Author's Notes:

Okay guys, there's a bit of a cameo from a character from Project Horizons in this chapter, so as usual he belongs to Somber.

Day 2 of our mission to re-take Manehattan from the Enclave dawned with little fanfare. I was still sore from my fight with Cadith from the day before but at least it didn't feel as bad as it had before.

I couldn't believe I had actually had survived that, I wasn't exactly the best at close quarters combat but I had managed to best a Zebra that had to be at least twice my size. I was still alive though and that's what mattered.

I looked down at the bed next to me but Cherry had already woken up and was probably elsewhere right now. I yawned and got to my hooves, stretching my wings a little as I put my coat back on and checked my PipBuck.

"0820, well I better go find the others," I said before heading out, I found Cherry coming out of the communal bathroom down the hall and she gave me a nod. "Morning Cherry, is the little one giving you any trouble?"

"Oh, just a little, she's apparently deciding to be more active than usual this morning," Cherry said with a shrug.

"Have you thought of a name for her yet?" I asked, in all honesty I was trying to focus on something other than the situation with the Enclave right now, that would come in time.

"A little really, I honestly never thought that much about it before," Cherry admitted with a shrug. "I mean, because of the way the breeding program works in 48 mothers don't really get to name their foals, instead they get picked by the division they're assigned to."

"So, then you're the first to actually get to name yours," I said with a nod. "Well, you could always name her something Cherry related, or Apple related since you're technically in the Apple family..."

"Maybe, I'll think of something," Cherry said with a shrug. "Why did your parents name you Scootaloo?"

"You know, I really have no idea," I admitted with a chuckle. "I never really thought about it before. Some ponies have meaningful names of sorts that somehow wind up reflecting their talent or something, but, who knows."

"You mean like having a cherry blossom for your cutie mark when your name is Cherry Blossom?"

"Heh, exactly... seriously my talent is helping ponies figure out their Cutie Marks and even I have no idea how that works."

We shared a laugh as we headed into the atrium where Arc and Riva were waiting for us. Riva gave us a smile and adjusted her desperado hat over her short mane before gesturing towards the way to the door.

"You two ready to go or do you want to spend some more time together?" Arc asked with a smirk.

"I think you've paid me back enough for my jokes about you and Caramel by now Arc," I said with a groan. "Its not like I've kept teasing you about that."

"I'll stop when you two stop hiding it," Arc said with a laugh as we headed up the stairs towards the door.

Next stop, Hoofson.

We had to avoid another Enclave patrol on our way to the Settlement but thankfully they were heading in the opposite direction as us. I breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the outside of Hoofson without any further issues.

I checked my EFS as we went into town, I didn't see anything that really worried me, just a few guards that probably belonged to the local militia. Still, we had to be careful as we headed towards the safehouse.

I sighed a little as I saw the ponies living in the settlement, they were looking more downtrodden than anything else. The Enclave controlled Manehattan so they had to be making sure they kept things in line.

I knocked on the door to the safehouse that was in a more remote part of the settlement, the slot in the door opened and a pair of eyes looked out at us.

"What's the password?"

"The Sun Sets on Neighvarro," I said simply and we were let inside by a burly looking Unicorn stallion.

The safehouse was pretty small and out of the way, there was just about 3 rooms along with a couple of beds and a rough looking kitchen. It wasn't exactly the Equestria Grand Hotel, but it was at least habitable.

"You're only to stay here as long as you need to get your supplies, we don't need to risk a raid from the Enclave," the stallion said.

"Understood, we should only be here for a few hours," I said and Cherry and Arc nodded.

I looked at the stallion for a moment, he was looking at Riva nervously. The Zebra was checking through her supplies at the moment, she wasn't exactly doing anything threatening.

"Do you have a problem?"

"Sorry, I'm just not sure about Zebras," the stallion admitted as Riva's ears perked up a little. "Do you know much about her?"

"She's from something called the Libra Roama Alliance," Cherry said. "I think that means Free Roam Alliance maybe? She doesn't speak Equestrian."

"I see, well I don't know a lot about Zebras but there's a pony in town who might be able to help you out," our host said. "Apparently he got trapped here when the Enclave took over the city, he might be able to help you out at least. Apparently he knows a lot about the Zebra culture and language."

"Alright, hopefully that won't add much to our time here," I said with a sigh as I looked at my PipBuck, it was almost 1030 hours and we needed to get out of the Settlement as soon as possible so we could head towards Tenpony Tower.

"Its worth checking out at least, maybe she can give us some info," I said with a nod. "Do you know where we can find him?"

"He's usually found at the old hotel," the stallion said with a shrug. "But you'll have to be careful, the Enclave likely has agents in this Settlement."

I was getting the feeling that Winter Breeze saying she had ponies everywhere really wasn't an exaggeration, and it worried me. That meant that we were risking exposing our presence just by being in the settlement, and I honestly didn't like the idea, but we were risking it just being in the settlement anyway.

