The morning brought a strange mist to everything, the thick fog soaked the snow-covered city. Rose was already out of bed and checking on Shadow, being certain that no infections were beginning or spreading from his stump. I rolled out of bed, going through my routine of cleaning up my mane, looking in the dirt and grime that caked my once-beautiful mirror.

Out into the main room I went, seeing Rose doing a close inspection of the seared-off meat that once connected the stallion to the rest of his leg. Vogel scarfed down dried strips of fruit, looking in the bottom of the empty package for more. Here I was in the middle of it all, my throat was dry and my stomach growled at me. I simply couldn’t afford to eat the three meals a day that I once would have, the rationing program we had set up was tossed out of the window.

Rose looked at me, the expression of defeat covering her. “Angel, we’re almost out of water. Food is running low.. Those supplies were meant to last us a month. I think either Jacks or Candy took more food, and Shadow needs more now that he’s healing up. I know the market is empty, but we need to find something to eat.”

I looked down, then around at the piles of supplies we made for ourselves. Mine was once rather full, but sharing the occasional ration was proving to leave us all short. “Okay Rose, I’ll get on that. We have enough food for a few more days, but water is something I will get done right away. The river is clearly poison, but our filtration systems we have underneath us should have some extra in one of the pumps.”

It was only a matter of minutes before I had geared myself up, uniform, bags and pouches, cloak, the gas mask carry bag and cloak, then my rifle. Vogel was also starting to throw on gear, then I asked him why. “Vogel, are you coming with?” He just nodded at me, the griffin throwing on his uniform and breastplate, then his pouch sling and shotgun. We looked at each other while strapping the masks to our faces, then we walked out the front door.

The fog made everything that much more difficult to see, visibility going from somewhat reasonable to nearly non-existent. Even the crater off in the distance was masked over, the green glow only mildly radiating through. I had to think about where the maintenance entrance actually was, the thick snow cover would make it near impossible to find anything on the ground in the first place, and having such a thick blanket on top of it made for a daunting task.

We stepped through the streets, listening to the crisp sound of the icy flakes breaking apart under our boots. Homes passed us by on either side, and then the small buildings constructed of steel and concrete, finally a chain link fence topped off with barbed wire was in front of us. Looks like I really do remember the exact lay out of this place, my days as a delinquent filly taught me where everything was, and all of the fun places to hide in or near them.

A broken pad lock held the gate from the fence post, the brass and steel looking as though it was shot open, something that we both knew meant trouble. The gate was difficult to pull open through the mountains of snow, the process taking the both of us just to make it move enough to barely slip through, even then we were holding our breath. I stomped down in a few places, trying to find the opening downward into the tunnels. There was the clang of steel, and then the minutes it took to pull enough snow away just to take a look at it.

My wings wedged under the heavy round plate, slowly prying it open and sliding it to the side. Vogel went down the ladder first, then I followed behind. The dripping water sent quiet sounds through the round tunnels, the pipes above us were starting to show the disrepair and decay, ice filling some of them entirely. Even down here it was freezing, and the lack of any light made things that much more difficult. Vogel glanced over somewhere near me, I think, and I was fumbling around in my pouches to find my monoculars with build in night vision. I held it to my eye, taking a look around before handing the other to Vogel.

I hadn’t used them before, the battery life was apparently pretty short, so I had to save it for situations like this. Neither of us grabbed matched from the survival boxes, but having a torch down here could suffocate us rather quickly if there were any collapsing areas of the tunnel. Vogel went first, taking point just like he always did, shotgun held up and at the ready as he stepped through the tunnels before me.

The maze of tunnels were far more difficult to navigate than the streets above, even if we could actually see something down here. The green hue made it difficult to read any signs, and taking off the night vision would just make it impossible to see anything. We finally started to use sound instead of anything else, listening to any sign of humming or mechanical movements that echoed through the halls. Our main power sources may have been killed off in the blast, but our filtration was different. It was meant to keep ticking, even if our power was cut. Great foresight by those before me.

After what felt to be hours of stumbling around in the dark, we had finally found the massive chamber filled with equipment. The power supply to our vision was then cut out, the batteries dying out. Our sight was limited to whatever the small, red emergency lights had left us with, and that was just barely enough to avoid tripping over anything. I tried to use every last shred of light to grab the spare batteries I kept for the devices, then loaded them in.

Three massive vat-like machines were standing all the way to the high ceiling of the room, pipes that were at least as thick as Vogel was connected the dull steel, sounds of gurgling water filled the area, the sounds of the emergency generator hum was nothing compared to the water. The generator itself was rather small, but ran on similar technology that was found in my new heart. As long as a little electricity runs through it, everything will keep itself running. When it runs, it makes electricity. A never ending cycle that benefited everypony, save the ones who decided to open fire onto us.

