The air was warm. The spinning of the fans in the air vents filled the otherwise quiet room. "Doctor, he's awake!" A somewhat familiar voice called out. A scurrying could be heard beyond the door to the room. Though it was quickly swung open. "Ha ha! Welcome back to the land of the living, kid!" The doctor exclaimed. Keltin, though still a little out of it, was glad to see a familiar face. Looking to his side, he seen the very same nurse that was taking care of him when he was first injured by the anomaly. "What... What happened?" Keltin questions, rubbing his head. Again, his memory was a bit fuzzy.

Well you came running out of the anomaly only a second after you entered it. You looked disturbed, and told us to move, so we did exactly that," The doctor explains, "But to think the anomaly would implode like that... Tell me," The doctor closes the door behind him, "What happened in there? What caused you to run out like that?"

Silence.

"You said I was only in there for a second?" Keltin asks, confused. Maybe it was all a dream?

"Only a second." The doctor reaches into his bag and pulls out a piece of blood stained paper, "Though, we did find this." He says as he give it to Keltin.

"So all that was real..." He says as he reads over the paper, though he already was all to familiar with the contents of it. "There was... Something in there. A big metallic creature." Keltin says, putting the note down as he lays back, looking up at the ceiling. "It... killed me. again and again and again, yet, I just kept reliving the same experience repeatedly." He explains, the doctor now very clearly taking great interest, though the nurse was confused.

"I would remember a little more of what kept happening, and eventually I made a note." Keltin says. "Instructions on how to avoid it?" The doctor asks, picking up the note and looking at it. "And what are these marks for?"

"Heh." Keltin chuckles, though it was more or less to cover up the trauma. "That's how many times a remember reliving it all. How many times I died."

Silence.

The doctor laughs, then tosses the note into the garbage now that its been deciphered. "Well, that explains all the weird things happening to your body!" he says, rummaging through his bag again. "Come again?" Keltin asks, now confused. The doctor pulls out a small vile, filled with a red-purple substance. "This here is your blood," The doctor begins, showing keltin the vile. "When we went to perform surgery to try and revive you after you flew into that building, we quickly found that wouldn't be necessary." The doctor begins to explain, "Because of your prolonged exposure to the anomaly, despite it all only being a few seconds for us outside of it, completely infected your body - or rather, infested."

"Infested? What's that supposed to mean?" Keltin questions.

"Exactly as it sounds." The doctor puts the vile down on the bed and then pulls out a sealed petri dish, as well as a pocket sized microscope. "You mentioned a metal creature, yes? Take a look." The doctor says, giving keltin the petri dish and microscope. Confused and curious, keltin places the dish underneath the microscope and looks through it. "Does that and the machine you say resemble each other in any way?" The doctor asks.

"...Yes. It looks like its made of the same stuff..." Keltin mumbles, confused. "What is this, doc?" He asks, looking at him. My theory? some sort of extremely tiny machine to repair the big machines, like the one you saw."

"where'd you get this one?" Keltin asks, looking back through the microscope. "In your blood." The doctor answers, casually. Keltin pauses for a second, then looks at the doctor again, even more confused then before. The doctor clears his throat and adjusts his glasses. "These tiny little machines don't seem the last long without a purpose, from our observations. It's possible that some of them disconnected from the machine you saw, and found their way to your body," The doctor takes a seat beside the bed and puts the microscope and petri dish back into his bag. "The reason why I came to the conclusion that they are meant to repair their host should be obvious."

"What? I-" Keltin cuts himself off, then remembers something - wasn't his back broken before? "I can see the gears turning in your head, and to answer your question, yes. Your back was broken. But those little things repaired it, and all of your other injuries," The doctor pauses for a moment. "But you're truly one of a kind."

"What does that mean?" Keltins questions, though still trying to understand what the doctor was telling him. "We tried using them to heal other patients, but..." The doctor clears his throat once again, "They were ripped up from the inside out... These things - lets call them nano machines - refused to cooperate with any body other then yours. They're keeping you alive, even now. It seems that they use energy from food and drink to create more of themselves. Eventually, they stop functioning and recycle themselves," The doctor explains, thinking for a moment, "It's comparable to some modern medical parasites - those that function as a give-take relationship within their host."

"Hold on... Are you saying that these... nano machines are in my body keeping me alive? And what, they didn't like being in anypony elses body? Why? Why do they work in mine?" Keltin asks, trying his best to comprehend the situation. He feels as if he was in the anomaly for days, but it really only was a second outside of it? How does any of it make sense? It doesn't!

"Well, you were exposed to the anomaly directly, for a long time. They had the time to adjust to your body, and likely have... reprogrammed themselves to match your DNA exactly. That being said..." The doctor stands up, "this incredibly important research and information is useless, since we're cut off from the rest of the world."

"Cut off?" Keltin gets out of the bed onto his hooves, stretching as he does.

