The Blade Chronicles: Book Two

Chapter Three: Enter Cog

It had been two days since the group had left Dunport, they had gone on a journey to find Cog and stop him. Seeking Blade noticed the fuel gauge and let out an audible grunt as he returned his eyes to the road. He had stopped for the group to sleep, occasionally, though most of the time the group would end up with little sleep. The stallions eyes scanned the road as the group pressed ever onward. The wasteland rolled onwards almost endlessly as he focused, Seeking Blades wife, Serene Morning, had been asleep in the passenger seat next to him with her wings folded behind her back. He looked over to her briefly and took in her sleeping face. Those closed eyes always having given him hope in the darkest of times. He turned his head back to the road as he recalled on the map that there was a small settlement that they were coming up to. Time seemed to crawl by at a slow pace as the gas ebbed closer and closer to becoming empty. After a while longer of pushing the truck to its limits, the sight of a settlement was able to be seen. It wasn’t going to be much farther for the truck as its gauge was nearly at its end. As Seeking Blade began to push the speed and neared the settlement, he squinted his eyes as he took notice of something that resembled fire. His expression changed to shock as he gulped.

“Fire? Oh shit!” The stallion said out loud, his voice became one of concern as he spoke up loudly. “Everypony, wake up! We’re reaching the settlement, but I think something is going down. Gear up and be prepared for anything! We don’t know what we’re going up against.”

Serene Morning and the others snapped wide awake as they looked around, they reached for their weapons out of instinct. They all had been ready for anything due to the nature of the journey, the mission that most of them were sent on, and the three that chose to join them voluntarily. The group had taken note of the fire as they looked out the small window that seperated the cab of the truck from the back. It was the settlement that they saw on the map, alright. But it was in some serious trouble as a small force of robots, they were unlike the Steelhearts and stood on two legs with large domed heads. The odd looking constructs appeared to have been built out of metal plating and had two red laser-like eyes that peered out through a thin slot in their domed heads. Each of the robots had a weapon built onto their right arm. The robots were bulky and looked like they could take quite a beating.

Seeking Blade pulled the truck to a complete stop as he and his companions climbed out of the vehicles interior. They stared in shock as they beheld the sight, the fire had been set ablaze from the center of the settlement as the smoke rose up and into the clouded sky. The robots had made their way inside as the sound of weapons fire filled the air. It appeared that the assault had not begun more than a few minutes ago judging by the sounds of the screams as they rose into the air. Seeking Blade looked to the others and gave a nod as he motioned with his head to follow him. The others gave a nod as they all galloped towards the settlement entrance as fast as they could.

The metal monstrosities had made their way into the settlement, splitting into three groups as they went down the side streets and began to fire their weapons at every fleeing pony that their sensors picked up. More and more screams filled the air as Seeking Blade and his companions arrived inside of the settlement. The stallions and mares all looked to one another as they took their weapons from their backs and their holsters. Seeking Blade grunted loudly as he stared at the flames.

“Alright, let’s split up. Dark Heart, Metric Zoom and Divine Kiss, I need you three to go down the streets to the west and see what you can do. We need to stop these things at all costs, no matter what.” he stopped for a moment and looked to Shield Stabber and Searing Staff as he exhaled nervously. “Mom, Dad, I need you both and Night Eye to go down the streets to the east and try to help anypony that you find. If possible, I want you to start putting out the fires and see to the injured.” His attention turned to Fluttershy, Sun Spot and the two Earth Ponies next to them. “Fluttershy, Sun Spot, I want you two to start assisting any injured ponies here by the entrance to the settlement and to start evacuating them over to the truck. It should be safe in the back for now.” Seeking Blade gulped as he looked to Serene Morning softly. “I’m going to need some back up, so I’d like you by my side on this.”

