No matter how hard I try to bury the past, it always finds me in the end. -Tempest Knight

I stood at the edge of the fairly radioactive riverside for some time, all that surrounded me was rain as I continued to think back. I could still hear the screams of Baltimare, the worried looks that my rangers tried to hide, the pain from my long healed wounds that put me into my coma, I could hear and feel it all. My eyes still closed I breathed on raggedly, I was still uncertain if I had done the right thing to the Enclave pegasus back up in the clouds, they did help me after all. Sighing I at long last opened my eyes to see, what my pip-buck labeled as a radagator march towards me from the shore. The beast and I stared at each other a while before it walked back into the contaminated waters and a new sound protruded into my ears.

"I can't believe that you let those mares slip through our hooves so easily!" a voice shrieked from behind me.

"Hey, you're the one who opened the cage to snag the filly!" a mare with a sick and twisted sneer replied to her companion.

My weapons were still damaged, but I wouldn't need them to deal with common scum. I turned my head by a few inches to catch a glance upon my prey, the mare was shit brown with a piss green mane, the buck was the same as his companion. I watched as they drew nearer to me, still absorbed in their conversation, and not seeing the large dragon like pony before them.

"Shut up sis, at least I didn't leave the guns out!" the stallion yelled as he turned to her.

"How about you think with something more than you second head!" his sister yelled back, earning a chuckle from me.

They both turned in terror as I walked towards them with flames coming out of my muzzle, they both screamed at the top of their lungs before I turned them into little more than snubs of legs where ponies once stood.

"Burn heretics for the crimes you have committed." I snarled before spreading my wings to fly.

I only stopped when I heard familiar voice from my recent past cackle over my broadcaster.

"Pre war, tell us your location and we promise that your friend won't get hurt." the Enclave captain from earlier called.

"Friend, to my knowledge I am alone down here aside from the filth that seems to be everywhere I go." I replied giving a slight chuckle.

"Oh, but this ranger say that he knows you, Tempest Knight." the captain sneered.

"Where are you?" I growled as I shook my wings and began to check my weapons to see if I could repair any of them to any kind of functionality.

"Near where we found you actually, he said you sent a distress beacon to his EFS's." she replied.

"You harm him and I will make you wish you had never been born." I snarled as I took off, using my gemstones magic to fuse the necessary components within my armor back together so my weapons systems would work.

I got no reply as I flew, my gaze centered on where I had fought the alicorns. I could see the four Enclave soldiers on the ground with a ranger in black armor holding his fore hooves to his head. I landed ten paces away and looked at them, if it were not for my armor they would see my eyes narrowed to near slits.

"So you do care." the captain smirked, her face had been healed to an extent, but was still heavily scarred across her face.

"Release him, your quarrel is with me." I growled.

"No." the captain smiled, earning a shocked look from her medic.

"Excuse me?" I hissed as smoke billowed from my vents.

The Enclave captain walked up to me, her smile still present as she looked me straight in the visor, "Execute him."

"Nooooooo!" the medic yelled before she was blasted by her own squad mates.

"Heresy!" I cried as I barreled through the captain and dowsed one of the soldiers on balefire.

"Take him down!" the captain stammered as she got to her hooves and the remaining soldier opened fire on me.

He managed to inflict heavy damage to my right side thus fusing my right wing to my armor itself, as I unloaded round after explosive round towards him. I scored three direct hits before my cannons clicked dry to inform me that I needed to install a new clip, the stallion burst into chucks of flesh before me as the one I had lit on fire fell to the ground and twitched.

"You killed them, my squad." the captain faltered before she charged me with her scorpion tail at the ready.

I turned my side to her and swung my tail as her tail nailed me in my gut, mine made contact with her head, "Stubborn fool, their blood is upon thine hooves."

I shakily took a few steps before the medic stood up and looked at me, a worried expression across her now uncovered face, her forest green eyes burning into me as I passed out.

