I looked out the window of the train as it sped off towards the distant city of New Pegasus. I had a lot to think about at this point, not the least of which being what all of this meant for me.

The Enclave had changed drastically, that much was obvious. There hadn't been any indications of what Bluejay was up to in New Pegasus other than a report of her taking over one of the ruling families, and that wasn't exactly a lot to go on.

This pony was smart, smarter than the Enclave had been before, and that scared me to be honest.

"Hey Scootaloo," Arc Light said as she took a seat next to me. "So, what do we know about New Pegasus?"

"Honestly not a whole lot," I said with a shrug, truth was I only really knew about Las Pegasus other than the occasional radio broadcast I had picked up. "During the war, when it was called Las Pegasus, it was the headquarters for Robronco under Wind Rider, I suspect that's what DJ Pon3 meant by Mr. Rider, I guess he survived somehow."

"Wind Rider?" Arc Light asked, right she wouldn't know him, I needed to stop forgetting that.

"He was a Wonderbolt before the war began, one of the best really, he set speed records that most Pegasi could only dream of," I said with a shrug. "Then he tried to frame Rainbow Dash because she was threatening his records and got kicked out. He later showed up during the war as the founder of Robronco, guy is kind of a jerk but he helped out with the Stables."

"I see," Arc said as she gave me a strange look. "Exactly how many survivors are out there?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," I said with a shrug. "I've met three others, but it sounds like Wind Rider is dead so counting me? Four, that I know of at least."

"I see," Arc said, I think she was surprised that so many ponies had survived for this long, honestly I didn't either.

The train went on in silence, I just had to hope that we'd be able to handle what was going on. We were on the verge of entering a warzone against the most dangerous threat the Wasteland had faced in years.

I sighed and took out my copy of The Book of Littlepip and started reading again.

“You know what irony is?”

I recognized the voice of Scootaloo. Even though it was raspy. Even through all her coughing, and the mad clicking, and the roar of the wind all around her.

“Irony is that it feels I spent my whole damned childhood trying to get my cutie mark, and I don’t have it anymore."

Well that was incredibly surreal, I was reading about LittlePip listening to my own final message. It felt like a lifetime ago that I had left that message on my PipBuck, I guess this is how they knew about me.

I kept on reading as the train went on into the night.

New Pegasus, it was like nothing I had seen before in the Wasteland.

It wasn't a ruined husk like Manehattan or Neigh Orleans, New Pegasus actually looked pretty close to what it had looked like during the war. Okay, so it wasn't exactly Canterlot, but it was at least mostly intact.

Okay, that may have been a poor choice of words given what happened to Canterlot.

As the train pulled to a stop at the station we climbed out along with the other travelers, mostly soldiers and mercenaries heading to New Pegasus to fight the Enclave. We found ourselves in the middle of a camp made up of a series of buildings under the mountain that New Pegasus was built on.

"What's the plan here?" Arc asked as she glanced at a pony dressed in what looked like repainted Steel Ranger Power Armor.

"Try to blend in here, if anypony asks we're mercs that came on the train," I said as I adjusted my hat again. "We need to figure out how to get into the city if we're going to get any sort of information."

Arc nodded and walked off, I just had to hope that I'd have some sort of luck as I started looking around. There were more of the ponies dressed in that power armor, but there was also a lot dressed in the uniforms of NCR soldiers like I had seen in Junction Town.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" A slightly raspy voice said as I nearly ran into another pony.

"Oh, I'm sorry I..." I started to say before looking up, the pony in front of me was dressed in a brown coat over a set of armor, but that's not what drew my attention. She was dark blue and stared at me with magenta eyes, and her mane... it was a rainbow mane, though the colors were reversed.

She was almost identical to Rainbow Dash.

"Uh, are you okay?" the pony asked as she looked at me strangely, I was staring at her. "Yeah, I know, I look like Rainbow Dash, its a long story okay?"

"You're her... you're from Project Legacy aren't you?" I asked when I finally found my voice again.

"Yeah, how did you..." the pony asked and then her eyes went wide, and she practically shouted. "AUNT SCOOTALOO?"

Great, now everypony knew I was here.

I was taken to a nearby building where the mare, Rain Runner I learned her name was, had set herself up. It looked like she wasn't the only pony living here either, but I didn't really have time to dwell on that.

"Okay, this is crazy," Rain said as I finished telling her my story. "I mean, you're really still alive?"

