I’m reminded of a story I read once when I was a filly.

It was about another pony in another war somewhere on the far side of the galaxy. Not a war like we know it, more primitive, but no less deadly and dangerous. Anyway, the main character once asked why war was only a three letter word, that such a scary word should be at least four letters or more.

I’ve lived through one war and fought in another, and I have to agree with him on that. There is nothing in this world that I have seen that is more terrifying than the horrors that ponykind brings upon itself in war.

With everything I’ve seen, I have to wonder if I’m going to be the same pony I was when I first left on this journey. I’ve seen more death and destruction in the past few months than any pony should have to see in their lifetime.

But haven’t I done more than that? I’ve grown, I’ve done everything I can to make up for my own sins. I don’t know if everypony out there has completely forgiven me for what I did, but maybe, just maybe I’ve done enough.

Or maybe I’ll never do enough, not in the eyes of some ponies. Maybe not in my own eyes either. Regret is a powerful motivator, and it can change the nature of a pony, for good or for bad.

As we headed for Hurricane Bay all of this was going through my mind. I frowned a little when we saw bodies, a lot of dead bodies of ponies dressed in Enclave power armor that looked like they had been picked clean already.

“Who did this?” Arc asked as we pushed past them, there was an eerie quiet to the scene that made even the distant gunfire seem silent.

“I, don’t know,” I admitted as I looked at them worriedly for a moment. I had no idea what might’ve done this and whatever it was was not something I wanted to cross paths with if it wasn’t friendly. “Watch your EFS, I don’t want anything sneaking up on us.”

But as we looked around with our EFS there wasn’t anything, it was like whatever had done this hadn’t left anypony alive to tell the tale. We didn’t have time to dwell on that, there wasn’t any signs of hostiles in the area so we pushed on towards the gate that lead to Hurricane Bay.

For those not familiar with Hurricane Bay, its a beach, yeah a beach built into the clouds. After the cloud cover was created, which obviously cut the Pegasi off from things like the ocean, some inventive pony came up with the idea of building a small body of water up in the clouds.

I remembered when I lived here with my family we came here every so often. Cloudy loved the water, the sand, the sun, it was one thing from my time above the clouds that I remembered fondly.

But today, today it had been turned into a refugee camp. There were Alliance soldiers all around directing civilians and the occasional defector to other parts of the bay until they could be evacuated out of the city itself until the fighting was over.

“How is this even possible? Arc asked as she looked at me curiously. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“Pegasi ingenuity, from a time when that actually meant something more than just building weapons of war,” I said and shook my head sadly. “Come on, let’s get to the arcade.”

As we approached the building that made up the entrance to Wonderbolts Field itself, we were stopped by an Applejack’s Rangers scribe that was apparently making a record of everypony that came through the area.

“Names,” he said without even looking up at us.

“Scootaloo Dash and company, we’re here to see Paladin Pecan Sandie,” I said as the scribe rolled his eyes.

“Right, and I’m the Lightbringer, look lady I don’t care who you say you are, I’ve heard ponies claiming to be everypony from…” he started to say before he finally looked up and stopped in mid-sentence. “Oh, General Dash, I apologize. Yes, Paladin Sandie is inside, he received word that you were coming and told me to tell you and the others to wait for him in the main arcade.”

I nodded and we headed into the arcade past the scribe who was probably hoping we weren’t going to report him.

I had been to my fair share of arcades in my youth and I wasn’t really sure what to expect from an Enclave arcade. Strangely, it actually looked a lot like the ones I remembered, with some twists to it.

There were your usual games, and then there was a target shooting game with ponies with a very noticeable brand. Other machines had a variety of games, fortune telling machines, and even what looked like animatronic puppets and other things.

Out of curiosity I hit the button on one of them with two puppet foals as they started to move and a recorded voice played. “Are you a Duke or are you a Dimwitt? When Duke sees a foal from the surface who doesn’t have any lunch at school, he offers to share what he has with them. When Dimwitt sees a foal from the surface who doesn’t have any lunch at school, he ignores them and eats on his own. Remember fillies and colts, don’t be a Dimwit!”

“Well, that’s certainly different from the Duke and Dimwit machines I remember from when I was a filly,” Sunrise said with a chuckle.

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they shall not turn from it,” a stallion’s voice with a mechanical distortion. I turned to see a pony dressed in Applejack’s Rangers power armor standing there and gave us a nod. “General Dash, you made good time.”

“Paladin Pecan Sandie I presume,” I said and he nodded. “Well, we didn’t run into any soldiers outside, at least not any living ones, so we got here quickly.”

The Paladin paused a moment at that and shook his head for a moment. “I’m not surprised, we’ve had a bit of a strange encounter here. There was this mare dressed in old Enclave Power Armor that attacked the other soldiers in the park. When I tried to investigate she nearly attacked me, but stopped for some reason just short of actually hitting me.”

“Weird,” Riva said and looked thoughtful for a moment.

I was just as curious about this honestly. If she had stopped from attacking the Paladin that might be a sign that she wasn’t an enemy, that was something at least. But still, who was this strange pony?

“Do you have any idea who she might be?” Sunrise asked as we looked at the Paladin who just shook his head.

“If she’s not going to kill members of the Alliance then she might at the very least be willing to work with us,” Paladin Sandie said and sighed. “If anything she’s helped clear out the Enclave soldiers, but its not helping with our situation given that we still have to get access to the Spitfire line. And if she ever decided we were a threat, she’d likely kill any of us that got in her way.”

“Alright, if we run into her we’ll be careful,” I said with a nod. “So what do we need in order to get access to the Spitfire Line?”

“The Enclave put as much of their troopers in the park as they could afford and set up two failsafes to keep us from getting to the line,” Pecan Sandie said as we moved forward over to a map of the park that was on the hallway leading to the entrance. “We need to get the key from the commanding officer, and he’s holed up here.”

He pointed up at the northern end of the park towards the entrance to the Spitfire line, that figured.

“So, how do we know our mysterious friend hasn’t killed him already?” Arc asked.

“Because she went this way, and here’s where we get our problem,” Pecan Sandie said as he pointed at another part of the park labeled “The Hall of Enclave History.” “She was last seen pursuing Enclave troops this way. And this is also where we have to go in order to restore power to the rail line since the main breaker is here.”

