[FO:E] The Northern Wasteland of Equestria 1

[MCerberus]

Manehatten - Happy Fun-time Interrogation Room

Scoops does fan out to search, but she's not really digging through anything yet. This area is considered unsecured, so she moves carefully with her sniper rifle ready. Secondary concerns, more terminals. All the terminals.

[Luka]

[Fuel and fuel accesories]

Gleamy tries to meld into the conversation a bit
"Uh...I'm not sure about this but....As far I get it, you want to give those drink-things to some "Bucky" because he offered you a gun, but some "Fizz" was the pony that sent you after those?"

She seems to try to think a bit of what's going on
"....What did Fizz offer you?"

[Rebonack]

[Ministry of Morale Interrogation Floor]

Time to find some stuff!

Scoops skulks about with her rifle and finds nothing of any terrible importance to shoot. Unless she's planning to shoot one of her companions or something. But that's inadvisable if she wants to continue living.

The only console that appears to be functional is the one over at the receptionist desk. There might be one in the archive vault, but that thing is sealed tight. Scorch marks suggest they alicorns tried to blast their way in before giving up.

As for Fox, he finds some old pre-war magazines that somehow miraculously survived the fire (Playcolt? Somepony was naughty). And the blackened remains of a pony skeleton slumped over beside the chair. A memory orb has rolled onto the floor. No doubt it was being processed or something before being stored in the vault.

Surprise goes trotting off and begins searching under random bits of rubble and behind old posters. No idea what she's expecting to find there.

Sven casts a sidelong glance at Sprinkles. "So this Surprise Party? She was a warrior? She sure doesn't look it."

[Lycan 01]

Manehatten - MoM Hub

Sprinkles slowly turns and locks his optical sensors on Sven.

"Heh."

The robot hovers slightly closer. "Lookin' at her, you'd think that wouldn't ya?" he asks, his voice low, even though he's damn sure she can hear him. "Silly little gal, quirky and chipper, no mind fer killin' and violence. Ya don't expert her to be a threat. Neither did her targets."

"Back in the war, the Ministry of Morale had a special team. Clandestine jobs. Wetworks. Black Ops. The stuff nopony would know about. The stuff nopony needed to know about. Zebra sympathizers, terrorist cells, assassination plots, corporate espionage, and the enemy's own black ops teams.. They dealt with the worst of the worst."

"And her?" he idly waves a claw over towards Surprise, his voice maintain a quiet casual tone despite the seriousness of what he's talking about. "She led one of the teams. Specifically... the assassination team. So, technically speaking, no. She's not a warrior. She's an assassin. Equestria's top wartime elimination agent, in fact."

A pause.

"Might wanna look behind you."

[MCerberus]

Manehatten - Happy Fun-time Interrogation Room

Well there doesn't seem to be any winged nasties scrounging around anymore, so that's one thing. Not knowing what an orb reader even looks like, Whadda heads over to the reception desk to see about that terminal. Oh look, Fox Trot.

"Hey whatcha got there?" she asks. This may or may not have anything to do with the orb... or the magazines.

[PurityIcekiller]

However, Violetta, I should note that Gleamy is both a pony and right here next to us, and would ask that you not treat her as a resource to be utilized. That kind of thinking was quite prevalent just over 200 years ago, and it ended with Megaspells and Balefire."

Oh. Ouch. She's definitely not smiling anymore. On the other hand, that does seem a little bit hypocritical when that same ghoul happens to be failing to resolve an argument out of scientific curiosity.

"What? Use her as a mere tool?" Violetta shook her head. "That is unthinkable! I was merely making a joke about how her kind are generally feared-

"Wait. Does this have anything to do with how the war started?" She perked up her ears, ready for a bit of exposition.

On the contrary, that only meant Fleetwing had to convince one other pony to go along with his plan. Sadly, that pony was also dead-set on disagreeing with him. "Alright, we'll...we'll talk this out," he said, massaging his forehead with a hoof. "I just don't see what the big deal is here. Fizz gets the sodas either way, why should it matter t'us if it goes through Bucky first?"

"And the other way, Bucky gets to improve his relations with her, only there's no risk of her finding out and ruining everything."

