---

I found myself back in reality after viewing the strange orb. Crystal slowly walked to me, smiling softly and waving a hoof out in front of my face to check if I was okay. I looked to her, nodding slowly.

“What did you see?” She asked softly, as she placed the orb back on the desk where she found it, before walking back up to me showing deep concern. I tried to focus on my mind, trying to regain the memory, wanting to remember what I saw. And then, I did.

“My sister. She said – she said she was going to Sunnyvale, to prevent the Enclave’s attack or at least help those in war.” I was panting lightly, and also attempting to moisten my mouth. It was dry, as if my brain had switched off for a second. “And my host, she said his name was Aqua…I think they were together at the time, maybe still are.”

At that moment, I heard a faint, dry coughing behind me. I turned around quickly; Crystal quickly looked in the direction to where it came from. I saw there, a blue Unicorn with sapphire eyes, an ocean blue and sparkling white mane with a lab coat on. He was covered in blood, as if somepony or something charged in here and gunned him down.

“T-that’d…be me.” He weakly admitted, coughing and looking up at us. I slowly made my way down to him; Crystal on the other hoof sat by him and held his hoof. He glanced at us both before coughing again. “I-I assume you’re the infamous brother she’d been talkin’ about.” He coughed again and this time, blood was launched from his mouth.

“I am.” I simply replied with, “Tell me. What happened to you and when did she leave here?” I noticed him turning pale slowly, we couldn’t save him. No matter if we used a prototype Stimpack or a Healing Potion.

“T-they overran us. T-those Hellhounds, those things!” He coughed weakly, “I barely had enough time to escape, t-the Enclave then filled the tunnels with the black toxic gas so that no-pony could escape.” He looked down and spat blood out, before looking up at me in the eyes. “That was a stupid decision.”

Crystal started to tend to his wounds using the Stimpacks. I heard him snicker as he saw her use the rusty syringe filled with Healing Potion ingredients.

“Those Stimpacks barely work; they heal slowly and barely heal. If you want good medicines, take my medical bag under the desk. It contains Healing Potions, Magical Bandages and everything else you need. You need it more than I do; it’s too late for me.” His eyes began to drift slightly, he was nearing the end. But I needed to know one last thing.

“Aqua, tell me. When did Cyclone leave?!” I raised my voice so he could hear. But he slowly drifted his head towards me with a weak smile, his cheeks now losing the color they once contained and time running out for the poor buck.

“S-she left a couple days ago. I-if you hurry, you can catch her before she gets herself killed.” As he neared death, he was preparing to say one last thing. Tears brewed up in his eyes as he coughed weakly, “I-if you do happen to find Cyclone, t-tell her that…I love her. P-please.” His eyes rolled upwards as he let out his last breath, I turned away now brewing with tears of my own. I felt Crystal’s warm body touch mine, as I looked at her and noticed her hugging me. I hugged back, hoping Cyclone was still alive.

I held the mare close, seeing the small bag under the desk get surrounded by a sky blue aura, as Crystal levitated the small bag of medical supplies our way. As she released it, allowing it to drop next to us, she began to search through it. She was amazed by how much this buck had, it is a shame how he didn’t save himself for Cyclone’s happiness. If Cyclone does find out about his death, it’d break her heart.

“Healing Potions, Magical Bandages…” Crystal spoke, before going on and mumbling. “I’ve needed Healing Potions, since those prototype Stimpacks were the only things I could use.” She levitated everything from the bag into her saddle bag, before looking at me with a nod. However, I noticed Dodge come into the room, not even noticing the bloody corpse that we were sat around.

“About time I found you two!” He walked in looking at the corpse. I saw him cringe, but he focused his attention on us. “Violet and I found a small passage leading into the mountains. It should take us to Sunnyvale which is south of here!” Sunnyvale made my ears perk up, I glanced at him.

“Did you say Sunnyvale?” I asked, standing onto my hooves and walking up to him. He nodded and I nodded slowly, “we need to go there now.”

“What’s the occasion?” Dodge snickered. Though, I didn’t laugh. I was thinking of more serious matters at hoof. I sighed to myself – not in disgust, but more of how much pity I felt for him and his sense of humor. I just rolled my eyes before walking past him.

