“We really shook the pillars of heaven, didn't we?”

The detonation of the precision artillery rounds blasted wave after wave of compressed air and snow into the old cafe. We all braced against it, listening as even over it we could feel the cracking of the Hotel’s concrete foundation. The straining steel sounded like the mournful cries of an enormous beast, lost in the night. Then the vibrations under our hooves picked up. The old picture frames that still desperately clung to the walls jiggling as the tower began its transition to it’s final resting place. The sound of shattering glass, breaking stone, and whistling wind met our ears momentarily.

Then, it hit the ground.

It had been if somepony was shaking out an old rug. The ground felt like it rippled, and the impact of the strike shook everypony but Predious off their hooves. Of course, only a half-second later, the blast of displaced air from the massive collapsed structure slammed into the cafe. Even wearing the heavy, old radio, Pred was picked up and tossed like a leaf on the wind.

The building above us let out it’s own pained groan, snapping my attention up the ceiling. A spidering crack crept it’s way across the old plastering, and it sent the pit of my stomach churning. Old tunnels, secret research labs, creepy buildings, and now even normal buildings. I’m not so sure that anywhere is safe anymore when I’m around.

Then, as if it had forced itself back into our lives, the silence of the cold night returned.

“Well.” Cheap Shot spat out through a groan. “Ain’t sure about anypony else, but dat just about does it for me.”

“Yeah…” Kiwi moaned, rolling herself back over to her hooves. “I’m all good with heading back now.” Like a thick fog, a heavy cloud of dust rolled into the cafe. As I looked around, I found that the dust was so thick that it had become hard to see Kiwi only a few feet from me. “Great, how could…”

“WAIT!” I shouted at her, cutting her off as I whipped my hoof out to her. Even with the low visibility, I found her staring wide eyed at me in surprise. “Don’t fucking say it. Don’t you fucking even think that phrase.” It may have been superstition, but I am so tired of the wastes finding every chance possible to shit on every little win we have.

“Hail!” Shadow’s voice echoed through the night from outside. He was still a ways off, but he was still alive! “Get ready!” He shouted again, this time sounding closer. As I scrambled to my hooves, my ears picked up that same high pitched whine that was really starting to annoy the shit out of me.

“Storm, wait!” Predious groaned as he too picked himself up off the floor.

Of course I didn’t wait. Shadow needs my help, and I needed to help him however I could. The whine of the virtibuck grew louder, and I started to even hear the whirring of the rotating blades that kept the steel machine in air.

“Come on, let's talk about it! It's not like I still don't love you.” Iron’s voice seethed over a loudspeaker from the craft. It was so close, that I ducked down and hoofed out my gun. It sounded as if she were right on top of me! “Come out and face me, sweetiekins. Can’t you just be a good little husband and die already?”

The whirring of the blades and heavy thrumming of the engines closed in, the dust around me swirled away in an instant. Above me, creeping along through the air, was the looming Vertibuck. I hadn’t really understood the size of one of these things before. The one that Shadow had crashed in looked smaller, but I guess that comes with most of it having been strewn across five hundred feet of dirt. Who knows, maybe they had different sizes of the frightening machines.

Unslinging my rifle, I figured that the easiest way to find out would be to see what this one looked like smashed into the ground as well!

Holding my rifle up, the wash from the rotor blades made it harder for me to stay steady on my rear hooves. Looking up had been no easy task either, my eyes straining to find something critical to aim at. However, the soft light through the bulbous glass cockpit made it a little easier to see. Through it, I could see her. Holding my rifle as steady as I could, I pulled the trigger.

It had been far from my best shoot, and I knew it. My round punched through the glass pane right in front of Iron. Without much trouble, the bullet punched through the upper side of the glass cockpit as well and zipped away into the night. With a grumbling sigh, I watched as Iron looked around quickly, tracing the shot back down to me.

“You!” She seethed through her loudspeaker, a devious smirk crawling across her muzzle.

“Hail, NOW!” Shadow shouted out.

A familiar hiss that I’d encountered plenty of times before traveled quickly overhead. The side of the Virtibuck blasted outward above me, and the sound of rending metal was matched with an oscillating whine of the virtibuck’s engines.

“No!” Iron whined as flames erupted from the hole punched through her machine. The heavy steel vehicle spun on it’s axis, drifting of to the side as it did. I watched in amusement as Iron’s only advantage whirled out of control, the whole machine flipping over before slamming down onto the street with a heavy crunch. The still running engines spun the blades into the dirt for a moment before they too ripped from their mountings and came to a sputtering stop. The flickering fires that burned from the scraps illuminated the area to a muted white, but still didn’t help me see anything at all.