"Believe me, I'm as shocked as anypony else," I said with a chuckle as I brushed my mane back. "I'm just glad you're okay, are all the ponies created by Project Legacy here?"

"Yeah, we're all here, well, in this area," Rain said. "Cinnamon Apple and Corona are off exploring the mountain to see if we can find another way into New Pegasus at the moment and Windsong and Joy are trying to get us more help."

"What's the situation been like in the city?" I asked. "How did the Enclave take over?"

"That, was kind of our fault," Rain admitted sheepishly. "There's a group in New Pegasus that wanted total independence from Wind Rider, which the Enclave infiltrated. They convinced us to take out Wind Rider but..."

"But the Enclave took control after he was out of the way," I said in understanding. "It can't be easy for you."

"Yah think? We barely got out of there with our lives," Rain said with a shake of her head. "We've been fighting the Enclave wherever we can, but its going to take a lot more than what we've got to take them out."

"Of course, but we'll think of something, hopefully," I said with a sigh. "So Project Legacy worked huh? Dang, if Gabby was still around I'd owe her 50 bits."

Rain laughed for a moment before turning somber again. "It, didn't quite work out honestly. Yeah, the six of us survived and have been thriving but the Project... its lost its way."

My blood ran cold when I heard what Project Legacy had been up to. They were taking genetic material from ponies against their will and using that to further their project, with the means of taking over all of Equestria, with the ponies the project created being in charge.

"Okay, that is definitely not in their mandate," I said with a groan, I really hated that experiment. "It seems they've gotten it into their minds that genetic engineering is the new megaspell. I'm sorry Rain, this is my fault, if I had done something..."

"Auntie, you're okay, you didn't do anything wrong," Rain said placing a hoof on my shoulder and giving me a reassuring smile. "Besides, if you hadn't, I wouldn't be here today."

"Yeah, you have a point there," I admitted.

"Scootaloo, there's something I should tell you about..." Rain started to say when the door opened and a white Unicorn with a red mane tied into a braid poked her head in.

"Rain, General Gavin wanted me to come..." she started to say before she saw me. "Uh, hi?"

"Long story, what's up Crystal?" Rain asked.

"General Gavin has called a war council to prepare for the attack," Crystal said as I put my hat back on. "He and Sterling Silver want us there, and her too."

I nodded and we headed out.

General Gavin was an aged Griffon with a prosthetic front claw that somehow made him look even more terrifying than the grizzled veteran already did. He looked at me with an appraising look and frowned.

"Great, just what we needed another pre-war relic," Gavin said with a growl as his companion, a grey Earth Pony stallion with a silver mane facehooved.

"Sorry, General Gavin hasn't had his morning coffee," Sterling Silver said as he pushed his glasses up a little. "As we were saying, we aren't equipped to take out a cloud city as it stands. The Typhon is still days away, and its not going to do us much good anyway against those shields."

"Well, there is one pony who can enter it," Crystal said and glanced at Rain. "But one pony isn't enough."

"Yeah..." Rain said, I looked at her curiously but let it pass.

"Well, the Enclave has to be sneaking their soldiers in somehow, right?" I pointed out. "Is it possible they have a secret way into the city that we don't know about?"

"Its certainly possible," Gavin admitted. "Have you heard any word from your friends on that front?"

"Yeah, well that's still a work in progress," Rain admitted. "Its a big mountain, you'd have better luck finding a needle in a haystack."

There was a long silence at that as I examined the map of the surrounding area. There were several Stables built into this area, in fact Stable 21 had been built right in the middle of Las Pegasus, Wind Rider's idea of course.

It was strange really... looking back sometimes when we interacted there was times when he acted different with me than the others. It was probably just my imagination, but it was kind of strange looking back.

Did I mean something to him? Something I didn't know about? This whole thing felt weird, like there was something more to him than I knew during the war.

The tent opened up and two new ponies entered. One of them was dressed in the repainted power armor I had seen and the other was a purple Unicorn dressed in a neatly pressed suit and coat that covered most of her body.

"Any luck?" Rain asked.

"Well, we've got good news and bad news," the armored pony said in a distorted voice but she still had a recognizable country accent. "We found a possible way into tha city."

"Well, that's good, what's the bad news?" I asked curiously, though I was afraid of the answer.

