Sometimes a lie is easier to take.

I awoke with my back pressed up against a soft, cushiony surface. Something warm and gentle rested on my stomach, and I felt a warm breath brush against the fur on my chest.

I opened my eyes and looked down to see Fluky rising and falling on my form as I breathed. She was huddled up to me, snoring lightly with a soft smile on her lips.

"Please don't let this be a dream, again..." I whispered, smiling down at her as I carefully ran my hoof through her mane.

Goddesses, she was so adorable...

"I love you so much..." I whispered again, keeping my smile up as I admired her.

She murred softly as she buried her muzzle into my chest, keeping her eyes closed.

I sighed happily and looked around the cave, trying my best to not disturb her slumber.

No one else was around here. It was just me, her, and the presents that had been given to me.

A black, electric guitar sat in the corner closest to me. There was a crude, red A with a circle around it on the lower half of the instrument. That was given to me by Hollow.

Around it was a series of bottles of alcohol, a carton of cigarettes, and my old Stable 32 security barding, now fully restored to its former glory and then some, thanks to Petiole, Hollow, and Bullet. They had customized it so that while the yellow '32' remained on the left shoulder, the hammer and wrench that resembled my cutiemark was stitched into the right.

On top of that, my old power armor that I left in Saddle was brought back to me. Bullet and Sora had decided to make a recovery mission to retrieve it. I imagined they both had to down a lot of Rad-Away after that, but they both seemed fine. The armor itself had been put under a decontamination as well, considering it had been sitting in a nuclear blast zone for the better part of a month.

I wasn't expecting to see it again so soon. Or at all really, considering how long I had left to live.

No one knew how long I had left. Not me, not even Petiole.

That was a scary thought to have...

I could be gone tomorrow...

I... wanted to die. But I didn't want to leave my friends. I didn't want to leave without making sure Tezu and Blaze didn't die for nothing.

My friends showed me one of the best days I could only dream of. I got a taste of something really good, and I wanted so much more of it. I wanted every day for the rest of my days to be like my 26th birthday.

"Hey..." Tuner whispered from the radio right of me. I turned to it, raising a brow. "I added something to your pipbuck. Happy belated birthday, Charger."

Slowly, I brought the pipbuck to my face and looked at the screen as a series of files scrolled through. Lists of songs I had never heard of before, from bands I only imagined had no existence in this universe. There was lots of content there. Enough to keep me busy for a while.

"Thanks, Tuner." I said softly, looking back up at the ceiling.

For a while, I stared up at the rocks above me. The place was still and silent.

I didn't want to think about those deep, dangerous thoughts that lingered in my head. I didn't want to think about what was going to happen to me.

I couldn't get up and leave without disturbing Fluky, even if I wanted to. I didn't want to leave her alone. I greatly appreciated her company.

I gently wrapped my hooves around her and took a slow, deep breath, keeping my eyes on the ceiling.

"Tuner?" I spoke under my voice, doing my best to keep the silence.

"Yes, Charger?"

"Can you play something soft? Something from Octavia, preferably."

"Of course."

At once, a soft cello began to play over the radio. Tuner did well to keep it quiet, letting both Fluky and I relax to the soothing song that soared through the sound waves and reach our ears.

As the song continued, I closed my eyes. A soft smile curled on my lips, and before I knew it, I had dozed off in the realm of sleep.

For a long while, I was in a dreamless slumber. No thoughts. No sound. No movement. No touch. Just a dark void, where nothing was wrong, and nothing was right. Nothing was everything, and everything was nothing.

It lasted for a good moment.

But that blissful ignorance was interrupted.

I found myself lying on my back, staring up at a blood red sky, with patches of black. Above me was the vortex, and with it, the screams of the damned rose as a choir to my ear drums.

Suffering. Crying. Screaming. Pleading for an end.

I blinked.

When my eyes opened again, a black, flower-like suction like the one that came out of my hoof screeched and latched onto my face, covering my muzzle.

I wanted to scream. But my voice was drowned out from the damned.

I wanted to run. But I found myself bound to the earth.

I wanted to fight. But I found I was too weak.

Something started sliding down my throat, venturing deep within me, reaching my stomach.

As it did, I felt myself start to fuse with the tendril that had latched onto me. Start to become one with it.

Start to get absorbed...

My face started to melt into it... My skull started to deform, and my eyes felt as if they were to burst from their sockets, only for my brain to squeeze out through the two holes. I felt something start to envelop my lower body, making its way up to my neck. Something cold. Not just in temperature, but in spirit as well.

Then, not even a second of a world of pain, I shot up screaming, squirming, and panting.

I looked around the room frantically to see all my friends were there, looking at me in worry. They seemed to have been discussing something, before I interrupted.

"You okay, Robutt...?" Fluky asked, stepping up to me and rubbing my back as I sat there. My hoof was flickering uncontrollably, so I let it hang off the bed of pillows.

Fluky must have woken up before I did. At least I didn't throw her off my body in a panic.

"Nightmares..." I muttered, looking at her. "I'll be okay..." I took a deep breath.

She looked at me in worry, but nodded in response. She sat on her haunches beside me and leaned her head against me.

I looked down at her in surprise, before a hint of a smile crept on my lips.

"I guess this is where Charger comes in." Hollow said, turning from the others to me. "Who do you want accompanying you?"

Everyone turned to me silently, awaiting my response.

"Accompanying me?" I raised a brow.

"To find Snow Star." Hollow continued. "Teams of three, remember? Who do you want in yours?"

No pressure, guys...

I looked at the lot of them for a moment, before shaking my head and hanging it down. "I'm gonna need time to think on that."

Seriously, I just had a nightmare... Did they expect me to be right in the head after what I just experienced?

Hollow nodded, before turning to the others again. "I contacted a little more help for us in this endeavor, so me, Charger, and those he chooses to accompany him will be meeting up with him not too far from Virtue." She turned to me once more. "I think you two will have quite a bit to talk about."

Um... Okay...?

She looked down for a moment, before continuing.

"There's another matter in need of discussion..."

"Judging by the way you said that, something tells me I'm not gonna enjoy this." I stated as I regarded her coolly.

She shook her head as she looked back at me. "Your name came up in the Enclave Battlenet. They know you're wanted by the Steel Rangers, but they don't know why. They just know you're important."

"Great..." I sighed. "So what now?"

"They're hunting you down, too. They want to capture you and sell you off to the Steel Rangers, in return for an agreement with your chapter."

"You mean a truce."

She nodded. "That's another word for it."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Lovely."

"On the bright side," Onyx started. "They don't actually know about your battery."

"If they did, I imagine this would be a completely different matter." Thorne filled in.

I had mercenaries on me. Steel Rangers, Fester's raiders, and now the Grand Pegasus Enclave? It made me wonder if there were others I didn't know about.

They certainly weren't making this easy for me.

"I'll be giving each group a transmitter." Hollow stated, looking over the lot of us. "We're to only use it if we find a lead to Snow Star, or Snow Star herself. Got it?"

Bullet nodded. "Affirmative."

"Alright. Everyone pack up any essentials. We're heading out within the next couple of hours."

The group disbanded from there. Most of them left back through the cave tunnels, while the rest remained in the opening that was used as a lounge.

Onyx set down a small wooden box from her back on one of the beds, before sitting down beside it. She eye'd me for a moment with a soft smile on her face, before nodding to the box.

I looked down at Fluky for a moment as I ran my hoof through her mane. She looked up at me with a soft smile, to which I found myself smiling back.

"Track Hollow down and see if she doesn't have any of those fierce fireworks for your launcher."

She lit up in an ecstatic grin, before standing up and rushing off towards the tunnel, where Hollow and many of the others walked off to.

I chuckled softly to myself as I stood up and made my way to Onyx, taking a seat beside her.

"Lookie what I found just lying around." She said as she removed the lid to the top of the small box.

Inside were three memory orbs, cushioned by hay. Two of them were white, but the one on the right was black...

"You wanna try them out?" She asked with a small smile on her features.

I looked down at the three for a moment, before looking back at my gear that was huddled up in a pile, next to all my other presents. I didn't have much to do in terms of prepping for travel. I wasn't bringing the guitar or anything like that with me. Just me, my armor, my rifle, saddle bags, and my CHAIR.

At least this way, it would be a good way to kill the time until we started moving.

I looked back at her for a brief second, before nodding to the black orb. "Yeah, let's do it."

I found myself in the body of a pegasu- whoa, WHOA, WAIT! WHERE WERE MY BALLS!? I felt new muscles down there! So this was what it was like to have mare bits!?

She walked down a hallway with her wings pressed tight to her sides. I felt something wrapped around the pinions of her right wing as she made her way to a door at the end.

I heard vertibucks flying in the distance. Not one, but several. I heard a few raptors, as well.

She tapped her hoof on the door a few times, before a voice called out to her from the other side.

"In!"

She opened the door and stepped inside, standing straight the whole time. After closing it behind her, she saluted a dark orange stallion that looked to be in his late thirties, sitting behind a desk.

She put her hoof to her forehead in a salute.

"At ease."

At once, she relaxed, but I could feel her heart pounding in her chest, as if she were worried or scared.

She extended her right wing out to reveal it was holding onto a clipboard with some statistics on it. It was pulled away from my view before I could get any chance to read through it.

He took the clipboard and started skimming through it, occasionally flipping to another page with a wing, before scoffing and shaking his head. He set the clipboard back down.

"Okay." He said with a bitter tone.

"Permission to speak, sir." She said quickly, yet quietly.

"Granted."

She took a deep breath, locking her eyes on his. "This is anything but okay, sir. We lost one of our best pilots in a flight warm up to a heart attack. We lost several other trainees, half of a hangar, and several dozen aerial units and artillery. This is-"

"It's not confirmed that Ace had a heart attack." The stallion said abruptly, cutting her off.

The mare paused. "But... the vertibuck's systems were checked out just before he operated it. Everything was green lit. And he didn't have a history of epilepsy, to my knowledge. He was getting old. So I can't think of anything else that could have caused this."