“Never mind.” I grunted, I was irritated but I wasn’t going to stop, “where’s Violet?” As I did ask it, I noticed her glancing over the balcony wreckage just down the hallway, before turning back around and walking back to me.

“If you’re the one who brought that catwalk down, crushing those Hellhounds, congratulations.” She spoke sarcastically, “but we don’t have much time, the Enclave is on the move to the mountains. Those mountains are one of the last surviving Ranger bases in the Wasteland.” She turned to me and walked to me, “it’s the only way we can go too.”

“I’m ready when you are.” I said, looking to Crystal with a nod. She responded with a similar nod, before I looked back at Violet and nodded.

“Come on, it’s this way.” Dodge began to walk down the hallway to our right, Crystal, Violet and I began to follow him as he slowly made his way down the dark corridor that surrounded us. With my claustrophobia kicking in, I tried to prevent my anxiety from getting the better of me. I had gained some control over it, for now anyway.

It felt like it had been hours in these dark, claustrophobic corridors. But we did manage to find an exit. A large steel door, lights were traced along the edges lighted up the surface of it. The rusted steel before us was a dark, dim grey. A glowing sapphire sign, with burnt marks all over it and black bold text was attached above it.

The text on the door read: Omega Mountain Passage. WARNING: HIGH WIND SPEEDS!

Violet slowly turned the small wheel on the door, a screeching noise suddenly echoed off of the concrete walls. I covered my ears with a wince, Crystal and Dodge doing the same. However, Violet only seemed irritated, she wasn’t wincing. She just had a look of irritation upon her face, before the door slowly revealed the rocky passage of the mountains. The blinding sunlight flashed in our faces, I quickly went to cover my eyes as the sickly green blinding light filled the room. The outside world let in a strong breeze, as I slowly began to make my way out onto the rocky path. The first thing I noticed was the view of the entire view of the Ravaged Wasteland.

I glanced back to my companions who slowly made their way out of the darkness, Crystal making her way to my side. I had never seen a view like this before in my life. Looking back at the view, the sights of many different grey plains of endless chaos was in view, mountains that stood taller than the thick clouds that shrouded the entire Wasteland and a large Clocktower by a small Town just to the south east of the mountain range.

“Enough sightseeing, we have to go.” Violet grunted, “Let’s go.” I slowly turned to Violet, who was now walking away down the path that led into a small valley. Dodge held his hat on, before he sighed and began to follow her. I trotted to them quickly, Crystal following me closely the entire way. The spiked mountains that surrounded both sides were daunting down on us, some small fragments of rocks falling from the tips and onto the dim soil below our hooves.

But I knew this was no simple morning stroll. The winds were prevented from passing the tall rocks, making the wind whistle loudly as it skimmed the tip of the spire-like rocks. The sight of a small steel base hung at the bottom of the path, as I tilted myself to the side to see what it was, I noticed Enclave troops wandering around. It was an Enclave base. Or a camp perhaps, either way, The Grand Pegasus Enclave had gained control of this part of the mountain. Bodies of Rangers were found lying in pools of blood, their helmets either smashed or torn off revealing their brutalized faces. Violet gaged at the horrific sight.

“Those bastards…” I heard her cough shortly afterwards, she spun her Minigun preparing for battle. I placed a hoof in front of the mare, before glancing at her and snarling.

“No. Let them pass. Violence isn’t always the answer, Violet.” I stared at the troops who gently poked the corpses of the Rangers before nodding back to their fellow comrades and traveling down a different path and going out of sight. Violet’s anger was building up, as I felt her press against my hoof gently. Her Power Armor feeling hard and cold against me. I looked at my PipBuck, seeing the red blips slowly fading away before deciding the continue down the path, towards the corpses.

I managed to get a better view of it all. The Armor they wore covered in their own blood, and also had massive gaping holes where their gut wrenched bodies lying there. The ones who had no helmets were killed with their eyes open, their eyes rolled back into their skull. Their mouth opened as if they let out one last breath before falling into death’s grip. How I did feel pity for Violet, I just wish she understood that their death was a noble one. No pony dies for the wrong reason, even Raider’s die for a purpose. Their purpose, survival. The purpose of these Rangers was for the greater good, but unfortunately, they didn’t manage to survive the attack that they Enclave did.

