Breaking Quarantine

Star followed close behind Pyre. "Everypony in here." He repeated to Pyre to see if he could catch what he was trying to imply. He walked along the uneven terrain with ease, the sack of things the foal had wanted for him to carry not giving him any problem now. "Actually...What is a Turned? And...uh...Yeah we should probably hurry. Maybe you can explain what Lost and Turned are once we get to your home? We...aren't quite from here..." He looked at the setting sun with a slight smile. He liked the night, but didn't really want to find out what lurks within the barrier at night.

"Not from here?" Pyre repeated in obvious confusion. "Even the ones on the other side of the city have heard of or seen a lost, though not many have seen a Turned. They're kind of like us, but a lot meaner and nastier. I hear them sometimes, but they're never get to close to the new house," Pyre rambled as he scrambled over the rubble and wreckage going towards a collapsed jumble of apartments.

As they drew closer, what had at first appeared to be just more ruined building, gradually revealed itself to be a somewhat hidden path leading to a large heavy looking door. Pyre placed his hoof on a certain spot, something glowed, and slowly the door swung slightly open. Grabbing the seal in his fore claws and using his wings to pull it open, Pyre ushered Star and Distortion inside.

Once past the threshold himself, Pyre re-shut the door, but only moments before a off sounding feminine voice called out, "Pyre, iz dat you?" from somewhere deeper inside the building. The section they were in seemed to be a series of reinforced walls form various rooms throughout the complex, where holes were made into the different room walls to act as doorways and additional seals, complete with additional large heavy metal doors.

"Yeah mum, I'm home, and I found a lot of neat stuff today," he called happily while going motioning Star to set down the bag of stuff where they were. The room they were in was decently roomy, complete with a few desks along the wall where various things were piled up. Soon another occupant entered through the door way on the left.

It appeared to be a mare, with a similar green coat but her mane was almost glowing whitish silver in the surprisingly bright artificial light set up in the place. It was also incredibly long and seemed to want to drag behind the mare and she seemingly began to hover off her hooves. In actuality, she was being raised up by an additional for legs highly reminiscent of a spiders. As she realize her son wasn't alone, the mares face pulled back into a hard set look. "Who are dese poniez Pyre?" she asked harshly while exposing the fangs that almost dripped with venom. Also becoming prominent was the scorpion like tail hidden among the long strands of her normal tail, the large cruel barb looking more than ready to strike.

"They helped me get this stuff home mum," Pyre responded recognizing what was happening and trying to diffuse the situation quickly. "Is dad going to be home soon?"

"Yesss, your fazzer ssshould be home ssssoon dear, vhy don'ts you go and vassssh up for dinner," she commanded and to which Pyre obeyed. Then her attention was back on Star and Distortion. "I vantsss no trouble poniessss. Ve've vorked hard for dis place and ve von't give it up easily. Vut you did help my child zo ve haven't tried eating you yet, let's try keeping it zat vay. Dinner vill be ready soon, I expect you vill be staying de night?"

"I guess." Distortion shrugged. "Ah, thanks for the hospitality, anyways. Not sure we'll be here long enough to get any real estate, so you don't really have to worry about a takeover."

"More and more like Fallout: Equestria every minute." He muttered under his breath.

"Sparky...We're from outside the barrier. We were sent in here to find the cause of what happened here years ago. We have two weeks in this barrier and we are also trying to find out what happened to the last recon teams." Star said looking at the way Pyre opened the door. "Huh...Interesting..." He followed Pyre into the home and looked at the roomy room. He put the sack of things down at Pyre's motion. "Nice place ya got here, Sparky." He spread out his wings and stretched them out a little bit.

At the sound of a feminine voice, he turned at looked at the mare that came into the room. He looked at her for a moment, taking in her details. He finally notices her spider legs and stood stock still, frozen in fear. He always hated spiders. They were creepy and scary. He took a slight gulp and looked at the mare, skaking a little. "N-n-n-n-no ma'am! W-we wont cause you anym-more trouble. W-we aren't here to c-wause you ponies or anypony t-trouble. Please don't eat me..." He said the last part in an almost whisper. The once brave guard was almost crowding behind Distortion. "W-we can leave in the morning if you want..."

Over the opening of the door, Pyre hadn't heard what Star had said, but that changed little in how the mother was acting. "Hehehehe, ve have not been called a pony in a very long time, hehehe. Now, vho are you? Vhy are you here? Vhat are you searching for? All of ze good scavenging dis in inner city, so vhy come to ze edge?" the mother asked. Taking a few steps closer to the ponies. Her spider like extra legs allowing her to hover around the two as she inspected them.

"You vhere armor, vut I sense no void stone, so you are not vone of ze knights. Dis gear looks to be too vell kept to be raiders. And I don't recall ever seeing you faces at ze community. I ask again, vho are you, vhere did you come from, and vhy are you here?" The mutant pony asked at last.

