I had awoken to myself pinned on the floor, still in the medical room from earlier. My vision was blurry, and I couldn't tell exactly what was going on. An alarm rang in my ears, filling my head with urgency, and I needed to move. I couldn’t move, something heavy kept me from standing up at all, and I was breathing hard, gasping for any air I could find. I felt blood on my side, and I felt woozy from everything going on. Despite that, I still had feeling in my legs. I couldn’t tell, however, if whatever they did to me was successful or not.

How much time had past since they left me with Cross eye? I didn’t know, I couldn’t see much around me except the body of a ghoul lying on the ground. What had happened since then? I tried to get up, but I felt so weak and couldn’t even make my head move trapped under here. Thoughts were going through my head like a hurricane. I didn’t know where Stitch or Willow Wisp was, I don’t know if anypony is alive, I can’t even tell if I am really able to stand. I single tear was all I could muster as I laid there helplessly.

Suddenly, I saw the hooves of two ponies standing in front of me. I was able to make out Zoey’s stripes through my blurry vision but couldn’t tell who the other pony was. I watched as their two front hooves disappeared and I heard the sound of rock moving above me. Then after a couple seconds I heard it again as my vision started clearing a little. My breathing slowed as whatever was holding my back down was tossed away. Then I felt yet another piece of rubble get removed from the top of my head, and I started to finally make sense of the two ponies helping me.

“Dead Hooves, speak to me” I barely managed to make out Zoeys voice as she left me off the ground. “Sweet Celestia, Grease get me some bandages now!”

I watched as the other pony saluted her and started searching the cabinets for bandages. I could feel and large wound on my belly, and I found myself unable to scream from exhaustion. Not much later the other pony, who she had called Grease gave her a blurry white object and set me on the ground. I simply stared at the flickering ceiling lights as I felt the bandages wrap around me wound. Was intriguing me the most though was the weird grey object that hung limply above me.

I tried to move my hooves to see one of the objects move as well, then promptly did the same with the other. Zoey looked to me and I could barely tell that she wanted me to stop moving. I didn’t respond, still trying to regain all the breath I needed to properly function. My heart was beating at the speed of a train and my head was blazing with pain. I simply wanted to scream, but once again I could not.

As my vision finally returned to its peak performance I was able to make sense of everything around me. There was a light hanging sadly from the ceiling and a giant pile of cement ceil shoved into the corner was once lying in. I was able to make out Zoey’s teal blue eyes as well as the pony she was with. He had a grey pegasus stallion with a black mane and tail. The color of his mane and tail hair seemed to get lighter as it went down. His cutie mark was a wrench and screwdriver.

I look up at where my once normal hooves had been to finally make sense at what Cross Eye had done. Instead over my old tan colored hooves I saw mechanical owns replace them in my vision. I could see the inside of them as well, all the gears and other pieces that made up of it. I studied them as I moved them little by little, getting a feel for them. It felt… natural! Unusually natural for what not even being a machine. I looked down at the rest of my body to see that my back hooves had been replaced as well, or at least one of them.

So let me get this straight Cross Eye, you only replaced one of my paralyzed legs yet had also don’t it to my two perfectly good legs as well. I went to move my back right leg, and looked with more curiosity than you usually would. It actually moved! I was able to use one of my back legs for the first time in my life, or at least one of them. Still, I had to be at least somewhat grateful for what he did. I was at least able to move somewhat better than before.

“What’s going on?” I ask looking to Zoey, the mare seemed deeply worried about me at the present moment. “Why is Cross Eye dead?” Zoey stayed silent for a second as she finished patching me up (how did I even attain the injury). “Zoey,”

“They found us,” She said as she helped me get up. “Or more specifically Scythe found me. She blew up most of the base and killed most of the members inside of it. I… I think she is looking for me, not you. She must have all the ruble to fall on you, the only pony she probably killed was Cross Eyed right there,” She points to the dead ghoul on the ground.

