“I am the Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end.”

“Where’s my status report?” Captain Doppler’s voice boomed through the intercom system.

The smell of smoke and fire filled the hallways, and panicked crew members scurried up and down the halls. A very disconcerting groan that felt like it came from the whole room made the mane on the back of my neck stand up. In the back of my mind, I’d wondered if this thing couldn’t make it a half hour out before shit goes wrong, how reliable is this thing going to be getting us there? Hell, are we even going to make it back?

“You were saying something about nothing going wrong?” Skyline snorted from her bunk. Of all the times she could piss me off, now was not a good one. I simply ignored her and gathered myself.

“I don’t intend to die in this deathtrap today,” I snapped back at her. “Maybe you should make yourself useful and find out how you can help.” I shucked off my things, seeing as they’d only get in the way. As I did, Predious wrapped his hoof around my leg.

“I know you want to help,” He tightened his grip and shook his head. “but unless you know how to fix the complex workings of a pre-war underwater vehicle, you’re better off staying out of their way.” He was being stern, but I knew he was right. “Considering you didn’t know what a submarine was until this morning, I really doubt you’ll do any good out there.”

“No, you wont.” A mare’s voice came from the doorway.

I spun around to see what I assumed was one of the crew members standing in the doorway. She was a sharply dressed unicorn, and in her magic she held a pistol that was aimed at me. A smile hung oddly across her muzzle, and her eyes looked like those under the Necromancer's control.

“I have come to tell you this, Abomination,” The mare spoke. The way that she said things used his inflections, his words. The mare in front of me was gone, only a shell left to serve. “know that I will not be stopped, and that your 'wasteland' will fall. I have used this one to make sure that you will not interfere again.”

“She’s not the abomination here.” Predious growled and took a step forward. “She’s the guardian of hope, and she will stop you.”

The mare corrected her aim and fired. The shot sparked off the floor next to Pred and I. Predious flinched as the mare trained her sights on his head.

“It matters not what she is.” He laughed through the mare. “There will be little that any of you can do from the bottom of the sea. I may know little of what became of this world, but I know that not even the magic of friendship could save you now.” The mare bobbed her head and smiled wider before locking her eyes on me. “Oh, but that does remind me. I’ve enjoyed your friends. They’ve made for the best kind of company.”

“Go fucking die in a hole.” I snapped. My friends were going to make it out of here. Every single fucking last one of them, even if I had to drag them out myself.

“I'm afraid, that's already what you're currently doing.” He sputtered between chuckles. Those chuckles became laughs, which in turn built into a roaring hysteria. He caught himself between laughs just long enough to look at me. “See you never!”

With that, he forced the mare’s gun against her head, and pulled the trigger.

She crumpled to the floor, dead. As she lay there, her lifeless eyes held an emotion. It was fear. That mare was somepony before all this, she had a life before he took her and ended it. Just thinking about it made the flames inside me roar to life. Without any hesitation, or idea of what to do, I bolted out into the hall.

A thin curtain of smoke came from the back half of the sub, so that’s the way I went. There was another heavy groan from the metal as the whole floor seemed to slope down before me. The lighting in the hallways went out for a moment, shifting to a crimson red color as an alarm filled the halls.

We didn’t come all this way, lose all these ponies, just to lose now. As I nearly galloped down the labyrinth of halls, the smoke grew thicker. I could hear the Rangers ahead coughing, and as I turned another hallway, my hooves started to splash through freezing cold water.

“I don’t care what Doppler says, Cottage!” Diesel growled from up ahead of me. “You order her back out of there, now!” With that kind of intensity, I could only guess that Gauge has once again gone and done something stupid. The further I went toward them, the higher the water got.

“If somepony doesn’t get those bulkheads closed, we’ll lose the whole sub.” The voice of a stallion angrily snapped back. “Question my orders again, and I’ll have you courtmartialed when this is all over.”

“You want them closed?” Diesel said as he splashed through the water. There was a grunt and a scuffle. When I finally waded my way over, I could see the two stallions pressed up against the wall. Diesel had his hoof across the brown stallion’s neck, nearly choking him. “You go close them yourself.”

Not wanting to deal with any of this, I used the fact that they were out of the way to squeeze by. I made it up to the closed door they were near before Diesel noticed. Whatever he said was drowned out by the enormously loud squelch the door made as I twisted the handle for it.

I didn’t have to even open the heavy steel door myself. The water coming from the next room did the work for me. The hallway beyond dropped off into a staircase that lead to a lower level. It was nearly full of water, and I couldn’t even see Gauge in the dark water.

