Hey everypony, Scootaloo back in charge of the narration again, Cherry did a good job last time but I wanted to finish this story myself. Its funny really, you never really think about everything that happens while you're unconscious, and I didn't even know some of that.

I woke up the next morning to see Cherry sleeping in the chair next to my bed. It was hard to believe that we had both admitted our feelings for each other just the day before, after Sky Walker I wasn't even sure if I ever would find love again, but Cherry was an amazing pony and I didn't really have any regrets about it.

I looked down at my chest, there was a scar where they had operated but it was barely noticeable. Well that was one less thing to worry about, and the more I thought about it, the more I wondered just how much these new organs had done for me. My endurance had been increased considerably, it was probably part of the reason I could use the speed enhancement so effortlessly. Then there was always the risk of diseases or something, I don't think I had even gotten sick since I had woken up.

If these were keeping me alive, then that meant that in her own way Rainbow Dash was protecting me from beyond the grave.

"Hey, you're awake," Cherry said and I turned to see the Earth Pony mare stretching out as she woke up and she gave me a smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Not too bad," I said as I sat up a little, there wasn't any pain from the movement, though I felt a little stiff. "Did everything go okay with the surgery?"

"Well, umm..." Cherry said as she rubbed her foreleg a little. "About that..."

"What happened?" I asked as I looked at the mare, she was worrying me and I wasn't sure I wanted to know what had happened.

"Well, see, you were in pretty bad shape so they had to call in some, extra help," Cherry said as she looked down at her hooves.

"Wait, what kind of help?" I asked and Cherry looked uncomfortable for a moment. "Cherry, who did you call to help with the surgery?"

"We, kinda had to get the Enclave to come help," she finally admitted and my eyes went wide. "You were going to die if we didn't! I didn't like it either but Winter Breeze sent her chief science adviser and she helped finish it, I swear, that's all that happened."

I groaned and laid back on the bed again, I didn't like that they had to do this, especially because it now meant the Enclave knew we were here in Tenpony Tower. The fact that we hadn't just been arrested might be a good sign, but I wasn't sure really, there was still ways we could win this, I hoped so at least.

I looked up at Cherry and leaned over and took her hoof in mine. "Its okay Cherry, we'll be just fine," I said with a smile as I gave her hoof a squeeze. "So did anything interesting happen?"

"Well, Winter Breeze herself showed up with the doctors," Cherry said and I blinked a little. "I talked with her a little while she was here, she was... not quite what I expected. I don't really know what's going on, but she seemed to be strangely interested in you for some reason."

I blinked a little, honestly I wasn't sure what to make of that at all, why would the President of the Enclave be interested in me? Winter Breeze's behavior had been strange ever since I had first talked to her back in Stable 122. I just kept wondering if maybe she really was just trying to do what she claimed to do as weird as it was, but why would she be interested in me?

I knew I needed answers, the only place I could find them was from Winter Breeze herself, we were going to drive her out of this tower and that was that.

"How's the little one?" I asked as I looked down at Cherry's stomach with a smile, right now that was the only thing I really wanted to focus on.

"She's doing fine, Morning Glory one of the ponies that helped with you gave me a quick check up after she was done with you," Cherry said as she placed a hoof on her belly. "Apparently she's going to be a Unicorn, its hard to believe, just four months away."

"Don't worry Cherry, you'll..." I started to say then caught myself and smiled. "We'll do fine raising her once she gets here."
Cherry smiled at me and she kissed me softly on the lips, I relaxed a little into the kiss and just enjoyed it. It was a weird feeling being with another pony again, but I wasn't complaining it felt, really nice.

"Well its about time," a familiar voice said from the entrance to the room which ruined the moment, we turned to see Arc and Riva watching us. "I thought you two would never stop denying your feelings for one another."

"Is this really necessary?" I asked with a groan as I wrapped my forelegs around Cherry gently. "I just underwent surgery, do you have to keep teasing me about my love life?"

Arc just laughed and shook her head. "Scootaloo, you misunderstand, I'm happy for you two," she finally said and gave Riva a nod. "You two haven't exactly been subtle about the way you feel about each other, I'm glad you finally decided to get together."

That actually was pretty nice of Arc and made a lot more sense to me, I gave Cherry a smile and nuzzled her gently. This was nice, I had my friends and a mare who loved me no matter what, things were finally starting to look my way.
I just had to hope that everything would be okay, we still had the Enclave to defeat after all.

"So fill me in on everything I missed," I said and sat back as I listened to Arc and Cherry talk about what had happened while I was under sedation.

Some of it worried me a bit, but at least the Enclave didn't seem to have the Celestia One Megaspell working again, that was a good sign. The fact that they were sending teams to find the other keys however was troubling to me, it meant that they hadn't given up on Protocol Zeta yet and that would be dangerous especially if they managed to get it working.

Then there was the matter of the secret that Winter Breeze had mentioned while they were spying on her, that really worried me because it might be a clue to what her real game was. What kind of secret was it that she wanted to be certain that I didn't know about? I didn't like not knowing this stuff, and I especially didn't like knowing that I didn't know it, it was like Winter Breeze was dangling this secret in front of my face and laughing when I tried to figure it out.

"Do you have any thoughts on what she might've meant by that secret?" I asked as I looked between my friends who just shook their heads.

"Honestly I have no idea, but I think its got something to do with those keys," Cherry said and Arc nodded in agreement. "She also mentioned something about security systems that she would be able to work around somehow, but I don't know what she meant by that."

I knew exactly what she meant by that, Protocol Zeta had two security systems keeping it from being accessed, only one of them was connected to the keys. The other one was made so only certain ponies could even access it, and that was the one that worried me more right now.

If Winter Breeze could work around that, she would have no problem accessing Protocol Zeta. Now, we had to figure out how she was going to get access to it, and make sure that she wasn't able to before it was too late.

"So how are you feeling Scootaloo?" The doctor for the clinic, Life Bloom I finally learned his name was, asked as he checked me over. "Your organs aren't giving you any more trouble are they?"

"Nope, I feel just fine," I said with a shrug as I sat up on the bed.

"Well, normally I'd say you need to spend some time recuperating but you seem to be well enough for it to only last a few hours," Life Bloom said as he finished his work. "You're in good shape for a mare who just got shot in the lung yesterday, I'd say its nothing short of a miracle that you made it out alive, I'd thank whoever had those pods made."

