Everypony has a point in their lives when they need to make a major life choice. A path to choose that will either lead them toward salvation, or destruction. Sometimes those choices come more than once, more often than not in The Wasteland those choices are made nearly every day. I would know, I’ve been lucky enough to live longer than I should’ve. Not because I made the right choice every time, but because at the crucial point in my life, I chose to live and step off the path I was on and forge a new and better path.

I’ve been telling you the story about how I ended up in this place, how I came to be at this moment, at this time, and why. Some of my story though, might’ve been hard to understand because part of it involves the point of view of others. The reason for that isn’t simple to explain, the best way to put it is this. On the day I walked into the chamber inside Tower 2, I took on too much magic from the leaking mega spells. When that happened, time was warped, my mind wasn’t my own for…I don’t know how long. My point is, that during the time I was trapped outside of myself, I lived the lives of other ponies and griffons in The Wasteland. I’ve done my best to tell you the points of view I saw and experienced as those ponies and griffons so far and tried to keep them as in-line with my timeline as I could. Although, this next part of my story I had to split into two parts. Because during the five months I was away from my friends and my home in New Pegasus, I wasn’t the only one suffering. Aura, and the rest of my friends were suffering as much if not more than I was, but unlike me, it wasn’t only because I was gone. I left New Pegasus at the worst time. A lot happened, a lot of ponies and griffons died, a new faction formed, and Aquila was behind most of it. If I hadn’t relived these moments, I probably would’ve never changed, even if at the time I didn’t remember any of the points in time I saw. My mind had been shattered by the magic and it took a long time for me to remember everything, but deep down the experience changed me for the better and because of that, I’m here today, to tell you the story of my life…and how I started to shine brighter than anypony has before…

Aura…

Two weeks after Shadow left...

I opened my eyes slowly wincing as I tried once again to get used to the bright light shining in through the window of my room at the top of the Shadow Talon’s base in Freedom. Just like every morning, I reached toward the other side of my bed and yet again found it cold and empty. I felt a shuttering breath run through me as once again I heard Shadow rip my heart in two.

“If you really love me then you’ll give me the space I need. Right now, I’m so angry at you and feel so betrayed that I don’t know what I’ll do. So go back to your talon company, go back to doing what griffons do best. Take time to think about how you really feel and then maybe, maybe if I decide to come back to this shithole, then we can talk. For right now, we’re over. Just looking at you right now pisses me off.”

She wasn’t wrong either, I’d lied to her about Tripwire. At the time I told her about Trip’s death, I was still trying to get over it myself. I was already starting to feel something for Shadow back then and I was afraid she’d be scared of me if she knew what I’d done to my former lover. I should’ve been honest from the start or at least told her later what really happened. I killed Trip when she attacked me. She’d been exposed to an illness, one that I didn’t understand but knew was making ponies go nuts in Hoofington. I hadn’t tried to kill her, but she attacked, and my training kicked in faster than my mind could process what was happening. Before I knew it, she was dead. I’d buried her on that lonely cliff, took my spear and some supplies and flew away.

Shadow asked me a couple times why Tariff hated me so much, why he blamed me for Trip’s death. It’s because once I’d come back from Hoofington I’d told him what happened to his sister. I almost had to kill him too after he tried to attack me once I broke the news to him. His little sister was his whole world, and I was the one who’d taken her away, I was the one who killed her.

I sighed and did my best to keep from crying again as I got to my talons then stretched. I’m Aura Bloodtalon, leader of the Shadow Talons, I can’t let my griffons see weakness. So, I walked over to where my energy spear was resting and picked it up. I twirled it around a few times then checked to make sure the gem that powered it was still working properly before putting on the sling holster I used to keep the spear held to my back and holstered the weapon. I took the next hour to wash and eat a small breakfast of Cram. After I was finished with that, I left my room and headed toward my office on the main level. It was just another day leading the Shadow Talons…another day without Shadow.

It didn’t take long for one of my sisters to find me, right when I was getting to the door to my office, it was Vi. “Aura, we’ve got six more requests from ponies for contracts, three of them are from Freedom, the other three are from the surrounding area. Also, we got another report in from Gouger and Toby about movements with the Unchained Talons. I left them on your desk, you really should take a look at them before your meeting with the younglings. We also had a securipony drop by with paperwork from Mr. Tops so we can reopen the former Red Talon branch for the Shadow Talons on The Strip.”

I blinked and shook my head as I felt a twinge of pain behind my eyes. “Vi, calm down for a moment and take a breath!” I watched as she shut her beak then ran a black talon over her White and Grey feathers. “That’s better, now can we at least step into my office before you start blurting out the mornings reports?”

She nodded, then sighed, saying, “Sorry sis, there’s just a lot going on over the past few days. Syn and I are both a little overwhelmed and Fletch isn’t much help. She’s still worrying about Gouger working as a spy with the Unchained and I think her hormones are a little out of whack.”

“She’s expecting to lay soon so I’m not surprised, and she’s always been a little nutty. So, what do you expect?” I asked as I opened the door to my office. It wasn’t much, just a small desk overloaded with paperwork, a sofa in one corner, and a couple chairs, but it helped keep my work as the leader of The Shadow Talons separate from my personal life.

Once I sat down and Vi shut the door behind her, she asked, “Are you doing okay today?”

“I’m….” I started to say but Vi cut me off.

“If you say you’re fine, I’ll punch you,” Vi said with a glare.

I sighed then pinched the bridge of my beak. “I’m not fine, honestly I’m miserable, but there’s not much I can do to fix that. She’s…gone and she made damn sure I couldn’t find her.”

Vi sat down across from me at the small paper covered desk, folding her wings over the back of the chair. “I’m guessing that you’ve tried to find her.”

I looked into my sister’s eyes. “An hour after she left, I sent two griffons to follow her and make sure she was ok and to let me know where she was heading. They were able to keep up with Vervain, Solstice, Oricalcos, and Shadow for a little over a day. The problem was that on the second day Oricalcos noticed that they were being followed and cast some kind of spell on the griffons I sent to follow them. They woke up from whatever he did two days later, by then they were long gone.”

“I’m surprised that any of your griffons would’ve been noticed by anypony. Did you send rookies or something?” Vi asked.

I shook my head. “Nathan and Gabriel are two of our best with stealth. The problem was that I forgot that I’d sent them to follow not only Shadow but a former Sin. Oricalcos is strong and clever, I’m honestly not surprised he realized he’d been followed.”

“I guess you have a point. Do you know where they were heading?” Vi asked.

I shook my head. “All I have is that they headed southeast, not much more than that. If I were to guess, I’d say she’s heading for The Badlands.”

Vi’s eyes went wide. “Why would anypony in their right mind go there?”

I sighed again. “Shadow told me that one of the towers for the project she’s trying to stop is down there. The problem is that The Badlands are huge and even though most ponies and griffons don’t know this, there are a lot of ponies, griffons, and zebras living down there. Even if I know what area she’s heading to, that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to find her.”

“Do…do you really want to find her? She was terrible to you before she left. I mean don’t get me wrong, I like Shadow, but is she really worth tracking down? Is she really worth your love after the disrespect and the pain she’s put you through?” Vi asked.

I nodded. “Shadow’s young, she angry, hurt, and has a very hard time trusting others. Hell, I don’t blame her, she’s been through a lot in her short life. It takes a lot for her to fully trust someone. She had every right to be angry with me, not because of what she overheard when I was talking about our future, that she did misunderstand, but I did lie to her about what really happened to Tripwire. I could’ve told her the truth a long time ago, but I hid it because I was ashamed of what I did. You ask me if she’s worth it? Yes, she is, because I know from the bottom of my heart and deep in my soul that the two of us are soulmates. I was meant to find her, to love her, and to be with her. No matter what happens between the two of us from here on out, I won’t be able to love another like I do her.”

Vi rolled her eyes. She’d never been a big believer in the whole soulmate thing. Honestly neither had I, at least not until I first met Shadow. Vi looked at me, saying, “You don’t honestly believe in that whole soulmate thing, do you? Yes, I agree with our traditions of only forming a life bond with one griffon with a small exception with situations like mom with our…father,” she stopped talking for a moment as she let the anger flow out of her before she continued, “Mom’s life partner died when Syn was still very young, so she married our dad in the way ponies do and had the rest of us. I don’t believe that we are meant to find one soul that is the other half to our own.”

“I didn’t used to believe in it, not until I met Shadow,” I said as I looked at her, “You can’t understand the feeling until you’ve lived it for yourself. It doesn’t matter if I have to wait ten, twenty, or even fifty years. I will wait for her to come back to me.”

“What if she never does? You’ll truly spend your entire life waiting for a pony who might not even love you anymore?” Vi asked.

“I will,” I said before leaning back in my seat, my wings flowing over the side of the chair.

“Well, I hope that she sees sense then. I don’t want to watch you be miserable for the rest of your life sis,” Vi said.

“I’ll be fine Viridiana; I just need a little time, that’s all,” I said before going through some of the papers on my desk, “Enough about my love life or lack thereof, I need to know what’s going on with the Unchained. From what I’m seeing here in the reports, they’re setting up for something big, do we know what?”

Vi took a moment to think before she sat down. “Toby believes they’re setting up for an attack against us, Gouger seems to agree.”

“How do they expect to attack us? We have around two hundred griffons, and last I checked, they still only have around fifty or so,” I said.

“True, but over half our griffons are still too young or too old to fight. Out of our ready fighters, only a few of them are as well trained as us. The Unchained Talons are almost all of fighting age and Apollo or Archer as he’s being called now, and Gina have been spending most of their time training them to be the best. If they all come at us at once, I’m not sure we’ll be able to win,” she said.

I sighed as I went back to looking over the documents from our spies and scouts. “The biggest problem we have with the Unchained Talons is Apollo and Gina. They’re the ones who started the group so they could take down the Red Talons. They succeeded in that and took over Crimson Canyon, I don’t understand why they’re still trying to fight us. All the former Red Talons who joined The Shadow Talons aren’t a threat anymore, we don’t even have the same rules that became a problem for the Red Talons. It doesn’t make sense, why does our father and our Aunt want us dead so badly?”

Vi looked downcast for a moment before she pulled another file out of the satchel she always had on her nowadays. “I think our father has been planning something big for a long time,” she opened the folder and set it in front of me, as I pulled it closer looking over the reports, she continued, “I hired Lonely Hearts to look into his past. Apollo’s been working against The Red Talons for years.”

I saw photos and documentations going back up to twelve years, one of the photos showed a younger Apollo talking with a unicorn I’d only seen once but knew a lot about thanks to Shadow’s run-in with her on The Palisade. It was Hacker, the wife of Wolfsbane. I looked back at my sister. “He’s been working with The Steel Rangers in Los Alicorn?”

“That’s the weird thing, from everything Lonely Hearts was able to dig up, it doesn’t look like it. He was working for this mare named Hacker and only her. If you keep reading you’ll see that Apollo was the one who started a lot of the crap we’re dealing with today. Twelve years ago, he even went after Grimoire before she went into Stable 28 with Shadow. He was trying to kill her to take her Mark II for Hacker, a few years later reports say that a griffon in power armor tried to attack Rusty Shackles in Trotston to get his Mark II. When he wasn’t able to get them for Hacker he started causing issues with the different factions all over New Pegasus for years. He was the reason the Romans got bigger a few years ago, he was the one who killed some top NLR ponies to weaken them, he was the griffon who brought intel to Hacker from The Hidden Sands Rangers. Lonely Hearts also thinks that Apollo was the one who killed Elder Apple Jam and helped Crackerjack find ponies to join his raider band to block off Cartwheel,” she said.

I looked at all the documentation that Lonely Hearts was able to dig up on our father. “I can’t believe that synth was able to find out so much. How did he get all of this?”

She shrugged, “Lonely Hearts has his ways, well he had a little help from Stormy I guess. The Ministry has been spying on The Wasteland for years and Stormy’s been a top member of their leadership for over a decade.”

“So, our father’s been a traitor longer than we thought, but if this is all true then why did we only start hearing about Archer a few months ago?” I asked looking up at Vi.

“Apollo was using different names and disguises to get what he wants. Archer was just his latest so he could build up The Unchained Talons. I honestly think The Unchained is just another step in whatever plan he’s been working on with Hacker. I even think that Gina was just another pawn in his schemes.”

I pinched the bridge of my beak again. “It’s like he was never the griffon we thought he was. As for Gina, I think you’re right about that. Ever since she came back into my life, she’s been trying to get me to understand that she wasn’t as bad as we thought she was.”

“Do you think she can be turned against Apollo? If so she might be a big help in taking back Crimson Canyon,” Vi said.

“I’m not sure, I’d have to find a way to talk with her on her own without getting attacked,” I said, “I hate to admit it, but I do miss her. She’s a good fighter and before she was banished she was always a good Aunt.”

Vi sat back in the chair for a long moment, thinking, before she said, “I’ll see if I can find a way to make that work. Either way, are you sure you still want to go ahead with trying to take back our old home? I mean we have a good thing going here and we’re taking over most of the territory that The Red Talons used to hold.”

I smiled a little at that. “We’re doing okay for ourselves, but right now most of our griffons are sharing space or having to find other places around the area to live. We’re down quite a lot of griffons after the attack on Crimson Canyon but there are still a lot of us. Freedom can’t handle so many griffons all in one spot. Also, even if the Red Talons are no longer around, Crimson Canyon is still our home and I want to take it back.”

“And you still want to try to do that in the next month?” she asked.

“If we can get enough support then yes. As for this upcoming attack, if it is an attack, I think we can hold them back if they come after us here in Freedom. The Queens will stand with us, and Mr. Tops already said that if The Unchained come into Freedom or The Strip he’ll have his robots attack them,” I said as I got to my talons.

“I’ll see what I can do to make this work then,” Vi said.

“Thanks sis, now I need to go talk with Byte about a few things, check up on the training of our younger griffons, see how Wind Thrashers doing, and so much more,” I said as I hugged my sister before heading out of my office.

“Remember to take a break!” Vi yelled after me as I left.

I chuckled to myself as I left to go find my friends. It didn’t take long because as soon as I got a little way down the hallway from my office I ran into Stardust. “Hey Aura, I’m glad to see you up and about.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like I’ve been holed up in my room every day since Shadow left. You make it sound like I was sick on my deathbed.”

He smiled. “No, just every other day.”

“Yeah, yeah, now what do you want? I was just on my way to check on Wind Thrasher then talk with Byte,” I said.

“I just wanted to see how you were doing,” he said, “I also just came from The Lucky Horseshoe, Byte’s with Wind Thrasher right now, same for Wingnut and Stormy.”

