A Hero Untold

by Thrro Pones

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Adventure
Length: 35789

An infantile pegasus is discovered by a noble, but weak, unicorn outside of Canterlot in the dead of winter.

Long ago, before the reign of the princesses, ponykind was divided. Most of this history is known and told in the Hearth's Warming Eve stories, but they are not completely accurate. The three races of ponies certainly had the most animosity between them, but even among themselves there was conflict. Far, far north of modern Equestria there was a particular faction. they were unique, in that they had unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, as well as being in good standing with the sea ponies. They were considered brutish by outsiders, but they were just about on par with the rest of the world. They fought with skill and valour, for survival. They learned to thrive in the icy conditions that the windigos brought. They took what gear they needed from the pegasi, they took extra luxuries from the unicorns, and they took what food they could not grow from the earth ponies. They were known for their size and strength, their ingenuity and teamwork, as well as their finer skills as craftsmen.

Their language, and legacy, are now far within the deepest archives of ponykind. Even there, only in sparse existence. They mostly integrated with the others once they learned of Equestria's existence, and they have not been heard of since.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-07-26 05:02:16 UTC

Prelude: Beyond These Walls

The air was frigid, the breath of him and his companion could be easily seen, nearly turning to frost as it floated through the air. He was used to winters, but recently they had just been getting colder, and longer. He remembered overhearing some other guards theorizing that the cold was somehow related to the old stories of Hearth's Warming Eve. But he dismissed that as an impossibility. The creatures who brought on that endless winter fed on dissonance, and he was certain that not much of that could be found in this day.

He was guarding one of the gates in Canterlot's outer wall, accompanied by an earth pony. He was quite angry to be posted outside on such a cold day, despite having been in the force for longer than many of the guards who got to be within the castle, and he saw little reason to the wall being guarded at all. It was the dead of a cold, dark winter. No one had arrived since the last train, and another train wouldn't come for over two hours. The wall was, by his judgement, in no immediate danger, and did not need his protection.

"Ferrous," the earth pony accompanying him began "Look at that bush."

Ferrous did as suggested, the bush being gestured to by the earth pony seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary.

"I don't see anything odd about it." Ferrous contested his companion's observance

"I'm certain I just saw it move against the wind. There's gotta be something behind there."

Ferrous responded this time with a verbal disagreement to throw off whatever may have been lurking behind that bush. But he signaled for his companion to stand ground, while he went to scout it out. The earth pony nodded in silent agreement.

Ferrous, being a unicorn, was more sleight than his companion Quakehoof, as the name might suggest. The unicorn carefully plucked his way through the knee-deep snow, doing his best to soften the crunching that each step made. The bush was not far, but Ferrous still did not hear or see anything odd about it. Admittedly the snowstorm was quite obstructive, but Ferrous continued to disbelieve his comrade's claims. That is, until he stood only a few steps away from the bush.

He heard a sound, not dissimilar to the squelching of hooves in deep mud, but with a hint of vibration. It almost sounded vocal, if there were a creature in Equestria incapable of forming proper words without gushing saliva from it's mouth. He began to imagine fantastic beasts, made of tentacles and maws whom would dwell within sewers or swamps if they existed. Recalling books which told of otyughs, and oozes, he quickly remembered that those creatures belonged in a game invented by his uncle, and no mention of them had been made in trustworthy literature.

Disregarding his imaginings, Ferrous stepped around the bush, revealing a small bundle of tattered, brown cloth. It was audibly gurgling and visibly rustling. Simple logic led the unicorn to the most apparent conclusion; the bundle of cloth held within it an infant of some sort. Further inspection confirmed these notions, as he rolled back a portion of the bundle to reveal a small, grey, equine face staring up at him contently.

"Hey, Quakehoof!" Ferrous shouted through the storm,

"Well, What is it?"

The white unicorn relayed the scene before him, and his companion assumed an appearance of skepticism, mixed with worry. Ferrous shared both these emotions as well. He was confused as to why a child would be lying in snow this deep, and he was dreadfully concerned about it's well being. A colt of that age would not normally be able to survive in the current weather for more than an hour or two.

Without further hesitation, Ferrous used his magic to tie the cloth into a makeshift satchel. In removing the blanket from the infant, he discovered that the young colt held a few certain traits. He was a blueish gray hue, and had a blonde mane. He was adorned with wings that seemed a tad too large for his size, and was wearing a ridiculously over sized pendant made of dark metal. Observing, but not giving much heed, to these qualities, ferrous quickly placed the child in the satchel he had made, and trotted back toward the wall which he was supposed to be guarding.

He began to open the gate, when his companion spoke up.

"You don't want to get charged for dereliction of duty, do you?"

"Of course not, but this pegasus needs someone's help, and I just happen to be here."

Without further speech, he entered the city and began his march to Mane Street. The travel was uneventful, and cold. Nopony was outside, and Ferrous was somewhat disappointed by that. Although he knew that doing the right thing required no reward, he always appreciated ponies knowing of his occasional heroism. He knew exactly what he was looking for, so it wasn't hard to find. Though to the ignorant passerby, the exact manhole covering he needed would be looked over. As was intended by it's inhabitant.

Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, ferrous stomped on the manhole three times and waited for it to open. As though the whole act were flawlessly choreographed, he stepped down into the sewer just as the manhole slid open. Once he was in, the cover closed itself again, putting him in utter darkness. He knew he would have to wait for a moment, while the lighting got working, it had been damaged for some time.

Sure enough after a minute of darkness, a light flickered on. It illuminated the crude tunnel which he was in, and revealed the exact location of the steel box he was looking for. He trotted up to it, and held down the button with one of his hooves.

"Amp, I need you to come up here" he spoke into the 'intercom' as Amp had dubbed it.

"What's the password, then?" A female voice asked suspiciously through the machine. Ferrous pondered for a moment, having trouble remembering what it was that Amp had insisted he remembered.

"Uh, please?" he asked. 'Please' being the only thing that would come to mind.

"Damn it, Ferrous. I've reminded you at least three times now. It's 'Isobutane.'"

Ferrous apologized out of courtesy, but was actually quite irritated by his friend's paranoia. None the less, the steel door beside him opened up, revealing the tan earth pony. She was covered in filth and had several patches of burned fur. She wore a reflective yellow piece of headgear with a light mounted on it, and had a bag full of diagrams and sketches at her side. She wore a pair of goggles with dark lenses, and her mane was a disorderly mess of tangled threads. She was just as she usually was.

"So, what is it you need?" Amp asked "A new refrigerator, a toaster, an electric generator, a--"

"None of that, Amp. I just need a favour." He said as he held out the pegasus infant with his magic.

"Ew, a baby? Are you implying something?"

"What? No," He denied as he began to understand Amp's innuendo "I just need you to take care of this guy while I go and sort out what to do with him."

"Well, okay. But this counts as the favour I owe you from our bet." Amp accepted reluctantly, "What's his name?"

Realizing only now that this may be important, Ferrous admitted he had no idea. Luckily Amp proved a bit more observant and identified the necklace the colt was wearing. It was crude, and made of a very heavy and dark metal. Upon it were a few scribbles of letters. Amp read it aloud:

"Wolfram" She said once with some labour, and iterated it again more clearly.

"Wolfram!" She assumed a look of confusion.

"Is that a name?" she asked Ferrous.

"If it is, I've never heard it before."

Amp stated she would get on identifying the name's origin as soon as she could. But Ferrous knew that meant she would tell herself the work would begin after she ate a snack, and then never actually get around to doing it. He simply supported her claim to avoid conflict, and left the child to the irresponsible mare with some worry.

His first stop was the citizen records in the Canterlot Barracks. He was allowed entry, as a guard of his somewhat elevated rank. He looked all through the recent births, and the names beginning with W, but not a single mention of a Wolfram was to be found. Further more, no pegasi had been birthed in Canterlot for a few years. Most of that sort of thing went on in Cloudsdale.

Following his lack of success in personal research, Ferrous determined he would have to go to a higher power and ask what to do. He would go and ask the Princess herself for information. He worried though, that the princess would just be irritated by his presence. After all, it's just one child, certainly a monarch has more important things to deal with. But he could think of no place else to go, and no one else to ask. His social influence was severely limited.

Just as he was trotting out of the Barracks he heard a gruff voice hail his presence from behind.

"Now just where are you going, Corporal?" The voice was clearly that of Captain Bolt.

Ferrous began to stutter some kind of excuse for his dereliction, but the Captain interrupted him.

"You know I could have you discharged for what you've done, right?"

"Yes, sir." Ferrous responded solemnly.

"Then I'll have you know the only reason I'm not doing that is because Corporal Quakehoof spoke so fondly of your heroism and selflessness."

Ferrous perked up, and made a mental note to thank Quakehoof whenever he got the chance. He thanked the Captain as well.

"Don't bother returning to your post, the shift's almost over anyway. But you get outer gate duty for the next week." The captain ruled as a pseudo-punishment for Ferrous's disobedience.

Ferrous bowed and thanked the captain again. Captain Bolt shook off the thanks, as "Hoof licking" and told Ferrous to think not of it. With his new found freedom for the remainder of the day, Ferrous decided for certain he would seek audience with the Princess, and he was off to the castle.

At the entrance to the castle, two guards stood watch. They both were dark grey, and wore the standard Bronze uniform of a royal guard. As Ferrous approached, one of the guards spoke up.

"State your business within the castle."

Ferrous told them he sought an audience with the princess, and he would appreciate it if it could happen sooner rather than later. However the guards denied entry, on the basis that a princess had "much else to do." Ferrous was very frustrated, and stressed that it was extremely important, though he was only met with stubborn resistance.

Ferrous decided on a way to exaggerate the truth for the benefit of entry, without truly lying.

"There is a colt in Canterlot, who gained unsanctioned entry through a guard's illegal assistance. He is not known to anyone in Canterlot, and is currently residing within the sewers. The princess must know of this suspicious pony, must she not?"

The Guards shifted for a moment, before stating that he was still not allowed in. They decided that if it were true, they would have already received reports from an on-duty guard. But to Ferrous's luck, the main entrance to the castle opened, revealing the Princess. She stood tall and strong, striking awe into her guards. Her white coat retained a sunny glow, even in the impending twilight, and her mane was just as colourful as it would be in the middle of summer.

"It is a good thing I was passing by the door when you spoke, I must apologize for these guards' behaviour. They are only following orders." Celestia said in her authoritative, yet soothing voice.

the guards both looked flustered and embarrassed for Celestia's obvious disappointment. The alabaster princess beckoned Ferrous inside, and began leading him through the magnificent castle while he spoke.

"I must apologize, princess. The colt I spoke of was something less of a threat than I described him as. But I did need to see you about him."

"I am not angry with you. Those guards would not have let you in, and I would not have seen you if you did not say as such. But please, before you state your business, what is your name?"

"I am Corporal Ferrous of the City Guard, your majesty." Ferrous said with a slight bow.

"It is a pleasantry to acquaint you, Ferrous. Now that we are known, what would you ask of me?"

"Today I discovered an abandoned child in the snow, while on duty. I left my post derelict so that I could see to his safety, as no superior was around at the time. He is in a safe place for now, but only temporarily. I was hoping you might be able to tell me what should be done with him?"

The princess looked worried at the mention of a child, "I'm afraid that all the orphanages, public or otherwise, are far beyond their maximum capacity already. The winter has taken many parents, and not enough food is available for most to adopt a child. Alas, there is little even I can do for him within this city."

"But there has to be somewhere, someone who can care for the poor child, right?" Ferrous asked with an audible sense of dread.

"I'm afraid not, and definitely not if he cannot be identified as a Canterlot citizen." The princess spoke regretfully.

"Well, he has a name. But none of the city records have any mention of him." Ferrous stated, trying to share as much information as he could that may help the colt's case. But to no avail. The princess apologized again, and said that there was no way to help the child, for there were already so many who needed help before he did.

Ferrous took a deep breath. Realizing there was only one thing that could be done within his power to help the child.

"Princess Celestia, if what you say is true, then I submit myself as a legal guardian of this colt. To raise him in my name, and under my protection, so that he may be granted the gift of life."

Ferrous was already quibbling with himself over whether what he said was the right thing to do or not. But his worries were cut short by the princess's calming voice.

"You have chosen to do something very noble, Ferrous. Your morality impresses me, and I will grant you legal guardianship of the child, should you provide me with his name."

"Wolfram, his name is Wolfram"

The princess seemed taken aback by this, and noted the oddity which was his name. But she said the paperwork would be filled out by the next day, and that Ferrous could assume his new role as soon as he would. Ferrous humbly thanked the princess for the child's safety.

"You should be the one receiving thanks, Ferrous. You have acted as a hero would this day. More ponies should follow your lead."

Ferrous quickly exited the castle, and began his journey back to Amp's hideout. The sun was beginning to fall, and he knew that it would be best if he could get Wolfram to his home before the chill of night set in. Once at the entrance to Amp's tunnel system, he quickly thanked her for her help, and took Wolfram from her, before returning to his small house in the outskirts of Canterlot.

He lay Wolfram down in a bundle of what little bedding he could spare on his bed for the night. He quietly promised that Wolfram would have the best life that Ferrous could grant him. He lay down next to Wolfram, and fell into a peaceful slumber.

1: Trench Drama

"Alright, mares!" the sergeant shouted, looking at the trainees like a bunch of prey.

"And stallions." he continued, glancing briefly at the only two females in the room.

"We are facing a tough enemy today! The Royal Guard has sent a team of their finest to bring us down, but no way in Equestria are we going to let them fulfill that task!" He continued, his voice was loud, but clearly damaged.

The whole squad of nine ponies shouted in agreement. The whole squad, except Wolfram.

"You are going to retrieve the package and come back here. I don't want any joking around. This isn't a search and destroy mission, this isn't an elimination mission, this isn't a scouting mission. We need the package delivered!"

Another chorus of shouts rang throughout the squad. An earth pony mare with light blue fur, and a dark blue mane spoke up.

"Permission to take over the speech, Sergeant?" she asked.

"As you will, XO Thunder." the sergeant gave his consent.

"You heard what the sergeant said. We take that objective, and we do it together. I don't want any freelancing. That means you, no-name." She said, obviously referring to, and glaring at Wolfram.

Wolfram took a lot of heat for being both adopted and unknown to any record. Wolfram saw no logic to his bad reputation. After all, he was just as good at fighting as any of his squad mates, if not better. He even tried his best to help others who needed it. But even by those who he assisted, he was given glares of distrust, and insults for his unknown past. He did his best to not take it seriously, and today his best was good. He didn't even flinch at his XO's comment.

"Now are we going to kick some royal ass, or not?" Thunder asked. It raised a storm of battlecries from Wolfram's squad. Even he partook in stamping the ground, though he did not vocalize his agreement.

The squad marched out of the cement room, and into the lush forest. The mid day sun shone through the canopy above them, and the birds were each singing their own tune. If it weren't for the impending combat, the scene would have been one to strike joy into anyone. It was beautiful, and the temperature of the air around them was just cool enough to seem calming. The condensation in the underbrush left everything sparkling, and it created an upward shower of prismatic light on the trees.

Thunder signaled for the squad to move up behind a large rock that was not far from them. The squad took cover behind the rock, it was just large enough to provide cover for all nine of them. Thunder looked at a young pegasus with a light pink coat, tinted blue. Her mane was a rich brown, and one of her wings was non-functional. A birth defect, it was vestigial for one reason or another, and so this mare, Moxie, stuck to the ground.

Moxie clearly didn't want to be there, and Wolfram knew that if she had any choice in the matter she would leave. Clearly she was more suited for creativity and such than physical conflict.

"Give me eyes on your side, Moxie" The XO commanded to the unicorn in a hushed tone.

Moxie looked around the corner, with a surly frown on her brows. She non-chalantly pulled her head back soon enough. She spoke up, with a smart-ass voice.

"How many eyes did you want, exactly?"

"Quit it, Moxie. We've been over this" Thunder said angrily, "What did you see?"

"A guy, probably an enemy." Moxie said grumpily.

"Only one?" The XO asked.

"Yeah."

Thunder grinned cockily, and gave the signal for the whole squad to surround and assault. But just as the squad was beginning to move, Wolfram objected.

"I doubt that the Royals would be stupid enough to send one soldier out alone; they have a good tactician. If we attack, we're getting ambushed." He said in the best commander's voice he could muster.

"If you don't like the way I command, maybe you should start a mutiny." Thunder joked, but Wolfram was already considering the option. He decided against it, remembering that just about everyone disliked him as much as the XO did.

"We move out and take this guy down, he deserves it for standing out in the open like that." Thunder ordered again.

The squad moved out, but Wolfram slipped around the other side of the rock quietly. He began venturing through the thick spots in the underbrush toward the package, making sure he was effectively invisible. Unfortunately, he was still loud. He was very heavy for a pegasus, and he couldn't help but make a light thud with each step he took on the packed down, but damp morning soil. He pondered flying over the canopy for a moment, but concluded against it. flying back down to get the package once he was there would telegraph his position for a distance, even in the relatively dense forest.

Wolfram's ear twitched backward as he heard the sounds of combat. His squad had almost certainly been ambushed as he had predicted. The shouting and crashing went on behind him for another few moments, before he heard the announcer speak up.

"You are he only one left. Good luck." the old mare said through the loudspeakers in her strained, not so encouraging voice. Obviously damaged by her bad habit of smoking, which not many ponies took to.

Wolfram felt no fear at the news of his squad's defeat. He only saw it as more reason to succeed. Unfortunately his confidence was somewhat shaken when he heard a voice pipe up.

"Hey, are you hearing that?" A deep male voice said, followed by a second one agreeing. Wolfram could hear the hoofsteps of two ponies approaching his position. The many options shot through Wolfram's mind, his heart was racing with both fear, and anticipation. He judged that attacking was his best course of action. He could not continue moving without making many sounds, and he would not be much faster at running than either of the two enemies closing in on his position.

He waited until he judged by his ear that they were just close enough he could charge and overpower one of them. Then with all his force he used his hind legs to burst out of the bushes. He quickly assessed the locations of the two ponies. Unfortunately his hearing was a bit off, and they were closer than he had wanted. He adjusted his course to the right, and went for the slightly farther enemy. The royal guard was surprised, and not ready for a sudden attack. Wolfram plowed into the white stallion with all his force, and despite not having as much time to speed up as Wolfram would have liked, he knocked the guard over, who then slid until his head hit a tree stump with audible force.

He proceeded to jump upward, and used his wings to extend the jump as well as turn around. He was now high above the still standing guard, and facing him. At the apex of his leap, Wolfram pushed himself downward and into the second enemy with the help of the earth pulling him down. He struck the guard's shoulder with his own, and felt the enemy's joint shift. He was familiar with the feeling of dislocating another's shoulder, and he knew he had done it flawlessly.

Before the second guard fell, and before Wolfram had landed, he spun around at kicked the guard in the ribs with his hind legs. This sealed his enemy's defeat, and gave Wolfram a much needed boost toward his goal. With that first blast of energy, he began running through the forest. In very little time at all he managed to reach the entrance of the cement bunker which the package was meant to be in.

He trotted inside, slowing his pace to catch his breath. Wolfram could run fast for his size, but it was hard work. He panted heavily as he turned the corner into the bunker. Nobody was anywhere within sight. Wolfram had actually made it to the package single-handed. But when he looked at the table it was meant to be placed on, he found that it was, in fact, vacant of any package at all.

"Looking for the flag, no-name?" Wolfram heard a taunting voice not far behind him. He turned around to see a white coated, yellow maned stallion wearing the armour of a royal commander. The unicorn was holding the piece of purple cloth which Wolfram had been ordered to retrieve.

A moment of silence fell throughout the room, until the unicorn began to speak again. However he was interrupted by Wolfram roaring in frustration. A team was not allowed to move their own flag, that was a very explicit rule. So in attempting to right this wrong, Wolfram charged at the royal commander. But the unicorn was swift, and he sidestepped Wolfram, who ended up flying past the commander, and rolling into the side of a tree. The tree shook from the impact of the heavy colt. A severe pain was pulsing in the back of Wolfram's neck, where most of the impact hit, But he stood back up, fighting through the hurt. He was just about to take another charge at the commander, when out of no where he felt a heavy object strike his left flank.

He had been knocked to the ground, tackled, by another enemy. Before he could begin trying to wrestle his way out of the grapple, yet another guard came from the thickets on his other side and pinned him down in unison with the guard who had tackled Wolfram initially.

"Valiant effort, for a slummer," the commander said as he approached the helpless pegasus.

"But I'm afraid we can't be defeated by a no-name. I'm sure you'll understand."

