---

“Good morning, everypony, Autumn Breeze here bringing you a live radio broadcast. For those who don’t know who I am and why I’m here, I’m filling in for your original host for until he gets back from his travels.

“On today’s show, we have a very special guest inside of the studio today and he has an important message to deliver to all you ponies out there who are fighting the good fight. Be sure to lend him your ears, he says it is very important and if you don’t listen, he says you won’t be in for the reward.

“Elder Lockhart, if you would.”

“Thanks, Autumn.

“Citizens of the Wasteland, this is Elder Lockhart of the Steel Rangers speaking to you loud and clear through the power of radio. I hope y’all are listening, because I am not going to repeat myself with this message of mine. You know that blue guy that your old host kept mentioning for every little thing he did out there? Well I’ll tell you this right now. That blue guy is not the pony he pretends to be. He is nothing but a cold-hearted, savage little bastard who thinks he can trot around, doing whatever the fuck he wants.

“He dropped the Megaspell on Sunnyvale, with no intention of wanting to help us at battle. Because of that one event, because of the damage he had caused, the Steel Rangers have less than one hundred soldiers on the front lines as of now. I know it sounds like a lot, but compared to the Enclave’s thousands, it is not much at all. What I ask of you might be a little extreme, but if you want to stop the Enclave from poisoning the Wasteland’s wounds with their lies, then you do as I say. Kill the blue bastard, kill him on sight and bring me his head. You’ll earn a large sum of caps. We also need more troops, if you’re feeling brave, come to Stable 55 - we have driven all the Alicorns out of the place, it’s our new stronghold… at least until we find another place.

“And that was Elder Lockhart with his ‘message’. You heard him you silly ponies, get out there and find that blue bastard. Take him down!”

---

Change.

This Wasteland had the capability to change ponies into monsters. Whether they were good ponies, or bad ponies to begin with, the Wasteland would always find a way to make them worse. They would push so far to achieve one thing, only to soon find themselves meeting their own choices which they had sworn never to meet. The demise of their loved ones, sacrifices of friendship. The Wasteland taught ponies lessons as well as pressuring them with guilt with every choice made.

Suffering and pain. The ponies would suffer because of their own doing, the last memories of their actions before either ending their own life or wandering out into the Wasteland to die and never come back if they lived. And I was one of those ponies. I was suffering under my own shadow, the deeds I had committed and the lives I had taken away within my time out here. Guilt was crawling its way back in. But some of those ponies deserved it, begged for it… Their own reason of living taken away by one shot.

I was close to finding what I had ventured this far for. And this time, I wasn’t going to let go - I was going to ensure that our bond would never break apart again. All that stood in my way now, was myself and I wouldn’t let my own guilt, my own pain stand in the way of something so close. I hadn’t come out here to bottle it up and throw it away, I came out here to achieve what I intended to achieve. Not to help ponies who I didn’t know, but to help my friends and myself and to find my sister.

I killed her. Violet, one of my first companions. She had been with me longer than most, and she was loyal. But she was bitter, and bitterness got her nowhere. Her and I never did get along, and if I had spared her life, if I had spoken some sense into her mind, she would have still done something to fuck that all up. I knew her a lot better than some did. She was a patriot among the Steel Rangers, it ran in her blood to be one. And she wouldn’t change it. The moment I destroyed Sunnyvale, I destroyed her heart, the small grain of kindness which sat at the bottom of her seemingly black heart. She hated me.

And… In some cases, I hated her. But she was still my companion, and I didn’t want to let her go.

---

“That should do it,” Swift spoke, upon filling a large ditch in the soil just by the road we were on. The warm and gentle breeze carried some of the dirt which was on the surface of the almost solid ground. “She may have been a bitch, but a burial was needed at least.”

