Fallout: Equestria - Steelheart

Fallout Equestria: Steelhearts
Written By: CyberDutchman
Edited By: JC

Chapter 2: Fire and Steel

"Into the fire went the soft iron and out came hard steel..."

A single point of red glowed in the darkness, growing brighter, larger, whining like one of the bees in the gardens below us. A ephemeral crimson glow followed alongside it, casting deep shadows that seemed to lunge at the surrounding light. Then the bullet hit me.

I’d faced a lot of pain in my life. I’ve been smashed by malfunctioning robots, almost cooked by shorting circuits, and on a couple occasions been beaten to a miserable pulp by Spell. All of it paled in comparison to the burning stab of the round as it punched through my shoulder. I began to cry out when two more rounds caught me in the gut as the tracers stitched a line across my body. A fourth took my leg just below my cutie mark and I felt the bone beneath fracture as it smashed through. My lungs retched as my cries turned into guttural moans and chokes. I was dimly aware of sparks cascading over me then I heard a sharp cry. The bullets had found Spell.

Through the ringing in my ears I could hear the whine of the minigun’s motor as it reversed its course and began swinging the stream of death back my way. Spell went silent as the meaty sound of bullets impacting flesh switched back to metallic pings as the rounds buried themselves into the metal flooring. I felt the sparks once more and knew without question. This was how I was going to die. How both of us were going to die. Bleeding out on the floor of the Overmare’s core, holed through by a weapon I never knew had been a part of the room. Darkness clouded my vision. A fifth bullet found my back and a rib cracked in return. I didn’t have the strength left to respond, didn’t have the power to cry out. My hearing began to go, a faint ringing replacing the fury and whine of the weapon.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

The jarring whine brought me back from the brink, enough to let me painfully turn my head to see why death was giving me a momentary pass. The minigun was pointing straight down, still firing as the floor below it became a glowing pile of slag. It was straining to return to its original position, motor whining and skipping, but couldn’t. The whole assembly was being held in place by a dark red mass outlined in bright flames. Sparks shot away from the top of the ceiling mounted weapon, the source of the terrible screaming noise.

“Ma’am, you’re not quite yourself at the moment! Forgive me for saying so but you seem to have lost your senses!”

The stream of fire and metal ended abruptly as did the sparks from above. The gun hung limply, slowly spinning down to a halt. The mass that had been stopping it from moving pulled back to reveal Manesworth, one clawed arm holding the weapon in place. The other arm pulled away from the top of the machine where it had burned through power lines and slagged the motors. He turned back and started hovering down to where we lay, his polished body losing the reflected red glow.

“No no no, this is simply dreadful!” The eyes all began panning in different directions until all three jerked around to the wall near the doorway. A small white box with a white cross against a green circle hung loosely where the chaos from just moments earlier had knocked it loose. He rushed over and sawed off the remaining metal paneling from around it then grabbed an edge in his claw and dragged it across the floor to us. Another quick swipe of his saw tore through the latch on the lid, revealing three glass vials filled with a faintly glowing purple liquid.

“Oh blast! Damn my lack of opposable digits! Hold on Master Gear, Madame Spell, I’ll get these infernal corks out, not to worry!” He pulled out one of the glass bulbs with his claw and brought the saw-ended arm up to the stopper. Concentrating with all eyes on the end of the potion, he pushed one of the teeth of the disk into the cork then revved the motor. The cork popped out of the vial and shot away, ricocheting against the ceiling.

I began to feel relief till my vision blurred and grayed out more and more. Healing her might not be enough. This kind of pain... I had no idea if it would go away after the wounds did. What I did know was I had Med-X in me and I was still in agony despite it. I couldn't imagine what this would be like without it. “Manes,” I said in the loudest wheeze I could manage, “Spell... first. Med-X i-in…her vest.”

The effort to talk caused my lungs to burn and seize. A small cough covered the floor in front of me in a spray of red. Thaaaaat... probably wasn't a good sign.

I heard the sounds of fabric rustling and a small clink of plastic and metal colliding. “Oh. Madame Spell...we’re going to have words after this is all over.” I heard a small squeal followed by choking. A second or two passed and then a sharp inhalation. Coughing, long and wet, echoed in the still room. I couldn’t lift my head to see what was happening, didn’t even have the strength to open my eyes. The world was starting to spin, the effects of blood loss overtaking my Med-X numbed senses.

“Ma’am, quickly! He’s barely breathing now!” The voice was quiet and muffled as though it was coming from a great distance yet it also came from right in front of me, loud and panicked. Damn, dying can make you go loopy.

The world spun as I was rolled onto my back. The bullet wounds sent sharp notices as each was touched and pressed then continued to ache after. It was plenty to drag me back to enough coherence to slowly open an eye and see Spell standing over me as she spat a cork out of her mouth. The purple filled vial it came from hovered just in front of my face, motes of light flickering in and out as Spell struggled to maintain the telekinesis. My eye flicked down to her sides and I watched as small indents in her skin went from deep maroon to pink and then her lavender coast began to fill in the gaps, leaving no trace of her near-death encounter.

Good on you Boss, should have figured a couple dozen flying bits of metallic death wouldn’t slow you down.

A blood smeared hoof shoved my mouth open before the vial was tipped over in the air and its contents poured out into my throat. The same hoof then shut my mouth hard enough to rattle my ears.

“Come on, swallow you idiot!” So her bedside manner left a lot to be desired. At at least the effort was there.

I choked the potion down, heaving as the liquid burned its way down my throat. Blech! Tasted like a zinc tablet dissolved in a rusty tin of battery acid with a lemon wedge added for flavor. But I could forgive the brewer of the concoction for the terrible flavor as the pain began to subside instantly. Small pops and scratches hinted at the work being done to repair my flesh and organs but mercifully I didn’t feel any of it. I shakily got to my legs and panted with the exertion.

“Normally I’d say something sarcastic like ‘let’s do that again’. Let’s never do that again. Spell, what in Luna’s name is going on?! Why the hell was there a spell worm on a Stable-Tec frequency? What the fuck did we just copy over?”

Spell’s eyes went huge and she bolted for the Overframe’s terminal. “Nonononono... Overframe, can you hear me? Do you understand me? Overframe!” Spells cries were met with only silence. Everything was dead still and quiet. Except it wasn’t.

The break in the madness was surrounded by a faint background of sound. Pops and crashes. Spell and I turned to look at each other, the color draining from our faces far more completely than if we’d been left to bleed out. We turned and bolted for the door in unison.

The hallway was dark, rows of red emergency lights once again providing the only illumination. Thank you Stable-Tec for independent backups. We tore down the corridor at breakneck speed, skidding around the corner towards our office. Ponies were milling about in the doorway, oblivious to the horror we had just been put through. The one closest heard the pounding of our hooves and turned towards us, immediately taken aback when his eyes met ours. It was Grease Tin, his sweat soaked mane lying flat against his back. He was carrying a large torque wrench in his mouth and dropped it as Spell charged towards him and the others.

“Boss, I swear it wasn’t me! It wasn’t me! Wasn’t any of us! We don’t know what caused it! Everything’s down!”

We didn’t have time for this. “Grease, it’s the Overframe. She-...she’s been infected. Or something- fuck I don’t know! She just tried to gut us with a gun turret we never knew was in the Core. She screamed something about burning threats to us or to her or to- something! Then she tried to kill us both. She hasn’t said anything since.” I paused to gain back my breath. Grease stared at the three of us in wide eyed confusion and opened his mouth to speak when a shrill cry echoed up from the elevator tube down the corridor. Everyone present turned to look at it, fear and panic taking over for confusion, and I suddenly found my strength returned.

Sun was down there.

I took off galloping, adrenaline fueled muscles working like they’d never worked before. “Manesworth, get the door!” The silver robot caught up with me just in front of the elevator, his claw jamming into one side of the door. He pressed forward on his levitation talismans, opening it enough for me to slam my chest into the other half. The door gave way with a sudden snap and I nearly fell into the dark abyss beyond it.

“WOAH!” I backpedaled away from the dark tunnel and stared at the floor till the wave of vertigo passed.

I turned towards the next door as my brain caught up from where I had left it with the rest of the group. Right, so we’ve got no power, no controls, and the emergency stairs will take forever. How the hell…

A flash out of the corner of my eye made me look up. More ponies from the group had walked over nervously and were looking down the darkened tube. Manesworth was floating in the center of the shaft, his flamer’s pilot light illuminating the empty space. He tilted a little to get a better look around and then turned his eye stalks towards us with a shrug of his arms.

Dot... dot... dot... DING! Okay, it’s risky but it juuuuust might work. He should be able to handle it once I explain- Another cry, this one far louder in the open shaft, hit us all. One or two nervous members of the gathered crowd began whimpering.

Right, no time for explanations!

“Manes, you ever play Elevator with the students in the Nursery?” I shouted with a manic grin as I began backing up. He looked back at me in confusion. “Well you're about to!”

I charged forward and with a brief “OH SHI-” took a flying leap just before I passed the sliding doors. I landed on top of his chassis with a resounding “CLANG” and fought for purchase as Manesworth pulled back his eyes in shock. He shot his arms outward into the walls of the shaft as we began to plummet , halting the descent when his claw found purchase on something in the dark.

“MASTER GEAR, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING? YOU’RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED!”

“THEN GRAB MY LEG OR SOMETHING! WE NEED TO GET DOWN THERE!”

Our voices echoed in the tunnel as a couple of the crowd of ponies rushed forward to see if we were alright.

“Sir, I ask that you please remain calm! You’re obviously suffering some form of mental trauma. We need to get you to the Infirmary right away so somepony can have a look at you.”