“Is there anypony else still alive?” I ask in a sacred manner. “Other than the three of us,”

“Nav and Rocket are on the Raptor, we are going to try and evacuate as many as possible,” Grease said in a rather high voice for a stallion. “So far you are the first survivor we have found, we don’t even know where Captain Bleak or Soarin is at the moment,”

“We need to get you onto the Raptor,” Zoey said as she started moving me forward. “You’ll be safe there while I go and save-”

I knock away Zoey's hoof, causing she staggers back. For once in my life I felt the sensation of standing without Power Armor. No longer were my back hooves a major set back. I’ll admit, it felt rather nice considering the moment it was during. Hearing the insides of my new legs actually seemed to fascinate me to an extent. I felt powerful, and I wasn’t going to let Zoey make me feel like less.

“What the hell was that for?” She yelled not able to understand. “I’m trying to save your life,”

“I’m coming with you,” I say with confidence making her gasp. “I’m not just going to sit her on my ass while you go saving ponies lives. I said I was going to show Twister who he’s dealing with and I intend to do this as a message,”

“You can’t be fucking serious,” Zoey said with frustration. “I’m trying to save your life right now, and you're already injured. Just do as I say and go with Grease to the fucking Raptor,”

I finally snapped, fed up with everything she was saying. “You want to know what my entire life was like. It was shit, all I ever did was sit on my ass all day while ponies stole from the weak and ignored the broken. I was one of those ponies, and I still am, that’s nothing these new hooves could change. I did this so I could help those who are broken, to try and fix Equestria and show those who are trying to destroy it who I fucking am. So if you think I will just sit there and do shit while the rest of you save others you're wrong,”

Zoey was left in silence at my outrage, meaning I had achieved what I was hoping for. I wasn’t going to act weak and frail, I wasn’t going to let others do the dirty work for me. I felt stronger now, more powerful then I have ever been. What Sharpshot had told me, about ponies with disabilities being left to die, I was going to stop it. This was more than just Twister now, it was becoming so much more than a revenge quest. I was fighting now for what I believed in, and if he was going to us ponies like me to destroy what little of Equestria there was left, I was going to stop it.

“I guess I should have known,” Zoey turned to Grease. “Head back to the Raptor and wait for us. Your aren’t leaving until Dead Hooves gets back. If an hour passes and we aren’t back, leave without us, got it?” Grease saluted her in response and made his way out of the door. “Silver Gunner is waiting for us out the door,”

I nodded and the two of us made our way out of the infirmary and into the now ruined corridors of the Angel Hunters home base. Like she had said Silver Gunner was waiting with the Novasurge at the ready. Many of the lights in the ceiling had been shattered, leaving a sinister feeling to the hallway in front of her. Compared to the rather encouraging place it had been before, the building now held an evil feel to it that I couldn’t explain.

“Where is Remembrance?” I asked Zoey as we entered the hallway. “I didn’t see it with me when I woke up,”

Zoey stood there silent for sometime, and immediately I knew something was wrong. “They placed it in the armory because they didn’t think we would need it,” She responded. “The armory is from what we know Scythes point of entry into here. She collapsed the entire thing, and all the weapons are buried under it,” She grabbed the Novasurge rifle from Silver Gunner and gave it to me. “Silver, see I you can unburied anything in the armory, we are moving out as soon as we deal with Scythe,”

Silver didn’t respond, he just walked down the hall to the right of us. I assumed he was heading to the armory, but I didn’t know this place well enough to be sure. Zoey still had her carbine and had also taken a few grenades with her. All I had was the Novasurge rifle and a small supply of fusion cells. If I was counting right, there was only about forty or so left, and a fully charge shot would take a quarter of that. Zoey was clearly more prepared than I was, but I wasn’t going to let that get in the way.

I followed Zoey’s lead as we went down the hallway. A path of destruction was left by something, and part of me almost believed it was done by multiple ponies. Holes adorned the walls leading to different rooms of the facility some of which were almost completely collapsed. In fact the only two rooms that I could even enter was the infirmary and a room with bunk beds in it. The bodies of two soldiers were found in the hallway, but not a single shot was fired by each of their carbines.

“The mags are completely full,” Zoey stated as she checked them. “Not a single cartridge on the floor is 5mm, it’s all 7.62mm which would fit exactly with Scythes anti-machine gun. These ponies didn’t stand a chance in this small space, not against something with that much spread and power,”

I picked up one of the carbines and studied it, checking to see if the gun was still in good condition. “I’ve heard on the radio about how tough alicorns are, do you think this will do anything to her?”

