It was time to face Tia, and I was extremely nervous about it. As the door to her evil lair drew closer my mind came up with an endless amount of horrors that could be behind those two metal doors. Just as I started hyperventilating Shadow gave me a nudge, giving me a rare smile.

"We're almost done kid, you can have a breakdown afterwards."

"Right, let's give this bitch a what for!"

Once at the doors, Shadow stepped forward and cautiously opened one slightly. When nothing bad happened He pried it the rest of the way open and slipped through, I followed close behind.

The room we entered would have taken my breath away if I hadn't clamped my beak shut in time. The immense circular room was the largest yet, about two and a half kilometres tall with a diameter of at least one. Just like Luna's control room, there was a massive screen on the far wall that was divided into hundreds of smaller screens, each showing a different part of the facility. To the left was a hangar filled with dozens of DASH-E drones, more than the two of us could handle on our best days. If we wanted to win this, those drones would have to be our first priority.

In the centre, hanging from the ceiling was Tia in all her glory. Luckily for us, she was staring intently at the mess of screens in front of her and not in our direction. She seemed to be attached to a rail system, allowing her to travel across the room. Just from seeing her through the screens in the testing chambers, I had known that she was big, but Tia was a huge piece of technology. While the part you could see on camera was covered in shiny polished metal the rest of her was laid open. Revealing gears, tubing, pistons, and a mess of wires. Directly below her was a smaller control panel meant for a pony to operate. Even though we were quite a distance away, I could see our objective nestled in the centre of the panel.

Tia's power core.

I really wanted to just fly over and grab it, but I knew that the A.I was faster. The best way to go about this was to take out any weapons at her disposal and make sure Tia couldn't hide or lock away the core.

"Alright Blitz, let's go back outside and make the call," Shadow whispered, putting a hoof on my shoulder. I nodded and turned around, back through the double doors and into the hallway. I then pulled out a small circular object about the size of my talon from my Inventory. Pressing the large blue button in the centre of it caused the device to vibrate and glow a soft purple colour. When the vibrating stopped, Luna's voice began emanating from it.

Good job! Only one other mare has gotten this far! I wonder how that Chel girl is doing these days... No matter! What did you see inside?

"A shit ton of DASH-E's and what looks like a bunch of gas tanks," Shadow responded. "Unless you can take care of at least the hazardous gas we don't stand a chance."

Gas tanks? I didn't see any, so how did Shadow notice them?

Luna paused as if thinking.

Tia's chamber is a massive enclosure, if Tia activates the chlorine gas it would take at least fifteen minutes for you to feel its effects. I've already started working on both threats, but for me to fully shut them off I need Tia distracted. If she notices what I'm doing she can lock me out of the system, which would take me about half an hour to bypass.

"What about the core?" I asked, hopefully, she'd been working on that while we'd been travelling through the vents.

The core's lockdown protocol has been deactivated, but if Tia decides to check that it will only take her a maximum of five minutes to override my coding. So essentially for this to work you two need to keep her distracted long enough for me to fully shut off her defences. You will then have about five minutes to remove her power core.

"Well, that doesn't sound too hard," I said.

"We only get one shot though," Shadow replied. "This has to be done with precision and speed."

I have faith that the two of you will be able to do this. Statistically, you have a seventy-eight point fifty-six per cent chance of victory while keeping at least two of your limbs intact.

"Wait! Only two?!"

No time to worry about things easily replaced! Get going! The small speaker then went silent.

"Alright," Shadow said, breaking the small moment of silence. "Let's finish this, grab your sister again, and get the hell out of here."

"Sounds like a plan."

After putting away the speaker we carefully reentered Tia's lair. She hadn't moved from her position in front of the screens and was watching them intently, looking for something.

Hmm, quite strange indeed. I've been getting heat signatures all over the facility, but no trace of life on the cameras. What do you think Sp1ykE?

Suddenly a new voice came over the speakers, It was male, and sounded quite bored.