“Hey! You can’t just go in there!” The other stallion behind me yelled. I simply ignored him and dove into the hallway.

That had been a mistake. The freezing water washed over me and felt like a thousand tiny pricks all over my skin. I tried to open my eyes to see where I was going, but they burned when I did. I was going to have to do this blind.

I felt something cold next to my hoof, colder than the water even was. As I brushed it, it caught onto me and dragged me down. Out of reflex, I opened my eyes again. While it burned, I could see a familiar red mane floating in front of my face. Gauge pulled herself over me and kicked her rear legs hard. She used me as a way to propel herself up and broke the surface.

My lungs burned, and I fought to keep the water from getting in through my nose. I too kicked hard and fought to get to the surface. Gauge was pulled free of the water right in front of me, and I could mentally relax a bit. I just hoped that she had managed to seal the doors down there, because this cold was sapping my strength faster than anything. With a final few kicks, I broke the surface.

“C-come on, we n-n-need to s-seal this!” Gauge half coughed out as she stood shivering in the hallways. Diesel reached a massive hoof over and hooked it around my leg. With a swift tug, he pulled me from the frigid water and back to where I could stand on my hooves.

With my hooves back on solid ground, I found that we had tilted ever further back. Quickly, I turned and hoofed at the door to the flooded section. Diesel pressed himself against the wall and pushed, sliding further under the frigid water as the door began to shut. I used all my strength to help, and shortly after, the other stallion joined in.

As the three of us pushed, the door crept closer and closer to being shut. Diesel let out a grunting yell and strained himself to keep going. Without meaning to, I thought about the mare, about Pallet, and about strangling the life from the necromancer. The flames inside me burned brightly, and I could see the reflection of my eyes in the water. It gave me more strength, and I used it to finally shut that damned door. The handle to the door glowed in Gauge’s green magical aura, and sealed.

“Are all the bulkheads down there sealed?” The brown stallion panted and coughed in the smoke. “What about the spell reactor? Is it flooded?”

“Yeah, we’re clear.” Gauge answered, wading back into the water. She pushed past us to Diesel, throwing her hooves around him in a hug. “The automatic bulkheads sealed the reactor room door. The auxiliary machinery space is sealed but flooded, same with the battery backups.”

“Thank you,” The stallion gave out a long sigh as he trudged his way out of the cold water. “I just hope that now that we’ve stopped the flooding, the Captain knows how to get us topside until we can patch this old gal up.”

“Does somepony want to tell me what the hell is going on?” Doppler borderline screamed at us. “No more lies.”

After the crew made sure we weren’t going to sink, I was lead to the bridge with Gauge, Diesel, and Commander Cottage Cheese. He’d made sure to remind me of his rank every time he demanded to know why I’d gone after Gauge down there.

Of course, things for me had only gotten worse once they’d discovered the body of the mare who the necromancer had taken over. Her name was Moon Pie, and she had apparently been one of the electrical technicians on board. As I sat hoof cuffed with the rest of my friends in the mess hall, it was hard to find a way to explain things without it sounding contrived.

“She’s telling the truth.” Skyline snapped.

“Quiet!” Cottage Cheese answered using his hoof. He beat Skyline hard over the head, knocking her to the floor. “Insolent primitive.”

“That’s quite enough, Cottage.” Doppler spoke up, making the stallion stiffen up and sneer at all of us.

The brutal stallion was maybe a decade older than me, but he was gone in the head. While I’d thought Diesel was being a bit harsh down there, nearly strangling him, I could now see why he would. On top of being ruthless and arrogant, he was apparently a unicorn. You wouldn’t really know, seeing as he was crazy enough to cut off his horn at some point and file it down.

“Sure, Moon was a recent transfer from Filly,” He spat at me in particular. “But ‘mind controlled’ into sabotage? No ranger would ever put this many lives at risk. They would rather die than give in to such things.”

“Exactly!” I growled out. “She was dead the moment he got to her! Don’t you see, that’s what he does!” I sighed and slammed my face down into the table in anger. Why couldn’t the fire in me help out now? “The entire Steel Ranger bunker in the badlands turned to him. He’s got an army of mindless slaves attacking half the wasteland. You think you’re safe?” I chuckled against the cold steel table. “Unless we stop him, everypony is going to die.”

“He has no use for the living.” Tasteless flatly spoke. “What is it that you don’t get about the idea of a Necromancer?” She smiled in the same way she did when she was about to say something stupid. “I wonder, is it the necro, or the mancing?”