“Oh Celestia…how could they have done this?” Crystal whined softly, before walking closer to them to examine the wounds. With their bodies’ torn open, the guts hanging out and completely lifeless, it didn’t take too long for Crystal to work out what kind of weapon did the damage given. “It was a Spark-Hook.”

“A Spark-Hook?” Still new to the Wasteland weaponry, I asked, lifting a hoof off of the ground. Crystal nodded simply, before turning around to face me.

“Originally designed to get Ponies across the Wasteland easier, it is now used as a weapon. It sends a hook that is shrouded in a burning metal before grabbing the victim and ripping their body apart as the hook returns to the user.” Crystal moved back to me and stood beside me, “they thought the flame on the hook would help momentum. Unfortunately it wasn’t the case.”

“They used it a lot back home,” Dodge added, “but somepony stupid thought it was a great idea to attack somepony with it. Horrific sight I must say.” He overlooked the body before him with a sigh, “that is not the worst it can do.”

“Oh?” I tilted my head slightly as I glanced at Dodge. He nodded to me and frowned slightly. Violet was looking around for any remaining bodies of her comrades.

“The Spark-Hook can rip its victims in two, breaking their spine, shattering their ribcage and any other bones near that area. No matter the armor, the Spark-Hook can do some nasty damage.” Dodge slowly turned his head to Violet, who was examining others in the area.

I noticed a small smile appear on Dodge’s face. I was wondering what made him smile, was it the weapon or of what it could do if we had it?

“She surely is beautiful, isn’t she?” Dodge softly said, as if he didn’t know he said it. With the random comment, I tilted my head. I wondered what this had to do with anything, but Violet was no mare of beauty to me.

“Uh. Yeah sure.” I said awkwardly. He blushes softly and realized what he said, I still stared at the buck, confused of why he said it.

“Uh, never mind!” He then quickly trotted towards Violet. I looked at Crystal with a small smirk, trying to prevent myself from laughing. Which it did work, I then followed them with Crystal by my side. Violet then examined one last body, before turning back. One of the large hooks stuck inside the body. As if the Pony struggled and managed to prevent from being ripped apart. Though, they probably died from blood loss.

“That’s the last body.” Violet simply said, closing the eyes of the dead Steel Ranger, before adding a respected kiss to the cold surface of their face. “This one had strength, but they went the slow way out. Personally, I’d imagine a death from a Spark-Hook is a lot better than bleeding out.”

“I’m sorry for your loss, Violet.” Crystal softly spoke, as she glanced down at the tortured bodies below. Violet sighed slightly and looked to Crystal with a frown.

“It’s okay. They’re in a better place now.” Violet seemed friendly towards Crystal for one of the first times, “let’s just go now. We shouldn’t stay.” Violet began to trot into another open area, the wind pushing at her strongly. I followed her closely, with Dodge and Crystal behind.

The view of the Wasteland was horrid, not exactly the sight that had been advertised on the Pre-War posters. But the toxic, irradiated air wasn’t as bad up here at least. I could actually breathe without feeling sick in my stomach after a while. Though, I found another glowing orb buried beneath the dirt. It was another memory orb. I fell behind; Dodge and Crystal too busy talking to know I did. When the others weren’t looking; I quickly went back and took it out of the dirt, cleaning the grainy soil from it.

Staring at it, I quickly placed it inside my bag. But unfortunately, my withdrawal from Visionary Water was occurring. Though, I had noticed I could go longer without it. Trying to fight off the urge from drinking, I continued onwards and catching up with them. A large rundown base was on the edge of a cliff on the other side of the mountain, a red beeping light slowly fading in and out. A large Steel Ranger faction logo was imprinted on the front of it, as if the Rangers recently took it over. Originally, from what I read back in Stable 30, this used to be an old communications tower (I truly was an egghead, especially when it came to Equestrian History) and it was abandoned due to the Megaspell that had been detonated ten miles from here. The intoxicating fumes forcing the few surviving Ponies to evacuate from the building. The journey there wasn’t going to be easy.

