Jaguar stated moving up.

“Yes, I think we will have to deal with these things as they come to our attention.” With that we continued on in silence.

“Still, if Roam hadn’t stolen those bombs in the first place the Zebra’s totally would have lost.” Jaguar mumbled.

“Are we really going to talk about 200 year old politics?” StoneSaddle at last lost his cool. We stopped again right as the sounds of nature, the crickets and frogs increased. “The war is over, everyone is dead and we are all that’s left from both sides. The stable may have been Equestrian and for that we owe their dead eternal thanks but we are the blood of both. Never forget that.”

“… Sorry sir, it is just that… to insult our Goddesses is not exactly the nicest thing to do.”

“Grow some thicker fur colt. If you believe what you do about them then prepare to have that tested and doubted, especially out here.” Topaz nodded regretfully. "Who knows, might meet them again in a different life."

Once again we set out though this time the forest grew sinister. None of us knew nearly any of the sounds to start with, but some of the howling and hooting was getting out of hoof. As it miraculously got even darker the trunks shifted taller and our steps quickened.

I could only think of bugs, hundreds of bugs as I kept my eyes front and brought up the Pipbuck’s H.U.D. hoping I would only ever see [detected] in the presence of my fri-… my team.

Turning a corner after nearly an hour of walking we saw a chain-link fence laying on its side as the clear and narrow entrance into the green hell not 50 meters from our position.

“Anything yet?” I checked but the levels were still in the green and it didn’t seem anything menacing was around us at all.

“No sir.” I whispered back.

“Alright,” Stonesaddle lowered his profile, “From here on out we keep things as silent as possible, use hoof signals. Brushfire cover the left approach, I will move up to the right. Lights out guns ready. Mind your steps and wait for our signal to approach. Ready?”

“Yes sir!” We saluted and my blood started pumping.

It was hard to see at first but our night vision kicked in about the time the moon found it’s way into the sky past the clouds. Brushfire and Stonesaddle rushed up ahead, carefully peeked across from each other and then looked our way giving the signal for an approach. I levitated my pistol close to me and stacked up on the right side.

Beyond the overgrowth was what looked like an organized series of square warehouses, 4 stories tall with walkways near the gentle slopes of the roofs, or what remained of the roofs anyway. Every which way vines penetrated concrete and stone like; it seemed that everything was covered in those endless vines. A quick survey revealed plenty of cover in the form of tank husks and metal crates. I could only imagine what it must have been like during the war with those great beasts rolling over hills to annihilate Equestrian positions.

Checking my map I pointed to Brushfire that we were going to go to the left through the gate. He nodded and we all moved in unison, guns aimed at corners in the warehouse buildings. We covered a few buildings distance before Stonesaddle ordered us to halt and hide behind a sizable shrub of some kind. I noticed the caution sign blinking above me but I couldn't tell what the cause of it was.

"There is something up ahead." Brushfire indicated. From the looks of things we were at the edge of what was once a small field for running military drills. Now it was nothing but an explosive miniature forest teeming with life. I didn't expect that there would be so much sound coming from inside, there must have been hundreds of creatures within. Thankfully someone, or something, had cut a wide charred path through the jungle. Some of the ash seemed to still be hot to the touch but one half rotted half eviscerated carcass caught my eye. He couldn't have been thinking... I looked at Brushfire who bit his lip angrily before responding. "Fastest path is up ahead. Target is directly on the other side. We could go around, but I am not sure how much longer we can avoid contact."

Stonesaddle was prone, examining the route which seemed easy enough to traverse, it was just a straight line after all. But goddesses it was far, or looked far anyway. "I say we hoof it." Oh and what, going around wasn't an option? "The entrance should be a quarter kilometer away at best, there shouldn't be anything big enough to actually hold a candle to the fire power we have."

Brushfire nodded and stood up. "Feel free to shoot at anything threatening."

"Does that include crazies like you?" I mumbled under my breath as the team all rose. I could feel the heat coming from inside there just looking at it. Something large cawed from inside sending a swarm of birds flying out into the passage. This was nuts.

For a moment Brushfire stood taking in air. Then he ran and we followed. Five seconds later we were in the passage that was five ponies wide, dashing over logs and warm cinders which fell to dust as we trampled them. Browned deciduous leaves that must have fallen off from the heat crunched loudly. More Luna damned vines were already covering the edges of our little path. I ran through a swarm of flies. There was more cawing which sent a shiver down my spine. This place felt wrong.

Half way through I had to slow down to a trot as my body ached. I fell to the back of the group and felt a wave of anxiety wash over me as a result. My caution sign flicked to danger as I let out a few choice expletives. I made the mistake of stopping to scan my surroundings between breaths. "...Oh no."

Now I would like to say I acted maturely in the face of danger, but at this point I think its rather obvious what happened next. Ten seconds later I was caught up with and exceeding the groups manageable pace. "BUGS! RUN!" Nimbus looked behind and saw the living carpet moving in our direction.

"SON OF A BITCH. WHAT DID YOU DO!" I didn't have the air to respond. Immediately caution was thrown to the wind as he sent a grenade into the swarm. It exploded by the time he turned around continuing the mad dash. This only seemed to piss them off more as there was now an audible and familiar chatter. Miraculously we breached the other side of the trees, took a sharp left turn and made for a sizeable earthen concrete structure.

With an astounding unison we made it towards the poor remains of a Zebra, long since dead, who was shriveled in a ball directly in front of an seemingly untouched blast door at the bottom of a mild slope of road. Thankfully there was a smaller, probably temporary, entrance off to the left which seemed a lot more friendly to being forcefully opened. Nimbus nearly threw his C4 on it as we laid prone most likely too close to the explosion. Not that it mattered what with the fucking swarm from hell headed our way. Everyone else open fired. I mostly just sat there covering my ears wishing Galeria had given us one of those potions- wait. I had been passed out for a bit while they talked.

"Brushfire! Do we have a potion to fend them off?" I tried to shout but oh goddesses gunfire is way too loud.

"Yes! Can't use it until they are right on top of us! We only have one!" He had stopped firing to tell me. Oh so we did, that was nice. So we could fend them off while we entered and then proceed to get chewed into oblivion upon our exit, great hind sight. A really 20/20 moment right there on part of Stable-Z. Just then a delightful explosion from our master locksmith rocked over us. I checked back to see it was still standing- sort of any how. There was a large dent in whatever impossible material that door was made of but by the looks of things it was free moving. Nimbus confirmed my suspicions by giving it a kick which rocked the door. It fell to the ground.

“Breach!” Guns at the ready we entered single file into an unlit entryway of about 10 meters before reaching another solid door which was thankfully unlocked. Several more doors that were separate from our interests flanked us on either side in a perfect mirror. We filed in and quickly shut it as the first bugs started to enter the exposed entrance. The team collectively let out a sigh of relief as the sound of the skittering and scratching stopped. At the end of the surprisingly sparse concrete hallway was something I think we were all familiar with. Stairs. Lots and lots of red catwalk stairs that descended in a spiral towards the dark depths.

