Running away as fast as I could, the firefight continued behind me as the unsuspecting opponents stood on the highway.
Looking to my left, I saw a small group of coalition soldiers swarming to the struts for cover as bullets pounded into the ground around them, closer to the explosives that were due to go off in mere seconds.
There was no time for them to defuse the explosive if they had noticed it, though I could only hope they would die outright, for the agony of surviving the blast at that distance would be too intense for anyone to endure.
Still, that was no longer my concern. I had to get a little further from the blast.

What grass had managed to grow between the cracks in the road sloshed against my hooves as I made my way for cover, a nearby house that seemed sturdy enough to hide behind. With only seconds to go, there was no time to be sure, it would have to do.

With a large resounding boom, the explosives began to go off. A large cracking sound filled the air as the strut was demolished and the highway began to bear the weight of the army upon it with much lessened structural integrity. Part of the roadway cracked, sending small chunks of rubble down below, crushing the bodies of the soldiers who had hid there for safety.
The irony wasn't lost on me, though I couldn't feel joy even if they were already dead. It did the job, but there was no need to take pleasure.

Screaming from the confused army came from above as the first section of the highway began to collapse properly, sending down the towed missile launchers. What I hadn't expected however, was the smoke that began to plume from those very launchers as they fell, more missiles being fired.
The barrage of explosives smashed against the underside of the highway, causing immense damage to another strut.
Before my very eyes, another two sections of the highway fell down one after the other, leaving only the rear end where the army had come from and the start where it ramped up to meet.

The blast of air pushed me back onto my haunches as I looked up in amazement. This was... astonishing.
What had been planned was nothing compared to what I had just inadvertently caused and a small part of me felt pride.
I didn't feel proud over the loss of life, no.
Instead, I felt proud that with such a small amount of explosives, I'd managed to completely and utterly extinguish any chance of reinforcements and resupply to the now stranded army below. Their heavy weapons lay scrapped at the floor, blown apart by their own power.
I had managed to cause an action that would hopefully turn the tide of this battle and save many, many lives.

In the distance, ponies, zebras and donkeys cheered as the coalition began to panic. Their forces were severely severed apart, broken and confused. I couldn't see how it had looked from the insurgents side of the fight, though from the thunderous sound of a stampeding force, it seemed that the morale had suddenly sky-rocketed.

Looking around, I couldn't see Crimson. I'd known he'd gone a different way to me, all I could hope for now was that he was safe on the other side of the battlefield, outside the range of the blast and away from the soldiers.
No doubt he'd either come looking for me or assume we'd meet back up where Titan, Helios and Selene were.
Pulling up my Pipbuck to try make radio contact with him, there was too much static to get any signal at all.

The missiles must have filled the air with interference somehow, that or the soldiers were jamming up the airwaves with their own distress signals. I didn't know, I couldn't know. Science was never my forte, sneaking was.
And now it seemed I would have to do just that as my most direct route was filled with rubble and masses of soldiers looking for the cause to the sudden interruption to their presumed victory.

Sighing, I began to make my way towards the back of the highway. There was only one way out of this mess now, and it was deeper into the abyss before I could come out from the side.
Checking I still had all my gear, everything seemed fine. I took my SMG in my magic and made sure it was somewhere easy to handle should I come across any ambushes.
Running down the road, the tarmac clunked against my hooves as I went into the darkness of under the highway. Screams of terror still filled the air from above and I could hear movement following in the same direction as me.
Turning back, no-one was following me, it had to be retreating from above. Smiling, I continued to make my way.

It was a good fifteen minutes before I found anywhere to turn to, to change direction to hopefully split away from the road and get back to the industrial hive. Unfortunately for me however, it also seemed that there was a run-off from the highway up ahead in the distance too, meaning the fight wasn't over just yet.
No doubt the soldiers above would quickly make their way down and rush back to the frontline, though there was nothing I could do about that now.

The overwhelming amount of them meant that if they did that, they would quickly outnumber me and rush towards my location even if I did find a good hiding spot to take them out as they came down.
Blowing the exit wasn't an option either, I had no more explosives that would do the job. No, instead, I had to carry on course.

Turning to my left, I saw that I'd actually managed to slip up behind a group of enemies. They were unaware of my presence as they moved on up, presumably having the same idea as myself in moving to the frontline.
Biting my lip, I considered my options. The chances were that if I turned around and looked for another way around, there'd be someone else doing the same thing.
I had the drop on them, there was no better option than to go this way. The trouble was, did I want to try take down eight zebras all at once? No, I didn't.
Looking for a way around, I noticed that the factory we stood beside had taken enough damage over the years that there was a hole punched in the side, big enough for me to fit through.

Slipping through the gap, I made my way into the abandoned building. Industrial walkways and staircases filled my view, though there was nothing all that interesting inside. More importantly, there was nothing to be seen in terms of anyone else. That brought a smile to my face as I made my way across before moving on up, looking for a vantage point to overlook and assess the situation. If I could make my way to the roof, I'd be able to work my way across from roof to roof, I hoped.

The metal walkways clanged below me as I continued to run along, confident that it was okay for me to make some noise while travelling in here. In the heat of a battle, who as seriously going to check out a small amount of movement inside a building?
Well, okay, that wasn't quite the best idea now I thought about it seeing as I had checked out buildings with small movement in them while in fights before and it had proved to be a good idea many times. Still, I had to make my way back however I could right now and this seemed like the best option to take.

As I moved across from walkway to walkway, slipping my head through doorways however, I wondered if entering the building was the brilliant idea it seemed at the time. All the rooms were scarcely filled with broken tables and smashed up terminals in the higher office rooms while the lower part had been all steel girders and not much else.
Still, I had to keep looking.

Rushing around the corridors kept giving me the same results. Occasionally there would be empty vending machines, their face completely smashed apart in many cases to get the bottles of sparkle cola and snacks.
Turning to my left, that was when I saw it, the access doorway to the roof!
With a small cheer of glee, I pulled down on the handle... to find it was locked. No trouble, I had plenty of bobby pins and my screwdriver that my dad had given me.
Sliding the pin into the lock and turning it with the screwdriver, I began to proceed with my duty to unlock everything I came across for the greater good of ponykind.
I laughed to myself as I mumbled that aloud, the crazy things my dad had said always cheered me up.

With a small 'chink' the door unlocked and my smile grew a little larger. Now I opened up the door... and found that the floor had collapsed upon itself and left a gap that felt probably a little too large to jump from a standing position.
Looking at it though, I reckoned with a good run up that I might've been able to make it.
Going back a fair distance, I took another glance at the task ahead. It wouldn't be easy, but I prayed that Celestia would allow me to make this.