I looked at my friends and at Riva, this was ultimately up to them, it might prove to be nothing but I had to admit we were all curious, if this stallion could help us then it was worth checking out at least.

"What do you think?" I asked as I looked at Arc and Cherry.

"I'll get the supplies, it'll be less suspicious if just one of us is there anyway," Arc said with a nod.

"I'll go with you and Riva," Cherry said with a nod. "We can put together a list of what we need Arc to get."

"You're looking for GB, he's in the Manehattan Tower Hotel," the stallion said as he gave us a nod.

Arc nodded and we started putting together the list before giving it to her. I was a little uneasy after what had happened in Stable 66, but I trusted Arc to do the right thing. When I gave her the paper and caps I pulled her in close and whispered.

"If you need any more of, you know what... try not to let it come out of our funds okay?"

Arc nodded and left first, we waited a few minutes and left the safehouse. It was time to go and see what we could find out about our new Zebra friend.

When we reached the hotel we were directed to room 416. I had to admit I was a little nervous about this, I hadn't ever really thought about what kind of pony might be knowledgeable about Zebras, was he maybe a sympathizer from the war? A pony who had traveled to the Zebra lands in more recent years? I had no idea, but there was only one way to find out.
When we reached the door I knocked on it and for a moment there was no response until I heard a raspy voice from the other end say, "What do you want?"

Why did that voice sound familiar?

"We were told you'd be able to tell us more about Zebras," I said into the door. "That you're some sort of expert?"

"Why do you care, nopony's cared about that kind of thing in over 2 centuries," the rough voice said again. "

"Mr. GB, we need your help, we crossed paths with a group of Starkatteri Zebras in a nearby Stable," Cherry said and there was a long pause as if the strange stallion was considering our words. "We have a Zebra here that might be able to help give us answers but she doesn't speak Equestrian."

"Are you saying she's from Zebrica?" GB asked.

"I believe so, she mentioned something called the Libra Roama Alliance," I said. "Look, we'll leave you alone if you want us to, but if you can help us that would be appreciated."

"What business does she have in Equestria?"

"We don't know, but she was being chased by the Starkatteri."

There was a long pause followed by the scraping of the locks being disengaged before the door opened. I froze a moment at what I saw, he had a faded white coat with pink scars crossing it, his mane and horn was golden with an orange teardrop as a cutie mark.

Goldenblood, the head of the Office of Interministry Affairs, I hadn't seen him in over 200 years but I recognized him. I had no idea he was still alive, why did ponies from the war keep showing up alive?

"Well, are you just going to stand there or are you coming in?" He said in the same raspy voice.

"Right, sorry," I said as we entered the hotel room, it had a few personal effects but it was mostly barren other than the bed and other furniture as Goldenblood closed the door behind us.

"I have to say, this is the last place I expected to see you Scootaloo," Goldenblood said as he looked me over. "You know the Enclave has a bounty on your head right?"

"Yeah, I know," I said as I removed my hat and gave the stallion a nod. "What about you, what's your story? I thought they had you executed."

"From what I've heard its not that different from yours, I wound up in a stasis pod and was tormented for 200 years. I woke up 10 years back after Blackjack freed me in Hoofington."

Hoofington again, why did it keep coming back to Hoofington?

"Uh, do you two know each other?" Cherry asked, even Riva appeared perplexed by what was going on.

"Yeah, he worked with the Ministries during the war in a liaison group called the OIA, we worked together on some projects," I said with a nod and then looked at Riva.

"Also with her mother on a few occasions when it was warranted," Goldenblood said and turned to look at Riva who was eyeing him curiously. "Salve sum Goldenblood, quid hic tibi sunt?"

I was a bit surprised to hear a pony speaking what seemed like flawless Zebra, but Goldenblood had always been kind of an enigma to me. There was something about him that seemed, weird, like he was always planning something, at least he seemed to be on our side here.

"Salve sum Riva ego autem viator ex Libero Roama Alliance," Riva answered, she smiled a little and gave me a nod.

"She says she's a traveler from the Free Roam Alliance, I'm afraid I don't quite know what that means," Goldenblood admitted before looking at her again. "Et venistis Zencori tribus?"

"Etiam," Riva said with a nod.

"What did you ask her?" I asked as I looked at Goldenblood.

"I asked if she was from the Zencori tribe, they're nomadic storytellers, that might explain why she's in Equestria at least," Goldenblood said. "Do you know why the Starkatteri were after her?"

"I don't know, they kept calling her a, Viatorem or something," I said, Goldenblood looked at me strangely for a moment. "It seemed more like a title than anything else."

"A traveler? Interesting, I wonder why she would be considered a threat great enough to warrant the Starkatteri to track her down."