"Its being guarded by a lot of ponies dressed in Enclave power armor," the purple Unicorn added.

Crap, that was just our luck, what else could go wrong for us?

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Arc Light said as we passed something called the Countess School of Impersonation towards where we would be staying. "Stable-Tec used genetic engineering to create six ponies using the DNA of the Ministry Mares to help Equestria in the event of the apocalypse?"

"Yeah, honestly I didn't like the idea," I admitted rubbing the back of my head a little. "But you know, Luna herself backed it and Eureka pushed ahead with it, a shame he went crazy."

I took a long look up at the New Pegasus strip that still loomed over us. It had been a long time since I had been here, but there was little point in dwelling on it. Actually, other than the Enclave taking over, it was nice to see that some bit of the old world had been kept pretty intact.
Now we just had to take it back from the most dangerous faction in Equestria.

"So what's the plan?" Arc Light asked.

"Something called the Typhon is on its way here, that'll help us at least," I said with a shrug since honestly I had no idea what that even was. "But it won't get here for a couple of days so until then we're on our own."

"Great," Arc said with a sigh as she petted Schooner a little who wagged his tail happily. "So what are we going to do?"

"Honestly, I'm still figuring that out," I said. "We'll help the attack on New Pegasus and get what we came here for, there's not much else we can do."

"I see, well I hope we can figure this out,"

"Me too Arc, me too," I said with a sigh as I looked up at the looming city above us once more. "This is going to change the future of Equestria.... we just have to hope its for good."

We kept walking along to where we are staying.

The next day I was talking with Rain in her temporary quarters in Fillytown.

"So, what did you call this?" I asked as I examined the strange pink colored drink that I hadn't ever seen before.

"Sparkle-Rose," Rain said as she took a drink of her own. "We found the recipe and others in Sparkle-World when we went there while the Project was trying to take over the Raider gangs that had overrun the park."

"Sparkle-World huh, I'm impressed it was still standing," I said as I took a drink, it was actually pretty good at least. "Why would the Project want it?"

"Lots of Raiders called it home, and it could be used as a defensive position, not to mention technology," Rain said with a nod. "Aunt Scootaloo... I feel like I've got a million questions to ask you."

"You and the rest of Equestria," I said with a light chuckle. "Though, you said you wanted to tell me something before, what was that?"

Rain paused for a long moment before speaking up again before going through her pack and came out with an old photograph. "I found this in the Lucky Horseshoe Casino, Wind Rider had it... you need to see it for yourself."

I looked at her strangely for a moment before looking at the photograph carefully. It was of a group of ponies of various ages with an older mare at the center, there was something familiar about them. Then I saw who was sitting with the older mare, even though she was still young, there was no way I couldn't recognize her.

"That's me? Who is this?" I asked looking at Rain.

"That's the family of a Wonderbolt named Summer Breeze," Rain said. "Apparently Wind Rider was a fan of her's. Scootaloo, its your family,
I'm sorry..."

I stared at the photo for a long moment, they were my family? I had lost them so long ago I couldn't even recognize them anymore. Tears started to well up in my eyes, I looked so happy back then... what had happened to me?

I was surprised to feel Rain hugging me and I looked over at her. She was actually worried about me, that actually meant a lot, and made me smile a little.

We may not be related, but she was still family to me.

"Thank you Rain, you have no idea how much this means to me," I said with a smile as she released the hug. "Though, uh, why did Wind Rider have this picture?"

"Like I said he was a fan of your grandmother's," Rain said with a shrug. "It was his whole motivation apparently, why he tried to frame mom, he didn't want to fade into obscurity like she did."

"I see," I said with a sigh as I brushed my mane back. "Well that makes sense I suppose, so what are those questions you said you wanted to ask me?"

The rest of the day passed pretty normally, I got to meet the other ponies from Project Legacy, and I admit they were pretty interesting. Joy and Windsong had returned that evening with help, and Cinnamon Apple assured us that the Typhon would arrive soon enough.

I yawned and petted Schooner as I sat down on my bed, the dog wagged his tail and nuzzled my hoof before laying down.

"I wonder what my dreams will be like tonight..." I wondered out loud as I looked up at the ceiling before slowly drifting off to sleep.

When my eyes opened again I found myself looking up at the ceiling of the same house I had woken up in before. This time I was alone in bed, the covers next to me were disturbed so maybe I had slept in.