I kept on walking toward the entryway of our new base, Stardust falling in beside me. “How’s she been doing? Did the cure for her bloodlust have any side effects or has she started showing any signs of going back to her old temptations?”

He shook his head. “Apart from getting a little sick now and then she’s been great. I’m pretty sure the sickness is from her pregnancy more than the cure Dr. Gauze made for her.”

“I heard Syn was able to figure out that she’s about five weeks along now,” I said cracking a smile at the goofy pegasus. “So, you two did have a little fun while Shadow was out in Hoofington.”

He seemed a little flustered at that. “Does the timing really matter?”

“No, but as your friend, I do have to poke fun at you. Honestly I didn’t know you liked her so much until the two of you told me she was pregnant when you two got back from Frosty Summit,” I said as I bumped him with a wing.

He smiled slightly. “I honestly kind of liked her when I first met her back at Stable 9.”

I eyed him. “You were hitting on her when she was still being controlled by Dr. Cell? Come on Dusty, she was trying to kill us.”

“I don’t mean like that, I felt bad for her after Shadow broke that collar around her neck. She seemed so sad and kind which was kinda weird after she’d just been trying to rip our throats out and well, I kind of have a thing for weird mares. I didn’t start feeling things for her until the rebirth celebrations. We talked a lot during those three days, and I really got to know the real Wind Thrasher,” he said as we walked out of The Shadow Talons base and headed toward The Strip.

“At least you two didn’t just jump into bed then and there like Shadow and Silver did,” I said.

He looked up and away from me as he said, “Yeah…we sure didn’t do anything sudden like that.”

I eyed him again. “Are you kidding me Dusty? I thought you got her pregnant a few weeks ago and that was the first time you two did anything.”

“It wasn’t the first time…” he said sounding a little sheepish, “She happened to tell me that she had a crush on me when she was drunk at the rebirth celebrations, and no I didn’t do anything with her that night. I waited till the next morning, and she was the one who kissed me first okay.”

I cocked an eyebrow up at him as we got to the gate to The Strip. After the two of us showed our passports to the robots we went inside as I said, “None of us had any idea that you two were a thing. How’d you hide it from the rest of us?”

He rolled his eyes. “If you haven’t noticed, all of you, well all of us in the group I guess you could say, have been too worried about Shadow to pay attention to Wind Thrasher or myself.”

“I guess you have a point, but it makes sense. All of us were brought together because of Shadow and her mission. Not to mention she’s probably the most messed up one of our friends,” I said, doing my best to ignore the pain of loss still heavy in my soul.

“That filly’s been through hell and worse in her life, I’m not surprised she finally snapped to be honest,” he said.

We reached the entrance to The Lucky Horseshoe and headed inside to go up to the Royal Suite which Mr. Tops let us use. Well, ‘let’ was putting it mildly, Violet a.k.a. Minuette made sure to keep Mr. Tops in-line. She had more control over The Lucky Horseshoe than anypony since she was a founding member of The Children of the Night. We now had access to the Royal Suite and the former floors The Children of the Night had access to. In the past two weeks we’d learned a lot about the tower and the pony who ran it and New Pegasus thanks to our alicorn ally.

“She’s not a filly Dusty, you know that and please don’t call her that it makes me feel weird,” I said.

He sighed. “I know, in her stable she’s grown up even if she isn’t to most places in The Wasteland. Either way, she’s normally more mature, but after how she left it’s hard not to see her as a filly. I mean did she have to really run off…again and not to mention she took my sister with her and made sure no one knew where she was going.”

“At least she has ponies that love her with her. Vervain, Oricalcos, and Solstice will keep an eye on her. She needs this time away from us to figure out her shit and hopefully she’ll come back when she’s better,” I said, doing my best to tell myself that it was true.

We got into the elevator and took it up to the Royal Suite. The ride only took a couple minutes and when we arrived and walked out into the living space I heard a mare that had to be Wind Thrasher gag and throw up in the bathroom just down the hall followed by Byte, saying, “I guess that didn’t settle well for you either. I’m sorry Wind Thrasher, I was hoping you’d be able to keep this meal down better.”

I looked at Dusty. “We can talk about Shadow and her shit later okay. Go check on your marefriend and when you’re done I need to go over the upcoming raid on Crimson Canyon.”

“Okay, I’ll talk with you in a bit then,” he said as he flew off to relieve Byte of watching over the sick bat-dragon pony.

A few moments later, Cookie Byte walked down the hall. Her mane was down for probably the first time I’d ever seen, and it made her look a little older which was nice. When she saw me she groaned. “Let me guess, you want me to check again if Shadow’s turned on her tracker on her Mark II?”

“No, I know that if something changes you’ll let me know. I came to see if you could help me with a small problem,” I said as I headed to one of the couches that sat overlooking New Pegasus.

She shrugged and followed to sit next to me. “What kind of problem?”

I leaned back, looking up at the blue sky, still amazed that most of the cloud cover was gone. After a moment I finally spoke, saying, “The Shadow Talons are going to take back Crimson Canyon in a month, and I was hoping that you’d be able to help me get some help from Trotston.”

She frowned. “What do you need the ponies from Trotston for? My home is filled with mostly scientists, not warriors. We have guards and all that, but not the kind of ponies that can take on griffons like The Unchained Talons.”

“I know that, but you said yourself that they do specialize in making weaponry and stuff like that. I was hoping Rusty could help arm my griffons or at least make better armor or something that could help us with fighting back against The Unchained,” I said.

She took a moment to think before saying, “The ponies there might be able to come up with something, but I’ll have to talk with my uncle first and see what he says. Either way you know he’s gonna want something in return.”

“I’ll pay his price as long as it’s within reason,” I said.

“Then I’ll get in contact with him later today when I know he’ll be taking a break from his duties. I need to check-in anyway, he likes to make sure I’m safe even with The Steel Rangers no longer looking for my Mark II,” she said.

“I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to make you go home now that the danger has passed,” I said, looking down at her. It was strange thinking of Byte as a filly, she was only a year or two younger than Shadow, but she always seemed more like a kid as where Shadow only acted like one when she was being a brat or upset.

“He practically demanded it the last time we spoke, but I told him I’m staying with all of you. I like being in The Wasteland, I like having real friends who like how smart I am and don’t mind me tinkering with tech,” she said.

I nudged her. “And you can be close to Wingnut.”

She looked around for a moment making sure no other pony was around before she smiled and said, “Yeah, that’s a plus too. Though I still think he’s an annoying bug sometimes, and he still doesn’t seem to realize I like him.”

I laughed. “Bucks are stupid. Give him time and he’ll come around, I know he likes you too, but he’s young and immature sometimes. Course that never seems to change with the males of any species. They get older, but they never grow up.”

She blushed a little. “Do you think he’ll ever like me the same way Wind Thrasher and Stardust like each other or how you and Shadow feel?”

“I wouldn’t use Shadow and my relationship as a basis for your own,” I said with a sigh, “To answer your question, I’m not sure if you two will end up being together or not. The two of you are still very young and just starting to understand the world of adulthood. You two could get closer or drift apart, just remember that if it doesn’t happen or if it just doesn’t work out for you two, there are other bucks out there.”

“None as smart as Wingnut though. If I end up with a buck I want him to be at least as smart as I am. I want a partner who will help me build something great in The Wasteland,” she said with a smile.

“I’d say you don’t need anypony to help you do that, but I understand what you mean. Having someone by your side does make the journey better and more meaningful than doing it alone,” I said.

“I don’t know,” I heard the voice of Stormy say as she came into the living room, “I spent my life building my own reputation on my own and I’m doing just fine.”

The two of us looked back at the short, dark gray, unicorn as I said, “Yeah, you may think that, but aren’t you the mare that spent over twenty years in love with you best friend…a best friend who was straight. You also built a Synth of yourself to run your projects in The Enclave so you could stay deep underground with The Ministry, also to help your friend.”

Stormy huffed and trotted over to sit on the couch next to us. “You take all the fun out of what I’ve done Aura.”

“Someone needs to keep you in your place now that Grim’s gone and so is Shadow,” I said with a smile.

“Speaking of my little turd of a Goddaughter, I think I know where she ran off to,” Stormy said.

Byte and I both cocked our heads to one side as I asked, “You’re her Godmother?”

“Of course, I am. Who else would Grim trust with Star if something happened to her or Night Shade?” she said sounding offended.

“I mean I guess I get that, but if you’re her Godmother who’s her Godfather?” Byte asked.

Stormy started to laugh. “Nopony, Grim and Night Shade both trusted me to take care of their daughter and honestly they didn’t have many they could trust especially with how sick she was back then. Honestly if Grim didn’t entrust her to Vervain, she would’ve ended up in The Ministry with me if Grim could’ve gotten her away from The Stable with no pony knowing.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way or anything Stormy, but I’m kinda glad she was raised by Vervain over you. You’re, um. How should I say this? Sadistic,” I said.

She chuckled. “Secretly so am I, I mean I would’ve done my best to raise her to be a good pony, but the time I would’ve spent doing so would’ve been so boring.”

“Anyway, you said you think you know where Shadow is or is heading. Why do you think that?” I asked.

She looked over at me, her orange eyes going serious. “She’s angry yes, but she’s also determined to finish her mother’s work in destroying Falling Shadows. She’ll need to unlock Tower 2 and Tower 3 before going to The Crystal Empire to find out what Night Stalker did to Tower 4. Reports I got from friends who still live above the clouds tell me that a raider camp near the border of Equestria and The Badlands was attacked by a small group of ponies, two of which sounded a lot like Solstice and Shadow. If that’s true then she’s heading to The Badlands to find and unlock Tower 2.”

“That’s a long way to go,” I said, “Either way how does that help us?”

She smiled and looked over at Byte. “Two reasons, one we know where she is and what she’s trying to do. Second is that she’ll have to come back here at some point to either get Byte to give her, her Mark II or go with her to Baltimare.”

Byte looked thoughtful as I said, “What if she just sends Oricalcos, Vervain or Solstice to get Byte?”

Stormy laughed. “One of Shadows biggest flaws, just like Grim’s is that she’ll want to come herself to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

“She’s got a point. I mean look at how Shadow’s acted in the past,” I heard Stardust say as he and Wind Thrasher came back into the living room, “She’s always put herself on the frontlines of every fright or problem we’ve run into, even when we’ve told her to stay back or not get in the way. It’s just in her personality to help or do it herself.”

Wind Thrasher still looked a little ill but better then she had yesterday when I’d come to check on her. Syn said her morning sickness should be passing soon which I was grateful for. She still needed to heal from her last battle with her bloodlust and getting the cure. I took a moment to give my friend a smile before looking at Stardust. “I guess you’re right, I just hope when she comes back here, her mind is in a better place, and we can talk.”

“The question is will we have time to be ready for her to show back up here?” Wind Thrasher asked, “Just look around New Pegasus and Freedom, The Courier is almost hated as much as the Romans are now thanks to Aquila, The NLR, and New Appleton.”

Violet walked in as Wind Thrasher was talking. She came over to sit next to the couch, her much larger frame too much for the sofa. “We will know when my granddaughter has unlocked Tower 2.”

Stardust looked over at her. “How would we know that Minuette?”

Violet winced a little. She wasn’t a fan of being called Minuette or Min but Stardust got a slight thrill out of irritating the ultra powerful Alicorn, who just so happened to be one of the most powerful unicorns from the war, a founding member of The Children of the Night, knew my distant grandmother, Shadow’s grandfather, and other grandmother, and built, programed, and led Project Star Gazer, Project Solar Flare, and Project Falling Shadows. Not to mention she was the pony who came up with the spell S.A.T.S. uses to slow time, the E.F.S., and apparently all the megaspells used in Falling Shadows and Stargazer. She could turn all of us into dust with a flick of her horn and of course, Dusty had to keep picking on her.

“You’re lucky your distant grandmother was a close friend Stardust, or I’d make you pay for using my old name like that,” she said, glaring over at him, “Especially Min, that was the name The Children used to call me, and I don’t deserve to be called by that name anymore…I betrayed them and my country.”

His ears drooped back. “Sorry, I keep forgetting that it was touchy for you, I just like your real name over your Alicorn name. With your full memories and soul back in your body, it just seems fitting. Also, you can’t blame yourself for what happened. Anypony would’ve broken down after what happened to your wife.”

Violet sighed. “I know, but it’s still a struggle every day to keep my mind intact and not to fall back into my madness. Just for now, please stop using my old name until I’m ready.”

“I’ll do my best,” Stardust said, “Just don’t bite my head off if I slip now and then. Anyway, you said we’d know if Tower 2 was unlocked. How?”

Violet looked back at the rest of us, saying, “The four points of The Lucky Horseshoe are indicators of the towers working at full capacity. When I locked them down with the help of Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom, three lights went dark for forty years. Once Night Stalker did whatever he did to Tower 4, the north pointing light went dark too. When those lights come back on, we’ll know that Shadow unlocked a tower. The thing I’m worried about is Shadow getting into Tower 2.”

I cocked my head to one side. “Why’s that? I thought finding it was going to be the problem. It’s the only one that no one knows the location of apart from you.”

“After so long I don’t really know exactly where it is either, though I could figure it out with a map and a couple hours of quick math,” Violet said, “The real problem is that each tower has a unique magic to it. Tower 2 revolves around time and space. The megaspells there are so unstable that with the tower locked down, the megaspell room that just so happens to be the same room the lockdown is in, will have powerful magic flowing around it. Magic like that is extremely unpredictable. She could die just trying to get into the room to reach the terminal.”

I almost jumped to my talons at that. “We have to go help her then!”

Violet shook her head. “That’s not wise Aura, you need to trust that she has the power and ability to survive.”

“What if she gets hurt in that chamber?” I asked.

Violet smiled. “We will not bother her right now and let her do what she thinks she needs to, but as soon as I feel the seal on the door go down, I will get you and I over to the tower.”

“How can you do that?” Byte asked, before I could.

“It’s not that hard for me to teleport that far if I have enough radiation beforehoof. Also, I placed a protective spell over the door that leads into the megaspell chamber. Once Shadow or the others unlock that room, I’ll feel it and I’ll know exactly where to go,” she said with a smug smile.

“Can you get all of us there?” Wind Thrasher asked.

“I could, but the time it would take to get enough power from radiation would take too long. The best I can do is get one maybe two of you there with me when the time comes,” she said.

“It’ll have to do,” I said with a sigh, “And before any of you protest, I’m going for sure and if another pony is coming with…well I’ll see who will be best at the time. We still have no idea how long it could take her to calm down and find the tower, let alone get into this chamber.”

“I agree, let’s just hope that we can help her when the time is right,” Stardust said.

“That’s a good plan for now,” Violet said, “Now Aura, I heard you’re looking for help with the fight against The Unchained. Would you be okay with a slightly mentally unstable Alicorn joining in the fight? I could use a good fight to get my mind off my past.”