"We honestly don't know," Cherry admitted. "They seemed pretty adamant about it."

"They're in league with the Enclave," I added, which made Goldenblood's eyes go wide, he hadn't known about that.
He turned back to Riva and spoke again. "Quare illi post?"

"Impugnatur a societate Enclave," Riva said as her voice turned somber. "Mist me ad novas legiones ac socios pugnam."

"Legiones?"

"Ita Imperium Legione Roamana."

"Quia habent a Caesar?"

"Etiam."

"Roamani?"

"Etiam."

I didn't need a translation, I understood the basic idea of what they were talking about. The Roaman Imperial Legion was the elite of the Zebra forces, and he had mentioned Caesar. Something was going on in the Zebra lands, and I wasn't sure what it meant, but it scared me a little.

I just hoped it wouldn't affect us here right now, the last thing we needed was another war with the Zebras.

"It seems the Alliance sent her to find new allies in Equestria against the Enclave and the Legion," Goldenblood said and gave her a nod. "Are you sure the Enclave is in league with the Starkatteri?"

"That's what seems to be the case, yes," I said with a sigh. "I fought against one named Cadith, he nearly killed me."

"Seeking allies is one thing, I don't understand why the Starkatteri would be interested in taking out a single Zebra," Goldenblood said and turned her attention back to Riva. "Secreta quid habes?"

Riva looked reluctant for a long moment, she looked between us as if trying to decide what to say. Finally she went into her bags and took out several papers, she laid them out on the ground and spoke again, she only said one sentence in Equestrian, but it sent chills up and down my spine.

"For Winter Breeze."

We sat in silence for the longest moment after hearing those words, these were messages from the Free Roam Alliance to the President of the Enclave? Why would the Alliance be interested in sending messages to her? Something about all of this felt really weird.

"What do they say?" Cherry finally asked as she broke the silence.

"They're orders to an infiltration team from General Stardust," Goldenblood said softly as he read them over. "They're being ordered to carry out an assassination on Winter Breeze and the other high ranking members of the Enclave, it seems Stardust is planning a coup of some sort."

"So, they're hoping if it gets exposed she might deal with the Enclave in the Zebra Lands," I speculated.

"This is trouble," Goldenblood said, the usually calm stallion had a tone of nervousness in his voice. "The Starkatteri don't make deals with groups like this, if they're really controlling Stardust from the shadows..."

"Then with Winter Breeze and the other Generals out of the picture, they'd have control of the Enclave," I finished.

That was an ominous thought that none of us particularly wanted to dwell on.

Goldenblood asked more questions of Riva and we learned more about the Free Roam Alliance. Apparently they were similar to the NCR in that they worked as a democratic government in the Zebra Lands trying to maintain order, even if they had a hard time doing so because of the Enclave and the Legion.

Riva as Goldenblood had learned already was from the Zencori Tribe, one of the more common Tribes that made up the Alliance. The Viatorem, or Travelers, were Zebras the Alliance sent out to make contact with other groups to make trade agreements and alliances.

That had answered a lot of questions, but it still raised more, for the moment though we didn't have much of a choice but to go with what we knew.

"Thanks for your help Goldenblood," I said as I gave the stallion a nod and put my hat back on. "I'm glad we met up again."

"Be careful out there, we don't know what else the Enclave might have prepared," Goldenblood said with a shake of his head. "Especially if the Starkatteri are involved with them."

"What are the Starkatteri?" I asked, which made both Riva and Goldenblood flinch a little. "What?"

"Maledictus equi sidus," Riva said with a shake of her head.

"The star cursed, they're... dangerous," Goldenblood said, he looked more nervous than anything else. "They're manipulative, they've always been more interested in controlling things from the shadows. The entire reason the Twelve and One exist is because the Starkatteri tried to take over the rest of the Zebras."

"And now they're playing the Enclave... great..." Cherry said with a groan. "What are we going to do?"

"If they're coming here to Equestria... pray," Goldenblood said with a shake of his head. "My suggestion, go stop them from assassinating the President. Right now she is the lesser of two evils."

That was a rather disturbing summary of our situation. Winter Breeze was a dangerous pony to be sure, but there were probably worse ponies than her in the Enclave, at least she was trying to help Equestria, somehow.

I read through the pages quickly, the attack on Winter Breeze was listed for tomorrow's date. There were a few notes here and there on where they were to go in the city, we at least knew where we were going next in Manehattan.

We said our goodbyes to Goldenblood and headed out of the hotel to meet up with Arc Light again.

As we left the hotel there was another sound of static and music before the sound of Winter Breeze's voice came over the speakers again.