“So, we have to go in there, with three of us dressed in Enclave Power Armor, and hope she looks at her EFS long enough to notice that we’re not hostiles,” Sunrise said.

“I know enough about power systems I should be able to get it back up and running,” Arc said with a nod.

“Alright, we’ll get it done,” I said as I looked out the door towards where the park was. “Is there anything else?”

“Well, one of the Knights thought they saw a robotic pony heading that way too, might be nothing, but keep an eye out,” he said with a nod. “Good luck, all of you, we’ll focus on securing the rest of the park for now and I’ll send whatever backup I can.”

I nodded and we headed down the hall towards the park itself. I took a deep breath and pushed the door to the park entrance area open and hoped that this was the right move to make.

The welcome center to Wonderbolts Field was set up with a central big area and two wings off to the side. I shook my head a little at the sight of a large mechanical pony dressed in an elaborate looking uniform with foals in a circle around it.

The place looked like it had been closed down for awhile as it was being remodeled with pictures and signs in the process of being taken down. There was also a big sign that said “Temporarily closed for renovations on order from the President.”

When I pointed this out to Sunrise she chuckled a little. “Yeah, this was a bit controversial with the ponies in charge of the park and long time fans. The President felt that it was too trapped in the past so she ordered, well, massive renovations to the park. I guess they were interrupted by everything that’s going on.”

We headed out of the welcome center and into the park itself. There was buildings lining the boardwalk with signs pointing towards different areas. I looked towards where it was pointing towards the Hall of Enclave History and paused a moment when there were more dead Enclave soldiers.

“Hey Scootaloo, look at this,” Arc said as she levitated a piece of paper out of the grip of one of the soldiers and levitated it to me.

Curiously I uncrumpled it and read it, “Direct the target towards the Hall on the far side of the park. We cannot allow her to make it into Emporia.”

That was definitely a problem, it meant that whoever this was was walking right into a trap. Even if they were a good fighter, if Cloud Chaser was as smart as his reputation said, she didn’t have the best odds of making it out of there alive.

“So, what do we do?” Garnet asked as I passed the message around.

“We have to go to the Hall anyway, we might as well see if we can help this pony,” I said with a nod as we looked towards the way to the Hall.

I hadn’t been here in 200 years and the park had changed a lot. That was kind of a given really since it had been this long, but I was a bit surprised that there were a lot of familiar sights, just having been changed over the years.

“Seriously?” Riva said and facehooved at the sight of a carousel that had of all things, partially re-painted Zebras. I shook my head, hopefully that was something that was being redone.

“Like I said… a lot of renovations,” Sunrise said as we walked past it and headed for the Hall itself.

The thoroughfare that lead to the Hall of Enclave History was flanked by two buildings. One looked like a gift shop and the other was a restaurant called “The Flying Ace.” I paused a moment as we looked up at the large building that loomed in the distance.

“Scootaloo, is everything okay?” Arc asked as I checked my weapons.

“Honestly? I don’t know, there’s just something about this that feels off to me,” I said with a shake of my head. “Something about all of this feels familiar. Do you think we’re doing the right thing right now? We don’t even know if whoever this is won’t just kill us like she did with the Enclave soldiers.”

“Well, they did refrain from killing the Paladin back there,” Garnet said and shook his head. “Look, we don’t know anything about who this is, but she’s walking into a trap. If this pony is an ally, then we might need all the help we can get.”

I nodded and we headed towards the hall and opened the doors. I paused a moment before we headed inside.

The central room of the Hall had three branching paths. On the right there was a sign that read “The Early Days,” on the left there was another one that said “Operation Cauterize,” and finally in the middle there was one that said “The Modern Enclave.”

Of course there were more dead bodies, though not as much as there had been outside. The doors in all three directions looked like they had been forced open.

“So, which way do you think she went?” I asked.

Sunrise looked thoughtful for a long moment and pointed forward. “That way, there’s a sizeable courtyard on the other side of that hall and it would be the logical place to set up a trap.”

“And since its broken down, yeah I’d say she’s probably there,” Arc said with a nod and gulped a little. “So, we’re walking into the trap too then?”

I nodded and we pushed forward into the exhibit. It was still under construction, that much was clear, but there were mechanical ponies and statues of Winter and the other Wonderbolt Generals around.

Though I noticed that one of them was in a state of disrepair, I could barely make out a golden coat in the machine as we went past but I didn’t pay it any attention. There was no need to think on it right now.

There were other parts of the exhibit, but we didn’t pay it much attention. A few ponies here and there, more statues, the usual really as we pushed through the exhibit to the end and the courtyard Sunrise had mentioned and I stopped in my tracks.

Standing in the center was a pony dressed in Enclave Power Armor alright, old Enclave Power Armor that looked fused as if… oh you have got to be kidding me.

“Cricket?” I asked as the doors shut behind us, I shook my head and snapped out of the shock. Of course she was here, where else would she be? “Cricket, listen to me, the Enclave has been…”

“Setting up a trap and hoping to lure me into it?” Cricket said, giving her head a shake “What, do you think I can’t read? Sending out notices for a obvious trap on a sheet of paper to soldiers - I thought this guy was brighter than that.”

I started to say something but then realized she had a point, why would he leave an obvious message out like that? I was about to say that we needed to get out of here when the gates behind us slammed down and locked.

“Guys…” Arc said as the magical aura she had around her rifle faded and the weapon fell to the ground.

“FREEZE!” A commanding voice said from above and we looked up to see that we were surrounded by Enclave soldiers, several of which had very nasty weapons aimed right at Cricket.

There was a crackle of static over the PA system before the calm accented voice of Cloud Chaser was heard. “Hello Cricket, it has been a long time since we last talked. I had hoped you of all ponies would have enough sense to see our way of thinking.”
“Ah yes, I used to - Until I realized how you played me and used me, taking advantage of a broken mare who lost it all, having her do all your dirty work and never giving her the recognition she deserved.” Cricket said with a soft chuckle. “Really, Cloud Chaser - You are a disappointment, and a shame to the name.”

I blinked a little in surprise at that, what did she mean by that? Okay yeah, there was a pony named Cloud Chaser, or two ponies I think it was, back when I was living in Ponyville, but what was Cricket going on about here?