As we began to take a small wooden bridge to the other side, the wind made it sway slightly and the ropes along it were beginning to split. We had to be cautious. Missing planks of wood were underneath us. It barely could hold all four of us. But knowing this bridge, it’s probably been here for many years and meaning its condition was just because of its age.

I peered over to see the long fall below us; a small wreckage was at the bottom. I slowly pulled my head back in, seeing my companions already on the other side of the bridge, quickly following them and being careful of where I stood, I reached the other side and was back onto solid ground. There, the base stood tall in front of us. Steel Ranger guards stood at the entrance, their helmets covering their faces and the jet black visors preventing their eyes from being shown. The heavy Miniguns that were latched onto their armor were pointed at us, as if they were ready to shoot.

“Halt, only Steel Rangers can access this point!” One of them shouted in a deep, echoing tone, “turn back now, or we will shoot!” Violet rolled her eyes and then giggled mockingly.

“You really do not know who I am? And you don’t know who these are?” She shot them looks that they turned away from, “pathetic. Just let us past.” The Rangers then looked back to her, before walking to her and looking at her straight into the eyes.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, all that matters is that you’re not getting access!” The Steel Ranger grunted, “Now turn back!” Violet refused and facehoofed as the Steel Rangers blocked the small wooden door upon the tall, steel building.

“I’m Knight Violet. Stand down!” Violet hissed at them with a vicious tone. The Steel Rangers stood aside, letting all of us passed and into the communications tower. As I walked past the Rangers, I noticed their heads following my every move. It was as if I did something wrong. Upon entering, the room we were in was a large, dark base with computers all around us. With technology surrounding us all, Rangers were seen trotting around with their guns latched onto their armor.

The Rangers however stared at us, as if we were unwanted company. I could tell they didn’t want any outsiders within the tower that is now their base. I began to wander around the large base like room, staring at all the large screens and computers. Violet and my other companions followed closely, but my eagerness to look into the orb I collected was getting the better of me.

“Hold on, wait here. I’m going to look around.” I spoke, looking to them. Violet rolled her eyes and Dodge and Crystal nodded. As they did, slowly began to walk down a small corridor before making myself into the fuse room. When I entered, large mainframe computers were surrounding me; the noise of it all was loud. The quiet beeping of all the electronics echoed around the room. I shut the door and sat down in a nearby corner, removing the orb from my bag and looking at its glowing blue color.

It lit up a small portion of the room, before I began to observe it. With my curiosity rising, I began to focus on it preparing to leave the body I was in temporarily. It didn’t take long for me to find myself inside a new body.

My host took me to a small hill, where I saw the lines of Enclave soldiers dressed in their obsidian, heavy armor. The white stallion in his coat and with his blue mane. Mist. It was him again, the scar I had left on his eye was visible but now it was just a mere scab. As the troops prepared for war, my host turned their head and nodding to its Steel Ranger allies. The one I was in was a mare, an Earth Pony too. The allies with her preparing the attack.

The troops of the Grand Pegasus Enclave were heavily armed with their different types of weaponry. The general, Mist bit down on his cigar before blowing a cloud of smoke out with a small smirk. He snickered lightly, as he stared off the edge of the cliff. My host however, stood onto her hooves preparing to begin the attack. This wasn’t going to end well.

“Imagine a future like the very past of this nation. Where a Wasteland like this was nothing but an old foals tale.” Mist glanced back to his troops, “imagine if the air was fresh, imagine if the water was clean – imagine a world of hope and happiness. It’ll come my fellow soldiers, all in good time.”

My host quickly ran out of the cover she was behind, before unleashing the Minigun’s hellish ammo upon the Enclave soldiers who were lined up. She managed to take down a few with ease, watching the ammo shred through the armor that was worn by them.

“Clover!” A stallion called behind my host, she then quickly spun around before seeing her fellow Ranger’s head get blown clean off. The blood spurting from the hole that was left there.

When the Ranger collapsed, my host quickly glanced up at a sniper, before shredding them to pieces with her Minigun. The sniper’s limbs breaking apart from their body before their wings became no longer functional. My host watched the Enclave soldier fall down the mountain, before glancing to Mist. But unfortunately for my host, Mist was twice the size of her. His strong, muscular body had a threatening tone towards whoever faced the infamous buck.