Gleamy tries to meld into the conversation a bit
"Uh...I'm not sure about this but....As far I get it, you want to give those drink-things to some "Bucky" because he offered you a gun, but some "Fizz" was the pony that sent you after those?"

She seems to try to think a bit of what's going on
"....What did Fizz offer you?"

"Both made vague offers of money as well, and Fizz said she'd teach us about bombs and other special things."

[TheAmishPirate]

"And the other way, Bucky gets to improve his relations with her, only there's no risk of her finding out and ruining everything."



"Both made vague offers of money as well, and Fizz said she'd teach us about bombs and other special things."

"See? So if they both turn out alright in the end, then why don't we just take th' one with better payoff? Bucky had a point; them grenades'll take some serious scrounging to put together, an' there's no telling if we'll just end up hurting ourselves with them. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a shotgun now than grenades later." Fleetwing had his sights stubbornly set on that fancy shotgun; he could almost feel it in a new holster at his side. Less ambushes, less trouble, what was there to not like?

[Rebonack]

[Ministry of Morale Interrogation Floor]

The griffon would be vaguely skeptical if not for the serious tone the robot is using. He's met plenty of killers. Plenty of soldiers. Plenty of mercenaries. And this Surprise doesn't seem like any of them at all. Maybe it's just a peculiarity of pre-war ponies?

"An assassin, really? Her? She seems a bit too loud to manage sneaking up on anything."

Aaaand then Sprinkles mentions looking behind him. The griffon winces and slowly turns, dreading what he expects to find.

Sure enough as soon as he turns around he's nose to nose with Surprise. He hadn't heard a sound. Didn't even feel that prickly sensation of someone being nearby. The cyber pony is grinning like an idiot.

"I found you a hat!"

And with that she plops an old plastic pot on top of the griffon's head. A bit of ancient potting soil comes crumbling out of it and into Sven's feathers.

"It's a surprise gift! And I'll be I can find some more, too!"

Then she trots away with a, "Tra la la la la~!" to go find more pointless junk to collect.

"...glad she's on our side..."

[Benson]

Manehatten Ruins-Horseshoe Tower-Ministry of Morale- Interrogation Floor 1:24 PM

Fox Trot


I found myself casually flipping through the preserved magazine,....admiring the beautiful mares and their shiny coats and wet manes....oooh socks....the one with the socks was really cute.

Manehatten - Happy Fun-time Interrogation Room

Well there doesn't seem to be any winged nasties scrounging around anymore, so that's one thing. Not knowing what an orb reader even looks like, Whadda heads over to the reception desk to see about that terminal. Oh look, Fox Trot.

"Hey whatcha got there?" she asks. This may or may not have anything to do with the orb... or the magazines.

"Waaah..ah...nothing!...Iwasn'tlookingatanymareswe aringsocks!" I blurted out turning a shade of pink. I coughed into my hoof.

"Ahem...I ah...found a memory orb," I said, pretending that I totally just didn't barely see it..just now.

[Rebonack]

[Ministry of Morale Interrogation Floor]

The mare wearing socks is pretty cute. Fox has good taste. Too bad his admiration of this most recently found treasure is so rudely interrupted. But hey, memory orb right? That's totally what they're looking for!

Wait.

No.

They're looking for a memory recollector.

A memory orb isn't too useful for an earth pony.

Surprise seems to have vanished off somewhere. Probably digging around inside a cabinet that can't physically contain her or something.

[Chaotic Bob]

Spoiler

Show

Cazardor Combat

The Cazadors are caught off guard by the initial attack.

A couple of the wasps have their wings blasted off, and are sent frantically skittering around in pain and confusion. Down manages to land a lucky hit on one, and it disappears in a haze of burning ash. Swiss' little explosion trick takes out one juvenile Cazador, but the rest either able to shrug off the shrapnel that pelts them.

The rest of the swarm, though, is now alerted to TRSG! and Down's presence.

In an instant, the 7 or so large demonic-looking wasps taking flight, and begin to buzz towards the interlopers. Their movements are jerky and erratic, bobbing and weaving up and down and side to side. Most fly towards the interlopers, while one sticks with each of the fallen raiders. The raiders - one mare and two stallions - begin to thrash, and start to scream in agony. Their screams are nearly drowned out by the droning of the swarm's wings.


