Ever since she blew Stable 5’s door off of its hinge and loaded it up onto the train with assistance from the citizens of Liverpool three days ago, Cybermare has gone quiet. I’m sure she’s been in hiding. She’s likely biding her time for something. A lot of ponies need your help in Crystal City, Cybermare. A lot of ponies are relying on you.

And I know what you’ve been up to thanks to some words from the citizens. Whatever’s gotten you down, Cybermare, just know that Voice is still out here supporting you. All of Crystal City is supporting you. You’re scaring the raiders away from our borders just by being here. You brought back enough Compresium from the Crystal Caves to spare for our citizens.

I swished the mouthful of imported Yakistan vodka around in my mouth before swallowing it. It was a wretched taste, but at least it brought me away from the reality of where I was with enough of it.

Let’s take the focus off of Cybermare for a moment. I’m sure most of you have heard, but the lovely Melody has taken DJ Pon3’s spot. But she doesn’t hide her voice like the old DJ did. She makes her voice loud and clear on the radio, kind of like I do… Heh. Well, trust me when I say that ol’ Voice has been around the block a couple of times. Melody is an old friend of mine from a long time ago, and I can assure you she’s the right pony for the job.

I sigh, and drop my face into the bar counter. “Could somepony change the station. To somepony that isn’t talking about the Cybermare?”

“You alright there sweetie?” Asks the mare tending the bar.

I momentarily shift my head to give her a quick glance, then rest my forehead back on the bar counter and stare at the surprisingly polished wood. She was a blue unicorn mare, with a darker blue mane, and eyes that were a slightly lighter shade than mine. Oh, and she sparkled.

“No. I’m not alright.”

She moves over to my general area and grabs an old, dirty cup. She starts to wipe the inside of it with a rag. “Tell me about it.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Dear, you’ve been here every day for the past five days. Every day, you purchase a more potent mixture of alcohol and leave the bar more drunk than the last time. Trust me, you want to talk about it.”

I move my head off of the counter, and grab the bottle of Vodka.

“Ah-ah. You put that bottle down right now.” I very hesitantly do as ordered. “You’re the Cybermare, right?” I nod. “I thought so. Your back kind of gave it away. You’ve done a lot since you left your Stable. And I mean a lot. You’ve been here for a little over a week, right?”

“I’ve done a whole fucking lot. I think I’ve done more in the wasteland than any other Stable pony ever has before they finally die or get killed.”

The barista bursts into laughter. “Oh dear. You really haven’t been out here this long, have you?” I shake my head as she wipes a jolly tear out from under her eye. What the hell was so funny? “Trust me. A lot of Stable ponies have been through a lot more than you have. One in particular was caught in a megaspell blast, burnt to a crisp by a dragon, who was also her friend beforehoof, and had her Pip-Buck melted into her forearm three years ago. And guess what. Technically, she still isn’t dead.”

“Technically? How the hell does that work?” I was starting to perk up, and my inquisitive nature was bringing me out of my depression to find this answer.

“I’m not sure myself. Something about her body being dead, but her mind or her soul or whatever getting transferred into a machine. You can find published books about her all over the place in the slightly more southern parts of Equestria. But that’s enough about her. Let’s hear about you. What’s got you so down in the dumps?”

My ears fell again. “Nothing.”

The barista leans over the bar counter. “Lemme know. There’s lotsa ways that even I can help out.” She waves a hoof in a circle, like she’s thinking. “Like moral support, or whatever.”

I chuckle. “You have a way with words.” I sit up in my seat and push the vodka off to the side. “Alright. I’ll tell you. But can I get a refund on this?”

“‘Fraid not. But you can save it for another day or something. You know, a day that’s less action filled than your normal day. The name’s Moon Shine. Bartender. It’s a little bit of a cruel irony, considering I didn’t get my name from that alcohol, but rather the shine of the moon.” She chuckles to herself, and I join her. “Alrighty then Cybermare. Lemme hear what’s wrong.”