I felt my host glare at Mist, before he charged to her and swiping for her. She jumped out the way, spinning her Minigun and preparing to take a shot. Unfortunately for her, a call from one of the Rangers distracted her. I then saw the Ranger who called for her get knocked down and then blasted in the head with a Laser weapon.

THUMP!

I felt my host get clocked in the jaw and was sent upwards in a spiral before landing and groaning in pain. I saw Mist’s hooves slowly make their way towards my host, before feeling him lift her up with his wings and snarling at her. With most of the Rangers completely wasted, I then noticed a Ranger get killed with the Spark-Hook. Its guts being ripped from its chest, before collapsing in a world of pain.

With the screams of agony slowly fading out, all the Rangers now extinguished by the Enclave troops. Many of the remaining ones were lying in pools of blood, screaming for mercy before the Enclave ended their lives completely with a shot to the head.

“You do not know who you are messing with – we are the Grand Pegasus Enclave, and this Wasteland is ours!” I then saw Mist throw my host down the ground. The dirt covering my vision. Unfortunately, I could only listen to what was happening.

A loud shot was heard, before a groan of pain filled my ears. I felt blood drain from my host, before hearing a few heavy steps approach the host.

“What shall we do with her, sir?” One of the Enclave troops groaned, “Do we execute her?” One last stomp was felt on my host’s hoof, a loud crunch was heard. It sounded like bones breaking apart. Judging by the strength given, it was most likely Mist.

“Leave her here to rot in the dirt. But now, we go to the south-east. We must fight.” Mist groaned irritated, “but, check the area for any surviving Rangers or any hiders – if you find any, you know what to do.”

The memory ended there, I found myself back in the network room I was in previously. I glanced around the room. I was still alone, fortunately for me, no pony had seen me with this orb. Since it was a Steel Ranger orb, it would raise suspicions within the Rangers including Violet.

I hid the orb inside of my saddle bag, hoping to never reveal it in front of Violet and her fellow Rangers. I got onto my hooves before leaving the small room, and seeing my companions still all huddled up within the center. Violet approached me with a bemused look, before letting out an exclaimed question.

“And you were where exactly!?” I froze, thinking of what to say. Unfortunately it didn’t come quickly, this made Violet look at me with an accusing look, “I will ask again. Where were you?!”

I sighed to myself, before looking at her, “just looking around, Violet. I find it odd how you can barely trust anypony.” Violet snarled at this and walked up to me.

“I find it odd how you just wander off, going places where you’re probably not welcome!” She kept her eyes on mine, “if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be in here right now. You wouldn’t be in the arms of safety.”

I really couldn’t argue with her. I just sighed and looked down before noticing the white mare slowly walk towards an older Unicorn. This one was jet black, with a grey, middle spiked mane. With a small, and snubbed tail. He was wearing a maroon overcoat that covered his body, as he stared at the computers; he heard the trotting of Violet before turning around to face her.

“Come on, let’s stick together.” Dodge slowly began to follow Violet towards the elder pony, as Crystal and I did the same. Crystal looked to me with an irritated face and then snarled slightly, I raised an eyebrow.

“Is something bothering you, Crystal?” I asked, tilting my head. She stopped and slowly nodded at me.

“Yes, Violet is really pissing me off now. Why did we ever bring her along?!” Crystal’s elegant voice, soon turned into a harsh, hiss of anger.

“She’s only tagging along with us because she has her part of the bargain to carry out. Trust me, once this is all over, she’ll be gone.” I explained with a sigh, “I promise you, Crystal.” Crystal sighed to herself softly, before walking ahead. I followed her before we stopped by the slightly older Pony that Violet had travelled to.

“Ah, you must be the outsiders.” The Pony rotated around to face us, “I’m sorry about the reception my Rangers gave you, but we can never be too careful. Attacks are frequent from the Enclave in the mountains, for them to win the fight at Sunnyvale, they must weaken our defences.” He grinned with amusement, “being the age I am, I know how tactics work. My name is Elder Dusk.”