We had buried Violet six feet under. Her loyalty to the Steel Rangers earned her that more than the other things she did. A heart of gold, but pure black on the inside. And I did agree with Swift, Violet was a cold hearted bitch at times, but we couldn’t do anything to stop her from being like that. The trail of blood leading from the road of which we had dragged her decapitated corpse from led towards the filled hole of which we had thrown her corpse into. Swift and Cyber stood by the small grave built into the soil as they began to pat the grey and hard dirt to help it set on top of her body. Crystal levitated a bottle of Sparkle-Cola from her saddlebag, before removing the rusty bottle cap from the tip and placing it inside of her saddlebag before chugging a mouthful of the radioactive beverage.

I stood close by the mare, the scent of sweet cola working its way up my nose as I stared down at the now settling dirt. The two brothers stopped, before slowly making their way back over to us, their large sniper rifles tapping against their forelegs with each bit of movement. I felt rather guilty just looking at the grave before my hooves, knowing I was her murderer. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t - I had wasted all the tears before-hoof when I ended her life. And this time, I knew it was me and I had complete control over my actions. I had intended to blow her head off.

Crystal gave me a soft nuzzle on the cheek, and I looked to her with a faint smile. The two stallions looked to us, before the red buck spoke with a surprisingly mundane tone to his voice as if he actually felt depressed at this moment in time. And those two never really did seem to get upset. The expression upon his face matched his voice tone.

“Are you two alright?” Swift asked with a tone of care. “We’ve been through a lot, all of us,” he sighed, lifting a hoof and then walking over. “But we do what friends do, we stick by each other… From this point on, nopony else dies. I vow myself to look after you Tornado, and you too Crystal. We’re like family, the lot of us.”

My smile didn’t improve, but I was happy to hear some optimism among them. “Let’s just hope we can keep it that way - I can’t afford to lose another close friend,” I nodded, feeling my head get weighted down. “We’ve lost a lot out here…”

“From here… It’s just one more thing, right?” Cyber queried, the blue buck with cyber wings drawing in the dirt as he stared down at the ground. “We get your sister, and all this violence ends…?”

I shook my head reluctantly, and as Cyber’s red eyes looked at me, a look of worry shot onto his face. “Stable 30 - the ponies inside there are all going to die if we don’t help them. I’m sure if my sister has been fighting all her time out here, she’ll aid us in battle. And once we achieve that, once all those ponies are saved, then it is all over.”

Swift and Cyber exchanged looks, as if they were not sure on how to feel about the journey ahead of Destiny. The sickly green sunlight beaming down onto the wretched world below the lingering, black clouds which drifted in the sky. The toxic air was warm on my tongue, and even made my mouth go dry.

“Then we are fucked…” Cyber added. “Enclave right? They’re far more superior than we are… Going against even a small group of them is dangerous, a whole army is suicide. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

I nodded, my loving mare tilting the bottle of Sparkle-Cola my way with her sky blue magical grip after taking another swig of it. I wrapped my lips around the circular tip of the glass bottle, before tilting my head back and as I did, Crystal tilted the bottle backgrounds to allow the liquid pour into my mouth. She released the the bottle from my mouth and then held it within her bright, magical grip. Crystal offered the two bucks a sip, but they both shook their heads solemnly.

“Trust me, we’ll be fine…” I corrected, feeling confident about the road ahead. “I’ve coped… we have coped. Crystal, Dodge and I and even Violet - we all fought against large numbers of the Enclave, and we’re still here.”

Cyber and Swift look unsure, but nonetheless soon nodded before glancing into the distance. Their eyes focused behind us, and I soon glanced back to see the distant town sitting in fumes coming from within the small walls of Destiny. Along the flat, and desolate plains of the Wastes were skeletons and skulls buried beneath the dusty grey dirt. There it was, only a few kilometers away, and I still felt a little bit of hope left.

“But… What happens if there are more of them?” Swift countered, leaning in slightly. “What happens if there are more of them going to Stable 30?”

Oh. Right. I remembered. I was the one who killed a large army of Steel Rangers, not Enclave. And of course, at that point, I began to feel guilt yet again. It wasn’t as bad this time, it didn’t wretch at my heart nor did it try and cleave its way through my emotions. It was just that feeling as if something bad would happen, which was highly possible due to this being a Wasteland full of all sorts of things and not a nice, warm and safe Stable.