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When my eyes opened again I could see the medic sitting with my ranger friend, who was still wearing his helmet. I tried to stand but I couldn't feel my hind legs, looking back I could see a nasty indent where the tail had impaled me.

"I know why you cry, but it is something I can never do." I heard Arnold say as his armored head turned to me, "He is awake Butter Flutter."

The medic, Butter Flutter, turned around and hushed me down, "Calm down, it is only temporary."

"The armor designed by the MoA was designed with a poison laced tip for the combat tail, the poison was tailored to immobilize the enemy during combat." Arnold stated with a matter of fact tone, all the while Butter just looked at him as if he was an alien.

"How did you know that?" she asked him, wide eyed.

"It was embedded into my memory core for data preservation by Stable Tech to preserve the knowledge of the past." Arnold replied earning an even more confused look from the mare.

"He is a ponytron Butter Flutter." I croaked, which was followed by plumes of smoke.

She just nodded and sat back down as Arnold took off him helmet and began to tear off the badly damaged ranger armor. He then pushed it all into a pile before salvaging parts from it.

"I will scavenge upgrades for myself and you, General." he said as he stripped the shredded armor apart.

"Thanks." I moaned as pain flared up in my flank.

"Are you okay?" our new friend asked.

"If I said I was, I would be lying." I started, "I haven't been okay in over two hundred years, and I won't be until I find her."

"Who?" she asked.

"I will tell you later when you are in a more suitable state of mind my friend." I replied as I forced myself to sleep.

I dreamed of flying in the open blue sky with Rainbow Dash as our contrails traced our paths in a black and rainbow colored streaks. I then stopped abruptly as fire overtook all that was below me and Rainbow Dash was sucked into a great tornado of doom. I tried to pursue but was halted by a solid wall of missiles that detonated in my face, sending me hurtling to the ground. Upon the ground I was then besieged by endless hoards of zombies, just to be consumed by my beloved.

I jumped and smacked my head against Butter, who had rolled me onto my back to give me an examination. I landed in the reverse of how I had awoken, now on top of her I could see her face light up bright pink as I stepped off of her slowly, careful not to step on her.

"Sorry, I had a fright." I said turning my head away and walked over to my armor that Arnold had repaired.

"Its quiet alright, you just caught me off guard." she responded as she walked back to her medical supplies.

I looked at Arnold and realized he was powered down, "How long has he been offline?"

"An hour or so." she said, to which I gave her an odd glance and realizing she was out of armor.

I didn't say anything, seeing as though I felt nothing odd, and that I had just killed three ponies she knew well. I got into my armor and sighed, Arnold had done a decent job repairing it, but he didn't know too much about my weapons. I took my armament off and began tinkering with them before she sat down next to me.

"Sorry if I am making you uncomfortable, just to ease the skies I am only interested in mares." she said with a gentle smile before she frowned, "Though you did kill my marefriend."

"I am sorry, I didn't know it was Arnold, otherwise I wouldn't have killed them. Seeing as though he could have killed them if he thought them a threat." I said, frowning as I did so.

"No, I'm grateful." she replied, looking me in the eye, "After how she treated this situation, I lost everything I ever felt for her."

"Why did Arnold allow you all to capture him?" I asked trying to change the topic, so she wouldn't dwell on the past.

"It didn't help that we dropped a EMP and immobilized him." she snickered.

"Small design flaw, I'll figure out how to correct that." I replied, now smiling madly since I had finished my repairs.

"What is the plan?" Arnold asked out of nowhere.

"I am going to Hoofington, I thought you were escorting the stable ponies to Nowhere?" I asked, giving a concerned look.

"The rangers are adequate to do so, I left the map with them." Arnold replied, before looking at one of the dead Enclave.

He walked up to the dead stallion whom I had blown apart and took his dark grey handkerchief before tying it around his neck. He then looked to our new friend and gave a solemn nod before walking away from the corpse and standing sentry at the edge of camp.

Author's Notes:

Arnold Ponegator returns, and Tempest has influenced a rather young pegasus mare into joining his cause.

Stay Brony Everypony!