A Roegadyn in Equestria

A Roegadyn in Equestria.

Chapter 86: Under The Sands. Part 2.

*Point of view: Third Person*
*Location: Underground, the obelisk within the area known as the Bone Dry Desert*

The scene continues from when Engineer readied his transformed baseball bat and went into a charge towards the horde of oversized monsters with the weapon already primed to swing as the huge object created sparks from being dragged along the floor until he was in range to strike. One Giant Beetle turned out to be the first to be in his path and is immediately struck with a sideways swing right as the creature tried to take a bite out of him with its mandibles. A mixture of clicking, crunching of shattered pieces of exoskeleton and a disturbing screech was emanated as the creature was sent flying and broken into large chunks.

As the bug was sent straight to his left-hand side and over the edge of the platform. The transform stallion made a tongue clicking sound of annoyance as he mumbled the following to himself and struck another that was coming up from behind for a sneak attack and sent it on a similar path without so much as looking over his shoulder and just swinging the bat. “Shoot... that's a foul ball. Hey you! Just wait your turn!” This triggered the rest of the monsters to start swarming him from every angle aside from the walkway. At a first glance, anyone would assume that he was pretty much done for when the horde of bodies was flowing with no end in sight.

Although, this was quickly overturned when a multitude of the creatures were sent flying to reveal Engineer going into a self-imposed spin out to swing the bat in a repeating three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn. This was followed up with long sweeps to take out the creatures that were more of his size and alternating to high jumps to crush the two different species of Giant’s heads in with but a single hit on the top of the skull. There was one instance where he had just landed and one of the skeletal resembling Giants was ready to come down with one of their clubs that was clenched in both hands after swinging high above their own head.

Engineer’s skull slightly twisted into a disturbing grin as he leaped off of the ground just enough to allow enough clearance for his bat to do an upward swing and strike the giant right between the legs. This caused it to release the club and let out a bone chilling girlish scream as it was sent flying into the ocean of energy after bouncing a couple of times from the platform. He then landed and turned around to catch four of the one-eyed Giants in various poses after releasing their own weapons and expressing clear dismay at what had happened to one of their comrades.

This was shown by one holding on to their crotch and crisscrossing their knees, while the next three were doing the whole act of either covering their eyes, ears or mouth. Engineer even made a sly comment as he took a few practice swings to approach the group. “Eh, I should start calling this the nutcracker.” This was immediately followed with him giving out his own roar and charging into the fray once again to either send more to their doom by falling or being crushed by the impossibly heavy object that he was swinging with little effort. There were times he had to dodge a couple of lucky swings and bites that would just barely graze his leather jacket.

In one instance. Engineer brought up the bat and blocked clubs that were coming at him and stunning the Giants as his feet slid along the metal ground by a couple of feet before digging in and warping the metal with deep grooves. This only went further after pushing away to give him some room to move and sending the pair into the next wave that were coming up right behind those and to give off a sound that gave a similar impression to what one would get when getting a strike in a game of bowling.

As the sounds of roaring, thuds and squelching of bodies rang out from the battle. Daring Do and the hooded stallion were keeping their distance as the Pegasus took pot shots at a few of the stragglers. Luckily for her, Engineer went through the trouble of fashioning a sizable quantity of bullets for her personal use before even starting on the trip. But even she knew that her ammo was going to eventually run out sooner rather than later with how she was going through them with how so many were charging and not giving any indication of letting up in the immediate future. The stallion then commented as he was keeping a close eye on the activities as his voice was filled with both bewilderment and excitement.

“Milady, when has the art of transformation been perfected for the Earth Pony race to utilize? It is common knowledge for Unicorns to have magic and Pegasi to have the ability of flight. There was the speculation with Earth Ponies having internal magic that would affect their bodies to give increased physical strength and endurance. But in all my years I never dreamed of such a drastic alteration to one's appearance. When the question presents itself over his weapons transformation however, an explanation is exceedingly difficult to put together. Might I ask-.”

The hooded stallion’s question was immediately put on hold when Daring Do grabbed onto his shoulder and forced him to step a few inches to one direction so that she could shoot a zombie that was attempting to sneak up on him. She then gave out a heavy huff to blow a strand of hair out of her face before calling out to the stallion to let off a few more rounds. “Should we really be focusing on that more than what's going on over there?” She was apparently gesturing with her free hand between shots at the creature manipulating the strange rip in reality that was only contributing towards replenishing the monsters ranks.

And started up a conversation as even more were being shot down and the stallion was continuously moving out of the way as to not obstruct her vision thanks to some awkward movements on his part. He then replied with an embarrassed tone after giving a quick cough. “Oh uh yes quite right. There will be no end to this fight if we do not do away with that troublesome portal. I speculate that the creature is mostly drawing on the power provided from this facility. It would be very difficult to maintain a spatial anomaly that would allow so much mass to pass through on its own. Its own magic must be acting as an anchor point. If we can somehow manage to disrupt the flow enough then it should collapse under the strain.”

“And how exactly are we meant to do that? It's not as if we can just go up to a switch and flip it and it will somehow fix this entire problem.”

He nervously chuckled as he responded and pointed in the direction of the portal. “Actually, uh… there is.”

“Huh?”

“There's a section of the flooring that has a removable panel right behind the portal. If I can get to it, then I could figuratively flip a switch and sour the milk so to speak. The only problem is the army that currently stands between both us and our destination.”

She then glanced over to Engineer who was in the middle of fighting one of the sand creatures. It was currently in the motion of reforming itself after being smashed a couple of times. It was at that very instant that Engineer began to breathe a heavy stream of fire from his mouth and heated the sand enough to turn it to glass and shatter it for a final time before she replied to the hooded stallion. “If you were to ask me to do this a couple of months ago then I would have said you were crazy.” She then called out to Engineer and pointed towards the large Pharaoh creature with the swords that were sending the black lightning towards the portal. “We need to get over there!”