"Well then... that was fun." Jaguar said leaning over the edge panting. It didn't help that it was so damn hot in here. There were a few more muffled conversations as well. "What the fuck are we going to do when we are through here exactly?"

"As Torbernite was quick to point out earlier we have a potion, ONE potion, same as the one Galeria used. Beyond that I don't know ok? I just... don't know." That seemed to settle things down. "Well no point in standing around, keep quiet and lets keep moving." Brushfire didn't plan on wasting anymore time it seemed and Stonesaddle was in agreement. I was just thankful to not be so shaken for one.

The walls dripped with water and the air was humid but we descended several flights until we reach the appropriate depth of the bunker which also happened to be the ground floor. The door was left open and the overhead light still glowed red. We stacked up with our hoof steps echoing far away as the only sound to be heard. Oxide breached keeping her rifle trained on the far wall of what turned out to be some sort of computer center. I did the not so smart thing and hoofed around for a light switch as everyone made their way towards their respective targets.

The overhead florescent popped on revealing the rectangular control room with scattered flipped chairs and computer stacks. Evidently they had been shot pointblank by a shot gun and no longer functioned. That was also the case for all but one of the computers on a desk with a long dusty hoof sized mirror beside it.

“Alright it looks like this area is secure, you may speak freely.”

“Holy crap guys, that was fucking insane! We kicked those bugs asses! And did you see those tanks?" Topaz said as she made her way through piles of trash.

"I think we all saw the tanks. What I am interested in is this bunker. No one would put a mega-spell launch complex in the middle of a naval supply base, so then what is it?” Jaguar puzzled moving to a white wooden door.

“Yes, had we come a few hundred years sooner those would have been a valuable asset.”

“No one said I couldn’t break into computers did they?” Brushfire looked at me from his position covering our entry way.

“It is your call Torbernite.” I smiled and hastily took my place in the rolling chair before the keyboard. It could have been in better shape. A few keys were heavily worn, the screen was cracked and everything was coated in a layer of sticky dust. I didn’t even know dust could be sticky. Pressing a few keys the display turned on and I was prompted for a password.

“Say… that looks exactly like a Robronco Terminal.” Oxide spoke trotting up beside me.

“That’s because it is, they were kind of notorious for the whole military industrial complex thing.” She blinked and parted her silk hair with a hoof. “Two buyers are better than one after all.”

“And that was legal?” Jaguar spoke ramming into the wooden door that sat past the computer debris but to no avail.

“As long as they never got caught, and never shipped the newest models. Apparently it also helped the Equestrian spies since they were familiar with the technology.” Stonesaddle spoke while sorting through some lockers until he found what looked like a memory drive and pocketed it. “One down.”

“Better make that two.” Topaz waved a similar device from underneath a desk that had been nearly smashed in two. “I didn’t know you were such an expert at the history of the war Sir.”

“You have to realize council members have heavy responsibilities. How could any of us lead if we didn’t know what caused problems between us equines in the past? Need a helping hoof Jaguar?”

“That would be nice.” He said rubbing his shoulder. “It is harder than it looks.”

At this point I could only groan as the machine slowly processed the debug command and seemingly random strings of code popped up on screen. Apparently they weren’t going to make it easy on me. The first password I tried was retribution, the second was retaliation and the correct one was revelations. “I’m in.”

“Good, access it with your pipbuck and download what you can.”

“Yes Sir.” There were only 5 entries of someone’s personal log labeled with names and days but they were nothing but complete gibberish of letters and numbers. How the actual content of the messages managed to be gargled was beyond me but I downloaded them anyway. They were all located within a folder named 'Project Golden Harvest.'

Just then a klaxon erupted from all directions and a synthetic zebra voice spoke over the intercom.

“WARNING, UNIDENTIFIED INTRUDERS DETECTED. INITIATING EVISCERATION OF HOSTILES.”

“What?” I looked up from the terminal to see the far door wide open and a ceiling turret aimed at Jaguar’s head. It let out a rapid fire spray which hit its mark not 2 meters away with a sickening hiss. Oh goddesses no.

Instantly the turret was reduced to scrap by a rifle shot which I barely heard over my scream.

“JAGUAR!” Topaz bolted for the door stumbling along the way as Jaguar collapsed in an awkward heap. She tore off his helmet and revealed singed mane, flesh and bone.

“TORBERNITE! POTION! NOW!” Stonesaddle commanded. “Oxide and Nimbus secure that doorway. Shoot anything that moves!” They didn’t hesitate as the lights in the far room came on revealing dry skeletons with putrid carpet around them. It was absurdly white, why was bone so white?

“TORBERNITE WHERE IS THE FUCKING POTION!” I… I came to. I think my voice finally broke and with it the movie ended. This was life or death now. I had to move and somehow in trembling and seeing the blood pour down I did. A picture frame of a smiling group of zebra in lab wear fell to the ground and shattered.

I climbed the mound and levitated out the red, oh god why did the potions have to be so red-

Stonesaddle snatched it from my telekinetic grasp and poured it on his bleeding cranium then into his still mouth. I tried to look away, really I did. The helmet was smoking and the inner membrane was still intact somehow which meant it was only the heat that got through! Only the blazing heat which incinerated everything but bone apparently. He was going to be just fine! I was going to be just fine! We already had nearly half of what we came for! Two WHOLE pieces-

I threw up over the smoldering helmet adding a delightful sizzle to the panicked sounds coming from every direction. It was bitter, taste of cake and sweets and reminded me of Turnip, of how I had made him love the outside and everything that came with it. Shit he was going to die by my hooves!

I continued to pour out the contents of my stomach to the dismay of everyone until there was nothing left and I fell to two legs. Raising my chin to look took effort but I couldn’t stop. HE WAS DEAD! ONE TURRET AND HE WAS DEAD!!!

“WE ARE ALL GUNA DIE!” I choked out in horror while backing myself away on the floor from the stirring bodies I thought I knew.

“DAMB IT TORBERNITE GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF.” I think it was Brushfire, but I couldn’t tell.

“yea fuck face.” Oh that was a familiar voice. Was I dead already? “I’m not dead-“Jaguar relaxed as the drugs kicked in. Wait when did he take pain killers?

I blinked a few times before feeling control, feeling soothingly in control of my own body I stood on wonky legs.

“What the hell just happened to me?” I mumbled through chattering teeth as my heart pounded in my throat.

“You had a panic attack.” Nimbus said while still at the door.

Jaguar turned over slowly still being held by Stonesaddle until he could see me. “That helmet you just puked on saved my life.”

I did something I hadn’t expected nor intended. As I watched the surface wound heal itself before my eyes… I laughed. I laughed a mad, hysterical laugh until everyone joined in- I wasn’t sure why they did. It must have been a while; I couldn’t see past the tears to read my clock. Soon I chimed it down until at last I was lucid enough to talk.

