With the recent number of ponies who should’ve been dead, but weren’t that I’ve seen in the past few days, I shouldn’t have been so surprised by seeing Hailstorm. I saw him die in Stardust’s memories, I’d heard about his death from a few of the ponies from Stable 97, and from Doorstop. He couldn’t be a synth when he died, because The Ministry didn’t work with The Enclave then. Even if a couple of ponies here used to belong to The Enclave. So, either his death was faked so well that even Hailstorm’s best friend believed it really happened, or the pony I was looking at was a synth.

I looked back over at Stormy, saying, “Please don’t tell me you made Stardust’s best friend into a synth.”

Hailstorm looked confused by this as he said, “A synth? I’m not a synth, why would you even think something like that?”

I looked back at him while Stormy tried to come up with an answer to my question. “Because I saw you die in Stable 97, well Stardust saw it I mean, and I saw it through his memories. You were crushed under the stable door trying to make sure he got out. You gave your life to save his.”

His confusion grew as he looked back at Stormy, who for once was lost for words. “Doc? What’s The Courier talking about? Why would Stardust think I died that way? You told me that you made sure his memory was modified so he thought I got out before him.”

“Really? That’s the story you have slammed into your head?” I asked with a laugh, “Hailstorm, I fixed all of Stardust’s memories when I took him back to Stable 97, I saw every true memory that meant something to him. Your death was one of them. So either their memory modification tech is a lot better than I thought, or you’re not a real pony.”

Finally, Stormy spoke up, but not with an answer to my question. “DC-001 full shut down, code Stormy X-0990783 master override.”

Hailstorm’s eyes went cloudy and his head fell. In a matter of seconds, he was nothing more than a lifeless doll. My eyes went wide as I looked back at her. “So you did make a synth of Hailstorm!”

“Only a little! Plus I had no choice!” she said, sounding panicked, “Hailstorm was the stallion who was meant to become the perfect solider. I spent years protecting the genome therapy to make him into what he was, then he goes and DIES whilst trying to escape the stable. I wanted him away from The Enclave along with Stardust, but not dead. So, I used some of his DNA that we collected a week or so before his death and started building a synth.”

“And let me guess, Stardust has no idea,” I said.

“He can’t know, that’s why as Wrath, he’s been told to keep his face hidden when he was dealing with you and your friends. Grim was put in charge of making sure his skills were up to par, that’s why he was told to become the new Wrath. We only added him to the Sin’s after you saved Stardust from being Pride. If Stardust found out, he’d kill me,” she said, sounding worried, “I don’t even know why he’s here, he should be with the others getting information and planning whatever they’re up to right now. He’s our Spy.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and after I put so much trust into Stormy, I find that she’s been hiding something big from my best friend. I growled, then said, “You’re going to tell Stardust the truth about this wannabe Hailstorm. They both have the right to know, then after that, you’re going to have him tell me everything he knows about The Sins.”

Her eyes went even wider as she said, “Shadow, I mean it, I can’t tell Stardust, he doesn’t need to know.”

“Doesn’t need to know what?” Stardust said from the doorway, not seeing the form of his best friend. His eyes were stuck on me with that goofy smile on his face. “Hey I see you’re finally awake! That’s great because I wanted to see if you were up to having something to eat, you have to try this thing they have at the restaurant near the clinic, it’s freakin’ awesome!”

Stormy looked like she’d just been hit by a hammer, if her eyes got any wider they were going to pop right out of her head. I took the opportunity to smile over at her, saying, “Yeah, what doesn’t he need to know Stormy?”

Stormy jumped right into action. “Stardust, you need to understand something. I wanted to tell you this, but was scared of how you might react…”

It was too late though, my friend’s eyes fell on Hailstorm’s body, his eyes first falling on the mark on the armor seeing the mark of Wrath. Then as he walked in to the room, ready to attack, his eyes fell on the face and he froze. He reached a hoof around to slowly place it on Hailstorm’s mane then he asked in a shaky voice, “Is…is this really him? I mean did you make my best friend into a synth?”

“I had no choice, he wasn’t supposed to die the night you two escaped. We needed him and after he died…this was the only way,” Stormy said.

To my utter shock Stardust looked up from the blank expression of his friend and over at Stormy with tears in his eyes, “You brought back my best friend, my brother! Thank you!”

“Wait…you’re not upset?” I asked, “You do realize that isn’t really him, it’s just a very well-made robot that looks like him.”

“I’m a little surprised too,” Stormy said.

Stardust sniffed then said, “Hailstorm is dead, I know that. I saw it happen. I beat myself up every day for not doing more to save him that night. I’d do anything to have him back again. Yeah, I know this really isn’t my friend, but at the same time, as long as his memories are intact, then in a small way, it’s like getting him back again. Please tell me you didn’t mess with his mind.”

“Only a little, just to explain why he wasn’t in Stable 97 anymore. He also thinks you escaped with the help of another. He thinks that you think he escaped before you did but have no idea if he’s alive or not. Apart from that, I was able to place every memory that was in Hailstorm’s mind from a week before you escaped and keep it intact. We haven’t told him what he is yet. I think that if he knew, he’d go insane, most synths with memories of another normally do.”

“I still think he should know,” I said, still a little pissed at Stormy for keeping this secret.

She sighed, “I know you do Shadow and don’t give me that disappointed look, it wasn’t my idea to keep this from you, just Stardust. Your mother wanted me to make sure that no one ever found out about him. Honestly, I’m still shocked he’s here, I hope everything is okay.”

Stardust finally looked back toward me then said, “Shadow, I know you don’t like this, but Hailstorm’s my friend, not yours. I think he should be left in the dark about what he is, at least for now.”

I threw both of my hooves up, still marveling that I was still able to that, then said, “Fine, both of you can lie to a poor synth about what he is.”

He smiled, then came over to me and pulled me into a hug. “Thank you, I’ll make sure he finds out sooner or later, but right now, I don’t want him going crazy because of this knowledge.”

With an eye roll I sighed then lied back down. “I was expecting you to be pissed, but since you’re not, let’s get this over with.”

Stormy sighed as well then said, “DC-001 power on, delete the last two minutes of memory and restart from there, code Stormy X-0990783 master override.”

A moment later Hailstorm blinked his eyes then looked around at Stormy and I, not noticing Stardust who had taken a few steps back. “I need to know, did Grim die?”

Stormy looked down at her hooves then nodded. “Yes Hailstorm, she did just a few days ago. She gave her life to save Shadow’s, but I don’t understand, how did you know and why are you back here?”

Stardust kept his muzzle shut as he watched him. Hailstorm scratched his mane, then said, “I’m not sure really, Grim told me once that she put a spell on me to let me know when she was in trouble and to come back here if I felt it go off. I couldn’t get away from The Sins fast enough, took me a day or so to make up some excuse then I headed straight here. I guess I was too late,” he then looked at me, “I’m sorry Courier, I haven’t had a chance to introduce myself, name’s Hailstorm but I’m sure you know me as Wrath. I’m not your enemy, I’ve been working as a spy for Grim for a few weeks.”

“She knows who you are ya dipshit,” Stardust said with a chuckle, his eyes flashing with what looked like a mix of pain and happiness at the same time, “Told her all about you, ya lady killer.”

Hailstorm whipped his head around and saw Stardust, his eyes went wide then he looked back at Stormy then back at Stardust again, “You’re…here? Goddesses Dusty I’ve wanted to see you for months!” He moved forward and embraced Stardust in a crushing hug.

“Ah, too tight, TOO TIGHT!” Stardust choked out, “I said, get off me you overly emotional metal-clad dork,” he said as he tried to push the large pegasus off, “Dude, it’s not cool to have your best friend hug you.”

Even though I wasn’t happy with the lies they were telling Hailstorm, I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped my muzzle as I said, “You hug me all the time Stardust, and I thought I was your best friend.”

Hailstorm finally let him go, looking a little sheepish, Stardust just shook himself then said, “You’re different, you’re a mare, Stallions don’t hug each other, it’s just weird. Also, I can have two best friends.”

Hailstorm seemed not to care too much about our banter because he interrupted, saying, “Dusty, I’ve been wanting to talk with you ever since I found out you escaped the stable and even more since I heard you got your memories back after being Pride. I’m glad you were able to escape that place after I got away, I was worried The General would’ve killed you or worse.”

He shrugged. “Honestly, it was thanks to Doorstop that I got out, he managed to get me some power armor and set up the way for me to escape. Didn’t know it was him until later, but still. Anyway, I had no idea you even escaped, they told us that you died.”

Hailstorm laughed. “Meh, I’m not surprised, after what I learned about what they were doing, I had to get out. Wait till I tell you what I learned since…”

He kept on talking as Stardust listened. Stormy took that moment to move closer to me, saying, “I think I know the reason he came back.”

I looked over at her. “He just said it was a spell.”

“No, I don’t think it was. Your mother was the one who helped program the courser chip he has in his head. I’m guessing that she programmed it to notify him if something happened to her and in the event of her death that he was supposed to come back to The Ministry like he did. If I know Grim the way I know I do, I’m guessing his chip is set up to only take full orders from her or anyone related to her. That is unless a pony like me activates our master overrides, give it a try, I bet he’ll do whatever you tell him to,” She said.