The droning buzz suddenly grows louder. In fact, the volume and power of the reverberating hum begins to spike exponentially.

Sour may or may not notice the shadow growing larger beneath her.

[Manehatten - Stirring the Hornet's Nest]

Here they come!

Swiss lights her horn up again, lobbing another mass of Faerie Fire at the bugs. This time around the explosion is far more gentle. And instead of crushing force and rending shrapnel sticky strands of cocoon glop are sent spiraling erratically through the air. Hopefully the attack will snare at least a few of the wasps and leave them glued to the ground. "Haha! Welcome to my parlor said the changeling to the hideous giant bug!" and with a snicker she spreads her own wings, dropping her glamor in the process, and takes flight herself. She's only hovering a few feet off the ground, but it still increases her mobility by quite a bit.

Something clicks inside of Rye's mind. "The large one is coming from above!" the mare calls out before diving away and coming up in a roll, yanking out her shotgun and aiming a spread of disintigration magic at the nearest wasp.

Sour gets the warning loud and clear! With a fizzling pop her mane and tail suddenly erupt upward like a pink gyser toward the approaching big-wasp. Hopefully the monster will blunder right into the toxic fog and reconsider the wisdom of its presence here. Though considering how thin their wings are? Those would probably melt pretty fast.

Regardless of outcome Sour proves that 'Moondancer' is a fairly apt name as she does her best to gracefully slip out of the wasp's flight path. She's pretty spry for a dead pony!

As for Corn? His combat style is exceedingly straight forward. As soon as a wasp gets close he'll aim to charge the creature and tackle it clean out of the sky. And then stomp it to death with his clawed horseshoes. For as large as he is he can move deceptively fast.

[Manehatten - Stirring the Hornet's Nest]

Seven up and running.
Giant one above.

Okay.

Down considers a few options here, in the brief time she has.
Stand her ground and fire, hoping to maul the things in time, and then join Corn in the melee? Her tail makes her adept at it against living things...

Alternatively, make like Swiss and take to the air, for maneuverability. Wasps seem slightly more agile there though, so that's a definite risk factor.

Or, possibly, just keep backing up and retaining distance, while peppering away.

Hm.
"...hate not having a plan."
Plan means DO, not THINK. Thinking in battle leads to dying!
Doing leads to living!

"ARGH, fine!"
With an angry twitch of her tail, the pegasus digs her hooves in and begins firing more insistently at the nearest wasps, firing more swiftly than she normally would to try to account for their erratic movements.

[Lycan 01]

Spoiler

Show

[Manehatten - Stirring the Hornet's Nest]

Here they come!

Swiss lights her horn up again, lobbing another mass of Faerie Fire at the bugs. This time around the explosion is far more gentle. And instead of crushing force and rending shrapnel sticky strands of cocoon glop are sent spiraling erratically through the air. Hopefully the attack will snare at least a few of the wasps and leave them glued to the ground. "Haha! Welcome to my parlor said the changeling to the hideous giant bug!" and with a snicker she spreads her own wings, dropping her glamor in the process, and takes flight herself. She's only hovering a few feet off the ground, but it still increases her mobility by quite a bit.

Something clicks inside of Rye's mind. "The large one is coming from above!" the mare calls out before diving away and coming up in a roll, yanking out her shotgun and aiming a spread of disintigration magic at the nearest wasp.

Sour gets the warning loud and clear! With a fizzling pop her mane and tail suddenly erupt upward like a pink gyser toward the approaching big-wasp. Hopefully the monster will blunder right into the toxic fog and reconsider the wisdom of its presence here. Though considering how thin their wings are? Those would probably melt pretty fast.

Regardless of outcome Sour proves that 'Moondancer' is a fairly apt name as she does her best to gracefully slip out of the wasp's flight path. She's pretty spry for a dead pony!

As for Corn? His combat style is exceedingly straight forward. As soon as a wasp gets close he'll aim to charge the creature and tackle it clean out of the sky. And then stomp it to death with his clawed horseshoes. For as large as he is he can move deceptively fast.