The hell Manesworth, what do you think is happening down there? The Overframe just went nuts, it’s almost pitch black, and every internal system probably blew up like the ones in the Core! This is not mental trauma, this is perfectly normal and reasonable absolute-fucking-terror!

“FINE! I’m losing my mind! That means I need to go see a shrink in the Infirmary. So get going, we’re wasting time!”

He seemed to accept this as we began quickly floating down the darkened shaft, the couple of staff at the open shaft door crying out in surprise. I felt my stomach drop out at the sudden descent and nearly lost my grip. I pulled my legs tighter around the shell of his body as my eyes squeezed shut in terror of sliding off. A few moments later a red glow began to permeate through my eyelids and I risked looking at the source.

We had passed into the clear walled section of the tube. What I saw through it was worse than any nightmare of the wastes above us I’d ever had.

* * * * * * * * *

The trees and gardens were burning. Not from failing systems, but from Mr. Handys and Mr. Gutsys spraying gouts of flame ahead of them as they chased down fleeing stallions and mares. They ran in every direction, no real way out as more robots began to come out of the tunnels dotting the walls. They fell as the flames caught up with them, screams dying as the flesh melted away from their bodies in the inferno.

The Gallery was completely ablaze. Ponies were running along the catwalks around the Gallery, trying to escape dozens of Protectaponies outfitted for welding, fire suppression, and security. Blasts of arcane energy and lightning lanced out and where they caught fleeing dwellers they either fell or flashed into nothing in a glow of red or green brilliance. Where they didn’t catch anyone they burned the walls and slagged wires, igniting new flames and explosions.

Ponies I'd known since birth were dying in ways I could never have imagined, sick acts not even a psycho would come up with. My gaze passed over a muscular stallion being held on its back between two Mr. Handys, straining to free himself, as a third bot began to cut him clean in two with its saw blade. His body jerked with pain and guttural screams until the blade reached his spine and he fell apart with a final shudder. The robots didn’t pause before they were moving again, looking for more victims. A motion caught my attention and I felt every muscle I had tighten in shock when I saw the source.

Out of the entrance to the Services department walked a red painted Protectapony. Its faceplate was covered in stylized lipstick kisses and its body was much larger than a similar bot would have been, the plates expanded in showy spirals of metal that looked like a Pre-War gala dress. It was draped in a gauzy red lace that once evoked flower petals. Only now now it was a blood soaked rag hanging limply over its back, dripping a crimson trail behind it. But that wasn’t the worst of it, not by far. The worst was the two bruised and bleeding mares stuck to it. Each of the robot’s forelegs disappeared into one of their flanks and it was walking forward with them stuck on like gloves. The tortured mares were trying to pull away from their captor, legs kicking futilely in the air as it ground them into the floor with each step.

One of them was Tantric Motion, the mare Sun had mentioned in her probing offer from earlier this morning. I'd never really spoken to her at any length, just passing hellos and "how's it going?" now and then. We were from very different worlds in more ways than one but In that moment I would have done anything to end what she was going through. I felt myself begin to vomit but the sensation was lost in the sight of what came next.

A stallion who had been running around the outside of the Gallery charged directly into the side of the red demon and fell back, wincing and shaking his head. Then he looked up and his eyes shot open in terror. The mares began to cry out for help but never got the chance. The machine reared up on its hindlegs and shouted at the horrified pony before it in a booming synthesized voice.

"ASSUME THE POSITION"

The forelegs and the screaming mares on them came down on the stallion, knocking him to the floor with a shout. The bot then began pummeling the unlucky victim, one pony-covered hoof after the other. One brutal blow threw Tantric’s cream colored head directly into the stallion’s. As she was pulled away her neck hung at a grotesque angle, her forehead a bloody pulp. Within a few seconds none of the trio of victims were moving.

The robot paused, waiting for movement from any of them, then seeing none backed away, dragging the two corpses on its hooves with it. It looked up and rotated its domed head looking for more targets.

It stopped when it saw me.

We’d reached the bottom of the tunnel and were now resting on the inert lift’s floor. I hadn’t noticed our stopping. I hadn’t noticed puking until the smell hit me. I hadn’t noticed the cold sweat until I began slipping off of Manesworth. Even when I did notice them they barely registered. All I could see and hear was the red coated machine and its gruesome footwear marching towards the lifts. Fear, absolute mind numbing fear, began to pour in and I flailed my legs dizzily as I fell off of Manesworth’s body. As soon as I hit the floor my head snapped back to the image of death and torture making its methodical way towards me. Then I saw a flash of golden orange through its legs.

Sunflower.

She was peering around the side of the Services desk just behind the defiling red machine. Her eyes were locked on the back of the bot as it marched towards the lifts. As it passed the outer tack she twisted her head about to find a way to escape… and saw me. Her eyes went huge and her ears shot up in panic as she noticed where the machine was headed.

She mouthed a single word at me. “RUN”

Every fiber of my being was ready to follow her command and I shakily rose to my legs, ready to tell Manes to get us back up the shaft.

CRACK

My eyes shot back to the bot and locked onto its forelegs. The other mare apart from Tantric had been bent over backwards during the last step and her spine had been crushed into a hideous mass beneath the nightmare’s metal hoof.

… ohhh no… no no no no…

... not her… not to Sun… NO!

NOT A FUCKING CHANCE!

I turned my head back over my shoulder, never taking my eyes off the abomination in front of us and yelled, “MANESWORTH, KEEP IT OCCUPIED! I’M GRABBING SUN!”

“Sir! Wait! Ohhh, blast it all!”

My eyes were glued to Sun as I charged sideways around the red robot, now only a few meters away from the lifts, and headed straight for Sunflower.

I didn't dare look to back at the thing and prayed to Luna that Manesworth could distract it long enough for me to get to the desk and get Sun out of here.

Her eyes went wide as she watched me approach. I slid in past her, hitting the back wall next to the open door into Services then shuffled quickly over. A flash of sparks caught my eye long enough to see Manes slicing at the hindlegs of the protectapony, severing lines that sprayed hydraulic fluid everywhere. The robot went still as the legs failed and jerked to a stop. The domed head swung around to look at Manesworth for a moment then turned back to stare at us, the central eye shining blood red through the faceplate. Manesworth took the opportunity to slam his saw into the back of it's domed head. Sparks flew away in a shriek of tearing metal. The eye flickered once, twice, then slowly dimmed to nothing. Manesworth pulled his arm free as I ducked back around the corner and turned to Sun.

“Gear, what the hell were you thinking?! It could have killed you! Why didn’t you take Worthy and go back up you idiot?!”

“I-”

I hadn’t actually thought that far ahead. “Save Sun” was kind of the whole plan and now that it had been achieved for the moment… what had I been thinking?

“I was kind of caught up in not letting that thing get to you and didn’t plan much beyond that!” She stared back at me for a moment and then began looking around frantically. I did the same as well and had to stop myself from retching as the carnage around us once again took center in my mind. The robots were beginning to run out of living targets and were converging on those few that remained, cowering in corners and tunnels.

"Oh Luna... " Sun whispered as fresh screams erupted from a hallway the robots had found survivors in. "Why is this happening? Luna, why? The hell is- fuck. Gear, what is this?"

"The Overframe got corrupted. Manesworth had... something... in his memory. Spell and I took it to the her to examine and it infected her. She tried to kill us Sun. I'm just lucky I put a filter in him before all this happened. Otherwise I'm certain he'd be like the rest of them. If I hadn't cut him off from the network-"

I coughed as small wisps of acrid smoke began to fall down from the Gallery around us. The lights were beginning to fail in places but it didn't matter. The flames were visible across the expanse of the Gallery and the light they cast gave a dull orange glow to everything we could see.

"Anyway, we've got to get up to Maintenance, maybe we can do something from there to fix the Overframe, maybe. But first..." Cascades of sparks were beginning to fall from damaged wires above us and here and there they set new fires ablaze where they landed. Running to Sun was starting to seem like the worst idea I'd had today... and that said something!

We needed a way out and I was losing hope that either of us would find one- FOUND IT.

A little off to our left around the rim of the Gallery lay an overturned cart. They were used to move fertilizer, crops, and tools around the Gallery and had a hitch at the front for a pony to pull them. Even better there was a track that spiraled up the outside of the Gallery and ended at an access corridor to Maintenance. Straight shot all the way to the top and all the robots were heading in the opposite direction, either down to the floor or outward into the Cogs. There was only one problem... neither of us would be able to pull it the whole way there with the other in the back and we'd be spotted immediately and gunned down.

Thankfully we had a Manesworth.

I tapped Sun on the shoulder and nodded towards our new getaway ride. "Okay, how about this? We get that cart and Manesworth pulls us up to the top. The Service Prot-... that thing didn't give him a second glance when he stopped it. As long as we stay hidden and he's all they see we should be fine." I hoped. There was nothing to really back me up on that guess. But that monster hadn't stopped Manes or bothered him at all when he cut its legs out. So either it didn't care about what other robots were doing or it was just honed in on me to the exclusion of everything else.

... please let it be the first option, for the love of everything let it be the first one. I shook my head with a whimper and curled up tighter behind the desk.

Sun ducked her head around the corner to see what I was talking about then drew back as quickly as she could. She looked at the floor for a moment in calculation than grunted in annoyance. "Ummmmmm... ahh dammit, fine! I didn't think of anything better than that. But those carts are not very deep. They'll see us in it for sure! We need something to cover the top. Help me find something."

I nodded and began looking around anxiously. She was right and this whole half-cocked plan hinged on only Manesworth being seen. But we were running out of time. I couldn't see anyone that was still alive and the robots were beginning to search more thoroughly now with all the easy prey gone.

Come on, a tarp, a big poster, anything to cover the thing! If we were in one of the Cogs I could hack us into a room and get a sheet but we're nowhere near- oh. My thoughts descended into groans as my eyes slowly came to rest on the entrance into Sexual Services just behind us. The one with the two dashed streaks leading out of it. Red streaks.