Putting my hooves firmly onto the floor below, I stretched my legs ready. 'Three... two... one...' I muttered to myself in preparation.
With power and determination, I pushed myself from my mark and ran to my target, ready to leap.
If Crimson were here, he'd have it all too easy, I thought to myself.
As I reached the ledge, I pushed off and jumped as far as I could manage.
I was going to make it!
No, I wasn't.

My barding caught on a hook from the side of the wall, throwing me off balance in mid-air. Now I flew through the air and reached the end, but only my forehooves reached their target. Frantically I scrambled for a hold of something as I looked up, my eyes wide in fear. Slowly I began to slip, though slowly soon turned to quickly and quickly soon turned to falling off.
Falling down the hole, I began to scream in fear. Below me was a walkway, but I feared how far down it really was.

As I fell, one of my rear hooves smashed into the railing of the walkway below, causing me to scream out in pain as I heard what sounded a lot like the breaking of my leg. Immediately after, my head smashed against the walkway, causing my eyes to shut and become dizzy. A sense of sickness filled my stomach as I groaned in pain after having failed my manoeuvre.
Suddenly, the supports for the walkway began to groan louder than I was, causing me to open my eyes and look up in horror.
One support snapped, closest to the wall of the building. Pulling myself up, I found I couldn't put any weight on my right rear hoof or I felt an overwhelming urge to scream. Definitely broken, it seemed.

Without any chance for me to do a thing, the groaning of the supports grew ever louder, my eyes went wider than before. I didn't know what to do, there was nowhere to run to that I could reach in time it seemed. If it was anything like that last support, I had only a matter of moments and that wasn't long enough to make it to either end.
With that, the groaning became louder and another snap sound cracked through the air. I hated being right.

Instinctively screaming in fear, I felt myself slide down the walkway as it began to fall, smashing through a window. Grabbing onto one of the side-rail supports, I held myself as tightly to it as I could manage. If I let go now, I would be dead for sure. If I managed to stick onto it, perhaps something would happen. Perhaps not.
Even still, I didn't want to die like that and held onto the only source of hope I had.
With my magic, I frantically scrolled through my pipbuck to bring up the broadcaster, attempting to contact anyone who could hear me. I didn't bother trying to make it direct, there was no time to look and it didn't matter anyway.

"Crimson!" I cried out in vain, "Please, Crimson!"
Tears fell down my cheeks as I waited for something to happen, but nothing did. Slowly I felt myself slipping, unable to continue holding on. I had to stay strong though, I had to keep myself going.
With another groan of the twisted metal, the walkway began to detach itself from the wall now, I could see it beginning to slide down.
This was it for me, this was how I would go out.

"Crimson... please forgive me. I'm sorry, I don't mean to leave you. I love you, Crimson. Please don't let me go like this." I muttered to myself uselessly. I'd been in situations where my life was at risk before, but I'd never felt like this. Death was knocking upon my door, I could feel it in my body. It pulled at me, made me weak.
"I'm sorry, Limoncello."

The walkway fell, smashing through the window below. From the sudden force of the collision I found my grip letting go and my body sliding down to damnation.
Screaming once more, I fell out of the factory. Immediately below me was a ventilation shaft, however. As I hit that, a large thud sound screamed from the metal supports and that now began to fall off, too.
Today was not going good, death was teasing me now.
With that, the vent had me sliding down onto a rooftop down below where I rolled down, unable to control myself as I felt the burning pain every time I rolled onto it.

As I slid off the side, I vied for the chance to hold on, but there was nothing to grasp. Instead, I was thrown off once more.
Falling down, I landed onto the roof of a wagon before rolling off in agony, my eyes barely able to open let alone see straight through the blood that covered them and pain that filled my body.
Looking down at the floor, I could hear voices.

"Well, that was... uh, interesting. What do you say, captain?"

"Let me go check her over. She's still squirming around so be ready to shoot if need be. Doesn't look like she'll be a threat to us however, not after that fall. Still, stay sharp."

I heard the hoofsteps of someone approaching, but my head hurt too bad now. I struggled to move but found I no longer had the energy. Closing my eyes, I gave up trying.
In my last moments, I heard him speak again.

"Holy... she's... you. Get her onto the extraction kit, I want her alive."

"What?! Why?!" Another voice called.

"Just do it, private. I'm the captain here, I call the shots. You and Two Tonne get her out've here, she's coming with us."

Letting out my final breath, I gave in and closed my eyes once more as my muscles felt weak. My head continued to spin and my leg ache beyond what I was used to, though I never had gone through the displeasure of breaking one of my own bones before. Now I knew what it felt like, though I couldn't bring myself to care as I slipped in and out of consciousness until I finally gave up.

Dark clouds filled the sky above like a river of dark murky infection as they blocked out the light, bringing only the worst of the world out to shine in the grim, crimson shaded ground below.
Across in the distance, the sound of water clashing against concrete tore my attention to itself, the sea was in sight.
Much akin to the clouds, the violent waves of the ocean brought nothing but dreary feelings of hopelessness, the environment around me was scorched and angry over what had happened all those years ago.

Beside me was a city, a city I had now begun to familiarise myself with. Grey towers of concrete and steel rose from the ground before sliding into one another, toppling down to the ground as the time went on, one by one by one.
White lights shining down in the streets. speckles of purity grabbing my attention just as they had last time I saw this world.
Just as they had last time, they came to gather in the city, amassing slowly yet surely.
A small yellow light appeared from an area I had never been to before, and slowly the yellow lights mixed with the white. The skies began to brighten and a warmth covered me, a pleasant feeling flowed through my veins as I looked down on the lights intermixing, coexisting.

With another great crash, the shores drew my attention back to their direction and a streak of brown light slid its way over to the city, cursing the ground where-ever it went and spreading its own influence as it moved.
Initially upon reaching the city, it waited. Moments passing as they had, it struck. White lights dimmed and died as the brown approached and the yellow quickly moved to form a protective barrier around what they could.
It was useless, however.

White dots fled away from the brown as it encapsulated the yellow, corrupting the beauty and turning it to the same sickening colour. Before long, the source of the yellow burned black before turning brown as well. Slowly, the city grew darker and darker.
As the stench and darkness grew from the core of the city, small green dots popped up in small places, though these were quickly extinguished.

Without warning, a large explosion filled my entire eyesight. To the north now there was now a a sickly green glow in a place that strangely felt like home, somehow. The skies grew darker yet until the clouds were as black as the night had ever been during pre-war skies, a coldness ran over me.
Just as the dread began to take its toll on me, a light shining in the darkness came from the west. A brilliant golden glow swept from a place I couldn't focus on, a place I had never seen before.

Within moments, what had once been an unimportant looking group of flickering white lights beamed with that beautiful revitalising golden shine as walls came from nowhere.
Then that golden light looked at me, and what I saw shook me.
That golden light had been me, and now it stormed across the wasteland in my direction, a determined look in my eyes as I moved.