The stallion sat up in his seat, leaning over his desk as he pointed a hoof at her, glaring. "You're not paid to think, missy. Your place isn't in detective work. It's out there, on the battlefield." He pointed at the window to his left for a moment, before folding it on his desk. "So stop wasting your time, and mine, trying to make some mystery piece, when there's nothing there. It was an accident, pure and simple. Something was wrong with the system that one of the mechanics didn't catch."

"Sir..." She paused as her mouth hung open. "I had a talk with the inspector, and he said-"

"The inspector is just trying to hide his guilt!" The stallion blurted as he tapped his forehoof on his desk repeatedly. "He failed to catch a mistake, and so Ace's death, as well as the death of many of our rookies, is on him! He can't hide from that!"

The mare stood there silently, looking down at her hooves for a moment.

There was a beep on the intercom on his desk, to which he took a deep breath and leaned back in his seat.

"You're dismissed. This is the last I want to hear of this. You want an adventure? Stick your nose back in your books, and shut up."

She nodded. "Yes... sir..." With that, she gave him one final salute, spun around, and walked out of the office, making sure to close the door behind her. As she proceeded back down the hall, another pegasus in Enclave armor walked towards the door she came from.

There was no acknowledgement from them to my host, but the mare I occupied stopped and stared at them as they tapped on the door with their hoof.

"Enter!" The stallion called out.

My host had taken notice of a stainless steel suitcase resting on their back, which looked locked tight with a variety of key slots all around the container. Many locks meant many secrets...

As the door opened, she quickly turned around and proceeded to walk away from the scene, as to not look curious.

When she heard the door close, she spun back to the office and quietly stepped back up to the door. She pressed her ear to it and listened closely.

"-worked." The Enclave soldier finished. "Or so we believe. There was an anomaly detected within the device mere seconds after the vertibuck crashed."

I heard a series of clicks, and there was a brief moment of silence to follow.

"Do you have the statistic reports of the anomaly?" The tempered stallion asked.

"Under the UPC, sir."

There was another pause, and I heard the faint rustling and turning of pages.

"Fascinating..." The desk pony said softly. "The results are exactly the same as the filly, and the DJ from Saddle..."

"He wants advice on how we should proceed with this." The Enclave pony stated.

Another brief pause, and then the stallion spoke up again. "I want to study this for a bit. If our theory is correct, then there is, in fact, a way we can use this in our favor for the war effort. And even a means of infinite energy. Has the durability been tested?"

"Yes, sir. Even without the reinforced plating, its integrity is highly advanced. It seems to have gotten stronger after this test. But our mutual friend strongly advises that we don't try to damage it, as this model seems to have built up a strong energy reading... More than we bargained."

"How strong?"

"There wasn't an exact number, sir..." The soldier spoke softer, as if the idea of this device scared him. "But it's enough to power an entire planet. He believes that if the core is damaged, the results would be... catastrophic."

"... A portable megaspell super reactor..." The desk pony muttered. "Impressive."

"You should have moved on with your day." A stallion said from behind.

Before she could turn around, something heavy struck the back of her head, and everything went black for a moment, before I was warped back into my own body, in the present.

Upon being pulled back into the real world, I was first greeted with an argument between Oku and Para, but... they were both shouting at each other in the zebra tongue!

Para knew how to speak Zebrican!?

He didn't appear to be struggling with the words, either! He was speaking it fluently!

What... the... FUCK!?

HOW... WHAT... WHY... WHAT!?

Oku pointed a hoof at Fluky - who had the weird pistol Para had been carrying with him by her side - while glaring at the wingless pegasus, shouting in that mysterious language. Para shook his head as he bit his lip in frustration, then interrupted him, countering the zebra's argument.

What was happening...?

Onyx, Fluky, Cobalt, and I all stared at the two going at it, awe-struck with what we were witnessing.

Para reached into one of his many pockets, before flinging that same hoof out of it, towards Oku. Sand flew at the zebra, who quickly sheltered his eyes before it could strike.

The room fell in silence as the sand struck Oku. He slowly lowered his hoof after the assault, looking back at Para in disbelief.

"Sand...?" He asked in confusion.

"Not just any sand. Pocket sand." Para replied with a hint of a smile growing on his muzzle.

Oku stared for a moment, unaware of what to make of the situation he found himself in. He sat on his haunches and sighed. "I really am cursed..."

"What are you two arguing about?" I asked, sitting up from the bed that I had lied down on, before I slipped into the memory orb.

Everyone turned to me, realizing I was awake, judging by their reactions.

They all turned back to Oku and Para shortly after, to which the zebra responded.

"Because of that." He pointed a hoof down at the gun. I just then noticed her comic books were next to it, as well as a piece of paper that had been drawn on. I couldn't make it out from here, though. "That came from the stars, and he's been carrying it with him all this time, just to give it to a kid!" He snapped a look back at Para, who frowned back at him. "Where did you find it?"

"It was lying on the ground." Para replied. "I was trying to find the kid it belonged to and return it to them, but it's been years, so I decided to give it to Poopy here."

"Poopy...?" The filly asked, raising a brow as she looked up at him.

"It's Fluky, Para." I said softly.

"That's what I said. Floopy."

"F-Floopy...?" She looked from him to me in desperation.

"Fluky." I emphasized, keeping my eyes on him. "F-L-U-K-Y."

"Floofy."

"Is he serious right now...?" Cobalt muttered to herself.

I looked back at the filly to see her press her hoof into her mane a bit. "Ya know... close enough. My mane does have a bit of floof to it..."

"And it's very adorable." Onyx filled in with a gentle smile as she regarded the now blushing filly.

Cobalt nodded in agreement with a smile of her own.

"Very much so." I added.

Fluky blushed even more as she looked down, smiling; her smile curtained under her mane, as it often did.

Oku sighed and shook his head, muttering under his breath in his native tongue.

Para sat down next to Fluky and placed his stetson atop her head, smiling down at her. She looked up at him and smiled thoughtfully, adjusting the hat before returning to the piece of paper that rested on a series of her comic books. She put the gun that was given to her away.

"So?" Onyx asked, looking back at me. "What did you see?"

I turned to her for a moment, before focusing on the radio that held the battery.

"I... found something." I muttered. "Government secrets... They were messing with something..."

"Your battery?" She asked, raising a brow at me.

I nodded, to which she sighed and glanced at the radio.

"Gotta love the government secrets that helped destroy this world. Not surprised that it was some government secret. Colored ones tend to be the really deep stuff."

"How long was I out?"

"Twenty minutes, give or take. Some are still packing up what they can."

I nodded, before lying back down. "I want to see another."

"You sure...?" She looked down at me as she sat at my side.

With another nod, I confirmed my choice.

"Very well." She put the black memory orb away, before picking up the one in the middle. "Won't be but a moment."

The world around me was black. I couldn't feel anything in whatever body I occupied. If I even was occupying anything, that was. I may as well have been trapped in a void here.

For a moment, there was nothing. No sound, no movement, no sight, no scent.

A lot like what I wished my sleep was like.

A dreamless slumber.

Then, quite suddenly, I heard the flick of a light switch, and the start of an electric hum. But still, there was only darkness.

Another moment later, I heard a door open on the far end of the room, though everything sounded muffled.

"And you're sure he can hear us?" A stallion asked.

"He's been responsive with us so far, so some part of him does, yes." A mare replied.

I heard the keys of a terminal start clicking, with momentary pauses here and there. The mare resumed. "Are you present with us?"

There was a brief moment of silence in the room, before I heard a small, high pitched beep.

"How is that possible...?" The stallion asked. "He's encased in ice. There shouldn't be anything functioning in there."

"You'll have to take that up with Floe Glaze." She paused for a moment, before taking a deep breath. "I'm going to be asking you some questions. If you cooperate with us, some very good things can come your way."

"As good as things can get in Hightower prison..." The stallion muttered.

There was another beep, and the room fell silent for a moment.

"What do you mean when you say 'your job isn't complete?'" The mare continued. "What is this job, specifically?"

Beep!

"... He's misinterpreting that entirely." The stallion said aloud.

She sighed, before taking a moment to herself. After a moment of silence, she resumed. "We're going to be recording a series of memories from your mind, before you get sent off to Hightower. We need to know everything you did. In order to do this, I'm going to need your full cooperation, and think of every victim you took.

Beep!

For the longest time, there was dead silence in the room again.

"Goddess damned psychopath..." The stallion said in a spiteful tone. "I wish I could watch him rot away in his cell..."

"Let's just get this over with and get out of here. Give me two M-Os. Omegas wants all conversations with Happy on record. No exceptions."

I was pulled back into the real world, hearing Hollow's voice.

"Is everyone ready?"

"Uh, Charger is kinda out of it right now..." Onyx stated, to which I opened my eyes and sat up slowly.

"Nah, I'm here. Perfect timing." I pulled the head piece off and set it down next to my pegasus friend.

Onyx smiled softly at me, then turned back to Hollow. Bullet and Sora stood at either side of her. "Guess we're all ready, then."

She put the memory orb back in the box, closed it, and put her instrument that allowed me to go through them back in her saddle bags.

I rolled off the bed, trotted to my armor, and quickly started to get equipped.

"You waited last minute to do that?" Sora deadpanned.

"It doesn't take too long for me to get into this." I stated. "Besides... I have to plan out the three groups, remember?" I cracked a smile, to which Hollow nodded to me. Onyx trotted to her armor and slipped inside, after removing her cap and putting it away with the rest of her stuff.

"We're listening."

"There should be one flier for each group." I started as I fit my metal hoof through the custom sleeve of the barding. "To help scope out the vicinity of said group." I turned to Rivet and Onyx. "Rivet will travel with Bullet Storm, and Onyx is with me."

The two of them nodded silently.

"Understood." Rivet replied.

"Next up are the snipers."

"The pony we're meeting up with is already really good with sniping." Hollow said quickly.