“I’m not going to bother sugarcoating anything,” Zoey said. “You have a better chance killing a Hellhound with that thing then you do an Alicorn, in others words you won’t do shit to her. The best thing to have is heavy ammo or explosives, and we don’t even have that with us. These grenades are only a last resort if…” She stopped there mumbling something under her breath. “I hope it doesn’t come to that point,”

“If what happens,” I asked wondering what she had said.

“It’s not important,” Zoey said with a smile. “With the best luck we will find Bleak and Soarin and can leave without even having to encounter her,”

I nodded in reply, that really would be nice if we didn’t encounter an Alicorn. Ponies dead before they fired a single shot, walls blasted out left and right, to think a single pony did this was insane. Not that it was beyond an alicorn, they were more powerful in every way to us and was one of the reasons Equestria was drifting away. That was, if there was any of Equestria left to even save.

We made our way down the hall and into what must have once been a lunch room of sorts. Lights hung by the wires, one even crashing onto the floor as we enter the room for a cheap attempt to scare us. A single body occupied the room, an enclave soldier who was… rather brutally killed. The blood had dried to the ground and already you could see flies were he was. Holes filled his body, and I held in vomit as I saw he was missing an eye, blood filling the area it should have been. I fell backwards as I saw this.

“This isn’t right,” I said unable to look away from the dead ponies body. “Why would somepony do this,”

I somehow managed to peel my eyes away from the body and looked to Zoey, who was standing next to it with her ears drooped. She knew it just as much as I did, this pony like everypony else that died here should have lived. This was at all the Equestria that I had once imagined outside my home. I wished for a shining city were ponies still lived and kept order, but that hoped was dash when I met Sharpshot. This was the nail on the coffin, the evidence that showed an Equestria struggling to keep itself from fading away for good.

“This is what they do,” Zoey said in a depressing demeanor. “This is what Alicorns have become, murderers that seem themselves as the superior race. A group that wants nothing more than to kill us ponies for their own personal gain. In my life, I have yet to see an Alicorn who truly cared about ponies and who they are… and part of me thinks I never will,”

She kneeled down before the pony and closed there eyes, letting them sleep. I felt rage inside me building but held it away, it would only make things worse. That rage, it's what cause ponies to become like this, I somehow felt it. Zoey said something that I couldn’t make out as she kneeled before the pony. It must have been some sort of prayer the zebra’s had, but I couldn’t tell at all. Still, it gave the two of us motivation to find anypony that is still alive in here.

We made our way down the halls of the facility until we came to a room on the left that was not collapsed. Inside it we say multiple pieces of machinery, a lot of them looked pre-war. Along with it I saw power armor, but they were different from the ones I had used. They had places for the wings on the side and it seemed to be lighter as well. I would have used it if I was an earth pony or pegasi, but I couldn’t use it unless I cut my own horn off, and I already have sacrificed more of my body than originally intended.

As we walked through it, I saw the body of a piece of power armor laying in pieces on the floor. It was heavier than the others and had no place for the wings on it. The metal was also denser than that of the power armors, making it much better for stopping incoming damage. It took me a second to recognize it, or more specifically the fact that it’s legs were broken. I knew it as I lifted it up with my metallic hooves, which were much stronger than my older ones and looked into the invisible helmet that I left behind long ago.

“Daddy?” I asked it as tears swelled into my eyes. “Daddy is that you, are you okay,” I had known he was dead long ago, but I always felt like he was there in front of me, holding my hoof through the good times and the bad. However, it was different now “You're gone aren’t you? You can’t hear me from Celestia's sun any long, the things that kept us connected, that had showed your love from me… is gone. The PipBuck was never fixed, your shotgun is buried away were I will never find it, and now your power armor. I can’t bring you back, I… I-”

I was awoken from my trance by the feeling of a hoof on my shoulder. I looked up to the figure of Zoey behind me who looked just as sad as I was. She knew what I was feeling, she had lost her dad and might even lose her mom because of the side she was taking. The tears didn’t stop falling as I looked at her, she knew exactly how I felt. I was paralyzed, only three of my legs had been ‘fixed’ and in front of me stood the only pony I knew for most of my life now gone. I could stop the tears as I embraced Zoey in a hug, who didn’t even hesitate to hug me back.