At this point two more stallions came from the forest behind Wolfram. One was limping, and had a bleeding wound on his head, the other was leaning against the first with a limp front leg. Wolfram couldn't help but derive some pride from so easily beating two trained guards.

"We ought to knock his head against a rock as hard as he did to me!" the guard with the head injury said.

"Now that is a bit excessive, we wouldn't want to appear savage. would we?" the leader asked rhetorically.

"No, we will simply eliminate him. It's all we need to do to win." he continued. Walking up to wolfram, he grinned with joy at the pegasus's defiant expression and silence. The commander knew that Wolfram's anger was only contrasted by his helpless position. It was almost ironic. The commander bent down, and tore the dog tags off of Wolfram's neck. Leaving behind his crude necklace.

"All Slummers defeated, Royal Guard wins. Again." The announcer's voice rolled throughout the forest. She held a tone of boredom, and disappointment. The repeated success of the Royal Guard was beginning to bore almost everyone.

"Good game, no-name. I hope you haven't founded some kind of vendetta against me." the commander said teasingly as his squad released the defeated Wolfram, who only gave an angry snort in response, and they trotted their separate ways.

"How could you all get taken out?" the sergeant roared in disbelief.

"Those pure-bred idiots can't be that hard to stomp into the earth!" he continued to rant for some time. His voice only lowering occasionally at the beginning of a sentence, before raising it to a deafening volume again. The whole squad was shamefully silent throughout the sergeants fury.

The grey coated old stallion then did something which Wolfram would highly disapprove of. He walked up, face to face with the physically inferior Moxie, and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"I'll bet it was your fault! Why do we even have you on our squad? You probably tried to leave the arena as soon as you got pounced on! Coward, deserter!"

Wolfram winced, and stepped forward, he could already see the rage building in Moxie's eyes. She may not have been much of a warrior, but she was still a fighter, and she was about to get herself in serious trouble.

"Leave her alone." he said plainly and sternly, before Moxie could yell anything.

"I'm not one for pulling rank, cadet. But if you didn't realize, I give the damned orders around here!" The sergeant shouted.

Wolfram's expression did not waver. He did not give any heed to the sergeants anger, and chose the most logical path, which was to give credit where it was due.

"I left the squad during the ambush, sergeant. Moxie fought to the end, while I tried to sneak around the combat. Blame me." he said with some strain.

The sergeant dramatically paced over to Wolfram, and spoke in a surprisingly hushed, but still angry tone.

"So you are admitting to dereliction of duty?"

Wolfram nodded.

"In that case," the sergeant began before shouting "You are suspended from all team activities until further notice!"

Wolfram's mane was actually blown back a little bit by the sergeants yelling. But he still did not waver, determined to show that the sergeant held no authority over Wolfram's emotions, even if he did have authority over wolfram's actions.

Wolfram knew the drill, he had been suspended before. He walked over to the equipment rack and hung up his rough chain vest, as well as his water skin, and he trotted dejectedly toward the exit. When he was out the door, and it was closed behind him, he heard the sergeant speak again, muffled by the wooden portal between them.

"Now that we got rid of the coward, all of you can report to the mess hall."

Wolfram tensed up at the old stallion's cruelty. He had half a mind to walk back in there and attack the sergeant outright. But he was determined to show no emotion. He knew it was the only strength that the sergeant could not take from him, and he was sure to not take it from himself. Wolfram began his walk home.

When he was only a few more minutes away from his house, he heard the sound of hooves trotting up behind him. They started fairly far away, so Wolfram didn't note them until now, but it was clear enough they were closing on him now. So he turned around, to see Moxie behind him.

"Hey idiot, why'd you get yourself kicked out?"

"Not in the mood, Moxie." Wolfram said angrily "Unless you're here to provide comforting counsel, I'd rather be alone." At Wolfram's word Moxie assumed a sort of confused expression. For only an instant she raised one eyebrow and frowned slightly.

"Suit yourself, kid." Moxie retorted, regaining her careless demeanor. She then left Wolfram, at his request, and Wolfram realized that he managed to ruin a social prospect yet again. He thought for a minute, and decided that maybe everyone didn't dislike him because he was adopted, but maybe they were using it as an excuse to dislike his social idiocy.

He knew going back and talking to Moxie wasn't an option. he couldn't say anything that would reopen the door he just closed, and Moxie wouldn't just forget it either. She was as stubborn as he.

2: Underappreciated

Wolfram burst through the door into his house, where he saw his father sitting at  the coffee table, drinking a cup of tea. His father had not been well recently, and the bad weather wasn't helping.

"You seem upset," Wolfram's father said imploringly.

"I am, and for good reason." Wolfram replied. He was extremely upset with his squad, and he was still angry at himself for destroying the possibility of making a friend.

"What reason would that be?" Wolfram's father, Ferrous,  asked with a worrisome tone.

Wolfram relayed the whole day to his father, even his anger with himself for being terrible with words. He did perk up during the parts where he was busy beating two enemies at once, but his mood quickly descended when he got to the enemy commander cheating by moving his flag.

"Well, it sounds like you did the right thing at every given opportunity to me." Wolfram's father pointed out.

"How does that help when everyone I know thinks otherwise?" Wolfram asked in contradiction. Now that he was home, he didn't feel like being quiet about anything. He was going to express his frustration, and his father was happy to let him vent.

"You continue to overlook that young pegasus, Moxie, you said?"

"I pretty much ruined anything I had there by being a general dick about it." I should have just let her be rude, instead of retorting like that.

"Don't worry, doing the right thing will always pull through. Everyone get's what they deserve, and unless either your story telling, or my judgment, is extremely flawed; You deserve good things."

"You say that, but frankly good things haven't been in abundance for me lately, or ever for that matter." Wolfram retorted, he was done with his venting, and didn't feel like having a debate about morality with his father. He just huffed and went to the kitchen to get something to eat.

He was exhausted, emotionally and physically. He felt like the day should be over already, but it was only early afternoon. He came back to the pantry eating an apple, when his father piped up.

"If you don't feel completely exhausted of your supply of good deeds, I'd like you to do a favour for me."

"And what, pray tell, would that be, father?" Wolfram asked patriotically with his mouth full.

"The high humidity lately rusted my uniform, I'd like you to take it to the blacksmith to have it fixed up."

Wolfram sighed, and took the last bite of his apple, core and all. He then stood up and went over to the rusted collection of steely bits that made up his father's uniform, and placed it over his lower back like a satchel.

"You know, we're not all bad, Wolfram. A lot of the Royal Guards here are true heroes."

"And a lot of them are dishonorable prudes." Wolfram replied to his father's defense of the uniform before leaving.

The first portion of the travel to the blacksmith was somewhat boring. He didn't see anything of interest in the forsaken streets of the Canterlot slums. All he took notice of was the abnormal amount of disapproving glares he received. A lot more ponies than usually seemed to be disgusted by him. He couldn't think what might have put them in such a bad mood.

He rounded a corner on one of the streets he spotted a very young filly unicorn. She couldn't have been old enough to even be in school yet, and she was crying while sitting down with her back to the wall. Normally she would have had a bright yellow coat, but it was riddled with filth making her seem an uncleanly brown. And her mane was not tended to properly at all, it was unkempt beyond reason. Wolfram wasn't one for hair styling, but the mane of this filly was simply horrible.

Despite the poor child's crying as she clinged to a doll, countless adults walked by her without even glancing at her. Wolfram felt her pain, and trotted up to her. She seemed afraid of him at first, but he knelt down before her and said in the most calming voice he could muster

"Hey there, are you hurt?"

She stopped audibly crying, but she sniffled, and cringed away from Wolfram.

"My name is Wolfram, what's yours?" He implored, trying to appear as humble as he could.

"I'm Lillypad..." the filly said quietly, she sniffled again and looked at Wolfram directly.

"Well hello, Lilly. Is something wrong? I'd be happy to help you."

"I can't find my mommy, or my house. I'm lost."

Wolfram did not actually remember what it was like to be all alone as a child, but he knew he had suffered through the same situation. He was just even younger when it happened. Due to that, Wolfram had a soft spot for children in need, and as such he immediately offered to help the filly find her mother.

With the offer of help from Wolfram, Lillypad perked up, and accepted. Wolfram let her ride on his back while they searched. Wolfram spent a good deal of time looking around, but nowhere he brought the filly seemed familiar to her. He asked what her house looked like, and Lilly described a house of immense size. Painted white, with a front and back yard where her dog liked to play.

Wolfram came to the conclusion that this house must be in the inner city, rather than the slums he had been searching through. How a foal came this far from her home, he did not know. But he did know he had to help her. Wolfram set aside his initial task for the time being, while he began his march to the inner city.

He had been to the inner city only a few times before, it always seemed eerily happy. The inhabitants all had much brighter coloured coats and manes, and they all wore fancy clothes which he couldn't find for sale anywhere in the outskirts. The whole inner city had many more shops than it did houses, and the whole place was always booming with life and speech. He didn't like it, everything seemed too friendly, and he didn't feel like he was in control of himself while he was surrounded by ponies who thought of him as an inferior.

Only a few minutes after going up a stone staircase which marked the elevation into the inner city, Wolfram passed a cafe, which Lilly exclaimed as being familiar. She became very excited, and started talking about her home life. Wolfram listened intently, and talked with the little filly the whole way. Eventually, Lilly saw a house and said that her home was just down the street from the one they had just passed.

"Well, hang on tight. We aren't going to keep your mother waiting any longer!" Wolfram said playfully.

The filly grabbed around Wolfram's neck as best as she could, and Wolfram entered a running gait. He picked up speed quickly, and Lilly laughed with delight as they galloped down the street. The pedestrians who he raced by all gasped with surprise and let out small mutterings of disapproval. But within a minute of running they reached the house.

"That's my house, there it is!" Lilly cried with simple glee.

Wolfram stopped running, and walked through the front gate to the white and blue house. He followed the tiled path up to the front door, and knocked on it. Within the minute the door opened backward revealing a flustered mare. She had a clean yellow coat and blue mane which had obviously been styled at some point, but it was a bit bedraggled, making her look frantic.

"I think I may have found your daughter, ma'am." Wolfram said proudly, as he turned slightly to reveal the filly on his back.

"Mommy!" She shouted, and leaped off of Wolfram's back.

"The nice stallion helped find you!" She told her mother, who assumed a look of relief and joy. She sat down, and hugged the filly tightly before speaking.

"Oh thank you so much, she's been gone for ages! What can I call you by?" The unicorn mother inquired.

"My name's Wolfram, pleasure to meet you." He said in response, bowing his head slightly. The unicorn seemed shocked.

"You mean the Wolfram? The one who hospitalized two royal cadets earlier today?"

Wolfram was about to say something in his defense, but the horrified mother continued before he could speak.

"Come on sweetie. We aren't going to talk to this pony anymore, alright?" She attempted to comfort her daughter.

"Mommy, what does "hop-sit-alized" mean?" Was the last thing Wolfram heard from either of them before the door slammed shut.

For a moment, Wolfram stood there with a look of utter disbelief. He was shocked and appalled by the unicorns second hand judgment of him. Wolfram wanted to be angry at someone, but he couldn't figure out who to fault for his reputation. Maybe he really was too brutal to the guards, after all it was just a game. But they were horrible cheaters, and they got away with it too, they deserved some pain for that. Wolfram continued to conflict himself as he mindlessly began walking back to his house. He had completely forgotten what he had meant to do when he initially left.

Wolfram did not feel okay at all, he just wanted to get home as quickly as he could and retire into a book or something. With this in mind he decided to walk through a few back alleys to get home faster. They were barley any more dangerous than the main streets when you were in the outskirts. Unfortunately, his luck was bad that day. Not more than a few steps down the second alley he was abruptly stopped by a pair of stallions.

"Well would you look at that, Lance. Now you can prove your claims!" The first one said.

Wolfram recognized him, and the other too. They were Lance the unicorn and Cannon the earth pony from his squad. Lance was a dark red in hue, and had dull brown hair. He was slightly taller than Wolfram, and he was thicker too. Strangely enough Wolfram still outweighed him a bit. Cannon was a lot stockier than Wolfram. He was heavier, thicker and shorter, with a coat the colour of dark iron, and a mane as black as coal.

"You wanna help me out on that, Cannon?"

"Oh yeah, I do."

"I'm not in the mood right now, guys." Wolfram stated plainly.

He planned on walking past them, and began to do so. But just as he started to walk by, Cannon rammed Wolfram into the brick wall of the alley. Wolfram knew it was his own tactical error to have walked between a potential enemy and a wall so close together. He could have retaliated right then and there, but he decided to slump down onto the ground, and tell them off one more time.

"You don't want to do this, Cannon, and neither do I."

"You don't scare us, you backed out of fighting one enemy in the match today!" Cannon argued.

Wolfram sighed and leaped back to his feet. He had no fear of being defeated, he was better at fighting than either Cannon or Lance. But he still didn't want to. Before either one of his enemies was prepared, he spun around and kicked Cannon in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Lance tried to rear up on Wolfram, using his superior height. Wolfram slid out of the way of Lance's falling hooves, and jumped into the air. He flew up a good three meters, and proceeded to fall onto the dazed Cannon. The impact was strong, and Wolfram felt it almost as much as Cannon did.

As Wolfram was getting back up after slamming cannon into the ground, he felt the all-too-familiar sensation of being kicked in the stomach, forcing him to fall over. Lance stood over Wolfram, and as he tried to get up again, Lance met his attempts with another hoof to the side of his ribs. Wolfram lay there for a moment, hoping Lance would accept triumph and give Wolfram a chance to get up. But Lance showed no signs of wavering.

Wolfram decided that laying there any longer would just result in getting kicked again, so he rolled to the side. Lance was a slow turner, so Wolfram had just enough time to jump upward, into Lance's underside. Using his wings for extra propulsion, Wolfram lifted Lance into the air, and once he felt he couldn't hold the large unicorn any longer, he dumped him head first onto Cannon.

Both of the stallions were dazed and bruised, but Wolfram had made sure not to actually injure them. He floated back down, and bowed gracefully to the heap of fur and hooves he had made.

"Thank you for your time," Wolfram said "But I've had enough of this for now."

And with that he went back home. Time had passed much since he left, returning the filly to her home had taken a long time to do. The sun was almost setting already, and Wolfram was tired enough to sleep early.

"Did you get the armour fixed up?" Ferrous asked as Wolfram trudged to his room.

Wolfram muttered an apology, and some sort of feeble excuse, before dropping the armour on the table which his father was still sitting at, before he retired to his bed.

3: Wee Hours, Big Explosions

Not more than a few minutes after Wolfram got home from his excursion about the city, he had gone to bed. Everything that had gone on had completely sapped him of all his energy, and he wanted nothing more than to rest. However, recent events proved to haunt him. The mind does not easily forget exciting things, and his day had no lack of those. For what felt like an eternity Wolfram lay in his bed, trying to sleep through his racing thoughts. Even once he had settled into a slumber, his mind was plagued with recollections and revisions of the day's events. He dreamed uneasily of the many things he could have done, and the things that could have happened.

This pseudo-rest went on for some time. Wolfram had felt that only a few minutes had passed, as is the way with dreams, when the next mind rattling event took place.

He jolted awake to the sudden feeling of rough fabric on his face. However, to Wolfram's dismay, his vision was still plunged in darkness. He was fairly certain that someone had placed a sack over his head. For this reason he attempted to shout, only to have his attempts cut short by a rope being shoved between his jaws, even through the cloth of the sack on his head. The gag was tied before Wolfram had any time to think, he was very distressed, as one might presume.

He felt cold steel grip his ankles, and clamp shut. There were some very hushed voices in the room, but he could understand what none of them were saying. Only a few moments later, it became apparent at least one of the voices was a unicorn. Wolfram felt himself being lifted, but by no particular point. It was obviously a levitation spell. During his ascension he heard an audible grunt of strain, quite masculine in tone, which identified the captor whom was picking him up as a male.

There was much moving about, and through it Wolfram could find no way to provide resistance. He had been caught with his guard down, and now he was truly caught. During the travel Wolfram made note of a few things. He felt the temperature drop significantly at one point, which indicated he was brought outside. For a few minutes after that he could feel and hear that he was in a coach, the cool night air pierced through the walls around him.

Besides the sound of the wooden wheels bouncing around on the road, it was eerily quiet. None of his captors spoke even a word, yet they still operated in perfect unison. Obviously they were a well trained team, and had someone planning out there operations very particularly. This unsettled Wolfram, for he could not think what he had done to upset a large professional organization. He was capable of making many enemies, but only on an individual, and sometimes social level.

The silence of the atmosphere was soon ruined though. A substantial boom, and whoosh of air was heard, not long before Wolfram began to feel the coach tipping. When the second boom came around, sealing the coach's decent, knocking it past it's apex, he could see a bright flash of orange light, even through his head sack. He could here a male voice shouting orders, only to be cut off by the coach hitting the ground on it's side.

"Get the prisoner out of here! Move! Move!" A commanding female voice could be heard. She began to speak up again but halfway through her sentence was cut off by an audible thud, and a crack. Wolfram was now trying his best to try and break the manacles around his ankles, but they were not giving way.

"Who took it?" A voice asked loudly, the sound rung a sense of familiarity in Wolfram.

"I- I don't kno---"

"I'll bet it's in the coach, eh?" Angry, yet certain. The voice was all too familiar. Slightly rasping, due to the mineral deposits in her lungs. Even more gruff, from the constant yelling she had to do whenever she tried to talk around her machines. It was Amp.

Wolfram heard some wood being torn away, and the sound of a form clambering up the roof, what was now the side, of the coach.

"All right, where is it? I know one of you must... Wolfram?" Amp was startled. Expecting to find a fighting force, or warden to protect whatever had been stolen from her, only to find the adolescent colt.

"Hell, man. I didn't expect to find you here. Have you seen any blueprints?"

Wolfram wanted to respond with something along the lines of 'I haven't been up to much seeing at all, lately.' Irritated that Amp was taking so much time in noticing, or caring, about his bonded condition.

"Well, I suppose you haven't been doing much seeing at all with that sack over your head." Amp did that a lot. She seemed to be able to predict what people wanted to say. When asked about her prescience, she would simply explain it as the subject being as predictable as anyone else.

"I'll try and get you out of there, let me just blast this blasted roof off. Face away from the ceiling, please." Wolfram did his best to shift in place to face away from the ceiling, as instructed. He only got so far when he heard yet another disruptive explosion, and felt the air around him rushing out of where the roof was.

"Hold still, I can get those cuffs off. I brought my plasma cutter as a precaution." Wolfram was not comfortable with the idea of having anything that hot near his hooves, but he couldn't exactly protest at the moment. Amp was never one for consent, anyway.

He heard the sound of the plasma cutter crackling away at his manacles. The metal clamps heated up just enough to hurt before they fell to the ground in succession. Feeling the freedom of his limbs finally returned, Wolfram was eager to stand up. But he soon found that all the shaking about his environment had been doing had thrown his balance off, and without sight to coordinate his stance, he quickly collapsed to the ground.

"My my, so eager to be free." Amp began "I'll take the hood off if you let me off the hook for the bits you won last poker night." Amp spoke with a friendly tone, despite blackmailing a friend with their very freedom.

Wolfram quickly nodded in response. He didn't care for the fifty some bits he had won, and he knew that Amp would be willing to wait a very long time for his compliance. But with his agreement, came his freedom. Before he knew it the hood was off, along with his gag. The only thing now on him was his necklace.

With his vision returning he was allowed to look on Amp for the first time tonight. Her hair was soiled with a black substance, and she had several cuts on her face. She was wearing a leather and denim jumpsuit, ending in a threaded steel ring hanging loosely around her neck. Upon her back was a strange metal block, with slots and cogs all about it, along with a steel cylinder hooked up to a few hoses. She had a pair of steel extremities extending from a shoulder mounted contraption, ending in a few crab-like pincers. One of them was grasping onto a device connected to the cylinder via hoes, and the block via some cords. Amp had dubbed it a plasma cutter, but never bothered explaining how it worked.

The scene around Amp was a lot less relieving. The coach which Wolfram was in was now on fire, and hopefully unconscious ponies littered the area around it. A few of them were visibly leaking blood. They were mostly stallions, with one mare lying near the front of the coach.

"Amp, did you..." Wolfram began to ask hesitantly.

"Oh no, don't worry. I only sapped or tranquilized most of them." She excused.

Wolfram was about to hesitantly quote the 'most' in her sentence, but decided he would rather fantasize they were all okay.

"So, what about those blueprints?" Amp asked, very business-like in her ways.

"I haven't seen any, as of late." Wolfram replied honestly.

