Even in the end there is always a new beginning!- Applebits

I woke, my head very clear, much clearer than it had been in weeks ever since I had that first freak vision that had released my small scale mega spell. We had landed just within viewing range of Fillydelphia, I wished that I could help all the slaves there, but my mission was clear, rescue Tempest and get the hell out of there. I found that I was standing in front of a large free standing map that I had created, with the help of my visions, I had set up a plan of action to sneak in and rescue Tempest. I could cast a spell on us to turn us invisible, so could Defense, she and I were the ones going in, Dark Lightning and BrokenBlade were our cover fire for the way out if things went sour. Though if all went as planned we would never be seen heard or otherwise, Defense was my ticket in and out, she was also going to cloak Tempest in case he couldn’t do so for himself, though by the power I felt in the last vision, I had no doubt he could do it himself!

I had two contingencies, the first was if Trixy knew we were coming, We would charge in with the tank roll up, get the general, and leave, but that was risky and posed a threat to the captive slaves. The second was if we were spotted, at any point this was the more likely of the two, upon getting spotted I would radio to BrokenBlade who would be ready with his anti tank cannons, we had agreed not to use the tank since it could kill civilians with its splash, and Lightning would begin distracting them in the sky so that we could get the general as they blew up from AT cannons and were harassed from the sky by a pegasus. Overall the plan was to get Tempest outside of the city and make a run for the tank, which we had hidden not too far from the city itself, near the place Tempest had shown me for us to get in at.

When it was time to proceed with the plan, everypony got into their positions. Me and Defense snuck in through a small hole in the outer wall, we were invisible, as we were moving to the middle wall I stopped, I had cast a spell so that we could see each other so she stopped next to me.

“What is wrong, is this not right?” she whispered.

I looked up, there was a guard on top of the wall so I hit him with an antistatic spell that also froze him asleep in place.

“Pick me up, we have to go over this one.” I whispered back.

She picked me up and we flew over the middle wall and the immobile guard, upon getting to the other side I crouched through a crack that I had a hard time fitting through, though Defense just fazed through the wall behind me. The hole led us to a small room on the floor level of the Ministry of Moral hub of Fillydelphia. The walls were pink, so was the carpet, and the ceiling, it actually made me sick looking at it.

“Well it was Pinkies ministry.” I whispered to my friend.

“True enough.” she whispered back.

I got a radio call from the boys as soon as we got inside, its nice to know that they aren't just sitting out there playing cards like the guards from my old boot camp always did.

“Hey did you get in okay?” I heard Lightning say over the static.

“Yes we are inside the ministry hub.” I whispered through the radio.

“Good, I have nothing to report aside from that guard you hit is still standing there, I’ll take him out quietly if I have to but it shouldn't be necessary.” he said, I could here is rifle's action click among the static.

I knew that guy would wake up in a few hours, on top of that Defense had set up a ton of explosives on the other side of the fortress, we were not just ready for trouble, we were expecting it.

We made it out of the ministry building, I had told Defense to look for a building that used to print posters and literature before the fallout, in the basement would be a door that could only open from the inside, Defense would have to faze through it and open it for me. I was terrified by what I saw out here, knowing that neither of us should speak we didn’t, but the ponies who were working as slaves, to build what Red Eye called a better tomorrow, looked as though they might all be dead and their bodies just moving out of muscle memory, it was horrid. I hoped Tempest would bring us back here so that we could fight for their freedom, nopony should have this thrown upon them, I let my mind venture in the darkness for a moment and the thought that if I ever get the chance I will personally rip out the beating hearts of everypony who had a hoof in making this happen and had the power to stop it did cross my mind.

I was shaking with anger frozen in place when Defense tapped me, she pointed to the building we were looking for, reluctantly I moved in. We had to get inside without anypony taking note of us, it was easy for Defense, she just went through the wall like a freaking ghost, me well I found a broken window and with levitation help from my friend got inside.

“Do not worry, we will help them, Tempest spoke to me last night again, for the last time through a vision. He said that there will come a battle, that somepony named Little Pip is going to bring light and start the path to peace for the wasteland, and that we shall help her when the time comes.” she whispered to me helping me find my focus again, it was good to know that we were going to help them, my only issue was that it couldn’t be now.

We moved through the building, occasionally stopping to let ponies go by, I heard them talking about parasprites that were carnivorous and how long it took them to kill them all before they could use this facility, and the amount of work it was going to take to get the equipment running again. After a few close encounters and one necessary heart attack spell we found the door.

“Did you really need to kill him, that slave will be blamed?” Defense asked.

“I used a heart attack spell, he died of natural causes, besides, I wasn’t about to let him hurt that guy just because he stood up for that mare, they may have both been guards, but I don’t think they are all bad.” I replied as she walked up to the door. “Can you go through it?” I added.