I smiled. “I think we can work something out.” I then looked at Stardust. “Dusty, see if you can get Doorstop and the members of Stable 97 who came with him out here to help. Also, I was hoping you could go see Elder Hazel with the Hidden Sands Rangers to see if they’re willing to help us too.”

“You want me to go to Hidden Sands and try to get Steel Rangers to join us in fighting the Unchained Talons? You do know that most of them hate pegasi right?” he asked.

“I know, but you know Hazel and a lot of the rangers there know you and like you from our time there with Shadow. I’m also hoping that Hazel is trying to change her branch of the Steel Rangers to be more accepting of other races, she said she was when I last spoke to her,” I said.

“Okay, I’ll try, but if I see any signs of that growing cult of bitch, I’m turning back for home,” he said with a huff, “I don’t have the means to deal with shit like that right now, let alone need to.”

“I agree,” I said as I shivered at the thought of the Star Cult. Aquila surprisingly wasn’t leading them or even the one who started them. The leaders of New Appleton were the ones who started the new cult. From what my spies said, it sounded like she didn’t like them one bit, but she did use them to help her with whatever goal she was reaching for. Sadly, the cult had a hitlist of creatures to kill so their new Goddess would help them get into some kind of paradise. Again, not something Aquila started; the cult leader was insane. The list was, myself, Stardust, Wingnut, Wind Thrasher, The Queens, Squirrel and Moose for some reason, Byte, Vervain, Oricalcos, Solstice, and a few more. Shadow was the only one not on their list, that was because of Aquila. What I heard was that she ordered them to leave her alone and anyone who even tried to kill Shadow would die in the worst possible way. I understood that she was still scared that if they killed Shadow in her name, she’d die with her.

I looked at all my friends. “Okay, let’s get to planning an assault on Crimson Canyon, oh and Dusty one more task that only you can do.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“Go see Tariff and see if he has any ties with Gina or my father. The last time I saw them, I swore their weapons and armor looked like his making or Match’s,” I said.

He sighed. “I’ll see what I can find out I guess. Those two just get on my nerves. There’s salesponyship and then there’s blatant backhoofed thievery.”

Stardust…

One month and a weeks after Shadow Left...

It was still so strange to be flying around in The Wasteland with the sun or moon overhead. For a stallion like me who grew up in a stable, I never thought I’d see either of them. When I escaped, I wasn’t surprised to be in a land covered by clouds. Now I was flying under a full moon, it’s light helping illuminate the dead land under me. I had a new rifle on my back and Wrath’s AMR broken down in four pieces in my enchanted saddle bags. A gift from Stormy. I still found it hard to be around the pony who’d created the program that led to me being taken as a newborn foal and raised in Stable 97, but I was doing my best, and most days we got along well enough for it not to be awkward.

Ever since Shadow left with my sister, Vervain, and Oricalcos, I’d taken every moment I could that I wasn’t spending helping Aura and the Shadow Talons to contact my parents in Stratus. I’d learned a lot about my family which was awesome and after the fight with The Unchained Talons was finished, Mom said she was going to come down to The Lucky Horseshoe to meet Wind Thrasher. Tonight, I was hoping to do something amazing so my mom could have even more to be proud of me for. I needed to find two things tonight, one to help Aura in her battle…and myself if I’m being honest, the second thing was for Wind Thrasher. By the end of tomorrow night, she wasn’t just going to be my special somepony, she’d be my fiancé.

“Yo Dusty! Slowdown will ya, I’m not as fast as you are, and you know it!” I heard Hailstorm, or rather his synth replacement say from a few meters back. I couldn’t help the small smile that came to my face as he said that. I knew he wasn’t the real Hailstorm, but he was close and real or not, he had become a close friend. That was also thanks to Stormy. It had taken her a week of keeping him shut down to finally fix the drive to protect Shadow from his programing that Grim installed. If she hadn’t done this he would’ve already flown off toward The Badlands to try and find Shadow so he could protect her. In her state of mind when she left, I wasn’t sure if she would’ve killed him, or been grateful for his help.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll slow down for you!” I yelled back as I adjusted my wings and let him catch up, “Damn dude, when did you get so slow?”

He panted a little when he caught up, which I still found weird for a robot…even an almost perfect fake pony robot. When he caught his breath, he said, “I haven’t been flying all over The Wasteland like you for the past few months. You got a good heads up on me with keeping in shape.”

I smiled. “Then tonight will be good for you.”

“Where are we going anyway?” he asked as he looked down at the land below us.

“I have two things to do before we finalize our plan for the attack on Crimson Canyon,” I said as I spotted an old diner that was built out of a large skycarriage under a big billboard of Pinkie Pie and The Ministry of Morale, “And we’re finally here for the first stop.”

“You wanted to go to an old, closed, diner?” he asked as we dove for the ground.

“It’s the place where I hid my power armor when I left Stable 97,” I said as we landed in front of the rundown building.

“I remember you told me before you had to hide it just in case there was a tracker on it, but why all the way down here and in an old diner?” Hailstorm asked as he looked at the old diner.

“This is where I stayed for the first couple of weeks when I first came to New Pegasus. Later I found Freedom and met The Queens. When I needed to hide it, I figured why not hide it here where I was staying before anyway. So, if anypony came looking for me they’d only find the armor,” I said as I walked up to the door and pushed it open.

The old brass bell over the door dinged as I walked in, Hailstorm close behind. The two of us instinctually let our eyes sweep over the interior, checking for anything that might mean us harm. The interior of the diner wasn’t large, only a few rotting tables and booths stat around the windows. The bar area was mostly destroyed by now, either from time or other ponies that had either lived or fought here in the past. Honestly, it didn’t look any different than it had months ago when I’d first found it. As we moved further in, I pressed a button on my chest and moved my wings a little as the new battle-saddle Wingnut and Byte made for me activated. The twin rifles under my wings were switched off safety and a muzzle shooter and targeting system came up.

“I always thought you didn’t like battle-saddles Dusty,” Halestorm whispered as we moved further into the diner.

“I’ve learned over time that sometimes you need something easier to use than a rifle. Like now when we’re in a tight space,” I whispered back, making my way toward the kitchen.

I’d just gotten past the bar when something in the back knocked over a metal pan, making the diner echo with the sound of it hitting the floor. I lifted a hoof indicating for Hailstorm to stop. I waited then heard a small growl from a ghoul just beyond the broken door. Moving forward I peeked inside and saw the rotting pony blindly searching for the noise. I took aim as I came fully around the opening and right as the ghoul turned toward me and let out a hissing scream, it’s coat starting to glow as magical radiation started to flow out of it.

“Fuck! A glowing one,” I said, then bit down on the firing system right as the ghoul lunged at me, it’s face exploding into gore as its body slid to a stop a few feet in front of me.

“Good thing we have radaway with us,” Hailstorm said as he came to stand next to me, using a hoof to push the still glowing ghoul away.

“Yeah, normally we don’t really need it since Shadow always seems to get lucky and keep us away from radioactive areas,” I said as I moved into the kitchen, on alert now for more ghouls. In my experience when there’s one, there’s two or twenty more.

“Where’s the armor?” Hailstorm asked.

“Just in the freezer. As long as nopony’s gone looking in there it should still be there. Even if they found it I don’t think they’d be able to use it or even move it,” I said as I worked my way back toward the closed freezer door. As I approached, I heard Hailstorm twist around and fire two blasts from the energy pistol he’d bought from one of the Queens before we left.

I twisted around too, just in time to see two more ghouls fall to the ground dead. In the diner area I saw more starting to get up and move toward the door as Hailstorm said, “Might wanna make grabbing that armor a little faster Dusty.”

“I’ll do my best,” I said as I ran over to the freezer and pulled the pin locking the door shut from the outside and pulling it open. I smiled as I saw my old power armor from Stable 97 still standing in the same place I’d left it. I quickly ran in and checked it to make sure it still had power and when I saw it was still in full working order I turned back to Hailstorm right as he shot another ghoul, slowly moving back toward me. “Hailstorm, we’re good, take my battle-saddle and use it to keep the ghouls back. I won’t be able to wear it while I’m in the armor.”

“Ewww, but your spit’s all over it,” he said with a cocky laugh.

I ignored him and deactivated the battle-saddle before removing it and tossing it to him. Like the trained solider he was, he holstered the pistol, grabbed the saddle out of the air and had it on and ready in less than five seconds. As he did this I moved to the back of the armor, pressed the gem on the back to open it. The power armor glowed, then opened, making it easy for me to step in. It still fit me perfectly as I was incased in the light armor. A moment later the visor came to life bringing an orange tint to the world around me. An E.F.S. hud came up in my bottom vison and a targeting system came online along with the charge of my S.A.T.S. in the bottom right corner.

I’d told my friends in the past that I wasn’t a fan of power armor and for the most part it was true. It wasn’t because I thought it was hard to use or slowed me down or anything like that. No, my reason for not liking power armor was simple and a bit stupid. It took the challenge out of a fight. If I didn’t need this for the battle, then I’d have left it here, but Wind Thrasher told me that if I wanted to help Aura in her battle against The Unchained, especially after almost getting my head blown off two weeks ago when they tried to attack the base in Freedom, then I had to wear my power armor or stay home. Aura was my friend and I’d come to really like The Shadow Talons, so here I am getting my old set of power armor and honestly now that I had it on again, I kinda missed it.

I looked over at Hailstorm, then yelled, “Hailstorm, maneuver delta 6 echo!” right as twenty ghouls tried to push into the kitchen all at once.

He didn’t ask questions, just like in the stable where I’d normally taken command during battle simulations, he knew what to do when I gave a command. He ducked right as I took aim with the twin plasma rifles on the suit and fired twice. Once at a ghoul diving for Hailstorm and the second at one trying to come at him from the right. As the shots flew over his head, missing him by centimeters, he fired two shots from the battle saddle taking out two more. He rolled and took aim and fired on another ghoul as I ran forward taking down three more before slamming my body into a fourth sending him right toward Hailstorm who’d already jumped back to his hooves. He slammed his hoof into the flying ghoul killing it with one blow. He then opened fire on the rest at the same time I did. Within thirty seconds of giving the command, all of the ghouls were dead.

We both waited for a few moments before relaxing. As we did, Hailstorm grinned. “Damn we still got it bro!”

“Yeah we do, but still we should’ve done a better search before heading for the armor. Doorstop would’ve killed us for rushing in like we did,” I said as I stepped over the bodies.

“True, but he’s not here to yell at us so it’s not a big deal,” Hailstorm said as he followed me out of the diner.

“It’s still sloppy,” I said as I looked around to make sure no more were wandering around the area, “Using what I learned from our time in Stable 97 is what kept me alive in The Wasteland for so long.”

“If that’s true, then how did you get stuck in that stable where you met Wind Thrasher?” he asked.

I sighed. “That was a mix of stupidity on my part for letting Shadow lead us into that mess and Dr. Cell trapping us inside. Honestly, even though I miss the short little shit, she was a walking bad luck charm. Her luck stat would be zero if she was a character in one of Nexus’ games.”

“I’m not sure about that,” Hailstorm said, “If it wasn’t for her leading you into that stable, you never would’ve met Wind Thrasher and she’s also the reason we found each other again. Isn’t she also the one who helped you get your memory back when The Sins found you and turned you into the new Pride?”

I chuckled a little as I looked back at him. “That’s true I guess. So, maybe not zero. I really should look at the bad that happened while we were on our adventures and look at the good that came out of it. I guess I can see why she became my best friend.”

He smiled. “Dude, that hurts. I thought I was your best friend.”

I felt my heat skip a beat for a moment as once again I had to remind myself not to say anything to him about being only a synth of Hailstorm. So, I said instead, “You’re my brother dude, that’s on the same level as a best friend for some things and more important in others. We grew up together so we’re family.”

He chuckled. “I guess I can live with that,” he said as he deactivated the battle-saddle, “So when you marry Wind Thrasher, are you going to ask Shadow to be your best mare?”

I looked back at him. “Not sure how I can do that, she’s not even here and I don’t know when or even if she’ll come back.”

He trotted over to me and put a hoof on my shoulder. “I have faith that she’ll be back and hopefully she’ll have grown up a little during the time she’s been gone. Remember when we were her age, everything pissed us off, but we always got over it and learned from our mistakes. Give her time and when she comes back, you should make her your best mare.”

I smiled a little, even if he couldn’t see it with my helmet and rebreather covering my muzzle. “Thanks dude, but I’ll only ask her if Wind Thrasher doesn’t ask her to be her mare of honor. My special somepony gets first dibs. She’s just as close to Shadow as I am. So, if she does that, then will you be my best stallion?”

He chuckled again. “Dude I’d be honored. So where are we going from here?”

“I need you to go back to Freedom and help Aura or Stormy with final plans. My next stop is more personal,” I said as I opened my wings.

“You sure you’ll be okay without me?” he asked.

“I’ll be fine, let Wind Thrasher know I’m okay and I’ll be back tomorrow. If she needs to contact me, give her my power armor’s broadcaster frequency,” I said as I took to the air.

Hailstorm followed me for a moment as he said, “Okay, but if she asks were you went, what should I tell her? You know she’s gonna worry.”

I smiled again. “Just tell her I’ll be fine and not to worry.”

“Okay, but if she rips my face off, I’m going to shoot you in the ass,” he said before chuckling and turning toward New Pegasus as I turned northeast toward Trotston.

The trip only took an hour and I soon found myself in front of the large gate that led into the impressive town. I’d taken my helmet off and hooked it to my flanks so the guards wouldn’t think I was a pegasus from the now debunked Enclave. They still didn’t seem comfortable when I’d asked to speak to Rusty even though I’d been here three times in the past two weeks helping Aura with getting armor and weapons from Trotston.

“Stardust, I didn’t think I’d see you for a couple more days,” Rusty said as the large gate opened again.

I smiled at the older buck. “I’m not planning on staying long, but I’m here for personal reasons, not business today. Can we head to your house to talk?”

“I see no problem with it, though make sure you keep the helmet off. Some of the ponies here are still pissed about what happened a few months back when Shadow and Wind Thrasher were here,” he said as he led me inside.

It didn’t take long to get to his house where he had me sit in the small living room. As I sat I looked around the place remembering the time we spent there. “It’s gotta be quiet with Byte gone.”

He looked sad as he said, “It is, I’ve gotten so used to her working on something up in her room that with her gone I find it hard to sleep most nights. I really wish she’d come home, but I can’t force her and trust me I’ve tried.”

I gave him a smile. “If it helps, she’s doing well with the Shadow Talons. Honestly she’s become like an honorary griffon to most of them. I think she’s found her calling in life and she feels she’s doing something good for them.”