I lean against the counter, relaxing a little bit. “Fine. But only because you seem slightly trustworthy with this information.” I take a deep breath. “It all started back when I was in the Stable. Our water purifier shut down. Broke. We had to fix it.” I sigh. “I decided it was a good idea to fix it with the Stable door. Overmare passed the idea. Now that I think about it, we were both idiots. We took as many precautions as we could. Sent scouts out. Posted guards at the entrance. But it wasn’t enough. Our Stable was overrun. Ghouls. Of the feral variety. One of my sort-of friends died in the attack. And of course, the Overmare blames the event on me, and banishes me from the Stable until I can find something to replace the door with. I suppose that’s the root of my whole mess.”

She nodded along as I spoke. “You’ve been through quite a bit already. Apparently Voice doesn't say everything on his radio. But you just said that was the root, right? So was their some kind of plant that grew up from that root? Other existential crises that popped up, and shoved you into this slum-like depression?”

I nod. “Oh yeah. Definitely. Conflicts with myself. The… amount of blood on my hooves…”

“Everypony in this wasteland has killed somepony else. Actually, that may be a bit of a stretch. Not everypony. But anypony that has traveled has had to kill somepony. And from what I heard, you traveled all the way from Hoof’s Ridge up here to Crystal City. That’s a two day journey in and of itself.” A pony down the counter calls the barista over. “Ah, hold that thought. Got a customer.” She said as she moved down the bar.

I took this opportunity to check my Pip-Buck. My messages still hadn’t been received by any other Pip-Bucks. I had constantly sent messages, hoping one would finally send. At first I would send long, heartfelt paragraphs, Now they were just down to frantic, random messages like:

Kchew;ofgqw

No joking.

The barista returned to her spot in front of me with a small smile. I smiled back sadly.

“Want me to continue?” I asked, and was replied with a nod.

I took another deep breath. “Recently, I’ve been trying to send messages to my friends in the Stable. But they aren’t even receiving the messages, so it’s not even worth it to try and…. Wait a minute…” I took another look on my Pip-Buck.

“What is it?” She asked as I sorted through my sent messages.

“Even if their wearer is dead, Pip-Bucks are still online and can receive messages. That means their Pip-Bucks have either been damaged beyond repair, or destroyed completely. Which means their Pip-Bucks were removed from their bodies and destroyed, probably while they're still alive. Which means somepony doesn’t want them to contact anypony else. Which means…” I look up at the barista. “There’s a chance they’re still alive.”

“Wait… there was a chance your friends were dead?”

I nod. “Yep. I need to talk to the citizens of Liverpool. We’ll need a lot of coal if we’re going to be pulling a giant metal gear on a train, aren’t we. See you around Shine.” I started to leave, but she suddenly called me back.

“Hold up. What’s your name, Cybermare?” She pushed the quarter-drank Vodka I had forgot to grab to the edge of the counter.

I walk over and grabbed the bottle. “Vanilla Cream. I may be back around. But first, I have a few friends I want to get a hold of.”

She smiles and nods at me. “I’ll see you around. Pay me a visit sometime. You seem like a nice mare.”

I smile back, this smile being much less a sad one and more of a genuine one. “Thanks for helping me talk about my problems. It gave me motivation to actually keep going.”

With a final exchange of smiles and nods between the two of us, I found myself falling, if only slightly, for another mare beside Orange.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just control your hormones?

Luckily, I managed to meet up with Carrot Cake again. I apologized for suddenly abandoning him, and stated I was a terrible friend, and bad at controlling my emotions when it mattered.

He waved a hoof dismissively. “Don’t worry about Vanilla. I’ve had much worse break-ups in the past.” He chuckles to himself and grins, and then catches his eye before it falls. “One psycho mare in particular tried to cut my-”

“Carrot. Please shut up.” He replies with a grin, and lets his eye slip halfway out before catching it. “Where did Jawbreaker go? Did he go back to his shack near the Crystal Caves?”

Carrot shrugs. “I dunno. Probably. He didn’t exactly let himself get attached to you and I.”

“That’s simply what you think, Carrot Cake.” Said a familiar blind griffin’s voice as he walked up. We both turned to look at him. “But I get absolutely no business out there. Especially since I’m the only one that lives close to the caves. Not to mention that most of the ponies that live in Crystal City don’t have much of a desire to walk around the wasteland with a mercenary bodyguard, or have enough to pay the caps to leave somepony else dead.”