Amp sighed angrily, and began muttering something about crooks and bastards. She started rummaging throgh the flaming carriage, and the uniforms of the 'unconscious' ponies around her. Wolfram began to walk away from the scene, hoping to avoid any legal aftermath of the situation. But as he took his first steps away Amp shouted.

"If you're going to leave, come see me at my place tomorrow. Don't come between 2:00 and 2:45 AM; I'm working on something very sensitive then."

"Is this an invitation, or a summoning?"

"The latter." Amp said sternly. Indicating Wolfram had no choice in the matter.

He sighed out of exasperation, not wanting to have to do anything the day after all this had occurred. But he remembered that Amp pretty much always had something interesting, if not important, to talk about. He had already decided against telling his father that any of this had happened, hoping he could stay out of any official knowledge to do with this. His father was a guard, so he had to be careful what he said around him. Even though they had a good relationship, the law demanded certain behaviours of guards.

Wolfram began to trudge away from the scene.  He quickly identified some landmarks by the light of the moon, and started his journey home. Filling in behind him, like water through open flood gates, were crowds of ponies all clambering to see what the loud sounds had been.

Wolfram quickly made it back home, and attempted to sneak his way in without being heard. Unfortunately his hooves betrayed him quickly, before he even heard his father speak he knew he had failed to stay silent.

"You know, I was actually trained to catch people trying to sneak like that." The voice of his father came from behind.

"Plus a first response squad just came rushing past our house. I knew one of the guys there, and he told me that explosions had been reported. I noticed you were missing, and waited here."

Wolfram didn't know what to say. His father seemed to already know everything that he wanted to. But he turned around to face his father, and took a deep breath. However he was cut short before he could speak.

"Explosives? I didn't know you were one for that kind of trouble, how did you even get anything like that? I'll bet it was Amp, she's never cared about anyone's safety, not even her own. I'm going to have to talk with her sooner or la---" Wolfram cut his father's rambling off.

"It wasn't me, and Amp's not to blame either." He said, only partially in truth.

"Oh? Then what do you know of this whole thing." His father inquired, not quite believing Wolfram.

And so; Wolfram began his improvised story, trying his best to cover up any loose ends.

4: Consequences and Conclusions

The explanation was feeble. Wolfram was usually opposed to dishonesty, and as a result he was not so skilled at it. Although his tale was clearly unbelievable, he was quick with words and even his intelligent father could find no errors in his recollection of events. His father was opposed to acting without reason, so he gave up trying to peck holes in Wolfram's story and allowed him to rest. Wolfram however, had trouble allowing himself the same liberty.

His mind was even more troubled than it was before he was rudely awoken, and this did not make for easy rest. But his physical exhaustion eventually overpowered his mind, and he managed to get to sleep just as the sun started to rise. The rays of the great star breaking into his dreams, and making them a tad more chaotic than he was used to. When he was to awake, he would find himself wishing to live underground like Amp did.

Along with that desire, he awoke to sharp aching in his stomach. Very acute hunger had overtaken him, and his only thought was to find something to eat. He did not check the time, or try to recall any obligations he had made. He quickly trotted down the stairs and into the kitchen, on the way he glanced at his father's still out of shape armour. It had a note attached to it.

Bring this to the blacksmith when you get up. Try not to get distracted or blown up this time.

A clear message, his father did not buy his story. Wolfram was now void of all hope that maybe his father would not notice. This did not make him forget his hunger. Wolfram ate a lot, and he was no worse for it. He fancied that he was so strong because he ate so much, but there were certainly other ponies who dwarfed that hypothesis.

Within a few minutes he had crafted himself a sandwich. Masterful flavour and composition, containing seemingly absurd things that he discovered through trial and error were a lot tastier on a sandwich than one would think. However, the creation was not so visually appealing. It resembled a section of compacted trash cut out in a rectangular prism sort of shape. The condiments soaked through the bread, and the solids spilled out the sides. Wolfram never cared for appearance in anything much, except art.

With quick action, and efficient technique he ate his meal. Still not recognizing how correct this was, due to the time. He sulked around for a bit, procrastinating before he had to go run his father's errand. He simply thought, and worried a little. Wondering what faction could want him in captivity so much. But he was sure that without the element of surprise he could deal with more than a few of them.

Eventually Wolfram picked himself, and his father's armour up. He headed out the door, toward the blacksmith again. This time he told himself he wouldn't run into any trouble, and he certainly would not be going through any alleys this time. Once outside he noticed something odd. The sun was in a position more akin to evening than morning, unless he had somehow forgotten which way was west. He pondered, and the thought crossed him that he may have overslept by almost twelve hours.

That seemed ridiculous though, he must have just been thinking funny from such a rough night.

Taking a walk to the blacksmith without any shortcuts was actually a lot shorter than he worried, and he ran into no trouble on the way. Perhaps caution was the way to go when it came to suburban travel. But whatever he decided, he had made it there without discovering one child in need, or being stopped by one half-minded thug.

"Hey Brandy." Wolfram approached the smith casually. He and the smith, Brandy, would talk often while Wolfram pumped the furnace for him.

"A fine evening to ya, lad." Brandy's choice of words made Wolfram worry that he actually had overslept by half a day.

"Ye brought yer father's armour did ye? Got beaten up again did he? Tsk, tsk." The smith continued in his thick accent.

"You're sure you meant 'evening,' Brandy?" Wolfram asked worriedly.

Brandy took a swig from a bottle he levitated off of his anvil "Aye, it's five o' the bloody clock, lad. Ye gone blind?" He gestured to the looming clock tower in the distance, which clearly read 'five o' the bloody clock.'

With the matter of lost time in his mind Wolfram recalled a previous obligation, and that was to see Amp. Today.

"Just fix the armour and hold it until I or my father come to pick it up alright?" Wolfram asked quickly, and expected no verbal response. He began galloping away, behind him Brandy shouted something about bad manners and insulted honour. Wolfram had no time.

He ran through the lower city, wishing more and more he had bothered to get horse shoes. The gravel roads were painful to run on, and his weight just ground his hooves further into the earth. In a hurry this time, Wolfram broke his previous plan of not going though any alleys. This was a bad mistake.

As he rounded a corner, a medium sized equine form landed lightly in front of him. Completely black, with some clear gear on it's person. Wolfram skidded to a halt , surprised and frustrated. Sooner, rather than later, Wolfram was surrounded by another three of these ponies. They were all smaller than him, but their pitch black uniforms and ominous gear made him worry.

Without warning they all lashed out in perfect unison, and started making flurries of strikes against Wolfram. There was no reasonable way to dodge them, and Wolfram found himself struck several times. The blows were strong, but Wolfram was all too used to that sort of thing, and he shrugged each one off with an increasingly angry grunt each time.

He simply barreled into one as a response. Or he tried to anyway. With lightning fast reflexes, it dodged and sprung backward out of his way. Wolfram was about to try flying upward to get a body slam in, when one of them drew an item. it started spinning a rope with a weight at either end around it's hoof, and released it. The device flew toward wolfram and clipped one of his wings. Quite literally, the weapon hit him and spun around his wing, tearing and damaging many of the feathers. This made any flight almost impossible for a pegasus.

All the while he was still being assaulted by the other three. He was fed up with this hit and run style combat, so he took a few more hits. Waiting for the perfect opening. Just as he was beginning to doubt this plan, one of the ponies became a little cocky and tried a risky move. It span around, and was going to try a powerful hind kick on Wolfram, which certainly would have been enough to knock him over.

Wolfram had been waiting for something just like this though. He ducked under the kick, and head butted the pony in its stomach from behind, flipping it over, before he kicked it hard enough to send it sliding into a wall. It stood up shakily, but shrugged off any pain it was feeling and went back at Wolfram, who was still playing defensive.

A little too much time passed, and the masked attackers were still at full speed. Wolfram was getting worn out though. No matter how many hits he made against them, they seemed to be able to recover more quickly than he could take another out. His skin was starting to get awfully tender from the repeated, relatively weak blows, too.

They were now all on Wolfram's front at least, but he was being backed into a wall. he couldn't fly, he couldn't seem to beat them. Wolfram was starting to get seriously worried. He did not directly observe this, but he had led all three of them on to a manhole covering. An unintentional move which was about to save him.

Suddenly, the plate of iron blasted upward from under the hooves of the attackers, and they all went flying. They were more stunned than they had ever been in this fight. The smoke from the blast cleared, and Wolfram saw a familiar face. It was Amp, there to take pity on his helplessness again.

"You're late. Get in the hole." She said, completely disregarding the faceless enemies lying askew about her.

Wolfram did not protest, he jumped down the hole after Amp. He did this before remembering one of his wings was out of order, and ended up slamming his shoulder into hard cement. He left a small crack in the ground, but decided not to say anything, and followed Amp further into her tunnels.

Wolfram made several inquiries, 'Where are we going, why did you want to see me, do you know who those guys were' that sort of thing. But Amp either answered sarcastically, or too fleetingly to be relevant. She was focusing on something specific, which was rare for her. It frustrated Wolfram none the less.

Eventually they came upon a large, round, vault-like door. Amp opened it with a series of seemingly random handle twists which she made in amazing time. The room within was well lit, and full of mechanical marvels. Strange machines that Wolfram could not name for the life of him, and dwarfed even Amp's other creations in complexity. Something that caught his eye more immediately was what looked a lot like a skeletal wing on a table, but it was made of bronze and steel parts, not bone.

Amp continued walking down the massive, square, cement room. Past tables with vice grips, cubicles with vents, and racks with tools. Until she came to a traditional looking wooden trunk. It was contrasted by the highly industrial surroundings, looking more like something from an antique shop.

"My father's dossiers." Amp explained. "He kept them in what looked like a simple case, but the lock is more complex than any locksmith knows."

Amp took out a device, that looked like a mechanical spider with a light bulb as it's rear body. She released the thing onto the trunk, and it began to move. It crawled it's way shakily over to the lock, and gripped it tightly, before the light bulb flickered on. Amp spoke into it .

"Theus ex machina, deus ex mortalis."

She then used her teeth to systematically pluck each of the spider's legs, presumably in a preset fashion which determined the validity of the pony who tried to open it. After which the spider crawled along amps leg, and back into her tool belt. The trunk opened, revealing a mass of parchments.

Without any visible marking system, Amp drew a series of three papers out with certainty, and slammed the box shut behind her. She laid the papers out before her on a rough iron table and said "These papers very clearly show that the people who have now made two attempts at capturing you are a cult. The leader is not known officially, but much is known about them."

"Like what?"

"They are very ruthless, prone to violence in anger, and zealous beyond all rationality. Oddly enough, the faith that they serve cannot be identified as of yet."

"What are we going to do about it?"

"I like that kind of attitude. All my logic points to them wanting you as an ally though."

"They have an odd way of proposing deals." Wolfram gave a light huff of amusement at his own comment.

"True, but that's all that we can expect from the deeply religious. Another faction is in play though. According to my surveillance the federals want you on their side too. They seem to think you some kind of ruthless brute who can be shaped into an instrument of war."

"And the cultists think the same thing."

"Exactly." Amp said proudly.

Some further discussion took place, regarding methods of dealing with the people trying to capture Wolfram. Wolfram made it clear he did not want to work for anyone who was currently offering, and Amp showed Wolfram what her dossiers indicated the factions would most likely do. Only after a long discussion did Amp realize her manners, she had been disregarding the injury she had noticed on Wolfram.

"Oh, you should probably get that wing dealt with." She said, trying to sound like she didn't care.

"Yeah, I don't suppose you're a medical doctor."

"Actually..." Amp trailed off, reluctant to continue.

"Actually what?" Wolfram asked

"Well I never actually took the oath. I dropped out before I could get the degree, but I know more than I'd need to to get one."

"Heck, I trust anyone who can drop out of school because they understand it too well." Wolfram said.

Amp didn't seem so confident though. Wolfram convinced her to try to help despite her reluctance. He soon found the source of her reluctance. She didn't have any anesthetic which wasn't actually poisonous. Wolfram knew dealing with an injury was worse than dealing with pain though, so he submitted to any procedure she had.

Amp poured some pure ethanol on the largest gash in his wing, it stung more than getting the wound in the first place. Wolfram knew he needed help though, so he did his best not to scrunch his face in pain at the treatment. After some gauze was applied, and his wing no longer hurt distinctly Wolfram erroneously thought it was over. Just as he stood up, Amp came out of no where and stuck a large needle into his side, draining the contents into his body.

"Ah, crap!" Wolfram shouted, more surprised than hurt.

"Yeah, sorry. That should help you heal faster. Unless that was the beta solution..." Amp suggested more to herself.

"What was that?" Wolfram demanded angrily.

"Metabolic hyperactivity solution. Eat more, and you'll heal and grow faster. Unless it was the beta solution, then I should really get some ammonium nitrate into your body. Do you feel light headed, or weak in the knees yet?"

"No." Wolfram huffed.

"Good, it's not the beta solution. You're fine."

Wolfram was about to voice his frustration at Amp's disorderly mannerisms, but he knew it would lost on her. Instead he changed the subject.

"So the federals are going to arrive in three days?"

"That's right." Amp said certainly.

"And the cult will have a full task force assembled to take me in three days?"

"Unless new variables come into play." She clarified.

"Well, that would make for an interesting job interview." Wolfram mumbled.

"They are both going to be willing to use brute force to capture you, their current leaders are far beyond reckless."

"Collateral damage would be unavoidable..." Wolfram trailed off, he knew what logic would require of him.

"As such, the only logical course of action is evasion." Amp said, following Wolfram's thoughts exactly. Or perhaps leading them.

Wolfram thanked Amp for the knowledge and began to leave the tunnel system, when Amp called out to him, just barely in earshot still.

"Wait! I need you to do something!" Wolfram turned around and walked closer to hear better.

"What?" He inquired.

"Get over here, you'll need a map." Amp gestured for him to come withing range to pass items, and he did so.

Amp handed him a rolled up parchment. "If you get a chance, follow that. It leads to a set of ruins that might have something vital to some of my research. I wrote more detailed instructions, and a reward, on the back."

"This is starting to sound like one of those games uncle Gary would always play with my dad."

"Let's hope it doesn't end the same." Amp said

"With all the heroes dead at the hands of some colossal beast." Wolfram finished.

5: Adventure!

It was allegedly spring, but the air was cold. The sun shone, however. The weather was calm and quiet in the morning sun. Wolfram had waited until his father left for work the day after he had learned of his pursuers. He left a note, explaining what little he felt safe to, and assuring his father that it was no fault of his. Wolfram needed to leave, because he had managed to make a series of unfortunate mistakes, and he worried his presence would endanger the city around him.

He was now just leaving the city. Despite the circumstances of his departure, he felt light on his feet, and brimming with excitement. Something that wasn't inherently bad was finally happening to him, and it wasn't within the confines of the city. His pegasus blood must have been what made freedom feel so nice. He never realized just how limiting the city was, until now. The air was fresher, the sun was brighter, and the life was livelier. Wolfram was happy.

He had packed light, as he always did. Never taking more than he was sure he needed. He would rather have to work a little to find more supplies than carry around extra baggage the whole way. His inventory consisted of a lined denim jacket, due to the odd weather, a few days of food, his target was nearby, and some hidden light armour, for he preferred bulk over weakness.

He was headed southwest for the nearest small town, Ponyville. He had heard plenty of stories about the place. Supposedly it was home to the wielders of "The Elements Of Harmony" which had the power to vanquish evil through simple friendship. Wolfram was doubtful, he had never been able to stop evil without knocking a few heads together. That was not the reason he was going there, though. He had been given a task to complete, and it was something to do while he evaded his enemies.

Not to mention the reward. Amp must have had more money than Wolfram realized, because she offered him a lump sum of eight hundred bits to return the artifact she wanted. 'A marvel of metal work. The alloy must be something impressive, because I haven't been able to replicate it from text.' She was looking for an ancient sword.

Wolfram's wing had already healed mostly, the shot Amp provided must have worked. Wolfram was worried it would take at least a week, and even then still be weak. But to his surprise, his wing was fully functional over night with a large dinner. Emphasis on 'large,' he ate more than even ]he usually would. His father was impressed, or repulsed. One of the two,

Wolfram knew a train ran from Canterlot to Ponyville within a matter of hours, but he wanted to walk. Not only was it the safer route, for it was unpredictable, but he enjoyed the prospect of being out in the open for once. Perhaps he would sidetrack a bit, and give himself some time to enjoy nature.

Besides retrieving whatever relics and legends Amp sent him to chase down, Wolfram wanted to find some leads on his enemies. Particularly the cult. If Amp didn't know anything about them, then he would have to find the information on his own. No record or book had anything Amp didn't.

Wolfram was to walk for several hours before he stopped. His wings were no good for long range travel, he was too heavy for endurance flying. So he had only made it about a third of the way before he stopped to eat. The sun told him it was around eleven in the morning. So it was early an early lunch of bread and apples.

He ate slowly, and soaked in the peaceful light of the open road. Trees at his back, and hills in his view. His breath showed up in the cold air. Now that he thought on it, there hadn't been a proper summer or spring in an awful long time. Last year had been at least a little chilly all throughout. Now spring was holding on to the sting of winter again. Odd, the weather ponies must have had some reason for it. They were usually very well orchestrated.

Wolfram worried not any longer, he had finished eating and that set his mind to the horizon. Quite literally. He could not see very far, the terrain was not completely flat. So he made use of his newly healed wing, and flew straight up to get a gauge on his position.

The world sunk below him, and his view stretched farther and farther. He was not much higher up, only thirty meters or so, but it gave him a clear view all the way to the town he was going to. The river between him and it was not to wide farther north, so he made a note to angle a bit to the right. He didn't want to go over on the bridge, he would rather keep his name and image out of public until he had to reveal himself.

Beyond that, the town seemed unremarkable. From this distance it looked like nothing but a bunch of houses and small businesses bunched together. Oddly enough it was on the border of the feared Everfree Forest. Wolfram had not heard any stories regarding it's dangerous placement. But perhaps it at least brought some excitement to a small town once in a while.

He quickly became tired from hovering, though. It was a lot harder that soaring, which was enough work by itself. He floated himself back down to earth and got to marching again. All of a sudden he was happy that he did not actually bother getting horse shoes, on the soft natural terrain it would have been very frustrating.

Off he was again, following his imaginary path, for lack of a real one. He would soon arrive in Ponyville, and he would be able to get to doing something productive.

Guard duty was abnormal today. Ferrous had been assigned to a special post, revolving around the upcoming wedding. The Captain had chosen him specifically, said it was because he needed guards with etiquette. Ferrous wasn't sure if that was an insult to his guarding abilities, or a compliment on his behaviour. But either way he had been given an abnormal post which involved a lot of idling around during wedding rehearsals.

This was favourable, Ferrous usually felt like he wasn't protecting anything at all. When he didn't feel that way, he felt he was trying too hard to protect what he was protecting. This job ensured that he was protecting something important, and that he need not try too hard. After all, what kind of monster would attack someone on their wedding day?

The captain, and groom to be, was certainly worried though. He had been working full time on holding up a barrier around the entire city. Ferrous wasn't sure that it was the best time to be having a wedding if the city was under direct threat. He had no say in it however.

Ferrous spotted the captain making an approach.

"Sir Shining," Ferrous saluted.

"At ease, Ferrous. I have something to ask of you." The Captain sounded worried, and curious at once.

"Sir?"

"You have contact with the Earth Pony, Amp DeGroot?"

Ferrous confirmed.

"Ah, hay. It's hard to ask. I usually wouldn't even think of it, but with Canterlot's safety on the line..." He trailed off.

"What is it, sir?" Ferrous was genuinely worried now.

"Well, the shield's been taking a lot out of me. I need to know if there is some way to... Enhance my magic."

"If anypony's got the solution, it'll be Amp. I swear I'll keep this strictly off the record, Shining Armour."

"Oh, man. I hate to sound informal, but you are the best, Ferrous. You'll get me contact?"

"I'll try, she's a bit timid when it comes to officials, but I can convince her."

Shining Armour continued to thank and praise Ferrous, far beyond social obligations requested. It began to make Ferrous uncomfortable, but he had no right to leave before his superior. He waited it out, and occasionally tried to null some of the praise until the Captain left.

The rest of the day was uneventful, Ferrous caught a glimpse of the bride to be. She seemed angry, almost sinister. It must have been the stress of planning a wedding under threat of an invisible enemy. Ferrous thought it completely reasonable, he would probably be the same in that position.

When his quiet shift was over, he went straight to Amp.

"You said what?!" Amp shouted at Ferrous.

"I just told him that you might be able to help, Amp. No need to worry." Amp did not agree with the last part.