“I’m not going to order a synth around!” I said.

“I need to know, it’s important,” she said, looking irritated.

I rolled my eyes again. “Fine,” then I said over Hailstorm’s story, “Hailstorm can you please sit down and be quiet for a moment?”

He looked over at me then smiled, “Sure thing, sorry if I got in the middle of whatever you were doing, I just haven’t seen my friend in a long time,” and to my amazement, he sat down smiling toward me.

“Goddesses he’s fucking whipped,” I said in awe.

“What?” Stardust asked, looking utterly confused.

“We’ll tell you later,” Stormy said, looking at Hailstorm, “Hailstorm, I need you to tell us what you learned while you were with the remaining Sins.”

His eyes glazed over a little then he said, “I can’t tell you that ma’am, my orders from Grim were to only report my findings to her.”

She looked over at me, so I said, “She’s gone now Hailstorm, but we need to know the information. Where are the remaining Sins and what can you tell us about their movements?”

He sighed. “You’ve got a point.” he stood up again then continued, saying, “They’re hold up in an old mining town called Gravel City a few miles east from New Pegasus right now, getting ready for an assault on The NLR on orders from the new High Council. Envy is hiding among the NLR officers gathering intel while Sloth and Lust keep their hideout safe. They managed to capture Greed who was caught sneaking around just a few days ago. He’s alive, but will be sent up to Stratus to be executed with former High Council Pony Nightshade in the next few days. After that, The Sins will start looking for new members so they can make a move on New Pegasus. We got word from the higher ups a few hours ago that a new pony would be coming to us who is very powerful and helping us with New Pegasus.”

“What’s this pony’s name?” I asked.

“They told us that her name was Stargazer,” he said, then added, “Kind of a silly name if you ask me. Sounds like she’s the type with her head in the clouds.”

My new heart nearly stopped at that. I looked at Stardust then Stormy, saying, “It has to be Aquila, she’s working with The Enclave.”

“Who’s Aquila?” Hailstorm asked looking confused.

That in turn confused Stormy as she said, “You know who that is, Grim told you about her before, the monster who lived inside of Shadow’s head.”

Hailstorm looked up thoughtfully then shook his head. “Nope, all she told me about The Courier was that she was to be kept away from The Sins and her plans. She then told me that she was now on our side and helping, but to keep my face hidden from her and her friends. She didn’t want Stardust to know who I was at the time.”

“Damn, she must’ve had a protocol in place to wipe his memory banks of any information about Aquila or Stargazer or Falling Shadows if she died,” Stormy said angrily.

“That sounds like her,” I said as I looked curiously at Hailstorm and Stardust who I was still surprised was okay with all of this. “Aquila is an evil creature that’s using a synth body at the moment. It’s hard to explain everything, but she has to be stopped. I’m sure she wants to get into The Lucky Horseshoe so she can activate an old project. She’s using The Enclave’s power and ponies along with the Sin’s hatred for me to get her agenda met.”

Stardust looked thoughtful, then said, “It sounds like it, also Hailstorm you said that they’re going to execute Nightshade and Greed soon right?”

He nodded. “Yeah, his trial is in two days, but Sloth said that it’s just for show, he’ll be found guilty and executed two days after that.”

“Good,” Stardust said, his grin growing.

“How is my father’s execution a good thing?” I asked, anger and sorrow filling my voice.

“Easy, because I’m sure that Aquila is using this as a way to get control over more of The Enclave. She’s working with them and she needs the ponies running Stratus now to have more control over the population. Nightshade was a well loved leader in both politics and the military. If he’s found guilty then executed the ponies who still love him will see him as a criminal. Also, it gives us a chance to mess up her plans,” Stardust said.

“What do you mean?” Stormy asked.

“I think I’m following what he’s saying,” Hailstorm said, “If Nightshade is able to escape, a lot of the military and maybe more will follow him still. He’ll be able to tell the ponies what really happened to him and get more allies for us. If he does that, then Winter Frost, who’s running Stratus now, won’t be able to get the following he needs to attack New Pegasus.”

“So, you have a plan to rescue my dad?” I asked.

“Oh, I have a plan for more than just saving your pops. We need to slow Aquila down right?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Well then, I say we do everything we can to make sure that she’s stopped, or at the very least slowed down in reaching her goals,” Stardust said with a laugh.

“Just tell us the plan already,” Stormy said, sounding irritated.

His face fell a little as he said, “Well, I know that you won’t like part of this plan Shadow, but trust me, it’ll have to be this way. We’ll need to split up our team.”

“You’re right, I don’t like that plan,” I said, “But let’s hear what you have in mind.”

His grin returned, “We need to strike at The Enclave in three different ways all at once. First, I think we need to send Aura, Byte, and Wingnut back to New Pegasus so she can get her Shadow Talons to help her with the NLR. They need to be warned that there’s a spy among them. I’m sure Hailstorm will know which pony Envy is posing as.”

I thought about it then said, “Not a bad idea, but how will you get them to believe that Envy is there?”

In answer Stardust pulled out one of the silver bug whistles from his saddle bags. “Got one of these from that nutty Emperor dude. You said they make it impossible for Envy to keep his form. We’ll have Aura use this to get him down, then if we’re lucky, we might be able to capture him. If not, I’m sure he’ll run at the very least.”

“True, or he’ll kill everypony there,” I said.

Hailstorm shook his head, “Envy is crazy strong, but even he can’t take on the entire NLR on his own. He wouldn’t risk it, so he’ll most likely run when he’s revealed. I hope he does at least. I don’t think he’s dumb enough to stay and fight, but lately he’s seemed more confident in his abilities and has some delusions of grandeur.”

“Okay, so while Aura is taking care of that, what are the rest of us going to be doing?” I asked.

Stardust’s smile grew again. “We’ll send Hailstorm back to the other two Sins with Wind Thrasher to keep an eye on them and spy. Hailstorm can keep acting like he’s Wrath while Wind Thrasher watches his back and reports to us what’s going on. Once we’re finished with The NLR and the next part of my plan, we’ll take them out once and for all.”

“You really think Wind Thrasher should be sent on a mission like that? She’s not stable right now,” I said.

He shrugged. “True, but she’s got enough of her elixir to keep her mind ok for this mission, and if she slips, well it wouldn’t be a bad thing if she attacked Lust or Sloth. It’s one of those win/lose situations though that I’m not completely happy with.”

“I don’t like it honestly, even if she managed to kill them, she’d be devastated for killing them, even if she doesn’t like them. Also, there’s a chance that she’ll kill Hailstorm or she might never come out of the bloodlust,” I said.

“That’s a very likely possibility, but she’s the only pony on our side who can move silently, hide perfectly, and see in the darkest places. If it helps, I’ll talk to her about it first.” Stardust said.

“And don’t worry about me, I can escape any other flyer. I’m one of the fastest pegasi alive,” Hailstorm said with a boast.

“He has a point,” Stormy said, “He’s almost as fast as Rainbow Dash herself. If he pushes himself a little more, he might be able to pull off a Sonic Rainboom one day.”

“I have no idea what that is, but if you say he can do it, then I’ll trust you,” I said, “Sounds cool though.”

“Good, because I believe this plan might work if it’s done right,” Stormy said, “I do have to ask, what will you be doing Stardust?”

He chuckled, “Easy, Solstice, Shadow, and I will go up to Stratus and rescue her father and Thundercracker err Greed, meh whatever, you know who I mean.”

“How do you expect me to go up to Stratus? I’m a unicorn, I can’t walk on clouds,” I said.

“That’s not true,” Stormy replied, “I can teach you the cloud walker spell, it’s very easy to learn and it lasts for a day with each casting. Though, you have one problem with that plan Stardust.”

“How so?” he asked.

“Getting into Stratus isn’t as easy as just flying up to it,” she said.

“She’s right,” Solstice said, making us all jump. She grinned at us all from the doorway, Aura and Wind Thrasher behind her. “Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt your planning. Watching you jump was entertaining though, so thanks for that.”

“Yeah, we all came to see how you’re doing Shadow, and we come to find some strange pegasus wearing Wrath’s armor and you four plotting something,” Aura said with a slight smile. “So, did you recruit another Sin to our side or something? Aren’t reformed bad guys getting kinda old?”

I blushed a little then gestured at Hailstorm. “This is Hailstorm, an old friend of Stardust’s from 97. He thought Hailstorm was dead, but it turns out he’s been alive the whole time and helping Stormy and my mother.”

“I thought Hailstorm was crushed by a door or something,” Wind Thrasher said, looking utterly confused. “Isn’t that what you told me Stardust?”

“I thought he was too, I’ll explain later. Right now we need to keep planning, I’ll fill you all in as we go,” he said looking back at Solstice, “Why can’t we just fly up to Stratus?”

She rolled her eyes, and said, “Because Stratus has protection protocols. There are defense systems layered within the cloud layer all over the city and under it. The skies are constantly guarded by Enclave soldiers and Raptors. The only way to get into the city is if you’re an Enclave Officer or by taking a transport from the skyport. Also, to top it all off, just to walk or fly around the city you need to have an identification. If you go past any of the hundreds of nodes all over the city and don’t have one, you’ll be flagged and arrested.”