He smiled back. “It does help. I’m sorry I forgot you came here to talk to me about something personal. What can I help you with?”

I felt my gut twist for a moment, feeling like I was a teenager about to ask a mare’s father for permission to take his little filly to the school dance. “You said once that you had been close to Wind Thrasher’s mom and the two of you were getting close to marrying right?”

He sighed then nodded. “We’d talked about it, but sadly we didn’t get that far because of what happened. I would’ve been proud to call Wind Thrasher my daughter.”

I tapped my hooves against themselves as I said quietly, “Since her mother and father are both dead and you’re the closest thing she has to family, I wanted to ask you something.”

He looked at me curiously. “What would that be?”

“I’d like to have your blessing to marry Wind Thrasher. I was also hoping that you’d still have something of her mother’s that I could give her when I propose,” I said, feeling my heart start to pound.

Rusty looked at me for a long moment before getting up and walking into his office where the Overmare’s desk was, the one he’d taken out of Stable 34. I wanted to hit myself, I must’ve done this wrong. Mom told me that if I wanted to ask Wind Thrasher to be my wife I needed to do it properly and get permission from her father or someone close to that. I hadn’t thought this out right and now I’d said something stupid, and Rusty was pissed. He has to be, why else would he have left the room like he did? I’m such a dickhead!

A few moments passed and I looked down at my hooves, getting up the nerve to say I was sorry and show myself out when Rusty came back into the living room with a small box in his muzzle. He came over to me and set it next to me before saying with tears in his eyes, “After I saw Wind Thrasher again, still alive and with full control of her body again, I was so happy, but also sad because I thought no stallion would see past what she’d become. After I had to tell her to stay out of Trotston, I thought she’d spend her life alone. Then I heard that she’d been cured of her bloodlust from Byte and that she was expecting a foal. Not just a foal that she got from making a mistake with some stallion but with a stallion she loved, I was even happier. Stardust, I may not be her father, but I’m as close as she has. I’d be proud to have you marry my stepdaughter as long as you promise me that you’ll always love her and treat her well.”

I felt tears in my eyes as I choked out, “I’m lucky to have a mare as wonderful as her in my life. I will stay by her side until I take my last breath sir.”

He smiled. “Good, then you have my blessing and,” he opened the box where I saw a necklace made out of gold with a heart pendant on it, “Make sure you give this to her. It was her mother’s. She gave it to me the same day she gave me her Mark II. She said that if her daughter ever found a stallion who loved her as much as she did him, that she wanted her to have it. As I’m sure you know, I didn’t understand at the time, but I kept it with me just in case.”

I took the box and closed it, holding it close as I said in a choked voice, “I’ll make sure she gets it.”

He hugged my power armored body, saying, “Good, now go back home and I wish you luck Stardust.”

I hugged Rusty back before pulling away and leaving his home. I put the box in a special place in my armor, before leaving Trotston and flying toward home and the mare I was about to wake up and ask to be my wife. As I flew toward The Strip, I had a hard time staying happy. Signs of the damage Aquila had brought to the area were getting worse. From where I was flying I could see that the Romans had pushed closer to the dam, The NLR were starting to lose ground, and worst of all, camps had started to show up all around the area. They flew a flag of a flaming eagle coming out of a gold crown. Aquila’s Cult was growing and if they kept getting bigger, they’d soon be stronger than both The Romans and The NLR. As I flew home I said to air, “Shadow, I hope you come home soon, New Pegasus and your friends need you.”

Stardust…

Two months after Shadow Left...

Slowly I moved myself closer to the edge of the cliff I was currently crouched on, the slight grind of the red sandstone dust barely making a noise as I drew closer to the edge. Tonight was the night Aura and her Shadow Talons have been planning for two months now. We’d meant to attack two weeks ago but it had taken longer than we thought it would to get to this point. My power armor wasn’t helping much while I was trying to stay as quiet as possible while I slowly moved closer to the edge of the tall cliff that would give me a perfect view into Crimson Canyon. As I was getting into position for my part in the raid to reclaim this canyon, the rest were also getting into their positions.

In the past few weeks Aura and her sisters, along with help from The Queen, Violet, Doorstop, Nightshade, and myself, have been able to get a lot of ponies to join the cause. The Unchained Talons already had a bad rep and they’d only been in this canyon for a few months. Aura had said it best a couple weeks ago, ‘The Rules of the Red Talons may have been outdated, but a good talon company needed some kind of stability to govern them. Without proper laws, chaos was the only outcome and chaos wasn’t what the ponies of New Pegasus needed.’

As I slowly moved the last couple of meters to reach my spot, I felt somepony in a zebra stealth cloak move in next to me. I didn’t flinch as Yaksha whispered in my ear, “I took out the two guards on this end. I will stay close and watch your back. Laser Light is doing the same for Hailstorm at the east entrance to the canyon.”

I nodded and whispered back to her, “Thank you Yaksha, let me know if anyone is coming and keep an eye on my smaller rifle if you can. Use it if you think you’ll need it.”

“I have my own sniper rifle as you know Stardust, but thank you all the same,” Yaksha said before moving away, her body invisible and nearly silent in her zebra stealth cloak. I knew Laser Light would be doing the same on the other end of the canyon. She had her own cloak she’d been given by Yaksha years ago.

I was honestly surprised when Yaksha showed up with Laser Light last week asking if she could help us with our fight against The Unchained. From the story we’d gotten, she’d left working with Striker a few weeks ago for reasons she refused to give us. Honestly if it wasn’t for Laser, none of us would’ve trusted her after she’d set up Shadow with Striker, but Laser said we could trust her, so we were doing our best. I honestly wasn’t too worried, I was good at reading ponies, zebras too I guess, and I could tell she was on our side…at least for now.

I just reached the end of the cliff and pulled the large gun case I’d been dragging with me closer and slowly unlatched it. Once it was open I slowly pulled out Wrath’s A.M.R. and moved it closer, setting it up on its bipod before loading the huge .50 BMG Rounds into it. Once that was done I readied myself and before pulling up the visor on my Armor and sighting down the scope. This was going to be the hardest part of my role on this mission. A sniper set up like this worked better if we had a spotter to call out the small details we’d need to know to set up our shots. Sadly, Hailstorm and I were the only ones who worked well enough together to do that. The others from Stable 97 who came to New Pegasus with Doorstop and Solstice weren’t on the same level as us.

As I looked through my scope, I started to count targets at the bottom of Crimson Canyon. I opened up a broadcast to Aura who was at the west entrance close to me with a few members of The Queens, The Queen herself included, half of her Shadow Talons, Wind Thrasher, Doorstop, and four of the ponies from Stable 97. “In position, I don’t see either alpha target yet.”

“I’m guessing one if not both of them are in The Den,” Aura said.

“I can confirm, I saw Apollo and Gina head in just a moment ago,” Hailstorm said from the other side of the Canyon.

“Good, now everyone remember, we’re here to drive away The Unchained Talons. If any surrender, then you’re to take them captive unless it’s Archer or Gina, they’re our alpha targets. If you find yourself getting into a fight with them, you call one of the alpha teams in asap,” Aura said into the broadcaster.

“ROGER!” voices said in unison into the coms.

“Remember Aura, keep my fiancé safe down there,” I said with a grin.

“I’m not made of glass Dusty,” I heard Wind Thrasher say into her com.

“I know, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to worry about you,” I said in a teasing voice.

“I love you too,” she replied.

“Enough you two,” Aura said before continuing, “We’re still looking good for plan a, but that can change in a moment. I’ll be heading in first with alpha team using our stealth bucks. Bravo team, you move in only when Stardust or Hailstorm say so or one of my sisters. Remember everyone, we have a couple griffons in there that are on our side, don’t kill at random.”

She got another confirmation from the others before she said, “Dusty switch to the private channel quick.”

I did so as I kept my scope moving around the canyon. “What’s up Aura?”

“Remember that if you see Apollo or Gina, you take the shot but only if you know you have it. That rifle you have is very loud and once you fire, you’ll only have time to make a couple more shots before you’ll have to move,” Aura said.

“I know how this kind of mission works Aura; it was my idea if you remember,” I said.

“I know, but I have to make sure you stay safe, this is the only chance we’re gonna get,” she replied.

I sighed. “I know, you be careful too.”

She sighed herself, then said, “Love ya Dusty,”

“Love you too bird brain,” I replied before switching back to the general channel. I steadied my breathing, getting ready to fire when the chance came. As I did, I thought to myself, ‘I’m doing this for my unborn foal, for my friends, for my love, for New Pegasus. When this is done, and The Unchained are gone, then I’m going to do my best to help fix my family. It’s time to get Shadow, Oricalcos, Solstice, and Vervain back…”

Aura…

Two months after Shadow Left...

I looked back at alpha team. Vi, Wind Thrasher, and Nightshade in his Stranger outfit were part of my team. So were the two newest members of the Shadow Talons, Sunspot and Elliot, the mutant griffon ponies err hippogriffs I guess is what they call themselves, decided to stay in New Pegasus after leaving Captain Gunny’s ship and finally became Shadow Talons after weeks of Vi begging them to join. This was the team we put together to take down my father and my aunt. “Remember we use the stealth bucks to get to The Den, once we’re inside we only move on the targets if they’re in there and on my signal.”

“We know Aura,” Wind Thrasher said, her eyes glowing a little as the night grew darker.

As the Moon started to show itself, a red glow seemed to fill the air and I looked up at the half moon seeing it was almost blood red. Nightshade looked up at it too and said in a quiet voice, “A blood moon.”

I looked back at him, asking, “What’s that mean and why is the moon red?”

He looked back at me, his bright green eyes still a little creepy. “It’s rare to see a blood moon, though I don’t know what makes it that color. Some in the former Enclave think it’s an omen of great death. Usually it’s full though.”

I smiled a little. “Let’s hope it’s the death of our enemies and not of us.”

He looked down the west entrance of Crimson Canyon before responding, “Let’s hope so. Remember to be careful Aura, I’m only here helping you with this to make sure you survive. When my daughter gets back I want to make sure she has you to come back to.”

I felt my heart jump as he brought up Shadow. I wanted so bad to say something to him about how I doubted she would come back to me, but we had a mission. I nodded at the buck before turning toward The Queen and Arys. “You two are in charge of this half of bravo team, Syn and Sugar Buck are in charge of the other half. Be ready to attack and make sure you all stay out of sight for as long as possible. Our scout team is watching the tops of the canyon for any griffons that aren’t with us and they’ll take them out as quietly as possible if they can but be ready for anything.”

They nodded so I turned back to my team and pulled out one of the few stealth bucks we had. I watched as the rest took out their own apart from Nightshade who had a gem that would work just as well as a stealth buck, at least for a couple of uses before he’d have to use his own. The plan was simple, take out the two leaders and hope the rest of the griffons would either fly away or not know what to do when the rest of my allies came in. I gave a quick nod to the team and all at once we activated the stealth bucks.

As soon as they were active I started to move. Nightshade was probably already next to The Den with his strange time stopping gem which was where he should be, getting ready for the rest of the team and I to reach the large tent. I’d grown up in the canyon, so I knew how quickly it would take for me, sneaking through the canyon with a stealth buck to reach it. It only took a minute to get to the opening to the larger part of Crimson Canyon where I could see a few griffons lazing around not doing much of anything as the night went on. I had to force myself not to growl in disgust when I saw the large amount of trash and other nasty shit that had taken over my former home.

As I made my way closer to The Den I saw things that nearly made me sick. Two griffons were literally screwing next to the rubble where the old laws of The Red Talons used to be, another was throwing a severed pony skull back and forth with another and three were fighting each other near some of the huts. This was probably the first time I was glad my mother was dead. If she’d been here to see what happened to her home, she’d have already left stealth and attacked the disgusting so-called griffons. I just forced myself to look away as I made my way up to the raised platform, then behind The Den. Right as I got to the back of it my stealth buck stopped working. Thankfully no one was on this side of The Den, not even on the cliff over it.

Wind Thrasher showed up a moment later, followed by Vi, and the twins. Nightshade was already waiting for us, his green eyes almost seeming to glow in the dark shadow of the tent. He moved closer, then tapped a gem on his coat before saying quietly, “This will keep us from being overheard for a short time.”

“Good,” I said just as quietly, “Have you confirmed the targets are inside?”

He nodded. “From what I’ve been able to tell, Gina and Apollo are both inside.”

“Are there any other ponies or griffons in there with them?” I asked as I moved closer to the tent.

“No, but they’re arguing about something. I think we should listen in before we make our attack,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“They might have information we could use,” he replied.

I glared, then sighed. “Fine,” I looked back at the rest of the team, “Set up a perimeter and keep an eye out. Be ready to attack as soon as I give the signal,” I then activated my communicator, “Dusty, be ready to fire, both targets are in The Den.”

“Will do, I’ll contact Hailstorm and let him know,” he replied.

I switched to the main channel, “Team, start moving toward the entrances, we’re going to attack in a few moments.”

With that done I moved closer to the tent right as Nightshade pulled out a gem and placed it on the tent. Right as he did, I heard my aunt’s voice echo out of the gem. It wasn’t very loud, but I could make out the words as she said, “I don’t agree Archer!”

“I don’t care if you agree or not!” I heard my father say, sounding angry, “We’re serving a greater purpose doing this. Now have you found where Shadow went? Did Gaston find her?”

I lifted an eyebrow, asking myself, “Who’s Gaston?”

I heard hesitation in Gina’s voice as she said, “He…made contact with Shadow Star.”

I heard a growl from my father as he said, “And where is she?”

“In The Badlands…” Gina said, sounding hesitant again.

My father sounded a little more pleased as he said in a calmer tone, “Good, have him keep an eye on her for a little longer. Then, once he finds out where the tower is, make sure he kills her and gets her Mark II.”

“Do we have to kill her? You do know that Aura is in love with her, they share a soul bond. I’ve seen it myself,” Gina said.

My father laughed. “I don’t care about that; my children chose their side. The new world I’m creating with my benefactor has no room for children like them. Besides, we can have more children one day.”

“I’m a little old to start having children Apollo,” Gina said, sounding angry.

I heard a slap followed by a body hitting the ground. “You will call me Archer! I’ve told you this before. Now get up, you look pathetic, and you’re supposed to be my second. If I say we will have more children, then we will. The new world I’m helping to create will be perfect and my benefactor will make sure we live in it for a long time.”

“I think our father is going a little crazy,” Vi said from next to me.

I nodded. “Why is Gina acting like she is?”

“No idea, but I think we should start the attack. They don’t know we’re here and surprise will be the only way we take them both down,” Vi said.

“I agree with your sister,” Nightshade said.

“Agreed,” I said before I heard my father continue.