“Thanks for the dis…” Shadow started to say from right behind me.

I screamed and bucked out reflexively. Unlike every other pony I’ve ever done that too, this time I was the one ending up with my face in the snow. My hooves probably didn’t leave more than a smudge against his chest plate, and my embarrassment flared when he gave out a chuckle from behind me.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He said, using his augmented strength to pick me back up. With a quick toss of his hooves, he helped to spin me around to him. The moment I was looking into his deep blue eyes, I leaned forward and kissed him. I’d never been so happy to see somepony in my life.

“Storm!” Pred shouted as he hobbled his way through the intense cloud of dust. I really hoped that he wouldn’t get lost in it. For that matter, I’d really hoped that Cheap Shot could find his way back to the rendezvous point with this kind of visibility. “Storm, are you there?!”

“Again!” The annoyed voice of Hail grew closer. “Why is it that you insist on interfering?” With a few quick flaps, Hail dipped down through the dust and planted herself on her hooves next to me. She growled with an angry glare at me before I could even break off the kiss with Shadow. “You could have killed Iron! Do you know how much paperwork that would have gotten me!?” With a flick of her wing, the energy rifle at her side pulsed blue. I recognized it as one of those useless pulse rifles that harmony had trouble selling. They were good for nothing but stopping robots! Oh, that would mean power armor too I guess... “Non-lethal and spark weaponry only.” With that, a small cover extended over the multi barrel rocket launcher on the other side of her suit.

“Knight!” Iron painfully cried out of the virtibuck crash. “Get off your lazy flank and help!”

And Hail was worried I could have killed her. Honestly, I wasn’t surprised that she’d survived the crash. I mean, it wasn’t because she was so close to the ground already, it was more that she was just too stubborn to die.

Just a flutter of noise to my side caught my attention.

The world tumbled and I was painfully rolling along the ground without any reason. I let my rifle go, and pushed out a whine as I pushed my legs out to stop me. As I reoriented myself, I looked up to find the purple mare from Pai’s orchard standing over a slumped over Shadow. She had him pinned on the ground, and the bladed tail on her armor was poised to strike down at his head. She looked over at me for only a moment, pure malice in her silver eyes.

A series of quick blue bolts fired from the cloud. They zipped just beside the mare, narrowly missing her. In a flash, she pushed off and was in the air again. Shadow was spared for the moment, and my heart thumped against my chest again.

“Storm!” Hail snapped. “Keep watch for Knight! She’s the fastest one of the Cross family!”

“What?” I called back, quickly looking around for my rifle. Spotting it laying in the snow, I quickly scrambled over to it. “How am I supposed to do anything about that!?” Seriously, this is exactly why I hated taking contracts for Pegasi.

“Fucking moronic dirt herder!” She said in frustration. Hey, even if I hated fighting pegasi, that was no excuse to be racist! “You’ve got a pipbuck! Goddess damned use it!” Racist or not, she had a good point.

“Storm?” Predious called out again. “What’s going on?”

“Get back in the cafe!” I shouted back to him, swinging my vision around. I almost missed the red line weavering off to my side. I only heard a flutter, but having fallen for it once before, my instincts kicked in. Pushing off, I rolled myself to the side. A purple and black blur zipped past me before arcing back up into the air.

A red flash in the dust came from my left, and Hail let out her own whine before she flapped and flew past me into the air. The smell of ozone threw my mind back to the giant machine Pallet had tried to murder us with.

I really hated energy weapons.

“Bitch!” Iron growled out. “Fucking… shit get off me!” The sound of straining metal only intensified after a few moments. “Argggg! Fucking fine!” She was fuming as she banged on the metal. If I had to bet, I would have to say she was pinned in the wreck. “Sis! My armor’s pinned!” Bingo.

“Take it off!” Knight called back from the cloud. Red and blue flashes pulsed above me, and the sound’s of both her and Hail zipping around filled the air.

“Fine.” Iron huffed. “I didn’t need this stupid armor anyway.” With a groan, she sounded like she flopped onto the ground and gave off a sigh.

“Oh yeah, take it all off.” I taunted at her. Sure, it might have been stupid to give myself away, but she didn’t have anywhere to go now. Stepping closer to where she’d been speaking a moment ago, I’d wondered just how injured she was from the crash. Not every day as a bounty hunter in the wastelands was clear enough to see. She would be on the move now that she was free, and she’d be on the run. “You know, I don’t mind the company of a mare every now and again…” I trailed off while I looked around for any sign of movement. Keeping one hoof around my rifle, I turned myself, estimating where I’d eventually run into her.

Only I didn’t.