“The city sounds impossible to get into,” I said, “If that’s all true, then how did Winter Frost get his soldiers in?”

“My mom said that he blocked the city off and attacked some of the patrol’s until he could sneak some of his pegasi into the city to take down your father. He’s an Enclave solider from Stratus and has the identification he needs and so did his soldiers I’m guessing. As for us, well I’m technically an unmarked Dashite, Stardust is a runaway, and Shadow you’re the most wanted pony in Stratus at the moment. There’s no way we can get in,” Solstice said.

“Damn, I was hoping my plan would work,” Stardust said, looking defeated.

A moment passed by then Stormy perked up, and asked, “Solstice, you’re mother is Fairy Glitter right?”

“Yeah, so what?” Solstice answered.

Stormy smiled wide. “Then I think I can make this work for you.”

We all perked up then listened as Stormy laid out her idea to us all. After that, Stardust filled the others in on the first part of his plan. We all talked for an hour or more fine-tuning the plans, the others adding their own ideas to make this three part strike against both The Enclave and Aquila work perfectly. The whole time we talked, I did my best to ignore the sadness still lingering in the back of my mind of Mom’s death. I can accept the reason she’d sacrificed herself for me, but it was still hard. Planning a strike against The Enclave helped me with it however, that and the idea that there was a way to help my dad. Finally, once all of the plans apart from one was finished, Solstice asked a question.

“The only thing is that even though my mom can help with us getting around the city and maybe into it, how are we going to fly Shadow up there? We can’t just carry her, it’ll look too suspicious,” she said.

“That’s easy…well easy isn’t the the right word because it’ll be hard, but the answer itself if easy,” Stormy said, “Take one of the transports from Wolfsbane.”

We all looked at her as I asked, “What do you mean take a transport from Wolfsbane?”

“Wolfsbane and his Steel Rangers have been attacking Enclave patrols and transports for years now. Unlike most of the Steel Rangers who destroy the Enclave tech, he keeps it for himself and his garrison. They’ve captured a few Enclave pegasi as prisoners of war over the years to help work the Enclave tech they have. If you can get into The Palisade and the city under it, you’ll be able to get one I think.”

“You want us to sneak into The LA Steel Rangers stronghold and steal an airship?” I asked.

“No, I want you to walk right in,” Stormy said with a grin.

“And how do you expect us to do that?” I asked.

“Head to a town east of here called Dragon Bridge and look for a filly named Black Dahlia, she’ll have a way to get you in. One of my Synths is stationed there and she’s always going to the small town to earn caps. She complains all the time about The Steel Rangers and how pushy her elder is. She’s also a big fan of a certain Courier. If you meet with her, I’m sure she’ll help you out.”

“You’re forgetting the fact that the Steel Rangers know who I am,” I said.

“That is easily fixed, but I’ll tell you more about that later. I think you and one other should go to the Applewood sign with the help of Black Dahlia and mess a few things up for the angry Elder,” Stormy said.

“Okay, let’s say this works, who are you going to have go with me? Everypony here has their own job to do,” I said.

Stormy’s smile grew as she said, “Vervain of course.”

“Vervain is back in New Pegasus,” I said angrily.

“She was, but White Oak sent a synth in the area to give her a message to come to The Ministry. She was told what happened with Grim and you. If my reports are correct, our Synth will be bringing her here in a couple of hours,” she said.

My eyes went wide as I said, “White Oak’s going to finally let Vervain know that she’s still alive?”

Stormy’s smile faded, “She has no choice now, she didn’t want to, but she knows how much Vervain cares for you so she sent for her.”

“She’s going to be pissed,” Aura said.

“I’m sure she will, but it has to be done. If anything though, she’ll probably cry before she can muster up the gull to hit her. Anyway, once she’s here we’ll fill her in on what’s going on and I’m sure she’ll go with you. And before you say something about her being recognized, don’t worry about it. We’ll go over that later, for now I think we should all get started on our own parts of this plan. While they all do, Shadow, you have to come with me and the nurses to make sure everything new on your body is working right. After that, we can keep this going,” Stormy said getting up finally.

“But, I want to talk with my friends for a little longer,” I said, my eyes drifting over to Aura who winked at me.

“You can play hide the hoof later, right now, you need to get your body moving,” Stormy said, rolling her orange eyes, but I caught a slight grin as I blushed.

“Fine, but I’m sure everything is fine with my prosthetics. In fact, I’ll probably live forever now that I’m thirty percent plastic,” I said sarcastically.

My friends all laughed as I sighed. After a moment Solstice said, “I’ll go talk with my mom and see what she can do. I’ll also see if she can push back the trial by a day or two so we have a little more time to make this all work.”

“Good idea,” Stormy said.

“What do you want me to do then?” Hailstorm asked, looking a little confused.

“I think you should head back to The Sin’s and start spying on them for us,” I said as I started to get out of the bed, my body protesting a little bit. “Do you have a broadcaster?”

He nodded. “Yeah, though it doesn’t have a lot of range. Best it can reach is about twenty kilometers, maybe thirty. I’ve been trying to find a new one with better range, but unfortunately back in the day Awesome Buy killed The Stereo Shack and then got looted after the war to the point where it’s almost impossible to find a broadcaster that’s not already been used on something else and gotten worn out, or find one that’s been properly refurbished.”

Good Goddesses he just doesn’t stop talking. “Okay, okay. That’s fine, give me the broadcast ID so I can contact you when I’m back in New Pegasus then you can update me on what’s going on. If it looks like they’re going to be making a move on New Pegasus before I’m back, then head to the Shadow Talons base in Freedom and let Aura or one of her sisters know. If you can’t do that then go to Frosty Summit and find a ghoul called Nexus, or his bodyguard Laser Light, they should be able to get a message to me,” I said.

“I can do that,” he said taking the helmet to his power armor off his flanks and putting it on. “Hey Dusty, don’t go getting yourself killed up in Stratus, we still have a lot to catch up on.”

“I wish he could’ve stayed longer,” Stardust said sadly.

“Me too, he’s kinda cute, though he must have a screw loose if he’s taking orders from Shadow,” Solstice teased.

I sighed and gently got to my hooves, “He’s a synth, don’t ask me why, but he is taking orders from me for some reason. He won’t even listen to Stormy. It’s useful but awful at the same time. Like having an annoying, unpaid butler serving you against their will.”

Stardust got that smile on his face that warned me he was about to be an asshole, then closed his eyes and cleared his throat with a hoof up to his mouth, and said in a Trottish accent, “At the academy, we call those slaves Ms. Star. Although those of us in the upper class prefer to call them serfs. The term slave is just so, common. Common meaning poor.”

I stuck my tongue out at him, then replied in my best trottish accent, “Piss off.”

“Wait, that was a synth? Hell, I know they can look quite real, but damn I couldn’t even tell. Stardust is right though, he’s basically a slave. Serf would be pushing it considering you don’t feed him or provide a place to live. Seems stable education isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” Solstice said.

Stormy sighed, “He’s one of the newest models of the generation threes just like the one we used to make Shadow’s Synth for Aquila. They’re almost perfect, though they take a lot longer to build when they have memories of another pony in them like Hailstorm does, they’re hard to control because they think they’re real ponies. Honestly it’s a little sad how much you could break their reality when you accidentally get them to realize they’re just an amalgamation of science, technology, and bodily fluids from someone whose most likely dead.”

“Why is he only taking orders from Shadow?” Wind Thrasher asked.

“Grim must’ve changed the programming in his Courser Chip, normally he should listen to myself, Grim, and The Director at least, but he’s not,” Stormy said.

Wind Thrasher looked over at Stardust. “Why aren’t you angry they made your friend into a Synth?”

Still looking sad Stardust said, “Because, even if he isn’t the same Hailstorm I lost, it’s the closest thing to having him back from the dead that I’m ever going to get. Hailstorm was like my brother growing up, losing him was one of the hardest things I’d ever gone through.”

We all looked away at that. Each one of us had lost some pony in the past and none of us could argue his point. I knew that if I could get Mom, Box Tape, Silver, and more back, even as a synth I would. After a moment Aura spoke up, saying, “What I don’t get is why did you all make a synth of Hailstorm?”

Stardust answered for Stormy, replying, “He was the best fighter in 97, even better than me. He excelled at everything, he was the one who taught me how to shoot and fight. When he died, they lost their best chance to get a perfect solider. Making a synth of him with all his memories and abilities was too hard of an opportunity to pass up.”

“That’s just wrong,” Aura said, looking disgusted.

“I thought you were meant to be the perfect solider Stardust,” Wind Thrasher said.

“I did too, but I guess they needed two,” he answered.

Stormy looked a little ashamed as she said, “Actually Stardust, we never expected you to survive past your tenth year.”

He looked up in shock. “What do you mean?”

She sighed then continued, saying, “Out of all of the ponies we put into 97, half of the foals were controls for the real experiment. Hailstorm and a few others from your year were genetically modified, much like the pony who’s called Sloth was, only we did a better job and started with foals instead of teenagers like with Sloth. We needed unaltered stallions and mares to work as a control to make sure the experiments were working. At your tenth year we started the trials, you might remember those.”