"Yeah... that would be my mom," I said with a smile. "She ordered them built during the war, I guess she's still helping me out from beyond the grave huh?"

"Seems like it," Life Bloom said as he checked my breathing. "Take it easy for a few hours at least, and hope the Enclave doesn't decide to make another visit given what you plan to do."

"Yeah, I know," I said and shook my head, I didn't have a lot of time to recuperate, we were now on day four of the deadline and it was hard to tell how much longer this was going to take before we could get the Enclave driven out of the Tower and Manehattan.

"Did you talk to the other citizens that are against the Enclave, do we have their support?" I asked.

"We have what support they're willing to give us but they're worried about what's been going on, I don't blame them," Life Bloom said with a sigh. "Do you really think we'll get some more allies soon?"

"I know we will, I've got ponies trying to make their way into the Tower now, we just have to wait for them," I said with a sigh. "Lets just hope they make it here soon."

Life Bloom nodded and finished up before he let me move, I got to my hooves and walked back out into the entry area of the clinic where my friends were waiting.

"So, looks like you're okay," Cherry Blossom said with a smile as I sat down next to her. "Now we just have to wait for our help to arrive."

"Yeah, lets hope it gets here soon," I said with a sigh as I wrapped my wing around the pink Earth Pony mare gently and nuzzled her. "I'm just nervous is all, do you think we'll be able to pull this off? And we still have to get our weapons back from the Enclave."

"We'll figure something out," Arc said with a sigh as she checked her PipBuck. "Nova and her team should hopefully be here soon, we just have to wait."

I nodded and closed my eyes, I hoped this wouldn't take much longer but if we had to wait, we had to wait. There wasn't much point in complaining about it, so we just sat back and relaxed while we figured out what our next move was going to be.

"Hello Manehattan, this is your President speaking once more," Winter Breeze's voice said over the radio awhile later as we groaned a little and looked at our PipBucks. "As a nation we stand at the crossroads of history. One path will lead us back to chaos and corruption, and the other will bring us to a bright future that we can all enjoy without fear of the horrors of the Wasteland that was once a great nation. As your President, it is my duty to lead us all down that path, but it is filled with danger and ponies that would rather see us all fail than succeed. My dear Equestria, we are waiting for our chance as a nation to take our future back from those that would use it for their own power. I am a mare of my word after all, and I will ensure that every one of you is able to live happy lives. Just yesterday, we helped secure part of that future, we will not allow the forces of corruption to plunge us back into anarchy. This is President Winter Breeze, signing off."

"She's still laying it on a bit thick," I said with a sigh as the speech finished. "I still honestly don't know what to make of her."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Cherry said as she looked up at me with a sigh. "I was kind of hoping that we could somehow reach her yesterday when she came to the clinic, but no such luck."

I nodded in understanding, sometimes the magic of friendship wasn't enough, sometimes we had to fight for what needed to be done. Maybe Winter Breeze could be reasoned with, but right now wasn't the time, we still had to make sure that the Enclave was stopped here, preferably with minimal casualties on our side if we had to rely on civilians.

Then again, in this war, who was a civilian anymore? This affected ponies everywhere even if they weren't soldiers, heck none of us were soldiers, we were an odd bunch to say the least. A Stable Engineer, a Breeder, a Diplomat from the Zebra Lands, and me, the former Vice President of Stable-Tec.

But fate had put the future of Equestria in our hooves and we weren't going to let it down.

The door finally opened and two ponies dressed in wastelander gear with hoods pulled over their faces walked inside. They gave Life Bloom a nod and he shut the door after a moment and closed the blinds to the clinic.

"I'm glad you're alive Scootaloo," one of the ponies said before lowering her hood to reveal Velvet Remedy who gave me a smile. "We've had a bit of a trek getting in here, I'm glad we made it in alright."

"How'd you get in anyway?" Arc asked curiously.

"Being the leader of the Followers of the Apocalypse still opens a few doors in Manehattan," Velvet said with a nod. "The Enclave considers us a neutral party thankfully, so they allowed us into the tower."

"Which of course was exactly what we needed," the other hooded pony said and lowered her hood to reveal a white Earth Pony mare with a short blue mane. "I'm Paladin Gear Shift from Applejack's Rangers, I came with her because I'm the least recognizable member of the squad."

With that several StealthBucks turned off as more Ponies dressed in Applejack's Ranger armor materialized, I breathed a sigh of relief, our help had arrived. I nodded to Nova who was once again in her armor and gave her a smile, this was exactly what we needed.

"Was it hard to get all of you in here?"

"It wasn't too hard, we managed to get it in by moving behind a large wagon," Nova said with a nod. "That way they wouldn't accidentally touch us."

"That's clever," I said with a nod. "We've got some assistance from the inhabitants of Tenpony Tower, I just hope it'll be enough."

Nova nodded and we moved into the back rooms again, we didn't want to risk the Enclave showing up again and interrupting our operation. I still felt a little stiff but I wasn't going to let that stop me from joining this fight, the Enclave wasn't going to hold Manehattan for very much longer.

"At the moment Nomad City and the Typhon are holding back from starting an assault on Manehattan as long as there is a risk of them being able to use Celestia One," Nova said as she laid out a map of Manehattan on the table. "We spent yesterday making contact with the various Settlements around the city to get more allies. We have enough allies that we should be able to push the Enclave out of the city proper, but if they still hold the tower we'll be right back where we started."

I sighed as I looked over the map, there were settlements marked around the city that may at least give us the advantage. We did have one advantage, the Enclave had more limited numbers, probably because of what had happened, I just had to hope that we'd be able to get this figured out.

"Okay, so then we need a plan," I said as we laid out the map of Tenpony Tower on the table next to it. "Based on the information we got from Cherry and Arc, Winter Breeze occupies the higher floors of the tower, that's likely where they're holding Xiraia and the others as well."

"Do we know where the parts taken from Celestia One are?" Arc asked she looked at Focus and Life Bloom who just shook their heads. "That figures."

"Sorry, when the Enclave attacked several ponies grabbed the equipment and hid them so that the Enclave couldn't use the weapon," Life Bloom said with a shake of his head. "It was the contingency plan for such an event, I don't even know who took the parts."

"Well, at least that means the Enclave won't be able to use it right now, that's a good sign at least, we just have to hope they don't find them," Gear Shift said as she looked over the maps for a long moment. "How many ponies do we have on our side in the Tower?"

"Probably not enough to take on the Enclave in a fair fight," Life Bloom said with a sigh. "So we're going to have to be clever."

"We do have one advantage," Cherry said and we all looked over at her. "The Enclave knows we're here now, that means they won't notice if we move around the Tower. That could give us better access to things."

I nodded as we looked over the map again, it was time to figure out our plan, I just had to hope that we'd be able to do this soon enough.

Three days were left before the deadline, and time was really starting to run out, and we didn't know how much more time we really had.

I made my way back out of the clinic with my friends close behind as I sighed a little. We needed to make sure we had everything ready before it was time to fight the Enclave right now, and right now that meant I had to go talk to some of the ponies living in the Tower that would be helping us.

We went past several Enclave soldiers but they didn't really pay us any attention. I adjusted my hat as we kept walking around. At least they seemed to be right about one thing, the Enclave had no real interest in bothering us since they assumed we were compliant.

Cherry seemed more curious about the tower than anything else, this was the first time she had come here and she hadn't really had a chance to explore before given she was more focused on helping me. I smiled a little as we entered a bookstore and she looked around at the various books curiously.

"Are you interested in buying anything?" The shop owner asked as we looked up, a light green Unicorn mare with a short pink mane with a cutie mark of an open book gave us a smile.

"Oh, uh sure," I said as I looked around at the books, I frowned a little because it looked like a lot of them had been taken away and most of what was left looked like pretty ordinary history books, and what looked like some sort of biography. "Do you have anything other than what's here?"

"No, the Enclave has confiscated most of my books," the owner said with a shake of her head. "But there's not a lot we can do about it you know?"

I glanced behind me to see a pair of Enclave soldiers heading out of the store. We exchanged a look with the owner and she nodded before leading us into the back once we were sure that everything was clear.

"Thank Celestia you're all here, we've been waiting for the NCR or anypony to send us help since the occupation began," she said with a sigh as she locked the door. "How many ponies did you bring with you to take back the Tower?"

"Well, uh, honestly not very many," I said as I rubbed the back of my head. "There's the four of us, and a few members of Applejack's Rangers that we managed to sneak into the Tower and that's really about it."

"I really hope you have a plan then because we're outgunned and outnumbered," another pony said as he looked at all of us. "Most ponies in the Tower don't even care, the Enclave is just another government to them. They don't really care as long as it doesn't change their day to day life."

I paused for a long moment, that was definitely a problem but not one that couldn't be dealt with, we were going to have to somehow get the inhabitants of Tenpony Tower to realize that they couldn't just let the Enclave win at this point, but that wasn't going to be easy to do.

"There may be a way," the shop owner said with a sigh, it was obvious that she didn't like what she had to say, but she knew it was the only way to do it. "We have to make the Enclave show their true colors somehow. I know that's not exactly going to be easy, but it may be our only option."

I nodded sadly, that meant the only thing we could do was to play the villain once more. If we were caught though, then we'd all be in big trouble.

"Okay then," I said with a nod as I looked at all of them. "The Enclave needs to be stopped, the ponies of this Tower are our best bet to do so but we have to approach it carefully. Tomorrow we'll strike at the Enclave from inside the tower and take the fight to them, we will take this city back, I swear."

The other ponies nodded in agreement and we dispersed, when the time came I knew we'd be able to count on all of them. I just had to hope that we'd be able to do this.

The rest of the night passed without incident, more ponies were gotten together in preparation for the battle tomorrow and we had a small but pretty decent force.

I spent the night with Cherry Blossom again, not like that, I'm really not sure if either of us are really ready to take that step yet. I don't want Cherry to think I'm just in this relationship for sex, I'm happy with just being with her for now.

The next morning was day 5, we only had two days left before the deadline hit and we had to make sure we got the Enclave out of the Tower and Manehattan before then. I hated that it felt like we were rushing, but at this point we didn't have much of a choice.

"So, where do we go first?" Cherry asked as we got out of bed, there wasn't time for niceties we had to hit the ground running at this point.

"Well, the Enclave probably put more security in the maintenance levels so that's out," I said with a sigh as we walked out into the entry area where Nova and Gear Shift were talking. "So we're going to need a distraction, a good distraction."

"Right, we're working on that now," Nova said as Gear Shift was slipping on the Power Armor that had been smuggled in with the team. "Velvet Remedy and a couple of Knights are moving into position now, we just have to give the signal and they'll create some havoc."

"Good, lets just hope it'll be enough," I said as I looked over the map again, we were going to have to take the most direct route possible and we didn't know the guard schedules for the Enclave on the upper floors, so it was going to be sneaking again.

Where's a cardboard box when you need one?

"Okay then, lets get into position, we'll have to take the stairs up," I said and looked at Arc. "Do we have enough StealthBucks to get us all up to the top floors?"

"Don't worry, we have enough," Arc said with a nod. "We just have to make sure we can stop on occasion to use them sparingly."

Right, we were almost ready for this, but honestly I had no idea exactly what I was going to do when we got up there. As much as I hated to admit it, there was only one real solution to make sure that the NCR and their allies could join in the fight.

We were going to have to take out the Celestia One Megaspell, possibly permanently. It was something that I didn't really want to hesitate on, in all honesty it was too much power for any one nation to have, but at the same time it could've come in handy in the war with the Enclave.

No, we had no choice at this point, Celestia One had to be disabled if we were going to stand any chance at pushing out the Enclave, no matter what that might mean for the future of this war.

"Okay, I've got a plan, how close are Nomad City and the Typhon now?" I asked as I looked at the two Rangers.

"They can be here within an hour, their Vertibucks can be here sooner, they've had to remain outside of Manehattan airspace but they're prepared to enter the fight," Gear Shift said and Nova nodded in agreement. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking we're going to be able to get their help here, at least in theory," I said with a nod as I outlined my plan for them.

My friends and allies all exchanged glances, I could tell that they weren't sure about this. I admit I wasn't sure either, but I knew for certain that it was the only way we were going to be able to do this and come out on top.

"The Twilight Society isn't going to like this," Nova said with a sigh. "But if its the only way we'll be able to get the Enclave out of the city, we're in."

"Okay, then lets get this done," I said as we got our equipment together, we were almost ready to take on the Enclave, we just had to hope that they weren't ready for us.

"You're going to owe me a nice dinner after this you know that right?" Cherry said with a teasing smile as we made our way towards the stairs leading up to the higher levels of the tower.

"I'll definitely give you the best dinner caps can buy in the Wasteland," I said with a chuckle as we passed by several ponies that were heading in the other direction.

Right now it was just me, Cherry, Arc, and Riva who were visible while the Rangers kept their StealthBucks turned on. While we could blend in easily enough, Rangers dressed in full power armor would draw unwanted attention, there was of course one other step to my plan that we had to do but we'd get to that soon enough.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Arc whispered to me as we went past another guard that just eyed us. "The Enclave aren't exactly idiots, they probably have the weapon well guarded."

"Yeah, I know, but we'll manage," I said with a nod as I looked over at Cherry, this wasn't going to be easy on any of us and I didn't like having to risk her unborn foal but at least here she could be where I could see her.

Honestly I was more worried about the guards and what Winter Breeze had planned, there was still the matter of that Alicorn Tornado, if Winter Breeze was here she was no doubt somewhere nearby. I didn't want to have to face off against an Alicorn, especially not Tornado right now.

The thing that still bugged me though was Tornado herself, there was something about her that still bugged me. She felt familiar, but I didn't know how that was even possible. I had to figure it out at some point, but right now wasn't the time to dwell on it.

It was just another mystery for the massive pile of mysteries that was the Enclave, I hated not knowing enough about them right now. Mom once told me that part of any battle was knowing your enemy, and we barely knew anything about the Enclave at this point.

I just had to hope that Tornado wasn't here, or at least wasn't where we were trying to get to.

We reached the stairwell entrance and paused, of course there was guards, the Enclave wasn't stupid enough even if they thought we might not try anything. There was now just the matter of sending a signal to the other teams and I pressed a button on my PipBuck, I just had to hope they hadn't gotten caught.

We got our answer soon after as the tower shuddered from explosions, there was a panic as ponies started to freak out and the door to the upper levels opened and ponies in Enclave Power Armor left to investigate what was going on, that was our cue.

I slipped on my stealth cloak, Cherry did the same and Riva and Arc turned on StealthBucks. We slipped in through the door and were soon on our way up into the upper levels of Tenpony Tower.

Phase two of my plan came when we reached the same floor as the Athenaeum near the top of the tower. I took a deep breath and checked my leg, I had picked up a knife and had it strapped to my leg, it wasn't as nice as the one I had borrowed from Riva before but it got the job done.

I was the only Pegasus in the group so I had to do this next part, we checked the rooms around the floor until we found one where a Pegasus mare about my size was sleeping. She had a suit of Power armor nearby and it was close enough to my size, I just had to deal with her without arousing suspicion.

Thankfully I thought of this too as I took out a syringe with a sedative in it. I approached her and was about to inject her when her eyes shot open, I covered her mouth with my hoof and injected it in as fast as I could, she tried to struggle before relaxing and falling unconscious.

I breathed a sigh of relief and turned to the power armor and started to fit it onto my body.

"Are you sure you have to do this?" Nova asked as I fit the armor over my wings, I wasn't very conspicuous with my coloring so I'd have to wear the full armor to make sure they didn't recognize me.

"Yeah, I'm sure," I said with a sigh as I gave Cherry a lingering kiss before I put the mouthpiece on. "I don't like doing this honestly, it feels a bit dishonest, but we don't have much of a choice."

"Do you think it'll work?" Arc asked as she looked me over. "You don't exactly carry yourself like an Enclave soldier is all I'm saying."

"I know, I know, but I remember watching mom enough I should be able to replicate it a bit," I said with a sigh, this was going to be a tough one but I had faith in myself and my friends. "The rest of you know the plan right?"

"Get in, damage the Megaspell's systems, get a radio message out to the alliance that its safe to attack," Cherry said with a nod. "And you're, what, the distraction while we sneak around invisible?"

"That's the plan," I said with a sigh as I gave the stealth cloak to Riva and fit the two energy rifles into my armor. "Any word on our weapons?"

"We've got a team looking into it now," Nova said as I finished putting the armor on and nodded. "Good luck out there, you're going to need it."

"Thanks," I said as my friends and allies went invisible again, the time had come to execute the final part of my plan, I just had to reach my destination.

We left the room and started along the hall towards where the Megaspell Chamber was. I kept thinking about this, this kind of power really was beyond what most ponies deserved to control, either Enclave or NCR. Maybe taking it out permanently wasn't a bad idea after all, but we needed to try and just disable it first.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the Enclave soldiers didn't even pay me any attention as I went past. It wasn't exactly smart of them to have armor that kept them so protected but I wasn't exactly going to complain about it given the current situation.

When I did draw attention I showed them my papers, they let me through with no real problems, as it turned out I was masquerading as part of Winter Breeze's secret service detail, that was one advantage at least, you don't question them apparently.

I took a deep breath as I approached the door to the megaspell Chamber, I briefly brushed past a grey Pegasus with a purple mane and tail who looked like she was in a hurry but I didn't pay her any attention as I stopped in front of the door.

"Your papers soldier," one of the guards said and held out his hoof as I took the papers out and gave them over, he read them over and eyed me. "Lieutenant your shift wasn't scheduled for a few hours."

"Yes, well, I was called here by the President," I said nervously as I prayed that they would believe the lie. They exchanged a look for a long moment before shrugging and allowing me inside, this was going well, almost too well, it felt like something could go wrong at any moment.

Inside was different than I had expected, I had never really been in a Megaspell Chamber before and it looked like it had been being worked on recently. That's when I realized something, there wasn't anypony actually working on it, that sent a chill down my spine, I was afraid of what that meant.

Was it possible the Enclave had gotten Celestia One working again? I really hoped the answer was no, but knowing my luck it probably wasn't.

"Well, I must say I wasn't expecting more company right now," a mare's voice said and I turned to see Winter Breeze standing there looking me over. "Especially given that Lieutenant Dust is about an inch taller than you are, I know my security detail better than anypony, who are you?"

Crap, of course Winter Breeze would be able to see through this easily, I was starting to think that maybe this was a bad idea after all. Her blue eyes stared at me as if they were piercing into my very soul, it was one of the most unsettling things I had ever experienced.

"I'm, new, Tornado just assigned me to your detail," I said, it was a bad bluff, I wasn't exactly about to make it big in New Pegasus at this rate.

"Do you really think I'm that stupid? Ask yourself, why would I not know exactly who it was that was protecting me?" Winter Breeze said as she walked closer and stared at me through my eye piece. "Let me guess, the NCR sent you to take me out didn't they?"

"Maybe..." I said softly, actually that wasn't even part of our mandate but I wasn't going to tell her that.

"Well then, I think we can solve this mystery quickly," Winter Breeze said and I was surprised to feel her hooves around my neck as she hit the release button and the head piece was removed. "Scootaloo Dash... I knew they'd send you but I wasn't expecting you to be so bold, you could've just asked for an audience if you wanted to talk."

"Yeah, well, you're a hard mare to reach," I said, I had to buy time while the others disabled the Megaspell, and that meant talking to Winter Breeze, I needed answers about one thing. "There's something that's been bugging me ever since the first time we talked in Stable 122.."

"Oh, what's that?"

"You're interested in me, and I don't understand why," I said as I looked at her. "Its one thing to just want to find me, but you seem to be actively interested in keeping me alive and even getting me on your side. You could've had me killed in Stables 48 and 117, but you didn't, why?"

"I have my reasons Scootaloo," Winter Breeze said as she moved back a little, she didn't turn her back on me once. "Lets just say, I understand a lot about you, if you're so smart maybe you can figure it out."

Figure it out? It was like she was telling me to piece together a puzzle without knowing how many pieces there were or what the picture was, but I had to think about it anyway.

I thought about everything I knew about Winter Breeze. It wasn't much, she was interested in me that much was certain, then there was her behavior, it was like she was working to help Equestria while acting the part of the villain, something I could relate to. What else was there? Why would she be interested in me?

Then it clicked into place, I thought back to what I had learned before, there were three major clues that we had picked up on but we had never realized they were all connected.

Now it all made sense.

"You're not just another Pegasus... you're my descendant aren't you?"

I couldn't believe it, the President of the Enclave was my descendant? She wasn't exactly denying it either, she just watched me with those cold eyes as she stared me down. But the more I thought about it, the more the pieces fell into place, and I didn't like it.

Now it all made sense, the Enclave had access to things that they shouldn't have access to without having somepony related to me or one of my friends. Sweetie and Apple Bloom's descendants were all accounted for, and I couldn't believe that I hadn't realized that something like that could be possible given the encrypted file.

Winter Breeze had told Cherry that she'd have access to the secondary security system with Protocol Zeta, one that only I would be able to access or one of my descendants.

Now everything made perfect sense, and I didn't like it. Winter Breeze was too much like me when I was an adult, too willing to compromise her morals to do what she thought was right.

"You finally figured it out huh?" Winter Breeze said as she shook her head. "I'm surprised you didn't figure it out before given that you had all of the clues."

"You're keeping it hidden aren't you, that's why that file was encrypted in the genealogical records," I said as I looked at Winter Breeze for a long moment. "If most of the ponies in the Enclave found out they would have you thrown out of office."

"Symbols are powerful things indeed," Winter Breeze said with a shake of her head. "The Enclave still considers you a traitor for what you did. I've done what I can to deal with it, but you're not exactly playing along."

"That's why you tried to get me to defect in Stable 122, you're trying to not only discredit the Dashites, you're trying to legitimize your position. But I don't understand, why are you acting like you have? What's your real game? Why do you want access to Protocol Zeta?"

Winter Breeze paused for a long moment as if she was trying to choose her response carefully. We both knew exactly what was locked away in that mountain, the only difference was what we wanted done with it.

"I have my reasons," Winter Breeze said as she shook her head. "It doesn't matter in the long run, my plan is closer to coming to fruition than ever. I will change the future of Equestria for the better, the Wasteland needs ponies like me more than it needs ponies like the NCR."

"Winter, I know what you're saying, I've been in that place before, 210 years ago I felt that I had to do things that I knew were wrong in order to help Equestria," I said, I had to hope that I'd be able to reach her somehow. "You're not a monster, you're trying to do what's right but you're not going about it the right way!"

There was a moment where I actually thought that maybe I had reached Winter Breeze, she actually hesitated to speak up and her calm look faltered as she walked closer to me once more.

"You may understand me Scootaloo, but I'm not going to stop just because you tell me to," she said with a sigh. "You have to understand, I have my reasons for everything I do, that's something you'd understand."

Maybe she was right, I had done things in my own past all for the greater good like she at least claimed to do. Was I any better than she was for what I had done with the Stables? Maybe not, but I wasn't exactly about to join her.

"Winter, I'm not going to jump ship and join you either," I said. "I understand what you're trying to say, maybe there is a need for a change in the NCR and the rest of Equestria. But the Enclave's methods are too extreme sometimes, you have to be able to understand that sometimes your methods, even if they seem necessary, aren't always the way to go."

Winter Breeze just shook her head and looked behind her at the Megaspell chamber. "It doesn't matter, I have the power I need to ensure that the Enclave's rule over Equestria is secure. I will build my brighter future, Equestria needs ponies like me if it wants to make it. I will use Celestia One to ensure that future now that it is working again, the NCR won't have a choice but to surrender."

"Really? Are you sure about that?" I asked as I glanced behind her towards the chamber, it didn't look any different but I was sure that my plan was being carried out.

"I'm sure, my science team got it working already," Winter Breeze said with a slight smirk. "There's nothing you can do to stop me, Manehattan is just the beginning of the future for Equestria."

"I think we just put that future on hold," a voice said from behind Winter Breeze and her ears perked up as her eyes went wide in shock.

Standing behind her were my friends who had apparently just finished their mission. Nova was the one who had spoken and was looking right at Winter Breeze from behind her helmet.

"I have to say, I wasn't expecting to see you here, Icy Wind," Nova said in a calm voice as she looked at the Enclave President closely. Wait, who is Icy Wind?

"What did you do?" Winter Breeze demanded as she rushed over to the console for Celestia One, her calm demeanor was gone she was in a state of panic as she tried to figure out what they had done to the Megaspell. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"We put Celestia One out of commission," Arc said with a chuckle as she levitated her rifle up and pointed it at Winter Breeze. "Sure you can probably repair it given enough time, but I'm afraid the Enclave's occupation of Manehattan is about to come to an end."

Before Winter could say anything else there was the sound of explosions from outside as the Enclave's flak guns went live. The door to the chamber was forced open and ponies in Enclave power armor rushed inside breathing heavily.

"Madam President, a fleet of aircraft just started an assault on our forces in Manehattan!" One of them said. "They're flying the colors of Nomad City and Applejack's Rangers! On top of that there's a cloud cover over the tower!"

That was it the battle for Manehattan had begun, and the Enclave had already been forced onto the defensive. I had no idea what was going on with the cloud cover though, was something else happening here that we didn't know about?

Well, I didn't have time to dwell on it, it at least kept the Enclave from firing Celestia One if it worked.

Winter Breeze spread her wings and flapped, taking flight and leaping over me to join her soldiers as she looked back at me with an angry look on her face.

"This isn't over yet Scootaloo Dash, I will not give up on my vision of a better world," she said and with that she and the other Enclave soldiers fled out the door.

We had finished part of the plan and stopped the Enclave from using Celestia One, but Winter Breeze had escaped. We now had one more job to do before we were done here.

It was time to rescue the hostages the Enclave had been keeping.

"What did you do to Celestia One?" I asked as we rushed through the halls of Tenpony Tower, the Enclave was too busy getting ready for a fight to even bother with us right now.

"We damaged the casting rods for the Megaspell, if she tried to use them they'd probably explode and put the thing out of commission," Nova said as we went past several rooms. "We got lucky that probably would've taken us all out if we didn't run."

"So, we disabled it at least, but I don't know if it'll come in very handy for awhile," Cherry said with a shake of her head. "That kind of power, I think you might be right Scootaloo, that's too much for anypony to hold."

"Yeah, lets hope they listen to us at some point," I said with a sigh, we needed to get the Megaspell genie back in its bottle as soon as possible.

We didn't really know where we were going but we kept an eye on our EFS, maybe that would at least give us a hint at which direction to go given that it would show friendlies. Unfortunately there were mostly red and yellow marks so far meaning there weren't any friendlies.

I took a turn down another corridor and we headed down a flight of stairs to the floor below when I got a brief flash of a friendly signal on my EFS. It was worth a shot at least, as we moved further into the tower we could hear the sound of battle from the lower floors.

The alliance wasn't here yet, these were the ponies of Tenpony Tower fighting to take their tower back, I didn't know what had happened but it was a good bet that the Enclave had overplayed their hand.

We found an armory and were relieved to find our weapons locked away along with some ammunition here and there. I set the SOAR and my other energy rifle into my battle saddle before looking at Nova as we headed out.

"Who's Icy Wind?"

"Its a name Winter Breeze used as an alias during the Great Schism, I didn't put two and two together until just now," Nova said through her distorted mechanical voice. "She lived in Haven and helped us out a few times... I had no idea she was the President of the Enclave."

"She had us all fooled, she's good at that," Gear Shift said with a shake of her head as she looked at Nova. "We can't dwell on that right now, we have to get this tower secured."

"Right, Nova said as we kept walking.

We finally found what we were looking for, the Enclave had set up a makeshift brig in one of the upper levels that was holding Xiraia and the members of the Twilight Society that hadn't managed to escape into the Tower proper. The Zebra DJ looked up when she heard the door opened and got to her hooves when she realized who it was.

"Thank the spirits you're alive," she said with a smile as the Unicorns got to their hooves. "What's going on, is the Enclave being driven out of the tower?"

"Yeah, the alliance attacked after we disabled Celestia One," I said as Riva started to unlock the doors with her lockpicking tools. "We, kind of had to put it out of commission in order to keep it from being used by the Enclave."

"Is it repairable?" One of the ponies asked.

"It should be, but it'll take time," Nova said.

"Good, we need to get it running as soon as possible to use against the Enclave," the first pony said.

I flinched, this was exactly what I was afraid of, Megaspells were too dangerous to be used especially after the apocalypse. We were risking being put right back where we started 211 years ago, and it would just wind up causing more death and destruction, I knew what I had to say.

"No, we don't need to fix it," I said with a tone of finality in my voice. "Celestia One is powerful, too powerful, even if it is salvageable I don't think we should keep using it. The fact is that it made this tower a target, it wasn't the only reason the Enclave would want to come after you but they wanted Celestia One in order to use it against the Wasteland. You wanted to use it in retaliation, yes, lots of lives were lost here but where does it stop? Where do we cross the line from being about trying to fight a war and into being as bad as the Enclave? We have to draw the line here, we have to be better than the enemy we are fighting or we will just wind up repeating the mistakes of the past. I will not let those mistakes be repeated, by either side in this war."

The Twilight Society ponies exchanged a long look as they considered my words. It wasn't easy to have to say this kind of thing but it was what needed to be said, I just hoped they would listen.

"We will, consider your words Scootaloo," the first Unicorn said solemnly. "The Enclave needs to be stopped, I just hope that what you said won't make that impossible."

"It won't," I said. "We're going to make sure it doesn't."

"That's good, now come, there is one thing we must do now," Xiraia said with a smile as her cell was unlocked and we started out of the room. "Its time for DJ Pon3 to make her return to the airwaves of Equestria."

I nodded in understanding, she knew what she was doing, at least I hoped she did.

We had to fight our way up to the broadcast center, the Enclave had finally gotten their act together and we ran into our fair share of resistance. The good news though was that it seemed that the Enclave was in full retreat, they were scrambling Vertibucks off the Orion in order to get ponies out of the tower.

The broadcast center was empty, there was equipment strewn everywhere from where the Enclave had been set up here. Thankfully the broadcast equipment was still intact, I looked at Xiraia and nodded.

She turned on the broadcasting equipment and picked up the microphone, she actually looked nervous for a moment, she had never broadcast using her own voice before but I gave her a reassuring nod, she could do this, I knew it.

"Hello Equestria, this is DJ Pon3 broadcasting over the airwaves once more," she said into the microphone with the energy she had become known for. "That's right fillies and gentlecolts, I'm back and better than ever thanks to a very special mare and her friends who came to my aid here in Tenpony Tower, my hat's off to you."

I smiled as I gave her a nod, it was good to have Xiraia back behind the mic instead of having to listen to just Winter Breeze and Enclave radio.

"Now my little ponies, you're probably all wondering about what's going on and why I've decided to address you like this for the first time," Xiraia continued. "I wish I could tell you that the Enclave was lying about DJ Pon3, but for 200 years we've been keeping you entertained and informed under a lie, that is true. With Winter Breeze exposing our secret though, there's no real point in hiding it anymore. I know you good ponies out there will understand, but sometimes there are truths that are best kept secret. But from now on my little ponies, I'll keep on broadcasting and fighting the good fight with you with my own voice, you have my promise of that."

I smiled and gave her a nod, she was doing great.

"But the war isn't over yet, the Enclave are on the run here in Manehattan and the time has come to drive them out of our city," Xiraia continued. "They come here with their promises of making our world better, to make Equestria as great as it once was, but what about those methods they employ? Is that the future you want to leave for your children? I know I don't, we will make the future bright again, but we don't need the Enclave and their methods of terror to do so. This is Xiraia, signing off."

I smiled as she put the microphone down again and hugged her gently, this was exactly what was needed, the Enclave was on the run and DJ Pon3 was back on the air where she belonged.

"So what now?" Xiraia asked as my friends came into the room with us.

"Now, we're going to try and stop Winter Breeze before it gets to be too late," I said with a tone of finality, the time had come for one more showdown with the President of the Enclave.

The Enclave was retreating, apparently they couldn't get the Orion working in time so they were abandoning ship. There were Vertibucks picking ponies up from the roof and lower floors as they escaped the tower, we were tracking Winter Breeze right now as she headed to the roof for extraction.

As we forced the door open we saw what the Enclave had been talking about before, there was a storm brewing over the tower that was blocking out the sun. Though this wasn't a normal storm, it looked almost unnatural as lightning flashed, I noticed briefly that there was other flashes like something was being shot at but I didn't have much time to dwell on it.

There was another shot and Nova went down, it had caught her in the wither and pierced right through the armor, sending the Unicorn Ranger sprawling on the ground.

Standing just behind cover with a rifle propped up and aimed at us was Winter Breeze, the President hadn't gotten a chance to escape yet and was prepared for a fight.

"Nova!" Gear Shift said as she rushed over and pulled the Unicorn mare into cover, we ducked behind cover just as another shot rang out and barely missed us.

"You really think its over?" Winter Breeze called out to us as she tried to line up another shot. "One thing you learn when you get into Enclave politics is how to fight, you're not exactly in a good position here Scootaloo!"

Really, Enclave politics required you to learn how to fight? How weird were politics in the Enclave then?

"If you're that good, why didn't you just kill Nova then?" Cherry shouted as Arc fired a few shots at the Enclave President which missed.

"She saved my life, I'm returning the favor by sparing her's," Winter Breeze answered and fired another shot towards us, it just missed again but it was close. "I'm not going down without a fight here."

Of course, her extraction hadn't arrived yet so she was here to fight if necessary. I just had to hope that we could win this one. I was about to move my gun into position to fire when I spotted something, we all saw it, it was a glowing blue symbol that looked like a pair of horns that was coming out of the storm clouds.

I knew that symbol, that thing had been seared into my brain ever since I was just a filly because of who it represented. It was the symbol of the Storm King, the monster who's forces had captured Canterlot when I was just a filly, the terror of that invasion flashed back through my mind and I dropped my rifle.

I wasn't the only one who was shocked either, Winter Breeze was staring up at the symbol with just as much shock as I was, briefly I thought that she likely recognized it from the history books but I didn't have time to dwell on it.

A massive ship's bow, not like the newer cloudships but an old airship burst from the clouds with the glowing symbol above it. The ship was black with a purple envelope and it looked like it had taken a beating from the Enclave's guns.

It eased itself down closer to the tower and fired off a harpoon, pulling itself in close and for a moment just hung there, leaving us wondering what was going to happen.

A lone figure figure leaped from the airship with their wings outstretched as they came in and hit the ground with a roll, drawing their pistol quickly. She was a dark blue Pegasus mare with a purple mane with three tones to it and a cybernetic wing. She was dressed in old blackish-purple armor, but what drew my attention was her eyes, one of then was gold while the other one was a deep violet.

She was sort of a mishmash of a few different parts, but I could recognize her easily enough, it was Gambit. How in Celestia's name had Gambit wound up here of all places?

I didn't have time to dwell on it however because Winter Breeze decided to take that moment to act, she turned the rifle towards Gambit and pulled the trigger. I flinched a little and looked away, expecting to see what had happened before but instead it just bounced off the armor Gambit was wearing leaving a scratch in the armor but nothing more.

That's when something I didn't expect happened, I don't know how I missed it before but she had a horn now that started to glow violet. She wrapped it around the rifle held by Winter Breeze and yanked it out of her grip, throwing it to the side.

"Well, that wasn't very nice, do you usually shoot ponies who might be there to help you?" Gambit said as she eyed Winter Breeze.

"What the hell... who are you?" Winter Breeze demanded from her position as she looked at Gambit.

"Lieutenant Gambit, Shadowbolts, Serial Number 5374B."

We got to our hooves and rushed over to Nova, she wasn't in the best shape from the shot but she was still alive at least. I cringed a little at the blood, it looked like the bullet had done some damage but Gear Shift seemed to have the bleeding under control.

"Is she going to be okay?" I asked the Earth Pony Ranger.

"I don't know," Gear Shift admitted with a shake of her head. "She's gone into shock, I can only do so much to stabilize her here right now, I'm not a medic."

"Great..." I said with a sigh, Nomad City was still not close enough to send help and the Followers were still on lower levels of the Tower so we needed to improvise a bit, and hope that somepony might be able to help us at least. "We need a medic over here!"

That seemed to catch Gambit's attention at least as she looked back over towards us before coming over after tossing the rifle off the side of the tower. I nodded to Arc who kept an eye on Winter Breeze as Gambit approached.

"What happened to her?"

"She was shot in the shoulder as we came out here," I said as Gambit started to work on getting the armor released, she started working on getting Nova stabilized while I turned my attention to look at Winter Breeze who was still in cover.

"So what are you going to do with me?" Winter said, she almost seemed resigned to her fate at this point. "Are you going to drag me off to Junction Town and put me on trial or will you just shoot me right here?"

"Winter, we don't have to shoot you," I said as I moved closer to where the Pegasus mare was. "You've made a lot of mistakes and hurt a lot of ponies. Look at what's happened here, you've caused this much death, this much destruction, all for what? Your vision of a brighter future isn't worth anything if its bought with the blood of innocents."

"Why do you think I took this tower? The power that's contained in this tower, that could have stopped the bloodshed, we could've ended this war today!" Winter shouted. "There wouldn't have to be any more death, no more destruction, we could've had peace but you and your allies ruined it!"

"What is she talking about?" Gambit asked, I turned around to see Gambit getting up while Riva took over the care of Nova's wound. "And why did you shoot that soldier?"

"Gambit there's... a megaspell in the tower here, she tried to use it to basically force the other factions to surrender, and she plans to do it with another one now that she's failed here," I said, I had no idea what to expect out of Gambit, but I knew that this may at least get her to listen.

"YOU WANTED TO USE A WHAT?" Gambit shouted as she turned her attention directly on Winter Breeze who flinched a little.

Okay, maybe it wasn't the best plan after all.

"Are you insane? Haven't you seen what Megaspells have done to Equestria?" Gambit continued. "You want to use, one of the most destructive forms of magic, to try and what? Build a better future? How exactly did you expect that to happen?"

"You have to understand, the world isn't like what you left behind," Winter Breeze managed to say. "There's a lot of problems, sometimes you have to resort to..."

"Extreme measures in order to create a better world, I've heard it before," I said with a shake of my head. "You're just trying to justify using a weapon of mass destruction to enforce your will on Equestria. But that’s the problem, doing this just risks history repeating itself. The fact is that the Megaspells created this world - do you really think using them again would make it better?"

"And if you say you do believe that such a dream is possible through weapons of such great power - You better be ready to explain yourself, because I am not about to believe some power hungry pony looking to bend a broken world to her will." Gambit exclaimed.

“It’s because this world is so broken,” Winter Breeze finally said. “You don’t understand what’s going on here - it’s not about power, it never has been. When the Enclave first returned we did nothing to help this world, we brought only death and destruction in our wake. You cannot understand what sacrifices I’ve had to make, what I’ve had to do to, do what had to be done, what should have been done a long time ago.”

Gambit replied “You say such things, act as though your ends justify the means of your behavior. I however do not believe in such things, We thought our ends justified our means when we developed these weapons and spells, and look what it got us all; There will always be a point in which you have to admit you were wrong, own up to your mistakes, and apologize.” her voice with an eerie calm “Do you believe that you are infallible, Ms. President - Do you believe you can do no harm, or that the harm you’ve done is excusable.”

Winter Breeze said nothing, she just sat there behind cover as she thought over what we had told her. The fact was that Gambit was right, Winter Breeze was justifying all of her actions not only to Equestria but to herself.

“Winter, you need to listen to us,” I said. “You’ve done more than enough by this point, you need to learn where to draw the line and stop. I don’t know why you’re doing this, what reason you have given yourself, but I don’t think you’re doing it just for yourself. Maybe you really are trying to build a better Equestria, but that doesn’t mean you’re doing the right thing. Please, stop this before it’s too late.”

“And before you’ve forced my hoof, I don’t wish to harm you or anypony else” Gambit spoke, changing her stance, spreading wings as if ready to fight. “When I graduated from the Shadowbolt Academy, As I was sworn into duty I took an oath to uphold Dignity, Honor, and most importantly - Loyalty to Equestria and all who inhabit it; To protect them from all threats - be it foreign or domestic. Don’t make yourself a threat, Winter.”

“Ask yourself, is this really what is right for Equestria?” I asked Winter. “Are your reasons enough to justify all of this?”
Winter Breeze remained quiet for the longest time, she didn’t know what to say to that and I didn’t blame her. Maybe we were getting through to her, but it was hard to judge, I just hoped that she was listening.

There was a flash of purple light from behind the cover and the armored form of Tornado appeared. She stared at us with from behind the face mask as she levitated Winter Breeze onto her back.

“You may have won Manehattan, but this isn’t over,” a sharp mare’s voice said and it took me a moment to realize it was coming from Tornado. “We are the true Equestrian spirit, you cannot defeat us so easily.”

“You speak of the Equestrian Spirit, but do you even know what it means, what it stands for.” Gambit would retort. “An unbreakable spirit, An unstoppable force, An unimaginable power. When we’re separate we are weak, but together we are one.”

“And we will be that once more,” Tornado said and spread her wings as her horn started to glow once more.

“What do you…” I said and paused when I noticed that Gambit had started to charge at the two.

“Oh no you don’t, you aren’t going anywhere til you tell me what in the hay you mean by that!”

Just as Gambit got about halfway there, there was another flash of purple light as Tornado and Winter vanished.

“You know, you could’ve caught them if you used your wings,” I said with a roll of my eyes, I remembered how Gambit always liked to talk about how fast she was.

“Yeah, well… You’re one to talk about using your wings, ya chicken.” Gambit stammered, clearly a little confused as to how this all happened.

“Hey, that was a low blow!” I protested, this was not the time to be commenting on my wings.

“Oh yea, and lets pick on the mare that just spent 211 years in a pod in some underground facility slowly being turned into her foster sister.” Gambit would say in retort.

I was about to say something when there was the sound of more aircraft, we looked out to see the remaining Enclave aircraft taking off and flying out of the city. I breathed a sigh of relief, we had done it, the Enclave was out of Manehattan.

That’s when a chill ran up my spine and I looked up again to see something I hadn’t expected. Hovering above us was a ghastly figure of a pony skeleton dressed in a beaten up old hat and duster. It held a deck of cards in its hooves and shuffled them with the expertise of a Las Pegasus card dealer.

"What in the hay..." I'd hear Gambit say, my gaze drifting over to notice that Gambit too had been staring up in the sky to much the same location as myself, apparently we both were seeing this.

“What are you?” I demanded of the strange skeletal pony who just continued shuffling its cards before stopping and staring at us both with sunken eyes.

He drew two cards off his deck and threw them right at me, when I caught them I looked at them strangely. They were the Queen and Ace of Spades, these cards didn’t mean anything to me, what was going on?

“Ante up,” the skeletal pony said in a raspy voice before he vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared.

“What was that about?” I wondered out loud and looked at Gambit, she just shrugged a little as another sound was heard.

As the cloud cover above us broke again, the shape of Nomad City came into view flanked by its escort Vertibucks.

The Battle for Manehattan was finally over.

LEVEL UP!
Perk Received: Silver Tongue.
Details: You've gained a better skill at diplomacy. You get an extra 10 points in both speech and barter.

Author's Notes:

Okay guys, got some credit I gotta give here.

The character of Gambit, along with most of her lines, belongs to the always amazing Natalie. She also helped me with some of the details of this chapter, and will hopefully be writing a story about Gambit soon enough.