The others gave a nod as they then split up and went to their assigned areas, Seeking Blade and Serene Morning were the first to encounter their opponents as they hurried down the street. They had gotten a good way down the street before the shots rang out, the two stopped as the bullets went into the ground and they skidded to a stop. The stallion looked up as he drew his scrap rifle with his saddle rack and took aim at one of the robots. It had its own gun, along with its companions raised towards them. Quickly looking around, the stallion dashed into a doorway and pressed his side against it. Serene Morning had taken cover behind some boxes that were stacked in a three by three formation, her scrap pistol was in her mouth as the two waited for breaks in the robots fire. The two popped out from their cover as they focused their shots onto a single robot at a time, pulling their triggers as the bullets flew out of the chamber. The resounding gunshots rang throughout the settlement as they quickly popped back behind their cover.

The robots reloaded their weapons as one of them took aim at the pegasus mares cover, it pulled the trigger and sent its ammo into the boxes as it had begun to chip away at the cover. The other two had begun to focus their fire on the doorway in an attempt to draw out the stallion that was hiding inside of it.

“Commence Delta Emission,” said one of the robots in a monotone voice as it commenced to fire upon Seeking Blades position. Its sensors scanned the area in an attempt to try and perceive the stallion and mares movements as it spoke once more. “Upon our mighty and malevolent Cog’s orders, none are to survive.”

“So, It’s Cog that is behind this attack, huh?” Seeking Blade asked as he grunted and popped out from behind his cover briefly. He took a shot at one of the two robots that had him pinned down before ducking back into the doorway. The shot hit one of the metallic monstrosities right in the square of its chest armor, causing it to take some damage. The stallion noticed that his wife’s cover was beginning to break apart more and more, he yelled out to her over the sound of the gunfire. “Serene! Fall back and find better cover!”

“What? And leave you up here? No! I won’t!” she responded in an agitated tone as her cover broke apart more and more. “Besides, what if something happens to you?! I can’t risk that!” she said in a frustrated tone as she threw herself to the side of the street. Serene Mornings body throw soon turned into a combat roll as she narrowly avoided a couple of bullets. The ash flew up into the air where the shots had impacted as she got up and pressed herself against the side. Her eyes darted down the street to where the robots were firing from as her eyes carefully scanned the area. “Hey, Seeking Blade, can you use your magic somehow to cause an explosion in the middle of them and try to end this quickly?” She asked, having to yell over the gunfire.

“Damnit Serene, this is no time to be stubborn!” Seeking Blade said in frustration as he popped his head out and took another shot at one of the robots. The stallion quickly pulled himself back into cover, his ears perked up as Serene Morning suggested using his unstable magic. He took a deep breath and exhaled with a shiver as he yelled back to her from over the gunfire. “I think that can work, let me try it!”

Seeking Blade grunted as he pulled his scrap rifle on the saddle rack back and into an upright position. The stallions eyes closed tightly as he focused on reigning in his magic, his breathing became slow and deep as he brought his mind to focus on teleporting into the center of the group that they were up against. He vanished into thin air, only to appear in-between the three robots, causing them to suddenly turn their attention to him. Seeking Blade then quickly turned his thoughts to that of an explosion, he had felt as if he was becoming lightheaded as there was a loud and earth-shaking explosion that caused the buildings nearby to sway. The flames from the fire scattered scattered ever further, however, the robots were unlucky in their attempts to end the stallion.

The robots let out electrical wails and screeches as their bodies were flung to the ground, their circuitry buzzed as their sensor lights slowly dimmed. Becoming lifeless on the ground as Seeking Blade and Serene Morning moved back out into the center of the street. The mare looked to her stallion as a worried expression came over her face, she trotted over to him and rested a wing over his back as she leaned his body against her own carefully.

“Darling, are you alright? You look like you might need to sit down and rest.” Serene Morning said as a worried tone came from her voice, she helped him carefully to a nearby wall and leaned him against it. Her expression didn’t change as she took a moment to examine Seeking Blade.