“Yeah, a few of us died from those,” he said, starting to look angry.

She rolled her eyes. “None of them died, we just made you think they did. Everypony who fell out of the trials had their memories replaced and modified then they were sent to different parts of The Enclave to live a normal life. Anyway, before the first trial, you were ranked very low and we thought you would’ve been kicked out because of it. Though Doorstop had faith in you, he figured that because of your family line you would prove me wrong.”

“My family line? You know who my family is?” he asked.

“No I don’t, I wasn’t in charge of the foals who were taken. When you all came to me you were just numbers to me at the time. Doorstop on the other hoof does know more about you, if you want answers, you’ll have to ask him,” she said.

“Believe me I will, anyway keep the story going,” he said, gesturing his hoof in a circular motion

She did, sitting up a little more. “Anyway, as I was saying, when you did your first test, you passed with flying colors. You tied with Hailstorm in the long shot trial and surpassed him on the hoof to hoof trial. You were able to outfly most of your class, you figured out things better than most of the modified ponies. As you grew, I saw something amazing, a control, outperforming science. By the time just before you escaped, you were on par with Hailstorm and the only control left in the stable. That was when I knew that my whole project was wrong and I helped get you broken out. Hailstorm and you were the two I needed to fix the project and make it better, but away from Enclave control. As you know, he didn’t make it out and you did.”

“So, you made a new Hailstorm to try and keep your evil program going?” he asked.

“At first I did, but only working with The Ministry and not The Enclave,” she said.

“And what about now?” he asked, pressing her.

Stormy looked over at me then back to Stardust. “Now I can see that my entire program was a bad idea and I have no plans anymore to keep it going. Honestly, when I started The Devils Children Program, I was a different mare back then twenty-one years can change a pony.”

He got up angrily, then said, “You’re damn right it was a bad idea. I have no family thanks to you and the ponies who helped you. I grew up in hell, and thanks to you…” he was cut off by Stormy.

She raised her voice, saying, “Thanks to me, you learned how to fight and survive. Thanks to me, you were able to escape and later find Shadow who has done a lot of good for The Wasteland and a lot of ponies in it. Thanks to me, you have a better life than most pegasi do below the clouds. You’re free and that’s something most pegasi never get to experience. Yes, I agree that my project was a terrible idea and it went too far, but look at your life now and tell me it wasn’t worth it! Without you there to save Shadow on multiple occasions, The Wasteland would be fucked because she’d either be dead, or worse, assimilated by a monster!”

He looked a little shocked at her outburst, then he looked at all of us stopping on Wind Thrasher. A small smile came to his lips as he sighed. “I guess you’re right. Thanks to you, I have some of the best friends a stallion could ask for and an old one returned.”

Stormy sniffed indignantly. “Damn right.” Then she looked over at me, saying, “Shadow, it’s about time we get you to your P.T. We can talk about what we’re doing next later.”

With that said, she got up and helped me to my hooves. I wobbled a little, finding the new limb a little weird to walk on. It didn’t hurt, but it was like trying to balance on a stiff piece of wood rather than a foreleg. But after a moment, I found my balance and slowly followed Stormy out of the room. It’s still weird walking on something that you weren’t born with though, I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. I can feel it and everything, but something about it just feels fake, like a super expensive knock-off of something nature made but science couldn’t. My friends said they’d see me later, Aura finishing with a kiss before following Solstice to the room we shared while we were at The Ministry. The next few days were going to be rough, but I told myself that no matter what, we’d stop Aquila and save Thundercracker and my father. Thundercracker might’ve been Greed at one point, but now he was a friend and he only got caught because he was helping me. I won’t let him die for that.

Seven hours later, seven GRUELING hours of “Move your leg this way, flick your ear this hard, run on this treadmill, do push ups, punch this dummy” later mixed in with Stormy trying to teach me spells, I was finally able to slowly trot out of the physical therapy, slash magic training, slash torture chamber, and head back to the room we all shared. All I wanted to do was take a shower, then lie down in my bed and pass out for a week. Stormy was right about the cloud walker spell, it only took me ten minutes to learn it and fifteen to do it perfectly. She had a pegasus who grew up in The Ministry fly up to the cloud layer and get some clouds for me to test it on. I could still hear Stormy’s laugh as I fell through it, not once, not twice, but eighteen times. You’d think she cared more about a mare who’d just woken up from having a new limb, ear, lungs and heart replaced in a technically experimental surgery. Nope, she cared more about how my body was dealing with the new stuff attached and how well I could do magic.

After she taught me the cloud walker spell, she moved on to teaching me stronger telekinesis, then from there she taught me a spell she called ‘Night Eye’ making it so I could see in low light, even pitch-black areas. I kind of liked that one, though I failed about the same amount of times I succeeded, if not more. After everything else was done however, she showed me a spell that I found extremely useful, one that she was surprised I picked up very well on my first try. The locator spell, when I cast it anything of value, say caps, bits, ammo, food, and so on showed up green in my vision, but that wasn’t the best part. It also gave off a faint glow of red when I was close to traps. She said it didn’t always work for traps but it would make getting around places a lot easier than it would be without the spell.

I slowly walked into the room as the door hissed open finding only Solstice in the main chamber finishing up a book. As I walked closer and she looked up I saw it was one of Wind Thrasher’s romance novels. I rolled my eyes, saying, “Don’t’ tell me you like those trashy books too.”

“I can’t say I like them perse, but I can’t seem to put it down. The story itself seems predictable but then as you get deeper into the story you find that it’s not,” she said as she folded a corner of the page down to mark her place.

“Is there sex in it?” I asked.

“Well yeah, quite a bit at first but the story is good too,” she said.

“Then it’s a trash book,” I said walking past her toward one of the bedrooms looking forward to a shower.

“It’s not Trash!” I heard Wind Thrasher say.

I almost jumped then looking up toward the ceiling I saw she was laying on a beam reading her own book. She glared down at me, saying, “Knight Everhoof, is a noble stallion who can’t decide between the princess he’s supposed to marry or the beautiful thief he meets in the first book. At first, he hates the mare seeing her as only a common thief who needs to be put into prison, but then they are forced to go on an adventure together and he starts to find her to be an amazing and powerful mare, who has a side that most ponies don’t know about. In book three she finally tells him how she feels…”

Solstice covered her ears, yelling, “Don’t tell me! I still want to see if Light Step is going to betray Knight Everhoof in book two! STOP SPOILING IT DAMMIT!”

“I hate you two,” I said, walking past them with a sigh of irritation. “Give me a book about adventure and magic any day, leave out the sex in every chapter or the way-to-long make out scenes. I mean who needs to explain kissing for four pages. For fuck sake, it’s a kiss, not a damned explanation of the universe. Hell, yes I kiss Aura, whenever I can, I like it, I love it, but I don’t need to go into detail about how long it went on, the amount of passion I felt as our tongues met or the noises we…fuck it, no I’m not doing this. I’m taking a fucking shower!”

They both laughed as I left Wind Thrasher yelling after me, “You do make a really interesting squeaking sound when Aura kisses you!”

“BITE MY SOON TO BE PLASTIC ASS!” I yelled and slammed the door.

Their laughter at my expense went on the entire time I was cleaning myself off. When I was done and my mane mostly dry, I went back out to the living room to find Aura and Vervain waiting for me with Wind Thrasher and Solstice. Byte and Wingnut were also there, looking as if they’d just walked in a moment before, dragging a broken robot behind them. I wasn’t even going to ask, instead I ran over to Vervain and hugged her as tight as I could.

She hugged me back and I felt tears falling onto my mane as she broke down. I’m guessing Aura filled her in on what happened with Mom and I because a moment later, she said, “I’m so happy that you’re okay, and if I didn’t see it I wouldn’t believe you were whole after what I was told. When I meet this Director, I’m going to thank her till I’m an old mare.”

“You heard about Mom I’m guessing?” I asked.

She pulled away nodding. “The Synth told me something happened to her and Aura just finished filling me in a little bit ago while she showed me around The Ministry. I can’t believe this place has been here for so long and The Steel Rangers never found it.”

“From what I’ve gathered about this place, it’s deep underground,” I said as I dried my eyes, “But I need to tell you something about The Director.”

Vervain lifted an eyebrow. “What about her?”

“She’s…” I started to say, but right then the door to the room opened and White Oak herself walked into the room.

She took one look at Vervain, pain written on her face as she completed what I was going to say, “…you’re mother.”

Vervain’s eyes were as big as saucers as she looked at the mother she thought she’d lost twenty years ago. Her hooves wobbled a little as she said, “How can this be? My mom’s been dead for a long time and you look the same age as she did when I last saw her.”

“I should’ve died yes, but thanks to The Ministry, I was saved and their technology has slowed my aging down quite a bit. Vervain my sweet filly, I’ve missed you so much,” White Oak said slowly taking a few steps forward.

Vervain looked at me then back at her mom, saying, “This can’t be true, she’s a Synth isn’t she? If my mom was alive, she would’ve found a way to let me know.”

“I tried, but back when I was first brought into The Ministry, I wasn’t allowed to send messages to you. Between the months it took for them to fix me after the attack and the time it took for them to trust me, it was too late. When I was able to finally get a message to you, I saw that you and your father had both moved on. Later I tried to get a hold of your brother, but by then he was already too far gone to make contact,” she said, looking nervous.”