I dove behind the large, round vat, Vogel shooting up into the air and holding a higher position on the vat, giving us better coverage to fire. Echoing gunfire and the sounds of ricocheting bullets deafened me, the sparks coming from the side of the steel making my small vision monocular near impossible to see out of. Muzzles of weapons flashed on the other side of the chamber, the secondary doorway seeming to just light up from the excessive flashing coming from these weapons. Whatever they were, they were big.

Vogel started to take pot shots at the flashing, his shotgun not even seeming to phase the enemy at this range. Not only were we fighting somepony with weapons, but also armor. When the sparks started to cover Vogel’s end of the vat, I leaned outward and took aim. A Steel Ranger stood before me, something that I thought was meant to protect and assist other soldiers. I guess this one went rogue after the bombing. The very presence of armor and what appeared to be miniguns made our objective that much more difficult.

When I heard the clicking of reloading weapons, I focused my aim, took a breath, and let my wing work the trigger. I felt the push back onto my shoulder, and watched as the figure had fallen over. Perfect shot, right through the bastard’s eye. Vogel flew down to the corpse and started to dig through the packs that were hastily strapped to the armor, looking for anything of use.

“Angel, I think this one came from the Ministry of Awesome’s hub up top.” My ears were still ringing, leaving me slightly disoriented as I made my way over to the griffin, inspecting the armor and the blasted out eyepiece I gave them.

“Yeah, looks like it. Doesn’t seem like one of those raiding types either, probably just somepony looking for water and not wanting to share a drop.”

Vogel grabbed pouches of food and cans of water from the bags, then taking the battle saddle that held two miniguns and enough ammo to mow down a village. He grinned at me, and I knew that I would need to be sure he didn’t want a test fire without reason. Vogel would fire until the weapons clicked, or exploded.

I started to look at the small gauges and valves on the vats, wiping away the dust to just barely be able to see the needle and markings underneath. “Yeah, this is reading here as functional. I’m not sure how strong these filters are, or if they’d even make this water somewhat drinkable.. The markings here show that the pipes back at my place are still hooked up to this. We could just go and take a look at the quality back there.”

“Angel, that vat is leaking. We need to get out of here, and now!”

I felt myself jump up as the freezing water started to engulf the soles of my boots, knowing that even the slightest touch of it would turn me into one of those ghouls. My hooves carried me as quickly as I could back the way I came, Vogel not hesitating a second to follow behind. The water level wasn’t an issue as it would take forever to fill this entire sewer system up, but finding the way back out.. That was an issue.

“Vogel, we need to stop running. We have to take our time, and find a way to get some light down here. If we keep running we’ll just need more water afterward, and we don’t even know if this stuff is safe to drink.” He gave me a nod, and we started to turn and walk down every single tunnel we came across. It was so dark and damp, the temperature enough to even make a Snow Pony shiver. If the lack of food or water didn’t kill us, the cold would.

We were wandering down in the tunnels for what felt to be hours, using our wings to cover ourselves from the cold. I watched as steam came from the sides of my mask, putting an extra layer of clutter over my green vision, which then cut out. I could hear Vogel whisper to himself, then groan as his own vision was now completely blackened out.

“Alright, I’ve got this. Take a seat and be ready to see some light.” I sat down and navigated my pack by feel, reaching around until I came across a grenade. The stem screwed right off, then the powder hit the stone floor beneath me. I took the cloth I had wrapped around my mask filter stem, and dropped it right on top of the powder, or I thought so at least. My wings struck together over and over, spitting out small sparks until a larger one flew from the steel, and hit the powder. It fizzled and sparked, then lit up the cloth.

“See? Now do you have anything we can use a fuel?”

Vogel used the light to reach into his sling pack and pull out a near-empty bottle of liquor, carefully taking one of the cloth strips and precisely putting it into the bottle, leaving some to hang out. It went from a possible grenade to lantern as he took a spare bandage, and tied a handle around the bottle neck. He held it up as we continued to wander around in the cold, the bottle starting to crack. We stumbled around, taking yet another bandage and wrapping it around the bottle as quickly as possible to keep the cold air from blowing against it.

Another hour, then another hour, yet another one passed us by as we wandered around in the dark tunnels. We replaced our filters, then continued on. His lantern had last us just enough to run face first into a ladder to the surface, something we both scrambled up. The heavy steel lid slid out of the way, dumping snow onto both of us, but what we saw above us was enough to make us want to go back into the tunnels. We were far out of the city, almost at the recruitment center I had sent the males to just days before. Dammit, now how would we get home in the middle of night?

Vogel lifted me from the ground, and took us to the center. It was a small, modern looking concrete building. A steel roof covered it up, and the windows were grated with steel from the outside, this looked more like a supply depot than an actual recruitment center. The door itself looked like it was straight from a prison, thick and heavy steel with multiple locks, or at least places for locks. It looked like a large lead slug had punched through the circles, I wonder who did it.