“I’m heading out, I have a meeting with some ponies out west. Make sure you keep to the plan with Crimson Canyon. We can’t lose this place,” he said before I heard him heading toward the tent flap.

A moment later Stardust said in my com, “I see Apollo, I’m taking the shot.”

I was about to say something to him when I heard my father say, “Aura, next time you want to sneak into my lands, you should remember who taught you how to set up a mission like this. Nice try, but sadly you’re a little too late…” right then a loud boom echoed from Dusty’s rifle, and I heard something splatter against the other side of the tent and a body hitting the ground.

I almost was ready to jump with joy then Dusty said in the com, “Fuck, Apollo moved at the last second and pulled another griffon in the way, he’s escaping!”

“GO AFTER HIM!” I yelled as I pulled my energy spear off my back and slashed the back end of the tent open, “Shadow Talons ATTACK!”

I dove through the back of the tent to see Gina looking a little shocked at the sudden intrusion and the now dead griffon at the entrance of The Den. She looked at me, her eyes wide as she pulled her red energy spear off her back. “Aura wait!”

I wasn’t going to listen to anything she had to say, I slashed my spear sending a blast of green energy at her. It slammed into her chest sending her flying out of the tent flap. I heard her scream in pain, but the slash didn’t hurt her as much as it should have. I looked at the rest, saying, “Make sure no Unchained Talons get away!” I then flew out of The Den right as all hell broke loose in Crimson Canyon.

Gina was ready for me, and she blocked my next attack, parrying my spear to the side then bringing up the other side of her spear to swipe under my beak. I felt hot pain as my beak was slammed together and I was thrown to the side. I recovered quickly and dodged another attack before countering with my own. As we fought, ponies and griffons flooded into the canyon taking a good amount of The Unchained Talons by surprise.

“Aura,” Gina said as she dodged another attack then slashed at me with her spear nearly cutting an eye out, “We don’t need to fight! You don’t understand what’s truly going on!”

“You’re a traitor to your family just like my father!” I yelled as I ducked a slash from her then flipped around and kicked her under her beak, sending her flying off the platform The Den was set on.

She landed hard but managed to get back to her talons as she growled, “I’m not a traitor! I never have been! If you’d just let me explain!”

“I’m done listening to your LIES!” I yelled as I slashed, then blocked her counter attack.

“Fine, if you don’t want to listen, then I’ll make you!” Gina said, then she attacked faster than she had before.

I barely had time to dodge before she flipped her spear around and slashed again, and again, and again. I realized then that before she’d been holding back, now she was fighting with everything she had, and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to win. Gina had always been better than me with a spear. I always used a spear because that was what I was trained with, but I was always better with two Ghurkas. Swords just like Misery and Joy. I ducked then tried to counter but Gina was too fast. She flipped her spear around, blocked my attack, then kicked me with a hind-leg, throwing me back against the platform.

Her energy spear crackled with red energy as she glared at me. “Aura, you know I’m the better fighter. I always have been and that energy spear of yours is only a prototype, unlike my own. You can’t win against me with that toy.”

I glared at her then slashed my spear at her, but it was a faint, I used it to roll then tackler her. She didn’t fall for it though; she slammed the flat of her blade against my face and threw me back again. She then put her spear on her back, came over to me, and picked me up before flying into the air and throwing me toward the fighting pit. I slammed into the ground near the entrance to the pit, moaning in pain, but luckily still holding onto my spear. She landed a couple meters away, saying, “Are you going to listen to me now, or are you going to keep acting like a child!?”

I spat on the ground then got back to talons before lifting my green energy spear up to point at Gina. “My weapon is stronger than you think, the pony who made it was one of the best weapon designers in The Wasteland. Prototype or no, it’s still stronger than your weak imitation.”

She pulled her spear off her back and pointed it at me. “This isn’t an imitation you stupid fool. You’re old lover’s brother had the schematics for the energy spear, the next version Tripwire was going to make. When she died, he built this one and gave it to me, asking me to do one thing with it, use it to kill you.”

“You’re lying!” I said, but I saw with my own eyes, that the spear was very similar to my own, but it looked a little different and better reinforced and the red energy it gave off seemed more powerful than mine.

“I’m not,” she said, “Now please let me explain myself to you before we continue this stupid fight! You need to hear what I have to say! I don’t want to kill you Aura!”

I lowered my spear just a little. “If Tariff made that spear for you to kill me and you took it, then why should I listen to you?”

“I never said I WOULD kill you; I just knocked him out and took the spear to make sure he didn’t hire another griffon to do the job and use this spear. I’ve been keeping it safe for you!” she said, her eyes looking desperate.

I was about to ask her more and maybe give her a moment to explain, when a loud yell came from above, followed by Gouger’s voice yelling, “Aura, I’ll help!”

I saw the training that was deeply ingrained in Gina kick in. We were much alike in that way, when our lives were in danger, we reacted before our minds could stop us. Gina dodged to one side as Gouger opened fire on her, she rolled then came back up, her spear already glowing bright red. She pointed it up at Gouger and fired a quick beam at him. As if in slow motion, I saw the small blast of energy slam into his chest, then through his chest, blasting out the other side leaving a smoking hole right through his heart. He had a look of shock on his face before he fell to the ground. He was dead before his body even hit the soft sand of the fighting pit.

I saw my sister’s life partner die by the talons of our aunt. Anger built up inside me and I attacked. Gina’s eyes were wide with shock as if she was surprised herself at what she’d done, but her body was still in fight and protraction mode and she dodged my attack, flipped around countered my next strike, then she kicked me hard, throwing me back against the rack of weapons that were normally on display. I looked up and lifted my spear at the last moment as her next strike came down toward my face. Her spear glowed a bright red again and to my horror and shock, it sliced right through the middle of my energy spear and the tip of her spear sliced a hot line between my eyes.

I felt my weapon split in two right as blinding pain flew through my head and face. I fell, dropping my now useless weapon to the dirt, expecting Gina to finish me off, but she didn’t. Instead, she dropped her energy spear, saying in a shaky voice, “Aura…I didn’t mean to…”

I was so enraged that I fought through the pain and grabbed the first thing I could find. My talons wrapped around one of the fallen weapons…a Ghurka, I picked it up and lunged, burying it deep in Gina’s stomach. I felt her hot blood splash over my talons as she leaned into me, shock, and pain in her eyes as my beak came a few centimeters from hers. I twisted the blade and watched as pain showed on my aunt's face.

She reached up and put a talon behind my neck and pulled me closer and said in a weak voice, “I’m…sorry…I had to do this…I had to protect…Shadow.”

I was so shocked that I let go of both the blade and Gina. She fell back and winced in pain as blood slowly seeped from where the blade was sticking out of her stomach. If she hadn’t just said that last thing to me, I would’ve finished her off, but I could see in her eyes that she was telling me the truth.

I ignored the sounds of battle going on around me, ignored my teams yelling orders and asking for aid in my ear, ignored the body of Gouger who was only a few meters away as I knelt down next to Gina, the griffon who had been a nightmare to me for months now and asked, “What do you mean?”

She coughed up a little blood then said weakly, “I was never your enemy. I’ve been trying…to protect you, and Shadow for months…”

“You’re lying, you tried to kill us a few times. Hell, you tried to kill my mom and you took over The Red Talons!” I yelled.

She panted and groaned in pain before she said, “Aura…I never wanted to kill my sister…Gigi was a good leader…not the best but good. I was angry that I was kicked out…I never got to tell her why I had…to do what I did…or explain my true mission…I knew about…Shadow…and the important roll she had…before she even…left her stable.”

“What…how?” I asked.

“Tonto knew Grim and…he knew about…a prophecy that Night Stalker was told many years ago. Shadow’s birth and role was foreseen many years ago…a zebra came to The Red Talons and talked to Greta, told her…that Night Stalker would need her…and that he was on a mission to…do something to ready his distant granddaughter to fix his sins…our family’s sins. Every story teller was given the story about what to expect…the signs to look for. This zebra talked with the first storyteller of The Red Talons after Greta saved her old friend from falling to his death. They knew what to look for and Tonto was ready when…he was sent to the Enclave to help…grim and her daughter,” she said weakly.

“If that’s true then how do you know about it?” I asked.

“He told me when I was young…this was before my father started training me to fight. Before…I was banished…he told me about Grim…and her daughter. This was before Tobias was old enough to start training with him. He asked for my help…to protect this filly. When I was banished, he came to me, and we started working to make sure things would be ready for her…then Apollo came to me and told me about his new talon group and his plans. He always thought I was his soulmate, but he wasn’t. I never loved him, but Tonto thought it would be a good idea to use Apollo to get information on his treason against The Red Talons.”

“If you knew all this and were on our side then why didn’t you tell my mom or one of us? Why did you keep acting like you were our enemy?” I asked, confused by what she was saying.

“I had to,” she said, looking up into my eyes, “Tonto was dying, that’s why I let Apollo kill him. He wanted to die like a griffon and not in his bed, too weak to even feed himself. Before he died, he made me swear I’d keep playing the roll of the bad griffon, the traitor, the evil sister, but to keep protecting Shadow and you. He said…you two were special…I wanted to tell you so much ever since I saw you….at The Bramble, but things happened too fast…and you never trusted me. Every time we fought, I made sure that…you two survived. I tried to make sure Gigi survived my attack…I had to take over…The Red Talons…it was the only way to…find out what your father was truly planning…but he killed her. I wanted my sister to go with you…to live, but I failed her again, just like I did with Gail.”

“If that’s true then why did you tell Apollo where Shadow was? Who is this Gaston I heard you talking about?” I asked.

She smiled a little and lifted a talon to run over the side of my face, “He’s…my son. I had him in secret a couple of years before you were born. His father was a freelancer I used to have fun with…he raised him for me…but he knows me very well…he’s keeping Shadow safe. He’s taking my place and he’s on your side…I only told Apollo what I did…so he wouldn’t think I was turning on him…he already thought I was getting weak.”

“You…have a son?” I asked, shocked by the news, “I…can’t believe you’ve been doing this all by yourself for so long…I thought…”

“You were supposed to think I was your enemy…I just wish I could’ve told you before…you stabbed me,” she said as she put a talon on her stomach.

I don’t know why, but I believed her, something in her eyes told me she wasn’t lying. “Aunt Gina, maybe we can still save you.”

She shook her head, and I could see now that the light was starting to go dim in her eyes. “It’s too late for me…before I go, do me a couple favors, even if I don’t deserve it.”

I took one of her talons and asked, “What is it?”

She smiled. “First of all, make sure you kill Apollo, he’s working with a…pony called…Hacker. Also make sure you tell…Gaston…his mother loves him…and that she’s proud of him…” she looked back into my eyes, “I’m proud of you…too, my little Aura.”

I felt tears in my eyes as I said, “I will, but before you go…can you tell me where Shadow is? I need to find her.”

“No…you are…where you’re supposed to be…” she said, her voice getting weak, “She…needs to fix her soul…Gast…will help…her…he’s…a good…son,” her eyes started to close and her talon started going limp as she said, “When…you get the signal that Tower 2…is active again…make sure…you get to her fast…….she’ll need you. Save…The Courier…save Equus.”

I was about to ask her more, when I saw that the light went out of her eyes and her talon fell to the ground. Tears fell from my eyes, and I used my talons to close hers. She’d been on my side from the start and in a rage I’d killed her. Yes she killed Gouger, but I would’ve done the same if I was in her place. We were fighters and when our lives were in danger, we reacted. She hadn’t wanted to kill him, it just happened. Just like when I’d killed Tripwire.

“Aura…Aura, The Unchained Talons are dead or captured, but Apollo managed to get away,” I heard Stardust say over my com.

I took a moment to fold Gina’s talons over her chest then I got back to my talons, picked up my broken energy spear, then I took Gina’s before responding to my talon group, saying, “Shadow Talons and allies, meet me in the middle of the canyon. Gina’s dead…and I found something out that will surprise you all.”

I took one last look at my Aunt’s body. “I’ll be sure that you get a proper funeral, you deserve that much Gina,” with that, I went over to Gougers body, closed his eyes then continued on, out of the fighting pit and toward my talons and our home. Gina was right, I had to let Shadow figure her own shit out for now, I was needed here. Where the blood of my enemies ran crimson with the canyon soil, and cold with the demise of the innocent.

Cookie Byte…

Three and a half months after Shadow Left...

“Dammit!” I yelled as once again the new terminal I’d been working on fizzled out with a spark and fizzle, the screen going dark.

“We almost had it that time,” the ghoul bug who called himself Nexus said from the other side of the desk. He’d come to the Shadow Talon’s base in Freedom a couple weeks ago to help me with my new project. At first I hadn’t liked having him around. It wasn’t that I had a problem with ghouls, but Nexus was very immature. I’d gotten over his quirks though after a couple of days when I saw how good he was with technology. I’d also learned from Aura that he’d once worked for Stable-Tec and helped make the Pip-Buck 3000 Mark II with Apple Bloom.

I was trying to set up a relay system to use the M.A.S.E.B.S. towers for communication, the same way the Mark II’s used them to talk to each other. Sadly, we hadn’t made much progress, the system that the Mark II used to communicate the way it did was a secret even to Nexus. He’d said the only way he could figure out how it worked was for me to remove the Mark II and he’d have to disassemble it, which wasn’t going to happen. Today was the closest we’d come but the power output was too much for the terminals.

“I know we almost had it, but the hardware on these old terminals can’t take it. I need something with a stronger possessor and power compatibility,” I said with a sigh.

The old ghoul sat back in his chair. “I heard about a company that was developing better computer systems than the terminals, but the megaspells fell a week or so before they were going to be released.”

“You’re talking about the Carrot company,” I said, “We saw their store in Los Alicorn, though I’m not sure if they had any of their products in the store or not. I know The Ministry has a few but I don’t think they’d be willing to part with one so I could use it.”

“You could always ask Dr. Stormy,” Nexus suggested.

I shrugged. “Maybe, but she’s too busy helping Aura and the Shadow Talons fix and move things back to Crimson Canyon.”

He sat back again, tapping his rotten hoof on the desk. After a bit he asked, “Why do you want to set this up so fast anyway? I’m sure that over time you could build something better than even the Carrot systems.”

I sighed, rubbing my temples with a hoof. “I could come up with the designs and all that, but I’d need somepony like you or Wingnut to build it.”

“Still, what’s the big hurry?” he asked.

“I want to try and get a hold of Shadow or any of our friends that left a few months back. I want to make sure she’s okay and find out if she needs me yet to unlock Tower 3. She can’t do it without my Mark II,” I said with another sigh.

“Why do you need Shadow for that? From what I learned about her departure; she wasn’t in a good place. Everypony keeps saying that we should all leave her be and wait till she comes back here,” Nexus said.