“I’m fine, honey… Really. Just a little lightheaded is all.” he said as he slowly moved out from underneath Serene Mornings wing. Seeking Blades eyes scanned the area as he looked at the destroyed robots heads and exhaled. He looked to his wife for a moment before he returned his attention to the street downwards. “Let’s head down the street a bit further and make sure that there aren’t anymore of these things hiding out.” He said in a relaxed tone as he returned his scrap rifle to position, laying it to where the barrel was pointed ahead.

Serene Morning gave Seeking Blade a nod in response as they cautiously stepped onwards down the street. Their eyes focused ahead as they scanned the road. Down one of the side streets, Dark Heart, Divine Kiss and Metric Zoom carefully advanced, Metric Zooms sensors scanned the way ahead. Her sensors caught traces of hoofprints and footprints in the ashy ground, traces of blood splattered along the walls of the buildings that they passed near. The blossom forged heard gunshots from up ahead as she faced forward. The bamboo chute inside of her that held her chassis together shivered as she heard the screams of fear. She looked to her father and the False Queen that was walking alongside him, seeing that neither of them were being shaken to the core as she grunted. She had tried to ignore how the False Queen was in love with her father, tried to ignore the cruel words that were building up inside of her. But it was of no use. It was going to be too hard for her to just ignore her, her mind flooded with the possibility of the mare wanting to hurt or harm her father. As she was about to speak, the three of them encountered the body of a young stallion.

The stallion was a unicorn who appeared to have just been leaving his young teenage years, his dark green eyes were glazed over. His mane was an electric blue and his coat a gold color, a hole the size of a bullet was able to be seen as Metric Zooms sensors caught it. She let out a frustrated grunt as she kneeled down and rested a hoof against the young stallions body and turned her head to Dark Heart and Divine Kiss.

“I am not detecting any life coming from this poor stallion, I found a bullet wound in his head that is primarily focused on his temple. I hate this, I hate how Cog is attacking innocent ponies! I fucking hate it, and I fucking hate him!” Metric Zoom said in anger, she felt a wing gently drape over her backside as she took her hoof off of the dead stallions body. The blossom forged mare turned her head to find that it was Divine Kiss who had rested her wing on her.

“Well, hopefully we will be able to put a stop to all of this madness.” Divine Kiss said as she closed her eyes and bowed her head a bit. Her ears twitched and flicked slightly as her tail swished. “We’ll get him, Metric Zoom.” She said in an assuring tone, her eyes slowly opened as she looked ahead. Divine Kiss was about to say something, when the blossom forged finally lost it and snapped at her.

“Why in the fucking hell do you even care about the wasteland?! You’re a False Queen!” Metric Zoom snapped, her sensors darted to the false queen. Her voice was raised, alerting any enemies to their position. “Besides, how can we even trust you? False Queens like yourself kidnap young fillies in the dead of night, and brainwash them into thinking that they are going to be something special when they clearly will not be able to remember their families!”

“Why, I’d NEVER do that! Metric Zoom, you DO realize that I’m going to be going rogue, right? I don’t like being worshipped by the faithful! I love your father, and I want to help make the wastes a better place! Why can’t you see that…?” Divine Kiss said in response, her heart had sank in her chest a bit as she wanted the small blossom forged to like her. She shook her head and grunted. “Metric Zoom, I know that you are protective of your father… But you have to listen to what I am saying-” She began to say as she was cut off by Metric Zoom once again.

“No! Just stop fucking talking! If you truly are going to leave your worshippers, and plan on helping the ponies of the wasteland… As well as the other races, then prove it!” Metric Zoom yelled out, She felt her anger start to take the better of her as she tried to reign herself back in. It wasn’t working, and with each shout drew more and more attention to them.

“Both of you, knock it off unless you want us to be caught with our pants down…” Dark Heart said cautiously, but loud enough to where they were able to hear. “If we want to get the element of surprise, then we should stop this racket. Right now.” he said in an annoyed tone. He didn’t blame Metric Zoom for disliking the False Queens, in fact, she was right about them and how they’d kidnap fillies and brainwash them into forgetting that every pony inside of their family and their friends existed. He shook his head as he tried to focus.