I paused and turned my ears as I looked around the snow at my hooves. She should have been right here. No hooftracks, no blood, no reason she shouldn’t have run. Turning around, I looked back behind me, and started walking back toward the vertibuck. As I did, a red bar appeared on my EFS, and again, I did my best to move out of the way. Unfortunately I’d caught it too late this time.

The scattered red beams from Knight’s energy weapon melted holes in the snow, but she still managed to land a hard kick on me as she flew past. The air was once again forced from me as it felt like I was picked up and drilled into the ground again. My ribcage crunched as I came back down, and I screamed out in pain. Laying in the snow, I gasped and got the air back into my lungs.

“Iron is mine to love and mine alone!” Knight yelled out as she flew overhead. “She doesn't need anypony more than me! Nopony satisfies her more than me!” Knight screamed out as she fired at me wildly through the dust.

Instead of attempting to move like I had the last two times, I raised my rifle and cycled the lever. She was smarter than I gave her credit for and pulled up. I leaned back as she did, flattening against the snow as the bladed tail of her armor swiped through the air just where my head had been.

“She’s your sister!” Hail growled out as she tore through the cloud after Knight. As she pulled up, blue beams struck out from her side as she let loose with her own magical energy rifle.

“Better than being a traitor to your own captain!” Knight screamed out again at her. “Or some disgusting wasteland lover!”

I have seen some fucked up relationships in my life, but Iron and Knight? Yeah, that takes the cake...

“Storm!” Pred shouted, the dark form of him appearing through the dust cloud as he ran toward me. “What do I need to do to help?” Trotting over to me, he hooked his hoof around my neck and pulled. Quickly, I got up with his help and looked around.

“Look, we need to find Iron.” I said, lowering my voice to a whisper. Pulling myself into a crouch, I slowly crept back toward the virtibuck. “She’s unarmored and probably injured.”

“Love!” Iron screamed out from damn near right next to me. “Help!”

Looking over, I saw a brown lump slowly moving across the ground in the snow. Predious followed as I all but jumped over in front of her. Her angry eyes stared up at me through her frazzled peppermint striped mane as she sat splayed out with her hind legs dragging behind her. A large discolored patch of flesh on her back caught my eyes just above her limp wings.

“You can’t walk, can you?” Predious snorted. “Good to know that Longbow’s shot wasn’t for nothing.”

The red bar in my EFS returned, and again, I was too slow to react. Again, I was bowled over, this time along with Pred. We didn’t roll too far, but the hit knocked my rifle from my hooves, and my revolver from Pred’s magic. Shrugging the hit off, I looked up to find Knight’s snarling expression standing over me. Her tail curled up to strike, and I started to try to move.

“No!” Predious shouted, diving through the air and smashing ontop of me. The weight of him and his gear felt like it was crushing me, I couldn’t breath again. The sickening crunch of metal and cry that Pred gave made me freeze. As I sat trying to process what had just happened, Knight pulled her tail out from Pred’s back. With a shudder, Predious went limp on me, and my mind went blank.

Pred… he couldn’t be gone.

“Fuck them, let’s just go!” Iron shouted. Knight’s glare was broken by her sister’s words. She snarled as she stared at me before turning around. “Come on already!” Iron hissed. I couldn’t see over Pred’s body, but I heard as she walked a few steps and pulled up her sister. With a few flaps of her wings, she was gone.

“Oh, goddesses.” Predious groaned from on top of me.

“Pred?” I grunted, still struggling to breath with him pressing down on me. “You’re… alive?” He was alive! “Are you… alright?” I whined, feeling as he wiggled and got his hooves onto the ground around me. After a moment, he whimpered and pushed himself up off of me. Quickly, I scrambled out from under him and got back to my own hooves. My body hurt all over from the beating I’d let it have tonight, but so long as Pred would make it, I could carry on.

“You two!” Hail called out, slowly hovering down from the dust. “You two alright?” She looked like hell. The right side of her face had a large gash that tore from her muzzle up over her now missing left eye. Her left wing was charred black and looked more similar to a burnt twig than anything that was meant for flight. On top of that, her armor sparked at the rear, and a soft whine emit from the sheared off remains of where her own spiked tail blade used to sit.

With a pained grunt, Pred lifted his hoof up and tugged at the strap of his combat helmet. With a muffled crunch, he let it fall into the snow. Next, he sat down and hoofed at his combat armor. The fact that he wasn’t saying anything worried me. He simply stared at me, a hurt and determined look mixing in his eyes as he undid the armor strap by strap with his hooves. With a heavy creak, he undid the last strap, and the heavy radio and armor dropped off of him. The inside of the combat armor was torn, and I could see just the smallest bit of snow through the hole that had been punched through both it and the radio.