Sooooo... just a thought. Maybe, just maaaaybe, I could find us the gentlest robot available and we could get it over with relatively peacefully. I mean, the plan was almost destined to fail right? There was no real reason to think the roaming death machines wouldn't see through the disguise, it had just been a panicked shot in the dark! There might not even be any sheets or blankets or anything inside that place-

"Gear, what're you- that's it! Come on, help me check the rooms!"

I shook my head as the tunnel vision was suddenly broken. I spun around to where Sun had been then did a double take as she crawled past to the open doorway. My jaw worked itself open and closed silently as I tried to find any set of words that would prevent her going in but it was too late. She disappeared around the doorway.

"That's it, I'm done! I can just barely handle murdering robots, insane computers, and that THING out there but this is the final straw! " I kept muttering variants of "I'm done" and "I quit" for another couple seconds until the frustration and anger had subsided. That just meant my mind could turn back to the darkened doorway.

Something hissed in my ear. "Geeeeeear!"

My head shot upwards into the underside of the desk we'd hid behind. Thankfully it was welded to the floor or else I'm certain it would have hit the ceiling above it. I rolled over onto my side and tossed my hooves over my aching head, waiting for that red glow to pass over the top of the desk. Instead a single silver orb on a stalk edged over, the shutter at the front opening and closing.

"Careful sir! Oh dear, this looks like an acute case of stress..."

"Oh Celestia... it's just you... Manesworth!" The relief I felt at my worst fears not coming to pass quickly gave over to annoyance. "Again? Really? Again?!"

The eye turned on its stalk in confusion. "Again what sir? I'd keep it down, the others are... are... oh dear, I don't know what's come over them sir. This is dreadful. Just... dreadful. But that's not in the now, not in the here and now! Where's Madame Sunflower gone to Sir? She was just with you wasn't she?" His other two eyes came over the top of the desk and began panning around while the third stayed locked on me.

"She went in... there... and I guess I am too. Now here's the plan. You're going to take that cart over there," I said with a hoof point to said getaway vehicle, "and pull it up to Maintenance with us in the back covered with whatever we find to hide us. So right now we need you to get it and bring it over. Just... try not to stand out. They're ignoring you and we need it to STAY that way."

The two eyes not focused on me swept back and up to look at the cart then came back around and nodded in understanding before they ducked back out of view behind the desk. I wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to be noted but I was starting to get anxious. Well, more anxious. Sun hadn't come back and I hadn't heard a sound from the doorway since she snuck through it. I crawled as quickly as I could across the couple yards to the door and slid around it.

* * * * * * * * *

The doorway turned out to be at one end of a long, unbroken hallway that hugged the Gallery wall to the right of the entrance. The walls on both side of the corridor were decorated in mosaics and various welcoming innuendos. Floral print and hearts that must have looked inviting before now looked washed out and ominous under the red glow of the emergency lights. Just around the curve of the wall was another doorway leading further inwards, this one covered in thin hanging fabrics. A shadow swept across them and vanished.

"Sun..." I whispered, far too softly to expect anypony to hear with the pops and thuds coming from outside. The whoosh of a power door opening snapped me back into focus and I took a step forward... straight into a line of blood. My instincts kicked in and I vaulted forward, barely clearing the end of it, and landed with a terrified glance back. I was about to turn away when something in my brain kicked me to attention.

Oh geez, what was it now? I was going to have a nervous breakdown at this rate and get us both killed. If a trail of blood was enough to make me nearly seize up I was not going to make it out of here-

I'd jumped a pool of blood with a trail. A trail that started behind me and went deeper into the building.

I ran forward in a blind panic and swept through the curtains into the next hallway... and straight into Sunflower. She was coming out of the first room on the right and fell backwards with a muffled grunt as we collided. A set of cream colored sheets she'd been carrying in her mouth fell out out as she turned towards me with a panicked frown. My eyes scanned across her, looking for wounds or bleeding. There were none that I could see

Thank Luna, she was fine...

"Dammit Gear, what the hell? I found our cover in the laundry room so we can go. Did you get Manesworth?"

"Yes, I got him. It's good. It's all fine. Now let's get out of here!"

She looked at me in confusion then bent over to pick up the sheets again. I looked around nervously and felt a shiver run through my body. The doors were all closed shut but around the base of two of them there was a small line of pooling red. The last door on the left had a streak of red running up to it. My mind decided it would be great fun to contemplate what was on the other side of that one.

THUD

The sound from down the corridor caused us both to freeze. We slowly looked towards the end of the hall. The last door opened upward with nearly complete silence. Red light spilled out of the portal.

"THE PAIN WILL SUBSIDE SOON"

ANOTHER ONE. There was another of those damn rapebots! My mind hadn't even considered that option. It wasn't even in my worst nightmares, it went FAR beyond that.

Neither of us waited a moment longer. We tore back through the curtains and down the corridor towards the light of the open Gallery door. Sun was weighed down by the sheets and began to falter. I dropped my head and grabbed a corner of the fabric, pulling it along next to her. Heavy steps echoed behind us as we approached the exit. We shot out of the open doorway and skidded to a halt behind the desk. Neither of us wasted any time in looking for our means of escape.

Manesworth had flipped the metal cart back onto its wheels and slipped the harness over his domed body. It was too small to fit properly and ended up as a headband just above his eyes. One of those eyes was trained on the door and it perked up as we motioned at him from the desk. He dodged to the side and yanked the cart around to face us then began pulling at the harness. The empty transport careened forward behind him, bucking up and down over bits of debris. He stopped just in front of the desk and the cart carried forward, bumping into him. The harness slipped off his dome and caught an eye, dragging it out to its full extension.

"Oh blast! Sir, Ma'am, you'd best get in quick. They're looking harder now," he said as he pulled the harness more tightly over the top of his chassis.

Neither of us wasted any time in replying. Sun tossed the sheets with her mouth, covering the bed of the cart with one shot. I peeked around the desk, looking for an opportunity for us to get in.

"Okay, none of them are looking this way. Go!" We sprang forward and dove into the open back of the cart. Sun immediately spun and kicked the sheet down over the back. There wasn't a hatch or anything else to block it so we'd be relying on the sheet to hide us from anyone looking at the cart from the rear. I crawled forward trying my best to not rustle the sheet,

"Manesworth, did any of them see us?" I asked, sweat beading on my forehead. If we'd been seen this was going to quickly turn into a chase. That would be a death sentence. Any Mr. Handy or Mr. Gutsy would quickly catch up with our driver as he pulled us up to Maintenance.

"No sir, they all appear to be otherwise preoccupied. I do believe your ruse is a success!" There was a faint tapping sound on the wall that had to be one of Manesworth's arms.

We'd done it... so far. Now we just had to see how well the disguise held up under-

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Sun and I looked back in terror as the second Service robot walked through the door, the red plating visible through the fabric hanging over us. The dome slowly rotated away, stopped, and came back. The red glow of its eye was clearly visible through the sheet as it stopped on the cart.

My voice was choked and whimpering as I whispered, "Manes... get us out of here... slowly..." There was a slight jolt and our ride began slowly pulling away from the killing machine. The red circle followed us as we were pulled along the curve of the wall towards the large spiral ramp that ringed the Gallery. It turned and began following the cart.

"Worthy... faster...please..." whispered Sun next to me. The cart shot forward and started to bounce around as the wheels struck debris that had fallen across the floor. The robot following us didn't pick up speed and began falling behind. The eye never turned away. As I stared back at it, eyes locked firmly on it through the sheet, there was another large bump and then gravity shifted. We'd made it to the ramp.

For the next couple of minutes we climbed, circling around the outside of the Gallery. A couple times we passed within yards of another robot and we both flattened ourselves in the bed of the cart. Here and there Manesworth had to give larger pieces and flaming sections of wall a wide berth. All the time our ride shook and bounced over more debris. I tried not to think about how much of that might be pieces of my family. Still, we were in the clear now. We were nearly two thirds of the way to the top as the robots dropped farther away below us.

"SYSTEMS RESTORED. Containment protocols are active. Vision coming online. I can confirm all target locations. Even you, Gear Heart and Sunflower Breeze."

Oh no...

"Now activating new termination protocols."

The voice boomed out over the Gallery's announcement system as the main lights sprang back with their fake sunlit brilliance. Sprinklers and foam guns sprang out of the walls and ceilings and began hosing down the damaged sections of the Stable. The sheets over us quickly became soaked and clung to us beneath them. Sunflower began shouting, "Gear, what's going on? What did she- no no no...".

So much for clear. I kicked the heavy sheet off the cart. There was no use in keeping the dead weight. We'd been spotted by the worst enemy possible. "Manesworth, get us out of here!" I shouted as I glanced over the the side of the cart facing in to the center of the tower. Every robot below was now making a beeline for the ramp and the couple that had been on it prior to the Overframe's awakening were charging up it after us. As I watched more machines began pouring out of the corridors leading to the Cogs. Most of them were bathed in blood and entrails.

A bolt of green energy shot over my head and impacted the wall behind. I followed the trail of arcane sparks lingering in the air back to a Mr. Gutsy. It was firing its energy weapon at us from the ramp on the opposite side of the gallery. More floating robots passed behind it as it continued to take pot shots. One impacted the side of the cart close enough that I felt the wash of heat expand over me and nearly burned my hoof on the shattered metal.

"Sun, get away from the side!" I crept to the back and looked around the edge of the cart's paneling. A pair of Mr. Handy units was only a quarter of a turn of the spiraling ramp behind now and gaining fast, the flamers on their arms shooting out small points of flame. I risked standing straight up and looked ahead. We were less than half a turn around the Gallery from the entrance into the upper levels and the Maintenance wing. That just meant they'd catch us before we got there.