Carrot and I look between each other. “How much are you going to charge me for hiring you?”

He pauses in thought for a moment. “I originally charged 150 caps per day, correct? SInce you seem to be a decent mannered mare, even though you let yourself fall into a depression earlier. I assume the reasoning for that will come clear later in the future. But for now, I can charge you 50 caps a day.”

I check my Pip-Buck. I had a little less than a thousand caps after selling the leftover Compresium to the shop pony running the explosives stall. At least enough to keep that griffin with me for nine days. And from what I’ve seen of the wasteland, nine days was a long time.

I nod, and fish out fifty caps from my bag and count them out to make sure I got the amount exactly right before handing them over. “There you are Jawbreaker. Welcome back to the crew. Your first job as my personal bodyguard is to assist me in the investigation of what happened to my friends in Stable 81.”

He gives a curt nod. “Very well. Whenever you’re ready to move out, Vanilla.”

I smirk. “Alright. Now we just need coal from Liverpool. And the train’s already loaded with a Stable door.”

“Less work for us. And Vanilla.” The griffin smirks slightly, but it disappears. “You should have hired me on the first day of business. You just lost 50 caps for absolutely nothing.”

I open my mouth to say something, then close it. Then I open it again. “Dammit. You’re right. I guess you could just follow me around. Or… Would you guys mind if I did my own thing for a while?” I was met with a nod from both Carrot and Jawbreaker. “Alright. My room is the one just below the top floor, near the base of the stairs. You guys can wait there if you want.”

I trotted off, leaving them behind me as I ran to the bar down on the first floor. I may have let Orange get away from me. But I wasn’t going to make the same mistake with Shine.

I walked inside, acting as casual as I could, and sat down at the bar counter. I motioned to the pony running the bar right now to come over, who was unfortunately not Shine. “Excuse me. Where would Moon Shine be right now?”

He rolled his eyes. “She’s in the back, cleaning up from her shift. She’ll be off in about thirty minutes. You can catch up to her then, if you want to ‘talk’ with her.”

“Uh… okay. And could I get three bottles of vodka?”

“167 caps.” He says as he grabs the bottles off of the shelf.

Damn. Alcohol was expensive. I set the caps down on the counter and he handed over the bottles, each of which I put into my bags. Without another word I walked outside of the bar and waited just outside for Shine to get off of work.

It took a little longer than thirty minutes, but Shine finally walked outside the bar. She seemed pleasantly surprised to be greeted by me.

“Vanilla? You’re back already?”

I smile at her. “Yeah. I wanted to thank you. You actually helped me. I got back with my friends. And we’re going to save my Stable, I hope.”

She smiles. “That’s great Vanilla! Glad I could help.”

I smile back. “It’ll probably be a while until Liverpool has mined enough coal to make another run to Hoof’s Ridge and back though. Maybe a day or two. I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out.”

“Well, sorry Vanilla. But I’m actually…” She paused when she saw me pull out a bottle of vodka. “Well… I might be free for an hour or two.” I levitate the bottle over to her, and she grabs it out of midair. “Thank you, Vanilla.”

I nod. “No problem. Want to hang out in your room or something? My room is kind of occupied right now.”

She smiles. “Okay. Thanks for the drink, by the way.” She turns and starts to lead the way.

I grin slightly and teleport in front of her and start to walk backward at the same speed she walks forward. She looked quite surprised. “So. Whatcha wanna talk about?”

“Uhm…” She looks around sheepishly. “I don’t really know. It depends on what you’re trying to do.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

She looked me straight in the eyes. “Are you trying to sleep with me? Kidnap me? Make me fall for you?”

I chuckled a little nervously. “Definitely not the first two…” I look away from her. “I’m not gonna lie. Ever since I left me Stable, I’ve been falling for ponies left and right. Well, not really. Only two. An ex-slaver and a barista.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Oh? Really? What were the two of them like?” She asks, clearly leading me on.

I chuckle. “Well, the slaver reminded me of somepony else. Honestly, with her personality and demeanor, I can’t imagine how she ever became a slaver. But, she left. And if she hasn’t yet, she will.” I sigh. “It’s a little bit of a shame. I don’t even know if she likes mares.”

