Secrets

CHAPTER 32: SECRETS

"What I do now will guarantee the continued survival of our province's future."

Thatch paced himself across the center of a small dark room. Overhead a single light-fixture hung from the rocky ceiling, casting a bright pillar of white light down upon a polished steel table. A single iron door at the end of the room was the only exit -- shrouded in the shadows.

Behind the table, sitting on low stools was the Warden, and a miner. Tied around the Miner's right foreleg, a green stained bandage concealed a deep laceration underneath. Gently glistening against the metal rims of their glowing goggles the two creatures watched Thatch stomp about the room, seething.

The warmest of Thatch’s blood flushed into his cheeks, as his heart beat at a great speed. Pausing in front of the table's center he turned to the two miners, putting one hoof on the cold gleaming tabletop.

"What in the hell were you doing!?"

Both miners held a stiff, upright posture whilst remaining completely silent.

Lifting his other hoof onto the table, Thatch leaned over to the miners. "Answer me! Now!"

The light above bounced off his sturdy figure, blanketing all but his eyes in shadow. "We're not leaving until one of you speaks up!"

The miner sitting beside the Warden looked up at Thatch. "I warn Warden. Intruders were in the mine."

"Yes, there were ponies from the outside in the mine," Thatch replied sweetly, "but do you know why?"

The miners didn't answer.

Thatch barked, "Because we wanted them to come in!"

"Intruder is intruder." The Warden commented. "No mercy for intruder. Only death."

Planting his hoof squarely upon his brow, Thatch sighed, "Naturally, yes. But it was our emperor's plan to let them in."

"Our?" The miner hissed, drawing his head back. "Our?!"

The Warden shook his head at Thatch. "We are not surface Legion. We are Miners. We are strong."

Glaring at the Warden, Thatch interjected, "No, you are not part of the Legion. But so long as Iron Hammer remains unfinished you work for us!"

Leaning intently toward the Warden, Thatch's body hovered over the entire table. "You. Work. For. Us. Period!"

Leaping down from the table, Thatch began pacing himself again. "If Emperor Vladimir has a plan, we must obey. If we obey him, so do you. There are no questions, or remarks that need to be made. At all."

Once more the miners said nothing.

Stopping in the center of the room, Thatch exhaled through his nostrils. "Now, back to my initial question: what were you doing chasing them? Had you not heard about the plan?"

"I see intruder. I follow intruder. I get Warden. I find -- rip, kill intruder." The Miner said.

"I bring more miners. Stop intruders." The Warden added.

Adjusting the breather on his mask, the Warden wheezed, "They almost break me. They dishonor the mine. Defile it with surface smell."

"Well now," Thatch chuckled, "wouldn't that be a crime!"

Thatch slumped his haunches down on the coarse, damp rock of the mine floor, across from his miner counterparts. "Had no one told you? Not a word?"

The miners did not answer.

"You know, many miners were injured or hurt during that little stunt of yours. All on account of your actions."

Gazing at the miner’s eyes Thatch saw nothing. Underneath the green eerie glow of their goggles no emotion, nor thought could be seen. They were complete enigmas, staring blankly at him.

"Well?" Thatch spat. "Anything? Anything at all?"

Not even a cough came from the two.

The door's heavy handle clicked, thunderously ringing throughout the room. Pushing the door open, Ventures poked his stout pudgy head through the crack he made.

"Am I interrupting the intervention? I have some news regarding Vladimir's position."

Glancing over his shoulder, Thatch shook his head. "No... No not at all."

Returning to the Warden and the miner, Thatch whispered, "This discussion isn't over. If I hear even so much as a scuffle from a miner today I'll punish the both of you! Do I make myself clear?"

In unison, the miners nodded.

"Good," Thatch growled, "now get out..."

The miners scooted their seats back letting out a cringing shriek as the legs rubbed against the floor. Rising together the miners strolled side by side out of the room. General Ventures watched them cross the doorway, and vanish into the dark hallway outside.

Shuffling to one of the stools, Thatch allowed his flank to rest upon the warmed seat. Laying the side of his head on the chilled steel tabletop he sighed feeling a slight ache develop within the top of his cranium.

"What am I going to do, Ventures?" Thatch groaned.

The multitude of medals adorning Venture's chest clamored about as he approached the table. "What do you mean?"

"Vladimir left me in charge of Iron Hammer’s operations... Me, of all ponies, has to deal with the miners."

"The stress of the job is finally getting to you, huh?" Ventures chuckled taking the stool next to Thatch.

Barely able to sit on the stool, Ventures wobbled about correcting his flank from falling off of one side.

Thatch scoffed, "Stressed doesn't even begin to describe it..."

"Suck it up soldier," Ventures scoffed sticking a hoof in one of his uniform pockets, "though there’s no shame in dulling it."

Removing his hoof from the pocket, Ventures held a circular drinking flask. "It's got some strong stuff in it. Takes a load right off of you. Though, I myself still prefer finely aged red wine."

Resting the flask on the table, Thatch picked it up -- removing the tiny silver lid. Placing it to his lips, the burning brown liquid within ran down his throat, numbing whatever it touched with its torrid qualities.

As the whiskey settled in his stomach, Thatch gasped for air. Tightening the lid, he slid it back to Ventures.

"I swear," Thatch remarked, "before the project came this close to being complete the miners never acted this way..."

"You think they're losing it? Finally snapping at the pressure of working under a superior order?"

"Perhaps," Thatch said raising his head, "I'll have to keep a keen eye on what the Warden and his rats do from now on."

Expelling the air from his lungs, Thatch looked to the ceiling, "Maybe this whole ordeal is a sign from Celestia, telling me I'm not fit for this position."

Slapping Thatch forcefully upon the back, Ventures countered, "You could always hand it over to me! I wouldn’t mind having to sit around in the warm mine tunnels for awhile!"

"It sounds nice, doesn’t it?” Thatch sighed. “You have no idea what it’s like to work with those tunnel rats. You just have to ensure the patrols don't die in the city, and how hard could that be?"

A wide grin plastered Venture's pudgy face, forming even more wrinkled rings under his bulging chin. "When you have soldiers like mine, you begin to wonder why we found four of our own knocked completely out cold in a passenger car outside the mine completely stripped of their armor!"

The comment gave Thatch a crooked smirk. "That explains how they got the uniforms..."

"Hmm, what was that?" Ventures stammered shaking his head.

"Oh, nothing... Nothing at all." Thatch answered under his breath.

Erecting his ears, Thatch leaned on the edge of the table. "Now, what was that you were about to mention on the location of our emperor?"

Frigid water collected along the low glossy ceiling of a narrow tunnel. Walking in a single-file line, Neo followed behind the Freelancer, and tailing him was his brother. Droplets of the chilled liquid fell down onto their drooping heads, hovering over the nauseating rancid odors lifting from the squelching mud of the ground.

The air was heavily saturated with cool damp air. A stark contrast from the incinerating inferno of the mine. Both brothers hooves sank into the cold musk squishing underneath them. Against the pools of water puddled in the irregular dips within the mud, the orange light of their Pipbuck lamps shimmered off onto the walls.

Smelling the dank vapors of the mud lift up to his nose, Neo grimaced. "Hey, do you know how long the way is until we're out of here?"

Neo's voice carried far down the tunnel, alongside the soft splats of their hooves pressing against mud. "We'll be there soon. It's just a little farther up." The Freelancer answered.

Looking up at the rough, tattered duster flap at the mysterious stallion's side, Neo snorted the musky fumes from the ground out his nostrils. "Is that all you're going to say?"

"Is there anything else I need to?" The Freelancer replied.

Neo paused for a moment. "Well you could start by giving me your name. You could also enlighten me a little bit on how you were free inside the mine."

The soft hairs upon Vladimir's nape went stiff. A name was needed to keep his identity hidden. Even with his eyes changed, and his appearance altered a hint of who he was lingered about him.

Gulping down a coarse lump inside his throat, Vladimir muttered, "I told you we'd discuss it once we got out."

Neo narrowed his gaze at the stranger, stopping right where he stood in tunnel. Halting his pace, Vladimir peaked over his shoulder at the agitated white stallion, blotched in with wet brown smudges across his legs.

Adam's snout bumped into Neo's flank, sending him stumbling backward -- continuing on the cycle of ponies nudging into one another all the way down the line.

Lucy looked over the multitude of Zebras, ponies, and bodies at Neo. "What's the hold up?"

"One second Lucy. I need to figure something out first." Neo responded, keeping his eyes set on the Freelancer.

Vladimir didn't turn to face Neo, nor did he feel compelled to in the narrow space they traveled in. "Who are you?" Neo inquired. "Who? And I’m not moving until I get some answers!"

Feeling a deep icy wind flush briskly throughout his body, Vladimir bit his lower lip gently. "My name?"

Bodiless, the specter chuckled in his ear, "Well? The boy asked you ask question. Don't leave him answerless."

"My name," Vladimir stammered, "is... Ranger."

Neo's ears perked up at the answer, "Ranger?"

Vladimir nodded once. "Yes. My name is Ranger. I'm new to the order... I joined just a little while before I was captured by Legion scouts outside of the city's border."

Taking a step toward Vladimir, Neo added, "And what were you doing outside of the city?"

"What will you say to that, I wonder... Be quick! It’ll look suspicious if you sit about gaping for too long." The creature whispered in Vladimir's ear.

"I was searching for something," Vladimir answered, "searching for the Coalition project... I have information for them that Cool Blue obtained on Iron Hammer."

"How did you know where to go?" Neo commented.

"She has information on everything, even the project. The map I was given was taken from me before I escaped."

Scanning the stallion's bulging saddlebags, and disheveled attire, Neo continued, "What do you need to take to them?"

The voice of the apparition lightened into a full consistent laugh, "Oh! I think he has you now!"

Vladimir barely turned his head around to see Neo. Out of the corner of his vision, Neo could be seen staring up at him with a sincere glare. Speaking in a firm tone Vladimir answered, "Plans on how to destroy Ironhammer. I'm sure a guardian like you would know about it, correct?"

Drawing himself back, Neo shook his head in disbelief. "You have what?!"

Adam leaned forward, his mouth agape. "R-Really? How? Why you?"

Holding a stern gaze on Neo, Vladimir retorted, "Because I was the only one to volunteer."

Luring his eyes back down to the marshy ground of cold mud encasing both hooves, Neo felt his stomach plummet. Vladimir returned his sights forward, lifting one hoof off of the floor. "I'm sorry I had to stay quiet about it. I know you may not trust me, but know that I want nothing more than to see the Coalition liberate this land. With Ironhammer gone, we can finally take the final steps to freeing this province."

"Now," Vladimir added hastily, "if you don't mind, I'd like to remove ourselves from this ghastly tunnel."

Once more Vladimir started to walk down the tunnel -- following behind Neo rose his own feet, stepping in Ranger's hoof prints ingrained within the sodden earth beneath them. If what he said was true, any ounce of it, then indeed he would make for a powerful ally. But something still stirred inside of him. The same sinking in his gut, and tingle running along the back of his neck.

A familiar tone pestered Neo about the newcomer. In Ranger's deep purple eyes that familiarity was lost. Who ever he was -- whatever he was eluded Neo. He would just have to piece the truth together, one step at a time.

In the middle of a desolate street, amidst dozens of skyscrapers towering high above into the black chemically saturated clouds, thunder boomed. In a narrow alleyway, the two brick walls on either side were adorned with posters, worn and faded by time, tearing limply at their dirt-stain corners. A manhole at the far end of the alley shook. Rattling about, Vladimir's head propped the side of heavy metal seal up. Sticking his nose out of the hole the weight of the metal piece forcefully pressed against the back of his head.

The longer the seal continued to lean on him, the greater the stress of its hefty lid made his head ache. With his horn dimly encased in a halo of crimson magical aura, the manhole cover levitated off of him, and over to the side. Climbing out of the hole, Vladimir helped those still inside, out.

One at a time every soul confined to the condensed space of the tunnel below emerged into the outside world. There was little difference in the quality of the air. Like the quality had been outside the mine it held a bitter, putrid smell that resembled sulfur, burning in a hot flame.

A cool breeze, sickening in its odor, brushed lightly against the coats of the group. Two Sock strolled to the end of the alley, where the sidewalk met the road.

As Two Socks approached the sidewalk he tossed aside the Legion helmet -- taking in a deep, stomach-turning breath the wind graced the beads of sweat specking his cheeks.

"I'm done with that helmet..." Two Socks panted plunking his haunches down upon the broken cement.

Lucy did the same, only rather, she threw her helmet violently against the nearby brick wall. Retaining a wide smirk she boomed, "Goodbye helmet!"

Pulling the chest piece over her shoulders, it too was flung at the wall with the same tremendously passionate force. Those still suited in the Legion attire undressed. The tight armor no longer constricting their bodies was a rejuvenating sensation.

For the first time since they had disguised themselves -- they could breath. Dropping the freshly removed breastplate of his uniform, Neo inhaled through his nose.

Allowing his chest to fully inflate, Neo held in the air, before releasing it all. Returning to their old clothing of choice, the group started to gather in the center of the alleyway, while Vladimir trotted to the sidewalk, poking his head out to the street.

Adam spun, as the loose flaps of his duster twirled about. Smiling at the wonderful warmth his coat brought, Adam looked to Neo. "I can't believe you managed to get all my things!"

Laying a hoof to a seam along his left sleeve, Adam chuckled, "You know, I wasn't sure if I'd see my stuff again."

"Common’," Neo laughed patting Adam squarely on the back, "I wouldn't even think about leaving your stuff behind."

With shimmering eyes, Adam hugged his brother. "Thank you, brother."

Wrapping one leg around his brother, Neo returned the gesture.

Bill took a single step toward Neo, a beaming smile irradiating of his face. "Did ya get my stuff too?"

Neo's joints locked, as a swift chill flushed through him. "Uh...."

Bill's smile faded. "Ya did grab my stuff... Right?"

Slowly turning to face Bill, Neo rubbed the back of his neck, "Uh, well... No... Not exactly..."

Throwing his head back, Bill snapped, "What!?"

Waved a reassuring hoof at him, take a few cautionary steps backward. "I was under a lot of pressure!"

Briskly raising a hoof, Bill planted his face into it. "I had everything in there..."

Two Socks came to Bill's side, gently rubbing his back. "It's alright Bill, we'll get you new stuff -- shinier stuff."

Directing his eyes to Neo, Two Socks gazed at him smiling. "You know, I can't thank you enough for what you've done. For what all of you have done to help me save my friend."

The brothers, in unison, answered, "It was nothing."

"Not to me," Two Socks interjected, "I want to give you something. For all that you've done."

"Two Socks, you don't have to give us anything." Neo replied.

Shaking his head, Two Socks interjected sternly, "I'm sorry compadre, I can't do that. You see, that's not the way I do business. Saving my friend means the world to me, and having done that won’t feel right if you don't get something out of it."

"I got my brother back," Neo said, "and that's all I need."

"But," Lucy intervened stepping between them and forcing both to move aside, "I'll be more than willing to take what that reward. Need to fix up my wagon when I get back, and that won't be cheap."

Two Socks blinked at the mare, "I don't have any money... Well, not much anyway."

