My leg hurt.

To be fair, my entire body hurt. But my leg was hurting especially badly.

I had landed in a heap of dirt and rubble, where my lower half was swiftly buried by the falling dirt. My head throbbed almost as painfully as my wounded rear leg, but at least I could still move it around.

Slowly, I brought my PipBuck up to my face, where the bright screen made my eyes hurt. The little pony in the middle looked a lot worse for wear, limping around and covered in bandages. My foreleg fell back down to the dirt that covered my lower half, too tired to stay up. I sighed deeply, looking around the pile.

The first thing I spotted was the monster. It had fallen before most of the rubble had, meaning that it was almost completely buried. But I could still spot the claws of its right forelimb sticking out near me. A little further down the pile, I spotted the head of the monster, with its large yellow eyes closed shut.

Next, I noticed the shiny dome of Narrative Lampshade’s brain jar. It looked intact despite having taken quite the tumble. Only his back half seemed to have been covered in dirt, but I doubted he would have much trouble digging himself out.

There was one pony who I couldn’t spot, however.

“Pot?” I called out weakly.

My left ear twitched slightly towards a soft rustling noise, which I followed to spot the blue earth pony in question. He was lying on his side on the other side of the dirt pile as the monster. There was barely any dirt on him, but his prosthetic leg was missing.

No… not missing… broken.

The yellow plastic sleeve was still attached to his stump, but only a hoof’s length of the metal below was still there, the rest had been snapped off and was nowhere to be seen. The stallion mumbled something weakly, raising his head.

“Black… Light?” He asked, opening his eyes and scanning his surroundings.

The stallion winced and brought his left forehoof to his stump, clutching it for a moment before looking up again. His green eyes were wide with panic, but they relaxed when he saw me only to immediately fill with concern when he noticed that my bottom half was missing. Limping on his three good legs, the earth pony worked his way up the dirt pile and came to a stop next to me.

“Are you okay?” He asked, looking around and spotting Narrative.

“Yeah… Just pinned here…” I replied, wincing slightly when I moved around to gesture at the dirt.

Pot looked down at his broken prosthetic before pawing at the dirt around me weakly with his good leg and shaking his head.

“I can’t get you out of there, can you move at all?” He asked.

“N- no…” I muttered, keeping my voice low. I would’ve at least tried to move around, but the pain in my leg was just too much to deal with.

The stallion looked around again, I could all but see the gears turning inside his head as he tried to think of a way to get me out. Eventually, he turned back to look at Narrative.

“If I can wake him up we might be able to get you out of there using those ropes,” He said, pointing at some of the ropes that had fallen down alongside us.

“Good idea,” I said, nodding.

I watched as Pot made his way down the dirt pile. It was significantly easier than when he had climbed up to reach me, as all he needed to do was slide down towards the fallen machine. He stopped just off the side of Narrative, where he cocked his head and scrunched his face in concentration.

“Do I just…?” He said aloud before lying down and using his forehoof to knock on the brain jar as if it were a door.

A small cloud of dirt was kicked into the air as something within Narrative’s chassis whirred to life, spewing air from a vent on his back. The soft blue light returned to his jar as he finished reactivating.

“Fear. Where am I? Where is the monster?” He asked with his droning, monotone voice.

“Thing’s dead, and we fell down the hole behind it,” Pot replied. “Black Light and you are stuck in the dirt,” He added, gesturing to the rear half of Narrative’s chassis with his head.

“What happened to your leg?” The robot asked.

“Shit if I know, probably somewhere under all the dirt,” Pot answered, looking around for a moment before focusing on Narrative again. “I need you to help me dig Black Light out, can you move?” He stated.

Narrative let out a whirring sound that slowly started getting louder. I couldn’t really see what he was doing from my vantage point, but I could feel the dirt around me vibrating.

“I cannot move,” The machine said. Even through the flat monotone of his synthesized voice, I could still feel the disappointment.

Pot looked at Narrative for a moment before pointing at the ropes that were still tied around him with his chin.

“I can use those to help you, think it’ll work?” He said.

Narrative stretched out a claw and grabbed onto a piece of the rope, giving it a tentative tug before throwing it at Pot.

“It is worth an attempt, but I doubt you’ll be able to do much with just three legs,” The machine droned.

“Better than nothing,” The earth pony replied with a chuckle.

Pot leaned down and bit onto the rope, pulling it along with him until it became taut. Unable to speak or gesture with his hooves, he looked back at Narrative and nodded.

“Pull,” The machine stated.

And Pot did just that, throwing his entire weight forward on the rope. At first, nothing happened, the dirt around me simply vibrated as it had done before while Narrative’s motors screeched. But then the brainbot’s chassis started to drag itself out of the dirt slowly. The earth pony stallion tucked his front leg, rearing up and pushing forward even harder, keeping the rope firmly in his mouth. If only there was a way I could help them! I thought.

Wait a minute…

My horn surged with power, wrapping a red glow around the rope and adding my own arcane might to the effort. The distance was too great to put any real strength into the spell, but any little help would go a long way. Pot started to let out a loud groan as he pulled with all his might, but it was almost done! He just had to hold on a little longer and-

“Ough!” The stallion shouted, launching himself forward when Narrative finally popped out of the dirt like a particularly stubborn mechanical carrot.

“Pot! Are you okay?” I asked when I saw the stallion curl up on the ground a short distance away from Narrative.

“Yesh…” He mumbled, holding his forehoof up to his mouth. “I fink I broke a toof,” He added.

“Joy. I am free,” Narrative said, moving down the dirt pile until he was next to Pot before patting his head with one of his claws.

The stallion grumbled something before pointing at me with his forehoof.

“Yes, of course,” The robot replied, turning towards me.

His tracks were surprisingly adept at moving through dirt, letting him climb it with ease. Once he reached me, one of his claws twisted around to grab the rope Pot had been tugging on and offering it to me. My horn lit up and wrapped the rope around my barrel, keeping it firmly tucked under my front shoulders as if it were a harness.

“Say something if I start hurting you,” Narrative stated before heading back down the pile.

I held onto the rope with as much strength as I could muster, feeling it get tighter when the robot finally started pulling. A quick shot of pain ran through my leg, but I still popped out of the dirt with significantly more ease than Narrative had.

As soon as I was free, I looked down at my leg and noticed that the bullet holes that had become exposed when the bandage slipped off earlier were full of dirt. I lowered a forehoof to try and clean it out a bit, but even the slightest touch made me wince in pain.

“That doesn’t look good,” Pot said, having dragged himself closer to us. “At least it’s not bleeding,”

“Yours looks worse…” I said, chuckling weakly as I pointed at his missing front leg.

The stallion balanced himself on his rear legs and stretched his foreleg towards me, pressing it against my forehead.

“You’ve got a fever, we need to get you some healing supplies,” He stated before turning around. “We can come back to grab our stuff later,”

Narrative rolled forward and put a claw on Pot’s shoulder, drawing the earth pony’s attention.

“Use me as support, you cannot walk,” He said.

“We… we don’t have any weapons…” I mumbled, trying to climb up to my hooves.

Pot furrowed his brow for a moment to think before looking up at the dirt pile.

“I think I saw where my gun landed, I’ll go get it,” He said, gesturing to Narrative with his head. “Think you can get me up there?”

“Yes, hold on,” The robot droned before slowly starting to climb up the hill. The three-legged stallion limped beside him, using the robot’s large chassis as support.

I wanted to drop to my haunches, but my rear leg hurt way too much to let me sit down, so I resorted to simply shifting as much of my weight off that leg as I could. It wasn’t a perfect solution, because now my injured belly muscles started to hurt. I looked to the side, feeling tears start to well in my eyes, and noticed that the dirt looked fairly soft.