Everything inside was dusty and dull, posters covering every single wall, and then some. A broken down desk was the first thing I saw, cheap, wire and plastic chairs on either side of me. Vogel just kept walking in, then into a door that was a few steps behind the desk. I couldn’t help but follow him, he at least knew where things were. He started to go down the stairs, looking up at the hanging lights that held on by emergency power, bulbs that were just covered by a glass case hung from chains.

Two flights of stairs down, and we were in a room filled up with cots and chained up gates that held empty crates behind them. He shut the door behind us, and took his mask off, taking a breath. “The air is safe down here. This place was meant to be an outpost with the ability to survive a few blasts. There’s another door down here, but it’s locked up by a terminal.”

I gave Vogel a curious gaze, and then made my way to the box on the wall. It came to life, filling the screen up with blinding green text, then I slapped it a few times until it became blue. Much better. I watched as various lines of text and symbol filled up the screen now, the bumping doing far much more than just turning things blue.

“Uh, okay how do I do this..” I slapped the box a few more times, then started to type a couple of the words I saw on screen. My eyes focused on it, then the terminal started to show up an “Access Granted” box across the top of the screen, and a massive steel door slid open. Maybe my luck was starting to turn around.

Vogel chuckled at the randomness of the slaps and how the machine responded, but it worked. I stepped into the clean, steel covered room that held rows and rows of crates, filled up the ceiling with supplies of all sorts.

“Wow Angel, I didn’t know you were so lucky. The way I heard it, your luck reading actually made a machine explode..”

“Oh shut up, sometimes everypony gets lucky. That was just a very, very rare case of it happening for me.”

We stepped inside and started to take a closer look, there were enough of the ugly green cots on steel stands to house an entire battalion, and enough supplies to back this up. I had to get Rose and Shadow out here, or at least find a way to get these supplies to them. Vogel was looking around for more shotgun shells in the messes of ammo crates, pulling out shells by what seemed to be by the hundreds.

“Vogel, is there a cart or something over there, maybe enough stuff for us to build a wagon? We need to get this stuff back home, at least as much as we can. If we get something built up and everything loaded, then sleep, and get these stuff back in the morning.. I think that would be best.”

The griffin gave me a nod, and started to pull out steel carts from the sides of crates. Three shelves high that would fit about two crates per shelf, six crates per cart and then.. We would need to attach at least three carts together to make this worth our time.

“We need three of those carts, we’ll go ahead and tie them together. We’ll load them up first though, I don’t feel like struggling to get these boxes on each shelf.”

“Yeah yeah I hear ya, come here and help me lift this up you bossy pony.”

He had a point, but I was planning on helping from the start, obviously. It took us both to lift some of the crates up onto the shelving, each one being filled to the very top with everything that we could ask for. More medical supplies to throw on the pile, ammo, food rations and water. There were even crates filled up with gas mask filters and other soldier-issue supplies, something that I insisted on sorting through. We filled an entire crate up with filters and gas mask patching parts, then another up with weapon cleaning supplies and uniform repairing kits.

“Vogel, what’s that black crate over there?” I pointed at a single black crate sitting in the corner of the massive storage area, the matte color catching my eye among all of these ugly green boxes.

“That is uh..” He made his way over the to box, then cracked it open. He stood there, staring for a moment before lifting up a small rectangular bag with black armor inside. “Looks like some of that great combat armor that was meant to be given to us. Rumor has it that this stuff can stop a bullet the size of your hind hoof, but I wouldn’t believe that. Does look sturdy though, pretty light as well. Even has padded edges to keep it quiet. Looks like this set was actually for you.”

I didn’t believe that it was meant for me, but I took it anyway. Vogel watched as I removed my bags and cloak, putting each piece of the armor on over my uniform. The chest piece covered my entire torso, plates covering up areas that generally wouldn’t move much like my chest, and softer, weaved ballistic fibers for areas that needed free motion. Chest, back, shoulder and even hoof pieces were here, covering me almost completely with the exception of my gas mask and hood. It felt comfortable, light, and I could even move just as silently as before.

“This feels pretty damn amazing, I wouldn’t want to be the fool who runs into me out there.” That earned me a laugh, followed by groans and aching muscles from lifting crate after crate onto the carts.

Morning came much slower than I expected, granted most of my night was rolling around on these uncomfortable canvas cots. Vogel let out a groan as he stood up out of bed, stretching out everything just to get himself moving.

“Come on Angel, Rose and Shadow are probably wondering where we are. I doubt they’d think we got killed out here though, we’re probably the best fighters of the squad.”

He was right, even if I did spent most of my time far out with a rifle, I could still handle myself in closer engagements. Rose would knew if I had died anyway, we shared that kind of special connection. One time she twisted her poor hoof and I knew before she even told me, that kind of connection. Vogel and I took stretchy cords, attaching them to the carts, and then the carts to each other. Before we finished though, I looked right at him.

“Vogel, how the fuck are we going to get these up those stairs? If that door back there isn’t an elevator then we’re stuck down here.”