“I know, but it’s been over three months and we still haven’t heard from her. The only clue we’ve had that she’s alive is that rumor about Solar Flare being used in The Badlands and still it’s not much to go on,” I said.

“Have you tried using your Mark II to get in contact with her?” he asked.

“I’ve tried twice, but both times the signal was weak or there was no signal,” I said.

Before he could say anything else Wind Thrasher came into the room. When she saw me she gave me a kind look, saying, “Good afternoon Byte and to you too Nexus.”

I couldn’t help smiling back. Ever since Wind Thrasher had gotten the cure for her bloodlust, she’d been probably the nicest pony I’d ever met. I mean she’d always been a kind pony, but she’d always had this feeling of danger around her, and she would snap at others for almost no reason. Now she always had a smile on her face and could always find a kind thing to say to anypony or griffon in the Shadow Talons.

“You’re looking good,” I said as she came in to sit next to us.

She laughed. “I feel like a fat lazy mare honestly.”

I looked down at her belly which was showing more than it had even a month ago. On Wind Thrasher who was skinny enough to be in old mags, her showing her pregnancy made her look more like a normal mare. I smiled, saying, “You’re not fat and even if you were it’s okay when you’re pregnant. Speaking of which, what did Stormy say about the foal? I would’ve come down when you had your appointment with her, but I got distracted.”

“She said the foal is further along than she would’ve expected, but as far as she can tell it’s a healthy foal, thought she thinks my mutation may end up passing along to my foal,” she said, sounding a little sad at that.

“Are you worried it will be like you?” I asked.

She nodded slightly. “I don’t mind if they end up with some of my bat or dragon DNA, but I worry they’ll have the bloodlust too. Though Stormy said she’s sure the cure I took should pass to my foal too.”

“That Dr. Stormy’s a smart pony, I’m sure you’ll be fine Wind Thrasher,” Nexus said.

“Thank you Nexus,” Wind Thrasher replied.

“I heard you and Stardust are engaged, congratulations. When will you two get married?” the ghoul asked.

She looked away, looking a little sad. “We…we aren’t sure just yet,” she then looked over at me, “I overheard what you were saying about Tower 3 and I was thinking that maybe we should take care of it on our own. Shadow’s been away for a long time now and we can’t just keep waiting around here for her to get back. With how Aquila’s cult is growing, the Roman’s taking over more and more land, and with rumors of Los Alicorn’s Steel Rangers building up their power again. We might not have the time to take Falling Shadows down if we wait for Shadow to pull her head out of her ass.”

“I was thinking that too, but I have no idea where the tower is, only Shadow did and even if I did know, how can I get to it?” I asked.

She smiled. “Shadow told Aura, who told me. It’s in the Equestrian Records building in Baltimare.”

My eyes went wide. “In Baltimare? How on Equus are any of us supposed to get to Baltimare?”

“Well, that depends. Are you willing to risk an adventure with two hippogriffs, a weird sky pirate and Dusty?” she asked.

“You want me to use that ship Sunspot and Eliot used to work on?” I asked, “I heard that Gunny dude is a freak and even if I was willing to go, how do you expect me to be able to leave? Aura won’t let me go further than The Queen’s School, let alone go back east.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I have a plan for that. Aura won’t even know you’re gone until you’re too far away,” she said.

I took a moment to think about it. If I did this, it would be dangerous, very dangerous. Not only were the central lands of Equestria a very bad place to end up if something went wrong, but there were also the factions of the broken Enclave to worry about. From the stories we’d gotten from the east, things weren’t safe. Pegasi may have lost their cloud cover, but Enclave Loyalists still did their best to kill ponies they found in their skies. I could always give my Mark II to Stardust, but I’d promised Rusty I’d keep it safe. Even with The Hidden Sands Steel Rangers now under Elder Hazel and working with Freedom and The Shadow Talons, I didn’t want to give up my Mark II. So, I looked at the work I’d been doing on the terminal, and around my workshop and realized that I was honestly bored. Ever since I’d set up with the Shadow Talons and started my small projects, I’d just been hiding from The Wasteland. Yeah I’d gone to The Ministry with Shadow and the rest, but apart from that I was still doing the same old thing I’d done in Trotston. I was hiding and if I wanted to grow up in this world, I needed to stop hiding and start living.

Turning back to Wind Thrasher I asked, “So what’s your plan and when can I leave?”

Stardust…

Four months and Three Weeks after Shadow Left...

I still can’t believe I let Wind Thrasher talk me into this stupid plan. I knew she had her reasons for sending me to watch over the kids. Though I’m not sure if I should still call Byte or Wingnut kids anymore. Byte just celebrated her birthday a few days ago while we were heading toward this city. She was the same age as Shadow now and even though that still made her a filly to most, she was more mature than Shadow most of the time. Wingnut’s birthday was only a month away and the kid had grown a lot in the past four months, in both mind and body. He was now taller than Shadow, the top of his head was now level with my eyes.

I looked back from the railing of The Bitter Cob at the two who were talking with Elliot and Sunspot on the other side of the strange flying ship. No, they weren’t kids anymore, but they were still like a younger brother and sister to me, and I’d make sure this mission would go well. I sighed and looked back out at the dark landscape below the flying ship, ignoring Captain Gunny who was yet again yelling nonsense to his small crew of ponies and zebras. Just in the distance I could see the city of Baltimare. I didn’t know much about the city apart from the fact that it had a large population of steel rangers, a lot of raiders and a branch-off group of former steel rangers that Gunny called Applejack’s Rangers. One of Gunny’s crew ponies told me a few days ago that the rangers had broken apart in the east, but they didn’t know much more than that. All I know is that we needed to get into the city, find the Equestrian Records building, reactivate Tower 3 and get the fuck back to New Pegasus.

I didn’t like being away from Wind Thrasher for this long, especially with the cult growing like it was. As we flew closer to the city, Wingnut came over to stand next to me, looking out passed the railing. “I didn’t know the city would be so dark,” he said.

I nodded, then replied, “I heard the ponies who live around here stay out of the inner city as much as possible.”

“Xatar told me she grew up south of Baltimare. She said that the steel rangers and the raiders are too dangerous for most to deal with,” Wingnut said.

Xatar was Gunny’s new second in command now that Sunspot and Elliot had left his crew. They were only with us now to make sure we were safe during our journey and I’m sure because Aura wanted to have them keep an eye on Gunny. She still didn’t trust the mad stallion ever since he’d tried to use Shadow as bait to get his long-lost wife back from The Enclave. Xatar was a very pleasant zebra who loved to tell stories and I’d enjoyed her company while we flew toward Baltimare.

“If she grew up around here maybe she can tell us where this building is we need to find,” I said as The Bitter Cob turned a little and started to lower in altitude. Looking down, I saw we were flying over a bay like river.

A moment later I hard Xatar’s voice say, “We are close now, we will fly up the Palomino River and land The Bitter Cob in the river near the old historical building.”

I looked down at the zebra. She had bright blue eyes and a mane done up in dreadlocks. As I looked at her I asked, “Won’t The Bitter Cob be spotted if we land in the water?”

She shook her head. “No, it will not. The historical building has old ships in the river. Once we land and take down the balloon, most ponies will not notice the extra old ship.”

“Will we be close to where we need to go?” I asked, “Wingnut said you grew up around here.”

“Indeed, I did,” she said with a slight smile, “I was one of the few zebras who dared to venture into the city itself when I was younger. As for how close you will be to your destination, that depends on where you need to go.”

“Ever heard of Equestrian Records?” I asked.

She took a moment to think, then nodded. “Yes, the building itself is not far from the place we will land, maybe two or three blocks.”

Byte came over, bringing up the map on her Mark II. “I have a full map of Baltimare, I guess Apple Bloom came here before. Can you show me the location on my map?”

Xatar took a moment to bend down, then look over the map on the small screen on Byte’s Mark II before saying, “Ah yes, it is right here on the corner of Light Street and East Redwood Street,” she made a mark on the map then continued, “Though I must warn you, if you are heading to that building you must be extremely careful.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Are there rangers around there?”

Xatar shook her head, “No, the rangers are holed up near Oldtown and raiders stay clear of that area, most do.”

“If steel rangers and raiders stay clear of this area, I’m guessing something very bad lives near there,” Wingnut said.

“You would be right; all I know is that the rumors say that a very old, very large, hellhound lives in the building and kills any who dare come too close to its home,” Xatar said.

I sighed. “Of course, there’s a damn hellhound there, it couldn’t just be an easy in and out mission,” I then looked at Byte, “Do you know where the terminal is we need to get to?”

She nodded. “Violet told me we’d have to go in the main entrance to the building, head to the left and find a staircase that leads down to a lower level. In there, we’ll find storage rooms behind a security door. We’ll have to get into it, then find a storage room with the number 76 on the door. Once we’re there either you or Wingnut will have to be scanned by the biometric system to get in. She said that there’s a hidden elevator in the room that will take us down to the megaspell chamber, the terminal is on the other side of that room.”

“What I’m curious about is how in the Goddesses names did Apple Bloom get into the area to lock the tower down in the first place?” Wingnut asked.

“Violet said that since Apple Bloom was first cousins with Babs, she was able to get past the biometric scanner,” Byte said, “According to her, Tower 3 was one of the first sites they finished, since it was the easiest to hide what they were doing, and they didn’t set up as much security there as they did with the other three towers. Apparently Tower 4 in The Cristal Empire is the hardest to get into.”

“Either way we’ll need to get into the building and avoid the locals on our way there. Also, we’ll have to make sure we don’t get killed by a huge hellhound,” I said as I looked back past the railing of the ship and saw we were about to land in the river.

“Can’t you just fly us there?” Byte asked.

“I could, but it would be hard with the two of you,” I said thinking it over, “With my power armor I could do it, but I’ll have to leave my rifles behind. That means I’ll only have my plasma rifles that are part of my suit if we get into trouble, and hellhounds aren’t easy to kill with plasma, bullet’s work better.”

“I think we should risk it,” Byte said, “I have my gravity gun and plenty of ammo for it. With the modifications Wingnut and I made to it, it should be able to throw a hellhound back.”

“I also have Ol’ Festus and it should be good enough to blow a hole in a hellhound, as long as all three of us work together,” Wingnut added.

“Okay, fine, but if we can’t get past it, then I’m picking you both up and we’re out of there,” I said, “If that happens Byte, we’re going with plan b.”

She cocked an eyebrow at me. “What’s plan b?”

“You will give me your Mark II and I’ll go back in alone. I’m not going to let the two of you get killed if I can help it,” I said.

She huffed, then nodded. “I can live with that. I just hope we won’t need to go with plan b.”

“Me too kid…me too,” I said as Gunny started yelling orders to his crew.

Two Hours Later…

We landed just outside the old prewar building, Byte and Wingnut both jumping off my back right as the sun started to rise in the east. I kept an eye on the E.F.S. on my power armor, watching for red as I scanned the road. When I saw that nopony was around, I looked up at the tall building. It was made of whitish-tan stone with brick higher up the building. The building looked elegant if a bit grimy and at the top of it I could just make out the spire sticking out of the top of it.

“Okay, keep your guns at the ready and be on the lookout for anything,” I said quietly as I moved toward the broken glass door to the building.

They nodded and followed close behind as I walked slowly through the broken glass, looking around the entryway to the Equestrian Records building. My first impression was that this building had to have been used for more than just the record company because there were signs for exercise equipment and clothing throughout the entryway and a few for the record company. Old gym equipment was set up and mostly rotting away on both sides of the hallway along with ministry posters scattered around. Most of them were for The Ministry of Wartime Technologies, a few of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences and a lot of Pinkie Pie saying things like ‘I’m always watching you!’ or ‘Always have fun, fun, fun’ and one that said ‘Keeping Equestria safe by watching all’.

My hooves clacked on the stone floor as I made my way further in, watching for the staircase Byte told me about and listening for any movement. Honestly I wished that Xatar hadn’t told me about the hellhound. I’d rather have been surprised by it rather than worrying about it. She hadn’t even been sure if it was real or not which only made my nerves worse. We’d gotten half-way in when I saw the stairs we needed. Nodding toward them I led the others toward it right as a white line appeared on my E.F.S. followed by a deep guttural growl.

We froze as something large with glowing red eyes slowly stepped down the stairs coming from the upper levels followed by a deep guttural growling voice, “Ponies are either stupid or brave to wander into Alister’s domain.”

I heard Byte squeak in fright as all three of us took a step back. I would’ve started firing at the creature, but it was showing up as white on my E.F.S. not red, which confused me. So, taking a chance I asked, “Who are you?”

“Stupid Pony, Alister has already told pony his name. Why are you in Alister’s building? Ponies know better than to come here,” it said as it slowly stepped closer to us. This had to be the hellhound and it was as big if not bigger than that hellhound Shadow helped in The Bramble.

“Are…are you the hellhound who guards this place?” I asked, still wanting to fire at it, but the white line on my E.F.S. made me hold back.

It growled again then stepped into the light of the sun just shining in through the windows. Its fur was pitch-black with blood-red eyes, its fur was long and matted, it’s claws longer than the kid’s bodies, and unlike the hellhound from The Bramble, this one had sharp bone jutting out from its elbows that looked as sharp as its claws and curling horns coming out of its forehead.

It spoke again, saying, “Ponies are stupid, do I look like a normal stupid hellhound?”

Wingnut answered, not sounding as scared as he should, “No, you look like that death dog Rawr that our friend Shadow helped once.”

To my shock, the hellhound smiled. “You are a smart colt, Alister can see this. Colt said he has met or seen Alister’s brother Rawr? Colt must be lucky to have met Rawr and lived.”

“Our friend Shadow helped him get free from a place that was using him like a slave, they had a bomb collar on him I think,” I said quickly wondering if we could get lucky and not have to fight this death dog.

Alister laughed. “Dog never thought he would hear about Rawr getting captured. Well, if ponies are friends of a pony that helped Alister’s brother, then dog will not kill and eat ponies…yet. Why have you come here?”

Byte stepped closer, her fetlocks shaking a little as she said, “I’m here to undo an evil, there is an old project locked in the basement of this building. I’m here to unlock it so our friend Shadow can destroy it.”

His eyes brightened at that and his speech which a moment ago sounded like most hellhounds got a little more elegant as he looked around, then said, “My apologies for speaking like most of my kind, I see you have one of the Mark II’s young one. Let me start over, I’m Alister and if you’re here with one of the Mark II’s I’m guessing The Guardian sent you to finally finish their work to stop and destroy Falling Shadows.”

I had no idea what was going on here but if he wasn’t going to kill us I’d go with it. “We know the current guardian, though he didn’t tell us about you. How do you know him?”