"You 'Just' told the captain of the guard I could solve a problem using illegal substances?"

"Well, when you put it that way it makes me sound wrong." Ferrous avoided the rhetoric.

"That's because you are, Ferrous. He's probably just trying to catch me with something I shouldn't have."

"Look, I know the Captain. He isn't that sort. He really has the city's best interest in mind, not commendations. Heck, he's already in charge of the entire defense. There are barely any superiors to recognize his further success in the first place."

Amp sighed in anger.

"All right, fine. I'll talk to him. But I'm going armed, and if anything goes wrong, I can't guarantee he will make it out alive."

Ferrous ignored that last clause, hoping she was just saying things to spite his decision.

"Good, so you'll seek him out?" Ferrous asked.

"Yeah, I'll find him." She was still clearly angry.

However, she had no further argument. She slammed a large steel door in Ferrous' face, and got back to work quickly.

His journey had ended quite a bit earlier than he was expecting. Wolfram was almost hoping to be able to trudge in to town at night, so he wouldn't have to handle all the greetings and such. He did not dislike interaction exactly, he just disliked where his own tongue usually led him. Into the ditch, with any hopes of friendship following it.

But alas, the sun was still high in the sky, it could not have been later than five. Perhaps he could make it to some establishment for dinner, he was not in the mood for any more travel food. Not in the mood for any more travel, actually. It had started out rather whimsical, but it eventually became tiresome. His legs ached, and his stomach was empty. Not a fun way to spend an afternoon.

The ponies around him were quick to notice the stranger in their town. Wolfram tried to look as brooding and large as he could. Hoping that appearance would keep the sociable at bay. His hopes were wrong. He looked back forward after observing a bird which was feeding from the ground, by the hooves of a fairly aged mare. His vision was suddenly ensnared by pink.

"Hi, what's you name?" The pink asked.

"Who's asking?" Wolfram tried to sound angry, but his etiquette betrayed him. It sounded more casual.

"I'm Pinkie Pie!" The pink was now at his side. Following him closely. For he had sidestepped and walked past it.

"That's great." Wolfram said, trying his best to sound rude again. The pink was impervious to his attempts.

"Thanks, but you still didn't tell me who you are, silly!"

Wolfram sighed.

"Oh! Let me guess your name! Is it John? Grey? Steel? Steve? Chaser? Giant?..." The guesses went on for some time.

"You aren't going to guess it. It's not native." Wolfram said, trying to shake the conversation.

"You aren't from here? Well I know you're not from here, here. But you aren't from anywhere near here? Are you from Manehatten, or... The Everfree Forest?!" The pink gasped in utter terror at her thoughts.

"No, I'm from Canterlot. My family isn't though. I'm hungry, please leave now." Wolfram was more direct this time.

"Oh, you're hungry? I work at a bakery! You can go there for food! And I can come with you, and you can eat lots and lots of food, and I can talk to you, and learn your name and everything about you!"

"Forget I said anything. Please leave." Wolfram was very direct this time.

"But I still haven't learned your name! Why are you so silly?" The pink would not seem to leave. Wolfram gave up.

"Alright, fine. My name is Wolfram, I'm from Canterlot, I was not born in Canterlot. I do not know where I was born. Happy?"

"Yes, but that's not all I wanted to know." The pink was pushing a little to far, in Wolfram's mind.

"What else did you want to know?"

"Can we be friends?" She asked joyfully. Unaware, or uncaring of Wolfram's attempts to shake her.

Wolfram was silent for a while. He wasn't sure what just happened. He stopped walking, only now realizing the almost dwarfish size of the pony compared to him. He looked down at her, and thought she almost looked like a child. Certainly he couldn't deny a creature so small and innocent something as simple as friendship?

"Uh, okay. Yeah, we can be friends. Pinkie Pie was it?"

"Yup! Are you still hungry? Oops! You told me to forget! I'm sorry, forgive me?" The pony seemed very strange.

Wolfram had almost forgotten himself. As though on queue his stomach made an audible protest to his previous denial of food.

"Forget I asked you to forget, I'm actually very hungry. Now where was this bakery of yours?"

And so they both headed off to the place known as "Sugar Cube Corner," Wolfram didn't like sugar cubes on their own, an odd trait among ponies, so he hoped that the bakery did not live up to its name.

6: Dungeoneering

Wolfram jolted awake. He was in a room made of basic wooden planks for the wall, floor, and ceiling alike. There was an unlit candle on a table beside his bed. Currently the only light source was the dull grey light of a cloudy morning seeping through some blinds hung over a window. Wolfram was lying haphazardly over the sheets on the bed. He knew it was cold in the room because his face had only thin fur on it, though the rest of his body was well insulated. Wolfram began to shift into a more wakeful position. However that triggered an uncomfortable response in his abdomen.

His stomach felt like it was overflowing, Wolfram struggled to remember what had happened. He pondered for some time, while also forcing himself upright, and putting his armoured jacket on. It didn't take long to remember the pink pony had taken him to a bakery, and looking in his pouch he noticed that his finance had dropped significantly. With those clues he recalled eating far too much, and having to pay a bill. A very large bill.

Stumbling forward in gluttonous agony, Wolfram opened the door to the room he had awoken in. He found that he was on the second floor of what looked to be an inn. The second level was more of a catwalk around the building's perimeter that lead to the doors of each room, so he could see down to the common floor. It was almost completely empty. The only figures were a middle aged male earth pony bustling around behind the counter, seemingly getting ready for business, along with a juvenile male unicorn, a bit younger than Wolfram, who was systematically pulling stools off of tables and placing them down on the floor.

Wolfram walked down the stairs with caution, he was not feeling to athletic at the moment.

"Excuse me," Wolfram began to ask "I seem to have lost all sense of location. Where am I?"

The pony behind the counter laughed "Your first time drinking, I'll bet. Well, son, you did a fine job keeping up with the adults, for your age."

"I drank?" Wolfram was bewildered. He had told himself many times that he wouldn't indulge in alcohol.

"Like a berzerk after a battle! You drank some of the toughest ponies I've met under the table."

This was a little too much for Wolfram to understand. He walked over to one of the stools that was put down already, and took a seat before the bartender spoke again.

"You're up early, too. No headache?"

Wolfram did not have a headache. The notion quickly came to him that perhaps his resilience came from the leftover effects of the 'metabolic hyperactivity solution,' or whatever Amp had called it. Wolfram only shook his head in response, even if he didn't have a headache he was badly rested, and had eaten too much. Wolfram had an inquiry.

"My memory is shot, did anything important happen in regards to me last night?"

"Not that I can recall, except someone came here with you. A pink mare, she followed you in the door, but left quickly. Something about packing for Canterlot." The bartender helped his best.

"Great. What time is it?

"Half past six. AM, that is."

Wolfram groaned and dropped his head on the table with a loud thud. All he could think to himself was 'Why am I up so early?' But at least it gave him a head start on the day. He did have a job to do, and he didn't have much else on his schedule.

He stood up dejectedly, and began marching toward the door. The bartender offered him breakfast first, but Wolfram had more than enough food to last him a while in his stomach. Slowly his memories returned in fragments. Pinkie Pie was in fact heading over to Canterlot, with most of her better friends as well. Some wedding thing that Wolfram didn't care about.

He held the map which Amp had provided in front of him for a moment, trying to understand her chaotic notes. She drew octagons all over some places, and scribbled in notes like 'Manticore here in afternoon' or 'Corrupt dryads, do not provoke.' Amp had a surprisingly detailed understanding of the Everfree forest, the only problem was trying to translate her notes. They mostly made sense to her.

Once Wolfram had determined what path Amp wanted him to take, he marched south toward the forest's outskirts. It didn't take him long, the town was dangerously close to the place. Wolfram still didn't understand the placement. He walked up to the forest without any fear. He had never encountered magical enemies before, but he was certain he'd done enough reading to fight them effectively.

The forest was eerie, without a doubt. But Wolfram knew that places like this had unnerving effects, he was determined to ignore them.  The trees all seemed to loom over him, no matter what side of them he was on, they always looked like they were bent over toward him. The underbrush was all gnarled and thorny, However the trip was primarily uneventful, save for a few creatures skittering away from Wolfram's presence.

Before long he had made it to his target without a hitch. A few stone columns stood before him, rough granite obelisks. They marked the path to a heavy iron door on a stone tomb. Amp had written that it was called a "barrow" on the back of the map. It supposedly held the honourable dead of an ancient civilization. Amp was very adamant that it wasn't grave robbing if the owner had been dead for over an eon, and Wolfram wasn't about to argue with eight hundred bits.

He marched down the path, and up to the iron door. It had been barred shut from the outside. Wolfram easily removed the device, and opened the door. The smell of dust and mould wafted out from the crypt, wolfram reeled back in disgust, and held his snout in his  sleeve for a moment. He eventually shook it off, and went in, breathing through his mouth.

Wolfram pulled a flare from his satchel, Amp had supplied him with basic items before he left. He popped the cap off, igniting the red cylinder. It made a soft hissing sound and gave off considerable light. at least ten meters around him were clearly illuminated. He could see the barrow had a stair case which led deep underground from here. The walls around him were lined with stony shelves holding skeletons and dried up corpses.

Wolfram stayed as calm as he could, but being surrounded by that much death was disturbing. He walked down the staircase for some time, he was too busy staring at the dead bodies to keep track of how long exactly. But eventually the ground leveled out into a hallway with just as many corpses  in it.

He could see down the hallway what looked to be a sarcophagus of some kind. It was beyond the clear light of his flare, so the guess was not certain. It was a mere silhouette in the darkness. It seemed to radiate a feeling of cold foreboding. Wolfram had already convinced himself that he was going to do what he came to do no matter what enchantments of fear had been placed on his encounters.

Determined to retrieve the artifact he was looking for, Wolfram pushed himself forward. He normally considered himself brave, but even as he walked forward he was fighting the urge to bolt. Nearer to the sarcophagus now, he saw an ornate chest made of steel and brass in between him and the coffin. Wolfram had certainly read enough to know these things were usually trapped. So he looked around for an artificial limb of sorts to open it with.

He found a few rusted swords in the possession of some of the unprotected corpses nearer to the sarcophagus. He picked one up, and used it from a few feet away to pry open the lid of the chest. Just as he had expected, a barrage of projectiles flew from the walls and right through the space that he would have been standing in had he not foresaw the trap. The barrage went on for some time, seeming a bit excessive.

As it ended, Wolfram stepped up to the chest, and felt the floor shift under his feet. Out of instinct,he jumped backward, and narrowly avoided a falling rock which landed and split in half on the floor in front of the chest. That made enough noise to wake the dead. Wolfram thought. Realizing his surroundings, he quickly took back that remark. He once more stepped up to the now open chest, not noticing any traps this time.

He looked inside and saw a collection of things. Some ancient looking brass coins, probably of little worth now, but he took them anyway. A large iron key, he looked around for a lock, and found one on the sarcophagus, he silently hoped that the sword he was looking for was not inside there. Beyond that, there was a large heavy tome. A strange alphabet was engraved on the front. It was archaic, and made entirely of ninety and forty-five degree angle lines. The angular runes held some familiarity to Wolfram, but he couldn't recall where from. He reached into the box, and picked the book up.

At the first moment of contact, Wolfram remembered the runes. He could read them, even. 'Northern Memories,' the cover had written on it. Wolfram was bewildered, unable to remember ever seeing the alphabet before. Below the title, there was a series of three engravings, they looked similar to the alphabet, but more complex. He couldn't recognize their meaning off the top of his head.

Wolfram remembered his original goal. He put the book into his satchel, and searched the area for a sword. Leaving the sarcophagus for last intentionally. Eventually he had searched just about every corner of the area, except the stone and iron coffin. With a sense of dread, Wolfram raised the key to the keyhole on the sarcophagus. He put it in,and twisted clockwise first, it didn't budge, so he tried counter-clockwise. He heard the mechanism fall into place, and pulled the key out again. Placing it in his bag, he opened the sarcophagus. His heart jumped and skittered for a moment, as a partially in tact pony leaped out of the coffin at him. He jumped backward, and assumed a combative stance. But the pony collapsed to the floor with a thud, and the clatter of steel on stone.

With some hesitation Wolfram stepped forward to inspect the now motionless attacker. He nudged the body, and it rolled over limply. Wolfram laughed to himself.

"It's dead. Like it could have been anything else." He continued to chuckle.

Under it's previous location was an amazing sword. It gleamed with a mirror finish, the handle was wrapped with steel wire for a grip and the crossguard was a multi-layered and spiked masterpiece. Wolfram had to consciously shake himself from the sense of sheer awe at the craftsmanship. He picked it up, and gave it a few swings, standing bipedal for a moment. Bipedal combat was an art which very few ponies knew. But it was very popular in the past, now weapons like swords that can't be used four legged were mostly ceremonial.

Wolfram had intentionally trained himself in bipedal combat, figuring that someday it might get him the upper hoof. The sword was perfectly balanced, and even though it was thick and strong, it was surprisingly light. The base of the blood groove had some of the complex engravings that the book had. Once again three of them, and once again Wolfram couldn't understand them. Wolfram chuckled lightly at the greatness of the weapon, he found a way to keep it in his satchel without a sheathe, and began his journey back up to the surface.

Behind him though, something was stirring. Wolfram did not notice. The form that he had presumed dead was pulling itself upward, as though by magic. It did not contact the ground, so much as float back upright. Like a puppet on strings. It lurched forward, Raising a hoof clumsily, trying to strike Wolfram in the back.

It succeeded in this motion. Wolfram felt the sharp pain of a blow to the back of his neck. before spinning around in defense. Once he saw his attacker he was quickly unnerved. For just a moment he stood still in shock, and just a moment was long enough to get hit again. This time in the shoulder, his armoured jacket absorbed most of the blow, but he still felt the unearthly strength of it. Wolfram figured now was as good a time as any to try bipedal combat, so he quickly drew his new sword, and took a swing at the undead. He cut a massive gash along it's gut, but it didn't flinch.

Now alert to his surroundings, Wolfram saw more of the corpses beginning to shift about. Utter horror overtook him, and he swung once more at the first undead. Striking its neck, he almost beheaded it, but it still stood in forbearance to Wolfram's fatal strike. It sputtered some ancient tongue at him.

"Hel, Jotuns, vetr langr! Rythja!" It was hard to understand, but it almost sounded like it was trying to warn Wolfram.

Wolfram ignored it, and charged up the steps of the barrow, flare in one front hoof and sword in the other. Unfortunately walking bipedal was a lot slower than normal. The pursuers were beginning to gain on him, so he had to turn around and fend a few off. He struck at them with the blade, and kicked a few as well. They were eternally off balance, and he knocked them back down the stairs with ease. Even causing them to fall in unison, like a set of dominoes sometimes. But they showed no yield, and got back up after every strike.

Wolfram did his best to knock most of the frontal ones down, and began retreating again. He ran up the stairs as quickly as he could, and soon found himself in the light of day again. The undead legion chased him without yield, Wolfram looked behind him once he had escaped, only to find them halted. They stood at the edge of the shadow, almost miming a wall. They growled, and sputtered at Wolfram. Occasionally letting out fragments of their archaic tongue.

Wolfram did not question their refusal to continue, he simply trotted away at a brisk pace. He headed back toward the town, planning to return to Amp quickly, and hoping that he would not have to deal with legions of unstoppable corpses again.

7: Back in Black

Wolfram was just about worn out already.  Right about now he was wishing that Amp was there to pull some new biological agent out of who-knows-where, and administer it to him to fix all his problems. Trudging out of the horrid forest just now, he saw the town come in to sight again. The sun was high in the sky, but Wolfram felt ready for supper and bed.

The whole trip the sword had been bothering him. Carrying it wasn't an option, because he was too slow standing on two legs, but when it was in his bag it put him off balance and occasionally damaged some of his things. What kind of ancient relic sword doesn't have an equally amazing scabbard to go with it? None the less, he had made it back. And would certainly go about finding a better device to hold it before he headed back to Canterlot.

Canterlot, that brought up a thought. Today was the day his enemies were due there. This meant if he headed back soon, he'd have to take an evasive route, so as to not meet them going the opposite way on his return. But that was still hours ahead. Currently he felt exhausted, and hungry. So off to the inn it was.

The people in the town still looked at him strangely, and he still tried to spook them off with a brooding expression and hunched stature. It worked for the most part. With his shell of intimidation intact he made it to the inn in no time, and without any suspicious followers. He walked up to the door, and just before heading in he heard a familiar voice.

"Wait, wait. It gets even better! So, the interrogator woke up, now hoofcuffed to his own chair, I poured kerosene all over the room, and gave him a hacksaw. I said to him 'Cuffs take a lot longer to get through than ankles.' And he never heard from me again!" The whole room tavern erupted in a roar of laughter.

Wolfram was not actually sure what to think about Amp being there. He was happy to have someone he knew around, but he was irritated that she was already making a better impression than he could. He was also wondering why Amp seemed to follow him almost everywhere.

He trotted in the door, and went up to the counter. Not heeding Amp's popular presence. He ordered the bartender to get him food and drink, then proceeded to sit in silence. It didn't take long for Amp to notice Wolfram, the giant sword sticking out of his bag was a give away to his presence.

"Hey, Wolfram! You're back early, I was just waiting for you!" Amp was very pleased to see her hireling.

"You know, things got real boring real fast once you left. Well, until this morning that is." She paused.

"What happened?" Wolfram asked flatly.

"Well, the feds got a perimeter all set up at about six in the morning, and then the cult showed up. Full blown battle in the streets of the capital city." Amp was already drinking, and seemed no worse for wear despite.

"Oh, great. Any other powerful factions laying siege to my home?" Wolfram asked angrily.

"Unless they can take the forms of innocent ponies, nope." Amp was dead serious, but Wolfram laughed lightly.

"So, I got the sword. It would seem death grip lasts more than a few centuries." Wolfram thought he was being clever.

"Wait, you saw undead?" Amp became ecstatic. "Tell me everything you observed, there's a surprising lack of information on them."

"Not much to tell. They were corpses that moved, and spoke some old language. Lots of deep sort of sounds. Y's and T's all over the place."

"You can't recall exactly what they said?"

"Nope, not everyone has a perfect memory." Wolfram was trying to point out Amp's insensitivity. He failed.

"Oh well, it's not perfect, but thank you." It was hard to tell if Amp was joking, "Well, anyway. Eight hundred bits, right here. Hand the blade over, please." Only now did Wolfram have a second thought on the transaction.

"Actually. This sword is rather handy in a fight, and I don't have much need for that much pay." Wolfram blackmailed.

"Oh I get it, I bargain your freedom over a poker debt, and now you bargain the scientific advancement of an entire nation over a nice weapon. Look, I can get you a sword that's almost as good as that one easily. The alloy is actually a lot more useful for machinery than weapons. High carbon steel will work almost as great."

"The original payment, plus a new sword. Then it's yours." Wolfram demanded.

"Deal, now hand it over, I want to look at it." Amp began reaching over Wolfram's food and trying to grab the sword out of his bag on the other side of him. Wolfram pushed her back, and gave her the sword freely.

"Ho boy! This is amazing! How the heck did they fold titanium into Damascus? Where did they even find titanium?" Amp clearly not expecting an answer from anyone. "To think that they had the nerve to just leave this unsheathed in a tomb somewhere."

"Horrid to even imagine." Wolfram said as his meal slid down the bar to him. He began eating without discretion, and drinking all the same. He had tasted alcohol before, but he couldn't remember it. So it might as well have been a new experience. He recoiled at the bitter taste of the ale at first, but once the shock settled in he quite enjoyed it.

"Whoa, finally drinking some of the grown-up stuff, eh?" Amp teased, she was not cautionary and had been encouraging Wolfram to begin drinking as soon as he had finished most of his brain development.

"Yep, It couldn't hurt for just one more thing to change in my life now."

"Well I'm proud of you, all grown up and drinking beer!" Amp harassed.

Wolfram finished up what he was eating without giving Amp anything else to mock him about. He managed to shake the payment out of Amp, partially in checks, but it was still good money, and he left the tavern. Hoping to be able to do something on his own without Amp chiding in and belittling his efforts.

Wolfram took a few steps outside, it was mid afternoon at this point. Wolfram wasn't exactly sure what to do. Hopefully most of the chaos had passed in his absence, but Wolfram wasn't certain it was safe to return home yet. He moved to the edge of town to get a clear line of sight on Canterlot. It was strange seeing it from so far away, even if it was obfuscated by a translucent purple sphere.