Having caught on. Engineer gave one more kick to the crystallized monster and sent his bat away. What came next surprise not only the hooded stallion, but Daring Do as well when a strange contraption appeared out of nowhere. This turned out to be a heavily modified vertibird Gatling gun. The front was a fixed with a set of sharp blades that could act as a brutal drill when the barrels started to spin. This weapon then took on a more demonic structure as the top and bottom became covered with the upper and lower jaw of a dragon skull.

Everything was made of either black metal or silver. When Engineer pulled the trigger and caused it to begin its revving up process. A loud screeching sound was made as the gears roughly started to grind and produced a nearly endless stream of sparks to fall onto the ground. Without any form of belts to be feeding the bullets, along with the cartridges dissolving into smoke after being ejected. The weapon sprayed down so many shots as he waved it back and forth from the left to right, that many of the creatures that found themselves in its path were mowed down no differently than a field of wheat after glowing hot projectiles ripped right through their bodies.

Some were already dead as their lifeless carcasses were becoming shredded to pieces with additional shots. Those with weapons attempted to raise them up for some manor of defense but found it to be a fruitless effort as the projectiles ripped clean through their clubs. The exoskeleton and old pieces of battle armor shattered without any problems. Even the flying monsters were no match as they were taken out of the air without them even being given a chance to launch their own counter-attack. All the while, he was changing up his voice to sound eerily similar to the heavy gunner from Team Fortress. “Hahaha! Whaw whaw! Cry some more!”

(Play this for the clip of the heavy gunner from Team Fortress.)

The hooded stallion opened his mouth as if to ask Daring Do a question. But the mare saw this in time and rolled her eyes before saying, “Just don't... don't ask. It’s just how he is.” Then they followed closely behind Engineer as the entire circular platform was being cleared as they proceeded towards the portal. In the meantime, the one that was seemingly in charge was funneling even more lightning to cause the opening to become even bigger and allow a greater number of monsters to come pouring out and scramble to attack the group as a clear response to their numbers being dwindled.

A mixture of roars, clattering, squawks, thumping of steps and flapping of wings filled the air. Now there were rectangularly shaped stone heads that would grind along the ground and shoot beams of magic from their eyes being thrown into the horde of monsters. But even these got eventually whittled away as bullet after bullet chipped at the stone heads until they crumbled to dust after a matter of seconds of continuous fire. Soon they were within a hundred meters when Engineer was no longer able to fire his weapon and only went into a loud spin thanks to eventually getting to the point of running out of ammo. By which, the tips of the barrels were glowing from being so hot that they were past glowing red and going straight to white.

After letting out a grunt of annoyance after shaking the weapon a couple of times to make sure that there was nothing left. The large weapon was put away and he brought out his machete and rifle that took on their demonic forms instantly. While getting ready into a crouched pose to leap into the rest of the monsters that had not been persuaded to give up. Engineer called out to the others without tearing his attention away from those in before him. “Get a move on, I got the grunts.” And with that he charged ahead with his sword swinging and gun taking some strategic shots at some of the enemy’s heads while making a loud roar cry that shook the very air to gain their attention.

Daring Do was about to turn to tell the hooded stallion to get a move on. But she was surprised when he already was running in front of her and towards the back side of the portal without any hesitation. She then took to the air to catch up quickly and noticed the awkward running stance the stallion was taking. Apparently, with his right hand holding on to his hood to prevent the air from causing it to lift. His left was busy going through his coat in search of an object and clearly did not notice a beetle that was charging right for him on the right side.

She took it out and was about to reprimand the stallion when she caught the site of yet more monsters attempting to get him as he fumbly zigzag from one to the next. Then she started to think to herself about how unawares this one was with his surroundings and she needed to constantly keep an eye on him or he would have died already. When they finally got to the panel. The stallion was undoing some locks to lift it up with the help of the same device that was previously used to get the elevator running. The mare was heavily panting as she was giving him a dirty stare that could have burned holes straight to the back of his hood after how much work she had to do in protecting him.

She then took a quick glance and saw how Engineer was having the time of his life by slicing through some monsters while shooting others in where she assumed to be their brains or hearts after getting close enough to stab the bladed end of his gun through their flesh. Even went so far as to alternate and replace his pair of weapons with what first were large red boxing gloves. These took on the demonic shape of animal skulls with sharp teeth as he continued to demolish his opponents with a continuous barrage of furious fist-based attacks and swipes.

Faces were bashed in and teeth sent flying. Others were hit so hard that the demonic gloves literally went straight into their chests and stomachs so that the teeth could rip out the organs as he pushed off and went right into doing some backflips. A few of which were simply sent flying into the pillar to be electrocuted so much that they were turned into charcoal within seconds. When Daring Do saw that last part. She instinctively took a few steps away from the pillar as the hooded stallion gave a not so impressed “meh.” He then said, “Oh, ah... it completely slipped my mind. it's best not to touch that. And you may not want to fly close to it either. That is unless you want to know what it's like to get hit with pure magic and have every cell in your body to be fried down to a subatomic level.

Daring Do literally did not understand what he meant aside from getting fried. But after hearing that and seeing the result from the few monsters that were thrown into it. The Pegasus was only slightly more disturbed by how nonchalantly he said it. At last, the final lock out of a total of five were undone and the pair work together to lift it out of the way to expose a bunch of strange crystals being connected by a series of glowing lines etched into the metal.

These lines pulsed with white, red, green and blue lights in combination with the crystals that corresponded to those distinct colors. There was one spot with a circular design that had a handle that spanned nearly three and a half feet long. It also had some words of ancient equestrian written that said, “In case of emergency, turn this lever.”