“…S-roooy about the hat.” The healing was over and for all intents and purposes he was fine…. I think. He was missing some mane but it was short and would grow back to hide the scar tissue anyway.

“Torbernite?” I slowly turned with wide eyes to Nimbus who had his helmet down, wait why was Topaz at the door instead of Nimbus? “Are you alright?” He was steady and enunciated each word carefully.

“Let's see.” I mumbled with my eyes darting around collecting information. Standing was, easy and frankly I had to try it more often. Everyone was more relaxed than they should have been, even Jaguar who was smiling at me. The world began to tilt, almost like if you had a picture and just rotated it a bit until-

Nimbus caught me in his metal hooves, it wasn’t particularly soft but I think the cold hard metal did the trick.

“SHIT.” I shouted. “Is everyone ok?” They let out a collective sigh of relief as I sat up and rubbed my head like an idiot.

“Now normally I would be angry at you for some reason or poke fun but not this time. What just happened was not alright.” Topaz said to me.

“Why are the alarms off?”

“Nimbus and Oxide found the speakers and destroyed them so technically they arn’t.” Brushfire said. It took me a moment to detect the hint of malice coming from his voice.

Holy crap. I had seriously panicked in an emergency situation. I could have gotten him killed for real and that was NOT ok nope not one bit NOPE NOPE NOPE.

“So… how long?”

“About twenty minutes. You kept screaming about Balefire bombs and something about tacos.” StoneSaddle said.

“Wait, are you fucking with me?”

“After what you just pulled? Maybe I am.” I met their gaze and lifted a hoof to my cold brow.

“I-I don’t think I am cut out for this stuff.”

“Too bad, you signed on. Now we are going to get the last 3 items and get the hell out of here understood?” I simply nodded.

“Good, now pull out your pistol, aim into that room and fire twice.” What?

“Um why-“

“DID I SAY YOU COULD QUESTION MY ORDERS TORBERNITE!” He yelled which startled me, but not like… you know.

“Um.”

“I SAID PULL OUT YOUR GUN AND SHOOT!”

Reluctantly I did pull out my gun and levitate it towards the bleached room. Scrunching my face, I pulled the trigger, once, and a second later a second time. The sound was painful but was replaced by a gentle tinkering of the casing hitting the concrete at my hooves.

“… Keep your wits about you next time. Now if you want to get out of this alive, stay in the middle and for Luna’s sake don’t shoot any of us.” He shook his head and made his way into the room. Everyone else followed giving me an assortment of looks, disappointed, encouraging, stillness, all at once.

I stood to follow but not before cautiously peering around the corner into where I shot into the floor behind the bones.

I hated this, I hated everything about this. The stupid robots and security systems which were over engineered like hell. The constant shouting and exchange of gunfire. The feeling of whatever shallow moldy goo I was walking in.

Now that everyone was properly organized and oriented, the next few batches of ceiling turrets did next to nothing. Brushfire took a few hits to his side but that was significantly less fatal than it could have been. Otherwise we advanced and I simply said nothing as we trudged along. We did encounter some sort of tracked robot about the size of a pony that was much tougher than the paper thin turrets. It was in a severe state of disrepair and simply shouted a few profanities before emptying its machine gun into a singular spot on the ceiling. A grenade finished the job that others had clearly started.

“All clear.” Nimbus stated lowering his weapons. There was a circular blast door behind the machine which practically screamed stable door and had just as many piles of bones out front of it as ours which is always a good sign.

“It looks like that thing turned on the inhabitants, the question is why?” Topaz said nudging over a few dusty bags of bones looking for anything of interest.

“Who cares, the door needs to be opened.”

“This doesn’t look too good Sir. The controls seem to be inoperable.” Oxide grumbled in front of a sparking control panel that had more in common with a pipbuck minced in a blender than anything else.

“Are there any alternate entrances?”

“I’m not sure, we seem to have scouted most of this floor as it went in a semi-straight direction leading here. Besides,” Oxide sat down to take a closer look, “this doesn’t look the sort of door you want people to just get past.”

StoneSaddle sighed. “Alright everyone, fan out from this position. Search the bodies for anything useful. Torbernite.”

“Hum?” That wasn’t the response he wanted, but was the one he expected.

“You know electronics, think you could figure something out?” I shrugged which led to my helmet leaning in front of my field of view. “That’s a yes then. Get on that door with Nimbus. Maybe the three of you can figure something out.”

We trotted up to where Oxide was barely managing to avoid electrocuting herself while everyone else started searching.

“I take it we don’t have enough explosives to blast through?” Oxide asked not looking up from the pile of doodads she had removed from her pack.

“Nothing short of balefire can cut through that thing.” Nimbus sighed, eyeing over the pieces.

“Well if nothing else lend a hoof organizing these cables would you?”

“Were you trained as an electrician Oxide?” I asked sitting myself down and getting to work. It wasn’t really THAT bad, it was just that the keycard slot had been bent out of shape. So long as we could send the correct signal down the correct path way it would open… Theoretically.

“My father wanted my sisters and I to have some practical training outside of the military. I showed some interest after breaking past a security barrier to get out of class.”

“Oh, so this is like right up your alley then!” She gave me a dirty look.

“I’m not a criminal if that’s what you are saying. That was only once, I got caught and haven’t done anything of the sort since.” She stuck her head in her bag and pulled out a cube with some wires sticking out of it. “This is an Equestrian military security code generator. Given enough time, for something like this we are guaranteed to get past in about a day’s time. Hopefully we can bypass that and just find a card, but judging by the body count, it looks like that isn’t going to happen.”

“Sorry… That is fascinating though. I didn’t know Equestria had technology like that.”

“The previous version was the size of a refrigerator. This may be the last device of it’s kind for all we know.”

“If the security lockdown was ended, the permissions might have been reset.” Nimbus said. I stood by as they did their thing.

“That’s hopeful considering we have spent the past hour getting shot at.” I said.

“True.”

“You know, Equestria was more technologically advanced by far. Roam had the numbers and skill but the ponies had tech and that was all that mattered as time moved on.”

“You are quite the historian Nimbus.” Oxide said softly while mending wires. The overhead lights came on thanks to Brushfire. Where the heck did this place get its power anyhow?

“There was nothing else of interest in the library when I was fourteen. I just read some memoirs.”

“Still counts. I hated history class. It was always about nothing but the war which, granted, was highly important but we never delved deep into what things were like before everything went to hell. Torbernite, could you affix these together?” I complied and telekinetically twisted the wires.

“Now that we are on the outside, maybe we can make some history ourselves right guys?” I nudged Nimbus who actually huffed in response. I took that as a sign of accomplishment.

“I don’t know, 200 years is a lot of time for things to change but I doubt anyone we run into will be all that into the ideals of friendship and comradery. I would love it if we were able to reestablish civilization and be a force for good in this new world but…” Nimbus trailed off.

“We are the ones that will decide that, don’t you doubt yourself. With our might we can bring balance and with our intelligence we can bring peace.” Oxide spewed confidence. I smiled at that overly optimistic statement.

