“I've been so scared of these dangerous moods, but I'm finding I'm so much different than you and it has to come down to who we choose to be.”

I wasn’t sure what I was looking at in front of me. Pallet hadn’t changed much since I saw her hanging up in Dodge, but she wasn’t the same. She had several large gashes across her barrel, and a long, jagged wound rising across her neck. She looked more like a ghoul than the mare I’d once known.

“How…?” I had to force myself to get out before my voice completely left me.

“Oh, come on, Storm.” Pallet rolled her eyes with a sigh. “You aren’t that stupid. Hell, you said it yourself back in Dodge. I’d die before I joined the Master.” A devious smirk spread across her muzzle, one that didn’t match the emotionless look in her eyes. “So that’s what I did.”

“This was all some ruse to get back to us, right?” I whined, not convinced that Pallet would ever agree to work for him. Yeah, so she would use him to get resurrected, but she’d never willingly join him.

“Pallet… what have they done to you?” Skyline spoke softly. Turning to look at her only showed me how much pain this was causing her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her eyes were wide in horror. “They’ve made you into a monster.”

“A monster?” Pallet snarled and snapped her wings out. “They didn’t do this,” She flapped her wings and drew her hoof across her half charred face. “the master brought me back, the master gave me the strength to carry on.” Her lips curled into a frown. “No, they’re the ones that saved me.”

“Bullshit.” I called out and stepped forward, pointing my hoof at her starkly. “You know the lives that Fillius has ruined, the pain he’s caused. He doesn’t save anyone.”

“No, Storm.” Her expression boiled with rage, but her dead eyes could only gaze at me. “You cause pain, and suffering, and death wherever you go.” She raised her hoof, but not at me. “And you aren’t the only one.” She looked at Skyline. “It was because of your brother that my parents are dead, and it was because of the things he did that I had to suffer with nightmares and horrors as a filly. You may have taken me in, but you did nothing to fix the filly you’d all broken.”

“Carlotta and I…” Skyline started, weakly shouting up at her in painful despair. “We took you in, raised you as our daughter…”

“The only thing you ever taught me was how to love mares.” She spat. “But you were not my parents.”

“Don’t listen to her.” Predious said as he put his hoof on Skylines shoulder. “The Pallet you knew is gone. She may have all the same memories, but the necromancy has corrupted her heart.”

“Ahem.” Tempest’s voice boomed from above. “As enjoyable as this family reunion has been to watch, we have an agreement that you must hold up.”

I hastily unslung my rifle. “Then let’s get this over with.”

“Oh, it is not you who will fight her, ringleader.” Tempest came across the speakers with an amused tone. “For your champion, I chose Skyline.”

“What?” Predious shook his head in outrage. “I thought she was exempt from the challenges because she wasn’t trespassing.”

“And when did I ever agree to that?” Tempest laughed lightly, dropping off into a sigh at the end, “You organics and your forgetfulness. Quite amusing to watch how riled up you all can become.” She cleared her throat and dropped her tone back to it’s normal cold and flat feeling. “Now, would the rest of you take your place in the decontamination square?”

“Sky…” I couldn’t ask her to do this. Yes, our Pallet had died in Dodge, but no mother should ever have to kill their foal.

“Go.” Sky snarled as she straightened out her battle saddle. She was still crying, but her eyes were nearly as blank as Pallets. She was going to fight, and she was going to try to finish this quick.

The rest of us shuffled off to the same striped cornet that had existed in the other room. I’d mentally remarked that while this room was the same design, it was devoid of any crates. So much as I could tell, this room hadn’t been used for anything.

My thoughts were cut off when the light hum of the forcefield projector kicked in. The pink barrier flickered for a moment as it rose around us. The light hum quickly varied and became a harsh whine, shortly before there was a loud pop under our hooves. The barrier flickered again, this time disappearing and not returning.