The Pegasus who was now kneeling next to the stallion slowly turned her head towards him with a dead pan expression as she pointed to it and said, “Really?! We're just supposed to turn this and it's going to fix everything just like that?” This got a confused head tilt from the stallion as he innocently responded. “Hmm… Yes, yes it is, why do you ask?” She then pointed with both arms stretched out towards the lever and loudly explained with clear disbelief in her voice. “It cannot be as simple as that!” Without warning, the stallion used one of his hands and placed it on top of her head to make her turn and tilt downwards to look at some additional words printed just below in a smaller font.

She then angrily started to read them out and progressively turned into a whisper near the end. “In case of the following emergencies this is to be used under. To cut off a potential overload to the power flow… Or to prevent an artificial portal to be opened through siphoning the core. Okay... that is oddly specific to our situation. Who even plans for this to happen? And how did you even know this was here?” The stallion started to scratch the back of his hood while looking away in a shy manner before he responded. “I… Hehehe… may have studied here for a couple of years and poked around a little out of curiosity.”

With that out of the way. The pair reached down and gripped onto the lever and pulled as hard as they could until it made a quarter turn. There was a loud number of clicks until it ended with a booming thud as some mechanisms locked in place. What came next was a shift in the colors in their surroundings as all of the pulsing lights turned into a bright cherry red. An ominous hum quickly started to build and the energy being siphoned to make the portal turn more erratic until the strands broke free to cease the siphoning of energy.

With it no longer being fed by additional magic. The portal itself fluctuated as its size shrunk and expanded so fast that it clearly caught the giant monster off guard and nearly made it stumble. At the same time, the imbalance caused its own power to be redirected and this eventually sent it backwards to fall onto the ground while letting out a muffled yet dry roar from behind its mask. As this was happening, the hooded stallion grabbed onto the edge of the panel they had removed earlier and lifted it so that the piece of metal could act as a shield. Daring Do saw this and assisted to brace it up right as the portal shrunk to the size of a quarter and released a powerful concussive force in the form of a black colored wave when it went critical.

They were unaffected as the metal fully resisted the energy. But the other monsters that were nearby turned out to be nowhere near as lucky as they were literally sent flying as the wave passed them all. Engineer was even affected as he used the teeth like protrusions from his gauntlets to stab into the ground in order to hook himself in place. Even the flames on his head were nearly snuffed out to that of a few burning embers for a couple of seconds before reigniting to its blazing glory.

This was when one of the sand creatures who flattened itself just in time, took its golden opportunity to attack him before Engineer was able to get back to his legs and snuck over by dissolving its body into its small components so that it could rearrange and grab on to him after rebuilding itself back up just as it surrounded engineer. The sand ran up along his legs and built up so quickly that it already had a firm grip all over in a matter of seconds.

He was about to break free when another one joined in and combined their strength to hold the stallion so that he was immobilized and unable to fight back. Engineer attempted to use the flames from his mouth to crystallize the sand. But the creatures learn from their comrades’ mistakes and bent his back so that he was forced to face upwards just enough so that is fire breath could not do anything to them. Engineer was then forced to do nothing but to thrash about as to loosen the sands grip. A pull on either direction did nothing while his body was getting slowly crushed by the mounting pressure as the two sand monster’s heads were looming behind him.

A few shots of a pistol were heard right as multiple ricochets were made as bullets bounced off of the metal mask only a few seconds later. These came from Daring Do as she was already in the middle of reloading her pistol to take aim once again. Unfortunately, a pair of zombies snuck up on her and tackled the mare to the ground and cause the weapon to fall from her grip so that it would slide towards the hooded stallion. The weapon was just about to be picked up when he too was attacked by one of the flying creatures that swiftly came in from above and grabbed onto his shoulders to take flight after giving out a startle yell

Daring Do was attempting everything she could to fend off her attackers. The one in armor was mostly holding her down as the one wrapped up in bandages was making many attempts to lean in so that it could try to take a bite out of her face as it was on top of the first zombie and having a hard time in doing so. The hooded stallion was screaming from being roughly tossed into the air and grabbed by his legs by another flyer before being tackled from its grip by a third and sent to crash into the ground and forced to tumble near the edge of the platform so that is right arm was dangling over the side.

Engineer increased his urgency to be free. But the sand was only shifting to cover him more tightly and only left his neck and head exposed. Already, the feeling of Bones within his body being pushed enough to bend and give off the sensation of shattering was evident in his mind. A frustrated demonic roar was released as he made the flames on his head grow stronger. This caused some of the sand around his neck to crystallize as it was superheated. Yet this was nowhere near enough to cause the monsters to let go. Even the apparent leader that was still being affected by the backlash of power was beginning to stir as visible lightning sparks were being given off of its body.

It was not until he got a good look of Daring Do as she used one of her arms to guard her face and everything felt as though it had turned into slow motion. The wrapped-up zombie bit down and sunk its teeth past her clothing and caused a small spray of blood to exit the wound near her elbow. Even his sense of hearing was being drowned out by nothing but the sound of his own fire as her mouth was open to produce what he thought to be a silent scream.

The eye sockets for his burning skull contorted to display his horror for a couple of seconds while the flames dimmed. All the strength he had was quickly being sapped and any care as to being crushed flew out of his mind. Daring Do was still grappling with the zombies as her arm was not released. A couple of the flying types swoop down and landed and started to approach the unconscious hooded stallion on all fours. Flashbacks filled Engineer's mind of instances where he would be suddenly ambushed by ghouls. A few of which had him and his companions fighting them and keeping them at bay.

A few would have a scene where they would be in a similar position to that of Daring Do where they would be pinned down and the middle of being mauled to death. He started to think of a couple of his companions that he would travel with. Soon, the face of the Synth who went by the name of Curie popped up. The recollection of her first experience of being attacked after taking on a humanoid form filled him with dread as she had never felt such a strong emotion such as fear for her life until after leaving a robotic body that felt no pain.