With a loud grunt, I flopped onto my side, keeping my wounded leg off the ground. My wounds stopped hurting as badly once I got the chance to relax, the stabbing pain turning into a muted throbbing.

I don’t know for how long I lay there, but it couldn’t have been long, as Pot quickly reappeared and shook my shoulder. I half-opened my eyes and looked at the stallion, giving him my best attempt at a smile. His gun was in his holster again, and it looked incredibly dirty. I wouldn’t trust that thing to fire normally, let alone now.

“Come on, there has to be a medical box somewhere,” Pot said before turning to look at Narrative. “Help her up,”

The machine approached and stretched its claws forward, wrapping them around the upper half of my forelegs. With the added strength, I rose back to my hooves and tried to keep myself upright.

“Fear. I hope we don’t have to fight anything,” Narrative commented.

I let out a loud chuckle, feeling my belly hurt slightly from the sudden movement.

“Please! You have Black Light with you… The hero of the surface!” I exclaimed, feeling slightly woozy.

“You’re in no shape to fight, lass…” Pot muttered.

I rolled my eyes, shrugging off his silly concern before pointing forward with a foreleg.

“To victory!” I stated, taking a step forward and nearly collapsing onto the floor.

We made our way out of the room we had fallen into very slowly. There was no real way to know what this place even was, as the dirt had buried any furniture that might have given us a clue. At most, I could spot a couple of counters on the very edges of the room, but that was all.

We reached a large blast door, identical to the ones back at the Steel Ranger headquarters. Much like those doors, these slid open as soon as Pot pressed the button that sat next to it.

“Power’s still on…” He commented.

“Fear. That means the security system might be online, proceed with caution,” Narrative suggested.

I very cautiously stumbled forward and promptly flopped onto the floor beyond the door, hitting my muzzle against the steel grate and whimpering slightly.

“Black Light!” Pot shouted.

“I’m fiiiiine,” I groaned, noticing the clear lack of turrets shooting at me. “No turrets!” I added with a soft chuckle as I struggled back to my hooves.

My companions rolled into the dark hallway along with me, looking around. Once I managed to get up, I switched on my PipBuck light, driving back the darkness with its glow.

“Interesting…” I said, pointing at the ceiling.

The turrets were deployed, but they appeared to be inactive. I looked a little further down the hall and spotted a second turret that appeared to be frozen mid-deployment, the sliding cover that hid it was open, but the gun itself hadn’t dropped yet. To be honest, I preferred them being completely still over the ones in the Steel Ranger headquarters following me around eerily.

“What is this place…?” Pot asked.

“I do not know, but there has to be a medical box nearby,” Narrative droned.

According to my EFS compass, north lay down the hallway to our right. If bad things were in the South, that could only mean that good things were in the north! It was obvious!

“Let’s try this way,” I said, gesturing down the hallway.

“Do you know where the medical boxes are?” Pot asked Narrative.

“Sadness. No, but they are probably in the main hallways so they are easily accessible,” The machine replied.

Pot nodded and furrowed his brow, looking down the hallway ahead.

We started walking north, keeping our eyes… and sensors I guess… peeled for the nice yellow of a medical box. Not opening every single door in the hallway to check what was inside was killing me, but the dirt-stuffed bullet wound in my leg was literally killing me. There would be time to look for the weapon Narrative had talked about after I was healed.

The derelict turrets hanging from the ceiling stood like ominous gargoyles, flanking us on either side at regular intervals interchanged with the weak white emergency lights that let us see where we were going. A cold shiver ran down my spine when I realized that if they were to come online, we would have no chance of escape. For a split second, I thought that maybe we could run into one of the rooms, but that was quickly dashed when I remembered that there were turrets inside the rooms as well back at the Steel Ranger base.

Eventually, we came to a smaller connecting hallway that branched out from the left of the one we were walking down. I poked my head around the corner and realized that it connected to another large hallway like the one we were in. Apparently this facility was shaped like a set of stairs.

What really caught my eye, however, was the yellow box in the middle of the hall.

“Oh thank Celestia,” Pot exclaimed, limping towards the medical box.

It was open, which made sense, why would anypony lock a first aid kit? Inside of it we found a single pink healing potion and several rolls of enchanted bandages. I took them in my magic and untied the dirty bandages around my barrel, but before I could put the new bandage on, I was stopped by Pot.

“Take off the jumpsuit so we can make sure the wounds are clean,” He said.

I did as he asked, sitting on the ground and opening the jumpsuit along the front, undoing the straps that held it against my body. My white coat was caked in blood, especially around the wounds. The bullet holes in question looked red and swollen, the ones on my belly being the most affected. They didn’t hurt, at least… despite looking like they really, really should.

“And that’s why you’re supposed to drink potions…” Pot mumbled, grimacing at the pinkish color of my swollen wounds. “But they look clean at least,” He added.

The stallion crouched down to look at my injured leg. The bullet holes on that one looked significantly worse, a deep red color that was starting to turn white around the edges of the wounds, which appeared to be packed full of dirt from the fall. It looked ghastly, and if his horrified face was anything to go by, I would say Pot agreed.

“We need to clean this…” Pot said, looking around for a moment until he spotted Narrative’s claws. “Hey uh… can you help me out a little?” He asked the machine.

“With what?” Narrative droned.

“I need you to hold this open so I can get the dirt out,” The stallion explained, gesturing towards my leg.

Narrative approached carefully and fell silent for a moment, as if he were deep in thought.

“Sad. My sensor is not good enough to see the wound,” The robot said.

“Hmmm…” Pot grumbled. “Wait! I know! give me your claw,” He added.

The brain bot stood silently for a moment before tentatively raising one of its claws. Pot balanced himself on his rear legs and wrapped his foreleg around the metal limb, moving it closer to my leg.

“I’ll move it into place, then I want you to open it very slowly…” The earth pony explained, trying his damndest to put Narrative’s claw into place.

I winced slightly when the cold metal touched the edges of the bullet hole. There’s the pain I was expecting, and sweet Celestia did it feel horrible.

“Okay now open it, very slowly…” Pot said, and the machine complied, slowly pulling the wound open.

A thick drop of nearly-black liquid started to ooze down my leg. Pot let go of Narrative’s claw and instead tucked the healing potion into his elbow, raising it to take the cap off with his teeth. Very carefully, the stallion took the bottle into his mouth and drew closer to the open wound, looking into my eyes with a little bit of guilt.

This is going to hurt, isn’t it? I thought.

It did, in fact, hurt horribly. The pinkish fluid dripped into the wound and immediately started to burn as if a red-hot iron had been pressed against my flesh. Brownish foam started to spew down my thigh as the potion tried its damndest to force the dirt out and heal me. My jaw clenched down so hard that my head started hurting when Pot moved the potion up to the other bullet hole, prying it open with Narrative’s claw before dripping some of the potion into it.

As soon as the foaming stopped, he pulled the robot’s claw away and gave me a roll of enchanted bandages. With my eyes slowly filling with tears, I wrapped the pink cloth around my leg, enjoying the soothing warmth of the healing spell that was woven into them. Pot offered me the rest of the potion, which I took in my magic and floated up to my lips before stopping for a moment and looking at him.

“Do you need any?” I asked.

“Wh-? No, I’ve just got a few bruises,” The earth pony replied.

I nodded and brought the bottle up, downing the entire thing in just three vigorous gulps. Unlike with my leg, the potion went down with impressive ease, spreading its healing warmth from my belly to all my legs. Yeah, these things were definitely meant for drinking.