Vervain’s face went from confusion to utter anger. Her limbs stopped shaking and rage filled her voice as she said, “Do you have any idea what it was like for the rest of us when you died? Dad went into a deep depression, he barely was able to run his business. He left the Steel Rangers, ignored me, grew even more distant with Wolfsbane, he got addicted to Rage and Dash again like when we were foals. It took him two years to get back to his old self and by then Wolfsbane wanted him dead. I became a Knight and stopped speaking with him by then. Our family fell apart because of your so-called death mother! It got so bad that my own depression caused me to leave the only buck I ever cared about. And this whole time, while all of this was going on, you were here working with one of the biggest enemies of The Steel Rangers!”

“I had no choice in the matter Vervain!” White Oak yelled, “But I did everything I could to help whenever I could once I became The Director here. I stopped a lot of what The Ministry was doing, I started looking for ways to help The Wasteland. Hell, why do you think Grim ever met you? It’s because I made sure she worked with the right stallion at the right time to make sure she met you, because I knew you were the one mare on Equus that Grim could trust with our mission. I hated every day that I had to watch you and your brother and your father go through your life missing me, but I couldn’t do anything about it and when I could it was too late. Ask yourself this, if you’d gotten a random message from The Ministry or just some mare saying she was me before you saw me would you even have believed it?”

Vervain’s face fell a little, but the anger never left her eyes. “Probably not, but even if you couldn’t let me know in the normal ways, I know you well enough to know that you could’ve found a way.”

White Oak sighed, then said, “I did find another way, you were the one who didn’t want to listen.”

“What do you mean?” Vervain asked.

“Fourteen years ago, do you remember when your patrol was attacked by raiders? One of them was a former Steel Ranger who joined up with them. He attacked you but never tried to kill you,” White Oak said.

“Yeah, he kept yelling things about he has something to show me. I killed the asshole,” Vervain said.

“He wasn’t a real pony, he was one of our first generation three synths. We replaced him a few days before that attack. His synth chip went bad or he would have been able to tell you that he had a message in his pocket from White Oak. I saw the fight from another Synth we had watching. You killed all the raiders, took the small amount of tech you could find then left without looking for anything else on them,” White Oak said, “Just like most Steel Rangers, you only cared about the tech and not what else their body could have on it. So, I tried again, two years later by sending a real pony who was working with us to try and join The Steel Rangers. She was let in and was given a chance to join, she tried to befriend you. Her name was Chipper.”

Vervain looked a little less angry now. “I remember her, she was annoying and always trying to ask me about tech and asking me about my mom. I got so annoyed with her that I told her I didn’t want her following me around or talking to me anymore. She wouldn’t stop so…” she stopped talking looking ashamed of herself.

“Yes, you had her sent to Halo One to work with the other scribes, where she was killed by another Steel Ranger who thought she was a spy for The Enclave,” White Oak said, “Do you even know why she was suspected of that?”

“Sandstorm said she was sending messages to a mare from The Enclave,” Vervain said.

“Yeah, a known Enclave unicorn who was really working with us, that was Grim when she just left The Crystal Empire. After that, I knew I’d have to send Grim herself to you, but after a while I knew I couldn’t have her telling you who I was anymore, because you wouldn’t have believed her. So once Grim got a few things I needed her too. I made sure she worked with your brother to get into the Steel Rangers in New Pegasus and befriend you,” White Oak said, “So you can hate me for not being around, but don’t blame me for not trying.”

“So…Grim was only my friend to help you?” Vervain asked.

I cut in, saying, “No, she did care about you Auntie Vervain. She lied yes, but she did count you as her friend.”

More tears were in her eyes as she said, “How can I know that’s true?”

“Because she wouldn’t have left me in Stable 28 unless she trusted the pony she was leaving me with. She trusted you more than even her best friend Stormy to watch over me and to raise me. No matter what her mission with The Ministry was, her friendship with you was real,” I said with a small smile.

Vervain sniffed then took a moment to compose herself, finally she looked at me with a smile. “You’re right, Grim had her demons, but she loved you more than her own life. Something she proved when she gave it up to keep you alive. I just wish she could’ve trusted me a little more than she did.” She then looked at White Oak. “One day, I want the full story about what happened to your mom, but for right now, I don’t want to talk about the past. Trust me, deep down I’m happy that you’re still alive, but I can’t push back the anger I feel toward The Ministry for taking you away or you for not finding a better way to get back to me. I’m here for Shadow.”

I could see sadness in White Oak’s face as she replied, “That’s perfectly understandable Vervain.”

“I do need to know something, does Wolfsbane know you’re alive?” Vervain asked.

White Oak slowly shook her head. “No, I did try to get in touch with him once like I said before, but he killed my messenger for even daring to suggest I was alive still. Even if I tried sending a synth that looked like me to see how he’d react, I know he would have just destroyed it. He’s always been a hot-headed stallion, he’s also more stubborn than your father ever was. Now that I think about it, he’d probably kill me after suspecting I was a synth. You’ve already suspected as much because of my appearance.”

“He’s lost to us,” Vervain said, “Wolfsbane was lost to us ever since you vanished. He’s one reason I left Los Alicorn, he did everything he could to make my life hell before he was Elder. So, a few months after I thought you died, I went back to New Pegasus to be around Dad.”

Aura spoke up, asking, “You know he has to die right?”

“Aura!” I said, “Not now.”

Vervain shook her head. “No, she’s right, my brother is evil. His wife is just as bad. He needs to die and I think we should try to take care of him as soon as we can.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, “I know he killed Box Tape, but he’s still your family.”

“He is my family, but that doesn’t mean I can’t kill him,” she said.

White Oak sniffed then turned around. “I understand what has to be done, but I won’t help you with this. He may be a lost cause, but he’s still my son. If he must die, I don’t want it to be by my hooves or plans. So, if you’re going to go after him while you’re sneaking around The Steel Rangers compound, then I won’t help you.”

“Mom, he’s not worth saving,” Vervain said.

“I understand that Vervain, but no matter what, no mother should ever harm her children, even if they’re as bad as Wolfsbane has become. So, if you want my help getting into Stratus, then you have to promise me that you won’t go after him. If something happens while you’re in the ship then I can’t do anything about that, but I don’t want you actively trying to kill him,” White Oak said.

Vervain looked like she was getting ready to argue, but I cut in, saying, “I’m making no promises that I won’t try to take his life if I can. If it helps, I won’t go looking for him either. Is that good enough for you Director?”

I could see the pain in her face still as she nodded slowly. “It’s all I can hope for.”

“Good,” I said, then looked back to Vervain, “Did Aura tell you why we had you come here?”

“She said something about sneaking into The Steel Ranger compound under the Applewood sign, not much else. Why?” Vervain asked.

I grinned. “I’ll tell you all about our plan and what we’ll be doing next.” With that, White Oak, Vervain, Aura, Wind Thrasher, and I all sat down and started going over our plan to sneak into The Steel Rangers compound and steal ourselves one of The Enclave’s airships that The Steel Rangers took. Stormy joined us an hour into our planning then later Stardust and the rest of my friends did as well. A few hours after that, not only had we planned our mission for getting onto the Palisade, but added more to Stardust’s plans too.

A little while later, just before I was planning on getting ready to set out for a place called Miss Maple Tree’s Café on the other side of what was called Dragon Bridge, I found myself in Oricaclos’s room. I was finally told that I could see him and not a moment too soon. Vervain was with me and I was happy for her support. From what the doctors told me, he was extremely lucky to be alive at all. Like me he’s had parts of his body replaced with synthetics. However, unlike me, all of his were inside his body. Most of his internal organs had been replaced, same for a few of his bones. When I first walked in, I expected to find the skeletal corpse looking body I’d seen when he got his body back, but I was surprised to see a mostly whole looking Oricalcos.

He was looking over at me with a small smile on his face as I walked in. He was still very skinny, but he had to have put on a few pounds since I saw him last and his face didn’t look like a skull with flesh over it anymore. His purple eyes were more vibrant than before, and he looked healthy for the most part. As soon as I drew close, he lifted his forelegs to me, saying, “It’s good to see you whole again Star.”

With more tears falling down my face, I ran over to him and hugged him tight, he winced but let me hug him. As I did, I said into his neck, “I’ve never been able to hug the real you.”

He laughed a little. “I used to hug you all the time before your accident. Now can you let me go, I’m doing a lot better, but I’m still very weak, and apparently you’re very strong because this hurts a bit.”

I backed up drying my eyes. “When I heard you were awake, I had to come see you before I headed out.”

He frowned. “Where are you going?”

“You know, doing what I do best, saving ponies and causing trouble, the normal stuff,” I said with a laugh.

He didn’t laugh in return, he looked over at Vervain, saying, “What is she planning Vervain, and why are you here? I thought we left you in New Pegasus.”

“It’s a long story Oricalcos, but we’re heading to Dragon Bridge to meet a contact that can help us get onto the Palisade,” Vervain replied.