"Hello Manehattan, this is your President speaking. I've come with some good news for my little ponies, as we continue to wait for the surrender of the NCR the Enclave will begin to set things up to help this city as we have promised. The Enclave will be helping set up schools, farms, and clinics around the city to give all the full benefits of Enclave Citizenship to those that have come to us only recently. We've been through a lot as a nation, but the long night is finally almost over. I hope that we'll be able to work together towards a brighter future together, all ponies, all species, all together under one flag. This is the vision we have, where we will no longer have to fear for our future and that of our children. I swear to you as your President, I will make sure that we all have this future together. This is President Winter Breeze, signing off."

"I miss DJ Pon3," I said with a groan as I removed my earbuds. "How often is she going to be giving these speeches?"

"I don't know, they used to not be nearly this frequent before she took over Manehattan," Cherry said with a sigh. "Lets just hope Arc got everything we need."

I looked at Riva who was looking around the settlement curiously. I had no idea how things were going in the Zebra Lands, but if they were anything like what was going on in Equestria things weren't exactly going well there either.

Maybe if we could ever figure out how to communicate with her better, or at least got Tenpony Tower liberated, we could learn more about what was going on in the Zebra Lands.

"Hey Arc!" Cherry said as she waved to Arc and Schooner who were walking over to us. "Did you have any luck?"

"Yeah, I found just about everything," Arc said as she passed the items to us. "It cleared out most of our caps, but I think we'll be fine.

"Thanks," I said as I put the supplies away in my bags, she had gotten me some more ammo for my weapons so that would help at least. "Some of this stuff couldn't have been easy to find, how'd you get it?"

"Well, since the Enclave moved in they've started to limit ammunition and weapon sales, but there's a bit of a black market in the city," Arc said with a shake of her head as she gave Cherry and Riva their supplies next. "The only problem is that its expensive, but it gives us some ponies who are willing to help."

"Let me guess, they're not exactly happy with the Enclave's presence either?" I said as we walked towards the city gate. "They do have a strong motivation to want the Enclave out of the city."

"Yeah, they said they'll give whatever assistance they can, though its not a whole lot right now," Arc said with a shake of her head. "I'm sorry I can't give more information on what's going on."

"Its fine, we'll figure it out soon enough," Cherry said.

"So what's the plan now?" Arc asked as we left the settlement.

"The best place to go to next, we have to go to where the Starkatteri and their Enclave are preparing their next move," I said with a sigh. "We're going to Four Stars."

Four Stars...

It had been a long time since I had last been in this place, the company had been in charge of the monorail lines in Manehattan. It wasn't until I read The Book of LittlePip that I even knew that they had been traitors to Equestria and had helped the Zebras smuggle the Balefire bomb into the city.

Now I found myself looking up at the Four Stars building, somewhere underneath there was an old failed Stable. Four Stars had tried to build their own Stable, it wasn't the only company that had tried that, but none of them were as successful as Stable-Tec was.

Solaris had tried it out west along Route 52, I remembered Rainy Days telling me about them briefly during her trips. That didn't concern me very much right now, I just had to make sure that we were ready for what was going to happen next.

"You're kidding right? We're here to stop an assassination on Winter Breeze?" Arc asked, she seemed a bit confused by this. "Why are we saving her life?"

"Because sometimes, its better the devil you know," I said with a sigh. "Winter Breeze may be better than the alternative within the Enclave, at least right now. Cloud Chaser is smart and ruthless, then there's this Stardust and her deal with the Starkatteri... if either one of them were in control of the Enclave, it would be a problem for Equestria."

There was a long pause, Arc seemed to understand that I was right. It was a hard call to make, but we didn't have much of a choice in the matter, I just had to hope that I was doing the right thing.

We headed into the foyer of the Four Stars building and looked around. There wasn't much to see in here right now, there were bodies here and there that had never been moved, but other than that it was empty.

"This place feels like a tomb..." Cherry commented as we went past a dead Steel Ranger. "How long have they been here?"

"Over 200 years, they were here to raid Four Stars on the Last Day," I said as I gave a somber salute to the dead ponies. "Its sad really, if they had just been here earlier they may have stopped the Megaspell from going off. You never know what could possibly change history do you?"

"Yeah, you really don't..." Arc said as we looked around. "So where are we going?"

I nodded towards a set of stairs and we headed that way. I was quietly glad that the Ghouls in the pseudo Stable had been wiped out years ago, the last thing we needed was to deal with them in addition to the Zebras.

"So, did you hear Cadith lost to a Proditor in Stable 66?" One Zebra asked another, we were quietly crouched outside the old pseudo Stable listening in on their conversation.

"How the mighty have fallen," the other said. "What's the word from the Chief on what's going to happen to him?"

"The Stars only know at this point, I'd rather not think about what happens to those of us that fail," the first said. "Lets just get this job done so we can get back home, the last thing we need is another failure on our record."

I checked my EFS, there were only 4 Zebras in the pseudo Stable, which made up the team that had been sent to carry out the assassination. I guess they didn't want to risk sending more for some reason, but I didn't have much time to dwell on it.