He just sat there and looked at it for a while, mostly procrastinating his need to make a move. And to some further extent feeling homesick. After a good long bit of staring he noticed something abnormal. He initially dismissed it as a strange cloud. But it looked to be more lively, it was almost writhing in the sky. Reminiscent of swarms of insects or vermin, and a lot darker than most storm clouds.

Wolfram began to worry, and wanted someone to tell him that he was just imagining things. The only person around he knew was Amp, obviously. So he trotted back to the tavern with some haste. In no time he was back through the door, Amp was still telling macabre jokes, and Wolfram had to force his way through the crowd to get to her.

"Amp, can you come and see something?" Wolfram didn't want to be specific to the whole crowd.

"Pff, yeah. I'm not getting paid for this." She hopped off the stage and walked with Wolfram out the door.

"So what are you showing me?" Amp asked.

"I'm not sure, I was hoping you could clarify."

"I more than likely can." Amp assured.

Wolfram led her to just the same spot he was in when he noticed the writhing cloud, and he pointed it out as best he could.

"I don't see anything." Amp said plainly.

"Well take the goggles off, those are for arc welding, right?" Wolfram was severely upset.

"The sun is a lot more powerful than an arc welder." Amp grumbled as she took her goggles off, squinting in pain. It took her a minute or so of trying to get used to the light. When she finally did she stared closely at the sky above Canterlot, and then spoke.

"That cloud does look strange, I'm going to get a closer look." She finessed a pair of binoculars out of her satchel and rested them in front of her eyes.

"Yep, that is definitely a hostile swarm of insectoids massing outside of Canterlot." Amp remained completely level.

"You're joking, right?" Wolfram was actually not certain he should believe Amp.

"Yeah, I'm joking about a a horde of unidentified monsters threatening everything I've ever worked for." Wolfram stared blankly at her "Of course I'm not joking, idiot. Now tell me, have you ever ridden in a car before?"

"No," Wolfram said cautiously "Why?"

"Because you're about to ride in the best locomotive in Equestria, compliments of me." Amp took a small device from her tool belt, a two way radio. She sent a series of clicks through by pressing on a button and then put it away. There was a long pause.

"Is something supposed to happen, because..." Wolfram was interrupted.

"Shh, you'll ruin the entrance." Amp hushed.

Not long after Wolfram heard a soft rumbling in the distance, seemingly coming from the Everfree Forest. Wolfram had not actually seen a 'car' before, since they weren't very popular in Equestria, but he knew they existed and of their general premise. They seemed a bit silly to him, they needed constant refueling and were barely any faster than a good runner.

Rumbling soon became a tremor, and then a roar. It climbed louder and louder, impending on their position. Wolfram distinctly heard the sound of vegetation being snapped and crushed, and after standing in place anticipating it for a good two minutes, a machine erupted from the wall of the forest. Soaring through the air, branches and leaves trailing behind it. It was a glossy black, and had what looked to be a cow pusher welded to the front. Several iron pipes extruded out of the rear end at varying degrees, and at the moment were spewing blue-hot exhaust. The curves and contours of it's central body were only contrasted by the sharp edges and dangerous bits of the attachments.

The contraption slammed into the ground right in front of Amp, and looked like it was going o run straight into her. Wolfram was about to jump over and knock her out of the way, as she seemed to be motionless, but just before he did he heard a screech louder than an eagle. The car turned to it's side, and slid toward amp, leaving trenches in the earth behind it before it came to a halt only a few centimeters from Amp.

A pony stumbled out of the left side of the car, coughing loudly, a plume of smoke followed him closely. As the door opened a rumbling sound from within became more apparent. It vaguely resembled music, but the singers were screaming and the instruments sounded unearthly and heavy.

"What in Equestria is that?" Wolfram asked no one in particular. But the previous pilot of the car spoke.

"It's heavy metal, man!" and he began furiously rocking his head and long mane back and forth. For only a few seconds before he stopped, mane still partially covering his face.

"Oh yeah, Amp, man. The dry ice machine is venting into the cockpit again, man." He said.

"Seriously? Damn. That just keeps breaking. Find me some tungsten later, okay, Seymour?" Amp asked.

"Right on, man." Seymour confirmed. "Hey wait a minute, who's this kid? More importantly why hasn't he heard metal before?"

"I will introduce myself, Seymour. I am Wolfram, I--" Wolfram was cut off by Seymour.

"Oh dude, that's a pretty metal name. Rock on, man."

"Like I was saying, I'm Wolfram and I really need to get back to Canterlot, so if you would excuse us." Wolfram continued.

"Sure thing, man. It's Amp's car anyway." Amp was to speak next

"It certainly is. Alright, Wolfram, this thing only seats two. Get in on the other side. Seat belts are optional, but not recommended." She said , putting her goggles back on and stepping into the vehicle.

Wolfram did as instructed, and opted to put the seat belt on. He sat upright, as the structure of the chair suggested he should. Amp put her hooves on the steering device, and the engine roared twice. Without any warning the vessel accelerated to ridiculous speeds, Wolfram was surprised.

"Welcome to the..." Amp began, flipping her extra dark lenses down "Highway to hell!" She shouted the last part, just as another song began on the sound system.

All of Wolfram's previous notions about cars seemed void. It was his understanding that they were only about as fast as a fit pony, and that there wheels only allowed them to drive on roads. They were reportedly made mostly out of wood, with some steel framing, and the wheels were supposed to look like the kind you'd see on a wagon. This car broke almost all of that description. It's wheels were made of heavy rubber and steel, and Amp was driving off road. She also was already driving at ridiculous speeds, the speedometer which was analog, and built into the dashboard, was all ready reading 75 kilometers an hour.

Amp swerved and swiveled the car over rough terrain, only heading in the general direction of Canterlot. Wolfram couldn't argue that they were going fast. Wolfram was worried on several occasions that the vehicle would slide or roll, but it had an uncanny grip on the earth below them.

Canterlot was approaching fast, really fast actually. Wolfram now realized a small problem. There was only one carriage road into the city, and the gate to it was only opened for special occasions to special ponies. Only the railroad and what ever ground beside it that you could walk along remained. At a lot of points that space was barely large enough for a pony, let alone a massive thing like this car.

"Amp!" Wolfram shouted over the music, "How are we going to get up to the gate?"

"You'll see!" Amp responded quickly and excitedly.

The car was now going 180 kilometers an hour.

The river between Ponyville and Canterlot was fast approaching, and by the looks of it, Amp was not headed for the bridge. She was making a B-line for Canterlot, without heeding any obstacles. Wolfram had been wrong about this car before though, so he bit his tongue and trusted Amp. The river was only a few seconds away.

"Hold on to something!" Amp shouted, and Wolfram obeyed.

They were just about to plummet down the bank into the river, when an inexplicable force launched them into the air. They sailed smoothly over the body of water, a lateral distance of at least ten meters. Cleared by this massive machine with ease. The landing was as smooth as landing on your own hooves from only a meter high. Just as the car hit the ground, and the vehicle bounced with shock Amp spoke up.

"If you ever see suspension that comes close to this, tell me! I need to steal it!"

220 kilometers an hour

After the landing, the car swiveled a bit, and then accelerated to near top-speed. They were now more than half of the way to the mountain Canterlot sits on. After crossing the river, Amp slowly veered the car toward the train tunnel off in the distance. Clearly her plan was to go through those up to the city and hope no trains opposed her.

"Are you sure this is safe, Amp?" Wolfram yelled in question.

"Honestly?" Amp began "I have no idea!" She laughed like madmare, and drove even faster. 250 kilometers an hour, to be precise.

Closing on the tunnel quickly Wolfram was debating whether it would be more dangerous to fly out of the sunroof or sit through the ride. Before he could think long though, the entire vehicle was engulfed in darkness. Within seconds a green monochrome display lit up on the windscreen of the vehicle. and lights popped on on the front illuminating the tunnel clearly.

Amp drove at the same insane speed on top of the railroad. The car was shaking like mad, but holding together. It was a good thirty seconds of safe driving in before the first sign of danger arose. In one of the mirrors mounted on the front of the car Wolfram spotted the telltale headlight of a train coming up behind them. he may have heard a whistle blow, but it was hard to hear over the music.

"Come and get me!" Amp taunted the train, and flicked a switch on the dashboard. Within a moment the car somehow sped up even faster. Wolfram was in awe at the power of the car he was in, every time he thought it couldn't go any faster Amp found a way to push it even harder. Unfortunately the speed boost only lasted a few seconds, and the duo found themselves between a rock and a hard place, or rather a train and another train. A crossroads in the tunnel was coming up, and it was occupied by a train perpendicular to the car.

Amp cursed under her breath and looked around her dashboard for a moment. She sighed and spoke.

"Well, good news and bad news. Bad news, there's only one way through this. Good news, there's at least a six percent chance it will work."

"I hope you aren't putting any money on that." Wolfram said, not too worried at this point. Remembering Amp had a way of defying the laws of probability when it was important.

Amp grinned and shifted a few levers, while still accelerating. She was steering with one hoof, while the other was on a button. The perpendicular train was only a couple meters away, and she slammed the button. The car jumped up into the air, just like on the river, and Wolfram heard the roof scrape against the top of the cave a little. Then, in mid flight Amp shifted a few buttons, and the car spun to face the same direction as the previously perpendicular train.

The apex of the jump had passed, and Wolfram felt the vessel enter free fall. Just for a moment, Wolfram actually had doubts that whatever Amp was planning would work, but soon his fears were quelled. At least a little. The wheels of the vehicle smashed perfectly square onto the roof of one of the cars on the train. He could faintly hear screams of terror from the passengers below, and he hoped that he didn't hear any screams of pain.

The end of the tunnel was in sight, and Amp began driving on the tops of the train cars toward it. The end was near, but the ceiling of the tunnel seemed to be sloping down. Every second driven toward the exit brought the top of the cave closer to the car, and with their speed, the car would almost certainly get torn to shreds if it caught on something. Just a few moments from the end of the tunnel, Wolfram was clenching his jaw, and then he heard it. The awful sound of steel scraping on stone. He heard the sound of metal being torn apart, and he felt the draft of the wind. The whole top of the car was lost behind them, and Wolfram closed his eyes.

Soon he felt something he didn't expect though. It wasn't the feeling of his head being crushed by a cave ceiling, or even the sensation of being obliterated by a train. He was in free fall again, and a waft of light shone over his eyelids. He opened them cautiously, and saw they had made it. The entire roof of the car was gone though. The car slammed into the ground sideways, and tipped slightly, before settling down.

"Huh," Amp began "I was thinking about turning this into a convertible tomorrow morning."

8: Good Timing

"Wolfram, you're going to hurt yourself if you keep clenching up like that." Amp said. Wolfram was still hanging on to a handle, which used to be attached to the ceiling, and now was attached to nothing. He was breathing heavily, and every muscle in his body was rigidly flexed.

"Seriously, quit it. You're weirding me out." Amp was far too calm about the whole ordeal. Only now did Wolfram regain full freedom over himself. He looked at the handle he was grasping and threw it out of the car.

"Amp?" He asked.

"Yes, Wolfram? Do you need a blanky?" Amp teased.

"Why are we both alive?" Wolfram was still breathing heavily.

"Good timing, is all. If Seymour hadn't told you your name was 'metal,' we would have been a second or two early, and actually would have ran straight into that cross section, before getting T-boned by the perpendicular train. You should thank him next time you see him."

Wolfram was silent. He had reached a similar feeling about the whole situation as Amp. That would be the unfamiliar feeling of not giving a rat's ass about anything. Unfortunately Amp met it through confidence, and some insanity. While Wolfram had met it through exasperation and frustration. He wasn't even sure what to say to Amp in response to her explanation.

"Well, we're here to fight some giant bugs, right?" Wolfram asked

"Yeah." At Amp's word Wolfram jumped out of the car, without opening the door, and said

"We should probably get some gear then." Amp got out of the car as well.

"Take the sword for now," Amp seemed sad to let it go "Just... Don't break it please?" She handed it over to Wolfram, as both were standing in front of the car now. Wolfram took it gently, and put it into his bag for the time being.

"It is safe with me, Amp. Don't worry." Wolfram was surprised. It took a lot to make Amp worry.

They turned to face the train entrance to the city. A guard stood on either side of the track, and both were staring at Amp, Wolfram and the car, with their jaws dropped. They weren't speaking, which was normal. But it was severely abnormal that something had broken a guard's stone expression.

"Hey, boys. We're here on a matter of defense." Amp said, trying to cover the fact that she had destroyed the roof of several passenger train cars. The guards still didn't speak.

"We'll just be going in now." Amp began walking toward the train tracks where they entered the city. As she walked up to the purple barrier, the guards fumbled about for a moment. Then started using magic to pull the field aside temporarily. Amp walked through, and poked her head back out before they closed it.

"Come on Wolfram, they aren't going to buy it for much longer!" She whispered loudly. Wolfram had been almost as flustered as the guards, and forgot he was supposed to be following Amp. He trotted up quickly, and through the field. It closed behind them, and when they entered they saw the train at the station.

The train was completely smashed up. there were wooden splinters everywhere, and the roof was caved in on most of the cars. Passengers had stumbled out of it. They all looked scared, and covered in rubble. But Wolfram spotted no major injuries. Wolfram looked back forward, and was worried when he saw he lost Amp.

Amp poked her head around the corner of a nearby alley.

"Wolfram! Get over here, you don't want to be seen at the scene of this much vandalism!" Again whispering, but too loudly for it to be effective.

Wolfram followed Amp into the alley, who was already tapping on a manhole. About 4 years ago, a filly had accidentally ended up in Amp's tunnel system. The code for entry used to just be three knocks, and that proved to be to easy to get accidentally. Amp didn't want to have to spend more resources on erasing memories, so she updated the code. It was now a complicated tap dance, Unfortunately, it was extremely difficult, and Wolfram often had to do it three or more times to get it right.

Amp, of course, executed it perfectly, and the manhole slid open. They both descended into darkness, and the lights flickered on almost instantly. Amp had fixed the lighting in most of her tunnels over the last year. The pair walked over to a steel door and Amp opened it after entering a combination code on an analog device.

The door opened revealing a large cement room. It had racks upon racks of intimidating looking devices. Some vaguely resembled weapons that Wolfram knew of, and others looked like they were meant to be worn. But none of them looked clean or safe. They all had exposed machinery, and were rusted and covered in sharp edges. Amp quickly trotted to one particular place on the wall and picked up a device.

"I've been waiting to try this one out for a while." She mumbled. It looked like two black steel pipes attached to each other vertically, the bottom one having a large grip. At the rear end there was a wedge-shaped piece of more steel, but padded with foam at the very back of it.

"What's that supposed to be?" Wolfram asked.

"A device which I only recently created. The most similar thing you've probably ever heard of is a blunderbuss." Wolfram thought on the term for a bit. He recalled reading in a history book that a couple hundred years ago there was a completely failed 'revolution,' who's leaders equipped themselves with pipes filled with explosives and balls of metal. It supposedly launched the ball slightly faster than a bolt from a crossbow, and made a bang louder than anything besides a cannon.

They were quickly abandoned because they took minutes to reload, and had a habit of exploding in the wielder's hooves.

"I assume you've worked out the kinks, then?" Wolfram asked.

"I've done more than that. This thing holds eight shots, each one is a shell, with all the components built into it, and i can load them in just a few seconds. The muzzle velocity is just past mach 1, and it should kill anything within a few meters easily." Amp explained proudly.

"But that's the key word: 'should.' I haven't tested it before." Amp was clearly sad that she hadn't gotten to use it yet.

"Well it sounds perfect for dealing with whatever these creatures are." Wolfram assured.

Amp grabbed a bag full of shells, and attached it to her satchel harness, so it was in easy access, she slung the weapon around her side, and began walking toward the exit. Before she went far, she stopped.

"Oh yeah, do you want anything besides the sword?" Amp asked Wolfram politely.

Wolfram thought for a moment. He was already wearing light brigandine under his jacket. A helmet would be too cumbersome for fighting swarms, and the sword was more than enough stopping power for anything with a beating heart.

"I think I'm good on basic gear, but do you have anything that's particularly strange?"

"Oh yeah! I should take these for myself." Amp said, and she picked up a pair of heavy mechanical goggles. "Thermal vision can always come in handy. Besides that, yes. I do have a lot of strange things." Amp said.

"Like...?" Wolfram drew on, hoping for an explanation.

"Shock absorbing boots, let you fall farther and kick harder, too many varieties of explosives to list, an axe which exudes a solution that reacts violently and explosively with blood, that one is dangerous for the wielder, I've got a device which prevents the formation of lactic acid, but that requires surgery to function, a flash light that gives anything you shine it at cancer, I tried building armour our of chain saws, it didn't work out so well, but I still have it." The list trailed on for some time before Wolfram interrupted.

"I think I'll be fine." He said in response to the many ludicrous and dangerous items Amp listed.

"Suit yourself, let's go. I think that guy who bought the magic enhancers from me is running the force field around the city.  We should probably make sure he knows whats going o--" She was cut off by a muffled smashing sound, clearly coming from above.

"No time, let's go!" She shouted, and they both went back up the way they came down. Both of them were running, Amp with her inventions' safety in interest, and Wolfram with the safety of the city in interest.

As soon as they were up they saw a terrible sight. Black figures, equine in shape, but covered in chitin and with insect like wings, were smashing into the earth. Even worse, after hitting the ground and making a crater they stood up unharmed, and began pursuing ponies like prey. Wolfram saw innocents being tackled and restrained by three of these monsters at once. Once they were pinned the bugs engulfed the victim in a green glow, coming from the gnarled and twisted horns on their heads, and the target became limp. Not dead, but completely passive. Tranquil and emotionless.

Wolfram could only assume the sedation was for an evil purpose, and so he got angry. So angry in fact, that he audibly growled, and engaged one of the bugs he saw that was chasing down a citizen. He charged at the monster with immense speed. He leaped into the air while still behind it, and extending the jump with his wings, he drew the sword from his pack mid air. With a roar of exertion and anger he fell, sword first, straight down on the creature, and his blade stabbed straight through the thing's back and abdomen, then into the stone street below it.

The monster stopped in it's tracks and spattered a cough and a squelch of blood. Wolfram placed a back hoof on it, and yanked the sword out of it's body. This took an amazing amount of effort, the blade had driven into stone, after all. When he removed the blade from the body it began pouring a green ichor out in buckets. The creature tried to stay upright for a moment, but ultimately collapsed in pain and blood loss.

"Whoa there, Wolfram. That was a bit excessive, save your strength and all that crap." Amp said from some distance away.

Wolfram calmed down a bit. Why was he so angry? He had right to be, but a calm resolve would probably better serve him. Amp was right, he needed to save energy, stay calm, and not power attack every enemy he met. He looked up, and exhaled slowly, chaos was breaking loose all around him. He looked to Amp who was scanning the area intently.

So intently that she was not aware of her closer surroundings, Wolfram could see her moving her mouth silently, as she did whenever she planned or calculated in her head. One of the insectoids was right behind her, actually. She hadn't heard it, clearly, and it was about to tackle her. Just as it leaped off of the ground, Wolfram shouted.

"Behind you!"

Amp dropped her binoculars, spun around, dove backwards and away from the creature onto her back, and drew her weapon in one swift motion. Then before the monster could understand what had just happened, it was gone. In a flash of light and an earth shattering bang, half of it's head and most of it's shoulder were gone completely. It's body fell to the ground in front of Amp, who stood back up, and brushed her chest off.

"Thanks for the warning, kid." Amp said, calmly. Wolfram nodded in response before she continued.

"We should probably try to find your dad, he's the only guard I even half trust, he'll have some kind of plan."

"I guess my home is the best place to start, we're not far from there anyway." Wolfram suggested.

Amp agreed plainly, and told Wolfram to follow her. The trip was short, and thanks to Amp's knowledge of back alleys and shady short cuts, they made it there without encounter. The whole way Wolfram had to fight the urge to bolt out into the open every time he heard somepony scream, though.

Amp and Wolfram quickly circled around from the back to the front of his house, and went in through the door. The abode was messy and unkempt. The note that Wolfram had left for his father some days ago was on the living room table. Surrounded by magnifying glasses, quills, and notes It also.had a coffee stain on it. The notes contained scribbles and letters all over them. It looked like someone was trying to decode the message, but Woflram had put no code in it in the first place.

"Hm, that's Ferrous's writing. Looks like he was worried about you." Amp said.

Wolfram didn't know what to say. He thought his dad would have been mostly fine with his departure. Evidently that wasn't the case though, Wolfram didn't want his dad to be worried about him when he needed to do a job. Especially one as important as protecting the entire city.

"We need to find him. Do you have any idea how we can do that besides aimlessly searching?" Wolfram asked Amp.