"What?" Lucy scoffed, her mouth agape.

Opening his saddle bag, Two Socks stuck a hoof inside digging through the plethora of junk filling the bags. From out of the bag, resting neatly in his hoof was a small grey lockbox. Upon the top of the box engraved in bold white letters was the words:

SECRET SHIT -- DO NOT TOUCH!

Resting the box down in front of him, Two Socks gracefully stroked the lid smiling. "I keep some of my most valued treasures in this box. Items from my travels across this blasted world of ours..."

Pushing the lid open, Two Socks took a round object, no bigger than a well-sized rock, from the lockbox. Wrapped entirely in a fine brown leather the item was light, weighing no more than a baseball.

"This," he said, "this is one of my most valued possessions. I want you to have it."

Lucy let her head droop, "But I needed the money..."

"Perhaps next time," Wester remarked carefully patting her back, "perhaps next time."

Adam came to Two Socks, levitating the trinket from his hoof to his face. Peering intently at the strange item Adam said, "We can't take this... Especially if it means that much to you."

"If you don't take it," Two Socks retorted, "I'll scream."

The very thought of Two Socks bellowing a grinding shriek for a long duration of time sent Adam reeling back. "No! No! N- I mean, sure, we’ll take it. Just please... please don’t scream."

With a slight bow of his head, Neo took the gift and placed it inside his bags.

"What are you going to do now that it's all over for you?" Asked Neo.

Shrugging, Two Socks answered, "Leave, I guess. Go find our caravan again. Travel the world some more."

Bill rose his head. "We'll also need to get me some new gear."

"Right," Two Socks agreed, "but first we need money."

Returning to Neo, Two Socks commented, "What about you lot? Are you gonna' still look for your mom?"

"We'll try." Neo sighed.

Bill said, "I guess this is goodbye then."

"Looks like it, huh?" Adam replied.

Two Socks, roughly rubbed his smudge coated cheeks with his sleeve. "I don't like goodbyes. They're too sad for my liking."

Bloodstrider cantered to Two Socks, who behind him not more than three feet away was the rest of his fellow striped soldiers. "We too shall be departing. Now that our debt has been paid."

Neo rested a hoof easily onto Bloodstrider’s shoulder, smiling affectionately at the blindfolded securely wrapped around the warrior’s eyes. “I can’t even begin to express my gratitude...”

Laying a hoof atop Neo's head, Bloodstrider smiled. "Warrior of the arena. Champion. This is not our final meeting."

Glancing at Bloodstrider's leg, Neo muttered, "It isn't?"

"No," the chief grunted, "though our payment has been served if you should need help, not as our champion, but as a friend of Tiger Company, to find us in the barn. There my people shall stay -- until we move to the border in three days time."

Neo nodded at the chief, a collection of tears pooling in the corners of his eyes. "Thank you."

Silently giving him a single nod, he directed the dots of his blindfold to Adam. "Adam. Keep watch over your brother. Trust in him as he has with you, and you shall never be parted again."

Adam smiled at Bloodstrider, "I will."

"The one they call: Two Socks." Bloodstrider proclaimed loudly over the group of ponies.

Snapping to attention, Two Sock's ears erected. "Yes?"

"You may travel with my brothers, if you should choose to, until we are out of the city."

"It would be an honor!" Two Socks erupted with a wide grin.

"Good," Bloodstrider snorted turning his head to the sky, "then let us make haste, before darkness settles over the land."

Trotting down the alleyway, Bloodstrider and the rest of his company strode off. Two socks followed them as Bill looked over his shoulder at the group waving. Adam waved his hoof in the air while Tiger Company eventually vacated the alley.

Vladimir saw them walk along the sidewalk, until they reached the next block. Vanishing behind the corner of an old banking building, he turned his sights to the rest of the group stationed in the center of the alley.

A soreness manifested in Vladimir's brow -- spreading quickly into the rest of his cranium. The scenery before him blurred as the pain gnawed away. Drawing the wine flask from his duster, he put the lid to his lips gulping the red sweet liquid down.

"So far so good." The creature hissed into his ear. "Let's see how far you'll make it..."

Retracting the cold metal flask from his mouth, his vision started to clear whilst the pain lifted itself from him.

It hasn't shown itself since I've been around them... Vladimir thought. Perhaps, my memories of her might just end the torment yet. I just hope it isn't listening. O' sweet lord Celestia I hope not.

Neo and the others approached Vladimir -- Neo holding a his eyes locked, and glaring at him as he came within two steps distance.

"So, what about you?" Neo asked Vladimir. "Are you going to continue your mission?"

"Indeed, I don't really see much else to do."

Raising an eyebrow at Neo, Vladimir queried, "What about you lot? Where might be your destination."

"The mountains." Neo returned sourly.

Rolling a hoof, Vladimir leaned toward Neo. "And, that’s your destination is it now?"

Puffing out his chest, Neo fumed, "That's all you need to hear."

Adam stuck a hoof out in front of Neo, chuckling lightly, "It's alright, brother. Let's not get frustrated over this."

Smirking at Neo, Vladimir held his head high. "It's very interesting that we should meet. For, you see, I too am heading up to the mountains."

"And where in the mountains might that be?" Neo grunted, overtly turning his eyes up at the grinning Freelancer.

"Just in the mountains, however that’s all I know, my map was taken from me." Lower his head down to Neo's eye level, Vladimir quipped, "Besides, if I knew more I couldn't say."

"And why is that?" Neo commanded.

Vladimir chortled once, "Because that would be all you needed to hear."

A heat, boiling deep within Neo flushed into his face as the Freelancer mocked him. A pushing urge to leap forward and launch his hoof in Ranger's face pecked at him. Adam's foreleg firmly placed in front of him prevented any confrontation he desired.

Diverting his attention to Adam, Vladimir asked with a more humble smile, "Would you mind if I came along? Fate did bring us together, and there is strength in numbers."

"Also," Vladimir added, "I know a shortcut into the mountains. I can assure you it is completely safe. In fact, I was on my way there just before the Legion took me into custody."

"No," Neo boomed, "we'll get along fine without your help. Right Adam?"

Adam was staring at the ash coated ground, silently.

Neo blinked at him. "Right... Adam?"

Drawing his Pipbuck up to his face, Adam sighed returning to his brother. "If we go on without him, we'll have to navigate to the peaks of the mountains before descending down them to the road we need to take."

"My way will cut right through the mountains. It'll save you a tremendous amount of grief." Vladimir noted.

Wester sauntered to Neo's side, "I'll be on full alert while we travel. If an ambush or other means of surprises await us, I'll know long before they attack us."

Taking in a full lung of air, Neo drown out the fire building within him. "Alright... But this doesn't mean that I trust you."

"I understand," Vladimir said, "and I don't blame you either. I know what it’s like to want to protect those you love."

"How far would you say this shortcut is, Ranger?" Lucy inquired.

Vladimir motioned his head toward the empty street. "Not far at all, actually... Ms.?"

"Lucky," Lucy stated, "but most folks call me Lucy."

"Right, Lucy," Vladimir continued, "it's just down the road from here, no more than a few blocks away."

"Good," Lucy scoffed lifting a hoof and loosely dangling it a few inches from the ground, "I'm tired of walking a dozen miles."

Vladimir laughed, "Excellent! Then let's not waste more time, shall we?"

Facing the street, Vladimir trotted out of the alleyway. Behind him Wester and Lucy followed with Neo hovering at the center his head hanging lowly to the broken asphalt. Big Lot gingerly ambled at the back, furtively moving along with the group.

Walking out into the middle of the road, Adam saw out of the corner of his vision the little sulking filly. Her ears had flattened themselves down, pressing the curly mane beneath. The glimmering sapphire eyes of the filly were looking to the road she traversed.

Adam veered back toward her, "Big Lot?"

The little one stared up at him, "What?"

Cocking his head to one side, Adam spoke tenderly to her, "Is there something wrong?"

Shaking her head vigorously she, replied, "No, nothing."

"Your ears are completely folded, and you’re lagging behind. By the way things are I'd say it doesn't look like nothing." Adam remarked.

Big Lot opened her mouth to speak, only to let out a low squeak. Promptly shutting her lips, she felt the an intense knotting fester within her chest.

"It's... I-It's your brother... And that armored one..." She whispered.

Adam shrugged. "What about them?"

Grimacing, the filly pointed her snout to her chest. "I feel strange... It kinda' hurts too... In my heart..."

"Maybe you should apologize to my brother, about what you did. Prove to him your not so bad. I think Wester’s forgiven you, but if you feel that way about how my brother acts around you it couldn’t hurt to say sorry."

Snapping her face up at Adam, Big Lot reeled back stumbling over her hooves. "What?! Say what to Mr. Cuddlepants?!"

Adam warmly responded. "I think it'll be good for you to make amends with him."

Puckering her lips, Big Lot sneered, "What does that even mean?"

"Does what mean?"

Big Lot rocked her head, drawing out the word. "Ah-mends."

Lightly placing a hoof atop her curly locks, Adam ruffled her mane. "It means to fix your problems with someone. To forgive one another for a wrong dividing the two of you."

Her face turned pale. "I don't know if I could... He hates me."

"My brother is a little stubborn, and he can be a little extreme at times..." Said Adam.

"But," he interjected swiftly, "his heart is in the right place. He just wants to make sure we're safe."

Moving his eyes to his brother, Adam smiled. "I could go with you -- if it makes you feel more comfortable."

Big Lot kept quiet -- cringing at the tiny knot twisting her heart tying it tighter each passing moment. A soft, reassuring pat gently tapped her back. Adam retained the same welcoming smile, gazing down at her.

"Just confront the issue when you feel ready." Adam cooed. "I'll be right there when you're ready, I promise."

Vladimir stood at the base of a long set of marble steps, thickly caked in ash, and dirt. Before him spanning hundreds of feet in both directions was colossal build -- bearing a facade adorned by shattered glass windows. Hulking white radiant columns smooth stone pillars, chipped by the elements supported the protruding rim of the stone pyramid roof.

A golden rimmed clock was perched right in the middle of the building's facade, scarred by a gashing white crack twisting across its face. Both the hour hand, and the minute hand of the dead machine stood frozen on the dusty number twelve. Below it sets of glass doors ripped from their frames lay idly inside, and outside the structure in a multitude of sharp pieces.

The dark empty windows held with them an unsettling gloom as the darkness within pervaded each one. This eerie aura stiffened the hairs along the back of Vladimir's neck while a shudder gusted itself through him. A torn banner of blue, white, and red horizontal stripes was strung by ropes attached to hooks upon the roof. Inscribed on the colorful sign in bold letters were the words:

PROVINCIAL PRIDE: THE NEW GRAND EXHIBIT
OPENING TOMORROW!

The entire group stared at the hollow structure, mutely gawking at its majesty.

"What was it?" Asked Neo.

"It’s a museum," Vladimir answered, "I've passed through it once long ago."

Facing Vladimir, Neo pondered aloud, "Can you remember why you came here?"

Vladimir's eyes trailed down to the fractured glass of the front entrance. "I came during a hunting trip when I was younger... Much, much younger..."

"Whoa..." Adam awed. "What sorts of exhibits do you think they had? Do you think they have any on pre-war tech?"

Shrugging, Vladimir started up the steps. "I can't say for sure, as I said, it’s been quite some times since my last visit. Why do you ask?"

Bounding up the steps, Adam responded with giddy haste, "The technology of the past is mysterious! Who knows what wonders were before then! Like, what were the previous generations of Pipbuck like? I've heard of them, but to see a real one would be awesome! Just imagine what kinds of circuitry lay underneath the-"

Adam paused mid-way through his sentence at the sight of Lucy, who was staring widely at him. "You done yet?"

Adam’s cheeks bloomed into a rosy hue, as he viciously rubbing the back of his neck grinning nervously, "H-Hehe... Couldn’t help myself."

Approaching the front doors leading into the museum, Vladimir promptly chirped, "We all have our interest."

The doors Vladimir came to had been blasted apart from their hinges. Spilled out across the empty steel frames of the doors laying upon the matted purple carpet were sheets of compressed pebbles of glass. Crunching under the weight of their hooves, the group wandered carefully over the shards, and into the building.

The foyer of the museum was drenched by pitch darkness. Piercing the shadow narrow shafts of dim light from the outside seeped through holes in the damaged windows above the entrance. Switching on their orange Pipbuck lamps, a halo of fluorescent illumination beamed off the walls, peeling the dark back and revealing the interior.

A round reception desk was placed at the back wall, and climbing up to the next floor wreathing around it were two staircases. Dull rusted railings accompanied a red moth bitten carpet laid over the black and white marble steps. Above the desk, in crooked bulging silver letters hanging thinly by jutted poles were the words:

"Through knowledge we can prepare for the unknown. Through knowledge we can overcome the unknown. Through knowledge we can tame it as our own."

- Governor Stormfury

Big Lot, ambling her way past the entrance, came to the front desk peering over the counter at the saying above. Vexed by its meaning she pouted at it as the others came inside, meandering about the open room.

"What does that even mean?" Big Lot demanded.

Lucy sauntered over to the desk, gazing upward at the message decorating the back wall. "Beats me," Lucy shrugged, "and quite frankly, I don't think it matters anymore."

In the center of the foyer, sewn into the dusty carpet was a large black compass rose. Strolling over its finely woven seems, Neo gaped at its features. Drawing a hoof the left flap of his duster, he raised it, exposing the cutie mark embleming his flank.

Neo's eyes widened, and darting his gaze back to the floor he found that the symbol that bore him was the same marking the ground. Letting loose the flap of his coat, he stepped back from the compass.

Adam glanced at the mark upon the floor. "That looks just like your cutie mark, brother."

Forcefully gulping, Neo feverishly nodded. "I noticed..."

Adam's pupils shot back and forth, before returning to his brother. "Why do you think it means?"

Shaking his head vigorously, Neo felt a brisk shudder roll down his spine. "I don't know, but I don't like it."

Gently tapping a hoof to the first step of the right staircase, Vladimir jerked his head toward the top of the stairs. "Don't worry about taking it all in. There's plenty more to see up here."

Wester had already taken a spot behind Vladimir, climbing the stairs close by. The others followed their lead, ascending the stairway into the next area of the museum. Each heavy clop against the weathered carpet lightly rebounded upon the beige peeling wallpaper of the derelict walls.

A set of cracking oak doors, embroidered in gold and stained in a lavish shade of cherry red, were already parted. Overhead, a bronze wide arching sign was labeled in white: EXHIBITS

Crossing the threshold into the new room, the group entered a large rotunda. The ambient reflection of the brothers’ Pipbucks glistened off of the polished silver of the dome over their heads. To the left, and to the right were identical doorways -- each sporting the same sort of copper arching signs, indicating what attraction was inside.

The left was marked as: BEFORE PONIES -- THE NATIVES BEFORE THE COLONIZATION OF OUR FAIR PROVINCE.

Whilst the other bore: TODAY'S HEROES OF OUR GREAT LAND

Both entrances leading into the exhibits had cherry-wood doors closed, and bolstered by a layer of thick rolling grille barriers. Posted outside the doorways were stout red foldable signs labeled: CLOSED

A third door was right before them. It, like the the other doors, had beautiful oak doors. Over its frame, a more articulate arch of cobalt lined the standard copper base, held the words of the attraction: OUR FUTURE!