As soon as I watched my hooves touch the city, green lights I had previously thought were dying began to rejuvenate and shine brighter than they ever had before. A sense of hope and righteousness filled my body, strength pulling me back up to stand strong, to stand taller than I had ever realised I could stand before.

As my eyes slowly began to open, the look of a certain blue mare's eyes was quickly becoming familiar to me.
Instead of looking over me this time, they looked into my own as she laid next to me, her horn still pressed against my head, a soft smile on her lips.
As I groaned to wake, her smile grew larger and her lip trembled as she did so.
"It's nice to see that you're finally awake. We were worried about you, Crimson." Her soft voice chimed.

"Wha... where?" I stumbled over my words slowly, my mind still not firing on all cylinders as I tried to comprehend what was going on.

"You're at the base, Crimson. You were knocked out again, we were all worried about you. I'm so glad you're okay though." Her reassuring tone of voice told me that it was okay, that I was safe. Still, something seemed different.

"Why can't...." I groaned in pain and confusion, my head hurt more than it did before. "I remember?"

"Why can't you remember what, Crimson?" She asked, a worried look in her eyes as she continued to gaze at me.

Slowly my coherence came back to me as my eyes flickered open and closed repeatedly, my mind beginning to reawaken after my body had decided to do so. "Why... what knocked me out? What happened? What was with that dream?"

"The dream," Eos blushed before she continued to speak, slower than before with a much quieter tone. "is about what has happened, what... well, uh." She stuttered on her own words, blushing more than she had before as I continued to look to her, confused.
"Is about what I think you can do for us... what you have done for us... what I think of you."

As I looked into her eyes, I really couldn't figure out what was happening right now. My mind still felt like there was something wrong with scene and my focus was shot to hell with the searing pain I felt at the back of my head, yet I still knew there was something.
"Okay, I don't really get that, but what about why I'm here? I don't remember coming here."

"What's the last thing you remember, Crimson?" She asked, a much more serious tone of voice now as the joy left her eyes.

Wincing in pain, I tried to think. It was still eluding me... what had been the last thing I could remember?
I clearly remembered going out with Cherry to try find Titan. I could remember the sacrifice of the ghoul who had given his life so I could exit the office building. Now it began to come back to me, slowly the murky memories of what had happened were being recalled in my mind.
"Uh, there was some kind of big fight... right?"

Selene trotted over, her movements were slow and deliberate but she seemed a lot healthier now. That was another thing I now remembered, the state she was in.
As she sat down next to us, she looked to her sister before beginning to ask how I was in a curious voice.
"So, how is he? I see you've got him to wake now."

"Yes, but he seems to have some kind of amnesia. I'm not sure how bad it is, though he seems to be remembering things now." Eos stated in return, briefly taking her eyes off of me as she spoke.

"Does he remember the explosion?" She asked with a tone of concern.

Looking up at the pair, my eyes shot wide and my head flew up. As soon as my body raised, all I could see was a blinding white light and a large ringing in my ears, causing me extreme agony. Screaming in pain, I fell back down to the bed, shuddering as I whimpered from the lasting ill fortune of my movement.

Through the ringing, I could hear somepony screaming in sudden shock and distress. The sound of hooves rushed around me until a moment later when a cold, metallic feeling pierced through my side and began to squeeze a soothing formula into my body. With a gasp of relief, I felt the med-x rush to my head and begin to soothe me of the pain.
Almost instantly the ringing subsided and my ability to see shapes and then colours returned.
It was a good minute before I was back to how I was before but now I knew, no sudden movements.

"Crimson. Please, please please please don't do that!" Eos begged. "Please. Seeing you in such pain..."

"The explosion." I groaned lazily, the med-x reducing my energy and making me feel so sleepy again.

"Yes? Do you remember the explosion now?"

"Yes. We... we caused the explosion. What happened? Where is..." I couldn't finish my sentence, my head wouldn't let me. Instead, all that came from my mouth was incoherent babble as my eyes slipped closed once more and I felt myself falling asleep yet again.

"Crimson." A sweet voice slipped into my mind, calling from the darkness of my slumber. "Crimson, please wake up."

With gargantuan effort, I opened one of my eyes only to see a blinding white light shine down upon me. Attempting to pull one of my hooves up to block it from my sight was beyond my capability however as I found my hooves were simply too heavy to lift.
Slowly I began to notice how my whole body felt weak and my head disorientated, incapable of normal movement.

"Crimson, you're waking? Please don't struggle, we've had to drug you with med-x so you wouldn't move while we did what we needed to do."

"What..." I found myself asking without any thought to the matter, without any idea of what was going on. "What do you mean?"

"Crimson, we've had to operate on you. Your skull was fractured, it looked like prolonged damage that you've sustained somewhat recently that just wasn't healing properly as it should. It wasn't a big operation, we just needed to focus on your skull itself. We also had to plate it, though nopony will notice."
'Plate it'? My skull? What where they on about? Before I could bring myself to speak however, the voice continued.
"As for why you might not be able to see right now, we've got a blindfold on you so that the operating room lights don't hurt your eyes. I wanted you awake though for..." The voice sighed.

"For what?" My tired voice spoke softly, barely able to make any sound at all. Now I recognised the feeling for that of a strong dose of med-x and understood why everything was so hard for me. In any other situation I had no doubt it would've been pleasant, but right now it only seemed to be overwhelmingly required, thus taking the pleasure of it away.

"I..." Was all she could manage to say before pressing her oversized head against my chest, rubbing what felt like her muzzle against my neck. "I just wanted to thank you for saving them, my sisters and Titan. You put your own life at risk for them at such short notice without questioning it. You have no idea how much this means to me."

With not even a moments notice I felt her presence lift off of my body. As I went to speak, to ask where she was going and what had been going on with my head, a pair of lips were pressed against mine. Shock filled my mind as the warm, wet and passionate kiss that ensued instinctively caused a deep moment of pleasure that overwhelmed me before our lips parted away again, leaving me in confusion over what had just happened.
Without my sight and with all the painkiller that was flowing through my body at that very moment, everything felt too surreal to truly understand.

A moment of silence passed us and a part of my mind envisioned Eos' face looking down upon me, though if this was the case or not was completely beyond me. Still, I could recognise her voice and unless she was using her sneaky stealth magic, I hadn't heard her leave my side just yet.

A minute passed with nothing being said, just silence as I laid there with nothing I could do apart from try my best to figure out what exactly had happened to me as if it was some kind of puzzle that needed piecing together. Something still felt missing, I just couldn't figure it out through all my confusion.
As I was trying to do that, Eos finally spoke again with a voice that shook as she tried to keep it composed. "Crimson?"

"Yes?" I murmured as I continued to try my best to think clearly, a task a lot harder with how my head was feeling.