“We still… go on,” I stuttered slightly, feeling my own worry begin to build. “We might not be able to save all of them, but we can try at least…”

---

We returned back to the road, slowly making our way down the long stretch of cracked and broken tarmac below our hooves as I and whatever remained of my companions trudged along. I tried to drown out the thoughts of Violet right before she died, but I couldn’t seem to do so. In fact, it was almost impossible to do that due to me being her killer and whenever you commit something like that, it is impossible to forget.

The gentle breeze began to turn into a strong, poisoned wind as the clouds darkened and the sunlight vanished. Drops of rain, soft and slow drops began to leak from the blackened, thick clouds which sat in the sky. Drop after drop, the rain began to pick up its pace, before the whole Wasteland turned from a warm and desolate desert, to a stormy Wasteland of coldness. The once warm feeling of the wind blowing against me was now replaced with a freezing wave of water being thrown at me at a rapid pace.

As the rain fell, Destiny was only a few minutes away and the base of the town seemed a lot larger than it did from the distance. And this wasn’t a good thing either. The sound of different yells erupted from our destination, as muffled gunshots clapped only a few seconds after the burst of thunder in the sky.

Upon getting closer to the town, more of its seemingly abandoned form soon began to become viewable. Large stone and cracked walls surrounded wooden shacks which were practically falling apart. The cream colored walling of the circular wall which surrounded the small and compact Raider town was damaged from all the shrapnel and bombs which had hit it many years before. Dried blood and large chunks of gore had been splattered onto the walls, some of gore sitting within tiny cracks and large bullet wounds which had been inflicted onto the town.

The large, wooden and splintered drawbridge like door which had been suspended backwards by decaying rope swayed slightly in the strong wind washing over the Wasteland. Upon the stone walls was red paint, displaying a message which was incredibly difficult to decipher. I glanced to the small message tained upon the walls, staring at the dried paint.

Demise. Hatred… Sacrifice.

And those words repeated, getting smaller and smaller in size from top to bottom of the wrecked and damaged wall. We were drenched in the rain which was being thrown down onto us at a rapid pace, my now soaking wet Stable jacket sticking to me like a rubber glove and making my body feel as cold as ice. I stopped at the large barricade, staring up at the door, Crystal stood by my side while Swift and Cyber were suspended in the air with their sniper rifles hanging from their forelegs.

I proceeded to knock on the door, hoping to instantly start an attacking once they opened it up. I had one intention, and that was to kill everyone inside that place until I found my sister, even if one of those ponies happened to be one of the prisoners. I only saved those now that deserved it, not ones who happen to beg for it. Before my hoof could softly make contact with the damaged, winchester brown and decaying wooden door, a large, sphere shaped metal container with wings like a Parasprite fixed onto the back of it. The rusting metal container that was hovering through the stormy Wasteland soon stopped nearby, and the grated visor fixed onto the front stared at me as if it was looking at me.

“I wouldn’t if I was you,” called a croaky voice from it. The voice was from a vaguely familiar sounding old buck and within the floating container was the sound of static softly crackling in-between each word. “Any outsider who has tried to pass the gate of Destiny has either been captured by the Raiders and tortured, or killed within a few seconds. If you want your journey to end with dignity, you do not want to enter.”

Glancing to the bot which hovered in the air with its mechanical wings flapping, keeping it in the air as the Sprite-Bot hovered unevenly in the air, almost falling from the position it was in currently. I raised a brow, keeping my eyes on it as it spoke, and my companions stood behind me, as I felt the water from Cyber’s and Swift’s wings splashing onto me from all the heavy rain pouring down on us.

“Excuse me?” I shot a look at the Sprite-Bot despite the fact that it could not show any expression towards me. “What are you trying to say? Who are you?”

I heard a snigger within the voice behind the Sprite-Bot’s mask. “What I am saying is: You’re not invincible, and just stepping one hoof in there could end you with one crushing blow!” The voice exclaimed, as the Sprite-Bot stayed within flight. “And once you go down, you won’t get back up. No matter how far you have fallen before.”