He shook his head, then chuckled. I guess it was an elevator, or maybe he already knew how to get these out of here. “Yeah Angel, that’s an elevator. Shadow and I couldn’t figure out how to get it working, when we were up top anyway. I guess it’s more or less just activated from down here, we should be good with it though.”

We rolled the pile of carts over to the steel doors, Vogel smashing a button in with his talon to get them open. In went the carts, and then Vogel, then I. We put on our masks and took a breath, preparing ourselves for when we returned to the surface. The doors slowly opened, taking us to the ghastly land that we knew, a drastic change from the clean steel basement we just spent the night in.

Vogel and I pushed the carts out of the door one at a time, then putting them all back together as the wheels sat in the snow. We would need to take our time going back, watching to be sure the haul of supplies wouldn’t fall over and cause us to stack everything back up. Our backs were already sore, and we didn’t need any more strain on them.

My watch told us just how long we were taking, minutes to hour, hour to hours, and hours to even more hours. It was 1600 before we even made it to the edge of the city, and another hour just to take the carts through the torn up stone streets. Ever bump made us tense, some even made us dive to hold the strapped carts together, needless to say it was an exhausting two days that we spent out here. The door flew open, and in we went.

Rose started jumping up and down in excitement as we returned, Shadow hobbling over to us to see what took us so long.

“Hey, you two, what the hell took so long? I thought you were just going down to see if the purifiers were still working.”

“Yeah, we did. Then we got lost down in the dark after getting shot at by a Steel Ranger, we spent a night in the recruitment center I sent you and Vogel to, and then I broke into their security vaults to gather up supplies. By all means, if that upsets you, feel free to go out there and do it yourself.”

Vogel and Rose were both staring at me, shocked at just how snappy I was. Even if the trip was long and tiring, that was mean.. Even for me. Shadow went right back to his little corner that he claimed for himself, and sat. Tension overtook us all, but the stress had finally started to show itself in me. I let a sigh, then directed Vogel and Rose to assist in unloading the crate.

Night was upon us, all of the supplies were divided and stored. My gas mask bag felt full, filters lining the entire bag with the exception of two of the repair kits, should I need to use them. Vogel started to mess around with our radio, looking for any sign of a signal, Shadow simply sat and watched as he did. Rose was painting on the front of my new armor, using our old art supplies to do it. We never did get much use from them, but it was fun to paint wilderness scenes that looked more like paint was tossed onto canvas.

She carefully detailed every little bit of the armor, using her magic to hold the brush as well as feed us both, sharing the plastic spoon that was dipped into ration bags for the both of us. I smiled while she took pride in her work, asking me to turn or move the light, even assist her with itches should she have them. It was times like these that I missed the most from the old world, quality time that you would spend with those you loved.

“Hey Angel, Rose, I think we’ve got a signal. It’s pretty rough, but it’s there. Sounds like.. It sounds like some kind of broadcast coming from one of the Canterlot networks.”

The four of us listened closely through the static, curious to see what had become of the beautiful castles and gardens that everypony knew and loved. What we heard sent us all into shock.

“Listen up Canterlot Steel Rangers, I know that everything we knew was destroyed, but we need to get moving to the Citadel. That’s the only place that will take us in.” He was cut off by a much softer voice in the background, but not for long. “Yes you heard me right. The Princesses did indeed give their life to prevent the Pink Cloud from killing everypony around here. No, we cannot go back in there. You are all the luckiest ponies of this wasteland, should you have been anywhere near that cloud, you’d all be dead or fused into your armor.”

The signal cut, and not a moment too soon. We were all silent, exchanging glances and and expressions of sorrow with one another. The Princesses were gone, not even those with the highest power of magic could survive this place. Silence ruled the room as we all got back to our previous activities. Rose and I ate while painting up my gear, Shadow and Vogel started to play cards, and we could all feel reality starting to kick in. Nopony was coming for us, not a single damned one. The world was lost.

I spent the day walking through the city, my newly painted armor making me feel even more confident in just wandering around through the snow and mist, even in the areas where blood stained the snow. The armor was painted with black and dark gray, varying shapes and patterns were filling up the armor to break up the outline and appearance of the shape, something that could gain me an extra second to slay whatever was out here.

A new gas mask was on my face, one that we has brought back with us. It didn’t take me long to wrap bandages around the filter stem as I had before, but this new mask was a deep gray. I outlined the lenses with black, a little personal touch that was much needed on something so dull. My cloak was patched up and cleaned, even my uniform was looking far better. I felt healthy, safe, even prepared to live and die out here as there was no rescue, no true safe place. A harsh and sombering reality.

There wasn’t any place I was really walking to, if anything I was just out here to kill time and spent my days away, maybe find something useful or mildly interesting even. What better place to look than the hub for our Ministry of Awesome? I started making my way to my new objective, walking right down the middle of the street, and right through the mounds of snow that were starting to build up higher and higher. I could hear gunfire and screams out in the distance, the loud sounds echoing off of the crumbling buildings. Looks like more survived than I thought.