Unlike the last two exhibits, the doors leading into this section of the museum had already been pushed in slightly. Vladimir approached the doors -- a hoof reaching out. Barely touching the dust ridden, splintering wooden surface he shoved one door completely open.

The brass hinges supporting the weight of the door creaked as it swung entirely open for him. Everyone had gathered in the center of the room. Gazing high into the glossy reflection of the dome.

Standing within the doorway, Vladimir slightly poke a purple eye over his shoulder at the group. "Do you mind if you wait here? I need to do something to make the journey through this place a little more... Pleasant."

Wester snapped his crimson visor at at him, hastily rushing to Vladimir's side. "No, I'm coming as well."

Taking his eyes off of his distorting reflection of the dome Neo set his sights on the Freelancer. "Keep a keen eye on him, Wester. Make sure he stays out of trouble."

Retaining an unwavering lock on Vladimir, Wester levitated one python revolver near his shoulder. "Affirmative."

Vladimir snickered, "It doesn't matter to me. I'm sure everyone will appreciate what I'm going to do."

Gently poking Vladimir's haunch with the barrel of his weapon, Wester motioned his head to the next room. "Let's not waste time, Ranger."

A placid expression came to Vladimir's face, "Right," he snorted, "fair enough... Come this way. It isn't far."

Trotting into the next, dark room those left within the confines of the vast open space of the rotunda stared at the somber doorway, irradiating a still unsettling silence. A few minutes flew by, feeling as though no more than a few seconds had nimbly come and left. Then, Ranger's voice cut through the quiet.

"Alright, come on in!" His voice echoed, reverberating on the dome above.

Big Lot's sapphire eyes, gleamed in the light of Adam's Pipbuck. Unable to remove them from the sight of the darkened doorway, she whimpered, flattening her ears and crouching herself to the floor.

"It's so dark in there..."

Adam gave her a smile, flashing the bright screen of his Pipbuck lamp at the door, exposing the doorway draped in the darkness. "It'll be okay. Brother and I will be right here with our lamps. You've come this far, right? What’s a small little room?"

His words sparked a lofty energy within her -- lifting her head, she took in a deep breath. Likewise, expelling the same air nodding once at him.

"Good job, just keep breathing, we’ll get through this," Adam commended her, "now let's go see what he found."

Drifting the end of the combat shotgun from the strap on his back, Neo warily tread to the door, letting each cautious step down lightly. "Be ready incase that guy pulls something on us."

Lucy flicked the safety off of her sniper, narrowing her eyes and firmly nodding once to Neo. "Right."

Ally drew her pistol, while Adam searched his bags for a gun, only to find a beat up revolver with three shots left in the barrel. Big Lot puffed out her chest, keeping a steadfast lock onto the various weapons the other ponies in the group held.

A great heat flushing into her pink cheeks, altering their complexion into a more blooming shade of color. "Why do you all get a gun?! Where’s my weapon!?" She hissed.

"Shhh!" Neo hushed her, a hoof placed to his lips as he came to the opened oak door.

Slowly pressing upon the second door, Neo, shotgun armed and hovering tightly at his side, narrow his eyes. Against the walls of his chest he felt each brisk heartbeat pound immensely as he grew closer to entering the dark alien exhibit area.

Crossing the doorway, Neo slipped his body through the door into a dark room. The next section of the museum had a high ceiling, with a wide open area decorated in black tile. A shaggy old red carpet pressed underneath their hooves, while the light radiating off of his lamp shed the blackness from the region.

Within the void gradually retreating from Neo, the rough outline of a figure standing thirty feet from him came into view. The strange creature held a golden glimmer as the silhouette of the pony emerged the closer Neo approached it.

Raising a hoof over his brow, Neo shifted his head to one side -- squinting his eyes at the pony-shaped object. Cautiously drifting by his side, Ally directed her attention to the new entity.

Lifting an eyebrow, Ally wondered aloud, "What is it?"

A swift cling thunderously erupted, exciting the air with a loud buzz that traveled throughout the entire room. Quickly taking aim at the golden figure, enveloped within the shadows the barrels of the four ponies were locked firmly onto its large gleaming head. Big Lot dived behind Adam, shielding her head with her hooves as the sound boomed another time.

A pillar of light, slicing through the dark snapped onto the golden figure. All around the room, small golden lights on hair-thin wires dangled from the ceiling illuminated the shadow. Some flickered on, whilst others brightly shined down onto the floor.

In the fresh light the golden figure was exposed. Upon a solid gold plinth, the stature of a unicorn mare standing proudly beside an Earth pony stallion glinted. Together, the two metal bodies held their heads aloft, puffing out their chest while standing on the rim of a mighty jagged boulder pointing outward.

Behind the statue was a sold beige wall adorned by red curtains tied to the edges by golden shimmering rope faded by time.

Round copper speakers were tucked away in the corners of the room amongst a fine white crown molding. From circular musical players, a powerful shriek blasted nearly deafening in pitch. In the wake of the blaring sound came a song of cheerful bouncing jazz music -- consisting of a trumpet and drums playing away at a quick tempo accompanied by the merry notes of a piano.

Slowly removing her hooves from atop her head, Big Lot blinked at the dusty tile floor reflect the bright lights above on their lustrous surfaces. "The... The lights?"

Turning his sights to the lights above him, Neo lowered his weapon. "Yeah... The lights..."

Adam's eyes grew wide looking upward at the fixtures lowly hum overhead, while a wide grin spread across his face. "There's power!"

Briskly trotting to his brother, Adam poked Neo in the shoulder. "There's actual power here!"

Smiling, Neo nodded at the lights above. "I can’t believe it... Of all the places..."

Neo's eyes trailed back to the statue. At its base the red carpet parted to the both sides. The two other opposing lengths of crimson rug curved behind two walk spaces at both ends of the wall to the back of the golden statue.

Now clearly visible in the new light were words, inscribed into the flat center of the plinth. The bold text said:

"There is no greater land, than the land of Iron."
- President Ironhoof, our Province's Founder

Out of the left walk space beside the statue came Vladimir, trotting easily to the glimmering work of art. Wester followed behind him, scanning the newly illuminated space.

Laying a hoof to the smooth cold surface of the statue's base, Vladimir chuckled brushing away the thick layer of dust powdering the gold. "It's a fine piece of art, no?"

Lucy scoffed at Vladimir, jerking her head to the two golden ponies, "How much you think it cost to build something like that?"

Vladimir sighed, gazing into his reflecting on the statue's surface. "Too much, m'lady. Too much..."

Shifting his somber purple eyes at the rest of the group he spun around to the left walkway, leading into the next room. "But there's plenty more to see. The builders of this magnificent place left behind a whole assortment of things."

Waving a beckoning hoof, Vladimir walked around the edge of the wall to the next area of the exhibit. Behind him the others followed, entering the next section of the full exhibit.

A long room span before them, rows of small golden-lined lights hung from the cracking ceiling. Square pillars decorated with carvings of stallions and mare holding up marble spheres of the world supported the roof overhead. The same red carpets, stained by grey smudges of dust drew whomever walked upon it to the luxurious chamber sitting beside the other parallel.

At the doorway leading into the area a ticket booth built into the wall sat dim. Behind the cracking fogged glass was a sign pinned to the center stating that it was closed. Guarding the opening into the next room four turnstiles -- two above each length of carpet -- blocked the way in.

Placing his hooves on the top of the center baffle gate, Vladimir leaped over it. The other members of the group following him performed the same action of bounding over the gates.

Along the left side of the room were three doors. The furthest one was colored in green chipping paint, labeled: MAINTENANCE

The middle door bolstered a red hue, specked by the orange tint of rust creeping over its vibrant color. This door was marked as: EMPLOYEES ONLY

The closest door was like the last in nearly every fashion. In both color, and title.

Located at the farthest end of the room was a vast open doorway. Inside were three tiny silver shell-shaped buggies sporting small lights dimly ignited on their fronts. More turnstiles blocked off the entrance to the carts -- leading into a hallway not visible from the ticket booth.

Adam gawked at the attention to the detail engraved on the pillars. Noting particularly the determined narrowed eyes of those supporting the marble globes with their forelegs. His eyes wandered up the stone pillar until a small lavishly decorated chandelier came to view.

Adam stared at the lights. “How did you get the power on?”

Vladimir paused in the middle of the room, facing Adam. “There’s an emergency generator in the maintenance room. Something truly remarkable -- I’m surprised it still works after all these years.”

Keeping his sights set on the lights, Adam nodded. “They must work with an internal magical coil. Unlike normal generators, they can still power up even if they’ve been inactive for long periods of time.”

Shaking his head, Vladimir rose an eyebrow at Adam. “H-How did you-“

Looking to Vladimir, Adam responded with a smile, “Our stable has generators that work in the same way.”

“Oh,” Vladimir murmured, “I see.”

Neo came to the first Employees only door. Focusing on the pearly polished knob it gradually turned, before the door drifted open with a faint creak.

Pushing the door aside a frigid breeze whisked by him, sending a shivering jolt down through his entire body. The interior within was dark as thick motes of grey dust floated about in the cold air. A single desk made up the furniture of the Employee workspace. Alongside a few knocked over filing cabinets, dented and with each drawer thrown open.

Papers and files littered the floor, as a green desk lamp knocked over on the desktop flickered sporadically. A sparking buzz accompanied the inconsistent flashing light. Sticking his head through the doorway, Neo stepped inside the office. Posters of a green mare holding a bat firmly in her hooves, smacked a blue alicorn upon the head. In the crimson background of the poster were the words:

”Smack some sense into Luna! Sign the ledger for Provincial Sovereignty today!”

The further Neo advanced into the room, the more thick the air became. A pungent sour odor lingered within the entire area. Lifting a hoof to his nose, Neo stumbled back, crinkling the bridge of his snout. Bumping his flanks into the wall next to the door, something firm poked him on the haunch.

Peering over his shoulder, Neo jumped back at the sight of a pony’s skeleton laying against the wall behind him. His heart racing, and breathing deep he locked eyes with the deceased individual. All of the flesh had rotted away from the bones, leaving merely a few thin strands of hair draping over the hollow pitted eye sockets of the skull.

In the bright beaming light pouring through the opened doorway, a brass name tag was pinned to the lapel of a decaying blue pin-striped suit sagging off of the pony’s bones. Torn at the seams, and powered in a thin layer of dust collecting on the suit’s surface, Neo leaned closer to the body.

Squinting his eyes at the label attached to the corpse the name was hidden under a thick coat of dust. Around the more polished, sharp edges of the tag glistened in the entering illumination -- causing the corners to sparkle as Neo drew closer.

Using the end of his sleeve, Neo wiped away the grime revealing the small black letters engraved beneath:

“Gov. Stormfury”, the tag read.

Out of the corner of his vision, Neo saw the corner of a black square object protrude from her side. Shifting his attention to the new item, he gently pushed Stormfury’s body aside. Tucked away neatly underneath the remains was a holotape. Carefully protected by the dead pony atop it, the recorder had little dust collecting on its top.

Nudging it out onto a more open space on the floor, Neo pressed the play button -- in hopes that power was still surging through it. The device remain quiet, for a moment, but after a few seconds a click rang from the machine as the recording played.

There was an instance, where the audio was merely the sound of faded clicks, and clangs. Then, a mare’s voice picked up, deep and rich with authority dripping from her tone.

“I told you to get a pegasus statue for the entrance of the ride! Yes, the gold one! What other statute would I… Yeah… Uh-huh… What!? One what for it?! But you gave me a discount on the other two! So what if it’s not included with the deal -- make it included!”

A loud slam boomed through the recorders speakers, followed by the dim ring of a telephone clashing forcefully against the wooden surface, possibly the desk’s.

“Damn contractors,” she continued, “apparently they don’t understand we’re opening this museum in two weeks. The whole of the province will be waiting! At least I caught most of that on… Ah, buck me...”

The recording ended, and another promptly starts in its place.

“I just got done filming for the exhibit today. Just about everything is in place. Some of the animatronics, if I’ve been told correctly, are still not functioning properly. This presents an issue, one I don’t need when I have hundreds of protesters in Ironhoof breathing down my neck about seceding from Equestria. Every other message I file in to the ministries gets eaten up by the million other requests or notices they receive. I suppose it just goes to show you how much they care about our province. Not like they even cared to begin with for that matter...”

As the last one had ended, a new recording played in its stead.

“A week now until opening,” Stormfury let out a contemptuous giggle, “those stupid mares running the ministries. I can smell a storm coming -- one that will test us all into doing things we never thought we’d do. The ministries would have us believe it’ll be okay, that it will merely ‘blow on by’ or ‘be tomorrow's news’. They’re afraid, I can see it in their eyes when addressing the nation. They’re afraid they can’t handle the unknown. But we can, and we will. And their worst mistake will be that they never took any of the messages I sent seriously.”

A new recording began no sooner than the last had finished.

“The work I’ve done to keep all this under their ministries noses. Sure, I’ve had give out some money under the table. Sure, I had to lie to get this far without exposing the project’s we’re developing. ‘Where did all that steel you ordered go?’ they ask and, ‘What happened to those scientists you hired to study the crops in the south? Where did they disappear to?’ I kept quiet, not alluring to the fact we’re preparing for the worst. For all they know, I’m building a new line of luxury cruise liners for the wealthy and privileged. O’ what little they know...”

A few beeps pinged through the speakers, before one more log followed. Stormfury’s voice was slow, and grimm -- slurred by a depression sigh tightly grasping to her tone.

“We did a demo-run of the ride with the local elementary school... Thirty foals, accompanied by their teachers, had the most cheerful expressions on their stout little faces. I don’t think I’ve ever seen children act with such mirth at getting on a ride... When they got off... well that was a different matter entirely. They’re joyous expressions were completely gone, like all the happiness bottled within was suddenly sapped from their little bodies. Even the teachers had an odd gloom hover about them. So, while I stood outside the exit I politely stopped a colt, and asked him, ‘What, if anything, did you learn?’ and he scratched his mane before sighing, ‘You know,’ he said, ‘I don’t know why we haven’t stopped those bad ponies yet.’ ‘What bad ponies,’ I asked. He said, ‘The Equestrians... Why haven’t we left them? What are we going to do to stop them from hurting all the good ponies?’ And I looked at him honestly, as his little yellow eyes staring at me... ‘Well,’ I answered, ‘I don’t know... I don’t know...’”

In the semi-last recording, indicated by a two faint beeps, a new sound punctured the standard relaxed mood of the previous logs. Clamorously muffled in the background was the sounds of hooves stomping heavily, whilst voices, tinged with panic shout and scream.

Amongst the chaotic symphony of pandemonium is Stormfury’s voice, somber in tone:

“My name is Governor Stormfury of the Ironhoof province. This... I suppose is the end... If you’re listening to this you are a member of the Great Plan -- at this time I’m sure you don’t know what it is, as it won’t be mentioned in Stable 142’s curriculum. Likewise, I’m sure you can surmise that I am dead. Just know that what we leave behind is the ashes of the old world. Cascaded in fire, and dark magical taint. Right now, Ironhoof city has just been hit by a balefire bomb. I know not of how many survived, or of what will be the next place the Zebra’s attack.