“Got it. It should be running permutations now, any luck with the keycards?” Some part of my brain was angry that the little device didn't light up and make little bleep bloop sounds. What a let down.

“No, but we have found ammo. Lots and lots of ammo.” Jaguar called out from across the room.

“Anything we can use?”

“Mostly standard issue mags for Roaman carbines and we only have like what, 3 of those in the armory?”

“Take what you can regardless. We can strip down what we can’t use when we get back.” Stonesaddle said as he too rummaged through the rags. Jaguar gave a quick ‘yes sir’ in response.

“So Nimbus, what do you think the odds are that this is another stable?” I asked him in a slightly hushed tone.

“The council would have told you to expect survivors if this were a stable Torbernite.” Stonesaddle called out from a corner off the room. I couldn’t help but feel judged by that response.

“Oh… well that is good to know. But, Sir, doesn’t that leave the possibility that this was a silo of some kind?” He looked up from what he was picking at.

“That was a theory we had formulated, yes.”

“So what if it is closed for a reason?”

“And what might that be?”

“I don’t know, they didn’t want something to get out.” The shuffling audibly slowed until the only remaining sounds were those of the few working lights above and the code cracker's little fan doing its thing. That may of been the stupidest thing I had said so far.

“I mean… it could always just be more storage…” I shrunk back.

“Have you detected elevated levels of magical radiation since entering this room?” I checked and sure enough this room was just barely in the yellow. StoneSaddle read my expression and kept searching.

“When the door opens I want everyone to back up as far as they can. Understood?”

“Yes Sir!” We shouted in unison.

It took three hours, three long boring hours of waiting and we were all starting to feel the drain. Since the whole radiation thing didn’t stop we moved into an adjacent single desk office and had been playing cards that we found.

“Any 7’s Torbernite?” Nimbus had removed his helmet to ensure a fair game and to rid himself of the building case of helmet hair.

“You know I am not entirely convinced you aren’t cheating.” I handed it over.

“Nah you just suck.” I nodded slightly “Any 2’s?”

“Would you two finish up that stupid game already so we can play some poker?” Topaz said spinning the rolling chair with the skeleton in it. How the heck wasn’t she creeped out by that?

“So now you want to play? What is Go Fish not good enough for you?”

“No. It is just that I somehow got even more bored. And look, I even came up with a way we could have chips. 5 mm ammo can be 1’s, 9 mm can be fives-“

“For the last time Topaz we are not using valuable ammunition to play blackjack!” Stonesaddle shouted from outside. He had been the last one to check the progress of the door and had just reached the entry way. “Why don’t you write it down instead.”

“With all due respect Sir, then you can’t cheat.” Nimbus and I laughed with her.

“Fair enough.” He came to sit down between us. “You know, I remember when I used to play card games. Then I got a mare.”

“Really? Like really?” I said lowering my hand to look at him. “I will have you know I found some these past few days and don’t need to be subjected to… I don’t know, insults towards my favorite game?”

“Actually I hate most card games.” Nimbus said leaning back and dropping his cards.

“You too huh?” He shrugged as I folded.

“At this point it comes down to the fact that we are further from home than anyone has ever been, why can’t we have a little fun?”

“I wonder what this stud used to do for fun,” Topaz mumbled continuing to spin the chair, “before he died I mean.”

“Eh, probably just drink on the job.” StoneSaddle said. “I would know.”

Was I allowed to laugh at that? That statement was kind of in that grey area I felt where if I did then I faced the risk of getting called out or if I didn’t everyone would think I was a stick in the mud.

“Hey with any luck they were storing crates and crates of fine brandy that by now, thanks to the wonders of the apocalypse, are all certifiably aged to their prime!” Jaguar still frightened me every time he talked. I just felt like there should have been something off about him and yet, regardless of the injury, he was fine.

“No one is that lucky!” Brushfire said wholeheartedly.

“Sir, do you have anything to report on the door?” Oxide asked from the far corner of the room where she had been resting.

“Oh yea! Apparently we got past and just have to push the open button.”

“… Open button?” She asked and a second later facehoofed. “I never fixed that did I?”

“Nope.”

Oxide groaned as she stood and made her way out and down the hall.

“Give me 5 minutes!” She called back.

“Everyone get up and stretch. The break is over.”

“Yes Sir.” I said pulling the deck together and placing in back in its ancient container.

We were ready and in positions in half that time. Makeshift fortifications from desks and cabinets were made so that we could fire inside if need be. I sat by Topaz, Nimbus and Brushfire on the right most side while Oxide readied. Stone nodded, she pressed it and then a warning sound rang.

She was back behind us, prone and with rifle trained as the door made noises and slid inward. The shrill grating sound of metal against metal was much more, shall we say, rusty than that of our stable door. It took a few seconds after the clicking stopped for the red lights to go out and the alarm end. Inside was pitch black but we kept our weapon mounted lights trained on the opening.

Checking the radiation levels and saw very little change.

“Well that was a relief.” I said aloud without thinking and got a nice whack for it.

We rushed up to both sides of the door and listened for anything. Not even wind was moving this deep. There was a stench wafting out of the warm doorway. The hallway went three ways all at 90 degree angles from the door. Shining my light it was easy to make out signs of a struggle. Bullet holes, chunks of concrete missing from the walls and ceiling, ducking out a bit more it was clear that the way forward was caved in. Brushfire signaled the entry and I stepped back as everyone filed in until I was the only one in the room of the dead. Ehhhehe.

“Clear on this side Sir.”

“Clear. Ahead, what the situation?” Nimbus and I walked forward to see if there was anything we could do to get past the cascade of rubble.

“There is no way we are getting past without explosives but those would probably just cause more harm than good.” I shone my lights down the other two hallways. There were central pillars before the halls narrowed slightly. “It could have been intentional sir.”

“We don’t need to head that direction thankfully. Breach a few doorways until we have a secure perimeter.” We complied and went through the motions of kicking in doors, most however were already in a horrible state. Every piece of wood was pounded into oblivion such that nothing but chunks were left on the hinges. Every room was an office and they all were the same. Empty, minus a few eyry blood stains as if victims were dragged into the hall and then disappeared. There were a few interesting tidbits to be found however.

There was always a poster behind the desk, a standard SPQR propaganda piece and a corkboard to the left of the entrance. Pictures of family members and friends were pinned beside tatters of orders ranging from maintaining moral to investigating Equestrian spy rings and relocation requests (there were a lot of those). Meetings were all scheduled for the same time of day but in different rooms. There was always a computer, in poor condition of course, and a name tag.

It was disturbingly orderly and I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“Talk about a bureaucratic nightmare. Have you read some of these things? ‘Daily moral adjustment meeting at 0600, daily productivity board review at 0800, weekly interdisciplinary communication assessment 1030.’ When did these people actually work?” Nimbus said.

I tried the lights again to no avail. “No power.”

Oxide popped in from the doorway. “Anything to report?”

“Nothing but the same, no power, no zebra, no clues.” Topaz said.