As the two mares bickered and continued to raise their voices at one another, neither of them were able to hear the sounds of the approaching footsteps. Dark Heart noticed as he looked around and gulped, he could hear the footsteps but he was unable to see them. It was far too late when he finally noticed the shadows coming from the rooftops, the sound of gunshots rang out as he quickly looked around. Divine Kiss let out a loud scream of pain as her kneecaps splattered out blood. The mare collapsed to her knees as she fell to the ground, pain spread through her body as she screamed once more.

Dark Hearts eyes went wide as his anger flared, he let out a loud yell of rage as his wings unfolded from his back to their full length and he took to the sky. Long and black tendrils with blood red eyes and sharp, snapping teeth extended from his body as the darklings emerged from his wings. The darklings leapt down onto the rooftops as the leatherwing stallion swooped down from the sky at one of the robots, the two tendrils snapped at the air as he passed by it. There was the sound of metal being ripped apart as one of the tendrils got the robots right arm in its powerful jaws and swallowed it whole. The robot let out an electrical screech as sparks flew from the hole where its arm had been. Its sensors scanned the area as it watched its two companions get quickly ripped apart by the strange beings.

Metric Zooms sensors scanned the many darklings as her expression widened, she looked from her father to Divine Kiss whom was huddled on the ground in pain. She looked up to her father as she suddenly realized just how much the false queen meant to him, It did not occur to her that there was more of a bond between the two then she originally saw. All of the anger towards her that she felt, the horrible way that she acted. She felt uneasy and ashamed of the way that she acted. While the chaos ensued up above, the blossom forged mare trotted up next to Divine Kiss and knelt down next to her as she carefully helped her up onto her back. The two mares looked to one another with a confirming expression on their faces.

Dark Hearts rage was still aflame as he made a second pass at the robot, his eyes looked to the roofs where the two opposite robots were firing from. There was nothing left of the two as he then returned his focus to the remainder of the metal attackers, his two tendrils snapped and lashed out as he increased his speed. Several of the darklings had managed to get a hold of the robot, holding it in place as it had started to try and struggle its way free. It was all over for the robot though as Dark Heart brought his tendrils within biting range. The two tendrils chomped down on it as the leatherwing stallion landed on the rooftop. The darklings had been devoured by the tendrils and vanished into the shadows from whence they came. The robot emitted yet another loud screech as the tendrils tossed it up into the air, only to bite down on its body at the opposite ends. With one final screech, the robot was torn in half by the tendrils and swallowed down their throats. The stallion took a deep breath as he managed to reign his anger back in, his chest rose and fell as he calmed himself. The two tendrils chomped at one another briefly before they looked back at him and vanished.

Dark Heart took a moment to let himself relax before he glided down to the street, his wings were outstretched as he allowed the air to flow beneath his wings. After a short couple of seconds, the stallion landed next to his daughter and Divine Kiss. he exhaled before he looked to them both before he motioned to the street ahead.

“Okay, let’s go. We should make sure that the way is clear so that we can head back and get a doctor to look at Divine Kiss’s knees.” Dark Heart said with a grunt as he folded his wings against his back.

Metric Zoom and Divine Kiss both gave a nod in response, they turned their attention back to the path ahead as the three of them continued down the street. Their expressions toughened as they knew that they had a job to do. As they continued along their way, they didn’t find any other robots in the area.

On the other side of the settlement, Searing Staff, Shield Stabber and Night Eye had been making their way down the street quietly. They had been ready with their weapons drawn. Night Eye had a silver dagger as she stuck to the shadows, Shield Stabber had her longsword drawn and Searing Staff had his red oak staff at the ready alongside his spells. As the three of them moved silently across the ash covered ground, they heard the sounds of monotone voices from up ahead, Night Eye motioned to her grandparents to stop where they were as she snuck up a little further and stuck to the shadows. She peeked her head around the corner as she flattened her body up against the wall, her eyes scanned the area ahead when she took note of the three robots that were huddled around a large group of ponies of various sorts.