“I’m sorry,” She said as we hugged each other, “I know how you feel, losing something you loved even if it wasn’t physically there. My mother, she’s already in slaver hooves as we speak, I know it,” We finally let go of each other, my face stained with tears from the amount of crying. “Dead Hooves, if I don’t make it out of this… I want you to-”

“Don’t think that way,” I said through my crying. “We are both going to make it through this, and I will make sure of that. None more ponies have to die today,”

She looked down, I could tell she doubted my words but she still looked up me with a smile. “You're right,” She said with what little confidence she seemed to have. “And we won’t do anything sitting around here on our asses, we have ponies to save,”

I nodded and lifted myself off the ground as Zoey started making her way back to the door. I quickly turned back to my old power armor, looking at it for a moment before leaning down and give it a quick hug. After a kiss I made my way away from my old armor and back to the door, wiping tears off my face as I did. I never really thought of how much that piece of junk meant to me till now. Sure, it broke down a lot but it still kept me safe whenever I needed it and always made me think my dad was somewhere inside of it telling me how proud of him I am. To see that loved crushed by this attack, it was heartbreaking.

Our last destination was a rather empty room, it must have once been for the airport that had been out here in this area. The room was rather dark compared to everywhere else in the building, and I immediately knew something was wrong. I heard the muffled scream of a pony in the room and looked around frantically. Then I heard the sound of hooves on the ground, it sounded like somepony was pacing in this darkness. However, as soon as the door closed behind us the hooves stopped moving.

“Well this was rather unexpected of you dear,” I heard a voice talking in a rather royal tone of voice, almost as if they were mocking us. “Of course it’s so predictable, you coming hear to save these poor little souls,”

Zoey stepped in front of me talking to the voice in the darkness “Spare me your royal lecture Scythe, you know exactly why I’m here and exactly what I want,” Zoeys voice was more fierce than it had been before, and I felt myself unable to move at the mention of the name Scythe in the room. “Why don’t you stop putting on a show and make yourself known,”

I heard a sigh come from Scythes voice, “You really do like ruining the fun Zoey,” This time the voice was more normal, a low female voice came from Scythe this time. “Luckily for me-” The lights suddenly turned on, blinding me as I made out the figures of two ponies, one sitting in a chair. “-You didn’t ruin the surprise,”

As my vision cleared I noticed Scythe and Bleak, the later of which was being held at gunpoint in a chair. Scythe looked a menacing as her name suggested, and you could tell exactly how effected by taint she was. Her light grey coat glowed with a green aura, I could feel the radiation in her body from where I stood. Her mane and tail was completely black and waved in the air, almost as if for show. Almost as soon as I made her out I turned to Bleak who was trying to yell through a muzzle that had been strapped to his face.

Zoey made a single step before Scythe spoke again. “Ah ah ah,” She said as if mocking us. “You sure that’s a good idea sweetheart. Allow me to quickly explain what’s about to happen, if you make a move to try and save him, I will send a bullet straight into his skull, and we both don’t want that,”

I could see Zoey almost growl as this, immediately stopping her short advance. “What do you want from me?” She asked in a stern manner. “Why the hell has Twister sent you? I know you aren’t a coward, you would have killed him otherwise,”

Scythe smiled at this. “Glad to see you remember me well,” The way the alicorn said it seemed happy, her smile growing to show a slight softness in her. She started making her way towards Zoey, the gun held in her magic. “You already know what he wants my dear Zoey, no reason to even ask me. You had a deal, a deal that kept your mother free as long as you did his dirty work. We had some splendid times together, killing those stupid Steel Rangers, cleaning the targets on his death list,” As the Alicorn came right up to Zoey, she lowered her head down to meet the zebra. “Now usually betrayal would give him a reason for wanting you dead but you see he has seen you as an important aspect of his plans. Right now as we talk he is telling the the Enclave to withdraw all soldiers station on the surface, saying that the world down here is-”

She cut off mid-sentence as she looked up at me, and I heard myself scream inside my head. She jumped over Zoey with elegance, landing on the ground next to me. I looked up at her, seeing her tower over me. I felt like an ant being watched by foals, she was much taller then me. I have seen pictures of Celestia and Luna in old picture books I had at home, and while at the time it seemed silly for how tall they were, I no longer felt that way. I felt my skin burn from the radiation emitting from the pony, wondering how she was alive. She put a hoof under my chin and I thought my skin was sizzling from the radiation.