“Who are you?!” I echoed as I took a hoofstep closer to the hovering metal sphere. “How did you find us?!”

“Me? My identity is of no-importance, and how I found you was simple - these Sprite-Bots are so easy to hack into,” the voice responded hastily in a boasting fashion. “I’m not insulting you, I’m warning you about your fate if you just charge in there, guns blazin’.”

“And how do you know our outcome if we try?” I heard Cyber’s voice call from behind. “How the fuck does a stupid bot know what will happen if we go in?”

Another humorous snicker was audible from the groaning Sprite-Bot.”Because I’ve seen ponies. None of them ever listen, none of them ever think about their own weaknesses. None of them survive, nor do they even know how many there are. You can’t count behind a wall, and even if you tried to fly above the place, they’d shoot you down before you could even count to one.”

He-- it had a point. Whoever this thing was - wherever this pony was, I’d silence him if I could. But he was right. If there really were as many Raiders as predicted, then we shouldn’t risk rushing in only to fail in what we came to achieve. And that would affect me the most, even after death. A burst of static erupted from the Sprite-Bot as if the rain was effecting the communication coming from the floating robot within the air.

“Maybe you ponies should use a Stealth Buck, I’m sure you are… familiar with them,” the voice suggested as it floated in the air, the tone of voice dry. “Only one of you can go. Try to forget about your friendship for this one task, whatever you’re going in there for, this will help you find it.”

I blinked, knowing I’d have to do it. But where was the Stealth Buck? Oh wait. There it was. I noticed the Stealth Buck strapped down to the top of the Sprite-Bot as it hovered in mid air, the tape holding it down beginning to peak from all the water gushing down on it. Another explosion of static left the bot, as it began to malfunction slightly. Sparks burst from the wings.

I proceeded towards the bot, knocking the Stealth Buck from the top of it. The tape was easy to tear, and when it finally came off, I felt it in one hoof as I stared at the drenched Stealth Buck sitting in my hooves, before looking back to the Sprite-Bot. It had to be me. Of course it did, I was the reason why we were here and now I had to take the responsibility of risking my life to find the sister I sworn myself to reunite with. I wouldn’t dare risk the lives of my companions for the sake of what I came here for.

The Sprite-Bot began to malfunction in violent sparks, struggling to make even syllables clear through the fit of static coming through the bot’s speaker. The static did clear up in some parts, where the sound of the buck returned and this time, the voice sounded damp as if the microphone his voice was drowning in water.

“T-there’s a secret entrance… beside the door…*pzzt!* there’s a small hatch, below the graffiti… *pzzt* use that, and you should find yourself inside of Destiny, *pzzt!* ...Once you’re inside, you find what you came for and then you go. *Pzzt!* Don’t hang around, the Stealth Buck doesn’t last as long as it seems.”

Before I could ask who he was, the Sprite-Bot malfunctioned, before imploding with a loud bang and then falling to the damp ground, with the entire metal container which the bot was made out of cracked and broken, with sparks spitting from the cavity created inside of the armor. I felt myself get blown back as the implosion went off, feeling a wave of light force push me to the ground. I fell to the wet soil as the rain poured down onto us all heavily, Crystal catching me within her forelegs as I fell back.

Swift and Cyber looked down at me with concern, as I felt the soft embrace of the now soggy Crystal holding me close as I slumped into the wet filth below me. A clap of thunder echoed in the distance, as I glanced around and noticed the two snipers hover over me, the look of deep concern in their expression remaining on their faces.

“You shouldn’t do this alone, Tornado…” Swift warned, lifting a hoof as his damp wings kept him in the air, the sound of thunder softly echoing in the distance as the rain poured down on us all at a rapid pace. “You have to let us all come with you…”

“You heard him,” Crystal’s soft, elegant voice softly said from behind. “He has to do this alone, if we follow, we could endanger him more than he will be endangering himself.” I blinked, looking up to Crystal to see her with a frown. A frown of regret, as if what she said hurt her. She wanted to come with me, but she knew she couldn’t.