He sighed then beckoned us to follow him. “I will explain on the way down to the chamber,” he then led us down the stairs and started telling us a story about Rawr, another death dog female, and himself that he believed had been recaptured by Neighvarro some years back, being experimented on by The Guardian’s family, then sent to the towers to guard them. The story didn’t take long and the more he talked, the less I was scared of the large death dog. When he finished we’d entered the storage area, which was just a long gray hallway with black doors on each side.

When we reached it, he said, “I got communication from Rawr just last week that two mares with the other Mark II’s had joined him in The Badlands, though he did not say anything about expecting you to show up here.”

“Wait a minute,” I said in shock, “You mean Shadow and our friends are with Rawr in The Badlands right now?”

He turned back to look at us. “Yes, he told me about what happened with the last guardian, Striker and his brother taking over and not knowing about us. He told me about the small mare Shadow and another that looks a little like you with a pink mane and blue eyes, she has the Mark II that is needed for Tower 2.”

“Are they safe?” Wingnut asked, “We haven’t had any news of them in months!”

Alister nodded. “From what Rawr has told me yes, though he said the small pony, Shadow, is suffering deeply from something. He told me they’re searching for a key to enter the tower there and while they do he has seen her sneak off many times to drink or take some kind of strange drug. My brother worries for the mare, I wasn’t sure why, since our kind doesn’t like most ponies, but I understand now after hearing that he was saved by her in the past.”

I felt my heart almost break at hearing about Shadow. From the sound of it, she was even worse than she had been when she’d left. I looked back at Alister asking, “Did he tell you anything else about our friends?”

“Not much, he mostly talks about Shadow and how he worries for her. He said there is a madness in her eyes and a deep sorrow in her soul,” Alister said before stopping in front of a door with the number 76 plastered on it.

“How are you able to communicate with him so far away?” Byte asked.

He reached into a small satchel on his side then pulled out a portable broadcaster. “This was given to us by the guardian many years ago so that we could keep in contact if needed. A few months ago, Rawr stopped communicating for a while. I’m guessing it’s because he was in New Pegasus which isn’t that strange for him, he does like to travel when he gets bored, but when he left last time he was in a rage because his former mate and his pup had been killed by ponies. I think that is why he went to New Pegasus and I’m guessing that is how he was captured. Anyway, we use these to stay in contact so that we know what is going on at the towers and so a dog like me doesn’t go crazy with no one of high intelligence to talk to.”

“Can we…use it to talk with our friends?” I asked.

He smiled and nodded. “That would be fine but after you finish what you came here to do and only if you promise that you will let me come with you and escape this city once you’re done.”

“Don’t you need to stay here to protect the tower?” Byte asked.

He shook his head. “My job is partly to protect the tower yes, but really I’m here to keep ponies who want to use Falling Shadows for ill from getting in. Rawr trusts Shadow and her friends and with that Mark II I know that you can be trusted to do what is needed. Once the tower is unlocked my job here will be done and I’d like to go west and escape this city. Dealing with the ponies here is not something I like, and I’ve heard that New Pegasus might be a better place for me to settle down and maybe if I’m lucky, start a pack of my own.”

Byte and Wingnut looked up at me so I shrugged and said, “I don’t mind, but I warn you, the ship we took here may freak out a little when they see you.”

He laughed. “I’m sure we can smooth out the details later. Now let me tell you what you’ll face once you’re down in the chamber.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, “We were told that all we’d have to do is go down there and unlock the system.”

Alister looked back at me, saying, “Dwarf Star himself came out here and added something to the security system in the Chamber many years ago. It was the only tower that was mostly unprotected. Since the megaspells here are based around emotion and illusion he made a test that you’ll all three have to pass to reach the terminal on the other side.”

“What kind of test?” Wingnut asked.

“You’ll have to face your worst fears. If you do, the spell will let you pass to the terminal, if not, you’ll be teleported back outside of this building and locked out for a year,” he said.

I felt my heart sink as he said that before I shook myself and said, “We have no choice,” then I looked back at the kids, “Listen, this may be too much for you two. If you want Byte, I can take your Mark II and go in there myself.”

For a long moment she looked at the door, fear on her face before she finally said, “I…I can do it, but only…only if you both come with me.”

“Byte…you shouldn’t do this,” I said with a sigh.

I saw her face go from afraid to determined, before she looked back at me and said, “I can do it, now let’s get this over with.”

“Okay,” I said before moving forward and pushing the button for the biometric scanner. A blue gem popped out and scanned me quickly followed by a ding and a voice, saying, “Welcome, Child of the Night.”

The door opened and after looking back at Alister who waited in the hall, the three of us went into the room which was nothing more than a large elevator. We didn’t have to do anything after that, soon the door closed, and we were on our way down to the deep depths of Tower 3…

Wingnut…

I have no idea what happened, one moment we were flying down in the elevator, then next the door opened, and everything went black. I looked around wondering how I’d gotten in a cave. Then I knew where I was a moment later and I felt my hooves start to shake and tears coming to my eyes. This was a memory, a memory I’d done all I could to forget. A dark deep howling scream of anger and pain blasted out from deeper in the cave. A sound that would haunt my dreams for four years. I took a step back as sounds of fighting and screams echoed through the cave, screams of a mare and a stallion.

“Crescent! Get Wingnut out of here, I can hold it off!” I heard the voice of my father say.

“NO….no…. dad please no, just run,” I said quietly as I tried and failed to move further away from the sounds of battle. A moment later I saw a younger me running out of the cave, fear on my young face with tears and blood soaking my coat.

Then, everything went still, and an older stallion’s voice seemed to echo around me, saying, “Everypony has something deep down that they’re most afraid of. If you want to continue on, you must face this fear, for only those with courage in their heart can face what is to come if the project is restarted and the monster from the dark gets free. If you cannot battle your own inner demons, you are not ready to face what may come next. You have one chance to go into the darkness and face this fear of yours. If you cannot, then you will be banished from this place. You may turn back now and try another time, be that a day, or a week or more, but if you chose to try and face this fear and run instead, the banishment will be for a year. Make your choice now, do you face this fear, or do you want to retreat and try again later?”

I wanted so badly to turn back, to go home and forget this night like I’d been doing for the past four years, ever since they died. I almost did, I almost told the voice that I wanted to go back and not face it yet, then I remembered that I wasn’t the same colt I was when Shadow found me. I’d watched my friends battle a lot of scary things over the past few months. I’d faced steel rangers, monsters, raiders, and more while traveling The Wasteland with my friends…my new family. If I ran now, I’d never be able to get past this night, also the filly I was in love with needed me. If I ever wanted Byte to respect me and to see me more than a creepy colt that was only good at helping her with tech stuff, then I needed to grow up, I needed to face this fear.

“I’ll face it,” I said and with that the memory started over again and I walked deeper into the cave.

I started hearing the cries, the growls, the screams again, but I kept pushing forward, until I reached the small campfire my parents had set up deep in the cave to keep its light from attracting raiders. The cave was deep, even deeper than we’d gone in. I remembered that dad said it was safe, but we had to be careful incase monsters were lurking deeper. We’d camped here before and never had any problems. Just before the attack, we’d been eating around the fire, dad had given me his revolver to tinker with while he listened to stories my mom was telling of her younger days before they met. It had been a good night, until the darkness around us seemed to move and the growl echoed through the cave.

I almost stopped as that same growl came again, my mom screamed when she heard it, so had I. I was young and in my fear I hadn’t really paid attention to what came out of the darkness. My father however, pulled on his battle-saddle and started firing into the dark yelling for mom to take me and run. I watched as that played out again right before a scorpion stinger flew out of the dark and stabbed my father. Mom screamed again, then ran for me and pushed me down and away.

“Wingnut! Run! Get away now!...” she said as she turned and faced the creature that slowly stepped out of the darkness.

My hooves shook more as I watched my younger self watch, my mind at the time not able to comprehend what was happening. Now I knew what I was seeing. I watched as the manticore used its tail to pull my dying father toward itself. Mom pulled out her battle-saddle and started firing at the creature, but the ammo was too low of a caliber. It roared but managed to pull my father closer and bit his head off. Mom screamed again and I was crying in silence as I watched my younger self get up and run. Right before mom started firing again. I’d never seen what happened to my mom next, but I knew she died. I’d come back a few days later to find their bodies ripped to shreds.

In this memory or spell I was in, mom just vanished for a moment only to show up again in pieces, but the Manticore took a step toward me and the darkness around it seemed to surround it more, making it almost impossible to see. In a gruff voice it said, “I am the darkness you fear Wingnut, I kill ponies who least expect it, taking parents and colts in the night! Fear me, for I will one day find you and do to you as I did to your mother and father! Now run away, run just like you did so many years ago!”

I could feel the fear deep down inside, but something stronger was raging inside me. It wasn’t anger like I’d expected from seeing the thing that killed mom and dad. No, it was a warm feeling, almost like something inside me was finally able to accept what happened to my parents. In this dream-spell things had gone faster than in reality. Mom told me to run, she also told me to get to Appleton and find a safe place to hide. She fought the dark creature after dad died but managed to tell me something else. “I love you my little colt, go now and stay safe, I will try and find you, you need to save yourself.”

I begged her to come with me, but she only smiled while she fought and said, “A parent’s job is to protect their children. Now go my love and live.”

I looked up at the Manticore and said in a strong voice, “I do not fear you.”

It lunged and its fangs snapped right in front of my face. “Run or I’ll kill you here and now!”

I didn’t move. “I’m stronger than I was before and even if I’m still a colt and still young, I no longer fear you. You aren’t real and the real you if it’s still alive will pay one day for what it did to my parents. I will no longer fear the dark from where that monster came. The creatures in the dark will learn to fear me and my friends.”

The manticore smiled then bowed its head before melting away, a moment later a very short unicorn stallion with a six-pointed star on his flanks came out of the darkness. He looked like a ghost or hologram. He stopped in front of me and said in a distant voice, “Fear weakens us, but bravery can make us stronger, though be careful of doing too much on your own. Your parents died so you can live, don’t let revenge control you either. Friends are a gift in this dead land, and they can help you when you need it. Always remember to love those who are close to you, be they alive or dead, because love can conquer anything, even fear.”

Before I could say anything else, the world went black, and I found myself in a large room with massive megaspell chambers all around the room and a single terminal at the end. I smiled and almost cheered in happiness as I realized that I’d passed my test. The darkness would no longer stop me.

I also noticed that I was the only one here. “First! Hell yeah!”

Stardust…

I found myself in a room with the megaspell chambers, Wingnut and Byte both there too. Wingnut was smiling, same for Byte as if something had changed them for the better. I knew the feeling all too well, though I couldn’t find it in me to smile. The spell had shown me a fear I hadn’t even realized I’d had. I feared being alone again, like I had been when I left my stable. That strange small unicorn with the six-pointed star had shown up and I felt like I was an old buck. He sat with me and told me that I was in a future where all of my friends died, even Wind Thrasher and my unborn foal. He sat with me on a cliff and told me that my fear wasn’t one his spell could make right or that I could face within the parameters of the spell. So, his test was a simple one, all I had to do was make a promise, one that he said would be bound to me through the megaspells of this chamber.

“Most ponies fear being alone but normally it isn’t their greatest fear. You’re special in that way because you grew up around friends and a kind of family. You were raised to not fear death, or the dark, or enemies, and so on. So, your fear is ending up alone at the end of your days. If you promise me that you’ll do everything you can to never let the loss of your friends keep you from moving on and that you will do everything within your power to always protect your friends and family, then I will pass you on this test. Be warned, if you go against this promise, the spell I will lay over you will end your life and trap your soul on Equus for many years, watching as the rest of your friends live their lives without you. Can you do this? If not, I will send you back up to the surface and you will be barred from ever coming back here. I will not let a coward into this tower,” he said.

I was surprised how long it had taken me to finally agree. In the end, I knew that I would always protect my friends and family. I loved them so much that it hurt sometimes. The old pony smiled, and I felt a spark of pain in my chest before I was thrown out of the spell and back here.

“You okay Dusty?” I heard Wingnut ask.

I pulled my thoughts together and gave him a small smile, “I will be…how about the two of you?”

“I think I’m better now than I was before we entered that spell,” Wingnut said, “I had to face my fear of the darkness. I had to relive the night my parents died and because of it, I finally know what happened to them and I think it helped in a weird way.”

“I feel good too, but when I was in the grips of that spell I met an old short unicorn and he told me once I passed my test that I can’t talk about it with anypony, not until I find it in myself to forgive a pony,” Byte said, her eyes looking both happy and sad at the same time.

Wingnut cocked his head to one side. “What do you mean? Why can’t you tell anypony?”

I looked at her too, curious as she answered, saying, “He said that what I have to do, I have to do on my own and I can’t have my friends push me to do what I need to. If I fail, I could die.”

Wingnut’s eyes went wide. “What the hell? You mean that spell will kill you just because of a stupid test?”

Byte looked at Wingnut, a smile on her face. “I had a choice Wingnut; I could’ve backed down and left the test. I chose to accept what I needed to do to get past my own fears. I will do what I need to, and I’ll be fine.”

“But…why would you risk your life just to get past the spell?” he asked.

I answered this time, saying, “Wingnut, it’s not about the spell itself or passing it. All three of us have had hard lives and our fears were getting heavy on our souls. If we kept hiding from them, they would’ve eventually destroyed us. My own test was close to what Byte had to do and I accept it happily.”

Wingnut looked over at Byte again looking worried. “I guess I understand, but…are you gonna be okay?”

To my surprise, Byte trotted closer to Wingnut and brought her lips up and kissed him softly before she said quietly, “I’ll be fine, there’s not a time limit on what I need to do, not really.”

Wingnut looked shocked at the kiss but before he could let it get to his head, I cleared my throat, saying, “So, should we get on with this?”

Byte smiled. “Yeah I think that’s a good idea,” she lifted her Mark II and looked over something on it, her face going pale, “This can’t be right.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

“The chronometer on my Pip-Buck is either off which I can’t believe, or we were stuck in that spell for more than a couple hours,” she said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She looked up at me. “It says we’ve been in that spell for eight days!”

My eyes went wide, same for Wingnut’s as I said, “That can’t be possible!” then something else hit me, “Fuck, I hope the twins didn’t come searching through the city trying to find us!”

“I’ll contact them, they have a radio on the ship,” Byte said, pulling up something on her Mark II after a moment she said, “Sunspot or anypony aboard The Bitter Cob, do you read? This is Cookie Byte.”

A moment passed, then a relieved sounding Sunspot’s voice came out of the pip-buck, “Oh thank goodness, we’ve been trying to get a hold of you for days! Where are you and are you three okay?”