[Manehatten - Stirring the Hornet's Nest]

Seven up and running.
Giant one above.

Okay.

Down considers a few options here, in the brief time she has.
Stand her ground and fire, hoping to maul the things in time, and then join Corn in the melee? Her tail makes her adept at it against living things...

Alternatively, make like Swiss and take to the air, for maneuverability. Wasps seem slightly more agile there though, so that's a definite risk factor.

Or, possibly, just keep backing up and retaining distance, while peppering away.

Hm.
"...hate not having a plan."
Plan means DO, not THINK. Thinking in battle leads to dying!
Doing leads to living!

"ARGH, fine!"
With an angry twitch of her tail, the pegasus digs her hooves in and begins firing more insistently at the nearest wasps, firing more swiftly than she normally would to try to account for their erratic movements.

Manehatten - Bug Battle

Swiss' attack proves effective - two of the wasps are splattered, and soon find themselves tethered to the ground. A split second later, a hail of energy weapon fire from Down turns them both into charred, twitching husks.

There are five wasps left - three defending the bodies, and two buzzing towards Rye. Her energy shotgun does the trick, instantly reducing one to a glowing cloud of twinkling dust. The other wasp, though, continues on its erratic path, rapidly closing the distance and jabbing at the mare with it's barb. Should the sting strike true, the juvenile Cazador's venom will prove both agonizing and paralyzing, though not immediately deadly.

Another half-dozen wasps buzz out of a ruined storefront further up the street, just beyond the thrashing raider bodies. They are also joined by one large, pony-sized wasp. Big Momma's mate, no doubt.

Speaking of Big Momma...

The gigantic Cazador dives straight for Sour, but quickly finds its path obstructed by a haze of pink poison. The rapid beating of its wings manages to dissipate some of the haze, but the cloud is still thick enough to give the insect quite a nasty shock. The Cazador lets out a hideous shriek, and erratically veers away from Sour. It knows to avoid her now...

Big Momma lands and buzzes her wings, shaking off any residual tendrils of pink mist. And then Corn charges her. And he's fast.

But she's faster.

The giant Cazador jukes to Corn's right just as he tries to tackle her, and extends several of her clawed feet, raking them along his side from neck to flank as he passes by. Whether or not it penetrates his armor is hard to say, but there are certainly plenty of sparks produced by the strikes.

Big Momma notices the winged pony in insectoid armor hovering nearby. Specifically, she notices it shooting her babies. The predator quickly analyzes the situation, determines this winged pony to be both a strong threat and a viable host... and then charges.

Zig-zagging wildly, the giant Cazador half-skitters, half-hovers towards Down, rapidly closing the distance as it moves in to attack!

[BladeofObliviom]

Spoiler

Show

[Canterlot]

Any memories involving Mesmer are probably terrible ones. She wasn't a nice pony.

"I... suppose you're right," Anoma replies after some consideration. Having to fight their sisters would be terrible. In pretty much every way imaginable. Unity isn't meant to be stained with hostility.

On that note Anoma finds her mind being nettled with a memory of cataloging Ministry of Technology artifacts. It was a very monotonous, boring task. But for some reason it was important at the time. The alicorn has no idea why.

Two of their sisters remain behind whilst the other two depart, ostensibly to fetch Nightseer. The ponies decide to chat with Anoma and Ebony while they wait.

"They have given Nightseer visions."
"Yes, visions of what is to come."
"Visions of the world decaying."
"They offer knowledge!"
"And power!"
"Untold magic!"
"But the rituals require blood," a glance is cast at the zebras.

Anoma furrows her brow. "Who offers these things?"

"The Stars!" both ponies reply, their voices in hushed awe.

The zebras whimper, one of them gnawing at her chains in a futile attempt to escape.

[Canterlot]

Well, that gets something of a rise out of the Azure Alicorn, whose expression can only be described as abject horror for but a moment, as a memory resurfaces of helplessly watching as a filly and group of other ponies were devoured alive by the Smooze.

"...I see."