She turned to me, levitating the Stealth Buck and attaching it to me firmly before my body was coated in some sort of cloaking shield. I looked at my hoof to see nothing but a clear ripple. Crystal pulled my head up gently with her hoof, obviously able to see my body despite it being cloaked and as she did, she soon pulled me into a warm kiss. I felt my cheeks heat up, my blush burning brightly as she held the kiss. I kissed back.

---

I walked over to the small hatch behind me, the wooden seal covering a darkened hole placed on top of it in an unorderly fashion, with the planks which sat on top of the metal framing of the hatch all chipped, scarred and broken. Some of the edges were covered in blood. The hatch sat by the wall, a little too close to the large door we all were standing by and just beneath the painted message that I had seen from earlier. The entrance was low down, so you’d only see it unless you’re looking at it up close. Lifting the hatch, I felt some of the wood stab into my cloaked skin, and I winched as it did, but luckily, some of the sharper parts stabbed into my PipBuck, the metal terminal on my leg protecting the skin beneath it.

I dropped into the hole, before attempting to cover the entrance up with the board. Not that it worked. I switched my PipBucks light on, and as I did, it lit up the rather claustrophobic passage. Only a small portion of it. The dirty, and dusty walls around me were within touching distance, and the rather long looking tunnel. The rest of the way however was drowned in darkness. I tried to take my mind off of the sudden lack of space, and I moved as quickly as my anxiety filled body into the darkness. I didn’t have time to dawdle around, struggling for air. Granted, I was struggling for air, but I was trying not to think about it.

For the most part, not thinking about it worked.

I kept the pace up, as the sound of the heavy rain slamming against the dirty surface of the world above was clearly audible. The sound of thunder boomed in the sky yet again beyond the dirt I was beneath, and because I was underground, the sound was muffled, but I could still hear it due to it being so loud. I managed to reach the end of the tunnel quicker than I had expected to. Glancing up, I noticed a trapdoor in a similar condition to the last one. Parts of wood were missing, rain was pouring through the large gaps and onto my face and the metal framing this time was rusting and even some of it was bent and broken as if it was all falling apart. I turned off my PipBuck’s flashlight.

I knew I didn’t have as long as it sounded with a Stealth Buck, so I slowly moved the hatch into the sludge, the thunder and the rain covering up the noise it was making. I lifted my head out of the hole to take a look at what I was heading into, and what I saw… didn’t help me at all. I found myself in a rather small village that was filled with desolated and abandoned houses, most of which had the top portion of them blown off by some chaotic blast. Large chunks of rubble sat in the sludge-like dirt and large shards of glass were almost buried beneath the dirt. Within a large, open area which sat in the middle of the village, where all the houses circled around a large fire created by different bits of trash and scrap that had been ignited, and the large, glowing flame from within the middle helped light up the darkened mood caused by the rain clouds.

Raiders. Hundreds of them. All of which were walking around, and joking about murder, rape, and other dark tones that normally fits their insane habits. Bloodied, and fresh pony limbs hung from chains which were fixed to the houses’ beams which stuck out just above the doorway at the front end of the house. Some of the impaled limbs were heads without the eyes, and some were even wings and horns. I gagged, feeling myself feel lightheaded.

Oh shit. This wasn’t going to be easy.

Lifting myself out of the hole, I soon scurried off behind a house, hearing the many cackles and laughs of the Raiders who were joking about what they had possibly done to many ponies who were just passing through. My PipBuck twitched on my leg as if it was trying to tell me something. Glancing to the screen, I noticed the PipBuck screen was warning me about the time I had left with the Stealth Buck. The text read: ‘Your Stealth Buck is beginning to wear off.’

Seeing the warning implemented on my screen, I quickly scurried along the surface of the slippery and sludge covered dirt beneath my hooves, feeling myself slip in some of the more exposed parts as the rain hammered its way down harshly onto the surface of the Wasteland. Some Raiders were looking at me as if they had seen me, only to shortly look back to their companions and as they did, the murmurs of brutality continued. And even though they were quiet, I could still hear them. As the cloak was beginning to wear off, I soon fell over, face first into a muddy puddle, feeling all the dirt and irradiated rain water splash up into my face, before finding myself at a back door which was unlocked.