“What about the barista? How much do you know about that pony?”

I pause, and Shine bumps into me. “Not that much… She helped me out, and I fell for her for that.” I chuckle nervously, and look down. “Kinda too early for stuff like that, huh? Since I barely know anything about her and all.”

She smiles and puts a hoof on my shoulder. “Well, maybe if you got to know her a little bit better. I’ll give you a hint though.” She shakes the vodka bottle slightly to emphasize it. “She definitely appreciates favors. And gifts.”

I smile. “Do you think I have a chance with her?”

“Oh yeah. For sure. Maybe with a little bit of time. Or, if you have enough alcohol, tonight.”

“Uh…” I look around, a little bit embarrassed. It didn’t take a fool to figure out what she meant. “Well, I mean… I would rather not take it that far in a single day.”

“What? Why not?” She asks disappointedly.

“I’d rather get to know a pony first before we sleep together. Like, you know, make sure we’re serious first.”

“Ugh. You’re one of those ponies.” She says disgustingly. “Loosen up. Have some fun.”

“Excuse me!?” I stop, and jab a hoof into her chest. “One of what kind of ponies? An honest pony. The kind that doesn’t use other ponies like the way you’re trying to use me?”

“Well, I-”

I yelled at her, and swiped the bottle of liquor out of her grip. Any and all infatuation I had felt for this pony was now gone. “See you later Shine. For a moment there, I thought I had found somepony nice.”

“W-wait, I-”

“You what? Just want me in bed with you? You want to fuck me? Is that all you want me for?”

She took a few steps back, looking down at the floor. “I’m…”

“What? You’re what? Are you a whore? Alcohol for sex? Is that what it is? Is that your price?” It slowly dawns on me. “You didn’t want to hang out until I showed you the bottle.” I hold up the vodka and shake it mockingly similar to the way she shook it. “But the moment I had alcohol, I was good enough for you.”

She gulped. “I’m sorry… Can we start again?”

I glared at her. “No we can’t fucking start again! I’m not going to try and start a relationship with you.” I turned and started to walk away. She tried to stop me but it was too late. I was already down the castle hallway, and turning the corner. I gave her one last glimpse before disappearing down the adjacent hallway.

If there was one thing I hated being, it was used. Especially if it was just for sex. And super especially if it was from a mare like that.

I stared out of the train’s window, watching the wasteland pass by at twenty miles per hour.

It had been two days since my little moment with Moon Shine when I technically broke up with her before we ever got together. She was a nice mare, but she also tried to use me. I couldn’t get over it. In retrospect, I may have been a bit harsh, but I also think she deserved it. Even if it were just a bit. But really, now that I thought about it, she had never actually directly stated she was just using me. For all I know, she could have just said I would get lucky, and she would sleep with me on the first night, right? She seemed completely surprised when I snapped on her like that. She was an incredibly nice mare, not to mention she tried multiple times to explain herself, and I interrupted her every time. And that last minute there, she was probably trying to apologize. Maybe she was just a fun loving mare? Maybe there was a chance that she really did want to go on strong... Did I screw up?

I sighed louder than I meant to.

“What’s the problem?” Asked the ghoul sitting beside me.

“That’s the sigh of somepony that’s upset with themselves.” Said the blind griffin across from me.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” I looked between the two of them. At least somepony was worried about me, right?

Jawbreaker only nodded in response. “It’s never nothing. But if you don’t want to talk then I won’t press you for the information.”

Carrot nodded in agreement perhaps a little too quickly, since his eye nearly flew out. “Yeah. Don’t wanna talk about, and I won’t ask. Don’t wanna be rude to basically my only friend.”

I smiled to the two. And started to say something until the crystal pony from Liverpool with the strangely country accent walked into the car. “Howdy there you three. Cybermare.” He tipped his hat at me. “Looks like tha Remnant is still mighty pissed about the incident in Liverpool.”

I sat up. “What do you mean?”

He pointed to the back of the train. “Our gunners in the casboose says they saw a few Remnant Vertibucks flyin around in tha horizon. Says they’re comin our direction. We may have a firefight on our hooves if we ain’t careful.”