And she leaves it at that. She could talk about how the stars do not always hold up to their bargains in ways that the petitioner necessarily desires, but that goes unvoiced. No matter how true it was, dashing the mad hopes of these disunified Alicorns was nothing less than a recipe for disaster.

Spoiler

Show

"What? Use her as a mere tool?" Violetta shook her head. "That is unthinkable! I was merely making a joke about how her kind are generally feared-

"Wait. Does this have anything to do with how the war started?" She perked up her ears, ready for a bit of exposition.

"And the other way, Bucky gets to improve his relations with her, only there's no risk of her finding out and ruining everything."

"Both made vague offers of money as well, and Fizz said she'd teach us about bombs and other special things."

[Give me Fuel, Give me Fire, Give me that which I desire...]

The Ghoul instantly seems less annoyed!

"I apologize, then, for I misinterpreted your words. And yes, it has much to do with the beginning of the war. That, however, would be a lengthy explanation. To make a long story short, Equestria and the Zebra Nation alike traded harmony for efficiency, and both paid the ultimate price for their mistake."

Hmm. Is she usually this cryptic? Or is she just trying not to directly sway the argument? Only time will tell.

[Rebonack]

[Manehatten - Stirring the Hornet's Nest]

Corn's armor is pretty hefty stuff, though it still has some holes burned into it from the earlier encounter with the killer robots. The wasp's fly by attack manages to gouge him pretty solidly through the gaps. Though he decides to respond in kind. As the monster is buzzing past he reaches out with his fore-hooves, aiming to catch the giant insect from behind with the claws on his horseshoes. If he can snag the creature from such an awkward angle not only should it slow the beast down but it'll also ruin its angle for stinging him.

If his grip is solid he'll look for any points in the bug's chitin that look damaged by Sour's cloud and then start pounding the weak points in the armor mercilessly.

Rye proves to be as illusive as ever in combat. The zig-zagging doesn't seem to bother her in the least as she weaves around the stinger thrust and kicks into SATS, aiming a series of precision hoof-strikes at the creature's abdomen with enough force to reverberate through its armor and pulp soft bits inside. Should the attacks strike true she'll hopefully rupture the wasp's venom sac and flood the monster's guts with its own poison.

Sour and Swiss turn their attention to Big Daddy and other incoming wasps. Two horns light up in unison and lob a pair of projectiles at the monsters. Two projectiles that serve much the same purpose. The pink missile explodes in a conflagration of force and arcane fire whilst the Swiss' little gift detonates like a frag-bomb.

Aimed for maximum spread over the group the explosive magic may give the bugs pause in their advance.

"KaBOOM! Ah ahahahaha!"

[Canterlot]

"Blasphemous servants of cosmic evil!" one of the zebras hisses. "Vile Nightmares and thralls to the Stars! I pray for swift judgment and justice you!"

Anoma regards the zebra curiously as she does her best to remain calm and collected despite the insanity that her sisters are following. "Why do you call myself and my sisters Nightmares?"

The zebra fixes the purple alicorn with a look of raw hatred. "Because that is what you are! Empowered and driven by the bones of the Stars! Nightmares consumed by the madness of the cold blackness beyond the moon!"

"We serve the Goddess and the Goddess alone," Anoma states, her tone emphatic.

"You and your foal of a goddess are unwitting slaves to the Stars!" the zebra spits back. Anoma doesn't seem terribly happy about this flagrant disrespect.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Manehatten - Stirring the Hornet's Nest]

Noting Rye to be handling the Cazador near her rather well, Down prepares to attack the three that are hanging back, making themselves safe targets.

But a flurry of activity on her EFS gives pause to that idea. A swarm of red over there, the next group of wasps, and a red bar that is swiftly moving around the side...

Louder buzzing, the big wasp.

Making a semi-rash decision, the pegasus decides to leap up into the air, where she can at least force another angle of attack onto the monster.
Judging by the ache in her recently-healed wing, she won't be more maneuverable, but she only has to stay anywhere-but-below the wasp, right?

Maybe she'll have just enough time to greet its arrival with a burst of laser-rifle fire...

[MCerberus]

Manehatten - Happy Fun-time Interrogation Room

Was the word 'socks' in there somewhere? It couldn't be. That would be wildly inappropriate and slightly kinky. Maybe that cupcake just went down the wrong way for Fox.