"Hmm... About two years ago I sold two way portable radios to the royal guard. Assuming Ferrous is wearing his armour, which it's built into, he should be hooked up to the system."

"Great, do you have a radio that can get into the channel?"

"No, but I can make one right now. As long as you don't mind me salvaging some stuff from your house." Amp said.

"Not if it means contacting my dad." Wolfram responded, giving Amp permission to loot his house.

She left, and came back with a small diamond flake, a few coils of copper wire, a couple magnets, some paper, and a few other strange pieces. All along with a roll of her patented "Duck Tape," named as such because she originally designed it as the only material capable of preventing ducks from escaping your lab tests.

She tore the paper into two discs, and two rolls. Stuck them together so that there were two parts. Each a disc with the cylindrical roll in the center. She wrapped the copper wire around the cylindrical roll of one of them, and placed the magnet in the other. Then using more wire, and some of the odd bits, she fashioned what appeared to be a simple circuit with the diamond flake stuck in it, and a large antenna. The paper part began vibrating and playing static.

This alone impressed Wolfram, but when Amp started changing the circuit around and placing magnets over different parts of it, she managed to get a coherent signal. It sounded like the guard channel.

"Delta actual, this is Charlie strike! We are near your position, and ready to reinforce, but we've met opposition. Extend ETA to 6 minutes!" A young voice sounded out of the device.

"Charlie strike, this is Delta Actual. We won't last that long. We are going to pull out, Alpha's going to have to get out of there on their own." A deep, gruff voice said in response.

"Can we talk to them?" Wolfram asked.

"No, a microphone circuit would take too long to build." Amp responded.

More radio chatter went on for a while. But nothing was said that led them to Ferrous. After a few minutes Wolfram felt like it was hopeless.

"He's not on there, or if he is we won't know. We need to get out there and try to get at least some people to safety!" He said

"Just wait, he's on there." Amp said with little effect on Wolfram.

"How can you know that? Ponies are being taken by these things every second we don't spend stopping them!"

Amp hushed Wolfram, and gestured to the device.

"All teams, this is Whiskey leader! I'm here through Zulu leader's radio! The Princess has been incapacitated, and the captain is not fit for duty! Abandon all previous orders, and start a full evacuation! The city is lost, but the citizens don't have to be."

Even through the low quality radio Amp had made, Wolfram knew that was his father's voice.

"I am going to return to the streets, and assist as best I can near the castle! I need Alpha through November to work on the slums, and Oscar through Tango in the upper tier. Victor and up need to stay near the castle! The Elements of Harmony are attempting to access their artifacts. Until then brute force is all we have!" Ferrous continued.

"Hold on men, this is Yankee leader. An evacuation is not acceptable, Whiskey leader does not have authority over X-ray and up. Zulu is down, and that puts us, Yankee, in charge. We are stopping this thing right now. All squads return to the castle immediately! We're taking the head of the beast." A strong, loud, and gruff voice shouted.

"With all due respect, Yankee leader, that would lead to countless civilian casualties. For the sake of the people we need to get them out of here. We're guards, not soldiers." Ferrous argued.

"X-ray's taken a vote. We're with Whiskey, Yankee." A female voice said.

"Victor's with Whiskey, sir."

"Uniform checking in for Whiskey. Let's keep the people safe."

"Tango here, we're already sweeping the upper tier for innocents."

The list went on and on. A few letters were missing entirely. It was apparent a lot of guards had already been lost. Yet they all united against their superior, in defense of the people. Further more, they united in defense of the people under Wolfram's father's name.

A new voice chided in.

"Come in, is this the guard channel?" A female voice, an angry and strained one. It was Wolfram's XO, Thunder.

"Yes this is, who's speaking? The voice representing X-Ray asked.

"This is functioning leader of the slummer combat squad. We aren't as trained as any of you, but we're mostly alive and offering our help in protecting the city." Thunder said.

"We are at the black smith, pinned down currently. The smith himself has done a fine job for someone armed only with a broken bottle." She finished.

"That's Brandy, all right." Wolfram said. "Come on, let's go meet up with my team, we'll be able to do some good from there."

"You do that, I've got to get another weapon, I'll cover you from a distance though." She said.

"You're leaving me?" Wolfram asked worriedly.

"Yes, but only to get a bigger gun. I'll snipe for you. Don't worry, you'll do fine kid." Amp assured.

"All right, but how are we going to communicate?"

"Easy, you find a dead guard, take his helmet, and I'll go get the prototype radio. When each of us gets a transmitter we'll say 'Checking in for' and then the other's name. Got it?"

"I've got it. See you later." Wolfram said. Amp nodded, and they headed off.

Wolfram went through the streets this time. Heading toward the smith, he took attacks of opportunity at every one of the monsters which got to close to him. He ran the whole way, fighting his need for rest through will. He needed to catch his team before they moved out of the smith.

He was more than halfway there when Amp appeared again. She poked her head around the corner of a building like always.

"Psst! Wolfram, get over here!" Wolfram did as instructed, slowing down a bit. Once he was close to her he spoke.

"What is it Amp, I thought you were goi--" he was cut off by a hoof to the lower jaw.

"Ah, shit! What the hell, Amp?" he asked angrily. But Amp only responded with more kicks and punches. Wolfram was done trusting Amp. And he lashed out and struck her in the side of the head with a heavy punch. That knocked her to the ground, and she tried to get back up. But Wolfram picked her up, and threw her against a wall. She fell to the ground, and looked up at him. Wolfram now noticed her eyes weren't the usual deep green, but they were a teal-green hue, and the pupils had narrowed to slits.

A copper-green fire crawled across her eyes, and they returned to the normal deep green. She grinned cockily and lashed out at Wolfram with her hind leg. He was tripped, and Amp took this opportunity to stand up. She got up, and stomped on the back of Wolfram's neck. That hurt. A lot. it hurt so much that Wolfram wasn't even going to restrain his lethal force any more. This wasn't Amp, and if it was, she wasn't an ally anymore. He got up and shoulder rammed her in one motion, knocking her over again, before he drew his sword and stuck the tip of it right at her throat.

"Amp, what the hell are you doing?" Wolfram asked loudly.

No response, other than an insane grin and an angry glare all rolled into one.

"Answer, or this sword replaces your larynx. I'm dead serious." He threatened.

"Just another strategic casualty. There are too many of us for it to matter." She said ominously.

Wolfram mustered up all of his will, to go through with what he had promised. He closed his eyes, and thrust the sword forward. He heard the expected squelching, and slicing. But then he heard something else, the sound of a flame whooshing through the air. He opened his eyes, and saw his sword stuck through the throat of one of the bug creatures.

He sighed in relief, extremely happy that he didn't have to hurt Amp. She was like an aunt to him, but when someone is clearly insane, and a serious threat to your life, sometimes necessity overrides compassion. He drew the blade, and put it away. Immediately running toward the smith again.

He eventually made it there, after taking a few more heads off of the shape changers. He saw the smith, it was completely surrounded by the creatures. Brandy was standing at the entrance, stabbing at other iterations of himself with a hot rod of iron and a broken bottle.

Wolfram drew his blade. and ran into the fray. He slew everything outside of the blacksmith. It wasn't very hard. The shape changers were weak, the only issue is that there were so many of them. But through evasion and clever retreat Wolfram managed to take them down one by one. It wasn't pretty, there was a lot more mutilation than he was going for.

He eventually broke through the swarm, and ended up on the same side as the smith. He hopped over the counter into the building, and away from the monsters. As soon has he was inside though, his team grabbed him, and pinned him down.

"Oh come on guys, we aren't over this yet?" Wolfram was exasperated at them.

"Wolfram, is that actually you?" Thunder asked him.

"Yes it's me, the bugs don't have swords, remember?" Wolfram gestured with his chin to the blade on the ground.

Thunder looked at him cautiously for a moment before ordering his release.

"I hate to say this, but it's good to have you back, no-name. Being down two was really hurting our tactics."

Wait, two? Wolfram looked around. he realized that Moxie wasn't there. It wasn't surprising, but he was worried.

"Damn it, have you seen Moxie at all today?" Wolfram asked.

"No we haven't." Thunder responded.

"Aye! The lass with the midget wing? I saw the bloody scoundrel just this morning! She came around wee o' clock, and woke me early! Needless to elaborate, I was bloody angry to me bones with 'er!" Brandy shouted, all the while jabbing and smashing at his many doppelgangers.

"What was she doing here so early?" Wolfram asked him.

"Honestly lad, I have no bleedin' clue as to what she was up to. She asked me to make a brooch outta some fancy amulet she brought to me. I did it, o' course, then she left without payin'! Said somethin' about openin' a bloody tab, the little slimy cripple!" Brandy cursed loudly, driving a hot bit of steel through the chest of his likeness.

"Great, she's doing an art project while we fight for the city's survival." Thunder remarked.

"We'll have to do without her. Do you have a plan already, Thunder?" Wolfram asked.

"Now that you're here, I've got a much better one. We split into squads of four, and check houses until we find conscious civilians, and help them get to the smith here." She explained "Brandy, do you mind us keeping a few civilians here until the guard comes?"

"Surely not, lass. I'll protect the bleeders as long as ye need me!" He confirmed in his thick accent.

"All right then, Wolfram! You lead Shadow, Lance, and Stone on rescue duty. I'll stay here with Crossbow, Storm, and Cannon."

"Hooah!" All the squad shouted in unison. Wolfram jumped back over the counter with his sword in hoof. Shadow, leaped over the counter, and turned himself invisible with his magic, and Stone clumsily climbed over it and jumped down, making a heavy thud in the earth. Finally Lance came over, and used his magic to put a barrier around his body, which resembled armour, but was orange, glowing, and semi-transparent.

Wolfram quickly stabbed one of the monsters who was charging at him, and pummeled another in the face, right as it took his appearance. Knocking it unconscious seemed to return it to it's original form.

"Don't let your eyes off each other, and follow me, we're headed east first!" He shouted, and began advancing toward a residence near the square that the smith was in. Shadow was hard to keep a tab on. He silently snuck around the enemy, and you could see him break his cloak for just a moment to snap a neck or two, before shrouding himself again. He enjoyed it far too much.

Stone was walking slowly, but surely. He was a mountain of a pony, and simply trotted through the swarm, trampling as he went. His expression matched his name, and he remained silent throughout. And Lance was busy stabbing at them with a conjured polearm, made of solidified magic.

Before long, the surprisingly obedient group had made it to the house Wolfram had pointed out. They backed up against the door, and began holding off the bugs.

"Lance, hold this door with your spear while we go in, if you can, protect the windows with barriers as well!" Wolfram ordered.

"Got it, Commander No-Name!" Lance agreed, but he wouldn't let Wolfram get away without at least a bit of fun poked at him.

"Shadow, cloak and move one room ahead of us. Shout clear if it is, otherwise tell me of the threat, clear?" Wolfram asked.

"Crystal." Shadow said in his all-too-intimidating voice.

"Stone, I'll vanguard, you bring up the rear. If anything tries to sneak up on us, stomp it into the ground." Wolfram said.

Stone only nodded in response.

With Lance keeping the horde at bay, and Shadow scouting ahead, the squad went into the basement first. Shadow called up a 'clear,' and Wolfram trotted down the steps. It was dark, and Shadow liked that. But Wolfram couldn't see a thing.

"Shadow, do you know any light spells?" Wolfram asked.

At that the room was illuminated, and shadow was squinting painfully at the light in front of his face. But now Wolfram could see. The room seemed empty. Wolfram looked around, asking shadow to stay in the center of the room, so it was properly illuminated. The basement had little in it. A large keg on it's side, a few crates, and a writing desk. Wolfram stayed completely silent for a moment, listening intently. But it was shadow who heard something first.

"Something's breathing in one of those crates." he gestured to a pile of crates in one of the corners of the room. Wolfram trotted up to the pile.

He said quietly "Hello, is someone there? We're here to bring you somewhere safe." The soft breathing almost stopped when Wolfram spoke. He lifted the boxes up, one by one, in response, until only one was left, at the very bottom of the pile. He picked it up, and a very young colt scrambled away from Wolfram, and hid under the desk.

"Hey, don't worry, okay? We are working with the Royal Guard to keep you safe." Wolfram assured the child, but he didn't say anything in response. Stone, who had been standing quietly at the stair case for now walked up to the desk, and lifted it out of the way with his head. Then knelt down to the child and mumbled something very quiet. The child nodded, and climbed up onto Stone's back.

"The giant has a way with kids, amusing." Shadow noted quietly, before Stone glared at him angrily, and shut him up.

"Is anyone else in the house with you?" Wolfram asked the child.

"Yes," the child nodded "Daddy is in the kitchen, but he won't stand up. I got scared and hid down here."

"Shadow, scout the kitchen. Stone follow behind me again." Wolfram ordered. Shadow extinguished the light spell, and cloaked himself, and Stone waited until Wolfram had began going up the stairs, then followed behind obediently. Once they were back up to the pantry, on the main floor, Wolfram checked that Lance was holding out. Lance gave an 'OK' and Wolfram waited for Shadow to report.

"Hey, Wolfram? You'll want to see this." Shadow called from the kitchen, which was straight across the pantry from the front door. The entrance was to the left of a hallway, which was left of the staircase to the basement. Wolfram and Stone went over to the kitchen and saw something very strange.

There was a green and black sac, hanging from the ceiling and dripping ooze on the floor. Inside the semi-transparent membrane a pony could be seen. He appeared to be awake, and aware, but he couldn't move or speak. He was just looking around frantically.

Wolfram walked up to the pod, and examined it more closely. The membrane had a leather like feel to it, but covered in slime.

"Hang in there, I'm going to try to cut you down, okay?" Wolfram asked the pony in the sac. Not expecting a response from the paralyzed victim, he proceeded to go through without permission. He flew up to the height of the tendril of ooze that the sack was hanging by, and swung at it with his blade. He sliced through the material with relative ease, and the pod fell to the floor. Wolfram flew back down, and sliced open one side of it.

The pony inside fell out, in a wave of gel. He coughed and sputtered, but didn't move any of his limbs.

"I can't" he coughed more "move!" He exclaimed fearfully.

"Stone, can you take another passenger?" Wolfram asked, and received a nod in response. Wolfram lifted the paralyzed pony up, and placed him over Stone's lower back such that he wouldn't fall off. They went back to the front door.

"I can't hang on much longer, Wolfram. They're going to break the window barriers soon." Lance said.

"All right, we're headed back to the smith now. Lance, you and me are on Stone's flanks. He has passengers. Shadow, you do what you do." The squad agreed.

They moved out, and saw Thunder running toward them. She was dodging attacks from the monsters with some difficulty, getting scratched a few times.

"Wolfram, the smith's been overrun. The others  are still pinned there. I'm not even sure if they're alive." She shouted.

"Wait what?" Wolfram didn't understand. The smithy had held for almost a half hour, why would it collapse now?

"You heard me, we need to retr--" For the third time today someone was violently cut off. Her head jerked to the side, and Wolfram heard the sound of something whizzing through the air, accompanied by a thunk and a splat. Followed a half second alter by a loud, but distant bang. Thunder then changed into another one of the bugs, with a massive hole gaping in the side of it's skull.

Wolfram looked in the direction that the impact appeared to have come from, and he saw a pony a few blocks away on a roof, holding a long device in her hands. It was Amp. She waved at Wolfram, and went back to sniping.

"I'll go ahead and guess that the smithy being overrun was a lie. Let's move!" Wolfram called to the squad. Once again, it was slow going, there seemed to be an endless supply of the creatures. After much slaughtering, they made it back to the smith, which was being safely held by Brandy and the four others.

Stone and Wolfram, being the two strongest worked together to gently lift the paralyzed pony into the smithy's confines. Shadow materialized before them, and Lance kept defending while they planned.

"What next, boss?" Shadow asked calmly.

"We scan another house, we have to do this as many times and as quickly as we can until the guard gets here." Wolfram heard a high pitched scream of fear. Wolfram spun around, and saw the child who was supposed to be on Stone's back being surrounded by the monsters. His back was against the wall, the creatures were clearly feeding off of his fear, as they smiled malevolently.

"Damn kids..." Wolfram muttered before shouting "Hang on, I'm coming for you!"

Wolfram charged into the group of shape changers, and knocked them down like bowling pins, he saw one of them lunging at the child, and Wolfram dived in the way of the strike, Wolfram sustained a serious bruise from the blow. But he got back up, and hacked at the monster, cleaving it almost in two. Wolfram was still surprised at how frail they were.

The child was cowering behind Wolfram, who was unfortunately beginning to lose the upper hand. There were too many, and he had to remain stationary to protect the child. Shadow materialized beside Wolfram.

"I got your back!" he said right before one of the bugs grabbed him, and yanked him into the swarm. Wolfram heard Lance shout "Man down!" and went back to protecting the young colt. Wolfram looked around, and realized Amp's line of sight couldn't hit his location. Stone was actually being slowed down by the swarm now, and Lance couldn't move, he was pinned against a wall.

Wolfram was alone now. In a final burst of bravery, he charged into one of the bugs, picked it up and threw it into another, using the gnarled horn like a javelin, the first one's neck was broken, and the second had a puncture wound in the chest. Wolfram felt a blow to his waist, and he fell to the ground, he had been tackled. The swarm moved in on him, and he couldn't get up.

"What do you think, should we kill this one?" A bug spoke.

"You know the orders, keep as many alive as possible. We need food." A second one said with an identically eerie voice.

"He's too much of a threat, and too big. The spell won't last long, we should just end him now!" The first one said, and an alarmingly large number of them shouted in agreement. The second one was outnumbered, and walked away dejectedly. The first one raised his gnarled horn, and thrust at Wolfram's exposed chest.

9: Mediocre Timing

As the horn of the monster began it's journey toward Wolfram's chest, Wolfram thought that it all seemed to be going very slowly. Then surprisingly he thought a lot more things before it hit. He had never been stabbed in the chest before, maybe it wasn't all that bad. He'd probably survive it, and then get up and shrug off the pain like he always did. Of course, that was simply fantastic, and he soon realized that in actuality a stab to the center of the chest would at least be temporarily crippling, if it didn't kill him. But then the poor child who Wolfram was trying to save would fall victim to the shape changers, and Wolfram would have gone through all that for nothing. He couldn't let that happen.

Wolfram looked back to the horn which was still descending toward his sternum. My sternum? The sternum wasn't a good place to deliver a coup de gras. The throat, or stomach are much softer and they rest very nearby. What was this monster getting at? Was it just not very smart? Wolfram didn't know, but he did know that even if it hit his sternum it would still hurt a lot. He clenched his teeth and pulled his lip back, because the horn was getting very close to his chest now. He squinted, making a face which he imagined didn't look very dignified, and then it hit.

A loud clang, and a crack rang out. A chip off of the monster's horn broke off of the tip, and it screeched in pain. Wolfram looked down at his chest, which was only sporting a small poke in the skin, near the center, looked back up and laughed. He began wrestling, no longer feeling hopeless. But he wasn't breaking out any time soon. There were at least four of the things on each of his limbs, and that wasn't easy to fight against. Another one stood over him, while the first that attempted to stab him  writhed in pain on the ground. This new shape shifter was sure to have learned from the first one's mistake. Wolfram was certain it would stab him in the throat, and then it did. Or it tried to anyway.

A rock struck the side of it's head, and fell to the ground. The shape changer followed suit, unconscious. Wolfram looked to the source of the rock, and saw Moxie standing proudly with a pile of rocks at her front hoof just a few meter away.

"Need some help?" She asked calmly, while kicking another rock at one of the creatures on Wolfram's front left leg. It only hit it in the shoulder, causing pain but not unconsciousness.

"A little would be nice." Wolfram said, and at that moment every one of the monsters who were surrounding him took his form and charged at Moxie. Leaving him completely unguarded, he got up quickly, and looked for his sword, he could see that there was a bug with his form holding his sword standing back to back with Moxie, acting as if it would strike any of the others should they attack them. Wolfram knew this was a ruse, but Moxie clearly didn't.

Wolfram charged into the swarm, unarmed, and began doing his best to pummel his way through them, and get to the one holding his sword. He fought his way through pretty easily, but when he dove at the one holding his sword, he was struck in the jaw with a rock. Moxie had just hit him.

"Moxie, it's me!" Wolfram shouted angrily.

"Don't listen, they're trying to trick you." The one at her six o' clock said in response.

Moxie sighed, and said "Every time this happened in a play or book it was just two copies. This is just stupid."

"Look, if I'm not really me, then I wouldn't be able to quote exactly what you said to me the afternoon of the day before I left. Go ahead and ask me." Wolfram suggested.