I climb out of my seat, pushing past Carrot. “What was that? The Remnant? They’re chasing us down?In VertiBucks? What the heck is a Vertibuck?”

“Sum kinda flyin machine invented before the war. Powered by coal. Probably why they captured Liverpool. So they would have enough ta power their Vertibucks.”

I nod. “Great… How many bullets does it take to take one down?”

“Er… between two and three missiles. If yer lucky, one.”

I groan, and rub my face. “Let’s try and avoid them if we can. Let’s try and avoid combat. Is there any way we can run this train faster?”

“Eh-nope. This train is more than two hundred years old. It’s a miracle it runs in the first place, but if we push it to go faster, it’ll probably fall apart. So, if the Remnant is comin after us, we have ‘bout fifteen minutes ‘til they’re bombin us.”

“Jolly. I’ll make sure and leave a message for the Remnant, tell them I’m tired of them. Jawbreaker. You and I will be taking out a Vertibuck.”

Jawbreaker and Carrot both got out of their seats at the same time. “Why can’t I help?” Carrot blurts out.

“Because, wingless, we can’t carry you and fight a giant flying machine at the same time. It’ll be a little encumbering.” I motion for Carrot to head to the caboose, then quickly realize my mistake. “Uh, Jawbreaker, head to the back of the train. I’ll wait for you there.”

Jawbreaker nods and heads to the next train car down. Carrot hangs his head. “Okay… I see how it is.”

I put a hoof on Carrot’s shoulder. “Hey bud. It’ll all be okay, eh? You’ve already helped out plenty.”

He nods and smiles at me. “I call dibs on the next big combat thingamajig though, okay? I want all of the action.”

I nod at him. “You got it. Next time we got a big problem, you get a lot of the kills.”

He nodded and I left him behind, following Jawbreaker to the back caboose. The “southern” crystal pony from Liverpool followed behind me, drawing a rifle.

“Whatcha got planned Cybermare?” He asks.

“Right now? Absolutely nothing. I find it’s better to improvise than to actually create a plan out here in the wasteland. Nothing ever goes the way you want it.”

He nods. “Then what’s yer general idea?”

“You and anyone else with a gun will cover Jawbreaker and I while we fly toward the Vertibuck and try to take it out..”

“That’s a very risky and insane idea.”

I nod and smirk. “Sounds like me. Crazy ideas left and right. Ever sleep in a trainyard?”

“Not particularly.” He looks like me like I was insane. “Ya slept in a train yard?”

“Yep.” The two of us arrive on the caboose, and walked outside the train onto the balcony-like platform at the back of the caboose. Jawbreaker already waited out there for us. It was a tight fit on the small platform for the three of us, especially with the griffin’s large size. I can’t deny that it felt great when the wind whipped my mane back.

The crystal pony reached into his bag and handed me a pair of binoculars. “Don’t think i ever got yer real name, Cybermare.”

“Vanilla Cream.” I looked through the binoculars. Off in the distance was some strange pure black flying machine. It had four rotors, and looked like it was big enough to hold 6 ponies. Seven if you counted a pilot, who I could barely make out through the tinted windsheild at the front of the machine.. And it was approaching us rapidly. Fifteen minutes was a serious understatement. We had closer to five minutes.

“Ma name’s Black Tobacco.” Says the crystal pony.

“Nice to meet you Tobacco. Gather up as many ponies aboard this train that are willing to fight as you can, and have them guard me and Jawbreaker.” Tobacco nodded and ran back into the train to rally his men. As quickly as I could, I replaced what I had on my back for Pegasus Pride. I beat my old record, finishing in just under two minutes.

“Can you hear it and track it, Jawbreaker?”

Jawbreaker nods slightly. “I do have to warn you though Vanilla. Despite being a griffin, aerial combat is difficult for me. When both myself and my opponent are flying, it throws some things off for me.”

I nod to him. “Don’t worry about that Jawbreaker. I have full faith in you. 50 caps a day have to be worth some skill, right.”

Jawbreaker grins, but it quickly disappeared. “You’re right about that Vanilla. Are you ready?”