Even though Curie had no idea of what was happening to her body as it reacted to the situation. Engineer was able to see pure and real fear on the girl's face as she called out for help when they were suddenly ambushed by a pack of rabid and severely mutated hounds that belong to super mutants. A sense of despair filled him up to the point that he was about to explode. But then he heard her voice as the mare called out while fighting through the pain. “Engineer!”

(Play this music for the battle.)

The overwhelming sense of helplessness was swiftly exchanged with unbridled rage that felt strangely similar to when he was on that one airship. As he threw his head back and screamed at the top of his lungs. The flames that were being emitted from his neck grew in such intensity that they were easily able to reach several feet up into the air. After what felt to be an eternity of roaring, the sand along his body quickly transformed from the amount of heat he was emitting and shattered to reveal himself to be in a slightly buffed up state when compared to his typical frame.

Although he only continued to let out another roar as he was still on his knees. One of the Giants moved in position to swing his oversized club and tried to smash his skull in. But when it came into contact, the weapon broke and sent a wave of fire to run up and consume the Giant. It took less than a few seconds for there to be nothing but a pile of ashes and a few scraps of remanence for the club when this was done. The chains that were wrapped across his chest spring to life and whipped out quickly as to slash any monsters that were within range cleanly in half without slowing in the slightest.

The two zombies and flying monsters were taken out almost instantly thanks to the chains automatically adjusting their course in midflight. This only left cleanly severed bodies with burning marks to fall lifelessly. Most of which were taken out and only left a handful of survivors that were just barely out of reach, or those that avoided a deadly hit and only took either some light or receiving very severe damage. These range from lacerations and a loss of one or two limbs. The boss himself raised both of the large swords and stabbed them into the platform to act as shields when the chains showed that they were going for him. Even if he suffered no damage as a result from this act. The weapons themselves showed slash marks that nearly cut straight through.

Daring Do rolled onto her stomach after tossing the remnants of the zombies off and gripped on to her bleeding arm to stop the loss of blood as she searched and consumed a healing potion before turning towards Engineer. She then said with an astonished voice, “Oh BUCK!” He slowly raised himself up and exposed that he now had an array of neon green flames along with a flowing tail that was giving off sparks of fire near the tips. His Pony skull was even slightly altered so that it was halfway between that of a stallion and a human's. The canines were more pronounced as they became almost twice as long and sharp enough to draw anyone's attention to them in an instant.

There was an eerily calm and loud breathing coming from Engineer as he squared off against the boss in an aggressive stance. The chains themselves were halfway wrapped around him along the waist and crisscrossing to act as a harness. All the while hovering along either side to take on the appearance of snakes ready to pounce. This was only made more apparent as the green flames danced along the chain and formed actual heads of snakes that gave off a loud burning hiss. In response the boss pulled its weapons out and gave a wide swing through the air and this prompted the remaining monsters to charge in.

If one was to blink then they would have missed the following to occur. Those that came from the left and right were either slashed apart or rapidly impaled a number of times by the chain before returning to their previous position. The ones that came from directly behind were hit by his extending tail. Once his tail passed through their bodies, all that came out of it was blackened skeletons that crumpled as burning green embers remained in a few spots. At the same time, Engineers skull showed no twitching as his gaze remain transfixed on the boss that took an unsteady half step back with its right leg after seeing what had transpired.

After a moment of silence. It seemed to have mustard up its courage and started to attack Engineer from a distance by firing some dark rays of energy after crossing its swords. The knuckles from before, along with his arms were wrapped up with the two ends of the chain and he brought them up side by side to guard himself. Engineer was left unharmed as a result from blocking. But the same thing could not be said for the platform behind him as it was left with a deep gouge that ran clean through. The floor beneath him started to give way and the chains unravel themselves to reach out and pierced another area so that Engineer was pulled to a safer location.

The whole thing would have been an exact copy of one of Spider-Man's enemies called Doctor Octavius if he had four chains acting in tandem to emulate the robotic arms. Thanks to how he was being held up in the air. Engineer would have been seen as flying if it were not for the burning green chains that could be seen from quite a distance. The monster took a wide slash and sent a crescent shape energy attack to only be caught as his green flamed covered hands gripped on to it and only sent him back a few meters before his strong grip caused it to crack and disperse the power into the air.

That was when he used the position he was in to pull forward and launched himself to go in for an attack of his own. It tried to do another swing with its right sword in a downward strike, but instead, it was parried by a powerful uppercut after Engineer’s hand was covered with a chain once again. The second sword was grabbed onto with the other and Engineer was sent into a fast arc swing after the monster realize what he was trying to do and tossed the transformed stallion towards the pillar.

It was thanks to the way he was flipping in the air and close to the platform that he was able to grab on to the edge and swing underneath with his left hand before coming into contact with the highly charged mass of energy. He then anchored the ends of his chain into the glowing crystals underneath and continued to swing a couple of times before coming up on the other end and resulting with him launching himself high into the air. Without his opponent even realizing where he was. He sent away his gloves and took out a sniper weapon and took careful aim while still being sent right over the monster.

The weapon began to morph in show segmented plates along the thin barrel that was mostly something that would be associated with a person's spinal cord that had been straightened out. The end of the scopes lens itself was replaced with a bloodshot red slitted eye, and the shoulder rest resembled a demonic clawed hand that strangely flexed to fit his shoulder perfectly. This is when the special ability of the Pip-Boy kicked in and he slowed down time to use all of his available action points to fire the following shots with a ninety-five percent accuracy rating.

This resulted in five perfect headshots to hit in one targeted spot and puncture through the golden mask and create a big hole Just between the eyes. It took three to make the indentation and shatter the protective gear and allowed the last two to go straight into its skull. This got a deep voice to scream out in agony as red flakes of powder began to shoot from the wound instead of blood. Both swords were swung at random and struck the ground a couple of times to do some structural damage while stumbling back and towards the pillar on the monster’s heart after getting hit with such an effective attack.