Night Eye motioned to her grandparents with a soft and quick flick of her tail for them to approach her position, her dagger rested in her mouth by the hilt as Searing Staff and Shield Stabber approached. They too peeked from the corner of their hiding spot, their eyes narrowed as the robots had moved the ponies closer into a group. Their weapons had been set on the innocent settlers and their sensors moved from one to the other, the robots had their victims where they wanted them and they weren’t going to let them get away.

“In the name of Lord Cog, we shall eradicate this settlement and claim domain for his mighty malevolence.” Said one of the robots as it took aim at one of the ponies. “No survivors, no prisoners, death to all.”

Three gunshots filled the air as three of the ponies fell to the ground, their bodies lifeless and limp as the remaining ponies screamed and shouted in fear and terror. At this point, Night Eye took a step out into the street alongside Searing Staff and Shield Stabber. Night Eye snuck up on the center robot, she had made her way up to the robot and was about to go in for the kill when she dropped her dagger to the ground. It hit with a soft thud, sending a little ash up from the ground.

“Shit…!” Night Eye said as she clenched her teeth, her eyes went wide as she gulped. The robot that she had been sneaking up on turned around and took notice of her. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” She yelled out as she quickly grabbed the hilt of her dagger with her mouth, her reflexes kicked in as she took a swing at the metallic monstrosity.

Night Eye’s dagger slashed against the robots metal exterior, leaving a scratch on it as she gulped. Shield Stabber snarled as she charged the robot with her longsword raised in the air, her hooves hit the ground heavily. Shield Stabber lunged her longsword at the robot, there was the sound of splintering fibers and plastic as her longsword went deep into the robots neck. The robot fell to the ground as sparks flew from his neck, Shield Stabber pulled her longsword from the robot and looked to Night Eye and Searing Staff. The two remaining robots turned their attention to the three ponies and raised their weapons to them,Searing Staff had taken the moment to begin to cast a spell despite how much time it would take. The stallions eyes closed as he chanted at a quick pace.

“We need to give your grandfather time to finish his spell!” Shield Stabber said as she took a swing at one of the other robots, missing by a bit as she had attempted to slice the gun off of the robots wrist. “We just have to keep them busy for a while, Night Eye… Do you think that you can do that for us?”

“Hah! No problem!” Night Eye said as she looked to Shield Stabber, her dagger slammed into the side of the opposite robots left leg, causing it to fall down onto its left knee. “Besides, this is fun! I never thought that I’d get to fight robots like my father!” She said in an excited tone and took a swing at the robots head, there was a loud clang as Night Eye felt her dagger begin to vibrate, and then her entire body vibrated due to the impact resonating from the robots body.

“Exterminate, exterminate, exterminate!” repeated the robot as it aimed its wrist mounted gun at Night Eye and fired. The bullet grazed her right ear as she clenched her teeth tighter around the hilt of her dagger to keep herself from screaming in pain. The robot spoke once more in its monochrome voice. “Annihilation is imminent, Lord Cog’s wishes and requests shall be fulfilled.. Nobody and no ponies will be able to stop him.”

“Oh, shut up you rusty old tin can!” Night Eye muttered around the hilt of her dagger as she slashed at the robots throat. A small cut had formed on the front of its exposed plastic, and small sparks began to fly from it. She looked to the ponies that were being grouped together as she tossed her dagger into the air above her and yelled to them. “What are you waiting for?! Run! Get out of here!”

The other ponies gave a nod as they quickly got up and fled. Night Eye saw her dagger falling back down, and with expert timing, she caught the hilt sideways inside of her mouth. She looked to Searing Staff, who was appearing to be finishing up his spell. She grabbed the robot with her fore hooves and tossed him down on top of the robot that her grandmother had killed. She looked to Shield Stabber and grunted as she slammed her dagger through the back of the robot, her jaws let go of the hilt as she grunted loudly.