My movements were now slower and more methodical, my body hugging against walls and piles of rubble that lined my pathway. I was going to the far edge of the city, something that could easily take me a few hours if I didn’t keep tabs on time and my pace. Then, I saw shadows dancing on the walls. There was something coming for me, and it sure didn’t look like it was happy. I dropped down behind a mailbox, slowing my breathing to reduce the steam coming from my mask.

I watched closely, counting down the seconds until I would see the figure. There she stood, covered in the armor of a Steel Ranger. My rifle slowly slid into my wings, then against my shoulder. I wasn’t going to take kindly to them, especially after one had opened fire on Vogel and myself down in the purifier room. My ears then focused in, realizing that she was speaking on some type of radio in her helmet.

“It appears to be clear, Sir. No, Sir, there is not. Sir there is no- sir I need to contact you in a moment. My Eyes-Forward is picking something up.”

Fuck, I knew those helmets had Eyes-Forward Sparkle built in, but I thought that my uniform was designed to counteract such arcane technology. Her weapons then started to spit out a light show of beams and lasers, blasting a radroach into dust. I guess my uniform did indeed counteract it. Oh the powers of a stealth uniform.

“As I was saying, Sir, there should be a recruitment center in this sector that houses a bunker beneath it. We should be able to take shelter there and set up, supplies should be plenty down there. Yes Sir, I will.”

She went silent as she then started to make her way down the street to my position, her covered eyes scanning the crumbling buildings as her steel clad hooves clicked against the snow covered stone. It was time to act, I wasn’t about to let these bastards come and take supplies that we needed. Without looking back, I dashed from around the mailbox and stood before her, my hind hooves planting on the ground while I held my rifle to her face. It didn’t take seeing her eyes to know that she knew it was over. I slowly tilted my head, letting her see her own reflecting on my mask’s lenses before I fired.

The steel-cased mare fell to the ground, blood pouring from the clean holes punched through her head. I watched as the snow started to stain crimson, chunks of bone and gray matter oozing out in the mess of blood. My rifle went onto my back once more, and I was on my way. It seemed like only moments before I was down on the ground again, concealing myself as more of the Rangers came galloping down the street and to the sound of the gunshot. I could handle one or two at a time, but more would prove to be deadly, especially with my rifle only hitting hard enough to punch through at closer ranges.

I found myself buried under burnt cloth and fallen bricks, right in front of the old bookstore. It wouldn’t do me any good to try to hide in there as most of the building was crumbling apart, and if I moved too much I would risk them seeing motion and locking onto me. It was time to wait, and there was nothing I could do about it.

There stood four of them, weapons at the ready as they stood in formation, scanning every last flake of snow around their fallen ally. I could tell they were looking at something, then it hit me. Boot prints. I gave my tail a few flicks to cover the shifted snow around me, praying to Luna they wouldn’t be able to see me from the bulky steel helmets. One glanced my way, and started to approach. At least I tried. He was coming closer, and closer, finally he was standing right before me. I held my breath, and lay as still as any living thing could.

I had no option but to stay there, letting him survey the area before finally turning and returning to his friends. I took a breath, and relaxed. I felt like I was going to be stuck here a while.

“We have one down, repeat, one down. Large caliber rifle, not quite Anti-Machine. One set of boot prints in the snow, appears to belong to a single pony. Be advised, we have an enemy in these streets.”

Then, I started to think about how their very presence would compromise myself and my friends. I had to do something, even if it could get me killed. We didn’t always see eye-eye, but I respected my team to no ends, and my wife meant the world to me. How do I handle this? Instead of thinking things out, I stood up and walked up to them.

“Mares and Gentlecolts! I present to you, the Wasteland---! As you see before you, there’s a corpse on the ground, now who would do such a thing?” I found myself speaking rather loudly, the rubber mask on my face dulling my voice out. “And you know, it’s unfortunate your member down in the filtration room tried to kill myself and my friend, you see, we belonged to Luna’s finest!” All of their weapons were trained on me, but they weren’t certain as to how to handle me. Honestly, I didn’t even know how to handle me.

“With that all said, it’s an eye for an eye. Your friend down below tried to kill us, so I killed one of your own! And you know what, I think each and every one of you assholes should turn tail and run, especially with what I’m planning.” One of them shot at me, a single energy beam that came flying at me, only to be shot back when my wings flew out in front of me.

“Oh no no, poor things. You can’t kill me, you won’t kill me. This wasteland will not kill me!” I finally felt each and every one of them firing lasers and plasma weaponry at me, each blast being reflected from my wings, others being dodged and missing entirely, thanks to my agile self. One of them finally had the sense to try a targeting system similar to S.A.T.S. something that I wasn’t certain of how to deal with. The beam missed me entirely, and melted the snow to the stone beside me.