The potion started to work its magic, returning the strength to my legs with impressive speed. I jumped up to my hooves, feeling as the enchanted bandages worked even faster while under the effects of the potion. I started chuckling at the almost overwhelming tickling sensation that spread over my coat, as if a colony of ants was crawling all over me.

“Oh that is good,” I chirped, bouncing in place to test out my hind leg.

“D- don’t jump around so much!” Pot chided.

I turned to ask him why he had gotten so angry, but I noticed that he was looking directly at one of the deactivated turrets that hung from the ceiling.

“Sorry…” I muttered, my ears drooping.

The earth pony rolled his eyes, but his gaze softened when they landed on my hind leg. I looked back and spotted two pinkish scars where the wounds had been. Looking a little lower, I spotted two other scars on my underbelly.

“Huh… I thought healing potions didn’t cause scarring,” I said, looking back.

“They’re… not supposed to…” Pot responded, looking defeated. “That only happens if you apply the potion directly instead of drinking it,” He explained.

“Oh, that makes sense,” I said. To be honest, it didn’t make that much sense, but now that I was feeling better I had to show Pot that I was back to being the hero of the surface that he knew me to be!

Pot looked down the hallway we had just come from and then back to me.

“We should go see if we dropped anything when we fell,” He said, furrowing his brow slightly. “And maybe see if we can find a way out of here,” He added.

“Good call, I dropped my rifle,” I said.

To be honest, that thing was already barely functional before getting buried in dirt, by now it was probably little more than a useless metal stick. Still, better to have a stick than no weapon at all!

We made our way back to the place where we had fallen at a much speedier pace, as I could carry Pot with a lot more ease than Narrative. I did find it odd to see just how much dirt we had tracked into the hallway, it almost looked as if we had started shoveling it out of the room! I had probably just been too delirious to notice before, it wasn’t like-

“Why is there so much dirt out here…?” Pot asked cautiously.

Okay, so it is weird…

“What do you think-” I started, but I was interrupted by Narrative Lampshade.

“Fear. The creature is still alive,” He stated.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood upright as my eyes darted down the half-dark hallway in front of us. There was nothing in it, but the dirt trail disappeared into the darkness beyond. How had that thing survived the explosions? Let alone the fall and being buried alive?

“Screw exploring this place, we need to get out of here,” Pot said. “Let's see if we can climb back out,” He added, pointing at the open door.

I nodded and started on my way towards it, poking my head in to make sure the monster wasn’t inside. Just as Narrative had said, the dirt pile looked significantly smaller, and the creature was nowhere to be seen. I noticed that it had moved some items around when it left, with the most eye-catching one being Pot’s cooking pot, which he quickly limped over to.

“Oh thank Celestia!” He said, clutching the pot to his chest with his good foreleg as if it were an infant.

I walked into the room a little further, having spotted what I thought to be my rifle. My intrigued expression quickly melted away into a frown when I got closer and noticed that it was nothing but a piece of rebar. Purely out of curiosity, I gave it a decent pull with my magic.

Hmm… it’s probably got some concrete stuck to the bottom… I thought, looking at how stuck the bar was. When I looked up into the hole, however, I didn’t see any rebar sticking out. That was weird, how had this ended up here if it hadn’t been torn from the ceiling? Curious, I yanked on the metal with as much strength as I could, pulling out none other than Pot’s prosthetic leg.

“Hey Pot, check this out!” I said, holding the leg up for him to see.

The stallion, who had just finished tying his pot onto Narrative’s back, looked up to me and smiled softly before limping my way.

“It snapped in half, I don’t think I’ll be able to fix it…” He muttered. “But hey, at least I have it,” He added.

I smiled at him and lifted my eyes towards the hole in the roof, trying to find any way of climbing out of here. A slight pang of despair struck my heart when I noticed that there wasn’t any clear way out. There was no pipe or piece of debris that we could attach a rope to, not even a conveniently yellow-colored ledge for me to climb up.

“This isn’t good,” Pot said, staring up as well. He had probably come to the same conclusion as me.

“Fear. Perhaps we can find an exit similar to the one in the other facility, we just have to try and avoid that monster,” Narrative added.

“Yeah… I’m not liking our chances,” Pot stated. “Especially not if this thing is all we have for defense,” He added, gesturing towards the gun in his holster.

I nodded in agreement, giving the room one last look. By sheer luck, I spotted something else in the dirt sticking out next to Narrative’s treads. A wide smile parted my face when I recognized it as the stock of my rifle. With a quick red flash, the weapon flew out of the dirt with a small dust cloud.

I turned it over a couple of times, trying to shake as much of the dirt out of it as I could. There was no way this thing could shoot, but knowing that I had a gun made me feel a little safer. I opened my mouth to say something to Pot, but I slammed it shut when a loud scraping sound reached my ears from the hallway. Crouching down into a battle stance, I brought the rifle up to aim at the door. Pot limped over to Narrative, hiding behind him and pulling his pistol out of its holster.

We waited for a moment, hearing more scraping sounds, but they didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Tentatively, I took a few steps up to the door and poked my head outside. The monster was nowhere to be seen, but I could clearly hear it scratching the metal walls of the facility with its claws.

“We need to get away from it,” I whispered back.

Pot tapped my shoulder to draw my attention, and I turned around to see him shaking his head silently.

“If we stay here it might come back,” I explained. “Get on Narrative’s back…” I added.

The earth pony furrowed his brow in concentration, nodding at me, but keeping a concerned look. He took a few steps back and slowly climbed onto the robot, using the saddlebags that covered its back as support.

I stepped out of the room and stared into the hallway where the sounds were coming from, keeping my gun trained on the dim light ahead. As my eyes adjusted, I managed to spot the vague figure of the monster, scratching the wall a little further down the hallway. Apparently the grenades had injured it, or at least that was the sensation I got from the long streaks of blood that I spotted on the floor. It smelled… wrong. Instead of the usual metallic smell of blood, this black ooze smelled of rot and decay.

What the…? I thought when my eyes fell to my EFS compass. The blue bar that pointed at the monster was flicking on and off, as if it couldn’t make up its mind on whether the creature was alive or not.

I gestured with a forehoof for my companions to move, and then immediately winced when I heard just how loud Narrative’s treads were. The monster didn’t seem to mind, but then again, with how close those grenades had gone off it would be a miracle if it could still hear at all.

The robot rolled past me and started back down the hallway we had already explored earlier. We just needed to get a little further away from-

“Fuck!” Pot shouted as a loud thumping sound echoed down the hallway, making me jump. I turned around with wide eyes to try and see what happened. I spotted the earth pony stallion on his back next to Narrative.

“Anger. How did you fall?” The robot droned.

“I’m missing a fucking hoof you jackass,” Pot shouted back, but he raised his good forehoof to shut his mouth when he realized how loud he had shouted.

The scratching stopped, replaced by a loud roar. I turned to look at the monster and saw that the EFS bar was now clear, marking the beast as it started to draw closer.

“Run!” I shouted, raising my rifle and pulling the trigger.

I had to give the rifle some credit. While it looked absolutely atrocious, it still managed to fire despite having gotten buried. The bullet flew into the hallway, sparking off the wall as it missed the monster entirely. I pulled the trigger again, but the gun didn’t fire.

“Shit!” I exclaimed.

The monster replied with a loud roar before it started barreling towards us. I turned around and started running. Narrative was already getting away, with Pot hanging on for dear life onto his back, but there was no way we were going to get away.

Come on come on… weren’t there rooms with smaller doors in that hallway? I thought, racing to formulate a plan.