“I’m Violet. These are my travellers, Tornado, Crystal and Dodge. We have come to seek supplies; we’re not stopping for long.” Violet explained, “Do you happen to have any spare ammo or medical supplies?”

“I already have some Healing Potions, we don’t need anymore.” Crystal softly called out, Violet glanced back with a small smirk and a nod.

“Thank you, Crystal. Looks like we’ll only need ammo.” She turned back to Elder Dusk with a nod. Elder Dusk nodded and then walked back to levitate a small box of ammo upwards, before placing it in front of Violet.

“Will this be enough, Miss Violet?” Dusk asked, tilting his head, “we don’t have a great deal of ammo, but we have enough to get us through the harsh days.” Dodge took a step forward, raising an eyebrow.

“You don’t have to give us ammo, you know. I’m sure you need it more than us.” Violet shot him a look after he spoke. He took a step back, wishing he hadn’t said it. But Dusk gave it to us anyway, Crystal this time taking the ammo and placing it into her saddle bag.

“It will be enough, am I right?” Crystal asked softly, “we don’t want to run low on ammo in the middle of a battle.” Dusk nodded towards Crystal with a humorous chuckle. But then his face returned to a straight, serious look of focus.

“We need to get back to work. I hope to see you all in the future, and hopefully you’ll survive out there. I was glad to be of service.” Elder Dusk turned away to get back to work with his Rangers, before we turned to exit the communications tower we were in.

Once we were outside again, we began to take a small and steep path that led downwards towards the ground. With the strong winds blowing against us, the clouds began to thicken above us as if they were brewing up for a storm. I felt small drops of rain leak from above us, before a loud clap of thunder was heard. Darkness shrouded us all, as the clouds prevented any more of the sun rays to seep through. There were no cracks in the clouds above; everything was covered by the smoky black clouds above us.

The rain pressed down on us rapidly, with the wind blowing the rain towards us uncontrollably. I groaned in irritation, feeling the dirt below me become sloppier. I almost fell, but I felt Crystal’s telekinesis grab me.

“Thanks.” I simply said, gaining my balance before continuing downwards. A crashed Sprite Bot was seen within the dirt, the Parasite like wings torn upon impact and bent in horrific ways.

However, as we slowly got closer to the bottom of the path, we reached a flat bit of surface which prevented us from tumbling down. We couldn’t continue down this way, the mud was too slippery; therefore we had to travel down an alternate route which hopefully would take us directly to the destination we had planned to go to. The rain slammed against the rocks surrounding us; there were rocks at the right of us, preventing the rain from smacking into us anymore.

I looked into my PipBuck, seeing the screen slowly dripping with water. I checked my PipBuck’s built in map, seeing that the village of Sunnyvale was an estimated twenty-five miles away. The claps of thunder then rang again, making he glance around myself.

“This storm isn’t going to help us at all, Tornado. We have to stop and rest somewhere.” Dodge tried to speak through the storms powerful winds, with the sound of the rain hitting the large boulders.

“No we can’t! We must push on!” I exclaimed, slowly taking cautious steps across the small ledge before me. Though, thinking we were going to be safe, I noticed a small band of Raiders looting a couple of corpses. From what I noticed, they were scavengers. I knew this because the amount of Raiders around the body was a little too much for a regular traveller.

I ducked down behind one part of a close boulder, glancing to my companions and tilting my head for them to take cover behind me. They slowly lined up behind me, as I slowly peeked my head out to check. I heard a few faint, dry, vicious voices within the storm.

“Ooh, I found a lot of caps on this one, dirty little thief!”

“Look what I found, boys! A picture of this poor fellow’s mommy and daddy, what a pussy!”

“That isn’t important; we need to find leads to Cyclone Flash. The Enclave says if we find her, there’s a big reward in it for us. And an even bigger reward if we bring them her head!”

The Enclave would really do that? Would they really pay scum like them caps and give them weaponry? I doubt it. Either way, this angered me. It was like she was public enemy number one around here for abandoning the Enclave. I swapped my Combat Shotgun for my rifle, before aiming down the sight and preparing myself to yank on the lever from the battle-saddle. I lined one of their heads up, preparing to take the shot.