His eyes went big. “You can’t, if Wolfsbane finds you, he’ll kill you on sight,”

“I know, but we have to go. I’m not going there to fight him or anything like that, even though I’d like nothing more than to watch him take his last breath as I squeeze it from him. We need to get our hooves on one of The Enclave airships they’ve taken over the years,” I said.

“And what in the Goddesses names do you need an Enclave ship for? I know your Skycarriage was destroyed, but we can find another way to get home,” he said, looking worried.

“I’m not going back to New Pegasus yet Uncle Ori, I’m going to Stratus. My dad’s going to be executed in a few days. I need to save him and Thundercracker, he’s been caught and will be killed along with dad.”

“So, you’re going to risk the life your mother gave her life to save, just to get two stallions out of prison? Are you crazy? I know you love your father and Greed’s been a lot of help to you, but you can’t risk it. Stratus is a big cloud city, and you’re the most infamous unicorn there. You’ll never even make it past the docks,” he said.

“We have a plan Uncle Ori, I’ll have Stardust and Solstice with me and Stormy has a way to help us disguise ourselves,” I said.

He took a moment to calm down then finally laid back into his pillows. “I don’t like this, even with all the planning on Equus, you are still risking a lot. I guess you’re a lot like your father in some ways, you’ll risk everything to save somepony you care about.”

“Mom would’ve too,” I said.

“She did. That’s why if I can’t stop you, then I’m going too,” he said, trying and failing to get up.

Before I could say anything, Vervain walked over to him and pushed him back onto the bed. “You’ll do no such thing Oricalcos. Shadow told me what happened to you and it’s a miracle that you’re even alive. You’re too weak to do much more than sit up right now. She’ll be fine, have faith in your niece, she’s proven herself time and time again.”

He was breathing heavily from just trying to get up. Finally, he gave in and sank back down. “Are you at least going with her Vervain?”

She shook her head. “I’m helping her with The Steel Rangers then coming back here. I’m an Earth Pony, there’s no way I could pass for a citizen of The Enclave. Stardust and Solstice will be there to help her, also Solstice’s mother is Fairy Glitter, from what I’ve learned about her, she’s a good pony to have on your side and she’s helping.”

“True, Fairy Glitter comes from a long line of strong and smart ponies. When I was still Pride, we used to try and keep an eye on her, but she’s never shown outward signs of betrayal. If anypony can get you all in and out it’s her,” he said finally.

“I was wondering about that, why would a pony as well off as her betray her own kind?” I asked, “Is it just because of Solstice being made a Dashite?”

He chuckled. “First of all Solstice isn’t a Dashite, not without the mark on her flank, she’s a runaway until she’s branded. As for Fairy Glitter, well, The Enclave higher-ups started getting suspicious of her about eighteen to twenty years ago, before I was Pride. She lost a foal to a sickness that hit a few families back then. As you know, this sickness wasn’t real, it was how they got the foals for The Devils Children Program. A couple of years after her foal died, or so she thought, she started showing signs of treason. At first, she was quite open about it, but after she was almost brought in on charges, all of her activity seemed to stop, and she went back to being a loyal servant of The Enclave. Over the years, information and secret plans started getting stolen from Enclave databases, all looking into the same thing, The Devils Children Program.”

“So, she wants to find her lost filly or colt? That’s why she’s against The Enclave?” I asked.

“I believe so, though the odds of her ever finding him or her are slim to none. Most of the ponies from that first class didn’t make it. They had their memories wiped and new lives implanted into them. No records of them exist to follow so she’d have a hard time following anything, but still, she’s always been on the High Council’s radar, mine too,” he said.

“Why would she help me find my dad then?” I asked.

He laughed again. “Because Fairy Glitter and your father go back many years, they’ve been friends since they were foals themselves. They were one of the only families left from The Children of the Night who still kept in contact with Night Stalker’s dependents. If Night Shade died, it would be like her losing her own brother. She thinks of him like family and the ties between those two families is deep. I’m not surprised she’s helping you or him at all.”

“I didn’t know that the families of The Children still kept in contact all these years later,” I said.

“Mostly just those two, Thunderlane’s decedents haven’t gotten along with any of us in years. My own family fell from grace when my mother was young, nopony knows what happened to Babs’ kid, Greta’s became The Red Talons, that’s about it. The only other member of The Children who I know are around is a nut case,” he said.

“Wait who’s that? Is there another descendant I haven’t met yet?” I asked.

“Oh, you met him alright, at least from what I remember when I was still hiding in your shadow,” he said, “The Caesar of the Romans is the only living descendant of the zebra who helped Night Stalker during the war.”

“Wait, so you mean that The Caesar is related to the old one from before the war? So, he’s not just full of bullshit?” I asked.

“Nope, he’s the real deal, and from what I’ve learned of the buck, he’s nothing like his distant grandfather. He has unrealistic and overly radical goals that defy the original beliefs,” Oricalcos said.

“I had no idea. Damn, that means I might have to go talk to him again,” I said.

“Why would you do that?” he asked.

“I have to agree, talking to any of The Romans is a bad idea Shadow,” Vervain added.

“He’s one of the decedents of The Children of the Night, our families go back for two centuries. It’s possible he could be part of this curse bullshit, he might even know more about the past with our family and what happened with Noire. Also, at the very least I may be able to work something out with them since Mom died. The Caesar asked me to kill her if I ever found her to pay her back for betraying him a few years back. I could use this to my advantage,” I said, starting to pace back and forth.

“I don’t know, I don’t like the idea of you going to The Romans, they’re dangerous, even more than The Steel Rangers are I think,” Oricalcos said.

“So is everything else I do, if I don’t take the risks then I’ll never get anything done. Also, I have a strange feeling that Aquila will try and work something out with them. I’ve gotten most of the memories back from when she was using my body, but some of it’s still fuzzy. If I can turn them against her before she has the chance to get them on her side, then that could help us out a great deal,” I said, looking at Vervain and Oricalcos.

“I don’t see why the Romans would work with her. She’s of the stars and they have some sort of religious thing with the stars that would cause them not to trust her,” Vervain said.

Oricalcos on the other hoof looked like he was thinking about the idea, “Vervain, she might be on to something with this.”

Vervain looked over at him like he was nuts. “Why in the Goddesses names would you think the zebras would work with a monster like Aquila?”

“Because one fact about their race is that they both revere and fear the stars. Aquila is a true child of the stars and if she’s right, she’s from one of the oldest known constellations. If she can prove that to Raton, then she could get them to follow her almost like a Goddess. If that happened, she would have a powerful army at her back,” he said, sitting up a little.

“And you could also be crazy Oricalcos. The Romans are zebras who follow the old ways, at least according to what I’ve been told. They wouldn’t follow anypony who claimed to be a child of the stars, if I remember right, there was an old prophecy about this very thing being the Caesars downfall,” Vervain said.

“I don’t care Vervain, I’m not going to risk it either way. At least if I’m wrong then nothing bad will happen because of it. However, if I’m right, I’d rather get ahead of it now rather than deal with the consequences later,” I said.

“I keep forgetting that you’re not a foal anymore,” Vervain said, sighing deeply before continuing, “I can’t stop you, but at the very least have a plan before you go walking into a Roman Camp okay.”

“Auntie Vervain please, I’m not focusing on that right now. I have to worry about how I’m going to get onto The Palisade,” I said, slowly getting back to my hooves, still amazed at how real my new limb felt yet foreign at the same time.

“I still don’t like this, but I guess I can’t stop you either, so at least do your best to get in and out. Don’t go hunting for Wolfsbane, you’ll be in his domain and that’s not the right place to take him on,” Oricalcos said.

“I know and I don’t plan to, unless I get extremely lucky. Y’know, like slicing his throat in his sleep or trapping his toilet with a high voltage cable somehow,” I said.

“Which means you’ll look for every opportunity to kill the prick,” Oricalcos said with a sigh.

I couldn’t hold back the smile. “Ah, you know me so well Uncle Ori. Anyhow, get better soon okay? I want to get you back home as soon as I can.”

“Star, I mean it, be careful,” he said as I hugged him again.

“She will be, she’ll have me with her,” Vervain said with a smile, “And when I get back from helping her, I’ll be heading back here to see what I can do to help you get back on your hooves.”

I saw a strange smile pass between the two of them, one that made me turn away and just shut my brain down. Yep, don’t have time to deal with that mess. So, I headed out of my uncle’s room, Vervain not far behind as we walked back toward where I was going to be meeting with one of the synths who would take me to where Dragon Bridge was. I looked to Vervain and asked, “Do you think we can really make this work?”

“I think that nopony can tell you what you can and can’t do. You’ve beaten every odd thrown at you and survived. Just have faith that the Goddesses are watching out for you and you’ll be fine,” Vervain said, turning her head toward the large area where most of The Ministry ate. “One last thing before we head out Shadow.”

I watched as she turned toward the eating hall, my ears drooping a little, “I’m…not going, I have too much to finish up before we head out in a couple of hours. I’ll just wait for you by the teleporter thingy.”

She reached a hoof out toward me. “Shadow, this is the last chance you’ll have to say goodbye…”

I slapped her hoof away visions flowing through my mind as she spoke. Again, the nightmares were back, watching Vervain die by my hoof, Mom’s head falling from her body as Misery sliced through her neck, Mom saying her last goodbye to me as her body turned into dust. I was shaking as I took a step back. “I’m not going…I…I can’t go. Her body isn’t even in that room. She’s gone, what good is it for me to go say goodbye to the empty air?”