“We are going to group back up and take one direction at a time after a few more doors, but don’t rush it.”

“Sounds good to me.” Brushfire stated. Oxide nodded and left.

“Looks like we are in for another few rousing rounds of guess what’s on the other side.” We made it into the hall which seemed to stretch on forever and grouped up… again. I grabbed the doorknob and pushed it in before stepping back.

This was different. A horrid warm smell came from the behind the desk. The swivel was turned away from us. If I hadn’t known any better I would have said there was someone sitting in it.

“Hello?” I got a nudge for that too.

“You idiot, it is just a bag of bones.” Topaz said stepping inside. “Ewe what the hell is on the floor?” Our lights hit the deck and we saw the entire carpet was coated in a thick coat of dried blood. The left side of the room housed desecrated skeletons, smashed mandibles and shattered femurs. Any indication they had been zebra’s at all seemed to be missing other than the occasional hat or two tossed about in the 2 meter high mound.

We heard a creak and immediately all lights were on the chair that was fucking moving. Que panic.

“Sir! We might have something!” Brushfire yelled down the hall as a low rumbling came from inside.

“Holy shit it’s alive!” Topaz said prepared to fire.

“Wait! It isn’t a threat yet.” Nimbus said before cautiously moving inside one hoof at a time.

“Ffffffffooooooooodddddd?????” Whatever the hell it was could speak. Nimbus stopped mid step, but continued around the desk until he at last peeked. The grotesque monster leapt directly onto him whilst letting out the most blood curdling scream I had ever heard. Its face was composed of exposed strands of flesh that looked so charred I had a hard time imagining this thing was moving. Then I remembered it was crawling on Nimbus and the freaking began.

“GET THIS DAMN THING OFF ME!” He screamed struggling to find where it was on his power armor.

I levitated my wobbling gun and pointed in his direction.

“You idiot! Do you want to hit Nimbus?” Topaz pushed my gun away as she charged at the creature, ramming it into the wall. It quickly pinwheeled and snarled at the two of them as they backed away

NOW I could shoot it! I took aim and looked it in the eyes, or eye at this point.

Fuck. I couldn’t pull the trigger.

“Do it June!” I flinched and sent a shot through its neck and yet it still lurched back towards Topaz.

“I-I can’t!” I really couldn’t on account that, 1, I had dropped the gun and 2, I was scared shitless. Thankfully Brushfire had no such reservations and lit it up with his LMG. Each bullet rendered a small chunk of what I refuse to call meat from its bones until something popped and its head fell off in a spatter of blood which covered everything in the room.

If I wasn’t going to puke before, I certainly was now.

“Holy fucking shit! What was that thing?” Nimbus said gasping for breath. I was heaving my empty stomach in the hallway but at least this time I was lucid. Kind of amazing considering it was my first experience with the undead. I sat up and attempted to wipe some of the gore from my mane, a horrible mistake.

“Why don’t you check its body to find out?” Topaz said as she was already out of the room with me.

“No way in Tartarus I am getting near that again.” A second later. “huh, it has stripes.”

“Are you shitting me? That thing was not a fucking 200 year old zebra!”

“Hey! It’s what I saw.” Nimbus shouted back.

Brushfire patted me on the back lightly and helped me back up on my hooves. “What were they doing down here?”

“That fucking thing killed all those people…” I felt something rising in my chest.

“Shit Torbernite. Not now.” I just closed my eyes a few times and started pacing away from the room. “Whatever it was it is not a threat now.”

“Report!” Stonesaddle and the rest of the squad were already at the door.

“Uhh….” Topaz just pointed inside.

“Well I can’t say this was expected.”

“Are you serious? Undead zebra. What the hell did we sign up for?” I spat.

“EVERYONE SHUT UP.” Brushfire shouted. “There might be more of them so the quicker we get what we came for the quicker we can go home got it?”

“I am sorry sir…”

“Now then,” he walked inside over the corpse, reached into the desk and showed off an audio log. “Two left. No more distractions. Follow me.” He said readying his shotgun and heading further down the hall.

I wasn’t one to believe in ghosts, I hadn’t been one to believe in the undead until a few moments ago, but this place had to be haunted or cursed or something. We didn’t stop at any more doors. We stayed on target according to our pipbucks which were slowly discovering the layout. Another ten minutes of anxious trotting and then that was when things got interesting.

More groans. LOTS more groans. There was a big whopping caution sign blinking in my vision and red lines positively everywhere. We stopped at Stone’s orders though I don’t think we could have been caught in a worse location. A four way intersection.

50 meters or so down each hall the shadows started moving and eyes glinted in our lights. The shrill voices grew in volume. It was pretty clear what was going to happen next.

“Open fire.” So we did.

I think Oxide was the first one with a kill as a distant head exploded in gore. Everyone else just unloaded bullet after bullet while slowly back peddling. Not that it mattered though. At the rate they were pouring from side rooms we were bound to be overwhelmed in a few minutes. The concussion from a grenade rocked me to the ground. Nimbus was clearly having fun. I kept my eyes trained on our rear, but nothing came. That seemed like the logical place to go right?

I bolted away from the group and the ghouls, which was such a fitting name. My calves burned and chaffed in the black combat barding as I was getting painfully aware of how out of shape I was. PE always sucked. Now the most logical thing to do would have been run back the way we came, all the way to the stable and just say fuck it, they can deal with the last bit. Then again I hadn’t exactly thought about that until I was already more than a bit dazed and confused.

The door slammed shut behind me and I gasped for air before hiding behind the desk.

Shit where was I? … Actually I was quite impressed by my running at this point. I had managed to find stairs, stairs! In a place like this. I was two stories down from everyone else and far, far down the left most hall.

“…I fucked up.” I said leaning up against the soggy door. A knock however made me squeak and fall over. Then came another knock, and another, and a grunt!

“Awe shit they found me!” My team was dead, zombified and beating on my door! I wonder what mom would say when she realized just how much of a fuck up I was. I shook my head.

No no no. I wasn’t going to let that happen. Not again.

Standing I took a deep breath in spite of the pounding and realized they couldn’t get in. Ha! Too bad I was trapped inside with Mr bony over here. He even had a fancy hat!

Wait no.

I rubbed my watery eyes and turned on my pipbuck light for additional warmth and protection or something silly like that. Mr bony was slumped over his desk with a cup by his hoof. His shirt was adorned with badges, like a lot of badges. Maybe they were important somehow? Man I wanted to be important.

“FOCUS LUNA DAMN IT!” I took another breath and stood. No harm in looting the place. The top drawers contained nothing but papers and random unimportant military stuff. Interestingly the bottom draw contained a rather heavy metal box. Inside was a gun with a tag attached to it as well as 6 magazines of ammunition. Atop that box however was one of the objectives. A recording labeled GH-492. I quickly pocketed the recording and then read the tag.