“You’re one to talk Cricket, I’ve seen your file, I know everything there is to know about you,” Cloud Chaser countered. “You’re more of a monster than anypony I’ve ever known, you’re a wolf set upon sheep. And the time has finally come to put you down. As for the rest of you, a shame you had to walk into our little trap, don’t bother trying to fight, if you make one move my soldiers will open fire.”

“So, Who do you have watching this little trap of yours? Surely you don’t let your little pet out with any soldier, there’s an officer here - and he’s close, that lizard doesn’t work at long distances.” Cricket said with a more audible laugh. “And I think I know who it is, and you know that if you don’t stop me, he is dead - and you’re next.”

“You have three anti-machine rifles and two missile launchers aimed at your head, you can’t fly, you can’t move, you are trapped here and here you will die,” Cloud Chaser’s cold voice said. “On my mark, open fire.”

“Oh listen to you, all grown up.” Cricket said “Of course you know, If I die, so do you, My crew are not going to let you get away with murdering their captain, are you prepared to face the wrath of my ship and all aboard?”

“You think you’re so smart, a shame you don’t know all the pieces on the board,” Cloud Chaser said calmly. “The order is given Colonel, open fire.”

“Cricket to Canticum Lunae, lock on my location and prepare to fire.” Cricket called out “See, this magic neutralization field, it doesn’t work on radios, or on standard ballistic weapons. You shoot me, this entire place goes up in flames, and then you’re next.”

There was a click as the soldiers readied their weapons and prepared to fire. “Strong words for a pony who is about to die,” Cloud Chaser said calmly. “My soldiers are willing to die for the Enclave, are you willing to die for your misguided beliefs? You can open fire, but you will not survive.”
“Cloud Chaser, you have made many mistakes, trying to murder the president, going against your brothers and sisters in arms, raising an army to fight for your corrupted and twisted views. But, I have to say your biggest mistake was this - you put something in a trap, that you should never in a million years, put in a trap.” Cricket said with a bit of a laugh.

“And what’s that?”

“Me, Of course.” Cricket said before she started to move, first few hoof falls were heavy, but she gained momentum “Mistake one, thinking I couldn’t move, I knew you’d use that lizard to try and hold me down.”

“Fire damn it, open fire!” Cloud Chaser ordered, his calm demeanor breaking for a moment as the soldiers started to fire at Cricket.

“Second Mistake, Not Jamming comms.” Cricket said with a chuckle, doing all she could to make sure any shot could not hit her as planned. “Cricket to Canticum Lunae, Fire small batteries.”

The sound of deep thunder filled the air, the sounds of shells whistling down to the courtyard, taking out several structures with exposed soldiers. “Third mistake, Obvious hiding spot for your pet.” Cricket said, jumping a burm and landing next to an officer holding the lizard. “See, you may be a tactical genius - but you are just a novice compared to me, I taught you this tactic, I wrote the book on this.”

It took us only a second to respond as the soldiers began to panic. I removed the SOAR from my battle saddle as Arc pushed over her rifle and I fit it into the now empty slot and entered SATS to take aim at the nearest soldier and fired.

“This isn’t over Cricket, you can take that one out but I’ve got more, and I can get more,” Cloud Chaser said, his voice cracking a little. “You are not infalible, eventually you will slip up.”

“All things come to an end, Cloud Chaser.” Cricket said before an audible crack filled the air, within moments the areas magic was restored, and as though never missing a beat Cricket sprung to the air, and took off towards where a group of soldiers had taken cover.

And with that all hell broke loose. The Thunderbolts took to the sky and fired at the soldiers while the rest of us made a run for the stairs leading up to the balconies where they were standing.

In the flurry of action, we lost track of Cricket, only catching a glimpse of her here and there, dashing through groups of soldiers, taking them out with relative ease and finesse before she disappeared entirely, once the gunfire calmed down and those remaining soldiers either surrendered or were in retreat did we hear it, the sounds of crying and pleading and maniacal laughter.

I switched weapons with Arc again briefly as I looked around to see what had happened to Cricket. I flinched a little, most of the ponies were… well mangled beyond recognition. The ones that were still alive were running or flying out of there as fast as they could.

“This isn’t a battle…” Sunrise commented with a shake of her head. “More like a slaughter.”

“Slaughter? I prefer massacre myself.” A familiar voice from a nearby rooftop said. “Then again, I have what I came for, and He’s not going to be going anywhere.”

We looked up towards the roof to see Cricket holding a pony in a tight grip. They were dressed like an Enclave officer and she had a wing blade pressed up against his neck. “Please, mercy… I surrender, I surrender!”

“Oh no, No mercy for you.” Cricket said with a shake of her head. “Tell me, Do you hear the bells? I sure hope you do, It’s the last thing you’re ever going to hear.”

“Cricket, he’s surrendered, you can’t kill a prisoner whose surrendered!” I shouted at the armored mare and readied my SOAR again. “Let him go, we’ll get an Alicorn in here to take him prisoner!”

“Give up my prize to the alliance? Are you serious?” Cricket said with a laugh “No need to go and lose your head about it~”

“Let him go or so help me Celestia, I will make you,” I said with a growl as I aimed the rifle at her. I tried not to sound afraid, I knew what Cricked would do if I did try and kill her.

“You know that rifle isn’t enough to kill me right, so you better hope it stuns me, elsewise there is going to be a few more bodies to the list.” Cricket said, almost audibly grinning to herself as the pressed the blade more firmly to his neck “Though, Shoot me and I lose my grip and he gets a little too much taken off the top - I still win, and you die.”

I had to make a choice, the SOAR had a good chance of locking her armor up, but I didn’t know for sure. Would it work differently on a Canterlot Ghoul? I was putting me and my friends at risk if I did take the shot.

“I’m sorry…” I heard a voice from next to me as I suddenly felt the SOAR slip out of my battle saddle and be levitated up as the pony fired a bolt of energy that hit Cricket.

The energy crackled over her armor as it seized up and she dropped the officer before falling forward. The officer looked like he was about to do something when I aimed my other rifle and glared at him. “Don’t you dare.”

“Y-yes ma’am,” he said shakily as he backed away from the locked up Cricket nervously.