“Shadow, yes she’s gone, but this is a way to show her soul that you cared, that you miss her. If you don’t go to this, you’ll regret it one day, trust me on that,” she said.

I backed away again, still trying to get the images from what I saw in the cage world, out of my head. “I said I’m NOT GOING!”

A sad look came over her face as she looked down at her hooves. “Okay sweetie, just…think about it. I do hope you change your mind.”

She continued on, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I took a seat on a bench next to the fountain in the middle of the main chamber, watching as the ponies and synths passed me by. All of them going on with their own business, not a care in Equus about what’s going on in the world above. I’m not sure how long I sat there doing everything but think about Mom’s death, something I’d been trying to forget since it happened, but sometime later somepony came and sat next to me. I just ignored them, looking down at my hooves until they spoke.

“I remember the first time I came here,” I heard the voice of my mother say.

My head snapped up and there she was, only she looked more ghostly than real. I noticed another thing too; no other pony was around. For the first time since I’d come here, nopony was in the main chamber and it was dark, I could barely make out the other side of the room. I looked back at her, asking, “Is this real?”

She looked around then shrugged, she looked like she had when I was still a filly. Her face young, her mane silver, and her eyes bright shiny gray. She smiled at me, saying, “I’m not sure honestly, you could be dreaming.”

“Either that or I really am crazy,” I said.

“That’s possible too, we do have a bit of a mental problem in our family. Let’s just say it’s a dream, you should know that dreams carry more in them than most ponies know. I did a whole study on it when I was in school, fascinating stuff,” she said, leaning back on the bench.

I could feel tears falling as I said, “Real or not, it’s good to see you again, even if you never will remember who I am, not fully at least.”

“Shadow, what happened in my life is no longer a concern. Memories are more than just connections in one’s brain. Memories are carried through our very souls. In life I may have forgotten much but in the life after, I could never forget you, not my Little Star,” she said, putting a shadowy hoof on my shoulder.

“So, you’re a ghost? Or something like that? Phantom? No, that’s the same thing,” I asked, noticing that I couldn’t feel her touch.

“Something like that,” she said with a chuckle, “Enough about me, what’s wrong sweetheart?”

“Everything…I still can’t get what happened to me in the cage out of my head. I thought I did for a while, but now…it just keeps coming back to me and you’re…you’re gone. I was looking for you for so long, went through so much just to find you then to save you from yourself, then you just…died…to save me. I’m so…angry and thankful at the same time for what you did. I can’t get my head straight,” I said.

“Shadow, I know everything you did to find and save me, and I’m sorry that I couldn’t be around for more of your life. The truth is, I never wanted to die, but I wouldn’t have ever let you die so I could live. No parent would ever do that, no matter how messed up I was. You need to stop dwelling on the past and start thinking about the future,” she said.

“But HOW!?” I asked through a sob.

“By taking each step at a time, things won’t get better overnight, but sooner or later, you’ll start to feel a little bit better and then you’ll get back to your old self. You’ll look back at the time we had no matter how short it was and you’ll cherish that time,” she said.

“I…I don’t know if I can. I know I have to work through it, I know I have to be there to help the other ponies in The Wasteland, but it’s just all so hard. I’m just a filly!” I said.

She shook her head slowly. “You stopped being a filly the day you stepped out into The Wasteland. You can’t change that, not anymore, you had your chance to step away from all of this and to go to Manehattan, you’ve had even more opportunities to turn away, but that’s not the mare you are.”

“I just wish…it could be somepony else,” I said.

She smiled. “I’m sure that’s what that marefriend of Glory thinks too, same for the Stable Dweller I’ve heard about and for every important pony in history. Your distant grandfather Nightstalker hated his role in history, he wanted nothing more than to just disappear and let everypony else deal with the war. I’m sure some of his team or the Princesses did too. Some of The Children did as a matter of fact. Minuette and Amethyst Star both did what they could to get out of the war, same for Babs, but ponies like you, like Blackjack and The Stable Dweller or Nightstalker, they can’t do that. All of you have one thing in common, none of you will ever let anypony else fight your battles for you. Also, neither them nor you would ever put ponies you love in danger to keep yourself safe, just like me. Now I want you to get up, and I want you to do two things. First talk to Stormy about your bad dreams, she can help, then talk to your friends. You’ll need them in the coming days and it’s about time you stopped ignoring them to wallow in your own pity.”

I couldn’t help a small chuckle followed by another sob. “I’m going to really miss you Mom. I’ve always missed you, but now, it’s…final. I know you’re not coming back.”

She smiled again. “Just know that I’m always watching you. I may be gone from this world, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still with you,” she said, then poked my chest, right over my heart. “I’ll be right here. Also remember that you still have your father, so go find him, save him, and remember…always Shine Brighter than anypony ever has before.”

“You always say that…what does it mean?” I asked.

“If you want to find out, then you’ll have to go figure it out on your own,” she said, her form starting to fade.

“Mom…you never answered me…is this a dream…or real?” I asked.

She laughed, a pure sound that I haven’t heard…ever from her. “I do believe this is a dream my Little Star, but who says that dreams can’t also be real…”

I jerked awake right before my head fell back onto the back of the bench. I looked around in a panic, almost knocking over a mare who was walking by me with mounds of paper in her magic. The main chamber was full of ponies again, so I had been asleep. I shook my head getting back to my hooves, but as soon as I did, I felt a tingle of warmth in my chest. With a smile I touched the spot where Mom poked me, right over my new heart I looked up at the darkness hiding the ceiling far above saying quietly, “Real or not, thank you Mom.”

I took in a deep breath then headed toward where my friends and family were all saying goodbye to my mom. I knew it was going to be hard, I was probably going to cry again and miss her all over again, but I knew that deep down, I needed this. It was the only way I was going to be able to move on, to get past the shit I’ve been dealing with. So, I went to Mom’s funeral, I sat with Aura and my friends and listened to the ponies who knew her tell stories about Grimoire’s life. When it was all done, oddly I felt a little better knowing that I had this small piece of her to take with me, no matter how long I lived. I’m still not sure if my dream was just that…a dream or Mom speaking to me when I needed her most, but either way I took her advice and I went to find Stormy bringing my friends with me. It was time to explain everything.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this Shadow?” Vervain asked as we headed up to meet with the synth who’d be helping us.

“I’m not sure about anything anymore Auntie Vervain, but I don’t have the luxury to wait,” I said as I looked at myself in the reflective windows we passed by. I was still finding it strange to see myself looking so oddly. After I spoke to Stormy about my problem, she told me I had something called post traumatic stress disorder from the experience I had in the cage. There wasn’t a lot she could do medically at the moment for me, it took time and a few other things to help with the symptoms, but she told me a few things I could do that would help until I could come back, and she could treat me. After that she took Vervain and me and used some machine of hers to change what we looked like. I don’t understand a single thing about what it did, but now my coat was a light blue, my eyes an uninteresting brown and my mane a honey gold. Vervain looked different too with a brown coat, a green mane, and matching eyes. She’d also covered our cutie marks, mine was a simple book, I don’t know why, and Vervain’s was a stream of code. Why did she get to have the cool one?

My friends listen to my story as Stormy worked on me and all understood what was going on with me now. The one thing I love about them is they didn’t question me about my ability to do this mission. They knew me well enough to understand that I could handle myself. So now Vervain and I were about to go back into Los Alicorn, well east of it, and meet this contact and start on the next leg of my quest.

“I just hope you’re right about all of this,” she said.

“I’m not sure I’m right about anything anymore, but it’s too late to turn back now,” I said.

“True, so how are you doing on your spell work?” she asked.

“It’s getting better,” I said as we finally reached one of the transporter rooms. “The question is are you ready?”

She sighed as a synth…wait a courser, that’s what White Oak called them, came up to us. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

The Courser looked at us both with his eyes covered by sunglasses. “Hello, I am X-532, are the two of you ready to be transported to sector 13?”

“Yeah, let’s get this over with,” I said.

“Very good ma’am, if you two would follow me into the transporter, we will be on our way,” he said, turning and walking into a small pod.

We both followed and I asked, “So, are you coming with us or just getting us there?”

“I will be accompanying you to the location but no further. Once you are in Dragon Bridge, I will be heading back,” he said, closing a door behind us.

“Damn, it’d be nice to have a courser on a mission like this,” I said.

“Coursers are only meant to hunt down escaped synths, now be prepared, this will sting,” he said in his monotone voice.

That was all I heard before there was a flash of light, the feel of a bee stinging me…a lot, then another flash and we were no longer in The Ministry. It was dark out, and all I could see was Los Alicorn in the distance and just across from where we were standing there was a settlement with makeshift walls of scrap metal around it. Within the open gate just past the first few shacks I could see a large bridge going over a gap in the earth that separated one half of the town from the other. The bridge was green and black and had to have been built before the war from the look of it. Over the gate that led into town I saw a sign over it that said, Dragon Bridge.