“I said quiet!” Cottage said as he planted a good right hook onto her muzzle.

“And I said that was enough.” Doppler slammed her hoof down hard enough that half the rangers in the room flinched. “Another step out of line like that, and you’ll be spending the rest of the trip in the brig. Is that clear, Cottage?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He growled as he clenched his jaw. After a moment, he glanced over at her. She simply cast her glare in his direction and he yielded, taking a step back.

“I don’t care if you believe us. All that matters is that we get through that storm and kill that son of a bitch.” I knew she couldn’t see it, but I wanted her to see that what I said was the truth. “Do what you must, but we can’t turn back now.”

The room was tense. You could almost feel it as it clung to the air, you could hear it in every nervous shuffle. The captain shut her eyes and perked her ears. For a good amount of time, nopony moved more than just to breath.

“Fine.” She broke the silence and opened her eyes again. When she did, they had a sad look to them. “Fruit?” She turned her gaze toward him. “How long would it take to repair the damage?”

“Well, if what Gauge said was correct,” He ran his hoof through his mane and avoided looking at her. “The improvised explosive took out the access hatch in the aft torpedo room. With that much extra weight back there, all we can do is level out with the forward ballast.” He shook his head and sighed. “The best we can hope for us is that they have some sort of soft bottomed dock we can slide her up on.”

“If we had too, would the beach work?” Doppler said rather coldly.

“It would be better if we could avoid that,” Fruit nervously smiled and fidgeted with with simple prosthetic leg. “But if it came to it, a beach landing would work.”

“Good. Do what you can to mitigate the flooding while we’re underway.” Doppler nodded and turned back toward us. “My orders are to continue on to the island and secure it for the Rangers. That includes removing any hostile forces that may exist there.” She turned her gaze to me and squinted. “I don’t know if you’re telling the truth, or an experienced liar, but what happened to Moon Pie cannot be proven. Until we reach the island, you and your cohorts will be detained in the brig.”

“Do what you need to.” I locked my eyes on her. “For your sake, you should keep an eye on any more recent transfers to your crew.”

“Your suggestion has been noted.” She turned to face Cottage Cheese. “Take them to the brig,” She stepped up next to him and put her hoof on his shoulder. “but if you lay a hoof on them again, you can forget ever being up for consideration as star paladin.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.” He curled his muzzle into a snarl, but didn’t give her the tone of it.

“I hope the brig at least has cushions.” Skyline sighed. “I still wanted to get in that nap.”

Contrary to what I’d thought, I’d found it easy to get to sleep in the brig. It’s secluded section was far enough away from most of the ship’s machinery that all we could hear in here was the humming of the lights. For nearly sinking, and heading off onto what was probably a suicide mission, I slept like a foal.

That is, until we hit something.

“Oh goddesses, make it stop!” Tasteless screamed out. She was competing with what sounded like the damn ship itself wailing. The whole room shook, and I’d suddenly found Predious flopped down on top of me. After a moment, everything became still.

The loudspeaker on the wall crackled to life. “This is the captain,” Doppler’s voice boomed nearly as loud as whatever had happened did. “We’ve docked in the subpen at the island. All hooves, make your stations safe and prepare the sub for repairs. Shore team, report to the prep tube and get your gear. That is all.”

The door to the brig squealed as it unsealed and swung out. Through it, stepped the one pony I didn’t want to see.

“Get your shit together.” Cottage snapped. “You’ve had enough of a free ride at our expense, time to work.” He hadn’t even gazed at anypony other than me when he spoke. He turned back and mumbled over his shoulder. “Moon was worth four of you savages.”

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Tasteless rubbed at an ear with her hoof. Quite spryly, she stood up with a smile. “It’s just that it’s hard to hear you when your head is stuffed so far up your…”

“That’s enough.” Skyline interjected. “We’ll get going.”

We followed the annoying palladin back through the twisting maze of hallways and rooms. As we passed other crew who were hurriedly scurrying around, I noticed that they all ducked into other rooms as we got close, or shielded their faces from us. I was fine with being a pariah in the places I’ve been in my life, but I was never less deserving of it than now. The fact that ponies like Cottage were in charge made it all the more infuriating.

We were lead up to the top most interior deck, tracking through the helm and past rows and rows of arcane machines that I couldn’t even begin to guess what they computed. We stopped in front of a large bulkhead, watching as even Cottage strained to open it while in his power armor. With another squeal, the door unsealed and swung open.