I looked back again and tried to find someway to get us to go faster or to slow them down. We didn't have any weight we could lose, the cart was already little more than a paneled frame on wheels, so speeding up wasn't going to happen. As for slowing them down...

Let's see, half the circumference of the Gallery was...

The math crawled across my vision as I worked through it as quickly as I could. It wasn't a horribly long distance, about twice the length of one of the Spoke corridors that connected the Cogs to the Gallery, and neither Sun or I were tired physically. Emotionally and mentally was another story but had little bearing on the problem at hand. At this point we were within reasonable sprinting distance which meant the cart was now expendable.

"Sun, we're going to have to make a run for it! We're too slow in the cart! Help me kick it over, maybe we can slow them down!"

"Oh geeeeeez... Gear, why are your plans always the worst ones I can imagine? You're doing it on purpose! There's no other reason!"

My eye twitched a little. "Seriously, if you have a better one then tell me! I'm just about running on fumes here!"

"I- there's got to- maybe- okay, we could- ... FUCK, ALRIGHT, IT'S ALL I'VE GOT TOO. But forget about flipping it, they'll just hover over it. We have to try to take them out!" She looked up over the side to the pair gaining on us then turned back and shouted, "Worthy, we're ditching the cart! Get the harness off!"

An eye popped up over the wall between us in confusion but he didn't question the order and began pulling the thick belt off his body. We both moved up to the front of the cart and prepared to jump over it. Suddenly there a loud "TWANG" as the belt slipped over Manesworth's head and pulled his arm up short. The cart began to immediately slow on the inclined surface as he stopped pulling it forward. Just as it was coming to a stop we both jumped up and over the front. We landed hard and I felt a twinge in my back left leg but we were back up in moments facing away from the cart. I looked at Sun and she nodded then shouted, "Let'er go!"

He let the harness slip from his claw and it slowly began to roll backwards. Before it got more than an inch or two we both leaned forward and kicked with everything we had. For a moment my back left leg twinged harder but I didn't have time to worry about it. The cart shot backwards, bouncing along the riveted floor. We bolted forward, Manesworth spinning around to take up the rear as we galloped at full bore for the dark hallway at the end of the ramp. I heard a loud clanging sound and glanced back over my shoulder. The cart had struck the outside wall and began sliding along it, picking up more speed as it went. As I turned back I saw the two bots closing in on us.

Damn it, they were on to the plan.They'd slowed down once they'd seen sent the cart flying back and were moving toward the inner edge of the spiraling walkway to avoid the it. It had been a good suggestion from Sun to try to stop or confuse them for at least a few moments but it hadn't been enough. My idea wouldn't have stopped or slowed them any more than hers either, probably less in fact. We just hadn't had any better option when the escape plan failed.

There was one option open to me though. Sun was going to kill me for it though... or she would if it wasn't guaranteed to do the job before she got the chance.

I looked at Sun and shouted, "Keep going! You've got to get out of here and help them fix this!"

She looked back at me in confusion then gasped as I skidded to a halt and spun around. What was supposed to be a noble sacrifice suddenly became a dismal failure as immense pain shot up the twinging leg. I fell to the floor and tried to rise again, only to find my chest was burning and breathing was near impossible. Aches started registered their needs all over me and my head swam with dizziness.

Oh. Right... I guess should have remembered when I felt that twinge in my leg after we jumped out of the cart. Healing potions didn't fix bones or remove slivers from tissue around them. Only a doctor was going to be able to repair that kind of damage. But I hadn't noticed it. I'd been running with Med-X slowly ticking down in me ever since the Robotics office. Looks like it finally wore out. Terrible timing too. I was about to be a big damn hero and instead I was going to be served up on a silver plate.

"Well, steel plate," I thought as I glanced at the floor with a macabre chuckle.

"Gear, you idiot!"

Oh, and I was going to get my friends killed because I'd gone from reliable to helpless in the blink of an eye. Can't forget that part.

Sun rushed back down and skid to a halt next to me. "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

There were tears in the corners of her eyes as she tried to pull me back up onto my hooves. "We all get out of this together so get moving you self-righteous asshole! If you don't I'll kill you myself!"

Heh. Called it. I looked back to see how much more time I'd have with my friends before we were mutilated. Maybe enough time to convince them to run or tell Manesworth to drag her away... maybe even enough time to say goodbye.

Damn, they weren't far back now. The pair of machines were about to pass our cart as it rushed past them. They were picking up speed now that the danger of our distraction was passing and their attention was solely focused on us. If we'd only had more time-

The cart slammed against the wall and rebounded once more, but this time the vehicle had run out of strength. The far wheel opposite the wall snapped off as the axle bent under the sudden load. The jagged spur of twisted metal that remained dropped and dug into the floor and the cart swerved inward on the walkway. Our pursuers spun in unison as the cart began flipping side over then jumped into the air as the harness swung round to hit the floor. The lead robot began ducking to the side in an effort to dodge the out of control rickshaw. It nearly made it before the cart rolled over completely on top of it, trapping it underneath. Its momentum carried it screeching into the railing overlooking the Gallery center, smashing through it and over the edge. The second bot had backed away far enough to escape getting bowled over but failed to see the end of the harness arms coming whipping around. The straps slapped across its body and slid down in a blur, catching the joints of the arms as they met the body. As the cart and its prisoner fell out into empty space the straps pulled taught and whipped the entangled robot out and over the side, trailing behind as it's own levitation kept the bonds tight. The other robots paused in their pursuit as the metal heap fell to the floor below with a deafening crash.

I stared at the empty space and missing railing where our doom had been standing only a few seconds earlier and responded in the most appropriate manner I could think of.

"...what just happened?" I said completely dumbfounded as I turned to Sun. She was still staring at the scene with her mouth hanging wide open and didn't seem to notice. Neither of us had time to run through the event in our heads again as my voice broke the spell over the Gallery. Bolts of arcane energy came soaring in from below as the remaining robots redoubled their efforts to kill us from afar.

"Everyone, I'm afraid we really must be going!"

Something snaked under me and I felt myself rise into the air. Manseworth spun around with me cradled in the crook of his saw arm as shook Sunflower with his clawed one. She shook her head in response and blinked twice before seeming to remember where we were. She wheeled around and began sprinting for the open tunnel into the Spire's upper level while Manesworth followed close behind, one eye looking over his dome for bullets or plasma blasts headed our way.

All I could look at was the dark tunnel ahead of us. Just beyond the entrance was one of the many maintenance lockers spread across the Stable. Through that would be the staircase leading up to the Maintenance wing I'd left ten fifteen minutes past. With any luck Spell and I and everyone else could barricade the lifts and stairs in and come up with a way to reset the Overframe and bring things back to-

Normal...

What was going to be normal after this? We'd lost dozens if not hundreds of the ponies who called 63 home. I hadn't seen anyone else still alive down here by the time we made our escape. Which meant the only ones I knew of still alive at this point were Sun, myself, and the others above us in Maintenance. Maybe twenty to thirty ponies in all. That wasn't the real problem though. The Overframe could grow more ponies quickly as long as the Nursery and its tanks weren't destroyed. That was the problem though. The Overframe could do it... and we couldn't.

How was she going to get past this? She WAS the stable, she was it's heart, it's mind, everything. We could never let her be that anymore, we couldn't afford to let this ever happen again. I retched and coughed at the realization as Manesworth carried me through the entryway into the dark corridor beyond. The lights were out here still. The Overframe had never brought them back up like she had the ones in the Gallery behind us.

I could never trust her again- NONE of us could afford to trust her again. She'd been infected with a piece of code and it had made her a monster. Just... rewrote her mind! One second normal, next second... just... fuck! There was no telling if that signal the code was carried on was still bouncing around up in that fucking wasteland above us! Hell, it was still in the Comms system! It was still in Manesworth!

...OH SHIT. I nearly fell as I tried to roll farther out on his arm. I stared up at him but his attention was elsewhere. The dark corridor cast strange shadows across his polished chassis and they morphed and shifted like flames on the chrome surface. Okay, we were probably fine, it's fine, he's fine,it's... fine. He'd had that code stuck in him for days before we gave it to the Overframe and he never got infected. It was too large for him to fully analyze and run on his matrix. That's what he'd said.

But what did that mean? The code he'd picked up was huge... and it had taken over a computer that controlled over three hundred robots like Manesworth. What if it was coded to take over systems and then look for ways to spread further? Manesworth was a single point in a huge network. Could it be smart enough to take that into account and hide until it made it up the chain? Or was it created specifically to target the Overframe by any means necessary? Hell, what was it created to do in the first place for that matter? Who would make a code to turn the robots into mass murdering nightmares? What was the point?!

I couldn't breathe and the darkness of the tunnel seemed to pull all light out of everything I looked at. Sun was a grey shape galloping next to us, eyes wide and locked on the door into the locker room ahead of us, but I could still see the emotion in her face: anxious, exhilarated, scared, and hopeful. The machine carrying me had no such features. I looked up at the impassive form carrying me, side eyes forward as the central one looked back and couldn't tell what it was thinking. No emotion, no expression, no anything. It was too much in that moment and I writhed in Manesworth's hold. He jinked back and forth trying to steady me then finally lost his balance. I slipped out of of the crook of his arm and fell heavily to the floor, managing to not land on the bad leg. I rolled and panted as my mind raced through scenario after scenario, trying to make sense of everything that had just happened not fifteen minutes past.