Vervain and I looked in awe at the settlement as we saw dashites, earth ponies, and even unicorns walking through the streets like they didn’t have a single care in the world. Then before I could even ask a single question, X-532 said, “This is were I leave you, The Director says good luck,” And in another flash of light, he was gone.

“Well, that was rude,” I said, looking at the spot where the courser had vanished.

Vervain shrugged. “He’s a robot, who cares, now let’s get into town and see if we can find the place where this Black Dahlia is. We don’t have a lot of time to sightsee, even though this settlement looks interesting.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many pegasi in once place before that weren’t trying to kill me,” I said as we both started walking closer to town.

“This settlement wasn’t here when I was a Steel Ranger in Los Alicorn, but I’ve seen the bridge before, it used to be a way for ponies to move goods easily over the river that used to be here, built a few years before the war even started. It was named Dragon Bridge because a Dragon named Spike did something to help with its construction, I don’t know what though. I never thought a town would show up here either,” Vervain said.

“Do you think the pegasi here are all Dashites?” I asked as we drew closer to the gate.

“Have to be, or runaway Enclave. I’m not surprised to see a lot of them in once place however. Stratus out of all the cloud cities has the highest number of Dashites per year. Los Alicorn isn’t too far from it and a perfect location for a Dashite to flee,” she said.

“I figured they’d go more inland than west, Los Alicorn is a dead city, why come this far west instead of settling near New Pegasus?” I asked.

“Some do, but not everypony likes to be around that city. Too many drunks and problems with the factions there. Going inland just means they risk running into more Enclave. Dashites fear running into their old faction because a lot of the time they are treated like dirt, or worse, other times they are out right killed. Coming west is the best thing for them because Stratus is the furthest west Enclave controlled city in The Wasteland. They don’t dare go too close to Los Alicorn, because The Steel Rangers here are experts at killing them,” Vervain said.

“So, they come out here and stay away from the city itself, but use their closeness to it to keep The Enclave from bothering them?” I asked.

“That’s what I’d guess, though being this close to my brother’s branch is also dangerous. I wonder if the city has some deal with them so they don’t have to worry,” she said as we finally made it to the gate where two guards were standing.

“Guess I’ll just have to ask somepony inside,” I said as a pegasus mare who’s armor had the Dashite mark on it, guessing she was proud of her banishment, came over to me.

“Welcome to Dragon Bridge. Before you enter, we need to know, do you work with The Steel Rangers or are you here on behalf of The Enclave or The rumored Ministry?” she asked.

“Neither, my mother and I are here to see about trading and getting some intel about somepony,” I said.

Vervain came up next to me nodding her head. “Yes, an old Dashite friend of mine sent me a letter not long ago saying he had taken ill, I’ve come to check up on him and to say my goodbyes if he’s taken a turn for the worse.”

She looked suspiciously at the two of us. “You expect me to believe the two of you are related?”

Vervain, who was an expert liar after her years of doing so in Stable 28 chuckled saying. “You mean because I’m an earth pony and my daughter is a unicorn? Yes, we get that a lot,” she put on an ashamed face, “She’s a blessing to me by the Goddesses I like to say. I used to work for one of the smaller casinos in New Pegasus you see, one of my erm…clients…I had was a unicorn and took a liking to me, that was until I got knocked up. Lost my job after I said I was going to keep my foal then took up a life as a trader.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t need your whole sob story. Okay so you’re just an old whore I get it, fine, well who’s the pegasus you’re looking for? I can at least point you toward where he lives, I know everypony in this town.”

For a moment I thought we were done for, but to my amazement Vervain answered without missing a beat. “Ruffle Wing, and I do hope the old bat is feeling better.”

Her face changed in an instant from suspicious to happy. “You know that old buck? I didn’t think he had many friends left in this world. Didn’t know he took ill though, just saw him two nights ago yelling at some of the younger ones who were fighting near his bar.”

“Maybe he was exaggerating again, he’s done it before just to drag me away from my work. And yes, I do know him, he’s an old friend of my dad’s,” Vervain responded.

She laughed. “That sounds like him, well I’m not sure if you’ve been here before, but you can find his bar just over the bridge. It’s the second building on your right, just across from Ms. Maple Tree’s Café. When you see him tell him Soul Wind says ‘hey’.”

“I will, and thank you for the help,” Vervain said as we walked past her and into Dragon Bridge.

Once we were past the guards and working our way toward the large bridge, I asked, “How in the Goddesses name did you know about that Dashite you asked about?”

She chuckled. “I may not have ever seen this town itself, but Ruffle Wing was an old friend of my fathers as I said. Honestly, I’m surprised he’s still alive, he’s older than my dad, but I did know that he settled here a few years back when the town was first constructed.”

“Box Tape knew pegasi?” I asked, “Oh wait, I think I remember him telling me that he knew a few of them over the years.”

She laughed again. “My father wasn’t like most Steel Rangers as you know. He got along fine with most pegasi, earth ponies, unicorns, even zebras. Hell, he was closest to the griffons more than even his own race. That’s how he was able to set up Equestrian Express. He had concats all over The Wasteland back in his heyday.”

“So, you know this Ruffle Wing too?” I asked.

“Not that well, I haven’t seen him in over twelve years, but I did keep in contact with him until I went into Stable 28. We’ll head to his place first and say hi before we head over to the café, we still have a couple of hours before we need to meet our contact,” she said as we stepped onto the old bridge and headed over the gap that ran through the settlement.

“I’ve always wondered why he didn’t have any other couriers apart from me when I met him. From what I’ve learned, he didn’t seem to lose any of his contacts over the years. Most ponies still knew and kept in contact with him,” I said.

“I wondered the same thing when I got out of Stable 28, so I asked him about it. When I went into the Stable, Equestrian Express was running as smoothly as it ever had,” she said, stopping just before the bridge ended and looking out over the deep gap. “My father told me that a year or so back he started having issues with Couriers going missing. Everypony he sent out rarely came back, one after another they just kept disappearing, until he only had one left.”

“He said something when I first met him that his last courier hadn’t come back from his last job. I always just thought that something happened to his only employee or he was just as bad at his job as I am,” I said.

“No, out of all of his couriers, his last one before you never had issues, he always returned even when my father would send him out to find the packages his missing couriers lost. Even after he met you, he still figured this stallion would show up again as he always did. But he never did, my dad wasn’t sure if his luck had just run out or if something else was going on. He meant to have you go look for him one day, but life has a funny way of laughing in your face when you think you can control how the world works, especially The Wasteland.”

“No pony knows what happened to him?” I asked.

“After I talked to my dad about this last courier, I started looking into it myself,” Vervain said with a sigh, “I heard about a few rumors of an Equestrian Express courier who took over in a placed called Division. The rumors made it sound like it was ‘The Courier’, meaning you, but I knew it wasn’t since you were in The Kingdom at the time.”

“You think this courier is still alive then?” I asked.

“I think he is, and whatever he’s up to, he’s doing something in Division, something he’s putting my fathers company name to. Even after Equestrian Express was destroyed, I still was able to get more and more rumors and stories from Division about a tribal stallion with an Equestrian Express duster starting an army or something like that,” she said, “Honestly, I think that the fall of my father’s business over the last year was because of him, but I can’t prove anything.”

I sighed. “Sounds like more trouble I might have to deal with one day. What was this pony’s name?”

“Dad never knew his real name, he only went by the name of his old tribe, Tangled Mane. Though I don’t think you should worry about him, from what I’ve learned, Division is halfway between New Pegasus and The Kingdom, too far for us to worry much about him,” she said with a smile.

I thought about what she said for a moment then my eyes went wide. “Is it an abandoned city that’s mostly destroyed?”

She shrugged. “Sounds about right. It’s not like I’ve seen the place myself, but the ponies who told me about it said something around the same lines of what you said.”

“I think we stopped there, on top of an old skyscraper on our way to the Kingdom,” I said, remembering the place well now.

“Well, like I said, it doesn’t matter. No matter what he does or doesn’t do, he can’t ruin my father’s company anymore than it already has been. Even if you were able to get it going again, you’re too famous for anypony to believe anything they hear about Division, or Tangled Mane,” she said with another smile. “Now how about we go see my dad’s old friend then get our meeting with this Black Dahlia finished.

“Sounds like a good idea,” I said as I followed Vervain off the Bridge and toward a small bar just beyond. As we walked, in the back of my mind something about her story about this Tangled Mane tugged at my thoughts, as if no matter what I wanted, one day I’d meet this stallion, for good or ill. With my mind filled with what this other courier and the plans we were putting together, I didn’t notice the small ‘PING’ that my Pip-Buck gave off, indicating that somepony, had sent me a broadcasted message.

Stardust Night: A: No, this is not a last chapter, it's just a name. you'll understand when you read it. B: Since I didn't technically clear the chapter name with Drako it is subject to possible change. C: I apologize for chapters taking so long to get out, our last three chapters we wrote in a row and after release while writing this one and the next one, I got COVID-19 and was out of commission and Drako got attacked by a dog at work. He suffered an injury to his hand and is unable to type so I will most likely take over. Not to worry, he's fine except for the hand and as for me so far there haven't been complications and I have officially tested negative for the virus. Thank you all for reading and putting up with our weirdness over these past few years. Enjoy!