“Really? You would try something like that? No no no, your little systems won’t be able to lock onto me. The snow on the ground and the weaving in my uniform here don’t exactly allow for that. Now like I said, turn and run or you will all fall here.” They just stared at me, and I had to keep my word in this situation. I went silent, and then started to charge.

My wings moved in a flurry of steel and feather, sending each beam back to its owner. I watched as they weren’t even phased by it, my rifle on the other hoof, had something to say about that. As I neared one, I would aim and fire with my fastest ability, leaving behind a pile of armored corpses and bloody snow in my wake. I thought the Steel Rangers would be stronger, that or at least have some shred of tactical knowledge. I guess my plan had worked after all, even if my wings were feeling rather hot.

I couldn’t help but feel bad for them, five highly trained Rangers fell by a single mare with an arcane heart and steel for wings, perhaps they were simply too reliant on their technologies to even attempt to use their own ability. Either way, I didn’t care, I was going to find where they were coming from, and I was going to wipe them out.

The Ministry of Awesome would be for another day, for now I had to find their source and be rid of it. All it takes is experience, knowledge, and having some gear that lends itself to stealth always helps. I looked around at the crumbling buildings, knowing that would go to some place that was secure, easily defendable, and in the area. Perhaps the Ministry of Awesome was indeed still my target location.

Up the street I went, being cautious and mindful of my boot prints, sweeping them away with my tail as I made my way up the street, and to a building off in the distance. Our hub was in one of the largest buildings in our city, being three stories tall and almost a block and a half wide, a building that was shaped in a rectangle with two forward-extending wings built on. It looked like an ‘E’ save the middle bar. It was built of brick, and had the common steel roof that was seen on many of the more modern buildings around us. Typical.

Many of the windows were boarded up, but the ones that survived had eyes peering from them. I very well could have just found them, this confirmed as a missile came flying by my head. Okay! Looks like I’m not going to actually do anything like this.. They had to have seen me, and they weren’t going to let me close. I made my way into the maze of buildings and rubble to my left, disappearing like a ghost. There had to be a better way, perhaps.. Perhaps I could take out the entire building.

I went back home, then shared my plan with Rose first. She carefully brushed the feathers of my wings while I spoke with her, something I so very much enjoyed. Too much so, sometimes.

“They’re in the Ministry of Awesome. There’s certainly a good few of them as they’re speaking about expanding out and gathering supplies from the cache we found beneath the recruitment center, if they need supplies and space like that, there’s going to be a ton of them. So, I’m thinking.. What if we take the entire building out?”

She sighed, and then gave me her response. “Do you know how impossible that would be? We don’t have the explosives to do that kind of thing, and even if we did we would need to save them. Come on, Angel. You know better.”

“Yeah yeah.. Maybe we don’t need more than a couple of grenades. The entire sewer and pipe system underneath, if I were to find a way to crank up the pressure in some of them and give them a little nudge, I could collapse the tunnel, and then the building built above it.”

She gave me a curious glance, but I could tell it interested her. “So if we were to do that, would it block off our pipes? I mean, you did see if it the water was drinkable first, right? Like did you check our sink?” We both stood up and ran to the restroom were we could hear Shadow letting out gasps, choking on something. I was the first in, the water running from the sink looked to be clear, but bursts of the dark liquid spat through it.

There was Shadow, coughing up blood and wiping the blood from his eyes as he rolled around on the floor. Jacks, and now Shadow. We were going to be three. Vogel came running in, giving us a gaze of nervousness, Rose already in tears. I turned to Rose, and wrapped my arms around her, then let her go. I gave Vogel a nod, then went to door to put my clothing and mask on. The water coming from the purifier was poison, something that only set reality in further. Nothing in this world is safe.

I had a single bullet in my pistol, holding it up with my wing. When I walked into the restroom, it was like I was the reaper herself, there to take Shadow away to a better place. That’s what I was now, a guiding spirit to take those to a much better place. It hurt my heart, but I knew that it had to be done. Shadow gave me a sad expression, but then he closed his eyes. He was ready. Instead of just dragging him out, I lifted him and set him on my back, and out the front door I went.

Shadow laid in the snow, wheezing and coughing from the lack of a mask in the toxic air, his stump slowly turning green in the scarring. I leant into him, giving him the final words he would hear.

“Take care, Shadow. Tell Jacks things are okay down here. Let him know I’ll take care of the others.”

He smiled, and closed his eyes. He was ready, and so I was I. The steel feathers held onto the pistol, aiming at his head. The trigger slowly pulled back, and the steel kicked up. I exhaled, and took a moment to myself. Jacks, Candy, Shadow. Half of us already dead, all within two weeks of each other. I was worried about what would happen to the rest of us, especially with the Rangers taking up post just up the road. For the first time in years, I was scared as hell.

The three of us stood above the three graves at the base of the Elder Tree, looking down at the two snow covered graves, and the single fresh grave covered in frozen soil and stone. I was holding onto Rose, knowing just how hard this would hit her.