Bullet levitated her rifle, and I watched as it transformed from a fully automatic weapon to a long ranged lead slinger.

What the fuck...? That was... Goddess damned alien technology!

"I'm pretty good with long ranged, too." She stated with a smug expression. "I mean... have you seen my ass tattoo?"

A pebble struck her in the back of the head, but she kept her smile up, all the same.

"Alright, then that leaves Sora's team." I fit my last leg into the appropriate sleeve and started to zip up, trying to ignore what I just saw. I was starting to get jealous...

"Petiole."

"Yes?" He asked; his LED still freaking out a little.

"You okay with traveling with Sora?"

"Of course."

I chuckled a little as a smile grew.

"What?" Petiole regarded me.

"You and Sora would make the perfect couple. You both hate being touched."

Bullet joined me in the small laugh, to which Petiole sighed. Sora deadpanned at me and her friend.

I finished zipping up to my neck and stretched my limbs out, one at a time, in order to get comfortable in the armor. I tested the arm that held the rifle to my shoulder and looked through the scope, aiming at a wall on the far side of the 'room.'

"Thorne?"

"Yes, Charger?"

I turned to her once I found my rifle had ease of access.

They were all fully dressed in their power armor, and their armor plating was repaired to full working order.

"Your team, excluding Onyx, is under your command. I'll let you decide who they go with."

She nodded once, then spoke up. "I'll go with you." She turned to her team shortly after. "Cobalt, you're with Bullet. Astral, you're with Sora. And both of you stop trying to get your fuck on."

A pebble smacked the back of her armored head, but she didn't seem to notice it. That, or she didn't care enough to acknowledge it.

"Hey, I'm a stallion. When a mare's in heat, I get excited." Astral blurted, glancing at Bullet Storm. "Cobalt's the one always trying to fuck somepony."

A pebble smacked his visor.

"Stop that..." He muttered.

"Well, can ya really blame me?" Cobalt said in a raised tone. "It's been an awful long time since I had a good dickin'!"

A third pebble flew across the room and struck her ear.

Para was glaring at her now.

"Both of you need to sort through your shi..." She froze as Para glared at her, gritting his teeth. In his hoof was another pebble, but a bit bigger than all the others. She turned back to her team. "Both of you need to sort through your stuff."

"Para will travel with Sora." I said, ready to get back on topic. I turned to the radio. "Remember what we talked about?"

"Of course." Happy said calmly.

"Don't mess around with any of them. I mean it."

Oku stepped into the cave opening and moved around the three team leaders, looking at me. "Where do you want me to go?" He asked softly.

I raised a brow to him. "You want to help?"

He nodded. "We're all looking for someone. I'd like to do something good again, rather than just survive."

"T-thanks... Oku..." I smiled softly at him. "You can go with Bullet."

He nodded to me, then waited at a wall next to the three.

"Fluky?" I looked down at her to see she had her new pistol in a holster, and her firework launcher on her back.

"Yeah?"

"Can you travel with Bullet?"

She froze as she stared up at me, looking as if she just got struck. Her ears folded back. "But... I want to be with you."

I smiled softly at her. "I know. But if Titan is gonna find me again, I don't want him using you against me. He will hurt you to get to me. I can't live with that..." I gently ran a hoof along her cheek as she looked down and closed her eyes.

"I feel safe with you..." She muttered, taking my hoof in hers.

"After everything I did, you shouldn't... You'll be in good company."

She paused for a moment, before looking back up at me. "No."

"No?"

"No! I'm staying with you!" She proceeded to quickly hug my hoof tight, as if I were about to fade away. "You don't get to disappear again! Not again!"

"Looks like you didn't have to travel very far to already have a daughter figure." Hollow said softly. I turned to her with a deadpan, but said nothing.

I turned to Bullet next and mouthed some words. She nodded to me with a blank expression, looking down at Fluky shortly after.

I sat on my haunches and lifted her up. Her arms wrapped around my shoulders, and she stayed glued to me.

"I love you, Flukes." I said, before kissing her on the cheek and smiling.

"Don't call me that..." She sniffled into the fur of my neck. "Promise me you won't disappear..."

I sighed softly and closed my eyes. "I... promise, Fluky... I'm not going to disappear..." I cracked open my eyes and looked back at Bullet, and she nodded once more.

Finally, Fluky let go of me and pulled away a bit. That's when I saw tears had welled up in her eyes.

"Hey..." I whispered, gently tapping the tip of my hoof to her muzzle. She scrunched her face up, and I chuckled. "Adorable, as always."

"Am not..." She muttered, shuffling her mane and sheltering her face with it.

I set her down carefully before me, and I noticed a piece of paper fall out from one of her saddle bags.

"What's this?" I asked, picking it up and flipping it over. It was a drawing, and even though it wasn't the best, I had a general idea of who was in this.

She peeked through her mane, before quickly fixing it up. "Oh... It's us." She pointed to a pony with a stetson and a jacket poorly drawn around his body, and a rabbit on his back. They were grinning. "That's Para." Next up was a robot looking pony. "That's Petiole." Then a filly, who was smiling. "That's me." And then a frowning pony that had a lot of red crayon scribbles around a rear hoof. "And that's you."

"Why am I frowning?" I asked with a raised brow.

"Cause you're always frowning."

"Not true." I smirked, nuzzling her ear. "I can smile."

"Barely." She added quietly, smiling at me as she pulled away.

"Sorry to interrupt father-daughter time," Tuner said abruptly. "But I believe I can be of some assistance."

I looked at the radio. "Go on?"

"The battery is conveniently big enough to fit in your power armor. Slide me in, and you'll have another body with you."

"Are you sure that's safe?" I asked warily. "Some of the others in there are a bit unstable..."

"Remember, Chargie. I have the most control than any others in here. Worst case scenario, I'll have somepony pull me out before anything bad happens."

"Well..." I stood up and picked the radio up off the ground. "The more, the merrier, I suppose." I pulled the battery out, gave Para the radio, and carefully slid the power source into the slot of the armor that I had started my journey with.

The head turned to me, and Tuner's voice spoke through the respirator.

"Oh, sweet Celestia's royal sack of nuts, it feels good to have a body again. I always wanted to be an empty husk!"

I folded the piece of paper and stuffed it in my saddle bags. "We ready to head out, then?"

Everyone nodded or verbally confirmed that they were.

"Shed out?" Para's eyes grew wide. "I don't wanna be bald!"

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "I'm just... gonna ignore that..."

"I won't be able to use my magic to teleport everyone." Hollow said. "Even if I could, I wouldn't. But Bullet can. She's more talented in that department, anyways."

Bullet blushed and looked away. "Hush..."

"I'll see you on the other side." I said as I regarded Bullet Storm. I looked at everyone else around and smiled softly. "Thank all of you for doing this with me. You have no obligation to, but you are anyways. That means a great deal to me."

"Glad to help." Cobalt said.

"Hell yeah." Petiole filled in. A pebble struck his armor, and he sighed as he hung his head down. "Para..."

Bullet Storm saluted to me, and as her horn lit up, I quickly turned to Fluky and placed a kiss atop her head. I wrapped a hoof around the back of her neck in a warm embrace.

"I'm sorry, Flukes... but this is for your own good..."

"For my own... wait, Robutt, NOOO-"

I stood in an empty highway, holding the air where Fluky had been not even a second ago. I looked down at where she once was, but only saw black, cracked asphalt.

The sun was bright. Too bright...

I slipped my aviators on and looked around my surroundings.

There was a small town not far from where I stood, but all around me were empty fields of vegetation trying to reclaim the world after it was set on fire.

I sighed just before Hollow, Onyx, and Thorne teleported around me.

"She's gonna hate me..." I said quietly.

Hollow stepped up to my side and placed a hoof on my shoulder. Her armor was on again, so her identity was hidden. I suppose, considering her history with this place, that was for the best.

"You made the right choice." She said softly.

"She was putting up one hell of a fight before we were teleported away." Thorne stated. "Started throwing punches at Bullet and screaming at her."

I released another sigh and shook my head. "Let's just... go..."

Suddenly, before I could even get a step in, something small landed on my muzzle. I looked at it as it stayed on my nose, to find it was a moth, looking back at me. But... there was a black smoke emanating off it. It was hard to notice at first, but it was there...

I also noticed a set of tiny, black fangs.

"What the hell...?" I muttered under my breath.

My surrounding party turned to me, to which Thorne spoke up.

"It's a moth, Charger."

"I know what it is, but... it's infected."

"Infected?" She questioned.

"He's right." Hollow jumped in. "It's showing the same strains as Charger's shadow virus."

"Is it safe to be out here, in the open...?" Onyx looked around. "I feel like we're pushing our luck standing out here like this."

"Trust me. We're safe." Hollow replied simply. "Scope is good at keeping his campsites uninhabitable for others. And it's just ahead of us."

The moth crawled up to my shoulder and chose to reside there. It didn't seem like it wanted to hurt anyone, so I was just gonna leave it be.

Hollow started walking for the small, dead town ahead, and the rest of us followed silently.

Small, meaning there were only nine buildings around a smaller series of roads that branched off from the right side of the highway.

As we approached the first building, a blue E.F.S. blip appeared at the bottom of my sight, on the compass. It was stationary, but soon after, I caught a glint of light coming from a window on the top floor of the three story structure.

As we got to the entrance, Hollow opened what was now just a metal frame that once housed a pane of glass. One by one, we stepped inside, discovering that this used to be a clothing store. Judging by their location, I imagine they didn't get a whole lot of business. That was just poor planning.

Directly ahead, in the dark room, I could barely make out a stairwell that went up.

I took off my aviators and stuffed them back in my saddle bags. The only light that was coming in here was from the sun's rays that shined through the broken windows, and it wasn't enough to see everything around me, even with them off.

Hollow took the lead for the stairs, and the rest of us followed.

The silence among the group was a bit unsettling, to say the least. I felt like Onyx and Thorne had their guard up. Maybe they saw the glint of light through the window, too.