"Hey idiot, Why'd you get yourself kicked out?" The copy of himself with the sword said. "Looks like they can read surface thoughts, too."

Just as Wolfram was about to pummel the monster to a green, slimy pulp, it screamed in pain, and a green splatter shot out of it's knee. A bang was heard, it collapsed to the ground in pain, and it's head erupted with more green blood before another bang was heard. Amp could be seen again, and waved from down the street.

"These things are cold!" Wolfram could just barely hear her yelling.

Wolfram grabbed his sword back up, and began fighting off the monsters, who had just gotten over the surprise of their ruse gone terribly wrong.

"So, where have you been?" Wolfram thrust right through the abdomen of a leaping shape changer.

"Trying to find someone who knew what was happening." Moxie dodged a right hook aimed at her head.

"How'd that lead you to the square?" Wolfram took a hoof to the gut, and grabbed it in response. Yanking the striker off of it's balance and on to the ground.

"It didn't, somepony named Amp told me you guys were stuck here, and I offered to help. She also had some idea what was going on, these things are changelings, according to her." She tripped a changeling as it tried to step in toward her.

"Amp sent you here, eh? Maybe not the best choice. We're losing this kinda bad." Wolfram kicked a changeling in the stomach before it could hit Moxie's flank.

Just then Stone plowed through the wall of changelings toward Wolfram and Moxie, Lance followed close behind, and Wolfram could here the distinct sound of necks snapping off in the crowd. Shadow had survived, that was sure.

"Amp's got a plan to get these guys off of you, but we have to stick together!" Lance shouted, spearing a changeling in the flank.

"Clarify?" Wolfram requested while parrying a barrage of strikes from three separate changelings.

"I shield us all while Amp drops a bomb on top of us." He explained with some worry.

"Sounds good, regroup on me everyone!" Wolfram responded, now taking strikes at all three of his previous attackers.

Stone and Lance moved up beside Wolfram and moxie, then Shadow materialized in the rear.

"Ready, Lance?" Wolfram asked, pushing a changeling back into the swarm.

"Ready, no-name."  And with that Lance's horn began to glow orange. his spear and armour disappeared in an electrical burst, and he sent out a wave of energy to push the changelings out of where the bubble would be. A loud whistle could be heard from above, and Lance grunted, forcing an isometric sphere of hexagons to form around them, folding out of each other one by one, starting at the top of the bubble. They all glowed orange like his magic, and were semi-transparent like his armour and spear.

The changelings hissed in anger at the display, and a flash of light went off around them. A loud rumbling and boom, then an eerie silence. When the blinding light cleared, Lance's shield had completely shattered, a few of the hexagons kept floating there but most had been obliterated. The ground around them was completely charred and covered in soot. Only the exoskeletal husks of a few changelings could be made out on the ground around them, and the building closest to them had a smoking hole in it's front wall. Lance opened his eyes cautiously, and once he saw they were mostly safe he exhaled loudly and let the remainder of the shield down.

"Good job, Lance." Wolfram patted the unicorn on the back. For once Lance didn't take this as an opportunity to call Wolfram a no-name. He just sat down, there were few changelings left, and they were being dealt with by brandy and the others.

"You've got the coolest family friends, even if you don't have much of a family." Lance finally said.

"Amp's something, all right." Wolfram said. "Come on, we should go back to the blacksmith and help clean the rest of this square up."

"I don't think I can do any more magic today. That was one strong-ass bomb." Lance complained.

"Don't worry, I'll happily take your share of heads." Shadow offered helpfully. Wolfram ignored their comments and took the lead on the short trek back to the building in the center of the square.

Once the rescue squad and Moxie arrived there were only three changelings left. Out of panic they all assumed random disguises, that looked unrealistic. Colour combinations and cutie marks that didn't make sense at all. Then, they bolted in random directions.

"Time for a new spell." Shadow said contently. He charged up his magic, and vanished. Wolfram expected that much, but what he did not expect was what happened next. Shadow appeared instantly under the farthest changeling, he kicked it in the stomach. Then in another instant he was standing beside the next farthest one, and tripped it. Wolfram blinked his eyes, and in that time something happened to the third one that left it lying on the ground. Then in reverse order, Shadow appeared on one's head, and broke it's neck with his hind legs, kicked the other in the nose so hard it's snout collapsed inward, and used some kind of vampyric spell on the third. It shriveled up, and Shadow began to look stronger and more imposing.

To put emphasis on this scene, each of the changelings had been running in directions completely different to each other. All the ponies who had saw this feat were staring at Shadow with a mix of cautious impression, and utter awe. He had just teleported more than six times in a span of less than a second. Very few unicorns had ever gotten so good at teleportation before they were middle aged.

Hey, Wolfram. Amp wants to talk to you!" Wolfram heard Thunder shout from the blacksmith. She had failed to witness Shadow's feat. Wolfram shook himself out of his stupor and went over to the black smith. Once inside, Thunder gave him a guard's helmet, which was functioning as a radio.

"Hey, Wolfram. Did you like the white phosphorous clusterbomb?" Amp's voice said over the radio.

"What? Nothing like that has ever been approved for battle by the Canterlot Defense Convention!" An unidentified voice said over the open channel.

"Oh boo hoo, I probably just saved the lives of twelve ponies with it." Amp responded sharply.

"Foxtrot leader, this is Whiskey leader. Amp's operating under the government's sanction for normally unapproved testing. She has the licenses." Ferrous said over the radio.

"To answer your question, yes. The bomb was extremely helpful, Amp. A bit excessive, but still." Wolfram said.

"Wolfram, is that you? Where in Equestria have you been?" Ferrous asked.

"Open channel isn't a great place to discuss it, dad. I'll see you after we take the city back." Wolfram said, he didn't want to talk about personal matters with every guard in Canterlot.

"All right, but you aren't getting out of this. Until then, can you and your team move all the innocents in the area to one location? I'm coming with Whiskey squad to help you, but the ETA is 15 minutes." Ferrous informed his son.

"Sure thing, we'll get on that right now. See you soon." Wolfram said, and put the radio down.

"So Thunder, you going to give the order?" Wolfram asked his superior.

"Oh yeah, of course." she said. "All right team, the guard's asked us to get all the civilians to the smithy in one piece! This should be an easy job without any buggers to slow us down. Split into teams of two, and get on it!"

Shining Armor was at his wedding. His bride stood in front of him, looking worried and covered in filth and scrapes. He felt like he had just woken up after getting knocked out by a kick to the head, and the only people in the hall other than those previously mentioned were his sister and her 5 friends. He had no memory of what happened for what seemed like a several hours.

"Wh, where a..." He stuttered shakily "Is the wedding over?"

His previous observations about the occupants of the room proved false however. A tall equine landed heavily before him and Cadence. She appeared sleek and black, covered in chitin, and her wings were like that of a fly's. Her limb's had holes straight through them, making her look like she was actively festering, and her horn looked like a burnt piece of drift wood.

"It's all over!" She said menacingly, like villains always did.

"Your spell, preform your spell!" Shining Armour's sister shouted. Barely registering what he had been told to do, and still in a hazy headache, Shining Armor was about to begin when he was interrupted by the insect-like alicorn.

"What good would that do?" She laughed. "My changelings already roam free!" She gestured out the window.

Down below, in the streets there were guards being pinned and stuck to surfaces with goo, and civilians were being hunted like prey by smaller versions of the alicorn in front of Shining Armor now. Shining Armor couldn't give up.

"No." He said simply, glancing around hesitantly for a moment. The pills. He had taken the pills before the wedding! He should be better at magic than ever before, even though he felt like he was suffering from a concussion. He went through the steps he had made, all on his own, to make such a massive barrier spell. He forced the energy within him upward, and began collecting it in his horn. But nothing happened. After straining for some time, he released his breath, and panted. The spell had failed.

"My power is useless now... I don't have the strength to repel them!" He explained shamefully.

"My love will give you strength!" His bride said to him. The Changeling laughed at that.

"What a lovely, but absolutely ridiculous sentiment."

In spite of the Changeling's arrogance, Cadence embraced Shining Armor. At the touch of his love, he felt a warmth and strength run through his body, and he began to cast the spell again. In a calm sort of solace, that only Cadence could bring to him, he felt the power to begin casting a spell.

He closed his eyes in concentration, and just let the spell flow through him. He felt a sharp jolt of static hit his horn, but didn't flinch. He just kept focusing, like every one of his teachers had always said. He felt his hooves leave the ground, and that was unnerving enough to open his eyes for a moment, to see that he and his bride were floating upward. The magic had spawned orbs of light that swirled about them, and they were both emanating a light, not unlike the sun, from their horns.

Twilight and her friends shielded their eyes and smiled at Shining Armor, while the Changeling gaped in horror. And then he felt it. All the energy which he and Cadence had been building up, was released in a wave of discriminant kinetic energy. Now  the Captain of the Guard had to focus harder than ever, to limit the blast to changelings and their creations. He felt the presence of every creature that the spell passed over, and had to protect the innocent minds he felt. He didn't let a single changeling stay, and he didn't kick a single pony out.

He had executed the spell perfectly.

Wolfram spotted his father down the eastern street. He was being followed by eleven other guards. All of them were somewhat battered up, missing sections of their armour, and looking generally low on morale. Ferrous being the only exception to the last part. He stood at the front of the group, with his head held high and his gate kept straight.

"Wolfram! You're still alive?" Ferrous asked when he spotted his son, running up to him quickly and extending his hoof.

"I think so." Wolfram returned the gesture dubbed as a 'bro hoof.'

"On to business then?" Ferrous asked, and Wolfram nodded. "Well how many civilians did you find?"

"Six adults, and two children in the immediate area. We needed to tend to some wounds so we had to cut the search short." Wolfram explained. Amp trotted proudly out of the smithy now.

"I dare say they'll all live. Thanks to my medical expertise, of course." She boasted.

"You deserve a medal, doc!" One of the civilians called out enthusiastically from the smithy.

"Sounds like you did a good job, Amp." Ferrous congratulated. "We'll be securing the area, and taking over the rescue operation for now. You should all stay here until we have everything under control, you've all risked your lives far too many times in one day for teenagers."

"Nah, I'm going to go find some more buggers to slaughter" Shadow said. His cloak was about halfway done crawling across his body when he dropped the spell and gaped at something toward the center of the city. After a moment the rest of the ponies outside followed Shadow's gaze, and saw a tidal wave of purple energy expanding from the castle toward them. IT was carrying hundreds upon hundreds of changelings with it, and it was going fast.

"Should we be worried about that?" Wolfram asked nobody in particular.

"No, that's the Captain returning to active duty!" Ferrous shouted happily. "That spell's going to knock everything changeling related out of this city, and leave us in tact."

"Well, shit." Thunder exclaimed calmly, now exiting the cover of the smithy.

"Over all ready?" Brandy asked disappointed, and attempted to take a sip from his bottle. He quickly realized the bottom was broken open, cursed loudly, and tossed it on the ground. Spitting on the shattered remains for good measure.

Then the blast hit them, the husks and corpses of the changelings around them were sent flying upward and away from the city. A large collected swarm of changelings could be heard flying above them, screaming in there defeat, and the fear of slamming in to the ground outside of Canterlot at several hundred meters per second.

That was it. The fight was over as quickly as it began. Wolfram thought for a moment, and realized how much had happened in the last hour. How many times he could have died in such a short period of time, and how many times he had to use lethal force in that amount of time. For a moment he thought it was absurd. He thought that much fighting was ridiculous, and that no pony should ever have to do that. But then he thought a bit longer, looking into the bright heart of the repulsion spell. He thought of what might have happened if he didn't fight. Amp might have gotten paralyzed and taken away in there first encounter. His entire team might have been killed in defense of their city without him. A child and a father may have been stolen or slaughtered. Moxie wouldn't have ever returned to the group, and might have gotten in trouble all alone. His own father would have had to fight that whole time not knowing where Wolfram was, or if he was even alive.

That was why he would fight.

The day after the fight for Canterlot. Amp, Ferrous and Wolfram were all sitting in the living room of his house. Wolfram was sporting a good number of bandages covering abrasions from falling over so much, burns from Amp's bomb, bruises from punches and rocks, and a particularly large gash on his chest. It went to the bone, but no further.

Amp was there because she had already put herself in charge of dealing with injuries. On top of that, as soon as she had heard the story about the changeling's horn breaking on Wolfram's sternum she wanted to inspect him.

"You're sure I can't take a sample of bone tissue?" Amp asked pleadingly.

"No, I'm not letting you use a diamond saw to break a piece of my bone off." Wolfram said.

Amp huffed angrily, and trotted over to Wolfram, who was sitting on the couch. She began tapping areas of his body with thin skin, the forehead and sternum mostly. When she tapped wolfram's chest he winced in pain, and pushed her away.

"Please don't poke my wounds, Amp." He requested with a sigh.

Amp apologized half-heartedly, and went about tapping Wolfram uncomfortably.

Reportedly, very few casualties had occurred the day before. The changelings allegedly had the intent of keeping the Equestrians under mind control, and feed off of their energy. So most of their victims were only tranquilized and trapped. Stories had been told of what went on in the throne room. Supposedly Celestia herself had been defeated in sheer force by the Queen of the Changelings. And when the Captain of the Guard came to, he wasn't strong enough to repel the changelings. Then most of the witnesses proceeded to tell some sappy story about how the love of his life allowed him to save the day.

Wolfram didn't buy that last bit, of course.

After more quiet sitting about, which was nothing but what Wolfram wanted, a knock came at the door.

"I'll get the door." Ferrous said. Amp was to intent on observing Wolfram to care, and wolfram only nodded in polite response.

Some talking could be heard from the living room, it sounded like a high pitched female voice was speaking with Ferrous for a few minutes. Soon enough Ferrous returned to the living room.

"Wolfram, do you know a mare who appears to be both psychic and made out of candy floss?" Ferrous asked calmly.

Wolfram groaned to himself, and stood up with some discomfort. He ignored Amp who was still taking notes and tapping wolfram with various objects. Wolfram trudged over to the front door, and saw exactly what he was afraid to see. It was Pinkie Pie, and she was bouncing up and down at his door.

"Pinkie, how do you know where I live?" Wolfram asked putting a hoof to his face for a moment.

"Just a hunch. Hey did you know that Princess Celestia is looking for you?!" She asked excitedly.

Wolfram was about to say no when she spoke again.

"Because she is! She said that you were a hero or something, and that she wanted you to be there when she congratulated Shining Armor, who's my friend's brother, and his bride Princess Cadence! Then she sent out a bunch of big, scary guards to come and find you, but they weren't as tall as you, and then I was like 'Oh! What if I found him first? It can be like a scavenger hunt for people!' And then I found you, and I told you this!" She said very happily.

"That's great, but I'm tired and hurt. Can I talk to you about it some other time?" Wolfram asked, trying to be polite. He had completely forgot that Pinkie didn't understand subtlety.

"I don't know if you can. What if we never meet again, or what if you get cursed by a which and you can't talk?! Or maybe time will stop happening, and then there won't be an other time to talk to me about it at all! That would kinda suck. I like time! Without time we wouldn't have years, and without years we couldn't have birthdays, and without those we couldn't have birthday parties or after birthday parties! That's like two less parties a year! Booooring!"

"Wonderful. Listen, I'm going to close the door now, okay? You can stay, but the door will be closed and I won't be here." Wolfram offered.

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie agreed contently. Then Wolfram closed the door and went back to the couch. Amp resumed the observations.

"Who was that?" Ferrous asked.

"A mare I met when I was away. I closed the door, but I think she's still there." Wolfram explained.

"Is she here because she's," Ferrous cleared his throat deliberately "Into you?" Ferrous coughed some more.

"I honestly don't know. She said that she was on a scavenger hunt for people or something. Also that Celestia sent a party to summon us a while ago." Wolfram answered.

"Wait, the Princess is summoning us?" Ferrous asked rhetorically. "That's kind of serious. Wolfram, do you have a jacket that isn't lined with steel plates?" Ferrous was beginning to worry about formalities. He did that too much.

"It's the day after a battle, I'm sure the Princess won't mind if we look a little roughed up." Wolfram said calmly.

"I can confirm that, she's surprisingly loose about hygiene." Amp piped in, having played poker with the monarch before.

"It can't hurt to leave a good impression on the monarch of your country, Wolfram. Answer my question, please." Ferrous demanded.

"About the jacket? No." Wolfram answered flatly.

"Well that's no good, I only have one." Ferrous began "Well, fine. You can look like a battle scarred homeless pony, I'm wearing my formal clothes."

"Fine with me, dad." Wolfram agreed to the terms easily.

Within a half hour another knock came at the door. This time Wolfram got up to answer it. He trotted over to the door, and opened it up, expecting to see Pinkie still bouncing up and down. This expectation was only met in part. She was in fact still bouncing up and down, and within the general area in front of his door, but closer than her was a troop of guards. The one in front, whose crest was a royal purple, as opposed to the usual white or blue, spoke up. He held a scroll in front of him with levitation, and declared strongly:

"Wolfram, and Ferrous of the Fortis family have been invited to the award ceremony for recognized heroes of the previous day's events, at request of the Princess of the Sun. Wolfram, your acts, alongside your combat training team, in preserving the safety of many innocents has earned you an official mention in the ceremony. Ferrous, your choice of morals over orders, and uniting the Royal Guard under the same act has earned you a spot there, along side your squad, and the leaders of all other squads. You will be called by name, and recognized for your bravery, and idealism."

At this point Ferrous stumbled around the corner and up to the front door.

"I'm here." He was wearing a sage green suit, with a badge of rank on the shoulders.

"Yes..." The guard continued "You both are hereby commended for your acts, and will be commended again at the ceremony, should you arrive. A personal message from the princess to Wolfram, and Ferrous has also been included. It reads as follows: I remember the day that Wolfram was taken in to Canterlot still. I remember you, Ferrous. I have not forgotten how selflessly you acted that day, and I will not forget how heroically you acted yesterday. Wolfram, you have shown not only that Ferrous has taught you well, but you have shown that you have learned well. I hope sincerely that you will both be present, you are the most interesting of the many ponies who I must congratulate today." The royal guard paused to show that the personal message had ended "The ceremony will be taking place today, at one in the afternoon precisely." And then he departed.

Amp appeared behind them. "Heroes, eh?" She poked her head out the door and shouted "I helped more than either of these guys! Where's my honorable mention?" The leader of the troop halted and turned back around.He approached Amp and apologized.

"My apologies, Ms. Degroot. We weren't aware that you were present in this house. The princess told us to give you this." And the guard levitated a small envelope over to Amp, who violently snatched it out of the air with her mouth.

"Thanks a lot, Mr. Speechy." Amp said angrily.

"Sorry, Ms. Degroot. The Princess did not provide us with instructions, or even permission to read the message. It is private." He then departed for the last time.

Pinkie Pie shouted off a ways, "I beat you guys buy a landslide! HA!" Jumping and pointing at the guards.

The trio went back to the living room, and Amp opened the envelope. She scanned over the letter with uncanny speed, and then put it down calmly, and returned to tapping Wolfram.

"Well? What did it say?" Wolfram asked while being prodded in the head with a candle stick.

"Hm? Oh, basically the same jazz as your guys' one." She began calmly "Except that I get payed, bitches!" Amp shouted happily.

"Wait, how much?" Ferrous asked cautiously.

"Depends on how much I do. Basically she just offered to buy a ton of my designs for the Royal Guard, and she wants to know every time I come up with a new one. Basically, I got rehired as engineer of defense!"

"I'm not sure if that makes me feel any safer." Wolfram remarked cleverly.

"Hey! My inventions are completely safe, it's only when I use them that they get dangerous!"

"Chainsaw armor?" Wolfram pointed out. There was a significant silence.

"Shut up, man..." Amp said eventually, folding her upper legs, and sitting slumped, but upright on the couch. They stayed that way. Enjoying the simple calm between the three of them after so much action. Even Amp stopped poking at Wolfram for a bit, but she wouldn't drink any tea. That was for 'Senile elders and tree huggers.' Ferrous didn't agree, and drank a large portion. Wolfram opted for coffee, and Amp quickly agreed that would be much better.

10: Dishonorable Mentions

Wolfram stood with his allies to the left of Celestia. On the right of the Princess was first her sister, Luna, then to the left of her were the leaders of each guard team, as well as all of whiskey. Beside Wolfram's team, however, were the other riff raff heroes of the day. Brandy stood there, along with Amp. There were a few other ponies he hadn't met, as well as some that appeared to be from the medical facilities of Canterlot. This put roughly 30 ponies to either side of the princesses. The crowd gathered in front of the display was fairly large. It spanned densely for a good 30 meters away from the balcony which the whole group was standing on. It was the balcony of the Canterlot Barracks, and it was very large.