Could we trust that the Overframe had been fixed if we reset her systems and she started acting like her old self? What if the spell code was just lurking in a partition somewhere where she couldn't see it until something triggered it again? What if Manesworth was under its control and he just found another way to spread the tatzlworm again? But then I didn't know what the purpose of the worm was and so I couldn't begin to guess what it's objective was beyond our deaths. Maybe that was just it, all it cared about was killing ponies, but why? What was the point in us dying? Why did it, or whoever created it, care? Why was it being transmitted over the Stable-Tec system? Why was it turning my family into murdering monsters and killing the ones it had no control over? WHAT WAS THE FUCKING REASON???

"Gear? Gear! GEAR!"

My vision was getting shaky. Wait, that wasn't it, I was actually being tossed around. I was-

WHAM

A hoof connected with my jaw and I saw stars. The pain was worse than it might have been otherwise because it partially caught the bruise from earlier that morning and immediately caused it to flare up again. My mind stilled as it suddenly had something more immediate to worry about.

"What? What's-"

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! They're going to catch up if we don't get out of here and you're doing your damned best to make sure you're there when they do! Just... what is going on with you Gear?" Sun was standing over me, one hoof raised in the air as she shook it. That answered where the blow had come from at least. I didn't have time to explain all of my worries to her but she was right, if I didn't get them under control I was going to get myself and probably her killed as well... huh.

... weird sense of deja vu there.

"Nothing, just in pain. Let's get going. Help me up?"

I felt a pull on my work vest and turned to see a metal claw pulling it upwards. "Sir, let me get that for you-"

"NO! No, I'm good! Just go get the door. Sun, help me out. Please." I got up shakily, my bad hind leg held up to keep pressure off it. Sun looked over me at Manesworth and nodded her head. The grip on my vest released and I heard the faint hum of his levitation talisman recede away, back towards the door at the end of the tunnel. Sun trotted up and knelt down to let me sling myself over her. I hopped a few times and nearly went over completely but eventually I was strung across her back, hooves dangling in the air. She slowly arched back up and planted her hooves strongly then began galloping after the silver handyman robot. Thank the Sun and Moon for Earth Pony resilience and strength.

"Ugh... your bloody tools weigh a ton... and I'm pretty sure there's a screwdriver trying to make it's way into my spleen." I chuckled a little as she mouthed off at my predicament. I turned my head to reply and got a mouthful of mane.

"Pffft! Blech! Sorry, but I normally I keep a ripper saw there. I think I know which one you'd prefer."

"Ah, well then, I take it back. It's a rather lovely screwdriver that's trying to gut me. Anyway, something's tearing you apart. I know that look. Your brain is working overtime and not finding any answers. So what are you trying to solve?"

"I'll tell you later when I've talked it out with Spell and the coders who are better than me. Trust me, you don't want what I've got on my mind on yours as well." I dropped my head back down against her side and tried to let the tension drain out of me. A hiss from ahead of us got my attention. The power door into the lockers slid up as Manesworth turned to us from the control panel next to it. I knew how to disable the door once we were through so it would make the first barricade between us and the mind controlled murders following. We'd somehow managed to escape the pit of hell below us. The depressing part was it didn't make me feel any safer.

* * * * * * * * *

"There, that should do it. They're going to need a blowtorch to get through now." I stepped back gingerly on the makeshift splint Sun had fashioned from a broom handle she'd snapped in two. I had to have done some serious damage to myself by walking around on it this whole time and the bruising around the knee was definitely agreeing with my assessment.

As soon as we'd made it through the door I'd told at Sun to get the panel open. She'd set me down and pulled the screwdriver that had been bugging her from my vest then used it to rip the panel clear off the wall. Manesworth was keeping guard in the doorway, all eyes facing the lit opening into the Gallery at the end of the access corridor. Our pursuers hadn't shown up by then but it was only going to be a matter of time. Sun had immediately got to work on putting together the makeshift brace on me while I examined the now visible controls. My modifications to my own door controls immediately came back to save us as I found what I was looking for. There was an emergency circuit designed to close all doors in the event of an emergency. The Overframe thankfully had no access to the system.

I should have wondered a long time back about why Stable-Tec had decided to keep her out of the loop but the question never crossed my mind. Just another strange choice among many in the design of our home. Now it was beginning to seem like they hadn't had complete faith in their system to handle every situation. Somehow though I doubted this particular scenario had come up when they were planning it out.

Next to it there was a manual bypass that could be released to open the door again that worked from either side. There was a way around that though. As soon as Sun had propped me up I began pulling plugs with my teeth. A few moments later I'd rerouted the emergency release line into the control lines. As soon as I told the door to close any other command it might receive would also tell it to close and stay closed instead of opening again. It wasn't perfect and if they were clever they could bypass my work from the other side but it would take time to do so. I planned to do the same with every door we passed on our way up to join the others.

Just as Manesworth had begun to back away from the door the first of our pursuers arrived. Plasma blasts pummeled the wall around the door and a few stray shots sailed through the open doorway, melting the equipment lockers opposite it. I wasted no time in re-powering the panel and watched as the the door slammed down with a solid "whoosh". It had been closer than I'd have liked but I'd never doubted I'd be able to seal them out once we got behind a power door. This was my field and it felt very, very good to be powering through it again. Enough so that I was actually beginning to feel some confidence we'd find a way to set things right.

"So what now? Just head upstairs, tech-out some solution and then fix the Overframe and the Stable?" Well when you put it that way...

I looked over at Sun as she rummaged through the various lockers, looking for more pieces to help build out my leg brace. I'd had to sit back down immediately after sealing the doors and was sweating lightly from the pain in my hip. She paused for a moment and tilted her head at me with a questioning look.

"Honestly, yes, I'm hoping that's going to be just it. Spell's more familiar with her systems than I am, she'll have a better idea of what to do."

Her ears hung low at my words and she shook her head and blinked away the tears that had been forming. She bent over and picked up a tool bag packed with random junk in her mouth and walked over before sitting down besides me.

"Well, we've got one bit of luck at least. There was an actual brace in the medical cabinet that I can use. Only problem is it's for the wrong part of your leg. So it'll help keep you up on your hooves and take some of the weight off but I'm going to still need to rig something to stabilize the hip. Hmmmm..." She scrunched up her face with exaggerated contemplation as she rummaged through the bag.

"Heh. When did you become the jury-rigged surgeon extraordinaire? Braced a lot of sunflower stems in your time?" I lay on the bench stretching down the middle of the room and offered the leg to her.

She gave the broom handle on my leg a sharp tug as she removed it. OWWWWwwwwww...

"You've looked around 63 before haven't you? You learn how to scrap things together just by keeping an open eye out. You tech types just love to show off what crazy things you come up with and we labor types love to silently listen and steal them for ourselves when you're not watching. You make it so easy too, using all this techno-babble that just happens to be available to anyone with a terminal in her room."

I turned my head to stare back at her. For a few seconds I said nothing then began laughing like a maniac until my lungs ached again. It was true, Maintenance loved to build ourselves up as the true owners of the Stable, the ones who kept the lights on and the plumbing flowing while everyone reaped the benefits of our work. Buuuuut... well, looks like that was one more lie we'd been telling ourselves. I breathed out in sadness, wondering how much else we'd taken for granted, all of us, that we'd have to take a hard look at. If we made it through the day at any rate.

A minute or two passed as I focused hard on not focusing on anything. My eyes darted this way and that, just taking in sights, wondering about design choices, thinking about missed work time and makeup duties. Then there was a strong tug on my leg and Sun broke the silence. "There, done. Try standing. If it's not great I can adjust it or... well, there was a vial of Med-X in the cabinet with the brace. That stuff can be addicting though so I'd rather not."

"Yeah, and Spell hit me with a shot of it earlier today." She rounded on me in shock and confusion. "Long story. I don't want to risk it either so whatever it feels like is what it's going to feel like till we find a doctor. Well, if we can find a doctor."

"Mmmm, there is that... okay, so, up the stairs?" she said with a very peppy tone. I shot a glance at her and quickly turned back. I'd known Sun for a long time and there was one thing that was clear. There were cracks in her attentive expression. There was an entire Gallery's worth of pain and confusion trying to break through and she was holding it together with some very thin tape.

"In a second, I don't want to go anywhere without something to hold them off if they find a way through. Go tell him to scout out the way and see if we're clear," I said with a toss of my head towards the stairwell. "This shouldn't take long." She turned to follow my look and glanced back briefly, her eyebrow arched, before walking away.

I knew what she was thinking. Sending away Manesworth was like tossing our trump card. He could carry me up the stairs if I couldn't make it myself, he could fend off the other robots if they made it through, he could make up for a lot of our current weaknesses. The problem with that was I still didn't completely trust him just yet, even with the filter isolating him from the Overframe, even with how much he'd helped us. I just didn't feel safe and wanted some distance between us and him to think. I couldn't think of a way to tell that to Sun. Not that wouldn't clue him into my discomfort or panic her.

I stood up slowly and to my surprise felt relatively little. Even with Sun's revealed skill I'd still expected to feel some discomfort but she'd done a great job of getting the weight from the hoof to my body without going through the injury. There was a series of mechanical linkages connecting the brace to a what was basically a utility saddle just below my vest. I was going to have to get her to teach me her tricks now. This was way too useful and gave me ideas for tools I might make later. For now though there was one thing it immediately made me think of and there was an intriguing option with that.

I walked over to a caged enclosure near one corner of the larger room and began setting the mechanical combination lock. A sign over the door read "Heavy Equipment. Please practice safe use and make sure your saddle is secure." The chain link door swung open as I set the last number. I looked around the enclosure hurriedly, looking for anything that could- oh. That could do it. It was a large bulky saddle with metal bracing across the top, heavily padded below where it would rest on a ponies back. To one side of the frame there was a large metal crate with a set of six slots in the top. I was thrilled to see they were already loaded with power talismans. On the other side was an assembly of tubes and piping wrapped around a central core. A large box was set atop the contraption and when I looked inside I practically danced. It was filled with large nail-like rivets.