Hey there Verician,

I wish I could send your something more encouraging than a firearm for Saturnalia, but since you are away and all I figured, maybe you would enjoy it. I still haven’t gotten anything from your end but I just figured you are busy what with the war consuming all your time. This is the latest and greatest in integrated gem gun designs called the Rex-B18. The TRX for short, features a recoil balanced triple shot burst with armor penetration enchantments and an 18 bullet magazine and can take any standard 10 mm bullet you give it. Any of those steel ranger assholes show up you show them this bad boy you hear me alright?

I heard about Telious.

Awe heck I just don’t know what to write. I can’t believe they have encroached so far and they destroyed the house mother had. It just makes me angry. I wish things were different but hey if I stop what I am doing we would lose in an instant or I would just be replaced and there is no sense in that I know.

Fuck I know it is treason to speak like this but you know this can’t go on forever. We are losing ground every day. The same old strategy of laying mines as our people get slaughtered is not working. My own sources say they will reach the 7 hills of Roam by the end of the year. So either get a move on it and convince those bastards that the many tribes are stronger than ever before… Or do what you have to.

Regardless, I will be seeing you soon brother,

Aquila Septiums

That was… sad. It made me wonder who this Aquila Septimus was. Some big shot that sold arms for a living sure but that didn’t tell me if he liked poetry or not. Probably… He seemed nice after all. And his brother was who exactly? Apparently someone high enough in the food chain that he could get this delivered to his rad office. And what was he going to do to try and stop the war? Pull this thing out and start shooting Roaman senators? As if.

It did sound like a sexy weapon though and sure would be a shame to leave behind.

“Thanks Verician. Sorry about the whole death thing.” Perhaps that was a bit rude of me to say. “Now what to do about the loud dicks out there?” There was still some serious whaling going on.

“Deep breaths Torbernite. Deep breaths.” Just a few shots into the door and then you are done! You don’t even need to look afterwards. “That sounds reasonable.” Even if they were once people. That begged the question of how the hell they had even morphed into the demons outside, but I didn’t think there was going to be an answer to that any time soon.

I took up a stance (don’t ask why I just did) and pretended it was another day of training at the range. It was them or me. Just two red bars and then it would all be over. Levitating the gun I choose them.

Thu Thu Thu

A trio of (relatively) quiet shots tore through the door with a force I had yet to see from a side arm. The continued groaning told me they needed another round.

Thu Thu Thu

And with that the door was shredded and the only sounds remaining were those of my rapid breaths. Shit I just killed two Ghouls. All. By. My. Self. If that wasn’t something worth celebrating I didn’t know what was. I was safe. Now I only needed to gallop like a kilometer through the dark maze that was this place. I let out a sigh and closed my eyes for a moment.

Peeking it seemed that indeed they were very much dead. It was silent outside, so no more ghouls. I jumped over what filth I could. Deciding it was better to take a chance rather than sitting in a death trap I cautiously started back the way I came. You know, you really have to hoof it to the designers of these pipbucks. I would have been positively fucked without that map feature.

Periodically I would glance behind me shining my dimming light about. Nothing ever showed up. The stairs were hot but it didn’t bother me. Fuck nothing really happened in that stretch of time did it? I made my way towards the 4 way intersection I had *Achm* made a tactical withdrawal from. There was plenty of unappealing gore but no squad members that I could immediately make out. Sure as hell I wasn’t going to look through those bodies though.

Waiting was the smart choice, so for once I choose that I moved into the light past the giant door. Sitting down in the room we had stayed in and with nothing to do I figured, you know what, why not play the classified audio file that I wasn’t supposed to ask any questions about since, that too, was the smart choice.

It turns out it was really just a loud noise not too far from the sound the reactor made when the steam pipes shit themselves. Ok that was a bit uncalled for.

“So useful. Torbernite the useful, Torbernite the great and powerful seeker of usefulness. Bleh I hate this.”

“Torbernite?”

“FUCK!” I wheeled around and found Jaguar laying up from a makeshift bed behind the desk. “Uh… what’s up?”

“For starters we thought you died. Oh and I got shot.” He lifted a forehoof that was covered in bandages. I stopped for a moment before pulling my head back and looking drawing up a confused expression.

“But… we are the only ones with guns?”

“Don’t worry, we have more than one shit shot in our squad. Oxide decided to pull her side arm but pulled the trigger before fucking lifting it up, who does that? Eh no matter. It was an accident so now I get to relax here while everyone searches for your rear end.”

“You have the most shit luck... Ah yea, I kind of ran off didn’t I?”

“No?” He stretched it out while bobbed his head up and down.

“But look, it doesn’t matter because look what I found! Tada!” I said quietly putting my new possessions down.

“Shiny new gun and… an audio log what the hell why did you have to try and go after it by yourself? I mean good job regardless but it would have been nice if we had had back up when we fought that hoard.”

“Look, I will level with you. I fucked up, again. I am not a soldier and I am rather certain what I have seen here will haunt me for the rest of my life. That doesn’t mean I am not useful though.” I shook the log a bit until he snatched it.

“Give me that- we all can’t stand the sight of blood. This is the first real action we have seen so why do you think you are special? Why do you act like the only things that matter are the things running through that head of yours?”

“… I don’t know. Self-preservation I guess-“

“Self-preservation? We are a fucking team, get it? There is no ‘self-preservation’ without, ‘squad-preservation’ as stupid as it sounds. So get on the same page as everyone else alright?” I nodded. “Good, I think everyone went to the left at the bend of carnage.”

“Alright, and you are fine by yourself?” He gestured to the SMG resting beside him. “Point taken.”

“Now get out!”

Que five minutes of walking back into the petrifying dark until-

“Holy crap Torbernite!” Nimbus shouted. “Everyone! She's alive!”

“What gives this time?” StoneSaddle was at the front of the group and eyed me with suspicion. I pulled my trump card. “Wait you actually got it?” I also pulled out the gun.

“Yep, this was part of the package as well. TRX, triple shot burst, magical AP rounds- It is a bit of over kill on the ghouls.”

“So we are calling them ghouls now?” Topaz asked.

“I was more impartial to zombies myself.” Brushfire said as he pushed past, walking toward the exit.

“Seriously? No one cares about the one of a kind gun and the audio log?”

“Oh no, we care. I just have a hard time believing you got them.”

“It was, really just an accident but I don’t care! I did something useful-“

“Like runaway?” Oxide said lowly.

“At least I didn’t manage to shoot the only person here who had already been shot.” She gave me a death glare and for a moment I seriously debated whether it would have been safer to confront another pack of ghouls.

“Hey now, let’s all just calm down and get the hell out of here alright? That was the last of them and we don’t need any more drama.” StoneSaddle came between us.

“Yes sir.” She only tore her eyes away from me once everyone had already started moving out.

And with that we finally exited with Jaguar limping all the way until at last we saw the sky! It was bright enough that we no longer needed flashlights and I could see the relief on everyone’s faces as we cleared the doorway. Cautiously we scanned the exit, flashlights off but there were no signs of the bugs beyond a few little curled up dead ones every here and there. Strangely the forest seemed devoid of life now; it must have been too early for the inhabitants or something. Still I was more than a bit scared at the thought of crossing through again, which, of course, we did anyway. We never saw any bugs and crossed without incident.