“See?” He finally spoke up, twisting to look over his back. A puncture would no longer than a few inches sat bleeding black ichor just to the right of his spine. “And you thought the radio was going to be useless to bring.” He chuckled lightly before collapsing forward with a dramatic sigh. “I agree with the others.” He spoke in muffled tones through the snow at my hooves. “I’m ready to be done with tonight.”

“Yeah, but we aren’t done yet.” I sighed, looking up to Hail as she stood there. I could tell she wanted to scream from the pain of her own wounds, but she was putting up a damn good fight doing it. “Pred, give Hail one of our potions.”

“Save it.” She grunted. “I’ll make it back up above the clouds well enough.” Looking up into the dust filled night sky, she sighed. “Hell, maybe looking like this will help them forgive me for letting those two slip through my hooves.” She kicked at the snow around her hooves. “Should have known they were ...that together. Disgusting.”

“Losing them wasn’t your fault...” I spoke up, letting my words drift off as she glared at me with her remaining eye. Again, she was going to blame us for ruining shit. I just knew it, because I walked right into it.

“Yeah.” Was all she said before turning around. “I didn’t anticipate Knight being so aggressive in this fight. Her sister’s paralysis has really hit her harder than I’d anticipated. She had quite the rage problem, even before the surgery went bad. Now that her sister is both immobile and flightless, she’s fighting twice as hard as I’ve ever seen her fight before.” Hail shrugged. “If you can’t tell, I don’t think she’s going to ever let their mother’s grudge go now. I’d watch your back from here on out.”

“Thank you.” Predious whined as he pulled himself back up. “For all your help.”

“If I ever see you again, you’re going to fucking answer for all the shit you’ve fucked up to make my job a living hell.” Hail glared back at me. “And if I don’t see you, then take care of him.” Her words caught me off guard. “For what it’s worth, Shadow isn’t the only one up above who thinks the way things are run up there is wrong.” That brought a smirk to my muzzle. “He’s better off down here. At this rate, you wastelanders will have to learn to grow wings and come up to show us how wrong we are.” She whined again and raised her hoof into a quick salute. Still racist, but she’d earned the right to be for what she’s already done to help. “Until then.”

“Agent Hail.” I gave her a nod and my own salute back.

“Ma’am.” She sighed and gave a flap of her wings. Silently, she floated off into the night, and it was just Predious and I standing in the snow. For a moment, we just stood, listening as the distant fighting around the city continued. A long groan came from behind us, and I recognized it as Shadow’s. Trotting over, Pred and I found him laying on in the snow still, looking around with unfocused eyes and a small line of blood running down from under his mane.

“Hey guys.” He groaned, trying to pick himself up again. He lost his hoofing and crashed back down into the snow with a thump. “What did I miss?”

“Half this war it feels like...” Pred trailed off into a grumble. “I believe a helmet might help with further head trauma.”

“Come on.” I sighed, raising my rifle to sling it over myself but stopping as my ribs reminded me that some of them were probably barely holding together. “Let’s get Cheap. With the casino down, we need to head to the rendezvous point.”

“Should be anytime now.” I grumbled, looking back through the dark city as the firefights in the distance continued to roar. “Longbow and the Elder sure are taking their time.”

We’d been walking through the old streets for near an hour now. I could see the lights that illuminated the Arena district growing ever closer in the night sky. We needed to hurry.

“If the elder is on it,” Kiwi responded as she hobbled closer to me, favoring her burned rear leg. “Then I’m certain he’ll get it done.” She winced in pain as she smiled, holding zero doubt in her words about what she’d just said. “However…” She trailed off, looking over to Cheap Shot. “If we’ll ever get back is a good question.”

“Hey, I’m doin what I can!” He grumbled, as he helped Oil Can hobble along the old road. “I coulda sworn dat there was an entrance around here…”

“What is actually a good question,” Pred snorted and cocked his eyebrow at me, “is where are all of Filius’ little zombies?”

“I don’t… ah! Care.” Salsa whined from atop Shadow’s back as her leg bounced against him roughly. She cradled her melted stump with a whimper before trailing off. “So long as we get back, I won’t question it.” She did her best to twist around and look behind her. “You think so too, right Cinnamon?”

The red unicorn gave a quick nod before continuing on as silent as ever.

“Hey, Kiwi?” I asked, lowering my voice a little. “Why doesn’t Cinnamon ever say anything?”

“Who, Chips?” She answered with a shocked tone. “I thought it was obvious?” With that, she paused and looked at me as if I were supposed to glean something from that. “The scar on her neck?”