The thought of being in someone's sniper crosshairs made me a little nervous, too. So I couldn't blame them, really.

Who was this 'Scope?'

Hollow trotted up to the second floor, but the rest of us chose to walk.

The unicorn-zebra hybrid stopped at the top of the stairs as she looked to her right.

"Hello again." The voice of a stallion spoke, and the armor around her form started to fold in on itself; all the parts meeting at her chest, before going back into a small, metal cube. She smiled softly at whoever was around the corner, then looked down at the lot of us, before backing up.

A rather peculiar character stepped into view, regarding us coolly as a massive rifle levitated beside him in a dark blue aura of magic.

The barrel was fluted with an abnormally large muzzle break on the end. At the bottom end of the barrel was a bi-pod.

An equally large scope sat atop the frame of the gun.

The rest of the gun was pretty basic. Simple composite stock, grip, and frame.

I caught sight of a variety of scratches along the weapon, implying it went through more than enough fights.

It was grey in color, but I noticed a bit of worn silver here and there.

This didn't look like a gun a normal pony could carry without magic. And even then, the size alone must have been heavy, even for telekinesis.

As for the pony himself...

There was a story on him. A big one. His body bore the scars of a story.

"See what I mean?" Hollow asked as she focused on me for a moment, before glancing at the stallion's... 'horn.' "You two may have a lot to talk about."

The base of it was still there, but the rest seemed to have been made up of sapphires, and tied to what remained.

There was a scar above his left eye that moved off towards his temple, before coming to an end. There were three more scars along his cutiemark, which was hard to make out at first, but after a moment, I noticed it was identical to Bullet's. A sniper's crosshair.

His greenish blue eyes looked deep into my emeralds for a while, before studying the rest of my body.

His mane was a dark purple, but I caught two light blue stripes around the back of his head. His tail had the same colors, respectively, but the pattern was in strands.

His coat was grey, but his muzzle faded into black.

He kept his rifle pointed up diagonally at the ceiling.

"Um... hi." I waved a hoof at him, but that felt more awkward... "My name's..."

"Charger." He interrupted. "Hollow told me."

"Charger, Scope." Hollow started, pointing a hoof at us as she said our names. "Scope, Charger. Looks like you're gonna be the founders of the 'Where's My Horn' club."

Simultaneously, Scope and I turned to her in a deadpan.

"That's not funny." We both said in unison.

"Tension breaker. Had to be done." She shrugged and trotted further into the second floor, disappearing from my sight. "We should start moving out shortly. Make use of the daylight we have."

"Agreed." Scope and I again, both said in unison.

We turned to each other, to which I cracked a smile. "Jinx, you owe me a Sparkle Cola. I prefer Sparkle Cola, RAD. Like me."

"I owe you nothing." He replied, before turning around and heading off after Hollow. "We're leaving in five."

My smile suddenly turned into a frown, but only for a moment. I grinned as I shouted. "I could also take some Orange Crush!"

I bet Tuner was in hysterics right now.

"Orange Crush?" Thorne asked. "Never heard of that one."

... Right. Wouldn't make sense if they got the joke. I still didn't completely get the meaning behind it, but the song was good.

I turned to Thorne and Onyx with that same grin plastered on my features.

"Follow me, don't follow me! I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush!"

The two mares before me looked at each other for a second, before turning back to me. I resumed my way up the stairs.

"What?"

I spun around at the top step and pointed a hoof down at the two of them. "Collar me, don't collar me! I've got my sprite, I've got my orange crush!"

"Uh, Charger?" Onyx started. "You okay?"

I glanced to my left to see Scope and Hollow walking up the third floor.

Hold on... Tuner must have put the song somewhere in my pipbuck...

I sat on my haunches quietly and started searching through the portable computer on my forehoof.

"Ooooookay then." Thorne said softly as she and Onyx walked past me. I looked up from my pipbuck at the two of them as I stayed on my haunches. "Charger's lost it."

"No, no." I smiled. "I'm just starting to know things."

For a long while, the trip east was made with the company of the inter-dimensional music Tuner had installed into my pipbuck. Most of it was a soft or alternative rock. Some songs I recognized from before. Like that Radio Nowhere song, for instance.

The music was quiet enough that it wasn't attracting too much attention, but every so often, a radhog or bloatsprite would rush out at us for the kill.

Didn't work out how they planned it.

Scope wore a cloak that seemed to ripple through colors much like Hollow's armor, every so often, and under it were two saddle bags.

He wore leather padding in a variety of places, but it wasn't a full suit, like mine. There were a lot of vulnerable gaps that bullets could get through.

But hey... he survived out here this long, right? Who was I to judge?

The moth that met me right after teleporting on the highway decided to stick with me and stay on my shoulder. I wasn't sure why it had an interest in me, but I didn't mind it. It was actually kinda cute!

The infected part, not so much. I had sympathy for it in that regard. But it seemed to trust me. Whether that was because we both shared the same virus, or if there was something else, was beyond me.

By the setting sun, we were left in the middle of nowhere, with our only landmark being a stretch of road. There were dry, dead fields all around us, and very little trees.

We had decided to set up a campfire in the field to our right, using whatever was at our disposal. Very few branches. Dead grass.

The fire probably wasn't gonna last too long, but we were gonna try and keep it burning for as long as possible.

The lot of us sat around the small fire, trying to stay warm.

Thorne had a hoof around Onyx, keeping her close while the pegasus snuggled up. They were both out of their armor.

I slipped out of mine, too. It felt nicer letting the cold breeze brush through my coat.

My new, apparent moth friend crawled up my neck and stayed behind my ear.

After one last song, I turned the music off and lied on my stomach, relatively close to the fire.

Hollow lied on her back, looking up at the stars with her rear hooves crossed. Her forehooves rested behind her head.

There were very little clouds on this night.

Scope sat across from me, on the other side of the flames, watching me silently.

Well... if that wasn't ominous, I didn't know what was.

"Can I... help you?" I asked, looking back at him. That caught Thorne and Onyx's attention, but Hollow stayed focused on her darkened sky.

"You don't have a horn." He stated. "I don't see even a hint that you're a unicorn. I see a weak earth pony."

I gave him a wan smile, before reaching for my armor and slipping a hoof into one of the saddle bags. I pulled it back out, and with it, the plastic jar that held the remains of one of my many birthrights came with it.

I set it down before me, resting a gentle hoof on it as I looked back at him. He stared at it for the longest time, before I responded. "Fuckers ground it down to the base. So what's your story?"

He scoffed, then looked over at Hollow for a moment. He stood up and stretched his limbs as he levitated his over sized rifle, slamming in a magazine. "I'll take first watch. Rest of you, sleep." His eyes settled on mine once again after looking over all the others. "You'll take second shift."

And with that, he stepped away from the fire and into the night.

"Who made him the leader?" Onyx asked softly as she regarded me, to which I replied.

"He did." I looked down at the jar of powdered unicorn horn. "Lately, I've come to understand other ponies the likes of him. I became him." I paused and looked up at the starry night. "Each of us in our own way was left broken. The wasteland crippled us, and that shaped who we became. How we act." I looked back down at the jar as I rolled it back and forth across the dirt, watching the powder continuously slide along the inside of the capsule. "How much trust we lose..."

"Someone once said that the best way to survive is on your own." Hollow stated, refusing to move.

"And do you believe them?" Thorne asked.

Hollow stayed silent for a short while, fixated on her stars.

Eventually, she took a deep breath, before speaking. "We have a long day ahead of us."

I awoke in the middle of the night to the haunting choir of souls.

I shot up and reached for my rifle in a panic, only to discover it was missing. All my stuff was.

And so were my friends...

The land was different. Dead earth in every direction; the sky, black and red.

The ground rumbled softly as something hummed overhead. Something big...

I looked up to see the vortex was passing over me.

The taste I had experienced in 32 filled my mouth once again, as if I had just gotten re-infected by the same abomination.

I coughed and wheezed as I slouched over, hanging my head down. My throat began to burn, and I felt something writhe around inside me.

"F-fuck..." I gasped, closing my eyes as tears broke free.

Something large wiggled up my throat as I retched, trying to purge whatever toxic entity was inside me. My air flow was cut off, and the pain that came with my windpipe being stretched from the mass of the creature felt just like another bullet through my neck.

I felt the slimy, bumpy parasite writhe around as it slid down my tongue. I could feel its body stretch out and slink back in like a worm moving across ground. The taste of rot grew stronger as I felt it exploring my mouth further.

I spat it out, wheezing and coughing as I closed my eyes. The substance lingered in my mouth, and so I continued spitting what I could out, until I found myself gagging and dry heaving.

Opening my eyes, it was revealed to me what was inside my body. I expected shadows...

Instead, I was greeted with the maggot-looking parasite from Stable 32, writhing about in a puddle of the white liquid that came out of me.

With a yelp, I jumped away, but found that nothing was there to support me.

The world fell into darkness, and the sky shrank away from me as I plummeted into the void.

I expected to hear my screams, but they were drowned out from the damned souls. I could only feel my lips move, and my vocals burn as my heart pounded in fear.

"I'M MORE OF A VOYEUR." A deep, metallic voice spoke all around me as I felt something wet and tight wrap around my groinal region. Fire's taste invaded my tongue right there with the fungus, but I found I couldn't spit. Only swallow...

Something else started to slide in from behind.

My vocals were shut out completely. I couldn't even feel myself scream now...

Somewhere, in the choir of screams around me, as I fell, I heard Snow Star's pleas for Bristle to stop.

Tears fought their way through as an anger started to pool up from within. Red electrical currents wrapped around my form as I fell down this endless pit.

I felt the black tendrils inside me start to break out, and I felt them latch onto another, only to pull them in as they fought to get away.

A kid...

My body began to absorb them, and I felt them struggle against my undying flesh, until they couldn't anymore...

As time went on, the ripples of electricity grew thicker; stronger. More violent...

Until all I saw was a red that grew darker as each second passed.