The glorious orange dawn had yet to reveal its face. The fresh air and clouds above were all that I needed now that it I didn't feel like I was dying. For the time being I wanted nothing to do with the underground or the dark. Funny, since I lived in the stable all my life.

“As fun as that was, I think I am not going to come again.” It was actually Oxide who said that.

I stopped to face her. After everything, all the shooting and insults and messed up shit inside that bunker. “Why?”

“Excuse me?”

“Why? This place, the surface, it is everything we have ever needed. Everything I have ever wanted. Minus the ghouls of course.”

“Wait you actually want to stay up in this death trap?” she laughed.

“I don’t know. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to live up here, if we all stuck together that is. I mean, if we made a home up here then why couldn’t we? As long as we actually learned what to do and what not to do I think it's possible.”

“I am not saying we couldn’t, I just don’t think I need all of this to be happy.” She gestured in a circle.

“Girls, can we just go already?” I ignored Nimbus.

“So you would rather live and die in a cage?”

“The Stable is safe and thanks to us it will stay that way for a long time. The moment we over extend on the surface, our entire way of life will be threatened.”

“Then I guess that is up for the council to decide now isn’t it?” I smiled towards Stonesaddle who didn’t smile back.

“Let's move, it is getting hot out here.”

“Yea what’s with that?” Nimbus the tin pony said.

The air was still getting hotter and it looked like the sun was rising from behind a building to our north, and rapidly too. I looked towards the sky again then to my clock. The sun hadn’t risen this early the last time. The steady slow clicking of my pipbuck had begun ramping up when finally it hit me. Wait, doesn’t the sun rise from the east?

Oh no. The sight of that burned swath through the forest suddenly made a whole lot more sense.

“G-guys. I think Galeria mentioned something about like some sun demons or something didn’t she?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Topaz said before she too realized the intensity of the light that was moving down the path between buildings.

“Everyone move now!” Stonesaddle helped Jaguar onto Brushfire’s back.

We wasted no time hurrying through the chain-link fence. We were half way before the bend when my back suddenly felt very warm. Glancing back all I could see was a yellow star rushing towards us like a piece of hell itself.

“FUCKITY FUCK.” I had no quarrels with killing a giant light bulb. Bullets however seemed to not have an effect. Nimbus let out a decent number of grenades but they all exploded from the heat too far away to do any real damage.

Oxide screamed. She had fucking stopped to shoot the damn thing with her scoped rifle. That is like science 101 shit right there- no magnifying bright light directly into your eyes. I did feel sorry for her however and stopped as well to tug her along.

“Hey! Just- just grab my tail if you can’t be bothered to use your other eye.”

“GAhhhh, get off it Torbernite I still have one good eye.” She struggled to open it as everyone else continued their mad dash. “I-I’m good, let's go!”

The Solaris Ira shrieked sending out a flare that caught the ground on fire. A wave of fire seemed to shoot off in every direction and led to a particularly nasty rain of embers. At this point I don’t think there was any come back I could say without pissing my pants. The two of us stumbled around the corner and met with everyone.

“The fuck why did you stop!” I shouted.

“We need a plan-“ Brushfire said shifting as Jaguar did his best not to fall off.

“We have a good one! Fucking run.” I took off and everyone followed but Stonesaddle kept talking.

“It’s a gosh darn sun, we need ideas NOW.”

“Uh, sun, like fire. What is good against fire?” Nimbus said.

“Water.” I said. That was it!

“The dam, we need to blow the dam. Nimbus?” StoneSaddle nearly tripped when he looked back.

“I think we have enough explosives for-“ it let out another shrill yell turning the sky white for a moment and igniting the forest that existed between us and itself.

“Fuck! Go, set up before we get there.” Stonesaddle agreed. Nearly half our party was in a bad way at this point. Jaguar and Oxide were slowing us down considerable. “Hand over all the data to me.” We fumbled until he had everything.

“I will slow it down.” It was stupid time. Looking around I was the only one not incapacitated in some way. Stonesaddle had to get everything to the stable right? Brushfire was helping Jaguar and Topaz was helping Oxide- that left me.

“Do you plan on pissing on it? Or just pissing it off?” Topaz said as ash started to fall in large clumps.

“I don’t know, maybe I can lead it away-“

“That is a shity plan, we stick together.” Topaz stated. Funny how I almost heard a hint of concern there. The sky had turned a blinding red color now.

“Torbernite- You help these two, I’ll distract them.” Brushfire said about to turn around.

“I am a unicorn and the fastest runner here. You are strong enough to carry Jaguar. Just keep moving and I’ll do something. How long do we need sir?” I stood my ground, figuratively of course. I wasn’t about to stand still as the soil turned to fucking cinders.

“The dam is 5 minutes away, unless we want to just throw explosives at it until something happens, Nimbus is going to need… 5 more than that minimum?”

“Ten minutes got it-“ I stopped.

“Fuck Torbernite don’t die ok? I wouldn’t do this myself so just, fuck- you are a good person alright I said it.“ Topaz’s voice cracked and Jaguar looked back at me.

“I won’t mess it up this time.” Nah I was going to fucking die. You can’t just one on one the sun and expect to come out alive. Truth be told I just wanted to be a hero or something stupid like that. I galloped in the opposite direction as everyone else and nearly tripped while doing so.

It had only taken seconds of backtracking before big old sparky topped the hill.

“Hey fireballs, why don’t you come over here instead?” It could just as easily ignored me and gone for the smarter targets, but I wasn’t moving and must have looked pretty juicy. It started in my direction faster that I had expected before I turned tail and made my way into the forest.

Fire nipped at my skidding hooves as I lead it past some impressively large oaks. They weren’t going to last however as the creature kept pulsating heat. The further I went the more hazardous the terrain became with roots and rocks sticking out and leaving pony sized hole in the earth. It wasn’t long until I reached this annoying little thing called a cliff.

“Oh shit.” Looking behind me (yes a mistake was made) it was a few mere meters away and blinding from proximity alone. The creature dripped molten slag off it’s body as it charged.

I looked to my left at a potential escape route and took it. It was close, too close as I bounded off a boulder and behind a sizable burning stump. As I flew the beast pulsed from the other side of the stump, obliterating it and sending a concussive shower of splinters into my tumbling hide. I rolled on contact with the mud and managed to slowly hobble onto my hooves as the smoke took its tool on my lungs. Goddesses the pain was immense, but bearable.

Shrieking over the mound it had just obliterated I looked up in awe. All the explosions must have really drained this thing’s batteries cause in that moment I looked up and saw an expression of pain on the charcoal beast’s face. Had it not been for the pure fear and adrenaline pouring in my veins at that moment I might have thought to talk to it. That never happened. As it’s body tensed a now familiar bright light charged it’s limbs red. In a panic I stumbled up and ran, casting a radiation shielding spell I had never really mastered between itself and I before the world went quiet. My horn burned in more ways than one as it let off a wave of heat that caught my tail on fire. I never really cared to style it anyway.