I turned to look at Arc who had her head lowered and levitated my rifle back over to me. “I’m sorry Scootaloo… I, knew you wouldn’t take the shot, I did what I felt was necessary.”

“Arc…” I said with a sigh and shook my head and slipped the SOAR back into my battle saddle. “You’re fine, lets just hope that we’re all going to be fine after this.”

“Okay, ha ha, now fix my armor and I might let you live” Cricket said, with a clear amount of annoyance to her voice. “I don’t know what fancy rifle you have there, but that’s only going to work once, next time I’m not going to give you the chance.”

“Uh, it, is supposed to just lock up your armor for a few minutes,” I said with a blink of surprise. “You should be able to use it soon, right?”

“Yeah, No, Power systems are offline - fix it, before I give you something else to fix.” Cricket said.

Sunrise looked down at me and I nodded. “Here, let me take a look,” she said and flew up to Cricket. “This should only take a minute.”

There was a few tense moments as Sunrise worked on the armor. After a minute she said something to Cricket before she flew back down to where I was standing. “We have a problem, whatever your gun did to her armor, I can’t reverse it,” she whispered to me.

“Are you sure?” I asked with a gulp.

“Positive, I don’t even know how that thing is still functioning,” she said with a shake of her head. “Its beaten up and damaged, the servos and the weight negating talisman isn’t functioning. By all rights, she shouldn’t even be able to move in that thing.”

“Okay, Okay, fine, I get it, you don’t want me killing you, fine, I promise not to kill you if you fix it.” Cricket said, the annoyance in her voice growing. “At least, not slowly like I planned.”

“Is there anything you can do for her?” I asked.

“Sure, I can get her out of the armor, its not like she’s fused to it or something,” Sunrise said and I blinked in surprise.

“Wait, she’s not? She’s a Canterlot Ghoul, how is she not fused to the armor?” I asked.

“Search me, maybe it didn’t get into the ventilation systems or something,” Sunrise said with a shrug.

“Any louder and you could wake the dead, So you broke it huh?” Cricket said before giving a sigh “Fine, bout time it broke. Yeah, The suit’s systems kept it airtight, only the respirator failed letting me inhale the cloud, the rest of me is fine - If someone just asked I could of told them that.”

“I’m sorry we broke your armor, I didn’t know the SOAR would have that effect,” I said with a shake of my head. “Just, don’t kill them, if you’re going to kill anypony kill me. I’m the commanding officer here, what happened is my responsibility.”

“Look, you fix my armor and I’m not going to kill anyone… right now.” Cricket said with a bit of a sigh. “At least get me out of it, it's kind of unnerving to be unable to move, like, at all.”

I nodded to Sunrise and she flew back up to where Cricket was and after a minute managed to get the power armor released. I, had to admit I was curious what Cricket looked like under that power armor, but I was still a little on edge.

With a hiss and a clang as fused plates bent and groaned as the armor released, a groan coming from Cricket as she pulled back from the armor. She was a Pegasus mare with a light purple coat and a blue-white mane and tail that looked like it had seen better days. She had some scarring around her mouth and I stopped and just looked at her for a long moment.

“Cloud Chaser?” I asked and my friends looked at me strangely. “But… you’re, what?”
“Yeah, Cloud Chaser, a name I haven’t heard for the past 5 minutes” She laughed some “No, Cloud Chaser died 200 years ago with the rest of equestria.”

“Okay, I’m confused,” Riva said and looked at me and then back at “Cricket.” “You two know each other?”

“Yeah, she lived in Ponyville when I was growing up,” I said. “That explains what you said earlier… but, why keep your identity secret for this long?”

“When your life ends with everypony else, but you keep living because of the effects of some spell. You don’t really feel like you are who you used to be.” Cricket said with a sigh “The quiet nights, when the crying was over and the storms calmed, the only sound washing over the plains was the sound of Crickets. For a while, I didn’t even speak, I had no reason to.”

I sighed and nodded in understanding. “I’m sorry Cricket, we should probably get going though… we still have a job to do here in the park, maybe when all of this is over, we could talk more?”

“Sure, I guess. Though uh, I guess you hadn’t noticed.” Cricket said, motioning towards my pipbuck.

“What?” I asked and finally looked down at my PipBuck, it was in bad shape and looked like it had probably taken a hit while we were fighting. “Crap, that’s not what I needed right now.”

“Take it off a second and let me see it, I have an idea…” Cricket said, holding out a hoof.

I nodded and after some fiddling with the straps on it I removed it and blinked a little as the EFS vanished from my eyesight. I gave it to Cricket, taking a moment to re-orient myself.

“Remember, how before the war they were experimenting with a self repairing enchantment? Clearly it doesn’t work on power systems, but it works on hardware - and funnily enough, my suit ran on Pipbuck firmware.” Cricket said, reaching into her armor and pulling out a bundle of cables. “This should give enough juice to get the armor’s self repair system back up, it should fix your pipbuck right quick.”

“Thanks…” I said and almost called her Cloud Chaser, if she didn’t want to be called that I’d respect that. “Cricket, that helps a lot.”

“Don’t be surprised if some functionality is restored that you don’t remember it even having, this armor has its way with technology.” Cricket said with a chuckle “I mean, I bet you can’t tell I’ve been impaled, shot, stabbed, shocked, fried, countless things in this armor.”

I looked over at Riva who was looking a bit nervous. I gave her a reassuring smile, at least she wasn’t freaking out over Cricket being here, so I reached over and put my hoof on her shoulder. I glanced back at Cricket for a moment.

“Aw Stripes, you almost look like you saw a ghost.” Cricket said with a chuckle and smirk “What, Not used to seeing what your necromancy does to ponies?”

“I am a storyteller, and you attacked my home, I know the legends better than anypony here,” Riva said with a scowl. “Superuenientibus tempestate.”

“Riva, please, stay calm, we don’t want something else to happen…” I said and looked at my Zebra friend nervously. “She’s on our side, she’s not going to hurt you.”

“Then you also know how I got to be known as that, but obviously from your side of the wall, did you know the zebra attacked me first?” Cricket said with a slight scowl. “I had something they wanted and they tried to get it back with force.”

Riva was about to say something and then she stopped. “Wait, what? That, wasn’t in any of the stories.”