I felt my body get enveloped in a material. Something heavy. Big.

When the red vanished, I was staring back up at the massive vortex in the darkened skies, and between me and it was a vertibuck. Firebright stared down at me from the side.

Finally, my back struck ground. Hot lead and lasers darted across a settlement that fed flames.

I rolled onto my steel-clad hooves - as I was back in my power armor - and looked around. Ponies ran, seeking shelter from the raid of the Steel Rangers.

A colt ran past me, bawling his eyes out, just before a laser struck the back of his head. His skull, and everything within, exploded right in front of me. Whatever was left of his brain was now open for the world to see.

Tuner flickered into existence on the other side of the corpse, smiling softly at me as his horn lit up. A holographic image appeared over the colt with flashing arrows all around him. Between me and Tuner was a message.

'Game over.

Continue?'

At the bottom was a countdown that started from 10.

Ten.

While I still heard the screaming and the gunfire, I suddenly found myself running through an office building, towards a broken window frame. The place shook violently, but before I could look behind, I stood before the corpse once again.

Nine.

Naked. Alone. Pressed up against a chain link fence as my scarred, blackened back was sprayed down with what I imagined was a fire hose, due to the level of pressure and agony I was experiencing.

The world around me was shifting to another place as each second passed, making it hard for me to keep up with everything I was seeing before me.

I was in a world of pain and confusion. My screams were still drowned out, but I could feel the tears.

For a brief moment, I appeared back in front of Tuner and the dead colt, only to see the number count down.

Eight.

Blindfolded. My mouth forced open by griffin claws. Three legs spread out and bound, while the fourth was missing. Everything hurt physically and emotionally as I was penetrated from both ends.

Seven.

Standing atop a moving train in broad daylight as two vertibucks hauled a metal container overhead. The massive dual-gatling atop one of the cars spun around to face the intruders. Just before the bottom of the container opened up...

Six.

Standing in a field, looking up at the moon. A symbol burned into the surface; red and glowing.

Five.

Canceled out screams as waves of pain rushed through my body. Hide melting into another. Absorbing...

Four.

Charging down a steel corridor with shadows in the corners of my vision. Green lighting following wherever I looked. My body hurt, but I accepted it.

My forehooves had claws made up of the black, smokey tendrils.

In front of me were several Steel Rangers, many of which tried to escape. Just before I was about to grab a hold of one from the back of the neck...

Three.

The ground shook violently as I ran through what used to be a street. The sky was low and made of metal, and several hundred, if not thousands of massive steel spikes continuously struck the ground and tore up the asphalt, trying to get me.

Ahead of me, I saw Hollow in the distance, running for me.

Two.

Gusts of wind rushed past me as I stood on a catwalk, high above the ground. Vertibucks and raptors flew around as cannons fired.

The sky was grey, and a heavy rain drenched my coat.

One.

I stood before an empty tube that was able to fit an average sized pony such as myself, inside some high tech lab.

I felt a presence at my side.

Turning, I found Petiole was there with me, in his armor. At that exact moment, the ground I stood on began to crumble like old concrete that had immediately lost its integrity, despite standing on a metal flooring. Before I could move, the floor collapsed, and with it, Petiole and I followed its descent.

It soon became evident that it wasn't just us. Titan was falling too, crushing floors of what appeared to be a tower.

The lot of us struck rebar, debris, and each other as we plummeted, but through all the disorientation, I was still able to make out a large hole next to us that looked down at the very bottom, which was engulfed in flame.

My body struck Titan's chest, and Petiole was soon to follow, before we resumed breaking through more floors with the giant.

I reached out for Petiole as he reached out for me, but just as our hooves touched, we were ripped away from each other in our fall.

The flames at the bottom started to grow taller, and just before they devoured me...

... I shot up, gasping for air as I spun around frantically.

Scope was sitting on the other end of the fire, looking at me with a raised brow.

"Just nightmares..." I muttered, trying to catch my breath as I took in my surroundings.

"Common." He replied simply.

What I experienced didn't feel just like any ordinary dream, though. There was something more to that one...

"Perfect timing, though." He continued. "It's almost time for your shift."

I turned my pipbuck screen on and looked at the time to find it was almost 4 in the morning.

I quickly looked back at him in wonder. "Why did you take the majority of the night? I expected us to even it out."

He cracked a wan smile, before looking off into the darkness. "I don't sleep much."

"Lucky you." I said with a deadpan.

Scope lied down with his rifle at his side, holding it almost as if it were a lover. "Keep watch."

"Yep..." I murmured in that same deadpan, looking into the flames.

Minutes passed as the only sound that accompanied me was the crackling and popping of a campfire.

The air was cool, which helped keep me awake and alert. It was really quiet out here, which helped keep my ears open for anything that would try and sneak in, if there was anything out there that saw the fire.

The moth that decided to stick with me was still nestled behind my ear. I wasn't gonna disturb him... or her. Couldn't really tell what it was.

But they were awful cute... even though they were infected.

After a while, I gently reached into my saddle bags and slipped out the piece of paper I had pocketed back in the cave. I carefully unfolded it and stared at the picture of some of my friends. Petiole, Para, Fluky. Myself.

Something told me she'd have a lot to say to me next time we saw each other.

That wasn't an 'if.' That was a 'when.' I was going to see her again. I wasn't abandoning her...

I didn't realize she cared about me that much to throw a fit... And to think there was a time when she wanted nothing more than to see me dead.

The following morning, after a breakfast that consisted of canned beans that Scope offered, we hit the road. It wasn't the most ideal, but it was that, or wait until something better was offered. And I didn't want to wait. I was starving.

From all that packing, one would think they packed food. An apple or something... Seriously...

The road was as barren as the fields to our left and right, which was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because we didn't have to fight anything. A curse, because the sun was out, and it was only getting hotter as the day went on. To top that off, there was no source of shade.

Thorne chuckled softly as she nudged Onyx's shoulder.

The pegasus looked over at her leader, to which the earth pony started.

"Almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter..."

The two of them starting laughing, but no one else shared the sentiment. Guess it was an inside joke.

We had left at the crack of dawn. I was still very tired through my night watch, but I had helped keep myself awake by walking around the perimeter every so often.

Sleep probably wouldn't have helped me anyways. Nightmares awaited. Nightmares always waited.

I hated my mind...

Around 11, our first sight of shelter was a barn off in the distance, to our right. We had been going down the same length of road ever since, but there was nothing else really out here with the exception of dead vegetation.

Next to the barn was a two story house that had the side facing us blown out by what looked to be an explosion from long ago.

Just as we started to lay our eyes on it, gunfire started from that direction, causing us all to stop. Scope and I hit the ground, but the more armored ones stayed standing upright, getting their weapons ready.

I didn't hear any bullets whizzing past after a moment, so I slowly began to get back up.

Scope stayed on the ground as he levitated his rifle to his eye, looking through the scope.

"Raiders..." He said softly. "The decor says it all..."

Hollow pulled out the small metal box that I had seen back in the cave, and as she held onto it, the instrument unfolded before us, forming a rifle a bit bigger than Scope's. She held it in her hooves and pointed up at the sky in a diagonal position, towards the barn, looking through her scope.

Wait... guns didn't work like that...

She paused, before turning to Scope. "You may want to take a look at this." She said calmly.

Scope enveloped her rifle in the aura of his magic and stood up as he looked through the scope, pointing up at the sky.

What the hell were they looking at exactly? Cloud shapes? SCOPES DIDN'T WORK LIKE THAT!

After aiming the rifle around in that direction a bit, he froze for a brief moment, slowly lowered the rifle, then turned to me with a raised brow. "Well..." He started, studying my body. "That's problematic."

"What? What is it?" Thorne asked, looking up at the sky. "Enclave? Rangers?"

"Nope..." He levitated the rifle over to her, and she took it and aimed in the same direction, before backing her head away from it and shaking it. "Whoa, wait... that's disorientating... How the fuck...?"

"Just look." Hollow said as she regarded me.

She looked through the scope again.

"On the other side of the barn." Scope stated.

Wait... the other side of the barn...? Why were they pointing up at the sky then!?

For a moment, as she positioned the rifle, there was silence among our group. I stood there, listening to the firefight from the barn. Then she gave Onyx the weapon to look at whatever it was they were focused on, then turned to me.

"Charger... What do you know about yourself?"

"What do you mean?" I raised a brow. "I'm a former Steel Ranger, had a horn, now I don't. Had a virginity too. Took that from me as well. Have an unsolved mystery about my parents. That's about it. What else is there to know?"

Scope turned to Hollow. "Is he...?

Hollow shook her head. "No. I would have known by now."

Onyx gave the rifle back to Hollow, shuddering to herself. "It's bad enough that the wasteland is terrifying, cold, and deadly, but now you gotta show me that?" She turned to Thorne. "That's not okay! I've heard horror stories of this type of situation, and I don't want any part of it!"

"Charger isn't one of them." Hollow said quickly. "But it's highly irregular that he's still here with us, while that is out there." She pointed at the barn. "That's a problem. And if it knows he's still alive, then it's gonna get even worse."

"What is out there?" I asked impatiently. "I'm tired of the secrets. What's going on?"

Hollow shook her head. "No. I think it's best if we leave. You wanna find Snow Star? Let's stay on task."

"You can't do that!" I shouted as my hoof burst to life with electricity. "What is on the other side of that barn!?"

"Charger..." Thorne stepped closer to me and put a steel hoof to my shoulder. I looked up at her as she regarded me behind that visor. "Believe me when I say some things are best left alone. This is for your own good."

"I..." I paused and looked down. The temper in me was starting to die, and the electricity was going with it. Maybe she was right. I really wanted to know what they saw, but if they all thought it was best I didn't know... maybe I needed to listen.

I looked back up at her and nodded. "Alright."

"Alright?"

"Alright." I sighed. "I don't like not knowing. But if you think that it's for the best, then I'm taking the advice." I turned to Hollow and Scope. "Shall we?"