My hooves clattered on the ground as I fell into a gallop, zooming past Narrative and reaching the connecting hallway where the medical box had been. I smirked when I saw that there was a door next to the box. While the ones in the main hallway were large enough for the monster to get through, there was no way it could get through this one!

I launched at it and smacked the button so hard that it made my hoof hurt. The door started to rise slowly, too slowly. I reached down with my forehooves and grabbed onto the edge of the door, forcing it open faster before turning back to look at Narrative. The robot barreled towards me with the monster following close behind… too close.

With my rifle firmly grasped in my magic, I stepped out into the hallway and ran at the approaching creature. Narrative darted past me, hopefully heading directly for the open door. I, on the other hoof, roared at the charging monster and swung the rifle around like a baseball bat. The beast raised a claw to swipe at me, but I was faster, smacking it in the side of the head as I threw myself aside.

It wasn’t a strong hit by any measure, but added to the creature’s missed swipe, it was more than enough to have it miss the door. The floor shook violently as the monster slammed into the wall. A loud cracking sound escaped its right shoulder, followed by an ear-piercing screech.

Without losing a beat, the beast swung its left claw back to strike at me again. I rolled under it, almost breaking out into laughter at how easily I could run around this thing when all my legs worked. My horn surged with arcane energy, firing a beam into the monster’s face. It didn’t do any noticeable damage, but it was enough to stun it for long enough for me to roll into the room that Narrative had just gone into.

“Missed me!” I shouted, cackling as I turned around to look at the beast.

The monster slammed into the door opening, trying to force itself inside but getting stuck at the shoulders. It roared at me before turning to the side and shoving its left claw into the room, scratching up at the floor and walls around the door. It wasn’t anywhere near me, however, only making me laugh harder.

“Black Light get away from that thing!” Pot shouted from behind me.

“Aww it’s okay! It can’t reach…” I started, turning around to face Pot. “Woah…” I gasped when I noticed how big the room we were in was.

Judging by the size of the door, I had assumed that it would be some kind of storage closet, but that couldn’t be any further from the truth. What I had in front of me was a long, wide, and tall hallway that was separated from me by a glass panel. The section me and my friends were in was populated by desks with terminals on them, while the hall beyond the glass was some sort of shooting range with bright blue targets like the ones back at my stable. For a split second, I considered checking the terminals, but something inside the shooting range drew my attention.

In the middle bay sat a strange contraption that looked somewhere between a reloading bench and a robotic arm that held a metal box. I eyed it curiously and noticed that there was a barrel sticking out the front of the box.

“Ohhhhh that looks good!” I squeaked.

“We have bigger problems!” Pot shouted, pointing at the monster as it kept trying to force itself into the room.

The doorframe was starting to bend slightly, but I noticed how the beast was starting to slow down. If I were to guess, I’d say the broken shoulder was starting to catch up to it as the rush of hunting us waned. Still, better to be safe than sorry.

“Gimmie,” I stated as I pulled Pot’s gun out of his holster, the stallion barely managed to open his mouth to protest before I pulled the trigger.

Surprisingly, the gun fired, shaking violently in my magical grasp. The lone bullet flew towards the doorframe, hitting the monster in the underside of its left shoulder. With a low grumble, the claw slowly retreated back into the hallway as the creature limped away.

I chucked Pot his pistol back, beaming at him.

“Thank you!” I chirped.

“You need to stop taking my gun whenever you feel like it,” The earth pony grumbled before putting the weapon back in his holster. He sounded legitimately hurt, but I was sure he understood that my aim was much better than his.

“Fear. Do you think that thing will stay away?” Narrative asked.

“It can’t get in here anyways, and it got banged up pretty bad when it hit the wall,” I said, trying to impart some calm onto the robot. “I think we should be safe for a while,” I added with a smile.

“Well, we might as well see what’s in here, maybe there’s something we can use against that thing,” Pot stated, his posture relaxing ever so slightly.

The earth pony walked up to one of the desks, tapping the power button on the terminal that sat atop it and watching the screen come to life. I was much more interested in what sat inside the shooting area, however. A quick glance revealed the spot where one of the glass panels opened like a door, allowing passage into the shooting gallery proper.

“There is definitely some kind of weapon in here,” I said, looking back to see Narrative following behind me.

“Be careful, there might be alarms,” The robot droned.

I pulled the door open and walked into the bay, walking around the machine to try and figure out how it worked. There was a large lever on the back of the machine that read ‘release’ in bright red letters.

Well it’s not ‘open’, but it should work too… right? I wondered as my magic wrapped around the lever.

To my immense delight, the metal box split open along the middle to reveal-

“What the fuck is that?” I exclaimed out loud.

With silent horror, I levitated the gun out of its brace, holding it up to my face. I didn’t dare to touch it with my hooves, so it bobbed within my magic as I tried to make sense of what I was looking at.

The barrel, stock, and trigger section seemed to have been taken directly off the standard equestrian army rifle, but the receiver was very evidently that of a magical disintegration rifle, complete with an energy cell attached to the underside. The worst part about the mismatched pieces was that it was dreadfully intentional, all the parts had been slightly modified to fit together perfectly. Orange streaks ran down the sides of the rifle, clearly cosmetic as they didn’t seem to serve any other purpose.

“What does this thing even shoot?” I wondered aloud.

“What is wrong with it?” Narrative asked, rolling closer to get a better look.

“This is a normal gun barrel, there’s no focusing lens,” I explained, pointing at the rifle’s barrel. “You can’t shoot an energy beam out of a tube, it has to be focused!”

I turned the gun around to take a look down the barrel, holding it up to the light so I could see better. Yup, no energy weapon components in there.

“Why don’t you shoot it?” Narrative asked.

I looked at the robot, trying to think of a smart reply. But I realized that he did have a point, I could just pull the trigger and see what happened. I levitated the gun up to my eye, lining up the sights and aiming at one of the targets that stood further down the range. I didn’t bother to aim too much, since this thing was probably as inaccurate as the other rifle I had. I squeezed the trigger very carefully, keeping the gun steady.

Bang!

The gun recoiled back hard, nearly launching itself out of my magical grasp. I squeaked in alarm at the sudden jerk, since I had expected the light recoil of an energy weapon, I hadn’t put much strength into holding the gun. To my surprise, a bullet casing flew out of the weapon from… somewhere.

“It seems to be working,” Narrative commented.

“What the…?” I wondered as I turned the gun around to try and find the ejection port.

It was nowhere to be found, no matter where I looked, all I could see was the smooth surface of the disintegration rifle receiver. The gun dropped into my hooves, and I was immediately surprised by how much it weighed. I had thought it was a little heavy when I was levitating it, but now that I held it myself, it was definitely heavier than it should be.

I ran my forehooves along the side of the weapon, hoping to find the ejection port. What I found instead was even more interesting, however. On the same spot that a normal rifle would have a magazine release button, the gun had a barely noticeable indentation. It made no sense, of course, since magical energy weapons didn’t have those.

Curious, I pressed the tip of my hoof into the indentation, feeling it click inside the weapon before a section of the receiver fell out. I jumped in surprise, grabbing the rest of the gun with my magic so I could land on all four of my hooves before looking at the fallen piece. It was mostly rectangular, with the bottom part slightly rounded so that it could fit inside the bottom of the gun.

My left ear twitched as Pot stomped into the room, apparently the gunshot had drawn his attention.

“What are you two doing?” He demanded.

“I’m just… trying to figure out what this thing is,” I said, floating the gun up for him to see.

The stallion raised an eyebrow and walked up to me, picking up the weapon and looking it over.