I looked out the window again and smiled a little at the sight of sunshine in Ponyville. I had no real illusions that any of this was real, but it was nice to at least imagine even if it was just a dream.

"Hey sleepyhead," Sweetie Belle said as she trotted in levitating a tray of food over to me before giving me a light kiss on the lips. "How'd you sleep?"

"Okay I guess," I said with a smile as I looked at the food in front of me. "What's the occasion?"

"You silly mare, how could you forget, its your birthday," Sweetie said with a giggle as she nuzzled me gently. "Me and Cloudy have been planning it for weeks."

"My birthday?" I asked confused, then it dawned on me, tomorrow was my birthday, in all the rush I had completely forgotten, geez I felt old. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Sweetie said with a smile as I started eating my breakfast. "Cloudy will be here in a moment, she wanted to get something ready for you."

The door opened and Cloudy trotted in with a wrapped present and fluttered up onto the bed with it. "Happy birthday mommy."

"Thanks Cloudy," I said with a smile and hugged my daughter gently and I opened the present up. I was a bit surprised to find that inside was a necklace with the Wonderbolts symbol and I smiled. "Where did you get this?"

"Oh, there's been a real retro kick lately since the war ended," Sweetie said with a shrug. "And, well I still have friends from our Stable-Tec days."

"Do you like it?" Cloudy asked.

"I love it," I said with a smile as I hugged Cloudy and Sweetie as tears started to stream down my eyes. "I love you two so much..."

"We love you too Scootaloo," Sweetie said as she nuzzled me with a smile.

I smiled and continued eating my breakfast. I knew deep down that I was going to have to wake up sooner or later and find myself in a battle for the future of Equestria, but to be honest I didn't care.

For a brief moment, I was the mother and wife I could've been if things didn't end like it had.

"Come on, we've still got a lot to do today," Sweetie said as I finished breakfast and got out of bed and we headed out of the bedroom to go meet with Apple Bloom.

The next morning I looked at the date on my PipBuck, it was hard to believe that it was now almost 211 years after the megaspells went off. And it was my 41st birthday, or was it my 251st birthday? Wow I felt old all of a sudden.

We head out of the building we were sleeping in and I was surprised at what I saw when I looked up. It was a large airship that had a symbol that I recognized as being similar to the Ministry of Wartime Technology's symbol.

"Hey Scootaloo, are you ready?" Rain's voice called out to me as I adjusted my hat slightly, she was nearby with the rest of her group.
"Yeah, I'm ready," I said as I checked my weapons. "What about Applejack's Rangers, are they ready?"

"Yeah, we're all set," Cinnamon Apple said with a nod. "Elder Ironsides on tha Typhon is ready ta launch tha attack while we sneak in through tha hangar."

I looked up at the large airship again for a long moment, this wasn't going to be an easy task, but we had no choice at this point. The Enclave was a threat to Equestria, and this might be our only chance to learn more about their operations.

I looked at Arc Light and Schooner who nodded, we knew exactly what we had to do in this operation. I just had to hope that we were up for it.

"Lets go," Rain said and we started towards the mountain that the city above had been built into.

Making our way up the mountain wasn't easy but thankfully Cinnamon and Corona was leading the way and they were taking us along the best path.

"The Enclave has a few patrols in this area, we'll keep an eye on our EFS," Rain said and I nodded, checking mine as well, but there didn't seem to be anypony in the area at least. "Corona, are you ready with that illusion spell if we need it?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," the lavender Unicorn said as she looked up at the sky above us.

Honestly I had no idea exactly what to make of all this. I wasn't exactly a soldier, but here I was making my way into a warzone, and ultimately I was going to have to fight and even kill other ponies to reach our goal.

I wondered if Rainbow Dash ever thought about this during the war with the Zebras. I had once actually tried to make it into the Shadowbolts after she became the Captain as well as into the military, but they were afraid that my disability would be a hindrance in battle.

Now here I was heading for a battle with the Enclave, fate had a strange sense of humor indeed.

"Are you okay Scootaloo?" Rain asked as she moved up next to me. "You seem distracted."

"I'm okay, just thinking about everything that's going on," I admitted. "I honestly didn't think I'd ever be doing anything like this, at least not after I grew up."

"Yeah well this isn't exactly how I imagined my life either," Rain admitted. "But it is what it is, we'll have to figure it out."