“Well, we seem to have had a bit of an issue with the containment field.” Tempest sighed. “No matter, the rules are still the same. None of the non-competitors shall leave the box until the challenge is over.” She stopped and waited for a moment, maybe waiting for one of us to object. “Competitor Pallet, will you be unarmed for this fight?”

“Oh, I’m armed,” Pallet smirked with another flap of her wings, “But I’ll only need my hooves to kill this bitch.” She gave a short laugh as she looked to her mother. Skyline snapped her wings up and wrapped her muzzle around her firing bit. She was an experienced fighter, and I’m sure would wait for Pallet to make the first move.

Tempest’s response was a simple, “Then you may begin.”

Almost as soon as she had said that, Skyline’s gauss rifles fired. The high speed shots didn’t find their mark as Pallet dropped down to floor level. Spreading her wings, she flipped to the side and zipped towards the group of us in the box. For a moment, I worried about Sky’s next shots missing and hitting us.

Those thoughts were misplaced as two separate parts of the concrete under Pallet erupted in a shower of dust. Skyline fired down on her from the rafters, forcing Pallet to shift her course away from us. There was a time long ago, when Pallet once asked me who she thought would win in a fight, her or her mother. Back then, I’d wanted to support Pallet, and had told her that she would win. It was a lie that I’d hoped would boost her confidence, but in my head I was sure that in a fight, Sky would come out on top.

There hasn’t been any other time in my life that I hoped to the goddesses that Sky could prove me right on that.

Between the rubble that Sky’s shots were causing and the quick melee strikes that Pallet were landing, it was hard to keep up with exactly what was going on in the fight. A flash of silver in Pallet’s muzzle roused a scream from Sky as she passed by her. A long crimson gash flowed lines of blood down Sky’s legs. At this rate, I was losing hope that Sky could win this. Sure, she could win if just one shot found its mark, but Pallet could just draw this out through small wounds.

Another flash, and another scream from Sky. A cut straight across her cutie mark made her howl in rage. In a blur, she spun towards us and fired. Pallet’s scream filled the air as the concrete in front of me exploded. Unfortunately, as it did, one of the chunks flew up and hit me hard. It caught me square in the chin, harder than any uppercut I’d ever gotten hit with. Of course, right as we start to win I go down for the count.

Wake…

“Gah!” I sat up on command.

My head felt like it was splitting apart, but that’s the downside of getting hit in the head as often as I found myself doing. I opened my eyes to find darkness all around me. In the darkness, once again sat six beams of prismatic light.

“I thought we were done with this.” I grunted as I got to my hooves. I’d already passed their tests, and it’s done nothing so far to help me fight Filius. “Why bring me back?”

“Because,” The purple beam spoke in the voice of aunt Twilight. “It is time you learn the cost to the burden you carry.”

“What?” I snorted at the idea. “How is there a burden to so called ‘hope’?”

“Hope is a powerful, but fragile thing.” She droned on in a way that conveyed absolutely no emotion. “It can change the world with only a single word,” She paused and looked to her side. A green mist formed, swirling slowly at the center. Then, with a flicker, an image appeared on it. “However, it can also be broken with one.”

I stepped closer to the image floating in front of me. It depicted a dark, candle-lit room. Odd symbols were written on tabards that hung from the walls, and scattered tomes lay about the floor. At the center of the image, a crimson robed pony stood with a knife in their levitation.

“In binding these souls to me,” The voice of Filius spoke through the image. I cringed as his words hit me hard. I worried that he was here for a moment, but then the stallion in the image pushed back his robe’s hood. “I pledge myself to the whims of the stars.”

I watched with bated breath as the knife raised above him, the silver edge pointing a line straight at the stallion’s heart.

“Wait!” A stallion shouted from somewhere unseen. A unicorn in bright metal armor burst into the room through a door that had been too obscured by darkness to see. I almost confused him with a steel ranger, but the sword and bright yellow cape came up odd to me. “Stop, Filius.” He panted heavily, holding out his hoof toward him.