Goddesses be damn, we never wanted this! We fueled their war effort, we sent our own into the fury of war, just to end up being dragged down under the fires of apocalypse with them. I will be the last of our proud land to lead it from the old world -- but our province will live on. It will rise beyond the constraints of Equestria! Beyond those damn goddesses and their raging stupidity!”

Static interrupted the next few segments of the recording.

Out of the cluttered blare of static interruption, the sound of the door closing clattering through her office at the attraction. And, with a sigh Stormfury said, “I have little to regret in this world. All is prepared… Those who needed to are in their appropriate stables, and the bunkers are filled with civilians. The Zebras think they’ve destroyed us -- that they’ve destroyed Equestria. No, they just finished the job we needed to do so, so long ago…”

At the moment the recording cut, the last beep clicked, signalling the final recording. The crackling of audio broke up a gasping wheeze. The last message Stormfury left was the blood-chilling choking of her rasping, tormented voice bellowing the words:
“We weren’t ready... We weren’t ready... We weren’t ready...”

The message repeated in a constant loop.

The continuous shrill of scratching static came next as the audio abruptly died. Neo felt cold. His stomach plunked itself far below leaving a hollow space inside his gut.

Stormfury’s voice was not unknown to him. In flashes, words from Silvermane Tower of the speech delivered in the elevator, and the mare in stable 73 whispered to him. Whatever Equestria had done to her, the province, or the ponies living here caused them to feel a burning, vengeful contempt was still cloaked in mystery.

Standing still, Neo held his eyes on the bones of Stormfury. He coughed at the dusty air tickling his lungs -- before laying a hoof on the holotape’s power button.

Drawing a cord from his saddle bags, Neo downloaded everything on the recording holotape. Once completed, he rose his head.

A long, lanky shadow stretched across the floor, beaming onto the back wall of the office. Neo’s eyes trailed the dark figure -- only to find that Adam was standing in the doorway.

Knocking on the doorframe, Adam asked, “Hey, what did you find in here? I heard some mare talking.”

Neo jerked his head to the skeletal corpse of Governor Stormfury. “I found her audio diary.”

“An audio diary belonging to whom?” Adam wondered, stepping into the room.

Taking a place at his brother’s side Adam looked at the dead mare propped up against the wall. “Who was she?”

“It’s the same mare we saw in that video in stable 73,” Neo answered, “and she’s the same mare we’ve been hearing all over the province.”

Noting the glimmering name tag titling slightly on Stormfury’s lapel, Adam’s eyes grew wide. “She’s the Governor?”

Neo nodded silently.

“Well,” Adam stammered, “was…”

Adam glanced at Neo, “What was in her diary?”

Shrugging, Neo replied, “It’s about this place… She talked about the ministries, and projects relating to the exhibit.”

Adam whinnied lowly, rolling his eyes at his brother, “Well, the banner outside did say, provincial pride.”

“Seriously,” Neo laughed, “but, she mentioned something else… Something I haven’t heard about before.”

“Like what?” Adam responded, arching an eyebrow.

“I don’t know, Adam. She said something about a great plan.”

Adam blinked. “A great plan? Like what sort of plan?”

Neo sighed, “I can’t say.”

Ally’s voice boomed from the other room outside, reverberating off of the walls of the officer. “Guys! C'mon’ you need to see this!”

The two brothers quietly looked at one another, before exiting the Stormfury’s museum office. Outside of the doorway they saw Vladimir and the others standing by the silver buggies behind the turnstiles. Ally was waving at them, grinning while Lucy hopped in a buggy.

“We’re getting on the ride!” Ally cheered. “C’mon!”

Dashing toward the turnstiles, Neo and his brother leapt over the gateways where a red carpet ran alongside the neat line of polished sterling carts. Each buggy had four soft purple seats positioned in two rows, of two chairs.

Big Lot, Ally, and Lucy sat in the seats of the first buggy. Leisurely resting their backs against the luxurious, well-crafted cushions. Wester gingerly made his way onto the ride, holding out both hooves on the edge of the cart as he let himself in.

Perched in her seat, Big Lot stiffly leered at the dark mouth leading into the ride. She did not tremble, nor shudder at the cloaking darkness ahead. All she could do was sit perfectly still, and await the inevitable.

Vladimir stood at a control panel decorated in various flashing buttons, and lights at the end of the line of buggies. Pressing a few of the controlling switches he frowned, glaring at the ride’s controls.

Scratching his mane, Vladimir grunted, “Damn this contraption! I just need to remember how I did this the first time…”

Neo slowly approached the second buggy in the line -- poking its soft cushioned seat inside. Reeling himself back, he grimaced at the ride, swiftly turning his attention to his brother.

“Is it still working? More importantly, is is safe to ride in?”

Adam shrugged, “I don’t know, is it Ranger?”

Without removing his glaring focus off of the control panel, Vladimir waved a hoof at Adam nodding. “Of course, of course. I’ve been on it once before a long, long time ago.”

Neo pushed himself away from the cart, shaking his head vigorously. “I don’t trust this thing! How long has it been since it’s been used?”

The top of Big Lot’s forehead peered over the top of her seat’s headrest. Drooping her eyebrows she squinted both eyes at Neo. “Mr. Cuddlepants, are you scared of rides?”

Snapping his sights to her, Neo scoffed, “No. I’m not scared of some foal’s ride!”

She smirked at him. “You’re afraid of it -- aren’t you?”

“I’m not scared of it!” Neo retorted.

“What are you waiting for then, Mr. Cuddlepants? It’s not going to kill you.”

Stomping a hoof against the carpet, Neo spat, “And who you talking all bold like that? Aren’t you the one who was scared of the dark?”

Big Lot’s ears flattened, whilst her smirk faded entirely. “Just get on the ride you wimp... I’m having to face my fears...”

She fell back into her seat, whilst a shivering flutter locked her limbs. “I still have to sit through... the dark...”

Nudging his brother in the shoulder, Adam sauntered to the first row of the second buggy. “Come on brother, we should be fine!”

Neo’s blood went froze, as a knot twisted deeply in his stomach. “Ranger… Does this thing go on loops?”

Perplexed by Neo’s statement, Vladimir looked to him holding both eyebrows raised. “No... Not at all. If my memory serves me well, it’s quite relaxing.”

Neo gulped hard. “I’m going to regret this…”

Lightly patting the seat next to him, Adam faced his brother with a tender smile.

Expelling all of the air gathered within his lungs, Neo got into the buggy, tightening his diaphragm as hard as he could. Stiffly sitting upright in the soft cushion, Adam rubbed his brother’s back, chuckling, “You need to try and enjoy yourself some more.”

Out of the mouth of the tunnel a metallic clang vibrated the air, ringing out through the entire room. Rushing from the control panel to the second buggy Vladimir jumped into the back row, as the first cart calmly drifted forward into the shadows.

Like a dense blanket of pitch darkness, it consumed the first gleaming buggy. Big Lot screamed as the void engulfed them entirely. The filly’s shriek of terror stiffened Neo’s already constricting posture. Clutching what breath made its way into his lungs, he grit his teeth together shutting his eyes.

Vladimir poked his head between the two brother’s, grinning. “If she doesn’t like the dark, then this definitely isn’t the ride for her.”

Neo kept quiet, while Adam answered for the both of them, “She’ll be fine. I’m more fearful of what might become of my brother.”

Nodding at Neo, Vladimir remarked, “Indeed, I see what you mean. However, I believe once he decides to open his eyes he’ll notice this isn’t as bad as he thinks.”

Their buggy shook slightly, causing Neo to force a little air from his lungs out through his teeth as he toughened the firmness of his pose. Adam began rubbing his brother’s back again while the buggy drifted forward into the depths of the ride.

“Well,” Adam countered, “that’s if he decides to open them first.”

The heavy steady beating of Thatch’s hooves echoed through a long empty tunnel. Light bulbs suspended from thin wires dangled from the high ceiling, swaying as a heated draft whisked by his head. He winced at the breeze, however letting it not hinder the pace he walked at.

The groaning veins of the Darkmines elaborate piping system moaned overhead. Instilling the only sound to accompany his hoofsteps in the corridor. Thatch felt a wetness develop on the side of his face, just underneath his ear. At that instant, he assumed it was just the heat given off of the pipes. Though, the sweat collected more, building into thick droplets.

Trickling down his cheek a massive drop traveled, then over the clammy fur of his neck. While gliding across him, his heart rate rose to a brisk, and powerful rhythm.

Vladimir, he thought, why did I let him go… Our emperor, alone in that world… Why did he have to leave me of all ponies to watch over this Celestia-forsaken place?

Taking in a deep lung full of air, he instantly exhaled through his nose. Amongst the hot dense atmosphere of the mine a distant voice penetrated sharply. Thatch’s ear twitched slightly at the sound, causing him to pause.

The voice came at him from his back, while the thundering rumble of hooves pounding the rocky floor erupted, bouncing off of the cavernous walls. Turning toward the direction of the voice he saw sprinting to him two ponies. Both were stallions, one sporting the standard Legion barding, whilst the other was dressed far less formally.

As the two came closer, he heard the cry of the soldier echo out, “Sir! Wait! Please!”

Stiffening his back, Thatch held his head high awaiting the two approaching ponies. The pony accompanying the soldier was dressed in assorted leather pieces of armor sewn together by thick black thread.

A few of the dark green Legion armor pieces were present. Parts, such as the breast plate. It, unlike his fellow soldier’s uniform, bore more deep scratches, exposing the shaded coloring of iron beneath.

The strangest feature that Thatch noted was the stallion’s eyepatch. Colored entirely in bright yellow, a cheerful little black smile was painted onto it, along with two dainty eyes of the same color.

Hanging loosely over the vibrant eyepatch was his greasy sloven mane. Slowing their speed, the two stopped in front of Thatch, promptly saluting him in his presence.

“Captain Thatch, sir!” The soldier’s voice was muffled under his gas-mask.

Thatch placidly answered the soldier, “Yes, lieutenant?”

Dropping his hoof to the ground, the soldier enunciated every word he said, “Sir! We found this one and his men outside the city, sir! He wanted to see the pony in charge, sir!”

Blinking, twice Thatch remarked, “Right, and who is this?”

Scanning the lanky frame of the pony beside the soldier, Thatch held a contorted frown at the sight of the stallion, “Interesting character.”

Holding his salute, the stallion by the soldier announced, “Capt’n Scooter, sir!”

Thatch rose an eyebrow, “A Captain?”

“Yes sir.” Scooter replied.

Waving a hoof at him, Thatch added, “You don’t need to salute me.”

“Sorry sir,” Scooter said lowering his hoof, “force of habit.”

Thatch returned to his stiff posture, “Well? What is it you need to tell me that is so important?”

“Well, ah brought men from t’ border. Plenty of fine, guys.”

Thatch smiled widely, “Some good news at last! I assume you brought the slaves too?”

Shifting his head to one side, Scooter scratched his ragged mane, “Slaves, sir?”

“Yes, the slaves we requested for the mine.” Thatch included. “You brought them, right?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Scooter’s eyes trailed off to the side. “Uh… Well… Ah don’t know nothin’ ‘bout that, sir.”

Thatch’s eyes popped out, as he stared openly at Scooter. “What?”

“Should ah ‘ave known ‘bout that, sir?” Scooter asked.

The veins in Thatch’s brow bulged with searing blood, “Of course, we nee-“

Sighing, Thatch coughed recovering his figure. “Nevermind… I’ll file a report on the matter later.”

Scooter took a step toward Thatch, his words dripping with sincerity, “But sir, ah’m not ‘ere t’ help with t’ mines. Ah was lookin’ fer somepony... Could ya please tell me if ya seen some ponies come by her? A big freelancer fellah, an’ a white one with a fancy mech.”

Thatch’s mouth went agape, as his eyes darted back and forth at the statement, “What? Why?”

“Please, sir.” Scooter implored. “There were a few mares too. A brown one, and a guardian workin’ for t’ Coalition.”

Pausing his frantic behavior, Thatch added, “To answer your question, Captain -- I did see a few individuals that fit that description. However, I don’t remember if there was a Coalition guardian.”

Launching himself at Thatch, Scooter seized him by the collar of his uniform nearly pressing his snout to Thatch’s. “Where did they go?! Was a filly with them?!”

Shoving Scooter away from him, Thatch reeled himself back, holding a disgusted grimace. “No! I don’t know where they went, nor where they’re going! And there wasn’t a filly with them!”

Scooter’s expression went cold, as he stared blankly at Thatch gradually backing himself. Vigorously shaking his head, Scooter muttered, “H-He did it… Ah can’t believe it…”

Thatch popped an eyebrow up. “Who? What? Speak plainly soldier!”

“Big Lot!” Scooter exclaimed. “She’s gone! She’s been taken!”

A tension wound up in the muscles under Thatch’s nape released. Feeling a lofty bouncing in his gut he chuckled, “Is that all? Really?”

Scooter stood stiff, a look of hollowed appall on his thin face. “Yer not worried?”

Thatch continued his guffaw, “Of course not! She is of no use to us anymore -- not since our emperor replaced her with…”

Pausing, Thatch rubbed the hairs of his chin, “Covert, or something or other. One of those officers from the massacre of Arkcannon. Didn’t you know about that? Weren’t you from the border?”

“But,” Scooter uttered under his breath, “ah thought she was important to y’all…”

Whinnying, Thatch countered, “Big Lot was important. I remember the order Vladimir sent to the rest of the Legion. He stated that he wasn’t doing an adequate job, that he was too full of himself to rule over the border.”

A searing fury, boiling in Scooter’s heart rose up, flushing his face with a great burning intensity. Gnashing his teeth, he pawed the coarse mine floor glaring at the snide Legion captain before him.

“He’s a she! An’ she is mah chief, an’ a great an’ leader! She is a better ruler than any of ya wish ya could be! An’ ah’ll find her if it’s t’ last thing ah do! Ah swear it! Ah swear it!”

Every ounce of the airy laughter faded from Thatch. In its stead, a dark looming somber atmosphere charged hot air around him as he narrowed his eyes at the would-be captain.

“Oh, captain you’re not going anywhere, by any means.” Thatch quipped. “In fact, your men and you will be staying here for the time being.”

Scooter was seething, turning rest of his face to a deep rich crimson color, “What? No! Ah won’t!”

“Oh, but you will!” Thatch sneered. “You didn’t bring us the slaves we need, and ever since those ponies you mentioned came through here I’ve been up to my neck in shit! One problem comes after the other, and we need the additional troops!”

Marching up to Scooter, Thatch pressed the bridge of his nose against Scooter’s brow, forcing him to crouch.

Scooter was silent at the imposing authority of the Darkmine’s captain towering over him. Jerking himself from Thatch’s threatening stare, Scooter turned his back to him.

“Ah’m goin’,” Scooter remarked glancing over his shoulder, “and ya can’t stop me neither.”

Thatch tightened his glare, smirking. “Private, would you be so kind as to immobilize the captain?”