"Can I... well... lay beside you? I just... I just want to feel like someone cares. I mean, sure my sisters care about me, Titan too, but not the same way I feel when you're touching me." A moment of pause passed her lips as she breathed deeply and quickly rushed out hurried words. "The way you make me feel normal, I mean. You touching me makes me feel like a normal pony."

The nervousness of the particular deep blue mare struck out to me, she genuinely meant every word and I really could feel her desire to feel like she wasn't just a status symbol, not just a leader.
Smiling, there was no way I could turn down her request. Especially not right now when I had no real choice about it anyway. Besides, I thought to myself, feeling her fuzzy chest and fluffy wings was always soothing for me.
"Yeah, sure. As long as you'll find somewhere comfortable to lay down first and put me down after you. You know, you being bigger and all."
A cuddle sounded nice right about now.

Quickly she made her way around the room, no doubt looking for the best place to go. Her hooves clopped against the tiled floor with a calming resonance until she finally sat herself down and wrapped me in her magic, slowly levitating me over to herself before placing me upon her chest.
Forehooves wrapped themselves over my shoulders and pressed down my chest, wings extending and wrapping themselves around me.
Nuzzling my head in, it was too comfortable for me as I laid there, still blindfolded.

The sound of hooves moving through the corridor outside every so often, ranging from large ones to small ones, judging from the sounds they made. Not having my eyes available to me meant I was focusing on all my other senses to try and judge my surroundings, though there was no way for me to be able to judge time as I laid in a hazy world of warn darkness.
The gentle breeze of Eos' breath occasionally blew on the tip of my mane, always causing me to giggle slightly as it tickled.

The time passed on when suddenly the door opened, with what sounded like a large group of ponies walked in.
With hesitation, one of the voices spoke. "...Eos?"

The mare embracing me startled upon hearing her name, sending me jolting and causing me some discomfort as she did. "Oh, oh. Sorry."

"Eos, what did we tell you? He's not a rag doll, you can't keep pulling him about while he's asleep, he needs to heal! Besides, it's quite rude to be holding him like this without his consent."

...Without my consent? While I'm asleep? I sighed, my voice barely audible alongside the others.
"Don't worry about it, she's fine." Interrupting my speech, a yawn slipped from my mouth with my neck extending as I stretched. "I've no issue with affection, affection is wonderful. Doesn't matter who it's from as long as they have decent hygiene."

"So... you wouldn't mind if we jumped onto you and Eos then, huh? 'Cos if she gets to have a hug, we don't see why we don't get to show you how much we appreciate you saving our lives. That was hardly something small, after all."

Before I could say a thing, the sound of Eos gasping filled the room and two bodies lunged at me, causing me to feel a little winded by the sudden impact of the mares who had jumped in near unison.
Coughing as I laughed, I tried my best to catch my breath. "So uh, you don't mind removing the blindfold so I can see, do you?"

Without a word, my vision returned to me slowly. At first all I could see was blobs of colour, but my eyes quickly refocused to see the three beautiful alicorn mares staring down at me with a smile each.
Selene still had a wound on her neck, though she looked a lot better now than she had done before.
With grace, the two other mares simultaneously rubbed their cheeks against my own, causing me to blush somewhat. I hadn't expected this much appreciation!

"You're right Eos." Selene muttered. "He really is soft, isn't he?"

With that, Helios rubbed my mane. "Oooh! I wonder what he does to make his mane so amazing to touch. What do you do, Crimson?"

Looking at the three, I couldn't believe what was happening. They had gone from telling Eos that I wasn't a play toy to... this?
Still, there was no complaints from me. Attention was no stranger to my world and I couldn't say that I didn't enjoy every last bit of it.

Titan now stood in the doorway, fully armoured bar his head. I'd wondered if he had plans of going out or just didn't feel safe not wearing any armour at all times after the last encounter. Shaking his head at the sight, he let out a sigh to which the mares all giggled and poked their tongues out at him in play.

Still, I had wondered one thing that hadn't been able to slip my mind, especially now I could see again. "Hey, girls. Where is Cherry?"
The room went silent, everypony's eyes went wide as they looked at me, the smiles gone from their faces.
From in the doorway, Titan lowered his head and simply backed away slowly, out of sight.
As for the alicorns who had been embracing into me, they now too climbed off and backed off by a few steps, bar Eos whom I laid upon. Though they didn't leave the area like Titan had, I could tell they were uncomfortable with my question and that made me almost as nervous as they now looked.

Breathing in before I spoke at them, my face was stern. "Where is Cherry." I commanded, no longer asking in naive curiosity but now knowing what was wrong all along. I hadn't picked up on it earlier because I was blindfolded and the drugs were too strong, but now they began to wear down and I could see my environment, I knew exactly what was different to usual.

Helios and Selene looked away, down to the floor. Their lips trembled, hesitant to say anything to me.
Turning my neck round, I could see that Eos had a guilty look upon her face as she continued to withhold the information from me, though I could tell it was because she was too scared rather than trying to be hurtful. That didn't matter however, they knew something I didn't and I wanted to know what that was.

Impatiently I lowered the tone of my voice as I watched the trio, growing tired of what I saw. "So, is anyone going to answer me?"

"I'm sorry" Eos whispered, tears now filling the corners of her eyes.

That was enough, it was all I needed to hear. Closing my eyes and thinking of Cherry, I let out a small sniffle with a mix of anger and sorrow. She wasn't here and they weren't going to tell me where she was, if they could at all.
Rolling out of Eos' embrace, I fell to the floor and hurt my jaw as I landed against the floor, causing her to gasp in horror as I had. It didn't matter, she wasn't going to tell me what I wanted to know so I wasn't willing to be her source of affection.

"Crimson!" Selene pleaded, a dire tone in her voice. "You need to rest. You can't get up and just go walking about, you'll hurt yourself."

Grunting in response, I didn't care right now. There was enough med-x running through me still that even if I was injured, I couldn't feel it. Spreading out my wings to help keep balance and alleviate the amount of weight I was putting on my hooves, I began to flap them softly as I walked, making my way out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Helios asked, concern in her shaken voice.

"I don't know, I don't care. I'm going to find out where Cherry is though, that's all I care about right now."

As I walked out of the door one of the mares went to speak, only to have another stop her as she began. It was the best thing to do, I didn't want to speak to any of them right now unless they were going to answer my questions.
I didn't know where I was going to go, but I needed to be away from the recovery room at the very least.

Sitting on the bed we'd been given, holding the dress I'd bought for her, with my head pressed against the pillow she slept on and my other hoof touching a half eaten apple she'd had as a late night snack some time before, my mind was filled with one thing and one thing only. Cherry Sundae, the mare who had taken my heart by storm from the very first moment we'd truly met and filled my head with wonderful thoughts ever since.