“I’m sorry, Rose. Your brother was a great stallion.” I wiped her tears away, and let her take all of the time she needed. Vogel was attempting to be as stoic as possible, but just like the others, he was devastated. I, myself, felt worse for Rose than I did myself. Her brother was now in the ground next to her friends, all of her family now passed on, leaving only Vogel and myself. I had to be rid of the Steel Rangers for her, we owned this city now and we have to be sure it stays that way.

I held the lantern up with my wing, the dripping water hitting the steel top making the sounds of sizzling, the fire within the enclosed glass heating the casing around it. Each step splashed water up around my boots, a stream of the toxic water flowing right through the middle of the tunnels. The brick walls wrapped around me, dancing shadows from my lantern filling the creases between bricks, and showing each drop of water as it fell. It was easy to get lost down here, and looking for the hub itself would prove itself difficult.

The entire morning had already passed, every little sign turning me around, and back again. Just as I felt like I knew where I was going, I got turned left and right, then around completely once more. I didn’t feel like walking around in this toxic water anymore, even if my boots did shield me from the waste that could easily kill anypony who would drink it, whether slow or fast.

Finally I found the right pipeline, following it closely to finally get myself underneath the hub. A service ladder was right beside me, going up to the surface that would lead into the basement. This was the place, and now I had to make a choice. Do I dare climb into the basement and risk being spotted and killed, or do I plant every last explosive I have right here? The choice was obvious, and now I was starting to build a makeshift explosive.

I took apart three grenades, gathering out the fuses and powder that was encased inside. Out came the powder into an empty pouch that once held my breakfast, and then two of the fuses went inside. I closed up the pouch, and stuck the final fuse into the side of the bag, leaving the primer of it exposed. The pouch slid underneath some of the heavy steel cables that held up the pipes. Out came an egg timer I brought from home, and I unscrewed the back to reveal the springs inside. From there, I started to loosen some of the pieces to leave a single piece exposed that would strike the primer once the clock hit zero. It was time.

I set the timer for one hour, and made sure everything was in perfect order before running my tail off to go back the way I came. A left here, a right there, and a loop around there, and I found myself at a ladder. Up I went, taking me to a snow covered wonderland outside of the city. At least I had gotten out. I spent a minute to look around and gather information on where I was, seeing the burnt shell of our city hall at the top of a hill to the northeast. Home was just down the street, but I felt like I should get a better view to watch the hub collapse on itself.

The next forty minutes were spent making my way up to the burnt out, crumbling ruin of the city hall that I lit up, watching from the edge of the front steps. My watch lifted up, then right back down as I felt a light shaking in the ground, knowing my charge had worked. The charge itself wouldn’t take down the tunnel, but the breaking pipes would. The steel lids that covered entrances to the sewer near the hub started to spew up into the air, the black, toxic sludge flying up.

Some of the Rangers galloped out of the building, covered in the sludge. These ones must have been down in the basement. They rolled around in the snow, the darkest, thickest sludge melting right through their armor. When it was mixed with water, it was toxic to taste, when it was alone.. It acted like acid. The streets leading up to the brick building started to fall in, followed by the buildings that were supported up on the sides of the stone streets. It looked almost like a wave of crumbling rock before the hub went down, filling the entire city with dust.

I watched as what was left of the building and surrounding streets turned into a crater in the ground, destroyed buildings and pipelines filling up the hole. The black sludge and dark water mixed around in the center, making a dark, void pit that had turned into a mass grave for armored ponies. It felt amazing to know that their main headquarters was now sitting in a pool of acidic waste, a welcoming sight to anypony that may decide to head back to base after that display.

It was one thing to kill zebras, another to shoot your friends, and almost entirely different to kill some of the beings out here. But to take out an entire Ministry hub full of Rangers that thought they could just come in here and kill anypony just trying to survive, that was unacceptable. They had to die, and they were all sent to the other side in the most violent way I could deliver it. Something felt sorrowful in me, but the rest was too ecstatic from my victory to even notice.

“Don’t you dare fuck with us, even if you think you’re the better force. You can’t fight ghosts.”

Vogel was searching for something to drink, our entire liquor supply went dry. I didn’t take him for an alcoholic, but his need for the substance was showing. Rose was sitting silently, cleaning up her submachine gun with the supplies we had gathered. She was taking the loss hard, but the news of our safe home sent her into a jumping joy. Just her smile was enough to comfort me, even when four blocks of our city was now a black pool.

I was comfortable enough to even sit down on the sofa, and grab my guitar. Vogel needed a distraction, and Rose could use music while cleaning up her little gun.. As for me, I needed something to do. We had enough supplies to last us for a few weeks, and there wasn’t much else of interest out in the wasteland for me to explore. Perhaps I would make a trip out to some of the smaller hamlets that dotted our mountains, something that wouldn’t bring us supplies, but it would give us more knowledge on exactly what the world outside was like.

