Breaking Quarantine

"Uhh...What? What do you mean by twist it?" Star asked, unfolding his wings and getting into a low hover. He tightened the strap of his sword and made sure it was on tightly encase he need to fly away from any danger.

"That's my special talent, you know." Distortion watched him hover. "Magic is my element. Gimme a spell and I'll distort it for you."

"Hmm...Interesting..." Star muttered, flapping his wings and going higher into the air. He looked out into the actual city to see if he could spot the building they were suppose to be heading to.

From the aerial view, Star would see the ghostly silhouettes of dozens of buildings reaching as high and on several occasions surpassing, the clouds the seemed to be lazily floating within the quarantine. One however was noticeably higher, with a curved section just completely missing from the structure, but it stood none the less as imposing as ever. That was unmistakably the Magi-tech tower that was their destination, but nothing within sight seemed to move in that direction.

Also of note was the way the road changed after about 1 1/2 miles. The path split and while one half stayed on the ground, the other reared up, gradually climbing into the air. A few pieces of wreckage dotted this path, but it was little more than various brown lumps of unidentifiable stuff at this distance.

"So," Distortion called out from the ground, "see anything important up there?"

Star closed his wings and landed next to Distortion with a rather loud thud. "Eeyup. 'Bout one and a half miles down the road is a split. One sticks to the ground and the other gradually goes up. The one that goes up has a bit of wreckage in it's path. Which one should we follow if we get to the split?" He asked with a slight shrug. "Also, nothing moving as far as I can see."

"Up." Distortion decided. "The wreckage means that there's probably something that took something else down. And obviously that's exactly what we want to find." He extended his unicorn magic senses, seeing if he could detect any abnormal magic he could potentially alter to his advantage. "Say, you don't have any magic yourself, do you?"

"Me? Magic? Maybe natural magic, but nothing out of the ordinary. I'm just a plain old thestral. One of Luna's guards and a pony with no family." Star said, muttering the very last bit about not having a family. It would have been nice to have a family to come back to if he made it out alive, but he didn't and that saddens him a little. Born an orphan and never had a pony adopt him.

"Hmm...We should get going. I see anything, but that doesn't mean there is nothing still living in the barrier. I really don't want to fight anything right now." He gestured a hoof down the path to Distortion, walking down it himself.

Distortion followed him at a brisk pace, aided by his cloak's speed enchantment. "Pity, then. I once knew a pegasus who could use magic. Pretty impressive, shooting lightning out of his eyes like that." He paused. "Oh, and my condolences on the whole family issue."

Distortion would detect some magic, a very faint ambient magic that surprisingly enough wasn't coming from the shield. Though trying to find the actual source would prove futile as well given how faint it was, but it was definitely irregular.

As Star and Distortion started down the path, they passed by more of the in need of repair houses and buildings. Various states of wreckage and natural overgrowth on the crumbling structures. Though as the two got closer and the buildings began to get bigger and more advanced looking, the greenery died away in exchange for just general wreckage. Small pockets of it would occasionally show themselves but the majority of the scenery was gradually shifting to faded artificial colors.

The sun, now well into it's decent, was casting long shadows in the wake of the gradually taller buildings, making the fact that it was well into the afternoon all the more apparent. Just as the two would reach the split where the road lifted upwards, movement came from up ahead. Something darted into one of the houses off to the right. Whatever it was, it was small, probably no bigger than a foal but it'd disappeared inside too quickly to be identified.

Star watched as the green grass slowly died away. He turned towards Distortion. "No, no. It's quiet alright. I had fun in my youth. I disobayed royal guards and ventured the city of Canterlot at night. I went near the Everfree when I went to the orphanage at Ponyville and happily played with other foals. Though...That doesn't really turn away from the fact that I never had parents to look over me. Getting beat by a guard really makes you rethink you view on the guards, don't it. I was glad-," He was interrupted by something dashing in front of him and Distortion.

"Whoa! What was that? Should we...check it out? It could be a pony." He said, turning to Distortion. "Hell, it was even small. Ya think it might be a little foal? Or just an animal, or something?" He looked ready to draw his sword if anything attacked him and his fellow pony. He was slightly having second thoughts, but that didn't keep him from not thinking about his goal.

"Nope!" Distortion said cheerfully. "Ignoring movement like that's just gonna get us killed unless we make sure it isn't dangerous - or beat it down until it isn't anymore." He readied his magic and moved after the movement.

Following after the movement would take Star and Distortion to the entrance of a crumbling 4 story apartment building. The door, while stubborn did give after a shove or two, revealing a rather dreary and unsafe looking interior. Also of note was the bright lime green colored foal almost quivering in fear in the corner under a leaning piece of lumber. His messy almost black with just the barest hints of blue mane was in desperate need of something well beyond the point of a trip to the barbershop, and his face had a few recent splotches from dirt and such, but nothing that appeared to be long term though most of him was still hidden.

"S-stay back! I-I-I'm warning yous," he weakly threatened/warned, though his yellow eyes with horizontal lines for pupils betrayed how scared he actually was. "I-I fffound this spot fi-first you, you raider scum!" He kept up trying to feign bravery.

"Raider?" Distortion chuckled dryly. "This ain't no Fallout: Equestria, kid." He paused. "Although it certainly looks like it, from a glance. Anyway, we don't want to hurt you." He looked around. "In fact, if you know the directions around here, we kind of need your help."