“Clearly it’s a… it’s a uhhh…” He said after taking the gun out of my magical grasp. “What is this thing?” He wondered, bewildered.

“I don’t know,” I said, scooping up the small piece that had dropped out of the gun and bringing it up to my eyes.

The metal box was odd, but its function became abundantly clear when I looked at the top. It was a magazine… Why did a magical energy weapon have a magazine? I turned it over, seeing that it still held four bullets.

“It’s got a magazine… but it also has the energy cell on the bottom?” I stated, looking at the gun again.

Pot stared at the weapon, running his hoof over it with cautious intrigue.

“What’s this?” He asked aloud, touching something under the weapon’s barrel.

In less time than I could blink, the stallion and the gun disappeared. Before I could even open my mouth to say anything, I heard Pot scream in alarm and suddenly become visible again, having dropped the gun to the floor.

“What did you do?” I demanded.

“I just pressed the button down here,” Pot explained, pointing at another small indentation on the underside of the gun’s barrel.

I took the weapon with my magic and brought it close, pressing the button with my telekinesis. Just like before, the gun disappeared completely. I could still see the crimson bubble of magic that held it, and I could still feel it floating there. But I couldn’t see it at all.

“That’s interesting…” I muttered as I moved the gun around in my magic.

Moving something that I couldn’t see was quite the challenge, but it allowed me to see that the invisibility was not total. When the weapon moved, I could just barely make out its silhouette, as if it were warping the air around it.

“I’ve never seen anything like it…” Pot said, his green eyes fixed on the empty magical field.

This is amazing, why wasn’t this in every gun- I thought, but my train of thought was interrupted by the gun letting out an electrical whirring sound before flickering out of invisibility.

I watched as the energy cell attached to the bottom of the gun fell out of its socket, letting out smoke. The outer casing looked cracked and burnt, with the cell itself looking as if it had been inflated like a balloon.

“This thing’s toast,” Pot commented, picking up the broken cell.

“Yeah… is there another one?” I asked nopony in particular. I was curious as to how long the effect would last on a new power cell.

Pot looked around the shooting gallery for a moment before gesturing at one of the other bays with his head. There was a large metal cabinet standing in the next one over.

“There might be more ammo in that box there,” He said.

I walked into the other bay, keeping the gun close to me. As I drew closer, I realized that the cabinet was on wheels, meaning that it had probably been rolled into this room from elsewhere. With any luck, if it did have ammo in it, there was a chance that I could find a large stash.

Setting the gun down on top of the cabinet, I opened the first drawer and was met with nothing more than files and notepads. I took one out and quickly flipped through it, but it had nowhere near enough pictures to be even remotely interesting.

The second drawer, on the other hoof, made a wide grin split my face. The entire drawer was dominated by a large egg carton-esque piece of metal that held several rows of energy cells. I chuckled happily as I took a new cell out and slotted it into the gun’s socket.

“Did you find any?” Pot asked, limping his way closer to me.

“Yeah!” I chirped, excited to test the gun again.

Without skipping a beat, I pressed the button under the barrel and watched the gun disappear.

One… Two… Three… I wonder who made this thing? I thought, losing count of how long it had been since I pressed the button. Five? Six? How long does it take to think? Probably like five seconds… and five plus three is uhhh… seven?

The fun flickered back into reality, dropping the ruined power cell to the floor.

“Fifteen seconds!” I proudly announced.

Pot looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“That was barely ten seconds,” He said.

“Y- yeah! That’s what I said,” I retorted, smiling.

“No, you said-” Pot started, but he cut himself off when he heard roaring coming from the other room.

I looked at the open door, then at the gun in my magic, and then finally at Pot.

“I know exactly how to test this thing out!” I exclaimed.

“If it gets that thing off our backs, go ahead,” Narrative stated.

I chuckled and launched myself out of the room, running towards the door that the monster was clawing at. The prospect of finally shooting a good gun had relit that fire in my chest. My heart beat louder and louder as I stood proudly in front of the door and held up the strange-looking rifle.

Narrative and Pot followed a little further behind, staying at a decent distance from me and the beast. Just before I pulled the trigger, however, a thought passed through my mind.

No… I’m doing this properly. I thought as I floated the gun closer to me.

Lacking a battle-saddle, I instead sat on my haunches and raised my forelegs, placing the stock against my right shoulder and supporting the weapon with my left forehoof. I noticed that the button that turned the gun invisible was surprisingly easy to press while holding the gun up.

I lined up the sights with the monster’s shoulder, licking my lips in anticipation before slowly squeezing the trigger with my right forehoof.

Bang!

A sizable hole opened up on the creature’s shoulder as the bullet ripped through it. Two more shots rang out, hitting the monster’s side and making it let out a choked wail. Every shot sent shockwaves through my body both figuratively and literally. The beast collapsed to the floor, wheezing heavily.

I dropped back down to stand on all four hooves, taking the gun in my magic once more. Carefully, I approached the monster until I was as close to it as I could before floating the gun through the door and pressing it against the side of the monster’s skull.

Before I could pull the trigger, however, the beast lunged forward, barely missing my head with its enormous claw before retreating into the hallway and scurrying off. The fire beating through my heart slowly started to simmer down as I caught my breath. The sudden shock of the attack had taken the edge off my excitement.

“Fantastic, now you pissed it off,” Pot said, rolling his eyes.

I whirled around to look at the stallion.

“Both its arms are wounded now,” I explained. “If the blood loss doesn’t kill it, it still won't be able to do much,” I added, smiling.

“That is by far the most logical thing I’ve heard you say,” Narrative droned. “But we should find a way to get rid of that thing for good.” He added.

“Yeah, you’re right,” I relented. “I’ll go grab the extra energy cells from the cabinet,”

I looked at the rifle, my ears drooping slightly when I realized that it was empty. Not wanting to get demotivated, I lifted my head and looked into the shooting gallery area again.

“Go get that stuff, I’ll check the desks around here,” Pot said before walking up to one of the many tables.

I made my way back to the machine where the gun was being held, where I noticed that I had missed a drawer when I had grabbed the gun before. Curious, I opened it with my magic and immediately felt my heart skip a beat.

Three beautiful magazines stood before my very eyes, all shaped in the same weird way as the empty one inside the gun. They looked like they were the same size, but just to be sure, I took one of the magazines out and slid it into the gun, seeing that the machining was so precise that you could just barely see where the gun ended and the bottom of the magazine began.

Six shots… I counted, looking at the other two magazines in the machine. Eighteen shots total… I can work with that.

Both of the extra magazines went into my right saddlebag, with the empty one floating into my left side bag. The sound of the empty metal box hitting the pistol that I had kept in there since I left my stable made me remember that I had to keep my eyes peeled for bullets. The new rifle appeared to be .22, and I still had to find more .454 for my revolver.

I gave the other bays a quick once-over to make sure I hadn’t missed anything before walking back out into the room with all the desks. Pot was sitting behind one of the terminals, the green glow of the screen washing over him as he very slowly tapped the keys with his lone forehoof. He looked up from the terminal and focused on me instead, raising an eyebrow.

“Find anything?” He asked.

“More ammo and not much else,” I replied. “How about you?”

The stallion sighed deeply and tapped at the keyboard a couple times.

“Nothing, really, just some test logs about that gun you found. Apparently, it was a prototype infiltrator rifle, they couldn’t get it to stop burning power cells though,” The stallion explained, “Last log on this thing is an evacuation order, makes sense that we haven’t seen any skeletons down here,” He added.

I sat on my haunches. Yeah, that was weird, the other bunker had been full of skeletons and looked as if it had been in chaos. This one just looked as if it had been carefully evacuated, with all the objects on the desks having been left unbothered for centuries.