I nodded, and crouched low. “Follow the sound of the wings. Shoot at any wing beats that don’t sound mechanical.” Jawbreaker nods again, and I take flight with Jawbreaker following close behind. I make sure and draw Dessert Griffin just as two Remnant armored pegasi emerged from each side of the Vertibuck.

I motioned for Jawbreaker to take the two on the left, then mentally facehooved myself. I needed to stop making that mistake. The griffin was blind, Vanilla.

“Jawbreaker. Two emerging from each side of the Vertibuck. You take the two on the right. I’ve got the two on the left.”

Jawbreaker nods to me, then flies a few feet to the right. He starts to fire, most of his bullets going astray.

I turn to my two targets. One was already flying dangerously close. One had planted himself on the roof of the Vertibuck and was taking time to aim at me through a scoped rifle. I slowed down time with SATS and used this time to think. I was stuck between an abnormally large crystal and a hard place. Maybe…

I tried to see if I couldn’t load a teleport into my SATS system to a position just behind the approaching pony. To my great surprise, the system actually took it. Unfortunately, it took about ninety five percent of SATS’s energy to use.

The pegasus in front of me flew to a halt. I flew up behind him, pressed Dessert Griffin to his back, and with a single shot, disconnected an entire wing from his back. He plummeted to the ground, screaming. He hit the ground quite hard, and I think the fall was just high enough to permanently cripple him.

I yelled out as I felt a heavy round pierce the side of my gut. My wings went limp for a moment from shock, but I recovered and started flying along with the Vertibuck, but flew below the Vertibuck’s elevation. Damn it. I forgot about the sniper. Jawbreaker was hanging low too. He wasn’t lying about being bad in the air. He had several bullet holes in his body. None of them seemed fatal, but he was still looked hurt pretty badly.

And speaking of bullet holes, my own was profusely bleeding. I searched my bag, but the best I could do was procure some bandages that I clumsily wrapped around my gut.

The sniper pegasus had come out of his cover. I was about to take advantage of this, but he suddenly ducked back inside his Vertibuck door.

Our five minutes were up. I had to swerve to the side to avoid hitting the caboose of the train. Jawbreaker wasn’t as lucky and hit the caboose of the train head on. He quickly recovered however, and listened for the Vertibuck.

I looked toward the flying machine.It was flying over the train now, and two small doors opened on the bottom of the Vertibuck. My eyes widened as bombs started to fall from the bottom of the Vertibuck. They hit the roof of the train, exploding upon impact. The poor two hundred year old train cars didn’t stand a chance.

“Jawbreaker! Inside the train, now! Save any and all survivors!” Jawbreaker nodded and felt his way to the caboose door. I was inside before he even got close.

I was greeted by fire and rubble on the inside of the caboose car. I felt the inside of the train violently shake as it was probably hit by another wave of bombs. I stumbled my way to the next car, slightly singing the fur on my hooves on the way to the there. When I emerged on the next car, I was greeted by7 the sound of a few ponies groaning in pain. Somepony was yelling. And was was the yell of somepony in intense pain.

I started to shift through the rubble as best as I could. The first pony I found was a mare. She had a metal pipe spearing her through the gut. She looked at me with pleading eyes.

I sat beside her. Jawbreaker entered the room and started to help the others. The shaking of the train almost knocked me over, but I sat beside that mare. Blood started to dribble out of her mouth. And she kept pleading with me. When I finally couldn’t take her look of misery anymore, I gave her the last comfort she would ever need.

Jawbreaker jumped at the sound of the gunshot, and turned his head my way. “Vanilla. What happened? Are you okay? That was Dessert Griffin.”

I nod and wipe the tear away from my eye, and I pull my gun away from the skull of the corpse. “It was nothing, Jawbreaker. I’m heading to the next train car. Wish me lu-”

My sentence was interrupted by gunshots in the next train car up. I turned that way. “Jawbreaker. We’ve got company. I don’t think the Remnant wants survivors.”

Jawbreaker nods, and runs into the next train car ahead of me, but I wasn’t far behind him. When I emerged into the next train car, we were greeted by Remnant soldiers putting down any survivors that were crushed by rubble. In a fit of rage, I felt my horn spark out a spell, and the armored pegasus in front of me fell to the ground, convulsing violently as a large amount of electrical energy passed from my horn onto their body. The fact that their armor was metal seemed to help damage him more.