The soldier standing beside Scooter lunged out, wrapping his forelegs around Scooter’s boney neck. Whipping back and forth whilst lashing out his hind legs, Scooter bucked back in fierce retaliation.

With eyes held wide open, Scooter felt the grip of the soldier constrict his neck. As his attacker’s hold grew harder, the air he breathed became thinner. Gasping, Scooter’s movements diminished to a groggy pace. Each swing was slow, so too were his kicks as the force he exerted grew to a halt.

A tingling sensation spread throughout Scooter’s body, followed by his senses failing. The world around him became distorted by a dark shadow enclosing the tunnel walls. Spinning around he stumbled once he drew his last breath before tripping over his footing, and collapsing to the ground.

He saw the entire world become black. Those few voices, and words registering in his mind became faint. The feeling of his cheek, pressing on the damp rocky mine floor vanished. Everything was gone.

The soldier released Scooter, rising up and backing away from him. Standing over the unconscious pony before him, Thatch shook his head frowning. “Captain, you could have made things so much more easier for yourself…”

Gently patting Scooter’s loose greasy mane, Thatch snickered, “However, I can’t have you going around doing as you please. Not with Iron Hammer one gem short of being completed.”

The soldier, taking hold of Scooter’s limp foreleg, slung it over his shoulder. “What would you like me to do with him, sir?”

Thatch waved a dismissing hoof at the Legion soldier. “Throw him in the stocks. Hopefully a day or two in there will wipe away that whole Big Lot nonsense out of his head.”

Providing Thatch with a slight bow of his helmet, the soldier answered in a dignified fashion, “It shall be done.”

Before the soldier had turned to face the end of the hallway he had come from, Thatch interjected swiftly, “Wait… And do inform his men of their current arrangement here. As I mentioned before, we are in need of more soldiers for the mine.”

“Yes, sir.” The soldier nodded, lumbering off in the other direction, Scooter’s hooves dragging on the ground.

At the peak of his brow, Thatch felt the warmth of a sore headache coming on. Snorting the fuming air, heating inside his lungs he returned to his course, and ambled onward to the end of the tunnel.

Calmly rubbing the side of his head in small quick gyrate motions, he coughed, “That’s all I needed. Another problem to deal with…”

Coming to the end of the corridor, a metal sliding door stood in front of him. Pressing the dim orange button on the steel doorframe, he watched the doors part. Sounding their characteristic swoosh, he crossed the threshold sighing as the headache began to throb.

The next empty room he entered was small, sporting a low ceiling, and three other doors, one to each wall.

In the corner, two Darkminers stood whispering to each other whilst Thatch passed them by. The two miners hissed, and scoffed lowly before suddenly growing silent. Instantly placing both their sickly glowing green eyes onto him, they held a steady stare.

Amongst the soreness now coursing through his head -- a chilling sensation bit at his spine, traveling all the way to his tail. He faced the two Darkminers, shuddering at the nipping eerie aura the two projected onto him.

Narrowing his eyes, Thatch growled, “What is it you want? Have I offended you?”

The miners looked to one another, briefly -- not long before returning to answer him. The miner to the right shook his head, chuckling heavily, as a wheeze clung to the words he spoke. “No! No! Legion Captain! No wrong! Yes. No wrong. No wrong. Yes.”

“Yes! Yes!” The left echoed. “No wrong.”

Contracting his eyes at the two, Thatch muttered, “As you were then…”

And, leaving behind the two Darkminers he walked off, shaking his head while the throbbing increased. “Damn them… Damn all of them…”

There was a deafening ringing blasting through a long dark corridor -- the constant trill of the buggy wheels clicking on the tracks. Both buggies ascended at a slightly elevate degree while the dark rings of the tunnel’s supports loomed over them. The brother’s sat idly in the soft cushions, Neo had loosened himself, as his brother lay a comforting hoof on his back.

Reaching the peak of the rising tracks, the buggy leveled itself -- holding its steady pace forward. A click tinging the air, followed by dark silhouette of a small screen rising from the front of the car.

A blinding white light flashed onto the screen, with the bold stylized letters:

Please Stand By
Our Province Thanks You!

Another image clicked onto the screen, this time a close moving shot of a colorless flag, waving in the gusty wind of a clear day. A symbol, nearly identical to the Legion’s, bore the flapping cloth. In the background of the visual loop sounding out in a boisterous, proud fashion, was an accompaniment of military drums, flutes, strings, and trumpets hailing the flag’s majesty.

A set of white words appeared below the flag:

And Now a Message Straight From The Desk of Our Governor!

A mare came on the screen, sitting in a finely crafted leather recliner. In the filter of black and white what colors made up her were a mystery. Though, apart from this, the picture presented to them was clear.

The mare wore a smart pin-stripe suit, fitted with a simple white rose tucked into a pocket just outsider the left lapel. Wearing her dark mane in a bun fastened at the top of her head by two crossed pins she faced the two brothers, smiling.

“Hello,” the mare started, “my name is Governor Stormfury. I’m so very glad you’ve come to the city’s newest attraction! By now you’ve known that the world is a mess. With promises of doom, and continued war, the future doesn’t look bright. But, under the care of our brave province you need to fear the rest of the world.”

Hopping down from her chair, she ambled off to side as the camera trailed her. Coming to an oak table, a series of thick hard-back books were slightly elevated, showcasing the cover of each tome upon the tabletop.

Resting a hoof to the wooden surface of the table, she chirped, “You’ve read about the brave battles our ancestors faced when settling here. Especially in textbooks, not unlike the ones you see here. However, you may have not be certain about its heroes, or what the future holds for our province.”

“Well,” she chuckled, “fret not, my little ponies. For today we will dive into what the future has in store for our fair land!”

Adam leaned over to his brother, whispering, “I’m pretty excited. I wonder what’s going to happen!”

Neo kept his own volume to a minimum. “I’m just hoping there aren’t any drops.”

The screen cut to black, and the mechanized sound of motors reeling the screen back down into the face of the buggy clattered aloud. Gradually the buggy came to a slow speed. Snapping on the flickering lights above an alcove buzzed to life. The car with the other half of their group was now visible as it too drifted at the same sluggish rate until they reached the center of the display within the wall.

Inside the alcove a few, rusty mechanical ponies lifted their hooves, pawing the ground, and laughing. The bolted joints of the robots let out a grinding, rusted squeal -- repeating the same loop of artificial animation. A moment later, the rest of the scene came to life.

The fake ponies were hitched to station wagons, loaded to the top with supplies bundled together by rope. A sun and green landscape painted on the three inner walls made up the landscape, whilst plywood clouds hung by thin wires against the blue sky littered with cracks.

Stormfury’s voice could be heard on the hidden overhead speakers:

“It is known by all -- that our land was settled like any other by ponykind. However, not only did our founders find paradise beyond the great desert to the south, they found a place they could call home!”

Scooting a little further up the track, the buggies came to another display. This time: of ponies hammering away at the wooden frame of a house. More homes and buildings dotted the landscape behind the workers. One of the grinning automatons fizzed thunderously, erupting blue shimmering sparks out of its neck.

Again, the lights overhead flickered on the machine performers as Stormfury boomed:

“Through storm, and rain, and weary hoof! Our founders fought the elements, to patch the leaky roof! Through the trials of our ancestors battling the cruel weather away from the civilized country of central Equestria was our sense of determination born. And, once homes were built, and towns followed. Making life in our fair land shine brighter than ever before!”

In an instant the lights dimmed, signaling for the buggies to move on. Now an alcove in the left wall bathed brightly in the powerful columns of light above. A pivot below the car spun the spectators to the left, allowing them to face the exhibit directly.

A single greying blue earth pony stood behind a long marble counter. Shelves lined the walls, each one stocked with blank title-less books, and empty beakers. Staring down at a lump of grey rock speckled in black glinting ore, the mechanical stallion gawked through the lens of a eyeglass held by a metal frame over the mineral sample.

Stormfury once more narrated the scene in front of the group:

“My ancestor, Grimmrock, discovered dark iron -- a curious mineral found in an abundance throughout the land. It was lighter than conventional iron, and easier to smelt, as well as holding a greater firmness than its less-complex metal sibling. However, the mineral deposits were found only in the deeper mines, making the task of removing the abundant ore difficult and dangerous. Nonetheless, once the word traveled to Equestria, bits of the resource were shipped to dozens of manufacturers!”

The lights were killed, and the buggies pivoted the riders back to facing forward. Clicking along, the cars slowed their pace at as the ceiling above illuminated with dim glowing dots. Twinkling in foam carved to resemble the walls of a cave, the lights manifested the entire passageway.

Stormfury’s bodiless voice promptly proclaimed, “In the mines miners found, a new gem in the rocky ground! Hacking, and shoveling away, to unearth the new find, the score of the day! It was not long after that a new mysterious element had been found in our land. Sun Gems, a rare mineral holding strange otherworldly properties. For a time, caves such as the one you are in, were a must see sight for travelers of every walk of life!”

At the end of the glittering tunnel, the shimmering blips faded entirely. The overhead lights burst on revealing a series of colorful murals decorating the walls and ceiling. From the start of the new corridor, the warm sunny image of ponies living peacefully laughing with one another in the comfort of the sun’s rays adorned the walls.

The further the buggies progressed, a more grim transition occurred. On the loudspeakers, the sound of dozens of ponies faintly chanting in unison a cry of fury charged the speakers.

With every advancing inch it rose in volume.

The kind ponies gave way to a huddle mass of ponies in the middle of a city street. Looks of narrowed eyes, gritting teeth, and bloodshot veins of pure hot blood coursing through their gaze now came into view. A sea of white signs hovered above the heads of the angry rioters.

Above the tops of the mural’s skyscrapers a crimson sky, churning with plumes of towering black smoke arising from the tops of the buildings painted the scene. On the multitude of picket signs held aloft over them, were vile, grotesque pictures of luna being beaten by a club.

Stormfury’s voice surpassed the vexatious uproar of yells, and shouts. “But happiness, and prosperity aren’t eternal. Our province, indulged in our land’s wealth, fell into a great economical depression. Without money, ponies starved, jobs were lost, and those Griffons and Zebras who had come into our country to find work were left penniless. Needing our land’s resources, Equestria bought us. Forcing us to accept their customs, their culture, and their way of thinking.”

While the carts carrying the ponies came to the end of the horrific mural, Stormfury growled, “And, they had the audacity to force us into the war, and as Zebras destroyed Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, they ripped our sons, and our daughters from our hooves, and threw them onto the sword of their own conflict.”

“Supplying metal, and gems, our province was forced to accept the new ministries. We were forced to remove those Zebras who had tried a live in our province. Or worse…”

When the buggies had come to the end of the hall, they stopped, jerking those seated forward. Darkness enveloped the surrounding area -- while a chilling hush fell over the audio of Stormfury. Underneath the cushions, the brothers felt the pivot of the car twist, sending out a rusty coarse squeal as it turned them to the right.

Now facing the right side of a dark room, a spotlight flashed into a long alcove. Across the newly visible scene metal pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns dressed in the green camouflage attire of the old-equestrian military were armed with battle saddles. Tiny poles projecting from the unicorn’s upper chest, held their rifles giving the illusion that the guns levitated.

A snowy landscape painted the background, while three wooden loading train cars were shown open. Standing in a single file line, Zebras wearing nothing in the arctic condition were depicted with their young. The foals stared up at their elders, blue tears painted streaking their striped cheeks.

At the far end, a green earth pony stallion had one male Zebra pulled away from the line -- a baton strapped to the soldier’s foreleg, raised high over his head. The Zebra lay on his back, purple bruises embellishing his white coat, accompanied by red bleeding lacerations. The joint of the Equestrian officer slowly lifted up, and down on the victim -- repeating the same brutal action continuously.

Stormfury’s voice teemed with hollowed sadness: “They took them in droves, loaded them on train cars, beating, and scaring hundreds for life. Some were taken aside, and blinded by chemicals as they were accused of being spies, or saboteurs.”

“They were not alone.” Stormfury’s voice said.

The buggies spun the riders around to the opposing wall, where another display of equal size was. A faded grey light shown down on a bleak empty hilly landscape. A fog machine in the corner of the area ejected thick rolling mist creeping along the ground. On the walls, tombstones dotted the bare hills, as a few metal ponies -- dressed entirely in formal black attire -- stood over a single, freshly dug grave.

Words had not yet been etched into the gravestone, though the family of seven ponies stood around it, with closed eyes and lowered heads.

“Our families died for their war. For what we were doing to them. Power corrupts even the kindest of ponies.” Stormfury remarked. “And there was little our voices did, as it graced the ears of tyrants hundreds of miles away, who payed no mind to our desperate pleas.”

All of the lights turned off, and the buggies again fell back to their front-facing direction. Adam felt a hollow pit sink at the bottom of his stomach, and acting accordingly he put a hoof to the hurting spot of his gut.

Adam gagged slightly, as the emptiness started to stir inside. “I think I’m going to be sick…”

Neo wrapped a hoof around his brother’s shoulder, gently rubbing Adam’s upper foreleg. Looking over his shoulder at Vladimir in the back row of their buggy, Neo demanded, “Ranger, when is this over? I’ve had enough of this.”

Vladimir kept a solid posture, “Not too long now.”

Suddenly, the carts braked in the center of a dark room. Neo’s eyes darted through the darkness before returning to Vladimir. “Why did we stop? Is it busted?”

“Shhh,” Vladimir hushed him, “watch and listen my dear boy.”

A single light cast its rays onto both buggies, as the thundering voice of Stormfury tolled: “Out of our bleakest days of the Great War, one would imagine that the worst had past us. There could be nothing else that would surpass the horror of brutal bloodshed. But then… War… War changed…”

The column of light shut off, and the buggies turned directing their view to the right. A projector shinned the image of a vast grassy plain, unstirred by civilization. Then, a great black colossal mushroom of smoke manifested in the center of the field. Fans above the border of the moving image blasted a gust of air down onto the riders, while a trembling rumble, distant at first, roared.

Growing quickly in volume, a booming eruption burst forth from the loudspeakers. A glowing green aura haloed the thin waist of the cloud, as a wave of tainted fire scorched the land around it.

Stormfury’s voice grieved, “Our greatest fears were realized. The Balefire bomb. And it was not long after that the enemies Equestria fought gained weapons much like this.”

The projector’s image dimmed, and the fans ceased their gusting. The buggies twisted back to the forward direction of the tracks, scooting along to the final section of the ride.

“It is inevitable…” Stormfury whispered in the darkness. “Everything will burn on the account of their war…”

Her voice whisked off of the walls, bouncing and reverberating in small echoes in all directions. “I ask you, citizen, what will become of our future? Are we doomed to suffer this fate? Are we destined to bath in the flames of tainted fire?”

The attraction stopped. Both buggies ended their rhythmic clattering. In the void of a cold room, the brothers waited.

“My answer,” Stormfury’s voice muttered in the dark, “is no.”

The tone of her ghostly hushes grew louder in volume, imbued with stern commanding power. “For we have a plan, my friends. A great plan, that shall carry us into a brighter, more peaceful age.”