Hollow's rifle folded back up in the box as she nodded. She slid the device in a slot that opened up in her armor. "Let's."

As time went on, I found myself wondering more and more, just what it was my group saw. It was obviously something about me. But I already told them about White Noise... so what had them so spooked?

No... this was something else. And it was eating away at me that it was being kept from me.

But... I needed to accept that and keep looking ahead. I had a goal, and I needed to stay focused on it...

It was getting harder, though...

Scope stayed far ahead of us, keeping the road clear and directing us toward safer routes, if something was too iffy.

Along the way, I spotted a few more barns that stayed standing, even after two generations. But I had also seen more rubble than shelter, during our trek.

Far off in the distance, as the lot of us walked, I noticed a smoke stack. My rifle scope wasn't the best for long range, but it gave me a better sight of a metal fenced in area. Scope was crouched behind a tilted over wagon, peeking around the corner with his eye pressed against the optics of his gun.

I saw two ponies hanging at the entrance by their hooves; their limbs stretched out, forming an X. I didn't see any movement from either of them.

"Fucking raiders..." I muttered under my breath.

"We should circle around and keep going." Hollow advised as she turned to me. "Make use of whatever daylight we have left."

"Fuck that." I said softly as my hoof started to crackle. I turned to her, glaring. Not at her, specifically. Just the situation. "I used to hurt ponies. I have a lot of making up to do. If I have a say in an innocent ponies' fate, I'm going to do what I can to keep them alive. We're taking the camp out."

"Are you sure that's wise?"

"Yes." I replied, nearly cutting her off. I started to trot for the wagon that Scope took shelter behind. I took my aviators off and pocketed them.

"Gotta admit..." Thorne started to say. "You gotta admire him. Let's kill us some raiders." I heard her trot behind me. "Might have some good loot for the taking, while we're at it."

As I got to the wagon, I peeked around the other side and looked through my scope again. I got a better sight of the two ponies that were left hanging up at the metal shanty fence...

One was an earth pony mare... Blood had been dripping between her legs...

The other, a stallion pegasus... His crotch was nothing more than a bloody patch.

Both corpses had meat hooks through their limbs that kept them up. Attached to the tools that held them were chains that had been tied up to the top of the fence.

My hoof started to grow more wild the longer I stared. The hate in my heart took me over. I wanted to charge in there and slaughter them all... I wanted to make it slow...

"Charger?"

I blinked for a moment and turned around to see Scope looking at me in what almost felt like concern.

"You okay?" He glanced down at my hoof, and I joined him quickly to see it was starting to get too big.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. "We're taking the camp out. I won't let anymore ponies suffer like that, if I have anything to say about it."

And then, to my surprise...

... Scope smiled.

It wasn't anything big. It lasted for only a small moment, and it was hidden. But it was there.

He nodded to me. "I'm right there with you." He turned back to the camp. "We just need to find out how to get in there."

"Easy." I said with a smug look as I started to undo my armor.

He turned back to me and raised a brow. "What are you doing?"

"Improvising." I winked as I slid my hooves out from the sleeves, one by one.

He deadpanned suddenly, before speaking. "Thunderwing told me you were horny. She never said anything about you trying to seduce your enemies."

I paused for a moment, processing what it was he just said. "What... no. Wait, you know Thunderwing...?"

He nodded.

I resumed slipping out of the barding and reaching into my saddle bags on the fabric. "Well, you'll have to tell me that story sometime..." I pulled out the metal box and watched as it unfolded into my... GODDESS DAMNED CHAIR!

Why couldn't I have a fucking spider bot!? Or a badass rifle like Scope's, or Hollow's!? No, not me! I HAD TO HAVE A FUCKING. CHAIR!

I sighed as I looked down at the weaponized furniture; wrapping my hoof around the back of it.

Scope stared at it for a while...

Go on... just fucking say it... Get it over with...

"That's a chai-"

"Yes, I know it's a chair!" I hissed as I grit my teeth. I reached into the saddle bags once again, until I fished out the MCF cells that Thunderwing had spared me. I jammed one into the side of the... CHAIR... then looked back at Scope. "Wait here. I'll get that gate open."

"How?"

A hint of a smile came back to my lips as I backed away from the wagon. "Improvise."

"Oh boy..." Thorne said as she stopped in my initial spot. Onyx stayed at her side. "This is gonna be good."

I trotted to the front gate and stopped before it, looking up at the top. "Hey! Shitheads! Let me in!"

A head popped up over the fence, looking down at me. A mare with a spiked metal helmet. Her eyes spelled out how high she was off chems at the moment.

"Who tha fuck're you?"

"Ghost of Hearthswarming Present or some shit! I come bearing the gift of death! Let me in!"

"Nah! Piss off, mate!"

I pointed the chair up at her as my hoof began to flare up excessively again. "I said let me in! Or I'll force my way in!"

She regarded me for a moment in silence, before bursting into laughter. She turned around, and I heard shouting.

"Hey man, c'mere and check this dumbass out! He must be more high than me!"

There was a moment of just her laughing, before both her and another mare poked their heads up over the gate, looking down at me. Then they were both laughing.

The new one disappeared for a moment, before coming back with a wooden chair, waving it around. "Ooooo! Lookie me! I got gun! Is not chair! Me am smart, you dum dum!" She proceeded to toss the chair down at me, glaring. I jumped back before it could strike me in the head. "Get lost, kid! Or we'll do to you what we did to him." She pointed a hoof at the castrated stallion that they hung up for decoration.

"One. Last. Chance." I said aloud. "Open up. Or I'm coming in, and it won't be pretty."

"Pfft." The new mare rolled her eyes. "Alright, I think it's about time we got new meat anyways." Just as she started to levitate a rifle up from behind the gate, I aimed the chair at her and pulled my mental trigger as the legs stayed locked on her form.

Four red beams launched out, striking her directly in the chest. The magic around her weapon instantly faded and dropped it. Second by second, she faded into flakes of red ash, only to be blown away by the wind. She was dead the moment she was hit.

The other raider jumped back, all wide-eye'd as she screamed from the surprise.

Holy shit... This thing was badass! Fuck it, I GOT A CHAIR, AND I LOVED IT!

Just as the beams vanished, the side opened up, and the spent MCF cell popped out in a 'ping' that was more than satisfying to the ears.

Hot air rushed out from the weapon for a moment, before the vents closed up again.

I slammed another one home and aimed it at the gate. "I warned you!"

With another pull of the trigger in my mind, the lasers launched out, and the gate began to melt away where the beams struck.

I saw my moth friend take to the skies as I tore a hole through their defenses, and it soon disappeared on the other side.

I heard several other ponies shouting in a panic as more and more red blips appeared around my E.F.S., running around like ants.

When the cells became depleted and popped out in that orgasmic ping, I slapped another one in and charged for the large, gaping hole in their gate.

"HEEEEEEEEERE'S CHARGIE!" I shouted as my hoof burst. Not just with anger, or a revenge kick. But with excitement! Adrenaline rushed through me, and I was loving it!

I jumped through the hole I had made, still wielding my chair. In an instant, my body was pumped full of lead and buckshot. Agony filled me from head to hoof, and the virus inside me awoke.

Tentacles whipped out from each individual wound, lashing out at one of the raiders that had the misfortune to be too close. It quickly dragged them in by a forehoof as I sustained more injuries from the others.

With each wound that was inflicted on me however, gave me a new appendage to work with.

GODDESSES, I WAS STARVING!

My right eye burst from the shot of a rifle as the raider I dragged in fought with the tendrils that latched onto them.

My left eye was taken out shortly after, so my sense of sight was gone.

I felt three tendrils shoot out from where my eyes had once been and quickly wrap around what felt like the head of another pony. I felt their vocals work as they attempted to scream, once I felt my tendrils grow tighter around the neck, choking them out. I felt their struggle as I forcefully pulled them in.

There was no escaping me.

The first one I had grabbed a hold of started to absorb into my side as I stood there, taking the neverending storm of hot lead.

I felt bullets repeatedly drill into my head from left to right, but I wasn't blacking out. The pain made me stagger a lot, for sure. But I was still alive and coherent.

The raider ahead of me was hastily pulled forth by the neck, and as their struggles gradually lightened, I felt their mass melt into me as they were pushed against me.

I was feeling stronger again. Less hungry. I was powerful.

The tendrils in my eye sockets started to recede back into my skull, and my eyes began to grow back. I was starting to see again.

None of my foes seemed to care too much about what they just saw. Many of them just took cover, while firing at me.

I aimed my chair to the left, pulled the trigger, and swung it to the right as that beautiful, dangerous red glow shot out from the legs of the furniture.

In one fell swoop, ponies were cut in half along the middle. Their leather armor was no match for this.

The metal armor, however, was a little different. Some of them cried out and fell back behind cover. They were severely hurt, but they weren't dead.

Not yet.

Unfortunately, that was the last of my MCF cells.

As they popped out in a ping, and the chair vented hot smoke with a loud hiss, I limped forward. Some of my tendrils still remained outside of me, as I was still shot up. It hurt to move, but I knew now that I could take it.

I saw the moth that accompanied me dart down from the sky, behind one of the buildings, where a red blip resided on my E.F.S. I wouldn't have noticed it, if it weren't for the blue marker that danced around said E.F.S.

Suddenly, a raider ran out, dropping his weapon and rolling around. His body began to swell as his veins started to show through his hide, wherever it was visible behind that metal armor of his.

Black, bulging lines grew underneath his skin as he cried out, trying to rip his armor off his body. His face grew red as he started gagging.

He was a raider. I wasn't going to help him. He deserved to die...

So I stood there at a distance and watched as he struggled to breathe.

He looked up at me as his eyes turned red. He reached a hoof out for me, as if he expected me to show mercy.

I simply tilted my head and smiled down at him.

"This is the life you chose to live." I said in a near whisper. "These consequences are long overdue."

His hoof dropped as his body went limp, and the light in his eyes died. Grew distant as they looked on at the space between molecules.

