Hey everypony, Cherry Blossom here. So, uh, Scootaloo asked me to write this chapter while she was putting this story together. Since she was, you know, kind of unconscious for this part of the battle for Tenpony Tower.

I'm going to let you guys in on a secret... okay probably not a secret at this point is it... I was in love with Scootaloo. Yeah, I know, big shock right? I mean we've kissed like, twice and we spend every night in the same bed together, so its not that much of a surprise at this point.

I admit, its weird to be attracted to another pony because of how things were back home in Stable 48. I was still kind of getting used to the idea, but Scootaloo was, different. While sure there were occasional relationships in Stable 48 I had never really thought about pursuing one with another pony until I met Scootaloo.

I've felt this way ever since that first night we spent together in Stable 48. She's one of the kindest, most wonderful ponies I've ever met, always willing to help her friends out whenever we need it.

Maybe that's what attracted me to her in the first place, why I was willing to travel with her this whole time. She made me want to do better as a pony and I was glad that I had traveled with her, I just wasn't sure how to tell her how I felt about her.

I just wish I knew whether or not she felt the same about me, and that I'd get the chance to ask her.

"Are you sure she'll be okay?" I asked as I looked over at Doctor Life Bloom who was getting ready for the operation.

"Well, like I said I haven't seen anything like her organs before," Life Bloom said with a sigh as he looked at the readings on Scootaloo's organs. "Honestly, I have no idea what to say about this, I'm going to go over the files she brought with her and maybe that'll help me figure out what to do."

"What are we going to do?" Arc asked.

"Like I said, all the equipment is up in storage so you're going to have to get it before we can do that," Life Bloom said with a nod. "The Enclave has it pretty well guarded too so its going to be tricky, are you three up for it?"

Arc and Riva nodded, but honestly I wasn't so sure, I was worried about this and that if we ran off something might happen to Scootaloo. I looked at the still unconscious Pegasus, and knew that I had to do it.

"We're all in," I said with a confident smile. "She'd do it for us."

"Yeah, we just have to survive making our way through an Enclave occupied tower," Arc said as she looked at the map. "This isn't exactly going to be easy."

"I know," I said with a shake of my head before I turned to look at Life Bloom again. "Do you know anything about that ship that's near the Tower?"

"Oh, you mean the Orion?" Life Bloom asked. "That's the ship the Enclave came in on, they claimed to be an escort for Nomad City and were here to help with the Tower. It, obviously didn't go well given what's happened since then."

Right, just our luck, another Enclave ship parked outside. That may at least give us an advantage, we just had to figure out how. The Enclave was smart enough to figure out how to get into Tenpony Tower without much of a problem, so the question was how to be smarter than them.

"So what are we going to do then?" Arc asked as she and Riva looked around, neither of them were sure what to do either.

I looked at the map, right now I really wished that Scootaloo was here to help us out given what kind of challenge was ahead of us. I took a deep breath and ran my hoof along the maintenance levels on the tower.

"Are these guarded?" I asked as I looked at Life Bloom and Focus.

"The Enclave only has so many troops to go so there aren't any living ponies in there," Focus said. "At least that we've seen, by the looks of things they've mostly been using machines to keep them patrolled. It may help you get to the storage room, but its not going to be easy still."

"Of course," I said with a sigh. "And you said something about a pony that might be able to help us?"

"Yeah, that would be Hard Drive," Focus said with a sigh. "The problem is that he works for the Enclave. He showed up in Tenpony Tower a few weeks ago as a cybernetics expert, but we suspect that he and a few others had helped get the Enclave information on the Tower."

"Great, so we need a pony who's also an enemy agent, just what we needed," I said with a groan.

This was going to be harder than we thought, and we already thought it would be pretty hard. I just had to hope that we'd be able to work our way through this, somehow.

I took a deep breath as we left the clinic, it was weird to be traveling without Scootaloo but Arc knew the basic layout of the tower so we had that at least. I took a deep breath and checked my PipBuck, there wasn't a lot of options right now, we were still on day four of the deadline so we had to make sure we got this job done fast.

Thankfully they didn't pay much attention to the three of us, there weren't a lot of reasons to suspect two ponies and a Zebra. We got a few looks sure but most ponies were more interested in going about their every day business.

I had to wonder how many of them might be Enclave agents and how many might be just ponies living their lives. How many of them were going to be disrupted because of what we had to do here? How many of them weren't going to survive the next day or two because of this war?

I sighed and looked at my hooves, we didn't have a choice. Maybe Scootaloo was right and Winter Breeze wasn't the worst leader the Enclave had, but she was still a threat to the NCR and the rest of Equestria.

"What's going through your mind Cherry?" Arc asked as she looked at me strangely. "You've been kind of staring off into space since we left the clinic."

"Oh, sorry, I've been kind of thinking about this whole thing mostly," I said with a shrug as I looked around the tower.