For a brief moment I actually hesitated to give the signal to attack, were we really about to put our own lives at risk to save our enemy? I didn't think Winter Breeze would do the same for us if given the opportunity, but at the moment we didn't have a whole lot of choice.

It was time to make our move.

I gave Arc the signal, she levitated a flashbang grenade out of her bag but didn't pull the pin on it just yet. Instead she rolled it into the pseudo Stable and it came to a stop just behind the Zebras.

I peeked around just in time to watch one of them bend down to look at the grenade and that was the cue. Arc wrapped the pin in her telekinesis and pulled it, I moved back into cover just as the flashbang went off.

The next few moments were a blur, we pushed in and fired at the Zebras who were caught off guard. My energy beam shot from Freedom actually disintegrated one of them into a puddle of ash while Riva's rifle took out another one quickly.

The last two Zebra agents dived into cover and drew their weapons firing back at us, we moved into cover at the same time and aimed our guns towards the surviving Zebras and fired a few shots.

"You always take me to the loveliest places, you know that?" Cherry said with a chuckle as she fired at the Zebras.

"Yeah, yeah, I know..." I said with a groan, this was going to be a long war at this rate. "Save Equestria they said, see the world they said..."

I lined up another shot at the Zebras and pulled the trigger and he let out a scream as his legs went out from under him and his rifle went flying out of the way. The last Zebra fired towards us but was quickly outmatched and fell with a bullet to his head from Arc Light's rifle.

We stormed into the room and kicked the weapons away from the crippled Zebra, he tried to speak in the Zebra language again but I just pushed him down.

"Don't bother, I know you Starkatteri can speak Equestrian," I said as I pressed my energy rifle's barrel against his chest. "You're going to tell me what I want to know and maybe, just maybe I'll let you live."

The Zebra actually looked scared, I frowned a little when I noticed that his stripes weren't like the other's, they were more thin and jagged. This wasn't a Starkatteri, this Zebra had probably been conscripted from one of the tribes in Zebrica.

"What do you want to know?"

"How may were sent on this mission?" I demanded of the Zebra who just looked more scared.

"T-two teams, we were just the back-up in case the first one failed," he stuttered out. "General Stardust wanted to leave nothing to chance."

"Smart pony, too bad your mission is going to fail," Arc said with a shake of her head as she looked at the Zebra. "What should we do with him?"

"Please don't kill me, I have a family back in Zebrica..." the Zebra pleaded, it was sad really. "Let me go, I swear, I'll leave and never bother anypony again!"

I looked at him for a long moment, was I really going to kill an unarmed Zebra? He looked like he was two seconds from peeing himself, I wasn't going to start killing ponies, or Zebras, for no reason.

But there was one question that I had to ask first.

"Why Four Stars?"

"Files stolen from the Ministries during the war of ways to get into the hubs in Manehattan, they were never used but it was Plan B in the event the infiltration team was found!" The Zebra said. "I swear, they're just over there."

He pointed over towards a table that had papers and diagrams on them. Arc walked over to them carefully and examined them for a moment.

"Yeah, he's telling the truth, these are schematics and blueprints for Tenpony Tower as well as the other hubs," she said. "We can use these to get into the tower at least."

"We thank you for your service to Equestria," I said with a light chuckle as I removed my rifle from the Zebra's chest. "Get going, and tell nopony you saw us here."

"Y-yes ma'am!" The Zebra stuttered before running off.

"You don't think this is going to come back to bite us in the flank do you?" Cherry asked as we watched the Zebra run.

"No, we'll be fine," I said as I walked over and checked the files, there were several entrances to the building marked, most of them were on the lower levels with one circled. "I'm guessing their plan is to go in there..."

"That's connected to the Manehattan underground, interesting," Arc said as she compared it to a map of the city. "Though, what does this Glyph mean here?"

I looked at the symbol at the bottom of the map for a long moment, it was a Zebra symbol that I didn't know of course so it could mean anything. Riva came up behind us and looked at it for a long moment before her eyes went wide and she started saying something in the Zebra language before speaking again in her limited Equestrian.

"Ghouls."

Of course it was Ghouls, it was always Ghouls when we came to this city. Just once I wanted to have a fight in Manehattan with something other than Ghouls!

We headed out of the Four Stars building and took a deep breath as I checked the map on my PipBuck. There was one last stop I wanted to make and we had time before we had to stop the Zebras to make it.

I looked up at the tall Ministry of Awesome Hub that loomed over us as we neared the Stable-Tec building for Manehattan. It was hard to believe that it had been over a year since we had been here last, the building still seemed to be the same to me.

I thought about what had happened over the last year, I had made new friends and allies, and new enemies. Ponies that had come to hate me because of my mistakes were starting to come to at least tolerate me.