It took less than a second for Engineer to see that it was about to fall onto Daring Do, who was barely able to get back up and he started to shoot another two shots towards its right knee. Thankfully enough, this was able to cause it to slouch towards the direction that it no longer had any support and lean away from the mare before going over the edge. The wailing it made progressed for a couple of seconds as it went out of sight and Engineer continued his falling until he landed just a couple of meters away from the mare and drop down onto one knee before his color scheme reverted to normal red and orange flames.

(Stop the music here.)

This was followed with heavy breathing as the transformation reverted even further until he was back to his normal self. Engineer felt that he was completely tapped out and nearly fell over by the time Daring Do came to help with holding him up after putting his right arm over her shoulder. He gripped onto his head with his free hand and began to let out a drawn-out moan of pain as the rustling of noise could be heard from the hooded stallion that chose that moment to regain consciousness and walk over.

The stallion then said while holding on to the side of his head and being slightly wobbly in the knees. “This pain reminds me of when Foust was in one of her moods... Highly respected and level-headed. Yeah, I dare say that she can be rather impulsive when the need strikes her for some.. how you say, private time with her mate. It is because of her that I have a fear of standing too close to walls.” Engineer looked up at him with a very amused look before asking, “Ha, and just what was it she did to get you to feel that way towards a wall?”

The hooded stallion began to awkwardly laugh as he turned slightly to the side before replying. “I was walking by the throne room and got caught in the rubble that fell on top of me when she decided to have one of her... moments.” This only made him feel more confused as he glanced to Daring Do for any answers. She appeared to be racking her brain as she tried to shrug before saying, “I think there's a rumor that the mother of our princesses would have some weird urges to run through the castle. However, it's just folklore.”

This got a boisterous laughter from the hooded stallion as he tried to hold on to his ribs that apparently was causing him some mild discomfort after letting out a few winces as he spoke up again. “Oh my dear! Those are completely founded. I indeed for one bore witness to when she would have these strong Alicorn mating urges. You would not believe how much the stonemasons back then made. In a few years’ time they could even afford their own small castle with all the sudden orders for repairs.” It was Daring Do who spoke up next as she looked around confusingly. As engineer was fully invested in what the Stallion was saying with a growing curiosity for details.

“As fun as it would be to hear more on what the old queen did… I could have sworn there were more monsters around.” This not only caused Engineer, but the hooded stallion to glance and realize that they were left all by themselves when there should have been nearly a dozen or so various creatures that avoided his rampage. He was just about to say something on the matter when the cavern started to release a loud and strange bullhorn siren. The lights on the ground that were originally blue and turned to red thanks to the efforts of his companions were now shifting to that of a bright yellow. This then prompted Engineer to speak up as he looked around confusedly.

“What in sam hill is goin' on now? What I wouldn't give for an auto save and a chance to go get something to eat before working on the next level.”

“Oh-no-no-no-no-no-no! Not good, not good at all! This cannot possibly be happening! This was what I was intending us to avoid.”

“Stallions... just get a hold of yourself already! So the lighting changed and there’s a loud sound. It can’t possibly be that bad.”

“You don't understand. Right now were set in quarantine. That is why no pony is able to get in or out of here. All of this means that it's gone to the next stage!”

Engineer asked after giving a slow look over to Daring Do for a second before giving his attention back to the hooded stallion. “And just what is the next stage again?”

“That would be decontamination...”

“So what? We're going to take a bath? Honestly my mane could really use it after getting all this sand stuck in it.”

“My dear, you really don't understand the severity of our situation. Once the decontamination process is triggered, there is no way of stopping it. The internal sensors must have picked up on something very dangerous and this entire complex is going to be hit with a deadly amount of magic.

“Uh, what exactly do you mean deadly... are you talking about…” That was when Engineer pointed over the side and towards the glowing white sea of physically made Magic underneath their very hoofs.

This got a hesitant nod from the hooded stallion as he replied. “All of that is going to get funneled up and wash over every inch until there are no living organisms left alive. Anything living or dead when it comes to biological organisms will be completely expunged to where there will be absolutely nothing that remains to show that they had even existed.”

Engineer had this unamused look as he stared off at nothing before saying, “We killed the bad guy. What else is there?” This turned out to be the cue for a low rumbling to shake the platform as a loud moan was picked up by their ears. Soon one of the swords of the boss could be seen coming up and swung down to stab into the platform. This was followed by the second. However, they were far apart and Engineer began to wonder if there was more than one creature. But much to their horror, that was not the case as the culprit was revealed in a matter of seconds.

The reason why the two swords were stabbed so far apart was because of the boss now taking on a new form. Ribbons of flowing white energy could be seen going up and connecting to its body in several places. Its form was outstretched to where it was now more than several times its original size. The golden bits of armor that protected its body were partially melted thanks to the white-hot flames that erupted from its bandages that were barely able to cover up its new growth. The chest now had a sideways mouth filled with gold and jagged swords to take on the impression of a mouth that ran from the base of its neck and all the way down to its stomach.

Pieces of cloth were unraveled and moving around wildly. Some of which were holding on to some of the missing monsters and moved onto shoving them into the grotesque mouth to be devoured one after another as they all screamed in agony from what was apparently a slow death as the teeth punctured their bodies over and over again before being absorbed. This was only proceeded by it beginning to convulse as large mounds of flesh grew within a matter of seconds on its shoulders. This ripped away more of the bandages when another pair of spider long arms were created to be equal to that of its original set.

The mask it had on was broken to show its left side. This revealed a fully decomposed face with a sunken eyeball deprived face and a sickly red light was staring straight at the trio. Golden teeth were evident as they were chomping away so quickly that it started to emit a loud non-stop chattering. It was only made more gruesome as small tendrils of wrappings were coming out of the ears, mouth and eye sockets and making a gesture to grab anything that came close. As the body continued to get bigger from the influx of magic. Engineer spotted that the darkened skin that was just past the flames was taking on the faces of those that it apparently just ate.