Cherry Sundae, where art thou my dearest Cherry Sundae. Tears filled my eyes all over again as I began to sob once more, my longing to have the fresh scent of berries filling my nose as I would press my head against hers. The taste of her lips teasing my senses as phantom memories filled my mind as if they were really there, only to disappear upon opening my eyes again.

Sure I still had my mission to save Four Ridges by finding a new water talisman, but nopony in the entirety of Four Ridges would be able to make up for her loss. To remove the pain I felt upon realising that she was lost, gone, possibly, probably, dead.
Life would never be the same for me if I could never see her again, even more so if I couldn't at least give her my last respects if the worst had come to be.

Cherry... Cherry was quickly becoming everything I wanted. If things got to the point where I had to choose one day between the position of power and her, I would choose having her by my side and her love in my heart if that's what it would take to feel the way I do about her.
Now... now that chance might never be.
"Oh Cherry" I whined through my tears. "Cherry... I'm sorry. I failed you. I'm so..." My tears came hard and heavy, my breathing quickened and interrupted my words. "I'm sorry."

A slow, heavy knocking came from the door, a purposeful bang to the tempo of a cautious request to see me.
Looking up and then towards the door, I tried to contain the sorrow I felt though it wasn't much use, I was a mess.
Breathing in deeply and slowly, I prepared to see the face of Titan, perhaps one of the alicorns. Still, I doubted it would be one of those three, their weary looks were completely avoiding me earlier.

As I picked myself up off of the bed, the knocking stopped and the sounds of hooves slowly made their way away from the door. "Wait, wait. I'm coming." I called out with as little emotion as I could release.
With that, the hooves stopped as I approached the door and opened it up to a sight I hadn't expected at all.
Before me stood a buck twice my build in terms of muscle and only a tiny bit shorter than myself, wearing a darkened suit of combat armour and hoof protectors.

"Sir?" He spoke softly despite his deep voice, concern resounding from the way he spoke.

Looking back at him in confusion, I rubbed my eyes with a forehoof as I tried my best to gain some composure. "Sir? I'm sorry, I don't recognise you."

"Sir, I am Freight Train of Alpha team. Remember me now?" The bulky buck gave me a small smile before going back to the static look of concern he had been wearing before, his eyes showing worry and wear around the corners.

Looking at him, I gave a small nod. I recognised the name and I had indeed seen him around from time to time, but I was never too involved in the militaristic side of things up until very recently. I really needed to change that and learn the names of all the most important ponies, it seemed.
"Yeah, I remember. What's up?" I asked, sighing after I spoke. I really doubted he had much to say that could lift my spirits now.

"Sir, I have something you need to hear. Titan came and spoke to us all about you... about Treetop."

"Treetop?" I asked with a confused look on my face , I didn't need this right now.

"Cherry Sundae. Treetop is her codename." My eyes shot wide as I looked at him, a small grin came across his face as he noticed my ears perking up to hear every word he spoke as if my life depended on it. To me, it almost felt like it had.
With a small but confident half chuckle, he began to speak once more.
"Well, word is that she was the one who blew the bridge, completely routing the opponents missile launchers and defeating their main force by removing their main supply route."

Was that it? Is that all he had to say to me? Stuff I had already known, already could have figured out on my own? I turned my head away, this wasn't news to me and I didn't know why he was so certain I needed to hear it. I grunted in response, not knowing what else to do right now.
Sure, that wasn't the proper way to behave if I was going to be a leader, but right now I was a pony who had just lost his lover.

"That isn't half of it, Crimson." He reaffirmed, regaining my attention. "Oh, no. Not at all. She's alive."

My head turned back to him before even I could have known it. My eyes now hurt with how wide they were, almost threatening to explode out from their sockets as I focused on him. My ears stiffened toward him and my heart sped up in anticipation of what he was going to say and from shock of what he had just said.
My lip quivered and my jaw hung loose as I watched him smile at me, a whisper leaking from my throat. "She's... alive?"

With that, he nodded confidently. "Come with me, we'll go speak about it to the rest of the teams."
Teams? Oh, of course. Alpha and Bravo were on their way. Thanks mum, you're a lifesaver, literally.

"Crimson, this is Alpha, Bravo and Echo. Well, technically not quite so much of Echo. Half their team has been temporarily absorbed into Alpha and Bravo for the mission." He paused momentarily. "Would you rather I introduce everyone first, or would you like me to go straight to the news first, then introductions?"

I took a moment to look at all of them in the eye first. It surprised me how much variation there was in some respects, while in others they were all similar.
There was another female in their group, which I hadn't quite expected. What also surprised me was while half of them were unicorns with three earth ponies, there was even a zebra amongst them!
The zebra being surprising seeing as I didn't realise we had more than five of them in total count of Four Ridges.
Some of them were built like Freight train while others were slim like myself.

"Go on, introduce me. I'd rather give you all the respect you deserve and make you feel like you're appreciated in being out here, a part of my team, rather than choosing to have my own selfish desires settled first. Besides, it won't take you lot a minute, right?"

Freight train nodded and smiled at me before ordering everyone into rank and file. Lining up and saluting, the soldiers held a perfect posture as they looked onward.
"Alpha team, step forth." With that, one pony stepped forth, a thin female who wore an accurate looking single shot rifle and an SMG on her side. Her mane and lower half of her face was concealed with a black wrap though her eyes were clearly visible with determination burning strong.
"Tsunami, reporting for duty, sir."

"Bravo team, step forth."

Three ponies now stepped up as Tsunami stepped back. The three bulky ponies took a step towards me and for a moment I felt extremely intimidated by the combined size of not only their weaponry, but also by their muscles. Two of them were tall with one of those being more-so than myself, while the third was an average height. Even still, it was more than impressive to see.

One began to speak, a voice I could've sworn I heard before. "I'm Grinder, Bravo leader. My weapon will grind any opposing force to a pulp, as you would ask."
Looking at him, he wasn't lying. The fearsome minigun that sat strapped to his combat armour was simply astounding, the weight it must have been and yet he showed no sign of struggling to hold it.

Taking another step forth, the pony in the middle of the trio nodded at me. His height too was taller than most, though I had a small amount on him it seemed. "While his minigun suppresses the opposing force, my missile launcher shall make rubble out of their cover and dust out of that rubble. Iron Wall, reporting for duty."

Now Iron Wall stepped back, allowing the third to speak. "Brick, reporting in. Though my assault rifle may seem like nothing next to these two, it provides the necessary edge in conventional fighting. These two are good for the support role, I'm good for the charging role. My ability to ignore pain is my defining trait and if my assault rifle won't destroy you, my sledgehammer will. We are what takes down the enemies' emplacements, sir."
Nodding at Brick, he nodded back and stepped back into line with the others.