“Fear. Do those logs have dates?” Narrative asked, moving closer to Pot.

The earth pony furrowed his brow and looked at the screen again.

“No…?” He replied. “I don’t know how to use these,” He added, tapping at the keyboard randomly.

“Fair enough,” Narrative relented.

“Why do you ask?” Pot said.

“No reason, really.” The machine droned. “Just curious as to just how long it has been,”

Pot looked at the bobbing brain with a mixture of concern and pity, but he said nothing, instead turning his head to look at me.

“In any case, we should really get out of here,” The stallion said.

“Aww but don’t you want to see what else is in here?” I asked, almost jumping in excitement.

“No, no I don’t,” Pot replied, rolling his eyes. “I want to get out of here and fuck off to the first town I can find,” He added, slowly raising his tone.

My ears drooped slightly, I really wanted to explore this place. But the more I thought about it, the more Pot seemed to have a point. This was no place for an injured surface dweller down here.

“Can’t we at least look for some more ammunition?” I asked. “There has to be a stockpile somewhere,” I added, looking up and towards the door.

“You already have enough bullets, and I’d rather not have that monster breathing down our necks while we’re digging around,” Said the earth pony.

I huffed loudly.

“That’s so unfair! We could find cool stuff down here!” I pouted, crossing my forelegs.

“Maybe, I don’t want to risk my life looking for it,” Pot stated, stomping on the desk with his forehoof.

“I agree with Pot, we should leave while we can,” Narrative stated. “The sentry guns being inactive was a stroke of good luck, but we don’t know what could reactivate them,”

I grumbled, rolling my eyes.

“Well I’m going to go check some of the other rooms, you two can do whatever you want,” I said, furrowing my brow.

Pot staggered back, as if I had struck him.

“You’re unbelievable…” He muttered. “I can’t even tell you to go get yourself killed because he can’t get away from you,” He added, shooting a worried glance at Narrative.

I smiled smugly.

“Soooooo… does that mean we’re exploring?” I asked, cocking my head to the side and wiggling my eyebrows at the earth pony.

Pot gave me a hard glare, keeping his brow furrowed. My smile didn’t falter, however, causing the stallion to sigh with dejection.

“Okay, how’s this, we’ll look for the way out of here, and you can check any rooms we find along the way,” He offered.

I considered his words. Depending on how lucky we were in guessing the direction of the exit, I might get to explore a sizeable chunk of the facility. It wouldn’t be the same as carefully going room by room checking stuff, but it was acceptable.

“Okay, that sounds good,” I said, nodding.

“Anger. You are going to get us all killed,” Narrative protested.

“Whaaaaat? Nah, nothing bad will happen to you two while I’m around! I’m the hero of the surface!” I said with a wide smile. “Come on, let’s go explore!” I added, heading towards the door.

“Let’s go find the exit, you mean,” Pot stated, his tone stern.

“Yeah yeah whatever,” I agreed, itching to go see what else could be down here.

We walked out of the shooting gallery room we had been hiding in. I kept my rifle up, scanning both sides of the hallway for any sign of the monster. A quick glance at my EFS confirmed that it was nowhere near us… or it was dead. I looked at the floor, seeing a trail of blood heading back down the hallway we had come.

“We should head the other way,” Pot said, pointing at the furthest hallway from the one the monster had disappeared down.

“I agree,” Narrative stated.

Both of my companions looked at me with pleading stares. Or well… Pot did, Narrative just kind of bobbed silently in his brain jar thing.

“Yeah, sure,” I agreed, nodding.

Pot let out a relieved sigh and then started limping his way down the hall, glancing back to make sure I was following. I walked behind the stallion until we reached the other main hallway. It looked almost identical to the one we had walked down on the other side of the connecting one where the shooting range had been. I jumped along happily until I reached one of the many doors that lined the walls.

“Let’s see what we have in here~” I said with a smug grin, pressing the button next to the door.

My grin melted away into a frown when the door refused to open. I pushed the button again, but the door refused to open, much to my dismay.

“What’s wrong with this one?” I asked aloud, hitting the button again.

Pot cleared his throat, drawing my attention back to him.

“Leave it, let’s keep going,” He said, gesturing down the hallway.

“Fiiiine,” I relented.

Not wanting to be disheartened, I rushed past the stallion and stopped in front of the next door. I smacked the button on it, but once again it refused to open. I groaned, hitting the button as hard as I could.

“Oh come on!” I exclaimed. “Why did the one in the room we fell into open on the first try?”

“If I were to make an educated guess, I’d say the emergency lock on these doors only allows them to be opened from inside the rooms,” Narrative explained.

“But that’s so dumb! What if you forgot something inside while you’re evacuating?” I asked, pouting.

“Then you leave it, you’re supposed to leave as quickly as possible,” The robot responded.

I huffed in annoyance and walked up to the third door, hitting the button and finding that it also didn’t want to open. I looked down the hallway in frustration, looking at all the doors that I wouldn’t be able to open. As I did, however, I spotted a large figure in the middle of the hall.

“Hey, what’s that?” I chirped, darting towards it.

“Black Light, wait! It could be dangerous!” Pot said from behind me, trying to keep his volume under control.

I ignored him, walking closer to the figure as an odd feeling of deja vu washed over me. As I drew closer, I realized where the feeling was coming from. The machine in the middle of the hall was a spitting image of Narrative’s robot body, with the main difference being that the brain jar at the front was filled with some dark red sludge instead of a brain. Pot and Narrative caught up with me while I examined the robot.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It looks like you, Narrative,” Pot said. “Only like… more dead,”

Narrative got closer to the derelict machine, poking it with one of his claws.

“Sad. I hope they had their mind wiped before getting put in there. Dying alone in an abandoned bunker sounds like an awful way to go,” He droned.

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“What do you mean ‘mind wipe’?” I asked.

“Sad. Brainbots use real pony brains as their central processor, usually, they are donated brains that have anything important wiped from them to maximize their utility,” Narrative explained.

“Why didn’t they wipe you?” Pot asked, cocking his head to the side.

“I was kept as a prisoner, but getting my mind wiped was a common threat during interrogation,” Narrative said, He remained silent for a couple seconds before pulling on the other brainbot’s claw almost absentmindedly. “Actually, I have a question, is this robot colored like me?”

I looked at it with a little more attention. While Narrative was mostly colored with dull yellow and some black accents, this brain bot looked to just be a uniform dark gray.

“No, they’re different,” Pot said. “Why?”

“Happy. Can you see the sensor talisman on the front?” Narrative asked.

“Yeah? Its green,” I said, leaning over the front of the derelict machine and spotting the small round object.

“Happy. Excellent, do you have a knife on you?” The robot asked. “This is a servant brainbot, its sensor is way better than mine,” He added.

I smiled widely as I levitated Barbed Wire’s combat knife out of my saddlebags, poking the tip of the knife into the edge of the sensor and popping it out. There was a long braid of wires attached to the back of the device, and something about the way it hung made it almost feel like I had just popped somepony’s eye out of its socket.

“Disconnect it carefully,” Narrative said.

My magic flared up, wrapping around the dangling talisman and giving it a solid tug. The wires went taunt and remained firmly attached. I poured a little more magic into the spell, slowly prying it loose until it eventually popped free.

“Got it!” I squeaked, dropping the talisman into one of the saddlebags that were tied to Narrative’s sides.