"Yes. After you left that anomaly, all the others disappeared along with it. And now a dome envelops the whole city." The doctor sighs, and makes his way to the door, opening it. "We've tried sending scouts out, but none have returned. For now, we're stuck here in the middle of the city with no knowledge of what's going on."

Quickly making his way around the bed, keltin begins to follow the doctor as he explains the state of the city. "We haven't sent any more out yet, but the mayor is planning on sending a large rescue party to try and find her daughter. If you're able, maybe you could join them?" The doctor asks him, though not letting keltin respond. "I suspect there are some of those machines lurking around in the city, and you've had more direct experience with them." Keltin stops in his tracks. "I'm not going anywhere as long as those things are still around." Keltin says.

"Unfortunately, you won't have much of a choice." A voice says from outside the room. As keltin and the doctor exit the room, the mayor comes into view. "We're sending everyone who can walk out in a few hours to scout the area and, ideally, find my daughter." The mayor who is very clearly distressed, looks at keltin. "She joined a scouting party two days ago. but hasn't returned."

Keltin was about to refuse to leave the shelter, until a more pressing concern came to mind. "Two days? How long was I out?" He then look sat the doctor for an answer.

"Four days," The mayor says, grabbing keltins attention again, "And the doctor is right. You know more about these invaders more then any of us do. We need your help." She says.

"Any information you have on them will help greatly." The doctor adds on. Keltin realized that the mayor must have been listening into the conversation if she knew about the machine, but he chose to ignore it for now. With a sigh, keltin caves and decides to tell them everything he remembered.

A Few Hours Later

"Alright!" A gruffy voice says, grabbing the attention of the citizens and soldiers alike that were gathered in the entrance hall of the shelter. "Here's the game plan!" He says, rolling out a map onto that table that was set up in front of him, as a unicorn behind him began the project a top-down view of the table onto the right wall. "We're going to the south edge of the city. Our primary goal is to find out why the other scouts haven't returned. Our secondary objective is to find survivors. Namely, the mayors daughter Raine. The Doctor and the remaining members of the city council predict that 30% of the cities population was wiped out when the anomalies appeared... And another 5% from when they suddenly disappeared. That's a lot of casualties, so we're bound to see some things we don't want to see out there." The dragon soldier explained, all the while pointing to the locations of the previous anomalies. "We all have to stick together in a big group if we want to guarantee our safe return. There's no telling what's lurking in the shadows." The whole room was silent as the dragon continued his explanation. "Fortunately, we have a certain pony here who encountered, and survived something from inside one of the anomalies." He says, looking over the crowd, who was also looking amongst themselves for this pony. "Keltin, step up." The dragon soldier says.

Silence.

Before the dragon could repeat himself, keltin sighs and steps forward, all eyes now on him. "Ah, there you are. Come on up here." Reluctantly, keltin made his way to the dragon soldier and stood beside him, at a distance. "Him and I will be taking the lead. He knows what these things sound and look like, so he'll be able to help us avoid them, should we come across them." The dragon explains.

"What are 'they', anyways?" A random pony asks. "Well," The soldier begins, "Why don't we have Keltin here tel-"

Keltin cut off the soldier, stepping forwards. "They're tall and walk on two legs. The one I had to face had a blade for a right arm, and could easily fly. They're entirely metallic. The doctor and I theorized that the one I faced was damaged, so theres no telling what else they're capable of. It had some sort of... Cannon on its left arm, so it's entirely possible they have some sort of projectile. And they're extremely fast."

A different voice from the crowd speaks up. "How did you get away? did you fight it?" The crowd looks at keltin intently, awaiting his answer. "I... Was on of the anomalies when it happened. I couldn't see well through a thick fog that was inside it, so fighting wasn't an option."

The same voice from before responds, "Then how do we know if we even can beat them?"

Clearing his throat, keltin tries to think of a way to answer the question. "Well..., While he was just trying to make something up, keltin then remembered a crucial detail. The one he faced had a body strapped to it. And if the doctors theory of 'nano machines that repair their host' was correct, then...

"They have the ability to repair themselves. The one I faced... It had the... Body of a gryphon on it, and as gruesome as it is, it was breaking the body down into energy to repair itself. So-" The dragon soldier suddenly cuts in, interrupting keltin, "If it can be fixed, and can be broken! Now that we know that's an option, there's no point in trying to avoid them if we encounter them."

"wait, have you not been listeni-" Keltin tries to say, but is again cut off. "We have nothing to fear! Let's get out there and do our jobs right!" The soldier exclaims. Though reluctant, the crowd cheers on and the shelter doors open up. The unicorn that previously was projecting the dragons map onto the wall was now levitating the table out of the way so the search party could exit the shelter.

The dragon looks to keltin, "Good work." He says, turning around and making his way out of the shelter. "I have a really really bad feeling about this..." Keltin mumbles to himself.

To Be Continued.

Author's Note

This chapter and the last was finished a week ago, but I only got around to looking over them now. Hopefully I didn't miss anything while reading over the last one or this one, since I have just now decided to post them both today instead of spacing them out.

Take care
WWA, out