“No, I shan’t.” Filius spoke with a commanding tone. “It is the only way to end this reign of Chaos, and I shall not waste that opportunity!” The knife wavered in his magic as the other stallion’s horn glowed brightly. “Release my blade, Gallant Shield.”

“This is not a fight worth dying over!” The other stallion shouted, taking a step forward. “The elements of harmony will be found, you will see.”

“Bah!” Filius waved his hoof, still wrestling for the knife with his magic. “The princesses are foals to search. They are mere legends, a mare’s tale, nothing more!”

“No, they do exist.” The armored stallion took another step forward. “I believe that they must, and that means this ritual of yours is useless.” He shook his head softly. “I cannot allow you to continue.”

“Why? Because some old tome promises that the elements exist? There is no evidence!” Filius gave out a hearty laugh that sent chills up my spine. “My ritual is based in the real studies of necromancy. Why do you persist in believing in fairy tales, Gallant?”

Gallant took another step forward, now standing inches from Filius.

“To save the life of my oldest friend?” His horn gave another flash, making the whole room glow bright enough that even I had to squint. Filius stood rigid, his horn going dark as he fell over paralyzed. “I’ll believe in anything.”

The orb grew dark. I stood in reflection of what I just watched. With all my will, I had wanted nothing more than to see that knife plunge deep into Filius’s chest. Even so, part of me knew that it was simply a memory. Filius couldn’t have killed himself because he’s still in the real world. Somewhere I should be right now working to stop him.

“The wicked often do not begin their journey on that path.” Aunt twilight spoke again, just as emotionless as before. The orb before me swirled wildly for a moment, slowly stopping as another image appeared before me. “Once a ponies hope is broken, it becomes easily tempered and forged by anger, hatred, and pain.”

The image resolved into another room. This one was much brighter, lit by candles that sat next to tapestries that displayed the goddesses on them. The large marble room was enclosed by a large bookcase that wrapped around a desk. Seated at that desk, was once again Filius. His muzzle was buried in an open book, and he muttered things as he read the pages.

A door out of the orb’s sight opened with the clattering of armored plating. Once again, the stallion from before walked into the room. This time, the armor he wore had almost a mirrored finish, that speckled in the candlelight.

“Come, Filius! You have locked yourself in this tower for so long, why not take leave for one night and join me for the festival!” His voice was almost slurred, and from the way his movements wavered, my guess was he had been drinking.

“No.” Filius growled, not even looking up from his book. “And of anypony to ask, I would not leave at your request.”

“Filius, what has overcome you my friend?” Galiant gave a lighthearted laugh that made Filius’s coat crawl. “There is no cause to be so hostile when we have this chance to make merry and celebrate!”

“What chance did the countless others get?” He finally looked up from his book, his eyes burning in anger. “How many could have been saved if you had simply let me finish? How many might not have suffered through Discord’s wrath, or lost their homes and families?”

“But I was correct all along!” Galiant waved his hoof in dismissal. “The princesses eventually found…”

“Hold your tongue!” Filius shouted as he stood up. As he did, a wave of force blasted the room. His horn glowed as books fell from the shelves, and Gallant stood against the pressure. “I will not have you stand here and trivialize those we lost!” Another wave of force blasted from his horn, throwing his chair and numerous papers about the room. Still, Gallant was steadfast.

“You’re life was not worth throwing away!” Now Gallant sounded worried, and as he should have been. The constant pressure from Filius’s spell was starting to slide him along the floor.

“What was my mortality to their’s worth to you?” Another wave of force emit, and this time Gallant didn’t stand up to it. Like a paper in the wind, he was tossed and pinned back against the wall. “How can you so easily write them off as if it were simply a part of a harvest that took to rot? They could have been saved.”

“Filius, Please.” Gallant grunted and struggled against the spell, but to no avail. “What has possessed you to such horrible actions that you would attack your oldest friend?”