“Scar?” I said bluntly as I looked back over to Cinnamon, who was attentively listening in to us. As I looked, a faded red splotch of coat sat in the center of her neck. Honestly, it blended in so well, I wasn’t sure I would have ever seen it had it not been pointed out.

“Cinnamon can’t speak anymore.” Kiwi sighed. “Back at the fight for Alpha base, she was hit by an energy weapon in the throat. Her voice box was destroyed, but she didn’t even let that hit slow her down.” As she said it, an immense look of pride came over Cinnamon. “She practically saved all our lives down there.”

“Eeyup!” Salsa spoke up in the first non-depressed way since before her leg melted. “Ever since we were born really, the three of us girls have stuck together!” She sighed, wincing as her leg bounced on Shadow’s armor again. “And I’m sure a few wounds like these won’t change that.” And there the depression was again. Even Cinnamon gave in for a moment and tried to look at the broken remains of the horn on her forehead.

“You know,” Predious spoke up again, “I distinctly remember a trio of ambitious young filly friends from before the war. They founded Stable-Tec, and I shouldn’t have to tell you quite how many lives that their innovations and inventions had saved.” He shot a glance over to each one in kind. “Keep it up, and maybe you three can make an even bigger impact one day.”

“Pft, right.” Kiwi scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to change the world. I just want to go back to the lab in base and tinker.”

“Yeah…” Salsa sighed. “As much as the firearms range was loud and annoying, at least those guns weren’t pointing at me.”

Cinnamon nodded in agreeance and gave Predious a bit of a shrug.

“Wait a moment… is dat...?” Cheap Shot spoke up before squinting ahead. A wide smile broke across his muzzle. “Oh thank the goddesses we ain’t lost!”

“I thought you said you knew where we were going?” Shadow spoke up.

“Well, obviously I did, cause dat’s the entrance right there!” He stopped and raised his hoof to point at the solid brick wall to a ruined bar that sat on the corner of the block. Walking up to it, I really wanted to say that he’d finally lost it out here, but I’d seen enough secret entrances to places that I decided to trust him.

Leaning down, he brushed the light coating of snow off of a brick close to the building. With a firm press, he pushed the brick down, and a soft hum met our ears. The sidewalk next to him jolted for a moment and lowered down an inch or so.

“The Whinnychester pub here should only be a few sewer junctions away from where we’re supposed ta meet back up.” Cheap nodded, pointing his hoof to the slightly sunken slab. “Alright, who want’s ta go down first?”

“You spent this whole time looking for a bar’s store room lift?” Salsa grumbled from Shadow’s back as he walked forward and stood on the slab.

“Well, ya wanted ta be safe, right?” Cheap Shot feigned offence before putting his hoof on his chest proudly. “Dis is one o’ the few tunnels in Baltimare dat only I know of!”

“So, if I find one of those undead assholes down here waiting for me…” Salsa smirked. “Then I can shoot you, right?”

“Sure.” He grumbled, pressing down on the brick at his hooves. Both Shadow and Salsa quickly descended down below the sidewalk as the sound of old hydraulics whined from inside the building. “What ever makes ya feel better.” Looking over at me, he gave me just the hint of a hopeful smile.

“Nice work, Cheap.” I said, watching as his expression grew brighter at that. “Not just with this. You held it together out there when we needed you. Thank you.”

“I wanted to thank you as well.” Oil Can spoke up, groaning as he pulled himself off of Cheap’s side. He turned his gaze to Predious and held out his hoof to him. “To both of you, for keeping us going out there.”

“We all did our part.” Predious nodded and lightly took Oil’s hoof in his. The sound of the hydraulics reversing met our ears. The empty platform rose back, ready for the next set of ponies. Pred shifted himself and let Oil drape his hoof over him. “Ready to head in?”

“You bet I am.” He replied with a wide smile.

Finally arriving at the tunnel that was supposed to lead us back to the new forward command post, I felt apprehensive staring up at the ladder. Everypony else had gone up ahead, but I kept staring at the words on the wall just under the hatch that lead inside.

I knew that I had to go up, Filius wouldn’t be waiting too much longer with us closing in on him. However, the thought of climbing up and seeing Gauge, or Harmony, or anypony else I knew hadn’t returned alive? That scared me to death.

Sacrifice is by it’s own nature, an act of generosity

Aunty Rarity’s words echoed through my mind. What made seeing my friends up there any different than the countless others we lost just getting to the hotel? I couldn’t stand here and weigh their lives any differently than anypony else I knew. It was time that I took the advice I was given, and to stop hiding from death.

Firmly, I hooked my sore legs through the rungs, and climbed.

Pulling myself into the sterile room, I looked around. A stack of pony shaped, bloody and yellowing sheets were lined against each of the walls. The dead who could be brought back here, had already been stacked three high. Honestly, that’s better than I had expected, and worse than I’d wanted.