Aaaaanyhoof, that terminal. Gotta hack it. In awkward silence.

[Luka]

"See? So if they both turn out alright in the end, then why don't we just take th' one with better payoff? Bucky had a point; them grenades'll take some serious scrounging to put together, an' there's no telling if we'll just end up hurting ourselves with them. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a shotgun now than grenades later." Fleetwing had his sights stubbornly set on that fancy shotgun; he could almost feel it in a new holster at his side. Less ambushes, less trouble, what was there to not like?

"What....Kind of grenades.... I don't think I remember much, but aren't grenades...Stronger than shotguns?"
Welp, now Gleamy was starting to like the idea of giving them to Fizz

[Benson]

Manehatten Ruins-Horseshoe Tower-Ministry of Morale- Interrogation Floor 1:26 PM

Fox Trot

After that awkward moment, I opted for searching around in the desk before I got distracted with the magazine. Then it dawned on me, I don't even know what a recollector looked like, only knew of them.

Crap sack monkey on a stick.

[Lycan 01]

MoM Hub - Interrogation Rooms

Sergeant Sprinkles hovers over to Fox Trot. "Whatcha got there?" he asks, pointing to the memory orb... and the magazine.


---

Manehatten - Bug Battle

More chaos and carnage!

Swiss and Sour ravage the newly arriving bugs. Several of them are splattered or incinerated. However, Big Daddy barrels through the maelstrom and emerges with a few crags and chips in his chitin, but otherwise still ready for action. He zig-zags down the street, rapidly closing in on the Changeling and Ghoul. If it weren't for her erratic, jerky movements, he'd already be upon them. A couple of juveniles trail after him.

The three raiders stop thrashing. Sickening crunching and cracking noises are soon heard from their bodies. The guard-wasps land on or near them, apparently in preparation for what's about to happen.

Rye pulps the wasp attacking her. No, really, it explodes. It's chitinous shell could not withstand the pressure of her attacks, and the TRSG! member finds herself showered in green gore and fragments of bug shell. If any gets on her skin, it stings like sunburn, but shouldn't be cause for alarm.


Corn manages to hook on to Big Momma. She shudders and momentarily loses altitude, before quickly recovering. Considering Cazadores are mutated Tarantula Hawk Wasps, they're used to carrying things. Granted, he's still a bit more of a load than she's used to, so her speed and movements are noticeably slowed.

And then Down opens fire!

The first shot hits one of the wasp's legs, searing it off in a shower of sparks and ash. The wasp shrieks... and spins around. It is now being carried backwards by it's previously-forward momentum and the inertia of Corn's bulk.

It's also now using Corn as an armored shield against the incoming hail of energy fire from Down.

Hope that armor is good against MEWs...

[Rebonack]

[Ministry of Morale Interrogation Center]

Ah ha... heh...

Yeah.

Probably should have mentioned to someone that they don't know what a recollector looks like. Surprise would probably know. Good chance that Sprinkles would, too. But unless they're asked they won't know to bring it up!

One of the tricky bits about communication after all...

Sven continues to guard the elevator whilst Surprise does something... well... no idea what she's doing. The cyberpony has up and vanished. Though every now and again her voice can be heard ooh!ing or wow!ing from some unrelated room.

As for the desk! There are some old pens and pencils inside. Some official looking papers. Mostly reports on findings. A bit of inventory on MoM equipment. And... a picture of a pony and his family. Very possibly the family of the dead pony on the floor next to the desk.

Hacking the console proves to be really easy. The thing isn't even password protected. It contains a bunch of mundane information on prisoner reports, memory orb storage, and other such things. Not terribly high priority info.

[Manehatten - Stirring the Hornet's Nest]

Incoming giant bugs! Sour touches her horn to Swiss and in a FLASH the changeling vanishes. Sour, meanwhile, takes off at a gallop! Though unfortunately she doesn't get to far. That injured leg from earlier gives out and the ghoul pony face-plants on the pavement.

Ouch!

But where did Swiss go?