Looks like whatever pony had been using the rivet gun last had dropped it off without stowing everything like they should have. Probably when everything went dark which meant they were almost certainly above us right now. It was a lucky break for us though and I intended to hug whoever had failed to stow the tool properly. Well, a very small hug and a lot of thank yous to make up for it.

"Gear, what are you looking for?" Sun peered around the frame wall and furrowed her brow at my obvious joy. "Oh jeez, let me try that again: what did you find? What is that?"

"This is a top of the line, high powered, high precision rivet gun! It's how we apply the sheeting to the most of the walls. Thing is, I think I can get it to fire a lot farther and a lot faster. Enough to go straight through a metal chassis with ease. We've never needed that kind of option so no one's tried it. Give me one sec, I've got what I need here to make the modification. I think..." I realized that I was going to be trying to pull something risky. These things used an array of spells to shoot rivets at blinding speeds. The problem was the kickback. Even with how heavy the thing was it bucked like a mule every time it fired. So my plan was to add some more talismans, a gem capacitor, and a levitation talisman. I'd never used one before (different responsible department) but knew the basic principle. I was going to have to add power to the launch to get the rivet flying fast enough that its aerodynamics wouldn't care till it reached the range I wanted and then balance that out with the levitation talisman pushing against the recoil. Oh, and strengthen the frame so that firing it didn't slag or pancake it, the saddle, and me between it all.

I set about with a focus and lightness of mind I hadn't felt in what seemed like ages now. This was where I belonged. Rebuilding something, creating something new, something better, to solve a problem, a need. A minute or two later I was done. The power pack was significantly larger now with more cables connecting across the saddle frame. The gun itself was beefed up with struts I'd taken from the workbench's legs and the talisman was glowing faintly at the rear in a mounting I'd made out of an ashtray, wire, and copious amounts of duct tape. Now to see how I needed to balance the power out.

"Okay, time to test it. It SHOULD be pretty well balanced right now but let's confirm that."

There was just one problem. Sun was kind enough to point it out.

"Sooooo... how're you lifting that again?" She was sounding like her old self a little more, probably from seeing me acting more like myself. Unfortunately she'd settled for her old snark instead of her motivating side.

"Well, I added handles on either side so we-"

"Sir, allow me, I believe I should be able to move it more easily than you will in your current condition."

The good feelings were gone. I did not want him touching my weapon. I knew that was silly deep down, he had different ones available on two of his three arms. But there was that nagging question in the back of my mind. Sun answered before I could think of something to redirect him.

"Sure, that will be much better. Where do you want it Gear?" She said as she walked up to the device. Manesworth was already lifting it by a makeshift handle and Sun took the other in her mouth and hoisted the device off the floor.

*Sigh* Okay, well we're not dead by robo-ponicide. It was going to have to be him anyway since I couldn't do it.

"Put the saddle over one of the benches. Then I can see how it kicks." They nodded and carried it out then laid it over the closest bench. I walked out and started flipping the switches that opened the energy circuits. Lights flickered then shone brightly across the readout display. I motioned them to get back in the cage then gingerly pressed the trigger on the mouthpiece. A high pitched whine filled the room for a split second before a bolt of white heat shot out of the front of the gun and flashed across the room too fast for us to follow it. There was a loud gonging sound as a locker imploded backwards into the wall behind it. I stared at it, mouth agape, then glanced slowly back down. The saddle had moved back maybe an inch in total. The readout dial swung to empty then began climbing back to full charge and in about ten seconds was ready to fire again. Slow to fire, but when it hit...

"... I think... I'm going to call that test a success." I turned to a stunned Sunflower and curious Manesworth. They went to examine the locker and I heard Sun whistle.

"I think you can as well. That's more than successful, that's plain destructive!"

"That's what we need right now. Now help me get this thing on." She did a double take from the locker shaped hole in the wall then ran back over.

"You can't be serious! There's no way you're going to be able to support that thing!"

I grinned back at her. "Normally no, but I just so happen to have this really great brace that's putting all the weight of my body into my lower leg without bothering the hip! Thanks for that by the way, your saddle frame gave me the idea for this setup. Plus I'm familiar with the modifications and the signs that it might blow up unexpectedly to watch out for!" Her horrified expression was GLORIOUS. In a moment of mental surrealism I moved another counter on an imaginary billiards table scoreboard. Score another one for Gear Heart.

" I hate you so much right now. Fine, you want to see how good my brace is then I'll show you!" she said after a long pause. She motioned Manesworth to join her and together they lifted the saddle and slid it over me so that the mouthpiece was just in front of me. I tongued the power switch and watched the readouts go dark. The slowly lowered it onto my back and I felt the pressure increase steadily.

Okay, it was a little heavy. My forelegs were taking the brunt of the weight right now. An ominous bending sound came from the brace but it held steady. The pair finished lowering it and let go of the handles. Okay, a lot heavy, but not unmanageable... I think. I took a step forward and thankfully didn't hear the sound of metal under even more tension. Just to be safe though the next upgrade I made to this was definitely going to be more levitation talismans to take up some of the weight.

For now though it would do. I turned to the others and began handing out orders. "You two, look around and see if you can find more rivets to bring with us. This thing doesn't hold many at a time. Also, if you find more power or levitation talismans grab them. We don't keep many of them in the locker rooms but there may be one or two around somewhere."

I turned and began steadily walking towards the stairwell. I wasn't going to be running anywhere with this thing, that would be asking for a fall and exponentially more fractured or broken bones than I had now. I began passing by the restrooms for this locker room when out of the corner of my eye I saw a mechanical monster stepping out of the stall. I wheeled and tongued the activation stub on the gun, adrenaline flooding my mind. Suddenly a large targeting reticle popped up in my view... over my own face. The sight shocked me long enough for me to notice the dirty smudges across the thing before me. It was a tall mirror over a restroom sink... and I was looking at myself. I had enough metal covering me that I looked like some kind of weird cross between a pony and a robot. The leg brace covered most of the limb and made it look creepily like the frame of a protectapony leg. I let go of the mouthpiece in discomfort and the target disappeared.

What the...? I heard a beep from below me and looked down in time to see my Pip-Buck's screen flash before going dark.

Did it do that? I'd never seen any utility like that before, no programmed spell for frigging target practice! Wait, how had it even known to sync with the gun I'd cobbled together? It wasn't built as a gun, it didn't have any sort of networking links. For that matter, how did it know where it was even aiming? I hadn't added any real sights, just a flashlight along the barrel to give me an idea of where it was pointing. It had never pulled anything like that before in all the time I'd been modifying the personal mini-terminal! Why did it even have a target function? These were supposed to be utility devices, not combat tech- argh! Just another thing to figure out later when imminent death wasn't a concern. I was DONE not fully understanding the things around me that I lived with day to day.

"What is it?! What did you see?" Spell and Manesworth peered around the corner in concern.

"Myself unfortunately. Your brace is great Sun, but I'm going to be very happy to get out of it and this weapon. It all makes me look like..." I trailed off as I glared at my reflection.

"Oh. Sorry Gear, I hadn't thought of that. Let's get moving then. Sooner this is over the sooner you can get out of it right?"

"Yeah, definitely. Manesworth, we're clear right?" I said as I shot a questioning eyebrow his way. I didn't see any way around taking his word that he couldn't or wouldn't run the code he stored at this point. I'd had enough time to come down a bit from my paranoia, enough to realize there'd been too many opportunities for him to throw us to the Timberwolves if he was indeed infected by whatever the Overframe had. But I was still anxious about the time bomb inside him.

"Indeed sir, I didn't run into anyone else on my way up or back. The door at the top was locked though so I couldn't inform Madame Spell of our arrival."

Hmmmm... that was going to be slightly problematic but it was also encouraging. I would have bet a week's worth of ration chips that that was Spell's doing after Manesworth and I left and didn't return. Hopefully they were already looking into the Overframe's infection.

"Ok, sounds good. The door shouldn't be a problem-"

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Sparks erupted from the base of the power door behind us and the control panel began glowing bright red then started warping out like the petals of a flower. There was a loud snap and the sparks ended. The door began rising creakily, the bottom scorched and glowing with radiating heat.

"Dammit, that's a problem! Sun, want to wow me with your technical skills? Get that door panel open and fix it up the same way I did!" I never took my eyes off the door behind us as Sun and Manesworth rushed through the power door behind us into the stairwell. I backed up, watching the door in front of me climb higher inch by tortuously slow inch, until I was through as well. I tongued the activation stub on my rivet gun's mouthpiece and this time wasn't startled as the target crosshairs popped up in my vision. I lined shrugged my shoulders and lined up the sights on the base of the door. I glanced to the side and watched Manesworth pop open the panel while Sun looked around the door frame at the now partially melted control panel I'd rigged only minutes before. She didn't look overly confident and I asked in a tight voice, "Can you do it?"

She looked around the corner, studied my modification or what was left of it and ducked back to focus on the one in front of her.

"Yeah, just keep me covered. Not a problem. I've got it. Not a problem..." She trailed off then grunted and began pulling wires and plugs out of the interface. She moved quickly and reattached them one after the other. I shot another look at her work and couldn't see anything out of place but it had to be done in a specific order to work properly. Otherwise it could lock open and doom us. She'd said she could do it but I couldn't help feeling anxious over the possibility she might make a mistake.

The door suddenly shot up and I spun back around only for my heart to stop. A metal hoof with red plating was pushing the door up while a matching dome ducked underneath it. A single orb of red light scanned around then jerked back as it passed over the door opposite it with me standing in the center.