"Yeah, you've got almost the same look on your face that Scootaloo gets sometimes," Arc said with a chuckle. "Are you sure you two aren't doing more than just snuggle at night?"

My face turned hot at that, this wasn't the first time she had poked fun at us about that and it was getting a little annoying at times. Of course the fact was that she was right about how we felt about each other, but we had never done anything like that.

Its not that I hadn't thought about it, but in truth I was happy that she hadn't ever asked it of me. She was the first pony I had ever really known that didn't just want me for sex, and that made me happy.

She had promised to help me raise my daughter, I just had to hope that she'd be there for her now.

"You know Arc, I really don't think right now is the time to make jokes about that," I said with a sigh. "Scootaloo and I really haven't ever done anything like that and give her current condition, I have no idea if we ever will."

"I understand, I'm sorry," Arc said softly as she hugged me gently. "You're right, I've been teasing you two about that too much lately and this really isn't the time. Honestly, I'm a little jealous of you two."

"Jealous? Of us?" I asked, I was a little surprised honestly. "Why?"

"Because you have something that I really wish I had," Arc said sadly. "Even if you two aren't together, you still have each other. I wish I had that sometimes with Caramel Corn, but I don't even know where she is anymore other than a vague clue Scootaloo found in Stable 66."

"Right, but, we're just friends... for now..." I said quietly.

"Still, you two have something special," Arc said as she looked at Riva then pointed at me and made a motion as if towards Scootaloo if she was here. The Zebra laughed a little and nodded in agreement. "See, even she can see it and she doesn't even speak the same language as we do."

"Okay, I may have a little bit of a crush on Scootaloo," I admitted with a blush. "I mean, she's a great pony and everything, its hard not to feel that way for her after everything she's done for me."

"Let me guess, you're too afraid to tell her because it might ruin your friendship?" Arc asked and I nodded slowly. "Really I think you have nothing to lose at this point, just tell her how you feel and I'm sure she'll feel the same way."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it, you two will be great together, besides I doubt you two will ever really stop being friends. My advice is tell her as soon as possible, in this world you never know when your last chance will be."

She was right, I'd have to tell Scootaloo the truth as soon as I could. But for now we had to focus on saving her life so that I'd be able to tell her. I couldn't imagine what I'd do with my life if something happened to Scootaloo right now.

Once we were sure that nopony was looking we opened one of the entrances to the maintenance levels and went inside.

"Why do you think Xiraia kept her identity secret this whole time?" I wondered quietly as we moved through the maintenance tunnels.

"Well, maybe its because she's a Zebra," Arc suggested. "I mean, Zebras aren't exactly a popular species after the whole causing the apocalypse thing. Really, I don't completely agree, though the only Zebra I really know is Riva over there."

I looked towards our Zebra companion who just shrugged. She was nice enough and hadn't done anything overly aggressive so that was a good sign, Maybe there were more Zebras like her out there in this Free Roam Alliance, it could certainly be interesting to get to know them.

"Well that and probably to create the illusion that DJ Pon3 is still around," Arc added with a shrug. "Maybe both, I mean its hard to tell with ponies sometimes. But Scootaloo seems to trust her, so that's really enough for me."

I smiled a little, Arc had the right idea. I couldn't imagine what she had been through lately as she had found out that her entire Stable had been taken away by the Enclave. We were kind of in the same boat really since my home had suffered a similar fate, only it hadn't been cleared out.

Riva smiled and put a hoof around both our shoulders, she gave us a smile and said something in Equestrian once more. "Friends."

"That's right Riva, we're all friends," I said with a smile as we hugged her back before I patted her chest. "We're glad to have you as a friend."

Riva nodded and released the hug, really there were still a few questions I wanted to know about our Zebra friend but we knew what we needed at the moment. Maybe if we had another pony that could speak the Zebra language that would help, but that wasn't easy to find.

I admit I was surprised to learn there were even two ponies in Equestria that knew it, though Goldenblood wasn't exactly traveling with us and the other was the President of the Enclave.

We didn't have much time to dwell on it though as we were quickly faced with the first defense the Enclave had set up. There were a pair of turrets that fired energy beams at us as we approached, requiring us to duck out of the way.

"Faex," Riva said in a way that I was pretty sure meant she was cursing.

"You said it," Arc said with a groan as she levitated her rifle out of its holster and pointed it towards the turrets. "Well, I guess we know what some of the defenses are in here."

"Yah think?" I said with a groan, I would've fired too but it was hard to do when you didn't have telekinesis and had an extra passenger to think about. "Something tells me this isn't the worst they have either."

"Probably not," Arc said with a nod as she leveled her rifle at one of the turrets and shot it, taking it out before taking the other one out in quick succession. "Are you three okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, it didn't hit me," I said with a nod as I looked back into the corridor. "Why is it we can't ever just have a simple walk somewhere?"

"I have no idea, maybe the Wasteland hates us," Arc said as we started down the corridor again.