“Well you I wasn’t expecting to see,” Scythe said to me with curiosity. “So you somehow managed to make it out of that raider hell. I have to say I’m quite impressed, and I also see you have been properly rewarded yourself,” She glances down at my metallic legs and I feel a large discomfort growing. “I’m sure Twister would be impressed with this discovery, but he would want you dead all the same,”

“Why does he want me dead?” I asked, managing to get the question somehow through my stiff lips. “All he said was that it’s what my father would want, I don’t get it at all,”

“I don’t have the ability to answer that, and even if I do I wouldn’t know,” Scythe said as she pulled her hoof away, which didn’t stop the incredible heat the radiation on her body gave off. “I was simply assigned by the goddess to help him create a following and make a place free of the lowlife ponies out here. As we speak he is somehow making an Alicorn army, we are simply here to help with his messier work, which wou-” She stopped, sighed, and closed her eyes. I didn’t know what was going on until I heard a gunshot. “Really Zoey, I thought you were better than this,”

I looked behind her to see Zoey was mere centimeters away from Bleaks now limp body. The small pistol that had killed him dropped to the floor empty of bullets. Zoey was completely frozen as she realized she was caught, and was surprised Scythe even knew what she was doing. She had taken Scythes sudden focus on me to try and help Bleak, but in the end it didn’t even matter.

The Alicorn walked away from me and over to the zebra, who was look behind her now in terror. Her body was suddenly held in magic as she reached for her carbine, and was lifted off the floor. Scythe had complete control over her movement and I watched as the gun raised up behind Zoey’s head. Before I even let her reload I took out the Novasurge and charged it up to about a quarter. I aimed for the Alicorns head, and fire the shot with a more minimal recoil than before. I watched as it hit her straight in the head and her focus on the zebra disappeared as Zoey and the gun held behind her dropped to the floor.

“Guess I have no other choice,” Scythe said as she turned around and an almost an instant was on me.

Her hoof collided with my face and what little focus I had disappeared and I ended up dropping my gun onto the floor. Before I could even register what was happening I was sent flying backwards and onto the door, which didn’t help my healing stomach. I slowly got up, and puked from the amount of turning my stomach was doing at the moment. I managed to look up as Scythe took the Novasurge rifle in a magic grasp and aim it towards me. I couldn’t move, my legs clenched to my stomach as I tried in all my power to keep my lunch in.

Shots rang out, not from the Novasurge but from Zoey’s carbine and I watched as the Novasurge grazed my ear, causing more bleeding what I was already doing. I could still here, but the tip of my ear was completely gone from the shot. With all my might I tried to stand fully up, but immediately collapsed onto the ground again as my stomach disagreed with me. I should have listened to Zoey when she told me to leave, but I felt so powerful walking without armor that I had completely ignored what she was really concerned about. I had a wound across my stomach, and part of my ear was now gone. Not just that, but these legs didn’t feel fully connected to me, I had control to an extent but it seemed to now ignore my orders. If I made it through this I would talk to somepony who knew anything about it.

Scythe was back over at the Zoey an almost an instant, and the zebra was forced to lean to the side as a shot was aimed towards her head. Zoey fired more shots at Scythe, but the alicorn seem less fazed by them, almost as if it wasn’t even hurting her. As for the alicorn herself, I saw her take out a bigger gun, and seemed to have some sort of stand on the near the end of the barrel, and a scope. Under the scope was interesting designs with gold color paint on it, similar ones on the top of the scope in the shape of a flame. That must have been the anti-machine gun she was talking about. While the pistol still aimed at Zoey, the gun pointed in my direction.