BANG!

The Raider collapsed, as its head was completely blown off from its body. By this moment, they went of full alert. The storm grew stronger, and claps of thunder were more frequent. I knew I could use the sound to cover the shots, so I prepared myself for another shot. I lined the iron sight up with the head of a Raider, looking up at the thick clouds that were unleashing the heavy rain onto the Wasteland, before seeing the lightning and then the loud clap of thunder. I fired a shot, again taking the head off of a Raider, but the sound of my rifle was covered up by the thunder.

Violet being impatient charged out spinning her Minigun and killing one of the other ones. The rain made her muzzle flash glow in the darkness, revealing our position completely. The small band of Raiders soon became a larger group of them. Shots were flung towards us, as Violet continued to spin her Minigun. Unfortunately, weapons of its type were not designed for long distance battles. Her rounds being flung in all different directions, completely missing them.

I decided to use the slippery soil beneath us to an advantage, I was preparing to fly over and try something new. I opened my wings, before launching myself upwards and towards the Raiders, the bullets being sent towards me. I felt a bullet scar my cheek, before I winced and flew back up. I circled around them, before hanging my two forehooves out and slamming them into their faces. I only managed to knock one off, but that one fell into a rock which caused the soil beneath it to slowly rot away and decay. With the ground now giving way, the Raiders (who were Earth Ponies) began to fall down, trying to grip onto anything to prevent their imminent demise. But it did them no good – they fell, their screams echoing through the air, before one last clap of thunder covered the sound of the impact.

Dodge charged ahead firing his revolver at the remaining Raiders using his jaws to pull the trigger. Crystal was taking a few burst shots from behind cover with her Assault Rifle, but fighting wasn’t her main purpose. I then saw a hook just shoot past my face, making me loop and look around, before spotting a Raider with a Spark-Hook.

I quickly charged to the Pony, managing to tackle the Raider before rapidly punching and beating them. His face began to bleed vigorously, as drove my hooves into his muzzle and face. The Raider’s eyes began to fill with blood, as scars and bruises began to carve his way into his skin before landing one last punch onto him. I watched the Raider choke on his own blood before becoming lifeless; blood was soaked into my hooves, and my Stable 30 jacket. Most of it was not my own blood.

I flew back down to my companions, spitting out some of the Raider blood that got inside my mouth. I looked at them with a worried look after leaving them.

“Is everypony alright?” I asked, walking up to them cautiously. The rain got into its harshest stage, I felt the rain bounce off of the rocks and hit me softly as I used my wings to cover myself.

“I’m good.” Dodge lifted himself onto his hooves after looting one of the Raiders for anything, “by the way, these Raiders don’t carry any useful things.” He took one last kick of the Raider’s body, before chuckling.

BANG!!

A loud, echoing shot was heard from behind me. I quickly turned around to see a Raider slowly collapse, decapitated from some sort of shot. I then glanced upwards at the cliffs, trying to see if there was anypony there. There was. Two Pegasus, stallions, both armed with high calibre Sniper Rifles.

The one on the right had a similar mane style to mine, just with black and red instead of white and blue. His coat was a blood red color, with his eyes a sinister, navy blue color. He grinned and placed a new mag into his Sniper Rifle which was hooked onto his battle saddle.

The one on the left was a dull electric blue color, his mane black and navy color. His eyes a bright red that sparkled within the flashes of lightning ahead. His wings however, were made of metal. I could see small holes to where his old wings were, where his new ones fit now. I could also see those holes stained with blood. It was as if they were torn out, not only shot off, but torn out by something.

“Friend or foe!?” I exclaimed, taking a step back. I made sure I had my aim on them at all times; I didn’t want them killing me right after they killed the Raider. The blood red buck snickered to himself.

“Allow me to introduce us both,” he began with a dull, mocking accent, “I am Swift, and this is my brother Cyber. I believe we are friends, because we just saved your arses!”

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Footnote: Level up!

New perk: Insomniac. Sleep is for the weak! You can now deal 5% more damage to all enemies during combat at night; you are also 20% more agile at night. Huzzah!

Current level: 13

Next Chapter: Chapter Fourteen: Back into The Dark Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 51 Minutes