The rest of the trek through the maintenance levels were mostly filled with climbing ladders and fighting off more turrets and some robots. I checked the map on my PipBuck every so often, the floor we were heading to was just a little below where DJ Pon3 broadcast, so we still had a little ways to go.

I kept thinking about Scootaloo and what was going on in Manehattan. More than that, I was thinking about how far I had come from just a mare who ran away from her home Stable to save her unborn child. Scootaloo made that possible, but it was also all the things I had experienced while I was out here in the Wasteland.

It was weird but I kind of had the Enclave to thank for that, if they hadn't made their move, I wouldn't have had a chance to meet Scootaloo and do all of this. I'd have probably spent the rest of my life in Reino just wasting away and being used as a sex object by mare after mare.

Now I had the chance I needed to be what I wanted to be, I wasn't even really sure what I wanted to be. There was always Crusader Town though, I vowed that if Scootaloo didn't make it I would make sure that the town was finished for her.

But I couldn't think about that, Scootaloo was going to make it out of this, we were going to make sure of it.

"Hey Cherry, are you feeling okay?" Arc asked as she looked back at me. "You've been quiet for the last few floors."

"Right, sorry," I said with a sigh. "How close are we now?"

"We're just a couple of floors away now," Arc said as she looked over at Riva who was looking through her bags for something. "We, have a bit of a problem right now."

"What do you..." I started to ask and looked up, the next ladder was stuck a good ways up the wall. "Oh, yeah, that would definitely do it... what's the plan then?"

"I think Riva has something that can get it down, my telekinesis can't get that far away," Arc said with a sigh as Riva finally came out with a long piece of rope attached to a hook. "Well, it seems the Viatorem are really prepared."

"Yeah, it'll certainly come in handy though," I said with a nod and looked at Riva who had taken the rope in her mouth and was getting ready to twirl it around so we got out of the way.

The Zebra was actually really good with this, I could never imagine trying to do this with just my mouth. She threw it as hard as she could and it secured itself on the ladder and she smiled at us with the rope in her mouth and pulled it down.

I cringed a little at the sound of the ladder scraping against the wall as it was pulled down. I was afraid that somepony would hear the sound above us. Thankfully though the ladder came to a stop without drawing any attention.

"Come on, lets go," Arc said as we started climbing up the ladder.

The climb was quiet, none of us dared make a sound as we climbed rung by rung. This one wasn't as in as much disrepair as the one we had climbed up in the Ministry of Awesome hub but we were still careful all the same.

It was hard to believe that we had made it this far without any real problems. Sure we had run into a few robots but none of them really caused any problems. The Enclave only had so many resources to go around, that probably included robots as well.

The ladder felt like it was going forever, I had no idea how much longer this was going to take and it made me uneasy. Every minute was one more minute that Scootaloo was still lying unconscious in the medical bay and not having the surgery she needed done on her organs.

"We're almost there," Arc said from above me, which finally broke the silence. "I can see the top from here. We're going to be just fine."

"Good, I don't like being stuck like this," I said as I stepped on another rung and kept climbing.

I was about to climb the next rung and I nearly got a muzzle full of Arc Light's flank. She had stopped close to the top for some reason and looked down at me and Riva and whispered. "There's a large robot guarding the door..."

Well, it seemed that our easy trip just came to an end, just our luck.

"What's the plan?" I whispered back to her, the stealth cloaks weren't going to help because the robot would probably see us coming.

Arc paused for a long moment, this wasn't a good place to be in the middle of a fight but we didn't really have much of a choice. The problem was that only Arc was really capable of fighting given that she was at the top of the ladder.

"I have an idea, go back down about 10 feet and then hold on tight," Arc said and I nodded before gesturing down to Riva as if telling her to move down, she nodded and started moving down slowly while I did the same.

There was a tense moment as an orange light was seen above us and Arc levitated her rifle out of its holster. I closed my eyes and held on tightly to the ladder as Arc prepared to attack the robot above.

There was the sound of gunfire followed by a rushing sound and more gunfire. Then all of a sudden something went flying past me and I opened my eyes in time to see a large robot impact the floor below and explode.

"Climb?" Riva said in her broken Equestrian.

"Climb," I said with a nod as we started climbing again, we knew that the Enclave was going to hear that and we had to get out of here as fast as possible. This time we didn't have time to be careful, Arc had already made it over the ladder and helped the two of us up as we reached the top.

"That was crazy," I said breathing heavily. "What in Celestia's name was that thing?"

"I don't know, but its destroyed now," Arc said as she helped Riva get over the top of the ladder. "How far are we from the storage room?"

I checked the map on my PipBuck. "Not far, but we have to hope the Enclave doesn't stop us on the way there."

Arc nodded and we headed back out into Tenpony Tower proper.

Me and Riva put on the stealth cloaks while Arc turned on another Stealthbuck, we weren't going to risk getting caught here but we had to be careful. There were guards and soldiers making their way around the halls that we had to navigate our way around as we headed towards the storage room.