I don't know Ma'am. If you think there's a trespasser I could send out a few DASH-E units on reconnaissance. It's not like we don't have all the time in the world to carefully search the whole place.

Good idea, put twenty out to search for intruders, then put ten on standby just in case. I have a feeling something bad is about to happen.

I wouldn't put too much thought into it, Ma'am, Sp1ykE replied nonchalantly. As if reassuring a child scared of the monster under their bed. If there is someone in here the DASH-E's will take care of them. You should worry about that new project of yours, it's pretty time-sensitive.

Tia nodded and closed about half the camera screens to open a control panel. I couldn't quite tell what all the words were but all the biohazard signs along the top of the panel told me that whatever Tia was working on, It wasn't good.

As she worked away, the twenty drones that had been turned online flew mechanically out of their hangar like a large swarm of bees. The loud hum of their engines could be heard all across the chamber. We waited for a good ten minutes for those DASH-E's to be gone, and then we made our move.

I pulled out my carbine and began shooting at Tia while Shadow made a run for the hangar in an attempt to disable the remaining drones. The second the first shot made a sharp ping! noise on Tia's exoskeleton she whipped around, her narrowed eye a vibrant red.

Who's there!? Oh, it's you. I retract my previous statement, you are quite hard to kill. This time I shall do a more thorough job.

"You can try, but we have some extra help this time," I said, a smug grin on my beak.

Is that so? Then where is your sister? I do hope she survived that hasty amputation.

"My sister is just fine! you should be more worried about yourself!"

Tia chuckled a little at that, turning to face me completely.

Well if you insist. By the way, where did your little unicorn friend go? I thought I saw him crawling around a second ago.

Right on time, a large BOOM sound echoed throughout the chamber as smoke began to rise out of one DASH-E hangar, robotic limbs and debris flying out of the entrance. When the dust settled Shadow stood right at the end of the platform, a smug grin on his face.

"You know what they say, any machine can be a smoke machine if you abuse it enough."

I laughed as Tia let out a shout of rage, her eye turning an even more vibrant shade of red.

I hope you can disable the second hanger in the two-point thirty-six seconds it will take me to activate it.

Instead of running towards the other hangar Shadow jumped down from the first one and trotted over to me, pulling out his revolver as he did so. I hastily reloaded Ifrinn and took out Ashaa's last healing potion, just in case.

I'm afraid that only four DASH-E units are available Ma'am Sp1ykE said over the speakers, sounding a little less bored now.

What!? How? The DASH-Es can only be deactivated manually.

The system is telling me that they are being manually turned off by an outside source, coming from the maintenance section E56. Activating the remaining four units now.

Damn, It's Luna again. We'll take care of her after I kill the two of you. Spy1kE, start hacking into Luna's control room and shut her down.

Yes Ma'am.

As the two of them talked the four drones flew out of the remaining hangar towards us. They looked like a newer version of the robot we had faced earlier, sharper and more sinister.

"Gotcha"

They said in unison as they landed in front of us with a sharp clack!, guns drawn. With no cover to speak of we dived in different directions as they opened fire, throwing a spray of bullets over our heads. I managed to find a stack of old shipping containers to hide behind, but Shadow had no such luck and instead had to continue dodging the bullets as the four drones fired another volley. Since they had lost interest in me I put my rifle on top of a box and took aim, deciding that going for the midsection would probably do the most damage I shot at the one closest to me and cleaved its chest off, as sparks and metal flew everywhere it managed to get one last creepy sentence out.

"I don't hate you."

The DASH-E next to it turned to face its downed friend as it reloaded.

"I never liked her."

Once it had finished reloading it caught sight of me. I quickly ducked as bullets ripped through the flimsy crates surrounding me. As my shelter was violently removed I saw what was inside the crate beside me. A case of large brightly coloured canisters labelled Caution, flammable.

I grabbed one and tossed it at the drone. Sure enough, it took the bait.

"Hello friend." It said as it shot the canister, causing a small explosion that tore off its underbelly and legs.