Said faces were all dark and covered with pulsing veins while letting out screams of agony that went on in a loop. By now it had turned from a pharaoh type silhouette to that of something similar to that of a spider. Soon the new arms reached for patches of burning flames and gripped on to the energy that was being expelled by its body and pulled on it as though it was a tangible item. These soon turned into a set of glowing white sickles and gave a few swings that kicked up a large amount of wind.

From there it then used these to swing down at them and narrowly escaping by the skin of their own teeth after leaping off to the side. The platform itself took some severe damage from the sickles digging in to the metal and even more as the monster pulled sharply to free its tools after realizing that it had missed. The entire platform began to shake and ever so slightly tilt towards the monster that was just to the right of the catwalk. Without showing any signs of caring whether or not it was causing too much collateral damage. It did the same yet again a few more times with similar results.

They all just managed to escape each one of the strikes as it was easily telegraphed. Everything started to tilt even more to wear the catwalk was slowly beginning to rip away and give off some warping metal noises. The hooded stallion pointed towards the elevator and screamed out that they should make a run for it. But as they were getting close, Daring Do released a yell. “Look out!” Her concerns were validated when the monster decided to do a long sweep with one of its swords. And it would have hit them too if it was not for another sudden growth on its right side just below the rib cage, which caused the arm on that side with the sword to swerve off course at the last second.

Engineer then said the following as they continue to run as fast as they could in their current worn-out state. “Just how much is that guy going to grow?” While seemingly out of breath, the hooded stallion replied as they finally made it on to the catwalk before it became completely detached so that it was being suspended in the air. “It's feeding constantly. Huff! Even though it is adapting, the amount it's taking in is far too much to metabolize. I am honestly dumbfounded as to how it is able to keep itself from literally imploding from the vast amount now being stored within. By all rationality, any normal life form would have succumbed within a matter of moments.”

Daring Do had to grab onto Engineer as he was beginning to lag behind as she screamed towards the hooded stallion in clear frustration. “Enough with the talking and more with the running!” They were practically halfway across the catwalk when the boss decided to try and chase them right as the platform began to tilt far enough so that the other end was grinding along the pillar. This caused large chunks to break away while making other sections explode from the pillars discharge. Soon there was a gaping hole right where a large section disappeared into the vast ocean of magic beneath and the monster was now gripping onto the catwalk with its legs and weapons while crawling at them at a surprising speed.

Engineer pushed Daring Do off from himself and stood at the back of the pack after seeing that they were not going to make it to the elevator before it caught up to them. He then pulled out the fat man launcher and checked that it was loaded with the system containing six miniature nukes and took aim after crouching down onto one knee. He then yelled, “You like to suck on magic, right?! Then how about you try sucking on this you sorry sack of shit Mummy wannabe!” That was when he pulled the trigger and fired the mini nukes that flew straight towards its face and detonated upon impact.

After the explosion gave off a cloud of smoke along with raining bits of the monster boss. Engineer found himself nearly pushed on to his tail from the concussive force of the blast and began to hear the slow clicking of the rad's meter for his Pip-Boy. After a quick glance he found it to be of low levels and was thankful that he fired it as quickly as he did. Otherwise, he would have been worried about the others being in range and end up getting radiation poisoning. The only reason he was sure of that fact was because of them standing more than a few meters further away after seeing what he was about to use.

The section of the catwalk was undeniably ripped to shreds as the monster could no longer be seen. Engineer was in the middle of getting ready to laugh about how easy it was to kill it with just one shot of a fat man when he was roughly pulled up to his legs by the hooded stallion. He was in the air in such a way that his knees were partly bent and both hooves barely pressed on to the ground before the hooded stallion began to ask a million questions so quickly that it went over his head. It took a little help from Daring Do to pry the pair apart and remind them of the countdown before that place would kill them all.

The scene then shifts to all three of them being back inside of that one building with the control device within one of the lower rooms. The hooded stallion was doing one thing after another for a couple of minutes before one of the screens showed an additional exit route that led at a horizontal slant. He then said, “Ah-ha! The main shaft that would lead to the surface is currently blocked off and the bypass route that you took is only a one-way trip down. This right here is our only option.”

Daring Do examined closely the diagram and pointed out the following as her finger was carefully tracing the straight line that was going away from the whole structure. “I see the large space here, but why does this go for what I think is almost twenty-five kilometers?” The hooded stallion then replied as he caused the picture to rotate and display the route to take on a tube shape that was about three meters wide.

“Presumably an emergency evacuation route. Now if you will excuse me, I will need but a moment before departure.” The stallion then ran over to a bookshelf and started to grab whatever he could when it came to paperwork that survived and placed it into a wooden crate that could be carried with both hands.

After a little bit, he even started to grumble to himself. “So much has been ravaged by time. If there was only a little more before the countdown than I might be able to get a charcoal impression of the glyphs again.” After hearing this. Daring Do approach the stallion and gave a serious expression as she asked what he was talking about. He then brought them to another room that was hidden behind a push style wall that Engineer and Daring Do did not notice from before on the opposite side of the room. Within was more drawings and inscriptions that seem to overlay themselves for a half hazardly manor.

With clear disbelief growing in Daring Do's eyes that soon sparkled. She stepped forward and started to run her fingers over the inscriptions and called out to Engineer. “Hey! Where's that camera I asked you to hold on to?” Engineer then brought out the old-style flash camera that she had lent before stepping off the train and handed it over to her after a couple of seconds went by with him going through his item list on his Pip-Boy. As soon as she got it, the mare went right to work with taking one photo after the next of every nook and cranny of the room. This included not only all the walls, but even the ceiling and floor by the time she was finished.