"Die now, motherfu-" A raider began to shout as they charged at me with a bladed tire iron.

Before they could finish their supposed 'intimidating' sentence, one of my tendrils launched out as it opened up like a flower, bit into his chest through his leather barding, and pinned him against one of the shanty houses. He cried out as he hung there, looking down at me. In doing so, he lost the grip of his weapon, and it fell to the concrete with a metal thud.

With that same smile, I walked up to him, now realizing my limbs were already starting to feel better again. Just a little bit, anyways. I was still hurting. Just less!

As he screamed in pain, I felt something sliding down from inside the tendril that bit into him, the way food would travel down a throat. Bulges formed in the tentacle, and made their way to my body. Second after second, I felt better.

I looked up at him as he winced his eyes shut, and with a small whisper, I responded with a little remark.

"You first..."

I watched as his body began to shrink in from where the tendril held him. I listened as his bones cracked, and his hide ripped.

It didn't last long until his pain was cut short, and he succumbed.

Second after second, his body was pulled in through the mouth of the black, shadow, flower-like tentacle; contorting to shapes no body was ever meant to take.

And then he was gone...

Just like that.

After the consumption, my wounds started to close up, and the tendrils slid back into my body for refuge, until they were woken up again.

I didn't see anymore reds as I looked around. Nope.

Just a patch of blue as my friends walked in through the giant hole I left in the gate. Scope looked horrified from what he just saw. I couldn't tell what everyone else's expression was, as they were all wearing armor that protected their face, but Hollow didn't seem all that interested in what I had done.

She stopped at my side and looked around. "I suppose this'll be a good place to rest for the night." She turned to me and nodded. "Good work, Charger."

I nodded back with a smile.

"What in the fuck did I just witness?" Scope asked aloud, keeping close to the exit of the camp. "How are all of you okay with this? What the fuck was that? What are you?"

"It's all relative." I replied. "So far, you're okay though."

Still, he kept his distance.

"Well... I suppose we should see what we can salvage here." Thorne said quietly as she walked to a shanty house at the end of the camp.

"U-um... Yeah, I think I'll come with you..." Onyx said as she flapped her wings and took the air, circling around me, before following the earth pony.

My moth friend landed back on my nose, and only then, did I notice there was a stinger attached to the end of its abdomen.

Hollow started searching through the bodies that remained, and I was left to my thoughts.

I was starting to feel alone...

That following night, I lied on my back, using my gear as a pillow for my head as I looked up at the stars. The buildings smelled awful, and it was too humid in there. Granted, it smelled like shit out here, too. But at least I could breathe.

Scope was at the top of the gate, keeping watch while the rest of the group slept around a fire.

I couldn't sleep, though. Even if I could, I didn't want to. I had nightmares waiting for me.

But I also knew that I needed sleep... I was starting to feel it take its toll on me...

Eventually, I pulled up the music on my pipbuck and selected a random song, before lowering my hoof again and staring up at the night sky.

I couldn't find solace in my mind. There were too many demons, making me replay what I had done to the raiders over and over again. And at the time, I had enjoyed it. I accepted it. I didn't think about it...

But now I was thinking about it, and I wasn't accepting it. I was a monster. The raiders were monsters too. There was no doubt there. But taking joy in what I did...?

Was that wrong...?

Was I wrong?

The way I killed them... I didn't blink at the actions. Not once...

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as the music washed over me. It was soft. Classical. There was peace in it... somewhere. I just had to close my mind and find it.

Just for a little while... please...

But no... thoughts began to fill my head. Intrusive thoughts...

'You're going back to your old self. Your real self. But what are you afraid of?' My own mental voice told me. 'You're a natural when it comes to senseless murder.'

'Why should any other pony start a family, if yours was taken away? If you can't have one, no one else should either!'

Shut up, get out of my head...

My hoof began to crackle softly.

'Unicorns don't deserve families, remember? They're inferior. Earth ponies are the master race.'

Goddess damn you... go away...

'Do what you do best... Kill. Take what's yours. No one can stop you.'

I opened my eyes as I slammed my hoof on the pavement. Unfortunately, the ground rumbled softly as thunder rolled across the sky. Electricity danced over my body, but I felt nothing from it.

"Fuck, get up!" Thorne shouted in the distance. "We're under attack!"

"False alarm!" I called out. "Just me. Go back to sleep..."

Oops...

I sat up, and as I turned off the music on my pipbuck, I noticed that four hours had gone past. It didn't feel like it!

I must have dozed off...

As I sighed, I stood up and stretched, before reaching into my saddle bags and pulling out my cigar case and zippo.

Scope was still at the gate, but now he was looking at me.

I calmly walked up the stairs to his level, to which he turned his back to me and looked out at the black emptiness.

"You talk in your sleep." Scope said quietly. "I could hear you from here."

I stopped at his side and looked out at the nothing. "Wasn't aware I was even sleeping until a moment ago. I wasn't trying to."

He nodded slowly, keeping his eyes on the darkness, as if he expected something to jump out from it. "I don't like sleeping either."

"Nightmares?" I looked over at him, raising a brow, to which he nodded and looked back. "Yep. Same. A wise mare once said, 'that's life. And life is a sadistic. Fickle. Bitch.'"

He chuckled softly and looked back out at the black. "Ain't that the truth..."

"You smoke?"

He shook his head. "I'd prefer to not run out of breath so easily when or if I have to run from a fight."

"Smart." I opened the cigar case I carried with me to reveal the fat treats within. "It'd be smart for me to do the same, but cancer won't be what kills me. Mind if I smoke?"

"Go ahead."

I pulled one of the cigars out, stuck it between my lips, and lit the end, before closing my eyes and taking a deep pull. I closed the case shortly after.

"Earlier you mentioned Thunderwing." I stated, glancing at him. "What all did she say about me, exactly?"

He gave me a wan smile. "Said to be careful around you. I get what she was saying now, after I saw what you did to those raiders..." He paused for a moment, and I took another pull off my cig, before exhaling a torrent of smoke. "She also said that you had a lot of room to grow, but that you were becoming a good leader, and a good pony."

A gentle smile crept up on my lips as I looked back at him. "So you saw her recently, then?"

He nodded. "Her, Destrier, and Riot. They made a pit stop to Virtue, before heading for the Dragon Lands."

I hung my head down and took another pull. "Right..."

"I'm sorry for what happened to Blaze and Tezu. They were good people..."

"Yeah... I'm sorry, too..." I lifted my head back up, staring at more nothing. "The best I can do at this point on is to make sure their death wasn't in vain."

Again, he nodded in silence.

"Hey..." I turned to him once more after exhaling smoke. "If you know Thunderwing and Hollow, does that mean they know each other too?"

"If they do, I don't know about it." Scope stated. He stood up and levitated his rifle close to his side, keeping the barrel pointed up at the sky. "I'm gonna try and rest. Hold the fort."

I nodded to him faintly, before turning back to the empty dark. "Take it easy, Scope."

He trotted down the stairs to the camp below, leaving me to my deep, dark thoughts. To my memories.

After a while, I brought my gear up there with me.

I sat in my chair, facing the darkened stretch of road we had come from. There wasn't really anything out there to hear or see, and the E.F.S. came up blank.

All that accompanied me was the gentle whistle of the wind that brushed past.

I really enjoyed the quiet, though. It was relaxing, for a change. The party that was thrown for me recently was great, but parties weren't meant to be relaxing.

Sometimes, I just needed some silence.

I reached into my saddle bags and pulled out the compass Happy had given me. Upon flicking the lid open, I saw the needle was pointing...

Wait...

That couldn't be right...

I spun around toward the east, positioning my ears around, in case there was even a hint of a noise. The needle was moving gradually from the east to the south.

This compass was pointing to what I sought...

And that meant what I sought was close...

Really close...

Snow Star...?

I looked back down at the compass, but the needle stopped about three quarters to hitting south directly.

I quickly spun back to my gear and started packing up, but as I did, I caught a brief flash of light in my peripherals, towards the west.

I froze as I stared ahead, and I felt my heart start to beat in my chest rapidly. Something told me to run...

Keeping my eyes on the road to the west, where the light had been, I hastily got into my barding and carefully zipped up. Just as I was about to reach my neck, a blue blip appeared in my E.F.S., in the same direction I was looking. I couldn't see anything out there, but I felt exposed. Something was out there, watching me.

Whatever it was, my compass wasn't pointing to it.

The marker stopped moving about a second after it showed up in my E.F.S., and in the distance, I saw a horn light up in a light tan aura. That same light wrapped around something on the pony that was out there, before pulling the object up to its side.

Only then, did the blip flash red, before the figure started walking forward again.

I quickly grabbed my chair, pocketed my equipment, and charged down the stairs. Along the way, I checked the magazine in my rifle to find it was fully loaded with normal rounds. Better safe than sorry.

I ran to the building where my company resided and darted around the corner to the side.

"We got company." I said aloud, to which Hollow quickly sat up and looked around.

"Where?"

"Coming at the gate. Not friendly."

"Go." She nodded. "I'll be right behind you."

Scope got up shortly after. Thorne and Onyx were in the process of waking up, before I darted back for the gate.

I ran back up the stairs and looked back out at the road, only to find it was empty once again. Void of any life or movement. Nothing but a gentle, cold wind out there...

The E.F.S. was gone, and the aura was, too...

But... I could have sworn...

Hollow ran up, fully dressed in her armor. Onyx landed beside me, and Scope and Thorne trotted up to us.

"Charger, there's nothing out here..." Thorne said softly.

"No, no, I saw somepony!" I pointed off in the direction I last saw them. "Right over there. They were walking up to the gate, and they had a red E.F.S. marker. They were holding something through magic. A rifle of some kind."

The group looked at one another in silence for a moment.

"I know what I saw." I stated as I looked at the lot of them.

Hollow nodded. "Alright... We should all do a perimeter sweep. If any of us see anything, don't provoke them. Find a way to regroup, and we'll plan from there. We don't know what's out there."