Filius gave a wave of his hoof. Abruptly, the force dissipated and Gallant fell back to his hooves. Without a second look, Filius grabbed his chair in his levitation, walked back over to his desk, and sat back at his book.

“It is no matter you need concern yourself with.” He growled, turning the page with a hoof. “You may have stopped me from dying that night, but it is you who are dead to me now.”

“Surely you can’t mean…” Gallant spoke up, letting his words drop off as Filius simply waved him off without a glance.

“Leave me,” Filius snorted and pressed his muzzle into his book. “Or I will have the guards escort you out.”

The image faded once again, this time the green mist left with it. Once again, I was unsure of what I was supposed to glean from this look into Filius’s past. It hadn’t changed what I had to do, nor how I’d felt about doing it.

“You misunderstand.” The light that held Mama’s voice spoke up softly. “Hope is something that must be nurtured, cared for like a delicate flower.”

“How am I supposed to do that when I can’t even take care of anypony in the wastes?” I hated being fed riddle after riddle from these… these things! Why couldn’t anything they said just make sense for once?

“You are so sure of what you must do to save the ponies you know, but you do not understand the price that you may pay should your own hope breaks.” Aunt Dash spoke up. “You are willing to give your life for them, but you must know that if you do, they will lose their own hope.”

“Darling,” Aunt Rarity chimed in now. “You were made to watch the images so that you would know what will happen should you lose your own hope.”

“No, there is no way I’d turn out like him.” I scoffed. As if I could ever…

“You’d be worse.” Aunt Twilight snapped at me, showing off the first sliver of emotion that I’d heard from any of them. “Hope lies with you and you alone. Should that hope break, there is no end to the suffering that would come to everything you know.”

The ground under my hooves shook, and a light ringing filled the air.

“Now go,” Aunt Twilight boomed through my head. “and remember what you must do.”

The ground under me shattered into a million shards of obsidian, and my world was instantly filled with light.

“Foals!” Tempest’s voice was by far the worst thing to wake up to, more so with her volume cranked up to head splitting levels. “This was not part of our agreement! Your continued interference with the fight will nullify our agreement.”

“Hold her down!” Sky’s voice was full of pain as she screamed out. It was a different kind of pain than the one that pulsed through my aching skull, but somehow I felt like it was probably worse than mine.

“You… shot my fucking wing off!” Pallet screamed out. “You fucking bitch!”

“Woah, woah, easy there.” Predious spoke in a near whisper. His hoof helped to prop me up as I tried to get my own hooves under me. I had to blink a few times to get my vision to stop spinning, and when I did, I found Pallet being held captive by her forehooves. Both Tasteless and the Major held a hoof out, while Sky kept her guns trained on Pallet.

“Pallet, I know you’re still in there.” She spat through teary eyes. “You’re a good pony, you don’t have an ounce of hate in you.”

With a laugh, she struggled against the major and Tasteless. “How would you know? You found me as a filly, you aren’t even my real mom!” Pallet’s muzzle twisted into a wicked smirk. “Besides, you were always too busy doing work to ever care about me when I was growing up.” The glare that she gave to Sky was one I’d never seen her wear in her entire life. “Carlotta raised me to be strong, to be better than you. And when she died, you ran off and left me alone.”

“You aren’t you right now.” Skyline pleaded, stepping up and putting a hoof on her chest. “It’s just the magic in you that’s messing up your head.”

“No, my head is better than ever!” She cracked an ever wider grin than before, but now I could see tears streaming down her cheeks. “You’re just too weak and stupid to realize that you didn’t even know your own daughter before she died.” As she finished, Sky pulled her hoof away in horror. “You didn’t even realized that I hated you.”

The sharp report of Sky’s gauss rifles was quickly followed by another agonizing scream from Pallet. Her other wing dropped to the floor in bloody ribbons, severing her from the sky forever.

“Fucking hell that hurts!” Pallet cried softly. She looked down at the tattered wing as it sat on the floor, sobbing and quivering at it’s sight. “W-why?”