The hooded stallion was clearly confused as to what the device was meant for after getting inadvertently blinded once or twice by the bright light that caught him off guard. When Engineer mentioned that it was capable of capturing images for pictures to be made later on. The stallion was practically drooling as he was making comments under his breath about how much he wanted to take it apart to learn its inner workings. Of course, this came as no shock as such an item never existed back then.

But the way Engineer could just make out a subtle blush, along with heavy breathing and drooling was only making him feel a little worried for Daring Do's camera and wondered if this guy had a fetish for technology. When she was finished and handed the camera back to Engineer for safekeeping. The trio made their way over to the section of the complex with the escape route and Engineer found it to resemble an oversized container with multiple seats that would be a part of a pressurized air tube delivery service meant for a large building.

There were four rows that could take two people in each. The stallion took the first row, while Daring Do an Engineer sat in the second set of seats. The third was loaded up with the crate full of materials. Unlike everything else that was primarily made of either rocks, dirt or metal. This one was comprised of a metal band that would go around in sections as the rest was made of a glass material. They were even some firm, yet still soft cushions for the seating that apparently survived the years thanks to the inside being sealed in an airtight state.

The hooded stallion called over his shoulder for everyone after pulling on one of the smaller levers and caused the tube to light up. “Please sit down at all times and keep your arms and legs within the ride at all times for your safety. Also watch for tails as they could get caught in the hinges. Trust me on this. It happened to me and it is not enjoyable in the least.”

After a couple of seconds, the hatch was one large piece that swung open so that they could climb in on the left. A lever in the front seat was pulled to start the process and lower the reinforced glass cover. Engineer believed all was going to move smoothly from that point on and reclined in his chair with his arms locked behind his head for some relaxation for the next couple of seconds before takeoff. However, the Pegasus sitting next to him was grumbling about having to leave so soon.

The wailing of the sirens was so loud that it made it almost impossible to communicate without having to yell at the top of their lungs. Engineer closed his eyes for merely a single instant before getting rudely shaken by Daring Do who pointed above. It had not crossed his mind as to what she was upset about until something collided with the half-closed cover and caused it to slam down the rest of the way hard enough to cause the entire capsule to rock back and forth a couple of times. It was thanks to this that the sound of the sirens was muffled. But was replaced with a loud choking and gagging noise from the front that drew his attention.

This turned out to be the hooded stallion as he frantically grabbed at some dark and dirty bandages that had been wrapped around most of his body. They seem to have gripped on just before they were closed in. Engineer reached forward and crawled over the top of the front seat to try and tear the tightly wrapped bandages around the neck that felt as strong as steel cables free to allow the stallion to breathe again. One of which did get wrenched away, but to only grab on to Engineer’s right wrist and try to squeeze hard enough that he had to fight back as to not let it get crushed.

There was a series of loud banging sounds that came from above just before Daring Do’s voice could be heard. “That thing’s back!” Engineer got his arm close enough to his Pip Boy and produced a handheld blade that had a similar structure to that of a chainsaw and pulled the trigger to rev up the miniaturized engine to cut away at the bandages. Once he was positive that they were properly shredded to where they were no longer going to be a problem and barely an inch was shown to be fitting through the closed section, did he finally look up. Right there and pressing against the glass was the almost completely exposed face of the monster that had gone through the transformation and blown up with the mini nukes earlier.

The only difference was how it was just the head and dozens of wrappings acting as tentacles to give it an octopus feel. The mouth which had human like teeth from before were deformed and turned jagged as they bent forward and curved in different directions. Said teeth were being slammed against the glass and creating small scratches that gave a not so pleasant screech to those inside. From what he could tell. It was only a matter of when for it to bite its way and get inside at this rate.

What made it even creepier was how each one of the teeth were moving with the use of separate muscles and acting on their own. There was even a long and pus covered tongue that slithered out to lick along the glass and leave a viscous dark fluid to slowly coat the outside and caused those inside to let out a resounding “Ew” when seeing it.

Engineer called out to the one in front and gripped onto the lever as well to pull it all the way to the next position to get them out of there as quickly as possible. As soon as that was done. Engineer was thrown back from the sudden g-forces that were produced from the launch and found himself and the others to be pinned to their chairs. The rest were fine as they were already sitting in place. But if it was not for his metal bones and increased constitution. Then he might have suffered some bodily injuries that could have range from broken bones or a severe case of whiplash around his neck area. But to say it did not hurt like hell would have been a lie on his part.

The scene then shows how not only the pod. But the monster that was halfway wrapping around it were sent into the tunnel. It was designed to be just large enough to safely allow their mode of escape to fit through and the monster ended up slamming into the wall with a noticeable loud thud. It managed to cling with the wrappings as best it could for several long seconds as it smashed from one side of the tunnel to the next over and over again. Sparks were made while the wrappings rubbed on both the glass and metal pod that made contact with the stone walls at a frightening pace.

Eventually, the last of the rapping’s were either burned away from friction or torn to leave the monster head to go into a free fall and head back into the complex while letting out a cry of anger. In the meantime. All three of them were still stuck as the pod miraculously exceeded speeds that made him feel that they were close to reaching mach one. By which point, it was not only him, but also the other two that were screaming their heads off right as a tiny white dot in the distance grew Within the time it took to blink an eye and they found themselves skyrocketing from what they thought to be a small mountain. At the same time, the screams from inside could just barely be heard from even through the thick glass.

Meanwhile, back over with the complex on the surface. Many people were running and screaming as fast as they could as the ground began to rumble in arcs of white and blue lightning ran up along the length of the obelisk and towards the sky to tear through the collecting clouds no differently than a sword. The swirling wall of sand only picked up its speed and climbed higher and higher as a result. A few of these lightning strikes that came into contact with the storm resulted in powerful explosions from overhead and created a series of loud booms. Even the flashes nearly blinded any unfortunate person who was looking in that direction at the time.

