Little Pip trotted down the abandoned corridor, a sprite bot silently hovering beside her. "Was it really wise to send your friends down the other hallways? I know you're formidable Little Pip, but"- He was cut off as a door slid open. A lifeless room filled with heavy machinary and computers greeted them. The stable dweller trotted in, ignoring the Bloatsprites on her EFS.
"Yes I'm sure Watcher." She said, plugging her Pipbuck into one of the terminals. "We can't spend to much time down here. The inervation can kill like nothing. This was he quickest way. Besides," She shrugged, turning on DJ Pon-3 as she began picking the lock on a yellow and pink medical box. "Velvet Remedy has Calamity to keep her safe, and while they may have their differences, I feel confident Zenith and Steel Hooves have each others backs." She grinned as the lock popped open. Inside however, she found a centuries old, spoiled Health potion. She threw it in disgust. Having gone through the small amount of supplies in the room, she looked at Watcher's sprite bot.
"Keep an eye on things for a sec, okay?" She said, making sure she could see the sprite bot above her. "I've been dying to look at this thing." Using her magic, she levitated out a memory orb and placed it in front of her. As she made the connection, Watcher cried out. "Little Pip! Wait!" But it was too late. She had already disappeared into the wrong memory.
Blackjack trotted down the narrow corridor. She had encouraged her friends to pair up and go down the separate tunnels. Scotch had gone with Lekunai and P-21 had wanted to speak with Glory about something. And with Rampage gone, that left her by herself.
Walking through an open door, she was surprised to see a terminal, active and awaiting input, waiting for her. Usually, she left this for P-21, but she was curious. Using the cord Scotch Tape had given her, she jacked her Pipbuck into the terminal. Immediately, a message flashed across the screen.
"EC-1101 detected. Opening StableTech mainframe. Greeting Macintosh or descendant of Macintosh. How may I help you?"
Blackjack started. Descendant of Macintosh? Surely it didn't mean Big Macintosh, did it? Slowly she spoke to the machine. "Yes, um... I was just wondering if..." She glanced at her Pipbuck. The EFS couldn't detect anything behind the door in her path. "Could you check for hostiles on the other side of that door?" A loading bar appeared on the screen. Ten seconds passed. Then the machine spoke again.
"One life-form detected. Life form is unconscious and non-hostile. Do you wish to engage?"
The Y/N icon appeared on the screen. She toggled the N. "No thanks." She unhooked her Pipbuck from the machine. "Do you think you could open the door for me?" She asked politely.
"Of course. One moment.
Blackjack readied herself for whatever she might meet on the other side. She arched her back up against the wall like she had seen Lancer do so many times with ease. Readying her Magic bullets, she peeked through the open door.
Calamity trotted down the hall, Velvet Remedy at his side. He'd been checking each and every room just before she could get to them. She was getting sick of it. Finally, they came to two doors on opposite ends of the hallway. "Ha." She barked. Clearing her throat, she continued. "Alright, now you check one room, and I'll check the other." Calamity grumbled, but knew his lover could handle herself in a fight now. Ever since Little Pip had made that Needle pistol, she'd been able to. He'd seen her experimenting with a couple new toxins to use just a few hours ago. Confident that she would be fine, he trotted into the room.
And came face to flank with a blue buck. Rubbing his muzzle, he backed away from the stallion. He'd gone stock-still. Calamity slowly trotted around to the front of the buck. He had a far-off look in his eyes. It was impossible to guess what he was thinking. Reaching into his saddlebags, he pulled out the hoofcuffs he'd collected from a sheriff's station right before they'd gotten here. Locking them around the buck's back legs, he turned to have a look at the terminal the buck had been trying to get into. It was made of cloud, so it was no wonder he had such a hard time getting into it. Settling in, he started typing.
Velvet Remedy opened the door, seeing her buckfriend trot into the other room. Walking through the opening, she wondered why he worried so much. It wasn't like they'd seen any other ponies here. Her thoughts trailed off as her eyes met those of a purple maned pegasus. As soon as the mare had seen Velvet, she fumbled, dropping the canister she was holding.
"St-stay back." She stammered, drawing her beam pistols shakily. Velvet Remedy noticed that she seemed to be missing a wing.
"Can help you with that?" She asked, gesturing at her stub. The dashite aimed her weapon.
"I-I don't want to hurt you. Just stay back." She leaned towards the door. "P Twenty"- she was cut off when Velvet fired her anesthetic spell, dropping the Pegasus where she stood. Using her magic, she dragged the limp mare out of the room, forgoing Calamity's rule on scavenging to help the poor mare. Trotting into Calamity's room, she saw that he'd caught somepony too.
"Do you think we should take them back to Little Pip?" She said, snapping him out of his concentration. Glancing at the Dashite she was pulling, Calamity repilied. "I suppose we should." He said, pulling on his end of the cuffs as he limped to the door.