I managed to move my mechanical legs again, and jumped to the side as a loud shot rang through the air. I didn’t look backwards, running in one direction as shots rang out. With a leaping dive I went for the Novasurge rifle grabbing it in my hooves. Gripping it I once again made off running, charging the gun as I remembered how Scythe had reacted to it. It was more powerful than the carbine Zoey carried, and it seemed to actually hurt her a little. That being said, with how few fusion cells I have I needed to make every shot count. I remembered the amount of ammo it used with a half shot, at least fifty percent of a fusion cell. If that’s true then a full one would take an entire fusion cell.

I kept circling the room as her anti-machine gun continued to fire at me. The recoil on the weapon seemed rather big, so I knew my window of attack. The only problem would be hitting her, she dodged out of Zoeys bullets with relative ease, and no doubt the only reason I even hit her earlier was because she wasn’t focused on me. However, she now had her eyes looking back and forth between me and Zoey, not letting each of us out of her sight. The feeling of running that would have otherwise been amazing continued to be shut down by the constant threat that kept firing at me.

After another shot I heard her gun finally click, and seeing a short opportunity I dive forward aiming at her. As I feel to the ground I fired off a shot, hitting the Alicorn square in the cheek. The damage wasn’t much, but I saw small amounts of her cheek fall off at the shots impact. Scythe simply wiped the blood away as shot from Zoey continued to simply fall off of her back. She looked at me with a distinct flame, one that showed great anger in her eyes.

“You're a nuisance,” She said, the words ringing in my ears. Those eyes, no matter how normal they looked, seemed to pierce into my soul. “Didn’t he tell you it was your father who wanted you dead,”

“My father would never do such a thing,” I shouted at her. “He’s been dead for five years, why the fuck wouldn’t he have killed me sooner,”

Suddenly, I found myself unable to move, a pitch black aura surrounded my body. I was lifted off the ground and was soon brought muzzle to muzzle with Scythe. Her eyes stared into me, I was terrified, but didn’t show it. She looked at the wound on my stomach and looked back up at me before the aura faded and I feel to the ground. As soon as I tried to get up, she put her front left hoof down on the bandaged wound, and I screamed as she did.

“Pesky little thing you unicorns are,” Scythe said. “You will all be dead soon enough, and Alicorns will be the only ponies in this land. Consider my next action a strange mercy,” As soon as she said that last sentence I found her other front hoof on my next, pressing down. “This death I’m about to give you may not seem like mercy at the moment, but let you know that it will be a much better death than any other pony on the rotten wasteland,”

I gasped for breath, I felt my courage slip away with each passing second. I wanted to scream from the pressure she was putting on my wound, but I couldn’t. Her other hoof kept me from any form of verbal communication as it pressed on my neck. I didn’t hear Zoey’s carbine anymore, had she left me? Was this really where I was going to die? Blood suddenly found its way out of the bandages and the floor around my slowly started to get stained.

“Get off of her!”

Zoey jumped on Scythes back and before the alicorn could respond Zoey bit her opponent's neck. The alicorn jumped off as Zoey clamped down and her front hooves went into the air. Taking the opportunity Zoey had given me I started crawling backwards to my rifle, Scythe trying desperately to shake the zebra off her. When I finally reached the Novasurge rifle I grabbed it in my hooves and waited for a clear opening. However, instead of charging the gun I found myself staring scared at Zoey.

I should have been happy that she was saving me, that I still had my life. Instead I found myself looking stiff at her now feral-like eyes. That wasn’t the Zoey I knew, the one who was smart and maybe even a tactical expert. What I saw in her reminded me of the raiders from the camp, the way they looked at me with savage eyes. I didn’t think about it back then because of how carried away I was with grabbing that stupid minigun. What I saw in Zoey’s eyes was the look of a raider, what this Twister pony must have made her.

I broke contact as Scythe finally shook Zoey off her, sending her flying to a nearby window. I had expected her to fall down before hitting it, but instead she was sent flying through the window. I got up and watched as her hooves managed to grab the other side of the window sile. I saw were Zoey had bitten Scythe as the alicorn turned to the window, a large chunk of her skin gone revealing some of the muscle underneath. The alicorn stepped toward the window and I didn’t need another second to tell what was going to happen.