“Yes, I can and I will, just admiring the fact that its enchanted.” she answered me with a glint in her eyes.

“Enchanted?” I said confused.

“Yes when I go through they will know that we are here.” she said as she looked at me.

“Tempest probably knew of this, which means that he can help us fight our way out.” I said with confidence we both became visible.

As soon as she put a hoof through the giant metal door alarms went off, they must have been blaring from those speakers I saw on the way in. Defense got the door open fast as three alicorns appeared behind her, though none of them saw my missiles.

WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH!!!

I gave each alicorn three missile surprise as my parting gift, Defense was covered in bits of pony, she didn’t care and if she did she didn’t show it, Tempest had trained her for war well. When we came about the corner I unleashed missiles on all eight of the shied generating alicorns keeping Tempest prisoner, with a massive boom and vibrations sent through the ruined city, I had let everyone know that we were here.

“It is good to see my last two pupils here for me.” I dry and powerful voice said as Tempest emerged from the back smoke generated by my missiles.

His black medieval armor still had its red trim on it, his midnight black coat had faded to a charcoal grey, his mane and tail had also faded but was still black with a few dark red streaks moving through them, his eyes hadn’t changed, they were a deep red that glowed softly, and he had his weapons at the ready, on his back he had two sheathed broadswords, and on his battle saddle he had four firearms of his own design. His guns were in all essentially fully automatic armor piercing grenade machine guns that when fired sounded like an entire ten tank companies firing in a cascading never ending boom of death. He was much taller than Defense, a little taller than Celestia, if you removed her horn, his dragon wings were outstretched, I could see small holes in the membranes that made up his wing span, they were at least double his body with in size.

“We have no time to waste, we must leave at once if we are to leave at all!” he said with urgency as he folded his wings up, he couldn’t press them against his sides because of his guns but he didn’t seem to mind.

He led us back the way we came, our boys had taken to the contingency plan, Lightning had distracted most of the guards, even killed at least half of the ones that we saw coming in, any of the guards he missed when he started getting chased by alicorns were quickly taken down my AT fire from afar as Bull’s-Eye did his thing. Tempest emerged from below, we were right behind him, it was dark but the sky was still red,

“Red Eye! Tell your goddess I shant be contained like a caged animal, and that she is doomed!” Tempest bellowed, his voice reverberating off of everything.

We went out the way we came in, Lightning put a well placed shot to trigger our explosives and Tempest incinerated anypony who tried to hurt a slave or got in our way, he also unleashed his guns and frothed forth a storm of death toward the griffons and alicorns that were attacking Lightning. We got to the tank and Defense strapped herself in, while Tempest looked at me quizzically.

“You have a Tortoise prototype?” he asked me.

“Can we talk later sir!” I said, as he nodded, realizing once more that we were under attack.

To my relief when Tempest incinerated a group of guards they stopped worrying about the slave as much as they began to worry about themselves, so the innocent ponies that we were unable to help were safe until we could return in that final battle Tempest had mentioned. So I got into the tank, I was familiar with the controls of the weapons on board, but I wasn’t as good a shot as BrokenBlade was, nevertheless I opened fire with the one thing he never seemed to use, the tanks missile pods. The missiles the tank could fire were twice the size of mine and made at least four times the boom, I enjoyed blowing up the alicorns and griffons.

We got in the air quiet fast, but as soon as Defense turned she was lit up. I could see anti material rifle rounds impacting both her and the tank. I unleashed a volley of missiles on the sniper positions alongside the AT guns but alas I acted too late, I witnessed Defenses head explode and braced before the tank hit the ground.

We crashed landed next to Blade as Lightning landed next to the wreck, Tempest wasn't too far away from us as he unloaded his guns to keep them off of us. I crawled out of the gun and into the broken crew compartment, I acquired my personal items before the back of the tank was cut off by two swords as the sound of gunfire filled my ears. Tempest sheathed his blades and pulled me out with a grim look upon his face, I looked down to find that I had lost my rear legs after he pulled me out of the tank and I was bleeding fast. I made a whimpering sound and passed out as I saw Tempest drag me to cover.

In my dream I saw Nowhere, the sky was clear and there were flowers in every window, beautiful daisies, Fire Bloom was bouncing about town with a phoenix flying next to her. Looking at her more closely she was much older, there were ponies that had features I recognized, dragon like, but they were very young and chasing each other around. First Army Rangers were on the walls of the town, ever vigilant for danger and ready to fight.

Author's Notes:

And thus their luck has run out, looking forward to making a few extra chapters before revising the already existing chapter. In other words the fanfic is going to get larger and better than it was before.

Stay Brony