“Because, I know you can fight this magic in you.” Skyline got out between her own sniffles. “Pallet, I love you.” She sat down hard, her legs shaking as she stared at Pallet’s ragged form before her. “I want you back. I want my little filly back.”

“Kill her.” Tempest boomed over the speakers again. I swore to the goddesses that I will tear her into scrap for forcing Sky to even go this far.

“You shut the fuck up!” Sky snapped at her with what was on all our minds. “Just shut up!”

For some reason, Tempest did. No rebuttal, no threats, just simply silence. I think it threw all of us off, as the whole room became eerily quiet. Like all things in the wasteland, it didn’t last long.

Pallet slumped down, going limp against the hooves that held her. She whimpered and cried, breaking the lull that permeated the room.

“I’m so sorry mom.” Her words were soft spoken, and they didn’t ring of the hate she’s had only a moment ago. “I… I didn’t mean any of it. The magic, it...”

“Shhh, shhh.” Skyline hushed as she nearly leapt upon Pallet, wrenching her from Tasteless and the Major. “It’s okay, sweetie. I knew you were strong enough to fight it.”

Pallet pressed against Sky and balled her eyes out into her neck. Even with the pounding in my head, and the fact that we still needed to get through this orchard, it seemed that finally we’d won against the necromancer. I could finally just take a moment to catch my breath.

“Can you forgive me?” Pallet sniffled and hooked a forehoof around Sky, pulling her in tightly.

“You’re my daughter, Pallet.” Skyline said through her tears and a light chuckle. “I’ll love you no matter what you do.”

“Good.” Pallet sighed. She gave Sky a pat on the back before looking over to me. Her lips spread as her malicious grin pulled across it again, and her emotionless eyes didn’t reflect the sorrow that she’d portrayed. In that moment, I realized that the necromancer had created the perfect weapon to use against us. In that same moment, there was a sickening crack. Skyline let out a breathless gasp as Pallet stepped up against her.

She’d had us all fooled. The turnaround had come so quickly, that even though we’d all seen it, nopony moved. We simply watched in silent horror in that one moment. But the moment passed, and as Pallet pushed Skyline away and turned for the door, The Major and Predious both darted for Skyline. The red pegasus mare, one of the first ponies I’d ever known, slumped down to the floor with a sheet metal knife buried in her chest. With a heavy thud, the doors to the challenge room opened up, and Tempest emitted a sickening laugh.

Shadow, Tasteless, and Gauge all shouted things at what felt like the same time, but I couldn’t hear them as they chased after. It had all happened so fast, that I wasn’t sure what was going on outside of just me and Skyline laying on the floor. Predious and the Major were yelling at each other for things, and Pred’s hooves were stained crimson as he put pressure on her wound.

Still, I heard nothing but the sound of ragged breathing, and the only thing I saw was Skyline looking up at me from the floor.

“Storm?” She coughed, “P-please… she’s still in there.”

Parts of my mind were screaming at me to do so many different things. I wanted to cry, to scream, to chase Pallet down and murder her using every bit of anger I had in me. I couldn’t, not yet. First, I had to watch Skyline slowly die. Not from the dagger now lodged in her heart, but from the heart that Pallet’s death had already taken from her. From the heart that through my actions, had ripped from her.

“Y-you have…” She stuttered as more blood flowed down her side. Predious yelled something at me again, but still I only heard Sky. “have to save… her.” Her breathing became more sporadic with each passing moment, and she lost her focus on me. “Please… save....”

Then she was gone.

I wanted to quit. I was so fucking done with losing, so entirely done with the wasteland and all of it’s horrific bullshit that it threw at me day after day. The thought constantly crossed my mind as I sat there staring at Sky’s lifeless body. All it would take was one flick of my hoof, one bullet to stop the pain.

I couldn’t even lift a hoof to try.