"Lastly, Echo team. Step forth." Freight Train now called and the last two members stepped forth, the zebra and one more unicorn.

"Deadlight here." The zebra spoke with a heavy accent, his deep voice booming into the free space of the room. "I specialise in stealth, like Treetop but more about evasive techniques than her magic act. I only carry a silenced pistol, knife and flashbangs. They're all I need."

Lastly the final member stepped up, a average looking unicorn with just an assault rifle to show. Looking at him, he nodded his head at me. I nodded back and looked at him expectantly, though he said nothing at first he quickly changed that with little notice..
"Shockwave. I do assault rifle work. I'm quick, I'm quiet and you won't ever find a faster twitch shooter than me with an aim as accurate as my own. I flank things."

At once, they all saluted me and bowed their heads one by one. It was good to know the ponies who were backing me up and now I'd met Alpha, Bravo and what I had of Echo, I felt a lot more confident. The seven of them would definitely make the difference in the fight, I could tell already. The only issue now was getting around would require it to be on hoof and no longer just flying around, even with Maisy's help.

"Now, as for what we can tell you of Treetop. That's what you want to hear most of all, isn't it?"

Taking a deep breath, I tried to ready myself for any news he might have. Looking down at the floor, I perked my ears up but couldn't truly bring myself to look at him while he spoke, not yet. "Please."

"She's alive and, we assume, well enough. She's had movement."
Now that was enough to get my eyes up to meet his. Movement? Movement was brilliant news!
"Trouble is, we don't have a map of Coltchester to assess where she's moved to. Sure, we could scan a map of the region, but we've found most maps don't detail the majority of the central sector of Coltchester, we suspect this is to do with the military history and not wanting to leak details to the Zebricans back in the day of the war."

Approaching me from behind, Titan stepped closer. "And that is where I come in. Freight Train has spoke to me about the issue, knowing that me being a ghoul and wearing this armour makes it likely that I would have the intimate knowledge of the zone. Guess what? I do. Guess what, also? After what you did, what you managed to pull off, I'm more than happy to provide you all the information and help required to pull off a rescue mission. See, the issue is that she's in the central zone, ex-military. Guess who controls that?"

Turning to look at him, I sighed before taking my guess. "Donkey Zebra Coalition?"

"Correct. Looking at the co-ordinates on their trackers, cross referencing it with my old maps and memory... I'm going to hazard a guess that she's locked up in the barracks. Now, there's something interesting about that, too. Again, care to guess what?" His voice had an amount of enthusiasm in it as if that was a good thing.

"Barracks... no, nothing that..." My speech slowed as my brain began to work. "Wait." I paused, really considering what he had just said and sifting through my memory.. "Didn't Neon say that our prisoner friends were being held at the barracks?!"

Titan smiled at me come this point, nodding away. "Yeah, that's precisely where he said they were. He also said they only had light guarding at the moment, though that's likely to have changed since the events of this morning."

Looking down at my pipbuck, I had to send her a message. I had to let her know that she wasn't alone.
My eyes steeled themselves as I looked upon my pipbuck and then back up to the crew in front of me. "Look, I'm going to contact her via my broadcaster. If any of you think it's a bad idea, say now and I'll tell you that I love her and I don't give a fuck how bad of an idea it is. I love her and I need her to know I'll be coming for her... she needs to know she's not been forgotten."

With that, Titan spoke. "You think they won't increase security at the facility if they realise she's important?"

Turning round to face him, I genuinely smiled for the first time since believing she was gone for good. "Oh, of course they will. It's what I'm counting on, actually. Let them. Better if they do, even. Why? Look behind me. Look at the ponies and zebra behind me, and tell me they aren't ready for this. This is what they do, what their jobs are. We don't fucking leave anyone behind, Titan. NO-ONE. OKAY?!"

After I found myself shouting at him I had a sour look on my face. I could tell how my face was scrunched up though it didn't matter. Looking down to the floor, I continued.
"I refuse to let her rot in a cell. Especially not in a DZC cell. Let them throw whatever the fuck they want to defend her... they'll only learn too late that nothing will stop me from saving my Cherry Sundae when the time comes. Nothing. Even if it would mean I would have to kill every DZC fucker in the whole city to keep her safe, I would."
Looking back at my team for confirmation, they all nodded to me. They were happy to back me up it seemed.

"Okay, what about getting into the military part of the city anyway? What plans do you have? Getting there was never easy, even as a member of the military back in the day you had to go through checkpoints. I don't know what kind of infrastructure is still around today or what security they're using, but it can't be nothing."

Pulling out my broadcaster, I switched to a different name than I had originally planned to contact. Titan tried to argue his point across to me again, though I quickly showed him the contact I was now choosing to contact. Neon.

"Neon, this is Wings. Don't worry about responding to this, just do one thing for me. Come to the place we met last time, tomorrow, midday. You can name your price come then."

Titan looked at me with a smirk across his face. "You cheeky bugger. A genius answer to finding out the information you need to know, I suppose. I had half been expecting you to tell me that you'd simply fly overhead and hope that no-one spotted you until you've already broken into the complex or something."

Looking up at him, I smiled. Now I had part of the plan already done. His smile dropped as he realised what I was thinking and facehooved. "I didn't mean you should, Crimson! Eugh. Still, I suppose it could work if you had your crew down below distracting the.... no, you know what? That could work. If you had your troops move in from below, taking out the guard posts silently and then redirecting fire upon themselves while keeping out of danger as much as possible, you might just be able to slip through the cloud cover and dive down into the barracks zone. You'd be in a high risk situation by doing that, but if you were to do it at night, I've seen you be fairly stealthy at night."

Now we had the whole plan laid out ahead of us, all we needed to know was the exact details of the guard system - where they go with their patrols, where the checkpoints are, where they're weakest and where they're strongest. Lastly, how many of them there was. Neon could provide us that information, my crew could handle the mainstay of the operation and if we got lucky, perhaps the rebellion would do me a favour.
Now we had a plan.

Getting on the broadcaster once more, I began to attempt to contact my love.
"Cherry, Cherry, can you hear me?" I asked in anticipation.
There was no response. "Cherry? ...Cherry? Please, Cherry?"
Looking down at the device on my wrist, I began to worry as the moments passed and there was no response.
"Cherry? Oh princesses, please say you're okay. Please. Cherry? I need you to be okay, please."

Yet more time passed, nothing. Just as some of the team began to lower their heads in sorrow, a crackling noise came from my pipbuck.
"Crimson? Is... is that you?"

Flying into the air with joy, she was alive! She was alive she was alive she was fucking alive!
"Cherry!" I shouted overjoyed. "You're alive! Oh my word, I was so fucking afraid that I had lost you. Oh goddesses, I'm so sorry Cherry. Oh so sorry. I really, really am. I was knocked out from the blast, I think, and the next thing I know, I'm here at the HQ."