The house in front of me was intact, and rather silent. All the windows had been boarded up, and there was nothing but silence. Lifting myself onto my hooves, I proceeded to the door, before twisting the small doorknob on the splintered, and battered wooden door which had been impaled by different ammo types with shrapnel sitting in some of the door’s wounds, before opening it. A loud, echoing creek was heard, and all I saw beyond the door was darkness. I took a deep breath, walking in as I revealed my pistol and placed it into my mouth, preparing for any possible Raider that was waiting to jump me.

Upon walking in, my cloak soon disappeared, and I soon shut the door behind me, feeling the rain pound into the house before the door met with the doorway. Upon closing, I flicked my PipBuck’s light on again, the radioactive green glow filling the seemingly dark room. Within the house I was in now, all that was here was a few tables hugging the dusty and scarred stone walls, and bent and rusted caps along with ammo shells and frames of guns. Some tables were flipped and pinned to the wall, and to the left of the room, on the far corner of it was a staircase which twisted upwards. A red carpet coated the staircase, some of the edges were torn and some of the actual carpet was loose.

Upon noticing the staircase, I soon trotted to it, hearing my echoing hoofsteps tap against the stone tile flooring of the desolate house. I heard nothing, at least for the most part. Reaching the staircase, I soon began to walk up the stairs one by one, feeling the dry and flakey carpet rub against my hooves as each of the hoofsteps were placed on them. I kept the pistol in my mouth, using my eyes to observe the seemingly empty house with no head movement. The stairs began to twist to the left, making it more difficult for me to remain on my hooves with the lack of light I had, but I still managed to climb the staircase.

Reaching the top, I noticed a closed door right at the top of the staircase. The door was wooden, with a large and murky window which was impossible to see through and the glass was cracked from corner to corner, making the age of it stand out. The door itself was covered in all sorts of scars, and the paint that used to coat it was peeling with age and the golden doorknob was coated in a thick layer of rust. I placed my hoof on the rusted doorknob, before twisting it and pulling the door open to reveal a long, stretching hallway.

I was in no hurry to proceed, but I soon stepped a hoof into the hallway, feeling a wire press against my hoof before a ‘click’ sound was heard, and as I heard, the wire fell to the ground and then only seconds later, shotgun shells impaled the side of my body as a loud bang echoed off of the walls. Gah! I collapsed in pain, dropping the gun from my mouth and wincing as I held my now bloody sides which had been ravaged by shotgun shells. My insides felt like an inferno, my wound was sizzling as the broken and now bent shrapnel pierced its way into my ribcage, severing the skin completely.

I groaned in pain, hearing hoofsteps echoing as if someone was running in the halls. Everytime I let out a breath, or a huff or even a groan, I would feel a sharp pain stab into where the wound was created. I had to try and shake the pain off of my mind, and son of a bitch, that was going to be hard.

I struggled to place the gun into my mouth again, as each time I moved, I felt the pain grow even more intense. The hoofsteps kept echoing all around me, as my now blood covered PipBuck screen made the bright green light turn dark, and glow was now a dark green color with a blood red tint to it. I placed the gun into my mouth, and soon I began to limp down the corridor, feeling the shrapnel scraping against my skin tissue and my bones. That hurt… a lot.

When I ventured in deeper, I noticed many different doors on each side of the hallway. All of the doors were battered by bullets and scarred with scratch marks and no doubt on the other side of each door was a trap waiting to blow my head off, or blow my guts out or maybe even trap my hoof with some violent bear trap or pincer. I felt that I needed to be extra cautious, and the bullet wounds in the side of my body did not make anything easy for me. I felt myself stumble all over the place, and the with each movement I made, the pain intensified. I let out a cough, dropping the gun in my jaws before hearing the metal surface of it slam against the stone slabs.