I nodded as we came to a stop, Corona's horn glowed purple as she placed the illusion around us. We were near an entrance to a large cave carved out of the rock with several ponies in power armor guarding the entrance.

Rain nodded to Cinnamon who silently raised her foreleg and hit a button on the PipBuck integrated into her armor. Nothing happened for a few minutes before there was suddenly the sound of explosions as the attack on the city began. The Enclave guards mostly retreated into the hangar with only two staying outside.

The battle for New Pegasus had begun.

We took out the guards easily enough as we moved into the hangar, I'm not quite sure what any of us really expected, but I don't think we expected what we did find in there.

Inside was a small fleet of airships of a design I had never seen before, each of them had the symbol of the Enclave on them. We checked the nearest one, it was empty so they hadn't made a move yet, they must be saving it for a full attack.

"Okay, that's not good," I said with a gulp. "Any suggestions on what to do?"

"Hey, I've got something!" Joy, the pink colored earth pony said, she had found a terminal made of cloud material nearby.

I trotted over and looked at it carefully for a moment, it was encrypted of course, but I was able to break through it pretty easily and the options came up on the screen.

LOCK HANGAR DOORS.
MAINTENENCE LOGS.
ORDERS FROM BLUEJAY.

I glanced around a moment, the others were checking out the ships, I hit the first option which caused the doors to the hangar to close and lock. That at least would help, I cycled through the logs but not much was interesting there, so I checked out the orders.

To: All Ponies in the Grand Pegasus Enclave.
From: General Bluejay
Subject: Orders

In the wake of Mr. Rider's death at the hooves of Rain Runner, the sectors of the cities will need to be taken fully under Enclave control. The so-called Independent Pegasus Movement among the Three Families may have served our purposes well during the infiltration, but they will have to be dealt with. Guards will be kept on their quarters in the Double Diamond and Crystal Palace casinos 24/7.

In addition, guards have to be placed on the four shield nodes around New Pegasus in order to keep control over them in the event of an attack by the New Canterlot Republic or their allies. I doubt that they will find a way in, but in any event I want to make sure that they don't get the chance.

We have completed our part of the Enclave's grand design and our leader will ensure that we all go down in history for this. This is the first step in re-claiming the Wasteland from the savages and mutants below, and we will hold it for as long as we draw breath.

Glory to the Enclave!

"Laying it on a bit thick aren't they?" Arc Light commented as she looked over my shoulder to read the screen. "Sounds like we need to take out the shield nodes."

"Okay, we split up into four teams, Scootaloo you and Arc Light will take out the ones on the east and south sides of the city," Rain said as she examined a map of the city on the wall and passed out the rest of the instructions, which included her and Crystal going to free the heads of the Three Families. "We'll meet up again at the Lucky Horseshoe, that'll get us access to our objectives."

We all nodded in agreement and headed out of the base and up into New Pegasus proper.

And into Tartarus.

The city was covered by a dome of magical energy that was shuddering from the impact of the attacks coming from the assault by the Typhon and its assault craft. The Enclave were moving into positions in case the shield was breached, but they didn't seem all that worried.

It was time to give them a reason to be worried we hoped at least. I checked my EFS' compass, we weren't too far away from the south node, near Stable 21, yeah that really figured.

I nodded to Rain and the others as we split up and went to our respective targets. Me and Arc Light moved quietly through the shadows towards the south node and hoped that we wouldn't get spotted before we got to the destination.

As we neared the node however, our luck finally gave out.

"Halt, who goes there?"

Crap, that really figured, we were spotted by the guards at the node. I looked at Arc Light who moved further into the shadows before I turned to see two Pegasi dressed in Enclave Power armor looking right at me.

"Uh, well, see, I'm here from headquarters, I'm here to..." I said nervously as I pulled my hat over my face. "Inspect the, energy flow systems to the, shield from the, uh, generator in the Lucky Horseshoe."

"Uh-huh, we're just going to have to make a call about this," one of them said and went to go talk to their superiors over the radio.

I was about to say something when there were two muffled gunshots as the guards slumped over. I turned to see Arc Light looking at me with a smirk on her face.

"You're really not very good at bluffing are you?" She asked with a shake of her head as she went over to the control panel.

"Tell me about it, though at least I didn't have to wear silly glasses this time," I commented rubbing the back of my head.

"What?"

"Long story."