As we rounded a corner we ducked into an alcove when we spotted who was outside of the storage room. President Winter Breeze was standing there as if waiting for somepony, we could get a good look at what was going on.

When the door opened two ponies walked out, the first one was a Unicorn stallion with a faded yellow coat and a grey mane with a terminal as a cutie mark. The other pony was a grey Pegasus mare with a medium length purple mane, they were both dressed in white lab coats.

"Did you have any luck?" Winter asked as she looked at the two scientist ponies.

"I'm afraid not Madam President," the mare said with a shake of her head. "We were hoping that we could find some answers as to how to repair Celestia One here, but there's nothing."

These were the ponies that had been put in charge of repairing Celestia One? That answered a lot actually, that might at least give us some clues as to where to go from here, if we could talk to them we might be able to stop them from repairing the Megaspell.

"This isn't good," Winter Breeze said with a sigh. "Our position in Manehattan only is as strong as it is because we have the threat of being able to repair Celestia One. Is there any way we can get it working again?"

"Maybe, but we're going to have to take the system offline to even get close," the stallion said with a shake of his head. "With all due respect madam president, we may have to go back to the original plan, and that's even if we'll be able to access it."

"Don't worry about accessing it, I already have a team getting ready for Stable 26 and hunting for the locations of 68 and 97," Winter Breeze said with a shake of her head. "As for the, extra security measures, that is nothing to be concerned about."

Extra security measures? What was she talking about, we knew about the keys but what else could there be? This had to be about what Scootaloo was afraid of, and if there was some sort of extra security that the Enclave could get around, that worried me, a lot.

I didn't know what they were trying to find but Scootaloo clearly did and it scared her. The Enclave had been willing to go after Stables and use resources to get access to it, that made it dangerous.

"So what do we do now?" The mare asked.

"Morning Glory, I want you to finish up here then head back to Thunderhead," Winter Breeze said with a nod. "If we can't get Celestia One working again I want that Stable opened so we can use Zeta instead."

"What about me?" The stallion asked.

"If you can't find the equipment that was removed here, get a search team together and go through the tower room by room," Winter said as she looked at the stallion again. "Hard Drive, I know this isn't an easy task and you and your team have been working hard but this will all be worth it. This is how we will secure Equestria, and a future for our children."

The two ponies nodded in agreement, it took me a moment to realize that she had called the stallion Hard Drive. Well, that was one question answered at least, we knew who we were looking for.

"I'll take another look in here before we make a decision," he said and opened the doors up before heading back inside the storage room.

"What about Scootaloo and her friends?" Morning Glory said as she looked at Winter Breeze again. "They're not part of the NCR, so they're not exactly bound by their ultimatum, they may have already entered the tower."

"I suspect they have, in fact I suspect they were the ones who stopped the attack on my life before," Winter Breeze said.
"Wait, why would they do that?" Morning Glory asked, she seemed a bit surprised at the idea, I didn't blame her. "How do you even know it was them?"

"We have the settlements locked down along with all the entrances, you'd have to be clever to get into this and be interested in stopping such an act," Winter Breeze said with a shake of her head. "Scootaloo is smart and sentimental, she would be the only enemy agent willing to save my life and infiltrate the city."

"You don't think she knows about..."

"No, my agent close to her confirmed that she doesn't know about that, we'll worry about it when the time comes," Winter Breeze said as the two Pegasi walked off down the hall.

We stepped out of the alcove and paused, that confirmed it, Winter Breeze did have a spy and they were close enough to know some big secret they didn't want Scootaloo to know. I was worried about that, what exactly did she want to keep hidden and why?

I sighed and we headed towards the door, it was locked of course but Riva quickly got it unlocked. It was time to get the equipment we needed to save Scootaloo's life, and hopefully a pony to help do it.

The storage room was fairly decently sized with neat piles of equipment that was lined up on the wall. We lowered our hoods once we we sure that there was no guards in the storage room, just Hard Drive who was going through some of the inventory.

We quietly approached him and Arc Light drew her rifle before clearing her throat.

"Look, I'm still trying to find..." Hard Dive started to say before he turned around and saw us. "What the... who are you?"

"We're not here to hurt you," I said as Arc held her rifle on the Unicorn stallion. "You're the cybernetics expert that came to Tenpony Tower a few weeks ago, right?"

"Uh, yes, that would be me," he said with a gulp as he looked at the large rifle aimed right at his head. "Why do you ask?"

"We need your help with something, there's a pony downstairs who needs surgery and she has cybernetics that the doctor isn't familiar with," Arc said as she glared at the Unicorn hard. "You're going to help us or you'll get a bullet between the eyes."

"Why me?"

"Because we're hoping you can help us, if you help then you get to live long enough to see your President's future, got it?" I said, it was less a question and more a threat and Hard Drive got the message. "What do you say?"

"Do I have a choice?" Hard Drive asked and paused a moment. "Are they bio-mechanical organs?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" I asked as I looked at him strangely.