“So, Storyteller, what do you know of the black books.” Cricket said, scowl turning to grin.

“They’re dark magic, necromantic tomes written by a mad Zebra shaman years ago,” Riva said with a scowl. “Are you saying Zebras attacked you trying to take a Black book from you?”

“Yep, It’s up there on my ship, along with the one they dropped when I kicked their flanks.” Cricket said with a chuckle. “I have no intention of using them, they are just worth a lot to the right ponies, and if I ever need some money - I throw a book at them and I’m rich beyond belief.”

Riva just stood there in shocked silence for a moment. “I, don’t know what to believe, I’m sorry. The Alliance would never have done such a thing, we only heard about it from second hand accounts.”

“The few who got away, and didn’t die when I came to get my crewmembers back that they took prisoner.” Cricket said with the shake of her head. “Look, I don’t like zebra, I don’t trust them - it's a long standing thing for me - But I’d never go out of my way to hurt zebra that aren’t hurting me or any pony else.”

“I, need to go think about this alone,” Riva said and walked off after a moment.

“Stripes, let me say this much - I’m not a monster, I’m an archangel” Cricket said with a more reassuring smile. “I seek vengeance for those who cannot, I am the voice of those who no longer have one, I don’t make a habit out of hurting those who have done no wrong.”

Riva paused a moment and looked back at her. “If you are telling the truth I have no quarrel with you. I have no quarrel with ponies, but for the moment all I have is your word. I just need to decide whether or not to believe you. And, its Riva, my name, I’d prefer to not be called Stripes.”

“Ah, was bout to ask you that.” Cricket chuckled before a rather comical ding came from her armor, reaching over and pulling the cables from the pipbuck before handing it back to me. “Don’t comment on the ding, it was Pinkie’s idea.”

“I learned a long time ago not to question anything related to Pinkie,” I said with a chuckle as I re-attached the PipBuck back to my leg and the EFS returned. “I swear, if I ever meet the pony who designed the way this works I’m gonna have a talk with him about…”

I blinked when I looked back at my PipBuck screen and messages started to scroll. I was a bit surprised by that, especially when I saw the dates on them were only a couple of days before the bombs fell. My PipBuck had been damaged the accident I had which had put me in the Hospital, and some of the features hadn’t worked right.

I ignored most of them, they just looked like your normal status reports anyway. Until I read one that had been sent a few hours after I had been admitted into the Hospital. The subject was “Nightfall.”

“Cricket what are you doing?” Arc asked, but I barely paid attention as I looked at the subject for a long moment.

Nightfall was a codeword used by a pony who was spying on a project that we were working on with Solaris in the Northwest. It wasn’t a normal situation, but they had wanted to build a Stable out there for the locals.

Nightfall meant it was a coded message, one that could be a threat to the company. I quickly opened it up and hit a few buttons to run it through the decoding program that was downloaded into my PipBuck.

“Who’s throat do you have to slit to get a laser rifle… Can somepony find one?” Cricket said, I barely heard them and didn’t react, this message could mean a lot of things, I was afraid to open it and find out what was inside.

Finally I couldn’t stand it any longer, I hit the option and it opened up. I started to read what it said and as I did my anger started to grow with every word.

I hope this gets to you, with everything that’s going on, if Solaris gets wind that I know the truth about the operation they’re probably going to kill me. We have a problem, a big problem, Solaris has been lying about the project.

I managed to get to the construction site, the Stable isn’t even there. It looks to me like they’re building a false front to make it look like they did the job but there’s nothing behind it except rock.

Furthermore files I’ve recovered have suggested that Solaris is setting Stable-Tec up to take the fall for this. They have spies within the corporation that are doctoring files and misplacing funds to make it look like Stable-Tec lied about the project. Even the rail lines are a lie, they’re building this entire thing as a way to make you look bad, this makes Sun City look subtle by comparison.

I sent the files with a courier to Fillydelphia. I’m staying behind to try and salvage the situation as best I can, hopefully I can get the locals to realize that Solaris is lying to them about the project, I don’t know if it’ll work, but if all else fails I’ll do what I can here to salvage the situation.

I’m sorry I couldn’t get this to you sooner, hopefully we can use this information against Solaris given this level of fraud could cost thousands of lives. I just hope that it’s not too late.

I was furious, it wasn’t even that they had used Stable-Tec and tried to frame us for their crimes. They had endangered lives for nothing more than just an attempt to show us up, and Celestia only knew how many ponies had been killed because of this.

I don’t know what happened next, something snapped in me. Maybe it was the message, maybe it was the weight of everything that had happened since I woke up, maybe it was both. I was consumed by a fit of immeasurable rage.

Before anypony could say anything I stormed through the now unbarred door leaving my friends very confused.

I had never felt this angry before in my life as I stormed out of the hall. I think I could hear the sound of my friends moving behind me as I pushed forward, I didn’t want to talk to them, I didn’t want to talk to anypony right now, I just wanted to get back at Solaris for what they did.

Not that I could, Solaris was long gone, almost everypony I knew was long gone, and that just made it worse. I was a survivor, there was no greater curse in this world than to be a survivor of the apocalypse.

I threw the front doors opened and stopped in mid-step when I saw what was waiting. In the thoroughfare there was a group of Enclave soldiers. They probably had come to try and finish the job and take us out.

Perfect, only problem was that I attacked them I was going to be taken out easily. Then I saw it, somewhere in the back of my mind I recognized it as a Gatling Laser, the Enclave must’ve tried to use it on Cricket, not that it did them any good, but maybe it would do the trick here.

I snatched it up and just as the Enclave soldiers turned to look at me I fired it up and started pouring energy beams down towards them, sweeping back and forth as the gun heated up in my hooves and I kept firing, pouring shot after shot into the soldiers until finally the gun ran empty.

I threw it away and stormed down towards the only surviving pony that was crawling away and slammed down on his chest with my hooves, aiming my rifle at his head. The rage wasn’t fading away, I stared him down the scope of my rifle.

“Please, don’t… have mercy, mercy!” The stallion cried as I shoved the barrel right up to him.

“MERCY? HOW MANY PONIES HAVE YOU KILLED THAT BEGGED FOR MERCY?” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I prepared to pull the trigger.