Being laughed at, and the follow up question seemed to drain away a bit at the foal's fear, but he wasn't getting up from his hiding place just yet. "And why would I help some cruddy raiders?" he replied not convinced they weren't what he claimed them to be. Then he got a better look at the two and saw at least Star was in armor. At that point the color drained from his face and fear set in anew. "N-n-no, y-y-you two aren't void knights... are you?" he asked just above a whisper.

"Void knights?" He turned to Star. "Do you know what void knights are?" He looked back at the foal. "Hey, mind telling me what a void knight is? Sounds... void-ish." He shrugged. "Sorry, ran out of descriptors."

Star had followed Distortion into the building. Once he saw the little foal cowering in the corner, he immediately remembered his own experience similar to this one. He shook his head slowly. "Hey, kid. It's not nice to call a lunar guard a raider." He said softly, giving a slight smile.

He looked at Distortion. "Nope. Never heard of what a void raider is, but...Wait...Hey, kid? Why are you calling us raiders? Are there other ponies still alive in this barrier?" He took a small step closer to the little foal. His brain had made a connection that if this little foal was still alive in this barrier, then there might be other ponies alive too...Maybe even the last recon teams.

After a few more moments of careful inspection, the foal relaxed a little, enough at least to answer the questions thrown at him. "Of course there's ponies alive in the city, not too many out here though. I think that's why mum and dad decided to move out this way, away from the raiders and the knights and all the inner city stuffs. I don't know too much about the knights, I've never seen one, but my dad has! Would you want to talk to him?" the foal asked while taking steping out from behind his cover.

As the foal stepped out, something strange became apparent. Sticking out from the foals back were a set of wings, but not like any pony wings, more like a set of dragonfly wings that buzzed on occasion when they weren't resting along his back. Though that wasn't where the abnormalities ended. Instead of hooves, the foal had sets of claw like talons similar to a griffon, a scaled and spikey tail, where his mane trailed off revealed additional spikes that traveled down his spine until they met up with the ones from his tail, and there were patches of what almost looked like shell plating mixed in seemingly random spots about his coat. "Though could you two help with something first?" he asked as if everything were normal.

Star looked at the odd little foal. He decided to say nothing if the foal didn't say anything. At the mention that his dad had seen a void knight. He walked over to the little foal and noogied his head a little. "Hmm...I guess we can spear some time. We have two weeks in this barrier anyway. What do you need, kid? Oh! I just remembered we never introduced ourselves. I'm Star Sentinel and this is my...partner Distortion. What's your name, kid? I don't really want to keep calling you a kid. You're not a goat after all, you're a pony." As much as I can see. But let's not mention the wings and other things. He thought, smiling down at the foal.

"Heeeeeeey, look! You're like a mutant or something!" Distortion exclaimed tactlessly. "Cool. Hey, if I stand in some radiation hotspots, can I get wings and claws too?" He paused. "Oh, and, uh, sure, we can help."

Star stared at Distortion before facehoofing. "Seriously...You really think there is radiation in this city?! Don't you think this little kid could have wings and claws because of the magical incident here? By Luna, you're kinda foalish with your comments..." He said, turning back to the little foal.

"Yes, I try, I try." Distortion smiled, chuckling mischievously. "I take that as a compliment, anyhow."

The foal squirmed under the noogie, muttering protests along the lines of 'not a kid'. "And my name's Pyre Charge," the foal said with a scowl at the treatment. "Though my friends call me Sparky. Anyways here's what I need help with," he continued heading towards a closet in the crumbling structure. Just as he reached the door though, Distortions other question hit him and he turned around with a fresh scowl.

"And I didn't stand in anything, I was born a Lost you jerk. My mom's the one who had to go through that and she said it was hell," Pyre remarked slamming the door open, which did cause some fresh dust from the ceiling to fall down. "Anyways, this is what I need help with," he continued stepping to the side to reveal a large sack of stuff that was almost as tall as the foal himself. "I found too much stuff and can't carry it back fast enough. We could really use a lot of this, and with you two helping, we might make it home before nightfall."

Star glared at Distortion for a moment before turning towards the foal. "Pyre Charge...Nice name. But if you want me to call you Sparky I guess I can." He said, following Pyre close behind. When had turned said said to Distortion that he was a Lost, he had no idea what that meant. "Uhh...Hey Sparky? What's a Lost? You said you were born a Lost. We don't quite know what that is."

He looked into the closet and shook his head a little bit. "I got it. I'm used to carrying heavy stuff anyway." He walked over to the sack and slung it over his shoulder, onto his back. He let out a slight grunt, but didn't seemed bothered by the extra weight. "Alright, Sparky. Where's your home?" He said with a smile.

"It's this way, and I'm a Lost, but how could you two not know that? Everypony in here knows what a Lost is," Pyre continued as he led the two out of the crumbling building and back onto the streets. With the sun rapidly approaching the horizon line, Pyre was quick utilizing a mix of his claws and wings to keep moving over the uneven terrain while leading the two off in a roughly perpendicular line than that of their objective.

"Next you'll say you don't know about the Turned either," Pyre continued as they went. Barely noticeable was the slight increase in speed as he said 'Turned' and glanced over his shoulder first at the city and then the setting sun. "If we don't hurry, dad won't have to explain what those are," he warned without pause.