"I know the Doctor her, he'd know how to repair anything else," Hard Drive said with a shake of his head. "Alright, but we'll need some equipment to..."

"Yeah, we already know, we're here to find it," I said as we started to look around the storage room. "So, I can't say I've met very many Unicorns working for the Enclave, what's your story?"

"I'm here for my family," Hard Drive said as he looked around. "They live in Thunderhead and are just trying to live their lives. Winter Breeze asked for my help with these projects, and you don't say no to the President of the Enclave if you know what's good for you."

"Why's that?" Arc asked as she looked over at Hard Drive.

"The President she's... dangerous, she seems to have the best of intentions but she more often than not will use whatever she can to get you to work for her," Hard Drive said with a shake of his head. "The only reason I'm even agreeing to do this is because I'm a scientist and a doctor first and a life is on the line. If this gets bad, I will not help you anymore, do you understand?"

"Perfectly," I said with a groan as we found the last of the equipment. "Is this everything?"

"Yeah," he said and then turned back to look at me again. "Your friend who needs surgery, its Scootaloo isn't it? Don't look so surprised, I've seen your pictures, since she's not with you I assume that she's the one injured."

"Does it matter if it is?" I asked. "Why does the Enclave even care so much about her? I thought she was just a traitor to you."

"You'd have to ask the President that one," Hard Drive said as he looked at us again. "You three might want to go invisible again, I don't think I can explain your presence. We're going to the Followers of the Apocalypse clinic a few levels below the entrance right?"

I nodded as we turned invisible again, it was time to get going once more. I breathed a sigh of relief, even if we didn't know all the reasons why we at least had the help we needed.

I just hoped it would be enough.

The trip back to the clinic was uneventful, we kept an eye on Hard Drive to make sure he wasn't doing anything to warn the Enclave but he didn't even stop to talk to anypony along the way.

My mind kept going back to Scootaloo, no matter how much I tried I couldn't stop thinking about her. At this point I was just glad that she had a chance, but I had no idea how long it would take for everything to be done. Then there was the lingering question of what Winter Breeze's game was and why she was so interested in Scootaloo.

Maybe it was because she wanted to discredit the Dashites. Since Scootaloo was the first Dashite, if she renounced the whole thing and supported the Enclave that would damage the whole concept. I didn't think that she'd do that of course, Scootaloo was a good pony and would never even consider doing such a thing.

Was there something more to Winter Breeze's interest in her though? Upstairs they ad mentioned that there was something that they wanted to know if Scootaloo had any knowledge of, something that only Winter Breeze and that mare Morning Glory seemed aware of.

I hated dealing with secrets, there was no way of knowing what the real plan was here until it was probably too late.

When we entered the clinic Focus and Life Bloom tensed up a moment before we lowered our hoods and Arc turned off her StealthBuck, they breathed a sigh of relief at that.

"Did you have any problems getting these?" Life Bloom asked as we took out the equipment they required.

"No, we didn't have any trouble," I said with a nod as we got out the rest of it. "Hard Drive here is willing to help, we just have to let him go afterwords."

"Fine," Focus said as Life Bloom took the equipment into the back. "But we'll be keeping a close eye on you."

"Understood," Hard Drive said a little nervously as he gave him a nod.

"I was wondering something, do you know anything about that mare who was with you upstairs?" I asked as I looked over at Hard Drive. "Morning Glory?"

"Wait, Morning Glory was here?" Focus asked. "Grey Pegasus mare with a purple mane?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Interesting, I didn't know she was back with the Enclave... the way I've heard it she was involved with the incident in Hoofington years ago somehow," Focus said and shook his head. "I think she traveled with Blackjack, but I don't know all the details."

Blackjack, it felt like that name should be familiar somehow but I couldn't remember from where. Well we didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it as Life Bloom came back into the room.

"Okay, we're all set up in here," he said and gave Hard Drive a nod. "She's awake for a few minutes if you want to say anything to her before we start."

"Go ahead," Arc said as she looked at me with a nod.

"Okay," I said and headed into the prep room.

"Hey Cherry, did you go ahead and win the war while I was asleep?" Scootaloo asked as she lifted her head and gave me a smile.

"I wish, Scoots," I said with a chuckle as I took her hoof in mine. "I'm just glad you're okay, I've been worried sick about you."

"Thanks," Scootaloo said as she smiled up at me tiredly. "I'll be okay, the doc said this'll be an easy procedure now that he has everything he needs."

I paused a moment as I looked down at the Pegasus mare. There was so much I wanted to tell her but I didn't know how to, I didn't even know how she'd react if I did, but I was still afraid this might be the last chance I'd ever get to tell her the truth.

"Scootaloo, there's something I want to tell you..." I said softly. "Something I should've told you a long time ago, I... have feelings for you, you're the kindest, bravest pony I've ever known, I don't know if you feel the same about me but..."