A single beacon of light from a stage light above the ceiling beamed onto a tall, mural painting made of sharp faceted shapes in the left-hand corner of the room. At the bottom silver domes stood atop grey hills, while above two gears side by side rained golden rays onto the world below.

Adam rose out of his seat, gaping at the numbers on the cogs. Neo did the same, as the artwork further exposed itself.

On the left gear, a yellow 142 was painted in the middle. While on the other, a 43 marked its grey center.

Stormfury’s voiced boomed, “Civilians, like yourself, shall seek comfort in the bunkers, forged with the dark iron of our homeland. There, you need not fear the war until the world has ended. This very attraction you are in, will survive the war, and it too will tell you the same tale.”

“And,” Stormfury added, “stable 142 shall provide us with teachers, and educated civilians who have supplies to comfort those in the bunkers. Using the sun gems in their underground bio-gardens there will be plenty of food for all. At least, for a time…”

Another bright pillar radiating from a stage light overhead ripped back the darkness on the right-hand corner of the room. A mural, like the one beside it, towered high up painted with the same geometrical shapes.

At the lowest region of the painting, ponies in lab coats were in a steel room surround by green test-tubes. Holding beakers filled with red liquid up to the ceiling, the top of the stable faded out as a golden orb hovered above. In the circle of bright yellow, the dark silhouette of an alicorn puffed out its chest.

“But the land will need a new leader, as it is assured that the goddesses will surely perish in the chaos. Where will we find such a leader?”

Stormfury chuckled, “Why through the research of our province’s best, we’ll craft a new one! Someone smart, kind, loyal, generous, cheerful, honest, and surely powerful in the art of magic. This special individual will become the province’s guide to the greater tomorrow in the bleak new world.”

A loud snap sounded through the room, as another light shined onto another mural in the right-hand corner on the other side. This work of art was identical in shape, and style to the others before it. On its canvas a faceted gemstone, golden in color, hovered above the vibrant forested land. A white line divided the bottom of the picture into two halves.

The left half -- a barren landscape, grey and littered with bones. The next -- hills covered in lush, vibrant greenery. “Through the use of the sun gems we can grow food under the thick layer of rock provided by the mountains. Soon, stable 142 will no longer need to support the province on its own.”

Stormfury quickly interjected, “But, the end does not mean that everyone is dead. No, there will be survivors. What was once civilized folk will be turned into raging monsters of death, and hate. How will be protect ourselves against them?”

A final beam cast onto a fourth mural. Located on the left wall, along side the previous picture, at the bottom left-hand corner.

The picture showed three Predators, sitting on their metal plated haunches raising their cat-like heads high. Streams of red, and yellow shown out behind them, presenting them in a glorious display.

“To solve this problem, we will leave our protection in the loyal claws of the predators. Garnering the collective might of the greatest technology our engineers have to offer, we’ve made the deadliest, fastest, and most fierce combat robot in our province’s history!”

Stormfury boasted, “Fueled off of the blood of their prey, any efforts made by outside forces will only charge our warriors with more power!”

Adam shook his head slowly, hanging a foreleg outside the buggy. He stared openly at the depiction of the predators, scoffing, “This is insane… They had it all planned out… Why didn’t it work?”

Jumping at the touch of Neo’s hoof tapping his shoulder, Adam faced his brother who was pointing upward at the area in front of them.

Adam saw his brother stand deathly still, gaping at whatever he was pointing to. “What is it, brother?”

Adam’s eyes traveled to the direction Neo stared in, as he too felt himself grow still. His entire body went cold. Beads of cool sweat dapped his forehead, while a shudder came to his hooves.

The last stage light blasted its blinding illumination on one final mural. Hanging above the tunnel exiting the exhibit.

“How,” Stormfury asked, “will the land of our fair province be cleansed of the taint? How will we recover what was taken from us? The answer is simple…”

The mural was of a hulking black missile. A blood-red background encasing the area around it.

Stormfury exclaimed at the top of her voice, “Through project Iron Hammer!”

“This newly developed ICBM missile, will launch dozens of smaller warheads into a massive expanse of land. With the biological healing properties of the sun gems coursing through each projectile -- anything and anyone even minorly subjected to the taint will perish. And, in the wave of fire it leaves the land will be cleansed.”

“Should our world end,” Stormfury called, “we will survive! And reclaim the great sovereignty of our land!”

The bumpy rattle of the buggy wheels clanked aloud as the riders moved forward into another room. Sitting themselves back down, the two brothers looked at one another, leaving nothing but a somber silence between them.

A dozen lights flashed on a massive wall to the left of them -- revealing the largest painted work they had seen yet. Dozens of ponies stood on the top of a rock, pointing out to a green land of fields and forests. At the head of the crowd was the same darkened figure of the alicorn, a sphere of yellow light around him.

On the loudspeakers, the triumphant ring of trumpets sounded off. Not long after the blare of horns, a softer accompaniment of strings followed suit. Over the delicate notes the strings played, the voices of a dozen foals sung in unison:

Rise Ironhoof, rise!
We lift you up into the skies!
Rise for us, rise!
Hear our song’s reprise!

Rise for honor good and bold!
Cheering our mighty anthem loud!
Forever may you reign,
In the land we claim!
Ironhoof!
Rise! Rise! Rise!

Neither brother paid the work no mind. They just kept their vision low to the velvet carpet of the buggy floor. A deep sinking pitted itself in their hearts as the stark realization came to them: Iron Hammer was the Legion’s.

Vladimir’s ears erected, as the dim flickering light above a green service door on the right side of the tracks came into view. Petting the tops of both brother’s heads Vladimir rose out of his seat, waving a hoof to the buggy in front of them.

“This is our stop!” He shouted. “Get out, and head for the door!”

Drooping his head between Neo and Adam, Vladimir chortled, “That includes you two as well.”

Hopping out of the buggy, Vladimir landed on the hard cement ground feeling the joints in his legs pop loudly as he freely moved. Reaching a foreleg over his head, he yawned loosening his tendons.

Adam sluggishly moved to his side of the buggy, and leapt out. Neo did the same -- both watched from opposite sides of the small tracks the silver buggy roll away from them.

The other members of the party bounded from their buggy, collectively gathering on the right side of the tracks.

Walking to the door, Vladimir took lead of the group with a steady trot. “Come all! Come all!” He chanted. “Ride’s over!”

Big Lot bolted as quickly as her tiny legs would allow to the door. Standing under the flashing lightbulb over the corroding steel doorframe, she panted leaning a hoof against the door’s frigid surface.

“I’m done with that! Done! Done! Done!”

Vladimir came to the door, patting the curls of her mane. “Don’t fret, it’s all good and done with, little one.”

Shooting him an unamused frown, she glared at him. “Ha. Ha. You’re one to talk you tall… guy… You’re heart isn’t pounding a bigillion miles an hour!”

“If you say so, little one.” Vladimir laughed, opening the door.

“And don’t call me that!” Big Lot proclaimed.

The door opened to a long, narrow corridor with no doors on the walls and faint red lights illuminating the hall. A single door was at the end, as Vladimir crossed the doorway he motioned his head toward it.

“That’s the exit.”

Trotting down the passageway the group tailed behind Vladimir in a single-file line. Neo and Adam stayed at the back of the group, the emptiness sinking their hearts further and further.

Lucy put the backend of her fetlock against her brow, whilst a keen frosty temperature feverishly flushed her blood. “I can’t believe it... That’s what Iron Hammer does... To think, those bastard have in locked someplace in the Darkmine.”

Wester clamped a hoof over her shoulder. “How do you think we should act?”

Her entire liveliness was sapped completely, “Wester, we don’t even know how close they are to getting it done. Let alone, letting the Coalition know.”

As the conversation between Wester and Lucy grew more distant, Adam hurried himself to reach out to his brother. “Brother, Lucy’s right. With a weapon like Iron Hammer in the Legion’s control, who knows what will happen.”

His brother slowly continued onward. Adam stopped, and implored sternly, “What are we going to do?”

Neo stood in the middle of the threshold crossing into the hallway. Facing his brother, Neo replied with a heavy sigh, “I don’t know, Adam. If the Legion has a weapon like that, who knows how close they are at unleashing it.”

“Maybe, just maybe,” Neo answered, “if we find mom first -- she can help us fix all of this.”

Adam silently folded his ears atop his head, turning his gaze to the floor.

Neo drew his Pipbuck, and firmly declared, “We can’t lose sight of our goals. We’ve got to move on. We’re going back to the Darkmines, and when we do, we’ll put an end to Iron Hammer.”

Vladimir rose a hoof to the side of his mouth, calling back to the brothers, “Are you two coming? You both have the maps!”

Turning around into the hallway, Neo returned in a thundering shout, “Coming! Coming!”

Before Neo started down the corridor, Adam looked to Neo smiling, “I hope she can help us.”

“I hope so too Adam... I hope so too...”

Together they cantered to Vladimir, the clamoring echoes of their hooves bouncing off of the confining walls. At the end, Neo and Adam maneuvered around the line of their friends standing before the exit. Vladimir stood at the door’s side, a hoof laying against its knob.

“We’re here.” Neo puffed.

Vladimir queried, “Are you ready to leave this place?”

Adam nodded. “More than you know.”

“Good,” Vladimir snickered, “because we won’t be coming back.”

It was about midday outside the green service door of the attraction. The exit had lead them to a small parking lot amidst the colossal peaks of the western mountains, whose tops reached high into the rolling grey clouds, tinged with cracks of bright white branching out across the sky.

The mists overhead briskly churned around the mountain peaks, engulfing them entirely within its dense cloudy mass.

Upon a firm breeze an icy wind blew, cascading down the mundane jagged slopes to the group below. As the chill whisked by Adam’s head, biting his nose, he winced at the gusting cold.

When the breeze died down, Adam shivered, rapidly blinking his freshly chilled eyes. The others wandered about the area, observing the few neatly parked convertible carts sitting between the faded yellow lines of the parking slots.

Neo came to the side of one such convertible, cocking his head to one side while seeing his reflection in the foggy glass of a perfectly intact window. Directing his gaze to the wheels, they too were untouched. Merely the purple metal body of the old vehicle was coated in patches of rough crimson rust.

Barely letting air through his teeth, he murmured, “These carts aren’t destroyed…”

Vladimir came to Neo’s side, his own reflection visible in the glass. “Strange, isn’t it?”

Blankly gaping at the undisturbed features of the cart, Neo shook his head slowly, “Every other cart I’ve seen -- be it in towns, off of roads, or outside of buildings, they’re all destroyed. But these…”

Turning his sight to the darkened cloud-cover, Vladimir scoffed, “Those few ponies must of been real lucky to have come up here during the war…”

Neo looked up at him, arching an eyebrow. “Why do you say that? What makes this place so special?”

Shrugging, Vladimir answered with a smirk, “I couldn’t tell you for sure, I -- like yourself -- was born after the world ended. So I can merely speculate on what happened.”

“Though,” he added swiftly, “I’d say that no bombs were really dropped in the mountains, and so anything beyond them was protected.”

Gently kicking the bottom of the convertible’s passenger door he laughed, “And that means these ol’ hunks of metal got to sit out here to rust for Celestia knows how long.”

Retaining the same wide grin, Vladimir faced the rest of the group scattered about the middle parking lot, “Then again, who really knows?”

A road ran along the top curb of the parking lot, trailing off to the left and right. Adam came to where the highway’s cracking coarse asphalt met the smooth concrete pavement of the parking lot.

Staring down the street, he looked to the left -- where a long stretch of winding black road slithering through the narrow valley indented in the mountains. In the opposing direction, a forest of bare oak trees with long gnarled branches creeped over the top of the highway.

The entanglement of weaving branches cast a blanket of shadow shrouding the road, whilst slim slivers of pale sunlight breaking through the gaps specked the shaded asphalt. A deathly howl sounded in the thick wood, rattling the boney lengths of the trees before blowing its nipping wind against Adam’s face.

Lucy walked to Adam’s side, raising a hoof over her brow peering at the dark collection of desolate foliage wreathing the side of the highway. “Is that the way we need to go?”

Adam nodded, his eyes fixated on the hollow tunnel the trees made.

Pouting, Lucy sighed, “Well shit…”

Neo removed himself from the convertible he had investigated -- strolling over the his brother with a smooth glide in his step. “This is it, huh?”

The empty highway gave off an numbing aura. Running a shuddering twinge down the nape of Adam’s neck. “Looks that way…”

Vladimir joined the group of ponies gathering at the curb where the parking lot met the road. “If that’s the case, might I inquire as to how long it will be until we reach our destination?”

Adam glanced at his Pipbuck map, then back to the forest. A cold sweat feverishly chilled by the draft, pricking the sides of his neck.

Gulping heavily, Adam slowly motioned his head to the woods. “It’s down the road… through that forest…”

Big Lot poked her head over the curb, pouting at the mouth of the dark wooded highway. “Why does it have to be so dark? Do you even know when it ends?”

“There should be wide lake when we get to the end.” Neo answered.

Stepping onto the highway road, Neo started toward the wood. “We’ll never know unless we start walking.”

The orange square marking, flashing on Neo’s EFS jutted out in darkness that dressed the road in a black, translucent twilight. Slices of light, cutting through the shadow shown down onto him as he traversed the haunting forest.

His brother followed behind him, entering the dark woods. Big Lot hurried to Adam’s side. Tightly huddling by him -- her gaze frantically darting about the lean series of thick trunks hiding their gaze to the outside world.

Gradually as the group went through the drab musky forest, plumes of white breath puffed out of their noses. The temperature dropped the farther they went, bringing their coats to a briskly shiver in the wake of the cold.

The wind had died entirely. In the woods, only a raw wintery stillness pervaded the air. A hollow dark void encased the region around the group. Specks of the outside light broke through the ceiling of entangled branches overhead, severing the blackness with fine slender strands of pure shining illumination.

Neo saw in the distance, a faint luminous halo. Not breaking his stride, he looked back to the others behind him. “I think we’re almost through.”

Big Lot was shivering immensely, her hooves clicking against the icy asphalt. “Are you sure?”

Neo shuddering at the brisk sensation of the fresh frosty atmosphere seeping through his duster reached the fur underneath. “I can’t say. Maybe it’s just a break in the branches.”

Drawing closer to the vibrant radiating light at the end, they passed through the threshold of where the dark met the light. Squinting his eyes nearly shut, the intensity of the outside flooded Neo’s vision. As the blinding aura peeled back, fading from the prodigious brightness a more clear view of the world unfolded.

Blinking quickly, Neo rubbed his eyes, gazing at the new environment. A bleak shack, alongside three others like it, rest at the shoreline of a vast lake. A dense fog rose from the still waters, gently rolling easily on the grey shore littered with stones.

There was a dreadful gloom that lingered over the mild water. A somber grey which colored the lake, matching the darkened clouds above. Amidst the melancholy the waves retained a fairness that resembled the lighter hue of the small stones littering the beach.

Jutting out over the water was two small wooden docks. Warped planks of black weathered wood, and rusted nails formed perfect downward arcs in their disfigurement -- while green glossy algae caked the boards closest to the waves.

The road ended at a parking lot of white gravel in front of the three abandoned shacks. Trotting down the end of the highway, their hooves crunched the loose shifting shale as they wandered about in front of the lonely buildings.