"PLEASE TRY TO RELAX, YOU ARE SCHEDULED FOR A LONG SESSION AND TENSE MUSCLES WILL ONLY MAKE IT UNPLEASANT"

My teeth slammed onto the trigger strip and the weapon bucked against me. The round shot across the room in the blink of an eye. My back was rattled by the force coming through the saddle but I bounced back quick enough to see the results. Given the size of the robot and how much of the doorway it was taking up it would have been hard to miss. Yet I'd nearly managed it in my terror. I'd been aiming for the joint between the dome and the body but the shot went in low and hit the foreleg not currently being used to hold up the door just below the shoulder. The results were near instant and incredible.

The leg and the one behind it disintegrated in a spray of broken metal, wire, and plastic. Screws and other bits of shrapnel exploded backwards and judging by the pinging sounds damaged a few other bots. The protectapony fell forwards, the door lagging behind on its warped tracks then gaining speed before crashing into the still raised hoof. It crushed it down with a sickening snap then continued into the chassis just behind the dome. The metal dented and bent inwards and the dome tilted backwards as the robot's back broke under the force. The dome spun around shakily with a clicking noise then came back, the eye locking onto me again. I lined up the crosshairs on the dome and bit down hard, willing the gun to fire at the monster I'd mutilated. I needed to see it die, I needed to watch it exploded into unrecognizable chunks, I-

WSHHHH

The door just in front of me shot down between me and the crippled machine. The locks at the bottom clicked with a finality that rang through my head over and over and over.

It was still alive. Just on the other side of this damn door. It was staring at me. I could see the eye. Following me from across the sudden barrier. I couldn't keep a steady breath in me, my lungs were jerking in and out at random and my body and face felt like they were burning and freezing at the same time.

"... why? ... WHY DID YOU SHUT THE DAMN DOOR?! I COULD HAVE KILLED IT. I COULD HAVE DESTROYED IT FOR GOOD, I COULD HAVE PUT A SHOT RIGHT THROUGH IT'S FUCKING EYE AND ENDED IT FOR GOOD! WHY? WHY, DAMN YOU, WHY?!" I rounded on the pony cowering next to door, her hoof still on the uncovered button. Her eyes were wide, almost magnified. She was outlined in blood red, and her mouth was locked open in a soundless, unending scream. Then I noticed the crosshairs and the "95%" marker hanging in the air next to her head. Confusion overtook me for a moment and I noticed how the light seemed soupy and shifted back and forth in hue as I rocked lightly from side to side with dizziness. I looked around and noticed my Pip-Buck's screen glowing brightly again. I pulled the hoof up to examine it, nearly toppling over with the weight on my back. Text filled the blue screen: "S.A.T.S Active. Select target parameters"

My anger began to dissipate in the face of the new mystery and almost immediately the device chimed and the screen went dark. The world shifted back to normal and Sun's scream echoed in the stairwell. I jumped and turned as I backed away from her, startled into sudden focus. Manesworth moved to block the space between us and looked at me with all three of his eyes fully extended forward.

"Sir! There is no need for that! You're giving both of us a fright! Now please calm down, or else I'll be forced to remove that contraption of yours until you can prove you will use it safely." Sun was breathing heavily, her eyes staring straight down at her hooves. She took one last deep breath the slowly turned to look at me.

"Gear, I had to do it. We have to get out of here. You stopped it. You took out its legs and wrecked it and I promise you it's not getting back up from that. Now we have to get moving before the rest of them get through this door as well. Please." Her voice was soft and pleading and as she spoke I felt my anger draining from me. In it's place was left a very deep sea of shame. I couldn't tell her how close I'd come to taking her head off. If I had been distracted by... whatever my Pip-Buck was doing I-

I'd rather not think about it. "I'm sorry... You're right, you did the right thing. I'm sorry for snapping at you over it. I just- I needed to stop it, I needed to watch it- ... You're right, we need to go. I need to get away from here before I starting shooting at the damn door."

Sunflower nodded slowly as I steadied myself on my hooves and Manesworth nodded his approval. I looked down at my leg and the customized device on it. There was a lot I had to learn after this. As I turned back I noticed the storage counter on the weapon had marked off the two rounds I'd fired which meant the box had six more rivets lined up in it ready to be dropped in.

"How many rivets did you two find before we left?" They turned to look at each other than back to me.

In unison they replied, "None." I stared at them for a second then groaned softly.

"Not one?"

"You had a bit of a freak out with the mirror, remember? Kind of took the focus away from looking for more rounds. Then they started breaching the door and now here we are. So... no, no more on us. How many more shots do you have?"

"Six."

She grimaced then glanced up at the stairs before turning back. "Well, we're nearly there. Shouldn't need them once we make it and we fix this." She didn't add on the "maybe" that was clearly missing from the end of her words.

They had to help me up the stairs, the uneven steps put more weight on my back leg than I was able to easily handle. But we found no more problems by the time we reached the locked door. The lowered the saddle pack and I let myself drop to my knees to rest for a bit. Sun walked over to the door and motioned Manesworth over to her. With his help she pried the panel off and began inspecting the circuit. Her face pulled into a frown and she looked back at me before saying, "Ummmmm... I don't think this is the same change you made. I'm just not seeing power on the board.

"Huh. That's a different way to do it and it limits what you can still do after but..." I paused to think for a second and then noticed the quiet. It was almost too quiet. An itch behind my ears made me look more closely at the door between us and safety and felt a suspicion growing... along with a faint grin. Well, it was worth a shot.

"Spell, your mods suck! I can think of at least three ways around this one and none of them will take me longer than a minute!"

"WHAT WAS THAT ASSHOLE?! I'd like to see you try!"

The shout was muffled by the door yet the volume was still impressive. Even Sun began giggling a little at my tactic when she heard Spell's voice.

"Spell, it's me- er, us. I've got Manes and Sunflower with me. Now open the door, quickly please." We hadn't heard any cutting from the door below us since it closed but I was beginning to feel the weight of every second we spent without another one between us and it.

"Wait, you only brought your girlfriend back? The fuck is wrong with you you selfish prick?" Sunflower blushed at Spell's accusations but all I felt was anguish at what I was about to have to say.

"We're- we're it. We're the only ones coming Spell. Please, open the door. Now." Silence hung heavy in the air after I begged the last word towards her. We must have waited half a minute before the lights on the door panel lit back up and the steel barrier slid up into it's recess.

Spell was standing on the other side, her face a mix of confusion, alarm, and despair. A few of the other members of the Maintenance teams were standing around her. I noticed Titan Steel, the head of the Stable Structures team, frowning at us in incomprehension and at my saddle weapon in particular. On the other side of Spell was Sapphire Spirit, her horn glowing it's namesake blue as she held a wrench in the air, her face a mask of shock. But my eyes were drawn back to Spell as if by compulsion. She looked me in the eyes and opened her mouth then closed it as she reconsidered her words then started again, "So when she said termination protocols..."

Her eyes were locked on mine, begging me to tell her that her fears were unfounded, that she'd mistaken what I meant. But she hadn't and I wanted to tell her anything else but couldn't.

"They didn't make it. The bots, they- ... the Overframe's running them. Like she was running that turret."

Spell's face froze and the three of us waited for her to say anything in response. Instead she turned around and slowly began walking back towards the Robotics department. The three of us shared a look then galloped after her, passing the other ponies standing around the open door. I shouted over my shoulder to seal the door again then went back to catching up with Spell. I was hampered by the brace and the weapon and could barely manage a fast trot. Sun and Manes had already caught up and were following behind her.

She rounded the door into our office and immediately fell down and curled up next to the closest desk. The other two were standing nearby and looked at me with fresh concern. I slowly approached the huddled mare and bent down to speak face to face.

In a near whisper I tried to find the words to comfort my diminutive boss. "Spell... I'm sorry. But now is not the time for this. We can mourn later, but there's an army of ponicidal robots just at the bottom of that stairwell and they are not going to wait for us to finish having our collective mental breakdowns. We need you. You know the Overframe better than anyone and she's the source of all this. We have got to find a way to put things right. So get up and help us do that."

My tough love apparently got through to something inside her. She gave a small shudder then turned her head to look at me. Her eyes were red with tears and her body was pulsing with what had to be hiccups but there was a flicker of determination in her eyes. I just needed to fan it into something approaching her usual fire.

"If you can't do that then I'm going to have to go in there alone or with anyone else willing and we're going to do whatever it takes to stop this. WHATEVER it takes, including cutting the power. So if you want to find a way to keep us from needing to do that then get up and get moving."

Her eyes burned brightly when I mentioned cutting the power and she stared at me for a moment then looked at the terminals around us before turning back to me.

"You're right, that's a fucking terrible idea. But I just got a better one! Get everyone who knows how to string two wires together without killing themselves or can type one letter after another other, and all the terminals, cable, and connectors you can and meet me in the Core." She leapt to her feet and bolted through the open doorway.

Ooooookay... that was not what I had been expecting but it was promising! I ran out into the corridor and began pulling everyone together to gather as much materials as they could and meet in the Core. Within minutes the room was filled with random assortments of tech and hardware. The turret still hung limply from the ceiling and everyone gave it a wide berth as they entered but it showed no signs of operating anymore. Spell began directing us on where to attach and link the machines we'd brought with us. She was going too fast for any of us to stop and question it until finally everything was to her liking and she let us pause to rest.

"Spell, what's the purpose of all this?" I asked in confusion. The room had become a veritable jungle of hanging cables and wires strung about haphazardly.

"Simple. We're going to kill the Overframe!"

Oh Celestia I'd broken Spell.

I raised a hoof a slowly said, "Could you run that by us one more time?"

She looked at me with a grin somewhere between smug and manic. It did little to reassure me.