I had made a lot of mistakes during the war, things that I regretted more than anything else because of how many lives I had hurt. At the same time though, I had saved lives, given ponies a chance to live after the end of the world, I didn't think that quite balanced out the equation but it at least helped a little.

Now I had to make sure that the biggest mistake of my life didn't come back to haunt me, and cause more damage to Equestria than had been dealt since the war ended.

"Hard to believe we're back here huh?" Arc asked as we entered the building.

"Oh, you've been here before?" Cherry asked as we looked around for the stairs leading to the next floor.

"Oh yeah, not long after we met," I said and gave Arc a nod. "We came here because I needed to check some things out, basically the same reason why we're here now."

"I see," Cherry said with a shrug as we started up the stairs. "Let me guess, its connected to why you had to come to 48 and 117?"

"Yeah, I'm concerned that the Enclave may have gotten access to another one of the Stables," I said with a sigh. "Stable 14 out near Seaddle, its been long abandoned but the Enclave attacked Seaddle similar to how they attacked Horseton."

"And you think it was a diversion there too," Arc finished. "Okay, I see where you're going with this, lets just hope you're wrong about it."

"Yeah, lets hope," I said with a sigh as we opened the door to Lemon Lime's office, the Ghoul mare was long gone of course, having headed south to find Stable 27, I wondered if she had made it there.

I didn't have much time to dwell on it though, I had to get connected to the Stable network and make sure that everything was working as it was supposed to be. I knew two Stables were out already, but that still left 4.

I sat at the terminal and input the commands to bring me into the source code again so I could look at the information on Protocol Zeta. I hated that I had to keep coming back to this, but I didn't have a choice.

When I pulled it up, my worst fears were confirmed.

14: INACTIVE
26: ACTIVE
48: INACTIVE
68: ACTIVE
97: ACTIVE
117: INACTIVE

"Well, that answers that," I said with a sigh as I leaned back in the chair. "14 has gone inactive too."

"What was in 14?" Arc asked curiously.

"Griffons, nothing more than that," I said with a shake of my head. "We built the Stable to house Griffons so they could survive too, we have several Stables like that around Equestria. There's Stable 37 which was for Changelings, Stable 61 for Deer, and of course Stable 3 for Zebras."

"I see, well that makes sense."

Riva nodded as I closed out of the code, I was about to say that we could leave before I noticed a notification come up on the screen. That surprised me a little, I wasn't sure what that was about.

"SCOOTALOO MEMORIAL WING (S1-B) REACTOR FAILURE IMMENENT.
RESETTING REACTOR WILL VENT GASES AND KILL ALL SURVIVING INHABITANTS.
SHUTTING DOWN THE SYSTEM WILL OPEN ALL CURRENTLY ACTIVE S.A.D. PODS.
HIT Y FOR RESET.
HIT N FOR SHUT DOWN."

"What does that mean?" Arc asked as she, Cherry, and Riva looked over my shoulder at the screen. "What's the Scootaloo Memorial Wing?"

"I, honestly have no idea," I admitted as I checked the readings, I couldn't see if anypony was actually in the facility from here. "S1-B... I'm not sure what that is, S1 might be Stable One but."

"But it was probably destroyed, right," Cherry said. "And what's a S.A.D. Pod?"

"I have no idea," I said with a shake of my head. "But honestly, I think we need to shut down the system. If there are ponies still alive, we need to help them at least make it out of whatever they're in."

"I don't know Scootaloo, that kind of equipment could help with the war effort," Arc pointed out. "If its a facility that's remained untouched, think about what the reactor system alone could do. There's a lot of good that kind of power could do for Equestria"

"Arc, I understand where you're coming from, but we can't just abandon innocent ponies to die," I said with a sigh as I looked at the screen again. "We don't know who is in there, Equestria has survived just fine for over 200 years without it."

"Yes but we're also looking at a possible method of fighting the Enclave," Arc pointed out. "If we could provide free power to the Wasteland, imagine what that could do to undermine the Enclave's propaganda. A few lives might be worth that kind of advantage, don't you think?"

I paused for a long moment, she wasn't entirely wrong, facilities like this were outfitted with some of the best technology Equestria had to offer. The fact that it had lasted this long might help matters even, it could be used to help ponies more than anything else, but I had no idea if it was the right call.

I looked at the terminal again, I typed some commands in and found its location, it was somewhere in Canterlot mountain. The readout on the systems didn't look too good either, if we didn't make a choice fast whoever was still in the Stable would die soon.

I looked at Arc for a long moment, this wasn't an easy choice to make. We were making a decision that would affect lives, was it right to simply discard those lives just for technology?

No, pony lives were more important than any technology.