"Citizens of Canterlot," The sun princess began "You are all here today so that we may recognize the valor of those who would show it when the need comes. As you are all aware, the city was attacked by a great enemy yesterday, and although they were ultimately defeated, I fear that without the help of these relatively few ponies, many lives would have been lost. Lives that stand among you now, paying their homage through respect.

Although every citizen in this city acted bravely, and did their best to survive, and keep their families safe. There are a few who did their best not only to survive, but to ensure the survival of the city as a whole. These are the ponies who we have called heroes. These are the ponies who we will call heroes until our voice breaks, and our bones turn to dust.

Yesterday, on the radio channel for the guard a certain stallion disobeyed orders. He wasn't even the leader of his own squad an hour before. He received a field promotion, and that very moment was willing and able to assume the responsibilities of a squad leader. He led the remainder of his team to safety, and to help the Captain's personal guard. Unfortunately they couldn't have done anything to help team Zulu. Who were already taken out by the time Whiskey arrived. Whiskey's leader, the newly promoted one, remained resolute in the face of almost certain doom. When he saw that even I had been bested by the enemy, he realized what needed to be done.

Whiskey ordered a full scale evacuation of the city, without the authority to do so. When he was opposed by a superior, he united every squad besides Yankee under his intention. He led the evacuation that saved so many of your lives, and every other leader worked with him to make it possible.

This pony is the one known as Officer Ferrous of the Fortis Family. Stand forward Ferrous, let the population know who would protect them in the face of great danger."

Ferrous stepped forward, and the crowed cheered. He stood proudly, and smiled. Once the roar died down, he spoke.

"Thank you, citizens of Canterlot for recognizing me in particular. But I'm afraid I cannot accept this recognition without it being shared by everyone who worked with me to help keep you safe. It wasn't me alone who saved this city. It was the combined efforts of every guard we have, some of which gave their lives to keep you safe. Let the leaders of each squad represent them, and stand forward with me!"

The rest of the leaders stood forward, proudly and happily. The crowd cheered again for them. Once they stopped, the Night Princess stepped forward, and the guards all stepped back.

"But it is not only those who have sworn duty to their suit who can be heroes." Princess Luna began "There are those among the civilians of this city who would also show great selflessness, bravery, and initiative when they must. These ponies rose above what was even expected of them, and showed valor as great as any knight or guard.

Smiths, tailors, bakers, and adolescents. All with the heart of a hero, and the courage of a battle hardened warrior. There are of course a few of these ponies who deserve a further mention, above their counterparts. For they did the even greater, and led those who were willing into the fray of danger, to protect the city and it's population. The first being Thunder of the Sonus family. She took the initiative to contact the city's defense, and volunteered her team to assist in any way they could."

Thunder stepped forward as rehearsed.

"Next we wish to commend the sheer genius, and technical expertise of an engineer in Canterlot. Her creations may have saved lives many times over yesterday, and she literally did not rest until she was certain that everything she could do to help had been done.

This pony has now been recognized for her creativity, dedication, intelligence, and initiative. She has been effectively contracted as the engineer of defense for Canterlot, so you may all rest calmly, with the knowledge that the city is being protected by her great creations.

This pony is Amp of the Degroot family. Step forward Ms. Degroot. Let the population know who is the inventor of their safety!"

Amp did not only step forward, but stood up on her hind legs, and proceeded to dance forward. She span around once, bowed gracefully, and then went back down on four legs.

The crowed cheered, but Wolfram could hear their confusion at the display.

"Now we will mention one last individual amongst the civilians. He is a colt of questionable reputation, that is until the events of yesterday. He was previously thought of by the media as forceful, and occasionally brutish. But yesterday, he not only showed that those traits are sometimes needed in a pony, but he also showed that those are not the only traits he possesses. He is a great warrior for his age, in melee combat, but he is also a grand tactician, and an inherently inspiring leader in battle. When his leader, Thunder, gave him command over half of his remaining team, he made the unlikely group work together. He used each of their strengths perfectly, and defended each of their weaknesses just as well.

He has a handle on a sword, and a perfect grip on group dynamics. But most importantly he struck fear out of the hearts of those who followed him. By the accounts of the ponies under his command, they would not have willingly charged into a horde of monstrous shape shifters, had Wolfram not been the vanguard of their onslaught.

This pony, who has done more than redeem himself, is Wolfram of the Fortis family. Step forward, Wolfram, let the people see the greatest warrior of your generation."

Wolfram reluctantly stepped forward. He hadn't had many good experiences with crowds. He was covered in gauze and bruises, as well as wearing a torn up jacket, which was invisibly lined with steel. He didn't look like a warrior, he looked like a beggar.

There was a very light cheering. With quiet stomping to accompany it. But the praise didn't nearly match what the more formally dressed, or more outgoing, subjects of thanks had received. Wolfram would have been fine with this, but somepony took it too far.

"As if! This slummer gave my son a fractured concussion, and his friend a dislocated shoulder! Then, the very same day, he beat two of his own previous allies in an alleyway! To top it all off, he was a suspect for causing an explosion in the streets of the city, and then he ran away from the city for three days!" The stallion who spoke was clearly upper class, and wore the badge of an inspector on his jacket.

Wolfram growled angrily, and was about to bark something very, very nasty when a small yellow shape caught his eye. It was a young filly running up to the front of the crowd. She was yellow coated, and green maned. She had a teddy bear on the back of her neck, and she looked awfully familiar to Wolfram.

"Lillypad?" Wolfram asked. quietly down the balcony.

The filly nodded happily and then turned to face the crowd.

"Wolfram isn't mean!" She shouted in the loudest voice she could make "He helped me find my mommy when I was all alone! Nobody stopped or looked at me except for the nice stallion! He made me stay happy when I was scared because mommy wasn't there. And then he brought me to mommy!" Wolfram smiled at the filly.But he feared that the word of a child so young wouldn't give him much credit.

Then another pony pushed her way to the front of the crowd. She had a yellow coat, and blue mane, and she wore a straw hat. She put Lillypad on her back, and spoke as well.

"It's... True. I hadn't seen my daughter in ages, but then he came to my door carrying my little girl on his back."

This was Lillypad's mother. The mare who had slammed the door at Wolfram's name not a week ago.

"I was horribly rude to him then, because I had heard only bad things about him. But I think I was wrong. He went out of his way to bring my daughter home when no one else would. He clearly deserves another chance, if he risked his life to save a place which didn't even like him!" For a moment there was utter silence.

The mare who spoke in Wolfram's defense shifted about uncomfortably for a bit. Wolfram was just as worried. But then he heard something. In the back of the crowd one pony had begun to stomp. A few seconds later it was two. Then it was three, four, and five. In just a split second more practically the whole swarm of ponies was stomping and agreeing loudly.

Amp gave wolfram a friendly punch to the shoulder.

"A little kid probably just saved you from being laughed off the stage." She whispered.

"Yeah," Wolfram said thoughtfully "I noticed." He trailed off looking at the crowd with intrigue. He wasn't exactly sure how to respond to popular support. That hadn't happened before, and he honestly didn't expect it to. In fact, the cheering session following Wolfram's supporters speaking for him lasted longer than any of the previous sessions. The Princess of the Night had to use her infamous "Royal Canterlot Voice" to get them to calm down.

"Yes, well..." Celestia began "Now that official recognition has been given to the heroes of the Changeling Siege, we will move to closing statements. By suggestion of my sister a feast will be hosted for all of the ponies who stand up here with me, and a few other's who already know who they are. It will be taking place at seven o' clock tonight, in the royal dining hall."

Luna quickly responded to that "Do not let my sister make it seem dull. I will do everything in my power to ensure that it remains a feast, and not a formal dinner party. Alcohol, singing, dancing on the tables, and brawling will all be acceptable. This is my decree!"

There was a moment of near silence. Amp was busy stomping the ground and cheering at the decree. Everyone else stayed very still about the whole thing. Wolfram wanted to laugh, but it would have ruined the atmosphere of it, so instead he coughed loudly. Which did a good job of amplifying the appearance of the situation.

It was the late afternoon before the feast, and Amp was sleeping like a log. She had been awake 33 hours, 10 minutes and 26 seconds prior to her usual nap. That is her 3rd and 4th Wednesday of the 5th and 7th months of every 4 years, and the 3rd Tuesday of every 2 years that occurred from approximately 12:30 to 16:45. Actually since she had finished one of her later inventions, it ended precisely at 16:45.

Amp's head was laid peacefully, if uncomfortably, on her prosthetic design desk. Drool was leaking onto her chalk blueprint of a wing she was sketching out, and it was blurring one of the more important components. Luckily Amp new what she drew by heart the moment she drew it, notes were merely a formality, and a contingency should her memory be externally affected.

As an analog clock to her left in the dark, cement room, lit only by a reading lamp on her desk, hit 16:45, her latest invention came marching though the door.

A small orange tabby kitten, wearing a collar made up of unsafe metal bits, mewled happily and jumped up on Amp's desk. It began pawing at her nose and purring loudly. Amp awoke instantly. She decided that cats are the most annoying, but also the cutest animals she could think of, so she trained a cat to wake her up when it's collar gave it a small 4 volt shock. Completely humane, and not terribly painful.

"Alright Galileo, I'm up." She said grumpily, pushing the cat off her desk gently. The cat looked at her sadly, clearly offended by her crankiness.

"Oh come on, you know how I am when I wake up. I'm not really angry." Amp said.

The cat appeared to have absolutely no idea what she was saying, and went on it's way to vandalize some some of her less industrial furniture. Amp didn't really mind, she figured that if she had claws she'd spend all her time destroying cushions as well.

If I had claws... Good idea, noted.

Amp yawned, and stretched slowly. Her back was twisted into an uncomfortable position, and she needed to sort it out. She  spun her shoulders back and forth, standing on her hind legs, and arched backward as far as she could, releasing an audible snap from her lower spine.

"Ouch, I really ought to replace some of those vertebrae. Gliding joints are terribly obsolete." She said to herself.

She began walking to the closest kitchen in her tunnel system, on the way she passed an intercom in one of the hallways. As she walked passed she spoke into it.

"A23, initiate protocol 'Cook Underscore Hotpocket'." She said into the machine.

"Initiating protocol 'Cook Underscore Pizzaroll,' respond yes/no." It requested.

"Close enough," Amp said. The voice complained.

"Unclear response, please repeat."

Amp sighed angrily "Yes." and continued walking toward her kitchen.

Within a couple minutes she was typing a code into a terminal in front of a steel door. Psychothetical_Hypokinetic978TROGLODYTE. The terminal returned a string variable ">correct" and followed with a console.log "Releasing magnetic locks..."

Amp heard the seals break, and pulled the door open. She walked past a toaster at the exact moment that a slightly burned pizza roll popped out, and at about head height Amp bit it out of the air.

She kept marching, now on two legs, while eating her pizza roll. She walked up to another door, this one was made of glass. There was a large crack in it where her attempted rocket glove had struck the glass. She was happy that it broke actually, because the glass was supposed to be resistant up to 3000 newtons of force.

This door had no password lock, but did have a retinal scan. She quickly aligned her eyes in the spot where they were meant to go,and waited for the computer to validate her entrance.

"Good afternoon, Miss Degroot. If you were not aware, your eyes are bloodshot. Visene will be provided at the next medical station." A less robotic voice than the last one said.

The glass door slid open with a hiss, and Amp stepped into the elevator.

"Thanks Buddy." She said to the voice.

"Of course, madam. Which floor will you be going to today?" It asked politely.

"Take me to genetics, I've got a few hours before the feast. I want to check up on the clones. Send an extra pizza roll down too, I'm still hungry."

"As you wish, Ampere." The voice complied again, and the elevator began moving downward.

"I told you not to say my full name, it sounds foreign."

"It is foreign, Amp."

Amp waved the voice off, and muttered a few insults under her breath. She watched the floor counter, as the numbers went up. As subterranean level systems worked, the lower the floor, the higher the number. The counter went down one by one, untill it hit 13. Then it started displaying strings. "Armory," "Cybernetics," and finally "Genetics."

The doors opened, and she stepped out into a large cement hall. 5 meters wide by 4 meters tall by 250 meters deep.

Inset in the walls all the way down were giant vertical tubes of synthetic embryonic fluid. Lit with green lights, you could make out the silhouettes of ponies in fetal positions. They were all hooked up to various tubing, and they varied a lot in size and fetal stage.

Amp walked trotted down the hall slowly, making sure to look at every tube. She had a total of 20 available cloning tubes, and 16 of them were occupied.

She eventually reached chamber 13, which was occupied by the most developed of her clones.

"I seriously hope you're not riddled with cancer and brain damage. Hey, Buddy. Get a dolly down here, then release the drain the chamber and release number 13."

"I'll get right on it, madam. Dolly will arrive in 38 seconds."

"38? Didn't I install hybrid fuel engines on them?"

"No, that is still on the to do list. It's right after 'Hire an assistant to help with managing to do lists.'"

"Oh yeah, I should probably get one of those two done." Amp said partially to herself.

The dolly, which was a roughly welded chassis of metal, with an old mattress atop it arrived, and the liquid in the chamber in front of Amp began to drain. The tubing attached to various parts of the clone released themselves.

Soon enough, the chamber was dry, and the front slid upward. Leaving the subject collapsed on the floor in an uncomfortable position. As per safety regulations, she was pumped to the brim with anesthetic, and as such she was out cold.

Amp then clumsily bent over and lifted the limp body up. She was slightly lighter than the real Amp, the physical equivalent of about 10 years younger. Though the clone had started development only 10 months before. Growth hormone works wonders for under-aged clones.

Subject 13 was now on the dolly, and Amp had just finished strapping her down in case she needed to make any sharp turns. She wheeled the dolly down the hall a good 30 meters, and turned off to a branch hallway. The room she entered soon enough was a simple medical chamber. She had an X-ray machine, a CT scanner, and an ultrasound machine for various kinds of mapping.

She also had basic surgery supplies, a few leftover sandwiches, and some spare cybernetic parts in case she wanted to do that kind of thing. She moved the dolly over to the table, and heaved the clone onto it.

She took the breaks off the table, and wheeled it into the CT scanner. Which was no difficult task, the wheels were mechanically assisted, meaning she barely had to touch the table to move it.

"Alright Buddy. Start the machine up and send me the scans when they're done. I want full brain cross sections every 0.1 millimeters and on every axis. I'll be playing minesweeper until then."

"Of course, Miss Degroot. ETA is 10 minutes 23 seconds."

Ten minutes and thirty-six seconds later, Amp's computer screen was invaded by the CT software, interrupting her thrilling game of Minesweeper. It was her 46th consecutive game, and she was just almost finished at 12.35 seconds.

"Oh come on, couldn't you have waited until the round was over? That would have beat my old 17th best score."

"My apologies, Miss Degroot. But the scans are complete."

"Yeah, I can see that." Amp responded in a huffy tone. She flipped through the images, taking note of each area of the brain, and comparing it to her cognition of her own brain scans.

Everything seemed to line up, it was all identical to her 10 year old scans. The frontal cortex was just a little smaller than hers, but that was a negligible difference of 0.23 millimeters in depth.

"Alright Buddy. She's looking good, DNA scan now."

"I expected you'd want that, I already preformed a test on 256 blood cells. Would you like the diagnostics?" Buddy offered happily.

"You know it," Amp said "No cancer?"

"None at all, madam. The only genetic damage found was a very small portion of duplicate chromatin missing. But that is to be expected from the use of GH. Subject 13 appears to be in perfect shape."

"Amazing, honestly amazing. The odds of perfection are stupidly low." Amp said, she was very pleased. "So, let's start this fuckin' turkey! Get virus 32C, and give her a sufficient dose for total rewrite."

"Acquiring 15 CCs of 32C, regenerative and muscle growth serum in supportive solution. Sample will be ready for injection in 17 seconds."

Amp waited patiently, while tapping her foot and humming for 17 seconds. A lot of thoughts were going through her head, namely why she hadn't thought through how she was going to test muscle growth if she wasn't going to wake the clone up. Manual tissue damage? That'll probably cause muscular deformities though. Her thoughts were interrupted by a needle being dispensed out of a nearby chute.

Amp stepped up to the shoot, and grabbed the syringe. She walked over to the bed that the clone was lying on and spoke to Buddy.

"Start recording." She commanded "Alright. log Wednesday may 21st, 16:58. This is a record of the initial effects of virus 32C on subject 13. Hypothesis; Immediate immune reaction, will be overridden quickly by artificial countermeasures. Next response will be a minor epileptic attack, causing twitching throughout the body. No more than 46 joules of energy will be produced by any one muscle group. After that, subject will get a fever of 312 kelvin. No more immediate effects expected, total rewrite process of gene therapy should be complete within 2 weeks."

She lowered the needle to the inner elbow of the subject, and pressed it against where the blood vessel should be located.

"Injecting now, time stamp event." She pushed the needle in, and released the virus into the bloodstream. It would attack the blood cells first, neutralizing the white blood cells and latching onto the red. Then it would carry to the neurons, and start jumping throughout the whole system from there.

The subject's heart rate increased by 10 BPM over the next 3 seconds, indicative of the immune system detecting the virus.

"Event two, immune response. Timestamp please. Log: As expected immune response is the first reaction."

The heart rate slowed down to a resting 46 BPM, much lower than the real Amp's rate. 10 years was a long time for the cardiovascular system to deteriorate.

"Event three, immune response neutralized. Time stamp. Log, once again, as expected the immune response was neutralized almost as quickly as it started."

Then something strange started to happen. The epileptic response occurred, as expected. "Time stamp event three, epileptic attack." But soon the eyes began moving.

"Wait, what? Log: Unexpected response. Eye motion is supposed to remain null even during an epileptic attack. The anesthetic was intended specifically to lock the yes in a forward position, for retinal surgery. Only two things could have happened, either I loaded the wrong anesthetic, or Buddy over there loaded the antidote."

The eyelids opened.

"Shit, shit, shit! Buddy, get me a sedative! Overdose by 30 percent! Log, subject is awake, reverting to Overdose Contingency!. Buddy, did we do knowledge transfer yet?"

"Yes, madam. We preformed a knowledge transfer on all subjects who were equivalent to less than 15 years younger than you a week ago. I regret to inform you that the sedative is not accessible from this level, my apologies."

"This is not good, lock down this level, and prepare an emergency elevator. Keep the subject in this room at all costs!"

"Understood, madam. Elevator is ready, to your north." Buddy said helpfully and whimsically as always.

"Sorry 13," Amp said to the clone who was clearly disoriented, "I can't let you wake up. Not yet anyway, try not to hurt yourself until I can sedate you again."

"Wait," The clone said, "Who am I?"

"You?" Amp asked rhetorically, "You're me." and with that she marched over to the north wall, and pushed one of the concrete blocks in. A secret door opened, revealing a rebar and steel grate elevator. It only went up from here.

She stepped in, and the door closed again.

"Buddy, permanently lock all retinal scans accessible from Genetics, and change entrance password to "POLARIZED_seaSponge{365; 15}" Amp said urgently. "Make sure even I couldn't break out of there."

"I'm not sure if that's possible, madam, but I'll try my best." Buddy said calmly. "Here is your Visene." A compartment opened up, and medical supplies could be seen. Right at the front of the collection was a bottle of Visene.

Amp took the bottle, and squeezed a few drops in her eyes.

"External climate?" She asked.

"286 kelvin, lightly showering and wind speeds of  7.2 meters per second."

"Ooh, chilly. Get me to the town square, and prepare my jacket, plasma cutter, blowtorch and basic tool kit."

"Of course, madam. ETA to surface 36 seconds."

36 seconds of worrying later, Amp had reached the surface. She was launched out of a manhole cover, up about 4 feet above the road, and she landed gracefully. Out behind her a jacket, an acetylene torch, a plasma cutter, and a utility belt

shot out of the manhole. She picked them up, and got moving.

"Clone awoke, probably confused, angry, and scared." She said to herself. "Should be as educated as me, and has no social ties or eventual memory. Possible threat to city -- No. Possible threat to nation, warn monarch? Maybe, serious illegal activity needed in explanation" Amp was muttering to herself as she walked toward the castle.

She knew that she needed to tell the princesses, even if she was debating it with herself.  She kept at the arguing with herself the whole trip to the castle which took just over 45 minutes. Unfortunately, the princess would not allow Amp to install entrances to her tunnel system very close to the castle. It took some serious doing to convince her that it was okay if Amp had a tunnel system at all.

Amp was afraid that the news she bore would only damage her relationship with the authorities more.