I was stopped by a pair of lips pressing against my muzzle, Scootaloo was kissing me! She had leaned up from her place on the bed and kissed me on the lips, it felt, really nice, even more than the previous kisses we had shared.

"I feel the same about you Cherry..." She said with a smile after she broke the kiss and laid back down. "I'm glad you finally told me."

"Me too..." I said with a smile. "Now, make sure you..."

I was cut off by a strange beeping sound coming from Scootaloo's gear. I walked over to it and found it was coming from her PipBuck and paused when I read what it said, it was a message from not long ago that had been missed for obvious reasons.

"PRIORITY ALERT, FACILITY S1-B."

"What is it?" Scootaloo asked as she looked over at me.

"There's some sort of alert coming from S1-B," I said and walked over with the PipBuck and gave it to her. "What do you think its about this time?"

"I don't know, lets see," Scootaloo said as she hit a few commands on her PipBuck.

"EMERGENCY EXIT OPEN. DO YOU WANT TO ACTIVATE PLAYBACK ON SECURITY FOOTAGE?"

"Emergency exit?" I asked as I looked at Scootaloo.

"Some facilities, not the usual Stables, were set up with secondary exits, I guess S1-B is one of them," Scootaloo commented. "This might be related to those pods the reading mentioned before."

"How is it connected to your PipBuck?"

"Its an emergency signal, it must be wired to connect to it I guess," she said and input

There was a brief moment where the screen was just blank before it showed a hallway in some sort of facility that I didn't recognize. I was a little curious as I looked over her shoulder to see what was going on.

A pony was walking down the hallway towards a doorway at the far end. I didn't recognize her, but she was a Pegasus mare with a messy mane and a cybernetic wing. She was dressed in some sort of uniform that looked a little like an older version of the Enclave uniforms we had seen.

I looked at Scootaloo while I certainly didn't recognize the pony in the video, there was a glimmer of recognition in her face.

"Do you recognize her?" I asked.

"Her name is Gambit, she was one of the Shadowbolts that served with my mother," she said with a sigh. "She was, kind of a fanpony who kind of wanted to be like mom, she didn't really like me that much, I think she kind of saw me as a rival or something. She, kind of wanted to be the next Rainbow Dash and impress her or something."

"I see," I said, I was a bit surprised at this revelation. "So, another pony from before the apocalypse huh?"

"Yeah, figures really, of all the ponies to survive," Scootaloo said with a shake of her head. "Its hard to really describe why, she was always, difficult to deal with even when my memories were messed up. I think she may have been a little jealous, of me and Rainbow, I don't know really."

"So what now?"

"Well, she's free, and we have more important things to deal with, if we cross paths with her we'll worry about it then," Scootaloo said as the video ended and she laid back on the bed. "It'll be okay I'm sure."

I smiled a little and gave Scootaloo another kiss on the muzzle. "Okay, I trust you, just come out of this okay, okay?"

"I promise," Scootaloo said and smiled back at me. "I love you Cherry Blossom."

"I love you too Scootaloo," I said and headed back out of the room.

As the doctors worked on Scootaloo I took a deep breath and looked through the window out at Tenpony Tower. It was late, there was hardly anypony out there except for a few citizens and Enclave guards that were keeping an eye on everypony at the moment.

I wondered when we were going to get more assistance from Applejack's Rangers, they were supposed to be moving into the Tower already but we hadn't heard anything from them since we had arrived here. There wasn't even any word from the Enclave soldiers we had gone past, but that was probably a good sign at least.

That's when I saw something, there were ponies dressed in Enclave Power Armor heading our way, I gulped a little and looked at Arc and Riva. "We've got company coming."

"What's the plan?" Arc asked as Riva tensed up a little.

"Get that desk pushed over, we can use it as cover," I said as we pushed the desk over, the door was locked but that wasn't going to keep the Enclave occupied for long. "Why do you think they're here?"

"I don't know, random search maybe?" Arc suggested and Riva just shrugged.

"At this time of night? No, I think something else is going on," I said as I checked the time on my PipBuck, we had to be ready for anything right now. "How long do you think it'll take them to get that door open?"

"Probably not long, especially if they got the master key or something," Arc said with a shake of her head. "Its what I would do if I was occupying a tower like this, there's probably a way to get into all the rooms just in case there's ever a need to."

Well that was a cheerful thought, thank you for helping make me less nervous Arc, what's next are you going to cut me with a knife and then rub salt in the wound?

A new more disturbing thought occurred to me and I didn't really want to dwell on it, but we didn't have much of a choice at this point.

"Is it possible they know we're in here?"

"I don't know, maybe," Arc said with a shake of her head. "The Enclave may have agents everywhere but it would be hard to get a pony in here. We know Hard Drive didn't give us away, he hasn't been left alone this whole time."

Great, that did nothing but make me even more nervous. We knew with relative certainty that Winter Breeze had an agent close to Scootaloo, was it possible that they were in this room with us? Or at least somehow knew about what we were doing? I had no idea but I was worried no matter what.