“Tsk tsk, Threatening to kill a pony who has surrendered and is now your prisoner? How the tables have turned.” A cold voice said behind me, I could feel a hoof on my shoulder before being spun round to face that familiar faded and battered powered armor clad mare. “You see, I understand you - what you’re going through, how you’re feeling. So really, no hard feelings - but if you try that again, I’m going to have to knock you out.”

I was breathing heavily, I tried to push it all aside, but everything just kept flooding back. Everypony I had killed, everything that had happened since I woke up, everything that had happened during the war.

I could’ve saved them… I could’ve made sure that the Stables could never fail. Or I could’ve just stayed somewhere and settled down, not let myself get involved in the war. I had driven the Enclave out of Tenpony Tower, if they had stayed, maybe what happened in Thunderhead never would have happened.

Dear Celestia, what have I done? I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I just broke down crying right there, the tears came so naturally that I couldn’t even hold them in anymore.

“What… what am I…”

“Just a pony, a pony pushed to your limits and finally had enough, it happens - the point is knowing when to stop.” Cricket said with a sigh. “I can’t blame you for what you’ve done, you’ve only done what you thought is right.”

“Students. Today we are going to talk about cutie marks.” The soft voice said from the robot that walked over. “A mark that shows what he or she will do in her life. Tell me Scootaloo the cutie mark given to you..What does it mean to you?” Silver asked in the voice of my old teacher.

“It… means my bond, with my friends,” I said softly as I cried even more. “It means that I can ponies figure out who they are. That I can help ponies, when they need it most. But, I just made things worse, for every pony I’ve helped, I’ve hurt even more.”

Silver sat in front of me staring. “Really.. Logic dictates you have helped many too. In fact you have helped a mare that lost everything. BlackJack you helped her get back her life. I’m sure you helped the others with you. Ignore the pain to a robot like me, I don’t see the pain. I see what you have done.”

Silver chuckled softly. “I could list it all. But I would be here forever.”

“You never gave up on me even when you found out I had betrayed you,” Arc said as she and Riva approached with the others close behind. “You had no reason to forgive me for what I did, but you did anyway. I blamed you for what you did to Stable 66, but I should be thanking you, if you hadn’t built the Stables to begin with I probably wouldn’t be here today.”

“You saved more lives than I can count just in the time I’ve known you,” Riva added. “You’re a hero to Equestria, and that’s good enough for me, and a lot of others feel the same.”

“And squirt, I’ve been watching you for a while now, Rooting for you form the sidelines believe it or not.” Cricket said “But, you helped me too, you reminded me - there is more than the sounds of crickets. There is laughter, good memories, friendships, and I admit, I forgot that for a very long time.”

“I even have somepony who wishes to say a word to you as well.” Silver said and lifted up his com.

“Scootaloo can you hear me?” The voice of Blackjack sounded over the comm. “I wish to thank you for what you did for me. You didn’t give up on me. Found me Glory and Go Fish.”

“You got the President of the Enclave to stand down, you almost ended the war right then and there by talking instead of fighting,” Sunrise said with a soft smile as she looked over at Garnet. “We may not like each other that much, but you got us to work together, you did something that even the Lightbringer couldn’t do. When this war is over, you’ll be remembered as the pony that brought peace, not war.”

“And I’m sure if Cherry was here she’d agree with us,” Arc said with a nod.

“Speaking of Cherry, She’s in nomad city right?” Cricket said with a chuckle.

“Uh, yeah, she is,” I said and blinked in surprise. “What do you have in mind?”

“One second.” Cricket said “Canticum Lunae, Discontinue firing weapons, divert power to communications, get me Nomad city and patch it into my suit, immediately, and make sure they know we are looking for a mare named Cherry Blossom.”

There was a moment before a voice came over the suit, I smiled when I heard Cherry’s voice speaking. “Hello? You wanted to talk to me?”

“Yeah, Its your great like, four times over, aunt or whatever Cloud Chaser, I have a Miss Scootaloo here, who might need her marefriend to tell her, just how much she’s helped.” Cricket said before turning the volume up, letting Cherry be heard to everypony.

“Hey Scootaloo,” Cherry said as I brushed the tears back. “Scootaloo, you’re one of the bravest, strongest ponies I’ve ever met. You saved me from a bad situation, have helped more ponies than I can count ever since I met you. You’ve changed my life and touched so many ponies around Equestria. I couldn’t have fallen in love with any other mare, and I know that you’ll keep doing your best. I don’t know what’s going on there, but I do know that you’re going to be just fine, keep up the good work, and keep helping all the ponies you can. That’s something I know you can do.”

“Thank you, I love you Cherry,” I said with a smile.

“I love you too,” Cherry said with a nod. “Now get out there and kick the Enclave’s flank for me, okay? I want you back home in one piece both physically and emotionally.”

“Yes ma’am,” I said with a laugh. “I’ll be back, I’d marry you right off the transport if I could.”

“If I am given diplomatic immunity, I am a captain of a ship, I do have the authority to marry ponies.” Cricket said with a chuckle.

“We’ll see,” Cherry said with a chuckle.

“Say hi to Serenity and the others for me,” I said with a smile before she closed the communication.

I was about to say something to the others when there was a click behind me. It took me a split second to realize what was happening, the soldier I had pinned had recovered a weapon and was in the middle of pulling the trigger.

The whole world around me slowed down as I started to turn with the sound of a rifle firing. I closed my eyes, expecting to feel the round hitting me. But I felt nothing, and instead heard something I can only describe as a mix between a clang and a crunch as the bullet hit something.

As I opened my eyes I saw Silvers head blasted open with his robotic brain in many pieces on the very ground. He looked back to me with one eye that was still intact. But after awhile there was a bit of a static charge and he shut down.

I grabbed the trigger for my Battle Saddle and aimed for the Enclave soldier who was readying another shot and fired, striking him in the head and he fell over dead. But it was too late, even if Silver could be repaired, I could tell that the damage to his memory center was too extensive.

“I’m sorry, I, couldn’t save you…” I said and placed my hoof on the robot. “Cricket, I…”

“You acted impulsively and didn’t make sure your prisoner was secure?” Cricket said giving her head a shake. “Look, we all got carried away in the moment, but that was sloppy, like really sloppy.”

“Is, there any way to repair him?” Riva asked.