"Arc I'm sorry but I don't agree," I said with a tone of finality in my voice, Arc started to speak again but I interrupted her. "Arc, I understand where you're coming from, but I've got a lot of blood on my hooves for my mistakes during the war. If there is even a smallest chance that there could be ponies still alive in these, S.A.D.s, whatever they are, then we should give them a chance to live and make their own way in the Wasteland. I won't let more ponies die because of my mistakes, not when their deaths can be prevented, if we don't then we won't be any better than the Enclave."

Arc paused for a long moment, I could tell my words were getting to her but she wasn't sure what to do.

"Alright Cherry, you're the deciding vote," Arc said as she looked at Cherry, since Riva couldn't understand us and we couldn't convey the information easily, it was up to the Earth Pony mare.

"Well, umm..." Cherry said softly, she seemed nervous and unsure of what to say, I didn't blame her for that. "I mean you both bring up good points, but isn't all life sacred? I honestly have to agree with Scootaloo on this one, we should give the ponies in this place a chance to live instead of casting their lives aside so carelessly."

I smiled a little and Arc nodded in understanding, I put my hoof on the Unicorn's shoulder and gave her a nod. "Don't worry Arc, besides, maybe it'll be salvageable, we'll get word to the NCR as soon as we're done here and have them investigate the location."

"Okay, do it," Arc said with a nod.

I stared at the screen for a long moment before hitting the N key, for a moment nothing happened before text started to come across the screen.

REACTOR SHUT DOWN, STASIS AUTO DOCTOR POD SYSTEMS DEACTIVATED AND PREPARING TO RELEASE, ALL PONIES WILL BE ALLOWED TO LEAVE. HAVE A GOOD DAY.

I breathed a sigh of relief, it had worked, that was good. Though I was curious about something, Stasis Auto Doctors? I was familiar with Auto Docs of course, they had been developed by the Ministry of Peace during the war using healing technology in order to help heal injured ponies but they were still mostly experimental, what was a Stasis Auto Doctor?

For a brief moment I thought back to the pod that I had woken up in, I hadn't recognized the technology as being any different from a normal stasis pod, but could that have been a S.A.D.? I added it to the list of questions I still had about what was going on.

"Alright, I think that's all we can do here for them," I said with a nod as I closed out of the system. "Lets hope whoever we just released from stasis is grateful."

"Who knows, maybe its another friend of yours from the war," Arc said with a chuckle, I couldn't help but laugh a little at that.

Then again, she wasn't entirely wrong, a surprising number of ponies had survived the war outside of Stables. Fluttershy, Silver Spoon, Wind Rider, Goldenblood... who knew, maybe there was somepony else out there now, or maybe it wasn't.

"Is there anything else?" Arc asked.

"No, that should be about it," I said as I closed up the terminal. "Lets get going, we still have to get to Tenpony Tower."

As we headed out again, I still had to wonder what the S.A.D. Pods were, if they had been the same system I had been put in I wasn't really sure how it worked. That was something for another time, maybe a trip to a Ministry of Awesome Hub, but not for today.

Today, we had an assassination to stop, I just hoped we would be able to pull it off without getting ourselves killed in the process.

The closer to Tenpony Tower we got the more Enclave patrols we had to avoid, there were a few settlements in the area but most of them we found were being watched too closely for us to stop by.

As we passed down another street we noticed a symbol painted on the wall next to a metro station of a butterfly. I smiled a little, it was one just like the ones Fluttershy had in her cutie mark, it might be a sign of friendlies.

"Come on, lets check it out, but keep on your guard," I said as we headed towards the metro tunnel and opened the door.
We moved down cautiously, prepared to fight if it was a trap, I breathed a sigh of relief when the friendly bars came up on my EFS' compass. We came around the corner to see a group of Applejack's Rangers mixed with ponies dressed in the outfits of Followers of the Apocalypse standing there.

"Hold your fire Knight, they're friendlies," a mare's mechanical voice said as a familiar looking Applejack's Ranger Unicorn stepped out of the side room. "Scootaloo, its been awhile since the war council."

"Yeah, I'm sorry we couldn't meet back up under better circumstances," I said as I tipped my hat to the Star Paladin. "Let me guess, you got stuck here when the Enclave took over the city?"

"Yeah, I'm afraid so, we were on our way to one of the settlements when we got ambushed," the Ranger said with a shake of her head. "Thankfully the Followers were in the area and patched us up, but we're not in much shape to fight right now."

"Nova, you really shouldn't be on your hooves," a familiar voice said and I was surprised to see Velvet Remedy walk out of the side room. "I swear, you're almost as stubborn as Steelhooves was."

"I'll take that as a compliment," the Ranger, now identified as Nova (I have no idea how I missed her name before) said with a light chuckle. "Alright, fine, I'll go lay back down."

"Sorry, Applejack's Rangers can be so obstinate sometimes," Velvet said as Nova went back into the side room grumbling a little. "Especially that one, she saves Equestria from crazed Raiders and Steel Rangers and she thinks she's invincible."