Arc Light just looked at me strangely for a moment before getting back to work on the console with me guarding her. As I kept an eye out my eyes fell on the massive Stable 21 sign, and I couldn't help but think about that.

Stable 21 had been a pretty benign Stable, having been constructed to build a society around games of chance (well it was Las Pegasus after all), but I wondered how the inhabitants fared.

I hoped everypony made it out okay.

"Almost... got it!" Arc Light said and we looked up to see the shield start to flicker, but it still held on. "Come on, lets get going."

I nodded and we started moving again towards the east node.

As we neared the place where the eastern node was marked on my EFS, we looked up when the shield shuddered again.

"Looks like another node is down," I said and Arc nodded. We moved forward for a moment before I saw a glint above us, it took me a split-second to realize what was about to happen and I dove forward, pushing Arc into cover as a bullet was fired by a sniper and hit me in the wing.

"You saved me," Arc Light said surprised as I started to bandage my wing. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I've taken worse," I said with a pained smile, it was a lie of course, but I didn't want to worry her. "And you're my friend Arc Light, I don't want anything to happen to you."

"You, consider me a friend?" Arc asked surprised as she lined up her rifle towards where the sniper had shot from. "I attacked you when we first met."

"Yeah, I kind of deserved that," I admitted, rubbing my jaw a little as I went to help her scan the area. "For what its worth I really am sorry... maybe someday we can go back to Stable 66 and settle things down."

Arc paused a moment at that but didn't say anything as she lined up a shot and pulled the trigger on her assault rifle. I looked up towards where she had shot just in time for the bullets to impact the head of a stallion, causing him to fall over dead.

"Nice shot," I commented.

"Thanks," Arc said with a nod. "Scootaloo... I'm glad I met you, and honestly, I'd like that, but for now I just want to find Caramel."

"I promise, I'll do everything I can to make sure you find her," I said with a reassuring smile as we started walking again. "I know what its like to lose your best friend..."

Arc nodded, and actually gave me a smile. That made me feel a little better at least as we headed towards the eastern node.

When we reached the building that housed the node I was surprised to find it unguarded, at least by ponies wearing Enclave uniforms. Two ponies dressed in what I could only describe as gangster gear were in front of the building and pointed their weapons at us when we approached.

"What are you two doing here?" One of them demanded.

"The boss doesn't like ponies who might be working for the Enclave," the other one said, making me gulp a little.

"We don't work for the Enclave," I said. "We're part of a team sent to take down the shield so that the Enclave can be stopped."

"And why should we believe you?" The second guard asked. "I've never seen either of you around here, you could work for the Enclave. Most Pegasi in the city do these days."

I looked at Arc Light for a moment, there was really only one way I could prove that I wasn't with them, but this wasn't exactly going to be easy. I reached up and removed my hat, looking at the two guards.

There was a long pause as they took that in before a dark red furred Pegasus mare stepped into the doorway and looked at me with wide eyes. She looked between the guards unhappily before speaking up.

"Let her in already, can't you see she's hurt?"

"But Doctor..." one of the guards says.

"No buts, besides, she's one pony we know for sure isn't with the Enclave," the mare said, the guards shrugged and let us in, the mare turned and started back into the room. "I'm Doctor Saffron, what happened to your wing?"

"It was shot by a sniper," I said. "Arc Light needs access to a terminal here so we can shut down the shield, where is it?"

"Its in the back, let me have a look at your wing," Saffron said as Arc Light headed into the back room to work, she took out her equipment and started working on my wing. "Are you really Scootaloo?"

"Yeah, its a long story," I said with a sigh before giving her a brief summary of how I got here. "So, I've been looking around Equestria for any surviving family and that's, really about it."

"I see," Saffron said as she cleaned my wing. "You got lucky, your wing's not too badly damaged."

"Are they going to drive out the Enclave?" Another pony who looked like he was being healed asked looking at me.

"Yeah, the NCR and their allies are going to hit the city as soon as the shield goes down," I said. "My group will be taking on General Bluejay in the Lucky Horseshoe."

"Let me guess, Rain Runner is with you?" Saffron asked and I nodded. "Of course, anything happens in this city and she's usually at the heart of it these days. Well, at least she's trying to make up for causing this mess."

"Because she killed Wind Rider right?" I asked and Saffron nodded. "Well, lets hope we can stop Bluejay, the last thing we need is for the Enclave to control this city permanently."