“Storm?” Predious spoke up from the door. “You’re needed. Gauge has an idea she wants to pitch.”

“Alright.” I nodded, turning and walking towards him as I did. He didn’t once look away from me. I wasn’t sure if it was because he too didn’t want to look at the bodies, but part of me felt like it was because he was worried about how I didn’t want to look at them.

Pushing out into the hallway, we both trotted down the old tiled floors. The flickering fluorescent lights in this place felt like they were going to give out at any moment. The half rusted doors of the hospital’s old elevator dimly glinted in the light, and as I looked at it, the half canted elevator doors made me think twice for a moment about using the stairs. Predious however, was utterly confident in the century and a half old device’s stability, and hit the recall button with his magic.

The doors opened with a ding, and the spacious interior greeted us promptly. The old tile inside here was mostly cracked, and shifted underhoof as we both climbed in. I felt the elevator give only slightly as we shifted about inside, and I felt it prudent enough to press myself up against the wall. I wouldn’t do anything if this thing tried to kill us, but I felt better about being in it nonetheless.

“This thing is apparently pretty slow.” Predious sighed. That is exactly the shit that I didn’t want to talk about right now. He pressed the button for the top floor, and the box let out a chime. A horrendous squeal played through the air as the doors which had opened quietly enough, jiggled and bounced shut. Then, annoyingly enough, an overhead speaker crackled and started to play the most dull music in the world. I wasn’t sure if it was just loose wires making odd sounds or an actual song. Regardless, the urge to shoot the speaker was growing fast.

I knew we should have taken the stairs.

“No?” I said slowly. “I don’t see what this has to do…”

“It’s a funny story, actually.” He cut me off. “Seeing the tourist and monetary success of Paradise city when they gave gambling zero restrictions,” Predious smiled widely as he recalled the events. “pretty much every city wanted to get in on it and drafted a few casinos of their own to open without even doing any research on any other city’s plans. Turns out, Baltimare, Seaddle, and Salt Lick City had each built themselves a casino modeled after Luna or the moon in some way. It was a popular theme with everything before the end.”

Shifting his weight, he looked over at me with a giggle. “So, it really came as a surprise to nopony when the Caledonian government offered a cease and desist notice to all three. Of course, the cities didn’t want to lose their investment, so they all fought it out in court.” With a sigh, he stared off into the distance, or in his case, the wall. “Turns out, Paradice city had copyrighted ‘The Moon’ and the other cities lost the right to name their casinos that. Baltimare’s rebranding of the casino cost them quite a lot of money, and the public nature of the lawsuit meant that people thought that they would gouge their customers upon opening to make up for it.” He looked at me longingly and shrugged. “Guess the final note of bad luck for it, was that it’s opening night was the same as the end of the war.”

“Is…” I stammered. “Is this what elevator small talk felt like back during the war?” I had vaguely recalled somepony or another in my orchard comment about making small talk in elevators, but I could never quite grasp what they were talking about as a filly. It was supposedly something different than regular small talk where you could only mention certain things in elevators, like the weather, local history, or sports. “I… don’t like it.” Even if it did explain the sign that had hung in the Casino a bit.

“Yeah.” Predious agreed, his expression shifting back to one of profound thought. “That really didn’t feel genuine. I must be more out of practice than I thought.” That made it sound like it was some sort of skill that somepony could even be good at, and that was even more perplexing that the idea of elevator discussions itself. Maybe it was better that I was raised in a wasteland that didn’t require a social skill as odd as that.

“Let’s never do this again.” I offered him an unsure look and listened to the whine of the motors pulling us spool down. “Sound good?”

“Agreed.” He nodded, shifting himself to in front of the doors. With a small ding, we came to a stop. “Marvelous, we’ve arrived.”

The doors opened to a flurry of activities. Robed acolytes ran around, carrying stacks of supplies and equipment. Several power armored rangers were busy moving heavy electrical equipment in, while others stood at the windows, weapons pointed out and ready to take anything on if it came too close.

“Hey!” Gauge shouted from down the hall as both Pred and I stepped out. “So was watching a building that big come down cool as hell, or what?” She laughed giddily as she trotted closer, however, her voice didn’t sound quite right. The closer she got, the more I could see numerous new scars formed all over her from where healing potions had closed the wounds.

“The blast from the artillery that close was a rush, and the dust that came out made it so only we could find the dead-o’s because we had EFS’!” She shook Tasteless’ fairly banged up cyberleg in the air, talking faster as she did. “Which, meant that I was mostly useless during the fight because it got fairly mangled again, but I digress because it got me thinking about what’s lying ahead!”

