Breaking Quarantine

"You should get to know me. I'm the most reckless rookie you'll ever meet in the lunar guards." Star said with a slight smirk. "...Oh who am I kidding...If we'd stay on the ground we'd get attacked by more things that can't fly. The way I see it, two of the three main pony races hare earth bound. One third more ponies that might attack us on the ground. I know that maybe some lost and turned can fly, but what I'm saying is that we have a, if not slight, chance of getting less attack in the air." He said, still flying forward.

Distortion blinked. In his half-concussed state, the words almost seemed to fly in through one ear and out the other. "Yeah, but... things, and... stuff. Amongst... yannow... others." He shook his head. "Flyin' unicorns! Maybe they're one a those things around. And then it'll be... half more who'd attack us... groundside. Or something."

Star looked at Distortion as he flew. "That makes no sense...Especially that last part." He turned his gaze back forward and didn't dare say another word. He looked around to see if anything moved and to see if there was any immediate threat lurking about.

"You don't make sense either." Distortion huffed, before falling silent. He noticed Star looking around for danger, so he turned his gaze around his friend's blind spots to scout for anything Star couldn't.

The flying was almost peaceful if not for the stress and anxiety. Nothing chased the two as they flew through the sand filled ruins. Soon enough though, they managed to pass back into the normal looking ruins, the change as abrupt as when they'd first entered. There also seemed to be no sign of the creature from before that Star saw.

The peace was not to last though as the shadows they were flying through suddenly got darker. Something leaped off a skywalk from above, and was rapidly falling towards their position without making a sound.

Distortion squinted into the darkness, looking around. "I don't trust this place. We should get outta here as soon as we can. If we get attacked or somethin', we'd better hope the universe gave us enough equipment to get us through it alive." He noticed the something that was rapidly descending towards them. "Hey, Star? Izzat something we should be worried about?"

Star looked to where Distortion was looking, quickly grabbing the knife Twilight had gladly provided them and held it at the ready encase he needed to throw it. He flapped his wings to send them both off to the side, trying to get to the closest skywalk. "Well what do you think? It leapt at us!" He said as quickly as he could to Distortion. He grabbed the other knife from his saddle bags and held it with his mouth.

"Hey, look, if I attacked everythin' that leaped at me I'd probably have killed all my friends by now!" Distortion snapped back. He tightened his telekinetic hold around the sword Star had given him. Tightening his physical grip on Star's back, he swung the sword frantically at the approaching thing, hopefully injuring it or diverting it from its course.

The descending creature seemed to shroud them as it's almost blanket like appearance glided over them. On the underside of the flap of skin were four short clawed stubs where it's feet were,, along with dozens of rapidly opening and closing mouths each with it's own set of sharp and pointed teeth.

Despite Star's evasive maneuvers, the creature just glided a bit to the side to continue it's pursuit. While Dis's slashes would land, and cut, they did little to deter the creature and seemingly failed to cause serious injury. Before it could get any closer though, a loud crack of lightning erupted out, striking the creature and shooting on through it into a building. The smell of burning ozone and flesh erupted right along side the the thunderous boom that followed.

A figure could be seen standing on a higher up skywalk, while too far away and caught in the glare of the sun to further distort it's appearance, it appeared to be waving them up to it. The Turned that was chasing them seemed momentarily stunned by the lightning blast, had it's flight thrown off, allowing for a brief opportunity to fly upwards towards the figure.

"Uh..." Distortion watched the scene unfold before him, tracking the Turned over to the figure on the skywalk. "Well, Star, you're the flyer, so I guess... Your call." He watched the Turned recover from the lightning bolt and noticed the brief window of opportunity. "But whatever ya do, it had better be quick. Else we're toast."

Star looked up at the figure using a hoof to try and block some sun out of his eye. He let go of the knife in his mouth and caught it with his other forehoof. "Just swing at the damn thing! And don't rush me! I get very stressed when I'm rushed!!" He shouted at Distortion and flew up to the figure as fast as he could.

As the two ascended the Turned tried to pursue, but once they'd gotten above it, the creature was stuck continuing it's downward glide. Seeing as it had lost it's prey, the monster turned away, to drift to the bottom somewhere else that was out of sight.

As Star and Dis got closer to the figure, they could see it was definitely a pony, but it turned and started moving away. The figure was running, it seemed towards one of the slightly smaller buildings but at a pace Star would easily be able to keep and not lose sight of it.

"H-Hey, wait!" Distortion shouted as the figure ran away. He shook his head. "Damn it, he saved us. Why would he do that an' run away?" He turned to Star. "Think ya can catch him, in the state yer in? I have a feelin' we don't know as much as we should. Maybe he can tell us somethin'. He had ta have saved us fer a reason."

Star put away the knife Buckle had given him, but kept the other knife in his hooves. "Well now that you're not rushing me, yes I do think I can catch up to him." He followed the pony, going a bit more faster. "Right...I'll have you know that I've had to run two hundred laps around all of Canterlot at the crack of dusk. I tell ya, it wasn't fun. But you do have a point as to why this pony helped us. It seems...unexpected and not something that I think the ponies in this city would do." He said to Distortion while he flew.

It wasn't hard to keep pace, or even catch up to the running pony as it galloped down the skywalk. Very quickly, it dove inside the building it'd been approaching, disappearing from sight but because of the wreckage and destruction there was really only one hallway the being could have gone down.

Star landed on the skywalk, not stopping for a moment before galloping after the pony. He folded his wing as he galloped into the building. He had put the knife so that he was holding it in his mouth so that he could run with all four legs and not worry about him falling on his face.