"My family's never lived under the Enclave really," Saffron said as she finished patching me up. "My ancestors made it into Stable 21, and since the Enclave hadn't ever breached the city, we were safe, at least until they infiltrated us."

Yeah, that figured, the Enclave wasn't going to play fair, but it was at least a clever plan, I had to give them that.

"Who was your ancestor?"

"Lightning Dust," she said simply, that surprised me a little given Lightning Dust's, actions before the war, I had almost forgotten she was on the list for Stable 21. "There you go, you're all set."

"Thanks Saffron," I said with a smile as Arc Light came in, a moment later the city shook with an explosion.

The shield was down, the real battle for New Pegasus was about to begin.

We left Saffron who said she was going to meet with the NCR forces in order to help with the wounded. I looked up to see the looming structure of the Lucky Horseshoe as we approached it, expecting a fight every inch of the way.

The Enclave Soldiers we did find however were all dead or dying, the battle had taken its toll on the Enclave forces so there were only a few guards up ahead as we met up with Rain and her group.

"Did you have any problems?" Corona asked.

"No, the eastern node was controlled by friendlies, a pony named Saffron," Arc said.

"Well, glad to hear she's still alive," Rain said with a nod as we all got our weapons ready for the final attack. "We got Lucky and Peridot out of their casinos and to the NCR camp, they'll be okay."

"Good, sounds like an all around successful mission," I said and looked up at the Lucky Horseshoe again. "Are we all ready for this?"

There was a murmur of agreement and we all pushed forward towards the entrance, firing at the Enclave soldiers and taking them out before they could get a shot off. The interior wasn't well guarded, they just had several robots that tried to move in and fell easily enough.

We were directed into the basement where the mainframe for the entire city was kept, and it was presumed that Bluejay kept her files for the Enclave. Rain and her group would head upstairs into the Penthouse and take on the General herself.

"Stay safe Scootaloo," Rain said with a smile as she gave a very Rainbow Dash-like smile. "Drinks at the Aces lounge are on me after we're done here!"

"I'll hold you to that," I said with a laugh as me and Arc started down the stairs towards the basement.

I hoped that it wasn't the last time we'd see each other, after all in the Wasteland, family was family.

As we ran down the stairs towards the basement, my thoughts ran back to Rainbow Dash. I, hated to admit it but ever since I had left stasis my memories were a bit hazy, and some of them centered around her, I'm not sure if that was because of the stasis or the memory spells I had Honey Bee use on me during the war had caused it.

She had admitted that memory magic wasn't her strong suit and even suggested I talk to the Ministry of Peace, but I hadn't been comfortable with letting them poke around in my mind, so I had asked her. I had been under a lot of stress during the war and I had hoped it would alleviate some of it, it had helped a little.

But deep down I knew that I needed to know what happened to Rainbow Dash, after this was done that was going to be my first priority.
We reached the basement finally and got to work at the large computer terminal, I briefly noticed that there was a stasis pod nearby but ignored it as we worked.

"Well, well, looks like somepony couldn't read the keep out signs," a mare's voice said from the speakers, we both looked up at the screen to see an image of a Pegasus mare with a slicked back mane and dressed in a uniform with the Wonderbolts insignia on it. "Just the two of you huh?"

"Yeah, well we're just here for your data," I said as we started working on the terminals and hooked our PipBucks to them. "So if you don't mind leaving us alone, that would be appreciated."

"Yeah, like I'll really do that, Scootaloo," Bluejay said, making me pause and look up at her. "Yes, I know who you are, I have agents everywhere, its one of the advantages to being the head of Enclave Intelligence. I'm sure the rest of the Remnant will be very interested to know that you're still alive."

I flinched a little at that, the Enclave likely hated me for what I had done all those years ago. Even if I hadn't done a lot of damage, the Dashites had become the first real challenge to the Enclave's authority, and I had started it all because I wanted to be like Rainbow Dash.
Maybe I should've just stayed with my family after all.

"Are you going to be able to get a message out before you get your flank kicked by the NCR?" Arc pointed out as she typed at the computer. "Because I'm pretty sure we took out your radio transmitter."

"Hmm, maybe we should let her live after all, I'm sure whoever she answers to will love that she failed here," I said with a light smirk as I found the genealogical data from the Enclave, of course it was encrypted but I downloaded it to my PipBuck anyway, I was sure that I could get it broken later. "Then again she's caused a lot of trouble for this city, maybe not."