The room beyond was cavernous in comparison to the rest of the rooms on the ship. Nearly twenty feet tall, and almost forty long, it was an odd sight to see on a ship. As we filed into the room, the slanted wall along my left turned out to be a large sloped ramp that lead up to an even bigger hatch facing toward the conning tower of the sub. The hatch was open, and several rangers paced along the edge of it, looking around whatever large concrete structure we’d parked in. I couldn’t see much from here, but I found my attention diverted.

“If I may ask, what was this room used for?” Predious spoke with all the astuteness of a Pre-war museum patron.

“Death.” Diesel called out from around the other side of the ramp. “This room used to store three mega spell tipped missiles.” He walked over from the other side, dragging a small wagon behind him that looked like it held our gear. “When we got her, she only had one left.”

“Well, seeing as it isn’t here, it must mean you used it?” Predious sat down and scratched at his chin in thought. “What on, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Diesel shrugged. “Gotta ask my dad about that. He was there when they used it back in the day.” With a shrug, he unhooked himself from the wagon and took a step to the side. “Get your gear on and meet me up top. If what Gauge told me is true, then we don’t have much time to lose.”

Skyline stepped up to the wagon, giving a grunt as she stretched her wings out. She wore a hollow look across her face as she picked Pallet’s battle saddle out of the wagon and threw it on. In a matter of moments, she’d had it buckled and settled. Without a word, she flared her wings and took off. She zipped out the hatch like a missile, disappearing into the open air outside as the rest of us just stood there.

“Alright, alright, I get it.” Gauge’s voice carried into the room as she and Fruit walked in. Behind them strode the Captain. “I’ll be extra careful, dad. Just, promise me you’ll be careful in those tunnels.”

That perked my ear.

“Tunnels?” I asked, stepping away from the others as they got their gear back. “We need to get into the central spire and to the vault before Filius does.” I scrunched up my muzzle as the necromancer’s name simply rolled off my tongue. When had I started using his name? Moreso, how did I know?

“Pai and mom have been hard at work since we left. They’ve pulled out a wealth of information on this place.” Gauge said with a smile. “She thinks that there might be a way to turn off the storm generator from a mainframe under the island. If my dad can allow her access, we could shut off the storm and get one of the ships from the Baltimare chapter to help set up an outpost here.”

“I’m sorry,” The Captain began. “but I must insist that Fruit Cup be removed from your group and set on this task. I will spare another ranger to accompany you in his place, but this is non-negotiable.”

“Besides, I’d be no use to you in a fight.” Fruit cup gave a nervous laugh and did his best to avoid eye contact with me.

As much as I wanted everypony I could get to fight with me, this was at least something I could understand. They’d agreed to get us here, and in truth, that was more than they should have given me in the first place.

“Do what you must for your people.” I stared directly into the Captain’s eyes. “Thank you for helping us get here, I know it was a big risk to take.” I felt a shiver run down my spine as I spoke from a cold breeze that blew in through the hatch.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “I don’t think you know what it has cost.” She sounded angry, nearly snarling at me. “You killed one of my crew, the explosion nearly tore the ship apart, and even if we repair it we might not make it back.” She spat with so much discontent that I felt that maybe I’d insulted her at some point.

“I know, that’s…” I tried to interject, but didn’t make it too far.

“Furthermore, I’m risking the safety of my crew to protect your band of degenerate savages.” She was nearly heaving, her yellow slit eyes nearly ablaze in rage. “You’re lucky I…”

“Doppler!” Fruit cup yelled as he swung across her cheek with his prosthetic. He hit her hard enough that it knocked her captain’s hat right off of her head. Everypony in the room froze as the audible slap became momentarily louder than anything else in the world. All of us, Cottage, even the power armored guards had stopped to watch what would happen next.

“I…” Doppler blinked and frowned at me. Confused, she looked over to Fruit and sat down hard. “I don’t know what came over me.” She shook her head and picked up her hat slowly. Her hoof shook as she reached it out, shaking the hat lightly as she pulled it back up to her head. “Forgive me, that was uncalled for.”

“It’s just your nerves getting to you, Doppler. Just like old times, eh?” Fruit Cup placed his hoof on her shoulder and smiled. “This old gal will stand up to the trip back.” I wasn’t quite sure if he was saying it to convince her or himself. Either way, he didn’t sound too confident. “Storm will kill her target, I’ll get the Tempest generator down, and we’ll all head on back to base.” He leaned closer and wrapped his hooves around her in a tight embrace.