This sent the rest to grab what they could in haste and make for the outer world in droves. Of course, this meant leaving the tents and other Goods behind as they found their own lives to be much more valuable than their wares. Even with all of this going on. There was one group dressed in black who had just stepped out of the southern entrance with weapons already drawn and covered with still dripping blood. They slightly varied in sizes and gave the impression that they were both ready to run, but also resolute and staying for some reason.

One of them pulled out a dark purple crystal in their right hand while leaning against the entrance to hide from the lightning strikes. The item was just barely big enough to fit in the palm of their hand and took on an oval flat shape. They then spoke in a female voice that had a raspy edge to it. “Daring Do in her companion have not been found. Through extensive interrogation we learned that they got separated near the beginning of their group’s expedition.” A couple of seconds passed before another female's voice came from the crystal that sparked a quick conversation as the one on the other end was getting rather impatient by the sounds of it.

“How is it that the tracking amulet has not rendered any valuable assistance in your endeavors? Your files and documented activities gave me the impression of a swift and concise execution of my orders to be expected. What facts can you give to rationalize your failure to complete such a simple task as to end the prolonged existence of two ponies? Means of tracking your designated targets general vicinity and exclusive items to add to the success rate of this operation were more than adequately provided.”

“The two advanced groups that were sent head have gone missing in action. Too many eyewitnesses were present when we caught sight of them in the main encampment. Following after while within the ruins was our best bet as traps would slow their movements and wear them down as we came up from behind.”

“I will agree that that is quite logical. Exposing your abilities and forementioned equipment would have been unwise. Regardless, you have failed and have not delivered any concrete evidence of your abilities to follow through.”

“Even if we can't find them now, we still have the rest of our members spread out so there will be no escape. Each group leader has been issued the magical tracking item and will move in if anything should happen to us.”

“Your excuses are irrelevant! It would be wise if your next communication was to be filled with a positive report. Now do not contact me again until such time has come as my work requires my complete immersion.”

And with that, there was no longer any more words to be spoken as the crystal was quickly tucked away into a pocket. They were all just about to move when the lightning became so much stronger that every inch of the sand around the obelisk was being blown harshly into the wind. Everyone else was already long since gone and left nothing but the group wearing black to stand at the entrance to the underground section when the entire piece of black metal covered in writing that jetted out of the sand started to glow as brightly as the sun.

After witnessing this, they attempted to hide in the cave to get away from being cooked alive from the increased level of magical heat they started to feel from above. However, this turned out to be a useless act in futility as the same power was being emanated from deep inside the opening and shot out in the form of a powerful beam.

This caught them by surprise as it only lasted for a split second as their bodies were completely vaporized as everything was being engulfed in white. The next thing to happen was the energy that was being sent into the sky started to built up to where it created a large ball of energy and imploded into a tiny singularity that only held its form for a couple of scant seconds before it too erupted and sent a powerful shockwave that was visible in the form of a halo that kept on expanding over the horizon.

The scene then shows the next couple of places that range from not only the desert, but also somewhere in the middle of the ocean, in an isolated mountain region, a tropical forest, deep in the snowy regions without any signs of life and areas full of lava deep underground in an unmarked location. As the wave traveled quick enough to go over the entire world in a matter of minutes. Various spots reacted in a similar way and gave off a quick jolt of magic that lasted for only as long as the wave crossed over that area and return to normal. Animals, along with monsters stopped in their tracks and look to these regions for only a moment before continuing on their way.

Small seismic trimmers followed which caught the attention of the local residents. Any type of item that ran off of both electricity and magic alike went haywire just long enough to take notice. Any kind of magic being used at that time became rather unstable and either grew in strength or nearly bottomed out. Even each member of the three Pony tribes experienced one problem that was either a minor annoyance or nearly cost a couple of lives as a result.

Earth ponies became extremely weak and almost crumpled to the ground as their knees were about to give out. Pegasi found that they could not fly and were left to only glide for a couple of seconds. Even the simple act of standing on clouds vanished and quite a number of people fell through without warning. Unicorns found themselves clutching onto their horns as a painful migraine came out of nowhere. Some of which would even be rendered into an unconscious state and pass out as they could not handle the strain. Luckily enough any structures that were built did not fall through any of the cloud-built areas.

This was not only a phenomenon that affected the ponies as each and every race on the planet lost some semblance of magical control during this period. When the scene changed to Canterlot. The Castle Gardens came into view and showed the statue of Discord on his pedestal. A small voice began to be emanated from it and only grew just enough to be above a whisper. Which came off with a high pitch and comical top tone that occasionally dropped to an intimidating growl. “Who-what-when-where-why? Huh? Ooooh~. Oh so exciting, oh what fun! Hehehe ho ho hahaha! I haven't felt this excited in forever and a half! Soon our long-awaited reunion will CoMmEnCe!!!”

His words were only broken up as he laughed even louder before he continued. “Break out the shrimp and tempura sauce because I'm a coming!!!” There was also a small, yet miniscule hairline crack that was just barely noticeable on his right ear near the very tip. Meanwhile, the scene shifts back to the Bone Dry desert and zooms to the escape pod that was open so that the hatch was laying on the sand. Engineer was in the middle of raising himself up onto his hands and knees and looked straight ahead as his red furred face turned into a shade of green before uttering the next phrase.

“Uhgg... now I know what a spit wad goes through when you shoot it through a straw.” His attention was brought over to his Pip-Boy and this caused his nauseated expression to turn him completely ghost White as the screen flickered on and off a couple of times before it showed the image of the anthropomorphic pony version of the vault dweller laying on his back and holding on to a single flower. Next to him was obviously a tombstone. Just below was the text saying, “A error has occurred in operational system. Restart time estimated for one hundred and twenty hours.” This got him to scream out a single word that echoed for as far as the eye could see. “FUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!”