"We got a mission!" Distortion said cheerfully. "Investigating this place and whatnot for anomalous activity. Pretty fun so far." He glanced at Star. "You alright, pal?"

Star coughed a few times and slapped himself across the face to get his composure back. "Flagah...I really need to get over my fear of spiders..." He muttered looked up at the mare. "I still don't know what a void knight is. Mind enlightening us of the subject? As for your question on who we are, where we came from, and why we are here, it's quite simple. As my partner here already said, we are here to search for the reason why all this happened to this city. I am Star Sentinel and this is my partner Distortion. We are from outside the barrier and we have two weeks to find the reason why Trottingham has become the way it is today." He took in a deep breath and slowly breathed out, still shaking a little bit. "We are looking for the old Magi-tech building." He stood up straight and tried to keep a stoic face, trying to get his royal guard instincts rolling.

The response almost made the... mare, do a double take. "From outside ze barrier... So ve are not entirely forgotten in dis forsaken city. Vell, zank you for helping my son, but tis almost dinner time and my husband vill be home soon. Talk of ze knights is not good for da meal, but after I vill-" she was cut off as the door behind them suddenly opened.

"Arachne, I'm home," announced a new figure entering through the door only to stand somewhat awkwardly with the two in between them. "Uh, I didn't know we were expecting company, um Arachne?"

"Ze are just looking for shelter for ze night dear. Ze helped Pyre get back on time so ve share dinner vith them," Arachne instructed already turning to go back to what could be assumed to be a kitchen.

"Oh, well don't let me make this too awkward. I'm Buckle," the surprisingly enough normal looking stallion said offering out a hoof to shake.

Star turned and looked at the stallion. He took the stallions hoof and shook it with a smile. "Star Sentinel, and...of course we haven't forgotten about you all in here. Why would you think such a thing." He put his hoof back down onto the ground and looked at the mare, who's name is Arachne, with a slightly sad look.

"Hello, Buckle!" Distortion grabbed the stallion's hoof as well and shook it enthusiastically. "My name is Distortion, chaos mage extraordinaire! You can call me Dis for short."

"Nice to meet ya. Well since you helped my boy out, why not give me a hoof over-" Buckle started, but was cut off by Arachne.

"Vuckle, don't put our first guests to vork. Especially not before dinner," Arachne said as she poked her head back around the corner from the kitchen where she was still preparing the meal.

"Hehehe, just a little something to work up an apatite love," Buckled rebutted which caused Arachne to let out a sigh and a small chuckle before ducking back into the kitchen to finish up the meal. "C'mon you two, let's see how good ya are at dis-assembly and identification. Say, what sect of the city are you two from?" he asked while leading Distortion and Star into a different room with a tarp draped over the entrance.

The reason for the tarp became clear very quickly as once they were past it, the smell of oil and machinery was prominent to say the least. Various pieces of equipment littered the half dozen tables all in varying states of being broke down. The center of the floor was dominated by most of a small boat like craft, but at least a quarter of it was missing entirely.

"Oh, we're from outside." Distortion said promptly. "There's this huge shield thing around the city, see, and we were sent to—" He paused as he beheld the machinery. "Ooh, ooh! Is at least some of this stuff magic-powered? Tell me it is!"

Buckle stopped where he was, the tool dropping from his mouth. "Outside? The outside?" he repeated a couple times to himself. "What in the name of all that Celestia's glorious sun, Luna's mesmerizing moon, and Sparkles fleeting twilight would outsiders come into this city for?!" he asked as if they had stated something truly crazy and only these two had the ability to make clarity of it.

"Eh. You know. Stuff." Distortion shrugged. "Investigating disappearances, strange disturbances, the like. But that's not important right now." He jabbed a hoof at the machinery. "The really, really important question is: is that normal machinery or enchanted?"

Star followed Buckle close behind, not knowing a lick of sense of any of the machinery. He turned to Buckle as he asked his question. "Oh, well...We came in here to find out what cause Trottingham to be like this?" He gestured with a hoof outside. "We're going to be leaving in the morning to find the old Magi-tech building." He said, staring at the machinery with confusion.

Buckle let out a sigh as he turned his attention back to the scattered machinery. "Well, best of luck to ya's. You'll need it if you're going to the tower," he muttered the last bit to himself. Then resigned to answer Dis's question.

"In ways it's all magical. How the geniuses at the Magi-Tech tower managed to get parts to work the way they did to achieve what they did was a magic all it's own. Though I think you mean in the more literal sense hehehe, so yeah. All Magi-Tech gear was rune powered, dormant until active, but once it was on it used magic as it's means for power. A lot of the runes on this equipment have been damaged so what we do is break the stuff down and test the runes. If they still work we sell'em. If not I take them to a friend of mine who can repair them and then we sell them," Buckle explained already getting to work on a block of twisting metal, gears, tubes, and pistons.