Emerging from the neigh unnavigable blaze I met the road to see everyone was already across though Nimbus was still setting up. It didn’t matter- we were out of time and about 20 seconds away from it. Now the beast had a clear shot and by the goddesses did it take it. Fire began to envelope me and my vision began to wobble from the intense heat. I could feel every piece of barding melting into my skin. Every exposed piece of fur was lit in such a brilliant pain, it was a miracle I didn’t accept my fate then and there. They tried to shoot it anyway to their credit. Each wore a face of worry which only inspired me to move faster until, at last, the grass gave way to crumbling concrete.

This was it. Nimbus stood up from the edge of the dam and sprinted a few steps ahead until it was right on top of us. The pain from a single burning touch immediately caused my muscles to seize. I rolled, what was left of my clothes tore. The ensuing friction with the ground ripped the boiling lumps from my skin.

I managed to dodge out the way as it charged past. Nimbus, however, fell and went limp as it flung him aside with a tackle which left his armor glowing. I saw the detonator bounce and spin within reach as it rocketed towards the rest of the squad. I think I wondered for a half second if I would be missed before I pressed it, but in the end-

I decided I didn’t care.

The cascade of explosions rocked the dam and sent the Solaris Ira reeling in a wall of wet debris where it was covered in a cascade of water. Every limb turned into a numb rag doll as my ears rung. I could see Nimbus’s body fall alongside mine for but a moment.

A great sound like the sizzle of breakfast on a stove but magnified a thousand times pierced into the new dawn. With it arose a plume of steam from the river that clouded my vision as I was swept away underneath the boiling currents. I tried to open my eyes as I tumbled and tried to keep my breath inside, just like I tried to pretend this was all just a horrible dream. Rubble hit all over bruising and scaring my body until it was strangely over.

The water receded and I choked out the oceans in my lungs. In disbelief I opened my eyes.

...

I was alive, injured beyond measure, but alive.

Beside me on the bank of the newly heightened river was Nimbus gasping as his power armor and servos twitched. Chunks of charred meat clung to him and anything else they could. I shook the gore off frighteningly. It looked as if the creature had exploded as it was extinguished but for now that didn’t matter.

I tried to pushed up onto all fours and gasped as a piece of something, metal probably, shifted in my foreleg causing excruciating pain. Still it didn’t matter as I shuffled over to shake Nimbus.

“N-Nimbus?” I spoke as loudly as I dared before he coughed and his eyes fluttered open towards me.

“Torbernite? We… did it?” He looked past towards the remains of the concrete more than a hundred meters upstream from us.

I nodded with a slight giggle before flopping beside him in exhaustion. Nimbus gasped through his teeth as he attempted to stand but only managed to get a single hoof firmly planted on the ground. It was over. It was finally FINALLY over. Everything we came for we had, everyone had gotten out mostly in one piece and we were ready, to head home.

“I don’t feel so well“ His voice lacked air.

“No… it will be fine, someone can stay with us and everyone else can report back and tell them we need a bit of a rescue then… then we will be back in the stable in no time!” I smiled while lying on my back gasping for air, legs splayed out like a T.

“June, Nimbus.” We managed to look over in the direction of the voice where Stonesaddle stood, wet but no worse for wear. With a quick levitation spell he, almost comically, removed a piece of meaty debris from his horn. He wore a slight smile as he closed the distance. “That was some show back there you two.” He managed a hearty laugh before licking his chops and giving a look over our wounds. “Here chew on these, it will help with the pain.” He hoofed over some dry dark green leaves which I promptly took with a ‘thank you’.

I could hardly believe that it was over. Those few minutes had felt like a lifetime. Now that my body was coming down from it’s high and now that I was semi-lucid the only thing I could think about was how insane this whole situation had been. Yet we had all made it! Against the sun itself! Hah! Talk about a story! I sat back imagining the look on Turnips face when I told him or the rest of my family for that matter. Heck I could see our little outing really having an effect on the stable itself. Maybe others could start to see the surface, maybe we could make contact with the surfacers and finally be somewhat free from the underground, regardless of the scary things- those shouldn’t be a problem so long as we never came back here again!

It would be a long road to recovery but that was tomorrow’s problem- ow - ok today's problem, but the general idea was-

We were going to be ok.

We were going to be ok.

“I don’t think a mere thank you could ever suffice for all you have done.” StoneSaddle began as I noticed something peculiar. “I just wish things could have been different.” My chewing was slowing down or maybe I just couldn’t feel my mouth anymore. Regardless, I spat out the star shaped leaves but not before the effect chased down the back of my neck and made the red sky as blinding as the Solaris Ira first was. My head hit the pebbles with a dull thud while the rain pelted us from above. This seems to be a bit more than just a pain killer. I looked up at him in a state of shock to realize the weight of what he had just said.

“I see however that I am not that lucky. You two truly are a useful pair that I hate to waste, but nevertheless, for the sake of the Equestria…” He looked back to where the muffled voices of our comrades came from. My vision warped with tears.

“What?” Those were the last hollow pathetic words I could will before we the world zoomed away from me in a swirl until a pile of brush greeted my unblinking eyes. Was I moving? My suspicions were confirmed when the metal husk of a pony dropped down before me.

How could he do this? I could sense the effects of an accelerated heartbeat but couldn’t feel a thing. We were betrayed? By Stonesaddle? A member of the Luna Damned council? My head swelled and ears ached.

“You pile of shi-“ Nimbus seized after having apparently not chewed the bitter leaves for very long.

And with that he left us in a mound not even dignifying an answer.

I heard the sound of Topaz shouting Nimbus’s name, each time more desperate until at last it rang out like a ringing bell only to be drowned out by the rain. Still the others called for us, marching down and up the river until Brushfire shouted something with a cracked voice. It was all blurred, faded, fake but I still heard it.

Soon the sounds of their hooves disappeared, followed by the sound of the rain, followed by the sound of Nimbus’s breathing, followed by the sound of my own.

Still I could see, the fire of dawn peeking past the rain clouds and rearing its head into this ugly cursed land. I cursed those that I thought were my friends. I cursed my home and StoneSaddle and anything else I could. I tried to cling to the falling flashing whips of light that could only be the drops of rain falling over my chilled body but to no avail. When all other surroundings died out it seemed I was adrift in my thick burning mind with only a speck of red to great me. And when that last quiet speck went out, so, at last, did I.

End of Chapter 4
Footnotes:

Sometimes life really just sucks.

Level up!
Light on your hooves-you are less likely to get discovered (+sneak skill)
Special training, looks like all that running did a number on your calves! +1 strength (4)
Busted foreleg, looks like all that shrapnel did a number of your leg! -2 agility (5)

Author's Note

Well that was well over do. Hope it was a good read, don't be afraid to point out anything and critique is always welcome!