“Grandma! Throw that robot here and lets get out of the way! Grandpa is about ready to cast his spell!” Night Eye yelled to her as she quickly galloped over to her grandmother. She brought herself into the air as she leapt from the side of the robot, and bucked hard with her hind legs. Her strength was just what Shield Stabber needed as she managed to knock the robot over and caused it to stumble onto the ground next to its companions. Shield Stabber grabbed Night Eye by her mane with her teeth, dropping her longsword to the ground as she darted with her granddaughter to the side and out of reach of Searing Staffs line of fire.

As soon as the two ponies were out of the way, Searing Staff finished chanting and cast his spell. A fireball came flying out of his staff and raced towards the pile of robots. The two robots that were thrown to the ground attempted to move out of the fireballs path, but were not able to in time. There was an explosion that resonated in the ground as the robots were toasted, burnt to a crisp. Electronic chips and thin pieces of metal rained down from the air as the robots had exploded, Searing Staff looked at Shield Stabber and Night Eye before exhaling.

“Well, we’re finished here… Let’s hurry up and check the rest of the area, make sure that it’s secure.” Searing Staff said as he motioned to the two to hurry up. He had began to trot on ahead as Shield Stabber and Night Eye began to trot alongside him.

The next two hours went by quickly as Seeking Blade and the others assisted in putting out the fires in the settlement and assisted the ponies that were injured. There were many ponies that did not make it out, more casualties than the stallion had ever seen before. He thought back to his crew on that fateful mission where they were chasing a chaos being into the depths of space, He had remembered how he was the only survivor due to his mother had rescued him when she was a spirit. Seeking Blade quickly shook his head as he brought himself back to the current problem at hand. He looked to his wife and the others as they stood in front of the settlements entrance.

“Every pony, I’m going to be heading to find Cog’s bunker… I would like Dark Heart, Metric Zoom and Fluttershy to go with me, so that we can attempt to put an end to this entire thing.” Seeking Blade said, his voice was calm and full of determination as he rubbed his eyepatch. “The rest of you, I want to stay here and assist the civilians out as best you can. Divine Kiss is already in a home resting up, she got injured pretty badly… Now, does any pony know what way it was that the robots had come from?” He asked and looked around.

One of the ponies from the settlement, a pegasus colt who looked to be around fourteen years in age gave a nod as he flew up and pointed to the north east. “Yeah, they came from that way! About two to five miles away!” He yelled down to them.

Seeking Blade gave a nod as he motioned to Fluttershy, Dark Heart and Metric Zoom to follow them. The four of them galloped off quickly to the north east… It was an hour before they arrived at a large building, the front door looked to be sealed shut as the four of them approached it. They were all nervous, but ready for anything as they stepped up. Seeking Blade looked around for a way to open the gear shaped door, when its gear shaped door opened with a loud squeal. The gear shape slowly pulled back and moved to the side, revealing a set of stairs that descended down into some warm fluorescent lights. The four ponies carefully stepped inside and down the stairs, the door let out another loud squeal once more as it shut behind them. It didn’t take them long to reach the bottom where a smaller set of stairs that led up to an open door could be seen. The four of them looked between one another as they cautiously approached it and trotted inside.

Seeking Blade, Dark Heart, Metric Zoom and Fluttershy entered the adjoining room and looked around, it was empty and devoid of any clutter. The walls were pure white with a tinge of steel to them. As they moved into the room a bit further, the door shut behind them with a click. In the far corner of the room mounted against the ceiling was a speaker. A terrible and cruel voice began to speak from it, one that Metric Zoom recognized.

“Well, well, well… It appears that I, Cognitive Cog, have intruders in my home… Well then, I suppose that I must congratulate you on finding my bunker, though I’ll gladly congratulate you if you manage to survive what I have in store. Welcome, to the deadliest game…”