“Pst.” Gauge tried to whisper to Diesel. “What’s wrong with dad? He’s never this optimistic.” I looked over and watched as Diesel simply shrugged.

“He’s afraid.” Shadow called out from behind us. We all turned to find him standing on the ramp in his sleek black power armor. The way that he stood, along with the soft blue light that came off of his one energy weapon somehow reminded me of the old world recruitment posters for the Ministry of Awesome. I found myself smiling at him, thinking about our time on the steps of Tenpony.

“I believe that Storm can, and will get us through this.” His voice ripped me out of my thoughts. He smiled brightly at me as he continued. “She’s already endured more than any of us ever will, and she’s the closest thing we have to a weapon strong enough to win this fight.”

“He said you’re a weapon.” Tasteless leaned over to my ear and whispered to me, “I bet he want’s to wield you… all night long.” I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t worth even listening too.

“I know we all might not come back from this, and that we’re walking into a hell of a fight.” He pointed his hoof up and out of the hatch, casting his gaze there. “But the ponies of the wasteland need us, and She’ll make sure we don’t fail.”

Wow, is this what I sounded like back in Dodge? Sure, I’d thought I sounded inspirational at the time, but this sounds cheesy as all hell from the other side. Still, optimism in the face of danger was, if anything, better than accepting the reality of our task. With everything having already gone so horribly wrong, where was the harm in hoping it all went right from here on out?

A slow clopping came from Cottage as he deadpanned at Shadow. “Right…” He turned to Doppler and Fruit. “Captain, permission to escort Fruit instead of being stuck with the ‘happy sunshine and rainbows’ squad?”

“Request granted.” She spoke sternly. “You and Palladin Vinegret will escort Fruit Cup to the lower tunnels.” With a gruff sigh, she muttered something under her breath that I could just barely make out. “Celestia forbid you actually help the morale around here…”

There are nightmares out in the wastes that will twist your soul and devour it. Dangerous beings who would rend you in half if you so much as looked at them. These beastly creatures? They would fear this staircase.

“Oh come on, you big foal.” Tasteless taunted me from the control room at the top of this deathtrap. “It's not that bad.”

"Goddesses above, I swear, when I get up there..." I muttered as Pred and I carefully climbed our way up equestria's most rickety stairway. Every step invited a chorus of new groans that trailed down the entire length of the rusting metal carcass. Two centuries of sea air had corroded the fifty foot long stairway until I could feel how much it wanted to push itself away from it's wall mounts and finally die. Probably didn't help that a bunch of heavy assholes stomped up them without a care while wearing power armor and cybernetics.

Why was this the only way out of here anyway? Seems like a stupid idea, I mean, what if there was a fire? Actually, from what I understand, we’re technically underwater, so fire wouldn’t really be a problem then. I shook that thought from my head and instead resigned myself to knowing that it was just a stupid design.

“You mean if you make it up here. Who know’s, maybe we’ll all die of old age before you do.” Tasteless sighed and propped herself against the concrete doorway. “Besides, what are you so worried about? At least you'll die quick if you fall!”

“Not helping! Some of us aren’t immortal undead assholes.” I grunted and shakily put one hoof in front of the other. I’d thought that maybe if I closed my eyes it would help, but it only amplified the rocking that came from the stairs. “Hell, even Pai would be scared, and she lives in the most indestructible thing in the world!” I gave my pipbuck a quick shake. The stairway shifted as I waved, and I resolved never to let my hooves leave it again.

Tasteless shook her head at me. “Please, she's a machine. She doesn't have emotions.”

A soft static-like crackle came from my pipbuck before a halfway muffled cheerful voice came through.

“ I don't have emotions?” She spoke in a happier tone than she should have. It was an odd thing to hear her voice but not have her in my pipvision. Last time she was like that was back when she was still in the other orchard. Pai let out a loud gasp through the speaker. “That's so weird! Right now, my feelings are telling me that I resent you and everything you stand for! I totally can’t have emotions if that’s true! I’m so glad I can now kill you without something as limiting as regret, I mean, isn't that just great?”

“Whatever, bitch. You’re just an arcane construct anyway.” Tasteless sighed and looked boredly down at her metal hoof. “What do I care what you think. You can’t even touch me.”

“Well, you should care, seeing as I can wirelessly access any other local arcane tech. That means that I know what your arguments have been doing in their off time.” As Pai spoke, Tasteless cocked her eye at me. “That’s right, I know that they’ve been sleeping around! And you’ll never guess with who…” Pai trailed off and then gave a pregnant pause. “Spoiler, it’s me!” She jubilantly shouted through the speaker.