"Oh, and what are you going to do to me?" Bluejay asked. "You're all the way in the basement, you'd have to fight your way through my..."

"General Bluejay!" Another voice said from off screen. "We have intruders coming up the stairs into the penthouse!"

"You were saying?" I asked with a smirk. "Sounds like you're about to be very busy."

"I'll deal with them shortly, you're not going to live forever Scootaloo, the Enclave will find you, someday," she said and the monitor went off

"Geez, what did you do, steal her parking space? Or her ancestor's parking space?" Arc asked me.

"Eh, the Enclave just don't like me very much because of the Dashite thing," I said as the download finished. "Any luck on your end?"

"A little bit, but nothing major," she said with a sigh. "Any luck on your end?"

"Yeah, I found the files I wanted but they're encrypted, here's hoping we can find a codebreaker," I said with a sigh as we started back up the stairs.

It took awhile longer for Rain and company to return, but when they did Rain was slumped over Cinnamon Apple's back unconscious.

"Is she okay?" I asked.

"She'll be fine," Corona said, they all look exhausted. "Bluejay is dead finally.

"Lets just hope the battle for New Pegasus is over," Cinnamon added.

The battle raged for another day before the Enclave was fully pushed out of New Pegasus. For the most part we just stayed in Fillytown with Rain, well except Joy and Cinnamon, at least, but me and Crystal were always at Rain's side.

The Enclave either surrendered or retreated out of the city to parts unknown. It left the Three Families to rebuild, and with the death of Bluejay the Omaretas had to select a new leader, we were all surprised that Saffron took the job. When she was questioned by Windtalker, the local radio DJ, interviewed her, she had this to say:

"The time has come for a change in the Omaretas, it was our secrecy that allowed Bluejay to take over in the first place. I will make sure that we will thrive as we face the future together as a city."

What followed was what could best be described as a rebirth, a deal was struck between the NCR and the three families, deciding that the city would be opened up even more. They'd get rid of the old way under Wind Rider of having to pay your way into the city and welcome anyone with open hooves.

Though, something weird happened, at one point I woke up to see what I could've sworn was a pony shape in my room, but they vanished in a burst of white magic before I could question them. When I asked around, several other ponies admitted that they had experienced similar situations.

Then on the fourth day after Bluejay died, Rain finally woke up. She was tired, but happy to see us both. And once she was done making out with Crystal, she finally turned her attention to me.

"Hey Scoots, any luck?" she asked.

"Yeah, some, I think I found the records I wanted, but they're all encrypted," I said with a sigh. "Do you know any codebreakers?"

"Well, honestly no," she said with a sigh, then looked thoughtful. "Actually I take that back, there was one who lent us a hoof in breaking some Project encryptions awhile back. The tricky thing is that she doesn't live anywhere near here."

"Oh, where does she live then?" I asked.

"To the north, with a tribe called the Dayrunners near Stable 13," she answered, then paused a moment. "You should go there anyway, there are, answers there that you're going to want to know about."

I wasn't sure what to say to that.

A few more days passed as things finally settled down around New Pegasus, and finally it was time to go. I had all my stuff packed and was about to head out when I saw Arc Light walking up to me, packed up as well.

"Are you ready?" She asked.

"Yeah, but, why are you coming?" I asked her. "Not that I don't want you to but, we're not going anywhere near the Enclave."

She paused for a long moment and straightened her rifle out before speaking up. "Well all my leads have dried up and... I wouldn't want to leave behind a friend."

I blinked a little, that was the first time she had ever called me a friend. I smiled and nodded.

"I'm glad to have you along for the trip, Arc," I said with a smile as Schooner barked in agreement. "Come on, lets get going."

We said our goodbyes to the others, many of them seemed sad to see us go, but understood why we had to do it. Of course we'd try to visit them, but we still had a long journey ahead of us.

I put my headphones in and set it to DJ Pon3's radio station and started walking to the north with my friends, and into the unknown as music began to play.

They call me the wanderer yeah the wanderer
I roam around around around...

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Spirit of Loyalty.
Details: Like Rainbow Dash before you, you embody the ideals of loyalty to your friends and companions. When you drop below 50% health, your companions gain +50 damage resistance.

Author's Notes:

This chapter takes place during a future story arc of Fallout Equestria: Hidden Legacy.