"Sounds like a plan." Onyx said as she spread her wings. "I'll circle the camp and work my way out." With that, she took to the skies.

"We shouldn't be alone." I said, looking at the remaining group. "Four ponies left. We can make teams of two."

"Sounds good." Thorne nodded.

"I'll go with Scope." Hollow stated.

"Guess that means you're with me." I looked at Thorne. "We'll take the south and west." I turned to Hollow and Scope. "I suggest you two take north and east."

Thorne and I walked blindly through the darkness of night without any lights to accompany us. If there was still someone out here, any sources of light would have just given away our location immediately. We kept our voices low, and our ears open.

Our E.F.S. was our primary focus out here.

I checked my surroundings frequently.

"Wish I could see anything..." Thorne whispered. "It's too Goddess damned dark out here..."

"Just be careful..." I whispered back. "Snow Star is around here somewhere, too..."

"Wait... How do you know?"

"I have a compass that's pointing to what I want. And just before I saw that figure making their way to the gate, I saw the needle moving this way. It wasn't pointing at them, though." I paused for a moment, gritting my teeth a little. "I just now realized how ridiculous that sounded."

"Well..." She paused. "At least we won't have to travel far, now."

"Right?" I smiled. "Looks like things are turning around for the be-"

Before I could finish my sentence, I smacked face first into a metal wall.

"... Ow..."

I backed up and held my hoof out for a moment, tapping against what sounded like a hollow, steel structure.

"What is it...?" Thorne said softly, before I heard her tapping against it herself.

"I'm not sure..." I moved in and pressed my ear to the structure, to which I heard movement inside. Machinery. The clanky spinning of gears and cogs, to the hissing of steam, to the thumping of pistons, to the humming of engines. Something was in there, running like clockwork.

I backed away from it. "Whatever it is, it's powered... We should-"

Quite suddenly, I was interrupted with a bright flash of light that shined down over me, as if I were on a stage in front of an audience. I caught Thorne next to a giant metal pillar, looking at me, just outside of the circle of light.

Looking up, I saw three giant headlamps in a vertical line, and I finally figured out what it was I had bumped into...

"WE MEET AGAIN."

Thorne instantly dropped to the floor, screaming within her helmet as she spasmed uncontrollably.

"No!" I shouted. "Stop! Please, don't..." I looked down at Thorne, before rushing to her. By the time I lifted her head, she had gone quiet... "Fuck, no... No, no, no! What did you do!?"

"I CAME HERE TO TALK TO YOU, AND THAT IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN. THERE WILL BE NO FIGHTING. I'M ONLY HERE TO STRIKE A DEAL."

"Why the hell would I make a fucking deal with the son of a bitch that killed my mother and took my horn!?" I glared up at him as my hoof built up an electrifying rage.

"Titan, no more talking!" Firebright shouted as she walked around from behind his rear hoof. She shined her spotlight as she walked towards me, and I noticed a flame thrower on one side of her, and a minigun on the other. "Hey, lil' bro."

"You..." I glared at her for a moment, before looking back up at Titan, and then her again. Why didn't they have an E.F.S. blip...? "What the hell are you two doing here?"

"As Titan said." She spoke softly, stepping over Thorne's body. "We're here to strike a deal with you. We know where Snow Star is."

I paused, and for a moment... a very small moment... the electricity in my hoof died as my emotions were struck. "How...?"

She sighed and slid her helmet off, which, if I remembered correctly, was going against one of her rules about the wasteland. Her dark purple eyes stared into mine as she continued. "How do you think we kept finding you? You're a unicorn, and all unicorns in the bunker are to be tagged with a tracking chip. Just so we can keep an eye on everypony. You can thank your mother for that one. She is the one that gave us the idea, after all."

"You... You... You pieces of shit..." My hoof flared up again. "What else are you hiding from me? What else did you do to me!?"

Fire smiled faintly as she shrugged. "You'll have to ask Bristle that one."

"No." I said as I grit my teeth. She glanced down at my mouth, and her smile grew a bit.

"Hey, nice fangs. Wasteland changed you a lot, huh? Is that tongue as good as I remember it being?"

"Shut the fuck up, or I'll crush your ovaries."

"Oooo. Got a hell of a lot more dominant. I like that." She grinned as she looked me up and down. "I like it rough."

"You know what? I don't need either of you. I'll take my chances finding her on my own." I aimed my rifle at her. "Are you ready for what comes next?"

"Alright, alright..." Fire rolled her eyes as her smile diminished. "I'll stop."

"No, no. I said I don't need either of you, and I meant it. I have my own leads." I paused for a moment, realizing the compass was pointing in this direction earlier. Wait...

I pulled out the compass and flipped open the lid to find it was pointing directly at Titan.

"Wait... no, that's not right..." I looked up at him. "Where is she?"

Fire tsked as she shook her head. "We know about Happy, and we know about his compass. We knew that eventually, you'd find out what it really was, and use it to your advantage. To say, find Snow Star, or the bunker. We can't let that happen. So we came up with an idea. You have something we want, and we have the whereabouts of your lover. You give us the anomaly, and we'll personally deliver you to her. A fair trade, if you ask me."

"This sounds like a trick. You're just gonna kill me, aren't you? She's dead, isn't she?"

She shook her head. "Nope. She's off to the east. It's a long ways away, though. And you don't know where to look."

"I..." The choice was getting hard... The sole reason I was out here was to find her again. To be reunited with Snow. And I had that opportunity...

"It's a small price to pay for love, lil' bro." She smiled again as she regarded me. "What'll it be?"

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, before looking back at her. "I'll give you the battery under three conditions."

She raised a brow. "I'm listening?"

"One. You bring me to Snow Star."

"That was already on the table."

I nodded. "Two. You release every. last. unicorn from the chapter and bring them to me. Alive, and in one piece. Unharmed."

She bit her lip silently, keeping her eyes locked on mine.

"Three... you leave me, my friends, and all other unicorns alone. No making new slaves to do your bidding... You do as I demand, and only then, will you get the battery."

She sighed and shook her head, before slipping her helmet back on. "And just when I thought we were about to make some progress..."

"I'm hearing a no." I stated bluntly. "This deal's off." I took a step forward, scowling. "I will find Snow Star without either of you. I will find the bunker without either of you. I will save the unicorns from your tyranny. I will destroy everything you dedicated your life to." I looked up at Titan, sheltering my eyes from the blinding light. "I will melt you into molten steel, and use you to build the houses of the unicorns you enslaved. It'll be their turn to live off you. What goes around, comes around. You will die knowing that you helped provide shelter to a race you despised. A race you beat down. A race you were afraid of. And you were right to fear them... cause I'm a motherfucking unicorn, and our payment is long overdue."

"THAT'S FUNNY, COMING FROM A PATHETIC EXCUSE OF A UNICORN I COULD CRUSH LIKE AN ANT. YOU DON'T HAVE A HORN."

"Neither do I!" I heard Scope shout from behind me in the distance, just before the round of a sniper went off and drilled into Titan's chest, before exploding. He staggered back a step.

"Enough of this! We tried to make it work, Charger!"

At once, a torrent of fire launched out at me. I watched as it rushed in for the kill. Something that could actually kill me...

Within a moment's notice, I could feel the heat build rapidly, and my coat start to singe. The virus inside me started to writhe about.

I closed my eyes and turned away, realizing I didn't have enough time to get out of the way.

Turning away might not have done much for me, but I had a better chance of survival than facing the fire head on, due to the armor I wore.

Suddenly, I felt my body warp. Opening my eyes, I saw I was beside Hollow and Scope. Thorne was lying on the ground beside us, and in the distance stood Fire and Titan. The two of them looked in our direction.

Titan's cannon started to glow a bright red, and Fire's minigun began spinning.

"We need to get out of here." Scope said quickly, before firing another round at Titan. It didn't explode against him like the first one, but it did stagger him a bit. Onyx flew around the colossus, blasting him with plasma rounds to his back and head. I didn't think it was doing a whole lot, but it was distracting him.

Fire started to focus her gun on the pegasus, and Titan focused back on our position, before his cannon started to glow red again.

And then he roared.

Onyx dropped out of the sky like a fly to an invisible swatter, and Scope and Hollow both recoiled. Scope began screaming as he tried to cover his ears with his hooves, and Hollow groaned, before shouting, just as her horn lit up. For some reason, his voice wasn't having an effect on me like the others...

"I'm gonna regret this!"

There was no time to think before we were gone in a flash of light.

Author's Notes:

Hope you all liked the new chapter. Took some time to make.
I moved out of my old place, and I have a new roommate now. It's a nice place. A small town. Pretty quiet.
Crazy thing is... my life just made one, gigantic circle. I live relatively close to the house that I grew up in when my dad was still around. Gonna take some time to get used to that...
Very special thanks to Dravakiirm for not only helping with the story and bouncing ideas off of, but getting so inspired by Radio Static to make a character, and proceed to give him to me to use in the story. Usually, I wouldn't do that with a character that someone else made, but this character (Scope) really stood out to me. His story, his appearance, his attitude. Not to mention that sexy rifle of his.
Hollow's is bigger though. ;)
On another note, Dravakiirm is now officially on my writing team for Radio Static. A little similar to the job Pines had, but less. I tried to offer the whole package, but he didn't want to warp the story and mess with it too much. So I'm just bouncing ideas off him and giving him little sections of the story that haven't been read yet for a second opinion. All while trying to avoid the spoilers.
Heh... it's a bit tough.
Special thanks to Kkat for FoE, Somber for PH, Nylten for her amazing art, Tatykun for the upcoming artwork for Firebright (and a few ideas that came along the way), and to all my fans for being patient with me. I know it takes a bit of time before each chapter comes out, but I try to make the wait worth it.
This is part 1 of a 2 part chapter.

P.S.
The same night I published this chapter, a moth appeared in my bathroom. And some of you may know that the moth is one of my all time favorite insects.