“Yeah, but I don’t have the equipment, and I don’t even have any way to recover his…” I started to say, and then I stopped. I stopped, and started laughing, which got looks from my friends as if I had gone insane, or so they told me later. “Silver, you clever robot… he gave me a chip with back-ups of his memories during the Battle of Thunderhead. If his head can be repaired, he’ll be fine, I mean he won’t remember everything that’s happened since, but he’ll live.”

“Okay, so, how do we repair a robot in the middle of an amusement park?” Garnet asked.

“We don’t, Applejack’s Rangers do,” I said and started to pick the robot up but stumbled a little, but Garnet ran over and helped me. “Thanks.”

He gave me a nod and I looked back at the others. “Arc, you can get the electrical system working right?”

“Yeah,” she said with a nod.

“Okay, Cricket I know…” I started to say when there was a loud crack from overhead and we looked up to see energy streaking over the sky, hitting somewhere in the distance.

The ship that descended was massive, it was like no other cloudship I had ever seen before in my life. It made the Nimbus look like a toy in comparison, though had a similar aesthetic, just more massive. We could make out cannons and hangars and Celestia knew what else as it moved into position over the city.

“What is that thing?” I shouted, and even the Thunderbolts seemed absolutely confused.

“I’ve only heard rumors of it, they call it a supercell” Cricket commented. “Think, The Nimbus, times ten, on steroids.”

I really, really wished I could think of one of LittlePip’s creative swears right now. “Okay, this makes things hard but our objectives remain the same. Get the power back to the Spitfire line and I’ll get Silver to the Rangers, we’ll meet back up on the boardwalk to finish things here.”

Arc nodded and headed back towards the Hall with two of the Thunderbolts and one of the Rangers. I looked back at Cricket for a long moment and sighed.

“What are our odds with this thing in play? Or, do I not want to know?”

“Uh, Not very good unless we can distract it, So, I’ll be needing to get back to my ship.” Cricket said with a sigh “Sorry, can’t stick around”

“I understand, go ahead,” I said with a nod. “Just, umm… thanks again, you really saved my flank back there. Stay safe up there, okay?”

“No problem. You keep that head straight, Don’t want to find your name on my list.” Cricket said with a chuckle before she took off and started to fly towards her ship.

I sighed and looked back at the others. We headed back towards the entrance to the park, still carrying Silver with us.

“What happened out there?” Pecan Sandie asked as we moved into welcome center and laid Silver out.

“We had a bit of a run-in with the Enclave, and that pony from before is on our side at least,” I said with a shake of my head. “Silver here took a bullet from me.”

“Fascinating,” one of the scribes said as she inspected Silver’s circuity. “This is one of the most sophisticated robots I’ve ever examined. I would love to be able to…”

“He’s not just a robot, he’s a thinking and living being, just repair him and leave it at that,” I said and shot the scribe a look.

“Paladin Sandie, can’t you…” The Scribe started to say.

“Scootaloo and her friends helped Elder Nova in Manehattan, Applejack’s Rangers can help her with this,” Pecan Sandie said as he looked at the scribe.

“Alright, I should have the equipment to repair him,” the Scribe said as she went to get her stuff to repair it.

“I apologize for Postronic’s reaction,” Pecan Sandie said as he looked back towards where the scribe had went. “She’s our top expert on robots however, so she’ll be able to fix Silver quite easily. I’ll make sure that she doesn’t do anything to him in the process.”

“Thanks,” I said with a sigh as I looked down at Silver. I was a bit surprised when I noticed that his back was open, we must’ve bumped a button by accident or something while transporting him.

I looked inside out of curiosity, but instead of circuitry there was a shotgun with “Remembrance” written on it and several pictures of Silver with other ponies and a Zebra.

“Who do you think they are?” Riva asked curiously as I picked up one of the pictures.

“His friends maybe?” I said with a shrug. “He’s been around for a long time, so he’s probably gotten to know a lot of ponies. I guess these are to remember them all, something I certainly can understand.”

“Yeah,” Riva said as we gently placed the photos back in the section next to the rifle. We weren’t going to take this kind of thing away from Silver out of respect.

“Alright, I’ve got everything we need,” Positronic said as she came back in carrying her tools and some materials. “But while I can rebuild the damaged head, I don’t know if I’ll be able to restore his memories. That part of the brain is pretty badly damaged, so, I don’t know how much of him will be left. Do you still want me to try?”

“Yeah, that’s not a problem,” I said and reached into my bags and took out the chip that I had gotten before and gave it to her. “This should be a backup of his programming and memories up to around the Battle of Thunderhead.”

“Good, good, I’ll get right to work, and maybe…” Positronic started to say before a look from the Paladin cut her thought off. “I’ll do nothing other than repair him of course.”

“Good,” Pecan Sandie said as we headed back to entrance to the park as the lights started to flicker a bit before coming back on fully. “It looks like that’s one objective here in the park done, good work.”

“Thank Arc and the others, they’re the ones who brought it back online,” I said with a nod as I looked towards the Spitfire line in the distance. “You do realize that the Hardliners probably have a trap waiting for us on the other end, right?”

“Yes, we don’t doubt that,” Pecan said with a shake of his head. “Do you have any ideas on how to deal with that?”

I thought for a moment as I remembered what had happened recently before I nodded. “Send word to the Canticum Lunae, its the first ship that appeared and it should be able to provide some help, in theory.”

“Alright, I hope you’re right,” Pecan Sandie said with a nod. “Mind you with that, thing up there we’ve got our work cut out for us in the skies.”

I nodded as we looked up at the Supercell. I sighed a little as I looked over at Riva who gave me a nod. I took a deep breath and looked at it for a long moment as shook my head, of course it wasn’t going to be as easy as we had hoped.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Riva asked.

“We’ll get to the station and get the key,” I said with a sigh. “Right now that’s the only thing we can do, I just hope that it’ll be enough.”

“Alright, power should be back to the train,” Arc said as she walked up with the others. “How’s Silver doing?”

“He’s being repaired, so everything is looking up there at least,” I said as I looked at her with a smile. “Good work Arc.”

“Thanks, but it was easy enough thanks to Sunrise’s help,” Arc said and gave the Thunderbolt a nod. “She deserves part of the credit.”