She just got teleported onto the back of Big Daddy! The changeling uses her weird clingy hooves to hang on tenaciously as she aims to press her horn to the segment where the wasp's head attaches to the thorax. Next stage of the plan? Slather the joint with magically charged cocoon goop! Wonder what she's up to?

Rye spins around, getting bug goop all over her back and mane. "Uuugh! Celestia's exploding ovaries that's disgusting!" no time to dwell on grossness. She has a job to do still. A ME grenade is pulled from her saddle bags and hurled toward the wasps guarding the Raiders. The explosive bounces twice before detonating in a brilliant green flash. That done she ejects the spent cartage from her shotgun and slams home a new one.

Corn goes for a ride! One beam glances his armor, causing it to sizzle. Another burn a nice hole into his flank. The huge pony grits his teeth and hauls back with one of his steel-shod hooves and SMASHES it at the giant wasp's body with enough force to bend metal or shatter stone. Hanging on with his other three clawed shoes he aims to rhythmically pound the giant bug like a pneumatic hammer.

What has Vinyl been doing all this time? Hiding in some rubble, that's what! Hopefully none of the wasps bother her.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Manehatten - Stirring the Hornet's Nest]

Down stops firing as soon as the wasps turns.
Evidently not quickly enough (a distressing fact she buries), but it spurs her to make sure it can't be a problem anymore

Time to fly forward and join Corn in the melee.

The demon wasp is conveniently facing the wrong directly, so the pegasus is hoping that gives her some more wiggle room in trying to find a perch on its back. Then it's a matter of trying to find spaces to ram her tail blade into.

Or at the least, swipe at its wing joints with her bladed tail as she passes, if no perch is possible.

With luck, she can't hurt team-mates like this.

[MCerberus]

Manehatten - Happy Fun-Time Interrogation Room

Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. All this information is boring. Scoops is pretty much unaware what Surprise is up to looking through files. Also she doesn't know about Fox's pornography stash yet.

[Lycan 01]

Bug Battle

Boom-shaka-laka! The ME grenade incinerates the bodies and their wasp guardians!

Big Daddy begins to spin around and buck wildly, trying to shake Swiss free. And the two remaining juvenile wasps which were trailing after him quickly catch up, and attempt to get Swiss off of their father. By attempting to sting her. With painful, paralyzing venom.

Big Momma lets out a loud, shrill scree as Corn begins to smash his hooves against her shell, buckling and cracking some of the chitin. The wasp immediately lands, just as Down jabs one of its wing joints and causes the wing to drop limp. However, Big Momma isn't done fighting. She begins to erratically and wildly spin around in circles, in an attempt to both hurl Corn off with centrifugal force, and smash his armored, spikey bulk against poor Down.

[Rebonack]

[Manehatten - Stirring the Hornet's Nest]

In a single smooth motion Rye drops her shotgun, draws her beam rifle, and slips into SATS once again. The mare takes aim at the wasps zipping toward Swiss and fires a series of precision shots at their wings. Between the time-slowing targeting spell and her own Insight Rye proves to be extraordinarily accurate.

Though not before one of them scrapes its stinger over the changelings carapace and manages to stab her somewhere soft. Swiss hisses in pain as she drops off the giant wasp, spreading her own wings and beating them spasmodically to slow her fall.

Right before she hits the ground?

"Kaboom."

The shaped-charge she had stuck onto the giant wasp's neck joint detonates, probably taking its head clean off in the process.

Then she hits the ground with a rather unpleasant sounding thud.

Sour is on her hooves again, now limping toward Swiss to administer healing and anti-vemon.

Corn hangs on tenaciously, beating at the giant wasp with titanic fury! Carefully judging his position he pushes himself off the monster as it spins on his own terms, hitting the ground hard before springing back to his hooves and charging the monster once again to impale it on his spiked barding.

Geeze... he really takes that whole 'earth pony fortitude' bit to an extreme, doesn't he?

[Benson]

Manehatten Ruins-Horseshoe Tower-Ministry of Morale- Interrogation Floor 1:26 PM

Fox Trot

"A memory orb!" I said all to quickly. I then looked at the robot. "Hey.....you're old....and stuff with more stored knowledge.... do you know what a memory recollector looks like?"