He extracted one piece that was already a little loose and rolled it over a couple times until he found the rune on the side. Then he reached into another box that had a glow coming from it and pulled out a softly glowing crystal. When he touched the crystal to the rune, the rune began to glow as well, and then he quickly removed the crystal and set it back into the box while setting the piece into a separate pile. "Just like that. If the rune glows, then it's good, if not then we'll need to repair it. There's extra tools in that crate," Buckle said with a point of his hoof before settling back to work on the piece some more.

"So... how do we break these stuff down?" Distortion bent down beside the block of machinery and pulled out a random piece. "Do we just hammer it until it breaks, or is there something specific we have to do?" He made a face. "Something related to actually exerting magical influence over the runes, preferably."

"Most of it's either held by nuts and bolts, or by pins. For the pins, you just take them off and remove the part, but for the nuts and bolts you'll need a wrench," Buckle explained as he continued working.

Star watched the display with interest. "Hey, what was that crystal?" He asked walking over to the crate and grabbing a wrench. He grabbed a random and flipped it around looking for a rune. He fumbled with the piece of metal for a few minutes before he put the piece and the wrench down. "I can't do this...Let Distortion do it, I can't make a lick of sense out of all this. Guarding, protecting, and attack are my strong points. Magic and machinery is not." He let out a sigh and shook his head. He thought back to what Pyre had said on their way here.

"Buckle? Can you tell us what we should look out for since we're heading into the city? Sparky said that him and...Arachne, was it? Were Lost. What are Lost and what are Turned?" He asked, standing off to the side and out of the way from Buckle and Distortion.

Distortion shrugged as he let Star do the questioning, sitting down beside the machinery and pulling out as many pieces as he could at once with his telekinesis and plucking out series of pins. The ones with nuts and botls he left aside for later.

"That was just a mana crystal. A simple gem enchanted to hold magic like a battery of sorts, they're pretty easy to find since nearly everything was running on magic. So long as you don't drain it completely, you can keep recharging the dang things as long as ya want," Buckle explained at first while he worked.

Though when Star asked his second question he set down his mostly disassembled piece and turned to look at them. "I can't say for sure, cause I don't go there often enough. But there's definitely-"

"Everyvony, dinner time," called out Arachne just in time to interrupt Buckle. He let out a sigh and began making his way to the dining room, mentioning talking about it after dinner. Trotting into the other room would show a surprisingly normal setting. A simple table with a cover, numerous dishes ranging from steamed vegetables to sweet potatoes, and 5 sets of silverware, one for each pony. Pyre was already sitting eagerly in his seat, eyeing the candied dishes more than anything else. Arachne wasn't seated yet, as she was still ferrying in a few thing, abusing the extra limbs she had to carry in additional dishes and place them carefully.

After a quick look at the window, she turned to Pyre. "Eat up, then to bed vittle Pyre, you've had a vong day." While this earned a few protests, he reluctantly agreed after a stern look from his mother. Then the family sat down to eat, beckoning Star and Distortion to join them.

"Food! Man, have I just remembered how hungry I am." As if on cue, Distortion's stomach growled loudly. "My appreciation, madam," he said, bowing to Arachne before he took a seat, "for this splendid meal. Our gratitude for your hospitality will not be forgotten."

Star followed Buckle into the next room and saw the food. Something itched at his mind, making him ask his question. "Where do ponies in the barrier get food from? Oh our way here, me and Distortion didn't really see any soil that might have been good for farming of anything." He said, sitting down in a sit next to Pyre. He let out a sigh at his own curiosity. "Curiosity killed the cat, Star...Curiosity killed the cat..." He muttered looking at the food on the table.

"Tis a mix of things Star," Arachne replied since both Pyre and Buckle were stuffing their faces. "Vuckle here manages to scavenge up some stuff on occasion, but those ve usually save for special times since it's already preserved. I have a garden that some vittle lost is supposed to ve helping me vith instead of risking being spotted vy vho knows vhat out there," Arachne added the end with a sharp look to Pyre, but the grin that crept onto her face showed she was mostly teasing.

"Plenty of space in dis home, tis a good vone Vuckle found one day vhen ve needed it most," Arachne continued before getting to her meal as well. The food itself was rather good, with a definite home cooked quality to it that was readily eaten up. When it was finished, Buckle took Pyre to his room to put him to bed while Arachne led the other two into a spacious living room. "So, you vant to hear vhat happened in here, are there any ozer questions before I begin?"

Distortion looked at Star and shrugged. "I got nothing. I asked all my questions a while ago. I'll need a few hours to think up of some more. What about you, Star?"