Lucy, with Wester at her side, looked at the pale boarded facade of the middle building. Two windows, covered in wooden boards, were at opposing sides of a red door. A sign in chipping yellow paint above read:

Sunny Side Mountain Lake
Boat Rentals & Snorkeling Equipment

“Heh,” Lucy chuckled nudging Wester’s shoulder, “what do you think about swimming?”

“I’m not sure, Lucky. I can’t swim.” Wester answered.

Sporting a dumbfounded expression she reeled her head back at him, opening her mouth to speak, “But I thought you…”

Her eyes lay on the bulky armor covering Wester’s entire body. “Right…”

Wester pointed to his chest. “You hold a strange expression. Is there something on me?”

Lucy shook her head, “Nah, nah, just forget about it.”

Neo came to the beach, staring out at the fog masking the other side of the lake. On his EFS, the marker flashed in the direction of the lake’s opposite end. Looking to the left, he saw the shore curve off into the clouded distance. To the right, the same scene.

Sighing, Neo felt a cold sallowness sink in his gut, as the calm waves rolled on the stones of the beach. “I didn’t plan this through enough…”

Stepping closer to the water, the waves reached inches from Neo’s hooves. Leaning his head over the water, he looked at his rippling reflection wobble and distort in the constant movement of the tides.

Dangling a hoof over the water, Neo shrugged, “Guess it wouldn’t hurt to see if this water is tainted or not…”

Easily letting his entire hoof be consumed by the water, the instant numbing sensation of the icy lake took hold of him. His fetlock fur soaked up the frigidness, soaking the feeling deeper into the core of his bone.

Briskly withdrawing himself, Neo shook his hoof about hissing as an array of prickling stabs nipped at him. The warm blood pumping through his body returned to remove the cold from his hoof. Stepping back from the shore, he rose his Pipbuck and found that the Geiger Counter was silent.

Not a tick, nor a peep.

Raising an eyebrow at his distorting reflection he gaped, “It isn’t irradiated…”

A loud series of hollow metallic bangs erupted behind him. Wincing at the sounds carry to him, the hairs along Neo’s nape sprung erect at the clamor.

Gritting his teeth together, Neo locked his gaze to the middle shack, where the sound had originated. There Wester and Lucy were behind the building, gawking at the rear side of the structure.

Adam and Ally together were trotting toward the abandoned shack from the parking lot. Lifting a hoof to the side of his mouth, Neo called, “What was that?”

Adam didn’t break his stride, returning back, “I don’t know!”

Neo dashed up to the middle shack, slowing his pace as he came to the side of the building. Walking closely along the structure’s wall he turned at the corner to regroup with Wester and Lucy.

Both Adam and Ally stood behind them, with drooped heads and tongues limply hanging from their mouths as they panted deeply.

Strolling to Lucy’s side, Neo looked to the back end of the shack. An opened garage door revealed a small dark work area. Two blackened skeletons of deceased ponies were hugging one another in the corner of the garage, while a long bass boat rested in the center of the space, held level by two wooden supports.

Big Lot came running through the crowd of ponies standing in front of the garage. Pushing, and shoving bodies aside urgently. Arriving at the front, she stopped, huffing wildly -- a beaming expression irradiating excitement from her face.

“What is it?” She exclaimed, scanning the sight before her. “I want to see!”

At the meager sight of the garage, the excitement faded from her, shifting into a sour pout. “What! A stinky garage!”

“Wrong, kiddo.” Lucy interjected ambling to the bow of the ship. “It’s this thing here that I’m liking.”

Big Lot sported a comical figure, frowning and shuffling toward the side of the boat. “What the heck is this thing anyway? It looks weird.”

A grin sprouted onto Neo’s face, as he too approached the vessel. “This is our ticket forward across the lake!”

Perplexed by his statement, Big Lot grumbled, “What? How? What is it!”

“It’s a boat,” Adam answered whilst catching his breath, “a fair sized one too.”

Big Lot retained her look of complete bafflement, as she rolled an inquiring hoof. “And it does?”

Laying a hoof to the chilled green painted metal of the boat’s side, Neo prompted, “It travels on water. We were told about them in school.”

“Yeah,” Adam coughed circling the vehicle slowly to the back, “maybe it can take us across the lake.”

“Do we need to traverse the lake?” Ranger asked.

Neo turned to Ranger, and nodded, “We’ll definitely need to cross the water. Good news about that is it isn’t tainted.”

Ranger peaked over his shoulder at the mountain peaks, encased in the mists above. “Do you believe the mountains have something to do with that?”

Gently tapping the belly of the boat, Neo shook his head as his eyes trailed to the concrete floor of the garage. “No… I don’t think so. The rain should still be tainted when it passes through here. So, one would surmise from that the lake would also have been tainted, even slightly. But it isn’t.”

“Why should it matter?” Lucy chuckled clambering up the side of the boat. “It means we won’t get screwed up if we fall out.”

Big Lot’s eyes widened. “WAITWAITWAIT! Hold it for one second! How are we supposed to get that thing in the water?!”

Ally came up behind the filly, and ruffling the curls of her blond mane she said, “We’ll levitated it of course!”

Breaking free of Ally’s ruffling, Big Lot stared up at her pointing a hoof at the boat. “You are going to lift that thing? On your own?!”

Puffing out her chest, Ally boasted, “Well, not on my own. But I have been known to work some awesome magic here and there.”

“Besides,” she added looking to Ranger and Wester, “I’ve got three other unicorns here to help me.”

Big Lot snickered, “Alright, Ms. Smarty chaps! Does it work? Can we even use it?”

Ally paused for a moment, scratching her mind in befuddlement. Lucy sat on one of the seats inside the boat, tipping her fedora to Big Lot. “That’s a fair point, I’d say. What do ya think Adam? Will she fly?”

Adam glanced up at Lucy from behind the small motor, blinking at her. “Fly?”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Fly, skim, ride, whatever! Will it work, though?”

“Well,” Adam hummed directing his attention to the motor, “it runs on some kind of fuel… And it hasn’t been refueled in forever. I think if someone were to route a constant supply of magical energy to it -- then it should run, though not at full power.”

Big Lot began to lightly stomp the ground with jittering hooves. A clammy coldness coated her fur, as she felt a distressing energy pulse through her. “So we’re going to use this thing to get across the lake?”

Adam called out from behind the boat to answer her. “Yep! Looks that way!”

Freezing where she stood, Big Lot frowned. “Great… Another ride…”

The mist parted near the shore. The low rattling hum of the engine buzzed the churning fog, carrying its sound far off into the distance. Out of the whiteness came forth the long dark figure of the boat’s bow -- scooting on the calm waters to the beach.

A speck of white drifted down from the lumpy cracking darkened clouds. Twirling and zipping in its descent to Adam’s wet, freezing nose. In his seat, he blinked at the flake melt away into a biting prick of wintry chill.

He shuddered at the sensation roll from his snout to tail. Briskly rubbing the sides of both forelegs whilst he uttered a lowly bur under his foggy breath.

Yet, another angelic mote fell from the sky. Followed by another. Until soon a multitude of snowflakes drifted from the sky above. Big Lot sat tightly hugging herself, with chattering teeth gnashing away at frigidness wrapping her body.

Noticing the snow fall from the clouds, she briefly stopped her feverish movement. Holding out a hoof to the newly falling flakes, she caught one. Bringing it to her face the warm puffing cloud of exhaled breath melted the icy crystal -- prompting her to frown and return to warming herself.

Though the arctic grip of the mountains numbed Adam’s hooves, an airy weightlessness fluttered inside his chest. Watching the snowfall dance with such mesmerizing movement was hypnotizing. Aside from all the dreadful side effects the cold brought, he smiled witnessing the magic of snow graciously flurry around the boat.

“It’s snow.” Adam whispered with twinkling eyes. “Real snow.”

Big Lot was next to Adam, still shivering vigorously. “It’s not that special. We get it at the border sometimes.”

“I’ve never seen it before,” Adam replied, “I didn’t think it’d be this cold though.”

Neo sat on a single cross section at the bow of the boat, folding his hooves. “I never thought we’d see snow either. How long do you think it will keep falling?”

Adam shrugged turning his head to the sky. “I don’t think it’ll let up anytime soon.”

Neo leaned to the side, looking at Ranger leisurely sit by himself at the end of the boat. “Ranger,” he asked, “you’ve been up here before, how long does snow usually fall around here?”

Ranger too, shrugged. “Sometimes days. Sometimes minutes. We are at the mercy of the clouds. They are the masters here. However long they decide to provide snow is how long it will.”

Big Lot scoffed, “Well didn’t that answer the question...”

Adam saw Big Lot shiver violently. “Big Lot? Are you okay? Do you need something to keep you warm?”

She tried to shake her head, only to have it look as though she were madly twitching her head around instead. “N-No... I-I don’t need anything. I-I’m a big girl...”

Adam blew a hot plume of steaming breath on her forehead as he scooted near. She winced at the fresh new warmth tenderly fight back the cold for the moment. The second it was removed, however, the air’s icy presence crept back over her.

“I can give you my coat,” Adam offered, “I’m warm enough as it is, and you look like your freezing.”

“I-I don’t n-need it.” She stammered. “It-It-”

Adam pulled his forelegs through the sleeves, and draped the duster over her back. Flipping the collar upward, Adam smiled as the long length of the coat bunched up around her.

“There,” Adam grinned, “a little better don’t you think?”

Her excessive jittering stopped at the warmth that clung to the leather of the duster. Big Lot took both opened ends of the coat, and pulled them around her body. The seal she had made shunned out the cold. Trapping the hot energy irradiating off her body inside.

She snuggled her petite nose in the fabric, purring softly at the comfort it brought. “Y-You did it again...”

Adam grinned, gently rubbing the back of his neck. “You needed it more than I did.”

The bow plowed into the coarse rocky shore, briefly compelling those inside to jerk forward. Lucy rose, clapping her hooves together, “Alright everyone disembark!”

Unlike the shore they had departed from, the land before them was sheeted in a blanket of glistening snow. A mild flurry of snow now whisked by on a numbing breeze. The wide indent of a dirt road was imprinted leading upward into the peak of a mountain.

Neither trees, nor greenery could be seen in either direction. Just the road twisting up and disappearing into a dense blizzardy mass of wind and snow lingering about the mountain's top.

One by one each pony removed themselves from the boat, sinking into the crunching powdery snow. It covered their entire hooves, reaching up past the ankle.

Neo’s lungs burned as he inhaled the dense frozen air. Even as he walked a few steps away from the shore, a soreness hammered his limbs, increasing both breathing and hate rate. He could feel the dreadful tired urge of fatigue gradually develop in every leg muscle.

Trudging up the road, through the blizzard a large freezing lump formed in his throat. Ranger waded toward Neo, digging shallow trenches in the show as he approached him.

Pointing at the blizzard spiral around the peak of the mountain ahead, he asked, “Please tell me that’s not where we’re going is it?”

Neo mustered what strength he could, and forced the lump building in his throat. “Yeah,” he muttered faintly over the gulp, “that’s where we need to go.”

The valve on a steam pipe running along the ceiling released a twirling plume of hot mist. Lightbulbs tacked to the narrow walls of the long winding tunnel flickered, whilst a low electronic hum charged the humid air.

Three Darkminers stood side by side against the slick rocky wall, saturated in a dripping layer of glossy dew. In the sporadic light cast onto the miners, their green empty goggles everlastingly remained aglow.

Down the corridor, the soft pitter-patter of cloth wrapped hooves rebounded off of the low ceiling. In unison, the three miners turned their heads to the source, silently gazing at the approaching individual. For a brief moment, the easy repeated noise grew quiet. As the hoofsteps grew softer in their volume, the hallway’s illumination dimmed.

Out in the hollow dark of the mine tunnel, a fourth pair of round goggles flashed. The lightbulbs illumination steadily intensified, re-lighting the once darkened halls with the warm rays of the bulbs strobe-like glint. When the light returned it ripped back the shielding black, revealing the Warden slinking toward them.

The Warden stopped three feet from the middle miner, huffing slowly with a shrill wheeze. “All here, yes?”

“Yes.” Answered the middle.

The Warden nodded once. “Good. Good.”

The Third miner took a step forward, his voice airily hissing, “Why meet? What say Warden?”

The Warden rose a hoof, briskly looking down bother directions of the tunnel before speaking. “Surface Legion weak… Surface Legion’s leader stressed. Not able to run mine.”

“And? We know! We know!” The one standing on the left rasped.

“Yes! Yes!” The Warden lifted his hoof over his head, buzzing, “Listen! Listen!”

The linen wrapped pointed ears upon the three miner’s heads folded flat, as they kneeled, flinching backward away from the Warden. Laying down his hoof, he continued, “I do you no harm. This not my mission. You spread word fast. Tell mine what I say here.”

Perking their ears up, the three rose their heads, intently leaning toward the Warden. Between them, a few seconds of silence persisted.

Hoarsely bellowing a few chuckles, the Warden spat, “Thatch has been lazy. Too stressed. Still, he has more to do. So busy. So busy, yes. No time to oversee the Predators. We maintain Predators. We control them. They belong to mine.”

“Why kill surface Legion?” The miner to the right whispered. “They have guns. Guns too strong. Miners have no guns.”

“Yes. Yes.” The Warden replied. “But… Miners have Predators. Give us way to depot. There, surface Legion has guns. We take guns. We take back the mine.”

“War? War? Why go to war?” The same miner remarked.

Pointing downward to the end of the passageway, the Warden raised his voice, increasing the coarse grating clinging to every word, “They abuse mine! Treat it like surface fortress! Our home! Our home! Not their’s! Not surface Legion’s! If we do not fight, mine will perish. We will be slaves! Slaves!”

Reeling backward the miner’s bumped their flanks against the tunnel wall, as a blaring gasp erupted from them -- swiftly followed by a low murmuring between themselves. “Slaves! No! No! Not slaves!”

“Yes! Yes! Slaves!” The Warden declared, hushing the three. “As long as surface Legion is here. We. Are. Slaves.”

“Must act!” Cried one.

“Yes! Yes!” Coughed another.

The third miner took a single step forward, cocking his head at the Warden. “What do? Tell!”

“I have plan,” The Warden rasped lowly, “tell mine of the Predators. And of how we strike.”

All three lifted their breathers, pawing the solid damp jagged floor. “Tell! Tell!”

A few sharp grinding laughs, muffled behind the Warden’s mask echoed through the tunnel. “Listen! Hehe… I speak… The plan -- simple. We will take back mine. We will take back home! We will kill surface Legion! Kill!”

A flurry surrounded Neo, masking his vision in a freezing blast of blinding white snow. Darting madly on the breath of the wind, the sharp stinging flakes bombarded his face. Below the road underneath him, leading up the slope of the mountain to its beak was buried by a thick powdered coat.

In every direction the ground was frosted over by a blanket of snow. Protruding slightly from the surface the thin pointed edges of black boulders could be seen in the dense blizzard haze.

Neo lead the group up, while the others followed at varying distances, leaving their long trenching tracks behind them.