Fuck. I couldn’t continue. I felt myself collapse, as I wrapped a hoof over my wound, hissing and wheezing as each breath left my body. The blood from the crater in my side was trickling down my hoof as I put pressure on it to try and help the bleeding calm down. I was having no luck with that, and I was no medical pony either. I heard the hoofsteps echoing again, and this time, they were much louder.

As I glanced to the direction of where the hoofsteps were coming from (to the right) I then noticed the door to the right of me swing open. A Pegasus pony quickly charged out, tackling me and bursting through the door opposite it at an intense speed, before I felt my destroyed body get thrown onto the rough floor and with that I let out a loud yelp of pain which filled the entire house. I winced, not being able to see the pony on top of me before the pain died down slightly, and I opened my eyes to see the face of a young mare.

Her coat was the same color as mine, a royal blue color and her mane was blue with white stripes and her tail was similar to her mane. On her face, in-between her eyes were freckles and her eyes were a rosy red color. She wore heavy (and rather battered) Enclave armor, where the scorpion tail her armor was supposed to have was gone and instead, her tail stuck out freely through the battle armor. Her facial expression showed nothing but anger, as the Novasurge Rifle attached to the Battle Saddle on her armor was aiming at me as if she was preparing to shoot me.

The room was rather empty, but not pitch black. The room consisted of old Pre-War posters, cracked with age, stuck onto the walls. Many of them were M.O.A posters, showcasing Rainbow Dash and a pair of Shadowbolts by her side with the quote; ‘Victory is just a wing’s beat away!’

It was a small room, but at the back end of the room was an empty desk with a toppled over office chair and behind that were three boarded up window panels with the glass from the windows scattered all over the floor. The shattered pieces of glass were not sharp, but they were small, crushed granules lying all over the floor. An empty bookshelf stood against the cracked and aged wall on the right side of the room (my left as of now) where the dull, grey light from the Wasteland outside revealed its aged and cracked surface on the seemingly perfect mahogany base. Torn pages covered in blood and dust sat on some of the lower shelves.

I looked up into the eyes of the pony who had me pinned down, knowing who it was. It was her, and she was still alive… She was still in one piece. My sister. I finally found her, after all this time.

“State your name, stranger!!” The mare on top of me screamed as she pointed her rifle at my face, “don’t even think that I’ll hesitate on killing you. Did the Enclave send you?!”

I shook my head, lost for words. “N-no… I… I no, they didn’t. I… I’m…” I found myself stammering. I didn’t think this was how we was going to meet once again, I never thought it’d be like this.

“Then who sent you?!” She barked in my face, pressing her snout to mine with fury. “If you don’t spit out the answers, I’ll blow your fucking head off and feed your testicals to the Raiders!”

I gulped. Why was she doing this? Didn’t she recognize me at all? After all, she was the older one, she has to remember me. No? Oh great… time for a fucking memory refresh. That is if she’ll let me mention anything unrelated to what she’s asking. I tried to free my hooves, feeling the pain in my side begin to throb again as I began to struggle, and her expression turned sour.

“Last chance,” she groaned through her teeth as she prepared to shoot me. “Name. Who sent you? What side are you are? Are you a Raider?!”

“N-no… I’m not a Raider, no pony sent me. Cyclone… it’s me. Tornado, the brother who you loved from childhood, the brother who has been trying to find you.” I admitted, failing to sound honest. I knew she didn’t believe me as soon as her expression began to turn evil looking, as if she was the Raider, not me. And that broke my heart. I felt tears building up in my eyes, as I closed them, waiting for the shot to be taken.

Nothing.

Nothing happened. I opened my eyes to find her expression had calmed, tears trickling down my cheeks as I stared up at her. She remembered. She remembered me, and as I recognized that, relief washed over me.

She climbed off of me, and soon walked towards the desk, her hoofsteps echoing as she did. I weakly climbed to my hooves, feeling the pain beginning to violently punch me again, and as it did, I hissed out in pain and almost collapsed again. Cyclone didn’t speak for a moment, in fact, she was dead silent. I looked to her, seeing her with her face hanging over the desk in silence.