"Aye, and now this one jus' comes along and helps us." Distortion grunted as Star flew. "Yeah, I gotta lotta questions ta ask as well. Let's hope he'll actually answer 'em when we catch up." As soon as Star landed, Distortion slid off his back, tumbling onto the ground and stumbling upright. "Hey, wait u... on second thoughts, don't. Go an' catch him!" He settled into his own unsteady gallop, trying as fast as he could to keep up. "An' I'm beginning to feel like this is some kinda trap, yannow!"

As the two followed the retreating figure into the building, there was a loud clang from a large door being shut from behind them after they turned a corner. Behind them stood the figure or at least what they could assume it was. The pony was clad in a mishmash of armor that had clearly been modified and in places reforged. A strange helmet completely covered it's face with reflective lenses over the eyes and something similar in look to a gas mask with respirator.

"Bout damn time you to got here, was beginning to wonder if old Buckle just sent me on a wild goose chase," a very mechanical voice said from inside the helmet as the pony began to trot over to a low table and some benches. Once it was sitting, the pony's fore hooves went up to the helmet and after messing with the straps some, there was a his of air as the almost suction like seal on the mask released.

Beneath was a copper colored earth pony stallion with a messy black mane. There was a noticeable darker section where the start of a beard was kept trim. His armor was bulky but allowed a surprising amount of movement despite showing pieces of the solar, lunar, and dusk guards used in it's design and he didn't remove it. Next off was the considerably sleeker three barreled rune gun with several unknown modifications on it. The straps were undone and it was carefully laid down on the table before being inspected by the pony. "So who are you two and why in the nine hells have you come to this death trap of a city," he asked in a gruff voice without looking back.

Star stopped for a moment breathing deeply. He soon sat down and spit the knife into his hooves. "Well sooory if Buckle never said where we were suppose to go." He put the knife away into this saddlebags, looking back in hopes Distortion had kept up. "So...You're the one he said who can help us get closer to the inner part of the city?" He asked taking off his helmet and putting it off to the side. He rubbed his head and shook it. "Thanks for saving us, but to answer your question, I am Star Sentinel and this here is my...partner Distortion. We are in this city to find out what cause all of...this." He gestured with a hoof to everything.

Distortion finally burst into the place. "I'm here, I'm here..." He noticed the new stallion. "... Oh... my... gosh is that a totally cool rune gun IwantoneIwantoneIwantone!" He remembered his own rune gun and pulled it to him with his telekinesis. "Or... maybe I should just repair this one. Got any spare runes?"

Without looking over, the stallion chucked a small circular rune at Dis. the surface of the specially carved stone had a simple fire symbol on it, quite similar to the one that had previously been in the rune gun. "Name's Stalwart, and yeah. If anypony can get you deeper in the city, it'll be me. You're just lucky Buckle and Arachne owed me big, though you must have promised something nice to them to cash in that big of a favor," Stalwart continued while he worked on his gun.

The space they were in seemed actually pretty well stocked. There were crates with a few various canned and preserved foods off to the side along with numerous water jugs. Where Stalwart sat, there were multiple tools and scrap pieces of things setting on the table, that occasionally Stalwart would grab to use in his gun's maintenance. All the windows seemed to have been barricaded, as well as a good number of the hallways. There were also a few walls knocked out to make the room they were in larger than it normally was. Lastly, off to the side was a couple bed rolls tightly wound with one already set up.

"But if yer looking for who caused this, there's a pony laying claim to it over near the tower. Not too many get there so it's mostly rumors, but he's got a lot of power and pull in here and whatever he's doin, he's doin it pretty good. He's the one who fashioned this thing, or at least got it working properly and he's also the pony behind designing this armor. Going by the name professor Statistic," Stalwart continued while finishing up his gun. Satisfied with his work, Stalwart turned around to look at the two ponies. "What I still got to wonder is why. Almost everypony who cares enough to do a little digging know who started this and even they want to avoid him. It's not a good thing to owe that pony anything."

"Thanks! Heh heh heh..." Distortion fiddled with his rune gun, trying to fit the circular rune into the spot where the old one had been. "Yeah, I knew I could fix this thing... eventually..." He looked up at the ceiling. "Thanks, universe! I guess this kinda makes up for the whole concussion thing!"

He kept messing with his gun, summarily ignoring the other two ponies in the room.

Star stared at Distortion as he tinkered with his gun. "Sure...Distortion...You are just outright weird sometimes..." He turned back towards Stalwart. "Professor Statistic? Hmm...Wonder if that's one of the ponies on the research team..." He looked inside his saddlebags for a moment, shuffling through the pictures Twilight Sparkle had given them. He also hoped the princess actually put names on the pictures. "Why do ponies avoid him? And why not?" He asked, looking up at Stalwart.

"Cause he's a cruel twisted lunatic with no care about any of us," Stalwart responded simply. "He may be something of a genius, but when he comes to collect after doin you a favor, those goons he sends out are not the buddy buddy type," Stalwart said and he shifted and got off the work stool. "If you're in with him and work for him, it can be a cushy spot with lots of perks though but, there's no safety net to catch you if relations fall out. He's sent his best ponies out on suicide runs before, or any group that HE feels has crossed him."

Inside the bag, there would actually be files on each pony they were likely to find. The professor's was at the top and had a bright red 'TOP PRIORITY' stamp on it.

Star took out the professor's file and looked through it a little bit, looking to see if there was an information on the pony's mental state, smarts. Basically anything that would help them have an advantage over him if they do run into the damn pony. "He does sound like a lunatic. Do you know of anyway to get into the Magi-tech building unseen? Or something that might help us get inside it? ...Or closer to it? And it appears this Professor Statistic is a top priority for us..."