We kept going for a short while, with me getting progressively more frustrated at every door that refused to open. One of the doors in the hall, however, was different from the rest. It seemed to be made out of some sort of ballistic glass, with a black net-like texture on it. What really caught my attention, however, was the big sign on top of the door that read ‘Security’. My heart did a small somersault at the sight, could this be where the ammo was kept? My excitement was mostly dashed when I hit the button on the side of the door and saw it refuse to move.

“Oh no, not this one!” I exclaimed, wrapping the door in my magic and yanking on it with all my might.

“Fear. Stop, you might trip an alarm,” Narrative exclaimed.

“B- but…” I pouted, almost feeling like I could cry.

I pressed my face into the glass, seeing that there were two cases with brand new 10mm pistols inside. And that was without mentioning the long line of magazines that were underneath them. I was practically salivating at the sight, and this damn door was in the way!

With a frustrated grunt, I pulled out my rifle and took aim at the door’s lock.

“Wait-!” Pot shouted, but it was too late.

Three shots rang out, all three ricocheting off the lock and hitting the walls and ceiling. I turned around and bucked the door as hard as I could, yelling out in frustration. Almost as soon as I had started shouting, I felt a hoof wrap around my face, holding my muzzle shut. I stared with widened eyes at pot as he held my head, he looked absolutely mortified.

“Shut the fuck up, you’re gonna make that thing come back!” He chided.

I wasn’t going to take that, not when I couldn’t open that damn door. My horn surged, blasting Pot off me and onto the floor. He let out a pained grunt when he fell, immediately snapping me out of my frenzy.

“Oh sweet Celestia! Are you okay?” I asked, crouching down next to the fallen stallion.

“Y- yeah I just-” He started, but he fell silent when a loud roar boomed from down the hallway.

I looked up and managed to make out the vague figure of the beast, standing in the half-darkness of the emergency lights. I looked down at Pot, using a quick flash of magic to pull him back onto his hooves.

“Get away from here, both of you, I have an idea,” I said, smirking as I gave the security door a mischievous grin.

Pot looked at me with concern, but he nodded and looked at Narrative. The machine said nothing, instead he simply stretched out a claw and let Pot rest some of his weight on him, limping further down the hallway. I nodded and turned to face down the monster, bringing my rifle up to take aim.

The beast was very clearly injured. It was keeping all of its weight off it’s right forelimb, and its left one wasn’t doing too much better. Thick streams of blood poured down its left side from the multiple times I had shot it. Its eyes, however, still looked as hideous as they had the first time I had seen it.

Wanting to make absolutely sure that I had its undivided attention, I took aim and fired. The bullet flew exactly where I wanted it to, opening a long gash on the side of the monster’s eye. It gave an ear-splitting screech before charging right at me. Such a simple mind… I thought, smirking.

As the creature approached, I slowly took a few steps towards the security gate, making sure that I was standing right up against it. Come on… just a little further… I thought.

“Come on you ugly bastard!” I shouted at the monster.

It seemed to work, as it picked up the pace slightly. Just before it reached me, the monster lept slightly into the air and swung its wounded left forelimb at me. It was a sluggish, pathetic attempt at a strike. And one I dodged with ease, dropping onto the floor and letting the claw fly directly into the security gate I had been standing in front of.

“Missed me!” I shouted.

I let go of my rifle, dropping it softly on the floor, before turning my head upward and firing a magic beam into the beast’s face. I quickly wrapped my telekinesis around the gun and rolled to the side, avoiding the creature’s downward swipe, which also struck the security door.

“Come on, are you even trying to hit me?” I asked with a chuckle.

With a roar, the monster threw its entire body at me, trying to hit me with its jaws instead of its claw. I sidestepped the attack, watching the hairless creature soar past me and belly flop onto the floor. Just for good measure, I darted forward and gave it a quick kick on the swollen, dislocated right shoulder.

My ears drooped when the beast let out an incredibly loud screech, clutching at its wounded shoulder with its other claw. I opened my mouth for another quip, but I shut it when I suddenly saw the monster whirl around. I dodged almost on instinct, throwing myself at the ground as the creature spun into what I could only describe as a roundhouse kick. The muscular and deformed leg soared over me, brushing past my ears before slamming into the middle of the door, sending it flying into the security room.

“Ha! Missed me agai-” I started to say, but I was cut off by the screaming of alarm claxons.

The world seemed to stand still for a moment as all the turrets in the hallway suddenly buzzed to life, their sensors lighting up in with an aggressive red glow.

“Fuck-” I managed to say before a hailstorm of energy beams started to pour out of every gun.

Almost subconsciously, I slipped into SATS, feeling time slow down to a crawl. I stared around at the many guns that lined the hall, their magical beams slowly flying out of the barrels. By some miracle, they all seemed to be aiming at the monster instead of me or my friends, probably trying to hit the largest target.

I needed a plan, and I needed it fast.

Okay… can I destroy them before they kill us? I wondered, focusing on the closest turret. SATS highlighted the different parts, but the one that drew my attention the most was the large red talisman underneath the barrel. The targeting spell classified it as ‘sensor array’, maybe if I took that out, the gun would be disabled!

It’s worth a shot…

I selected the turret directly above me, one shot. My eyes moved to the next turret over, the one that separated me from Narrative and Pot. Two shots cued for that one’s talisman. And then finally I moved to the gun directly above Pot, setting up my final shot on its talisman.

The spell took charge, whipping my gun upward and firing. The sensor exploded into a shower of sparks and small pieces that fell around me like rain while the gun whipped around to the second turret. I immediately regretted using two shots for it when I saw the first one fly straight through the sensor.

The second shot made me find a new appreciation for this rifle, however. It might not look pretty, but I couldn’t argue with the precision after seeing the second bullet fly perfectly through the hole left by the first.

SATS pulled my rifle towards the last turret, firing almost immediately. It was a little too far away, even for me. My shot ricocheted off the gun’s armor, harmlessly biting into the wall next to it. Before the turret had even registered the shot, however, I brought the gun up to my face and took aim, firing my last shot myself.

Direct hit, a third sensor talisman exploded into sparks. My hunch seemed to have been correct, as the three turrets I had shot hung limp from their perch, blinded.

But there were more than three turrets in the hallway. The beast had decided to run in the opposite direction, clawing desperately at the turrets as they pelted it with magical beams. Silently thankful for it drawing some of the aggro, I started to rush towards Pot and Narrative.

I reloaded my rifle as fast as I possibly could while I ran, slamming a new magazine into place and letting the empty one fall to the floor. The rifle floated right up to my face again as I took aim at the next turret. It seemed to be out of range, as it hadn’t started shooting, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Three shots rang out, with the final one hitting the sweet spot.

As I approached my friends, I noticed that there was another connecting hallway ahead. With any luck, it would have another door that we could open, like the shooting gallery one.

“Follow me!” I shouted, getting a nod in response from a thoroughly horrified Pot.

One more turret to take down… I thought. Not wanting to take any chances, I slipped into my partially recharged SATS spell and lined up the shot. One trigger pull, one less turret to worry about. We made our way towards the hall. As we moved, I heard the monster give out one last pained cry before a loud thumping sound filled the facility.

The sound of turret fire was almost immediately replaced by an eerie silence as my friends and I slowly crept forward. I took a potshot at the next turret before we were close enough for it to shoot back, needing both of my remaining bullets to finally hit it.

Down to twelve shots… I counted as I reloaded the gun again. I looked back with a frown at the magazine I had dropped while I was running towards Pot. It was too late to go back for it now, but maybe after we had found a way out of this mess.

We reached the hallway, but were forced to retreat slightly when I peeked into it and was immediately met by a barrage of turret fire.

“Okay genius, what’s the next step of your master plan?” Pot demanded, he sounded more angry than scared.

I looked at the hallway opening, then at my rifle.