“H-hey, what’s the matter?” I hissed, walking over to her with a caring smile. “I-I finally found you…”

“And you shouldn’t have,” Cyclone responded hastily, turning to me. “Don’t you understand? You should have just stayed home - it would have saved you from the horrors of the Wasteland.”

I blinked, wondering what she was talking about. I had witnessed things I wish I hadn’t, I had done things I regret. But I found her, and because I did, that was enough to wash all the guilt, and the anger, and the sadness away from me. At least for a short while. Cyclone looked to my wound, her eyes widening in horror and as she noticed it, I felt myself drop yet again onto the floor. I was feeling weaker, the wound was hurting more than ever. Cyclone sat by my side, unzipping my Stable outfit and yanking it open to look at the wound. And at that moment, Cyclone went pale. She knew her trap did this.

She darted up, glancing around the room quickly in search of medical supplies before rushing behind the desk and searching through the possibly empty and dust filled draws. I felt myself getting weaker, I felt like I was dying. I placed a hoof on my now exposed wound, and groaned as soon as my foreleg made contact with the bloody hole in my body. I heard the sound of draws being swung open, followed by the sound of hooves rummaging through the filled up draws, and the sound of metal and glass object smashing into each other. This lasted a while, before Cyclone returned with Magical Bandages and a Healing Potion in her mouth, with a look of relief on her face. I looked to her, my vision beginning to blur as she sat down next to me.

“L-let me look at that,” she said with a caring tone. I moved my hoof away, and she soon began to wrap bandages around my body slowly, layer after layer until the blood was no longer visible. She grabbed the healing potion, and literally forced it down my throat to ensure that I did drink it. I coughed, feeling my breath get taken away, but fortunately, I had drank it all before I passed out.

I looked to her, regaining my breath and she soon pulled me into a hug. Falling into the embrace, I felt her tears run down my back. Her warm, and trickling tears. I hugged her back, feeling tears of my own beginning to build again. This time, the tears were of happiness more than they were of heartbreak, and I held my sister close in a tight embrace. I didn’t want to let her go. I just wanted to hold her for as long as I needed to, I wanted to hug her and keep her by my side forever. Losing her again would kill me.

“I-I’m so… sorry,” Cyclone whimpered, holding onto me. “T-those traps… I should have taken them down… I-I was waiting for Mist…”

All I could do was forgive. “D-don’t beat yourself up, I...I’m here aren’t I?” I tried to laugh, but the tears didn’t stop and I couldn’t laugh. All I could do was cry, and to know that as soon as I walk out there, we’d have to face Raiders - I had to ensure I didn’t lose her again. “B-besides… e-even if you did kill me, it’d probably be for the better…”

I felt a hoof get forced into my back, and I grunted. I pulled back and Cyclone shook her head with an anger filled expression, her eyes read from all the tears that had been leaking from them. She tried to speak, but her lips kept twitching and quivering, making it harder for her to do so.

“D-don’t… don’t you dare!” Cyclone warned, as she shook her head slowly. “D-don’t ever say that… y-you may not know it, but you’re more important than you think you are. You know it wasn’t my fault… I had no control over our separation.” She was blubbering, and she fell into me again, crying softly into my fur from guilt and happiness. I didn’t blame her, nor did I blame her for the traps she set up. She did it for her own protection, I just happened to be the wrong pony who came.

I just held her close, letting her cry into me and trying to bite back the flooding tears of my own. I rubbed her back with my hoof, holding her close to me. My robotic eye was artificial, but the tear glands still worked. I really didn’t know how that was possible, Cyclone didn’t worry about the eye either. I supposed she was glad to see me, and probably upset about it being me who had stumbled upon the trap. But that was my fault…

“I-I’ll never leave your side,” Cyclone moaned, the sound of a snotty sniff following what she said. “You’re my little brother… and I promise to keep you safe.”

---

Footnote: Level up!

New perk: Treasure Hunter - Your sneak has improved by 20% when using a Stealth Buck, making your hoofsteps impossible to hear, however, when using this perk, you can no longer attack while a Stealth Buck is equipped.

Current level: 19

Next Chapter: Intermission: Act III Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours