My mind was still reeling to be honest, after we finished up in Vanhoover I finally got a chance to think over what was going on as we traveled back towards Junction Town. I stared across the Vertibuck at Arc who couldn't make eye contact with any of us, not that I blamed her, none of us were happy with what had happened.

I still couldn't believe that she had actually betrayed me like this, betrayed all of us. Even if the Enclave was holding her friends, there was a better way than keeping it from us. Maybe we could have done something, maybe the NCR or the other members of the Alliance could've broken them out.

Or maybe they couldn't have. The truth was that we only had a vague knowledge of where the inhabitants of Stable 66 were, and even that wasn't concrete evidence. The Enclave had no reason to be honest with the inhabitants of the Stable, so how did we even know that they were really in Thunderhead.

Thunderhead, it kept coming back to Thunderhead for some reason, that seemed to be important to this whole war for some reason. No, there was a reason, Hoofington was near where I had stashed... that, I wasn't going to tell the NCR that of course, the fact was that it would be just as bad in their hooves as it would be in the Enclave's.

So the question now was, what were we going to do? How much could I tell the NCR without them figuring out what was going on? I needed to make sure that the Enclave was stopped without causing any real damage to Equestria beyond what had already happened.

"Scootaloo, I..." Arc started to say and I shot her a look, I didn't want to hear her try and defend her actions or apologize or whatever she was about to say right now.

"Arc, I don't want to hear it, we'll talk about this later," I said as I shot her a look. Cherry and Riva didn't look too happy about it either, even though Riva barely understood Equestrian she had gotten the gist of what was going on quickly.

"I'm sorry..." Arc said softly and I sighed a little as I shook my head, I wasn't going to decide whether or not to forgive her, at least not yet. My head had to be clear before I was going to make any sort of decision on what we were going to do with her, as hard as that was going to be.

"Are we really going to turn her over to the NCR?" Cherry asked as she looked at me with fear in her eyes. "I know she did some bad things, but she's our friend, are we really just going to cast her aside like this?"

"She said she'd turn herself over when we were done in Vanhoover, its out of our hooves now," I said with a sigh as I looked down at the floor. I couldn't bear to look at Cherry right now, she was right, we were throwing Arc under the bus because of this, but we had to make sure that everything was going to be okay. "If the Enclave can get a pony that close to the NCR, we have a lot more to worry about than just her. They may have spies in the highest echelons of the Alliance, feeding them information on our activities."

Cherry nodded silently as she wrapped her foreleg around me gently. It was hard to believe that we were actually in this position. I had hoped that everything might be different in this war, that things might not wind up like they had during the war with the Zebras. While we didn't have the threat of megaspells, at least not all the time, we were having to second guess our own people, our own friends.

And that was something that I didn't want to have to do. Arc was still my friend, I wasn't going to completely abandon her at least not yet, there was just the matter of figuring out what to do.

I sighed and wrapped my wing around Cherry, we would have to figure this out later when we arrived in Junction Town. I knew there was one stop I had to make, ponies I had to talk to, and hope that everything was going to be okay.

"Scootaloo, you're back!" Serenity called out as she ran up to us and hugged me tightly, I smiled a little as I hugged the small filly, we were back at Star and Jade's house in Nomad City to meet up with the others. "How'd it go in Vanhoover?"

"About as well as expected, the Enclave got another key, but there is some good news," I said with a weak smile as I hugged the filly tightly. "We captured one of the Enclave Generals, they're going to be interrogated so we can hopefully get some intel out of them."

"You captured one of the generals? Which one?" Star asked as she walked into the foyer and looked at us curiously. "Was it Cloud Chaser by any chance?"

"No it was Aries," I said and there was the sound of something breaking in the next room, we ran into the room to find Jade standing there with the shattered remains of a dish and the food that she had been carrying on the floor.

"Jade, are you okay?" Star asked as she rushed over to her wife who was shaking a little and gently hugged her.

"Aries..." she said, breathing heavily. "I didn't want to ever hear that name again except on a casualty report..."
I froze a little at that, did Jade have some sort of past with Aries that we didn't know anything about? Star just held her there for a long moment and looked over at me.

"Go hang out with Serenity and Pure Heart, okay? We'll be fine," Star said with a soft smile and I nodded and we headed back into the living room where Serenity and Pure Heart were.

"Is mom okay?" Pure Heart asked as she looked at us worriedly. "What happened?"

"I don't know," I admitted with a sigh as I looked between the two fillies. "She dropped what she was holding I guess, I don't really know what's going on, but Star is taking care of it."

Pure Heart breathed a sigh of relief and Serenity held her close. I smiled a little at the two fillies, they reminded me a bit of me and my friends when were that age and it was nice to see that things didn't change there at least.

"Are you going to be okay?" Cherry asked as she looked at the filly who just shrugged a little. "I don't know what's going on, but you've got a good friend here that's going to be here for you whenever you need them. Right Serenity?"

"Yep," Serenity said with a smile as she wrapped her wing around Pure Heart gently. "You're my best friend Pure Heart, I'm glad I met you and if you ever need anything, I'll be there for you."

"We'll all be there for you," I said as me and Cherry joined the hug.

Pure Heart smiled and hugged back. We just held the hug there for a long moment, it was nice to have a chance to be there with the two of them. I took a deep breath and ruffled their manes a little.

"We're glad to be here for you," I said with a nod as we released the hug.

After a few minutes Star and Jade came in and asked if I could talk with them in the other room. I had to admit it piqued my curiosity since I was sure that it had something to do with what had happened before, and I agreed as we headed into the kitchen.

"Scootaloo, I know this is something that's a little hard to understand, but we felt you deserved to know what's going on," Jade said as she took a deep breath, she was still shaking a little. "A few years back, before I even met Star here, when Pure Heart was only about 4 years old Nomad City was in Trotson following up on reports of Enclave activity."

Oh, this was definitely going to be an interesting story, something certainly had rattled Jade with all of this and I was starting to get the idea of what was going on.

"My Husband at the time, Light Touch, he was part of the Vertibuck corps in Nomad City and was sent into the city to get out a group of refugees," Jade continued as she looked down at her hooves. "He was shot down by the Enclave under the command of General Aries just a few days before Pure Heart's 5th birthday."

"Oh, I'm so sorry..." I said Star hugged her gently. "I had no idea that had happened to your family."

"Its fine, I don't talk about it very much," Jade said with a shake of her head. "He was a good husband, I didn't think I'd ever find somepony again until I met Star here. She's been a great mom for Pure Heart, but its not really the same sometimes."

"And I'm glad I found her," Star said with a smile and pulled Jade in close. "I know I couldn't replace Light Touch, but I wanted to make sure that I could do my best to be the best wife I could be."

"Well, I'm glad you two found each other," I said with a sad smile. "I know what its like to lose somepony you love, and the best you can do is try and move on. I'm glad you were able to find somepony, just like I did."

Jade nodded and nuzzled Star gently before she looked over at me with a soft smile. "That means a lot, I'm glad you found somepony too."

I looked back towards where Cherry was playing with the two fillies and smiled a little. "Yeah, me too, I just wish that everything was going better for all of us."

"Right, we heard about what happened with Arc," Star said and shook her head. "I had heard the rumors about Winter's spy network, I didn't actually think they could get that close though."

"What are you going to do?" Jade asked.

"Honestly, I have no idea right now, I'm still trying to decide how I feel about the whole thing to be honest," I said with a sigh as I looked down at my hooves. "I'm scared honestly, Arc has been with me this whole time as a friend and I don't really know what to feel about this. She had her reasons to do what she did, she was basically forced into being a spy, but that doesn't excuse it."

"Winter Breeze is dangerous," Star said with a shake of her head. "She's good at getting ponies to do what she wants them to do, its why she's remained in power this long. No matter what her motivations are, she's still a threat, and she has to be stopped no matter what."

I paused a moment at that, was it possible we were going to have to kill Winter? So far we had avoided that, even when given the chance, because we knew that if we did somepony worse might take her place, there had to be a better way to stopping her than just killing her.

A thought occurred to me and I smiled a little. It was going to be tricky, but I had an idea, something that might convince her if we needed it. An ace in the hole.

"Okay, listen to me very carefully, I may have an idea," I said as I looked between them. "In my office at the Red Racer headquarters there's a terminal that is on its own internal power that should last for a few centuries. I need somepony to get to that terminal and download the files off of it labeled PZ01 through PZ05."

"Okay, but what's on them?" Jade asked as she looked at me strangely.

"Our ace in the hole, something I saw a long time ago that might do the trick," I said with a nod as I wrote the password on a piece of paper and gave it to Star. "This might be what turns the whole tide of the war if we need it, can I trust you two with this?"

"We'll get it arranged," Star said as she looked at the paper and then back at me. "What's so important about these files specifically?"

"They're everything we know about what Winter is after," I said and looked between the two. "I know this is a strange request, but its the only chance we have at stopping Winter without more bloodshed. Please, trust me on this."
They nodded and went back to making dinner.

I breathed a sigh of relief, this was something that I hoped we wouldn't have to use, but it was good to have it just in case. I was glad that I had friends willing to help me out like this, it was just a matter of hoping that we wouldn't have to worry about it because we could stop the Enclave there.

Just two Stables were left, and we had to make sure that the Enclave was stopped at at least one of them, that was our only chance of winning this war without having to resort to our ace.

I ducked a pillow that was thrown at my head and laughed as I looked into the bedroom where the two fillies were playing with Vanilla reading a book on her bed. Star and Jade had asked if Pure Heart could stay over with us for the night, which was fine of course even if that meant that they would get into some trouble together.

"Okay you two, its time for bed," Vanilla said with a roll of her eyes as she got to her hooves and looked over at me. "Sorry about that Scootaloo, these two can't seem to stay out of trouble."

"Its fine, I love it," I said with a chuckle as I picked the pillow back up and tossed it onto the bed. "Actually its kind of refreshing."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, with everything that's going on its nice to see that some things are at least normal," Vanilla said. "Come on you two, its time for bed."

"Aww, do we have to?" Serenity asked with a cute pout which made me laugh and ruffle the filly's mane. "You let me stay up as late as I wanted before."

"Well, before you were living on your own and set your own bedtime," Vanilla pointed out as she tucked Serenity into bed next to Pure Heart. "But that's all changing now, okay? Which means you have to go to bed at a normal time like every other filly."

"Aww, but I'm not..." Serenity said and yawned a little. "Tired."

"Don't worry Serenity, you'll be fine," I said and gave her a light kiss on the forehead as the filly drifted off to sleep. I smiled a little when she unconsciously draped her wing over Pure Heart, it was adorable to say the least.

"Good night Vanilla," I said with a smile as I gave the Unicorn a nod and headed back out of the room and across the small hallways to where I was sleeping with Cherry.

"How are they doing?" Cherry asked, she was laying out on the bed dressed in a nightgown that she had picked up from one of the stores here in Nomad City. She had actually gone clothes shopping earlier today and picked out a nice simple wastelander outfit and some extra things for whenever she might need them.

"They're doing fine, just causing trouble as usual," I said with a roll of my eyes as I laid down next to the pink mare and gave her a light kiss on the lips. "Its actually nice to know that foals didn't change that much after the apocalypse, its a sign to me that there really is hope for this world."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Cherry said as she snuggled up to me and kissed back. "I just hope that this little filly isn't going to cause us that much trouble."

"I dunno, given who her mom is she might be quite the little hellion, not to mention with me helping raising her," I said with a laugh as I nuzzled Cherry. "I'm glad I met you Cherry, before I met you I didn't think I'd have get another chance at love."

"I'm glad I met you too," Cherry said with a smile as she nuzzled back. "Thank you for being there for me when I needed you most."

"Of course Cherry, I wouldn't have it any other way," I said and nuzzled her again. "You've been there for me too, and that's all I could ever ask of you."

"I know," Cherry said with a sigh. "And now Arc is in trouble if we don't help her."

"I know, but..." I said with a sigh. "Honestly I think while we should try and help her, we do need to make sure that it doesn't lead to something even worse down the line. The Enclave needs to be stopped."

"I know, but I don't want to lose a friend because of it," Cherry said. "Do you know what I mean?"

I nodded as I wrapped my wings around Cherry gently. We were just going to enjoy the moment of warmth between us as we drifted off to sleep together.

I opened my eyes and for a moment I didn't realize where I was until I saw Sweetie Belle laying next to me again. She was older than I remembered last time, I guess even more time had passed since I had last had a dream of this strange world, but it was okay.

I smiled and nuzzled her gently as she stirred in her sleep and opened her eyes to give me a smile.

"Good morning Scootaloo," she said with a yawn as she kissed me softly on the lips. "You always seem so happy to see me in the morning, why's that?"

"Its because I love you so much and I'm glad to see you every morning," I said with a smile as I held her close and gently stroked her mane.

It was weird having another one of these dreams after me and Cherry had become a couple. They had started to become less frequent, maybe whatever purpose they were serving was almost over. I didn't want to dwell on that though, I just wanted to enjoy the time I had with Sweetie Belle.

"So what do we have planned for today?" I asked as I looked down at the Unicorn curiously.

"Well, today is Cloudy's High School graduation, so we're going to be going to that," Sweetie said with a nod as she looked up at me. "Are you okay? You were really excited about it yesterday."

"Yeah, I know, I guess it just slipped my mind for a moment is all," I said, it wasn't easy to be in this because I had no idea what was going on from the day before. I smiled a little, my little filly's graduation, that was something that I had obviously had to miss out on because of my exile.

I still had to wonder what purpose these dreams served, it felt like every time I had one it was showing me a small part of what my life could've been like. Were they to tease me or even torment me with the fact that I wouldn't ever get this life? Or maybe was it to help me? I had no idea to be honest.

Part of me wanted to go find Ruby Starlight and see if Luna might know what's going on. There was a lot of ponies I wanted to talk to but I hadn't gotten a lot of chances to do so because of the ongoing war with the Enclave.

"How's Cloudy doing?" I asked as we got to our hooves and started getting ready. "What about college, what do you think she's going to do?"

"Oh you know her, she's still on the fence about a few things, but she's going to be just fine," Sweetie said with a smile as she looked over at me. "She's got a lot of you in her. I'm glad that we decided to have her together. Even if it meant we had to use a Stallion since that spell wasn't perfected yet."

"Yeah, me too," I said. Well that was one question answered, she was still me and Sky Walker's daughter in this reality, he must've been a sperm donor or something that we had used so we could have a foal together, and that had lead to Cloudy being born. "I'm proud of her for everything she's accomplished, and of Sparky. I just wish that I could be here more to help them."

"You're here enough, they know you're busy with your work," Sweetie said as she fixed my tie with her telekinesis. "Scootaloo, you're a great mom to both our foals. Cloudy's going to be just fine and so is Sparky, they both know how much you love them and that if you could you would spend as much time with them as possible."

I smiled a little, though it still kept bugging me. Was this part of the dream or was there something else going on here? I really did want to spend more time in this world, even if it meant that I wouldn't be able to see Cherry or my other friends as much.

I sighed a little and kissed Sweetie on the lips, she looked as beautiful as she ever did. The elegant dress that she had picked hugged her curves perfectly, even if she was getting old, she still had this radiance to her that she would never lose.

"Are you going to be okay Scootaloo?" Sweetie asked as she looked at me. "You seem to be acting weirder than usual lately."

"Don't worry about me, I'll be just fine," I said and nuzzled Sweetie as we headed back downstairs to meet with our daughters, it was time to head out for the graduation.

The ceremony was small but very nice, I smiled and watched as my now 18 year old daughter walked across the stage and took her diploma. She even had the same cutie mark that I had seen in her journal, that made me smile even more, maybe that meant that everything was going to be okay in both realities.

I squeezed Sweetie's hoof gently and gave her a light kiss. There was something about all of this that just felt so right, and even though I knew it was all just a dream I wanted it to last as long as possible.

I smiled as I saw Cloudy walking up to us and gave her a hug. "You looked great up there."

"Thanks, I was half afraid I'd trip on my robes on my way up there," Cloudy said as she hugged back and Sweetie joined in.

"Oh yeah, your mom did that when she got her diploma," Sweetie said with a chuckle and I groaned a little but laughed along with them. It was nice to be able to laugh given everything that was going on. "So, what do you think you'll do now?"

"Well, actually I was thinking about Manehattan University again," Cloudy said as she looked at her diploma. "But honestly, I don't know."

"Well, whatever you choose, it'll be something awesome just like your moms," a familiar voice said and I turned to see Rainbow standing there with a smile. She looked older, a lot more tired and not nearly as fast as she had once been. I guess we all have to go somehow, but I never thought Rainbow Dash would die of old age. "Sorry I was late, but I made it in time to see you graduate."

"Grandma Rainbow!" Sparky said as she ran over to her grandmother and hugged her. "Its so good to see you again, how are things going?"

"Oh, you know, pretty well I guess," Rainbow said as she hugged the filly tightly. "What about you, are you doing well in school, still giving your parents a hard time?

"Yep," Sparky said with a giggle as she released the hug and walked back over to us with Rainbow.

"I'm glad you could make it grandma," Cloudy said as she hugged Rainbow. "What's the latest with the Shadowbolts, how are they doing?"

"Oh they're doing great, Spitfire's daughter just became the captain, and I've been helping with the training mostly," Rainbow said with a nod. "Its not quite the same as being able to fly with them though."

"Well, you know that you're a bit too old for that kind of thing," Sweetie Belle said with a nod. "Besides, you've got another duty to take care of right now."

"Oh yes, spoiling my granddaughters," Rainbow said with a chuckle as she hugged all of us. "Come on, lunch is on me, lets go."

I smiled a little and we headed out of the auditorium and back towards town. I wished it would never end, but I knew I had my own duty to get back to.

The next day I headed down to Junction Town to look around for anypony that I might know. Most of the ones I had met on my journey were out working on the different fronts of the war, I did however run into Gear Shift briefly who told me that Nova had made a full recovery.

I smiled a little and moved into the memorial park at the center of the town and took a seat as I looked up at the statue of LittlePip. It struck me how much of this was because of her actions, the actions of one small pony who had decided to stand up to evil. She had done a lot of good to say the least, but she had wounded the Enclave and pushed them to the point that we were at now.

For good and for bad, this world was born on the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows, not on the Last Day. The apocalypse had been the start, but LittlePip's actions had not been the ending. There was always going to be things that threatened Equestria and the ponies that lived in it.

I just hoped that everything was going to be okay in the end.

"Hey Scootaloo!" A familiar voice called out and I looked up with a smile to see Rain Runner making her way over to me. "I heard you were back in town after what happened in Vanhoover, how's it going?"

"Its, been better," I admitted with a sigh as I looked over at her. "Its been a crazy few days, and I'm just hoping to get a chance to relax before we have to run off to either Neigh Orleans or San Prancisco."

"Let me guess, those key things you mentioned before?" Rain asked and I nodded. "At least you have something to do, I'm going stir crazy in this town. I can't exactly go anywhere in my condition, Doctor's Orders."

"What kind of..." I started to ask when I looked at her a little more closely and noticed a slight bump in her stomach and my eyes went wide. "Oh."

"Yeah, its... complicated," Rain said with a shake of her head.

"So, who's the father? Or did you and Crystal..." I started to say and looked at the younger Pegasus with a curious look.

"No, its not like that," Rain said as she rubbed her foreleg a little. "While we were fighting the Project a few months back we managed to defeat them and the growth tanks were opened up. Most of the ponies inside were ready, except for one, who was just a fetus at the time."

"So they used a surrogacy spell on you," I said and looked at Rain with a surprised look on my face, I hadn't expected her to take on that kind of responsibility.

"Yeah, well that was before the Enclave made their big move so we thought we'd have time," Rain said with a shrug as she sat down next to me. "Any one of us could've done it, but I had to do it, I had my reasons for why, but..."

I looked at her strangely, what did she mean by that? The Project used the DNA of different ponies to create new ones, I kind of doubted that it was Rain Runner's foal, but I didn't know what was really going on here. Something about all of this was weird, and I just hoped that this wasn't going to make the war even more complicated than it already was.

"Is everything okay Rain?" I asked as I looked at my adopted sister who just shifted uncomfortably for a moment. "What's wrong?"

"Its nothing, lets talk about something else," Rain said with a shake of her head. "So how are things going between you and Cherry?"

"Oh, things are going pretty well," I said with a nod, but I was still a little bothered by the way she had dismissed what was bothering her. "I wish I could say the same for Arc, things have gotten... well that's not something we can talk about in a public place."

Rain nodded and sighed as she looked at the statue of LittlePip for a long moment. "What do you think she'd say if she could see everything that's been going on since she stopped the Enclave before?"

"Who knows, maybe someday we'll get a chance to ask her," I said with a sigh as I closed my eyes and thought about everything that had happened. "None of us ever really chose to be a hero did we? We all got stuck in situations that required us to step up. LittlePip, Nova, Ruby, you, me... what would our lives have been like if everything was, you know, normal?"

"Well, you and me would probably be dead," Rain pointed out and I chuckled a little at that. "I mean you and I, we could've lived normal lives over 200 years ago but we were put in this situation, in this version of Equestria for a reason. I don't believe in fate or whatever, but I do think that we have some sort of purpose here. Did you think that you could've lived your life normally? What would you have done differently?"

"Who knows, maybe settle down, marry Sweetie Belle, and have a couple of foals," I said with a light chuckle as Rain looked at me surprised. "Wait, you didn't know that me and Sweetie were a couple before the apocalypse?"

"No... that for some reason was left out of the simulation," Rain said as she blinked a little and shook her head. "For some reason the simulation put you with Rumble."

"You're kidding right? I mean sure he was cute but he was not my type at all," I said with a laugh as I hugged Rain a little. It was actually kind of funny to think about how different my life could've been. Though seriously, Rumble? If he wasn't probably dead at this point I'd have a long talk with Eureka about that. "I hope you made sure Eureka paid for that one, even if you didn't know it at the time."

"Oh don't worry, he did not go out pleasantly," Rain said with a chuckle. "But yeah, I could see it, you two were always close and you would've made a cute couple. I guess its a shame that she didn't survive too huh?"

"Yeah, its a shame," I said with a sigh as I looked over towards one of the entrances to the park where Velvet Remedy and Calamity were walking in talking about something. "Maybe it was for the best at the same time."

"What do you mean?" Rain asked.

"Sweetie Belle making it into the Stable lead to Velvet being born, which lead to LittlePip leaving the Stable, which lead to the Enclave being defeated and the Elements of Harmony being gathered together," I said with a light chuckle as I gave Velvet a nod. "I may not have gotten to spend the rest of my life with the mare I loved, but her family made a difference in Equestria. I do miss her, more than anything, but I understand that maybe it was for the best."

"Yeah, I get what you mean," Rain said with a nod.

"Besides, there was clones of us made that did get together and had a filly," I added with a chuckle and Rain shot a strange look at me. "Long story, visit Sweet Apple Acres sometime."

Rain just stared at me for a long moment as Velvet and Calamity walked up to us. "Scootaloo, can we talk to you about something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Its about Stable 26," Calamity said as he took off his hat and shook his head. "Ah'm afraid we just got a report from some ponies we had sent ta guard tha Stable. They were attacked by tha Enclave and overrun, the Enclave has taken Stable 26."
Oh dear Celestia, that was really not what I wanted to hear right now.

"General Sparkle wants you to go to the HQ building, they need to know more about what's going to be targeted next," Velvet said with a sigh as she looked at me. "Scootaloo, I know this isn't going to be easy for you, but we have to know everything you know about what the Enclave is after."

I thought for a moment and nodded, there was some details that I could still leave out but I could tell them the basics at least. The time for secrecy was almost over, there was only one Stable left right now, and that was Stable 97, if it fell, then everything we had worked for was lost.

"Okay, I'll go," I said and got to my hooves and gave Rain a nod before I headed off to the main military HQ for Junction Town.

I just hoped that what I had to tell them wasn't going to make things worse.

"Scootaloo, there you are, I hope you've been informed of the situation in Neigh Orleans," Midnight said as I entered the planning room. "What can you tell us about what's going on?"

"Well, if the Enclave does have the key from 26, which there's no reason to believe that they don't, we have a serious problem," I said with a sigh as I looked at my hooves. "There's only one key left, and its in Stable 97."

"Where's Stable 97?" Midnight asked as she looked at me for a long moment. "Why are all the keys so spread out across Equestria anyway?"

"To make sure that they don't fall into the wrong hooves," I said with a sigh. "I put them all in remote Stables in hopes that they wouldn't be found and spread them around Equestria. The idea was that even if one or two were stumbled across by accident, the rest could hold the whole thing together, I didn't actually think that somepony would be able to track down all six of them."

"That's not exactly a secure system," Midnight commented as she looked at me for a long moment and sighed. "I know you were hoping that nopony could get access to it, but why? Why go through all this trouble to keep it locked away?"

This was it, the moment of truth, I had to decide whether or not to tell Midnight and the NCR everything. I didn't have much of a choice, and at the very least I could tell them part of the truth.

"Because of what it is, there's a weapon in there, a Megaspell, one that was so powerful it was never put into use," I said with a sigh. "It was given to Stable-Tec, and I had it locked away to make sure it could never be used. I know it doesn't make much sense, but I had to be sure... I guess that's coming back to haunt me too."

"Its okay Scootaloo, we don't blame you for what Winter is trying to do," Midnight said with a sigh. "But we do need to know where the last key is so we can stop the Enclave from getting at it. Where is Stable 97?"

"San Prancisco," I said without hesitation, I knew I'd have the backup I needed.

Midnight however seemed to pause for a moment at that as if she was worried, that did not bode well for our situation. "That, is going to be a problem to be honest. San Prancisco is in a state of anarchy with the Raider Gangs having basically taken over. We control Ponytraz Island in the middle of the bay, but other than that we don't have much of a hoofhold in the city."

Well, that didn't help matters at all, now we had to deal with both the Enclave and Raiders. I had my doubts that we'd be able to make it through as easily as we did in Vanhoover, and that worried me.

"So what are we going to do then?" I asked as I looked at Midnight. "We have to get into that city and keep the Enclave from getting into Stable 97. If we don't stop them, we've got bigger problems than everything that's come before."

Midnight sighed a little and nodded as she pulled out a map of San Prancisco. It was marked and divided into what looked like different pieces of territory.

"Basically we're looking at a situation like Seaddle was in before the Great Schism ended," Midnight said with a sigh. "The problem here is that the Raider Gangs have turned the entire city into a warzone, they attack each other just as much as they do us or the Enclave."

"What about the Enclave, what kind of presence do they have in the city?" I asked as I looked at her, maybe this would give us an advantage.

"They're just as limited as we are, they've mostly been focused on the outer edges of the city since the Raiders aren't exactly letting them get into the inner city easily," Midnight said as she pointed at the outer edges. "Let me guess, Stable 97 is not on the outer edge."

"No, no it is not," I said with a sigh as I ran my hoof along the city streets. "Its more or less in the dead center of town. There is, also a risk that they might be more susceptible to the Enclave because of the experiment. This wasn't my idea mind you, but 97 was built to basically test the control of information and the impact of education. We, kind of set it up to make them more..."

"Dumb?" Midnight asked as she looked at me in disbelief. "Okay... that's not one of the better ideas Stable-Tec has had, and you've had some real bad ideas."

"I know, I know, this one was put together when Apple Bloom went into labor," I said with a sigh. "We left some ponies in charge while we dealt with it and, well, some of their choices weren't exactly sound."

"Alright, we'll deal with the problems of Stable 97 when we can, but for now we have to get into that city," Midnight said and looked at me. "Are you up for this? We'll send who we can, but you and your friends still have quite the challenge ahead of you."

I sighed and looked down at the map one more time before I nodded, we had gotten through the worst the Enclave could throw at us so far and we were mostly fine. This was going to be our last chance to stop them from getting at Protocol Zeta, and I wasn't going to make it easy for them.

"We'll do it," I said with a nod.

"Good, of course I'm afraid Arc Light will have to stay behind," Midnight said and I sighed. I had expected that, but it still stung to know that it twas going to happen.

"What's going to happen to her?" I asked.

"The fact that she gave herself up and was coerced is going to help her case," Midnight said with a nod. "If she agrees to help us break up the Enclave's spy ring, I'll make sure she gets a light sentence."

I nodded in understanding. "Can I see her before I have to go?"

Midnight nodded and we headed back out, I sighed a little, it wasn't going to be easy to see Arc like this but it had to be done.

"Well fillies and gentlecolts, we've got some more news from the front lines of the war. It seems that the Enclave's Flagship the Nimbus has been spotted near the Raider camps to the far south. It seems that the Enclave is still making good on its anti-Raider policy, that's something at least. Our friend the Wanderer is back in the news as well, having just returned from Vanhoover where she was involved in talks with one of the local tribes. It doesn't seem that things went well there, but at the very least everything else seems to be going fine. I'll keep you up to date with the latest reports from around Equestria as they come into my studio. Now here's..."

Before the music could start we reached the holding cell belonging to Arc Light. I frowned a little and looked behind the bars at where the Unicorn was sitting dressed in a prisoner uniform. She barely looked at me as we entered.

"What are you here for Scootaloo?" She asked as one of her orange eyes fell on me and she shook her head. "Are you here to make me feel even more guilty about this than I already do?"

"Arc, I..." I started to say, honestly I didn't have a good answer for that. Arc was a pony that I had grown to trust and like, she had saved my life more times than I could count and I had done the same. Now she was sitting in a prison cell because she had spied on us for the Enclave. "I'm sorry, I wish I could say more but right now all I can do is apologize."

"I'm the one who should be apologizing to you Scootaloo," Arc said with a sigh as she turned and looked at me. "The Enclave knew that I'd be in a position to feed them information on you if they pushed me in the right direction. It was my weakness that got me in this mess, not anything you did."

"Arc, caring about your friends and everypony you grew up with is not weakness," I said with a sigh as I looked into the cell and back at Midnight. "You did everything you could to make sure that the ponies you cared about were kept safe. I'm not going to lie and say I don't feel mad at you for what you did, but I know that you did it because you felt you had no other choice."

Arc sighed and closed her eyes. She just sat there like that for a long moment, it was quiet in the holding cells and it felt a little eerie. I flinched a little when I saw a bruise on her side, it was fresh and I turned to look at Midnight again.

"She looks hurt what's going on?" I asked as I looked at Midnight harshly.

"Scootaloo, I didn't want this to happen either, but some of the NCR's interrogators can be a bit... intense," Midnight said as she looked away from me.

"Are you saying they're torturing her?" I asked and grit my teeth, that was not something I wanted to hear. "Why would they do that?"

"Torture implies that they're doing it to get information, its more like they're doing it to make sure she pays for what she did," Midnight said with a shake of her head. "I don't like it and I'm trying to get the President to deal with it, but my hooves are tied right now."

I was livid, it was bad enough that Arc was being held like this but she was being physically assaulted in the interrogations? I was starting to understand why Winter was so adamant about speaking out against the NCR, this wasn't right, and there was nothing I could do about it.

"I'm sorry..." Midnight said as she looked down at her hooves. "They're not under my command so there's not much I can do."

I frowned and shook my head, there had to be something that we could do to make sure that Arc wasn't treated like this. I couldn't break her out either, but the fact was that we couldn't risk just anypony finding out why she was being held.

"I'm sorry Arc, I'd stop it if I could," I said with a sigh as I looked at my Unicorn friend. "I... don't know what I'm going to do honestly."

"Just keep doing what you're doing," Arc said as she looked at me with a soft smile. "Scootaloo, you're one of the bravest and strongest ponies in Equestria. You're going to do a lot of good for this world, way more than I could do for it in my current state. I'll be fine, don't worry about me."

"I'll figure something out," I said with a soft nod. "You're my friend Arc, no matter what... I just need some time to figure some things out."

Arc nodded and laid back on the cot she had for a bed and sighed. There wasn't much I could do right now, I hated being so powerless to help my friend, but there wasn't anything I could do.

"I'll see you later," I said and headed out of the holding cells with Midnight close behind. "How long until we can leave for..."
I stopped in mid-sentence when I saw a familiar purple and green dragon looking down at me. "Hello Scootaloo," Spike said as he looked down at me with a sad look on his face. "I heard about what happened with your friend..."

"Yeah, I wish there was something more I could do," I said with a sigh as I rubbed my foreleg. "Can I help you with something?"

"Well, maybe there's something I can help you with, there's somepony who wants to talk to you," Spike said and looked at Midnight who nodded and backed away. "If you're willing to go at least."

"Go? Go where?" I asked as I looked at the dragon strangely. "What's going on?"

"I'm going to send you to the SPP Hub," Spike said with a sigh as he looked down at me. "I won't lie, I've heard the experience is excruciating, but there are ponies there who want to talk with you. Are you willing to go?"

I paused for a long moment, that was kind of a weird request. The SPP Hub was where Celestia and LittlePip were, why would they want to talk to me? Okay maybe Celestia would, something about this still felt a little weird.

"Okay, I'll go," I said with a nod as I looked up at Spike and braced myself for what I knew was about to happen. "I'm ready."

Spike nodded and I was engulfed in green fire and for a moment I felt like my body was burning up and coming apart. I guess I was, but that all faded after an instant and for a long moment it felt like I was nothing

When I opened my eyes again I found myself in the middle of a circular room with a computer against the far wall. I took a moment to check myself, everything was still there, that was good.

"Hello Scootaloo," a melodious voice said and I turned and looked at the crusader maneframe with a smile. In the large screen at the center was an image of Princess Celestia who looked at me with a soft smile. "It is good to see you again finally, we have been following your actions as best we can."

"Yeah, well, its had its ups and downs," I said as I rubbed the back of my head a little with a sigh as I removed my hat and smiled softly. "But its actually nice to see you again, I didn't actually think that I'd ever be standing here."

"Well, given everything you've been through I felt it was time that I had a chance to talk to you," Celestia said with a sigh as she looked at me. "I know that you're still trying to make up for everything you did during the war, I'm sorry that you were placed in that position to begin with."

"Yeah, I'm just trying to do my best to be better I guess," I said with a sigh as I looked at the screen. "Sometimes though I wonder why out of all my friends I was spared."

"I wish I could tell you why Scootaloo," Celestia said with a shake of her head. "There's not really a simple answer to it. Why did any of us survive? Maybe some of us were just meant to suffer, but at the same time maybe we all have some greater purpose that is still to be seen."

"Besides, you've done a lot to help Equestria," a new voice said and I looked over with a surprise to see a Unicorn mare that was just a little shorter than I was with a grey coat and a short brown mane. Strangely, she looked a little like a filly I went to school with, but that was beside the point.

"Hello LittlePip," I said with a smile as I gave her a polite nod. "I, admit I wasn't expecting to meet you so soon."

"I admit that I wasn't expecting this either," LittlePip said as she offered me a hoof and I shook it and smiled. "Like Celestia said, we've been following your adventures as best we can. Homage has told me a lot about you too, it takes a lot to impress that mare that much."

"Well, I try my best," I said as I rubbed the back of my head a little. "So, why did you bring me here? I don't think it was just to tell me how awesome I am."

LittlePip and Celestia laughed at that as they looked at me. "Well, we heard about what had happened with Arc, I know that wasn't something that was easy for you to learn," Celestia said with a sigh as she shook her head. "What are you thinking you're going to do about it?"

"Honestly? I don't know," I said with a sigh, this was something that was hard to explain. "Arc is a good friend, and I feel very betrayed by this whole thing, you can't really blame me for that. I don't know what I'm going to do honestly, even if she was trying to help the others from Stable 66..."

"You don't know if you can forgive her for it? Your mother felt the same way when she found out about Fluttershy's betrayal," Celestia said with a sigh as she looked over at LittlePip. "And we all know how that went. Do you really think you should risk ruining a friendship that has survived this long right now? Yes I know you feel betrayed, but Arc feels guilty for having done this."

"Yeah but, what if I never see her again anyway because she's sent to jail for life or something?" I asked with a sigh and LittlePip shrugged.

"Well, that's for you to figure out," she said. "Look, I can't help but feel a little responsible for this whole situation. The breaking of the cloud cover was what lead to the Enclave being forced into this position."

"No, no, you did the right thing," I said with a smile. "You saved countless lives by breaking the cloud cover and gave the Pegasi a chance to be more than just what they were. You did what I never could do, you gave them a chance. Sure the Enclave is still around, but that was going to happen either way. And, maybe some good managed to come out of this after all, Winter is something different from any other Enclave leader they've had before. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing yet, but it might mean that they have a chance at changing."

"Perhaps," Celestia said. "We're not really capable of judging the Enclave and their actions fairly right now. If Winter truly is something different for the Enclave, then she will show it in her actions. But right now she's doing more harm than good for Equestria."

"The villain of the piece," I said with a sigh as I looked between the two. "I don't know if that's what she sees herself as, but somehow this feels like its my fault. She, had access to my journals that I had left behind above the clouds. Its how she knew about Protocol Zeta to begin with and why she's going to try and use it. I hate to say it, but I created Winter Breeze, I made the threat she has become possible. I'm just as much at fault as you are LittlePip."

"Its not ours to assume whether or not something could've happened with or without our intervention," Celestia pointed out. "Winter Breeze may have still carried out her plans without knowing anything about Protocol Zeta. Winter is trying to create a new world and a future, we cannot assume to know her motivations or what reason she might have for what she's doing."

I sighed, Celestia had a point of course, but something about Winter's behavior still bugged me. Yes there was the fact that she was trying to create a future, but why? What motivation would an Enclave politician have for such an act? Something about this was weird, it felt like we were missing a piece of the puzzle still.

"Hey, you never know, maybe everything will turn out okay after all," LittlePip said with a shrug. "I know you're trying to do everything you can to make sure that the Enclave doesn't get access to... what exactly is Protocol Zeta?"

I looked at Celestia, she was probably the only other living being in Equestria (or, being, I'm not sure if being in a computer counted as living) who knew what had been developed. She had been the one who leaked me the information on the Megaspell itself, something I felt I owed her for.

"Its, a megaspell," I said with a sigh and Celestia nodded. "One that we can't allow to be used or even accessed. I made sure that it was locked away to anypony who wasn't myself or related to me, but..."

"You didn't expect one of your descendants to turn out to be the leader of the Enclave?" LittlePip asked and I nodded. "Yeah, I don't think I would've expected that either if I was in your position. But there's nothing you can do about it now. You just have to keep moving forward and hope that Winter can be stopped before its too late."

"Do you think its possible at this point?" I asked as I looked between them. "She has five of the six keys, if she can get the last one she'll be able to access the Megaspell."

"Well, maybe then you should make sure she doesn't get her hooves on the last key," LittlePip said and gave me a smirk. "You're not going to get anything done by playing it safe you know. There has to be a way to keep them from getting at the key."

"Oh sure there is, but its risky and its also a matter of getting to it first," I said with a shrug. "The Enclave has been one step ahead of us this whole time. They've made it to every Stable except for 117 ahead of us, and they're going to be getting close to Stable 97."

"Well don't give up hope," Celestia said as she shook her head. "You've got friends who will back you up and you never know where you might find allies. I'd say give it a chance, the Enclave is not infallible and there are ponies out there who have a strong interest in stopping them."

"I see," I said with a frown, I didn't know exactly where I was going to find any of them though. "Do you have anything more than that I can go on?"

"Zebratown," LittlePip said and I blinked a little at that.

"Near Canterlot?" I asked as I looked at her strangely. "Why would I go there?"

"No, the other Zebratown, the one in San Prancsico," Celestia said and I facehooved at that, I had forgotten that Zebratown was also a nickname given to a part of the city there.

"Okay, what's there?" I asked as I looked between the two strangely. "Why do I need to go there of all places?"

"Its hard to explain Scootaloo, but there may be something of help there," Celestia said with a sigh. "Its not too far out of your way, you'll just have to hope you can get past the front door."

"Great, that fills me with such confidence," I said with a groan as I looked at Celestia. "Celestia I... I'm sorry, I should've done better and given Equestria more of a chance than I did. I thought I was doing the right thing by creating the Stables like I did but maybe it would've been better if I just made them shelters without the experiments. I screwed up big time, I don't really know what else to say other than that."

"Scootaloo, we all made mistakes during the war," Celestia said as she looked at me sympathetically. "I shouldn't have set up Luna's school so close to the Zebra border. Maybe I should've sued for peace better instead of letting everything go the way it did. And that's not even going into what happened to Big Mac... the whole war was in part my own fault, and I am truly sorry that I put you in that position at all."

I nodded sadly. "We can't change the mistakes we made in the past, all we can do is try and do better. We can hope that when everything is said and done, everything we did was enough that we're forgiven for our mistakes."

"Have you been talking to Blackjack?" LittlePip asked as she looked at me strangely.

"Uh, no, I actually haven't met Blackjack..." I said and looked at her confused, Cherry had mentioned something about Blackjack being dead which just raised more questions. "Why?"

"Oh, that just sounds like something she once said," LittlePip said with a shrug. "Come on, lets get you ready to go back home."

I nodded and looked at Celestia one last time. "Thank you."

"For what, Scootaloo?" The Princess asked me.

"For giving me a chance to speak with you, it means more than you know," I said with a soft smile as I nodded to LittlePip. "You too Lightbringer."

"Well that's what I do Wanderer," LittlePip said with a chuckle as a green swirling portal appeared in front of me. "If you see Homage again, tell her I said hello and that maybe I'll get to come home soon."

"I will," I said with a light smile, though I wondered what she might mean by that.

"If you do not mind Scootaloo, we would prefer to keep this conversation secret, at least for now," Celestia said. "You may tell your marefriend and the Zebra that travels with you, but that is it."

"Okay," I said and headed through the portal, it was time to get back to my friends.

"You're kidding, you really went and met Celestia and LittlePip?" Cherry asked as we got ready for bed that night, we were heading out to San Prancisco the next day. "How'd that go?"

"It was an interesting experience," I said as I laid down on the bed and gave her a smile. "I have to admit, I wasn't ever expecting to meet them like that. I don't really know what to say, it was, different than I expected I'll admit."

"Well, still its not every day you get to meet the Lightbringer," Cherry said with a shrug. "So, what did they have to say?"

"They wanted to give me some advice on what to do with Arc and everything," I said with a shrug. "It was actually pretty helpful, I guess I just need to figure some things out still. What do you think I should do?"

"Well, part of me thinks we should forgive Arc for everything," Cherry said with a sigh. "She was just trying to help and she seems to really regret her decision. But at the same time, we don't know if she's being genuine do we?"

"No, not really," I admitted with a shake of my head. "But I know Arc, she's not lying about this. I think she genuinely regrets what she had to do, but still, its not easy to forgive her for something like that."

"I know, and we'll figure it out, but for now we need to focus on stopping the Enclave," Cherry said with a sigh as she nuzzled me gently. "Do you think we'll be able to?"

"Honestly, I don't know, but I hope we will," I said with a nod as I nuzzled back and held her close. "We'll stop the Enclave as best we can, they're not going to succeed, I promise you that."

Cherry smiled and snuggled up to me and closed her eyes gently. I just had to hope that it was a promise I was going to be able to keep. I sighed softly and wrapped my wings around her gently, it was just a matter of getting to San Prancisco now and hoping that everything was going to be okay.

The next day we packed our things aboard the Vertibuck and said our good-byes. I gave Rain a hug as we got ready to leave.

"Hey, try not to win the war too fast, okay? I want another crack at the Enclave," Rain said with a chuckle and I just laughed a little at that.

"I'll see what I can do," I said with a chuckle. "You take care of that little one, okay? That job's way more important than anything we're doing."

"Yeah, yeah, still its boring compared to being on the front lines," Rain said with a shake of her head and gave me another hug. "I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Okay," I said and hugged back as we climbed aboard the Vertibuck and waved as it started to take off.

I looked down at the building where Arc was still being held. It was weird leaving her behind, but at this point we didn't have a lot of choice. She was going to have to stay strong and hopefully we'd be able to figure out some way to forgive her.

I sighed and closed my eyes as we flew off towards San Prancisco, I just had to hope that we were going to be okay.

LEVEL UP!
Perk Received: Lorekeeper.
Details: You've gained a better knowledge of the world around you and what's been going on. You gain an extra point in intelligence.