"She really did that?" Cherry asked curiously as she looked into the room after Nova.

"Oh yeah, I remember hearing about that now that I think about it," I said in a moment of realization. "She was the Ranger from the Great Schism in Seaddle right?"

"Nice to see my reputation proceeds me," Nova said with a chuckle before removing her helmet revealing a light blue Unicorn mare underneath with a dark blue mane, which I noticed was almost identical to mine. "So what brings Winter Breeze's most wanted into Manehattan?"

"We're here to get the Enclave out of the city," Arc said, which got a surprised look from Nova.

"You're kidding right, they sent three Ponies, a dog, and a Zebra to stop the Enclave in Manehattan?" Nova asked as she looked between us strangely. "That's either a suicide mission or Regina's got a lot of faith in your abilities Scootaloo."

"She didn't have much of a choice, her claws are tied with this situation," I said with a sigh as I looked around at the gathered ponies. "I know its a longshot and the odds are against us, but at this point we are the only chance there is of stopping the Enclave here. If they aren't stopped, the NCR will probably have to surrender and the Alliance will fall apart. Can Applejack's Rangers and Nomad City take on the Enclave on their own?"

There was a long silence at that, everypony knew the answer but nopony was willing to voice it. The Enclave at this point had pretty much won as long as they maintained control of Tenpony Tower and Manehattan, all they had to do was wait for the NCR Senate to reach a decision.

What would be even worse is if they could get Celestia One working again, they wouldn't even need to finish Protocol Zeta with that kind of firepower. Winter Breeze now had the power to dictate whatever terms she wanted to Equestria and there was nothing any of us could really do about it right now.

"The only chance we have of winning this is if we all work together."

"Alright, we'll help you however we can, but we're still not in the best shape," Nova said as she shook her head. "Do you really think we stand a chance against the Enclave though?"

"Honestly? I have no idea," I admitted with a sigh. "The odds are not in our favor, that much is true, but we have no other choice. The odds are rarely in our favor in situations like this, Velvet you and your friends traveled across Equestria and faced odds as bad or worse than this. Heck, LittlePip and Calamity killed a dragon, not to mention what happened with the Goddess."

Velvet paused for a long moment and looked at me before nodding.

"Nova, I don't know a lot about your adventures, but what you've done has earned the respect of your peers and your allies. You're not just some Ranger, you're the Renegade, the mare who broke the old traditions once and for all and you helped make Applejack's Rangers what they are today."

Nova looked at me and chucked lightly as she leaned back. "You sure know how to motivate a mare, you know that?"

"Look, we'll help if we can but I don't know what we'll be able to do from here," Velvet said with a sigh. "The Enclave has Tenpony Tower locked up tight, and give the only secret entrance was closed years ago, we don't have a lot of options."

She had a point, even if we had the help of the Rangers we'd be outnumbered once we got into the tower itself. We needed a plan of some sort if we were going to make it, but we had one other priority first.

"There is one mission that has to be finished before we can do that though," I said with a sigh as I took out the plans for Tenpony Tower, this was going to be a hard one to explain.

The others listened carefully to what I had to say, I could tell from the looks on their faces they couldn't believe what I was suggesting. I had to admit that I had a hard time believing it myself, but it was a plan.

Another idea was starting to form in my mind as well, but we'd need the right equipment for that and it was even riskier than taking on the Starkatteri.

"Okay, I admit, that's not something I expected," Velvet said and even Nova seemed a bit confused by the idea. "Are you sure that it needs to be done?"

"Its better than the alternative," I said and Nova nodded in understanding.

"Alright, we'll rest up here and then head towards the Tower tomorrow, if you survive we'll help you re-take it," Nova said and I nodded in agreement.

"Thank you, it means a lot to me," I said and shook hooves with Velvet and Nova. "Thanks for your help."

"You're welcome Scootaloo, just stay safe out there," Velvet said with a nod.

"You too," I said and looked at Velvet for a long moment before a thought occurred to me. "What about Calamity, where is he?"

"Probably back in Junction Town trying to figure out what to do," Velvet said with a sigh. "I wish I was back there, but this is where I wound up. The universe has a strange sense of humor I suppose."

"Don't worry Velvet, we'll get you home," Arc said with a nod as we headed back out of the station.

As I saw Tenpony Tower looming ahead, I realized I honestly had no idea how we were going to go about doing this. I had a plan sure, but the truth is we were ill equipped to carry that plan out, we'd need equipment that we could only get from either the Zebras or one of the hubs in the city, either one.

I just had to hope we'd figure something out soon, we still had less than 6 days left to go before the deadline was up.

"Come on, lets get going," I said as we started towards the tower once more.

It was time to save the President.

LEVEL UP!
Perk Received: Equites.
Details: You've gained a better knowledge of the Zebras and their traditions. You get a speech bonus when talking to Zebras and unlock some special options.