“Gauge?” I tried to interrupt her, but she was going far too fast.

“I mean, all we saw were the normal corpse soldiers like we’d seen before! Where are the rangers?” She sat down and pressed her hooves to her head as she stared off down the hall right through us. “And then I realized that Mr. BigBad must be saving them to guard the arena, which he is, and that since there’s nothing but open flat ground there, then we’d have no chance to even advance before we got mowed down!” She gasped and put her hooves on me. “Which is why I think that we need to make them all blind!”

“Gauge...?” Again, I tried futilely to stop her. I’d never quite seen her this manic, and honestly it was distressing to me.

“I still have my EFS jamming program on my old cyberleg.” She put her normal hoof on her chin in thought. “If I could find an old broadcast tower, I might be able to amplify the signal enough to work throughout the whole district. Sure, we’d lose our EFS too, but we’d have the numbers advantage that could make power armor useless anyway.” She went wide eyed. “Even better, if we could also make them actually blind, we could completely overwhelm them with our big guns!” With a quick snap, she put both her hooves on my cheeks and squeezed, pulling my attention right to her eyes. “I have to go ask mom if we brought any of the 88 millimeter Nb type rounds that were in stock at base!”

Without even pausing to listen to me, she spun on her hooves and took off down the hall. With a slight skid, she turned and ran into the stairwell, disappearing into it as Pred and I were left in the center of the hallway wondering what the hell we’d just listened to.

“Ah, Storm! I rejoice at seeing you have returned to us in one piece.” Gallant said as he popped his head out of a small room toward the end of the hall. “Come, come! We have much to discuss about Filius’s stronghold.”

Both Predious and I exchanged glances before weaving our way through the busy corridor down toward the room. As we approached the old curtains in the room had been drawn over the windows that faced out into the hallway, and the faded cursive writing of Chief of Medicine was barely legible on the old glass. Opening the door, I walked in to find the map table had been set up again in here, and both Filius and Ficha were hovering over it. On the other side of the room, a thick quilt had been hung over the window that faced the arena, glowing in the light that the pre-war sports center gave off. Pred shut the door behind him as he came in, only to have it fly open again.

“Somepony find a way get me a line to the Elder!” Cottage yelled out. “And I want to know what the delay is on finding that last radio tower. Without it we’re blind out here!” He groaned as he went to shut the door, pausing before sticking his head out. “And somepony find out where Steelhooves is. If he’s going to ignore the chain of command like he always does, I’d like to at least know where he’s doing it at, is that so much to ask?” Shutting the door, he closed his eyes and stood in silence for a moment. “Storm, please tell me the artillery strike brought down your hotel. I heard briefly from Corporal Kiwi that your radio was knocked out, but she didn’t get a chance to answer if the objective had been resolved before the nurses kicked me out to work on her.”

“Yes, the building came down.” I nodded. “However…”

“Ah, save it.” Cottage groaned. “I dont’ want any bad news.”

“Filius know’s what our plan is.” I said bluntly. Even if he didn’t want to hear it, he had to know.

“So you’re saying that somepony in this hospital is leaking our plan to him?” Cottage sat down with a heavy thump. He dragged his hooves down his face in annoyance.

“Not… exactly?” I shut my eyes and cringed. “He could see it in my mind. He’s still connected to me.”

“Great.” He clopped his hooves together and pointed to the door. “Then get out.”

“What?” I snapped.

“We can’t make any plans with you around if he’s just going to pull them out of your head, now can we?” Cottage spat back. “So would you kindly get out of my command center?”

“Hold up just one moment.” Gallant spoke up. “I believe that having her here could prove to be quite prudent.” He looked over to me with a tired smile and pointed to the side of the table. “Storm, please, if you would.”

Walking over, I took a seat at the edge of the table. Cottage diverted his eyes and stared at the map. I guess he couldn’t figure out which one of us he hated more in that moment, but I’d trust Gallant on this. As we waited, Gallant’s horn glowed and pulled a very old scroll from under his cape. Unfurling it, he set it down in the center of the table.

A tall, ornate looking tower sat depicted on it. The first thing I noticed about it, before anything else, was how tall it was. Compared to the small cottages and shops around it, it rose up like a skyscraper. The sleek, flanged walls of it curved slowly from the base, getting thinner as they ran higher. A bulbous point, not unlike that of an upside down turnip sat at the top, with it’s spiked cap coated in shimmering gold.