There was a knock on the door which made me jump before a commanding voice called out. "This is the Enclave Secret Service, open this door in the name of the President."

"Enclave Secret Service?" I wondered out loud. "Who are they?"

"I have no idea..." Arc muttered as she looked at me for a long moment before turning her attention back to the door and calling out. "What do you want?"

"We've received reports that this clinic is harboring fugitives, if you open this door you will not be harmed," the same voice said from before.

Yeah right, we were the fugitives here and the ponies running the clinic were in the back performing surgery. We took a moment longer than the Enclave clearly wanted because there was a click as the door opened and ponies dressed in Enclave Power Armor came inside.

We tried to fight but were quickly overwhelmed and held there with the Enclave's guns trained on us, there was little point in fighting anyway, we couldn't risk putting Scootaloo in danger.

"Well, this is a surprise," a familiar mare's voice said from the doorway and we all looked up to see Winter Breeze walking into the clinic with several ponies followed behind her including Morning Glory. "I must say when I heard that you four were really in this clinic I had no idea what to think."

"What do you want Winter Breeze?" I said with a tone of defiance in my voice as I looked up at the Enclave's President who looked at me with an amused look on her face.

"Not very grateful to the pony that's come here to help your friend," Winter Breeze said as she chuckled lightly. "We received word from Focus that Scootaloo is in bad shape, so of course I offered the services of my best doctors... in return for you four remaining in the tower and not causing any further issues. Guards, disarm them."

Before we could say anything we had our weapons taken away and then were thoroughly searched by the Enclave guards to make sure that we weren't holding any more weapons. Winter Breeze inspected the weapons and then turned back to look at me.

There was something about this mare, something that I couldn't place my hoof on but she seemed, almost familiar to me, not because of her voice mind you, there was just something about the way she carried herself that felt familiar to me.

"Well, I'm a mare of my word, so the four of you will be allowed to live in Tenpony Tower so long as you follow our laws," she said as she looked each of us over and nodded to Morning Glory and the other ponies who headed into the back.

"Why did Focus turn us in? Is he one of your agents?"

"Nothing of the sort, he's just a doctor who didn't want to lose a patient, it seems our mutual friend's condition doesn't look good," Winter Breeze said with a sigh as she took a seat.

"Why do you care, she's just another Dashite isn't she?" I asked, which made Winter Breeze cringe a little, that was odd, why did she react like that?

"Something you would understand Cherry Blossom, but that is none of your business," Winter Breeze said as she looked at me for a long moment. "You've been living in the Wasteland for a few months now but you still have a lot to learn about what life is like out here."

What did she mean by that? Something about this whole conversation felt weird, it was like Winter Breeze was telling me things but at the same time not telling me them. I wasn't sure what to make of her really, she wasn't just some despotic ruler like I had heard of Red Eye or the Crimson Empire, she was playing some sort of long game here in Equestria and I wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Does everypony have to be so cryptic? Is it like a rule that Pegasi can't give a straight answer? You're almost as bad as Scootaloo," Arc said with a groan. "Why can't you just give a straight answer?"

Winter Breeze actually paused for a long moment at that as if she was considering Arc's words. She shook her head and got back to her hooves.

"I'll take my leave of you then," she said as she headed out the door to the clinic.

"She's, strange, I don't know why she'd even be interested in saving Scootaloo," I commented with a sigh as I watched her go. "I don't get it, why is the President of the Enclave so interested in helping the first Dashite?"

"I don't know either," Arc said and we looked over at Riva who just shrugged a little. "So what's the plan right now then?"

I paused for a long moment, I honestly had no idea what we were going to do now. Scootaloo was still in surgery in the back and even with the Enclave helping I had no idea what to do. I checked the time on my PipBuck, it was getting late and I was honestly more worried than anything else.

"You two try to sleep, I'm just gonna stay up awhile longer," I finally said. "I want to be here when they finish."

"Okay Cherry, just try and get some sleep," Arc said worriedly as she and Riva went to the room that they had said we could sleep in.

I sighed and sat back in my chair, I just hoped everything would be okay.

I must've drifted off to sleep at some point that night because I found myself dreaming of my life back in Stable 48. I don't think I have to tell you exactly what my dream was about, it was a weird dream to say the least and not one I'm going to bother repeating.

I found myself being shaken awake by a pair of hooves and woke up to see the face of a grey Pegasus looking at me as she tried to wake me up. "Hey, are you awake?"

"I am now," I said with a yawn, it took me a moment to recognize her as Morning Glory. "Wait, you're here, what happened? Is Scootaloo okay?"

"Don't worry, she'll be just fine," Morning Glory said with a smile as she gave me a nod. "It was really touch and go for a bit there, but we got the damage to her bio-mechanical parts repaired."

"Oh thank the Goddesses I said with a smile as I shook her hoof. "Thank you Doctor, thank you so much."