“Come on, let’s get going,” I said and nodded at Garnet as we headed down the boardwalk towards the far entrance to the park.

I looked back up at the Supercell again. There was the sounds of a fight going on far above us as the ships exchanged fire, I hoped Cricket was going to be okay up there, that ship did not look like one you’d want to mess with.

But now, we had bigger problems to worry about.

The Spitfire line was part of the rail lines that ran throughout the city of Coltlumbia. It was mostly being used for transporting supplies, but the Spitfire line in particular was made to transport ponies on the monorail cars that made their way around the city and up to Emporia.

As we approached the station, there was already the sound of gunfire and explosions coming from up ahead. We turned the corner and there was already a firefight going on between Applejack’s Rangers and the Enclave Hardliners with neither side giving much ground.

“Finally you got here,” The Knight in charge said as we ducked between the police barricade that they were using as cover. “I’m guessing this means the first part of the plan went off without a hitch.”

“Well, we got ambushed, killed a bunch of soldiers, and nearly got killed ourselves, plus a robot friend got his head broken,” I said with a groan. “Yeah, definitely without a hitch.”

“Which means we just need the key,” Garnet said and the knight gave him a nod. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Well, that’s the tricky part, we know where he is, but we can’t get to him,” the Knight said with a shake of his head. “He’s well defended and getting through would be difficult unless…”

“Unless we could turn invisible?” I suggested with a smirk as I reached into my bag and took out two of the StealthBucks. “The problem is that we only have two of them, and Riva’s Invisibility cloak.”

“Not to mention not all of you have PipBucks,” Riva pointed out and I nodded.

“I still really wish I had a cardboard box right now,” I said with a sigh as I checked the charge on the StealthBucks. “Alright, only three of us can go then… who’s going to go?”

“I’ll go,” Sunrise said as she looked around at the others and I handed her one of the Stealthbucks. “I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

I gave her a nod and looked at the others. “Anypony else?”

I looked at Arc and Riva, I half expected one of them to volunteer so I was surprised when a stallion’s voice spoke up. “I’ll take the cloak,” Garnet said as Riva took it out and handed it to him.

“Are you going to be okay?” Arc asked as I started to fit the StealthBuck onto my PipBuck.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I said with a reassuring smile as I finished and looked back at the two that would be accompanying me. “I’ll take the front, you two take out the guards and use a grenade or, something if I don’t come out quickly. Come on, lets go.”

And with that we turned invisible and started on the roundabout way towards the main office where the Colonel was holed up.

I swear, I’ll never get used to being invisible no matter how many times I do this. There’s just something unsettling about it, especially when you have to hope you don’t accidentally bump into your companions, who are also invisible.

Thankfully Sunrise and Garnet were a bit more spaced out so that we wouldn’t have to worry about running into each other. I didn’t like the idea of having to kill another pony, especially not so soon after everything that had happened, but right now I didn’t have much of a choice.

I doubted he or she would be willing to listen like Fulbright had been. I paused a moment and waited for some guards to move past before I moved into the office itself. I took a deep breath, thankfully the door was open slightly so I pushed it open as much as I dared and slipped inside.

And that’s when everything fell apart as an energy blast flew at me and hit me. For a moment I thought it was going to kill me but instead the energy just crackled along my body and PipBuck as I turned visible again.

“What a handy little weapon this is,” a mare’s voice said as I got to my hooves and saw that I was staring down the barrel of two guns. “What do you call this, a SOAR?”

“Where did you get one?” I managed to say as I stopped as the Colonel reached for the other gun.

“You’d be amazed what you can find lying around, General Cloud Chaser gave it to me because he figured you’d be using your stealth equipment,” the mare said with a smirk. “So then, General Dash is it now? How about you come quietly and we won’t have to be scraping up your ashes off the floor? Drop your weapons and I’ll make sure you’re well treated, while you’re here of course.”

“What do you mean?” I asked as I started to pull the SOAR out of my Battle Saddle.

“Why, you’re a powerful bargaining chip of course,” the colonel said. “Between you and the Eclipse up there, we’re in a better position than the alliance is. Your commanders are better off surrendering now.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure, if there’s one thing I learned its…” I started to say and paused a moment before I noticed something out of the corner of my eye and smiled. “Its that the Equestrian Spirit is something that can’t be easily defeated, not by an apocalypse, and certainly not by you and the Enclave. This war isn’t over yet, and we’re not going to be defeated by the likes of you.”

I ducked down and covered my eyes just as a flashbang flew through the window and exploded after a second, leaving the colonel stunned. I looked up and rushed forward, for a moment I considered shooting her but I stopped, not now, not when I could do something else.

I picked up one of the rifles and hit her with the butt of it, knocking her out. I breathed a sigh of relief as Sunrise and Garnet came in as I was grabbing the key off of the colonel.

“Hey you two, is everypony outside dealt with?” I asked.

“Yeah, they’re either dead or being held, we’ve already signaled for Alicorns to come pick them up,” Garnet said and gave Sunrise a nod. “What about the Colonel?”

“Knocked out, tell them they have one more prisoner,” I said and gave them a nod before we headed out again.

The Rangers and my friends spotted us coming out and gave me a nod.

“I knew you could do it Scootaloo,” Arc said with a nod. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just got caught a little off guard is all,” I said with a shrug as I went to the controls of the monorail and fit the key into it. “What’s the word on when we get there?”

“Cricket said she’d lay down covering fire,” Riva said. “We’re also moving a wing of Alicorns in behind them. I’m not sure why we couldn’t just teleport in.”

“The Alicorns are one of our strongest assets in this battle, we can’t risk tiring them out,” I said with a sigh. “Believe me, I wouldn’t mind teleporting there, but we have to make do. And besides, we can move more troops this way.”

They nodded in agreement as we all started to pile on the monorail train with the Applejack’s Rangers that arrived soon after. I looked back at Paladin Pecan Sandie who gave me a nod. “How’s Silver doing?”

“When we left, Scribe Positronic was wrapping things up with him, she said it shouldn’t be too much longer,” he said. “If he’s in any condition to move, he’ll be on the next train to Emporia.”

“Good…” I said with a sigh as the train started to move towards Emporia.

Towards the heart of the city.

Maximum Level Achieved.