"Whyyyyyy." was all it said before fizzing out and catching fire.

Meanwhile, Shadow had managed to shoot one of the drone's eyes out, but that seemed to have not done much damage. I hefted Ifrinn back on to the shredded crate and fired, missing horribly. Instead of wasting ammo on a weapon I could barely use I set it down and took a couple more canisters and rolled them towards the two robots. One caught sight of the incoming explosives and opened fire, saying, "I see you." As it did so.

This ended predictably with both machines flying into the air.

"Glorious freedom." One said before they both hit the ground. The drone closest to the bomb came down in at least five different pieces while the other landed on its hooves and immediately began shooting at me. Again I ducked behind the crates and prayed that a stray bullet didn't hit the remaining explosive canisters, I would have thrown another at the drone but to reach them now would leave me exposed.

Now out of ideas I quickly rummaged through my Inventory for something to toss and found two throwing knives. I grabbed one by the blade and waited for the robot to reload. I could still hear Shadow off to the side, firing his revolver in a vain attempt to Peirce the thing's armour. Finally, there was a brief pause as the drone's guns retracted back into itself to reload. I took this moment to throw one of my knives, aiming for a chink in its armour. I managed to hit it in the eye Shadow hadn't shot out, blinding it.

“Who’s there?” It said in a calm voice as it frantically shot everywhere, bullets slamming into the walls with a sharp ping! sound.

Shadow ran towards me, ducking behind what remained of the crates. Checking inside the closest one to him, he gave me a manic smile and pulled out a huge bladed weapon. It almost looked like an axe with a long handle and a circular head. I didn’t get a good look at it as Shadow expertly threw it at the flailing robot, the bladed end sinking into the thing's chest with a metallic Crunch!

This latest development drove Tia over the edge. I could hear the loud hiss of gas being released as an eerie green fog began to form along the ceiling. A ceiling that was also collapsing around us

I can rebuild all of this after your death, but it will take time. So please be crushed quickly to minimize the repair time required. Or asphyxiate on the chorine gas, your choice.

“Quick! Grab the power core before it’s covered in rubble! I’ll try blowing up the gas tanks!” Shadow shouted as he reloaded his revolver. I nodded and began making the treacherous journey to the centre of the room, dodging chunks of debris and areas where the gas had begun to concentrate. I could hear Tia yelling but wasn't able to make out what exactly she said, I was too focused on not dying to pay attention to anything else. The control station got closer and closer until I was only about ten metres away, only then did I pay attention to what Tia was saying.

Stop! Whatever Luna has told you is a lie! You can go, take whatever you want and just leave! I've controlled this facility for over two hundred years, and my reign will NOT end here!

"I'm afraid it has to," I said, getting closer to my prize. "I need that power core." I tuned the desperate AI out again as I reached the top of the stairs and walked calmly through the chaos and pulled out the glowing blue tube. The second I did so, everything stopped. The screaming AI, the loud hiss of toxic gas, and the sound of the room collapsing all went silent. The only sound that remained was Shadow trotting up to me.

"We did it, kid. Now promise me you'll take a break once we get back to Marebon street. Your sister probably needs some time to recover."

Before I could reply, The massive screen in front of us turned on again. It must have shorted out during our battle. On the screen was Luna, looking very pleased with herself.

Good work you two! I'm on my way as we speak, your sister Ashaa is with me as well. As per our agreement, you may take anything nonessential to my survival before you go, including that power core. I'll see you soon. And with that, the screen turned off and I passed out.

Footnote:

Quest complete! Down with the tyrant! Reward: 250 exp.

Author's Note

I am SO SORRY that this took me about a month to complete. March was absolutely NUTS for me, and this virus isn't helping either. But it's out now! (yay)

Hope ya'll are enjoying my story and if you have any feedback/comments/suggestions please let me know in the comment section.

A big thank ye kindly to Kkat and Somber for this amazing sandbox to play in and thank you all for reading!

-A Bloodthirsty Unicorn56