They started down the hallway. Ten minutes later, Calamity had fallen way behind. Finally, Velvet stopped. "Calamity, do you want to trade?" He looked gratefully at her, then shucked the blue buck off his back, undid the hoofcuffs and picked up the limp pegasus. Suddenly, the blue buck burst to life.
P-21 had been conscious for the last five minutes and slowly began to ready himself. When the pair exchanged prisoners, he made his move. Bursting into the air, he pulled out his screwdriver and held it up against the unicorn's neck. She grimaced, smelling the feces on the tool.
"What have you done to Glory?" He asked, nodding at his friend and not budging an inch with Calamity's pointed his rifle at his head. Velvet Remedy spoke, breathing through her mouth.
"She's under an anesthetic spell. She'll be fine in a couple minutes." She felt the screwdriver relax. "Now, if you would be kind enough to let me go, I would love to breathe freely again."
"Fine." He said, relaxing just a bit. "But I want my weapons back. Not that I don't trust you but... Wait, no, I don't trust you."
Calamity tossed him Persuasion, along with a numerous amount of mines, grenades and other explosives. The blue buck pocketed all of them, but kept Persuasion pointed steadily at Calamity.
"So," The brown pegasus began. "What's your name?"
"P Twenty-One" He replied, downing a health potion that was an hour away from spoiling completely.
"P Twenty-One?" Velvet Remedy asked, loading her needle pistol. "What kind of name is that?" She accidentally pricked herself with a dart. "Ow." She muttered. "Why do they have to be so sharp?"
"It's... something I'd rather not talk about." He looked at the hallway, "So where are we headed?"
"Well, before you interrupted," Calamity said calmly. "We were headed back to our friend to figure out what to do with you. Now that you're awake, you might as well come with."
"And what makes you think that I would do that?" He replied, hoping they weren't smart ponies.
"Because your weapons are worthless in this confined space. Sure you could kill us, but not without your friend dying along the way."
P-21 grumbled and put his launcher away. Together, the three walked down the hall, Fallen Glory resting on P-21's back. Five minutes later, P-21 was running for his life. A drugged Velvet Remedy was chasing him shouting. "I'm coming for zat booty!"
Lekunai and Scotch Tape trotted around the corner, Scotch going on about her theories on Rampage's age. Lekunai wasn't really paying attention. She was too busy making sure Scotch didn't get hurt. Suddenly her ears perked up. She knew that hum. Peeking around a corner, she knew immediately what she'd thought she'd heard was correct. A Steel Ranger was shuffling through some drawers, a zebra standing guard beside him. She knew she could probably take them on, but Scotch might get hurt. Slowly, she leaned back and whispered into Scotch's ear.
"There is a Steel Ranger on the other side of the door, along with a Zebra. I think I can handle them, but I don't want you to get hurt. Do you think you could hang back?" She asked hopefully. She saw the look on the filly's face change from confused to determined. She wanted to help. Lekunai sighed. "No Scotch. I don't want you to get hurt. Do you know what Blackjack will think if I come back without you?"
"She might"- Scotch began, but Lekunai cut her off.
"She might think the Goddess had gotten to you, or some Raiders or even Rampa"- She stopped mid-sentence, but the damage was done.
"What do you mean Rampage? What did Rampage do?" Scotch asked worriedly. Lekunai sighed.
"I'll tell you what. You hang back, and when I'm done with these two, I'll tell you." Scotch looked doubtful, but agreed. Lekunai nodded, pulled up her shield, and trotted through the door.
Steel Hooves shuffled through a couple of drawers. He wasn't to happy about being paired with the enemy, but Little Pip had insisted. She'd said it could be a chance for them to get to know each other. So far, that hadn't happened. Instead, he'd been subjected to utter silence and paranoia of when she might attack. He knew that she wouldn't, but that didn't stop him from worrying. So it came as quite a shock when Zenith leaped in front of him, taking a magic arrow to the chest. Standing before them was an Alicorn. She had four more arrows aimed straight for their heads, but she wasn't firing. Instead, she began to speak.
"Who are you? And what are you doing here?" She said in a calm, reasonable voice. Steel Hooves immediately pulled out his grenade machine gun and began firing. Zenith leaped into the air and began pounding on the shield, dodging Steel Hooves' destructive blasts. Through all of this, the Alicorn stood there, waiting for the barrage to stop. Finally, the Steel Ranger had to stop and reload. This was when the Alicorn made her move. She immediately brought up five more glowing arrows and launched them, pinning Zenith to the floor and damaging Steel Hooves's armor. He grunted and, after feeding some scrap metal into his suit, he charged the blue pony. Caught off guard, she had no time to raise her shield to defend herself. He barreled into her, knocking her to the ground and breaking one of her ribs.
Standing over her, he was surprised to see the happy look on her face. Usually, Alicorns never showed emotion. He tensed when she grinned, but was still taken by surprise when a olive filly burst from the shadows and landed on his rump, hacking into his armor with her Pipbuck. He bucked for five seconds, but his armor was already starting to lock up. With a struggle, he was down. The filly hopped down.
"Got him." She said, helping the Alicorn to her hooves.