“Wait… I think I have a plan…” I said, smiling when I turned the weapon over and saw the energy cell.

“What are-?” Pot started, but he fell silent when I floated the gun up to touch my shoulder with the stock and pressed the button under the barrel.

The effect of no longer seeing my hooves below me was strange to say the least, but I knew that I didn’t have any time to waste with it. I jumped into the hallway, still cloaked in invisibility, and wasn’t immediately blasted to shreds by the turret. Aiming carefully while making sure to never stop touching the gun, I shot the turret twice.

The invisibility didn’t affect the muzzle flash in the slightest, leading to a small moment of fear when the turret twisted towards the flash. Fortunately it was only for a moment, as it quickly joined its brothers in the hallway in limply hanging from the roof.

“Got it!” I said as I released the button, fading back into the visible world.

Narrative and Pot walked out of the main hall behind me. With the earth pony giving the turret a worried glance before glaring at me.

“How did you know it wouldn’t shoot you anyway?” He asked.

“I didn’t,” I replied, smiling.

“Oh no none of those stupid little jokes,” The earth pony shouted, stomping on the floor. “Look at the fucking mess you put us in, Black Light!”

I looked around for a moment, trying to find what exactly he was so mad about. Sure the turrets were back online, but at least all three of us were unharmed.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Pot’s left eye twitched.

“Fuck you! You’ve done nothing but drag us around’ like a bloody idiot, and all we ‘ave to show for it is a slow death down here!” He bellowed, his accent slipping into his voice a little more. “We’re gonna bloody die down here, trapped by those damn turrets, and it’s all yer fault,” He finished, pointing at my chest.

My ears drooped at his disheartening words, it wasn’t like I was trying to reactivate the turrets! I was just-

What is… that…? I wondered, my right ear twitching as it picked up… something.

“-And to top it all off, you haven’t even said sorry for forcing us to go along with yer insanity!” Pot continued ranting, but I was more focused on the new sound.

“Wait, shut up… do you hear that?” I said, raising a forehoof to silence the angry earth pony.

“Don’t you bloody shush me! I’m gonna fucking-“ Pot started again, but I wrapped my magic around his muzzle, slamminf it shut.

“I said, shut up,” I repeated, giving him a slight squeeze as a warning.

The stallion nodded vigorously, his eyes wide with terror. Having made my point, I let him go and raised my head, trying to pick up the sound again.

There it is… I thought as my left ear swiveled towards it.

Apparently it was coming from inside a door in the middle of the connecting hallway. If the shooting gallery was anything to go by, this one should be open too. I tapped the button and found that yes, indeed, this door was open. But what I saw on the other side was definitely not a shooting gallery.

The room beyond the door held a single large device, shaped like a cylinder. Within its core there stood a large stone object, covered in tubes and wires and held firmly inside a glass tube.

I approached it, almost in a trance. I could hear it, the beautiful melody. It called to me.

It called to me, to Black Light, to the hero of the surface.

“What… is that…?” Pot whimpered from behind me.

“Fear. Do not approach it,” Narrative added.

“Can’t you hear it?” I asked, confused as to why my friends didn’t want to come into the room with me.

Pot had been angry… I couldn’t remember why. Narrative had just said that he was afraid… but how could he? Could his body not let him hear the melody?

That had to be it, maybe they just couldn’t hear it! I had to show it to them. Somehow I had to find a way to-

The flute! I thought triumphantly as I sat down in front of the machine, almost touching the thick acrylic pane that separated me from the rock thing. I reached into my saddlebag and brought out Shrapnel’s flute, feeling a strange tingling sensation in my horn as the magic coarsed through it.

I had never played an instrument in my life, let alone one as seemingly complex as the flute I now held. It was completely covered in small holes, seemingly designed to produce many different notes. Forgoing my magic, I sat down on my haunches and brought the flute up to my lips.

My limbs moved on their own accord as I provided air, mimicking the melody almost to perfection. It was relatively simple, but it still held a slight air of melancholy to it. As soon as I finished it, however, the stone started it anew.

“Stop it!” Pot pleaded from somewhere behind me.

The stone sang out the first notes again, and I followed along with my flute, matching it again. I noticed that it was rotating, with the many strange symbols that adorned its surface locking into place as it shifted around in its enclosure. The melody started again for a fourth time, but now the stone grew louder and somehow even more beautiful.

My flute dropped to the floor as I sat there, swaying softly from side to side as the rock kept shifting and rotating. It was no rock, this thing was a talisman, and it was getting ready to work for the first time in centuries. I heard vague mumblings behind me, as if somepony were screaming something. Why did they scream? Were they trying to drown out the music?

Beams of light fired out of the talisman, bouncing around the acrylic protection. Cracks appeared on the surface as more beams poured out of the talisman, all of them eventually condensing into three. The lights focused on me, making a spider web of cracks form on the acrylic right in front of my face. The little pony in my head tried to scream at me to run, to move, to do anything, but I silenced it. Could it not hear the music either? No… it couldn’t be… my mind was part of me.

Unless a part of me couldn’t hear it… I realized. It was a terrible, awful revelation. But it was one with a simple fix. All I needed was to sit still and wait… or so I thought.

The acrylic shattered as if it had been made out of glass, letting the beams of light blast directly into me. The first struck my side, hitting my saddlebag. The second hit my chest, making my heart slow to almost a crawl. And the third hit me squarely in the head.

Despite being made of light, the beams hit me with the force of a hammer. The music stopped almost immediately, ripping me out of my trance nearly as violently as I had fallen into it.

“Black Light!” Pot shouted from behind me, but it was too late.

The beams of light launched me backwards as if I had been shot out of a cannon. I soared through the air for almost a full second before slamming into the wall with a wet crunching sound. My view exploded into a mix of abstract shapes as I flopped to the floor, hitting my forehead against the steel plates hard.

I tried to get up, but I seemed to have lost all balance, instead only being able to flop around uselessly. The coppery taste of blood flooded my mouth, with the same strange warmth pouring out of my nose and… eyes?

I raised a forehoof to touch my right eye, pulling it away to see a small spot of blood on it. That couldn’t be good. Something made a muffled noise over to my right, and I turned to see a blue blob make its way towards me.

“P- poh…?” I started, but the moment I opened my mouth I was nearly overcome by nausea.

A shaky forehoof reached up to touch the back of my head, which was hurting a little. The hoof felt around for a moment, but all I could feel was the usual soft and squishy stuff.

Wait… isn’t my skull supposed to be there?

STABLE-TEC UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM

COPYRIGHT 1624 - 1626 STABLE-TEC

Biographical Registry System v.147

Full name: Evening Clouds

Classification: Pegasus stallion – 83 years of age – C-f2f2fe M-3a364b E-e2570d

Cutie mark: A moon behind two clouds.

Evening Clouds was a park ranger who was born in Cloudsdale. He spent most of his days watching over the woods near Neighagra falls, where he was particularly fond of the many different birds that called it home.

As he grew older, he retired from the park ranger business and decided to spend his days with the birds that he loved feeding. During the evenings, the old stallion could be seen soaring above the treeline alongside his feathery friends.

He would eventually pass away of natural causes. Having no surviving family, his body was donated to the up and coming equestrian scientific revolution, where his brain would be harvested and turned into one of the many brain bot workers.

The machine that now bore his brain had any trace of the old stallion’s personality completely wiped. Yet despite this, the robot it was in had a soft spot for birds, and would sometimes be seen offering small sticks to them so they could build their nests. After the bombs fell and the MoI facility it was in got abandoned, the brain bot suffered a catastrophic failure and went offline.

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