Music filled the room while I stopped to think and plan out a few days of activity, just until Rose tapped on my shoulder.

“Angel, I’d like to start coming with you. If we’re going to be out there, then let’s be together. If something goes wrong, we’ll be able to fight through it together, or see each other on the other side.”

She was smiling, even while telling me those things. Rose did have a point though, if something were to happen to me, she’d have nothing left. Vogel could sit guard, but he would need a bottle of something so he wouldn’t try to get outside and leave our supplies for whatever would come along.

“Alright Rose, first thing tomorrow morning. We’ll get up and eat, then head out to find something for Vogel. Once we do that, we’ll grab some of the survival supplies from here and head out to some of the villages.”

Her hooves wrapped around me, urging me to continue on playing. A moment of peace in a world like this, that was something I never would have expected. A growing threat taken out within three days of encountering them, it was much like the ghouls that filled our streets. Only a little over a month and we had accomplished so much, gathering up supplies and really just making a place of our own out here. We had taken losses, all three to the toxic world. One from the air, another from the water, and finally.. One to the stress and despair.

Rose was stumbling around through the snow, still getting used to stepping over cracked stones, hidden beneath the layers of flakes. I felt my pace slowing down from what it normally was, doing everything I could to be sure Rose made it through today. Our first objective was one of the many taverns that we had in our city, anything to find a few bottles to keep Vogel happy. Addiction was bad enough, but in a place where all of the physicians were either underground or dead, working on cleaning it up was hell on earth. I should know.

I kept point as we reached a building covered with wooden planks, a hanging sign of similar material simply reading as: “Elder’s Tree Tavern.” This was the place. I bucked open the door, and let Rose go in first. Her shorter weapon was far more suited for these closer ranges, and I was confident in her skill with it. Before I could even follow in behind her, the weapon she held in the air started to chatter. It caught me off-guard, but I knew she handled it.

To corpses lay there, both wrapped up in torn and bloodied canvas armor, crude painter’s respirators covering their faces. Two mares, one white with a green mane, the other yellow with a black mane. I didn’t know these mares, but they did look familiar.. Either way, they were covered in blood and that was more than enough reason to fire onto them. Rose looked at me through her mask, her voice dim and muffled, until she spoke up.

“Angel, it looks like one of these mares was pregnant. It had to have been before the blast, she looks to be a few months along.”

I looked down and saw the bulged belly of the yellow mare, my heart dropping.

“She was. Don’t feel bad about yourself, Rose. That’s just how things are now.”

The search for the bottles began, Rose checking behind the dusty wooden bar, my search taking me down into the cellar where they must’ve had something for certain. I pushed open the swinging door and made my way down, lanterns and candles lining my path down the steps into a room filled up with shelving, the dirt flooring looking as though it was half-finished with planks under the shelves.

I started to read over some of the barrels and boxes, making my way over to the end of the shelving where glass bottles lined the platforms. Bottle after bottle, I grabbed down some of the whiskey and set it carefully in my pack, then I heard Rose firing again. Up the steps I went, going as fast as I possibly could. Another corpse sat on the floor, this one a stallion.

“Rose, what happened with this one?” He wasn’t wearing the bloodied armor, or even a crude air filter. This one looked clean, well, at least as much as you could be out here. He had an actual chemical filtering mask, and was covered in a hazmat suit.

“He came in the door and I.. I saw the shotgun and just.. He’s not one of them, is he?”

I shook my head, and even went as far to look at the shotgun she talked about it. His horn stuck out of the rubber covering, and beside him was a double barreled shotgun. I cracked it open, and it wasn’t even loaded. If I were to tell Rose, she would feel horrible about herself, but if I said she made the right call, things would be better for us both.

“It looks like he was. I’m going to take the shells back to Vogel, he might need them.” I knew that she would struggle believing it, but it was better to lie to her. Luna I felt horrible for it, but this was my wife, I would do anything for her.

We spent about an hour searching through the building, looking through each of the rooms and cabinets inside. Seven bottles of whiskey, a couple of vodka I could use to make grenades, and even a bottle of wine. I was going to share that with Rose tonight, for sure. Maybe we could have some intimate time while Vogel blurs his mind in his own liquor.

More rumbling came from the distance, and then dust flying into the air. “I guess the tunnels are still collapsing. Hopefully we still have a city that isn’t fallen into the ground.”

That didn’t stop us from keeping on, making our way back home. We didn’t want to leave Vogel alone too long without his whiskey, especially when he was watching our supplies. The ground shook once more, and even more dust flew up into a cloud, sending down dust from concrete. We looked at each other, then turned around. The dust cloud was getting much larger now, whatever else was around that hub was now part of the black pool now.

The entire tunnel system below was collapsing, bringing down the city, sector by sector.

Next Chapter: Chapter 4: Old Habits Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 38 Minutes