“This place used to be Filius’s home and personal study. Every tool, every note, every book he ever had to teach and learn with was contained within it.” As he spoke, he pulled the map aside. I noticed a small, but interesting similarity between the tower and the map. The tower itself had eight separate flanges, sitting in a star formation. On the old world map, the old arena also had eight flanged points built as concrete parkways. “I believe that it still exists.” Gallant continued. “At least, part of it perhaps.”

“The ritual chamber.” I spoke up, getting a nod from Gallant.

“The tower may have been removed, but the council of necromancers in my time, vowed to mark the ground it sat on. They agreed to keep all of his research and artifacts locked in the ground below, so that if the time came to where they were ever needed, they could be found and used to help ponykind.” He shook his head. “I fear that he has used one of these items as his phylactery. We must find and destroy it before we confront him.”

“His what?” Cottage groaned. “What the hell does this have to do with anything?” He pointed to the window and raised his voice. “Once he is dead, then we’ve won. Game over.”

“No, Mr. Cottage.” Gallant snapped. “Death for a Lich such as him isn’t final.” In annoyance, he hefted his sword out of his sheath and dropped it onto the table with a clatter. “A phylactery is where a Lich’s soul remains. Unless it is destroyed, the soul inside will find itself a way to occupy another body.” That made Cottage’s anger drop, and I swore that he looked scared as well. Honestly, it was hard to tell because I was scared of that. “If we do not destroy the phylactery first, then we have only let him escape us once again.”

“What would it be?” Predious asked, reaching out toward Gallant’s sword with his leg. With great care, he ran his hoof down the blade.

“It could be any object in his tower that has remained undamaged by the passage of time.” Gallant said, grasping around his sword with his magic. “However. It must be an item of great mental importance. Something that connects the Lich to their very sense of self. It would be in the most protected place of all, to keep it safe for as long as it took for him to find a new body to inhabit.” As he slid his sword back into its sheath with a click, he let out a sigh. “Alas, I have no ideas on what that item could be. In his last few years, I’d become so detached that I had forgotten who my friend really was. I cannot help you identify it, even if we were to find it.”

“Just like every asshole out for power I guess. They always have some sort of way hidden up their sleeves of protecting themselves.” Ficha finally muttered, joining in late to our little discussion. “So, why not just run in there with a couple dozen satchels of explosives and blow all the artifacts up?” Ficha asked with a shrug. “Pretty sure that thousand year old anything won’t hold up against modern equestrian explosives.”

“We have to confirm we killed him after we break it, and we won’t be able to do that if the whole place collapses on itself.” I said out in annoyance before stopping and thinking for a moment. “Wait, what was that you just said, Ficha?”

“First you shoot down my idea,” He grumbled and crossed his forehooves, “and then you ask what it was again?”

“No, before that!” I shouted.

“He’s just an asshole!” He snapped back. “Kinda like some mares I know!”

“An asshole out for power…” I spoke softly. Looking over at Gallant, I put my hooves on the table. “He poured himself into making that amulet so that he could become more powerful. He killed your wife to complete it, and did it out of spite to you.” I pointed down at the tower. “And it was in a tower alright, but not this one. It was in the most secure location it could have ever been in, locked away where even the war couldn’t touch it.”

“Goddesses…” Predious gasped as he put the pieces together. “The amulet itself is the phylactery. Equestria kept it safe all these years without even knowing what it truly was...”

“Great!” Cottage blurt out. “This is all just great! But you all are forgetting something.” He pushed himself up and trotted over to the blacked out window. With a strong yank, the covering came down, and streamed light into the room. “How the fuck are we going to get through this?”

Peering out of the window, the large open field that once held a wide open park stretched away from the old hospital. The old rusted playground stood as the only pony made structure still left in the park. Large smooth boulders jutted up from several points in the field, surrounded by the burned husks of the trees that once grew around them.

The stadium itself stood mostly intact. The rusted girders and concrete facade sat cracked and warped, but still standing. The warped, but still working floodlights were what was pouring out lights and pushing away the night. Down around the base of the arena, several makeshift shacks and bunkers sat, one at the end of each of the flanged parkways. Even from here, I could tell that the small silver objects standing around them were actually power armored rangers. Behind the rangers facing towards us, sat a large, silver metal gate. That would be our way in, we’d just have to get through everything else first, is all.

“It’s a nearly five hundred meter run across open terrain to get to the base of the stadium.” Cottage grunted. “Even if we did manage to get as many suits of power armor functioning as he does, they’d still cut us down on the run over!”

Predious tapped on the table. “I do believe Miss Gauge had an idea around that.” He said, eyeing me with a smile. “and at the same time, it might fix your radio problem too.”

Cottage turned and cocked an eyebrow, and for once, said something I never expected a pony like him to say.

“Go on.” He crossed his forehooves and stared at us. “I’m listening.”