"You're safe? Good. I've missed you, but look, you really shouldn't-" With that, she paused. a hesitation in her voice. "No, I won't tell you!"

"Cherry? What's going on?"

"Fine. Yes, yes it is. Happy now? Good, keep your end of the bargain though. What?! Hm. Fine." I could hear something on the other end of the line, but the source of whatever she was talking to wasn't close enough to pick up anything intelligible through the static until a moment later when the sound grew louder and clearer.
"Okay, okay. Just let me tell him first, okay?"
"Okay." The second voice said in a cool, collected tone, I wondered what the hell was going on.

"Look, Crimson. I've been captured by the DZC. However, the pony whom captured me is somepony who I've ran into before. We spared each-others lives then and he's decided to spare my life now. I'm being treated admirably though I have been locked up, as you might assume. Captain Blueheart would like to speak to you, Crimson. Be polite, okay? For me?"

Sighing, I agreed. There wasn't anything I could really do right now so I supposed it would be in her best interest to agree.

"Hello, Mister Wings. My name is Blueheart, I am a captain of the Coalition's Slumside regiment. I've heard a lot about you, Executioner."

"Excuse me, but how do you know my name, both of them in fact?"

"Oh, come now." The captain began. "You really didn't think that a threat to the coalition such as yourself could simply waltz on into Coltchester, cause such a stir as to punch my commanders wife in the face and then execute one of the Zebrican patrols, cause chaos in the streets and then remain anonymous, did you? And the latest and greatest feat of blowing up the highway? You were spotted reclaiming the C4 that we assume did the job, after all."

"You have a point. I suppose me being a pegasus by the name of Wings doesn't help much either." I retorted.

"Quite. Quite. Anyhow, here's what I have to say to you... but first, may I ask if this communication is encrypted?"

Blinking in surprise, I was taken back by that question. Why would it matter? Nevertheless, I answered truthfully. "Yeah, it is. Why does it matter to you?"

"Because to be quite honest with you... there are things I disapprove of in how the Coalition works. Right now, my orders are to execute your Cherry Sundae as an act of revenge for your interferences."

Execution as revenge?! My blood boiled and I lost control over the volume of my voice. "YOU FUCKING WHAT? IF ANYPONY LAYS A FUCKING HOOF ON HER."

"Of course, of course." His calm demeanour remaining constant despite my outburst. "I do not believe that it would be a wise idea, personally. Nor do I agree with such an act on the very principals of it. Instead, I do believe that if we talk, we can settle this like grown ups."

Grown ups in the wasteland? That was a first to me, outside of the more civilised zones anyway. Breathing deeply, I let go of my anger momentarily. "Okay, you've got my attention and I apologise for my outburst. Now, what do you propose?"

With a hint of shock, the captain responded kindly. "You apologise? Well, that's... not something I expected. I'm glad I'm talking to another gentlecolt. I understand that you might be very emotional about the thought of that, Cherry speaks highly of you as her buckfriend. Love gets the best of all of us, at times. Now, as for what I propose, I propose this: You have two of our members in your hooves. Specifically, you have two of my squad in your hooves. A mare and a buck. I would assume they are captives, correct?"

Looking at Titan, I shrugged. "Do we have two captives of the DZC?"

He gave me a puzzled look in return, scrunching his face as he thought before looking back to me as if he'd just had a revelation. Speaking into my broadcaster, he responded to the captain.
"Excuse me, Captain Blueheart. This is Titan, leader of the PLAC. I do believe you are referring to a couple, are you not?"
The captain paused as he gave a low humming sound, only to confirm this moments later.
"Well, we do indeed have those two in our care at the moment. The female remains in our medical bay, recovering from injuries sustained during an Anarchist attack on their number. What is your request?"

"Simply that you keep them well fed, well looked after and medically treated, for now. I won't lie to you, I didn't join the DZC because I believe in the cause. I joined because I wanted to protect my brother and his wife, whom are the ones you have in your establishment. If I'm honest, I would prefer nothing more than peace. For now though, please keep hold of them until they are well, at the very least. As for Cherry, I assure you both that she is going to receive decent treatment and will not be harmed while under my care. I am a member of the honour-guard, my word is my life because my word is my honour and my honour is my life. You have my word, I will not harm her."

"So, your word is your honour, and that is your life, is it?" I asked.

"Yes. it is." He replied.

"And you promise that she won't be harmed under your care, do you?"

"That I do."

Looking down at the floor in frustration, I unleashed my only warning to him. "Just make sure that she doesn't get touched in any way that you know I wouldn't approve of, because I will end anypony who does harm her in any way. It doesn't matter what you say, all that matters is what you do. I swear that upon my own life, I will have my just revenge. There will be blood. If you do her no harm and treat her well, I won't harm a single hair on your body. Hell, if you stay true to your word I'd be liable to buy you a drink in a pub if ever given the chance... but if she gets hurt, from those responsible... there will be blood."

For a moment, the captain seemed startled by my almost calm warning of the danger anyone would be in if they hurt her. As the seconds passed however, he spoke again. "Duly noted, and agreed. As a member of the honour guard, I accept. I might even tell you the same about my brother and his wife. Do we have a deal?"

Smiling despite the fact he couldn't see it, I hoped he could sense it in some weird way. "Yeah, sounds like a deal. If I find anyone harming your brother or his wife in any way, I will personally do the job for you if it means Cherry is safe."

"Now this broadcast must end, I fear how long the others will be away for. If you wish to speak to Cherry again, you have half hour from ten pm to do so without anyone realising that's what is happening. Same time every night. May you stay well, Crimson."

Surprised by the new information, I was taken back. "Thank you, and you too, Blueheart." I murmured back, still amazed he would allow me to know such a thing. Such a precious, precious thing as to knowing when I could talk to my sweetheart without issue was beyond a small gesture - and I treasured that greatly.

Looking back to Titan as the call ended, I let out a small smile as I made my way to the makeshift lounge, gesturing for the others to follow me.
As he gave me a questioning look, I just muttered. "I need a drink, care for one yourself?" and with a laugh, he nodded back and followed me through.
By the look of it, a drink sounded good to everyone as they all followed us through one by one.

As we sat across the various sofas that had been collected across the years and put into the place, three particular alicorns slowly made their way into the room. One by one, Selene and Helios made their way over to me and apologised to me with a sincere look in their faces for being unable to bring themselves to speak about Cherry.
Now I knew that she was okay, I found it a lot easier to forgive the two of them. They hadn't wanted to upset me, I understood that and they were only trying to protect me from myself, I guessed.
Still, one large blue mare stood at the end of the room, sourly looking at me.