Jawbreaker covered me with gunfire, quickly suppressing the other two Remnant soldiers into cover with a spray of bullets from his rifles. I slowly zapped the life away from the Remnant soldier in front of me. I didn’t stop until he was down to post-mortem twitching, then dove into cover. The base of my horn was sore from casting the lightning spell for so long, but I didn’t care. I hope that damn Remnant died a painful death, for what he did to the ponies aboard this train.

Jawbreaker found cover, and started to reload his gun. I readied Dessert Griffin, and dove out of cover, activating my now regenerated SATS spell. I was surprised to see the remaining Remnant flying out of the Windows of the tarin, closing them behind them in slow motion.

I deactivated SATS, and a wave of confusion washed over me. That confusion lasted all of three seconds, when I suddenly heard the loudest explosion I had heard all of my life. Then everything went to shit. I was suddenly flung to the side as the train car I was in flew off the rails, and hit the ground. I hit the wall, which was now the ceiling, and busted through one of the train car windows. It hurt a lot, but I recovered and took flight with Pegasus Pride. I looked ahead, and saw the train engine in flames. It exploded again, and I saw the Vertibuck change course, leaving us behind.

I stared, open-mouthed and wide-eyed at the scene ahead, until I was suddenly knocked out of the air my something large and heavy. I hit the ground, hard, and had the air knocked out of me. I rolled over and looked up to see what had knocked me out of the air. I didn’t have to activate SATS for the next part to move in slow motion. My life flashed before my eyes.

My first memory, seeing the lights of the Stable powering on for the first time. The first time I saw my little sister. She had just been born a few hours ago. I cooed over her like a baby doll. The explosion that made me lose my back and part of my spine. My first kiss, a stallion named Metal Gear. The day I finished repairing the water purifier, and then my attempt at a partner just yesterday, and all of the memories between. Every single one of those memories passed through my mind as the train car fell, threatening to land directly on top of me.

And then everything blacked out just as it hit me.

Somepony was speaking, but it sounded like I was underwater. I could barely make out the noise, much less what they were saying. I tried to open my eyes, and luckily found I could. Everything was blurry, and there was a large red spot in my vision. I tried to move, and that’s when the pain settled in. My whole body flared. Everything except for my back legs. I felt a warm liquid pooled around me. There wasn’t much. But I knew what it was. My own blood. I tried to scream, but I was too weak, so I let my body go limp.I felt shattered glass dig into my skin.

I groaned again, and the red spot in my vision shifted, then grew larger.

“We have another live one here! Somepony help me out!” Yelled a mare’s voice.

Two more spots came into my vision, a blue one and a purple one. All three of the blurs filled my vision entirely, and suddenly my body flared in pain as I was dragged.

“What happened?” Asked a stallion’s voice.

“Looks like her back legs were crushed under rubble. The way the glass was shattered around her, it looks like the train car fell on her, and her life was spared by the fact that she was in the exact position she was in.” Replies the mare’s voice.

They dragged me out of the train car, and set me down on something soft outside.

“How much surgery will she have to go through?”

The blue and purple spots left my vision disappeared, and the red spot shifted, to my right, then to my left.

“Are you awake?” Asked the mare’s voice.

I tried my hardest to form a coherent sentence, but the pain was too intense. Instead, I just weakly nodded, which sent its own flare of pain through my neck.

“Good. That means you’re not damaged too badly. Can you move your limbs for me? One at a time.”

I tried to obey her instructions, I really did. The pain that flared through my front arms was so intense, I could barely move them. But no matter how hard I tried to move my bottom limbs, they wouldn’t obey my commands.

The red spot waited a moment. “Can you not move your back legs?” I shook my head. “Damn.... Sorry.” The red dot shifted again. “I’ll have to dig out all of the glass from her body, then I’ll have to sew together a few muscles together to return use to her legs.

I closed my eyes again. The pain was so unbearable, I just wanted it to stop. My wish was granted seconds later when I blacked out.

Level Up!
6>7

Perk Gained:

Broken
With a near death experience under your belt, you've grown accustomed to pain. Your damage resistance from all weapons has gone up by 5%.