[Lycan 01]

MoM Hub - Interrogation Rooms

Sprinkles' pink optic sensors stare at Fox Trot for a few seconds. "Thanks. Way to make a robot feel up-to-date," he deadpans. The 'bot hovers past Fox Trot, and gives an idle wave of his claws at the wreckage. "It looks like a fancy little tiara, with a slot to stick the orb in. Fancy and swanky. You'll know it when ya see it."

He turns around, and points a claw at the magazine. "Try not to get distracted by other interestin' things though," he observes knowingly. One of his optic sensors goes black for a moment, and then lights back up - the Mister Gutsy equivalent of wink.

[Benson]

Manehatten Ruins-Horseshoe Tower-Ministry of Morale- Interrogation Floor 1:28 PM

Fox Trot



I acted like I didn't know what other thing he was talking about and coughed into my hoof.

"Right, tiara....I don't know if I could work a tiara, even with my studliness." I grinned. "Anyways thanks, I'll keep an eye out for a tiara."

With that I shuffled away and snooped around in one of the four smaller rooms (the interrogation room). I'd be back in a moment for the uh.,.....uh....memory orb, yes that.

[Rebonack]

[Ministry of Moral Interrogation Floor]

Sven guards the elevator some more! How exciting.

Scoops has found the most boring terminal ever. Nothing but official documents about prisoners and stuff. Unless she feels like reading some prisoner's personal information there isn't much for her here.

Yes.

The memory orb.

Clearly for that and not for anything else that might be found over at the desk.

Fox will find Surprise digging around in one of the interrogation rooms using those weird prehensile cables on her back to carefully remove panels from the walls to get at stashes of electronics inside. Or more specifically the gems. Which she's eating.

Uuuh...

"Oh! Hiya Foxy! I'm just snacking on some gems since apparently that's a thing I have to eat now! Have you found anything so far that looks nice?" the cyberpony offers a knowing wink before sticking the full front half of her body inside the wall again. When she speaks up again her voice is a bit muffled. "I was surprised to find out that they all taste like fruit! Isn't that weird? Did you try looking inside the vault? I think that's where we kept most of the memory orbs and sensitive equipment."

Doesn't seem to be too much in here aside from the cyberpony, some rubble, and a totally intact chair. Does Fox need a pink chair? 'cuz if he does then hey, score!

Should he turn to leave the room Surprise will pop up right in front of him, grinning a manic grin. "Heeeeey! Did you grab any Mint-als while you were in the medical bay? I could probably use some or my brains are going to start feeling like mud pretty soon."

If he doesn't make to leave much the same will happen as above. Except that Surprise would still scrounging around inside the wall. Fox would briefly have the distinct impression that the Party Pony is in two places at once.

[Benson]

Manehatten Ruins-Horseshoe Tower-Ministry of Morale- Interrogation Floor 1:30 PM

Fox Trot

"I found a memory orb that's it I swear!...Uh....Yea...no, I was saving the vault for last, a sort of process of elimination, because to me...vault resonates with images of really big storage rooms with mazes of shelved and categorized orbs easy to get lost in...and stuff...Anyways..." My eyes darted around wondering if she really knew about the magazine thing. Oh bah...why should I care, I'm a grown stallion, nothing to be acting derp about. Hmmph! Then the subject of mint-als came up.

"Actually I did grab some while we were back there...kinda forgot about it until well, now...." I turned my left side to her. "Its in my left saddle bag with the other medical supplies, go ahead and grab it."

[Rebonack]

[Ministry of Moral Interrogation Floor]

"EHYES! Best surprise gift ever!" Surprise enthuses before rummaging around in the saddle bag and coming up with a pair of tins. Using the manipulator cables she carefully pops one open, extracts a little white tablet, and pops it in her mouth. "Mmmm... minty..."

The rest of the chems are then stored...

Somewhere.

She just kinda sticks them behind her back and all of a sudden they're gone. Probably best not to think about it too hard. The cyber pony will then lean in to give Foxtrot a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks Foxy! You're the best! C'mon, let's get that vault open!"

And thus the mare goes trotting off to crack a huge safe!