“Ugh, still don’t care.” Tasteless rolled her eyes and stood up again. I’d slowed my climb down so I could hear them talk over the squeaks, but Predious was still climbing as fast as he’d been. With him catching up, I picked up my pace again.

“Sure, roll your eyes at me missy, but you're augments know all your secrets.” She let out what sounded to be a static filled giggle, but it came across less like something fun, and more like a villain straight out of my old daring do books. “And you know what? They love to scream when we're…”

“Okay, that’s more than enough banter.” I interjected, not needing this right now. With another grunt, I planted my forehooves firmly on the concrete between Tasteless’ hooves and pulled myself into the room, shoving her out of the way. Panting and still shaking, I’d made it up the nightmarish walkway.

“You know what? You're a pretty ruthless little cunt.” Tasteless chuckled and sounded impressed. “You're alright in my book. You know, for a computer.”

“You have your own book?” Pai gasped out. “I love reading!”

“And there you go,” Tasteless sighed and headed for the door. “you lost it again.”

After a moment to collect myself, I pushed myself off the floor and headed toward the rusted door that lead to the outside. Several holes in the concrete roof let bright beams of sunlight down, but only enough that it let us see the rusting framework of the cargo loading cranes that sat unused above us. Even from inside, I could tell that the normal cloud cover that sat above the wastes was nowhere to be seen.

Stepping through the doorway, I had to shield my eyes from the brightness. Outside of the concrete walkway that connected the Sub pen to the island, white sand beaches stretched around the island in either direction. Still lush palm trees and thick leafed plants lined the upper end of the beaches, while strewn about them were the rusted and tattered reminants of chairs, umbrella’s, and other assorted resort items.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Shadow called out from above. Instinctively, I turned to look up at him, beaming a bright smile as I thought about how great this place seemed at first glance. Unfortunately, for as brightly as I smiled, the blazing sun easily outshined me. “Oh, sorry about that.” He laughed before he fluttered his way out of the air next to me.

“No, no. I’m not used to the sky being so bright.” I blinked a few times, hoping that the glaring afterimage of the bright ball in the sky would fade. As it did, I took a longer, second look around. Out over the ocean in every direction, rose a wall of grey that slowly rotated around us. The perpetual storm rose up what seemed like impossibly high around us, leaving a ring of blue sky just wider than the island itself that the sun currently clung to the edge of.

Five enormous metallic spires sat out in the water, placed at regular intervals around the island itself. They reminded me of the towers that were all across equestria, only much shorter. Each tower had a thick, windowed tube that stretched from near their top, over to the decrepit resort hotel before us. It looked a fair bit different than it had in the images that Pai had shown.

The hotel looked as if it had been encased in cement, standing as a slate grey monolith. Rusted metal shutters covered most of the windows, only a few of them had corroded enough to have completely fallen away. Thick metal pipes clung like massive spider webs to the exterior, tracing around, out, and into the structure. They climbed up to the top before they looked like they joined together as a makeshift pedestal. At the top, sat a wide metallic sphere that even from here, crackled loudly with energy. For a moment, I thought I saw a flash of green near the top, but when I blinked, it was gone.

“It's odd. I'd expected to see more ponies at the docks, and even up here there aren't any remains.” Predious spoke up from behind me. I think he caught us all off guard with that remark. The whole group of us gave a look around to confirm it. For as many as there were about the wasteland, not a single skeleton could be seen up or down the beaches. “Curious, as they would have had nowhere else to go when the end hit.”

“If I knew I was trapped, I'd have gone out at the bar in a drunken stupor.” Tasteless chortled lightly. “Panzy ass bitches probably killed themselves with painkillers in their rooms.”

“Yeah, but this was a military installation at the end, right?” Shadow retorted. “We’re told to wait for extraction if anything like this were to happen, so the docks would have been where they would wait.”

With a sense of dreadful recognition, an annoying thought hit me. “Did you all forget that somewhere on this Island is a necromancer,” I sighed and trudged past them. “Who I shouldn't have to remind you, has a huge head start on us.” I looked up at the base of the hotel, finding that the doors ahead were rendered broken nearly in half and strewn a few feet away. The gaping doorway let the darkness inside threaten us with the numerous horrors that surely waited inside.

It was a darkness that I’d hoped wouldn’t swallow us whole.