“We’re fine,” Byte said in relief, “It’s a long story, we got a little trapped, but we’re in the tower now and we shouldn’t be too much longer. I’ll contact you when we’re on our way out. Is everything okay with you and the ship?”

“For the most part yeah. We did have to move the ship when steel rangers got too close, but we kept it in the water. We’re a few kilometers out from the city at the moment, but we’ll move back into the dock when you’re ready,” Sunspot said.

I got closer as I remembered something we’d promised Alister the death dog, saying into the Mark II, “Sunspot, I should warn you that we’ll be coming back with a new companion. He’s…kinda scary, so just make sure nopony shoots at him when we get back.”

“I almost forgot about that,” Wingnut said, “I hope Alister’s okay up there all alone.”

Sunspot sounded a little weary, “What kind of…companion are we talking about?”

Byte answered, saying, “He’s kind of a large well-spoken hellhound, but don’t worry, he’s nice enough as long as nopony tries to kill him.”

A moment passed then none other than Gunny said, “Y’all better be a jokin’. Captain Gunny ain’t letting no big deathy claws onto his ship.”

“You will if you want to get paid and if you want to keep your ship. Now get ready to head back to shore, we’ll be out of here shortly,” Byte said, then she cut the communication, “Let’s get this over with, I wanna get home.”

Byte started heading toward the terminal in the distance, as she did Wingnut bumped me with a hoof. “Um…did she really kiss me or was that just a weird effect from the spell?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Looked to me like a kiss. Does it bother you or something?”

He smiled a little. “Nope, just wish I would’ve made the first move, she’ll never let me live this down. Like ever. Till the end of time.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

He looked up at me. “She told me a month or more ago that she liked me and that if I liked her back I’d have to show her. She said that if she did it first she’d tease me about it forever.”

I laughed again then started following Byte, Wingnut following close behind. “Well bro, sorry to say this, but you’re screwed. Royally.”

“Oh well, I honestly don’t really mind that much,” he said.

I just kept chuckling as I watched Byte go up to the terminal and hook up her Mark II. It took her a while to do whatever she was doing. Wingnut and I watched as she worked on her Mark II then finally she sighed and clicked one more icon on her Pip-Buck. When she did the lights in the room brightened and the megaspells in the large room came to life with a gentle hum. I looked around and wondered if anypony outside the tower would know that this place had been activated as the humming got a bit louder.

“We should head out,” Byte said, “The lockdown has been lifted and I’m getting a little homesick.”

“What will happen with this place when we leave?” Wingnut asked, “I mean if Alister is coming with us, who will keep this location safe?”

Byte looked back at us. “Once we leave, this chamber will be locked down again, only one of the descendants of The Children of The Night will be able to get in. It’ll be safe long enough for Project Falling Shadows to be shut down for good.”

“I still don’t understand why the project has to be active for it to be shut down,” Wingnut said.

Byte sighed. “I wondered that too, but Violet said that it had something to do with how the system was built. I don’t understand it all, but she said it had to be done. Now let’s just hope that Shadow has pulled her head out of her ass and took care of Tower 2.”

“Yeah, I hope she did and that she’s okay,” I said as I started leading them back out of the underground chamber.

“It’s been…what…five months now?” Byte said as we reached the elevator and started heading back up to the storage hall, “If she still has her head stuck up her ass, then we may have to go find her and slap some sense back into her.”

I was about to say something about that when Byte’s Mark II started beeping softly. Wingnut looked down at it, his eyes going wide. “Hey, isn’t that the sound your Mark II makes when Shadow’s trying to get in contact with you?”

“Yeah,” Byte said, lifting her Mark II before her eyes went wide, “It’s not a transmission from Shadow’s Mark II it’s from the other one!” she answered it saying, “Hello?”

“Byte? Oh, thank The Goddesses. I figured out how to make this thing work,” I heard my sister Solstice say from Byte’s Mark II.

“Solstice? How the hell did you get your hooves on Scootaloo’s Mark II?” Byte asked, “I thought Shadow had it.”

“She did, long story,” Solstice said, she sounded tired, “Listen, there’s a lot to go over and not much time. First of all, have you three completed your mission to unlock Tower 3?”

All three of us gasped when she said that as I said, “Sis? How did you know about that?”

“Aura’s here with us in The Badlands, it’s a long story and I honestly still haven’t really gotten all the information yet. I just need to know if you’ve unlocked the tower.” Solstice said.

“Yeah, just a minute ago,” Byte said.

“Is Shadow okay?” I asked quickly, worried sick about my friend.

There was a long pause then Solstice said, “I’ll go over that with you in a bit,” she sounded stressed, “With Tower 2 and 3 unlocked that means things are about to change. Violet just told me some things and you three will need to head back to New Pegasus as quick as you can. Aura said to make that Captain Gunny dude fly his ship as fast as possible, she’ll pay him triple if she has to.”

“Why?” I asked, “What does unlocking these two towers have to do with anything in New Pegasus and if Aura’s there why isn’t she telling us this?”

“Listen big bro, I don’t have time to go over everything. Just put it this way, something happened here, and Violet and Aura are afraid that Aquila and Thunderlane might try and take over New Pegasus. You need to get back to the Shadow Talons and keep the city safe. I’ll update you more when I get more information, just get to the ship if you’re not already back on it and fly home as fast as possible. We’ll meet you all there when we can,” Solstice said.

The elevator dinged and we were back in the storage hall, Alister looking happy to see us. We ignored him as I said, “Fine, we’ll get back home as soon as possible, but please, I need to know, is Shadow okay?”

The death dog watched us as we stood there in the elevator, crowding around Byte’s pip-buck. Another long moment passed before Solstice said in a choked voice, “We…don’t know. She got hurt trying to keep me safe when we activated Tower 2. There was a megaspell leak, and she used her power to pull the magic away from the room so I could undo the lockdown. She’s barely breathing, and Violet said she’s on the verge of death. We…we don’t know yet if she’ll pull through.”

“There has to be something that can help her,” I yelled, “Can you get her to Stormy? I’m sure she can think of something to fix whatever’s wrong with her.”

I heard my sister sniff hard as if she was holding back sobs. Then the calm voice of Minuette…I mean Violet came over the line, saying, “Stardust, I know many healing spells and am probably a better medic than Stormy. I’ve done all I can to help Shadow, but her mind is fractured and right now, it’s up to her to find her way back to us.”

“What the fuck does that mean!?” I yelled louder, “You make it sound like Shadow has to choose to pick life or death?”

“She does Stardust, whatever happened to her has broken her very soul. No magic I know or anypony alive can fix that. Only she can pull herself back together and only then can she come back to us. From what she’s been going through over the past few months, she might just choose to end her pain and move on to the next life. No matter what we want, it will be her choice in the end if she lives…or dies,” Violet said, sounding sad.

A few moments passed as we all took that in, then I heard Aura say in a weak voice, “I’ll have Solstice update you three as soon as we know more. Please Dusty, you need to get home. From what Violet said, she thinks at the very least Aquila might make her move on New Pegasus. My Shadow Talons need to be warned and Violet can’t get us back for at least a few more days.”

I sniffed, then said, “Can do…you…” I stopped and sucked in a shuddering breath, “You, keep an eye on her okay? If…if something happens, please tell me…for better or worse.”

I heard her sniff before she said, “I will Dusty…I will,” then the connection was cut.

I felt tears falling down my face as I looked at Wingnut and Byte then back at Alister. I took in a deep breath and using what I’d learned in my training, I pushed the emotions down for now, then said, “Let’s get back to New Pegasus. Alister, make sure you are good on our ship. I really don’t want to deal with fighting.”

“Do not worry pony, I will be a good death dog. Just as long as am able to get away from this stupid city,” the death dog said. With that, we started heading out of Equestrian Records. As we left I heard Byte calling for The Bitter Cob to take to the air and to meet us outside the building. She said we had to get going as fast as possible. As she did I worked hard to keep my emotions down and not to think too hard on how the fuck Aura and Violet had found and gotten to Shadow and my sister so fast. I’d find out later, right now, I needed to be the leader of our small family, because there was a good chance I’d have to take over for my best friend as The Courier of New Pegasus. I knew Shadow all too well and with how much she’s suffered over the past few months to a year, I wouldn’t blame her for letting go of her pain and passing the baton to the rest of us. She knew that we’d complete her mission for her, she knew we loved her and no matter what, this time if she chose to die, we’d respect her wishes. She deserved a rest, more than anypony. As we got outside and I looked up at the dark night sky, I whispered a prayer to the stars, or Goddesses, or whomever would listen, “Please…watch over my friends’ soul and make sure she finds peace if she chooses to move on, but make sure she knows how much we all love her and that we miss her…so…so much.”

Aquila Starborn…

Five Months after Shadow Left...

I looked out at the ponies that roamed around the large camp that was slowly becoming a city in a way. That fool that now called himself the high priest of newly dubbed Starborn Cult had brought a lot of ponies to worship me along with the Romans. If I didn’t need the buffoons I would’ve killed all of them by now. I honestly hated all of them…well all but maybe a few zebras. The Caesar wasn’t too bad once I’d gotten him to get over his sexist thinking. He didn’t see me as a Goddess but more as a powerful Starchild, which I was.

I sighed then winced in pain as I felt another twinge of pian shoot down my spine. It had been happening more and more over the past couple of weeks and I was getting worried the more it happened. Turning away from the camp I headed back into the cave that was serving as my home right now while I waited for the rest of my plans to be completed. Soon I’d be able to kill Thunderlane and his granddaughter and the fucking cult that kept worshiping me like a Goddess. Oh how I hate them!

I gasped and fell to the floor as another spike of pain ran through my body and I felt my synth body flutter and stretch for a moment before the pain finally passed. At least this didn’t happen around the ponies outside, I may hate them, but I needed them…for now. After a moment I got slowly back to my hooves and walked over to the bed I used when I was here. On the table next to the bed, I picked up the small mirror and looked at myself. Cracks of white light were showing along my neck, cheeks, and forehead. I concentrated my magic and used an illusion to hide the cracks, just like I’d been doing for a week now. The pain I kept feeling wasn’t new and I knew what was happening, and I couldn’t do anything about it, not yet.

My being, my soul, and magic couldn’t stay in this fake body forever like I’d thought when I had Grim make it for me. I figured that having an exact copy of Shadow’s body would be enough to handle my power, but I’d been wrong. Slowly this body was breaking apart. The sad part was I couldn’t stop it or fix the damage, all I could do was hide it. The only way I could survive was to go back to Shadow’s mind and hope I could take her over for good. If not, then…I don’t know, I could always do what Altair wanted me to do…my so-called father wanted me to merge with Shadow and the two of us would become something new. Well fuck him and his plans for Equus, this was my world now and he was nothing more than a nearly dead star. I’m not going to lose myself, not for anyone.

With the pain starting to fade, at least for now, I was about to head back out of my cave and see if I could get a report from my scouts when a different pain slammed into my chest, and I fell to the ground screaming. I rolled around in agony as a magic circle pulled away from my chest. If I wasn’t in so much pain I would’ve gasped as I saw the spell that Grim had placed on Shadow and me to keep our lives bonded to one another. All I could do right now was watch as pian rolled through my very soul as the spell circle fully formed in front of me then it cracked in half and as it did the pain slowly faded. The magic faded with the pain and when it was gone and I could finally stand again I knew deep down that the spell was gone, but how? Did something happen to Shadow? My eyes went wide as for the first time ever I worried about my former vessel. Was she dead? I fucking hope not. If she was, then how was I ever going to survive what was happening to my body?

I had to know, so I pulled myself up off the ground then went back to my mirror. I cast a spell over it and soon I saw Shadow in the mirror. I watched for a long time as I saw others pick her up and put her into a bed. I couldn’t make out who they were, the spell was only showing me Shadow and a bit of detail around her. I felt my heart race as I wondered if she was dead or alive. Then I saw a slight rise and fall of her chest. I sighed in relief and let the spell go. I’m not sure what happened to her, but so far she was alive. I’m not sure why the spell broke, but at least I had a body to go back to if I needed to. I let the spell go and smiled as I headed back out of my cave. I was about to call for one of my cultists but then I noticed something strange in the distance where The Lucky Horseshoe was just visible.

“What’s that?” I asked as I used a spell to make the tower seem to come closer to me. I smiled as I saw something that just made my day. One of the four points at the top of the tower had lit up. The one facing south. “I don’t know what you did to yourself Shadow, but at least you’re doing what I needed you to. Now just three more to go and the power of Falling Shadows will be all mine.”

I sighed then went to look for one of my cultists. Things were moving fast now, and I needed to figure out one last thing. Where the hell Shadow had hidden my diamond. I knew by now that she’d given it to that Sin Greed, thanks to intel I’d gathered from a mare that used to live at the old base, but for the life of me, nopony, not even I could seem to find the damned pegasus. I hoped that I’d get more intel on him soon, I needed that diamond if I ever wanted to activate Falling Shadows without risking more of my power to do so. “I’ll find you Greed, and when I do, I’ll make you tell me where that diamond is.”

Shadow Star…

My mind was going in a million different directions. Here I felt at peace, my loved ones were here, I was happy, but back on Equus even with all its pain and horror, I had ponies, zebras, zonies and griffons I loved. I wasn’t sure what I should do. Go back and deal with the pain and anger or stay here and let The Wasteland fend for itself. I wasn’t a hero; I was just a filly who had the worst luck. Did I let it all end, did I let Aquila and the rest win so I could pass on? It seemed to take forever before I made up my mind, but when I did, I looked up at the ones I lost, smiled, and lifted a single hoof up. “I know what I want to do and what I need to do. I need to go back to my friends; I need to go back to the griffon I love and finish what I started. If I’m going to die, then I’d rather it happen while I protect them rather than giving up.”

I’ve been a fool for the past five months, I knew that now and no matter what, I needed to make up for it. It was time to grow up and stop feeling sorry for myself. As I made up my mind, I heard my mom say, “You have come close to death and when you go back I can’t say that the spell I placed on you to keep you safe from Aquila will hold. You shouldn’t worry though my little star, you have the power now to keep her at bay.”

I smiled and nodded. I took one last look at my friends and my family who’d already moved on. It was time I did the same. “I love you all and I hope you can all rest in peace. I’ll make sure never to go down such a dark path ever again,” I turned away from them and I let my soul fly back toward Equus, it was time for this little filly to go back to the land of the living, “I’m coming guys…I’ll never leave you again…The Courier’s back…” I said as I fell, but something about that felt wrong, “No, Shadow Star’s back, I will always have the title of The Courier, but I’ll no longer let that be who I am. I am Shadow Star, that is who The Courier is, and I protect the ones I love,” I felt myself smile…truly smile for the first time in what felt like forever, I was going home…