Upon the return of her sisters from where she stood, she hesitated until finally convinced to come and see me. Making her way past everypony else, I saw her timid movement straight in my direction. Rather than waiting for her to reach my chair however, I stood up and hovered across the room, out towards a doorway so that I could stare into the nothingness that it led to.

I could tell this disheartened her as her head drooped, but I tried not to think about it or to make it obvious I was still watching out of the corner of my eye.
Turning her head back to her sisters, she went to return until they called her to go over to me. If she did, I wouldn't fly off again, this would be my test I supposed.
Seconds past and it seemed like she would be too timid at first, scoring me an annoyed look from Titan. However, as her sisters kept telling her to, she eventually made her way over to where I now stood.

Stepping closer, I could begin to feel the tip of her mane brushing against my coat as she lowered her head next to mine cautiously, a small whimper coming from her lips that I could barely hear even from the close distance that she now was.
"C... Crimson?" Her voice mousy as she swallowed after speaking, gulping down the fear.

"What is it?" I asked with no particular emotion being conveyed, instead just wanting to hear what she had to say for herself.

The fear was obvious in her voice, barely capable of holding herself together. "I... I'm sorry. I'm awfully sorry for not telling you, Crimson. I didn't know if she was okay or not, I just knew she wasn't here and that it wasn't good news. That it wasn't a good thing."

"You're right, it wasn't a good thing. I'm hurt, Eos. I'm hurt by the fact you wouldn't tell me, I'm hurt by the fact you thought of yourself before me. I'm hurt by the fact you thought you could squeeze all of the affection possible out of me before letting me hear that... as if I wouldn't end up wanting my hooves around you to try and comfort myself while she's gone."

I stepped into the empty doorway where rocks had collapsed through the walkway and brought a small amount of fresh air into the complex from above. The slight chill caused me to shudder, but it felt comforting in a strange way.
Looking back at Eos, her face now flushed with embarrassment.

"You... you'd want your hooves around me, to comfort you?" The strain in her voice becoming less as she spoke now, a small smile on her face. "What would it take for you to... forgive me?"

"You can start by getting me a drink, bringing it out here and sitting down with me. We'll talk and sort things out, okay?"

With an increasing smile upon her face, Eos made her way out. It wasn't long before she came back with not only a bottle of Wild Pegasus whiskey but also a sofa just large enough for the two of us to sit upon in tow, with the help of her sisters who had their own smiles, no doubt being now that Eos would be made happy once again with the chance to reconcile and make amends.

Uncapping the top, I took a swig of the whiskey before sitting down on the sofa and thanking the lovely mares for bringing it out here for us. They thanked me for giving Eos' the chance to make up for her mistake and walked back into the main room where the rest remained.
As Eos approached, she had a slightly guilty look upon her face still as she looked at me with pleading eyes and then down next to me.

Before she could ask, I answered her question. "Of course you can. Come on, sit next to me then and once you say sorry again, you can rest your head on me. Deal?"

With the smile like a filly, she nodded. "Deal. I'm so sorry Crimson, I should have told you. I just... I wanted to make you happy. I didn't want to be the one who hurt you, but doing that ended up with me hurting you the most it seems."

"It's fine. She's alive and well, though there's nothing I can do about that just yet. I'll have to collect information about when the best time to strike and recover her from captivity is before I can do it, but I will do it. Mark my words, the DZC have no idea what they're fucking in for. They thought they'd seen what I'd do, but they've not seen anything yet. Want a swig?"

Looking down at the bottle, she nodded. Though instead of simply taking it in her magic, she looked at me with those big doughy eyes. "D... do you think you could... pour it for me?" She bit her lip as she asked, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"Sure, but we have no glasses?"

"Oh, I don't mean into a glass."

That right there set the tone for the rest of the night. Drinking with an alicorn to wish away the pain of not having my beloved around. We spoke about the things that meant a lot to us, about the city and the peoples that were living in it. She asked about Four Ridges, I asked about The Goddess. None of it was greatly secretive stuff either way, though it was nice to just be talking about anything different to pass the time and relax.

Spending time with Eos like this was calming, it took my mind off what I had to do, what I'd already done... especially off all the things I'd already done. I hadn't realised it before, but the lives I'd taken had taken a toll on me and my spirit, causing me a little more anger and frustration each and every time.
Simply talking and drinking about things seemed to make me realise that and took the burden off my shoulders as I spoke about it.
Now I understood how Cherry felt, though I still felt it was a better idea to protect by active judgement and aggressive action than to simply hope somepony would change.

As the time went on, I noticed it had just gone past ten at night, the one chance I had to speak freely with Cherry had arrived.
Reaching out for my broadcaster, I was careful not to jolt around as Eos' head now rested upon my chest, drifting off to sleep through the alcohol she had ingested being completely too much for her to handle, it seemed.

"Cherry... Cherry, it's me." I began, a tired yawn coming from my liquor soaked lips as I tried not to slur my speech. "I just want to let you know... I love you. I'm sorry I wasn't there to keep you safe, to get you back here. I'm sorry I couldn't do better."

"It's okay, I'm sorry too." Her soft voice spoke out to me as I paused, causing my lips to curl into a faint smile. "I'm sorry I didn't stay with you, to keep you safe. You're the more important of us two, I should have done my job better. Nevermind, we're both alive. I love you too, Crimson."

"Cherry?" I paused again, she gave a small murmur of confirmation to that she was listening. "Remember that.. no matter where you go - I will always stay by your side.. even if I can't be there myself, I will always be in your heart. Again, I love you. Goodnight."

So, that's Chapter eighteen: There will be blood.
The chapter deviated from plan quite a lot, though it definitely doesn't help that I planned it out before having even gotten more than I think about 4k into chapter seventeen... (which as we all know, ended up as a mega-chapter.)

Still, I'd like to think that this chapter is a worth-while one. Also, sorry Arcus, but it was needing to be done. You can stab me now.

Short credits for this chapter, not much to say. Any issues you find / have with it, please don't be afraid to let me know. I promise I won't bite your hand off like I did that one time waaay back at chapter six. That was me being stupid, childish and impatient.
Anyway, yeah. I plan to begin work on the next chapter ASAP, though how well received it will be eludes me. Still, I always think it'll be a boring / bad chapter and get told I'm wrong, so we'll see.

Cheers to both Kkat and Somber for writing the stories that inspired me. I'm actually re-reading the original Fallout Equestria right now as well as reading Horizons as it updates, of course, so if anyone ever notices that my writing style changes ever so slightly, it's probably my subconscious trying to do better by learning from the best.

That's it from me. hope you all have a wonderful time. I'll do my absolute best to have another chapter out before this story hits one year old, promise! (Which is the 27th of Feb... so should be damned easy to do.)

Thank you for reading, everyone. It means a lot to me.