"We're going to kill the Overframe. Then she's going to come back good as new. We're about to run a hard reset ladies and gents. Back to factory settings! To do this we're going to have to surge the power just enough to put her into standby without frying anything. It's a small window but we're going to hit it. Before that we need to disconnect her network connection so that she can't command the others downstairs while we're working and then we need to pull the gene info, the command files, and a couple other things we'll be putting back in afterwards. GOT ALL THAT? Good, we don't have a lot of time according to Gear so get your asses moving!"

I had to admit, it was ambitious. Also crazy, but I'm still giving her points for the ambition. In theory it could work, now that I had a moment to stop and consider the idea. It was a scenario we'd trained for, bringing the Overframe back out of standby and the info Spell had mentioned was stored externally on gemdrives which didn't hold operating spells, just data. But to artificially create the required power surge... we'd never had to run that scenario in practice because of how many fail-safes were in place to stop that very thing happening. Still, if Spell thought she could do it I was willing to bet she could. If it failed the Overframe would still be down, though potentially a lot more permanently. Still, best option in the moment and desperation was the mother of innovation. The last thought made me chuckle morbidly as I looked at the rivet gun still strapped to my side. The rush had been so great and the time to stop and rest had been so little we hadn't removed it from me yet and more than once it had gotten tangled in a loose cable. Still, it proved we were capable of pulling this sort of thing off.

Spell was a whirlwind as she swept from pony to pony, handing out instructions, even the to other department heads. She was running the show now and no one was about to argue that point. Ten minutes or so passed as Spell continued to walk from one station to the next, checking to make sure data had been properly copied over in each case. I found myself constantly walking back to the corridor to check on the stairwell but the door was still offline and sealed tight each time. When the last station chimed in she actually patted the excited colt on the back in a friendly fashion. She immediately launched into her method for surging the system. We would do it locally, using the energy talismans we'd brought along with everything else. That would get around most of the failsafes and be enough to trip or overpower the ones left. Again I felt some mild concern over the chance she was making a mistake likely to kill the brains of our home. I had to wonder what that brain would think of our plan to reset-

I froze.

There was a silence in the room that felt out of place. One which had been a minor consideration by comparison to the threat of the mechanical hordes below us. My head slowly turned until I was staring at the metal pillar in the center of the room and swore I could feel an invisible set of eyes staring back at me. I watched for another couple of seconds then began walking towards Spell, never taking my eyes off it. I reached Spell as she was finishing up the last of the preparations and showing everyone how to monitor the power flow.

"... Spell, you disabled the core interfaces throughout the Stable, right? Not just the remote network connections?" She turned to look at me in confusion. I motioned towards the center of the room with my eyes. She turned to follow them and her face slowly went blank, her eyes wide as she understood what I was implying. She turned back to me and mouthed "Maybe she hasn't-"

"Unexpected. This plan was doomed from the start as long as I had time to instruct the remote units to seek out manual access points for updates. Yet you were blind to this oversight. Unexpected. You took longer to come to this realization than was estimated. More then enough time to bring the lifts to working order again. Now concluding new Termination Protocols."

The silence following the announcement from the speakers was deafening... except for the faint pings of every lift in the Spire arriving all at once.

* * * * * * * * *

By the time we got out of the core room I was down another two rivets and the shattered wrecks of the Mr. Gutsy bots that had tried to cut us off were piled against the far wall of the outer Maintenance ring. But that opening had come at a terrible price. At least six of the ponies who had been helping Spell were dead, two of them vaporized in a flash of green light and ooze as the robots had begun to pour in from the other three access hallways. Spell herself had received burns from a Mr. Handy's flamer as we rounded the bend from the Core and was now being carried by Titan Steel on his back. I'd used a third shot to take it out as I came to the end of the hallway. Sunflower was galloping ahead of me, shouting out directions to nowhere in particular, just trying to keep us all together.

I'd turned back to unload my gun into the Overframe and the strange targeting spell interface had sprung up again, searching for the perfect shot on the tower in the middle of the core. But the hallway was long enough and enough robots were blocking the shot after having seen what the device was capable of that the odds of the shot hitting were insignificant. I screamed in rage and frustration and turned to follow the rest of the group. Suddenly the group veered off to the right down a large corridor as a wall of security protectaponies blocked the rest of the curved hallway. They opened up on us with lasers from the emitters which faintly resembled pony snouts welded to their conical heads. Three unicorns had been shielding the group as best they could by levitating sheet metal sections Manesworth tore from the walls with his blade and claw. One took a laser to a leg and dropped his plate in pain. It gave an opening for the robots to cut down another two ponies, among them Brass Glow who I'd watched fixing tubes early that morning. Bellowing incoherently I sent one round into the wall of death as I ran by. By some miracle I managed to put it straight through the middle robot despite the awkwardness of the shot. It vaporized in a cloud of shrapnel that temporarily distracted the other two robots. I rounded the corner behind everyone with two more rounds remaining in the gun and charged up the ramp-

Wait, ramp? When was there a ramp on the Maintenance level? There wasn't anything above us except...

"NO! This is a dead end! It's-" The ramp ended and I nearly plowed into the rest of the survivors. We all found ourselves cowering in the middle of a large, cluttered room. Panels and readouts covered the walls and lockers dotted the spaces between them. But it wasn't the size of it or the contents that left us speechless and still. It was the giant steel cog set into the far wall, a blue circle with the yellow number 63 emblazoned on it. The sound of metal footsteps behind us broke the dark spell as we all turned and began backing away from the hallway we'd just come from. I felt a tug on my vest and turned to find Sunflower looking up at me, her eyes filled with terrible sadness. She hugged me briefly then turned and walked to one of the sets of lockers. She tore them open and began tossing their contents out before pulling back with a huge torque wrench in her mouth. The others looked at her and then each other and began scavenging whatever they could for weapons. Titan Steel was lucky enough to find a sledgehammer and hid Spell away behind the Stable Door control panel as he practiced swinging it in his powerful jaw.

A sense of forlorn pride welled up in me. Many of the ponies rooting through the junk had wild and panicked expressions. I doubted they were going to be able to even swing them when the time came but they were making the effort instead of lying down to accept the end. Unfortunately that's exactly what it was going to be. My gun was the best defense we had but I only had two rounds left and a long reload. Even worse, considering how organized the robots had been the Overframe must have uploaded one hell of a complex code to direct them. I wondered if there was anything left of our old friends and co-workers in those metal shells at all or if they all been erased and written over like a blackboard.

It became a moot point as the two battered protectaponies from earlier topped the ramp enough to begin firing their lasers. Everyone scattered out of the way but one mare wasn't so lucky and burst into red flames as a laser connected with her, the chain reaction disintegrating her instantly. I ran to the side of the door and crouched low and waited. The two bots passed through it and began scanning their heads around. The one closest saw me and began to turn but never got the chance. The rivet went in through the bottom of its shoulder and exited out the opposite shoulder of the other robot before slamming into the ceiling. Both bots toppled over, their heads blasted clean off their chassis. Only one shot left now and I had to give everypony the best chance they had to use their own weapons when I ran out of ammo... and that meant drawing them out with a target they had to focus on.

I backed away, dragging one of the broken robot bodies with me until I could lay it in the middle of the room then went back for the other one. I could hear more metallic hoofsteps and also the faint whine of a levitation talisman as I pulled it over to the other chassis and draped it on top as best I could. I had a solid barricade between me and the open hallway now so I stepped back and looked over the top, my gun barrel poking out just far enough to the side to give me a clear shot.

A parade of Mr. Gutsy units crested the top of the ramp and stopped when they saw my makeshift cover. They began moving to the sides of the hallway and for a moment I considered taking the shot on the half that was better lined up in my sights. It would probably take out all of them but that would leave the group on the other side of the hallway and no ammo to deal with them. But I'd have to use it soon.

The red dome crested the ramp before I could decide and the world fell away. The chassis was still cracked but the shattered legs had been replaced with two cannibalized from other protectaponies without the same red paint or plating. It's back was still dented behind the dome and the red eye flickered chaotically. It only made it worse. The nightmare was back and staring me down from between the rows of floating robots. Then the horror increased infinitely more as a voice distorted by static hissed out of it.

"Judging from known data it was decided that this unit would have the greatest effect in stopping you. That has now been confirmed. Now... burn."

The green floating orbs all lit their military grade flamers as one and red, searing light and heat filled the room. The shadows they cast over the monster in their center looked like oil slicks and somehow made it even worse. I couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't breathe. It was going to kill me, it was going to mutilate me like the others. The group began advancing as one and the rest of the ponies present began backing away from the wall of flame that erupted from the open hallway. First Gutsy bots and the red killing machine stepped past and began bearing down on me.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The robots stopped as one, mechanical eyes suddenly focused above and behind me. I turned to see what they'd found to kill me with and my eyes went wide.

Sparks erupted from the seal around the Stable Door, tracing the outline of the cog shaped hunk of metal. Suddenly they stopped and for a second there was no sound to be heard.

WHUMP!

The door resonated like a gong and the wall bulged around it. Then slowly, with a creaking grown, it fell inwards and crashed to the floor not ten feet from me, shaking the floor enough that I lost my balance and fell to my front knees. Shakily I rose again and looked at the open portal then inhaled sharply as three large figures stepped through the smoke beyond it. They looked like refined protectaponies, smooth metal bodies in the shape of ponies, maybe half again as large as any of the stable members gathered here, with many of the details built into the form. But instead of eyes or cameras there were only black glass plates that gave no hint of what was going on behind them. Then the lead one raised a metal hoof and in a yelled out in a booming voice that I realized wasn't synthesized.

"Rangers! Secure the survivors and contain this menace!"

* * * * * * * * *

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Hybridization - Why settle for either bullets or blasts? Why not have both! You gain +25% damage with hybrid weapons.

New Event Perk: Luck be a Lady Tonight! - Lady Luck must have her eye on you to pull off that stunt! +1 Luck