"You're welcome," she said with a smile as I got to my hooves and cringed a little as the foal decided to take that moment to become active again. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, the little one just decided to become active is all," I said with a shrug.

"Oh, how far along are you?"

"Almost seven months," I said as I shifted a little. "Do you think everything will be okay?"

"You should be fine, do you mind if I give you a quick check up?" Morning Glory offered. "Its no big deal really and I want to be sure your foal is okay."

"Okay," I said and she lead me back into one of the rooms in the clinic. "So, how long have you been a medical doctor?"

"Awhile now, I used to be part of a special group in the Enclave called the Volunteer Corps out in Hoofington," she said as she took out a small device as I laid down on the bed and she ran it over my stomach gently. "Then, well its a long story really."

"I heard you were involved in what happened in Hoofington," I said and she flinched a little at that. "What happened?"

"I traveled around with Blackjack, she and I, we were close to each other," she said with a sigh. "Then Lighthooves tried to destroy the Enclave and Blackjack took him out but, it cost her her life. After that I kind of wound up wandering around a bit until I wound up crossing paths with another group of Enclave ponies."

"Wait, are you a Dashite? I mean, that's usually what happens when Pegasi leave the Enclave right?" I asked as I looked at the mare's flank, she sighed and lifted her lab coat to reveal the Dashite brand in place of her cutie mark.

"A little gift from Lighthooves," she said with a shake of her head. "He branded me a Dashite and I became a pariah among my own kin. I was surprised when Winter Breeze made me an offer though, she offered me a chance to make the Enclave better, to change things in Equestria for the better. So when I took it, I became her Chief Science adviser, and since then I've been doing my best to help whoever I can."

"Which is why you agreed to help Scootaloo," I said as I nodded in understanding. "Have you ever considered changing sides back?"

Morning Glory paused for a long moment, she actually seemed to be considering what I had to say but she didn't seem to be sure about what to do. I could understand where she was coming from, but I was getting the feeling that she didn't really have much of a choice in the matter.

"I'm sorry Cherry, I can't," she finally said with a shake of her head as she lowered the scanning device. "Your filly is perfectly healthy, there doesn't seem to be any averse effects from what you've been doing. She's strong, just like her mother."

I smiled a little at that, I placed a hoof on my belly, it was good to know that she was going to be okay at least. The same for Scootaloo, we now had a chance at being a family again, all three of us.

"Would you like to see an image of her?" Morning Glory offered.

"You can do that?"

"Yeah, this device allows you to see the growing foal," she said and showed it to me.

I smiled a little as I saw the image of the small pony on the screen. I saw what looked like a horn poking out and smiled a little, I was carrying a Unicorn filly like her Dad. That was going to take some getting used to, maybe Arc could help us too, but we had a long time to go before she was ready.

"Well, if there's nothing else my work is done here," Morning Glory said as she put her equipment away again. "If there are any more problems please let us know and we'll be right here."

"Thank you, but I'm sure everything will be okay," I said with a nod, I just had to hope that we wouldn't need any more help from the Enclave in this, we did still have to drive them out.

"Of course," Morning Glory said before heading out of the clinic finally.

I breathed a sigh of relief, Scootaloo was going to be okay and we were one step closer to finishing our goal of getting the Enclave out of the Tower. I just had to hope that everything would be okay.

I finally fell asleep in the chair in Scootaloo's recovery room in the clinic. I smiled a little at the sleeping Pegasus, she looked so peaceful that it felt like everything was finally going our way.

When my eyes opened again I was surprised to find myself in bed in what looked like a makeshift house. I rolled over to see a familiar orange Pegasus laying next to me with a peaceful look on her face, looking around it seemed to me that I was in some sort of house with a small crib against the wall.

I smiled a little as I snuggled up to Scootaloo and closed my eyes, I just wanted to enjoy the moment for as long as it lasted.

"Mmm, good morning Cherry," a familiar voice said and I opened my eyes to see Scootaloo looking up at me. "How'd you sleep?"

"Pretty well," I said and nuzzled her gently, this wasn't the first time I had this kind of dream but it felt, nice this time, like I was finally where I wanted to be. "Its good to be able to relax, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah," she said and nuzzled me. "It took a lot of work to get this town up and running but its here and its ours, all of ours."
I smiled and we got up and trotted over to the crib where a small Unicorn filly was sleeping. I smiled and picked her up gently as I smiled down at my sleeping daughter. It was weird, I couldn't really make out her coat or anything, probably because I didn't really know what she'd look like, but still, it was nice.

"We've still got a long way to go before Equestria is really ready," I said as the filly opened her eyes and stared up at me and cooed gently. "We'll make sure that we build that future for you."

"And everypony else," Scootaloo finished and we shared a long kiss, it was a wonderful sensation and I wished that it would never end.

LEVEL UP!
Perk Received: Guardian Angel.
Details: You've proven yourself willing to stay by your friends through even the hardest of times. You gain an extra boost to damage when you're fighting along side your friends.