“You see what happens when you let your instincts take over,” I heard Scythe say to Zoey. “I warned you that you would end up in a situation like this,”

The Novasurge rifle wasn’t fully charged, but I had to act now. Hoping to get her attention I aim the rifle at Scythe, and in only a second I sent the blast of magic out as it reached fifty percent. It hit her and she stumbled forward a little bit as it did. She looked at me with those same angry eyes as before and I soon realized the mistake I made. Once again she engulfed me in the aura of her magic and I found myself floating off the ground, unable to hold onto the Novasurge rifle. I was suddenly slammed into the floor, and I could hear my ears ringing. She lifted me up again and I was to dazed to see what exactly was going on. I was suddenly dropped unexpectedly to the ground, and with my vision less blurry I looked to see Zoey on the alicorns back, her body covered in glass from the window.

“What are you doing?” Scythe said as Zoey uncapped one of the grenades.

“Getting my fucking revenge,” Zoey shouted “For everypony you ever made me kill, and for all those who died in Zebratown,”

With her answer Zoey shoved the grenades into Scythes mouth and clamped the alicorns mouth shut. I simply stood there, knowing what was about to happen. Zoey forcefully made Scythe swallow the grenade and held the alicorns head in place. She looked at me with a frown on her face, her ears flat, and then closed her eyes. Before I was able to ask Zoey what was going on, I was met by the deafening sound of the grenade going off.

Blast blew the Alicorn out from the inside, and I soon found myself covered in her blood. Bits and pieces of Scythe flew everywhere as I simply stood there dumbfounded. Where the Alicorn had once stood was now a giant pile of blood, muscle, and other things that I didn’t want to see. Not a single part of Scythes body was left intact, she was now a mess on the floor which was now stained in blood and gore. I knew what was happening, but it still left me stunned. I looked at my machinicle hooves, which were covered in blood like the rest of me, with small bits of who knows what hanging off as well. My shock ended as I realized someone wasn’t present.

“Zoey!” I called out, running my way over to where the body of Scythe had once been. I looked out of the window and found her lying unconscious on the ground. I could see her stomach move, and sighed with relief that she was still breathing. “Thank Celestia,”

I took a single step before falling down in pain. I looked at the bandages that had covered my wound, or at least where they had use to be. A small rip in the bandage was visible and blood was dripping out slowly. I shook away the pain and put a hoof on the wound to try and stop some of the bleeding. With that I ran as fast as I could, holding in the wound as I ran down to Zoey. As I opened the door that led outside, I quickly made my way to her.

“Zoey?” I didn’t get a responce, and put my hoof on her checking for a heartbeat. I got one but it was faint and weak, and I was soon more scared for her wellbeing. “You're not dying today Zoey,”

I threw her onto my back and started making my way to the airstrip that we had arrived on. My bleeding was getting worse though, and the inside of my mechanical hoof slowly started dripping with blood that had been collected. I started running faster, hoping to get back to the Raptor before it got too bad. As I got closer to it, my vision started to give out on me, and I felt light headed. I watched as two blurs made there way over to me, and as they got to my side I made out Nav and Grease helping me to the distant Raptor. When we finally arrived, Rocket and Silver Gunner were waiting and I found Zoey being lifted off my back.

“Where’s Captain Bleak and Soarin?” I barely made out the words Nav said to me.

“The… They,” I was having trouble with words as I felt my consciousness slipping away. “B-bleak… Soarin… dead,”

I collapsed on the ground still slightly conscious, I made out the blurry image of a hoof as if lifted me up and I was put on some ponies back. They entered the flying machine and I was blinded by the bright lights inside. Somepony I couldn’t make out was trying to talk to me, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Everything was an echo. The last sight I remember seeing was the destroyed outside of the Angel Hunter's base before I finally slipped away.

“De… stay w… s. Do..”

Author's Notes:

While I feel like the story really started in chapter 7 with everything that happened, I can say that we have entered the bulk of the story with chapter 14. You have no idea how excited I was to write this, and I feel like all the stuff with Las Pegasus was really blocking me. Thankfully we won't be there for much longer and everything coming up is stuff I'm really excited to write. So please give a like, comment, and follow if you want. Every bit of feedback would also be appreciated as it helps me improve future writing. With that I will see you all later.