The thought constantly crossed my mind, but every time it did I thought about the ponies who’d already given so much for me. The elements had chosen that moment to remind me that of all ponies, I was the one who can’t give up hope. Pallet, Skyline, Daddy, Momma, my parent’s here in the wastes. They’d all gave up so much just to help carry me this far, to give us all a chance at ridding the world of Filius once and for all.

Knowing that I alone had to carry the weight of hope on my shoulders didn’t make losing Sky feel any less painful. She deserved better than this, she deserved to have her daughter back. She never stopped believing that Pallet was still inside that body for one second. Maybe she was right to. Pallet seemed to still have all her memories, so why wouldn’t she still somehow exist under all that magic? If there really is a way to bring her back to the way she was, then I owe it to Skyline to figure it out.

“Are you okay?” Shadow spoke up from beside me. He’d been sitting there next to me in silence for the last few minutes, fuming over how Pallet somehow got away. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I’m an idiot.” He sighed. “I know you aren’t okay, it’s just…”

I did something I never thought I would, but I turned and threw my hooves around him and pulled myself tightly against his chest. I didn’t care that I was hugging his bulky armor, I just needed to be close to somepony who was still here, still alive.

“Thank you for being here.” I got out in barely a whisper. I feared that if I opened my muzzle too much, I’d just break down and cry. Even with how good that would have felt, the feeling of him returning the hug was more than enough to help stem those urges.

“Look, Storm…” He leaned back and curled his armored hoof under my chin. “I…”

“So, my little ponies.” Tempest’s aggravating voice interrupted him. “I hope you all aren’t done with the challenges I’ve set up. I know that trying to help your friend was too tempting, and that you knowingly broke the rules in helping her.” The rules weren’t the only thing I’ll break when I got my hooves on her mainframe. “But, seeing as she came out the loser, I figured that in the spirit of good sportsponyship, I’d forgive this one infraction.”

“Sportsponyship?” The major stomped a hoof on the floor. “This mare died to your little game!”

“Why yes, she did.” The mirth that flooded through was gut-wrenching. “Oh, and it was so very enjoyable to watch.” She gave out a laugh that echoed even through the open halls outside of the room. “Oh, I’ll miss you all when you’re dead.”

I was about to give her a piece of my mind when Predious trotted back in wearing a lighter expression across his muzzle.

“Storm, you’re going to want to come see this.” Predious nodded out the doorway leading to the hall. From behind him, I heard more quick hoofsteps approaching. In a flash, Gauge appeared with the biggest smile I’d seen on her. across her back, lay an odd looking tube that had even more tubed looping around it.

“Oh goddesses,” She giggled. “you’ll never guess what they were testing in the weapons labs!” Her horn glowed and hefted the large item from her back and onto her shoulder. From the way it was oriented, it looked like somepony took a rocket launcher and mounted a small spark reactor to the back of it. “They had a mint condition redeemer!”

I looked over to Pred, who looked slightly disappointed in Gauge as she waved the giant weapon around in glee.

“Does the weapons lab look like the next challenge area?” I asked, really hoping that he’d say no, but I had a sinking feeling that carrying hope and having it were two entirely different concepts.

He shook his head. “No, the firing range seems to be it.” He shrugged and waved his hoof for us to follow. “Got some neat stuff in there that you might want to see.”

“Don’t have to ask me twice.” Tasteless said with the crack of her joints. “Always love playing with new toys.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a second.” I nodded and watched him frown. “I’ll just be another moment.” That seemed to sate him for now, as he gave a nod before turning back in the hallway. With a sigh, I turned back to Shadow. “So, what was it you were saying?”

He nervously smiled and avoided my gaze. “N-nothing. I’ll tell you later,” He got up and pat me on the shoulder. “Maybe when we’re not being threatened by a psychotic computer,” He looked down to where Sky lay, the sight instantly souring his joyous mood. “Or when we’re not losing any more of us.”

“Yeah.” I sighed, not looking back at her again. Sky was gone, and no amount of grieving would get me any closer to saving anypony. “That would be a nice start.”