On Neo’s EFS the orange marker flashed forward. Pointing the way they needed to go -- up to the top of the mountain’s peak. Holding a constant wince at the wintry barrage, he stared upward at top of the mountain.

A deep, concealing cloud from the blizzard’s fury hide away the peak, the sky, and anything within a fifty feet perimeter. In his ears the wind howled, polluting all other sounds around him. He stopped for a moment, raising a hoof over his brow, squinting at the storm dress the path ahead in obscuring winds, and snowfall.

With his duster, flapping wildly in the wind Neo looked over his shoulder at the group follow in snow trails he made. Adam, exposed directly to the elements, was shivering violently.

Neo called to him, yelling as loud as he could over the blaring wail of the wind, “Adam! I can’t see anything! Should we head back?”

Adam flinched at every other stronger gust, hurling toward him on the blizzard’s gale. Keeping his eyes shut, Adam returned, “No! We don’t know how long it’ll be until it blows over!”

“Do you think we can make it!?” Neo asked, his diagram aching at the increased stress.

“W-We have to try!” Adam hollered weakly. “W-We have to!”

Facing forward once more, Neo inhaled the burning frozen air. As the breath inside bit at his lungs, he picked up a hoof, forcing himself to advance. Each step grew harder, as the further they climbed the deeper the snow became. Reaching up to his entire leg, Neo’s entire body shuddered constantly.

Both hooves grew numb, while the snow’s cold sank deep into his flesh. Every other breath was shallow, driving him to taking longer breaths as the ascension continued. Snow gathered in the wrinkled grooves on his coat; flakes by the dozens held fastly onto his black mane.

His muscles tired with a dull soreness. Huffing quickly, all the air he took seemed to vanish the instant it came into his lungs. Neo’s body, cold and inflamed in a painful aching, took small steps dragging himself through the snow.

We have to make it. He thought to himself. We have to. We haven’t come this far to die like this…

On the wind, his ear twitched at the sound of Lucy speaking up from down the line. “Neo! Stop!”

Instantly halting here he stood, he turned around peering at the ponies behind him. They too were buried body deep in the thickening drifts -- only one pony was unaccounted for. In front of Lucy, the top of a small round bundle of leather poked out from the snow.

“It’s Big Lot!” She screamed waving a hoof at him. “She’s down!”

Swiftly looking to Adam, Neo shouted, “We need to go back! Now!”

Adam stood upright, his head airily swaying in the wind.

Neo’s eyes widened. His heart started to race. “Adam? Adam! Adam are you alright?!”

With Adam’s eyes shut, the buck merely stood still for a moment before he fell face first into the snow.

Neo’s heart thumped wildly as he waded toward Adam, battling the elements crying, “Adam!”

Ally at the back end of the group lumbered on to Adam’s aid. “Neo! Neo! Is he okay?!”

Skidding next to Adam, Neo clutched the back of his brother’s neck, lifting his head out of the snowbank. A multitude of glittering snowflakes powdered Adam’s blue fur as Neo sat in the snow, holding his brother.

Neo’s eye’s burned, already letting small tears trickle down his cheeks, only to freeze solid halfway in the storm’s icy breath. Tripping over her own hooves, Ally slid beside Adam looking to Neo with urgent eyes darting about Adam’s limp body.

Taking Adam’s shoulder, Neo’s hoof slipped on the ice forming atop his brother’s coat. Quickly catching him, Neo held Adam’s head close to his chest.

Ally’s breath had become weak, mutely speaking between long gasping breaths. “Is… Is he alright?”

A vigorous shiver overtook Neo’s entire being. Plaguing even his speech with erratic stutters. “I-I… I don’t know… I… I can’t feel my…”

His eyes went wide, feeling the fiery whirlwind strike him. “Ally,” he groaned, “a-are you…”

Collapsing face first into the snow next to Adam, Ally lay surrounded by the crunching powder packing underneath her. Near her ribs, a faint spark of life still flickered while the brisk rising and falling of each breath fluttered.

“Ally?” Neo muttered, gaping at her fatigued figure.

The brisk pace of his heart rose, as he leaned over Adam nudged the top of her head gently. “Ally! Ally get up!”

Big Lot’s legs dangled off Lucy’s sides as she stomped through the snow, approaching Neo. “W-What... W-What happened?”

Neo was hyperventilating, slumping back against the snow his head felt loose and weightless. “I.. I… Everyone… They’re…”

Lucy coughed at him, her legs trembling under the weight of Big Lot’s body. “Kid… What? I…”

Her eyelids nodded, falling down then up as the shaking in her joints brought her down, kneeling into the snow. “I-I feel tired kid…”

She let out three whooping coughs. “I feel…”

Plummeting in the glistening white surface, Lucy’s head was consumed in the blizzard’s blanket. Wester stood idly twenty feet away from him downhill -- staring directly ahead of him.

Neo rested Adam’s head in his lap, raising a hoof to the side of his mouth. “Wester? Wester!”

Wester didn’t move. Like a statue embedded on the plinth in which it stood, Wester’s entire armored body was frozen in place. Vladimir diverting his face from the gusts of arctic mountain wind blasting at him, trudging past Wester.

Standing alongside the idle guardian, Vladimir’s body rocked uneasily with each sinking step eaten by the arctic ground.

Vladimir gnashed his teeth, cursing the wind, “W-We need to move on! It won’t end here! It won’t! It can’t! Not for me!”

Neo couldn’t close his eyes -- he watched Vladimir’s pace slowed as he grew near him. No longer did the warm twirling plumes blow from his nostrils, and sluggishly pausing beside Ally’s body, Vladimir’s looked at Neo grimly. A dark somberness shadowed his brow whilst his mane wildly flailed about in the wind.

Bending both forelegs into the snow, Vladimir fell on his side, leaving an indent lining the outside of his body. Sitting stiffly alone, with the wind breezing against his back, Neo scoffed once as the blizzard’s blur gradually enveloped his vision.

We’re going to die out here…

We didn’t make it…

The sleet gathering on his nape crackled at each movement as he looked down at the peaceful resting face of his brother calmly laying in his lap.

All feeling was removed from him. Even the dreaded lingering of sadness was lost to the icy hold of the mountain’s icy fury. The harrowing sound of the wind’s shriek faded, where in its stead a hushed silence fell over the world. Only the slow beats of his heart pierced the silent veil.

With every second passing a beat would draw slower. Slower, and slower as a dark halo skirted the outside region of his sight. Neo’s eyelids felt heavy, dropping while his head nodded.

I can’t die… We can’t die…

I didn’t even get to say goodbye to them… Not even that… Not even…

Tenderly both lids met, sealing all visibility to the outside world. When both breath and heart rate declined -- he felt sleepy. An urge to let all worldly tethers go gently stroked his back. Enticing him to rest eternally. The whole world became a dark void. Empty -- without a single soul to comfort him.

Not a soul.

In the darkness, the gruff voice of a mare echoed faintly teeming with dire worry. “He’s vita-…”

Again the voice spoke, lilting in pitch and volume. “How did… We can’t…”

“He’s stable!” A stallion’s voice followed, sounding just as discordant and distant. “Give me… He needs…”

All of the other voice grew quiet, at the presence of a soft, compassionate mare’s coo. Her voice was not tinged with urgency, but with a sweet delicate whisper, whisking through the vast emptiness Neo was trapped in.

“You’re alive…” She said. “Alive…”

A warmth graced Neo’s face. It was the first sensation he had experienced since the cold took him. Over his nose a light tingling brushed by, sented in a damp honied fragrance carried on the breeze. His eyelids twitched as the smell turned minty, tickling his throat, he purring at the new soothing aroma.

A damp cushioned material lightly pricked his hooves, back, and head. He realized that feeling had returned to him, while a relieving weight lifted from his tired eyelids. Grunting at the dull stiffness locking his spine, Neo opened both lids, seeing the strange environment around him.

At first he only barely let his eyes open -- controlling what light came into view. Through the pure white sliver between both black eyelids, he heard a new sound, a low buzzing dashing about overhead. Along with the trill of the buzz a calming rustle came on the wind.

Eager to open his eyes, he pulled both eyelids back entirely. Blinding yellow light flooded everything, obscuring everything before him. The smothering illumination receded, revealing the lush green easily swaying leaves of a tree. Upon healthy gnarled brown branches the foliage rocked, as the golden rays of a great brightness cracked through the dense tree cover.

Turning his head, the same itchy pricking irritated his fur. As he looked to the side, short stalks of cool cut grass brushed against him.

He felt a weight in his chest anchor him to the ground, compressing both breathing and movement. “W-What?”

Sitting up slowly, Neo’s head pounded with a splitting pain. Laying the backend of his hoof against his brow he hissed, wincing at the throb pulse at the rate of his heart.

“What happened to me?” He moaned dropping his hoof and scanning the immediate area, squinting both eyes. “Am… Am I dead?”

A vast clear sky was above him, accompanied by thin puffy clouds dotting across the blue. Lazily floating on the currents of the wind, the lumpy white masses, lined with silver, traveled by.

Neo was under a clearing, sitting underneath the shade of a tree on the top of a hill. Below a grand forest of dozens of huddled trees stretched off into the distance, before ending at an opened field. At the wood’s border a pallet of assorted vibrant wild flowers marked the landscape in a natural multi-colored mural of blues, reds, and yellows.

Forcefully rubbing his eyes, Neo shook his head, rapidly blinking at the landscape. “Where is this place? Where the hell am?”

He paused in mid-sentence, as he gasped, “My bags!”

Peaking over his shoulder he noticed his saddlebags were missing. “No! No! No! They can’t be gone!”

Springing up from his rump, he wildly spun around in place searching his little space for the saddlebags. “Damnit! Where are they?!”

Halting for a second time, he froze. Mouth agape, and eyes bulging openly he uttered one name, “Adam…”

Frantically dashing about his clearing Neo rose a hoof calling out into the unknown. “Adam! Adam! Lucy! Wester! Ranger! Anyone!”

Pausing briefly, Neo’s eyes caught hold of a familiar body. Downhill, next to the trunk of an aspen tree at the forest’s border, was Adam. His limbs were sprawled out across the grass as he rested peacefully under the shade of the skirting outer perimeter of the tree-line.

Locking both worried silver eyes on Adam, Neo charged down the hillside to his brother. When he came to Adam’s side he slide across the ground, kicking up blades of grass into the wind.

Leaning over his brother, Neo felt both eyes become saturated with tears. Neo’s whole body trembled as he hovered over Adam. “A-Adam? C'mon, wake up!”

Seizing him by the shoulders, Neo shook him gently. “A-Adam, wake up! It’s me! Wake up!”

Adam gulped, and rolled onto his side groaning, “It’s too early… I’ll finish the project tomorrow…”

Shaking him again, Neo was beaming as he giddily laughed at him, “Adam! Wake up! Wake up!”

Groggily mumbling, Adam’s eyes opened, fluttering at the new light around him. Sitting up onto his haunches, he licked his lips and yawned stretching both forelegs over the top of his head. “Hey. D-Did we make it?”

Neo sat down next to him, smiling. “I don’t know where we are to be honest.’

A few curly strands of Adam’s mane jutted out from the atop his bangs. “Where’s everyone else? What happened to them?”

“Can’t say,” Neo replied, “we’ll have to look for them.”

“You think they’re somewhere close by?”

Neo shrugged. “It possible. I found you pretty close by, I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t be the same.”

Turning his eyes to the clear blue sky, Adam let out a deep sigh, “They sky isn’t real…”

Neo reeled back at him. “What?”

Adam pointed to a cloud passing over them. “Look, you can barely see the lines dividing the screens.”

Directing his gaze upward, Neo gawked at the cloud. In the center of the fluff was a thin grey line running straight through it. “Huh…”

Adam smiled laying down on the grass. “Still… It’s nice though…”

A gold halo of pure fluorescent light ignited the world in the center of the sky. Casting its tender light on the world below.

“What about that?” Neo asked motioning his head to the orb of light.

Adam rose an eyebrow at it, before scratching his bedridden mane. “I don’t know what that is. If the sky is fake then it can’t be the sun.”

Neo peered at the shaded earth around the border of trees. In the distance, an earth pony stallion stood looking directly at them. Squinting both eyes, Neo cocked his head to one side at the new arrival. From where they were the delicate features of the unknown pony was lost.

The pony wore a white lab coat, with fur of the same color. He had a black sloven mane, and Pipbuck fastened to his right foreleg.

Nudging Adam, Neo pointed out the stranger. “Adam, look.”

Adam sat up once more, clearly seeing their spectator watch them from afar. “Who is that? And is that a Pipbuck?”

“Well,” Neo stated, rising on all fours, “maybe he knows where everyone else is. He doesn’t looked armed.”

Adam got up, and patted himself down. “What if he’s hostile? We don’t exactly have weapons, do we?”

“Nope,” Neo chirped, “but I think if he wanted us dead he would have killed us by now.”

“Let’s just hope he doesn’t want us dead.”

Trotting toward the stallion, they saw him kneel down next to a daisy, with the handle of a tin watering can grasped tightly between his straight white teeth, lightly drizzle the plant with water. At a closer range the silver color of his eyes were clear, among other details.

A few brown smudges of dirt stained the sleeves of his coat, while dark rims highlighted the under regions of his tired drooping eyes. He looked middle-aged, as streaks of glossy silver stripped his greasy mane.

Easily lowering the can at his side, he turned to Neo and Adam as they approached him. Huffing and puffing, both brothers looked to the ground with tongues limply dangling from their panting mouths.

The stallion faced them, a drained mundane expression plastered solidly onto his face. He spoke in a low, grumbling tone, bolstering a hint of grumpy sleep-deprivation on his words. “You’re awake? Already?”

Raising his head to meet the stallion, Neo’s stomach dropped. Holding all movement, both eyes remained fixated on the stranger.

Adam started to lift his head, glancing at his brother while he did. “Brother? What’s the matter? What…”

In the same fashion as his brother, Adam froze. Every joint and limb locked themselves while he stood in the presence of the stallion.

Deeper, and deeper Neo felt his stomach sink as a frigidness briskly cuffed his neck. Mustering what strength he could, Neo forced his diagram to contract, allowing one word to faintly escape his lips.

“D-Dad?”

Foot Note: Level Up!

New Perk: What a beautiful day! But not quite as beautiful as me!: Charisma when confronting those of the opposite gender is increased by +5. An additional +2 points are added during the day.

Foot Note: Level Up!

Would you like to level up Adam as well?

Yes-

No

New Perk: This… Is my BOOMSTICK!: Shotgun attacks now have a chance at doing 5x the amount of damage when used on a lower level enemy. Bring those primitives into the 21st century!

Author's Note

Here it is! Whew, that was difficult! I'm fairly sure I didn't get all the errors. But hey, I still managed to polish it good, right? Anywho, if you manage to find something I missed feel free to point it out. I truly did enjoy writing this chapter. I've been trying to diversify my wording, though I detect that this area of writing will still need to be covered a little more.

What a cliff hanger, huh? What will happen next? Where are the others? Find out in the next exciting chapter of, Fallout Equestria: Brotherhood!

P.S. For those of you in the future, you need not wait for the new one to come out. Just click the next chapter button.

• Noakwolf